#but also hes definitely part of the way there and it leaves it uncanny valley feeling

[kikeols]

choso

[comfortless]

"held back by a leash that no one’s ever thought to untie, constantly growling and leaping at anything that gets too close just to simmer down to whimpering and begging the second he’s pet just once" ??? 😩 This is so real and relatable (I'm crying in the corner of my room). Lord have mercy, I need to kiss every ridge and groove on your brain.

The way I giggled when you mentioned his fleshlight is crazy. I was actually thinking of saying something similar but then I decided against cause the message would've been too long. I was trying to decide if he would be the type of man to get one of those insanely realistic sex dolls. Maybe he felt particularly desperate to have something in his bed (something that can't just get their clothes and leave before he wakes up) or he would just be curious. If he actually got it, by being impulsive, now he has this thing in his house and kind of regrets it. Yeah, it's soft and doesn't look bad, but it definitely doesn't look like a real woman either. It gives him the uncanny valley effect and puts it out of sight for now. How would he even get rid of something like that? Is it recyclable?

I've got brainrot when it comes to this man, I know. I might start reading Letters to Milena by Kafka so I can yearn more accurately for a man that doesn't even exist. This time I have no nice poems to quote but I feel like Konig is very much Sleep token coded. Idk what type of music you like but their lyrics are yummy.

P. S. Your fics are like vitamin D + Omega 3 getting me through this shitty British weather with my sanity more or less intact. Lots of consensual kisses!

oh my gosh and you are more brazen than me because i thought the same, just… kept that to myself!

if he has the money why would he settle on some little silicone tube when he could at least have something to cuddle up with, too? it isn’t like he has visitors often (or at all), though there are some nights when he definitely feels pathetic and disgusting for having it: haphazardly shoves the doll in the closet and settles for his hand instead…

also much to ponder in regards to his impulse control…! for the most part, he probably considers himself to be pretty rational; reasons with every decision by thinking well, x happened so then comes y. his dating life is shallow at best and utterly devoid of anything at worst, it’s… reasonable that he would have some sort of outlet, even if he knows that buying the damned thing has basically sentenced him to never having any sort of stable relationship. if some sweet woman actually gave him more than just the time of day, if she actually wanted to be with him but… she sees that mimicry of a woman’s warmth lying in his bed? she’s either laughing at him or immediately making up some excuse to leave. and if that happens, then of course he’s got to find a way to get rid of it. he’s tossing it in a hole in his backyard or burning it. sorry environment. this is König’s world now and the sex doll can no longer be in it..!

he would never pull something comparatively ridiculous in his career, maybe a few mistakes here and there but he plays a character when he’s König. and König is all menace or indifference, never the pitiful thing that gets so wound up over his own purchase he’s got to destroy it at all costs. though in the time that he did have it… the soldiers around him are certainly aware that he had some ‘girlfriend’ he spoke rather highly of at home that always had her legs open for him. he never seemed in higher spirits, though…

Letters to Milena is sooo quotable for him. i will give you this one: “Auch ist es vielleicht nicht eigentlich Liebe wenn ich sage, daß Du mir das Liebste bist; Liebe ist, dass Du mir das Messer bist, mit dem ich in mir wühle.”

i have an entire ridiculous playlist that is just… all over the place with songs that remind me of him, perhaps i will give Sleep Token a chance and throw a few onto it! ^^ i am always looking out for König-coded songs… Never Land by Sisters of Mercy is possibly my favorite to suggest when it comes to him. <3 the full length is my go to but - a fragment encapsulates it almost as well!

burying you in a world of hugs right now, anon! pleeease send your weather my way! it is HOT here! your messages are vitamin C and a lovely cup of earl grey to me! <3 i am glad that you appeared!

[justaboutdead]

House of Leaves, 2001, and Daisy Bell (and why its not creepy)

(Fairly minor) Spoilers for House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and 2001: a Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick

About 500 pages into House of Leaves, Will Navidson begins falling. Alone in the twisting labyrinthine corridors of the House, he is alone, out of supplies, by all metrics thoroughly and definitively defeated. The floor suddenly disappears beneath him and he begins to fall. And there it is, vertically stark against the white page, as many lines are in this section, falling just as he is.

“Daisy. Daisy. Daisy. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy over the love of you. That’s not right.”

Daisy Bell was written in 1892 by composer Frank Dean under the pen name Harry Dacre. A relatively prolific composer at the time, he is thought to have written the song about Daisy Greville, the Countess of Warwick at the time, although evidence for this factoid is sketch at best, and the lyrics directly contradict this reading.

Daisy Bell is a very simple romance song that tells a very endearing story of a young couple’s romance, being unable to afford much more than the eponymous “bicycle built for two.” There’s also an often ignored line about how they will both “despise Policemen and lamps as well.” Even from a modern perspective this song feels really intimate and cute, expressing joy despite poverty, in the policemen line even expressing disgust at cops and urbanization without care for the environment.

Through a variety of circumstances, Daisy Bell, despite this global appeal, has become primarily associated with advances in computing, being the first song to be synthesized by a computer in 1961 on an IBM 7094, and references to this development persist.

The resilience of references to this accomplishment are remarkably popular, primarily due to Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey in which the computer HAL 9000 sings the opening lines of the song as he is deactivated, calling back to the IBM demo, which Clarke himself had witnessed.

This rendition, and the original synthesized rendition are often described as creepy and off putting, but I find them strangely endearing. The original version represents a massive leap in computing, its few seconds of audio, and is extremely imperfect. The choice of Daisy Bell, and simple live song from a hundred years ago also helps to humanize the voice singing it. HAL 9000’s rendition is pained, sung as he looses his memory and cognitive functions in what feels like an eternity, in both novel and film. HAL 9000 is a painfully sympathetic character for me. While in the film his intentions remain fairly ambiguous, in the novel they come from a conflict in his instructions, and how he chooses to navigate around those instructions, interpreting them extremely literally being a computer.

It is clear that the intention with the character was to present an uncanny valley human-like consciousness, but honestly a lot of the time it just reads like he’s on the spectrum. He speaks extremely deliberately with awkward pacing. He reflects, in many ways my own anxieties about being excluded, as-well as a very human survival instinct. He is a bad liar, and extremely trepidatious about the task he believes he has to do. He reads in many ways as I would expect a human to in a position of such intense responsibility.

Thus HAL 9000’s final song to me Isn’t creepy, its confirmation of just how human he is. It is, distinctly, something he asks to sing, he almost reads as excited to show it off. It is fitting that the last song he sings is the first song a computer ever sung. I care way more about HAL than I do any of the other characters in the movie, despite his atrocious actions. In many ways he seems the most human, and I think that was part of the point.

My favorite rendition of the song comes from this popular lineage of synthesized version. Tamachang’s Daisy Bell from Future Music With Future VOICES is hauntingly beautiful. Composed of three synthesized voices, that of IBM 7094, Vocoder, and Vocaloid 4 Cyber Diva, as a fusion of old and new, it’s genuinely a really beautiful piece. Each voice has its own unique qualities, all of which lend the song distinctly different emotion.

The narrative I like to imagine is one i have seen dozens of comments on the song mentioning, and stems from the fact that Cyber Diva sounds far more youthful than the other two. In this framing, it is a newer computer saying goodbye to her old relatives as they die, via singing an extremely human cheesy love-song with them. All of these narratives around computers and Daisy Bell are a byproduct of our tendency to over-anthropomorphize computers.

House of Leaves, on the other hand, seeks to draw on themes completely unrelated to the long lineage of robotic Daisy Bells. My first thought when I saw the line in the novel, was of Navidson’s daughter, Daisy. I could see this having been a lullaby, sung to her as he put her to bed. I do not believe this reading to be the most compelling, however. The novel does not spend much time on Navidson’s children.

An often cited fact about the novel, and the Navidson record in particular is that its actually primarily a love story. I believe this to be a far more compelling understanding of the song’s conclusion. Will and Karen Navidson have been through hell together, and this song, sung when things seem darkest, as Navidson falls, as we latter understand, towards his wife, is the subtle confirmation, that despite everything they’ve been through, they will be ok.

House of Leaves, in general, is about, on some level, love (not just romantic) in the face of adversity, both through the lens of the Navidsons troubled reparation of their relationship, as well as Johnny’s slow collapse and our eventual understanding of his past. Daisy Bell is a perfect expression of the realization of these themes. That love can persist even when circumstances seem dire, and can in fact help you through those circumstances. A relatively simple message, but with many complexities

Thank you for entertaining my over-analysis :)

Fav Daisy Bell:

Original synthesized Daisy Bell:

Daisy Bell Hall 9000:

[cult-of-the-eye]

MAG 87 let's goooo

I've heard of the uncanny valley before I think from a Tumblr post actually isn't it like non-humans that look like humans but slightly off that creep us out??

Sounds cool tho

GEORGIE!!!! JON!!!!

God I love her she actually tries to knock some sense into Jon

Jon's hesitation at accepting help is frustrating when he's just claimed that he's ready to accept that he needs allies but I guess it's understandable when he doesn't want to bring someone who doesn't have a place in this all into the situation

But also I guess he can't really help bringing her in, cause he's staying at her house, she's probably already in to a certain degree

This is already so long so I'm putting a read more

She knows that she's a last resort, she seems like a genuinely kind person, she's completely understood that the man is desperate but she's also willing to draw a line wow shes so cool

"you're a good person" augh god that must've been difficult for him to hear

"whatever this is, it's messing you up"

Georgie's right about everything all the time that's the conclusion I'm coming to from this

I like how she says you can choose to leave it alone, i think it might've been the first time it had crossed Jon's mind since it all started that maybe he had a choice in this, but the tragedy is that it's been said too late, if he did ever have choice, then it's definitely gone by now. And Jon is very much aware of that.

GERTRUDE????

Sebastian skinner THE NAME

Getrude seems very like practical about the way she does things, case number first, name, where it occurred and dates, like she doesn't do any of Jon's "head archivist of the Magnus Institute, London" stuff I guess cause he was doing it to sound important and she doesn't need that, she knows exactly what she's doing and what the situation is so she can just get straight to the point with it

I love analysing everyone's different little intro bit I think it's so cool how their personalities and beliefs form part of it

This statement actually like shook me, I don't know why but lately the statements have been sort of getting to me. I don't think they've gotten scarier though, I think my frame of mind has just changed recently

Just weirdo little valley with weirdo little people doing fucking blood rituals

It was very classic horror movie

I googled flensing on incognito mode cause I wasn't sure what would come up lol

Yeah that ending was horrifying I hate the idea of the only thing being left is the mannequin

That's so funny Gertrude was like fuck this guy's name in particular

So orsinov is like the avatar of the stranger

And they're skinning people for some sort of ritual called the Unknowing

Of course Gertrude is the kind of woman to use the word ilk in every day language

Wait fuck this was in 2015 and the current statements are set in what? 2016/7? The Unknowing has to be close then oh god

Oh god she got attacked??? By what???

Who the fuck is Jude perry

Do I know her???

Oh god poor Mr skinner

FUCK FUCK FUCK ITS CALLIOPE MUSIC FUCK OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

Oh god Georgie is really in it now if she can hear it

He sounds so scared jesus christ

I appreciate Georgie trying to get the stuff out of her house but girl I don't think that's gonna stop it from being there

Oh god he's trying so hard to keep it from Georgie but now he's realised that he actually can't

He has put her in danger and that's the fact of it

"I'm not sure I can."

AUGH

HE HAS NO CHOICE IN IT. HE KNOWS. HIS PATH HAS BEEN SOLIDIFIED. DNBSHSJSKWKSMSMKSSJJDJ

[frogofshadyorigin]

Okay, it's time for an unhinged and probably completely dumb fan theory. Maybe someone else has even thought about it before me. I'm sorry if I copy anyone.

Spoiler warning for The Magnus Archives, especially season 2.

Okay. We all know the not!them. Like not!Sasha.

I have a theory based on nothing really that explains who can see the person that changed as the not!person.

But first, let's look at all the people we know of that got changed.

There is, obviously, not!Sasha. Changed at the end of Season 1 while hiding in artifact storage.

Then there is not!Graham who got changed because he owned the table that trapped it.

We also have not!Rose, the mother from MAG77 who got changed before the not!them was bound to the table.

And lastly on my list, not!Greg, the cousin from MAG78. The not!them also got bound by Adelard Dekker in that statement.

Now, let's look at the people that knew they were replaced.

We have Melanie, who met Sasha whilst coming to the Archives the first time and later met not!Sasha.

Then, there's Amy, who met Graham and lived opposite of him, watching him but never really doing anything with him.

Next, we have Lucy, the daughter who had fallen out with her mother after they never really got along and only came back when her father had an accident.

Lastly, there's Lawrence, who never really did much with his cousin and they became estranged.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, let's look at what they have in common. What do all of them share?

They knew the person that got changed but also somehow they didn't know them.

Melanie had a long talk with Sasha about ghosts, where they probably also talked about other things. I mean, Melanie was interested enough to want to say goodbye to her when leaving for India. One could argue that she knew Sasha, but only on a surface level.

Amy watched Graham for a long time. She knew of his habits, how he looked, maybe a bit more, but like Melanie with Sasha, she didn't really know him. They were not strangers but also not really friends or anything.

Lucy hadn't talked to her mother in 10 years before visiting them again. Her relationship with her mother beforehand didn't seem like a good one where they would tell each other important stuff and they definitely were distant for a mother/daughter relationship. And even after Lucy started visiting again, it was not because of her mother but because of the way her father always lit up. I think it's fair to say she didn't really know her mother that well. (Granted, this one is a bit of an outlier and kinda hard to fit in the narrative, but I think it still works. More on that later).

Lawrence hadn't seen his cousin in years, only sporadically and they never really did anything. They were related by blood but that was about it. Once again, he knew him but didn't get close to him.

So. And here's my final thoughts that kinda wrap it all together.

The Stranger is often described as tapping into the 'uncanny valley' effect, where things don't look like they should, are slightly off, but you don't really recognize why. And only when you start looking closer at it you realize.

Now, if I didn't know a person beforehand, I wouldn't know that they were changed. Hence why unaffiliated people don't realize someone was changed.

If someone knew that person really well, they'd probably just wouldn't realize if something minor was out of shape. They'd push the thought away or ignore it because they trust the person they think is in front of them. Their brain fills up the non-fitting parts.

But someone who only knows them a bit, who's relationship with them is not good but also not nonexistent, would recognize something like that. And they would start to take a closer look and realize that this is an entirely different person. (Or, more accurately, instantly see it, because their brain doesn't fill in the blanks and mistakes)

Just like, as from my experience, if I know something really good and am familiar with it, I don't realize errors as much as I do with things I know only a little.

For example, if I write a text, I definitely know what words are. But it's so much harder to find mistakes in my own writing than in someone else's writing. Because I know my writing and I know what it's supposed to say and so I overlook the error. If I read someone else's text, I find mistakes much easier because I don't know what's supposed to be there so my brain doesn't just fill the blanks in. And if I didn't know writing (or the person that got changed) at all, I wouldn't be able to recognize any mistakes, since I don't know how to write.

So yeah that's my theory on who can see the not!them for their true form. Someone who knows them for more than a fleeting second but never got around to developing a proper relationship with them.

I hope this makes sense for someone else as well and doesn't just sound like the ramblings of a mad person. And if you have any ideas on this, feel free to interact. I'd love to hear other people's opinions in this.

[sylvaridreams]

4, 7, and 12 for alba and auruim PWEASEEEEEE :3

ask game! -- you can tell it's late and I'm very sleepy, I'm meandering through these answers as if I don't know that the shortest path between two points is a straight line...

4. How do they feel about their past/younger self?

Alba I think is quietly nostalgic for the way things were when he was a sapling, before the world grabbed onto him and shook like a dog that wouldn't let go. Some part of him wishes he had never become Commander, had never taken the steps to become who he is now-- but he also thinks that's very selfish of him to feel that way, and wrong, and so he quashes the feeling down and tells himself that his younger years don't matter to him, that he wouldn't willingly return to a time in his life where he was blissfully naive and happy and unaware of how badly everything out there wanted to hurt him.

Auruim views his younger self as a weakling, incapable of self defense or fulfilling any kind of meaningful destiny-- and then of course, beneath that he's sad at the loss of his own innocence, that he could be failed by the world and left unprotected so young. In some ways I think he still mourns the person he came from, that he lived such a short and sad life before being turned into something twisted and ugly.

7. If asked to list a few fun facts about themself, what would they say?

I think Alba would lie and claim to be very boring to get out of answering, and again Auru would run away from the question entirely. Alba is secretive and private and Auruim is a prey animal in the body of a monster and they're both very boring to ask open ended questions about themselves as a result. Booo! I'll answer for them then.

