#but i highly doubt she cares about that 😂

[peanutbutterjelly-pie]

My poor cat has to wear a Cone of Shame now and she is so not happy about it 🙃

[meimi-haneoka]

What are your top 10 favorite scenes in Clear Card manga? (Not counting the anime because it hasn't been finished yet)

Aaaahhh nice question! 🤭 Thank you so much for sending me this ask, since now that the main story is over, with a cool mind, it gave me the opportunity to think about the scenes I loved the most.

It is actually quite hard for me to choose, because there are so many good scenes, and it somehow feels also "unfair" to make a ranking, but I will try to answer with my CURRENT top 10, which is highly depending on my current inclinations and preferences. 😊 (under the cut, with explanations and analysis for each scene)

10. Chapter 1, "We'll be together forever"

I'm not placing this here because it's my least favorite, not at all, but because after more than 7 years, its power to evoke emotions in me has been supplanted by other scenes. 😅 I dunno how to explain it but, while it stays one of the most important and nostalgic scenes in this series, so much more happened in this arc that I feel "in a stronger way" than this scene. Still, it's in my top 10 because I was highly emotional when I've seen it in chapter 1.

9. Chapter 22, "Same goes for you, Syaoran-kun"

Ooooh, this was such a satisfactory moment, I still remember it. Till that moment, Sakura never gave out any hint that she had started to notice that Syaoran had been hiding something from her. This was portrayed differently in the anime, because Sakura confides her doubt with Meiling way before this scene happened in episode 21, but in the manga it was such a "wow" moment for me, because we had been screaming in our heads "how is it possible that Sakura is so oblivious that she doesn't notice anything", but no, she actually had already noticed, it's just that she wanted to take all of us by surprise, Syaoran included! And she was waiting patiently for him to talk to her. I also liked the way she phrased this, because it might be interpreted as slightly slightly calling him out while telling him "please open up to me" with love. Which is exactly what also will happen with another couple later on.

8. Chapter 33, Sakura hugs Syaoran with a resolute face

Another moment that made me scream "QUEEN!!" was this one. Oooh, how much I loved Sakura in this specific panel. Syaoran is prevented from warning her about Kaito and what he knows about him, so he desperately tries to convey to her with that crushing hug that no matter what happens, he's going to protect her. But since Sakura had just found out the truth about the Clear Cards and felt the frustration of not having understood it earlier, causing her loved one to put himself into a dangerous position, her resolute face here always conveyed to me her desire to be more "in touch" with herself, finally "waking up" and do her part to protect Syaoran in turn. That little hand gripping Syaoran's shirt tightly is everything to me. It's so rare to see Sakura depicted with such strong and complex feelings.

7. Chapter 41/42, Syaoran and Kaito's fight

One of my favorite scenes, no doubt. You have no idea how much I'm anticipating to see this scene in the anime. It's not only because my two favorite boys are basically arguing over who's more "I'll save/protect my most important person no matter what" (even if one of them hasn't figured it out yet), but it's also because we have a pretty violent Syaoran here...he attacked Kaito behind his back with a freaking lightning, without notice or anything else, and that made me go "wow Syaoran, you must be quite mad if you're not caring about fair play in this confrontation" 😂 And it's also pretty uncharacteristic of Kaito to be taken by suprise by someone....but this is just because Nadeshiko had distracted him with a topic that really dug deep in his core.

6. Chapter 31, "I'm also mad at you, Syaoran-kun"

And of course, this is another main scene that I can't wait to see animated and that really left an impact on me. I realize that my favorite scenes are those where the characters do something you wouldn't expect from them basing on what's been portrayed of them till that moment. And I think hearing Sakura say "I'm also mad at you, Syaoran-kun" had a major impact on me. And felt very satisfactory. Of course I knew that Sakura would've never lashed out at Syaoran when she would've found out about the Sakura Cards, about lying and omitting things to her...Sakura knows that her Syaoran would never reach such lengths if it weren't for her safety. But still, he didn't fully consider the consequences of his actions, which could've been so much worse than what we've seen, and I think in that moment Sakura fully realized all of that, and it's inevitable that the pain turned also into anger because "how can you be so blind to not realize that you would've killed me if something happened to you?". Sakura's calm and composed anger and pain is very much in character for her, but also something we yet had to see till that moment, so it felt really refreshing. I also remember her next sentence, "Even if it would've made you uncomfortable, I would've cried and cried forever". It's as if she was telling him "in front of something of such gravity, I need to take notice of my own feelings and express them. I WILL react in this way, even if I know that I will make you feel bad about it." It's claiming the right to be angry when your loved one messes up big time with you. (lord, the parallels!) And Syaoran's hug to her head, not even allowing himself to hug her body, felt very humble and respectful from his part, in my opinion. He absolutely felt the need to apologize and comfort her, but not invading her space and comfortable zone too much.

5. Chapter 52, "But you look like you're in pain"

Chapter 52 was a "parallels fest" beginning to end, and more than a scene, I'd daresay I place the entire chapter in this position of the ranking. It was very nice to see, for once, a parallelism between Akiho and Syaoran, rather than the usual Akiho and Sakura. I think CLAMP took care in depicting this scene because they wanted to make sure that the readers understood that, despite being under a "synchronization", the feelings Sakura and Akiho have for their loved ones are absolutely genuine, unique and personal to eachother. In short, Akiho doesn't act in a certain way towards Kaito because she's "mimicking" what Sakura does with Syaoran. If there's one thing in CLAMP manga that always eluded hitsuzen, plotting, scheming, even premonitions, are the feelings the characters have for their important people, and it's not something specific to CCS. Not even magic can change the feelings someone got for someone else, just as magic alone cannot make someone fall in love with someone else. It's always coming from the heart. And so, in this scene we see two kids deeply worried for their loved ones, who look in pain, and CLAMP have shown to us how their situations, although paralleling, had two very different outcomes, not because the feelings at the base were different, but because their circumstances were different. In the Akiho/Kaito half, I was absolutely heartbroken by Kaito's reaction, dictated by fear and isolation. But I was also in awe at Akiho's strength of mind, the way she kept insisting for Kaito to open up to her because she just could feel that something wasn't right, it hadn't been for a while at this point, and the fear to lose him made her stronger and more incisive than ever. Alas, Kaito's stubborness at this point of the story is basically playing a tug of war with her (a game Akiho has no intention to lose), so he had that reaction of running away and shutting the door in her face, another thing I found extremely uncharacteristic of him, because he had always been so respectful and diligent in his "role of the butler". With the progression of the story, this reaction became so much more clear and coherent with his state of mind. To this day, this chapter is so dear to me because of the strong and complex emotions depicted in it (even though at the time it hurt so much).

4. Chapter 80, "Cristaux. That's my true name"

Well yes, it might be because it's just fresh in my mind, or because it was, in a way, the end of the tribulations for me to see this guy finally realizing what Akiho is to him, but I feel this scene in my core. The choice to reveal his true name to her, what it means in a CLAMP manga, the intimacy of the scene without actually depicting anything that any reader (who doesn't know CLAMP well) would consider "regular" for a romantic scene (so much that a good amount of people didn't understand what happened here), makes it so precious and special to me. When I've talked about this scene in the stories of my IG account, I used "Delicate" by Taylor Swift as a background song, because I really feel like CLAMP depicted Kaito's intentions in a very delicate way. Which is how it is supposed to be, how their relationship will develop and transform along the way. They need so much sensitivity, gentleness, time, tenderness, because they both have lots of scars they need to heal from. And just like in the song, Kaito is starting to acknowledge many things and he's moving a tiny step ahead in that direction, with this gesture that means so much (and Akiho is perfectly aware of what it entails). It's like "starting again" for them, this time from a foundation of honesty and trust. Slowly, slowly healing and building their bond back up. It's the evidence that when your heart is in the right place, there's always a second chance and Kaito showed here that he doesn't want to waste it.

3. Chapter 78, Akiho and Kaito's reunion

Well. OF COURSE this would be in my top 3! I cried so much!! 🥲 The emotional tension, Akiho's anger, Kaito's silence that suggested how stunned he was, finally realizing things that we waited for the whole manga for him to see... I think the one aspect that struck me the hardest in this scene was imagining to be in Akiho's shoes in that moment, and feeling all that love and anger pouring out of her, without even fully understanding where those feelings came from, because she still didn't remember anything about him. Like, you have someone in front of you, your heart knows it's the person you love, and yet you can't remember anything about them, not even their name. But you still feel this storm of feelings pouring out of you. So powerful. As powerful was Akiho's assertiveness when she rebuked Kaito not only for deciding her happiness on her behalf, without asking her absolutely anything, but most importantly because he dared to remove himself from her life, thinking "she doesn't need me to be happy, after all", when he was so so so wrong. And in doing that, he committed another horrible thing, he literally threw himself away in the process, like something of no value. I think more than anything else, this was what hurt Akiho the most. And we always go back to that parallelism of chapter 31, how these boys, in their fever of protecting their most important person, completely forget/don't see how fundamental THEY are to that person's happiness. Out of this whole reunion, another scene I love is when Akiho kinda "pulls" Kaito back to her, pressuring him to go along with Sakura's plan to revert him back to his true appearance (from that of a dragon). You can see that his self-loathing makes him hesitate, and resist that plan till the last second, but when he exchanges that long stare with Akiho, he finally caves in. Her hard stare, which shows already the irritation and pain that will overflow afterwards, makes him feel "wanted", necessary to someone. Just for being himself, not because of his powers, like it had been till he met her. That's another moment of this scene that I love deeply.

2. Chapter 48, "The moon is beautiful"

Yeah I'm sorry, I've been debating whether this scene would go to n. 1 or not, then decided otherwise, but I can't lie to myself: the scene that impacted me the most in this entire manga, the one that changed me, is this one. Akiho's covert love confession under the full moon. And until someone explained to me what Akiho actually meant with that "because the moon is really beautiful", I had considered this just a very sweet and cute scene, but nothing more. When someone gave me the correct "reading key" (and it's absolutely intentional because Akiho's speech is placed between quote marks), something changed inside of me towards these two. I already liked them, Akiho in particular, but this scene confirmed to me that Akiho was serious in wanting to grasp her life tightly and change it. From a shy, insecure girl needing validation at every sentence, crushed by the trauma of the past, to someone who actually made the first, concrete steps in conveying her thoughts and feelings to the person most important to her. From stillness, to action. The first steps towards finding her voice, and letting it be heard, louder and louder, throughout the story. This is a very important turning point, as you can literally see her changing, after this scene. Even in this metaphorical way, it must have required for Akiho to muster all of her courage to confess her feelings. Did Kaito understand what she meant, here? To this day, I don't think he did. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said such a foolish thing like "I didn't think you needed me to be happy" in ch. 78. But he still wanted to spend time with her, he was visibly glad to receive that "invitation" from her, even though he never let that transpire from his words, his reply is a line carefully built in Japanese to address what Akiho wanted, not what he wanted. Cause he couldn't allow himself to want anything, aside from that one wish, knowing very well how this would've ended. Chapter 48 and 49 were giving us everything we needed to know to determine not only Akiho's feelings towards Kaito, but also his own feelings for her. It's very clear by the way they look at eachother in their scenes of these two chapters. And yet, the smell of "doom" was looming over them (so much that at the time I thought this would be their last conversation before everything went down the drain; fortunately it wasn't), so this "duality" created the perfect mix to get me definitively invested in these two.

1. Chapter 79, "I can't be on everyone's side"

I chose this scene for the 1st position because I absolutely adored the revolutionary and strong message that Sakura passed in the very culmination of the climax. I felt we really needed it. More than once I had feared, throughout the serialization, that CLAMP would've shown Sakura trying to "befriend" or "compromise" with the Squids & Association, when the "moment of the truth" would've come. Because of the apparent "dogma" that "Sakura is everyone's friend, no one is evil in Sakura's world, Sakura is such a good girl".

But what they had already shown about Akiho's clan and the Association ABSOLUTELY couldn't be justified or compromised with. CLAMP had already shown too much cruelty from them, there couldn't be any "redeeming arc" or anything like that, that wouldn't result in being offensive to the sensitivity and intelligence of the readers. Sometimes it happens that you just can't compromise with cruel people guided only by greed. You shouldn't. Especially if they abused other people ever since they were so little.

In this specific scene, CLAMP have put Sakura in front of a choice, but not only that: they also made her question her own morality. How I adored that! Sakura does realize that what she's about to do might not be good from a moral standpoint, forcing people to forget about something without their consent. Exactly what Kaito did before. But she doesn't care. This is something different, and the difference lies in the intentions. While Kaito acted out of love, those other people were clearly trying to harm her friends. Because of this, she spells out clearly that she can't be on everyone's side. Because at some point a choice needs to be made, and she chose Akiho and Kaito. This scene right here is, perhaps, the one that answers the question that I know many people made themselves throughout the story, and after it was over: did we need Akiho and Kaito in Cardcaptor Sakura?

Yes, we did.

Because they brought Sakura to this moment, and they pushed her to make this decision. The decision to choose her loved ones' happiness over anything else, even her own morality, particularly when cruel intentions were involved towards people with a background much less happier and ideal than hers'. The decision to go on along with them, rather than trying to go back to how things were before. The decision to do whatever in her power to protect them. A series of decisions that brought her an enormous character development. This thematic of "going on" rather than "going back" was so strong in Tsubasa too, and it's not a coincidence that everyone could feel a strong connection to that other CLAMP work, in the final 2 chapters (and not only because of the cameos).

I think this scene defined and changed CCS forever (for the better, in my opinion). I feel like the essence of Clear Card is all here. This feeling of "everything we went through was for this moment" is so strong that made me designate it as my n. 1 scene!✨

[richmond-rex]

this sounds a little petty 😂 - or maybe it's a genuinely valid piece of frustration, idk - but whenever I see a list of Tudor queens or Tudor queen consorts and Elizabeth of York is either 1) not on the list or 2) regarded as one of the less "important" (what does that even mean? idk but people keep saying it) queens, it irritates me so much. You'd think people who care about the Tudors as a historical dynasty would give the first Tudor queen her due, but apparently the most she's good for is vague and rather inaccurate comparisons with Henry VIII's queens. Particularly Jane Seymour, even though I really don't think there's much of a "parallel" between the two women's personalities, queenship, marriages or even appearance at all.

Elizabeth was SO IMPORTANT for the inception of the dynasty. So damn important. Henry VII's route to kingship from 1483 did not begin with him. It didn't begin with him angling for the throne or people angling for his right to the throne. It began with Yorkist supporters trying to put the Princes on the throne and then beginning to consider their sister Elizabeth of York as the Yorkist heiress. Their loyalty to Henry VII was primarily as the future husband of Elizabeth of York, that's where he gained the majority of his new supporters, including William Stanley who was of immense, history-altering help in Bosworth, came from. (I thiiiink you had reblogged a post of yours with someone's additional added tags about this that framed it a lot better, recently but I can't find it rip). That is obviously not discounting Henry's competence or his capabilities or his victory, or Margaret Beaufort's admirable actions, but I just feel like Elizabeth of York's importance to the Tudor dynasty can never be overstated. Her position as his queen and wife were so important for his road to kingship AND the way he secured his reign and dynasty afterwards. Without Elizabeth of York, it's highly doubtful that Henry would have been able to gain the throne the way he did (at least, not without a significant more time, effort and a MUCH higher chance of failure) and it's also doubtful that he'd be able to secure it the way he did, because their unification from two opposing sides was a major factor in his propaganda and collective perception of their marriage, and the comfort, strength and support it evoked.

Obviously, this is within the bracket of the Tudor queens (because they're a very famous dynasty and all their queens are significantly better known than a lot of former or latter ones), but it's just frustrating??

again - I hope this doesn't sound very petty 😂

Hi! Sorry for taking so long to reply, but don't worry I get your frustration completely (and I share it too). I remember once seeing an incredibly pretty illustration for the Tudor consorts depicting all of Henry VIII's queens AND Philip of Spain..... and it didn't include Elizabeth of York. After Catherine of Aragon, Elizabeth was the longest reigning Tudor consort, being queen for no less than seventeen (17) years! She was immensely popular at her time which can be attested not only by the several presents she received from noble and common folk alike but also by the fact that she was the subject of a popular ballad that reimagined her as a romantic heroine (The Most Pleasant Song of the Lady Bessy), and the subject of songs during her lifetime. Her death was lamented by commentators from Ireland to Rome, and her reputation for charity was well-known. She was so popular in her time, it's a bit ironic that she has become, as Amy Licence puts it, 'the forgotten Tudor queen'.

(Of course, it's all relative as you said: we're talking about the Tudor perspective. Elizabeth is still more well-known than Philippa of Hainault or Anne of Bohemia, for example, if only because she's known in relation to the drama of her brothers and uncle, or because she's known as Henry VIII's mother).

In terms of importance, it's staggering how much her role has been downplayed. And I'm not only talking about the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, which is usually cited if only in brief terms. Her legacy lived on. As pointed out by Michelle Beer, for both Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor, Elizabeth was the only queen consort whom they had experience observing, and her queenship style would have impacted their own. But going back to the establishment of her husband's reign, her importance was so much more than simply providing him with the supporters he needed (which is so often reduced to merely 'lifting a finger for a wedding ring'). I will never tire of pointing out Elizabeth's active participation in diplomacy, communicating with European princes in order to protect her husband's interests. If on one hand, Margaret of York was writing to the Pope asking him to lift his sanction of Henry VII, Elizabeth of York was writing to him to do exactly the contrary and reinforce his sanction.

She was an integral element of her husband's reign that went beyond her dynastic blood. Elizabeth provided a more human/accessible image at court celebrations and feasts, formal occasions and receptions of foreign delegations. Not for nothing, she was so frequently found at Henry VII's side on those occasions. Symbolically, she seems to have been greatly valued by Henry too, and I don't mean it simply by how her family symbol, the white rose, was integrated into official Tudor imagery. I'm also talking about how much weight he seems to have given to their union. In terms of art commissions done by Henry, their marriage was constantly alluded to in a way that referenced prophetic discourse: we have their marriage bed where Henry and Elizabeth are portrayed as the new Adam and Eve (Christ and the Virgin), the royal chapel at Greenwich where they were depicted holding hands (I will talk about it in the future), the family portrait where Henry and Elizabeth are depicted as if re-enacting their wedding vows, and even the shared tomb he commissioned.

Elizabeth of York was important and was valued on so many fronts, I daresay she was one of the most efficient queens in terms of successfully upholding her husband's reign. When it comes to Henry's ascension, I think Elizabeth and Margaret Beaufort might have been equally important (considering Margaret's articulation/funding and her claim from which Henry derived his own). But after Henry's ascension, my opinion is that Elizabeth was even more important for all the political, symbolic and of course, emotional support she provided her husband. They seem to have been a very effective partnership, and I doubt his reign would have been as successful as it was if it wasn't for Elizabeth.

So yeah, it is frustrating that she's not given the real importance that she's due when it comes to discussing Tudor history. Whenever she is talked about, she's so commonly relegated to a passive dynastic and decorative role, a trophy wife, it's insane.

[goldenlaurelleaveswrites]

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe

Ch16 Juleka vs. the Forces of Alya Césaire

Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe (AO3)

There are a couple of people I need to thank for this chapter.

First of all, a big thank you to @mintaka14, for letting me borrow Roarr's name for makeup from Living Arrangements (It's such a good read and I highly recommend it).

And a huge thank you to @verfound for helping me through the crisis of confidence this chapter gave me, and for beating some sense into me (with love and giggles as you pointed out all my dumb typos 😂). I would still be spinning myself in circles if it weren't for you, so thank you for beta reading this!!! 💖💖💖💖 And for letting Dingo and Bri stay when they insistent on being mentioned in this chapter 😂

Finally, a huge thank you to all of you for the ongoing support and kindness. It really means so much to me, and I can't thank you enough.

A little bit of house keeping now. The next chapter is likely going to take quite a bit of time, especially because I have bits and pieces of it written and it always takes longer to write a chapter that already has pieces I need to integrate in.

Also, I'm issuing a content warning for this chapter. Juleka's anxiety is very prevalent in this chapter. I don't describe it in detail, but it is present in the majority of the chapter. Please use your best judgement when deciding if this is something you're comfortable with. I would much rather you take care of yourself and skip a chapter than read something that might upset or trigger you. 💖

With all of the being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter!!! 💖💖💖💖

__________________________________________________

The classroom was warm, just shy of uncomfortably so. And Bustier’s voice was nothing but cloying white noise; she had no idea what her teacher had been droning on about for the past half hour, and she sincerely doubted anyone else did either. 

