#Happy Mother’s Day Nail Art Designs

[cabi-leodrann]

Cabi! Big fan Joffrey here!

I wanted to ask, every time I see your art not only am I stunned by the quality, but also by the sheer uniqueness in style and character design. I've never seen a lamb designed quite like yours, it's so perfectly yours. What went into the inspiration behind the characters design, especially facially? Did you try and mimick a real lamb, or was there a more fantasy-element that you veered toward?

I can't specifically put my finger on it, but it gives me vague Warframe vibes. It's such a beautifully odd design and I can't get enough.

Love your work, love everything you do, can't wait to see what's next!

Hope you're well, stay safe, take care!

First of all, your ask is one of the biggest compliments I ever had in my life, I will keep it forever. You're an absolute chad! Second of all, those are very interesting questions, and I will be very happy to answer to them!

It started more or less with this drawing I made *look at the date* 2 years ago apparently. Way before I even thought of an AU- I didn't had much in mind, beside doing something that looked cool tbh.

I was very happy with the flow of it, and how it came out. And when I drew the Lamb again, I would try to nail THIS design.

The thing is, with time, I had a really big problem: Lamb looked way too young when I thought of them more as an adult. I had too much of the original game design guiding me, making a Lamb that was too cute and childlike for what I wanted. (And also, the head did not go well with the rest of the body holy shi-)

Came those drawings! I was happier with the look, Lamb was older! And I found the colored design quit nice! (I used a sheep picture as reference, but I don't think I used it well, compared to now. I used the reference for details, when I should have gone for overall shape first.) I still wanted something simpler to draw tho. The colored design was nice for an illustration, a one time gig, but I got pretty annoyed pretty fast at trying to nail the face every time. And from those attempt, you get the sketches on the right. (I also wanted to get away from other artiste's interpretation of Lamb, and at the time of those drawing, I didn't felt like I was away enough)

From those previous sketches, the idea for THaB started to emerge. I also still had problem with Lamb's design. Especially the hair. I was inspired by black hair, which is usually not a problem, but I was never happy with how it looked on Lamb specifically. I can draw black hair, I can draw black characters, but this mother-fucker would never feel satisfying to draw or finish 👀

And one day, as THaB was solidifying in my mind, I made a series of sketches that I posted! And one of them was the most important in Lamb's final design. This lil guy! (this design didn't came out of nowhere tho, Lamb was evolving into this as I kept trying. But I wont show those sketches, because those are spoilers =3)

And soon after, I made a comic that was supposed to only be a one shot, just a POV of Lamb and there reaction to Nari' telling them to die for him. But you know, things got out of hand lol

As I continued the comic and doodles on the side, I finally made myself a reference board, with real life images that were close to the vibe of this head drawing. (And I cannot stress enough how those references solidified Lamb's design as a whole. Draw with references, it is life changing. The more reference you get, the more your visual library will get diverse, and the more interesting detail and shape you will add to your art in general.) (I'd also add this: understand what you are drawing, make research and stay curious for every bit of info on everything. You never know when these nuggets of knowledge will help you as you create)

As I kept drawing the Lamb, they evolved! Things changed, slowly, like the shape of the nose, the shape of the eyes, how the hair flowed. You see those change at the face, but also on the body! As the idea of THaB's Lamb got clearer, the design got more specific. (I also got better at drawing! This comic make me draw way more often then before, and it shows)

Something before I finish: the other Cult of the Lamb character's design are way more inspired by their animals, when Lamb is more in the human spectrum. I thought of changing Lamb at some point, to make it fair/coherent, but I loved the design too much to change it again. This AU is something I do for fun, and even if it would have been more logical to change them... I don't want to-

As for the vague Warframe vibes: I play the game! And I found the character design absolutely stunning. So I am definitely influenced by the game without knowing it lol

Thank you very much, again, for your kind words! I also wish you the best, and see you next post =D

TL;DR: Lamb design, at first, wasn't inspired by much, beside the game and my style at the time. But as I retried to make them, added more intent, they got more refined. What really nailed the idea was to have real life references on the side.

[ultracreativelywritten]

Descendants Headcanons

While all of the kingdoms are united, each of the smaller regions are still ruled by their respective royalty. In places like Charmington, I see it has multiple rulers that work together.

Out of all the royals, Kuzco and Snow White are taken the least seriously. They are seen how they were in their respective stories instead of how they are now, adults in their thirties.

I see Snow and her prince being divorced in the Descendants franchise. It’s not advertised, and Snow drives from her kingdom to Charmington for her reporting job. If it wasn’t for that job, she would rather not be there.

The Dwarves help run Snows kingdom. I see her turning to them after the divorce and they all have high ranking advising jobs in the kingdom.

Snow dose not hold Evie accountable for the Evil Queen’s actions, and gives her the biggest hug when Doug brings her home to meet the family. Snow sees how happy she makes Doug, and that’s all she needs to know about her to accept her.

Kuzco and Snow also have the most protected state forests in the kingdom. Snow wanted a place for all the magical animals to live without fear as the other kingdoms developed more and more while Kuzco knew that overdevelopment would destroy the beauty his kingdom. Both kingdoms have seen an influx of people who want to live simpler lives or lives that reflected what they used to do before the United States of Aurudon was created.

Kuzco was 100% against sending people to the isle. Like, some people only worked for the villains because they really needed a job. His best example would be Kronk, who is a sweet soul and could do no real evil.

For the heroes that didn’t come from royalty and then married into royalty had quite a hard time adjusting to being in a world of politics and royal courts. Most times they focus on being a voice for the people who have to deal with the fallout of their leader’s decisions.

Eugene and Aladdin are best friends when it comes to boring meetings and political parties. They like to steal each others stuff the entire time and by the end they give everything back. There are things that both have noted as off limits in their unspoken rules of the game. When the two were first starting the game Jasmine was mortified while Rapunzel was happy that Eugene is making friends.

Jay wants to play the game with Eugene and Aladdin but Evie won’t let him.

Eugene, Aladdin, and Cinderella are the most likely to take things from the hotel. Cindi will stick to things like soap or pens, but Eugene and Aladdin will take anything not nailed down that they can sneak past their wives.

Eugene has pens and paper pads on him at all time so Rapunzel can doodle whenever she wants. All of these items are off limits in the game, because they aren’t his they are his wife’s.

Rapunzel and Mal love talking about different types of art at royal events, and Rapunzel has invited Mal to Corona so they can work on a Mural together. Eugene has given Ben the wisest advice about always having art supplies on him.

For Mother’s Day, Eugene works hard on making Rapunzel duck tape and paper flower pens because he knows she would like them more than real flowers. Rapunzel refuses to throw any of them away. She stores them in a special vault. May their be mercy on any poor soul that tries to break in and try to steal any of them.

Dude is very protective of Carlos, and barks at any dogs that try to get near him. As a stray who found a loving boy, he would protect this boy to the very end. Even against things that are not a threat.

I see Rodger Radcliffe being Aurudon prep’s music teacher and brings some of the Dalmatians during midterms and finals as a way to help out kids that are stressed.

Anita Radcliffe sees how talented Evie is and would support her business as a fellow designer.

I do want to talk more about these Headcanons as well as develop some aus for this series. Feel free to ask me anything about these or the aus I want to develop.

[wolfgirlboyjester]

KHOC Week Day 1 - Introduction

(Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7)

I'm excited to participate in KHOC Week ( @khoc-week ) with Lamia, my favorite bristly emo boy in the whole world. I am currently in the process of writing a very lengthy and ambitious fic about them and the connection they make with a certain weird old man with an eyepatch. Lamia means a lot to me, and I'm so happy to have an excuse to show him to you all :]

The Day 1 prompt was a good excuse to finally nail down a design for them. I've struggled a bit in the past because there's a pretty big difference between the way I design characters (imagining what decisions they would make about their appearance based on their personality) and the way Kingdom Hearts characters are designed (what looks cool, and what is communicated about them to the audience based on their appearance). However, I think I struck a happy medium here!

I'm gonna spend the whole week infodumping about him, but there's more Sweet Sweet Lamia Content over on my main blog. (Be advised: I'm keeping my KHOC Week posts pretty PG, but there is more mature content in the links below!)

For more art: lamiart tag

For more Lore: lamiaposting tag

Text description below the cut, partly to keep the image alt text short, partly because the font might be difficult to read for some people:

Age: 25 (at the end of KHI)

Pronouns: he/him, they/them

Height: 5'8" (173 cm)

Homeworld: Radiant Garden

Keyblade: ???

Wields a broken, seemingly dead keyblade from the Keyblade Graveyard

Auxillary Member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee

Father was a scientist in Radiant Garden before he vanished, along with Lamia's mother, during Maleficent's takeover

Has had chronic insomnia due to horrific nightmares ever since he was a child

Almost no magical ability

Swears like a sailor*

Doesn't eat much but has a massive sweet tooth

Autistic, trans

Scar on his lip came from a run-in with a Radiant Garden guard when he was a teen

*Strong language will not be present in KHOC Week posts

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: As You Move Forward

So I went a few months thinking about how I'd forgotten to include Makini to my past depictions of Kion's Guard as adults (1, 2), so I decided to celebrate the 4th anniversary (albeit 2 days late :p) of the Journey of Memories episode by finally showing off the adult design I have for her!

Because I'm still salty about TLG's last-minute decision in making Makini the Mjuzi of the Night Pride instead of Kiara's bestie like Season 2 hyped her up to be, I made a compromise by headcanoning that she frequently journeys back-and-forth between the Pridelands and the Tree of Life, especially when she's called over by each land for a ceremony of some kind.

Design Process:

To avoid making her look too much like a clone of her mother Fikiri, I figured that Makini would develop her dad Kitendo's features as she grew older (I think she's about 20-something in this image). It's kind of a thing for TLG to erroneously depict animals without their distinct sexual dimorphism (see: Mbuni the ostrich), but this time, I felt like embracing Makini's unusual bright colors for a female mandrill and make her look a little androgynous. I feel like it would fit her role as a Mjuzi for some reason lol

I figured the Bakora Staff she received at the Tree of Life would be her last new one as she's since learned to keep better track of it. I like to think that it symbolizes not only growth and learning, but it coming from the Tree of Life symbolizing that her true place is there.

In all that time she's owned it, being the crafty artist she is, she's put years of customization and souvenirs from her back-and-forth Pridelands/Tree of Life adventures into her decorating her staff, selecting just about every pretty flower and naturally-occurring bead she saw. I mainly sought out the idea of people bedazzling their canes for reference, she seems like the type to do that, making just about anything she owns pretty lol

Drawing Process:

ngl I got to work on this very much like that episode where Makini procrastinated on getting started on her portrait of Simba's family. I just, like... really struggled with the composition until I was hit with sudden inspiration to just go wherever my hand took me.

I grabbed a thumbnail sketch of my adult Makini design that I was the most happy with and rendered it digitally and was happy that it got me somewhere... then I ran into the background that I didn't put any thought into.

Because of the cropping and composition I already had going on with Makini's standalone model, it was very hard to come up with something she could be surrounded by, until I decided to insert some headcanons about a certain new TLG-related short Disney released. Basically: I headcanon Makini made those Circle of Life paintings that Kion shows to those younger cubs as I think the style they used in those paintings looks WAY different from Rafiki's (I mean the whole video looks different from the whole TLK art style). You can't tell me those purple pigments and cutesy flowers aren't something Makini would draw everywhere lol

Sources of Inspiration:

Sadly not pictured due to the angle and cropping is the headcanon that she paints her nails all the time, and she's always trying different color combos basically every week lol. I adopted that headcanon from iceflowerglow, who depicts Makini with painted nails in their comic "Shining Above Your Head". Other artists I drew inspiration from were Vtoony's "TLG: Kion's Guard" and tango_fizz.le's "Where'd all the time go?" when it came to designing her fully-developed mane.

[softxsuki]

hello! happy valentine's day! if it's okay, could i please ask for a letter from mitsuya takashi, from tokyo revengers?

𑣲reader’s gender: neutral.

𑣲pet name: my muse.

𑣲relationship status: crush confessing to reader.

𑣲letter's tone: love confession, adoration.

𑣲genre: fluff, friends to lovers, unintentional confession.

𑣲location: mitsuya wrote the letter just to put his feelings into words and didn't plan to actually give it to the reader, but his little sisters took the matter into their own hands and made sure the reader read it.

𑣲about me: i'm 18; i want to be a confectioner; i have a pet chinchila; i'm lazy, kind, observant, sharp, impatient, introverted, honest, bold, quiet, easily distracted and creative; my hobbies are: singing, stargazing, shopping, baking, cooking, reading and fighting. curiosities: i have a big family (that i love); i'm terrible at most sports and i strongly dislike competitions; my best subjects are art and languages and worst are math and physics; i have no social skills but i still manage it well; i'm into fashion and design; i don't have any social media other than tumblr; i never use makeup, do my hair or my nails because i don't know how to do it.

𑣲details: his sisters and the reader are close as well; the reader writes a letter to mitsuya, confessing their feelings and has it delivered to him by his sisters.

take care and thank you in advance!!

Mitsuya’s Confession Letter To His Friend

Valentine’s Day Letter Event Pt.2 (CLOSED)

Pairing: Mitsuya x Gn!Reader

Warnings: none

Genre: Fluff, Friends to lovers

Post-Type: Letter

Word Count: 970

Summary: In which Mitsuya’s little sisters bring you a letter he wrote for you, but wasn’t meant to actually be given to you lol

[A/N: Hi hun, thanks for participating in my event! I decided to just include Mitsuya’s letter to you since I don’t know what you would personally want to say to Mitsuya yourself in a letter and this event is just letters from your favs to you guys. I hope that okay! Hopefully you enjoy! Happy Valentine’s Day!]

“Y/N Y/N Y/N!” The shrill squeals of Mitsuya’s little sisters greet you as you arrive at his place.

Mitsuya had greeted you quickly at the door with a hug, leaving for an urgent gang meeting. He had called you over to watch over his sisters so he didn't have to leave them home alone since his mother was at work and you of course agreed.

“Hi girls!” you pick them up in a hug, your heart melting at their cuteness.

Mana and Luna exchange a knowing look between each other. Little did you know they had been doing a little scheming behind the scenes. They knew their brother was hopelessly in love with you, it was obvious even for them as children, they had no idea why you didn’t see it either. As official Y/N supporters, they needed to make sure you became their in-law so they kept an eye on Mitsuya. Trying to get any tiny piece of evidence to expose his feelings for you since he didn’t want to burden you with his feelings himself.

And last night, they were successful as they read through a letter their brother had written to you, knowing full well he’d never actually give it to you. They took it and hid it for this very moment.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” They say in unison, handing you a letter.

“For me?” You ask, surprised.

