#story progression gave them a cat so I let them keep her

[cloudberry-sims]

The Rosenward family is the 3rd peasant family in Hopebury, consisting of a elderly woodcutter and his two young children, after losing his wife to the magma fever.

Although not a young man anymore , Quentrell Rosenward has the heart and strength of an ox!

With ax in hand he is determined to build himself and his children a good and honest life in the small settlement. Although it wont be easy as a single parent.

Florina , his eldest and only daughter , had a good heart with a tenderness of all life.

So much so , that when she found a stray kitten in the bushes she begged her father to keep her, which he agreed to. She named the cat Sweuite.

Robard , who was still very young , had a talent of causing trouble for his father and sister with his clumsy and easy going nature...

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Recently, through Twitter, I have become aware of the fact that modern American parents have been very ignorant of their parental duties when it comes to their children. Parents are banding together to complain about the schools their children attend because their kids are getting bad grades in class, or they're getting detentions for doing bad consistently, or they're being held back because they're just not at the same level as their peers.

There was an entire thread of some woman whining about how the school was failing her kid, because his English class grade was so bad. There were thousands of comments agreeing and various reposts with anecdotes from other parents with similar experiences.

"My 26 y/o son can't even write a check for God's sake!"

And one single person finally replied with, "Do you guys not teach your kids anything at home before they start going to school?" Which then spawned people with actual common sense questioning the level of involvement these people had in the lives of their kids.

This is what led to a large surge of people complaining about how it's the school's job to teach them everything and they did their job just keeping them alive.

Now, I don't want to be mean, but it's gonna come across that way.

Parents are lazy these days.

When I was a child, my Nana and mom had me learning with Hooked on Phonics before I entered pre-K. I was 3 years old and already sounding out words that rhymed. I was practicing how quickly I could say them in under 30 seconds so I could progress to the next lesson.

mat hat sat that cat vat pat bat fat lat rat brat

etc...

When I was in pre-K(4 years old), they had a single, really old computer that had a bunch of Winnie the Pooh CD-ROM games. Because I always got my work done faster than everybody else, they let me use the computer because I could actually read and follow Pooh's instructions, and it kept me busy.

And when I entered kindergarten for the first time, I was really surprised to see that Hooked on Phonics was actually part of my curriculum and I was already very well ahead of everyone else. My mom and Nana took traching me very seriously. They not only read to me, but they would also get me Madeline books and cassette tapes from the children's library downtown. And then I would listen to the cassettes telling the story while reading the book at the same time to get used to the words.

At three years old, I was helping out in the kitchen, learning all of the different kitchen utensils and types of measurement. My mom often went between English, French and American Sign Language at random times so I picked up a lot of stuff that way. We never had a computer in the house for the first 12 years of my life, but I did have an old keyboard to learn how to type. Nana gave me basic piano lessons for a couple years. Mom taught me how to hem my clothes because she would buy me bigger clothes, hem them to size, and then let them out as I grew. Hell, Sperm Donor taught me how to write a check when I was 8. He was also a Financial Adviser, so I got a lot of lessons on money management, investments, and 401Ks and shit.

All these incredibly simple things ended up benefiting me later on, because I was so far ahead of all of the other students that it consistently put me at odds with them. I was better at reading, cooking, sewing, music, languages, etc... I was allowed time to do whatever I wanted while the rest of them had to catch up.

There is a lot more to being a parent than just making sure your kid eats three meals a day and doesn't die in a stupid way. And it seems like a lot of parents these days have completely forgotten that they have a duty to their kids beyond the feeding and clothing thing.

Certain things SHOULD be taught in schools, like how to balance a checkbook. But if it's clear that the school won't cover it, why aren't YOU doing something about that? And why do so many parents have no clue what the hell their kids are even getting up to in school? Why don't y'all get involved in your kid's lives?

[unreadpoppy]

Fic recs

In light of some stuff I saw, I decided to make this post to briefly talk about some fics I really like and recommend them. All are BG3 related and most are Raphael. Also, there's some authors that write a lot of great fics, I'll try to keep one fic per author or else we'll be here forever (but definetly go check everyone and their other works out!)

...

Cheerful Oblivion by @sassyandsodone - Read the tags before reading this but Love me dark stuff, the writing is amazing (legitimetly gasped at a few points) and the mix of Tav not remembering what happened and the dehumanization aspects were the cherry on top. It

I Don't Think About You Anymore (But I don't think about you any less) by @sky-kiss - This fic put me in a lot of different feels, ESPECIALLY SAD (which i do like, love when stuff makes me feel) and the ending was unexpected to me but it made it all worth it. Shed a tear or two

Devil's Debauchery by ChildofYugotth - One of the first fics I read on the Raphael tag, the first chapter lives in my mind rent free for many, many days, and I really like how the three chapters kinda go like regular raphael, haarlep and then ascended fiend, like a progression. Also read the tags.

Fallen in Flame by @cambion-companion - Love the dynamic between the two characters and how their relationship developed and the conflicting feeling that Tav has of like, being an aasimar and dealing with a devil

The Devil that knows you by @timesthatneverwere - Cat!Tav was not something I knew I needed before reading this. The relationship between Tav, Raphael and even Haarlep in this one is VERY interesting to me (and has lowkey inspired me some times) and I love seeing Raphael keeping secrets and manipulating people (also i have to mention, this fic gave us the mephisto fuck chamber)

Let the dream begin by DiscordsMuse - POTO inspired, this has hit me in the feels with relating to Morrigans struggles of feeling rejected, and honestly, Raphael as the Phantom was amazing.

finirà bene by @inaconstantstateofchange - A Halsin/Astarion/Tav one for a change, this is such an interesting and heartbreaking concept, but there's also this sense of mystery that I think is really well done. Also, beware the ANGST

Her soul will burn all the way down by khapikat222 - Read the tags, another dark fic that I loved, and this one had this manipulation and fucking with someone's fears that I really liked. Also, props to the author for making the lullaby fit, it was a great cherry on top.

Baldur's gate 3 infernal oneshots by @hrefna-the-raven - chapters 1-4 are a little story between Raphael and Tav that I really liked. The dynamic of raphael being more protective and the cat and mouse analogies were really fun!

The Intimacy of Pain by @bearhugsandshrugs - This is an Abdirak/Tav fic which I found so delightfully good, like the descriptions of how Tav was feeling and the mix of pleasure and pain were really well done

The Devil's Hour by @adarlingwrites - Also one of the first fics in the tag that I read, and what made me like OC x Canon, love the complicated but also interesting to read relationship between Fortune and Raphael, and another aspect that I really liked was Fortune's relationship with art and her parents being brought up like (like idk why but those two things really stuck with me)

Sweetening the Deal by @adevilyoudo - I have to admit that I'm a bit behind on some chapters BUT it's a great work, love seeing this side of Raphael of trying to convince Tav to take this deal (and in a way, almost confusing her even more) and I loved to see the side of the Emperor constantly being in Tav's head, I think it really conveyed well how that feels like when playing the game

The Devil You Share a Room with by @djmorn - Really fun concept and the shennanigans between the two in the beggining, when Tav is reluctant to share a room with Raphael, was a delight to read and really really fun.

Damaged by @dark-and-kawaii - This is a Rolan/Tav one, it's dark but it also tugged at my heart in a sad way, with Rolan feeling all these things and doing what he does because of the abuse he suffered and Tav also trying to understand that. Like aaaa it just, it's some good stuff this fic

Who's the Daddy by Follyfall - This fic is the definition of fun and a good time, I legitimetly laughed a lot while reading it. The writing is fun, the concept is hilarious and the relationship between Raphael, Tav, Haarlep, the baby and Wyll is really really fun.

...

Also, keep in mind that there's A LOT of amazing writers in the bg3 community and i haven't read every single written work in the tags ever, so feel free to also reblog and add reccomendations of your own, or make your own post!

[iamamythologicalcreature]

WIP Wednesday: Kitten Edition

Shush there's still fifteen minutes of Wednesday in my time zone...

Thank you to @whatevertheweather for the tag! (Can't wait to read more of your story!) And thank you to everyone who's continued to tag me in wipsday stuff even though my ability to reblog and such is somewhat limited right now. Means a lot to me. <3

Sooo as much as I'd like to share little art bits with you, this is going to be more of a life update. But with bonus kitten pics.

Here's what I'm up to these days:

In case you haven't heard, @carryonthroughtheages is happening! I'm very excited to be working on such a cool event. It's everything my snowbaz-lovin', history-nerd heart could wish for.

I am working on art! It's just that I can't post any snippets because it's concept art for @carryon-reverse-bang. So it's shhhh secret.

I'm moving. Like. Many thousands of miles away from my current location. It's going to keep me pretty busy for the next 2-3 months, but please keep tagging me in stuff if you have the room. When I can pop onto Tumblr, I love seeing what everyone is doing!

One other project that's very special to me.... KITTENS! (See below.)

All other projects are on hold for now, but not abandoned! (I'm very attached to them.)

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter

*Yes, the gray one is totally laying on top of the orange one and pinning him down in that first pic. Orange dude seems okay with it.

I got some new foster kittens! They're about 9 weeks old or so, and have had a pretty rough time of it. They're still pretty afraid of people, including me, but I'm making progress. They needed to be dewormed, but now that that's done, I expect they'll become more and more themselves quickly.

More info under the cut, plus the whole naming conundrum:

Because they're still recovering from a traumatic few weeks of being separated from other sibs and being bounced around before finally landing here with me, it's hard to know their personalities yet. But here's what I've observed thus far:

Gray girl was the most afraid, hissing at me at first, but has taken to being petting with a little more willingness than orange boy. (She even purred today!) She's also very fond of the plastic pink spring toy I gave her, and I caught her climbing the side of the enclosure at one point.

Orange boy is still sleeping a lot, and is less open to being handled, though he takes it stoically when I reach in and give him a gentle stroke or two. I can't tell what part of that behavior is recovery, and what's shyness, or something else. He's pretty chill with his sister, though, and watched with great interest while she played with her spring, earlier. I'm pretty sure he's playing with the dangly-bell-toy when I'm not looking. Cause. Ding-ding.

I’d love to wait to name them until I know more about their personalities, but unfortunately, I can’t. I need to get them into the fostering database, and thus, names are required. I have a couple ideas, but if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please do let me know!

That's all! You're up to date! Cheers.

Tags for future wipsdays and/or hello's to: @drowninginships, @ic3-que3n, @prettygoododds, @monbons, @thewholelemon,

@roomwithanopenfire, @facewithoutheart, @noblecorgi, @mooncello, @rimeswithpurple,

@you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @hushed-chorus, @bookish-bogwitch, @artsyunderstudy, @best--dress,

@youarenevertooold, @supercutedinosaurs, @cutestkilla, @imagineacoolusername, @tender-ministrations,

@bazzybelle, @theimpossibledemon, @emeryhall, @blackberrysummerblog

[yesbutmakeitgay]

Once Upon A Time I Used To Know A Girl

Chapter 6

Carol Danvers x Reader

Masterlist | This work's masterlist | AO3

Summary: Kamala uncovers the truth about your redacted mission, you meet up with an associate in hopes that she can answer your questions.

Angst, Slow Burn, Amnesia.

Word count: 1359

A/N: This is one of my favorite chapters in this fic, love me a little cameo.

Ripped Jeans, Messy Hair, AKA The Reason

"Jessica Jones," you say in a firm tone.

"But if it isn’t everyone’s favorite amnesiac." She recognizes your voice immediately. You ask to see her and she sends you the address to some lowlife bar in the city.

