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seraphirism · 18 days

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Do you know which story explain Lucas's tattoo? I knew he has his tatoo on his hip but the new card got me confused that he also has it on the chest too?

hiya, anon! hope you’re having a wonderful day (^^)! and yes, I do know (after dedicating this Sunday to it lol) since it wasn’t present in the event story so I had to pull out his card story for it :D

spoilers for [砂漠に消えた湖] event story and Lucas’s event card story.

[I do not know if the story behind the tattoo on his left flank (the one he has had since the start of the main story) has ever been explained 😭 but he’s had it for a long time; that’s for sure. I’ll try to look into it though, to see if it’s been explained in an event or card story ✨ as it hasn’t been explained in the main story.]

now, on to the rose tattoo from this event 🌹 which was your main question!

it was actually explained in his card story!

now, (just a brief synopsis), the butlers and Aruji are in the southern desert region. they were sent here on a request and get caught in a dispute between two native tribes over an oasis.

after the dispute gets over with, the children/heirs of the chiefs of the two tribes, Tribe A and B, decide to get married. Scheherazade/シェヘラザード was the daughter of Chief A and Hasan/ハサン was the son of Chief B. both of them were in love with each other and finally got the opportunity to be together openly when the butlers helped wrap up the conflict between their two tribes.

now, during the butlers’ stay in the desert, Lucas gets the rose tattoo on his chest. to be specific, it’s actually not a tattoo but a henna pattern!

[quick lesson for my readers who don’t know about it!

henna is a red-brown dye (variations in its colour exist) that is made from powdered leaves of tropical shrubs. it is temporary and typically lasts for 1-2 weeks. it’s used most commonly in South Asia, Middle East and Africa (mostly by women).

henna is most commonly applied in celebrations, typically weddings; though you don’t have to be the one getting married to apply it. close family of the bride/groom can apply it as well. applying it (as a bride or even groom) is seen to bring prosperity on your marriage.]

so in celebration of their marriage, he also partook in the tradition of applying a henna tattoo. he chose a typical (red) rose as it means “love” which he thought was perfect since there was going to be a wedding soon.

so the tattoo of the rose is temporary (Lucas said it would fade in a week)! also, he makes a henna tattoo on Aruji as well, on their right arm. and guess what pattern he chooses?

a rose, just like the one on his chest \(//∇//)\!! he also tells Aruji to not tell the other butlers and let it be a secret just between them such the other butlers wouldn’t just let “this” go.

there was a lot of Aruji x Lucas content in his card story so for Lucas fans there is peak content! we also get more insight into Lucas’s personality and how he was back then, 2 thousand years ago i believe?

also, he does explain explicitly call Aruji the one he loves! and he says he does not know any happiness greater than his loved one smiling next to him and he wants to protect this happiness forever 💞

so yay to Lucas fans!; you’re eating well (as usual)!

now, something else I wanted to bring up, which might be either a dev mistake or for an elaborate reason I have yet to reach.

a japanese fan on twitter (@/hanesoyo) pointed out that the rose tattoo is not present in the recent event card posts.

yes, the event introduction video (with the cards fully shown) does have it, but the other posts do not. see below:

the first picture you see here is from the event-card introduction video, the second is from the event-story preview in-game. the third picture is the event-gacha in-game. these were all dropped on day 1/2 of the event or even prior to that!

what these all have in common is Lucas having his rose tattoo on his chest. is that the case for the recent event posts? let’s see!

nope! the recent posts do not show him having it. is it because the tattoo has “faded” now considering 6-7 days have passed since the event has been dropped? [that’s me reading too much into it lol] there’s a chance it might be an artist/dev mistake? but it doesn’t feel like it’s a mistake, to me at least. feel free to suggest reasons below but for now I think it’s a mystery ✨

I hope this helped clear things up (*^▽^*)! if any fact I’ve stated is wrong, please correct me. I wish they had revealed the appearances of Hasan and Scheherazade in particular since she was such a girl boss ✨😔

#砂漠に消えた湖 #lucas thompscie #sol’s asks #spoilers!#I still don’t like this event because it’s hella orientalist #I hope it doesn’t do well so devs don’t go for such an event again

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jujumin-translates · 2 months

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[18TRIP] Event Story | WE ARE M・T・T・B | TRACK. 5

Characters: 🫰 Chihiro Natsuyaki, ☁️ Ten Murakumo, 🎨 Kiroku Kinugawa, 🌕 Muneuji Kaguya, 🔮 Toi Shiramitsu

Location: HAMA House - 2F Corridor

Ten & Chihiro: …

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Location: HAMA House - Lesson Room

Muneuji: Haah, haah… How was that…?

Toi: Haahah, yeah! I think you’re doing a lot better! I need to work on my physical strength more…

Kiroku: Me… too…

Toi: I think you were able to see things from the audience’s perspective even better than before, Kiro-chan!

Muneuji: Getting feedback from you is very encouraging, Toi-san. Can we try going through that one more time?

Toi: Of course! Ready, Kiro-chan?

Kiroku: Yeah…

*Music plays*

Chihiro: …, …

Ten: Ahhh, so that’s what the three of them are doing this late.

Chihiro: …

Chihiro: (They’re still trying to keep practicing hard… Even though they’ve got to be at school and the store tomorrow.)

Chihiro: (They’re sweaty and exhausted, but it’s clear that…)

Chihiro: I can’t just sit back and watch this happen…!

*Footsteps*

Chihiro: Hey~!!! Why didn’t y’all tell me about this~!?!

Kiroku: Gh…! Natsuyaki-san…!

Muneuji: You surprised us. I see that Murakumo-san is with you as well.

Ten: Yeah, that just sorta happened.

Chihiro: You’re all dummy-dummy-dummies~!!! I would’ve taught you for however long you wanted me to if you just told me~!!! Why’d you keep this a secret~!?!

Toi: W-We have a reason…!

Ten: A reason?

Kiroku: Because… Our dance level wasn’t increasing… …So we had to find a way to make it go up… On our own.

Chihiro: Huh…?

Muneuji: It’s what Murakumo-san told me. If you’re worried about whether or not you’re doing the right thing, it’s because you already know for yourself what the cause is.

Ten: (But I wasn’t really being serious when I said that.)

Toi: When we heard about that from Muneuji-kun, both Kiro-chan and I kinda knew what he was talking about, so we reflected on it a lot…

Kiroku: Y… Yeah…

Muneuji: That’s why we decided that we shouldn’t continue relying on both you and Murakumo-san, Natsuyaki-san. We decided that the three of us would practice on our own until we reached a level we felt satisfied with.

Chihiro: …

Chihiro: (Maybe Chii was wrong.)

Chihiro: (Munechi, Kirokkuma, and Toonya. They’re all working so crazy hard. They’re showing a lot of motivation, and they’re actually acting upon it.)

Chihiro: (But even then, Chii’s just fine with making fun memories…)

Chihiro: I’m sorry. I guess Chii didn’t understand any of your guys’ feelings at all.

Ten: …

Chihiro: With this team, Chii wasn’t even thinking about winning or anything, I just thought that if we could have fun dancing, that’s all that mattered… That’s what I thought, at least.

Chihiro: That’s why I wasn’t being too picky about things. Sometimes giving advice can make people feel bad.

Chihiro: I thought it’d be wrong for you guys to stop enjoying dancing ‘cause of Chii’s point of view…

Kiroku: So… that’s why…

Muneuji: …We appreciate your consideration, Natsuyaki-san, however, our desire to have fun isn’t small.

Muneuji: However, we also feel strongly that we would be even happier if we could make even a small contribution to you, since you went through the trouble of choosing us specifically, Natsuyaki-san.

Muneuji: Besides, you were both invited to this competition because of your dance levels, Natsuyaki-san and Murakumo-san.

Muneuji: That’s why I believe that because we are at a lower level, we must avoid hindering the two of you as much as possible.

Chihiro: …I can’t believe I made you think that. I’m sorry I didn’t notice…

Toi: But! That’s not the case at all!

Toi: In your dance video, you and Ten-kun looked like you were having so much fun dancing, Chii-sama.

Toi: I also wanna know what kinda scenery you guys saw while doing that!

Toi: Right!? Muneuji-kun, Kiro-chan!

Muneuji: Yes, exactly.

Kiroku: T… Toi-kun showed me the… video. You were really… cool, so… I wanted to do my best…

Kiroku: (I’m not good at dancing or being the center of attention… but. …I can do it with everyone.)

Chihiro: Guys…

Muneuji: So by all means, we would very much appreciate it if you could point out the areas where we’re struggling.

Toi: We’ll work even harder and harder.

Chihiro: (They’re all taking this so seriously.)

Chihiro: (I don’t wanna disrespect everyone’s feelings…)

Ten: …

Ten: (I feel like there’s something changing on Chihiro’s face. This isn’t about to go in the wrong direction, is it?)

Ten: …Ahh, but y’know, just ‘cause you try hard doesn’t mean things are gonna turn out the way you want them to.

Ten: It’s like Chihiro said, participating just to make memories is one thing, but it’s also possible to participate in this event without overdoing it while focusing on having fun…

Chihiro: …Chii thought so too. Until just now.

Chihiro: But seeing the three of you working so hard has got Chii thinking differently.

Ten: …, That so~?

Chihiro: Y’know what Toonya said, right? About wanting to see the scenery that we saw when we were dancing.

Toi: Y-Yeah…!

Chihiro: Chii also wants to show that to y’all.

Chihiro: The feeling of being on stage, the profoundness of dance… I want you guys to feel the sparkling and shining world. That’s why—.

Ten: …That’s why…?

Chihiro: From here on out, just leave everything to Chii!!

[ ⇠ Previous Part ] • [ Next Part ⇢ ]

#18trip #18trip translation #chihiro natsuyaki #ten murakumo #kiroku kinugawa #muneuji kaguya #toi shiramitsu

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darkcherrymystery · 11 months

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Just some long thoughts about how Furina could be utilized going forward from a meta perspective...

Unlike Nahida and Raiden, Furina kind of has the Zhongli/Venti advantage of not being an active political figure anymore, so she technically has the freedom to show up in a lot more places than the active archons. Even though it might not make a whole lot of sense for a new player to see the hydro archon showing up to play bit parts in random events, and Genshin is notoriously unwilling to provide hard AQ progression requirements, they do have a history of creating warnings like "this quest is best enjoyed if you've played xxx quests beforehand", so I think future appearances by her are eminently possible.

And besides, Furina's position at the end of the AQ and SQ seems deliberately designed to give her as much freedom as possible, in both an in-story and meta sense. Fontainians still seem to believe she was actually the archon, but she used up all her power and is now retired, and she's not widely considered a fraud or something. It's clear she's still adored by the populace.

So I think it would be quite possible to write her into events as an "artistic emissary" or something like that from Fontaine, and not go into specifics of what her current position actually is. She was always more of a "mascot" than a ruler or object of veneration, after all, and she could easily retain that status. And her SQ and resulting dialogue from herself and Neuvilette does imply that she will slowly return to the stage too (though maybe more as a singer/dancer than an actor, for obvious reasons). Would absolutely love her to meet Nilou and maybe exchange some advice...

And it's not like she's just turned into 100% into a regular person anyway. Not just the 500 years of suffering (and knowledge that comes with it), but she could definitely use her popularity for good ends in future AQs or SQs. Like I'm thinking of stuff like Nilou's chapter of the Sumeru AQ or Yae's SQ, the ability to captivate and influence people can have tangible impacts on the nation's problems even if you're not the archon. I can see her immense stage girl (tm) prowess and popularity be the key to solving some issue that comes up later in the Fontaine storyline, like something Neuvilette can't just brute force. Or hell maybe Neuvi goes rogue and we have to teach him a lesson like we did Ei, though that seems more unlikely than not.

As for ideas for her 2nd SQ, there's also obviously the loose ends regarding Focalors. It was kind of sucky that Furina never really got a good moment of closure with her divine counterpart, and it's not even clear whether she understands why the prophecy was averted. God I do hope she knows that she didn't fail though. Like that should be something it would be relatively easy for her to find out without ruining Focalors' deception, since it's literally on those stone tablets that were brought in as evidence in her trial.

I do kind of wonder how the new weekly boss will come about during her 2nd SQ though. Maybe Arlecchino somehow takes it upon herself to try to carry out the "death sentence," but given she saw no point in killing Furina even before the truth was revealed, I doubt she'd have a big change of heart. The expatriate oceanids seem to hate her, but again it seems unlikely they'd seek revenge. I guess it's also possible that Furina is just kind of along for the ride in her 2nd SQ and Neuvilette/Traveler do the "real" work, but I'd prefer to hope that her unique position and talents get to save the day. Again. But this time without the suffering. Furina saving Fontaine but this time with the power of friendship and authentic performance, god that would be good...

Honestly the best candidate for her 2nd SQ might be Celestia finally getting around to going "wtf you literally destroyed a whole archon thone how could you possibly think you could get away with this," and it turns out Neuvilette just isn't strong enough by himself to resist their judgment, so Furina has to rally the people to channel their ambitions and beliefs and whatnot into that golden energy we saw in the Inazuma AQ and Yae's SQ. At least then she might get some self-awareness of being the savior of Fontaine (again it's really sad that she doesn't seem to know that she saved the nation in the first place).

