#the unlisted ff

[tamas-love]

THE MAFIA ✦ 엔하이픈 x 세븐틴

IN WHICH. a gang got an email, being sold something in a sketchy deal but accepted the offer to see if it was a trap from their enemies that they'd be ready for.

WARNING. this fanfic has a lot of sexual things, this spoiler specifically has tit fucking, dirty talk, punishing, angry sex, throat fucking/blowjob, others may be unlisted. you've been warned.

A/N. so.. i decided to publish one of my ffs on here !! this is one of many, 'the mafia'. take this in response to my lack of updates..! this is a spoiler, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments! should i post the ff on here or leave this spoiler hanging..?

spoiler under the cut!

ㅤ"fuck, press them tighter together, yeah just like that.." heeseung's head was thrown back, laying at the edge of the bed. finally having his fun with that 'busty' maid he had mentioned earlier to sunghoon. her breasts were out, pushing them together with her hands for heeseung's cock to fit between.

ㅤlittle noises of struggle come from her throat, trying her best for the male in front of him. though it would seem she was a.. top position, she was too shy for it—and heeseung was loving every second. "i should cum on your face when you look at me so shyly like that." he says, caressing her face with his hard hand.

ㅤ"uh-uh.." she hesitantly shook her head, disagreeing. "what d'you mean uh-uh? i'll do whatever the fuck i want." heeseung says with a burning glare, 'the audacity she has to disagree with me? i'll teach you your place..' he clicked his tongue, mean thoughts behind his amused eyes.

ㅤheeseung pushes the maid away, causing her to fall from her knees onto her bum. he towered over her, grabbing her hair and pulling her onto her knees once again. "open." in a stern voice, heeseung ordered. "i'll show you what uh-uh means to me." in a second, heeseung slammed his hips into her face. balls deep down her throat, and not even feeling bad about it. instead, he groaned a guttural groan—one of pleasure.

ㅤ"fuck, i knew your throat would feel good.."

ㅤ"shit, hyung this is my second time walking in on one of you guys having a maid at your dicks!" jay groans, covering his eyes. "poor you, get out then." heeseung smirked at jay, purposely pulling out of the maid's mouth. crouching down a little to check out her─as heeseung would say─huge tits. "unless you wanna watch~" he chuckled deeply, standing back up before thrusting back into her mouth.

ㅤher gags bounced off the walls and traveled to jay's ears. having heard enough, he slammed the door closed but still felt bad for the poor maid who was getting her throat filled by the older. "he's just like sunghoon, i swear. maybe worse." jay sighs, strolling down the hall with his hands in his pockets.

© tamas-love on tumblr, © tamas-love on wattpad

[lokisis]

STOP FUCKING DELETING VIDEOS OFF OF YOUTUBE OR SO HELP ME GOD. JUST UNLIST THEM IF YOU HATE THEM THAT MUCH FFS

[illubean]

JJBA Masterlist

The Jojos

Jonathan Joestar

W/ an Avatar!Reader

Joseph Joestar

W/ an Avatar!Reader

Jotaro Kujo

Relationship Headcanons (sfw and nsfw) W/ an Avatar!Reader W/ a Blair!Gf

Josuke Higashkita

nothing here yet

Giorno Giovanna

Cuddling Headcanons

Jolyne Kujo

nothing here yet

The Jobros & Jofoes

Part 2

Caesar Zeppeli

nothing here yet

Lisa Lisa

nothing here yet

Wamuu

W/ an Avatar!Reader

Part 3

Kakyoin Noriaki

nothing here yet

Muhammad Avdol

nothing here yet

Jean Pierre Polnareff

nothing here yet

Part 4

Okuyasu Nijimura

nothing here yet

Koichi Hirose

nothing here yet

Yukako Yamagishi

nothing here yet

Part 5

Bruno Bucciarati

Cuddling Headcanons Relationship Headcanons

Leone Abbacchio

Cuddling Headcanons

Narancia Ghirga

Relationship Headcanons Cuddling Headcanons

Guido Mista

Cuddling Headcanons

Fugo Panoccotta

Cuddling Headcanons

Trish Una

Cuddling Headcanons

Risotto Nero

W/ an Avatar!Reader

Part 6

Ermes Castillo

nothing here yet

FF

nothing here yet

Weather Report

nothing here yet

Narciso Anasui

nothing here yet

please feel free to request for any of these characters or characters unlisted

[frootaye]

FROOTAYE FAVES SHOWCASE #003

Caryn and Connie Gaming's Sims 4 Building videos!

Caryn and Connie are so shockingly positive and happy in their videos, it's such a breath of fresh air in a complicated stressful world. Whenever they upload I know I've got a moment to disconnect from everything and enjoy their decor skills and energetic personalities! Seriously, their collective building/decor style appeals to me so much.

I first stumbled upon them, as people often do, on Tiktok! I got a Sims 4 video clip of theirs on my FYP, and it captivated me - enough to even drag me all the way over to their Youtube and watch the full thing!!!

Sims 4 building is subjective, just like any piece of architecture and interior decor. But I think Caryn and Connie just do it SO well - I constantly get inspired and surprised by the amount of effort and creative thought they put into their builds. Do I, personally, have the patience to scroll through debug to find unlisted items and then arrange them to make a custom bench? NO! Do I love watching it? YES!!!

Seriously, the amount of time and work they put into their videos is amazing. They truly love this stuff and they're GOOD at it. It's so much fun seeing them share ideas and collaborate to make something truly special. As twins, they've known eachother for a LONG time (Wow, shocking!) so they've got such a natural and fun flow to their banter - it's very fun to listen to and feels so lighthearted!

For Sims 4 building and interior decor enthusiasts, in practice or observation, go check out Caryn and Connie!!

For shorter versions of this and other FFS entries, check these out on twitter: https://twitter.com/frootaye

[villains4hire]

🔥 [[ topic...how about ship wars? Or you can pick something else it you prefer! ]]

//I'm gonna put this under a readmore because of the graphic content I've seen and I'm not gonna be not so nice about it. I track anons as a warning to anyone eager to send me something over this. Anyone reading this has been warned about extremely triggering content. As I will be covering this from top to bottom from how much grief ppl have caused in the rpc over ships.

-

First off: We're gonna start off with the heavy shit such as rape, pedophilia pairing stuff in the communities bc it's not as much of an issue in tumblr anymore. Though while still there sometimes? It's still an issue in other platforms like twitter.