Kamala enters Fury’s office unannounced and takes a seat in front of him, "Come on in, why don’t you?" Fury says, sarcastically, she shows him her tablet with your redacted mission.

"What’s this?" Her voice comes out a little aggressive.

Fury stares at the tablet and then at her, "What does it look like? It’s a file you do not have access to."

"Give me access then!" She demands, righteously.

"You can’t just walk in and demand access, there is a reason you don’t have the necessary permits."

"Which is?" Fury tries to think of something but he blanks out.

"Well I don’t know off the top of my head, let’s see." He turns to his computer and types something out. "Huh, whatever the reason might be, it seems I also can’t access it."

Kamala looks at him skeptical, "Aren’t you, like, in charge of everything?"

"You would think so."

"No." Jessica says, her tone is stone cold.

"What do you mean 'no?' That’s what you do for a living."

She downs her third glass of whiskey, that you know of, "I’m not gonna follow an Avenger around."

"They’re an Avenger?" you say, incredulous.

"You really don’t remember her at all?" she responds, finding your behavior amusing.

"No! That’s the only reason I’m here, I’ve been making progress with everything else but I can’t remember anything about her and no one will say a word to me about it."

"Don’t tell me the story of your life. Have you stopped to wonder why your brain made that choice for you? Maybe there’s a good reason they’re keeping her from you and, for that same reason, I can’t help you."

"What are you, a scaredy cat?" you mock her.

"Say that one more time," she warns you.

You reach into your pocket and look her dead in the eye, "Scaredy cat!" You slap a bill on the table and make a run for it.

Fury stands up to search his filing cabinets, "Where is that damn thing?" he murmurs under his breath, Kamala gets up to see what the problem is, "You stay put," he instructs, without even having to look at her. He pulls out a folder and gets back on his seat. He opens it up in front of the awaiting girl and an amused smile forms on his face, he turns the folder over for her to see, "Redacted!"

"Do you not have the uncensored file?"

"Doesn’t look like it." Fury seems unbothered.

"How?" The girl asks, confused, he just shrugs it off.

"What’s so important about this mission?"

"It’s the first mission she went on that she can’t remember."

"Ah, so this is about your guinea pig."

"Don’t call her that, but yes, at least I’m trying to help."

Fury feels called out, "Fine, let’s take a closer look." He stares at the file for what feels like 30 minutes, "I can tell you two things. One, this was not a solo mission, and two, it was around the time Carol decided to join us." he stops for a moment, "Where is your protégé, anyway?"

You knew it was a losing race but at least you gave yourself a head start. It only takes Jessica a couple of blocks to reach you and pin you to the nearest wall with her arm on your chest.

"You’re out of shape," she points out before letting you go.

You pant heavily, "Tell me about it." You begin to walk in the same direction as her, catching your breath, "What do you know about nightmares?" Enough time goes by to make you think she didn’t hear you.

"The more you try to shove them down, the more they haunt you," she responds in a deadpan tone. You keep walking in silence contemplating her words. "Your ride's here," Jessica says, looking at a very expensive black car that stopped right next to you. The window rolls down to reveal one Nick Fury.

"What part of 'you can't leave the compound' did you not understand?" he says.

"Put an ankle monitor on me next time," you respond, annoyed.

"Don't make me get out of the car." You look back, but Jessica has already left your field of vision so you reluctantly get in.

Back at the compound Fury is loudly telling you off, Kamala finds you and wonders into the situation, "What's going on?" Her voice is tentative.

"Turns out I have less freedom than a 16 year old," you say, sarcastically.

"You met up with a private investigator!" he tries to expose you.

"She's a friend of mine," you snap back.

Kamala decides that whatever is going on should probably stop, "Come on," she tells you. You weigh your options and conclude that whatever she wants to do is better than listening to your boss yell at you.

You both go to your room and she locks the door once you get in, "You went out?"

"I went to a bar to meet up with a friend," you respond, still not believing that this is such a big deal.

"A bar? You're not supposed to drink with your meds." There's concern in her voice.

"I didn't, she drank for the both of us." Something clicks in Kamala’s mind.

"You met up with Jessica Jones?"

"Is she the only private eye in all of New York City?"

She ignores your question, "You said you didn't know her."

"I didn't, I found her number on my phone so I assumed I did, then I heard her voice and it all came back."

"Just like that?" she asks, doubtful, you hum in response. "Why did you call her?"

"I figured she could help me work out what it is you're not telling me," you see Kamala's features turn to panic for a second before she hides it, "don't worry, she said 'no,'" you clarify to ease her mind, much to your dismay.

Kamala goes to her room and calls Valkyrie.

"Why do you keep asking me these things?" The King’s hologram looks exhausted, "Don’t get me wrong it’s not that I don’t love getting a call from you twice a week, but it would be so much easier if you just talked to Carol." There isn’t any real anger in her words.

"I’ve tried, but it sends me to voicemail every time, I’m not even sure her phone is turned on!" Kamala comes off a little whiny.

Valkyrie gives up on that idea, "Yes, that’s around the time Carol and I met."

"So Fury’s right, Carol was in the redacted mission."

"I guess," Valkyrie replies, unable to really follow the situation.

"You’re back early," Fury says, seeing Carol walk into his office, "all good?"

"Yeah, it was great, actually," Carol responds cheerfully.

"Your partner give you any trouble? She’s not fond of working with The Avengers."

"Not at all, I think we make a pretty good team."

"Really?" There is genuine surprise in his voice, "I’m glad to hear it,  you got your report?"

"About that," she says hesitatingly, handing a folder over to him, "I was hoping I could ask you a favor?" Fury looks at her, skeptical, "I wanted to ask you to keep the file private, for now." He gives her a look, urging her to explain herself, "It’s just, this is my first mission and I wouldn’t want any, um, wondering eyes," Fury tries to pretend that what she just said made any kind of sense, "please?" It comes with a bright, pleading smile.

"Fine, you can have one month, then the file is public."

"Thank you," she beams. She would never admit to anyone that she wanted to keep the file private so as to not out her crush on her mission partner.

A month comes and goes and they both forget about the situation, at some point the original file gets lost and all that’s left is the redacted version.

Chapter 7

Tell me all your thoughts!

Tags: @graniairish @carols-photonblast @thelittleliars @prplepeony

Let me know if you wanna be tagged :)

[myrtles-and-blood]

hi i'm not really all that new to this sort of thing but i keep seeing people use the term "deity work" and i don't exactly understand what it means? like what is it, what does it entail, how is it different from deity worship? could you explain? thank you so much

Hello! I'll explain it as best as I can, so if anyone sees something out of place go ahead and correct me! Other people have answered this before here, I recommend looking into those posts as well.

What does Deity Work even mean?

Let's say this is a giving-receiving relationship you have with a deity. I'll talk about my case as an example:

I started my worship with Lucifer, right? We talked, I gave him offerings, etc. Before I did a reading with him I noticed the responses were not like he usually responds. You know, the energies were off. The thing is I ended up landing that deity was Beelzebub just checking on what I do. I asked Lucifer and he said "Yeah I told him about you, he's nice and he wants to work with you".

"Why would a deity want me to work with him? That's weird, I don't think I have anything interesting here" Well I did have something interesting: I was (and still am) extremely disorganised and I cannot concentrate on my studies. He is The Lord of the Flies™, yes, but he also can help people with management in business and working efficiently. So seeing me was like if you saw a stray cat doing the stupidest thing it can do to get food and going "Yeah I want one of those".

After we did a reading clearing up everything and what we'll do in this working relationship, we just started. What I do currently is light his candle every time I have to study and it works wonders because I can actually concentrate. I don't know how he does it, but it's really cool. Studying and anything I find with bugs in it (related to bugs, I'm not giving him a dead bug) I give it to him. In exchange he gives me concentration and some advice to organise my studying sessions while supervising them.

This was not me just telling a story, I want you to see how it can start and how it progresses:

That deity might come on its own or maybe another deity told them about you (Hermes is the god of "I know a guy" so he does that often)

They don't choose you like "You are the chosen favourite of God", it's not that serious. They just like what you're about and probably think they have the solution to that specific problem, just like stray cats lol.

In exchange for prayers and offerings they can give you advice and guidance through a problem. Depends on your dynamic with them, the problem that you have, etc., so it can look very different depending on the person and deity of course.

They can ask you to start this working relationship OR you can approach them! Much like I did with Aphrodite, and it's amazing, so I encourage you to ask instead of waiting for someone to pop up.

Also, the fact that they want to work with you does not mean you want to do so, you know? You can always turn down an offer. With Beelzebub I told him that I did want to work with him, but it wasn't the best moment, so we delayed it! Again, depends on every situation. This means they can turn down your offer if you wanna work with them too! It's just Consent 101.

How is this any different from Deity Worship?

Worshipping a deity is more like "I love what you do please take this cookie and keep up the good work" in my humble opinion.

Maybe you live by the sea and do horse riding, that means you'll probably like Poseidon and worshipping him is a way of thanking him for all those things you like. Maybe you are the absolute worst at studies and owls scare the shit out of you, but Athena is your girl because you like her and that's it. It's like having a friend who you share hobbies with or not, but you love them and give them stuff that you know they like even if you aren't really into it (I'm not telling you to go find owls for Athena, but maybe give them a cute figurine of an owl like "I hate that, that's not my thing, but it's your thing so here you go")

I am NOT good at sports. But Ares and I are close and I like him very much, my good time boy. We still have things in common and sometimes I'll tell him "I will do two push ups for you my guy, just for you" and I instantly fall flat to the ground not even finishing the first one, but the intention is what counts. He's probably not very fond of rocks but if I find some for my collection and start rambling he will probably go "I don't know what the fuck you're on about but looks cool".

THE POINT IS, worship is honouring what that deity does, and working is wanting to collaborate with them to get to a goal that relates to what they do. I personally won't recommend Dionysus if you want to get a raise at your law firm, but who knows, maybe he helps you pick the perfect wine for a work dinner to get your boss to like you as a small treat lol.

Working needs worship, but worship does not need working. Just clarifying.

If you lose your glasses and ask Hermes to help you find them quickly because you're getting dizzy does not mean you're instantly working with him. It's a small favour, that's common in deity worship. But deity work requires a process. I think it's meant for a long term goal. You won't ask Hermes to work with you just to find your glasses, but you probably want to work with him to learn French, you know?

I hope I cleared things up. I did as best as I could, that's how I practice my stuff. Again, if you feel like adding information and/or pointing out something that's not correct, you're free to do so with respect!

Anon, I hope I cleared your confusion even after beating around the bush so much lol. 🫶🏻

[viscari-a]

MariClaw AUs

AU thinking let's go. Bad boy x sunshine is a classic dynamic and I saw MariClaw (marinette x claw noir) and the possibilities are endless. Since I'm a love square shipper this is going to be MariClaw and Marinette x Emo!Adrien! Highkey I headcanon that Adrien became emo because Marinette did it first so I'm not going to dive into mechanics of why Adrien is emo but Marinette isn't. I would say 'maybe he watched too much anime' but the brand of claw noir feels a bit more more wattpad bad boy (back in 2016) than shoujo bad boy, depending on the shoujo. He's been pining for literal years AU

maybe she once gave him a bandaid, maybe he's always seen her from afar and curiousity became love, who knows! Point is, he's liked her for SO long and when he's given the chance to go to school, he's super excited because that's the school she goes to!! Cue manga cliches and the title is probably something like "The New Delinquent is Actually a Softie at Heart and He's is in Love With Me???" It could be so cliche, with very lighthearted and cute romcom moments. maybe a secret admirer AU!!

