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reeesea · 4 years ago

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Something Sweet: Part One

~the sweetest drink on the menu~

one ~ two ~ three ~ four ~ five ~ six ~ seven ~ eight ~ nine

pairing: just minsung, han jisung/lee minho

warnings: mild language (like barely)

words: 3.5k (2k too many ngl)

summary: Minho is working his usual shift at Seoul's most expensive high end restaurant, when a trio of new-comers arrive and by the end of Minho’s tedious night he’s plus one additional phone number.

a/n: To be honest this is the first thing I’ve ever written and actually posted. SO please accept this minsung one-shot that just came out of wanting more waiter Minho in my life. anyway if you read it and like it let me know, and maybe ill write more of it. In my head it has at least a few more chapters of non-plot where the other boys show up <3

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It had only been an hour since the dinner rush started and Minho was already counting the minutes until he could collect his tips and go home. Sure, he could think of countless more exhausting jobs compared to being a waiter at Menu 98 (an upscale restaurant in a part of town he most definitely did not live in), but today just hit different. He never had to do much more than just put on his Customer Server Smile ™, not mess up the orders, pour the wine without spilling, and recommend the highest priced appetizer if asked. Pretty simple stuff. Nothing too draining, but still the exhaustion set in, probably due to spending 2 more hours in the dance studio than he should’ve the previous day.

His feet were paying for those additional long hours trying to perfect choreo by making each minute of his shift more painful than the last. Even so, working at the ever popular restaurant paid for the daily discomfort that Minho may have felt from his blistered feet. The restaurant was a well known hot spot for anyone with enough money to casually spend the equivalent of three of Minho's paychecks on a meal. CEOs and their business partners along with idols and some lesser known celebrities made up most of their usual clientele on a casual Friday night like this one. The customers always came in waves on Friday evenings, parties of usually 4 or more coming in to celebrate some successful business venture that took place during the week. Great for Minho really, because that meant usually more wine, more appetizers, larger meals, and larger checks, which means bigger tips. His bank account really needed these Fridays especially if he was gong to keep saving up to finally pursue his dream.

A new party of six was just assigned to Minho’s section. Trademarked smile: on, Feet: still aching, Hours until close: at least another three. It looked like tonight it was going to be a long ass night.

An hour or so passed before Minho was able to get some form of rest from being out on the floor. Minho leaned his body weight against the wall near the back of the dining room, appreciating the brief calm before the night crowd started to roll in. Thoughts of the dance he was trying to choreograph flashed through his head. He hoped that the movements he’d chosen would be able to convey the emotions of the song he had in mind. The thought of asking Hyunjin to watch his performance briefly popped in his head, but before he could consider it further the hostess was calling his name.

“Minho! There's a new table for you in section three.” Minho moved from his comfortable position against the wall and went through his checklist; Apron? Flattened. Backup pens? Check. Hair gently moved out of his face to perfectly frame it? Check. Lastly, Polite customer service smile? Obviously.

The three boys at the table were definitely new customers to the restaurant. Minho observed that the three of them appeared to be blissfully unaware of the de facto business casual to fully formal dress code that the other patrons in the restaurant followed. The Trio seemed to sport the street style that you would see in the popular clubs not only a block away. Two of them clothed in almost all black outfits while the third wore a bright pink colored hoodie under his jean jacket.

“Hyung, I still can’t believe we did it! The crowd was huge, I mean after going on stage I don't even remember anything. I might have blacked out. Holy shit did I actually black out….” Pink hoodie seemed pretty animated about whatever the reason was for their meal out. Maybe a little too animated, as other tables glazed bitterly toward the source of their evening’s disruption.

Before approaching he considered the possibility that these boys being idols was likely, but Minho still found it odd for multiple reasons. He didn't recognize them at all as idols, which he was usually pretty good at keeping up with, and when idols did casually come in it was more likely to be on a weekday for an early dinner and not a late Friday night after the dinner rush. Nonetheless, with his perfect waiter image on, he walks over to the table never showing his curiosity.

“Good evening gentlemen, My name is Minho, and I’ll be serving you tonight. Is there anything I can get you to drink before your starters?” His script rolled politely off his tongue like it had the whole night. All complete with a slight smile and arms perfectly placed behind him, as carefully and as naturally as a doll whose been posed in the same position for the past six hours.

The wide set, somewhat brooding boy has already decided after glancing at the drink menu, “yeah I'll order a bottle of the house red for the table,” glancing up at Minho from beneath his black cap. Minho swiftly wrote down the order, and moved his glance over to the next boy at the table.

“Hyung, you're the only one of us who chooses to drink wine voluntarily,” Pink hoodie spoke up, seemingly upset about the prospect of drinking bitter fruit water.

“Jisung, you're just saying that because you can't handle anything that you can actually taste the alcohol in. I'll drink whatever Bin gets,” the handsome curly haired blonde mentions, glancing at the soft hoodied boy next to him with a look that reminds Minho of a disappointed father. Minho actively fights off the smirk that is wanting to form on his lips.

“WHAT that's not true, THAT ONE TIME I drank an entire bottle of-”

“Fine, fine just stop yelling. You’re gonna get us kicked out before we even get to eat” Mr. Black cap glances up at Minho again, but with a more apologetic look. “Add on an order of the fruitiest and sweetest drink you serve still with alcohol in it, for the small squirrel boy.” That last part came with a smirk from the dark haired speaker and a glare from from the ‘squirrel boy’ to his left.

Minho had trouble keeping the smirk from forming this time. And maybe his perfect image faltered for a second, but he was quick to recover, and confirmed their orders with a straight face and a promise to return with water as he left to give them time to select from the menu.

---

“Great now our waiter thinks I'm a whiny baby who looks like a squirrel. Wow, thanks Changbin-hyung.” Jisung grumbles and pinches his cheeks that cursed him with the rodent nickname.

“Good, at least he won’t be fooled into thinking you're anything but the truth”

“Yah! WHa-”

“Hey settle down you guys, lets try not to get kicked out please. Binnie recommended the food here, and I would very much like to eat it before we are politely asked to leave”

Jisung grumbles something inaudible at Chan’s request, and Changbin can't help but respond with a smirk at getting to see the younger be told off.

“Also we're supposed to be celebrating selling out our show so lets do that, yeah? First show 3racha single handedly sold out! WE did that!”

All three of them get proud smiles after that, and the bickering is left forgotten as the three recount the night, even though they had lived it together

“Not gonna lie, I think our Binnie stole the show tonight. You were on fire tonight man.” Chan said proudly, receiving a thankful smile from the younger boy, who had become shy and bashful at the praise.

“Though, Chan-hyung your rap was so charismatic tonight, you almost made that girl in front faint when you winked at her, the whole audience fucking lost it” Jisung had switched from literally yelling to just a whisper shout for emphasis.

“Hahaha, yeah I can't even believe that happened. Man, today’s energy was just different.” The smile on Chan’s face was blinding, as usual. “Hopefully we can get to play even bigger venues soon. I could get used to this...” Chan mused, seemingly already focused on the future plans of 3racha.

“Yeah, those paydays would be real nice right about now.”

“Bin-hyung, what are you talking about, you’re literally loaded. Plus since you got that producing job, we can actually pay the rent on the apartment you parents let us stay in '' Jisungs pretty thankful for all the support Changbins parents had given them, while the three of them worked toward their collective dream to make and perform music. But he thinks they all can agree that finally being able to use their own money to live instead of just relying on handouts and the kindness of friends or family to help keep them from becoming starved or homeless, is a new kind of satisfying that Jisung hadn’t considered before. Just look at them now, at one of the nicest (and most expensive) restaurants in Seoul, fighting over drinks and having a meal that would hopefully be the first of many celebrations for their groups accomplishments. The trio could all agree that the financial stress has been one of their greatest worries, and that beginning to escape it has been all kinds of relieving.

Before any of the boys could respond to Jisung’s comment, Minho had returned with three glasses of water, three glasses for wine, and a bottle of wine all balanced perfectly on a tray perched on the palm of his hand. Jisung had to admit it was impressive how he had managed to balance all of the glassware and liquids without losing balance, and while moving with more grace and agility than he would expect from your average waiter.

Before Jisung had even returned from his thoughts, three glasses of water and the expertly poured wine glasses, all set delicately without a single drop spilled, were identically placed in front of each of them. Graceful may have been an understatement.

“Have you decided what you would like to have tonight, gentlemen?” Their waiter Minho said, all with a gentle expression on his face.

No, the answer was no, but before Jisung could respond, Changbin had already ordered the pricey steak to go with his wine. Soon after, Chan ordered the surf and turf dish that had a stupidly complicated name that Jisung couldn’t pronounce. Jisung hadn’t even remembered them even looking at the menu, or maybe it was just him who had yet to even glanced at it. Details.

“Uhhhhh…” Jisung searched hopelessly over the menu and then at his friends, who stared blankly back at him, then back to the menu again. This was a regular occurrence when the three decided to go out and eat, when they weren’t holding themselves in their apartment for weeks at a time. Still, Jisung always ended up hopelessly unprepared to successfully order without awkward pauses and at least three consecutive strings of ‘hmm’s and ‘uhhh’s. And so,

“Hmmmmm…. I think.. Uhh…. maybe…” nothing was popping out at him, and Jisung was pretty sure at this point that he had forgotten how to read. “Ya know what, surprise me,” he decided this was the best response he could come up with.

“Surprise you?” Minho looked just as confused as Jisung felt.

“Yeah, is that an option? If not, I'm this close to just closing my eyes and pointing.” He says while dramatically closing his eyes and waving his finger over the menu. Once again Jisung was hopeless.

He hears a soft chuckle and opens his eyes just in time to catch their waiter’s lips curl in a sweet smile that makes his eyes turn into crescents. It lasts barely a second, before his face returns to his neutral customer service expression. But Jisung decides he really likes that smile, and a part of him is sad to see it retreat so soon.

“Well in that case, I can do the blind pointing for you, but I personally recommend the seasonally prepared local beef served on house baked brioche, that comes with garlic and parsley potato wedges. Does that sound alright?” Jisung felt he had said it faster and with more details just to confuse him.

Jisung stares at him blankly in response, and he's pretty sure four whole seconds pass in silence before the Pretty Waiter ™ follows up, an ever so slight smirk on his lips, “it's pretty much a really good local burger with homemade fries, I think it would be something you would enjoy.”

Jisung grins at that, “Oh! Yeah that does sound good...Thank you! I will have that.” For some reason he really likes the idea that their waiter chose something off the menu that was specially meant for him. Not that he wouldn't like all the nicer and fancier dishes they serve here with small plates with dry ice fog, but a part of him was more content in getting a dinner that didn't require him to question whether or not something on his plate was even edible. And the happy curiosity definitely had nothing to do with the way their waiter’s eyes sparkled when he talked or the barely-there smirk that Jisung just caught sight of.

“Alright then, I’ll put in these orders. Oh! And then I'll be right back with your speciality fruit drink,” He says that last part with a slightly more upbeat tone, resulting in another smirk to appear on Changbin’s face and a groan from a slightly embarrassed Jisung.

---

Minho surprised himself.

On any given day of work at Menu 98, he deathly avoids having to do anything more than the regular polite small talk. But for some reason, tonight he couldn’t stop himself from playing along with the antics of the cute boy at his table. The three boys were entertaining, and maybe he could blame the exhaustion and the numb pain in his heels, but the comical distraction was welcomed by Minho. He didn't even realize just how much he had been looking for a distraction from the long shift until it was staring right at him with big shiny eyes and a cute round face. Minho hurried back to enter in their orders, including his suggestion for the squirrel looking boy.

Minho wasn’t going to deny that the flustered boy at the table was cute, he was pretty aware how attractive all three the boys were when he took their orders. He had thought they were idols originally, so in Minho’s mind it made sense. Still, the waiter still felt something about the three was too unique to be categorized as just idols or trainees. As much as it may have piqued his curiosity though, Minho still got paid for his service not for his interests in customers, so he brushed it off almost as soon as it appeared.

The rest of the evening, Minho tended to all four of his assigned tables with his usual perfect server act and minimal small talk. When it came to the three somewhat boisterous customers in the corner table, Minho may or may not have allowed himself to subtly laugh at their arguments and antics. The dynamic of the three boys was slowly becoming the highlight of his late night shift. Each of their personalities greatly contrasted and amplified the other, making way for animated and comical exchanges and arguments between them.

When Minho had returned with a Strawberry daiquiri for the boy in pink, a chorus of giggles could be heard from the other two boys, while the other happily accepted the drink in substitute for the untouched glass of wine in front of him. Upon drinking it, the cute boy's eyes somehow widened further and shined more than Minho thought was possible. He flashed his heart-shaped smile as he thanked Minho for the drink.

Minho nodded in return, and internally decided that Heart-shaped smiles were his new favorite.

---

Jisung had been hyper since the show, and the energy was now focused on a new mission to see the pretty smile of their waiter again. Granted, he didn't have to try that much harder to gain the attention of the pretty waiter, being the loud and excitable person naturally he was. Every small grin that Jisung was able to pull out from under the other boy’s infuriatingly polite facade, was a major win in his book.

Chan, Changbin, and Jisung celebrated further by enjoying the food, which was all phenomenal, and discussing their next gig the coming week. The best way to celebrate one performance is to look towards the next, or someother random bullshit Changbin had said after a couple more glasses of wine.

Overall the night was a celebration of all of the dedication and hours they had put into their music, as well as their grind to perform and grow a somewhat sizable following. They were all high on the potential of finally getting to realize their dreams and reach their goals as a group, something none of them actually thought they would get to do together. The overwhelming happiness of the night easily made it one of Jisung's new favorite memories.

As the boys were finishing off their third--or forth--drink (Jisung definitely had another one of the strawberry drinks Minho had brought him), after dinner and figuring out their checks, Jisung felt a surge of boldness. Mostly due to having a few drinks in his system, and the slight infatuation he had with the pretty waiter's smile, Jisung decided ‘whats the worst thing that could happen? Rejection? lmao’ and wrote down his name and number on his receipt in hopes that Minho would actually read it, or maybe even contact him. Maybe.

It was a shot in the dark, but Jisung had been feeling a little high on life, and felt like he couldn’t leave without at least shooting his shot. Jisung and the other members of 3racha got up to leave, and Jisung searched out the waiter. He wasn’t able to see him in the mostly empty dining room now, but a hopeful part of him felt that he would see him again, leaving the restaurant with his arms around his members already bickering about who would get to shower first after their long night.

“I'm just saying, Chan-hyung I know for a fact that you’re not even going to make it to the front door before passing out, so I call dibs. And Jisung, I’m older than you so I get veto power over your rights and decisions as your hyung.”

Jisung was about to grumble in response but something about how Changbin’s smile was so carefree left him feeling like he deserved this victory. Changbin was definitely a little tipsy, but seeing his hyung so happy after such a rough week made Jisung glad to do anything to keep that smile there.

“Fine, fine hyung but you have to help me carry Chan-hyung up stairs when he inevitable falls asleep on me in the cab”

“I don't know what youre talking about,” Chan replies, already yawning, while climbing into the cab.

---

Minho was picking up the receipts from his tables when one of them caught his eye.

Hey, I’m Han Jisung ^~^ (the cute one in the pink hoodie!)

Thanks for your suggestions, best waiter ever!!!

I think your smile is beautiful, Maybe I’ll get to see it again sometime?

555-XXX-XXXX

Minho couldn't help but smile to himself. He’d been hit on occasionally by customers and has been given countless numbers, which usually don't make it much farther than the trash, but something about the innocence of the note and cuteness of the boy made him actually consider keeping it.