All of their year end tests were written and done. Their projects submitted. Their lockers mostly cleared out. 

Now all that was left to do was make it to the end of the second last day of classes. 

Sleepily, she blinked her eyes and let her attention wander to the rest of the class. It seemed they were all paying as much attention to Bustier as she was. Ivan was drumming out a beat on his desk with his fingers, bopping his head along to the nearly indecipherable sound. Alix was leaning back in her seat, and was barely making an effort to hide the fact that she was playing on her phone. Kim was out cold, and Max and Markov were reading something on Max’s phone. Nathaniel was drawing, and beside her, Rose was doodling. 

She let out a sleepy sigh as her gaze drifted towards the front of the classroom. Chloe and Sabrina’s seats were empty; apparently they were skipping again. It wasn’t like they were missing much. She propped her cheek in her hand as her gaze travelled across the aisle. 

Adrien had been in a funk all day. He had tried to hide it, but little cracks in his facade had let it shine through. But it seemed everyone had assumed it was because the school year was almost over, and he wouldn’t see them every day anymore. At lunch, most of the class had tried to console him, assuring him that when he wasn’t busy or travelling over the summer that they would all hang out and that they would call and text. Maybe that was contributing to his funk. But given the argument he had had with Ladybug last night… well, her money was on that. 

She was still on edge from last night. 

And given the look Chat had given her last night… In all honesty, they were just lucky Shadowmoth needed time to recharge between akumas. That, and that—according to Roarr—wearing a miraculous provided some protection against akumatization. Otherwise… 

Well, they were all lucky they were just dealing with a moping classmate. That, and… 

Marinette had been uncharacteristically quiet today. Her mind had very obviously been elsewhere for most of the day. She assumed everything that had gone down last night was what had Marinette so preoccupied. Pensive even. 

During morning break, after Marinette and Nathaniel had gone to the art room to discuss some costume ideas for the comic with Marc, when she had been coming back from the washroom she had overheard Alya telling the rest of the girls Marinette was obviously thinking about summer break and Adrien. 

She turned her attention to Alya and Nino. 

They were very obviously texting each other. Which, to be fair, wasn’t exactly uncommon. Or something to be suspicious about. But considering the way Alya had been acting the past couple of weeks… 

That, and every so often, Nino would sneak a glance back at her. 

Well, sneak was being generous… It was obvious he was either trying to be subtle, or that he thought he was being subtle. Either way, he wasn’t. M. Damocles always gave her grief about her hair, asking her how she could see with her hair covering half her face. What he—and many people for that matter—seemed to forget was that hair was hardly a brick wall. Sure, it obscured her vision a bit. But she could see through her hair well enough to see Nino glancing back at her over his shoulder every time he thought she wasn’t looking. Just like she saw Alya kick the back of his bench every time she caught him looking back at her. 

Really, it was a wonder Bustier hadn’t noticed what was going on. 

Honestly, she had to wonder if Bustier had noticed her class wasn’t paying attention and was letting it slide, or if she actually was that oblivious.

She stifled a yawn as she directed her gaze to the clock. The time was crawling by. She could swear that clock had said twenty after three for the past half hour. 

Sighing, she dragged her gaze away from the clock. It seemed a watched clock didn’t move anyways….

Her frown returned as her eyes settled on Adrien once again. 

The past few weeks had been hard, having to be civil to Adrien in class when she knew he was Chat. When he was making her life a headache with his constant whining and tantrums. But coming into class this morning… it had been really hard to act normally towards him. Thankfully, he never really interacted with her all that much anyways, but he hadgreeter her along with the rest of the class when she had come in. 

And she had done her best. 

She really had. 

But she had maybe been a little… cool with her greeting. Which was frankly way more than he deserved. The good thing about being quiet was that people generally didn’t take note when she was extra quiet, and they didn’t tend to pick up on the nuances of her voice. Rose would have, and so would Marinette. But neither of them had been there when she had entered the room. So no one had really seemed to notice. 

Except… 

Alya’s eyes had narrowed as soon as she had mumbled her reply to Adrien. It was hard to tell if Alya knew she had seen the way her eyes had narrowed, given she had caught it out of the corner of her eye herself. But she knew she hadn’t imagined it, because as soon as she did look directly at Alya, her expression had shifted into a casual smile.  

But she had felt eyes on her as she had made her way back to her seat. 

She didn’t like it. All the hidden looks and glances from Alya. Coupled with those messages- the curt and deleted ones, And the pushiness and insistence on her voicing her support for the schemes… 

It was weird. 

But Nino… 

She cast a surreptitious glance down at Nino. He quickly turned away, his hat slipping with the movement. Subtle indeed. He couldn’t have been more blatant if he had tried. 

As weird as Alya had been the past couple of weeks…well, it was even weirder coming from him.

She sighed. There was no real point in dwelling on it though. Alya… she didn’t like to think about it, but Alya was definitely getting suspicious. That was the only explanation- though if Alya was suspicious, why was she still insisting on her helping with the schemes? 

It didn’t make sense. 

Regardless, if Alya was suspicious, well, it was safe to assume she had shared her suspicions with Nino. 

This… complicated things. 

She would need to be even more careful going forward.

Sighing to herself, she folded her arms on her desk and rested her chin on them. At least, if she was deep in thought, she would look like she was paying attention if Bustier clued in to the fact her lesson was going unheard. 

***

They were gathered at the base of the front steps to the school, a little off to the side so as not to end up trampled by the steady stream of students emerging from the building, clearly excited by the prospect of only one day left in the school year. 

“And you’re sure you don’t have time for ice cream?” Alya wheedled. “I can text Nino. He and the guys were going to shoot some hoops, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a change of plans. You know Adrien loves Andre’s ice cream.” 

She had to fight to keep herself from rolling her eyes. 

Even if  that particular ploy was weak by Alya’s standards, Alya was never one to miss an opportunity… 

Marinette shook her head, and she could have sworn she caught sight of her rolling her eyes… “No, I need to head home. I still need to finish my dress.” 

“Are you going to finish in time?” Mylène asked worriedly. 

Marinette nodded. “It’ll probably be cutting it a bit close, but I’ll have it done.”  

“I can wait to see it,” Rose sighed dreamily, “I can’t even imagine what you’ve cooked up this time!”

“Neither can I,” Alya agreed. “And it doesn’t help that my bestie won’t even give me a sneak peek,” Alya added in a playfully pointed voice. 

Marinette let out a semi-exasperated sigh. “I told you, it isn’t ready to be seen yet. Besides, you’ll all see it tomorrow.” 

“Fine, fine. But you can’t blame a girl for trying,” Alya laughed. “But you’re going to look amazing, I just know Adrien won’t be able to take his eyes off of you!” 

Marinette’s smile faltered for a second at Alya’s words, before returning. But it was tighter than before. Less genuine. 

“I’m just looking forward to wearing it,” Marinette said noncommittally. 

“I sure hope so, given how much time you’ve been spending on it. You missed one heck of a race last weekend. You should have seen how close-”

“I’m sure there will be plenty more races for Marinette to watch,” Mylène said, gently cutting Alix off before she could get too far into regaling them with every detail of the race. Again. 

“When’s the next one?” 

“Third day of break,” Alix grinned, “We both figured we would want to sleep in after the dance and Max has a dentist appointment the second day of break.” 

“I think that should work! We could do a picnic?’ 

“A victory picnic, I like it!” 

“You haven’t won yet,” she mumbled with a chuckle. 

Alix stuck her tongue out at her. “Yet.” 

“Anyways, I should get going…” Marinette said, taking an awkward little half-step back. “The dress won’t finish itself after all.” 

“Of course. Text if you need anything?” she asked.  

“Or if you’re bored!” Rose added as she stepped in to hug Marinette as well. 

“I will,” Marinette promised; there was a hint of laughter in her voice. She may have have been responding to Rose… but Marinette’s eyes were on her. With a smile, Marinette stepped forward and hugged her goodbye. 

Over Marinette’s head, she caught what looked like a frown flickering across Alya’s face. But then Marinette was pulling away, and once she had stepped back out of the hug, the look on Alya’s face was gone. 

Once all the goodbye hugs were exchanged, and Marinette was out of sight, Alya turned to the rest of them. “Ok, since ice cream was a bust, we can head straight to my place. It’s probably a good thing anyways, we have lots to get through.”

She fell into step with the rest of the group as they made their way towards Alya’s place, though she lagged a little behind Alya, Alix, and Mylène. As they made their way through the streets, Alya began going through a list of things they would need to prepare for one of the many plans they had cooked up for tomorrow. 

Because of course it couldn’t just be one plan.  

Alya had insisted that they plan multiple schemes. 

Each of which, of course, had a ridiculous name. 

“So for phase ‘Belle of the Ball,’ we’ll need to make sure…”  She only listened with half an ear as she followed along behind the rest of the girls. They had spent the past two weeks cooking up all of these plots, she knew them like the back of her own hand. They all did, as Alix had pointed out when protesting to this last scheming session. 

But Alya had insisted. 

As Alya had pointed out—while casting a glance in her direction—something always went wrong with the plans. And that meant they had to be ready. 

Under other circumstances—before she had found herself going toe to toe with Alya—she found Alya’s tenacity and determination admirable. She was bold and willing to do whatever it took to reach her goals. She was the very definition of if at first you don’t succeed…

The thing was, she couldn’t help but wonder… it wasn’t just that Alya’s scheming was bad for Marinette… at times… most of the time, the more she thought about it… it felt like it was bad for Alya. 

Alya was tenacious. Determined. Though some people might say headstrong or even pig-headed. Alya wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. And, despite what her actions may have screamed, she cared about her friends’ happiness. 

The problem was, Alya had something of a tunnel vision problem. She was so fixated on the idea of Marinette liking Adrien that she couldn’t—or maybe wouldn’t—acknowledge the fact that Marinette had moved on. Just like how she was so caught up in the pursuit of Ladybug’s identity, and the idea of Ladybug and Chat Noir being destined soulmates that she couldn’t see what was staring her straight in the face. 

“You ok?” Rose’s voice jolted her from her thoughts. She looked down at Rose, who had fallen into step beside her. “You looked far away,” Rose said as she slipped her hand into hers. 

“Yeah,” she tried to muster a smile. The feeling of Rose’s hand in hers made it much easier, despite the dour thoughts clouding her mind. “Just thinking,” she said as she laced her fingers with Rose’s. 

***

She sat in silence as Alya stuck a pin into another colour-coded scrap of paper to fix it to her cork board. The cork board was covered in a rainbow of scraps of paper, each colour indicating a different person, with the scheme name, details, and phase number outlined on them. 

It was a technicolour disaster. 

And the more of the schemes—which were all phases in the ‘Operation Fairytale Ball’ plot—Alya added to the board, the more she could feel a headache brewing. 

It was honestly impressive how Alya managed to keep track of all the details of the various schemes and plots. If journalism didn’t work out for her, Alya had a bright future in tactical mission planning ahead of her. 

“…so then when he sees the punch ladle is missing, he’ll have to ask her where the spare ones are. And then when she offers to go, Rose, you mention we need more napkins too and suggest Adrien help her.”

Rose made a sound of agreement, not looking up from the plethora of nail polish bottles she had spread out on the floor in front of her. 

“And then Juleka, while they’re gone, you’ll find Luka and keep him busy. By the time they get back, we’ll be ready for Phase: Glass Slipper.” Alya finally peeled her gaze away from the cork board to stare at her. Hard. “You’ll be able to do that, right?” There was a challenge in the way Alya was staring at her. It was almost like… like she was testing her. 

“It’s a plan,” she murmured. It was a plan. A terrible one. One she had no intention of carrying out. But it was a plan. 

Alya’s eyes hardened at her words. She had been careful to phrase it as the truth. Well, a half-truth. The words were true. But the intention behind them had been a lie. 

And Alya did not look satisfied: her eyes were hard and narrowed behind her glasses.

Alya opened her mouth to say something, but Mylène of all people interrupted her. “And that’s where the faux flowers come in, right? And what flowers were you thinking?” 

She could have answered those questions: yes and red roses. Because they symbolized ‘true love.’ 

At least all the other colours of roses hadn’t been ruined for her… 

Alya shot her one last look before turning to Mylène. “We need red roses; they’re the most romantic flowers. And yeah, once they come back they’ll…” 

She fought back a frown as best she could as Alya launched into going over every excruciating detail of the next phase of the operation. 

After the countless hours they had spent cooking up and reviewing these schemes, how could Mylène not remember the flowers? The flowers she was in charge of?

She shook her head to try and clear her thoughts. But as Alya continued on her tirade of the operation, her mind couldn’t help but wander. 

And it seemed she wasn’t the only one… 

Alix was paying barely—if any—attention to the whole conversation. She was flopped out on Alya’s bed with her legs up the wall and her eyes glued to the screen of her phone. 

Rose was on the floor, surrounded by an army of nail polish bottles. All in varying shades of pink. It seemed she still hadn’t decided on which shade of pink would go best with her outfit for tomorrow. 

Mylène was sitting beside Alix on the bed, though she wasn’t upside-down. She was sitting cross legged, with a pillow in her lap and her chin propped up in her hand, a bored look on her face.  

“And then you’ll keep Luka occupied so he doesn’t interrupt them, right, Juleka?” 

She jumped at the sudden sound of Alya—very pointedly—saying her name. “Sorry, what?” 

“You’ll make sure Luka- or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t ruin the moment.” 

“I’ll do my best.” 

Alya didn’t look satisfied by the answer, but she continued on. Time seemed to drag by as they went through the next four phases of the operation. And it didn’t help that it felt like Alya was asking her something every other minute. 

And she did not like how loaded the questions felt. 

She did not like it one bit. 

“…and because Nino isn’t doing the music, you’ll probably need to stall for a while, Alix, while I-” 

“Y’know, I really don’t see the point of this,“ Alix groaned. 

“What? What are you talking about?” Alya demanded as she turned to look at Alix as she crossed her arms. 

She followed Alya’s gaze, and watched as Alix rolled to right herself and sit up. “We’ve been over these plans a billiontimes, Alya,” Alix complained before looking back down at her game.  

“We have been reviewing them a lot,” Mylène quietly agreed. 

“But we have to!”

“Do we?” 

Alya’s gaze snapped to her so quickly, it was a miracle she didn’t have whiplash. “Of course we do. Don’t you want Marinette and Adrien to be happy?” 

She hesitated; it suddenly felt like she was standing in the middle of a minefield. She needed to weigh her words carefully. “Of course I want Marinette to be happy. But she’s already going with Luka.  Can’t we just let them enjoy the evening? Can’t we just enjoy the evening? Without scheming?” She certainly wouldn’t object to a scheme free evening. 

“Juleka does have a point-“ Rose started to say. 

“You’re only saying that because she’s going with your brother.” 

Back before she had seen Marinette transform, had she found herself on the receiving end of such a glare, she would have shrunk in on herself. She would have faded into the background. Even a month ago, before she had become a tigress, she probably would have. It was the easy thing to do. Far easier than standing up to anyone.   

But she was a tigress now. 

And tigresses knew how to fade into the background. To move about unseen and undetected. 

But they also knew how to roar. 

“No, I’m not. I just want her- everyone to enjoy the night. I want Marinette to be happy and-”

“And that’s what I want!”

“That’s what we all want-” Rose started to say, only to be cut off again. 

“After all the time she’s spent pining over Adrien, trying so hard to get him to notice her, you just want her to give up?” She met Alya’s glare with stoney silence. But before she could muster up words to redirect this conversation, or at least stall it, Alya’s eyes narrowed even further. “I knew it!” she hissed. “I knew something weird was going on-“

“Oh not this again,” Alix groaned. 

“Not what again?” 

Mylène—who at some point had gotten up—stepped forward tentatively, hands held out as if trying to placate. Though she wasn’t sure if it was her or Alya she was trying to calm. “Alya thinks-“

“I know-“

“Alya thinks you’ve been messing with the Adrien plans…”

Shoot. “What?”

“I told you it was dumb, Alya,” Alix said pointedly before looking up from her game to look at her. “She thinks you’ve been plotting against us.”

Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot. 

“We told her it was just little miscommunications and accidents-“ Mylène started to say, only to be cut off. 

“But I know it’s been more than that!”

“But Juleka wouldn’t lie to us!” Rose cried out indignantly, knocking over one of her bottles on nail polish as she stood up.

“Everybody lies. Right, Juleka?” 

Alya was right. She would lie. She had lied to them. For months.  But she had done it for Marinette’s sake! 

And now this left her with a dilemma…

Was it better to come clean and tell them? Or was it better to stay quiet?

If she told them, she would have to tell them that Marinette had told her that she wanted to be with Luka. But Marinette had sworn her to secrecy, and she couldn’t betray Marinette’s trust. But if she didn’t come clean, she would be lying to them, which, granted, she had been doing every time she meddled with a plot… but those had always been little white lies! 

Hadn’t they? 

What was the right thing to do? 

She could hear the blood rushing past her ears.  It was the only sound she could hear. Everything - everyone - was silent. They were all just… just silent. Staring at her, waiting for her to- were they waiting for her to respond? Were they waiting for Alya to say something? 

She was suffocating in the weight of the silence. 

What was she supposed to do? 

How did she get herself out of this? 

“Come on Alya, that’s enough,” Mylène reprimanded. Her usually quiet voice was like thunder in the silence room. Suddenly, they were all talking

“Just let it go, it’s a stupid thing to fight about-” Alix added, only to be cut off.

“It’s not stupid! It’s-”

“Bijou, it’s ok. Just breathe…” 

All of their voices were overlapping. Blending into each other until they were an almost indistinguishable cacophony. All muffled by the blood rushing past her ears and the thoughts ricocheting around in her head. 

What was she supposed to do?

She needed quiet. Peace. To think. 

She needed to get away.

But how?

For once, Shadowmoth was her saving grace. 

The akuma alert blared from all of their phones. She jumped at the sound.  Alix was the only one who hadn’t, actually. Then again, Alix had been the only one to be somewhat disengaged in the growing tension over the Adrienette plots. As Alix had said when they had settled into the meeting, she had mostly been there for the snacks. 

Quickly, she scanned the akuma alert. There wasn’t much information about it, but it was by the tower. 

Why was it always the tower? It was like akumas and tourists thought that was the only important place in Paris. 

But it didn’t matter. 

She needed to leave. She needed to be somewhere Ladybug could easily find her if she needed help with this one. And given last night… it was a pretty good possibility. 

She froze when she looked up from her phone, her words dying on her lips. She could also see Alya’s desperation to go to ground zero of the akuma battle. 

But Alya also looked like she wasn’t done arguing yet. 

As it was, Alya was at an impasse. Both with herself and with her. 

Because Alya couldn’t stay to argue with her and go get footage for her blog. 

Or at least, she would be at an impasse with Alya. If she wanted to continue arguing with the equivalent of a brick wall that was. 

“I gotta go. Need to check on Luka and Ma.” The lie was bitter in her mouth as she dashed towards the door.  

“But bijou!” 

“I’ll be careful!” 

She was already out the door before Alya’s spluttered protests could reach her ears. 

***

Her feet pounded against the pavement as she ran towards the Liberty. 

If Ladybug needed her, she needed to be somewhere she would be easy to find. 

At least her story- her lie about needing to check on Luka and her ma was believable. Of course, neither Luka nor her ma were supposed to be onboard right now. Luka was hanging out with his friends at Aimee’s place, and her ma was staging fight choreography at a community theatre in a completely different arrondissement. None of the girls knew that though. And the Liberty was docked close enough to the tower that, while not directly in harm’s way, was close enough that under other circumstances she would be worried. 

But Juleka wouldn’t lie to us!

Rose’s words echoing in her head almost brought her to a halt. 

She needed to keep going. 

But the words weighed on her. 

Rose had been wrong. She had lied to them. She had been lying to them for months now. 

It had never felt great to lie. But they were harmless, small little lies. Or at least… 

It had started with little lies. Little white lies. About texting the wrong time or texting the wrong person… 

But the lies… they had become bigger. 

And so much easier. 

And the more she lied- whether by omission or fabrication, the harder it was to tell where the line between a half-truth and a lie lay. Was it even really a line anymore? 

Had there ever been a line? 

