#but i definitely burned myself out doing the costume design. by the time i got to the water i Gave Up.

[crazychaoticizzy]

TRACK ONE: Pilot/Heart Attack

Heart Attack: the greatest rock band in history. Decades after the nasty breakup that followed their final performance in Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, the six band members finally agree to separate interviews that reveal how they came together and their rise to fame.

And what led to their sudden downfall.

EREN X READER X JEAN

CONTENT: multipart fic, rock band au, love triangle, slow burn, angst

WORD COUNT: 1.1k

Series Masterlist

AOT Masterlist

DODGER STADIUM, LOS ANGELES After their highly anticipated performance at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, Jean Kirschtein tore off the neck of his bass on stage and ripped a hole in the drums. After announcing his resignation from the famous band, Heart Attack, Eren Jäger punched him.

Following Jean Kirschtein's resignation, Heart Attack fell apart. The performance in Dodger Stadium was their last, and the six band members have not been seen together since.

This biography is made up of a series of interviews compiled over the years by Olivia Russo. This is the first time the band and others involved have spoken on their scandals since they broke up.

JEAN KIRSTEIN, bassist for Heart Attack: Just sit here?  Alright. Yeah, of course. Sure you don’t want anything to drink? Okay. [smiling] Hi.

EREN JÄGER, main male vocalist for Heart Attack: We’re gonna make this quick, ‘kay? I don’t wanna talk about this shit. Ask your questions, get a snack or something, and leave.

ARMIN ARLERT, guitarist for Heart Attack: Do I look okay? I dunno, I just feel nervous, I guess. I haven’t really talked about this in years, especially on camera.

SASHA BRAUS, keyboardist for Heart Attack: Oh, I’m so excited for this. Did my hair curl weird? No? Okay. What do you want me to do? Introduce myself? I don’t know, everything’s changed so much since the last time I did a one on one interview like this. Hi, my name is Sasha Braus. I was the former keyboardist and supporting female vocalist for Heart Attack.

CONNIE SPRINGER, drummer for Heart Attack: Ready, kid? You’re in for a ride. I hope you brought snack or something to hold you by, this is a long story.

MIKASA ACKERMAN, photographer and costume designer for Heart Attack: This is for a documentary, right? Or a novel? Oh, okay. Either way, I’ll try to remember everything as best I can.

Y/N L/N, main female vocalist for Heart Attack: Hey. Yeah, of course. Mess with whatever. Maybe you can hide the circles under my eyes. [laughs]

What did you think of Heart Attack?

MIKASA: Well, it was Eren’s dream, so I just kind of went with it. It was fun, though. I really liked everyone we worked with. Most of them were really nice.

EREN: We were on top of the fucking world. The biggest band of the century. Everyone knew our name and we were making millions. I don’t know why Jean wanted to throw that shit away.

JEAN: You want honesty? I fucking hated it. Every single second.

CONNIE: Ooo, getting into the deep shit already? Well, I personally thought it was so fun. More so after we got famous, but it was great even back when we were just teenagers in Mrs. Yeager’s basement.

ARMIN: I kind of felt… indifferent? I mean, yeah I liked it. I was spending time with my best friends. But I would have preferred something quieter, maybe? Something that didn’t have us at each other’s throats all the time, at least.

SASHA: Well, it was definitely stressful. God, especially when I was pregnant. I was so worried about what we were going to do then. I mean, I couldn’t be up on stage at almost nine months. Are you crazy? But then for half of our songs the keyboard is a really big part so it’s not like I just couldn’t be there.

Y/N: I really enjoyed it. Yeah, there were a couple times I maybe wanted to kill someone, but it was fun. Lifelong friends, some of them. All of them, actually, but . . .

SASHA: Oh, well. We figured it out in the end. [smiles]

Y/N: It didn’t end well, as I’m sure you know.

JEAN: What were we? A rock band, according to Google, but what we were doing wasn’t rock.

CONNIE: It’s kind of funny, actually. Before Sasha we were all so uncreative and couldn’t come up with song titles. With good reason, too, that shit is hard. Trying to sum up your song in a couple words? Pfft. We were all useless, especially Eren.

ARMIN: Only the super old fans know this, but our very first song ever, track one on our debut album, was originally called “Pilot.”

EREN: Yes, like the fucking first episode of a show that doesn’t know if it’s gonna do well or some shit. It was not my idea.

JEAN: It was Eren’s idea.

MIKASA: I tried convincing them to name it something else, but they wouldn’t budge. I suggested just their band name and they said, “No, that’s too basic. We need something unique.” They didn’t change it until Scout Records told them to. And guess what they changed it to.

CONNIE: We changed the first song to “Heart Attack” in… let’s see, 2018 or somewhere close to that. 2019, maybe?

JEAN: Naming our first album “Debut” was Eren’s dumb ass idea, too. Uncreative prick.

EREN: No one else had any better ideas, so we just went with what I said by default. It’s not like anyone cared, anyway.

What can you tell me about Marco Bodt?

SASHA: Sorry, darling. I don’t know much about him other than he was the band’s first keyboardist.

Y/N: Just what Annie and everyone else told me way back when. I don't remember much.

MIKASA: Oh, I wasn’t around them enough at the beginning to know him. That was around the same time my mom had started getting me ready to take over the store, so I spent almost all of my free time with her.

ARMIN: I don’t really remember him. I had him in my Chemistry class before I dropped out. He was my table partner, I think. He was nice, though. We tutored each other sometimes. And, of course, he was over at Eren’s with us a lot.

CONNIE: I loved Marco, man. If you met him, you knew you had just met the sun. He always had such a bright outlook on everything. He was like Switzerland when we started arguing. And he always came up with the best compromises.

EREN: Marco was amazing. I felt bad all the time because he was always breaking up arguments. I have no clue why he was friends with us.

ARMIN: We were definitely annoying. It took a special kind of patience to deal with us, especially at that age. Marco always handled it so well, though. I think he and I would’ve ended up being much better friends if we were given the chance.

JEAN: Someone did their homework. You know about Marco? Course you do, you’re fucking [incoherent]. Uhm, Marco… God, I haven’t talked about him since he died. I don’t even think the really old fans know about him, to be honest. Well, Marco was . . . I think he was the first boy I ever loved.

i'm so excited for this series you guys don't even know. i have so much planned and i hope you guys have as much fun reading it as i had writing it

TAGLIST: @arlerts-angel if you'd like to join the taglist please comment to let me know!

next part >>

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

Task Force 141 Mostly Random and Domestic Head Cannons

Here are few questionable head cannons of the boys that nobody asked for that I came up with on a whim cuz I can't sleep.

💰 Captain Price 💰

Price can play saxophone and trumpet. More towards the saxophone. He has a collection of Kenny G album vinnyl disks that he'd play in his house.

He has a calico cat named Greg.

Collects watches as a hobby, from the antiques to the modern ones.

Supports Liverpool and sometimes would catch their matches on TV. Not a crazy fan like Ghost and Gaz though.

King of Poker. Nobody in the task force can beat him.

🇬🇧 Kyle "Gaz" Garrick 🇬🇧

That one British dude who likes coffee more than tea.

Fan of Arsenal. Actual Gooner who has posters and mugs with Arsenal logo printed on them.

Earlier of his teenage days, Gaz randomly wanted to learn beatbox. He got good at it and would often show it off to his friends. Over time, he lost interest in it and forgot about it. If you ask him to do some beatboxing he can still do it, but you gotta wait for it for the muscle memory to come back.

Arguably the most fashionable man in 141. When off-duty he'd show up with drip. His effortless swag goes along with any clothes.

🧼 Soap 🧼

Learned music theory and actually was a member of his high school vocal group and church choir, Soap has a beautiful barritone voice that can belt out "Why Do The Nations So Furiously Rage" by Handel and "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose."

INVESTED in Eurovision. Would watch every country's song and critiques each one. Could go MAD about it.

Definitely the dude who sings in showers.

Fan of Take That. He dreamed of singing Million Love Songs to his one true love.

Idk why but I feel like Soap is that guy who can solve rubik's cube.

💀 Ghost 💀

Actual fan of Machester City. Would fight other clubs' fans if they're losing on TV and would 100% stomp on them.

Proficient bass guitar player. Can definitely slap.

Ghost can sew. In fact, he costumizes all his skeleton attributes himself. From numbers of masks to gloves, he made it all himself.

Watches Anime. He watches the classic shounen animes like Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball. He likes the actions and the thrill of it.

CLEAN FREAK. Contrary to his rugged look and personality he always keep his belongings clean and neat.

🦵 Alex Echo 3-1 🦿

Another one of idk why but I feel like Alex's real name is Alexander Hamilton. His parents were either a historian or a musical enthusiast, no in between.

Watches NFL. Idolizes Tom Brady as the god-quarterback. In fact he ALMOST got drafted into NFL but got into the millitary instead.

Plays Tekken on a daily basis and unexpectedly mains Yoshimitsu for his eccentric design and moves.

Alex got a full-sleeve tattoo on both arms to cover the cigarette stick burns he got during his millitary days.

Skilled in playing the guitar. His fingerstyles are GODLY.

Alex sometimes sketch a few doodles on his journal.

🦗 Roach 🦗

Owns a grey Great Dane named Ms. Bella Donna, who's apparently oblivious of her size and a total lap dog. She'd leap at Roach when he gets home after deployment.

A fan of the Star Wars franchise. Major fan of Darth Vader and would quote him every chance he got. Collects figurines of Vader and Maul and even plays Star Wars : Battlefront.

True to his name, Roach isn't afraid of cockroaches, or any animal, really. Gary is the Task Force 141's #1 animal control man.

Roach can play the drum. He had a drum kit given to him by his parents as a kid and started doing them as a hobby.

-----

There it goes! This is the result of my domestic-HC-cravings which I decided to indulge myself. Feel free to add more LOL ◉‿◉

[bluegekk0]

I’m sorry to bring this up if it makes you feel unoriginal but I love how many troupe headcanons we share

-Divine is the costume designer

-Brumm has feelings for the master

-Grimm cannot cook to save his life (Brumm, a seasoned chef, has actually banned him from the kitchen on account of him burning one too many recipes) and only knows how to make tea

It’s just nice to know I’m not the only one with these thought processes lol

Though it does make me curious. What species of bugs do you headcanon Brumm and Divine to be, and where would they be from if this was our Earth? Also, do Divine and Leg Eater still get together in this AU, and if so, does Leg Eater still… meet his rather unfortunate end?

Oh no don't worry, it actually feels really nice that people have similar headcanons! I know Brumm having feelings for Grimm is pretty common but the other two are such a fun coincidence! I love that.

Something about Divine to me just screams "she loves fashion" (maybe it's the fancy mask?). And rewatching The Hunger Games, Effie's character gave me even more inspiration for my interpretation of her. So I headcanon her as quite eccentric and flamboyant, very much a perfectionist with an eye for beauty. She wouldn't be as shallow or manner focused as Effie, though, I do imagine she has a bit of a snark to her. But that bright, energetic personality, and her impressive talent for costume design, definitely made her very popular in the Troupe. She's very involved in the costume making process from start to finish, she wants to make sure each Grimmkin gets a costume that fits them perfectly, and she'll contribute during the sewing process, instructing her crew and assisting them in any trouble.

Brumm's feelings for Grimm were initially just a small nod to the relatively popular ship of these two, but it evolved over time into something that explores both of their personalities to a slightly larger extent. It emphasizes Brumm's loyalty and commitment, but also implies that deep down he wants something more. He lost his family before Grimm invited him to the Troupe, and one of those dead loved ones could have been his partner. Perhaps there were similarities between that partner and Grimm which eventually made Brumm have feelings for him. But then you might wonder: how much of it is genuine, and is it possible that he's just projecting his loss onto Grimm? I doubt he knows the answer himself, but at least Grimm was clear that he wasn't interested and spared Brumm the trouble of figuring it out. So he got the confession out of his system, and was able to sort his feelings out and move on. Well, at least mostly. I think he does still feel attraction towards Grimm, Brumm's subtle glances at Grimm's body whenever he lifts his cloak tell you that much, but that's nothing new for Grimm. He made his body desirable on purpose, so he's used to it, and in his eyes those stares don't mean anything. But at the very least Brumm realized that he needed to move on from his feelings towards Grimm, so those glances aren't as emotionally driven as they were in the past. Just a quick look to admire, that's all. Or so he says.

I made a post about Grimm being terrible at cooking already, so I won't repeat myself. But that is when our headcanons differ a little bit. While Brumm is definitely better at cooking, I wouldn't call him a seasoned chef. The Troupe has its own dedicated cooks so he doesn't visit the kitchen that often.

---

As for the second half of the ask. I mentioned before that I don't see the "bugs" in the AU as actual bugs (insects). To me they're just fictional species, though some of them do resemble real life animals (bugs or otherwise). So neither Brumm or Divine are an existing real life species of bug, though Divine does take heavy inspiration from termite queens (though she isn't actually meant to be a termite queen in my eyes, shes still a fictional creature). Brumm? He's definitely more mammalian in my eyes, maybe a bit bear like? Or perhaps he'd resemble something like a badger a little bit.

I'm not sure how to answer the Earth question, especially since, again, they are a fictional creature species to me. But maybe I could mention what kind of regions they're originally from.

Divine would be from a warmer region, maybe something resembling the mediterranean climate. Warm and dry summers, and cool and rainy winters. She's definitely from far away relative to Hallownest, Grimm would travel the whole world back then so that is why the two first met. She doesn't handle the Hallownest cold very well, you'll very rarely see her outside during the colder months, and she wears a lot of outfits with furs.

Brumm is from a colder region, something like taiga. His home land definitely had a lot of forests and long, cold winters, which made him adapt very quickly to the climate in Hallownest. He's covered in fur similarly to Grimm, though his isn't as much for show as it is to protect him from harsh temperatures. Consequently, his home isn't that far from Hallownest.

