#Also points for bullying will graham

[69-toojay]

I have decided to be a full time Freddie lounds apologist. She did nothing wrong ever because shes a funny gay bitch.

[marinettesaltprompts]

Prompt by @kawaiichibiart

I wanted to expand on one of my first prompts I shared, which was the class/school transfer but instead of Marinette it's Adrien. Marinette Salt, implied Akuma class salt (implied because I feel like you could leave it out and the story will still work). Deceptive Gabriel Sugar (you think he's being nice but it's all part of his plans to get the miraculous).

--------

After being told he knew about Lila the whole time, the Akuma class turns on Adrien. It starts with ignoring him and not inviting him to things. The only reason he shows up for band practice is because of Luka.

It then evolves into badmouthing him and some of his old classmates even go as far as bullying him.

It gets to be too much for him that he starts ditching and eventually, in that extremely rare "good dad" moment, Gabriel pulls him out of school.

The two sit down and talk about what happened to let things get to this point, and Adrien tells him what he knows. Lila lying, how he thought it was just for attention, the highroad, how Marinette told their classmates he knew Lila was lying but didn't tell them anything else, like how Lila was threatening her, something he kinda figured out on his own when she got Marinette expelled, or well, he assumed Lila hurt Marinette someway...she made it seem like he was okay with Lila lying when he wasn't. He just...didn't know how to stop her or how to get people to listen without any proper evidence.

And Marinette just, threw him under the bus. He thought she was his friend. That he and his classmates were friends. Maybe, maybe Gabriel was right. He never should have gone to school.

Time for extremely rare "good dad" Gabe to strike again: in a two birds one stone moment, Gabriel suggests Adrien lives with his aunt and cousin in London. They can find a good school for him to attend if he still wants to attend one in person. It'll also keep him safe from Akumas, he still thinks about Gorizilla and how he could have lost him (and also this way he didn't have to worry about Adrien potentially being the one he has to akumatize. Once he wins, Adrien will be able to return home to his mother).

Adrien agrees and moves in with Amelie and Felix. And because they honestly feel like it, the boys literally become twins. Felix and Adrien Graham de Vanily both attend a private school where they can focus on their future careers.

We skip a bit forward in time and DuPont is now in London on a field trip. They're getting a tour of one of their biggest private schools. They're able to see students working on their schedules, each one differing from one another due to the difference of career paths. And once they enter the labs, they see Adrien and Felix.

The twins are working on experiments together when the DuPont students arrive. Some of them try to talk to Adrien, but Felix blocks them, speaking over them or shushing them. As part of their trip, they get to attend the school for a few days. During this time, they try to reconnect with Adrien.

But either their schedules don't align, Felix gets in the way, or Adrien remains civil but isn't interested in mending bridges.

Some of them understand. They hurt him. He moved on. They messed up and lost a friend.

Others don't. He had to be exaggerating his hurt feelings. He was always so forgiving with Chloe. What made them different??

The worst is Marinette. Not only is Adrien ignoring her, he literally told her to not speak to him. To stay away from him. She didn't do anything wrong. She didn't mean any harm when she said he knew about Lila. Why can't he forgive her?!

"I'm trying to be nice!! I've forgiven you for that bullshit advice and you decide you're too good for me?!"

"Ha, "too good." Sure."

"I'm not talking to you. Adrien-"

"Doesn't want to talk to you. But I, on the other hand, have some words for you. Stay away from us. Go back to your petty filled life in Paris. You say you "forgive" my cousin for the advice he have you. Advice you willingly took, no?"

"Well, I-"

"Or am I missing the part where my favorite cousin made you take that advice. Advice can be given but it doesn't have to be taken. You taking the highroad, was ultimately, you're choice. You made that decision and got someone else hurt. But it doesn't matter, does it?"

"Felix-"

"It doesn't matter so long as you end up on top. As long as you aren't the one being pushed around and ignored and hurt. As long as you win."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!!"

"We both know it is. If it wasn't, you never would have let things get as far as they did. You would have told the entire truth. Not held things back. You would have accepted responsibility for your part in what your class did to my cousin, no, to my brother."

"I already said I was sorry!! What more do you want?!"

"I want you to leave."

"Adrien-"

"Leave, Marinette. I have nothing to say to you."

"You heard him. Get. Out."

some additional points I couldn't work into the prompt:

• Adrien is still Chat Noir, but he's no longer Paris's hero. Chat Noir is active in London. Costume and name change are optional.

• Of his old friends, he only speaks to Luka, Kagami, and occasionally Chloe.

• Felix and Adrien played "rock, paper, scissors" to determine who's birthday they would use. Winner also got to be the eldest twin. Felix won.

• Felix switches between referring to Adrien as his cousin and his brother.

• This isn't a requirement but if someone can manage to work it in, get Felix his miraculous (the peacock) early. I love the cat bird duo.

• Marinette still has a crush on Adrien and expected him to beg for her forgiveness, which she would give him after he groveled for a while, so she's surprised when he cuts contact with her entirely.

• Possible rare "good dad" Gabriel moment four: he tells the public a shortened version as to why Adrien left, which is his son was being bullied and he worried that that would cause him to be akumatized. Not wanting to risk it, he sent him to live with his aunt and cousin in London. And once everything was over, he could return, hopefully happier and safer. Which, sadly, means Adrien won't be modeling for Gabriel for the foreseeable future. But that's a chance he's willing to take if it means his son isn't hurt or targeted.

It's his way of showing the public he's just a concerned father who had the means to send his child somewhere he could be safe. It's something other parents had considered and some also decide to go through with the idea.

• Of his past classmates, the ones Adrien is a bit more welcoming to are: Juleka, Sabrina and Nathaniel. This is mostly because they just stayed on the sidelines the entire time. Something they regret but acknowledge can't be taken back. So, while the bridge hasn't been mended, the distance isn't big enough that they have to worry about falling and drowning.

[b1u3butt3rf1yanim3cart00ngirl22]

(I found it from DeviantArt! 💕)

My Miraculous Ladybug's Felinette Fanfic Recs I love

*A03*

1) The Sad and Broken by Dull_Rainbow

Summary: They broke her. Completely destroyed her. For weeks she let them bully her, throw their snide comments, and over all let them tear her down. Well no more. Because there was nothing left the broken. She was done. Done with everything her so called 'friends" did to her, done with being in love with Adrien, she was just done. She was leaving and never coming back. Will the new people in her life and perhaps a new love interest be able to fix her broken heart? Or will she forever be trapped in her broken fairytale?

2) The Burning by FandomQueenliness

Summary: The day Adrien confessed to cheating on Marinette, their lives burned down around them, and in the ashes, their friends and family must piece together the broken shards of what they once knew.

3) Felinette. Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me by bumblebeug (Madsmadsmads)

Summary: During a seeming break from Hawkmoth and after being moved to the back, Marinette becomes seat-mates with recent transfer from England Felix Culpa.

4) Kore Complex by SmittenVixen13

Summary: Marinette is done being beaten down and treated like she didn't matter! She was She was proud. She was confident. She was Marinette! No pathetic Liar, spineless crush, or idiotic classmates were going to get to her!

Transferring schools is new and terrifying, but with new friends and new found confidence, she will conquer anything! Love, blooming friendships, and mysterious new heroes await her!

5) New Friends by StarShine583

Summary: A Felinette story from Tumblr!

6) The Scorned by Snow_Leopard_777

Summary: In a world where Chameleon targeted Marinette first, where only Chloe and Nino stood in her defense, Madame Bustier's class turned against their everyday Ladybug. As the girl begins to shut down, her teacher holds her after class with a suggestion…

What do you think about transfers?

With her family on her side (as well as Papillon and Mayura), can she really leave François-DuPont behind, or will her time there haunt her as she tries to make new friends?

7) Don't Mess With Jagged Stones Favorite Niece by HoneyDewLove

Summary: Marinette is getting fed up with Lie-la and watching the people she thought were her best friends turn on her.

With the help of some new friends and the new student, she makes a plan to unravel all her lies.

Luckily, she's also got an Uncle willing to do anything to help take down his favorite little lady's bully and the daughter of the mayor on her side.

And it just so seems that a few little gods seem to want in on the plan.

8) Neglect Me No More by Gingergrowl

Summary: After months of neglect from her friends, Marinette decides to transfer schools. These so-called friends of hers have made her an emotionless shell of who she once was.

Marinette's days of neglect slowly begin to change when she meets a cold-hearted boy named Felix Graham de Vanily. Together, they begin to change each other for the better, making new friends and enemies along the way.

Little do they know, that this fateful meeting will impact Paris and the miraculous in ways big and small.

9) New School, New Friends by KittyNoir666

Summary: Marinette has reached her breaking point all thanks to Adrien. So she transfers to a new school and makes new friends. But with her old friends being who they were who will be able to pick up the slack of the previous heroes.

10) Begin Again by Kanzakura

Summary: Marinette's life had started to become miserable. Lila had managed to turn many of her friends against her, Chat had started to become clingy, and Marinette was slowly feeling herself crumble to stress. So when she finds out that she get's to transfer to a different school for Lycree, she's overjoyed. Only, there's a catch, and it wasn't one she was expecting.

11) Coffee Breath by dreamdarkdreams (orphan_account)

Summary: Felix's day started out normally. Then the prettiest girl he had ever seen entered the classroom.

12) Me, Just Me by rhub4rb

Summary: Marinette was tired.

Lila had held true to her promise, and Marinette had never felt more isolated from everyone. Finally, she decides that things need to change.

And she does this for herself, just herself.

13) Hey, Little Songbird by charlietheepic7

Summary: Really, Felix couldn't believe his cousin sometimes. Marinette was talented, beautiful, kind, and had a crush on Adrien bigger than the mansion, yet Adrien was blind to the treasure right in front of him. "Just a friend," indeed.

Well, if Adrien wasn't going to do anything, it wouldn't matter if Felix… snatched her up?

14) New Girl on the Block by StarShine583

Summary: Felix doesn't make it a habit to get involved with other people. They're too dramatic, too needy. He already has a small group of friends- at least that's what they call themselves -and his mother and father. He doesn't need anyone else meddling in his life, especially not some clumsy, new student who comes tripping through the front doors of Rosemary High.

15) Moving Forward by Dia_Moon

Summary: After losing a lot during and after the Miracle Queen battle, Marinette has decided to do things that can help her.

A new school can surely help her right? She'll be moving forward with a positive new beginning!

