#his annoying Audrey specifically moments

[little-buzz]

Audrey: Bendy, quit being feral or I'm taking away your drawing privileges. *She promptly points to the several pieces of artwork sprawled about her desk*

Bendy: *He pauses from continuously spinning on a vacant wheelie chair, while throwing a bouncy ball up and down* >:O And you people call me an ink monster!

[weshallc]

Old Skool Turnadette FanFic Alert!

When is the Wedding?

Happy birthday my best china! @fourteen-teacups 🥰🎁💝🎂

You are the Doc to my Grumpy, the Amelia to my Juliet, the Cathy to my Kelly, the Caroline to my Gillian, the Audrey to my Helen, the Sister Julienne to my Trixie.

I'm having a moment, so let's roll the fic!

This fic obeys no rules. So you snooty lot who couldn't possibly read something without a specific POV and perfect grammar that so many of us find so difficult and all the rest of it. This fic is not for you. It's for my mucker!

CHAPTER ONE

Half past ten on January 25th 1959.

“Hello, it’s just us.”

Sat at the kitchen table, Peter Noakes looked up from bouncing his baby son on his knee and shared a smile and a wink with Freddie’s mother.

“Why does she always say that? Does she think we’ve given a key to every waif and stray in Poplar.” Whispering as the front door slammed shut.

Camilla scowled at him from the kitchen sink and flicked the tea towel resting on her shoulder towards him in warning. “I think she is still getting her tongue around the ‘us’ part. Sort of trying it out on her friends until she feels comfortable saying it in company.” 

Camilla smoothed down her apron and pushed her chestnut hair behind her on alert ears. “And Shelagh is not a waif and stray. She is our house guest.”

Peter grinned at his wife’s indignation and couldn’t help himself.

“I think it’s because she knows how flustered you get when Dr Turner visits, and is giving you the old heads up. So you can plump the cushions or wipe down the kitchen surfaces.”

“I have never heard such outrageous nonsense in all my days, Peter Noakes!” Camilla ranted, wringing out the freshly soaked dish cloth. “I do not get flustered over any man, whether he be a respected GP or an annoying police constable.” She quietly fumed, taking her wrath out on the countertops with the wet rag.

“As much as I’m happy to accommodate such undemanding and pleasant company. We waited so long for a home of our own, so we could move out of Nonnatus, and now it seems like Nonnatus has come to us.”

Camilla turned and looked at him properly. “You really are the most patient of men. But, I couldn’t see her go back to that frightful boarding house and all those dreadful gossips, after what occurred at Christmas. I don’t think, young sir, minded too much giving up his room for a few weeks.” She nodded at her son, who was looking alternatively between his parents intently, like he understood every word.

“And I agreed there was no other suitable arrangement, with Nonnatus awaiting the wrecking ball and, as you say, every snoop worth their while, observing the comings and goings at the flat over the surgery. I just wonder when we could revert back from Noakes’ Home for Wayward Nuns back to Noakes’ Love Nest.”

“That’s enough. They will hear you." Camilla was beside herself. "Hopefully, we will find out in a matter of moments. They had an appointment with the vicar at All Saints this morning.”

The lull in their own conversation made the voices behind the kitchen door echoing from the passageway audible, if not discernible,

Peter broke the silence, much to Camilla’s delight, as she didn’t want to be accused of eavesdropping. When she hadn’t been able to make out a single syllable.

“If this goes on much longer, I’m going to have to arrest the pair of them for loitering with intent.”

“It’s not a boarding house. She doesn’t have to clock in and out with us. We didn’t issue a curfew. Well, at least I didn’t.” She looked at Peter accusingly and then got back to wiping down the kitchen table and picking up her husband's half-drunk cup of tea, throwing the remaining liquid down the sink.

“I hadn’t finished that!” Camilla didn’t hear him as she rearranged the fruit in the crystal bowl. Someone she couldn’t quite place had bought them it for a wedding present.

“I’m sorry to have to be the one to break it to your mummy, but she definitely does suffer from occasional bouts of flustration. Doesn’t she Freddie?” Peter diagnosed, addressing his son, who responded with a gurgle of approval. "Maybe we could ask the good doctor for a second opinion ?”

Peter’s grin widened. He looked like a naughty schoolboy scrumping apples, rather than a doting husband, but in that moment, he was both.

The wet cloth landed on PC Noakes’ head just seconds after the kitchen door opened and an apologetic voice chimed, “It’s just us.”

After a lot of silent but meaningful looks between all parties and the missile safely deposited in the sink, Peter had a fresh cup of tea set before him, as did everyone else. Freddie, who had been watching the morning’s events like he was reporting for the Poplar Gazette, was now sitting on the new addition to his family's knee, observing events from a different angle.

Freddie didn’t really know if he preferred a pink wafer to a bourbon. But he was mildly affronted no-one had asked if he had a preference. He kept trying to grab the pretty pink one out of the hand of the person they called Auntie Shelagh, but she was quick, and said “No” in such a sing-song voice he forgave her.

They were talking again about the weather, crocuses (whatever they were), something called whooping cough, which sounded much more fun than the frowny faces suggested. One of those awkward silences occurred again. That was always his cue. Gurgle, make spit bubbles, form fists, shake arms and giggle. It works every time. Like a charm. Eventually, Mummy found the courage to speak.

“Would it be so very out of turn? If one enquired how your appointment went this morning.”

Shleagh and Dr Turner glanced at each other in that ‘we know a secret sort of way’. It looked like he was about to take hold of her hand, but there were too many obstacles in the way like pink wafers, teacups, a baby and proprietary.

The look Shelagh gave Dr Turner reminded Chummy of an old retainer of her father's who began every sentence with “Permission to speak, Sir?” She caught Peter’s eye. The telepathic consensus was; how long will that last? It was received and understood between them.

Chummy’s attention was distracted when she noticed how tight Shelagh was now holding her son. He seemed very content and his eyes were closing, so all was well.

Shelagh began, “Dr Turner and I have set a date to be married at All Saints' church on the second Saturday in February.”

“So soon?” Exclaimed Peter, ignoring an imaginary dishcloth hurtling towards him.

“Well, yes,” Shelagh replied in the tone of a pregnant schoolgirl with a father brandishing a shotgun rather than an ex-nun with a penchant for purity. “We were hoping for March, to give young Timothy time to grow a wee bit stronger, but of course Palm Sunday and our Lord’s resurrection must always take precedence.”

Peter noticed Shelagh gave Dr Turner that look Camilla gave him when it was his turn to talk. He thought to himself he was only mastering that level of communication, but the Doc picked it up straight away. What a pro!

“That left us with the option of an April wedding, which seemed like an eternity away.”

This time, he took her hand as it warmed itself on the teacup.

Peter smiled to himself. He knew that eternity. He was actually experiencing that eternity right now. Most new fathers understood the consequences of a new baby entering their lives. But no-one had prepared him for a baby at the bottom of the bed and an ex-nun in the next room and the effects on his wife's libido.

“Here here.” Peter cried, “Carpe diem, Doctor, carpe diem!”

Peter’s joy was short-lived when he realized everyone, including a sleepy Freddie, were now staring at him.

“So when’s the wedding?” He meekly asked.

[frickinsleepdeprived]

Hashira's favorite Genre of Music

Here's what I think the demon slayer Hashira's would listen to hope y'all enjoy the first headcanons-

Muichiro Tokito: Muichiro is definitely a bit of an airhead (at least before he met Tanjiro). With that said, he gives me a lot of "no thoughts, head empty" kind of vibes. Therefore, I think his favorite genre of music would probably be lo-fi or just a song's instrumental. I think it would just give him something to listen to as he wanders about, staring at the clouds or just spacing out in general. It also serves to calm him down after a long day of training or battling demons.

Mitsuri Kanroji: This sweet girl has been through a lot, but with that said she doesn't let the music she listens to define her mood. I'd imagine Mitsuri likes to listen to a lot of music that she can simply dance around to, without a care in the world of what anyone else thinks of her. Perhaps she listens to Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, or maybe even Avril Lavinge. Now while this may come of as a very girly thing to say, I think it's extremely befitting for her. Mostly because she got tired of chasing a suitable match. And yes while her method behind becoming a demon slayer was to find a husband, I don't think that would stop her from loving herself. So I think she would listen to artists like this to hype herself up for the day and get her in the right mindset each morning.

Obanai Iguro: Given that Obanai is a rather cold person, and he doesn't really like interacting with anyone other than Mitsuri, he would probably take a liking to her favorite style of music. But ultimately, he wouldn't listen to it often because he finds it to be annoying at times. (However I do think he'd take a liking to Katy Perry because of the way she sings). As for his own taste in music, Obanai is definitely a Pierce the Veil fan, maybe even a fan of Sleeping with Sirens or possibly Fallout Boy. Because he has such a hard time interacting with other people, more specifically women (the exception being Mitsuri of course), he would definitely find some comfort in bands like that. Some of his favorite songs might include "Bulls in the Bronx", "Kick Me", and "Thanks for the mmrs" He especially dedicated the song "If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn" to his and Mitsuri's bond.

Sanemi Shinazugawa: Sanemi is definitely a hot headed individual, dare I say he's the Bakugou of the demon slayer universe, but that's not the point. Sanemi has been through a very horrific past, having killed his mother due to her turning into a demon to save his one remaining brother, Genya. Therefore he lashes out quickly and is swift to want to fight people, or more notably demons, at any given chance. With that said though, he's more than likely gonna listen to something heavy, something that can truly weigh into how he feels so that he knows someone can relate. I'd imagine Sanemi would listen to Three Days Grace, Papa Roach, possibly even Breaking Benjamin. He might even throw in a little bit of Shinedown or even Disturbd. The reason being is simply because these bands allude heavily to feelings of guilt, abandonment, frustration, anger, etc. To have Sanemi know that there's something or someone out there that understands how he feels, it helps him put his mind at ease and calm down, if only for a few moments.

Gyomei Himejima: Gyomei is the embodiment of a living teddy bear; hulking in size yet extremely gentle due to his upbringing. He cared for orphans, grew up extremely religious, and is blind. He was constantly bullied throughout his childhood because of said blindness, and was often told he was faking it because he is able to see the transparent world. He's more empathetic towards others and I definitely see him being an older brother towards the other hashiras. With that said, like Muichiro, Gyomei might enjoy calming lo-fi, or maybe even nature ambiances. Given that he's more in tune with nature than some of the other hashiras, he'd probably just enjoy the sound of a rushing waterfall, the birds chirping, and the wind blowing. When he needs to unwind he listens to lo-fi, taking in the rhythms to help calm himself down. Truly a wholesome man indeed.

Giyuu Tomioka: He's a rather unbothered person, at least on the surface. He doesn't really have a deep hatred for demons (hence why he let Nezuko live), also being extremely reserved and frankly, very shy. It's said he has quite the inferiority complex and suffers from survivor's guilt. However, despite his stoic nature he's known to be very caring towards those he truly trusts and cares for, and gets relatively upset and very angry when the ones he cares for are in danger. Hell, this man's haori is made from half of Sabito's (his late best friend) haori, combined with half of his older sister's haori. With all of that said though, I have a feeling this guy would enjoy artists like The Arctic Monkeys, Penelope Scott, Hozier, and Evanescence. He only listens to music for appreciation, knowing that someone worked hard to put such things out into the world. Plus, like the other hashiras, he appreciates the fact that there's music out there that relates to how he feels internally.

Shinobu Kocho: Though she may display a demeanor of being very friendly, caring, giving, and even motherly - all of that is simply a facade. It's only there to disguise her true colors, as she likes to make fun of people to the point of being sadistic (which I would imagine only happens if they truly deserve it). She also uses said facade to cover up a lot of rage within her. Having lost her older sister, her parents, the entirety of her tsuguko under her training, and her apprentice's families to demons, she naturally harbors a lot of hatred towards demons. (Even going as far to try and kill Nezuko, before Giyuu mentioned the Kamado sibling's situation). With that said, she still harbors a motherly side to her for Kanao's sake, given that she is Shinobu's adoptive younger sister. All of that aside though, I think she would like a lot of the same music as Giyuu, given how close they are. (I headcanon they often share headphones together). Aside from liking Giyuu's taste in music, she might take a liking to bands like Halestorm, Seether, Breaking Benjamin, and possibly even Scene Queen. Scene Queen mainly due to her sadistic humor, it gives her something to relate to knowing that someone can be just as unhinged as she can be. As for the others, it goes back to a reason like Sanemi's; those feelings of anger, guilt, frustration, and shame are often portrayed in their songs. She'll often listen to music when she's extremely angry or emotional, crying as she listens to the words she could never say herself.

Kyojuro Rengoku: Firstly let me just say this man is boisterous at best, in a good way of course. Rengoku is a man of character, always having something positive to say and never having a negative outlook on even the most stressful of situations. The majority of his morals and principles of respect being instilled by his mother at a young age. Despite his father being exceptionally cruel and apathetic towards him, Rengoku doesn't seem to let that get him down. I'd say it only serves as more motivation to do better, and he uses this motivation to help his brother Senjuro by believing in him and uplifting him no matter what. But despite his cheerful demeanor, he's actually rather intelligent and tactically skilled on the battlefield. Naturally he despises demons, like any other hashira. However that doesn't stop him from having good faith in Nezuko, accepting her as part of the slayer corps. after he realizes that she's not going to turn malicious. Therefore, I'd imagine that unlike his fellow hashiras, he'd listen to something more uplifting and positive much like Mitsuri. Artists like The Score, Imagine Dragons, and maybe even EDM artists like David Guetta and Steve Aoki. It's more than likely that he'd listen to music while doing solo training. It helps him focus, plus the uplifting lyrics of the songs help him look forward to the day ahead of him and those days afterwards. He'll even share his playlist with his tsuguko if they're having a hard time.

Tengen Uzui: Ah yes, this flashy flamboyant man had to be saved for last lol. However, his life wasn't all that flashy to begin with. Having grown up in a clan of Shinobi ninjas, he was always taught that the mission should be fulfilled above anything else, self preservation comes last. Basically, if you die, you die. After he married his wives, and was pitted against his siblings in masked death matches, which lead him to unknowingly killing two of his siblings. He got into a heated argument with his father over killing his siblings, and ultimately put his sword down and took his wives with him to pursue a life of their own design. And once he did, he vowed to always protect those he loves, and made his wives swear to put their lives first, then those of innocent civilians, and then finally himself. A nice recipe for a flashy life indeed, and for a flashy life and flashy man he obviously listens to the flashiest of playlists. I'd imagine that he'd listen to artists like Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, Ke$ha, Rihanna, Beyonce, etc. Truth be told, it would probably be his wives that compiled the playlist. But he'd add on some Meghan Thee Stallion or Cardi B on there, just for some added bass. He just loves being carefree with his music, it didn't need to be anything serious. In his eyes, music is for enjoyment and if you can relate, well that's just an added bonus.

~ Hope you guys enjoyed! Lmk what you wanna see next

[miraculouscontent]

“Didn’t Need Burrow” Masterpost (February)

Anonymous said:

Don't need Burrow: Finally, it will be revealed that Adrien is the main character and that Marinette was merely the narrator of his story (or history of their love).

The thing that we already know and won’t be a surprise.

Adrien didn’t have enough attention already but they were tired of using Marinette as their camera to his story.

Anonymous said:

Didn’t need burrow: Kagami wil decide to stay in Japan at the end of the Tokyo special. Prompting Chat Noir to start pursuing Ladybug again.

I doubt they’d make the specials official canon but I also don’t doubt Kagami getting sidelined so easily.

Anonymous said:

Alternative didn’t need burrow: Kagami won’t even be in the Japan special and all cultural knowledge will be explained by Adrien

Oh my gooooood.

*flashes back to Adrien and Gabriel greeting Kagami and Tomoe in Japanese*

Anonymous said:

Don't need Burrow: It will be revealed that Chloe is actually an innocent and naive little girl who acted like a malicious bully because she was manipulated and intimidated by Sabrina all the time. And it was Sabrina who made her bully the rest of the class and act as if everything had to revolve around her. And it will be retcon that Chloe did not abuse everyone to impress Audrey, but because Sabrina made her do it. (Note: I'm Anon that joked about Sabrina being more dangerous than Chloe)

fdjkhgjdfgfd welcome back, for sure.

I wasn’t ready for the Sabrina part since I was taking it 100% seriously up until then.

In before they say that Sabrina is just indulging Chloe and Chloe is how she is because Sabrina won’t do anything about it.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow to know that if there is finally a white little kid gets introduced to the show, he or she(though let's be honest, most often a he) will be a sweet little angel of sunshine who's always on their best behavior and never does anything wrong, unlike all those rowdy black children(barf). Bonus if the kid has blonde hair and blue/green/grey eyes. Double bonus if someone(say, Marinette or Nadja) says to one of the other kids "See, why can't you behave like they do?" Rolling my eyes.

OMG SOMEONE ELSE SAID IT. BLESS YOU.

I always feel so awkward hating on all the kid characters for that reason but it really does come down to they’re kids and I don’t like kids. Most of them are just written as “kid” and nothing else.

Friendly piece of advice to people writing children and are afraid of doing what this show does where the personality is just “stereotypical child”...

Write characters as if they’re teenagers first, and then “age them down.” It’s the difference between writing Mylene (for example) with the personality of “child,” and writing Mylene as a younger version of herself.

It also will make it less jarring if the character happens to grow up and become a teen at some point in the story, where their personality is better established; they’ll come off as a developed person rather than someone with a completely different personality from when they were little.

(If you’re having trouble imagining said child character as a teenager/adult, there’s definitely a step missing.)