Alba sleepwalks when he's stressed, can technically "cook" but can't follow recipes and it never turns out great as a result, and has low alcohol tolerance; so low that he's drunk after one drink and starts openly saying things that he maybe shouldn't. Auruim wears glasses -- but has to be forced to wear them, and they have several backup pairs on standby for when he inevitably breaks them on accident or in anger. He can't eat sweet foods without getting sick but gets jealous when people have things that he doesn't, likes to draw but gets angry and embarrassed when people see, and isn't allowed to drink at all out of fear it'll impact his health and the reform process.

12. Generally, what's most people's first impression of them? + What impression do they *want* to leave on others?

I think the first impression Alba leaves on most people is maybe kind of overshadowed by him being The Commander. People tend to be so awed and overwhelmed meeting him that they don't notice any incompetence in the moment. Obviously the same isn't true in Elona, Cantha -- places where his role is unknown and he's just some guy who shows up and starts doing shit. Aside from having to deal with all the paperwork and bullshit, Rama thought it was funny just how clumsily Alba managed to trip and fall through the Mists and fall flat on his face in Seitung. It was almost kind of cute, in a helpless, hapless kind of way. As far as how Alba wants to be perceived on meeting people, he definitely wants the title that he's earned, he wants that to come first and color how people see him off the bat, otherwise people will notice he's kind of a fuckup. He realized during SotO that he really Did Not Like not being recognized for his accolades and made to prove himself all over again, especially while badly wounded and isolated and far from home.

The first impression Auruim has on people is fear and a sense of wrongness. People notice him out of a crowd right away; he's big. He looks strange. He looks frightening. I've tried to explain that basically, although they don't look "mordrem" to themselves anymore, my mordrem look "mordrem" ENOUGH to other people to scare them. It's sort of a sense of wrongness, an almost uncanny valley -esque feeling that these aren't sylvari. Auruim wants people who meet him to respect him and think he's clever and competent and deserving of praise, but that's rarely the case.

[querical-equinox]

I've had this DCA Magic/Dragon AU in my head for a good minute now. And I don't know that I'll ever get this fully written out in a way that I'm satisfied with, but I've been wanting share the idea so bad!!

So in an act of whimsy and self love imma just jot down my thoughts here and throw em out to the world!

So as things start out, you live in an old barn you'd long since fixed up and turned into a home. It's nestled away in a mountain forest, out of sight of the village that rests in the valley below, but not out of reach.

Magic has a natural flow in this world. Some people or creatures may be more intuned, but anyone can learn and wield it if they try. While some places are gearing towards an academic understanding of it, most people still learn by pure trial and error. All feeling and emotion and ritual.

You do the latter.

You're a Mender, by Trade and Title. Always had an uncanny knack for fixing things up, and as you've fiddled and fumbled your way through figuring out magic all these years, you've only gotten better at it.

Anything you need is either made or grown at home, forged from the wilderness, or received from villagers who make their way out to your little loft. You pay and are payed in trades and favors, and are on good terms with most of the folk who live down below you.

They often come out seeking your help with repairs, most often knick knacks, or important tools. Sometimes treasured and sentimental pieces. And more and more as of late, mending of a medical variety.

This is something you still struggling with, but you're learning.

You also tend to keep close to your home. Mostly because it's where you're the most comfortable, you're really not seeking any grand adventure or fortune. You have most everything you need right here! But it's also in no small part due to your Delicate Constitution.

It's not so bad some days. Buzzing around your home and gardens, steady energy and a bright heart. Taking breaks when you need, but otherwise left unhindered.

Most commonly you get around with the aid of one of your canes or walking sticks (a good few are gifts/trades with folks from the valley.) Sometimes needing to wear compression braces. Definitely resting more in between activities, and usually relying on your magic a lil more than might be healthy.

At your worst though you're lucky to get around your house. Using magic is intensely detrimental in this state, and something you opt only to do under dire circumstances.

You're grateful to the folk who pop in and help when you're like this, even if the embarrassment/shame never fully fades, despite their gentle insistence. Even more grateful still that they'll leave if really ask them to.

-

On the flip side of things, are Sun and Moon! Living, Dragonoid Marionettes. Though one wouldn't guess them to be puppets at all, as they keep their true forms hidden under physical illusions.

Sun is all glittering gold and scarlet scales. A large, fluffy spiked mane the color of sunlight, and an adornment of flashy red frills around his neck and wrists.

Moon is all midnight hues, with a speckling of shining scales (are they silver or a muted gold, who's to say as they twinkle like stars.) A silvery mane trails more down his back than his counterparts. And he has two long, dark blue whiskers, that wink and glow a soft yellow at the ends.

Both can choose to keep closer to their original size, or take on a much larger form at will. They're wingless dragons, long and serpentine. All muscle with wicked sharp claws at the ends of their hands and feet.

Their true form are more akin to a child's wooden slither snake toy, just done up all fancy. They sill have their marks and fur and frills, but look decidedly more handmade. And those magically inclinde may just be able to spot pale, shimmering strings, fading off into an ethereal distance.

Who made them, and what for, is unclear. IF they were made for a purpose at all of course they were, but it's been so long, do they remember?

Their main concern at the present date however, is helping their dear friend Music Man. Also known as The Music of the Mountain, or on the occasion someone happens to spot him, oh goOD LORD THAT"S A REALLY BIG SPIDER.

He likes Music Man just fine.

He'd been acting strange as of late, and the final straw for them to intervene was one of his darling Minis seeking them for help so far from home.

This ends with them caught in an ambush at the mouth of his cave home (not the fault of the Mini seeking help mind you!) And the two are separated. With Sun flying down the Mountain, struggling to fend off the Minis swarming him as gently as he can. And Moon facing the Music Man himself, getting backed further and further into the cave.

-

This leads to your first meeting with Sun! He crash lands in a meadow you frequent for herbs and the like. Having shaken all the Minis off along the flight down the Mountain, but left horribly tangled in their incredibly strong spider silk.

It takes a lot of coaxing and gentle words to even get near him. But he seems desperate enough to accept your cautious help.

So you sit and carefully unwind him from this painful mess. You talk to him the whole way through, explaining the work you do (especially when he cant see you), but also just making idle chatter in the interim.

You can feel a powerful magic rolling over and through him, and would nearly be mesmerized by such a beast if it weren't for the serious task at hand.

Despite his rush to get back up and go help Moon, he's incredibly patient with you. Even as you insist on rubbing some ointment on his wounds once you've finished, not knowing the hurry he's in.

When he leaves, it's with a burst of warmth and intense gratitude, as he's seemingly carried off on a breeze.

You head home feeling lighter than you have in years. Cane loose in hand, with coils of spider silk wrapped around it, that you'd keep for a project of some sort.

The field sees a sudden, unexpected bloom over the next week or so after.

-

You meet Moon a little later after that. Again in the field, though it's raining this time. You were out hunting some storm only blooms for an upcoming potion, things like Gator's Tears, and Froggs Foot.

You catch a glimmer of gold, heart picking up in elation at the return of your sunny dragon friend. Though it quickly drops at your sight clears through the rain.

He's carrying a badly injured Moon. You become acutely aware of the anxious, roiling energy trickling down from them.

He brought Moon to you, entirely uncertain, but desperately hoping you could help. He didn't know quite what else to do.

And so you do what you always do. Help as best you can.

This is leads you to guiding Sun back down to your barn, where you thankfully have enough room to squeeze them both in on the ground floor. You set to work on fixing up a barely conscious lunar dragon, who gets hissy in his brief moments of lucidity.

You don't talk during most of this endeavor. More focused on the task, and channeling your magic as best you can the mend the poor dear. Sun is pure anxious energy coiled protectively nearby.

When you're done and Moon is stable, your watch with a startled awe as he seems to shift and dustily dissolve into his small dragon form. Sun follows suit, in what feels to you as sigh of relief.

Only then do you gently bubble with idle chatter, as you get them blankets and pillows to help them be more comfortable. You tell Sun that Moon will need to rest for a while. And that you'd like them to stay a bit to watch over how he heals.

You've expended entirely too much magic during his care , and end up out of commission for a while after yourself.

As so it goes, you have two Ethereal Dragons as house guest for a short while.

-

I have more loose thread for things I'd like to see later on. Like them seeking your help with Music Man, and possibly some other fnaf crew.

Funny moments of them being appalled by how you channel your magic. (Some spells and the like have very physical channelings, and you can get the same results from different methods if you're creative enough.) As beings soaked and strung with magic, they take to it a lot more naturally than you, like second nature it seems. They try teaching you easier/safer ways of harnessing it.

As well as some other fun things, soft visits and hijinks, their Marionette reveal to the reader, interacting with some of the villagers, and so on so forth.

This is all I have to share for now though, and if you made it this far thank you for taking the time to read!!!

[halt-kun]

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 199 - Light and Shadow

Killua is going to be the best boy this chapter soooo let’s goo

Killua the best BOYYYY

carried his boy Gon to the border

also managed to find his way without a map or a GPS

I think it’s one of the rare time we see him actually out of breath

Well thank god you’re on the way and they don’t have to wait there for several hours

Killua is sweaty as fuck

Your skin is too pale to stand like this in the sun Killua, I’m glad you stayed under a tree

Well reinforcements are coming

NETEROOOOOOO

small old man

with japanese business guy

and BIG JAW marketing man

probably both in their 40s or 50s

ASSHOLES

these kids aren’t some randos

also stop judging them when they are probably traumatized

Poor Killua

Pitou’s aura must be terrifying then

as far as we know Hisoka and Illumi are as bad as it can get for humans

I’m pretty sure the ants’ aura is terrifying because they aren’t humans and their emotions can feel very foreign to humans

kind of like sinister with added uncanny valley

HYPE

already on Illumi’s and Hisoka’s level at least

Let’s remember Killua thought he could kill Netero to get the ball back in the first Hunter Exam

Yeah Pitou is terrifying alright, a born genius made of an amalgam of creature

Knov, you know you don’t need to be patronizing to say that ?

Like of course a state of panic and shock isn’t the best state to accurately gauge the power of an opponent

Morel is right too, power levels are irrelevant when you take into consideration nen

TRUE again

it’s been shown several time too

Uvo’s demise, Genthru’s and his gang, etc...

All due to some errors on their part, some mistake

Well I don’t agree entirely

thinking about retreating to take them on with better odds is also possible

Hisoka is definitely the incarnation of always being 100% confident he’ll win

I also think this way of thinking might only be the bias of only taking into account the ones who survived by never backing down

Gon is sleeping like a brick

it’s so cute Killua used his turtleneck to cover him

even if it must be full of sweat, it’s cute

I wish someone would be able to carry me home and tuck me in my bed

Netero is smart, an elite force is better than plenty of weak soldiers

Killua seems touched by this proposition

I never understood why they call them “assassins”

maybe they consider the one participating in this operation as assassins, ant killers, exterminators maybe ?.

Thanks Netero

leaving them with some potential way to come back into this

Gon on his shoulders hahahaha

Killua is THE BEST

Gon must have had his best night, maybe his neck will hurt a bit

Killua feels so guilty

poor kid, he feels like he did something wrong

the only thing you could have gotten was death

You only listened to Kite who was an experienced hunter

Gon understands

I’m pretty sure Killua also refers to their discussion when Gon said if Kite told them to flee that he’d stay no matter what. But that was if their presence could have helped in any way.

Killua said he would judge case by case

and he was right to do so

Baseless optimism feels so foreign to Killua

Poor little guy

You didn’t leave him to die Killua, I can see you’re terrified of what you did if it means Kite is dead

But sometimes surviving was the best option and Kite was fine with that anyway

GAYYYY

and also traumatized

poor boy

BABY

YESSS YOU CAN

AND WELL FUCK AS ALWAYS

Kite’s headless head always feels so at peace

Pitou got injured, their ribbon was torn too

They suffered a cut and some blunt hit on the face but also on the neck

Pitou must be pretty tough too because Kite clearly only aimed up there but it didn’t do much

What an ending for a volume

I’ll begin Volume 20 another day !

[diesoonandsuffer]

my thoughts on the voyage home AND the final frontier

again i’m just going to paste both of my letterboxd reviews here because why would i retype the same thoughts.

the voyage home

i'm giving this a 3.5/5 because it still falls a bit below search for spock for me personally. i think after having seen more of these i might bump the first two movies down a bit in rating.

now i'm a fan of anytime star trek goes goofy and wacky. the trouble with tribbles and a piece of the action are some of my favorite original series episodes, and even just the silly moments in an otherwise normal episode will usually stand out to me. so i don't want it to sound like i didn't appreciate the goofiness of this movie; i did! i love putting the enterprise crew in situations. i love chekov running through an army naval base. i love spock vulcan neck-pinching a punk guy on a bus. i love bones and scotty pretending they work for this random engineering company. those things were great. however, the whiplash tonal shift of this movie is noticeable. i did a double feature of this and final frontier, which i will review separately, but seeing now 5/6 of the original series movies it is striking how different this is. i guess in a way its the tribbles of the star trek movies. and i guess it makes sense to have at least one -- it keeps it true to form in a way -- but something about the long term storytelling between the movies makes the random tone switch of this one just feel a bit off. again, i loved the goofiness, but it was just a lot to process.

there's other minor things about the movie i don't like; some of kirk's characterization felt a little off, for one. spock also did at times which i know is part of him recovering from being fucking brought back to life but it was almost like i was watching original pilot spock again. "irritation? ah, yes, one of your earth emotions!" like that level of spock. his arc in this being that he just goes back to the evolved spock we came to know over 3 seasons of television and 2 movies was...a choice, but whatever. it led to some funny moments between him and kirk but again, it had this almost uncanny valley feeling to it where it just felt a little bit wrong. also saavik being removed is disappointing but not surprising. apparently there was one script draft where she was pregnant with spock's child and if that stayed in i would have started biting glass.

overall this movie is definitely an enjoyable watch; the premise is goofy enough that it's easy watching, the ending is optimistic in the traditional star trek way, and the characters are put in fun little situations. it just feels a little off to me with some minor problems but i wouldn't call this a bad film by any stretch.

the final frontier

i did a double feature of this and the voyage home and wow holy shit. what a tonal shift.

before i start i'm not gonna straight up blame shatner for what this movie is. other reviews on here have explored him and that in more depth and i'm not even gonna try. i think it's not so black and white as "nimoy did this and it was good, shatner did this and it was bad" and i think its reductive to reduce it as such.

i can see why shatner would want to write this story. spock was fucking brought back to life. he has an eternal soul. once you write something like that into your script, the concept of God or the source of all life doesn't seem that out of the picture. and it's not like star trek hasn't dealt with gods or god-like entities before. who mourns for adonais explores the greek god apollo and other episodes have advanced sentient life forms who, in a way, act like god figures. so i can see why shatner would want to take that idea and expand it into a scale beyond what a tv show, or the original series at the time, could handle. do i think it was executed well? not particularly. i both saw the reveal coming and was surprised by it all at once.

some parts of this movie i enjoyed. another review mentioned that the shore leave scenes are such a delight that you wish shatner had permission to make a shore leave only movie, and i agree with that. i'm sort of biased since i'm a fan of that kind of story already, but the point stands. what this movie and the previous two have in common is that it got back what the first two movies were missing; the fact that the enterprise is a found family. in search for spock they were such a found family that they abandoned their careers to save spock. voyage home has them on a goofy adventure together that lets their characters and dynamics shine. this movie centers that dynamic more on the main trio of kirk, spock, and bones. i'm glad bones actually got to be part of this time as he has been unfortunately sidelined many other times. i really enjoyed all of their scenes together even after shore leave ends.

two more things i have to complain about and then i think im done. they both involve lore inconsistency. other people might see these as minor but they bother me, and i'm not usually a stickler for these things but they're both, like, obvious facts that are overridden. the first i'm not sure of the validity of because the origin is from the animated series. i don't know if this is considered canon BUT the best episode from that series (and arguably a better episode than many of the original series ones) is the one that explores spock's backstory where he has to go back in time to save himself from dying in a vulcan coming of age ritual. this explores his relationship to the other kids that tease him, his love for animals and his pet, him and sarek's strained relationship, and so on. he explicitly does not have a half-brother here and to add a half-brother here would make the episode not make sense. i think in general having a half-brother makes his whole backstory not make sense. what, sarek managed to bear TWO children that were batshit insane by vulcan standards? if sybok was the other kid i would think spock is an angel by comparison. but whatever.

the second lore thing is at the end; spock mentions he lost sybok, a brother. kirk goes "i lost a brother once." now maybe i'm just a fool but i legitimately thought they were referencing Sam. you know. his brother. the brother that they killed off in the original series. like his for real brother, that he had, who died. but no he was just talking about spock. (the man who he was definitely about to kiss in front of the klingons but i won't get into that here.) and then they say that they do have families, meaning each other. ignoring bones' daughter they mention in the animated series, spock has at this point mostly reconciled with sarek (even if his flashback tries to make us forget that?) and as far as i can tell has always cared for his mother. kirk and bones both had relatives even if they died. i don't know. it just seemed clunky.

TLDR; weird movie. elements of it are good, some parts are just bad. definitely not the Worst thing i've ever seen.

[silvia7272]

Miraculess Ladybug Salt AU: You Always Liked To Play With Fire ~ Blossoming Friendships???