And with how easy the lies, the half-truths, the misdirections…  how easy it had become to lie to her friends, her family… how easy it had all become… 

The fact that she had so easily brushed off all of her lies until now… until she had been confronted and questioned point blank… 

What kind of person did that make her? 

She needed to keep going. 

She didn’t have time for this. 

But how was she supposed to move forward now?  

She pumped her arms and legs even harder.  Her lungs were starting to burn as she sprinted along the sidewalk, dodging dawdling tourists and ambling people left and right. With every step she took, the same question pounded through her head. Echoing the sound of her feet against the pavement. 

What was she supposed to do now? 

Finally, the Liberty came into view. She had barely made it on board when she saw a flash of red drop from the sky, down into the clutter of the meeting place they had hidden amongst all her ma’s chaos. 

She darted over just as Ladybug peeked out from behind a crate. 

“Good, you’re here. Are you free to help?” 

“Always. So what are we looking at?” she asked as Ladybug pulled the bracelet from her yoyo. 

“Not sure yet, I wanted to see if I could find you on my way there.”

“Well, glad that worked out,” she chuckled as she slipped the bracelet on. “Yeah, I’m free. Roarr, stripes on!” 

***

She stared in disbelief as the ‘akuma’ was loaded into the back of a police car by an officer. 

“…came all the way here, and decided he wanted to pull a prank,” Officer Roger groaned as he watched the door to the police car slam shut. “The embassy will have to deal with him. Tourists,” he added under his breath. 

“Well,” Ladybug sighed as she massaged her temples, “at least no one was actually akumatized. I might need to do a press conference or something to remind people akumas aren’t something to joke about.” 

“I’ll talk to the Commissioner and Mayor about it” Roger sighed before turning back to face her and Ladybug. “Good to see you, Ladybug. Purple Tigress, always a pleasure.” 

“Take care,” she said with a nod before Officer Roger turned and headed back towards the cluster of police cars. “Talk about a waste of time,” she grumbled as she watched the cars drive off. 

“You’d think they’d learn. C’mon,” Ladybug said, nodding towards the rooflines. Wordlessly, she followed Ladybug up. Once they were balanced on the roof, Ladybug turned to her with a wry smile. “Well, I can’t say I’m sorry it was just a tourist. You’re still ok for patrol later tonight?” 

“Yeah.”

“Great. Thank you, Juleka, you’re really saving my butt right now. Hold onto it until the end of patrol,” Ladybug added before she could finish undoing the clasp on the Miraculous. 

She nodded. “I’ll just message you a good place to meet up once we’re done?” she asked as she fiddled with her Miraculous. Ladybug still took it back most of the time after patrols, but she had gotten to hang onto it overnight a couple times. And she would be lying if she said she didn’t mind relinquishing her hold on it. She was going to miss hanging out with Roarr and patrolling the city. 

“That sounds perfect.” She glanced up at Ladybug to find her smiling thoughtfully at her.  

***

She went halfway towards home as Tigress before she ducked into an abandoned back alley. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she dropped her transformation. 

“I was looking forward to a good fight…” Roarr complained as soon as she was out of the Miraculous. 

“I know,” she murmured, holding out her hand to the disgruntled kwami. “But it’s just as well. Ladybug doesn’t have much time left to work on her project, and I’m all out of emergency candy.” 

“I guess…” Roarr mumbled as she settled into her palm. Despite her obvious disappointment at the lack of a fight, the kwami seemed unable to stop herself from purring as she stroked the soft fur on her head. 

“I need to stop by the store on the way home and pick up some more eyeliner-”

“Your war paint,” Roarr corrected. 

“Sure, my ‘war paint,’ but I’ll get you some more emergency candy. And…” she said, a smirk drawing across her face as Roarr’s ears twitched at the shift in her tone, “I’ll get you some anchovies too.” She couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose at the thought of the smelly, canned fish that Roarr adored. “Would that make you feel better?”

“I suppose…” Roarr said, her purr slipping into her voice. 

“Come on then,” she said, gesturing to backpack. As soon as Roarr was safely hidden in her pack, she shrugged it back onto her shoulder and slipped out of the alley. 

Once she stepped into the store, she made her way to the cosmetics aisle. Listlessly, she began perusing the display racks. Normally she enjoyed shopping for makeup—especially when her favourite eyeliner was on sale—but the deal on her favourite brand of eyeliner didn’t muster the usual excitement it would have. 

Getting excited over a good price on eyeliner felt trivial compared to everything that was going on right now. 

“What’s wrong, Juleka?” 

She jumped at the sudden sound of Roarr’s voice in her ear. 

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “Get back in my bag before someone sees you!” She cast a glance around the aisle, but thankfully no one else was browsing the cosmetics. 

“It’s fine, your hair is so thick no one can see me when I’m hidden in it.” She let out a sigh of exasperation, but Roarr continued on, undeterred. “So what’s the matter? Usually you’re happy when you’re looking at all this stuff,” she felt Roarr’s tail flick against her ear, “but you aren’t today.” 

“Well,” she said slowly as she picked up a random lipstick off the shelf and made a show of looking at the packaging. Hopefully, if anyone came into this section of the store, it would look like she was just mumbling over the packing of the lipstick instead of talking to her hair. “Alya caught on to what I’ve been up to…” 

As she continued through the store, she filled Roarr in as quickly as she could, pausing in front of random displays under the guise of browsing to give herself more time to explain everything.  Or at least, everything she could. But even that was only half the truth. Roarr still didn’t know that she knew Marinette was Ladybug, only that she had been interfering with the plots to get Adrien and Marinette together. 

Even confiding about her dilemma was a mockery of it.  

“…and it’s just a huge mess now,” she groaned as she dropped another bag of Roarr’s favourite candies into her shopping basket.  

“So what are you going to do?” 

“I don’t want to keep lying-” 

“I didn’t ask what you didn’t want to do. I asked what you’re going to do?” 

“I don’t know. I mean- Bustier is always drilling it into use that lying is wrong, and they’re my friends…” 

“But…?” 

“But if I tell them, they’ll ask questions. Alya will demand answers. Answers I can’t give without betraying Marinette’s trust. And I would never do that.” 

Roarr let out a satisfied purr. “A good tigress protects her own, and you’re a great Tigress. This Marinette girl is lucky to have you.” 

She bit back a wry smile at the way Roarr distanced herself from Marinette. “But what should I do? What’s the right thing to do?” 

Roarr let out something that was a cross between a yowl and a sigh. “You’re asking someone who’s kept her existence a secret from the world for millennia. As for the right thing… you mortals have such rigid understandings of what those concepts mean. There’s right and wrong, and there’s right and wrong.” 

“So… you think I should lie?”

“A Tigress fights her own battles, whether with her claws or her head.” Roarr nuzzled against the back of her neck. “Trust your judgment. You may not realize it, but you know what you’re doing.”

***

As she began making her way back home, she tried to think of how she would do her makeup for the dance. She already had a pretty clear idea, but there were still a few details she needed to decide on. Same with her hair. And her nails. 

Really, she tried to think about anything except what had gone down during the meeting. But as hard as she tried, her mind kept finding its way back. Relieving every moment of it. 

And dwelling on all of it. 

‘I told you it was dumb.’

Except, it wasn’t… 

‘We told her it was just little miscommunications and accidents.’

There had been nothing accidental about any of it… 

‘But I know it’s been more than that!’

And the one time Alya was right… 

She could tell them. She could come clean and fess up. Tell them- not everything. But she could tell them she had been sabotaging the schemes. 

Except she couldn’t. 

Lying was wrong. 

But right now, telling the truth didn’t feel right either. 

And while Roarr’s advice- well, it felt like a stretch to call it advice… but while Roarr’s words had comforted her, they hadn’t really given her an answer.

If anything, Roarr had only given her more food for thought. And it was tough things to chew on.   

By the time she was trudging across the gangplank, she was still no closer to an answer. If anything, it felt like she had spiralled further away from one. 

“Hey, Jules,” she looked up from her feet, where her gaze had drifted at some point during the walk home. Luka was sitting on the edge of the stage, his guitar in hand. 

“You’re back already?”

“Yeah, Nadine had an audition tonight and Bri had a shift, so we packed it in early. Captain called by the way, she’s going to be later than she thought and the crew is all grabbing a bite so it’s just you and me for dinner. We’re doing takeout, anything you feel like?” 

“I’m good with whatever. Just no-”

“Olives. I know,” he chuckled as he idly strummed his guitar. But then he frowned. He strummed the same notes again before he looked up from his guitar to meet her gaze. “Is everything ok? You sound a little flat.” 

She hesitated. Luka  was always the first person she turned to for advice. But he was… well, he was honest. And she knew honesty and lies were a bit of a sore subject for him, given their ma’s refusal to tell him the truth about his father.  

“C’mon Jules, you know you can talk about anything with me,” he said as he set his guitar aside and patted the empty stage next to him. 

She sighed as she sat down next to him. “What are your thoughts about… about lies? And lying?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Is the truth always better than a lie?” 

He turned to her with puzzlement and concern written all over his face. “What’s this all about, Jules?” 

“Say you weren’t being… entirely honest about something to a friend.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And you were doing it because at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do, even though you didn’t like it. And now some people think you’re telling the truth and others think you’re lying and you suddenly aren’t sure-” 

“Jules,” Luka’s voice was quiet and gentle, but firm. “Take a breath.” She did as he told her, and once he seemed satisfied that she was at least a little calmer, he continued. “Now, why don’t you tell me what this is all about?” 

She sighed. If there was one person she could be straight with about her recent involvement in the Adrien schemes, it was Luka. “You know how the girls and I used to plot all those schemes to get Adrien and Marinette together?’ 

“Yeah I- used to? I thought those were still happening. Or did they stop when I asked-”

“They are. Like Alya would give up.” Luka snorted at that. “But… but I’ve maybe been kind of completely sabotaging them for months now.” She spat the words out as quickly as she could, and she suddenly felt so much lighter. 

“Really? You don’t say…” The sarcasm was practically dripping from his voice. “What?” he added when she snapped her head to stare incredulously at him. “All those times you found excuses for me to spend time with Marinette? You know Couaffines can only be so subtle.” He had a point: she was still her mother’s daughter after all. And maybe subtlety had gone by the wayside when she had been dealing with him… but subtlety only went so far when dealing with her brother’s particular brand of idiot…    

“And you’ve been telling me to ask her out for months. Remember?” She rolled her eyes, but allowed herself a wry smile at the memory of the multitude of headaches he had caused her. “So I take it you’re asking me this because the girls found out?”

“Alya suspects. The rest of the girls think she’s being paranoid.”

“And you don’t know if it’s better to come clean?” She nodded glumly. He sighed as he leaned back on his hands. “Honestly, I don’t know, Jules. It sucks being lied to, and they’ll probably find out eventually.”

“But if I have a reason not to tell them?” 

Really, it was a matter of reasons. 

“It would have to be a pretty good reason. At least, I think so. And I guess that’s where it gets more complicated. Is it better to hide the truth because it hurts? Or will it hurt more when they find out you’ve been lying to them? Will the lies even protect them from the hurt?”

Her gaze dropped down to her lap. 

They would be hurt. 

If she told the truth now, they would be hurt. But they would also be hurt if she told them the truth later.  

If she didn’t tell them, if she kept lying and they found out, they would be hurt. 

But if she told them the truth, Marinette would also be hurt. 

She would be going back on a promise. 

And if she kept lying and they all found out she had been meddling, would Marinette be hurt then too? 

No matter what she did, someone could end up getting hurt. 

She saw Luka shift out of the corner of her eye. She turned in time to see him shift to gaze down at his bracelets. She watched as he flicked listlessly at them. To anyone else, it would look like he was just fiddling with his jewelry. But the way he was flicking at it… it was obvious he was thinking about a particular bracelet.  

“But I think… well, there are some lies that need to be told. I made you promise not to tell anyone about how I felt about Marinette-”  

“Which I didn’t.” 

“But I’m guessing you had to tell lies to keep it a secret?”  

She had certainly been… creative with the truth. “It wasn’t my secret to tell.”   

He turned to her with heavy eyes and a grateful smile. “And I think that makes things more complicated too. Keeping secrets but also being honest.” He had no idea. “Honestly, Jules, I don’t think I have an answer for you. I don’t think it’s an easy black and white problem.”

“I figured as much.” With another wry smile, she stood up. “I’m going to go chill for a bit, and then I have to go out again. Are you ok if we have a late dinner?” 

“Works for me. Tom and Sabine sent Aimee home with a ton of stuff and Nadine brought falafel and fatayers-”

“Did you bring me any?” 

“You really think there was any left by the time everyone had their fill?”

“Dingo ate most of it, didn’t he?” 

“Of course he did.”

“You owe me then.”

“Wouldn’t Dingo-”

“Well, better you had all of that today.” If she was going to bring a dour mood to the boat, it was also up to her to break it. “Wouldn’t want you to have garlic breath for Marinette, now would we?” 

“Jules!” 

She smirked as she walked away; she didn’t need to look to know his ears were probably glowing bright red. 

“Coast is clear,” she murmured once she was in her room. Roarr zipped out of her bag to hover over her shoulder with wide, pleading eyes as she unpacked her shopping bag. With the emergency candy stashed in her backpack and purses, and her new makeup carefully arranged on her dressing table, she rolled her eyes affectionately and pulled out the can of anchovies with only a little disgust.  

“And you said I could watch videos on your phone while you read…” Roarr wheedled, giving her her best puppy—kitty?—eyes as she clutched the unopened can to her. She liked to use her claws to open them. Or, as Roarr called it, delivering the killing strike. 

She pulled her phone out of the depths of her bag; just as she was passing it to Roarr, her stomach plummeted to the bottom of the Seine. 

Two missed texts from Alix. 

Five from Mylène. 

Thirteen from Rose. 

Between the false alarm, her shopping expedition, and her rather preoccupied walk home, she hadn’t thought to check her phone…  

Rose 🌹💗: I wanted to say sorry

Rose 🌹💗: I feel really bad about not telling you 

Rose 🌹💗: I didn’t think Alya would be so intense

Rose 🌹💗: I thought it would be better to just go along

Rose 🌹💗: that she would realize sooner or later she didn’t need to worry  

Rose had sent those messages ages ago. 

And she hadn’t responded. 

Quickly, she began typing. She just hoped Rose didn’t think she was mad. 

Queen of Darkness 🦇: I'm so sorry! I got home but the akuma was a false alarm so I went out to get more eyeliner for tomorrow and I didn’t check my phone! I promise I wasn’t ignoring you  

It wasn’t the full or exact truth. But she had picked up eyeliner. And hadn’t been ignoring Rose—or the rest of the girls—on purpose.   

But it still felt like a lie. 

Dots appeared on the screen immediately. 

Rose 🌹💗: It’s ok!!!!!

Rose 🌹💗: I wanted to say sorry

Rose 🌹💗: actually

Rose 🌹💗: can I call you????

Rose 🌹💗: I want to say it properly 

She pressed the dial button, and Rose picked up before the first ring could even finish. 

“Angel, I’m-”  

“I’m so sorry, bijou!” The anguish in Rose’s voice was palpable. “I should have never let things go so far! I should have told you right away! Or at least sooner! Before it ever came to this! But I thought it would be better to just try and go with it. That maybe she would give up? Or see reason- I don’t know but the point is-”

“Rose. Rose. Slow down. Take a nice deep breath for me,” she waited while she listened to Rose inhale deeply and then exhale. “Can you start at the beginning? Because honestly, I don’t really know exactly what it is you’re apologizing for.” 

Rose sniffled. “Yeah, I can do that. I just, please don’t be mad at me,” Rose’s words tumbled out in an almost incomprehensible stream. 

“Take another breath.” She waited while she again listened to Rose’s breathing. Usually, it was Rose telling her to take a deep breath. “Ok?” 

“Yeah.” Over the line, she heard Rose take in a shaky breath, like she was trying to work herself up to say whatever it was she was apologizing for. “Ok, so you remember when we went shopping? And Luka bumped into the guys while he was out buying guitar strings? And he joined us all for lunch, and asked Marinette to the dance and sat beside her during lunch?”

How could she forget?  

“Well, Alya thought that you had made Luka come. That you had ruined her plan on purpose.”

Which she had. 

“And- well, she told us that she thought it was weird how the schemes with Adrien seemed to be going worse and worse the last few months. And she thought… well, she made this chart…”

Of course she had. 

“It started with that time you texted Marinette the wrong time for the movie. And, well, she was just so sure that you were trying to ruin things with Adrien. We all tried to tell her how ridiculous it was! You would never do anything to ruin Marinette’s love life.”

Technically true. Just not in the way Rose thought… 

“But you know how Alya can be sometimes…”

Try always. 

“And she was so sure that you were sabotaging things so she set up secret meetings without you to plan other schemes that you wouldn’t know about.”

So was that what the unsent message had been about?

“And she said that if the schemes we planned at the meetings you were there for went wrong, that would be proof that you were meddling.” 

“But the plans always go wrong.”

Sometimes, they just needed a helping hand. 

“That’s what we all told her. But she was so insistent. She wouldn’t listen to reason! And we- well, we went along with it. The secret meetings, I mean. The day I said I couldn’t go to lunch…” 

“There was another meeting after the one I went to.” It wasn’t even a question at this point. 

“I didn’t like it. None of us did. But… I guess we thought that maybe we could get her to listen if we humoured her for a bit? Help her realize how silly she was being about the whole thing. I think we all hoped she would realize herself.  Beforeshe could make any accusations like she did. That’s what we wanted to avoid. None of us liked it. Leaving you out that way. Lying and going behind your back. I wanted to tell you. We all did. But- we…” On the other end of the line, Rose descended into a fresh wave of tears and sniffles. 

“Shhh, it’s ok,” she murmured gently. It took a while, but after several minutes of offering quiet, and what she hoped were soothing and comforting, words of encouragement, Rose was able to talk through her tears again. 

“I didn’t like lying to you. But I thought it was the right thing to do. Please don’t be mad at me- you have every right to be- but at least let me make it up to you. Please?”

Her heart twisted at Rose’s words. At the tears in her voice. 

How could she be mad at Rose? Especially when she had been lying for far longer. 

She hesitated. 

She could tell Rose. She could tell her that Alya was right, and that she had been sabotaging the plans the whole time. 

But not without going back on her promise…  

“I know,” she said quietly. “And I’m not angry; I understand why you didn’t tell me.” The words tingled on the tip of her tongue. But… she couldn’t. “Your heart was in the right place. It always is.” Rose sniffled at her words. “I love you. Ok?”

She just hoped she was making the right choice. 

“I love you too, bijou.” 

***

She flew across the rooftops; the speed with which she was running and leaping, it felt like her feet didn’t even touch the ground. 

It was a sharp contrast to the heavy thoughts warring inside her head. 

She should have known going into all of this that it would only be a matter of time before Alya got suspicious. If not of her specifically then at least of all the ways the schemes went wrong that didn’t have to do with Marinette getting flustered or Adrien’s scheduling. She should have suspected this would be a bridge she would need to cross sooner or later. 

But she hadn’t realized later would come so soon. 

And now that she was here… 

She had never enjoyed lying to the girls. But it had been so much easier when they had no idea what was really going on. It had been easy enough to brush off the feeling of the lies in her mouth and the pangs of guilt that echoed in her chest.  

And she had never lied directly. 

Or at least, not often. 

She had just… misdirected and misrepresented with her words. 

She came to a halt at the end of a block of row houses, catching herself against a chimney. 

Wasn’t that the same thing as lying, really? 

If she told the girls the truth—well, part of it—now, would they understand? Would they forgive her? 

Would they believe her if she said she had seen the way Marinette was reluctant to participate in the plans she knew about? That she had noticed how uncomfortable Marinette was around Adrien? Or would they chalk that up to Marinette’s nerves?

Rose, Mylène, and Alix might- they probably would… but she couldn’t see Alya believing her. And even then… would Alya just take that as an admission of guilt anyway? For meddling? Would her friends be hurt? 

Was there even a right answer? 

Her talks with Roarr, Luka, and Rose had just given her more to chew on. 

Roarr had said she knew what she was doing. 

But obviously she didn���t. 

And the kwami’s stance on what the right thing was… was less than helpful. She wasn’t even entirely sure she understood what Roarr had meant. 

Luka had said there were some lies that needed to be told. He had obviously been thinking about his duties as Viperion. 

