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miloscat · 8 months

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[Review] Starlink: Battle for Atlas (NS)

An Ubisoft open world... in space! Also Star Fox is there!

Lylat Wars is one of my childhood favs, so I'll play anything if they put Star Fox in it. It just so happens that the Switch version of this open world toys-to-life game included a bunch of Star Fox side content as an extra, so here we are. Now it's taken me a few years to recover from Star Fox Zero, but the characters are handled very well here, enough for me to open my heart to them again.

At the very tail end of the Skylanders/Lego Dimensions/Disney Infinity craze, when shops were cutting back on the shelf space they had reserved for plastic figure after plastic figure of dubious usefulness, Ubisoft decided to launch their own entry in this space... for some reason. This being a customisable space ship game, their implementation involves large ship models that attach to a controller mount. The ships then have slots where different weapons and pilots can be attached, and each component can be swapped on the fly depending on the situation. In practice this is clunky and cumbersome, but luckily the physical models are entirely optional. Instead you can buy the components digitally and switch them around in a menu, and I was pleased to score a version off the eShop that included all wave 1 components at a good discount.

Locking weapons that have situational usefulness, or suit your playstyle, behind a purchase feels a bit scummy; especially when I stuck to just four of the 27 available (double gatlings and double missile volleys). Ships are helpful to have a handful of, as they essentially act as extra lives. The pilots are more understandable as optional DLC, but you do need ones from certain factions to unlock global upgrades and I think questlines. So there's a big FOMO component that feels exploitative, but it does make extra purchases feel helpful in-game. Beyond the "digital deluxe" set I also got the Star Fox team pack that adds Falco, Slippy, and Peppy to the base game's Fox (plus a new questline), and the monkey-like pilot Startail because she looked cool... sadly she had an annoying voice (she's not alone), but I still used her and Falco for most of the game thanks to their abilities.

But how does Starlink actually play? Funnily enough it feels a lot like a follow-up to Star Fox 2, Argonaut's SNES sequel that Nintendo cancelled then finally released 22 years later. You have a big star system map with various planets, where the baddies spread to over time. Strategy elements are present but light, where most of the progress comes from the player's direct action. Most of your time is spent ranging over planet surfaces, doing tasks and activities that get you resources and push back the army of robots. These build towards climactic battles with space battleships which you fly inside to destroy (again, very like Star Fox 2). Then follows much rinsing and repeating: this is an open world game, after all.

On the surfaces your ship becomes a sort of hover-speeder. I had more fun with the planet-bound sections than the space stuff, mainly because there's a much greater density of things to do there, and movement and combat is also more manageable when it's constrained by gravity and dimensions. Special mention must be made of how almost seamless it is to transition between ground and space by simply flying up; especially impressive on the Switch which handled the whole thing remarkably well, only chugging when there was an abundance of enemies on screen. The other platforms probably have better overall performance, frame rate, etc., but Star Fox is the winning draw (the other platforms don't have any equivalent extra content of this sort either).

Anyway, in the first few hours you'll get an idea of the loop: zipping around, building up outposts to get map information and resources, and fighting enemies to capture points of interest. All of this builds up a planetwide meter that represents your control vs. the evil alien robot whatevers. I settled into this groove and found it quite fun, never getting too bored of it, although this may vary with your tolerance for repetition. A scant few sidequests can give you some different things to do (and let you hear more voice lines from the actors other than the very oft-repeated expositionary chatter) but a lot of the time it's the ol' open world grind.

The plot is your standard YA sci-fi stuff, not much to write home about. The main team, a set of largely unlikable human schmoes, have uplifted themselves with alien technology to help an alien buddy, and in medias res arrive in the Atlas system. There's some uncomfortably heavy colonial vibes here, as the planets are all some variety of wilderness teeming with settlers, explorers, prospectors, and bandits, and your role as outsiders is uniting these folk under your banner—ostensibly to fight some monster guy and his robot army—and make big decisions about how the system is run before presumably jetting off again after the credits roll. Hmm.

The personal stories of the characters, especially the alien friends you make in Atlas, were the highlight for me, although I feel like they aren't always introduced effectively. As both a game where characters can be spawned in any time from the start and one with some open-ended elements, developments can feel abrupt and the pacing uneven. The Star Fox team and their story is actually integrated very well, although Wolf as the antagonist of this sidestory was, I feel, acting quite out of character from what I would expect. I see him as an amoral mercenary, while here he's set up as a would-be galactic conqueror. Ah well.

Otherwise the Star Fox stuff is excellent: you get a spiffy Starlink version of the Arwing, there's some nice covers of classic music tracks, and the team chatter is top-notch (again, when it's not just open world exposition). The voice actors have mostly carried over either from their original Lylat Wars appearances in a few cases, or the recasts that have stuck since the 3DS remake, and they nail it, especially because they're not just doing weird alternate takes on a reheated script (Zero still hurts my soul so much...). The team are integrated into prerendered cutscenes and there's unique events and missions, plus having them as an addition only makes the overall roster stronger. It's not a full new Star Fox game, but it's pretty much the next best thing. My only complaint is having the characters still trapped in this Lylat Wars/Zero-era setting, continuing the writing-out of Krystal, Sauria, Panther, the Aparoids, everything that Command introduced, etc... but I guess that wasn't really Ubisoft's decision. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

Anyway, Starlink was a pretty good time. As long as you resign yourself to spending more than the normal cost of a game to get a full experience. And you don't think too hard about the themes of the setting. And you don't mind a bit of open world repetition, or the uneven weapon balance, or that obnoxious influencer kid who's on the team for some reason. But let's not focus on the negative; there's a lot to like here. It's a cool sci-fi space game that integrates planet surfaces well, the core gameplay loop is solid and satisfying, and it has a very good crossover with my favourite rail shooter series. I wouldn't get my hopes up for a sequel though, as the retail toys underperformed and five years later the developer is now making Watch Dogs and Far Cry games (as if Ubisoft didn't have enough of those) or assisting on every other Ubisoft release.

#starlink battle for atlas #star fox #ubisoft toronto #ubisoft #review #ns

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creatuesfromthedeep · 7 months

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Apparently Sector 42's narrative* is up to 72,988 words long, so if you want to read a book's worth of dragon fanfiction, check it out.

*not including supplementary worldbuilding lore lol

Some author's highlights below the cut!

"This is my beach, could you please just leave?" The pink maned gaoler's tone was long-suffering, which made the Unseer stop his music and laugh. They'd been doing this song and dance for little less than a week, he hadn't realized he was that annoying.

"Can't do that,"

"Why not?"

"Most other beaches don't have good company like this one,"

"By Shadowbinder you're irritating,"

— Two Boys

I'm still really fond of this piece, especially Sirel and Celozon's childish arguments. I like looking back and thinking "wow, you two have no idea how important you'll be to each other!"

-----

He did not question it, and started digging into the soft mud near the bank of the stream. He kept digging, even as the hole grew much too deep and it was starting to become something of a hazard; Abran stood at the edge, and she hadn't told him to stop yet.

Soon, the hole was big enough that Salenor could stand in it and it came up to his shoulders. He'd likely have to crawl out through the mud, even if Abran helped pull him out. At that point he stopped, exhausted and barely able to see under the moonless night.

"M-Mayor, perhaps we should come back to this tomorrow," Salenor tried to reason, but he couldn't see Abran's expression to gauge her emotions as she let the words hang in the air for an uncomfortably long time.

"No, it's quite alright, Reeve. This is deep enough, you can climb out now,"

Mayor Abran didn't help him scramble out of the pit, and his claws were coated with mud by the time he stood at her side. Now he was starting to have doubts about the purpose of this whole situation, and the hole looked ominously grave-sized.

— Report #000001

Probably one of my favorite scenes within my lore, I revisit it frequently when I think about Sal and Abran's relationship. Someday I'm gonna save up a bunch of gems or just do a USD commission centered around the image of Sal clawing his way out of the grave while Abran stands above him.

-----

"Holm, I've got a surprise for you!"

Inddrin slammed the door open, her booming voice like nails scratching a chalkboard. Holm fumbled the papers he'd been organizing and they scattered, and he swore to the Icewarden as he tried to gather them back up.

"What do you want, Warden?" Holm snapped as he fumbled the reports from Arorangi into a disorganized pile. There was no hope for stapling these papers until Inddrin was done with him, so he finally turned his attention to the Warden.

He started, when he noticed a young, unfamiliar Gaoler pressed against Inddrin's side who observed him with big, Lightning-blue eyes.

"Head Sentinel Holm, meet Apprentice Vorrutyer," Inddrin spoke with a wide grin, like she was in on a joke and Holm was the subject. He didn't like it, and grimaced in turn.

— Acclimation

Holm and Vorrutyer have one of my favorite mentor-apprentice relationships in my lore, plus Third Age Inddrin gets to be a menace towards her poor Head Sentinel.

-----

"Reeve, have you introduced yourself yet?" Labyrinth questioned, and the Wildclaw stuttered out something incomprehensible but clearly defensive. "Of course not. Herald Xyrlove, meet Reeve Salenor; he keeps this place running, for better or worse. If you're still having housing trouble, he's your best resource,"

Xyrlove turned her attention to Salenor, and tilted her head in a way she'd told was cute and non-threatening. "I am still having housing trouble. Would you mind helping me work that out, one of these days?" She batted her eyelashes and smiled.

By the choking sound coming from Salenor's direction, and the barely controlled laughter coming from Labyrinth, Xyrlove was certain Salenor was blushing and was about to become putty in her claws.

"Yes, if you'd-- if you'd stop doing that," Salenor snapped, his claws clicking against the floor in a tell-tale anxious shuffle. "I've got work to do. Councilwoman, am I still needed?"

"No-- no you're fine Sal," Labyrinth sounded like she was still gagging on laughter. "I've got this, go make sure the Mayor's eaten lunch or something," At that cue, the shuffling turned into a not-quite sprint as Salenor exited the conversation with the eagerness of a racehorse.

— New Year, New Problems

I just really love giving Sal a hard time. The workplace antics of the Third Age are so underutilized, and I should really go back and write more during that time period.

#cftd rambles #fr lore #cftd sirel #cftd celozon #cftd holm #cftd vorrutyer #cftd inddrin #cftd xyrlove #cftd salenor #cftd labyrinth #cftd abran

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bonvoyagenoona · 2 years

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What would it be like if It was Kitts turn to be jealous?

I’m like thinking of so many things rn 😂

Warning: Light, soft smut after the cut! Also wrote this 1.4k drabble because this fit officially wrecked me good goddddd

Kitt is Jealous

You scowl at her name. Look it up in different fonts. Typed. Handwritten. Doesn’t matter. The loops and swirls that form it are undoubtedly elegant. With space to play. Like how people put little hearts for the dots in their “i”s.

How does she dot her “i”s?

Is she the kind of person who dots every single one of them? Crosses every single “t”?

Taehyung seems to think so. He raves about her constantly.

What’s in a name, anyway?

Yes, a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.

But do all flowers have to smell sweet?

There are flowers that smell like rot.

You look them up.

The Western Skunk Cabbage. The Carrion Flower. The Dead Horse Arum Lily.

But in those cases, names came after. Assigning a name to a person doesn’t necessarily mean that the person inherently has those traits, or takes on those attributes automatically. Babies are driven purely by urges and are too young to express any defining life-long personality. And people take on new traits as they grow and learn.

You close all the flowers and search for the various explanations of her name’s origins.

Her name is everywhere.

In Latin. Greek. Sanskrit. Tamil.

On your boyfriend’s lips.

Now.

Every day.

When he comes home and raves about how awesome it’s been, working with her.

At this point, it’s almost like a skit that he does.

Your name is arguably everywhere, too, you try to tell yourself. It’s short. It fits in easily. People say it as part of other words. They say it without even meaning to.

But what does your name mean?

You look it up.

A set of articles or equipment needed for a specific purpose.

OK. Maybe it’s not everywhere. Maybe it’s too niche to be everywhere. Maybe that’s your strength?

Her name even sounds pretty. In all the languages that bear it.

And your name sounds like—

“Kitt?”

You let empty space surround it. Isolate it. Let it ring clear.

“Mmh,” you say dully, reflecting your appraisal of the sound.

“Did you hear me?” Taehyung laughs. “I said that the presentation was due in about an hour, and we were nowhere close to being done with the presentation, and then, like magic, she—”

“I heard.”

Your words are starting to sound like your name.

Bored.

Taehyung hates when you’re bored. He hates when you’re bored because he has the tendency to think that it means that you’re bored with him.

He hasn’t learned yet.

That you being bored is a skit of your own.

Meant to hide what you’re really feeling.

“I’m hungry,” you say, before Taehyung can fill the space that you left there, too. “I think I’m craving nachos.”

He grins. “Maybe it’s because I was telling you it was Taco Tuesday!”

“That’s not nachos,” you say, finally tearing your eyes away from your phone, “but now that you say that, I think I want ramen instead.”

Taehyung tilts his head. “Kitt.”

When said like that, it sounds… a little… pretty?

But it has to be said like that.

Gentle. More breath than voice.

Through lips grazing the brown canyons of his blazer, bunched up at his neckline, a thin strip of a dark, flowery, emerald green shirt inside. Soft, black curls hide the corner of his eyes. He’s a nighttime, cliffside sigh.

His eyes widen, patiently, and then, are in full bloom, like the flowers on his shirt.

A smile ticks upward.

“Ugh,” you sigh, getting up from the couch and walking toward your bedroom.

“You’re jealous?” Taehyung squeaks giddily, fast on your heels.

You walk into your closet, squirming as Taehyung grabs, loses, and grabs again to get a hold of you, caging you in canyon brown, each brush of his hands against you prying your mouth more and more open into a laugh.

“Stop!” you pout, diverting squirm energy resources to help fight off the giggles. “I said I was hungry!”

“Man, this must have been torture for you,” Taehyung reflects, as you settle. His folds you in, pinning your arms to the side, resting his forearms against your stomach, just under your breasts. He rests his chin on your shoulder. “Especially this week.” You swivel slightly, left, then right. “I don’t think I’ve stopped talking about work since I got home.”

“Tae,” you whine.

He laughs at you, hugging you tighter. His lips rest against your neck.

“I can’t help it,” you admit. “The thought of you two at work together, spending all that time together.” You slump and frump and prump. “She sounds so cool. And she seems so funny, like, in a really smart way. And she’s so, so pretty.”

Taehyung laughs into your neck. “I knew it!” A small bite. A warm lick. A sweet peck. All in the same spot. “I knew you looked her up.”

“I can’t help it,” you say again. It feels horrible.

“People look people up all the time, Kitt,” Taehyung reminds you.

His hands widen to hold more of you. Slide up and down your sides. “You know how crazy I get when I so much as think of you with anyone else.”

You lean back into him. He cradles you with his chest as you do. “I think about you walking to the train station with her.” You let the back of your head rest in the crook of his accommodating neck. “Just chatting, and smiling.” Your temple hugs his Adam’s apple. “It’s always sunset.”