16) Pushing On by JG_Writes

Summary: Marinette's junior year at Collège Françoise Dupont has been absolute hell. With Lila Rossi spreading lies about her and turning everyone against her, she can hardly hang on. She finds a few surprising allies and decides to move on to a new school for the rest of her education where she meets a wild group of characters and a very silent and mysterious one.

17) Black Cats Revenge by Marcipan21

Summary: Marinette is crying, and Felix looks ready for murder.

*Wattpad*

1) Seeing Red by socksareforcavemen

2) The Price of Lying. by Kuroba_Kaito_1412

Summary: Marinette got used Lila's lies. Her feeling became numb, and her body refused to feel pain. Some nights she would still cry, but the tears stopped as fast as it came. She tried so many times to call Lila out, yet her voice was always silenced. One day, a new girl comes to the class, and helped Marinette shine some light on the truth. Although for the new girl, it's much more than just calling out a liar.

3) Welcome to New York miraculous team by Yuktha2004

Summary: After Marinette class trip to New York for friendship week Lila made do on her promise to turn Marinette friends against her. For three months Marinette friends bullied her and tormented her. Once hawkmoth was defeated Marinette decided to move to New York to start a new life with her real friends.

Felix has always been known as the cold hearted mean boy since his fathers death. He is known for his rude sneaky behaviour and cold ways towards people but that all changes when he meets Marinette.

Find out what will happens on the miraculous team journey to New York. Will sparks ignite and new bonds grow as old bonds strengthen or will the darkness take over consuming all the light that remains.

4) The mysteries (A Felinette Love Story) by Yuktha2004

Summary: Felix is forced to transfer to Paris for abroad studies and it just happens that he transfers to Dupount high school.

In this story Marinette mistreated by everyone even her closest friends. All because of a certain lying fox bit what everyone doesn't know is Marinette has a secret, a mystery.

Join Marinette and Felix on a journey of Mystery, camera' and studio's around Paris.

5) My Angel by Fairy4Ever

Summary: Marinette has been an outcast ever since Lila returned to their class and she's caused more havoc than ever. she kept to her promise and took away all of her friends, including Adrien who wanted her to keep silent about Lila's lies since they weren't hurting anyone.

she felt alone. she was alone. always sat in the back by herself taking the insults or mean glares that her ex-friends would send her making her feel even more upset. she felt like no one cared for her. no one would love her.

but that was all about to change when one boy would join their class and take the empty seat beside her.

6) Heal my heart (Felinette) by -Funko_Mushroom-

Summary: Ladybug and Chat noir defeat hawk moth but never reveal their identities.

Lila comes back to school and everything goes wrong, she turns all of Marinette friends against her! Marinette has gotten used to it at this point and let's what happens to her happen, that was until he came along.

Join Marinette and Felix on their adventure with each other, watch them grow their relationship and heal each other slowly in Heal my heart.

7) Her way of getting revenge by Haru_zou

Summary: Marinette Dupain Cheng. A lovely, kind, and naive girl.. has changed. ever since a pathological liar named Lila came into her life. Lying about her, stealing her friends, and threatening her. She's never been the same. She's hurt after her so called"friends"betrayed her. She's tired of her "friends" bullying her when she didn't even did anything. She's tired of being a hero protecting the ones that hurts her. That's until she met them. The ones that helped her heal. The ones that helped her uncover her dark and forgotten past. The ones that helped her recover forgotten memories. And the ones that will help her get revenge.

8) The Broken Wings of an Angel by MiraculousObsessed07

Summary: After Marinette's break up with Adrien, Marinette was heart broken. She never thought that Adrien would be that type of guy. Cheating on her, out of all people in the world he picked the dead rat. Marinette stopped talking with her friends & family, and she completely shut out the world... that was until she met him: Felix Graham de Vanily.

No Superheros but most kwamis are pets

9) Thank You by CartoonAlcaholic

Summary: Lila did it. She finally broke Marinette, their everyday Ladybug.

Marinette stopped. She stopped smiling. She stopped trying to hang out with her classmates. She stopped inviting them. She stopped playing games with them. She stopped making promises. She stopped being the happy girl everyone knew and became a doll for the fox to play with.

"I'm sorry..." was the only genuine thing she said before she became a marionette for the fox.

But, a certain transfer student had a pair of scissors behind his back and was ready to teach this broken toy how to smile again.

"I know."

[princess-of-pearls-and-stars]

Miraculous Ladybug Writing Prompts for the fanfic writers here on Tumblr I've come up with that don't turn Miss Bustier's class into irredeemable bullies ( Please comment which prompt you use + please tag me once oneshot/fanfic is posted )

All the prompts below involve Adrienette

1.) Françoise Dupont gains a new student that moved to Paris, France from ( country of your choice that isn't France ) that gets put in Miss Bustier's class. Lila is not impressed since their arrival results in her ' sheep ' paying less attention to her. Bonus points if they either a.) Call Lila out on her bull, b.) Play the long con to lull Lila into a false sense of security while they gather info, or c.) Are a precious little cinnamon roll who's caring nature & obliviousness plays a part in Lila's downfall. Another set of bonus points if the new kid's rich ( up to you as to what carreer(s) their parent(s) have ) & if Lila tries to threaten the new kid [ If you choose to do this prompt, comment if you choose a, b, or c. Also you get free reign in terms of what they look like along with some of their personality ]

2.) Lila lies about knowing the lead actress of Solitude. Cue a crying Adrien, a very very VERY livid Marinette, Nino, & Chloé, & a VERY furious father. Oh, and two very furious Graham de Vanilys that are more than happy to blacklist & sue Lila. Up to you if someone gets akumatized ( Don't know who originally came up with the idea of Lila lying about Adrien's mom, but whoever it is is a genius cause if Lila actually lied about Adrien's mom in canon she would be oh so very screwed )

3.) Marinette enters a design contest run by a famous female fashion designer that Marinette is a huge fan of. Lila tries to sabotage/steal Marinette's outfit design for the contest. Lila forgets that security cameras exist

4.) Rose knows that Lila is lying about Prince Ali & tells Ali this during one of their video calls. Things don't end well for Lila

5.) Jagged Stone hears about Lila's lies. The rockstar is not happy for several reasons and he & Penny plan a little suprise

6.) The sibling/cousin/best friend of one of Lila's previous victims or a cousin of Lila's enrolls in Françoise Dupont with the intent of bringing all of Lila's past deeds to light ( you get free reign in terms of their appearance, personality, and what their parents do for a living ). Bonus points if Lila tries to threaten them

7.) Félix cares about his cousin, so when Adrien tells him about a certain liar getting all handsy with him during school & modeling, Félix concocts a little scheme to get said liar fired and blacklisted and have a restraining order against her ( and he might also be playing wingman because it's clear as day that Adrien has romantic feelings for the bakers daughter - Marinette )

[k8-marsh]

life is strange characters if they lived in england and were doing their gcses i guess???

im english and ilove life is strange so .why not. not entirely sure what the hell this is but loving it!!!

(also in hindsight a lot of these probably work for american skewl too.)

chloe price

hate to say it but she would vape in the school bathrooms

does not care about uniform restrictions; dyed hair, never tucks her shirt in, piercings and painted nails... the whole lot

wears trousers even in summer because she thinks shorts look stupid (to be fair, they do... i would know)

in isolation 90% of the time

hijacks a lime bike to get to school

judged but really chill and smart

sleeps in and is late

all the teachers know her (just because she always gets detentions)

mates with the lunch staff!!!

max caulfield

neek

was petrified of everything in year 7

always says 'good morning' instead of 'here' during the register

perfect uniform but she wears cute badges!

relentlessly bullied for her weird shoulder bag

only detention was for doing 'graffiti' in her book (doodles)

takes the bus to school

kate marsh

overly attached to her english teacher

perfect uniform! (except for her crucifix necklace :)

all the work gets handed to her in group presentations because she's the only one doing it

trembling 90% of the time

walks to school (the bus is too stressful)

picked combined science gcse so she could do music, psychology and art!

most teachers love her

never got detention

always half an hour early (gets up at 5am)

probably would break down crying if she did

warren graham

disregard what i said about max this guy is the ALPHA neek

does science club (even though he doesnt have to)

picked triple science and computer science (and ENJOYS IT.)

honestly his parents probably drive him to school

spends most of his lunchtimes in a science lab

always points out when the gas taps are open

big. ass. backpack.

victoria chase

heavy make-up, but really good at it!!!!

earrings + nails even though they are not allowed

always making diss tracks about some girl that looked at her funny (kate)

m to the b core...

cba with the uniform restrictions

'miss i didn't even say anything'

carries all her stuff in a chunky handbag

constantly suffocating the classroom by spraying body spray

it made the fire alarms go off.

cackles at all the year 7s running with their big bags (warren included)

[ouatsnark]

sqs are exhausting. one claiming "the jab you with my sword line being apart of r*pe culture and it's not just killian implying sex with the line he wants to exert power over emma in that moment...but that's the point! he's an asshole trying to throw her off her balance & she kicks his ass!! he's also throwing the fight so she could get the compass and get back to henry! obviously in that point in the show emma isn't that experienced and he is (he def taught her the spin move emma does in s4)

So I've actually talked about how Regina and SwanQueen are the real so called "rape culture" : here and here

But the highlights are:

My favorite way to respond to this is bringing up the fact that the SwanQueen fandom sexualizes Regina's "how to get the savior to taste my forbidden fruit" which is Regina literally drugging Emma

In fact they sexualize all of S1-2 as Regina and Emma being in love while Regina is very clearly trying to kill Emma. The fact that they believe either is in love with the other during this is the epitome of "abuse culture".

Regina's rape and abuse of Graham is the canon sexual abuse that is ignored. In fact the majority of her fans see Graham as the lucky one or Regina as the victim because of the show's poor handling of this which is in fact real "rape culture" as they make Regina out to be the victim instead of the monster that she is.

Regina is so much more than "rape culture" she's more like "villain culture" because she gets away with all of her crimes without paying for them, without any sacrifice at all or admitting of any guilt that has her groveling at the feet of her victims. In fact, she continues to insult and bully her victims without repercussions. Killian actually suffers immediate consequences for his actions.

Sexual innuendo is not rape. There is nothing about that S2 scene between Emma and Hook that casts his remark in a good light. Because as you say, she kicks his ass. If this was "rape culture" Emma would've swooned. But she didn't, therefore, not "rape culture".

YES he is a 300 year old asshole PIRATE! The humor in this is that Emma, a modern woman, is fighting a 300 year old PIRATE! Like. Laugh a little people. FFS. She doesn't get with him until AFTER he's left this life behind. AND after he decides to leave pirating behind we never see this crass behavior again because Killian actually goes through a change.