“Mhm, It’s from Mitsuya,” they giggle again and run off, leaving you to read in peace.

The mention of his name makes you catch your breath. You could hardly compose yourself outside when he greeted you. You were practically shaking with nerves as he pulled you into a hug.

You open the letter, beginning to read hesitantly;

To My Muse,

I don’t think you even realize that you are my muse. You inspire me to do so much, or maybe it’s the feelings that burn up within me whenever I think about you. Not to mention how intense those feelings grow when I see you face to face. I can’t take it anymore…

Y/N, I love you. I’ve loved you for sometime now and tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I need to just get these words out of my heart since I can’t say them to you–it’s too risky. I can’t lose you, not now, not ever. So here it goes;

I love how well you get along with Mana and Luna, they really love you as well. I love how kind you are to everyone you meet; you can be quiet at times, but even that is beautiful. They way you observe everyone silently, as if you’re trying to unwrap the secrets of their life without ever even speaking to them. You’re amazing, you know?

Your creativity surprises my own. I love that we have something in common when it comes to fashion design, but even if you weren’t interested in it, I think I’d find myself wanting to love something you love doing just so we have that similarity. I love you so much it’s driving me almost insane. You have no idea how badly I wish I could hold you in my arms tomorrow, kiss you, and just have you be mine.

If we were a couple tomorrow, I’d definitely plan a romantic date for us. Maybe a picnic at a park where we’d stay until the sun sets, staying even after that to watch the stars sparkle above us…If only.

As long as you’re happy, that’s fine with me, even if it means not having me in your life romantically. I’ll always be here for you.

Longing for you always,

Takashi Mitsuya.xx

“Sorry, I forgot something!” Mitsuya rushes back in, almost knocking you over as he bursts through the door suddenly.

Your mouth was hung open, your heart about to pop out of your chest from reading his words for you, but also from his sudden appearance.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, worry etched on his features.

“You idiot! Why didn’t you want me to see this?” You blurt out, holding the letter out to him.

His face instantly pales, “Where did you get that from?”

“You sisters gave it to me…”

He sighs, knowing how mischievous his sisters could be.

“I’m sorry Y/N, I-”

“I love you too,” you stop him from apologizing, feeling like you were gonna pass out from the sudden surge of bravery you got.

“I- What? Really?”

You nod as he stares at you in shock, but then a smile breaks through.

“Guess I was worried for nothing then,” he laughs, meeting your eyes.

“I guess so…” you were feeling a little awkward now. You weren’t used to being so bold, especially not with your friend who you just found out likes you back.

“Look, I really need to go. I’m already late and Mikey is going to kill me if I’m any later. But hey, we’ll finish talking about this when I get back, okay? Wait up for me,” he hurriedly says, looking at the time on his watch.

“Okay,” you were still in shock, not knowing what to do with your heart.

He smiles and turns to leave, but hesitates and turns around again, “I love you, I’ll see you later.”

Boom heart attack. How dare he smile at you like that and look at you with those warm eyes. How dare he love you back. Why were you suddenly so lucky?

You just gulp and nod your head, not trusting your voice at that moment.

And then he was gone. The sound of his bike fading off in the distance from him rushing away.

You were nervous to talk to him when he returned, but at the same time you couldn’t wait. This was just the beginning of your story together.

REGULAR REQUESTS ARE OPEN :D

EVENT REQUESTS ARE CLOSED

Posted: 2/14/2023

[chihirolovebot]

Umm,,ive actually nevre posted or made a comment on anything so im not sure how this works exactly soo...🧍‍♀️

I KNOW THE ART IS BAD BUT UR FIC NEEDS TO BE MORE POPULAR!!!I H8 WHEN PEOPLE DONT READ FANFICS JUST CUZ THEIR X READER SOME OF MY FAVORITE FANFICS ARE X READER AND THIS IS ON THE TOP OF THE LIST!!IVE REREAD THIS MULTIPLE TIMES AND CANNOT GET OVER HOW AMAZING THE WRITER IS UR SOO TALENTED AND I AGRHGG

-p.s my phys is non binary even if they dont look like it,i was originally gonna make them a 5'8 male but i was like "what if they were a pathetic wet cat" now i have this,also sorry for the sudden cursive im just more used to it than print!!^_^

I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!I <3 U AND UR FIC MOTHER VENUS!!

-

WAAHGHGHSGSGSG I ALMOST THOUGHT I DREAMED THIS HELLO . HELLO IM RECEPTIVE AND LOOKING. your phys is simply beautiful i am looking and staring. pathetic wet cat phys realness btw , i think 5'8 male phys would've been super cool ( especially bc there are less male phys' from what ive seen ) HOWEVER this design still goes so fucking hard. i really REALLY like the hints of purple in their design!!! is that a reference to ouma or did you just do it bc purple looks pretty ? :o either way valid .

also very much enjoying how kind of torn up and tormented they look . their expression is so sad :< patting them on the head . and the rips in their jumpsuit and bandages and messy hair ( love the ahoge btw !!!! ) i really like the random straps on their legs and arms kind of looking like theyre physically holding phys together .. idk . also heterochromia win!!! i was going to give my recent redesign heterochromia but i didnt want the design to look too busy . it looks absolutely fantastic on your one though!!!!

amami painting phys' nails before he died is such a sweet idea ogh my god i kind of wish i did that fr :( imagine the paint slowly chipping as the game goes on and phys sometimes noticing it, particularly after a pivotal moment .. you could do some real cool symbolism with that ( like , maybe use it as a vehicle for phys' guilt; when they feel guilty abt distancing themselves from their classmates, the nail polish chips more, bringing them 'further from amami' ) MAN idk that's a really really neat idea.

love the silly little textposts . im such a big sucker for those and i make my own in my spare time and they kinda clog up my camera roll lmfao . THE LAST ONE ABT WRITING A LIST though thats so phys-coded im shocked it actually exists!!! how did u find that omg . anyway if you couldnt tell im a huge huge fan of this . does your phys' name have a particular meaning behind it btw ? :o

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS IM STILL GIDDY ABT IT. your artstyle is so pretty and you are genuinely so talented and i am so happy to see your rendition of phys :') theyre absolutely lovely and you did them so well. i hope you're having a lovely day <3

[anazen333]

Things I didn't realize I could do despite NOT being Posh/Rich

Namely because I grew up not seeing it done in my own family so assumed I wouldn't ever be able afford to, or that was a class rule thing that I wasn't allowed to break lest I be perceived as a social climber or inadvertently saying I'm better than my peers.

Yay my Autistic black and white logic.

Since coming to these realizations, whole new levels of joy have opened up in my life.

(In no particular order)

#1 - Trimming my nails so they were all the same length on each finger and both hands

I’m honestly not sure what made me think I couldn’t trim my nails so they were all the same length. I grew up seeing adult women in my circle have uneven nails on their hands vs posh women with professionally manicured hands so maybe my mind just made the correlation. I always thought that the even nails were so elegant and wished my could be even too, but the women in my family didn’t care about manicures, and to be fair, I didn’t and still don’t like wearing nail polish, so even if I had worked up the nerve to ask for a manicure, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it.

But then one day when I was in my teens, I randomly, from the corner of my eye, watched a bit of some tween animated show (maybe Bratz?) and one of the girls broke a nail and then went on about how now she was going to have to trim all the other ones to match. And my mind was blown.

I realized then that having my nails all different lengths upset me. It didn’t matter if one or two of them had grown in very nicely if they didn’t match the rest. In fact, I was perfectly happy with them all being trimmed to the nubs if it meant they were all the same length.

I still have yet to get a professional manicure and I still don’t like painting my nails. I tend to keep my nails fairly short because I do martial arts and bake and gardening so having them short is practical. And having them all even makes me happier than a few of them looking elegant.

#2 - Having matching sets of themed underwear

As a teen and into my twenties, my bras never matched my underwear. Because I was raised on the kind of underwear you get in large packs. My mother openly scoffed at the pantie displays, saying pantie was such a vulgar term, and from the media it seemed wearing matching sets of underwear was reserved for “the bedroom”. Whenever I passed by a Victoria’s Secret, I’d see the piles of lace and my good Christian girl brainwashing had me roll my eyes and tell myself that I was better than the uncouth masses for not wearing such highly sensual underwear since obviously one only wore it if one was expecting to have intercourse with a man.

And then I discovered matching socks weren’t just a fashion statement limited to men.

Socks growing up had also followed the same rule as purchasing underwear - cheap and in bulk. But then I got several ballet flats and realized my normal socks were not going to go well so I got several pairs of cute floral socks to match with my outfits.

I also had been going to therapy recently and had started lifestyle changes like going to taekwondo three times a week and incorporating more healthy foods into my diet (I’m still pretty picky because most healthy foods aren’t safe foods for me, but smaller changes like using 100% whole wheat bread and drinking 2% milk have helped a lot).

Long story short, I was feeling more positive and comfortable and confident in my body and treated myself to some new clothes. Because I had also discovered Torrid - a clothing store that designs clothes specifically for women like me.

And after get a new wardrobe, the likes of which I never thought I’d get to have because all the cute clothes everywhere were too small for me, I realized I didn’t need a reason besides wanting to feel pretty to buy matching underwear sets. And to have enough to last me two weeks without repeating!

I’m such a visual person and it took me a long time to realize and embrace it. Sometimes I just open the special drawer where I keep all my pretty underwear and admire them.

#3 - Spaces beside your bedroom can be themed

By now the visual theme is well established. Stimming for neurodivergent people can take on my forms through the various senses - it’s not just limited to “flapping”. Visual stimming is my biggest stim. Nothing makes me happier than staring at beauty.

My bedroom has always been my sanctuary, especially growing up. We moved 8 times my first 18 years and my mom, being the artist that she is, tried to make the transitions easier by letting us pick a new theme for our rooms every time we moved.

The rest of the house outside my bedroom never seemed to have a theme. It was the 90s-2000s and if you don’t know the aesthetic for that time period consider yourself lucky. My parents also collected things from the places we moved and the trips we had gone on, so the rest of the house looked pretty chaotic to me (especially since in my room everything had to have a place and god forbid a single pillow was out of place).

I didn’t stay long enough in my first two apartments to put any effort into them (first one was while working as a teacher in Japan and the second was when I was in grad school). But when I got my first real job and my first real apartment, that’s when I realized I could decorate however I wanted to (because I was starting from scratch).

It took some trial and error to figure out what worked for me in each of the rooms. Obviously I couldn’t spend massive amounts of money, but with a little creativity I managed to cultivate spaces that made me happy.

My kitchen is very Japanese inspired - white base with sage green accents, bamboo blond pieces, and black or white appliances. My bathroom is white with navy colored middle eastern inspired accents. My study is white, blue, yellow, and green, the focal point being from a large Ghibli Castle in the Sky mural. And my bedroom is cottagecore fairytale with a base palette of white, green, yellow, red, and dark woods.

#4 - I can collect art from my favorite artists

For the final visual theme, ART. Growing up, my mom was a freelance artist. Our home was decorated with pieces she had made herself. From osmosis, I assumed either you were rich enough to buy original pieces, you were creative enough to make your own, or your were neither and were reduced to the cheap mass produced pieces one bought at hobby stores.

I inherited my mother’s talent for art and felt I couldn’t hang up anything on my own walls unless I had made it myself. Because why by someone else’s work when I could make my own?

But this was a problem because what I made didn’t always seem good enough for me to stare at it for hours and that would just make me grumpy.

And then I discovered that a lot of my favorite digital artists had shops. And from those shops, you could order prints.

And I realized buying prints was actually a very important thing to do, because it was supporting a freelance artist, like my mom had been. And what could be better than that? Plus I got to have beautiful pieces hanging in my place for me to stare at and visually stim to.

#5 - Just because something is a name brand and expensive doesn’t mean I can’t buy it if I can afford it

For years my mother has pointed out that I have expensive taste. For some reason I tend to gravitate towards the priciest items without even knowing how expensive they are. She also has a tendency to tell me I’m terrible with money (though living on my own without going into debt for over 10 years now should have proved to her and myself that that isn’t true).

Naturally this evolved into a strange complex of me thinking I didn’t deserve to buy name brand products.

And then I discovered Torrid (which by my upbringing is a name brand), and threw caution to the wind to buy clothes that I loved despite them not being on sale (though I still waited for sales and used discounts whenever possible).

And then I heard a rumor that Mazda wasn’t going to be making the Mazda3 model that I was in love with (because so many things about it from the color to the chassis reminded me of my favorite transformer, TFP Knockout). My old car was starting to break down and I decided I had saved enough for a new car (because it seemed getting a house where I lived would never happen anyway), and I bought my brand new dream car.

I know Mazda and Torrid probably aren’t considered high end name brands by posh people, but to me they are. Because growing up my clothes came from thrift stores or Walmart or from the sales racks at Kohls. I was never allowed to buy anything new at full price. When my family got new cars, the old ones had to be dead and the new ones were purchased for their practicality, not their looks.

My parents kept a tight leash on their finances. Both came from poorer families that had to make hard decisions and be creative to get by at times. And I appreciate the money saving tips they gave me.

But this is my life, and I need to find and make my own happiness. That doesn’t mean buying whatever I want whenever I want, but it also means not denying myself little luxuries because I don’t think I deserve them.

[akirayuri]

The utter insanity of ch 78 of mother fucking Pearl Boy: a rant ( tiny rant cuz lowkey my eyes are burning )

Pearl Boy and a rant about the absolute shit show that was Koh Daekwang's ending and the misuse of SA as a whole.

TW: sexual assault, gang sexual assault , Pearl Boy, etc ( and yeah, I didn't really organised or edit anything, I just kinda tried to pin point what I was on about in the headings but take all of it as a whole. It's... very messy. )

Spoilers for: Pearl Boy, Sheep Mask and Chainsaw Man.

So, Pearl Boy? Yah? Unsurprisingly ( and for all the wrong reasons ) it's a popular BL amongst the BL manhwa community fans. ( Korean manga basically ) I kinda picked it up when I was wayyy younger. The art was so freaking pretty that I just couldn't resist. But turns out even my underage, horny brain went, "uh. There is something wrong with this one. I don't like it". ( It's not that I couldn't read or handle heavy material. I remember reading Warehouse back that year and genuinely speaking? That manhwa is still one of the best psychological BL I've read to this date. )

And then a few days, no wait, weeks ago I heard that apparently it was ending?? And since I get slapped in my face with spoilers now and then I do know whatever was going on in that manhwa, it was bad. And genuinely? The MC of that manhwa just went through so much that I genuinely wanted to see him happy even though I didn't really find myself getting into the manhwa for several reasons. Despite its gorgeous art and ( as the fans insist ) a green flag couple and ML, there are several icks I have with this manhwa even before I opened chapter 78. But 78 was genuinely a nail in the coffin.