Taehyung understands. It’s the little things that hurt the most.

“Well, we do walk together, and chat, and smile, and it’s sometimes sunset,” he admits. “But the entire time we do it, I’m counting down the seconds until I get home to you.”

You smile. “Don’t.”

Taehyung chuckles and slides his head forward. You feel the pressure of his jawline and cheek through your hair, against your own cheekbone. His hands slide down your hips, just barely.

“I think about your eyes,” he continues. “It feels good when you light up when you see me.”

You shrug a little, and his arms slide over yours, grazing the cup of your breasts.

“And I think about getting to hear your voice. What fires you put out. What shenanigans you got up to with Yoongi.”

You scoff.

“It’s weird,” Taehyung says brightly, and seriously, “I’m always hearing your voice in my head. Like, when I’m eating lunch, I hear you asking if I think my lunch is good, or like, you telling me that your lunch was terrible?”

“We’re never going back to the cafe that Yoongi and I tried today,” you add. “That food had to have been spoiled. Yoongi and I spent the rest of the day taking turns writing anonymous reviews on their page from Si-hyuk’s computer.”

Taehyung shakes when he laughs.

His shoulders drop as his voice slides into a hum.

His hand slips between your legs.

“Ugh, Tae,” you warn. “I really am hungry!”

“So am I.”

“Tae.”

His hand starts to move in slow circles. “This is what I think about most.”

You sigh through your teeth.

His hand slips into your pants, fingers wiggling under the waistband of your panties. He splits your lips with his forefinger and ring finger. Rubs your clit with his middle.

“Shit,” you whisper.

“You think about me?” he mumbles.

You nod. Your arm stretches up and back, reaching for his cheek. You cup it. Stroke it. Tease it. What your hand does, his does too.

He grunts, length hardening against you. “What do you think about?”

“Ugh,” you whimper, the countless daydreams flipping like pages in a photo album. “Stealing away during lunch. Making out in the stairwell. Fucking you in Si-hyuk’s office.”

“We’ve already fucked in his bedroom,” Taehyung says, and you both laugh.

Your other hand reaches back for his cock, stiffening uncomfortably in his pants.

He grunts when you graze your fingernails smoothly against it.

The fabric doesn’t catch because you’re better about your hangnails.

He slides his full finger between your lips. Grips you harder. Slides up and down.

“Mmm,” you moan.

Taehyung chuckles softly, starting to rub into your curved palm. “Sometimes I think about fucking you from behind in our supply closet. You’re in some short skirt that I push up over your ass. You grip onto the shelves.” He growls. “I spank you.”

You mewl. Almost moan his name.

But then he pulls away.

“Wha—” You whip around, instantly blushing. “You… You—”

Taehyung smirks.

Brings his hand to his lips.

Sucks his middle finger dry.

He purrs.

And then he looks at you. “C’mon,” he says brightly, and seriously, “Thought you said you were hungry!”

He walks back to the living room so casually.

You scowl as he goes.

You spin around to look at your clothes, shaking your head slowly and hating the smirk spreading across your face.

“Dammit.”

Read Kittenfishing here

#bts fanfiction #bts imagines #bts drabbles #taehyung imagines #taehyung smut #taehyung fluff #bts smut #bts fluff #kittenfishing #taehyung x you #taehyung x reader #taehyung x y/n

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sonianvmd · 4 years

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thh characters with a crush on you

warnings: none, maybe some swearing but otherwise nothing major

oH and mentions of murder and death but this is danganronpa so im going to assume u expected as much

a/n: so we kickin this blog off with a bang, writing for LITERALLY THE ENTIRE TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC CAST LMFAOAOAOAO (excluding hifumi, yasuhiro, and the two despairs doe bc i’ve already made that clear)

also some character’s sections are shorter than others im sorry i just couldnt think of as many bullet points for them *tiktok cry emoji*

edit: I FORGOT CELSESTE FU K SORRY

spoilers under the cut!!

★ 彡 ★ ミ ★ 彡 ★ ミ ★

makoto naegi

when he realizes he likes you, he doesn’t necessarily panic or anything, but he does get nervous

nervous around you, that is

y’all saw how he was with sayaka

if he says anything that might sound intimate then he’ll immediately rephrase it or reassure he didn’t mean anything by it

he really only does have good intentions but his wording just kinda flops sometimes

he appreciates how you listen to him and value what he says

you don't make him feel dumb or inferior compared to a bunch of ultimates with actual talents

he’ll muster up the courage to tell you eventually

let’s hope his luck comes through 😁

byakuya togami

now when THIS man realizes he likes you, he a bitch nigga bout it 😐

he can't believe he fell for a common plebeian such as you

but it was hard not to

the way you preferred to get to the point

the way you were aware of your situation and didn't sugarcoat how you felt about it, although you certainly were nicer with it than him

he's ruthless

anyways

you knew your priorities and spent no time trying to use your resources

he noticed how much you had in common; in you, he saw himself

and we all know how this mf feels about himself 😐

he’ll be quick to defend you in class trials

he won’t realize he’s doing it but he just subconsciously protects you

but just because he doesn't notice it, don't mean the rest of the class brushes past it as well

yeah they on his ass LMFAOO

kyoko kirigiri

kyoko is very good at keeping her composure so she won’t be very obvious

she’ll probably just hang around you more

she’ll also defend you in class trials, calmly

“oh, it couldn’t have been [name]. i remember seeing them in their dorm around the time the murder took place.”

hifumi probably finna say some dumb shit like “aye what was you doin in their dorm doe” but anyways

she finds you respectable

if you have anything to contribute, she’ll let you take the floor

when she tells you, she’s very composed, but also very indirect LMFAO

she’s not too sure on how to express her interest in you but maybe she’ll go about it like “well, [name], now we’ve made it here, would you like to step back into the world with me?” or somethin else along those lines idk

take her hand

pls

toko fukawa

y’all know her whole “master togami” shtick

yeah so 😁😁😁😁

no but fr, toko ofc still has her borderline stalkerish 🧍🏾‍♀️ tendencies

she’ll often find herself staring at you, either in the library or in the morning meetings everyday at breakfast

but she isn’t as straight forward as she is with byakuya

i actually think she’d be mad shy and non confrontational

the whole thing she kept up with him ? yeah, never again

if you approach her first then she’ll be able to get a few words out but for most of the conversation, she’ll just nervously play with her braids

you’ll most likely put two and two together

unless ur a makoto kinnie bc then you’ll have to wait till someone else puts it in place for u but anyways

if you decide to approach her about it, you’ll kinda be backing her into a corner bc she’s just bad at deflecting things lmao

she’ll eventually confess (begrudgingly but hey i mean its better than nothing)

expect much stuttering and a gesture like giving you a small gift

and not to be that writer that uses japanese terms in english writing but toko seems like a tsundere but not really if that makes sense?? so she’d probably shove it in your hands and if you try to say something then she’ll just try to play it off as not a big deal lol

calls u a baka 😍😍

aoi asahina

i know y’all all see how she is with sakura

yeah.

aoi is the kind of person who’d like to spend time with their crush rather than shy away from them

she values you and your friendship very much

bring her donuts

just trust me bring her donuts

she doesn’t really realize she’s into you like that for a while but believe me, she is, the whole time

and yeah i think she’d be nervous to tell you bc that’s just natural but ultimately she’d be cool about it

uh oh looks like we goin for a swim

sakura ogami

similar to kyoko, she’s very calm

despite her big and bad appearance, she really is a sweet girl

she cares for you and your well-being very much

will indeed go on x games mode for you

the way she tells you is very sincere and well spoken

kith her

naow

im sorry this is like the shortest one i couldn’t think of much for her 😔😔

leon kuwata

flirtatious ass mf

and he’s lightskin

so this just cannot go well

y’all know that bit where it’s like the guy yawns and stretches his arms up and then wraps one around your shoulder

yeah that’s literally him LMFAOO

he’s very confident

he was fairly well known with the ladies at his old school so you know he’s rhockin wit it ‼️

but

you feel.. different than usual ??

those girls were just lil flings n dates bc he was nice enough to accept their confessions and it boosted his ego anyway so it was a win win

but you

he was genuinely interested in you since he had saw you the first time

he didn’t just acknowledge your appearance

he learnt about your personality and your hobbies and what you liked and such, and he really cared and wanted to hear you talk about it all

he felt the need to really make an effort to show you how much he respected and had affections for you

he doesn't tell you in a grand way

probably just asks you out to a movie or somethin

he's chillin

mondo owada

you know

for being the biggest, baddest, most respected biker gang leader

or just for being in a biker gang period

mondo’s a huge softie lol

yeah he gets violent but he’s a sweet guy who cares about and is loyal to his friends

so mfs need to be nice to you

or they gettin whooped

when he decides it’s time to tell you how he feels, he thinks over his words and he’s all confident there’s no way you’d reject him but then he sees you in the halls and goes 🧍🏾 LMFAOOO

he’ll push through but it’s like he’ll walk up to you and look away from you because he refuses eye contact and just go

“so y/n, would you wanna.. tch.. come to a drive-in movie with me or somethin’?... dumbass.”

real smooth mondo i think you got em good job

please tease him LMFAOO it’d be so funny

he’d probably yell but you can tell he’s not mad so you just keep going with it

but once you’re done tormenting him, you do agree to the movie, don’t worry 🙏🏾

also mondo would call his s/o doll

that is all

chihiro fujisaki

my fav dude in a dress <3

chihiro would be quite shy, but that’s just how he is tbh so no surprise there

he’s very kind so he’d check up on you often just to see how you are

he cares about you v much

the way he confesses is one that consists of a red face as he offers you a box of candy or something similar

and he’d feel honored that you reciprocate his feelings

he’d be very scared to tell you his secret but once he does, he’s delighted to hear it doesn’t make any difference to you

he doesn’t know how he got so lucky with you

not only because woooo they like me back but also because you like him despite,, well everything about him LMFAOO

sweet lil boy

i’d feel like he’d talk about you to alter ego a lot

and when u meet the program for the first time, he’s like “oh! you must be [name]! master’s told me all about you :)”

sobbing i miss him

kiyotaka ishimaru

okay here’s the thing

if taka were to like someone

i can’t tell whether he’d be more strict because he doesn’t want them to get in trouble (and also so it would hopefully divert any suspicion that he DOES like you since he treats you the same as everyone else, only more)

or if he’d hold back more because he favors them LMFAOO

so imma write a lil bit for both

in the case that he was even stricter:

he’d prefer to be around you because he believes the best way he can make sure you stay out of trouble is to make sure you don’t get into any in the first place

of course it’s impossible to monitor you every second of every day but he does his best to make sure you’re doing well

if he sees you do anything out of line, he’s shutting that shit down IMMEDIATELY

but in the case he let up:

he’d still lecture you but noticeably less than the other students

if your feet were resting on top of a desk, he’d ask you to move them and then leave you alone rather than yell at you and forcibly move them himself

if you notice his behavior towards you in comparison to the other students do not tease him about it he will go as red as his eyes /hj

either way he’s confessing to you with a polite but exaggerated bow while holding out a well thought out letter with both hands

sayaka maizono

she will tell you

idk why but i feel like she’d be straight up lol

she’d make sure she’s sincere

she is the ultimate pop idol and all so she wants to make sure you know that she really does like you and isn’t playing a sick joke on you or anything

ok bc

while i do think she’d tell you

i’d feel like she’d be a little indirect just to see how you feel

like she’d give you a free ticket to one of her upcoming concerts with a kind smile

and naturally, you're like :o

and of course you come to support her

and seeing you smile at her from the crowd and cheer her on was the encouragement she needed to push her to ask you out

for real this time

she asks if you wanna come to a concert with her and ur like “oh yeah i love ur shows!!” bc ur dumb and then she’s like “no i mean.. for another artist” and eventually it hits you that she’s asking you out and ur like “oH YEAH YEAH SURE THAT SOUNDS GREAT YEAH OK” LMFAOO

———

i really hope that this is good LMFAOO this is my first time writing for dr so 😃👍🏾

fun fact i finished toko’s section first and taka’s last 😁😁

and i’d like to thank @mius-imagination @bloodygir n the rest of the discord for helping me figure some of these characters out *simultaneously whips and nae naes*

bye ive been working on this for like weeks this took forever

———

edit: here’s a deleted section bc i kept blanking for this character 😍

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bluethepineapple · 3 years

Text

Ron and the Horcrux: An Alternate Reading

I've read a whole bunch of theories and discussions about why Ron was the most affected by the Horcrux, and I just want to throw my two cents in.

One of the more popular theories seem to be that either the Horcrux was purposely singling him out because it sensed that Ron would destroy it, and another seemed to be that he was carrying much heavier insecurities and burdens than both Harry and Hermione. (This is as I have seen only though.)

I disagree with both.

While Ron did have quite a lot of worries and insecurities, they weren't significantly more than Harry's or Hermione's. Harry had the weight of leadership and the prophecy on his shoulders. Hermione has been entrusted with not only researching the Horcruxes, she was also practically carrying the logistics of their operations at that point. Any failure or mistake on her part could hold dire consequences for the Wizarding World. Ron's fear for his family and his insecurities regarding his relationships with the people he loves isn't more or less of material for the Horcrux, it's simply a different flavor of the same suffering.

No, I think that Ron was simply more VISIBLE in the way he reacted to the pain. And this happened or two reasons. First, Ron is the member of the trio who is most comfortable expressing his emotions. Second, (and more importantly), he was also the only person in the Hunt for whom leaving was actually a legitimate option.

First: Expressing Emotions.

Harry is the type to endure pain in silence. He is used to hurting, and even more used to no one being there when he needed them the most. He learned to not bother asking for help long before Hogwarts, and his time in school did not make that mentally better. He was constantly disbelieved, and he had to finish adventures alone more often than not. Harry is used to just riding out the pain, and that makes emotional outbursts rare for him. This indicates a tendency towards internalization and self-isolation.

In the Hunt, this translates to getting buried under the weight of leadership. It means feeling as if he has to take everything on his own. Even more importantly, it means sitting in that cesspool of toxic emotion until he suffocated. Worst comes to worst, Harry blows up, but until then, it looks like Harry brooding in silence.

Hermione, on the other hand, functions by compartmentalization. She is highly logical, and part of that means that she works best when there is structure. Sometimes that structure is external. Most times though she builds it herself (as we see through her rigid study schedules), and this holds true for her emotions.

She is a highly emotional person, but she also very rarely acts on them. Her slapping Malfoy, setting the canaries on Ron, and attacking him after his return are so shocking both to the readers and her own friends because her emotions are often quite contained. Instead of acting on them in the moment, she channels her feelings through working and solving the problems that elicited the emotions in the first place. And this is only if she decides not to take the high road.

In the Horcrux Hunt, this looks like her constant movement. She keeps planning, brainstorming, managing the food, and ordering both Harry and Ron around. She had a to-do list, and it is through this constant movement and work that she alleviates the possible negative emotions that the Horcrux may have stirred up within her. Aside from the occassional snappishness, the negative effects on her did not result in visible outbursts.