---

And lastly, no, I decided that Divine and Leg Eater don't meet. There is a lot about my Divine that I changed from canon for personal preference reasons. The charm making process in particular is... A bit too much for me personally hahaha. And I headcanon my Divine as gay, so she wouldn't be interested. Lucky for Leg Eater haha.

[heavensbeehall]

"Catching Fire", Chapter 15

Part 2: The Quell

Chapter 15: The Preps keep crying when Katniss arrives in the Capitol. Cinna's new costume turns her into a burning ember. She goes down to the chariots and meets Finnick Odair. Katniss thinks he's creepy but I have read these books before so I know she's wrong. They do the Tribute Parade. Chaff kisses Katniss and she doesn't like it. Johanna strips naked and she doesn't like it. Peeta tells her they are teasing her and she's mad. Also. Darius is their new Avox.

Thoughts:

-- Katniss thinks she "has" to console the Preps and that it's annoying. But she could also just cry with them, but I don't think she can allow herself to be vulnerable in front of them.

-- How ugly do we think the District 10 costumes were? I'm picturing one of those inflatable cow Halloween costumes.

Quotes:

"Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself."

D: D: D:

Cinna knows exactly what he is doing with the Mockingjay costume. In addition to designing "dozens" of wedding dresses, he then remade the winning one with an entire other dress underneath it. And I can't help but feel that--if he got the preps away safely--he could have gotten himself away, but he chose to stay. I am assuming he wanted to be with Katniss at the launch room. (Either that or he treats his life as nothing but a performance art piece?) Didn't want her to go in alone. But she did anyway. D: D: D:

"Portia and I spent a lot of hours watching fires," says Cinna.

Are they together? Or just work partners?

Finnick Odair is something of a living legend in Panem. Since he won the Sixty-fifth Hunger Games when he was only fourteen, he's still one of the youngest victors. Being from District 4, he was a Career, so the odds were already in his favor, but what no trainer could claim to have given him was his extraordinary beauty. Tall, athletic, with golden skin and bronze-colored hair and those incredible eyes. While other tributes that year were hardpressed to get a handful of grain or some matches for a gift, Finnick never wanted for anything, not food or medicine or weapons. It took about a week for his competitors to realize that he was the one to kill, but it was too late. He was already a good fighter with the spears and knives he had found in the Cornucopia. When he received a silver parachute with a trident--which may be the most expensive gift I've ever seen given in the arena--it was all over. District 4's industry is fishing. He'd been on boats his whole life. The trident was a natural, deadly extension of his arm. He wove a net out of some kind of vine he found, used it to entangle his opponents so he could spear them with the trident, and within a matter of days the crown was his.

I am getting tired of people trying to tell me Finnick and Annie weren't Careers. Finnick definitely was and Annie probably was. It taking a week for his competitors to realize how popular he was suggests that going in at 14 was a ploy to make him less threatening to the others. Possibly he didn't join the Career pack because of his age (though it doesn't specificy.) This passage also hints at Mags, his mentor, having another skill besides making fish hooks. She must have squeezed a lot of money out of Capitol citizens for that trident and timed it's arrival strategically.

I really want a District 4 book because I want to know about their Career training system. It seems slightly different from the other two, more individualized perhaps.

Because of his youth, they couldn't really touch him for the first year or two.

The Capitol won't sex traffic a 14-year-old kid. But once he's sixteen, that's fine, right?

(It's actually kind of sad that multiple people tease her for being "pure"--as Peeta says--uncomfortable with nudity and kissing. They must have all had fucked up sexual awakenings.)

He's draped in a golden net that's strategically knotted at his groin so that he can't technically be called naked, but he's about as close as you can get.

I hope Mags' costume isn't matching!!!

Probably this drives most people crazy. But for some reason all I can think of is old Cray, salivating over some poor, starving young woman.

Cray is not far off from the aura he is giving off. Maybe I shouldn't bring up my dark Finnick headcanons. But... his persona must be mimicking people he knew, right? So... was he exposed to sexuality before he was 14??? Or did this Finnick not emerge until after the Games?

"Do you think we'd have ended up like this if only one of us had won?" he asks, glancing around at the other victors. "Just another part of the freak show?"

"Sure, especially you," I say.

I think Katniss would've ended up like Johanna or Haymitch if she had won alone, actually. Though if Prim survived she would try to keep it together for her sister. I don't know about Peeta. Katniss seems convinced he'd be worse than her. I could see him ending up like the Morphlings, maybe, since they have so much in common (and also the only way I see him winning alone is by hiding in his rock). But I could also see him being a really good mentor, like Mags.

The woman, Seeder, looks almost like she could be from the Seam, with her olive skin and straight black hair streaked with silver. Only her golden brown eyes mark her as from another district. She must be around sixty, but she still looks strong, and there's no sign she's turned to liquor or morphling or any other chemical form of escape over the years. Before either of us says a word, she embraces me. I know somehow it must be because of Rue and Thresh. Before I can stop myself, I whisper, "The families?"

This is a small moment but it's important to me and I'm sad it was cut from the film.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Today’s replies! One about SnK, one about SPTO, a bunch about TWST.

6ubble-gum asked:

Every so often I'll find ur tiny founding titan arts again and spend a good long few minutes gushing over it lmao. snk is dead to me but tiny founder is alive and well (espec the fleas art)

Ahh it’s so sweet that you remember and look at it from time to time! I’ll repeat myself, but wow it is truly surprising that our SnK stuff isn’t totally forgotten. I feel like even I don’t remember the majority of it…

I’m very glad our teeny tiny Founder (with his little fleas) makes you happy~ God I remember when we drew it and these were the newest chapters…  wild times.

Anonymous asked:

Speaking of Yandere Todd, I can already imagine him being extremely jealous of Mobile. Mobile would have to fight Wallace’s ‘evil ex’. They would have a fight to see who’s the better psychic for Wallace. And then Wallace watched all of this with a drink in his hand while he cheers his boyfriend on. And then he might call for a restraining order on Todd. That’s what I can imagine

OH NOOO I love how absolutely devastatingly one-sided this is. Wallace cheering Mobile on, Mobile winning…  At least Todd got his participation prize… which is a restraining order 😔

Jokes aside, I find it endlessly amusing that Wallace just keeps hooking up with psychic guys. I don’t necessarily think it’s intentional, but I do think Wallace benefits from it very nicely. In a lot of ways…

And it does make the psychic vs psychic scenarios very possible, I would honestly love to watch them fight. Or to draw them fighting... For some reason though (lol) I get a feeling that Mobile is more powerful than Todd. Gotta train more! For Wallace Wells! 💪

Anonymous asked:

I found your art on pinterest, here's the link: [I edited out the link]

Thank you for letting us know, Anon! Unfortunately, I don’t know if there is anything I can do to take it down… But we still appreciate you letting us know. Pinterest doesn’t respond to the request promptly.

The comments are hilarious though. Love it when people talk about me as if I’m a cryptid that steals people’s fingers and eats their kids.

Anonymous asked:

Do you think Idia and Lilia will ever do cosplay together and if yes, what couple are they cosplaying?

I feel like Lilia is that force in Idia’s life that could make him consider things that used to be a definite “no-no” to him, and we do know that Idia actually doesn’t mind cosplaying as long as his head is hidden… And the whole cosplay thing sounds like something Lilia would want to try at least once, so maybe that could happen. If there is a combo of a character with his face (and head: can’t show burning hair) completely hidden + someone tiny and adorable? In any way, Idia is definitely going to overthink this whole thing, only for Lilia to change his mind and tell Idia that they should switch costumes with each other at the very last moment lol

Anonymous asked:

Got Azul, Jamil, Idia, and Riddle on a loading screen today and I blame you for immediately thinking about how much of a dream come true it would be for Azul to have all three of them 😂

Haha YESSSSS YESSSSSSSSS (proud of our bad influence)

It really is a dream come true, what a wonderful harem of reluctant lovers that don’t even like Azul all that much. But it doesn’t matter, because all three of them are his and his only <3

Good for him!

Anonymous asked:

have you seen ruggie’s club outfit?? he looks so good, i can’t wait till we get to see what his bottoms—i mean leona and epel look like in their club gear

Yeah I have! It’s very cool, it suits Ruggie a lot. He really does look like he is about to go and dominate some bitches lol

It’s also cool to finally see the uniform that magift players wear… is this the first time we’re seeing it? They usually wear their PE uniform... It’s a great design, and once again, Ruggie deserves to look cool. Good for him too!

Anonymous asked:

Random thought but Riddle being both in Heartslabyul and Horseback riding club... He's really constantly surrounded by big-tiddied green men :3 Good for him

Oh god I keep forgetting that Sebek also has a constant presence in Riddle’s life… you’re so right omg, what a sick twist of fate. Widdle Widdle (little Riddle) and big-tiddied green men that just keep spawning around him AHHH

Seriously, good for him. Am I ending the third reply in a row with this phrase? Well, everyone got what they deserved…

[decarbry]

I'd love to learn your thoughts on the rest of the bnha cast, particularly the main characters! Could you list your top 10 and share why you like them?

THIS WAS SO TOUGH I had to go through a complete character list to make sure I didn't miss anyone and I'm still not satisfied

Honestly BNHA does so well with character variety I love so much of the cast, tho it does fall into the pit of "there are too many characters and story threads to finish them all or even mention them ever again", do not talk to me about Shinsou

Anyway we're ignoring Aizawa, Yamada, and Eri because I think everyone already knows that they're my least favorite characters /s

10. Overhaul - probably one of the worst people in the show tbh but I really loved anytime his character was on screen?? he was such a calm but simmering threat before he was actively violent and honestly his voice acting in the dub imo was REALLY special. the whole organized crime angle is also one of my vibes in storytelling so I really enjoyed his character. plus his character design is *chef's kiss*

9. Tokoyami - he's a bird man with a dark passenger that acts like a puppy sometimes what's NOT to love -- I'm actually going to cheat and tie Tokoyami with Bakugou here because I had second thoughts. Bakugou's pivot in his relationship with Midoriya was one of my favorite character development moments and felt so well-done and earned that he's definitely in my top 10

8. Mirio - BEST BOY! Togata is just so positive and wholesome and selfless, every time I revisit his clash with Overhaul I sob my eyes out. I wasn't on board with his pivot in eye design at first but once I got to know him I fell for him HARD. There's literally no downside to this guy but at the same time that's ALRIGHT! Rather than it being obnoxious it's done in a way that I find flawless. like he still has weaknesses but he's composed so well as a character

7. Amajiki - how can you not love this poor anxious guy?? he's very relatable and anytime he pushes through his head to succeed in his goals I just want to scream and hug him. plus his quirk is amazing and I could NEVER because I'm such a picky eater

6. Kurogiri/Shirakumo - THE POWER OF ANGST no but partly it’s his relationship to our two favorite UA teachers but also Oboro seemed like such a GEM and I want to know him as he was and I have such high hopes for where the story is currently headed… Kurogiri himself is such a cool reflection/twist of his original personality that I find myself trying to read into every appearance he makes. Save him please

5. Shigaraki - kind of more superficial to begin with because his motivations were never SUPER interesting to me but his character arc has been a joy to watch and YES I know villains and heroes alike in this story have great writing that make them sympathetic but. for me Shiggy is one of the most obvious. like he can't be forgiven because he has done SO much damage and taken SO many lives but he really is the perfect hybrid example of when heroes fail those around them, and when villains influence those around them. also his path from childish gamer tantrum child to legitimate terrifying threat was a slow burn that feels earned. I think he was also my favorite early character design, specifically his full-hand costume he wore first at the USJ

4. Shinsou - dude's personality aside he's impressively ambitious and I really feel for his circumstance, I kinda took to him like Aizawa did? i was really invested in his path from the start and really would love to see him achieve his goal. i just want to see what he'll doooo. he was a major part of why I enjoyed season 5. hopefully he makes an appearance in the manga to help with current events but I'm probably just wishfully thinking

3. All Might - i usually never like the "superman" character in most things but Toshinori is imo the best-written of them and he has such a great character arc. i want all the best for this man that gave and is giving so much to the world, all at the cost of himself

2. Dabi - HONESTLY these last two can be interchangable. Dabi's character design is probably my favorite in the entire story. it's simple but iconic and very visually appealing even though it's. dead and burned skin LMAO. i'll be brutally honest, tho Todoroki is a great character and Endeavor is definitely trying, that whole family drama is kinda disinteresting to me (but is getting better)(which I hope continues since it's the opinion of some of the more... vocal readers that it's all that carries the later story and if that's true I want to REALLY enjoy it, y'know?). i'm thankful for Dabi because his existence in the story finally has my ears perked towards that thread and I really appreciate his drive even though the intention is to destroy hero society

1. Hawks - I'm going to repeat myself: CHARACTER DESIGN. the moment I saw Hawks I was like. in love. I really like spy storylines in general but I get easily drawn to characters that are outwardly charming, friendly, a bit obnoxious, confident, and know exactly how to appear in order to communicate their intentions. But then deep down... soooo many secrets. Plus, aside from Hawks' tragic family story, his tie to Endeavor as his idol is an extreme positive for Endeavor's character arc in my eyes. Hawks' tragedy doesn't end there though, because in a world of government-sponsored heroes he is perhaps THE MOST government-sponsored, and though they were the reason he had the resources to get to where he is, it's a weakness that has him kind of leashed, and I find that really sad. then we have his ruthlessness, which no matter how you feel about what happened to Twice, is sometimes necessary when it comes to saving the most amount of people. Hawks being the one to take that final action cemented him in my top 3

Honorable mentions for the rest that fall into the black hole of spots 11-20:

Midoriya, Bakugou, Tsuyu, Nana Shimura, Kaminari (just a dumb, lovable lad), Midnight, Kirishima, Mirko, Ryukyu, Monoma, Honenuki, Fatgum (challenging Mirio for best boy placement), Endeavor

Honorable honorable mentions for character designs I just LOVE:

Thirteen, Snipe, Sero, Kuroiro, Mandalay/all of the Pussycats tbh, Majestic, Mr. Compress, Geten, Moonfish, USJ Nomu, Rappa

Honorable honorable honorable mention for this dude that doesn't appear enough to qualify for the list but still deserves a shout-out:

Yokumiru Mera, please let him sleep

[smokeybrand]

Eisenblutige Liebe

I’ve been playing Azur Lane for a few years. I got into the game based strictly on the fact that i adore Prinz Eugen. I was a fan of her design beforehand but, when the anime came out, i absolutely fell in love with the character overall. This admiration was the catalyst for me giving the gacha a shot and i haven’t looked back since. Azur Lane plays like a proper game, which is a far cry from the only other mobile title i used to play, Fate/Grand Order. Since it was Eugen that got my attention, i opted to be a KMS main, which makes for a interesting play through. As Iron Blooded as i am, that German fleet is real light on ships. Up until this year, they’ve only had three major events: Scherzo of Iron Blood, Divergent Chessboard, and my goddamn white whale at the moment, Inverted Orthant. This year, however, we got two major Iron Blood events and it’s only April! I ran through The Tower of Transcendence in January and have finally brought the current event, Rondo at Rainbow's End, to it’s knees.