He scoffed to himself after a second of considering it. As cute as the boy was, and as sweet as the note was, Minho didn’t have time or energy to have another added person in his life. No matter romantically or platonically, new relationships were on his ‘things to stay away from if you ever wanna make it into the dance academy’ list. He already barely ever saw his roommates, and if they weren't all in the same dance troupe, they probably wouldn't talk much. All of their time was spent working and practicing, and he and his roommates only had enough energy and free time to spend a meal or two together on the weekends. There just wasn’t any more time for anything extra, no matter how nice the idea may sound.

He was about to give the little message the same treatment as the others as he cleaned up for the night, but a part of him couldn't bring himself to throw it away, and discreetly pocketed it instead out of instinct. Out of sight and out of mind as far as Minho was concerned.

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thank you if you read this far <3

one ~ two ~ three ~ four ~ five ~ six ~ seven ~ eight ~ nine

#stray kids #skz #minsung #stray kids fic #skz fic #han jisung #lee minho #lee know #I love my sons #gods menu #restaurant au

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quicksilversquared · 5 years ago

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Luka and the Jewelry Heist

S3 Finale AU

In a timeline where Hawkmoth didn't lose the Miracle Box almost immediately after getting it, Marinette has to get the Miraculous back some other way, even if that means stealing them back one at a time. Her first target is Chloe, Hawkmoth's one known ally.

....Luka really doesn't know how he got involved in this.

links in the reblog

When Marinette had invited Luka to hang out for the evening, he had expected that they would do something chill, maybe hanging out in a park together for a couple hours, or spending some time at a cafe or the movies (probably not the latter, honestly, that seemed a bit more date-like than Marinette seemed to be ready for), or maybe grabbing a sandwich for dinner and just wandering around for a bit. The most excitement they would have would maybe be someone recognizing him from Kitty Section or Marinette from her work with Jagged Stone, surely, and they could just enjoy their time together.

As it turned out, Marinette had other ideas. Or, rather, one other idea. As it turned out, she had somehow managed to find out that Hawkmoth would be giving Chloe Bourgeois the Bee Miraculous permanently that evening, and she needed backup while she stole the Miraculous.

Luka had not signed up for this, but apparently Marinette didn't have anyone else that was available or willing to be backup for her and he wasn't exactly willing to let her go on her own, so he reluctantly trotted along after her anyway. Maybe he would be able to talk Marinette out of it as they headed for the hotel, or pick out holes in her plan so that she would decide against it, or, or...

Luka was used to crazy. He lived on a houseboat with an anarchist mom and a sister who had gone through several less-than-typical hobbies, after all. He went to an arts-focused school, where free thinking was encouraged and odd ideas were common. But magical jewelry theft?

This was new, and even though he had been a superhero a couple times, it wasn't exactly something that he wanted to do on a regular basis. Not without superpowers and an experienced superhero on his side, at least.

"I'm already seeing a problem here," Luka commented as he jogged to keep up with Marinette, who, by the way, walked crazy fast for someone who was so much shorter than he was. Maybe he was no regular powerwalker- unless there was an akuma nearby or he was running late, Luka much preferred a relaxed stroll- but this was insane. "How are we meant to get into the hotel? I've heard that they're pretty picky about who comes in. And if the doorman sees us come in and then Chloe pitches a fit about her Miraculous getting stole- or just some jewelry getting stolen, I suppose she can't tell anyone about the Miraculous now- he'll be able to tell her exactly who took it."

"Oh, that's easy," Marinette said nonchalantly, as though breaking into the Grand Paris unnoticed was something she did regularly. She dug in the bulging delivery bag at her side, pulling out two motorcycle helmets and matching jackets. "We dress up as delivery people and tell the doorman that we're bringing a delivery for Chloe. It worked just fine last time, and I actually know what she normally orders now, too, which helps. The helmets hide our faces, and the jackets hide our shirts. And I wore my biking outfit instead of my normal clothes today, too, so that clue is gone, too."

"Last time," Luka echoed faintly, because apparently this was a regular thing. "Uh."

"And the delivery people always park their bikes on the same side of the hotel, so we'll come from that angle," Marinette continued, still not even remotely out of breath. "And I have a delivery bag for you, too. It would be a little odd for there to be two delivery people for just Chloe, but Jagged Stone is here, too. We'll say one order is for Chloe and the other is for Jagged-"

"And he won't get upset about that?" Luka asked. Maybe the rocker and his mom didn't get on very well anymore, but, uh, Luka was still not interested in getting on Jagged's bad side. "'Cause, like..."

Marinette waved that off. "Nah, he knows that I'm using him as an excuse to get in. He just texted me that Chloe's already down in the restaurant with her father." She passed a jacket and helmet over to Luka, then dug a second delivery bag out of hers and passed that over, too. "We can put these on in the next alleyway. The camera has been broken for months, and even when it wasn't broken it only covered the back half of the alley."

Why did she know that? Why did Marinette know any of this? While Luka couldn't deny that it was probably better to be with someone who wasn't going into a magical jewelry heist completely unprepared, the degree of preparedness was a little disconcerting.

A lot disconcerting. Like, he was starting to feel like he didn't know Marinette at all disconcerting. How much was he missing if he thought that something like this was totally out of character when it clearly wasn't?

When they got to the next alleyway, Marinette shimmed into the jacket and pulled on her helmet, slinging the delivery bag over her shoulders and filling it with a couple boxes salvaged from the top of the trash so that it wouldn't look empty. She looked completely relaxed, which was the complete opposite of how Luka felt.

Sure, he could believe that she could saunter past the doorman without causing an ounce of suspicion. She didn't look suspicious. But Luka, normally the picture of cool, calm, and collected?

His blood pressure was starting to inch up, he was sure of it. Still, Luka followed Marinette as she headed confidently down the street, her hair and face completely covered by the helmet. Most delivery people that he had seen didn't hide their faces, but other than that she completely looked the part. Still, Luka had his doubts. Surely the Grand Paris had better security than that?

"Sushi delivery for a Chloe Bourgeois," Marinette announced as she strode up to the door. Her voice was pitched slightly lower, making her sound older without sounding fake. Clearly Adrien wasn't the only one in her friend group who could probably go into voice acting. "And an order for Jagged Stone?"

"Of course," the doorman agreed at once, stepping aside and waving them in. "You know the room numbers?"

"Yes, of course. Thank you."

And just like that, they were in.

"Keep your helmet on," Marinette warned Luka as she led the way towards the stairs. "We'll be going up to Chloe's room first, and I'll get some stuff set up. Then Jagged Stone has to leave to do some recording work at his studio in twelve minutes, so I'm going to have you play lookout down in the restaurant and tell me when Chloe's coming up so I don't get taken off guard. I can pay you back for whatever you order."

Luka blinked, a realization finally sinking in past his (apparently permanent) shock. "Wait, did you say that Jagged Stone knows what you're up to? And he's supporting it?"

"Of course. Hawkmoth is totally not rock 'n roll, you know." Marinette led the way towards the stairs, and Luka scrambled after her. "I have a button-up and a wig in your bag for you to use while you're in the restaurant. You can change in the bathroom- there's one without a working camera in the hallway on the third floor. But we'll go up to Chloe's room first."

...there was literally no part of this that should be of course.

Luka was out of breath by the time they got up to the top floor. Ahead of him, Marinette didn't seem winded at all as she pushed open the door carefully before stepping into the hallway. With a confident bounce to her step, Marinette headed for one of the doors, slipping a white card down between door and frame until the lock popped open with a small click. Luka stared.

"That should not have worked."

Marinette shrugged, pulling the door open and tucking the card- a hotel key card, he could see now, when had she picked that up?- into her pocket. "Everything here looks fancy and top-of-the-line, but I've been here enough to know that looks can be deceiving. Mr. Bourgeois cut corners where he could, and he depends too much on security downstairs keeping out anyone who might want to break into the rooms."

"...the security that just let in two people who had their faces covered because they claimed that they were delivering food?" Luka asked, unimpressed. He had seen better security at the budget hotels that he and Juleka and their mom sometimes stayed at when their houseboat needed repairs or when they went on vacations to places that weren't along bodies of water. "Lovely. And, uh, what about cameras in this hallway?"

"They exist, but they never have anyone monitoring the feed during the day, only once the front desk shuts down for the night." Marinette ushered him in, then quietly shut the door. She checked her phone quickly, then led the way into Chloe's room. Or, rather, the middle room of Chloe's three rooms. That was needlessly excessive. "I assume that they'll meet in Chloe's main room, rather than her bedroom. Near her balcony door is most likely, because he and Mayura will want to have a fast escape route, but far enough in that they can't be seen from the outside since they don't want anyone to get confirmation that Chloe is still Queen Bee."

"I can't believe that anyone is actually buying her excuse that Queen Bee is actually just someone else impersonating her to try to get her in trouble. That's, like, the world's most paper-thin excuse." It was infuriating, actually, to see Chloe getting away again with behaving terribly, and this time with something as serious as cooperating with a terrorist. From what Juleka had told him, Chloe had been insufferably smug at school, though she refused to tell anyone why even though they all knew. "And apparently Ladybug and Chat Noir believe her, which- I thought they were smarter than that!"

Much to his surprise, Marinette snorted in what sounded suspiciously like amusement as she continued her scoping out of Chloe's room. "Do you really think that Hawkmoth would let his guard down enough to give Chloe the Miraculous permanently if the superheroes still publically suspected her? And if they kept insisting that the current Queen Bee was actually Chloe without, like, video proof of her transforming, I bet the mayor would cause some problems for them, and that is the last thing they probably need right now."

...that was very true and also very strategic. Luka was going to count himself impressed. It was also very logical, now that he was thinking about it- the mayor had thrown a big public fuss about Ladybug going over his head to talk the president of France into passing a law about arresting people who willingly worked with Hawkmoth, and while he had tried to pass it off as concern about the police using the law to go after akuma victims, Luka seriously doubted that. It was far more likely that he knew that his daughter was lying and he wouldn't be able to do anything about the law or stop the police from arresting Chloe when she messed up and confirmed her identity.

Again.

"Anyway, if they're probably going to be in here, I'll want my camera set up...mmm, about here." Marinette tapped at a side table, then tugged up the side of her jacket to get at what looked like a fully-stocked tool belt that had somehow materialized around her waist. At this point, Luka wasn't even going to question that. "It might not be a perfect angle and I might decide to move it later, but I need to be able to grab it quickly and I don't think Chloe will notice it-"

"Wait, that's a camera?" Luka demanded, staring at the thing in Marinette's hand. It was about as thick as one of his fingers, and the same length, with a cord dangling off of the end and ending in something the size of a small remote. "Is that meant to be some crazy spy equipment? Where did you even get that?"

"It's a wildlife camera," Marinette said with a laugh. "Meant to stick into very small holes, like woodpecker cavities. And I borrowed it from the zoo- and yes, I got permission to borrow it. They use it when they have birds nesting during the spring, to spy on the nests and see what's going on. It can record a couple hours of footage and can stream to phones, too, if you're close enough." She reached out, palm up. "I can set it up on your phone so that you can see what's going on in here, if you want. It would probably be easier than trying to text back and forth all the time."

Luka handed his phone over at once. He still thought this entire attempt was pretty much a suicide mission, but Marinette seemed determined and the most he could do was make sure to do anything that would make it less dangerous for her.

"Once Chloe comes up, I want you to linger up here in the stairwell and give me a heads-up if her butler or her father comes up," Marinette told him once his phone was connected to the camera. "Just look like you were heading up to the rooftop or back down if they come, but you just paused to check your phone. Then I can try to hide better and won't get caught by someone coming in her door. And you should be able to hear the elevator from the stairwell, too- it's not exactly quiet."

"I hope you know that all of this is killing my stress levels" Luka informed her. "I was perfectly chill this morning. This afternoon, even. Now, I'm going to be too anxious to eat."

Marinette considered that for a second, and for a moment, Luka hoped that maybe, just maybe, he had finally gotten through to her and she would leave the retrieval of the Miraculous to the superheroes, who also had magic powers and could fight and didn't just have a motorcycle helmet and a flimsy biking suit as protection. And then Marinette shrugged.

"Maybe you could get some tea instead?"

Chloe was definitely acting twitchy, Luka noted from where he sat with his steaming cup of tea. She was glancing out the window regularly, and when she wasn't doing that, she was checking her phone. She seemed snappy with her father, too, who looked concerned but clearly wasn't willing to question her at all in such a public setting.

He didn't know where Marinette had gotten her information about Hawkmoth swinging by the Grand Paris today, but it looked like she was right.

The ball of nerves in his stomach got worse, and Luka picked up his phone to check it again. Marinette hadn't sent anything yet, which he had to assume was a good thing. To kill some time, he opened his chat thread with Juleka and typed out a quick message.

Luka: If I don't come home later, tell Mom the jewelry heist wasn't my idea.

It was a joke, mostly, but that didn't stop him from feeling nervous. Maybe he was going to be in the stairwell, not close to the supervillains like Marinette, but if Hawkmoth really lashed out and destroyed a large part of the building in the process...

His phone lit up again with a response, and Luka scrambled to pick it up. Juleka had already responded and, well, she wasn't taking him seriously.

Juleka: LOL have fun!

...Luka was not having fun. Seriously, he hadn't had nerves this bad since he was younger, and he had not missed them. It was an absolute miracle that he hadn't gotten sick yet.

(Luka would give anything to have the Snake Miraculous right now. Having the option for almost endless resets... that would give him at least some peace of mind, even if he still had to put on a brave face just like he had all of the other times that he had transformed. A superhero couldn't let on how nervous he felt, even if it was just to other superheroes.)

(Also, this really seemed like something that Ladybug and Chat Noir should be dealing with instead of Marinette. They had powers and protection and were used to doing dangerous stuff.)

Across the room, Chloe finally finished her meal and stood, saying something to her father as she left. He didn't try to stop her as she headed across the room, simply watching her go with a slightly concerned look before shaking his head and standing himself, heading in the opposite direction. Luka downed the rest of his tea- it had not helped him relax, unfortunately- and then stood as well, thankful that he had already paid so that he could follow Chloe at a distance, texting Marinette as he did.

Luka: Chloe is leaving the dining area now&is headed back upstairs.

This was real now. Marinette wouldn't be able to leave Chloe's room easily once Chloe returned. She could still decide against trying to swipe the Miraculous, of course, or at least decide to delay until after Chloe took the Miraculous off for a shower or to go to bed or something. Even then, she would still have to spend time in the same room as not one, but two or even three supervillains, all without alerting them to her presence.

Luka wasn't going to be able to sleep for a week once this was over, he was so stressed.

(He had thought that being around Marinette would be relaxing, once. That time was starting to feel eons ago.)

It didn't take long for Chloe to get upstairs, and it didn't take long for Luka to get situated in his lookout spot, either. He leaned against the wall of the staircase, one foot propped up, and kept his attention on his phone as he navigated to the app that Marinette had installed earlier and popped one earbud in so that he could listen to the feed. If anyone passed by him, they would think that he was just a regular teenager, hanging out and trying to get some peace and quiet away from his family or something. The wig- mousy brown, about as far away from Luka's normal teal as they could get- and the rest of his borrowed outfit would ensure that.

On his phone screen, the picture hung for a few seconds as the connection established, and then started moving. Chloe was pacing back and forth anxiously, her eyes flashing to her window every so often. Marinette was nowhere to be seen, but that was probably a good thing. Nothing looked out of place yet, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Marinette was smart enough to not leave any indication that she was there- or at least Luka assumed that she was. He was starting to reconsider his initial impression of Marinette, after all, because no one sane would try what she was doing.

(She- she did remember that she was dealing with a supervillain who could detect emotions, right? There was no way to know if he would be able to pick up the fact that there was more than one other person in the room, and that- that was dangerous.)

Marinette: No sign of Hawkmoth yet, but Chloe keeps muttering something about five minutes to go.

