#he makes jokes. he acts silly. he's a drama queen. he loves it.

[originalaccountname]

putting my hands on your shoulders looking directly into your eyes why are you so insistent that Dazai is faking every emotion every second of every day except when he's acting mean or evil why do you think his dark side is more true than his happier or sillier sides

do you not also have multiple facets you show different people? are we not all beautiful multifaceted individuals? are your actions and reactions not influenced by your emotions and state of mind?

can't he laugh at his own jokes? can't he fondly think of the Agency? can't he be dramatic because he wants to? can't he be surprised by something suddenly happening, even if he knew it would happen? do you not jump when the jack in the box gets out even if you were the one working the mechanism?

why would the mean persona be more real? why would any and all joy be faked? why are you only allowing him misery?

[possessionisamyth]

Here's some RE Separate Ways analysis that isn't about shipping because I like Ada. I'm happy her DLC actually focuses on her, but some of the takes I'm seeing are Insufferable. Main statements in bold for ease of reading and skipping purposes.

-Wesker and Ada haven't been working together consistently for the past 6 years. This dripless bitch is calling Ada every five minutes to babysit her. I don't think that's the relationship dynamic of someone you're regularly employed under, and when it is, Ada is not the type of character to tolerate that behavior for 6 years. We know Ada is a contract worker. We can understand she's worked for Wesker on and off, but she's a freelance agent period. She must've done enough jobs for Wesker that he feels the need to check on her and have this constant reporting in to make sure she stays on task since he's clearly used to her not always following his orders. He 100% hired her for this assignment because he knew the situation and compared to the other options, she had the highest survival chances. Which, he was right. High risk, high reward.

Sometimes Wesker's babysitting works: Ada holding Luis at gunpoint when he tries to negotiate saving Leon and Ashley. Sometimes he knows when to step away: "Keep your dog." All of it is in the effort to get what he wants. Look, he let her live. He worked with S.T.A.R.S for years and wanted them all dead. If he worked with Ada regularly and she pulled this shit with the amber, he would've had that helicopter blown out of the sky. There's always some restraint with personal distance, especially with a guy who thinks so highly of himself.

-Luis is a drama queen. In the regular game, Luis acts cool and under control to the best of his abilities around Leon and Ashley. It's a part of his newly found hero-complex even though he does still know when to ask for help: "save me prince charming!" In the DLC, we see the real side of Luis. The one who's scared, and dramatic, and knows when he's not shooting with a loaded gun so to speak. When Ada tells him to leave her to fight, he does. He wants to help, but his respect for her abilities sends him fleeing like she orders him to. Also, like every scientist, he has zero self-preservation! He ran into a fire that clearly would kill him to get medicine. And the exchange afterwards? "No! Now you'll all die!" "Make some more medicine." "Oh..yeah...I can do that. I do have that ability."

The flamenco dance. "Are you mad at me???🥺 You're mad at me!😭" This man understands Ada can kill him without blinking, but still can't keep his composure around her. This is such a fun dynamic to explore in fic for expansion stories and "Luis lives" au's. The DLC gives him breaks to freak out and panic, whereas the main game holds the "cool persona" moments after Leon saves him. Even his dying words to Ada. This man is bleeding to death and still can't shut up. I love him.

Okay, that's all I gotta say about the loser men. Now for the star of the DLC. Ada. :)

-Ada "Sans Undertale go into my eyes" Wong. The methods Ada uses in the DLC are fun and appropriate. It's not invasive and in your face unlike another agent, but more subtle. She can track footprints, fingerprints, gauge the safe distance required for her grappling hook, and she knows when she needs to fight and whens he needs to run. Her practicality has always been the cleanest of the entire cast due to her being a spy, but this time we actually get to see this trait utilized through her tools.

-Ada is silly and quips her own jokes to get through it. Something I'm not seeing anyone talk about including the aeon people who are claiming anything they can get, is this specific humor parallel between Leon and Ada in the remake. Both of them have gone through the horrors of Raccoon City. Both of them went right back into very difficult military in function style work which always has a body count. I talked about Leon's humor coping mechanism here [X], but to hear Ada do the same thing? I feel like they went under the radar because they don't sound as stupid as Leon's quips, but they are still so stupid. "Nighty night." "Lights out." "Bring me a real challenge next time." "Now look at the mess you've made." "You think that gun will be enough?" She and Leon even share the same "Next," line!

If I had 80GB to spare on the game, I'd see just how many more I could get out of her. Like, these are dumb as hell. She's found a method to cope with the horrors she's witnessing that just so happens to coincide with Leon's. I'm not saying this as a marker of whatever romance you've tossed them in or even to diss any other romances. What I am saying is that they have a similar type of mental illness resulting from trauma, and they ended up using the exact same coping method despite never seeing each other.

Ada fans who hate Leon! This opens a door for you when it comes to character analysis and how Ada deals with her PTSD and/or depression! Run through it RIGHT NOW!

-Ada's infection pulls a lot more weight than it seems. I've seen some people say Ada's parasite should've been removed the same as Leon's and Ashley's. (Which is an extremely unsubtle argument to get them all in the same room for your shipping nonsense.) However, something I noticed with the DLC were the parallels to the troubles in RE2. The Black Robe/U-3/Pesenta monster is the first time where we get to see Ada dealing with a stalking enemy. Due to RE4 being so much more plot-lined streamed to maintain the flow of gameplay, these events were not allowed to be random, but the narrative purpose remains. Ada gets to have a stalking enemy in her DLC like Claire and Leon did in RE2 with the addition of a hubris check.

The hubris check? Well, Ada has never been infected until this DLC. In the original games, she can step back and watch people die because she doesn't know what it feels like. Now she knows what it feels like. The lack of control. The pain. The slow turning. Her job has had her flirting with death for years, but not in a way she can't fiddle with the odds. A parasite is not something a person can distract with words. The action to steal the amber is backed up via personal experience not just a morality code slapped on. The addition of Wesker's correction to "billions of causalities" means she's included in that number and just cements her incentive to flee. She's not doing this for Leon. She's not doing this for Luis. She's doing this for herself, and if it so happens to help other people then it is what it is. After being on both sides of the coin when it comes to viruses, she can no longer function as entirely impartial to the work she's doing.

-Ada doesn't ask for permission but asks for forgiveness. Don't take this phrasing literally. She doesn't ask Wesker to forgive her. What this means is that she'll do something before asking, and if it upsets people then she'll course correct. Her job is not the kind of job where she needs to take orders for every action she implements which is why Wesker calling every five minutes was annoying as hell. In the OG RE4 she kind of argues with Wesker for Leon to live for "his usefulness", but it's swiftly shut down until it's convenient to Wesker for Leon to live. This forces her to sneak around and betray Wesker multiple times to save Leon secretly, and the concept rightfully gets thrown into the garbage for the remake DLC.

The scene in the bedroom where Wesker tells Ada not to become a liability after taking her blood? Ada doesn't fight to get her shit back. Some people said this was flirting. Wrong. This is Ada seeking forgiveness after the fuck up of passing out in the middle of an active field by letting Wesker walk off with an infection sample. She then makes sure not to fuck up a second time in the same way, and she doesn't. She learns the signs of her parasite so in case she does pass out again, she'll be somewhere much less conspicuous. She listens for the changes in her environment and the feelings in her body and prepares herself for what's next.

-Ada saves Leon and Ashley for Luis' sake. I stated earlier that Ada's action to take the amber was for her own sake but ends up helping others. This is the exact situation going on when Luis talks about getting the suppressant. She needs the suppressant in order to do her job and kill the black robe so she can heal. It just so happens that Leon and Ashley need the suppressant for survival reasons too. They are an afterthought until Luis dies.

We watch Ada question Wesker and his plans all throughout this DLC, and she comes to her own conclusions after her experience working with him. She could've gotten the amber back and let the whole place blow into smithereens like Wesker intended. Who cares about the president's daughter? Who cares about another dead federal agent? Luis did. He cared so much he died for it, and just like that other clown in Raccoon City (aka her), she got emotionally attached. If there was anything she could've done for Luis to make his death mean something, it was this act.

-Ada sells Leon's jacket. This isn't analysis, but I thought this was funny as hell. ACAB! No exceptions! Freeze your tiddies off, Leon! I don't give a shit!

-Ada's new outfit is still better than her old one. It's still not the best they could've given her. I'm also not speaking from a fashion point of view when I say this. In the OG RE4 we see Leon in a jacket which is forcibly removed to show off his pecs to the ladies, but it clearly marks a colder time of year. OG RE4 Ada has arms out, legs out, and tits out because a hoe never gets cold. The sweater dress for the remake re-establishes that it's colder here because even Luis doesn't lose his jacket. Ashley doesn't lose her jacket either until they yoink it off her for ritual reasons. I still hate that the thigh high boots have that heel and would prefer the flats, but that's going to be in the complaint paragraph below.

-Capcom sexism at play once again. I don't give a shit about rigs and motion capture or whatever, her walk cycle was 2 adjustments from being full Bayonetta, and I hate it. The ass shots? Disrespectful. Her heels didn't have to be that high. Never heard of a kitten heel? They exist. The people who worked on RE3 Remake and worked on this DLC sure love to make a woman vomit don't they? Why the fuck was she so clean the entire game? She was being thrown around and tossed in the dirt a lot, but this woman's skin is shinier than a waxed apple. Either she has some wet wipes on hand, or god forbid women get filthy. Absolutely zero reason she shouldn't have been looking as rough as Leon by the time she gets on the helicopter! No reason at all!

That's all they wrote! I love Ada. I loved this DLC, and I loved the dynamics going on here even though I hated every time Wesker was on screen or opened his mouth at all.

As much as I would love to expand this post and go further into the changed Ada and Leon relationship, I frankly hate all the takes I've been seeing so much on either side of the Aeon debate. I hate the ongoing conversation around it so much that I don't know if I want to discuss this at all. The Aeon should've gotten this if not for Luis and Ashley side and the Aeon is dead side going back and forth with each other? All of you put on your clown noses! None of you are looking at this situation objectively to see where the lines cross and where they run alongside each other, and frankly I'm tired! I could clear this whole table off so both of you can get exactly what you want based on what you're not actually interpreting from this media, but I won't! Kill each other!

[bubbleecloud]

omg i loved the stans gang hcs please i am on the ground asking for craigs gang because its hard to find anyone interested in sp, only if you would like though :)

Your wish is my command, anon 😌 headcannons for Craig and his goons!

Craig:

-pretty average ticklishness

-thinks tickling is childish and embarrassing

-will threaten you to no end if you try to tickle him, but he's all talk.

-will hold in his laugh until he physically can't anymore (just go for his underarms and he's gone)

-uncharacteristically loud laugh. Like uncontrollably so

-will only let tweek get away with tickling him without consequence. If your not him, though..

-boy oh boy

-terrifyingly stoic ler. His silence is honestly more effective than the tickling

-just goes for the death spot and calls it a day, isnt really one for build up

-unless your tweek. Behind closed doors he's such a soft Ler with his boyfriend 🥺

Tweek:

-hes not really terribly ticklish, but his reactions are so borderline insane that you'd think his nerves were out side of his body

-he just can't handle it, poor thing. He shrieks and squirms like crazy! just begs and pleads immediately

-cannot handle anticipation or teasing. He gets so unbelievably jittery

-doesn't mind being tickled as long as your not too rough. Sometimes it tires him out enough to where he can relax for a bit!

-ticklish 👏ears👏and👏hips👏

-hes a compulsive Ler and only really tickles people out of adrenaline and vengeance if you tickle him first

-will tap out if you start laughing too hard because it feels like to much pressure to keep it up while still being fun

-likes to tickle craig if he's being too grumpy

Clyde:

-Such a fucking drama queen. If asked if he's ticklish he's try to act all cool and tough. He ends up getting teamed up on 😬😬

-squeals and tries to curl up to protect himself

-will get pouty afterwards, but he actually really loves the attention

-tears up very easily, and hiccups if he's tickled hard enough

-ticklish tum!!! Pretty bad near his underarms too

-he's such a silly and playful Ler omfg

-is the biggest Ler of the group and loves to start tickle fights!

-likes to team up with Tolkien and completely wreak the other three

-is always cautious of taking it too far

-hes so teasy bro! Expect alot of compliments and harmless flirting

Tolkien:

-not really much of a Lee, honestly

-isnt too ticklish in many places, and you can only ever really get him to giggle at best

-Clyde once tried to tickle him and it totally backfired.

-a big fan of playful roughhousing with tickling, often gets into wrestling matches with Craig to try to get the upper hand.

-pretty chill and casual Ler. Never really goes to far into it unless its a situation like above

-is currently the tickle champion solely because he's so hard to get

Jimmy:

ok, I know there's some discourse about whether or not Jimmy is apart of Craig's gang, but I just love him too much!

-its hard for him to participate in tickling because of his disability, but the others always find ways to make sure he's included

-at times when they're all just chilling at Craig's house and he has his crutches off, he just gets bombarded

-a surprising defiant Lee, will curse your name throughout the whole process

-although he really does appreciate that his friends just treat him like any other kid, he's just saving face

-really ticklish sides

-has such a bubbly contagious laugh

-as a comedian, he loves making people laugh

-if ya know what I mean

- will totally crack jokes while he's tickling you, and then say something like "wow, you must have found that one really funny!"

-will lovingly make fun of you, but it's all in good nature

-really good upper arm strength and totally uses it to his advantage. Will not hesitate to pin you

Aaaaa there we go, you guys!! Hope you enjoy! ^^

[amatres]

TV Tropes : Layla

Hello everyone. Sometimes you have little hobbies that are silly and self indulgent but you don't care bc you think they're fun. That being said. Look at Layla's fake TV Trope page under read more for length.

Spoiler warning as well, as there is no actual censor bar to be had.

“A new day means a new chance for something interesting to happen!” Name: Layla Race: Dhampir (Moroi-Heritage) Class: Bard (Dirge Bard) Alignment: Chaotic Good (*could alignment shift to Chaotic Neutral in companion au*) Deity: Desna

Once a noblewoman of Brevoy, Layla is now a wandering bard. After five years of being on the run, she fled to the Worldwound in a desperate bid to deter the pursuit of her cousin and the mercenaries he’d send to capture or kill her, only to be drawn into the Fifth Crusade by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tv Tropes:

 -All the Other Reindeer: Was ostracized for being a dhampir and then also for her uncertain noble lineage once her grandfather took her in.

 -Animal Motifs: Like any true azata mythic path knight commander and desnan, she is often associated with butterflies.

 -The Bard

 -Barefoot Poverty: She is often depicted as barefoot, and at the start of Wrath of the Righteous, she had them stolen by the person who was helping her get into the city, alongside her cloak and violin. (*Or that is what her mind makes her believe after being captured by Areelu*). While joked she just keeps losing them, the fact she can not easily replace them is still something to take note of.

 -Beware the Nice Ones/Beware the Silly Ones: While genuinely a rather kind and cheerful person who will help others simply because she can, she is not one to be pushed around. When she feels backed into a corner she can become venomous and destructive, as both her cousin Arthur and Queen Galfrey find out. 

 -Beautiful Singing Voice: While she primarily plays her violin, she is also trained in singing and is rather good at it, at least to the point she could still make money performing with singing and dancing alone.

 -Big Screwed-Up Family: It doesn’t get more dysfunctional than being the Replacement Goldfish for her grandfather and the Abel to her cousin’s Cain because said grandfather liked her more. Not to mention what started the problems to begin a generation earlier, with their parents' fight and their father’s reaction to it being the catalyst to everything.

 -Blue Blood: Apparently is the long lost grandchild to a brevic nobleman, though whether this is true or not was hotly debated the entire time she lived with the noble title.

 -Bookworm: With not much else to do as a noblewoman with no friends, Layla developed a strong love for books of all kinds. She bonds with others over it, and happily shares her love of it and what she’s read with others, such as Lann or Nenio.

 -Broken Bird: Subverted. The five years she spent on the run actually gave her the chance to refind herself after spending years under the stress of brevic court and her family drama, and she’s come out of it with a strong sense of self and love for life. (*however this can play out in earnest if the knight commander pushes her onto the chaotic route, causing her to have a breakdown and become self centered, self destructive, and callous*)

 -Burn Baby Burn: A go to tactic for her when she finally has had enough. Most famously, she set her own home of around twenty years aflame to spite her cousin. She will do the same in her chaotic endings in the companion au.

 -Cain and Abel: A less direct example, as he is her cousin not her brother, but Arthur continues to try to kill her to appease his own wounded ego and childhood trauma even after five years has passed. In her own world, he fails as he (*is killed by Areelu*) while he may actually succed in some companion au endings.

 -The Chains of Command: Being in charge of the fifth crusade is not good for her ultimately, and she never wanted to be in charge in the first place. Act three really puts it into light as she starts to act out of character and become more bitter as she’s forced to act against her nature.

 -Chaotic Good: Her In-Universe Alignment. She is a free spirited young woman, who values freedom of expression and anatomy above near all else, and is also rather kind and willing to lend an ear to those who need it, and will help people expecting nothing in return, even when it goes against what others tell her to do and potentially putting herself in trouble as a result.

 -Combat Pragmatic: Layla may not seek out fights on her own, but when she is in one, she will do whatever she deems necessary to get out of them alive. 

 -Cold Blooded Torture: Victim of this if captured by her cousin in act 3 as a companion. In one route, by the time she is rescued she has been rendered unable to walk and has to be helped by someone else to leave the prison. Even though she eventually is able to walk again some time after the fifth crusade ends, the experience understandably leaves scars no matter how she escapes the situation.

 -Corrupt the Cutie: Her chaotic route in her companion au is brought upon by encouraging her worst instincts and making her believe she only has herself to rely on. 

 -Dark and Troubled Past: While not as extreme as others, it’s not without its troubles. Coming into life with her mother dying in childbirth, being a social outcast at the orphanage that took her in solely out of fear of angering the vampire who possibly sired her, to thinking she finally got a chance at a better life only to become a social outcast in Brevic nobility due to her debated familial ties, then slowly backed into a corner by her own cousin as she was framed for slowly killing the only family member she had on her side, and having said family member in response to confine her to the manor in response out of fear for safety. This all leads to her saying enough is enough, and once her grandfather is dead, she destroys the very place she lived for over 20 years and leaves.

-Defiant Captive: If she is captured by her cousin, she spends months not breaking under torture, mocks her cousin all the while, and even attempted to run away once, though that was punished swiftly once she was recaptured. If the knight commander takes too long to rescue her after entering Act 5, it leads to…

 -Defiant to the End: She refuses to give up, even when things have become hopeless, such as when she first confronts Minagho at the Wardstone. Another example that does fulfill the death requirement is in one of her bad ends of her companion au where she never gives her cousin the satisfaction of seeing her break over the months he has her in captivity, eventually leading to him killing her.

 -Delicate and Sickly: Her albinism has not just left an obvious visual mark on her, but also affected her health, giving her life long health struggles and she has a very low constitution score fitting for what is expected of her heritage. (*This is possibly a side effect of Areelu’s experiments on her both when she was younger and later when she was captured near the Worldwound. While the foreign power in her body is making her stronger, it also eats away at her health*) Even as a companion, she mentions offhandedly about having been sick often as a kid, and other companions will remark on her poor health with varying levels of care on the matter. Layla is unbothered by her penchant for falling ill, and makes light of it due to how used to it she has become.

 -Destroy the Abusive Home/Let the Past Burn: While her grandfather himself wasn't horribly abusive, his manor ultimately was a place of strife for her. In a moment of not only grief, but anger, she set the manor ablaze so that her cousin couldn't have it even after she was gone. She also treated this partially as a way of saying goodbye to that part of her life, unfortunately that part of her life isn’t willing to let her leave that easily.