She had never questioned lying to keep Ladybug’s secrets… 

But Marinette’s secrets were just as important as Ladybug’s. 

And how could she live with herself if she only protected some of those secrets? 

And Rose… 

She wasn’t mad at Rose. How could she be? All Rose had been trying to do was protect her feelings. 

And Alix and Mylène… they had both confessed the truth- the full truth of what had been going on behind her back. They had confessed. They had apologized. And they had checked in on her too, to make sure she was ok after the way the meeting had ended. 

She still wished Rose- that all of them had just told her from the start. 

But that just made her a hypocrite. Her hands weren’t exactly clean… 

She had told Rose her heart had been in the right place. And it had been. 

She liked to think hers was, too. But she had also become so accustomed to lying. To secrets. And everything Rose did was paved with good intentions. 

 Would the rest of the girls be as understanding? Would they see things the same way? 

And worst of all… 

Was she only feeling this way now… questioning all of this now because Alya had called her out? 

Would she have crossed—or, more accurately, gotten stuck on—this bridge eventually? 

Or would she have just continued to lie? 

Guilt and indecision weighed down her otherwise light footsteps as she bounded across the rooftops towards her meeting place with Ladybug. Usually patrol was a good way to blow off steam, but she felt just as tense as she had when she left for patrol. Maybe even more so, knowing she wouldn’t have Roarr curled up under the covers with her tonight.  

Even if the kwami’s advice hadn’t been helpful, the cuddles always made her feel better. 

By the time she had made it to the top of the south bell tower of Notre Dame, Ladybug was waiting for her.

Ladybug was sitting on the edge of the roof. One of her legs dangling over the edge, the other she was hugging to herself, resting her chin on it as she stared out absently over the city. The sun was still in the sky, but it was sinking towards the horizon. 

“Ladybug?”

Ladybug turned, but didn’t stand. “Yeah?”

“You ok?”

“Oh, yeah. I just… I have a lot on my mind.  I’ve had a lot on my mind for a long time. But especially after yesterday…” Ladybug trailed off, her face flushed with the same shade of embarrassment as last night, when she had collected the Miraculous and apologized profusely for having such a heated argument with Chat in front of her.  “You look like you have a lot on your mind too.” 

“Yeah,” she mumbled, kicking a stray pebble, “you could say that.” 

Ladybug offered her a half smile and patted the empty roof beside her. “Maybe we can have a lot on our minds together for a bit? I…” Ladybug smiled shyly, “I wouldn’t mind having a break with a friend.” 

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

They sat in silence for some time. Ladybug had gone back to staring pensively out over the city, her hands uncharacteristically still in her lap. An errant breeze ruffled their hair as she turned her own attention out to the city below her. 

It was almost comical, really. 

That after dealing with countless schemes, ad campaigns, and even akumas, this was what she was getting hung up on. Lying and secrets. 

How could she be a hero if she didn’t even know what the right thing to do was? 

She sighed.  They never showed this in the movies, and none of the interviews with the American heroes that Alya always watched ever talked about this. There wasn’t a guidebook on how to deal with this. 

But… if there was one person who would understand lying and secrets better than anyone she knew… 

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course!” Ladybug said, angling to turn to her. “I’m always here if you need to talk.”

She smiled gratefully at Ladybug, before taking a deep breath. “How do you deal with it?” she asked quietly. “The lying, I mean?” 

“…the lying?” 

“You know, the lies. Akuma attacks, well, they happen without warning and I figure you’ve got to have a life outside the mask so I assumed you must have to make up excuses to slip away.” It wasn’t quite the kind of lying she was grappling with. Though, to be frank, she still wasn’t all that great at coming up with excuses to slip away in case Tigress was needed, too. But it felt close enough. 

Beside her, Ladybug shifted, then sighed. It was a heavy sigh. A sound that expressed the weight of magical jewelry and everything it entailed. “I hate it.” Ladybug admitted quietly. 

Ladybug had her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them close to her chest. Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, but her gaze was far away. Like she was trying to see something just out of sight. 

She let her own gaze drift back to the sky in front of them as she waited for her friend to gather her words. 

“I guess… I guess it helps that I know I have to. To keep them safe. Telling people, it would put them at risk. And it’s my job- I want to protect them. So I lie. I lie to my friends. To my family. To Lu- lots of people.”

She nodded solemnly, her gaze fixed out on the city below. Somehow, they had come to the silent agreement that this conversation was easier to have without looking the other in the eye. 

It… it was different. Maybe. But it also wasn’t. 

Marinette lied to the people she loved to protect them. 

She lied to the people she loved to protect Marinette’s happiness. 

Sure, she wasn’t exactly out there saving lives with her lies. But wasn’t misery just as much a threat? Especially with Shadowmoth?

“How do you… how do you know when it’s the right time to lie?”

“It’s always felt like lying was the only option. Sometimes it’s just a little lie. Y’know, ‘oh I have to go to the washroom’ or something. But sometimes I need to make the lies bigger. And when I do, well, I try to only do it when I need to. When I need to do or say something, even if it’s hard, to protect someone.”

“I see.” 

“It never goes away though.”

“What?” 

“The guilt. Knowing I’m lying to people I care about and that I’ll keep lying. Even though I know it’s the right thing, I still hate it. But in some ways… I think the guilt is good.”

“How so?” The guilt that had been eating away at her all afternoon and evening… how could such a horrible feeling be good? 

“If we feel guilty about lying, that means we’re still good people, even if we can’t be honest. Or at least,” Ladybug sighed, “that’s what I tell myself to try and stay sane.” 

She frowned. “I… I never really thought of it that way.”

“I don’t know if it’s true, but it helps to tell myself that, at least.” 

“Whoever you are, Ladybug, you’re a good person.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small smile creep across Ladybug’s face. “So are you, Tigress.”

They settled back into silence, though it was a somewhat lighter silence this time. The only measure of time was the sun continuing its slow descent towards the horizon. 

“I’m tired of lying. I want to tell… people the truth. But I guess I’m so used to keeping secrets- and it’s such a big secret and it wouldn’t just change things for me-“ Ladybug cut herself off abruptly. Tigress turned to look at her friend, who flashed her an embarrassed smile. “I’m sorry. You asked me- you asked for advice and here I am blathering about my own problems. But I wanted to ask… you asked about the lying… is it too much? It know how hard it all is, and if this is getting to be too much-“

“No, no. It’s fine. I- I like being Tigress. And I don’t mind you talking about your stuff. Actually,” she said slowly, “it helped. A lot. And for what it’s worth, I think if there’s someone you trust enough with your secret, I’m betting they’d be happy to help you share the burden.”

“Maybe…” Ladybug said thoughtfully. 

“I guess it’s a good thing I had patrol tonight.” 

“Oh?” 

She smiled wryly. “Misery loves company, especially when it’s over the same problem.” A look flashed across Ladybug’s face that made her pause. “Or… did you have something else on your mind? You know I’m here to talk too, if you need it.” The fury in Ladybug’s eyes from last night flashed in her mind. “Yesterday…yesterday was a lot. Are you doing ok?” 

Ladybug’s face softened into a smile. “I know. And I am. Doing ok, that is.” She must not have looked particularly convinced because Ladybug chuckled. Enough so that the corners of her eyes crinkled, warping the spots of her mask. “Really, I’m fine. I promise,” she said before turning back to look over the city. “Last night was hard. Lying is hard. But sometimes…sometimes… well, I think it’s good. To do the hard things, that is. Even when you really don’t want to.” 

That did not sound… reassuring. 

Maybe it was good to do hard things sometimes, but Chat had made things harder than necessary yesterday. He had been for a long time. 

There was still a hint of a smile onLadybug’s face, but it was caught somewhere between wistful and wry. And the look in her eyes… it wasn’t unlike the look Marinette got when she was studying a piece of clothing, trying to figure out its construction and such. Then the glint in her eyes was gone. 

She shifted beside Ladybug, opening her mouth to say something. But before she could figure out the words, Ladybug broke the silence. 

“I promise, I know what I’m doing. Trust me.” 

“I do.” 

She did. She just hoped Ladybug wasn’t going to make things harder for herself than they already were. 

Speaking of which…

“I’m sorry for keeping you so long. I know you’re working to a deadline.”

“Don’t worry about it. I was probably due for a break anyways and…” Ladybug smiled softly, “it was nice. Talking about all of this. I’ve never really had anyone who got it.” 

Ladybug- Marinette should have had someone who got it. She deserved someone who got it. She should have had someone from the start. 

And she… she hadn’t realized it until now. But she hadn’t really had someone who got it either. Not all of it. Luka… there were some things she couldn’t tell hm. Some things he couldn’t get. But even if she couldn’t talk to Luka about everything, he was always there. And just knowing he was there made all the difference. But… 

She hadn’t truly realized, hadn’t truly appreciated how much it meant to have someone who got it. And it made her heart ache that Marinette had been without someone for so long. 

“I may not get all of it, but I’m here. Whenever you need me.” 

***

“Get all your errands done?” 

“Yep. Get all your love songs written?”

“Nope,” he half sighed. She could hear the eye roll in his voice. “Food should be here soon. I ordered sushi.” 

“Did you get-” 

“Yes, I got spicy tuna. And spicy salmon.” 

“Good. I’m going down below for a bit. I need to figure out how I’m doing my nails for tomorrow- yes, you can borrow my good black nail polish.” 

“Thanks. I’ll let you know when the food’s here.” 

Once she was back in her room, she spread her nail polish bottles out across her dressing table. She probably wouldn’t do a manicure, given she had the lace gloves, but her shoes were open toed so it would be nice to have her toenails painted. 

Plus, she could really use a nice, relaxing pedicure. 

Honestly, she could do with a whole spa day. But that would have to wait. For now, an at home pedicure would have to do.  

She had just gotten her choices narrowed down, and was trying to decide which of the two deep plum shades would better match the lipstick she was planning on wearing when Luka’s voice floated down from above deck. 

“Jules.” She frowned at the sound of his voice. It was… it wasn’t… usually, when he called her to let her know their food was there or he needed her help with something- “Alya’s here to see you.” 

She almost dropped the bottles of nail polish. 

She should have seen this coming, what with the way they—she—had left things at the meeting earlier. Really, when she thought about it, it was suspicious that Alya hadn’t shown up earlier. Like right after the akuma was declared a hoax. Although… maybe there had been another meeting, like the ones Rose had told her had been going on… 

But Rose hadn’t said anything about another meeting taking place after the one she had run out of. And based on the timestamps, Mylène, Alix, and Rose had all started texting her almost right after she had bolted out. 

Grimacing, she set down the bottles of nail polish. Alya was probably the last person she wanted to talk to right now. Except maybe Adrien.  It was probably too late to pretend she was in the shower or something… 

But even if they didn’t have… whatever this talk was going to be now, she would only be delaying the inevitable. 

Sighing, she got up. 

It seemed the time had come for her to cross this bridge. 

She just hoped it wouldn’t end up burnt… 

Luka was standing with his guitar slung over his back and his hands shoved into his pockets. Most people found Luka hard to read; people said he kept his cards close to his chest. Maybe it was a Couffaine thing, or maybe it was just a sibling thing, but she had never had trouble reading her brother. And she did not like the look on his face. 

What most people would mistake for his resting face, she recognized as guarded. And there was something in his eyes- annoyance. And a sudden fatigue. 

Alya was standing across from him. She looked like she was ready for battle, with the tense way she was holding herself. Like she was ready to spring into action at a second’s notice. To say nothing of the hard and determined look on her face. The same look she had whenever she…

What had she said to Luka?

They both turned to look at her as the top step squeaked under her foot. 

Alya’s eyes narrowed behind her glasses, the lenses flashing in the dying light. 

The tension in the air was palpable. 

Luka looked at her with a silent question in his eyes. Luka was perceptive—about most things—and the vibes Alya was putting out right now? Well, Kim would have picked up on them… 

A few months ago, she would have asked him to stay. She would have needed him to. Part of her still wanted him to. But she also wanted- needed to do… whatever this was going to be, on her own. 

She squared her shoulders, and nodded. He gave her one last questioning and concerned look, which she returned with another nod. He nodded and left with a promise that he was close by if she needed him in his eyes.  

As she watched Luka warily head down the stairs below deck, she steeled herself for the oncoming storm.

“I would have come earlier,” Alya said. It was a good thing she hadn’t come earlier, especially as she had come with no warning. “But I got held up.”

Alya didn’t offer anything more, which left her with the distinct feeling she would not like whatever it was that had held Alya up. 

If she had to guess… her money was on a new set of schemes. 

Part of her wanted to ask, but there was no way Alya would tell her if her suspicions were correct. Not after this afternoon. Especially not, given the way Alya was watching her, with her arms folded across her chest and her eyes boring into her.  

“Just as well,” she said carefully, “I was out earlier. I had errands to run.” 

“Oh?” It was impressive how Alya could make it sound like both a question and accusation. 

“I needed to pick up some more eyeliner for tomorrow.” 

Alya’s eyes narrowed even more, and her mouth twisted into a tight line. Part of her couldn’t help but wonder if Alya was about to demand to see her literal receipt. “Speaking of tomorrow, I don’t know what you’ve been- what you are playing at, but it needs to stop.” 

“I’m not playing at anything.” That, at least, was the honest truth. 

When it came to Luka and Marinette’s happiness, there was no playing.

Alya raised her brows. “The movie incident?” 

“I texted her the wrong time for the movie we were going to go see.” 

Technically true. 

“The time we tried to get her to the park to see Adrien and she was out without her phone? You were slow to reply. And your messages never agreed to the plan! I went back and checked.” 

“I was on the way home from the laundromat, I had my hands full! And Marinette forgets her phone at home all the time!” 

“And the photoshoot?” 

“Marinette made an outfit specifically for me to model, and I had the makeup masterclass starting the next weekend-” 

“You were supposed to bail because of the class!” She and Alya both froze at the outburst; Alya’s eyes went wide, like she hadn’t been expecting to start shouting. She folded her arms across her chest as she watched Alya take a breath like Bustier always told them to. Though her exhale was still more of a huff than anything. Alya’s gaze refocused on her. “Luka asked her to the dance.”

“He did,” she agreed carefully. 

“Adrien was supposed to ask her when we all met for lunch.” 

“I didn’t know that.” That was the honest truth. Alya hadn’t told her about that particular scheme. Not that that would have changed anything… 

“You should have known,” Alya snapped, a note of desperation making its way into her voice. “And Luka looked at you before he asked her.”

“So?” 

“You put him up to it. You told him to ask her, even though you know Adrien and Marinette are meant to be.” Alya stepped towards her, a hiss slipping into her voice as she pointed an accusatory finger at her. Pain flared in her hands as her nails bit into her palms from how tightly her hands were balled into fists. But she refused to shrink. She refused to back down or balk. “You’ve been ruining the plans to get Adrien and Marinette together. Admit it.” 

Alya was staring her down. Hard. 

Months ago, she would have wilted under such a look. She never even would have made it far enough into a conflict to reach this precipice. 

But here she was. 

And she was not happy. 

Alya had shown up, unannounced. She had said only the Universe knew what to Luka. Although she had her suspicions. 

And now, Alya was flinging accusations. 

Yes, those accusations were true. 

Yes, she had been meddling and sabotaging at every turn. 

But she had done her best to listen to Marinette and Luka. 

She had respected what they wanted. 

She had never picked a fight over any of this. 

And now? 

She was not happy. 

Familiar heat was bubbling up in her stomach and coursing through her veins. Tension was seeping into every inch of her body. She pressed her lips together as tightly as she could, biting down on their insides to keep herself from saying something she would regret. 

Alya looked just as tense: her chest was heaving and all her weight was on her toes. Like she was ready for anything. And she was staring hard at her. 

It would be so easy to give into the white hot anger running through her right now. The anger at being confronted in her own home. 

At having accusations, as true as they were, flung in her face. 

At having to even be in this position in the first place… 

But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. 

She had decided a long time ago that she never wanted to be Shadowmoth’s puppet ever again. And now that she had been given responsibilities, had protected Paris, had worked alongside Ladybug? 

Well, that only strengthened her resolve. 

She refused to be used like that to hurt her friends, her family, her home,  ever again.

And part of those responsibilities- part of protecting everything she held dear, was not just fighting akumas. 

It was preventing them too. 

She took a breath to steady herself. “We both need to take a breath,” she said as calmly but as firmly as she could. “Neither of us wants to akumatized.”   

Alya stumbled at her words, like she had been broken from some sort of trance. She shook her head and then blinked at her, like she was startled by the notion that either of them could be at risk of akumatization. 

Without waiting for agreement—or protests—she let her eyes slip shut and began to inhale deeply. A moment later, she heard Alya join in with her. 

She let herself focus on the steady rhythm of her breathing, and the slowing of her racing heart. Once she felt calm enough, she opened her eyes again. 

Alya was staring at her once more.Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, and there were still hints of a glare in her eyes. But at least it seemed her anger had melted back into suspicion. “Thanks,” Alya said quietly. “I needed that.” 

“Me, too.” 

“But you never admitted to it. To any of it.” 

Right… 

The truth was a tricky thing. And lies were just as difficult. 

If she told Alya the truth about her interference, maybe it would help Alya step back and look at things for what they truly were. Maybe it would help Alya let go of her fixation on making Adrien and Marinette happen. 

But she had made a promise. 

And if she told Alya the truth, she would have questions. Questions she wouldn’t be able to answer. Not without breaking her promise and betraying Marinette’s trust. And she would go to her grave before she did that to Marinette. 

Which meant that the truth would just lead to more lies anyways. 

‘I think there are some lies that need to be told.’

‘I thought it was the right thing to do.’

‘I guess it helps that I know I have to. To keep them safe.’ 

Under the guise of taking another calming breath, she steeled herself. 

And lied as honestly as she could. 

“I didn’t tell him to ask her out the day we went shopping. I haven’t done anything to hurt Marinette’s happiness.” 

Alya’s frown deepened as she left out a huff. Behind her glasses, her eyes were once again narrowed with suspicion. For her part, she did her best to look cool and collected. She forced herself to stand tall, but she couldn’t keep herself from fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. 

“I don’t believe you-” 

“-and if you see the dry-cleaners,  then you’ve gone too far.” Luka’s voice and footsteps floated up from the stairs, and suddenly he was standing beside her—but a little ways off to give some semblance of privacy—his phone pressed to his ear. “Sorry,” he mumbled, covering his phone, “delivery guy got lost.” Alya’s face turned to disbelief before settling back into a suspicious glare pointed her way. He shot her a look with a silent question, to which she nodded. “Yeah, Darrel? Yeah, I’m still here. So if you take the next right, you should be on the North bank. We’re the houseboat with the huge stage. I’m on deck, just look for blue hair.” Luka started waving; she and Alya both looked in the direction he was looking. A tall, lanky guy with a phone pressed to his ear glanced at them and his face brightened. 

They watched as the guy—Darrel—bounded down the steps and approached the gangplank. 

“I have no idea how I missed it the first time,” he said as he ambled across the deck, completely oblivious to what he had just walked in on. How he couldn’t feel the tension in the air, thick as pea soup, was beyond her. “Not many houseboats have stages. Anyways, sorry for the delay. That looks like a wicked set up, I bet you could put on a pretty awesome concert…” 

Alya eyed her suspiciously as Luka began to talk shop with Darrel. 

Would Alya want to keep going in circles with her after Darrel was gone? 

Would she- who was she kidding? Alya was not one to give up-

“I should get going. Let you have your dinner.” 

What?

She snapped her gaze away from Darrel and Luka to look back at her friend. Alya was still watching her through narrowed eyes. But the heat that had been behind Alya’s eyes was gone. Replaced by a coolness.   

What…

“Uh- yeah. Sounds good…” 

“I’m sure tomorrow will be the night. The night Marinette’s dreamed about? The night she finally gets together with Adrien. Right?” Ok, yeah. Alya was definitely not giving up. 

As admirable as her tenacity was… it was just as much headache inducing. 

“Yeah,” she said slowly. 

With one last look, Alya turned on her heel.  

She watched as Alya made her way across the gangplank. Just one misplaced step… that’s all it would take… 

If she were a better person, she wouldn’t be having these thoughts. 

If she were a worse person, she probably would have already given into the temptation and pushed her into the river. 

But she wouldn’t. No matter how tempting it was… Sure, out of the girl squad, Alya was the one she was the least close with. And the past couple of weeks—months for her—had certainly put a strain on their relationship it seemed.

