#He probably was more careful (than his work on Cat + Gamer) - but after suffering through his translation work on Showa -
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Cat + Gamer manga: the English edition dilemma
You - Would like to read another adorable funny volume of Cat + Gamer manga. Perhaps the English translated editions, which are available for free through the local library system.
Zack Davisson - Creates the sloppiest manga translation I have seen from him. I'm distracted while reading, because I stumble over questionable translation decisions and some outright translation mistakes. I am pretty sure I have read fan scanlations that put more care into their work. I do not understand how this man is a professional translator.
Zack Davisson - Unfortunately, the project I am referring to here is the Cat + Gamer manga.
Your choices - read adorable Cat + Gamer manga :) vs Zack Davisson translations :/
(PS At one point the main character in the manga gives an explanation and joke about swords! Unfortunately, it doesn't really make sense, because I suspect Zack Davisson just outright mistranslated part of it. If you sub out the suspected translation error, then it does read as a pretty good gag.)
#Cat + Gamer#it is adorable though#translations#Zack Davisson#boooooo#Me: would like to read more English editions of Mizuki Shigeru's manga#Me: worried that Zack Davisson translated those too#He probably was more careful (than his work on Cat + Gamer) - but after suffering through his translation work on Showa -#I am :/ about reading any more Mizuki Shigeru's manga translated by this man#Twist: Hurrah! Nonnonba is translated by Jocelyne Allen!!#While I had some quibbles with her translation decisions on some manga - I'll read books she has translated. And have. Wow she's prolific#good for her
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SMPantheon AU Information
Greetings, Tumblrer. Can I interest you in my Dream SMP God AU? Yes? Great. Hope you like reading.
I should clarify, before we begin, that there is one rule in the Pantheon: and that is not to date those in other classes. This rule is often broken due to the enforcer's blatant biases, so some people get off scott-free. This rule doesn't apply to dating humans, however, because of the need for classic zeus-style, demigod-bearing hijinks.
THE TRINITY
The creators of the universe, the dreamons. Gods of Chaos. Two have been replaced so far.
Dream XD The creator, the father, the man...god...thing Himself. Yes, that H is capitalized. He was the first god to exist, and every heavenly being stems from Him in some way. He enjoys seeing people suffer. He loves George in secret, even if He hasn't yet reciprocated. He stripped Captain Puffy of some of her power because He deemed the God of Order to be getting in the way of His chaos. His mask has the XD emoticon on it, fittingly enough.
Dream The 'son' of the Trinity, and the enforcer of the love law. His position was once filled by Mexican Dream, before he was demoted for being a dumbass. He later demoted Mamacita for falling in love with Mexican Dream, because they weren't in the same God class anymore. He is notoriously biased and nepotistic with his enforcing. He's also an asshole. His mask has the :) emoticon on it.
Drista The 'holy spirit' of the Trinity. A child. She causes chaos wherever she goes, whether intentionally or not, which makes DXD very proud. Her position was once filled by Mamacita, before she was demoted. She often hangs out with the demigods, most often Tommy. Wherever she goes, hijinks ensue. He mask has the >;P emoticon on it.
GREATER GODS
The most powerful gods, besides the Trinity.
Philza The God of Freedom. A ruthless killer, but a pretty good father figure. He was the first non-Trinity god, and appropriately he matches up with their chaos. He is most notably the god who invented angels, and personally made the first one, Clara. A long time ago he fought with Awesamdude because of their conflicting symbols and won, demoting Sam to the rank of a regular God. His wife is Kristin, a (dead) human, but one time he had a fling with a refridgerator. Confusing times. His sons are Tommy, Tubbo, and Wilbur, and his grandson is Fundy.
Technoblade The God of Violence, often regarded as the 'Blood God'. He is a force to be reckoned with, and you can probably trace him back to every world war in some way. He has a more stoic and calm side, which only Philza and his family can bring out. He acts as sort of an uncle and brother to them, sometimes caring for the kids. He would rather die than have his own, though. He feels an attachment to his friend Ranboo's son, Michael, because they are both pigmen. He plans to train him when he grows hold enough. His pride and joy is the section of the underworld he invented, which is the section where sinners burn eternally.
Antfrost The God of Love. Currently he is taking refuge on earth with his boyfriend Velvet, who is the third archangel. He's never been very friendly with Dream, so it would be inevitable that he would be punished for loving Velvet. To avoid this, he fleed to a small town on earth. He has had a long-time rivalry with Ponk because of his innate hatred of cats.
