#theres often so little room for discussion without getting brushed off

[billfarrah]

Simon’s journey to find his own voice and autonomy in season 2 after being constantly tossed aside and silenced by the people around him is something that’s grown more powerful for me the more I’ve sat with the season over time. Yes, he’s a young teen who had his heartbroken and spends a lot of time in his feelings about that, but he consistently tries to take control over his life and his situation, and while he doesn’t always succeed and makes some bad decisions (Marcus being the #1 bad decision), he does it because he’s trying, in his way, to fight back on everything and everyone that’s done him dirty in the past. That’s why he sets the terms on his interactions with Wille, that’s why he quits the rowing team when he’s getting mistreated, despite believing he needs it to get better grades, that’s why he fights back against Jan-Olof for taking away his solo, that’s why he walks out on Wille when he realizes Wille hasn’t been honest with him about August, and that’s why he walks away from Sara when he discovers she also withheld the truth about August from him (and fell in love with him, no less).

Simon wants very much the same things that all of the other principle characters in the show want - love, acceptance, freedom - but unlike his privileged classmates (and even his own sister when she moves into the school and becomes one of them), he’s the one that’s always getting the short end of the stick and has to try so much harder to get what he wants, and we see him constantly fighting this throughout season 2. He doesn’t initially realize he’s fighting the same issue with Marcus - who is constantly controlling the pace of their relationship and talking over Simon - because he has it in his head that moving on should be good for him.

That’s why it’s so powerful when Simon pulls Wille aside before the Jubilee and tells him what he wants and what he’s willing to do to get it, and Wille stays completely silent and lets Simon have his voice (unlike Marcus who wouldn’t let Simon communicate his own reasons for ending their relationship and constantly speaking over him through their entire relationship), then immediately, through his speech, sets Simon free so that Simon will never have to be silenced due to his association with Wille ever again. Their relationship feels earned because Wille consciously works to undue the inequality he created in their relationship. Simon stays absolutely firm in his principles and is critical in Wille developing an understanding that actions have consequences for people outside of the sheltered bubble he grew up in, as his personal revenge on August satisfied him but did absolutely nothing for Simon. They may not know each other that well yet, but what they developed over the course of season 2 was a bond of deep respect and solidarity, and I’m more intrigued now to see how they continue to develop in the finale.

[wisherbysharlight]

Adrenaline Rush of Admitting a Crush

Word Count: 1622 Ships:Prinxiety, mentioned Pintroverts AO3: here Thanks to @vintagesquid for the beta! Description:  Spoilers for FWSA!  Virgil can’t wait. He just can’t. He needs to do this now, but there are limits to even the adrenaline high of bravery...

Roman is right there. And he’s smiling, and dancing around the room, and squealing in a way he hadn’t in months, if not a year, and Virgil has to say something.

“Do you need to pee?”

He can’t stop shaking his hands, bouncing in place. He’s hearing Roman spouting off ideas left and right, sees his delighted expression, and,

“Are you sure you don’t need to pee?”

Virgil can’t wait. He just can’t. He needs to do this now, but there are limits to even the adrenaline high of bravery. As impatient as he is, he has to wait for Thomas to not be paying attention to them.

All this energy, all these emotions, all this bravery, he has to do it now, before he loses the adrenaline high, but of course Thomas still needs them. He still needs to run back through the entire scenario at least five times, to check and double check and triple check that it actually happened. Virgil can’t fault him for that, hell, he wants it all too.

But Roman.

Roman is right there. And he’s smiling, and dancing around the room, and squealing in a way he hadn’t in months, if not a year, and Virgil has to say something.

Finally, finally, Thomas goes upstairs to change, claiming to try to use some of his nervous energy for a run. They won’t be summoned again for a bit, most likely, and they’re safe to sink out into the mindspace’s version of the living room. No one else is around, and this is it, this is his moment, he can do this, he squares his shoulders and he looks at Roman and he opens his mouth and-

“You don’t have to say it Virgil,” Roman says before the sound can leave Virgil’s mouth, “I know. I won’t tell the others about,” he waves his hand vaguely at Virgil’s eyes, “sparkle city, or whatever, until you’re ready. I know you, worry. Heh. About the whole ‘emo nightmare’ reputation.”

Virgil’s shaking his head furiously before Roman can even get his whole sentence out, the shadows under his eyes darkening in concern, “No, Roman, they- if they don’t know already I don’t care if they do now. I’m excited, it happens, no use trying to hide it.”

Roman looks concerned at the change, taking a hesitant step towards him without seeming to think too much about it before stopping himself, “Then - then what’s up, Legion of Gloom?” “I wanted to talk to you. About today. And. And tell you that I- shit, I am terrible at this. How did Thomas do it?” Virgil grumbles, feeling his face flame up and sparing a thought to be grateful for his foundation. He has to break eye contact because looking straight at Roman is not helping, “Ok listen. I wasn’t going to say anything. I really wasn’t. But Roman, today. You said - you said a couple things that … that set off alarm bells for me, and I just - I feel like I need to tell you this so just let me get it all out before you say anything.”

Roman nods mutely, but his hands are still restless, still moving and grabbing onto each other then onto his sash then to his belt loops.

“Ok. Ok so, I’ve noticed. Recently. That you have been a little. Ugh, shit, what’s the word. I should’ve practiced this better. I’ve noticed you’ve been a little, uh, insecure? And I just wanted,  no. No I needed you to know that I see everything you do and how hard you’ve been trying. How much you want to be right. I’ve been there, Princey, and it’s not a fun place to be. But Roman. Just. Know I see you, and that ... that you can trust me to be honest with you. About my feelings. Because god knows I don’t talk about them often. And Ro? I really, honestly, care about you. Seeing you happy today? Knowing that I, me, I myself was able to do that for you? Well. It forced me to acknowledge something I’d been trying very hard to ignore.”

Roman looks absolutely shell-shocked, eyes wide as saucers, mouth hanging open a bit, hands now twisting his sash between them, face flushed almost as red as his emblem. He drops the sash when Virgil stops talking, gesturing wildly at him, voice clearly on the verge of breaking, “What is it? Don’t leave a man in suspense, Virgil, a story like that cannot be left unfinished.” Virgil huffs out a laugh, fidgeting with the zipper on his sleeve, “You would be focused on the story, dramatic ass.” He huffs again, then stares up at the ceiling, “Roman, I- If I could make you smile like that. You- God you’re just so good Roman, and for a long time I think I was denying ... that I could ever be enough. But if I could do that, today, for you, for Thomas. Well. I think I can try. To be enough. And to let myself want to be-”

Virgil’s voice dies in his throat as Roman’s thumb gently presses on his chin, tilting his head down - when had he even moved that close - and oh. He’s smiling, that brilliant smile that Virgil was worried was reserved just for Nico - “Virgil. I was also concerned. About being. Enough. For you.”

“Well that’s stupid,” Virgil bursts out, then feels his face flame up and theres no way his foundation is enough to cover that. “Because. Because.”

“Because we’re both a bit stupid?” Roman grins, and his thumb moves slightly from where it’s still on his chin, the rest of his hand cupping his cheek, and that feels really nice. Maybe Virgil leans into it a bit, feels that light tingle under his eyes that means his shadow is shifting and fights the urge to sink out and hide it, “And maybe we are both enough? Or rather, that we balance each other quite nicely?” Virgil nods, and idly wonders when he became the mute one in this conversation, and where all this suaveness had been when they were trying to woo Nico, but those thoughts fly out the window when Roman’s thumb brushes feather-light over his bottom lip, “And maybe? We could try to explore how well we work together? As a team, and as more?”

Virgil knows he’s gone full-lavender at this point as he nods, careful not to dislodge Roman’s thumb. He leans in, feeling even braver than when he had shoved Thomas earlier, bolstered even more by the urge to assuage the doubt still hiding in Roman’s eyes, but still slow in case he’s wrong (oh god, what if he’s wrong), but Roman surges forward, capturing his lips and holding onto his face with both hands. Virgil even doesn’t know what to do with his own hands, he’s so happy he can’t possibly keep them still, so he just holds onto Roman’s shoulders, then his arms, then his hair (oh soft hair that’s a good place to stay), and lets Roman take the lead. 

Virgil notices a moment later that Roman’s humming, and it doesn’t feel intentional, which makes him grin into the kiss and causes Roman to start laughing, and then they’re both off. They’re leaning into each other still, but Virgil’s hands are flapping on either side of Roman and Roman’s bouncing on the balls of his feet and neither of them can stop giggling long enough to even say anything. They just exist in each others’ spaces, giggling just like before, only this time Virgil can smell the mint from Roman’s breath, can see the sparkle in his eye, and it makes him feel like he can take on the world. 

Eventually, Roman quiets enough to speak, though he’s still grinning like a loon, “So, I guess I have to start thinking of fun pet names instead of just plain nicknames, huh Hot Topic?” “I knew you thought I was hot,” Virgil croons back without missing a beat, feeling less off kilter with his trademark smirk, though he knows his shadow still betrays the levity in his entire being.

Roman leans in to kiss him again, and their laughter returns when Virgil is caught off guard enough by Roman nipping at his lip that he stumbles. ‘You’re supposed to be alert, Virgil. Get back on your game.’ the nasty voice that sounds a lot like his own from the past hisses in his ear, but is drowned out quickly when Roman swoons dramatically and coos, “Oh Virgil I knew you’d fall for me eventually.”

“I’ll show you falling,” Virgil growls playfully, pushes Roman to the couch and straddles him, getting his hands back in that soft hair and pulling him up for another kiss, then another, and another, each only to be interrupted when one of them gets so overwhelmed they squirm, or squeak, or hum, or flap, and they dissolve into laughter again, like they have all the time in the world.

At some point, they’ll have to debrief the other sides on the particulars of what went down at the mall food court today. They’ll discuss Janus being overworked and exhausted and in everyone else’s business, and address Patton’s suspicious absence in a matter of the heart, and assist Logan with his inevitable sulking about yet another emotional connection to maintain, and deal with Remus’ certainly ever-growing list of new material featuring that new connection. 

Eventually, they, Roman and Virgil, would have to address their insecurities in a less indirect manner, and actually talk through them to make sure neither one was rushing in blind. It all needed to happen, but later. For now, with just the two of them here on the couch, Virgil couldn’t bring himself to fear any of it, even though it was all residing in the back of his mind. 

Bravery. Huh. He could get used to that.

[sixtyeightdays]

Timinette social media or timinette with being underappreciated?

i am so sorry this took so long but i hope you like this! :)

i kind of strayed off topic a little and its a little mess so im sorry for that but i hope this is okay

this will have some bruce bashing so uh yeah 

theres also tim and jason brotherly bonding because i am a sucker for brotherly bonding fics.

also, tim, mari, chloe (basically the parisian folks) are 16. jason is 19, dick is 23, and damian 13.

-

Timothy Drake Wayne had had his issues with his own self worth before.

Unlike everyone else in the family, he hadn’t been born into the family, or even been chosen to be part of it. This did sometimes result in a severe drop in Tim’s confidence levels, but he always managed to bring it back up.

Eventually, Tim found that the best way to deal with it was just to accept it. Not act out on it or anything. No, it was best to just accept it and be on his way.

At first, he had fought the unwanted thoughts invading his head, but appointing him as CEO of Wayne Enterprises had been the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

If they didn’t want me in the family, why would they make me CEO of Wayne Enterprises? Tim thought.

But then it pushed itself into Tim’s mind.

Because they don’t want you at the manor.

Tim shoved the thought away and shook his head, looking out the plane window.

Just.. accept it. There’s nothing he could to but accept it. He had no one to talk to either.

Damian would probably jeer at him and call him a weakling. Tim didn’t really need that. Bratty little 13 year old, that one. Besides, Damian wouldn’t care about it anyway, probably just tattle on him in hopes of getting Red Robin benched permanently.

He had contemplated talking to Dick about it for a while. After all, Dick was the ever so helpful Golden Boy. But then he decided against it. Of everyone in the family, Tim would never expect Dick of all people to understand issues with self worth. Dick was told very often that he was loved, wanted. Dick would probably tell Bruce anyway, and that was the last thing Tim wanted.

Jason.. well he was busy. He was always busy. Regardless of how his and Jason’s relationship had drastically improved, he wasn’t ready to open up about this. Don’t get him wrong, Tim was glad that he and his old hero had started to make amends, and now Jason had barely any qualms in calling Tim his brother, and that he could call him whenever he wanted. It made a rush of warmth erupt in his chest whenever he heard it.

But, he just didn’t feel ready to talk to him about it. To anyone about it.

Now, it was Monday morning and he was on his way to Paris in the Wayne company jet, because some rich designer named Gabriel Agreste requested some sort of business partnership.

There was also a designer called MDC that Tim was very interested in meeting. He was a huge fan of her work. He had checked out her website and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of her work, especially since she had no employees and made everything herself.

The fact that she was Jagged Stone’s honorary niece had also contributed to Tim wanting to commission a MDC original.

He had contacted her a before the plane left, and lucky for him, she had decided to meet him at his hotel on Thursday after lunch to discuss and take measurements

It was partially why when Bruce asked him to go to Paris, he didn’t fuss. He didn’t even protest about how being in Paris would affect Red Robin’s patrol. He had just nodded and left.

It had been a very last minute decision, and he hadn’t even had time to tell Jason about it. He had left a few hours after Bruce told him about it.

Tim sighed, leaning his head against the cool window of the plane, taking a sip from the coffee mug he held in his hands.

He admittedly zoned out for the rest of the journey, but in his defense, there was only an hour left on that flight anyway.

Stepping off the plane with his baggage, he made his way to the exits and after checking out of the airport, hailed a cab to bring him to his hotel, Le Grande Paris.

He may or may not have also zoned out on his 15 minute long ride to the hotel. Tim felt bad for the very nice taxi driver whom he had ignored, and gave him a very generous tip. After all, it wasn’t like he needed the money.

Judging from the wide eyed and awed glance the driver shot him as he left, the driver appreciated it very much.

Walking into the hotel lobby, checking in and waiting for the room key to be given to him, Tim already knew he was going to turn down Gabriel’s offer.

His research had shown that Gabriel was a recluse and hadn’t left his house in years. His assistant, one Nathalie Sancouer went on appointments with him on a call. He was also seemingly cold to his only son, which didn’t fly well with Tim, especially since the son was the same age as him.

He was expected to finish more work in Paris, especially since there was no rogues to disrupt anything.  

He was not expecting a petite bluenette to crash into him and change his outlook on life.

The girl who bumped into him blushed profusely and apologised while two blondes, a girl and a boy laughed behind her.