#how the fuck did this post end up being so long #genshin 4.2 spoilers #genshin spoilers

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tokiro07 · 1 year

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Undead Unluck ch.160 thoughts

[Right in the Unfeels]

This is gonna be another busy week, but I’ve landed myself a day off, so before things get busy, I’m gonna try to knock out both of my reviews in one go

With this chapter, we’ve concluded the Unfeel arc, at least barring the falling action that we may get next week. I expect that it will either resolve Gina and Sean’s breach of Fuuko’s trust, establish Phil’s dynamics with the rest of the Union members individually (specifically Nico, probably) or elaborate on how Unfeel has changed between loops, if not all three (Tozuka does love to do plot points in sets of three as we’ve determined)

We see the Entruster does in fact shapeshift to match the needs of the user, not incorporating material from its environment as I suggested last week. Honestly that seems like a pretty understandable tradeoff; a powerful and utilitarian yet seemingly fragile automaton that basically costs a person to activate. It’s cruel, as everything else in UU, but you receive probably the most convenient and versatile power available

I did consider from the elevator scene that the aliens were weak to shear stress (though I didn’t know the term), since the door hit it from both sides, I just didn’t think about it beyond that point. I think I would have liked just a little more analysis of why it works, maybe cus of the shape or make-up of the shell, but we got a demonstration of the weakness and the payoff, and that’s really all we need for something that’s not central to the story

Phil recreates his sacrifice from Loop 100, breaking his body to help his friends, but this brings up the question of if he’s willing to go so far because Unfeel erases his fear and inhibition or because he is in fact afraid of losing those he cares about. I’m inclined to think the former logistically, but I think that may have only been the case in the previous loop, and the latter in this one. I don’t have much to base that on, but until Tozuka elaborates on the specifics of Unfeel, I choose to believe that Phil has managed to retain autonomy that he didn’t have before and can act on the fact that he cares about his friends instead of just doing what he’s told or acting solely based on logic

When Phil was helping to cool the railgun in the battle against Sun, you may recall that I suggested Gina’s presence would be helpful for maintaining the railgun without needing to use Phil; I maintain that is the case, but it never occurred to me that Gina could use Unchange to maintain Phil too! I guess because I thought at least his torso was biological, so now that we know his whole body is artificial, it makes perfect sense that Gina can use Unchange on Phil and Entruster

Once again, we get a lot of excellent two-page spreads, but easily the best in the chapter is the rainbow over the crew as they emerge safely from the pod. Phil’s mom and Sean crying with joy, Nico and Creed sharing a smoke, Gina holding up Phil’s smile, and Fuuko and Phil giving each other a thumbs up. It seems like Phil is just copying Fuuko, but the fact that he keeps doing it even after Gina lets go of his hand is so sweet and cute

In some ways, this arc went exactly as I thought it would in the broadest strokes, but in the specifics I was pretty much wrong about the whole thing. Sean didn’t drift off into space, Nico didn’t interact much if at all with Phil, we didn’t get a comparison between this and Phil’s last loop, and Creed...might as well not have been here

Actually, that’s an interesting little lesson in story utility. The decision to bring Creed on the mission was a part of the meeting between Fuuko, Nico and Billy, a moment that was meant to illustrate the different perspectives of the group and the coming together of the old Union, new Union and Under in a sense. Gina was left out because of the events of the previous arc, so Creed’s inclusion was a logical one, but it’s clear from this chapter that Gina was always meant to be on the mission and Creed’s involvement was only meant to give her an obstacle to overcome along the way. This obstacle necessitated that Gina join forces with Sean, which allowed him an extra moment or two of development both in his abilities and character. Even though Creed didn’t contribute anything directly, his presence facilitated both Sean and Gina’s character moments without feeling like he was necessarily out of place. To maximize this type of storytelling tool, though, it would have been nice to have one such moment for Creed himself, maybe with some kind of change to Undecrease or a moment with Creed calling out Gina and Sean for insubordination; he’s a military leader, it would have made perfect sense for him to be the one to be most offended by their actions. Creed calling into question Fuuko’s leadership abilities after that moment could have also been used to reinforce Nico and Billy’s decision to elect her leader of the mission and her role as leader of the Union as a whole. They needed to coordinate Gina’s Unchange to dock anyway, that little bit of extra tension putting pressure on Sean to help would have gone a really long way without adding much padding to the arc

Not to harp on what could have been for too much longer, but since Gina was the one to help Phil in the climax, I think it would have been good for her to have had some kind of interaction with him earlier. Whether it was feeling sympathy because she lost her grandmother and didn’t want Phil to lose his mother or because she noticed the change from him losing his emotions to Unfeel and not wanting Phil’s world to change, some kind of emotional anchor to connect the two of them would, again, have served the story extremely well

Please do not take these notes as an indication that I don’t like this chapter or arc. I felt the exact level of joy and catharsis that I’ve come to expect from Tozuka’s work, I just saw some holes both in the setup and payoff that I personally would have liked filled. I understand that the weekly format’s speed and page limitations are likely contributing factors to this, I just think it’s also useful to keep track of these sorts of things if for no other reason than that I can learn lessons from it for my own writings in the future

As I said earlier, I expect we’ll have some falling action next week to wrap up this arc and transition into the next, so if we’re lucky, a couple of these minor issues will be addressed there, but even if they’re not, this arc accomplished the one thing it really needed to: endearing us to Phil. That’s all it wanted to do, and it did it with flying colors

We are left on a bittersweet note knowing that he’s lost his emotions as his mother feared, so hopefully next week will resolve that if nothing else

See y’all then!

#undead unluck #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews

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fluffy-critter · 5 months

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#crosspost #busybee

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talenlee · 5 months

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Fundie Fucking

Imagine you have a jar for jellybeans. I want you to imagine this jar, and it starts out empty. Now, what happens, when you get married, right, is that the first time you have sex, you put a jellybean in that jar. Then, the next time, you put another jellybean in. Another, and another, and another. You keep this up for the first full year of marriage. And then, in the second year, whenever you have sex, you take a jellybean out. You do that for every single time you have sex after that first year.

By the time you die, you won’t have emptied that jar.

Content Warning: I’m going to talk about things I was taught about sex as a Christian fundamentalist.

The above story was told to me by a teacher, in school. It was a geography lesson.

A little history for my childhood, I suppose. At the age of four I started going to school in the Christian Evangelical cult we were in. This was a deeply fundamentalist cult that built its faith statements on text extraction from the Bible that worked a bit like using a sudoku to find phone numbers. I continued in this schooling system from kindergarten through to year 9. In year 8, the church-school’s pastor and principal both left, and in the ensuing fracas, we committed to leave. My family left this church and moved a hundred kilometers away, where we could reconnect with family, and older support networks that my parents had.

I had nothing, no friends, not really, but y’know, I hadn’t been a kid with friends beforehand.

I started on a new school at this point, for the last three years of school. I’ve talked about how difficult it was to be part of this school with no groundings, and no experience having or making friends. It was extremely hard, which is by no means meant to complain about or fix anything, but it’s still part of the context. I was still, at this point, a fundamentalist, and the school was still a Christian, religious school, with a statement of faith and religious staff. We had Bible lessons in the morning and devotions, and we had prayer before events. It wasn’t a fundamentalist school — it taught evolution! — but it was still compatible with those concerns, and if a parent wanted their student pulled out of a topic, they could pull out.

And somewhere along the line, for some reason, in a geography class, a teacher — who I will note took a swing at me on my last day of school! — shared this Pithy Wisdom about what we could look forward to about our future vision of marriage.

Sex is super important to fundamentalist teaching. It needs controlling and suppressing. Sexuality is patrolled aggressively, as is gender. Behaviour that isn’t adequately straight seeming is for correcting, and interests that are perceived as too driven by sex are a problem too. You can probably guess how these controls happen – women are shamed for engaging in sex, especially if they get pregnant. I’m sure I’ve written about this before. But the point is, sex and its control is important.

Yet, sex comes up a lot. Sex usually comes up with teenagers in a sort of gracious, guess-we’ll-talk-about-it-now-way that also wants to avoid any specific terms. There’s all sorts of euphemism and metaphor used for it, and it’s funny hearing people trying to describe the idea of fucking without ever wanting to invoke the word or even that they could be someone who uses the word. Everything is cloaked under stories and metaphor and that meant that even in the post-fundamentalist space, I was hearing stories about how sex was itself, fundamentally, a sin.

But.

But but but.

There was a promise that once you got married, sex would happen. And it’d happen a lot. And it’d be amazing, and also, because you waited, because you held back, you’d be really good at it. You and your partner, both virgins, would work out sex from first principles together, and because you were both just bursting to get into it, you would have a lot of sex. But the n there was this weird follow-on idea that after you had sex, after you finally got to have sex, you’d just… get bored with it and move on. You wouldn’t have sex any more, because you’d had enough sex. Literally your entire sex life was probably going to last for basically one year, and after that point it would just peter out and you wouldn’t care.

This affected me, of course. Especially these days I see in discourse around incel culture the idea that it is reasonable to want to have sex, that whether or not sex is something you can or can’t have is going to affect your mental health and your ability to actualise. That seems good? that seems healthy. Like, maybe your needs and wants change over time and your sperm aren’t a pack of mayflies waiting to burn out in one short year.

I planned at first to spend this article talking about the things I learned and how it related to me. So far I have deleted the paragraph talking about my own sexuality, what it means and how my life experiences have affected it, over, and over, and over again. Some of it is shame, some of it is fear. Some of it is this weird horror at being told, reassuringly, by strangers that hey, it’s okay, it’s okay for things to be this way, or that way. Don’t feel bad. Like just the idea of being reassured makes me feel bad. There’s a depth to this, something wrong that means even talking about the problem is itself a problem. A terminating experience that keeps coming back to that thought about the jellybean jar.

About how I was taught my sexuality should probably have ended when I was twenty two.

And how part of my brain wonders if that’s right.

Like that’s all screwed up right?

And like, it hasn’t gotten better?

I dunno, it hurts.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Fundie Stuff

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goldenmirroraffair · 1 year

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Chapter 2: Stressed

‘Can’t I make it up to you somehow?’ the annoying man asks.

‘No just stay away from me’. I respond in a snarky tone. In comparison to earlier the halls are almost empty. It’s calming in a way. There’s one group of students with an older teacher. They seem a bit younger than me. Then suddenly in the middle of the group I see Jurinji, my little brother.

‘Hello brother. Have you seen the nurse’s office by chance?’ I ask him.

He looks at me with an annoyed glance and responds with ‘I, in fact haven’t seen it. I would like to direct you to the map at the main hall. Now could you please not bother my studies?’

‘Of course. Thank you’ I say as I make my exit.

‘Jesus fucking Christ that’s your brother. Are you all robots?’

‘Excuse me?’ Jurinji stares daggers at Axel.

‘Look I’m hosting a party this evening at the Typhoon. Maybe that will get y’all to calm down and socialise a bit? Maybe get to know people? First drink is free to make up for the ball thing, Ryo.’

I pull him away from the group into the direction of the main hall. ‘If you continue talking like this, you’re going to be found in a river’.

‘Haha good one’ there’s a silence. ‘Well, the offer still stands’

‘Not interested.’ I say as I let go of his hand and walk to the map. Apparently, the nurse’s office is just around the corner of my classroom. Great. ‘My head doesn’t even hurt anymore’.

‘Oh, that’s amazing! Guess I’m not the headache you make me out to be’.

‘Shut up’ He better not tease me like this again. I exhale in frustration.

We get back to class. A few more people introduce themselves. Apparently, they forgot me though. It’s not like I need an introduction anyways. The only interesting thing is that I signed up as one of the violinists of the school Orchestra and due to that am in the music class anyways.

‘As you can see all of your classes have something in common.’ He waits for a bit but nobody responds. ‘They are all artistic’, the weirdly friendly teacher explains. ‘That’s why you’re in what we call the art branch. There’s also the science branch, the language branch and the social branch.’ Since my younger brother is in the chemistry class, he’s probably in the science branch. ‘If you compare your timetables, you’ll notice that they are the same except for a few lessons. Those are the class specific lessons. We meet here for classes like Math, History or English while classes like theatre, painting or orchestra happen all at the same time in their specific classrooms. Today I wanna learn about what you did in math class last year.’ Even though I’m sometimes questioning how the teacher got his teaching degree he tries to be relatable to the students which is a nice trait to have.

After the first three lessons it’s finally time for break. Normal students would either 1 meet up with their friends (I haven’t made any) or family (me and Jurinji don’t have the relationship to just hang out) or 2 be on their phones (mother restricts my phone access so that my phone is not accessible during school times) meaning it’s time to train playing the violin. Earlier when I checked where the nurse’s office is I also saw the way to the stage.

Arriving at the stage I feel a strange feeling of familiarity. I performed at events hosted by fathers company and on stages that would help me build a platform for future careers. The floor is very clean and the echo of me clearing my throat is louder than expected. I pull out my violin and start playing the Chaconne from Sonata No. 2 in D minor. It was one of father’s favourite pieces. At this point playing the song is almost muscle memory to me. I close my eyes and let the bow guide the music from the stage to the front seats over the balcony and back to the stage. As comes to an end it’s so calm, I could almost forget all about that stupid punk jerk.

‘Hey!’ Oh no. I look to the entrance but it’s only Chayenne and the other Ariana Grande perfume girls. ‘That was beautiful!’ the girl whose future lies in makeup admits.

‘Thank you very much’.

‘How long have you been playing the violin?’ A girl with yellow eyeshadow asks me.

‘My first ever memory was getting my first violin so almost my entire life’.

‘That’s so cool! Was Swan into music early on as well?’ the same girl asks. That question just sent a shiver through my spine.

‘Shut the fuck up Christina’, Chayenne says, ‘I’m so sorry about her.’

‘I don’t plan on answering any questions about my older brother any time soon. You must excuse me as I’ll be taking my leave now’ I express as I’m packing up my instrument and storming off.

When I exit the stage, I see Axel adjusting his position to lean against the door frame. ‘Hey’ he says as I try to walk past him. He pulls my sleeve ‘Why are you so cold to me? I apologized.’

‘Why are you so obsessed with me? And no, you didn’t apologize.’

‘I said I’m offering you the first drink for free’.

‘So? My family is rich, and I don’t even drink.’

‘Oh yeah… Uhh I’m sorry’.

‘Whatever.’ I storm off yet again. Is this how school will be for the rest of the year? Every positive thing that happened was followed up by a bad experience.

I go back into the classroom and the only person present is Emma Singer.

‘Hi Ryoma’.

‘Hello, Emma’ I sit down and pull out my notebook to review the classes of today.

‘You seem stressed’.

‘I apologize’ I had enough social interactions for today. The thing I want to do right now is go back home, sleep and pray that I never wake up.

‘No need for apologies.’ She puts on Chapstick. ‘That Axwell guy is such a brute, right?’

‘I think his name is Axel, but yes. He sure is… a lot’.

‘Oh right… Also, maybe you wanna stay away from that Chayenne chick.’ I give her a concerned look ‘no it’s not like I’m racist. We know each other and, as you can see, we don’t really talk’. She adjusts her way too big Gucci Glasses.