 -Dhampyr: Born as one, though no one knows who her vampiric sire is.

 -Die Laughing: In one of her bad ends, she laughs in her cousins face even after months of torture and he finally snaps, killing her.

 -Disappeared Dad: She has no idea who her father is, nor does anyone else. She is unbothered by this, saying he is either dead, or a deadbeat, and either way it’s of no concern to her in the end.

 -Elegant Classical Musician

 -Elemental Eye Color: Her eyes are a vibrant red, and she’s associated with fire due to her dramatic method of cutting ties.

 -Elopement: She marries Lann without any fanfare or warning to anyone else. Unlike most examples of this trope, it was simply because the two got carried away.

 -Ethical Slut: Has no problem with casual sex, and is open about it, while insisting that all parties involved are enthusiastic and that others don’t get hurt. If in a companion AU, she is happy to enter a casual sexual relationship with the Knight Commander but she will not accept being chosen over a different companion in the jealousy scene, and will leave saying she wasn’t aware of how serious things were and hadn’t meant to hurt anyone.

 -Friendless Background: Goes from an orphanage where everyone avoided her because of her unnatural heritage, to living in an estate where everyone avoided her because of the rumors surrounding her and out of fear of angering her very powerful guardian. She never had much chance to make friends until she was already an adult and living on the run.

 -Gentlewoman Snarker: While usually a Nice Girl, when she doesn’t like someone she is much more willing to mess with their heads and hurt their ego, and definitely has the wit to cut deep.

 -Good Bad Girl: A person who many find easy to like, and is also open and unashamed about her promiscuity.

 -Guile Hero: As someone who is not very physically strong, she relies on her wits and charm to get out of most of her troubles. For example, she has a habit of turning her enemies against each other so she can escape when they aren’t looking.

 -Half Human Hybrid: Her mother was unquestionably human, whoever she truly was, but her father is unknown and speculated to have been a vampire. 

 -The Hyena: She is often laughing, and can find reason to laugh at almost anything.

 -Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her dress perhaps is on the more unrealistic side and it's a wonder it stays on like it does.

 -Just Friends: With Daeran, both as the knight commander and as a companion. In her own universe, she is oblivious to his developing feelings and turns him down when he attempts to turn things serious, while in a companion au the two start a Friends With Benefits arrangement but eventually end it, deciding to consider each other simply friends.

 -Lonely Rich Kid: Her childhood in her grandfather's estate, as no one was willing to brave befriending her due to her grandfather's protective attitude and the rumors surrounding her.

 -Magic Music: Comes with being a bard.

 -Meaningful Name: Her name means ‘night’, a rather on the nose name for a dhampir. 

 -Mood-Swinger: While often cheerful, it catches many off guard when her mood changes at the drop of a hat. Any emotion she has will often be immediately obvious, and sudden, there and then gone with the change of the wind.

 -Mystical White Hair: Not caused by magic itself, instead coming from the much more mundane reason of albinism.

 -Never Found the Body: Some of her chaotic alignment endings invoke this, even inspiring in universe speculative literature and art on what became of her.

 -Nice Girl: A kind person who many find easy to get along with and find something about her to like. She approaches most people with a friendly demeanor and open mind, and is willing to accept most people despite how different they are from her, though not to the point of letting people take advantage of her.

 -Noble Fugitive: Was once a noblewoman of a decently respected noble house of Brevoy, but has had to live on the run for the past five years after her cousin framed her for murdering her grandfather and she set the manor he wanted so badly on fire in retaliation.

 -Parental Abandonment: Her mother couldn't really help dying in childbirth, but her father is out there and no one knows who he is, let alone if he is alive or not.

 -Plucky Girl: Both stubborn and optimistic in equal measure.

 -The Pollyanna: Despite all the hardships life has dealt her, she holds onto her optimism and does her best to see the best of life, as well as to share that with others. (*unless the Knight Commander pushes her to her breaking point*)

 -Polyamory: Is open to this if her partner wishes to, and as a companion she offers it as a solution to the jealousy scene, though none of them really go through with it.

 -Pretty Butterflies: When she starts to show signs of her azata mythic path, she is surrounded by butterflies that follow her wherever she goes.

 -Prone to Sunburn: Unfortunate result of albinism.

 -Put the “Laughter” in “Slaughter”: In the companion au, if the knight commander pushes her into her chaotic path she laughs all while killing her cousin and all his men, with or without the knight commander’s help.

 -Raised by Grandparents: Raised by her grandfather after she spent her first few years in a Taldan orphanage.

 -Rags to Riches: Went from being an isolated child in an orphanage to a rich noblewoman loved by her grandfather. It wasn’t to last.

 -Red Eyes, Take Warning: Unlike the rest of her outward appearance, Layla’s eyes are something that does mark her as more dangerous than simply a human woman with albinism, giving her away as a dhampir. While she doesn’t mean most people harm, it’s not uncommon for others to get unnerved when they notice her eyes and realize what they mean.

 -The Redeemer: Has a habit of getting into evil characters’ heads enough to make them begin to question themselves and ultimately change. Makes her act 3 near breakdown under the weight of power all the more noticeable when she does the opposite for her companion for months Camellia, and the obviously deeply mentally ill, survival focused Wenduag. Despite this habit of hers, she won’t refuse to fight someone who tries to manipulate her to get away with their evil deeds.

 -Replacement Goldfish: Was this to her grandfather, who used her as a second chance at raising his daughter. In his final months, he would call Layla by her name instead and would talk to her as if she was his long lost daughter. (*Areelu attempted to do a more twisted version of this to her as well*)

 -Riches to Rags: Goes from being a well off Brevoy noblewoman to a shoeless traveling bard, not that she seems to mind.

 -The Runaway/Forced From Their Home: While she ultimately falls into the former, she only started her life on the run due to her cousin trying to impose the latter, if not fully intending to have her killed instead.

 -Quirky Curls: Is a cheerful girl, and has long, curly hair that she often lets flow free.

 -Oblivious to Love: Unfortunately it takes a bit for her to realize someone has feelings for her and not simply flirting with her for fun. Those who try the hardest, with more elaborate and showy displays of affection, are only making it less likely she’ll catch on until it’s too late and someone gets hurt.

 -Odd Friendship: Friendship is stretching it very far, but Layla holds a rather decent amount of respect for Regill despite how different their world views are, due to how true he is to his convictions. That won’t stop her from jokingly flirting with him because she thinks it’s amusing or stating her own views however.

 -Of Corsets Sexy: One of the few articles of clothing she wears is a corset.

 -Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: She will often go off on her own to do what she feels is right, not caring who it upsets.

 -Sex for Services: Admits to having done this once or twice as a way to get into a city, or have someone help her out. She claims she isn't bothered by this, and says if she had ever felt she was in danger she could have easily torn out the person's throat with her teeth.

 -Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The gender doesn’t matter to her, but it’s not the obvious flirtations or showings of power that catch her attention, but earnesty. She simply wants someone who accepts her as she is.

 -Smarter Than You Look: Is a lot more well read, a better judge of character, and much more introspective than most people would probably give her credit for right off the bat.

 -Street Musician: How she makes a living.

 -Success as Revenge: Well more simply moving on with her life as revenge. She has no interest in getting any revenge against her cousin after burning down the family manor, and even tells him to his face he is wasting his life by pursuing her when he could instead be making a respectful name for himself back in Brevoy if he just did the same.

 -The Tease: She finds it fun to flirt with people, and will do it with or without romantic or sexual intention. Some she even flirts with because she thinks their rejection of it is funny, though she tries to remain mindful of people’s boundaries and won’t flirt with certain characters like Sosiel or Arueshalae out of respect. 

 -Tragic Keepsake: Her violin, as it was the only gift her grandfather gave her that she has left now that the rest of them are reduced to ashes.

 -True Blue Femininity: Very feminine and is often dressed in a light blue dress.

 -Turn to Religion: She became a worshiper of Desna only after she left her old life behind.

 -Unkempt Beauty: She doesn’t put in much effort into her appearance, mostly because she can’t, but is still rather pretty.

 -Walking the Earth: While she might not have chosen to leave when she did, Layla is happy to live on the road, and returns to it once the 5th crusade comes to an end.

 -Wandering Minstrel

 -What the Hell Hero: In the companion au, Layla will leave the party for a handful of actions, one being causing Arueshalae to fall. (*at least as long as the commander hasn’t also triggered her own chaotic path*)

[danglovely]

Kim Possible Episode Tiers: The C-Tier

The C-tier is probably best defined as episodes that I'm never really eager to rewatch, but I'm pleasantly surprised when I do. It's a good show, so they're good episodes . . . but at least one thing sticks in my craw about these ones.

Attack of the Killer Bebes: Drakken origin story! It's silly, but I still fall on the side of thinking that it mostly works. It's not a strong conviction, but let's roll with it.

Oh Boyz: Honestly, this would be lower if they didn't boy-band-dance their way through some lasers.

Larry's Birthday: I'm a little surprised Larry gets as much screen time as he does. I'm even more surprised that I kind of really like this episode. The twist, Dementor, it all sort of works for me.

Rufus vs. Commodore Puddles: It's a random 15 minute episode, but I just want to highlight one of my favorite Drakken quotes in it.

Mathter and Fervent: Two things I don't particularly love in Kim Possible: B villains and examining the relationship between Ron and his parents.

Two to Tango: I've mentioned it before, but Shego and Jr. have some winning chemistry and I've probably rated this episode too low.

Partners: This episode had some real potential. It tried to analyze Ron/Monique, Drakken/Amy + commentary by Shego, and Kim/Random Character all at once. It would have benefitted from being a bit more focused.

Monkey Ninjas in Space: It's sort of absurd to theme an episode of Kim Possible around a father's crisis about his kid growing up too quickly. She's an international superspy. That's the sort of plot you cede attempting when you created this universe.

Ron Millionaire: Why didn't Shego just take Ron's money? It's fine, but I never outright enjoy the "Ron loses sight of what's important" episodes.

Rewriting History: This could've been in a higher tier if it was more confident in itself. Why are Ron and Kim imagining this all in a shared dream?

Cap'n Drakken: Look. Drakken gets possessed by a pirate spirit. That plot being a C-quality episode for me is frankly, amazing. It could've easily been the worst episode in the series.

Team Impossible: This is the one time the show ever questions whether Kim is the best possible person to be doing this sort of work. Maybe it's important that it isn't a recurring question . . . but I found it particularly entertaining that it ends with a member of Team Impossible doing James's taxes.

Return to Wannaweep: The frustration of Gil clearly being a villain again and no one believing Ron (who saved everyone the first time they were here). I would say the Bonnie and Kim rivalry, which I'm normally fine with, left me exasperated.

Queen Bebe: RIP Steve Harwell.

Kimnation Nation: It's alright, but I thought the clone angle was underexplored and I don't particularly love Drakken riding solo for an episode.

Mothers Day: I have to say it. I don't like Drakken's mom. I think she removes anything threatening about him as a character and I don't think she adds all that much in her own right. What I did like was Ann being a great sidekick for Kim.

Bonding: I don't know what to make of Bonnie and Kim. I really like Bonnie as a character, I'm interested in her opinions and what it's like being the high school rival of an international super hero. I don't like petty drama. Maybe there was more to explore here.

Car Alarm: What were the Ed and Shego interactions in this episode? I will say the birds in car joke got me multiple times.

Homecoming Upset: There's a story to tell about Bonnie's feelings about Ron that I'm not sure I've totally figured out yet. This is a good subversion episode and it has my favorite bit of CCR voice acting.

Rufus in Show: I think I would outright hate this episode, except it's surprisingly funny.

Animal Attraction: There's natural humor in giving all your characters a romance test and having the results pair them with the most ridiculous outcomes. It would probably be higher if the villain plot was a little better than "revenge for getting kicked out of the billionaire club."

Vir-Tu-Ron: This is actually a pretty good episode and maybe I'm just bitter about Ron and Zita never being appropriately resolved by the show.

[blair-the-juggalho]

HIHI!!

May I request Ben (twdg) headcanons with an S/O who’s (somehow) taller than him? Just sorta like, general dating headcanons lol

If you can’t do Ben, then go ahead and switch to Louise instead!

HIHI BACK!!! And Lmao ok! I hope you enjoy this! I’m still getting use to writing for him! :D I’ll also do Louis too just to make up for a possibly OOC Ben <3

Tysm for the request, lovely!

TWDG Ben and Louis with an S/O who’s taller then them

Ben

( I’m sorry look at his face 😭😭 “☹️”)

He was definitely shocked when he first saw you

Like he looked up at you like “😮”

Your so gosh darn beautiful to him tho!

He low key doesn’t think he deserves someone as amazing as you :( but you reassure him a lot with your affection <3

Clem and duck find it really funny that you where taller than him!

Not in a bad way! Just that if you tease him about it they love it lmao! And they constantly make fun of the face he made when he first saw you

You two love chilling in bed at night time, just talking about what life was like before the apocalypse and how it would be if it never happened

We all know that this new apocalyptic world TERRIFIES Ben

So you both take your minds off it by making up silly plans about going to water parks or amusement parks (or what ever else you like doing) together!

Like planning dates that you know you can’t really do but it’s still nice to think about!

He finds it super comforting when you wrap your arms around him and rest your chin on his head!

He feels so protected and safe

Louis

He loves how tall you are!!!

He’d make a few jokes about it every once in a while (never clue ones mind you!)

He loves it when you stand over him or right behind him because when he looks up he just sees you staring down at him

“Well hello up there! :D”

Sometimes he likes to be a bit of a dick tho

Like usually he reaches up so he can give you a kiss

But sometimes he’ll bend his knees slightly so you have to slightly reach down and kiss him

Totally stupid! But he finds it so funny

Like Ben, he loves when you warp your arms around him!

Oh also sometimes he will take a totally unnecessary jump up to reach you or he’ll stand on something to make him taller

He’s such a drama queen oml lmao

OH ALSO HEAVEN FORBID HE FINDS THOSE SILLY CUPS THAT YOU STAND ON THAT ACT AS STILTS BECAUSE HE WILL LEAVE YOUR DORM ROOM WITH THOSE ON AND FOLLOW YOU AROUND WITH THEM ON IN PUBLIC

[linalilia]

I've watched a few videos for MILGRAM now! So how about Haruka, Mahiru and Yuno for the character bingo? :0

YOU REALLY GOT ALMOST ALL MY FAVES HUH..

haruka. OH GOD HARUKA. man. many thoughts, i have many thoughts about this guy. i'm gonna be honest, when i first heard about him, i was like "ah. so he's just a sad boy with mommy issues. okay." I ALSO THOUGHT HE WAS THE "PROTAGONIST"?? I REALLY JUST IGNORED ES DJDKSDLGJFD. so yeah, i wasn't that interested in him at first and even disliked him because of the animals part. as someone who has many pets that part made me a bit anxious but as i learned more about him.. yeah. yeah, i actually like him. STILL WANT TO PUT HIM IN A SALAD SPINNER. I JUST THINK IT WOULD BE NICE. i watched his second drama with eng subs recently though.. i really sat there like "my boy, i ordered your acrylic figure and it's supposed to come soon. and you dare to disappoint me like this??" MY MOM ACTUALLY JOKED ABOUT ME PUTTING HIS FIGURE IN A CORNER WHEN IT ARRIVES TO "PUNISH" HIM 😭😭 okay, okay, it wasn't really a disappointment, but.. yeah. this guy is literally the "look, a little guy!! oh, he's a bit fucked up actually.." meme.

YUNO. GIRLBOSS. i love her so much, she's so pretty and she's such a good character!! her second mv really shows how well-written she is.. the aesthetic of her mvs is so good too.. her acting like this carefree and cheerful girl, but her real personality being much colder and her feeling empty inside.. WOW. and her saying that she doesn't need a reason for her actions is actually so interesting? like usually characters immediately go "okay, here's my tragic backstory, forgive me now please" in situations like this, but yuno really went "i don't have a reason. and even if i do, why should i tell you" OKAY QUEEN. IT'S YOUR BUSINESS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHARE WITH US. BUT there's this one moment, i feel like i should've picked "canon isn't real" for her too.. i love yuno as a character a lot, but at the same time.. if her crime really is what most theories say (and i think it was confirmed in the second drama, if i'm not wrong), then it kinda makes her case a bit boring? like we have characters who did really interesting and TERRIFYING crimes, but then here's yuno.. and she didn't really do anything wrong? i don't know much about how her case would go in japan, like is it legal or not, but still, i doubt that she should be in a place like milgram for that. tbh i really wanted her crime to be something completely different maybe a "black widow" type of character, haha.. because it would at least explain why she's here.. but if her crime really is not that special, it turns out to be kinda underwhelming in my opinion :( so at the same time i REALLY hope that people are gonna vote her innocent because she does not deserve to be voted guilty at all, but also.. it just doesn't feel right, like THERE MUST BE MORE. like yuno's case is not that bad at all compared to other crimes, IT'S NOT EVEN A CRIME, so what is she even doing here? anyway, i love her, yuno really wakes up every day and chooses to slay and i love that for her.

MAHIRUUUUUU. MAHIRU. I LOVE HER. SHE'S GOOD. of course someone who made an oc like allen and so many other similar ocs would say that listen, i have a weakness haha get it like haruka's mv for characters who have big sister energy, characters who are obsessed with the concept of love AND i love characters with the same hair color (even though she's not really blonde.. i think. she does look blonde in official art, but her hair color is a bit different in her mv?) SHE REALLY GOT THE WHOLE BINGO. i love her character so much, she's so goofy 😭😭 but also those moments that make you feel like she's kinda.. trying to repress the memory of her crime in a way.. yeah, those are good. like mahiru acts like such a silly character who's always like "anyway do you have a crush on anyone? <3" but when someone asks her about her crime, she's like ".. ah, yeah, i guess i did do that". i can relate tbh. about the fandom being mean, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE GUILTY VOTE AT ALL. even if those theories about her are correct, i still don't think she should suffer like this? haha thank you kotoko.. like it's a hard pill to swallow, but it must be said that i doubt mahiru did those things on purpose and her face in the end of that mv really says that. HER COVER OF PSYCHOGRAM THOUGH.. y-yeah, i'm not sure what are they trying to do with her, like is she really supposed to be a yandere or they just want to make us think she is one. anyway, i'm a mahiru apologist <3

[harrysweasleys]

a little more touch my body // b.b

summary: babie!!! hi!! may i please request a fic based on into you by ariana grande pls? i'll leave the rest up to you, please surprise me (you can also choose if you want to write it for sam, steve, or bucky) thank you so much !!! <3

warnings: lil bit of sexy times, fatws spoilers if you haven’t watched, mentions of alcohol (beer), language 

word count: 2.7k

a/n: i chose to write this for bucky!! hope you all enjoy!

“Well, don’t you two look like a sight for sore eyes?” 

You huffed out a laugh at your own comment as you stepped down onto the boat, making sure to grip the ledge behind you to avoid losing your balance as the structure bobbed against the tides. 

Sam and Bucky sat looking exhausted, each with a beer in their hand, faces slick with sweat and grease. You could nearly smell them from here. 

“Where were you all afternoon? Said you’d help,” Bucky raised an eyebrow as he looked you up and down, beer bottle against his lips as he took another sip. As if he knew what he was doing, he leaned his arm back behind him, muscles and tanned skin glistening under the late afternoon sunlight. You peeled your eyes away from the sight just in time to catch the end of his question.

You placed your hands on your hips, giving him a grin, “Sorry to ditch, I was in town with Sarah picking up some stuff. But clearly, I’m devastated that I couldn’t be here to get all gross with you guys.”