It could also be super angst/fluff. Marinette thinks the whole thing is a prank, or doesn't think he actually likes her, and it's the slowest burn or the most comedy romcom. OR it's the first person who appreciates her slash doesnt bully her (the standards are low here, kids, cause i'm going on the assumption she's heavily bullied), and it's a story of self-acceptance! All of these ideas assume that Adrien has the bravery to approach her and talk to her though :> (not quite romantically, thats up to you. Personally, I think he's too shy to be able to blatantly flirt) Integration of Claw Noir is possible is so many ways that I'm not going to go into it. He joined the Supreme to get back at her bullies + protect her AU I once read a villain!chat blanc fic where he and her are soulmates and he does questionable things like follow her around and is kind of wary but also curious. This would have the same vibes! Could also be more wholesome/pining where he stays in the shadows. Plus hurt/comfort when she realizes, plus the fact that his powers are corroding him! Sick fic potential Can also be a lovesquare enemies to lovers (+ mistaken/secret identity), if Ladybug is part of the Resistance and Claw Noir is with the Supreme ;) The Balcony cliche AU

Marinette has mixed feelings on the Supreme but there's one hero who she sees a lot (potential for pining on Claw's part) and it bothers her so much that one day she meets him on the balcony and gives him food and it becomes a Thing! Traditional Marichat vibes but with a more kuu/tsun-dere Noir

Reverse crush AU There's a certain brand of danmei where the MC is really really shy and it's a lot of angst until the ML realizes that the stoic MC is just shy and is actually the cutest, kindest person ever. This! Is! EmoAdrien x Marinette!! One of the potentials, anyway. Marinette thinks Adrien hates her because he keeps glaring/staring at her (and all the stares she's used to are judgemental ones), only talks to her in clipped sentences, and never goes near her. Then, something happens!! Maybe he gives his umbrella to an abandoned cat or something, idk. Point is, she gets more interested and it's a slow burn-ish progressive romance :) Now the above [she thinks he hates her] except he keeps partnering her with projects and events and everything and she's really confused by the mixed signals so can he please stop. I think everyone collectively died when EmoAdrien realized + quietly blushed in the movie so flirting would be SO fun here because both of them would get really embarrassed.

Secret Identity AU Maybe the secret is that he's Claw Noir or the secret is that he's Adrien Agreste but either way it'll be fun :> Maybe she hates his alt persona so he dies a little inside everytime she makes a comment or a jab and this can be either very comedic or very angsty or both Dengeki Daisy AU, same scenario, enough said. Would probably be more interesting if its Claw Noir + OG Adrien / Chat Noir + EmoAdrien, just to have more of a switch. (In Dengeki Daisy, MC has online friend A who she's never met, and a classmate B who she kind of hates. She talks to A about B, where she rants about B and A comforts her. A and B are the same people).

Manhwa style

Sweet, strong, feminine, girlboss MC? With a the stoic, rich, powerful, smitten ML? say less. He might be more of a tsundere than stoic, though. Gabriel Agreste is definitely the hidden boss. Could be the above but also a villainess/reincarnation/transmigation AU. Reincarnated into a game like an RPG or Stardew or something could also be fun, and bonus points if Mari liked him (as a character) before transmigation!

Gaming AU! Gaming AU. Maybe they meet in a game, on Discord, or because they're always playing at the same time and get matched? This is so beautifully canonical. Especially when Adrien is home schooled, he probably gets really attached to his online friend. And if they're both bullied?? they're each other's comfort (be careful to not let this be co-dependent, unless you're going for that). Can have secret identity AU. But, in my personal opinion, the super cute option is to also have them realize on their own! Maybe they've been doing discord calls for ages and recognize each other's voice. Maybe he's been telling her about the school and they realize they're going to attend the same one! Tbh this doesnt have to be mariclaw but the vibes are cute

Extra notes

Yeah Claw Noir doesn't have to have superpowers in all/most of the AUs

Marinette is a loner/bullied in most of these AUs because otherwise it feels a bit too much like a Mary Sue/self-insert (cute competent popular girl meets famous pretty emo boy who hates everyone except her). Can it be done if she's friends with Nino and Alya? Yep. Heavier themes on friendship where Alya (and maybe Nino) are more wary at first but grow to like him and help him be more self-confident. Less romance focus, more character development/trauma healing

If we're going with canon then for all of these, a true happy ending would involve the Supreme being dealt with, but I don't want to deal with that (plus I don't think we know who he is, anyway)

I realize a lot of these are a flavor of Chat Blanc but I had already written it all anyway

Personally, I am a sucker for smitten x insecure and EmoAdrien x OGMari fit that to a tee. Emo x Sunshine I have mixed feelings on because boi have I read a lot of that, but if it's done well it's super cute and MariClaw does that really well!! I could probably think of more AUs but I've already spent at least half an hour purely typing I pretty highly doubt I'll write any of these since they feel like longer fics + I don't have enough canon info on Claw Noir to comfortably characterize him; if anyone wants to write or draw something based on these then feel free to!

[regarding-stories]

The Ever-Changing Story (Part 2a): Nobody can keep track of SAO anymore

This was too funny to pass over... So, I have a guilty pleasure. I love reading tvtropes.org because I love to see their take on what tropes are contained in media I consume, and while writing the previous article I started reading the character page for Asuna.

And today I found this gem:

"First Girl Wins: Asuna is the first of the many girls in Kirito's (virtual) life, and the only one to win his affections. While Sachi was possibly Kirito's first love, he actually met Asuna first." (from tvtropes.org)

If you know Sword Art Online (SAO) only from the anime series, this is true. If you accept Sword Art Online Progressive (SAOP) as taking place in the same continuity as the previous books, this is also true - at least if Progressive overrides things that were actually written before it. This is the magic of retcontinuity. A character's context is shifted but the character remains, changing the role they play in another character's life.

In Sword Art Online 1 - Aincrad the following things happen:

Kirito joins the guild Moonlit Black Cats, meets Sachi, then the guild gets wiped out, all including Sachi die. This is on floor 27 which at that time is close to the frontline.

If we take Asuna's word for it, she first noticed Kirito when she met him (on Floor 59), taking a nap. This starts her infatuation with him - it grows over the following weeks and months.

(There's a parallel between the two girls since both experience Kirito's presence as something that helps them sleep.)

If Sword Art Online 8 - Early and Late is your guide, Kirito was at least aware of who Asuna was, but then again supposedly anyone in Aincrad was at some point in time. But even then Asuna's rise to stardom must have been gradual and knowing "of someone" is not the same as "meeting them first."

But the makers of the anime felt that the gaps in the continuity of Aincrad were a bit too big, and so Kawahara gave them access to what became Aria of a Starless Night, the first part of Sword Art Online Progressive 1. Even SAO 8 predates SAOP 1 by full year.

So the "book chronology" is:

SAO 1

SAO 2

SAO 8

SAOP 1

All the later books shoehorn events into the timeline of Aincrad as a retcon:

SAO 2 adds Liz/Rika and Silica/Keiko as characters and adds a story of Kirito's dark days when he can't get over his guilt regarding the death of Sachi. Includes Sachi "sending" him a letter to the future.

SAO 8 adds the Safe Haven Incident, beefing up the early phase of Asuna and Kirito's history together with a joint murder investigation. Another story introduces us to events on the first day in Aincrad that almost got Kirito killed by another player.

SAOP 1 one pulls the meeting between Kirito and Asuna forward to within a month after the start of the game.

To add further to the confusion, only Aria of the Starless Night is included in the anime, but not The Reason for the Whiskers nor Rondo for a Fragile Blade (both contained in SAOP 1), so for viewers of the anime Kirito and Asuna teamed up for the first boss battle then went separate ways. (And Kirito left Asuna behind. Surely the actual, official end of Aria was written after the anime was already made. But in SAOP 1 Asuna turns around and leaves Kirito. He doesn't just wander off and leave her.)

But then for readers of SAOP 1 this lasts only for a few days of in-game continuity - covered in the interlude The Reason for the Whiskers. Then, in Rondo for a Fragile Blade Asuna pulls Kirito into her party again and never lets go. The series has now progressed into eight light novels and that hasn't changed.

What has changed in regards to Sachi is the order of events. It has been turned on its head.

The Off-Screen Girl

There is a character whose existence practically all happens off-screen - or when she's on-screen, she calls from the dead. Sachi.

If Sachi is Kirito's first love (which the anime heavily implies), then this has not been established in SAO 1 where we first hear of her. Kirito doesn't mention it. I have to admit, I have not finished the story in SAO 2 yet, so in this case I had to look it up. The events from the anime indeed seem to be taken from SAO 2 (according to a summary on the interwebs).

But that is already a story told from memory of another person, Kirito. Sachi reappears in SAO 22 when her emotional residue on the old Aincrad server calls for Asuna. Theosophists would be proud of that one - Sachi's emotional residue attracts Asuna's soul into a scene through a sort of out-of-body experience where she can convey a final message to Kirito, expanding on her first message from beyond the grave.

Sachi is a character of echoes, of reverberations. Her death makes waves. She goes on in a sort of half-digital, half-unexplained afterlife. She reaches out. Her love for Kirito finds a way to reach his soul.

We don't know if Sachi was Kirito's first love. But he loved her, and her death broke his heart. We also know that Sachi loved Kirito, and loved him enough to leave an emotional residue so strong, it creates an undeniable attraction in the digital world towards the spirit most suited for transmitting her message. Asuna loves Kirito, and so she becomes the conduit for Sachi's love to speak through her.

Sachi is one of the characters that unsettles me deeply. Her death in Aincrad is a hard thing for me to confront. Aincrad loves its drama, but it hides the cruelty of what actually happens behind the imagery of exploding into blue polygons. But with Sachi I can't help think back that this is a person that Akihiko Kayaba kills. An innocent, scared girl in the middle of her teenage years, lying in a hospital bed somewhere, having her brain fried by a burst of microwave radiation. She stands for all the Aincrad players that are slain, and if you look at it visually, slain in their sleep and utterly helpless.

In this sense Sword Art Online is more cruel than most any survival story to me. Some are more fair, more less. But whether it's Squid Game or Alice in Borderland, whether it seems a bit fair or an utter screw job, somehow these people fought with all they had against their fate. But SAO's villain kills teenagers, and in this case what feels to me like children. Sachi is the fearful child in all of us. Kirito wants to protect her also because we all would.

And any of the characters in SAO could have had the same fate, characters that we learn to love over the course of the series, like Silica/Keiko. People of a certain innocence and with lots of potential. That makes Sachi's story very hard to read for me. Sachi's power is that she doesn't make it. (Just like Yuuki Konno's story in Mother's Rosario is powerful because she dies.)

I love Asuna as a character, I love the whole Progressive series and want more books of it. But pulling her forward steals something from Sachi and detracts from her story. It creates a deeper rift than other aspects of this retcon.

Yes, Sachi's story will always be strong on its own merit. But by placing SAO Progressive in the same continuity as main series SAO, it takes away Sachi's role as the first girl to touch Kirito's heart. Now she is relegated to be a low point between two Asuna bookends.

Not particularly hopeful

The Hopeful Chant side story released before Ordinal Scale movie seals this. It's written as a top-down mid point between Progressive and the main series continuity. Mainly this story exists to "patch" Yuuna and Nautilus into the Aincrad continuity, but Kawahara used the opportunity to shine a quick light on Asuna and Kirito's relationship at the time the 40th floor was tackled.