Anonymous said:

Don't Need Burrow to know that when all the kids in Marinette and Adrien's class inevitably get Miraculouses of their own, only the girls will get theirs taken from them for one reason or another, either because someone else figured out their identity or they do something stupid and risk people knowing(or people actually do know), while the boys get to keep theirs permanently and Ladybug becomes the token Smurfette on her superhero team. Rena Rouge might be the exception to this.

G I R L  P O W E R

+ I mean, for Rena, Marinette’s already regretted giving her the miraculous at least once, so yeah.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need Burrow to know that when Marinette and Adrien inevitably discover each others' identities, defeat Hawk Moth and Mayura(the only good thing about this whole scenario), and gEt ToGeThEr, it(the latter, at least) will only be in the last episode of the last season, and we will get no time to see their development from "who dis?" to friends, to lovers. Love=ma^2 shippers will punch the nearest wall, while me and everyone else will sip our salty tea and ask what the fuck they expected.

If Season 4 decides the split between Lukanette and Adrimi, that means Season 5 is just going to be a love square shipping fuel fest of absolute and complete obnoxiousness with angst that’ll lead to reverse love square at best and then nothing more.

The tea will, however, be delicious.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need Burrow to know that Adrien will continue to steadfastly insist that Marinette is "just a friend"(such as saying so when Alya or Nino confronts him on it, or saying romantic sounding things to Marinette herself that are just intended as shipper-fanservice-bait, before adding something anticlimatic like "you're a really good FRIEND")...up until the moment when the plot decides to push them together and he'll magically change his tune and say that she was always more than just a friend.

How convenient~

Yeah, the plot has this habit of just changing things so immediately that it gives you whiplash, because they’ve never built anything up. I remember that it did that for me with the Miracle Box opening in “Sapotis” to reveal all the zodiacs.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow to know that Alya(and possibly the rest of the girl squad, but lets face it, most likely Alya so that she can be the Black Best Friend) will be used solely as a plot device to get Adrien and Marinette together(against Marinette's protests, if I may add), and Marinette will get almost no chances to make a move on Adrien on her own. I know you salt on Alya a lot but you gotta admit it kinda feels bad to potentially have her pushed aside to only support the love square.

No no, I totally agree! I don’t like Alya but I obviously feel bad that her and Nino have just become love square/plot pushers. Add in Rena Rouge and eugh, no thanks.

Anonymous said:

Didn’t Need Burrow to know when Marinette finally tells Adrien she’s in love with him, he’ll reject her, and when Marinette gets over him and gets together with Luka, then he’ll probably get akumatised because of it, and it’s all Marinettes fault for getting over him(EVEN THO HE MADE IT CLEAR HE WASNT INTERESTED!!!) and entering a healthy relationship.

This one sent me through a whirlwind of emotions.

Also, inevitable "only notice the girl who’s wanted you forever because now she has a boyfriend,” because yay.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need Burrow: Ms Bustiers pregnancy is going to be handled one of two ways, but they'll both lead to the same outcome: either

1) her pregnancy will be ignored and she'll look the same as she always has until the one episode where it's plot relevant, and she'll suddenly look nine months pregnant, or

2) she'll go from looking the way she does in the New York Special to looking nine months pregnant in the first episode of S4, possibly with the addition of cringy pregnancy jokes peppered in throughout the season until the episode where her being pregnant is plot relevant.

The inevitable outcome of this whole 'pregnant teacher' subplot will be an episode where Ms Bustier goes into labor during an Akuma attack that she (and possibly the entire class) are caught in the middle of for whatever reason, she'll give birth either during or right after said Akuma attack. LB will have to juggle both fighting the Akuma and delivering the baby, Chat will be useless during the pregnancy subplot (50/50 that he won't be much help during the Akuma attack), and there will be a moment where the two heroes are both cooing over the baby, and someone will make a remark about how they'll be such good parents one day.

I know this is probably too specific to actually pan out, but I'm confident that at least part of this will line up with what happens in the show

dfkhgjdfkgdfg oh my god, Ladybug helping deliver a baby, please kill me.

The “good parents” line absolutely made me cringe because they’d totally do that.

The thing about how Bustier will look is also 150% accurate and it pains me to say so. Her looking pregnant is the most “fleshing out” that we’ll ever get from her.

I could also see her getting a substitute instead (I originally was going to shorten it to “sub” but then I just imagined Miss Bustier eating a sub sandwich) and then coming back at some point like “oh I already had the baby, here he/she is,” and that’s how they avoid making a model for her being pregnant.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need Burrow: A character will have a bad day and get increasingly mad whenever things continue to go bad for them/when other people annoy them, but he or she will still manage to keep it cool. Only when MARINETTE does something wrong will that person finally SNAP and get akumatized, and of course, Marinette will be blamed for it despite everything already going bad for the character to begin with. It's like the writers try so hard to make things her fault when she's barely a part of it.

oh my god

This is also totally Santa Claws/Bother Christmas but with Marinette instead of Ladybug. Gotta get both sides in there, you know?

[prinxlyart]

just any individual toh character hc would SLAP. mebbe ur thoughts on the twins idk this is vague

Nah it’s cool, I can dig it let’s do this

I only put this under a line break cuz it got so long oops lol

Emira:

Defo has a stutter that she went through a lot of intensive and grueling speech therapy sessions for (when she was about 7 years old) that she hated. Amity and Edric both know this and know it’s a sensitive topic for her. They’ll tease her lightly about it, but never in front of anyone else and they know where to draw the line. In my last Vinera post, I mentioned how much Viney adores her stutter. She absolutely loves getting Emira flustered enough to start stuttering. She’s incredibly patient and understanding when it comes to Emira’s stutter and Em’s feelings about her stutter, and she helps Emira learn to be okay with it again. It’s nothing to be ashamed of (and it’s cute).

My girl likes carrots. Like, really likes carrots. As in she’ll eat them straight out of the ground if she’s given a chance to wash it first. She really loves carrots. This is only an issue later on after she and Viney start taking care of beasts together and Emira’s been caught eating their entire stock of carrots that’s meant for the beasts. Viney has to keep the carrots in a secret box away from Emira after that point.

Emira actually really loves beasts/animals but has never been good at handling them. Any time she’d try to approach an animal to pet it, it would try to bite her. She’d get extremely pouty whenever this happens because beasts/animals love Edric. It’s not until after she and Viney start dating that Viney actually starts teaching her how to approach different creatures and her love for creatures reignites.

Emira’s a giant pushover for Amity. Only Edric knows this because he’s also a pushover for her. If Amity ever found out what power she actually holds over them, they’d be in so much trouble. They mask their love for their sister with constant teasing. Yes of course they get annoyed by her, that’s how siblings are, especially when Amity tattles on them, but at the end of the day, they’d help Amity hide the body if she asked. (The few times they witnessed her crying by someone other than their parents, they had gone on a warpath. Nobody hurts Mittens.)

Defo had a brief infatuation with Luz for like 5 minutes before she realized how head-over-heels Amity was. As long as they’re both happy, that’s what matters. She’ll take that secret to her grave though.

L O V E S having her hair played with, but like, only with people she’s super comfortable with. She has so much hair (mostly due to her mother’s wishes) and any time they all have attend some fancy gathering, Emira has to be seen by a stylist in order to get all her hair into whatever wild fancy shape her mom wants for the event. That she hates more than life itself, but whenever she’s upset, Edric or Amity grabs her hair brush and just gently brushes her hair out until she’s chill again. (She absolutely melts when Viney starts playing with her hair). In an act of defiance and because she needed this Change, the moment she and her siblings leave the Blight Manor permanently, she cuts off all of her hair. It’s very reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Viney loves it. Everyone loves it actually, but the biggest reactions come from Viney and Luz (they both love running their fingers through the newly cut hair because it’s so soft).

She likes to sing to herself when she’s alone. It’s rare that it ever happens because if she knows there’s other people in the same building as her, she won’t chance it. But when she knows she’s alone and no one will notice if she casts a silence bubble around herself so she can sing at the top of her lungs? You better believe she closes any doors or curtains in the area, locks everything, casts that spell and goes nuts. Her voice isn’t all that great, but it’s lovely when she’s singing quietly to herself while she does homework or something. On especially bad nights, Amity will ask her to sing to her. Emira sang to her once when they were like, 3 and 5 respectively, and it’s been their secret thing ever since for especially rough nights/nightmares.

Edric:

Yknow how James from Pokémon is just super good with Pokémon ?? Like, he knows how to treat them, he knows what they like, he asks them gently if they’d like to join them, etc. That’s exactly how Edric approaches creatures. He’s a natural with them, but he and his sister’s natural affinity for illusion magic kept him from pursuing that track of magic.

He’s always wanted a pet, but every time he brings it up to his parents, he’s met with the same firm No as always. He’s definitely gotten in trouble for trying to sneak wild creatures into the house to keep in his room. Thank Titan for Em’s cool new girlfriend who’s not only a multi-track student, but studying the exact subject he wants to study and is super eager to teach him everything she knows. He learns vicariously through her and helps her study for her tests. At first, Emira is suspicious of them, but she knows her brother wouldn’t be so cruel as to try to steal her girlfriend away from her. He’s just a dork.

My boy’s got a sweet tooth. He loves desserts and sweets and fluffy baked goods and often tries to sneak candies when he thinks no one is looking. Chocolate is a big weakness for him. When Luz introduces him to Human Sweets, he’s practically bouncing off the walls. Cotton candy??????? Flan?????? Dulce de Leche en Tabla??? He nearly passes out when Luz busts out what she calls a “chocolate fountain” and turns it on. Y’all remember that one image of a bird bathing in a chocolate fountain from a million years ago? That’s Edric.

Edric Blight LIVES to see his sisters laugh. He would pull all sorts of silly faces and dumb tricks to make Amity laugh when they were little. He still tries to make her laugh, but usually those have grown from giggles to disgruntled mumbling. He’ll never admit how much it breaks his heart and it’s not until he sees her laughing at something Luz has done that he has hope he may still be able to get her to laugh again (it’s also the first time he’s heard her laugh in years and it makes his heart soar in relief. He was almost certain their parents had stamped any concept of laughter out of her).

My boy Edric is so full of love and passion; actually quite similarly to Luz. What makes them different though is that Edric is Aromantic. He’s never had a crush in his life. He’s happy with his sisters and all of their friends and their family as it grows in the future. He has some best friends that he lives with for a while (after his sisters move in with their respective partners), but for the most part he’s chill. He loves his family, he loves spoiling his sisters’ kids, and he’s content with himself. It takes him a super long time to be content with himself, but he gets there. I will literally never get over the fact that his biggest fear is “being alone forever”. He’s never alone. He will always have his friends and family. And, thanks in large part to Luz, he has his parents back. His parents that actually were excited when he cast his first spell and tucked him in at night when he was a toddler, giving him kisses goodnight and pleasant dreams. Not the parents he’d run away from; those were the cold, uncaring, obsessed with fake concepts of popularity and status people he ran away from with his sisters. It took years, but Luz helped bring his real parents back. He loves getting to know them for who they are now that he’s an adult too.

He and Gus become best friends. Like, dumb buddy cop movie levels of best friends. They get into so much trouble when it’s just the two of them and they have the time of their lives. At first, he and Em just sort of took Gus under their wing because he was a little bit of an outcast in their homeroom for being so much younger than everyone else. But he’s a friend of Luz’s and a friend of Amity’s after a while, which automatically makes him cool in their book. They soon find themselves actually enjoying his company, rather than just protecting him from stray bullies, and they find his ability with illusion magic exciting. They themselves are considered prodigies so having another prodigy to show off practice with is super stimulating for all of them. As the years go on (and Emira spends more time with Viney) Edric starts calling more and more often for “Bro Time” where they go do stupid teenage stuff or test the limits of their magic or even just hang out and talk for hours. It’s actually all this time hanging out with just Gus that Edric discovers he’s aro; somehow it comes out that Gus has developed a crush on Edric and (major age differences aside) Edric realizes he’s never had a crush on anyone before. It’s a conversation that sucks a lot, but they’re besties and they manage to get through it. Gus maybe needs to take a day with his original gal pals to just cry about it, but he gets over it just fine. He also helps Edric understand what it means to be aromantic. Well, with the help of Luz and Willow as well; Luz is a walking dictionary for lgbt terminology and Willow’s super good at helping dissect feelings (when they’re not her own cough’outofsightoutofmind’cough).

I genuinely don’t know what he might pursue for a career. Part of me wants him to be independent and do his own thing, but a much stronger part of me wants him to just be part of Viney as Emira’s business. He loves creatures so much and he loves taking care of them, but I don’t want him to feel like a third wheel around his twin sister either. Maybe he becomes a dual track teacher at Hexside specifically for healing and beast keeping so more students can learn about Service Creatures. He can substitute for the Illusion track homeroom when needed, but he’s super passionate about the Service Creature sub-track he and Viney pitch to Principal Bump.

[cupiditity]

hiya angel :,) i saw your matchups were open! if at all possible, would i be able to get a haikyuu matchup? i hope i ask this in the right place, i’m not entirely familiar with tumblr 0.0 . here’s my info ˘͈ᵕ˘͈

okay. first and foremost, i am a gemini sun, cancer moon, libra rising. i also have a taurus venus. i am an INFP-T, types 9w1 & 2w1! also.. i am 5’0, and i am not a huge huge fan of big height differences. sorrysorry is gonna sound so picky-

now that that fun stuff is out of the way.. here is a bit about me,, i am a hopeless romantic to the core. that being said, i love romantics, but i don’t know if i would ever see myself with another hopeless romantic. i have a hard time connecting with other introverts in person, and tend to lean to extroverts. this is probably because i am a very quiet person unless spoken to first, or, on the rare occasion, when someone offends the person/topic i care about deeply and i try to speak up.

i am a very optimistic person; i have been told i can see the beauty in things when it is hard to pick it out. i have had an incredibly bad history with toxic relationships, because i have a hard time letting people go and saying “no”, because my biggest fear is hurting someone’s feelings. sounds kinda pathetic, when i think about it. i love nature, and plants & animals. i love love love astronomy & astrology, but i am honestly not that smart. can i tell you how to solve a math problem? no. but can i tell you all about the planet made of diamond? absolutely. i love watching old hollywood movies, especially audrey hepburn, and i love to listen to music & sing & dance. (only when i am alone, of course!)

well,, lastly, what i look for in a partner. like i said, i don’t really look for an introvert, because i pretty much fill up that hole. i look for an optimistic male who will get me out of my comfort zone, but will also know my limits. i want to be able to help someone when they are feeling down, because it makes me happy to make someone else feel a little better. i want someone to do the things romantics do with me, & i will literally do whatever they want. i’m a pushover,,, what can i say?

thank u thank u thank u so much for reading through this whole essay omg. i appreciate it so much :,(

Not a problem!! From what you mention about being a hopeless romantic while also looking for a man who will treat you right, I saw no other fit than Bokuto Koutarou! First off, the height difference isn’t so bad as you meet a little over his shoulder! As you mention how you’re a romantic however cannot see yourself in another relationship with one, Bokuto would be interested in all you have to say and offer in a relationship. The man just wants someone to love and to take care however as you describe how you also want to take care of yours s/o he finds himself comforted by your presence and though introverted, comforting nature and warmth (especially in his emo moments). As you bring up how you don’t do well with other introverts, Bokuto is a winning case as within 3 mins he will learn about you and your specificics with all his questions. However, he also tries to help you get comfortable around him, he doesn’t want to overwhelm you but sometimes he can’t help himself when he gets excited. As you infer and reference how optimistic you are, Bokuto needs someone like that in his life. As he grew up or specifically in high school isolated and often teased for being loud and overly excited, he finds comfort in you because you can see him for who he is and not get annoyed or tired. Now this relationship doesn’t only benefit him, if you let him know about whether you’re uncomfortable or not happy, he is so quick to try his best to take you away from what you’re doing. Bokuto is emotionally intelligent and though it may be hard for him to read you sometimes he always finds a way to ask what you want to do and if you’re comfortable. And about your hobbies? Kou will love that. He will fully invest himself into each and every hobby/interest and will enjoy every single one of them. He could listen to you for hours about nature and astrology and the boy is so in love he’ll try to learn about your interests too. If you’ll allow him to, he’ll seek out a dance with you but can’t say he’s too good at slow dancing! In general, Bokuto will lead you out of your comfort zones however he also tries his best to be gentle and encouraging but comforting when you need it. He loves it when you take care of him and adores your touch of domestic romance. Though it may seem hard especially after getting hurt before, Kou will always stay loyal and in love with you. He would never force you to do something you don’t want to do and you’ll forever be his number one !! <3

[theamityelf]

Descendants Characters + when they fell in love with Uma:

Mal: When they were kids. They had a lot of fun running around and wreaking havoc, and they shared a lot of inside jokes, and Mal wasn’t used to other people making her feel happy. Naturally, she didn’t know how to handle these feelings, which is why she lashed out. She came to resent Uma for making her feel things, but she also never stopped having feelings for her.

Evie: During D3. Uma’s queenly look in her cecaelia form was already stunning, but the moment when Uma said “Guarantee me that every villain kid that wants to gets to leave the Isle for good,” followed by “You can’t do that...Well how ‘bout now?!” as she held the ember over the side of the bridge really made Evie feel a certain way. Compassionate and bold is quite a combination.

Carlos: He related to her a lot when she was being bullied and mocked, and he admired the way she handled it. In the time between her being given the nickname “Shrimpy” and Mal not letting her join the group, he had a huge crush on her, second only to his crush on Jay (and more obvious, since he was hiding his crush on Jay as much as possible). Once Mal refused to let her join the gang, though, he actively made himself ignore Uma, because he wanted to stay on Mal’s good side to stay protected. By the time the series starts, he no longer has feelings for Uma.