Foolish Gamers The God of Creation. He is a master builder, and has built the temples of all the Gods. One day, Sapnap, the God of Destruction, challenged him to a fight, and whoever lost would be demoted. He accepted and won, which is why his equal is now lower on the totem pole than he is. He created the earth with Hannah at the command of the Trinity. His best friend is Eret. He often enlists the help of the rock nymph HBomb for help with terraforming and foundation building.
Karl Jacobs The God of Time. He can control time by slowing it down, speeding it up, pausing it, rewinding, etc. However, he is only allowed to use it when the Trinity gives permission. Usually, he just sits around and helps his "not fiancés", Quackity and Sapnap, with their work. He was born soon after Philza.
GODS
Averagely powerful gods.
Sapnap The God of Destruction. He was originally a greater god, but lost a fight to Foolish and gave some power up as a result. He is responsible in part for all the natural disasters of the world.
Awesamdude He was stripped of some of his power by Philza (with assistance from Techno, although he'd never admit it). He acts as a father figure to some of the younger heavenly beings. He created Sam Nook, an altered clone of himself, to be a Nanny for Philza's children. He now takes care of young Fundy and Michael. Loves Ponk in secret.
Badboyhalo The God of Purity. Cannot do wrong, after all he is the only person who actually is dating someone and is following the rule. Has a public record stating he has never sworn. He's highly devoted to his pursuit of holiness... and also Skeppy.
Skeppy The God of Fortune. After all, he's made of diamond. He's a goofball, especially around Bad. He's Bad's best friend/boy friend, B.B.F., as he would say!
Captain Puffy The God of Order. She has always had a rivalry with the Trinity for directly contradicting them with her existence. Because of this, her dates with Niki have to remain a secret, or else she'll be demoted again. Currently she's filling the paws of Antfrost as God of Love until he comes back, or a new heir is born.
Hannahxxrose The God of Nature. She mostly hangs out on Earth, tending to gardens worldwide, but she stays in heaven an ample amount too. She was literally born from Foolish's idea to create nature for earth, which she then assisted in plans for.
JSchlatt The God of Sin. He was originally a Greater God, but he had to be demoted so that the human race wouldn't be absolutely fucked. He's technically in charge of the Underworld, but he doesn't do jack shit down there. He's a raging alcoholic, and is always complaining about heart problems. His best friend is Minx.
Eret The God of Power. He isn't part nymph or anything, but the nymphs respect him and have crowned him as their king. He gladly accepts this role. His best friend is Foolish.
MINIGODS
Less powerful gods.
GeorgeNotFound The God of Beauty. He is fully aware that DXD is in love with him, but he doesn't want to reciprocate for fear of the rule. Still, he hasn't ratted him out... yet. He often hangs out with Sapnap, and he used to hang out with Dream, but he has become more distant as of late.
Mamacita The God of Justice. Also known as Girl Dream. She was removed from the Trinity for loving Mexican Dream after he was demoted. Since she and him still have a lot of power, they've been tasked with running the Underworld. Her mask has the :/ emoticon on it.
Mexican Dream The God of Death. Was removed from the Trinity for generally being a dumbass. He co-runs the Underworld with his Mamacita. He has also adopted Quackity as a twin. His mask has the ;] emoticon on it.
Quackity The God of Humor. He doesn't do a whole lot, just hangs out with his fiancés and his unofficial twin. An absolute jokester.
Slimecicle The God of Joy. A lovable goof who has never done a thing wrong in his life. He has a human wife, Grace, and his son is Connor. He skips around heaven a lot, and often hangs out with the angels.
Ranboo The God of Identity. He is *platonically* married to Tubbo (so Dream can't technically punish him!) He has a son, Michael, and he often hangs out with the demigods. He is considered the least powerful full god. He has a habit of forgetting things and also a habit of stealing all the gender from the other members of the Pantheon.
Niki Nihachu The God of Grace. She mainly takes care of the children along with Sam Nook, and hangs around the water nymphs. Her best friend is Sally.
Jack Manifold The God of Spirit. Previously nicknamed 'Thunder', he is an epic gamer lad. He famously invented 3D glasses and also Britain.