So rape can be portrayed and fade to black, but I don't think it should ever be actual smut or part of ships or anything that someone can get off to or said it's a good. Because you're pretty much just making fetishist rape porn at that point. Same for pedophilia as it can't be positive for something that extreme or show that it's okay. That's just flat period and something other than background or darker settings should never really be an outright element otherwise as most of the rpc does not want or care about that shit. There's no such thing as antis when it comes to that, you either support pedophilia/rape in positive lights, portrayals or just outright want porn like a sick fuck but you're too much of a spineless bitch to admit it, period. What it doesn't mean: that you can take things like Jasper's forced fusion or call the character a rapist for doing inhuman things to begin with or 'toxic relationship where she's a rapist/pressuring Lapis for what you see as sex'. You're mentally deranged for making that comparison and yes, this is a REAL thing that actually happened in tumblr SU and twitter SU discourse and it was super braindamaged and then the same ppl. Fucking kissed Lapis's ass when it was revealed she was the controller of the power dynamic bc their lil uwu snowflake glorbo was suddenly the rapist by their logic and defended her in a panic. Fuck off, don't make those stupid ass takes toward kids media to begin with you fucking morons. You CAN take media that's not exactly adult and add elements and all that, but for the love of god, try to make some sense, not go too crazy, as most don't but when they do? It's so mentally unhinged and I'd almost argue actually delusionally braindamaged. As I will use that word for this bc it is, I don't want to see that kind of themes in open kids media/rp blogs unless you're a centered adult rp blog like I am that bar kids from seeing it. That's fine, you can have tragic backstories and all that but be open about it in your bios, rules of what you do, don't spring the topic of SA or such elements when doing that kind of fandom by surprise or having it unlisted unless you never plan on talking about it openly/openly rp someone being faded to black or a memory like ffs.

I say this stuff from top to bottom as Camp Camp, Rick and Morty on the tumblr fandom and more had people openly shipping Morty with Rick and posting porn in the main tags before the porn purge. Then same for Camp Camp with David and the Campers or even ppl in the rpc being into that shit. Like, it was bad, really bad back then years back. Like some of it may seem unrelated, but a lot of it stems from 'shipping wars' or ppl claiming someone's an anti for very GOOD reasons bc they're actually just covering ass for someone else or their own for sick fantasies.

Moving on.

-

Secondly: you can have toxic ships, surprise, surprise. So long as it's just an abusive relationship in a couple, I don't care.

There are bigger problems in the to world to worry about, and yeah, so long as it isn't like a thinly veiled mask for hating women, men, or some other group like a race or gender identity/sexuality. It's really whatever honestly, be smart about it, as is your character a misogynist/bigot and it's clear it's a part of their established canon or an oc that's a prick and not a good person or meant to be? Then yeah it's fine, ppl don't need to bend ass over backwards to explain themselves or cover their ass or explain themselves to you, you're not entitled jack fuck, so eat it. I don't think taking aspects like SU's fusion or other things in kids media for toxic relationships should ever go beyond: 'toxic' or showing this relationship is 'bad' and here's a generic example why to a power dynamic. I think if you DO want to go a darker route, you need to be a purely adult blog, not push that garbage in the broader rpc or fandom space as if it's a children's media, don't be a deranged moron about it. Thanks.

-

Thirdly: I myself have been harassed for Verosika (When I had her) and or Stella bc of their relationship to Blitz or Stella as thinly veiled anons.

I have tracked these ppl's IPs and for a time had them blocked or kept them blocked. People are not your punching bag for portraying a ship you don't like even if IC unprompted or making it unclear it's not an IC prompt, as when you talk with your feelings for an ask, it's pretty clear you're an insecure dumbass about your precious glorbos in a gay ship or ship getting ragged on by something ic to the point you need to go ass overbackwards to defend it or even send unironic hate disguised as an ask prompt.

-

Fourth: no one gives a fuck about your OTP or NOTP outside of your space, even then it's questionable. If you can explain it in a healthy, non-passive aggressive manner or to the point of not being vaguing, then fine, go ahead. Criticism is always fine, always will be. Otherwise? Stfu, no one cares about your negativity, and no one cares if you have a problem with someone liking a ship.

-

[fragments-of-despair]

Peko Pekoyama FF ships Bingo card for anon.

Free for use for creative fandom projects. 

LIST OF SHIPS:

B Column:

Peko/Maki

Peko/Kyoko

Peko/Chiaki

Peko/Angie

Peko/Akanne

I Column:

Peko/Kirumi

Peko/Hiyoko

Peko/Celest

Peko/Sakura

Peko/Tenko

N Column:

Peko/Mikan

Peko/Sayaka

Free Space (Unlisted ships/OT3+)

Peko/Miu

Peko/Sonia

G Column:

Peko/Aoi

Peko/Kaede

Peko/Natsumi

Peko/Junko

Peko/Himiko

O Column:

Peko/Ibuki

Peko/Mukuro

Peko/Tsumugi

Peko/Mahiro

Peko/Toko

[imaginarypeteel]

The Unlisted

Kalpne ‘Kal’ Sharma

Really Kal?

Drupad ‘Dru’ Sharma

Jacob Annan

Kymara Russell

Gemma Khouri

Rose Aquino

Regan

[blackcloudbyjuly]

another (better) not warriors practice post but i'm too lazy to convert the vid so i put it on yt instead

[socratesofthesocketset]

So in my infinite sleepless wisdom, I went and bought more yarn.

I’ve also bought 8 varieties of tea in the past couple days.

I guess I’m getting ready for winter hibernation?

[ahoymultiships]

Storygraph repeating the same mistakes as goodreads. I am... Sad.

[m0srael]

Drunk Texts

For the @drarrymicrofic prompt: Love Letter

One balmy night in June, Harry’s lying in bed wide awake--unable to sleep again--when his mobile lights up on the nightstand. The only people who ever contact him on his mobile are Teddy (“All the cool wizards have them these days, Harry, please get one so I can send you memes!”) and Hermione, and neither of them would be texting this late.

Friday, June 6 2008, 1:27 AM

+445195555555: I’ve been hopelessly in love with you since we were sixteen, won’t shut my bloody mouth about you actually, can I take you on a date? I’m still very rich, all things considered, and know all the best restaurants in Wizarding Britain.

+445195555555: Maybe just a shag, then?

Harry: bloody hell, who is this??

Harry: This number is unlisted, I don’t know how you got it but I’m blocking it now. Kindly, fuck off.

+445195555555: WAIT

+445195555555: What do you mean, who is this? I thought muggle mobiles know who you’re talking to already.

Harry: Not if a strange person is texting in the middle of the bloody night from a number I’ve never seen before!

+445195555555: If you don’t want to date me or shag me just say so, Potter. No need to play hard to get and toss around insults

+445195555555: Unless that’s a thing for you, cheeky ;) ;)

Harry: Last chance, tell me who this is or I’m blocking your number.

+445195555555: Draco

+445195555555: Obviously ;)

Harry: Draco...Malfoy?

Harry: You expect me to believe Draco Malfoy is confessing his love and hitting me up for a shag at 1am. On a *muggle* mobile.

+445195555555: Believe it scarhead, now answer the question do you or do you not want to shag me

Harry: Look, you’ve obviously read one too many Prophet articles…

Harry: Somehow found my number...did you confund someone I know??

Harry: And thought that...pretending to be Draco Malfoy, of all people, would entice me to meet up with a total stranger?

+445195555555: Ooh, the logic of it all, Potter ;)

Harry: Stop doing that

+445195555555: what ;) ;)

Harry: The emojis. Malfoy would never use emojis.

+445195555555: You don’t know what I would or wouldn’t do anymore Potter. Would you like to learn? ;)

Harry: Fuck

Harry: Even if I believed you, I’ve never given Draco Malfoy my number. My *muggle* mobile number.

Harry: I’ve never given him my number because Draco Malfoy would never use a *muggle* mobile.

Harry:...among other reasons

+445195555555: Always so preoccupied with blood purity, Potter, haven’t you learned anything?