According to this story, Asuna broke the party with Kirito at floor 25 to join the newly formed Knights of Blood, creating a continuity between the Progressive Asuna and the Asuna of the main series. But by floor 40 she is terribly conflicted and guilt-ridden about having abandoned Kirito (like she sees it). Even though this is pretty much in tune with what Kirito would hope she would do in the first place, it happens after four months of adventuring together in the early period of beating the game, thereby (top-down) establishing a timeline for as-of-yet unwritten Progressive volumes. (SAOP 8 has progressed as far as the 7th floor, so this leaves an 18 floor gap to the events supposedly ending the partnership between the two - and also that event is again only alluded to. It's unwritten as well.)

This changes the core of both Asuna and Sachi. Now Sachi becomes a filler in a gap Asuna left. There may be barely a month between dissolving the party and meeting the Moonlit Black Cats. But even worse for Asuna! Her inner life gets ripped out and rewritten.

Yes, patching in the 40th floor encounter between Kirito and Asuna seems to establish a mid point between "We were together all the time, then I left" and "I start chasing Kirito" for Asuna. But it changes all the inner stuff behind it. Originally Asuna came to Kirito only with her own baggage. She fell in love with him and decided gradually to act on her feelings, then basically "caught her man." But her inner motivations were simply those of an infatuated teenager. She was impressed with Kirito, and she realized that she was lacking love in her life, she learned to step out of her compulsive sense of duty to beat the game. She learned to love life. And nothing prevented her from acting on that impulse.

The Asuna Progressive leaves us with already has done all of that. And then she leaves. She makes a painful personal decision that might have hurt both of them, and thus puts her duty above her feelings for Kirito. Then she buries her feelings for Kirito under her guilt over her actions (the events of Hopeful Chant in regards to both of them). But then there is nothing connecting that Asuna with the Asuna that starts chasing Kirito. How does the Asuna of Hopeful Chant overcome her powerful guilt? How does she realize that she loves Kirito enough for other things to become secondary? How does she go back on her previous decisions? How does she decide to act?

The truth is that that Asuna would also need to be written. Hopeful Chant inserts an Asuna into the timeline that fits the retcontinuity of what happened before her but she does not connect to what comes after her. Instead of the thread flapping loose at floor 25 or at floor 7, it now hangs loose at floor 40. The story is still disjointed, the puzzle pieces do not match, but now the waters of character continuity have been muddled further.

Because it's "easy" (in relative terms only, of course) to break something up and to saddle a character with guilt and pain, but it's hard to get them out of that hole - especially if that character (Asuna) has a powerful sense of having done wrong by another person and no right to approach that person anymore.

And to make things perfect, that is another pulling forward of her character arc. That is the Asuna, internally, of the moment when Kirito kills Kuradeel. That Asuna of that moment wanted to leave Kirito alone because she felt she was incapable of protecting him, she was in her mind also endangering him. So she was about to give him a speech, out of her sense of duty, out of the pain she felt over almost losing him, that she will leave him alone. The Asuna of Hopeful Chant does that! She's an alternate reality Asuna that runs away from Kirito by failing to run after him. And Kirito is no shape to remedy that, either.

In other words, the events that happen later in original SAO continuity get pulled forward, the inner workings of the character are similar, but they lead to another outcome. Every time such a powerful retcon of the inner workings of a character happens, it just creates more character "plot holes" further down the line.

The reality is that SAO needs rewriting ever since SAO Progressive was introduced. By not making it an outright reboot, the timeline keeps fracturing under the paradoxa of retcontinuity. The makers of the Re:Aincrad manga seems to understand that almost better than Kawahara - the naming is telling in terms of what they think Progressive is. SAOP is not the telling of how SAO was beaten, floor by floor. It's a retelling of how Aincrad was beaten. And as long as it is not considered its own parallel timeline, it will keep pulling characters apart and forward in its wake.

[anglophiletraveler]

Six Sentence Sunday

So I have this fanfic that I keep going back to every once in a while. No title yet. Definitely a work in progress.

*******

Lt. Ross Poldark of Her Majesty’s Royal Army was having another busy day in the hospital at the British base in Afghanistan.  He was working triage and had seen a variety of cases on local civilians that had been injured by shelling.  Since his specialty was paediatrics, he was given the younger patients to work on first, then he would see any leftover adult cases.  He was usually the first face that the patients saw once they entered the triage.  Ross had learned a few words in the local language, but phrases like “where is the nearest bar” wasn’t of much help.  Luckily there was a translator that worked closely with Ross so he could treat the patients.  On this day, Ross had seen a total of 15 children, mainly with shrapnel wounds.  He did have to send two kids to surgery to care for partially amputated limbs.  He hated to see those mainly because of complications from infections.  

He had just come back from lunch and sat down in the nurses station when he was told of another civilian patient to work on, only this time it was an adult.  One of the nurses handed him the man’s chart.  “What do we have Captain Preston?”

“He’s an American photographer.  He has an open broomstick fracture of the left femur.  He’s on bed three.”

“Was he part of the shelling that the kids were mixed up in?”

“Nooo I don’t think so.  I really couldn’t get out of him what happened.  Do you want me to go over with you?”

Ross smiled at the blonde nurse, “Nah, go to lunch.  I’m going to start with an x-ray anyway.” 

*******

Ross pulled back the curtain to find a blondish red haired man, with blue eyes laying on the bed with his left arm in a sling.

“Hello Mr. Hawkins, I’m Lt Poldark.”  He reached across to shake the patient’s hand.  “It sounds like you’ve gotten yourself into a bit of a mess there.  Were you involved with the shelling that some of the civilians caught themselves in?”

Jim’s eyes flashed when the physician introduced himself.  “Nice to meet you Lt.  Umm no nothing that exciting. I’m afraid there won't be a purple heart for me.”  

The doctor raised a dark eyebrow at the patient, “Right.  What happened?”  He could tell the patient really didn’t want to fess up to what happened.  “I really need to know for the purpose of charting.”

The patient sighed, “Right doc. See, I’m a pretty bad clutz.  It’s a bit embarrassing.”  A Midwest American accent started to come through.  “I was looking through my lens on a tripod, and this mangy cat came up and kept walking around my legs, rubbing up against me.  I couldn’t get it to leave me alone, so I gave it a little push with my foot and it attacked my leg and the little fucker dug in with it’s claws!!!  I was hopping around trying to get rid of it and I tripped on something and fell on some equipment.  Luckily I was able to save the camera before it landed on the ground. The little fucker is probably full of lice and fleas!”

Ross’s eyes got wider as he listened to the story, and was biting on his lower lip trying really hard not to laugh at the patient.  

“It’s okay doc, you can laugh at me if you want.  I can take it.”

 “No, no I’m not going to laugh.  Wow, I have to say that is the best war story that I’ve ever heard!    I just have to ask if you landed on the cat?  For charting purposes of course.”

“No, the damn cat ran off.  So, can I have something for pain?”

“First we’re going to get some x-rays.  This is an obvious fracture, but we have to see if there are any other fractures.  Do you have any allergies?”

“No, no allergies.”

“Good.  That type of fracture we can’t just put it back together with a cast.  You’re going to have to have surgery on that arm.  While you’re getting the pictures done, I’ll call surgery and let them in on what’s going on and see if it’s alright if I can give you some pain medicine.  It probably is, but I just want to make sure.”  Ross caught himself staring into Jim’s eyes but hopefully the patient didn’t notice.

“Are you from Cornwall, Lieutenant?”

Ross raised his eyebrows in surprise and smiled, “Very good Mr. Hawkins, I’m impressed.  I didn’t think I had that much of a Cornish accent anymore.”

 Jim gave a side smile, “Eh I’ve been around.”

Ross cleared his throat at that remark, “And your accent… is that from Wisconsin?”  Ross was relieved when an orderly came to push his bed to the radiology department.  “Here’s your ride Mr. Hawkins.”

 Jim offered his hand for a handshake.  “Please call me Jim.  And it’s Ohio.”   Ross caught a twinkle in Jim’s eyes when they shook hands.   As he left the department, Jim yelled, ‘O.H.I.OOOOO!’ but Ross had no clue why!

[bitchfitch]

Hi 4 am Arlo anon i am also 4 am Arlo anon tonight.

Like ok. Arlo. My man. My dude. I Know the shape of his origin story up to burrying himself beneath several tons of dirt and have basically all the details needed for it. I know the shape of his life after Asena stops him from being able to help keep Conall's wolf at bay.

But i only have the vaguest outlines between those two points.

I've been struggling hard to bind together all the sorta Moments i have in my head for him and his progress towards being Arlo in a less actively destructive way. And it's because there's no real plot to them. There's not an arc. It's not linear. he has backslides and tiny changes that took months of effort. Most of his growth happens in small moments that aren't even all that notable.

Arlo at the beginning of his story saw himself as perfection incarnate. He saw his magic as a gift his mother gave to the world but which the world rejected and so he was going to use it to cause as much hurt as he could.

Arlo at the end of the story gives up his magic entirely to save the life of a human. Because carving that part of himself out hurt less than the idea of being so alone again.

He hadn't even known he was lonely when he first met Conall. He couldn't remember what it felt like to not be isolated.

There's no grand revelation or conflict. There's no adventure or spark point. Just a hundred incremental changes that happened in unremarkable ways.

And that's. nothing. That's not a story worth putting between a queen shredding an outer god to remake herself and using the leftover scraps to make her unicorn children, and a man loosing everything in a single night before begging at the feet of one of those unicorns to take even more from him so that his sister could have a life free of the pain the queen and her children had caused, and that sister now grown coming to try and free her brother only to damn him further, and horrible selfish creature carving it own beating heart out of its chest to save the only person who had Ever treated him like a human. Who made being human not insulting.

If i let Arlo's growth be a focus, then the middle 3/5ths of the story are a very patient man putting too much work into someone who doesn't deserve any of it. But without that growth none of the rest works. Without Arlo being given those moments there's no reason for Conall to come back to him time after time.

Arlo can be likable as a character despite his Arloness. He's funny, in a pathetic wet cat way and in a cartoon villain level ghoul way. He's pretty, he has his charm. He and Conall work well on the page and bounce off each other right. But he's the cause of so much strife and pain. He's hurt Conall so many times. If there weren't those moments of progress and genuine humanity it just wouldn't make sense for Conall to be putting so much effort into him.

But those moments are nothing.

[disasociatehaze]

I finally worked up the courage to post one of my in-progress crossover fics. It's a BNHA x FF7 fic because I think it's a severely lacking niche with a ton of potential. This one in particular because it's prologue works better as a stand alone than the others I got and if it gets a decent enough response here I'll actually make an AO3 account. Not sure where it's going yet story wise, but its going somewhere. Comments and critiques are accepted.

Wake Up, King o’ the Cats

Prologue

People hadn’t always had quirks, it was only 200 years ago that people started developing supernatural powers that became common in society today. However, it was only after the dawn of quirks that people started to don the costumes— that were once staples of the superhero comics they once read— to stop superpowered crime that it became an official profession. Pro-Heroes is what they were called from then on.

Izuku had always known he would be a hero when he grew up— had said as much with unflinching confidence whenever he was asked. When he was told he couldn’t be a hero because he was quirkless, he simply looked confused while his mother was devastated. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk because he already knew that quirks did not make a hero. Heroes were not what were shown on tv or on the corners of the street; heroes were people who gave everything to make sure people were safe and keep the real criminals from hurting anyone again. Heroes are different from Pro-Heroes, though All Might was definitely both. Izuku liked All Might even if he thought his smile was strained. 

That day, when they got home from the doctors office he didn’t ask his mom if he could be a hero. He just grabbed some paper and started to draw. When Inko asked if he was alright, he looked at her solemnly and told her with confidence he would still be a hero. Had Inko not broken into tears to hug her son— who was clearly in denial, she would have noticed the drawing Izuku had made. She would have seen her son holding hands with a cat in a cape and a crown surrounded by others, all of them wearing a pink ribbon on their arms with the exception of the girl wearing it in her hair. 