*sigh* I shouldn't have trusted the hype surrounding this, this thing . Some fans of bl community are just batshit fucking insane. Period.

My thoughts on Koh Daekwang before I got my brain frayed

And let's clarify where Koh Daekwang as character was in my pedestal at that moment first. Because I think it needs clarification. For one, I got plenty of spoilers to know that he's one of the antagonists and that he has done some shitty things. And being the asshole he is, I expected him to get a ass-woping he absolutely deserved. And tbh? I didn't care much about his character until much later. It was just very weird cuz his japanese name is very similar to my OC ( Hikaru and Hikari. Oh fuck. ) and the beauty mark on his face was on the exact place as my OC ( and the base of the hairstyle but then again, my OC is a red head and and he has wavy hair. )

( but the more I read into the twins I realised my OC acts more like Daehwi than Daekwang 😭 )

Other then that, he was just a hot asshole those manhwa/manga seems to have in default. I didn't really pay any mind to him.

The issue with the SA scenes in the manhwa + the gang r*pe of Koh Daekwang ( on a surface level )

Until I went back to kinda skim through the chapters and stumbled upon chapter 78.

And I KID YOU NOT the f**cking whiplash I got from chapter 78 can't be explained in words. Listen, I've read my fair share of graphic stuff in my years, some I liked and some I didn't. But this, this literally made me wanna throw myself out of the motherf**cking window at 3 am. I didn't know who Daekwang was or what he did ( but I had the feeling that since it's Pearl Boy, he must've done something really really shitty cuz the writing is just like that. ) I only know that I loved his character design very much. I paused in each and every panel and pushed down my urge to throw up. I've seen how the author draws s**x ( more like r**pe scenes ). And something about them already made me uncomfortable. I couldn't just put my finger on them at that time. But now as I skimmed through the entirety of the absolute dehumanising brutality Daekwang had to endure, I realised what exactly made me uncomfortable.

And for a hand sight, I was pretty confident I was gearing up to cheer for dooksik had he not done what he did. I would've probably gone, "GO DOOKSIK KICK HIS ASS !! RIP HIM LIMB TO LIMB TO GO GO GO !!"

Like I'm not even joking. I wouldn't have batted an eye if dooksik had even burned him alive or tortured him in the same fashion as Hostel and the Saw Franchise. Because for a fact, that's more merciful than what he had to go through and more.

Listen, there are ways to torture someone. What Dooksik initially needed was Daehwi to show up and feel the same helplessness he felt when Jooha was being assaulted.

Now, some of y'all would probably jump the wagon with "but he said eye for an eye!! They deserved to be SA-ed because Jooha was SA-ed too"

that's- that's the most shittiest reasoning I've ever heard.

Listen, r*pe is a act that is irreversible and as evil as man kind can get. And no matter which character conducts the act, it's still wrong. ( I mean, this is the reason everyone is like, "omg the twins deserved so much worse uwu " )

And it's even more traumatizing and just, genuinely gross to see Dooksik do it because he is that character we are supposed to be cheering for, he's the ML. He is supposed to be right one ( I mean, it was initially his negetive character arc but I will get into it later ) Jooha went through the same thing and he has no right to call the shots as to what do with Jooha's perpetrators as he wasn't the one assaulted. Much less get the least evil of the three used as a scape goat in such a dehumanising way just to call in his sibling. And speaking of perpetrators; how come fucking PILWON GOT OFF WITH ONLY AN AXE TO HIS HEAD AND MOTHERFUCKING DAEKWANG ( who was hinted to be also the victim of sw from a young age to provide for his brother and genuinely, he's also a victim ) GOT FUCKING GANGBANGED INFRONT OF HIS BROTHER!? EXPLAIN!!

This is why I genuinely think there is something very, very insincere and wrong with the writing.

And as for the "eye for an eye" no honey. It didn't work. It's simply that Daekwang literally got used as a plot device and later thrown to the side. Like, tell me how he ended up like that? In a coma I presume? Like, why is no one talking about it? A guy got gang r*ped by one of the main characters and later when it was time to show the aftermath the author simply ships him off to who knows where and then he's, asleep? In a goddamn coma? Lazy writing at it's peck.

And as for the r*pe sense itself-

Ok so, here is a thing. When you write something or draw something extremely traumatic there are ways to showcase that. there are plenty of good examples out there. How to make trauma seen without fetishizing it. There are ways to go about it. What Pearl Boy does is exactly that, fetishize r*pe as a whole. No matter who is being assaulted they just gotta draw a full on close up to that. Is it really that important to show how many times and exactly how Jooha is being r*ped? It's very disrespectful to actual sa victims. Like, a black fade out or a brief flash back is enough oh my god.

Pearl Boy really has a bad issue for fetishizing r*pe of each and any characters regardless and it's fucking hard to watch, alright?

And the issue with what happened to Daekwang was something else entirely. I knew he was a bad guy and that there was some in**est going in the background. But honestly, look me in the eye and say that he deserved it ( he fucking  didn't. Even Pilwon was killed to easily and mercifully compared to what Dooksik did to the twins ) There are tasteful ways to t**rture someone. Hack, I wouldn't have been this antsy if he got his limbs chopped off or murder even. Like z waterboard him? Clip off his nails? Chop his fingers off? ( I mean, he always has two fingers missing apparently. Like, please can everyone just leave this guy alone? ) like, go watch Hostel or the Saw Franchise and get inspired, man. why gang sa? Honestly the answer is pretty simple, ✨ fetish ✨

( Honestly , killing him off wouldn't have made any difference since he was literally used as a plot device by the end of it. Poor guy. )

And again , it boils down to the eye for an eye thing. But to be honest they didn't even manage to execute it properly. Despite everything he did, Daekwang is a sa victim. If you really wanted to go for the, so famously said, "eye for an eye" do it so with legitimacy. He was literally shipped off too somewhere and then when we see him again, he's looking like a dead man probably in coma 💀. TELL ME F**CKING HOW!? YOU GOT TIME TO DRAW HIM GETTING D**ICKED DOWN BY A WAREHOUSE FULL OF MEN BUT THEN WHEN IT'S ABOUT GIVING A PROPER CLOSURE TO HIS CHARACTER YOU GO, "oh. He's asleep 😁☝🏻" GET OUT.

R*pe revenge gone gone wrong Feat. 'Sheep Mask ' ( and a brief summary of the r*pe revenge genre )

Ok so here is a thing I think I noticed and I think it should be out of my system. There is a similar pattern in this Manhwa that is simply so, off puting. Despite Jooha getting sa-ed so violently each and every turn of his life, it's never him who gets to express his anger and the sheer animosity he is sure to develop over time. It's Dooksik. Dooksik proposes the idea of wanting to kill Pilwon, not Jooha. Dooksik arranges a gang sa for one of the twins, not Jooha. For Jooha the only ligament sign of actual resistance was when it was Dooksik's line on the line. He finally gets the courage to actually pull a gun at someone's head ( still not shoting him )

Someone of y'all simply find it romantic that Dooksik is willing to get his hands dirty for Jooha's sake which is fair considering men like him really don't exist. But Jooha's lack of guts to fight off is something that clashes with the initial "revenge"

Idk how many of you have read Sheep Mask by Paskim but if you have, you'll understand exactly what I mean. No matter how fucked up and graphic this manhwa is, we all will agree on one thing, it makes sense and at the end of the day; it's satisfying.

And not satisfying because there are no stacks for the MC as he delivers karma on his perpetrators, there are. In fact the consequences are everlasting. The MC can never really function properly and is probably marked off as a criminal and is doomed to be unable to live a normal life again ( and might be dead ) but also, the consequences also lie within exactly what he unleashed upon his perpetrator even after he is presumed dead. The lasting mental scarring on both parties leaves a bitter sweet but a understandable closure for both of them.

I'm not saying that this is what Pearl Boy should've done. I'm simply bringing it up as they handle the revenge r*pe aspect similarly, yet so differently.

What Sheep Mask did so satisfyingly was that it was the victim calling the shots, not anyone else. Which actually reminds me of a pop culture phenomenon that happened in the early days of revenge r*pe movies.

The culture of rape revenge has been around in the media for a good amount of time. This genre ( female oriented as it is ) has changed it's pattern over time.

[ and I highly suggest to check out this video essay that I'm linking down below if you are interested in this topic because this THAT video actually made me think about this more deeply. And it's very good 👍🏻

The video in question:

Ok back to topic ]

Like, lemme give you a brief run down as to what I'm getting at.

Back in the days when r*pe revenge genre had yet to see it's renaissance, there was a common pattern it had followed

Girl gets r*ped -> probably killed -> a male relative or acquaintances or lover finds out about what happened to her -> gets really angry -> goes on a rage full revenge quest to avenge the girl -> kills every perpetrators

Which sounds unproblematic at first glance but then you realise, the actual girl who was abused never got beyond that damsel in distress or the abused female archetype in whose trauma, the male character's character development is built upon. The female character's abuse was simply a plot device for the male character to unless his rage upon the perpetrators while the actual victim never got anything to their name other than the fact, that they were abused. Her trauma was used as a foundation to build the male character's journey to avenge her as she was just too weak or probably dead to do so. that's it. Otherwise she lacks the agency to protect herself. The victim's trauma is used to empower the male character and just be a quest and reason for the male character to persuade his enemy. Her suffering is not her own but the focus is on what the male character would do for her. ( Which changes over time through movies like Jennifer's body and Teeth. )

Of course Jooha isn't a girl but despite being a male, he is also a victim of repeated sexual abuse and he houses the inherent trains of the damsel in distress character archetype. His trauma was used to fuel Dooksik's anger and basically just give him the license to whatever the hack he pleased to the twins; and more accurately, with Daekwang. Because he was averaging his abused lover and because the lover himself didn't have the agency nor the power to execute the plan himself. The victim was powerless, is powerless. While Dooksik grows more and more jagged by the end of it. And simply showing the readers how far Dooksik is willing to go down.

[ this actually reminds me of this comment I read which said the following: "the twins should've known better. They raised a sleeping lion " which just proves the point of my prior comment of this being an empowering scene for the none-victim revenge seeker ]

Everyone has their own way to handle and process trauma. And Jooha not wanting to make things worse for either of them is valid. But won't it had been empowering for the actual sa victims if it was Jooha who actually pulled the revenge? Considering that Dooksik got so badly injured trying to protect him? What does it exactly say about the message it delivers? By the end of it, what happened was Jooha seeing the shadow of Pilwon in Dooksik and Daekwang being bed tied for an unknown reason and an unknown period of time.

Pilwon got killed, but who killed him? Daehwi. Both Jooha and Dooksik would've died. Who saved them? Daehwi. Just- just what good did it come out of it? Daehwi got desperate but he would've done the same if Dooksik threatened to kill Daekwang without sexually harassing him so violently infront him because more then anything, the twins love eachother and are willing to serve their lives in a platter to anyone just to keep the other safe. Honestly it's very ironic and frustrating that by the end of it, it was Daehwi who did all the heavy work such as killing Pilwon and saving the asses of the fandom's beloved leads despite being the most injured one of the three. ( the epilogue was stupid )

The mishandling of Koh Daekwang [ and a tiny self indulgent comparison with Aki Hayakawa / I Wii make a separate dedicated post I swear. This is getting way too long / ]

And the fact that Daekwang wasn't even the most evil and probably the least evil' out of three antagonists, including his brother who was the main perpetrator on arranging the shit show that initially pushed Dooksik over the edge is really sickening. And also the hints about him being a sex worker in the past to provide for his brother ( and Pilwon's comment, "aren't you a pro in this?" ) just sits like a pile of rocks in the pit of my stomach. I really, really don't like the combination of a past sex worker who did what he did out of need and a probable victim of SA himself to be used as bait by being r*ped again just to bring in his brother.

And let's be f*cking frank y'all. Daehwi is the reason Jooha and Dooksik are kicking and punching 💀. Like, blud was literally mummified yet he was the one doing all the heavy lifting. How fucking ironic. ( The epilogue was so stupid . And sorry but I can't stop repeating this topic. It's just so frustratingly funny to me )

And speaking of giving a sincere end to a character who is supposed to be tragic and therefore , the lack of it in Pearl Boy.

I actually compared Daekwang to Aki Hayakawa a lot LOLOL and I still do cuz both of them had the most tragic end to their respective story arc but the taste and execution is so vastly different.

Where in Aki's initial doom was not only a foil and a proper closure to his character arc but also something that despite being as tragic as it could get, it had a sense of sincerity to it that makes the reader feel heavy, not disgusted.

Obviously the lack of gang r*pe as a whole is a good reason to itself but I feel like there are so many similarities to their situation despite being so vastly different from each other. And yeah, obviously Aki wasn't that much of an asshat that Daekwang was lmao.

But something about those two is so damn similar . The stubbornness to reach their respective goals and then getting slapped in the face with the consequences of not listening to their loved ones advice:

Daehwi tries to speak sense into Daekwang and Himeno tries to talk to Aki to quit public safety which neither of them listen until much later.

And generally bordering on being a bit deranged with how hell bent they are;

And then comes the knack for shouldering everything heavy and complicated and brushing it off with a, "leave it to me."

and just generally driving their loved ones to a point of utter breakage with how unmoveable they are aka making them do something high key crazy.

Himeno with her selfish sacrifice and Daehwi with almost everything he did in the last arc lmao.

But also doing whatever it takes to keep their loved ones out of danger which includes, self sacrifice or just becoming a human meat bait to the enemy party.

The arguably tired older sibling with godawful luck. And gremlins under their care.

✨dad energy ✨

( a compilation of Daekwang acting like an old man even though they are the same age. Cuz we all know how Aki is. )

And let's not forget both admired the worst person in the room ( Daekwang with Pilwon and Aki with Makima ) which brought them both to their inevitable doom. ( Aki's one is a complicated situation since he was under Makima's control all along and I feel like the situation with Daekwang and Pilwon got Messier after Pilwon humiliated, beat up and made Daekwang chop off two of him fingers infront of his brother. Which is another similarity; the sudden jerking sense of clarity before everything goes black again. )

Also the fact both of them were used as a literal bait, the sacrificial lamb for a bigger picture, holy crap. ( Ok I really need to write a dedicated post on those two. )

Despite the similarity there is a lack of sincerity in handling Daekwang's story arc wherein, no matter how ironically heartbreaking Aki's outcome became, it had a sense of sincerity and familiarity. It didn't feel wrong ( I mean it did, the Gun Devil arc was a fucking nightmare fuel. But not in a sense that'll make you want to burn your house down with how badly it was written. But rather it makes you love the character and appreciate the hardwork and love the author put into his works . It makes you want to go back and read the arc no matter how painful it is because at the end, it does not make you want to look away from the pages in disgust. )

( Oh and, free Daekwang from that author I swear. That man wasn't paid enough for all that. )

Obviously their situation was vastly different. But in the end they were played like pawns by a bigger brain. Their loved ones left to pay the price and to see the aftermath of a massacre. And the twins for a fact would've ran away or killed Pilwon even before the final had they been given the chance ( I mean, Daehwi was so fucking ready to chop off Pilwon's head at the drop of the hat. )

What actually hits even harder is that Daekwang was cast aside completely after his r*pe scene. Like his use was only to make Daehwi surrender and do Dooksik's bidding in the most dehumanising way possible. But when it came to giving him a proper ending, they just, made him... Sleep...?