Luka let out a long breath, flipping back from his text messages to the video stream and dropping his head back to rest against the wall for a long moment. Normally, five minutes seemed like not a long time at all, flying by in a flash. Now, he suspected that it was going to stretch out into an anxious eternity.

A family tumbled by to go up to the pool for an evening swim, despite the lingering chill in the spring air. An older couple came down the stairs, nodding politely to Luka as they passed. There was a tense thirty seconds when Luka heard the elevator, but it whirred up past the top floor and up to the rooftop instead. On his screen, Luka watched as Chloe finally stopped pacing and spun around to face the window, peering out into the dark sky. Seconds later, the tall, forbidding silhouettes of Hawkmoth and Mayura appeared, stepping inside of Chloe's room.

"We're going to make this fast," Hawkmoth told Chloe as they came to stand in the middle of the room. He glanced around briefly, as though checking for anything out of place, and Luka's heart jumped up into his throat, but apparently nothing stood out. "We have one more person to stop by after this yet, but we want to make sure that you understand the rules first."

Chloe's expression turned sour. "I know the rules. This is hardly the first time that I've worn a Miraculous, and I'm not dumb."

Luka snorted at that. That was...debatable, honestly.

"Yes, I think the entire city is aware of your time spent as a superhero," Mayura commented cuttingly, one eyebrow raised in clear derision. "And you decided to go with the exact same transformation again despite that."

Chloe stomped a foot and yeah, Luka could definitely see why Hawkmoth had decided to trust her with a Miraculous. Not. "I didn't know that I could change it! You could have told me that. And anyway, it doesn't matter now because everyone's bought my story about it being someone else who's just jealous and trying to make me look bad. I got myself out of that problem, easy as pie. Everyone was dumb enough to believe me."

"Yes, well, we would like to avoid any more problems like that," Hawkmoth said, cutting off whatever Mayura was about to say. He took something out from under his arm- an octangular box, with a red design on the top and little golden circles on the side- and set it on a small side table. "So first of all, no wearing the Miraculous around. People will be on the lookout for it and even disguised, I think people will notice if you're wearing a comb. So have it in your purse, not in your hair. And do not leave during class to transform, that'll be too obvious."

"I know that."

The look Hawkmoth gave Chloe was dark, and shut her up quickly. "I can still change my mind, you know. Maybe it's inconvenient, but we can go back to just bringing you the Bee when we have a particularly promising akuma. That, of course, carries more risk to you, as someone could take a picture of you with us and prove that you're still the one behind Queen Bee."

Chloe went pale at that. Evidently she was smart enough to realize that even her father wouldn't be able to fully shield her from the fallout of something like that happening. "Right. I- I can be careful."

"Very good. And if you aren't, I will reclaim the Miraculous." Hawkmoth gave Chloe another long look, and she nodded quickly. "All right. If you can keep the Miraculous hidden and be subtle about joining fights- only ones when people won't notice you leaving- then we'll give you the Miraculous." He popped open the lid and- oh. Oh god. That was an entire chest of Miraculous. The fact that Hawkmoth had that...

Not good. Luka worried his lip, now more positive than ever that Marinette shouldn't be trying to steal the Bee. It was dangerous enough by itself, but when Hawkmoth had so many other Miraculous at his fingertips- sure, every Miraculous on the superheroes' side was a good thing, but was it worth it? It would just put a tiny dent in Hawkmoth's reserves. He probably wouldn't even care.

On-screen, Chloe had perked up. "You brought all of the Miraculous with you? You have all of them?"

"Most of them, but not the ones I need," Hawkmoth confirmed, passing over the Bee and then immediately shutting the box again and pushing it back a bit before Chloe could start rummaging through it. "As I said, we have someone else to visit today, and we have to figure out what Miraculous they might work best with."

"One Miraculous or more than one?" Chloe demanded, and Luka could see the greed in her eyes. "Can I have another Miraculous? That's more powers to use!"

Hawkmoth subtly nudged the Miracle Box back a bit more. "Not quite yet. I want the other person to have a full choice of the Miraculous. Besides, I want to see how you do with keeping the Bee secret first. We'll see later."

Chloe didn't look thrilled by that, but she clearly wasn't willing to push any more. "Right."

Wait. Hawkmoth had said he was going to be giving a Miraculous to another person, someone besides Chloe. Was there seriously another person in Paris selfish enough to want to side with the supervillain for- what? Their own gain? Revenge? Some other reason?

Whatever it was, Luka was willing to bet that it wasn't good.

"You haven't told anyone that you're still Queen Bee, correct?" Mayura demanded. "Anyone at all, even your friends?"

"No!" Chloe denied at once, but Luka could pick up the slight quiver to her voice. It was a lie, more likely than not. "I'm not going to tell anyone!"

Not going to tell and haven't told were two different things, but the supervillains seemed content.

"Very well. See that you keep it secret, then. If not..." Hawkmoth let the threat hang in the air. Chloe nodded frantically, shoving the comb into her hair with shaking hands.

And then behind them, the TV clicked on and Madam Chamack's voice filled the room, the volume turned way up. Marinette's distraction.

"-we continue covering the story of a local pet shelter-"

The supervillains both whirled around in surprise, followed by Chloe. There was a split-second of shock, and then Hawkmoth pulled a sword from his cane and lunged at the TV. Behind them, faster than lightning, Marinette popped up from behind the couch, swapped out the Bee Miraculous in Chloe's hair for a plain comb, and flung herself soundlessly back over the couch and into hiding again before anybody could turn around.

It was absolutely seamless, and very effectively covered by the sound of Chloe shrieking at Hawkmoth for destroying her giant TV. Marinette still was wearing the helmet and her dark, formfitting biking suit, but apparently had ditched the delivery jacket for the time being.

Considering that that was bright red, that was probably a smart move. Also, that was crazy smooth.

"Somebody has to be in here," Hawkmoth was saying onscreen, his voice carrying over Chloe's shrieks. There was a dark scowl on his face as he stepped forward, eyes scanning the room. Luka's heart jumped into his throat. "TVs do not just turn themselves on-"

"They do here!" Chloe shouted at him angrily, and, uh, had Marinette been sneaking into the Grand Paris on a regular basis to do that? There was no way that Chloe's TV just happened to have a problem that would provide the perfect excuse. "Mine has been doing that for the past week, and Daddy was going to have an electrician come in tomorrow to fix whatever the problem is, but now you've destroyed it! How am I meant to explain that?"

Hawkmoth paused, glancing over at Chloe. "This...is a known issue?"

"Ugh! I just said that, weren't you listening? It woke me up two nights ago at three in the morning! I had to unplug it last night so that I could get my beauty sleep!" Chloe stomped a foot, clearly unhappy. "And just because you're paranoid, you've destroyed it!"

"I think that you'll find that in this business, paranoia is better than letting your guard down," Hawkmoth told her, voice practically dripping with ice as he sheathed his sword. Clearly he wasn't going to spend any time trying to placate Chloe. "Perhaps you should have kept your TV unplugged, if you knew that it might turn on while we were here. Consider it a lesson. It'll give you practice in coming up with cover stories."

Chloe opened her mouth to argue, but closed it again, clearly fuming. For once, things weren't going Chloe's way and she had to accept that. Luka tried not to snicker at the expression on her face as his phone buzzed with an incoming text.

Marinette: Head out. Now.

"Wait, what?" Luka asked his phone, frowning, but he pushed away from the wall and started down the stairs regardless. Marinette was the boss of this operation, so he would listen to her. "Why?"

Marinette's grab of the Bee had gone smoothly- there was no reason for him to have to leave! All she had to do now was wait for the supervillains to leave and for Chloe to go to bed, and then Marinette could just stroll out of the room. Simple, and not- well, it was still a bit risky, but not nearly as much as before.

"Wait- Luka, is that you?"

Startled, Luka glanced away from his phone and came face-to-face with Adrien coming up the stairs and behind him, Kagami. She looked openly exasperated, which was odd. "Adrien?"

"It is you! What happened to your hair?" Adrien leaned closer. "Is that your natural color? Why are you wearing sunglasses at night?"

"It's a disguise," Luka admitted, honestly too surprised that Adrien had even recognized him to try to deny it. "What are you guys doing? I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Adrien's lips quirked up. "I could say the same to you, honestly. But, uh..." He glanced around, suddenly shifty. "We're here for, uh..."

"Oh, you might as well tell him instead of beating around the bush," Kagami cut across, exasperation clear in her voice. She elbowed Adrien, making him stumble to the side with an oof. "Adrien somehow found out that Chloe was getting the Bee Miraculous from Hawkmoth for good tonight, and he had the idea that he might actually be able to persuade Little Miss Selfish to turn back over to the good side, or at least return the Bee to Ladybug. I came to make sure that she wouldn't just skewer him and drop him in the Seine."

"I was also considering just trying to steal it from her," Adrien protested. "I mean, persuasion would have been my first step, but I don't think she would have expected stealing-"

Luka tried not to groan at that. What was this, Magical Jewelry Thievery Night and no one had told him? "You're too late. Marinette's already done that."

Adrien blinked, looking rather as though he had just been clobbered over the head with a codfish. "She- what?"

"Yeah, I've been playing lookout," Luka told them, holding up his phone. He could still hear Hawkmoth's voice in one ear, quizzing Chloe on his instructions. "And watching- Marinette has this camera-"

A loud FWOOOSH over his earbud cut Luka off, and he glanced back at his screen and promptly yelped. "There's fire! Why is there fire? Where did the fire come from? Oh my god-"

"We're leaving," Kagami decided for them when Adrien made to dash up the stairs and Luka had half-turned to follow him. She grabbed their hands and yanked, stopping them in their tracks. "Stop trying to play the hero, Marinette is fully capable of taking care of herself and getting out of there. Come on, let's go!"

Marinette caught up to them several blocks away, after Luka, Kagami, and Adrien had finally stopped. It was far enough away from the evacuated hotel crowds that they could talk without being overheard, but still within seeing distance of the Grand Paris. The fire in Chloe's room was still going, but not nearly as strong as before.

"Oh my gosh, you startled me," Luka said with a half-laugh, handing back his delivery bag- with his outfit and wig stuffed inside, since he hadn't wasted any time in shucking them once they were out of sight of the panicking crowd of guests. "And you somehow changed again? How?"

Marinette just shrugged, looking very put-together and not at all like someone who had just stolen magical jewelry and then committed arson. A dark blue jacket and long, swirling black skirt covered almost all of the bike suit, and her hair was pulled back in a low bun with a sprig of flowers tucked into it. If he ignored the rather strong smell of gunpowder and smoke lingering around her, Luka would think that she had just come from a date. "I hid more clothes in the alleyway that we changed in before. I thought it would be a good idea."

"You are absolutely insane," Kagami informed Marinette. Out of all of them, she seemed to be the only one to share Luka's opinion that the whole ordeal had been crazy and asking for trouble. "Insane. You and Adrien both, thinking that you could steal a Miraculous-"

"I did steal a Miraculous," Marinette pointed out, tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear. "More than one, in fact. The Bee and the Peacock and- wait, did you say that Adrien had the same idea?"

Luka's jaw dropped, staring at Marinette. She had done what now? "You got the Peacock? I- just- how? What?"

Seriously, he had thought that Marinette was just a relatively normal girl, celebrity connections aside. But this- had she gone to spy school or something to be able to pull a heist like that off by herself?

Marinette looked confused by his confusion, which, just. What. She hadn't told him that stealing a Miraculous from a transformed, experienced supervillain was part of the plan! Why would he not be confused?"Yeah? That was why I set the fire, so that they wouldn't be able to see me coming. I would have preferred to get Hawkmoth's Miraculous, but he was already more on edge and in a bad spot and it would have been harder." She shrugged. "Better to get a small fish and be able to eat than to go for a large fish instead and go hungry."

What.

"That's smart, Marinette!" Adrien said eagerly, apparently completely oblivious to how crazy all of this was and apparently either missing or ignoring the implication that Marinette thought that she could have potentially gotten Hawkmoth's Miraculous at all. "The superheroes might be able to use the Peacock create sentimonsters that are tailored to defeat Hawkmoth's akumas so that they can deal with Hawkmoth directly when he comes out! That's a really good Miraculous for them to have!"

...okay, seriously, was there something in the water at Adrien and Marinette's school? Luka wouldn't have been able to come up with an idea like that on the fly, without some serious outside influence. Unless he was actively fighting an akuma as a superhero, Luka wouldn't consider what the superheroes could do to fix it, just because- well, it wasn't his problem.

(That sounded bad, maybe, but it was true.)

"But Hawkmoth still has a number of other Miraculous on his side, does he not?" Kagami questioned. Her expression suggested that she, too, was choosing to ignore the absolute astronomical levels of crazy coming from their friends, at least for the time being. "I mean, I can recognize that any progress is good progress when it comes to getting Miraculous back, and that's a nice point that Adrien made about how they can use the Peacock to counter the akumas, but..."

Luka nodded, remembering what Hawkmoth had said. "Yeah, he had a giant box of Miraculous with him today. Apparently they were going to go visit another ally after giving Chloe the Bee."

Kagami startled at that bit of information and let out a string of words that, considering the context, Luka was assuming was rather colorful swearing in Japanese.

Marinette's lips quirked up into a little smirk that rather reminded Luka of Ladybug when one of her plans worked perfectly and she had taken down a particularly difficult akuma. "Well, about that..."

All three of them turned as one, gaping as Marinette opened the bag at her side and rotated the motorcycle helmet inside to reveal the Miracle Box jammed inside of it.

There- there was no way. How?

"Hawkmoth was too distracted by Mayura's Miraculous getting stolen and the fire to guard the box, too," Marinette explained, looking rather pleased with herself as she rotated the helmet back to hide the box and zipped her bag shut, holding it in front of her where she could keep an eye on it. "He was rushing to get her hidden and akumatized so that her identity wouldn't get revealed. So I grabbed the box on the way out."

"Did you use the Bee?" Adrien asked curiously. "I mean, to get out fast..."

"Yup!" Marinette grinned. "I used the light and distraction from my hairspray firebomb to transform with the Bee, and then I activated Sting pretty fast and got Mayura. Hawkmoth is a big scaredy-cat who would rather turn and run than fight when things aren't going his way, so he wasn't willing to get close."

...was Marinette human? All signs were starting to point to no. Luka was starting to think that if Marinette and Ladybug ever teamed up, Hawkmoth would be flattened in the time span of about an hour. Despite having never actually fought him before, Marinette didn't seem at all scared by Hawkmoth.

And that was honestly pretty unnerving.

"How was your evening, Luka?" Anarka asked as soon as Luka returned to their boat, absolutely exhausted and still smelling very faintly of smoke and gunpowder from the hotel and from standing next to Marinette. "Did it go well?"

Juleka grinned over at him from where she was working on her homework at their table. "How did the jewelry heist go? Did Alya catch you guys?"

Luka paused halfway through rummaging through their fridge for leftovers and turned to Juleka, frowning. "Wait, Alya? Why would Marinette try to steal something from Alya?"

"It was a dare- wait, you mean you weren't trying to get Alya's new bracelet?"

He wished. Not that retrieving Miraculous from a supervillain wasn't more productive or helpful, because it was, but just getting a bracelet for a dare would have been more fun and less worry. Knowing what he did, though, Marinette had probably been able to pull off that particular dare by herself and in the time span of about two minutes. "Uh, no?"

"Well, either way, you weren't the only one to have an exciting evening," Anarka told Luka, handing him a plate of food. "Have you heard yet? There was a huge fire at the top of the Grand Paris! They've gotten it put out now and the only person hurt at all was the mayor's daughter and it wasn't terribly serious, but it broke out really suddenly, it sounds like."