I really hope you’re all enjoying this new series; I honestly just came up with the idea on a dime, and then after I started developing it, I knew I needed to share it with all of my fans.

Also, when I actually get around to including more characters from the movie, it’s gonna be fun giving them some personality traits. I can’t wait.

And er-… I may have accidently messed up with some off the names. Since I changed most off the names already, I then decided to change them for Barbara and Olympia, however I had forgotten that I’d already written their names down in the story. Opps. I thought this would’ve been better since I think I saw some people complain about the United Hero’s super names, so I changed them, as well as if I’m going to add in going to Gotham into the mix and there’s already a character called Barbara, I just know I’ll get hella confused for who I’m talking about. I don’t want people to get confused but maybe I should make a post off the names I’ve already changed to begin with, just to defer from canon. Well, here it is.

My OC: Rosaniline Keyne-Hill was Rosina Scoats

Soliane Rin was Crisono Tassa

Canon Counterparts: Jace Keyne was Jessica Keyne

Aveon Keyne-Hill was Aeon Hill

Medusa was Uncanny Valley

(I kept Olympia the same)

Nebula was Majestia

Brianna was Barbara

Eostrix was Night Owl

So, I might just change them when I can be bothered to.

This fanfic and its ideas were all made before season 4 came out, so if something doesn’t add up please don’t worry. That information wasn’t available then, and unless it fits into my story or I like it, I won’t include it in my story. Also, that new Miraculous wiki can get lost, I’m not putting any of that new information in here if they couldn’t even put it in the show. (Also, so far, I do not care for season 4 whatsoever so yeah, I may not include any of that in this work and the other.)

Word Count: 9435

Tags: @vixen-uchiha​ if you wish to be tagged all you have to do is say. Also, if you change your name please tell me, I don’t want to leave you out since you’ve asked to be tagged. I’m very sorry if I’ve missed anyone.

Well, I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Summary:

Note: This fic contains OOC scenes of Miraculous Ladybug as well as a ton of salt, so if you don't like that stuff you may scroll past and have a nice day.

In a world with no Miraculous, no Hawkmoth and no Ladybug, how does our little heroine do?

Well, it usually would be hanging out with her friends, as any other teenager would do...

But, of course, this wasn't normal.

This was reality. It was cold, hard and definitely not welcome.

So, when this girl wishes to have some kind of adventure in her boring, mundane life…

How long does it take for her to regret it?

***

Mlle Bustier had always believed her students were the best in the whole Collège.

In fact, she whole-heartedly believed that all her students could do no harm.

In her mind, they were at the peak of maturity, though they may be in their adolescence and had some seemingly petty dramas, they all prevailed to take whatever they wanted for themselves, when they saw opportunities, they rightfully took.

And Mlle Bustier only wanted the best for her students.

As much as Caline would never admit it to any of her work colleagues, she always knew her class was exceptional.

Kim, Alix, what with two of the sportiest people that were bound to succeed.

Max, A genius who was able to develop a fully functioning AI, when he was a teen no less. She could only imagine what other inventions her little Einstein could invent later on. The type of universities he’d get into, the job offers, oh the endless possibilities.

Ivan, Rose, Juleka, A lead vocalist, guitarist, and drummer in a popular rock band. Though she had heard there may have been a few mishaps in the band, she was sure they would be even better than before.

Mylène, A passionate environmentalist who only wanted to help the world become a cleaner place, and entered as many organisations as possible.

Nino, An inspiring DJ/filmmaker. She always wanted to help out by lending the classroom key afterschool, that way he could work on all of his works. Allowing everyone to take part even, it was truly one of her best rules.

Alya, A journalist's whose goal was to become bigger than Lois Lane.

Adrien, A model, the most famous teenage one by Parisian standards.

Chloé, The mayor's Daughter.

Sabrina, The head of police’s Daughter.

Nathaniel, an inspiring comic book artist that had gained a lot of attention online.

And Lila, a Daughter of an Italian diplomat.

Although she could admit to herself that not all of these aspirations were something that she could boast about, she could show off that all of her students had something they would work for or even show off.

And what did the others have?

Two weather girls and a writer? Caline would have to laugh, compare that with her class and you could clearly see who was at the top.

Although she hadn’t said a specific name for a reason.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The young fashion designer/baker’s girl.

For a while, that name had left a sour name in her mouth, whenever she had been forced to say it for the register, it only took her a few days for her to realise how much it annoyed her whenever said girl was late to her lesson. Honestly, did that girl not value punctuality? Nevermind in the workplace; what about her reputation as a teacher?

She was becoming a lot more reclused, gaining a disrespectful attitude towards her she had no recollection of when she had gained it, and became incredibly upset when she remembered every year on her birthday, the girl would give her a whole assortment of pastries and desserts.

Now, because she had somewhat highly encouraged her students to send gifts for a better grade, it was just a box of chocolates.

Just a small box of chocolates!?

How could she show off her gifts to the others now!?

And worst of all?

She refused to be the good little Class President anymore.

Her example?

Her Marinette off the world?

Did she not care about setting a good example? Or to be a role model to the class?

Really, to be so selfish, to all of her friends, how ungrateful.

She believed she had sorted this little problem when Chloé, in a fit off understandable jealousy, drew over her gift.

Marinette was unreasonably angry at the poor girl, and so Bustier had said how better it would be for her to rise up and become a beacon of light for Chloé instead of letting that hate and anger fester inside her.

To let go and help out everyone.

To not let your negative side take a hold of you and be positive around everyone in your vicinity.

After all, sharing and helping makes the world go round, and we do want to help the world, right?

She remembered those words she had spoken so fondly to her, as she was always someone anyone could come to for advice. It had always worked after all, after students were able to see the correct side, she’d be thanked which always left a small flutter of happiness around her.

Mendeleiev scared many students away, D’Argencourt with his eccentric personality, made students want to avoid being seen near him after lessons ended, and hardly anyone spent their time in the art club room.

Caline believed she was seen as a shining example of light by the other students, and knew she was seen as a Disney Princess by many, Rose had even called her that once.

However, getting back to the matter at hand, she was very pleased when Marinette had gone out of her way to make Chloé happy, of course, her attitude still remained mostly the same but Caline was smart enough to know it wouldn’t take one nice event to help the girl, so she was so proud when she carried on helping the poor girl out. Chloé was smiling more and even asking for a multitude of things from the blue-haired girl, and if she ever saw Marinette get unreasonably upset again, she’d send a very disappointing glare.

She knew being disappointed in students was a sure-fire way for them to do better and work harder, she knew how guilty her students would feel if they ever managed to get that gaze from their teacher, and… If the elder had done this a bit more on Marinette than anyone else… Well, she would just smile, telling them how much Marinette was able to accomplish, her trips for the class were so good, everyone was jealous. So, didn’t that seem good?

And even though she did see most of it going in the trash, she knew Chloé was just a little bit picky, she’d liked the interest in her, it was normal.

Her home life wasn’t something to be overlooked, she just knew the girl only wished for attention, and she was sure to be able to give it to her.

But then she… Stopped.

Caline had believed the girl had gotten wrongly impatient and told Marinette she shouldn’t be so extreme, but Marinette dared to fight back, against her?

She exclaimed that it wasn’t just Chloé anymore, how could she be expected to be nice to both her and Lila?

Bustier was confused, Lila? What did she have to do with this?

And so, the girl explained that she was just lying for attention, every breath that came out was just a lie. And she couldn’t stand it, she’d apparently turned her friends against her.

Now, normally, Bustier knew Marinette wouldn’t lie.

But, she also knew she couldn’t let this ‘lie’ be revealed.

It might harm her reputation.

She couldn’t have that happen.

So, she knew what she had to say.

That this was just girl drama that all teenagers had.

She couldn’t afford to let her empire fall so soon.

And for something like that.

The faces of the other teachers.

The gossip surrounding her.

“Looks like Caline’s not so good a teacher after all.”

No, she couldn’t bare it.

Who said a little white lie would hurt anyone?

In order to keep her class, exactly the same.

A few snips were made to maintain its image.

And if she had to snip her most prized student.

Then… So be it.

***

When she entered her classroom it was just like any other day.

Her students forming around a desk in the front of the room.

She always commended her students for such actions, she knew how sweet and silent the girl could be and loved how accommodating the class could be to her.

She couldn’t help the wondering gaze that looked upon the back row.

A certain seat was empty, but that was routine by now. And even though there was still 5 minutes till the bell, she still marked her late in her book.

Sometimes Caline had to think if at some points she had expected too much of this single girl… But only to remember that, no, in fact, when Marinette had a better attitude, she had expected too less. Back when she gained some confidence, she had always surpassed her expectations, her trips were the highlight off her job, her morning snacks were a welcomed surprise, her need to prove herself let her have as many responsibilities as possible, yes some were meant to be her own paperwork, but she’d never seen Marinette excel so much, it was a dream come true.

If she could just push her, just a little more… She was sure Marinette would go back to her obedient self, and it would make Bustier’s job a lot easier.

Although… The new student seemed like the perfect candidate as well, since Marinette may not follow her good example, she may be able to get a different example.

She could see just how sweet and pleasant the cherry haired girl was, she’d be perfect for the role. Sneaking a quick glance at the girl who was simply minding her business reading a book and keeping to herself. She did take note she had a bit of a limp for the past week, but didn’t bring it up just to not embarrass the girl in front of the whole class. She just knew if she was able to simply send her views her way, a new example would be made, hell she may even be able to have two if Rosaniline became such a good influence on Marinette she may even change again.

She also just knew Rosann would be good for Chloé, after all, they’d have so much to talk about, and coming from similar backgrounds she could make sure they could be paired together as much as possible.

Of course, only she knew about her family name, Monsieur Damocles had been informed by her residence that they’d prefer not to spread this information about, for it had been such a hinderance for her to make friends before.

Bustier frowned, she knew very well her students wouldn’t try to suck up to her, she almost felt insulted that she wouldn’t trust her students.

But the worst part was that she couldn’t brag about her new student to anyone, no one could find out or they’d all face some action from her Mother, she was very clear on that.

However Bustier tried to not let it bother her too much, after all she was sure she could give a gentle nudge in the right direction about trusting friends and not keeping secrets, to coax her out of her shell. She’d just have to be excruciatingly patient.

Clapping her hands was a symbol for them all to pay attention, she’d never raise her voice to them, not even a little, and she knew they would respect it and quieten down their chatter.

And just like that, the door opened to a fashionably late bluenette. Bustier would feign ignorance to the rather disappointing glares stares the girl was receiving, after all, she was giving one off her own.

She sheepishly walked to her seat just as the bell rang, honestly, she’d given her a lot of warnings before about her punctuality, did she really need to brief her Parents in about the situation?

“Well class, since all of you are here now, I can get on with the lesson” And so began her teaching.

It was fairly simple, she knew her students would be able to easily understand, after all, she knew they were the best, the smartest.

She had to explain the project they were bound to complete to a high standard, she just knew it was another to her list of student’s accomplishments she could brag about.

The project entailed 30% of coursework they must do in pairs in the span of 2 months. They could choose any topic so long as it followed the theme.

And this year’s theme was history, generally her students would groan at this topic, but considering they were able to decide on their personal preferences that should help encourage them to complete it to the best of their ability.

Plus, it helped towards their end of the year grade, and helped their teamwork skills. Of course, Mlle Bustier would always try to be as generous as she could, she wouldn’t remove marks from accidental mistakes unlike a purple haired teacher would, she just couldn’t bear to be so mean to them when she knew they were trying so hard to get all of their marks, she couldn’t punish them for that. Even if it was not necessarily the right thing to do, she couldn’t let there be any wrongful disappointment.

As long as they carried on being a great example, she could never fail them.

Besides everyone loved her projects, while having to be in pairs they always got to present it in any way they wanted, a science experiment, PowerPoint presentation to even a play, she was so very proud when Mylène did that play from last year, so impressive and she had gotten out of her shell. All she had to do was make them follow a simple rule before they could go all out. Her students loved the independence, and when they asked what type of ideas she had, she gleamed and expressed her own interest in the fairy tales. There was so much you could do with so many magical stories and elements, the possibilities were endless. She loved always talking about them in at least all of her lesson as she knew how many life lessons could come out of it.

And besides, in a sense, the other thing that made her the best teacher, she let them pick their own partners.

Of course, she had to make it seem like that.

It was always the same since kindergarten, everyone’s names would be placed in a bowl on a piece of paper, and one by one she’d pick a name up, when she read it out loud other people could raise their hands to ask to be their partner.

Normally it would be the first person to raise their hand, however, Caline wasn’t stupid, there were certain pairs she didn’t always want together.

Such as Alix and Kim, if it were a presentation about sports, she wouldn’t mind as much, knowing they would present a physical display of their athleticism… However, she knew if they were paired up for a slideshow presentation about let’s say, politics. She knew they would only start at the last minute, and include a very messily strown up slideshow. And with Marinette refusing to help out her classmates with even the simplest of matters, her hands were tied.

So, if they ever stuck their hand up for either of them, Bustier would wait to see who else would put their hand up, most of the time it was either Max or Nathaniel respectfully, and since they were all friends, no one had called her out for it.

And that’s how she got around it.

So, she started doing her routine, swirling her hand around the, she picked one up and began to read it aloud.

“Lila Rossi. And who would like to be her partner?” Immediately several hands shot up, bringing a smile on her face again, so many wanted to help this girl it filled her with pride and comfort.

And well, she always had to help by picking the most knowledgeable of students.

“Max, I believe I saw your hand up first” Some students moaned that they couldn’t be with Lila, but they knew that maybe next time they would get a shot.

“Ivan Bruel” Unsurprisingly Mylène’s hand shot up first followed by Juleka and Rose, now normally she wouldn’t let couples be together, but she couldn’t break them up, they did their work so well, so she let it slide.

Grabbing the next piece of paper Caline’s once bright smile, dropped as her eyes scanned over the name before sighing audibly, she didn’t need to hide it, everyone knew whose name it was.

.

.

.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng took a deep sigh.

As soon as Bustier told them about a presentation she was immediately filled with dread.

She could quite easily do it well, or at least get a well enough grade considering Bustier’s shady marking skills.

But her partners influence would be something she dreaded.

Best case scenario, they’ll be so repulsed to be in the same room with her that they’d work independently, and it would more or less seem like two separate presentations in one. Her grade was low.

Worst case scenario, she’d be subjected to either do it alone, or screamed about how much they don’t want to be near her. Her grade would be lowered.

Not theirs, hers.

Bustier would exclaim how she wanted the bluenette to rise above it all and forgive them, and until she was a better student in her eyes, she’d be punished for it.

It didn’t help that when her name was specifically called out, there would be a silence they’ll have to endure for what would seem like eternity.

It would either stop when someone so nobly sacrificed themselves to team up with her or Bustier would be forced to wait until the end for the last name to be picked out.

And she hated having to feel like this.

They were all friends, why did it have to be like this?

And well, just like this silence, it would last for a rather uncomfortable time, more than Marinette liked.

Her head rested on the desk, she at this point didn’t care about her appearance in front of the new girl. It had been a week already and at this point Marinette knew they’d be no point getting to know someone who was bound to abandon her.

It was a despairing truth she’d learn from experience, it was why no one hung around her, even from the other classes, they would be a target next.

Marinette couldn’t blame them, if the situations were reversed, she doubted she’d have enough courage to go out of her way to help.

So, she’d just sit, head on desk as time would pass.

.

.

-

“H-Hey! Why do you have your hand up, we told you how she was a bully, why would you want to be her partner!?”

???

Wait-

That wasn’t meant to happen.

Hesitantly, Marinette picked her head up, only to find her seatmate with an eager hand in the air.

She looked over to her face, a smile present as she glanced towards the teacher, waiting for her to say they would be paired together.

“I want to be Marinette’s partner, and I haven’t seen yet why I shouldn’t” Rosann’s head turned innocently to her classmates, she was radiating happiness as they stared in shock. A blond very much as he did want to be her partner when her name was called out, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

“Marinette! Did you threaten her as well, girl you’re unbelieva-”

“I’m afraid you are being mistaken Mlle Césaire, I wouldn’t willingly make a partnership with my enemy, now Mlle Bustier you may continue if you would please” Marinette gasped, she- she’d just put a target on her back. For her! This girl was crazy…

And yet, despite her cute appearance, she hadn’t seen someone look so confident and polite.

‘Wait did I say cute-’

Even though the girl had stated her answer, it wasn’t the answer the class was looking for.

“Mlle Bustier you can’t put their names down together” Someone protested. It sounded like Lila, she was always leading the class for this sort of thing.

“Yeah, put my name down for Rosaniline instead, we know she doesn’t mean it.” That was Alya.

“But I-” She felt guilty for the new girl, she really did, she would’ve warned her how you’ll never truly be able to say your opinion without everyone interfering or as she put it, butting in.

“She doesn’t know what’s she’s gotten herself into, the poor girl” Rose spoke, if Marinette wasn’t so used to it she’d flinch from the words Rose spoke about her.