+445195555555: And there you go again, assuming that you know what I would and would not do

+445195555555: It really would be much more efficient if you just let me demonstrate

Harry: oh my god

Harry: I can’t believe I’m still messaging you

Harry: ffs, you have one chance to convince me that you’re really Malfoy otherwise I’m blocking you immediately

+445195555555: You are a tetchy one, hm?

+445195555555: Fine. You cornered me in a bathroom in 6th bc you were *obsessed* with me and tried to murder me using sectumsempra (which you claimed not to know the effect of, pft) but only because I tried to Crucio you and I would have died if Snape hadn’t found us and cleaned up your mess (again)

+445195555555: They definitely didn’t print THAT in the Prophet. Unfortunately.

Harry: Bloody hell um...okay…

Harry: Look, about that, Malfoy…

Harry: Wait, unfortunately…??

+445195555555: So you see, Potter, it is in fact I, Draco Lucius Malfoy, confessing my love and “hitting you up for a shag at 1am” as you so elegantly put it.

+445195555555: ;)

Harry: Okay. Malfoy, then. Jesus.

Harry: How exactly did you get my number?

Harry: For that matter, when did you get a mobile?

Draco Sodding Malfoy: I got it from Pansy, who got it from Ginny, you recalcitrant twat

Draco Sodding Malfoy: See, I can do the sexy insults thing, too :*

Draco Sodding Malfoy: And if you must know, Potter, I purchased a mobile years ago to stay in contact with my cousin, Teddy. Teddy Lupin. I think you’re acquainted? The little brat refuses to owl, apparently it’s “sooo medieval”.

Harry: Oh. That...actually makes sense. He said the same thing to me.

Harry: Hang on, Teddy isn’t a brat. I thought you two got on rather well…?

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Whatever, the point is I’m mad for you and I never told you because, well, there was the whole war thing and then the whole trial thing, and since then I’ve become a bit of a self-righteous coward. Also, I fancy myself something of a martyr. I think the constant pouting makes my mouth look more kissable, don’t you?

Draco Sodding Malfoy: We could do the dinner thing if we must, or you can just come round mine I can meet you there right now

Harry: Oh. You’re drunk.

Harry: Never pegged you as the type to get sloshed and text your ex-childhood-nemesis for a hookup

Draco Sodding Malfoy: not with that attitude you haven’t

Harry: Hah

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Not drnk

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Honestly, Potter

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Harry

Harry: weird

Draco Sodding Malfoy: I’ve seen the way you watch me when you think I’m not looking. You look at me like some lovesick teenager. Why deny what *literally everyone* can plainly see?

Harry: I do not look at you like a...lovesick teenager, Malfoy.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Draco ;)

Harry: I do not watch you, DRACO.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: I only notice because I’m watching you too, Harry. All the time. I’ve been watching you for as long as I can remember.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: You’ve practically been the center of my universe since I was eleven years old, for Merlin’s sake. I think about you all the time. I miss you all the time, even when we’re in the same room.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: I mean I LITERALLY do not shut up about you I wasn’t exaggerating about that. It drives Pansy and Blaise, who have the patience and constitutions of actual saints and who are very, very good friends, absolutely mental and they’d like nothing more than to hex my mouth shut permanently.

Harry: um

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Admit it.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: You’ve wondered what it’d be like.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Imagined it.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Us

Harry: Malfoy…

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Draco

Harry: Draco…

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Yes, Harry? ;)

Harry: I...could do dinner.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: You could “do” dinner? That’s all, after everything I’ve just said, you can “do” dinner??

Harry: For the love of Merlin

Harry: Fine. You’re right, Draco. I...have wondered

Harry: About us, I mean

Harry: Ahh and actually Draco sometimes when I look at you I just want…

Friday, June 6 2008, 2:15 AM

Draco Sodding Malfoy: what

Draco Sodding Malfoy: you want what

Friday, June 6 2008, 2:48 AM

Draco Sodding Malfoy: harry

Friday, June 6 2008, 3:09 AM

Draco Sodding Malfoy: harry, bloody hell

Saturday, June 7 2008, 6:45 AM

Harry: Draco, I’m so sorry

Saturday, June 7 2008, 8:18 AM

Harry: My mobile died and I didn’t have my charger

Saturday, June 7 2008, 9:23 AM

Harry: Draco

Saturday, June 7 2008, 11:47 AM

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Potter, why on earth are you contacting me so early on a Saturday?

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Scratch that, why are you contacting me at all? Where did you get my number?

Harry: Oh, so you were drunk

Draco Sodding Malfoy: How is my present or past level of intoxication any of your concern?

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Oh.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: No.

Harry: Draco, what’s wrong? What happened?

Harry: Draco…?

Harry: I’m sorry, if I said something…

Harry: Look, YOU’RE the one drunk messaging ME at all hours of the night looking for a shag!

Saturday, June 7 2008, 7:08 PM

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Dear Harry,

Draco Sodding Malfoy: I hereby formally apologize for my previous messages. They are inappropriate and entirely out of line, do forgive me. Although it appears that Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson absconded with my mobile yesterday evening to, “have a bit of fun”, I take full responsibility for what has transpired. Do not report me, or something. I do hope you were not too offended. I will henceforth refrain from contacting you by this, or any other, means. I assure you that my traitorous, juvenile, back-stabbing, inconsiderate, so-called friends have been soundly reprimanded. You may expect their formal apologies via owl, posthaste.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Apologetically, Draco L. Malfoy

Harry: Wow, uh, ok. I’ve never gotten a formal apology over text before. Did it take you...8 hours to write that?

Harry: And for the record, I knew something was up. We may not be best mates or anything but I know you wouldn’t use emojis like that.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Oh, bugger off, Potter you had no idea it wasn’t me. You were ready to spill your innermost desires to a stranger on your mobile! Stupid Gryffindor.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: Ah.

Draco Sodding Malfoy: I mean, goodbye! So sorry, again, for the inconvenience! We will never speak again from this moment on!

Harry: Draco, wait

Draco ;): Merlin, what, Potter?

Harry: Harry

Draco ;): No.

Harry: Fine. Look, if you accept full responsibility, does that mean your offer still stands?

Draco ;): What offer?

Draco ;): No. It doesn’t, whatever it is.

Harry: Your offer to take me on a date.

Harry: ;)

Draco ;): Bloody...Potter, that wasn’t MY offer!

Harry: Perhaps not, but I’ve seen the way you watch me when you think I’m not looking...Draco.

Draco ;): Who is this? I’m blocking this number. I’m going to ask Pansy how to block a number.

Harry: Draco, I’m serious.

Saturday, June 7 2008, 9:14 PM

Harry: Draco, I can tell that you didn’t block my number.

Saturday, June 7 2008, 11:47 PM

Harry: Fine.

Harry: Draco, could I take you out for dinner some time? I know someone who knows all the best restaurants in Wizarding Britain.

Draco ;): …..

Harry: ?

Draco ;): If you must

Harry: If I must?

Draco ;): It's true that I'm still rich, all things considered, but you’re paying

Draco ;): ;)

[deepdarkdelights]

hey, so i read that you talked to the youtube plagiarist about the ff they stole from you and the author’s note, but i checked again right now and the author’s note is still up?? not sure what kind of agreement about that video you had with them but if they said they would remove it… they didn’t

They unlisted the video so only those with the link can see it, and since the link is available here on my blog that is why you can still view it.