Also, that fight scene is so complex, really. Because on one hand I fully believe that he very much wanted to be the one getting to Storybrook and would've done everything necessary to get there because at this point his revenge came first and she'd just betrayed him. He was a little pissed at her. He was also very much still a villain at this point. I mean one of my favorite things about him is that he dropped the crass behavior as his redemption progressed. The pirate who made this crass joke to piss Emma off is not the same pirate she walked down the aisle with. HOWEVER, the fact that he was making jokes and not trying that hard to defeat her has me 100% believing that his heart was not into winning this fight.

[lara635kookie]

Okay...Not the ship analysis yet but a little snippet of it. To write the analysis I had to think about why I like Red Crackle so much. And I realized one of the reasons why is that they remind me of another ship I also love:

(Warning:Spoilers of both Carmen Sandiego and Spider-Man Into/Across the Spiderverse ahead.)

Yes, they got differences but also massive resemblance either that once you notice, you can't unsee it. It isn't noticeable when you try to compare Gray and Miles and Gwen and Carmen, but once you switch...

Both Miles and Carmen are latino main characters, just that Miles is black and Carmen is brown. While Puerto Rico is a USA territory, in culture terms they share more with Latin America. And Even Miles not being born in Puerto Rico, his puerto rican roots and heritage are clear. 8/B in spanish is nowhere near as bad. As a Brazilian, we speak portuguese, which is a very similar language to Spanish(I myself know a little bit of spanish), but overall, both languages tend to sound very difficult, specially when you're learning in a place that doesn't speak any. Carmen didn't seem to be totally fluent in spanish either since in the Lupe Peligro episode she says her Spanish is getting better. So not fluent, at least in that point in time. Maybe that changes after that so I'll just assume both Miles and Carmen are working on their spanish. Another point is that they are both very smart. Carmen knows her geography and history AND can speak multiple languages and Miles is great at physics AND art, both very different areas from one another. Saying that, Carmen had everything to be a Mary Sue, just like Miles had everything to be a Gary Stu but instead, while they are extraordinary, we also see their weaknesses, flaws and mistakes. On the first two episodes of the first season of Carmen Sandiego and on the first spiderverse movie, we see Black Sheep/Miles Morales transition to becoming Carmen Sandiego/Spider-Man. And on that transition, someone was always by their side...

Both Gwendolyne Stacy(Spider-Woman) (or Gwanda ;) and Graham Calloway(Crackle) have a four letter nickname that starts with G and the protagonist always call them that(Gwen and Gray). Both have a surname that ends with Y. Both are a little bit older than the main character(Gray is two years older than Carmen and Gwen is 15 months older than Miles). Both are trans to a lot of people(I don't actually believe this, I think both Gwen and Gray are cisgender, specially Gwen, because of the comics and because while I think her revelation to her father was made in purpose to resonate and pass as a metaphor for coming out, I believe in the less popular theory that she was an ally and her Peter was actually trans and that is one of the reasons he suffered bullying and Gwen defended him and had that "Protect Trans Kids" poster in her room, this is literally the vibe she passes me:

Some time ago I saw a theory that the relationship of Miles and Gwen was a metaphor for one of the difficulties that interracial couples pass that the most privileged has to learn that the same society system that protects them, won't protect their partner in the same way, and that is shown through the way Spider Society treats Miles and I know there are more black spider people like Hobie and Margo but the parallel still works:he is not being accepted because he is different. The thing is, that theory kinda breaks the trans Gwen theory because if she was trans, sadly, the system wouldn't protect her either. I also don't believe it because of the voice actors. Some years ago, an adult could dub a children if he did the right voice. Nowadays, they cast a voice actor more similar to the character. Like, black characters need to have black voice actors, etc, otherwise they get canceled. And both of the voice actors for Gray and Gwen are cisgender, and I saw people complaining that if the producers wanted to make characters "potentially trans" they should have casted trans voice actors, for both characters. But anyway, I don't mind and respect the people who think they are trans). Both got competition for the other's affection(Gwen has now Spider-Byte and Gray has Ivy, Julia and pretty much everyone you can ship with Carmen in this show, which is a lot of people). Both are the lighter skin love interest not from where the protagonist is(Gray is from Australia and Gwen is from another dimension).

And now with the storyline similarities. Both pairings start as friends, so both lead to a slow burn. Both were an amazing partners in crime duo, working really great as a team, and being just the two of them or even with more people, their connection always stood out. Miles and Carmen never became official members of Spider Society/V.I.L.E. but disagree with them and escape from them to do what they believe is right. Both Gwen and Gray make a mistake and are expelled from Spider Society/V.I.L.E. (Gwen with the portal multiverse dimension go home machine or whatever and Gray by having his memories wiped) and then they realize too late they made a mistake with Miles/Carmen and now have to fix that mistake. Also both Carmen and Miles say "Goodbye Gray/Gwen." in the most DRAMATIC way possible before doing an grand triumphal exit and I love that for them. And the look Gray/Gwen gives them before they leave is THE EXACT SAME LOOK, I SWEAR. So as you can see, both ships leave a room for A LOT of angst and drama. Also just the way they look so fondly at each other and the way both Carmen/Miles and Gray/Gwen look sad when they have to leave or when the other has to leave them says it all. Platonic or not, both couples have an undeniable bond and just work so well together, being as friends, lovers, partners...They are each other's ride or die. They are each other's everything.

(Also just an personal opinion is that both Spiderverse and Carmen Sandiego have the MOST BEAUTIFUL ANIMATION I HAVE EVER SEEN) (Along with the new Miraculous movie) (Ladybug and Chat Noir are also very similar of Carmen and Gray but that's something more noticeable to pretty much everyone, I don't have to elaborate much on that matter) (I've got nothing to say about LadyNoir/MariChat being similar to Red Crackle that hasn't been said before)

The major difference about them is that, while both the Spiderverse movies and the Carmen Sandiego series don't have romance as their main focus, Miles and Gwen will most likely be canon in the films, just like they are in the comics. I think it will be a movie trilogy so they'll probably get together in the third movie(Beyond the Spiderverse in january? Anyway, 2024, save the date). I mean, Spider-Byte is cool and all but she's a game avatar or something so I don't think Miles and her can get together, even if he travels to her universe and decides to stay there or vice versa. They introduced her just now and we barely know anything about her, and Miles and Gwen clearly already have a whole build up story going on with a consistent arc so why mess it up? Besides, I think we need more main interracial couples representation in media. Aside from these two, the only GOOD main interracial couples I can think of are Druig and Makkari from Eternals(I never even watched Eternals and I know they are better than Ikaris and Sersi)(They are also an interracial couple but they clearly don't have the chemestry Drukkari does and Ikaris seems to be kind of a jerk tbh), Ricky and Gina(from HSMTMTS, which I don't watch either but their clips I saw on YouTube are just the cutest thing), Ben and Devi from Never Have I Ever, Daphne and Simon and Kate and Anthony from Bridgerton, and Julie and Luke(Juke) from Julie and The Phantoms(JATP) which is literally an impossible love story since Luke is dead(he's a ghost) and Julie isn't(she's alive) and the series was cancelled(still mad about it and will forever be). My point is:Couples with different ethnicities are not only little but the ones we do have are mostly either impossible to happen, unfairly treated/messed up by writers/not well executed or when treated right, we don't get enough content of them/they are forgotten, in the majority cases, and that needs to change. Anyway...Meanwhile, with Red Crackle, as Carmen Sandiego had a pretty open ending, canon can be whatever the hell you want, and for me is red crackle. That's it. Thank you for coming to my ted talk. Will be posting more "written podcasts" soon.

[1eos]

Hii Kendra! I love your reading/book tag and I wanna start reading more diverse books because my thesis is abt to end and I'll have more time to get into non-academic reading do you have any recommendations?

Also i think ur super cool in general I hope you've been doing well!

omg congrats on almost being done w your thesis! i know that extra free time is gonna feel soooooooooo good. and ofc i have recs!

the vanishing half by brit bennett - omggggg one of my most favorite books of all time currently. its almost a set of twins who run away from their hometown that's obsessed w breeding dark skin away basically and how their lives diverge with one twin passing as white and the other deciding to 'stay black'. its a romance its a family history its an homage to toni morrison. the prose is AMAZINGGGG and the characters are just so good. i love this book

this is your mind on plants by michael pollan -a very interestingly written nonfiction book on the like...contradictions of what mind altering plants are demonized/normalized. was hooked from the opening tbh

natural beauty by ling ling huang - how the toxicity of the beauty industry and societal pressures for woc to assimilate visually go hand in hand. the ending was wild but i really liked it

yellowface by r f kuang - a white woman has an inferiority complex bc shes a mid writer and instead of tackling her innate belief that she deserves recognition for being white and mid she proceeds to pretend to be asian. an infuriating but good read bc the narrator is the epitome of That Kind of white person 😭

my sister the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite - title tells you the premise but it goes sooo much deeper than that. tackles what it means to be the 'ugly sister'/the 'sister's keeper' bc you're the eldest. devoured this book in just a day its so good

the only good indians by stephen graham jones - horror book rooted in the lives of a group of native american friends that grew up on the same reservation and the manifestation of intergenerational curses......metaphorical curses and like LITERAL curses. be warned ppl do die.......and it gets kinda crazy at some points so check does the dog die for list of warnings

a tale for the time being by ruth ozeki - this book got me into reading again. its two stories in one almost? a writer finds a lunchbox on the beach that has the journal of a japanese high school student named nao who is having a shit time in school and its this really amazing coming of age story not only for nao but for the writer who finds her story. warning. nao is casually suicidal at the beginning of the book and its not too graphic depictions of bullying towards the middle

[ririchanva]

//Ask and you shall receive :3 Actually, a lot of you seemed to enjoy this one so I'mma continue to add some more of this :D LEZZGO~

This one will include: Middle School Drama, mentions of bullying, Happy&Healthy!Inko, Alive!Emelie, Humbled!Felix, Chloe Sugar, Kim Salt, Max Salt, Marinette still being Marinette, snippets of Derision, teensy bits of Chloe crushing on Izuku, A MAJOR BUTTLOAD of everyone crushing on Izuku, Adrien growing up into a little shit, and more~! Lemme know if I should make a part three~?

✲ || Part Un || ✲

So...previously, we've stopped on Izuku, Marinette and Chloe as little children being an inseparable trio. That is, until we get to the Agreste and Graham de Vanily family.