"Yeah, I know, I was there. That was Marinette," Luka told her, resigned to this apparently being his life now. He accepted the plate, striding across the room in a few quick steps before flopping down on the bench next to Juleka. Now that the adrenaline was gone and his heart rate was slowly inching back to normal, he was exhausted. All of his energy had just drained out of him, it seemed, and it wasn't a particularly good feeling. "Somehow she found out that Hawkmoth was going to bring Chloe the Bee Miraculous for good tonight- and she never did explain that- so she decided that she was going to steal it, and then while she was there, she decided to just, like, steal the Peacock and the entire box of inactive Miraculous Hawkmoth had with a can of hairspray and a lighter while she was at it. There might have been the contents of a firework or two too, Marinette wasn't entirely clear on that bit."

For the first time in a long while, his mom was left speechless. Juleka looked impressed.

"Rad."

"She wanted me to play lookout, so that she didn't have to worry about people coming in from the hallway unexpectedly, and I don't think I've ever been so stressed in my entire time." Luka let out a long breath, and yeah, his fingers were still shaking. Even if he had wanted to play guitar to try to relax, he wouldn't be able to. "And Marinette was completely calm, like this was something she did every day! Like, she rejoined us- oh, and by the way, Adrien also showed up to try to steal the Bee from Chloe, with Kagami as his backup, because that was apparently just the thing to do tonight- and she was just all, like, oh, by the way, I didn't JUST get the Bee, I also got the Peacock, and then just grabbed this entire box of Miraculous as a bonus on the way out, AND got footage of Chloe cooperating with Hawkmoth-"

"Oh, she did?" Juleka asked, perking up. "Sweet. Everyone knew that Chloe was lying, we just couldn't prove it."

Luka nodded. It had just been yet another absolutely unbelievable achievement of Marinette's. He had figured that, to get the Peacock and the Miracle Box, Marinette had to have cut her losses somewhere. Apparently not. "She said that she flung it away towards the door and out of reach of the flames before going for the Peacock, then circled back around to grab it after Hawkmoth ran off. She and Adrien were going back to her house to go over the footage and see if they could get any clues about who Mayura might have been."

"You didn't go with them?" Anarka asked, clearly disappointed. "That would have been so cool! Fire and fireworks and rebellion against supervillains- that sounds fantastic!"

"Adrien seemed excited about the idea and I had had enough excitement for one day, so I waited with Kagami until her driver came, and they gave me a ride back." It sounded like an underwhelming end to the night, Luka had to admit, but he had appreciated the opportunity to relax and talk with someone sane and not get roped into any more insane schemes.

Not, of course, that he didn't think that Marinette wasn't sane, but he hadn't expected her to come along with so much excitement.

And stress. Also stress. So much stress.

(Marinette was fantastic and creative and brave and all that, but Luka was starting to think that they might be better as friends, if that evening was any indication of what a relationship with Marinette might be like. His blood pressure wouldn't survive and, well, Marinette would probably do better with a partner who was fully willing to follow her into anything and be more than just a stressed-out lookout.)

"It would be really rad if they figured out who Hawkmoth is," Juleka said, clearly still fascinated. "Alya has been trying to figure that out for months. I bet that she would have loved to come along!"

Luka frowned. Yeah, that was true... and also very odd that Marinette apparently hadn't asked her best friend to play backup for her. The Ladyblogger seemed to thrive on danger and thrills, always taking risks during battles-

-and actually, that was probably why Marinette had decided against bringing Alya. Bravery was important, but so was restraint and common sense. Having someone who could very well decide to go rogue and burst into the room to try to get a scoop would be less than ideal. Besides, from what Luka had seen, Alya seemed to vastly overestimate her best friend's clumsiness and underestimate her frankly superhuman ability to get things done.

"Yes, I'm sure she would have," Anarka said, but her voice came out strange. Luka glanced up from his dinner with a frown, glancing over at his mom, but she was frowning down at her phone. "Luka, you said that Adrien was definitely going to the bakery with Marinette, right? There was no chance at all of him going straight to his house instead, right?"

"Yeah, he was going to Marinette's place," Luka confirmed, frowning. That seemed like a strange thing to suddenly focus on. "Why?"

Anarka hesitated, clearly deliberating for a moment, and Luka's frown deepened. He hadn't ever seen his mom like this before. Normally, she just told them whatever was on her mind, even if it was something that most parents would keep from their kids. Whatever she was seeing on her phone was bound to be serious.

"Mom?"

"I just hope you're right," Anarka finally said after another pause. "Because, well..." She crossed the room and held up her phone, and Luka's heart dropped into his stomach. Next to him, Juleka gasped.

Because there, on the screen, was the Agreste mansion, smoke wafting gently out of the smoking crater where the center of the house had previously been.

This is a one-shot and is complete, but there will be a companion piece coming up on how, exactly, Marinette managed to pull everything off. One hint: magic :)

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #Arson for the Greater Good #marinette dupain cheng #luka couffaine

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jawritter · 5 years ago

Text

Two Out Of Three Aint Bad

Request: I know you said your request are open for Jensen and Dean, but can you write a Steve Carlson X Reader. I feel like he get overshadowed by Jensen a lot in the album and band. Can you make it were the reader falls for him, but he’s insecure, and she has to prove to him that she wants to be with him for him, and isn’t just trying to use to him get close to Jensen. Make it angsty, fluffy, and a little smutty. I understand if your not comfortable doing to. I just love the way u write!!! Thanks!!

Warnings: Smut, Language, Unproteced Sex, Drinking, language. I think that’s it.

Word Count: 3537

Pairings: Steve Carlson x Reader, Jensen Ackles x Steve Carlson, Jensen Ackles x Reader (not dirctly just mentioned), OFC Ashely x Reader, OFC Kasey x Reader

A/N: Okay guys. This was honestly one of the hardest Fic I’ve ever written, and it took me some convincing to actually do it. I do asked that you please keep all mean/hateful comments about this individual to yourself. The reason I wrote this fic was that it was requested, and honestly I saw no resaon upon talking to people not to. As always though feedback is gold! I do love hearing from you guys! Please don’t copy my stuff, this was also cross posted on wattpad. I hope you all enjoy!

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“Come on y/n! It will be fun!” Kasey begs on the other end of the phone, she’d been on you for days about getting out and having some fun for your birthday.

Now it was said night, and you had been avoiding her call all day successfully, well, until she called from someone else’s phone, and you answered like a jackass.

You were currently facepalming yourself.

You didn’t even get a hello in and she was already starting on you.

“Okay seriously Kasey, who answers the phone, ‘come on y/n it wll be fun,’ and why the fuck are you calling me from Ashley’s phone! Don’t tell me you're in on this to Ash!!” you yell into the phone, hoping you were loud enough for her to hear you, or that Kasey had you on speaker phone.

“You bet your ass I’m in on this! Get yourself ready! We’re going to stereotype tonight, and you’re going to have fun damn it! It’s your birthday woman!!”

You rolled your eyes so hard that you were pretty sure you saw your brain for a moment.

“Why can’t you guys just let me stay home with a good book, and a bottle of wine tonight? It’s my birthday damn it. I want to hibernate and act anti-social.” you whine, dragging yourself off the bed, and heading towards the closet in spite of yourself.

You knew they’d be here in probably less than an hour to drag you out of the house now that Kasey has found backup ready or not.

“Hey no one, NO ONE, is spending their birthday alone on my watch! You’re coming out tonight, you’re going to drink too much, make poor decisions, and if you’re lucky you’re gonna wake up in the arms of some stranger in the morning because YOLO damnit!”

You pulled the phone away from your ear, gave it your best bitchface, making a mental note to slap her when you saw her tonight.

“FINE! Only because I know I’m outnumbered, and that’s the only reason I’m agreeing to this! How much time do I have before you get here?” you asked with a defeated sigh, the sound of a car horn just outside your house was your answer.

Closing your eyes you take a deep breath, and try to calm your nerves.

“This is going to be a good night, it’s not a mistake, you can do this,” you say to yourself before you pull your outfit out of the closet, and head towards the front door to let your friends in.

Though the term ‘friends’ was a little generous at the moment, the more proper term would probably be kidnappers.

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An hour later you found yourself sitting in a packed out bar. None of you expected it to be this packed, but it turns out that Jensen and Jared were making an appearance tonight for karaoke night, and therefore there was a gaggle of eager fan girls standing everywhere in clusters trying to get a chance to meet the famous men.

Having lived in Austin most of your life, and having been to the brewery servel times with Kasey, who was an avid Supernatural fan, you’d meet both men before.

While they were both insanely attractive, they were also both married, and therefore you saw no need to spend your time and money drooling over them the way most people around them seemed to do.

You’d gotten a picture with Jensen before at the brewery, you’d gotten an autograph from Jared once, you were satisfied with that.

Your friends on the other hand jumped at every chance they got to get close to them. Therefore they quickly abandoned you alone at the bar with your beer to try and get a chance to see them when they walked in the bar.

“So much for a fun night out,” you thought to yourself and snorted at the irony of the situation you found yourself in.

Out of the corner of your eye you saw a man sit down next to you. “Great another creep to tell that they need to go fuck off!! Happy birthday to me!” you think to yourself.

It did vaguely cross your mind at that moment that you were slowly losing your shit, because talking to the voices in your head wasn’t exactly a healthy thing to do, but they were ridiculously sarcastic and sadistic, and you liked it; so you pushed that down to deal with later.

“You don’t look like you’re having a whole lot of fun.” he said, and you fought the urge to roll your eyes at the stranger, and turned to look at him fully for the first time.

You were surprised by who you saw sitting there.

Steve Carlson.

You knew who he was, you’d been around long enough to know about the album that Jensen along with himself had just released, and you had seen him from a distance the one time you all went to the brewery, but never up close.

There were butterflies suddenly in your stomach, as you shifted nervously on the barstool.

“Are you seriously nervous? He’s just another guy Y/N, pull your shit together!”

You mentally slapped yourself in the face to pull yourself out of your shocked stare, but he was a lot more attractive in person than you would have ever expected.

So you swallowed your smart ass comment before it even got to your lips, something about him just made you feel comfortable, like he wasn’t some jackass trying to get an easy lay, he was just… talking.

“No, I’m really not,” you said, looking back down at your beer, peeling at the label on the bottle.

Smirking to himself he looked across the bar at where you could now see Jensen surrounded by a gaggle of girls wanting selfies.

“Yea, I know what you mean. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to be here tonight, but Jensen begged, so here I am. Wanna be miserable together? I can buy you a drink, and we can hide over here and make fun of fangirls?”

That last comment made you literally laugh out loud, seeing as the current “fangirl” that was almost bouncing up and down in front of Jensen, trying to desperately get his attention was Kasey.

“Okay,” you said, content that you seemed to have found someone else that was as done with the whole fangirl thing that was currently taking place in an already over packed bar

Steve motioned toward the bartender who brought more beers, and placed them down in front of you both.

“So, what brings you out here if you’re so miserable being here?”

“Was forced to come against my will because it’s my ‘birthday,’ and in the immortal words of the fangirl currently jumping and down trying to get Jensen’s attention. ‘You’re going to drink too much, make poor decisions, and if you’re lucky you're going to wake up in the arms of some stranger in the morning because YOLO damnit!’

At that Steve almost fell off the stool laughing that he was sitting on.

“Laugh all you want, but the way I see it is I’m here, might as well get drunk, and getting into the uber I’m going to half to call to get home tonight probably counts as a bad decision; so two out of three ain’t bad.”

“Well that’s why I drove. As you see Jensen is going to be busy for the majority of the night, and the karaoke hasn’t even started yet.” Steve said, taking a big swig of his beer, moving his feet around nervously on the bar stool.

“You know, Jensen probably wouldn’t even notice I’m gone, and your friend wouldn’t notice you neither from the looks of it. There’s this little ice cream place that’s about six minutes from here, it doesn’t close until like 10, would you like to go grab some with me, then if you want I can drive you home? It kinda puts a kink in your whole bad decision part of your plan here, but at least you won’t have to wait on an uber. I promise I’m not some freak, or psycho, or something.” he said, looking down at his beer, and peeling his own label.

You could have sworn you saw a hint of insecurity pull around the corner of his eyes when he avoided your gaze, you knew that feeling all too well, you weren’t exactly a people person either.

“Sure, I’d like that.” you said, sliding off the bar stool, and he looked almost surprised that you agreed to go with him.

“O…Okay..” he got up and offered you his hand a little awkwardly, which you reached out and took.

His hands were huge compared to yours, his skin warm to the touch as he laced his fingers together with your own. It had been so long since you held hands with a guy that you couldn’t even remember the last time you had.

You were both almost to the door, weaving your way through the people when Jensen’s deep voice cut through the crowd surprisingly close to you.

“Steve! Where are you going man? I thought you were going to sing with me?”

Steve stopped in his tracks, the both of you turned around slowly. He was literally grabbing distance from the door, you had almost made it out unnoticed, but almost wasn’t good enough, and Jensen had caught him.

Standing less than three feet behind Jensen was Kasey and Ashely, staring at you wide eyed like you’d lost your damn mind or something. Jensen noticed your hands linked together and smirked at his friend.

“It’s cool though if you need to leave man, I can get Jared to sing with me, don’t worry about it. He owes me anyway.” Jensen said, backing up a few steps. Steve seemed to take a deep breath of relief.

“Yeah, I really don’t feel like the whole drinking thing tonight.” Steve said, both men were having to yell over the music as it started up, and now Kasey and Ashely were really staring at you.

Ashely had this huge grin on her face, but Kasey was giving you a strange look, bordering on jealousy maybe?

“Sounds good man, I’ll see you tomorrow at the brewery?” Jensen asks before giving Steve some awkward hand shake thing that guys do.

You weren’t really paying attention, you were just ready to get out of here. People were pooling in by the minute, and it was even more crowded than it was when you got here.

With that Steve reached for the door, and you both escaped out into the cool night air. Relief flooded you instantly, thankful to be away from the over crowded bar, and out in the open where you could breath.

You thought you had expected, and you were almost to Steve’s car when you heard Kasey calling your name.

“Give me just a minute” you tell him and he nods at you, going to lean up against his car to wait for you at a respectable distance.

“Y/n? What are you doing? Jensen’s in there? You don’t have to leave with Steve just to get in good with Jensen. Just tell him it’s your birthday or some shit. Why are you leaving with him when you have Jensen Fucking Ackles right there?”

You looked at her dumbly for a moment. You couldn’t believe you she had really just said that to you, and judging by the look on Steve’s face when you glanced back over your shoulder, and the way he was kicking the gravel around with his shoes instead of looking at you, you figured that he’d heard her to.

You opened your mouth and closed it a few times before deciding that you didn’t owe such a shallow person an explanation.

“You know what Kasey, you should go back in there with Ashely, she’s probably looking for you.”

Turning on your heels before she could respond you walked the short distance back over to where Steve was standing. Shoving the anger boiling just below the surface down further. It wasn’t his fault fans of Jensen could be ass holes when he was on the property. Steve didn’t deserve your bad mood, just because your friend was being a bitch.

“Are you ready to go,” you asked him? He looked up at you, then back down at his feet, chewing on his lip a little before answering you.

“You don’t have to come you know, if you’d rather stay with Jensen and your friends that’s fine.”

He seemed colder than he was only a few minutes ago inside the bar, and for a moment it confused you.

“What do you mean? I don’t give two shits about following a married man around a crowded bar all night.”

Steve stood up a little straighter shaking his head.

“It’s fine, really, I’m used to it, you don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to.”

Looking back at the bar, then back to Steve who was avoiding looking you in the eye it hit you.

Settling your nerves again, because a forward person isn’t normally what you are, you close the distance between the two of you, wrapping your arm around his neck, and pulling him down to you, bringing your lips to his.