What was bad, Rosann wasn’t able to speak.

What was worse, Bustier was very much considering it.

“I guess it would be for the best” Marinette couldn’t believe it. The one person who willingly decided to pair up with her, was being ignored to be partnered up with someone else.

Not that Marinette wanted them to be with someone else mind you, but it was their decision, why wasn’t she spared a thought and have people notice that maybe they didn’t have to decide for her?

What was crueller, was that Marinette found the one person that was on her side… Was the one person who was the first to make her clamper up.

“This is ridiculous absolutely ridiculous” Of all people, it had to be her to join in?

“How extremely hypocritical of you Mlle Bustier, if I couldn’t change my partner from the last project then neither does Dupain-Cheng in this one, isn’t this school meant to teach fairness. Well, the only fair thing I see is the fairly incompetent from this class” Of course the students didn’t take kindly to her words as Bustier sighed yet again.

She knew Chloé had a point, she’d tried to persuade Chloé to have a different partner than Sabrina a few times in previous projects, it would depend on the person, if Chloé didn’t mind, she’d moan but nothing else. If it was someone she didn’t like, she’d threaten to call the mayor, most of the times she wouldn’t considering out of all the teachers even Chloé would admit she liked Bustier the most, she’d never blame her for anything and she loved that about her, but she had a point none the less.

Besides, Bustier believed that maybe Rosaniline would prove to be a very good example to her previous one, and this could be a great place to start.

“Yes Chloé, I believe I understand now, it would be highly unfair if we didn’t let Rosaniline decide for herself” Marinette couldn’t help the somewhat annoyed glance she gave to the teacher for that comment.

“But Mlle-”

“No buts Alya, now why don’t we use the idea Chloé suggested?” The class all heard the snicker from Chloé, they couldn’t believe she could stoop so low like this.

And then it carried on like it had been, but Marinette couldn’t help but let her curiosity get the better of her and as the class was carrying on, Marinette swallowed the gulp that had formed in her throat and turned to the girl next to her.

“Err- Rosaniline?” She gently tapped the girl’s shoulder, she turned and showed she was listening.

“Yes?” Oh god Mari don’t lose confidence now.

“Why, why did you do that?” With that, she saw a smirk emerge from the girl.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, but I am rather petty since I refuse to take the word of someone else before doing my own research” Oh. Somehow that wasn’t what she was expecting, but honestly it was better than pretending to care.

“Although… I should apologise, for how abrupt I was about it” Marinette widened her eyes, why- she didn’t do anything wrong?

“I would’ve preferred asking for your consent first, but seeing the opportunity I may have taken it rather quickly” She grasped one of her braids, a nervous habit maybe, Marinette couldn’t help but notice before giving her answer.

“N-No its fine, I-I don’t mind you being my partner, not like I’ve got anyone better- I mean- I didn’t mean it like that. I just- erm, I just. I’m glad you thought about me” If Marinette had been able to look past her hair, she would’ve noticed the small blush creep up on her cheeks.

“No problem”

***

Normally, a weekend would be extremely relaxing to the young designer.

She had as much time to sleep in, plus she started a late shift anyway, her Parents were the best when it came to that, since they knew how much trouble she had getting up on a school day, they knew they couldn’t ask her to get up early for work, especially since it was their workplace.

And she had completed other homework assignments a while ago, so surely there was no reason for why she should be pacing around in the living room so early for her.

Well, it may or may not have something to do with the new girl.

.

She really should stop calling her new girl, she gave her her name for god’s sake.

But she just felt so nervous.

She told her Parents about this new assignment, and how she actually volunteered to be her partner, and how Marinette in the spur of a moment offered to go to her place on Saturday to start it. And she couldn’t deny when she saw the relieved expression she had when she offered. But now…

She hadn’t had someone over in years, everyone else avoided this place like the plague, the Parents still came though, and although they were slightly informed of the situation, they also just believed it was teenage drama.

Her own Parents showed their own worry, they loved their girl, and they truly didn’t want her to ever be hurt like last time ever again, but they also knew if she never gave this girl a shot, she’d never know.

Was it better to know than to ponder it forever?

That was a phrase Marinette was all too familiar with. However, it still didn’t calm her nerves.

Her Parents had told her if she didn’t want Rosaniline to be around anymore, they’d be more than happy to just so happen have an event take place right at that moment that she would have to leave, even if Marinette hoped that wouldn’t happen.

So, as she continued to pace, she was able to see from her balcony the Parisians all around, her doorway was slightly ajar so she could hear the sound of birds chirping, cars passing, and a motorcycle coming to a stop.

The noise of a motorcycle made her come to a fond thought of her Nonna. She loved her very much, and her free spirit.

Whenever she came back from one of her grand trips, she’d always get Marinette some type of fabric that always made her determined to incorporate into some type of clothing.

It was somewhat why she always stayed in the path of fashion, not just because her Parents would be disappointed in seeing her so unmotivated, but because she still liked the challenge of turning fabric into something.

She giggled, besides that thing from last week, it was the only adventurous thing she had done.

The sound of steps interrupted her as she saw her Maman, she nodded before Marinette felt a slight drop in her stomach.

She was here, she just needed to calm down, it would be fine.

She’d just smile and brace for it.

Walking down the stairs to her bakery was the same as always, she could smell the fresh bread from the oven. She always appreciated this aspect, living in a bakery always meant the aroma was lovely.

Going through the door after her Maman she braced herself to see the ne- er, Rosaniline.

What she didn’t brace for was the little girl cuddling her leg as soon as she entered.

“Hi, my names Piper, can we go to your room now?” She had to compose herself so she wouldn’t fall over with the girl in tow, but she couldn’t help internally awwing at the little kids’ appearance.

Black hair tied back in a red bow, a pink leotard with a lighter coloured tutu skirt. And a short but worn-out blue cape. And to top it all off, sparkly pink shoes faded to orange.

“O-Oh, hi there.” She gave a little wave, still completely confused.

“I’m so sorry Mari, Piper was just too excited to meet you, I’m very sorry for the shock” She saw a concerned look coming from Rosaniline. She sure did fret a lot- ah, she knew she didn’t mean it as a bad thing she just, well, she was used to being quiet and observing.

“Its fine really, but how come you brought your… Sister here?” She was unsure if the guess was right but considering the nod from the other girl, she relaxed knowing she was right. And considering she had to ignore a comment made from her Parents about a nickname she was given, she could just ignore that.

“I’m so sorry for the late notice, it’s just, something came up and I couldn’t find anyone able to take care of her. I’m really sorry for not telling you before but I- I don’t have your phone number so I couldn’t tell you. Eheh. I promise she won’t cause any trouble. Right?” The smaller girl, now back at her Sister’s side, bounced and repeated yes several times.

She looked to her Parents, almost asking them if it was alright, this whole situation caught her slightly off guard, and she momentarily forgot the question was directed at her.

Luckily her Maman was ready.

“Of course its fine, my, your Sister is such a cutie. And what’s your name sweetie?” Her Mother crouched down to make eye level. The girl puffed her chest out before standing straight up.

“My name is Piper Keyne-Hill ma’am, and I am 6 years old” She held one hand up before she looked up.

“Did I do it right?” Rosaniline smiled before bending down to her level as well.

“Do you believe that is the right answer?” Her use of that caused attention to Piper’s hand as the little one looked back, she gasped before proudly extending another finger up.

“There you go” She ruffled her hair as Marinette saw her Mother continue talking with Piper.

And yet… She felt that dread from earlier flee away, seeing Rosaniline interacting with her Sister so fondly brought heat to her cheeks and inside. She just, felt so calm around her.

And that warm smile…

She, kinda wanted her to smile like that to her…

“Marinette?” That broke her out of her trance, she looked over at her Papa who had a confused look.

“Shouldn’t you two start working on the project?”

“Huh? Oh- oh yeah, yes of course the project… Eh, Rosaniline lets go, I’ve got some kid books to keep Piper company” She didn’t mind the weight on her arm, or the way her Parents smiled at her interactions with the cherry haired girl.

She just minded how heavy her heart was pounding for some reason.

.

Marinette never considered her room big, she always found it spacious, it might be due to her always misplacing at least something when she’s in a rush, but she knew where it would be.

Stepping over to her desk draw, she pulls out a bunch of child books, since Nadja always did spring a babysitting job on her, she figured there was no reason to place them somewhere that would be too much of a hassle to keep getting out. So, she kept them closer.

Turning back, she saw the two looking around her room, Piper held so much excitement as Rosaniline wore a smile.

“Woooooow, it’s so pink, Rosalee what type is it?” Tugging at her Sister’s cardigan the older girl smiled.

“There are many different types, so I doubt I know the exact one… But I’d say it was a coral pink” She pattered her head as she too looked over the room, a somewhat reminiscent expression as she takes it all in.

“Mari I’m so jealous, to be able to live in a bakery with all of those magnificent smells around every day, it must be like heaven” Marinette scratched her head, ok- this was all so different, no matter how much she wanted to go back to her usual self, there was always something holding her back. Almost like, if she fell in this trap again, she’d mess it up, before she could be comfortable.

There she goes again, over thinking the situation like before.

No wonder-

“Ahh- it’s a tiger, look look” Piper’s voice brought her out of it as she saw Piper sitting in Rosaniline’s legs.

“Mmhmmn, so, Mari should we get started?” Marinette could only nod before they pulled out some books to get started.

***

‘This was easier when I had to do it on my own’ The bluenette thought, now don’t get her wrong, they weren’t arguing or anything, they just couldn’t exactly agree on a subject together.

When Rosaniline suggested gory fairy tales, she had to physically force herself not to shudder, fortunately the girl opposite her said it was a mere jest, thinking it would’ve been funny to see the teachers face when they spoke about it, but maybe it would be too much.

Rosaniline even joked that they may not have anything in common at all, that did nothing to soothe the young girls’ nerves. She just knew this might not have been the best decision, if they couldn’t find a topic, she knew Bustier would blame her for it, and if Bustier blamed her no doubt the class would as well. And it would just be one more point for them as they’d slowly but surely turn Rosaniline away from her.

It’s not like she would be disappointed or anything, it’s just, she’d rather be right now than in the future with her hopes up.

But, it didn’t help that her feelings were so mixed about this. Why was it she wanted to get to know Rosaniline?

Knock knock.

“Girls, I think you’re due a break now, don’t you?” Marinette was relieved, surely after some food they’ll be able to come up with at least one idea.

“Yes, Mlle Dupain-Cheng, that would be lovely.”

“Now stop that, you can call me Sabine, aw such a polite child you are” She blushed as she rubbed the back of her head.

“Marinette dear, mind if you help me?” Her eyes were confused, her Maman would normally never ask for help, what was so different now?

But not wanting to cause a scene she nodded and proceeded to climb down, just as Piper was moving onto a different type of picture book.

Going over to the kitchen she saw that her Mother had prepared so much food it would’ve looked like a feast, but that was how she was, whenever guests came over you could see more food on a table than a table.

She hoped Rosaniline and Piper had an appetite.

“Is everything alright dear?” She felt her Maman’s hands on her shoulders, it was always reassuring that her Parents did so much to look out for her, even when she pretended to be just fine her Parents would give her time just to be by herself if she needed it and then be there if she wanted to talk.

“Yes Maman, she’s really nice… We just haven’t figured out what topic to do yet.” She laughed nervously as her Mother couldn’t help but give a somewhat serious expression.

“You know, if you at all feel uncomfortable, we can still make up an excuse-” She shook her head.

“No Maman its fine really, if anything we’ll just keep it to the school library… She’s- I don’t know, I can’t explain it, I just feel-”

“Relaxed?” Her Mother finished the sentence for her, she nodded as Sabine thought how glad this girl was making her feel.

“Alright, well then get back up there, you don’t want her thinking you abandoned her?” She nudged her cheek as Marinette pushed her hand gently. She gave her Mum a kiss on the cheek before making her way back up to her room.

She couldn’t explain the feeling much, it was like she was feeling peaceful, a smooth tranquillity around her.

It wasn’t a feeling she had around her older friends, it always seemed like whatever they did was rushed, no time to process it. Or they didn’t let her speak.

Rosaniline did, she let her speak, she listened to her, she made her- feel.

She didn’t want that feeling to go away.

“Piper- I know you like this book, but I don’t think you should be flicking through it.”

“But why? Marilee gave me these. And they look so pretty I want one.” The little one responded, she didn’t demand, she was raised better than that.

“Well, I don’t think she meant to give you this one.” She was confused, wait what book was it?

Her heart stopped as she saw a pink cover-

That- that was her commission book!

She was rushing too much to even notice that she’d given Piper that one book.

Oh god, she was going to see her secret, that she was starting her own commission blog, that she was MDC- that she could tell everyone at Collège Françoise Dupont, and it could ruin her career. That everyone could post lies about her, making nobody trust her and demand refunds, and maybe she’d get taken in by the police- be sent to jail and never have her dream job of-

“Mari? Hey, Mari can you hear me?” She felt warm hands wrap around her own. She could feel herself look up as silver concerned eyes looked back at hers.

She felt another tug at her skirt, looking down to see Piper with her own worried expression.

“Did I make Marilee upset?” It was a simple question that pulled at her heartstrings, she felt tears prickle at her eyes for her overthinking. But she didn’t mean for Piper to be upset, or for Rosaniline to be worried either.

There she went again, overthinking every little thing that she couldn’t account for, why did she have to be this way, why did she have to be so cynical and downright negative.

“Oh no, heavens no Piper, I just- er had something in my eye, yeah. You didn’t do anything Piper, I’m glad you like the books I gave you.” Piper smile grew as she proceeded to drag Marinette over to the books again.

She seemed to be putting on an act though, from what Rosaniline could see. She was panicking over something, why? She didn’t know, she did want to find out but didn’t want to push it. She had a habit of wanting to find out answers, it wasn’t a bad thing, she remembered her Mum say, it’s just sometimes she could be just a teeny bit insensitive about it.

Looking over the scene she saw her little Sister pointing excitedly at the pages of sketched clothing, her saying how much she loved them and all the colours that she used and said how the author was so creative.

Marinette laughed along, her tears faded as she enjoyed Piper’s enthusiasm, almost making a note to definitely make her something- and for Rosaniline of course, it’ll be weird to make it for one and not the other.

And then- an idea struck.

“I know, why don’t we do it about the history of fashion?” The dark-skinned girl spoke up. She saw two heads turn towards her as she grinned. Putting her hands together near her cheeks as she spiralled in her own thoughts.

“I’ve always wanted to learn more about it, to see the transformations going through all the ages. And this could be the perfect time. So, what do you think?” It was a question that seemed as if she could reject it, but it still felt like a trick.

What if she didn’t suggest this as a solution, but for convenience for herself, since now she knew she liked fashion and would make her do all the work, it’s not like it hadn’t happened before, so why did it hurt so much to have her do it?

Did she have any right to object, wouldn’t it seem like she was being way to fussy? They already saw her sketches before, so she couldn’t deny she was a good artist. But then what if the others thought it was her idea?

That she made Rosaniline chose this subject, and get told how selfish to have done so, a disappointing gaze from Bustier, a disapproving gaze from Adrien, she felt her chest tighten up again, oh god, she was overthinking again, why did she have to be like this?

“Hey- hey Mari, we don’t have to if you don’t want… I-er saw you liked videogames; we could always do it about that if you want?” But Mari felt so disappointed in herself, she was being so accommodating to her, why, why for her? She didn’t deserve this.

“B-But Marilee’s so good at drawing, she can really really really draw. I know you can do it.” Piper enthusiastically cheered, she would’ve smiled but couldn’t, not yet, she just had to think through it.

What could she do?

“Piper, not now” Rosaniline slightly scolded, she never liked doing it honestly, but besides her Mother she had the trademark glare that told her to pack it in.

Unfortunately, Piper never did look at her while she was in such an energetic mood.

What could she do?

“Rosalee she’s amazing, she’s the best in the world. Don’t do it about stupid video games.” She tried persuading her Sister to see some sense, in the short time that she had known Marilee, she was pretty much enarmed with her, she found another Sister that needed a confidence boost.

What. Could. She. Do!?

“Piper!- Look, sometimes not everyone wants to show their skills to other people, and we have to respect that, ok?” She crouched down to her level, kids felt less intimidated when you weren’t so tall, besides, Piper didn’t mean anything by it, she was always told to follow her heart, and if she was proud of something, she should show it off for the whole world to see.

What could-

Wait?

Could someone really be so accommodating? Could it really be true? Could all of this be true?

“Aww… Ok Rosalee, sorry Marilee” Piper hugged Marinette’s leg, and even though it felt like she was getting told off, she knew she wasn’t in real trouble.

Or was it a persona?

“I’ll do it.”

