#it is a bit hard to tell with her sometimes cause she’s a very unreliable narrator and has a tendency to feel slighted

[foldingfittedsheets]

My betrotheds mom is big in the SCA and does tons of hand sewing and period accurate clothes, she’s got several custom made outfits and enters competitions with her special projects.

One of them she meticulously researched and created a custom glove. I have no idea how much work goes into such a thing other than A Lot but whenever she tells us stories about these competitions she’s always slighted in favor of flashier offerings.

Her most recent endeavor was some kind of stiff collar. I’m not going to embarrass myself pretending to know the specifics but the original ones back in the day used layers of fabric and whale baleen to get a nice strong silhouette. She researched the crap out of it and wrote up a report to go along with the item.

At the judging one of the judges commented, “Well, it’s alright, but it’s so disappointing that it’s not fully authentic, why didn’t you use whale baleen?”

She sputtered out, “Well, if you’d read my report you’d know it’s because it’s illegal!”

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

I feel like this fandom loves to villanize jude’s murders when imo they were ethical. I mean, Valerian and Balekin would have killed her if she hadn’t defended herself

Valerian absolutely was ethical. fuck that guy. hard to tell with Balekin. we have to remember that Jude is a very unreliable narrator. she said he would kill her if she didn't kill him, but would he really have? he "yielded" right before she stabbed him, and Faeries are beholden to their word and value honour. however Balekin was also a bit of a snake so 🤷‍♀️ personally i don't blame her for murdering him, even if it was out of malicious intent. he was complicit in her kidnapping, captivity, and torture in the Undersea for weeks on end. i would murder someone out of revenge for that, too. he was a dickhead and he deserved it.

but Jude also killed that one spy in TCP just because someone told her to (in the same night as Valerian's murder, no less). so maybe sometimes she murders out of self-defence or what we might deem as "just cause", but she is certainly not justified in all her homicidal tendencies.

and finally, i'm not sure everyone does villainise Jude's murders. i've been in this fandom for a while, and mostly what i've seen are people either praising her as Murderess Incarnate (me) or basically forgetting she did them.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Inkubus x Vampire!Fem!Reader || Oneshot

Title: Always There

Notes:

I think outta all Englund's characters on this blog, I like writing for Inkubus the most. Which is criminal seeing as I write for him the least. I need to change that haha.

Plot: You meet up with a very old friend of yours and you spend some time catching up. And he's so clearly in love with you, its unbelievable and torturous to him that no matter what he does, you don't notice.

Warnings: A very unreliable narrator (In terms of particular other peoples clear feelings for her), BLOOD, DRINKING BLOOD, DRAINING SOMEONE OF BLOOD (But in a sort of polite way? Hah), MENTIONS OF AN ABUSIVE EX PARTNER, vampires and incubus'.

The smell of iron and petrichor fills your nostrils, disgusting and refreshing and also, just... relieving... in equal measure filling you up as you kneel by the victim - the man you'd chosen, - for tonight; A needle and tube attached to a blood bag between your fingers and digging into the poor mans neck.

You hate doing this, knowing this guy will be weak and sick feeling for the next day - maybe two depending on how much you take from him, - without understanding why. But, its for sure better then the alternative- which is just digging in right here and now with your teeth. That's messy, and the marks you leave behind aren't easy to explain away as 'animal attacks' anymore.

You need the blood, but you aren't a savage, jeez. You always catch any new vampire movies or shows together with your daughter and watch those actors with blood all over their chins, and think... How old are these vamps supposed to be?? 300 hundred years old!?

And they don't know how to eat without getting it all over their face?

Pfft! Rolling your eyes, you gently shake your head at the memories of bloody Edward Cullen and Lestat and Damon Salvetore swimming around in your head as watch the man's breathing. To be fair, you love them all - Twilight, Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Diaries, Nosferatu, Vampires Vs the Bronx, etc, - but that's just because its more fiction then truth- and that's coming from an honest to goodness bloodsucker.

Finally deciding you've taken enough without truly hurting the man, you put pressure on his neck and pull out the needle, carefully wipe away any mess with a cotton ball from your bag and put a band aid on him.

"Now," You talk firmly, softly, as you look into his eyes - which are dull, almost sleeping. A nice touch to the docile state you put your victims, in so they can at least not feel any pain or fear while you're collecting your feed, - , hands on his shoulders. "You're not going to remember this, or me. You're going to get a taxi home," You tuck some money in his shirt pocket, a thank you for his service; Its the least you could do. "Then get into bed and have a wonderful sleep with lots of lovely dreams. Thank you so much."

After you watch the man get up, still in a bit of daze but shaking it off - and not even noticing your presence, crouched down by where he's standing, - and leave the alleyway, you carefully pack away the blood bag and the tube and needle (In a separate plastic bag, for you to clean and sanitise when you get home) in your satchel and finally get back up, wrapping the strap over your head and resting it on your shoulder.

Brushing a hand through your hair, you turn to leave the alleyway and go home- when a familiar voice speaks up from the very back of the alley- and immediately your hopes rise.

"You look even more beautiful every time I see you."

You smile, peering into the darkness. "Oh, that's very sweet... but you and I both know I look like trash. I haven't eaten for a week!" When he just chuckles back, you tilt your head and waive him over. "Come out here so I can see you!; When did you get into town?"

Gracefully - more so then even you can manage, being a goddamn vampire, - Inkubus slips out of the darkness and you're happy to see he looks well. Its been forever since you say him last - 40 years? 70? - and you always have it in the back of your head for some reason that next time you see your friend, it'll be the last time. So its always lovely when he turns up and looks just as healthy as he always does.

"Oh I just got here; Thought I would come see you immediately. Otherwise you might nag at me." This time you chuckle, rolling your eyes. His eyes flicker to your satchel. "Collecting our dinner our we?"

"Yep! Smells like A Negative, my favourite. When was the last time you ate?"

"Ohh, a couple weeks ago. I'm due for my next fill soon, though... any suggestions?"

"No," Scrunch up your nose, you put a lot of emphasis on your response; See, you don't subscribe to the notion that monsters like the two of you have to act all blasé and cocky about the terrible things they must do. Apart from these night time trips to find breathers to bleed, you live a... mostly... normal life! So no- you definitely don't know anyone he can make his next victim.

And Inkubus knows this, which is why he laughs and you roll your eyes again at him, fixing the satchel on your shoulder. "So- " Again his eyes flicker to your bag, this time with meaning. A cheeky grin flits across his lips. "Want to get a drink?"

Smiling, you turn on your heel, you loop your arm through his and lead the way. "So have you been?"

___TIME SKIP___

4 hours later and the two of you are still stewing at a 24-Hour-Diner you frequent - seeing as you don't really sleep that much, - and are onto your 9th drinks at this point. You two may not see each other too often since the 1400's and went your separate ways in the world, but you never go longer then a hundred years - preferably 80 maximum, - without seeing each other and when you do- you have a lot to say. Filling each other in on what you've missed in each others lives is always a... disorientating experience, at times, but you must do it. You couldn't survive in a world where you didn't know what was happening in your best friends life. That would just be too lonely.

See, Inkubus is the only one you know - still, to this day, - who knew you when you were human, aside from the man referred to very nearly exclusively as 'Dick for brains' - being your daughters father, - and while having human friends who can make you feel normal again, is wonderful... so is feeling normal, in what you actually are currently. And that's not human. That's thousands and thousands of years old and a mystery to scientists. And, seeing as he's a literal demon... that's a very easy service for him to provide.

A waitress walks by to pick up you empty glasses and looks oddly at your personal tumbler. You clearly weren't meant to notice, but you do of course, and unassumingly shrug. "Bloody Mary... don't tell." You give her a conspiratorial wink, and she chuckles, walking off.

When you look back to Inkubus, he looks ready to make a joke so you give him a timid shrug. "Well, there is vodka and Tobasco sauce in it!... " He smirks, but lets it go- seeing as your words were funny enough.

"And how is Bethany? Has she seen her father lately...?" Your eyebrows arch, hearing Inkubus ask about him; Dick for Brains, Beth's father and the bane of your long, long existence. Obviously, seeing as the bastard impregnated you with his literal spawn of hell causing you to die during childbirth at age 26 so he could then turn you into a vampire, made you raise your daughter alone- and then returned 20 years later just to turn Beth into a vampire as well and claim that you can all be a 'proper family now'... you aren't a huge fan of the guy. And talking about him you don't do often, as it causes a horrible clenching feeling in your stomach and heart. Luckily, Inkubus is one of the few people who is allowed to make you feel that way. Him, and Beth.

You sigh, taking a slow sip of your drink through the matching metal straw and metal tumbler set Beth got your last mothers day (So as to hide the fact that its blood inside), you wonder what to say... "Beth's great, as always... she's fallen in love with a human, though. That can only end brilliantly." Shaking your head, you look to Inkubus to see his reaction and catch him rolling his eyes, smirking. Yep. "Um, and... yes. There has been contact with Dick for Brains... He recently, like... 20 years ago? turned up at her place in Egypt, and wouldn't leave till I had to fly down there and shoo him away." You grit your teeth. There is so much wrong with that man- you do honestly with you had never met him sometimes. That's horrible, you know, as if you hadn't met him you wouldn't have had Beth and she's the light of your life, but... at times like that instance? When he troubles her?

Its hard to not wish his existence away.

"Do you want me to speak with him?... Again... ?" Your gaze returns to Inkubus again, feeling at ease the moment your minds back in the diner with him and not in your head with Dick for Brains; Eyes softening. The idea is tempting, unbelievably tempting... And it would keep your friend around awhile longer. "That always seems to win you a couple hundred years of reprieve."

Taking a deep, needless breath - an anxious habit, - you set down your tumbler and shake your head. "No, that's okay... thank you for the offer, though. He seems to be giving up, slowly, finally. But damn, its taken him long enough to get the hint, huh?"

"Far too long." Inkubus' voice is bitter and dark, talking about your ex- and his eyes are reading much different. You know if you let him, he would kill Derek... but you cant do that. If anyone's going to kill him, it would be you or Beth, and neither of you are there yet. Inkubus takes a deep breath, relaxing again like a chameleon changing its colours. "Anyway, love; Onto prettier business. How did that thing go, that you had with that Djinn half a century ago. You seemed quite optimistic about that one."

A fluttering of laughter immediately comes out of you and Inkubus' truly cheers up at the sight of it, and you just look at him and shake your head; An awkward toothless smile on your lips. Ha! No.

His brows arch, laughter in his eyes. "Didn't end well?"

"That ended up being the shortest affair I've ever had and that's saying something." Brushing hair back from your face, you chew on your bottom lip. "You'd think after nearly 10 centuries, I'd learn... Oh- wait- make that 10 and nearly a half, centuries... Boy, am I clueless."

"Clueless about what, love?" You're just breathing in to respond, when a cheeky look crosses Inkubus' familiar face. "I mean, you are quiet clueless- about plenty of things. But specifically, this time."

You scrunch up your nose at him in response, grinning, before once again chewing on your bottom lip. "... I'm just not the woman that gets proposed to." You shrug, as if its no big deal; Even though your heart bleeds saying it out loud for the first time, to someone that matters and not just your ex-therapist, Julie. Setting your drink on the table in front of you, you idlily twist it. "Obsessed over and stalked, yes." You grin, a tinge of sadness to it. "Fucked, yes. Dated even, yes. But married?... Ha, no... "

His eyebrows climb up his forehead even more, before he softly smiles and pats your hand. "I asked you to marry me, all those years ago, sweetheart. Remember?" He reminds you gently, and you cant help giving a soft smile back at your well-meaning friend.

"Oh, yes of course I do. That was very sweet, but... I mean for love, you know? Not because I'm pregnant and alone."

Inkubus sighs, slightly frustrated, and leans back in his seat. "Mhmmm... " Rubbing a finger under his nose, he quickly clears his throat. Then he reaches his hand further up your arm to lay it on your forearm, running his thumb comfortingly across your skin. "Love, I'm sure that you'll find someone. Perhaps multiple someone's. Or, maybe, you don't need to find anyone new."

A little smile twitches at your lips as you pick up his hands and hold it on the table in both of yours. "... Maybe." For a split millisecond, your friend smiles. Sighing wistfully, you shrug. "Maybe I can learn to be happy alone. I mean, I like my life. I like my daughter, I like my job, I like my patterns... Maybe I don't need a man." Immediately his smile disappears and he rolls his eyes.

"You definitely don't need a man." He sighs, frowning. "But one can be good for a few things, no?"

"Hey." You set him with a stern look. "I thought we were making me feel better, about not having one?"

"Oh, you're right. I rescind my comment."

"You better." A cheeky grin crosses your face.

He looks back at it, the cheeky grin of yours, and the smile returns to his face.

~

The sun is warming up when you're on your way home, Inkubus beside you with his arms folded carefully behind his his back and your hands stuffed in your leather jacket pockets; One arm linked affectionately through his. You're an odd sight, you're sure, to any early morning commuters. You, and your barely-out-of-college looking self walking so close - and so domestically. A fact that is lost on you but not on the smug demon walking beside you, - to a man that currently looks to be in his 60's-70's age-wise.

Not that either of you care.

"Well, this is my place! Whatdaya think?" You ask, letting him go in order to unlock the door or the townhouse apartment and push open the door. He walks on in past you, looking around and you watch a soft smile grace his handsome features. "You like it?"

"Much better then the hole in the wall you thought was a good idea to show me in Transylvania- took everything in me not to sweep you away somewhere safer... with fewer mould spores... " He turns to look at you over his shoulder, a mischievous smirk on his mouth as you scrunch up your nose at him, before smiling.

"Well then, Mr Judgmental... I guess you don't want to know, that I chose this wallpaper cuz of you."

That definitely catches his attention, more then anything else you've said. He turns around in a full 360, assessing the wallpaper before looking curiously at you. "You... you chose this wallpaper because of... me? How so?"

You shrug, still leaning back against the open front door- sunlight filtering through the doorway. "The colour is very you. Its got 'Inkubus' vibes. You know," Raising your brows at him, you smirk. "Eccentric, full of itself." At that cheeky remark, he says 'Ha ha', sarcastically. "And, I guess, I missed you. Sooo... yeah... wallpaper."

"Hm... " Looking really far too pleased about this, looking a lot more engrossed by the home then before- but mostly the wallpaper. "This place is looking better, suddenly... "

"Like I said- Full of itself." You roll your eyes, laughing. Then you push off the door, push it closed with your foot and then go to pass by Inkubus to hit the livingroom. "Oh! The book! The one we were talking about at the diner- I'll find it for you! Come on- "

"Y/N." A hand curls gently around your arm, at the perfect moment so that you don't get yanked back with the force of your travelling and instead you just coat to a careful halt at Inkubus' side.

Blinking up at him curiously, wondering what he needed you for so suddenly, you tilt your head to the side. "Yes?"

For a good moment, he just looks at you whilst you become worried. What is happening? Every second that passes by, more and more ridiculous ideas cross your mind.

Finally, the man tilts his head slightly in sincerity.

"Sweetheart, are you ever going to see how ridiculously in love with you I am?"

And... for all of the disastrous and ridiculous possibilities that came to mind when he was saying nothing, you had a response. To this, you just stand their dumbly, your shoulders dropping and just looking at him in total shock. "... wel- uh- um... a few more hundred years?" You feel like a ton of bricks has just been dropped on top of you. "Maybe?" You squeak. You actually squeak.

And of course, you squeaked. You'd be surprised if you had managed to keep your composure after a confession like that. Here's this beautiful man, who against all foreseeable odds understands you, and cares about your kid, and whom you love... and somehow he's telling you that he loves you? That, for some reason, he wants you?

Is there something wrong with him?

There must be. Something terribly, horrible, irreversibly offensive that you aren't already aware of.

But you rack your brain and theirs nothing. Nothing, at all, that you can figure that would make you turn away from him right now.

He smiles a little bit at your awkward reaction, and lets go of your wrist in favour of tucking some hair back behind your ear. "Do you quite mind if I kiss you now?"

Your breath hitches, it actually hitches, like a tiny shy anime girl who's giant crush just got down on his knees in front of her for whatever reason, and you have to fight to pull yourself together; Rolling your shoulders back, hands on your hips. Totally, and translucently fake confident. "Um- you know? I don't?"

God, you are a centuries old vampire; Your vernacular should be yards better then this.

And then kisses you.

Oh god- And then he kisses you.

Because you're suddenly struck hard in the face with a million words and phrases, from current to boomer-speak to old fashioned to forgotten, to describe it but mostly you're just wondering why in the world you hadn't been doing this the whole damn time. Your hands find the sides of his coat in order to steady yourself, and pull him closer as you carefully tilt your head into the kiss. It comes so naturally, the kissing does. Between you and him. Its like, despite the bounds of your relationship never having reached this level before, you know exactly how to kiss each other. There's no awkwardness or searching. You just fit.

When finally, you slowly end the kiss, you fail to open your eyes for a good moment, before cracking them open slightly, half lidded and flickering up to his eyes.

And you take a deep, unnecessary breath and step away, torturously out of Inkubus' personal space. "... holy shit." You have so many questions... None of which touch on how exactly you're feeling because you get that much, at least.

But you cant help but wonder why- and for how long this has been brewing and how long exactly that you missed it- and how the hell this is going to work-

He follows you, thank god, a roguish yet soft look on his face. "Maybe we should take this to the livingroom, love. I promise, I can explain everything to you."

[boldlyanxious]

None the Wiser 10

Masterlist

All fic masterlist

I took a bit of a break from this one after doing so much all at once. Also had to decide what way to go. I didn't plan ahead for her to run out so now I'm winging it a bit.

Marinette had left the Eiffel Tower that night with Cassie's number. At first she thought the girl was trying to make a joke when she suggested telling her parents that she had been running around as a magical hero for 2 years. But Cassie gave a well-reasoned argument for why she should reveal herself. Much of it was the ways that it strained their relationship and caused her to need to lie all the time. But beyond that there was the added burden on being the guardian with not only no additional support but having lost heroes as they had been revealed.

Marinette didn't run home and tell her parents right away. She took a few days to mull it over. She knew that the guardian had wanted secrecy above all but she wasn't sure how prudent that was. He had only become a guardian because he made a major mistake as a child that he couldn't fix. His secrecy had only protected him but didn't solve any problems. When faced with the same problem that had never been fixed his solution was to run and hide again while leaving Paris vulnerable. It had been her and Chat Noir who had fixed his mistake even if she had eventually made a mistake that cost him the guardianship. She has solved the issue even if things were still tough.

Perhaps the additional support of her parents would be a good thing. She should probably discuss it with Chat Noir first. She had been avoiding discussing any of it with him or Damian. She sent them both messages that she did not want them to bring it up until she had time to process. Damian took it pretty well but Adrien seemed to keep trying to catch her eye to get her to talk, but then she had known Adrien longer and he also found out about her secret biological family so the situations were quite a bit different. She pulled out her phone to text him.

---

Marinette brought pastries to the park, including a double cheesy bread for Plagg and macarons for Tikki. The box lid was pushed back down over the kwamis so Marinette and Adrien could talk. He offered her fruit infused water before they wandered away from the photo shoot set that he had just left. He used a wipe to remove the makeup and ran his hands through his hair causing it to be adorably fluffy.

Marinette wasn't sure how to start. She avoided Adrien's soft eyes filled with concern and understanding. She picked the flaky bits off her croissant instead and looked up when he waved at some others across the park. She recognized the girls from school but she didn't really know them. Hopefully they wouldn't talk about seeing her in the park with Adrien. She hadn't told Alya because Lila had been nearby and she didn't want to make a big deal of it because Alya had noticed that they were acting a bit weird around each other.

"Do you know them?" Marinette asked.

"We share some classes. Just found out today that I'm partnered with the one in purple for the big history project. Hopefully that will work out okay "

"I was partnered with Nathaniel. It's nice to have someone I already know is reliable. He might be quiet for presenting but I don't know if I could handle the stress of an unreliable project partner."

"Because of all the other stress from things you couldn't or haven't shared?" he asked quietly.

"Um-yeah. Actually that is mostly what I wanted to talk about today. I'm going to tell my parents about everything."

"Isn't it all supposed to all be a secret?"

"According to Tikki, the level of secrecy has depended on the guardian handing out miraculi."

"So you think we should tell people now that you are guardian?"

"But necessarily. Mostly I think that it's important that people don't know. But we aren't adults who control our own lives and schedules. Sometimes we need extra support out allowances."

"I don't think I could tell my father. Even if he would see me, I think he would find a way to prevent me sneaking out if he knew."

"That is probably true. But my parents are the opposite. Having to lie and sneak around behind their back has been harmful to all of us. They have been a lot more worried recently anytime I'm not where they expected."

"Is this because of what Superboy said about you being Robin's sister?"

"I--"

She faltered and looked down instead of continuing. Adrien reached out and picked up her hand saying her name softly.

"Marinette, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. But sometimes it helps to talk even if it's hard to say."

"No, I think it will help you to know. It's just all been so confusing. Do you remember the man from the hotel?"

"Yeah. From Alya's party."

"I met him that night when I went to change during the party. The next day he wanted to have breakfast with me." She bit her lip before spitting out the next words all at once. "Because he is my biological father."

"You said he made your parents nervous. Did he treat your mom badly and that is why they never told you?"

"Actually, they never knew until then."

"How--"

"My parents had help from a fertility clinic. I didn't know until I took a DNA test after we did blood typing in biology class because mine wasn't right." She looked down again. "They aren't worried that he will hurt me. They are worried that he will take me away."

"Cases like that from donors or whatever are really hard to fight though."

Except he is rich. Like really rich. Bruce Wayne rich."

The words just sat there for a moment as Adrien considered them. She could see him working it out and could tell the exact moment he knew when he looked back at her with shock in his eyes.

"Bruce Wayne is your biological father?" He breathed out hard. "The Bruce Wayne."

"That reaction is a lot of why I've not told many people. I didn't even know who he was until the fashion show. I was so worried about everything else that I never considered asking more about him. He was just Bruce."

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and squeezed her close for a moment. Marinette leaned against him less nervous than she felt before but still with the weight of talking to her parents.

"I agree you should tell your parents. It will help them to know. It will probably just give them other things to worry about." He smiled down at her. "Lucky for them that we always save the day, My Lady."

She looked up at him with the use of his hero's affectionate nickname for her. He was definitely looking at her how Chat Noir tended to look at Ladybug. She tensed a bit, not sure how to manage his possible feelings now that he knew she was Ladybug and not just Marinette. But he said nothing more. He leaned over and kissed her head gently and told her goodbye with a final squeeze to her shoulders.

---

Her parents just stared at her after she blurted out her secret identity without preamble. They were stunned into silence and waited for her to crack a smile before they reacted. They looked at each other and then both started talking about their feelings about her revelation. If they didn't calm down Marinette predicted she would have a headache soon. She decided it was best to wait it out rather than try defending herself.

As she expected it was mostly disbelief and shock at the dangers she had faced but there was an underlying message of pride. They kept on for a few minutes while Marinette waited for them to get it out of their system. She could tell it was ending when they both held her close and they ceased the onslaught of incredulous concern. They all went quiet for a minute until Marinette asked their thoughts once they had been able to process for a few minutes.

"Did you guys have any questions?"

"Why did you tell us? Actually why didn't you tell us before?" her dad asked.

"Well things have changed recently and it makes it all so much different."

"Your leader. He was trapped by Hawkmoth and named you guardian. What does that mean?" her mom asked.