‘I see’ I honestly don’t really care. She probably wants to tell me her entire life story and then pinpoint her out as the villain or something. But the bell rings to interrupt her and students are storming into the class. I don’t have Orchestra today which makes me kind of sad. I really want to know what that will be like. The girl with the yellow eyeshadow who I earlier learned is called Christina, comes over to me.

‘Sorry about earlier by the way. I didn’t want to mention… him.’ I look behind her and the girl with green eyeshadow is pointing her phone camera in my direction under the table. ‘What happened anyways?’

I smile ‘I must apologize but I can’t give you that information. I think class is starting. You maybe want to get back to your desk’.

‘Oh yeah… umm totally’ she goes back. The stinging smell or Ariana in my nose.

Later in the last lesson for today we get to vote the class presidents.

‘So, we need two representatives.’ Mr. Parker explains. ‘Due to the odd situation, we are in I’d like for them to be one student of the main building and one student of the second building.’

Signing myself up as an option might be a good move to boost my reputation. ‘I’d like to sign up as an option’. A few students do the same. Axel and Chayenne both run for the position as well. But they won’t be competition to me, since I’d be in the main house. And we are doing a vote per house. Emma doesn’t even try. She probably noticed she doesn’t have the best reputation and wanted to spare herself the embarrassment. Me and some other male student from the painting class are the top candidates. But of course, I come out on top. I feel like both Chayenne and Axel wouldn’t be good partners for me. But if any of them win I’d want it to be Chayenne. It all comes down to the last vote and as the air thickens the last vote goes to...

Chayenne. I let out a sigh of relieve.

‘Congratulations to Ryoma and Chayenne!’ Our teacher exclaims.

‘Speech! Speech! Speech!’ the students shout. I’m not really too good at speeches so I let the other one go first.

‘Thank you very much! I’m glad to be your class rep 2 years in a row! And with this handsome fella next to me this school year is gonna be in good hands’. That was an okay speech. I didn’t know she already used to be class rep. I’m guessing it was her and Axel. However the handsome part could've been cut.

‘I’d like to thank you for the vo-‘ I start my speech as I get cut off.

‘Oh, sorry wait it looks like the vote was rigged. There were more votes than people.’

What. ‘Ryoma you’re fine’ (thank God) ‘but it looks like Chayennes group put in more votes.’

‘WHAT? Why do you think it was us?’ The makeup-enthusiast shouts.

‘There are six votes written in glitter pen. You three are the only ones using glitter

pens.’

‘Oh.’

‘That means that the title of class rep officially goes to Axel!’ What???

My apparently fellow class president goes up to give a speech. He stands next to me and ruffles my hair. ‘Looks like we did it Fuzzball’.

‘Don’t fucking touch my hair.’ My hair is the most well-kept part of my body. Even though I keep it in a bun it goes down below my shoulder blades. ‘I don’t want to be your partner as a class representative, your friend or your “Fuzzball”. Please get away from me!’ I snap.

‘Holy shit’ I look away from Axels startled expression and see the girl with green eyeshadow holding her phone as she seems to be filming me. Fuck.

The bell rings to break the tension. ‘Well see you tomorrow, class. Bye’, Mr. Parker

says as he leaves the classroom. I pack my things as I pray that the girl forgot to hit record or something.

Since my school day is over my phone works again too. Next to the usual Instagram DMs I have one unread message. “Hello, Mr. Felch. Your mother has an emergency meeting with the police. Due to the situation, I can’t pick you and your brother up from school until an unknown point in time. I apologize for the inconvenience’ Great. I’m not surprised by the police thing because of the whole thing with my dad.

‘Do you want me to drive you home with my bike?’ I jump. Of course, it’s Axel. Did he just look at my phone? Well, it’s not like I expected manners.

‘What part of get away from me did you not understand?’ He appears everywhere like a ghost or the Gorilla from the Gorilla glue ads.

‘Listen, I behaved like an ass’.

‘True’

‘But I wanna make it up to you somehow. I can drive you and your brother if you want to’. Bike? I’d die if I got onto something like that. And what if someone sees me…

‘The only way you can make it up to me is by making sure that girl doesn’t post the video of me… you know’.

‘Shouting at me? Yeah. I’ll make sure Tracy doesn’t post it.’ So, the group is made of three girls called Chayenne, Tracy and Christina. With the whole red, green and yellow thing they kind of remind me of “Heathers”. I watched the musical with mother and Swan. It honestly kind of scared me of school.

‘Thank you very much.’

‘Are you sure you wanna walk home though? Maybe take the public bus?’ I think I’d die.

‘Not really…’ I say as I walk out the door with the punk. ‘Riding on your motorcycle together with my brother sounds like more of a death sentence, I believe’.

‘C’mon I’m a good driver! I only sometimes get into accidents’ I look at him with big eyes. ‘Just kidding of course’ I’m not so sure about that.

I see my brother in the crowd of people ‘Hello Jurinji. Did you receive the message too?’

‘Hello Ryoma. Yes, I did. Isn’t that the guy who called me a robot? Why do you hang out with a person so far beneath us?’

‘Hey! I’m your ride today. Your motorcycle awaits’ Axel mentions.

‘Excuse me, what? He must be joking.’

‘Well, he offered it’ I explain.

‘I would do anything rather than sit on the bike of a lowlife scum like you’ My brother snarks.

‘Even walk?” The man with dyed hair refutes.

‘Where did you park?’

#oc stuff #oc story #OC #story #Book #Original story #goldenmirroraffair #GMA

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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IOTA Reviews: Crocoduel

When you stop and think about it, this episode is really just the world's most intense custody battle.

Let's get into the thirteenth (chronologically the twelfth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Crocoduel

We start off with the band Kitty Section (composed of Luka, his timid sister Juleka, her “best friend” Rose, and Ivan) performing a concert for the super amazing Zoe and all the peons beneath her greatness (Alya, Alix, Nino, and Mylene). Luka notes its been a while since Marinette came to the Liberty. Because I guess even the show wants to forget the events of “Sole Crusher”.

Luka is still upset that Marinette hasn't wanted to be around him since their breakup, so after he walks away, the others scheme to force them to spend time together.

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Yep, even though they promised to back off in “Gang of Secrets”, Marinette's friends are once again trying to meddle in Marinette's personal life as well as Luka's this time. Because it's not like they can understand how hard it is for two exes to remain friends after a breakup and give them their space, right? They plan to invite Marinette to Luka and Juleka's birthday party while reminding the audience that they're twins.

YES. THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TWINS. ASTRUC HAS NEVER SAID OTHERWISE OR CONTRADICTED THIS STATEMENT IN THE PAST.

LUKA WAS NEVER TWO YEARS OLDER THAN JULEKA, JUST LIKE THERE WAS NEVER A WAR IN BA SING SE.

In all seriousness, I do feel like I was a little hard on Astruc for this. Compared to other things he's made canon on Twitter, this is fairly minor, and we only knew Luka was the older brother at first through a tweet. And considering the other retcon we'll see in the very next scene, this isn't as big of a deal as I made it initially.

Alya invites Marinette to the party, but she easily deduces that it's a trap. Alya then tries to convince Marinette to talk to Luka.

Uh... since when? When did Marinette lose all romantic feelings for Luka? The whole point of the breakup in “Truth” was to show that she couldn't pursue a romantic relationship with Luka because of her duties as Ladybug. She never showed any signs of not loving him, which made the breakup all the more tragic. Yeah, “Mr. Pigeon 72” was an excuse for her to go back to loving Adrien because the writers don't know how to write anything else, but it didn't mean she stopped loving Luka. You know, it's almost like the writers want to make sure the audience knows Lukanette will never happen and the sacred Love Square is the only way Marinette will ever feel love for someone else.

Alya still forces Marinette to go, making her ask Juleka if Luka won't be there. Some people have gone down on Marinette for this, but she does later acknowledge how wrong this was to ask, and apologizes to Juleka for trying to force her to do something she didn't want to do. If only Marinette's friends learned the same lesson.

Juleka goes to tell Luka about the party, but hesitates to tell Luka he can't go there. While he knows Juleka is hiding something, Luka is distracted by the sudden arrival of his father who he loves despite abandoning him for his entire life, Jagged Stone. However, Luka and Juleka's mother, the anarchy-loving Anarka isn't happy that much like his sperm when the condom broke, Jagged came in without her permission.

At the day of the party, Marinette panics as soon as she sees Luka, who in turn realizes she didn't want to see him. Rather than comfort Juleka who just ran away crying, the others comfort Luka, preventing him from being akumatized by Shadowmoth, though he still keeps his Akuma around just to be safe. Marinette apologizes to Juleka before Shadowmoth can akumatize her too (even though she got a Magical Charm in “Guiltrip” so it wouldn't work either way). Then Shadowmoth tries to akumatize one of the guests as they find out Jagged (who just arrived) is Luka's father, but since they're dumb teenagers who don't know Jagged was winning awards and being celebrated as a rock icon while Anarka was working two jobs and struggling to make enough money for rent, they think it's awesome. Very confusing day for Shadowmoth, isn't it?

Marinette also finds out Jagged is Juleka's father and finds out Juleka worries Jagged loves Luka more since they share more interests, which she thinks is true when Jagged gives Luka a guitar case and instructs her to not tell his sister. Marinette tries to call out Jagged for neglecting Juleka over Luka even though Jagged was more of a father to his pet crocodile than either of his biological children, but it's obviously a gift for Juleka, the first bass guitar Jagged ever owned, which calms her down. Funny how nobody acknowledges how Jagged practically abandoned his family, isn't it? Sure, it looks like he's trying to make up for it, but he just acts like he's always been Luka and Juleka's dad and they don't have any problems with their father literally never being in their lives until now.

Jagged's gift to Luka is a record of the first record he made in his band with Anarka before they broke up, Crododuel, but Anarka is naturally pissed he wants to give that to Luka. Jagged and Anarka argue over which one was the Yoko Ono in their relationship while they both grab the record, which Shadowmoth uses to akumatize the two as it breaks, turning them back into Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock respectively, Shadowmoth labeling them as Crocoduel.

Unlike the other team Akumas like the Punishers or the Gang of Secrets, Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock care more about fighting each other than working together, and they see getting Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous as a competition to help prove who was right in their argument. It's a pretty interesting gimmick, though I don't get how Shadowmoth thinks this will help him and not ignore Ladybug and Cat Noir while they fight.

Alya provides a distraction to help Marinette transform, and after we get Adrien's single scene to remind the audience he's still a main character, he transforms into Cat Noir. The two heroes give chase, but then Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock decide to take their fight to above the clouds.

Yeah, it's not like you have a form that specifically allows you two to fly, right?

All they had to say was that Marinette was still making more potions for that form, and it would have been better than ignoring the fact that they can fly.

Much like the hotel room during the night Luka and Juleka were conceived, the crossfire from Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock's fight starts to damage the area around them. Ladybug and Cat Noir get Luka and Juleka to safety, and Luka tells them about what's happening, while Ladybug spouts the lesson about people needing to talk even though they don't love each other anymore, reflecting the situation the writers retconned her into learning.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a roll of scotch tape, and comes up with an idea that involves Juleka. She takes her away into an alleyway and gives her the Tiger Miraculous. The tiger Kwami, Roarr, demands Juleka show some courage, so Juleka yells in her face. Unfortunately, as much as I want to show this scene, the subs I got don't really match up, so I can't really give some screenshots of it. So I guess you can watch this scene from Full Metal Jacket instead to get the gist of things.

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So Juleka takes the Tiger Miraculous and transforms into Purple Tigress.

I think the suit has a pretty good design. I like the striped pattern with the gold highlights around the black stripes, and think the color scheme is visually pleasing, especially the hair. I wouldn't call it one of my favorite hero suits, but I still like the way it looks.

Cat Noir launches Ladybug and Purple Tigress into the air where they split up to steal both halves of the record, but when they break them, no Akuma comes out. It turns out that since the record was broken while Jagged and Anarka were akumatized, they need to put it together again before breaking it in order to free the Akuma.

Purple Tigresse goes to distract Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock with her power, Collision, which she uses to KNOCK CAPTAIN HARDROCK'S SHIP ABOVE THE CLOUDS, TAKING GUITAR VILLAIN WITH HER.

Why the hell did it take four seasons to break this Miraculous out if it gives the user the ability to go Super Saiyan on the enemy? I think Cat Noir's expression after seeing the power in action says it all.

Cat Noir Cataclysms the record (because a record is just so hard to break without using the power of destruction, isn't it?), Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix everything, Jagged and Anarka somehow weren't killed by their own daughter, the three heroes pound it, and Ladybug gives two Magical Charms to Jagged and Anarka.

Back at the Liberty, Juleka tells the two to forget what caused them to break up and just apologize while they ignore the past, proving the writers really don't get how hard it is to move on from tough events in life. And despite building it up for the entire episode, Marinette and Luka talk in the final thirty seconds of the episode and just agree to be friends, meaning once again, Luka was sidelined in what should have been a focus episode for him.

Aside from the way Jagged and Anarka's relationship was portrayed coupled with the retcons surrounding Luka, this episode was alright in my opinion. Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock are some of my favorite Akumas, so I thought it was nice to see them again, even if we didn't get to see their powers at full potential. I also thought this was a really good episode for Juleka, as I felt like the hero debut really helped her grow as a person and didn't just feel like she was given a Miraculous because the plot said so. She wanted to help her parents, and using the Tiger gave her the courage to symbolically speak out while potentially launching them into the stratosphere.

But the biggest problem to me has to be the way Jagged is portrayed in the episode. Just like with “Truth”, the idea of Jagged being a terrible parent is just swept under the rug and everyone just accepts the fact that Jagged is Luka and Juleka's dad very well. Despite the idea leading to some interesting drama in a show that's no stranger to family drama, they don't really do much with the whole “Jagged abandoning Anarka” thing. Aside from a brief interaction between Luka and Jagged while the former was akumatized into Truth, nobody is really angry at Jagged. Nobody really feels angry at Jagged for what he did, despite the drama being the main focus behind the episode that also had the Lukanette breakup. You would think this would at least lead to some tension between his family, but nothing really comes from it other than an argument that was pretty much played for laughs. But considering this show has a history of teaching kids to love their parents no matter how cruel they are to them, I'm not entirely surprised.