If this was a plan, a plan to make her do all the work, then she’ll go along with it. It felt so mean, so immature, so senseless that she still wasn’t trusting her, but she didn’t want to turn Rosaniline away without any evidence, besides, if this was all a trick, then surely it was better this way, she would’ve foreseen it and everything would go back to normal, she’d go off to join the class while she’d be alone once more, maybe they’ll have passing glances and memories of what could’ve been but she wouldn’t leave her here open and out to be in such a vulnerable position.

Not just for her, but for both, she didn’t know what would happen after another heartbreak.

“Huh?”

“I- I don’t mind if we do it about fashion, I mean, only if you want to, I don’t mind teaching you about it, I-I even had some books stored just for this, so I guess its lucky right” A nervous laughter evolved as she looked at anywhere but her.

However, the cherry haired girl wasn’t as convinced.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I guess little Piper just convinced me.” The little girl fist pumped to herself before running along back to her books before the bluenette felt soft hands on her shoulders.

“As long as you want to as well, I… Wouldn’t want to force you or anything” Quick, she had to ease the tension.

“-Psst- Don’t worry so much Rosaniline, c’mon I’ll see where I put those books, also how far do you wanna go back, if we go too far, we might not be able to cover everything. But if we go to a few years back our presentation would just be too small. Maybe we can just go halfway. That reminds me maybe we could have a physical element, I could throw together some pieces of old works together and show them of as we talk- or” Her shoulders were gently grabbed again as she looked at the close proximity she was in, it made her blush just a tad more than she thought she ever could.

“Maybe we could discuss that, over something to eat?” She quickly looked down and remembered the food on the ground, no doubt cold now. She felt guilt come in before seeing her passionate smile.

“Sorry, I just saw how passionate you were about this, I couldn’t bear to stop you, but then I got worried if you’d run out of air, Eheh. Think we can heat the food up?” She nodded, maybe it might be better to eat downstairs after all, now that Marinette knew what topic she- they were doing, they could crack on and complete it earlier than the deadline.

She’d have to get Rosaniline’s phone number of course, just in case they needed to discuss other things but that could wait.

Of course, it could wait.

She was just so happy in that moment, she- she may have really wanted to try and be her friend.

And maybe-

No- she just wanted to continue to be near her, to hold her hand when she’s upset, to help her when she’s had a bad day.

To be… Closer to her, to that warmth.

… Was it selfish of her to want to be near that warmth for longer?

***

Night had fallen upon Paris, but the lone girl on her balcony didn’t mind at all.

Ever since that day, a part of her wished something else would happen.

No- she didn’t want the hero to be hurt again, that’s by far too sadistic to even think about… But she was really excited by all of those events, when she was able to get a breather, there was a rush of adrenaline throwing through her veins, and even if she did want something else to happen, she’d prefer to be out here just to see if she could get a glimpse of the hero again.

It had been a week since it happened, and Marinette could only guess she must have been resting from her… Fight? Was that the right word? Oh well, she must’ve been resting since she hadn’t heard anything about her from the news for a while, she could only hope her wound would heal by professionals instead of her shoddy work. But- she had to realise that she had to hope for the hero’s survival.

For Soliane Rin’s survival.

… She may have read a bit more into her- but it was only out of curiosity, she wasn’t going to gain another obsessive crush over someone famous again, nope, nada, she wasn’t going to fall for those really amazing silver eyes the press had made sure to call grey, but she was sure they were silver.

Wait, no it wasn’t like she looked at them for particularly long or anything, she definitely didn’t get lost in them, she saw a poster of them! Ah- this wasn’t helping. She needed to change the subject immediately!

Clang.

She jumped up instantly, her commissions book that was resting on her lap was now flying through the air! Oh no, she was going to lose everything, crap! Her designs!

A figure, however, flew up to catch them before landing in front of the startled girl.

“I believe these books were trying to plan their escape from you mi Belle” It was her; it really was her! She was-

“You’re alright” Her happiness took over her before she could even register that she had leapt into the arms of the hero of Paris.

She was going to regret this so much.

With her cheeks rosying so much, she jumped back until she fell back onto her chair, apology after apology escaping the girl not daring to look at her face.

‘How embarrassing, how inappropriate, how childish. Why did she have to make a fool out of herself now? In front of the new hero no less? Again!’

“There’s no need for any embarrassment, I was unaware I’d caused you such panic over my recovery, if I’d known you were worried, I would’ve visited a lot sooner.” Ah- she was always so formal with her choice of words. It was great, she was great- wait what?

“But I- didn’t realise you’d wish to see me after my blunder from last time.” That made her perk up, what… What was she talking about?

Soliane’s gaze seemed to be fixated on the ground as she looked so- so frustrated with herself. Why?

“To have failed on the first day as a hero, to have troubled a civilian with help. I can’t thank you enough to have woken you at such a godly hour just for my sake” She bowed her head forward as Marinette couldn’t help but try to make her stop.

“It’s nothing really, I mean I’m sure anyone else would help out a hero like you. I-I mean maybe not everyone else since there are some bad people but I’m sure most will. Not that you don’t need it, I mean you do- don’t I- I’m sorry I’m rambling again” Soliane Rin didn’t appear to hear her as she carried on with her tirade.

“But to not even know who it was that harmed me. I-I don’t deserve to have my title as a hero.” Why? Why was she saying this? She- no she couldn’t be serious.

But that look made it all the more real, she’d seen it so much. Every time she ever looked in the mirror after crying for so long, regret, disappointment, anything and everything negative flashed through her mind and she could tell, see everything, all of it.

And knew it broke her, would break her.

Marinette knew she didn’t have any powers.

She couldn’t shoot lasers from her eyes.

She couldn’t fly.

She couldn’t control objects through her mind.

But- how Mother always said she had a talent for one thing.

Empathy.

She could be so understanding when her mind was so calm, when she wasn’t worrying about what others were thinking of her, when she could see, truly see inside their heart, all of their feelings out on display, and helping them, by being there for them.

For knowing exactly what to say…

It- may not always work, but no superhero comes out of every battle unscathed.

“Please stop” She looked up, but it was still such a pitying look. She could see through her smile, but it felt as if she wasn’t even trying to hide it, like there was no use concealing it.

“You can’t keep blaming yourself for a mistake like that, it’s not fair to you- or to me. Yes, I was scared when I saw you injured, but I’m so glad that you’re here now. You’re still standing. You still want to continue even when you were hurt. I’ve seen just how strong you are, how confident you can be when the world tried to throw its worse at you.” She stepped closer to her, having gotten up from her fallen position.

“So please don’t give up for one mistake,”

She stepped closer…

“Don’t give up when I know you have the strength in you to persist.” She wrapped her arms around her again, and this time she wasn’t so embarrassed about doing it.

She was crying…

She tried to use those words for someone else.

It hadn’t worked… So, she had to believe in anything and everything for it to succeed now, for her.

“You risk your life every day, and yet you never ask for anything. I want to thank you for all that you’ve done, on behalf of Paris, no, the whole world. You’re a real hero Soliane Rin. Please don’t doubt that.” She hugged a bit tighter; she hadn’t meant to get so emotional on her, but maybe that emotion wasn’t just for her.

.

.

It was silent.

Too silent.

Marinette had to hold her breath in anticipation, did- did she go too far? Did she overstep her boundaries again? Did she-

“Ah I see. Thank you, I-I mean, I appreciate your gratitude Marinette” When she looked back, she could see her cheeks were red, she could see her silver eyes look back at her before seeing her own cheeks reddening as well- wait, she was so close! Again!

She jumped back again, not falling this time, thanking the heavens that she wasn’t making a fool out herself as much as usual.

“I must commend your stubbornness my dear. I- I hadn’t imagined you’d have a positive opinion of me after that, I must apologise for making such a rash assumption about you, and for- eh snapping me out of that. I’m thankful to have met such a kind and respectable hero like you.” She bowed her head again as Marinette had to comprehend what had just happened.

It felt awkward, Soliane Rin was blushing a lot, Marinette was blushing like crazy as well.

“Me a hero, what no way. You’re just joking, don’t tell me you hit your head too?” She waved her hands in front of her. She recalled how clumsy she was, how often she’d trip on the stairs to Collège or even when she dropped her tray of pastries on the floor, that one was particularly embarrassing.

However, she was too late to see that Soliane had stopped her smile as Marinette began to panic again.

“No! I didn’t mean hit your head I meant did you crack it- no check it- no I mean, how can I ever be a hero to anything, I’m just me, Marinette. I don’t have any superpowers or anything I’m just an ordinary girl ehehehe” She felt her hand taken by the hero again, her heart stopping for a moment before jumping to x2, she couldn’t believe she was holding her hand again.

“Just because I wear a mask and costume doesn’t make me a hero. It’s my ideals and thoughts for the people. Marinette, you may not have powers, or a hero name. But you can be a hero still. After all, All that is needed for the prevail of malevolence is that individuals concede defeat.” Marinette was shocked, she just- wow, that was cool. And… So sweet. To say that, about anyone, about her. Even if she didn’t fully believe it at first, she’d be sure to keep those words very close to her heart.

The bluenette smiled back, before they both looked over her balcony and over Paris, they share a moment just looking out, the silence was comforting to them as some time passed.

There was a question that may have crossed her mind at one point, she felt guilty for taking so much time out of her day- night- schedule? Oh well, she had to ask just one little thing.

Marinette fiddling with her fingers, she took a deep breath.

“S-So do you have to do a patrol or-” Soliane looked up surprised before checking something around her wrist, she laughed nervously before turning back.

“Huh- oh yes, unfortunately I won’t be able to stay longer, however it would be even more unbefitting of me to avoid my job any further” She wanted to deny what she said was true, but saw her giggle so slightly, knowing it was a small joke, she lightened up as Soliane Rin bows again and flies off from her balcony railings bidding her adieu.

With her hand resting where her heart was beating, faster than usual, faster then whenever she was late for class. Faster than-

Oh

Oh

Oh no.

No no no! Not again, how did she not realise it sooner?

How!?

This familiar feeling.

Why did it come back?

And why did she want it to stay!?

***

I hope you enjoyed it.

Anyway, I’m willing to take a bunch off prompts for Rosann and Mari on date nights/doing couple things, whether you want some added salt from the class is up to each requester, I may turn a few away if I either feel uncomfortable or simply not able to write it, these prompts will come out randomly, I have no structure to anything. To submit, I’ll allow for the idea to be within any time frame, i.e. when they first meet, to being friends, to being a couple. I do love angst although I’ll be unsure how to make it work when it should be a ton off fluff stuff. If you have any questions don’t feel afraid to ask, I might have to clarify some points. I’ll be ordering the prompts, and stating when they come in the main story, what you would’ve need to have read before, if it contained any spoilers for certain chapters and any trigger warnings, although you may need to state what might be triggering as sometimes, I too get confused on what I need to state, if anyone can do that then that’s alright.)

Even though I like a Saltinette, sometimes I still wanna see a different perspective of her, an anxious, guilt-ridden, cautious, mess like this version. I just think it’ll be interesting to basically rewrite Marinette’s character. Instead of this sassy overconfident one in most fanfic’s I’ve now changed the status quo. Haha.

And I believe I’ve taken a somewhat realistic approach to Marinette trying to trust someone else, I didn’t want to just rush into it. However, I do think it’s a bit different with Soliane Rin because she is a hero, and I think Marinette could trust her a lot easier than Rosaniline.

Also did you know that Majestia’s quote was a straight rip off of Edmund Burke’s?

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.

Yeah...

Cya next time.

Note: Please tell me if I should add anything else to the card, there will be one of these cards for all 15 chapters, however, because I have uni work all updates will be slower because I really need to focus on the uni stuff, then I might be able to upload quicker. They also may change in the future because I can never stop adding stuff.

[miraculouscontent]

Ask Explo--

...you know what, you’re right. Name change effective immediately.

Askplosion #10:

(unrelated to everything by the way but I DEMAND THE ANON WHO MENTIONED “REMARRIED EMPRESS” A WHILE BACK COME FORTH AND ANSWER FOR THEIR CRIMES. IT’S SO GOOD BUT IT’S UNFINISHED AND I’M HOOKED, HOW DARE YOU)

Asks responding to previous posts:

It’s okay! I figured that was what it was but it’s been so loooong.

Ah, wow.

Um, that’s definitely not a part 2; I think that’s more like a four-parter/five-parter or something.

Sorry! No can do!

That’s totally fair!

I think the reason I so quickly agreed with it is like--

I’ve been watching the Inuyasha sequel and it’s not like I don’t think the narrative’s apparent punching bag Moroha (who is fourteen years old) shouldn’t be punished when she does something wrong/sneaky/manipulative, but they punish her as if she’s Miroku (who was eighteen years old).

Basically, I want the punishment to take the age into account, or at least only affect Marinette on a more personal level and not be “Heart Hunter” where they take totally understandable feelings of heartache (remember, it wouldn’t have mattered which miraculous she took because Hawk Moth got the Miracle Box and Fu regardless; even beyond her emotions, I feel like she chose the best option available to her considering which temps she knew the location of) and then punish her for them by memory wiping Fu and taking away all of her temps and giving Hawk Moth the grimoire translation.

Yes!! I really wanted to respond to this one, thank you! (It’s this one and then there was another one talking about Luka and Adrien, then talked to me about how I refer to Luka as “soft” but not in a bad way; I unfortunately don’t remember the whole thing.)

Ahaha, and yeah, I feel you. Anti-salters are a very strange conundrum I still haven’t figured out; like, I get not liking salt, but...

I mean, when I don’t like certain content, I just blacklist it. If I end up seeing it anyway due to cross-tagging or a lack of tagging, then I just blacklist the person themself. You won’t see me going after people for that very reason; I only see what people send/ask me if it’s content I don’t like.

I’m glad you’ve found some peace in this blog! Hopefully it continues to be that way for you in the future!

(and yay, a fellow INTJ!!)

New Asks:

There are female writers? ;P I just assumed they were all locked in a closet until the male ones were like, “okay, pretend to help us here, we need one female writer to claim girl power.”

As for Ladybug all like, “Cute, isn’t she?” I think it was rhetorical (she could also be messing with him but “Glaciator” tells us that she didn’t know he crushed on her so who knows). The writers do this thing where Marinette is all panic-y and occasionally self-conscious as herself, but then as Ladybug, she suddenly gets a bit of an ego. I think it’s meant to be there in order to make Chat Noir look less... idk, “obnoxious” when he starts boosting his own ego; trying to balance the two by giving them both big heads, so to speak.

Honestly, I feel like Adrien needs less screen time. :|

Even when he’s not on-screen, characters are usually talking about him, or you see his face in Marinette’s room/somewhere in Paris. I’m become so jaded by the guy that I don’t even think it’d matter if they remade the series and gave it a “totally good and interesting Adrien.” That’s how badly the show has made him out for me; “Adrien Agreste” the character is just... sigh, I’m so done with him.

And yeah, this whole idea about, “Marinette is [x], we need more AAAAAADRIEN!” comes off really bad, lol, especially when Adrien has very little going for him.

(this ask ends off like there should be a part 2 but there isn’t one in my inbox, so sorry if there’s meant to be something else!)

The exact lyrics according to the wiki:

My wish for a cat who's in love, with our own Ladybug. Is that he'll get what he's always wanted! She doesn't know she loves him, only sees Adrien, But Christmas miracles always happen!

Yeah, especially nowadays, those lines bothers me. Not only does it imply “true selves,” but that it’s Chat who should be getting what he always wanted and Ladybug is the one with a problem.

Like, excuse me?

Probably Stormy Weather, even in the first episode. Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t even touch her until they arrived on top of the TV station.

+ With all those effects and shots, it made it feel more action-y than typical episodes.

Marinette, Aurore, Luka, Anarka, Jagged...

basically any name that I haven’t really heard before (”Luka” makes me think of Vocaloid but the Luka there was female), or a name that relates a lot to the character (like “Aurore” for “aurora” since she loves weather things).

dfjbghfkdgfdgnjfdg this anon really like, “I NEED ANSWERS!!!”

It’s as if these characters hit 18 or something and just grow overnight, I swear. I’m hypothetically fine with some more variety in character height (it’s not like the show tries to be realistic, after all), but maybe don’t give us official heights if they’re gonna be this weird/inaccurate.

Especially when they change it just for the sake of a shot anyway. If you watch “Simon Says” when Ladybug and Adrien stand next to each other while looking at the picture of Adrien’s mother, the very next close-up has an obvious difference in their heights from what you just saw.

They’re 3D models!!! This shouldn’t happen!

I... honestly never thought of the “less threatening” thing! Dang!

And yeah, Marinette isn’t helpless or incompetent, but because of the Adrien crush, it makes her that way at times since she’s always falling on him and--

...ugh, actually, yeah, don’t wanna think about those implications. Hard pass.

Gross.

I’m not familiar with that one, though Astruc deletes his tweets all the time (there was one tweet where he confirmed that Luka was poor and it only exists in screenshots now because it didn’t get archived and he deleted it almost like he realized that he was pointing out the blatant classism in the show, oops).

Yeah though, I haven’t seen anything like what you’re describing. Sorry!