"It means I'm but responsible for all of the miraculi in Paris. The previous guardian had moved on and had no memory of any of the miraculous or having met me."

"I don't know whether to be more upset that you kept it secret all this time or that we didn't notice." Sabine said.

"I wanted to tell you. I really hate lying."

"We know you do Sweetheart. That's part of what makes this hard to see. We didn't expect it from you," her dad said.

"I always worried that you would find out I'm missing and think something bad had happened. Especially after Bruce showed up. You were so worried at first."

"We are still worried a little. But so far he seems to just want an opportunity to love you." Sabine said. "We can't fault him for that."

Marinette agreed. Although it was a very strange situation, he genuinely seemed to want to be a part of her life without making himself a nuisance. She even thought he might he holding back a desire to buy her everything she ever wanted. He had left town again and she could only hope Damian would keep his silence, but he would be returning as soon as his schedule allowed.

They continued talking about all the ways these two major revelations had affected their lives while they made dinner and ate. It was all a huge weight off Marinette and she was happy it had been suggested. She really did believe that it was the best thing for her and the best way to protect her parents, even if it meant they would have to watch their reactions. Her dad might have been thinking about that because as she was heading up to her room he stopped her one last time.

"Does this mean you are in love with Chat Noir but he rejected you without knowing you were Ladybug?"

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[vln-vibes]

Unwanted, Unreliable, Unstoppable

Yeah so this thing is crazy long so I’m dividing it into three parts. Anyways this is very self indulgent but I hope you like the content.

Summary: They were tired, they were so so tired. This fight has been going on long enough, this war was getting harder and harder to fight as the years went on but no one ever helped; Not the citizens of Paris, not the French government and certainly not the Justice League. But what is they received help from a man that was practically a myth himself; the Batman.  Is this exactly what the Miraculous Team needs or will this lead to their falling from grace?

🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫

“I’m so tired of this!” Ladybug scratched at her head feverishly. Currently she was standing at the second most top of the Eiffel Tower with her team: Chat Noir, Ryuuko and Viperion.

“I know m’lady” Chat sighed, letting his cheerful mask take a break as he stood next to her, leaning into the railings.

“Those— Those assholes that call themselves the Justice League just keep ignoring us; it's like they just don’t give a shit about us” Viperion rolled his eyes. They had tried, time and time again, to get help from older, more experienced heroes with their situation in Paris; they were fucking teenagers thrust into an adult’s war. One they didn’t even care for anymore.

“They don’t care for Paris… Why should we?” Ryuuko spoke up, cold fury clear in her eyes. “If they cannot find the need to handle the Paris situation themselves then why must we be the ones to? No one even appreciates out efforts, its like they just want us to have everything handled”

It was true.

At first the Parisians praised the Dynamic Duo, Ladybug and Chat Noir, for stepping up and saving the city from the terrifying Akumas they had no way of handling. They even got the heroes to help out with things not in their jurisdiction; suddenly any crime, as minor or major as it could get, required their attention, any fire could not be handled by the fire department alone, schools needed the heroes to make guest appearances, they were wanted in television interviews, everyone needed to know everything about them. It was fine, for a while, they didn’t mind helping out.

Then Heroes’ Day happened.

Suddenly they were pathetic.

If they were supposed to be so strong then how come other heroes had to come to help? It had never occurred to them that they were chosen by Ladybug and Chat Noir, all they knew was that the duo was not as strong as they once believed.

After all it was just one criminal,

How hard could it be?

Sometimes, Ladybug wishes, she had just let Alya keep the stupid earrings. She was sure the girl would have taken them immediately at the time but, given her brashness and temperamental nature, she would have already lost to Hawkmoth.

Plus she didn’t blame the small kwami or even Master Fu all that much: She resented the man but still respected him very much and knew he went through the same thing as she did at an even younger age with absolutely no way out. She was aware that if she truly wanted to all she could do was just give the earrings to someone else or even hand them over. But Ladybug was stubborn and the earrings were her’s now, just like the ring was Chat’s, the choker was Ryuuko’s and the bangle was Viperion’s.

That didn’t mean this battle was theirs to fight.

“... Why don’t we leave?” Viperion asked, disturbing their silence. The trio looked at him curiously, as though he broke an unspoken rule.

“Why would we?” Ladybug responded, knowing fully well that Viperion didn’t tend to speak up unless he was certain of his words.

“Because they’re running us dry, this city is killing us” Viperion raised his voice, aware that they could already, “Adrien and Kagami are living shitty home lives with abusive assholes that want to call themselves parents. Mari, you’re being burdened with too much responsibility by that bitch Bustier and that class full of sheep! I hate seeing you all kill yourselves for people that will never appreciate it because they think they’re above it!”

At the end of his rant Viperion’s eyes were nearly glowing, his breathing a bit more rough than normal, looking away from his teammates knowing he stepped too far. “Sorry, but I don’t want my friends to die on me when I can do something to stop it”

Ryuuko, Chat Noir and Ladybug understood where he was coming from but it was like a slap on the face, a reminder of what civilian life was like for them. Ryuuko could feel the sting coming from her leg, where mother had hit with her shinai after failing to be in proper form. Chat Noir still felt the ache of having to do photoshoots all day and then staying up at night to have to do his make-up work; not that his father cared with his disregard of child labor laws. Ladybug still had some redness from bruises Alya had caused by tripping her on her way to class.

“... Okay so these are the sad gang hours” the group turned back seeing Roter Fochs land, Roi Singe and Pegasus landing behind them. The Parisians were really only aware of ‘The Core Four’ as they’d rather have some aces up their sleeves; not that the three were ready to confront the Parisian backlash just yet. They didn’t want to deal with anymore bullshit than they had to in their civilian lives.

“Is everything alright? Or is it just Life™?” Roi Singe asked, leaning onto his bo-staff next to Viperion.

“It takes 60 euroes to go to therapy but no money to say it just be like that sometimes” Roter Fochs shrugged, much to the dismay of Viperion, Roi Singe and Pegasus.

“Can you please stop joking about your mental health” Pegasus found himself groaning. A small hovering screen appeared next to him, a cowboy hat firmly attached to the top with an antenna sticking out.

“Yes studies show that LGBT youth have a higher percentage to suffer from depression, some even to the point that they𑁋”

“Thanks for the concern CowBot but, really, I’m fine; let me have my fun” Roter softly tapped the little robot. It was nice having people, well sentient beings, still concerned with his well being.

Suddenly the group tensed, their artificial ears and enhanced senses picking up a light clink, the sound of something quickly winding up followed. Two male figures landed in front of them, quickly surrounded by the Parisians. The taller one of the two quipped:

“Well aren’t you a merry bunch”

“Who are you and why are you here?” Chat Noir kept an icy cold edge to his voice, emulating how his father would talk to employees that weren’t Natalie.

“They’re not Akumas, no magic radiating off of them” Ladybug analyzed, looking closely at the duo but she couldn’t recognize them at all. The male that had spoken had a lean and relatively tall body, he couldn’t be more than four years older than her team, so around his late teens early twenties. He had long raven hair, his bangs framing his face perfectly, even in the moonlight she could tell he had a pale complexion though the black domino mask he sported helped hide most of it and his eyes. His uniform wasn’t one she recognized from any superhero from the League; black kevlar, if she had to guess, made up nearly the entirety of his suit, from his boots, pants and even gauntlets, heck she wouldn’t be surprised if his cape was bulletproof. One of the only things to bring color was his crimson chest piece, with two belts across it holding up a golden bird symbol, the same one on his canary utility belt.

“Tt, we just came here to talk” the smaller male scoffed, his posture not looking any more tense or relaxed, just attentive. His build was also lean like his taller partner though she could tell his body would be able to build more muscles with his broader shoulders. She assumed they were around the same age, his jawline defined but not to the same extent an adult’s would be. His hair seemed almost darker than that of his partner’s and was slicked back though maintaining most of its volume, a naturally tan skin was found beneath a green domino mask, much like his companion’s. His uniform was definitely more colorful, almost as if he was meant to garner attention(and boy wasn’t that concerning); black seemed to be the main color in his suit with the outer cape, pants and sleeves being that color, ruby red tunic that went beyond his belt with dandelion accents on its edges and a golden R over his heart, pine boots and gauntlets matching the shade of his mask with dandelion yellow covering the inside of his cape and hood as well as his own utility belt.

She had no clue who they were.

“And why should we trust you?”

“Because we don’t like the Justice League any more than you do”

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One Week Ago

“Hey B, we found something interesting while reading the League’s data” Barbara Gordon’s voice echoed in the BatCave. Currently she and Tim were doing the weekly check-in on the League, something those heroes never seemed to notice. Not that they were surprised.

“What did you find?” Bruce asked, telling Duke and Damian to take a break from combat training while he did.

“There’s an alarming amount of distress calls from France, specifically Paris, that the League has been either ignoring or not receiving” Tim showed him the graph of all the history, going back at least three years closer. It was small at first, once every two months at the beginning, once a month when the second year began, every two weeks bordering on weekly near the end of it, by the start of the third it was daily until some time three months ago they just stopped.

Well wasn’t that cause for concern?

“Can we get any audio of the calls?” Bruce’s detective side coming up as Barbara was able to bring up a few that hadn’t been automatically deleted by the Justice League’s system. The first one was the very first from three years ago, a video call.

“Uh hello!” the girl on the video said awkwardly, clearly nervous but determined to get her message out, “My name is Ladybug”

Her costume looked like it was simply made by spandex, a rather plain design of red with black spots around, a domino mask with open lenses was the only thing really concealing her identity.

“Paris has a supervillain, his name is Hawkmoth and he feeds off of negative emotions. His power can turn anyone into his enslaved champion and we- my partner and I are the only ones really fighting this. I- I know you’re all really busy saving the world and all that but- but we’re just kids! We have no experience and well, we were hoping you can send someone to help? We’ve only confronted him three times now but well, we were just pushed into this”

Bruce could feel his blood growing cold, she couldn’t have been older than thirteen when this was recorded. He knew no Leaguers went on missions to Paris for the past five years… He told them to play the next video, from two years ago.

“Hello Justice League” Ladybug still wore her simple spandex though now standing tall next to a boy with a black cat leather outfit. Behind them was a girl with a bee themed outfit, a girl with a fox themed outfit and a boy with a turtle theme.

“We just came out of this Heroes Day disaster”

“No thanks to their help” the bee girl snapped before looking away.

“Look, Hawkmoth is getting more and more dangerous. He was able to transform half of Paris into his minions, they took over Paris and nearly won”

“What is it going to take you for you guys to finally help?” the cat boy growled much to the surprise of the others.

“Chat Noir!”

“Oh please we can totally handle Hawkmoth without them; you two should be enough already. With us three helping you, defeating him should be easy, power of teamwork and all that” the fox girl waved off, much to the surprise of the turtle.

“Rena did you seriously not remember what just happened. We were compromised, we nearly let Paris fall. We’re not trained for this, not even LB and Chat, and they’ve been doing this for the past year”

“Whatever”

“What was the last transmission?” Bruce found himself asking as the cave suddenly grew silent, all eyes on the monitor as their last transmission played.

“Why are we even bothering with this?” a new male voice asked, the video was shaky before finally pointing at the Parisian streets. If you could even call what was essentially a river of water, reaching to the top of most rooftops streets anymore. Items were floating about, bodies littered around them.

“They’ll never listen, they never did” another female voice agreed, they assumed it was the girl at the corner of the screen, looking down on the streets in what could be described as pity.

“I know” Ladybug’s voice sighed from behind the camera. “But they should at least see the consequences of their actions”

“If they even bother watching these, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just delete these as soon as we send them” Chat Noir entered the screen, eyes cold and calculating.

“Paris should be thankful that Lucky Charm is able to bring them back” the male with the snake themed outfit shook his head. “This is probably the 1,000 time most of Paris died with an akuma, second with Syren”

“Super lucky” the dragon female rolled her eyes “It’s not even worth trying to save citizens since all they do is cretique us”

“And the officers; Apparently we should be able to deal with city-destroying being and protect the people at the same time while officers just stand behind the lines waiting for us to do both” Chat Noir hissed

“What's done is done. This will be our last call for the Justice League; I hope you’re all happy, knowing that you’ve forced children to grow up and fight in a man’s war. Bug Out”

“There are no records of these videos even being played, or even of these events happening as far as Parisian government records say. But there’s clearly a lot of cover up going on, most of Paris’ emergency broadcasting doesn’t make it out of its borders, heavy encouragement of tourism even though there have been complaints by the people about… akumas?” Tim reported as soon as the video finished playing.

“There’s even records of a city-funded statue being made for Ladybug and Chat Noir yet no indication of where it is or what its for” Barbara continued “This blog keeps coming up, it used to be called the Ladyblog before it switched to Fox Tea. Look at these videos”

The screens were suddenly filled with shots of these Akuma; one that froze the city over, one who controlled the weather, one who began dropping adults from the sky, Syren, Heroes’ Day… All of them had to be handled by scared children. 

“These look too real to be edited” Duke said in awe. He was very aware of his children all surrounding the screens, looking at the countless destruction of one of the major cities in the world.

And none of them had ever heard of them or these children who were forced to deal with it.

Ones who seeked out help and were never given the time of day.

“Red Robin, Robin” his two sons standing in attention “I want you to investigate the matter and offer our help; convince them that we’re on their side on not aligned with the League”

“We’re on it, Batman”

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“So you just want us to believe you found out about us and suddenly want to help?” Roter Fochs looked at the duo skeptically. 

“We wish to assist you with this whole… situation. No one has heard of Akumas or of Parisian heroes before, we concluded that it may be the government attempting to keep tourism up” the shorter male, Robin, they later learned, spoke up while keeping his hands in the air.

“Though that doesn’t excuse the League, who we know you personally sent distress messages” Red Robin echoed the message “We understand the incompetence of the League better than anyone else. Did you know they never bothered to even open most of those messages?”

Red Robin was surprised by the sudden animalistic growling coming from the group, some of their eyes glowing while others looked disappointed.

Ladybug looked hurt.

“Who do you work for?” Ryuuko  asked, curious but not letting her sword lower from its position.

“We’re Robin and Red Robin”

“Like the food chain?”

“.... Yes. Anyway we’re vigilantes sanctioned in Gotham, New Jersey in the United States; we’re both proteges of the Batman” Red Robin held back the need to roll his eyes at the monkey boy’s statement.

“Never heard of him” the French heroes turned to each other, trying to see if the name rang any bells.

“According to the internet the Batman is almost a folklore for Gotham; people claim to see him and his array of birds and bats but none could ever get clear photos” CowBot replied after a quick search.

“If the League never saw our messages then how do you know about them?” Chat Noir stared right at them, as though he’d know they were lying, which he couldn’t but Roter Fochs could and would.

“Because we’re better than the League” Robin said with the same certainty one would say the grass was green.

“Why should we believe you?” Ladybug asked skeptically, if they were so good then why didn’t they handle what the League wouldn’t? Why didn’t they just try to take over the Hawkmoth situation without their input? Why didn’t they just take down the League by themselves?

“You shouldn’t, “ Robin shrugged once more “But we’ll actually help where the League wouldn’t”

Ladybug stole a look from Chat Noir, both turning to Roter Fochs, who shook his head softly indicating the duo wasn’t lying.

“If you really want us to talk then give us the coordinates to meet with the Batman” Ladybug demanded, Robin looked outraged at the implication while Red Robin nodded.

“Alright, but how will you know if we’re lying to you?” he asked curiously, typing something in his communicator, the center of his utility belt, before handing it over to her.

“Trust me, we know when you’re lying plus we’d know when we get there” Viperion smirked, “Also you can stand down now Bunnix, MultiMouse”

The duo were not surprised to see two figures standing behind them, one male with a mouse theme and rope wrapped around his hands, and a petite girl with a bunny theme and a sharp looking umbrella pointing straight at their backs. They were just surprised that they hadn't sensed them before.

“Did you get those coordinates, Pegasus?” 

“Yes Ladybug, waiting for your signal”

“Well then birdies, we better hope you weren’t lying or you’ll find Hawkmoth won’t be your biggest problem”

“Voyage!”

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“Why don’t you guys like the League?” 

The meeting between the Bats and Team Miraculous had gone much better than any of them had expected; it had certainly helped when they found out one of their own, Agent A as they called him, was once a wielder.

They had both been surprised by the amount of members each team had: The Bats had expected Ladybug, Chat Noir, Ryuuko and Viperion; Roter Fochs, Pegasus, Roi Singe, Bunnix and MultiMouse had been a surprise.

Meanwhile Team Miraculous had only heard of whispers of Batman and many Robins, even a theory on a bat girl of sorts from their brief research; having Batman, Robin (V), Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Signal, Batgirl, Batwoman, and Black Bat not to mention Oracle and Agent A; they had almost thought it was an ambush.

They supposed they each knew how to keep certain secrets tight.

“The Justice League, though still consisting of some of the most powerful people in this Earth, are too high and mighty; none of them really consider the consequences of their actions and are too reliant on their powers to be able to resolve all their problems. None of them have any contingency plans if their enemies find out their weaknesses and exploit them. Not a single member is a ‘normal human’”

He pulled up a hologram in the middle of the meeting table, every person who's worked with  Justice League showing up, each showing their array of powers and abilities before showing their membership status.

Batman, Green Arrow, Speedy, Robin, Artemis; Non-Members

Two Green Lanterns, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, Bumblebee, Rocket, the Atom, Blue Beetle (II), Superboy; Reserve members with clearance.

“That does seem pretty discriminatory” Viperion hummed as he thought of the people on the list, those on the Non-member list had no power or enhancement at all while those on the reserve, with the exception of Captain Marvel and Superboy, had powers or suits but the vulnerability of humans.

They weren’t considered strong enough, or maybe even reliable enough.

“We’d probably be considered in the same capacity as a Green Lantern” Pegasus concluded “Take away their ring and their powers go away”

“Which brings us to the next question” Batgirl chimed cheerfully “What is it exactly that you’re facing off against?”

“The Miraculous are ancient artifacts that lend you the powers of certain godlings named Kwami. Kwamis are the essence of concepts and ideas: The Ladybug who represents Luck and Creation, the Black Cat who represents Misfortune and Destruction and Horse who represents Transportation and Innovation are just some examples” Ryuuko explained for them

“Hawkmoth is in possession of the Butterfly Miraculous of Metamorphosis and Desire along with the Peacock of Emotion and Will” Ladybug paused briefly as she saw the look of surprise on Agent A’s face, wondering if she’d feel that way if she found out Tikki was being used for evil in the future. “Both were thought to be missing, possibly destroyed, when the last Master of the Order was able to salvage them from the attack to the Temple of Miracles. He was only a child when the Temple was attacked, thus he was able to escape without being detected by the enemy”

“If I remember correctly,” Chat Noir interrupted “I believe Master Fu said their name was “The Shadows” or I think he said they now go by𑁋”

“The League of Shadows” Nightwing softly added, the air tensing immediately.

“You know of them?” MultiMouse was weary considering the Shadows were very keen on keeping to, well, shadows. That had to mean that the Bats had confronted them.

“Intimately so” Batman growled out.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bunnix’s brows furrowed underneath her mask, feeling as though they wouldn’t like the answer.

“The Shadows have been a pain in Gotham’s ass in the past” Batgirl explained before turning to Batman “Especially since the Demon’s Head was interested in having Batman as a Son-in Law, though his daughter is sometimes an ally”

“Batgirl!” Red Robin admonished

“Don’t forget the little demon over here” Red Hood joked, missing the look of shock in the Parisian heroes.

“Or the fact that it sometimes seems like he wants to get on Red Robin’s dick and have his babies”

“Batgirl, Red Hood that’s enough” Batwoman sternly looked at the duo.

“You’re saying Robin is related to the Shadows” the Parisian heroes in the Reserve Team looked at them suspiciously while the Core Four just patiently waited to see what the Bats would say.

“That’s in the past” Nightwing steely stated “He was born into that lifestyle, but his mother let him chose to leave and live a different life”

“We had no choice of who our parents were” Black Bat reinforced, the team taking a mental note that she was once a shadow as well.

“Noted” Chat Noir said cooly “Though you must understand our reluctance when hearing the Shadows; like we said the Shadows destroyed the temple that was meant to safeguard the Miraculous and killed off every Guardian in the process”

“It would be foolish of us to not be on guard when hearing of them being so close to us again” Ryuuko explained “Though we will give the benefit of the doubt”

And so was the beginning of their partnership.

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“You’re all skilled fighters for not having any proper training” Oracle commended, looking at the statistics of the spars they all had, by far the Core Four had the strongest stats but it wasn’t because of the others’ lack of skill.

“Thank you, Oracle” Ryuuko bowed after finishing her match with Robin, an intense sword fight having just finished. If she had truly wanted to she could have ended it by cutting Robin’s katana but she found it both dishonorable and the easy way out considering they were testing skill sets. On the other side of the room was Red Robin and Roi Singe’s fight, bo-staff against bo-staff, being monitored by Black Bat.

“Oh kwami” Ladybug whispered as she and Chat Noir were called for the next match… against Batman and Batwoman.

“This is where we die Noir”

“It’s been an honor m’lady”

The fight had been entertaining, each side coming in with an array of attacks. At first the Bats had played offensive with the Miraculous duo playing defensive, dodging Batarangs and all their little gadgets. The Bats hadn’t expected just how durable the simple looking yo-yo and staff would be or any of its features.

At some point there had been a flash bomb, Chat Noir blocking it from Ladybug and getting temporarily blinded, Batwoman had planned on attacking while he was disoriented however the attack amplified his enhanced hearing, extending his staff and tripping her in the process.

In the end the Bats had won but it had been a close victory considering the Miraculous Team had not bothered to use their special abilities during any of the fights.

As they were taking a breather, resting and getting drinks, Robin spoke up.

“How are you allowing your city to step all over you?” Team Miraculous looked at him briskly before Red Hood, of all people, continued for him.

“We’ve seen the reports and the Parisian news, they’re relying on your team of four, considering they aren’t aware of the others, to be there to solve all their problems”

“It’s okay for your people to put so much trust in you but it's gotten to the point where they expect it of you” Robin concluded.

“I’ve tried telling them” Viperion sighed, facing his group “We really should be leaving Paris to handle their own problems, we’re busy enough in civilian life and akuma fights as it is”

“How do you suppose we do that when we already face scrutiny for not dealing with Akumas fast enough?” Chat Noir asked, his tail flickering behind him.

“You could always stop patrolling in broad daylight if you don’t want to leave the city altogether” Red Robin suggested, “Hiding in the night is easier to avoid any authority or anyone trying to get interviews. Plus this way it's less predictable where you’ll be certain hours of the day”

“He does make a good point” Ladybug said, mostly to herself, before nodding “I think it's a good idea”

“You heard her team,” Chat Noir turned to face the others “All for stopping daylight patrol?”

All of them nodded in agreement, the beginning of a long list of necessary changes in their lives.

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“My father is planning a press conference to talk about his ‘concerns’ with the lack of your appearances” Chloe rolled her eyes. A year ago, after the Heroes’ Day Disaster, she and Carapace had chosen to stand down while Rena was ultimately retired. She’d found out about Adrien when she went for a visit only for him to jump in through the window.

It was awkward between the two of them before they called for Ladybug.

She gave her neutral face of disappointment first before making a plan.

They were all aware that Lila must have been the one to start the disaster, being Volpina was the only explanation, as Ladybug confessed that Lila had a vendetta against her. Chloe also figured she must have been lying, something she had already suspected before, about being in another country considering Hawkmoth’s attacks only stayed in Paris.