She shot the two a playfully stern look, narrowing her eyes. Her eyes had the same glint Selina had when she saw Bruce. Playful, yet deadly. It was amazing how fast the blondes shut up.

“I’m Tim.” He shook Marinette’s hand, slightly charmed by the blushing girl.

“I’m Marinette. Are you checking in? I can escort you to your room. I know this place like the back of my hand.”

Tim was startled. Marinette did not seem to have any idea that she was talking to CEO of WE. She was talking to him like he was Tim. Just Tim. He was intrigued by the girl. The way she said her sentence, she wasn’t boasting or showing off, she was stating a mere fact out of politeness and the kindness of her heart.

You don’t see that around much anymore, Tim mused. It was like a breath of fresh air.

He nodded in acceptance and showed her the room number on the key that he was given before she had bumped into him. Her eyes widened.

“Well, looks like you’re on the floor I was already going to. Chloe lives here. Her father runs the hotel, and all the penthouses are on the same floor.” Marinette waved her hand at the blonde girl who was laughing earlier.

The girl stuck out a hand. “My name’s Chloe, the pleasure’s all yours.”

Tim’s lips curved into a smile as he shook her hand. “I’m Tim.”

Chloe pointed to the boy next to her. “That’s Adrien.”

Tim recognised him. He was that Agreste boy. The son of Gabriel Agreste, who he was supposed to meet on Thursday. Tim vaguely wondered if Adrien was going to be there for the meeting.

Tim didn’t like it when people announced out loud that he was a Wayne. So he didn’t do that to Adrien. Tim just shook his hand with a smile. Adrien smiled back, and Tim could see that gratitude in his eyes.

Tim nodded and his mind drifted to Marinette. She seemed rather nice, and she didn’t seem like the type of person to take advantage of rich kids. He decided to ive her the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, Chloe and Adrien trusted her, so he was willing to be open minded about this.

Besides, on the unlikely chance that she was trying to suck up to rich kids, Tim could very easily sue her, or at the very least, scare her off.

Marinette, Chloe and Adrien took the lift up with him, the four falling into an easy banter. Tim was very glad he had become fluent in French a few months prior to going on this trip.

Once they reached the outside of Tim’s suite, however, Marinette turned to Tim.

“Do you, maybe wanna join us after you put your things down?”

Tim grinned. “Why, I’d love to.”

-

It was the right thing to do. The four of them had a blast, and Tim knew now more than ever that Marinette genuinely liked the company of the two blondes and that she wasn’t just using them. He didn’t think she was, but it didn’t hurt to check.

They had hung out together, from that afternoon to late in the night, to around 9 maybe? Tim wasn’t sure. Tim felt a warm rush of joy flow throughout his body. He couldn’t remember the last time he had hung out with anyone that weren’t using him for his money or weren’t his family.

The four had become really close and the three Parisians probably knew more about Tim that his whole family did put together at this point.

Tim couldn’t remember the last time he had let loose so freely.

It was funny how it worked. Tim didn’t know why, but he had the comforting feeling that they could be trusted. Sure, they hadn’t known him for long, but he felt a sense of comfort with them, more comfortable than he’d ever felt with Bruce, hell, more than even Alfred.

Tim didn’t tell them all of his secrets, obviously, Red Robin being one of them. But it was okay. Unlike Bruce, who would research and pry into his business, Chloe, Marinette and Adrien shrugged it off.

“We’re all entitled to our own secrets.” Marinette had told him.

It made Tim wonder what kind of secrets the three were keeping, but he brushed it off. If he didn’t have to spill his secrets, the three didn’t either.

Eventually, night fell, but only Adrien left. Tim had looked to Marinette questioningly, and she just shrugged.

“His dad needs him back. I told Maman I was staying over with Chlo tonight. It’s not a school night after all.” She shrugged.

It was funny how much Tim trusted the three. He trusted them more than he trusted Bruce, at this point. Even if the trust he had in Bruce wasn't much to go on, it was surprising how easily the ex-Robin trusted the Parisians. But then again, life worked in strange ways, and this may have one of its strangest yet.

But Tim didn't protest. He rather liked the Parisians and like he's said, he trusted them. And from the looks they all gave him throughout the day, fulling of laughter and openness, he knew without a doubt that they trusted him too.

Among all three Parisians, Tim had bonded with Marinette the most.

Firstly, while the three were a formidable trio, Chloe and Adrien, it seemed, were childhood friends. They were extremely comfortable around each other, and it wasn’t like they were trying to leave Marinette out. They included her in everything they could, but the noirette occasionally bowed out and let the two friends do their thing.

Secondly, Tim was pretty sure that the two didn’t normally have so much childhood games. He was pretty sure they were making some of them up on the spot.

If Tim didn’t know better, he’d say Adrien and Chloe were trying to set him and Marinette up.

Marinette. The amazing little bluenette that crashed into him and changed his outlook on life.

Yes, he had only known her for less than a day, but they just clicked.

Marinette had tried not to, but it was obvious that her self esteem was at an all-time low, much like his. When Tim had asked Chloe and Adrien why when Marinette was in the bathroom, they had filled him in on how a girl named Lila at their school was bullying her and spouting lies about her.

“How bad are her lies?” Tim questioned.

“She saved Jagged Stone’s kitten from a airplane runway.” Chloe said.

Tim spit out his coffee.

“She misses months of school to be in Achu to work with Prince Ali for Go Green campaigns.” Adrien continued.

Tim didn’t know Achu or Prince Ali very well, but he was pretty sure the prince only did Helping Children Campaigns. He took a sip of his coffee.

“Her latest one? I was dating Damian Wayne, but he and his brother fought over me and now I’m dating Timothy Drake, CEO of Wayne Enterprises!” Chloe said the last part in a nasally, simpering tone that was obviously meant to be Lila’s voice.

Tim choked. Lila was 16! Damian was 13! Tim mentally filed a reminder to sue this Lila girl. Also, his love life was rather pathetic. He hadn’t dated since Stephanie. Lila’d would probably do a better job going after Jason if he weren’t with Roy. Wait, no. Jason didn’t like psychopaths. Or maybe he did, Tim wasn’t too sure.

“That was pretty accurate.” Adrien looked slightly impressed.

Tim shuddered. What kind of sicko had a voice like that?

Marinette had come out of the bathroom at that point, and all three of them effectively shut up. She looked concerned and asked Tim if he was okay and why he was so pale.

He shook his head. “I’m cool, cool, cool.” He ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to be suave and Marinette laughed.

Tim’s expression softened at the melodic sound. Chloe and Adrien exchanged a look before smirking at Tim.

Marinette had subtly complimented him a lot over the span of a few hours, and Tim had felt his confidence level slowly rising. It made Marinette smile.

Tim had returned the favor, and by the end of the next day, he and Marinette had almost as many inside jokes as Adrien and Chloe did.

(Chloe had walked Adrien to the door, and Tim and Marinette had hid from Chloe in Tim’s suite, giggling at Chloe’s playful irateness.

Tim had a great time.

He had also managed to finish most of his work beforehand.

He, along with Chloe and Adrien, had gone to Marinette’s house on Wednesday, and the four of them had spent the whole day in a peaceful silence doing their work.

Chloe and Adrien had finished their school work early and had copied their work into Marinette’s workbook. Tim had smiled at the sight because he was rather happy that Marinette had friends who were willing to do this sort of thing for her.

Marinette had spent the whole day working on several commissions, sketching the designs and sewing them out. Tim had been shocked by how many different types of fabric the bluenette had in her closet. Chloe and Adrien had shot him a look that said “get used to it”.

Tim was pleasantly that no one had disturbed him while he was doing his work. they had all done their own work respectively, and even when they were done, like Chloe and Adrien, they had kept quiet and didn’t make any noise to disrupt Tim and Marinette, apart form their whispered chatter.

In Gotham, Tim would almost always be interrupted by rogue attacks or his brothers and father. It made it almost impossible to finish his work on time, and resulted in many overtimes and no sleep.

Marinette’s parents, a happy baker couple who’d persuaded Tim to call him Tom and Sabine instead of Mr and Mrs Dupain Cheng, had stocked them up with a steady supply of pastries and amazing coffee. It was probably expected, they did own a bakery after all.

Tim swore that the Dupain Chengs’ pastries could rival Alfred’s.

While Tim was looking at Marinette work, he was taken aback by her efficiency and quality of her sewing. Normally, one jacket would take a day to make, including handmade embroidery. Marinette had done it within two hours from scratch.

Tim was tempted to commission her, but it seemed that her plate was already full, so he didn’t. Either way, he had come to meet with Gabriel Agreste and possibly MDC.

When they were all done with their work, after spending practically the whole day in Marinette’s room from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening, they decided to go get dinner.

Tom and Sabine bid them goodbye heartily before turning to their customers and pulling a tray out of the oven.

Tim had met Chloe and Adrien’s significant others. A rather cold girl named Kagami, and chill looking boy named Luka. (Tim thought that Kagami and Chloe, and Luka and Adrien suited each other and balanced out perfectly.)

Originally, Tim had thought that Luka was dating Marinette. After Luka had hugged Adrien, he had turned to Marinette and called her ‘his Melody’. It didn’t help that she called him ‘her Harmony’.

Tim totally did not feel jealous.

But then Marinette groaned and nudged Tim in the ribs. “I guess we’re fifth wheeling.”

“Aren’t you dating Luka?” He pointed to the green haired boy.

Chloe and Adrien clutched their stomachs, laughing, while Kagami and Luka smiled. “Nope. Mari-hime is single.’’ Tim swore the fencer stared into his soul.

Tim was not afraid to admit that Kagami scared him more than the Joker did. Okay, maybe the Joker was a far stretch. Killer Croc or Two-Face maybe.

Luka leaned down and gave Adrien a peck on the lips. The model blushed and Luka grinned, exposing two slightly sharp canines, much like a snake’s.

It was currently mid November, so it was pretty cold. But Tim didn’t see why Mari was wearing a layer of heattech, a long-sleeved sweatshirt, a hoodie, and her winter coat, plus her hat, earmuffs and gloves.

She looked like a puffy marshmallow. A very pink, cute marshmallow.

Luka had shot him a ‘it’s better not to ask’ look and Tim wisely kept quiet.

They had a great time at dinner. Tim and Mari had an amazing time. Tim wasn’t entirely sure about the others, he was too busy paying attention to Mari.

The crinkle of her eyes when she smiled, the red flush from the cold dusting over her freckles lightly, the bluebell colour of her eyes.

He didn’t notice the ‘he’s so whipped’ looks from everyone else. Luka shrugged.

“Well who doesn’t like Melody once they meet her?”

Everyone else shrugged. “Fair point.” Chloe muttered, burying her head in the crook of Kagami’s neck.

Suddenly, screams broke out from nearby. Marinette immediately ceased talking and whipped around to face her friends. Tim looked very confused at her actions but looked worriedly to where the screams were coming from.

Suddenly, the floor rumbled and they all looked up to see baby August, who had been akumatised into Gigantitan again.

Marinette, Chloe, Adrien, Luka and Kagami immediately herded Tim back to Mari’s house, where they hastily climbed up the stairs to the loft.

“Tim, stay here.” Kagami ordered.

“What is this?” Tim couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s an akuma attack.” Chloe shrugged, looking not at all fazed.

Actually, Tim noticed, none of them looked fazed in the slightest.

“This is maybe August’s 7th time getting akumatised?” Luka said. “He’s relatively harmless though. It happens a lot.”

“Wait, where’s Marinette and Adrien?” Tim questioned, suddenly noticing that they were missing.

Kagami, Luka and Adrien exchanged a glance. “They’ll be fine.” Chloe waved offhandedly, logging into Marinette’s computer to turn on the live news from Nadja Chamack.

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news!” A pink haired lady was standing abnormally close to where Gigantitan was. Tim felt slightly worried for her.

“I’m Nadja Chamack, and we’re here at another akuma attack. It seems to be just baby August, however, so don’t worry. Ladybug and Chat will be here soon enough!”

Tim was appalled at the lengths this woman was seemingly willing to go to to get the scoop.

Noticing his expression, Luka smiled. “Don’t worry, Tim. She’ll be fine.”

“How do you know that?” If Tim let this happen, he was very sure that Bruce would murder him for a) getting that lady killed b) not helping. “I have to help!”

Chloe pushed him back into the chair where he was attempting to rise. “Sit down.” She ordered.

Tim didn’t want to, but he was interrupted by Nadja speaking again.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir are on the scene!” The camera view zoomed into a pigtailed girl in red and black spandex with a blonde boy in a leather catsuit. Tim vaguely wondered if he was Selina’s kid.

Tim’s eyes almost fell out of his head when he saw the two of them run up the side of the Eiffel Tower, with no grappling hook, no vault, nothing, before flipping off of it like a well oiled machine.

It was obvious that the two trusted each other to a deadly extent. They worked like two parts of a whole piece. 

August swatted Ladybug away with a wave of his hand, flinging her into the Eiffel Tower so hard it dented.

Panic seized Tim’s stomach when Nadja Chamack was trampled on by August, effectively crushing her. When August lifted his foot, Tim looked away.

Chloe, Kagami and Luka did not look fazed, and Tim wondered why, before standing up again. Chloe pushed him back down.

“She’ll be fine, relax. All of Paris have probably died at least, what, 9 times?” Kagami stated, crossing her arms. She levelled Tim with a steely glare and Tim cowered in his seat.

How did the League not know about this?

Suddenly, the person holding the camera cheered, as swarms of Ladybugs flew everywhere, fixing damages. Tim noted with relief that Nadja had reappeared in front of the camera, looking slightly confused but otherwise fine.

“I think I’m gonna throw up.” Tim staggered to the bathroom, and right when he was about to puke, two thuds landed behind him. Tim could see a green and pink light flash and he turned around to see what it was.

He was just in time to see Ladybug and Chat Noir detransform, leaving Adrien and Marinette, looking stunned.

That was it for Tim, he hurled.

And Marinette was there, brushing his hair out of his face and holding the back of his shirt so it wouldn’t get in the way. Adrien had edged out of the room, while an unfamiliar voice was chortling.

When Tim was done, he washed his mouth with shaky hands, and Marinette looked at him sympathetically and with a slight trace of fear. It was almost undetectable, but Tim had spent enough time with Cass to know when someone was scared, no matter how she tried to hide it.

Tim didn’t want Marinette to feel scared of him. He wanted her to feel safe around him. He shakily spun and engulfed her in his arms. Her body relaxed tremendously as she hugged him back.