Later the drawing was carefully stored in a drawer, but forgotten. Izuku made many drawings after (some similar to the first; others more like blueprints) and learned all he could as he grew older. His thirst for knowledge was seemingly unquenchable. He was still bullied by his classmates for his quirkless status, but it always felt like it wasn’t worth dwelling on for him when he had blueprints to make. He didn’t need a quirk to be a hero, not when he could just design support items to fight with. Izuku would never stop fighting to improve life for others— he knew he was an unstoppable force with enough effort.

Izuku hadn’t realized why he was so odd until this moment as his life flashed before his eyes, suffocating in the grasp of the sludge monster villain. 

He was immobilized with no way to escape. 

Izuku was falling asleep.

Maybe now he could rest.

As Izuku drifted to sleep, he remembered his life as the world faded to a soft green and began to smell of flowers. A chime of laughter on the wind urged him conscious along with a light slapping to his cheek. 

Reeve awoke and he wished All Might had just let him sleep.

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Dreams and Reality - Adrien AUGreste Day 31

This hadn't been my original idea. I had plans for either another cosplay shoot, or a play or ren faire, but randomly thought about Chronicles of Narnia and this came about. It was supposed to be longer but it didn't work out that way. The blanks on how things happen and progress is intentional, since it's a dream so I hope it worked. My Prince

Cold. It was always cold. The castle of ice never got warm, never had fires going. Adrien would just drown in furs, the ice clinging to his white hair, catching the blue of his eyes.

The doors to his room slammed open, the man standing in the doorway bringing more cold air with him.

“Adrien.” Gabriel Agreste, false king of Miraculous, walked into his room, the butterfly staff in his hand. The thumping it made as the man walked made Adrien sink into the furs he wore. “I hope your decision has changed.”

Half of his face was hidden in the furs at this point. He didn’t move to escape them to answer and he watched the blue eyes narrow behind the spectacles the man wore.

“I see. Perhaps more time inside will change your mind.” Unlike the furs Adrien wore, the furred cape the false king wore flowed dramatically as he turned and left, the doors slamming shut behind him.

Adrien finally pulled his face from its hiding place as he got up from the bed, walking over to the window. The snowy landscape made everything seem so far away.

He needed to get out of here. he needed to get back home. Home was a city on water, in a house with two people. Not married but close and supportive of each other. And they both loved him. Two older people were also there, one with sweet treats and the other with silent support, but all of it, it was home. Even with memories of seeing different places, it was comfort being with his family. Until they came here and he’d been swept away by this…monster. His daughter was uncontrollable and he sent her away and he took Adrien to take her place. Adrien had been in this castle for so long, his appearance started to change, but he never got used to the cold.

_____________________

Adrien rushed, stumbling as the snow caved under his feet. Growing up, he read stories of how heroes raced across snowy plains, clearly that was a lie. The cloak he made flowed behind him like the monster he’d been trapped with but unlike its inspiring fear, it rippled with Adrien’s attempts in escaping. Its touch reminded him that if he didn’t get far enough now, he would never escape. Fluttering wings were approaching, their dark and shadowy bodies racing to get to him. Every stumble he made let them get closer. He couldn’t go back; he wouldn’t go back!

“Move!” something called, the fluttering disrupted by a large object. Something crashed into them. Adrien didn’t turn to see what it was, he just kept running.

He finally reached the forest and the first tree he could hide behind, he did. He dropped down, the cloak finally resting as his breath appeared in front of him as he tried to calm down. he should keep moving, he needed to.

Soft steps crunched snow and a pink nose was the first thing Adrien saw of the black cat. Their fur was dusted with snow and there was the wing of one of the butterflies still hanging from their jowl.

“You ok kid?”

“Who are you?” he didn’t question how the cat could talk. How could he? His kidnapper made the snowy wasteland they were in.

“Names Plagg. Come on, let’s get you home.”

Adrien stared. “Home? I can go home?”

“Your parents are waiting for you. shall we get going?”

Adrien didn’t have to think, he got up and started to follow Plagg through the woods.

__________________________

His eyes were starting to change back. It was starting to get warmer, finally. The tea helped. Plagg took him to three people, all traveling to the main city. Marinette, a seamstress who gave him warmer clothes and started to sew pictures into the cloak he wore. Black cats and flowers and music notes, a small ladybug as a good luck charm in the corner. Nino, a bard who looked after his younger brother Noel. Alya, a girl who seemed to know all, aching to return back to her own family of sisters and parents.

“So, tell us about this place, your home on the water.” Alya asked, leaning forward, her fox-like eyes gleaming for answers. He didn’t feel like a prey being cornered, only when she heard something about the monster who kept him locked away and wanted answers. Right now, he felt the rare moments he had around friendly strangers he’d talk to in his short visits to other places.

“It’s old, full of history. You could get lost in it for days. But the people are friendly, always willing to give help or answers. The older they are, the more loving of people they tend to be, but you can find others our age who will be kind. We have our share of thieves of course, but still, it’s home. It’s large, so I haven’t been to every place, but I’ve moved to so many different lands with my parents. Never for very long, but I love exploring the areas. Normally it’s by myself, but when my parents can come with me…I miss them.”

Alya patted his thigh, Nino leaning on him in the confined space of their traveller. Marinette draped the half-done cloak over his and Nino’s legs, while she and Alya had the top end.

“Your parents miss you too.”

“Because I’m a prince?” his parents gave orders on behalf of the ruler of his home, some people considered him a prince. He didn’t know, it’s what he’d been called his whole life.

“No,” Nino replied instead of Alya, though Adrien still felt her hand on his knee under the cloak. “Because they love you. And we love you too.”

He knew that. They were his friends. They were his family.

_______________________

His hair was fading back to blonde when he met Luka. they’d arrived at his home, but his parents were gone. Adrien hadn’t sat the think with reason, he assumed they didn’t want him anymore and left. Luka, guitar on his back, had been tasked with delivering a package to him. The cream and chocolate was still fresh, even with the melting snow, inside the pastry Adrien found in the package.

“They didn’t forget me.” He breathed, his now green eyes filling with tears. “My mother and I, whenever we travelled, we’d get a cannolo, see if it stands up to the ones from here.”

“They went to look for you. they’ve been looking since you were gone.” Luka reassured.

Adrien had a sudden thought. “Him, Gabriel, he’ll come after them! I need to find them.” he got up when Luka grabbed his arm.

“Not by yourself. I know someone who can help, someone who can stand up against him. But…he might ask you to help. Will you?”

“They’re my parents, of course I will.”

“It’ll be dangerous.”

“I don’t care!”

Luka smiled at him, nudging the hand with the pastry. “Ok. Eat, remember who you’re fighting for. I’ll be back.”

The cream tasted like the ones his nonna would make. The ribbon that had closed the box smelled like the flowers from his nonno’s garden. His parents took him for his first cannolo away from home as a child. The pastry was full of happy memories and love.

“My prince.” Behind him stood a young man, dressed in spotted red and black, a hood blocking his face. With him was a girl in black and green, a ribbon holding her cloak closed. “We here to help you find your parents.”

He’d find them, he would.

“We need to stop Gabriel first. We need to stop him at his castle.”

“the snow is melting; he’s losing his power. We’re ready when you are my prince.”

With his cloak full of the things that meant the most to him and Marinette helping him tie the ribbon around his wrist, Adrien felt ready. Gabriel Agreste wanted a son but he’d get something worse.

___________________

“Adrien? Adrien!”

Bleary green eyes blinked open, to look at the shadow cast figure leaning over him.

“Adrien?”

The figure was Luka. Adrien was able to see the bright redyed blue of his hair and just make out the shapes on his lip that made up his snake bites. Luka kneeled down, the concerned look on his face clear enough to see.

“Are you ok?”

Adrien blinked, rubbing his eyes trying to reset his brain. He sat up, feeling something shift in his lap. It was his copy of the Chronicles of Narnia, the version that had all the books inside one book. It was laying facedown on his stomach and sitting next to him under his phone, was a ribbon. It came from his first bouquet his grandfather gave him. He’d used it as a bookmark for this book since he’d gotten it around the same time. He gently placed it between the pages of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, before closing the book and setting it aside.

“What time is it?” he was in the park, the one near Marinette’s house and the one he could see from his apartment. He was sitting under a tree but it was quiet, so it was in one of the less walked areas. The sun was still high in the sky, the light speckling down between the leaves.

“It’s around 3. We were supposed to meet at the Merry-Go-Round at 2:30. You said you were getting out of the apartment to do more research.” Adrien still felt lost, “for the play you’re helping Marc with? He needed ideas for a prince character. You said you’d figure out if Caspian was a good guy to play off of. I think you mentioned, um, what’s his name. En-diamond?”

“Endymion. Prince of Earth, Chibia Mamoru, Tuxedo Mask, King Endymion. Moron who’s wife needs to slap his far into the future self for coming up with the hair brain idea of ‘let’s trick myself into breaking up with my girlfriend to keep her safe, because I do everything by myself and don’t ask for help’.”

Luka looked lost but nodded anyway. “Sure. I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

Adrien nodded and started to piece together his dream. “I was a prince. Which didn’t make sense, since my parents weren’t rulers, but I was called ‘my prince.’ In my dream.” He explained. “Gabriel Agreste wanted me to be his son since he sent Lila away but I wanted, needed to get back to my parents. Nino, Marinette and Alya were there, helping me get back and…” he trailed off since he couldn’t talk about Plagg. “And you. you delivered a cannolo to me.”

Luka gave him a teasing smile. “Like when we first met?”

“Better, since it was nonna’s. Scarlet Bug and Catseye were there too, ready to help me defeat Gabriel. It was weird.”

Luka took his hand, lacing their fingers together as he pressed a kiss on the back of Adrien’s hand, near his rings. “Prince, huh? Does that mean I should call you my prince?”

The two didn’t do pet names with each other, only when Adrien was trying to get Luka’s attention, so the blonde felt himself blush. “You’re just trying to get me flustered.”

“Is it working?”

“Oh my god, why are you like this?” with his freehand, Adrien grabbed his book and phone and tugged on Luka’s hand to help him up. “Let’s go meet up with Marc, maybe he can make sense of the dream.”

“As you wish, my prince.”

Adrien wasn’t going to protest the name. the dream was strange, the idea that the father of the one girl who he hated wanted him as his son. But he believed what he did in the dream, doing everything possible to get back to his family, wouldn’t change be it in dreams or reality. Plagg being the first to save him though was odd. By the time Plagg came to him, he wasn’t in need of saving. It was weird that the dream felt like it held truth to it.

Still, prince or not, Adrien was glad his life was the way it was now.

[devondespresso]

WIP Wednesday!

Tagged by @stobinesque 💕💃🪩🕺💕

THE RULES

In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can’t share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!

WIPS

~the usual~

Steve Henderson AU

Claudia Henderson Canon Character Masterlist

s3 Dustin funko (physical wip)

Chrissy Cunningham funko (physical wip)

tagging @blushweddinggowns @flowercrowngods @csinnamon-fox @withacapitalp and @wynnyfryd (and anyone else that wants to!! also absolutely no pressure of course! also also just let me know if you don't like being tagged in these💖)

SNIPPET

is it really a WIP Wednesday if i don't share Steve Henderson Au? I don't think so. anyway

(i have no idea how to do the 'more under the cut' thing hopefully i did this right.)

in todays episode the gang is taking a pitstop to drop of Dustin before going to ✨the hospital✨

They pulled up to Dustin's house in no time. It was small but very warm, especially with all the big windows and golden lights. Just as Hopper parked beside a bright yellow Volvo the front door swung open and a very frantic woman made her way to their car. Dustin launched out of the car, forgetting his bag on the floorboards, and ran over to her. Just the sight of him made her visibly relax with a frantic smile, pace slowing and shoulders slumping back to a natural state. It was like every emotion was exaggerated. On display like there was nothing to hide, like the whole world needed to know how worried or relieved she was. 