Due to Chloe’s secret identity being out in the open they realized Hawkmoth wouldn’t be above targeting her family again. Thus Chloe became Ladybug’s spy.

Meanwhile in civilian life Nino was getting tired of Alya and Lila’s antics, especially the ones against his bros Adrien and Marinette. Well more against Marinette and more sexual harassment/getting together with Adrien. That’s not even touching on their newest content on the blog which was just criticizing the Miraculous Team for all their weaknesses and shortcomings, in the guise of offering “suggestions” on how to get better. 

They thought it’d be good to have an inside man, someone who could warn them of anything Lila and Alya might come up to.

They were both the secret members of Team Miraculous.

“Holy shit are you serious?” Nino exclaimed in Chloe’s room. They’d all come in secretly and by different entries to meet up in case certain nosy classmates had spotted them.

“Yep, I may or may not have threatened my father with a lawsuit against his violation of child labor laws and me not receiving my paychecks” Adrien said excitedly.

Chat Noir had made an off-hand comment on how his father had tired him out with a packed work schedule. This resulted in prodding from the mother hen known as Nightwing asking for details which ended in Chat Noir confessing that he works for his father’s company, had been homeschooled most of his life and often had a packed schedule full of extracurriculars, including up to around 12-hour work days sometimes. Turns out with that brief information Oracle informed them that his father was violating child labor laws due to the fact that he had worked more than thirty five hours a week since he was fourteen.

“Holy shit” he’d say in awe at the moment “My father is rich though… who knows if this would even go through with his influence”

“No man is truly above the law” Nightwing had given him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, “But… is everything alright in your home life?”

“I- I shouldn’t say anything that reveals my identity… '' the usually chaotic boy said solemnly, his cat ears downcast.

“Chat Noir,” the group turned to Ladybug, the one who’d help introduce her team to the life of masks and magic “Your own safety is much more important than keeping your identity safe. We both know the kind of person your father is… I’d rather you have the best options possible to face this”

“How come you’re so fast to trust us?” Robin asked, surprised but keeping a stern face.

“You do realize that she has the coordinates to this place, right?” Viperion smirked “She’s known who you are for a while and never mentioned anything. We just expect you to return the courtesy”

“That seems about right” Red Robin sighed before taking off his mask, the others of the Bat Clan following suit. Team Miraculous gave Ladybug one last look before dropping their own transformations, some of them looking familiar to the Gothamites.

“Marcus is that you my boy?” Agent A, otherwise known as the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth made his way to MultiMouse who nodded shyly. 

“I actually go by Marc now great-uncle Alfred”

“Wait what, Al has siblings?” Stephanie exclaimed, Jason was whispering for Tim to write it down in The Book.

“Yes, an older half-sister” he said with an impeccable raised brow “I would have never thought you’d follow after my footsteps Marc”

“I guess it does run in the family”

“Adrien Agreste! Like son of the fashion mongul Gabriel and late actress Emellie Grande de Venily?!” Stephanie exclaimed as soon as she focused on the blonde teen.

“Yep” was all he could find himself saying, taking comfort in Marinette’s presence next to him.

“Don’t worry Adrien,” the boy looked up to the slightly intimidating looming figure of Bruce Wayne “We’ll help you deal with your father”

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“Boys” Bruce had said as soon as he entered the living room, where the group had devolved into a video game competition. “Remember tomorrow is your monthly therapy session”

“Already?” Damian groaned, his brothers, with the exception of Dick, looking like they would rather not go.

“Timmy isn’t prepared to face his inner demons” 

“And it seems Timmy hasn’t slept in some time again, hasn’t he?” Luka teased, continuing to run his hand through Tim’s hair, the boy practically purring in response.

“You have a therapist?” Marinette asked Bruce skeptically.

“We’ve all… gone through things growing up. Alfred made me realize that we were all in need of some help”

“And do you umm… talk about your nightly activities?”

“They’re trustworthy and confidential, yes”

“Do you think you could give me their information?”

That’s how Team Miraculous found themselves on the day after another akuma attack, in a private room within Wayne Tower, each waiting their turn to see the doctor.

“You’ve been through alot Luka” the teen was lying on his back, facing the ceiling as the psychologist who worked with Bruce talked. “Losing what you’ve come to accept as your family, watching your friends die, even though you knew you could change the outcome. Doing it over and over again in order to save the city… It's not something anyone could be expected to handle, let alone a child your age”

“I… I know Dr.Quinzel. But I can’t allow myself to feel guilty over everything or even get overly emotional. If Hawkmoth found out it’d be a disaster, especially because Marinette trusted me with the miraculous… the first for her to assign full time as the Guardian…. I can’t let her down” Luka gave her a lost look, one rarely seen on the charming boy before.

“Keeping all of that inside… It could fester up and explode if you’re not careful Luka”

“So you’re telling me that you are perfectly fine with how your life at home is going, Nathaniel? Even after everything we’ve discussed”

“Look I’ve tried telling my parents they were wrong but they just keep saying I’m confused, not to mention think my art is a joke… and maybe they’re right”

“Those are important parts to who you are. Saying that would be like considering yourself a mistake… Do you feel that way Nathaniel?”

“I…”

“I think I have pretty bad taste in girls, though my friends usually call me a himbo for not really thinking things through. Maybe I should think before acting more?”

“I’ve known I was going to become Bunnix ever since I was fourteen, it was always just a matter of when. So when I was finally called to action I was so excited but… I can’t help but wonder if I’m cut out for this”

“My mother has groomed and taught me to be perfect at all I do. It was something ingrained to me since I was a child; It wasn’t until recently that I learned that is impossible to achieve. Why was mother so pertained to me being it?”

“I know I’m the smart guy but I shouldn’t be expected to have all the answers, especially for my classmates who refuse to look at evidence as it is. Seriously, if I had known they would have taken my comment about how dangerous a napkin can be as pure fact then I would have not said anything that day”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m not enough for my grandmother. She’s getting older, she’s starting to forget a lot. I help by telling her things like stories but I’m not sure how long that will last… She’s the only family I have left in Paris, I don’t want to leave my friends or boyfriend behind”

“My father has always been a distant man but ever since my mother… I’m not sure if he even sees me as his son at this point. There are some days I’m treated as nothing more than a trophy boy or a regular employee. I wonder if this would have happened regardless of my mother’s passing”

“I am Ladybug, I am also the last Guardian. But I’m just a teenager! I have a life I want to live outside of Paris… I want to be a designer, start my own brand, find love and have my own family… But Hawkmoth is in the way of all that”

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“Are you sure about this LB?” Nino asked from the terrace of Chloe’s penthouse. They’d been talking strategy when an Akuma attacked, given the chaos displayed by the news via LadyBugOut livestream, they could only assume it was another Volpina attack.

Unfortunately Volpina had a Sentimonster to help, Reality Check. A glorified 3D printer who could temporarily make Volpina’s illusions tangible and real.

It had proven to be a difficult battle, especially since Luka and Adrien had been caught up as civilians and couldn’t help Ryuuko and Ladybug. The others still had to wait for Ladybug to give the signal before they’d consider going out to help in broad daylight lest their hidden cards be revealed too soon.

In the middle of the fight the two heroines had made a strategic retreat, one the Fox Tea blogger did not hesitate to call the coward’s way out. Suddenly the two appeared at Chloe’s along with Roter Fochs. The scarlet hero had taken out two familiar boxes with extremely familiar jewelry inside. 

“I’m certain of it” she said with a determined smile, “Besides this could finally get Hawkmoth and maybe even Alya off your backs if I introduce new heroes; Of course your costumes will have to be different, as will your codenames, but I trust that you’ll know what to do”

“Hello my queen!”

“What’s up dude”

Paris was in uproar when they heard of the new heroes; Abeille and Anselm.

Abeille’s costume was much more armored than that of Queen Bee’s; the whole suit had a honey yellow bodysuit with black armor pieces, her chest piece in the shape of a bee’s face, black elbow length gloves with some honey stripes, thigh high black boots with honey kneepads. Her own mask was different from her former as it changed her eyes to royal blue like Pollen’s while being honey colored with black v shaped lines. The golden gauntlets on top of her gloves would be able to send out small shocks, capable of stunning enemies for small intervals at the time, nowhere near as potent as Venom.

Anselm’s own attire was not so different from Carapace; Anselm still kept the hoodie his predecessor did though beneath it is where the differences began. Anselm wore a pine green helmet, yellow tinted goggles on top of his red eyes, with pale thin daffodile lines going from the top to the bottom of his hood. The hoodie and his undersuit was sacramento green, bordering on black, though the majority of the suit was also armored with pine pieces like the hexagonal chest piece, shoulder, thigh, shin, knee and elbow pads. He also had much thicker gauntlets than Abeille’s along with armored gloves and reinforced sneakers.

Of course, Chloe Bourgeois and Nino Lahiffe were quickly off of the suspect list when the two were spotted separately looking for shelter amongst the Akuma attack during Fox Tea’s livestream.

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“So you’re part of the OG Team huh?” Stephanie asked as she gave a once over to the two newcomers.

“Deep undercover missions, you know how they go” Abeille scoffed, her honey blonde hair swaying along with her five black streaks around it.

“What she said. We couldn’t help as Queen Bee and Carapace anymore, compromised identities, so we helped as civilians before covering our tracks and coming back” Anselm tried to keep back Chloe’s prickly personality.

“Like what?” Cass’ appearance startled the two, though both looked like they were about to draw out their weapons.

“Well I get them intel from what’s happening in the mayor’s office that Max and Markov can’t get out from the computers, daddy is a bit of a pushover and squeals pretty easily”

“While I get intel from Fox Tea’s disastrous dude duo. I’m usually among the first to find out about anything their plotting… though I’ve had to drop that. It was getting too much for me to continue being with Alya so we broke up”

“So you kept dating Cesaire just to gather intel? Doesn’t that seem manipulative?” Duke asked from his seat on the monitor, the two Parisians looked at one another before beginning to laugh.

“Not compared to what those two are capable of”

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“Are you sure about this?”

Currently Viperion, Ladybug and Bunnix were on the Gotham rooftops, shadowing the Bats for the night. The three were honored to be trusted with the responsibility but still felt foreign in the much darker environment, literally and metaphorically.

“It’ll be a good experience” Oracle said in their ears, their comms being synced to those of the Bats “And you won’t be alone, I’ll be here and so will your partners”

Right on cue Robin, Red Robin and Black Bat landed on the same rooftop. The plan was for the six to cover the patrol for the night, the others would be getting rest or doing specialty training with their abilities. It was a surprise for the Miraculous gang when it was revealed that Signal and Red Hood would be joining them as fellow trainees. Alfred and Black Canary, a metahuman who often worked together with Green Arrow in Central City, would be in charge of the training while Bruce also oversaw their progress.

Honestly they hadn’t known what surprised them more: the fact that Batman had metas on his team or that he trusted other heroes with the training of his children.

“It should be a regular night; standard mugging, gang fights and possible robberies should be all that happen tonight”

Of course that was not what happened.

As it turned out Riddler had escaped Arkham, no surprise, and had gone too long without his medication. Edward Nygma was usually a pretty tame man, if a little eccentric with his love of riddles and his brilliant mind.

He decided to hold Gotham Grand Terminal hostage.

Ladybug was decidedly trying not to panic as she saw the very obvious bombs spread across different sections of the terminal. There were too many for them to deactivate in less than three minutes and there were probably more hidden around.

“Riddle me this; What is Joan of Arc made of ?” Ladybug and Robin were the first to arrive at the scene, Viperion and Red Robin being the closest to coming as back up. Robin seemed as confused as she felt but decided to really think about it…

This was so stupid.

“Maid of Orleans” the look Robin gave her, like she just made the most foolish decision of her life, was seen spread across the faces of hostages before Riddler began to laugh.

“Why you are correct, little red” he wiped a tear from his eye “Bats would never think of something so punny like that!”

“Yeah well I’ve had a lot of experience with annoying puns”

“What’s colorful, loud and is a mess to clean up?” Ladybug’s eyes widened as he pressed the big red button on the remote control, Robin bringing Ladybug down and shielding her as the hostages began to scream.

BOOM!

“...Confetti cannons” Ladybug muttered, her whole body covered in the colorful paper pieces with glitter in the mix.

That son of a bitch!

It was April 1st.

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“So what is it that we’ll be doing?” Bunnix asked as Black Bat silently leaped through the Gotham rooftops, camouflaging effortlessly with the shadows unlike her because of the white and baby blue costume she had on.

“You two will be checking up on Red Hood’s sector for the night, Crime Alley” Oracle’s voice responded for her.

“Right, so is this just a standard patrol?”

“Something like that”

Bunnix was admittedly a bit nervous about being with Black Bat, Cass didn’t really talk much and was kinda hot. Bunnix had just dutifully shadowed her, staying as quiet as she could even if she did more parkour than necessary, when they stumbled upon a drug deal. Bunnix was about to go down to smack some people around with her umbrella when Black Bat shook her head.

“One of Red Hood’s men, let’s wait to see the deal go through”

Bunnix wasn’t sure what to think as she watched the deal go down. Weren’t they supposed to be the ones to stop this from happening and not helping them? It was a bit confusing and against her moral code…

“We do this to keep the kids out of the involvement” Oracle seemed to read her mind, explaining their reasoning “Before Red Hood decided to get involved with drug trafficking Crime Alley was full of children who would be taken advantage of by dealers; whether it meant getting them addicted or becoming their messengers and delivery boys. He made it very clear to his ‘allies’ that no child from Crime Alley was getting involved in their plans again or else the deals were off. Those who tried going above him… well they’re no longer around to try and take him down”

Still that did not help ease Alix’s worries as the night continued on. Black Bat came to a sudden stop on top of a warehouse, gesturing for Bunnix to follow behind her, and climbing in through a shattered window. Inside were dozens of wooden crates, each with cameras pointed at them and only one with an open lid. Black Bat walked towards the open crate with ease, going inside and taking out three duffle bags from inside. She placed two on her, criss-crossing each other before handing the other one to a reluctant Bunnix.

The tow then headed to a hidden tunnel underneath one of the empty crates, making their way in a closed (?) Gotham sewer. It didn’t smell as disgusting as Alix imagined it would be, musky at best, though she thought that it may be due to the fact that there was no dirty sewage water there. They walked in relative ease, essentially walking for what had to be at least 15 minutes in numerous twists and turns before reaching a ladder. The two got out, Bunnix recognizing it as part of Crime Alley with how run down the area looked.

Black Bat knocked on a rusting steel door, three times, five, once and then a tap with her palm.

The door opened up, a boy no older than 12 being the ones to greet them.

“Where’s R.H?” he questioned, he looked disappointed but not alarmed, clearly he had met Black Bat before.

“Was busy. This is Bunnix, she’s helping for the night” The boy was clearly unimpressed with her but he closed the door and led them down the long hallway. She noticed the few scattered toys along the way, with some open doors showing mountains of writing supplies and even a little library.

What was this place?

“This is Red Hood’s sanctuary for the kids of Crime Alley” Black Bat whispered next to her “Batgirl and Red Hood are usually the ones to come here though all of us have come at some point.” they entered the large room showing children of all ages, some as young as infants and others looking close to early adulthood. They dropped the duffle bags in front of what she thought was the leader of the pack when Red Hood wasn’t around.

They were filled with non-perishable food, wads of money that will probably be used to provide for the group of 30 or even more for the next month, toys, books and some new clothes.

As the children gathered around, each a little dirtier than Alix remembered ever being as a child, lining up to get a new something that Red Hood got for them she couldn’t help but think;

… Maybe things were never so black and white.

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“I know it may seem frightening, even unnerving, to let go of your control but if you keep your powers bottled up it may prove to be disastrous in the future” Black Canary told the group of teens.

“With abilities bestowed to you like those of the Miraculous are left untrained then it may prove to lead to your downfall” Alfred nodded along to Dinah’s words.

“As capable as Ms.Lance and I are, we have realized that we would need further assistance to properly be able to train each of your abilities”

From one of the Batcave’s entrances they could hear the screech of tires before a slick black car parked next to the Batmobile and Hoodcycle.

“Sorry, we’re late” a red headed woman said as she stepped out of the car, her pale freckled skin slowly gaining a green tint to it as she removed her lab coat and glasses, “Selina here thought she could make a quick steal on our way here”

“Oh c’mon Pam, you know you love the rush as much as I do” a tanned woman laughed, twirling around a golden necklace with one of the biggest rubies they had ever seen in its center.

“Now, ladies; Pam-a-lamb has a class of powered kids to teach” they recognized Dr.Quinzel belatedly as she was missing her glasses and uniform. She was now wearing a much more colorful array of clothes with the consistent theme of red,black, and white. Her skin seemed paler than they remembered and her blonde hair had red tips on one side and blue on the other.

“Hey girls” Barbara came down the elevator at the same time as Stephanie and Cass, seemingly cutting their conversation when she saw the newcomers”

“Babs!” Dr.Quinzel exclaimed, making her way to the other girls after giving a quick kiss to the green skinned woman.

“Well you’re right on time Pam” Dinah sighed, cocking her hip before pointing at the newcomers “These are Dr.Pamela Isley otherwise known as the Gotham Rogue Poison Ivy, Selina Kyle a more vigilante type thief Catwoman, and, of course, you know Dr.Harleen Quinzel or as she prefers to go by Harley Quinn”

“Hey kittens” Selina waved at the group “By the way it's been too long since we girls have hung out; how’s about a Birds of Prey raid? You in?”

“Only if Oracle agrees” 

“Oh pleasepleasepleaseplease!” Stephanie and Harley’s persistent pleading could be heard immediately afterwards. A polite cough interrupted the chaos.

“As enthusiastic as you ladies are for your plans, may I remind you that we have prior plans to care for first. Namely the training”

“Sorry Alfie” Harley said, chastised, “We’ll get out of your hair. C’mon ladies!”

“...So training?” Marc asked

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“What happened to you?” was the first thing Kim laughed out as the duo stepped into the cave, leaving a trail of confetti and glitter behind. Marinette looked back at her team, unimpressed, in their own state of disarray.

Chloe, Max, Marc and Nathaniel seemed to be nursing their own cases of migraines; most likely having pushed the limits of their own new abilities which relied on mental fortitude. Chloe and Jason’s powers were the most similar to Alfred’s which involved manipulating and projecting thoughts and ideas to the people around them or to specific targets. Nathaniel was developing the power to create illusions that only his target would be allowed to see. Marc could create intangible clones of himself but could still project what they were seeing and hearing to him. Max could teleport objects a few meters away from or towards him.

Kagami, Kim, Adrien and Nino seemed the most physically exhausted. Kagami was beginning to have slight control of fire, wind and water but not yet conjuring it; given her slight burn marks, wet clothes and messy hair Marinette would guess that she still hadn’t fully grasped the manipulation aspect outside of being Ryuuko. Kim’s own face was dirty and slightly bruised and matched that of Adrien’s. Kim had begun to use his chaotic energy to make the wackiest things happen but to have the outcome he wanted while Adrien could suck the luck out of people for small intervals lest he want to have the misfortune backlash cling on him. Nino’s was more tame though he now had to focus on two things since he could now use his energy to both heal and to create a shield that encompased his body like armor.

“Oh god you guys look like messes!” Alix laughed along with Luka, the only two that looked fine as they had a fairly tame patrol with Cass and Tim.

“Next time I see Riddler remind me to throw a glitter bomb” Marinette grumbled as she made her way to the showers.

“Not before I stab him with his stupid cane” Damian growled heading for the male showers.

“So how long till Daminette guys?” Adrien asked

“Definitely before the end of the year” Duke concluded, the others not being sure if he used his power or not.

“I’ll take you up on that. I’ll bet we make more money than with Red Scales” Stephanie laughed.

“Red Scales?” Luka asked curiously before the others yelled out.

“Nothing!” 

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“Okay how come no one warned me about that!” Jason yelled as he came out of the Cave’s entrance. The group either gave questioning or amused looks.

“Oh, so you saw that too?” Alix asked, perched from one of the sofa’s armrests.

“You assholes could have given me a heads up” he complained before groaning into a sofa “God, someone get me some bleach”

“What’s Jaybird talking about?” Dick asked, coming in from the kitchen with an array of snacks for the rowdy bunch of teeneagers.

“Oh just Timbers getting some with the big bad snake boi” Stephanie sang, causing Jason to groan and Dick to choke on his own spit.

“More like trying to eat each other’s tongue out” Nathaniel responded in disgust.

“Timmy, no!” were the words the oldest yelled out before heading into the Batcave in record time.

“Anyway,” Stephanie began “It’s time to pay up bitches. Marinette and Cass get the loot”

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“Hmm, so I guess that’s what fresh blood splatters looks like” Chat Noir said in morbid interest.

“Well it's certainly more noticeable than dried blood” Viperion nodded along, watching as Red Robin and Red Hood carried out the interrogation from a one-way mirror. There was a new gang who specialized in child trafficking, most of the kids coming from Crime Alley and therefore not getting reported to the police; luckily they had Red Hood looking out for them.

“Yes, well we are here to see how they carry out their investigation and get used to all the squeamish things” Ladybug gave a calculated look, as though she herself were in there and what she would do to get the information out of the man they captured earlier that night.

“Do you guys think this sort of thing is going too far?” MultiMouse asked curiously, he was beginning to grow a bit uncomfortable with the amount of blood the man had begun to lose. 

“I mean this asshole deserves it” Roter Fochs glared “I don’t think it's too much if it means saving all those kids”

“Standing on the edge of what is seen as a hero𑁋”

BANG

“Let’s you see all the things you can’t from the center” Ryuuko watched as the man was forcibly being held back up by Red Robin after Red Hood slammed his face on the interrogation table. 

“World is not black and white” Black Bat spoke from next to them “Many shades of gray in between; We are in the gray”

Ko-Fi

[yellowocaballero]

Oh, wow, your last post about Tim!!! Anyway, not necessarily on a related note, ⭐?

I’m gonna pull a really obscure move on you all and use a line from something I just wrote a few days ago. It’s a side story of The Crow’s Funeral (which is really the peak of ‘this is for me but yall can read it if you want’) posted on Tumblr right here. 

Agnes sat down on her knees, rubbing her forehead, and Gerry cautiously sat down next to her. “He’s the monster who sold the world. The most dangerous man ever made.”

“The most dangerous man in the world gets bossed around by his dog?” Gerry asked, before the words sunk in. “Wait, I thought that was Jonah Magnus!”

“Jonah Magnus doesn’t kill people because they annoy him!” Agnes snapped, before she groaned into her hands again. “And I set him on fire…Diego is going to kill me!”

I’ve recently started getting really interested in using alternative POVs to help increase understanding of the POV character. I’ve started doing it recently and it’s severely really helped for character motivations and arcs. This story is long since done, but it sometimes personally satisfies me to flesh stuff out. And, like, y’all can read it if you want lol! But this short story is very illuminating of something that you kind of already got in TCF, that Jon is (like Melanie) a very unreliable narrator. Breaking down what this story establishes:

1) That the reason why Gerry integrated so successfully into the apocalypse is because Gerry’s entire world has always been the apocalypse, and that he doesn’t see too much of a difference between the old world and new. (I keep on writing Gerry POVs and then NEVER FINISHING THEM -)

2) That Agnes’ relationship with Gerry was born out of a kind of fascination and curiosity on her part (a human who’s not scared of me?!) but it quickly veers into the category of two very lonely kids finally finding someone else who cares about them. They’re cute as fuck. 