For a moment he didn’t kiss you back like he was shocked, and you were worried that this was the part where yet another guy rejected you, until you felt his arm slip slowly around your waist, pulling you closer to him, returning your kiss hesitantly before deepening it, his tongue running over your lip requesting entrance that you granted him, letting him explore your mouth. His tongue dominates yours before he finally breaks the kiss to breathe, and collect his thoughts.

“I said I want to go with you,” you tell him again, looking deep in his hazel eyes. Your heart was beating so hard you could feel it in your ears.

He nodded after a few seconds, deciding to trust you before opening the passenger side door for you, and making his way around to the drivers side of the car.

You could tell there was a lot more to Steve than meets the eye. There were scars there that he was hiding, old wounds that had obviously gone pretty deep, and healed ugly. You understood that on a lever you didn’t even want to admit to yourself.

The rest of the night progressed well. He took you to a little Ice Cream shop, the conversation flowed easier between the two of you easier than it had between you and anyone else in a very long time.

You talked about the past, where he was from, and what all he had done in his career, how he ended up here in Austin.

You talked about your dreams, your future plans, you talked about failed relationships, and things you wished you could both fix, but couldn’t.

By the end of the night you felt closer to Steve than you had ever felt to a man. Even though he was a bit older than you, you both had some pretty similar experience that seemed to fix you together, drawing you in, in a way that you really didn’t understand and didn’t want to.

Before long it was late, around one in the morning. You’d spent most of the night just talking, and it felt amazing.

Now it was time to go home, and for the first time ever, you didn’t want to say goodbye to him to go and be alone again.

Steve put the car in park outside of your house, and took a deep breath before getting out of the car and walking you to the door.

Stopping on the steps you turned and looked up at him, his eyes seemed to fear the exit as much as you did, not wanting to let go of what you’d both unexpectedly found In each other.

That’s when you decided you didn’t want this to end. For the first time in a long time tonight you were happy, and I’ll be damned if you were going to let this go.

“You uh.. Wanna come in?” you asked, giving him a shy smile that he returned.

“Yeah.. I’d like that.“

Closing the door behind the two of you, you locked the rest of the world away, telling yourself that you deserve this, that It felt right.

Steve closed the distance between the two of you, his arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you close to him. His lips found yours in a deep, passionate kiss. His tongue easily found yours again as he pulled you into him.

Sliding your jacket off you threw it over the chair, and he followed your lead, grabbing his hand you led him to your bedroom, and shut the door.

You felt him come up behind you, brushing your hair away from your neck before leaving a trail of opened mouth kisses from your neck up to your jaw line, making his way up to the shell of your ear, his warm breath fanning over your quickly overheating skin.

You turned around slowly in his arms, unbuttoning his shirt as his lips found yours again, kissing you drunk, sliding his shirt from his shoulders as he backed you towards the bed, unzipping your dress, and letting it fall to the floor.

His eyes raked over you, meeting your gaze as he ran his fingertips over the exposed skin of your side before reaching around, and unclasping your bra, letting it fall to the floor with your dress.

"So beautiful,” he whispers to you before his lips find yours again, brushing over yours softly before deepening the kiss, laying you down over the bed and crawling over you.

His hands trailing over your breast, worshipping your body like no one ever had before him. Dipping his head and taking your exposed nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue and sucking lightly, making your back arch into him, a soft moan falling from your lips.

Reaching down sliding your panties off your body, his hands trailed up your thighs and reaching your aching core, brushing over your clit in soft circles before he pressed two of his ticked fingers Into you, curling them inside of you while his thumb worked against your clit in delicious circles, your hips rolling into his touch on their own.

Your first orgasm hit you like a title wave. Pure pleasure crashing over your body like waves crashing against sandy shores, your body shaking under him as you came down from you high.

You don’t know when he did it, you were too lost, but you felt his thick, heavy length against your inner thigh as he positioned himself between your legs, his swollen tip nudging against your dripping center, and his clothes piled on the floor next to your own.

He brushed the hair away from your face and kissed you softly, waiting for you to come back to him. When your eyes meet his, you saw more love and admiration than you’d ever found in anyone’s eyes before.

“You sure baby, we can stop if you don’t want to do this?”

Shaking your head before your voice would work for you, you brushed your lips against his.

“I want you Steve.”

Kissing you deeply he sank into you slowly, stretching you as his thick throbbing cock sank into you inch by glorious inch until he was fully seated inside of you, hold himself still as he peppered all the skin he could reach with kisses until you rolled your hips against him, letting him know you were ready for him to move.

First his rhythm started out slowly, each thrust deep, hitting you the most sensitive places inside of you before nudged against your cervical wall.

Moans and sweet whispered affections falling from both of your lips as he pulled you both high and higher, every touch burning like under your skin.

His pace picking up as the coil wound tight in your belly, ready to snap at any moment.

“Steve."

"I know baby, I’m right there with you, let go, I gotcha.”

With that the coil snapped, and the strongest orgasm you’d ever experienced hit you hard enough to knock you breathless.

Your body jerks and twitches under him as he works you through it before his own pace starts to falter, your walls squeezing him tightly, sending him to his own release and milking him for all he could give you as he stills inside you, painting your walls with his seed.

Finally when you both regained control over your bodies, he lifted the covers and crawled into the bed with you, wrapping his arms around you, and pulling you as close as possible to him, kissing your neck and shoulders, nuzzling into you. You fit perfectly against his warm body.

“Well when we wake up in the morning you will hopefully still be in my arms, and I guess you’re right. Two out of three really ain’t bad.”

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Tag List: @deanwanddamons @imabitch4jensen @rvgrsbrns @bi-danvers0

#steve carlson #steve carlson x reader #steve carlson fanfiction #steve carslon fic #jensen ackles #jensen acklse x steve carlson #spn fiction #spn family #supernatural #dean winchester #steve carlson smut #smut #fanfiction #fanfiction smut #x reader inserts #jawritter #two out of three aint bad #radio company #radiocomusic

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kurtty-drabbles · 5 years ago

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Pirate au Redone (Final Part)

@dannybagpipesarecalling @djinmer4 @bamfoftheundead @everykurt @muninandhugin

Jean Grey gather all the survivors of the X-men- Rogue gets the credit for her quick thinking as well Cap Pryde because a majority of the X-men is no longer among them, the worst circumstance ever faced by them is not knowing if the other party is dead or just lost- and her brave face is not enough, and right now, she needs to be more than brave. She needs to be what she used to be. Pheonix. Jean almost laugh at such silly thought, after all, she rejected Pheonix to be Jean again...

"How the situation?" Scott asked breaking the silence and Jean thank him inwardly as the man is once again her rock, at the same time, Jean doesn´t want to be on the sideline of this situation. "Krakoa is a real thing or an illusion by Pheonix?" Jean directs this question to Cap Pryde -ignoring Emma Frost smirking and her skimpy outfits barring on classy and whorish, of course, this is Emma´s trademark look- and Kitty watches the room who is now largely thanks to the smaller number of people present.

"Krakoa, the one we knew, was destroyed years ago. Pheonix seemed to have made a new one and enslaved this creature to obey her commands" her tone is earnest and spares no sugar coating. "Pheonix puts all our traumas there...the idea is to torture us and...she succeeds" in the corner of her eyes she can see Kurt curling away and avoiding small talks- Kurt is the one to notice Logan is not present and is the one to have an inkling about his fate- and Kitty can feel pity, but, pity won´t save anyone.

"And Pheonix even make as you´re the one behind tracking young mutants and taking them from their families...Governments´re hating you even if I managed to save all of them..." and Jean can nod at this-it makes sense, Madeline Pryor insinuate something like that and replies is better for her to not watch TV anymore. Jean agrees- and she sighs.

"Pheonix is upset because I reject her." Jean clarify to everyone. Goblin Queen is all in name now- no longer wearing something so salacious, but, is still able to identify herself as Goblin Queen- and the situation is dire enough to prompt Jean and Maddy to work in a sort civil way. "Madelyne, can you ...send Pheonix away?"

Maddy scoffs at her and retribute a sneer of her own-far too similar to Emma, but, not quite- and responds. "Of course...not. The Pheonix is an Outer God...not even Magik could do such thing" and Yana has to agree-powerful as she is, one can´t ignore what Pheonix is, and if she even dares to try...it could only worsen the situation-and Cap Pryde takes the lead once again.

"I know someone who may be able to send Pheonix away, but, since Hope Summers is dead" Scott inhale and exhale but remain wordless. "she may need help from a different source...but, she expels Pheonix once...and can do it again"

Someone pipes in- Kitty is not sure who, the room is bigger and there´s few X-men now- saying the word Pretender. And Kitty can clench her fists and remember M day. "Well, if anyone has a better idea, I´m all ears"

Rogue is saying more stuff about the Pretender, but, is Yana who defends her case. "I can do. I have defeated her once. Together we can get rid of Pheonix...and now...what we shall do with Rachel?"

Jean is saved by reply to this question since is Scott who speaks now. "She´s my daughter, an alternative daughter still counts, and I´ll go after her...talk with her, maybe...we won´t need to ask for Scarlet Witch´s help...maybe, I can ...do something" Scott states and some murmours of doubt are rushing in.

"I can go with you too." Cap Pryde suggested and Scott shakes his head. "No, she loved you" he doesn´t even look at Kurt for many reasons "and was in the closet for longer to properly understand this...I´m her father, Kitty, I own this to her"

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Avengers formed their own cult- according to Tony is not a cult per se, but, anyone can see they´re coping Krakoa´s style-and are watching as Pheonix is no longer being subtle. The image of the living island burning and the shape of Pheonix are glaring at the ocean, no, at all the other mortals.

"Tony...We lost 3 of our powerful members because of your arrogance, you want to continue?"

"Look, the X-men can´t think they have any monopoly of Pheonix...sent the missile. That thing can kill any space worm...I used before and I know.." his words die off as a woman with flaming hair appears -her eyes are pure darkness while only her hair is the source of any light- looks at the man with literal fury in her dark eyes.

"Space Worm? How dare you..."

The Cult of the Avengers is no more.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meggan Puceanu Braddock is not the image of resilience -if you do happen to see her for the first time and see her bubble smile and flawless hair- could let this one slice and be home- in fact, she could watch TV and pretend this has nothing to do with her and carry on with her routine at the best she can, yet, it wouldn´t be Meggan if she didn´t do anything- and Brian remains on her side.

"You want to do this?" he asks in a low tone and Meggan has no words. She only nods and in a matter of minutes, she´s facing the X-men once again. "I´m Gloriana. I´m the Headmistress of Excalibur Academy...and I want to talk about the X-men"

Cap Pryde, Rogue, Jean, and Cap Britain(Betsy) are present and Meggan prefers to give attention to them. "What will happen to the mutants of the US now? The X-mansion is nothing but ashes now" her tone is firm and she refuses to look at any other direction.

"We can rebuild the school" Jean promised and has wide eyes as Meggan shakes her head. "Pheonix makes sure that would remain a dead land, so, I ask again, what you will do with the students?"

Cap Britain gives some suggestions, but, those won´t work in the US territory. Cap Pryde offers a temporary solution. "The Hellfire Academy is still untouched and since Shaw is...as Emma put, more dead than the '80s, we have a backup plan....for now, but, is just as accidental as most of our plans" Kitty confessed and is at the verge of asking how Meggan is doing, when, someone else beats her into.

Kurt asks how Meggan is dealing and this makes the woman react in a way not typical from her time in Excalibur. Her fist is more than ready to slam into Kurt´s face- judging by the size of the fist and her anger, Meggan is wanting to do more than one punch- and Kitty pushed herself to be in the middle.

Meggan´s eyes widen as she sees Kitty´s black eye and a broken nose and shielding Kurt Wagner- who is incredulous by this action- and Meggan looks remorseful at the other woman. "Kitty, I´m so sorry...I just ..."

"I know...you´re angry"

"I just came to say...the Excalibur Academy still opens its door for any mutant who needs help"

"After all ..."

"I´m a heroine...not a great one right now, but, still one and I want to help as many people I can...and yes, I know I´m sounding hypocrite. Sorry, Kurt, I just...you´re a terrible memory to me, please, don´t ever talk with me" and she didn´t even look at the azzure man who is hiding behind Kitty. "And please, you´re no longer my daughter´s godfather. You´re not part of Excalibur ever again"

And she leaves feeling a bit ashamed and frustrated. She wanted to punch Kurt, but, if she had done that...she would have murdered him...and Meggan can understand he´s not completely at fault for what happened to her, but, can ignore it.

Cap Pryde promises the black eye and nose are nothing new and Kurt is left alone with his thoughts.

Such a dangerous thing.

________________________________________________________________________________________ Kurt is on the beach- not Krakoa, Emma Frost´s private island is just an island and nothing more-re-thinking many of his choices. Is he blameless? No, but, he´s not entirely guilty either. This middle term is not something he can work.

"Are you ok?" Kitty inquires sitting next to him and Kurt is once again incredulous- is her always this strong or is she oblivious to her own question?- and Kurt mutters how he´s fine but Kitty isn´t convinced. "I think I know you a bit better than that, Elf, so, talk with me"

"Why you protect me? You should have let she hit me...I deserve it"

"Yeah? Why? Were you and Cable in agreement to rape Meggan?" and Kurt denies this violently and looks offended by this suggestion, Kitty, however, is not changing her tone. "So, is not your fault" and is said as is something simples.

"But...why me? Why you protect me?"

"Do you no want me?" Kitty asked back and her gaze bore into his golden eyes. "We used to be friends, elf, and friends grow apart, but, I think you´re once my best friend...I´m impulsive and brash and you´re slutty and deny the problems in your life...but, once I thought fondly of you and thought you did the same"

"I always think fondly of you, Katzchen...I sent emails...but..."

"Doug hack them, not by choice, he was working with the theory you were one of Pheonix´s clones...you write pretty things about me, but, I don´t think you ever mention this to my face"

Kurt wants to deny and pretend everything is alright- he wants to be angry at Kitty to be a pirate without him or congratulate her for being one- yet, looking at her doe eyes. Kurt can´t lie. "I have a problem, several of them can be tracked to my foster mother and my biological mother, and I can´t deny anymore"

"Kurt?"

"Do you still want to be my friend?"

"We both drift away...and we both can found our way back" she grins and Kurt never felt relaxed as now. "You think Scott can do it?"

"I think Scott is the only man Rachel ever care for"

"Sorry"

"Don´t be...I should know and not jump in a relationship...I don´t think I know what a healthy relationship or love truly is"

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Scott Summers always thought he could fix things in his life- maybe it is a wish-fulfillment from his young age- but looking at Rachel engulfing in the flames of Pheonix and relishing every minute proves otherwise. "Rachel...please, stop this"

"Hello to you too, dad, enjoying paradise?" Rachel asked using her gimpy outfit and looking radiant as she never did before. "Oh, don´t look like that, I wanted to punish Jean Grey...not you"

His jaw clench and he tries again. "Yeah, consider yourself avenger Rachel, now, please, stop this madness..." he would say something else but Rachel stops him. "The X-men are family? Not really...and only if is convenient, but, relax father I got what I want...oh no need to bring your witches here" and Rachel knocks Scarlet Witch and Magik with a psychic blast - they have hidden thanks to magic, but, Pheonix is above such tricks- "I´m leaving"

"Please...don´t. You´re my family..."

"I may be your family...but I gain nothing but pain and misery here" her expression soft a little. "I´m still your daughter ...but Earth is not my home. I´m going to Shiar...tell Jean Grey she´s no longer welcome"

And she flies away finally realizing the family she so much wanted to recreate in this universe is nothing but a futile dream and if she wants to be happy, and Rachel wants nothing more than happiness, realizes she needs to move on.