Now to Ron. Ron is a very emotionally expressive guy. Furthermore, he's a loud guy. Coming from a huge family with a lot of competition, being loud is the only way he gets heard. And we see this all throughout the books. He is outspoken with his opinions. If he finds something stupid, he says so. If he is happy, he shows it. If he is nervous, it affects EVERYTHING he does (see: being the Quidditch keeper). Relative to Harry and Hermione, Ron is very much in touch with his emotions, and that makes him very reactive.

And this means, that coupled with the fact that his sore points all have to do with his place in the team, the effect of the Horcrux means loud blow-ups at the people he perceives have slighted him. The targets for his insecurities are RIGHT THERE, and his already short fuse has been made shorter by not only the Horcrux but also the terrible conditions of the Hunt. Ron loses all control of his emotions, and it manifests as anger against the people he strongly feels have not valued him.

Second: The Option of Home

By the time the Horcrux Hunt started, Harry and Hermione don't actually have homes to come back to. Even worse, there is no chance of asylum for either of them. Harry Potter was condemned by a prophecy and is Undesirable#1. The closest he has to a family is the Weasleys, and his presence will place them all in unnecessary danger.

Then not only is Hermione a muggle-born, but she had voluntary removed herself from her parents lives, and she did it in a way that is pretty difficult to return from. Unlike Ron who is believed to still be with his parents, Hermione is very clearly with Harry. Even if she wasn't an Undesirable, she would still have been hunted by virtue of being muggle-born. There really is no place where she could go back to and expect to remain safe.

Ron, on the other hand, while considered a blood-traitor, is STILL pure-blood. In fact, him going home is probably what is safest for his family. It is an option that he and only he ALONE has. Him storming out of the Hunt isn't a sign that he was more affected than most - that happened because HE COULD. He has a family to come back home to, and one with resources to not only support him, but actually keep him safe. Yes, they'd be mad at him, but they also wouldn't turn him away.

Of the three of them, Ron was the only for whom leaving actually made sense.

Conclusion:

While Ron wasn't disproportionately affected by the Horcrux, he did react in the most VISIBLE manner. This led his suffering to be the most visible among the Trio's, but this does not mean that his suffering was necessarily "worse" by any significant degree. Nor does it mean that he was specifically targeted by the Horcrux. Ron blew up because he could. He left because he could. He was angry and he felt that it was the right thing to do.

His arc is about overcoming his insecurities and learning to stay. To attribute his leaving as anything other than his own personal decision is to do a disservice to his character and development.

#ron weasley #ron meta #hp #hp meta #my metas

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studiojeon · 3 years

Text

troubled outsiders | intro - jjk

| summary | - how you two end up pining for each other.

warnings: none :)

content: idol!jungkook x student!oc, friends to lovers (because it’s THE superior trope okurrrt), jungkook is quiet and shy but a social butterfly when needed (and when it comes to oc but you’re not supposed to know that yet), oc is both a badass and a socially akward queen, she has TWO friends and only because one is dating the other (like... same), the Lee Charyeong is her bestie, oc works at bighit and feels like everyone either fears her or hates her, author nim is a crackhead and has no plot planned for this series whatsoever (doesn’t know if she’ll keep this up, we’ll see).

words: 1.93 k

His presence was overwhelming, to say the least. Even if he were surrounded by six hundred other equally handsome men, somehow, to you (and the majority of the female population, at that point) he was as captivating and magnetic as they come. Jeon Jungkook didn't pay no mind to no one, but sure as hell everyone became hyper aware of his existence and essence in time. And that didn’t exclude you.

Yet, as nonchalant and indifferent as the man could be perceived, in reality he was more considerate and friendly than the aura he exuded. You knew this because working in the same company had to teach a thing or two about the people who literally carried said company and the whole industry at some point, still you barely knew four or three people, including your assistant and Jungkook, whom you had met once.

The opportunity of working at the company had come to you out of the blue, quite literally, you were attempting to send one of your assignments in when an email appeared in your notifications during your sailor moon study break.

HYBE Entertainment

We’re glad to inform you that you’re being recruited for the position of Logistics Manager in one of our sub companies, BIGHIT Entertainment. We’ve thoroughly looked through the CV you’ve submitted and are very interested in your capabilities and what you can contribute to our organization. One of our other managers will gladly meet you on a day you can both agree on. Make sure to answer this email to get more details about your interview.

“Nani!? THE FUCK?” sure as hell that your eyes and cognitive functions were deceiving you (ADHD) you went over the text a little over three times in a row before the message settled in your mind. This was sus.

Before even considering a reply you made a quick call. “Fucking Lee Chaeryeong” you spat on your end of the line. “You did this, didn’t you?”.

Her silence was more than enough to have you cursing her under your breath. “I don’t know what exactly you’re talking about but it most likely was me. Does it have to do with a sex toy in particular?”

“No” you denied almost monotonously, guessing the pile of boxes in the corner of your room with her names on them was what she referred to. “Does anything come to mind if i mention BIGHIT FUCKING ENTERTAINMENT?”

It was her. All those conversations during the summer about how badly you wanted to work in the entertainment business as marketing staff of some sort had their effect on your friend, who, despite all your excuses and denials, knew you better than you and your mom combined did, and because of this, was sure as hell you were not making a move towards that goal whatsoever. So, being the boss bitch she was, she took matters into her own hands, was what she explained.

You concluded that was the reason you had reached a point in your life where you had more experience than most recently graduated kids in your field, because Chaeryeong had you moving every summer break. You had been the manager of a coffee franchise and convenience store during you junior and senior years, and also figured a way to improve the marketing management strategy of a fucking restaurant while at it. Not to toot your own horn, but you were kind of cool.

Or not. “I hope this job satisfies your workaholic ass for once, I’m running out of ideas”. Chaeryeong spat before hanging up.

Sure as hell it would.

On friday afternoon, you made your way to the HYBE INSIGHT building and introduced yourself to your recruiters who promised to give you a call at some point. “It went fine” you told Chaeryeong once you were in your car. And it was the truth, however you weren’t so sure if they would actually hire you at some point since well, you were a girl in a male dominated industry and, in your opinion, there were always better people than you. “Wanna go grab coffee?”

“I want to. But, I have practice today. I’m actually on my way there. Please avoid driving through Hongdae today, this shit’s packed.” You sighed and thanked her for the heads up. You missed your friend, badly. You hadn’t seen each other in three weeks, and you didn’t even live so far away from each other (you did, but it had been worse before). You two had very agitated lives to say the least. Chaeryeong was a kpop group member, and well, you were jumping from job to job and getting your phD in Business Management at the same time. It was hard to find moments to spare together during some periods of the year, but you guess the anticipation made your encounters better.

“Talk about anticipation” you slammed your forehead against your desk, taking a breather after such an anxiety packed situation. Short story: you got the job (for some fucking reason). And you had gone through a whole week of expectancy and anguish. Not getting that job would have broken your heart, and ego at the same time.

You guessed the law of attraction tactics Chaeryeong had taught you had sorted their effect and were what led you to your current position in life.

“Miss _____, your presentation’s ready” your work assistant gave you a comforting pat in the back as she took a seat somewhere next to you. You were nervous, shitless. It was your fifth week at the job, and being the proactive woman you were, you had collected lots of data in order to come up with a resources management plan.

It was a Thursday afternoon, and more than a hundred people sat in front of you, waiting for your speech. Including him, who you’d once bumped into accidentally during one of your data recollections runs inside the building.

You hated having the need to impress others yet, hence your anxious behaviour. But this was a decisive moment in regards to your validation in your new job and how you’d continue to be perceived during your work stance (no reason to panic at all)… you needed to get it together.

“I think I just pissed off a bunch of old men right now,” you told your assistant right after you got off stage. “I need a bathroom break”. Linh gave you a reassuring smile, one she always had plastered on her face.

“Take as long as you need to. I’ll give you a call once the rest are done”.

The commute to the bathroom was unnecessarily complicated in your opinion. You had spent a little over a month rushing through the hallways of the building and you swore every single day your spatial orientation got a bit more fucked up. There was no way there wasn’t a single bathroom on the floor you were in, that would just be atrocious. “It’s not completed yet” someone said beside you as you stared at the half empty map the company had projected on a wall next to the elevators. “Where do you need to go?”

Kim Taehyung of all people in the world was talking to your ugly and unworthy ass. Your breath caught in your throat and after staring for at least five seconds your body finally reacted to your orders. “Oh, um… the bathroom. I’ve been looking for it for a good ten minutes” you explained with a nervous laugh.

“Trust me, I get it. I still get lost over here” he smiled gently. “It’s in the hallway in the middle of the next hallway”

You laughed at his very ambiguous explanation. “Thank you” you bowed your head and made your way to said destination.

It was in the hallway to your left, not your right, and it took you a while to figure out that new piece of information. Once you were staring at yourself in the mirror, you realized that you looked considerably tired and exhausted from all the social interaction you had undergone throughout the day. You were used to the side stares and whispering you’d get whenever you entered a room at that point, but some days you just wished you could get a break from them. After all, it wasn’t your fault you didn’t look Korean at all, and that you also didn’t fit the stereotype of a foreigner.

You got that from your mom, both the non Korean features and social fatigue. But that wasn’t even the problem most of the time, it was your friendly and smart nature which she had also passed onto you. Some would consider it a blessing, but to you it was a burden, like a clear glass that shielded you from introducing yourself into other people’s realities. You had few friends and people to trust, but in your everyday life you had to deal with the pressure of standing out too much and that came with a lot of negative energy from others. You sigh as you spray your favorite fragrance on yourself. You could be feeling like shit, but no one will ever catch you slipping.

But that excluded him apparently. You hadn’t noticed that on the other side of the hallway was the men’s bathroom and the realization hit you as you were calmly getting some tea from the vending machine. “Good afternoon” the man greeted you as he made his way out the hallway, but stopped in his tracks right after he noticed you. “_____! Hi” he smiled at you and you wanted to die, suddenly forgetting what you were ordering in the first place.

“H-hi Jungkook” You smiled back, poorly attempting to put your wallet back into your backpack.

“Need help there?” he noticed your agitated state and held your bag for you. He smelled just as heavenly as you had expected, somewhat between big dick energy and flowers. Oh, and he also remained as kind and polite as you remembered him.

Seeming as if he wasn’t planning on continuing his path to wherever he was heading to in the first place, he stood quietly by your side, waiting for you to be done with your deal. “How have you been?” you break the ice for him.

Quickly, you grab your tea and start walking back to the auditorium together, unaware of your surroundings or the suspicions that could arise. “Busy, but very good. How have you been? I saw your presentation earlier… I wish I understood half of what you said but you still sounded amazing”.

And you would never admit it out loud, but you were positive you were blushing (and falling in love too - platonically, of course). “Oh god, you think so? I basically told them they’ve been doing things wrong all along so maybe you’re the only one who’s appreciative of my work” you handed him the second can of iced tea you bought without him noticing. You swear his eyes lit up like stars in the night sky. “Payback for the other day” you smile at him.

The first time you two had crossed paths you didn’t look nearly as glamorous as you did now. In fact, you looked incredibly disturbed and in pain, carrying a huge pile of paperwork in your hands. But as soon as sweet Jungkook noticed your state, he offered you a hand and somehow ended up helping through your multiple data collecting trips that afternoon. It was a nice day.

“Anytime” he took the can in his hands with a shy look on his face. “Unless I’m practicing, you know…” you look down at his feet, with huge black boots engulfing them, and you smile due to their contrast with his personality. “Here, i’ll give you my number so you can call me whenever you need to put all those papers back. Hopefully I’ll be around” he added as he pulled his phone from his back pocket.

Way to get a girl’s number, my god.

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cryptidmads · 4 years

Text

good evening nsr community, i went through the ama from today and came back with an armful or two of lore. there’s a bunch more than last time, and i included bbj as well as the npcs. cozy up, check under the cut, and prepare for a long read. enjoy!

today's ama featured wan hazmer and daim dziauddin again, as well as concept artist ellie and animator ben fong.

BUNK BED JUNCTION (FT. DK WEST)

- mayday and zuke live in the sewers because they're an underground band. it's a pun - there were originally two variations of bbj leaving the sewers - one with mayday hi-fiving gigi (which had a 95% chance of happening), and one with zuke awkwardly fumbling and attempting to hi-five gigi (which had a 5% chance) - one of the inspirations for mayday and zuke were the two main characters of samurai champloo (zuke was jin, mayday was mugen) - someone asked about if the rest of the cast had their own shadow puppets. ben suggested a lemur for mayday, while ellie suggested a zucchini for zuke. she may have been joking. - mayday's guitar solos were done by different people, but zuke's drum solos were all done by bruno valverde. - zuke was the one who implemented the canister thing into mayday's guitar. - someone asked who of the cast are the introverts and who are the extroverts. mayday is an extrovert, zuke is an introvert. - the team does have a bit of lore for mayday and zuke and how they met, but they want to save it in case of a future project. - mayday was inspired by both genevieve from company of thieves and the unbreakable kimmy schmidt. - ben did the animation for mayday swinging the hammer in the workshop. - haz recalls seeing some fanart of mayday being brought up as a rich girl. he doesn't remember the artist, but he does like the idea. - the japanese version has zuke say he has a phd rather than a master's degree. this is apparently a mistake. - the pattern on zuke's pants was inspired by jolyne cujoh and prosciutto from jojo's bizarre adventure. - zuke's toilet seat collection came partially from a story from one of the environmental artists where one of their high school friends pranked another friend with a toilet seat. - zuke does a lot of reading and is naturally inquisitive about things like tech and mechanics. - dk west's shadow puppet abilities might run in the family, and zuke may have it as well. - both zuke and dk west are connected by percussion (zuke with the drums, west with the hand claps) - zuke and west weren't always designed to be related -- west was originally designed as "some guy who comes and goes," but was made into zuke's brother later on in production - dk west is an extrovert.

DJ SUBATOMIC SUPERNOVA

- djss' dj name is obviously a stage name, but the team didn't have a real name for him in the script or anything. - haz joked that his name is bob salad. that's not canon but from what i seen the chat loved it lol - haz brings up the symbolism of djss spinning the planets around himself and how it represents that he thinks of himself as the center of the universe. - ellie helped design the districts, and something she noted about dj's is that it's supposed to look the "slummiest" because he cares more about himself and less about things like blackouts. - dj had some lines cut from his boss fight. those lines? mini lectures towards bbj during every phase. they were cut because the team felt like they were too much for the game, but they want to share them one day. - daim says that dj could be either introverted or extroverted becuase of how much time he spends alone looking at the stars. - dj was never planned to have an approach segment, but funk fiction wasn't told that, so he made him an approach theme anyway. - dodo ice pops are traffic light flavoured, which is a popular ice cream in malaysia. it's strawberry, pineapple, and lime flavored.