Overall, it's just a decent, albeit forgettable episode. If the writing with Jagged was different, it could have been a lot better in my opinion.

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makeste · 3 years

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BnHA Chapter 315: I Didn’t Expect This to Blow Up

Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “guess which plot that you thought was dead is actually not dead and is making a comeback!” and we were all “EVIL HPSC??” and he was all “girl you know it,” and that’s the story of how we got a sexy Lady Nagant flashback with lots of guns and murder. Flashback!Lady was all “gotta murder peeps to preserve the people’s trust,” but then a little while later she was like “actually wait that makes no sense,” and so she shot her evil boss and they sent her to jail. Back in the present, Deku was all “okay fair, the hero system might in fact be a little fucked up, but hear me out... have you considered not helping AFO take over the world so he can murder like a bazillion more innocent people??” The chapter ended with the not-all-there Overhaul finally revealing himself to Deku, and I honestly have no idea where this is gonna go.

Today on BnHA: In what is unfortunately the single worst plan ever concocted by anyone in BnHA, Nagant is all “I’m going to try and get this Deku kid to panic and freeze up by putting someone in mortal danger.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t panic and freeze up at the sight of someone in mortal danger].” Nagant is all “omg no way.” Deku, who is now all of a sudden being so OP that even I have to acknowledge that it’s OP lol, is all “[smashes Nagant’s gun arm to bits]”, which sucks but is also really cool, and which also apparently makes Nagant decide that she actually likes this kid after all. Deku is all “NAGANT I REALLY LIKE YOU AND THINK YOU’RE GREAT SO PLEASE JOIN UP WITH ME AND STOP BEING EVIL.” Nagant is all “aw shucks (✿ •͈ᴗ•͈) well okay then” and everyone is all “( ･◡･) ✰ ( ˆᴗˆ ) ( ᵘ ᵕ ᵘ ⁎)” and then Nagant FUCKING EXPLODES LIKE AN EGG IN THE MICROWAVE AND FALLS TO HER DEATH!!!! except not really because Hawks saves her??? In conclusion, (a) THE FUCK, and (b) AFO TURN ON YOUR LOCATION I JUST WANT TO TALK.

so I have to tell you guys something, which is that barely ten minutes after I made that “please don’t send me spoilers” post the other day, someone replied to the comments in a stunning fit of “tell me that you’re twelve without actually telling me you’re twelve” energy and posted what seemed to be the copy-pasted spoiler summary from reddit or twitter or whatever lol. so here is my good news/bad news rundown of all that

good news: I have very well-conditioned ABORT!! reflexes and have trained myself to immediately look away from the screen (usually in dramatic fashion) as soon as I realize that whatever I’m reading is a spoiler

bad news: unfortunately as I was subsequently deleting said comments, I accidentally read the very last one

good news??: said spoiler was so unbelievably, absurdly over-the-top that I’m almost positive this person was just trolling. like, there’s just no way lmao

bad news: but in the unlikely event that it is true I will absolutely lose my shit I swear to god

(ETA: “NAGANT DIES.” that was the spoiler I read lol. like, literally all I read from the person’s comments was “My Hero Academia Chapter 315 Title: “Beautiful Words.” Chapter starts with...” and then I noped out of there, and then of all the comments to read as I was deleting, it had to be that one lol. I seriously was just like “SURE, JAN.” all “just how gullible do you think I am” sob. but I was wrong. a troll, but an honest troll they remain.

but anyways like I’m pretty sure Nagant isn’t even actually dead lol, so in the end this whole little adventure doesn’t even have a point to it, but for me it was a journey!)

anyway, so there are apparently two versions of the chapter today?? no idea what the difference is, but I’m going to go with the Bean version, because it’s the one at the top and I don’t feel like making decisions today

huh, so Overhaul is actually more coherent than Horikoshi was letting on

look at him having a whole back and forth conversation with her. side note, how is he still this jacked when he’s been sitting in a cell doing absolutely nothing for the past six months

anyway so he says he’ll go with her on one condition. I wonder what that condition could possibly be. do you think it could be the thing he literally hasn’t shut up about ever since he reappeared lol

yep! and damn -- maybe this guy will surprise me after all

still would be nice if you also felt a bit sorry for the little girl you tortured and traumatized, but this is something at least. maybe Deku will yell at him for that other stuff lol

(ETA: also can’t help but wonder if he wants to make amends because he put him in a coma, or because his plan was a failure and ended up destroying the family. just hoping you’ve finally had that “hurting other people is bad” epiphany dude.)

anyways so now Nagant’s arm is transforming again, and this particular transformation happens to be the only truly unsexy thing that Nagant has done thus far so I’m just gonna skip right on ahead lol

aaaaand we’re back to the delirious ranting

buddy. just. read the fucking room, guy

wow she really is aiming at Overhaul, then. those theories were spot-on

damn she’s really out here all “it really fucks with kids’ heads when you kill people right in front of them and make them blame themselves” like yo

I’m picturing her saying all this in a very loud stage-whispery tone while making very significant eye contact with Deku lol

uh oh but wait

um. okay. who’s gonna tell her. Nagant I might have some bad news for you about the kid you’re trying to capture here. specifically about the way he tends to do the opposite of what you’re thinking that he’s about to do

holy shit

so it’s basically just “tap x repeatedly to charge up your attack” lol

and okay, so that’s cool and all, but is anyone else wincing at the thought of what that must be like on his knees. oh to be young

anyway, but so to the surprise of basically no one, Deku did not, in fact, freeze. I am very sorry, Nagant. he’s just like this

LMAO

someone wanna tell me how getting yoloed in the fucking ribs by this fucking slingshot kid moving at literal sniper bullet speed is in any way even remotely better than getting hit by the bullet itself lol

(ETA: this is 10x funnier now that we know the bullet wasn’t even gonna hit him lmao.)

anyway so now Nagant is having an extended “!?!?!?” reaction about how Deku just moved with no hesitation, and I’m starting to get an inkling of fear that the rest of this fight isn’t going to go very well for her and maybe that’s what all the “hoo boy” is about

oh my god Deku are you about to Gomu Gomu no Rocket yourself at her you insane little man

now Three is popping up again and he’s all “I see you’ve learned your lesson and are now only using three quirks at once instead of five” like with all this effusive praise about how great and badass Deku is and sob, okay, yeah. this chapter is basically one of those machines that shoots tennis balls at people, except instead of tennis balls it shoots hot piping discourse

OH MY GOD

YOOOOOOOOOO but also, NOOOOOOOOOOO

lol oh my god it’s literally two opposing reactions at once wtf. do I love this or hate this. like just for once can Horikoshi actually let a badass lady character win their fucking fight without getting their arm ripped off, BUT ALSO fucking look at that absurdly cool “SMASH” onomatopoeia though. it looks like it’s about to float right off the page holy shit that’s some seriously good art

anyway so is this really the end?? do I need to break out my ಠ_ಠ faces

lmao okay yeah I can definitely see how this would piss a lot of people off

he basically one-shotted her and she’s all “damn this kid is so amazing that I’m about to do a complete 180 turn on all of my previous angst” lmao. Horikoshi is really shounening it up today

on the plus side though, maybe this means there’s still a chance for her to join up with him after all? unless that spoiler was true lmao, then all hell is gonna break loose

YESSSSSSS

OH MY GOD AND HE SAYS THE BULLET WOULDN’T HAVE DONE MORE THAN GRAZE OVERHAUL ANYWAY, wow, I’m actually more relieved by that than I would have expected. I mean I would have forgiven her either way, but it means that there was still more hero in her than she was letting on

YES!!! FUCKING YES, THANK YOU

lol but I mean, it’s also like, “oh so today they get to have brain cells”, thank you so much lol. sometimes it’s really hard to tell which times we’re supposed to question these character decisions that seem dumb, and which times we’re just supposed to full on embrace them and switch off our critical thinking

but okay, so in this case it really was Nagant going easy on him on purpose, and not just her fucking up for no good reason even though she used to do this for a living and was the best in the game. and I know in this case it’s probably just Horikoshi giving us some consolation headpats to soften the blow of her losing so abruptly, but you know what, shit. I’ll take it

also you guys the light is coming back into Deku’s eyes again for just a moment here and I’m having feels about it?? the way it still comes back when he’s reaching out to save someone, and following his own hero path instead of the much darker and lonelier Christopher Nolan path that’s been laid out for him instead that he never wanted?? it’s both reassuring and also very sad

YESSSSSSSSSSS

DO IT LADY OMG PLEASE?? PLEASE COME BE HIS NEW IRRESPONSIBLE ADULT SUPERVISION YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO

AHHHHHHH SHE’S GONNA DO IT AHHHH

p.s. I am now absolutely scared shitless that that spoiler was actually true sob. swear to god, I will throw this manga into a fucking volcano. but we’re almost at the end of the chapter and this seems just WAY TOO GOOD to be true fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck f

UCK

NOPE NAH SEND IT BACK, NOPE, NUH UH, DIDN’T ORDER THIS. “GULLIBLE” OKAY FUCK YOU?? “COUNTERMEASURES” NOPE, DON’T NEED ‘EM, WE’RE ALL FINE HERE. WE’RE ACTUALLY GOOD SO YOU CAN JUST GO, OKAY. PLEASE

fuck, lol, I don’t wanna do it. I don’t wanna scroll down what have I ever done to deserve this oh my god

WHAT THE HONEY-ROASTED FUCK

WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT FUCKING VOLCANO IN ICELAND THAT I KEEP SEEING ALL THESE PICTURES OF. WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT. LET’S GO

ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW

can someone please give AFO a really good, sharpish kick in the balls. just really let him have it. I’m so tired, what the fuck

-- ARE YOU KIDDING ME LOL WHAT

bro. I was literally going through my Excel folders to find the spreadsheet about female characters in BnHA that I made back when Midnight died. was gearing myself up for a wholeass rant. and honestly I might just let all of that continue simmering on low to keep it warm just in case lol, because to tell you the truth I have absolutely no idea what’s happening right now

my girl straight up does not have a face. she used to have a face. people usually need those, idk. like, even if she’s alive, her gorgeous eyebrows are definitely not making it out of this and I’m gonna throw a funeral just for them

how the fuck did AFO just blow her up?? how did he know what was going on?? and if he had a quirk that could explode people at will, why is this the first we’re hearing of it?? you’d think that might have come in handy at Kamino or Jakku, like what

(ETA: present!me, who’s had more than three hours of sleep and can now actually remember facts about the series, would like to remind past!me that AFO gave Nagant a quirk, and so this is probably just more Vestige shenanigans now on his part. that’s also probably why Air Walk suddenly stopped working out of nowhere. still doesn’t explain why he doesn’t go around blowing people up more often though but maybe he thinks it’s gauche.)

Hawks just straight up out of nowhere. just Mirioed his way straight into the chapter just in time to be too late sob. here I was looking forward to seeing your face when Deku showed up with his new best friend. can’t believe Horikoshi deprived us of that moment

on the plus side, WELCOME BACK, HAWKS’S FEATHERS. I have no doubt that in this chapter of Deku being an almighty threequirk-mastering god, and Nagant losing anticlimactically only to be immediately blown up because girl characters in BnHA can only be cool for one fight and one fight only, there are still some people who are focusing solely on the “how dare Hawks get his wings back when he is a MURDERER this is an outrage what about CONSEQUENCES” discourse, and to hell with all the other discourses lmao

anyway, so yeah. wow. and now it’s just occurring to me that maybe the real reason why Overhaul is there is so he can get a head start on that amend-making by actually doing a good thing for once in his life, and using his quirk to heal Nagant. assuming he can still do that

and so now Horikoshi has got me out here actually rooting for Overhaul. you know what, on that note I think I’m just gonna go ahead and call it a day sob

#bnha 315 #overhaul #chisaki kai #lady nagant #midoriya izuku #all for one #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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onceupona-chaos · 3 years

Text

SJM setting up a forbidden romance

(And why I think ACOSF was written to set up Elriel)

This is my interpretation and obviously an Elriel post. So if that's not your cup of tea, be warned.

I made this post to basically organize my thoughts and then I decided to post it (lol). Here I talk why I think Elriel will be endgame based on my perspective that SJM already set up a lot of things that point to Elriel and a forbidden romance.

ACOSF is the first book of a new trilogy, which means SJM wrote it with an overarching plot in mind that we began to know in ACOSF. So whatever happens in ACOTAR5 is a direct consequence of the events in ACOSF.

For example, SJM won't kill Koschei and write another plot. She made her decisions when she was writing ACOSF and the overarching plot already started to be established.

I already made a post talking about the plot. I think Elain is the only character that can move the plot forward, because she's Made, therefore she can find the fourth trove and she has a connection with Koschei, which combined with how little we know about her and her powers makes her the perfect main character. But here I want to talk a little about how Sarah wrote ACOSF preparing Elain's character in terms of romance and how she set up a future forbidden romance.

At this point, it is canon that Elain is Azriel's secret, I'm not going to talk too much about, because you can check this amazing post here.

SJM structured the first book of the new trilogy around the ideia that something is deeply tormenting Azriel to the point he can't sleep and then we find out he has a secret. The bonus chapter made it canon: his secret is Elain, so there's no going back from that.

Just from the book, we know that there's something wrong with Elain and, whatever it is, she is hiding it.

Elain had already departed with Feyre, claiming she had to be up with the dawn to tend to an elderly faerie’s garden. Cassian didn’t exactly know why he suspected this wasn’t true. There had been some tightness in Elain’s face as she’d said it.

Alright, so the regular reader knows something is up with these two characters. (That alone is already a reason for the next book be about them, but moving on)

But when ACOSF is read with the perspective of a future forbidden romance in mind, we understand precisely why SJM needed us to know some very specific information.

Azriel's personality traits

SJM highlighted specific personality traits of our bat boy:

Az had a vicious competitive streak. It wasn’t boastful and arrogant, the way Cassian knew he himself was prone to be, or possessive and terrifying like Amren’s. No, it was quiet and cruel and utterly lethal. Cassian had lost track of how many games they’d played over the centuries, with one of them certain of a win, only for Az to reveal some master strategy. Or how many games had been reduced to only Rhys and Az left standing, battling it out over cards or chess until the middle of the night, when Cassian and Mor had given up and started drinking.