Jay: They bonded over their shared eel babies. Whenever he visited Ursula’s Chip Shoppe, he came with a new pick-up line for Uma, and the fact that she sometimes laughed at them and Harry hated it just made him enjoy it more. When they would argue about raising the eels, they legitimately sounded like parents. It was also a funny way to annoy Mal; the fact that he flirted with everybody meant that she didn’t take his flirtation with Uma seriously, but it annoyed her regardless. He still has a soft spot for Uma during the events of the series.

Ben: Obviously, while he was captured. More specifically, during their conversation about the Isle and leadership. He was refreshed by her honesty and seized by a need to understand and know her better. From then on, he protested whenever anyone had anything bad to say about Uma, and if she wanted to kidnap him again, he would 100% let her.

Audrey: After she was done dancing with Harry and he returned to Uma. Seeing the way he bowed to her and she accepted it as though it were to be expected entranced Audrey, and it wasn’t until later that she came to realize that she was more entranced by Uma herself, and the innate power she possessed, than by her relationship with Harry. The fact that Uma seems so unfazed by all of the Auradon Prep social drama (like Audrey wishes she were) adds to her cool factor, and the fact that they can share exasperated looks when Mal does or says something ridiculous is nice, too.

Jane: The first time she walked into Ben’s office and Uma was there. She had entered to confirm a few details for an upcoming council meeting, but the moment she saw Uma, she froze for a second, before reminding herself to continue asking Ben the questions. (Mentally lambasting herself for still being startled when she saw VKs in unexpected places.) To her surprise, Uma not only answered the questions in Ben’s stead- she answered them quickly and readily. She was a skilled organizer, and the expectant way she looked at Jane once she was done answering questions (as though ready to answer more) and the way Ben seemed completely comfortable with letting Uma make these decisions in his office were both very attractive. Jane went bright red and did not stop blushing the entire time she was in the room, to the point that Uma raised an eyebrow at her. She cannot make eye contact with Uma, ever, and she giggles too much around her.

Chad: The first intense conversation he had with Uma. Naturally, as soon as she started at Auradon Prep, she began fighting for rules to be changed, of course including rules about what girls weren’t allowed to do. Chad pushed back on it hard, to the point that Harry once got in his face and told him to mind his manners, but Uma just amusedly told Harry to back off. She gave Chad an unimpressed smirk and gestured for him to get out of her way, and he did so, reflexively (to his own embarrassment and kind of enjoyment?). To compensate for the submission, the next time he talked to her (which was incidentally right before they were both about to make their cases to the school’s Board of Advisors), he tried to intimidate her, but she only smiled widely and said, “Look, Charming, either I make you cry in front of your parents’ friends, or you decide this isn’t the hill you die on. Your choice.” During the board meeting, she proposed a demonstration in which she would spar Chad, and she had him flat on his back with her sword to his chin in under fifteen seconds. The next day, he offered to carry her books and Harry glared at him.

Lonnie: The first time they sparred. The unique challenge of parrying Uma’s fluid movements and the tantalizing moment when their blades were locked together (and Uma smirked at her fiercely) were exhilarating. Every fight they ever had ended up traversing whole rooms, and Uma’s refusal to just surrender or laugh it off made the whole thing more thrilling. Pinning Uma was a remarkable triumph; being pinned by Uma was...surprisingly...also very pleasant? And Lonnie being fearless, she leaned up and kissed Uma the second time Uma pinned her, and the pirate captain laughed breathlessly and helped her up. The fact that Uma got the rules changed for all of the sports teams that excluded girls was just the icing on the cake. She’s not fully smitten, but she always gets butterflies when they spar, and if Uma invited her anywhere, she would absolutely go, no questions asked.

Harry: When they were kids (and before Mal did). It was almost love at first sight, but more accurately, it was a crush at first sight that developed into love the more he got to know her. He would literally kill for her and probably already has.

Gil: He liked her a lot when they were kids, and enjoyed following her orders, but he really fell in love when he came back later on and noticed how smart and intense and pretty and in charge she is. Also, she’s secretly a lot kinder than most of the people he knows, and he finds it really cool that she can be ruthless and good at the same time. He would also kill for her, and he also might have already.

[lcnatic]

[john david washington — 36 — he/him] Introducing RUS RALSTON. Word on the street is they are a HITMAN and member of THE SYNDICATE for the past FIVE YEARS. Though they are INSENSITIVE and SECRETIVE, they can also be DEDICATED and RESILIENT. In the chaos of New York City, they’re sure to fit right in. 

— BASICS

Name: Rus Ralston Age / D.O.B.: 36 Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: Cis male, he/him, bisexual Hometown: TBA Affiliation: The Syndicate Job position: Hitman Education: TBA Relationship status: Single Children: N/A Positive traits: Dedicated, resilient Negative traits: Insensitive, secretive

— BIOGRAPHY

( tw: death, mentions of suicide )

It’s hard to get out of a life of crime when you’re born into it. Rus came to learn what the expectations were within the mafia relatively quick. His father was good with technology and his mother was good at breaking things. Bodies, finances, lives- so on and so forth, but Rus never had to worry about any of that. Not until later at least.

No one was surprised when Rus proved himself to be useful within the mafia. It was a family business after all, and he went through the years learning from his mistakes to proving people wrong. He might have seemed the type to be a one-man team, but he had a few select people that he could call ‘friends’. All of which were at the top of their field. All of which had crossed fire with each other since the world is coincidentally small.

His younger brother, Alan, had managed to stay separate from the Ralston traditions. He was an outcast, essentially, but Rus always kept tabs on him. He was still family, after all - the only one he really cared for. He was one of the best hitmen within the family by the time his nephew, Paul, had been born. And though Rus never had any children of his own, he adored his brother’s small family.

Except his brother’s wife, Audrey, wasn’t exactly the doting wife everyone had assumed. See, she had come from a broken home where her father and sister had been taken away from her at the age of four. A gas leak and tragic house fire, the news had said. Audrey and her mother had survived because they ran out before they had inhaled too much smoke. Or that’s what Audrey had always been told.

Audrey’s mother had done everything she could to keep her daughter safe, but her efforts fell short. Suicide was what the news read when Audrey was twelve. Her mother had been so filled with grief from the loss of her husband and other child that she couldn’t take it anymore. That’s what the suicide note read at least. And maybe some of that was true, but not all of it. Audrey’s mother hadn’t been so consumed to take her own life. No, someone came and set it up that way. And Audrey had seen it. She had seen Mrs. Ralston kill her mother and leave the note from where she hid.

So Rus didn’t have to worry about the lives that his mother and father had ruined until the day everything went to shit.

She took and burned everything he loved. His brother and nephew, his 9 to 5, his sense of normalcy. The transition from security to hit for hire happened far too easily. First was a visit paid to those that snuffed the life of his family. Then it was to Audrey herself, sat in his brother’s home, steadfast with expectancy. He was told, right when he breached the front entry, what happened. How the Ralston's had ruined Audrey’s life, and that she was the one that had been consumed by grief and hatred. How she had been planning for this very moment for so long.

And he believed it.

He could tell just from the look in her eyes that she meant everything said. She had hired someone to kill her husband and her very own son; both of whom she supposedly loved dearly. Yet despite the sympathy, he felt at that moment, it wasn’t enough for him to lay down for her to kill. So they fought- both with the desperation to live. And, in the end, Rus barely rose as the victor. He put two bullets into her head and stood there for a while; numb down to the core. His brother’s house was set on fire and he left it to the mob to deal with the aftermath.

From that point on, he was never the same. He vanished from the life held prior. Some said it was because of the grief held by the unfortunate end to his brother and nephew. And other claimed it was because of the alleged disappearance of his sister-in-law. The last remaining factor of the Ralston family aside from himself.

And, well, they were both right to some extent.

He never did get over the memory of his brother and his family. He never got over a lot of things, but that’s just how life was. Whatever happened in the past should stay in the past. Just like how a particular acquaintance of his red-blooded days shouldn’t have sought him out to return an old favor. One that Rus had promised to return twofold when he had been caught in a nasty situation. One that had him return to an all too familiar scene set in a different location. One that just might make New York his final destination in the journey known as his fucking life.

— WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS

Friends ( 0/? ) .  Are a very loose concept for him. Always has been, and it might be forever. They’re expendable - everyone is. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t know the value of actual friendship, though. It only takes half an eon to be on friendly terms with him; actual friendly terms.

Unlikely friends ( 0/? ) . Yes, Rus will definitely be annoyed out of his mind, but I’d love to have someone actually click with him. Specifically someone that has a vastly different personality than him. 

‘Coworkers’ ( 0/? ). Of the Syndicate. Past, current, future - anyone that had the misfortune of working with this surly dude. But, hey, at least it’s basically guaranteed things will get things done. 

Enemies ( 0/? ) . He’s got ‘em, maybe one too many, but at least he’s a formidable opponent. 

Captain planet he’s pretty relatable ( 0/? ) . Calling all fellow plant and eco-friendly enthusiasts! While Rus looks like Sam Eagle with the driest personality imaginable, he does have an incredibly soft spot for all things green. Got or need tips about the tricks of a green thumb? Spill ‘em and he’ll actually participate in the conversation. 

Found family ( 0/? ) .  Again, not the easiest but would be awesome to achieve & have me sob.

Romance ( 1/1 ). Something... something fall in love.

[cornholio4]

Be Careful What You Wish For

Author’s Note: This was based on a Tumblr story I found out about Adrien betraying Marinette in using the wish, Marinette lost her mum but get together with Damian after being with Adrien in the new timeline. I decided to go to a plot bunny I had where the wish the Agrestes make was not worth it.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng couldn't believe what just happened; her partner Chat Noir had messaged her saying that he had found a clue as to who Hawk Moth was and was surprised to find it was the Agreste Manor. She wondered if this meant that Gabriel Agreste could have been Hawk Moth and found a way around the limitations to become the Collector.

Tikki had told her that she had a bad feeling about this but Marinette felt that she trusted Chat to know what he was doing.

She met up with Chat Noir and they went inside to be faced with Hawk Moth; however Chat took her by surprise and had taken Earrings. She was stunned as Adrien took off the Ring to reveal that he was Adrien. Her partner who was annoying with his flirting was really her crush?

And he had to be under an Akuma's influence; no way that he could really betray her.

Right?

Marinette was stunned as Adrien was taken aback to see Ladybug was Marinette but then gave them both to Hawk Moth ignoring the pleas of Marinette, Plagg and Tikki. The Kwami's please became more angry as Adrien addressed Hawk Moth as his dad.

Hawk Moth taken them and used the incantation and wished that his wife never suffered whatever it was that happened to her. Marinette saw a huge glow and suddenly saw the area was a huge fashion studio and she was now in fancy clothes.

There were the Ring and Earrings on the ground and she had taken them, the Kwamis were more than happy enough to explain. "The Miraculous in order to use the wish needs a huge sacrifice, it might not be just a life but life changed and the end results might not be favourable to the wishes of the wisher. If the wish is not specific enough, we both are able to bend the reality change even if we don't have control over the details. We don't know what happened but just wished that life was better for you and life worse for your enemies. You deserve it Marinette." Tikki told her and Marinette was stunned.

She was asking then how about Adrien and Plagg was furious saying "who cares, he made his choice and he wasn't that good a partner to you anyway. I admit that I didn't rein him in when he was being selfish and throwing hissy fits about you not wanting to go out with him. I tried to talk him out of allying with his dad when he revealed to him but he made his choice."

Marinette was stunned and went upstairs and found that the manor was actually now her family's?

It seemed now the Dupain-Chengs now owned a successful catering company that Tom had started with his father Roland. She found to her surprise she was a popular girl at her school and was apprenticing with a fashion company. She was seen as an up and coming fashion star and loved for how much of a sweetheart she was.

Her friends in class were still her friends (plus Sabrina who didn't have Chloe in her class) and she found to her surprise that she had Luka as boyfriend. She was terrified that Luka had his mind and feelings altered thanks to the magic but Tikki laughed it off saying the magic can't force someone to like anyone (if it was wished it would be more like mind control and Luka wouldn't be acting like himself), all it did was remove any obstacles to get in between them as Luka liked her anyway.

She noticed that she did not have Adrien, Lila and Chloe in her class and looked them up. Lila it seemed was doing what she did in one of her schools and was caught with her truancy and trying to use lies to bully people who called them out but no one really willing to believe her.

To her shock she found that Chloe was in an American juvenile centre, apparently in this new reality Chloe's father failed to win the election that made him Mayor thanks to a scandal when it was revealed his was embezzling money from his hotel for his campaign funds and his slanderous accusations against the running Mayor. Audrey Bourgeois took Chloe and left with the schools and authorities in the US not tolerating her attitude.

But to her shock she saw that Adrien was somewhere in hiding with his mother Emilie out of France. Apparently here Gabriel was caught as the head of a huge criminal cabal and when he was arrested the charges were numerous and he was now serving several life sentences.

She was stunned and couldn't help but feel sorry for all of them but Tikki had told her that it just meant she was a better person than them. She considered using a Wish to put everything back to how it was but they warned her that they might not be able to control any prices made and she decided to just accept the new reality as it just is.

She found her family being as nice and loving as she knew them even if they were a little busier than they had been. But she found the man who had been Adrien's bodyguard and chauffeur was now working for her family and he joined in on video game nights with Marinette and Tom.

While Paris had news bulletins of a new Superhero called Lady Catbug. The Kwamis smirked to themselves not having told Marinette that they made it so her former tormentors would be punished with the memories of the previous timeline...

Adrien Agreste hated the look of betray of his Lady when he had to betray her but it was for his mother and his family. He was stunned to see his good friend Marinette had been his Lady all along but had to keep going forward. His father had finally revealed himself to be Hawk Moth. He was stunned and confused and wanted to use attack as Chat Noir. But he explained to him that all this was to bring her mother back who was in a dangerous state.

He dealt with time to himself to think this through and despite Plagg's warnings not to trust him he felt that he had to. His father had said they were going to make sure she was never gone and thus the Akumas never happened. He would be allowed to start school at Francoise Dupont and start his friendships all over again.

Plus not that he knew that Marinette was Ladybug, he could come to her and they would be able to start their love together. It would be perfect, plus since his father would have no more use for the Miraculous... He would give Marinette the Earrings and they would be Ladybug and Chat Noir, superhero couple of Paris.

It would be all worth the betrayal he would have to do...

His father made the wish and suddenly he saw he was in the home of his mother's family the Graham De Vanilys. He saw his mother Emilie but she looked like a wreck and he found he had no other friends than Felix.

He learned to his horror that his father was in prison as a criminal mastermind and in shame his mother took them to London and ditched the Agreste surname. This wasn't supposed to happen, his family was supposed to be full again...

Gabriel Agreste was stunned when he finally found out that his son Adrien was indeed Chat Noir and decided to use it to his advantage. He had sat down with him and explained to him that he was Hawk Moth. His reaction was to be expected but he managed to explain in full and convinced him to set a trap to get the Ladybug Earrings.

To think one of his hated nemeses was his own son all along. However it worked out and he didn't bother hiding his glee when Adrien done his part and gave them both to him. He savoured the moment as he made the wish and was anticipating being able to hold his dear Emilie again.

He fell down with a thud as he found himself on stone floor and in a small prison cell in dirty prison robes, he was confused to his surroundings and looked in the mirror and saw that he was a mess. He had began ranting wondering what was going on only for the guards to bang the cell bars and yell at him to shut up.

As he felt the hatred coming from all guards and prisoners in the next week, he could only wonder how on earth did this go wrong.

[artificialqueens]

Galactica, Chapter 40 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Happy Halloween, and welcome to Chapter 40! Only 82802291 to go! (JK…kind of.) Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter: Violet and Sutan made things official.

This Chapter: All of New York’s fashion elite shows up to Heidi’s Klum’s annual Halloween party. (Seriously. Everyone is in this chapter.)

***

“Go a little higher-” Katya was cut off as the door to Pearl’s room opened.

“Urgh!” Pearl looked up, a mess of grey spiderweb in her long blonde hair and on her hands where she had raised them to protect her face when she had left her room. “What the fuck!”

“Whoops.” Trixie grinned, the cobweb shooter he had been using to decorate in hand.

“Hi Pearl.” Max smiled, waving his hand from where he was standing next to Katya, holding up the string of lights they were attempting to mount on the wall.

“Sorry!” Katya laughed. “I didn’t know you were in there.”

“How does that make this better?” Pearl groaned, peeling the sticky web off of her hands. “I was just taking a nap.”

“We’re very sorry Pearlie girl.” Trixie smiled, reaching out to gently get the web in her hair.

“What are you even doing?”

“It’s a haunted house!” Katya gestured, Halloween decorations covering almost every visible surface. Katya loved Halloween, being allowed to scare her first graders something she looked forward to every year. Over the weekend, Trixie had been working on his own costume when they had started talking about making a miniature haunted house, and it had quickly snowballed into a giant craft project taking over the entire apartment.

There weren’t a lot of kids around them, but the few that had all figured out that Katya and Trixie gave out full sized candy bars for Halloween. And while Katya loved seeing all the little faces light up in delight as she dumped candy into their buckets, the idea of scaring the bejesus out of them first was extremely exciting.

“You’re not planning to use my bedroom for this extravaganza, are you?” Pearl asked skeptically.

“No, don’t worry! We were thinking that we’d cover your doorway in spiders and spiderwebs and have freaky lights and spooky sounds coming from inside.”

“It felt fitting,” Trixie added with a laugh.