But Alya was still her friend. 

And it was the Seine. 

She watched as Alya, now across safe and sound, headed towards the stairs that led to the street. As if feeling her eyes on her, Alya stopped and turned around to meet her gaze. It was hard to tell with the last of the evening sun reflecting off the lenses of her glasses, but based on the way Alya’s mouth was screwed into a tight line… She felt pretty safe on betting that her response to Alya’s parting words had done nothing to quell her suspicions. 

Screwing her courage to the sticking place, she returned Alya’s gaze measure for measure. They stared at each other, caught in a silent showdown. And it seemed neither of them wanted to swerve first. 

Would it be better to just give Alya the win? 

Let her think she had called chicken first? Try and get her to lower her guard? 

Or would it be better to hold firm? 

Stand strong and not shrink back into the shadows? 

Before she could debate herself into any more circles—she had had more than enough of that for one day—the sound of Darel's voice broke the air. 

“Thanks for the tip, man,” Darrel said. She turned just in time to see him pass Luka a large paper bag filled with their dinner as he shoved the cash into a bag clipped to his belt. “Have a good one,” he said as he turned and headed towards the gangplank. Still seemingly blithely ignorant of the showdown he had interrupted.  

Her gaze followed his movement, and then drifted past to the stairs to the street. But there was no sign of Alya. 

“Watch your step,” she half-mumbled, half-called after him absently as her brows furrowed. She jumped at the feeling of a hand on her shoulder. When she turned, Luka was giving her the very definition of a ‘concerned older brother look. 

“Everything ok?” 

She looked back to the empty stairs, and then nodded with a sigh. “Yeah. Let’s eat.” 

As she and Luka headed towards the stairs down below deck, she looked back one last time. 

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Have random character references even though I don’t draw and I highly doubt most people care about the information 👍🏻😂

Abel - Dirty blonde hair, light blue eyes, chiseled and weathered face. Muscular but slim, a little shorter than the average Hylian man, very mild tan due to just being out in the sun so much. He mostly burns in the sunlight but he’s cooked himself enough that his skin is attempting to compensate. (Hopefully LoZ has magic skin cream to stave off skin cancer 👍🏻) Has a few scars, including one small one on his chin from being hit in battle. The rest are hidden. Used to keep his face clean shaven and his hair short in his early adulthood. Lost all concern for appearances after the Calamity, his hair is grown a little past his shoulders and he’s constantly got five o’clock shadow because he barely keeps up with shaving. Grew out a beard out of sheer neglect at the beginning but it eventually was itchy and annoying enough that he shaved it.

Was a Knight of Hyrule since he was a teenager. Met his wife on an assignment to Hateno Village. Was part of the entourage selected to go to Zora’s Domain for negotiations. Brought his son, Link, along. Eventually, his skill in battle, leadership, and handling political assignments earned him a position in the Royal guard. He became captain of the royal guard a year before the Calamity.

Tilieth - Light blonde curly hair, brown eyes, freckles, soft and rounded face. Petite build. Has three ear piercings on one ear and two on the other because when she was a teen she heard three piercings was good luck as it symbolizes the golden goddesses, but the third piercing hurt so much she opted out of the other ear and completely forgot to finish the set. Always kept her hair in knotted half up styles with braids until the Calamity. Her hair got caught in debris of demolished buildings and she cut it with a knife and she’s never worn it down since. It’s always in a bun, however messy it might be.

Tilieth was the only daughter of a blacksmith. She loved making things, most especially clothes. She wanted to make clothes for others as well and considered working in the local shop. After getting married she settled for homemaking and was happy with it, though she loved the idea of traveling and seeing everything the world had to offer. She still made clothes too, for family and friends. When Link was little, a bad illness swept through Hateno, and Til caught it. Her parents took care of her while Abel looked after Link and continued with his duties. Once Til recovered and Abel’s mission to the Donain was over, the family got to spend some time together again. Was in Hateno with Lyra and her father when the Calamity struck.

Link, the Hero of Power - Hyrule Warriors Link’s direct predecessor. Half-Sheikah (his dad) half-Hylian (his mom). Platinum blonde hair, red eyes, light brown skin. One of the tallest Links, but slender and stealthy. Always clean shaven. Wore his hair up in a bun.

Not much is known about this Hero by the War of Eras, except that he helped split Ganondorf’s soul to prevent the cycle from continuing. Lana knows a lot more about him than anyone else, though she doesn’t speak of it. Some things that were lost to history included his role in fighting a war against the Gerudo, and his eternal love for the future Gerudo Chief, Hemisi - Ganondorf’s daughter.

Princess Zelda - Also known as the Sacred Diplomat, she is the princess who helped split Ganondorf’s soul in the backstory to Hyrule Warriors. Wavy, shoulder length chocolate brown hair that she often wears in elaborate buns with braids. Somewhat pale complexion, cool skin tone with traditional emerald skin paint that she always wore on her face and neck and arms. Typically wore light blue gowns.

As Queen she unified Hyrule after a bloody war. She is known in history as one of the best of the royal line. She even managed to maintain a shaky neutrality with the Gerudo after the war’s end. She strengthened bonds with the Sheikah through her marriage to one of their own. She is the standard to which many queens are held to. But there is much to her diplomacy that was lost to history.

Chief Hemisi - Leader of the Gerudo after her father’s defeat. Chestnut skin, fiery red mid back length hair that she usually kept in a high bubble ponytail, amber eyes. Six feet tall, very muscular, though not quite to the degree of botw Gerudo women. She had more of a Hylian build, like the Gerudo of OoT. Her ears were pointed, and she had a special earring she always wore that had been given to her by her father. On her other ear she wore an earring decorated with a symbol of the triforce, as she inherited the Triforce of Power after helping defeat her father.

Lost her family to the war that broke out because of Ganondorf. Was in love with Link. Helped defeat her father and seal him away. Was not the same person afterward. Had a twin brother who had been groomed to inherit the throne of the Gerudo, and so she had focused on being a warrior. When her brother was killed in the war alongside her mother, her situation changed quickly. Became chief and helped maintain an uneasy peace between Hyrule and the Gerudo, but did not like or trust the Queen.

[jess-moloney-malarkey]

Hi, long anon from the 13th back! The other blog won’t publish this, but you seem to be a logical thinker.

As far as the alcohol goes, Jess does drink around Jamie. As did Ruby as far as live-in girlfriends go. I’ve tried to make that point to the other blog and she goes nuts.

I have zero interest in defending Jess any which way, but calling the woman an alcoholic because she drinks is insane. Yeah, she’s talked about drinking, about previously being a “party girl” and does currently drink. None of which makes her an alcoholic. That just means she enjoys alcoholic drinks. We have zero proof she drinks in excess. Posing for photos with alcohol is not that proof. Do I personally think she should drink in the house you live with a recovering alcoholic? No. Am I Jamie to enforce that opinion? No. He’s a grown man that can make calls on his own.

There have been photos and videos of Jess having alcohol in the house. Here’s where we all need to take a giant step back.

We. Do. Not. Personally. Know. Jamie. Or. His. Limits.

He lived with Ruby and she drank around him. He lives with Jess and she drinks around him. I didn’t really like Ruby either as both she and Jess treated/treat Jamie as their arm candy trophy boyfriend prize, but we also don’t personally know either of them.

Jamie very well could’ve laid out his limits when it comes to Jess drinking and/or having alcohol in the house. Maybe he didn’t. We’re not in their relationship so it doesn’t matter.

Someone sent the other blog “video evidence” of Jamie drinking a non alcoholic Heineken in Sao Paolo and she found a way to make it Jess’s fault/influence. Like a guy having a good time at a sporting event couldn’t have a non alcoholic drink by his own free will. 🙄

I’ll be coming here from now on with my thoughts because you’re not a crazy conspiracy theorist. 😂

Exactly! Being a social drinker is a far cry from being an alcoholic, and I highly HIGHLY doubt that Jamie, as someone in recovery, would allow himself to be with someone in active addiction. Jamie has been sober for almost 9 years now, and is a whole ass 35 year old grown man. He can lay out his own boundaries for himself with his partners and others around him. Sobriety is a very personal journey and it's not up to us to scrutinize him or the people around him about it.

And good lord, the non-alcoholic beverages thing... He was drinking non-alcoholic champagne as far back as a Counterfeit livestream on Instagram during the debut of "Getting Over It", and that was when he was still with Ruby. It's not unheard of for him, or plenty of other sober people. Non-alcoholic beers and wines commonly assist those who are sober/recovering, either to curb cravings or just to blend in with others who are drinking alcohol. Again, it's a PERSONAL THING and different for each sober person.

And sure, feel free to vent here! lol I don't care about people not liking Jess, that's totally valid and your prerogative. I'm just not down with the condescending attitude to other fans and actively spreading falsehoods that also make Jamie look bad in the process. Like you don't need to think up a whole Lifetime original movie plot about it and be rude to people just because you don't like a person...

[lasirenatarot]

Could you do a reading on Lewis Hamilton. There were rumours about him & Shakira (which I highly doubt) ...

Ohhh, this one will be long bc I want to find out about the Shakira stuff👀

Lewis Hamilton:

Question 1: What is going on in his life currently?

Cards: justice; knight of wands; 2of wands; 4 of swords; page of swords; judgement

He’s thinking about 2 equally good options he has to choose from, that probably is about work.

He may be having a hard time leaving the past and past successes behind, hard time getting used to the fact things are not the same anymore. (Probably work again) Things may be out of his control and he needs the trust the Universe, or God or whatever u’d like to call it that he will get what he deserves even if it’s not the same thing he tought he wanted. He needs to keep it 100% real with himself and decide what he does not need anymore in his life, he may be thinking it’s better to follow a new career path idk? Im not saying he will, but I am getting that he is definitely considering it.

He might be quite petty and more cut throat with his words these days and not have a filter on what he says to ppl, he needs to be more careful with that for his own good tho. He seems quite energetic and ready for new adventures, travel etc while at the same time resting, healing and thinking things thru. He may go on a holiday retreat or sth to clear his mind.

Question 2: What is going on in his love life currently?

Cards: 9 of pentacles; 9 of swords; 5 of swords; 6 of wands; 2 of swords

Lololol it’s funny that it’s getting shown in the cards, basically his very well-off financial situation is helping him enjoy his life to the fullest currently; his main/base needs are fulfilled (yk what😂); he is having a lot of options to choose from;

Someone ( a fling possibly) is not having the best interest when it comes to him, may be using him for attention, trying to taint his reputation. He might win this “argument” against this person and get away without losing anything, but it might feel somewhat demoralising for him.;

He may be currently realising his past mistakes when it comes to love; he probably has some anxiety/worries around the topic of relationships (commitment issues?). He probably needs to find balance between his love life&professional life.

To finish the reading i pulled few oracle cards:

What is the dynamic between Lewis and Shakira?

- Nothing we have not already suspected honestly😂

From his side I feel it’s just random meetings, more like business/friendship, nothing serious. She seems like is more open to dating him (although I doubt she actually likes him fully), starting sth with him in order to find solace, move on from her ex.

Idk, to me it looks like they both are using each other (and they both fully realise that); briefly, strictly business, good PR, nothing serious from both sides. If something IS going on tho, again, nothing serious, probably hooking up, although I don’t see it in the cards..🤷🏼‍♀️ /posted on july 27, 2023/

[juniperhillpatient]

Return to Omashu Re-watch

No thoughts, only mean teenage girls who could & would kill me

This is the episode where we get to see the formation of the Dangerous Ladies™ & it's exactly as iconic as I remember it. (To be fair, this is another episode that I've re-watched pretty frequently on its own.) The Girls Are Fighting & you should be scared!

So, Omashu has been taken by the Fire Nation & the Gaang are horrified. I think it's interesting that Katara & Sokka were basically like "Bumi is probably dead. Oh well, let's move on." Sokka is practical & always focused on moving ahead so it's not a surprising reaction for him but it's a little surprising from Katara. The trend for her character is to try to help everyone who might need it, & that would include a potentially lost or hurt Bumi. I'm theorizing that Katara's lack of interest in this project is a combination of her belief that Bumi is dead (although Katara is often more of an idealist) & her heavy focus on finding a new earth-bending teacher now. Also, this mission is personal to Aang. He's had so much taken from him. All he has left of his old life are Appa & Momo. So, of course, he wants to find the only friend he has left from the life he left behind.

Sokka's plan to fake 'Pentapox' is pretty funny & smart. Also, the Fire Nation guards yelling "PLAGUE!" when the earth kingdom citizens were heading toward them holding their hands out and groaning hit a LITTLE too close to home in light of recent years 😂

Azula's manipulative prowess is targeted at someone other than Zuko & Iroh & it's fascinating to watch. Azula's recruitment of Ty Lee is such a mind game. The audience is getting an ongoing introduction to an entirely new & much more dangerous type of villain than anything we had last season.

We would never see Zhao or Zuko subtly threatening someone the way Azula does Ty Lee, having the net set on fire at her show & the animals released then talking about excitement for the "next show." No, the other two main antagonists of the show thus far - Zuko and Zhao - are much more in your face. Azula could have ordered Ty Lee to join her, or she could have outright threatened to set her on fire, but she took a more careful and calculated approach. The only other character I could see taking a more subtle approach like this is Iroh.

In light of later revelations - that Azula believes "fear is the only way" to relate to people & that "trust is for fools" - as well as the knowledge that Azula does view Ty Lee & Mai as friends (I think this is shown clearly in their dynamic, but it's also proven by Azula's hallucination saying "your friends, Mai and Ty Lee") - I think that in a twisted way, Azula wanted this to seem like Ty Lee's choice. She didn't want to order Ty Lee to join her, she wanted this to feel like a friendship. Could she have understood that about herself or articulated it? I highly doubt it, but sometimes we don't understand our own emotions & motives. And of course - a disclaimer that this is my interpretation/theory.

Mai's recruitment is much more straightforward. Mai is miserable in Omashu. Her parents are busy doting on her baby brother, and she's constantly expected to act like a quiet good girl. She's bored, & she doesn't say it but probably lonely. Also - Mai loves violence. Mai's first encounter with the Gaang isn't even with Azula & Ty Lee, it's on her own, & she is excited to fight. Another interesting aspect of Mai's character is that she's 100% onboard right away with abandoning Tom Tom. I could see an argument that Mai was afraid to argue with Azula, but I don't buy it because there is no evidence for it. Ty Lee has clearly been intimidated into joining Azula, but we haven't seen that with Mai. So, I think that Mai just doesn't seem to care about her brother at all. This isn't a moral judgment on her by the way, just an observation.

The Dangerous Ladies Vs. The Gaang has to be one of the most exciting fights we've seen so far. Everyone's different styles are showcased & it's just amazing to watch. I think it's super interesting that Ty Lee almost kicks Sokka & Tom Tom off a building. She was ready to murder a baby & it's only cartoon logic & luck that she didn't!

Speaking of ready-to-murder - I'm fascinated by the different Fire Nation characters' approach to fighting Aang. I can't recall Zuko ever trying to kill Aang. He's been set on the whole "capture" thing. Zhao spells out to Aang that he won't kill him because it would just trigger a new Avatar. But there's no argument I can see that Azula is not trying to kill Aang during their fight in this episode. She is actively shooting fire at him, again & again. So, does she know that if he dies a new Avatar will be born? If Zhao knew, I have to assume Azula does. Of course, she does kill him (sorta) later, but we'll analyze that when we get to it. For now, I'm just saying that this is interesting. Azula is capable of a fighting style that doesn't go for the kill, or Zuko would've died during their last encounter. But, she chooses to go after Aang by shooting him with fire which would kill him if he failed to block or dodge her attacks. Super interesting to me.

Anyway, Aang's conversation with Bumi is very interesting to me. We learn about three of the apparent eighty-five 'jings.' Fighting is positive jing and retreating is a negative jing. Aang knows this, probably from his teachings with Gyatso, but Bumi explains that there's a third jing - neutral. I'm not sure how I feel about the argument that "doing nothing" is sometimes the best call. Bumi is a very interesting morally gray character. I understand what he was trying to say, & what the narrative was getting at, but still, Bumi abandoned his people when they needed him. I have a feeling I'll come back to the quote: "Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jing. You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking." For now, though, those are my thoughts on the episode!

[vintagepresley]

I think Priscillas okay. But what throws me off is her including her son, who has nothing to do with elvis whatsoever, with the whole Graceland thing so that he owns some of it. I also hope that because Priscilla probably will be buried at Graceland next to Lisa that it doesnt make Navarone think that he can be buried there. As much as Priscilla loves her son, I think that if he is ever allowed to be buried at Graceland, there would be uproar

but I don’t think that will happen because I think he’s married and because he’s not related and has nothing to do with elvis.

But also have you seen people saying that Riley shouldn’t have gotten ownership of Graceland because she never met elvis. 🤦‍♀️ I think people completely forget the definition of a hat generation are and what dna and blood is

I get that. I don't think he should be buried there either and he probably won't, honestly. If anyone's watched his lives he doesn't care for Elvis or Graceland. I don't think he owns some of it. I just think he gets part of whatever her money is which I get wanting to take care of your son. I guess. But I feel like people are so worried about this as well and I highly doubt he will ever be buried there. Especially because he has so many family members in Brazil that he's much closer to and I could see him being buried down there because he wants to move there anyway full time someday.

But yeah, at this point people just need to stay out of other peoples affairs. We don't know this family personally and the fact that people are getting so upset over a family matter that doesn't concern a bunch of fans who are strangers to them is crazy. Like what? She is his grandchild. that's how things work when it's passed down from generation to generation. People I'm convinced in this fandom just want a reason to be mad and complain. 😂 I'm so over it.

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

Thinking about it, who, of the main viewpoint characters in One Does Not Love Breathing (Marinette, Adrien, Chloe, Luka, Kagami, and Felix, the others either haven't gotten viewpoints or haven't gotten to do much of significance yet), do you think would handle it best if the person they loved the most was murdered? Because currently from what you've said and my evaluations, it looks like this:

Ladybug: Obviously this is the one we see in your story. She's still a hero, and still recognizable as herself, but she's a lot more ruthless and less willing to listen to reason than she would be under more normal circumstances. But what we see from her is still stuff that would've been at least somewhat recognizable pre-Chat's death, it's just that they would've been when she was under more extreme stressed circumstances, and she's under those extreme stressed circumstances all the time now, as a baseline.

Chat Noir: If Ladybug had been murdered and died in his arms, he would've been worse than Ladybug is now, full stop. Unlike Ladybug, I doubt that he would've been all that recognizable as being the same person - I suspect that his suit would change to reflect his new attitude and mindset. Also unlike Ladybug, I don't think there'd be as many similarities to how he acted before the murder, as he repressed his negative emotions so tightly and let go of them so quickly before. But with Ladybug being murdered... well, he's highly emotionally dependent on her, she means the most to him out of everyone in the world. If she was ripped away like that, I think he'd break to the point where he'd lose some of his sense of self, hence the costume change.

Chloe: This one's tricky, as she doesn't have anyone she cares about on the scale that Ladybug and Chat Noir care about each other (though to be fair, I don't think anyone else on this list does.) So I think she'd be less affected based on that alone. Still, if say, Zoe was murdered in front of her, I think she'd become more focused and brutal on taking her murderer down. Ironically it might actually drive her MORE towards heroism, as I don't think Zoe's death would completely break her, but that it would mean that she'd never side with anyone who could or would hurt an innocent like that again.

Luka: He's the one I really can't evaluate, as much as I'm beginning to understand your version of him. If Zoe was killed in front of him, I dunno how he'd react. He obviously cares for her deeply, and I think it's safe to say that he wouldn't be passive towards anything or anyone involved in her murder, but beyond that, I don't really know how it'd affect him on a deeper level as a person.

Kagami: Whoever killed Felix would die, and whoever got in her way of avenging Felix's murder would be injured. Kagami has strong moral principles, but they're brittle, in a way - push them hard enough, and they'll break. Ironically I'm almost certain that she'd be worse on the "morally compromised" front than Ladybug is, and would basically react LIKE Ladybug did, but on a more extreme level.