I had a conversation with a friend of mine, she said something really good, "I guess it's not about what happened. It's about what couldve been. Had they been given a proper chance to live a normal life and not stumble upon each and every step because life gave them middle finger from they day they were born, they mightve lived a better and happy life. Without the gawning hungrer to chew at eachother because eachother is all they have got, without the need to hurt someone else otherwise not being able to live to see the next day. I guess it's about what couldve been if they were given the chance and guidance for a good and healthy life style. "

That's the tragedy.

Ok and I definitely lied about this being a tiny rant. This shit is bigger than my life span.

[topteny]

55+ Cute Mother's Day Nails Designs That Make Your Mom Happy in 2022

2022 Mother’s Day drew near! Our moms instilled in us the ability to love; it is the best time to show love and appreciation for our precious mom. Usually, we think of organizing a pleasant day trip anywhere or reserving a table at a great restaurant and doing lots of sweet things, but what about … ... Discover More @ https://www.pouted.com/mothers-day-nails-designs-make-mom-happy/

[yourdeepestfathoms]

The choir painting each other’s nails because I never see you react to fluff:

Mischa: super steady hands, can and will paint the nails of everyone else if they let him. Simultaneously insists that he doesn’t want to do this but that the others insist (they don’t, he will physically force them to sit and let him paint their nails)

Constance: loves having painted nails but hates when other people do them. Somehow better at painting her dominant hand than her non dominant hand. Always does bright rainbow colors. Probably owns stamping kits and all the fancy nail art brushes and tools.

Penny: doesn’t love having her nails painted. It makes her skin feel weird (I’m projecting) and she prefers to keep her nails short (to help prevent breaking and chipping) anyway. Sometimes she’ll paint them for photos, but it comes off right after. Super good at nail art though, so she’ll paint designs on everyone else

Noel: LOVES having painted nails. He always gets black or red. His mother doesn’t like him having his nails painted though, so he can only do them when he’s at a sleepover or when she won’t be home for a few nights. Once though, he managed to convince his mother that it was a choir bonding activity so she would let him wear it to school (he showed her a photo of all of them in the choir room holding up freshly painted nails)

Ricky: silver nail polish. They have regular shimmery silver, silver glitter, silver mirror. Just every conceivable silver nail polish. One time, Penny paints cats on his nails and he cries.

Ocean: shakiest hands ever. She cannot paint her own nails. The others will paint for her, but it takes one person to hold her hand down (usually Penny or Constance) while another (usually Mischa) does the painting. She likes to feel how smooth they are after they’ve dried.

Bonus! Father Marcus: lets the students paint his nails if he doesn’t have a plan for rehearsal that day. Pretends to be annoyed that they’re taking up valuable rehearsal time, but secretly loves how they get along when they all hang out and do something fun. He knows what these kids go through on a day to day basis (though not generally in a ton of detail), and is happy to let them have some fun.

GOOD CONCEPT, ANON!!!!

i feel like Ocean would be like me when painting her nails or someone else. she’s constantly accidentally painting outside the nail and on her skin.

[mccall-me-maurice]

A new list of headcanons for the updated AU

Lotf headcanons

Jack:

Jack is Ralph’s academic rival and also head of the debate team. He spends the weekends at his father’s business, learning how to run the company. On the Saturday nights, he goes to an underground club in a fight ring thing. Nobody knows he does it, even though Ralph also spends time there.

Jack is dyslexic and has minor and manageable OCD, denying using extra help for his dyslexia in classes.

Comes from a wealthy family with 6 siblings, his father divorcing his mother and marrying his step-mother who he pushes away because he’s angsty and shes “not his real mother.”

Loves 80s music so much, he’s a nerd for it.

Sings in the shower/bathroom like into a hairbrush in front of the mirror in his little towel like a nerd but he’s actually really good at singing.

Wears his uniform extremely sharply and very crisp like why so much effort.

He has hearing loss due to an accident in his childhood and he’s fluent in ASL, but doesn’t wear his hearing aids almost ever.

Ralph:

Ralph is fluent in violin, he’s actually really good at playing, he was also an ocean lifeguard and saved Jack’s life when he got caught in a current.

He wears thick framed glasses to read and has really swoopy handwriting thats illegible because it’s like messy calligraphy.

Ralph dives as a hobby and is so good at it, like scary good at diving perfectly.

He has beauty marks on his face that he lets people trace sometimes, ink usually adorning his cheeks.

Very French, extremely French. Fluent in the language.

Draws on his hands with different coloured pens and the designs are always so intricate like a mandala colouring book.

Also draws on the cuffs of his jeans and the rubber edge of his sneakers all the time.

Blushes very easily, will go red in a matter of seconds flat either when he’s flustered, embarrassed or angry.

Brothers with Robert.

Simon:

Spends all of his out of school time in his mother’s flower shop and can recite the meaning of most flowers if you ask him. His fingers are all bandaged up because of how much he cuts himself with knives when he’s removing stems or clippers.

He has epilepsy and faints frequently.

Is a fan of older musicals, like Grease, Dirty Dancing and Hairspray and makes the choir watch them with him.

Rarely spends time indoors, Simon is usually out biking around the neighbourhood or walking around with his friends from school.

Will paint rocks and gift them to people when he thinks they’re upset. Also does face painting at the school carnivals, because he never minds being alone in a booth when there is nobody there.

Speaks softly and is usually ignored in favour of people with louder opinions, but he’s usually right.

Roger:

His biological family died in a house accident, the only thing surviving being him and his cat Nastya, who he loves more than anything. Because of his parents death, he taught himself the rest of the Russian language, which they were already teaching him along with English. However, his heritage is East Asian and Russian.

He pierced his lip by himself, and even though it turned out fine, he got his ears done professionally.

Not very affectionate and will push people away, distancing himself because he doesn’t like the idea of anyone being close to him and get under his skin.

Dyed the back part of his hair on a whim and just liked it enough to keep it as a style.

Spends nights at Simon’s place instead of his own, finding more comfort in Simon’s house.

Sam:

Comes from a German family, but knows German, Italian and English.

He hates birthdays because he doesn’t understand why they are so important.

Hates social interactions and actively avoids them with a passion. He gets extremely nervous and just leaves abruptly when he gets too overwhelmed.

Younger than Eric by 6 minutes, which he routinely gets teased for.

Into super cheesy romantic movies because he loves the idea of a happy ending despite not having one himself.

Messes with his hair when he’s anxious, so it’s constantly messy and mussed.

Mega nail biter when he’s nervous.

Cousins with Jack.

Maurice:

Heavily touch reliant and when his friends don’t show him physical affection, he assumes the worst and gets very upset.

Heavily Italian, like so fucking Italian. His family hardly speaks English and he learned most of his from school.

Very passionate about science despite most people thinking he’s an idiot. He has some of the highest marks in his class.

Messes with things when he’s talking or uses hand gestures. Like if there’s a pen, he’s clicking it because it helps him concentrate.

Maurice has like a billion flannels and hoodies he just cycles through and it looks like he doesn’t change but no, it’s just that he owns a gazillion grey hoodies

His older sister when to an Ivy League school, so he owns a lot of stuff from it that he wears like sweaters or ball caps.

Eric:

Very sarcastic. his entire sense of humour is him bathing in his own sarcasm. It’s actually pretty well timed and kind of funny how he’s able to deadpan his jokes.

Very easily picks up on languages. He’s fluent or close to fluent in German, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese and partly fluent in Korean.

Really enjoys computer science and plans on doing it for a living. He stays up late at night to work and sleeps until like midday.

Doesn’t acknowledge other people’s emotions very often because he doesn’t realise when he’s gone too far, but still feels bad for others when they’re hurt.

Jack’s favourite cousin because they’re cynical buddies. Jack is overly protective of him even though Eric is perfectly capable.

Robert:

Brothers with Ralph and is very protective over him. Has absolutely slandered choir members before for hating on Ralph.

Shares a dad with Ralph but has a different mom, who he visits over the summer and sometimes during the holidays. That’s where he gets his Spanish roots from, which is a language he’s fluent in. He has 7 siblings on that side of his family.

Adores burnt popcorn and burnt anything. If he can burn it, he will.

Works as a mechanic in his free time and built the car he shares with Ralph.

Sci-Fi nerd, specifically Star Wars. He loves the movies and watches them like every day.

Extremely talented artist, Robert sketches anytime he has a pencil and paper.

Peter:

Was bullied in the past but doesn’t let the words bother him anymore. It mostly stopped around high school.

Works with his auntie in the sweet shop and brings his friends food for them to taste test.

Used to be a boy scout, so he can tie any knot you want him to, it’s really a gift.

Gets very cold very easily, especially his fingertips. He usually has a pair of gloves on him for when it gets really bad.

A Mathlete for most of his time in high school, obviously is extremely intelligent.

Double knots his shoelaces so they’re extra secure.

Bill:

Swedish, and really enjoys his own culture. He will spend HOURS rambling about it and how much he loves it.

Watches Avatar the Last Airbender and has the biggest crushes on Sokka and Zuko.

Also is a sucker for people who wear glasses, he really loves them.

Works at the library despite not liking books, he finds comfort in shelving them and the order they go in.

Puts little umbrellas in every single drink he has, it doesn’t matter what it is.

Writes notes to himself on sticky notes because his memory is horrible.

Sets at least 5 alarms because 1 will not wake him up by itself.

Harold:

Can speak limited Spanish due to his schooling.

Likes singing, but never really got into it like some choir members because he has stage fright.

Powerful speaker when he wants to be, but is usually too nervous to say anything.

Has no idea how to tie a tie, so he lets other people do it for him.

Sometimes take sarcastic comments seriously and ends up confused.

A really good actor and loves the performing arts.

Has extremely clear skin, he never gets any blemishes.

Wilfred:

Dyed his hair because his naturally brown hair reminds him too much of his father, who he hates.

Has 4 tattoos in total, the 4 card suits on his cheek, a half sleeve of roses, a bow and olive branch on his inner forearm, and the solar system on his outer forearm.

Very flirtatious to people he doesn’t really like but gets nervous around those he does.

Hold grudges really well.

Has shockingly neat handwriting.

Has a pretty horrible home life but he never talks about it to anyone because he doesn’t want to be perceived as weak or incapable.

Colours with only crayons.

Percival:

Cries easily, as he’s very emotionally driven and is typically teased for being a crybaby or told to “toughen up.”

Absolutely has the worst sleep schedule ever, he gets 3 hours and calls it a win.

Can’t sleep without a nightlight on in his room.

Enjoys writing things down in this notebook instead of on his phone because he likes the feeling of physically using pen and paper.

Sends letters to people all the time instead of messaging.

Good at sewing, he makes his own Halloween costume every year by himself.

Hates horror movies because he’s spooked easily.

Max:

Lived through a house fire when he was younger, so he has burn scars all over his arms.

Is afraid of cooking due to the fire and will go without eating if he has to touch the stove to make food.

Laid back most of the time, but can reach a snapping point in which the emotion is amplified. (like sadness or anger)

Loves swimming, it doesn’t matter where he does it, he just loves to swim.

Is very time sensitive and has to get places early or directly on time or else he gets anxious.

A very fast reader, typically long books take him 2-3 days to get through.

Johnny:

Worries a lot, he usually sees the worst in every single situation.

Is a trans male (Ftm) and was accepted by his entire family when he came out.

Owns a St. Bernard named Dolly who is the sweetest dog ever.

Spends a lot of time outdoors, he still plays as if he is a child.

Also enjoys the snow a lot because he’s fond of building snowmen with the kids on his street.

Has very sensitive skin and eczema, which he doesn’t like to talk about or show anyone because it makes him feel insecure.

Oddly good at playing guitar, he just picks up on chords with ease.

Walter:

Good at playing the drums and annoys his entire family with it.

Uses a skateboard as his main method of transportation around places.

On the basketball team, as his older brother taught him to play when they were both younger.

Hates roller skating despite being very good at most things on wheels. He can never find his balance.

Shockingly good at Math, especially statistics and calculus. He’s in all advanced math courses.

Has a very weird snake addiction and he desperately wants to buy one.

Henry:

Aromantic Asexual who is best friends with Harold and Wilfred.

Mainly makes snippy remarks because his humour falls into the sarcasm umbrella.

Adores comic books and superheroes, specifically Marvel ones because he’s a fan of Dare Devil.

Plays baseball in his free time but hasn’t joined a team, he just plays with the boys in his neighbourhood.

Addicted to the High School Musical movies.

Good at painting people’s nails and will do it for them if they ask.

Has really fluffy hair that he lets people touch and play with.

[pl-panda]

The Vines that bind us - Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don’t own Miraculous Ladybug or any DC characters. I own only the plot, and even that is inspired by the amazing story "Marigold Ivy" by @lwandile13 on Wattpad. Go check it. It's great. He allowed me to take some inspiration, for which I'm grateful. Also, don't translate the french words maybe. Or at least do it on your own responsibility. Big thanks to @Liza! on Discord for being my Beta :)

NEXT

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a normal girl, with a normal life. But she had a secret. Her real name was Marigold Isley. She was born under that name in Gotham city sixteen years ago. Her mother never revealed to her who was her father, but Mari never cared. She was happy with her mom and several aunts and uncles. Technically, none of them were related to her by blood, but Rogues were quite close to each other (excluding some outcasts like Joker or the Menagerie). They taught her many interesting things such as lockpicking, stealth 101, or hand-to-hand combat. She was five when it started, so her first-ever practical test was breaking into a kitchen cupboard and stealing a jar of cookies. Overall, she was very happy. 

It changed when she was eight. One very tired social service person named Elizabeth Barrow got wind of a child of a villain. That Elizabeth was new to Gotham after being reassigned from Metropolis and didn’t yet get the wind of how things worked. Maybe her colleagues didn’t like her, or maybe she was just too overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problem in Gotham. Previously, there was an unspoken agreement in the government that they wouldn’t notice Marigold. In exchange, rogues were calmer. Or at least tried to keep the death toll down. For a time, Gotham even started to slowly heal. But then, Elizabeth took the case of Marigold Isley. Ivy tried to fight. To protect her daughter. For three days, the city was held hostage by giant plants. It was only the fear in her daughter’s eyes that made Poison Ivy relent and let go. She didn’t want that life for Marigold. The one condition she gave was that the girl would leave America as a whole, to ensure she would be safe from all the madness. 