“Do you want to help?” Max smiled. He had originally only come over to borrow a bowler hat for his Charlie Chaplin costume, Katya telling him with a grin that he had to remember to keep the hat on unless he wanted to end up looking like Hitler.

“No thanks.”

“Really?” Trixie looked confused for a moment, picking the last piece of web out of her hair. “But you love Halloween!”

“I have to go meet up with Adore.” Pearl shrugged, reaching behind Max to grab her jacket. “She wanted to look at costumes together so we can coordinate.”

“Awh,” Katya grinned, Pearl shooting her a sharp look. “That’s adorable.”

“Okay mom.” Pearl almost seemed like she was annoyed, but Katya could see in her eyes that she took the tease for what it was.

“I think it’s nice.” Trixie loaded the cobweb shooter. “It’s cute that you like someone.”

“Yeah, well…” Pearl mumbled something unintelligible as she slung a bag over her shoulder.

“What was that?”

“I said she’s the cute one!” Pearl exclaimed, and when all three of them began ‘aww’ing again, she immediately left, giving them exaggerated eye rolls.

“A couple’s costume?” Trixie said, pressing a hand to his heart as he sank down onto the sofa, eyes shining. “You think it’s getting serious?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s still Pearl,” Katya told him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

***

“Fame?” Patrick called out, closing the door behind him. He wasn’t sure if his wife was home yet, but the light was on, a Birkin on their entrance table.

“Up here!”

Patrick smiled to himself, Fame’s voice traveling down from upstairs. If he knew her right, she was probably sitting at her desk, going through whatever creative she hadn’t had time to look at at the office.

“I’ll be right down! Our costumes finally came!”

Patrick grinned, the sound of a computer closing and Charles perking up coming from upstairs. In reality, Patrick would have been fine with something from a boutique, or even no costume at all, but Fame had never been able to resist going all out, least of all for Halloween, and he found it charming enough to play along happily. Patrick loved his wife, had since he saw her for the first time, but she was also wonderfully, insanely extra.

Patrick watched as his wife came down the stairs in a flurry of white, a cape draped over her shoulders, her hair still in the delicate updo she had twisted it into that morning, their dog right behind her.

“I’m so glad they arrived in time!” Fame smiled as she opened the hallway closet, pulling out two garment bags.

“Hey boy.” Patrick smiled, scratching Charles' head, the dog nudging against his hand once before walking away when he realized that Patrick didn’t have any treats and that there was no promise of a walk on the horisont.

“You’re going to love them this year.” Fame grinned, unzipping one of the bags.

“Let me guess,” Patrick took a step forward, the dress a stunning golden piece with feathers. “Are you-”

“It’s Cleopatra!” Fame pulled the dress out. “1963.” Fame smiled brightly, the detail of the gown beyond decadent for a Halloween party, even if it was Heidi Klum’s.

“Ah.” Patrick smiled. “Of course, and who will I be then?”

It wasn’t that Patrick didn’t care, but he hadn’t actually been aware that he was going to that specific party until he had checked his shared calendar, Fame more often than not completely in charge of their social life.

It was how Patrick liked it, and since all of their friends would be there, he had found no reason to complain.

“How can you even ask?” Fame chuckled, opening the second bag. “You’ll be my adored consort, Mark Antony.”

“Of course,” Patrick chuckled, pressing a kiss to her temple.

***

“I’m so so sorry-”

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. I’m only your boss when we’re at work, cutie.” Raven grinned as she heard Raja’s silky smooth voice, a clear hint of delight in the deep tone, Sutan chiming in from the front seat.

“Don’t call her that.”

They had just picked up Violet on their way to Heidi Klum’s Halloween party, Raja and herself in the back, while Sutan had taken a seat in the front with their driver, which was why they were even in this situation.

Violet had opened the door to the car, saying hi as she slipped in and placed a quick kiss on the cheek of the tall, mustached, suit-clad person in the middle seat. What Violet hadn’t noticed, until her lips had been pressed against skin, was the fact that it was not actually Sutan, but instead Raja, dressed up as Groucho Max.

“I swear I didn’t mean-” There was a hint of panic in Violet’s voice, the woman dressed up as Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the jewels on her neck clearly fake,  but Raven guessed that it was only Halloween once a year, and Violet didn’t seem like the diamond type.

“Don’t worry,” Raja grinned, leaning back in her seat. “I rather liked it.”

“Raj-” Sutan turned his head, looking back at them. “Please.”

Raven had to bite her lip not to snicker, her corset digging into her hips. She knew Raja was only doing this to mess with Sutan, and it worked perfectly, the normally so cool, calm and collected man looking genuinely distressed.

“Scared I’ll steal your girlfriend?” Raja wiggled her brows, her fake mustache moving as she put an arm around the back of Violet’s seat, the other woman sitting completely straight, her hands in her lap.

“Hey!” Raven turned her head, a flash of jealousy washing over her, causing Sutan to laugh. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Awh,” Raja smiled, letting go of Violet. It was one of the weirdest things about Raja. Somehow, she seemed to genuinely like whenever Raven acted possessive, and if Raven had decked a girl here and there, or torn out an earring or two, that was no one's business but theirs.

“Princess.” Raja put a hand on her dress, the red sequined fabric probably scratchy to the touch. “You know,” Raja leaned in, “You’re the only one for me.”

“Oh god.” Sutan groaned. “Here we go again.”

The mustache felt weird as Raja kissed her, but Raven still put an arm around her neck, holding her close.

“Please tell me we’re almost there.”

Raven flipped Sutan off, making him laugh, her engagement ring almost getting tangled up in Raja’s wig.

***

“Ugh, I feel like such a basic bitch,” Courtney whined.

“That’s cause you are!” Morgan said, making Tyra laugh.

Courtney whimpered, looking around at the crowd outside Heidi Klum’s party. They were waiting for Adore to let them in, and she was rapidly losing confidence. She’d gone all-out on a Marilyn Monroe costume to fit the party’s “Old Hollywood Glamor” theme, even getting advice from her drag queen brother in Sydney (who did Marilyn regularly as part of his act), and of course, she’d already seen about 4 other girls with the same idea.

“Okay, but come on, you’re definitely gonna be the best Marilyn here,” Tati assured her.

“Easy for you to say,” Courtney said. “You actually had an original idea.”

Tati was dressed as Jeannie from the classic TV show, in a costume that showed off her gorgeous body to perfection. Courtney couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous, wishing that her own costume was more creative. If there was one thing she couldn’t stand, it was being just another generic blonde--especially at a chic event like this. She also probably needed to admit to herself that a big part of her nerves came from being in this kind of crowd again, possibly running into her boss.

“Happy Halloween, bitches!” came Adore’s voice, and they all turned around to see her sauntering down the sidewalk in a tailored pinstripe suit, Pearl on her arm in a pencil skirt and beret.

They were the hottest Bonnie and Clyde that Courtney had ever seen. Ugh, everyone was killing it and it made her feel even less worthy of being at the party in the first place.  

“You guys look amazing!” Tyra exclaimed, and Adore grinned.

“Thanks, we know.” Adore gave them a sassy wink, a hand on Pearl’s lower back guiding her forward to the bouncer, where she waved her invite and then grandly beckoned the whole group inside.

***

“Ivy!” Jinkx’ face lit up with delight. She wasn’t expecting to see her beautiful crush tonight, but it was a wonderful surprise. Her costume was as adorable as she was, a cute and fashionable nod to Judy Garland in The Pirate when she sang “Be a Clown,” something that Jinkx knew very well that not many people would appreciate. “Hi! You look absolutely incredible!”

“Hi Ms. Mon-sorry, Jinkx,” Ivy giggled, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear. “You don’t look so bad yourself. I guess you’re my daughter tonight, eh?”

Jinkx laughed as Ivy gestured to her Liza costume, shrugging and saying, “I guess so, Mama...wait no, that’s weird. You must be at least 5 years younger than me. Forget I said that. Please.”

“Consider it forgotten,” Ivy grinned again, asking, “So how have you been?”

“I’m good, I’m good. I’m so glad to see you, I didn’t know you’d be here,” Jinkx took Ivy’s offered hug, squeezing her tightly but being sure to release her quickly, lest it get awkward.

“Oh yeah, well, my boyfriend works at Vogue and his boss couldn’t make it, so he gave us the tickets.”

Jinkx felt her world shatter at the words that had just left Ivy’s mouth. Boyfriend? What was going on?

“Boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?”

“Yes, his name is Keith. We’ve been together for years, he’s over there by the bar.” Ivy waved happily to what Jinkx was sure was a lovely man in a coordinating costume.

“Right,” Jinkx nodded, because what else was she supposed to do? She only hoped that her face didn’t show how absolutely crestfallen she was.

“Actually, I was trying to remember that book you recommended because he’s super into local food too, but I couldn’t remember the title.”

“Oh, um…” Jinkx swallowed, suddenly wishing she was anywhere but here. “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.”

“Right! Thank you. Sorry, I’m such an airhead when I don’t write things down.”

Jinkx could see Keith approaching them now, two glasses of beer in his hands.  

“It was so great to see you, but I really have to run. I was on my way to the bathroom, so-”

“Oh gosh, sorry!” Ivy smiled again, that beautiful smile, and gave her one more quick hug. “Find us later and we can talk some more!”

“Of course, sure! Bye, Ivy!” Jinkx turned towards the restrooms, hoping she could make it into a stall before her stupid tears started to fall.

***

Courtney peeked around a column, the butterflies her stomach going crazy when she spotted Bianca walking away from the bar with a couple of drinks, looking exactly as glamorous as expected in a deep blue silk wrap dress. She bit her lip, trying to gather the nerve to go say hello, when she realized that Bianca wasn’t alone, handing one of the drinks to a tall, absolutely stunning young woman--obviously a model.

To add insult to injury, the girl was also dressed as Marilyn, but her costume was a perfectly tailored version of the low-cut, high-slitted red sequined dress from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It fit her lithe, willowy frame like a glove, and made Courtney all too aware of how out of place she was, in a cheap polyester version of Marilyn’s infamous white dress, the fake tits and hip pads that her brother had insisted she wear now feeling totally ridiculous and clownish.

As Bianca and her lady friend strolled forward, laughing and chatting, Courtney made sure to stay out of sight behind the column, heart sinking, squeezing her eyes shut, feeling like a creepy little stalker.

“There you are.”

The voice behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin, and she whirled around to face Tyra with a guilty flush rising to her cheeks.

“What are you doing skulking over here all by yourself?” asked Tyra, a hand on her hip, lips pursed in judgment.

“Nothing. Why?”

“I need another drink,” Tyra said. “Come on.”

She grabbed Courtney’s hand and pulled her towards the bar. Courtney followed, sighing, wishing she wasn’t such a chicken-shit baby.

***

“Hey.” Alaska nudged Jinkx with her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

They were perched on a couple of bar stools, Alaska looking cute as anything in classic Katharine Hepburn menswear, a look of concern on her face. Jinkx shook her head, feeling like an idiot for going so far down the hopeless crush rabbit hole with Ivy without even knowing whether she was single.

“Nothing, I’m just stupid.”

“Well, you’re definitely not that.” Alaska took a sip of her sparkling water.

“You give me too much credit,” Jinkx said with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m being so lame. Let’s go dance.”

She began to slide off the stool, but Alaska stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“We can dance, but first tell me what’s going on. Please,” Alaska smiled. “Maybe I can help.”

“I don’t deserve a friend like you, Lasky,” Jinkx said, lowering her head pitifully to the table. She had spent so much time going on and on about Ivy for over a month. It was shocking, actually, that Alaska still wanted to spend time with her at all. She must have been insufferable.

“Jinkx.”

Her voice was so soft and warm, it almost made Jinkx feel like crying again. She thought she’d gotten it all out in the bathroom earlier, but apparently not.

“I saw Ivy tonight,” Jinkx admitted, blinking fast to try and get rid of her tears. “Did you know she has a boyfriend? A serious boyfriend? I feel so fucking dumb for never-”

Alaska’s eyes had widened in surprise. This was clearly news to her too, which made Jinkx feel a tiny bit better.

“Jinkx, I’m so-” Alaska took her hand, grasping it tightly. “I’m so sorry. I know I was supposed to ask around about her, and things have been busy and I just-”

“It’s not your fault! Omigod, please don’t apologize.” Jinkx squeezed Alaska’s hand.

“But I promised you, and I never-”

“I’m glad you didn’t!” Jinkx shook her head. “Look, it’s a bummer, I guess, and I’ll probably be a mopey asshole for awhile, but I’m glad I found out before I totally embarrassed myself.”

“Anything I can do?” Alaska asked, eyes still soft and sympathetic.

“You can dance with me,” Jinkx said.

“You got it.”

Jinkx giggled, a mischievous smile spreading across her face as Alaska offered her arm and led her towards the dance floor.

***

“Come on!” Juju pulled on her husband's hand, trying to get him to walk faster through the crowd. It had taken forever to get the twins to bed after they had gone trick or treating, Julia and Owen beyond high on the sugar rush after Detox had allowed them to go ham in their Halloween buckets.

“But I want a drink-” Detox whined, and Juju almost rolled her eyes.

“You promised.” Juju looked over her shoulder, “Remember?”

“Right.” Detox smiled, pulling her in to press a kiss against her cheek.

“Ew!” Juju laughed, pushing him away, not willing to risk his orange makeup rubbing off on her face.

At first, when Detox had presented the ideas for their Halloween costumes, Juju had refused to dye his hair Oompa Loompa green, but once her husband made up his mind, it was nearly impossible to change it.

“Ah! Fame!” Juju waved as she spotted her friend, Fame’s hair covered by a stunning golden headdress.

“Juju!” Fame smiled, holding her arms out. “You made it!”

“Sorry we’re late.” Juju grinned. She had given her oldest a wad of cash before they left, Juju making sure that Kelly put it in her bra as a just in case, before she left for whatever high school students did these days.

As always, Juju’s friends had gathered in a corner, Fame almost allergic to open areas at parties. She spotted someone had to be Raja on the couch, making out with Raven, Detox already off to talk with Patrick.

“Juju!” Sutan smiled brightly, his new girlfriend sitting besides him. Juju had almost not believed it when she had read Raven’s text, her best friend swearing up and down that they were officially official. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Same,” Juju grinned, leaning into his hug Sutan got up to give her. “And who are you supposed to be?” Juju looked up and down, Sutan wearing a gray suit with a gray tie and a white shirt. “You decided to come as yourself? That’s real creative.”

“No!” Sutan huffed, sounding almost offended. “Look!” He reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on before he threw his arms out. “See!”

“Oh wow.” Juju drawled. “You’re yourself on a sunny day?”

“Please,” Sutan tipped the glasses down, “I’m Cary Grant. From North by Northwest.”

“Sure.” Juju smiled. She still didn’t believe that Sutan was actually dressed up, but it wasn’t his fault that Raja had gotten all the creativity. “Whatever you say, peaches.”

Sutan laughed, taking the sunglasses off again. “At least I’m not dressed as whatever the fuck-” Sutan pointed with the glasses, before putting them back in his pocket. “Your husband is supposed to be.”

“He’s an Oompah Loompah.” It sounded stupid even now, but it was what Juju had promised him when they’d gotten married, support in both good times and bad. “Duh.”

“Cheers bro!” Detox grinned, raising a glass. Juju had no idea where he had gotten it, the brown liquid unmistakably alcohol. That damn liar.

“Listen, does it surprise you that these two have the weirdest costumes?” Bianca slid up next to them, putting her arm around Juju’s shoulders. “It’s very on brand for them,” Bianca smiled, taking a sip of her drink. “Don’t you think?”

“Thanks, Daddy,” Juju chuckled, tugging on the white Peter Pan collar of her Veruca Salt costume and fluffing her pigtails.

“Hey,” Detox appeared at her side, Juju’s annoyance dying down immediately when she saw the glass of ginger ale that Detox was holding for her. “We just like to have fun.”

Juju took the drink, taking a sip of it, nose wrinkling. She was nearly halfway through this latest surprise pregnancy, and she was already sick of it. Her only consolation was the fact that Detox had finally agreed to a vasectomy, so there would be no more precious little accidents in the Sanderson household. Juju absolutely adored her children, but with a full-time job, a precocious teenager and 3 year old twins, she had her hands full and then some.

On the other hand...she was looking forward to that new baby smell. She rubbed her slightly swollen bump thoughtfully, and considered the fact that since this would be her last pregnancy, she may as well enjoy it. Even if a shot of tequila would be amazing on a night like tonight.

“Juju!”

Juju turned her head to see that Raven had finally pulled herself away from her makeout session with Raja, her still red lipstick annoyingly pristine.

“Look at you!” Juju threw out her arms. Raven was dressed like the only Jessica Rabbit, waist cinched tighter than Juju had ever seen, and of course her tits looking beyond amazing.

“Holy shit!” Juju reached out, grabbing the left tit. “How did you do this?”

“Custom made breastplate.” Raven grinned, pushing her red wig over her shoulder. “Doesn’t it look fan-fucking-tastic? I almost want to get a boob job.”

“As long as they look like this!” Juju laughed.

“Did you hear that Raj?” Raven yelled over her shoulder. “Juju thinks I should get a boob job!”

“Not the one against it!” Raja raised her drink, a smile on her face. “Ask the warden.”

Raven turned quickly to Sutan with a pointed look.

“How am I the villain here?” Sutan looked around.

“The people want boobs.” Juju snickered, leaning her face against Raven’s fake breasts. “You should give us the boobs.”

“I’ll make sure to inform the houses that porn star tits are in high fashion style.” Sutan rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling.

***

Kissing Pearl made Adore feel high.