3) That Jon, no matter how much of a lowkey dick he is in TCF, used to be a lot worse before he met Gerry. Daisy is clearly the only link to morality he has, which is terrible, because it’s fucking Daisy. As he grows up and gets older, and he grows closer to Gerry, he’s internalized her half-hearted lessons and he grows more fascinated by humans than completely ambivalent. But at this point, Jon has never been forced to think critically or hold empathy for anyone. A point I was making in TCF is that Jon in canon is kind and moral because he knows suffering and pain, and he is determined not to cause suffering to anyone else because he knows how it feels. Jon, without that...

4) Jon, in TCF, is loosely aware that everyone’s scared of him. He doesn’t care about it except when he can leverage it to get something he wants. Basically, he’s too powerful to have to play dominance or power games. He’s not very interested into how or why people are scared of him, and he gets annoyed when they act in self-preservation against him (crushed like a grape). It’s only through Agnes’ POV that we see the real way that others see Jon, even people like Agnes who are basically the 1%ers of monsters: that he’s completely fucking terrifying. 

Everybody knows that Jon ended the world. Everyone knows that Jon has complete control over all of it. Most importantly, everyone knows that Jon really (mostly) isn’t malicious or mean or cruel. He has no agenda or anything he wants. He’s just hanging out, having a good time, pretending he isn’t a demigod. He’s hardly Jonah Magnus. The most he does is sometimes throw tantrums when he doesn’t get his way (because he almost always gets his way, because he’s a demigod who everyone’s afraid of). But as Agnes states in this story, the fact that he’s more terrifying than Jonah Magnus is because he is completely fucking unpredictable. He does not care about anybody. He is perfectly nice, perfectly unassuming and casual, until you do something - and it’s hard to tell what - that sets him off, at which point he kills you. Agnes is terrified because there’s no rules for Jon - setting him on fire mildly pisses him off, but then his dog yells at him and then he apologizes for trying to eat someone. Then he says that next time you do that he’ll kill you, or maybe everyone you love instead. He makes no sense to anyone. Of course, Jon makes more sense if you realize that he’s highly defensive of both his own comfort and the safety and lives of his loved ones, but that probably isn’t evident. 

As Annabelle states in the story, Jon really is a toddler with a gun, who can be mostly managed if you know him well enough. Jon is someone who the other Avatars push around a bit because they know he won’t really push back. Helen teases him a lot, everybody plays pretty dumb, and you’ll see here that Jon will kind of laugh off a sixteen year old setting him on fire. He’ll laugh it off, then then obliquely make clear that if she ever does it again he’ll crush her and probably her entire cult too. Jon’s not purposefully cruel (because he’s still Jon), but he reacts to perceived slights with extreme prejudice. Emphasis on perceived. 

Writing TCF for me was just a major exercise in thinking about: “wow, what would S5!Jon look like without any morality or ethics whatsoever!”. And even if he’s still Jon and thus inherently good-intentioned and kind, if you place anyone who is both very immature and who’s never known any different in position of extreme power, he’s going to end up the least empathetic person alive. If I ever write an AU of this AU where he doesn’t even have Daisy...that’s what I like to call a supervillain, folks. 

Thanks for the q! 

[shadowtsukiyo]

Perspective

I was so happy to be able to participate in @mlsecretsanta this year! Merry Christmas @swampwaterdog, I hope you enjoy this! Special thanks to @dreamingmermaidpotato for being my Beta!

“Kagami Tsurugi. I have chosen you for the Fox Miraculous. I need someone I can trust by my side and on my team, permanently. Do you accept this responsibility?”

Kagami looked down at the Miraculous, the necklace in the box had shifted once in her hands, no longer a simple chain, but a braided cord, a kumihimo. The foxtail shrunk in size, looking like a simple stylized charm bracelet. 

Her mind kept drifting to the day that Ladybug came to her to give her the fox charm. She’d honestly been terrified when the red-clad heroine had dropped onto her balcony that chilly evening, and looking back at it now she didn’t know how she’d kept a straight face. Ladybug and her mother had been the only people able to make her feel intimidated, it was something that made her easily respect Ladybug.

She’d accepted, of course, she would accept. She loved being a hero, having a purpose. She was known as Inari, named after the mythical fox god of the harvest back in Japan. She wanted a purpose beyond fencing.

Her legs carefully swung, stepping carefully, one foot in front of the other as her new tail was lifted slightly, helping her keep her balance. Her hakama swinging in the Parisian breeze. The fabric rippled and shifted, the traditional baggy attire hadn’t hindered Kagami too much when she began her time as Inari, but it took a bit of reminding to get used to it. She hadn’t worn anything like this since her competition in Japan. Though she could deal without the colors, the white to orange to black gradient hadn’t been her first choice, but she supposed it was fitting for a fox. 

They weren’t in a rush tonight and Ladybug seemed out of it, it worried her.

Kagami, as Inari, felt like she was doing her culture proud by going by the name of the fox god. Her Miraculous offset at her hip, attached by the braided cord, was a reminder to herself of the Fox god.

Chat Noir and Ladybug had been tense with one another recently. Their dynamic had been off. She didn’t know why, and she knew it was none of her business, but the days she was out on Patrol with Ladybug, she’d catch the way the brightness in her eyes would dull, the way her lips fell into a frown, and when she tried to smile, nothing reached her eyes. 

“Alright. That’s it.” Kagami was fed up, the twin fox ears perked on her head lowered with her rising ire. “What is going on with you and Chat Noir?” Her arms crossed over her chest, annoyance on her face, the white and orange mask not hiding the way golden eyes narrowed--another costume shift that made it a bit easier to hide her identity. 

Ladybug looked tired, she was ready to protest but just sighed. “He’s angry I am assigning permanent heroes like you.” Chat didn’t like being kept out of the loop, but she was exhausted and she was tired of Fu’s rules… now that the Master was gone and she was the new guardian, she needed to change things up. “He and I can’t keep doing this on our own. And I do not have the time during some attacks to grab a box, find a person, and have them hold them temporarily.” 

“He’s upset he no longer has you to himself?” Kagami tested, “Or because you are the one making decisions?”

“Both probably. It's always been just us, even when we had temporary heroes we still had to mainly focus on one another… I hate to use you as an example like this, but when you went off on your own plan despite me having one for you.”

Kagami remembered that day, she’d regretted it afterward, she felt as if she dishonored Ladybug. “I - I was surprised you trusted me so much to allow me to become a permanent hero.” Her voice was light. 

“You earned it, Inari. You understood your mistakes and you bettered yourself both as a hero and as a person. I believe in second chances so long as you’re willing to learn from your mistakes and from others.”

“I assume that Rena was…?” Her voice trailed off. 

“On top of what happened with Queen Bee… Chloé, Rena had been proving herself unreliable. She’s been posting things on her blog about people, incidents about me that never happened. I will always feel bad, allowing this to happen, but Rena had been my first choice.” Ladybug moved to walk a bit, causing Kagami to follow. “She stopped doing her job as a reporter, and I had to wonder if she was going to stop doing her passion the way she’d demanded it to be done months prior. What would happen if she started doing the same with being a hero?”

The first thing Kagami thought of was Lila. The girl was a worm in Alya’s ear, telling her false stories, ones the journalist was too excited to question. The LadyBlog in recent times had become nothing more than a gossip tabloid. 

“How badly is this reflecting on you as a hero?”

A shy smile, one that seemed so familiar, “It's not...not yet, but it will - the same way it did when I told Paris I was not in love with Chat Noir. The same way he still thinks I am joking or playing hard to get about it.”

Ladybug sighed, "I'm not angry at him. I don't think he's intentionally doing this. I just think that he's… what's the phrase…" her wrist rolled in a circular motion, making a 'go on' gesture. "Transference. He's using me as a substitute for something in his life, and rather than focusing on it he's pushing that energy into being Chat and focusing on me."

Inari was quietly watching as Ladybug sat back, it was one of their patrol days; Ladybug and Chat Noir alternated between taking her out. It was during these patrols that she got a feel for both Chat Noir and Ladybug as people, not just as heroes. Her thoughts were understandable.

Chat Noir was a frightened and lonely boy under all his false suave and jokes, but he was also a bit of a spoiled person that didn’t understand the word no. It told her that he likely came from a wealthy family, where money and things had been given rather than love and affection. It explained why he clung to Ladybug so much - he craved the attention, the validation she gave him, to the point he wasn’t willing to share her and her attention. It reminded her of Adrien, once she got him out of his shell a bit. 

Ladybug, she was hard to peg down at first, but that had been her own idolization of the heroine. Kagami had to take a step back and realize that she needed to look at Ladybug as a person and not as a hero before she continued. Once she did that, she was able to see the kind of person Ladybug was - A generous soul that may act confident, but wavered about her inner self. She was kind, likely grew up well-loved and appreciated by friends and family. However, Kagami noticed the lingering sadness that was plaguing the young woman. Her smiles which used to be full-faced didn’t seem to reach her eyes anymore.

Ladybug had too much on her shoulders. People expected Ladybug to fix their problems, to run a team, to protect all of Paris while they went along casually. She realized, even she herself, hadn’t taken the idea of Akumas seriously until she became a hero, and even then, she still brushed it aside sometimes. For nearly a year, Ladybug had to not only drop everything at a moment’s notice to transform and save Paris, but she looked like she was roughly her age, fourteen, maybe fifteen, meaning she had her own life problems.

Ladybug was… very much like Marinette. That was the feeling she got the more one-on-one time she spent with her. A beautiful soul, while everything around her slowly weighed her down, crushing her soul slowly but surely.

She needed a team, she needed to share the burden. Chat might be her partner and her friend, but he laid on the stress in his own way, though he did support her as a teammate.

-

Inari was twirling her flute in her hand, her eyes taking in Ladybug, “You’re deciding on another hero?” She asked lightly, tilting her head as she took in the firm set of her jaw. Something she noticed when Ladybug became resolute. 

“Yes. I have decided on who, just not which.” Her eyes shut in thought before she hummed to herself. 

“Ladybug.” Inari sighed as she moved to sit next to her, her fingers moving to gently settle over her hand. The touch was soft, affectionate. “Any decision you make, I will believe in and support.” Her fingers gently squeezed at Ladybug’s hand. “I do not know who you are picking, or why you doubt yourself but - issues in the past, Chat, everything, we will all work on in time. I will remain by your side as your teammate and as your friend.”

The smile that graced Ladybug’s face made her cheeks flood with warmth. How in the world did she end up befriending the two cutest girls in Paris? Marinette and Ladybug. 

“I’ll give it to him next week.” There was pride in her voice, the confidence flooding Ladybug once again. The smile she’d given Inari was still there on her face.

It was the brightest smile she’d ever seen…

-

“Marinette.” Kagami’s lips curved upward into a smile as she saw Marinette coming towards her, smile as bright as the sun. 

“Kagami!” Marinette didn’t hesitate in wrapping her arms around Kagami, hugging her close once Kagami gave her a small nod of approval.

Kagami was not typically one to enjoy being touched, but Marinette always waited for some sign of approval. Marinette respected her boundaries, and it touched her heart that Marinette went the extra mile to make her comfortable. 

“Ready to go?” 

Kagami nodded. They were going to have a small shopping trip. Kagami had commissioned her for evening attire during a ceremony for her mother. 

Usually, the two of them tried to meet up once a week, whether in person or on a video call, something to spend time together. It had become a routine of sorts to help them both de-stress and focus on things outside of their busy lives.

“Marinette,” Kagami spoke, her voice almost shy as she glanced towards the smaller girl. “Would...you…”

She was nervous, no matter how much she felt she’d grown, this was a big thing to her. Her wonderful friends, Marinette, Ladybug, Adrien, Chat Noir, Luka, and various other people in her life helped her grow as a person. 

Marinette looked at her, patient and offering her an encouraging smile. Kagami had to pause, that look was so familiar for some reason… She also noticed how tired Marinette was and it caused her courage to waver. 

“You can ask me anything, Kagami.” Gently, carefully, Marinette entered the bubble that was Kagami’s personal space, taking her hands in a gentle grasp. 

“I wanted to know if you’d… join me for the ceremony… that I commissioned you for.”

“As a friend?” Marinette asked, her tone deflating. Kagami knew she’d gotten over her crush on Adrien a long time ago, those words, however, seemed to still haunt Marinette when someone showed interest. 

Kagami swore that familiarity was going to drive her insane just as the way Marinette had jumped to a platonic request when it was everything but that.

“As my date.” Her voice was short, simple. 

Kagami’s request was answered with a bright smile, “Yes!” Her happiness and bright smile caused Kagami's heart to pound in her chest and warmth rise on her cheeks. 

Kagami’s brows furrowed for a second.

Oh. 

It was all she needed, all the familiarity soon slid into place, puzzle pieces finding their match, and the image was suddenly clear at the beautiful smile Marinette gave her. The same smile Ladybug had given her. 

She thought it would surprise her more, but wordlessly, her fingers slowly slid into Marinette’s grasp, lacing their fingers together. 

“I think I saw a shop around here… they looked like a fabric or craft shop.” Kagami’s voice came out soft, relaxing as she got used to the warmth that was sinking into her hand. 

Marinette was very fitting for Ladybug, so it wasn’t that surprising. A beautiful kind-hearted girl being the beautiful and kind-hearted hero? It made sense. 

At least it wasn’t Adrien turning out to be Chat Noir. 

Kagami couldn’t help but let her mind focus on the two blond boys now that she thought about it. The dorky hero and the lonely boy whom she had gotten to know better during her time in Paris. Things were steadily falling together in her mind. The neglected boy with nerdy hobbies that dreamed of freedom, how had she missed it? Of course, he was Chat Noir.

“...” Kagami said no words, just took a long, deep breath to keep from getting too frustrated. It suddenly made sense as to why Chat Noir clung to Ladybug as much as he did, and why Adrien was obsessed with Ladybug.

She and Adrien will have a conversation and work on that at a later date. He wasn't a bad person, just neglected and needed people to help look after him and see him for who he was - an anime-loving dork who liked bad puns. 

Her eyes glanced down to the braided cord around her wrist, the hand gripping Marinette’s hand. She’d eventually tell Marinette that she knew. But not yet, she wanted to let this blossom, to grow with Marinette… and hopefully, Marinette would tell her once she was ready. 

Until then, Inari would support Ladybug, and Kagami would love and support Marinette through all the trials that life put them both through.

“Hey, Marinette?” Kagami’s voice was soft, earning a hummed reply from her “I’m glad you wanted to be my friend during the scavenger hunt.” If not for that day, she didn’t know if they would have ever gotten here. 

When Marinette turned towards her, Kagami leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. It was chaste and sweet, to the point much like Kagami, but it said everything it needed to. 

You’re important to me. I like you. I’m comfortable with you. 

[theaceace]

So because I had a few asks about it, I’m going to ramble about some of the scenes I wanted to include in demand an encore and didn’t (for varying reasons) and tag the people that asked instead of answering them all and repeating myself a lot (having said that, if you want even more detail, I am here, shivering with anticipation) Hopefully tumblr doesn’t fuck it up too much :)

@holsmi, @lemon-drops-are-yummy, @eat-sleep-meme-freak-repeat, @alastingconfusion, @jinglelas

(warning - this got long)

Ok so this isn’t in any particular order, let’s go

I was originally going to have more of the first episode actually played through, including Geralt’s reaction to waking up in Filavandrel’s cave and immediately smelling Jaskier’s blood. Jaskier-the-Viper would have known a lot more about the great cleansing than Jaskier-the-bard, considering he y’know lived through it, so there would have been moments of Geralt using that to convince himself that of course this couldn’t be his Jaskier because his Jaskier would never have bought into the human’s shit. And the ‘he’s just a bard’ line? Ooh I was going to lean into that hard. I couldn’t really work the transitions though, and honestly I didn’t want to feel like I was repeating the episode verbatim which was how it was starting to turn out

Renfri was going to have a much part bigger part originally - it was where the idea of Geralt talking to Roach like she’s a horse sometimes and like she’s a person other times originally started. I toyed with the idea of Geralt actually opening up a little bit to Renfri about it, and possibly her trying to use Jaskier’s death at the hands of mages to convince Geralt to kill Stregobor. I did also think about having a mirror of the final fight scene, because I imagine Jaskier’s fighting style to be very similar to Renfri’s, to the point that Geralt actually started to anticipate her movements - only to get stabbed because of course, she’s her own person and however similar her approach to fighting was, there would still be differences. This chapter, though, I decided all of the flashbacks would take place after Geralt met Jaskier again, so it was cut

Triss, oh my god, I had half a scene written with Triss but I couldn’t stop the dialogue feeling clunky and too much like obvious exposition. The plan was to reveal the info we got from Yennefer in the final version more gradually, with a little bit from Triss, a little bit from Mousesack, and Geralt drawing his own conclusions from that. It worked better with the theme of Geralt being a ridiculously unreliable narrator, because let’s be real he would jump to the absolute worst conclusions in a heartbeat, but then I realised Yennefer would not allow other people to be the authority on anything magical in Geralt’s life and would correct him at every turn (how reliable it is, though, is still to be determined :) ). I more-or-less replaced it with the after-potions scene, because I like the idea of Geralt calling for Dandelion when he’s hurt/feverish/not really with it, and I was going to have Triss grill him about it. I’m happy with the final version. Still miss Triss tho

I was in two minds about including anything from ep 4, because on the one hand I wouldn’t really have changed any of the events - except maybe having Mousesack be aware that Geralt used to travel with another witcher and talk it through a bit - but at the same time, the potential for yearning was off the charts

The little song that Jaskier sings at the beginning of ep 5? ‘You all know that this bard, loved ladies from Nilgaard, cause Nilfgaard can kiss my - Geralt!’ That was going to be there for Geralt to obsess over, but I thought people might read too much into it when it’s still just a silly song that he was singing. Again, there was a lot of potential pining with the whole exchange pre-djinn, but I would have changed so little of it overall and I didn’t want to just type out the scene verbatim

I wanted to have a scene of Geralt being in some sort of peril while on a hunt, and Jaskier trying to leap in - because he still had the instincts of a witcher, and when his mind blanked with absolute terror of what might happen to Geralt, he fell back on them without realising. But, of course, the instincts and muscle-memory alone (at that point, at least) wouldn’t have been enough, resulting in Jaskier being pretty seriously injured, and Geralt losing his shit because he couldn’t just let Jaskier die, not again. I still like the idea of this one, although it ran a little close to the whole djinn debacle. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll revisit it (probably not tho)

Originally Geralt and Ciri’s talk on the tower was going to be much more lighthearted, with Geralt telling Ciri stories about the constellations that he learnt from Jaskier, while Jaskier stealthily sat at the foot of the tower listening. They were going to have a bit of a heart-to-heart once Ciri fell asleep, but in the end I felt like I really wanted to address the fact that this whole thing has been really difficult for characters other than Geralt. Yes we like to read about the sad grumpy boi pining, but let’s be real, I don’t know how much time the show will devote to her trauma and I at least wanted to give Ciri the chance to openly grieve.

Yen was going to arrive at fuck-o-clock at night, when Geralt and Jaskier were the only ones up. And also they might have been cuddling a bit. And Jaskier might have grabbed a knife from Geralt’s belt and settled into the old fighting stance they used to use when they needed to protect each other’s backs. I might have had him in a state of panic over the fact that there’s a portal at Kaer Morhen, and desperately trying to hold himself together long enough to face the potential threat, because he has to protect the ones he loves. It might have been related to whatever happened at Gorthur Gvaed. In the end, I went with a lighter version because it had already been a very heavy chapter. This idea is still very close to my heart, though.

[fontofmercy-archived2]

The Sansa/Arya Rivalry: A Defense of Sansa Stark

1.) Arya is an unreliable narrator

“It wasn't fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left. Often it felt that way. Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. Worse, she was beautiful. Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones and the thick auburn hair of the Tullys. Arya took after their lord father. Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn.” A Game of Thrones, Arya I

“Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. She did everything prettily, Arya thought with dull resentment.” - A Game of Thrones, Arya I

Arya is projecting her insecurities onto Sansa here. There is only one instance when Sansa calls Arya ugly and it’s in the same childish outburst where she calls her “hairy” and I doubt that Arya has some hormonal issue that’s not mentioned so clearly Sansa didn’t mean either of those and that one little outburst is not a basis for Arya’s consistent insecurities about her appearance and overall masculinity.

“Sansa sighed as she stitched. “Poor Jon,” she said. “He gets jealous because he’s a bastard.” - A Game of Thrones, Arya I

“He’s our brother,” Arya said, much too loudly. Her voice cut through the afternoon quiet of the tower room.” - A Game of Thrones, Arya I

Arya jumps to Jon's defense even though Sansa didn't say anything to really warrant that. She didn’t say that Jon’s not their brother. All Sansa said was that Jon gets jealous (which is an accurate observation, Jon was jealous of Joffrey) but Arya assumes something negative from it and gets upset which is partially because she was already on edge about the Septa targeting her but again, she projects this anger at Sansa.

Arya also blames Sansa when the Septa comes over to embarrass her even though it explicitly says that Arya yelling was what attracted her attention:

“(Arya’s) voice cut through the afternoon quiet of the tower room.” - A Game of Thrones, Arya I

...5 seconds later...

“It was just like Sansa to go and attract the septa's attention. "Here," she said, surrendering up her work.” - A Game of Thrones, Arya I

The point I’m getting at is that Arya (and Sansa) are unreliable narrators because they’re children. Arya is an emotional 9-year-old child, not a noble heroine who always knows what’s right and wrong. Arya assumes a lot of negatives about Sansa that simply aren’t true and this comes into play later as well, Arya says:

“...Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near.” - A Game of Thrones, Arya I

“At Winterfell they had called her "Arya Horseface" and she'd thought nothing could be worse.” - A Clash of Kings, Arya I

“She bit her lip, groping for another name. Lommy had called her Lumpyhead, Sansa used Horseface, and her father's men once dubbed her Arya Underfoot, but she did not think any of those were the sort of name he wanted.” - A Clash of Kings, Arya IX

The top quote is from AGoT, when Arya is still living with Sansa and Jeyne. That is when her memory is most reliable, and that quote is taken from a paragraph that is all about Sansa except this one line where Arya specifies that only Jeyne calls her that. If Sansa called her Horseface, Arya would have thought of it here when she was in Winterfell thinking about all the things she doesn’t like about Sansa but she doesn’t. She specifically says only Jeyne calls her that.

The second quote is from (the start of) ACoK and the last is from (the end of) ACoK. Notice the way Arya’s memory goes from, when it’s most reliable, being that Jeyne calls her Horseface to being a vague they called her Horseface to Arya thinking, in a moment of stress, that Sansa called her that.

Arya is not thinking about Jeyne, the girl she hardly knew, by the time she’s reached that point in the story and is that stressed. Arya’s thoughts are so focused on survival and getting back to her family, it makes sense that she wouldn’t think of Jeyne and would instead pin that memory on her sister who she always pinned her insecurities on.

It’s clear that Arya thinking Sansa called her Horseface is unreliable and inaccurate. Jeyne was the one who called Arya Horseface.

2.) The real source of Arya’s insecurities

The Septa. A grown adult who is a secondary mother figure. The Septa is constantly pitting Arya against Sansa (often for her looks):

"Sansa's work is as pretty as she is," Septa Mordane told their lady mother once. "She has such fine, delicate hands." When Lady Catelyn had asked about Arya, the septa had sniffed. "Arya has the hands of a blacksmith."