SAYU AND THE NERD SQUAD

- three of sayu's creators were based on staff members at metronomik. remi (voiced by ben) was based on one of the programmers and one of the environmental artists (ellie calls him "the lovechild of two dudes"), tila was based on (and voiced by) ellie herself, and dodo was based on danish mak (another environmental artist who also voices him). - sofa wasn't based on anyone in particular, he was more of a "general otaku guy" according to ellie (though haz joked that ellie could just say he was based on him). - dodo is daim's favorite npc -- he also designed him! - sayu was ellie's favorite character to design. she loves drawing mermaids. - the progression in sayu's fight where you go deeper into the "ocean" is supposed to be a metaphor for going deeper into the internet/the deep web. - ellie suggested that if sayu were to have a shadow puppet, it would be a cat. - as for the introvert/extrovert debate, daim says sayu is technically comprised of 4 introverts. sayu herself is the extrovert mask they wear. - sayu's ahoge is a submarine periscope. remi looks through it in one of the cutscenes. - sayu's not a mech. she's remotely controlled by her creators from their computer room. - the backstory between remi and tila is meant to show that artists can come from all sorts of backgrounds.

YINU AND MAMA

- yinu's promotional video was one of the first ones done before they brought in lzbros, so it originally looked different from how it looks in the game now. - yinu's mother's eyes are yellow because she spends most of the fight focusing on yinu (who is mainly yellow). when her eyes go blank white, it represents that she's momentarily forgotten what she loves the most. when her eyes become yellow again after the fight, it means she's remembered yinu and her piano playing. - the way ellie describes natura is that yinu is a plant and her mother is very protective of her, and one of the distinctive features is that there are a lot of domes with plants inside, particularly on the roofs of the houses. - yinu's commercial was not intended to reference little miss fortune. the commercial was shown in 2018, while LMF came out a year later. - yinu's mom turning into a giant tree monster isn't exclusive to her just being angry at bbj. apparently the whole plant thing runs in the yinu family.

1010

- 1010's concept as a boy band had been around since before the team started production, but they were the last to be fully designed -- their designs weren't finalized until way later on. - 1010 were ellie’s least favorite characters to design. she doesn't like drawing guys OR robots. - 1010's early designs had them wearing tuxedos. - 1010 do have memories. - the inspiration for the butt plates came from one of ben's gundam figures from his collection in the metronomik office. thanks ben. - ellie's favorite member of 1010 is purl-hew/blue. - eloni/green is apparently the rapper of the group. - the jingle you hear from the carousel in metro division is a carnival remix of 1010's boss theme. - the numbers underneath 1010's names on the autographs are completely random.

NEON J

- neon j is a dancer. daim explains that in addition to being in the navy, dance has always been his true passion. - in the final phase of 1010's fight, he was originally supposed to control the dance moves of the factory as he was fighting you, but it was cut due to limited resources. - daim designed neon j based on ellie's designs for 1010. - neon j's factory's dance moves were all animated by ben -- no mocap needed. the factory was also his favorite thing to animate. - daim says that "neon j is to tatiana as soundwave is to megatron." basically he is extremely loyal to tatiana. - neon j was one of earliest members of nsr. - neon j seeing 1010 as his sons wasn't planned, but daim loves the concept so much that he could see it being canon. - daim says neon j's brain is "probably" still inside the monitor head. somehow. - neon j is an extrovert. - haz likes the idea of neon j being blind and using his sonar to "see" things. ben joked that the screen worked like giant glasses. - neon j originally had red dots that would pop up on his face when the sonar moved by that were meant to represent acne, and that would've been the reason why he's mostly behind the scenes.

EVE

- in mayday's side of the room when eve splits up bbj, the hands all over the walls are meant to be there to show how eve is angrier at mayday than she is at zuke. - the time signature for the music in mayday's room during the fight is 6/8, whereas in zuke's room it's 4/4. - ellie suggested a platypus shadow puppet for eve. the rest of the team seems to be on board. - eve was ben's least favorite character to animate. he said he struggled with animating her dance moves because it was something he'd never done before, and he still doesn't think he did a good enough job. - eve was born with her split skin tone. - apparently eve's near scrapping had something to do with costs. haz was the one who stopped it from happening. - eve's outfit was partly inspired by beyonce, while her jacket was partly inspired by ariana grande. the team took some inspiration from bjork, as well. - the sleeves on eve's jacket were apparently limbs at one point. - eve is an introvert.

NPCS/OTHER CHARACTERS

- part of tatiana's symbolism is how she used to be a rock star, but her flame/passion slowly burned away, and now she's just a rock, referencing how she was literally on fire as the rock star kul fyra, but now looks burnt out. - daim thinks kliff is older than tatiana, probably over 50. - in addition to the neon j dance lore mentioned above, kayane rambling about neon j after the 1010 fight was supposed to be connected to her watching neon j dance. - ben and haz's favorite npc is mia, and ellie's is dj zam. - dj zam was inspired by one of ellie's college friends, who she says "makes you feel comfortable to be around". - ellie thinks dj zam's neck tattoo says "i love mom". - amal the unicorn was inspired by lady amalthea from the 80's animated film "the last unicorn". he was originally written to be a real talking unicorn, but it was changed partially because his horn wasn't in the right spot on his head. - zed was based on game designer dzaid and has hyperacusis, a hearing disorder that makes it difficult to deal with everyday sounds. - yiruk's name is an anagram of kiryu, the protagonist of the yakuza games. - chef sunshine's design is a homage to julia child. she originally had a bigger physique, but was changed to match lylia's bubbly performance.

#no straight roads #nsr #nsr ama #madison speaks #mayday nsr #zuke nsr #dk west #dj subatomic supernova #nsr sayu #yinu nsr #1010 #neon j #eve nsr

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just-dreaming-marvel · 3 years

Text

It’s Always Been You ~ 154

OUT OF TIME MASTERLIST

IT’S ALWAYS BEEN YOU MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 4,775ish

Summary: A mix of WandaVision episodes 2 and 4.

Notes: Not my best chapter, but I hope that it’s okay. You must read Out Of Time in order to understand this. The chapter numbers continue from Out Of Time.

Steve, Jimmy, Tony, and Darcy gathered intel as they watched the recorded “show” again with a few SWORD agents. They also noticed, throughout the night, that new episodes kept coming. None of them revealing Y/N or Monica yet.

“First and foremost, our main objective is to get any intel on Captain Rambeau and Agent Stark. But originally, this case was a missing person, so we’re going to start there,” Agent Woo began. “We’ve successfully identified two individuals inside the Westview anomaly.” He placed pictures of Wanda and Vision from the tv show onto a board behind him. “Let’s keep going.”

They used their resources from the DMV and school records they had access to, to compare those who were showing up on the show to those in real life. They were forming a board of it all. They were also putting a board together of what they knew about the anomaly and what they had questions about.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hart,” Darcy announced, going to the board with added pictures and information. “Played by Todd and Sharon Davis.”

“Abilash Tandon is Norm,” Tony announced, adding his new information to the board.

“Good,” Woo nodded. “Three down… more to go.”

Tony noticed how intently Steve was staring at Vision’s picture in the center of the board. “What’s up, Rogers? What are you thinking about?”

“Vision… he’s dead,” Steve stated, keeping his eyes on the photo. “I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but Y/N did and I saw his body afterwards… there was nothing left. Bruce even ran checks so that we were sure before handing it off to SWORD. But now… now I’m questioning if we missed something. Like, what if there was a part of Vision that was still functioning? We could have tried—“

“You did the best you could with the knowledge you had at the time.” Tony rested his hand on his brother-in-laws shoulder. “Besides, you had just watched half the team turn to dust and the Mind Stone get ripped out of Vision’s head. This isn’t on you… trust me, I’m the king of guilt.”

“Y/N’s in there somewhere, with Vision and Wanda… And I can’t help any of them right now. I feel useless.”

“You’re not useless, Steve. You just need to get faster at technology.” Tony gave Steve a pat before going back to his computer to search up other members of the town.

“Harold Proctor is Jones,” Darcy announced not too long later, handing the information over to Steve.

“Isabel Matsueida is Beverly,” Tony said, posting his findings on the board.

“John Collins as Herb,” Woo added.

Darcy went back to the tv, watching what was taking place. Gasping suddenly, everyone’s attention turned to her.

“What is it, Darcy?” Steve asked as they all headed towards her.

“It’s Captain Rambeau,” she replied, pointing to Monica on the side of the screen.

“What?” Jimmy Woo rushed over. “That’s her.”

“So Y/N has to be around somewhere,” Tony stated, feeling a slight tinge of relief.

“Does she seem okay to you?” Darcy wondered.

“Well, she doesn’t appear to be harmed in any way,” Jimmy noted. “But that is definitely not the boss lady I met yesterday.”

“So what, deep cover? Monica has to play along?”

“With who?” Steve questioned. “Or else, what? Tony, Darcy, what are we lookin’ at here? Is it an alternate reality? Time travel? A social experiment?”

“It’s a sitcom. A 1950s sitcom.”

“But why?”

“Hey, Cap, we’re all working with the same scarcity of intel. But, listen, I do have an idea. Just… come with me.”

They all followed Darcy outside to a truck with a bunch of tech in the bed. The truck sat near the energy shield. They knew Darcy had been working on something in the midst of helping them. They just didn’t know what.

“So, you’ve all seen that radio on Wanda’s kitchen counter, right?” Darcy asked. They all nodded. “The next time she’s washing dishes, which, by my count, happens about once an episode, barf, we’ll shoot a signal to that little guy. This transmitter will mimic the frequency of the broadcast, and if my theory is right, allow us to speak directly to her. This is totally gonna work.”

Tony and Steve looked at each other. “It’s definitely worth a shot,” Tony shrugged.

“Darcy,” Steve’s Captain voice was in full effect, “you’re running this. Let us know when you’re ready.”

~~~

“Don’t you dare try to say anything,” Agnes warned as she readied herself to leave the house. “We don’t know what she remembers.”

“I know,” Y/N responded, looking over herself. “You made a point of threatening me yesterday.”

“And I will continue to do so.”

“You don’t have to. I want to know what’s going on as much as you do.”

“We’ll see. Now,” Agnes made sure to face Y/N, “remember we’re going to help plan the community fundraiser.”

“Is that what the bunny’s for?” Y/N pointed to the caged bunny beside Agnes’ feet.

“Wanda requested Señor Scratchy for her and Vision’s magic act.” Agnes picked up the cage. “Let’s go.”

Y/N looked down at her wrists, the purple bands swirling around them. She needed to find a way out of them, out of here. But first she needed to use Agnes to her advantage as long as she could. Y/N stepped out of the house behind Agnes, following closely as the headed to the next house. Y/N’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of Wanda standing in front of a house. She was holding up a small, colored helicopter. The only colored thing around.

“Look,” Agnes begins, startling Wanda into dropping the helicopter, “it’s the star o’ the show.” The woman chuckled.

“Agnes. I’m sorry,” Wanda replied. “What did you say?”

“Oh, I brought my pet rabbit. For your magic act.” Agnes held out the cage.

“Yes, of course! Thank you, Agnes.” Wanda took the cage. “We will take good care of him.”

“Señor Scratchy just loves the stage. He played baby Jesus in last year’s Christmas pageant.” Y/N furrowed her brows at that. What was Agnes trying to prove?

“Oh,” Wanda responded before heading to the house.

“Well, seems like our star hasn’t even noticed you yet. I’ll introduce you when she comes back and we’ll see if anything happens. Oh, morning, Dennis.”

A mailman, Dennis, walked toward the women. “Morning, Agnes.”

“Stick ‘em up.” She pointed finger guns at him.

He rose his hands in surrender. “Don’t shoot. I’m just a messenger.”

Agnes laughed. “Pew-pew!” Y/N and Agnes watched him walk away as Wanda came back.

“Shall we?” Wanda asked. That’s when she noticed Y/N. Y/N watched as something clearly flashed in her friends eyes. “Oh… I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

“That’s my bad,” Agnes said before Y/N could respond. “This is my friend from out of town, Y/N. She will be staying with me for awhile.”

“Hi, Y/N,” Wanda smiled at her, holding out her hand. “I’m Wanda.”

“Hello, Wanda.” Y/N took her friends hand, unable to tell if Wanda was faking not knowing her.

“Will you be joining us today?”

“If that’s okay with you.”

“It’s perfectly fine with me! But I’m not the one running this thing.” The three women heading down the street.

“So, are you two ready to meet Queen Cul de Sac and her Merry Homemakers?” Agnes asked.

“Agnes,” Wanda chuckled, “Dottie can’t be as bad as you say.”

“Hmm, well, you’ll notice her roses bloom under penalty of death.” Wanda scoffed. Agnes then stopped walking and turned to Wanda, forcing Y/N to stop as well. “Wanda, can I give you a bit of friendly advice?”

“Is it about the way I’m dressed?”

“Yes, but it’s too late for that. Dottie is the key to everything in this town. Country club memberships, parties, school admissions—“

“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“You get in with Dottie and it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out. Just mind your P’s and Q’s and you’re gonna do just fine.”

P’s and Q’s? Y/N mouthed to herself. Agnes was trying so desperately hard to seem like she belonged here. Causing Y/N to have a bad feeling about it all. Well, more than she already was.

“Or maybe I could just be myself?” Wanda retorted. “More or less?”

Agnes laughed. “Oh, Wanda, that’s good.”

Nearby, a procession of women began exiting the house and heading down the block.

“Everybody, hurry up please,” the leader encouraged, with a slight passive aggressiveness.

“Hiya, Dottie!” Agnes greeted with a wave. “Your roses are divine.”

“Well, thank you,” the lady before, Dottie, responded. She continued leading the women.

“Let’s go get this over with,” Agnes sighed.

~~~

“When are you, mom, and Uncle Steve coming home?” Morgan asked over a video call.

“Mo, we haven’t even been gone a day,” Tony said, trying to comfort his daughter.

“Mom basically has.”

Tony sighed, looking at Steve for help. “We’ll all be home soon,” Steve said. “I promise Mo.”

“Mr. Stark! Captain Rogers!” Jimmy Woo exclaimed as he rushed to where the two men were talking.

“We love you, Morgan,” Tony said, “but we gotta go. Don’t be too hard on Happy.” He hung up and the two gave their full attention to the FBI agent.

“What is it, Woo?” Steve questioned.

“There’s something you need to see,” Woo answered, handing over a stack of black and white photographs. The first few photos were of Wanda holding up the colored helicopter.

“That looks like a retro version of a SWORD drone,” Tony said.

“Why did you colorize it?” Steve asked.

“We didn’t,” Woo replied. “There’s more.” The men flipped through the photos, quickly coming to a stop at a photo of three women.

“Y/N,” they both breathed out.

“She’s okay,” Tony whispered, gripping one of the phots tighter.

“It seems that way,” Jimmy confirmed. “It seems like she’s at least playing along. We haven’t seen anything yet that tells us otherwise.”