[ladylynse]

Part 8 [FF | AO3] of Whirlwind: Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny should’ve expected something like this when he got that phone call. (Secret Quartet crossover)

(previous | timeline post)

-|-

7:12 PM

Blood magic.

He hadn’t counted on being lucky enough to find someone with blood magic.

Fortunately, Gabriel didn’t need to recall his akuma to glean information from his champion. He still had all she had given him before she had shut him out. Whether she realized it or not, he had more than enough to discern her identity. He knew exactly what she’d been feeling. He knew precisely why she’d been feeling that way. And that meant that finding her name was as simple as having Nathalie check their records.

“The head caterer is Susan Long,” Nathalie reported at last. “She owns the company. I’m sending you all the information we have on her, but I’m afraid it’s very little.”

That was an understatement; the information was next to nothing. Even her business address was unlisted. Nathalie had told him of her reputation as a caterer, told him that she was in high demand and had handled large, premiere events before. Her food was always impeccable, and she came highly recommended. Still, while he could appreciate that a certain amount of secrecy was necessary in business, particularly where sensitive information was at hand, that didn’t mean he didn’t find this frustrating.

Given what he knew now, however, he didn’t find it unusual.

“Find out more,” Gabriel growled into his headset. “Pull every string you can. I don’t care what it costs in promises or favours.”

“Of course, sir.”

Gabriel knew perfectly well that he was taking Nathalie from other work, and he knew that the excuses she’d given regarding his current preoccupation wouldn’t be enough for long—this was his show, and he was expected to have input on what to do now that it had been ruined—but he wasn’t willing to lose this when it was within his grasp. The meetings to discuss the damage that had been done and setting the contingency plans in motion and even something as simple as crowd control— They didn’t need him for all of that. If they wouldn’t settle for his final word, they could be content with his input at the end, once they’d hashed out all the needless details that had mostly been written out before he’d stepped foot on this side of the ocean anyway. Really, Nathalie could make it so that it didn’t matter when he put in his appearance providing he did put one in. They would easily believe he had important work that demanded privacy, given how much money he’d had to sink into this venture.

It was going to pay off, though. Even if he couldn’t find another Miraculous, he could find power. This wasn’t something he’d trust to Audrey Bourgeois. He’d very pointedly not involved her in any of this and had planned for this trip to neatly coincide with a time when he knew she was elsewhere. She was too prone to go digging for secrets for his taste, especially when she thought she could benefit from the result. The last thing he needed was for her to discover how much power he already had, let alone that he had reason to suspect there was more to be found here.

“Master,” Nooroo said as Gabriel strode back to look out the window of his private suite, “we shouldn’t pursue this.”

“I don’t recall asking your opinion.”

“I’m sorry, Master, but I—”

“Be quiet, Nooroo.”

Gabriel didn’t want to hear Nooroo’s fears again. Vague, dire warnings meant nothing. He was willing to take risks for concrete rewards, to further his ultimate goal. This was why they had come. He needed something to tip the scales in his favour. Something Ladybug and Chat Noir would never expect and wouldn’t be able to counter.

Chat Noir’s appearance here would be much more unsettling if he thought for a moment the heroes actually suspected his identity, but he was certain it was nothing but unlucky coincidence.

Well, perhaps more unlucky for Chat Noir than for him.

He’d been trying to separate Ladybug and Chat Noir for ages. He was hardly blind to the opportunity of defeating Chat Noir now, in a foreign city where he didn’t have the support of the people or his knowledge of the Parisian streets to help him out. Where his only ally was some self-proclaimed ninja from another town as opposed to Ladybug, who knew how he fought and worked altogether too well with him. Success was a tantalizingly real possibility. If he could return to Paris with the Miraculous of the Black Cat….

He still needed the other information he’d requested, and Dracona couldn’t avoid giving it to him forever. But even if she might claim that she couldn’t provide any information about the phantom or the ninja because they didn’t call New York City home any more than Chat Noir did, she had agreed to tell him about those who did.

Even if she didn’t consider herself a hero, it was highly unlikely that she didn’t know any personally. She had magic. He knew how rare that was. And magic that she was born with? Magic that didn’t need to be stolen or harnessed?

She would be able to tell him so much, once he knew enough to nudge her past the point of silence.

Once their connection was re-established and he could talk to her again, if not control her.

If Nooroo’s magic didn’t pose enough of a threat to make her fear him, he could find more mundane ways to turn her to him.

He knew she had a son. Whatever she had felt in the moment that he had been able to akumatize her, he was sure she would still love him, care for him, even with those emotions amplified. She wouldn’t have been so upset if she didn’t. At the very least, the mix of emotions which had been at the forefront would have been different.

And if he could use her family against her, well, perhaps that would be enough to spark her memory. To remind her of whoever truly did seek to protect this city. And if it didn’t, well, he could experiment with harnessing blood magic as easily as he could search for a magical artefact to use in the fight against Ladybug and Chat Noir. As long as his akuma remained in her necklace, he’d still have ties to her, even if he couldn’t make her dance on command.

He could make sure anything was enough.

-|-

7:12 PM

“I don’t know what to do, Plagg,” Adrien admitted once they were back in his hotel room. Getting in hadn’t been as tricky as he’d expected; Nathalie was preoccupied, no doubt in conversation with his father and their contacts over the mess of the launch, and the Gorilla was busy listening to whatever the police were telling the security services. With the way things were going, he’d be lucky if he saw his father even once during the remainder of their trip. The bulk of the organizing might fall on Nathalie’s shoulders, but the ultimate decision-making still rested with Gabriel, and—

One thing at a time. The akuma was more pressing; until Adrien dealt with that, planning for anything else was irrelevant.

Plagg was currently trying to gorge himself on camembert. The concierge had procured an impressive supply to be sent to his room, and Adrien would have to leave him a large tip when he next saw him. As it was, Adrien was talking to Plagg as much out of a desire for advice as a need to slow the kwami down long enough for Adrien to pocket the rest of the cheese before it was completely devoured. “Should I trust these guys?”

Plagg swallowed and zipped over to the last wedge of cheese Adrien had left for him. He picked it up, but before he ate it, he looked at Adrien and asked, “Are you ready to fight Hawk Moth on your own?”

No. He wasn’t. Plagg knew that.

“Maybe I should call Ladybug. Maybe she knows of some way—”

“She doesn’t,” Plagg interrupted, “and even if she did, she’s asleep. If Hawk Moth’s here, no one’s getting akumatized in Paris.”

“Right.” Adrien glanced at the clock on the bedside table; it was past one in the morning in Paris right now. “But these guys…. I don’t know if I can do this. I mean…. It’s not that I didn’t think ghosts might be real or that a different magic than yours could exist. It’s more….” It was more that he couldn’t forget the feeling of falling. The terror that had flooded into him when he had realized he didn’t even have his staff to try to slow himself down. He’d been flung away numerous times in his fights with Ladybug, but this was different. She wasn’t here to watch his back. He couldn’t fight his way back to watch hers.

And there was no distant assurance that if something terrible did happen, something Plagg’s magic couldn’t prevent, Ladybug would be able to restore everything to the way it had been.

“It’s scary,” Plagg said frankly, “but it’s not the first time you’ve been scared.”

No, it wasn’t. But he was usually more terrified of losing Ladybug than he was of anything that might happen to him.