#Pirate au redone au #Jean Grey wasn´t that great to Ray #Pheonix got the last laugh. I think #Kurt wanger #kurt go do therapy #Kitty Pryde #Kurtty maybe

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gerbiloftriumph · 5 years ago

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So you wanna be a king (pt4)

orrrr mayyyybe juuust cosplay one since that’s way less responsibilities

(incidentally, the fabbo shirt’s from redbubble, https://www.redbubble.com/people/midorilied/works/29739636-do-it-for-him-white-text, if @midorilied doesn’t mind me showing it off)

If you’ve followed along thus far then you should have a cloak, jerkin, pants and boots. A fully wearable Graham perfect for romping around the countryside. But it feels incomplete without the accessories, so let’s give those a try.

Part 4: Pouches n Bracers

(Again, these are all just suggestions and a How I Did It from a very novice cosplayer. Disregard all points, or take the ones you like. improvise adapt overcome)

Perhaps the best part about adventure games is the stuff. The bottomless inventory, a random assortment of strange things that all Do A Thing. Graham carries everything from money to badgers to literal humans in his pockets (presumably his mother is a seamstress trained by the gods).

This...won’t be you. Sorry.

Now, to be fair, I saw a Graham cosplay on tumblr (I’m so sorry, I don’t remember who--does anyone know?) who sewed pockets into their cloak, which is delightful and a very sweet idea!

However, I prefer the swoosh and snap of my cloak, and heavy things like cell phones in your cloak will alter the weight. Something to keep in mind as you decide how to manage your outfit.

(forgive the blur--I haven’t been able to get a still of what it looks like when swooshing. Perhaps now I’ve got real boots I’ll do another gifset of it)

Thus, all my phone, money, keys, and backup freckles (e.g., liquid eyeliner) must live in Graham’s belt pouches instead of cloak pockets. Lord knows what Graham actually keeps in his pouches, game-wise. Squirrel snacks, maybe, to avoid repeating the fiasco from Tourney Day?

This time I followed a pattern. I know, weird, right?

I wanted functionality, but I wanted them to be slim and simple, too. I found a guy on YouTube, and he comes with a .pdf template pattern in his video description! It’s super detailed, easy to follow, and better than me rambling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPhQlaI_UX4

Three years later, they’re starting to look a touch tired. I used a plain dark brown fabric (was it broadcloth?). Half a yard is plenty. If it’s semi-close in color your your belt, ideal. I made two sizes, two large for phone and makeup for touchups, and one small for keys and money. The large ones are 3″ wide and 5.5″ tall, and the small one is 2.5″ by 4.5″, but size them to whatever important things must be on your body at all time.

I added snap clasps to keep them shut (never know when you’ll be pounced by goblins, or trip over a crack in the sidewalk), and I found some plain silver buttons to sew over where the snaps sit--added bonus, hides my sloppy stitchwork. I took some of the leftover suede rope from the jerkin for the front--my ugliest secret is that it’s really horrible looking super glue dribbled everywhere. Hasn’t moved in 3 years, tho. /victory fist bump

I turned the corners of the front flaps so I wouldn’t have square tops. I didn’t trim off the excess fabric since I thought keeping extra weight in the corners would help keep the flaps down. You could always sew in another layer of something sturdier if you didn’t want the flaps to curl over time--it’s probably worth it. It does make a difference.

So, in doing this half-tutorial, I’ve just realized that Graham’s actual model has three pouches of various sizes on his left side only which means I’ve been wearing and drawing him wrong since day one. So. That’s cool. themoreyouknow.gif

(still not changing anything tho; I like keeping my phone on my right side)

Bracers!

Graham’s an archer. So, he’s got bracers on his forearms to protect himself. (presumably his rippling muscles are protection enough since he stops wearing them between his 30s and 70s.)

We have the same problem here as with the jerkin: the bracers seem practically sewn onto his arm. And that’s maybe doable, but I’m mortal, not digital, and I want this to be comfortable and also easy to remove. Now, unfortunately, my method loses the black bands he has on his bracer underbellies--they don’t seem to fit. If you have a nice solution, let me know.

Get yourself a ruler, paper, a scrap of elastic band, a sheet or two of stiff felt (probably like this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Darice-Stiff-inches-5-Pack-FLT-0331/dp/B00KNAKJH6), and all the leftovers from your jerkin.

Measure around your wrist--mine’s 6″, so we’ll use that. Draw a 6″ line on a piece of paper, find the center of the line, mark it. Measure how long down your arm you want the bracer to go. I like 8 and a quarter inches myself (make it as long as you can without the bracer edge rubbing your inner elbow because that gets real old real fast). From the center mark of your wrist line, make a straight line down (a grid is helpful here to keep it straight). At the point where your bracer stops, measure around your arm: I got 9″. Find the halfway mark of your base arm line, add that to the paper. Connect the corners. It should look approximately something like this:

Cut out and test your design to make sure it’s comfortable (you want to forget you’re wearing these. keep them away from your elbow. f’reals). Cut the shape out of your stiff felt, and cut out your brown fabric leftover from your jerkin, with a margin all around so you can fold it over and sew (I did an inch I think, because I’m a coward). For the hand guard, I did half my wrist (3″), then measured my hand to see how high it had to be to just scrape the knuckle. For my hand, that’s about 3″, give or take. Curve it, test it, cut it out of felt and brown alike, and cut out some extra brown to cover the inside of the hand guard too, as you don’t want to see any white against your hand.

Fold the loose edges over the felt and sew it down along the marked places:

Make little snips in the hem of the hand guard hem as you go to achieve that tight curve.

I was nervous about combining the two pieces as I needed easy wrist flexibility. The two lines that aren’t hemmed I left “raw” and sewed the brown edges together as was, so that there’s no stiff felt against the wrist at all.

Another secret: my bracer grommets aren’t the same as my jerkin grommets--they’re much smaller, like 7mm, because I’d planned on making my jerkin with this smaller size earlier to replicate Graham’s tighter lacing but it didn’t work out--the larger ones from your jerkin work fine.

It’s the same process as the jerkin, too. Every inch from the wrist to the elbow gets a grommet, plus its corresponding partner. A-likea so:

The next part might be optional. I cut another piece of brown about the same size as the bracer body again, and sewed the edges along the inside, just past the grommets, so that when you wear the bracer, you don’t see the shirt beneath your laces. It also gives you a place to hide the loose ends of your suede rope once it’s tied into place. Probably optional.

Graham’s bracers have definition near the elbow, and I was annoyed that I couldn’t find a way to fit in the large black bands without messing up the simplicity of my pull on/pull off system, so to reference it I found thin black trim and sewed it along the bottom hem, just below the last grommet.

Okay, lace it with the suede rope and try it for fit. You may notice the hand guard is a bit unwilling to stay attached. Get the super glue, and--

no wait please don’t do that

let’s just make an elastic ring instead

My elastic was white: I colored it with a brown marker so it wasn’t as jarring if anyone caught sight of it. Sew it into your existing hemline, wherever it feels natural to wear it as a ring on your middle finger. A strip of fabric or trim might work as well, but the elastic makes it easy to pull on.

I desperately need to update my gray wristbands with real rope. This is trim, and I do not like it. But it was free, at the bottom of my cosplay bin, and I’m so tired of spending money on this costume.........anyway, loop the rope of choice three times around your wrist, sew it into a closed loop to avoid dealing with knots and bows, and tug the whole thing on and off over your hand. pls do not make it too tight.

And that’s looking like a proper cosplay. Just a few more accessories and also the hat. I assume everyone just wants the adventuring hat, but if there’s any interest in the crown, I could toss that in too, maaaayyyybbeeee?

#kings quest #King Graham #King's Quest #cosplay #midorilied #hey midorilied if you don't want your shirt in here lemme know i'll swap for a different picture #just two more to go~!#tutorial

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themachiavellianpig · 5 years ago

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Prodigal Son, Episode 13: Is this what they mean by “working holiday”?

Episode 13 of Prodigal Son, and I'm really late to this party but I am having such a good time right now because this was the most fun episode of Prodigal Son that we have had for quite a while. Holiday suits! Mockery! Monte Cristo themed elaborate demises!

Full review and spoilers below.

Seriously, guys, I am so glad I started watching this show.

The episode beings with a fun look at Malcolm's and Martin's relationship from Martin's own perspective, something that we've been mostly missing up until this point. Given just how gosh-darned enigmatic Martin could be, the opportunity to peak at his subconscious was delightful. Dream!Malcolm was entirely unsubtle, as dreams often are, but it was interesting that Martin admitted openly that Malcolm probably shouldn't be visiting him - even if he can only admit that in his nightmares.

Meanwhile, Actual!Malcolm is trying and failing to muddle his way through a yoga routine, with traumatic flashbacks really throwing off his balance. But it's fine, Malcolm doesn't need his yoga today - he's going on an actual holiday. Jessica bursts in with two gifts for her son - a new holiday outfit and a lift to the airport, courtesy of Gil, who is similarily thrilled that Malcolm is actually taking some time off.

Given how well he knows Malcolm by this point, it really was a bit of an oversight for Gil to leave the police radio on, given that Malcolm has never met a crime scene he didn't want to profile over dinner. Gil's exasperated "Fine!" when agreeing to take Malcolm along made me actually snort with laughter, but not as much as the team's reactions to the white holiday suit - Miami Vice, Bond Villain, Coke Dealer, Colonel Sanders and Ivory Poacher are all suggested as new careers for the snappily dressed Malcolm.

Malcolm brushes aside the gentle mockery to examine the body of a former district attorney who had been shot with a flintlock pistol and had the name of a character from the Count of Monte Cristo carved into his arm.

The crime scene is immediately enlivened by the presence of Dr Tanaka (yay!) and a landmine (definitely not-yay!).

Malcolm, in the first of at least three superhero acts this week, manages to catch the landmine's trigger before it fully activates, giving the coroner's team time to grab the body and hustle out, accompanied by the rest of the team at Malcolm's insistence that he had a plan.

He did not, of course, have a plan when he said that, but fortunately our lead character is very good at thinking on his feet. I'm not sure it would ever have occurred to me to grab a flintlock pistol and use it to shoot my way out of a crime scene's window before a landmine exploded behind me, but that is one of many reasons why I will never be a consultant for the NYPD. I am, however, very sorry about Gil's car, and I'm reasonably sure that Malcolm is as well.

And, of course, it's in that moment, sitting there with an actual landmine in front of him, that Malcolm speaks to his father for the first time in months. Martin is very unconcerned about the landmine, possibly because he's too delighted that Malcolm apparently wanted to hear his father's voice at such a time.

We also get the chance to see Martin back in his normal prison routine, which apparently includes browbeating an inmate called Hector to pretend to be Malcolm in "therapeutic roleplay" so that Martin can practise his conversations with his son ahead of time.

Bloody hell, this family, you guys.

And then Martin calls the police station to share his thoughts on the case with Malcolm and the team. He's still apparently very desperate to know about Malcolm's life, wanting to be introduced to the whole team before he talks shop, and clearly on his best behaviour in front of his son's friends.

I now desparately, desperately want to see him interact with Edrisa. Just, I think that conversation would be amazing and I will pay good money to see it. Please? But only if Edrisa comes out entirely and utterly unharmed.

Now, one of the many advantages of Malcolm grabbing the flintlock pistol as he escaped an exploding landmine is that it made it far easier to trace the gun back to the man who purchased it - who they then find wired into an elaborate sword trap, because apparently Prodigal Son is leaning back into its Hannibal vibe this week.

And then Malcolm gets the team to cut the man free while he catches the falling swords before they impale their new source. And amazingly no one really tries to stop him.

Sidenote: I am so glad that both I and the show itself decided to stop take all this crime-fighting business so seriously. And the slide under all the tripwires was also extremely cool, I will admit.

Once not-at-risk-of-impalement, their new source fills them in on the person he purchased the gun and the swords for - Mr Taylor, a member of the so-called New York royalty, who is about to get married in the social event of the season (which Jessica has scored an invite to and which Ainsley is reporting on, and I feel that having two Whitlys at any event surely infinitely raises the potential of hijinks. Surely.)

We get a little bit of next backstory - a very suspicious "accident" in which Isabella, the daughter of the family's cook, was killed and which the drug-using Taylor heir had absolutely nothing to do with,thank you very much.

Such a tale of woe, all neatly swept under the rug by the family's enforcers who are now being targetted, fits the Monte Cristo theme so neatly that the team immediately zeroes in on Cal Taylor as the third victim, and Malcolm and Gil head over to ruin a man's wedding day.

And a good thing they did too, because they find Ernesto, Isabella's father, running around the old bootlegging tunnels, surely up to some sort of nefarious deed.

With a really good suspect in custody, Gil does, to his credit, do his absolute best to get Malcolm to go on his holiday, even sending Dani along to make sure he goes to the airport. But Dani and Malcolm are increasingly thick as theieves and, when Malcolm admits that he doesn't want to go on holiday because he's scared of what he thinks about with no work to distract him, she agrees to go with him to visit Martin - Malcolm isn't convinced by Ernesto as the killer, and he wants a second opinion from someone who is not constantly trying to put him on an airplane.

And this, not the dream sequence from earlier, is the first time that Malcolm and Martin really see each other since Malcolm learnt about the camping trip. Unlike the hallucination of Martin from two episodes ago, the real Martin doesn't admit to doing any such thing - not because he would have been incapable of killing his own son, but because he wouldn't have failed to do so if that was truly his wish.

Which, you know, isn't a very comforting response, but it doesn't feel a lot more honest than a lot of the stuff that Martin says.

It's enough for Malcolm to hand over the case file, at any rate. Martin agrees that Ernesto doesn't fit, claiming that such an ending lacks the drama surely required by the earlier crime scenes. Malcolm instead zeroes in on Isabella herself - what if she wasn't actually dead, but instead was back for revenge against the people who took everything from her?

After a brief pause to get Malcolm and Dani dress-code approved, the two gatecrash the wedding (with Gil's knowledge - I'm so glad Malcolm might actually be learning about 'backup' and 'telling people where you're going', I really am),

They get another conversation with Cal Taylor, Isabella's former boyfriend, who admits to driving the boat, admits to loving Isabella, and admits that he begged his father to help find Isabella after the crash - and that his father refused to even call the authorities, valuing his son's future over a girl's life.

And so the final victim isn't going to be Cal at all, but his very smarmy father instead. Realising at literally the last possible moment that Isabella was planning to shoot Taylor Senior during his speech, Malcolm grabs the microphone and fillibusters his way through several excuriating minutes about failed fathers and quiestionable choices before Isabella reveals herself - and the gun she stole to shoot Taylor.

There was then a fantastic little moment in which Malcolm tries to talk down Isabella with a quote from Dumas - and for a brief moment it seems like maybe it worked, but then Isabella goes all shooty instead. In his third and final superhero act of the week, Malcolm tackles Taylor behind the table before Isabella can kill him, and Dani gets to arrest someone while looking absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

Jessica basks in a little positive social publicity as her son is revealed to be the saviour of the night - genuinely, the look on her face when Malcolm introduced himself as her son was adorable. And then she steals an entire bottle of champagne on her way out, because she deserves it.

Finally, on the way out, Malcolm and Jessica check in with Ainsley, who seems delighted that she gets to report on an attempted murder rather than just a boring society wedding. And we get confirmation that Jessica was invited to the wedding because her daughter sneakily pulled some strings, just because she knew how much getting invited to an event like the Taylor wedding would mean to her socialite mother. It is perhaps the cutest thing Ainsley has done so far this season, and I love her a little bit for it.

Previous Prodigal Son reviews are available here.

#prodigal son #Episode Recap #episode review #Thomas Payne #michael sheen #bellamy young #Keiko Agena #themachiavellianpig watches

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pftones3482 · 6 years ago

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Commission for @crazyfanatic97. Part 1 of 3. Under a cut for length. Follow up to their last commission from me.