Well, she was high, but kissing Pearl made it even better. Especially tonight, her girlfriend looking all luscious and feminine with her demure little skirt and glossy, cherry-red lips. All Adore wanted was to eat her up. They danced close together, and Adore couldn’t help hold her close, couldn’t stop her hands from roaming all over her.

She knew that people were watching them, could feel their eyes, and it made things even better. She moved her mouth to Pearl’s neck, letting her perfume wash over her as she sucked at her pulse point, hands squeezing her ass roughly.

Why not give ‘em a show?

***

“Raven!” Violet bit back a giggle as she made sure Raven didn’t fall, their fingers tightly clasped together. “Watch out!” They had gone to the bathroom together, Raven whining that she needed someone to help her with her dress. “You’re like a baby giraffe.”

“As if,” Raven snorted, her cheeks pink, a light in her eyes. “I’m a model.”

“Okay.” Violet smiled, shaking her head as they made their way across the floor. Violet was pleasantly tipsy, her body light and tingly with the alcohol in her blood. The party was a lot more fun than she had ever expected it would be, all the different costumes a joy to look at.

Violet was just looking around, taking in a man who had chosen to arrive on stilts for some reason, when she spotted an incredibly familiar face, the green eyes ones she had sat across from for months.

“Courtney!” Violet exclaimed, suddenly realizing that she actually almost missed the blonde.

“Violet! Hi!” Courtney smiled brightly, her entire energy like an overexcited puppy.  Violet felt Raven let go of her hand, the other woman throwing herself at Adore who caught her with a laugh.

“You look-” Violet glanced down at Courtney’s costume. “... Did you get a boob job?”

“What?” Courtney looked down at herself. “No!” Courtney laughed, grabbing her own chest. “No, no these are fake.”

“Huh.” Violet bit her lip, the padded bra looking almost disturbingly real to her tipsy mind. “Good. You’re pretty with your own breasts.”

Courtney grinned, lashes fluttering as she said, “Well, thanks for noticing, Violet.”

Violet smiled back, shaking her head. It was like she had never found Courtney annoying at all, the blonde just a beacon of good vibes. She tried to remember the last time she’d even seen her at work, when something popped into her head.

“Wait. Wait wait wait.” Violet reached out, grabbing Courtney’s wrist. “What happened with that dress?”

Courtney looked puzzled, her head tilted in confusion. “What dress?”

“The dress for Fame?” Violet still remembered vividly how stressed Courtney had looked. “With the golden pockets?”

“Ohh, that.” Courtney waved her hand. “She looked at it for a few seconds and then demanded eight more unrelated things. The usual.”

A giggle bubbled up from Violet’s chest. Now that she wasn’t working in Miss Fame’s office anymore, she was allowed to find Courtney’s irreverence a little bit amusing.

“Courtneyyyyy come get shots with us!”

The most beautiful girl Violet had ever seen in her life suddenly appeared, tugging on Courtney’s arm. Violet’s eyes barely knew where to land, taking in her wide brown eyes and full lips, the pink and gold of her costume making her tan skin glow.

“Violet, have you ever met my friend Tati?” Courtney asked, and Violet blinked, reaching out her hand.

“Wow. You’re…” Violet swallowed. “Beautiful.” She instantly felt her cheeks heat up, a terrible blush no doubt blooming on her cheeks. Violet wanted to throw herself out the window, the whole thing terribly embarrassing, but thankfully, the angel just laughed.

“Hi,” Tati smiled. “You should come get shots with us!”

“Um. I have to…” Violet tried to force her brain, tried to remember how to be a human being. “I have to…” Violet turned around, leaving without another word in a desperate attempt not to make more of a fool of herself.

This.

This was exactly why she didn’t have friends.

[4birds-of-a-feather]

Chapter 27 - Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight (when it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night) [part 2]

Birds Of a Feather

(In the previous chapters: Layla and some of the guys are trying to prepare a decent New Year’s Eve party, while Eddie and Sara went to watch the final installment of The Godfather saga; an attempt of Ed to become closer to Sara failed miserably)

“Ok, so, I have a ball”  Sara was still shaken when she got home and it took her awhile to steady her hand and insert her key correctly into the lock. But what she heard Layla say from the living room, as soon as she pushed the door open, managed to break the bubble of numbness she fell into after the movie.  “Alright, go on” Mike prompted Layla to continue as he was sitting right in front of her on the couch, together with the other friends who were forming a sort of semicircle around the girl. “I’ll give it to you, then I’ll give it to you, then to you, and you…” she went on with the game Sara knew too well, addressing the guys one by one “Then I’ll give it to you, Sara, hi!” Everybody in the room turned to greet Sara briefly, only to focus back on Layla a moment later.  “Then I’ll pass it to Mike again, then to Stone. Who’s got the ball?” the girl concluded and asked. “SARA!” Mike shouted animatedly. “Hi to you too, Cready. I see you’re already in overdrive despite the early hour” Sara smirked as she hung her jacket and approached the group. “I’m very happy you’re here Miss Fancini but… I wasn’t talking to you, that was my answer to Layla’s game. And I bet I’m right, am I not?” Mike talked gently to her, then turned to question Layla with almost crazy eyes. “No, it’s actually Chris who has the ball” the girl shrugged. “CHRIS?! How can it be Chris? You didn’t even look at him!” Jeff complained from his seat. “It’s Chris, sorry guys. Wanna try again?” “No, thanks, I’m already tired of this and I guess I’m not the only one, am I right guys?” Stone tried to stop the game, not because he was actually bored, but more to prevent the mess his bandmates were gonna make until they’d find the solution. “OVER MY DEAD BODY!” Mike blurted out. “Nobody’s leaving until we guess the right answer” Jeff added. “You mean until I guess the answer” the guitarist pointed out. “Yeah that’s exactly what I meant: until I guess the correct answer, ha!” Ament retorted. <Fuck, this is gonna be rich…> Stone thought as he sipped his beer and enjoyed the show. “Shall I do it again then or not?” Layla chimed in during the verbal fight and everybody nodded yes. “Right. Now… as y’all know by now, I have a ball” she added with a devilish smile. “Oh Jesus”  “Shut up Stone! Go on, babe” Jeff yelled and the girl was almost surprised the bass player was using an endearment term to call her instead of the usual Four Eyes or other funny nicknames. <He’s probably being kind only to get some hints> she soon realized.  “I pass the ball to Matt, then I give it to you” Layla pointed at Sara and then at different guys in the room and in the end she asked again who had the ball. “Is it Jeff?” Chris tried to guess out of the blue. “Yes, Chris, it’s Jeff! Good job! But why?” the girl pointed at Cornell who suddenly had all eyes on him. “YOU! HOW DID YOU DO IT?!” Mike yelled at the singer who wasn’t really aware of being at the center of the attention in that moment. “I don’t know, I thought… maybe alf… alp… you know the letters, as they go…” Chris hardly mumbled something. “ALPHABETICAL ORDER! IS IT? I KNOW IT IS! AM I RIGHT?” Jeff basically stole Cornell’s answer since he wasn’t in his own mind. “No, that’s not the right answer” Layla shook her head no but Jeff insisted. “What? Of course it’s the alphabet! You said it was Chris, then me” “Did you forget I was the one who had the ball on the first round?” Stone added with an annoyed voice “Then it was Matt, then me again. What kind of alphabet do they teach in Montana?” “Oh right…” Jeff sulked then squinted as if he was trying to concentrate more on the possible solution. “You’re following an order anyway, are you?” Matt asks. <The first question of the evening with some sense, thank God> Layla sighed internally. “No, that’s the point, I’m not following any specific order” she replied but someone misunderstood the answer. “ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU’VE BEEN MAKING FUN OF US FOR AN HOUR AND YOU’RE JUST CALLING PEOPLE RANDOMLY?!” Mike stood up but Sara pulled him down on the couch. “Hey, just relax! That’s not what she meant” she admonished him. “I only meant I’m not following an order but THERE IS a reason why I’m calling people. The reason is that… they’ve got the ball” Layla explained calmly and Mike’s face finally turned back to its natural color. “So it’s because of something we got…” the guitarist nodded but ignored something that someone else was ready to point out. “… And how did you know what she really meant, Sara?” Stone asked right when someone rang the doorbell. “Right! How did you fucking know?” Ament growled and all of a sudden Sara was the focus of the whole attention. “Well, that’s because I was the one who taught her this game” she candidly replied, reaching into a bowl of chips. “WHAT?” Mike gasped and the doorbell rang again. “Err, isn’t anybody going to answer the door?” Layla said, timidly standing up. “Lemme do this, so I can put an end to this stupid cross-examination” her best friend was quicker than her, and went to the front door munching. “Oh, it’s you” she dead-panned, taking a step to the right to let Eddie enter the apartment. “Yeah, I-I just took a walk” he said, stepping inside “Where’s everybody?” “In the living room, wasting time without getting anything done” she shrugged and made her way to the other room, with the guy right behind her. “Hey, it’s Eddie!” Mike enthusiastically greeted him, then patted the space beside him “C’mere, buddy, our dear Layla has been entertaining us with the most mind-blowing game that mankind could ever experience!” “Is that so?” the singer smiled at the girl, then plopped himself where his bandmate had pointed. “It is, indeed!” Cornell chimed in, then looked in Sara’s direction “And her friend, here – what was your name again, darling?” “I can’t believe this… you’re so full of shit, Chris” she snorted, stuffing again her face with other chips “Audrey Hepburn, that’s how people call me” “I can see why, the two of you could practically be sisters!” he retorted, sipping some beer for the umpteenth time “Anyway, as I was saying, miss Hepburn here has confessed to be the one who taught miss Layla this trick of the mind, so we’re gonna extort the solution from her!” “... Over my dead body”       “Nobody’s gonna reveal anything to anyone, you’re all gonna play honestly and ask questions and find the solution using reasoning and deduction” Layla tried to have the guys focus on the game. “In that case I think you’d better go and buy an inflatable number 2 balloon because we’ll most likely be still here one year from now without knowing the solution” Stone said, making Layla laugh. <Why is she laughing? Does she think I’m joking?> “Haha, come on! It’s easy! Ok, Eddie you probably don’t know but… I have a ball!”  “Alright” Eddie tried to concentrate, especially because he didn’t want to make a poor figure with the girl. “I give it to you first” “Ok” “Then I’ll give it to Mike, then back to you, then back to Mike once again. Then I’ll pass it to Sara, then back to you. Who’s got the ball?”  “Uhm… I got the ball”  “Yes! Why?” “WHAT?” Jeff yelled. “Beginner’s luck” Mike mumbled between gritted teeth. “Because..  I was the last one to get it?” Eddie tried to guess. “Pfffft! As if it was that easy!” the bass player snorted and had a sudden revelation “Wait, it’s because he arrived last! You’re following the order in which we arrived, right?”  “Nuh-uh, I’m following no specific order, I told you! And Eddie’s answer was only 50% correct anyway” Layla went on and dropped another hint. “What do you mean?” this time it was Stone that asked, taking it personally: he pretended he didn’t care but he felt he HAD to find the solution. “Somebody else has got the ball too” El shrugged and the guys went nuts. “WHAT THE HELL??” Mike cried. “... Two balls?” Jeff followed.  “Balls usually come in pairs anyway” Chris joked and the room went silent for a couple of seconds before everyone burst out laughing. “Hahaha, you idiot! By the way, Eddie and Chris both have the ball” “Sara, please, put an end to this. Can’t you see we’re suffering?” Matt chimed in, still in stitches. <Weeeell, if YOU ask me, I can’t say no> Sara pondered and it was like her roommate could read her mind.  “… NO FUCKING WAY” she hissed and in that instant Sara knew that, since the F word was pronounced, hell could start any minute now.  “I don’t wanna know the answer, I wanna play! Try me again” Eddie clapped his hands and winked at Layla. <If I had an actual ball, by now I’d have squeezed it until it exploded…> the girl thought as she went back to being her usual smiley self, trying to act nonchalant. “That's because you’ve just arrived! We’ve been racking our brains over this fucking ball for an hour!” Ament complained, then turned around and, unexpectedly, offered his best puppy eyes to someone else “Ok, Sara, what do you want to spill the beans?” “Cough, cough! I have a ball!” Layla ignored the comments and started it all over, while the other girl gestured zipping up her own lips. “Please!” the bass player pleaded once more, and Sara turned her face just in time – apparently, the puppy eyes were working better than her expectations suggested. “I’ll give it to Mike, then to Matt, then I’ll give it to you, Sara, then I’ll keep it to myself.” the other girl continued, adding another new element “Now, who’s got the ball?”  “Now I can see: balls are brain cells going lost during this game” Stone joked but was immediately shushed by everyone. “Is it… Mike?” Eddie tried. “No! It’s Matt and Stone”  “... Jesus Christ” Mike face-palmed, letting himself fall on the floor. “And nooow, Sara and I are gonna give you all a moment to ponder” Layla stood up and literally pulled up her friend from the couch and dragged her away from the living room. “El, I don’t know what’s happening to me but I’m starting to pity them. The caveman even begged me! Maybe I should give them the solution…” Sara remarked, still surprised by how low Jeff could stoop to have the solution. <Pity, sure… and Matt’s charming smile has got nothing to do with it, right?> Layla thought as she pushed her friend even more away from the gang’s protests. “C’mon, you don’t have to stay here and tell ‘em the answer!” she exclaimed, while the other girl rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not partaking in this madn-” “Run along, you have to get changed and ready for the party! There’s no time to waste by dawdling here!” she took Sara by the shoulders and dragged her until they were in front of Jeff’s ex-room “I’m sorry but for the hair and make-up this time you’re kinda on your own, I have to supervise the preparations” “Great loss, now I’m actually offended” the younger girl dead-panned and then faked a noble, detached voice “You’re free to go, servant” “Your Grace is so full of understanding, I shall never thank you enough!” Layla laughed and quickly went back to the living room, afraid of how many different kinds of damage could be awaiting for her, while Sara finally opened the door in front of her.  “Nice try, El” she smirked, eyeing the jumpsuit that was lying on her bed “It would be a real shame if somebody were to completely ignore your innocent suggestion…” The girl caressed the velvety texture of the clothing and simultaneously went for one of the dresser’s drawer handles, pulling it towards her without looking at it, but it was apparently stuck. “Oh, fuckin’ great… That asshole obviously couldn’t check if the room was falling to pieces before chivalrously lending it to me” she muttered, trying again with more strength; once again, the drawer didn’t budge.  “This is ridiculous – whatever, just lemme grab something quick from the closet so El won’t feel the urge to bug m-” While she was pulling, Sara heard a faint metallic sound, so she looked better and finally found the bitter truth: the closet and every single drawer inside her room had been sealed up with a plethora of lockets. “What in tHE FLYING FUCK IS GOING ON HERE??? EEEEEEEEEL!” she roared, running away from that living nightmare and demanding immediate explanations from her so-called best friend.     

“I can’t see why you’re making a fuss about this? You love that jumpsuit, don’t you?” Layla was rubbing her temples as she tried to stay calm and talk to her friend through the door, which had been locked by Sara from the inside. <I should have made the room keys disappear, how could I forget?>  “Yeah, I love it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to wear it!” “It’s lovely and looks great on you and I didn’t buy it for you to keep it in your closet forever! I wanna see my present finally put into good use”  That seemed to shut Sara up, leaving her with her mouth open but no words coming out of it. “And I bet everybody’s gonna love it, especially the guys!” Layla added, making the worst mistake. “... OH YEAH, THAT WILL SURELY BE THE MAIN REASON FOR ME TO WEAR IT” her best friend regained consciousness “PLEASING GUYS IS MY MISSION IN LIFE” she roared back, while Layla tried to convince her to lower her voice. “Shhhhhh fuck, I was almost there!” the girl cursed at herself for talking too much and went back grasping at straws “Who said anything about pleasing anyone? I just meant that they’ll appreciate your party outfit and won’t make any unpleasant remarks about it. Plus they’re mostly drunk, what they say makes no sense anyway, so who cares? And since when do you care about men’s opinion? A bunch of guys now stop you from doing what you like or wearing what you want?”  “THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY GODD-wait a minute, it actually makes sense” “Of course it does! Come on, get out of that room, please” Layla insisted, pleased with herself for pushing Sara’s right buttons. “... I don’t know, it seems like a stupid thing to do; after all, it’s you who wants me to wear the jumpsuit, not me” “Jesus…” Sara’s friend rolled her eyes “Right, since you don’t wanna wear it, don’t do it. But remember I’ve got all the keys so I’m really curious about what your alternative choice of clothes will be in the end” “My pajamas would work too, you know?” Layla wanted to smash her own head against the wall or against the door so she could open it and put an end to this, when she finally came up with something. “Alright, put your pjs on… Wait, that’s not a bad idea at all! Let’s all put pajamas and turn this into a slumber New Year’s Eve party! Sara, you’re a genius” “... I didn’t think you would have agreed with my idea, but-” “I’m gonna go and tell the others! I heard Jeff sleeps in the nude, did you know that?” “YOU HEARD WHAT?!”