After Tower, i thought i wouldn’t have another Iron Blood event until a rerun towards the end of the year. Rainbow came out of nowhere and through a wrench in my plans but, fortunately, i had a solid stockpile of Wisdom Cubes, and all of the gold, for a solid run at the Banner ships. Obviously, i wanted Emden and Lutzow, they were the SRs you could only roll. I wasn’t worried about Seydlitz because she is a Event Shop Prize. Just grinding out points for other things would be enough to capture her. Imagine mu surprise when she as the first of the new ships i rolled? I wasn’t mad because i could used those eight thousand Shattered Crests for other things like those ten level four special strengthening units. My Agir is about seven levels away from thirty and any extra can be thrown to the eventual Fate Simulation for Friedrich. three max rolls later, and about a hundred Cubes burned, i had every other available ship. That’s Emden, Elbing, Seydlitz, and Yorck. Every other one but f*cking Lutzow.

I started this event with close to five hundred Wisdom Cubes and twenty-four thousand gold. I’m down to one hundred and five cubes and f*cking nine thousand gold. Outside of those initial three rolls that netted me every other available Banner ship, i spent all of that capital just trying to get Lutz. All day yesterday until i was down to my last couple hundred cubes, i had to stop. It was too much. I was watching my fortune being drained for one ship and it hurt my heart too much. I had steeled myself to have Lutz being the first Iron Blood ship i had the opportunity to get on an initial Event run, to be lost. It sucks but it happens. I usually have pretty good luck with the Gacha during events but maybe it finally ran out. I woke up this morning and said, “F*ck it, one more roll.” Loaded up what little of my Cubes i had left and threw my last fifteen thousand gold block on there, and prayed the Gacha would be kind. And it was cruelly kind. I was on edge the entire time. Every single one of those cube animations made my heart jump. Nine goddamn times until that final reveal. On my last reveal, on the last ten ship roll, Lutz popped. I had done it. I had claimed Lutzow. That is every single ship in this goddamn Event and it was the most expensive one I've ever attempted.

Now, the rest of the Event is just clean up stuff. I already have enough Cake Points to unlock Little Prinz Eugen because of course I do. It's a Eugen. Obviously I was going to make sure I grabbed her. Thuringen is just a Point Accumulation reward and I was going to get those anyway by completing the Event maps so whatever. It's been a day to and I've already got damn near four thousand of the Crests in the bank, so unlocking her at ten thousand is only a matter of time. That's another clean sweep if ships in an Iron Blood event and I feel pretty legit about it. I mean, there are little extras I might go for like that new furniture set and a few costumes that are available. Definitely want that Emden costume, White-Black Portia. That thing is pretty dope. Maybe Lutzow's Everlasting Banquet, but I don't know. I just got Lutz and the costume hasn't grown on me since I have it equipped as a rental. Definitely want that new U-47 outfit though. All in all, I'm overjoyed for all the love my Iron Blood girls are getting this year. My dock has added a great deal of firepower, even if there were no goddamn Carriers this time around, and I kind of want to get another KNMS event to close out the year. We still have six months so maybe? Hopefully, it's the goddamn Orthant Rerun. I need me a Heinrich and a Strasser, man!

[chase2452]

waterbending master katara

[capricorn-stark]

Protégé

pairing: red hood!jason todd x robin!reader, slow burn 

warning: swearing

a/n: for context, this is somewhat loosely based off of Battle for the Cowl (2009) which I definitely recommend as a read! 

There was something about falling that you would never, ever get tired of. 

Ever. 

Probably.

With the wind whistling in your ears, your hair floating up in a million directions, and your limbs seemingly weightless as the buildings and lights blurred into one endless streak of color, the rush of adrenaline that ran through your body right before your grappling hook shot out and you landed quietly on the concrete was about a million times better than any sparring session back at the cave. 

You grinned as you straightened, rather proud of the fact that you had actually managed to land so smoothly without nearly paralyzing yourself. Again.The landing was something you had been working on for a while now.

You could practically hear Bruce’s voice ringing through your head after your little stunt, lamenting on and on about how you had more important things to focus on during patrols, and you let out a sigh as you ran down the backway of the nearly empty streets. 

The heavy man who had been bound up with a decently made gag and one of Bruce’s fancy tech pieces (Batcuffs, maybe? Something else with Bat smacked in front of it?) grunted beside you. 

“What? Not like you had someplace to be.” You grabbed the back of his rather tacky-looking spandex suit to drag him along back to where your mentor was supposed to be.

Despite your (many) disagreements and his (many) criticisms of your hand-to-hand combat skills, attitude issues, and pretty much everything else relating to you, Bruce had actually still allowed you to go off on your own tonight. It might’ve been because he wanted a few hours of nothing but beating up petty criminals by himself for stress-relief, it might’ve been because he had started trying out that whole independence thing with you a little more (even though you were still only permitted to be about five blocks or so away), it might’ve been plot-convenience - but either way, you appreciated the gesture.

It didn’t take long for you to pull your new friend over to what should’ve been your rendezvous point with Batman, letting the man drop with a dull thud and a grunt of protest against the concrete as you glanced around for the other man. You weren’t particularly concerned by the fact that the Bat himself wasn’t there yet - after all, he was the goddamn Batman. He’d show up eventually. In the meanwhile, you decided to go over the information you had gotten on the criminal with you. 

Just for the sake of it. Bruce would make you go over it anyways.

“Drury Walker, thirty-two years old, found him trying to mug someone in a back alley and make an escape. Called himself…” you paused, looking down at his sorry-looking outfit for a few moments while he looked up at you with murder and vengence in his eyes. “...Killer Moth.”  

“Killer Moth?” A completely new voice repeated in disbelief, causing you to immediately whirl around to face them in a fight stance, heart racing at a million miles per hour. The guy in front of you had his hands up in the air, his face concealed with some sort of red knock-off Iron Man helmet. He was gonna get copyrighted by Marvel Studios. “Shit, sorry,” he started at the sight of you, still leaning up against one of the walls. “I was supposed to make a wholeass dramatic entrance, but you said his name was Killer Moth and that-” The man made a noise that was either a sharp cough or a laugh of some kind. “-sounded so fucking lame I couldn’t help myself.” 

Despite the fact that you were definitely in some sort of major trouble with this new guy, he really did have a point. Even Killer Moth himself would’ve been embarrassed by how trash his name was, if not for the fact that he looked like he was on the verge of an aneurysm - understandably so, since the new guy had produced not one, but two guns out of apparently nowhere. 

“And let me guess,” he continued, pointing one of them at your head, his tone still all-too light and easy. “You must be the Bat’s brand-new Robin.” 

Now this is where most people would've shut up and proceeded to be complicit with the dude holding two guns. But Batman hadn’t seen reason and made you his (sort of) partner because you were like other people. Hell no.

“Do I look like a traffic signal to you?” It had been the very first of your amendments with Bruce. You would not be fighting crime looking like a literal traffic signal or, at best, a clown from Haly’s Circus. And the tiny green shorts had to go. “Or Robin Hood?” The guy had a rather awkward pause where his gun sort of dipped. Killer Moth was looking between you with wide eyes. “Do I?” 

“I guess you kinda got a point.” You huffed and he raised his gun again, getting more in-your-face as his already angry-looking helmet somehow managed to look angrier. You weren’t exactly sure how a helmet could convey so much emotion. “But you work with Batman. And I heard you went by Robin.” 

Okay, so you couldn’t make him change the name, but you had agreed it would be more of an honorary thing.

“It’s complicated.” 

Using such a phrase as an excuse to escape from situations you didn’t want to go into was one of the many things you had learned from Bruce in your five months of training. Somehow, that seemed to trigger the guy further.

“So you do work with Batman.” 

Before he could do something actually insane, you had managed to push the gun pointed at your head away from you, using his brief second of surprise to take it out of his hands, kick him in the chest, and round back on him with it in hand. 

“And what about it?” 

As cool as you thought you might’ve sounded didn’t cover for the fact that you were still nerve-wracked about what was happening right then. Especially after the guy started to dramatically slow-clap like some sort of evil thespian in a high school drama. 

“Not bad, Robin. Not bad.” He looked at the gun in your hands and grinned. “If you weren’t Batman’s new replacement sidekick, I might’ve believed you had the balls to use that thing.” 

Now, you were an excellent fighter. You had to be, after your excessive training with the guy who had literally mastered about every martial art in existence during his (give or take) five year-long mission to find himself. Plus, some personal experience. But fighting someone like this guy? Built like a tank and padded up in a whole lot of armor and packing an assortment of knives, guns, and even a damn taser you got a first-hand taste of?

You fought hard, but about five minutes and another round of the taser later, you saw the knock-off Iron Man helmet staring down at you before the world went black.

~*~

You woke up in what you assumed was the self-dubbed Red Hood’s safehouse of sorts. 

“How the hell did he rope you into this shit?” he demanded with what you could only assume was him glaring at you through the helmet. Probably some expression that made someone look all angsty and annoyed - which was fair, since he had been trying to drill you for information you straight up refused to give while bound (way too tightly) to a chair for quite some time now. Rather rude. “Let me guess. You watched your parents die.” You stared at him before shrugging.

“Nope.”

“Oh, so they just went ahead and died somehow. Untimely accident caused by some psycho bitch in a Spirit Halloween costume.”

“…nope.” 

“They abandoned you as a child.”

“No, they didn’t - does divorce count?” 

Red Hoodlum’s hands kept clenching and unclenching while he stood there, staring at the wall behind you in silence. From the way his chest kept rising and falling, you were tempted to believe he was practicing breathing exercises amidst his rather violent twitching. 

“Divorce - what the hell is your trauma supposed to be? Why did he pick you?!”

“Hey, just because my trauma doesn’t include people dying doesn’t make it any less traumatic,” you scoffed in response, knowing you were absolutely right about that. Your middle school guidance counselor had said so (and it’s true, ladies and gentlemen, trauma comes in many forms!). “Kinda rude to assume it didn’t affect me somehow.”

He seemed rather abashed at that and you heard him clear his throat a little. 

“...right, yeah. Sorry.”

“Apology accepted - can you loosen these ropes a little? It’s starting to kinda hurt.” 

“Do I look ten? That’s the oldest trick in the book, I’m not gonna-”

“I’m not going to run, just loosen the ropes a little.” He still looked like he didn’t believe you. “Come on, I don’t think I can outrun your guns.” As in his literal array of guns tacked up to the wall behind him, not his gigantic biceps. 

And you weren’t too worried about being held hostage by him, either. You figured you had ten minutes tops before Batman burst in through the doorway, ready to give you a lecture on why straying from the specifically designated parts of Gotham he had let you traipse around was a terribly stupid idea. 

“No.” He was already walking towards the door, because apparently, he had enough of trying to interrogate you. 

“Hold on, I feel like my wrists are actually about to start bleeding or something - where are you going?”

“Keep talking and I’m gonna get the duct tape.” 

“Is that a threat?” Sounding more confident than you actually felt should eventually make you more confident. Eventually. 

The Red Hood sucked in a breath, stopping by the doorway and turning to face you, reaching into his pockets to get what you assumed was either a gun or duct tape when you both startled from a sudden crash. The man in front of you was already whirling around with two guns positioned to shoot when you heard the familiar voice of someone else.

“Hold your fire, soldier. I’m not here for you.” A pause. “Or I wasn’t, but now I kind of am.”

Apparently, Batman was too busy to save you. Now, you got Nightwing. 

And as much as you liked Nightwing, that still kinda stung. 

[bpro-cardstories]

Kento Aizome SSR

2017ー Lover Mood [恋人気分]

“Of course. To please the little fawns, I want a girl to choose a swimsuit that makes the heart beat faster.”

『Event: Heart Burning Ocean Sky (12th - 19th April 2017)』

Part 1 

ーIn the eveningー

Yuta: ‘To be able to go to something like a resort with everyone from BPRO is the best~!’

Goshi (sighs): ‘Aren’t you forgetting that you’re here for work?’

Kento (sighs): ‘True. It’s the calendar shoot, so don’t frolic too much.’

Yuta (pouts): ‘I know that~!’

Yuta: ‘Tsubasa-chan, we’re going to the beach the day after tomorrow, right?’

Tsubasa: ‘You’re right. It’s planned that the photo book will be done at the beach.’

Kento: ‘It was a swimsuit photo shoot, wasn’t it?’

Tsubasa: ‘Yes. When the swimsuits arrive from the costume makers, I would like you to check the sizes and designs.’

Yuta: ‘Ye~s!’

Yuta: ‘I wonder in what kind of mood we’re shooting~.’

Kento: ‘It’s going to be the sexy route, of course. Those are swimsuits, after all.’

Yuta: ‘I mean, Gochin!’

Goshi: ‘What? You’ve got something to say, don’t you.’

Yuta (smirks): ‘I just wonder if Gochin will rival Kenken and go the sexy route as well.’

Goshi: ‘I only follow the cameraman’s instructions. I don't plan to interfere with the photo concept.'