“I never expected that Hawk Moth would be here,” continued Plagg. “No one would. And the fact that you’re here at the same time is lucky. You know how he works and what he wants. You know—”

“He can’t have known that I’d be here,” Adrien interrupted, “which means that what he wants isn’t just my Miraculous. So is…is there a lost Miraculous or something? One that might be here?”

Plagg didn’t answer right away. “There is,” he finally said, “but it’s more likely that Hawk Moth is after something else. Finding a lost Miraculous would be a nearly impossible task, even for someone like Hawk Moth. Like I said before, there’s other magic at work here, and that shop we were in earlier was steeped in it. Rumours of that would be more substantial than anything about the Miraculous.”

“The dragons. You think he wants something they guard?” Adrien didn’t wait for Plagg to answer. “Then I can’t not work with them. I can’t risk Hawk Moth stealing and using something of theirs that I won’t know anything about—that you might not know anything about.” And Phantom had grabbed him after he’d glimpsed the first dragon, so his claim that he was friends with one was more likely truth than a lie. “I need them as much as they need me.”

“So call them. You don’t have to trust them with everything right away.”

That was true enough. Even if he did decide to trust them fully in the end, if only to make things easier, he certainly didn’t have to be the first one to spill all his secrets. Not that there was much they didn’t already know about him, assuming Phantom had talked to the others.

He definitely didn’t need to let them know where he was staying, though. He’d call them once he was back out, meet them somewhere that wasn’t quite the opposite direction of his actual hotel. He didn’t want to head too far away—he didn’t know when the dragon would return—but he didn’t want to pick a spot that would be too crowded if this was somehow a setup and he had to fight.

Then again, he might not have to pick the spot at all. “Plagg,” he whispered, “do you think you’d be able to find them? The dragon from the shop, at least?”

“Can I have more camembert first?”

“Once this is over. I promise.”

Plagg let out a long-suffering sigh but agreed. Adrien didn’t question his luck at the lack of wheedling, instead pulling his hood back up and waiting as Plagg zipped in to hide again. The first step was sneaking back out past Nathalie and the Gorilla. If they caught him and insisted he stay in his hotel room, sneaking out wouldn’t be the difficult part; it would be coming up with some reason that he wasn’t there when someone inevitably checked up on him.

But that would only be a problem if he got caught, and Adrien didn’t intend to get caught.

He cracked his door, listening as much as looking to make sure the coast was clear, and then he slipped into the hallway and headed for the stairwell, quiet as a cat.

-|-

7:16 PM

Rotwood ducked into another alley and ground his teeth. Insolent children! They should not treat him this way. He was their professor. And it wasn’t like he hunted Jake Long at every opportunity. Really, this time, it wouldn’t even be him. He would not be so foolish as to be caught on camera. (Rotwood knew this all too well; he had tried many, many times.) Would it really be so bad if Jake let him have this one moment? This one little tiny moment where he could shine?

Rotwood had already tried offering his expertise on the situation. Called up the local news station the moment he heard. He was still laughed off before he could even make it to the air. It wasn’t his fault Jake had given him a reputation that made it seem like he cried wolf when he didn’t.

How much of a laughingstock had he become that no one listened to him even when the magical creatures he had previously told them about turned up?

It was like no one was taking this seriously. No one except for those who already knew, of course. Why was there all this speculation that the dragon wasn’t real? Of course the dragon was real! Dragons were real! Just like ghosts! And a whole slew of other magical creatures most people hadn’t even imagined, let alone had the chance to meet.

Rotwood waited, hoping to hear the telltale shhhck of skateboard wheels on pavement.

It did not come.

How was he supposed to get closer to his goal—on foot, since some hooligans had let the air out of his tires, including his bicycle tires—when he couldn’t even shake a pair of high schoolers? It would be different if the traffic weren’t generally atrocious and the cab drivers, for some reason, didn’t remember him as ‘that crazy man from TV’. He did not deserve that reputation. Sure, he had made a few mistakes, everyone made mistakes, and maybe he had released some creatures he shouldn’t have in his quest to prove their existence, but it wasn’t like he was trying do that this time.

Really, Jake should thank him. He wasn’t meddling. He wasn’t meddling at all. He was merely trying to document. Would it not be better if someone like him did that, rather than someone Jake didn’t know at all? Certainly better him than someone like Brock, no?

He had tried yelling such arguments at Trixie and Spud, but they of course didn’t listen to a word he said.

He would have been much happier, however, if Trixie had not had a water gun with her. Or if Spud did not manage to play the most incessant earworms at full volume whenever he pulled out his phone to try to call anyone. Or—

“Yo, Rotwood, you ready to give up yet?”

It was, unfortunately, rather unprofessional to murder one’s students. He’d have to lose them. If he kept trying, he’d manage it eventually. He had to.

“Me and Spud, we can do this all night if we have to. But if you give up and go home now, your feet might not even hurt in the morning.”

The stitch in his side hadn’t had nearly enough time to go away, but there was nothing for it. He’d have to run again and hope that, this time, he was able to reach the edge of the crowd. They wouldn’t be able to use their skateboards in a crowd.

Of course, since they were on skateboards, it was increasingly unlikely that he’d make it to the crowd.

“Do we really have to go now?” a man’s voice whined, and Rotwood’s heart leapt when he realized how close it was. A distraction! He could use a distraction.

“Honey, there might not have been an official announcement yet, but the show won’t go on tonight, and I do intend to eat supper,” a woman answered. “It has been rather stressful. A three-course meal—”

The man groaned, and Rotwood moved before they got farther away. He jumped out from his hiding spot behind a dumpster and managed to get past Trixie and Spud, both of whom had quieted their own search while waiting for the couple to pass. They didn’t want witnesses. They didn’t want to explain themselves. Good. He would put himself in a position where they would have to do both if they continued to chase him.

“Excuse me!” he called out, waiving. They’d just passed the alleyway, and they kept walking. The nerve! He expected as much from New Yorkers, who didn’t even blink at things that should catch their attention, but tourists were supposed to be curious. “Yes, hello, behind you!”

They slowed, each of them glancing over their shoulders, but neither stopped.

Rotwood kept waving like a madman. He didn’t need to look over his shoulder to know he’d see two scowling teenagers. “Could you possibly give me some directions?”

“Oh, we don’t know the area,” the woman said with another quick glance back as she tightened her grip on the man’s arm. “I’m so sorry.”

“But you are dressed for that fashion show gala tonight, no?” He tried to remember the information that had been on the news. “The spring release?” What was the name? “Gabriel’s?”

The couple finally stopped, turning to him as he jogged up. The woman was looking at him with narrowed eyes. The man just looked exhausted.

Rotwood figured his best bet was to keep talking. “I heard what happened. Terrible. These magical creatures—” He broke off, remembering too late that telling the truth wouldn’t win him any favours. “They made a good show, those magical creatures?”

He hadn’t managed to keep the note of desperation out of his voice, but the man at least was looking him over with a more critical eye. “Marci,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet, “why don’t you go on and have dinner without me?”

For the first time, Rotwood noticed the man’s mechanical arm, and he had to make a conscious effort not to stare. He was well acquainted with those with prosthetic limbs, especially in his line of business which really wasn’t the safest, were you to actually find the magical creatures you were searching for, but most did not include features which looked disturbingly like brains. He pointedly raised his eyes to wait for Marci’s reaction. She kept a smile pasted on her face, but its edges were sharper than they should be.