He was taller than her by a only few inches, so Marinette’s head was comfortably buried in Tim’s chest. Tim was thankful that none of his vomit had gotten on his shirt.

“I like you, Mari. So, so much.” Tim confessed.

The bluenette he was holding wiggled in his arms, looking up at him with those beautiful eyes.

“I like you too, Tim.” Her quiet voice broke into Tim’s train of thoughts as he panicked.

“I know, you probably don’t like me back but-- wait, what? You like me too?” Tim knew his voice had cracked but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“I do.” Marinette confirmed, stepping on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

Tim’s face flushed and Mari giggled.

“Does that mean you wanna--?” Tim blushed even more.

“Yes.” Marinette was obviously enjoying the way Tim was suffering right now.

“So.. it’s official?” Tim asked hopefully, looping his hand with Marinette’s.

“It’s official.” She grinned.

Adrien had interrupted them at that point, and after Tim changed into one of Marinette’s designs, a black, long sleeved shirt with ladybugs at the side, she and Adrien had explained about the miraculouses.

Chloe, Kagami and Luka revealed that they were also miraculous holders, but they were temporary heroes, even if they got to keep the miraculous on hand.

Marinette and Adrien were joint Guardians of the Miraculous, and they were something called true holders. The Ladybug and Chat miraculous were two halves of a whole, Adrien had explained. He and Mari were also the only permanent miraculous users chosen by the previous guardian, while Chloe, Kagami and Luka were chosen by Marinette.

Tim was then introduced to the some of the kwamis (Pollen, Tikki, Plagg, Sass and Longg), who referred to Marinette and Adrien as Guardians.

Tikki referred to Marinette as Mari, Plagg referred to her as Pigtails. Tikki referred to Adrien as Adrien, and Plagg referred to him as ‘kid’. It didn’t take a genius to know who wore the pants in their relationship.

Then, Marinette and Tim’s newborn relationship was brought to light, and Tim was sufficiently scared from the shovel talks given by the Parisians, as well as the kwamis. Marinette had laughed at him, and he had pouted for the rest of the night.

“I wield the power of Destruction in my hands so if you hurt Pigtails, I’ll cataclysm you. I sank Atlantis, so don’t try me.” Plagg’d scornfully stated.

Marinette had berated him and told him that Plagg really needed to stop sounding so proud that he sunk Atlantis, while Tim went pale and was reminded of his secret.

“Uh. Guys? I have to tell you something.” Tim wrung his hands together nervously. “You know how in Gotham, there are vigilantes?”

They nodded.

“I’m.. one of them? I’m Red Robin.” Tim squeaked.

There was silence, but then everyone, bar Marinette and Kagami burst into laughter.

“Only you, Melody, could create a love square with only two people and still somehow fall in love with a superhero.”

Mari flushed and Tim looked confused. “Who..?”

Everyone pointed to Adrien. He shrugged.

“M’Lady and I are soulmates.” He winked, intertwining his and Marinette’s hands.

“But we’re platonic soulmates.” Adrien dramatically let go of Marinettte’s hand. “Adrien had a crush on Ladybug. Marinette had a crush on Adrien.” He explained further.

Realisation dawned on Tim and he fell back into Marinette’s lap as she groaned at the way Adrien worded it.

“You suck.” She deadpanned.

Adrien had the gall to grin at her. “I’m also the one you share a soul with.”

She rolled her eyes.

Everyone had a nice laugh, but they all fell asleep rather quickly. It had been an emotionally and physically exhausting day for all of them.

The next day was Tim’d meeting with Gabriel Agreste. Tim wasn’t sure if the others knew he was Bruce Wayne’s son, but he figured if they didn’t he may as well surprise them.

So Tim left a note for them, and left 15 minutes prior to the meeting at 9, leaving the his friends in Marinette’s room.

hey guys, i have a business meeting at 9. i’ll come back as soon as i’m done, which will be 10? latest. i’ll probably be back before you guys wake up. i hope i will. bye for now. see u mari <3 love, tim.

His friends. Tim’s heart warmed. This was the first time he had made friends that weren’t his family, or superhero buddies.

Tim arrived at Agreste Manor at 9 on the dot, ringing the doorbell.  An electronic camera shot out from the wall and Tim jumped.

The person behind the camera opened the gate, and a buff man escorted him into the Manor, where Gabriel was waiting.

He was standing at the top of the steps, looking down at Tim. He inclined his head, and Tim followed the elder Agreste into his office.

The meeting went faster than expected. Tim had been expecting Gabriel to persuade him, but he had let Tim go. Instead of the half an hour meeting Tim was expecting,it was only twenty minutes.

Gabriel had offered a partnership with the Waynes in which he’d design for them, and they’d sponsor him. Tim had politely declined, and Gabriel looked slightly put out, waving to the buff man to escort him out.

Adrien had walked into the manor as soon as Tim reached the center of the room. Adrien stopped short.

“Tim? What are you doing here?”

Tim pointed to behind him, where Gabriel’s office was. “Business meeting.” He repeated, and waited for Adrien to connect the dots.

His eyes widened. “You’re Timothy Drake? CEO of Wayne Enterprises?”

Tim nodded. Adrien’s eyes widened before he smirked. “Have you told Mari?”

“I was gonna tell her today.”

“Nah, she has a meeting at like 2, with a client.”  

Tim frowned, but then shrugged. “I’ll tell her before.” He decided. “I have a meeting at 2 too.”

Adrien nodded and smiled. “Treat her right.” He said, before entering his room.

Tim smiled, even after Adrien was out of sight. “I will.”

-

Tim had a few hours before his meeting with MDC. He made his way back to the bakery, where he was greeted with a peck on the cheek by Marinette.

“Chloe went back to the hotel, Harmony and Gami have school, and Adrien had to go home.” She beamed. So cute.

Marinette and Tim spent the few hours eating lunch in Mari’s room and watching Netflix, judging the shipping potential between the Brooklyn Nine Nine characters.

They had agreed that Teddy was boring and annoying, Jake and Amy were a power couple, and Rosa was a badass .

Marinette really liked Gina, Tim preferred Holt.

Soon, it was time for the meeting. Tim and Mari both had to go back to Le Grande Paris, so they opted to walk there together.

“Who are you meeting?” Tim asked curiously.

“Some CEO named Timothy Drake.” She replied.

Tim stopped. He turned to Marinette.

“Timothy Drake.” He repeated. Marinette gave him an odd look. “Do you know him?” She asked.

“You’re MDC?” Tim’s voice came out strangled and Marinette looked taken aback.

Understanding dawned on her and she stared at Tim. “You’re Timothy Drake?”

He only nodded.

They stared at each other for a minute but then burst out into laughter, causing a nearby mother on the phone to shoot them a nasty look.

After the initial shock wore off, the two had continued to the hotel. They were on the way, anyway, and they could always either visit Chloe or stay in Tim’s suite.

Marinette giggled as she worked, deftly taking Tim’s measurements.

“Normally this takes forever,” Tim remarked, peering over Marinette’s shoulder and watching in awe as she drew out the design for his suit.

Within minutes, it was done. Tim was amazed by it. It was a simple suit, but the colours she encorporated into it as well as the designs made Tim extremely happy. It managed to capture his essence, and look stylish at the same time.

She’d even drawn a design for the tie! (instead of blue, it’s red)

After about three hours of Marinette working in Tim’s suite (she had gone home and gotten the fabrics and used the sewing machine she always leaves in Chloe’s room), as well as Tim finishing his remaining paperwork for WE, the suit was done. Tim was awed by it.

The suit jacket was a nice, velvety maroon colour that was reminiscent of Tim’s Red Robin suit and Marinette’s Ladybug suit. The inside was a black colour, as another tribute to the colour schemes of Tim and Mari’s secret life.

The tie was the same deep red colour of the suit. What Tim loved the most about it, however, were the tiny coffee cups sewn on it. “A personal touch.” Marinette had said.

There was also the letter T embroidered on the back of the tie and the lapel of the suit right next to the MDC emblems.

“What do you think?” Marinette asked nervously.

“I love it!” Tim lifted Marinette up by the waist, spinning her in the air. She laughed with joy and he put her down but still in his arms.

He cupped his cheek and Marinette’s hand wrapped around his neck. Simultaneously, they leaned in and their lips met in a chaste kiss.

Marinette ran her free hand through Tim’s hair as Tim’s free hand pulled her closer to him by the waist.

Suddenly, the door burst open and they jumped apart. 

It was Chloe, smirking wildly, her phone camera raised.

It didn’t take a genius to know what happened next.

Mari and Tim chased Chloe around the hotel to get her to delete the photo. Chloe crowed loudly that she was going to send the photo to Adrien, Luka and Kagami.

(Mari and Tim did catch her but Chloe had already sent the text.)

The six friends had a buttload of fun the next few days. Occasionally incorporating their work into the mix, Tim had never been so on time to hand in his paperwork.

On Saturday, a few hours before Tim was supposed to go to the airport to get on the Wayne private jet, the six were in Chloe’s room. 

The only sound that could be heard was the faint chatter between Chloe and Kagami who were talking together, the soft strums of Luka on his guitar and Adrien next to him constantly dying while playing Subway Surfers and him raging not-so-quietly. Tim’s head was leaning on two pillows in Marinette’s lap, typing on his laptop which was propped up on his lap while Mari’s pencils scratched against the paper in her sketchbook.

It wasn’t exactly silence, but it was peaceful. An almost silence, if you would.

Until a phone blared to life. 

Everyone jumped as the shrill sound of Tim’s ringtone pierced through the peaceful almost silence.

Tim cringed. “Sorry!” He called. 

He swiped the accept button without looking to see who it was, mildly pissed off.

“What?” He snapped into the phone.

“TIMMY!” A familiar voice burst out. Marinette jumped and dropped her sketchbook on Tim’s face, glaring at the phone. Tim pulled the phone away from his ear, and put a finger to his mouth before pushing the speaker button.

“Tim? You okay?”

“Apart from you bursting my eardrums, I’m fine. What do you want, Jason?” Tim answered dryly. He wasn’t sure if his irritation could be heard through the phone but Jason picked it up.

“Not very nice to your favorite brother, now is it Timmy.” Tim could imagine Jason wagging a finger sarcastically in his face.

“Learned it from you, Jay. But seriously what do you want? I’m kinda busy.”

“You may wanna put your coffee cup down for this.” 

Tim sighed and placed it on the floor.

“Now what?”

A bang was heard from outside and all of them, bar Tim and Mari (Tim was way too lazy to get out of Marinette’s comfortable lap, and she couldn’t get up with him in her lap) rushed to the door to see what was happening. 

Some people had burst into Tim’s room across the hall.

Three guesses who.

“What are you doing, dumbasses?” Chloe’s exasperated voice rung out.

A man with a white tuft in hair was standing in the doorway turned around, phone in hand. He hung up on the call promptly.

“We were looking for our brother, Tim. The receptionist said he was in this room. Have you seen him?” An older man walked out of Tim’s room, with several others hot on his heels. 

The shortest one was dark-haired and had green eyes, the other was a girl with chopped dark hair, an arm wrapped around a taller blonde girl’s waist. There was also a redhead in a wheelchair. The other two there were males, one was an near bald elderly, the other had blue eyes and dark hair and was rather tall.

That was six of them, Chloe noted. She and the others exchanged a look, debating whether or not to let them see Tim. After all, they could be lying and were kidnappers or something.

They obviously noticed the look. The tall one with blue eyes spoke. “You know him! Where is he? Did you kidnap him?”

Adrien choked trying to hold in his laughter. Luka patted him on the back calmly.

A tsk came from the inside of the room. Chloe looked back. Tim shrugged. It was her room, after all.

Chloe bit her lip, looking torn between letting them in or kicking them out. She looked to Kagami for help, and she nodded, but then inclined her head toward Chloe. Basically, ‘I think you should, Tim seems to know them. But he may not want to see them. Your call. Your room.’

The guy with the white tuft looked ready to barge in the room.

Chloe huffed and opened the door wider. She and the other stalked back to their seats with the echoing sound of ‘ridiculous, utterly ridiculous’. Everyone outside exchanged looks, and entered.

They were not expecting to see Tim in a girl’s lap, that was for sure.

Instead of the greeting they were expecting, Tim merely turned his head to look at them before huffing and returning his gaze to his laptop screen.

Marinette laid a hand protectively on Tim’s head and started running her fingers through his hair. 

If they weren’t shocked before, they definitely were now. Their eyes practically bugged out of their head at the sight.

“Replacement?” Jason cautiously asked. 

Tim huffed, much like Chloe, and Marinette ceased her ministrations. Tim whined, but Marinette levelled a glare at him and he sat up.

Marinette muttered softly, “I can see why your self confidence is so low.”

“Nah, Jason’s one of the nicer ones. It’s teasing.” Tim assured her. The girl only pouted and fell back into her seat, picking up Tim’s laptop to read what he was working on before Tim’s family rudely barged in.

Jason looked slightly touched.

Tim sighed and crossed his arms. “What are you guys doing here?” Chloe, Adrien, Kagami and Luka slowly inched around Mari and Tim. This did not go unnoticed by the Waynes.

“We came to visit you, Timbo!” The tall one said.

Tim pinched his nose. “That’s Dick. Barbara. Cassandra. Stephanie. Alfred. Bruce. Damian. Jason.” Tim pointed to each of them in turn. 

Luka spoke up. “I’m Luka. That’s Adrien, Chloe, Kagami and Marinette.” Marinette shifted when her name was called, exposing the laptop screen to the Waynes. Their eyes widened when they saw the bold letters ‘Murders and Muggings: Patrol Recap’. 

Dick coughed into his hand, jerking his head towards the computer. Tim rolled his eyes at Dick’s attempt at being subtle.

Jason and Stephanie snickered. Dick looked offended. 

Dropping all pretence out the window, Tim deadpanned. “They know my secret. Didn’t tell them about yours, though they’ve probably figured it out already.”

“You should’ve told us beforehand, Timothy!” Bruce looked like he was a second away from yelling. A steely glare from Kagami stopped him from doing just that. Cass looked at her in approval.

Marinette bristled at Bruce’s tone, but did not move from her seat. This wasn’t her battle to fight-- it was Tim’s.

Bruce pinched the end of his nose. “I’m disappointed in you, Timothy.” 

Despite knowing Bruce was going to say that, Tim winced. Jason looked pissed and opened his mouth to say something, but someone else beat him to it.

“How dare you.” Marinette’s quiet voice shook with fury as she stood up. Tim squeezed her hand and let go. Adrien, Luka, Kagami and Tim instantly surrounded Tim, forming a protective circle around him.