Kento: ‘Heeh, that’s a grown-up opinion of Goshi. Should we enter the location earlier the day after tomorrow and suggest Goshi’s sexy shot to the cameraman.’

Goshi: ‘Oi, stop with that crap!’

Kento (smirks): ‘Weren’t you following the instructions of the cameraman?’

Goshi: ‘That’s your opinion!’

Yuta (smirks): ‘Gochin, you can’t be selfish, okay? Since it’s a swimsuit, you definitely need to give fanservice ��.’ 

Goshi: ‘That’s not selfishness!’

(I’m looking forward to THRIVE’s photo shoot….. ?)

Part 2

ーThe next dayー

(The swimsuits arrived yesterday. When we finish eating breakfast…..)

Yuta: ‘Look, the food looks so yummy! The breakfast here is a buffet~! When there’s this kind of food, you get lost on what to eat~.’

(Oh, that voice…..)

Kento (sighs): ‘I said I can drink fresh juice. I only came, because I heard of it, but not with Yuta.’

Goshi: ‘As usual, all he’s doing is eating.’

Kento: ‘Taking care of beauty and health is also part of our work. Besides......’

Kento: ‘Ah, Tsubasa.’

Tsubasa: ‘Good morning. Are you eating breakfast as well?’

Yuta (excited): ‘Yep! The breakfast here is super yummy. Because it’s all-you-can-eat, I invited both to come ♪.’

Goshi: ‘You’re so damn gluttonous since morning.’

Yuta (shocked): ‘Ah, the sorts of food increased compared to yesterday! I will go take a look for a moment!’ 

Goshi: ‘Should I also grab something to eat?’

Tsubasa: ‘Is it fine that you are not going, Aizome-san?’

Kento: ‘I’m fine since I’ll finish off lightly. More importantly, can I talk with you for a bit, Tsubasa?’

Tsubasa: ‘Yes, what can I do?’

Kento (unhappy): ‘It’s about the swimsuit that I’ll use in the photo shoot tomorrow. It doesn’t really sit well with me.’

Tsubasa: ‘Eh, I see. Then, we will let the costume makers make a different one……’

Kento (smiles): ‘Won’t you let me choose one by myself?’

Tsubasa: ‘By yourself?’

Kento: ‘Yes, I want to look at it directly and decide, after all. It would be nice to have just the right free time.’

Tsubasa: ‘I will look over the schedule right now.’

(THRIVE will have the calendar photo shoot at noon….)

Tsubasa: ‘...... If it’s this evening, it should be fine.’

Kento: ‘Thanks. Then, it’s the evening.’

Tsubasa: ‘U-Uhm…… Is it perhaps better for me to come along?’

Kento (winks): ‘Of course. To please the little fawns, I want a girl to choose a swimsuit that makes the heart beat faster.’

Tsubasa: ‘I- I see……’

(As I thought of Aizome-san’s feelings for the fans, but a swimsuit that makes the heart beat faster…..)

Tsubasa: ‘I hope I can be of help for you……’

Kento: ‘It’s fine. As long as you convey what you feel, that’s enough.’

Kento: ‘Then, I’ll see you in the evening.’

Tsubasa: ‘Y-Yes!’

Part 3

ーLater that dayー

Kento (sighs): ‘I said it would be fine for Tsubasa to come to buy a swimsuit, but…… Why do we have to be together needlessly?’

Goshi (smiles): ‘I heard that there’s an instrument shop in this shopping mall.’

Yuta: ‘There’s also a famous ice cream parlour ♪. Let’s eat together with Tsubasa-chan~!’ 

Kento (upset): ‘Wait a minute, Tsubasa came along with me to buy my things.’

Yuta: ‘It’s alright! Let’s first go look at swimsuits and eat ice cream afterward ♪.’

Kento: ‘No, Yuta, don’t come with us……’

Yuta: ‘Oh! Swimsuit shop spotted~!’ 

Kento (sighs): ‘Haa….., it’s probably pointless to say it again.’ ___________

Kento: ‘Tsubasa, how is this swimsuit?’

Tsubasa: ‘T-That one….. The area of coverage sure is small……’

Kento: ‘Ah, maybe this one here isn’t bad either.’

Tsubasa: ‘T-The bottom is, uhm….. Quite suggestive......’

Kento (winks): ‘No good? I want you to imagine me wearing this.’

Tsubasa: ‘Eh!?’

Goshi: ‘Urgh, that’s disgusting.’

Yuta (upset): ‘Kenken, you pervert!’

Kento: ‘I’m not listening to bystanders.’

Tsubasa: ‘Uhm, Aizome-san…… How about the swimsuit over here? The design looks cool I think.’

Kento: ‘Yeah, I also like it. Is that one more to Tsubasa’s taste?’

Tsubasa: ‘Yes, more than the ones before, uhm……’

Kento (winks): ‘Then, this one’s decided. I’ll go pay for it, so wait here.’

(It’s a swimsuit with less exposure, it’s kind of relieving…..) ______

Kento: ‘Thanks for waiting.’

Tsubasa: ‘Welcome back, Aizome-san. ……Oh? There are two bags, though.’

Kento: ‘This one is Tsubasa’s swimsuit.’

Tsubasa: ‘Eh…….! What do you mean?’

Kento: ‘Wear it during the photo shoot. A girl in a swimsuit can’t be missing from the beach, right? I think I can surely give a good performance if I feel like I’m together at the beach with the little fawns.’

Yuta (blushes): ‘Kyahh! That’s kinda mature, Kenken!’

Goshi: ‘Are you for real……’

Kento: ‘Tsubasa, to bring our fans the best photo you will cooperate with me, won’t you?’

Tsubasa: ‘I-I will do my best……’

(This was just supposed to be Aizome-san buying a swimsuit. I never thought that it would turn into something like this…… I might be worried about the photo shoot tomorrow……)

Part 4

ーThe day of the photo shoot; eveningー

(I’m glad THRIVE’s photo shoot ended well. When I’m done with cleaning up, I also need to change out of the swimsuit…....)

Kento: ‘Tsubasa, good work. …… You’re still in your swimsuit?’

Tsubasa: ‘Yes, I did not have the time to change……’

Kento (winks): ‘Oh right, since you’re already wearing it, let’s take a photo.’

Tsubasa: ‘A-Absolutely not! I only changed into a swimsuit in order for everyone to take a great photo!’

Kento: ‘Haha, that’s a shame. But, I was really saved by Tsubasa. Thanks to you a good photo was taken.’

Tsubasa: ‘I also checked it, it’s really wonderful. Aizome-san’s expression was natural and…....’

Goshi: ‘Oi, you have a moment?’

Kento: ‘What, Goshi? I had such fun talking with Tsubasa.’

Goshi: ‘As if I’d know. Anyways, I can’t see Ashu.’

Kento: ‘If you’re looking for Yuta, he was gathering seashells just now……’

Kento (sighs): ‘......... Don’t tell me he got lost?’

Goshi: ‘Haah……. Well, he sure got lost.’

Tsubasa: ‘Eeh!?’

Goshi: ‘Tch, whatever. Let’s split and go search for him.’

Tsubasa: ‘Of course.’

Kento: ‘Good grief, troublesome as always.’

Part 5

Tsubasa: ‘........ We can’t find Yuta-kun.’

Kento: ‘Yuta’s a genius in getting lost. He probably didn’t go too far, so let’s look for him without haste.’

Tsubasa: ‘I hope we can find him before it gets dark……’

Kento (smiles): ‘....... Tsubasa, you didn’t have the time to change at all, huh. Aren’t you cold? Come closer.’

Tsubasa: ‘No, I-I’m fine…...!’

Kento: ‘Don’t be shy. Haha, when we walk side-by-side like this, it kind of looks like we’re on a swimsuit date.’ 

Tsubasa: ‘D-Date…..?’

Kento: ‘I sadly changed out of my swimsuit earlier. But don’t you think the sunset of the beach creates a special atmosphere?’

Tsubasa: ‘That’s, uhm……’

Kento: ‘...... You know, to be honest. During the photo shoot, I was thinking the same thing. At first, it was the image of being together with the little fawns. Before I knew it, it turned into a “lovers at the beach” feeling.’ 

Kento (winks): ‘I took the photo where you praised me for my facial expression earlier while thinking of Tsubasa as my lover. 

Kento (serious): ‘Hey….. Aren’t we already dating?’

Tsubasa: ‘........!’

Tsubasa: ‘W-What are you saying…....’

Kento: ‘I’m joking. Tsubasa, did you take it seriously by any chance? Your face looks red.’

Tsubasa: ‘That’s the evening sun!’

(Because Aizome-san said it with a serious face, I was taken aback…..)

Kento: ‘It’s because I don’t ask for real love.’

Tsubasa: ‘Eh?’

Kento: ‘No, it’s nothing.’

Tsubasa: ‘But……’

Kento: ‘Ah, look. Isn’t that Yuta over there?’

Kento: ‘Yuta!’ _____

Yuta: ‘Huh, Kenken? Tsubasa-chan too, what’s wrong?’

Kento: ‘What’s wrong you say…... It looked like Yuta got lost, so we went to look for you.’

Yuta: ‘....... Ah! You’re right, where am I!?’

Tsubasa: ‘Because you were absorbed in gathering seashells, you didn’t pay attention to the surroundings, did you.’

Kento: ‘Really, a genius in getting lost……’

Yuta (bashful): ‘Ehehe!’

Kento: ‘It’s not a compliment, so don’t feel embarrassed.’

Yuta: ‘Thanks for coming to search for me, you two!’

Tsubasa: ‘No, it’s good that Yuta-kun was found.’

Kento: ‘Well then, before you get lost again, let’s go back.’

Yuta (blushes): ‘Ye~s! Ah! If we hold hands, I won’t get lost again, don’t you think?’

Kento: ‘I won’t do something like holding hands with a man.’

(Aizome-san just now….... He made a dark face for a moment. I wonder if that was also because of the evening sun…...)

END

[mournersrp]

𝐍𝐎  𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒,  𝐍𝐎  𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐒.  once  again,  thank  you  all  so  much  for  the  dedication  put  into  applying  here  at  mourners  ;  it’s  truly  been  a  pleasure  reading  all  of  your  applications  &.  i’m  tremendously  grateful.  turning  down  an  application  is  never  an  easy  process,  and  there  were  many  instances  in  which  i  wished  i  could  permit  a  duplicate  upon  the  dash.  with  that  said,  i’m  looking  forward  to  both  speaking  &.  plotting  with  each  of  you  tomorrow  (  bear  with  me  while  all  pages  &.  skeletons  are  properly  updated  )  —  welcome  to  mourners  !  please  review  our  checklist  and  report  to  the  barrel  boss  within  the  next  twenty - four  hours.

𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐉  𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐅𝐀

VENLI  !  choosing  an  inej  for  mourners  was  ...  a  feat,  as  each  applicant  displayed  an  exquisite  version  of  our  wraith,  but  what  swayed  me  in  the  end  was  the  balance  you  kept  between  who  she  was  while  with  the  dregs  &.  who  she  became  without  them.  the  details  surrounding  intricacies  of  her  newfound  crewmen  (  &.  her  family  post  their  reunion  )  in  which  helped  shape  the  woman  outside  the  barrel  were  lovely  to  read  (  her  thoughts  on  rilar,  in  particular,  were  both  authentic  &.  entertaining  )  ;  i  could  picture  the  scenes  in  earnest.  i  also  loved  the  mention  of  how  she  came  to  understand  kaz’s  own  vices  after  having  to  face  her  own  whilst  sailing  the  seas.  thank  you  for  taking  the  time  to  apply  —  i  look  forward  to  seeing  your  inej  in  play.

𝐉𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐑  𝐅𝐀𝐇𝐄𝐘

NOAH  !  the  bit  about  kaz  disproving  jesper’s  exaggerated  stories  had  me  rolling,  and  your  headcanon  regarding  jesper  being  an  absolute  catastrophe  in  the  kitchen  (  gordon  ramsay  is  unamused  )  ?  you  wrote  it  best:  ‘  tall,  lanky,  restless,  distracted,  easily  bored.  ’.  incredibly  handsome,  but  certainly  cannot  focus  on  a  single  recipe.  on  a  serious  note  (  despite  the  consistent,  comical  little  tidbits  which  made  your  application  such  a  pleasure  to  read  ),  the  grasp  upon  his  character  you  presented  between  struggling  with  guilt  &.  penitence  was  flawless,  and  something  i  look  forward  to  seeing  explored  on  the  dash.

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐒  𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐑

ABBY  !  there  was  so  much  i  loved  about  your  matthias,  but  i  especially  appreciated  how  you  incorporated  the  other  skeletons  into  interpersonal  plot  points  for  him.  the  attention  to  detail  within  matthias’  headspace  when  ruminating  over  them  was  absolutely  believable  to  his  character.  the  vast  detail  you  supplied  for  each  personality  trait  &.  headcanons  were  so  indicative  of  who  he’s  been  and  who  he’s  become  (  or  trying  so  desperately  to  be  ).  i’m  interested  to  see  his  reactions  to  henrik’s  next  moves  just  as  much  as  you,  and  where  our  drüskelle  will  stand,  then.  oh,  and  abby,  what’s  the  first  rule  about  fight  club  ?

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐀  𝐙𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐊

EMILY  !  ah,  yes,  nina,  our  waffle  queen.  her  past,  present  &.  sought  future  were  crafted  so  wonderfully  within  your  application  ;  i  particularly  loved  your  headcanon  dealing  with  her  time  as  a  heartrender,  where  nina  stubbornly  wished  to  understand  the  small  science  whilst  her  peers  were  occupied  with  morozov’s  manuals.  it  was  a  pleasure  to  be  able  to  read  her  thoughts  on  the  grisha  she’s  become,  the  label  of  corpsewitch  adhered  to  her,  the  burden  it  has  also  set  upon  her  as  ‘  self - appointed  grisha  guardian  angel  ’.  &.  i  do  hope  you  get  to  share  those  plot  ideas  with  some  of  our  fellow  grisha,  as  your  points  revolving  around  them  were  so  well  thought  out  and  executed.  also,  you’re  right  —  kaz  gets  way  too  into  the  costumes.