Or upset, because after a long hug she immediately began scolding him. Steve could barely hear what they were saying, a few words flicking in here and there.

“Worried …  so late ..  Mews..”

Mews. Dustin's cat. Dead cat. Did he tell her? Does she know about the upside down, too?

He opened his door and shouted for Dustin to come over, quickly grabbing his bag as an excuse for wanting to talk to him.

“Left your bag, dude.”

“Thanks,” he grabbed it quickly, clearly in a rush to get back, Steve reached out to keep him just a second longer.

“Did you tell her about Mews?” 

“Of course not! She doesn’t know about this stuff, I can’t just tell her about D’art!” he whispered

“Dusty, is everything okay?” she said, starting towards Steve’s door. Dustin gave him a look that screamed shit shit shit shit shit

“I got it,” he mouthed before she reached them.

“Yeah, everythings fine Mrs Henderson. I was telling Dustin that he should probably explain what happened today.” he lied easily. Her eyebrows raised, looking between them. Dustin still looked really nervous but trying to hide it under a weak smile and agreeing nod.

“Yeah, I asked Steve to help me look for Mews and-’

That got her attention.

“Did you find her?” she asked, voice wavering. Shit.

“No-” 

“Yeah”

Dustin froze.

“Well, we did, technically, just…” he hesitated for effect, then continued softly, “She didn’t make it.” 

She gasped, covered her mouth with her hands, and let out a strangled “oh”. Dustin looked almost as distraught, moreso at seeing his mother so upset. Fuck, this shouldn’t be so hard.

He continued, to complete the lie and to keep Dustin from having to say anything more.

“There was a rabid dog loose, we took care of it before it could hurt anything else, but... we were too late to help Mews. I’m- I’m so sorry.” He said. The story was fake, but the stutter and remorse wasn’t. Not necessarily feeling for Mews, he liked cats but he never actually saw Mews, but more for Mrs. Henderson. He had no idea how important this cat was to her and it was starting to make sense why Dustin kept lying to her about it.

She sighed wetly and Dustin gave her another hug.

“Can we bury her?” she asked

“Already did,” Dustin said into her shirt. He pulled back and looked more sure. Like a calmness swept over him, but too quickly. It had to be an armor, “We buried her in the backyard while you were at work, I can show you in a minute.”

Then he dropped his bag and pulled Steve in for a hug like he did with his mother. It was a surprise, but after a moment to think again he returned it, letting Dustin bury his head in his shirt and holding his onto him gently.

“I’m sorry, dude.” Steve whispered.

“It’s okay.” He said, pulling back and giving a little smile, “I’m going to come visit you, okay? At the hospital tomorrow."

“I’ll hold you to it,” he said, ruffling Dustin’s hat. He scooted back into the car, hearing Mrs. Henderson faintly question 'hospital' before the door shut. Hopper backed out of the driveway and Steve looked out the window, smiling as Mrs. Henderson waved at them before she and Dustin went inside.

[lolita-lollipop]

Hizashi and Aizawa kidnapping a young teenage girl, and her bonding and quickly finding comfort with Hizashi, leaving Aizawa to awkwardly attempt at being super soft and all the more gentle to his sensitive little girl, his heart panging with pain every time she flinches or cowers away from him. “You don’t need to be scared of me, kitten.. please”

your little acts of favoritism weren’t necessarily intentional, you hated both of them. they were your brothers teachers, and whoop dee doo, they kidnapped you. but... you liked hizashi more.

it was just something about him that made you believe he was some form of comfort item, probably because he wasnt brooding, and didnt have a mean face, and he was the first human yud ever seen in this place, that all combined into one and he became your rock, your shoulder to cry on. he was just... so nice, although his quirk was loud, somehow he managed to speak softly with you. it was such a bright contrast to at home where two firey blondes always scream at each other, and your father tries to calm it down.

on your first night ever here, you had tried to jump out the window, and were captured by the thick scarves you once admired, hed lectured you, yelled at yiuu even, all you could see were those red eyes of his, and hear his voice. and he scared you, he scared you so much. i guess it justtranslates to now, first impressions are everything, and to you, he looked like a big scary man who would yell at you.

eventually, you stopped caring about how you hated him, or how you wanted to leave, as you clearly never were. so, instead of glaring at them, or crying, you accepted the fact that he was taking care of you. hizashi, hizashi was taking care of you... aizawa though? no way in hell, he was just so... you'd never seen him with a smile, he never tried to talk to you, he just kinda watched you, and it freaked you out, at some point you started believing he was trying to kill you, don't even ask how you came up with that conclusion.

you just couldn't manage to warm up to hi as you'd done so quickly with hizashi, and it showed. you were always tense when alone with him, like he was going to jump out at you any second and stab you, you didnt talk to him , sometimes you felt so anxious around him that you would outright start crying, shaking in some form of fear, or hide yourself under a blanket. although hizashi was proud that you loved him so much, he knew that this was hurting his husband, that his own little girl was scared of him.

so he would always try to coax you into doing things with him, saying things like "can your papa come and help" or "how about we have papa do this with you while I make lunch?", just trying to get him included so you would feel just as comfortable around him as you were with his own self. Sometimes he just left the room to let you have alone time with him. He’d even lectured his husband about how he always looked angry, and that he has to smile form time to time, and not the creepy “I’m gonna kill a villain” smile.

And so Aizawa started trying, not trying to be like hizashi, even that was too much for him, but trying to be nicer, he was a gentle person when he wanted to be, so this came with ease for him, he would tuck you in at night, read you stories, hold you if you cried, feed you, help you bathe (which you usually liked hizashi to do, and in general, inserted himself as a gentle roger in your life. You would expect taht this would work, that because he was so nice to you, because he was so sweet like hizashi, you would accept him as your father.

But nope! Again, first impressions are everything to you, and now, he was written off as the villain of you story, now, you jsut ran off to papa whenever he was around, and didn’t even give him the chance to hang around you, it just made it worse honestly, because now, not only did he look scary, but he also looked fake, which is never good. Every time he would try to if you, you would clutch onto hizashi for dear life, acting like his hand would do nothing but burn you.

Tears would cloud your vision, and he would pulle back, not wanting to cause you any more pain, and jsut stare in. Pure jealousy at his husband, who cooed and gave you a hug.and guess what? You hugged him back, and hid yourself in his chest, willingly, without a fight, without a tear, instead with a smile, most of the times mic wouldn’t interfere, wbatigg ns this to everyone a safe space for you, a place where you should naturally do things, but sometimes, he would give you little bushes int he right direction. Like disappearing completely for my he house so you’ll be forced to talk to Aizawa.

This is one of those times.

Yo been wandering the house for about ten minutes now, waking up form a nap, to find mic absent from his usual place in the rocking chair at your bedside. It was a little after lunchtime, and they’d only given you a small cup of fruit for breakfast (intentional, from mic), you were fairly hungry, and usually he was there to give you food, but you had no idea where he was, you had heard the… other one on the phone in their shared office, but you did not want to talk to him right now.

Aizawa could tell you were awake by the fact that all of the cats were meowing like crazy, and little pattering footsteps had followed his hearing around, mic had left abruptly, probably some little plan of mischief again, he was hizashi after all. He was just waiting for you to either 1: go back to bed, or 2: come to him for help. Mic had specifically told him to follow these rules for after nap time, so he did. And grew progressively more worried as over twenty minutes, trying to read through his students grading work, too distracted by the urge to go find you to accomplish anything.

His worries dissipated though when he saw your little head poking through the door, cat in hand, confused and tired looking, small tears beginning to prick th corners of your eyes, little sniffling sounds left you. His wha specked up form the desk, you’d given up walking around the whole house, your restarting had slowly pent up, you couldn’t manage to find him, and you were so hungry.

“Oh- hey honey, I didn’t know you were up. Do you need something?” He questioned, smiling intently at you, you just inched back into the door frame, breathing heavier by the moment, your hands shook and your head felt like it was going to explode at any point. Youbcontenoajted runnign back to your room and waiting till mic came out where you could hear him, but your stomach grumbled, reminding you how hungry you really are.

“I’m- im looking for daddy. Where is he.” You spoke, a very hushed tone overtook your words, making them almost inaudible for him. His face sunk slowly, he tougher you were actually gonna come for him, but the he remembered taht patience is key, and that he shouldn’t get mad, because it is t your fault taht you’re just a little sensitive, too fragile to handle more than one attachment, he gets it. He jsut at least wanted you to look at him, instead did your little feet, I’m Ayer if you could meet his eyes the. You would see how much he loves you.

“Oh, he left a. Little while ago. Is there something you need from him? Your papa can give him a call if you want, you could even talk to him!” He exclaimed excitedly, plastering that happy smile across his face to seem more inviting, liek mic had told him to do. He stood out of his chair, rounding up the papers and putting them in his file folders.you tried to sink back furthers, almost disappearing behind the doorway, you shook your head aggressively, almost running off, then yet again, your stomach made another noise, and forced you to stay.

“I- no. I’m- im hungry-“ you spluttered, not caring if it was embarrassing that you were stuttering so much, you just wanted food. And calling mic would just get you a lecture on how you could’ve just asked your papa, the same thing would happen whenever you went to uncnecesary lengths to avoid the man, your daddy would make sure you knew that it made him feel bad, while you’d at there bored. Not caring, at all.

“Oh- well you should’ve told me sooner kitten, if I’d known I would be up already. Cmon, let’s go to the kitchen, your daddy made you some food earlier” he spoke, rising from his chair slowly, you cowered slightly as he walked over, clutching the little kitten right to you for comfort, he mewed and snuggled closer, completely asleep. The man sighed when he saw you backing away from his grasp, he knew you were still scared. But he was just so impatient… he was tired of waiting, he wanted to hold you, even if it was jsut foena few minutes. He needed it feel you there with him.

Is he acted quickly, moving in a matter of seconds, he swooped his arm under your leg, and hooked his other around your torso, pulling you straight up into his grasp. Youu huh froze, his hands felt cold as ice on your skin, like they were burning you, immediately after he started walking, it snapped you out of it and you threw a fit. You dig your fingernails into his skin, and kicked and flailed in a panic, still trying to keep the little kitten in your lap safe. A full blown panic washed over you, clogging all your senses.

The dam holding back tears form your eyes crashed, and immediately you were sobbing, biting at his shoulder to let you go, he tried to rub your back to calm you down a bit, but just made it worse, as his hands felt like living anxiety creeping up and down your spine. He didn’t know what to do, let you ride it out, andkk no possibly have you get sick because of how much your crying in an empty stomach? Or let you down and go straight back to square one.

Your veined felt like pure ice had flooded in them, and it felt liek someone was repeatedly jabbing you in the head with tiny needes, fear was jsut so prominent in your sense, it overcame you, and made you whimper and scream.