“How dare you. Tim is the most wonderful person I know. Other from the idiot I share a soul with, my Harmony, my Dragon and Queenie, he is the only person who is genuinely kind and caring. He is the sweetest person I know and if you think you can step into our turf and belittle my boyfriend, you have another thing coming.” Marinette snarled.

Adrien stood up, stepping forward to stand next to Marinette. “I’ve only known Tim for a few days, but he means a lot to all of us. Like Marinette said, you will not step into our turf and be rude to our friend.”

“You underestimate how much power we have here.” Kagami moved over to the other side of Marinette, eyes flashing. 

Chloe stood next to her. “I can very easily kick you out of this hotel, out of Paris, even. Tim is my friend, and we will not stand here and let you talk shit about how he disappointed you.”

Luka stood up, moving next to Adrien. “Like we said, Tim means a lot to us. You have no idea how much he does for all of you. He deals with your stupid company paperwork, even though he’s only 16 and it should be your job. He spends more time helping you on patrol and fighting rogues than paperwork but you scold him because he can’t finish as much as you’d like?”

Marinette’s normally warm blue eyes that were so full of love were now completely devoid of emotion. “That isn’t parenting, Bruce. That’s toxic.” She spat out Bruce’s name with so much loathing and hate, that he unconsciously took a step back.

Tim was very touched. No one had ever done that for him before. No one had the guts to stand up to Bruce Wayne or Batman. His eyes watered and he hastily wiped them away.

Bruce’s eyes flashed, and he strode forward. “I think you underestimate my power.” He spread his arms. “I’m Bruce Wayne. I can kill your career in a heartbeat. I can make sure you are never hired by anyone, nor will you ever be able to make a name for yourself. I’ve almost died before. Damian and Jason have. We deal with things you guys can only dream of. Sure, your father may be the mayor of Paris, Chloe, but I can easily kick him off his position of power. Don’t fuck with us.” 

Marinette’s eyes flashed with surprise at Bruce’s declaration that Jason and Damian have died. Ignoring Bruce, she turned to Adrien, who was squinting at Damian. 

“Do you want to heal them of the Lazarus pits? We can, after all. We’re Creation and Destruction.” Marinette spoke in the Guardian language.

Adrien side eyed the Waynes and nodded. “Even if Bruce is a bitch, Jason and Damian don’t deserve to live like that.” 

Marinette and Adrien looked behind them, past Tim, to where the Kwamis were hiding. Plagg and Tikki nodded. After all, they could always wipe the Waynes’ memories if they weren’t willing to keep it a secret. The Waynes didn’t know what they were saying. Jason stifled a laugh when Adrien caled Bruce a bitch, but the Waynes instantly went on guard at the sound of Jason and Damian’s names (since their names can’t be translated).

Marinette and Adrien turned back to Tim and the others folded, closing the gap that they had left, so no one could lip read or learn from their body language what they were about to do.

Marinette and Adrien walked a few steps back, a few steps in front of Tim but a few steps behind the others. They smiled reassuringly at Tim. They weren’t going to hurt Jason or Damian. Tim nodded. He trusted them.

Tikki and Plagg zipped over to them and phased into their joined hands. Adrien and Marinette smiled to each other closing their eyes. They channelled the Guardian energy, Creation energy and Destruction energy. 

They lifted their raised hands, and as if on command, Chloe and Kagami stepped aside, allowing the green and pink swirling energy in their conjoined hands to shoot towards Jason and Damian. The beam split halfway, hitting both Jason and Damian.

They braced themselves for pain, but they didn’t feel anything. They looked around, and saw the energy. The green colour of it was one everyone instantly recognised as the Lazarus Pit madness.

They could do nothing but watch as more and more green colours was sucked out of Jason and Damian before swirling upwards and over their heads into a ball of green energy.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the green stopped escaping them, and Jason and Damian could feel an immediate relaxation of their feelings. It was like there was anger and negative emotions buried into a pit of their minds, but they didn’t notice that it was there until it was gone.

The green energy ball was now as as big as a bowling ball. It churned once, and started shrinking. Something was compressing it and forcing it into a smaller ball. With a sizzle, it split into two. A pink ball and a green ball, the sizes of an apple.

However, the green ball wasn’t the Lazarus color green. It was a warm green, the colour of emeralds. Despite that, within both the pink and green shell had a green ball, the toxic colour of the Lazarus pit inside. It swirled around in their respective prisons, but couldn’t break free.

The balls of energy slowly drifted towards where Marinette and Adrien were standing with serene looks on their faces.

The pink shell hovered in front of Marinette, while the green one hovered in front of Adrien. The pink and green encasing the Lazarus green broke apart, and the pink and green energy shells flew into their conjoined hands.

Marinette and Adrien opened their eyes. They weren’t eyes anymore, just glowing eye sockets. Marinette’s were pink, and Adrien’s were green. The same colour of the shells, the others realised.

Now what was left were the fizzling balls of the Lazarus pits, its toxic green giving off an eerie glow.

Marinette and Adrien held up their free palms, and the balls rested on their waiting hands.

They looked to each other and seemed to be communicating before the plunged the balls into their chests.

Their whole body glowed for a second before lifting the two up in the air. The Waynes, Luka, Kagami and Chloe jumped when they started talking.

“This hurts.” Marinette admitted. Her face did not show any kind of discomfort. Adrien grinned. “Yeah, it does.” His didn’t either.

They shared a laugh before the green and pink faded, and the two plummeted onto the carpeted floor. Just before they hit it, the green and pink glowed softly again, allowing the two to land gently on the floor, feet first.

The light faded completely and Marinette and Adrien collasped in the chaise behind them, unclasping their hands and panting slightly. Plagg and Tikki zoomed out of their hands as soon as they separated and didn’t even bother hiding.

They plopped themselves on their chosens’ heads and all four of them began to nap.

“Did they..?” Dick uttered in disbelief.

Jason and Damian could only nod.

“Lazarus. Gone?” Cass pressed.

They nodded again.

“Forever?” Bruce croaked.

“Yep.” Marinette’s exhausted voice came from the chaise. Everyone spun to look at her. Chloe ran to her room’s kitchen, bringing out some honey, cookies, camembert, chocolate and eggs.

The active kwamis zoomed out form their hiding spot and got to work on their food. Marinette tiredly pushed herself to her feet, stumbling. Tim caught her. Marinette smiled gratefully at him, and gently scooped Tikki off her head. She reached over and got Plagg too. 

She nudged Tikki with her finger and placed her next to the cookies. She didn’t bother to wake Plagg up; he’d wake up as soon as he smelt camembert. She placed him down, next to Tikki and they woke up, lazily nibbling on their foods.

Mari let out a breathy sigh and swayed on her feet. She curled up next to Adrien and started to snore.

Dick frowned. If she was dating Tim, why was she so cozy with Adrien?

He moved to wake them up.

Suddenly, he stiffened and fell to the floor.

Pollen stood behind them, antennae still poised after stinging Dick. “No one wake the Guardians up.”

Muffled protests from Dick on the ground.

“They share a soul, Dick, being next to each other recharged them faster.” Tim explained.

“They what now?”

-

well yes thats it. 

i kinda got sloppy at the end because i spent almost 8 hours on this, and its only 8k words. im kinda proud of it though lol

no there will probably not be a part two, although i may upload this on ao3

anyway i hope you liked this !! <3

[pedropascalssimp]

{Innocent}

a mandalorian fanfiction.

Din djarin x reader

Summary: y/n has had a bounty placed on her head ever since she was a young child and has sworn to never tell anyone why. she lives on a small planet with her father who tries his hardest to protect her from bounty hunters. But one day he isn't there to protect her.

Warnings: language maybe and bad spelling because I'm a tard.

A/N: I made up a planet because I felt EXTRA creative. And also, the villagers in this fanfic (including y/n) speak alien language so when words are put like this its them speaking a different language....so enjoy my fellow mando lovers.

Part two here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moon was shining bright in the sky of esor as the Stars in the galaxy twinkle beautifully. The town's people all gathered around in the sandy area as a bonfire made the hut like homes around glow in a red/orange light. Happy joyous laughter being the only sound around other than the tune of a flute as people danced laughed and celebrated the marriage of a young couple. Everyone was happy, elated. All except one young child, around the age 4years old. She watched the people cheer, dance, sing. As her little mind drifts to the whereabouts of her father. He left in the early morning hours, before the sun had made its appearance in the sky. For the mission he has sworn to never fail, protecting his heart and soul, her, his little y/n.

She was innocent, loving and kindhearted. He knew this from the moment she was birthed into this universe. Her y/e/c eyes holding this look of nothing but sweet kindness, her little laugh as innocent as ever. But she was also brave, always asking her father if she could join him on his missions, which also lead him to figure out shes stubborn as hell. But he refused, her innocence should never have to see the blood and gore her father has seen. The horrible sight of him slaughtering filthy creatures, pure monsters who dare utter the words of their plans to kill his little angel for money. That's why he leaves her daily to try and rid the galaxy of scum bags like them. Leaving her in the caring hands of his wife's friend samira, A girl in her mid-twenties. But when the stars are out he comes home, always.

With a small smile and relief, the little girl with a y/h/c bread spots the landing ship that belongs to her father. She smiles brightly and runs to her and his little hut. The candle light not giving the room much light, but enough to see. She giggles as she throws herself on the small bed and waits for him. Her eyes shining brightly as she waits for the story he will tell this time. It doesn't take but 10minutes for the the man clad in the grey shining beskar armor walks through the huts little wooden door. His helmet preventing the little girl to see the happy smile on his face, Bruises and small cuts litter his face.

The mandalorian man walks further into the room, gently sitting on the bed as he takes his glove off to take ahold of his childs hand. She smiles at him and looks over beside her, a little black piece of cloth. He chuckles and watches as she puts it over her eyes, looking up at him blindly as all she saw now was darkness. The mandalorian gently brings his hands up to both sides of his helmet and takes it off as it hisses.

Upon hearing the familiar hiss she lifts her hand up to feel her father's face, it was clean shaven and full of scars.

The small cuts making her worry but he was quick to stop her worries. " I'm okay, no need to worry y/n..." his voice gruffly yet soothing.

She nods her head as she sighs. " where did you go this time?! " her excitement evident in her voice making him laugh.

" I went to this place called coruscant, it wasn't that great of a place honestly " he tells her as her smile was now small, " but I did manage to bring you something back " he smiles, she grins and waits with her left hand outstretched. He chuckles and places the small knife in it. The handle was silver, while the blade itself was black with little red swirls in it. He had it specially made for her. She examines it carefully and blindly. Her small finger carefully touching the blade.

" what is it? " she asks softly. He scoots closer to her on the bed and takes it, laying it on the table beside her bed.

" it's a knife, to-to protect yourself for when I'm no longer around " he quietly said, Stuttering a little as the odd feeling of pain and worry seeps into his heart. " I know I just got back, and I'd love nothing more then to stay right here beside you " he says, voice dripping with the sadness he feels. He couldn't hide it, no matter how hard he tried.

" then why don't you? " the Tremble in her voice making his heart shatter. He sighs and holds her chubby little cheek in his hand.

" because theres someone out there who's really bad. He wants to hurt you....so I have to go and have a, " he paused, his y/e/c eyes looking ever every inch of her face. She looked just like his deceased wife, all except her eyes that was just like his. " have a discussion with him and I when i get back i promise you y/n that I won't be wearing this helmet " he chuckles at the gasp of excitement she let's out.

" and you won't ever leave again?! " she questions hopefully. He nods but remembers she can't see him and chuckles. " no, I won't leave no more. This will be the last time " he reassured her. She squeals in glee and throws her little arms around his neck and hugs him tightly. He wraps his arms around her and holds her. The thought of this possibly being the last time he will ever see her again running through his mind........

later that night after she fell asleep he had given her the necklace he wore, the necklace that was given to him by the guild, the mandalorians.

Years later

Y/n was seated on a rock just outside her home, whittling on a small stick she found on the ground. Her y/h/c hair a mess from lack of brushing it. She was now in her early twenties and still had hope that someday her father would return, walking out of that ship of his without his helmet. Although she didn't know who'd she see considering the girl has never seen the man. She would often sit outside every single night and wait, looking up at the stars hoping to see him. But she was always met with the same fate of seeing nothing. Absolutely nothing.

As she got older the more her anger at this stupid little planet grew, it was nearly deserted. Not even smugglers on the loose knew it existed. All she wanted was for someone to land so she could take their ship and search the galaxy for the only family and friend she had. But deep down inside she knew she'd never find him. She could feel it, that he was gone. But she refused to believe it.

" y/n! Y/n! " the girls head whips around upon someone yelling her name. Her whittling coming to a halt. She looks up seeing samira, her dark locks cascading down her shoulders as her aged face holds that of worry and hope.

Y/n stands up and looks at the older woman with confusion. " what's wrong!? " she asks, voice low, soft and gentle as always. the girl has never raised her voice at anyone no matter what the situation. Most believe it to be impossible for the kindhearted girl who didn't have a mean bone in her body.

" a ship, its landed here! I've heard it's a mandalorian y/n! " samira says, trying to catch her breath from running all this way. Y/n's eyes widen and for the first time in years she feels her heart beat with excitement. Could it actually be him?. The thought kept repeating itself in her head. Without even responding to her former caretaker she runs, fast. Running in the direction of which samira came from. Bumping into people on her way to the other side of the little village.

And that's when she saw a unfamiliar ship. It was a rezar crest, after years of living in this small planet she had read many scrolls of mostly everything in the galaxy, ship models as well. She stops her running and sees the few more muscular men of the village gathered around a mandalorian. His worn and scarred beskar armor shining in the hot suns of esor as he holds up a blaster at the men. Y/n slowly makes her way toward the man, still holding on to hope that its the man she's been waiting for.

Once she was stood with the villagers and Mandalorian she sighs deeply. She knew just by the looks of his armor it wasn't him, it wasn't her father. But she still pushed past the men and looks at him. His head now turning towards her and speaking.

" look, I have no idea-"

" shut up! And drop the blaster! " one of the villager men growls, holding his staff up towards the mandalorian. The villager speaking in his native language.

Y/n looks at the armored man, " I'm assuming you don't speak our language? " y/n asks in her gentle caring tone. The man huffs.

" I've only been saying that the moment I had a staff shoved in my face! " the mandalorian retorted. Y/n smiles a small amused smile.

" drop your weapons " and so they did, following the young girls orders. She stands to be in front of the mandalorian now as she smiles at him, hand outstretched for a handshake. He looks at her and holsters his blaster ignoring her handshake. She drops her hand back at her side with a little sigh, and slightly pink cheeks.