Sarah made a show to tell the reader the fact that Azriel is competitive, so she needs us to remember that.

That whole scene had one job: to emphasize that Azriel is competitive and strategist.

Now, if Azriel is giving up on Elain and moving on to another character, why bother to let the reader know he doesn't give up easily? If he is going to just give up on the only female that is making him get over his five hundred years passion, why bother to write a scene where he spares with Cassian only to tell the reader that?

Mostly important, why tell the reader that in countless times, Azriel seemed to be loosing, but he turned things around and won?

He's a strategist. Don't forget he planned his strategy for the snowball fight for a year.

“It seems you’ve forgotten how much of spying is waiting for the right moment. People don’t engage in their evil deeds when it’s convenient to you.”

Cassian rolled his eyes. “I stopped spying because it bored me to death. I don’t know how you put up with this all the time.”

“It suits me.” Azriel didn’t halt his sharpening, though shadows gathered around his feet.

When I read this for the first time, I honestly hadn't understood the meaning of the shadows gathering around his feet and it clearly had a deeper meaning.

But reading again, SJM used Cassian's character to emphasize that Azriel waits for the right moment all the time. Not only when he is spying. Being patient, calculating, persistent are arguably Azriel's strongest personality traits, at least the ones that are highlighted in ACOSF. Sarah is letting us know Azriel plays the long game and doesn't give up.

Every information SJM is giving us regarding Azriel (and Elain, more on her later) is essencial for a forbidden romance story. If you know what's going on with these characters, all pieces of information just... click together.

Elain's personality traits

This is a bit more complicated, mostly because Elain is passing through an inner change, which means being prepared for her arc.

However, SJM compared Elain to Azriel in ACOSF:

“Elain was the only one who guessed. She caught me vomiting two mornings in a row.” She nodded toward Azriel. “I think she’s got you beat for secret-keeping.”

We already know from ACOMAF that Elain is good at secret-keeping. But here SJM not only reminded us that, but she compared Elain to Azriel in secret-keeping, emphasizing both of them are probably the best in secrecy among the IC.

Remember: these two characters are clearly hiding something in ACSF. It's not a coincidence that SJM compared them in this case.

She scanned Elain from head to toe, wondering if she’d been taking lessons in stealth either from Azriel or the two half-wraiths she called friend.

SJM compared Elain's abilities to Azriel's (and his spies) not once, but twice. And if you take into consideration the previous books, it's not the first time she compares these two characters.

Both of them showed defiant behavior

Defiant: refusing to obey authority

Elain:

“What happened.”

When Rhys spoke like that, it was more of a command than a question.

Elain waved a hand in dismissal before flinging open the veranda doors and striding into the open air.

And of course, he have that fight with Nesta. Nesta isn't exactly authority, but she was described as "Elain's guardian", which means their relationship was at least a little hierarchical.

Azriel:

“No,” Feyre and Rhys said at the same time, in the same breath.

Azriel’s eyes shuttered. “I wasn’t asking for permission.”

“We take no risks,” Feyre said, voice flat with command. “Pull all your spies out.”

“Like hell I will.”

Honestly, is this the guy people are thinking that's going to give up on Elain because of Rhy???????

SJM deliberately let us know about them getting over their previous LI

I've seen a lot o people arguing that "they can't be endgame, because the first couple never is".

But... are we forgetting that they were in love with two different people before?

When Elain met Azriel she was deeply in love with Graysen, and he was still into Mor. The readers didn't even know about Mor sexuality then.

Until ACOFAS, we can see that both of them are not entirely over their LI yet.

Elain:

“I don’t want a mate. I don’t want a male.”

She wanted a human man.

Azriel:

Azriel choked on what I could have sworn was a laugh, his normally shadowed face lighting up as Mor bustled in.

Az, to his credit, gave Mor a smile of thanks, a blush creeping over his cheeks, his hazel eyes fixed on her. I looked away at the heat, the yearning that filled them.

However, we get to see that they are slowly getting closer. Azriel shows he's uncomfortable in spying on Lucien, Elain's throat bobbs at the sight of him, he seeks her out to wish happy Solstice, she gives him a present, they stay up past three in the morning talking and on and on.

Months go by. We already knew they are getting closer and then we have this:

Elain:

She knew Elain had given her maidenhead to Graysen a month before they’d been turned Fae. Elain had been glowing the next morning.

Elain cocked her head. Didn’t dissolve into the crying mess she usually became when Graysen came up.

Elain was glowing: she was in love, happy. She loved Graysen. And now she is getting over him. Not only that: SJM made sure to tell us she has had sex before (and enjoyed very much lol). Elain is clearly being prepared for her arc in terms of character development, plot and romance.

And Azriel:

Mor no longer sat beside Cassian, draped herself over him, and Azriel … those longing glances toward her had become few and far between. As if he’d given up. After five hundred years, he’d somehow given up.

Few and far between. It's a process for both of them to move on. At first they were friendly and then it became something more.

Azriel didn't wake up one day, realized that his brothers were mated to Elain's sisters and went: WAIT A MINUTE I WANT ONE. I would argue he showed interest in Elain since their first meet, just like Cassian showed interest in Nesta. However, Nesta and Cassian weren't in love for anyone else, differently from Elain and Azriel.

Also, Elain and Azriel are very much quieter in comparison, so... it makes sense that they needed more time to get closer and be romantic interested in each other.

But again: why bother to tell us both of them are moving on from their previous LI? Why tell us Azriel doesn't give up easily? Why tell us they are both good at keeping secrets and are hiding something?

SJM knew exactly what she was doing.

#pro elain #elriel #pro elriel

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seyaryminamoto · 3 years

Note

As someone, who's favourite character is Zuko, let me just say that your analysis about the Southern Raiders is spot on. Something about that episode (especially the way Zuko acted) always felt a little... off to me. And I could never figure out what it was exactly and considering the fact that discussion about this episode centered around the Kataang vs Zutara, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. So, I guess thanks for putting my thoughts into words.

Oh, I really feel ya, anon. If you actually don't look at the episode from a shipping point of view, which seems to be the focus of most the fandom, a lot of unpleasant things really start sticking out. I'm personally neutral to the Kataang vs. Zutara debate, I see good points and drawbacks to both ships, and no one's going to convince me that this episode proved the superiority of either pairing, especially when the shipping interpretations have never been important to me when analyzing this episode. People can say Aang is right in the end, they can say Zuko understands Katara's plight better (which, considering Aang has lost even more people he loved than Zuko has, he certainly should have understood Katara's suffering quite well too), but focusing on whether Zuko or Aang are the angel or the devil on Katara's shoulders practically blinds everyone to the very glaring and mindboggling flaws in this episode's writing, imo.

In general, the concept of Zuko's life-changing field trips with the three Gaang members he'd wronged the most is fine and fun for most people, but from the first time I watched the show it felt like the production team knew they were pressed for time and needed some veeeery quick and effective solution for Zuko to gain acceptance in the Gaang ASAP despite all the bad blood there. I can imagine a lot of people love these episodes, but admittedly I wouldn't rank any of them among my favorites because, as interesting as some of their concepts could be, if executed right, my immersion certainly wasn't as strong as with the rest of the show due to the nagging feeling that this was all for the sake of redeeming Zuko in the eyes of each Gaang member... and not necessarily in the eyes of the audience.

They get away with it, of course, because by this point in time, the audience is 100% conditioned to love the Gaang and Zuko, and if you see them getting along, you should be rejoicing in their team-up... but if you put some emotional distance between yourself as a viewer and the events of these episodes, their writing leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the concept of giving Zuko a quick whitewashing in the eyes of Aang, Sokka and Katara, one after the other, so they can genuinely accept him as a teammate and friend. If we'd seen similar trips frequently or occasionally in the rest of the show, with two specific members of the team taking off on an adventure by themselves, it might not be so glaringly obvious (and even... artificial? I guess?) that they're trying to quick-redeem him for each of them here, but on top of it happening thrice, it's literally happening one after the other, too. There's no episodes in-between, it's just literally a four-parter arc of "let's help Zuko become friends with these three".

The plotlines to be dealt with in these episodes are basically catered to each Gaang member, tailor-made life-changing field trips based on whatever they'll value the most, all of it conveniently possible and doable in the span of time they have between Zuko's joining of their group and the show's finale. Aang needs to learn firebending, Sokka needs to save his dad, Katara is permanently grieving for her mother's death. And so, Zuko to the rescue! If he helps them with their personal character quests, he gets 50+ approval points! :'D Honestly, I'm absolutely not against the notion of Zuko befriending them, obviously not, but the methods through which they chose to make it happen simply might not be the finest...?

Zuko loses his ability to bend because he "lost his rage", but he's still angry pretty often, the show even spoofs its own writing by showing him losing his patience at Sokka... while at the same time trying to sell that Zuko "isn't angry" anymore? Zuko helps break out random prisoners from the Boiling Rock without taking a single moment to actually learn who they are, why they were locked up, and without pondering if they deserve to be helped or if perhaps they're genuinely dangerous? Zuko gives Katara every possible tool and information she needs to take revenge on Yon Rha, because, loosely quoting his own words, he "cares what she thinks of him"...?

How about if we'd seen Zuko trying to connect with Fire Nation people, to help his fellow Fire Nation citizens, especially the ones who were living in dreadful conditions, like the ones in the Jang Hui river village? How about if we'd seen Zuko saving lives rather than threatening to take them? How about if we'd seen Zuko actually reasoning with his anger, and either working his way out of it, or repurposing it consciously, or making legitimate, personal efforts to find a new source of strength for his firebending through self-reflection, above all else?

We didn't really need sudden one-on-one field trips to teach Aang, Katara and Sokka to trust Zuko: we needed Zuko to prove himself worthy of that trust, to show how much he has changed, to literally contrast his new behavior with the old, to actually see that the guy no longer jumps into violence-mode 24/7, that he's willing to listen to other people's opinions or wisdom, that he wants to learn better when he knows he's misguided or misunderstanding something or another. Would he have become BFFs with any of them in four episodes if this had happened? Well, it definitely would have happened with Aang, the other two would have been trickier, but they definitely would have been more willing to accept him if they actually got to SEE that the changes in Zuko weren't skin-deep. Katara can be as thick-headed and stubborn as she may want to be, but I have no doubts she wouldn't have been able to hate Zuko as much as she used to if she'd seen him helping people, much like she often wants their group to do. But instead, they don't get to see the actual changes and growth... they just get their biggest goals and wishes satisfied, and that's enough to decide Zuko's trustworthy, no matter whatever sketchy behavior he displays in later episodes.

I absolutely appreciate the worldbuilding context we gain for the raids on the Water Tribe through The Southern Raiders, but I don't think this was an organic way to tell the story of how Zuko became friends with the Gaang. If pressed, I'd even say that Zuko's overt desperation to be their friend is OOC, to a degree: if this guy actually knows how dangerous his father's plans are (and he's supposed to :'D), how isn't he focusing on that side of things, when he's always been such a go-getter? It's not like he grew out of this sort of ends-justify-the-means behavior, seeing as he's absolutely obsessed with stopping his father ASAP, by any means possible, in the finale, when there was no such urgency to be found ever since he joined the Gaang. How isn't he more worried about stopping Ozai than about becoming best friends with the Gaang? Immediately sharing everything he's learned about Ozai's intentions of destroying the whole world might not make them friends instantaneously, but it would certainly get someone like Sokka to take his information seriously and immediately begin strategizing how to counter Ozai's plans. Instead, Zuko spent all those weeks, over a month, even, teaching Aang firebending, going on field trips and hanging out with his new friends in Ember Island. Once you have all the cards on deck and you actually look at all of them at once, doesn't it feel like there were so many more ways to achieve what the show was going for, far more effective ways than through the "let's be friends with Zuko" arc?

Ultimately, there's very little display of growth, in my opinion, in this small arc, on Zuko's side, despite the most obvious and reasonable way to earn the trust of the Gaang would be by outright showing them how much he's grown. I won't deny I appreciate that the writers respected his personality and didn't just warp him into the perfect good softboi the way the fandom apparently interprets him, but even if Zuko was going to be cranky and speak one-liners like "I'm never happy", it wasn't impossible to write better situations for him to connect with the Gaang's members and gain their trust. Even if the writers were set on having these episodes happen exactly as they did, they absolutely could have been written in a much better way, to create an explicit and direct contrast between Zuko's early behavior and the new Zuko's behavior when it comes to things that matter (most the parallels I've seen the fandom drawing are things like "oh look he hated tea before but now he brews it for his friends! So much growth!"... would've been nice to see the growth when it came to a lot of other things, too, if the growth really was there? Am I rite...?).

I may just be influenced by other redemption arcs that focus mainly on characters having common goals and working together to achieve them, then becoming friends in the process... but I really don't see how Zuko's character benefited from these episodes. Yes, bridges were built... but they absolutely could have been built in a more organic way that didn't make people like myself (and a few others) question if Zuko had learned or grown at all, considering the way he behaves isn't all that distant from the Zuko we've seen and known throughout the rest of the show. And the fact that he really seems to have learned nothing in The Southern Raiders once you reach the show's finale... you're basically asked to take for granted Zuko did learn a lot of lessons because he says he did, to assume he's going to put them into practice sometime in the future despite he has chances to do it during the show itself but never does, simply because they drop the ball upon every opportunity to show how much he's changed.

I really don't blame his character at all, when it comes to these shortcomings... it's seriously, genuinely, a problem with the writing department. Take a look through the fandom and you'll see thousands of people who claim Zuko's character arc is the most touching, complex and beautiful writing they ever have seen... and why? Because we're in the face of tell-don't-show :'D most people's perception of Zuko's character are based not so much on HOW Zuko displays his growth, it's strongly based on him stating he made progress, even if there's too many instances where the growth simply seems to have fallen to the wayside or gone forgotten for the sake of a plotline or another. Zuko absolutely could have been written far better than this, he could absolutely have the redemption arc his fans are sure he does have, but for me... there's way too many gaps in logic, too many missed opportunities, to truly think his growth was as extraordinary as a lot of people are hung up on saying it was.