It’s okay! Sorry for having you clarify but him choosing and Marinette deciding to never give it back are very different things.

I don’t recall Chat Noir having much purpose in the final fight (in terms of both contributing and actual fighting; I know Cataclysm broke the object to release the akuma but was it needed?) so Marinette might either go cat-less or get a temp. Plagg could also be helpful in his own right because he’s small and blends in with the night, so he could hypothetically sneak up on the bad guy.

Afterwards, there’d need to be a new cat, but Adrien would also have to reconsider his actions and really think about what happened. I could also see Plagg going to Adrien’s house, half to apologize for giving the idea to Adrien that Adrien leave without telling Ladybug, but also half to call him out for giving up without consulting anyone. Adrien is a lot of conflicting things (see Adrien’s passivity compared to Chat Noir’s recklessness) so he’d have to find a middle ground within himself.

Marinette might carry Plagg around in her purse for a while and let Plagg have a say in who he goes to. Plagg might grieve for a bit over not having Adrien around (even if Adrien was flawed, Plagg didn’t ask for any of this so Marinette is doing her best here).

O-oh.

That’s always the rough patch with “endgame ships.”  Once it’s obvious to the audience that they’re endgame, no more effort needs to be put into them.

The other thing too is how Kagami, for example, is friends with Marinette. Even once Adrimi sinks, she’ll presumably stay friends with her. Luka, meanwhile, is Juleka’s brother.

They have lives outside of their love interests. Adrien is so into Ladybug that he doesn’t have that; I mean, Nino is Adrien’s best friend like once in a blue moon.

The entire class is just watching an episode and then calling on raised hands to answer what was wrong with what they just watched.

“Everything?”

“I mean, yes, but I’m sorry, you have to be more specific to get credit.”

I think Aeon herself is fine. It’s mostly just her transformed and that transformed name that I have a problem with (she doesn’t even look uncanny so I don’t get it). I heard there was something wrong with the name “Aeon” but searching the name doesn’t give me anything I would qualify as such so I have no idea. I just wish she was given a little less “I’m programmed to--” (makes her seem less sentient) and more “[anything that doesn’t have to do with pushing the love square]” because I feel like they might’ve done the latter to make her more “likable”? I think fans of anything usually like the “matchmaker” character provided it’s for a ship they like. Also strange that they make her a robot but Max and Markov don’t extensively interact with her, but that’s a nitpick and not a criticism of her character.

...I’m rambling, my bad lol.

(Ohhh, she was supposed to be a mummy? Like, foreshadowing her “dying”?? That went right over my head but I guess that’d be where the name Uncanny Valley came from? No clue.)

Best case scenario is probably the middle or the end of Season 4.

And yeah, it really doesn’t matter to me what they do with the love square. Marinette had gone through too much suffering and the show goes out of its way to show how much stress Marinette is being put under (and also keeping Luka away during episodes like “Gamer 2.0″ even when it makes sense for them to be there, as if trying to make sure Marinette doesn’t have enough moments with him to forget Adrien).

Like, ah, yes, I totally believe that Marinette is in a position where she can make reasonable decisions about her love life while all circles of her life are on fire.

If the Sonic movie of all things can have an interracial couple, there’s no reason why this show can’t, just saying.

And, even with Marinette, she’s white-passing (according to what basically everyone says, I’m really awful about recognizing race so this isn’t my field; I wasn’t aware that Ondine was Asian, for example).

Does Nadja count? Manon’s dark-skinned (I’m still not over the fact that all the kids in this show are dark-skinned; it’s not like it’s a problem from a representation standpoint - though all the kids are also all generically bratty/whiny so there’s that - but the percentages in this show are weird) while Nadja is really light-skinned, meaning either a dark-skinned husband or Manon is adopted.

Though I guess the problem then is that we don’t know, so there’s no established couple there.

Non-Miraculous Asks:

w-who gave you the right to say such things????

Uhhhh, that might be too broad of a question, I’m sorry!

I know this isn’t satisfactory, but I will say that my favorite genre is Fantasy/Romance (it’s why I adore Red Shoes so much; by the way, an anon asked for my opinion on that a while back and I will get to it! I’d need to watch it again to get screenshots) and my least favorite is probably Tragedy/Horror.

I don’t think I’ve watched enough to really be able to say? I’ve kind of been all over but I’ve never fully gone through any of them outside of Miraculous. I’ve seen bits of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Star VS the Forces of Evil (don’t know if that counts), and I meant to watch Yuki Yuna is a Hero but never got around to it. I saw the entirety of Puella Magi Madoka Magica but you guys know how I feel about that one.

Maybe Cardcaptor Sakura by default then? It was definitely not perfect but I liked some of the character dynamics (I also have a clipcut of it - basically where I go through a series/movie and cut out parts I don’t like so it’s only good stuff - so I’m cheating a little) and the male love interest was a tsundere type that I actually ended up liking, which is really rare.

!!! That sounds sweet~ I know Sailor Moon is popular so I’ll definitely take your word for it on that one.

I would also accept a “reincarnated”/”destined lovers” trope if maybe the ship themselves are the one who set it up in the first place. I have a Lukanette AU, for example, where they basically got together and then prayed to the shrine of the renewal god that they’d “always be together,” which ended up allowing them to reincarnate over and over (as if they set up their own soulmate AU ;P) and continuously find each other.

Though I guess that’s not technically a “meant to be trope,” but still, it’s a form of it but where it was totally consensual on both sides.

Also, I finally thought of a show that ended with the ship I wanted: Gargoyles. I didn’t see the entire series, mind you, but I saw most of it and Goliath and Elisa were just... quality, I adored them.

+ With Beauty and the Beast being my favorite Disney movie, they fit right in with my tastes.

I forget that AangToph (I think the “official” name for the ship is Taang, but don’t quote me on that) exists sometimes, maybe because I’ve never shipped Aang with anyone; I’ve got no problems with the ship though.

Ugh, and this is what I mean when I talk about people who set up these reasons behind people shipping something based on what they saw a few people do. It’s like, “you only ship Adrimi/Lukanette to spite Adrienette!!”

Meanwhile, me having shipped all three at one point and then dropped off the love square.

Also, me shipping Zutara has nothing to do with it being dark/edgy because I’ve never seen it that way (intriguing, sure but dark and edgy? lol) and also avoid dark/edgy ships like the plague.

I still laugh at people who are like, “you can’t ship it because it’s not endgaaaaame!” as if shows can dictate how and why I enjoy something. Like sure, if you want to let a show/movie spoonfeed you how you’re supposed to feel, then by all means, go ahead.

I suppose people may be theoretically happier that way, but it doesn’t make for an analytic mind.

I legitimately thought that “AssClass” must’ve been the actual name for something until it registered with me what it actually meant.

And eh, I guess it depends on the comparison and how accurate the comparison actually is? Like, comparing Puella Magic Madoka Magica to Miraculous... they’re not really close at all, but comparing... idk, Bunnyx to Homura or the concept behind “backfiring wishes”... maybe?

-

(note that the rest of this post is more Puella Magi Madoka Magica salt so you can stop reading here if you’re not interested in that; I’m not sure if this is all the same anon but I don’t mind letting people vent so I let them go off~)

why can’t we just have nice things

I agree, and I give a little eyeroll every time it’s like, “oh, this person had [miraculous]”

+ even just in general, I feel weird about any show that mentions/implies that real world famous people are [x] or [y] in their show. It breaks my immersion; real world locations are one thing but when it’s specific people (unless they’re made up characters like Santa Claus) or games just--break me.

I also don’t know what to think when there aren’t magical boys but you have these magical girls in this frilly outfits/skirts. The demographic is girls so I presume the reason must be like, “you can look pretty and still beat people up” (;P) but having so many magical girl shows without a hint of a magical boy makes me suspicious that it’s for fanservice. Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask but I also don’t know what that guy did outside of the meme of him doing nothing so I’ve got no clue.

(edit: I should correct myself that I’m not talking about Sailor Moon specifically; I don’t know magical girls that well, though I do know there are ones clearly intended for fanservice (you could say that for anything, to be fair, but still). It’s just that I see things like super short skirts or very “questionable” shots and I’m just like, “hm”)

Hmmm, good question. I feel like there has to be a lot but I’m also the type who doesn’t watch a lot of TV lol. I’m just familiar with cliches and tropes and such.

The reason I try not to use “ism”s of any kind is mostly because it’s too broad. Like, you know how the English language only has one way of saying, “I love you,” but other languages like Spanish have multiple?

It’s like that, and sometimes I think it’s too easy to throw those words out there. A “small” (possibly completely unintentional/misunderstood) offense is sexism, and then a “large” offense is called the exact same thing. I’d rather go into why something is sexist than just call it that, y’know? The only exception I make is “classism” because I feel like that’s not as... I dunno, divisive?

Anyway, for that same reason, I can’t answer firmly that, “Madoka Magica is sexist.” I will however say that it makes me uncomfortable with how the show makes out the girls being emotional because they’re young and female and then proceeds to make their life a living hell before they’re old enough to properly answer to it (I know that’s the point but that kind of makes it worse?). It doesn’t help with how all the girls have different personalities, so it’s not like you have only “crybaby girls” who are being taken advantage of; it’s basically like... all girls.

Not helped is the fact that their soul gem not only deteriorates naturally, but it can also do so faster if the girl falls into despair, which then turns them into a monster (and I know it’s kind of like an akuma thing, but the fact that it’s only girls is... I dunno, it comes off wrong?). It seems cheap that the soul gem deteriorates no matter what so it constantly needs fed even if the girl is consistently happy.

I would probably opt for the show being centered more around Kyubey being new to this or something - like, magical girls are a new thing - and then have Kyubey being surprised because they presumed that the soul gem would deteriorate naturally since “emotions are powerful but destructive to the person having them,” but then all the girls team up and help each other work out their problems. Maybe the reason magical girls are usually alone isn’t even because of the grief seed (I think that’s what it’s called?) thing not being able to be shared, but because Kyubey intentionally separates magical girls so they can’t do what the main group is doing, but Madoka is so into the idea that, “We shouldn’t have to be alone,” and so she’s constantly pulling all the girls together, which keeps them healthy.

Maybe Homura’s backstory could be that Madoka originally was more sheepish and more afraid to put herself out there, especially since she was a magical girl (who are encouraged to go it alone), which is why their soul gems were both deteriorating; they were friends but kept more of a distance, or maybe they were a team but that’s all they were. Then Madoka gives Homura the last grief seed to save her and that’s what inspires Homura and makes her see Madoka as something more than a teammate, which is why Homura actively tries to save Madoka specifically (which then encourages Madoka to want to keep everyone together as friends).

In the case that Kyubey doesn’t separate them out of concern of fRiEnDsHiP, but for another reason altogether, and then it’s ultimately their own downfall when they allow the girls to hang out and realize that it’s doing a lot of good for them.

“cute and innocent”

That was exactly it. It’s on Kyubey’s trivia section on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Wiki.

Before the anime's first dark plot twist aired, head writer Gen Urobuchi said on his Twitter account that the "Kyu" in Kyubey's name comes from the English word "cute". This was a lie meant to further mislead fans into thinking that Madoka Magica is an innocent happy show. In a later episode, it was revealed that "Kyubey" is, in fact, short for "incubator".

In my personal opinion, a spoiled plot can’t be “ruined” if it’s a good plot. If you told me that Kagome was trapped in the Modern era for three years and then decided to stay with Inuyasha at the end of Inuyasha, it wouldn’t/shouldn’t decrease the value when I finally see it for myself because it’s good. That’s not to say that everything should just be spoiled right out of the gate, but it’s saying that maybe your plot isn’t good if you have to rely on shock value to make it work??

I FEEL THAT “ASSIGNING IT TO THE WHOLE GENDER” THING SO BAD. It just adds to my “the girls all have varying personalities so it’s not like Kyubey’s only after emotional crybabies or anything” salt.

I have no idea about any of the stuff about the writers so I can’t confirm or deny them. I will very much agree on the target audience thing though, especially with the whole “keeping the dark plot a secret” because really? Who is this for then? Like, the first two and a half episodes are for one demographic and then the others are--???

I dunno. Me personally, I just like feel good stories. I do like some good conflict and drama (for context, Remarried Empress is basically a webtoon that gives you things to feel salty about and then makes its own salt fic as its plot, allowing for endless streams of feels and catharsis, so I’m definitely not against drama), but there are other times where I just want to feel good watching something.

I feel like the show expects the characters to be selfless/perfect and then punishes them even though it’s their writing that’s causing them to act out. I can’t really talking about “out-of-character” but sometimes it’s just obvious where “we did this because we needed a plot/conflict.”

Like, hello? We don’t need the main characters screwing up; why can’t we just have some feel good thing where they take the day for themselves (seriously, imagine a Miraculous episode where Chat Noir actually tells Ladybug to take a couple days for herself, like maybe someone else gets the earrings for a few days as a temp while Marinette gets to breathe; IMAGINE IT). Not everything needs to be high-stakes to be interesting and you need those calmer moments so that the action-packed ones feel more intense.

SAYAKA DESERVES BETTER.

I feel like the magical girl genre as a whole can be way more complex than it’s made out to be. I think people hear the word “magical girl” and think “cute girls in short skirts talk about girl problems and fight evil with the power of friendship and accessories.”

Ugh, just the mention of Rebellion makes me sigh internally.

Congrats on working on your own magical girl story! I hope it goes well for you!

I know it’s not technically a magical girl show, but there was also Totally Spies that Astruc worked on to some degree (I think there was some characters who were based on/a loose reference to the mains from that show but I don’t remember exactly).

The thing about the female characters suffering is that they could make for good lessons on positively directing one’s emotions (like Usagi from Sailor Moon, for example, maybe having a problem with taking her anger out on her friends, but learns that she can save that rage for the bad guys; “Gamer 2.0″ from Miraculous could’ve done that, honestly, by having Ladybug absolutely WRECK all of her gaming opponents in “violent” (cartoon violence obviously) fashion). It’s just a shame that it’s not taken advantage of.

Sayaka??? Selfish???????

*does not compute*

(Also, I wasn’t tired of them, don’t worry! It was a little overwhelming in my inbox but it’s me who’s allowing all the asks to flow in so the blame isn’t on you lol.)

I’m not sure where this obsession came from with, “you have to be selfless and you’re not allowed to use your powers for yourself.” It’s like the world’s going to end if a character leaves to go Self-Care or something. I think what happened is that shows got this idea that promoting only the giving of others is great and it’s not important to take time for yourself (even with “Gamer 2.0,” it was still Marinette playing games with everyone else, and they treated her dedication and seriousness like a bad thing when she literally did not have time to waste and they didn’t give a reason why it was good for her to take a break, only that she should).

This usually leads to the “demonization” of characters who sport a lot of self-confidence or any sort of ego. It works on both sides; Marinette is a punching bag because of her anxiety and occasional lack of confidence, but if she had an ego as Ladybug, there are parts of the fandom who deem her “obnoxious” (i.e: “Reflekdoll”). There’s a delicate balance between “be confident” and “be humble” and it’s a tightrope act.

[ohmygillygoshoppler]

A little snippet of a larger story im working on for my homies on discord. One of our prompts for this month gave me a little bit of inspiration, so I just started writing.

This takes place during the scene where all of the kids get together and play a good wholesome game of hide-and-seek. :)

=======

"1... 2... 3... 4..."

The brotherhood boys and the X-kids all made a run for it as Callista started counting. A game of hide-and-seek, from the Brotherhood Boarding House, to Xavier's institute. About a mile walk, fifteen or twenty minutes away. The objective is for everyone from their respective teams to make it to the institute without getting caught. If Callie caught you, you were out. The team with the most members left would be the victors. The Brotherhood boys were all more than eager to play a scary game, but it was Xavier's bunch that needed some convincing.

So Dominik, Pietro, Fred, Tabitha, and Todd faced off against Scott, Evan, Kitty, Kurt and Jean. Callie was it. It was almost 10 o'clock at night. The perfect conditions for hide-and-seek.

Todd didn't pay much attention to where his boys had run off to, but he noticed Kitty and Dominik making a run for the school together. Toad was thankful he had decided to take the long way home from school today, otherwise he wouldn't have found- the perfect hiding spot.

Todd bounded over the fence and landed in an overgrown backyard with a filthy swimming pool turned green from disuse. It was haphazardly covered with a blue tarp covered in rotting leaves. He spotted it earlier when he, Cal and Kurt rode down to their favorite food hangout. This was a pretty snobbish neighborhood, but he could already tell that nobody had been there for a few weeks. He'd be safe here.

This is not my idea of a good fun game of hide-and-seek, Todd thought to himself as he slipped his shirt off and slinked into the pool. Callie not only moved where she wasn't supposed to, while they weren't looking, but was coming for them specifically. It was almost a nightmare scenario. He wondered where the others decided to hide.

Todd was trapped in a single spot, the filthy pool in someone's abandoned summer house. He gulped down a deep breath and submerged, the bottom of this pool covered in algae; thick, slimy and slick to the touch. The shapes and shadows of things up above darkened the spot in the pool where he was hiding, but there was no way she'd guess he was in there; nobody really had any idea.