" why are you here? " she asks, he only stares at her for a moment before responding. " I need fuel for my ship, food. " he tells her. She nods and looks back at the villagers.

" he's no threat, not now at least. Treat him nicely to keep peace in our village please. " y/n spoke in her native tongue as she smiles a small smile at the man. " follow me. " she said, and began walking towards the little huts littering in the middle of the place up ahead. He turns back to his ship, walking up the open ramp and scooping the little bundle of blankets in his arms. The girl watches in confusion until the mandalorian steps beside her. And in that moment she swore she could absolutely never love something as much as the cooing green little creature with big eyes staring right back at her, her heart melting at the adorable sight.

" oh, my maker! He's adorable! " she smiles brightly at the child. He scoffs. " yeah, that and annoying. " he responds. The girl gaped up at the man as the words left his mouth and straight out of his voice modulator his helmet held.

" how could something so small and innocent be annoying? " she questions, and the tiny little hands of the child are reaching for y/n with a cute smile. " can I hold him?! " she asks enthusiastically, the bright look in her eyes making the mandalorian chuckle.

" sure " he says and hands over the child with big ears. The girl holds him so gently as he smiles up at her, her grin grows as his small little hands touch her face. The mandalorian just watches as the two interact, a secret little smile on his face.

" what's his name? " she asks the mysterious man. He shrugs making her look back down at the baby. But his modulated voice was heard again, " i just call him the child...womp rat." The girl looks at him with a small glare.

" how dare you call him such a thing." She muttered while tickling the green child. His little laugh nearly making her heart burst.

" where is this fuel at you promised again?" He interrupts the affectionate little moment for the two as she looks back up at him.

" oh, right. This way! " she chirps beginning the walk once more towards her hut. The mandalorian followed less chirpy then she. After a few minutes they arrived at the said hut, they all three entered and she sits the child down at her little table immediately fixing the child some food, knowing the mandalorian wouldn't eat if she made him some.

" the fuels here? " he questions, sceptical about the girl that stood before him, cooking what looked to be some sort of soup.

She smiles at him kindly and nods, " yes, of course though its outside behind my home. " she tells him as her focus was on her cooking, and her mind drifting to way she kept such a stash of fuel. He nods and watches her as he leans against the wall with crossed arms. His guard up for incase something goes south like always for the bounty hunter.

But something was telling the mandalorian that this girl wasn't a threat, she was too nice, too innocent. He couldn't imagine the girl before him ever hurting anyone.

The time ticked by as the soup she made was down and the green child eat it all In nearly three seconds. She watched amused as the mandalorian was sporting a grin at the little creatures antics.

" he must have been starving." laughed the girl, the big eyes of the baby looks at her sheepishly.

" I hope you're people or...friends or whatever doesn't mind us staying her for a few days..." the mandalorian spoke, y/n looks up at him.

" not at all, the people here on this planet was hostile at first because we never see new people land here. This is a uncharted planet not many know of it. " the girl explained, her y/e/c eyes sparkling in the orange like glow the sitting sun casts. The mandalorian in that moment thought that this girl here in front of him was undeniably beautiful, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen in the galaxy. But he tries hard to shake that thought out of his head, he's a mandalorian, a bounty hunter he doesn't need to think such things about a stranger. He's just here for fuel, food and a high paying bounty...nothing more, nothing less.

Time skip, four days later.....

It's taken longer for the mandalorian to find the bounty on this planet, no one fit the description of the person he's looking for and its frustrating him. He didn't want to spend a lot of time in this dump but he's sadly struggling here, he's tempted to just leave. But the mere thought of leaving somewhat....makes him feel weird. He didn't know quite why, but he thinks it has to do with the girl y/n he has befriended. She was sweet and took care of him while he stayed here. She offered him her home to stay In along with the child he swore to protect. She was beautiful, inside and out.

The mandalorian stands outside leaning against the hut he has been staying in. Watching as the green child play with the small children of the village. Y/n playing with them as they laughed and giggled, the smile on her face making his heart flutter. Wait-no, no, no, no-

" watcha thinking about mando! " the man jumps and his gloved hand is on his blaster in a matter of seconds, but his quick to calm down upon realizing it's just y/n standing beside him now. She was fast and quiet.

" nothing..." he says smoothly, his voice somehow always making the young girls heart beat faster, it always made her feel this since of safety. She couldn't help but think what it would sound like without the helmet....

Y/n crosses her arms and leans on the wall like him, now she watched the children play as well, a smile tugging at her lips, " then why so jumpy? " she innocently asks, his head tilting slightly as he looks down at her.

" you're fast, quiet, sneaky. " he tells her, a small smile tugging at his lips behind his helmet. She giggles and can't help but stare at the man. Although he was hiding behind all that beskar, she couldn't help but feel attracted to the man. He was captivating, kind hearted. It confused her as to how someone like him, a bounty hunter could be so nice.

" so I've been told." She smiles that heart stopping smile of hers. The mandalorian let's out a chuckle, " but you didn't answer my question..." she adds softly, her eyes shining like crystals, their sparkle capturing the masked man in a trance.

He shrugs and turns his gaze back to the child, watching how it plays with the others, " I was sent here for a bounty....but I haven't found them yet, " he said, why he was telling her he didn't know, he just felt like he should. He wasn't one for explaining his line of work to people, especially someone who he only has known for a nearly a week.

Her eyes shift from joy to something he can't quite place when his own flick back to her. He cocks his head to the side as her smile filters and her face falls.

" a bounty?, why would someone with a bounty be on this planet....it is peaceful and kind. No one here has done anything wrong.... " she tells him, earning her a grunt in response. She sighs and wipes her sweaty palms on her torn and wore out dress, " I most go and see what I should cook for the child." She rushed away leaving the mandalorian confused.

The beautiful girl had a point, everyone on this planet seemed innocent and good hearted, said they was programmed to only know peace and kindness, as if they didn't know the gore and evil that lived in the galaxy, the killing and thieving....the Esoriens was innocent peaceful people.

So why would they're be a bounty here?.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Screaming, that's what woke the mandalorian from his sleep. He was quick to put his armor on, grabbing his blaster and searching the small hut y/n let him stay in until the bounty was found, he searched for the child. The worry of someone capturing the little creature mak8his blood run cold, but his worries washed away when he saw its wide dark eyes looking up at him as it sit by the window in the living area of the hut. Its grown and worries filled noises making the mandalorian confused, until finally his brain was unfogged from his sleep and he realized that the screams outside was y/n....

His heart dropped as he ran outside, his eyes searching for her, his y/n...his blood felt cold, mind racing with fearful thoughts. Until finally he found her, struggling against a rather tall and muscular man, a bounty hunter the mandalorian knew of. He held her in a chokehold with a wicked smirk.

Y/n struggled against his hold, her y/e/c eyes now locked on the beskar clad man, holding his blaster at hostile bounty hunter.

" let her go! " his modulator rang out the village, deeper then usual, a sign that he was angry.

The man holding y/n scoffs, " why, I'd be a fool to let 100,00 units go." He growled out, his hold tightening on the girl, making the mandalorian grip his blaster and walk closer to the man.

" I said let her go, she's not the one with the bounty on her head! " mando said with venom, not even the modulator could mask that.

" you call yourself a bounty hunter? " the man laughs, the sound making the mandalorian confused, why would this scum think y/n was the bounty he spent weeks looking for?....unless-

Y/n's scream broke the mandalorian from his confused state of mind, the man holding her firing his blaster into a villager who tried to attack the hostile bounty hunter....it was samira.

The mandalorian didn't hesitate to shoot the man between the eyes with his blaster, the villagers all astonished. Thankful they didn't have to kill the man themselves.

" No!, No! " y/n yelled in agony as she fell to the ground and crawled over to the only thing she had left in this galaxy, the only bit of familiar she had, " Samira! No!." She cries, her sobs as she held the old woman in her arms breaking the mandalorian's heart.

He slowly approaches the broken girl as he sets a gloved hand on her shoulder, her sobs the only thing heard aside the sniffles and small cries the other villagers.

" I'm sorry...." is all the man knew to say, his voice bringing the girl somewhat a bit of comfort.

Her sobbing soon came to a stop, the tears still falling from her eyes, " it should have been me...I-it should hav-" she was interrupted by a small cry, her own. The pain she felt from all those years ago where she faced the fact her father was gone coming out now....

The mandalorian crouched down, looking at the girl, his heart breaking for the girl who he would do anything for....

" I'm the bounty you have been looking for, " she muttered, her voice calm. " please mando....please just take me in, all I've done is get the people I love killed." Her eyes pleads him, her voice absolutely broken, cracking with emotion.

For what felt like the hundredth time that day, his heart dropped, breaking. His eyes stinging with tears. But he wouldn't let them fall, he wouldn't let anyone know that he was going soft for this angel in front of him, his bounty. He felt conflicted, torn apart. He didn't want to turn her in for units, she deserved better then to have her life cut short. But then his mind wondered to the child, he needed units to keep the child fed, to keep fuel so he could keep fleeing planet after planet to protect the innocent little life. Innocent, That's what he used to believe y/n was...until he heard just how many units she held above her head, not even the roughest most brutalist murders he has turned in has had that much units on them.

If it's true...then she wasn't as innocent as he thought, she could be a possible threat to the small life he protects....he looks at her, trying to convince himself that she's dangerous and a threat to the child, the child she takes such great care of-

No, she's dangerous and a threat and he needs the money.....

" get up and go bring me the fuel...after you give samira a burial and pay you're respects. " the mandalorian said while standing up, watching as y/n nods, her heartbroken eyes making a small amount of guilt already eat away at him.

But it was for the better, its what y/n wants, what she's always wanted. To finally be free from this planet full of painful memories and to finally keep her poeple safe from those who try desperately to end her life.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~to be continued~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright dudes, since my obsession with mr pascal has grown I made this bad boy. And I thought I'd make it a 3 parter. Plz let me know if you dudes like it🙃🖤

P.s I'm also slightly new to tumblr writing so.......I'm unfamiliar with all the tumblr stuff and things.

[arplis]

Arplis - News: Arlyns Warm (& Sort of Last-Minute DIYed) Holiday Reveal

Spoiler alert: This starts sad, but I promise a happy endingjust like your favorite Hallmark movie. Yes, its a post about decorating for Christmas, but its a bit of a journey (and your prize for sticking around is seven tips for a pretty holiday look without a ton of planningnext to a cash reward, what more could you want, hm?).

Before moving to LA, I had a long-standing Christmas tradition that involved a sleepover at my place with my twin nephews. Wed go buy a fresh tree, head to Target to pick out their yearly ornaments (and okay, I usually caved and bought them several when they couldnt pickauntie privilege), and settle in for the night with a big ol cheese pizza and tons of candy to decorate and watch holiday movies. When I left Florida, my absolute favorite weekend of the year stayed behind along with my family, and frankly, I didnt feel festive enough last year to decorate. Sure, I bought a tree and then proceeded to cry my way through placing all the memories from years past on it (like I said, no this whole post wont be one giant Joni Mitchell River-esque depressing monologue). But, its been almost two years, and I realized that it was time to start making some new traditions, starting with proper decorations to set the scene for the season.

By proper, I mean nothing more than something that actually brought me joy. In my last home, I didnt care even the tiniest bit about my Christmas aesthetic. Id throw around scraggly bows, dangle strange garlands in places that would inevitably fall off (left unfixed until January). While I appreciate a classic, kitschy look, this didnt make me happy. Looking back, it was a lot like the holiday aisle at Big Lots come December 26sparse, random and nowhere I wanted to be. BUT THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT. Guys, I really actually tried, and whoa, I love coming home. I get so jazzed to know Ill walk through that door after work to all the fairy lights on (thanks, timers) and all I need to do is light my pine-scented candles.

When I first discussed decorating and shooting my place for the blog, I told Emily I would take the more last-minute DIY angle for this story, except, ha, I should know myself better than to think Im a DIY person (have I talked about the unfinished dining chairs sitting in a corner of my master bedroom enough times for you to understand the stakes here?). Im more of an early minute buying personif we can all agree thats the opposite of last-minute DIY, but dont worry Emily, I pulled out a few stops even for me to salvage this story. Really, though, its an excuse to show you guys my living and dining rooms again, this time just festooned for Christmas using nearly everything Target, because those guys have affordable holiday decor on lock.

Aside from what I bought, there were a few things I planned on doing going into this: dried oranges for garland and ornaments, and the addition of real greenery to anything faux for a lusher more natural look, but more on that in just a bit when we get there. Lets start in the living room:

Creating a Christmas Couch With Simple Textile Swaps

Swapping out textiles seasonally always felt to me like the equivalent of womens magazines telling me when I was younger that Id be going from day to night far more often than I ever have (never). Who was really doing this? Sure, my mom would throw a random Christmas pillow on the sofa when I was younger, but a full swap was absolutely something Id NEVER consider doing. Except well, for the sake of this shoot, I did it, and guess what. IM OBSESSED WITH IT. Dont knock it til you try it.

I left one of my everyday pillows out because it played well with everything else, but Im half tempted to never actually switch them back. Im officially living the cozy life and DONT MAKE ME GO BACK. But seriously, seeing that Fa la la pillow and those little gold embroidered Christmas trees fill my heart with childlike wonder and joy and Im now a winter textiles swap person (once I figure out a more permanent solution than throwing my year-round pillows and blanket in the guest bedroom).

Neutral Tree + Homemade Goodies

The (Christmas-celebrating) world is divided into two subsects: those who take no issue with faux trees, and those that choose to torture themselves with a real evergreen. I am the latter. Every year, when it comes time to recycle this baby, I curse myself for the massacre of needles. But alas, I cant be stopped and I will always opt for a real tree. This is a noble fir that I picked up at Lowes and it has that gappy vibe everyone is into right now. I like how you can load up a branch front to back and things dangle so nicely, sparkling and dazzling in the twinkle lights.

As for the decor, this is actually the first year in a long time I went with white lights. Ive always been a colored-lights just throw crazy stuff up on the tree and call it a day girl (correction: let your small nephews throw crazy stuff up on the tree and call it a day). Someone once asked me if I changed my trees color motif every year and Im pretty sure I rudely laughed in their face before I realized they were serious. No. I am not that person. This is why this year, once I realized that oh wait, people will be seeing my home and I needed to try, I opted to go for something a little more neutral so I could build on it over time. I also had a box full of handmade and drawn ornaments from my nephews that I needed to be sure made it up on those branches (see the paper and crayon snowman, for example). Theres enough going on in my apartment that something a little more minimal didnt make me want to crawl out of my skin a week into the merriment.