“This isn’t a working vacation,” she said. “We should take our meals together.”

That didn’t stop the man from pressing several hundred-dollar bills into her hand. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you, but this man needs help, and I do know the way.”

“No such thing as a free lunch, don’tcha know?” Marci murmured, but she tucked the money into her handbag. “You’ll answer your phone when I call.”

Even Rotwood knew that wasn’t a question.

“Of course, sugar plum,” the man cooed. “You can go and have a nice meal, and I’ll help, uh—”

“Professor Hans Rotwood.”

“—I’ll help Hans here.”

Rotwood knew pleading when he saw it. That was definitely pleading. If Marci said no, the man—presumably her husband—would acquiesce to her wishes. He could not afford for that to happen. Once they left, Ms. Carter and Mr. Spudinski would jump at the opportunity to overwhelm him, most likely quite literally, and he was still sore from his excursions last week trying to get a clear shot of a leprechaun. He didn’t need the added pain of hitting asphalt under the force of two teenaged bodies.

“That really would be most appreciated,” Rotwood added, not sure what he needed to say to sway Marci. “If there’s anything I could do in return….” He trailed off, unable to think of anything to offer someone who could so clearly not only afford to attend such a prestigious event but also to spend so much money on a single meal.

“We can talk about that,” the man said hurriedly.

The woman took a step closer to her husband, half turning away from Rotwood, and hissed words he heard but didn’t understand: “You know the Ninja we saw here can’t be the same one as back home.”

“He might have information,” the man answered in a too-loud whisper. “Please, you know how important this is.”

Marci sighed and stepped back. “Of course I do. If you’re so insistent that your work is more important than I am—”

“It’s not. This is just…. It’s…. You know what it is!”

Rotwood was convinced the argument was lost then and there, but Marci’s face softened and she leaned down to give her husband a quick kiss. “Yes, I do, so if you must do some work, then run along and do it quickly. You are not spoiling this for me.”

Rotwood was still trying to figure out how the man could have possibly gotten his way while the couple said their goodbyes, and it was a moment before he realized the man was staring at him. “Ah, my apologies,” he said. “You were saying?”

“Hannibal McFist,” the man said, offering his hand. As Rotwood shook it, McFist continued, “You said you’re a professor. You don’t have any colleagues at MSU, by any chance? Or attended it for one degree or another?”

MSU? Michigan State University? Rotwood hadn’t pegged McFist’s accent as being from that part of the country, and it certainly hadn’t been his wife’s, though in truth, he really wasn’t that good with accents, especially American ones. “No, my position is, ah, merely at a high school level these days, and my alma mater is in the old country.”

McFist grunted. “Had to ask. You look like the type who’d have been friends with Viceroy. If you didn’t annoy each other to death first.”

Rotwood didn’t ask. The important thing was that McFist was walking with him past the alley containing two teenagers who couldn’t stop him without making fools of themselves and giving away the game. He kept up the conversation instead, trying to get what information he could out of McFist without making it clear what he dearly wanted to know, as that would be the fastest way to find himself abandoned and once again at the mercy of merciless teenagers.

-|-

7:19 PM

Randy was pretty sure Jake was going to drive himself crazy. Or maybe that was just his sister doing it. She seemed nice enough, for a little kid, but she also made him happy that he was an only child. He was pretty sure her supposedly innocent needling was totally intentional.

Judging by Jake’s expression, he figured the same.

“Haley, I told you what’s going on,” Jake said, not attempting to keep the exasperation from his voice. “You know how bad this is, so just…stop. Please.”

Haley’s face transformed into what Randy was sure was a practiced pout. “I’m only trying to help.”

“Yo, stressing me out by pointing out all my failures isn’t helping.”

“Look,” Randy said slowly, figuring he should say something but speaking before he’d entirely decided what that should be, “when I was fighting the dragon, she wasn’t, um, trying to barbecue me. That’s probably a point in her favour. The Critic lady from earlier pulled a lot of shoob moves. She didn’t care if she fought dirty. If Chat Noir and I hadn’t had each other’s backs, she’d have wonked our cheese. But the dragon…. Danny said he thought she was testing me. Teasing out my attacks and strengths and stuff.”

“So?” Haley prompted.

Randy frowned at her. “So that’s more than what the other lady was doing when she got butterflied. She went straight to attack mode.”

“Yeah, but Mom’s had all the training, even if being a dragon skipped her generation,” Haley said. “She knows how to fight. She’s not going to throw strategy out the window, and learning what you can do before fighting you is smart.”

All the training…. No wonder she’d been so good at flying right off the bat. Randy had just assumed it was magic. Maybe it still was, but magic plus lessons made sense.

“So none of that’s from this Hawk Moth person,” Haley continued. “That’s just Mom. I mean, Jake’s not the best example of what we dragons can do, but he should have been able to give you some idea.”

Randy was really getting a good idea of why Jake had told him that Haley was a know-it-all.

“Oh, c’mon, you know I just met this guy tonight,” Jake interjected, gesturing at Randy.

“Yeah, him and this Chat Noir, only you messed that up, too, didn’t you?”

“Haley!”

“Why didn’t you ask me for help earlier?”

“Because you do stuff like this!” snapped Jake. “We both know you’re not perfect, and you’re not better than me at everything, so stop pretending you wouldn’t have made mistakes, too, if you were in my shoes.”

“But you knew this was going to be bad. Sara told you, and Kara said you’d have help.”

“She said from my friends, not my little sister.”

“Being friends doesn’t have to exclude me!”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Yo, you think I—?”

“Hope I’m not interrupting a vital family argument,” a voice said from behind them all.

Randy wasn’t the only one who jumped and spun in a circle before remembering to look up. The voice had come from behind and up. Sure enough, Chat Noir was perched on a pole that jutted out about five feet above their heads from the side of a building and into an alleyway. Randy squinted. That was the staff Chat Noir had fought with earlier. It could do that?

“How did you find us?” Jake asked, and Randy didn’t need to know him well to hear the panic in his voice. “I thought you were gonna call!”

Chat Noir dropped lightly to his feet, one hand reaching out to catch the staff as it fell. He didn’t even need to look at it to catch it, collapse it, and slide it in place on his back. Magic. It must be. Or a lot of practice.

“I have a friend with a good sense of smell,” he said.

“My smoke bombs do not stink that badly,” Randy insisted, forgetting for the moment that he wasn’t currently wearing his suit.

Chat Noir blinked. “Ninja?”

“Randy.” He pointed at the dragon siblings and said, “That’s Jake and Haley.” Jake shot Randy a glare but didn’t say anything, instead tapping his Fenton Phone and letting Danny know that Chat Noir had found them. Ignoring him, Randy continued, “Their mom’s the one who’s been butterflied.”

“Akumatized,” Chat Noir corrected. “And I know. I mean. I guessed. From what Phantom told me and, um….” He trailed off and must have abandoned that thought entirely, since he instead asked, “Where’s the akuma hiding?”