“So we know that Y/N’s still alive and in this tv-show like world,” Steve began running through the information they had. “And, obviously, a SWORD drone flew into the town. But how did it change and why?”

“Uh, to go with the production design?”

“Or render it useless,” Tony added.

“Let’s get this show on the road, fellas!” Darcy called to them. “I’m all ready and waiting for you!”

~~~

All the women were gathered in a tent next to the community club pool. Wanda was on one side of Agnes, with Y/N on the other. She felt completely out of place in the out fake world, or whatever it was that she was stuck in. She needed to get out, back to her daughter and husband and brother and friends.

“The Rotary Club is finishing the stage set-up as we speak,” a woman named Beverly told the group.

Wanda observed Dottie as Y/N observed Wanda. It was clear that Wanda was trying to fit in like Agnes was, she just wasn't as smooth. Dottie put a single sugar cube in her drink, so Wanda copied her.

“They’ve given the gazebo a fresh coat of paint and will be installing the final decorations all through the town square,” Beverly continued. “And if you recognize the antique footlights, it’s because they’re from my store.”

Dottie stirred her drink slowly, with Wanda copying her again. Y/N took a sip of her own drink, trying not to rage at these women. She was not made for meetings like these.

“And the chairs?” Dottie questioned.

“I’m sorry, Dottie,” Beverly said. “I didn’t ask about the chairs.”

“So you better not ask me if you can chair any committees in the future.”

Some of the women giggled, causing Beverly to sit down. Dottie stood up to talk to the group.

“The devil’s in the details, Bev,” Dottie said.

Agnes leaned over to Wanda. “That’s not the only place he is,” she joked.

“As you all know, the talent show is the sole fundraiser for Westview Elementary.”

Y/N watched as Agnes handed a flask to Beverly. “This might help,” the woman whispered.

“In the eight years since I founded our little club,” Dottie said proudly, “this event has gotten bigger and better every season.”

“Say, those pants are peachy keen,” a woman told Wanda as she passed the food try to her.

Y/N looked over and gasped. It was Captain Monica Rambeau, she was in here to. But she definitely wasn’t the same. Y/N could tell. She needed to find a way to get some alone time with Monica without raising suspicion from Agnes.

“Do you really think so?” Wanda responded to Monica. “The other ladies are in skits. I was worried.”

“We only have a few hours until show time, so a little less cross chatter and a little more focus,” Dottie reprimanded.

“Okay.”

“Those little boys and girls are counting on us. All of this is for the children.”

“For the children,” all the women, besides Y/N and Wanda spoke in unison.

“For the children,” Wanda quickly said very late, getting some stares.

Dottie cleared her throat before beginning again, “At the appropriate time, of course. But first let’s review event etiquette. Dress code is upscale garden party…”

Y/N tuned Dottie out as she noticed Monica turning to Wanda to talk.

“The only reason I didn’t clap is because I’m afraid to move,” Monica muttered.

“Yeah,” Wanda agreed.

“I actually don’t know what I’m doing here.” That caused Y/N’s brows to furrow.

“I’m starting to feel that way myself.” Wanda held out her hand. “I’m Wanda.”

“I’m, uh…” Monica paused, looking a bit confused before smiling confidently. “Geraldine.”

“Hi.”

“And I’m irritated,” Dottie interrupted. “Tickets for tonight are completely sold out. Now, you can clap.” Everyone clapped. “And stopped.” They quickly stopped.

“Really, how is anybody doing this sober?” Agnes questioned.

“I really don’t know,” Y/N murmured.

~~~

“So, Captain Rogers—“

“Darcy, just call me Steve,” he interrupted.

“Okay, Steve, since Wanda has been known to be closer to you than Mr. Stark—“

“Tony,” Tony interrupted.

“Right. Tony. Then you should be the one to reach out. You might have a greater chance of getting through to her than the rest of us.”

They were outside, near Darcy’s truck and contraption.

“Okay,” Steve agreed with a nod. “What do I have to do?”

“You and Tony are going to put these on,” Darcy told them, handing them both large headphones with a mic attached. “Jimmy and I will be watched the tv inside and tell you when to start talking. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Tony and Steve put the headphones on as Jimmy and Darcy hurried inside.

“Do you think this is going to work?” Steve asked.

“I’m hoping,” Tony said. “Cause if it doesn’t, my ideas aren’t as peaceful as this.”

“You two ready?” Darcy wondered through the headset.

“Yes,” both men replied.

“Monica is currently talking to Wanda,” Jimmy informed. “She’s got a speaking part now.”

“What’s she saying?” Tony wondered.

“She likes Wanda’s pants.”

“Wanda’s at some sort of swim club,” Darcy told them. “We’ve never been here before. And it looks like Y/N’s with them.”

“Is it the ’60’s still?” Steve asked.

“Uh huh. Everyone, including Y/N, left the scene. Now it’s just Wanda with another character. Ooh! Uh, radio not he side table. Start talking.”

“Wanda,” Steve began. “Wanda, can you read me, over?” Steve waited a beat. “Can she hear me?”

“I don’t think so. Keep trying.”

“Wanda? Wanda? Wanda. Who is doing this to you, Wanda? Wanda? Can you hear me? It’s Steve. I’m here to help. Wanda—“

“Wait.”

“What?”

“I don’t know… That was… weird.”

“What was?”

“Nothing,” Darcy sighed. “It’s over. Mission failure.”

“It was worth a try. Good effort, Doctor.”

“Yeah. You two can come on in.”

The men took off their headsets and stared at the energy shield.

“Why the hell does this always happen to us, Steve?” Tony questioned quietly. “To her?”

“I wish I knew,” Steve responded.

“She had a dream… That night after Bruce pulled the Stones out of her. After she saved us all… The Stones were showing her something. A small town. An invisible shield. Something chasing her…. I think… I think this is it.”

“Then she’s prepared for whatever’s happening in there.”

Tony chuckled lightly. “I wish I could believe that. But this is a lot more than we are all prepared to be dealing with almost immediately after Thanos.”

Steve inhaled deeply, folding his arms over his chest. “You are right about that.”

~~~

“I still can’t tell if she knows you or not,” Agnes grumbled as she and Y/N walked back to her house. “If she’s faking it or she really doesn’t know.”

“Monica,” Y/N said.

“Who?”

“Monica. Or, well, she called herself Geraldine… Did she do that on purpose or… does she not remember the truth either? Like the other townspeople?”

“Oh, she doesn’t remember. I hopped in her little head and saw that myself.”

“Great,” Y/N muttered. “Just great… Are you going to force me into watching the talent show? Cause I really think I just need a moment to myself.”

“Not a chance. I know your reputation, Y/N, and giving you a moment alone with give you an opportunity to come up with a plan.”

“Who are you, Agnes? Really? How do you know so much?”

“Like I told you before, Y/N. It all comes with time.”

~~~

“Y/N back on camera?” Steve wondered as he brought coffee over to Tony, who was hunched in front of a TV.

“There are glimpses of her,” Tony responded, taking a coffee from his brother-in-law. “She’s always with that Agnes woman, which makes me suspicious.”

“Where are they now?” Steve sat down beside Tony.

“They’re in the town square, watching the community talent show.”

“Hmm,” Steve nodded. “It’s so… normal. It’s weird.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think… do you think Wanda could have been the one to do this?”

“I hate to say it but, yeah. Her powers… they’ve always been strong.”

“Then even more of a reason to get through to her. If she did this, she can stop it.”

“Yeah, but the question is how?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You’re usually the brains of the operation.”