Felix: Whoever killed Kagami would die, Whoever tried to stop him from committing murder would, bare minimum, be thrown in prison, though there's a good chance of him severely injuring them instead or even outright killing them, and unlike everyone else on this list, I think he'd go for full "society will burn for her death, they all deserve it". He was already fully willing to throw Paris at a powered-up Monarch's mercy just because it netted him the Peacock Miraculous, and told him that was a justified thing to do since only he cared about the Sentis, and just... didn't really consider everyone living under the magical terrorist's grip to be his problem. So it's not like he's exactly known for caring about collateral damage anyway.

omg i love this question. a great thing to ponder first thing in the morning ☀️and you gave me such good insights into their psyches, too! all the characters look so badass under your lens 😂

i'll go in order of handling it the best to handling it the worst.

luka - i believe the death that would devestate him the most would be juleka's, given how they're twins. next would be zoe's, and the longer they were together the worse it would be. no he wouldn't be passive, but he's the only one on here who wouldn't consider going out for blood. he would handle the loss in a really internalized way (depression, etc) and seek justice rather than revenge. but i also think he'd willingly attend therapy if goaded. he'd be sort of okay after a time.

kagami - this is a case-by-case kind of issue, so it really just depends. i mentioned before that she would kill monarque if monarque killed felix, but only just expose ladybug and reveal her identity and crimes if lb was the murderer. ladybug is not as evil as monarque, after all, and has done good things for the world. kagami would become judge, jury, and/or executioner based on what the situation called for. she would give the murderer exactly what she thought they deserved, and much like lb if you get in the way of that expect to suffer the consequences. and only then would she feel vindicated.

chloe - you're right about her, she would not hesitate to stab zoe's murderer on the spot. and if somehow the killer got arrested instead and had to go through the entire trial process, chloe would be advocating for the death penalty. i like your theory about this driving her more toward heroism, in a way. chloe might not go full hero, maybe vigilante though XD i don't think she'd ever be okay, really. she's not at the moment, due to how completely love-starved she is. and with zoe gone, chloe would be even more of an emotionally brittle mess than before and probably get herself into some toxic relationships to cope.

marinette - case in point lol. she loved chat noir more than anyone in the world when he died and so yeah. she's not doing great. like you said, she does still try to be a hero though but emotionally, she's a wreck. not unrecognizeable though, you can still get through to her, for now.

felix - yeah you're spot on. in his case we kind of got a preview of how he handles the death of someone he loves already. amelie said that after his dad died, he started acting out (i.e the episode "felix"). losing amelie or kagami or adrien would be extremely damaging to him. i don't think revenge would be enough. he'd not be as deranged as marinette is, but i can see him hunting down the murderer in a slow, methodical way and ruining their life first before killing them. he would never feel satisfied by that though. i can see him turning into a hawkmoth kinda villain to get more power to prevent that kind of thing from happening again.

adrien - ooh a costume change for villain chat noir would be so cool! maybe he'd go white like chat blanc, just without being under the influence of an akuma 👀 you're absolutely right on his being unable to cope with ladybug's death there. he wouldn't be ok. nobody would be ok. he wouldn't even really be adrien anymore, like you said; he'd probably go the hawkmoth route and try to bring her back because that's the only way he'd know how to cope.

[hughungrybear]

Me watching Laws of Attraction Ep. 3:

1. Oooh, Charn's backstory (at last!). I see, Charn's ring pendant necklace came from Mum. So, I guess mum's dead? <after 5 seconds> HOOOOOLD UUUUP! How did Charn and mum end up from celebrating a case won to being blindfolded and kneeling/crawling in the mud??? Wtf. 😵

2. It has come to my attention that Tanthai is sort of dumb. I think somebody is due for some anger management therapy. He is letting his anger cloud his decisions. I mean, really? Asking the minions to disobey his corrupt dad's direct orders on a whim is peak stupidity.

3. Okay, since I still do not know what the goons are looking for, am legit afraid for Tonkhao's bestie. Looks like she accidentally chosen the thing that caused Tonkhao's death as a souvenir 😭😭😭 Also, grandma, I thought you gave Charn all the dolls in Tonkhao's room when he asked. Why the ever loving fvck is there a treasure chest full of dolls still (not to mention the one found inside Tonkhao's bag)????

4. I'm wondering: what exactly is Charn's relationship with Miss Clubowner? Is he a nephew or something? Also, got to admit that Charn's happiness is also my happiness atm (the bank deposit notification, that is) 😅

5. <my paranoid self seeing the icecream truck outside Tin's dojo> Oh, no. Not the kids!!!! 😟😟😟😟 <after 5 seconds> Gawd dammit, Charn. I almost had a heart attack. 😭😭😭

6. Of all the things that Charn should be stressed about, it's the kids (and Tin) calling him "uncle" that triggers him the most. Lol 😂😂😂

7. I can understand Charn's logic. You know how they say "first impressions lasts"? It is really applicable when swaying public opinion. It's the reason why so many effing politicians prosper - they know how to project a likeable image despite a rotten core. Still, I doubt a person as honest as Tin would play the game. If I were Charn, I would change tactics. If he couldn't convince Tin to let go of his moral beliefs, he might want to design a new plan that would (even superficially) accommodate those beliefs.

8. Why do I find Charn's bodyguard/assistant highly sus? Must be the paranoid in me lol 😅😅😅😅

9. Got to admire Charn's talent to push all of Tanthai's (angry) buttons. It took him less than a minute to threaten Tanthai. The guy has a natural talent for getting under anyone's skin 😂😂😂

10. Ugh. I still maintain that Tanthai is a dumba**. He should know how to play his cards right. If he has a leverage against his dad, he should be wise and get the timing right. 😑

11. OMG. They fired Tin??? Wth. 🤬 Also, why kill the dog too? What did the dog do to them? 😭😭😭😭

12. Sorry, no sweet moment can topple that dead dog image in my mind 😭😭😭😭

13. Again, Tanthai's stup*dity will be the end of him. Stop being rash and mad, goddamn it.

14. Really? A fire? What the hell. Wait, what is Charn doing there? With an extiguisher?? That's pretty convenient. 😑 Also, the assistant filming the whole thing? I smell BS.

15. The fvck does the eng sub mean "kids singing"? That was anything but singing lol. Also, I have been saying that Tanthai is stup*d, but is he stup*d enough to leave a traceable evidence in a potential crime scene? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

16. See, his rage would kill him (by the hands of Tanthep) one day. Tanthai needs to control his emotions so that he could one upped his dad when the time is right.

17. Yep, pretty sure Charn started the fire at Tin's house. His friends from the club probably lifted Tanthai's ring without him noticing <after 5 seconds> wait, I think Tin is also suspicious of Charn, judging by the looks he is giving.

18. Seeeeee? Tin is smart. I'm so proud of him. 😄 Also, Charn knows where all the cameras are, it is easier to evade them.

19. I guess Miss Clubowner sums it up pretty nicely. Tin cares for so many people that he naturally worries. On the other hand, Charn is pretty strict on caring only for himself (since his mum died) that he cannot even begin to consider the possible consequences of his actions to other people.

20. I am getting frustrated with Tin. Yeah, it's admirable that he has unbreakable morals but he has to accept that "good" does not always prevail against "evil". Not in the real world anyway.

Anyways, am not sure where the story will go with this black-and-white perspective of good and evil. On to the next episode.

[lovemesomeeddiemunson]

Fugitive Houseguest

Summary: With the townsfolk gunning for Eddie, Steve and Dustin decide he’ll be safer under the care of an old friend. 

F! OC. 8657 Words. Oops.

Part 1 of 2.

Warnings:  MAJOR ST spoilers ahead.  Explicit sex scene in part 1 (Minors DNI.) There is also a hinted at sexual situation in part 2 in which OC is not in their right mind, which may make some uncomfortable. ST-esq violence. Slut-shaming (talking about that moment from volume 1, which was not okay.) Food eating mentions. Cursing.

Authors Note:  This started as a simple bandaid to cope with Volume 4. Definitely got away from me lol. It’s a fix it fic y’all!! As such you’ll see pretty clearly where I took some…artistic license to make the OC more central to the story. I hate myself sometimes I swear but this fic practically wrote itself. 😂 Much as I love my reader inserts, I felt that the protagonist in this fic just had too many specific traits to NOT be an OC. Also, some hints of OC X Billy and maybe even OC X Steve if you squint.  This is part 1 of 2, no further installments currently planned. 

Also, I am always looking for inspo, so I will absolutely take requests for one-shots, blurbs, and head canons. If you don’t have an idea and just wanna chat, that’s cool too! I promise I won't bite.

“Where the hell have you been?” Steve reprimanded the approaching woman as she threw her Chevy Cavalier into park.

“Went to see Raul.” She explained, still bandaged from the encounter.

Steve did a double take, eyes widening. He knew what that meant. “You do realize that it’s the end of the world, right?”

Yeah, she wanted to tell him, but it was the end of the world, again, and she would be damned if that meant canceling her appointment. 

Instead she just smirks. “You have your coping skills, and I have mine.” 

As he follows her to her front door of the cute house on the edge of Lover’s Lake. She unlocks it for him and lets him inside. “Did you at least come by it honestly?” Steve asked with raging sarcasm.

She snorts, playing along and upping the ante. “Unless trading some sloppy head for ink is ‘coming by it honestly,’ then I highly doubt it.” 

He nearly choked, which she’d hoped for when choosing her words.

Back in Steve’s car parked in front of hers, two people huddle together, whispering. 

The older of the two, a long haired boy she had not met before, asks if she’ll really be able to help.

The younger boy, Dustin Henderson, nods vigorously, explaining that it’s cool, she’s cool. The best, actually. The other man couldn’t be in better hands. 

Eddie huffs at that and exits the vehicle, following Steve and her inside despite the former’s insistence that he wait in the car, so he could bring the woman up to speed.

That didn’t look like what Steve was up to. To Eddie, it looked more like flirting. Gross.

“You wanna see it, don’t you?” He hears her tease Steve as he enters without knocking, the man’s arms crossed and expression put out.

“No!” He protested, too quickly, before his eyes flashed to Eddie, Dustin entering the house behind him. His voice dropped low all at once, jokingly. “Show me later.” He muttered under his breath.

She giggled, heading over to the fridge and pulling out several glass coke bottles. Handing one to Dustin first, that giggle is still in her voice as she asks the kid how he’s been, rubbing his cheek lovingly.

Dustin was flushing, even as he lightly protested. “I have to regretfully inform you that I must reject your advances; I have a girlfriend now.” 

The kid is totally serious, but the sigh she lets out is theatrical. “All the good ones are taken, huh?” She quips, eyes suddenly on Eddie, the act sobering. She seems to straighten up suddenly, down to business.

“So, we don’t speak for a couple months and you guys make it up to me by bringing me a person of interest in a murder investigation.” It’s said lightheartedly.

“Right so…His name hasn’t gone public yet, but we figured it’s only a matter of time. And if we’d managed to track him down at Reefer Rick’s then it’s safe to assume that others will too…We figured there’s nothing linking the two of you together so he should be safe here, until we can figure out a way to clear his name.” Dustin rambles. 

She takes a swig of the cola, humming thoughtfully. “…So, when you say, ‘End of the world’…” she eyes the bottle. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re…in the brainstorming phase.” Steve admits.

At that she starts to mumble incoherently - raising her voice louder to punctuate a sharp rant in Spanish, that has Steve objecting.

“English, babe, English. You know I can’t understand you when you talk like that. I’m not Robin.” He soothes.

“Forget it.” She dismisses. “Just…cursing my luck. In any case, I’ll harbor the fugitive. We can work out the details later.”

“It’s Eddie.” Eddie crosses his arms over his chest. “Eddie The Banished.” He adds dryly.

She gives a wave of her hand, “I’ll harbor the fugitive Eddie-the-banished.” She says, not missing a beat. Eddie cracks a smile for the first time in what feels like forever.

“Thanks Amilia.” Steve sighs in relief as Dustin gives her a big hug. She pats his back sweetly.

“Take care of him, yeah?” Dustin asks nervously. 

‘Amilia’ draws a small ‘X’ over her chest, right above her heart. “With my life.” She swears to him.

Then the two boys make their exit, and it’s just her and Eddie, standing about awkwardly. He racked his brain for something to say. Torn between letting the woman know he’s grateful, and spitefully insisting that he doesn’t need anything but a place to crash.

Instead of all that, he starts simple. “So, uh, Amilia was it?” Eddie questions. She nods. 

“You uh, you live here alone?” He asks. “I mean, uh, your boyfriend’s not gonna randomly show up and want to kick my ass, right?”

“It’s just me. Last boyfriend I had kind of got brutally murdered by a spider creature from another dimension 8 months ago.” The words are about as lighthearted as her clarification that Eddie was wanted for murder.

Eddie is surprised. He opens his mouth, and then closes it, sheepishly admitting. “I had a crush on the girl they think I killed…and now…my memories of her will forever be overrun by the sound of her bones snapping and the sight of her lifting off the floor.”

Giving a slow nod, Amilia takes in his downtrodden expression, voice soft. “Look at us, two traumatized souls, finding each other in this crazy world. What are the odds?” Spinning around, she grabs and raises her half drunk Coke bottle in solidarity. “To the fallen.” She toasts.

“To the fallen.” He agrees in slight surprise, touching his own bottle to hers.

Then she eyes him up and down, noting thoughtfully, “You know, you look like someone who could use a home cooked meal.” 

And Eddie is rendered speechless as she stands up and heads over to take some things from the fridge.

He watches in awe, as she brings out a cutting board, jumping as she chop, chop, chops, not looking up at him, tentatively asking. “What was she like?”

“Pretty cool actually. Nice.” Eddie says it casually, like these were passable qualities indeed.

“You like nice girls?” She sounded skeptical.

It made Eddie laugh. “Sometimes.”

“Sometimes.” Amilia mocks him.

“Well, what about you?” He counters.

“Sometimes.” She responds, a glimmer in her eye. “Nice is fine, but who wants it nice and easy all the time? Gotta say, I prefer a person with some range.”

Eddie finds this whole thing really odd. A week ago he was planning a brutal campaign, trying to think of how best to slaughter his friends.

Now here he was, on the hook for an actual brutal murder that he had only witnessed - in a woman’s house he’d only met today, agreeing with her on several fundamental levels.

Eddie wonders if he scratches under the surface any deeper, just how much more they’ll have in common.

“And he had range?” He smirks.

“He was a walking complexity.” She agreed.

The sadness in her voice - Eddie’s unsure if it’s akin to how he’s feeling. Feels deeper than what had happened with Chrissy. More raw. “Did you love him?” He wonders aloud.

She shakes her head. “Never got the chance.” A snort. “Still, the whole thing hurt like hell. I wonder if after that I’m even equipped to love anything beyond, like…a really good dog.”

“So cynical.” Eddie beamed in admiration. 

She doesn’t mind the accusation. “Think it might have worked out between you and your crush, if she had lived?” 

“Hell no.” He scoffs. “We came from two different worlds, for starters. And she also had this terrible boyfriend, who I’m sure is leading the search party for my head.”

“Yeah, well unfortunately for that guy he has to go through me first.” A threat if he’d ever heard one, Eddie hides his smile behind his drink.

She keeps cooking - more seasonings on one shelf than Eddie has in his whole trailer, which she used liberally. 

“So, Amilia, just how is it that you got mixed up with the likes of me?” He asks curiously.

“Hm...I think it’s just an added bonus to being mixed up with the likes of Steve and Dustin.” She laughs. “Yeah, we uh, we worked together to save the world a few times…This is just the latest installment.” Her smile falters. “Sucks' cause I thought it was all over. Now here they are pulling me out of retirement.”

“Well ‘The Hair’ was certainly happy to see you.” Eddie says it sharply, wondering why it bothered him, but unable to deny that he couldn’t get the interaction out of his head.  

“Steve?” Amilia laughs at the thought, shutting down the assumption. “Yeah I mean I guess that whole ‘bit’ came out of retirement with me. It's been hand in hand with us working together ever since we figured out a few years ago how riled up we can get Wheeler.” 

Eddie considered that, the confession shining a new light on their whole meeting. He’s intrigued.

He gets her to tell him more - about their dynamic, takes from how things were before - she tells it all. Even lets him in on Steve and Nance’s tragic love life which he could have done without.

In the end though, knowing about all the supernatural crap going on in Hawkins while he was unaware, he feels just slightly better about his chances. 

They’ve been doing this, apparently, for years. Finding a way out of it seems much more likely than when he was going it alone.

After they talk, maybe an hour or so later, Amilia places a plate in front of Eddie with chicken and rice, and he has to grasp every semblance of self control that he has in order not to let out an obscene moan at the first bite. 

He cleans his plate, leaning back in his chair until he sees Amilia rise from another seat at the dining table, headed to the kitchen sink. 

Eddie quickly scrambled to his feet once he realized her intentions. “Let me do that.” He protests gruffly.

When she gives him a funny look he takes the sponge from her hands. “Least I can do.” Is what he grumbles, gently maneuvering himself between her and a sink full of suds.

She flashes him a smile that sucks the air out of his lungs.

When the hour grows late, Amilia insists that Eddie take her bedroom, telling him that he’s been through too much to sleep on a stiff couch.

He refuses - punching a throw pillow to soften it and waving her goodnight with his many ringed fingers.

She huffs and stomps back to her room, and then she’s back, dragging a pillow and blanket with her. She stubbornly throws it on the floor in front of him, making him promise not to step on her if he gets up to pee.

Eddie laughs, commenting on how insane she is, but really he’s glad for the company.

He crashes, feeling oddly safe, warm. 

He isn’t sure how long he slept but when he wakes up he finds himself in an empty house, with nothing but a note left behind with the time she’d left, that she’ll be back in an hour, tops, and to stay put. 

Stay safe. She had emphasized the word, underlining it twice. 

Eddie smiles crookedly before shaking his head and checking his watch - she had twenty minutes before he grew paranoid.

Only eight minutes later, he hears a car pull up so he peeks through the window shades, only to see Amilia grabbing a trash bag from her back seat, hoisting it over her shoulder.

Eddie opens the door for her, offering a hand. “Thanks,” she tells him, handing the bag off.

“What’s all this?” He asks, following her where she collapses down onto the recliner in the corner.

“Open it up,” she suggests, instead of answering. So Eddie does so.

“These are my clothes,” he says accusingly. 

She merely shrugs, saying. “The crime scene isn't active anymore.” As if that explains it all. 

He’s stunned - it’s just another act of hers that shows how thoughtful she is. And Eddie isn’t used to being…cared for. 

Sure, Wayne leaves him cigarettes, money for food, and beer - but for all that, he doesn’t anticipate Eddie’s needs before he has them. 

“Thank you.” He utters softly.

“No big deal,” she deflects, waving a hand as if she might swat the gratitude away. 

“Did uh…did you happen to notice if my uncle was home?” Eddie asks, concerned about the older man.

She gives a shake of her head. “He wasn’t.”

Eddie isn’t sure if he’s saddened or relieved, hoping that the kids figure something out soon, so he can explain himself to Wayne. At the very least let him know he’s alright.

With new clothes in hand, Eddie takes a shower. Amilia directs him to a spare toothbrush under the sink and gets started on a simple lunch for the two of them.

When he emerges, toweling off his wet hair, he’s surprised to hear Judas Priest’s Love Bites blasting in the kitchen. 

Once Amilia notices his approach, she hurriedly apologizes through the familiar song, before turning it down, trying to be kind and telling he can play whatever he wants if it’s not his thing. 

But holy hell is it his thing, and Eddie is in awe.

What follows that realization is honestly…pure domestic bliss.

The two develop their own routine. She cooks him three meals a day. The two discuss music, books and movies. Eddie makes her laugh as much as he can, and thoughts of her invade his brain long after he’s supposed to be asleep.

By his third evening with her, he can’t take it anymore. As she sets his plate down in front of him, he catches her wrist very gently, tentatively sliding his fingers through hers.

When she raises a brow at him, he suddenly blurts. “Have dinner with me.” 

She raises an eyebrow in confusion, remarking. “I was planning on it,” Only for Eddie to shake his head, flushing. “I…I mean, like, have it with me.”

Understanding washes over her at the implication. She keeps her teasing tone to hide the nerves suddenly threatening her voice. “Eddie, are you asking me on a date?”

Eddie offers his most charming smile in reply. “So what if I am?”

There were several ways she could think to respond to that - but she had to admit, she was flattered. 

Eddie’s face falls a bit. “If I’m out of line at all…”

“You aren’t.” She promises. 

He lights up. “Good, because uh…I really like you.”

“I really like you too.” She tells him, her confession causing him to make a face at his plate. 