"You're a good girl, Sansa, but I do vow, when it comes to that creature you're as willful as your sister Arya." She scowled.”

I mentioned in 1 that Sansa vaguely calling Arya ugly one time is not enough to cause these specific insecurities that Arya has about being too masculine but the things The Septa says are. The comment about “blacksmith’s hands” does linger in Arya’s mind and is mentioned again but Sansa calling her “ugly and hairy like Hodor” doesn’t:

"(after thinking Catelyn wouldn’t want her back because she’s dirty) I ruined that gown that Lady Smallwood gave me, and I don't sew so good." She chewed her lip. "I don't sew very well, I mean. Septa Mordane used to say I had a blacksmith's hands." - A Storm of Swords, Arya VII

Sansa has also been drip-fed the idea that Arya makes everything worse, that Arya is a terrible person to be like, by the Septa. Sansa didn’t come up with that herself. When one child is scapegoated and the other is put on a pedestal, both children are being abused and the relationship between them is going to be affected.

The Septa makes Arya feel anxious and insecure because of the constant risk of being embarrassed:

“Arya glanced furtively across the room, worried that Septa Mordane might have read her thoughts, but the septa was paying her no attention today.”

“The septa examined the fabric. "Arya, Arya, Arya," she said. "This will not do. This will not do at all." Everyone was looking at her. It was too much.”

Ned and Catelyn are also to blame for doing nothing to stop this. Septa Mordane says Arya has “Blacksmith’s hands” to Catelyn and she doesn’t say anything about it. Sansa, on the other hand, is not to blame because she was a child and did very little to perpetuate that insecurity.

3.) Sansa’s perfectionism

Sansa is assumed to be a perfectly happy and content child both by readers and other characters simply because she’s able to conform and adequately conceal her emotions “Curtesy is a woman’s armor.” but we see several times that Sansa is just as affected by this toxic environment as Arya is.

There are several times when Sansa, like Arya, worries about being embarrassed and shamed:

“Alone and humiliated, Sansa took the long way back to the inn, where she knew Septa Mordane would be waiting. Lady padded quietly by her side. She was almost in tears. All she wanted was for things to be nice and pretty, the way they were in the songs. Why couldn't Arya be sweet and delicate and kind, like Princess Myrcella? She would have liked a sister like that.” - A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

Sansa experiences the same stress and pressure Arya does, every toe out of line is scolded, just because Sansa copes through conformity and Arya through rebellion doesn’t make the trauma any more or less. Sansa is a perfectionist, she genuinely gets anxious and upset when things aren’t as they “should” be. It’s not as simple as Sansa being catty or judgmental, it’s her response to the same pressure Arya has experienced.

Now, that last part is often taken out of context to make Sansa sound awful (like no kid has ever wanted different siblings, come on) but this is after Arya refuses to go see the Queen which is quite immature and forces Sansa to return alone to face all the shame of Arya’s rudeness towards to Queen of all people.

It’s not that Sansa hates Arya, she wants to be close to Arya but feels like she can’t be:

"It is not," Arya said stubbornly. "If you came with us sometimes, you'd see."

"I hate riding," Sansa said fervently. "All it does is get you soiled and dusty and sore."

Arya shrugged.” - A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

Arya does invite Sansa to play with her and Sansa tries to convince Arya to get dressed up and hang out with her, they both want a relationship with their sister but at the expense of what the other enjoys (Sansa wants Arya to be like Myrcella, Arya wants Sansa to be like Mycah) and neither of them are willing to compromise and do what the other wants to do.

Why is Sansa not liking to get dirty seen as some grave sin but Arya refusing the invitation of one of the most important people in the world because she’d rather go play a heroic virtue? I’m not saying Arya is terrible, I’m saying they are both just normal children who lack the awareness and self-discipline to compromise on their wants or communicate effectively. There is no difference there. There is nothing inherently more virtuous about Arya’s preferences as opposed to Sansa’s especially considering point 4.

4.) Ned’s Favoritism

“...her hair all tangled and her clothes covered in mud, clutching a raggedy bunch of purple and green flowers for Father. Sansa kept hoping he would tell Arya to behave herself and act like the highborn lady she was supposed to be, but he never did, he only hugged her and thanked her for the flowers. That just made her worse.” - A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

This moment for example, many people interpret this as Sansa being just a big meanie who wants her sister to be miserable but that’s not true, Sansa specifically has an issue with the fact that their father is rewarding Arya for not doing what both the girls are told they are “supposed to be” doing. And of course that would upset Sansa who tries so hard to do what she’s “supposed to do” and is still constantly lacking meaningful attention.

This also ties into how Sansa doesn’t understand why Arya likes Mycah more than here, Arya “should” like Sansa because Sansa is doing everything to be likable but it’s not enough. Sansa wants to be close to Arya and Ned but doesn’t know how because Ned never makes significant effort to include her, or even learn what Sansa is interested in.

“Just the sight of him was enough to make Sansa feel sick, but Arya seemed to prefer his company to hers.” - A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

Sansa doesn’t understand why even though she does everything that everyone around her is telling her to do, it’s still people that are doing what she’s scolded for that are rewarded. Sansa barely has the ability to correct the Septa about her direwolf, and when she does she gets scolded and shamed excessively, but Arya gets to run around the woods and do whatever she wants while still being the favorite? That’s not entirely accurate, just like Arya’s perceptive isn’t, but it is Sansa’s perspective.

Sidenote: Is sansa being classist to Mycah? Yeah, a little, but I’m not holding a sheltered 11 y/o accountable for her ignorance. That is all Ned and Catelyn’s responsibility. And to be honest, this is a time when baths were a luxury so I’m sure the smell of someone who worked with raw meat and rarely bathed would be quite overwhelming to someone who has never been around people who couldn’t bathe regularly. Sansa doesn’t have the awareness to understand that Mycah doesn’t have the same luxuries she does so of course to her she’s going to just think “oh, he’s gross” because she’s just a kid who doesn’t understand.

Back to Ned’s favoritism though, so much of the fandom acts like Arya is just inherently a better person than Sansa because she talks to Smallfolk and doesn’t trust the Lannisters etc. but Arya didn’t just start doing those things on her own. Her father sat Arya down and explained these things to her, but Ned never bothered to do that with Sansa. A child can hardly be blamed for not knowing things that her own parents never bothered to teach her.

Sidenote: Before you say it, no, Sansa is NOT Catelyn’s favorite. Bran is Catelyn’s favorite as she explicitly states followed by the rest of her sons. Catelyn has a very superficial relationship with Sansa that is not at all equivalent to Ned and Arya’s. And even if Sansa were Catelyn’s favorite, Ned should still have given Sansa the same tools and lessons he gave Arya. Ned and Catelyn chose to leave Sansa unprepared and sheltered, that’s not Sansa’s fault.

4.) Defending Joffrey

"Stop it!" Arya screamed. She grabbed up her fallen stick.

Sansa was afraid. "Arya, you stay out of this." - A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

The idea that Sansa liked, or was even okay with, what Joffrey was doing to Mycah is pure fanon. Sansa told Arya to not get involved because she was afraid and in Sansa’s experience, being passive and not angering those with power is what works. She isn’t saying “Arya don’t interrupt, I’m enjoying the show” NO, she’s saying “Arya, I’m scared, please don’t escalate the situation.”

And, frankly...Sansa was right. The situation was made worse by Arya attacking Joffrey. I absolutely do NOT blame Arya for that, I completely understand why she did and, just like Sansa, Arya was a child who was not prepared to deal with the situation and did what she thought was right. But the situation was made worse by fighting the authority (the Lannisters) so of course it makes sense that Sansa would choose to submit to them later on and lie about what she saw.

Not only was Sansa a child (one who is particularly anxious about authority figures and has been taught all her life to be submissive) who was being dogpiled by the most powerful adults in the world and had no right option, Sansa actually made the least-wrong choice by lying about Arya.

If Sansa had told the truth, do you really think Cersei f*cking Lannister, The Queen of Reasonable, would have been like “Oh, okay then, I guess it was Joffrey’s fault.” OF COURSE NOT! Sansa lying or not made no difference because Cersei is a vengeful crazy person who will always Joffrey as the victim. In fact, Cersei had already sent The Hound to kill Mycah before Sansa said anything because if she hadn’t then Sandor wouldn’t have already been there with the body by the time Ned went outside to kill Lady.

Mycah and a direwolf were going to die for what had already happened to Joffrey regardless of what Sansa said, she could never have saved them. There is no universe in which Cersei would have given up her vengeance (the thing she basically lives and breathes for) for the word of a kid she hates. What Sansa did stopped Cersei from taking further revenge. If Sansa has told the truth, it only would have put her and her family in more danger.

So, clearly Sansa was right to lie there but what about later on when Sansa defends Joffrey? What a lot of people don’t understand is that Sansa was being abused before Joffrey ever ordered his guards to beat her and before Ned’s death. Joffrey was already using love bombing on Sansa, he already had her trapped in King’s Landing where the Lannisters have even more power than they did at Winterfell, and the two of them were already in a cycle of abuse:

“And Joffrey was the soul of courtesy. He talked to Sansa all night, showering her with compliments, making her laugh, sharing little bits of court gossip, explaining Moon Boy's japes. Sansa was so captivated that she quite forgot all her courtesies and ignored Septa Mordane, seated to her left...”

...5 seconds later...

“Sansa started as Joffrey laid his hand on her arm. "It grows late," the prince said. He had a queer look on his face, as if he were not seeing her at all.” - A Game of Thrones, Sansa II

Joffrey spends the whole meal showering Sansa in affection and attention, which is something she has been lacking the rest of the book, and then suddenly acts like he doesn’t see her and sends her off with The Hound (who proceeds to manhandle her, belittle her, and threaten her life bc that’s what he does).

This is just one of many examples of how Sansa is already trapped in this abusive cycle. There are numerous adults who fall for the manipulation that Joffrey is already using on Sansa, who have defended their abuser because they are afraid to admit what’s really happening and therefore have to face the monumentally terrifying task of leaving. It’s hardly a fair argument to blame a literal child, who couldn’t up and walk away from the Lannisters if she wanted to, for finding a way to rationalize her abuser’s actions.

If Sansa admits what Joffrey is, that means that now she is stuck with someone who doesn’t care about her at all and is only a threat to her. Sansa couldn’t survive that. She has to compartmentalize, it has to be The Hound who killed Mycah not Joffrey and, later on, Sansa continues to compartmentalize abusers’ good moments from their abuse to survive. Because it she doesn’t have a Prince in Joffrey, a protector in The Hound, a friend in Littlefinger...then she has nothing and she’s alone and that is too terrifying for her to handle.

So, yes, Sansa continues to defend Joffrey even to Arya and I completely understand why that is so hard for Arya but it’s the only thing Sansa can do to survive.

5.) Sansa and Arya are important to each other

Regardless of whether or not you agree with my analysis of the Sansa/Arya rivalry, there’s no denying that Sansa and Arya love each other. Their relationship was not all rivalry and disagreements:

Sansa covers for Arya to Septa Mordane:

“"She wasn't hungry," Sansa said, knowing full well that her sister had probably stolen down to the kitchen hours ago and wheedled a breakfast out of some cook's boy.” - A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

Arya and Sansa played in the snow (and Arya checked to make sure Sansa was okay when she fell down):

“(Arya and Bran) each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and (Sansa) had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she'd slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn't, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing.” - A Storm of Swords, Sansa VII

Arya stops wishing for King’s Landing to wash away because even right after Ned’s death, she can’t stand the thought of Sansa dying:

“She wished the Rush would rise and wash the whole city away, Flea Bottom and the Red Keep and the Great Sept and everything, and everyone too, especially Prince Joffrey and his mother. But she knew it wouldn't, and anyhow Sansa was still in the city and would wash away too. When she remembered that, Arya decided to wish for Winterfell instead.” - A Clash of Kings, Arya I

Sansa wants a kid like Arya (showing she’s moved past the biases Septa and others put in here):

“If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya.” - A Storm of Swords, Sansa II

And there’s literally so many examples of both of them wanting to go home to their family (including each other) that I don’t even need to include that. Their mutual arcs are all about wanting to bring the pack together and as Ned said:

"Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths...Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you...and I need both of you, Gods help me.”

[disneyfemslashcomics]

Tiana/Mulan Ship Meme

How differently do they think of each other now compared to when they first met?

Their first impressions were pretty spot on for one another, Mulan could tell that Tiana was overworked but passionate about what she was doing and Tiana knew Mulan was shy but also thoughtful and cared deeply about the people they’re close to. As time goes on, they get a lot less shy around each other and their relationship gets more personal and close. They maintain a correspondence as Mulan is overseas and feelings of attraction grow. Tiana tells them things she doesn’t feel good about telling her friends, and Mulan makes her laugh.  They don’t necessarily have a distinct starting point for their relationship, as things developed slowly and then it was clear that they wanted to spend whatever time they could together.

What do their friends/family think of their relationship?

Eugenia was concerned upon hearing about her daughter getting involved with a soldier on active duty, Tiana has always been so serious and she doesn’t want to see her daughter hurt and having another reason to throw herself further into her work and separate herself more from other people, however seeing them together changed a lot of that. It’s obvious that Mulan cares deeply about Tiana and is good for her. Tiana relaxes around Mulan and Mulan encourages her to take time off and enjoy herself.

Mushu and Cri-Kee “help” Mulan by trying to hide their relationship before things get serious and Mulan tries to introduce Tiana to their parents and create much drama. 

Mulan’s family isn’t really super big on them being gay or gender-queer but they love Tiana in spite of themselves when they meet her because she’s very kind and introduces herself with food. Grandmother Fa is the first to voice her support, specifically by inviting Tiana to stay forever, and the rest of the family follows suit fairly quickly afterwards.

How do their personalities/skills complement or contrast with each other?

Both Mulan and Tiana are very driven smart people however they go about it in very different, complimentary ways.  Tiana is a big believer in consistency and working steadily to achieve one’s goals by adhering to her plans whereas Mulan is a lot more of a wait and analyze the situation before coming to a plan/improvisation at the last minute type person. I imagine that Mulan would help Tiana come up with clever solutions to persistent problems and Tiana would help Mulan to stay organized and focused. 

What is their favorite aspect of each other?

Tiana’s favorite thing about Mulan is how they always know just how to make her smile and Mulan’s favorite thing about Tiana is the level of faith she has in her convictions and in them which inspires them to be confident in themself when they otherwise might not be.

Do either of them have pet peeves about each other?

I touched on it a bit previously in what makes them complimentary to each other but their differences are also a cause of conflicts. Mulan wings things and Tiana has plans.

One thing that they can’t ever do with each other is grocery shopping because Tiana has specific route and list of things she wants (specific down to the brand) whereas Mulan gets distracted by sales and would rather leave things flexible. 

Sometimes Tiana feels that Mulan doesn’t work as hard as she does and Mulan thinks Tiana overexerts herself. 

How would each reconcile with each other after a fight?

They both know that the things that bother them most about each other are the same things they love about each other, and that love is about accepting and loving one anothers’ flaws as well as the many positive aspects of each other.  They don’t fight all that often and are actually pretty good at anticipating each others’ needs. When they fight they don’t talk to each other but still leave each other notes and gifts around the house because they still very much so love each other even if they’re having difficulty expressing it with each other in person.

What would be their ideal vacation getaway together?

I think that they’d probably want to go somewhere where there’s delicious food and dancing, that isn’t too busy and exhausting, definitely not a cruise (there are too many rumors about lax food safety). 

Think of a new way (AU, different situation, etc.) they could have met for the first time.

California Gold-rush era AU. Tiana moved out west after having her loan application rejected and becomes a target as a single black woman on her own for banditry and harassment. Mulan comes riding into town as a Marshall (disguised as a man) and steps in. Tiana insists that she can handle herself, as previous law enforcement have been unreliable at best and horribly corrupt racketeers at worst. She doesn’t want to become involved with whatever trouble Mulan is into. However, Mulan is charming and honest and true to their word, and earns her trust. This falls apart a bit as Tiana develops feelings for Mulan who honestly reciprocates (and Tiana knows it) but doesn’t want to reveal their sex and doesn’t want for Tiana to be doing anything she’d consider indecent, so rejects her. Despite that, Tiana is there for Mulan when they get injured in a gunfight and nurses them back to health, not really caring about their sex, just them and they live happily ever after. (GAY WESTERNS ARE GREAT OK.)

[miraayyalcin]

Class essay - WRT 201 0204

WRT 201 0204 

March 20, 2021 

Miray Yalçın

                            Sibling Relationship in Catcher In the Rye 

Humans are social creatures who build connections with others and thrive as companionship increases. Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, describes two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, who experiences much frustration in his inability to form long-lasting connections. Holden Caulfield has major problems and Salinger creatively infused his work with varying themes. This novel is sophisticatedly written in a manner that allows us to see all the themes clearly. Throughout the novel Catcher In the Rye, there is a sense of delaying adulthood, Holden's inability to stay in focus in education, the inability to form relationships or stay in the same place all seem to tie to the idea of avoiding adult notions, such as responsibility. It also shows Holden’s struggle against growing up. Holden's enemy is the adult world and the cruelty and artificiality that it entails. Holden’s story is full of failed attempts such as lack of communications, messages never delivered, uncompleted phone calls and more (Sandock). The people he admires all represent or protect innocence. With all of these situations, Holden's siblings Phoebe, D.B., and Allie play key roles in developing our perceptions of the books themes. Each character gives a different sense of personality. Holden’s differing relationships with his siblings not only influence him but also gives him different attitudes throughout the story. The relationship between Holden and his little sister Phoebe is probably the most significant in the book. Phoebe is Holden's favorite person who can truly communicate with. Phoebe's perspective is amusing and refreshing, and she is also emotional and affectionate. She is ten years old, skinny, and has reddish hair similar to her deceased brother, Allie. Holden elaborates on the positive personality traits of his younger sister by mentioning that she is extremely intelligent and funny. Interestingly, Holden says, “I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you're talking about” (Salinger, 37). Phoebe's ability to understand and connect with Holden is what he cherishes the most. Throughout the novel, Holden's immaturity and cynicism prevent him from developing authentic relationships with people his own age. Unlike the "phony" adults, Phoebe is genuine and innocent. In another saying, ​Phoebe ​is a representation of innocence in Holden's mind and the one person he loves unconditionally (Tolchin). Their relationship is different than others.​ ​It seems like Holden looks up the Phoebe in a way, even though he is the older sibling​. ​Holden's affinity for ​Phoebe​ and Allie​ reflect his love for children and childhood in general. Holden feels like Phoebe can truly understand him, and he sees his younger sister as a genuine, compassionate person.The fact that Holden relates to Phoebe the most also reveals his immaturity. As an adolescent suffering from anxiety, Holden fears entering the world of adults and feels more comfortable around his younger sister. ​Phoebe represents to Holden the pure and ideal. However, Phoebe’s character is described from the standpoint of Holden, who is biased, unreliable narrator ​(​Takeuchi).​ ​He chooses to view her in this way. However, Phoebe plays a larger role than just this. Phoebe is independent, straightforward, and a catalyst for Holden. She does not share his disenchantment with the world and scolds him for not liking anything. For2example, when she asks him if there is anything that he likes a lot, Holden struggles to answer. She calls her brother out on his depressive tendencies and glum outlook, and she pushes him to recognize his inability to answer her clearly. Although Holden cannot come up with a positive idea right away, he does eventually say he likes his younger brother, Allie. Phoebe angrily reminds him that their brother is dead. Phoebe is still only 10 years old and it is hard to expect her to understand Holden’s life. When he bares his soul to tell her of his dream of bein​g "The Catcher in the Rye," she is quiet for a long time but then simply states, in reference to his expulsion, as he says in the book "Daddy's going to kill you," illustrating that despite their great friendship and connection. Although they both have totally different personalities, their relationship is so deep and strong.Allie, Holden's younger brother, died of leukemia when he was just eleven years old. Holden was thirteen at the time, and had to be hospitalized for breaking his hand while destroying every window in the garage. Allie's death causes Holden's descent into depression, where he hits rock bottom during the three days this novel takes place. ​​Although Allie has been dead for about three years, he is a mystic presence in the book. Holden thinks of him often and speaks to him when things are darkest in his life. Allie is associated with the theme of death, but his role is not that simple. He also represents hope and the gifted innocence of childhood, which is tenuous and sometimes short-lived. Holden clearly loves his brother. Only two years apart in age, they were close friends. Holden, distraught over the loss of his brother, broke his hand punching the windows out of the garage of their summer home. Holden missed Allie's funeral because he was in the hospital, apparently for a psychiatric evaluation as well as for attention to his hand. It has thrown him into a deep depression (​French)​. ​Holden reacts to Allie's death in a3way that alarms his parents about his mental health: “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage... It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie” (Salinger 21). Even when Holden gets depressed about events that, on the surface, aren't directly about Allie, the state of being depressed leads him to think about his dead brother. This suggests the root of all his depression is Allie's death and the survivor's guilt he feels over it.One of the first relationships that is mentioned in the story is Holden’s relationship with D.B., his brother. Throughout his childhood, it is obvious that Holden has idolized his older brother. Now that D.B. is a writer for Hollywood, Holden considers him a phony, and accuses him of prostituting himself by agreeing to work for the film industry.​ D.B.’s just one more phony in a world full of phonies. What really matters about D.B. is that he was in the war and was apparently quite traumatized by the whole thing. ​For Holden, Hollywood epitomizes everything he hates. It stands for all that's phony, fake, and insincere. He positively loathes the movies, and he isn't in the slightest bit impressed at his brother's becoming a screenwriter. More significantly, Holden wants to live life on his own terms, however difficult that is. His brother, like every adult he's ever come across, doesn't do that. He simply goes with the flow, acting the way that people expect him to, working for someone else, and doing their bidding. In other words, D.B. is no longer an individual in Holden's eyes, and Holden can't respect him for it. Because D.B.’s different life style doesn't fit with Holden's point of view, Holden doesn’t feel that D.B. understands him well. Thus, their relationship becomes toxic in a way that Holden reflects the reader through the novel.4Throughout J. D. Salinger's ​The Catcher in the Rye​, it is a book about Holden Caulfield's crises and interactions with society (Dhasti). The way he talks about, or to each, gives the reader some idea of whether he thinks they are "phony" or normal. A few of his accounts make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each family member. From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to refer to his parents as distant and generalizes both his father and mother frequently throughout his chronicle. One example is: "...my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also touchy as hell" (Salinger 1). Each relationship among siblings are different and special. He describes his relationship with his siblings in very different ways and expressions​. ​For Phoebe, Holden describes her by saying “She was somebody you always felt like talking to on the phone.” For D.B. and Allie, Holden describes him by saying “My brother D.B. is the writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard.” He says that he is the stupid one of the four.​ Holden compares himself, it seems, in a negative way to his brothers and sister​ ​until the end of the novel. Each relationship embodies various attitude and approaches of Holden.

[i-just-love-spop]

For the OC asks, could you do 2 for Clover, 26 for Arrow, 14 for Sagi, 34 for Thorn, 48 for Finn, 38 for Leo, 71 for Angie, and 3 for Willow? Also, thanks again for sending me asks for my characters.

For context: Arrow, Angie and Sagi are my Glimbow-kids, Leo and Finn are my Catradora-kids and Clover, Thorn and Willow are three of my Scorfuma-kids.