“Whoah, breath for me alright? I just want to hold you. I’m not going to hurt you okay? I would never hurt you. Kitten… you don’t have to be scared of me” he spoke, trying to keep a proper computers, he wanted to cry with you, he wasn’t a very soft or emotional man but honestly, he was so upset with himself already, this was jsut pushing him for the edge. You cried, and cried, at some point you weren’t even crying and screaming at him, more with him. He held you close, you’d stopped the struggle almost five minutes ago, letting him hold you. It was odd. It almost felt… nice.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m being stupid again” You alien through your remaining little hiccups, shove my your face into his shirt, smelling the woody scent he carried around with him. He cooed, letting you hide yourself from him, savouring this soft moment was of top priorirty in his head… you jsut looked so sweet, so different from those harsh cries that would sound usually whenever he came around.

Who would think, shouts aizawas hand couldn’t feel nice? The same ones that had just been burning you, the ones that made you scream, felt like a breeze on a spring day, he actually felt warm, he felt like happiness, like contentment.

“No hon, it’s not stupid. Your scared. I know that, we all get scared and it’s not a bad thing, I love you, I really, really love you kitten. Just know that” he continued on with his little speech, leaving down to kiss you in the forehead, Jsut to be suprised when you didn’t flinfh, you were too tired to be scared; and too hungry, plus, he was really warm, the cat had pretty much snuggled up to him already, who says you shouldn’t.

“I- um- I love you… to?” You spoke, more of a question than anything, you’d spent so long Harding him that you didn’t know if you even could love him, it didn’t even feel possible, then again, you litterally cling to hizashi like a koala, and your mental state has relaly said “swoopity swoop” and scattered itself everywhere. Maybe having two comfort items was actually better than one… huh.

“Well, let’s go eat then. All taht crying probably made you tired, I’ll let you watch a movie in my office, you can watch pinto again, I know you love taht one. Cmon, let’s go” he spoke, and started walking again, you cuddled closer to him as he did, smiling slightly at the warmth. Hizashi was very extravagant, exiting, and hyper, this man felt very cool, calm, it was such a dark contrast, but it worked so well. You jsut… you Jsut liked it.

Well… now we’ll just have to wait and see who’s the favorite

———————————————————————————————————

Thank you for requesting! It was super fun to write and had me feeling super happy when I finished :)

I’m thinking about doing yandere todoroki family asks, because I’m litterally in love with @i-cant-sing one… so, requests are open for those if you want to put them in (please do I’m begging)

Anywho, have the most wonderful to days today! Goodbye!

[thefanficmonster]

Time And Time Again

Dream x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: FLUFF, Romance, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Basically a rundown of some of the most recent cute moments brought to you by the most adorable will-they-won’t-they couple: Y/N and Dream.

Requested by Anon. Hi dear! Thank you so much for your wonderful request, it really made my day when I received it! I hope I captured what you wanted and what you had in mind in the fic and I hope you enjoy the read! This is my first time writing for Dream so I hope I don’t mess it up hehe. Love, Vy ❤

“I don’t wanna go in the cave!“ Y/N squeals in terror when she realizes that in order to make progress in the game and continue moving onward with the story, she has to walk Blake through the dark, dingy and danger-ridden cave in Outlast 2. The gang’s all there with her on a Discord call to keep her company, knowing she’s a scaredy cat underneath that tough girl exterior. And being the scaredy cat she is while also having a preference for horror games has made Friday nights very interesting for her and her friends: her, Clay, George and Sapnap sit on a Discord server while she streams whatever horror game she had planned for the evening to her close to her thousands of viewers. 

“Don’t worry, Y/N! I’ll come with you, imma hold your hand the whole time.“ Clay volunteers wholeheartedly without a second to waste.

Much to his disappointment, however, Y/N’s reply to that is: “Not until you go wash off all that cheeto dust that’s all over your fingers.“

Clay gasps dramatically, “How DARE you? I offer you help and comfort and this is the thanks I get? I hope one of those heretics in teaches you a lesson!”

While the pair are now in a full-on ‘heated’ dispute on their manners and politeness, bringing back things they did wrong as far back as three years ago, George and Sapnap are just connecting the dots silently.

“Wait, Y/N...“ George is the one to finally speak up, “How’d you know he’s eating cheetos?”

Taking a momentary break from the bickering, Y/N reassumes her more sweet tone of voice as he addresses him, “He freaking raided my cabinets and has eaten all my snacks already! He’s only been here for two hours, damn it!”

“Don’t make it sound like I inhaled a mountain of snacks in two hours! You literally had only two bags of snacks - meant for one person, mind you!“ Clay argues back, neither him nor Y/N realizing that this accidental outing will send their fandoms in a fit.

Of course, people hang out at their friends’ all the time, nothing weird there. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal to anyone if Sapnap didn’t say:

“How come Clay has the privilege of coming over to place and George and I don’t?“

Oh boy...

                                                             *  *  *

“Hi everyone! I know you guys couldn’t care less for an intro so Imma get right into it...“ Y/N says, all seemingly in one breath, “You see this masked man next to me? This tree of a man right here? Yes? Good, well judging by that poorly made cardboard mask he’s wearing - curtsey of yours truly - you probably already know who he is. If not, meet Dream, aka Clay, aka the raincloud above my parade.“

That specific laugh echoes throughout the room as the said tree-of-a-man wraps an arm around the significantly smaller girl’s shoulders, pulling her closer till their sides collide, “She loves me, trust me, she does.”

“Only when you bring me food though.“ She corrects him, wiggling his shoulders to see if she could set herself free from his grip but relaxing in his embrace when she realizes she won’t be going anywhere unless he willingly lets her go.

Clay tilts his head to the side to look at her through the holes poked into the mask before lifting his free arm to reveal the plastic bag he’s been holding all this time. “Oh, well then I wonder what I’ve got over here...”

“Oh my God, Panda Express! You’re the best, Clay.“ She squeals, grabbing him by the collar of his hoodie and pulling him down while she simultaneously pushes up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek which is a tiny bit exposed to her between the mask and the hood he’s got over his head.

Before the man could even recover, he finds himself empty handed, having lost the girl and having lost the bag of food to the girl.

That kiss was worth it though.

                                                             *  *  *

“Ok, so I’ve seen this ‘my girlfriend does my makeup’ challenge going around and since I’m single as all hell, I got my best friend Y/N here to do my makeup.“ Clay points to Y/N who’s holding a makeup bag in one hand and is giving him a very disappointed look, “Judging by the look on her face, she’s not at all impressed but I promise to make her a bit more excited to be here in editing.“

“Of course I’m unimpressed, this is the troll video of troll videos!“ She complains, throwing her arms up, “Sure I’ll do your makeup and get a kick out of it myself but none of them will see it!“ She points to the camera, “None of them will know what amazing makeup artist skills I’ve got.“

This leaves Clay speechless for a moment, uncertain of how to reply to her statement before just deciding to say: “Well, at least you’ll be getting a kick out of it, that’s all that matters to me.”

“Aww...“ Y/N bats her eyelashes at the camera as her bottom lip forms an emotional pout, “Please don’t be so sweet to me after I just verbally kicked your ass. You always do that and make me feel like the meanest person in the world.“

“Aww Y/N, I’m so sorry.“ He says, sounding genuinely apologetic as he wraps his arms around the girl that’s tiny in comparison to him, bringing her closer to him with his tight hug.

“YOU’RE DOING IT AGAIN!“

                                                             *  *  *

“Hey Clay, I bought lunch on the way so I hope you’re-” Walking into her friend’s recording room abruptly, Y/N finds herself face to face with his webcam, the light next to which is glowing, suggesting the device is on and she’s currently on the screens of the thousands of people watching Dream’s stream. His mask is on - the one she made for him - of course, but she can still feel the aura of him smiling, relieving her of the worry that he’ll be irritated by her walking in like that - unannounced and without knocking. To be fair, they never announced to one another when they’d be stopping by and by this point in their friendship they have also stopped knocking too. “You’re streaming, huh?”

“Yup!“ The word is said in such a teasing manner she almost allows herself to blush, “What you got there tho?“

“Chipotle.“ She answers shortly, “And I’m starving so can we please turn your stream into a Mukbang?“ She furrows her brows as she inspects what’s on his computer screen, looking at a comment section instead of the usual screen of a game she’s used to seeing. “What are you doing, anyway?“

Looking back at his screen for a brief moment before turning back to her, Clay replies, “Oh, just reading mean comments, as one does to boost their self-esteem.”

The flash of anger he sees on Y/N’s face is most certainly not what he was inspecting to see. Mockery, yes. Humor, yes. Faux sympathy followed by some mean comments of her own, definitely. But he anger he did not see coming at all.

“Who’s talking shit about you? I’ll end them!“ Putting the plastic bag of delicious food aside, forgetting all about it in the process, Y/N grabs a chair and drags it over next to Clay’s so she too can look at his screen.

And that boy has never felt so much adoration for his best friend. Their fans - and especially their shippers - would’ve lost it if they had been able to see the look he was giving her.

                                                             *  *  *

(back to the ‘girlfriend/best friend does my makeup vid’)

“Ok, so what kind of look do you want me to give you?“ Y/N asks as she sits down on the stool in front of Clay, her makeup products placed on the dining table which is to her right.

“You ask me as though I know what I want.“ Clay laughs, the sticker of his mask floating above his face, following his movements as to keep his features hidden, “Just do the look you do on yourself everyday. It looks really cute on you, who knows, I might be able to pull it off too.“

“Sure thing.“ She smiles at her friend’s compliment, “Just stand still, ok?“

“Yes, ma’am.“

                                                            *  *  *

“Y/N, no! Stop!“ Clay warns her via the Discord call while the two are streaming Minecraft together alone for once, “Not another word!“

“But I really do feel bad!“ Y/N whines in response, “Why don’t you allow me to apologize?“

“Because there’s nothing to apologize for!“ He says, clearly done with the conversation, “I willingly gave you my jacket, you didn’t ask for it.“

“And now you’ve got a cold because of it!“ She continues arguing her case, “The least I can do is come over to take care of you.“

“I don’t need a pity nurse, thank you very much.“ Clay bites back, “But your company would be nice. Though I don’t want you to catch whatever cold I have.“

“I’d catch any cold for you, Clay.“ She replies teasingly - with a ton of honesty underneath that teasing.

Honesty both her and Clay are aware of. As well as the mob of people watching their streams right now.

                                                             ~  ~  ~ And so the snowball effect continues with little moments sprinkled throughout their online presences that make the snowball of shipping get bigger and bigger. Every now and then, both Y/N and Clay let little bits of their true adoration and admiration for the other slip through. And time and time again do those moments send their fans in a frenzy. 

Rightfully so.

@kia-isabelle

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Sole Crusher

Well... It's finally here... the episode introducing the new bee hero. And what do you know? It looks like I was right about how the new character would be portrayed.

It's kind of funny how I made predictions exaggerating what could happen, and they were surprisingly accurate. Isn't that funny?

Let's just get into the seventh (chronologically the seventh and the seventh episode in the season to air after “Mr. Pigeon 72”) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Sole Crusher. Damn, I hate that a pun this clever was used for the title.

We get to the point pretty quickly with the first scene being Zoe arriving in Paris and getting a tour of the city. She asks to stop at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, where she meets Marinette through some brief Unfunny Marinette Slapstick. The two quickly strike up a conversation.

I mean, it's not like Zoe is the sister of the absolute worst human being in existence, right?

Marinette compliments Zoe's shoes, and she points out that she designed them herself, and wrote every good thing anyone has ever said to her on them. But because she only has one friend, there's only a standard “I <3 U” on the left shoe.

So Zoe leaves the bakery and heads to Le Grand Paris where she meets her mother, Audrey. Unlike how she talked with Marinette, Zoe pretends to be just as snobby as Audrey in order to fit in. She then meets up with Chloe, who criticizes her for having poor person things like a phone without any diamonds embedded in it. And then she sees Zoe's shoes.