Canon-wise, Chloe knew of Adrien and Felix as kids. So if I'm doing my math right, this is before Emilie's "disappearance" and Felix's dad didn't get offed just yet.

In short, Chloe one day invites Izuku and Marinette to visit Adrien since her parents and his are friends.

Adrien is always happy to make new friends besides Chloe.

And it was honestly friendship at first sight when meeting both Izuku and Marinette. (It was like fate~ *gets smacked*)

Adrien immediately locks into Izuku's energy about heroes.

The two clicked much more than Izuku did with Marinette and Chloe, it sort of made the girls a little jealous.

Marinette doesn't fall for Adrien this time around

Gabriel and Emelie are introduced to Izuku and Marinette by Adrien, and honestly it surprised both the Agreste on how well behaved children they were. Especially when they were dreading they would be another Chloe.

But EVEN MORE SURPRISING was how Chloe was also well behaved around them. Where was the usually spoilt brat that loved to boss their son (and sometimes Felix) around?

Emilie wanted to meet the infamous nanny of Chloe's.

And she did...and she adored the woman too.

Emelie begged for Gabriel to hire her as Adrien's nanny too. Why, if Inko Midoriya managed to tame a brat like Chloe, Adrien could perhaps grow into a happy child as well. As much as Emilie and Gabriel wish they could spend more time with their son...their careers are at their peak. Someone had to watch over their son (Nathalie and Gorilla were already having their hands full).

Thanks to Inko's rep of being a full-time babysitter for rich kids like Chloe and Adrien, this meant that Inko's life is set.

Her mental state is at peace, no guilt about raising Izuku and worrying over their next meal and bills. This meant Inko maintained her physical body and kept herself healthy, not to mention Emelie and Sabine made sure the woman was surrounded by a good circle of friends to go out for walks, shopping and pretty much having a life. Not to mention Emelie trying to set Inko up on dates.

Meanwhile, Izuku got to be around his new friends more.

This also caused Chloe to accidentally call Inko, Mom.

"Thank you for mending my dress, Mommy!"

Inko paused from tidying her sewing kit and looked over at the seven year old girl for a moment, blinking her surprised green eyes. All she did was just fix the princess dress that Chloe had accidentally ripped when running around with Izuku, Marinette and Adrien playing pretend Knights and Dragons.

"Ah...y-you're welcome, Chloe-chan. "

Inko didn't know how to process this at first. Perhaps Chloe said it by accident. It was a one time thing...right?

Alas, Chloe continued to call her Mom , to the point that one day Chloe asks innocently:

"I want Mlle. Inko to be my Mommy."

"You can't, Chloe-chan. Because she's my Mom." - Izuku

"Well, what if Chloe and you get married? That way, Chloe could be part of the family :D" - Adrien.

"....Izuku, let's get married." "EHHHHHH?!"

Meeting Felix Graham de Vanily (as if he would keep his father's last name of Fathom) was...confusing, at first.

Izuku and Marinette, like Chloe, mistaken him for Adrien.

When Amelie meets the children, she was cooing on how adorable Izuku and Marinette were.

However, Felix wasn't impressed.

Although that all changed when Izuku played chess against him.

"You...you beat me?" - Felix

"Er, was I not supposed to" - Izuku

Either way, this impressed Adrien and Marinette, and Chloe had to gloat and laugh at Felix's defeat.

Needless to say, this sort of humbled Felix, and both he and his mother visited from time to time. And in turn, Izuku gets invited to London to visit them along with Adrien, Marinette and Chloe.

Fast forward in time, to the start of collège.

Chloe may not be Marinette's tormentor anymore, didn't mean she stayed nice to everyone.

It had to take Adrien and Izuku to stop her tirade at times.

Speaking of, Adrien manages to go to normal public school with them this time around too.

It took a lot of convincing, but it was mostly Inko talking with Emilie about how Adrien should be surrounded by other kids his age. Thus, it made Emelie also persuade Gabriel to send Adrien to school. Although that didn't stop the modelling gigs, advance fencing, language and business classes after school.

But with Chloe no longer being the school bully...someone else takes her place.

Enter Lê Chiến Kim, and his lackey, Max Kanté.

Typical jock behavior, Kim looked to his bullying as pranks. And in no way does he think what he does is wrong.

And his main target?

"Heeeyyyyyy Green Beans~"

Izuku felt the dread each time he encounters Kim, reminding him of his days with Kacchan and his little gang.

It didn't help that Marinette had a stupid crush on Kim FOR SOME REASON.

"He makes me laugh." - Marinette

Note, she doesn't know Kim bullies Izuku. Or is oblivious to it.

Then again, the bullying doesn't look like it's harming Izuku on surface level. As said before, it looked like small playful pranks.

But Chloe knew better.

And had to step in to defend Izuku, The Audrey Bourgeois way.

This caused a ripple effect of students now thinking Chloe was someone not to mess with and stay away from, but rumours of Chloe and Izuku being a couple spread like wild fire (thanks to Kim and Max). Chloe doesn't care...but Izuku did.

"We're just friends!" (Oh boy, here we go again)

Despite the rumours, Izuku managed to become popular.

He was dubbed as the "Chloe Bourgeois Tamer" considering he tends to stop Chloe from going too far on things.

The first one to extend a hand of friendship was Alix Kubdel.

"Kim's a jerk. And respect on pulling the reigns on Queen Bee over there. Wanna hang out with me and my friends?"

Izuku tries to correct that Chloe was not all that bad, but he gives up when he knew Alix wasn't listening to him

This is where Izuku meets Nathaniel and Sabrina.

Izuku notices Nathaniel drawing in his book, and his eyes shine when seeing sketches of various heroes.

"Is that All Might in his silver prime?"

Nathaniel Kurtzberg is surprised to say the least. He was expecting to be mocked or teased by his obsession with drawing heroes. He was used to being called an art nerd by Kim on the daily.

So imagine to his shock that Izuku asks for a commision from him to draw All Might.

They become close friends after that.

Sabrina Raincomprix was someone that just hung with Nathaniel and Alix quietly because she didn't know where she fits in with the class. (With Chloe not being a bully and always around Adrien, Izuku and Marinette, the two never really interacted.)

Izuku tried to befriend her, even saying he admired that her father was Chief of Police. And soon talked about things that apparently had in common such as academics and dreams of the future.

Sabrina crushes hard after the interactions, to the point that she immediately follows him around, just as she did with Chloe in canon.

"Did you want me to help you with your homework? Should I carry your bag for you? Oh! I could get your lunch for you--"

Izuku felt guilty of Sabrina practically trying to do things for him, and he tried to dissuade her from doing so.

Izuku sees Sabrina almost about to cry, not like being rejected. He could never handle girls crying.

And so, he just lets Sabrina do as she pleases.

Marinette finds this cute, and even tries to find ways to set Izuku and Sabrina up as a couple.

Which, in turn, makes Adrien also participate. Not because he thinks Izuku and Sabrina are a cute couple. But it was fun to tease Izuku's misfortune of having a girl crushing on him.

Adrien, please, your Chat is showing TOO EARLY.

Chloe, on the other hand, was furious.

"Who does this nobody think she is?!"

Unlike in canon...Sabrina actually has a backbone.

She actually gains more confidence since interacting with Izuku, especially with his pep talk on his dreams of wanting to be a hero and how his optimism rubbed off on her.

To the point that she bravely declares Chloe as her love rival.

And Chloe accepts this, because Izuku was hers.

Adrien, once more, can't help but tease.

"Wow, you're so popular..." "Be silent, Agreste..."

Bonus: For the lols, Adrien anonymously created a "Izuku Midoriya Fan Club" and it surprised both him and Izuku on how many girls joined it. It has even reached outside of Francis Dupont----

Part 3?

[mitz-prompts]

prompt: hannigram, baseball AU

so i was rereading some of my old baseball fic and i was thinking about how the really special thing in those fics, that i can't really pull off in other fandoms, is the focus on like... analytical masculinity, and brotherhood. like the way it's so easy for some cis men to be Men, and Brothers, and Relaxed In Their Own Skin, and how interesting it is to write from the perspective of the men for whom it is not easy, but they nevertheless have to pretend it is in order to be accepted by the specific culture they find themselves in (professional sports)

and i started noodling with like... if i had to write an alternate universe where Will and Hannibal were also inside the culture of professional sports, where would i place them?

and how would they respond?

so okay. Will. let's start with Will.

if you put Will Graham in a professional baseball clubhouse, i could definitely squeeze some masculinity angst and homosexual longing out of him.

but i also don't love the idea of him being a player, because i think that playing sports - being physically fit and getting a lot of sun and nutrition and aerobic exercise - would create a way healthier neurological baseline for will graham than what we're used to in canon.

also i think to progress in a team sport, to keep getting promoted from the high school leagues all the way up to the majors, you can't be an antisocial dick 100% of the time. you have to be able to play on a team and people have to like you, to some extent. otherwise you wouldn't make it that far because your team would keep losing and/or people deliberately wouldn't scout you because you'd be too much of a social poison in the clubhouse.

and the idea of will graham actually doing that seemed ludicrous to me

so i scrapped the idea of him being a player

what he COULD do is analytics. he could definitely be the moneyball guy. he could definitely do the math. and he could also have impeccable insights into other teams' players, he could catch on to little things that change the game. he could be hired on as a stats guy and wind up being the guy who can magically clue you into the opposing pitcher's tells.

the question then becomes - how did Will get into baseball in the first place, if he wasn't a player? how did he wind up dedicating his brilliant mind to baseball instead of being a cop or a bug scientist?

enter: dad graham. he wasn't a boatyard mechanic, at least not at first. he was a player

i couldn't decide if he was just in the minors or if he got to the majors... i feel like he would have to be a minor leaguer to establish the poverty angle of will's childhood, but i like the idea of Will getting to see the major league clubhouse as a young kid. maybe dad was briefly a major leaguer but didn't have a notable career.

the point is, will didn't have a mom, and got dragged all around the country by his dad's career, and he LOVED it

will graham was never an athletic kid

and, though he wouldn't know it until later, he was gay. and probably autistic.

and he did not, could not, navigate the rules of masculinity as demonstrated by dad and colleagues. if there were other kids in the clubhouse, will didn't get along with them. he wasn't relaxed like them, he wasn't casual, he wasn't comfortable in his own skin.

he envied what the adult men had

he sorely envied the camaraderie and trust and confidence that he could only mimic but never truly internalize

he grew up watching and watching and watching. and idolizing. and coveting.