Ponk The God of Bravery. Has had an age-old rivalry with Antfrost because of his fear of cats for eons, and he is quite happy that he's gone. He has a strained love for Sam, which they have to keep secret. Only Sam has seen the rest of his face, under the mask.
DEMIGODS
Half gods, half humans. They are free to travel between earth and heaven.
Tommyinnit The youngest son of Philza and Kristin. A rambunctious teenager who is quite popular among the gods, especially Drista. Often flirts with the goddesses, and always says he has a crush on the Queen of England.
Tubbo The middle son of Philza and Kristin. A chaotic man-child and also goat boy. He is absouletly adored by the Trinity. He has a "platonic" husband, Ranboo, and a son, Michael.
Wilbur The eldest son of Philza and Kristin. A musical prodigy, who is an adult but doesn't quite act like one. He has a wife, Sally the water nymph, and a son, Fundy.
ConnorEatsPants The only son of Slimecicle and Grace. He is a massive sonic fan. If you asked life advice from him, he would tell you that the only problem with being faster than light is that you can only live in darkness.
SEMIGODS
Demigods, except it's not a 50/50 split between God and human. Other races can also be added.
Fundy The son of Wilbur and Sally. He is 25% God, 25% Human, and 50% water nymph, but most importantly, 100% furry.
Michael The son of Ranboo and Tubbo. 75% God and 25% human. He's good friends with Technoblade because of their shared pigman-ness.
NYMPHS
Mythical and elemental creatures.
Sally A water nymph. Married to Wilbur and the mother of Fundy.
HBomb A rock nymph. Often helps Foolish with his builds.
Alyssa An air nymph. She's been wandering around the outskirts of heaven for an eon with Callahan.
Callahan An air nymph. Wandering with Alyssa.
Minx A fire nymph. Best friends with Schlatt and Niki.
ANGELS
Heavenly servants.
Punz First archangel. He's currently the Trinity's bitch, but if you offered him enough money he would absolutely betray them.
Purpled Second archangel. He just follows Punz around and helps him with his tasks. He isn't very devoted to his job. He was the one who came up with the idea of space.
Red Velvet Third archangel. He has fleed heaven with his boyfriend Antfrost. He's working as a baker on earth.
Michael McChill Replacement third archangel. He was created out of a necessity for three archangels, and he isn't very well adjusted. He has no motivation and has only talked to Philza.
Vikkstar The guardian angel of all the demi/semigods. When he's not watching over them, he is hanging out with Lazar.
Lazarbeam The general of the heavenly guard. He slacks off very much, and often hangs out with Vikkstar. Aggravated easily.
Clara The first angel, and the most wise. She is seen as an oracle and is prayed to as frequently as the gods. She often hangs out in Tommy's dreams.
Sam Nook An altered copy of Sam, made to be a nanny to Tommy, Tubbo, and Wilbur. Now he takes care of young Fundy and Michael.
HUMANS
Just like you and me. Except some are dead.
Kristin Married to Philza and mother of Tommy, Tubbo, and Wilbur. When she died, Mamacita offered her a job as the Grim Reaper so that she could hang out with Phil more often.
Grace Married to Slimecicle and mother to Connor. Is the second Grim Reaper, alongside Kristin.
Ghostbur Human clone of Wilbur that Foolish accidentally made when fooling around with the demigods. Has since died and chills out in the animal sector with his sheep, Friend.
Lani Tubbo's sister from his old foster family on earth, who he lives near. Knows everything about everyone in the Pantheon, somehow.
Corpse Husband The janitor of the Underworld. Was a massive sinner when he was alive, but managed to convince Mamacita to let him work for her instead of suffering for eternity.
Mr Beast A generous billionare who runs a private church for the rich in his town. He communes with Karl on the condition that he won't try to gain things for himself using him.
5up A turnip farmer who died and now hangs around Fundy.
.....
Alright. That's it. So. Much. Typing. My fingers hurt. I accidentally deleted all my progress around the halfway point but I persevered. Also, this blog will be used for designs of the AU characters I'll be making. Thanks for reading this far!
Bye. Thanks again.
Oh wait now I have to add a shit ton of tags ughhhh
#dream#dreamsmp#dream team#dnf#au#god au#fanfiction#sapnap#georgenotfound#ranboo#foolish gamers#antfrost#philza#technoblade#tommyinnit#tubbo#karl jacobs#corpse husband#badboyhalo#awesamdude#captain puffy#wilbur soot#quackity#skephalo#awesamponk#mr beast#punz#callahan
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Title: School Unity Club
Author: @thatsrightdollface
For: @bebexox4
Pairings/Characters: Hajime Hinata/Nagito Komaeda, with appearances by both Chiaki Nanami and Kokichi Oma. Others mentioned.