Other characters mentioned: Kohana is another one of my Scorfuma-kids, Sirena is one of my Seamista-kids and Eira is Frosta’s adopted daughter.

Here are the questions again if anyone wants to ask anything else.

2. Do they have a fear of an animal? If so, what animal?

Yes, he does. Clover is afraid of birds, especially really big ones. There’s no specific reason for this, at least none he can place, but he just finds them kind of terrifying for some reason. He had a lot of nightmares about being pecked at as a kid, and he’s still startled by big birds when he grows older.

It also takes him some time to get used to Angie because of this. When she’s flying around, the sound of her giant wings flapping freaks him out quite a bit.

26. Have they ever been in a physical fight before? If so, with who? Who won?

Arrow actually gets into a lot of fights – most of them accidentally. She’s not one to deliberately pick fights under normal circumstances, but she often ends up in situations where they just can’t be avoided, especially when she’s with Sirena. They’re both sensible people most of the time, but Sirena is very inquisitive and keeps probing people even when it’s obvious that they don’t appreciate her digging into stuff that’s not really her business, and she’s also not good at biting back sarcastic comments when they’re out of place, which gets her in trouble often, and then Arrow gets in trouble along with her most of the time. The fact that Arrow has a tendency to be a bit too sassy for her own good usually also doesn’t help defuse the situations they get into.

Who wins might depend, but she’s more likely to loose, at least when it comes to physical fights – she has won a couple of times, but she’s not that great with hand-to-hand-combat outside of training situations (she and Sirena fight in training regularly, and whoever looses will not hear the end of it for at least an entire week, but that doesn’t really count because they just kind of know the way the other moves after a couple of years, which of course isn’t the case in regular fights). She’s more the “if possible let’s blind them and get out of here before things get serious”-type of person, and if that’s not a possibility, she will still choose using magic to fight from a distance over brawls any day.

There’s one particularly bad incident when she’s about sixteen where she and Sirena investigate some strange activity in the Crimson Waste, and once again Sirena cannot keep her mouth shut and they end up in a fight, which is especially problematic because there is no water anywhere near them that Sirena could use for self-defense. The criminals corner them pretty quickly, forcing them into hand-to-hand-combat. And the two girls lose. Badly.

14. What is a pet peeve of theirs?

People. Being. Mean. To. Willow.

Also, Sagi really has an issue with unreliable people who don't follow through on promises. He takes promises very seriously and is genuinely hurt when people say they’ll do something for or with him and then don’t do it.

If someone promises too meet him, he’ll expect them to show up and be really upset if they don’t. Being late is fine, but not showing up at all really hurts, even if it’s just out of forgetfulness rather than out of malicious intent.

And sure, he’ll forgive someone after they broke a promise and maybe put on a fake smile, but once you’ve broken a promise without having a good reason to (sometimes things don’t happen as planned, and if the person just couldn’t keep the promise because of something out of their control, that’s fine), he’ll possibly never trust them again the way he used to.

He also doesn’t forgive being lied to very easily, at least if it’s a serious topic.

34. Have they ever broken the law?

No. Thorn I think is the one that’s the least likely to break the law out of all of my characters? She’s the teachers’ favorite student, good-girl kind of person and would never do anything that could potentially harm someone else. She wouldn’t hurt a fly – aside from accidentally stinging people out of reflex if they startle her –, which is ironic, since she’s definitely one of the most powerful kids and also the one that could potentially cause the most damage out of all of them because she’s the only kid that’s connected to more than one Runestone.

The only thing she’s ever done that might be considered law-breaking would be the cake-‘heists’ Arrow pulls with her (and sometimes also Sirena if she’s around), where they sneak into the Bright Moon-kitchen and ‘steal’ cake if one of them is upset for some reason... but nobody actually considers it stealing since Arrow is the princess, and the kitchen staff often just... pretend not to see it when the kids are young but actually deliberately place some cake somewhere they can reach it easily so they don’t climb the furniture and get hurt.

48. What does their room look like?

Finn has a huge bed. Don’t tell anyone, but it actually has the softest mattress in the entire palace because they genuinely like sinking into the mattress unlike their moms.

When they’re practicing a scene for the first time, they spread out the pages in order all over the bed and read every page in a different position and with a different voice.

They also have a really large wardrobe. This is because they have tons of different clothes – both regular and costumes – because they love dressing up in different ways to play different characters. It’s not quite Double Trouble’s shapeshifting abilities, but it’s close enough. If they can fool someone in Bright Moon into thinking they’re someone else than Finn, they’re extremely happy for the rest of the day because that means their acting skills are actually kind of good. They also have the biggest, weirdest wigs and hats you could ever imagine, both because it’s funny to see other people’s reactions to them and because they’re good for cheering people up and making them laugh when they’re in a bad mood, which can be found all over the room. (Honestly, they have so many different clothes that they try on regularly spread out across the furniture of the room that sometimes you wonder if anything is actually inside the wardrobe).

There’s also about three different lamps on the ceiling for different kinds of lighting for when they need to practice scenes – one was a present from the Seamista-family and sort of imitates Mermista’s ‘lightning when I need it for dramatic effects’, one is a mood light that can change color that their moms and their older brother got them together, and one is a straight up spotlight from Double Trouble. Pro tip: don’t turn them on all at once, especially not in addition to the regular ceiling light, unless you want to go blind or crazy or both.

They also have a meditating mat hidden under the bed somewhere that they’ll absolutely only ever use when they’re sure no one is around because they’re too embarrassed to admit they actually kind of enjoy it, as well as tons of childhood toys that are kept in a treasure chest for good memories.

Finn’s also pretty sure they misplaced a knife in the room somewhere because they ‘borrowed’ it from Arrow’s knife throwing target when they needed it to practice for a scene (nobody was hurt, thankfully), and after that, it just kind of... disappeared and was never seen again.

They have a family picture in the nightstand drawer that’s way more precious to Finn than any of the toys they got as a kid could ever be, and beside it is a bracelet that Bow and Glimmer gave them for their very first audition when they were still a little kid that they’ve since worn to all their auditions as a good-luck-charm.

They also have some crafting and sewing supplies lying around because if they can’t find the exact clothes or accessories they have in mind, they might as well make them.

Some posters on the walls cover the burns left there by Kohana when they trained in the room very poorly.

And there’s a waterfall, because this just seems to be a thing in Bright Moon. Finn also has no idea what it’s for.

38. Do they get along with others easily?

Leo has a hard time making friends because he’s pretty shy, and he’s also very shut-in for a while after he’s adopted because he’s pretty traumatized from losing his biological parents.

Aside from that, he is a very sweet little kitten that most people like once they get to know him, and very unlike his parents, he doesn’t really pick fights – although he does sometimes end up in some anyway – or ever make actual enemies (which, admittedly, is kind of easier without the Horde around to ruin everyone’s day).

Sure, there are people who don’t like him – I mean, really, having literally everyone like you would be kind of a reach –, but his friends love him to pieces, and he’s one of those people that rarely ever fight with their friends.

So in general, I would say yes, he does get along with others pretty easily, as long as he can actually bring himself to start a conversation.

There is an exception, however, and that’s if someone he meets is rude to him or his friends right off the bat for no reason. He will not try harder to get this person to like him. He‘ll forget his shyness for a moment, hiss at them and move on.

He won’t waste his time and energy on trying to get along with someone like that.

71. Who is their ride or die?

Angie is actually kind of a fun person for this question because she’s not close with many people – nor does she want to be, she’s never been very comfortable with the idea of a huge friend group – and if she ever lets anyone get close, there’s a good chance she would go to great lengths for them.

Out of her family, her ride or die is definitely Sagi. She gets annoyed by his clinginess sometimes and his enthusiasm can get exhausting to her – especially because she’s not a morning person and she doesn’t appreciate him talking her ear off at seven in the morning because she doesn’t even want to be up already can he please shut up, but they are really close because they’re so close in age and she loves him dearly and is very protective of him. He gets insulted from time to time because a bunch of people find his endless babbling annoying, but while the insults fly over his own head most of the time, there’s a chance said people might get their ass kicked by her later if she overhears it. She also tries to keep a bit of an eye on him whenever she can because she knows how much of a klutz he is and that he has a tendency to get himself into dangerous situations by accident.

Out of her friends, Eira. These two are a bit of an odd match because Angie prefers to go on adventures alone and Eira doesn’t like to go on adventures at all and would rather stay inside all day... but when they met they just kind of clicked. Eira is the only one Angie will actually stay inside and read a book with, and Angie is the only one that can really bring Eira to take risks.

3. What do they wear to bed?

The most important thing for Willow is comfortable clothes. How they look doesn’t matter as much as how they make Willow feel when worn – the fluffier the clothes are, the better. They also prefer long, warm clothes over short ones.

Willow doesn’t get hot very easily, and either way, they prefer being hot at night a lot over being cold (they can’t sleep at all when they’re cold), so they’ll still wear long woolen clothes all through spring and at least during parts of summer.

They really like colorful clothes, especially when they’re a kid, and despite eventually growing to like simpler colors when it comes to the clothes they wear in public, their pajamas always stay really colorful.

They also have a glow-in-the-dark-pajama with stars and planets on it that helps them cope with their fear of the dark.

[mother-snake]

promised story 1-

(this one is an origional and first chapter to a book im going over at  the minuet, any constructive critisism would be nice and anything you liked about or didnt like would be good for me so i can perhapse change certain things in future!) -if you guys like it enough i might post the other chapters as i work along them. and if youd like, i can tagg you in!-

UNLOCKED: kurbose words: 3641 warnings: small fight thing happens at begining.

chapter 2-  n/a

chapter 1 -I will eat this sandwich; fate just has other plans.

At least crows don’t judge people for doing the bizarre things they do, I suppose. For example; the fact that I was sitting down on top of the rather worn-down churches roof that lay in the dead centre of the village, slowly turning into a town. Very slowly... I’d blame me getting up here on my habit of using my, not so useful, skill of getting into trouble; but in all honesty that excuse’ became unreliable since the tenth time I’d deliberately made my way up here. Not that I minded much.

Ten or so crows were lined on either side of me cawing loudly at one another trying to get closer, hoping that they could snag some of the sandwich I was eating. It had been wrapped up and stayed in my pocket since the morning. I had always left then in the early hours and barely came back until nightfall. the murder was slowly becoming more and more agitated as they looked at the sandwich with a keen eye.

lunch I had to skip due to them… I don’t mean the birds of course. not the birds. Never. Ever. blame the birds.

the night air was always calming. The stars seemed to look down upon me with a curious gaze, as if asking why I was still in the melancholy village. Living in such a boring place for years. sometimes it felt like hundreds of eyes were on me. that’s why I always sat on top of the roof. And when I did, I couldn’t help but feel a form of freedom I couldn’t get anywhere else. Mayhaps that was because I wasn’t supposed to be up there in the first place. Alas. We shall never know.

sure, some people would enjoy the normal life. Not worrying about what would be around the corner. But I I’m not like that, when it’s all you know. You’d wish for something to change.

I surveyed the area in my line of vision. It was slowly becoming dark enough that everything was blending together. But I could still see the outlines of everything. the sound of the canal that split the village up in sections was only a couple streets away.

I could recognise some of the people lined up by their houses getting the final things ready. And those who were wondering the streets were making their ways home. it was fairly easy to remember everyone in the town. No one really moved here, and if they did, they would mostly stay till they were old and grey.

One of the many people I could see from where I was is Miss hazel. I could see her picking some of the herbs and flowers for her medicines and potions. She was our physician much to many traveller’s surprise.

Then there was Mr. jackal who was sitting on his doorstep. A small wooden pipe in hand, a faint smoke ring coming from the pipe. Sometimes I felt that I’d never seen him going anywhere without it.

The brother and sister, Lawrence and Catherine were running after one another, up and down the street below. They were five and seven. Catherine being the eldest. She was very much a saint in many eyes. Learning how to climb into small places for things we had lost.

Her brother Lawrence had been practicing magic as far as anyone knew. He was getting better as the year continued to pass. He had started in early spring and not seemed to have stopped since. He had a wizard’s soul, that’s for sure. Only one in thousands seemed to appear.

Mrs. Evelyn was looking around the streets from one of her windows waving down to everyone, looking up and spotting me, I gave a quick wave back. I couldn’t hear her but I could tell she was laughing as a crow hopped up onto my lap and stole a slither of meat from my sandwich.

Sometimes it was nice to see a familiar face, but when you know practically everyone who walks the street daily. It can get rather boring, their conversations tended to repeat with nothing interesting happening most of the time.

I was cut from my thoughts by an annoyingly familiar clink of something hitting the roof grabbed my attention. I quickly wrapped my sandwich back in its paper bag and placed it into my cardigans pocket. I turned my attention to the gutter, a small sharp stone that hadn’t been there before laid on top of some moss.

The murder realising what was going to happen fluttered away in a frenzy, cawing in disarray. Not wanting to be caught in the stupidity that laid below me in the church garden.

Preparing myself as best as I could, I looked around and caught sight of the gargoyle sitting perched slightly off from where I was positioned. If I miss this, well… I either die or break my legs.

The gargoyle itself had a monstrous face, baring fanged teeth and its wings spread out, poised to strike. another rock landed near my position. deciding to take the risk, I pushed myself slightly in the direction of the beast. landing with a small thud behind it, I let out a breath. Two more stones were thrown in my direction, the sound of them rolling onto the gutter caused me to flinch.

They were too close. One thing I could say is that the people below were getting better at their aim and way of throwing.

There was a slight warmth coming from the gargoyle, they were in hibernation. They would remove the stone shell around them late into the spring most likely. But they were still aware of what was happing around them. “sorry Mr gargoyle, I hope you can forgive me for using you as a shield…again,” I muttered as I sat behind it. it was hard to keep myself completely hidden. My height being the main reason. Why on this planet did I have to be one of the tallest people. Why? What reason was there for someone to be over six feet? What reason was there?

A couple more stones landed on the roof. I grumbled to myself and peaked over the wing, trying my best to be as careful as possible.

A rock soared over my head causing me to duck slightly. A small part of me was proud. That was the closest they’d gotten in a long time. After all this had been a weekly routine for a while now. A bit inconvenient when trying to eat. But at least it kept my somewhat self-preservation skills usable.

A small cackle came from down below. I rolled my eyes. If only they were as smart as their egos. Their rich snobbish attitudes had been like this for years.

“is poor goliath too scared to come down?” Jonathan yelled; the noise being muffled by the distance. “sorry! It’s not my fault I’m allergic to social interaction” I hollered back; I peeked back over the wing, slightly thankful for the small heat it gave off the cold winter air biting my exposed skin. Wearing knee length shorts in winter is not advised for a reason. That’s the joy of being a dysfunctional mess such as myself.

Anyways, as I peeked over the first thing, I could see was his obnoxiously blonde hair, it was almost three shades close to white. I would have easily called it fake if it wasn’t for the fact that I hadn’t grown up with him. the blonde hair was held in a ponytail today.

My eyes also caught sight of the two figures standing either side of Jonathan. Both recognisable by the way they looked. the ginger on his left was always known for her seemingly endless collection of silk blue dresses. Each one would have cost my family a year’s worth of food.

Then the boy on his right was a lavante, he had been one of the few to move here. His species are known for the fact their basically living lava, skin ossified by the oxygen. His eyes were pools of red lava. His hair was like living fire. the older they got, the bluer their hair became.

He looked a bit conflicted to what they were doing. He always did. We were mutual friends. He gave a weak smile and waved. To be honest I forgot his name years ago… too late to ask now.

“you’ll come down eventually!” blue dress screeched as she readied to throw a stone in her hand.

“you underestimate my pettiness, I've got food in my pocket, I could stay up here longer that you could down there!" I yelled back; my pettiness was something barely anyone was able to match.

Seeing her pull her arm back to throw, I ducked myself behind the wing one more time. soon one after another, a barrage of rocks was being thrown my way. one sailed over my head; I could feel the air move as it ruffled my hair. It rolled down and landed by my foot. I picked it up and threw it back as possible.

I looked down to my other pocket. reaching in I pulled out a bronze pocket watch. The lid had long since came off, according to my dad it was the day he met my mother. I chuckled to myself as I remembered the story.

 “what on earth do you think you’re doing?!” I sighed in relief as the voice of the father reached my ears; even if the malice in his voice sent small shivers down my spine.

Is wrath being something to fear. They could try anything they wanted. But as soon as the father got involved then they were very much screwed over.

I tuned out the shouting down below me, sitting in a better way that made my lanky legs sigh in relief. I looked into the gargoyles eyes and mouthed a quick thank you.

As the noise went silent, I looked over the wing to see them walking away out the garden and back to whence they came, a wave of ease flooded over me. At least I would be home in time. Hopefully.

I stood up, stretching and listening my bones crack as I did so. Clapping my hands together I turned around and climbed back onto the top of the roof struggling to get a grip as I did so. I shakily stood up, trying to balance myself in hopes I didn’t fall over.

I walked over to the edge of the building, I crouched down and grabbed the rope I had long ago tied to the building. holding on as tight as possible, knuckles going white in the process, I swung my body over the edge. The rope swayed from the motion. I wrapped my legs around the rope, hoping and praying I didn’t mess this up. taking a deep breath, I let slightly let loose of the rope. Gravity swiftly dragging me down, the rope slightly burning my skin in the process.

I quickly held onto the rope tighter as the ground came too close for comfort. it was that moment father Francis turned the corner. I gave a nervous chuckle as my body hung in the air. “what are you doing,” he groaned. “you know, just hanging around,” I responded, getting a smack on the back of the head causing me to spin slightly in the air.

Planting my feet firmly on the ground, I stood up and rubbed my hands on my shirt, getting rid of the small amounts of dust and mud that clung to them.

He began to walk away, waving for me to follow. I jogged to keep up as best as possible. He didn’t say much anymore. But he was one of the best people in my mind. before he had joined the church, he had been working in the north. He had been one of my inspirations growing up. the stories he told about dragons and monsters he had seen had filled m wonder and desire to see what was beyond here.

People would joke around that the reason he had grey hairs was because of me. I didn’t blame them really. “sorry about that father Francis… again…” I sighed as I averted my gaze. he let out a small chuckle and patted my back, “only a gentle giant like you could hie instead of bashing them in,” he gestured for me to begin moving, “only you goliath.” “why won’t you let that die?” I muttered. he let out another laugh. “I’ll walk you back to your home, make sure you dad knows that they were back again,” there were very few things that could make me shiver, but having my family know about this was one of them. “or, you don’t tell them?” he only gave a deadpanned look in response. I wasn’t getting out of it.

It withing a minuet we were out the garden and onto the streets. The greys and browns of the buildings seemingly blending together in the darkness. we walked in silence turning when needed. The sound of the canal getting closer. brass lamps were lined neatly on each side of the streets. Fireflies the size of a grown adult’s hand laid inside, buzzing away to one another. the people in their homes slowly turning of their lights in hopes of falling asleep. I’d never understood why it was always this time of night that they locked everything up. weather it was a habit or just a bizarre timing factor.

I reached up to my hair and pulled down the bobble keeping my hair up in a simple ponytail. My brown locks dropped down to my sides. I ran my hands through my hair grumbling. I stumbled for second after tripping on a rock. Barely stopping myself from tumbling over.

 The darker and closer we got to my home; the more noises filled the air. Small neon bugs lit up houses and other buildings. Small mice with glowing whiskers would scuttle past us as quickly as possible. The vibrant colours would almost leave a blur in their trail, making them easy to spot in the dark.

Small groups of night birds flocked around piles of litter left by merchants that had been wandering the streets. Nibbling or defending pieces of food, or guarding small shiny things they found on the ground. Like children defending their own things.

So much happened in the night, so much happened and I only get to see a portion of the neon lights, I wished I could have seen more sometimes.

Soon we were out of the main village turning town and making our way down a mud and stone covered path towards the farm.

 Soon enough, but not long enough to gather my thoughts and mentally prepare myself. we arrived at a metal gate surrounding what looked like a nearly collapsing house. I stepped forwards and opened the rusty gate, the hinges creaking with the movement. I had been needing to oil them for a while and had been putting it off for around two weeks now.

The house looked barely liveable. The roof looked both old and new in patches. the chimney looked cracked and ready to fall on the house. the porches roof looked close to caving in as well.

But sill it was home. I took a deep breath and made my way forward towards the door. Hoping with every fibre of my being they were all asleep by now for the sake of my sanity.

As I got closer, the porch light flickered before turning on completely and giving off a small hum. A small dread filling up. the light could only be turned on from the inside after all.

I quickly checked the time on the pocket watch. Oh… I was late. Not too late, but just enough that I was going to get chewed out at most.

The door swung open. A figure walked out and stood in the doorframe with an icy glare directed at me. “where have you been?” yeah, I wasn’t going to survive. the figure let out a sigh, “come in, you will have some explaining to do whilst Eric gets you both some tea.” “sorry for being late…again miles,” I chuckled as I rubbed the back of my neck.

He steppe bac and walked into the house. I let father Francis go in front of me as we made our way inside. I would have taken my shoes of if I had worn them today. I gave a small weak smile to Francis. If it were my dad that we had been greeted with he would have to only stay for five minutes. The twins on the other hand were another story… they had been like this for as long as I could remember. They had always been protective of me. I was sixteen. Yes, it was strange but the reason behind why they were so overprotective is a story for another time.

The entrance was small. Barely able to fit the three of us. Miles made his way up to the first couple steps on the staircase to give more room. I looked to the right; the lights were off witch was probably to save energy. I made my way into the left room. The fireplace warmed up the room, relaxing my body compared to the cold nipping air that was outside.

There was a figure identical to miles, the only difference being their hair partings. They had both their own unique skills, that was one other way to tell their differences.

The cardigan that I was wearing was knitted by Eric. It was at that moment I remembered what was in its pocket. I quickly reached down and pulled out a slightly squashed paper wrapped sandwich and sighed, putting it on the kitchen table that was one wrong move away from losing a leg.

The door at the back of the room shuttered. Looks like it was going to be a long night. the room was slightly crammed, but I didn’t mind that much.

Pulling out a chair and sitting down, I looked over to where the twins were arguing silently. miles had his parting on the left, the smaller part was cut off, it was the same for Eric except with his parting on the right. their hair was an inky black. they glanced over in my direction as I took a bite out of my crushed sandwich.

Red and green heterochromia. One eye green, the other a blood red.

“so, what are you two thinking about?” I said before taking another bite. “why we put up with your antics every day,” miles deadpanned at me. “you love me. That’s why,” I grinned as they sighed. “you’re ten minutes late Charlie, where have you been,” a voice forms the entrance. I looked up to see a scruffy looking man and grinned, “hey pops. And I think the pocket watch may be on the fritz again if that’s the case. It says I should be on time.” “either way, may I ask why the father is currently in our home? Again.”

“Jonathan and the other two again, I simply came to make sure she got home safely instead of running off.”

 They began to talk, leaving me to my own devices. The sandwich that had only one or two more bites worth lay on the table. A half-drunk cup of tea next to it.

Standing up and cracking by back, I made my way past the gossips and made my way to the living room. The light now on as dumbass one and two sat on the floor with cards.

Falling on the sofa backwards, the two who were absorbed in their game gave a little squeak and flung back. I let out a chuckle and stared at them with a curious look as the grumbled curses and words that would put sailors to shame.

“so, what has caused you to grace us with your company?” “if you were in the room with those two gossips, you would leave after a while too.”