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍

HARPER  !  i’m  ready  to  interact  with  felix.  it’s  no  wonder  kaz  made  him  a  deal  —  tragedy  maketh  man,  and  if  there’s  one  thing  dirtyhands  can  comprehend,  it’s  being  dealt  a  bad  hand.  i  love  the  idea  in  which  you  set  forth  that  he’s  lived  his  life  in  such  silence,  that  there  are  those  who  have  known  him  for  several  years,  but  haven’t  heard  even  a  whisper  slip  from  his  tongue.  the  way  you  transitioned  felix’s  headcanons  into  the  pivotal  moments  of  his  life  made  it  a  blast  to  read  through  (  especially  during  the  deal,  where  we  got  a  good  look  at  the  first  devil  in  his  life  —  do  old  habits  die  hard,  in  the  end  ?  ).  once  again,  welcome  to  mourners  (  i  foresee  much  plotting  in  our  future  ).

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑

ALEX  !  we  do  love  a  good  destroyer,  and  marlaina  is  no  exception.  she  knows  her  power  &.  is  not  afraid  to  unleash  it,  a  trait  that,  while  prized  within  the  dregs,  can  also  become  a  nightmare.  after  all,  control  &.  patience  can  be  key.  the  idea  that  she’s  particularly  skilled  at  cards  (  as  well  as  banned  from  most  gambling  halls  )  was  a  fresh  addition  to  the  skeleton,  as  i  quite  love  the  idea  of  our  hellish  heartrender  pushing  her  luck  at  the  crow’s  club  (  when  has  that  ever  ended  badly  ?  ).  i  agree  it’d  be  an  interesting  concept  to  see  her  have  another  grisha  under  her  wing,  especially  when  she  herself  is  always  so  keen  to  detonate  —  her  desertion,  however,  will  surely  catch  up  with  her  soon.

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑

MARGOT  !  you  have  spun  the  impostor  into  an  entirely  new  medium,  and  produced  a  character  that  went  beyond  the  skeleton  provided.  ‘  prison  changed  you.  for  the  better.  you’re  more  fun  now,  sociable  and  loud,  like  a  cannon,  truly.  so  loud  everybody  jumps  when  you  burst  into  a  room.  ’  one  of  the  first  few  lines  in  your  application,  but  what  immediately  captured  my  attention  and  had  me  buckle  in.  i  never  considered  that  the  target  in  which  damned  the  impostor  to  the  depths  of  hellgate  could  be  family,  but  now  i’d  not  have  it  any  other  way.  aris  is  a  world  class  actor  &.  i  cannot  wait  to  help  you  set  the  stage  (  &.  maybe  watch  it  burn  in  the  process  ).

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐓

HENRY  JUDE  !  i  wasn’t  sure  if  there’d  be  a  lieutenant  at  the  start  of  mourners,  so  i  was  absolutely  thrilled  when  receiving  your  application.  an  important  player  with  a  plethora  of  potential  directions  in  which  they  could  shift,  and  i  can’t  wait  to  see  if  jozef's  includes  the  checkmate.  the  craftsmanship  in  your  design  for  him  was  extraordinarily  executed  and  quite  poetic  ;  he  was  absolute  pleasure  to  study.  i  look  forward  to  plotting  with  you  as  well  as  discussing  the  similarities  between  our  broken,  disastrous  muses  (  also,  i  can’t  believe  we’re  both  aleksander  morozova  apologists  ).

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐑

ARACELIA  !  i’m  in  love  with  anya.  you  put  so  much  adoration  into  her  creation  &.  i  cannot  wait  to  see  it  bleed  onto  the  dash  (  you  make  it  so  hard  to  loathe  a  traitor  ).  her  personality  is  so  believably  balanced,  and  more  than  what  my  own  ideas  surrounding  the  role  initially  included.  the  birth  of  a  monster,  the  birth  of  a  tailor  &.  the  birth  of  an  illusionist  were  impeccably  composed  stories  which  sewed  her  into  existence.  you’ve  forged  a  character  who  is  the  definition  of  ‘  so  much  more  than  meets  the  eye  ’  &.  i  am  thrilled  to  have  gotten  the  first  look  at  our  scarab  queen.

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐑  |  EM  !  i  absolutely  love  the  concept  of  aleni  (  as  kaz  would  say:  she’s  a  particularly  good  investment  ).  with  grisha  within  his  crew,  what  better  for  an  amplifier  to  do  ?  i  was  wondering  if  i’d  see  an  application  involving  ketterdam’s  university,  and  was  immediately  thrilled  when  seeing  it  pulled  into  aleni’s  history.  the  idea  that  she  loved  ketterdam  in  any  capacity  is  not  something  you  tend  to  hear  (  it  died  quickly,  of  course  ),  which  was  a  unique  mention  within  your  wildcard.  &.  we  will  definitely  have  to  discuss  aleni  mistakenly  having  amplified  the  inferni  at  fifth  harbour,  as  i  believe  you’ve  proposed  an  excellent  idea.

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐑  //  𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀  𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑  |  IRIS  !  to  be  introduced  to  valdis  by  way  of  your  character  summary  was  a  treat.  i  absolutely  loved  the  way  it  was  written,  and  immediately  knew  why  she’d  made  it  into  the  dregs  (  truly  obsessed  with  her  being  the  daughter  of  a  pirate  captain  ).  though  she  managed  to  escape  her  original  work  with  braam,  it  seems,  for  a  time,  she  had  let  history  repeat  itself,  but  with  perhaps  a  better  boss  than  originally  at  the  helm.  &.  with  a  new  debt  paid,  how  fast  till  old  loyalty  dies  ?  

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑  //  𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀  𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑  |  REE  !  it’s  all  in  the  bones.  a  fjerdan  fleeing  for  discovering  themselves  grisha  is  always  something  i’ve  wanted  to  see  explored,  and  now  i  have  a  front  row  seat.  to  be  ostracized  by  their  own  &.  then  by  a  place  of  presumed  sanctuary  can  induce  a  particular  psychosis  within  the  most  stable  of  individuals,  and  we  do  love  sigyn’s  particular  brand  of  crazy.  you’ve  provided  an  entirely  fresh  take  on  what  is  known  of  a  grisha  healer,  and  how  such  gifts  may  be  construed  when  mixed  with  the  beliefs  of  fjerda.  thank  you  for  delivering  such  a  spellbinding  character  to  mourners.

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓  𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋  |  ALI  !  with  a  vast  cast  of  varying  characters,  i  was  thrilled  to  see  that  senna  originally  came  from  wealth  (  it’s  a  different  path  to  weave,  one  that  usually  draws  more  enemies  than  friends  ).  your  application  was  so  appreciated,  providing  a  role  in  which  started  from  the  top  &.  careened  to  the  bottom  (  i  do  hope  to  see  senna  &.  wylan  swap  stories,  especially  where  senna  has  made  strides  to  escape  the  tread  of  their  father  ).  you  call  it  their  grand  adventure,  and  in  all  its  sinister  glory,  it’s  only  just  begun.  welcome  to  mourners  ;  let’s  plot  some  blackmail.

𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐑  //  𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀  𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑  |  NINA  !  both  applications  for  our  resident  tidemaker  spun  tales  which  were  a  pleasure  to  traverse,  and  i  would  have  loved  to  have  both  turning  the  tides  for  the  dregs.  manu  belongs  in  a  novel,  with  all  the  devotion  you’ve  clearly  put  into  him.  &.  i  am  ecstatic  to  at  least  have  him  for  mourners’  chapters.  when  you  wrote  ‘  for  the  wanderer  was  nothing  if  not  a  mismatched  family,  made  with  kerch  purple,  fjerdan  ice,  kaelish  fire,  zemeni  courage  and  ravkan  boldness  ’,  i  found  myself  able  to  refer  to  it  whilst  reading  through  the  life  authored  for  him,  able  to  pick  out  these  particular  qualities  on  his  way  to  the  barrel.  &.  hopefully,  he’ll  reach  the  surface  soon.

[chaos-weekly]

Didi couldn’t believe it. She always went to the big events with Xander, always. Unless Leah was involved, then she stayed far away. But Xander almost always went with Didi. They were best friends, it was what they did! Then Nollie went with Ainsley, and Xander would go home with someone else, Ainsley would leave once he got enough praise, and Nollie and Didi would get drunk on champagne and giggle their heads off in the limo back to their shared (over the top) apartment.

But no. That wasn’t going to happen anymore. Didi would be going home with JJ of all people. She’d checked with Jared, and JJ couldn’t just leave in the same car. She had to actually go back to his place so she’d be photographed leaving the next morning. Didi had argued for her own apartment so she could at least sleep in her own bed, but since Didi had a roommate, it wouldn’t be a solid enough sign that she was a taken woman.

Didi hated Jared.

“I can’t believe I’m being forced to go with him,” Didi muttered, eyes closed as Nollie finished her eyeliner.

“At least Jared isn’t forcing you guys to actually hook up?” Nollie knew the whole situation—Didi didn’t keep secrets from her.

“Only because that’s super illegal. I think he’s already toeing the line as is. It’s like Xander designed the contract!”

Nollie laughed. “If Xander designed the contract, he wouldn’t care about what was illegal.”

Okay. So she had a point. Xander did have a penchant for chaos and most things sexual.

A knock sounded at the door, making Didi groan. She glanced at her phone, and JJ was a full half hour early! Plus, she didn’t even give doorman permission to send him up. Really, the only people who got free access to their apartment were Xander and Ainsley. Everyone else needed buzzed in.

Jared clearly had changed that.

Stupid Jared.

“You’re gonna get the door. I’m still in my robe.” Nollie gestured to her silk bathrobe, if it could even be called that. Didi and JJ were going early to hit the white carpet at the start of the night. Nollie and Ainsley were attending later, so she didn’t have to be ready for another hour and a half. Lucky.

Didi glared (mostly playfully) at her friend and stood. Her make up was half done, and her hair was probably a teased mess for her updo that she would finish once Nollie finished the stupid eyeliner. Didi hated doing eyeliner, but she looked killer in it. That’s what best friends were for.

Didi opened the door with a real glare when she saw JJ. It grew angrier when she registered what he wore.

Guy Fieri flames turned into a suit jacket, and he had the ability to still make it look hot. She hated him. But she hated him even more for matching her fire theme.

Didi had dressed as Rosa, a woman—from a legend from the Philippines—who burned to death. So she wore a dress that looked like fire. It also, which she hated this the most, matched the colors of JJ’s outfit. Stupid fire had to go and be unnaturally bright, not all dark and gloomy like she liked, and JJ’s Guy Fieri getup pulled it off too well.

Yeah. She hated him.

“Well look at that. We match, sweet thang.” His southern twang accentuated his words when he called her “sweet thang.”

She hated him so much.

“I’m going to murder you,” Didi hissed.

JJ clicked his tongue. “Not in public, you aren’t.”

Scowling, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him into her and Nollie’s apartment.

“Is that the boyfriend?” Nollie called out, still in their large living room, but now she was lounging on the couch.

“Fake boyfriend,” Didi corrected, dropping JJ’s wrist like it had burned her. He wasn’t that hot.

But he was still really hot.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Nollie,” her friend said, standing up and flashing that literally award winning grin. She’d gotten Chaos Weekly’s Sexiest Woman of the Year award for 2020.

“JJ.” Neither of them offered a hand to shake.

“I wish Xander were here,” Didi whined, going back to her chair as Nollie finished working on her make up.

“Talking like that doesn’t help your case, you know.”

Didi flipped JJ off. He chuckled.

“Our outfits match your temper.”

She flipped him off with the other hand, too. Nollie ruined the fun by swatting it away. “Don’t move unless you want to be blinded by eyeliner.”

“If I wanted that, I’d do it myself.”

The three of them settled into a strange silence. Didi tried to pour, but Nollie kept flicking her arm when her face moved. JJ seemed to be on his phone, or otherwise quiet. Nollie was focused on perfecting Didi’s make up.

Then an Arsenic song came on.

“You listen to my music?” JJ asked, sounding genuinely surprised. This time, when Didi scowled, her arm didn’t get injured.

“Nollie does. Not me. Can you skip?”

She rolled her eyes and followed Didi’s request, not commenting on the fact that this was Didi’s music playing from Didi’s phone. JJ didn’t have to know that, though, and Nollie was an angel.

“Okay, I’m done. Work your hair magic and you’ll be good to go.”

“Thank you, my queen,” Didi teased, earning a smile from Nollie. Ainsley’s costume was perfection—or so she’d heard. It was on strict lockdown. All Didi knew was she was dressing as Queen Titania.

“Always, peasant.”

She laughed as Nollie went back into her bedroom to change, and Didi settled to work on her hair. When her phone rang, she answered the call without checking the contact. It was Xander. He and Nollie were the only ones who actually got a ringtone and vibration for calls, since they were the only ones she wanted to ever talk to. Even her parents and Jared, her freaking agent, were sent to voicemail.

“I’m bored without you,” Didi greeted.

“Don’t you have a boyfriend now?” Xander chuckled.

“A fake one.”

“No need to be so upset. JJ is legit,” he insisted. Didi didn’t turn around to look at her date, but she suspected he was smirking. She had forgotten how close JJ and Xander were. They weren’t best friends, but definitely close friends.

“You’re not the one forced to go home with him,” she retorted. This only made a Xander laugh more.

“Didi, babe, take advantage of the situation.”

“I’m not sleeping with you,” JJ interrupted.

Didi turned around to scowl at him. She wished Xander could see her, too. So she FaceTimed him.

“You say that now, JJ, but I give it a week.”

JJ was scowling as much as Didi now. She could see it in her mirror.

“Shut up, Alexander, or I’ll start playing Defender,” Didi threatened. She didn’t like pulling out that song too often, even though it was really well done, because she knew how much frustration and pain it had caused him. But Leah’s song did make for a good threat when he was pissing her off.