“Her necklace,” Randy said, happy enough to roll with the subject change because it was a pretty important subject change. Even with different names, what was happening to people didn’t seem terribly different than what he was used to dealing with. He knew it wasn’t the same, but the idea of it was similar enough to stanking that it made whatever Chat Noir must do on a regular basis easy for Randy to follow. “It’s still on her, even when she’s a dragon. It just…adjusted with her, I guess? It doesn’t look like she’s being strangled by it.”

Chat Noir was nodding. “Hawk Moth can cause pain to those who disobey him, but he wouldn’t hinder their transformation.”

“What about the person being transformed?” Haley asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Can they do something?”

“We’ve only ever seen Hawk Moth change people who agree to it,” Chat Noir said. Randy almost asked who we was and then remembered that the Critic had taunted him about not having his partner around. “And the transformation…. It’s not something they negotiate. That’s all Hawk Moth’s domain.”

Haley glanced back at Jake, who was still talking to Danny. “But…. My mom’s different.”

“She really…probably…is,” Randy offered. “Me, I just use something that’s magic. Maybe you do, too. These guys are…different.”

“I know,” Chat Noir said quietly as Jake rejoined their circle. “That’s…. That’s why I’m worried. Hawk Moth can’t have known I’d be here. He wants my Miraculous, but that’s not why he’s active. He’s looking for something. Maybe another Miraculous that was lost, maybe something else.”

Jake frowned. “Aren’t there only, like, seven of those?”

Chat Noir didn’t confirm that, and Randy wasn’t great at reading faces, but he was pretty sure that was a no. And that Chat Noir didn’t particularly appreciate Jake’s comment. Maybe he thought Jake was pretending to be an authority on the subject of these Miraculous things? Randy might not know much, but he knew Jake definitely wasn’t.

Or maybe it was just that these guys hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot, and that was something Randy could smooth over. “Point is, their mom getting akuma matated or whatever you said is bad, and we could really use your help to fix things.” He bit his lip, already feeling that Chat Noir wouldn’t appreciate his next suggestion, and added, “Even if you don’t wanna tell us your real name, you might wanna lose the suit. Just so we can, y’know, blend in with the crowd when we search. It’s not like we’d tell anyone your identity when we’re all trying to keep the same secret.”

“And I already know what you look like without your mask,” Jake added.

“So does your Phantom friend,” muttered Chat Noir, not quietly enough that he didn’t intend for them to hear it.

“That’s Danny,” Randy said. “He also gets the secret identity thing.”

Chat Noir frowned. “He’s a ghost.”

Randy shrugged. “Only some of the time.”

Haley spun to her brother. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she hissed, and he shushed her. Unsuccessfully. They started arguing again. Randy tuned them out, figuring Danny would show up sooner rather than later anyway, and he could settle things easily enough.

“You’ve gotta admit,” Randy said to Chat Noir, “that you’re not exactly inconspicuous in that getup.”

“I’m not exactly inconspicuous without it, either,” mumbled Chat Noir, though that made no sense to Randy. The Critic lady had said this was a foreign country for him, so it’s not like he’d actually know anyone here or that anyone would know him. Even if he was visiting relatives, chances were they didn’t know his secret, so there was nothing wrong with them seeing him without his mask. He’d be as thoroughly unremarkable to this crowd as Randy was. No one was going to look at him twice. But in that cat getup? After fighting earlier? Someone was bound to look again, even in a city this big.

“C’mon, the others already know what you look like. It’s just me, and I’m not from here, either. If that makes you feel any better. I mean, I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to get home when this is over, so….”

Chat Noir sighed and walked back toward the alley. Randy followed, more to get farther away from the squabbling siblings than anything else. “Claws in,” Randy heard Chat Noir whisper when he was out of easy sight, and the boy tugged the hood of his sweater farther forward before turning around.

Yup.

Unremarkable.

Randy didn’t even need to see his face out of shadow to know that much. “Got a name?” he asked.

Chat Noir hesitated.

Randy didn’t miss Chat Noir’s glance in the direction of Jake and Haley. Quick as it had been, Chat Noir’s continued silence spoke volumes for him. “Just tell me the name of your best friend for now,” Randy suggested, even though it wasn’t like any of them would be able to figure out Chat Noir’s identity from his first name alone even if they wanted to. “That way, you’ll remember what we’re calling you, and you can tell us your real name later if you want.”

Chat Noir smiled. It was small, but it was still a smile, so Randy figured that was a win. “Call me Nino.”

(see more fics | next)

[itsleeyuh]

just found out this gaming youtuber I use to watch in middle school (and would go back sometimes and watch old play throughs for the nostalgia) is a fucking pedophile and has groomed 14 girls, (multiple were underaged) and has been since I was watching him. what the absolute fuck.

watched his shitty “manic apology”video, what the fuck. couldn’t even get through his unlisted stream video of him crying about all his wrong doings and that he’s changed or wants to change or whatever. what the absolute fuck. and I haven’t even seen Russ’ stream explaining his side of it all. ffs.

2020 is pulling all the monsters out of the woodworks.

my heart goes out to the vicitms, and I’m sorry it took this long for this to come to light.

[sibyl-of-space]

Final Fantasy IX ~ Melodies and Memories

"Jesters of the Moon"

There are a lot of very good video games in the world, but it takes some luck and circumstance outside of a game's control for one to reach me at just the right time(s) and place(s) in my life that it has a tangible impact on who I am -- who I want to be. One that carves out a space for itself in my soul that will never be removed or replaced.

I've just finished playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time, and there's no doubt in my mind that such is the case here.

(Continued below readmore.)

I drew this art last year, when I was mourning my attachment to an old favorite game that I just don't feel the same way about anymore: Majora's Mask. I wanted to draw something that captured my feelings about it, because sometimes art is the best way to talk about something when the words don't want to come.

Why is "Jesters of the Moon," the name of a random song in the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack, plastered in the middle of this Majora's Mask fanart? Especially considering I hadn't even played Final Fantasy IX yet when I drew this?

The reason is exactly that "luck and circumstance" that allowed me to fall so uniquely in love with the game.

"Mt. Gulug"

In 2008, someone on YouTube uploaded a Majora's Mask parody-slash-let's-play series called "Majora's Mask: The Things Which Were Taken Out." The series has since become unlisted and won't be linked here out of respect for the creator who probably doesn't want things they said and made in 2008 being spread all over the internet, but because of Unregistered Hypercam 2 reasons, the series inserted other background music over the video and didn't record the actual game audio.

I didn't recognize any of the music, but I watched these parody videos on repeat because in addition to being funny (...at the time, in my mind, at least), I really really loved the music. It got to the point where I would sometimes be playing Majora's Mask and get disappointed when I approached Goht and the Mt. Gulug theme wasn't playing in the background.

I had forgotten about these videos for a really long time in the interim, but I remembered them at some point when I was thinking about Majora's Mask and I found them again. The creator had cited the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack for virtually all of the background music used in the videos, and I realized that despite knowing literally nothing about the game, I had become really fond of - and weirdly nostalgic for - the songs from it that I now recognized.

So I looked up "Jesters of the Moon" and played it on repeat while I drew out my feelings in colored marker. A few months later, I realized that my backwards compatible PS3 can also play PS1 games, and eBay had FFIX for PS1 at a good price. I had nothing to lose by ordering it and seeing what the source of all that fantastic music was like.