Rating/Warnings: T. Some mention of self-deprecating thought might be a relevant warning. There is also occasional swearing.
Prompt: Non despair hopes peak au with Enemies-Friends-Lovers komahina
Author’s notes: Hi there!!! Happy Komahina Secret Exchange, and I hope you enjoy your gifts!!! :D This is prompt one of two you can expect this time around. This was really fun to work on hehehe. Thank you!!!
1. Okay, Why Are We Starting a School Unity Club Again?
The first time Hope’s Peak Academy tried to recruit Nagito Komaeda, of course he turned them down: he was unworthy, he insisted, trying to laugh at himself, trying to raise his metaphorical palms in obvious surrender. I mean, come on. Hope’s Peak… haha, that was for genuinely amazing people. For the Ultimate Students, glimmering irrefutable beacons of hope to everybody else. They were — no. Nagito couldn’t go to school with people like that. Practically superheroes, so hardworking and disciplined and just everything Nagito knew he didn’t deserve to be. What would he even say? How would he know where to sit, or when to participate in class discussions, or how to tactfully say no when they felt obligated to invite him along places?
But, in the end, Hope’s Peak Academy hadn’t so much wanted Nagito as a student, he gathered, as they’d wanted to study his luck. Nagito’d always had unreasonable, relentless, mythically impossible luck. Amazing things happened to him, and then… like clockwork, like the gears of the universe churning away… equally devastating things inevitably followed. The Ultimate Lucky Student. That’s right. After years of fallen-apart loved ones and distant extended family members and snakes slithering out of his bathtub drain the second he realized “You know, I think this might be my favorite brand of shampoo,” Nagito Komaeda’s absurd luck was finally going to help somebody. Hope’s Peak could learn from his luck, and that was worth humiliating himself daily, stumbling around Ultimate Students, rambling and awestruck. That was worth knowing he’d never belong, because he hadn’t worked for his Talent. It wasn’t really a Talent at all.
When Nagito was happy, he knew he was sure to feel tears burning against the back of his eyes very soon. He was happy about the chance to attend Hope’s Peak, despite everything, despite knowing he should have turned the invitation down again, whether his luck could be useful or no… and so, of course, bad things followed. Bad things he hadn’t talked to his classmates about, yet, and probably never would. Because it wasn’t like Nagito had come to such a prestigious institution expecting anybody to actually care about him. It wasn’t like he would have clawed his way in without being invited. Right?
Nagito liked to think that was right, anyway, just the way he liked to think he didn’t actually want any of his fancy, impossible new classmates to contradict him when he described himself as worthless, a faceless background character in their lives. Why should they tell him he was more than a bystander? Nagito would hold the camera when his classmates wanted a group photo. That should be more than enough. If he wanted to get something done for their sake, he could lean on his Ultimate Luck. If he drew a lottery number, it would always win. If a car was careening out of control through the school grounds, it would be sure to hit him before it clobbered anyone else. A weird system — a horrible system, from some points of view — but it was the least Nagito could do. It was his so-called “Talent,” after all.
Maybe that was why the Reserve Course had never made a lot of sense, to Nagito. See, some people could pay a hell of a lot of extra tuition money and buy their way into Hope’s Peak… but not as Ultimates. It felt like a flashlight demanding to be called the sun, to Nagito. Like a puddle on the street insisting it was the ocean. If Ultimates really were “hope,” then how dare anybody scramble around to grab their spotlight away, right? Reserve Course attendants would probably be easier to get along with than the Ultimate Students, given that Nagito was more or less “one of them”… a nobody, a stranger, an intruder here in this place for gods. But he didn’t go looking for friends among the Reserve Course, either. Why should he want to be buddy-buddy with arrogant pretenders? It wasn’t like Nagito had ever felt especially good at talking to people, anyway. He’d probably say something wrong; he’d probably mess something up; he’d probably just get furious. Wouldn’t you want to turn off the flashlight that thought it was the sun?
Better not to delude yourself, even if the truth was ugly, full of shaky, simpering smiles and resignation. Happiness led to pain. Good luck led to misery. On and on and on, and Nagito had been fairly sure he’d graduate from Hope’s Peak without any of his classmates having memorized his full name. You know, if he lived that long.