maybe he did start to play a little bit, too, but i imagine he got bullied badly in school the few times he did go. or bullied somewhere else. or something. i just want some rude kids to beat him up so bad that it permanently fucks up his shoulder for life. and he has to look at his dad's face after, and know that his dad is disappointed in him somehow. for permanently killing the dream that his only son might play pro ball the way he never could.

so anyway. will's obsessed with baseball and finding his way into the industry because he needs dad's approval one way or another.

dad probably dies at some point. it's very sad. but will's already on this path. he sees pitching stats in his dreams. it's his entire consciousness. it's all he knows how to do.

he's probably in his 20s during the stat revolution in baseball, when moneyball happens and they all realize they can use computers and math to make a team do better. and will becomes a hot commodity. he gets promoted and promoted and scouted by other orgs

maybe he settles in at his dad's favorite major league team. feels like some kind of karmic justice.

so when he's in his late 20s, he starts traveling with the team. since he's the stats guy and he's the secret weapon and he can give tips in real time.

surreal, to be on the airplane with a bunch of young men his same age. they mistake him for a player sometimes, at first. some of the players try to talk to him, give him nicknames. he's not good at it, never has been. but he does catch himself staring at them sometimes. the way they touch each other, like it's no big deal. the way they flirt and tease and shove each other around. the way they jostle and joke and sleep on each other's shoulders and make crude jokes and prank each other.

he wants it, he tastes it salty on his tongue. he gets very well acquainted with his hand. he keeps his head down and wears his glasses and plaid shirts, just far enough on the outside to not get dragged into the clubhouse dynamics he observes from behind the wall of the fishbowl

and then they all stay the same, but will keeps getting older, and before he knows it, he's in his late thirties, and older than every player in that locker room, but it still feels like they're dad's friends, and he still has lurid fantasies where they hold him down and fuck him. But. He's dealing with it.

so that's Will

enter Hannibal

I don't know what the fuck Hannibal's backstory would be to get him to this point; frankly it feels necessary that he would have some sort of childhood trauma informing his entire vibe. but let's pick up with him at age 15 or 16, and he's getting involved in the Japanese leagues

He's obsessed with Baseball.

Well

He's obsessed with hurtling rock-like objects at human beings at high speeds.

Baseball is a sublimation of that obsession and he pursues it gleefully

I think it'd be easier for him to slip his way into the Japanese leagues to start with because I think it'd be easier for him to lie convincingly there

because the culture of baseball in Japan isn't as diametrically opposed to Hannibal's entire aesthetic in quite the way the American baseball culture is

anyway he somehow socially engineers his way into a kinesiology degree, and maybe some pitching coaching

and he's very pleased for many years doing secret things that nobody knows about

flash forward thirty years to him getting hired as head pitching coach on the team that Will works for

i think Will would be fascinated by Hannibal's ability to code switch

He dresses down and acts like one of the guys when he's coaching, you literally would not recognize him. slides much closer to Nigel than Hannibal. but it's all a performance.

Hannibal's whole personality changes if he's speaking to the team owners, or even the team manager

he's a chameleon. he's very comfortable in every situation.

he's one of a kind

and the stats, somehow, SOMEHOW, show Will something absolutely mind-boggling

which is that, somehow, somehow, buried in the data, there's a statistically significant trend suggesting that hannibal is deliberately coaching the pitchers to throw in the top of the zone more often. they're missing at the top of the zone more often than missing at the bottom of the zone. they're getting tired faster. it's completely absurd.

Will tells Jack about this, but the team is having an absolutely blessed season, their record is way over .500, and Jack is entirely uninterested in messing with a good thing.

but this cannot be the secret sauce that's making them win. it's just not possible. this trend means that when the pitchers get tired, they lob one right down mainstreet, instead of burying one in the dirt -- when the pitchers blow up, they blow up bad

but things are smooth sailing despite all that. jack thinks it doesn't matter if hannibal is giving the pitchers bad technique, because hannibal is clearly winning the head game with their confidence, and that's making all of the difference. he starts calling hannibal "dr. lecter" and the players pick it up as well.

will stalks hannibal and pores through the data, blah blah blah, relationship development and tension and AU stuff and romance.

eventually we discover that hannibal's anachronistically gothic library at home is full of manuscripts and artworks and historical tomes about humans being stoned to death

and he's got some kind of like. framed oil painting. of randy johnson murdering that fucking mourning dove with a 100mph fastball

hannibal has sketchbooks full of little drawings of medical diagrams of the human skull. and reparative surgeries.

and basically. basically. hannibal just wants to ply the strings of fate just enough that one day, one day, he'll get to watch someone get murdered by a baseball. he's obsessed with the idea of seeing human brain matter smeared on the backstop.

and will is horrified by this but literally no one believes him, because it's absolutely ridiculous

and eventually hannibal seduces Will, as one does, and they conspire to make the murder pitch even more likely. the end.

also maybe will gets some dick at some point

[bumblebeesfromvenus]

Bumblebeesfromvenus' request guidelines 🐝

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ────── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

Welcome!

My requests have been opened, my little bumblebees <3 Everyone can request, be as vague or detailed as you want. I'll do my best to make your ideas a reality! Please keep my rules in mind when requesting!

~Fi 🐝

Rules:

• please be respectful, aka don't be a dick.

• be specific with your requests unless you don't mind me taking creative liberties :)

• be patient. I'm a real person and need some time to write.

Who I write for (I might add/remove people from the list at some point)

Resident evil

•Leon s Kennedy

•Ashley Graham

•Claire Redfield

•Donna Beneviento

•Bela Dimitrescu

Marvel

•TASM!Peter Parker

DC

•Jason Todd

•Bale!Bruce Wayne

•Dick Grayson

Call of Duty

•Captain John Price

•Johnny "Soap" MacTavish

•Kyle "Gaz" Garrick

Ghost (Band)

•Simon "Ghost" Riley

•König

•Terzo Emeritus

•Rain ghoul

•Mountain ghoul

•Phantom ghoul

Stardew Valley

•Abigail

•Leah

•Sebastian

•Alex

Hades (supergiant game)

•Zagreus

•Nyx

•Megaera

•Dusa (platonically)

•Alecto

Linked Universe

•Twillight

•Time

•Warriors

•Sky

•Hyrule

•Legend

•Four

•Wild

•Sage

•Wind (PLATONICALLY ONLY)

Baldurs Gate 3

•Astarion Ancunìn

The Maze Runner

•Newt

What I will write

•fem/gn reader (preferably fem reader)

•Fluff

•Angst

•Smut

•Comfort

•Headcannons

Whatever your heart desires <3

What I will not write

•male reader (Sorry, boys)

•scat and piss kinks

•pedophilia

•pregnancy

•incest (includes step-cest)

•rape (that includes non-con stuff)

•any form of hate speech/ bullying

I also reserve the right to delete requests for whatever reason.

Phew, that's quite a few! Just a disclaimer, I haven't written for all of them yet, so my interpretation might be a little wonky.

Feel free to send it headcannons or just general questions as well! I'd love to interact more with all of you <3

Have fun requesting!

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ────── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

[quinnfabrayapologist]

Today on twitter:

A gay man and actor, JJ Wells (intentional misspelling to avoid the wrong crowd finding this), several weeks ago, noted some parallels between JKR's actions and the alt right groups her actions align with. This is not unfounded, as it follows her sending support to publicly known alt right figures.

JKR responds that JJ is libelling/defaming her. Her followers go after JJ. JJ has to lock his account. This is the second gay man JKR & Co have bullied off twitter in the span of a few months, the first being Graham Norton, following Graham saying that he didn't want to take a side in the trans debate, but he encouraged people to talk to trans people, and this was somehow offensive to JKR.

Today, JJ has tweeted a very carefully worded statement, apologising for defaming/libelling JKR.

England has absolutely ridiculous laws RE libel, that likely meant that when JJ called a spade a spade a few months ago, JKR was able to sic her team of lawyers on him. So, not just satisfied with bullying gay men off social media, she's now hitting them with SLAPP laws. It would also be remiss not to point out that she is a millionaire and JJ is... not.

If I've said it once I've said it a million times; there is nothing more fragile than the ego of a rich conservative woman.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

All right, all right, all right! I’m a day late because I was out last night again, but I’m home now, let’s do this! Thoughts on Taskmaster s15e02, written as I watch it:

- I didn’t mention this last week, but Ivo Graham with a beard is unsettling. I mean, people can do what they like with their appearance and all, but that one may not be the best idea.

- Right, I haven’t seen any of the prize tasks except the first one, but if no one besides Kiell brought in anything that requires us to look at feet, then Kiell needs to win this task. I am genuinely not enjoying Kiell bringing in an excuse to have the cameras focus on both a picture of a foot and Alex’s actual foot, give him five points for achieving weirdness and make it go away.

- Greg is, annoyingly, correct to say that Mae’s object isn’t weird, it’s just your reflection that’s weird. I say “annoyingly” because Mae really eagerly trying to sell people on someone they’ve come up with is... genuinely, I’ve had crushes on Taskmaster contestants before but never to the extent that I’ve had my current problem, where I have difficulty writing about the episode without mentioning it every 5-10 sentences. I’ll try to stop.

- I am 100% behind the levels to which Ivo is taking his argument. Getting into the wording of the task – it’s supposed to be “whenever you look at it”, so needing to look at it for ten minutes like Mae’s mirror shouldn’t count. Explaining that he has practice of looking at it all the time and weirdness occurs every time, and Kiell can’t say the same because he designed the foot glove just for this task. This guy has watched all his friends play Taskmaster, studied their strategies, has his social standing riding on his performance in a way that I’m going to guess, say, Frankie Boyle, does not. This is high-level Taskmaster here, well done, Ivo. I still can’t wait to see you get bullied in the team tasks, but well done.

- Aaawwwwwww. Awwwwww. A Rhod Gilbert reference. A Rhod Gilbert reference in something that was filmed while he was receiving treatment for advanced cancer (I mean, I assume he still is, but he’s also filming TV things again and looks to be recovering, and I’m not sure that was the case as of last summer). Awwwww. Jenny’s thing doesn’t really work for the reasons Ivo pointed out, it doesn’t feel weird “every time you look at it” because that only works if you stare at it for ages, but anyway, lovely little Rhod Gilbert reference. Also, love that they’re saving Frankie Boyle for last on the “thing that makes you feel weird” task. What have you got, Frankie?

- I knew Frankie wouldn’t let me down with this. Obviously he went historical. Yeah, medieval paintings of cats are weirder than feet. He needs to win.