“Well, this brain is tired and what’s his wife back and to hold his daughter.”

~~~

The first few acts of the talent show were so utterly boring. The middle acts were just down right terrible. And now the only act left was Wanda and Vision’s, which was clearly running late.

“Where are they?” Agnes muttered, fingers tapping on the table.

“I could go and find th—“ Y/N tried to stand up but was quickly forced back down into her chair by Agnes’ magic. “Oof.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“I want to thank you all for coming out to support Westview Elementary,” Dottie said as she stood on the stage in front of everyone. “For the children.”

“For the children,” everyone but Y/N repeated.

That’s when she realized something. Y/N looked around, studying the black and white town. If this fundraiser was “for the children”, where were all the children? In the whole day Y/N had been walking around Westview with Agnes, she had never seen a single child. Even at the pool.

“And for our final act,” Dottie announced, pulling Y/N from her thoughts. “I give you, Wanda and Vision.”

Dottie led the clapping and stepped down from the stage. Wanda emerged from the curtains, looking a tad nervous. She gestured to the curtains, almost like she was signaling for Vision to come out. After doing it again, Vision finally appeared from the curtains.

“Hello, Westview!” He shouted. All the air left Y/N’s lungs as she saw Vision in is fake human form. “Good afternoon. It’s so lovely to be—“ He bumped into the railing as he stumbled down the stairs of the gazebo. “I’m so sorry, excuse me. I am Glamour and this is my delightful assistant, Illusion.”

“I am Glamour,” Wanda corrected, waving to the audience, “and he’s Illusion.”

“Yeah, what she said. Today, we will let to you and yet you will believe our little deceptions because human beings are easily fooled due to their limited understanding of the inner workings of the universe.” He waved his hands around. “Flourish.”

“You just do it,” Wanda reprimanded, trying to be quiet about it. “You don’t say it out loud, honey.”

Vision scoffed, swatting at Wanda as he walked away from her. Something was definitely off out how he was acting.

“And now my wife and I will delight in your dumbstruck little faces,” Vision continued. “Flourish!”

His hands went down to his sides and he began to fly. Members of the audience gasped and murmured with one another. Y/N looked with wide-eyes at Wanda, who quickly created a pulley system to make it look like she was controlling his flying. She moved a sign out of the way and Norm spotted it.

“Ha! See there?” Norm pointed out. “He’s using a rope.”

“Wanda,” Vision called, “what’s—“ Wanda began playing with the pulley, Vision moving with the rope. “Oh, no! Oh! No! Wanda, please!” Vis flailed around. “Darling, let me down!” The crowd was laughing, Y/N following with a fake one. “I’m feeling pukey! Ooh!”

Wanda let him down with the pulley. Everyone clapped in approval and excitement.

“Uh, what’s next?” Vision wondered aloud. “Oh!” He spotted the piano on stage and stumbled to it. “Yeah, this is… this is gonna be great! A staggering feat of strength!” He lifted up the piano with one arm, everyone but Y/N looking on in awe.

“He’s going to expose the both of them,” Y/N muttered. “What the hell is wrong with him?”

“Illusion!” Wanda called, almost panicky. “Uh… uh.. Illusion, Master of Enigma,” she rushed to his side of the stage, “allow me.”

“Yeah? What?” Vision questioned as she took the piano from him.

Wanda began walking away, revealing that she had turned the piano into a cardboard cut out. “Whoops! You weren’t supposed to see how we did that trick.”

She wiggled her shoulders as she took the cardboard cut out away. The crowd laughed, clapping once again.

“Oh, Sherbert!” Vision blurted, pointing at someone in the crowd. “Yeah, this is my old mate, Sherbert.” Vision began heading towards the man. “Stand up, Sherbert. Say hello to the crowd.”

The man stood up, correcting Vision, “It’s Herbert, er—Herb.”

Vision pulled out playing cards. “Pipe down, Sherbie, and pick a card.” He fanned out the deck to Herb. “Any card.” Herb picked a card and Vision turned around, holding the deck out to Herb. “Yeah, put I back in the deck. I’m not looking.” Herb returned his card to the deck. “Alright.” Vision turned back around. “Watch this.” Vision shuffled the deck and held one card up to Herb. “Is this your card?”

“Uh, no.”

“I beg to differ.”

Herb shook his head. “Mmm-mmm.”

“R-really?” He tossed the card before grabbing a new one. “Is this your card?”

“Vision,” Wanda tried to call to him.

Herb shook his head again. “Mmm-mmm.”

“Ugh!” Vision tossed the card. He took another card and another, rapidly pulling them out. “Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card?” Once again, Herb shook his head. “Argh! Is this your card? Is this your card?”

“No. No. No. No.”

“Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card? Is this your card?” Vision then got to the last card in the deck. “Is this your card?”

“Oh, it is!”

“It is what?”

“It’s my card.”

“Well, pardon me, Herb. Have it back.” He slapped the card onto Herb’s chest and walked away.

“Oh, no, you did the trick right.”

“Well, of course I did the trick right! I’m Illusion! Flourish!”

Vision bowed to the audience and Wanda led them all in clapping.

“That was terrible,” Agnes whispered to Y/N.

“This whole thing is hard to watch,” Y/N added.

“And now for my next trick…” Vision continued.

“Oh, goodness me,” Wanda sighed.

Vision reached up to his head. “Oh! Who stole my hat?” He turned around in a circle searching for his hat. That’s when a rabbit hopped across the stage. “Oh, stop that rabbit! I gotta pull a hat out of it!”

Watching Wanda go to pick up Señor Scratchy, Y/N noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Agnes’ hands were glowing purple. Y/N fully turned to her only for Agnes to stop.

“Señor Scratchy’s got real star quality, don’t you think?” Agnes said loud enough for everyone to hear. She sent Y/N a wink.

“Maybe we leave the poor bunny out of this one,” Wanda suggested, “shall we?” She put the bunny away.

Vision grabbed his hat from the ground. “Well then, I will just have to pull this hat… out of myself,” he said. The audience gasped and Wanda ran over.

“Vision, no.”

“I’m doin’ it!” He phased the hat through his body. “Ah-ha!”

“If only you all know our secret!” She wiggled her fingers, pulling the curtains back to reveal a set of mirrors.

“IS that how mirrors work?” Beverly asked from the crowd.

“Shut up, Bev,” Dottie told her.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, for our grand finale, I bring you, The Magnet of Crysteries!” Vision announced as Wanda rolled out a cabinet.

“The Cabinet of Mysteries!” Wanda corrected.

“Yeah, yeah. What she said. I will now make my wife… disappear.”

He opened the doors of the cabinet, causing the crowd to ooh. Then before Wanda could get in, he closed them.

“Are you sure you don’t want an audience volunteer named my husband Ralph?” Agnes chuckled.

“Your husband?” Y/N questioned. “You don’t have a—“

“You don’t know that,” she smirked.

“No,” Vision laughed at Agnes’ joke. “Abracadabra!” He hit the cabinet with his wand.

“Uh, sweetheart?” Wanda caught his attention.

“Yeah?”

“Hi.”

“Oh.”

“What’s in the box?” Herb began chanting, causing others to follow. “What’s in the box? What’s in the box? What’s in the box?”

“Yeah, what’s in the box?” Vision asked.

"What’s in the box? What’s in the box? What’s in the box? What’s in the box?”

Wanda waved her fingers again. She reached for the cabinet handle, Vision taking that queue to do the same thing. They open the cabinet to reveal a very confused Monica—Geraldine. The audience applauded as Geraldine smiled nervously.

“Oh! Oh, yes! Flourish!” Vision said. The three on stage bowed. “Let’s get outta here!”

Wanda and Vision hurried back stage as everyone continued clapping. Y/N had to bite down on the inside of her cheek as she tried not to go backstage with them. Agnes would never let her. Dottie was quickly back up on stage, announcing third and second place winners.

“You two,” Dottie interrupted herself. “Stop right there.”

Everyone turned to see who Dottie was talking to. Wanda and Vision were off to the side, clearly trying to sneak off.

“Nothing like what you two just did up here,” Dottie continued, “has ever happened int he history of our talent show.”

“Dottie, we are so—“ Wanda tried to apologize.

“Hilarious. That was the most hilarious act we’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t you all agree?” The crowd applauded.

“Oh, yes!” Vision celebrated.

“You two, come on up. Come on.” The two came back onto the stage. “Oh behalf of the planning committee, I would like to award you with the inaugural Comedy Performance of the Year.”

Wanda took the award. “Oh, thank you!” She said.

“Let’s get out of here,” Agnes said, lopping her arm through Y/N’s.

“What? Why?” Y/N questioned as Agnes pulled her away.

“Because we’re done here for now. I need to get home and work on a few things and you need to be locked back up before you get any ideas.”

Y/N looked back as Agnes continued to lead her away, making eye contact with Wanda. It felt like the two of them were staring into each other’s souls. Y/N could only hope that Wanda remembered who she was and that she would come find her.

next chapter >

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demonslayedher · 3 years

Text

Ramble on the Limitations of Looking for KnY Interpretation based on Japanese Mythology

One thing I notice a lot in the Japanese side of KnY fandom theories is a lot of deep dives into religious and mythological reasons behind Gotouge's creative choices. It is super interesting stuff, and Gotouge borrows enough and does homage to enough that there is a clearly a solid knowledge base there. While I find historical details handy for interpreting the characters, ultimately, I find that the canon of demons and Breaths can be interpreted in a vacuum without relying too heavily on the uncanny coincidences lurking in deep dives. This isn't going to be a well-supported essay, this is going to be a ramble that may include a bunch of interesting nuggets. (And then she went on to ramble for 3249 unedited words...)

First things first: I'm a nerd. I like to say I broke the weeb scale a long time ago, but I'm not exactly a university professor or anything like that. That said, I do read a lot of stuff from experts who have jumped on the KnY trends to talk about how elements in KnY are taken from, say, the sword making traditions of the Okuizumo region that results in black swords or simply making comparisons to famous swords, or local legends of supernatural encounters that resulted in split rocks, or comparing specific oni with and the heroes who slayed them or at least comparing elements of specific characters to other famous oni legends, or that Hinokami Kagura is based on a specific Shinto legend and has 12 forms based on existing Kagura traditions, etc. And I love reading this stuff, because I wouldn't had learned about some of it without my interest in KnY leading me to those articles, or as I read it I cheer because they're making references to things I already (as a nerd) really enjoy and therefore it strokes my inner echo chamber bias, or I nod along and think, "oh, yes, why of course, that makes total sense, Hinokami Kagura must be based on the dance Amenouzume performed to enticed the Sun Goddess Amaterasu out of the cave, how silly to think it could be based on anything else" but I then also take a step back to think, "...but it also doesn't have to be." For as many similarities as there to existing legends, it feels to me that Gotouge made it a point not to make specific reference to any particular mythological or religious elements. As an example, Gotouge considered titles with reference to a Shinto fire god named "Kagutsuchi" but never made actual reference to any fire god (or sun god) by name in the finalized direction canon took. Granted, a lot of fan theorists have read into that, going so far as to say because Nezuko's fire powers she represents Kagutsuchi, Yoriichi represents Amaterasu, etc., but while I find the idea of borrowed elements makes for highly interested interpretation of canon, one-to-one comparisons really don't work for this series. By not invoking a name like Kagutsuchi in the title or otherwise, Gotouge succeeded in not being boxed in by the canon of any particular deity. (Granted, "canon" for mythology can vary significantly by whatever historical writings you're looking at, with standard interpretations going through many big changes throughout the centuries. It can be as loose as it is limiting, depending on what sort of historical/mythological/religious figure you're talking about.) I feel there's more evidence of this avoidance by never invoking Amaterasu as a deity, despite the emphasis on the power of the sun in slaying demons. Even looking back and trying to figure out who Akeno placed so much faith, it was only called a "god of sunlight" as opposed to a "sun god." It's as though KnY works with a generic approach to religion. Even if the use of Buddhist element, the Nenbutsu prayer is called such, and Himejima's repeated phrases are legit Buddhist practice, but there is a huge variety of Buddhist sects and practices and theologies, and throughout history, many of them didn't get along. Going back to Akeno and wondering if she might had been Buddhist, I went so far as to suspect she was influenced by Nichirin sect philosophy based on its emphasis on the "Nichi" (sun) representing Japan and incorporating Shinto gods into its philosophy, and for its likely influence in the Kanto area in Akeno's time period, and for its encouragement for the salvation of women and therefore popularity among women. I felt pretty satisfied that it was all lining up, but also, none of this is necessary for a quality interpretation of canon. If Gotouge wanted to say specifically what informed her religious conviction, then it would had been said. But that's not what was important, was it? What was important, and therefore focused on, was Akeno's feelings toward her son and wishes for his sake.

While KnY's worldbuilding feels richer with all the clear religious influence, the details are not actually important. If anything, I feel like Gotouge dove into the heart of the elements of, say, Shinto mythology, and played those core elements up. It's different, yet still familiar, to take sun-associated elements and used them in a way that serves the story without being boxed into existing traditions. The sun is clearly important, and once you start looking for it, you find subtle recurring references to it. Like, Akeno's name? The "Ake" is one way of writing "red," and there are all sorts of uses of other ways of writing "red" throughout the series, in everything from the sand used for making Nichirin blades to the way that Haganezuka calls Tanjiro an auspicious "red" child with a very rarely used kanji. Our commoner main characters, though, just use regular old ways of saying "red" when referencing Tanjiro's appearance without thinking deeply into it, like there's something special right in front of them but they don't recognize it. Similar to how something as special as Sun Breathing was hidden right in front of them in Hinokami Kagura, with a name so generic and simple that it's entirely unsurprising that the Taisho era Kamado family would interpret it as "fire god." The very lack of limiting real-life details is what allows Gotouge to sprinkle these deep touches around, cover them up with branches and leaves, and then sit back and wait for readers to stroll through and invitingly pleasant looking field and then trip and fall down a rabbit hole. This is also what I think gives Gotouge the freedom and malleability to work with the sun in a way that serves the story, especially in ways that tie it to fire. While I don't think there's strong ties for this is general Japanese culture, the way canon is written implies a close tie between fire and the sun as being a very closely related element, hence the influence on the Kamado family, Tanjiro's appearance, his suitability for Sun Breathing based on a history of tending fire for careful charcoal burning, and Tanjiro and Nezuko capability as demons to overcome the sun. Here is where I go into a bit of a tangent about the purification element. This, again, is not strictly tied to any particular Shinto canon (and Shinto does place heavy emphasis on purification), but instead is an example of Gotouge getting to the underlying heart of a lot of common religious elements. Fire is associated with spiritual purification in everything from Buddhism to Catholicism, it's very easy to apply Nezuko's fire abilities as something which burns away something evil (demon poison) so as to purify something good (human flesh, or even other physical substances). Maybe lesser known, but very deeply entrenched in Japanese culture, is the purification element of charcoal. While it may be known around the world for soaking up undesirable elements and therefore used in everything from fish tank filters to treating food poisoning, in Japan, there's a bit of a spiritual side to it as well. For something so closely tied to the way of life for citizens throughout hundreds of years of history for everything from cooking to heating the home, it's unsurprising that quality charcoal would receive as much emphasis as good water and rice. Japanese charcoal is especially known for not producing undesirable smoke or odor, making it appropriate for use in a lot of settings. Charcoal farmers have often not just been that; they've been caretakers of the forest. Keeping the right trees, at the right sizes (both for use as charcoal and for how you pack it together when making charcoal), and in the right numbers to ensure you have stock for coming years, requires management of the forest. (Other tangent side note: many of the other names in the Kamado family are references to plants. Sumire both has the "sumi" sound of charcoal and is the word for violet, Kie is in reference to hollyhock, Nezuko is in reference to red beans (and the asanoha pattern of her kimono is in reference to hemp leaf, an

auspicious symbol of strong and quick growth), Takeo is in reference to bamboo (ironically bamboo can be a problematic plant for charcoal farmers, because it may spread too fast and take resources from other trees--stop stealing all the takuan pickles, Takeo!), Hanako is in general reference to flowers, Shigeru is in general reference to (plants) flourishing, and maybe by the time they got to Rokuta they gave up and said "he's our sixth child, let's just call him 'Six-Boy', lolz." BUT I DIGRESS.) That means the Kamado family not only had careful management of fire in the actual days of charcoal production, but of a wide variety of natural resources to ensure the trees were healthy. Natural weather phenomena, clean water, pest control, minerals from rocks getting into the soil, hmm, so many elements to pay attention to. Hmm. These sure sound a lot like other Breaths. And Breaths all stem from Sun Breathing. That means there may be certain elements of Sun Breathing that have been emphasized in each of them, but none of them encompass so many qualities of the natural world. The natural world which Yoriichi saw with such clarity than nature accepted him with open arms, practically, in how well animals took to him. Sun Breathing, while especially using that all-important purification aspect of sunlight which burns evil demons, is like an all encompassing embrace of nature. While being closely tied with fire is hugely important, there's more to it than just flames. While Shinto is very much so closely tied with nature (the extent to which this is emphasized may vary from shrine to shrine, scholar to scholar), what I see in KnY is a clever use of emphasis on spirituality in nature as opposed to emphasis on Shinto mythology. And I think that was a smart move. While stories based more directly on various theologies, mythologies, and religious ideologies often use those building blocks often wind up having very creative takes on them (even and especially with the confines of them), ultimately, the story of KnY is whatever Gotouge wants to do with it, and it does not seem guided by the specific conventions of more specific religious elements. But again, those deeper elements are still everywhere. You know what color Japanese charcoal burns? It's a gorgeous jewel tone red, spanning many of those rare shades of red Gotouge make reference to. And, in wider Japanese culture, red is the color of the sun (as opposed to how other cultures may represent it as yellow or orange or white or so on). (Not as exactly a KnY tangent, just personal: Japanese charcoal is so freaking pretty, I had no idea until I saw it used in the tea ceremony at parts when guests crowd around to enjoy the sight of it as the host prepares it for boiling the water. I can stare and stare and stare, it is so so so so so pretty, but also this element of the ceremony has gotten rarer both as many places have made a more practical switch to electricity, and tea ceremony quality has gotten more rare both due to fewer producers and due to beetle-related damages to the trees used, and I will always state HOW DISAPPOINTED I am that Kanata and Sumihiko are not out there raising charcoal, because charcoal is precious and I'm always so terrified of wasting charcoal in my practices because its so precious, but seeing the amazingly beautiful burn of the charcoal is absolutely one of my favorite elements of the ceremony and this of course gives me an extra soft spot for Kamado Tanjiro BUT I DIGRESS AGAIN, I TOLD you this was going to be a ramble, but SERIOUSLY IT IS SUCH A GORGEOUS RED).