Eric laughed and reached his hand over to the small wooden table in the middle of the room. “shift over goliath,” Eric muttered pushing me up. I swung my legs from the arm of the sofa and crossed my legs as I felt a pair of hands running down my hair before getting caught in a knot.

“I swear your hair is worse than ours on a good day,” he groaned before he began to brush my hair. “you do know I could do this on my own, right?” I said. “yeah, but it’s not like I’ve got much else to do in the first place.”

It was another fifteen minutes before I heard the noise in the kitchen slowly rise into the room. the three of us looked between one another with concern. They hadn’t fought before as far as we knew.

“she can’t know!” the voice I could clearly tell was my dad yelled. “she needs to know sooner or later, the sooner the better.”

I stood up from the sofa and slipped into the hall and peaked my head into the room. I could see my father’s face, eyebrows knitted together and eyes glaring at the father. His knuckled white from gripping the cup.

“look, I get why you don’t want to. But all your doing is speeding up the inevitable.” “I know… I’ll tell her soon. I promise.”

I walked into the room and locked gaze with my dad, “or you could tell me now instead of hiding it.”

“how much did you hear,” his face paled. “enough.”

[aliceslantern]

Heartlines, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, chapter 11--Samhain

Twelve years ago, Xemnas betrayed the royal court of Radiant Garden to his father, Xehanort. Prince Ienzo flees to another city and begins university in the aftermath, hoping the anonymity will protect him from eager eyes with ill intent. The darkness spilling across the country, as well as an individual from his past, cut short Ienzo's new beginning and bring new conflicts to light. Strained between the desires of his magic and his heart, Ienzo's choice will change him forever.

Modern Fantasy AU, Soulmates, Zemyx. Updates Fridays until it's done.

Chapter summary:  Ienzo and company go to a resistance meeting, with many unexpected twists and turns along the way.

Read it on FF.net/on AO3

The next morning, Ienzo was sore; he felt it rather distinctly when he moved. There had been a little blood, the night before, but it had sorted itself out. He did not exactly feel enlightened, merely disappointed. He had wanted it to be good, or at least painless. He considered buying himself a dilator, considered spells. He knew next to nothing about sex magic; should that change? Or was he merely thinking too hard about things?

Likely the latter.

Aeleus was waiting for him at the kitchen table. “Good morning, Ienzo.”

“Hello.”

“You seem tired.”

“I… am.”

He cocked his head. Aeleus looked tired himself. “Is everything alright?”

Ienzo hesitated. He wanted someone to talk to; but how embarrassing was it to admit what had happened? That he couldn’t even have proper sex with his own soulmate ? He also knew the longer his pause went on, the more Aeleus would be concerned. “Something did happen, but it should fix itself.” He hoped.

He nodded. “I know we… are not so close anymore. But know I am a patient ear, Ienzo.”

He smiled. “I know. And I appreciate it.”

Ienzo made them both omelettes. He needed, more than ever, the neat order of cooking. Perhaps he was more upset than he thought; though he did know that increased emotionality was a side effect of his pills.

“Kind of you,” Aeleus said. “You always were a little chef--though your idea of meals back then were a lot less palatable.”

“I’m sure Even’s been feeding you gruel,” Ienzo said.

He cracked a small smile. “He never did see the body as more than a vessel.” For a moment they ate in silence. Then, “Will you come with me to the Samhain meeting?”

“Yes. Moreover… I have… some interested parties.” When Aeleus’s expression did not change, Ienzo added, “They do not know who I am exactly. But these are also magic users. They sense me. And Demyx.”

“I should like to finally meet him.” He twirled his fork idly.

“I don’t think of them mean any ill will. And apparently I’ve met Kairi. Though I do not remember. I never thought I would be an unreliable narrator.” Ienzo shook his head.

“She was only four when she met you --I’m surprised she remembers as well. But given her magic… I’m not surprised.”

“What is her line?”

“It has to do with the heart, and memory. Her power comes from within, unlike yours, which connects you to the magic of the earth."

“...Must be part of why she has a normal hair color.” Ienzo sighed.

“Indeed. Ansem was fascinated by it, naturally. His own heart always  was with the sciences, not… petty bureaucracy.”

“As was yours, if I recall correctly.”

“And now I use that knowledge to undermine Xehanort.”

“If my parents had not passed, I wonder where you might have gone,” Ienzo murmured. “All of you.” This he did not remember at all; their deaths, comparatively speaking, had been mundane. A car accident, of all the things, and Ienzo’s mother had been too incapacitated to use her magic to save them.

“I doubt that would’ve stopped all that came next. Dwelling on it will only cause you pain.”

“...I know.”

Aeleus scooped up the last remaining bits of egg. “When we go… would be best if you wore a hat. Moreover, we should split up.”

“Then what should I tell Riku and Kairi?”

“There’s an abandoned mansion in the woods. Tell them to meet us there shortly before nightfall.”

He nodded. “Right. I’ll have Demyx meet me here.”

“Do you know if the boy has any combat experience?”

Ienzo thought of the afternoon with the Heartless. “I highly doubt it.”

Aeleus sighed. “Very well.”

The rest of the day, Ienzo waited with an anxious excitement for time to pass. His coursework provided little distraction, even though Eraqus had given him an independent research project. He dressed comfortably, but anonymously, and headed down into the basement.

The previous owner or tenant must’ve had plans to finish the space; there was drywall covering the cinderblock walls, but the floor had yet to be insulated. Considering their utter lack of possessions, it was mostly open, empty space other than the water heater. It had a damp, musty smell to it. Ienzo cast an additional ward on the door and sat on the blanket he’d brought down.

He took a deep breath in through his nose, letting himself feel it spread down to his lungs. He tried to slowly wake the magic, but it was a hungry thing, and rose immediately to his skin. Hence, why he’d wanted to do this down here. He kept breathing, trying to keep his thoughts orderly, calm. He could sense Aeleus moving around in his bedroom upstairs; Even was in the study, writing. Once he thought he was sufficiently centered enough, he stood.

When Ienzo was younger, the magic was more volatile, exploding out of him whenever he had a sudden wave of feeling. Sometimes this had a positive or neutral effect; making plants explode into growth, or suddenly having lights fly out of his hands. Others… not so much. Once a temper tantrum had knocked all of the books off of Ansem’s shelves in his study. Controlling it had taken time; and considering how he’d grown up, he’d had a lot of time getting to know his own power. He could make people see things, hear things. Elemental spells came with ease, as well as healing spells. If not for his physical body, his power would be almost limitless.

Ienzo understood why Xehanort wanted him so badly. Ienzo could be a weapon. Else… a threat to be eliminated.

With the magic humming freshly and readily under his skin, he generated some fake Heartless for himself to fight, tossing his own emotions at them to make them unpredictable in this fight--his embarrassment, his shame, his disappointment. This settled… he struck out at them with a sort of fury, the blades of the magic sharper, their color more intense than he remembered. Was it possible that Demyx was not only masking him, but making his power stronger ?

All the fakes gone, Ienzo was breathing hard, and was sweaty. He noticed that the soreness in his hips was gone; the magic had healed it away. He was just wondering if it were worth taking another shower when his phone buzzed.

I’m here. Demyx.

They hadn’t talked too much since their failed attempt at sex, not that it had been long. Ienzo wasn’t fully sure what to say, but he did want to embrace him. He dismantled the ward and climbed back up the stairs. “What on earth were you doing down there?” Even asked, pouring himself what Ienzo was sure was his dozenth cup of coffee.

“Keeping myself limber--the way you tell me to.”

Even just rolled his eyes.

“Demyx is here. Be nice.” He crossed through the kitchen to the front door and hurriedly brushed some of the dust off of his pants. Ienzo heard rain pattering outside; it must’ve started recently. He opened the door.

“Lovely weather, huh,” Demyx said lamely, lowering the hood of his jacket. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

A beat.

“How are you… doing?” he asked.

“Alright, I suppose. Yourself?”

“...Okay. Dunno if I should be nervous for this or not.”

Ienzo ushered him in. The clothes he was wearing were much darker than normal. “All you have to do is look pretty and be near me.”

A sigh. “Yeah. I know. Adventure, and all that.”

Ienzo smiled a little. He leaned up to kiss him once. “One of my guardians will be going with us.”

Even poked his head into the room.

“Good to see you again. Even, right?”

Even frowned a little. “You’re--” He put a hand to his head. “I completely forgot that ruffian we met that afternoon had a name.”

“...And not exactly a common one,” Demyx said. “That ruffian is right here.”

A faint blush rose in his face. “You’d better take care of him,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s my whole thing.” A shrug.

“I think we’ll survive,” Ienzo added.

Even acted like he hadn’t heard him. “You do realize how important his life is?”

“Do I realize. I was given this , wasn’t it?” He pulled out the pendant. “Look, man. This is the only thing I can do right, so let me.”

Aeleus came down the stairs then. Ienzo didn’t know what he’d expected; Demyx’s free-flowing nature was bound to clash with Even’s anal-retentiveness. “Are you ready to go, Ienzo?” he asked.

“...Quite. Come on then, Demyx.” Ienzo slid his hand into his.

The three of them headed out into the rain. It was a light fall rain, bringing with it freshness and the salt of the sea. Demyx lifted his head slightly, letting it kiss his face. “Rain always makes me miss home,” he murmured.

“I know you are a… seeker,” Aeleus said. “Where does your line originate?”

“Destiny Islands.” The street shone faintly in the rain, especially as the sun set in earnest. Unprompted, Demyx added, “we… were what you’d call sirens. I didn’t even walk on two legs until I was ten. Normally we can shift at will. Normally.”

Demyx hardly ever talked about his past with Ienzo, even since some of his memories returned; he normally focused on more lighthearted minutiae of their days.

Aeleus’s curiosity broke his usual quiet. “What was that like?”

“ Really weird. Everything just seemed so dry , and my skin was so itchy . I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The doctor just said it was trauma.”

“Because you washed up on the beach?” Ienzo asked.

“Yeah,” he said, and his eyes had gone distant. “All of a sudden it felt like… something was missing. That part of me… was just gone.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Truly.”

“Have you tried, since then?” Aeleus asked.

He nodded. “No go. Almost drowned myself a few times, trying.” With a laugh, but it lacked humor.

It was a miracle he didn’t resent Ienzo, he thought. Then, given their bond, was that possible? He didn’t want Demyx to hate him. “I have magic,” he said quietly. “Maybe I can fix that.”

Ienzo could see he was trying to bite back the hope. “You think?”

“What’s the point of having this power, if I can’t do anything with it? I will try. For you.”

“Power should always be used to help others,” Aeleus said.

“Is there anything else you remembered?” Ienzo asked in a low voice.

“Mostly just… stuff with my parents,” he admitted. “Just normal… stuff. Are we almost there?”

Ienzo did not push it farther.

The trees of the woods only made the rain louder, the sunset still darker. Aeleus’s flashlight soon became one of their only points of light in this darkness. Demyx squeezed his hand a little harder.

“Afraid of the dark?” Ienzo asked, only partially teasing.

“Nope,” Demyx said, but it wasn’t at all convincing.

The path crossed over with an old cobble road that must’ve been in use when the mansion was active, and eventually opened up into a clearing. The building must’ve once been beautiful, though now it was crumbling and derelict; its turrets had peeling shingles, its wide front windows were filthy and cracked, and the stained glass in its small clocktower had pieces missing. The black iron gates had been opened, leading to a garden with overgrown bushes and marble arches that were falling apart. Ienzo could just barely see Sora, Kairi, and Riku by the front door.

“You made it!” Demyx said cheerfully.

“And now my favorite boots are covered in mud,” Kairi added, with a sigh. “Oh well.”

Aeleus pushed open the double doors. Someone had clearly been through; candles had been lit in the rusty candelabras, and there were footprints in the dirt leading to another room. They stumbled over broken bits of inlaid parquet.

“You guys sure this isn’t a trap?” Sora asked. “Seems kinda creepy to me.”

“It is very safe,” Aeleus said.

“I think between us we can handle a Heartless or two. What, you chicken?” Riku asked.

He flushed. “Am not!”

They followed this trail of candles into a small study which seemed normal until Ienzo noticed the trap floor; only Aeleus’s quick hand stopped Demyx falling down the hidden set of stairs.

“Ever graceful,” Riku muttered.

“Shut up .”

But the steps were strange; jarringly metal and modern, and very clean . Sconces shone dimly in the metallic darkness.

“Let me go first,” Aeleus said. “Just to make sure.” He disappeared into the other room. After a pronounced silence, where they all looked at each other, Aeleus added in an odd voice, “Ienzo? Can you come through--just you?”

“Wait,” Demyx said.

“I trust Aeleus,” Ienzo reassured him quickly. “There must be a reason.”

Ienzo took a few steps… and realized why very quickly. With his magic so close to the surface, he could sense Aeleus’s energy… and the energy of one other.

He thought his knees might give out, and he took another few halting steps. “Father.” It sounded more like a bleat, a cry, then a word. “Father.”

Ansem had aged considerably in the past twelve years. His blond hair, once well-kept, was longer, and there were more wrinkles around his eyes than Ienzo remembered, but the warmth in those eyes was still the same. “Well met, little Ienzo.”

He couldn’t help it. He all but threw himself into Ansem’s arms. Tears he didn’t realize he’d been holding in were suddenly streaming out of his eyes. It shouldn’t hurt this much to see him again. He shouldn’t smell exactly the same, like oranges and coffee.

“I wish I could’ve seen you sooner, child. I know.” He could hear the tears in Ansem’s voice as well. “You’re so tall.”

It took Ienzo longer than was dignified to stem the flow of tears. Finally he did, and pulled away from Ansem at least enough to look him in the eye.

“Look at you,” he said softly. “I can hardly believe it.”

He swiped at his eyes. Slowly, he took off his hat, letting his hair fall back into his normal style.

“You look so like your father.”

“Where have you… been?” Ienzo asked slowly.

“In hiding. Much like you. But I have been… trying to devise a way for us to be together again. That starts here, with this resistance.”

“You’re its leader?”

Ansem laughed; Ienzo realized he’d forgotten what it sounded like. “Heavens, no. I’m not certain one could say we have a leader. Even so… I wish for you to have a good life, Ienzo, and for our people to be safe. This is one of the ways to do so.”

“Are you… disappointed in me, then?”

“Why ever would I be?”

Ienzo found it hard to meet his eyes. “Risking myself… for whatever might come from this?”

“Not at all. Your determination to make change is admirable.”

A beat of silence. Ienzo did not know what else to say. “I am… tired of waiting around,” he said. “How can I simply go to school while the darkness advances? While Xehanort wreaks… what kind of hell?”

His expression darkened. “Yes… I believe they were going to speak on that tonight.”

“...Quite.” He paused. “Moreover…” He reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out the pendant.

“Oh…” Ansem sighed. “Child, you must understand… they promised you protection. I did not know--”

“It came with a body? Even said the same.” He ran his fingers along the glass. “He… is here with me.”

“That is a comfort. And I understand… you may be resentful. Naturally so.”

“My life has been without choice. Of course I want to do something now.”

A small smile. “Of course.”

“Would you want to meet him?” Ienzo asked.

“...Alright.”

Ienzo felt oddly numb as he climbed the stairs. The others were waiting patiently; Kairi was braiding Riku’s long hair as they watched something on Sora’s phone. Demyx, on the other hand, had an anxious, pinched look on his face. “Are you okay?” he asked instantly. “You look like you’ve been…” He reached out to touch Ienzo’s face.

“Come with me.” He took Demyx’s hand and led him down into that metal room.

Seeing Ansem, he gasped. “Oh--uh--your majesty--” He bowed a little.

“None of that,” Ansem said. “My name is Ansem. A king in exile is no king, is he?”

Demyx’s smile was very nervous. “This is why you were upset.”

Aeleus, who had been tactfully silent, finally said, “I didn’t want to say something sooner… lest it didn’t pan out.”

“Thank you, Aeleus. I know this was difficult.”

“Sorry--I’m just shook,” Demyx said. He pressed a hand to his forehead. “I mean, I knew you were the prince and all, but like--”

“...The prince?” another voice said from the stairs. Riku crossed his arms. “Sorry to crash the party, your majesty.”

They would’ve found out at the meeting, but Ienzo felt the chagrin anyway. Ansem sighed.

“Oh my gods!” Sora’s hands snapped to his mouth. “You mean this whole time you’ve been--”

“I kinda knew,” Kairi said, with a shrug.

“You knew and you didn’t say anything?”

Ienzo’s blush deepened. “Yes, yes, king, prince. We’ve got it.”

Sora frowned. “But if you’re the prince--where’s the princess?”

Ienzo cocked his head a little.

Comprehension dawned on him. “Oh! Sorry, I--”

“It’s okay. And I presume you know you must all carry this secret with you.”

Riku chuckled a little. “Why wouldn’t I? Things just got interesting. Though I’m surprised you got this one to keep a secret.” He thumped Demyx on the shoulder.

“Ow! Hey--”

Ansem laughed too. “These are the reinforcements Aeleus told me of, then.”

Ienzo shook his head. “Quite.”

He approached Kairi. “It is good to see you’re well. And your parents?”

“They’re good too.”

“We should head in,” Aeleus said. “It’s getting late.”

The next room was yet more metal, glowing panels on the floor adding extra light. A handful of people were already there; a woman about their age with a long brown braid, a young man with a scar across his face, a middle-aged blond man, and of all people--

“ Yuffie ?” Demyx asked.

“Guys! Hey!” She was cross-legged on the floor.

“What are you doing here?”

“ Resisting . Duh.” She rolled her eyes.

“But how long have you--”

Her cheer faded a little. “Since my dad died last year,” she murmured. “I kinda took it up for him.”

Yet more voices from the doorway. “Sorry we’re late,” a woman said. “Believe it or not--the train was delayed.” She had a bright blue bob. With her was Even, carrying papers and looking pissy.

There were a lot of people in this small room now. Ienzo knew that soon the air would probably start feeling stuffy. He had so many questions--for them, for Ansem, about this place, about Xehanort, about… everything. All of these magical fields brushed up against his, making him anxious.

Demyx rubbed his arm. “Power, huh,” he muttered. “Yuffie. Who would’ve thought.”

“Can we come to order, please?” the scar-faced man asked tiredly. “Lot of new faces today. I was asked not to point out the obvious about our special guest, so I won’t. Why don’t we go around and introduce ourselves?”

They did. Ienzo learned the blue-haired woman was Aqua, their longtime contact; she gave him a little wink.

“Why are we in this creepy basement?” Sora asked.

“Lotta power in this room,” Riku told him. “Being underground helps keep it from being too obvious. The metal does too.”

“The girls are keeping watch upstairs,” the woman with the braid, Aerith, added. “They’ll let me know if they sense anything.”

The circle had reached him. Demyx gave his hand a small squeeze. Ienzo looked towards Ansem, who nodded once. Not only was he outing himself as royalty, but he was also quite literally outing himself.

Get over it, he thought to himself. These people all knew some level of persecution; would they truly care about gender? “My name is Ienzo,” he said in a low voice. “But more likely… you know me as Ansem’s adopted child… _____.”

He kept his eyes on the floor as the revelation filled the space, a mixture of surprise and smug knowledge in equal parts. He saw Even’s lips flatten into a thin line, his disapproval clear. But he did not protest.

“I hope I may be of use to you. My power. I am tired of hiding and taking advantage of your good grace. Part of this havoc is because of me. I can’t lie back and take it anymore.”

The blond man laughed. “Well, we’re lucky today, ain’t we,” he said around the toothpick in his mouth. “Not one, but three bluebloods. I see you there, Miss Kairi.”

She blushed.

“All that power means something,” Aqua added. “Given Ienzo’s reach… if you’re truly willing to do this…”

“A trump card to turn the tide?” Leon asked. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

“I am willing.”

“It might give people hope, to know you’re still alive,” Aqua said. “If not the public… than the very least the other members.”

“That this fighting isn’t for nothing?” Ienzo sighed. “I hope so. Tell me everything. Please.”

Ansem had said there was no leader; but the man named Leon seemed to be most comfortable doing the talking. He outlined the situation for Ienzo; Xehanort so far was determined to take the nation city-state by city-state, spreading his darkness across the nation from one coast to the other. He seemed to have created a second front as well, moving down towards them from the north. Hearing the casualty reports was… sobering.

“Why is nobody reporting this at all?” Ienzo asked.

“The masses would panic,” Aerith said. “Not to mention… where would they go ? Twilight Town is safest at the moment.”

“And the governments are just lying like dogs?”

“It seems… to a degree… Xehanort is willing to see some kind of reason,” Leon added, his lip curling. “If a city surrenders to him… he does apparently offer some kind of protection to the civilians.”

“The trolley problem,” Riku muttered. “Better a few die than all.”

“Quite,” Aeleus said gravely. “Moreover… what of these Heartless? They’ve been breaking through the city wards, and apparently beginning to show some kind of sentience.”

Aqua touched Even on the shoulder; he nodded once. “I’ve been looking into that,” he said. “I’m afraid… the truth is not for the faint of heart.” Ienzo cocked his head; Even scowled. “What? Child, you don’t think I sit around all day doing nothing but wait for you to come home?”

Yuffie tittered. Ienzo’s face heated.

Even gathered himself; his face lost all expression. “Heartless are supposed to be merely shadows, but the information I’ve been gathering… is worrying, to say the least.” He shuffled through some of his papers. “There have been… disappearances, if you will, in these areas noted to have higher than normal Heartless populations. At first, it seemed as though these individuals were simply being consumed, as Heartless are wont to do, but… these Heartless are chatty. They mention something about their hearts, about hearts pulled from bodies… and knowing what I know about a person’s heart and the way it is expressed through the aura… My working hypothesis is that these Heartless are being created from humans. Though how… I’ve yet to determine. Darkness can break physics, but so far all the casualties from Heartless have just been… bodies. I’ll need to study further.”

There was just silence for a long time. Ienzo looked at his palms. That Heartless he’d killed before he’d run into Dilan had been a person… he’d killed someone. A hot rush of nausea nearly brought tears to his eyes.

But they were suffering, he thought quickly. Then, could I have helped them become human again?

Even let out a long breath. “Moreover… there’s some circumstantial evidence that Xehanort… is using some of my own personal research to forward his agenda.” He grit his teeth. “ That I cannot let go of.”

“What kind of research?” Leon asked.

“I was looking into ways to create artificial bodies… to help those who have lost physical functioning. It was all theory , and yet… Cid found some concerning surveillance footage in Radiant Garden proper.”

“The replicas…” Ansem murmured. “You don’t think--”

“I’ve no idea what he would need bodies for , nor do I know how he’d animate them.” Even was really getting agitated now.

“Someone has to find out,” Aqua said. “I could investigate and report back.”

“And be safe about it,” Leon said. “If this is possible… we need to know.”

There was a pronounced silence. “Could I do something with my power?” Ienzo asked.

“No,” Even and Ansem said at the same time; Even locked eyes with the king once, his expression growing pained for a moment before smoothing to neutral. “No, it’s simply too dangerous for you,” Even finished. “They’d sense you in a heartbeat.”

“Even if I went with him?” Demyx asked, the fear in his voice audible.

“It’s not worth the risk.”

Ienzo’s fists clenched in his lap. “So what can I do,” he said softly.

Leon’s blue eyes (a cool blue, a normal blue) met his. “I’m wondering…” He began, drumming his fingers on his notebook. “How does your power… work with electronics?”

“I’ve no idea,” Ienzo said honestly, his curiosity piqued.

“Cid,” Leon said, still holding Ienzo’s gaze. “See what you can come up with about the network.”