************************************************************************************************ 

“There she is! Where have you been? We were talking about you!” Matt waved to a girl who was slowly pushing her way through the crowd, and the whole group of people near him turned around to see who was coming. “All good things, I hope”  “If you’re dressed like that? Always, Sara” the drummer winked at her, then threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him; needless to say, the girl blushed to the roots of her hair. “Is that a jumpsuit with the zodiac?!” she heard a loud gasp and turned in the direction of another girl, shorter than her and clinging to her boyfriend’s arm, whose eyes were literally shining. “Yep, it is” “That is so gorgeous! Can I come closer to better see it?” “Yeah, no problem” “Oh my God, you’re an angel! Thank you!” the other girl almost squealed in excitement, then jumped in front of her and began to study her garment “This is real velvet, I can’t believe it! Where did you find this gem?!” “I think it’s that shop in Pike Place… Vintage Clothing?” “... the place where Xana used to work” the girl had turned to face again her boyfriend and share a knowing look with him, then refocused on her “I doubt I’ll ever find something as cool as this, but thanks for the tip”  She offered her a genuine smile and her hand to shake: “I’m Demri, by the way, and this is my boyfriend Layne” “I was the one who told ‘em to come, hope it’s alright!” Chris chimed in, giving a nudge to the Alice In Chains singer. “You did the right thing, Cornell; they’re cool enough to hang with us losers” Sara grinned, then waved back at Layne “Hiya to you as well, stranger; how are your bandmates doing?”  “Oh, Jerry is with a girlfriend of his and Sean and Mike went to do a tour of some of the hundreds of parties that this city has to offer – but I wonder how Mike will react when I tell him that I went to the same party that you attended” the guy smirked at her “Did he come to visit you at your workplace?” “Nope, thank God” “Fear not: he will… soon” “He’s gonna get me fired! Please, can’t you come with him so you can keep him at bay? Pretty please” “Hey, it’s not my fault if he doesn’t understand a single thing when you’re nearby… his brain short-circuits” “So you’re the one who has poor Mike wrapped around her finger! I can see why” Demri joined them again, giving the girl a little nudge “If it helps any, he seems pretty serious about it – I, for once, have never seen him acting like that before” “I don’t know, I’m not that keen on trusting men… seems like a waste of time” Sara shrugged, then followed Layla with her gaze: she was talking with Stone and Ed and seemed really invested in drinking what was inside her glass. 

“Can I get one more try?” Eddie pleaded Layla, who was chatting and drinking with him and Stone in the middle of the living room among the party guests. “No, you can’t” Gossard answered in her place, officially because he was fed up with the game, but actually because he wanted to be the one to guess the solution right. “Sure you can! But, as I said, I’ll tell the solution after midnight” the girl replied sipping her sangria through a straw. “Alright, alright eheh, no pressure, I swear” Eddie put his hands out laughing and his guitarist friend rolled his eyes so hard for a moment he thought his retinas detached. <No pressure? Tsk, that’s your problem, man. What about putting a little pressure on this girl for a change?> “Ok so I have a ball, then I-” Layla started but was soon interrupted by a stranger’s voice behind her back. “Who’s got a bong?” Stone didn’t need to look up to the person who spoke to know who it was and a smile appeared on his face. “Hey Lukin! I thought you’d never come” Gossard patted his friend on his back. “Uhm, now that’s not something I hear that often... too bad you’re not a girl, Stoney.” Matt replied and finally noticed the other two people looking at him with the same perplexed expression on their face “Hi, so where’s this bong of yours? I’m ready”  Layla laughed as the guy clapped his hands once and then rubbed them together. “She said ball, not bong, you asshole!” Stone explained barely holding his laughter. “Yeah, right, hehe, it’s a game, you know? Anyway, I’m Layla, nice to meet you” she stretched her hand out and he looked at it suspiciously before shaking it. “Nice to meet you too. But you shouldn’t play with people’s feeling and promise bongs that are not actually there. That’s not nice at all” “Oh, sorry… well, I’m sure somebody brought something to smoke, don’t worry” Layla was almost apologizing for doing nothing and that made both Eddie and Stone laugh. “Who needs bongs? We can always make a pipe out of a can, do you remember?” Stone said referring to older times. “Yeah, and that’s when we came up with the motto Who needs a bong when you have coke?” Lukin explained, suddenly serious, as he was a teacher talking to his students. “Smoking through a coke can? Isn’t it dangerous, with the chemicals and everything?” the girl retorted. “Chemicals are not as dangerous as Matt Lukin” Stone remarked while Eddie introduced himself too. “Nothing’s as dangerous as Matt Lukin!” another guy came up from out of nowhere and put his hands on Stone and Matt’s shoulders, then his attention focused on the girl in the small circle “Layla?? Hiiiiii!” The color drained from the girl’s face once she recognized the guy’s face. “Steve! Hi!” she faked an excessively big smile and both Eddie and Stone, although for different reasons, noticed something was off. “Wait, do you know each other?” Stone asked confused. “Well, either they do or they’re champs at Guess my name” Lukin pointed out. “Huh… well, yeah, I know her, she’s the girl who works at Scarecrow Video”  “THAT ONE?? OUCH!” Matt almost yelled, only until Steve squeezed his shoulder very hard. “Yeah, and I know him as a customer, ehehehe” Layla went on. <... And as the guy who asked me out and I had to turn down> Layla told herself as she thought about Steve coming to the shop and striking up a conversation with an excuse to get to know her. She didn’t understand he was flirting with her  – not even the fact he used to come over to the shop ever so often opened her eyes. The fact he started to rent at least a couple of movies every day gave her a sneaky suspicion.  “And how do you know each other? I’m Eddie, by the way” Vedder tried to make his handshake as firm as he could. “Steve” “Yeah, I’m good at Guess My Name too” Eddie continued. “The new singer, huh? Well, Stone and I used to be in the same band. Did you tell them about Green River or is it a taboo topic?” Turner joked trying not to make it too obvious that he was drooling all over Layla. When he asked her out and she turned him down, he didn’t take it too well. He knew she had a boyfriend, she didn’t miss a chance to casually drop his name during their conversations.  <But he wasn’t in Seattle after all… I mean, he was in a different city, in a different state… he was in fuckin’ Massachusetts! Why waste your time and your youth with a long distance relationship?> “Oh yeah, you told me you were in a band! But I think it was a different band, or I didn’t get the name right maybe” Layla chewed on her lower lip trying to remember the band name he had told her. “I told you about Mudhoney, that is my current band” “MUDHONEY! That’s it, yeah, now I remember!” “Well, now I’m in Mudhoney with this guy over here and another couple of guys, who are not at the party” <Thank God!> Stone thought, picturing a fist fight between Mark Arm and Sara as very likely. “He said that guy over here because he doesn’t remember my name anymore” Lukin said shrugging. “He remembered hers though… and she remembered his, he must be a regular customer, right?” Vedder realized his comment was out of place the moment he said it but it was too late. “Yeah, sort of… not now though, I mean, not as much as I used to” Steve answered. “Oh, and why?” “Well-” Turner started to speak but Layla interrupted him out of the blue. “I’ve never tried with a coke can but once I smoked pot through a carrot” the girl gave her statement and Matt’s attention focused on her right away. “What?” “And once I got high with a snorkeling mask too” “WHAT??” Stone and Eddie yelled at the same time, as they probably found the second option weirder than the first one for some reason. “I like your attitude. Can I become a regular too?” Lukin suggested, then turned towards Steve “Ehm, can I? I’ve got no bad intentions, I swear” This exchange didn’t go unnoticed to Stone and most of all to Eddie, so Layla had to come up with another diversion. She started jumping and waving around her arms like the wings of an eagle, apparently wanting to get everybody’s attention. “HEY GUYS! WHO WANTS TO PLAY A GAME?”  

“Another one?” Jeff walked up to Layla and then acknowledged the rest of the group “Hey, hi guys!” “Yeah, we haven’t even finished the first one yet!” Stone complained. “Oh but I wasn’t thinking about a riddle, I meant something different, like a group game” the girl explained trying to ignore both Steve staring at her and Eddie staring at Steve. <Is this some kind of weird Mexican stand-off or something?> Layla asked herself in disbelief. “Make it a drinking game and I’m in” Lukin gladly accepted. “I had no doubt about it” Steve laughed. “MAKE IT STRIP POKER AND I’M IN TOO!” Mike yelled as he appeared out of thin air, coming back from one of his frequent trips to the bathroom. “Cready, I swear to fuckin’ God, if I hear you babblin’ one more time about this heckin’ strip poker, you can bet your sweet ass I’m gonna tie you up to a chair and force you to listen to Barry Manilow non-stop until your brain oozes out of your nose like fuckin’ pudding, understood?!” Sara had just stomped in their direction, making her opinion about the guitarist’s suggestion crystal clear. “... you’re no fun, Sara” McCready gave her his signature puppy eyes, along with a big pout, but the girl replied with a punch on his arm. “Yeah, in fact I’m not joking at all: you know I can do it and I will, so don’t tempt me” “Sara Fancini? Is that you? I can’t believe it” Steve chimed in and finally Sara turned around and registered his face. “... Well, I’ll be damned! Steve Turner!” she replied surprised. “If we were playing the drinking version of Guess the Name as I’ve been suggesting for hours, I’d be already drunk now” Lukin mirrored Mike’s pouting face while a bunch of guests had stopped to see what was happening. “You know her too. Wow. Are you a regular at Easy Street Records too?” Eddie narrowed his eyes at Turner as he addressed him. “I’ve known this guy for longer than six years, what do you mean ‘a regular’? A regular loser? A regular pain in the ass? Oh wait, you’re not in Jeff’s band anymore, so you might stand a chance in life, after all” Sara smirked and couldn’t help catching a glimpse of Ament’s angry face when she said that.  “I haven’t seen you for a while though, I didn’t remember you being so harsh” Steve pointed out with a smile. “... You tell me” Jeff remarked through fake coughing. “Oh right, you were in their band and Sara knew you back then” Eddie finally joined the dots. “Earth calls Eddie, Earth calls Eddie. Good morning Eddie, glad you’re finally back with us” Stone joked prompting an awkward and embarrassed look from the singer. “And where does this bullying against Jeff come from? I honestly remember you were getting along so we-” Steve insisted, dredging up the past, but he was promptly interrupted by Sara. “DID I HEAR SOMEONE SUGGESTING ‘NEVER HAVE I EVER’?? LET’S DO IT” “Someone who? I didn’t hear anything” Mike pointed out as he looked around. “Also because we’re not at a sixth grade party?” Gossard added but Layla immediately loved the idea and ignored him. “Yeah! That’s exactly what I was thinking about: a nice group game. I’m in!” “My idea of group games is a tad different but… ok, as long as it’s about people drinking and falling down on the floor I’m in” Lukin shrugged and joined in as other guests did.  “It can involve drinking?! COUNT ME IN” McCready chimed in again, going near Lukin and sharing a high five with him.

[devillainsarchive]

🐾 meta;

Carlos and his mental state and disabilities (this is the best way i could think to phrase it). These are present in all my verses unless stated otherwise (like my mr robot verse where he has dissociative identity disorder).

I want to be very clear, this post will only graze the surface of deeper issues. I am also putting a majority of this post under a read more due to the some of the more sensitive topics, and I don’t desire to trigger anyone.

I want to also say, making this post has made me extremely nervous. As I don’t want to portray things incorrectly, or wrong. I am always learning, and striving to reduce the stigma and glorification of these things.

Additionally, this things are not plot points for Carlos. I will never use them to make his story more sad or more upsetting. I am not here to have them be a shock value. With writing about these things most of my nerves regarding this post that I have put off for months is the backlash I will get. If you want to talk to me about anything I say in this post, I ask you do it off anon.

Finally this post is not going to be addressing Carlos intelligence (ie his IQ score and how he is a prodigy where schooling is concerned). Certainly some of these things can feed into that. But his intelligence is something that deserves its own post.

Short list: things Carlos has (diagnosed and diagnosed)

Asperger’s

PTSD and C-PTSD

Anxiety

Depression

Schizophrenia

OCD

Insomnia

This is the longer list, essentially I go a bit into detail about each thing on the short list, explain my reasoning behind him having each thing, where I pull from canon to get the reasoning, a bit about the manifestations of each thing for Carlos. There will be cross over, so I may repeat myself on occasion.

Asperger’s (Asperger Syndrome)

Carlos’ Asperger’s is evident when you know the signs. Carlos struggles to pick on basic social cues. He certainly gets better and learns more when he is older. But as a young child, and especially all his time on the Isle, and when he first lives in Auradon. One of the most evident signs of this is that he will talk about things he likes typically mechanics and wires and machines without stopping to care about what his listener thinks about it. In Auradon he learns to stop himself from getting to far, and he always feels bad about it after. He cherishes people that let him talk.

Carlos is not loud, but he certainly has a wide vocabulary. While this is not incredibly evident, his annoyance with Reza’s vocabulary could lead to he knows what all those words mean. Carlos just knows how to use them in natural conversation. He does not understand normal jokes or humor, and it takes him a few moments to get a joke. In Auradon he gets better with those social queues, and learns how and when people are trying to be funny. Carlos may laugh but that does not mean he gets the joke. He also may not understand when he is telling a joke. This does not mean that Carlos can’t laugh or doesn’t know when to laugh, he laughs easily with Jay, and probably for a very long time Jay is the only one who can get a genuine laugh out of him.

Carlos’ is very aware of his surroundings. He notices small changes in things, and often changes in thins will bug him, and make him upset. He hyper-fixates this primarily on his desk in Auradon, and his desk in the hideout on the Isle, and the treehouse in the backyard of Hell Hall on the Isle. He knows immediately when things are wrong with it. This applies also to people around him, sudden movements, but for the most part Carlos associates that with always having to be on alert for his mother. His own interactions with people may seem odd, he may ignore them or seem rude, but he doesn’t mean it. This is where part of that callous demeanor comes from, but he is much better at turning that off and on than people realize.

Carlos also has his hobbies that he talks forever about, that he will ignore people for. This hobby is science and mechanics, and computers. He also enjoys binary code, and Morse code. One prime example of this is when he first ignores Evie when she meets him officially for the first time. He is focusing on building the machine that pierces a hole in the barrier. He essentially ignores Evie, until she makes a comment about the machine to help him make it work. Another example of this is from D1 where he is playing the video game. One other example is the fact that he has the period table of elements memorized this comes up as a way to calm himself down, when he is aware enough to calm himself down.

Last but not least Carlos has a serious aversion to touch. This plays into so many other things about him, and many things you will see on the list. Carlos does not like being touched. And touching him when its uninvited could lead to a various range of results.

PTSD

Carlos PTSD mainly manifests itself in the forms of flashbacks, and nightmares, and panic attacks. His PTSD is caused by his mother’s treatment of his as a child. His mother’s treatment of him, wont be discussed in great detail here, but it is traumatic for him. In short he was not loved or cared for. He had to do so much on his own, on top of his mother ordering him about. She burned him with butts of cigarettes, threw things at him, and treated him like a dog to the point of Evie thinking he was a dog because she could hear it. Dog jokes on the isle about him run rampant.

His triggers on the Isle, he doesn’t really care about. He still is in the situation constantly, so he doesn’t really pay attention. In general, and one he has control of, is the various dog nick names. He will get a bit volatile about being called dog names. Other triggers mainly include heals clacking, smoke, dogs (all dogs, and then just big dogs as he gets to know Dude), and touch particularly touch of his hair. These are his biggest triggers, and they are not his only ones. They also don’t always set him off. He has it all much more under control than he thinks he does. He is good at self regulating his panic attacks and knows when they come on. Flashbacks are his rarest form of manifestation. They are not always full on vivid images of things, but he often gets an overwhelming smell of his mother, and Hell Hall. Nightmares are his most common manifestation. He struggles to sleep, but when he does 6 nights out of 7 he will have a nightmare. He does his best to thoroughly exhaust himself before he sleeps in order to not have nightmares (and to not disturb people, namely Jay). They mainly manifest in Auradon.

His PTSD can get very bad, especially when he has a full flashback. His full flashbacks are generally brought about when he thinks he is being threatened. They come mostly from fear of being touched, mainly if he thinks someone is going to strike him, or if someone is yelling at him. He has full flashbacks very very rarely, but he has had them. One of the most prominent times he has had one is on Parents day when Audrey’s grandmother, and Chad yelled at Mal, Evie, and Jay.

Carlos has both PTSD and C-PTSD. There are certain events from Carlos’ childhood that cause PTSD, but the ongoing abuse he suffered is what gives him C-PTSD. PTSD includes reliving the trauma through nightmares ( referenced vividly in book 4 ) and flashbacks both of which Carlos experiences. He avoids situations, and when he can’t he either disassociates or runs such as with Parent’s Day when Queen Leah’s yelling makes him dissociate. His fear of dogs stems from his PTSD, as well as his hyper awareness of the world around him (though this hyper awareness is also brought on for other reasons). Some of his triggers cause somatic symptoms, as shown above.

Carlos’ C-PTSD is evident in both the books and the movies. From lack of emotional regulation (him yelling at his mom in D1), to dissociation his response to Jane in D3 where he forgets seemingly that his mother abused him. Carlos shows many signs for C-PTSD. He has the most control over his emotions almost to the point where he can come of as emotionless ( “they say I’m callous” ). Carlos has a negative view of himself, but don’t expect him to say that. His mother’s comments towards him made it such so that he feels different, not to mention how utterly embarrassed he is of his handwriting because he taught himself how to write. Carlos’ inability to form good relationships with people, especially outside of the Core4 is not only a symptom of C-PTSD but also something that is part of asperger’s. However its a fine line because the type of people he is typically attracted to, tend to have power over him. Its a delicate line that both parties have to walk.

Carlos’ perception of his mother is his biggest sign that he has C-PTSD. He loves her. He loves her to the point that he will defend her. He knows she doesn’t love him, this is his plot of book 1 essentially. But that does not change his feelings towards her. He has a desire to make her proud, even at the cost of his own morals. Carlos loves Cruella unconditionally even though he shouldn’t, and its unhealthy. He also fears her, but that doesn’t mean he can’t love her. His fear of her causes physical reactions in him from shaking, as seen in book one, to nearly becoming a different person, a main reason he doesn’t want Dude on the Isle in D2.