Honestly, how many places were there to hide in Danville? Considering the population rested at under 5,000, the actual city wasn't nearly as big as it felt to Vanessa in that moment. ESPECIALLY considering the fact that her father was a freaking cow, there were probably only two or three dozen places he could conceivably hide.

And yet somehow, she, Monty, and Perry had lost him.

They were stopped in the park, hands on their hips as they studied the darkened trees around them.

"How do we just...lose a whole cow?" Monty finally managed.

His vampire cape fluttered in the slight wind and Vanessa smirked a little, lifting an eyebrow at him. "Keep in mind, he's a whole, sentient cow who doesn't want to be caught. And that is...officially the weirdest sentence I've ever said."

Perry shook his head in irritation, though Vanessa could see the faint curl of amusement on his bill. He gestured at one path leading towards the city, and then at himself, and then at another path, which led towards the woods, and back to Monty and Vanessa.

"Seriously?" Vanessa groaned. "You want US to go into the woods to look for him?"

Perry crossed his arms over his chest and lifted both eyebrows, and Vanessa sighed. "Fine. But if we get killed, it's on you."

He saluted cheekily and vanished down the other path.

Monty turned to Vanessa. "He totally did that on purpose."

"Oh absolutely."

"Shall we take the dark, ominous looking path into the woods, perchance to never come back, or go back to the party?"

Vanessa sighed. "I should probably at least TRY to find my father."

Monty grinned. "Fair enough," he chuckled.

He offered an arm and Vanessa took it in amusement, walking alongside him into the woods. For a bit of time, all they could hear was the crunching of their own footsteps and the owls and bugs in the trees and bushes. They laced hands after a while instead of holding arms, Vanessa using her extra hand to hold up her skirts. She regretted leaving her shoes behind at the party.

They managed to traverse pretty much through the whole section of woods without spotting her father, coming out on the other side of the forest to stare up at the town center. Vanessa eyed her father's building and pursed her lips, thinking for a moment. "What if we just...go get some –inators to find him?" she asked.

Monty furrowed his brows. "Like what? His dress-inator?"

Vanessa slapped him playfully on the chest. "Shut up. No. Like, he has a couple –inators that are for tracking. We could modify one to locate cows? Or something?"

"And then what, eliminate the ones on the far side of the city?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Monty thought about it for a moment. As much as he didn't want to use evil machinery for a mission, he had to admit it was a genius idea. Short of going back to OWCA and admitting to his father that he had been hanging out with the enemy's daughter, the only other idea he could think of involved getting Perry's owners in on their search, and that wasn't something he planned on doing any time soon.

"Yeah, okay," he finally said. "Lead the way."

She took the initiative, digging her keys out of her dress pocket (thank you, past Vanessa, for putting that in there) and buzzed them into the lobby, smacking her thumb into the button to call the elevator to them.

It was a quiet ride up, and Vanessa felt almost uncomfortable. Now that she thought about it, she and Monty were rarely alone-alone. They usually went out in groups, or were being stalked by Perry on her dad's behalf. It was weird, to say the least.

"So-" she said at the same time that Monty said, "Weird day, huh?"

They looked at one another and burst into laughter. "Why is this so weird?" Vanessa chuckled.

"No platypus following us around," Monty joked, though there was a serious undertone to his voice.

She snickered, and the bell on the elevator dinged to indicate that they had reached the Penthouse Floor. "Come on. He's got a bunch of old ones lying around in the guest bedroom."

"You have a guest bedroom?" Monty asked in surprise.

Vanessa chuckled. "Yeah. With the clutter in this place, sometimes even I forget it exists."

She unlocked the door and flicked the lights on, and she led Monty to the spare bedroom, which, true to her word, was littered with objects that Monty couldn't even begin to comprehend.

He cracked his knuckles and looked to Vanessa, who was heading to her room. "Going to change," she explained, gesturing at her ball gown that Monty had to admit wasn't conducive to late night father-hunting.

"While you do that, I'll start searching," he said.

When Vanessa came back out five minutes later, Monty was sitting on the floor surrounded by smaller –inators and pieces, looking totally baffled. "Need some help?" she laughed.

Monty glanced up and his jaw loosened a bit when he saw her, making Vanessa shift uncomfortably. While the ballgown wasn't a good plan for late night searching through the forest, neither was her usual outfit, so she had opted to change into converse, black skinny jeans, and an oversized gray sweatshirt. Her hair was pulled back into the same updo it had been for her Belle costume, and she had the sudden urge to shake it out. "What?" she demanded after a long second of silence.

Monty shook his head, clicking his mouth shut. "Nothing," he murmured. "Just...never seen you in such casual clothes."

"Yeah, yeah, I look like I took a tumble into the laundry basket," she said with a wave of her hand. She knelt on the floor next to him and started picking up various –inators, trying her best to remember which ones were which.

Monty settled a hand on her knee, squeezing gently and giving her a small smile. "Not at all."

His breath was soft, and Vanessa found herself flushing at the unspoken compliment. "Well, thank you. We need to focus, though. Have you seen the transport-inator? He made it pretty recently."

Monty stopped, nearly facepalming. "That...would probably be the number one I was looking for. Yeesh. Where would it be?"

Vanessa stood back up, shifting from foot to foot, and glanced around the room. "Well, he organizes alphabetically, for the most part, so..."

She waded through the piles of machinery, hopping over a few smaller ones, and landed in a standing position by the far window that looked out onto the street. She was dwarfed by the three or four tall inventions that stood in the space, and she scanned those ones only, knowing that the transport-inator (the remade model, obviously, seeing as the first one had been blown up) was taller than the others.

It was nowhere to be seen, and she sighed. "To the basement, then," she grumbled, stumbling back over to Monty.

He caught her by the elbow as she tripped, grinning. "The basement?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Yeah. He keeps the big-big stuff and the potentially explosive stuff down there. I didn't even think it wouldn't be up here."

"Back to the elevator then?" he chuckled.

"You got it."

She took one last glance around the room and then led Monty out of the apartment, locking the door again while he called for the elevator.

The atmosphere inside was more relaxed this time, more joking and teasing about the whole "your father is a literal cow" situation, more playful banter, and it felt like only a few moments before they were entering the eerie, damp cell that was the basement of Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.

Vanessa found the gross, musty bulb in the center of the room, clicking it on and coughing at the amount of dust that kicked up when Monty followed her inside. "He really hasn't been down here in a while, has he?" she grumbled, more to herself than anything.

Monty ran a finger along one of the tables containing the old –inators, his nose wrinkling when it came back more black than skin colored. "You can say that again. How is everything organized down here?"

Vanessa gave him a vague shrug, wiping her already dusty hands on her jeans. "No idea. It's a taller machine, so just start looking at the big ones."

"Copy."

Vanessa shot him a wry smile at the formal speak and Monty flushed and shot her a sheepish smile. "Sorry. Habit."

She hummed and they broke onto separate sides of the room, the sounds of digging and metal scratching across rough concrete surfaces the only indication that they were actually looking for something specific.

After roughly four minutes, Monty called out. "This it? It looks like something that would take someone to another location?"

Vanessa set down the helmet in her hands and hopped over to where Monty was standing and staring up at a relatively tall and pointy machine. "What makes you say that?" she asked as she got closer.

Monty pointed at the wheel on it. "Those are all locations. Well, except the "in my pants" one. Although I guess that technically COULD be-"

"Monty," Vanessa interrupted. She chuckled at the look on his face. "Yes, this is it. Okay, so..."

She squatted to look at the wheel, her eyes glazing over the words and a frown twitching at her lips. "So possibly the closest thing is the "family member" section? But what if it just takes us to a random person? Or can you even go, seeing as he isn't family for you?"

Monty shrugged. "Worst case scenario, you just call me and we have to figure out a way to get you out of a foreign country or I have to grab my car and come find you before your father kills you with his hooves."

"He wouldn't do that," Vanessa snorted. She paused, and then her eyebrows furrowed. "At least...I don't think he was. Perry wouldn't have let us help if he thought he was super dangerous, would he?"

Monty's hands settled on either one of her shoulders and Vanessa glanced up at him, eyes wide. He had a sincere smile on his face. "Hey. He's your dad. Even if he IS evil, which sometimes I really doubt, I don't think he could hurt you. I wouldn't risk sending you alone, without backup, if that were the case."

"What, don't think I can handle myself?" she teased.

Monty's lips twitched. "I wouldn't be dating you if you couldn't. Not with the line of work our parents are in."

Vanessa chuckled, her chest a little lighter. "Dating, hmm? Did we ever actually make that official?"

Monty's cheeks flushed and he stammered, pulling back. Vanessa rolled her eyes and pressed up on her tiptoes to settle a light kiss on his cheek. "Come on, lameo. Set that –inator to fire. If I end up in Drusselstein, I end up in Drusselstein. I'll live."

He chuckled, lifting his hands up and cupping her cheeks before she could move away, dusting a somewhat firmer kiss to her mouth. "Fair enough," he murmured. "Call me if you do end up there. Or if I don't end up there with you, I guess."

Vanessa snorted and turned to plug the machine in, twisting the dial until it was set on the "family" slice of the pie. She set the timer clock for ten seconds, moved quickly to stand next to Monty in front of the laser, and grabbed his hand.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered.

He squeezed her hand once as the –inator started whining, indicating that it was about to fire. "Or everything."

"That was really cliched, Monty."

"I watch too many action movies."

The –inator fired.

#my writing #pnf #phineas and ferb #vanessa doofenshmirtz #monty monogram #perry the platypus #fanfiction

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burning-up-ao3 · 5 years ago

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20 Penguins Thoughts: The timeless art of hating your friends

JASON MACKEY Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [email protected]

NOV 12, 2019

As if playing against his former team wasn’t enough, Dominik Kahun wrestled with another reality last week as the Penguins prepared to host the Chicago Blackhawks.

On the other bench would be Dominik Kubalik, Kahun’s good friend and former linemate. Born in Czech Republic towns located less than an hour from one another, Kahun and Kubalik grew close during their time with Chicago.

Now, Kahun knew it was time to flip that proverbial switch, turning Kubalik from friend to foe.

“It’s fun,” Kahun said of the inevitable reality of sharing the same slab of ice with a good friend. “You usually don’t see them often. You always talk to them a little bit during warmup. I’m excited.”

Matt Vensel

Injured Sidney Crosby won't travel with Penguins on upcoming road trip

What transpired Saturday was exactly what one might expect: There was some talk during a close game, a 3-2 Penguins shootout win, and Kahun and Kubalik, without anything overly noticeable, went their separate ways, their second and final meetup this season not until March.

While playing against a good friend never lacks for fun — ask Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury how those meetings have gone — they usually aren’t overly physical, the opposite of former football teammates occasionally trying to exact revenge.

Well, except for that one time …

2. It was Nick Bjugstad’s first full NHL season, in 2013-14. Early November game, in Washington, and the Florida Panthers would lose in a shootout.

But it wasn’t the result that Bjugstad remembers. During one particular post-whistle scrum, Bjugstad reached for the closest Capitals player he could find and put one of the league’s more talkative defensemen into a headlock.

Turns it out it was fellow Minnesota native Nate Schmidt.

“We didn’t know it was ... each other,” Bjugstad said. “So we both kind of got each other in a headlock. Then I realized it was Nate. He realized it was me. We just kind of laughed.”

Matt Vensel

Penguins' power play looking for someone to create chaos

Playing against good friends — Bjugstad has another in Maple Leafs defenseman Justin Holl, a fellow former Minnesota Gopher — might produce some funny moments, and these guys aren’t out to maim one another.

But Bjugstad said playing one of your buddies is hardly approached with a laissez-faire attitude.

“You want to have the bragging rights, so you don’t want to get beat in any way,” Bjugstad said. “It’s fun to get competitive.”

3. For Jake Guentzel, yet another Minnesota guy, his awkward, on-ice confrontation revolves around Brock Nelson, who’s from ... you guessed it.

Whenever the Penguins play the Islanders, things are bound to be a little more intense, with the on-ice chatter always a little more than usual.

“It was a weird time last year in the playoffs when we were going at it,” Guentzel said.

But back home in Da Beauty League, Minnesota’s terrific summer hockey outfit, any bad blood was quickly shoved aside, even if they had wanted to rip one another’s head off just a few months prior.

“It’s just a battle,” Guentzel said. “I think guys know it. It gets intense. After the game, it’s like nothing happened.”

4. There was a fun sidebar to this story that really didn’t fit anywhere else.

In the Penguins dressing room, Bjugstad and Jared McCann are almost always seated next to one another. They’re also good-natured, almost always available and great with offbeat topics such at this one.

After chatting with Bjugstad, I went next door and posed the same question to McCann, who surprisingly wasn’t much help at all.

“I don’t really have one specific story, no,” McCann said. “A lot of my buddies I grew up with don’t play hockey anymore. I’m not from Minnesota, where everybody plays hockey.”

McCann, who does a pretty good Minnesota accent, is from Stratford, Ontario, which is about two hours west of Toronto. McCann’s dad owned his own construction company and literally created a hockey rink in his backyard.

Also, it’s Canada. Can-a-da. Where hockey trails only eating, drinking and sleeping.

5. Anyway, McCann said his best friend on another team was probably James Reimer, formerly of the Florida Panthers and currently the backup in Carolina.

One small problem here, though: There’s very little trash talk that goes on between the two good friends — McCann actually stayed at Reimer’s house to watch his dog when the latter’s wife gave birth to their first child — because they like each other so much.

“Would I chirp him? No, he’s too nice,” McCann said with a laugh. “I would feel so bad if I did. He’s just such a genuinely good person. He’s never chirping or anything. He’s just an honest hockey player.”

6. Speaking of chirping, a few of the Penguins I talked to for this story flat-out stink at talking trash.

“I’m no good,” Marcus Pettersson said. “I just try to stay out of it.”

Added Bjugstad, “Usually when I start chirping, it backfires on me.”

Jack Johnson said playing a good buddy isn’t necessarily about talking trash for him. In fact, Johnson said he’s actually liable to take it a little easy on a good friend.

“You hit each other hard, but he doesn’t get the extra slash or cross-check,” Johnson said.

He also doesn’t get any phone calls or text messages, Johnson said. Both times they’ve met in the playoffs, Johnson and Penguins captain Sidney Crosby refused to talk to one another during the series.

“First time we talked was in the handshake line,” Johnson said.

7. My favorite anecdote from this story wasn’t directly related, unfortunately.

Bryan Rust was the first player I approached, knowing he and Islanders captain Anders Lee — a pair of Notre Dame products — are close.

That playoff series was especially awkward for them, although neither one runs around like an idiot. Just good, hard fun.

“In warmups you try and make eye contact,” Rust said. “You pass each other a puck and have a little bit of fun. On the ice you might say a few things to each other from bench-to-bench.

“I think everyone is pretty good at kind of drawing that fine line between having fun but still going out there and trying to win a game.”

The funny anecdote was this: Rust actually learns other languages to try and annoy players of different nationalities on the ice. Some serious respect there.

“I try and learn a few different languages to maybe say some inappropriate things to guys and catch them off-guard,” Rust said.

Caught me off-guard, too. Definitely didn’t see that one coming from Rust.

8. Moving on.

I’ve beaten this drum plenty before, and I also know it’s early. But at this rate, assuming this sort of stuff continues, I really hope Mike Sullivan gets some love for the Jack Adams Award.

This can be kind of a funky thing. Mike Babcock has never won it, and that, by itself, is absurd. But it tends to go to the guy who has helped his team author the best story or overcome the most odds. Barry Trotz with the Islanders last year was a perfect example.

Sullivan has done that this season. Almost every forward on their roster has been injured at one point or another, including Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist. They traded Phil Kessel. Oh, and Kris Letang is hurt, too.