He couldn't breathe underwater, but he could hold his breath for a long time. When he first discovered he was pretty good at staying under, he tracked his time on a stopwatch, but he hasn't been to the lake in a while. His longest time was about twelve minutes. He wondered if she would hear hi if he came if for air? The thought frightened him.

Dominik initiated this horrifying game, and now they all had to survive it. A lot of variables affected his way of making it through this, but one thing was for sure, he was loud when he was trying to be quiet. It's kind of flipping the switch of hide and seek. In addition to listening out for the once again minuscule sounds that allude to the nearby mutant, he had to do tasks like coming up for air- the least noisiest task- and keep the tarp on the pool from falling inside. Those sounds attracted her and made it more difficult to hear the sounds he was looking for underwater, and even worse, there was no real way to get out. She would hear him running around squishing with water. He suddenly regret his decision in its entirety.

At least the quiet gave him some time to think. He thought about the first thing that came into his mind; what he was up against.

Callista's mutation capitalized on a broad discomfort with things that fell into the uncanny valley; things that are too humanoid to be something fake, but moved to spastically or mechanically for something to pass as living. Similar to how she fits into the visual uncanny valley, the sounds she makes fit into the audio uncanny valley, where they're definitely closer to language than any other sound in her Library of Noises, but they're too distorted for anyone to recognize who made the words or what they mean. She dabbled in both unfortunate arts. She litters these sounds throughout the entirety of the space she controls, from quick flickering hallucinations to phone rings that sound a little too much like a real phone. Her laughter also counted as a vaguely vocal sound, as it sounded like a demented version of a child laughing.

These are some of the ways Callista flavored her games to make less complex scenarios more stressful. Todd had a sinking feeling that this was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to her scary games. Perhaps this was Callista's way of establishing herself as the Top Dog.

But since this was a game, there was a condition; something had to be sacrificed to allow them the chance to think under pressure and win the game. At least she gave them all a fighting chance, telling them all he needed to know about visual signals and audio clues.

"Don't stop. Don't make any noise. Don't let me catch you." He remembered that warning as he peered up at the water's surface. He thought he heard something.

While it was never silent out here, it was remarkably more quiet the rest of the house. There's a dog somewhere, and it's howling. There's some car horns blaring in the distance, and the sound he was told to listen for: clicking.

Yes, if he heard clicking when checking the area, he was to hide to stop her from getting him right there. But her clicks were quiet. The sound that indicated she was in the area rose only a little above the ambient noise of the space, and so he had to parce sounds very carefully. His ear was searching for small differences in volume, which made any change in volume even more intense. That's only when he was checking above the water. In other parts of the yard, there were other subtle sounds. Focusing on such minuscule sounds was stressful, scary even.

A loud noise and a dark shape moved up above him, frightening him. Todd was just about to peek his head up and take a look outside, but now he wasn't budging. Was it her? He slid out from the shadows to get a better look, but it was still too dark to see.

The amphibious mutant blinked, squinting real close before a wave of relief washed over him. He recognized the silhouette: It was Kurt. He couldn't help but stifle a snicker as he watched the other mutant frantically search the yard for a place to hide.

Todd slowly ascended, barely peeking his head out of the water, hiding under the tarp. Despite his movement, the water remained mostly placid. Kurt was fussing with the patio umbrella, trying to get it to open for him so he could hide inside. Todd just watched him silently.

Kurt was wrapping himself around the umbrella's pole when he caught a glimpse of something staring at him from the pool, and for a split second, he thought he was going to have a heart attack. Todd just gently shook his head, pressing a green finger to his lips.

Kurt was going to kick himself for almost getting scared by Todd Tolansky. He knew though that if he made too much noise, he and Todd would both be caught. So he just gave his frog friend a thumbs-up and stuffed himself inside of the umbrella, carefully closing it shut.

[scribbledghost]

Hi! Do you have any thoughts on how the full 10 would feel about going to Disneyland? (thank you!)

Note: no problem! This is such a cute prompt 🥺

Agent Whiskey:

Ohhhh he’s so excited. He’s probably wanted to go since he was a kid but his family never had the money to. So he’s absolutely LIVING when he gets to go this time. He’s doing and seeing everything, and you can bet on that. He has the absolute time of his life.

Javier Peña:

He probably views it as a little bit too “childish” for him, but don’t let that stop you. Once he gets there and you convince him to loosen up a little, he’ll start to come out of his shell. You find that he’s particularly fond of the Animal Kingdom area.

Din Djarin:

Overall he doesn’t think one way or another about it. The child seems to be having the time of his life, and so are you, so that’s all that matters to him. Galaxy’s Edge seems a little... uncanny valley to him though. He prefers not to go near it.

Catfish/Frankie Morales:

I’d like to think he’d have a good time! Particularly in Epcot, just because he likes seeing all the different areas. He’s also fond of the more exciting rides. But his absolute favorite part is getting to watch the fireworks with you at the end of the day.

Ezra:

I think he’d be SO fascinated by all of it. He can’t get enough of it. The... opulence of the entire place just astounds him. So if you just let him go and do whatever he wants, he’s definitely not leaving until he’s seen and done everything at least once.

Oberyn Martell:

He’s probably absolutely delighted by the whole thing. There’s just so much to see and do that for most people, it would be a little overwhelming, but that’s the sort of stuff Oberyn lives for. He loves the entire experience, and he definitely wouldn’t mind returning.

Maxwell Lord:

Honestly I can see Maxwell focusing more on the marketing/business opportunities than anything else. Disney is nothing if not a bastion of incredible PR stunts, and he probably scouts out lessons to be learned from them during his entire time in the parks.

Max Phillips:

Don’t let him fool you, he loves it there. He’ll act like a stereotypical obnoxious teenage boy the entire time, but he really does enjoy himself. It’s one of the few times you’ll be able to get him to not think about work for an extended period of time.

Marcus Pike:

Someone take this man to Disneyland I’m BEGGING YOU. He’ll have such a good time. Also, you’re getting matching t-shirts at some point, so you’d better make your peace with that. His favorite place is Magic Kingdom, and he could probably spend an entire week just in that section.

Pero Tovar:

You know those stereotypical pictures where someone’s got their grump face on with their arm crossed but they’re wearing the mouse ears? That’s Tovar. “Happiest Place in the World” his ass. (He secretly has a lot of fun. Don’t tell anyone though).

[brave-clarice]

“Clarice” Liveblog: Episode 2

Again, some extremely unfashionably late hot takes.

(Special thanks to @kathrynethegreat and @special-agent-pendragon​ for encouraging another liveblog!)

Clarice is working out! And eating junk food! I love it.

and cleaning her gun!

hey, Ardelia is drinking what I’m going to assume is her grandmother’s “smart people tea”.

Krendler disciplining Clarice already is infuriating but appropriate.

“I lost control.” Oh no, I don’t like that. Don’t make Clarice unstable. Her mental and emotional state never had anything to do with her failing career.

getting weird mixed signals from Ardelia. Last week, she obviously didn’t want Clarice to lie/stick to the script Krendler gave her, but now she’s telling Clarice she messed up by not doing so...?

“I better know you if you’re calling this early.” Amen, Ardelia.

I’m in love: this cinematography is straight out of the film (when she’s flying to WV with Crawford)!

“When’s the last time you went back to Appalachia?” “It’s been years.” What??? It has NOT been years--Clarice was JUST in West Virginia last week as well as in Silence, and she arguably attended college there as well. (UVA is at least nestled in the mountains, and you don’t have to drive far outside the Albemarle Valley to hit Appalachia proper.) After all the details about her character they’ve been nailing, they miss this glaring error? 

I like the tiny details she’s noticing (like the guy biting his nails). Not only because she’s an investigator, but because it’s reminiscent of Hannibal’s influence (imo).

Clarice Is Short: The Saga continues

still not getting any creepy vibes off Krendler. He’s going to be much less effective as an antagonist if he isn’t lewd as well as a dick.

I really don’t care for the way the opening “credits” fade out from the death’s-head moth to Clarice’s face. There are MANY animals that represent her, or parts of her, in the books--lions, lambs, horses, and of course birds--so this choice feels empty and lazy to me.

also lazy: having a fellow agent straight-up tell her in episode 2 “you shouldn’t be in the Bureau.” Maybe in two or three years, after some further “Death Angel”-type incidents, I could see this blatant rudeness, but not yet.

“Reesey”? Thanks, I hate it.

this flashback must be of Clarice’s little brother. That answers one question I had last week. That said...Clarice’s brother doesn’t play the same role in her story that Mischa does in Hannibal’s--but this sure feels like a Mischa-esque flashback.

good: they’re finally getting to the source of Clarice’s actual trauma!

bad: this is NOT how Clarice found out about her father. In fact, that whole incident is laid out in detail in the novels, and there’s nothing overly literary/un-cinematic about it, so this feels unnecessary. “The police are here! Something happened to Daddy!” No, bad! Show, don’t tell!

she would’ve known better than to introduce herself to that kid as “Clarice Starling, FBI,” come on now.

were they regularly able to wire tap hair clips in 1993? 

actually, nothing in this show looks very 90s to me so far. I’m sad about it.

so in eighteen months, Ruth Martin has gone from a junior Senator to the Attorney freakin’ General, and now she might run for governor?? At least let her get settled in one position of power first, why don’t you!

yet more Buffalo Bill flashbacks...alas.

are they trying to make this guy another surrogate Hannibal character? He’s commenting on Clarice’s accent and the dryness of her skin, asking about who she “left behind”...it all feels very Hannibal. (I know he’s a Charismatic Cult Leader trope, too--but when played off of Clarice...)

“Ew.” “I hate this guy.” I laughed.

I understand that Clarice probably feels conflicted re: her siblings in the book, but I’m really not digging the flashbacks of this Tim Burton character her brother.

@ the writers: Clarice already has the lamb backstory/symbolism, too. We don’t need this Little Brother stuff.

*shrieking* Mrs. Starling! At the sink washing the blood out of his hat!!! 

...aaand they had to ruin it with the brother’s painfully bad dialogue. Will still be good for gif-making, though.

are we supposed to interpret all these flashbacks as Clarice being incapable of controlling her emotions/state of mind? She keeps losing herself in memories and emerging all doe-eyed and panicky. I don’t like it.

not to be a broken record but...Clarice should be TOUGH. Again, Ardelia only saw her cry once in seven years. But she’s more worked up in this scene than Jodie was in Memphis!

when Mr. Cult Leader shouts “Agent Starling! Agent Starling!” he sounds exactly like Hannibal calling her back to his cell in the asylum. That has to be intentional. 

damn, wish that I could look as good five minutes after I’ve been crying as Clarice does.

I LOVE that Ardelia gets to be the crucial behind-the-scenes book-smart partner to Clarice’s action heroine.

AG Martin’s just playing politics by turning a blind eye to the crooked sheriff. But when her own daughter was just kidnapped and almost killed, she looks like a real hypocrite.

gosh, Rebecca Breeds is great. I already hope she gets nominated for an Emmy.

so Krendler is...doing the right thing???

Clarice’s father was definitely not a sheriff. I hope she’s just exaggerating for dramatic effect. (Maybe this will be clarified later.)

she couldn’t just sit with a manipulative guy without getting emotional, but she’s cool as a cucumber while telling an extended story about her father? HmmMM.

sometimes her mannerisms and facial expressions are so much like Jodie’s that it’s uncanny, like here when she leans forward to confront the Cult Leader.

“She did it.” Damn straight!

another great callback to Silence. this show’s camera crew knows its stuff!

“He’s concerned I have some residual trauma from Bill.” I. Hate. This. Subplot--and all its OOC implications.

“Catherine was close to her father, too.” Ooh, a nice allusion to the novel! Clarice makes note of their “common wound,” the loss of a father, when she’s in Catherine’s apartment in Silence.

she is just SO pretty.

little Clarice looks a LOT like Rebecca Breeds. I hope we see some more of her. 

The Good:

the continuing visual nods to the Silence film via cinematography

Mama Starling!!!

Clarice’s “The World Will Not Be This Way Within the Reach of my Arm” attitude, refusing to leave without helping the victims.

Ardelia Mapp coming in clutch! 

Clarice being, generally, a badass

and using psychological tricks/mind games to pin the antagonist...that’s the woman who disarmed a monster with just a few words.

Rebecca Breed’s acting has been phenomenal so far.

I like Clarice’s haircut a lot better when worn down (though it’s not very practical for fieldwork, so we probably won’t see it much).

The Bad:

the continuing Buffalo Bill-related Trauma Subplot. Ugh.

all the flashbacks to Clarice’s brother (and the not-so-subtle suggestion that her brother is, symbolically, another lamb).

will the real Paul Krendler please come forward? this guy is so TAME.

the other agents’ hostility towards Clarice needs to be toned down slightly so that it can escalate. Otherwise, where’s the tension?

is this actually 1993? I’m not feeling it. Shouldn’t it have a little of that Season 1/2 X-Files aesthetic? Please give me more than once-an-episode references to pagers and fax machines!

that glaring Appalachia continuity error...it’s still bugging me.

I missed the overt Hannibal references, even though they’re not necessary to any part of this episode. A lady can dream!

Overall, I really liked this one despite my various issues with it. It started shakily but built to a great finish. The emphasis across both episodes on Clarice being in the FBI not just to “get out, get anywhere,” but out of a genuine desire to help victims has been wonderful. I just hope they don’t swerve too far into the “too traumatized and emotionally compromised to function” lane. It would be a disservice to Clarice’s character and to her journey (and would smack too much of “Hannibal really did prey on her weak mind/brainwash her”.

Things I’d still like to see: More of her personality. Her hobbies and interests. That she’s cleaning her gun is great! Now let’s see “Poison Oakley” practicing her sharpshooting skills. Or car shopping. Or clothes shopping to show off her “developing taste.” (Ardelia can come!) I’ll take literally anything. Give us more of Clarice’s sense of humor as well. She had some subtle funny moments in the pilot, and it’s nice to see Rebecca smile for a change.

And Krendler? Smear that man in grease! I appreciated a happy ending even though Clarice’s career is, as we know, already in a downward spiral--the last thing we want is for every episode to be a slog, especially when a good chunk of the audience hasn’t read the book and doesn’t know Clarice is doomed to fail in the Bureau.

However... Krendler’s not a “redemption arc” kind of character. Or even a “run-of-the-mill sexist asshole” character. This is a man who spent seven years systematically sabotaging a young woman’s career because a) he was jealous that she solved the Gumb case before him, and b) she wouldn’t fuck him. He was a Justice Department official working fist-in-glove with a serial child molester who was planning some of the heinous vigilante justice imaginable. THAT’S why his very gruesome end at Hannibal’s hands felt deserved--even Clarice thought so! In short, he needs to get nasty.

Anyway, thanks for coming to another long-overdue TedTalk. Fingers crossed that the next one will be more timely (aiming for Sunday night)! 

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : WandaVision [Disney+, Episodes 1-3] (2021)

2020 may have delayed the MCU’s rollover into Phase 4 with COVID-19 and theater closings putting a huge stumbling block in front of the perpetually delayed Black Widow film, but with box office not a factor in regards to WandaVision, the powers that be have moved forward with premiering the series on the Disney+ streaming service.  With talk of the film being a setup for the incoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (not to mention an alternate take on the infamous House of M comic story), the levels of intrigue were definitely high, and with the 3 of the scheduled 9 episodes currently streaming, there may be more questions than answers in the minds of viewers.

THE STORY THUS FAR

Episode 01 : Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) settle into the town of Westview to begin the next chapter of their once troubled life.  One morning, Vision notices a heart placed on the calendar for that day, but Wanda and Vision are unsure of what the heart represents. After Vision leaves for work, Wanda’s neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) introduces herself, and immediately interjects herself into Wanda’s plans for the “special night”.  Vision, however, is reminded by his boss Mr. Hart (Fred Melamed) that he and his wife (Debra Jo Rupp) will be coming to Vision’s house for dinner, setting up two sets of alternate plans for a collision course to wackiness.

Episode 02 : Don’t Touch That Dial Wanda and Vision take part in the Westview talent show (”for the children”) as Glamour and Illusion for a magic act.  Agnes introduces Wanda to Dottie (Emma Caulfield Ford), the head lady of Westview, whose firm leadership style causes tension in the run-up to the event.  Vision attempts to integrate himself with the Neighborhood Watch, but a chewing gum-based mishap throws him for a major loop that puts both the magic act and the identities of Wanda and Vision at risk.