Part of you was rather bummed you missed the action. You’d have loved nothing more than to be working alongside Bucky, both of you working up a sweat and sneaking in little touches here and there while Sam looked the opposite way. Little touches that would never really amount to more, but were fun in the moment. 

You couldn’t count how many weeks — no, scratch that — months, that you and Bucky had been building up this tension. The winks across the room, the lingering touches when you walked by one another, the inappropriate innuendos and jokes when no one was around. Except that one time that you thought no one was around and ended up subjecting poor Sam to your crude jokes over your earpiece. 

It was torture, but the best kind. Bucky knew exactly how to wind you up, and vice versa. Did you ever think this would amount to more? Probably not. You had overheard countless conversations between Buck and Steve about how he wasn’t ready to take a step towards intimacy just yet. Not so soon after regaining his mind and coming back from five years out of extinction, to be more specific. 

You couldn’t blame him, though. And you weren’t going to push for more. Not if it made him uncomfortable. No, for now, you were having a blast bubbling up the sexual tension. 

“I see that,” Sam motioned his bottle in your direction, “This is an act of betrayal, I hope you know.” 

You rolled your eyes, sitting down between the two. The wooden surface was boiling under your legs, so you lifted your knees to keep your skin from burning. 

“Oh, drama queen,” you grumbled, reaching your hand towards the cooler. You hadn’t done much physical work today, but the weather was still impossibly hot and a nice cool drink would help for sure. 

As soon as you lifted the cooler lid, it came slamming down. 

“Buck, what the hell—,” you turned your gaze to the super soldier, a small smirk on his lips. 

“Cool drinks are for the workers, sorry,” he was clearly fighting a shit-eating grin, much to your annoyance. His hand was gripped tightly around the cooler lid, thumb brushing against your own skin. 

“You two are going to drink all six?” you scoffed, tilting your head to the side as if challenging him. 

He raised his eyebrows and nodded his head, pulling his hand away from yours and taking another sip of his beer as if emphasizing his point before speaking, “I think you forget how high my tolerance is.” 

“Ah, of course,” you nodded slowly, “How could I forget? Silly me.”

Bucky shot you a wink, leaning back against the edge of the boat. The angle of the sun was hitting him perfectly and you wondered if the heavens above were testing you. The dark blue of his shirt accented his eyes, shining brightly as they looked you over. His dark hair had a few natural highlights — probably thanks to spending nearly a week here under the Louisiana sunshine. 

He was so distracting you nearly forgot Sam was behind you until Sarah called his name. 

“Sam, can you help me out for a second?” her voice was distant over the sound of the water hitting the boat and your own heart beating a million miles an hour. 

He stood up with a grunt, following after her. And leaving you and Bucky alone. 

“Just a sip?” you asked, eyes darting back to the cooler before meeting his again, “I’ll take one little sip and then you can have the rest of the bottle.” A fake pout made its way to your lips and you had to fight a smirk at the way his eyes darted down to watch before snapping back up to yours. 

“Nope,” he popped the p, giving you another wink. As he brought the bottle back up to his lips, you scooted closer to him, reaching your hand out and taking it out of his grasp before it could reach his lips. 

“What—,”

Before he could finish his sentence, you brought the bottle to your lips, giving him a wink before taking a rather large sip. The taste wasn’t great — it was the cheap beer that you guys had picked up yesterday at the corner store — but you were just trying to rile him up. You hadn’t really wanted the drink that badly.

Bucky’s eyes were practically glued to you. You could swear he didn’t even blink as you maintained eye contact, handing him the bottle back with a small wink. 

His tongue slid out to wet his lips, suddenly fidgety under the sun. You internally pat yourself on the back, but you didn’t show it. Instead, you maintained a steady staring contest with Buck, not sure who was going to crack first. 

God, your heart was beating so fast. Your skin was so warm. You could feel the back of your neck begin to sweat and you could swear that your hands were just as clammy. How did you ever get anything done around this man before? 

“I feel like I’m interrupting,” Sam — curse him and his horrible timing — stepped back onto the boat, causing it to sway a bit under his steps. 

“What? — It’s — we’re fine,” Bucky stuttered with a hoarse voice, clearing his throat as if you hadn’t noticed. Once again, an internal pat on the back. 

“Yeah, okay,” Sam chuckled, “Whatever you guys say. Just keep it PG around my nephews.”

You should be embarrassed by Sam’s jabs, but you couldn’t really bring yourself to feel that way. Instead, you were only focused on how close Bucky was to you. You could smell him — he didn’t smell too great right now, to be honest — but that wasn’t the point. Publicly, you guys never really sat or stayed close to each other. It was more professional if you guys didn’t show whatever was happening between the two of you, really. 

But now, relaxed and away from danger, you were both letting your guard down. Sam was sitting across from you, poking fun, but neither of you scooted away from the other like you usually would. It was nice, you thought. This little sense of normalcy. Feeling like you were just two adults insanely attracted to each other instead of two busy Avengers on a break. 

You brought yourself back to the moment as you stood up, giving them both a little smile, “I’ll give you guys some guy time, I’ll go help Sarah with dinner.”

Sam gave you a little wave, Bucky keeping his mouth shut as you made your way off the boat, holding onto the little railing as you made your way back onto land. You pulled your shirt down, covering the little bit of your stomach that had been exposed while scooting closer to Bucky. 

Shaking your head and trying to un-rile yourself, you made your way over to the Wilson household, a small skip in your step as you did so. 

The lasagna and garlic bread that you and Sarah collaborated on went down quick — unsurprisingly, since Sarah had more tips and tricks in the kitchen than you could possibly hope to count — and before you knew it, you were bidding everyone goodnight. 

Your pull out couch in the basement was calling your name and normally you couldn’t wait to get under the covers and snooze right off. Except tonight, as soon as you got under the covers, you felt wide awake. 

Bucky was in the other room, a small door separating the both of you. You didn’t usually talk after everyone had gone to bed, not wanting to wake anyone up or prevent either of you from getting the proper sleep, but tonight you couldn’t help it. You were practically itching to go over and see him, and you doubted you’d get any sleep if you didn’t. It was like a magnet was pulling the two of you together and the harder you pulled away, the stronger the tug was.

You slipped on a pair of socks after getting out of the bed, the fresh air of the basement hitting your body like a gentle embrace. It had been stupidly warm under the blankets just moments before, so the coolness was very much welcome against your skin.

Your footsteps were muffled by the carpeted floor as you made your way to the door separating you both, knuckles gently knocking against the wood before you could take a second to think about what you were doing. If Bucky was asleep, you’d just be waking him up, and that wouldn’t be very nice, would it? However, if he was awake, what would you even say? 

“Yeah?”

Bucky’s voice was soft on the other side of the door, and the creaking hinges broke the beautiful peace as you opened it up, eyes struggling to see in the dark. A small lamp was lit on Bucky’s bedside table, his own blankets tossed off the bed as he sat on the edge. He wore a pair of Sam’s pyjama pants — which you had teased him about a couple of times now — but he wasn’t wearing a shirt. That fact alone was enough to get you to stumble on your own two feet.

“Were you sleeping?” you asked, trying to keep your voice as quiet as possible. You remembered Sarah mentioning the basement ceiling wasn’t properly insulated and voices very easily carried throughout the house.

“No,” he replied, eyes meeting yours in the comfortable darkness of the room. You suddenly felt awfully nervous under his gaze, picking at your fingernails as you leaned against the doorframe.

“Okay, that’s good,” you nodded awkwardly, mind still completely blank on whatever it was that you wanted to say. Bucky didn’t seem to mind the awkward silence, though, his eyes scanning over your body slowly just to make sure you were alright.

“I don’t really know why I’m here,” you admitted, finally picking your gaze up off the floor to look at him. His lips curved up into a small smirk and he patted the spot next to him on the bed. Trudging over slowly, you could feel the temperature in the room rise up by what felt like a thousand degrees before you finally sat next to him. He smelled better this time — thanks to the shower that you were so tempted to hop in on — and you could feel the comfortable warmth of his skin next to you as the mattress dipped under your weight.

“That’s okay,” he replied after a good long moment, “You don’t have to have a reason.”

You sat facing him, close enough that you could see the steady rise and fall of his chest, his skin holding a warm glow in the cozy atmosphere of the room. He was so painfully beautiful that you didn’t think words could capture the image. 

Feeling awfully brave, you slid one of your hands over to his, your warm fingers sliding against the coolness of his vibranium ones. You knew he couldn’t feel your touch, but he shivered anyway, causing you to slide your hand a little closer to his actual skin. His hand reached quickly across and grabbed yours, intertwining your fingers together. Your head fell against his shoulder, resting your forehead against the spot where skin met metal. Without thinking, you lifted your head and pressed a kiss against the same spot, immediately regretting it when you felt his entire body tense up.

“Sorry — I don’t know what I was thinking,” you stuttered, pulling away. 

Before you could get too far, you felt both of Bucky’s hands slide around your waist, tugging you onto his lap in an effortless motion. Your thighs landed on either side of him — practically straddling him — and your chest was nearly flushed against his. His forehead fell against yours and you swore you could hear his thoughts. The internal battle he was having with himself on how far he was willing to take this.

You brought one of your hands up to his hair, raking your fingernails against the sensitive skin at the base of his neck and watched his shoulders sag as he let out a sigh. How you two could go from being ready to rip each other’s clothes off on the boat to this, being intimate and close without having done anything yet, you’d never understand.

His hands slid under your pyjama top, gripping your waist in a way to let you know he wasn’t planning on letting go. And you were more than okay with that.

“Buck,” you whispered, the words hanging in the air before he pulled his forehead away from yours and met your lips with his. His kiss was hot — heavy, and you could feel just how much he had been holding back. He gripped you tight, making sure you felt exactly how badly he wanted this. And you felt the same, hands on either side of his face as you pressed your lips and body against his. 

You guys went from having an intimate, gentle touching moment, to having a battle of teeth and tongues within thirty seconds. He let out a low groan as you tried to get closer to him, rocking your hips against his. You hadn’t totally done it on purpose, your goal mostly just to be as close to him as possible, but you weren’t regretting the action one bit. 

His hands slid further up your shirt until it was tugged off of your body, breaking the feverish kiss for one quick moment before reconnecting at full force. Your mind was blank, numb, but your belly was erupting with every butterfly in existence as he slid his hands around your exposed torso. You didn’t even register the coolness of the metal — too focused on how hot you felt at the moment. He was grabbing at every bit of you that he possibly could, and you were doing the same to him.

For someone who probably didn’t do much self care, his skin was beautifully soft under your touch, hands sliding smoothly down his back and chest as you continued to kiss the life out of each other. It was intoxicating and you swore you’d be addicted to him after tonight.

He somehow managed to flip the both of you over so that he was hovering on top of you, using his forearms to hold himself up as his lips trailed sloppy kisses down your jawline, your neck, to your collarbones. Everything he did just felt so good, so right, that you could hardly remember where you even were at the moment.

Your eyes fluttered shut as he continued down on his path, leaving kisses in every possible spot that was available.

There was no way in hell you were returning to your own bed tonight.

[highqueenofelfhame]

Hi I saw your post about fics being in character and I thought this could be a good opportunity to share some insight to help people who struggle with their characterization. I love your writing and ask could you share some traits you see as 'core' Rowan and Aelin traits? Maybe more valuably, would you be open to sharing your process for what you look for in the text when understanding characters, what stands out to you and what you make sure to include vs what you don't? I understand if this isn't something you want to share and I send this ask with good intentions and respect and hope this can start a productive discussion, no drama. Thanks :))

totally okay that you asked this!!

i think part of it is that i have read everything up to EoS so many times. like at least four times each and i've read heir of fire and queen of shadows probably six times each. i've only read kingdom of ash once bc it's still too painful to read again lmaoooo.

when i write i also always look for any chance i can to make parallels. i love making canon parallels to anything from small moments to bigger ones that are more recognizable. like the rowaelin qos reunion, rowan's "where is my wife" moment. rowan and aelin sparring in any capacity, like, anything like that. because i think that helps when you're pulling from the text and putting them into situations where you know how they interact with them, and it makes it easier to add in bits and pieces before and after. if that makes any kind of sense. (this also goes for legit any ship that i write. nessian, feysand, etc. pulling from the text and putting them in familiar situations will always help.)

as far as traits go, one of my major ones that i always try to keep in mind is rowaelin's loyalty to each other. rowan is like loyal to aelin almost to a fault sometimes. he will do anything and everything for her. when it comes that's why their thing is "to whatever end." they will follow each other to whatever end and beyond.

aelin has a very low opinion of herself. she thinks that she's expendable compared to those around her. she is very depressed sometimes and i think it gets overlooked a lot. (when i get my books back from my sister, i plan on doing a meta about this.) but she's been through a lot in her life and i try to keep that in mind in a lot of au's. some au's that are heavier (like iihasts and fafs) i try to pull on that. her mental health is very important to a lot of the way she handles things. post KOA, i know this girl has PTSD. it's evident in the way she handles a lot and takes a long time to warm back up to rowan in kingdom of ash. but she was tortured and manipulated for months. she's not okay.

people (in the books) also call her selfish A LOT but most of what she does she does for other people. she even spared dorian the weight of killing his father and told him she did it. like, come on.

as celaena, she does lean on the more selfish side, but as aelin she's doing everything she does for the greater good of the entire world. she didn't forge that lock for herself. she forged that lock for a better tomorrow for everyone she loved. which is incredibly selfless. she would also completely throw down to keep her loved ones safe.

the arrogant behavior is such an act. she's not really like that, it's a cover to hide everything she's truly feeling inside, to protect herself, to keep people from truly getting to know her. she can flip her personality to better suit the situation and the people she's around. she's mostly only her true self around aedion, lysandra, and rowan. i don't even think she really reveals herself to the rest of the cadre for probably a very long time. she picks fights when she's hurting the most and rowan is really the first person to see and recognize that. (very evident in hof when she sees what a good person gallan appears to be and goes and picks a bar fight immediately. or when arobynn humiliates her and she wears her nicest jewels to try to intentionally get robbed so she can start a fight.)

the reality is that she's an insanely hard worker, she keeps going and going and going to meet to meet her goals. she's a master strategist and very quick on her feet in any situation she finds herself in. she feels isolated (which goes back to her depression and ptsd) and she feels misunderstood. but she has been known to literally give the cloak off her back (with kaltain) and the money in her pocket (with yrene) and doesn't expect anything in return. literally nothing in return. she just did it out of the goodness of her own heart, yet she's constantly filled with self doubt that she's a bad person because people tell her that she is (chaol literally calls her a monster and she holds onto that and ends up asking rowan if she is one.)

she gives a lot of forgiveness and second chances, except to abusers. she pulls no punches with them. yet even with arboynn, she made sure there were no redeeming qualities left before letting lysandra kill him. instead of seeing it as a victory, though, she just felt hollow. she doesn't take joy in killing these people. she is not a bad person.

she feels a lot of guilt when she feels she could have stopped things. i think she carries those moments with her. which is why she helped those people the king wanted dead to escape in com. she has no problem ending people that deserve the punishment, but when they don't, she does what she can to help them.

rowan is so respectful. he finally gets his mate and his wife and his love back and he's consistently giving her the space she requires when it's so hard for him to not just touch her. he puts his own needs aside consistently based on what aelin needs.

he's a complete and total hardass to other people but is so soft for her. but he's also territorial about her. he's protective of her. but never at the cost of what she needs and wants. however, he will put his foot down and make people swallow their own tongues if they're disrespectful toward her. but he's also respectful toward everyone, not just aelin. he can prove his points without physical violence even if he would want to.

in that same vein, if you're doing enemies to lovers, he doesn't understand her at first. he think's she's spoiled and doesn't have a single clue about the trauma she's been through and he's very hard on her. he treats her like another warrior in their training. he doesn't go easy on her just because she's a woman (which also still comes from a place of respect) but the second he finds out about her trauma the way he treats her shifts. he becomes protective because he doesn't put up with that kind of shit. he isn't torturing her in their training, in fact aelin in hof says that he's brilliant even if he beats the shit out of her every damn day. a lot of people try to twist that into a thing of abuse, but again, he's training her like a warrior. he doesn't coddle her and she doesn't want to be coddled. again, this comes from a place of respect.

he also learns from his mistakes and tries to right them, and takes action to better himself from it as soon as he can. this is important. he has the humility to apologize, whether it be by actions or words. he doesn't ask for credit in the things he does and ends up kind of making jokes about it. i think he has a lot of humility at the end of the day. he is quick to forgive others when it's deserved but has a lot of trouble forgiving himself. this is also important.

but rowan also has a playful side with aelin. they have witty banter that they exchange even when they're not totally on board with the other. he's funny in subtle ways, and toward the end of the series we see that he's so wholly comfortable with her that he even gets a little silly.

after his own trauma, he also falls into a very deep depression. for centuries. it took aelin coming along for him to come back out of his shell. everyone gave up on him, but aelin never did. just like he never gave up on her, and they were able to walk out of that darkness together. i also think he feels a lot of guilt when innocent lives get put in danger and risk or die at his hands when he felt he could have stop it, much like aelin.

rowan is also very calm in most situations. he's able to work out solutions like the warrior that he is even when other people are losing their minds, which makes him a very good soldier and eventually king.

i could keep going but this is getting wildly long lol. i hope this helps even a little. thank you to @westofmoon @whimsicallyreading @punkassbookjockey26 for helping me with my thoughts as i'm still exhausted from surgery and healing.

[giggles-and-tiggles]

We’ll Find That Smile

Thank you so much for this kind message! People probably aren’t sending in many things because of the fact that I just started this blog, or they just simply don’t know that my prompts are open lol. But THANK YOU!  This prompt was amazing and I was honestly so excited to write for it. Thanks for your inspiration! I couldn't sleep and felt the need to post this at 3 am.

PLATONIC Avengers x Reader 

Summary: You had a hard day at school, but when you get home, you see that the Avengers will always have a way to get you smiling again.  

Word Count: 1,777

<3 Reblogs are greatly appreciated <3

~~*~~

It was a rather calm Thursday afternoon. You had just gotten out of school and were entering the Avengers compound. You were walking in all by yourself because you had declined Happy’s offer to drive you home. So he and Peter got home way before you did. You just needed time to yourself and you figured that walking home was the best way to do it. 

Your day at school wasn’t the best. You couldn’t get any of your assignments correct, you kept messing up your locker combination, you dropped all of your belongings in the middle of the hallway, all of your mechanical pencils never had led in them, and you wet your sleeves when you were washing your hands. Your mind was just in a completely different place and everything just went wrong.

Soon enough, you reached the living room where everyone seemed to be hanging out. They all looked up from what they were doing to see you walk through the door. You’ve spent a lot of time with the Avengers, so they could tell just by the look on your face and your general posture that something was wrong. 

“Hey hun.” Wanda greeted. “Everything alright?” You didn’t really want to tell the Avengers what was wrong. You felt like you were upset for a stupid reason, and you would just waste their time explaining. 

“Yeah everything’s fine!” You said, trying to hurry to the stairs so you could get to your room as fast as possible. Tony then stood in front of you and placed his hands on your shoulders. 

“You didn’t want to ride home with Happy and Peter.” He said. “Any particular reason why?” 

You just looked down at your shoes. “Uhm no. I just wanted alone time. Y’know just me and my thoughts.” 

Tony stared at you in disbelief. He wasn’t buying a single word that was slipping out of your mouth. “Alright fine. But before you head up to your room, do you think I could get a famous Y/N smile?” Damn. Tony was onto you. 