#anon #woops #I probably shouldn't have written this much here but what can I say #I've got beef with these storylines #and I unfortunately can't bbq it (?)#so instead I ramble and ramble and hope you guys forgive me for how long-winded I can be :'D

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andawaywego · 3 years

Note

If you’re still taking prompts, can I make a suggestion? Could you maybe write one about Jamie being busy starting up the leafling (or something) and Dani feels a little neglected so she buys something sexy to get Jamie’s attention.

so i actually had a few prompts for Dani buying lingerie. i guess we were all thinking it, huh? this kinda got away from me, but i hope you like it! smutty smut ahoy.

Valentine’s Day, Jamie is learning, is one of the most brutal holidays there is; at least, it is when you own a flower shop. Two years in and it’s a hard lesson. Tiring, even. Exhausting. The orders start pouring in starting about a week out and then it’s practically nonstop until the whole thing is over.

Last year, it felt like they got through it by the skin of their teeth. By the end of it, she and Dani had gotten so good at communicating a lot of information quickly—order sizes, specifics, pickup times—that they’ve almost become mind readers. At least when it comes to each other.

This became especially useful once they hit wedding season that same year and Jamie only realizes how much she’s come to rely on this anomaly once she’s without it.

On Valentine’s Day this year, Dani is sick and at their apartment resting and Jamie is forced to finish everything up on her own. It could be worse, she thinks, because the timing is at least a little less suffocating than it may have been if she’d had to send Dani home early the day before. The only business she’s really had all day were customers coming by to pick up their orders or last-minute love day stragglers coming in to buy whatever she had left.

It could be worse. Really it could.

By the time she closes things up, the whole shop sort of looks like someone took a large vacuum to it, sucking up just about all the plant life from the displays and walls. It looks sort of like a ghost town. Jamie briefly imagines a tumbleweed rolling by. Locks the door behind herself. Turns her feet towards home.

She worries as she walks, the complex where they live only a few blocks from the shop itself. Wonders if maybe she should stop somewhere and get some soup for Dani or something, and then remembers that it’s Valentine’s Day and decides to avoid going to a restaurant.

She can always come back out and brave the headache later. Right now, she’s mostly focused on getting home to check on her girlfriend.

The apartment is quiet when she steps inside. It isn’t as if she was expecting any different, but it still catches her off guard. Only the lamp by the sofa is clicked on, meaning that the rest of the space is shadowed in darkness. The radiators by the window hum and it’s a little too hot—buildings like this, she’s learned, don’t know the meaning of “happy medium.” They spend the summers fanning themselves like southern church ladies and the winter much the same. Fall is reserved for wearing too many layers as they wait for the building manager to decide to turn on the radiators.

She shrugs off her jacket and hangs it on the coat rack. Keeps her boots on for now even though Dani hates that in case she ends up having to go back out. Heads toward the hallway, toward the bedroom, where she assumes Dani must be resting. Walks slowly to keep the floorboard-squeaking to a minimum.

It isn’t until she passes by the bathroom that she hears it: the music drifting gently from the bedroom. A soft drum beat and a voice singing. She doesn’t immediately recognize the song, too busy wondering why Dani is listening to music while she rests. Gives up on tip-toeing and just hurries the rest of the way.

And then, well—

Hot and stuffy in the apartment from the radiators, sweating a bit in her shirt right at the small of her back, and a shiver still trembles through Jamie’s body when she steps into the bedroom, when she sees what’s waiting for her.

“Hey,” says Dani, perched at the bottom of the bed and smiling in that way Jamie knows she only does when she is very, very nervous.

“I thought you were sick,” says Jamie.

“I know. I’m sorry. I just wanted some time to set all of this up.”

All of this being the record she’s got playing from the stereo in the corner of the room, the candles she has lit on top of the television and on the table next to her side of the bed, and, most importantly, what she’s wearing.

Her makeup, her hair, decked out like every single fantasy Jamie’s ever had and never before let herself consider. Worst of all: she’s wearing lingerie. Purple lingerie. Purple lingerie that hardly leaves anything to the imagination. Jamie swallows so hard it hurts a little.

And she’s seen Dani naked before. Of course, she has. Plenty of times. She’s seen her in nice underwear that matched the bra she had on a handful of times, too. But this is different. Lovely on her or not, those things were still functional as undergarments. And this? This isn’t.

This is see-through lace and long, smooth legs. It’s ruffles and a short-sleeved silk robe that’s hanging off her shoulders just enough to make Jamie’s mouth water.

This isn’t functional. This was designed to cause the exact reaction that it has; this was designed to be taken off.

Dani rolls her shoulders back and flutters her eyelashes in a way that should be silly, but only succeeds in making Jamie’s blood race more thoroughly through her veins. “You’re staring,” she says, playing innocence so well that Jamie almost feels guilty about her inability to tear her eyes away.

Except Dani bought this at some point just for the sole purpose of sitting on their bed looking like that. She did that knowing full well that Jamie wouldn’t be able to keep from eyeing the curves and sways of her, the pale skin and soft lines of her jaw and neck. Wouldn’t be able to want anything more than to press Dani back into their mattress and cover every inch of her, lace and all, with her mouth, her tongue, her hands, and—

“Yeah,” she says. “I am.”

“Something the matter?” asks Dani, so utterly dedicated to this flirtatious act of naivete.

“No, I’m good. Perfect.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yep.” Jamie turns to glance at the record player as “All Out of Love” comes on. “Cheery song.”

Dani’s act falters. She blushes. “I didn’t know this was on here. It’s...new.”

Jamie frowns and walks over to the record player, reaching for the unfamiliar album sleeve. “Oh? What is it?”

She feels almost guilty for knocking Dani off her game, but she’s so desperately starved for context, for anything concrete to grasp onto so that she doesn’t just pounce, that she just waits for an answer. As it turns out, she doesn’t need one; the cover speaks for itself.

“Wait,” she says, looking it over. “Is this…?”

“You’re not allowed to laugh,” says Dani, pointing at her sternly.

Jamie smiles. “Not laughing. I just can’t believe you actually bought this.”

“The commercials were very convincing!”

“Did you actually call the place?” is her next question because she can’t imagine her girlfriend calling some commercial-boasted number to buy a four-record album named Secret Love just for this occasion. Jamie usually has to call and make her doctor’s appointments for her.

Dani blinks. “No,” she says. “I sent them a check.”

Jamie grins. Can’t help it. Loves Dani so very much at this moment. “Just one payment of $19.95?” she teases and it works: Dani smiles, too, looking less nervous by the second.

“It’s a good deal, you know,” she says.

“I never said it wasn’t.”

“You had a tone.”

“I did not have a tone.”

“Sure you did.”

Jamie isn’t actually sure how she’s managing to control herself anymore. That silk robe slipping off Dani’s shoulder looks so enticing; she wants to press her mouth to the skin it’s left uncovered. Wants other things, too—so many she can hardly decide where to start.

She sets the album back down and takes a few, slow steps towards her girlfriend. Still too far, but closer. “You went to all this trouble,” she says, “for me?”

Dani’s expression softens and she gets to her feet, moving closer. “Yeah, Jay. I did. We’ve just been...so busy lately, which is great! Don’t get me wrong! But...you’ve had so much on your plate and it’s stressful and I didn’t want us to...not get a Valentine’s Day. You know?”

Jamie isn’t sure what there is to say to that except for: “I love you.”

Another step forward and then Dani is grabbing her hands. “I love you, too,” she says, hypnotizing in this outfit, in this lighting, all the time. Her gaze sticks to the pale skin visible through the lace at Dani’s waist, so distracted that she hardly notices when she’s being turned around and pushed back toward the bed, gently guided by Dani’s hands on her shoulders to sit down on the mattress.

The mattress isn’t very tall, which means that, when Dani sinks to her knees, she’s only really a head shorter than Jamie. Her palms run up Jamie’s trouser-covered thighs, fingers curling around them a bit to guide them open a bit so that she can slide her body between them, get closer. Her body is fever-hot and Jamie has the sudden thought that she may not make it out of this surprise alive.

Dani has a knack for making her feel like she’s two seconds from a heart attack every time they’re intimate already. Now she’s wearing lingerie and looking at Jamie like that and Jamie doesn’t know where to put her hands, or where to settle her eyes.

The swell of Dani’s breasts is enticing, so she looks it over for a bit, and then there’s her freckled collarbones, the sleek and taut muscles of her neck. Her pink lips. Jamie feels hot, sweating in her clothes from the heat of the radiators.

Dani looks up at her, blue and brown eyes bright and eager beneath the flutter of her eyelashes. Normally, Jamie would be filling the air with mindless, nervous chatter, trying to calm herself down before the main event, but it feels different this time. The silence, save for the gentle croon of another sappy love song coming from the record player, seems sacred. She doesn’t want to break it for anything.

She curls her fingers in the ends of Dani’s hair, brushing it behind her shoulders, and then Dani is leaning up and she’s leaning down and they’re kissing. Dani’s hands fist the fabric of Jamie’s shirt right at her hips and Jamie cups her face and cranes her neck, and it’s too fucking hot. They should open a window. But Dani’s kisses are hungry and eager and there’s this knot of pain in Jamie’s chest because of it, so she doesn’t dare break away.

Instead, she lifts one of her hands and curves her fingers around Dani’s breast, pushing her palm against it to make the rough lace fabric brush against her nipple. Feels it poke up against her skin a bit and Dani’s answering moan vibrates her lips, flicking her tongue out to tickle the roof of Jamie’s mouth. Jamie scoots forward on the bed to be closer and lifts her other hand to do the same with Dani’s neglected breast.

“Jamie,” Dani pants as she rips her mouth away, eyes clenched shut, “this is supposed to be about you.”

Jamie smiles. “Trust me,” she says,“it is.”

Dani’s eyes open. “That’s not what I mean.”

“What do you mean, then?”

A long look of consideration. Jamie momentarily stops her movements at Dani’s chest. And then Dani unbuttons her trousers and starts tugging at them, saying, “Get these off. That’s what I mean.”

Jamie takes them off. Her shirt, too. Drops each of them to the floor carelessly, too eager for the next part to worry about where they land. In all the rush, Dani begins to slip the silk robe from her shoulders, but Jamie stops her with a shake of her head.

Says, “Leave it on,” with the sort of breathlessness that makes Dani smile.

She leaves it on.

Jamie brushes her thumb against Dani’s nipple and then trails her fingers up the bony press of her sternum. Cups her jaw and cranes her neck down to kiss her, hot press of lips together and Dani gasping into her mouth.

Wanting to be closer in a way this particular position won’t allow, she breaks away from the kiss and guides Dani up by the shoulders until she is sliding her knees onto the mattress on either side of Jamie’s thighs, straddling her. She rolls her hips down and now Jamie can feel the fabric covering Dani’s body against her own skin. Fears she’ll go mad from desire before she can do anything about it.

It’s cooler in just her underwear, certainly, but that doesn’t mean the friction of their bodies together isn’t creating a fine layer of sweat between them. Their legs slide together and Jamie is so wet, so ready, that it’s beginning to hurt a little.

She kisses Dani’s neck and slides her lips up to the corner of her jaw, to her earlobe. She nibbles a little, then scrapes her teeth down to her neck again. Nips at her pulse point then smoothes it over with her tongue. Dani curses against her hair, breath a hot spread across Jamie’s scalp as she rolls her hips down.

A moment later, her hand is working its way inside Jamie’s panties, fingertips brushing against her clit very lightly and it’s Jamie’s turn to curse.

“Fuck.”

Dani smiles, kisses her forehead. “Doing okay?” she asks, that impersonation of complete chastity back in her voice, in her lips, the way her head tilts flirtatiously as Jamie meets her eyes.

“Doing great,” Jamie manages through gritted teeth. She is fighting back the urge to simply reach between them and push Dani’s hand against her harder. She drops her head and presses her lips against one of Dani’s nipples through the lace, mouthing at it hotly and making Dani sag against her, a little boneless, with a moan.

Payback, she thinks, is definitely a bitch.

She can be one, too.

She grips Dani’s hips in that tight, fierce way that Dani likes—thinks it must be at least a little painful, but maybe that’s why Dani likes it—and rolls up into her hand in a way that pushes the back of it between Dani’s own legs.

“Jay,” breathes Dani, and her expression is purposefully seductive, playful even as she is genuinely reacting to Jamie’s movements. She flutters her eyelashes with the best of them and she is the only woman Jamie’s ever been with that can make her go mad just by smiling at her. “Lie back.”

Jamie doesn’t understand the order at first, can’t wrap her head around it because Dani’s fingers are circling her clit now. It isn’t until that hand pulls away and Dani gets back, slowly, to her feet to give her room that she gets it. It feels like every part of her is positively vibrating as she uses her hands to slide back and back. Lowers herself to the mattress all the way and tilts her chin down so she can watch her girlfriend climb up her body in this ridiculously erotic and mind-numbing way.

“God, how are you not naked yet?” she asks, pressing her lips to Jamie’s breastbone, dipping down to tongue at the edge of her bra.

“How are you not fucking me yet?” Jamie returns, just to see Dani’s reaction—the way her cheeks go even pinker, the way she blinks in surprise at her sudden vulgarity.

She swallows thickly. “Patience is a virtue, you know.”

“Not when you look like that it’s not.”

Dani tugs the left cup of Jamie’s bra down and ducks her head to hide the way her expression changes, lips curling around Jamie’s nipple. Jamie can feel her smiling. “Like what?”

“You’re a tease, you know that? You’re such a bloody tease.”

Her mouth moves down to Jamie’s ribcage. “Would you like to lodge a formal complaint?” she asks.

Jamie curls her fingers into her girlfriend’s hair and cranes her neck to get a better look at her in that damned lingerie. “If you don’t touch me soon then yeah, I would.”

She feels the blunt edge of Dani’s teeth below her belly button, scraping down to the waistband of her panties. “Your request has been noted,” says Dani, her voice even and sort of mockingly robotic. “Please allow three to four business for—”

Jamie’s laugh cuts her off, fingers combing through her hair until Dani finally lifts her eyes to look at her again. “Dani, I love you,” she says.