And so Marigold ended up in the care of baker’s couple in Paris. She never showed any powers thus far and the adoption agency kept the parentage a secret. That’s when Marinette Dupain-Cheng was born. She continued with martial arts training and stealth training, but now only as fun and reminder of her mother and extended family, as opposed to actual necessary survival tool. She also picked up designing as another hobby, which soon turned into a kind of obsession. She was generally a ray of sunshine. 

The one black spot in the happy world of Marinette was the Mayor’s daughter. Chloe Bourgeoise considered herself above others and just couldn’t stand sunshine girl. She ruined her clothes, sometimes damaged her homework, or verbally assaulted her. While Chloe was generally disliked, she was more of a nuance. Overall, Marinette was happy. At least until two events changed that. 

When she was twelve, Paris was attacked by Hawkmoth for the first time. Marinette found herself becoming Ladybug, a superhero with magical powers that protected the city from harm. She received a partner in form of Chat Noir. It took some time before she got hang of it, and then more time before she and Chat became an actual team. Over time, more heroes joined them, even if temporarily only. She had people she could count on. She became Happy again. 

Privately, she started her own brand: MDC, managed to become a class representative, and became best friends with Alya, who joined around the same time she became Ladybug. It was quite ironic. The superhero was best friends with one person whose greatest dream was to unmask the hero. Marinette also developed a huge (and a bit unhealthy) crush on Adrien Agreste, a famous model who was in her class. She spent years vying for his attention, but nothing ever came from her attempts. She was unable to even say a word around him and her face always became red like her mother’s hair. Overall, she couldn’t complain.

Then, when she was fifteen another black spot appeared. It was Lila (Liela) Rossi. She came to their school and immediately started sporting lies with every breath. Surprisingly, everyone seemed to buy into that, believing her like she spoke the gospel. Everyone but Marinette. She tried to expose Lila, but it only backfired. She became an outcast, disliked by everyone, and universally hated. Suddenly, it became okay to bully her because she was a bully herself and deserved it. It became okay to shun her and no longer include her in anything. The worst was Alya, her former best friend. At first, she just tried to nudge Marinette to give Lila a chance. When Marinette tried to show the truth, Alya practically attacked her. She was just as much responsible for Mari being cast out as Lila was. The fact that her best friend abandoned her only fueled the gossip and allowed Lila to drive the final nail in. In the span of a few weeks, Marinette was left alone. 

Around the same time, Chat Noir became more persistent in his pursuit of her while Adrien, who Marinette knew was aware of the lies, was only telling her to keep the high road (do nothing). She could understand him. As a famous model and son of a well-known fashion designer, he was always taught to not provoke the press. It still served as a wake-up call on her crush. 

--------

Marinette was packing her things after lessons when she noticed someone approach her from behind. Immediately, she tensed. After eleven years of martial arts practice, it was an instinct. Before she had time to turn around, something heavy landed on her desk with a loud Thud!. She turned to see Chloe standing over a large book, a single thick envelope, and a puffy bag that content Marinette couldn’t guess.

“What’s a…” She started, but Chloe cut her off. She had her usual ‘resting witch’ expression.

“The book contains every single instance I verbally assaulted you, destroyed something of yours, talked about you behind your back, or in any way otherwise did something wrong toward you. Here are the materials for the damaged clothes,” she pushed the bag toward her, “and here is money for other things.” Chloe gave her the envelope. “I apologize for all of that. I was jealous of all the attention you kept getting even though I thought I deserved it. I now realize that my behavior was wrong and hurtful. I will understand if you’ll never speak to me again. I kept acting ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!” With that, she turned and started to walk again. Marinette idly noticed that there was no Sabrina nearby. Thinking back, Chloe was no longer acting (overly) mean toward anyone as of late.

Making a split-second decision, Marinette raced after the blonde and pulled her into a hug.

“Wha…” Chloe yelped before sinking into the hug. Neither girl realized they were crying until they finally separated. Blonde had her lite make-up in total ruin while Marinette had tears still going down her cheeks. “Does that mean you accept my apologies?”

Marinette didn’t answer immediately. She stood there with open mouth for a moment before smiling weakly. “Yes, Chloe.”

Since that day, they were best friends. It turned out to be a blessing. Chloe, once she finally allowed someone to truly know her, turned out to be a highly intelligent, funny, and very much still overbearing person. She still acted high and mighty, but it no longer felt mean, rather just… felt. She took to defending Marinette from the rest of the class. She was aware of Lila’s lies from day one but never acted on it until it was too late. Sabina abandoned her for the liar. Dealing with loneliness was hard on her. She didn’t even have parents that cared. Her father would probably move sun if she asked, but he had an emotional range of a toothpick. Her mother didn’t even know her name, so she didn’t bother.

Something about their friendship must’ve upset Lila because the girl upped her game. Marinette’s parents suddenly found themselves facing strong critique and constant inspection from the sanitary department and child protection questioning their parenting abilities. MDC, who was slowly becoming one of the go-to fashion designers for famous found herself in the middle of several fake media scandals, including one lawsuit over defamation. If it wasn’t for Jagged Stone and Penny rallying her customers, Marinette and her parents would end up broke. He managed to save MDC and practically made her untouchable. Still, Alya and Lila got off scot-free as nothing could be linked to them.

Perhaps what pushed Lila over the edge was Chloe confronting Adrien. She yelled at him for good two hours straight about responsibility and morality, pointing in detail exactly what he did wrong. She would probably go on if Marinette didn’t stop her. After that, Adrien finally apologized and tried to make things right, but it only turned against him. By then, Lila had everyone so deep into it, that he was powerless. She didn’t go after him as her partnership with Gabriel Agreste was too important, but she did tattle to the Fashion Mogul about it. Gabriel tried to get his son under control, but this was one thing that he couldn’t achieve. 

It did inspire a whole youth fashion line ‘rebel’, which became a global hit.

All this time, Marinette kept two secrets. One was her identity as Ladybug and the guardian, the other was her true name and family. Until she kept neither.

----------

Marinette returned home after another day at school. Recently, her mother revealed she was pregnant with another child, even though she was believed to be barren. Everyone in the bakery was overjoyed and the couple even started to hand out small treats to any guest that came. The free samples helped the business return to a better standing. 

When she entered, strangely there was no sound in the bakery. It was empty. Usually, her parents would both be very busy as it was still business hours. Slightly worried, she went upstairs. When she entered the living room, she found an envelope addressed to her. 

Isley

We tried, but we can no longer tolerate you. We turned a blind eye when we learned how improper you act, trying to drag every boy you meet for some, and we quote, “alone time”. We didn’t react to the bullying accusations, believing them to be overexaggerated. Even when you were expelled, we still had hoped you’ll turn out into a fine young lady. But now, we must think of the baby. Today was the last straw. Hearing about how you ruined that poor impaired girl’s birthday was both cruel and against everything we taught you. 

We held hope you won’t follow in your mother’s footsteps, but you proved us wrong several times. We supported your obsession over fashion, even with the drama it caused, because it was actually non-violent. At first, we didn’t want to teach you how to fight, but we convinced ourselves that you would have a way to vent the emotions somewhere away from us. 

Please, don’t try looking for us. We will probably have already left the country or even the continent. The bakery is yours. We don’t want to have anything to do with the spawn of evil such as you. 

We hoped you would turn out better

Sincerely,

Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng

Marinette tried to read it over and over again, but her eyes welled with tears. She had no idea she was screaming until her throat was coarse. Rationally, she knew she needed to keep calm or she would attract the Akuma, but emotions made her not care. 

Unknowingly to her, the plants all around Paris responded to her cry. They started growing and spreading, trying to get to their queen and comfort her. The Akuma that would’ve come for her stumbled into one of the vines, corrupting it. Hawkmoth was surprised, it was not something anyone ever seen in Paris except on TV or some strange Japanese shows that play after midnight. The more important thing was that even though he akumatized the plants, he had no control over them. He couldn’t even recall his Akuma. 

Back in Marinette’s living room, she started to feel the ground rumble. Soon, plants exploded from the ground and broke windows. She slowly looked at her hands to see them tinted with green. They were not the same as her mother’s, but close. She looked to the floor where pieces of glass littered everything. Her face was the same, but her hair became blue and her eyes were now the most vibrant iridescent green she’s ever seen, exactly the same color her mother’s eyes were. 

She started to panic even more. Tikki floated next to her, talking to her, but Marinette couldn’t hear her. Or maybe process it. She could hear the plants call to her. She could hear them speak. They promised her revenge. They promised retribution on those who attacked her. God’s wrath would rain upon them from the sky and hell’s fury would consume them from beneath. 

Impaired girl…

“Liar Rossi.” Marigold seethed. She knew there was only one person who would do such a thing. Only one talented enough to convince her parents she was a villain. If they wanted a villain, they would get one. Her mind was being clouded. Her clothes were already torn, replaced by a skintight outfit made of leaves, much like her mother wore. Then, Marinette remembered another part of the letter. She added a skirt made of purple petals that complimented her blue hair nicely and long sleeves that reached to her hands, ending with a triangle that reached her middle finger and surrounded it at the base. She left the decolletage as it was.

Exiting her house, she allowed the vines to carry her. There were only so many places The Liar could hide. First, she went toward School, as it was closest. She made plants carry her over the roof right into the courtyard while more of them broke the doors and blocked any exit. The fencing class was still going on, but The Liar was not there. She looked over the scared crowd, spotting two people she wanted to find. She needed to protect them from The Liar, else they end like her. She grabbed the fencer in a red outfit and her partner, knocking their masks to reveal Kagami and Adrien. The plants wrapped around them, forming a sort of cocoon before dragging them to the heart. Marinette then turned her sight to Eifel tower. She knew The Liar liked to drag the class there. 

As she moved through town, she passed the Hotel where Chloe lived. Pausing, she made the plants lift her toward the balcony. Her best friend was indeed there, right next to the lit-up Bee-signal. Honeystly…

“Marinette!?” The blonde jumped in surprise

“Marinette is gone. She should’ve never even been. I’m Marigold, the daughter of Poison Ivy.” For a moment, the fog thickened, but Mari shook it off quickly enough, before whatever caused it managed to get the hold of her. 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng! If you got yourself akumatized, I’m telling my daddy!” Chloe shouted. Seeing the tears form in the iridescent green eyes, she looked at her friend with pity. “Oh, Mari! Is this the Liar again? Come here right now!” The blonde spread her arms for a hug. She didn’t care about the Akuma. Her friend needed her and she would help her conquer the world if she asked. Chloe owed Mari… everything. She helped her evolve beyond being the queen witch. In response to the gesture, the plants in the garden started to grow until they surrounded the two of them in a tight cocoon. Marinette stepped onto the balcony. She affectionately petted the vine that carried her so far before allowing it to return to its hunt for the Liar. 

“Chloeee!” Mari launched herself at the girl. She sunk into the embrace, allowing tears to start flowing again. She sobbed her heart out while pushing a piece of paper she constantly held in her clutched fist before. The blonde took it and read while patting Marinette on the back of her head. 

“Salauds! Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! How dare that cochons! And the chienne! Wait till I tell daddy about this! Don’t worry Mari. I will protect you! I will ruin her! Merde!” The rant made Marigold pause. She never heard Chloe curse. Like… never. “But first. Mari. You know I love you and I would help you hide the body, but drop the Akuma. It’s making you look Ridiculous. Utterly Ridiculous! I mean the dress is so much spot on and so you, but the whole take over Paris is more my style. I can let you be my faithful sidekick while we take over the world if you want.”

For a moment, Marigold continued to stare at Chloe before she burst out in a fit of laughter. It wasn’t a nervous chuckle or the villain cackle, but genuine pearly laughter. It was just so… Chloe-ish. She couldn’t imagine anyone trying to dissuade an Akuma by offering to become a sidekick. 

“You… You… Never change Chlo.” Mari smiled at her friend. 

“Whoa. You… didn’t make me a fertilizer? I mean, of course, you wouldn’t. You are just too good of a person, but Hawkmoth…”

“I’m not akumatized Chloe.” Mari smiled. “It’s me.” As if to prove her point, she stood up and spun, allowing the blonde to see her from all sides. “This is how I really look. Apparently, I do take some after my mom.”

“Your… mom?”

“Pamela Isley, she was a famous biologist. Mom was brilliant. She used to be one of the smartest people in the world.” Mari praised. “There was this one accident that she is now famous for…”

“Pamela Isley? I remember reading about her.” 

“Yeah… She is…”

“Didn’t she create this environment-friendly line of cosmetics?” Chloe asked in her typical fashion

“Yes! I have no idea why everyone remembers her only for the ‘Poison Ivy’ thing!”

“I know, right?” Chloe nodded. “Wait a…”

“Tada!” Mari said weakly before trying to look away, doing everything not to look her friend in the eyes. The blonde gently grabbed her chin and moved it so she could look right into the beautiful green eyes of her best friend.

“Mari! If you think I would abandon you just because your mother took veganism too far… You’re utterly ridiculous!”

Marigold smiled slightly. Slowly, the green receded and her eyes turned back to normal. The dress remained, as without it she would end up naked and she didn’t fancy trying to explain to anyone that. 

She then turned to the plants and tried to order them to return to normal, only for them to resist. For a moment, her mind started to feel fogged, but it didn’t hold at all now. 

“As much as I like the scenery, maybe we stop the plantpocalypse?”

“Um… Remember how I told you I wasn’t akumatized?”

“Yeah?”

“I think the plants are…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Chloe shouted. “Listen here Hawkmoth! Get this Akuma the heck away! I don’t care about some fancy Jewels that will totally clash with your suit! I mean purple and white with red earrings? Are you colorblind?”

There was no visible reaction to the plants. 

“Strange…” Marigold ran her hand over the plants. “They still respond, just refuse to yield.” Inside, Mari cursed that she couldn’t consult Tikki.

“So… Want some cookies?” Chloe asked. “We just have to wait for Ladybug to save the day. At least the damage will be repaired.”

‘Except Ladybug it trapped here…’

Suddenly, something small and black slipped through the vines and entered their small peaceful enclave. It zoomed between items on the balcony, trying to avoid being seen. It would’ve been successful if Chloe didn’t know about Kwamis. 

“What was that!?” She shouted pointing at Plagg’s hiding place.

“What? I didn’t see anything!” Mari tried to lie. It was the one skill she never had. She did compensate for it by never getting caught.

“A Kwami! I’m sure I’ve seen one.” 