You slowly picked your head up to look at him and slightly twitched the corner or your lip upwards. 

“Ha! That was the worst smile I’ve ever seen! I knew something was wrong.” Tony exclaimed. “Spill it kid, what’s up with you?”  

You sighed and looked anywhere, but at Tony. “It’s nothing important. You don’t need to worry about it.” You tried to walk over to the staircase again, but Tony scooped you up and tossed you on the couch in between Steve and Peter. 

“I’m fine! Can I please go in my room?” You asked, trying to get up again. 

Steve grabbed your shoulder and sat you back down. “I know this is going to sound really cliché, but you know you can tell us anything, right?” Steve stared into your eyes with nothing but love and kindness. “No matter how stupid you think the reason may be, we still care.” 

“You’ve been acting differently all day, Y/N.” Peter said, trying to get you to look at him. “I wanna help you.” 

“I say we just hang her upside down until she tells us what’s been bugging her.” Clinton joked. There were some collective giggling after Barton’s comment.

“I second Barton’s idea!” Bucky chimed. A joke like that usually would’ve made you laugh, but right now you couldn’t even work up a proper smile. 

“Y/N doesn’t seem to be very pleased with your commentary right now, guys.” Natasha said with a smile, looking you dead in the eye. 

“N-No it’s fine.” You spoke. “It’s funny.” 

Peter blinked at you in confusion. “So then why aren’t you laughing?” 

You simply shrugged. “I just don’t feel like it right now.” 

“You don’t...feel like laughing?” Peter repeated. 

You nodded. “Damn. That’s the saddest shit I’ve heard all day..” Barton was quickly silenced by a smack behind the head by Natasha. 

“How about a nice smile?” Steve said, nudging your shoulder and giving you a smile of his own. You really tried, but you just ended up pressing your lips together. It looked nothing like a smile. 

“I take back what I said before.” Tony said, taking a seat in front of you. “That was the worst smile I’ve ever seen.” 

“Sorry. I just can’t...right now.” You sighed. 

“Well that’s alright, hun. We’ll help you.” Natasha said, making her way over to you and taking a seat next to Tony. “Anyone got any jokes or something?” 

“Yeah, I have one!” Peter chimed. You gave your attention to Peter and waited for his joke. “What do you call a pig that does karate?” 

“What do you call it, Pete?” Tony sighed, knowing that this joke was going to be bad. 

“A porkchop!” 

Silence rang throughout the entire living room. 

“Aha! I get it!” Steve laughed, “Why aren’t we laughing? It was funny!” He looked around, hoping for someone to agree with him. “What? Do you guys not get it or something? It’s because it’s a pig that-” 

“No, Steve.” Natasha said, placing a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “We get it, it’s just that the joke was so horrible, no one found it funny.” 

“Well how could you not find it funny? It was clearly-” 

“Rogers. The joke was corny. End of conversation.” Tony stated. 

“How was the joke corny? It got straight to the point, it made sense-” 

“It was bad, Steve! It was a dad joke!” 

You watched the two quarrel over something as silly as a joke Peter made. It was amusing to you. You didn’t even notice the smile that sprouted on your face. 

“Hey, well you would look at that.” Peter smiled, looking at you. “Is that a smile I see, Y/N?” Tony and Steve stopped their bickering to look at your face. 

“Huh, I think it is.” Tony said, adjusting his glasses and squinting his eyes. That only made you smile harder. 

“Now can we get a laugh?” Steve asked, poking your side, causing you to jerk violently and bump into Peter’s shoulder. Everyone’s eyes widened in realization, and evil smirks soon took over their faces. 

“I think I have an idea on how to get Y/N laughing.” Steve grinned. “Hey, Buck help me hold her down, would ya?” Bucky quickly got up from his chair and made his way over to you. 

You felt your heart sink. They were going to tickle you to pieces. No doubt about it. 

“No! Wait guys, dohohon’t!” You said, already giggling nervously. 

“You don’t even know what we’re going to do yet.” Bucky smiled, lightly pushing you on your back and getting a hold on your right arm while Steve got a hold on your left one. 

“NONONO! Let mehe goho! Plehease don’t tickle me!” You begged.

“Ah, so you do know what we’re going to do.” Tony grinned, cracking his knuckles and wiggling his fingers in front of you. “Pete, wanna get her armpits while I get her ribs?”  A wide smile took over Peter’s face as he made his way over to your head and placed his hands right in front of your armpits, just to taunt you. 

“Noho! Get away from me! Lehehet mehehe up!” You struggled, trying your best to get out of Steve and Bucky’s grip. Obviously, it didn’t work. 

“Not until we see that smile.” Natasha said, hovering her hands over you thighs. 

“Alright guys, tickle her in …3″

“NOHO!” 

“2″

“STOHOP!”

“1.” 

“TONY I SW - EHEHEHEHAHAHAHAH!” 

You screamed at the top of your lungs. Peter had dug into your armpits, Tony started vibrating all ten of his finger son your ribs, and Natasha started squeezing the insides of your thighs. Hysterical laughter was instantly ripped out of your chest and you had the biggest goofy smile on your face. 

“Awhh. There it is~” Peter cooed. 

“That’s the smile we wanted! Keep it up, Y/N!” Steve teased. 

“IHIHIHIHI DOHOHON’T HAHAHAVE A CHOHOHOICE!” You squealed. 

“Well, at least you know.” Tony smirked. 

You jerked left and right, desperately trying to get free. Since no one was holding down your feet, you tried kicking, but now matter what you did, Natasha’s hands were glued to the inside of you thighs. 

“Wanna tell us why you were feeling down?” Bucky asked.

“NOHOHOHOHO! IHIHIHIHIT’S STUHUHUHUHUHUPID!” 

“Wow you asked for this.” Tony said, blowing a long raspberry on your tummy. 

You tossed your head back and screamed, giving Steve and Bucky a perfect view of your smile.  

“PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE STOHOHOHOHOP!” 

“Tell us what’s been bugging you and we may consider stopping.” Tony said. 

“IHIHIHIHI TOHOHOHOHOHOLD YOHOHOHO IHIHIHIT DOHOHOESN’T MAHAHATTER!” 

“Alright well, there’s more where that came from.” Tony said, blowing another raspberry right above your belly button. You shrieked and threw your head back once again. 

“We’ve already discussed that nothing you say will be stupid.” Steve reassured in a caring tone. 

“OHOHOHOHOKAY! LEHEHEHET MEHEHEH GOHOHOHO AHAHAHAND IHIHIHI’LL TEHEHELL YOHOHOU!” You begged, not knowing how much more of this you could take. 

“Absolutely not. We still want that smile.” Tony grinned. 

“BUHUHUHUT YOHOHOU SAHAHAHID IHIHIF IHIHI TOHOHOLD YOHOHOU, YOHOHOU WOHOHOULD LEHEHET MEHEHE GOHOHO!” 

“I did not say that. I said that I would consider stopping.” Tony corrected. 

“I didn’t get to see your smile all day, Y/N!” Peter said down at your hysterical state. “Why would we stop so soon?” 

“BEHEHECUASE IHIHI CAHAHAN’T TAHAHAKE AHAHANY MOHOHORE!” 

“You can do whatever you set your mind to, Y/N!” Natasha teased. 

“IHIHIHIHIH’M GOHOHOHNNA DIHIHIE!” 

“Oh don’t be such a drama queen. We’d never kill you.” Tony said. 

These guys really weren’t giving you any mercy. Tears started welling up in your eyes from laughing too hard and your chest started to burn. Your laughter went completely silent and everyone stilled their fingers. Bucky and Steve let you go, and watched you trying to catch up with your breath. 

“Yohohou guhuhys are are mean.” You giggled, wiping the tears from your eyes.

Steve chuckled as he sat down next to you. ��You ready to tell us now?” 

“My mind was just in a different place today. I didn’t feel like myself. Everything I did just went wrong.” You sighed. 

They all look at you with love and compassion. “It’s alright, kiddo. We all have those kinds of days.” Tony said, rubbing his thumb on your cheek. 

“You guys wanna turn on a movie or something?” Bucky asked. 

“Sure, Barnes.” Tony agreed. 

“You down to watch a movie, Y/N/N?” Natasha asked.

“Mhm. I’m feeling a lot better.” You smiled. You got all snuggled up with the Avengers and this day really made you realize how grateful you were to have them. 

Even if they tickled you to bits sometimes.

~~*~~

[spooky-z]

FACT CHECK

3.6K

Maribat by @ozmav

Of all the investigations Alya had done in the name of journalism, finding out that Chloe Bourgeois and Marinette Dupain-Cheng were dating had been... disheartening.

Lila had told her she noticed the strange behavior of Chloe and Marinette, suspecting that the two were together, but Alya dismissed the idea because Chloe and Marinette dating? This could only be a joke.

But it was when Alya also noticed the behavior of the two girls and decided to investigate, that the truth came out.

Lila was right. She would never doubt her best friend again.

Knowing that the Queen of Hearts and Gremhilde were in a relationship came as a shock to Alya, but knowing the reason for that relationship was indeed sad.

Because fake a relationship to get Adrien's attention? That was beyond pathetic.

Alya knew that Marinette was jealous of Lila for being close to Adrien, and possibly was dating the model in secret - the Italian was being difficult to drop the word, despite the continuous blush being all the confirmation that the journalist needed -, which she feels sorry for the designer.

She also knew that Chloe did not love Adrien, but she was unhappy with the fact that the boy was no longer her private toy and that he had despised her in favor of true friends.

But setting up a crazy plan to get the boy's attention was a new level of insanity for both girls. They needed to understand that no meant no.

It was no surprise to Alya that Chloe acted in retaliation, but Marinette with Chloe? Alya felt sorry for her ex best friend.

Alya hadn't told the class yet because she didn't want to humiliate Marinette in front of everyone, but she told Lila, because she deserved to know the truth.

She was sitting in her place in the classroom, next to Nino and behind Adrien and Lila. Mlle. Bustier had given them free time, as long as they didn't leave their seats and keep the conversation low.

Chloe's snorting laughter echoed through the room from moment to moment, Marinette trying to control the blonde and Sabrina looking like she wanted to fall into a fit of laughter. The three problems of the Mlle. Bustier’s class together.

"It's sad, you know?" Lila sighed at her. She and Adrien facing Alya and Nino's table so they can talk. "They force themselves to act like they're happy just to get attention."

"What do you mean, dudete?" Nino questioned confused.

"It's kind of obvious that they keep doing these things to get their attention." Lila had a sad look in her eyes. "If they weren't so mean to me, I wouldn't mind being friends with them."

Alya felt her heart ache for her best friend. She suffered so much at the hands of the three and yet there she was, wanting to make friends with her bullies.

"You don't have to feel guilty, girl." She squeezed Lila's hand on the table. "They don't deserve your friendship, do they, Adrien?"

The boy had a complicated expression on his face, but he nodded cautiously. "Sure..."

Alya did not understand certain behaviors that Adrien had. Of course, the boy lived for years trapped in the ivory tower that was the Agreste mansion, but she thought that after hanging out with them for so long, he would have come out of his shell, but it looked like she was wrong.

At least, from what Lila said, he was much more open to her when they were alone. She hoped that this would soon change in relation to her friends.

▫▪▪

The next day, she was casually checking her blog, noting the decline in her popularity, before checking OTS-OnTheSpot. The blog that had debuted in the news world, being the rival of Ladyblog.

Alya was increasingly irritated by Ladybug's clear preference for the new blog over Ladyblog. Of course, the person - because nobody knew who it was and Max was unable to track the IP - obviously had better equipment than Alya, who only worked with the phone, but for Ladybug to betray her like that, it had been a slap in the face.

Somehow OTS got the best photos, the best videos, the best interviews, but no one ever got a glimpse of who the journalist was. Not even Chat Noir - she had asked - knew who the person behind the blog was, since he had never been interviewed before.

That was the other problem she had with OTS.

The person clearly focused on all miraculous and non-miraculous heroes, except Chat Noir. In fact, the times the blog touched on the cat hero's name, it was to mock his behavior in the middle of the battle. Not to mention, they were clearly a RoBug shipper - Robin and Ladybug - which, in Alya's opinion, was an insult to the black dots hero.

Everyone knew that LadyNoir was the real couple there. Chat Noir had confirmed in the last interview that Alya got of the hero.

She was wallowing in self-pity when Lila hurried into the classroom, drawing everyone's attention. All but Chloe who was messing with the phone, Nathaniel who drew on the tablet and Sabrina, who wrote something on a notepad. Marinette as always, late.

"Alya!" Lila ran to her. "You will not believe what I just saw."

The girl rose quickly from her chair, her journalistic senses on alert.

“What was that girl? Is it an akuma?”

With that, both Chloe and Adrien turned to the two.

The Italian shook her head in denial.

"No. It's Marinette.” She takes a deep breath, catching her breath. "Marinette was kissing a very scary guy in front of the school."

"WHAT?!" Alya shouted. "Are you sure it was her?"

Lila nodded frantically. "Absolutely sure. When they walked away, I saw her face and I also heard him call her name.”

Alya sat back in her chair in shock. Incredulous that Marinette would do something so dirty just to get attention.

"I think she realized that the plan with Chloe wouldn't work and tried to get attention in another way." Lila sighed. Only Nino and Adrien being able to hear their conversation.

The DJ frowned in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

Adrien was pale, but he didn't open his mouth to say anything.

"We found that-"

"MARIN!" Chloe squeaked in the background, running into Marinette's arms.

Alya and Lila were suddenly silent, watching the scene unfold. Alya had a sour taste in her mouth, disgusted by the way Marinette managed to act like nothing was happening. As if she weren't dirty.

"Hey, Coco." The brunette said, hugging Chloe. "Sorry for the delay, I had some things to resolve."

Chloe moved away from her; hands clasped together. "No problem." She smiled. It was rare for the class to see such a sincere smile coming from Chloe. "Come. I want to show you something that Timochi and I found earlier.” And he pulled the girl up the stairs, greeting Sabrina and Nathaniel on the way.

For a moment, Alya considered leaving this problem alone.

Sure, Marinette and Chloe deserved to be exposed to their friends, but technically neither was doing anything wrong. None attacked or did anything to harm Adrien, so no damage was done.

But then Alya remembered the smile that Chloe had shown when she saw Marinette.

This was not a fake or staged smile. That was a genuine and affectionate smile. Then Alya came to the conclusion that Chloe did indeed liked Marinette, while Marinette was only using the blonde as a springboard to reach Adrien.

The journalist might as well have ignored this discovery and let Chloe break her heart, as a vengeance for everything Bourgeois had done against them, but she failed. Alya was a fair girl. She couldn't sleep peacefully knowing that Marinette was playing with someone's feelings.

Even if that someone was Chloe Bourgeois.

She got up from the chair, facing the back of the room and Marinette. Lila had long since moved away to her chair beside Adrien.

Alya was furious.

“Marinette, aren't you ashamed of yourself? Act like nothing is wrong. I didn't know you could be that cold and calculating.” She caught everyone's attention again, especially Marinette.

Marinette sighed, her elbow resting on the table, she laid her head on her palm. There was an air of boredom around her. Chloe, Sabrina and Nathaniel with unimpressed looks on their faces.

“What did I do this time, Alya? I knocked Lila down the stairs? I hit Lila with a piece of wood? I stole Lila's ideas again?” The disinterested tone irritated the journalist even more.

"No, although all the statements are real, I am not talking about that." Alya spat. "I'm talking about you being a fake and dirty person, who's using Chloe in your sordid little game."

Everyone in the classroom began to whisper fervently, curious about the newest drama in the class.

"What?!" Chloe said without a voice. The expression on the blonde's face was pure disbelief.

Marinette raised an eyebrow, moving from her relaxed posture to a stiff one.

"What are you accusing me of this time, Alya?"

"I'm talking about you and Chloe dating and you cheating on her with someone in front of the school!" Alya shouted angrily.

Marinette whistled, unimpressed.

"I still don't know what you're talking about."

“I know everything, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Don't you dare deny it!” The girl sidestepped Nino's hand, who was trying to calm his girlfriend. "I know about your silly plan to pretend to be dating Chloe just to get Adrien's attention and that Chloe likes you!"

Marinette stared at Alya without reaction and Alya celebrated it, believing she had won the argument.

That, of course, until Chloe, Marinette, Sabrina, and Nathaniel fell into a fit of violent laughter. Scaring all the students and leaving Alya surprised.

"What are you laughing at?!" Lila stood up to defend Alya. "It is true! We know everything!”

Sabrina was the first to compose herself, wiping away the tears that had escaped by the force of laughter. "Really? What else do you know?”

"I don't understand what you're laughing at!" Alya snarled, before turning to Chloe. “You should be thanking us for exposing Marinette. Hello, is she cheating on you!?”

"Alya, dear and innocent, Alya." Nathaniel sighed. Some laughter still escaping. "Where did you get that Chloe and Marinette are dating each other?"

Alya snorted indignantly at the mockery. "What are you talking about? Lila-“

“Oh, of course. Lila.” Chloe rolled her eyes. "The most reliable source of news you can find." The acidity in the words did not go unnoticed by anyone.

"Hey!" Coming from offended Lila.

"Sure, you're not wrong to assume that Chloe and I had something, since well, we dated for a while." Marinette started.

“Aha! So, you assume you were in a relationship!” Alya pointed.

Marinette raises an eyebrow. "Everyone here knows that, Alya." She sighed tiredly. "Chloe and I dated for a while at Collège, but we broke up before Lycée."

"What...?!" Alya murmured. "But you hated each other!"

"... They are telling the truth, Alya." Nino looked away, intimidated by Alya's anger. “You and Lila didn't know that because you entered Dupont at the Lycée, but the rest we did. I think Adrien, too, since Chloe and he are childhood friends.”

“Okay, so, you guys dated. But how do you explain this sudden approach now? You obviously hated each other.” Alya insisted.

Chloe snorted impatiently, maybe even a little irritated by Alya's attitude.

“It's called maturing, Alya. Do you know what is this?" The blonde crossed her arms. “Marin and I talked and came to the conclusion that we still like each other enough to become friends. That fighting wasn't getting us anywhere.”

“It still doesn't explain why you are so lovey-dovey. Let's be rational here, this love is at least suspect.” Lila pointed. There was a calculating air around her.

"Friendships are different for everyone, Liela." Marinette replied dryly. “I was never a person to curb my feelings whatever they are. I like to show my friends how much I appreciate them and they do the same for me because that's how friendship is. The support is mutual.”

"But waiting for you to understand this can be too much, since you probably don't know what it is like to have feelings other than pride, envy and dislike." Chloe waved her hand dismissively.

Lila's eyes flashed dangerously, before changing to a painful expression. The crocodile tears running down her cheeks.

“Why are you like that, Chloe? I tried my best to be friends with you, but you seem to hate me!” She sniffed and Alya was next to the girl, trying to comfort her. "If I were that bad, I would have already exposed your plan to get Adrien's attention, since you and Marinette are obsessed with him-" She brought her hands to her mouth, an expression of regret on her face. “I shouldn't have said that. I'm so sorry!" She went back to 'crying'.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Adrien's expression, who seemed lost. Eyes wide, mouth open. He looked in Marinette's direction as if trying to assemble a 500-piece puzzle.

Chloe murmured an 'oh please' tired of all the drama. Marinette didn't seem at all shaken by being exposed in front of the boy she loved. Nathaniel and Sabrina were just enjoying the show, while eating the macaroons that Marinette had brought.