- I’d have swapped Kiell and Frankie, but otherwise agree with the harsh but fair scoring. I like rewarding Ivo’s intricate arguments by giving him two more points than both the people who finished below him.

-

I don’t know what this means, but I’m guessing it might be that they’ve brought in a concept from Taskmaster NZ, when they had each contestant film a small part of an action movie, and then put it all together later to make one movie. Which I guess was originally a Taskmaster UK concept, from season 10 when they filmed the detective thing with each person playing a different part, and then with Richard Herring playing every part. It’s a concept I like, so I hope they are in fact going to film them each playing some music and then put it together.

-

Jesus Fucking Christ. Okay I’m done. I won’t bring it up anymore. I promise.

- Oh shit, Horne Section. Ohhhhh, I see. The great band that was separated wasn’t the Taskmaster contestants, playing stuff alone and then going back together. It’s the Horne Section. Cool.

- The task didn’t say anything about “most [adjective] [noun] wins”, so that means it’s a two-parter. They may still have to fit these together somehow. Also, the task said it must be “less than thirty seconds long”, which is weird, because normally Alex Horne is right with me in correcting people every time they say “less” when they should say “fewer”. You let this one slip, Horne.

- They were correct to give Frankie the percussion instruments. I like Kiell’s attitude. Ivo briefly thinking “I”, “V”, and “O” might be music notes was quite funny. Really enjoying Jenny’s unnecessarily exuberant and surprisingly low-pitched singing. Mae, do we really need to bring more feet into this episode? Have we not already had enough feet in this episode?

- I didn’t really know what to expect from Frankie Boyle on Taskmaster, but if I’d absolutely had to try to guess, I’d have pretty much said this:

- I promise this isn’t another gratuitous screenshot of how attractive Mae Martin is; I just wanted to capture the look of utter shock on their face when Alex handed them the extra card.

The sense of betrayal from Alex. The underlying disappointment in themself for not seeing this coming. The whiplash in going from relaxing because the task is over to ramping the tension right back up, 0-100 in half a second, a reminder that you have to be always on your guard in this show. There’s Taskmaster summed up in one screenshot.

- Ah, the twist is that they have to play along. It’s not really a music task, it’s an arts and crafts task! That’s fun.

- I mean, some of those instruments are easier to copy than others. Frankie probably got an unfair advantage there, the drums have to be the easiest to copy. But I don’t mind, because I want to watch Frankie Boyle play makeshift drums.

- I think they undervalued Jenny Eclair’s trumpet miming in the studio chat. That was good. I could believe that was her playing if I didn’t look too hard at the instrument. She looks like she should be dramatically playing a trumpet in a club somewhere.

- Frankie’s miming was not remotely in time to the music, but he looked like he was having so much fun out there. Someone needs to gif that. I might need to gif that later. I want a moving image of Frankie Boyle playing the drums and having a great time.

- 

“I see your Diverse Stripes, Nish. And sure it was impressive, but you made one crucial mistake: not wearing sunglasses.”

- 

Incredible screenshot.

- Some really interesting camera decisions in the filming of Ivo. I’m not sure I needed that under-his-legs-looking-up angle on those loose shorts. But A+ for effort on the contestant’s part, as I’ve quickly come to expect from him.

- 1) Mae Martin making a joke about “Mae-stro” and then immediately trying to take it back - “I don’t want to lose points from Mae-stro”: solid Taskmaster play, I like the level of paranoia that Taskmaster instills in its most competitive contestants. Mae Martin about to play an instrument with their foot: not ideal. Not... not something I would like on my computer screen, thank you.

- I think Mae was the best one so far at miming in time to the music. Not bad arts and crafts work either. Good attention to detail. Thankfully minimal foot involvement.

- Well, Kiell was definitely the worst at the arts and crafts potion, there have to be more accurate ways to create a facsimile keyboard than to just put a bunch of books in a row. Also, he just repeated the grammatically incorrect task over and over, causing me to have to say “fewer” at my screening increasingly annoyed voices.

On the other hand, he may win for the person who had the best time out there:

Again, I’m just really enjoying Kiell’s whole vibe. Competitive, but not as overt about it as Mae or Ivo. Getting fully into everything, to an exaggerated degree. Picking at things and not letting them go, like the thing about the musician’s age.

- Whoa. That was ridiculously generous scoring and I don’t think I see Greg’s logic with any of it, but fun task all the same.

- Yes! Team task! I’ve been looking forward to these so much.

You know, normally when I say what contestants I’d like on a team together, I just pick pairs of people and hope they’re with each other, either on their own or in three. But in this case, I really like that Frankie and Ivo are specifically the team of two. No one for Frankie to pawn off the task of interacting with Ivo on, no one for Ivo to hide behind, no one to dilute the extraordinary amounts of awkward tension that I imagine occur when you put together two people who are so very, very different.

And on the other side, obviously I’m looking forward to the clash of Charlotte Ritchie’s husbands, and to two highly competitive contestants who will hype up each other’s competitive natures all in the midst of Jenny Eclair’s cloud of chaos.

I’m writing this before seeing any of this task, just to have a record of what I’m expecting going in. Expectations are high. I think Ivo might get eaten alive.

- I always look forward to that moment in the first team task, when the contestants see their teammates for the first time. As far as those moments go, this one’s pretty good:

- Oh my God. It’s perfect. Thank you, Taskmaster, this is exactly what I wanted.

I’m trying to picture the meeting where they divided up the teams. I hope they weren’t forced to do this by schedules or whatever, I hope all the contestants had availability on all potential days, just because it’s funnier if the Taskmaster people planned this. “Guys. Guys. Let’s put the incredibly posh English private school boy with Frankie Boyle. We have to, right? We can’t waste that opportunity.” Their decision to film and edit this entrance like a horror movie makes it so clear that they knew exactly what they were doing.

I mean, these two are rivalling Joe Thomas and Sian Gibson for most awkward initial meeting. But Joe and Sian eventually settled into their own sort of weird, awkward chemistry. I feel like Frankie and Ivo can keep up this level of non-meshing, actively clashing, energies all season. At least all day, as they film the team tasks. 

- 

One of Charlotte Ritchie’s husbands standing on tip-toes to hug Charlotte Ritchie’s other husband, while the trailblazing first woman to ever win a Perrier Award looks on. Thanks, Taskmaster. What a good day for feminism.

-  

Incredible. You can’t script that level of awkward. I’m so glad they didn’t try to edit around the less-than-slick television of Ivo talking over Frankie’s one-sentence potato anecdote to say hello to Alex.

Normally when I get screenshots of Ivo I carefully time it so I can get him when his eyes are open, which is rarely. But I think in this case, catching him in his usual state, which is with his eyes closed (seriously, I did not notice how true this was until I made that video last year with all these contestants, and struggled to find clips of Ivo where he was both moving around the stage/set and has his eyes open, he mostly just stands still with his eyes closed) captures the atmosphere better.

- Oh cool, two season 2 references. Obviously a potato next to the red green that can’t be touched is invoking Joe Wilkinson. And a bridge for a potato is invoking Debajo De La Mesa.

- I think from now on, my entire blog may just turn into a repository for screenshots of Frankie Boyle and Ivo Graham together.

- Yeah, this is all I actually want out of a television show.

- 

You’re close, Ivo, but not quite - you’re wrong about it being an either/or. What we want is for one team to be the first thing and the other team to be the second thing, so they can be contrasted in ways that make each one more amusing when set against the other, and can occasionally be edited together in a montage designed to make the differences hilariously clear. And I know I haven’t even seen the first team task yet, but I think this season might out-do all previous ones in that way.

- Are we going to keep up the joke all season where Frankie Boyle is like Ivo Graham’s father who didn’t love him? Because I’m on board with that.

- This post is pretty screenshot heavy, there are just so many images I like.

Oh Jenny, trailblazing veteran comedian though you are, your experience clearly doesn’t extend to understand the dire consequences that can occur when a tiny bit of your shoe touches the red green, and you don’t immediately acknowledge the mistake and start over, this time doing it properly. You don’t want to hide that shit, Jenny. They’ll catch it on camera and then it’ll be worse. Mae knows. Mae’s clearly seen that episode. Mae is not here to fuck around with that sort of thing.

I do really like Mae’s particular brand of competitiveness, which is coming out in Ivo too. The kind where you want to win so much that you’re ridiculously careful about making sure you’ve followed every tiny instruction and accounted for every little thing because you can’t stand the thought of fucking up on a pointless mistake. But then because you’ve been so careful, you hold everyone else to the same standard, expect them to also have meticulously gotten everything right, and call it out if you see them get away with slacking on that, because if you bothered to get it all right then they should have to as well. And yes, at some point in that sentence it became clear that by “you”, I mean “me”, that’s how I live my life and it’s maladaptive at times. But it’s also how Mae Martin and Ivo Graham are playing Taskmaster, and I love seeing it.

- Love how much effort they put into the barrel bridge before realizing they can just use duct tape and poles. Also:

Brilliant. I really hope this screenshot embodies what this team will be like all season, with the two competitive contestants carefully managing a tricky solution to the task, and Jenny dancing and singing on the sidelines for moral support.

- Mae Martin: Stop the clock, I think.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe: I think we could go higher.

Mae Martin: No, I’m scared.

Yep, that’s the kind of so-competitive-you-come-back-around-to-being-cautious I’m talking about. Also, I’m scared too Mae. This is genuinely tense, don’t fuck it up.

- 

No! Careful! I mean, I love the symbolism of the early female comedian from back before they invented more than like four women in comedy, assisting the young(er) queer comedian who’s existing in a world created by the previous generation of feminist trailblazers. But also, I’m worried about all the little things that can go wrong here. I know Mae is meticulous, but how carefully his Jenny watching her shoes’ proximity to the red green?

- After I wrote that last point, I hit “play” on the video again, they raised it even higher, some of the tape started stretching, and without consciously meaning to, I started saying: “No, stop the clock, stop the clock!” out loud, to my laptop screen. At the same time, heard my voice joined by Mae Martin’s:

I get you, Mae. I get you. Do you want to be, like, best friends, or something? You’re not looking for a wife, are you, if Charlotte Ritchie’s off somewhere else?

- Oh God. That was tense. They did it. Well done all around, everyone. Competence on Taskmaster, who would have expected that?

- Ivo. Honey. What are you. What are you doing?

The board isn’t part of it, buddy. What are you doing?