“Kwami? Who’s Kwami? Is that some bird? How would a bird get here? I mean we are trapped in…”

“Ugh! I don’t have time for games!” Plagg suddenly floated before the pair. “Chat is trapped and can’t help without revealing himself. Paris is being destroyed mindlessly and nobody can do anything as the vines are harder than steel.” The cat summarized. “And I’m hungry. Give me cheese!” He looked at Chloe. “Camembert would be the best, but I’m not that picky.”

“Why come to us? Ladybug took away my miraculous.” The blonde asked. 

“I didn’t come to you. I came to her.” The god pointed at Mari. 

“Me?! Why? It’s not like…”

“We don’t have time for charades guardian! The Akuma is out of control! Literally! Hawkmoth’s connection was somehow severed and now you have a giant plant that knows only the rage. This is serious!”

Mari wanted to protest or try to save some of her identity, but then Tikki floated out of her purse.

“Oh no! Marinette! He is right! We have a huge problem.”

“Why?” The girl asked resigned.

“You’re Ladybug!” Chloe shouted but was subsequently ignored

“Hawkmoth must’ve akumatized the plant, hoping to control you, but he had no idea it was sentient. But it stopped being sentient the moment you let it go. I… It never happened before.”

“You’re Ladybug!!!” Chloe shouted so loud that everyone had to look at her. 

“We can talk later. Now we need to somehow deal with the plants. Maybe… No. What about… But they are too tough… What if…” Marigold started to run through various scenarios and plans. 

“Can’t you just order them to expel the Akuma?” Plagg asked bored.

“It… It might work.” Mari had a focused expression. In her head, she was running through all her knowledge of biology, miraculous magic, and how her mom’s powers worked. Hesitantly, she walked to the edge of the cocoon and called the main vine to her. The wall spread slightly and allowed the tip of it to enter. Mari touched it and started gently caressing it. 

“you’re a good boy. Yeah! Who’s a good boy? You’re. Yes! You’re a good boy. But Good Boys don’t have Akuma. Do you want to be a good boy? Of course, you do…” 

Chloe stood there and watched how Marigold kept talking to the plant like it was a puppy. She felt something fall into her hand. Opening the palm, she saw two earrings.

“I… I can’t!” She protested, but Plagg floated before her eyes.

“She can’t do it. If Akuma escapes, we will have plantmagedon on a larger scale.”

“Fine. Spots on!”

Just as Mari finally talked the plant into expelling the Akuma, Chloe caught it. 

“Bye Bye Little Butterfly!” She released the pure white bug. “Lucky charm!” Chloe shouted. A red and black folder fell into her hands. She looked at it curiously. Inside, she found a complete set of adoption papers for her father to sign. She quickly pulled out the sheets and tossed the folder itself, releasing a swarm of ladybugs that repaired Paris to how it was before plants. The sheet stayed. 

Transformation dropped after that and Chloe handed the jewel back to the true owner.

“You still have sooo much explaining to do!” 

Nobody remembered about Adrien and Kagami being carried together to safety, which turned out to be Mari’s basement. And while Ladybug Cure should’ve restored them to where they were taken from, for some unknown reason they remained locked there until Mari returned late into the evening to spend the last night at the bakery. It would be some time until Tikki admitted that it was an act of revenge on Plagg for revealing her chosen’s identity. He had to go the whole day without cheese. The one good thing that came from it was that Kagami and Adrien had a long frank talk and ended up as friends. The relationship just wasn’t working.

----------

When Mari was adopted by the Mayor, she decided to keep using the Dupain-Cheng name at least for now. At first, Chloe’s father was against it, but once the girl presented it as a way of getting good press of mayor who personally looks after his citizens he practically ripped the papers to sign them. Although on paper he was the adopter, Chloe was the real parent/sister that took care of Mari. Lila seethed and spitted, but couldn’t really do much more. Adrien and Chloe roped Jagged Stone and Penny into Marinette Protection Squad. Luka and Kagami, who somehow hooked up, also joined. At some point, Mari entrusted Luka and Kagami with permanent Miraculous and Gave Chloe the Bee miraculous back. Some Fox illusion of Chloe publically applauding new heroine helped hide her identity. The hardest part was revealing to Chat, Viperion, and Ryuko her true identity. Adrien was a big surprise, but at least they finally dealt with their crushes once and for all. The fact that they were in love square in two people was way too awkward. Chloe and Mari did notice Adrien sometimes looking at Luka, but he was happy with Kagami. The only person that disproved of ‘Lukagami’ was Kagami’s mother, but she warmed up to him when he accepted the challenge to a duel and was completely pacified when she learned that Luka is apprenticing under Jagged Stone. 

Jagged and Penny wanted to Adopt Mari, but ended up filling the role of uncle and aunt. After some time, Mari realized that she rebuilt what she once had in Gotham. These people might not have been her family by blood, but it mattered little. That family might’ve been damaged, maybe even broken, but they were happy together. They found solace in one another. Once more, Marinette was happy. 

Until a trip to Gotham came knocking on the front doors.

NEXT

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

The Worry

The Pool | The Difference | The Notes | The Fear | The Thought | The Question | The Walk | The Ordeal | Masterlist Pairing: Benny ‘Borracho’ Magalon x Reader Rating: Explicit - 18+ only

Warnings: The next two chapters will deal with pregnancy, societal pressure around pregnancy, and concerns around pregnancy! I’ve CW’d them for that in the tags!! If you need me to add any additional tags, please let me know. I’m not a doctor. Just, you know. Disclaimer.

Also cursing; canon-typical violence Notes: Angsty and fluffy Summary: You don’t want to give a voice to your panic before you know that anything’s actually wrong. 

It’s been a question since before you and Borracho even get married: So when are you two having kids?  You just laugh it off when his sisters ask, and his mom, and Gabriel, that one time. When you were dating it was only once in a while - usually when you turned down the offer of a beer because you’d agreed to be the designated driver between the two of you for that night. Nadia or Megan or Isobel would sidle up to you and pat your stomach and waggle their eyebrows, and you’d just laugh and knock their hands away and screech, “I’m driving!” But now that you’re married… Well, it’s almost constant. And it’s not just from his family. You know that the guys have a pool going about whether or not you’ll be pregnant by the end of the year. The website that you guys used to register for wedding gifts is popping into your inbox every other week to set up your baby shower registry.

And you and Borracho have talked about the kids thing before, a few times since the weekend that you looked after Lissie. Thing is, you haven’t talked about it in a while, but you know that Borracho’s thinking about it. He hasn’t been smoking - he’s been using nicotine patches and chewing gum like a fiend. When you ask him about it, he just shrugs and mutters something about, “having to kick the habit some time”. He’s a little moody about it, sure, but you had been very clear when the two of you spoke that you didn’t want cigarette smoke about your child - “Besides,” You’d murmured when you’d talked about it, “It’s not good for you, Benny. And I want you around for a long time.” That fact that he’s doing that sort of signals a ‘soon?’ to you, but you don’t talk about it. You’re not sure you want to. Talking about it would make it real, and making it real might freak you out, and you really, really want to bask in your honeymoon phase for a little while longer. His family is still pretty pushy about it. When you get handed a kid at any family function, or you help of your own volition, you inevitably hear something somewhere behind you about, “practice,” and “it’ll be different when she has her own”. And you know that it’s because they’re excited for you and Borracho, but it’s starting to wear. There’s one day when you’re cleaning popsicle off of Lissie’s chin, and you hear Nadia coo about you looking like a little mother. And you’re so, so tempted to ask if she’d rather you just let her child make a mess. You’re not being a mother, you’re just trying to help. If Borracho were doing this, would he look like a little father to them? But instead you give her a tight smile and turn back to Lissie, and let the baby’s garbled speech make you smile for real. -- That night, you wait until Borracho has fallen asleep before you get up and do a little research. And a little research brings on a lot of worry. -- You still don’t talk about it. The talking will make it feel real. You don’t want to give a voice to your panic before you know that anything’s actually wrong. But the thing is you and Borracho have technically been trying since you got married. You’re not on the pill, you’re both clean, so you haven’t been using condoms. You’ve been tracking your cycle, you know your ovulation window, and while you did think, once after you came back from your honeymoon that you two might be-- Well, your period was just a couple of days late, so it didn’t matter anyway. You didn’t mention it to him. You read an article that tells you that 80% of couples conceive after 6 months of trying; the same article tells you that 90% conceive after a year of trying. You and Borracho have been trying for 8 months and-- nothing. So maybe there’s something wrong? Some irregularity with your ovulation cycle - or maybe he could have a low sperm count, you don’t think he’s ever gotten that checked out. All of this is in your head. It’s not on your mind, it’s just hanging out in the background. Occasionally it drifts to the forefront and you wave it back to its place, along with the worries that if, somehow, you ever managed to have a child, you’d be an awful mother and the kid would hate you. -- Borracho, bless him, waits. He doesn’t ask right away. Whatever it is that’s wrong, he can tell you’re not ready to talk about, and he’s got the feeling that the conversation will make him want a cigarette, anyway, so maybe it’s for the best that he lets you come to him with it. -- Your first anniversary should be sweet. It’s not. It’s actually kind of an ordeal. The guys have been working an art theft case for the last three months and you’ve been so consumed by it that you haven’t even had time to worry about whether or not you can get pregnant because the two of you have been so busy that you’ve hardly had time to have sex. After a particularly hard night, Borracho broke down and bummed a cigarette off of Connors, and you didn’t begrudge him that one. You’d just sat outside of the bar with him and rubbed your hand between his shoulder blades. “I’ll be back on the patches and gum tomorrow,” He’d sworn to you, and you’d just told him that it was alright, and that you loved him, and that you knew that this was hard for him. He’d flicked the cigarette butt away and practically pulled you into his lap, kissing your neck and murmuring that he wanted to marry you all over again. And then Nick had come out and threatened to arrest the both of you for public indecency. But you and Borracho spend most of your first anniversary getting ready for a sting. Nick’s managed to rope you into field work again (much to Borracho’s chagrin). You’re posing as a buyer, and meeting up with the man that had stolen the painting from the Kohn Gallery. None of the guys can do it - this dealer’s been busted by them before, he’ll recognize them right off. You’re the only one whose face he doesn’t know. When you show at the station, the guys let out little mutters; Connors gets out half of a wolf-whistle before Nick punches him in the shoulder. You arch a brow. You’re not sure what it is - the suit you’ve opted to wear, the pointed-toe heels, or the wig. This one isn’t pink, of course - it’s similar to your hair, but it has a loose, styled wave to it. “Why don’t you ever come to the office like this?” Henderson teases, even as Borracho stares him down. “You all never get dressed up for me, why the fuck would I get dressed up for you?” You retort. “She’s got a point. We’re rollin’ out in ten,” Nick adds. Borracho stands from his desk and walks over to yours, watching you reach under the wig to put in your earpiece. “You’re sure you wanna do this?” He asks. “It’ll be fine,” You glance at him. He purses his lips, and you reach out, cupping his chin, then teasing your nails through the goatee there. “Come on, this isn’t my first field op.” “We won’t be in there with you,” Borracho reminds you, though he sounds like he’s much more hung up on that fact than you are. “I know, but you’ll be nearby,” You say, “And the second I confirm the painting is the one you guys have been looking for, you’ll grab the guy and we’ll be set.” Borracho doesn’t look so convinced, but you lean up and peck his lips and murmur, “Relax, Benny.” And you expect hoots and hollers to go up from the guys, but you hear nothing. They’re giving you two this moment. They know what today is; they know how worried Borracho is. And the guys can be dicks sometimes, but you love them. -- Your first anniversary should be sweet. It’s not. It’s kind of an ordeal. You wind up sitting on the back of an ambulance because a bullet grazed your right arm - not deep enough to do real damage or hit anything serious, but bad enough to need stitches. Borracho is leaning against the ambulance, jaw clenched as he stares down at your pointed-toe heels. You’ve tried to engage him, and you’ve tried to get him to look at you, but he just won’t. When you’re leaving, you expect him to bum a cigarette off of Connors, but he doesn’t. Instead you drive home in silence, his hand territorial on your thigh, like the art dealer is in the backseat, like the bullet is hovering near your shoulder, but neither will be able to touch you as long as he is. He waits until you two are in your apartment to draw you into his arms and hold you tight against his chest. You go willingly, and you cuddle against him and hide your wince in his neck as your arm twinges when you take hold of him in turn. Some part of you is tempted to joke, to murmur, “Happy anniversary?”, but you consider how mad you’d be if he did that to you just now, and instead you murmur, “It’s just a scratch.” And maybe that’s not the best thing to have said, either, because his grip tightens on you, and he mumbles, “Scratches don’t need stitches, sweetness.” -- That night, he’s gentle with you, the way you were with him the first time the two of you were together after he’d been shot. He takes his time undressing with you, pushes your hands away from your clothes when you reach to remove them yourself. When you tease and ask him if he wants you to keep the wig on, he shakes his head and covers your body with his, and he nuzzles against your jaw and murmurs, “You,” sweet and desperate, “I just want you.” -- It’s a hiccup. A bump in the road. A reminder that what you two do is dangerous, that anything can happen. Time passes. The wound heals. The worry comes back. -- You wake up with cramps one morning. You go into the bathroom - you confirm it is what you think it is. You tiptoe around your bedroom, pull on sweatpants and head into the kitchen to make coffee. It’s been a year and a half now, and you are worried. Borracho never did say that kids are a deal breaker, but what if they are? What if he’s changed his mind? What if you change your mind? Your vision is blurring with tears as you pour water into the coffeemaker. You can hear Borracho shuffling around in your bedroom, and you let yourself sniffle before you scrub at your eyes. You set your hands on the counter, taking a few steadying breaths as you hear Borracho come out of the bedroom. You hear him pause before he cuddles up behind you, his big, rough, warm hands settling comfortingly on your hips. He presses a kiss to the back of your head, then to the side, then brushes his lips against the shell of your ear. “What’s going on, sweetness?” He murmurs. You should’ve known better; the man knows you better than anyone, you can’t hide from him, not well. It’s a wonder you’ve managed to go this long without saying anything to him. You lean back against his chest and mumble, “I got my period.” It takes him a few moments, but he nods a little, turning and pressing another kiss to your head. “Okay.” “What if-- Benny what if I can’t-- And we can’t--...” Your eyes are welling up with tears again; your voice is wavering, and your throat feels tight with worry. He slides his arms around your waist, soothingly rocking the two of you side to side. “We’ll figure it out, sweetness,” He soothes, “We can talk to a doctor, we can look into adoption-- Anything you want.” “What’ll your family say?” “Hey,” Borracho turns you to face him. He lifts one hand to your chin and tips your head up to look at him. “This isn’t their marriage, this isn’t their decision. It’s ours. We make this choice, you and me.” He reaches up and smooths away a tear when it escapes you. “And if that choice is no kids, then that’s our choice, sweetness.” You can’t stop the tears now; you surge up and bury your face in Borracho’s shoulder and curl into him and mumble that you wanna marry him all over again. -- Your second anniversary is sting-operation and bullet-graze free. The traditional second anniversary gift is cotton. The box you give Borracho contains a cotton shirt that says ‘I’m Going to Be a Daddy!’, and your (cleaned) positive pregnancy test. (You’ve got a matching shirt that says ‘You Can Stop Asking When We’re Having a Baby Now’.)