Xavier stuck his tongue out at her. “I’m going, then, ‘cause you’re gonna play it anyways.”

“Better than Arsenic,” Didi countered, hanging up as Xander pointed out that she actually loved their music. JJ did not need to know that.

“If that’s your phone, doesn’t that mean you were the one playing my song?” he asked a few moments later. Narrowing her eyes, Didi pretended to be focused on finishing her updo.

“Nollie’s playlist.”

“Okay,” JJ replied, but he definitely didn’t believe her.

Yeah, she hated him.

Thankfully, neither of them said anything more until it was time to go. Didi was going to go public with a boyfriend for the first time, not just a hook up or fling, and the world was going to freak. It’d take some real acting skills for this one, but she had those. She could survive a night with JJ, and she could even survive a night sleeping in his guest room or on his couch or wherever he put her (it would not be his bed).

But that didn’t make her wish she was going alone any less. Just because she could didn’t mean she wanted to.

[soulmate-game]

The format is slightly off because I hate formatting on this app, so if you want a better experience then read the chapter on AO3. Without further ado, Chapter 12 of The Heroes’ Game.

Chapter 12 AO3

—*—*—*—*—*

“So. This is the useless, goo-minded model of an ex-friend who decided to suddenly regrow the spine that had spontaneously combusted two years ago?”

“That was three insults in ten seconds, Marinette,” Adrien pointed out, eyebrows high on his face, the blond impressed.

“I forgot to say spoiled.”

“Wow. You weren’t kidding,” Adrien shook his head, smiling slightly. “We can never let him and Kagami meet. They would be unstoppable.”

Marinette, who finally decided to stop holding back her beaming smile, laughed cheerfully. “Also, this is Damian’s brother Tim,” she gestured to the slightly older man, who smiled politely and waved from his place in the passenger’s seat of the luxury car. Marinette was sat in the middle of the car’s back row, one rich green-eyed teenage heir to either side of her.

“Also, Marinette,” Damian took hold of the conversation as Adrien introduced himself to his elder brother. “I notice you are wearing a new necklace. Any particular reason? It does not look like your usual style.”

The pigtailed girl blinked, rubbing her hand over the simple silver chain that held Chat Noir’s ring under her shirt. It took all her willpower to not cast a glance at Adrien as she ran her fingertips over it.

“It isn’t, but a family friend gave me an heirloom of his for good luck,” she said slowly, testing out the lie that Tikki had helped her create the previous night. “I decided to put it on a chain and wear it under my clothes. Something tells me that I’ll need all the luck I can get this week.”

Plagg was a bit grumpy at his ring being told to be a good luck charm when the truth was the exact opposite, but he had been suitably ignored by both Tikki and Marinette. The cat Kwami took a little too much pride in his unlucky and destructive powers.

“So, I couldn’t help but notice you mentioned a Kagami. That wouldn’t happen to be the Olympic gold medalist fencer Kagami Tsurugi, who is rumored to be studying in Paris to improve her skills, would it?” Tim asked, turning in his seat to face the teenagers in the back. Marinette and Adrien both smiled widely, nearly blinding both Wayne’s present.

“Oh yeah, that’s her,” Adrien confirmed, nearly bouncing in his seat. “She and I actually became soulmates almost four months ago,” Adrien pulled up his sleeve to show the stylized foil in stunning maroon on his arm. “She says I’m one of the only people who can still keep up with her in a spar. She’s ruthless,” Adrien’s face just got dreamier as he spoke. “She isn’t the best at socializing, but me, Marinette, and some of our other friends have been helping her out. She didn’t exactly get the best childhood, being raised to be the best fencer possible and compete at the Olympics and all. Kagami’s mom isn’t exactly the most friendly person you’ll ever meet, but somehow Marinette worked her magic,” Adrien chuckled a bit at the memory. “She just has this— this natural ability, I guess. Marinette, I mean. She knows exactly what to say and do in order to get someone to realize the mistakes they’re making. She had two conversations with Tsurugi-San. Two. And even though Kagami’s mom hasn't completely changed, she’s a lot more lenient now and actually makes an effort to be more sensitive in how she treats Kagami. That’s why I’ve always considered Marinette to be our every-day Ladybug,” he turned and offered the girl he was trying to earn the forgiveness of a small, sad smile. “Even if I haven’t really expressed that enough lately.”

“Every day ladybug?” Tim asked, eyebrow raised. Marinette had her head in her hands out of embarrassment.

“Adrien, nooooo!”

She was ignored.

The blond in the car nodded, eyes wide and shining with innocent enthusiasm. “Oh yeah. So Ladybug is Paris’s hero, right? She always manages to save the day, turn everything back to normal, and always looks after the city. But Marinette is like our hero without a costume. She always cares about our emotions, does her best to solve problems even for strangers, and cares about everyone she meets. She put together this whole trip— sure, it was funded because of the contest, but we never would have been able to come without Marinette’s planning and foresight. She did all this even though the majority of the class isn’t on good terms with her anymore. She had no obligation to do any of this for us, she could have just asked to come by herself, but she did all of it anyway. Because she cares even for people who aren’t nice to her.”

“Nobody deserves to just stay in Paris when they have an option to escape for a while,” Marinette argued, frowning. “It’s a toxic prison with HawkMoth running around. Regardless of how the class treats me, everyone deserves a break from that.”

Adrien just gestured to Marinette with his eyebrows raised as if to say, ‘you see?’

“I didn’t realize you were this much of a boot-licker,” Damian sneered, eyes narrowed and distrusting towards the blond model. “Marinette may not have been able to tell me everything, but simple observation can fill in the blanks. You were a limp noodle around the liar just yesterday, and while I do not doubt that what you say about Miss Dupain-Cheng is true, it sounds far too close to flattery for my liking. She may be kind and forgiving, but let me assure you that I do not accept a traitor’s words so easily. You were clearly a cowardly slime just earlier this week, all fake smiles and weak assurances,” the Wayne heir leaned forward so his dark, piercing green eyes locked with Adrian’s own acidic ones. “How do I know you will not turn tail again? Abandon Marinette as soon as something difficult comes along again? Why are you here, Agreste?”

The fencer’s lips thinned, and he clasped his hands between his knees without breaking eye contact. “I was stupid,” he admitted, sounding far more tired than anyone their age should have to. “I was distracted. My home life isn’t the best, never has been. Pretty much all my experience in social interaction comes from these past three years in school with Marinette and the others. And no, that’s not an excuse. I knew Lila was lying, but I didn’t know how toxic it was. How toxic it would get. And when my father gave me the ultimatum to stay on Lila’s good side, I wasn’t brave enough to say no,” Adrian finally broke eye contact and looked down at his entwined hands. He clenched them tighter as he thought about the past week in Gotham. “But I got sick over the weekend. I’m still a little sick, but I’m getting better now. And I think it— the weakness, how bad I was feeling… suddenly waking up this morning feeling so much better physically helped me realize how empty I felt. I usually ignore it in Paris because I can’t afford to get Akumatized. I wouldn’t forgive myself,” his jaw clenched. “But here, far away from HawkMoth, I finally saw it. Life in Paris sucks right now. The atmosphere in the class is draining. And I realized the only light in it still was being hurt, and I had ignored it. I called Kagami, she helped me realize just how badly I screwed up. I didn’t even realize the environment I had just left Marinette in, pretty much alone. I made a huge mistake,” he raised his eyes back up to Damian’s, the acidic, verdant eyes burning with new, renewed, determination. “I won’t make it again.”

“Tt. See to it that you don’t, or I will.”

“Oh, you didn’t mention he’d make a threat in the first ten minutes! We definitely should never let him and Kagami meet.”

“Stay intimidated you damn inconsistent ape!”

—*—*—*—*—*

“Everyone split up into teams. We’ll be going in groups of five, if you don’t want to participate you can stick to the top rows of bleachers,” the coach was instructing everyone gathered in the gym. Madame Bustier translated for those of the students who didn’t speak fluent English. It didn’t take long for Lila and her closest crew to move up to the topmost bleachers and away from the risk of being drafted to play basketball.

Why would Lila risk breaking a nail for sports, after all?

Marinette, on the other hand, still had a lot of energy to get rid of even if she had gone freerunning not that long ago with Robin and Red Hood. The ring sitting warmly against her chest did not at all help, its resonance with her earrings almost overflowing her with power and energy she was wholly unused to. She needed to vent it somehow, even if just a little.

She didn’t think about how a lesser person would have already been consumed by that energy.

The second the coach asked for volunteers for team captain, Marinette had never risen her hand faster for something. Nobody else had a chance (except Jon, but she didn’t have to know that. The kryptonian boy hadn’t made much effort anyway). The coach smiled widely.

“Good, someone with enthusiasm! Wanna make it a Paris against Gotham game? Choose your team Dupain-Cheng. Wayne, you’ll captain the opposing team.”

Marinette smiled widely in triumph, standing and immediately picking her team as her hand moved alongside her voice, pointing out her chosen teammates. “Alix, Kim, Ivan, Ad—if you’re feeling up to it, Adrien. If not, I can—“

“No, I’m good,” Adrien held up a hand to stop his pigtailed friend from devolving into stutters as he stood up. “I won’t get better lying around, anyway. Just go easy on me, Boss.”

Marinette chuckled at that, turning to see who Damian had chosen. Jon, to nobody’s surprise. Four other people Marinette only vaguely recognized from classes. They all looked athletic and not too intimidated by the Ice Prince, which made the Parisian designer suitably wary of the group as they went to the center of the court to get started.

“We’ll let the Paris team start this time, as a welcome to America,” the coach decided, handing the ball to Mari. He backed up until he was no longer in the way, and both teams got into their positions. “Ready… start!”

Marinette’s eyes flew, knowing everyone was waiting for her first move. Plan, plan— aha! Her lips curled into a smirk, and without warning she darted straight towards Damian’s team.

The ex-assassin wasn’t about to let her go that easily though, of course, and ran straight to intercept her. Only, she took advantage of the way Jon almost instinctively followed Damian to cover his back, and tossed the ball around her green-eyed pursuer straight at the spectacled boy. Jon’s eyes widened, and he smiled. He thought for sure Mari had miscalculated, and put forth a burst of speed to catch the ball headed towards his chest—

Only for a blur of yellow to fly right in front of him, snagging the ball and carrying it further into the Gotham team’s side of the court. Jon pursued Adrien, who passed to Kim. The seasoned athlete had already skirted around the distracted crowd to end up close to the basket, and dunked the ball as soon as he caught it.

Paris, 2. Gotham, 0.

Damian instantly whipped his head to stare at his soulmate, who had her arms crossed as she grinned at him smugly.

That kind of wordless teamwork didn’t come out of nowhere though, and Damian felt his eyes narrow. If Chat was Adrien, and he and Marinette had started off such a seamless play, then his suspicions just got another support beam to hold them up. Maybe he would put effort into this game after all.

“Jon, don’t follow me so closely. Marinette took advantage of you not watching your own back, stay observant,” he told his friend, a clear double meaning behind his last two words. Jon raised two perfectly black brows, as if silently asking are you telling me to cheat?

Damian only nodded, dribbling the ball he had been handed as the teams went back to the center.

Even with Jon tuning into his super senses to keep a better eye on the game, so to speak, they ended up tied at the end of fifteen minutes.

20-20

Both teams made swift scores, but it was clear Damian and Jon were carrying their team while the Paris team was well rounded with Marinette and Adrien just slightly advanced leaders that they took silent cues from.

Marinette was beaming widely as she breathed heavily, but wasn’t nearly as out of breath as her teammates. Adrien was so exhausted from his “illness” that he ended up sitting out the sudden death.

It was down to Marinette and Damian glaring each other down in adrenaline-fueled glee as the coach held the ball in one hand, counting down. At zero, he tossed the ball up and both secret vigilantes lunged.

Marinette jumped higher, managing to smack the ball first and get it into Alix’s grip. Their ball.

SHE AND Damian both races, following the skater as she ran towards the Gotham Team’s goal. Alix was blocked. Ivan was being covered by two of Damian’s teammates, Kim by another. Alix had no choice but to pass to Marinette, but Damian was able to pull forward at just the right time to snag the ball.

Marinette leaped backwards a good several feet, never taking her eyes off the emerald eyed teen. He put up a valiant defense, but Marinette managed to slap the ball away from him and dribbled it back to the right side of the court.

Only to stop dead. She was surrounded, the three point line was ahead of her, none of her teammates were free. If Adrian had been in play, maybe… Jon was closing in front her left, she had to move before he or Damian closed in on her.

So she took a deep breath, jumped straight up as high as she could go, and threw.

The ball swished through the net, and the students actually watching roared in surprised and impressed shouts of approval.

The Asian-French girl instantly got mobbed with hugs from her teammates, her head tilted back as she laughed in pure glee.

Bluebell met emerald.

Marinette winked. “Guess Paris is just better huh, Wayne?”

He would be lying if he said seeing her so breathlessly happy didn’t leave him similarly winded. Almost blinded by her brightness.

Yeah, he thought. You were pretty spot on back then. You must be my personal Angel. I don’t know what else you could possibly be.

—*—*—*—*—*

A Valkyrie, Damian decided. Marinette must be a Valkyrie. A warrior angel who chose the dead from a battlefield to be taken to Valhalla.

Why?

Because he was a Wayne, and as a Wayne he had several people (read: hundreds) who would like nothing better than to kidnap and ransom him to his father.

Like now. The Riddler had caught him, Jon, Marinette, Adrien, and several others as soon as school ended. He was the only real target, but Riddler never turned down extra bait. He wasn’t as tough on teenagers as he was adults, but that didn’t mean lives weren’t still on the line.

“Alright, kiddies. I’m a fair guy,” lies, “and I got a soft spot for kids. So, you can stay here obediently until Brucie boy up in his Tower sends me my money, or the Bats comes to his doom. Either way, you’ll be let out scott free afterwards. Or, you can leave,” he gestured towards the door in the lair they were in that proudly boasted a glowing red EXIT sign. “Any time you want,” he told them, smiling sinisterly. Because, of course, the only way to the exit was past a puzzle.