"You don't have to apologize, Lila." Marinette replied calmly, making Lila swallow the fake tears and look at the girl. She realized that her attack had no desired effect. "My feelings for Adrien died the day he asked me to take the high road and let you lie." She looked at the model who looked chastened, before turning back to Lila. "I understood what he meant by that, but the fact that he prioritized your feelings over mine, killed any traces of love I had for him."

Alya gasped in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

Lila's eyes widened in panic. "Is nothing-"

"Oh, that's right." Marinette shook her head condescendingly. “You still believe that everything Lila says is true. Even the most absurd things.”

"Again with that story, Marinette?!" Kim complained angrily. "We know you made this up because you were jealous of Lila."

Nathaniel made a confused sound. "Why would Marinette be jealous of Lila?"

"Because Lila and Adrien are dating!" Alya screamed at the boy's lack of awareness.

“Alya! This was supposed to be a secret!” Lila hid her face with her hands.

"WHAT?!" Adrien got up from the chair surprised by the new information. "We aren’t-"

"... But Marin, haven't you been dating Damian since half of Lycée's first year?" Sabrina asked confused.

Marinette sighed at the whole situation.

"I am. But it seems that people still live in the past.”

"You don't have to lie to us just because you're ashamed, Marinette." Lila said sweetly. "We don't judge anyone here."

Chloe got up from her chair, clapping her hands on the table. "OK, that's it." She picked up the phone and dialed someone, everyone froze thinking she was calling the mayor. “Timo, please come and get us. I'm sick of having to share the same air as a bunch of imbeciles.” The person on the other end seemed to agree, because soon Chloe hung up and picked up her things from the table.

Marinette, Sabrina and Nathaniel soon following the blonde's example.

Sabrina had a thick folder in her hand, where it dropped heavily on Max's table. Chloe, on the other hand, left a pile of paper on Lila's and Nathaniel's on Alya's. Marinette came down the stairs in calm steps. Never failing to face the two girls.

“At Max's desk is a compilation of all Lila's lies. We managed to put this together in less than two hours, as her lies are not really good.” She started. Lila swallowing hard behind Alya. "At Lila's table and yours, orders to cease and desist on behalf of Prince Ali, Jagged, Clara, XY, Bruce Wayne, Style Queen and of course, Ladybug."

"WHAT?!" Lila and Alya shouted together.

Marinette didn't even blink at their reaction.

"I didn't intend to do anything against you, as we are in Lycée's senior year and I would finally be free of your mental games, Lila." She looked at the Italian. “But today you really pissed me off. Because in addition to accusing me of plotting to gain Adrien's attention, you accused me of being unfaithful and that is something I do not admit.”

"Dudete, don't you think you're being a little extreme?" Nino tried to ease the situation with Marinette.

The girl snorted in mockery, going back down the stairs, towards the door. And at the door, there was an unknown and scary-looking boy standing against the wood.

"Think on the bright side Nino: at least this way, your girlfriend will learn to check the facts first, before posting on her failed blog and Lila will learn to keep her lying tongue in her mouth."

Alya snarled in anger.

"And how do we know it is not a trick?"

Marinette stopped beside the boy, her hand resting on his broad chest and turned to Alya.

"Now Alya, just a search on google refutes all the bullshit that Lila has been spitting on you." She raised her eyebrow and the girl soon did as she was told, growing pale with every second she remained looking at the screen. “See how easy it is to check the facts? The internet nowadays, huh. Who knew?” She laughed as if she had told a very funny joke.

Adrien frowned at the girl's behavior, disappointed that she had done that. He thought they were in this together, but apparently, he was alone.

"Marinette-" The blonde tried to speak.

“Oh! I remembered something." She hit her fist against her open palm. "Lila, there are police and immigration agents waiting for you at the school door."

The entire class rose from their seats, still shaken by Marinette's revelations and Markov's confirmation that, yes, Lila was a dirty liar.

"... What?" Lila murmured weakly. It seemed that all the blood had left the Italian's body so pale she was.

"Did you think that willingly helping an emotional terrorist would not have consequences, Lila?" Marinette tilted her head innocently. "Wow. You are really deluded.” She hissed in shock.

The Italian fell without reaction to the floor. She had been defeated at her own game.

"Emotional terrorist...?" Adrien gasped. "Hawkmoth?! Was Lila helping Hawkmoth?”

“Yeap. We have evidence in videos, photos and audios. Not to mention that he admitted earlier today when the heroes invaded his operational base.” Marinette waved excitedly.

Adrien froze at the information. "But, but-"

"How do you know all this?!" Alya demanded.

“Didn't you know, Alya? I am OTS.” Marinette replied cynically, a bad smile on her face. "Ladybug gave an exclusive interview to my blog that must have aired two minutes ago."

Everyone was quick to pick up their tablets or phones to do what Marinette had said.

"You-you-" The journalist stuttered without knowing how to react.

“Now I have to go and let the law enforcement officers do their job. Bye!" She waved as she followed the boy from before, away from the classroom.

It was only when the officers entered the classroom to drag Lila out, that Alya realized what she had done and said.

She was a terrible journalist.

BONUS:

"... Cheers to the miraculous team, Robin, Red Robin, Super Boy and Spoiler!" The group of friends shouted, pounding the crystal glasses against each other.

“Another cheers for Lila Rossi having her ass delivered!” Chloe shouted excitedly, making friends laugh and accompany her.

"Today was a day of victory so let's celebrate as long as we can." Marc said snuggling up to Nathaniel who was almost dozing, despite all the noise.

"You had to see Alya's face when we threw the facts in her face." Sabrina hugged Stephanie, a little drunk on champagne.

"We saw it, Rina." The blonde replied, amused by the girl's behavior. "Timbers installed hidden cameras around the classroom for that purpose."

"What I thank my love for." Chloe told the boy, who was hugging her. "If it weren't for you, we would only relive that moment in memories."

"You're welcome Queenie." Tim kissed the girl's cheek affectionately.

"When are we going to visit Chat Noir, Hime?" Kagami asked Marinette. The two were curled together, with Damian on Marinette's back and Kagami between her legs.

"It would be a good idea for us to do this as soon as possible, so that he doesn't have time to use the ring for something bad." Damian kissed Marinette's head while his arms held Kagami against them. "Who knows what's going on in that boy's head."

Marinette sighed thoughtfully. Half melted between her lovers. "Tonight, we will approach Adrien Agreste."

"I hope he doesn't throw a tantrum." Jon groaned from where he was lying with Luka. "I don't have the patience to deal with him."

"I think he will be too distracted by his mother's return to react negatively." Luka murmured, another who was almost asleep. “Adrien may have a closed mind in some ways, but he is not a bad kid. He just needs someone to guide him on the right path.”

"I hope Emillie is that someone." Nathaniel replied sleepily.

All of them agreeing with the boy.

[tag list]

@saays-bitch @xxmdsxx @nicknnie @iamablinkmarvelarmy @damianette-is-life 

[lunaekalenda]

Can I request a JeanxFem!reader where the reader is super friendly/clingy and isn't conscious of the effects it has on Jean? Like sometimes reader would just grab his hand or hold on to his arm, or even stand in front of him and put his arms around their shoulders? Reader ou does this to Jean bc they're best friends but he will never get used to it bc Jean loves them and is all "asdfghjkl" everytime it happens. But then one day reader stops doing this stuff because someone told her Jean likes them but ONLY bc they look similar to Mikasa, which breaks the Reader's cute lil heart. Angst but fluff at the end please!

hi! of course!! i hope you like it! <3 sorry if i got too fluffy at the end :’)

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❁ jean x female!reader

❁ canonverse

❁ a/n: i didn’t want to make annie like a “villain” but she’s just being really honest with what she thinks about it, she’s not trying to bother her!

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

"Jean!" you yell. He smiles at you once he found from where your voice comes, and you run to hug your best friend. His tall body gives you difficulties to reach his neck, but he leans closer to you, his big hands on your waist. His heart flutters happily when he feels your warmth closer to him. 

“How was your training?” he asks. You tangle your arm with his, starting to walk calmly towards the dorms. 

When you entered here, on the military, you wanted to punch him. How he was always feeling superior. You wanted to punch him so bad.

But, after the first battle, where some unlucky friends passed away, he changed abruptly. He understood the pain of the more weak ones, and didn’t vacillate to take risky decisions in due to help the mission. He was made to be a leader, and you two worked hand by hand in the same squad. Thats how, quietly, you started to notice how funny and sweet he is, even when he tries to cover it with his prideful façade. But, since you two got really close, you can even difference what he is feeling, even when he tries so desperately to hide it.

Or so do you think.

One day, when you two were training, Mikasa passed by, following Eren. Jean got his eyes fixed on her black hair.

“You like Mikasa, don’t you?” Connie told him, joking. 

“I-I like her hair, no-o more.” He says. In that times, he was your friend, but you weren’t that close. 

Surprisingly, the more friends you became, the more strange you felt. Why did your heart a flip every time he smiled at you? Why did you felt bad when Mikasa asked something to him?

Maybe you were starting to feel something for him?

“You’re totally into Kirstein.” Petra told you. You enjoyed talking to her, she’s really nice. 

“Shut up, Petra, or else I’ll have to tell you how you look when Capt...”

“Got it!” she interrupted you and you both laughed. It was a quiet afternoon, and you two where sitting on the lake. “I think you should go for him.” she said. 

“He isn’t into me.” you answered. “He likes Mikasa.” Petra looked to the lake.

“Who knows, maybe he does feel the same...”

Petra is really positive, unless you talk about her. Then, she says she has zero opportunities.But, you didn’t want to break your special bond with Jean. That’s why you tried to keep things in a friendship, ignoring your feelings for so long.

“It was fine, yep.” you say. “But I’m hungry.” Your belly confirmes it. He lets out a little laugh.

“Let’s go and eat something first, then.” You smile and, letting go his arm, you tangle your fingers with his, walking with his hand on yours. He blushes a bit. “By the way, tonight we have free time. Do you want to hang?” Today, the Captains of the Squads gave you all free time, celebrating that you all survived another expedition yesterday. 

“Sure.” you pull him softly, his hand caressing yours in an unconscious way while you two walk towards the cantina.

❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁ ❁❁❁❁

You feel the cold wind against your skin and wet hair while you walk to the encounter point you agreed with Jean earlier. You found Annie walking back to the dorms.

You and Annie haven’t talked that much, specially since her introverted nature finds your outgoing one terrible.

“Hi, Annie.” you say. She looks at you.

“If you’re searching Jean, he’s talking with Mikasa near Eren’s dorm. Just in case.” She speaks. You maybe looked concerned or down, because she looked at you for a long time. “You know you don’t have opportunities with him, right? He’s not the type of boy to fall in love with.” She says. You look at her back, kinda confused of the words she just said. “He thought he liked you, I’m sure he was confused. But then he realized you look so much like Mikasa, so he just likes the way you look like her. Never thought of it?”

“I do not look like her.” You say. 

“The same black hair that Jean loves. That’s enough for him to remind of her every time he looks at you. She’s out of his league, but maybe you...” Maybe she’s right. After all, he loves Mikasa’s black long hair. She cut it, you still have long hair. But, is all of this the truth? 

“Y/N!” Jean calls you from the place you accorded. Annie waves her hand before disappearing, going back to her dorm.

You walk towards Jean without your usual clingy ways. You walk silently, the sweater hugging your body and your gaze low. Jean is aware of your change of attitude. He gets concerned. What did he do to upset you? Maybe you don’t want to see him again. “Are you okay?” he asks, once you’ve reached him. You nod and fake a smile.

“Annie told me you were talking to Mikasa, so I decided to wait there. I didn’t want to bother.”

“You should had call me, dummy!” he says, colliding his shoulders with yours, playing. “You never bother me, y/n.”

His hazel eyes search any type of reaction on yours, but he only gets your gaze on the floor again. He stops walking and turns you to face him. “Hey, it’s everything okay?” He asks. He has lowered his voice and his tone is way more concerned. You don’t know if his kindness makes you feel good or bad. “Y/N?” He asks again. He just needs to know you’re fine, he needs to hear that nothing happened to you. Maybe, he thinks, you’re just upset with him for some reason he can’t think of. 

“I’m fine.” You’re not. You’ve been binge thinking about what Annie said to you, and you ended believing that maybe that’s true. That you’re just a Mikasa impostor on his heart.

“You’re not fine.” He says. Your skin feels electricity when he holds your hand, trying to avoid you from walking away. He searches your eyes once more, but now, they’re full of tears. His eyebrows move in a worrying expression. “What happened?” He asks. His tone is now sweet, trying to calm you.

“Well, now I know why you always pat my hair.” you say. At the end, the logic Annie followed is totally right, at least in your brain. “It is like touching Mikasa’s, right?”

His expression is now extremely confused. What are you doing bringing up Mikasa in a conversation that has nothing to do with her?

“Mikasa’s?” he asks. You wipe your tears with your hand quickly.

“You liked her when she entered, so probably you keep liking her. And my hair looks exactly like hers. Are you using me?” You ask. Your brain thought all of this in one second, this was kinda messy and you don’t know exactly what is happening. Jean is as confused as you are, he doesn’t know how he made a mistake like that. Make you think he’s in love with Mikasa when he’s in love with you. 

“Listen, Y/N...” he says. This wasn’t the confession scenario he built up in his head, but he needs to clarify things now, before this weird conversation ends with you two ending your friendship. "I did like Mikasa. I liked her when we entered, yes. But it was just a platonic love. We're friends. The point here..."

"I'm your best friend, Jean." you say. "You can tell me if you like her, I'll be okay with that. I gave up on you on any way."

He looks surprised. You liked him? You liked him all this time? As he liked you?

“What?” he asks. “Gave up?”

“I liked you, Jean Kirstein. A lot. My heart was out of my fucking chest every time you hugged me and I couldn’t think straight if your body was behind mine. But you were probably thinking about Mikasa and how beautiful she is...”

“No.” his face is serious when he looks at you. Both of his hands go to your cheeks, taking with his thumbs a couple tears that run fast down to your chin. “Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” he says. Your teary eyes look at his, searching a joke or something like that, but his eyes are more serious than ever. “I knew it was maybe a one-sided love, because I thought you’ll never be interested in me. Every time you acted clingy, my heart was about to explode of happiness. I feel so good when you’re around me, y/n...” he passes one lock of your hair behind your ear. “I knew i was in love  because I didn’t care it was one-sided, if you were happy, I was happy. That’s why I got so concerned today. Even knowing maybe it was my fault, I couldn’t see you looking sad. I couldn’t. Because I’m still so madly in love with you, I care about you and your well.being so much that I felt the pain of your eyes myself. Sorry for making you feel that way.”

There’s now a silence between you. Jean is probably giving you space to understand all he said, and your brain is having an emergency reunion. He does like you, and you’re still so in love with him... After all, all that happened was because a misunderstanding from you. You feel so silly now...

“Sorry.” you say. “I misunderstood things.”

“But that’s because I never told you clearly what I felt.”

“It’s all my fault.” you try to convince him that he’s wrong, that you were the one confused. “Now I probably lost all the opportunities to be with you and also our friendship.”

“Don’t be that drama queen, dummy.” he says, his voice a low whisper. “I think we just need to honestly tell each other what do we feel now.” He says. 

Telling the other? Telling what?

“I’ll start, then.” he says, “I fell in love with my clingy best friend and I’m still so in love I wouldn’t mind dating her.”

His words made your heart beat faster. After all, where you hiding feelings that were probably reciprocate? 

Probably.

“Come on, don’t be shy!” He laughs sweetly when he sees your blushed cheeks. His thumb makes soft circles on them. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this now, but you’re so fucking pretty...” his gaze gets lost in your face, admiring every single part of it.

“I also still love you, but don’t let your ego raise.” he laughs and so you do. Now, you can look at his face freely, how his hazel eyes have such an intense gaze...

“So, now that this is arranged, why don’t we act as if this never happened and you let me confess in a proper way, hm?”

“Sounds great.”

[multiplefandomsblog]

Kazuichi, Byakuya, Gundham, Rantaro, Gonta, Leon, and Toko with an ultimate Broadway actress s/o

Desc; headcanons of kazuichi, byakuya, gundham, rantaro, gonta, leon, toko with an ultimate broadway actress s/o

Warnings; i tried to make this spoiler free, fem!reader, reader uses female pronouns, i guess this takes place at hope’s peak academy? pre-tragedy?? i dont really know about the v3 boys, haven’t finished the game lmao-

Gundham:

◊ He already knows a bunch about Musicals; especially the darker ones.

◊ He thinks your Ultimate is amazing, he loves all your plays.

◊ Neither of you know which between the two of you is more dramatic.

◊ Your dramatic personalities often intertwined, merging the two of you and making you both into one huge drama queen.

◊ It gives everyone a headache as you both scream, “My toe hurts!-” “My king’s toe hurts! Someone bring an ambulance, stat!”

◊ “Someone get the fucking chlorofoam-” “Hiyoko no-”

◊ This is a bad example, but you get my point-

◊ He enjoys Shakespeare and dark love story plays/musicals.

◊ So he would definitely enjoy acting one with you on stage, if you let him.

◊ He’ll somehow incorporate his Dark Devas into the play just for an excuse to bring them with him on-stage.

◊ Once he was playing Romeo and abandoned Juliet to save Cham-P after he ran offstage to eat a sunflower seed someone dropped on the floor.

◊ Fuck Juliet, mans knows his priorities.

◊ He’s kind of a musical theatre nerd, he enjoys discussing the message behind musicals you’ve played.

◊ Throwing in some compliments about how well you perceived the character, and how pretty you looked.

◊ He is always extremely proud and amazed at your ability to sing, dance and act so well all at the same time.

◊ He believes you don’t get enough credit for doing what you do, so he makes sure you know how proud he is of you.

◊ He sometimes quotes Shakespeare or some other dark musical while you two hung out, it was kinda cute seeing him geek out like that.

◊ “As said in ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." Gundham quoted, pride laced in his words as he was proud of remembering that. “Gundham... it’s literally 5 am in the morning, the party starts at 12 pm. Go back to sleep.” Gundham blinks and nearly falls asleep where he stood. “Mmkay.”

◊ If he saw you dress up as the witch in Wicked, he would be whipped.

◊ His evil queen? In an evil costume? A dream come true!

◊ He thinks you look absolutely fabulous and praises you a bunch after the show, telling you how pretty you looked while you acted.

Kazuichi

◊ He wouldn’t know much about musical theatre, since he’s more into machines.

◊ But when you told him to come to a play you were going to star in, he jumped at the offer.

◊ 90 minutes of you? He must be the luckiest guy in the world!(Nagito would be proud)

◊ After watching his first play, he decides he is obsessed with musical theatre now, going to all your shows.

◊ He loves all the romance based musicals, he’s a sucker for romance what can he say?

◊ He’d obsess over all your plays, going into a lot of detail about his favourtite parts.

◊ He’s kinda like, your #1 fan.

◊ He has posters of musicals you’ve starred posted around his dorm room, just a bunch of merch of you and all the musicals you starred in.

◊ When you tell him he has a backstage pass because he’s your boyfriend, he is overjoyed. 

◊ He actually trained a bit to be one of the backstage crew members.

◊ He learned how to fix your make up during intermissions, fix a loose stitch on your costume, all that good stuff.

◊ Though every time he sees your face up close for make up, he goes speechless.

◊ He wonders every time, how the hell did he get someone like you?

◊ Though his hands are shaking from how nervous he was, he still managed to make you look absolutely amazing.

◊ He’d blast a bunch of musical soundtracks while he works on his machines, screwing on and unscrewing things with a bop.

◊ I can imagine Kazuichi jamming with you in the car. The car moving violently as you two bounced to the rhythm like mad men.