Carlos doesn’t really exhibit loss of systems, mainly because his only real connection with religion is that his dad is Jewish. However, in my writing, he does often think about how stupid it is to have hope, so that would fit in well there.

Overall Carlos has both. There are specific child hood events that give him PTSD, but the abuse over the years is what gives him C-PTSD, and yes one can have both.

This is not diagnosed.

Anxiety

Carlos’ has anxiety, mainly severe social anxiety. Carlos does not do well in big crowds, or social situations. He has the constant thought that he is annoying people or bugging them. He may want to approach someone, but actually doing it is incredibly taxing on him, and he panics.

Social situations in general make his heart rate go up. Carlos has panic attacks from this. These are the ones that he can barely control, if at all. They come on fast, and often Carlos gets no real warning for them mainly because he doesn’t always know what triggers them.

This is also not diagnosed, but it does stem from Cruella’s treatment. He is always on edge around her, and worried and nervous about how she feels about him. This extends to every person he knows and meets. This extends to his friends. He is always worried about them, and how they view him. He is waiting often for their guidance to tell  him what to do, even if he knows what he needs to do. He likes orders.

Additionally his mind is constantly going a million miles a minute. He often has different things processing and going on at the same time. But worries are most of those. These worries keep him up at night, and actually add to his insomnia.

His anxiety is potentially the least worrying thing for Carlos though. It has been ingrained in him so long to be on edge, that that is all he views it as.

Depression

Carlos’ depression is the must fuzzy of all the things he is diagnosed with. It is definitely the hardest to pin down. And it is one of the things that Carlos does his best to ignore. He has other things going on his mind, if he wants to lay in bed, he has things going on telling him he can’t. Something needs to be cleaned, something needs to be done, his mother is telling him to get up.

Something that links into his depression is his view of his body. Carlos is incredibly self conscious. He has multiple scars that are from cigarettes, or chemical burns. He has cuts, and scrapes that have scared over. He also has his freckles which are a love hate relationship with. His mother found it the one good thing about him since he was born with spots unlike puppies, but for a while it made him resent them. However due to his unique relationship with his mom, he likes his freckles because he knows that since he has them his mom has the chance to love him.

Carlos’ view of his own body being malnourished, and that his growth is stunted, among other things is skewed. He doesn’t like people seeing his body. Sometimes seeing his body makes him uncomfortable with himself, or he just loses all motivation he had. It can be incredibly debilitating. It is often the thing that gets him down the most, and makes his days the hardest to get through.

Schizophrenia

Carlos’ schizophrenia began to manifest itself when he was around the age of 10. He has no idea what it is. It is gentic, and he did get it from Cruella (this is based primarily on Descendants Cruella, and Disney’s live action and animated Cruella).

Carlos’ main symptoms for this are hallucinations, delusions, unusual ways of thinking, agitated body movements, reduced expression of emotion, reduced speaking, and poor executive function. He may exhibit more, but these are the most common. On the daily he typically experiences auditory or visual hallucinations that are vivid and often seem real to him. It his strongest symptom. He explains as he does in D2 where he hears Cruella’s voice in his head. She often talks to him telling him that he is worthless and useless, or she will give him orders. Disobeying the orders is hard, and sometimes he feels that he has no control over his body as he obeys whatever order his mother told him.

Carlos also often known to have delusions, and when he is having an episode he likely wont make sense. He will behave opposite to how he is commonly known (so how Auradonians view him), but he will also be opposite to how the Core 4, and friends who actually know him are. One way to confirm that he is potentially relapsing is that he will respond to the vivid hallucinations.

Often the best way to get him to come back to reality, and get him past the episode is to initiate contact with him, because that is the best way to ground him. Its not an easy feat since he doesn’t like being touched. And he will likely lash out when people try to touch him.

Aside from hearing his mother’s voice, he may feel her arms around him and she could be stroking his hair. His protection of her is often what makes him lash out at people who come near when this happens. Carlos seems almost relaxed when this happens, in a way he never is, his eyes close and it looks like he is experiencing something euphoric, he has this look in D1 when his mother is petting his hair in Maleficent’s home before they head to Auradon.

However, his most common system is the auditory hallucinations, and he rarely talks about them even with his friends. This is also not diagnosed because of his refusal to admit that he is crazy like his mom. He does not want to be like her, and he knows that having it could potentially get him sent back to the Isle. He doesn’t necessarily like when people say he isn’t like his mother, because he knows its a load of bull.

OCD

Carlos has OCD, it goes beyond his need for things to be perfect and meticulous something that was ingrained into him by his mother. Carlos has a few very small ticks. He does things in 10s, or in 101s. For example Carlos will wash his hands for 101 seconds, or will brush his teeth for 101 seconds. He will eat food in ten bites, not a whole meal but each seperate piece of food he eats will be done in 10 bites. This leads to him being a bit of a messy eater, but don’t worry he has 10 napkins for that issue exactly. If he used a clickable pen he would have to click the pen 10 times before he will use it. Often when panicking he counts to 10 to help him breathe. 101s are meant for longer tasks, his brain automatically sorts things like that. His worst infraction of this is going up stairs, if a stair case does not have 101 steps, which most of them don’t, he will calculate what he needs to get to those steps. If a staircase has more than that, he will start the 101 over, and calculate how to get to that number like he would with a regular stair case. It is the hardest tick to hide, in his opinion.

This is not diagnosed.

Insomnia

Carlos has severe insomnia, it is added to by a few things, such as his anxiety and PTSD. It is not dependent on those things. Carlos’ mind just does not shut off. In order to get a good night’s sleep he has to be pretty much exhausted. It became much more apparent in Auradon than on the Isle. It did exist on the Isle. Often being coaxed into sleep helps too, and that typically includes friends helping him sleep, this can be seen more so in my own writing. However I do pull him having insomnia from the scene in D1 where he is shifting on his bed awake, granted all the kids are awake, but his just feels different to me.

As with everything else on the list this is not diagnosed, but it is one of the few things Carlos is fairly comfortable self diagnosing himself with.

In general, the numerous things he deals with that affect his life day to day, when he is diagnosed and does talk about them, are the reason he is eligible for a service dog, and why he gets a service dog. Granted he has to over come his fear of dogs first, but its the baby steps. Medicine is not exactly an option for Carlos because he is so scared of the side affects of many of them Not to mention he kind of refuses to take it. Agreeing to having a service dog is a good compromise for now. But doctors ideally want him on medication to further improve his life. He does not get a service dog til he is essentially an adult in most of my verses.

[richincolor]

Group Discussion: Love, Hate & Other Filters

A searing #OwnVoices coming-of-age debut in which an Indian-American Muslim teen confronts Islamophobia and a reality she can neither explain nor escape–perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, and Adam Silvera.

American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe (just maybe) pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school, a boy who’s finally falling into her orbit at school.

There’s also the real world, beyond Maya’s control. In the aftermath of a horrific crime perpetrated hundreds of miles away, her life is turned upside down. The community she’s known since birth becomes unrecognizable; neighbors and classmates alike are consumed with fear, bigotry, and hatred. Ultimately, Maya must find the strength within to determine where she truly belongs.

Review copy: ARC via publisher

Welcome to the Rich in Color discussion of Love, Hate & Other Filters. **Beware, there are some spoilers ahead.**

Crystal: There are so many reasons for me to love this book. Maya’s voice had me from the very beginning with the words, “Destiny sucks.” Her wry humor had me smiling so many times. Her passion for creating movies is also awesome.

Jessica: Seriously, what an opening line. Maya’s voice definitely grabs you from the get-go. I didn’t think of this until you brought it up, but the way Maya’s passion for filmmaking provides yet another lens for her life is fascinating. I’m looking at the cover (what a great cover), and what the title means is finally registering. I know, I’m a little slow on the uptake. Maya see her life through the filters of love, hate, and the narrative bent of filmmaking. And, on a meta level, the reader sees Maya’s life through her romance, the Islamophobia that harms her, and the snapshot moments of other people’s lives leading up to the terror attack and its aftermath. It really paints a complete picture.

Audrey: I agree, I really enjoyed Maya’s voice and the frequent camera/filmmaking references. Her little asides about how things would go if this were x sort of movie were fun. I really enjoy reading about characters who have passions that seep into many corners of their lives, and Maya’s habit of filming things was a great way to establish her character (and plot-relevant). Sometimes the best way to get to know a person is to dive deep into the things they geek out about, and Maya’s passion for filmmaking was a great way to get to know her.

Karimah: I liked Maya’s voice as well and agree with you Audrey that her “teen movie” asides were great. It gave us a great insight into who she is and how she sees the world, and I truly connected with her. I giggled a couple of times at some of her comments and loved that she had a great sense of who she truly at such a young age.

Crystal: Maya is facing several challenges because of family expectations. Her dreams do not exactly match up with their dreams for her. The love in the family is easy to see, but that doesn’t mean there is smooth sailing. In some ways it makes it even more difficult. It’s hard to go against the wishes of people who love you and want the best for you. I adored Maya’s aunt. If we all had a Hina in our lives, what a wonderful world it would be.

Jessica: I think what really grabbed my heart early on is Maya’s introduction of Hina, where she says that despite being so different, Hina and Maya’s mother are actually best friends. This really set the tone for me of how much love Maya had in her family. Her parents may have had very specific ideas and goals for Maya, but you knew that in the end, they would come to accept what made Maya happy — just like how Hina and Maya’s mother are best friends.

And of course, on the surface, Maya’s parents seem unreasonably strict, and Maya struggles against those restrictions. But when her parents shut down and rule out Maya’s dreams, not out of a desire to control her, but a desire to keep her safe in the aftermath of a terrible event, you can again tell that they do it out of love, even if they aren’t necessarily right. I think anyone – especially anyone from an immigrant background – can recognize that parental instinct, those warnings to keep your head down, do the safe thing, don’t stand out, stay safe. That really hit home for me.

Audrey: As an adult, when I’m reading YA, I often find myself torn between the parents and the teens. On the one hand, I totally get why Maya’s parents have those expectations for her and why they’re so upset when she springs her own desires on them; on the other hand, I sympathize with Maya wanting to forge a life outside of those expectations. Hina was a great character, not only because she often took Maya’s side, but because she established a model for Maya to follow. Hina is living proof that Maya can build a life that suits her while–someday–forging a more equal relationship with her parents.

I really empathized with Maya’s parents’ fears after the terrorist attack and how immediate the backlash was for their family. They remembered the Islamophbic outbursts of violence after the September 11, 2001, attacks, so of course their first instincts were to protect their daughter. While I wish they would have listened to Maya more, I can’t entirely fault them for their reaction.

Audrey: Were there any other characters you particularly liked besides Maya? I was very fond of Violet. She was close to everything I want my YA heroines to have in a best friend. She didn’t have as much screen time as I’d hoped, but I appreciate her support for Maya and how she cheered her on all the time.

Crystal: I totally loved Hina. Like Audrey said earlier, Hina proved that it was possible to carve out a life that fits your own dreams. She knew what she wanted and worked on maintaining relationships in spite of the hurdles.

Karimah: I liked Violet as well. I’m glad that she knew how to best support Maya in her budding relationship with Phil and was completely supportive of her after the terrorist attack. She was a great best friend for Maya and I love that she was written in such a manner. I also liked Phil as he was much deeper than the typical romantic lead. Usually the romantic lead is this idealized version the “popular hot guy” but he was actually the total opposite. I mean, the way Maya described him he seem attractive, but he had a secret himself and had the same family tension as Maya. He was also so sweet to Maya and supportive of her as well.

Crystal: The format of the book is a little unusual. Maya’s story is sequential, but it is interrupted with brief moments from another perspective. These interstitials (a new word for me) definitely add mystery and suspense. Some of them are also very unsettling. What did you think of this choice in the storytelling?

Jessica: At first, I was a little on the fence about it, because I knew where the story was going. I didn’t know how I felt about portraying someone about to commit a terrible crime. It was haunting and beautifully written, and definitely added a layer of suspense. It was, ahem, a great filter for the book. At the same time, I still am not sure how I feel about the portrayal of the terrorist in the aftermath (spoilers ahead, stop reading if you haven’t finished the book) — I guess, I’m always a little leery of narratives that show an abused child becoming a criminal when all too often, people who commit hate crimes are the privileged and angry, not the people who are most vulnerable in society. The terrorist had a mix of privilege and resentment, along with a terrible upbringing, so it’s certainly not a black-and-white narrative that I’d condemn. But it does unsettle me.

Anyway, that’s my long-winded way of saying, I think it added a lot to the book, while also shaking up my preconceptions about a lot of things.

Karimah: Since my WIP has interstitials (didn’t know that is what they were called) has them, I really enjoyed them. I felt like it gave us an insight into the terrorist’s mind as he leads up to the act. I like how they allowed us to connect to different people who were affected by the act as well. It brought the terror of the act, aside from how Maya’s family is affected, to life. However, like Jessica, I was a bit annoyed by the narrative of the abused child becoming a criminal. I felt like it was an “easy out” for the terrorist instead of being real with that he just had hate in his heart and a desire to cause destruction. I get it was trying to humanize him, but with so many terrorists of his ilk called “lone wolf” and humanized when Black and Brown victims of police are demonized, it hurt.

Audrey: The interstitials felt very cinematic for me. Maya’s the main character of this movie, if you will, so the camera mostly sticks with her, but the interstitials were brief cuts to the danger that had been building unbeknownst to her. That ramped up the tension for us as a viewer/reader, and then afterwards we got to see the truth unfold on the periphery while we stayed with Maya (because her story was the emotional center of the story). I think it was a fitting narrative device for this book.

But like you said, I was really disappointed that the abused child backstory showed up. Maybe I’m just bitter and angry and frustrated (hi, all of last year), but I’m entirely uninterested in any story trying to mitigate angry white men’s hateful actions, especially when we saw how much Maya and her family were hurt because of it.

Crystal: One last note about the romances. I had to smile with her first love interest. The actions were fairly innocent, but the descriptions were still quite sensual. The second romance was filled many roadblocks, but was a unique set of circumstances. It was complex and I also appreciated the ending that seemed very realistic. (Trying not to spoil too much here, but it’s not a fairy tale.)

Audrey: I thought it was great that Maya had two love interests and how both of those stories came to different conclusions. It was nice to see how messy feelings could get and how Maya tried to navigate both romantic options. (As a side bonus, I really liked the fact that the guys didn’t know about each other, so we didn’t have to endure any jealous posturing.) I’m really happy we got to see Maya exploring her feelings and sorting out what her heart really wanted.

Karimah: I really, really loved both romances because they were just so real and I feel that Maya handled both of them so well. She was honest with herself and her feelings and rightfully made the right call with her first romance and I loved the slow burn that was the second. It was refreshing that all of them were honest with each other and were able to talk through their issues. It’s so healthy and teens need to see what healthy relationships can look like. And I like that the end was more about Maya being in love with herself, standing up for herself, instead of a “happily ever after” with a significant other (sorry for the spoiler).

If you’ve already read Love, Hate & Other Filters, we’d love to hear your thoughts! If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, we recommend you get it soon.

[devillain]

Carlos and his mental state and disabilities (this is the best way i could think to phrase it). These are present in all my verses unless stated otherwise (like my mr robot verse where he has dissociative identity disorder).

I want to be very clear, this post will only graze the surface of deeper issues. I am also putting a majority of this post under a read more due to the some of the more sensitive topics, and I don’t desire to trigger anyone.

I want to also say, making this post has made me extremely nervous. As I don’t want to portray things incorrectly, or wrong. I am always learning, and striving to reduce the stigma and glorification of these things.

Additionally, this things are not plot points for Carlos. I will never use them to make his story more sad or more upsetting. I am not here to have them be a shock value. With writing about these things most of my nerves regarding this post that I have put off for months is the backlash I will get. If you want to talk to me about anything I say in this post, I ask you do it off anon.

Finally this post is not going to be addressing Carlos intelligence (ie his IQ score and how he is a prodigy where schooling is concerned). Certainly some of these things can feed into that. But his intelligence is something that deserves its own post.

Short list: things Carlos has (diagnosed and diagnosed)

Asperger’s

PTSD and C-PTSD

Anxiety

Depression

Schizophrenia

OCD

Insomnia

This is the longer list, essentially I go a bit into detail about each thing on the short list, explain my reasoning behind him having each thing, where I pull from canon to get the reasoning, a bit about the manifestations of each thing for Carlos. There will be cross over, so I may repeat myself on occasion.

Asperger’s (Asperger Syndrome)

Carlos’ Asperger’s is evident when you know the signs. Carlos struggles to pick on basic social cues. He certainly gets better and learns more when he is older. But as a young child, and especially all his time on the Isle, and when he first lives in Auradon. One of the most evident signs of this is that he will talk about things he likes typically mechanics and wires and machines without stopping to care about what his listener thinks about it. In Auradon he learns to stop himself from getting to far, and he always feels bad about it after. He cherishes people that let him talk.

Carlos is not loud, but he certainly has a wide vocabulary. While this is not incredibly evident, his annoyance with Reza’s vocabulary could lead to he knows what all those words mean. Carlos just knows how to use them in natural conversation. He does not understand normal jokes or humor, and it takes him a few moments to get a joke. In Auradon he gets better with those social queues, and learns how and when people are trying to be funny. Carlos may laugh but that does not mean he gets the joke. He also may not understand when he is telling a joke. This does not mean that Carlos can’t laugh or doesn’t know when to laugh, he laughs easily with Jay, and probably for a very long time Jay is the only one who can get a genuine laugh out of him.