“In order to leave, you just have to possess at least two brain cells to rub together. I know, a hard feat nowadays to manage. To get to the exit, you have to find a way past the trick wall in front of you. Just fair warning, every wall is a trick wall so don’t try to pull any fancy tricks. Each brick is either safe, a deterrent, or a trick. And be careful, tricks can either give you a paper cut or a haircut a few inches too low to cut only hair, if you can understand my meaning. If you were smart, you’d just stay put.”

And Damian stared at his Soulmate, who didn’t even know he was right then, as she was the only one standing as the rest of them sat. Damian and Jon were seated because they knew Batman and co. Would be coming soon to bail them out, and neither boy could risk outing their identity. All of them had their wrists zip tied behind their backs, but that didn’t seem to stop Marinette from staying standing up defiantly and analyzing their surroundings.

“Are you gonna just stand there, or do something, little girl?” Riddler’s voice came back over the speakers. He wasn’t in the room with them, communicating over an intercom and attached TV screen. “Is your bravado all for show, or do you actually plan to escape?”

Marinette turned her glare to the live feed on the flat screen.

“I’m not the one hiding in a separate bunker, Riddler,” she retorted calmly. She was in a room with only Damian, Jon, a few of her friends, and walls of potentially dangerous traps. There were no gunmen this time. No immediate threats. Marinette could let a little Ladybug through this time.

Her hands twitched with an urge to punch something that was just being amplified by the ring around her neck.

Maybe a little Lady Noir could come through too, for a change.

Riddler twitched, and Damian could only stare as his soulmate stared down a Gotham rogue and even insulted him without hesitation or fear in her stance or face.

“Marinette!” Alix hissed, tugging at the girl’s uniform pants. “Get down! We’ll get out of here soon enough, don’t upset the supervillain!” She begged her friend. Marinette looked down at the pinkette, frowning.

“No, Alix! He isn’t even brave enough to fight his own battles, he lets puzzles and traps and hostages do his dirty work. I’m not about to sit down and let him treat me like I’m some helpless little kid. I stay quiet enough at school,” she hissed back softly, not about to back down this time. The bit about their class made Ivan and Kim flinch, along with Max and Juleka, who had also been taken. Adrien would have flinched, but the basketball game alone had drained him of all his recovering stamina for the day. This added stress was getting to him.

The blond, who had been eerily silent, started to cough. The pigtailed rebel of the group instantly turned to him, her face paper white as the model couldn’t seem to stop coughing. Specks of blood dipped out of his palms that were covering his mouth. and onto the ground.

“Shit,” Damian cursed. Jon wrapped an arm around the smaller boy, trying to get him to calm down and take deep breaths.

“There. Slow and steady,” Jon whispered to Adrien. “I knew you were sick, bud, but I didn’t think it was this bad. No worries though, we’ll get you checked out as soon as we get outta here,” he assured the fencer before looking up and locking eyes with Marinette. She nodded.

“Even more of a reason to get out as soon as possible instead of waiting around. Adrien needs a doctor. Max, is Markov..?”

The techie shook his head. “Back at the hotel, along with my better tech. My phone was taken.”

The pigtailed teen sighed, but wasn’t surprised. She reached up and took out the ribbons in her hair, tying them together and ignoring the unusual feel of her hair being loose behind her neck. It was usually something reserved for bedtime, but she wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.

“Alix, you have your roller blades on you, right?” The pinkette blinked in surprise before nodding, pulling the objects out of her bag.

“Yeah, why?”

Marinette didn’t answer, taking only one shoe and popping off two wheels. Alix made a face, but didn’t complain.

“Ivan, you carry around extra hair supplies for Mylene, right?” She held out a hand without waiting for an answer. “Could you give me some rubber bands?”

Holding her tied-together ribbons in her mouth, Marinette quickly tied the two rollerblade wheels together with the rubber bands, and tied her ribbons around the rubber bands to make them into a sort of axel. Makeshift yo-yo. She grinned, rolling the improvised weapon up and turning to the wall.

“What are you doing?” Damian asked slowly, standing to cover her back. Jon could watch the civilians just fine, he wasn’t leaving his soulmate without an extra pair of eyes just in case. Marinette was rapidly scanning the wall separating them from the exit.

“The wall is a puzzle, which means there has to be a pattern. All the bricks look pretty much the same, but we should be able to find the pattern without touching the wall if we look hard enough. We don’t have that kind of time though, so I’m going the old-fashioned trial-and-error way.”

“What?” Damian barked, but didn’t get in her way. “You can’t be that reckless—“

“I’m not going to touch the wall,” she interrupted, rolling her eyes. “This is,” she used that moment to swing her makeshift yo-yo at a brick above everyone’s heads. It pressed in, and nothing happened. It just slid back to make a step. Marinette grinned, rewinding her DIY tweaking and swinging it at the brick right next to the safe one, which swung away to reveal a muzzle that shot a stream of fire above everyone’s heads. “Predictable,” she muttered with a triumphant grin. “If I’m right, anyway. This could just be beginner’s luck.” She rewound and swung the ribbon-wheel-rubber band contraption a few more times, setting off only a few more traps. The solution printed itself in her mind.

Damian’s eyebrows raised, recognizing the pattern she was creating— or tracing— with her weighted whip. For a long moment, though only the other people in the room noticed, the two soulmates wore identical smug smirks.

“You got it,” Damian whispered, impressed and pleased before he surged forward. “Here, Get the lower ones. Your whip won’t reach the top of the wall, I’ll climb up and get those,” he offered, turning to make sure he had her approval. The girl’s face twisted into reluctance, clearly not wanting to put him in danger. The youngest Wayne put a hand on her shoulder, offering her a solid nod of reassurance. “I’ll be fine. I know the pattern now, and I have a fast reaction speed just in case. We also need someone to make sure there aren’t thugs waiting on the other side just in case, and I have a decent background in martial arts. Riddler doesn’t usually lie about his puzzles, but you can never be too careful with a Rogue.”

Marinette’s lips thinned again, but she nodded. A few thuds of her improvised weapon later, and Damian had the footholds necessary to climb up and press the bricks that were too high to reach.

The pattern made a question mark right in the center of the wall, but the top two rows of bricks before the empty space above the wall were all trick stones, meaning Damian had to carefully heave himself over and onto the platform waiting for them on top of the trapped obstacle. He took a quick look around before nodding to himself and looking down.

“All clear! Send Adrien up first,” he called, holding his arm down so he could help the Agreste heir when he got high enough. “Be careful not to press against these stones, you’ll set off a trap. When you pull yourselves over, keep your body straight and away from the wall,” the civilian-dressed vigilante instructed after they all successfully helped Adrien over onto the platform. Behind them, Riddler was suspiciously quiet and the TV didn’t turn back on.

They soon found out why. Only Marinette, Jon, and Max were still on the wrong side of the puzzle wall when a hidden door was kicked in and Batman stormed in alongside Red Robin. Both vigilantes froze at the sight of the unharmed teens already almost out. Marinette waved to them sheepishly, and Damian groaned.

“You mean there was a door there the whole time?” He groused, annoyed.

“It’s for the best,” Red Robin told him, shaking his head. “The riddler’s bunker was back there, and it’s a dead end unless you wanna squeeze through broken windows. Red Hood is tying him up right now, he’ll come out behind us. Though, we didn’t expect you all to already be almost out.”

Batman shot his grapple at the top of the wall, beckoning to Max and Marinette as Jon scrambled up the solved puzzle wall. “Let’s make this go by faster.”

Ten minutes later, and everyone was out. Red Hood manhandled Riddler away to the cops, and for the second time on their trip Marinette and her friends found school blankets settled over their shoulders.

“Well,” Max started, blinking. “I kinda expected worse, actually.”

Juleka nodded, tilting her head. “Yeah, that was kinda… tame…”

Marinette sighed, looking over at the two. “Of course,” she answered shortly, no longer patient with her classmates (no longer friends) now that they were all out of danger. “Riddler has a known soft spot for kids, and this was just a ransom scheme. Riddler’s actually been reforming for the past few years too, he most likely just had a relapse. None of his schemes for the past two years have been nearly as convoluted as beforehand and they are all months apart. Which you would know if you did my suggested research into Gotham’s rogues that I gave you before the trip,” she told them monotonously. She was done coddling them, they didn’t seem nearly as phased by this Riddler fiasco as they did by the failed robbery the week before. Then again, no guns or deaths were involved this time.

“That is correct, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Though I was hoping we wouldn’t see each other again so soon,” Batman spoke, approaching the group of teens as Hood and Red Robin explained things to the cops present. “But the puzzle was still something that should have taken at least an hour to solve. Good work doing it so quickly. And your improvisation is also impressive.”

Marinette blushed, looking down at the contraption she still hadn’t taken apart. “It’s nothing. I know the kinds of things my classmates always carry around, and I knew we needed something weighted to trigger the bricks, so…”

Batman grinned, a quick and very small thing that Marinette was sure she hallucinated. “Still, good work using your brain and keeping a cool head. You made our job easier. But let’s both try to keep any more excitement like this from happening on your trip.”

Marinette laughed, nodding. “I don’t know what I can do to help with that, but I’ll do my best anyway.”

—*—*—*—*—*

That night, after their daily spar, Robin braced his hands on his knees and panted. He was exhausted despite the fact that their bodies weren’t actually real in their mental world, and the physical strain was all simulated. Marinette had actually won, for the first time since they had begun the daily practice.

“Woo!” Marinette raised her fists in sloppy victory, just as out of breath as Robin. “I must be on a roll today! Lucky!”

“You’re Ladybug,” Robin suddenly blurted out. Normally he would have tensed at the slip, but for some reason the admission of his suspicion felt normal. Casual. Right. So he remained relaxed. Marinette went silent, looking over at him with a straight face for a long second before her lips slightly curled up at the corners.

“And you’re Damian, right?” She shot back, her voice soft and gentle. They looked into each other’s eyes as they continued to pant, both of their accusations in the open between them now.

Neither of them claimed to be innocent.

And that was okay. For some reason, neither of them minded that their identities had been found out. Maybe they had known for a few days, now. But they spent every night together, every sleeping hour in each other’s presence. They sparred. They gamed. Marinette was trying to teach him how to cook, and he was trying to teach her swordplay.

They knew each other pretty well, for only having met twelve days ago. And they had a lifetime to keep getting to know each other. This was just the next step. The next piece of knowledge to fill out the puzzle of who their soulmate was.

And it felt right to have it filled in, officially.

—*—*—*—*—*

[andormeddows]

A night at the opera ::: John Deacon (I)

Pairing: Fem!Reader x John Deacon

Requested: Yes! Anon, if you’re reading this, I would love to know if you liked it or not!

Summary: The reader is a very talented opera singer, but the company she’s at makes her feel bad about her weight, because she has a bigger bust than most others do. She gets fitted for a dress which causes her to feel insecure about its extreme cleavage and John reminds her how perfect she is and how much he loves her frame. Fluff!

Word count: 3432

Warnings: None, I guess?

Notes: See what I did with the title? Sorry, it just had to be done! Also, guys, I know nothing about how Freddie and John walked around London, so I tried to picture… I don’t even know if people would run for then if they ever saw them on the streets. Sorry, I don’t know. I also had to do some research about opera in general, hope I could get its essence. I pictured 80′s Deacy while writing this one. Anyway, I hope you like it! I loved this request! Feedback is always appreciated!

Part 2 is here!

Masterlist is here!

The scenery changed on the upstage as the opera overture rehearsal ended. The screeching of the sheaves echoed as ropes were fiercely pulled. Musicians, accommodated in the orchestra pit below the stage, hurriedly reorganized sheet music. Artists packed the offspring wings, including you, awaiting the orchestra cue for their entrance.

However, as soon as you noticed your colleagues looking sideways at your costume, you timidly hurried away from the crowded offspring to the backstage. As always, they weren’t exactly admiring your costume, but vilifying you for the extreme cleavage made visible by it.

“It seems costume designers measured YN’s bust wrongly once again,” Tina murmured to Dermot, simpering at her own ruthless words.

Being an utterly talented opera singer had never characterized you amongst your colleagues. In fact, it had always been unimportant after being hired by the company. Since the first day, comments have been whispered regarding your bust, bigger than average, causing you to feel insecure about your weight. It had never been a preoccupation, but, after accidentally listening to ballerinas shrieking with laughter backstage while teasing your presentation because of your costume, doubts emerged.

“YN! It’s your cue!”

Astoundingly blinking, the director’s voice dragged you back to your senses. The artists on the stage silently whined, rolling eyes at the director’s command to restart the act. Once again, people gathered on the offspring wings.

“Can you get this right?” Tina questioned irritated, voice exploding with sarcasm. “We’re debuting tonight, love.”

As the orchestra restarted the music, people reached the stage. Ballerinas moved across the upstage according to the choreography as extras reached their positions, silently acting. Gulping, you obliged your legs to move, dragging your body to the stage center, where a spotlight had been focused. Your hands tightly gripped at the skirt, slightly pulling it upwards.

In his apartment, at the very time your voice echoed around the theatre, John sighed. His luggage lay untouched by the apartment door. The Game Tour had been over for five days. He refused to unpack until his mind accepted the fact that the chaotic, but marvelous, months spent playing bass around the world were over.

Drafts of unfinished songs lay over the coffee table, whether being written on tour or during boredom-filled hours at his apartment. Underneath the mess, lay two tickets accompanied by a short letter. Your letter. John smiled, sitting on the leather armchair and pulling it towards him. He would never mistake your slanting handwriting for any other on Earth.

God, he had missed you. Being away from home for such a long time without being able to call you for weeks in a row had its effect on him. He missed spending afternoons with you listening to old records. He missed the nights you would spend at his apartment as he wrote songs, bass propped on his laps while he repeatedly played melodies. He missed going for late night walks around the city, stopping by coffee shops to buy any hot beverage. He missed visiting you on the opera house, where he would explore its backstage and all its magical, yet slightly messy, environment. He missed hearing your angelic singing around your apartment. He missed seeing your laugh, how your face would lovely contort into a smile and lit up with such happiness.