◊ I think he’d get pretty insecure if he saw you with a love interest, he would think that when you two shared a staged kiss or scene, that it was actually full of love and not fake

◊ But when you cheer him up and tell him how much you love him, he realizes he was being silly over nothing.

◊ After watching many many romance musicals, you notice he gets more romantic; most likely mimicking the love interests.

◊ He is still a bit insecure, but if he does more romantic things, you’ll love him right?

◊ You enjoy the silly grand gestures of love, but you try and assure him constantly that you don’t need any of it.

◊ You only need him <3

Rantaro:

◊ w o a h

◊ He’d love the fact that you’re an actress

◊ He thinks it’s so cool like-

◊ constant fanboying after shows

◊ He’s always bringing you flowers once you’re off the stage, showering you with praises and affections

◊ He’s literally so proud of you wtf??

◊ i think he’d be the type to show you off a lot

◊ “Hey you!” He points at a naked passerby(this is an inside joke, i am so sorry), “Guess what? My girlfriend’s a Broadway actress!” “Rantaro stop, people are staring-” “Are they? hEY YOU! YEAH, YOU STARING!! MY GIR-”

◊ if you ever started spitting out hamilton raps, he’d be the one beatboxing in the back ground for you.

◊  “Pshh, packow, psshh psshh, packow!” “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a-” 

◊ you two would jam out to musical soundtracks in your dorm, dancing dramatically as you did.

◊ you two kinda become like a duo of musical theatre kids.

◊ if you stood on a table and started belting lyrics, he would hop on and join you

◊ unless it was a solo, he would never steal your thunder.

◊ if you ever felt a bit nervous before a big show, he would assure you that’d you’d do great and tell you how much he believed in you until you felt better.

◊ he’s your charger before and after a big show.

◊ if you felt exhausted from acting and dancing around the stage, he��s always there to give you what you need most.

◊ whether it’s water, food, flowers, or just him and his cuddles, he always has it ready for you.

◊ the most recent musical soundtrack that you’ve played will be stuck in his head.

◊ For example, if you recently played in Hairspray, ‘Mama, I’m a big girl now!’ will be stuck in his head until the next play he watches.

◊ you’d catch him humming it during everything he does, 

◊ and it’s actually so fricking adorable.

◊ if you heard him sing a familiar tune, you would hum along with him.

◊ “Hmm, mmwhen I was, just a kid ♪” 

◊ Your ears perked up at the familiar tune, slowly you turned around to face him.

◊ “♪....You never let me do just what the older kids did…♪” You joined in quietly, Rantaro whipped his head towards you, a rising smile on his face.

◊ “♪ But lose that laundry list of what you won't allow ♪,” His voice rose slowly in excitement, pointing at you with a big grin across his face.

◊ And at the same time, you both sang obnoxiously loud, as if it was rehearsed, “♪ 'Cause mama, I'm a big girl now! ♪” Running to each other with excitement, 

◊ You let out a fit of giggles as Rantaro picked you up, “MY WIFE, PLEASE BE MY WIFE!” 

◊ This is how you two met and you can’t tell me otherwise-

Gonta:

◊ Gonta wouldn’t know much about Broadway musicals- which to you, a broadway actress, was unacceptable!

◊ so you made it your mission to get him to watch as many musicals as he possibly can.

◊ You’d tell him to come to all your plays, him excitedly agreeing despite not knowing what a play is.

◊ You’d do extra good knowing that Gonta was in the crowd watching you, wanting to give him the best first experience with musicals.

◊ He’d applaud at the end of every scene, trying to show his support the best he can.

◊ for his first play he watches, he ends up clapping a bit too early.

◊ he cheered and applauded super loud when he saw you on stage, but stopped when he realized everyone was staring at him.

◊ Though it was a bit embarrassing for both you and him, you felt your heart flutter at how his first instinct was to clap for you when you walked in stage.

◊ You’d introduce him to various musicals, beauty and the beast being his favourite.

◊ He definitely starts to obsess over the more ‘gentlemanly’ characters.

◊ his first impressions of the beast were bad; Denying that old lady shelter? How ungentlemanly!!

◊ so when the dude got cursed, he cheered lmao

◊ but as he kept watching, he could see the beast wasn’t too bad. 

◊ The beast had some flaws, but he obviously cared for belle, he thought.

◊ Oh but he hated Gaston, he really really hated him.

◊ If you acted with someone who played Gaston(and you as belle), he would have to hold back and not rip his face off every time Gaston said something idiotic or sexist.

◊ He had to keep reminding himself that, that Gaston wasn’t real(and thank god for that, real gaston would’ve been torn to shreds.)

◊ the dancing scene was his favourite part for sure.

◊ He’s sad he doesn’t get to play beast with you, but he still enjoys the scene nonetheless.

◊ something cute I can imagine him doing is surprising you by dressing up in a prince costume from the musical and asking you for a dance. 

◊ It’s the cutest thing ever oml-

◊ It’s such a beautiful moment, you two just dancing together in a random room with no care in the world.

◊ Your arms wrapped his extravagant costume and his arms wrapped around your pj’s.

◊ He’s a bit shy to be so close to you, but he tries his best to be confident and as princely as he could so he pushes his anxiety aside.

◊ As his stomach fills with butterflies, he becomes slightly confused and concerned, ‘Did Gonta eat butterflies??’ He slightly panics-

◊ ‘Those poor butterflies!!’

◊ He’d watch a lot of videos on how to ballroom dance in advance for this moment.

◊ He’s actually not that bad!

◊ Well- as long as you dance with your feet on his, so he doesn’t crush your toes.

◊ If you ever did some beauty and the beast scenes for him, he would be so happy. 

◊ He’d be even happier if you let him play the beast with you.

◊ He’d be smiling the entire time during a fight/sad/serious practice scene.

◊ *almost gets stabbed* “Haha oh no!” 

◊ When you sing during one of the scenes, he kinda just-

◊ becomes a puddle of a gentleman.

◊ his heart melts and disintegrates(haha what) of love for you. 

◊ he absolutely loves your voice, and would beg for you to sing him one of the soundtracks from beauty and the beast before bed.

◊ He’s really proud of all your plays, and is extremely happy that you–of all people–are his girlfriend.

Byakuya Togami

◊ In all honesty, he thinks your ultimate isn’t all that great.

◊ But as he watches one of your plays, his mind ultimately(see what i did there?) changes.

◊ He becomes impressed and dazzled from how passionate you look when you act, not noticing how you had him sitting on the edge of his seat.

◊ After watching you act, he literally cannot watch another play unless you are in it, finding it unworthy of his time and money.

◊^^this is before you two got together,

◊ you two got together after you found him in your crowd, applauding like the rest of them with the same bewildered expression on his face.

◊ You confronted him and he attempted to compliment your acting, but he accidentally let his feelings for you slip out instead, “I find you truly captivating- Wait no, I-I meant your plays. Your plays, they are truly captivating.” You watched in amusement as he stumbled with his words, eventually interrupting him with an, “Are you available right now?”

◊ So yeah, eventually you two get together, and good for Togami! Because now he doesn’t have to secretly applaud you as a fan, he can applaud you whenever and as your lover.

◊ After shows, he’d give you a single rose as a congrats or applause (so romantic!)

◊ If you ever decided to be chaotic and start belting out lyrics, he would just sigh and let you finish.

◊ Very rarely, you would catch him humming a small tune of a musical song you sang.

◊ But very very rarely. If you ever catch him and confront him about it, he will deny it completely.

◊ I think he’d probably like the more serious plays, he enjoys the meanings and emotions of them more than the sillier and playful ones.

◊ If he ever watched Mean Girls, he would start to slightly mimic Regina George.

◊ “Byakuya wha-” “Get in peasant, we’re going shopping.” 

◊ It’d be lowkey hot when you hear him sass you like Regina George tho-

◊ He’d have more big dick energy after watching Mean Girls, emitting his dominance to everyone.

◊ Makoto during a class trial: “So we know that she was at the scene of the crime, right?” “Shut up.” Byakuya flipped his imaginary long hair as Makoto stares at him in confusion, silence filling the room. “Shut up!” “I didn’t even say anything-”

◊ “The new motive is going to be-!” “Whatever, I’m getting cheese fries a book.” Byakuya sighed, turning on his heels and catwalking away.

◊ ...

◊ “IT’S PUNISHMENT TIME-!” “MONOKUMA WAIT NO-”

Leon

◊ Would go to every one of your shows.

◊ Would act like an absolute mom in the crowd.

◊*holding a video camera* You’re doing great sweetie!.

◊”That’s my girl!”

◊ You’d get embarrassed every time he does that.

◊ Hypes you up when you get nervous before going on stage.

◊ In back stage, he’d praise you and give you a bouquet of flowers.

◊ Where did they come from? When did he have time to get flowers when he was yelling in the crowed??

◊ Helps you rehearse lines even if he has no idea what they’re about.

◊ Will fight anyone that makes mean comments towards you.

◊ Even if it’s just constructive criticism, he will take it as an insult.

◊ “Hey s/o! You did great! Maybe next time you could-”

◊ Leon: “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY PUNK!? DO YOU KNOW WHO SHE IS?! I HAVE FRICKING ARMS OF STEEL, I WILL-”

◊ Will take every chance to pick you up and call you a queen.

◊ When you guys watch other plays together, he always says how you’d play a better role or that you’d do so much better.

◊ He is pretty jealous of your talent, he has always wanted to be a singer instead of a baseball star, but his ultimate wouldn’t allow that.

◊ So if you let him sing some musical song duets with you, his heart will be so full.

◊ You make him so happy, he almost breaks into cries.

◊ You two of weekly karoake nights, always singing some Heather’s duet together.

◊ One time, you, Sayaka and Leon sang the Candy Store song, Leon being Heather Chandler, Sayaka as Heather Duke, and you as Heather McNamara.

◊ It was... amazing.

◊ Everyone was cheering, clapping and it praising all of you.

◊ You made Leon feel alive, and he really, really loves you for that.

Toko

◊ She loves your ultimate, and fangirls over you a bunch.

◊ She’s amazed at your confidence to go up in stage, knowing she could never do that.

◊ She thinks your confidence is kinda hot, and decides she is in love.

◊ Likes to add a character in her books that are a lot like you, maybe making them a broadway actress-

◊ She thinks about you a lot, sometimes accidentally blurting out how pretty you were in your last performance in front of everybody.

◊ You confronted her for it, and she almost passed out.

◊ “W-w-why d-do you think t-t-that? D-d-do you th-think you’re b-better than m-me or so-something?” 

◊ You already know her and her inferiority complex, so you don’t take offence to what she said, simply replying with, “I think you’re really cute.”

◊ Toko goes silent, except for a few “!??!??” noises that came out of her.

◊ “... U-uh, a-are you j-joking, be-because that isn’t f-funny!” She flushes, denying that you complimented her.

◊ “I’m not joking, here’s my number! Call me, kay?” You grinned before turning on your heel.

◊ She’s kinda dumbfounded, did her crush just ask her out??

◊ She denies it hard at first, not believing that you asked her out.

◊ Thus, not calling you.

◊ Well, I mean, she kinda did.

◊ She dialed your number one day, feeling a bit lonely.

◊ But as she heard your morning voice, she squeaked and hung up quickly.

◊ She felt her face turn into a fireball, her thoughts going into overdrive from how attractive your voice sounded.

◊ Your voice, she was attracted to your voice.

◊ The next day, when you ask her about what that call was about, she denies it and calls you stupid.

◊ Sprinting away while she screamed, “I-i-idiot!!”

◊ Acts like an absolute tsundere around you.

◊ You constantly flirt with her, trying to get her to accept a date with you.

◊ Being the dramatic hoe you are, you try and give her a declaration of your love.

◊ Knowing she is the Ultimate Writer, and into poems, you write one for her.

◊ You declared your love during one of your plays, knowing she sat in the crowd somewhere.

◊ You interrupted a scene and jumped off stage, “Toko Fukawa!”

◊ Her head perked up in surprise, eyes widening as she saw you on one knee for her.

◊ “W-what are you d-doing!?” She yelped, moving her legs away from you. 

◊ “I am in love with you. Completely and utterly in love with you, everyday when I see you so immersed in writing a book, I believe I am looking at an angel.”

◊ The crowd stared at the both of you, gasps and aws filling the air.

◊ Toko flushed, you watched her while she wrote?

◊ “For every time you’ve told me I was a fool, an idiot, you weren’t wrong. Because I am a fool, a fool in love with you.” You had one had on your chest, looking into her eyes sincerely.

◊ Her eyes glossed over so slightly you couldn’t see, looking around at the crowd before uttering out, “Y-y-you r-really love m-me, h-huh?” Her face contorting into a lopsided smirk, watching as you giggled.

◊ You laughed out, “Absolutely.” 

◊ WHY DID THIS TURN INTO A ONESHOT WHAT WHY WHAT WHYYY

note; thank you so much for reading and sorry for the wait!! we tried our best to finish these together, thank you so much for your patience.

[gunterfan1992]

Season One of “Adventure Time”: Short Episode Reviews

At the start of 2021, I had this idea to write up a book wherein I reviewed every episode of Adventure Time, condensing my thoughts down into a few paragraphs. It seemed easy enough at the time —I could knock a season out in a week, no prob, I thought — but it turns out it was quite the challenge. Part of this was the difficulty of boiling everything down into a few coherent paragraphs that didn’t just repeat the ideas that “This episode is wacky. This episode is bad.” (I was also dealing with untreated ADHD, so that probably didn’t help.) Even though it was a hurdle, I still got through seasons 1-4, and I thought I’d post my reviews here. Maybe one day I’ll do something with ‘em, but for now, enjoy!

Season 1, Episode 1. “Slumber Party Panic” (692-009)

Airdate: April 5, 2010

Production Information: Elizabeth Ito and Adam Muto (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Synopsis: Princess Bubblegum accidentally resurrects a violent mob of candy zombies, which leads to Finn doing the unthinkable: He breaks a royal promise to Bubblegum.

Commentary: It is always a delight to remind people that Adventure Time—a show that would go on to win a slew of prestigious awards and be lauded by critics as one of the smartest kids show that has ever been made—begins with Princess Bubblegum “add[ing] three more drops of explosive diarrhea” to a scientific mixture with which she hopes to bring the dead back to life. This elision of a macabre topic like the resurrection of the dead with a poop joke is in many ways emblematic of the sort of humor upon which Adventure Time was built, and while “Slumber Party Panic” might not be the season’s best episode, it does a solid job introducing the odd, madcap energy that would allow the show to flourish in its youth.

The plot to “Slumber Party Panic”—storyboarded by future series director Elizabeth Ito as well as eventual showrunner Adam Muto—was hammered out well before the show’s mythology was set in stone, and so some of the more hyperbolic plot points from this episode (e.g., the dramatic revelation that candy citizens explode when scared, or the fact that the Gumball Guardians are also the nigh-omnipotent Guardians of the Royal Promise, who can stop and reverse time itself) had to be ignored in later seasons. Nevertheless, the main characters’ personalities are all firmly established, allowing them to play off one another in a way that does not feel forced or misguided; Jeremy Shada and John DiMaggio, in particular, have excellent chemistry, breathing whimsical life into Finn and Jake right off the bat. All things considered, “Slumber Party Panic” is a fun entry and a solid preview of the silliness that was to come. (3.5 stars)

Season 1, Episode 2. “Trouble in Lumpy Space” (692-015)

Airdate: April 5, 2010

Production Information: Elizabeth Ito and Adam Muto (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Trouble in Lumpy Space” is a Ito-Muto production that introduces us to Lumpy Space Princess, the loquacious and dramatic drama queen who was destined to become one of the show’s breakout stars. A sentient blob of “irradiated stardust,” Lumpy Space Princess is an alien valley girl parody voiced by none other than series creator Pendleton Ward himself, and this episode does a commendable job illustrating the character’s immaturity and her ridiculously inflated sense of self-importance. This makes for good entertainment in and of it itself, but what really bumps this episode up a peg is the vocal delivery of the cast. Adventure Time always excelled when it came to its voice acting, but in this episode it is obvious that in this episode Jeremy Shada, John DiMaggio, and Pendleton Ward had extra fun playing around with their ridiculous “lumpy space” accents.

Aesthetically, this episode is quite the sensory experience. Lumpy Space itself is a hauntingly beautiful alien dimension of dark magenta skies and purple, pillowy clouds; it is a right shame that the show very rarely made use of this unique environment, considering how pleasant it is to look at. The episode’s soundtrack is also deserving of recognition, with much of the background music—especially the vapid pop tune that plays while Finn, Jake, and Lumpy Space Princess hitch a ride in Melissa’s car—recalling the elastic hyperpop that electro-wizzes from PC Music produce. The tunes add an extra dimension to the whole experience, helping to sell the idea that Lumpy Space is a silly but alien otherworld. (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 3. “Prisoners of Love” (692-005)

Airdate: April 12, 2010

Production Information: Adam Muto and Pendleton Ward (storyboard artists); Craig Lewis and Adam Muto (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Ice King! Beginning the series as a cartoonishly incompetent antagonist, Ice King would grow into one of the show’s most well-developed characters. While “Prisoners of Love,” being the character’s debut episode, sees the Ice King still in his one-dimensional “wicked wizard” stage, there are hints even at this early juncture—like the character’s dramatic insistence to pluck out a yogurt chip from his trail mix, or his spasmodic attempts to play the drums—that the Ice King is more than just a textbook baddie. Is he evil? Judging by his actions, it often looks that way, but there is also a deep sadness to him that makes even his worst behavior somewhat pitiful.

But as pathetic as he may be, Ice King’s lecherous habit of kidnapping princesses is completely unacceptable (Princesses, Adventure Time would like to remind us, should never be married against their will), and by episode’s end, Ice King receives his just desserts—a feminist-fueled kick to the face, courtesy of Finn the Human. The moral of the story is clear: Poor old Ice King might just be lonely, but that does not excuse him for acting like a frost-bitten incel. (‰3.5 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 4. “Tree Trunks” (692-016)

Airdate: April 12, 2010

Production Information: Sean Jimenez and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Tree Trunks” introduces the audience to the eponymous character, voiced by Polly Lou Livingston, an eccentric octogenarian with a pronounced southern drawl whom Pendleton Ward knew growing up in Texas. Despite Tree Trunks appearing as a sweet old pachyderm, much of her dialog is riddled with double entendres and subtle sex jokes that go over the heads of children, and as such, she is something of a divisive character in the Adventure Time fandom: While some viewers find her hilarious, others find her decidedly off-putting. In this episode, however, storyboard artists Sean Jimenez and Bert Youn strike a decent balance between the character’s funny and creepy sides (case in point: The scene wherein Tree Trunks, in the gawdiest of makeup, tries to seduce an evil monster with her “womanly charms and elephant prowess”). The major exception to this overall balance is the episode’s decidedly morbid conclusion, which features Tree Trunks exploding after tasting the crystal apple. This was perhaps the show’s first non sequitur ending, and almost certainly left an indelible imprint on the minds of viewers young and old alike. (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 5. “The Enchiridion!” (692-001)

Airdate: April 19, 2010

Production Information: Patrick McHale, Adam Muto, and Pendleton Ward (storyboard artists and story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: According to the annals of cartoon history, the initial storyboard for “The Enchiridion” was whipped up by Ward and his crew members to prove to Cartoon Network that Adventure Time could be developed into a full-fledged series. This was almost certainly a stressful task, which necessitated that Ward et al. dissect the pilot, determine what elements worked, and then infuse those elements into a new storyboard. As a result of this “open art transplant,” there are quite a few analogs between the pilot and “The Enchiridion!”—e.g., the wacky dancing, the dream sequences, the ridiculous language—but this episode does a solid job of emulating the style of the pilot without wholesale duplicating it.