Because I wanted some color, I thought to do what evidently everyone else on the internet also thought to do this year: dried oranges as ornaments. I definitely did not get the mailer that must have gone around to tell everyone this was the look of 2019, but regardless, I love it. Some string (in a white and red becauseChristmas), a bag of small oranges and a few hours to dry them out in the oven (Erin from Francois et Moi has a great tutorial here) and boom, I supplemented my tree for about$4. LAST-MINUTE DECORATING LIFE HACK. Put dried oranges on just about everything and you have an instant holiday lewk that feels warm, unpretentious, welcoming and a wee-bit British (i.e. all I ever want to feel).

Some of my favorite ornaments I scooped up this year with my nephews top of mind: the sloth, the fabric Santa, the clip-on glittery birds, and the ceramic turtle doves (I promptly forced my husband Charles to sit and listen to why I got those to represent our undying love). Oh goodness, and I cant move on before discussing that Cookies For Santa plate and milk jug. No, there are no children in my house, but when I saw it, I knew I needed to hoard it for the day that there are because every year my sister runs around trying to find something to put cookies and milk in and it always ends up being an awkward mini loaf pan or something and this feels like a pat yourself on the back for planning ahead moment that I wanted to put on display.

Mix Real + Faux

HOT TIP: Faux garland is so great for using year after year and traditionally, I used to think it looked very fake, but Target has some good stuff. I went with their faux white pine and berries strand here and over the archway and Im so happy with them. This one is 72, so, maybe dont be like me and instead measure before you figure out how much of something you need. I ended up with about 8 inches of bare mantel and had to guinea rig a solution. The left side there, by the candlesticks, is actually a piece of faux greenery also from Target in the same color/finish that I added to the end and BOOM, fixed.

Once I put the eucalyptus wreath on the door, however, I realized it was much cooler in tone than the garland and side by side, they looked a little jarring. My solution? Get some actual eucalyptus (I had some leftover from my Thanksgiving tablescape) and shove in pieces of it about every 6 inches or so. This accomplished two things for me: it married the color/style gap between the wreath and the garland, but it also brought some life to the faux-ness. (Again, this stuff is good, so it doesnt NEED it, it was just a visual preference for me).

Can we talk about the cutest stocking? Growing up in Florida, a land devoid of mantels and fireplaces for obvious reasons, we were not a stocking family. Every now and then, my mom might tie some to the stair banister, but they were never full of anything. Well folks, thats over. I live in LA now, a land with NON-FUNCTIONING fireplaces, but fireplaces nonetheless. LA is all about illusions after all, so as long as it looks like a fireplace, thats all that matters, right? Throw some fairy lights in, no problem (and maybe light some candlesI used these candlesticks from Targetif youre brave and attentive for that real fire feel). This knit guy with the poms is maybe my favorite thing I got this year but HEAVY (hence the nutcracker on top of the stocking holder for that oneI have a little cut-out in the molding that meant less stability, but itll probably be fine if you have a normal 90-degree angle on your mantel).

And, in one of my favorite last-minute moves to use up random leftovers of things, I took some ribbon I had bought for my gift wrap, tied a little piece into a bow and velcroed it to this art piece. Dressing up your artwork can be SO fun for holidays (remember Emilys googly eyes over that oil portrait?). Its so unexpected, costs basically nothing and will get everyones attention, I promise.

Sprinkle Christmas Cheer Throughout Other Vignettes

This whole post should be titled Never Underestimate the Holiday Styling Power of the Bottle Brush Tree because if you look closely enough, there is absolutely one in nearly every shot angle of my home. I threw some on my console table, on a side table, on my coffee table, on my TV standand just WAIT until you get to the dining room. Bottle brush tree galore! They are very affordable and if you dont mind glitter sprouting from nearly everywhere until the end of time, theyre almost all you need to fill in your home with some Christmas spirit outside of the big moments (tree, fireplace). Same goes for leftover ornaments, pieces of greenery (such as free scraps from the tree lot), and super budget-friendly figurines, like these reindeer that make me so happy.

That blonde wood bowl is VERY good guys, and I will absolutely be leaving it out year-round, but for now, it screamed FILL ME WITH JINGLE BELLS so I had to oblige. These are 2-inch bells and honestly just so dang fun. Put them in a vase or bowl but save a few to sprinkle throughout other vignettes (or on a gift!).

The last moment I threw together in this room was the bench by my window. I moved the rust-colored velvet cushion into the guest bedroom (which honestly, I treat like a storage unit, so I know this is not a universal solution) and draped my sheepskin pelt a little asymmetrically. I gotta say, Im quite proud that this placement was my first go at it. The less fussing you do sometimes, the more effortless things look. I over-ordered pillows for my sofa, but thank goodness, because they worked great on here. The green pillow with the poms is SO cute and you might not see it here, but it has these little wood beads at the base of the pom pom which makes it extra special.

Alright, lets move this party into the dining roomafter you.

Accentuate Your Architecture

Ever since I saw Ginnys garland-bedecked archway into her dining room, I dreamed of being able to do the same thing. So when I stepped foot into this apartment for the first time, I instantly knew it would fulfill my greenery-over-archway dreams. This is three pieces of faux garland, hung with some small nails I dug out of an IKEA art hanging kit. Because of my 100-year-old plastered and heavily textured walls, Command hooks simply laughed the THREE times I tried themin three different sizes and configurations (both the laughter and hook type). I finally gave up and went to get the hammer. Cant wait to patch those holes come January, trulythough worth it to me.

Implement a Big Holiday Moment (Thats Actually Really Easy)

Over on the console, I went for a sort of kind of holiday village. It was my initial vision to do a jam-packed Christmas village here, so I bought what felt like hundreds of trees and houses, and then I put them all down and the credenza ATE it. It was like starting with a pan full of fresh spinach and ending up with 2 tablespoons of cooked spinach. My dreams were dashed and I came up with plan B: mix in everyday things with some holiday feels and pretend it was your plan all along. Im actually very happy with it and dont think I havent sat at my dining table some mornings and nights just looking over here with a twinkle in my eye and sugar plums dancing in my head. When you boil it down, its really just three new vignettes: the two bottle brush trees + seasonal candle (above), a footed bowl with some leftover greenery and bottle brush trees (below) and ceramic houses with some fairy lights shoved up into them on top of books which were already there (photo after next). Oh, and some oranges from the grocery store because #theme.

My favorite thing about this whole scene is probably those beautiful wreaths hanging by velvet ribbon over the windows. I LOVE a wreath-over-window (or, as youll see, mirror) moment and two windows meant I had two chances to do it in this room. Quickly: Im very much obsessed with this wreath. It looks so high-end with the dangling brass bells and it matches the garland in the living room, so both spaces speak to each other.

Over on the bar, my vintage gilded mirror called for another ribbon-hung wreath, but I went for the faux cypress leaf version instead to keep things more minimal. The addition of some new brass barware (the Project 62 line looks really good, folks) and a few bottle brush trees and voila, my holiday bar.

When In Doubt, Keep It Simple (For Real)

When it came to what to do on my table, this was REALLY a last-minute DIY situation because I had no idea (which is typically the case with my table). The day before this shoot, Emily texted me that she had some leftover garland at her house from her shoot, and I could come grab some if I wanted. So grab it I did, not knowing what I planned on doing with it, but I ended up throwing it on the table just to think and when I finally came to, I realized it was exactly where it belonged. I pulled out my kitchen sheers because I do not have clippers (apartment living), trimmed it to size and pulled out some small, cheap glass votives I had in my cabinets already to make things moody. AND THEN, I had some extra oranges from my tree ornaments and I just scattered some throughout to connect both rooms visually.

But wait, theres more. At the last minute (okay, the night before), I wanted to give the room more of a casual party vibe and wanted a dessert set up, so I ran out to Ralphs with the intention of making something with the zero minutes I had left in my life to whip up a baked good and found a pre-made bundt cake instead. A simple glaze (though Im sure you could find one glazed already), some cranberries I rolled in sugar, and a smattering of fresh sage leaves is all I needed to fool Sara into thinking I had actually made this when she made it over to shoot. SEMI HOMEMADE TRICKERY.

I will most certainly be doing this again in the future, and if you do, as well, everyone will think youre a domestic goddess. Set out some cute appetizer or dessert plates (these from the Hearth & Home with Magnolia are super cute with festive sayings on them that are subtle but still fun), flatware and napkins, and with very little effort, you just became the hostess with the mostest time to actually blow dry your hair before people show up.

And thus ends my holiday dissertation. It started out bleak, but I promised it would end on a high note, and theres no higher note than being pulled together enough to maybe put some curls in your hair (at least for me).

I rounded up ALL the goods I got from Target below in a few groupings, and yes, at the end of the season, you might find this stuff is sold out either in-store or online, so for that Im SO sorry, but ALWAYS check your local stores because they restock or people make returns and you might just find what youre looking for. Oh, and for a few more exclusive tips, I wanted to share the story Ruemag.com featured of my home as well, so check that out if youre interested. Thanks for stopping by and the happiest of holidays and the merriest of Christmases to you all.

1. Wooden Ornaments Set of 3 | 2. 28 LED Battery Operated Wreath | 3. Lit Up House Ceramic Christmas Ornament | 4. 13 Lit Gold Metal and Capiz Star | 5. 3ct Glass Christmas Ornaments Set Birds | 6. 72 Faux White Pine Garland with Berry | 7. 8ct Glitter Pine Cone Ornament Set | 8. Green with White & Gold Wreath Gift Wrap Roll | 9. 40ct Shatter Resistant Veranda Ornament Set | 10. Fabric Santa White Ornament | 11. Embroidered Tree Skirt | 12. Ceramic Birds Ornament | 13. Sloth Ornament Ornament | 14. Artificial Cedar Stem w/ Pine Cones | 15. Cream w/ Black Swiss Dot Gift Wrap Roll | 16. Faux Leaf Ball Ornament | 17. Truck with Bottle Brush Tree Ornament | 18. Philips 300ct Incandescent Mini String Lights

1. Large Gold Glitter Christmas Tree | 2. Christmas Nutcracker Figurine Gold | 3. Knit Square Throw Pillow with Corner Poms | 4. Holiday Stocking Sour Cream Knot with Red Poms | 5. Milk & Cookies Stoneware Set | 6. Small Gold Glitter Christmas Tree | 7. Wooden Oval Bowl with Handles | 8. 2 16pc Jingle Bells Vase Filler | 9. Cream Faux Fur Oversized Throw Pillow | 10. Embroidered Trees Velvet Throw Pillow | 11. Holiday Stocking Green Stripe | 12. 3pc Taper Candle Holder Set | 13. Texture Faux Fur Throw Blanket | 14. 3pc Mini Deer Figurines | 15. 10 12pk Unscented Taper Candle Set | 16. 2pk Basic Stocking Holder | 17. Large Mercury Glass Christmas Tree | 18. Fa la la Velvet Oversize Lumbar | 19. Clear Glass Vase Large | 20. Channeled Faux Fur Throw Pillow | 21. 4pc Green Flocked Bottle Brush Trees | 22. Large Bottle Brush Tree | 23. Philips 50ct Battery Operated LED Dewdrop Lights | 24. Small Ceramic House

1. 24 Faux White Pine Wreath with Metal Bell | 2. Set of 4 Linen Napkins | 3. 3pc Bottlebrush Trees | 4. Stainless Steel Cocktail Strainer | 5. 4pc Bottle Brush Christmas Tree Set | 6. Stainless Steel Cocktail Stirrer Spoon | 7. Ceramic House Figurines | 8. 5pc Stainless Steel Kayden Silverware Set | 9. 4ct Seasonal Appetizer Plates | 10. Oblong Brass Footed Bowl Gold | 11. 4pk Napkin Set Green | 12. 18 Faux Cedar Wreath | 13. Dew Drop LED Lights w/ Copper Wire | 14. Bottle Brush Tree with Wood Stand | 15. 2.5oz Stainless Steel Double Jigger

***photography by Sara Ligorria-Tramp, design and styling by Arlyn Hernandez

The post Arlyns Warm (& Sort of Last-Minute DIYed) Holiday Reveal appeared first on Emily Henderson.

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Inspired by nature: the thrilling new science that could transform medicine | Laura Parker

The Long Read: Jeffrey Karp is at the forefront of a new generation of scientists using natures blueprints to make breakthrough medical technologies. Can bioinspiration help to solve some of humanitys most urgent problems?

In the summer of 2005, Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at Brigham and Womens Hospital( BWH) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was running late one night when he spotted a journal article on a colleagues desk. What caught his eye was not the text itself, but the full-page colour illustration of Spider-Man that accompanied it. Intrigued, Karp sat down and started reading.

The article detailed how a group of researchers had created a new synthetic material by simulating the properties of gecko feet whose tiny, hair-like pillars let the lizard to stick to and detach from apparently sheer surfaces with ease. Imagined utilizes for the material included gloves that would allow military personnel to climb up the sides of buildings, just like Spider-Man.

The wheels in my head started turning, Karp told me lately. His first thought was to use the material to create a new type of medical tape that could replace sutures and staples, which are able to injury sensitive tissue surrounding wounds. Karp was working alongside the world-renowned bioengineer Robert Langer at the time, analyse ways to create biodegradable materials that could seal meanders inside the human body. The videotape could even go a step further than sutures or surgical staples, he thought, and be used in particularly intricate surgical procedures for instance, tying together the small intestine during gastric bypass surgery.

The next morning, Karp stopped by Langers office and persuaded him that he had come up with the perfect notion to win a prestigious research award. But as he began his research, Karp found that it wasnt enough to simply rely on friction between the hair-like pillars to construct the videotape stick. That may be how geckos feet work, but he was going to need something much stronger if he hoped to bind human tissue inside the body.

When he tried coating the surface area of the videotape with a glue, Karp found that it oozed in between the pillars, like honey drizzled on to a hair brush. Next, he played around with the position of the pillars on the surface area of the tape, placing them closer together. That didnt run either when the pillars were too close together, there wasnt enough friction with the surface of the tissue. So he moved them apart again, and then tried coating each individual pillar with the glue, instead of simply brushing it over the top. Now, whenever the tissue came into contact with a pillar, it stuck in place. Ultimately, Karp had his solution.