He missed you. Absentmindedly chuckling at his thoughts, he took a sip from a steaming mug of tea in one of his hands as he reread the letter. He couldn’t wait to see you.

Deacy,

I could have called you, but it would definitely spoil the surprise. Since I already had to send the tickets, I decided to write a letter as well. Honestly, I wish I could pay you a visit and hand you them myself, but we have been rehearsing non-top for the past two weeks. A new opera, in which I got the leading role, will be debuting a few days after you’re back from tour. It would mean the world to me if you came to watch it! The problem is I only got two tickets, so I cannot invite all of the boys, which is rather shitty .Would you, please, apologize to them in the name of myself? I’m sending both of the tickets anyway in case one of them wishes to come along. I miss you! Love you.

Yours always,

YN.

Hurriedly drinking the remaining tea, John winced as the hot beverage burned his throat. He abandoned the mug on the coffee table, reaching for the telephone table. He dialed Freddie’s number, anxiously listening to the telephone beeping.

“That’s Freddie. Yes?”

“It’s Deacy, Freddie,” John excitedly answered, fiercely gripping at the handset and pressing it against his ear. “Would you fancy accompanying me to an opera tonight? YN’s debuting in it as leading role and sent me two tickets.”

“Is she?” Freddie smiled at John’s words. “God, I would love to.”

When the starry sky shone above London, John giddily pulled his black leather jacket hanging by the apartment door before leaving his apartment, tickets held tightly in his hands. Freddie’s Rolls Royce parked by the sidewalk on the other side of the street. John’s body shivered, buffeted by the wintry wind as he crossed the street.

“Hurry up, Deacy! We should never be late for the rise of a star.”

John got in the car, putting the seatbelt on and receiving a gleeful smile from Freddie. The city lights shone as they crossed London. John observed people on the sidewalks, overcoats and boots packed the streets as winter approached, showing its first signs.

The driver pulled by the opera house, cars parked in front of it. Occasionally, horns would echo accompanied by the shouting of irritated drivers. Freddie’s Rolls Royce lost between many other cars parked by the other side of the large street.

John and Freddie hurriedly crossed the street as people gathered at the opera house entrance, tickets held tight between their fingers. John pulled the pink tickets out of his jacket pocket, reading them in order to find the right section entrance.

“She got box five reserved for us,” John mused, heart inexplicably racing at his own words.

“She must love us, then. I mean, you. I’m just your humble guest, dear,” Freddie answered pressing his lips in a thin line to prevent a smile from crossing his lips as John absentmindedly stopped walking, mesmerized by your gesture. “Shall we get inside?”

After entering the vast theatre and accommodating himself in box five beside Freddie, his eyes wandered to the stage. The heavy red and gold curtains were closed, revealing a tiny stripe of the dark wooden floor. Several musicians sat in the orchestra pit tuning their instrument so that it sounded perfectly. The painted ceiling bore a gigantic chandelier. John’s eyes focused on it, mesmerized by its beauty as though bewitched by it. Its excessive golden details shone magically under its bright tiny yellow lamps. His peripheral vision registered painted naked angels around it, holding harpies as though praising the chandelier.

“This is marvelous,” he whispered.

“Everything about an opera house is marvelous, dear. I’m actually glad to be here,” Freddie answered, observing his surroundings.

John watched the people moving below, crossing the theater looking for the correct seats before averting his gaze to the leaflet received at the entrance in his hands. It presented information about the opera, listing its acts. The following pages announced every artist participating in it along with their roles. A black and white picture of you in one of your costumes of the show occupied a whole page, a brief text present you, your career as an opera singer and your role in the debuting show.

The constant noise of conversation reached their ears as the seats were gradually being taken by the public. John couldn’t suppress the smile that crossed his lips. He felt proud of you it would actually be an understatement to say it. A full house would witness the rise of a star.

After the sounding of the alarm, a masculine voice politely asked for people to accommodate themselves before warning that any recordings of the show were strictly prohibited. The lights slightly diminished, the lamps of the chandelier shone feebly as a spotlight focused in the middle of the apron. The opera director announced its start, presenting you as the opera diva. John whistled loudly as the roar of people clapping filled his ears. He felt his heart would burst in pride.

The heavy red and gold curtains were slowly opened, revealing a magnificent scenario as the orchestra started playing, the classic music echoing in the perfect acoustic arrangement of the theater. As earlier during the last rehearsal, artists packed the offspring wings, including you, awaiting the orchestra cue for their entrance. The costumes were now properly worn, the makeup and different hairstyles done meticulously.

You exhaled in nervousness,   averting your gaze up to the stage ceiling packed with ropes and sheaves. Your voice would certainly fail. Where you good enough for the leading role, anyway? You would certainly stumble over the dress skirt. People would laugh at your costume for showing too much.

The sudden thought of John witnessing your failure caused you to feel dizzy. Should you have invited him? Your cheeks acquired a light shade of red underneath the makeup, shame creeping up your veins. A mirror stood beside your anxious figure. Your eyes unwillingly averted to your reflection on it. That costume was ridiculously tight. Had costume designers measured your bust wrongly as Tina had suggested? The extreme cleavage made visible by that dress utterly annoyed you.

“Don’t lose your cue, YN,” Dermot teased, being followed by some other artists.

“Oh, shut up, loser,” you mumbled irritated, crossing your arms over your chest and rolling your eyes at his strutting to the edge of the offspring.

“We shall see who the loser is at the end of the performance, yeah?”

“Prick,” you whispered at him.

The overture was over, the scenery changed on the upstage. Music still played as people reached the stage. At a particular high note reached by the violinists, you obliged your legs to move, managing to straighten up your face. The nervous expression was replaced by an adorable smile as you graciously reached the stage center. A spotlight shone above you, illuminating your figure in an angelic manner.

John’s eyes accompanied your movement through the stage. Your willowy figure angelic illuminated by the spotlight caused his heart to miss a beat. No other goddess would be as stunning as you. God, he could admire your costume for the rest of life.

“Oh, fuck, John,” Freddie murmured beside John, mesmerized by your figure. “She’s a goddess.”

“She’s more than a goddess, Freddie,” John replied, hanging on the edge of his seat, intending to stand near the box handrail.

On the stage, you obliged the negative thoughts filling your mind to hit the back of it. No benefit would be gained by dwelling on them. Taking a discrete deep breath, moving in a regal manner, you opened your mouth intending to start singing as the orchestra hit another cue.

John’s eyes brimmed with tears of joy as your magnificent singing filled the theater, engulfing it in a magical moment. He gripped the velvety box handrail as he watched you transform the whole atmosphere of the place. Intense shivers wandered through his body, causing him to smile at the sensation.

Freddie excitedly watched your figure. His eyes attentively recorded every move of your hands and arms. He had never seen a more pleasing body language. He, then, averted his gaze to your mouth and throat. He could practically see your vocal chords working to produce those angelic sounds.

Ballerinas surrounded you. Your dress shone below the spotlight, sparkles occasionally reaching people’s eyes. Your hair combed into an elegant bun, filled with minuscule silver flowers, caught John’s attention in a second. A few strands of hair framed your features. Oh, what a marvelous sight.

After two hours of incredible singing, acting and dancing, applauses exploded through the theater as people eagerly stood up. The cast bowed, smiles all over their faces. John whistled loudly once again, clapping non-stop.

The artists left the stage, leaving you alone. A spotlight focused in the middle of the apron, to where you paced. Another round of applauses exploded. A genuine smile crossed your lips as tears gathered in the corners of your eyes. After the amount of whistles, applauses and praising at your debut in a leading role, you wished your talent would be recognized by the company, who, up to that moment, vilified you for the extreme cleavage made visible by the dresses you wore.

Your eyes observed the crowd, averting to the right of the theater, where box five could be seen. You had obliged yourself not to glance at it during the whole show, afraid that John would have given up on you. But there you saw him, smiling and clapping eagerly. A silent laugh escaped from your lips as your eyes landed on him. Freddie stood beside John, equally clapping. A few tears streamed down your cheeks at their reaction towards your performance.

“Magnifica!” Freddie bellowed at you.

The director reached the stage once again, taking your hand in his and flashing you a proud smile. Both of you bowed together, earning another round of applauses. You stepped back as the red and gold curtains started to be pulled closed by the staff. The roar of the crowd was muffled by it, the applauses never seemed to cease.

Once Freddie and John reached the agitated street, John pulled Freddie to the staff entrance intending to wait for you to leave the theater. It took a while until you managed to shimmy out of your costume. Your dressing room had been filled with bouquets, a flowery smell filled the air as Harper helped you undress.

Quickly thanking him for helping, you left the dressing room, crossing the theater corridors in order to reach the staff exit. You smiled at the security guard at the door, who kindly opened the door for you. As soon as the cold night air buffeted your body, your eyes wandered through the street.

“YN! YN!”John’s voice echoed from a few meters on the grey sidewalk.

You ran to his arms, letting your body collapse against his. His arms embraced you in a tight lasting hug as he pressed kisses to the side of your head. Strands of your hair hit his face because of the wind, but he smiled. You were there.

“God, I missed you!” you mumbled against John’s shirt. “I missed you so much! Where’s Freddie?”

“Hm, he left already. He apologized for having to leave without complimenting you, tough,” John nervously answered, Freddie’s words echoing in his mind before leaving — “I guess I’m leaving, John. I’m sure you both need some time alone, yeah?”

You timidly smiled. “Hm… This is actually…” you gulped, averting your eyes to your hands propped on his chest, almost reaching his shoulders. “What do you think of spending the night at my apartment, John?”

He chuckled nervously. “Wouldn’t you like to rest? I mean… I’d love to, but…”

“Don’t worry. It wouldn’t bother me at all, you know?”

John nodded, fingers anxiously pressing against your waist. Your eyes bore into his, another timid smile plastered over your lips. You blinked a few times as strands of your hair hit your face. “Thank you.”

John asked for a taxi, opening the door for you with a gentle smile. The ride was silent, but John’s fingers timidly crossed the leather seat looking for yours. Your heart missed a beat as he hesitantly tangled them together, causing you to press your lips in a thin line as anticipation hit your body. It was a normal gesture for a friend, wasn’t it?

“You looked like an angel tonight, YN,” John murmured. You shook your head, smiling at his kind words. However, they weren’t enough to erase your insecurities.

“John…” you started unsure. “I actually need to talk to you about something.”

John gulped, the gentle grip on your fingers momentarily faltering as the taxi driver pulled by your apartment. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No. No, of course not,” you rushed to reply. “This is actually about me.”

You quickly handed the taxi driver the money, thanking him before leaving the car. John followed you, a concerned look on his features.

“What’s wrong, YN?” he anxiously asked while closing the backseat door.

You shook your head, reaching the sidewalk. You both entered the block of apartments as you fumbled with the keys inside your overcoat pocket. You unlocked the door to your apartment and entered first, turning some of the lights on. John couldn’t help but smile at the sight of your apartment. He missed it.

“I… I don’t know how I should start this,” you admitted, reaching the kitchen and pulling the fridge door open. “It’s actually ridiculous, but it’s been bugging me for a while.”

John anxiously waited for you to continue as he followed you into the kitchen. You offered him a beer bottle before resting against one of the counters and chugging a glass of cold water down. You tried to work out the words inside your mind. Nervousness filled your body. Should you talk about how insecure you felt towards it? By talking about it, you would oblige him to notice your body if he had never done that before. Wouldn’t it be awkward?

“Hm, YN…” John started, crossing the narrow kitchen towards you. He propped the beer bottle on the counter, next to your empty glass of water. “You know you can tell me anything, right? I know I spent a long time away, but I hope it didn’t change our friendship?”

You could notice an insecure tone in his voice, desperately shaking your head. “No, God. John, it would never happen. Nothing can change our friendship. It’s just that… I don’t want to make you uncomfortable talking about it.”

He shook his head, pressing his lips together in a thin line. “Go on, try me.”

You chuckled at his words, fondly gazing at him. However, you soon averted your gazed to his chest. “I haven’t been feeling comfortable with my body lately. I joined this opera company probably a month after you left for the tour, you know? Since then, I’m feeling self-conscious about my image. They fit me into tight dresses that end up showing too much.”

“Too much, YN? It’s a dress, nothing more than a costume.”

You sighed frustrated. “That’s exactly the problem. It’s a dress! Most of them make extreme cleavage, John… It actually makes me feel uncomfortable. I see other girls walking around the stage in similar costumes and I… I feel I’m overweight. They fit perfectly into their dresses…”

“Look at me, YN…” John whispered, taking another sip from his beer. A loving gaze lit his features as his hands slowly caressed your upper arms. “You’re perfect.”

“John, cut the bullshit,” you retorted, sighing in frustration once again.

“YN, I mean it,” he replied. “Why would compare yourself to those other girls? Weren’t you the one who admired all shapes and forms, praising people for being who they are? Why don’t you celebrate yourself either?”

“John…”

“No, wait,” he whispered, pacing closer towards you. His delicate fingers reached for your chin. “I mean every single word. What’s wrong with having a bigger bust than others do? Did it ever prevent you from following your dreams? Did it stop you from achieving the bloody leading role in an opera? For God’s sake, YN… Do you how proud I am of you? I almost collapsed in tears seeing you on that stage. Please, listen to me when I say you’re perfect. I believe these words don’t dictate beauty patterns in no circumstances: how many different people say these words to other different ones? Believe in me when they leave my lips.”

You gulped, blinking fast as your eyes brimmed with tears. “God…”

John silently laughed, pressing a kiss to your cheek. Your hands reached for his, still on your chin. Your eyes bore into his. For a moment, both of you silently stood close to each other. Your mind still absorbed his meaningful words, which, honestly, were the only ones that mattered.

“You’re perfect, YN,” he repeated it, pressing kisses all over your face while murmuring the words against your skin, causing you to laugh and squeal under his touch. “I’m repeating it until you believe in its meaning.”

Part 2 is here!