In terms of plot, “The Enchiridion!” is a fairly predictable adventure story, but it is one with enough clever variations that prevent the whole affair from dragging or being too boring; standout scenes include Finn and Jake having to deal with granny-zapping gnomes, and the D&D-inspired reverie in which Finn is tempted to slay an “unaligned” ant. The episode is further buoyed by several fun guest stars (including Mark Hamill, Fred Tatasciore, and even Black Flag’s Henry Rollins) that sprinkle a little additional energy on top of the whole thing. Given the exuberant fun of the episode and the way it easily introduces us to supporting characters like Princess Bubblegum, it is intriguing why the producers did not choose “The Enchiridion!” as the series premiere. That question aside, “The Enchiridion!” is one of the season’s stronger episode and an excellent place to start if you want a crash course in what made early Adventure Time so unique. (4 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 6. “The Jiggler” (692-011)

Airdate: April 19, 2010

Production Information: Luther McLaurin and Armen Mirzaian (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “The Jiggler” opens on a fun, hyperactive note, with Finn singing “Baby,” a catchy song coated in layer upon layer of sweet, crisp autotune. But soon after Finn and Jake discover and “adopt” the titular creature, the affair quickly devolves into a cartoonish snuff film of two dullards accidentally torturing a wild animal; the whole thing is made worse by the high volume of bodily fluids excreted by the Jiggler. Thankfully, Finn and Jake are able to return the Jiggler to its mother before it keels over, but this victory is undermined given that the whole situation was Finn and Jake’s fault to begin with. Perhaps it is best to view all of this as a cautionary tale: No matter how cute a wild animal may look, you probably should not take it home and make it dance for you. (2 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 7. “Ricardio the Heart Guy” (692-007)

Airdate: April 26, 2010

Production Information: Sean Jimenez and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon, Adam Muto, and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Ricardio the Heart Guy” introduces the titular villain, the brainy-but-sleazy heart of the Ice King voiced to perfection by the sonorous George Takei. Given how arrogant the character acts even before his true intentions are revealed, it is not much of a shock that Ricardio is a rotten egg, and this lack of mystery drags the whole episode down to some degree. Nevertheless, Takei’s histronic performance injects into the episode a funny sort of melodrama, with is further reinforced by Casey James Basichis’s sparklingly dark score, which mixes in elements of opera alongside the usual chiptune blips and bloops to emphasize Ricardio’s pretentiousness. (3 stars‰)

  Season 1, Episode 8. “Business Time” (692-014)

Airdate: April 26, 2010

Production Information: Luther McLaurin and Armen Mirzaian (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: On the surface, “Business Time” is but a silly parody of corporate culture that sees Finn and Jake become the veritable CEOs of an adventuring firm. It is a silly little set up, and the show has good fun poking fun at business-speak and the deleterious effects of rampant corporatization. At the same time, by relegating Finn and Jake to the sidelines near the middle of the episode, “Business Time” does itself a disservice by focusing not on the wacky shenanigans of the business men, but rather on the mundanity of Finn and Jake’s “managerial life.” It all comes together in the end, when Finn and Jake are forced to jump into the fray and destroy the Business Men’s vacuum robot, but the noticeable lag there in the middle of everything throws the pacing of the episode off.

But while “Business Time” might not be the strongest first-season entry, it has gained respect in the fandom for being the first episode to underline that the Land of Ooo exists in the far future after some sort of nuclear holocaust. In an interview with USA Today, Ward explained that this was a natural development that he had never planned: “[When] we did [the] episode about businessmen rising up from an iceberg at the bottom of a lake … that made the world post-apocalyptic, and we just ran with it” (X). Considering how major the post-apocalyptic trappings would become to the show’s mythology, it is a bit startling to learn that it was added in on a whim. Regardless, it was an inspired choice that added a tinge of sadness to the story of Finn and Jake. They were not just frolicking in some fantasy world; they were frolicking in the ruins of our world, long after nuclear war had devasted the planet. Is it bleak? Absolutely! But this bleakness contrasts nicely with Adventure Time’s colorful surface, resulting in a deeply rich ambivalence. Not many shows—let alone children’s shows!—have managed to fuse such extremes into a workable whole. (3.5 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 9. “My Two Favorite People” (692-004)

Airdate: May 3, 2010

Production Information: Kent Osborne and Pendleton Ward (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: Almost all the first-season episodes that we have considered so far have placed a heavy emphasis on comedy. The point of these episodes is to make you laugh, and anything beyond that is gravy. “My Two Favorite People,” in contrast, may be the first that is grounded on a solidly emotional foundation, and while the episode is very funny, it is primarily interested in telling the poignant story of two brothers and a gal they both like. If anyone has ever found themselves caught up in a love triangle—whether real or, as in the case of this episode, imagined—Jake’s actions, although immature, will likely feel relatable. It is a cheesy cliché, but the story’s strength is that it all feels so real (which I recognize is a funny thing to say about a cartoon dog and his unicorn-rainbow beau).

“My Two Favorite People” is the first episode that really features Lady Rainicorn as a mover of the plot rather than just a fun side character, and it is a wonderful showcase for her. While a handful of later installments—namely season four’s “Lady & Peebles” and season eighth’s “Lady Raincorn of the Crystal Dimension”—would try to highlight Lady, “My Two Favorite People” is arguably the character’s funniest episodes, thanks in large part to her use of a universal translator, which allows the other characters to understand her. To some, a device such as this may seem like a cop-out, but storyboard artists Kent Osborne and Pendleton Ward cleverly preempt this criticism by making the device’s only useable setting one that gives Lady the voice of a great-great grandfather. Lady’s “old-man voice” is an episode highlight, and it makes many of the character’s lines (e.g., “Come on my darling! Wrap your legs around me!”) both hilarious and unsettling. (4 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 10. “Memories of Boom Boom Mountain” (692-010)

Airdate: May 3, 2010

Production Information: Sean Jimenez and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: During the production of season one Ward exerted considerable effort trying to shepherd the show’s crew in a coherent direction, all the while responding to critiques levelled by dozens of Cartoon Network executives. Many of these critiques were contradictory, and in the process of creating something that he was proud of while also appeasing everyone around him, Ward very nearly went bananas. The experience provided the bedrock for “Memories of Boom Boom Mountain,” and to anyone who has been given the arduous task of pleasing a whole slew of prickly critics, the episode will be immediately relatable.

In terms of the show’s budding mythology, “Memories of Boom Boom Mountain” is notable because it firmly establishes that Finn was adopted as a baby by Jake’s canine parents, Joshua and Margaret. This plot point was likely guided less by worldbuilding and more by humor (perhaps playing on the whole “raised by wolves” idiom). Nevertheless, this decision would have major ramifications for the show’s overarching narrative. Finn’s nature as the only human in Ooo was no longer a silly afterthought—it was now a mystery. Just who is Finn the Human, and where did he come from? These questions would linger for seasons, finally culminating in season eight’s touching miniseries Islands. (4 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 11. “Wizard” (692-020)

Airdate: May 10, 2010

Production Information: Pete Browngardt, Adam Muto, and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Wizard”—co-storyboarded by Pete Browngardt, an artist who storyboarded on Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack before creating the divisive Uncle Grandpa for Cartoon Network—is an absolute bonkers installment that throws logic out the window by giving Finn and Jake magical powers. It is a plot setup almost guaranteed to be fun, and you can tell that the writers likely a good time coming up with increasingly asinine magical powers (e.g., “endless mayonnaise”).

But underneath all the distraught dust motes and captivating new hairstyles, “Wizard” also has a degree of depth, reading like a biting commentary on higher education-industrial complex in the United States. It does not seem coincidental that the strategies employ by Bufo’s scam wizard school are strikingly similar to those used by predatory colleges, which offer students a worthless degree alongside thousands of dollars of debt. The parallels are made stronger when it is revealed that all those whom Bufo has tricked are reluctant to upset the oppressive status quo, because they believe “newfangled thinking will get [everyone] killed”; this eerily mirrors those who downplay the student loan crisis, arguing that “that’s just the system works.” Finn will have none of this, however, and by episode’s end, he—channeling his myriad wizard powers and the vigor of “youth culture”—proves that if a system is broke, it has got to go. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from that. (4 stars‰)

  Season 1, Episode 12. “Evicted!” (692-003)

Airdate: May 17, 2010

Production Information: Sean Jimenez and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Adam Muto (story writer); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Evicted!” is considered a classic by most Adventure Time fans for one simple reason: It introduces the audience to Marceline the Vampire Queen. This iconic undead rocker chick managed to steal the spotlight whenever she appeared in an episode, and eventually she became one of the show’s more well-regarded characters. Given all this, there is some irony to the fact that in her debut, Marceline is the antagonist who steals our heroic duo’s beloved Tree Fort. Marceline is therefore similar to other season one baddies in that she tests Finn and Jake’s patience before engaging them in direct combat. But Marceline is set apart from other foes in how Finn and Jake defeat her—namely, that they do not. In fact, she pounds them into the ground almost effortlessly! Besting Finn and Jake is no easy task, meaning that while “Evicted!” might showcase Marceline’s nastier side, it nevertheless does an excellent job emphasizing how much of a badass she is; this goes a long way in explaining the character’s huge popularity.

But Marceline alone cannot an episode make. Luckily, “Evicted!” is further bolstered by several excellent design choices, including a bevy of fun background critters whipped up by character designer Tom Herpich, a slew of colorful background designs courtesy of Ghostshrimp and Santino Lascano, and a killer soundtrack. Regarding the latter, the stand-out tune is inarguably “House Hunting Song,” a comically overblown ballad detailing Finn and Jake’s arduous quest to find a new place to live. The song, sung mostly by Ward with a few lines delivered by Olson, is an emotion-laden earworm guaranteed to wiggle its way into your brain. (I mean, how can you not love a song that blames the murderous tendencies of vampires on simply being “burnt out on dealing with mortals”?) It very much is the blood-red cherry on top of everything, which helps to make “Evicted!” one of the season’s strongest episodes. (5 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 13. “City of Thieves” (692-012)

Airdate: May 24, 2010

Production Information: Sean Jimenez and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “City of Thieves” is a workable if somewhat forgettable mid-season entry. The episode’s main strength is its titular setting, a bizarro municipality where theft is the law of the land. Unfortunately, the city is nothing more than a silly plot device, and the episode itself never really rises above “fine.” (2.5 stars‰)

  Season 1, Episode 14. “The Witch’s Garden” (692-022)

Airdate: June 7, 2010

Production Information: Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, and Niki Yang (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: If you think the idea of Jake sassing Ooo’s cattiest witch is funny in and of itself, wait until you see this episode’s visuals. From Jake’s grotesque but silly “manbaby body” to the abject horror of Gary the Mermaid Queen, “The Witch’s Garden” is replete with several memorable character designs that make it a satisfying entry. (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 15. “What Is Life?” (692-017)

Airdate: June 14, 2010

Production Information: Luther McLaurin and Armen Mirzaian (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: Giving Finn and Ice King a son is not a move that I thought Adventure Time would ever make, let alone in the first season, but here we are. The bouncing baby boy in question is actually a clunky robot named NEPTR, voiced to sadsack perfection by comedian and musician Andy Milonakis. If you had told me prior to this episode that Milonakis could give a sentient microwave a sense of pathos, I would have never believed you, but in “What Is Life?” he does a commendable job conveying NEPTR’s pitiful nature. As for the episode itself, “What Is Life?” is a solid entry that introduces viewers to several recurring characters (one of whom being Gunter the penguin) while offering us a peek into the Ice King’s sad, lonely mind. (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 16. “Ocean of Fear” (692-025)

Airdate: June 21, 2010

Production Information: J. G. Quintel and Cole Sanchez (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Oceans of Fear”—storyboarded by Cole Sanchez and J. G. Quintel, the latter of whom would go on to create Regular Show for Cartoon Network—is in an interesting installment that establishes Finn’s fear of the ocean, reminding the viewer that even great heroes will be forced to deal with irrational phobias at some point in their life. The character designs in this episode are quite amusing (with the standout being Finn’s grotesque “fear of the Ocean” face), and Mark Hamill, as always, does a wonderful job, using his trademark “Joker voice” to give the Fear Feaster a delightful air of villainy. But as with “Business Time,” many of these elements are upstaged by the episodes’ post-apocalyptic trappings. In fact, when I watched the episode for the first time, I paused it in several places, asking to myself, “Is that a wrecked battleship? Is that a bombed-out tank? Why are there ruins of a city underwater?” It is an understatement to say that this episode is positively littered with rusted debris and centuries-old detritus that testifies to Ooo’s traumatic history. For eagle-eyed fans hoping to piece together Adventure Time’s mysterious mythology, this episode is an absolute hoot. (‰3.5 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 17. “When Wedding Bells Thaw” (692-013)

Airdate: June 28, 2010

Production Information: Kent Osborne and Niki Yang (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: One of the first episodes to team Ice King up with Finn and Jake, “When Wedding Bells Thaw” is a goofy lampooning of bachelor parties and the institution of marriage in general. Although the episode ends on a fairly predictive note (spoiler alert: Ice King tricked his fiancée into marriage), seeing Ice King get along with our heroes is charming, and in many ways it presages the Ice King’s future character growth. The episode’s strongest part is the short dialogue-free montage near the middle depicting Finn, Jake, and Ice King getting into all sorts of “manlorette party” shenanigans; this sequence is made all the stronger by Tim Kiefer’s chiptune score, which enlivens the party with a burst of synthesizers and electro-drums. (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 18. “Dungeon” (692-013)

Airdate: June 28, 2010

Production Information: Elizabeth Ito and Adam Muto (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: If there is one episode that feels like the entirety of Adventure Time’s first season distilled down into 11 minutes, then it would be “Dungeon.” An episode replete with outrageous monsters and wacky action, “Dungeon” is a high-energy installment that pays homage to the sprawling world of table-top gaming; indeed, it is not hard to imagine storyboard artists Elizabeth Ito and Adam Muto reaching for a D20 or a well-worn copy of the Monster Manual whenever it came time to block out a new scene. Stand-out moments from this episode include Finn’s encounter with the Demon Cat (famous for having “approximate knowledge of many things”), his visitation by a “guardian angel,” and the deus ex machina ending that see Princess Bubblegum swoop in to save the day. (“Get on my swan!”) And amidst all the silliness, “Dungeon” even manages to sneak in a sweet little message tucked snuggly in between all the wacky monsters about the importance of recognizing your weaknesses. (‰4.5 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 19. “The Duke” (692-023)

Airdate: July 12, 2010

Production Information: Elizabeth Ito and Adam Muto (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: For most of season one, the audience is presented a version of Princess Bubblegum that is bright, effervescent, and totally nonthreatening; the monarch, it seems, is as aggressive as a marshmallow. But in “The Duke,” this all changes, and we finally get to see the princess’s darker, authoritarian side. Unhinged Princess Bubblegum is quite a sight to behold (as is the sight of green-and-bald Bubblegum), but it adds another layer of to the saccharine sovereign, setting her up for substantial character development a few seasons down the road. (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 20. “Freak City” (692-008)

Airdate: July 26, 2010

Production Information: Tom Herpich and Pendleton Ward (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Freak City” introduces the audience to Magic Man, a deranged and flamboyant Martian wizard known for meaninglessly harassing the citizens of Ooo. Although the character’s backstory would be fleshed out in later seasons and eventually come to play a major part in the mythology of the series, this episode was storyboarded well before these developments were dreamed up, meaning that here, Magic Man functions as a simple (albeit funny) villain-of-the-week whose nihilistic tendencies clash wonderfully with Finn’s optimistic worldview. Finn is so used to dividing the world up into “good guys” and “evil guys,” but his run-in with Magic Man is proof that morality is far more confusing than he would like to believe. The main problem is that Magic Man is not really evil: He is clinically insane—a violent psychopath—who does not care about his actions impacting others. No climactic fight or eleventh-hour pep talk is enough to fix him.

On top of this rather weighty consideration of morality and mental instability, “Freak City” contains another, more straightforward message about the power of teamwork and how people should work as one to overcome common problems. Storyboard artists Pendleton Ward and Tom Herpich have quite a bit of fun taking the idiom literally by forcing Finn and the other denizens of Freak City pile on top of one another to function as a single, grotesque being that is capable of fighting Magic Man. While “Freak City” loses some points for espousing rhetoric that folks who are depressed can simply will themselves out of their funk, it makes up for these deficits elsewhere with its character designs—ranging from the inside-out bird to the two-headed monster that Finn groin-strikes—which are all bizarre in the best, most creative way possible. (3.5 stars‰)

  Season 1, Episode 21. “Donny” (692-018)

Airdate: August 9, 2010

Production Information: Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, and Niki Yang (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: A rather forgettable protagonist and only a smattering of memorable lines make “Donny” the season’s weakest link. The episode does get points for introducing us to “whywolves” (“Creatures possessed by the spirit of inquiry—and bloodlust!”), but they are not enough to completely save it from mediocrity. (2 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 22. “Henchman” (692-021)

Airdate: August 23, 2010

Production Information: Luther McLaurin and Cole Sanchez (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: While “Evicted!” depicted Marceline as an apathetic asshole, “Henchman” starts to soften the vampire queen by showing that her evil exterior is an elaborate facade, and that deep down she is really just a prank-loving trickster—or, as Finn puts it, “a radical dame who likes to play games.” This might seem nothing more than a subtle tweak, but it does wonders for Marceline’s characterization; by episode’s end, as Finn and his vampiric “master” chat quite cheerfully in a field of strawberries, it is clear that the writers are setting up Marceline to become a legitimate pal to Finn and Jake, rather than just an avatar of chaos who drops in every once in awhile to shake things up. This was a wise decision, as it provided Marceline with the chance to grow into a hero in her own right with whom the audience can happily cheer along.

Since “Henchman” is predicated on Marceline pranking Finn, storyboard artists Luther McLaurin and Cole Sanchez have a great deal of fun mocking up outrageous scenarios that seem evil at first glance, but are revealed to be quite benign. Perhaps the funniest of these situations is Marceline raising an army of undead skeletons only to throw them a concert, and the vampire queen’s demand that Finn kill a little dimple-plant, which looks like a cutie before it turns into an Audrey II-esque abomination from John Carpenter’s darkest nightmares. (4 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 23. “Rainy Day Daydream” (692-002)

Airdate: September 6, 2010

Production Information: Pendleton Ward (storyboard artist); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: “Rainy Day Daydream” is a beautiful representation of creativity in its purest form. Channeling his love of multilevel video games and Dungeons and Dragons, solo storyboard artist and series creator Pendleton Ward uses the pretext of Jake’s imagination affecting reality as an opportunity to bounce from one ridiculous plot point to another to great effect. The whole thing feels like an exercise in jovial spontaneity, and while “writing the story as you go” can sometime result in disjointed or sloppy final products, here Ward makes it work, using the approach to illustrate the almost limitless potential of imagination. Another strength of the episode is the way it throws dozens of ridiculous obstacles at Finn and Jake without the aid of equally ridiculous visuals; in fact, almost every hindrance in the episode is invisible to both Finn and the audience, and we only learn what is going on thanks to Jake’s narration. The fact that this approach works and is not boring is a testament to Ward’s skills as a storyteller and dialogue writer. (‰4.5 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 24. “What Have You Done?” (692-027)

Airdate: September 13, 2010

Production Information: Elizabeth Ito and Adam Muto (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: In addition to providing us with another glimpse of Bubblegum’s dark side, “What Have You Done?” also serves as an interesting meditation on morality and preemptive punishment. As earlier episodes have confirmed, the Ice King is a creepy little deviant, but is it right for Finn and Jake to imprison him without a cause? This is a real legal question, and the show handles it in a surprisingly sophisticated way, concluding more or less that the writ of habeas corpus must be preserved. Of course, this is all undermined to some degree when we learn that the Ice King actually is to blame, but thanks to some quick thinking on the part of Finn, our heroes are able to save the day without having to turn to the carceral powers of the state. (And people say Adventure Time is not sophisticated...) (3 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 25. “His Hero” (692-026)

Airdate: September 20, 2010

Production Information: Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, and Niki Yang (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: Who is the greatest hero ever? If you answered, “Finn!” it is obvious that you have yet to see “His Hero,” for the correct answer is Billy, of course! Lou Ferrigno guest stars in this episode as the aforementioned defender of Ooo, enlivening the character with his distinctive voice. As for the episode itself, storyboard artists Kent Osborne and Niki Yang—with an assist from the ever-dependable Adam Muto—produce some of their best work this season, filling each scene with witty dialogue and zany shenanigans. Arguably, the episode’s pièce de resistance is the short montage of Billy’s past achievements, which plays alongside a song, sung by Muto, extolling the hero’s greatness; energetic and wacky, the song in many ways typifies the “chaotic heroism” that defined the show’s first season.