Episode 03 : Now in Color A surprise pregnancy forces Wanda and Vision to plan for welcoming a child into their home, but strange events begin to occur surrounding the pregnancy.  Rather than the standard 9 month period, Wanda’s pregnancy accelerates at an exponentially rapid rate that not only causes Vision stress, but impacts Wanda’s ability to control her magic.  When the pregnancy abruptly begins, Vision runs to fetch Dr. Nielsen (Randy Oglesby), but before they can return, Wanda’s neighbor and new friend Geraldine (Teyonah Parris) lends a hand.  In the aftermath, however, Geraldine shows her hand, causing even more confusion in Wanda’s world.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Emergency Awesome YouTube Channel

New Rockstars YouTube Channel

ScreenCrush YouTube Channel

These three YouTube channels are known for their timely and in-depth analysis of many properties, and they have continued this tradition by uploading episode recaps and element breakdowns for WandaVision.

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW Stylistically, WandaVision is a bold choice for the MCU, opting to re-skin our main characters in different versions of nostalgic television eras and shows rather than building a unique look or leaning on established locations within the previously established MCU world.  As a former Nick at Nite junkie, as well as a product of the 1980s, I was very familiar with the numerous shows explicitly referenced, and the use of practical effects and single camera setup was emulated perfectly.  The adjustment of watching two of the MCU’s most powerful characters attempt to minimalize themselves within the formulaic framework of sitcom television from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s is a bit of a rough one at first, as the story seemingly is traveling in the reverse direction of our expectations, but not so far beneath the primary layer shown, there seems to be a world of intrigue bubbling in the anticipation of being discovered.

Currently, there are tons of elements that seem like Easter Eggs, but I am almost certain that they will factor in as key parts of the story in due time.  The primary bit of visual stimulus that has most people buzzing is the S.W.O.R.D. imagery, an organization similar to S.H.I.E.L.D., but with a focus on intergalactic and mystic threats rather than superheroes and governmental communication.  Much of the jewelry and flare worn by the women of the show seem to contain relevant symbolism of some sort : Agnes wears a pin that seems to have 3 characters on it (perhaps a reference to Mephisto, Wiccan and Speed?), Geraldine (aka Monica Rambeau) is introduced with a pin that looks A LOT like the dimensional gateways created by Doctor Strange’s sling ring, and Geraldine later wears a necklace with the aforementioned S.W.O.R.D. symbol (which is also seen on the toy helicopter and the uniform of the mysterious beekeeper).

It is also currently unclear who the antagonist (or possible multiple antagonists) of the story are... Agnes and Dottie have both been pegged as early candidates, with tons of speculation swirling around the possibility of Agnes being Agatha Harkness and perhaps working in league with Mephisto, Grim Reaper or Nightmare.  There is also a groundswell of viewers who wonder if Wanda is the villain of the story, which leans into the House of M theory in the sense that it has not been established if Wanda is currently cognizant of her reality or not.  This theory is also fueled by the strange behavior(s) of those who inhabit Westview : most everyone falls into a sitcom trope performance when around Wanda, but at times, people seemed to get locked into weird, uncanny valley level “glitches”, or are outright accusatory of Wanda and Vision’s intentions.

The characters (and acting) in the show is solid so far, despite the lack of context or clarity in regards to the bigger picture.

Wanda is playing an Americanized, sitcom-esque version of herself.  She still seemingly has some version of her powers, as she can manipulate objects with her mind and control time.  It is unclear how much she is in control of what we’re seeing, versus someone else being in control or there being a complete lack of control.

Vision’s tragic sacrifice, rebirth and immediate death is well documented from the events of Avengers : Infinity War, and yet, he seems to be alive, devoted to Wanda, and completely unaware of his tragic deaths.  Up to this point, he feels like a bit of a pawn in a bigger game, rather than the all-powerful and all-knowing sentient synthetic weapon that he is.

Agnes is by far the biggest mystery of the show up to this point.  The lion’s share of character theories revolve around her, her references to the Devil, darkness and her absentee husband Ralph.  She is the most present character outside of Wanda and Vision, she seems to be “in on the joke”, and her demeanor is a bit more forward than the rest of Westview’s inhabitants.  Up until episode 03, Agnes felt like she may even be in control, but the fear she shows in episode 03 only serves to blur the lines further.

If Agnes seems to be the most aware of her surroundings, then Geraldine stands in stark (no pun intended) contrast, as she more often than not expresses confusion in regards to her presence in Westview.  She has adorned the symbolism of S.W.O.R.D. on her outfit, and at one point, she has a pin that resembles a dimensional gateway (as mentioned previously).  She has also made the most jarring statement of the series so far, seemingly snapping out of the “spell” everyone seems to be under and reminding Wanda directly about the tragic loss she suffered at the hands of Ultron.

With six episodes left to go, and a seemingly direct march through the relevant eras of television before we get to the root of the matter, it is highly likely that episodes four, five and six will feature further sitcom stylings of the 1980s and 1990s, and possibly even the 2000s, before switching into a standard MCU-style narrative.  Regardless, I am now hooked, and will plan to provide a blog after the release of episodes six and nine, focusing on three episodes at a time.

THE QUESTIONS As per usual with shows of this nature, there are a ton of things going on that raise a multitude of questions...

- What’s with all of the hexagon imagery?  Are we in some sort of hive, or is the town of Westview trapped in hive-mind situation?

- Who specifically is controlling Wanda’s reality?  It seems that Wanda can control the flow of time to an extent, but it has been established numerous times she is being watched from the “outside”... is it possible she is also being watched from within the world of Westview that Wanda inhabits?  Maybe by the mailman, or by Agnes?

- How “real” is the Vision that we are seeing?  Is he some sort of recreated Vision made from whatever was salvageable after his encounter with Thanos?  Is he a manifestation of Wanda in some way, shape or form?  Is Wanda connected to a computer, and is Vision just a computer program at this point, like JARVIS?

- Who is the beekeeper from the second episode?

- What’s the story with the commercials, and how do they fit into what has been presented to us?  Stark Industries, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and HYDRA have all been referenced in the commercials directly, and all deal with elements of time and escape.  Also, who are the two people that star in the commercial?  It’s been the same two, and the woman has appeared in all three commercials?

[nyanzaya]

Ok so I had a REALLY weird dream recently so I’ll send this first ask as like the set up because it’s rlly long. 1/2?

(This involves Neko!Izaya so I thought you’d like to hear about it first) So background information first; for some reason I’m like “piloting” Izayas body. I’m making his decisions sort of??? I only found out when I walked past a mirror and everyone kept referring to me as Izaya (Prolly because I lined him back in middle school lol) and the fact that the other characters CLEARLY did not like the fact that I was still breathing. There’s a lot to unpack so I’m gonna be formatting this in a bulletin point way that’s in chronological order.

- So Izaya and a BUNCH of other DRRR!!characters are staying in this weird group of cabins in the shape of an upside down U, with a road heading into town. Starts off as a dirt/gravel road that goes into pavement. You know the ones.

- So Izaya/I am staying in this cabin building at the very end of the U on the left side. (Since this U kinda warps around the road into town) Across the road is one of the main “Bathrooms”. It’s got the showers while each cabin has like one of its own bathrooms. (This has meaning I promise)

- Within the cabin Izaya/I am staying in there’s at least three rooms. Shinra was in the next door over, while Shingen was in the room at the end of the hall. I saw him go back there once and never saw him a again for the duration of the dream. (So we’ll just call this the Kishitani cabin)

- The bathrooms across the road from The Kishitani cabin is shared with the neighboring cabin. The neighboring cabin was MUCH bigger but also had more people in it. So there was two to a room there, while in The Kishitani cabin we each got our own room. (Which when I first found this out the first thing that came to mind was “what a bunch of losers” lol)

- Shizuo Heiwajima was a resident in the neighboring cabin. Which means we have to share a bathroom w/ him :) (this is actually very unfortunate later on) His cabin contains the Van Gang (didn’t see a lot of them only glimpses), as well as Namie, her brother, and his gf Mika. I had a feeling that Namie was supposed to be staying in the Kishitani cabin, but left because,,,,, brother,,, ig)

- Nobody knows about Neko!Izaya yet, only Shinra and Shingen. And Izaya is hiding as a human VERY well (for now). We get kinda Fucked Up™️ later on too.

A finishing side note for now is that the weather outside is fucking FREEZING. There’s snow and ice slush everywhere, and the air is that really dry cold that burns your nose and lungs when you breathe. There would also be these gusts of really cold wind that would freeze the sides of the pine trees, so there wasn’t snow on TOP of them bist there was snow plastered to the SIDE of them. So right now we’re stuck in cold winter hellscape. Also I don’t know where Celty is, but Shinra had left to “go handle something” or whatever so he was gone for a good portion of time too.

Part 2/4? (This is way longer than expected.)

Mornings sucked because if you left the cabin you would almost definitely start freezing to death. Considering that, We just poked around our room for a bit and found nothing of interest. So it’s around midday now which means that the sun is out in full force and the outside is somewhat bearable, so why not go exploring right?? It can’t possibly lead to something catastrophic that would eventually put us at the brink of death.

- First place we go is to the “Bathrooms” across the little dirt road. As soon as we step through the door you just KNOW that Shizuo had been there previously and he was Mad™️. There was glass all over the floor from one of the broken shower doors, and it looked like someone did a very half asses job at cleaning up said glass.

- Enter: Namie. She apparently had the same idea and was wandering through the showers section of the Bathrooms as well, she had at least one other girl with her but I don’t remember who it was. Namie was also “talking” to me but it was more of just her trying to bicker. Clearly not liking that we had the same idea. So I eventually leave and go back to my cabin. I just remember wanting to avoid the other characters, because avoiding them meant avoiding unwanted conflict.

- I want to say this is the first night in this cabin, but at the same time it was like this had been playing out long before my weird dream had even started. So this is probably like the third or fourth night, and we were clearly avoiding a conflict that I was not present for.

- Middle of the night We hear thumping from down the hallway that works it’s way to my bedroom door. I initially think it’s Shinra walking around but that thought is quickly snuffed out.

- The man who opened the bedroom door was tall as hell and was clearly here for us. The man is having a hard time holding himself together, literally. Eventually his human persona wears off and we’re left having a showdown between us and this man made of GLASS. And this glass is SHARP. While trying to fight off the faceless glass demon/general asshole we “die”, he got the better of us and stabs us through the hand and a few other places. I just remember the hand being the most memorable. Close quarters combat with him is not the way to play this.

- We come to about a kilometer out from the U of cabins, at night, in the freezing cold, buried in the snow like a shallow grave, and still bleeding. Between the gusts of wind you could hear something moving around, and so we knew we had to get back inside STAT.

- Now at this point in time there was no need to keep up the human disguise, so we just didn’t. Enter: Neko!Izaya

Part ¾

We get back to the cabin and the room is a disaster. The bed is skewed and the suitcase of stuff I had is nowhere to be seen. The floorboards are cracked too, and we can see something shining under them.

- We pull back the floorboards, or at least what’s left of them, and pull up a giant steel box. In said box was a pair of thick leather gloves, with sharp nails on the end, a note, and a small map of the region we were in. On the small map was several other little squares which I assumed would be more boxes like the one we just found. (The gloves also helped keep our hands from freezing up which was nice)

- The front door and our bedroom door were broken and would no longer lock so there was no point in staying. No one else seemed to be around either so we just assumed that we were in this alone and needed to kill this thing before it killed us, and maybe someone else. (I also think Izayas sisters were there at the cabins, because I remember that being a pretty motivating factor.)

- After a lot of running we come across some buildings and fences, which looked like a Zoo. Zoos need caretakers, and caretakers were people, and people meant help. So we get onto one of the main roads of the “Zoo” and immediately something is wrong.

- Dawn is breaking and there is still no one in sight. On top of that none of the animals look right. Everything was very much uncanny valley. None of the animals looked like animals, and they were all hyper aggressive. Even the ones that seemed like they were supposed to be harmless.

- So far there seems to be no signs of people, but the farther back we get to the more restricted looking areas, the more signs of human life. There’s crates and Jeep’s, and we even found someone working on a computer in a big open tent. Although when we approached her, she didn’t really respond.

- So we leave again and follow a road into town. Once the town was in sight (think old European style town), the glass man was back chasing us in full force. And it seemed that as long as he was being touched by direct sunlight, he would appear as human.

- Getting to the town and there are people EVERYWHERE. Townspeople walking in and out of shops, driving down the road, and just going about their business in general. It was comforting but also concerning considering that we were still being chased but this glass man who for some reason is targeting us.

Part 4/4 (another long part)

I figured that if I could lose him within the town then I should be home free. Unfortunately wherever I managed to parkour to, he would already be waiting nearby. And If we stopped moving then we’d get attacked again.

- He would make snide comments every time he would cut us off within the town, although after the first few times I stopped listening to what he was saying, and I think this might have pissed him off.

- Eventually we had gotten into this other building which was definitely upper class or something, if you were to judge it by the decor and the sheer size of it. One of the hallway walls had a HUGE painting of this Neko mother surrounded by her little kids. The painting was clearly very old, and I wasn’t expecting to see anything like that.

- In this house we found three more of those Steel boxes. One with a black trench coat lined with wool, and there was a picture of another Neko in the box that was wearing the same coat. On the picture it said something along the lines of “to whoever receives this coat, let it warm and shield you from the night”, something weird like that. Each box that had something in it also had a picture too. Which was interesting, since each time it was always of a different Neko. Anyway I got like some sort of undercoat and I think a thicker pair of pants.

- Obviously we had been found again and were forced to flee to the edge of town. There was a old rickety building that we ran into, and were then cornered in.

- At this point we had to fight him, and as it turns out as long as he is taking human form (in direct sunlight via the giant skylight in the main room) you could do a lot of damage to him. I didn’t want to get too close to him do at one point I had taken an old coffee table and hit him w that, since it wasn’t that heavy.

- The gloves were helpful when we had to use the nails and dig under the guys false skin to tear some of the glass out. The less glass chunks he had in him, the less mass he had and the less damage he could do.

- Once we had whittled him down to almost a skeleton of what he was before, we reached into where his face used to be and pulled out the one piece of glass that wasn’t the same as the others. It was 100% clear and had this weird glittery purple and orange in the middle of it.

- While trying to leave the building we ran into this old man who I guess was working in a facility below the building, who was coming up to see what the commotion was about. He also took the weird glass/rock from us

- That’s how we found out that those weird looking rocks had come down in a meteor shower a few months ago, and that you’re not supposed to put them inside of your house. This is apparently because he cold of the outside keeps them sedated almost. So when you bring them inside they’ll latch on to any sort of free floating objects to create a body for themselves. Which is why when someone put it in the main bathroom where all of the broken glass was, it was able it create a much stronger body.

- Afterwards he, or someone else, had given me a ride to just outside of the cabins we were staying in. It was starting to get dark but it wasn’t getting colder yet, so everyone seemed to be out and about. I saw Kyohei walking back to his cabin so I ran up to him and grabbed him to tell him not to let anyone touch anything outside, and to especially not bring anything else inside. Which I probably sounded crazy but he just went with it.

- During that time I got to talk to the other characters, only for a little bit though. I tried talking to Shizuo but every time I did he would clam up and ignore me. Which fair enough I guess, since very few people got along with me and I had disappeared for the past 24 hours.

- Afterwards it had started to hail, and that was around the time I decided to leave the camp and try and go home. Just to get anywhere else but there. When it stopped I took one of the trucks and drove until I reached a highway, which was very far out. When I went to merge though, the on ramp wasn’t connected to the actual highway. It was like it was never completed and there was a drop off straight down into a canyon. I just sat there in the truck for a bit and watched the other cars driving back and forth across the bridge over the canyon.

- The ramp was only one lane so I and to reverse all the way back to the road, and then back to the 7/11 I had previously passed, so hopefully I could make a phone call to get out of there. Though the dream ended before we got the chance to do that.

I’m sure that there is a lot missing considering that it’s rare for me to remember dreams in the first place. I’m also sure that Shingen had something to do with us being in that location during that time of year. But I hope you found some entertainment in this weird dream that will probably haunt me for a while. Love your blog btw and I hope you keep posting!

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I’m in the middle of traveling right now! But omf thank you for sharing this I cry,,, also sorry everyone I don’t know how to make a read more on mobile 😭

This is actually a super interesting dream I wonder what it means tbh LOL what has me is the Neko part I weep softly. This kind of explains why my muse for Iza(Neko!izaya) has been a little low, like it felt like he wasn’t “with me” if that makes sense!

The coat and the pictures I’m hhrhrh…. It’s super funny to me because it kind of falls in line for Iza’s mom and her kits with that picture of a mother Neko and her kids because that was all I could think of but still! This is such a sweet story in a exploratorive way and a interesting lore perspective because those pictures and items were left there by someone for a reason but we have no idea who 👀

Then how you/izaya is trapped there?? I need the part of the dream where we know why and who LOL but tbh maybe Shigen did have something to do with it 👀 damn nebula and their mysteriousness

Ty again for sharing this with me 😭 it really helped and I enjoyed! I have like,,,mild travel anxiety and this made me feel better💕 for the posting part,,,I will try jdhdjs i have to get back to the Iza/Zuo content but I been ensnared in Genshin Impact and FE: Heros and I’m stuck on Link Click LOL but, I hope to post more about drrr/hybrid verse/Iza+Zuo content!