“I love you, too.”

“But you have to do something, or I’m going to—”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Dani catches the edge of Jamie’s panties between her teeth and begins to pull them down like that, laughing around the material as Jamie wiggles and shifts her hips, giggling like a maniac, to try and help. Eventually, hands are required to finish the job. Jamie isn’t actually sure what Dani was thinking.

Goofy, ridiculous Dani. She’s the only woman Jamie’s ever loved, the only woman she’s been able to laugh in bed with, and she went out and bought sexy lingerie, called a number from a commercial to get the proper mood music, sat here on their bed on Valentine’s Day to surprise her.

Jamie doesn’t understand her life, doesn’t understand how she could possibly ever deserve this.

Once her panties are all the way gone and Jamie is naked, save for her bra, Dani’s eyes linger between her legs, a loose smile fixed on those pretty lips. “There you are,” she says.

“There I am,” Jamie exhales, shakily. “Now—”

She should be expecting it, but she isn’t, and so Jamie makes the most embarrassing sound ever when Dani’s tongue first makes contact. An electric shock between her legs, a match being struck, and she arches a little too much off the bed, one of her arms going back so she can comb her fingers through her own hair. Slams her eyes shut to keep from coming almost immediately—this won’t be her only chance, she’s sure of it, but she wants this first one to last—and then has to look, so she opens them back up.

And Dani is always a sight between her legs like this, but she’s on her knees and bent down in a way that makes her breasts hang deliciously, bumping a bit as she licks and curls her lips around Jamie’s clit. Jamie brings her other hand down and brushes her hair out of the way, over her shoulder, so she can see her mouth work.

“Fucking fuck, Dani,” she says, so eloquent with a beautiful woman bobbing between her legs.

Dani hums in response and Jamie can’t help it, groans a little too loudly. That fucking silk robe and the contrast of purple lace to pale skin, blonde hair fisted in her hand, and then Dani brings one of her hands up and slips a finger inside and Jamie feels, very suddenly, like she is splitting apart at every seam that’s ever kept her together.

The sound of Dani fucking her like this is almost obscene. It’s slick and loud, the suction of her mouth audible as she alternates movements against Jamie’s clit. She’s smiling despite how busy her mouth is and then she slips a second finger in, then a third.

It’s so hot, sweat pearling on her chest and forehead. Her hair feels damp at the base of her skull, she feels sort of like she has a fever but everywhere, and fuck—

She nearly bites through her bottom lip as she comes, trying to keep quiet. Her pulse drums like waves on the shore as it whitewashes through her ears, her veins.

Dani pulls back, licking her lips clean sloppily and her eyes are so dark that Jamie feels like she's burning again in moments.

“Come here,” she croaks, propping herself up on her elbows. Hopes that Dani knows what she means.

She must, though, because she doesn’t come up on the side of the bed. Instead, she just straddles Jamie’s waist, giving Jamie a full and uninterrupted view of what she’s wearing again.

“God,” is the next thing she says. Then, “You know how to pick ’em, huh?” as she tugs a bit on the end of the robe.

Dani smiles, somehow shy despite everything else. “You like it then?” she asks, like she has no idea, like she didn’t just fuck Jamie stupid while wearing the sexiest thing to ever exist. “Successful Valentine’s Day?”

Jamie rolls her eyes affectionately. “And the award for Understatement of the Year goes to—”

Dani pushes at her shoulder, giggling. “Hey,” she says. “Give me a break. I stuck out like a sore thumb in the shop I got this from.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, really! Like, three shop girls came over to help me because I was so lost.” She looks so sincerely flustered by this that Jamie can’t help but be endeared by it. “They kept asking me what my ‘boyfriend’—” and she uses air quotes there, “—likes to see me in. What his favorite color is.”

Jamie laughs. “What did you say?”

“I told them I didn’t have a boyfriend.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“And what did they say to that?”

“They asked me what my husband likes then.”

Jamie nearly chokes on her tongue from laughing so hard. Almost knocks Dani to the floor, too.

And, yeah, it’s a pretty successful Valentine’s Day.

#damie #damie fic #damie prompt #dani x jamie #thobm #thobm fic #the haunting of bly manor #dani/jamie fanfic #dani/jamie #3k #smut #like #smutty smut

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fandom-monium · 4 years

Note

I JUST READ KITCHEN CATASTROPHES OMG ITS SOOO CUTE UGH MY HEART SO SOFT CAN YOU PLSSS DO A PART 2? THANK YOU KEEP DOING WHAT YOU DO

AN: thank you, anon! i dont plan to make a sequel to KC. But if i did:

For Valentine’s Day

Summary: In which you throw a wrench in Spencer’s plans: you don’t like Valentine’s Day. “If it’s with you, I guess it’s not so bad.”

WC: 2.9k (whoops)

Tags/Warnings: Spencer Reid x GN!Reader, fluff, cussing, semi anti-valentines day, Spencer tears up but dont worry were there to fix that, established relationships (blegh), Garvez if you squint, post-For the Holidays

Fuck cooking, Spencer thinks one day.

It's an irrational thought. The kind that strikes through his mind in a flash of irritation like a scrape of the knee as he is perusing the internet. Yes, he is using a computer willingly. He has to because he's desperate.

Cooking is stupid. Who really needs it, right?

…

He needs it. God, he needs it so bad.

His need to learn cooking wasn't as incessant until recently. Until you came along.

Spencer is a meticulous person and a romantic if you'd ever met one. Makes sense considering how he grew up, reading the classics and all that. He's read all the gooey literary shit old people write and while he never understood those meanings it all dawned on him one day. Quotes written like 'the stars in their eyes' and 'sunshine glowing off them like a halo', suddenly makes sense once he meets you. Or at least, after coming to know you, months into your newfound friendship.

It's because of this he plans accordingly the weeks leading up to Valentine's day! Because again he's meticulous and a romantic and a genius so he plans every step and makes a back up plan in case A, B, and C fall through.

Is he going overboard?

… Nah. No way. Not when it comes to you.

But fuck with a capital F, man.

It's your third date. Or what is supposed to be your third date if you would just stop being you for a second.

Then again, he loves you a lot and he wouldn't love you if you weren't, well, you.

Although—pardon his french—what the fuck.

Spencer knows he needs to learn to cook. You've tried plenty of times to teach him and he loves learning and he especially loves it when you are the teacher (wait, does he have a teacher/student fantasy? Maybe. That’s something he'll look into later. Preferably with you).

Unfortunately, he's terrible at it.

He's made progress and he knows it's true because you said so but the miniscule progress he's made is. Not. Enough. And it's all your fault! Because he gets so distracted by you during your lessons, like when you put your hands over his to show him proper slicing techniques—holy fuck, he wanted to combust right there—or just watching your deft hands at work, lips and brow scrunched in concentration in that adorable way. And you smell like cooking oil or whatever you're making and you're hot.

He's so into you it physically hurts. Ugh. How is he so lucky?

You're also the first person he's been this into since Maeve. And everyone knows how well that turned out.

So he tries to dial it down for Valentine’s Day. Morgan told him once he tends to throw himself into everything he does, including love. And when you two got together, he promised the universe he will not fuck this up. He ends up combining Morgan’s advice with Luke’s, trying to be casual like Luke says because apparently you're just as into him as he is of you.

The thought makes him grin uncontrollably. Luke says it makes him look like a clown but a lovesick clown. A lovefool, Luke hehs.

Spencer doesn’t get the joke, but it does nothing to deter him.

As Luke advised, Spencer does “not” make a dozen back up plans and does “not" plan weeks in advance. Because that wouldn't be casual, would it?

But now the day’s come and as Valentine’s Day turns to Valentine’s Night, Spencer wants to pull his hair, rub his frustratedly stinging eyes but he can't because he's in the middle of work, in the middle of the bullpen, in the middle of his desk and he refuses to be that guy. Not again.

Why does he feel like sobbing? Like a loser?

Because you don't like Valentine’s Day. No, you abhor it.

It happens in the middle of the work day. It's like he tried to open a door only for a bucket of ice water to be dumped on him and now he looks like a drowned rat. He definitely feels like one.

You're talking with Garcia about her Valentine’s Day plans as you multitask, switching between putting together packets and stacking them aside. Then taking them under the hole-puncher and stapling them together because the BAU isn't all kicking down doors and catching freaks.

It makes sense that you’re chatting with Garcia during your break. The two of you have become two peas in a pod after you came out of your shell. Now you're inseparable. Only you make Garcia leave her batcave as much as she does now.

Out of sight, he catches tidbits of your conversation when he hears distinctively: Fuck Valentine’s Day.

Okay, you didn't say that verbatim but you might as well have, grimacing as you three hole-punch a packet and his heart. Then a nail on his coffin only it’s with a stapler.

Thump. Chick.

Spencer winces; there goes your his Valentine’s Day plans.

It shouldn't sting as much as it does. You've been dating for over a month and Valentine’s Day is definitely not his favorite holiday either. It's not even top 3. And as you rant he can’t help but silently nod in agreement, all the facts straight: yes, it's an eyesore. Yes, it's a capitalistic holiday. Yes, people should do nice things for their significant others no matter the time and not because it's expected on a specific day. Yes, it doesn't compare to Halloween—

The thing is, you two aren't that “couple-y”, at least in a traditional sense. Not like Will and JJ who got a babysitter so they could go out or like Luke and Garcia as they plan to go to a special Valentine’s Day event she wants to check out (she vehemently denies anything going on between them but he doesn't need to be a genius to see the affection they have for one another. Just kiss already, damn).

So yeah, Spencer hoped to spend the romantic holiday with you. For once, he'd have Valentine’s Day plans, aside from exchanging cards with the team and his mother.

But apparently you hate Valentine’s Day! So there goes plan A, B, C, and D!

Spencer feels the tears spring at the corner of his eyes. He sniffs as subtly as he can, raising an open case file to his face. Of all the plans he hadn't thought through this was not one of them. IQ 187, his ass.

He should've known. Or at least ask your thoughts on Valentine’s Day. That was inconsiderate on his part. He blinks back tears, withdrawing into himself despite his hurt because he is a lovefool and only for you. He just wants to impress you, make you happy even if that means canceling your first Valentine’s Day together.

Now if you'll excuse him, he has to call off a few reservations and make some returns. Several actually.

Can you return a dozen donuts in the shape of hearts?

… Yeah, he better ask Emily for the rest of the day off.

—

"Hey Newb, have you seen Spencer? I haven't seen him since his break," You ask, resting your chin in your hand as you squint at another form. Your eyes are beginning to tire.

Spencer asked you several times over the course of the last week, checking to see if you were free today. You are, so you planned to hang with him after work, but he hasn't returned from his break and he wasn't answering your calls or texts. Not unusual but still odd for your boyfriend (you still can’t believe you get to say that).

Luke sighs, his smooth voice reaching over your shared divider, "You know at some point I'm just not going to respond. You guys can’t call me Newbie forever."

"Keep telling yourself that," You snort without looking up.

Another sigh and you smirk: you win.

"For your information," Luke grumbles, words punctuated with sass, "Doc went home."

You pause. "Home?" He didn't tell you.

"Yeah, probably to get ready for your date."

"Our date?" You frown and stand up, leaning over the divider to see if Luke’s fucking with you.

He isn't. Luke shrugs, humming wistfully as he rests his cheek in his hand, "You should've seen how excited he was, being it your first Valentine's Day and all. I told him to chill out because you'll love whatever it is no matter what but I'm sure he ignored that and planned something spectacular for you guys." Sitting back, he twirls around in his chair.

You grimace, recalling your earlier conversation with Garcia.

Shit.

"Meanwhile, I have to spend Galentine's Day with Garcia because all the ladies of the BAU are taken and I have nothing better to do—" Luke comes to a full 720, catching the tail end of your coat as you whip it on and make for the door. "—um, excuse you?"

"If Emily asks, I had an emergency!" You manage to call back, throwing open the glass door.

"Okay?"

"Thanks, Newb!"

As the elevator door dings shut with you inside, leg jumping because you have a sneaking suspicion you fucked up, Luke slouches in his chair and grumbles.

He's not a newb. Or a newbie.

—

You rush over to Spencer's, catching your breath as you stumble to his front door. There's shuffling from inside, the faint sound of clanking and crashing and your heart swells because this is the man you’ve fallen for, the first one you've ever felt this way for. Here he is, being all considerate and romantic. And here you are, fucking it up when your relationship’s barely even started.

God, you're an asshole, you berate yourself as you turn the doorknob and push open the door. You're an asshole you're an asshole you’re an asshole—

Then your eyes widen and your jaw goes slack.

Immediately, you slap a hand over your mouth and nose as your favorite scented candles hit you like someone shoved a bouquet in your face. The description isn't too far off considering there's a lovely bouquet of your favorite flowers still in its wrapping, haphazardly set next to a dozen donuts on the coffee table like no one's business. Its petals are strewn across the floor, a few in tiny piles like they were hastily swept to the side. Red and pink and dark green fill your vision.

Who gutted Cupid and tossed his organs around, holy fu-

"(Your name)?"

Startled, you crane your head to find Spencer, beautiful hair askew and his tie hanging loosely around his neck. His sleeves are pushed up to his elbows as he clutches flowers to his chest. In his other hand, he grips the colored strings of several shiny red and pink balloons in the shape of hearts and—fuck—your heart might actually float up from your chest and into your eyes.

This is your man. Your partner. Your boyfriend.

Your boyfriend panics, fumbling for a second before stuffing the balloons and trimmed flowers back into the room behind him and slamming the door shut. He turns back to you, eyes wide.

"What-what are you doing here?" Spencer stammers, wringing his hands together.

You blink at him, dumbly holding up your phone. "You-uh-you left early and didn't return my calls."

"I'm sorry. I think I left my phone at work," Probably because he left in such a rush, Spencer groans, looking anywhere but you. The petals scattered over his floor are quite pretty in this light. "And I was a bit busy."

"I'm sure you were," You gawk openly at the strings of fairy lights hung around his living room. It's a clash of aesthetics. Spencer always rocked dark academia, but despite how ugly the combination of red and pink decorations with his nature green walls and dark wood is, it leaves his apartment a little brighter, a little cozier, and you love it.