It was a great example of a holistic approach to problem-solving, David Kaplan, chair of the biomedical engineering department at Tufts University in Massachusetts, told me. In 2008, MITs Technology Review magazine named Karp one of the top innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Karp, who is now 40 and operate his own lab at BWH, is what is known in the business as a bioinspirationalist a person who looks to nature for solutions to scientific problems. The gecko tape was Karps first bioinspired invention; these days he is regarded as a resulting figure in the field.( He often tells people that he owes his success to Spider-Man theres a large depicting of the Marvel superhero in his office, and he once wore a Spider-Man T-shirt during a TEDMed talk .) Karps current projects include surgical staples inspired by porcupine quills, which create smaller punctures in the scalp and prevent bacteria from entering meanders, and a new kind of surgical glue inspired by the sticky secretions of marine worms, which is strong enough to bind moving tissue inside major organs, such as the heart.

This last invention has helped to cement Karps reputation as a rising star in the world of bioengineering. Because he doesnt only invent cool stuff he turns his creations into actual products. When we look to solve problems, its not so we can publish papers and get pats on the back from the academic community, said Nick Sherman, a research technician at Karp Lab. Its more like, Is this work going to help patients? If not, how do we make it help them?

Earlier this year, Karps surgical glue began a human clinical trial in Paris. It is the first of Karps innovations to advance this far. Unlike other surgical glues on the market, his actively repels blood, making it ideal for sealing holes in blood vessels, intestinal tissue, even bone. It is also much sturdier, means that surgeons could use it to fix cardiac flaws without the necessity of achieving open heart surgery. This could wholly transform how we perform surgery, said Jean-Marc Alsac, the cardiovascular surgeon at the Hospital European Georges-Pompidou in Paris who is overseeing the trial.

Karp Lab, which opened in July 2007, is concealed behind a heavy white door on the third floor of an office building in Cambridge, near Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Inside, a stockpile of white lab coats hangs near the entryway, and beyond lies a jigsaw puzzle of heavy machinery, vials, tubings and jars, sanitising stations and discarded rubber gloves. Plenties of labs are doing what appears to be similar run but, genuinely, they are not in[ Karps] league, Arnold Caplan, a professor in government departments of biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, told me.

Every Wednesday at 8am, faculty fulfill in a large conference room to discuss notions. The lab employs around 25 staff, from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows, although its ethos is strictly non-hierarchical. One research trainee, Thomas Kuncewicz, joined Karp Lab merely over a year ago, before finishing his undergraduate degree, and is now resulting two projects. Everyones experience is different and thats what matters most here, he told me. Not some dumb pyramid scheme where we have to work our way up through the ranks. Lab employees are encouraged to email Karp whenever they have a question or idea. If you ever email him, within five minutes youll have a reply, Kuncewicz said. It can be 11 pm or 3am, and hell reply.( I have exchanged emails with Karp long past midnight. His average response time is about 10 minutes .)

Jeffrey Karp in his lab at BWH Photograph: Rick Friedman for the Guardian

The lab attracts the kind of budding scientist who wont turn up their snout at the occasional lab outing to the zoo or the aquarium. A couple of years ago, one of Karps students returned from a field trip with a handful of porcupine quills. At the time, Karp was in the middle of designing a new type of surgical staple, which are most often used in surgery to close sensitive wounds that cannot be sutured by hand. Karp appeared closely at the quills and noticed that each had multiple tiny barb on the end of its tip-off, like a serrated knife. He took a few quills and stuck them in his chin to test how much force-out would be required to puncture the scalp, and how much it would hurt.( Astonishingly little, he said afterwards .)

Over the next few months, Karp designed a surgical staple with serrated objectives, like the quills. He tested it on raw chicken and received it slid in easily, and created small, clean holes that caused virtually no damage to the surrounding tissue. The staples that are currently in use cause big punctures in surrounding tissue which allow more bacteria to enter the meander and cause infection. Karp Lab patented the staple and is working on get it to market. Karp believes that the invention could significantly reduce post-surgery complications, which are often caused by current surgical staples.

For Karp and others in his field, nature often holds the key to critical scientific and medical problems. This approach also devotes scientists free access to a vast number of solutions that have already benefitted from millions of years of trial-and-error testing. The appeal of bioinspiration, for Karp, lies in the idea that every living creature that exists today is here because it tackled a number of challenges. And those that havent have quickly become extinct, he said. In essence, “weve been” surrounded by answers. Evolution is genuinely the best problem-solver.

A distinct advantage of the bioinspiration route is that pre-existing answers are somewhat handed to us, Leif Ristroph, an assistant professor of mathematics at New York Universitys Courant Institute, told me. Of course we have to figure out the mechanisms behind the answer, and ascertain which components we care to mimic and which do not carry over to our problem of interest. The foliage as natures solar panel is a great instance: scientists have been trying to better understand photosynthesis for a long time, even well before we wanted to collect and store solar energy ourselves.

In recent decades, advances in technology, engineering, and robotics have attained it easier to observe nature and borrow from it with more accuracy than ever before. In the early 2000 s, Japan Railways Group, which operates the Shinkansen bullet train, asked one of its engineers, Eiji Nakatsu, to come up with a route to fix a longstanding problem. Whenever the train went through a narrow passageway at high speed, the atmospheric pressure created low-frequency waves that spread out from the tunnel and made vibrations in the air. These vibrations were so powerful that residents 400 metres away from the railway line wrote in to complain about the noise.

Karp has developed a new type of surgical staple inspired by porcupine quills. Photograph: Humpata/ Getty Images/ iStockphoto

Nakatsu, who is a keen birdwatcher, wondered if his weekend pastime might provide him with ideas for how to deal with sudden changes in air resistance. His intellect turned to the kingfisher, a bird whose long and flat nose allows it to dive from the air( low resistance) into water( high resistance ), with a minimal sum of disorder so as not to alert its prey. Nakatsu redesigned the snout of the Shinkansen 500 -Series, making it longer and flatter. The new design successfully reduced air pressure by 30%.

The story of Nakatsu and the Shinkansen is a favourite among advocates of bioinspiration. Many of the worlds top academic institutions Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, and Columbia now offer courses in bioinspired engineering, while organisations such as the World Biomimetic Foundation and the Biomimicry Institute have been established specifically to help spread the word by highlighting the work of companies who dabble in bioinspired design an electricity-free ventilation system modelled on termite mounds, for instance, or gale turbines with aerodynamic bumps similar to those found on a humpback whales flippers.

Still, even those who believe that bioinspiration may hold the key to solving humanitys most urgent problems water scarcity, overpopulation, climate change are careful to point out that the field is still in its infancy. Beth Rattner, the executive director of the Biomimicry Institute, told me: We can find and build mathematical replications of a kingfisher nose on the nose of a train, but were still unable to fully emulate or replicate a lot of biological phenomena, either at all or to the point where its commercially viable.

Biomimicry should be considered as a means to understand nature and conceive engineering design, but not as a tenet, says Maurizio Porfiri, a prof at New York Universitys Tandon School of Engineering. In other terms, while evolution has pursued an optimal path from swimming to flight this happened in a specific context, with specific constraints. Even Leif Ristroph concedes that he would not, for example, slavishly copy a bird or insect in order to design a robot. Clearly, birds inspired the basic design of aeroplanes, but the early designs with flapping wings did not win out, he said.

Still, Karp is not suggesting that scientists copy nature directly. Instead, he wants to look at what works and improve on it. The key is to analyse the answer evolution has converged on, and then take advantage of those principles in an engineering context, Adrian Thomas, professor of biomechanics in the zoology department at Oxford University told me. The obvious mistake is to transcript nature it is possible to do much better than nature by exploiting the best engineering materials.

While research labs dedicated entirely to bioinspiration are rare, Karps is not the only one. Don Ingbers Wyss Institute at Harvard University, which has been running since 2009, is a bioinspiration factory. There are some 375 full-time personnel, who together enjoy more than $600 m in grants and philanthropic funding. The laboratory has co-founded 15 startups in the last three years, and has more than 15,000 patents out for a range of bioinspired technology and designs across a range of disciplines, from medicine to robotics. They include a self-organising swarm of tiny robots that can be used for undertakings such as surveillance, traffic monitoring and crop pollination, and a mattress that senses the cardio-respiratory functions of babies and can help detect when they are having trouble breathing. Jeff has done astounding stuff in his lab, Ingber told me. But we can do it much faster. Were able to take much bigger risks here, and were more likely to succeed, both technically and commercially.

But sheer volume is not Karps aim. When the lab first opened, Karp thought he might use bioinspiration to tackle problems around cell migration, the process whereby cells move around an organism to aid in tissue formation, wound healing and immune response. That same year, after speaking at a biomedical conference to drum up support for the lab, person approached Karp and told him bluntly that the only interesting thing about his talk was the gecko videotape. Thats all people asked me about, Karp told me. So that got me thinking, maybe I should just focus on medical devices. It seemed to be the thing that got people excited.

One evening in August 2009, Karp received an email from Pedro J del Nido, functional specialists in cardiac surgery at Boston Childrens Hospital. Del Nido was having difficulty sealing pits in the hearts of young patients suffering from congenital heart flaws. Whenever Del Nido tried to suture a hole, the surrounding tissue would tear. He had read Karps paper on the gecko videotape, and wondered if Karp could help him design something similar to help treat his young patients.

This presented a new challenge for Karp. While the gecko tape can seal things like tissue and gastrointestinal tracts, the heart is not stationary. It moves very fast and violently, as blood constantly gushes in and out. Any adhesive would have to be strong enough to defy being washed away in the spate. Karp wondered if a surgical glue might help solve Del Nidos problem. Gluing internal surgical meanders is quicker and sometimes more effective than sews, particularly around sensitive areas where any rip or tear in the scalp will damage surrounding tissue. But Karp did not know any surgical glues that could work successfully in the presence of a lot of blood, and none that are strong enough to actually bind moving tissue. Whats more, surgical glues sometimes have harmful side-effects( such as releasing formaldehyde inside the body) and can take as long as 30 minutes to set. As any surgeon will show, the less day a patient lies on the operating table with their insides exposed, the better.

Karp told Del Nido that he would try to come up with something. Except, he didnt truly know how. The gecko videotape had been an academic invention. There had been one animal trial on mice. Del Nido needed something practical that he and his surgeons could actually use when operating on children. Karp realised that if he was going to help Del Nido, he had to talk to some people who had experience turning inventions into products. One of the reasons most medical devices invented in an academic environment never make it to patients is because theyre so complex and you cant fabricate them at the right scale, or at the right price, Karp told me. The laboratory is truly just the first step.

Karp decided that he would need to build his own network of contacts: entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, patent attorneys, regulatory body contacts, consultants, and business managers, who would be familiar with his methods and guide him on every step of the process. He spent the next two years meeting with venture capitalists around Boston, attending networking events sponsored by local law firms, consulates and biotech companies. He flew around the country presenting his work to various companies. I wanted to make it in such a way that as soon I came up with an idea, all Id have to do is just fire off an email to the right person and that would be it, he said.

Karp looks at some glue inspired by the secretions of marine worms. Photograph: Rick Friedman for the Guardian

One morning in late June, I accompanied Karp on a visit to the New England Aquarium in Boston. Scientists have a reputation for being somewhat awkward, but Karp is at ease in his own skin. Tall, with a lean build and slight husk, he peppers lengthy scientific explains with jokes, usually at his own expense. Stop me if I get too boring, is something he says often. He is fond of depicting diagrams to explain what he is talking about. Hes one of those very rare scientists who can talk to everyone at their level, Sherman, the Karp Lab research technician, told me. How he talks to high-schoolers is different from how he talks to PhD fellows, and thats different to how he talks to physicians. But its always at the same level of excitement.

Karp grew up in Peterborough, a rural county in Ontario in a Frank Gehry-designed house that his mothers bought from a local builder. The family moved in when Karp was eight; it was his first time living outside the city. There was a buffalo farm across the road, and a sheep farm next door. There was a creek operating through the backyard, and the property backed on to a woodland. I would wake in the middle of the night, said Karp, and there would be a pack of wolves on my front lawn headed to the sheep farm for a snack!

Karp began taking trip-ups into the woods, looking for serpents. Afterward, he would mount expeditions to trap frogs and snapping turtles by the creek. He got used to seeing foxes on the driveway at nightfall and listened out for the hoots of the great grey owls nesting nearby. For a kid with no appreciation of nature, this was a really big turning point for me, he said. It was like, here was this whole new world I never even knew existed.

Inside the aquarium, Karp led me to a great, fluorescent tank filled with lions mane jellyfish, one of the largest species, with a bell-shaped hood that can reach eight feet in diameter and tentacles that they are able stretching over 100 feet. The key thing to recollect is that the problem comes first , not the solution, Karp said, peering inside the tank. We dont sit in front of the jellyfish tank and think, How can we design a medical device that does what these jellyfish do? Its more like, we have a problem we need to solve, and these floating heaps of jelly might be able to help us.

A few years ago, Karp began looking at jellyfish to try and improve the design of a blood analysis device that can detect whether a cancer has metastasised after the removal of a tumor. Devices like this already exist: they resemble a small, rectangular chip approximately the size of a sim card. The blood flows through the top part of the device, while the bottom is lined with antibodies, which attach to any cancerous cells present in the sample. By seeming inside the chip under a microscope, it is possible to determine if any cells have been captured and therefore if the blood sample contains cancerous cells.

A lions mane jellyfish. Photo: Cultura RM Exclusive/ Alexander Semenov/ Getty Images/ Cultura Exclusive

An early problem with these devices was that the blood sample flowed too fast and too far above the antibodies, which meant that even when cancerous cells were present, “theyre not” always detected. Later versions of the device shortened the distance between the top and bottom, but this meant that the blood sample had to be smaller, which in turn meant the results were less accurate.( The bigger the sample size, the more accurate the results .)

Karp wanted to know if there was a way to force the cancerous cells to slow down and better attach to the antibodies. So, instead of lining the bottom of the device with antibodies, Karp made synthetic jellyfish-like tentacles made out of DNA. The tentacles, which are roughly one-tenth the thicknes of a human hair, are imbibed with a capturing agent that targets circulating tumor cells, and can extend to grab them. In exams of an early prototype, Karp found that his new design could increase the flow of blood by 10 days, building it far more likely that cancerous cells would be accurately detected.

We had moved downstairs to the aquaria cafe by the time Karp had finished laying all this out, and when I conveyed some disarray about some of the details, Karp grabbed a napkin from a nearby table and retrieved a pen from his pouch. It was in the shape of a bright orange crab claw. What? he said, in reference to my amused expression. I think its funny. I got it from a souvenir store. He then proceeded to draw a diagram of his device on the napkin.( Karps business card features a very similar depict of the tentacles, and a picture of jellyfish on the back, to demonstrate the process from inspiration to creation .)