[punprincess321]

a mchanzo r/prorevenge story!

(this will be told from Hanzo’s POV and will be told like most reddit stories, I've always loved prorevenge so I came up with one, this story has mentions of child molestation, running away and mention of injuries gained from abuse, if you’re easily triggered by court, drastic family disputes or the foster/adoption system then please don’t read, I don’t want you to feel bad)

I’ve tried to make it my personal goal to not hold grudges or seek revenge against others but in this situation it had to be done. But I should first tell you my backstory so you understand why I broke my vow of peace:

I (38M) have a WONDERFUL husband, who I’ll call J (37M) whom I met through many coincidental encounters during my travels, we finally ended the anonymity and finally talked to each other, we had so much in common and we decided to travel together, apparently my brother was his friend from the military but we had a bad fallout years ago due to our home life and upbringing, back then my brother’s words were less than kind but J heard my side and understood I was in a bad place when my brother and I had our fight. (we’re okay now)

He’s been my rock ever since, showing me I deserve to have the happy life with my little brother I always wanted and helping me with my depression and drinking habit, also showing me violence isn't always the solution. It wasn’t long before he proposed, J’s a writer so he was quite wealthy and he bought me a half a million dollar sapphire engagement ring! It was engraved with the pet name he usually calls me (huckleberry) and was made of platinum, I was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to marry him!

We’ve been living happily in Texas in J’s hometown, we have a beautiful home and three beautiful kids, this story revolves around our eldest daughter and how we finally got her horrible family out of her life for good.

THE BEGINNING

J and I really wanted a family so we went to the orphanage to have a trial run with some of the kids to see if any of them could fit with us as a family, we held lots of infants, played with toddlers and read with some of the elementary level kids, we decided to then see the older children. There was only one teenager, a 15 year old girl who dressed like an early 2000′s emo punk rocker girl, black hair with red highlights, black tank top, ripped jeans, combat boots, chains, rings and earrings galore, the orphanage owner told us she was a runaway from California who escaped her abusive family and pedo uncle, J and I talked to her and she took a huge interest in my tattoo which was a full sleeved blue dragon, she talked about how she wanted to be a nail and tattoo artist and I admired how passionate she was about art and music, J was more intrigued by her passion for flowers as he had a rose garden in our backyard which he was very proud of. That day J and I took home our new teenage daughter Ivy along with a young boy named Cory and his baby sister named Tracy.

We gave Ivy the loft bedroom in the attic so she could have her own space which she instantly painted magenta and black, we put Tracy and Cory in the same room but we kept one room vacant if Cory wanted his own place, all of them were happy to finally have a family and we were also very happy to be raising children better than our parents had done for us, it was fun to hear Ivy rock out to her favourite music while working on a tattoo or nail design, J built the younger kids a jungle gym and he loved playing catch in the backyard with Cory and watching Tracy learn how to walk was so rewarding, with J's money we could give the kids the best education and the childhood they deserved with toys and good clothes, Tracy and Cory actually saw me as the mother and call me 'mom' or 'mommy', Ivy just calls me by my name but she mostly defaults to "Otosan" since she learned I was Japanese, the kids got along wonderfully and Ivy was proud to be a big sister. Those first few months were the best... Until THEY showed up.

apparently Ivy’s family got word that their child had been adopted by two men and were outraged, they wanted her back... We of course refused because Ivy was ours now and she had no desire to leave, Ivy hid in her room when her uncle came to our house to try and take her, J and I scared him off with our threatening appearances and J’s gun but we knew this wasn’t over, for the first time since I’ve known Ivy, I saw her cry... I hugged her and promised I wasn’t going to let her go.

THE HARRASSMENT

Unfortunately we were right about it not being over, for the next year and a half, J and I were drowning in court summons and threatening letters, we couldn’t let Ivy out of the house because we could tell her family were waiting to pounce, Ivy had to do school online because her mother tried to pull her into her car while she had been waiting for the bus and she became to scared to leave the house, she even had to go with us to each summon and at the last one she actually cussed out her entire family, saying how they did nothing but berate her, would take her uncle’s side when she told them about the abuse and how she even had an abortion at 14 because of him... She even went as far to take off her shirt in court and tell the story of every scar on her body to the judge, her family’s lawyer, the bailiff and other litigants waiting for their cases, it was graphic... The judge offered us a full term restraining order against Ivy’s family, the restraining order went through and we thought it was over, oh how wrong we were...

THE INCIDENT

We hadn’t seen the lunatics in a couple months and thought all was normal but J still drove Ivy to school out of precaution, we even put up cameras and an electric fence on our property to keep the kids safe in case someone thought they had an opening... One day we got a call from Ivy, she was crying and J was in papa bear mode and asked her in that famous Texan accent; “Who in God’s name made you cry sugarcube?!”

Ivy explained through her sobs that she had been called to the office saying her parents were there, thinking it was J and I she went there and saw it was her uncle and her emotionally abusive mother... They grabbed her and tried to pull her out of the school, before they made it to the door, her uncle sneakily put his hand down her shirt and groped her... saying she was his forever... she screamed and bit him hard, he let go and she ran and hid in one of the small study rooms in the library, she barricaded herself inside, J stayed on the phone with her as I called the police and we drove to the high school with Cory and Tracy sitting confused in the backseat, the police escorted the mom and uncle off the property and we had to coax Ivy out of the room, it broke my heart when I saw her mascara and eyeliner running down her cheeks. I held her as we drove home and she clung to me begging for J and I to not leave her, this was the last straw.

THE REVENGE

J made sure that the school would only allow us to pick up Ivy and if they wanted to confirm if someone could take her, they had to call us and give us their name and a physical description but I knew this still wasn’t over and I began to plan, I tracked all of these abusive douchebags down on social media and found all I needed, their phone numbers, home addresses and job titles and contacts, apparently they had been putting up this front of a huge happy family and their child living with us was throwing a wrench in their plans, they were all in very cushy job positions but that’s not all, I managed to find some of their coworkers who were very frustrated with how these people were brown nosing their way up the ladder but they were complete jerks to their coworkers, the men of the families harassed female subordinates and the women were notorious for spreading lies, I managed to get all of them to give me their evidence.

I sent all of this to their places of employment and waited... We soon got confirmation that they had gotten on the next flight back to LA and for the first time in so long... Ivy was able to get on the bus and come home without having to be afraid. A few weeks passed and some of the coworkers got back to me about what happened and what they told me was AMAZING! Ivy's uncle had his work computer searched and there was a mountain of child... pictures on there, the police were called and his house was raided where they found more evidence and even videos of him assaulting other kids... He was arrested immediately and won't be out of prison until he's a weak old man.

Ivy's parents and relatives were looked into as well, they had lied to their bosses to get sick leave to come and harass us, and all the evidence their coworkers had got them fired! But I was not done yet, these people had hurt my daughter, I was not going to let them off easy. I slandered them on social media, explaining how my husband and I were raising their daughter in Texas because her parents encouraged her uncle to force himself on her, Ivy's parents shot back saying Ivy went "missing" and we had kidnapped her but we proved that wrong immediately, apparently the orphanage made a video where they congratulated Ivy on finding an amazing family that loves and cares for her, they even included a slideshow of some pictures we had taken with her and the little ones, one being her hugging J on her 16th birthday because he got her a temporary tattoo crafting kit and building her her own nail salon in the basement.

Ivy's parents immediately lost all support, I would have gone further if J hadn't found out what I was up to, he said I did enough damage but I was still tempted to hire someone to burn down their house.

Ivy is doing great now that she knows her family isn't after her anymore, she's 17 and working on her portfolio for art school and has been treating all of us and her friends to manicures and pedicures, I know she'll have a great future doing what she loves. But sometimes I still wish I could burn down her crappy parents' house.

[arkannis]

Hello,

I just recently got into the Old Republic Fandom, and the Eternal Empire is my favorite arc. I do wish there was more story content to give more development to the characters, particularly in Arcann's case. While I love his romance scenes, I wish there were more scenes about his redemption and relationship with the Outlander or a dark side ending where the Outlander or Arcann takes the throne with the other as a consort. I found your blog while trying to find content further developing his character. Thank you so much for posting all your headcanons and musings!

With that being said, what are your headcanons for Zakuul culture? And could you post a masterpost compilation of your Arcann headcanons? I am trying to find the post where the romance novels headcanon originated in the tags and not having much luck.

Hope you have a nice day!

Hi anon!! Sorry for a late reply. First I’ll answer the second part of your message. The romance holonovels headcanon originated from the this post ; the post doesn’t outright say it, but some people in the tags (when they reblogged it) mentioned that Arcann probably seemed like the type to read romance in his free time. As of what I can remember the tags were from this reblog and this other reblog and both say that Arcann reads romance holonovels. The continuation of this headcanon were in replies or tags, so it’s hard to track them all down! Secondly, my Arcann tag is a mess, and I probably threw in multiple headcanons in reblogs or tags so it would be hard to find them all... I’ll think about making a masterpost, but I don’t think I have time for something like that right now. Ok, now that’s over with... I 100% agree with you, anon! I HAVE so many things to say about the possibility about that dark side ending. I don’t think devs were planning to make Arcann a possible romance option in the beginning, so it wouldn’t have been possible to be his LI and rule as emperor/empress. I also agree with the development of the characters... however, Arcann’s redemption and relationship with the Outlander was definitely rushed, because the plans to make a third expansion was apparently cancelled due to the backlash from fans who wanted pub vs. imp back. I made a whole post complaining about that... Otherwise, I definitely think they would have had more time to flesh out his characters and the other Zakuulan characters as well (Vaylin, Senya, Koth, etc.). I’m like pretty much sure content was cut out from KOTFE/KOTET to make them shorter. Due to such lost content, I have to create my headcanons from extrapolation based on the Sacrifice trailer, available codex entries, existing dialogue, and implications of existing issues. As well as other people’s hcs and commentary!! WARNING: SUPER LONG BULLET POINTS for Zakuulan culture headcanons.

The reason why I don’t have that many Zakuulan culture headcanons is because.... I feel like it’s so weirdly explored in the expansions.

I think the arts is a big thing in Zakuul! The Dragon’s Maw chapter gave me that kind of vibe. I also discussed this mildly (not) with Arcann. Most specifically THEATRE, PERFORMANCE AND SINGING. 

Evidence: Senya sings and composes and there’s the famous Zakuulan holoperformer, Malita Tal. No, I don’t have evidence for theatre, but honestly? Zakuulans are so goddamn dramatic, they most definitely have reality TV series or drama series... 

arcann be like oh you listen to malita tal? name all of her albums in alphabetical order or you get exiled

Zakuulan culture most definitely has idol culture, based on Malita Tal (and reportedly her performances were watched by millions). And those fans apparently also protested against Arcann’s rule. personally i think if they had twitter the u.s. gov*rnment would be wiped out.

I just think singing is a big thing in Zakuulan culture. I mean, even Valkorion sings (if you decide to kill Senya, his force ghost appears. They both have an exchange and it’s actually sweet for like 0.1 second). 

I also think there would be typical Zakuulan fairytales embedded in the culture. Hear me out. Most specifically those type of royal fairytales with the princes and princesses. This can be heavily contributed to the fact that a royal family is essentially in power. 

You cannot expect me to believe not a single person in Zakuul has written a Prince Arcann x reader holofic. You just can’t. Or Prince Thexan. Actually, I think Thexan would be more common, I think he was perceived to be more compassionate and kind compared to Arcann by the common folk? Since I know there’s that NPC dialogue where one of them goes how different it would be if Thexan took the throne instead. 

The fairytales would probably involve a lot of references to the Old Gods. I kinda imagine that the enemy would be some sort of serpent, that is, Zildrog, because apparently he’s just a bedtime story to scare children away. 

I think these Zakuulan fairy tales would contribute to the theatre and performance, acting culture that Zakuul has. 

Furthermore, I just think the Tirall kids probably read these fairytales as well. francis dont talk about arcann reading again

I want to talk about the Old Gods and that religion, which is one of my favorite things ever... probably because the Gods are machines. Superweapon machines... ok ill shut up

Even if Valkorion basically got rid of the religion, it’s clear that the religion is still incorporated into heavy talk in Zakuulan culture (e.g. eyes of Esne, heart of Scyva). 

My headcanon is that there are sanctuaries or small secret churches (?) for those who want to worship the Old Gods. Obviously the Herald of Zildrogs who believe in the Old Way are a cult, so I think people would look for an alternative. 

I think there would be great effort to hide these places, as it can get you exiled. Thus these would probably be located in the Old World, rather than in a more obvious position like the Spire. 

The beliefs of the Old Ways isn’t exactly clear, they aren’t exactly touched upon, which is a shame. I think people would ask for help from each of these gods depending on what they want.

Those who ask for Izax’ guidance want to seek success, accomplishments, power, and glory.

Those who ask for Scyva’s guidance ask for her to guide souls peacefully to death (she is described as someone who weeps beside Zakuulans as they march towards Izax - basically death) , or ask for help/compassion from her. Maybe maternity as well? Or parental love?

Those who ask for Aivela (goddess of passion) want her to guide them with her passion (Aivela accompanies Tyth, who is kind of a god of war/warrior). I think there would also be romance related stuff as well. If someone asked for help regarding their love related issues, it would probably be from Aivela!

I’m not sure about Esne - but maybe in a similar sense, if someone is suffering with jealousy - in any situation, they would ask guidance from her. I don’t know where I read this but I think the “eyes of Esne” expression meant like having eyes of jealousy.

Nahut? I don’t think he was worshipped.  “Nahut was considered to be gray, formless and cold, and was denied worship by all except his mother Scyva.” But regardless, I think he still had a role to play. 

After the Outlander takes the throne, and Zakuul renounces their membership from the Eternal Alliance, I think people would be allowed to openly express their religious beliefs, that is, the Old Ways. Oh, personally I headcanon that they would build beautiful places of worship in the Spire with similar geometrical pyramid designs...!! 