So anyway. My point is, as interesting as incorporating outside elements may be, I don't find them necessary in interpreting KnY's canon. Even if it takes tons of Taisho Secrets to do so, Gotouge presents the details necessary, and that's more than enough to work with. After all, despite all the care taken in historical details in building the setting, KnY takes place in a fictional universe, it can make its own rules when it comes to things that don't actually exist in our universe. Demons, for example, follow a chronology and power system with sources and limits that is unique to a this universe, as tempting as it is due to general cultural familiarity, it does not call for a one-to-one comparison with existing demon legends. Breath as well, as a power system, is very interesting. Again, this is because it has a lot of basis in core concepts of real life physical and spiritual training. It's presented as a method available to anyone who can pick it up, not drawing on a mystical outside power or summoning the actual superhuman elements of nature. Other stories that present their power systems like that are well and fine, but when it comes down to it, this is a story about mere humans doing everything in their limited power to wave swords around and defeat creatures that seem so likely to outpower them. This is a common, relatable basis of stories throughout history, and a lot of analysis I've heard of KnY's success says that it shows how classic this story structure is. Many Japanese demon stories have their origin in epidemics, and some people suggest that the world looks for hope in stories like KnY in times of seemingly insurmountable crises like coronavirus. I think that's an oversimplification of KnY's success, but again, because of Gotouge's use of core cultural elements, it can be applied easily. OKAY BUT ON THAT NOTE we can do some really interesting digging if we want. : D Gotouge does make some highly specific references, included religious ones (granted, not in ways that impact the plot). The example coming to mind is the Seventh Form of Thunder Breathing, the "Flaming Thunder God." In Japanese, this is "Honoikazuchi-no-Kami," the name of a lightning deity who had a very, very brief mention in the Kojiki and who appeared among a handful of other lightning deities named in reference to other aspects/phenomena of lightning, like the sound or the rumble through the ground. Honoikazuchi is not so much the lightning itself, but the fires started by lightning. Stick with me a bit longer, I'm building up to something here. You've probably heard of the twelve animals of the Chinese (poorly translated as) Zodiac, right? Well, the system is way more complex than that, and really, if you want complexity, skip Japan and go dive straight into ancient China. I laugh and cry at myself for having a graduate degree in Chinese studies, the extent of my knowledge is is pitifully small, I know nothing, nothing. Suffice to say, China has its own five element system of water/wood/metal/fire/earth, it's more a philosophical application than a more physicality-based four element system popular in the west (fire/water/air/earth, why hello there, Avatar), with attributes of these elements assigned to every about anything through Chinese culture, from medicine to, you guessed it, the Zodiac animals. Japan saw all this and said "cool, we'll do that too" albeit their sort of mixed and matched a bit and made their own take on it in Onmyodo. An Onmyoji, who keeps track of, like, really any other-worldly matter you might have on your hands as a Heian noble, is someone who is paid to know all this stuff (it was very likely an Onmyoji who told the Ubuyashiki clan, "yeah, you got an evil family member to blame for your curse, squash him"). Yours Truly is not an Onmyoji and therefore will not attempt to go into more detail, save the one that a handful of Japanese theorists in the KnY fandom love to bring up: The Boar is a water sign. This means that, especially in Shinto practice, boars are considered an animal that protects against

fire, hence, a lot of practices to protect against fires were done on days of the Boar, in the month of the Boar, etc. So? So-o-o-o-o-o? You see it? You see it??? Boar = Water, Honoikazuchi = Fire, Inosuke and Zenitsu are basically foils to Tanjiro? Yes, yes, see it, yessss??? Deep dive Kamaboko theory, yes?????? Hahahaha. Naw. It's just a fun coincidence. ^_^ Again, I find these details completely unnecessary, for we are already given so many details in canon to work with on its own, and I think Inosuke and Zenitsu as foils to Tanjiro works entirely well simply based on their personalities, not because of any supernatural elements that require a high level of nerdery to have any hope of appreciating. Besides, once you start reaching too hard for cultural details Gotouge might have used and clinging too tightly to those ideas, there's likely something in canon to make it doubtful. For instance, Inosuke more widely presented as a king of the forest who wears deer and bear hide as well, and the fanbook state that Beast Breath is considered a likely offshoot of Wind Breathing. Even if we rely more strictly on historical detail, there's still the question of, say, what one of the basic Breaths, Thunder Breathing, even was when it was but a thunder inspired sword form not necessarily powered by Breath, you know, back when swords were longer and it would have been harder to make the fast draws katana would later be better suited for. Maybe they called it Thunder because it was practiced by swordsmen who stomped around really hard, and then when they added Breath technique, they figured out "oh dude, we can use our strong legs to go fast"??

Those are the kinds of things I find more fun to play around with in interpreting canon by bringing in little outside details, because as a work of fiction, there are already so many fun details to work with already even when treating it in a vacuum. But, giving Gotouge extensive and subtle use of cultural elements, especially core elements, it sure makes a lot of outside details applicable. Which is all to say, it's all super interesting, and I think the more people realize these things, the deeper they read into it, to an extent more than canon calls for. As much as I like it, and as much as I've enjoyed pulling outside elements in to fanfiction (like Kagutsuchi and lightning god tidbits), ultimately, if Gotouge thought these things were necessary, they'd have been included. Since they are not, I try to stick to canon details and Word of God-touge in answering Asks (lolz, I didn't plan on becoming a meta blog, it just kinda happened). BUT ALSO, JEEZ, I AM SO EXCITED IF PEOPLE TAKE A DEEPER INTEREST IN JAPANESE CULTURE BECAUSE THEY LIKE KIMETSU NO YAIBA, YOU CAN HAVE SO-O-O-O-O-O MUCH FUN PLANNING A TRIP TO JAPAN AROUND KNY THEMES, DO IT DO IT DO IT, GO TO YAGYU AND POSE IN A TANJIRO HAORI AND STICK YOUR SWORD IN A SPLIT ROCK, THE LOCALS THERE LOVE IT, DO IT but also like maybe learn about the tea ceremony and appreciate how beautiful the charcoal is with me k thx bye

#kny fandom theories and meta #sooooorta #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #am I a Pillar or a Demon?#neither #I am but a nerd

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supercorpkid · 3 years

Text

There’s a first time for everything.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader

Word count: 2890.

“How exactly did this happen?” Jamie looks at the F in your test and you roll your eyes to the sight of it. This is bad. This is really bad.

“I didn’t have time to study. But it’s ok, I’ll study for the next one.” You say, agreeing with your head to make Jamie and Maya’s worried expression ease up a little.

“Babe, you should’ve told me you needed to study. We could have had a study session or something.” They’re still worried. You look at Jamie raising one eyebrow, so she knows there’s more to the story. It takes her a few seconds, but she seems to finally realize your life is more complicated than stupid French tests.

“Oh, it’s a one-time thing.” Jamie says dismissing it with her hand. “It’s good, now you know what the rest of us feel when we don’t go so well.”

“Yeah. It’s great.” You joke with a smile, and that seems to be what’s necessary to make Maya less worried.

“We’ll study together for the next one.” She says and you agree.

It’s just when her mom picks her up from school, that you can tell Jamie what was really going on with you.

“Ok, so what really happened?” Jamie asks and you breathe deep before starting.

“Ok, it all started the night before when Kara put her head inside my bedroom to ask me:

“Hey kid. What are you up to?”

I looked up from the books I was organizing on my table to start studying. And since I thought it was something fast, I answered. “Nothing.” While obviously ignoring the books in front of me.

Then she went on like “Well. There is a big commotion downtown, a bunch of aliens got together to destroy some things and the whole place is a mess.” And I just shook my head agreeing because I thought she just went to tell me why she was leaving. But, like, she kept going and she asked me: “Do you want to come with me? I figured we could use some help.”

I was beaming in excitement ‘cause you know it’s kind of hard for Kara to just admit she needs help, so I thought there was probably a hell of a mess there. Which means she really did need my help, right? So, I was like “Wait! Really?”

She smiled too. “Sure! Go put on your-” But I used my super speed to change and I was in front of her all suited up in a blink of an eye. “Suit.”

“Let’s do it!” I ran out of the bedroom feeling like I could fly away just by being invited to it. You know it’s all I ever wanted. Kara seeing me as a person who could back her up during trial times. I was almost out of the house when I heard Lena’s voice from the living room and I came back to kiss her goodnight. So, she was like:

“Where are you guys heading to?”

And Kara said, check this out:

“I need back-up for this fight.”

I mean, she literally said the words I was so eager to hear and my smile just grew wider.

“I’m back-up!” I said, beaming in excitement.

But, well, you know my mom. She immediately went like:

“It’s school night.” She looked at momma. “She needs a good night of sleep.” Like I wasn’t even there to speak for myself! But lucky for me Kara said:

“Don’t worry, love. She’ll help me stop the aliens and bring them to the DEO, and I’ll do the clean up part.” Kara assured mom, who let out a sigh, like she does whenever she knows she is defeated.

“Are you sure you want to go?” She asked, putting her hand on my shoulder. And honestly, I don’t know what she was expecting. Did she think I was going to say no? Anyways, I obviously answered:

“Oh my God, yes! Don’t worry mom, I can handle it.”

Then she was like: “Ok, then. Don’t take too long.” She kissed my cheek, and then Kara’s mouth. “Be careful. Both of you.”

Then I looked at momma, still smiling, and she smiled back super excited. I just couldn’t believe I was going out to have adventures with Supergirl! I always thought I would have to sneak out with Superboy to have them, but then like, momma invited me to it!

So anyways, I tagged along to fight some hellgrammites that were causing trouble downtown. And like, dude, Aunt Alex gave me an earpiece for communication and Rao it felt so good to be a part of the team!

And she would talk to me through it. Jamie, I swear it’s as fun as you can think. So, aunt Alex was like:

“Superkid, be careful with the spikes. They’re strong enough to penetrate metal, it could harm you.”

And Kara was like:

“They also possess superhuman strength.”

And I was like:

“Okay, guys. I know hellgrammites, just chill.”

But like, aunt Alex went on:

“If you can’t win, try using their own spike against them as a last resource, Superkid.” And I was like ‘ok’, And then I hit one so hard he was thrown to a post light, and it bent, and made the light flicker. It was so funny, but I obviously couldn’t say that, so instead I said:

“Sorry. I’ll fix that!” And I flew to him, looking at the spike on his hand. Then I made my voice sound stronger and said: “You can come willingly or I can make you.”

“Pff.” It was his answer. What a dumbass, right? So, I had to keep using my strong voice.

“Got it. I’ll make you.” And then I punched his face a few times until he was unable to recover, and put him in cuffs. And I was so happy I yelled: “Got one!”

I looked at Supergirl, who had already caught the other three. She gave me thumbs up and a smile. Well. At least I kinda helped, right?

“Bring him to containment at the DEO.” I heard Alex’s voice through the comm, and picked up his floppy body and made my way towards Supergirl.

I asked if she was ready and she agreed with her head. So, I picked one other guy up, throwing each one over my shoulders, and I flew into the DEO with Supergirl, putting all four of them in a cell.

Aunt Alex was looking proud of me, which is incredible. You know the feeling! And she went like. “Great work, kiddo!”

“Thanks! That was fun, it was like playing video-game!” I said making them laugh. But then Supergirl went:

“Ok, time to go home. I’ll go clean up the mess they made, and I’ll meet you back there in a bit.” And she was ready to fly away when I held her hand.

“I can help. Still early.” I said pointing at my watch, but I lied ‘cause it was already late. Supergirl narrowed her eyes at me, and I knew she was going to say no, so I said: “At least let me unbend the post light.”

So she went:

“Ok. Let’s go.” Supergirl flew and I flew behind her.

In the end, I ended up helping her clean up everything, and we had to sneak in home so Lena didn’t see what time we made it back home.

And then, when I laid in bed, I was feeling exhausted, but I was so tired that it was really hard for me to fall asleep, so I missed my first wake-up call with Kara knocking at my door, and when Lena woke me up a while later, I was so tired it was hard to focus. But I could never tell her that, ‘cause she would be pissed since she was right in the first place. So, I rolled out of bed and came to school.

The problem was that it takes a lot of effort to shut off my super hearing and pay attention to the test, and I wasn’t able to do that while feeling so tired, hence my F.”

“Well, at least you had a good time supering yesterday.” Jamie says after you finish your story and you agree with your head catching your breath.

“It was awesome! Even your mom looked impressed.” You lean over a pillar and look at her. “Except Lena will be so mad that I got a bad grade, because I was supering.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t do everything. Save National City and get a good grade the very next day.” She said and you think about it. No, you can’t do everything, but you’re supposed to. Besides, school is more important than saving National City since Supergirl could have done it all by herself, clearly.

But Lena doesn’t need to know, does she? It’s not lying if she doesn’t ask you about it, so there’s no reason you will run to tell her about it, right? Right. It’s fine. You’re fine.

But you’re not fine.

“Hey, babygirl!” Lena says when she walks in home later that day, your soul almost leaves your body. You jump so high in your chair; she furrows her brows at that. “What are you doing?”

“Having a heart attack!” You put your hand on your chest, and you feel your heart beating fast.

“You shouldn’t get scared so easily. You have super hearing.” She points out and you think about it for a second. She is right, you shouldn’t.

“I was distracted.” You defend yourself, and Lena comes closer to kiss your head. She looks at the books in front of you.

“Ooh, français. Très bien!” She jokes.

“Mhm, yeah.” You smile through the pain you’re feeling to just blurt it out right there. It’s very hard not to say anything. You hate keeping secrets from your moms. “How’s-How was work?”

“Oh, you know Fridays and meetings. They don’t usually go well together.” Lena says that grabbing a bottle of wine and a glass. “But at least we have family night today, right?”

“Right.” You smile and she excuses herself for a shower (glass of wine in hand), while you finish studying.

Kara gets home a while later with dinner in both hands, but she still manages to push your books out of the way so she can put them on the table. She ended up dropping all of your books on the floor, and you smile at her.

“Sorry, little one.” She bends out to help you with it, and you hear a loud gasp.

“What?” You ask surprised, and you look at what she’s pointing at. “Oh no. Oh no.”

“You got an F?” She yells in pure shock, and your eyes widen at the sound of that.

“Shhh! Will you keep it down, please?” You lower your glasses to make sure Lena is still in the bedroom and can’t hear you. Lucky for you that’s the case.

“An F!” Kara’s still shocked. She picks up your tests and reads it. “You were aware it was a French test, right?”

“Um, yes?”

“Because I’m pretty sure this is English, this is a math equation? And would you look at that! You wrote stuff in kryptonese! I’m not sure she could understand that.” She keeps looking at it, making you blush in embarrassment until you pull it out of her hands.

“I was… distracted.” You say, putting it inside of your book, and looking back at her. “Please, don’t tell mom.”

“Kid-”

“Please, mommy.” You try with your sweetest voice. “I’ll study harder for the next one and I’ll get an A, just please. Please. For me?”

“Don’t.” Kara looks at your pouting face and you can see she’s very inclined on hiding this with you. But she blinks twice looking away. “No, that won’t work. The pouting, and the ‘please for me’ bit. You know we don’t do lies in this house.”

“That’s not fair!” You cross your arms, upset. “Last week mom asked you if you ate all the chicken parm and you said no.”

“Are you serious?”

“You broke three glasses when you closed that cupboard a little too strong yesterday, and you told her nothing was broken.”

“Nothing important was broken.”

“Momma!” You pout again. “It’s not fair.” You hear Lena opening the bedroom door and making her way to where both of you are, and you raise an inquisitive eyebrow at Kara.

“Hey honey.” Lena says making her way behind the counter for another glass of wine. She looks at both of you having a stare down on the other side.

“One of us is going to tell her and she would rather if it was you.” Kara whispers close to your face, and you know Lena can’t hear her. You frown, and can’t believe Kara would do that. You can’t believe she won’t have your back about this.

“What’s-” Lena clears her throat, calling your attention back to her. “What’s going on?”

“Oh. Hi, love.” Kara makes her way to the other side of the counter and kisses Lena’s mouth. “Your daughter has got something important to tell you. I’ll go shower so we can have dinner and watch a movie.”

Kara leaves the kitchen and Lena raises her eyebrows at you, encouraging you to start. You don’t. You just look at her, and the book where your test lays inside. And you think about a lie. But you know you won’t lie, so it makes no sense for you to think of one in the first place. So, you get your test out of the book, and you come closer, holding on to it like it’s suddenly going to make it turn into an A instead.

“I, um, have something to tell you.” You sit on the other side of the counter, and she looks at the paper you’re clinging to so desperately. She does her eyebrow raise, and your heart feels like it’s going to stop with the thought of disappointing and upsetting her. Your mouth feels dry, your palms feel sweaty. It’s a whole ‘is this what a heart attack feels like?’ situation, before you can get your words out. “I didn’t do so well on a test.”