Like many other first-season episodes, “His Hero” ends with a counterintuitive “anti-moral,” stressing that while a commitment to non-violence might seem subversive on the surface, it is actually an ineffective way to make the world a better place; instead, the episode argues that direct physical action—i.e., beating the snot out of monsters and bad guys—is necessary if heroes want to save people from oppression. This may all come across as contrarian silliness, but I would argue that it is profoundly radical, rejecting “common sense” ideals about peace that really only help those in positions of power. (Side note, if the kids who grew up watching Adventure Time turn into a bunch of revolutionaries, I think we will know the cause.) (4 stars)

  Season 1, Episode 26. “Gut Grinder” (692-024)

Airdate: September 27, 2010

Production Information: Ako Castuera and Bert Youn (storyboard artists); Tim McKeon and Merriwether Williams (story writers); Larry Leichliter (director), Patrick McHale (creative director), Nick Jennings (art director)

Commentary: Much like “Ricardio the Heart Guy,” this episode suffers due to a lack of a solid mystery; from the start, it seems obvious that Jake is not the one responsible for the robberies. Furthermore, the reveal that Sharon is the one behind the robberies comes with almost no dramatical weight, since we have no idea who she is. The whole thing is forgettable, which is a shame given that this is the season finale. (2 stars)

(Huge shout out to @sometipsygnostalgic​ for reading over these a few months ago and offering feedback. Also, I want to thank @j4gm​ for posting his “Slumber Party Panic” review, which made me remember these write-ups!)

[viviswtings]

Hi, I'm new on this... But can I request a skz reaction to their s/o being on "those days"? 🥺👉👈

Hi!! I’m sorry for the wait but here you are! I’ve also never done anything like this so I’m sorry if it’s not what you expected. I tried my best.

Those days. (SKZ).

Stray Kids x f!reader.

Warnings: Mentions of periods... beware.

Word count: 1.423.

Bang Chan.

Chan would be the kind of guy to ask what to do. He wouldn’t be taken back or anything of the sort, but he knows is best to ask so you’d be as comfy as possible.

He’d be sweet and caring and because it’s meant to happen more than once when he’s busy, he’ll send you texts every so often to check on you.

He’s daddy for a reason, you see.

If you have really bad cramps or you get particularly sick, he’ll also be sick out of sheer worry. He can’t leave his work and the boys hanging, but he surely would just to take care of you. So don’t be surprised when on his free day he pops up at your door with a bunch of your favourite snacks, drinks and his laptop with your comfort movies downloaded. He’ll make up for his absence to his babygirl, of that you can be sure.

Be ready for cuddles, kisses, belly and back rubs, maybe even some baby talk because this man can’t help himself if he sees you hurting. He’ll take care of absolutely everything and as soon as you’re better you’re up for the cutest date. He’s so remorseful when it comes to be there for the people he loves, you can’t even fathom what he wouldn’t do for you.

Minho.

He’d try to not take it very seriously at first. He doesn’t take his own sickness seriously, so it takes a day or two for him to realise that you need him there to keep you company because you’re a moody mess. So expect to get mad at him the first time you feel like crap and he doesn’t really make much of it.

But relationships are all about communication, and as soon as you tell him how you feel and what you need- sort of like Chan in a way- he’ll make sure he makes it right.

He’ll text you silly cat memes and his SNOW selfies to make you laugh, even just smile. Probably at the beginning he’ll feel like that’s as much as he can do. But as soon as he gets comfortable enough he’ll be comforting and sweet, as we all know he can be when he wants to. Telling you how much he loves you while cuddling on the couch and burying you under a blanket mountain to make sure you’re warm and comfy. He may even bring one of his cat-sons to keep you company and comfort you if he can’t.

Changbin.

I feel like Changbin would be much chiller about the whole situation on the outside. He wouldn’t really make a fuss about it to you. It’d be all in the details. Like actually knowing when your period is due, so he makes sure to drop candy at yours, maybe without you knowing. He’ll send you a voicemail with his pretty voice telling you about his day and asking how you are. It’s not that hard to realise that he has, somehow, found out you’re on your period or very close to it, because he’d be so careful not to bother you and he’d be the one who becomes a cuddle bear.

He’d want to be all over you, all day, everyday. This man doesn’t care if he has to stop working to go get under a blanket with you, his arms around your tummy, and never leave. It’s his natural habitat after all. He’ll pepper you with kisses on you neck and temple and bury his face on your neck. He loves laying on top of you and being the little spoon, so the mere act of him holding you like that lets you know he’s perfectly aware of your needs and doesn’t requiere you to tell him.

Hyunjin.

He wouldn’t realise until he finds you curled on the couch crying for whatever reason. As soon as he does, though, this Drama Llama wouldn’t outlive the utter shame he feels for being “Such an uncaring idiot”.

He’d hold you softly and put your head in the crook of his neck, making you a blanket burrito and asking for redemption for his unforgivable sin. The kisses all over your face and the tender touches wouldn’t cease under you’re feeling better. He’s also not leaving until you’re asleep and he’ll be back next morning with breakfast in bed and the cutest words he has ever whispered to you -because it’d be too embarrassing to say them out loud, but he needs you to know how he feels. You end up crying and with the realisation that you’re truly dating a prince to whom you’re the only queen.

Jisung.

He’d ask directly if you’re on your period and after you answer he’ll disappear for a couple of hours. When he’s back he brings medicine, an electric blanket, candy, chocolate, movies... Even a stuffie!

He wouldn’t hide that he’s looked everything up to make sure that he knew how to take care of his one and only. Why bother you when he could inform himself of everything on the internet and come back with everything you would ever need? You can’t deny his smile is the cutest thing you have ever seen, and the thought he put on something as simple as a period just because it’s you makes you feel the most loved you ever have.

He’s also brought pads, for some reason. But they’re more like adult nappies and you two have a good laugh over it. He thought he was buying the right ones but he’s not shy to laugh at himself for messing it up. Next time he’ll bring you the right ones, though. It’ll be a joke for years to come.

Felix.

Lix would ask his mum. He’s not afraid to ask her or his sister what they think you need if he sees you hurting. It breaks his heart and all he ever wants is to see you smile and laugh because it brights up his world. So he’s not shying away anytime soon. If you’re going through it, count him in. No matter how bad or painful.

He’d also ask you, because it’s the only way to make sure he does it right. He’ll help you get comfortable and as soon as you’re settled he’s making you breakfast, lunch, dinner, brownies, cookies and smoothies for a month. Try and tell him your period doesn’t last that long and that you won’t be able to eat all that. Just try. Because he’ll go on a rant on how you’re loosing blood and you could even faint! Can you imagine? You fainting? On his watch? No, ma’am, that ain’t happening on this sunshine’s watch. Try another time.

The cuddles, the smooches, the amount of skinship would be near to suffocating. You won’t need a hot water bottle or an electric blanket, because you have the very sun tangled around you like being Australian makes him half koala.

You love your Yongbokie, you truly do. But you would be so thankful when you can finally go to the toilet without him on your tail. It’s just not comfortable to have him waiting for you every time you have to use the restroom.

Seungmin.

Seungmin would be soft, quiet. He’d wander around you without probably ever telling you. He’s there, he makes sure you tell him you’re fine every so often. He drops by everyday or night to have some quality time and he sure as heck makes sure to tell you how much he loves you every single day.

But, if you don’t make a deal out of it, then he won’t either. He’ll plan chill date nights in and cook dinner with you or for you. He’ll let you choose the movie without asking for anything in return and he won’t make fun of you when you go for cuddles when you go to sleep, like he sometimes does. It’s not like it’s a deadly illness or anything, like some guys make it look. But as far as he knows it’s uncomfortable and it can hurt. So if you ever tell him how you’re feeling and what you need, or even hint at it, he’ll do whatever it is without much of a question or hesitation. He knows you know that he knows and are not mentioning it. And to be quite honest he likes it that way. You understand each other without words and to him it’s beautiful.

I don’t feel comfortable writing for the bb, sorry.

[pointnumbersixteen]

My Personal Ranking of Ghosts Episodes and Why

So, here’s my personal order for all the current Ghosts episodes, from best to worst, with a bit of an explanation as to why I think so. I included who wrote each episode because the writing pairs tend to have consistent strengths and weaknesses that affect my enjoyment. These are, of course, just my opinions, and I recognize that different people have different tastes.  

1) Moonah Ston (Larry and Martha)

This episode is hilarious and it continues to be hilarious through multiple viewings (some of the jokes in other episodes start to wear thin after multiple viewings, but this one remains entirely solid through dozens of rewatches). Barclay and Bunny are my favorite guest characters throughout the show. Also some of my all-time favorite bits are in it: Cap stealing Thomas’s role doing the reading, the shooting of the pheasant with Cap, everything to do with Mary and the cooking of the pheasant, the way Alison yeets the pelaverga as soon as it’s handed to her, the juxtaposition of the eclipse ritual and the dinner party, Bunny’s ‘sobriety test.’ Also, there’s a strong A plot and a strong B plot that tie together, and all of the characters are fit into these two plots well, which is something the creators sometimes struggle with.

2) Getting Out (Mat and Jim)

I love everything about the Captain’s portion of the plot and it’s a nice big portion, too. His scene with Kitty is one of my favorite scenes in the show, brilliantly written, well-acted, and gorgeously shot. I can feel for Mike and Alison in it. Fiona’s another really funny guest character. My only major complaint is that the plot with other ghosts after the Captain’s left the group starts to drag after enough re-watches, particularly Thomas’s bad erotica and the jewel scene. I found both very funny on the first several watches, but the payoff to both is ruined with enough rewatches. With the first, the payoff is with how surprisingly bad for a ‘professional’ writer his story is, but after you’re well aware that Thomas is a bad writer, it’s just listening to bad writing over and over again. And the bit with Fanny’s jewel has such a long lead up, to get to the surprise payoff that the jewel was secretly pawned by George forever ago, but once you know the jewel is gone, the long lead up gets progressively more tedious with every watch. At least for me.

3) Reddy Weddy (Ben and Simon)

I’ve written extensively about this one before, so I won’t include much, but: I love everything having to do with the Captain in this one, particularly the completely wonderful flashbacks with Havers. Mike and Alison were very well done, and I enjoyed Martin as a guest character. But I really didn’t like the whose-turn-is-it-to-pick-the-movie subplot, it just seemed sort of unnecessary to me and detracted from the tone of the rest of it. I assume they just had trouble finding a better integrated role for Pat, Thomas and Julian, which, as I said under Moonah Ston, is an occasional weakness the creators had.

4) Gorilla War (Larry)

I love Cap’s campaign of attrition. And his singing. Everyone had solid, funny bits, all tied into one main plot in it. Mike and Alison are both well done in this episode. It’s the first episode where Alison is able to interact with the ghosts and I think they did a great job capitalizing on her coming to terms with it and Mike’s such a supportive husband in it.  

5) About Last Night (Mat and Jim)

I love the spat between Cap and Pat in this one, because the focus of their subplot is their relationship dynamic and I enjoy their relationship dynamic- even though it’s close to the breaking point in this instance, all is well because they make up in the end. Everything about the state of the house and trying to remember what happened to it-as well as the flashbacks to the party- is pretty funny. The bits with Dante were very funny as well. The Robin-Mary subplot was a bit meh for me, but I didn’t dislike it, I’m just not sold on the idea. I didn’t enjoy Mike being sidelined on the roof for most of the episode when Alison needed his help and all the criticism he got from the other characters for not being around to help Alison, though.

6) Who Do You Think You Are? (Mat and Jim)

This is a really strong introductory episode with some good, funny bits in it, but it doesn’t rank higher since the ghosts can’t interact with Alison yet and Mike and Alison don’t know they’re there, which is where a lot of the fun of the concept of the show comes in to me.

7) Bump in the Night (Larry and Martha)              

The robbers were funny as were the ghosts’ utterly inept attempts (save Robin) in stopping them. I loved music club, particularly the Captain’s performance. I appreciated the return of Barclay and his bitches. Humphrey was actually reasonably included in the plot, which is always a nice change. There weren’t any bits I found particularly outstanding (except maybe Cap’s musical performance) but there weren’t any major bits I disliked, either. Everyone’s included in one main plot and it continues to be just as enjoyable on rewatches.

8) The Thomas Thorne Affair (Mat and Jim)

I greatly enjoy examine-the-story-from-multiple-viewpoints-to-illustrate-unreliable-narration plots, so that went well in this episode. I also really like regency romances, so this ticked another box for me. Humphrey was given an important bit again, which I appreciate. The bit about Francis was a nice twist at the end, because otherwise it would have been a bit too predictable, with Thomas being shot in a duel over a romantic misunderstanding- that was the most obvious solution to his death, after all. It felt a bit contrived, though, that the characters who died after Thomas all went to the group meeting on time, while the characters who witnessed Thomas’s death were all still wandering around upstairs and just happen to wander into Alison’s room in time to contradict the last telling of the story and provide the next. And of course, the fact that half the cast is just sort of sitting downstairs waiting for a significant portion of the episode always seemed a bit lacking to me. Also, Mike starts the episode being unusually stupid (not knowing Elizabeth II is the current queen- at least in the US, not being able to answer who the current President is frequently used as shorthand for ‘having brain damage’) and spends the rest of it being insecure about Alison’s ex (this seems to be a Mat and Jim thing).  

9) Perfect Day (Mat and Jim)

I loved all the Cap bits in this. Pat’s plotline was good, too. Humphrey actually had a substantial role, which I appreciated, and more so since he actually managed to bring Fanny around to the gay wedding. I was of course thrilled that it was a lesbian wedding. But I’m not a fan of ‘miscommunication causes drama’ plots in any medium and I disliked how once again how insecure Mike is in this episode (Mat and Jim again) and how poorly he handles it.

10) Happy Death Day (Ben)

I love all the Pat bits. I liked the interactions between the Captain and Julian, they had a really enjoyable dynamic in this one, although they’re being rather disappointing human beings in their plotline. I like Kitty’s plotline, too, and the garden scene between her and Fanny is very funny and beautifully framed. I don’t think this episode did a particularly good job with either Mike or Alison, though. Mike ditches his probably still concussed wife who is plagued by ghosts to manage the building work he started because he’s spending hours a day out of the house because there are too many people in it and he’s apparently potty-shy and Alison thinks trying to convince people to do probably thousands, if not more, pounds worth of free labor by making them tea is both a plausible idea and an appropriate thing to even try (it’s bad enough when the people asking you to do free work for them are actually your friends, contriving a friendship in order to do this just sort of seems a bit contemptible to me). Some of the jokes get less funny with time- Fanny with the butt cracks, for instance. I considered the Thomas subplot another weak ‘well, something needs to be done with this character’ subplot and I can’t even remember off the top of my head what Mary was doing most of the episode despite having seen it at least a dozen times, besides the bit where Alison throws the teacup at her head (and if I were Terry, I would have called it quits then).  

11) The Ghost of Christmas (Ben and Simon)

Mostly fluff, and a decent amount of it was rather predictable fluff, but I’ve written more on that elsewhere. Mike’s sisters were the worst. I was hoping Ben would write himself a bigger role and he didn’t. In the Bleak Midwinter was gorgeous, though, and there were enough smaller bits that I found endearing to prop it up over the next two.

12) The Grey Lady (Larry and Martha)

I enjoy the ghosts’ routine as shown at the beginning of the episode. I found Pat’s radio show amusing. I liked the basement scene with Nigel. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Captain’s ‘stretching’ subplot (although I do greatly enjoy his  ‘for king and country’ running), it just seemed a bit silly to me, like they couldn’t decide what to do with him for most of the episode, so went with ‘eh, squats, I guess.’ Also, I feel like they had trouble placing Mary and Kitty, too. Mary spends a lot of the episode staring at a wall and Kitty spends all of it just following the group and occasionally wailing about the ‘ghost-ghost.’ Also, I think Alison went a little too far with her simulated haunting when she dressed up as the Grey Lady; it wasn’t smart because there was no way she was going to get away with it after anyone turned on the lights and it seems a bit more like attempting to defraud people than the rest of it did.

13) Free Pass (Mat and Jim)

Alison actively puts people in danger for money, misrepresenting the house as structurally sound in order to get a movie contract, when in fact the floors are held up by hope and happy thoughts and could (and eventually do) cave at any moment. If the floor had fallen through in the letter scene, before Mike braced it, when they were using the heavy equipment, there likely would have been serious injuries. Also: Toby Nightingale is the worst. Also: the solidity and supportive nature of Mike and Alison’s relationship is the best part of it and I dislike the choice (Mat and Jim again) to make him so insecure in this episode (this was the first in the episode order to do so).

To speak on general tendencies, though: I’m not a fan of doing morally questionable things for monetary reasons unless the situation is life or death, so all of the episodes where that’s Alison’s primary purpose get major demerits from me. That’s a matter of personal taste, but there I am. As for the writers (I recognize they all come up with the general story arcs together, but the writing pairs are responsible for execution), everyone struggles a bit sometimes to get solid roles for everyone into the plot, to be expected when the cast is so large, but some instances are worse than others. I think Larry’s (well, Larry/Martha for most of them, but they’ve both joked that mostly she drinks and he writes when they’re working on their episodes) still the strongest writer in terms of having mostly cohesive plots that standup consistently as solid to multiple viewings, but he also has the most experience as a writer, so that’s probably to be expected. Ben and Simon have both stated that they like jig-sawing a bunch of little plots together to make an episode, and while it is a bit impressive that they can make episodes with like, nearly as many plotlines as characters come together to make one reasonably sane episode, I find this strategy detrimental in that to me, when they do this, there’s always one or two plots that are really, really good, a few plots that are pretty good, and then one or two plots that I just don’t enjoy, that to me drag down the rest of the episode (most apparent in Reddy Weddy, but it happens to some degree in all of their episodes). My major criticism of Mat and Jim is with the way they write Mike. I actually really like Mike when he’s well done, but his portrayal seems to vary a lot between episodes, and (with the exception of Ben’s Happy Death Day, but his problems in that one are different) the episodes he’s written the weakest in are all written by Mat and Jim. They’re the only ones who I think write Mike as insecure in his relationship with Alison and his most incompetent and/or useless moments also tend to be written by them. I don’t know if they have a slightly different concept of Mike’s character than the other four or what, but I think Larry/Martha and Ben/Simon’s portrayals of him tend to be significantly more flattering.