Coming off that playoff loss to the Islanders, Sullivan has adjusted his system to apply more puck-pressure and change how the Penguins play.

If there’s been a better coaching performance around the NHL thus far, I haven’t seen it.

9. The power play should also be factored into Sullivan’s performance this season, but I’m not sure which way to take that.

Obviously it has been terrible, but I’m also fairly confident Sullivan isn’t coaching them to over-pass, over-think or flat-out botch their breakouts. If he is, they should definitely adjust that strategy.

As Sullivan said after Saturday’s game, it’s hardly been one thing. He also admitted his guys are pressing.

Here’s a borderline insane suggestion: While Crosby is out, how about taking Alex Galchenyuk and putting him in the right circle, where he often thrived with the Coyotes?

What’s the worst that could happen, they don’t score?

10. Rust had one of the more confounding starts to a season I had ever seen in 2018-19, when he scored just one goal in his first 29 games, then exploded for a hat trick when the puck followed him all night during a 6-3 loss at Chicago on Dec. 12, 2018.

What a difference a year makes.

In an interview before the season, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford had some interesting things to say about Rust and others who were a little too content with their success.

“Not that he played poorly, but he’s an example of a guy who I don’t think played at the level he was capable of a year ago,” Rutherford said. “That just gets to contentment. But he’s not the only guy. I’m not trying to single him out or pick on him.”

Rutherford went on to say that, “Bryan Rust was our best player at camp this year.”

After Rust was forced to hit the pause button on that when he was injured blocking a shot in the final preseason game, we’re seeing what Rutherford — and others — saw all through training camp.

11. With his third-period goal on Saturday, Rust extended his point streak to a career-high six games, where he’s scored a total of five goals. All of those since he returned from injury on Oct. 26.

“I guess things feel good,” Rust said with a smile. “I might know better than anyone else that things can turn just as quickly for the bad. I just have to keep plugging away here.”

I asked Rust to describe his approach coming into training camp and what has helped him rediscover his scoring touch.

“Just a fresh start,” Rust said. “Try to put everything in the past behind me. Obviously I felt really good through training camp. Felt great to start the year. Obviously an unfortunate injury with five minutes left in the last preseason game. Kept me out of some games there. I just kept working hard off the ice and kept wanting to play well.”

12. It’s no secret that the Penguins love Rust. Sure, he’s been big in playoffs games. Has scored a bunch of huge goals for the Penguins over the years. He has also played both wings well and has moved up and down the lineup with ease. Recently he’s been very good on Malkin’s wing.

Rust’s game — being hard on pucks and an all-around pain in the butt — has also meshed extremely well with the Penguins’ new identity.

“The biggest thing for me that Rusty has shown since Day 1 of training camp is just a sense of urgency and a certain hunger to his game,” Sullivan said. “When he plays his way, that’s when he’s at his best. I think he’s done that consistently game in and game out, day in and day out, even in practice.”

13. In that preseason interview, Rutherford also said he thought the addition of Brandon Tanev — another versatile and tenacious wing — would be good for Rust. Turns out that was probably right, too.

“We always talk with our players about being a next-effort team,” Sullivan said. “I think Rusty right now probably personifies next-effort play. He’s like a dog on a bone on the puck. He’s relentless.”

With some pretty solid scoring touch to boot.

14. Funny quote from Rust after Saturday’s win: “[Coming back from another deficit] shows a lot of character in this room, but we’re really not making it very easy on ourselves.”

The Penguins spotted their opponent three-goal leads on Monday and Thursday of last week. On Saturday, it was a 2-0 hole they had to erase.

Not exactly a recipe for success, but give the Penguins credit: They’ve found ways to win.

“We have a great group,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got good people. They’re buying in right now, and they’re playing hard for one another.

“I give our leadership a lot of credit. The guys in the room, our veteran guys, they’re leading the way there. And then some of our younger [guys] are bringing a certain level of enthusiasm.

“When you get that combination, for me, that’s a fun combination to be around. And we’ve had that a lot of this year.”

15. The impact of Malkin is absolutely noticeable.

I know it’s hardly a surprise, but similar to Rust, what happened to Malkin last season was hard to describe; at times it was like he suddenly forgot how to play hockey.

That’s in the past now.

I thought Sullivan captured this perfectly after Saturday’s game in talking about Malkin’s game, saying that they don’t want to stifle the star center’s playmaking ability, but they do need to compromise on some things.

“He’s buying in to how we’re trying to play,” Sullivan said. “He’s trying to play a more north-south game even though his instinct sometimes is to play east-west.

“We’re not trying to change Geno. That’s what makes him what he is. That’s what makes him unique. All we’re trying to do is we’re asking him to meet us halfway a little bit, and he’s done that. He’s done a great job since he’s been back.”

16. I thought Justin Schultz quietly bounced back very nicely during an eventful game Saturday night.

His ill-timed pinch, with zero support, led to the Blackhawks’ first goal. A Schultz shot attempt that never found the net inadvertently led to Chicago’s second goal.

But in overtime, Schultz made a terrific play to knock the puck away from Alex DeBrincat on a two-on-one.

It doesn’t show up on the scoresheet, but it was a huge play at the time.

17. Loved the pass by John Marino on Rust’s goal. Such poise for a young kid. Most players Marino’s age would’ve taken that shot, but he wisely took an extra second and found Rust all alone at the bottom of the left circle for a beautiful back-door goal.

“He’s just getting better with every game that he plays,” Sullivan said of Marino. “I think he’s getting more confident every game that he plays. That was a real nice play he made. Just the puck poise, the patience, the vision to see Rusty on the back side. It was just a terrific play.”

It’s pretty much impossible to think of the Penguins’ top-six on defense at this point without Marino. He has absolutely earned a regular spot in the lineup.

18. It’s noticeable that Galchenyuk is lacking confidence.

Three times in the first period Saturday, Galchenyuk had chances to put the Penguins ahead early. Three times, Galchenyuk could not beat Corey Crawford, including one nifty attempt between his legs.

Wrote about this some last week, but the Penguins need Galchenyuk to find it. It’s there, but he’s thinking entirely too much when the puck is on his stick.

19. Number of the week: Plus-12.

That’s McCann’s rating over the past five games, the best on the team. He also has two goals and six points during that stretch.

I’ll admit that I was a little surprised that Sullivan sent McCann out as his third shooter in the shootout, but McCann made his coach look smart by firing high over Crawford’s right shoulder for the shootout-deciding goal.

I’m not backing off my prediction that I think McCann will get 20 goals this season.

20. Non-hockey thought of the week:

I was saddened to learn last week the Wilson’s BBQ on the North Side burned down. Incredible place. My favorite to get BBQ in Pittsburgh. Their spicy sauce was nothing short of incredible.

I’m glad everyone is OK, but I’m also rooting for owner George Wilson Jr., hoping he’s able to build his business back up.

Pittsburgh is what it is because of awesome local businesses like Wilson’s and also Nancy B’s, where I went last week for my birthday. Another have-to-go recommendation.

Jason Mackey: [email protected] and Twitter @JMackeyPG.

#Pittsburgh Post-Gazette #Jason Mackey

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sanstropfremir · 4 years ago

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Okay, time for my weekly rant so buckle up. The vocal stages were okay-I cant really remember them well because I watched them only once so take what I say with a grain of salt. Well I watched the Spark one once and I only got through half of the other one because I can’t stand ballads especially when there’s no interesting movement on stage to keep me engaged. Like it’s no fault of the members themselves or the song (I actually think their singing was incredibly beautiful and Eunkwang always sings like his wife just left him with the kids which is how you know he’s good) but I physically could not pay attention. That’s why I liked the spark stage a bit better-there was enough movement that I was able to focus on it. I really liked the use of the fire and the way they were walking in and out of the frame trading off parts so there weren’t too many awkward moments where the other members where on stage but not doing anything. The opening was gorgeous with each members being lit by the spotlight as they harmonize. So stagewise, I prefer Spark but vocally I think the other group was stronger. I love Spark and Taeyon is such an incredible vocalist (I mean the song is great because of her) so I don’t get why their delivery was, I don’t want to say weak, but subdued might be a better word. The only one that really stood out was Junhoe (but also that man couldn’t not stand out even if he tried, not with that incredibly rasp) and even he seemed to be holding himself back a bit. Though it was a bit slow it built up well to the two last choruses but still the first half could have been stronger. I know they were trying to draw it out to a strong pay off but I don’t really know if it was enough. And yes the suits were *chef’s kiss*. I think at this point in their career the FNC stylist has put SF9 in so many suits they’ve got it down to a science. Also I’m a sucker for those shirts with the triangle cut out and we got not one but two of them here.

Okay moving on, I’m not sure which group was next but I’ll talk about the Ikon stage. It seems like they finally realized that they’re on a performance based competition show so they decided to pull out the big guns. Love the little skit at the beginning (making sure people don’t forget that they’re YG), it was cute and refreshing. I really appreciated how they leaned into the campy acting in this stage (Stray kids did it too-just adding to the similarities between their stages). The song was meh but I also don’t really like BP especially not their recent stuff so it’s not a big deal. I would have preferred if they had gone with another song maybe Whistle or As If It’s Your Last or if they’d done a 2NE1 song like Chanwoo mentioned some point in the episode. I also think the stage would have been way smoother if they’d let Ikon and Lisa interact. Like if the boys appeared in her set after her section and then they all moved back to the first jungle set and then the whole thing turns gold and they did a dramatic outfit change (but with better jackets because theirs look like they came out of Party City). I also get what you mean about the dancers outfits not being that great. I actually really liked the outfits of Lisa’s dancers in isolation but they didn’t match with her or the set so they threw me off a bit. At least with the ikon members they were going for a modern look so the dancers outfits didn’t look that strange in comparison. Do you think it would have been better if they were white? How would you have improved then? The best way I can describe this performance was that it was a stage, stuff happened, I enjoyed myself but I don’t plan to revisit it anytime soon. Oh and we also have to give points for them cursing on national television not once but twice (at this point Jinwan deserves to say fuck).

Now to Stray Kids. So I feel like I need to preface this with the fact that I am actually a stray kids fan (I won’t call myself a stay because I don’t associate with the fandom) and though I’ve been really critical of them and their stages tend to be my least favorite I still have a soft spot for them (I got into this show because of them after all). I loved, loved, loved the intro with Felix (and yes his biggest flaw is that he’s Australian but I forgive him for it) and the way it immediately transitions into the chorus of DDD-the abrupt transition does fit really well with the Deadpool theme and I guess it is the closest they’re going to get to the feeling of yeeting themselves into traffic like in the movie. Interesting choice to start with the chorus. Now that I’m rewatching it I do really wish they stuck with the comic theme. I think that’s my gripe with SKZ-they have a lot of good ideas but they move on too quickly from them. Just pick a handful of things and sprinkle them throughout instead of cycling through them at breakneck speed. Like okay they’re doing Deadpool and he’s a comic character so keep the comic styling (it would have been a good thing to put in the projection behind Seungmin’s scene), maybe in the subway they could have had some fight choreo so the guns coming in at Lee Knows part aren’t out of nowhere (also someone please tell me they were trying to recreate the meme with the cat and the knives, please I need to know). I absolutely agree that them having a goal or an antagonist would have really helped the story along. I mean they literally have a spoken intro so why couldn’t Felix just tell us who they were fighting (and I’m pretty sure in the movie Wade tells us he’s trying to kill Francis in that scene sooo). As always they put more focus on the rappers (please can we get less Changbin and more Seungmin, Jeongin, or Lee Know or at least give Felix more parts). Seungmin was the real mvp of this stage and he had the best outfit (I think it qualifies for Hanya’s best gay little outfit list). Personally I with they hadn’t gone with Gods Menu again. I’ve been hoping that they would perform My Pace (and maybe remix it with their B-side TA off their Go Live album) because that would be such a fun stage. Again, I enjoyed myself but I won’t revisit it anytime soon. At this point the only groups I actually look forward to are BTOB and SF9 (they’re doing fucking Move and I don’t know whether to be excited or terrified-there’s a clip of Taeyang covering Move from a variety show or interview and I think he does it really well so I know at least one of them can pull it off). Again thanks for creating space where I can info dump and I hope I said something of interest to you!

i think you wrote more than me!! i love this, im gonna put my response under a cut im not being super obnoxious on the dash.

i get that the mayfly stage would be not as visually stimulating for people and usually i would count myself in with that crowd because i love a good spectacle but i think because i watched the spark stage first and my colour perception is sometimes weird so when there's a lot of movement with very little colour variation my tiny pea brain loses track of whats happening really quickly. especially with red. so it was kind of difficult for me to pay attention to the spark stage in the second half. also i absolutely HATE watching people flub on stage because it brings up such visceral secondhand feelings that i couldn't even watch the stage when i started the full episode today.

i love a good suit but you know what i would also love: sf9 in more costume variations. tbh im just getting nitpicky about it because im a costume designer down to the core and i got trained by a designer who specialized in doing avant garde costuming so i tend to skew more towards wild than reserved. it looks like the move stage wont be be suits so ill take it, but oh man to do i want to see some really crazy stuff. which i know they'll never do because idols have to be pretty at all times or the fans get mad but oh i want it so badly.

do you mean how i would improve ikon's backup dancers outfits or lisa's? here why dont i do both. for lisa's dancers i would have just done away with that harness shape all together, its almost exclusively a military style. the jackets by themselves would have been fine but really what they should have done was put them in something that matched the gold but contrasted enough to give them shape. by having at least her dancers in all black on a gold stage there was a lot of "haha look at me do a duck walk because lets throw in some voguing for spice." they could have gone with a mesh bodysuit idea similar to what she was wearing or even just different colour coats. as for ikon's backup dancers, firstly pants. not black. or even a longer skirt. genuinely a part of the reason why i dont watch girl group content is because i HATE the hem length of the shorts they make everyone wear. words cannot describe how much i hate that cut. kpop is so obsessed with showing off women's bodies and especially their legs but they do it in the LEAST flattering way possible because it "can't be too risqué," just shoot me now. i hate it. i hate it so fucking much. yea yea everybody was on cocaine in the 80s whatever but at least they were all wearing french cut bodysuits so their legs looked fantastic. stop interrupting the lines!! anyways. pants so the only section of skin showing is thigh to mid calf, especially because they weren't even doing any fun legwork! if they really wanted to keep the full sleeve bodysuits they shout have done them in a fabric with a texture or external embellishments, like a patent/vinyl or sequins/rhinestones. something to catch the stage lights so we can actually see the shape of the limb. but the easiest way to fix it is literally just cut the arms off the bodysuits. stages are lit to show off skin, sometimes the best way to have something be seen is just to have it bare.

i agreed skz cycles through ideas way too fast, they need to just pick a couple and stick them out through the stage instead of just adding more and more different ones throughout. also ok good someone else noticed that there is just...so much changbin. we don't need that much changbin. i know there's other boys in the group let them do something! also im pretty sure theyre not recreating the cat knife meme but actually the promo image from john wick chapter two, which i also could have sworn i saw a deadpool version of as an instagram ad back when movies were happening, but now that im looking for it it doesn't exist so i might be crazy.

im excited for the move stage but im also trepidatious because...its move. i have NO clue what the concept is from the previews so i just hope its weird enough to take it enough out of the taemin context for me to enjoy it.

#kingdom #youre very sweet im glad you like sending asks in!!#realistically im just trying to replace going out to the pub and talking about art with people #this is my virtual pub you are welcome to a have a pint at my table!!#theres some costume talk in this one for anyone who reads the tags first #as you can see do not get me started on the shorts issue because it is one of the few things that gets me irrationally angry #i can ignore it most of the time by willfully not thinking about it #kpop questions #text #kingdom asks

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