Carlos’ is very aware of his surroundings. He notices small changes in things, and often changes in thins will bug him, and make him upset. He hyper-fixates this primarily on his desk in Auradon, and his desk in the hideout on the Isle, and the treehouse in the backyard of Hell Hall on the Isle. He knows immediately when things are wrong with it. This applies also to people around him, sudden movements, but for the most part Carlos associates that with always having to be on alert for his mother. His own interactions with people may seem odd, he may ignore them or seem rude, but he doesn’t mean it. This is where part of that callous demeanor comes from, but he is much better at turning that off and on than people realize.

Carlos also has his hobbies that he talks forever about, that he will ignore people for. This hobby is science and mechanics, and computers. He also enjoys binary code, and Morse code. One prime example of this is when he first ignores Evie when she meets him officially for the first time. He is focusing on building the machine that pierces a hole in the barrier. He essentially ignores Evie, until she makes a comment about the machine to help him make it work. Another example of this is from D1 where he is playing the video game. One other example is the fact that he has the period table of elements memorized this comes up as a way to calm himself down, when he is aware enough to calm himself down.

Last but not least Carlos has a serious aversion to touch. This plays into so many other things about him, and many things you will see on the list. Carlos does not like being touched. And touching him when its uninvited could lead to a various range of results.

PTSD

Carlos PTSD mainly manifests itself in the forms of flashbacks, and nightmares, and panic attacks. His PTSD is caused by his mother’s treatment of his as a child. His mother’s treatment of him, wont be discussed in great detail here, but it is traumatic for him. In short he was not loved or cared for. He had to do so much on his own, on top of his mother ordering him about. She burned him with butts of cigarettes, threw things at him, and treated him like a dog to the point of Evie thinking he was a dog because she could hear it. Dog jokes on the isle about him run rampant.

His triggers on the Isle, he doesn’t really care about. He still is in the situation constantly, so he doesn’t really pay attention. In general, and one he has control of, is the various dog nick names. He will get a bit volatile about being called dog names. Other triggers mainly include heals clacking, smoke, dogs (all dogs, and then just big dogs as he gets to know Dude), and touch particularly touch of his hair. These are his biggest triggers, and they are not his only ones. They also don’t always set him off. He has it all much more under control than he thinks he does. He is good at self regulating his panic attacks and knows when they come on. Flashbacks are his rarest form of manifestation. They are not always full on vivid images of things, but he often gets an overwhelming smell of his mother, and Hell Hall. Nightmares are his most common manifestation. He struggles to sleep, but when he does 6 nights out of 7 he will have a nightmare. He does his best to thoroughly exhaust himself before he sleeps in order to not have nightmares (and to not disturb people, namely Jay). They mainly manifest in Auradon.

His PTSD can get very bad, especially when he has a full flashback. His full flashbacks are generally brought about when he thinks he is being threatened. They come mostly from fear of being touched, mainly if he thinks someone is going to strike him, or if someone is yelling at him. He has full flashbacks very very rarely, but he has had them. One of the most prominent times he has had one is on Parents day when Audrey’s grandmother, and Chad yelled at Mal, Evie, and Jay.

Carlos has both PTSD and C-PTSD. There are certain events from Carlos’ childhood that cause PTSD, but the ongoing abuse he suffered is what gives him C-PTSD. PTSD includes reliving the trauma through nightmares ( referenced vividly in book 4 ) and flashbacks both of which Carlos experiences. He avoids situations, and when he can’t he either disassociates or runs such as with Parent’s Day when Queen Leah’s yelling makes him dissociate. His fear of dogs stems from his PTSD, as well as his hyper awareness of the world around him (though this hyper awareness is also brought on for other reasons). Some of his triggers cause somatic symptoms, as shown above.

Carlos’ C-PTSD is evident in both the books and the movies. From lack of emotional regulation (him yelling at his mom in D1), to dissociation his response to Jane in D3 where he forgets seemingly that his mother abused him. Carlos shows many signs for C-PTSD. He has the most control over his emotions almost to the point where he can come of as emotionless ( “they say I’m callous” ). Carlos has a negative view of himself, but don’t expect him to say that. His mother’s comments towards him made it such so that he feels different, not to mention how utterly embarrassed he is of his handwriting because he taught himself how to write. Carlos’ inability to form good relationships with people, especially outside of the Core4 is not only a symptom of C-PTSD but also something that is part of asperger’s. However its a fine line because the type of people he is typically attracted to, tend to have power over him. Its a delicate line that both parties have to walk.

Carlos’ perception of his mother is his biggest sign that he has C-PTSD. He loves her. He loves her to the point that he will defend her. He knows she doesn’t love him, this is his plot of book 1 essentially. But that does not change his feelings towards her. He has a desire to make her proud, even at the cost of his own morals. Carlos loves Cruella unconditionally even though he shouldn’t, and its unhealthy. He also fears her, but that doesn’t mean he can’t love her. His fear of her causes physical reactions in him from shaking, as seen in book one, to nearly becoming a different person, a main reason he doesn’t want Dude on the Isle in D2.

Carlos doesn’t really exhibit loss of systems, mainly because his only real connection with religion is that his dad is Jewish. However, in my writing, he does often think about how stupid it is to have hope, so that would fit in well there.

Overall Carlos has both. There are specific child hood events that give him PTSD, but the abuse over the years is what gives him C-PTSD, and yes one can have both.

This is not diagnosed.

Anxiety

Carlos’ has anxiety, mainly severe social anxiety. Carlos does not do well in big crowds, or social situations. He has the constant thought that he is annoying people or bugging them. He may want to approach someone, but actually doing it is incredibly taxing on him, and he panics.

Social situations in general make his heart rate go up. Carlos has panic attacks from this. These are the ones that he can barely control, if at all. They come on fast, and often Carlos gets no real warning for them mainly because he doesn’t always know what triggers them.

This is also not diagnosed, but it does stem from Cruella’s treatment. He is always on edge around her, and worried and nervous about how she feels about him. This extends to every person he knows and meets. This extends to his friends. He is always worried about them, and how they view him. He is waiting often for their guidance to tell  him what to do, even if he knows what he needs to do. He likes orders.

Additionally his mind is constantly going a million miles a minute. He often has different things processing and going on at the same time. But worries are most of those. These worries keep him up at night, and actually add to his insomnia.

His anxiety is potentially the least worrying thing for Carlos though. It has been ingrained in him so long to be on edge, that that is all he views it as.

Depression

Carlos’ depression is the must fuzzy of all the things he is diagnosed with. It is definitely the hardest to pin down. And it is one of the things that Carlos does his best to ignore. He has other things going on his mind, if he wants to lay in bed, he has things going on telling him he can’t. Something needs to be cleaned, something needs to be done, his mother is telling him to get up.

Something that links into his depression is his view of his body. Carlos is incredibly self conscious. He has multiple scars that are from cigarettes, or chemical burns. He has cuts, and scrapes that have scared over. He also has his freckles which are a love hate relationship with. His mother found it the one good thing about him since he was born with spots unlike puppies, but for a while it made him resent them. However due to his unique relationship with his mom, he likes his freckles because he knows that since he has them his mom has the chance to love him.

Carlos’ view of his own body being malnourished, and that his growth is stunted, among other things is skewed. He doesn’t like people seeing his body. Sometimes seeing his body makes him uncomfortable with himself, or he just loses all motivation he had. It can be incredibly debilitating. It is often the thing that gets him down the most, and makes his days the hardest to get through.

Schizophrenia

Carlos’ schizophrenia began to manifest itself when he was around the age of 10. He has no idea what it is. It is gentic, and he did get it from Cruella (this is based primarily on Descendants Cruella, and Disney’s live action and animated Cruella).

Carlos’ main symptoms for this are hallucinations, delusions, unusual ways of thinking, agitated body movements, reduced expression of emotion, reduced speaking, and poor executive function. He may exhibit more, but these are the most common. On the daily he typically experiences auditory or visual hallucinations that are vivid and often seem real to him. It his strongest symptom. He explains as he does in D2 where he hears Cruella’s voice in his head. She often talks to him telling him that he is worthless and useless, or she will give him orders. Disobeying the orders is hard, and sometimes he feels that he has no control over his body as he obeys whatever order his mother told him.

Carlos also often known to have delusions, and when he is having an episode he likely wont make sense. He will behave opposite to how he is commonly known (so how Auradonians view him), but he will also be opposite to how the Core 4, and friends who actually know him are. One way to confirm that he is potentially relapsing is that he will respond to the vivid hallucinations.

Often the best way to get him to come back to reality, and get him past the episode is to initiate contact with him, because that is the best way to ground him. Its not an easy feat since he doesn’t like being touched. And he will likely lash out when people try to touch him.

Aside from hearing his mother’s voice, he may feel her arms around him and she could be stroking his hair. His protection of her is often what makes him lash out at people who come near when this happens. Carlos seems almost relaxed when this happens, in a way he never is, his eyes close and it looks like he is experiencing something euphoric, he has this look in D1 when his mother is petting his hair in Maleficent’s home before they head to Auradon.

However, his most common system is the auditory hallucinations, and he rarely talks about them even with his friends. This is also not diagnosed because of his refusal to admit that he is crazy like his mom. He does not want to be like her, and he knows that having it could potentially get him sent back to the Isle. He doesn’t necessarily like when people say he isn’t like his mother, because he knows its a load of bull.

OCD

Carlos has OCD, it goes beyond his need for things to be perfect and meticulous something that was ingrained into him by his mother. Carlos has a few very small ticks. He does things in 10s, or in 101s. For example Carlos will wash his hands for 101 seconds, or will brush his teeth for 101 seconds. He will eat food in ten bites, not a whole meal but each seperate piece of food he eats will be done in 10 bites. This leads to him being a bit of a messy eater, but don’t worry he has 10 napkins for that issue exactly. If he used a clickable pen he would have to click the pen 10 times before he will use it. Often when panicking he counts to 10 to help him breathe. 101s are meant for longer tasks, his brain automatically sorts things like that. His worst infraction of this is going up stairs, if a stair case does not have 101 steps, which most of them don’t, he will calculate what he needs to get to those steps. If a staircase has more than that, he will start the 101 over, and calculate how to get to that number like he would with a regular stair case. It is the hardest tick to hide, in his opinion.

This is not diagnosed.

Insomnia

Carlos has severe insomnia, it is added to by a few things, such as his anxiety and PTSD. It is not dependent on those things. Carlos’ mind just does not shut off. In order to get a good night’s sleep he has to be pretty much exhausted. It became much more apparent in Auradon than on the Isle. It did exist on the Isle. Often being coaxed into sleep helps too, and that typically includes friends helping him sleep, this can be seen more so in my own writing. However I do pull him having insomnia from the scene in D1 where he is shifting on his bed awake, granted all the kids are awake, but his just feels different to me.

As with everything else on the list this is not diagnosed, but it is one of the few things Carlos is fairly comfortable self diagnosing himself with.

In general, the numerous things he deals with that affect his life day to day, when he is diagnosed and does talk about them, are the reason he is eligible for a service dog, and why he gets a service dog. Granted he has to over come his fear of dogs first, but its the baby steps. Medicine is not exactly an option for Carlos because he is so scared of the side affects of many of them Not to mention he kind of refuses to take it. Agreeing to having a service dog is a good compromise for now. But doctors ideally want him on medication to further improve his life. He does not get a service dog til he is essentially an adult in most of my verses.

[cornholio4]

Be Careful What You Wish For

Author’s note: This was based on a Tumblr story I found out about Adrien betraying Marinette in using the wish, Marinette lost her mum but get together with Damian after being with Adrien in the new timeline. I decided to go to a plot bunny I had where the wish the Agrestes make was not worth it.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng couldn't believe what just happened; her partner Chat Noir had messaged her saying that he had found a clue as to who Hawk Moth was and was surprised to find it was the Agreste Manor. She wondered if this meant that Gabriel Agreste could have been Hawk Moth and found a way around the limitations to become the Collector.

Tikki had told her that she had a bad feeling about this but Marinette felt that she trusted Chat to know what he was doing.

She met up with Chat Noir and they went inside to be faced with Hawk Moth; however Chat took her by surprise and had taken Earrings. She was stunned as Adrien took off the Ring to reveal that he was Adrien. Her partner who was annoying with his flirting was really her crush?

And he had to be under an Akuma's influence; no way that he could really betray her.

Right?

Marinette was stunned as Adrien was taken aback to see Ladybug was Marinette but then gave them both to Hawk Moth ignoring the pleas of Marinette, Plagg and Tikki. The Kwami's please became more angry as Adrien addressed Hawk Moth as his dad.

Hawk Moth taken them and used the incantation and wished that his wife never suffered whatever it was that happened to her. Marinette saw a huge glow and suddenly saw the area was a huge fashion studio and she was now in fancy clothes.

There were the Ring and Earrings on the ground and she had taken them, the Kwamis were more than happy enough to explain. "The Miraculous in order to use the wish needs a huge sacrifice, it might not be just a life but life changed and the end results might not be favourable to the wishes of the wisher. If the wish is not specific enough, we both are able to bend the reality change even if we don't have control over the details. We don't know what happened but just wished that life was better for you and life worse for your enemies. You deserve it Marinette." Tikki told her and Marinette was stunned.

She was asking then how about Adrien and Plagg was furious saying "who cares, he made his choice and he wasn't that good a partner to you anyway. I admit that I didn't rein him in when he was being selfish and throwing hissy fits about you not wanting to go out with him. I tried to talk him out of allying with his dad when he revealed to him but he made his choice."

Marinette was stunned and went upstairs and found that the manor was actually now her family's?

It seemed now the Dupain-Chengs now owned a successful catering company that Tom had started with his father Roland. She found to her surprise she was a popular girl at her school and was apprenticing with a fashion company. She was seen as an up and coming fashion star and loved for how much of a sweetheart she was.

Her friends in class were still her friends (plus Sabrina who didn't have Chloe in her class) and she found to her surprise that she had Luka as boyfriend. She was terrified that Luka had his mind and feelings altered thanks to the magic but Tikki laughed it off saying the magic can't force someone to like anyone (if it was wished it would be more like mind control and Luka wouldn't be acting like himself), all it did was remove any obstacles to get in between them as Luka liked her anyway.

She noticed that she did not have Adrien, Lila and Chloe in her class and looked them up. Lila it seemed was doing what she did in one of her schools and was caught with her truancy and trying to use lies to bully people who called them out but no one really willing to believe her.

To her shock she found that Chloe was in an American juvenile centre, apparently in this new reality Chloe's father failed to win the election that made him Mayor thanks to a scandal when it was revealed his was embezzling money from his hotel for his campaign funds and his slanderous accusations against the running Mayor. Audrey Bourgeois took Chloe and left with the schools and authorities in the US not tolerating her attitude.

But to her shock she saw that Adrien was somewhere in hiding with his mother Emilie out of France. Apparently here Gabriel was caught as the head of a huge criminal cabal and when he was arrested the charges were numerous and he was now serving several life sentences.

She was stunned and couldn't help but feel sorry for all of them but Tikki had told her that it just meant she was a better person than them. She considered using a Wish to put everything back to how it was but they warned her that they might not be able to control any prices made and she decided to just accept the new reality as it just is.

She found her family being as nice and loving as she knew them even if they were a little busier than they had been. But she found the man who had been Adrien's bodyguard and chauffeur was now working for her family and he joined in on video game nights with Marinette and Tom.

While Paris had news bulletins of a new Superhero called Lady Catbug. The Kwamis smirked to themselves not having told Marinette that they made it so her former tormentors would be punished with the memories of the previous timeline...

Adrien Agreste hated the look of betray of his Lady when he had to betray her but it was for his mother and his family. He was stunned to see his good friend Marinette had been his Lady all along but had to keep going forward. His father had finally revealed himself to be Hawk Moth. He was stunned and confused and wanted to use attack as Chat Noir. But he explained to him that all this was to bring her mother back who was in a dangerous state.

He dealt with time to himself to think this through and despite Plagg's warnings not to trust him he felt that he had to. His father had said they were going to make sure she was never gone and thus the Akumas never happened. He would be allowed to start school at Francoise Dupont and start his friendships all over again.

Plus not that he knew that Marinette was Ladybug, he could come to her and they would be able to start their love together. It would be perfect, plus since his father would have no more use for the Miraculous... He would give Marinette the Earrings and they would be Ladybug and Chat Noir, superhero couple of Paris.

It would be all worth the betrayal he would have to do...

His father made the wish and suddenly he saw he was in the home of his mother's family the Graham De Vanilys. He saw his mother Emilie but she looked like a wreck and he found he had no other friends than Felix.

He learned to his horror that his father was in prison as a criminal mastermind and in shame his mother took them to London and ditched the Agreste surname. This wasn't supposed to happen, his family was supposed to be full again...

Gabriel Agreste was stunned when he finally found out that his son Adrien was indeed Chat Noir and decided to use it to his advantage. He had sat down with him and explained to him that he was Hawk Moth. His reaction was to be expected but he managed to explain in full and convinced him to set a trap to get the Ladybug Earrings.

To think one of his hated nemeses was his own son all along. However it worked out and he didn't bother hiding his glee when Adrien done his part and gave them both to him. He savoured the moment as he made the wish and was anticipating being able to hold his dear Emilie again.

He fell down with a thud as he found himself on stone floor and in a small prison cell in dirty prison robes, he was confused to his surroundings and looked in the mirror and saw that he was a mess. He had began ranting wondering what was going on only for the guards to bang the cell bars and yell at him to shut up.

As he felt the hatred coming from all guards and prisoners in the next week, he could only wonder how on earth did this go wrong.