...I knew I was looking forward to seeing Ivo Graham fall apart merely from being in the presence of Frankie Boyle, but I don’t think I expected it to engender quite so much of my current reaction, which is wanting to protect him like a child. Go build the bridge, Ivo.

- There’s a lot of competition in this category, but I think this might be my favourite screenshot of this whole episode so far:

- And it was beaten for that spot a split second after I posted it:

- I don’t know why since there’s been so much other good stuff, but my hardest laugh of this episode so far has come from Ivo Graham going in the house to try to find something that’ll actually work, and Frankie Boyle marches predatorily after him to suggest that they roll the potato in a tube.

- Oh shit. You know what, I was making fun of Frankie’s tube idea, but credit where it’s due, I stand correct. That worked really well.

- 

Greg knows what’s up. Greg’s the one saying the quote in that caption, but from the grin on his face, Alex is also aware that they’ve struck fucking gold with that pairing.

- 

At the end of the season I want to collect all these Frankie/Ivo screenshots (I just remembered that I said last week I’m going to call them “Franko”, I’ll have to start that next week), rank them by awkwardness, and put them in a collage.

- 

And as we come down from the 18 different types of tension at play in the previous task, now we’re in the lab, setting shit on fire. Awesome.

- So it’s the season 8 little finger task, but with a breath instead. Okay. I’m on board.

- Jenny Eclair wants to resuscitate a dying animal. I admire the ambition.

- I think Mae and Kiell’s idea for this probably what I’d do. See if you can set off a chain reaction by blowing on something small. But I think I’d go smaller scale than this - I’m now thinking of the season six task when they tried to extinguish a candle by blowing through a pipe that size, and it didn’t go too well.

- Mae Martin kissing a marble and ordering it not to fuck up: yes, that’s the level of competitiveness we want out of Taskmaster.

- Kiell, you have to put the ball a little way into the pipe before you blow on it, so it’s already going in the right direction. It isn’t lighter than air.

- Again, the level of intensity:

We’re all very attracted to hot queer people who get disproportionately intense about stuff, right? That’s not just me?

- Holy shit, Mae’s worked! I didn’t think it was going to, I thought they put the xylophone too far away. But of course they must have tested it, they’re not messing around.

- Well, didn’t think Kiell’s would work either, so I was right one out of the two times. Also, I don’t think he started that one with a breath. I think he just dropped it down the tube.

- Oh good, marble runs are the smart way to go, but I’d have been disappointed if they’d put fire in the intro and then no one brought fire into the actual task. I’m learning that we can count on Jenny for that sort of thing. Wouldn’t it be fun if it became a running joke throughout the season that Jenny’s thing is setting shit on fire? 

- Holy hell. I thought Jenny was going to light a candle in the caravan and then put it out, but she is now actually lighting the curtains on fire. I’ve said before that Taskmaster NZ is fun because it has more lax health and safety standards that Taskmaster UK (I’m not... I mean, politically and just morally I’m aware that health and safety and other regulations are a good thing, sometimes my taste in comedy does not perfectly line up with my actual beliefs, like how funny I think it is to watch Ivo Graham get bullied on a panel show), but that’s taking quite a risk in this one.

- 

New hardest laugh of the episode. If I hadn’t paused the video to write this, I’d have had to pause it anyway to laugh. Brilliant. No notes.

- So, I’ve been taking these one at a time and only focusing on Jenny so far, but what the fuck is Frankie doing?

Is that... is that someone who doesn’t work for the show? Is that just a guy? It’s been mentioned a couple of times before that the Taskmaster house is near a golf course - in season six, when the contestants had to get back to the house, they were asking people for directions “to the golf course”. And in season 7 when they had to throw things over the fence, they talked about seeing people playing golf in the distance. But I thought that was, you know, the distance. Presumably they don’t just have golfers that close to the house while they’re filming.

- 

Holy fuck. Holy fuck. That was incredibly funny. I still don’t understand why that guy was there, it doesn’t matter. Frankie Boyle fucking with a golfer and then folding over in silent giggles like a child playing a door-knocking prank, but it isn’t a child, it’s Frankie Boyle with a golfer, possibly his least favourite type of person after privately educated posh English boys - fucking hell that’s funny. I’d watch a whole show of just Frankie doing that.

-

True, but perhaps not the best way to ingratiate yourself with the hosts of this show, or least with one of them, and that reminds me, Alex, please cast your buddy John Robins on here someday.

- Alex just told us that the garden “backs onto a golf course”, so I guess they’re a lot closer to it than I’d thought.

-

Seriously, fucking commission that. I’d watch it, and I’m not alone. Raise your hand if you’d watch an entire show of Frankie Boyle blowing whistles in inappropriate places.

- Well, I got so into Ivo’s task attempt that I haven’t even catalogued it (which is probably fine, I definitely did not need to screenshot nearly as much of this episode as I did), and at the end, it at least came close to matching Frankie’s attempt in my hardest laugh of the episode. Oh, that was a beautiful disaster. Trying the radio first, getting rejected. Then getting rejected by Greg. Then by Ed Gamble. Apologizing for breaking glasses and then failing to break glasses. Failing to break glasses, how hard can that be? I thought he was going to do creepily sexy breathing down the phone at Ed, but instead for some reason he really intensely sort of breathily shouted.

Oh yes, Ivo. It feels like one point. But it was a heroic failure.

And to be fair, Kiell’s breath wasn’t even what moved the ball. Ivo did move the basketball with his breath. If you say Ivo’s “one breath” was the last one he took, since that’s the one that actually moved the ball, then that probably took place after Ed Gamble hung up. So he didn’t even annoy Ed with that one, and the glasses didn’t break. But he did move a ball. More, technically, than Kiell did.

- Wow, the scoring is all over the place here. I feel like Greg took on board accusations of being too generous at other times, and might be overcorrecting. But then he was weirdly generous in the music task.

Anyway, scoring aside, that was a great bit of chat following that task. Ivo and Kiell sniping at each other to continue the animosity developed in the last week’s prize task. Mae trying to remind people of their nice little bing. Greg saying he can’t give five points for “putting off a golfer”. Frankie Boyle, of all people, accusing him of being jaded. Alex correcting Greg’s scoring (and being right - Kiell should definitely not have beaten Jenny or even Ivo) and Greg acquiescing. There seemed to be a bit of distance in the studio in last week’s episode, but they’re getting into it now.

- Love Ivo covering hi smouth in shock at the sight of that scoreboard:

I don’t imagine this will happen much, but it is fun to see Frankie Boyle at the top of a Taskmaster board.

- Ah, the old Taskmaster classic: arts and crafts with visual and material-based restrictions. A classic for a reason.

- Ivo not just looking under his table, but spinning it around to see the whole thing:

That is a man who has seen Taskmaster before, and has just watched his own potato bridge task, possibly being reminded of previous potato bridge tasks, and what lessons they’ve taught us. Debajo De La Mesa. And it worked out this time, there were scissors.

- I think how very fucking pleased with himself Kiell looked after coming up with his idea summarizes his whole vibe in quite a fun way.

- As the second one to complete the task, Frankie looks... less pleased with himself, in a way that also summarizes his vibe.

- Kiell, you fucking idiot! Just say it’s a caterpillar and you’d be fine! It looks more like a caterpillar than a snake anyway! Frankie’s not going to be at the top of the scoreboard often, don’t take this episode away from him!

- Yeah, Greg’s right, Mae’s was good. It should have won for not just being tape on a board. But I think that scoring was mostly right.

- Oh God, that was fucking good. The whole episode, so good. I thought last week’s was a good opener, but the quality here has escalated as they’ve settled into it. Also, this post got a little out of hand, I’m going to need to make fewer screenshots and comments next time because stopping it so often means this whole thing took me about four hours (though I did also stop and do laundry and make lunch). But fuck it, I have nothing else to do on this holiday Friday, and that was great.

[wonderfulworldofmaeth]

Meet Emilio Taylor

Full name: Emilio Mauricio Taylor

Age: 28 years old.

Birthday: September 30th.

Sexual orientation: Heterosexual.

Familiar: Biscuit the Embrish Schnauzer

Personality:

Likes: Cotton candy, matching socks, quiet coffee shops, the library, working with his father on the weekends, the old book smell, foreign chocolates, playing fetch with his dog, when the antique clock hands are perfectly at noon, vintage caps, cooking with his mother, playing football with his friends, popsicles on hot days, double knotting his laces, sewing with a machine, leather gloves in the wintertime, tweed, the color blue, writing on a typewriter, cardstock stationery, the smell of his hair wax, pretty smiles, taking out his small row boat to Lover's Lake, people commenting on his Embrish accent, having drinks with his best mates, taking the steam train, when the leaves turn red on the trees, the smell of leather, when Isabella calls him 'Emi', long boat rides, catching a cold because he loves staying indoors with a good book while everyone else is going about their day, cinnamon rolls, sea breezes, long hair on girls, long midnight talks at the railyard, pies with graham cracker crust, the smell of his mother's perfume.

Dislikes: The subject of mathematics, sewing by hand, long phone calls, tripping on cracks in the sidewalk, odd numbers, offensive cologne, the color yellow, the bug bites from sitting in the grass, taking his shirt off in public, going to the doctor, when his nails get too long, people coming behind him and scaring him, talking about his brother, going too long without a shower, telling people about the time he got scurvy, when people tell him his beard will come any day now, chino shorts because it reminds him of his Embrish school days, when his glasses get foggy, taking his boat home from Lover's Lake, being caught without his watch, kale, one night stands, forgetting his lip balm, tight pants, holding his pee for more than a few hours.

Abilities: A very talented writer. Has a knack for seeing every side of the story and is a very balanced conversationalist. Emilio has helped his father with his tailor business since he was young so he isn't too shabby with a sewing machine. He can sew buttons, hem pants, and fix holes amongst other things. He's also insanely good at football.

Favourite food: Spinach artichoke dip and breadsticks

Favourite drink: Embrish breakfast tea

Favourite flower: Daisy

Appearance:

Height: 6'0 or 183 cm.

Weight: 194 lbs or 88 kg.

Hair: Dark brown hair, usually worn slicked with hair wax into a side part. Since he often wears a hat, his hair can get shaggy when he takes it off. Emilio washes his hair daily and makes sure it is combed and cut and neat. He views hair as an accessory, and like any article, it must be styled accordingly.

Eyes: Emilio has his father's blue eyes, an Embrish trait. He has brown lashes, long and wispy. His eyes ebb and flow from a stormy grey to an icy blue. When he takes off his glasses, his eyes become the centerpiece of his face. They're very popular among the Maethisse girls.