“Sure, I mean what’s not to like?” He tries to make it sound like a joke, but visibly cringes.

“Oh you know. Just a nice guy - smart, funny, easy on the eyes.” She shrugs innocently.

“Nice?” He gasps. “Are you saying I don’t have range?” Laughs and eats more of his food.

“Yet to be seen.” She tells him, which he takes as a challenge.

“You think you’ve seen it all, hm? I hate to break it to you, you know, but there is a difference between domestic Eddie and bedroom Eddie.” He winks at her.

She holds a hand to her heart at the scandalous suggestion, derisive. “Well I wouldn't know from the first date!” 

Eddie chuckled. “Alright, say I wanted to show you…how many dates are we talking about?”

“Five?” She says innocently.

“Five?!?” He blurts out, suddenly standing dramatically, waving his arms about. “Okay, let me think. The other day when you kicked my ass at Torpedo Run, that counts. We also watched a movie last night with popcorn. And today we got high and listened to Peace Sells, and I’m sorry sweetheart but if that’s not romance then I don’t know what is.” 

She giggles at him, agreeing. He snaps his fingers thoughtfully. “Okay, I got it. One fifth date, coming right up.”

He disappears into the living room. “Eddie! I was kidding.” She complains.

“No, no.” Amilia hears him protest, as he starts rearranging the furniture. “We’re doing this.”

She follows him out there. He looks through her cassettes, plucking one from the pile. “Oh, this is too perfect.” Eddie chuckles. “Why would you even own this?”

He slips Elvis’ Blue Hawaii into the cassette player, to her horror.

“Oh god Eddie!” She complains in embarrassment. “I’m pretty sure this was my mother’s at some point before I was born.” 

He laughs at her. “Our mom’s would have gotten along. Now come on. You brought it into this house, now you have to dance with me.” He doesn’t take no for an answer.

So she lets him pull her in tight, slowly swaying her along. Though his feet don’t really leave the floor, he’s actually not a terrible dancer.

Like everything he does, he commands the room. And Amilia’s fixation with him doesn’t go unnoticed.

After a minute he asks softly over the ukulele. “Can I kiss you? I really want to kiss you.” 

She gives a small nod in return, “Yes.” 

Eddie smiles and leans down, pressing his lips against hers.

It’s slow, and sweet, and she’s melting in his arms thinking how she’s never fallen apart so easily, with such a simple act.

The power this man holds…Eddie smiles into the kiss - a bit cocky, like he can tell, holding her tight like he can’t get close enough.

Her arms wrap around his neck while the two kiss passionately in her living room. 

And then the song is over and Eddie is aggressively spinning to turn off the tape, not wanting to ruin the moment.

��So,” she asks, her eyes flickering back towards her bedroom. “You wanna…?”

“We don’t have to, you know? I was only joking earlier. I can give you five real dates. Longer if you want.” He’s sweet, and completely serious. 

He must have more optimism than she possesses, assuming that the two of them would get that kind of time. Amilia didn’t have the luxury of being so sure. 

“I want you.” She tells him. And damn if that confession doesn’t almost cause his undoing right there on the spot.

He kisses her again, leaning down to grasp the underside of her thighs, picking her up where she wraps them around his waist, allowing him to carry her to the bedroom in between heated kisses.

He lays her out gently on her bed, breaking the kiss to ask, “This okay?”

She nods eagerly, pulling him back in. “Want you.” She repeats against his lips. Eddie groans softly. 

“Want you too.” He admits, and that much is obvious. Still it’s nice to hear while he’s crawling on top of her. 

Then Eddie’s hand is wrapped loosely around her throat, and he’s kissing her like he might never stop.

He loves how responsive she is beneath him, the sweet sounds she makes and the way she eagerly rolls her hips against his, hands running through his hair.

Eddie kisses every bit of her exposed skin, stripping her of her shirt and bra in quick succession.

He mutters how beautiful she is, perfect, perfect for him. And latches onto her nipple, sucking eagerly on the one before alternating, always playing leisurely with whichever his mouth isn’t attached to.

She writhes beneath him, crying out at the overwhelming sensation and Eddie smiles into his work. 

He lets go while she pouts, kissing down to her ribs and back, laughing against the skin of her collarbones, his face buried there, tracing every line of her tattoos with his tongue.

“Eddie, please.” She grumbles, and she can feel his laugh reverberated through her, causing her to tug at his hair playfully.

He groans aloud at the sensation, causing a mischievous smile to appear on Amilia’s lips as she gives another experimental tug.

He whimpers.

Then he’s batting her hands away, grinning at her, long hair falling down to curtain either side of her face.

Her brain is fuzzy. She’s drunk off of him, intoxicated, when his tongue plays lazily against hers.

Amilia makes him back away so she can take his shirt off, mumbling compliments about his tattoos, but he’s too impatient to let her appreciate them.

He’s tugging her jeans down her legs, burying his face in between her thighs before they even hit the ground. 

His teeth pierce the soft flesh of them, nipping harshly and then peppering soothing kisses. Doing nothing to help the deep ache she feels in her core.

She lets out an impatient sigh of his name, tugging on his hair again, and suddenly he’s giving what she wants, easing her panties down her legs and tossing them carelessly to the side with the rest of her discarded clothing.

Almost too slowly he pushes his tongue inside - and she’s not sure which it’s meant to be, the torture or the reward. 

He teases until she’s writhing and then he’s licking her fully and properly, tongue flattening out as he makes long strokes through her wetness.

She cries out when he adds a finger, slipping it inside while she rides his tongue. When he’s bold he adds another, filling her up just right and sucking on that little nub that has her teetering on the edge.

Eddie is almost disappointed when she comes - not wanting to stop tasting her, but then she’s dragging him away, crying out from the over-stimulation, and begging him to be inside her, and well, she’s really pretty like this…

Her hands eagerly fumble with the handcuffs he’s using as a belt buckle, and then she’s pushing his jeans and boxers off his hips giddily.

She reaches into the nightstand, Eddie taking the offered condom from her, tearing it open and rolling it onto his weeping cock, lining himself up with her once he’s fully sheathed inside it.

He fills her up, letting out helpless moans at the feeling of Amilia gripping him so demandingly. Cursing and sweating while she begs him to fuck her properly.

And how could he refuse?

He works himself in and out a few times before slamming back in, the harsh thrusts each accompanied by the harsh smack of Amilia’s headboard against the wall.

He drives into her, changing pitch and pace for whatever she begs for, harder, faster, slower, deeper - gives her everything.

While he thrusts he rubs on that sweet sweet spot just at her crest until another orgasm is crashing over her, drawing him in.

Eddie grins, pulling out and flipping her over, guiding her onto her hands and knees. 

When he slips back inside she’s moaning helplessly into her pillows. 

Not having that, Eddie gently winds his hands into her hair, pulling her up by it so he can hear the explicit sounds she releases as he pounds into her from behind.

Her cries and screams encourage him as he absolutely rails her, feeling her grow impossibly tighter still.

It’s not long before he’s stuttering in his movements, giving a few more sloppy thrusts before he comes, hard, against the cry of her name.

Eddie thinks he might have even blacked out for a second.

Wincing when he pulls out of her, he disposes of the used rubber in the small trash bin at her bedside before collapsing next to her.

She rolls onto her back with breathless panting, and they meet each other’s eyes at the same time, big grins splitting their faces.

“So…what’s the verdict?” He asks innocently.

“You look real pretty in the afterglow, Eds.” She teases, mushing his cheeks and avoiding the question.

He laughs. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Humming softly, she reaches out again, ecstatic when he receives her, actually pulling her in closer, burying his face in her hair. 

She confesses. “So, domestic Eddie is actually not a far cry from bedroom Eddie.” He was too sweet, through and through. Despite how rough he could give it to her.

“Hey!” He whines loudly, seeming inclined to remind her of that fact, making her laugh.

“But! You do have range.” She readily admits.

“Thank goodness.” He sighs, planting a kiss on her lips.

The two of them cuddle up the rest of the night, a tangle of limbs and tattoos, falling asleep in a bed for the first time since they’ve met.

The next morning Eddie wakes up, disturbed when he rolled over and she wasn’t beside him. 

He gets up slowly with the intention of going to find her, stretching and yawning and pulling his discarded boxers on before walking out of the bedroom. 

She’s in the kitchen, wearing his shirt and scrambling some eggs. It makes Eddie’s heart ache.

He wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin atop her head, murmuring good morning.

She tilts her head back to smile at him widely, and he presses a quick kiss to the tip of her nose.

Eddie thinks he could get used to this, being in hiding, if it means everything that comes with it. Food, sex, good music, and the present company that he isn’t sure how he ever lived without.

Still, all good things must come to an end. 

That night it comes in the form of the unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the driveway. 

At the sound, Amilia gets up and looks out, past the window curtain. It’s not Steve or one of the kids.

“Eddie, I see varsity jackets.” She tells him, letting the curtain fall closed.

“Shit, how the hell did they know to look here?” He blurts, jumping to his feet.

“Go, hide in my room. I’ll get rid of them.” She orders, shoving him towards the bedroom door.

“What? Fuck that I’m not leaving you with them.” Eddie complains.

“I’m not asking.” She presses. “Seriously, Eddie, go. If there’s a chance they don’t know you're here yet, we have to take it.” She pushes him away before going to answer the knock on the door to the two basketball players on the other side. 

“Can I help you?” She asks with a sweet smile, reminding herself that there’s no reason that she should be defensive or angry at their presence. Wary, maybe, as a woman living alone with uninvited guests, but no more than that.

“Sorry to bother you, ma’am…” Jason starts.

“Ma’am?” She laughs. “Jason, I tutored you in Spanish when you were a sophomore and I was a senior, remember?”

“Oh. Right. You look…different.” He confessed.

“Grew my hair out.” She jokes, since it’s always been this long. What she hadn’t had before was the tattoos - at least not the currently visible ones - the creeping vines blooming across her shoulders and collarbone. “Anyways, what can I do for you?”

“We were looking for some people - Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Mike Wheeler…we know they come around here sometimes.”

She frowns innocently. “Sorry, but I haven’t really seen the kids since…well I guess since the mall burned down. Their regular babysitter’s hours got freed up since Scoops Ahoy is gone.” 

“Hm.” Jason said skeptically, his eyes narrowing.

She raises an eyebrow. “I mean…you’re welcome to look around?” Then laughs. “But all you’re gonna find is some refreshing lemonade.”

Amilia turns and heads inside. “Let me get you some for the road.” She’s not asking, pouring the drinks into plastic cups for the two goons, and walking them outside.

Jason won’t drink, but Patrick does, not feeling so great when he suddenly cries out in pain, bending over, cup still in his hand, clutching his abdomen.

“You poisoned it!” Jason accused, glaring at her in turn, grabbing at her arm roughly.

“It’s just lemonade!” She protests, grabbing the red solo cup from Patrick and taking a huge drink. “See?”

“No,” Patrick gasps. “Wasn’t the lemonade…I’m fine.” He explains weakly.

“What the hell are you trying to pull?” Jason snaps at her.

“Me? I literally just gave the guy a drink! What the hell is wrong with you?” She snaps right back. 

“I know you’re lying.” He snarls, getting in her face.

She glares right back at him. “Carver, get the hell off my property.”

“Let’s just go.” Patrick utters softly, he doesn’t look so hot.

“No! She’s hiding something.” He growls, stalking back toward the house.

“Oh for fucks sake!” She snaps as he bursts in, heading straight for the bedroom like he was reading from a map.

Patrick trails behind apologetically, but when the door opens, Eddie is nowhere to be seen. 

Jason searches the whole house. Eddie’s gone.

“Did you accomplish what you wanted? Fucking prick. Get out of here before I call the cops.” She snaps, bluffing, but knowing that cops scared people like Jason. 

As it is he’s flustered, pointing a finger at her. “This isn’t over.”

“Dude, there’s nothing here, get a grip.” Patrick insists, all but dragging him out.

“Don’t you get it? She’s with them! A devil worshipper!” She can hear him shout as he’s wrangled into the car..

She watches them leave, biting her lip, knowing that she can’t search for Eddie until the two leave, but hoping he’s safe. 

He was, but not for long. His disappearing act had only bought him a little time.

When he had snuck out the back during Amilia’s conversation with Jason, not trusting the man not to search the place, he took cover in the boat that came with the house.

When they went to get in their car, Jason spotted him in his rear view mirror, huddled down in the dark. “Look!” He tells Patrick. “There!”

Eddie hears, pushing off the shore, trying the engine to no avail, only to have to try and row away as Jason scrambles from the vehicle.

Amilia heard the commotion, leaving the house and heading parallel to Jason, into the woods.

Jason all but drags Patrick to the shoreline, shouting at him, as they shed down to their underclothes, jumping in and swimming after Eddie.

They gain on him quickly and Eddie stops paddling.

“Hey stay back, man! Stay back!” Eddie yells, wielding the oar like a weapon as Jason approaches.

He turns back to Patrick to yell at him for not keeping up. “Come on, let's go, we almost have him!”

The other boy treads water and Jason calls his name. It’s the last thing he says before Patrick is dragged under.

He rises out of the water then, up into the air where he hovers, body bending and snapping.

Eddie backs up so far in the boat that he falls in. 

Amilia bites back the scream threatening to tear its way out of her throat, hugging the shore line as she keeps moving, moving toward Eddie.

She barely registers Jason collecting the mutilated body, bringing it to shore.

She’s trying to keep an eye on the older man, tearing through the woods until she finds where he’s emerged, clambering soaking wet from the water.

“Woah!” He shouts as she nearly crashes into him. “Woah, easy.” 

“Gotta hide.” She says breathlessly.

They run a considerable distance away, and then the two of them spend the night in the woods. Stealing blankets from a nearby clothesline, they huddle together for warmth, leaned up against a large oak.

Eddie holds her close, her trembling much more intense than his despite his wet state. He murmurs words of comfort to her, kissing her hair, and eventually she falls into a restless  sleep in his arms.

In the morning the two of them keep moving, trying to find a way to contact the others when Eddie decides to steal a walkie talkie from a construction site.

It takes over an hour for them to meet the pair at skull rock - and they come bearing bad news. Vecna had gone after Max - his third attempted victim - unsuccessfully, during the morning before the guys had made contact. 

“Jesus,” Eddie complained, head in his hands.

“Well, we're one step closer. We know how Vecna attacks. And we know he’s doing it from the Creel house.” Max resolves, explaining how they’d gone poking around in it. “So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart.” 

Robin scoffs. “If he even has a heart.” 

“A stake? Is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire?” Steve asks in borderline excitement.

“It was a metaphor.” Max rolls her eyes.

“A bullet should work on him, right?” Eddie chimes in.

“I say we chop his head off.” Lucas offers.

Nancy shared her agreement. “Yeah I’d say all of the above, but we can't do any of that 'til we find a way into the Upside Down.” 

“We need El to get her powers back.” Max sighs.

“Everything was like, way easier.” Steve agrees, looking to Eddie to explain, “We had this girl. She had superpowers….”

“Superpowers. Yeah, you mentioned her.” Eddie said gruffly, thinking how useful that would have been and watching Dustin pace back and forth. “Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?”

“Cursed? No, no. He's fine. Mental? Absolutely.” Steve uttered sarcastically.

As if to emphasize that point Dustin suddenly stops, turning sharply to yell, “Boom!” The exclamation echoing as he points at Steve, walking closer. “Bada… bada… boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north.” 

Steve almost throws a fit. “Seriously? You're serious?”

“Mm-hmm.” He says smugly.

“This is Skull Rock. Okay?” Steve gestures to it. “You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now.”

“Yes. And no.” Dustin says as Amilia raises a brow, looking on incredulously. 

“Oh my God.” Steve moans, head in his hands.

Dustin gestures to his compass. “This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'. Correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was.” 

“So you're using faulty equipment. You're still wrong.” Steve argues, hands on his hips.

“Except it isn't faulty.” Dustin turns to his friend. “Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?”

“An electromagnetic field!” The other boy realizes.

“Yep.” Dustin grins.

“Uh I’m sorry, I must've skipped that class.” Robin deadpans.

“In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power.” Dustin explains. “So either there's some super big magnet around here, or…”

“There's a gate.” Amilia realizes.

“But we're nowhere near the lab.” Nancy frowns.

Dustin clasps his hands together. “But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful.” 

“Snack-size gate.” Robin theorized.

Steve glances her way. “How? Why?”

Dustin shakes his head. “No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at stopping him from taking another victim.”

“Where are you going?” Steve starts to shout after him. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Eddie's still a wanted man. Amilia’s compromised, we can't just go hike in the woods.”

Dustin holds up his compass. “This little steel capsule might be the key to saving everyone.”

“Fuck it, I’m in.” Amilia walks to Dustin’s side, grasping his right shoulder. 

He looks to his dungeon master since he has the support. “What say you, Eddie the Banished?”

Eddie has a hand resting on the side of his face, lost in deep thought. “I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor…Which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea.”

He glanced up, “But, uh, the Shire…The Shire is burning.”

Dustin starts to bounce beneath Amilia’s grip in excitement. Eddie stands. “So, Mordor it is.”

So the group all goes traipsing through the woods, finding that the wonky compass is leading them right back to Lover’s Lake. Eddie stops Dustin from walking straight into it.

“This is confounding.” Dustin exhales at the sight before them.

“There's a gate in Lover's Lake?” Max questions.

“Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening. Maybe Vecna's the same way.” Nancy speculates.

“Yeah, only one way to find out.” Steve says, before the gang rustles up a boat and some oars.

Eddie and Steve place it down in the water as Steve chastises Eddie for his manner of handling. “Easy. I…I said easy, man.”

“Sorry, dude.” Eddie grumbled. 

Robin places a hand on both their heads, stepping over them and into the vessel. Eddie’s next in, offering a hand to Amilia and Nancy, pushing against Dustin’s chest lightly when he tries to clamber in after them. 

“Hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us?” This thing holds four people tops, okay?” Eddie scolds as he sits next to Amilia.

Nancy instantly agrees, adding. “It's better this way, okay? You guys stay here. Keep an eye out for trouble.” 

“You keep an eye out. It's my goddamn theory!” Dustin protests.

“You heard Nance.” Amilia tells him as he whines. “Who put her in charge?” 

“I did.” Amilia responds simply. 

“Compass.” Nancy holds a hand out, Dustin handing it over, only for him to call out once in aggravation Steve jumps into the boat after pushing it off. “You said four!”

“Sorry.” Steve whispers as the older kids all row away.

“Bedtime at nine, kiddos.” Robin called, spotting the finger Dustin flips her. “Miss you already!”

As they all head further into the lake, Nancy eyes the compass. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Slow down, guys.”

The compass has gone haywire.

“Guys, what's going on?” Dustin says over the walkie-talkie. “Come on, talk to me. What's going on?”

“Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone

from wonky to wonky with a capital "aah!"” Robin utters.

Nancy’s eyes widen as Steve starts to take his socks off. “Steve, what are you doing?”

He continues to undress. “Somebody's gotta go down and check this out. And unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then…It's gotta be me.”

Amilia snorts. “You can’t even hold your breath longer than I can.”

“That’s true she can hold her breath for a really long time.” Robin reminded him. 

“I know I know!” Steve almost laughed. “I remember.” He winked at her, and Nancy squirmed in her seat. “But, they say fresh tattoos shouldn’t be fully submerged in water for at least two weeks after application. Isn’t that right?”

Amilia rolls her eyes, arms crossed over her chest. “Smart ass.”

“No complaints, all right?” He stands in the boat and sheds his shirt.

“Hey, I'm not complaining. I do not wanna go down there.” Eddie grumbles, wrapping a flashlight in a plastic bag for Steve and wishing him good luck.

“Thanks.” Steve says.

Eddie starts to light a cigarette up from the stress, but Robin snatches it with a complaint of “Gross.” Tossing it into the black water that Steve is staring out into.

“Steve,” Nancy stops him. “Be careful.” He nods, and dives in, beginning his exploration.

After a short period, Robin asks “Where we at, Wheeler?” Her eyes on the surface of the water.

“Closing in on a minute.” She tells her.

“Okay.” Robin mumbles.

Back on the shore, Dustin, Max and Lucas duck and hide from approaching police men.

Steve bursts through the surface again while the older kids are none the wiser, all of those in the boat exclaiming in surprise. 

“I found it!” He announces. “It's pretty wild. It's more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it's pretty damn big-” he’s cut off as something drags him under water, pulling him down with a hash jerk.