Yeah...I think that’s all I got! I’ll need to see how I can somehow make this post easily found, lol. This is quite a long list, and I have to emphasize that these are my headcanons! They are based on what I see and I just kind of fill in the gaps to fit my own stories. This took a while to write because I KNEW I had these headcanons, but they just didn’t appear at the time I saw this anon ask. Anyways, I’ll probably create more headcanons in the future. Also:

a dark side ending where the Outlander or Arcann takes the throne with the other as a consort

I have so many things to say about this. I know the game won’t permit it, because if you think about it, both the light side choice (Eternal Alliance) and the dark side choice (Eternal Empire) are happy endings for your characters anyways. They can continue as the “hero” or the “protagonist”, so I don’t think this route could ever be implemented. However, I think it would be absolutely interesting if throughout the gameplay, players are given a choice to flirt with Arcann. The Outlander and Arcann agree to get rid of Valkorion, but thats if the Outlander decides to betray the Alliance and joins Arcann instead. And should they join him, they have the choice to romance him... and I guess it’s a happy ending for you both :P Obviously this won’t happen, but maybe it will. I wouldn’t mind being the prince consort of Arcann lol idk! me and vaylin are gonna be besties and we’ll paint each others nails or something Oh and have a nice day too anon...!!

[gothmedia]

Movie Review: My Summer as a Goth

”If you don’t care what people think, why did you just ask me what I thought?” Overview and Plot My Summer as a Goth is a crowd funded movie directed by Tara Johnson-Medinger. It stars Joey, a morose teen who constantly talks about her dead dad and gets angry when other people talk about her dead dad. Since her mother is a prolific author set to do a book tour, Joey is shipped about 45 minutes out of town to her grandparents' house for the summer. There she becomes interested in the neighbor boy, an even more sullen teen called Victor. Victor notices Joey's interest and whisks her away into the world of goth summer romance. In terms of production, very nice looking film. Professional. I liked that the beginning of the movie looked very washed-out and reflected the mood well, getting warmer as the summer went on. I also loved the texting graphics. The movie was well-paced and a good length, however the passage of time in the movie was a bit odd. VERY soon after the movie says summer starts it’s the Fourth of July, then again only a short time later everyone’s talking about how the summer is almost over. Joey even gets mad at her mother in one instance for not being available in time, but it seems like the mother responded back in about a day while Joey makes it out that it took weeks. The in-movie passage of time was very confusing for me. Most of the characters were well-written with some hiccups mostly on the grandparent’s and Antonio’s end. Costume design was on-point. Sound was fine and the music choices throughout were wonderful. Overall, the film had really good production value.

Moving into spoiler territory, Joey’s grandparents are a ride as they swing from giving Joey hundreds of dollars and baking her pot brownies to telling at her she can’t stay out late and that she needs an exorcism. Antonio, a punk, starts the movie off by getting into a fist fight with Victor, but later becomes a loveable member of the cast. We meet Cob and Pen, the “goth swan couple”. They’re Victor’s friends and a breath of fresh air; despite having morose interests they’re very bubbly and outgoing. I wish more of the movie had them in it. They along with Victor decide to give Joey a makeover and invite her to a few different events over the summer including a silent disco in a graveyard, a party at Pandora’s house, and a concert. They also go on a camping trip with Joey, her grandparents, and one of Joey’s high school friends. Eventually, Joey gets annoyed with Victor’s constant toxic attitude and finds out he’s cheating on her. Everything’s fine in the end as the summer comes to a close and she goes back to school with Antonio as her new boyfriend and her new, darker look.

Joey the babybat has daddy issues. In the beginning Joey feels acts catty and defensive about everything. Don’t worry, she never really grows out of that. Pretty much everything about her revolves around either the fact that her father is dead or her relationship with Victor. She does have an art hobby that’s shown throughout the movie but she seems almost embarrassed by it? It’s never actually brought up by any characters and no one ever looks through her sketchbook or shows interest in it. Which I found really odd because a lot of the goths I know in real life tend to be pretty creative and would love it? Anyway, she falls head-first into goth because of a boy. I know that’s how some people get into the subculture, but it kind-of sours the movie because it seems like she also only stays in the subculture because of the boy. In the beginning she mentions liking the music and how it helps her express how she feels inside, but other than Victor, we really don’t get to see how she thinks about the subculture. She’s friends with Cob and Pen because they’re Victor’s friends. She goes to events because Victor goes. She dresses up because Victor wants her to. But once Victor is out of the picture, why does she stay? Other than the passing mention of music at the beginning, she really has no interest in the goth scene. She’s never shown engaging with the scene on her own terms, and I find that a little disappointing. When I was a babybat I was reading goth blogs like Stripy Tights and Dark Delights, I was trying to get my hands on back issues of Gothic Beauty, I was watching a ton of different youtubers talk about the scene and I just wanted more. There’s none of that with Joey save for a short scene where she watches tutorials on how to do her hair and make-up. (Which, admittedly was really cute.) I didn’t understand WHY Joey stays a goth at the end of the movie and I think it’s because the movie really didn’t portray the positive aspects of the subculture as much. Also, Joey needs to work on her attitude problem. She mentions her dead dad quite a bit at the beginning and gets upset when other people mention it back to her. At the end of the film she calls her mom over heartbreak and when her mom tries to talk about it with her, she acts sarcastic and shuts her mother out, getting mad that she reached out at the wrong time. I’m unsure if it was just Joey going back to her old coping strategies or if she was in the right because I have no idea how much time had passed since the phone call. I’ll never know. Either way, she does dump Victor which is nice and she reconciles with her mother as well. I do like that she feels more comfortable with herself at the end of the movie and begins doing things on her own terms, even if others don’t “get it”. Victor is a VERY well-written, manipulative dick.  Storytime! So, there weren’t many goths at my college and we never really had any classes together, but I remember seeing this one kid walking across the street to the art buildings with a flowing black velvet cape over their backpack, an unlaced black poet shirt, platinum white hair in a side-hawk, knee-high black leather boots and a TON of silver jewelry. Honestly, they would have looked so cool if their harem pants weren’t made of chiffon and completely see-through. (Batman boxers!) Seeing Victor for the first time immediately reminded me of that. Over the top, charming, charismatic and a bit silly. I liked him at first. His wit is dry and in the beginning he didn’t take himself of the subculture TOO seriously, making jokes about vampires. I liked that he seemed to be having fun chatting about music and dressing up Joey. And then there came the lipstick. Honestly, the lipstick was used absolutely perfectly to show how the relationship is souring and how manipulative Victor really is. It really is a gradual showing of how things are going south in their relationship and how Victor isn’t as much as a downcast victim as he puts on. Later on in the movie he starts reminding me of that Bruiser sketch where there’s two goths and one of them is just badgering the other one that he can’t take his sweater off in the summer or join in on seasports because it’s “not goth”. He begins chastising Joey for not looking perfect at all times or not knowing things about the subculture despite the fact that he just dresses her up and brings her to parties instead of actually trying to integrate her to the local scene or teaching her about music or history. Eventually he goes back to hooking up with Pandora, something he apparently does frequently because Joey is not the first person he’s cheated on and literally everyone in town warns Joey about it. Victor clearly has a massively inflated ego and you love to hate him in the end. There are definitely his type in goth scenes around the world and I can see how he stays in good graces with the other asshole friends he has. Some people just really like being elitists. The one thing I can’t figure out, though, is why Pen and Cob are friends with him. They’re so nice compared. A punk by jacket only and why casual homophobia makes me salty. Antonio is... hoo boy, is he a thing. First introduced starting a fight with Victor you think, "Ah, this is the antagonist of the movie. I wonder why they made the punk an asshole? Usually punks are okay with goths." Luckily for us, he apologizes for the outburst and becomes a friend of the main cast. We learn he likes canasta and plays guitar. Oddly, he doesn't seem to have any punk patches or pins on his jacket and never actually mentions punk music. He does, however, mention goth music and he seems familiar with the other goths in town going to their events, so it seems he's on good standing with them despite bullying the goths at the beginning of the film. Seeing as goths would rather pretend to be haughty vampires than get their tail coats in a twist, Antonio makes for a heroic figure in the movie when Joey is in trouble. In my notes I wrote, "Ten bucks says punk kid is gonna save her,” and lo and behold, Antonio comes out of nowhere to save Joey from some bullies. I do like that he uses his rough appearance to his advantage to help people and do the right thing. That pretty accurately describes every punk I’ve ever met. They look tough as nails, but you’ll only see that side of them if you absolutely deserve to.

It's also revealed that Antonio is not straight as he's seen making out with some guy at a concert, mentions having had a previous relationship with Victor, and is being made fun of for being gay in the end. He also ends the film by being Joey's boyfriend. Pardon, what? I'm kind-of tired of this heteronormative nonsense where movies have to end with all main characters (Sans the villain, of course.) end up in a happy straight relationship. Joey's non-goth friend who's in the movie for a very short amount of time also ends up with a goth boyfriend because happily-ever-after and all that. It probably wouldn't have sat as poorly with me if they didn't make fun of Antonio for "looking gay" which in context makes no sense since he's pretty gender conforming compared to the goth men in the film. It also didn’t help that there were comments about lesbians at the beginning of the movie. At one point Joey's grandparents suggest she might like girls and Joey rebukes it with vitriol saying her grandparents are "too cool". The same kind of vitriol you hear when a straight person tells you they could never imagine being gay, that's disgusting. Oh, but they support your "choices", hm? I just wish Antonio’s character was a bit more fleshed out and he didn’t end up being back-up male love interest that’s only there to save female lead from bad guys and heartbreak.  First rule of Goth Music is you don’t talk about Goth Music? The movie introduces goth along with music. The music in the film is honestly really good and a good portrayal of what goths actually listen to. Joey mentions she likes the music near the beginning and she goes to events such as a silent disco, a party, and a concert. Despite music obviously being a major source of community in the movie, no one actually talks about it other than that one instance of Joey mentioning she likes it. No one suggests bands to her or actually goes to the parties or concerts to do anything other than make out. The silent disco is the only real instance of them listening and dancing to the music and it feels like it's over in a flash. Though, the corny goth dance moves in that scene kind-of make up for it. At one point Antonio pulls out a guitar and asks if Joey wants him to play “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. She mentions she’s never heard of it which leads Antonio to ask if she’s new to the scene. At another point in the party, Joey asks someone if they like Marylin Manson. While this is an obvious faux pas to anyone actually in the goth scene, no one actually engages with her in conversation about it. How was Joey supposed to know his music isn’t goth? Wasn’t she listening to goth music earlier at the silent disco? Or the music she said sounded pretty from Victor’s room when they met? How did she get this far liking these bands but not noticing that they sound nothing like Marylin Manson and did she never look them up on her own to listen to them later? She obviously likes them, so it really surprises me that she only got in the goth scene for a guy.

Robert Smith NEVER has smeared lipstick. /s The emphasis on appearance is a little annoying throughout the movie, but I guess it had to be. It fits Victor's personality to change Joey's personal style to match his, and the makeover scene was fun, but I wish there would have been more diversity in the cast of townie goths who attend the parties, concerts, and discos. I counted one person with blonde hair and a small handful of older goths. I didn't notice any non-white goths and unfortunately the movie placed quite the emphasis on pale skin and trying to avoid tanning. I know people like the white face along with dark make-up and looking vamp-ish, but when all your characters are in white greasepaint and there's no PoC to be seen in goth garb it sends a message that only white people can be goth and that's really something we need to kill in the subculture. I did, however, like the wardrobe choices. I liked that Joey got her wardrobe from a thrift store and that she dyed a top she already owned. She looked up tutorials on how to do her hair and make-up and it never looked perfect. That's a good thing. Baby Bats won't know how to do a bats nest hairstyle, they won't know to blend foundation to the neck, and they won't have a perfect eyeliner wing. No one mentioned alt-brand name clothing and no one had a perfectly couture outfit that media likes to sell as a stereotypical goth teenager. The goths actually looked like goths. Their wardrobes were things you'd actually see in a club and we get to see that they wear a plain black tank top and shorts when milling about the house, only breaking out the corsets and top hats for big events. The older goths were more well put together and that makes sense because they've been in the subculture longer and have had time to figure out what they like and what looks good on them. The costuming department did a really great job with this. Ah, but as a side note about wardrobe, who donates brand new, tall Docs to a thrift store??? You can’t sit with us. And sadly, the worst part of Goth in the movie- community. What was that, film? Other than the three main goths, we only get to see other goths at large events and they all seem a bit catty? You have the silent disco, which was cute but no one really spoke to or interacted with each other. Pen and Cob are kind-of doing their own thing throughout no matter who they’re with. We also have the house party and the concert. The other goths there are.... pretty much just there to be judgy because Joey’s new? The first time I went to a club in a new city and didn’t know anyone some random person grabbed my hands and dragged me to the dancefloor. It was fun! People would ask the DJ what he was spinning and they weren’t shamed for not knowing. If someone’s jacket ripped, five people would come out of the woodwork with a safety pin and afterwards we’d all pile into Denny’s and laugh and joke and talk about nothing. I’m not saying there’s no “Gothier-than-Thou” types, believe me I’ve met more than a few, but in a movie that’s trying to portray someone WANTING to become a goth, why not portray the subculture as more inviting? Also, with the comments from Victor and a few other remarks, it seems like alcohol is needed to blend into the goth scene, and that definitely isn’t the case. Sure, a lot of us love absinth or a snakebite in black, but it’s not needed to fit in with the cool kids at the club. The community really is my favorite thing about this subculture and I feel it was a disservice that most goths were showcased as uninviting. I can understand Joey not being wanted at the party initially as she wasn’t invited in the first place and perhaps the eldergoths in the room didn’t want to have to have an impromptu etiquette and history lesson with a babybat when they’re supposed to be relaxing, but the point of the movie was to showcase why Joey wants to be a goth. She never makes friends outside of Victor’s immediate group and never tries to find community or information about the scene online or anything. I guess that is how babybats do act a lot of the time, but again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the point of the movie is showing why someone would WANT to be a goth.  Final Thoughts. The goth scene in the movie looked like a regular goth scene. I liked the emphasis on thrifting and DIY and that newcomers don’t come out of the womb knowing the lyrics to the entirety of Floodland. The music was phenomenal. I liked that the music featured was goth music, but not the main five bands that everyone already knows. I liked that the events attended were focused mainly around music. I liked seeing actual goth dance moves on screen. I liked that people in the movie did use terminology found in the subculture and made jokes about the subculture that insiders would actually make. I liked that Pen and Cob were wonderfully peppy despite their dark interests, I liked that we got punk-goth solidarity. I liked that it did remind me a bit of my babybat years and got me missing clubs and events. I miss all my friends... I really do...

I was put off by the passage of time in the movie, Joey’s cattiness with anyone who tries to help her, the light and casual homophobia sprinkled in, and the negative-leaning portrayal of the goth community. Other than that, though, I did think it was a good movie with a satisfying ending and I would really suggest people check it out. It’s probably the most accurate portrayal of goths in any media, really, and it’s worth a watch. At the very least, go listen to the soundtrack on BandCamp.