General description: Emilio is a good height and has a fairly average build. His legs are quite long and he often has trouble buying pants long enough, so he just makes them himself. His arms are an average length, but he has sizable hands with long fingers. He's had to get used to handling such delicate tools when sewing with such big hands. In his teen years and early twenties, he had a lot of body acne which has scarred over, so spots of hyperpigmentation are noticeable on his chest and back. Emilio has a larger-than-average shoe size and has flat feet. As for his face, he has an angular nose and pink lips that have a tendency to be dry if he doesn't use lip balm Emilio has a strong brow that makes him look like his father and a sharp chin that makes him look like his mother. He has pointed ears that he's had to come to terms with, and they were often a point of bullying when he was in grade school. He has an earring collection to help him with this insecurity.

Fashion sense: Emilio has a simple, yet eloquent sense of style. In warmer weather, he loves a good polo shirt or linen shirt and a pair of straight-leg slacks or linen pants. For a more casual look, he loves experimenting with different denim styles, but a straight-leg pair of jeans is never a bad idea. In the winter, he loves layering, incorporating tweed jackets, peacoats, and cashmere sweaters into his everyday wardrobe. He loves a good Oxford shoe, but penny loafers and Chelsea boots are a couple of his other staples. He will hardly leave the house without accessories, whether it be his vintage newsboy cap or his leather gloves. He has two watches, one silver, and one with a leather band. He will never be seen without one. He's the particular son of a tailor. He likes to be well-dressed.

A brief look into his life:

Occupation: Emilio is a writer by trade. He's very intuitive and has a very distinctive voice when he writes. He studies at Maeth's college and eventually gets a job at the newspaper writing articles. Growing up, he spent much time helping his father at his tailor shop by sewing clothes and upholstery.

Love interest:

Lana Bernard, wife

Family and friends:

John Taylor, father

Selma Quintanilla Taylor, mother

Antonio Taylor, twin brother (estranged)

Feliciana Taylor, younger sister

Isabella Zieragh, former love interest and close friend

Thomas, Marcos, Cole and Matías, his best friends.

Victor Esperanza, mentor at the Maethisse College of Literary Arts

Miscellaneous facts:

Emilio and his twin brother Antonio had a falling out that he's never told anyone about. People in Maeth have no idea he's a twin at all.

Emilio was in love with Isabella but never had the courage to tell her.

Emilio gave his blood for his mother's transfusions when she was pregnant with his younger sister because he was the only match for her.

Although Emilio has a lot of preferences and can be quite particular, he's very sociable and easy to get along with.

At first, he's quite shy, but once he has a few drinks he loosens up and loves a good social outing.

Emilio has a very close relationship with his sister, despite the large age gap of 16 years.

Emilio's mother is a witch and there has a general understanding and appreciation of the craft.

Emilio's father worked as a sailor before he suffered a serious injury and became wheelchair-bound. He started his tailor business, Sailor's Tailor, a few months later.

Emilio had been back and forth between his mother's and father's home countries since he was 10 years old. This being so, he does speak Maethel, however, he has a heavy Embrish accent.

Story:

Emilio's mother and father met while John was on a six-month leave from his duties. He traveled further inland to take a break from the waters. He visited Maeth and really loved the city. He met Selma on his first visit, and by the third time, he'd proposed. The two moved to Embry to the Taylor family home. He continued as a sailor for ten years, constantly working while his family remained in Embry. While here, Emilio and Antonio went to the Windsor Academy for Boys for their primary schooling. They were close, but separable. They were already showing signs of favoring different hobbies. Emilio preferred his books and Antonio preferred the outdoors with his friends. When the boys were about a decade old, they relocated to Maeth for the first time because Selma was homesick and fighting seasonal illnesses. They got a house in the country on the outskirts of the city, and she homeschooled her two sons. During this time, Emilio and Antonio alternated between traveling the world with their father aboard his ship and staying home with their mother. Antonio often liked to be away at sea more than home, and Emilio the opposite.

Five years after moving back to Maeth, John's mother passes away and he must return to Embry to settle her estate. Antonio wants to return with his father, and Emilio wants to stay in Maeth. Selma wants the whole family to return to support John, so the family of four goes back for a few months.

While in Embry, Selma discovers she is pregnant. She and her husband had been trying for a baby for close to fifteen years. She is overjoyed, and John is so pleased to have another child on the way.

The twins were enrolled in secondary schools, Emilio at the Quinton Literary College and Antonio at the University of Embry. By now, the two young men had grown apart due to Antonio's involvement with hate groups directed at witches and occult beings. Emilio and Antonio nearly weren't on speaking terms with one another. Considering their mother was a witch, Emilio takes his brother's opinions seriously and they do not sit right with him. John has a terrible accident during this time, leaving him paralyzed from his waist down. This further puts strain on the relationship of the family.

Emilio picks up a part-time job between his days at school to help his family pay for necessities since John was out of work. Selma was a few months along with a hard pregnancy now, so it was difficult for her to work long hours. Emilio didn't mind providing for his family, given the circumstances, but one thing really worked his nerves.

Antonio.

He was never home, always out late, eating all the food and stealing money to spend. Emilio couldn't stand him. He hated his friends, hated how disrespectful he'd become with their mother. Antonio tried to pick fights with him constantly, but Emilio never engaged. He wanted Antonio to choose between his family and his selfish ways, but he couldn't have both. Emilio had had enough, but he couldn't find anything to do about it all. In his mind, Antonio was no longer his brother.

As if by fate, one night, Antonio's choice was made for him.

After that, Emilio decided it was best for the family if Antonio disappeared and the family never saw him again. After that night, Antonio was no longer in the lives of the Taylor family.

After a short period of grief, the Taylor's realized they couldn't stay in Embry for much longer. John needed to find work, Selma needed a village to help raise her child, and they had no family left here. Emilio needed to get into a good college, and with his grades, he could, but there wouldn't be any money to support the family. So they decide moving back to Maeth would be the best option.

@themaethpost

[loverboy-ish]

🗣️❌?

🗣️Talk about your favourite WIP

Oh, I think I have a few.

One of them's just a one-shot, a snippet in childhood, about Naoko and Katagawa Jr. from Borderlands. I've currently left it at a turning point of violence (school bullying... rip), literally on a comma -- anyway it's about me headcanoning Naoko being a bit weird with Bibles just because, and coming into trouble with another kid. Also it happens at a boarding school and I'm like yeah mixed-gender/co-ed BS's (lol) are real. Doesn't matter if they're not they are now for this sillyness.

❌What WIP do you find the most challenging? Why?

All of them <:) Writing.... difficult.... augh [collapses and dies of secret diseases]

OK but besides the commitment part (will I ever finish anything...), I think if I kept up with that Grarchivist (Graham Archivist) AU idea, that would be the most challenging. Like yes I have a couple other things I'd have to make up literal plots for, make up new characters, wrangle aspects of established canon and decide whether I comply or ignore it for my own reasons, but because I wanted Grarchivist to still follow a similar plot - downfall of Some Guy because he opened up an evil portal - but still keep it fresh and new... yeah I think that'd be a challenge.

[onlybuilt4expensivetaste]

The Black Avengers’ tingz

Shawn Carter, Genius. Billionaire — a business, mannn: Jay-Z

Founding member of the Black Avengers. As expected, many of his relationships are sour. He and his fellow Avenger Kanye West are like something that don’t he matching lately, and he bullies other fellow Avenger Drake after the latter made it his mission to become more powerful than Jay-Z. He's also very obsessed with Rihanna, and has a sick of obsession with the man who forever will own her heart (Chris Brown, of course).

Kanye Omari West is the Christian in Christian Dior (man, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore) with bad hygiene, the former genius better known as, Yeezy (or Ye). His arch-nemesis is Interscope’s 50 Cent, with fellow Black Avenger Jay-Z low-key taking that spot, and Amber Rose in second. His love life was complicated at one point, going from flopped relationship with Alexis Phieffer to Amber Rose to loving Teyana…in secret, and never really promoting her as his artist (bc of said secret), to doing whatever his wife Kim Kardashian asked of him, to hating Amber Rose, to complete disrespecting Kim, to making his longtime obsession with Azealia Banks reach an all time weird, to dating the astoundingly boring Julia Fox.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty, better known as Rihanna; fellow Black Avenger and Illuminati princess, whose greatest victim oddly enough seems to be her forever obsession and on-and-off boyfriend Chris Brown (and his soul). She has interfered with Chris’ love life on many occasions, mainly terrorizing his girlfriend at the time C-List celebrity Karrueche Tran (who she correctly identifies as a clout-chaser), and actually every girl who has simply been seen with him.

Beyoncé Knowles, better known as just Beyoncé is a fellow Black Avenger and secretly (not-so-secretly by 2017/2018) a witch, and uses “extreme dark magic” for selfish purposes, such as when she hexed her former drummer (and probably lover) for reasons unknown.

Aubrey Drake Graham is a fellow Black Avenger, (and alleged worshipper of Moloch) better know by his middle name, Drake. Drake made an enemy of Jay’s when he decided that he was going to be a competitor if not the leader of the Black Avengers. He is severely jealous of Chris Brown (notably, but not only bc of Rihanna. He’s also beefed with fellow Avenger Meek Mill, seemingly but I’m sure not limited to Nicki Minaj, whom we are told he’s always wanted. He more than likely had sex with Kim Kardashian, one of the reasons for his beef with Ye.

Christopher Maurice Brown is a sort of Black Avenger, cutely know by his hip hop moniker or whatever it is (that I assume Cash Money’s Birdman gave him) C-Breezy. He had (maybe still has, who knows) on-and-off relationship with fellow avenger Rihanna, and because of this ongoing beef (up until 2019) with other fellow Avenger Drake. Before he became a kinda Avenger/dipping his toes into the Illuminati, he had his own label CBE (Culture. Beyond. Your Evolution), and one of the artists off of it was his frequent co-writer and producer (whom he brought with him near everywhere he went) Kevin McCall. However, because the Illuminati does not want anybody close to you whom can talk you out of certain agendas they may ask of you to (unwittingly) enact, Chris’ then-manager (and molester) Tina Davis, and more than likely Young Money artist Tyga said certain things to both of them to turn them against each other, since there was no way in hell that Chris would ever willingly cut his friends off (or sacrifice them 👀). By 2016, Chris was pretty much over the elites’ weird agendas and his celebrity fake friends, he unofficially dipped out - part of the reason why the Black Avengers slowly but rapidly fell out.