"Vamo Alla Flamenco"

I started my playthrough knowing nothing about what to expect from the game. I'd never played a Final Fantasy game before and my overall JRPG experience has been mostly limited to Tales of, Persona, and more recently, mainline Shin Megami Tensei. The only things I knew about Final Fantasy were a) the Tidus laughing scene, and b) Sephiroth. IX seemed like it had vibes I would enjoy, but beyond that I knew nothing about what the experience would be. So I approached it with a "let's have fun and see how it goes" attitude, naming my party members the first silly thing that came to mind, ending up with "Swaggy," "OwO," "Bitchin," "Gunz," and "SWOOORD" to start with.

(For the record I do not regret those names whatsoever.)

I was immediately struck by how differently the game uses music in comparison to all of my previous JRPG experiences. This was not a game where the composer was given a list of theme songs that were slapped on top of a mostly completed game-- this was a game constructed with the soundtrack in mind as a part of the writing process.

The opening act plays almost like an opera (side note, yes I know one of the other FF's has a literal opera, I haven't played that one): you traverse the same locations from different perspectives as different characters, introducing the cast with lighthearted humor and dramatic irony out the wazoo. While you traverse the city as OwO, OwO's theme is playing in the background, coloring your perspective of the city and the narrative. When you switch to Gunz patrolling around the castle, Gunz's theme accompanies your movement and informs his character and mission. I am so accustomed to "location themes" being the norm in virtually all video games that experiencing character and/or narrative themes as BGM instead while I bumble around town changed my entire perspective on what music in games can do and be.

The operatic feeling is definitely intentional, because the game uses a play-within-a-game narrative device to hit you over the head with its themes in a way that is somehow poignant and artful while also being extremely blatant. That is a hard balance to strike, but it manages. The whole game is like that: it is completely straightforward and tells you exactly what it's about at heart, but it does it beautifully.

At any rate, I was enamored with this intro and had a very fun time, but I wasn't obsessed or anything and ended up putting it down. I spent several months on the first half of disk 1 with weeks passing between play sessions. I liked the game plenty, but life stuff happened and I decided to get obsessed with Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Ghost Trick for a while. No regrettis.

It was already clear, though, that FFIX was going to be special to me. My compositions for my team's game in the Global Game Jam in 2021 were directly inspired by FFIX's opera-like intro. I wrote two character themes for our game that would serve as background music when you play as the two protagonists, coloring your journey differently even when moving in the same spaces. I was intentionally trying to mimic the way music is used in FFIX as an exercise. The themes I wrote are definitely some of my strongest work so far.

(You can check out the game here if you want, I promise it is significantly shorter than Final Fantasy IX.)

"Melodies of Life"

Music caused me to pick up FFIX the first time, and music caused me to return to it. After months of not touching or really thinking about it, just earlier this week I was inspired to play it again, because - again - I listened to the right song at the right time.

I was again mourning the loss of something, in this case a friendship, for reasons I'm not going to share here. I had already heard the song "Melodies of Life" because it came up when I was looking up FFIX songs to reblog on Tumblr a few months ago, and I decided to listen to it again. Even without knowing the game context, the song itself really spoke to me in that moment: "a voice from the past, joining yours and mine, adding up the layers of harmony" - it kind of made me feel at peace with the fact that I had a lot of positive memories of that friendship and I could keep those at heart while also moving on in the present. ...I'm also a sucker for music metaphors, so there is that.

I was really moved by this song, cheesy as it is, and I was also definitely in the mood for a distraction. Picking up FFIX again felt like the best move.

It was, and my life is forever changed.

The game never stopped being beautiful and funny and touching, and the soundtrack never ceased to amaze. I recognized concepts I've seen in other games but never had I seen them used so artfully. I adored the fantasy world and non-human cast, I found myself enticed by random encounter for the first time because it made me feel like I had to struggle to survive a difficult journey. Music, gameplay, visuals, and story felt like one cohesive work of art for the entire duration.

Life circumstances got me to play the game again, but the game itself was so captivating and wonderful that I binged the entire rest of it - disks 2-4 - in less than a week. Everything else that the game had to say, it told me itself, in its own context, and I was ready to listen.

"You're Not Alone!"

This is going to make me sound like an emotionally-stunted twenty-something, but it has been years since a work of media has got me to have a really good cry. I used to cry playing games all the time as a kid but recently I'll find myself getting emotional, sure, often tearing up, but getting completely red-faced and snot-nosed because I physically cannot contain the emotions being evoked by a work? Years. I can't honestly tell you the last time it happened with certainty.

I feel like an emotional band-aid has been ripped off. I was f*cking sobbing during the entire duration of the "You're Not Alone!" sequence. It didn't matter that what was happening was obviously coming from a mile away, because the delivery was so raw and emotional and human!!! A whole game's worth of Swaggy punching first and asking questions later to save his friends, being Protag McProtag endangering himself for others in any and all circumstances, for the payoff of all of his friends forcing him to stop being such a primadonna and let them help him for once. It's true, too! He relies on them just as much as they rely on him! And the game doesn't just tell you this, no, it lets you try to solo all these fights and waits until you realize how boned you are until they come bail you out.

When Bitchin showed up with her "looks like you need a hand" I wanted to straight up yell at my tv. YES I DO!!! YES I DO NEED YOU BITCHIN!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! I half knew that SWOOORD was going to heal me before I got truly KO-ed but I had been unmercifully wiped in "unwinnable" battles before in this game, so I legit thought I might have to re-do that whole part of the game again, and I was so relieved and thankful when she showed up and healed me.

This moment exemplifies everything that I adore about this game. It doesn't just tell you its story. It shows it to you, it sings it to you, and it and lets you play it out and feel it for yourself.

"Game Over"

This song is all too familiar to me. Gizamaluke's Grotto was very unforgiving for a first-time Final Fantasy player, especially one who didn't happen to pick up Big on the way for a fourth party member early on.

I hadn't heard the piano part in a few months, though, because when I picked the game back up I started just mashing to reload before it got to that point any time we wiped. I didn't hear it again until the game was truly over, this time for good.

I let it play for a while. Not too long, because I have a CRT TV and didn't want "The End" to get burned in. But a while. Enough to meditate on what I'd just experienced, and how I was feeling about it.

There's so much more to say about the game, far more than I could put in a blog post. But I don't think I need to describe these thoughts in words. I can do what the game did, and use music, use art, use stories, use metaphors, and use symbols to communicate what I mean; and hope that someone else is able and willing to listen.

And although a written record of my thoughts likely won't be preserved for all that long, maybe the feelings and the memories will be, so long as they have been shared.

[miz-joelys-sherlollilists]

To-Do List for Sherlollbrary

Add all stories from the individual Sherlollilists on tumblr

Finishing updating “relationship status” column 

Make sure they’re arranged by a Main Tag/trope with up to 5 subtags

Add all individual stories in a series and not just a link to the series

Correct things as I find errors, esp. if the author messages me

Add missing stories from collections of one-shots

Reblog all tumblr fics NOT under a cut so the stories don’t get lost

Replace tumblr fics if the author posts the story on AO3 or FF. net

Finish adding stories to the Moran list and make sure they’re on the library

Check author’s AO3/FF sites for fics I might have missed

Add new stories as they are posted to tumblr, ff or AO3

Delete stories that have been taken down or have bad links

Figure out how to make lists for the “unlisted” fics

Add additional tags to existing stories as I discover them/are told about them