“Shit, now that’s interesting,” Cid said. “Right on.”

“So should I connect to this network,” Ienzo said. “What then?”

“Think that depends on the true extent of your power. But potentially… well. Hope I haven’t gotten too rusty at hacking.”

Something to hold onto. “Right.”

The meeting ended not long after that. Ienzo was reeling--between the information about the Heartless, and seeing Ansem again, he had no idea how he was supposed to feel. The others broke off, to talk to Leon and see how they might be of use; Demyx squeezed his hand. “Guess I married up,” he murmured.

Ienzo smiled wearily. He could see across the room Even and Ansem in conversation, their expressions sharp, serious. After a moment, Ansem reached out to touch his arm. “Go on,” Ansem mouthed towards Ienzo. “I’ll see you soon.”

Though Ienzo was loath to listen, he also knew that Even and Ansem deserved a proper reunion as well. He let Demyx guide him out of that stuffy room, back up the stairs, and out of the mansion. It was fully night now. “Samhain,” Ienzo murmured. “I wonder if we’ll see any spirits along the way.”

Demyx shuddered. “I dunno. Not sure I want to find out.”

He exhaled. “You’re right--it’s after dark. We should go home.”

They headed back towards the forest. The rain was heavier now, the darkness thicker; Ienzo lit a small orb in his hand to guide them back onto the path. Demyx shuddered.

“It’s alright, if you’re scared of the dark,” Ienzo said. “Fine, especially now.”

“Some protector I am. Can’t even stand the dark.”

There was a whisper behind them, a crunch; Ienzo turned. “Must be one of the others.”

“Are you… sure?”

“Take a breath. It’s okay.” Still, Ienzo moved a little faster. The whispering got louder.

“I don’t know,” Demyx said, with a trace of panic.

“We’re nearly back on the street. They’ll be repelled by the light.”

The whispering surrounded them, a heavy smell of smoke, making the light in Ienzo’s palm dim. Ienzo let the magic wake further, and found to his shock there were more Heartless than he thought.

“I can… I can take them. Don’t worry.” But Ienzo had never seen this many Heartless at once; he had no idea why he hadn’t sensed them before.

There was a jammer.

“Saїx,” Ienzo whispered. “Oh--Ansem.”

“The others can protect him. We need to get out of here.”

“Stay near me. I’m going to… take care of them.” Heartless being made from people.

Ienzo… hesitated.

It was this hesitation they sensed, and they descended onto them, snuffing out his light entirely, shadows screaming.

Find boy find boy

Help me

Who’s the other one?

It’s hurting hurting hurting

Make it stop. Make it stop.

Where’s my wife?

“Ienzo, maybe you should do something?”

It felt like something was tugging at his magic, making him feel weird, weak, numb--

“Ienzo!” A more desperate cry.

“I can’t--I feel--” He tried to conjure magic with his palms, but it was hard to breathe.

“ Ienzo .”

A burst of light, a smell of the sea, and suddenly Ienzo was even wetter than before, and on the ground. Demyx tapped his face; he was doubled, dizzy, his phone flashlight throwing his face into sharp relief. “Demyx? What…” He struggled to sit up.

“I… I did magic, I don’t know how--they’re gone. The ones I didn’t kill I ran away.”

Ienzo tried to gather his strength. The magic seemed to be returning, so slowly… “I smell… vomit.”

“That was… me. I’m sorry. Just--thinking about what Even was saying--”

“Killing people,” he murmured.

“But they’re not people, they were screaming in pain, I heard it--”

“You did the right thing,” he said.

Demyx helped him up. “It was… water,” he said breathlessly. “Water, and… and light, I--I didn’t even know I could--”

“A latent power.”

“Triggered by you,” he mumbled.

“Maybe you… can get your powers back.”

“We need to get home,” Demyx said. “I… I don’t like the look of this place.”

“I hope we were the only ones attacked,” Ienzo muttered. He had to lean on Demyx heavily. “My fathers…” He pulled out his cell phone to text them. The bright screen sent a finger of pain through his right eye, and suddenly everything went black.

[galahadwilder]

We Break Things Down Just to Build Them Back Up Again, Ch. 1: Stand

We Break Things Down Archive

Marinette is sitting against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest, praying for her heartbeat to slow down, when Adrien Agreste finally says something that cuts her heart in half.

Adrien is sitting next to her, his hand on her arm, and for a moment it’s comforting. The way he’s looking at her, with concern, like he cares. He’s once again broken his promise, failed to have her back, and part of her wants to slap him for that but there’s a greater part of her is just happy that she isn’t facing this alone. He’s giving her an ear, even if her racing brain isn’t letting her speak. He’s giving her his time. He’s giving her his touch.

And yet she finds herself guiltily wishing Chat was here instead. Adrien, bless him, so sweet, so kind, is nonconfrontational to a literal fault. He’s a calming presence once things are over, but in the moment he’s completely unreliable.

Chat wouldn’t have let Lila get away with what she said. Chat would’ve ripped into the other girl on her behalf. Actually, come to think of it, so would pretty much anyone else in the class.

She’d been so happy that first time, when Adrien had believed her. Now she’s wishing it had been anyone else. Even Chloé would be better than this. At least if she were to say something it would be some kind of solidarity.

Instead, Golden Boy Adrien has to open his mouth and act like he lives on top of a fairy mountain. "I don’t know why you’re so insistent on going after her,” he says, like he’s the one in the right here, like Marinette is the instigator instead of the classmate who won’t stop lying to everyone. “I mean, yeah, she’s lying, but it’s not like she’s hurting anyone—"

Something in Marinette snaps.

“Not hurting anyone?” she rasps. “Not hurting anyone?”

And all of a sudden, Marinette has had enough. Enough of Adrien Agreste’s simpering, enough of his appeasement, enough of his refusal to stop obvious wrongs. "She’s hurting me, Adrien!” Marinette croaks. “She attacks me every ten minutes! It’s a miracle I haven’t been Akumatized!”

Adrien starts at the word, as if he hadn’t even considered the possibility, and Marinette’s rage mounts. What Paris has he been living in for the last year? He, of all people, should know what happens when this kind of injustice festers! But no, this is the boy who still defends Chloé even when she refuses to get better. Even when everything she does causes supervillains to line her wake.

Adrien grabs her hand, and she wants to pull away, but he’s looking at her with that stupid expression on his face again—the be-the-bigger-person, the turn-the-other-cheek, and Marinette realizes she’s sick of it. “If you let it go,” he says, “maybe she’ll stop.”

Marinette feels her veins chill. ”That’s your solution?” she snaps. “Roll over and hope she decides to have mercy?” Adrien, she realizes, isn’t kind—he’s a coward. She’s been passing up her brave and loyal Chat for this?

”I can’t believe I ever thought I was in love with you,” Marinette spits.

Adrien's entire face goes slack. "You... what?" he croaks.

Marinette yanks her hand away from him in disgust, clambering to her feet. "I hope you're happy with yourself, Agreste," she snarls, storming away down the halls of the school.

She thinks she hears him choke, sob, behind her, but she can't be sure if she's imagining it. Still, she lets herself be satisfied, for a moment, that maybe for once Adrien is looking at her and seeing something other than a nervous wreck.

***

It's only once Marinette makes it home that what she's done finally sinks in, and when she pushes through the door to the Dupain-Cheng bakery it's taking everything in her not to burst into tears. She’s ruined everything. The last thread that’s kept her hanging for three weeks now, and she’s broken it herself. She’s going to lose all of her friends, and Adrien is never going to love her, and she’s going to have to go back to being alone again—

Her mother, behind the counter, sees her face and immediately drops her tongs. “Marinette?” she says. “What’s wrong?” Her face twists. “What’s that Lila girl done now?”

Marinette shakes her head, and finally breaks. “It’s—it’s not—it’s not—it’s not—not Lila,” she blubbers, collapsing onto one of the chairs. “It’s Adrien.”

”Oh, honey,” her mother says, coming out from behind the counter. She starts rubbing her daughter’s back, letting her cry herself out.

“Tom?” she yells to the back. “Can you watch the front for a few minutes? Marinette needs me.”

”Of course, Dumpling,” her father calls back. Within a minute he’s come through the door and waved them upstairs.

***

Collapsed onto her mother’s lap in the living room, Marinette—haltingly—tells her everything. Except the Chat Noir bits, of course, those are private. The whole time, her mother doesn’t stop holding her, cooing, and occasionally snarling whenever Lila comes up. The only reason her parents haven’t tried to get Lila expelled yet is because Marinette begged them not to.

When Marinette finishes, her mother is silent for a while before speaking. “I won’t say what that boy is doing to you is right,” she says, finally, “because sweetie, you really do deserve better.” She smiles, rueful. “You know you deserve better, don’t you sweetling?”

Marinette nods. “It—it sounds like there’s a... a ‘but’ coming,” she sniffles.

”Well,” her mother sighs, “it does sound familiar.” She smiles. “Rather like your father, in fact.”

Marinette looks up at her and blinks in confusion.

”You met Roland last week,” her mother says, still massaging her back. “Do you think he was a good parent?”

Marinette shakes her head.

"If there were ever two people who should not have had children," her mother continues, “it was Roland and Gina Dupain. Neither of them was particularly affectionate towards your father.” She smiles. “Oh, I’m sure they loved him well enough—in their own ways—but they never really thought to show it.”

Marinette is staring at her mother now, listening with rapt attention. This is starting to sound a lot like Gabriel, and she thinks she might know where this is going.

”Roland never gave your father any kind of approval, or kindness,” her mother continues. “Everything he said was about the ways Tom was a disappointment. As you can imagine, growing up in a house like that...” She waves her hand. “It does things to people.” She grimaces. “When people can’t get love from their families, they start to think they don’t deserve it. Your father thought that maybe if he acted better, if he acted kinder, if he just did what he was told without complaining, maybe his father would love him.” She grits her teeth. “But a man like that doesn’t ever express love,” she spits. “So things just kept getting worse.”

Marinette peeps in alarm. She’s seen her mother angry before, but the way she’s speaking about her father-in-law... she’s never been this furious.

Her mother smiles down at her. “When I immigrated to Paris,” she says, “things were very hard for me. I was a Chinese immigrant in an unfamiliar and unforgiving culture.” She looks up at the ceiling, soft look on her face. “Your father was one of the few bright spots in my life during that time. He was always so kind. But..." She sighs. "Roland nearly ruined it." Her face grows hard. "The things he would say to me... about me..." She growls. "Your father refused to stand up for me. Kept telling me 'give him a chance, he'll love you.'" She shakes her head. "You know how that turned out."

Marinette nods. Her father disowned, her grandfather unaware of her very existence. Not a particularly happy family dynamic.

Sabine licks her lips. "The truth is," she says, "I nearly left your father over it. I told him I couldn't be with someone who just stood by and let other people treat me like that without saying anything."

"Wait... really?" Marinette whispers, her eyes wide. She'd never known this part of her parents' relationship—she'd always believed they'd known they were soulmates from the start, never had that kind of relationship-ending disagreement.

Sabine nods. "Really," she says. "And he knew I was right—the way his father was acting was unacceptable. So he made the hardest decision he'd ever made in his life and confronted Roland over it."

"And his father disowned him," Marinette whispers.

Sabine nods. "That was a rough night, let me tell you," she says. "But what you have to understand is that the behavior your father learned never just applied to his relationship with his father—it's something he still does with everybody. He still forgets that he's allowed to disagree with me, sometimes." She stares off toward the kitchen, clearly not actually seeing anything. Just thinking. "From what you've told me of Adrien," she says, "Gabriel is much, much worse than Roland ever was. I'm not surprised Adrien has so much difficulty with confrontation."

"Oh," Marinette says. She's known for a while that the image of Adrien Agreste, perfect golden boy, is a lie; she's known that he's shy, and sometimes a little awkward. She never would have pegged him for insecure, though. And she never would have guessed how deeply, deeply unhappy she's suddenly realized he must be. He doesn't allow Chloé and Lila to treat him like that because he enjoys it—he simply doesn't know how to ask them to stop. "He..." she begins, stops, thinks. "Maman, I think he might need help."

"Probably," Sabine says, kissing her daughter on the forehead. "But it doesn't have to be your responsibility to give it to him." She strokes Marinette's hair, humming slightly as she does. "You have a big heart, sweetie, but you need to remember to look after yourself first."

Marinette's barely listening—she's already formulating a plan. Because what is being Ladybug good for if she can't help the people she cares about? "Don't worry, Maman," she says. "I'll be fine." Step one: apologize to Adrien for what she said today. Step two: she's not sure yet, but she'll figure it out when she gets there.

She's gonna teach that boy to stand up for himself even if it kills her.

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[otp-armada]

I am not looking forward to these flashbacks. 

To date, we’ve had four onscreen kisses shared between Bellamy and Echo with additional, smaller moments of other forms of intimacy. I’d rather the show refrain from adding more tally marks to the count. 

If humans were gifted with the capacity for purging unwanted memories, then all this discomfort would be a moot point. I suppose there’s always alcohol as a fallback option, but not even the prospect of temporary amnesia is worth destroying my liver. Turning to alcohol to drown my B/E-related sorrows would probably qualify more as self-harm than self-help.

I’d much prefer to cut directly to an imminent breakup scene without the pomp and circumstance of an agonized Echo’s trip down memory lane. 

If anything, supplying us with visual evidence on how happy they were together is an even sadder remark on the state of B/E’s fragility, knowing it took 0.001 seconds for the mere mention of Clarke’s name to bring it all to ruin. No collection of past happy moments shared on the Ring erases the fractures in their relationship that occur between them afterward, originating with the revelation of a still-living Clarke. I'd be an absolute fool to believe otherwise. 

But if Jason deems a tour of their greatest hits as necessary to the story, I trust his judgment. Showing us B/E's origins as their romantic relationship begins to fall apart in real-time brings it full circle, and it lends gravitas to the story he's telling with Echo. With this particular arc, the bigger picture is still Echo's evolution. It's not about B/E.  

Once season 7 started, there was a visible shift in how Jason utilized B/E.  Whereas seasons 5 and 6 primarily used B/E as the third leg in a love triangle designed to keep a pining Bellarke apart, season 7 uses their master-spy dynamic to bolster Echo's development almost exclusively. Post-season 6, Bellarke is so primed to get together, one honest admission of mutual feelings without Echo as an obstacle and BOOM. Canon couple. 

Echo has a more extensive role than girl-to-be-dumped, and I'm not upset over it. She gets to stand up as a character after the majority of her life has been marked by slavery for her crown, and I'm not upset over it. As indemnification for the loss of her relationship, this orphan-turned-soldier is finding her place in a supportive, loving family while developing a sense of identity and independence, and I'm not upset over it.

I would’ve preferred Jason found a way to take her on this path without B/E remaining intact this far into the final season and theoretically for the foreseeable episodes. I would always choose to end them sooner rather than later, given a choice. But I understand why Jason didn't. 

Echo can’t very well outgrow a master-spy complex if there is no master to her spy. And as much as I hate it, the romantic aspect of B/E is a believable, convenient tool to keep this complex in place until her story comes to fruition. Would Echo act so extremely in service to a recent ex-boyfriend who left her for another woman? Probably not. As far as I can tell, the pinnacle of her arc is the moment she realizes she has to break free from Bellamy. So narrative structure demands B/E stay together, however technically, long enough for her to break those chains. 

I was initially excited about the flashbacks, if only because I took them as a sign of an impending breakup. But the timing doesn't pan out. Aside from the logistics of Echo and Bellamy presumably on separate worlds, and with her thinking him dead, we've only just reached the point where Echo might start to ask herself those hard questions she's been avoiding. She must have noticed a change in her relationship. Between Psychosis!Emori, B/E's 6x04 fight, and Anomaly!Roan, she's had enough cause for doubt. But I think she's suppressed any urge to reflect upon it for a number of reasons. Love. Continued hope they'll last. War. A mission to save him. It took a lot of meticulous maneuvering to corner Echo to this point. Now that we're here, I don't think Jason would pull a reverse Uno card in a 40-minute episode. It seems more likely that he will let her continue to stew in her emotions. Either she'll keep sinking until she hits rock bottom, or she'll start learning how to swim. 

Jason could always prove me wrong. And if I am, I'd never be happier for him to do so. If I'm not? It's at times like this when I am reminded of the resolution I made at the end of season 6- rest easy in the comfort of knowing B/E will meet its inevitable end but do not try to speculate when that might be. Attempting to discern the specifics of "when" brings one only misery. 

Jason’s signature sometimes-too-fast, other-times-too-slow pacing, is often liable to tempt one into ripping their own hair out. That being said, I’ve seen enough of this show to trust in his ability to tell a damn good story. Faith in his competency for the craft just requires on our part, the patience of a saint. 

If nothing else, it isn’t my story to tell, so I’ll just have to suck it up and find a way to deal with any disappointments I may feel. Or I can try to find the value within the story told. It's a better alternative than to be left bitter. No promises, though.

Maybe Echo’s actions against the Disciples aren’t reprehensible, considering the people she’s killing are those complicit in kidnapping and torturing her people. But Orlando was a good, honorable man whose naïveté convinced him to play for the wrong team, yet helped our heroes when he didn’t have to. Not unlike Shaw, whom Echo sold to Diyoza to fulfill her mission. But I assume “We are not his people” is residual mistrust leftover from Ryker’s betrayal of her. She miscalculated the feelings of one possible defector before, she won’t make the same mistake twice. 

If she was able to save Bellamy in the end, I’m sure she’d be able to justify the spilled blood it took to get there. But Orlando suffered at her hands for nothing, and she may not be overly concerned with morality, but she cares for the people she grows close to. Unless the episode proves otherwise, I’d like to think Orlando’s fate will weigh heavily on her. 

They may not have been close. But five years in close quarters with only a few people akin to friends for comfort, it'd be hard not to feel the slightest bit attached.

Those of us who believe in Bellarke know Echo is the third-party obstacle in a love triangle. But what is far more interesting is the role she played in the seasons-long Blake siblings struggle. 

Echo was persona non grata to both siblings following her and Octavia's mountaintop fight. Six years later, she highlights the difference in the siblings' maturities. Whereas Bellamy has learned to embrace empathy and forgiveness with open arms, Octavia is cold and unyielding. On a more personal note, B/E represents Octavia's persistent unwillingness to respect Bellamy as his own person, with needs and wants independent of her. 

After her soul searching on Skyring, I thought she had buried the hatchet, as per her lack of vitriol in her 6x12 conversation with Bellamy, and enthusiastically joining forces with Echo in 6x13. Maybe she did. But Octavia has also proven herself an unreliable narrator, and Hope feels indignation on her aunt's behalf. Whatever the case, there's a reason why the dialogue keeps referencing Echo and Octavia's hostile history. And I think it's building to a head in 7x07. 

I think mutual love for Bellamy is healing the divide between them when Echo is at her most fractured. She's isolated from Bellamy and the rest of Spacekru. Left in pain and seeking retribution as Octavia did, which, as we know, is where it all went wrong for the latter. Octavia, more than most, is in the best position to empathize with what Echo is currently feeling and how pain can destroy her if she lets it consume her. 

If Octavia can remind Echo she's not alone, if a former enemy can convince her she belongs and welcome her with open arms- as her brother did before her- it might do well in healing some broken piece inside of her. And it would be a roundabout display of Octavia's newfound maturity. This is good for both of them. This spiral she is in will require her to look inward. Since her fixation with Bellamy is partly what landed her in this mess, absolution cannot come from him. She can only find it in herself if she wants it. But I'd be glad if Octavia can help see her through it. This is what I mean about seeking value in the story told. We're so concerned about Octavia calling Echo family, about the possibility of it legitimizing B/E, it doesn't occur to us that it's about the characters themselves. And B/E is only a vehicle used to bring us there. It's easier to see when not consumed by automatic seething rage, as typical of our fellow Bellarke compatriots, for anything remotely associated with Echo.

If my heart and mind weren’t chanting “BELLARKEBELLARKEBELLARKE,” there’s a good chance I’d be able to better appreciate the complexities B/E gives to the development of the four characters it directly impacts. 

Our side of fandom has made lots of accusations about B/E since 5x01. It’s a forgettable, physical relationship worth little to Bellamy. B/E is unhealthy for reasons x, y, and z. We generate a different example in every episode. Click slideshow for more details. But the fact of the matter is, much of this isn't true. Until Echo went postal, B/E wasn’t unhealthy. Bellamy just had a greater love for Clarke. Up until their ending scene in 6x04, there was nothing they couldn’t come back from together, if both committed themselves fully, no more walls. It's not a particularly popular train of thought among us, but Jason absolutely could've written B/E as an endgame pairing. And all it would take to deliver a final killing blow is the inclusion of a single damning scene.

We can gripe over the length of time they've stayed together. But, in spite of what most people think about every new B/E development and Bellarke separation, Jason has never actually dropped an ax on Bellarke. Hope persists.

Jason is responsible for the development of dozens of characters, major plots, and dozens of smaller subplots. But our fandom reduced the story chiefly to Bellarke's romance. Our villains are those who stand in their way. Namely Echo, the only outside love interest to be an official obstacle. We fashioned Echo as our enemy. In lieu of removing her from the narrative (which is not in our power to do), we've done everything within our purview to diminish her. If Jason won't treat B/E and Echo as the jokes we know they are, we'll do it ourselves. Minimizing her role in the story makes it a hell of a lot easier to erase a character we'd rather didn't exist for our preferred ship to advance.

Lord knows how many times we've claimed she has no story. That absent relevance or substantial bearing, she's there simply because Jason is partial to her for some elusive reason. But the reality is, we never looked for her story because we wanted to be able to claim its inexistence. We wanted to be able to say she's frivolous to the story, and by extension, to Bellamy. We want to be able to dismantle B/E when it appears Jason doesn't. Except he is and has been doing so since day one. 

Months ago, on a whim, when I was feeling benevolent towards Echo, I wrote a long post HERE giving her the benefit of the doubt, and I said:

In the grand scheme of the story, I think this is the purpose Echo serves, to represent the part that says, “We’re all human. No matter what tribe we belong to, we fight for the same reasons. We love the same way. When you leave allegiances aside, when you see someone for who they are at their core, an enemy today can become a friend tomorrow.”

True peace, a series-long running theme for our heroes, begins with embracing former outsiders like Echo and Emori. Easy to lose sight of this when focused on ship wars. 

It is perfectly acceptable not to love all the components of a story. It is understandable to focus your attention on those select segments you find appealing. But a tunnel-visioned mindset lands you in trouble when you become resentful at the reminders that a story is a composite of more moving pieces than just the parts you like. And when you forget that screentime allotted to developing those pieces ahead of what you favor is permissible. Everything on a show has its time, all in due course. 

On the other hand, B/E shippers overinflate their ship's significance. They take canon and twist it to say, "Look at how strong B/E is, Bellarke could never. B/E is endgame, and Blorkes are delusional." Their conclusion of an epic love is another bias-based fandom interpretation that doesn’t hold water, either. 

I think the reality of B/E lies somewhere in a muddled middle of these two extremes. 

One last point, and I'll get off my soapbox. Despite what the melodramatic diatribe in my opening paragraph suggests, B/E is never as atrocious as fandom makes them out to be. Greater fandom treats anything remotely associated with B/E as the next great catastrophe. And as it turns out, it never really is.  

 Tagging @sometimesrosy, because I think, after years of combating opinions you don’t agree with, it might be a refreshing change of pace to know some of us do have more balanced views regarding B/E. If I do say so myself.