Now, Karp said, leaning in conspiratorially. You want to touch a stingray?

In early 2011, Karp asked one of his graduate students, Maria Pereira, to help find a solution to the challenge that Pedro del Nido had defined him: namely, how to seal holes in childrens hearts. We tried to define the key criteria for their own problems: training materials that couldnt be washed away by blood, was easy to deliver and minimally invasive, Pereira told me. Something that a surgeon could control.

Following Karps example, Pereira looked to the natural environment for solutions. She held lab meetings and asked everyone to email her notions or pictures of animals that live in especially wet environments. People circulated photos of slugs and snails. We began thinking, how do snails stay attached to leaves when its raining? Karp told me. Why arent the trails they leave behind washed away by the rainfall? What are those secretions made of?

One day, someone emailed Karp and Pereira a link to a research paper on sandcastle worms, which live in shallow water on the Californian coast. The worms secrete a sticky, viscous gunk that they use to build underwater shelters by gluing together bits of shells and sand grains. The gunk is also hydrophobic meaning it repels water to ensure the shelter withstands the force of waves.

Slowly, Karp and Pereira began to imagine a product that would not only be used to treat small internal wounds in children, but that would have wider applications. They now foresaw a liquid surgical glue, strong enough to work in any major organ. It would be both biodegradable and capable of repulse blood and water.

In 2013, Karp co-founded Gecko Biomedical in Paris with the assistance of Bernard Gilly, the chairman of a group of small French biotech companies. Pereira subsequently moved to Paris to join the company as its head of research.

Over the next few years, she and Karp tested versions of the glue, each with a slight difference in viscosity or adhesive properties. Some versions were too runny and not sticky enough; other prototypes were so sticky they would not spread easily on to tissue. It was not enough to have the glue sit on top of the tissue it needed to infiltrate it, in order to create a perfect seal that would avoid air or blood from seeping through. Karp was just thinking about how ivy attaches to the sides of builds the plants root hairs seek out crevices and crackings, then secrete a glue that spreads the hairs in different directions. The hair then shrivel up and dry in a spiraling shape, which anchors the plant to its locating. Many of the glue formulations did not work, but the ones that did worked very similarly to ivy, because they were able to burrow into the tissue, Karp said.

Karp and Pereira also developed a device in the shape of a pen, which emits a visible LED ray of light that reacts to the glue, so a surgeon can define the glue once it is applied.( The process takes five seconds .)

Each version of the glue was tested first in animal or human tissue inside the lab, and then inside a living organism, usually a rat or animal. The right version presented itself wholly by collision. Karp and Pereira set up an animal trial at Boston Childrens Hospital to test a new iteration of the glue: a small, circular patch rather than a liquid version. They created a hole inside the heart of a living rat, and were just about to seal it with the patch when it slipped off. They set it back on top of the hole, but by that phase there was so much blood that the patch would not stay in place long enough for Karp to cure it with the light pen.

Scrambling for a solution, Karp asked Pereira to scrounge up as much of the most recent batch of liquid glue as she could. Pereira then spread the glue on to a spatula, and applied it to the leak in the rats heart. Karp followed with the illumination, and the glue defined. It did exactly what it was supposed to it repulsed the blood and it remained in place, Karp said. We ended up with a perfect seal. This was a massive pit, so showing that we can seal it without sutures or staples was a big deal to us.( When Karp and Pereira checked up on the same rat six months later, they discovered no signs of people with disabilities or stress. The glue on the animals heart had gradually biodegraded as tissue has been an increase over the patched up hole .)

Last spring, Karp presented off the glue during a talk at Zoobiquity, a semi-regular conference that brings physicians and veterinary surgeons together to swap notes. The event took place at the New England Aquarium, and Karp spoke from a semi-raised platform in front of the penguin pond. After the talk, a dental surgeon named William Rosenblad approached Karp to ask if he would be willing to give him some of the glue to use on one of his canine patients, a bulldog named Little Papi. Rosenblad had carried out three unsuccessful procedures to treat an oronasal fistula, a common problem in dogs and cats that results in a large pit in the mouth leading to the nasal cavity. He looked pretty desperate, Karp said. He just said, Get it to me as fast as you can.

A week later, Rosenblad sealed the hole in Little Papis mouth use Karps glue. I knew the real test would come where anything had healed, Rosenblad told me. Karp was present at the follow-up appointment two weeks later. Little Papi sat patiently while Rosenblad checked inside his mouth, finally declaring that the glue had worked the hole was sealed. We all got a bit emotional, Rosenblad told me. Little Papis owner strolled up to Karp and shook his hand. He maintained repeating, You changed my life, Karp said.

In March this year, after successfully creating 22.5 m euros, Gecko began a trial of the surgical glue at four hospitals in Paris. The glue was tested on 36 patients, most of whom underwent vascular reconstruction surgery, in which blood vessels are either cut open to remove plaque or enlarged to enable better flowing. Jean Marc Alsac, the surgeon supervising the trial, said that it tested two things: one, how quickly the bleeding stopped when the glue was applied, and two, that there were no adverse effects in patients in the three months after surgery. It ran immediately, Alsac told me. I wasnt prepared for the surgery to be over that rapidly. It was astonishing.

A human trial of the glue is planned for next year in the US. Karp hopes the glue will become part of the surgical armamentarium available in all hospitals throughout the world to reduce surgical days and complications of current procedures. He also wants to see it used in surgeries where there are currently no suitable methods to close tissues, such as in minimally invasive procedures where it is difficult to tie knots in small spaces, or where bulky stapling devices cannot fit. Currently, many surgical procedures are much more invasive than it was necessary to, he told me, but with better ways of sealing tissues in small spaces, this can drastically be reduced.

Making the glue indispensable to surgeons could also help boost bioinspirations profile, particularly in medication. I suppose as others watch successful examples, they will be more inclined to give it a try, Karp said. When I first started off, I didnt genuinely watch bioinspiration as a tool or platform merely a project. I surely didnt realise how powerful it could be.

When I visited Geckos headquarters in Paris this summer, I asked Pereira to show me how the glue runs. She filled a small syringe with 0.2 ml of the glue, which is yellow and gloopy. She took a piece of clear rubber and pressed a small dot of glue on to its surface. Lets pretend this is a ruptured boat inside the body, she said. She took a thin metal rod and spread the glue around on the rubber surface. She then took the pen lighting and held it over the rubber for five seconds. Here, she said, pushing the rubber into my hands. Feel it.

The glue had set into a shiny, flexible coating on top of the rubber. I played around with it for a few minutes, then asked Pereira if I could try applying the glue myself. She shook her head, chuckling. Youll simply have to wait your turning like everyone else.

This article was revised on 25 October 2016. An earlier version described Jeffrey Karp, who is an affiliate faculty member at MIT, as also operating a laboratory at the university. His lab is actually affiliated with Brigham and Womens Hospital, where he is also a professor.

Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, or sign up to the long read weekly email here

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Inspired by nature: the thrilling new science that could transform medicine | Laura Parker appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

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[birthdvyinla-blog]

1. List your character’s name, age, and occupation.

john cornelius o’callghan the fifth, 28 years old, music teacher. 

2. What is their normal daily routine? How do they feel and react when this routine is interrupted for some reason?

john wakes up at around 8 am, he gets up, brushes his teeth and then stumbles downstairs to let his dog out. he makes himself a simple breakfast and enjoys it with his morning coffee while usually catching up on news articles or his twitter feed. at around 9, he goes back upstairs to get dressed and then is off to work. he usually gets home from work anywhere between 4:30 and 7 pm, depending on how many students he taught that day. once he gets home, he spends hours working on music, writing, recording, promoting his band online. he is usually in bed at around midnight, though sometimes he lays there until 4 am before finally falling asleep. it doesn’t matter to john if his routine is interrupted.

3. What does your character perceive as their greatest strength?

john is very wise and good with his words. he’s also one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. even when john doesn’t like someone, and wants to say something or be passive aggressive or sly, he can’t bring himself to do it. he truly couldn’t hurt a fly. john is also the kind of person who would give you the shirt off of his back if you were cold, even if it meant he would freeze himself. 

4. What do they perceive as their greatest weakness? Was there any event or cause of these weaknesses?

as well as being his greatest strength, johns niceness and his desire to be liked, loved even, is probably his greatest weakness. john will let somebody hurt him over and over and over again before he’ll turn someone away. 

5. What is their most obvious strength? What about most obvious flaw or weakness?

johns most obvious strength is his intellect and his most obvious flaw is his drinking habits.

———- ✰ HISTORY (PLEASE ANSWER AT LEAST 4 QUESTIONS FROM THIS SECTION)

1. Were there any traumatic experiences in your character’s early years (death of a family member, abandonment, orphaned at an early age, etc.)?

when john was a pre-teen, he was raped by his therapist. 

2. Briefly describe a defining moment in their childhood and how it influenced their life.

the rape that john experienced was a defining moment, not only did it throw john into a whirlwind of issues in his later life, but it also made john who was previously shy and quiet and hardly said a word to anybody, come out of his shell and become the most outgoing kid in school. john thought that if he wasn’t so quiet, people wouldn’t be able to take advantage of him so easily however this only allowed john to get taken advantage of in other ways in his later life.

3. What was childhood like for them?

up until johns rape, his childhood was good, peaceful. he had two younger brothers who were his best friends, john got along great with his parents and loved spending time with his family. he was quiet at school and didn’t have any friends, but made up for this by having a wonderful homelife with his brothers.

4. Did they have any childhood friends? If so, who are they and where are they now? Are they still close?

john made lots of friends in the beginning of high school, however the only ones who stayed with him are the ones who are still in the band that he formed in his senior year. they are johns best friends in the world and the only people he trusts outside of his family.

5. Do they have any deep, dark secrets in the past that may come back to haunt them?

because of the rape john encountered, john developed hypersexuality, which doctors call the opposite expected response to sexual abuse while instead of becoming sex repulsed, victims of sexual abuse become sex addicts. along with hypersexuality or sex addiction, often comes unknowing fixation on sexual subjects. people who are hypersexual will often become obsessed with a partner, or someone they want as a partner, and don’t realize how far their obsession has gone. before moving to new york, john had an encounter with a girl he had been dating who got back together with an ex, however john was fixed on her. this ended with the girl getting a restraining order because john kept coming over, knocking on her door, and getting beat up by her boyfriend. the girl got a restraining order to protect him, however this was one of many incidents where john didn’t realized how fixated he was on someone until he was getting in trouble or getting himself in physical danger.

6. What conflicts might arise from their past?

theres the possibility of so many conflicts arising. john getting in an altercation with the current partner of someone he became a little too fixated in the past. someone that john used to engage in dangerous sexual behaviours coming back into the picture. someone forcing john to see a therapist. 

———- ✰ RELATIONSHIPS (PLEASE ANSWER AT LEAST 4 QUESTIONS FROM THIS SECTION)

1. How does your character get along with their parents/guardians? Any siblings? What is family life like for them?

john loves his family. his brothers are his best friends. he absolutely adores his mom, and he wishes to be half the man his father is. a part of him is a little sad that the people he loves and adores so much were the reason the most traumatic thing happened to him (his parents sending him to a therapist) but he holds no resentment or bitterness toward them and only hopes that they never find out what happened to him. 

2. Does your character currently have a best friend whom they would protect with their reputation or life? If so, who are they and what caused them to feel so close?

johns best friend (aside from his band or brothers) is probably joel. at the moment, john is a little bit sad about his relationship with joel, after spending a few months sleeping together and that stopping. john has never been able to stay friends with a sexual parter after the sex stopped, and he fears that him and joel will face the same fate. however, john and joel have been friends for nearly ten years (being from the same state, the same age, and being involved in music) and john would take a bullet for him any day, whether they remained friends or not.

3. How does your character think others generally perceive them?

john thinks that others generally perceive him well, or at least he hopes they do. john is very nice and kindhearted, and he knows that most people see that. anyone who has ever disliked john has been someone who has never taken the time to have a conversation with him.

4. What is the worst thing someone has done to them?

rape him/take his innocence

——- ✰ PERSONALITY/BELIEFS (PLEASE ANSWER AT LEAST 8 QUESTIONS FROM THIS SECTION)

1. What are your character’s short term goals (what would they like to be doing within a year)?

john wants to continue working toward paying off his home and his vehicle, he wants to work on a second book and release the album that his band just finished. 

2. What about their long term goals (what would they like to be doing twenty years from now)?

john hopes his band will get to a place where he can live comfortably without needing any other source of income aside from his band. john is not materialistic at all, and doesn’t need millions of dollars to be happy. he just wants to live a modest life while making music and travelling the world with his friends.

3. How do they seek to fulfill these dreams, goals, & ambitions?

by continuing to write and create, putting as much time and effort into his music and his writing as he does into his day job even if it means living off of only 2 hours of sleep some days.

4. Does your character have any great rational or irrational fears or phobias? If so, what are the origins of or reasons behind them? How do they react when this fear manifests itself? Are they willing to discuss, or even admit to, the situation?

john is terrified of ever seeing a therapist again, this fear is rational after what happened to him however its become something a lot bigger and john refuses to see a doctor of any type. he fears stepping foot into anything that resembles a doctors office.

5. How do they generally treat others?

very well most of the time. however john suffers from depression and when his depression gets worse and he finds himself spiralling, he tends to ignore people and keep them at arms length so they dont see how bad he is.

6. Do they trust easily (perhaps too easily) or not?

far too easily

7. Are they introverted (shy and withdrawn) or extroverted (outgoing)?

john is typically extroverted. however he is introverted by nature and still falls back into that trait when he falls into a depression. the rest of the time, he forces himself to be an extrovert.

8. Is there anything that enrages them? Describe a notable scenario.

if john believes that someone he is close to has misrepresentated him, john may become angry at them. for example, if john hears that someone says he was doing or saying something out of the context that he truly said or meant it in. john strives to be good and kind every day and nothing is worse to him than when someone who knows him well implies otherwise. 

9. Is there anything which embarrasses them? What lengths have they gone to in order to avoid further embarrassment? 

johns hypersexuality is incredibly embarrassing to him. the only people who knows about it aside from exes are joel and matty, because he felt telling them was unavoidable. but the idea of anyone else finding out, especially his band or his family who he adores more than anyone in the world, is so terrifying. while around his band, if they’re playing shows or travelling together, john will go to strangers hotels to hook up before he’ll take someone back to the same hotel as his band and risk them seeing someone leaving his room and assuming he hooked up with them. this is just one example of how john tries to hide it.