It startles all of them, the boat lurching dangerously. 

“Steve!” Amilia calls out in horror as Nancy shrieks the same name - over and over again.

Eddie protests, “No! No! What the hell was that, man?” While Robin looks at the other two girls, asking. “Really, what happened?”

“Jesus!” Eddie screeches before anyone can answer, Nancy standing up. Amilia offers her a hand the second she sees her intentions.

“Wait, wait, wait. You're not going in there, are you?” Eddie objects.

“Just…wait here.” Nancy orders as Amilia tries to soothe Eddie’s fingers away from her hips that he’d latched onto, a bit too insistently.

“No, Nancy!” Robin screams as the other girl jumps in. “Nancy!”

“Goddamn it!” Eddie curses when he loses his grip on Amilia, watching her head for the edge. “No, no, no, no, no, no. What are you doing? She said wait.” 

“So stay put then.” Amilia tells him before she jumps in after her. Moments later Robin readies herself to go after them all too. 

“Are you kidding me?” Eddie shouts. “Don't you go. Don't you…” she ignores him completely.

“Goddamn it…Son of a bitch!” He screams, standing and stomping his foot. “Oh, this is so stupid. This is so stupid. This is so stupid. Shit! Shit! Shit!” He falls into the water more than jumps in.

On the other side Steve is fighting for his life, and losing until the rest of the group shows up. They all fight against bat-like creatures, until the bat’s numbers diminish.

“Steve!” Nancy sighs in relief.

“Jesus Christ. Jesus H. Christ!” Eddie curses, throwing down the oar of a boat that he’d been using to slay the things.

“Are you okay?” Nancy asks Steve, ignoring the other man’s theatrics.

“Well, they took about a pound of flesh. But other than that, yeah, never better.” He tells them all as they sigh in relief.

“Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?” Robin whispers.

“What?” Steve asks at the same time Amilia mutters how “They better fucking not.”

Robin swallows. “It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should probably get you to a doctor like really soon because once symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already like dead.”

Robins concerns are interrupted by a loud shrieking from the sky. Everyone looks up to see more bats converging, landing in front of them with hisses and snarls.

“All right. There's not that many. We can take 'em.” Steve says before quietly adding, “Right?”

As he does so the sky fills with more, and Amilia mutters. “You were saying?”

Nance glanced behind them all, formulating a plan. “The woods. Come on.”

“Great. More running.” Robin grumbles.

The five of them hide from the bats, waiting until the sounds of the swarm have died down. 

Steve nearly collapses as the adrenaline wears off, and Nancy makes him sit, tearing her shirt up to bandage him.

Robin talks rapidly at Steve while she does so, more for her own nerves than anything else. “So the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies…But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know.”

“Robin.” Steve chokes out.

“Yeah?” She asks.

“I kinda wanna punch you.” He confesses.

She exhaled loudly through her nose. “Sense of humor is still intact. That's a good sign.”

Nancy bandages Steve up tight as Eddie crawls to the top of a rock, taking in the Upside Down. “So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?”

“Pretty much,” Nancy says.

Amilia hisses softly at Eddie. “Watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind.”

“It's all a what?” He asks.

“All the creepy crawlies around here. They're, like, one or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna.” Steve explains, hand to his side.

“Shit.” Eddie grunts, moving very carefully.

“But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people?” Robin asks the resident Upside Down Experts.

“As far as I understand it, yeah.” Nance agrees.

“So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate.” Robin rationalized.

“I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin.” Steve mutters. “But guns, yeah, sure.”

“Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns, in my bedroom.” Nancy offers.

“You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?” Eddie asks skeptically.

“Full of surprises, isn't she?” Robin breathes.

“A Russian Makarov and a revolver.” Nancy explains.

“Yeah, you almost shot me with that one.” Amilia grumbles, remembering how this mess had all started back in 83’. 

She’d told Steve he was an ass who deserved to have his face bashed in when he and some of his loser friends had put up graffiti that Nancy was a slut. 

Then she’d gone ahead and persuaded - threatened him, really - to go apologize, riding over with him only to find Nancy holding a gun at him when she followed the sound of an argument.

That gun had just as quickly turned to her, while Johnathan tried to talk Nancy off the ledge. And then the lights were flickering, the Demogorgon was approaching, and the rest was history.

“Me too.” Steve remembers.

“You almost deserved it.” Nancy smirked at him.

“Totally.” Amilia agrees, her soft smile accompanying the exchange, and Eddie doesn’t like the way she looks at Steve like that.

He throws his vest harshly his way. “For your modesty, dude.” He says sarcastically.

The ground suddenly rumbles and shakes, knocking Amilia into Robin, Nancy into Steve, and Eddie to the ground.

When the earthquake stills, a loud roar tears through the silence.

“Yeah so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me.” Eddie admits, scrambling to his feet.

“Yeah, me too.” Robin seconds, and so they head for the Wheeler's house. 

Robin’s up ahead, complaining loudly to Amilia and Nancy as they lead the way through the woods, leaving Steve and Eddie talking softly behind them.

Eddie murmurs, “Still super jealous as hell by the way…Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass. Not under any uh, normal circumstances.” He glanced at Amilia, shaking his head. “Nope. Outside of D&D I am no hero. I see danger and I just…turn heel and run. Or, at least that’s what I’ve learned about myself this week.”

“Give yourself a break, man.” Steve slaps his chest lightly.

Eddie stops walking, hands gesturing ahead to the girls to make his next point. “See? The only reason I came in here was because those ladies came straight after you…Now, I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind. But Wheeler right there, she didn't waste a second. Not one second. She just dove right in. Now, I know what happened between you two, and if I were you, I would get her back. 'Cause that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen.” 

Steve opens and closes his mouth, unsure of what to say. And then the world rocks on its axis.

“Here we go again.” Eddie says through gritted teeth.

Up ahead Amilia curse’s Vecna’s mother in Spanish, and when all of them scramble up and on with their journey, the Wheeler house is soon spotted in the distance.

When searching it for weapons, it’s discovered that the house is trapped in a version of itself from 1983 - the year the gate opened.

Before all of them can settle in their impending doom though, those upstairs can hear Steve yelling down below. 

“Dustin!” He calls out, the rest of them rushing to him. “Dustin! Dustin, can you hear me!?” He screams into the silence.

“Steve - what are you doing?” Nancy asks. 

“Shh! Just listen.” He orders, gesturing to the space around him.

Sure enough all of them hear Dustin talking, starting to shout out for him too, searching the space for a sign of where he is.

Right side up, the kids are at The Wheeler’s after they’d been caught and interrogated by police - and even worse - their parents. 

“All right, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag.” Steve decides.

“Will found a way.” Nancy huffed.

“What?” Steve asks.

“Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights.” She explains.

“Lights?” Steve repeats as Nancy moves away from him. “Yeah,” she growls, trying to flick a lamp on and off.

“The switch. Try the switch.” Steve tells her, and she does. “It's not working.”

“Guys?” Amilia questions softly, seeing small glittering dust around the chandelier. “You seeing this?”

Slowly the five of them all approach it, hearing Dustin speak faintly. Nancy is the first to reach up and touch it, her fingers skimming along the shimmer. 

“Woah,” Eddie agrees, as the rest of them reach up to do the same.

“It…Tickles.” Steve sounds weirded out.

“It kinda feels good.” Robin smiles.

Nancy dropped her hand. “…Does anyone know Morse code?”

“No.” Amilia, Robin, and Steve say with shakes of the head. Nancy looks down in disappointment.

“Wait, does SOS count?” Eddie asks innocently, wide eyes landing on Amilia’s smile. “Is that…is that good?”

She could kiss him, instead nodding eagerly.

He taps S-O-S repeatedly in Morse code against the chandelier, alerting Dustin, Erica, and Lucas on the other side.

From there they brilliantly rig up a Light Brite for them all to communicate through. Dustin suggests that there are gates open at every murder site.

And so the rest of them all bike to Eddie’s trailer, looking for what they hope is another portal, unguarded by Vecna’s creatures.

The kids ditch their parents and the cops, biking to Eddie’s on their end, before using a broom handle to burst through the barrier of his living room ceiling.

Celebrating in triumph, Dustin leads the charge, using Eddie’s mattress as what looks like it will be a landing pad.

When it hits the ground above them, Eddie addresses the group. “Those stains are uh…I dunno what those stains are.” 

Amilia clicks her tongue, Nancy making a small noise of disgust and Robin one of indifference. As it is they’re much more concerned by Dustin, tossing a makeshift rope of sheets their way, suspended by wonky gravity.

“All right pull on it, see if it holds!” He calls up, Robin being the first to tug, and then the first to climb up and out, where she falls.

“Oh thank god! That was fun.” She laughs.

The rest all look at each other, Nancy making the climb-turned-fall fearlessly. And then Eddie’s had enough of this place, saying “All right, I guess I’ll go.”

“Easy, easy,” Steve murmurs as he and Amilia both watch his ascent.

Then Eddie touched down on the mattress, hair crazy as he sat up. “That…was fun.” He breathes out, slapping his hand into Dustin’s to help him up.

Amilia catches his eye as he smiles up and down at her, her heart fluttering torridly. 

Steve catches her attention, saying, “See you on the other side.” Always having to be the first into danger and the last one out of it.

Amilia ruffles his hair playfully, grabbing the sheets and wriggling up it with a small boost.

There’s a dopey smile on her face still, feeling the whoosh of air when the ascent becomes a fall, expecting to hit an unforgiving mattress but instead falling a lot longer and a lot farther than she should have before landing on cold, hard, ground.

“Oh!” She gasps, hearing a clock chime. One, twice, three, and then four times.

She hears the slithering sound of a maniacal laugh, the darkness surrounding her indicating that there is no way that she’s landed in Eddie’s room.

- Read Part 2 here.

[lynxalon]

Lynx!!! How about 3, 33, and 35 for the ask game? For any oc you please! Maybe even Lynx of Avalon!! :DD

oooooo !!!!!! as you wish hehe i'll do lynx of avalon and my beloved trio mage yen, lady blackthorn, and rhenium from the rites of mages <3

3. weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon?

lynx of avalon: sword! they're a creature of familiarity and practicality, and they don't like to get rid of things that can still be used. even after making excalibur they still use their usual sword until they can't anymore, either it breaks or becomes a keepsake, a relic from an age they'll never be again.

mage yen: magic. their mastery over their ability gives them an edge of confidence that helps them in battles, and with the mystery of What their ability actually is, they almost always have the element of surprise and are underestimated.

lady blackthorn: battle axe!! she's a very strong figure, and tbh. she learned to wield a battle axe through sheer spite because someone told her she couldn't when she was young.

rhenium: gun, later a sabre. there's a reason here but i'm not telling <3

33. if applicable, how would your other characters describe them? i mean specifically the people around them.

lynx of avalon: ohm. since lynx is m mc character i've gotta say. this is one for the covers 😂

mage yen: to lady blackthorn, yen is her oldest friend and lover; yen is compassionate and self assured, protective (to the point of cruelty sometimes), and every time they waver they come back stronger. yen is like a beach where the ocean freezes, like a moonless night, like laying in a field of flowers as the sun rises. to rhenium, yen has always been someone he respects, and they became very close. at first, he thinks yen is stubborn and scathing, quiet, cold, and cunning. later, they're seen as protective, caring, and wise. yen is like an uncut gem, the whirring of delicate gears, molten metal in a forge.

lady blackthorn: to yen, lady blackthorn is their heart, closest friend and lover. she is quick-witted, stubborn, strong, and intelligent. she's got a strong sense of justice and is very loyal. she's like howling autumn winds and wind chimes and the feeling of calm that washes over yen whenever they use their magic. to rhenium, lady blackthorn is a dear friend, his partner in battle. if they were a coin, she'd be his right side. when he first knew her, he thought she was clever, a brilliant leader and strategist, and had a silver tongue enough to give lord tungsten a run for his money. later on, when they truly became close, he came to see her as wise in her years, with a sharp mind. resilient, determined, and too self sacrificing. with him, she is angry and vengeful, she doesn't have to keep a cool head. he gives her space to explode, and he keeps her safe. he sees her as a well kept blade, as rolling lava and thunder.

rhenium: to yen, he is their close friend. through a trail by fire they came together, and yen has come to respect him. he is quiet, brooding, intelligent, private, caring, firm, and funny. he is passionate, much more than he lets on, and it was one of the first things that drew yen in. he is like a meteor shower and mountains and the roots of an old tree. to lady blackthorn, rhenium is close to her heart. when she knew of him, and the few times they spoke, she thought of him as creative but stifled, with a dry and sudden humor. then she thought of him as cruel, terrible, blindly faithful. later on, she saw him as highly empathetic, strong and vulnerable, but where she pushes forward he has doubts. he's very critical of everything, paranoid. but his strengths lie in his cautiousness and thoughtfulness. left uncheck, he struggles, but with help he flourishes as a powerful ally. he is understanding of harsh feelings and cruel thoughts, and when lady blackthorn is struggling she finds comfort in their related troubles. to her, rhenium is the golden hour of light, a caterpillars cocoon, a bonfire with music and dancing and laughter.

35. do they ever return home?

lynx of avalon: once, though they never tell anyone. centuries after they left, they visit. they know what they'll see. they run their hands along the old walls and mourn. when they leave they close off avalon from everything else. they think that it's the only selfish deed that's ever been worth it. to keep their home to themself, though they can never truly go back. so long as nothing is built in it's place, they pretend they can.

mage yen: home is all around them. they were born from the magic of the world, and only when they die will they be home again, but that will be when life stills and before worlds are made again. it will take along time. until then, they try to draw home as close as they dare.

lady blackthorn: home is in people, and so long as she is with them she's home. quietly, she misses her mother's kitchen.

rhenium: home is foreign to him. he's never had a home, and the only person who could be also could never really be his home. rhenium has always been moving around. he's not sure he'll ever be home.

PHEWWWW that got a bit long 😂 ty for asking beloved!!!!! these where VERY fun to answer :DDDD as you might can tell, i love yen, blackthorn, and rhenium! they are in m heart fr frrr <3

here is the oc ask game link XD

[ariesbilly]

None of the older teens are friends with the party like Nancy and Jonathan are siblings so of course they gonna be aware they exist but they only care about their own sibling lol and Steve is close to Dustin not the others!!! Robin doesnt give a fuck about them lmao Eddie only cared about the ones that are part of his d&d thingy and he cared because they're part of his club but otherwise he wouldnt give a fuck either???

Literally this

Nancy and Jonathan, through their brothers, have known Lucas and Dustin for years so like they get seniority lmao and el as the new girl has her being mikes gf (for Nancy) and now being part of the Byers family as her way in

Max…is there 😂 they got no emotional attachment to her which was made very clear in season 3 by Nancy loading a gun right in front of her and saying it was for billy as casually as if she was ordering dinner

Jonathan … does not know max exists. Someone’s gonna say Max’s name and he’s gonna be like “who’s he?” And they’ll be like “the little redhead girl” and he’s like “oh” and moves on

Robin don’t know any of these people except Dustin and Erica

Steve do not be giving a SINGLE shit unless it’s an active monster situation. Outside of that? He does not see he does not hear

Idk what planet everyone’s living on where they think all these people are gonna adopt max when not a single one of them could visit her in the hospital. I guess Nancy and Jonathan were there but, without me having full context, but it was only to reunite all the kids or something party related like I highly doubt it was out of concern for max themselves

It’s ok to must admit this show sucks at writing and forming relationships with people and you’re just making shit up for your own personal narrative. We all do it. Some of us are just like…a little less delusional about it…

[adonis-koo]

Chapter 15 of Wicked was incredible as always!! I truly love oc’s and JK’s relationship together. It was so sad to see them get so close and then have this fight come. With JK’s personality, I can see him camping outside of Oc’s room now at night since she went back to her own room. 😂 I can see him being everywhere now to make sure she’s okay and to try and get her to talk to him. I really hope they take some time to think about what happened and each other’s side and then talk it out. I can definitely see both sides here. And I think with everything coming out, things were said in the best of the moment. With everything JK has done for her so far, he obviously cares for her. I would still be slightly suspicious of OC too. Especially more so after finding out Seokjin was her lover. I need them to talk/work it out cause I loved their mornings together! 😭

ALSO, anyone else wondering where Seohyun is?! I know JK said he didn’t want to see her face again after the duel but I feel like she wasn’t kicked out of the country. And I feel like out of all the shady characters, she for sure needs to be heavily looked into since she’s still mad that she lost her fiancé. But at the same time, I’m wondering if whoever is behind all of this will be someone no one expects since that’ll be more shocking!

Ugh, I love all your writing and I think Wicked has a special place in my heart!! Can’t wait to see what happens next! ❤️

P.S I’m sorry for all the drama that happened earlier. You don’t deserve that! We all know you have a life outside of Tumblr and Wicked. I mean, you’re writing your own book for goodness sake! So take your time! I also really appreciate your updates on the progress of the story. You 100% don’t have to do that and I feel like a lot of authors don’t. So I just wanted to say thank you again! 😊

It pains me to see them argue as well’! But the writer in me is always rubbing my grimy little hands together when I find the opportunity to have them argue 💀 not only because I love the drama but it showcases that while they’ve made a lot of progress, not all of problems with others and between each other have just disappeared. One of my favorite (heartbreaking) moments was that moment when Jungkook brings up Seokjin being her lover her saying it wasn’t fair, and it’s totally not but at the same time Jungkook is completely valid to still feel wary about that, and even if it sucks to be told that, he was right too.

As for Seohyun…🌚🌚🌚 we’ll just have to wait and see! She has not been banished from the country! It’s highly doubtful that shes been banished from the castle either, but shes definitely made sure to not be seen by Jungkook just as he told her.

Thank you for such a touching ask! I love hearing everyone’s thoughts and opinions on the chapter 🥹🙏

[alexihawleys]

What do you think about everything happening in season 5 so far? Rosalind is back to get her revenge in my opinion, The Rookie instagram account is now following Kanoa and I think I saw that Rachel is coming back to LA? Not a lot for chenford in my opinion.

hi! i am just going to say now: i'm not really in it for speculation this far out from a season, especially when we have no information to even look at. i'd be happy to chat in DMs if you have questions, but overall...there's nothing to spec about yet, and taking other people's speculation (aka, what you see in the tags/on twitter) as fact is going to ruin your hype for the new season. that's the last thing i want for any of us, so just...chill and enjoy the hiatus! there will be plenty of time to speculate leading up to september 25, i promise.

just to cover our bases quick tho: 

rosalind could be coming back (signs point to yes on this one) but if she is i kinda highkey doubt it is going to be some revenge plot. i'm sure it will be calamitous, but like...she's in a maximum security prison isolated from the entire population and after doing what she did in season 2, i'm sure they keep her under a hell of a lot more restriction. the rookie has always been realistic about crime – i highly doubt we are going to see her go full cartoon villain (e.g., a full blown escape, using chris as a new protege, etc.). that being said i think opening up that storyline could be really interesting emotionally, and i'm excited to see where they go with it if that's the case!

...ok! i don't see why this is news or indicative of how long he'll be on the show tbh. as someone who has worked in social media...they followed him for ease of access 😂 kanoa posts about being on set when he is and the rookie social media team usually reposts it to their story. same with shawn, same with most of the actors. if they follow him, they don't have to go out of their way and find his posts. i would not take that to mean anything about chris, chris/lucy, or the show – as i said a lot last season: the social media team and the show's creative team are two completely separate entities, they do not make decisions together, and social is not a reflection of story.

i don't know why anyone has decided rachel is coming back...it's just speculation and tbh, unfounded speculation. i genuinely would not care if this happened, but just to really squash it: i just checked jasmine matthews' imdb and she is currently filming a movie in houston, so i highly doubt she's doing anything with the rookie right now. also: i believe this came up because alexi said a season 2 storyline would be coming back into play. rachel is a person who carried no real storyline, and if anything from season 2 is coming back, i'd put my money on rosalind and her very large storyline over tim's now ex-girlfriend.

anyway! last thing: please try to remember going in to the new season for your own peace of mind: other people's spec is speculation, not fact. spec can be fun, but when you base all your expectations around it and they inevitably are not met by the show...your disappointment is partially on you and you could've just been out here vibing, ready for whatever story the show wants to tell.

ok! sorry this is so long, i hope it helped, have a lovely day, etc.