Look, that meme was already dated when it was referenced in Black Panther three years ago. Please don't try to reference memes in 2021, Miraculous Ladybug.

Chloe offers some golden heels while saying that those kind of shoes are for winners to wear and crush the losers underneath. This is the only episode to mention this kind of ideology, and believe me, it gets worse when Chloe decides to teach Zoe how to be like her.

Get used to this. This episode is all about demolishing any semblance of likability in Chloe's character. Now that Astruc doesn't have to bother with writing Chloe with decency since she's not Queen Bee, watch as he turns her into an absolute caricature of her former self.

Yes, Chloe has ordered her father to give her a lot of frivolous things in the past, but she has been shown to care about him, like immediately rushing to hug him after she was safe in “Origins” and showing concern for when he was akumatized into Malediktator while apologizing for causing it. For the love of God, one of the first things she did when she allied with Hawkmoth at the end of Season 3 was to have him unto her parents' akumatization. I guess she only cared about her rich parents for their status and not because she actually loved them right?

Next up on the list of Chloe's positive qualities to ruin is her friendship with Sabrina.

🎶It's seven o'clock in the morning🎶 🎶I can't believe they made this scene🎶 🎶With the writing Astruc's enforcing🎶 🎶It's like he's trying to piss off me🎶

Yep, Chloe doesn't view Sabrina in a twisted view of friendship anymore. Now she's a slave. I'm not exaggerating by the way, he actually said that in a tweet.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES

Okay, so I guess all those times we saw Chloe playing superheroes with Sabrina in “Antibug” and “Miraculer” were just a slave driver playing with their property. Actually apologizing to Sabrina for getting her akumatized in those episodes? Protecting her from the Scarlet Akumas in “Ladybug”? She was just interested in keeping her slave around. I think Astruc may have slept through the slavery unit in his history class. Yes, Sabrina was mostly used as a joke to show how controlling Chloe could be, but there were still semblances of an actual friendship between the two.

Chloe arrives at school and introduces Zoe as her half-sister, despite being the same age and having the same mother. Because I guess we can add basic biology to the list of things the writers don't understand. Now that we're at school, Chloe's friendship with Adrien is next up on the chopping block.

Yep, despite being Adrien's only friend and making a big deal about valuing his friendship to the point where she threw a big party just to make sure he wouldn't leave her and risked cooperating with an Akuma to save him, now Chloe just sees Adrien as a rich meal ticket. Two of the earliest episodes to show Chloe had a more compassionate side to her, and they just undid them. Even as much as I hated the episode, “Felix” showed Chloe was willing to cooperate with Marinette and her friends just to find a way to cheer Adrien up on the anniversary of his mother's not-death.

For the love of God, Astruc, 1984 was supposed to warn people about what could happen if they rewrote the past, not encourage people to rewrite the past. He probably finished Animal Farm thinking Snowball really did work alongside the humans, didn't he?

Marinette comes up and Zoe pretends to hate her, leading Marinette to wonder why she did that. She texts Zoe (she gave her number to her earlier) and invites her to a concert on the Liberty, but Chloe finds out. Zoe thinks fast and pretends it's just so she can torment her more. Chloe then takes out a book listing all the ways she can torture Marinette. I wonder if this is a metaphor for the writing process behind most of the episodes last season.

Zoe decides to go outside for some fresh air, and Andre comforts her. Funny how Andre bends over backwards to give Chloe whatever she wants, yet he's willing to actually talk to Zoe like an actual parent. Andre tries to cheer Zoe up, but she talks about her past where she had to put on an act so she would be liked, but (bet you've never heard this before) she just wants to be accepted for who she truly is. The surge of emotions is enough for Shadowmoth to akumatize her into Sole Crusher.

In addition to having one of the most clever puns for an Akuma name, I actually like Sole Crusher's design. Not only is it a good excuse to reuse Chloe's character design, it makes sense thematically, as Chloe was trying to mold Zoe into a copy of herself. The gold and diamonds also make sense given Chloe's love for shiny things. Her powers tie into the bizarre belief Chloe has about stepping on the winners. Whenever Sole Crusher kicks or steps on someone, she absorbs them and gets progressively bigger, making it easier to do so. While it's not cracking my top ten anytime soon, it's still an interesting character design.

Sole Crusher heads to the hotel to get Chloe, and she manages to get away pretty quickly. Maybe in an alternate universe, she's a track star? For some reason, she runs to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and then... Oh my God... pushes Marinette's parents so they get absorbed by Sole Crusher, before trying to do the same with Marinette.

When has Chloe ever done something like that? Whenever she endangered someone during an Akuma attack, it was unintentional or a result of her naivety. She was only trapped in Pixelator's dimension because Adrien tried diving to save her, she only alerted Rogercop to Ladybug's presence because she eagerly called out for her, and during “Zombizou” she only tried to throw Sabrina towards the horde of kissing zombies once, and that was meant to highlight her growth. The only person to actually do stuff like this consistently is Lila, but I guess she got vaporized by Big Brother offscreen.

This episode is determined to make the audience hate Chloe by retconning everything about her character while portraying her as a complete monster. As bad as Chloe could get, she was never selfish enough to use anyone as a human shield. This kind of behavior honestly could be explained by saying Chloe was lashing out as a result of losing the Bee Miraculous permanently, but the events of the Season 3 finale aren't mentioned ONCE, not even in the next episode that introduces Queen Bee's replacement! How the hell can you set up the next Bee hero without explaining why the original needs to be replaced in the first place?! And trust me, I'm going to talk about Zoe replacing Chloe later.

Sole Crusher grabs Marinette in her hand, so the Horse Kwami, Kaalki, uses her power to teleport over to Adrien's house and inform him Ladybug needs help, meaning once again Adrien did nothing in this episode before becoming Cat Noir.

At the Liberty, Chloe offers more victims to Sole Crusher in the form of the band Kitty Section (consisting of Luka, Juleka, Rose, Ivan, and Mylene) and theatens the giant golden supervillain she can send her back to Paris, even though she's really not in a position to bargain right now. And she STILL continues to insult her. Do you hate Chloe yet? Come on, do you? The writers won't stop until you do.

After we see Sole Crusher's conflicted emotions, Marinette is set free by Cat Noir and transforms into Ladybug, immediately summoning her Lucky Charm, a shoehorn. They only learn Zoe's sneakers were where she were akumatized thanks to Chloe's ranting, so the episode unintentionally made Chloe save the day. Ladybug breaks into Le Grand Paris and breaks the sneakers where Zoe hid them, using the shoehorn to open a door. So Sole Crusher is de-evilized, Ladybug fixes the damage, and gives yet another charm to Zoe.

Afterwards, Zoe goes to the Liberty, apologizes for the act she put on, all while divulging to the audience her “tragic backstory”.

Of course, everyone welcomes her with open arms.

And right here is where the biggest problem I have with Zoe as a character. I normally hesitate to use this term given how often it gets thrown around when criticizing characters these days, but I really can't say anything else.

Zoe... is a Mary Sue.

For those who don't know, the term Mary Sue originated in a Star Trek fanfiction from 1973 satirizing several self-insert stories at the time. Most of these stories showed a beautiful young woman joining the crew of the Enterprise and immediately gaining the attention of the crew. Mary Sue parodied this character archetype by showing how much she was appreciated by Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, the latter being driven to tears at her funeral despite his species being emotionless normally.

What does this have to do with Zoe? She has the exact same storyline as Mary Sue in the parody fanfiction. Her mere presence is enough to make Chloe act extremely out of character in an attempt to make her look better, and as soon as she apologizes while giving a frankly vague backstory, everyone just accepts her as their friend, and I mean everyone in the entire class. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't feel earned. Why was she bullied at her old school? What did her bullies have against her? What caused her to stop going along with her peers, and why did everyone turn against her? How the hell did the bullies who put cockroaches in another student's locker get no punishment while the victim was forced to transfer schools? It's an intentionally unclear backstory designed to make the audience feel sympathetic towards Zoe without actually doing anything else.

I want to ask anyone reading this who watched the episode a question: Outside of her backstory, what do we actually know about Zoe?

What is her personality like? She's nice? Socially awkward? We've never had a character like that in Miraculous Ladybug before! Sorry Marinette, Adrien, Juleka, Nathaniel, Mylene, and Marc, there's a new character with more personality than all of you combined!

What are her goals? She wants to be an actress? Great, but why? Even though there's no clear answer for why Marinette loves fashion, or why Alya loves journalism, or why Nino loves DJing, you can still see the passion in their lives when they do something related to their goals. Zoe only says she wants to be an actress, connecting it to her people pleaser backstory (and given how it ended, she must be a terrible actress), and in the next episode, she immediately gets the lead role in a student film.

When Mylene got the starring role in the movie in “Horrificator”, we at least got snippets of her acting skills in the same episode that established her desire to be an actress, which is also implied to be because she was inspired by her father in “The Mime”. She didn't just say she wanted to be an actress and got the leading role. She still had problems to overcome like her cowardice, which threw her own self-confidence into doubt. Here, Zoe just says she wants to be an actress, and is rewarded for no reason the very next episode.

Zoe basically exists only to be a foil to Chloe, and the writers had no idea what to do in terms of a personality, so they just dumped a bunch of extremely likable character traits onto her without thinking of how her character could come off. And like I said, she's a Mary Sue.

I'm not the only one who thinks this. I've seen a handful of posts on this very site calling Zoe a Mary Sue. In fact, I even asked another Tumblr user @anxresi​ to quote their take on Zoe being a Mary Sue, which I couldn't even top in terms of accuracy. They basically listed off five things that made Zoe a Mary Sue.

She has to have a ‘tragic backstory’ so all the other characters will fall in love with her. Usually within minutes, in the very first episode they’re introduced.

She has to have a supercute design so that the audience at home will fall in love with her. And if they don’t, they’re automatically dismissed as ‘haterz’ even if their objections are purely from a writing POV.

Her only flaw will be thinking too little of herself. “What, lil ol’ me as the Bee Miraculous holder? With my shyness, colorful shoes, chic beret and personalized pink strip in my hair? Gosh, who’d have thought it?”

The contrast to her half-sister will be a constant plot point, with Chloe always getting dumped on. “You see, kids? Bad things happen to bad people. But you see this super-sweet girl over here? She gets a free DAD. Instant FRIENDS. To star in her own MOVIE. The chance to be a SUPERHERO, even though she only arrived last week. Who cares if she has no depth, no personality and barely any reason for being in the show, apart from being a massive ‘Up Yours’ to all the Chloe fans out there?”

What about character development, Mr Generic Zag Guy? “Development? What’s that?! Zoe is already perfect as she is. The only ‘development’ she’ll receive is having her hair done in the first episode she’s introduced. Besides, That‘d’ word is banned here at Zag studios. Why do you think we abandoned Chloe’s stillborn arc so quickly? This is a KIDS show, why bother trying to create a complex character with more than one dimension?”

This is essentially who Zoe is. She's perfect, has no character flaws, has a cute design so the audience will love her already, and was designed only to replace Chloe as Queen Bee. That's all she is.

So the episode ends with Zoe feeling happy at all the new friends she made while we get one of the most blatant attempts of symbolism in the ending card I've ever seen.

See, look. While Marinette is happily talking with Zoe with the image of Ladybug next to them, Chloe is to the far left with an EVIL purple aura, showing how bad she is compared to how great Zoe is. Only a braindead moron would actually like Chloe over the super awesome and pretty Zoe!

I'll give my final thoughts on the episode in the next part where I analyze this plotline as a whole.

LINK TO “QUEEN BANANA” REVIEW