“Ok.” It’s what Lena says. She raises her hand at you, and you wince when you realize she will look at it. “Can I see it?” She pushes, once she realizes you’re still clinging to it, like holding onto a wrecked life-boat.

“Can’t you just take my word for it?” It’s your last desperate self-preserving act. Lena shows you her hand again, and you know that’s a clear ‘no’. “Ok.” You breathe out, handing her the paper. She takes it and looks at it, with furrowed eyebrows.

“Didn’t do well.” As in she’s saying that’s a very light way to put what she’s looking at.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do better next time, I promise!” You blurt out. “Please, don’t make me stop supering. Please. I swear it was a one-time thing. This won’t happen ever again.”

Lena puts the test down, goes around the counter and stops in front of you, while you still rumble your apologies. She doesn’t say a word which is very distressing. You wish she would just yell and ground you, just do something, instead of radio silent like right now.

“Ok.” She finally lets out. Ok? What does ok mean? “You’ll do better next time.” And then she hugs you. You take a few seconds to wire your brain and acknowledge what’s happening, before wrapping your arms around her, and letting out a breath you’ve been holding the entire time.

“So, you’re not mad?” You ask, still in shock. Lena gives you a chuckle and whispers softly in your ear.

“I’m not mad.” She tries to move away, but you hold her tightly.

“Still hugging, still hugging.” You say, earning another chuckle from her, and she doesn’t move away. “So, I can still go supering with momma?”

“You can still go supering.” She whispers again.

“And I’m not grounded?” You ask again, and you feel Lena moving to kiss your cheek. You smile, very happy.

“And you’re very much grounded.” She whispers, and finally lets go of you, with a bop on your nose. “But nice try.” Lena gets her wine glass and looks at you with a soft expression. “Can I just ask you a favor?”

“Anything.” You’re so happy she’s not mad, and that you can still go supering, whatever she says, you’ll do.

“That physics formula it’s exactly what I was needing for an experiment. May I steal it?” She smiles, making you smile back.

“Really? Wow, it’s almost like I wrote that for you.” And you have, in fact, because you were listening to her during your entire test. And you feel like she somehow knows that because the English part is the explanation she was giving about the experiment, then you wrote the formula she was trying to come up with, and the kryptonese part actually says ‘I love you, mom’. So, you figured she must have put two and two together and she possibly knows.

“Oh, and babygirl?” Lena adds, looking at you from her wine glass. “Khap ukiem rrip, inah*.”

Yeah. She knows.

Notes:

*Khap ukiem rrip, inah = I love you, daughter*

#kara x lena #supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #supercorp #supercorpfamily #kara x reader #supercorp daughter #supercorp fanfic #lena x reader #reader insert

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comehomeducklings · 3 years

Text

Past [Part 2] (Obsession)

A/N: Some chapters will be named with either “Past,” “Present,” or “Future,” then their numbered part coming right after it. This is to confuse you less when flashbacks or anything happens. As you have probably noticed, it says “Past” for Part 2. This is going back near when Tom and her just met. Thank you for reading! <3

Tom Riddle's Moodboard

Main Character's Moodboard

~////////////////𓆙////////////////~

1940 - 3rd year

“Potions is not that bad, I swear. You just have to be good at measuring.”

At the table, my friends and I are discussing our classes this year. Potions being one of my favorite topics. Devyn absolutely loathes that certain class. We have to drag her there to make sure she doesn’t skip. Poor girl tries her best to not mess up but the cauldron always ends up blowing up. I even watched her do every step once, never missing a beat. The potion still ended up failing, even though she did everything correctly. She gave up after a while, who wouldn’t. I help her do extra assignments for extra credit to keep her grade up. She also studies with me to make sure she can memorize everything and pass her tests. Amelia is pretty good at the class, she’s luckily paired with Devyn most of the time. Carrying the potion to success, with a little bit of my secret help. It’s not cheating, it’s using your resources.

I’m resources.

“Potions is not that bad,” Devyn mocks me. “If it weren’t for you two I would have gone insane in that stupid class.”

Amelia just laughs at her while eating her hash browns on the plate. She reaches her hand out to take some more eggs.

“You were able to do it before. Not the way you were supposed to, but it worked,” Amelia says.

“Exactly, just start doing it your way at this point. I don’t think Slughorn will care how it’s done, just how it comes out.”

Devyn nods her head and points at me with a fork. Her mouth full of food so she settles for that response. My plate doesn’t have much other than some bacon and fruit. I’m not usually a breakfast eater. I get my appetite at lunch and dinner time. It’s just too early for a bunch of food smells, the smells make me kind of nauseous. I’ll eat though, enough to hold me off till lunch.

The chatter in the lunchroom rises by the minute. Everyone refilling themselves before their busy day. All energy levels rising while everyone wakes up from their groggy morning mood. While my friends finish eating we continue to talk about our classes and share the schedules for this year. Most classes we had were the same except for our electives. I tried taking as many electives as possible. My family back home never really did magic. I actually came a year and a half late since my family wanted me to have a normal school experience. I learned to do everything without the use of magic, the only thing my mom taught me was the floo network, creatures, and plants. I would often accompany her to Diagon Alley when she shops. I got an Owl for my 10th birthday. A cat would have been amazing if I wasn’t allergic to it. My owl is a brown and white-furred barn owl. Don’t ask me why I named it Bartholomew. I was ten okay, give me a break. Speaking of the floo network, my mom had to chase me through it quite often because I kept teleporting everywhere. I once ran into the Ministry of Magic’s building and got lost. They had to take me home to my parents. Their faces told me everything I needed to know about the punishment waiting for me.

Halfway through the second year is when I came to Hogwarts, a second letter coming that year asking my parents to let me learn more there. So when they finally let me attend, everything was pretty new to me. My mother was the magic one in the family. Her grandmother, my great-grandmother, before her had the magic gene. Going to school was the same experience as going from a muggle-borns perspective. The difference is, I knew more about its existence. I would look at yearbooks my mom had from when she went here. She earned a lot of titles, all the achievements being recorded down. I always wondered why she never wanted me to come here. Did something happen to me, to her? I’m guessing she just wanted a normal life with dad. He has always supported her through everything. A love, a bond like that is hard to come by. He would also learn about magic right next to me. At least, the stuff my mom allowed to let us know.

That’s why I want to learn as much as I can, of what’s available. Why learn math in the muggle world when I could be learning divination. Spells of all types, potions for everything of inconvenience. My chores could be completed with just a flick of my wand. I’ve lately been learning wandless magic, on my own. Albus has helped by providing me with material to study that type of magic. The only thing I’ve managed so far is a spark coming from the tips of my fingertips. Sparking hope that I could actually, maybe, achieve that level. Now I won't get my hopes up, but that can lead me to a certain advantage in dueling. That being one of my weakest skills. Always panicking, saying any spells that pop up in my mind, and making random movements coming from my wand. Often confusing who I’m up against, although they recover from that confusion fairly quickly.

Riddle, met him once. One too many if you would ask me. I dissuade ever wanting to speak to him. Arrogance and pride flow through his tongue like second nature. I do take pride in succeeding above him in 3 classes. He is 2 classes above me but, that’s not the point. I do admit, he’s attractive. Only a little though, how else would he charm his way through the professors and students.

“Alright, I’m ready to go. You guys done?”

“Yeah,” I say. Devyn and I start leaving our seats and heading towards the huge doors.

Amelia hurried from her seat, a few steps behind since she took some fruit with her to eat on the way. More and more students also started making their way towards the first period. Not wanting to be blamed for the loss of house points. This system causes so many fights, everyone’s competitive side getting the best of their common sense. I would be lying if I said it didn’t get the best of me before. Amelia being her usual bubbly self skips backward while chatting with us. Before we could warn her to stop, she pushes someone ahead of her. Both falling down, hitting the floor. She spins her head extremely quickly, her hair sticking in her mouth from the force of the wind.

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” she explains. Quickly trying to digest her situation. I make my way towards her and pull her up. I fix her robe and dust off any dirt on the cloth from the floor.

“Clearly idiot, can you not use those bug eyes of yours to see?”

Devyn and I make eye contact. We understand that there are witnesses here, and one of them is bound to snitch on us if we fight. A huge scene would probably make Amelia feel even more embarrassed as well. Instead, I guided Amelia by her back. We continue on to class while I comfort her. Devyn is staying back to “talk” to the guy. Lestrange is in for it now, any poor soul would be when in the fiery path of her anger.

Devyn’s loud yells could still be slightly heard when entering the potions classroom. First class of the year, and day. On Slughorn’s table, I can see a vial with the wideye potion contained inside. I set Devyn’s textbook on her station, turning to the page that contains information on the potion. Hoping to save her confusion and time.

“Welcome, welcome! Nice to see some old faces, and new ones,” he says with the biggest grin on his face. “Today we’ll be learning about the Wideye potion. Can anyone tell me what this potion does?”

I quickly raise my hand, rather eager. I did some reading about a lot of potions during the summer. Trying to get a headstart on my studies. This potion being one of them. Only 3 students raised their hand, one of them being me. The other, well, Riddle.

“Yes, go ahead and answer,” the professor looks my way.

I smile, “The wideye potion prevents the person consuming the liquid the ability to fall asleep. Which is often used in the medical field to wake someone from a sleep caused by a blunt force or drug.”

“Precisely! 10 points.”

I look back rather smugly at Riddle, rather happy I got chosen instead of him. I know, he could have easily answered that too. I’ll let myself bask in the small achievement for now. 30 minutes of class is just spent writing down notes, preparing us for the potion we will make. Note-taking is my favorite, especially the little doodles I get to make. We use a feather instead of the regular pen. I found it rather amusing and liked the certain feeling of writing with it. The dipping noise that the point of the feather makes when hitting the liquid ink is a very profound sound. No real writer’s bump forming on my fingers.

“That’s enough writing, I need you all to prepare your cauldron, gather the materials you need, and start your potion. If done correctly, tomorrow when we add the finishing touches and check on it the potion should be a blue/green color,” Slughorn comments. “You have 10 minutes to study your notes, then the rest of the class to make your potion. No looking back at your notes after those ten minutes.”

After scanning my notes, I stand up and walk towards the ingredients on the shelves. If I remember correctly my potion requires snake fangs, standard ingredient, and wolfsbane. I gather all that in my hand and set it down near my cauldron. Before I start, I take a moment. I’m missing something, I’m sure there was another ingredient.

Wolfsbane, check.

Snake fangs, six of them.

I have the measures of Standard ingredient.

There’s one more, I try to look around the room. Then I remember that we get an automatic failing grade if caught cheating. There’s no way I’ll let my grade drop like that. Over something so small and inconvenient too. Making my way to the shelves, I scan over the ingredients over and over again. Trying to see if any of the names pop out to me.

No.

Definitely not.

That’s an ingredient?

I don’t even want to know how that one was obtained.

This one, of course it’s this one. I even remember putting a star next to the name in my notebook. Dried Billwig stings, I believe six of them were needed. All that time wasted. Hurrying to my seat I get to work. The time goes by quickly, all that could be heard was the sizzling and whooshing of our potions. I almost knocked down my vials a couple of times. Someone actually did, their time spent on cleaning the glass off the floor. After heating the first three ingredients, I crush them together in the mortar. Then stir clockwise from what I recall, three times specifically. Finally, I wave my wand over then leave it to brew.

Just in time from the looks of it. I glance at Devyn to see how it went for her, and she looks pretty proud of herself. I take that as a blessing that it didn’t blow up this time of round. I’m guessing she took our advice and did it her own way.

A student raises his hand, “May we leave?”

“Oh yes yes, go ahead. No assignments for the first day, only the potion you made in class.”

Before I leave the classroom I examine Riddle’s station. He already left the room. His potion looks similar to how mine turned out, his workspace thoroughly cleaned. Everything used properly placed back to where it should be. Perfectly spotless, not a single speck of dust in sight. All done without magic too, surprising for someone born into the wizarding world. When I mentioned that I met him once, it wasn’t much of anything. The only way I know how he really acts is through other people. Much admire his intelligence and strong will. Others are jealous of the potential he holds for the future.

Girls are already trying to slip love potions into his drinks. I would feel bad if he wasn’t so rude to them. Only just before touching the disrespectful line. He almost drank one of their attempts before. Wouldn’t want to imagine how that turned out. Tom riddle, in love. That man probably doesn’t know the feeling of happiness, let alone love. I feel bad for his future girlfriend, she’s going to have to deal with a handful of baggage.

~////////////////𓆙////////////////~

“How much do you want to bet Nott will demolish him?” A Gryffindor girl to my left whispers.

Nott, part of Riddle’s group from what I’ve seen. They all eat lunch together and talk to one another so it’s a reasonable guess. Very talented duellist, one of the bests here.

“I hate to admit it, but he’ll definitely win this. I’ll still have hope for the other guy though,” I whisper back trying not to sound mean.

Nott and the other Slytherin boy are up right now. It’s a courtesy for the audience to stay quiet until someone casts the first attack or defense. From then on all you will hear is shouting of encouragement and the opposite. Nott’s eyes are focused, zoning in on the opponent before him. His wand is steady, mouth slightly parted to breathe through better. Whole-body alert and tense waiting for something. From what I'm getting, I believe he’s waiting for the Slytherin boy to go first. Nott casts spells quickly and thinks them through decently. Sometimes you're not able to create a counter-spell quick enough to defend yourself against him.

Riddle’s group and himself are near the corner of the platform. All seemingly analyzing every breath he inhales and exhales. I finally hear the whoosh of a wand and a whiz of light fly past the platform. The glow from the spell lighting our faces for a millisecond. Nott quickly counters that spell and moves to cast his own. Magic flies across the platform, all of our eyes going back and forth like a ping-pong match. The Slytherin boy starts breaking a sweat. He’s only been able to get a couple of offensive spells in there, most of his plays spent throwing off Nott’s. If he doesn’t turn the battle soon, the outcome will become very clear.

It is a little less exciting since we only know a handful of spells. So whatever you know from your own studies you use in these duels. When we move up the years the class will become more serious and dangerous. Right now it’s just to teach us how to counter and cast quickly. The proper etiquette and movement. You use spells that you know, they aren’t supposed to harm someone. Either stun them, make them fly back, or disarm. Most of those spells require a little of a higher level, most of us not even knowing of its existence yet. So what’s mostly cast between competitors is a basic spell to exert force. That force should be aimed for the legs, or the wand to disarm that way. The way someone can win here is to make their knees or hands touch the floor, or disarm their wand. As I mentioned, it will get more intense as time goes by. We're only just starting 3rd year right now, a lot more charms will be learned later on.

I shake my head to get rid of any lingering thoughts. My attention goes right back to the duel taking place in front of me. Nott quickly aims a spell at the knees and manages to bring the other boy to his knees.

“Mr. Nott wins this duel! Please step off the platform, we will evaluate your performance.”

During the practice duels today, you watch it, think of ways to help the person improve, and point out things they might have done wrong. At the end, the professor picks people raising their hands to allow them to give their feedback. Participating is part of the grade you get in here. I personally prefer giving feedback then dueling. I’m not the best at casting, I do give out good defense spells though. That should mean something, I hope.

“Let’s start with Nott, does anyone have feedback for him?”

A couple of people spread apart raised their hands. One by one they all ask questions and give feedback. They mention his feet and posture when he stands. Arms fully stretched out where it would have been more flexible to bend it slightly. When he casts he shouldn’t be walking backward. They shortly switch to the other boy’s questions and feedback. The way he never gave himself the opening to cast an offensive spell often. He would move around his area a lot. Almost slipping off the stage during one of those movements. Tom and his group privately discussed with one another. They’re probably giving Nott their own feedback and suggestions privately.

“Now, Riddle I want you to come up and…,” he scans the room for another student. After some time he points his finger at me. “You.”

I could have had a smooth sailing class. I was so close to not having to go up there. My hands start sweating a bit, my anxiety jumbling my thoughts together. Riddle’s already up there and soon to be on his side of the platform. Taking his wand out and wandering his fingers over the design. I gulp, a big toad stuck in my throat. I wipe my hands on my robe and start up the stairs. Riddle seems as unbothered as ever. We bow, turn, then walk ten paces back. During this time I try predicting who will cast first. I don’t know him very well, I’ve also never seen him duel.

I take my dueling stance and wait for the signal to start. Hoping, praying, that I don’t embarrass myself. Slipping up is not allowed, not when going against him.

~////////////////𓆙////////////////~

Taglist:

@empath-bunny

#tom riddle x oc #tom riddle imagine #tom riddle x reader #lord voldemort #death eaters #voldemort #horcrux #hogwarts #harry potter #wizard #post wizarding war #enemies to allies #enemies to lovers #angst #oc #poc #Oc is any race #moldy voldy

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