You love everything about this.

But as you take in the ugly beauty of it all, Spencer fidgets at the doorway, mistaking your awe as shock and disgust. Wiping sweaty palms on his trousers, his eyes dart around, trying to focus on something, but every place he lays his eyes on makes him cringe. He catches all the things he couldn't clean up or put away in time. No doubt you do too. All the leftover flower petals, the donuts he can’t return, candles that haven’t blown out because he has the lungs of an 8-year old asthmatic.

Spencer can't imagine how appalled you are.

And the longer your silence stretches on, the more nervous he gets so he blurts out, "I'm so sorry, (Your Name)!"

Your brow shoots up as he begins to ramble.

"You must hate this. I'll put everything away."

"You really don't have to—" You stop him, and your heart nearly crumbles as Spencer's does when he finally meets your worried gaze.

His eyes gleam with unshed tears. He swallows, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"Doc—"

"At least not without asking you—"

"Doctor—"

"I understand if you want to break up—" His voice cracks, as if the idea itself will destroy him (it definitely will).

"Spencer—" His voice, wobbly and dripping with unnecessary guilt, draws you to him.

"But I want you to know that I—"

With an exasperated sigh, you grab his hand as yours finds the nape of his neck, pulling him into a soft kiss.

For a second, Spencer doesn't respond because who kisses the person they're about to break up with? Strange, really. But then he kisses you back. His hands remain frozen, unsure of where he stands, but he tilts his head to deepen the kiss. He figures this is a new social cue he has yet to learn. And if this is the last time you kiss him, he'll treasure every second of it, take whatever you'll give him because again he's a lovefool for you.

And when you pull back, he's too dazed he nearly misses the look you give him. Suddenly, he can’t breathe.

You look at him like he hung the stars instead of cheap fairy lights around his apartment.

Spencer’s confused. "I-I... Wha—"

"I'm not breaking up with you," You chuckle, and you nearly burst out laughing as genuine puzzlement takes over his face. You tug him behind you, plopping yourselves on his couch. You smile, appreciating the way he organized the cushions and throw-pillows; there's now space for two people to lay down.

You take a breath. "You wanna know why I don't like Valentine’s Day?"

Spencer slouches, though his body is angled towards you so you suppose that's good. He sighs, "Because it's a capitalistic holiday that reinforces the idea of doing the bare minimum…"

He begins listing your reasons, and your eyes soften. Of course he listened and remembered even if you mentioned it offhandedly.

You nod once he finishes. "Yes but before that—and I can't believe I'm telling you this—back when I was a little kid, I didn’t get any Valentines."

Spencer's brow furrows at the newfound information. You continue, "I'd get some from my friends and stuff but that's not what Valentine's Day is about. At least not when you're a kid. When you’re a dumb kid, it’s about couples and romantic shit, and I didn't really have any of that growing up." You purse your lips and glance away, face flushed with embarrassment. It's really not that big a deal, but putting it into words makes the idea seem more intimate and personal.

It takes a moment for your words to sink in as Spencer can't believe his ears. How could you not have been showered with love and affection and presents on Valentines Day? It's like water doesn't make things wet or fire doesn't produce heat; it just doesn't make sense. Because you deserve that much and more.

"So every Valentine's Day, I lowered my expectations and eventually I stopped caring. I'd tell myself those things and I started to believe them," You bite your lip, eyes crinkling as you give Spencer a sheepish smile. "But now I have you."

At that, Spencer returns your smile, letting you take his hand. Any tears he had seem to evaporate instantly.

“So, I'm sorry that I hurt you. I stand by what I said before, Valentine’s Day sucks. But if it’s with you,” Blushing deeply, you play with Spencer's hand, large and veins defined compared to yours, shrugging, “I guess it’s not so bad.”

Spencer’s smile broadens, and he intertwines your fingers together. "So what you’re saying is, you don’t hate this?” He looks around his living room.

You shake your head, unable to stop the grin crossing your lips. “No. In fact, very much the opposite. Honestly, thank you for this, it’s beautiful. I have no words.” You breathe it all in; the candles, the flowers, the— Your nose wrinkles and you snort, “Did you burn something?”

Bashfully looking down, he scratches his chin. “I-uh-tried to make your favorite dishes. Though, I was hoping the candles and flowers would mask it.”

You giggle and pull him into you, snuggling into his side. “That’s okay. I’d much rather have you anyway.”

With Spencer a blushing, stuttering mess in your arms, head resting on your chest, you press a kiss to his hair and conclude; yeah, you don’t like Valentine’s Day.

But you sure as hell love Spencer more.

—

AN: FtH status: finished - 7/5. yes 7.

I realize this was not what anon requested but oh well i wrote this at 2 am

I’m not that anti v day but i stand by the capitalistic aspect.

yes this takes place after For the Holidays.

also included luke bc hes my bro and i honestly think he deserves so much more than what the show gave also garvez ftw

happy post valentine’s day!!

Song: Lovefool by The Cardigans

#spencer reid x reader #mgg x reader #matthew gray gubler x reader #criminal minds x reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid #mgg imagine #mgg fic #mgg x y/n #mgg fanfiction #mgg #matthew gray gubler x oc #matthew gray gubler imagine #criminal minds x y/n #criminal minds x oc #criminal minds

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twstheadcanons · 3 years

Note

This is a lore question and a slightly specific one. Cater as a character and otherwise is super interesting to me but at the same time insanely confusing. While at first I thought he would end up having maybe slightly abusive family there's a possibility that's not the case. His sister's seem to enjoy dolling him up and his mother seems to go along with it and his father's a bit more absent. I think I would mainly like to know what his true self is truly reflecting and also if Trey seems to know about this 'true version'. Don't feel pressured to anwser this if you can't btw ❣️

Cater fans come get yall’s food.

S, iideally I’d go through events Cater’s prominent in (Beans Day, Halloween), but that would just make this whole post longer. So I’ll be using Cater’s card stories for now. What we know about Cater, on the surface level, is that he comes across as happy-go-lucky, energetic, social, trendy, superficial, flaky, and insensitive at times. But that’s Cater on a surface level.

So for Cater, his major issues from his background are:

his family frequently moving to accommodate his father’s occupation as a banker

his sisters dragging him into their own interests that he was expected to accommodate as well

Cater repeatedly states he disliked getting dragged around by his sisters and having cutesy stuff he wasn’t genuinely interested in shoved into his face. This would even happen on his birthday, where his sisters got him things they’re more likely to enjoy, which made Cater feel frustrated since he was supposed to be the focus on his own birthday. But despite that annoyance, Cater understands his sisters didn’t really mean any harm. From the sounds of it, they liked hanging out with Cater, and assumed that Cater enjoyed how they spent time together as well since Cater preferred to go with the flow, rather than rock the boat.

In his Bday SSR, Cater mentions that his sisters became more considerate of his own interests and asked him what he wanted. All three coming from a family where they move and lose close friends a lot, the sisters are probably close and want to stay close to their brother as well, since they’re the only consistent company in a similar age range. His sisters are each other’s best friends, Cater didn’t have that growing up. He also mentions his sisters and mother’s sweets-making kick, and how he eventually got over having sweets every day. But when he protested, it’d disappoint and sadden them/they’d have dejected looks on their faces, which Cater didn’t know how to handle, so he made himself go along with their whims to keep them happy.

This pours into his social media life, where he’s a peppy, cheery guy that posts upbeat content and responds with light, casual, carefree messages to people. His Lab SR literally has him state that he ‘should always be happy and excited, after all’. So, clearly, whatever dynamic the Diamond family has, while not what I’d call something as heavy as abuse, isn’t considerate of Cater’s feelings and views Cater’s ‘go with the flow’ ways as approval. If he ‘breaks character’ of the devil-may-care person he is on the surface, it raises questions, and Cater would rather just avoid all that and enjoy himself instead of getting involved in anything heavy.

Again, Cater doesn’t like to rock the boat. He also mentions in his Lab SR that this obsession with cutesy stuff became rather invasive, and he’d even be criticised or second-guessed if he didn’t go along with the idea. Cater ends up accommodating that interest to prevent any debate, even if he didn’t actually care for them. That said, with such an emphasis on aesthetics being the way he grew up, Cater has a good understanding and practical knowledge of decour and eye-catching designs, which makes him helpful and invaluable when the time calls for decour. This is something Cater knows he’s good at, and enjoys showing off since the focus is on himself and he’s acknowledged for his skills.

With their family moving all the time, Caters gained and lost friends a lot. Cater has an outgoing personality, at this point, it’s safe to assume he’s an extrovert, so making friends comes naturally to him. But when you’re moving a lot, maybe sometimes in the middle of a school term, . Cater needs engagement and social interaction, but at this point in his life, he’s tired of trying to keep up with old and new friends on deep levels, hence his interest and obsession with social media.

One thing to note about Cater: he likes cutting corners. a lot.

In his R card “Portrait of Rosalia”, it’s understood that Cater being nice to Rosalia by throwing her a party with some lively students around is a way for him to get on her good side, because Rosalia overhears the teachers’ discussions of tests and future lessons so that he wouldn’t have to study for an upcoming history test: while Cater’s idea of a party to lift Rosalia’s spirits is in good nature, he wants something out of it that benefits him. But while disappointed the plan didn’t work, he’s quick to brush it off, and Rosalia’s anger, by mentioning that she’s cuter when uptight anyway.

In his PE card “This betrayer!” Cater only have five laps left to do in PE. But he hates how sweaty he is and how tedious the overall task is. So he uses his UM to try and avoid doing all five laps himself. Riddle catches him red-handed, and Cater tries - albeit I’m sure he knows it’s a lost cause - to flatter Riddle at the last minute. Trey’s also involved, and despite leaving Cater in the dust, Trey also returns with Riddle, because Trey knows that Cater’s the type that tries to cut corners whenever possible, something against the rules in Heartslabyul. Honestly, as far as Trey goes, Trey’s someone used to the way Riddle holds himself back. Cater’s exterior personality wouldn’t be hard for Trey to recognise as Cater pushing himself or exaggerating points of his personality just to keep up an image. especially after being in the same dorm for three years.

In short, while he isn’t malicious about majority of the time, Cater will use others to get out situations and tasks he wants no part of. This is a huge thing reflected in his UM, as it allows Cater to be in more than one place, so that he personally doesn’t have to be involved. Growing up with two pushy older sisters, it makes he develops a UM that complements a need for escape when pure wit won’t work. And despite being someone with a superficial interest in trends, that experience accumulates in him understanding the basics about social media and how it affects others, himself included, since it became the only way he could stay in contact with acquaintances and ‘friends’ from previous years.

Cater has a good understanding of how people, in general, work, especially those in his agegroup, which makes him rather crafty when he wants to string others along and get out of a situation. This doesn’t make Cater a mean or conniving person, and in fact, he’s generally amicable and social. Cater lives by a pretty ‘live in the moment’ credo. He enjoys having fun and not getting overly serious about issues when he can help it. There are instances where he doesn’t care about the situation he’s in, or thinks it’s lame/boring, but he tries to make the most of it as something to post about on MagiCam later to engage in low-effort social interaction for a mental break.

Cater pretty much states this in his Halloween SSR:

“If I left there, they remained there. That’s why I’d rather have a casual and happy time with everyone instead of going steady. It’s like a circus troupe, you know, having fun hanging with people all over the world and then leaving. And that’s why MagiCam is the best. I suddenly got messages from acquaintances from the school I went to 3 years ago. Aren’t my casual and light relationships multiplying? It’s lovely! “

Social media helps him keep in contact with people on a low-effort level, so the risk of moving doesn’t damage his relationships online like it would physical friendships. As for family, Cater’s feelings towards his family are difficult, tricky ones he has problems with. He certainly doesn’t hate them, but their lifestyle, the moving and pushy personalities, don’t mesh well with Cater’s personality overall. When Lilia tries to relate to Cater’s experiences of fleeting relationships, Cater can’t help but dismiss Lilia’s empathy as surface-level, since, to CATER’S knowledge (it’s not like he knows Lilia’s old as shit), Lilia’s always lived in the VoT with his own family and friends, which hits a sore spot with Cater:

““Cater: ….Family…huh.

Flashback Lilia: I feel like I understand you. But it is just as Cater says, it might be the truth that you should not attach yourself too much to one person in particular.

Flashback ends Cater: (That was full of lies. For a guy who grew up in the same place and never had to deal with rebuilding relations over and over… He wouldn’t understand my worthless and meaningless feelings.)

/Notification

Cater: Hello, Trey. What’s up? Huh? Are we doing our rehearsal for our night show at the stamp rally now? And is Deuce from my committee lacking in hands, so Ace is helping him out? Darn, Ace is definitely going to use this to ask me for a favor later!

Cater: Argh! And is Riddle on the verge of a rampage? I’ll be back soon, Trey, please calm him! It was such a pain getting involved in the biggest crisis of this Halloween week! No, for real! I’m not lying. That’s why you don’t have to say such cold things to me, kay? URGH, TREY, YOU’RE SO CRUEL!!

Cater: Now that Diasomnia’s turmoil has settled, it’s time to change the mood. No matter how you slice it, we’ll still separate if we become 4th years… It would be different if I repeated a year though. Anyway, I should just enjoy the memories I’m making “now”! I’ll surprise everyone with this charming skeleton costume! I’ll show them my serious side!”

Cater calls his own feelings ‘worthless and meaningless’, which likely ties into how he got dragged into his mother and sisters’ own interests over his own, and sometimes even criticised if he didn’t go with their flow. He also expects the friendships he’s made in NRC (as we see with him talking to Trey about the rest of the Heartslabyul cast), to inevitably disappear after he and Trey are fourth years with their own internships and lives to live. Because to Cater, the future of his life and relationships appear disruptive and inconsistent, so instead of fretting about them, he wants to live in the moment and enjoy what he’s doing at all times, hence why he cuts corners to make things easier on himself. This is why he can come across as superficial and easy to get along with, because he doesn’t want to fret over the details.

unrelated but we’re team ‘former dorm leader cater’ here because him doing it because it sounds cool and fun fits perfectly with his personality

#cater diamond #twisted wonderland #Anonymous

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