That’s why it was all the more surprising when Chiaki Nanami… the Ultimate Gamer… kept insisting on talking to him. Of course, Chiaki was kind to their whole class. She had no reason to sit silently and play phone games with Nagito until his phone caught fire in his hands — she had no reason to chat about his favorite super-indie horror titles during breaks in schoolwork, coming over to stand by his desk on purpose. Chiaki wanted to understand everybody: she told Nagito as much, honestly. Chiaki wanted their whole class to be a team, and so when she asked Nagito to show up for movie nights he did. He knew he’d suffer the bad luck for it later, but he picked up the phone when Chiaki called him every time.
If she wanted to be friends with everyone, Chiaki shouldn’t have to work for the Ultimate Lucky Student’s friendship, obviously. He should be a shoe-in. And it wasn’t really that Nagito was having fun that kept him sticking around, probably. It wasn’t really that he was starting to banter with the Ultimate Mechanic and the Ultimate Gangster, as if they were actually… uh… friendly acquaintances, or something, either. Chiaki told him he was reliable, even if he still wouldn’t admit he belonged with the rest of them. Even if he said hurtful things sometimes and didn’t seem to realize it.
“What?!” Nagito had balked, then. “Have I insulted you? Oh, no. No, that’s unacceptable. For someone like me to speak badly of an Ultimate Student, even without meaning to —”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Chiaki had answered. She reminded Nagito of a cat, pretty consistently… heavy-lidded eyes, and a voice like a tail swishing slowly back and forth. She didn’t look up from the game system in her hands as she drawled at him. “You say horrible things about yourself, and about how you can’t understand why I’d want anything to do with you… makes me feel like you don’t think I can pick my own friends. I say I think you’re okay, and you spend the next half an hour telling me why that’s a stupid thing to think. Kazuichi says he’s glad you stopped by to help him work on that robot project he’s building, and you have to make him apologize for thinking ‘trash like you’ deserves to hang out with the Ultimate Mechanic at all.”
Nagito wasn’t sure how to respond to any of that. He’d cleared his throat.
“Your friends will hurt when they see you hurt, Nagito. I always heard people in games saying that, and now I know it’s true. Okay?”
“Hm. Okay… if you’re sure, as an Ultimate Student.”
“I’m sure as your friend Chiaki.”
“Interesting. I mean… yeah, I’ll do my best not to hurt you?”
Nagito had been watching the way he talked about himself around Chiaki Nanami for about a week before she came to him with a plan she’d been working on with the Ultimate Supreme Leader. Kokichi Oma was a couple years behind them, but he was always scheming like the “Spawn of Loki” the Ultimate Animal Breeder declared him to be — his latest plan involved trying to unite the two branches of their school, the Main Course and the Reserve Course, coming together for some sort of mysterious club. Chiaki was all for it, apparently, and Nagito had wanted to say a lot of things. He’d wanted to say it sounded like reassuring the puddle that ships could drown in it after all, and coral reefs were sure to grow. It felt false, and wrong. But a lot of things Kokichi Oma said felt “false and wrong,” and Nagito wanted to be Chiaki’s real, worthy friend so badly. He agreed to help, however he could.
“It’s so generous of the Ultimates to share their Talents with everybody!” Nagito said. That was a fair enough rationalization, wasn’t it? “You really are a commendable person, Ultimate Supreme Leader. Even if practically everything you say is a shameless lie!”
And, “Hey now, most of my nefarious criminal organization members wouldn’t be called ‘Ultimate,’ and they’ve got more talents to share around than this whole stuck-up school,” Kokichi answered, voice light and airy, like he wasn’t actually invested in the conversation… though his eyes said he really was, unless that expression was just another lie from him? Lies upon lies upon lies. People told Nagito he was confusing to talk to, but surely he couldn’t have anything on Kokichi Oma. Was that okay for him to think? “A lot of these titles we got assigned feel pretty arbitrary, if you ask me. And it’s ridiculous we’ve never actually met so many of our classmates!”
Nagito raised his eyebrows. “Classmates?”
Kokichi stared him down, smile practically painted on. “Classmates. Yeah. Just think of how many possible recruits for my organization might be waiting in the Reserve Course… ya think any of ‘em are interested in a life of evil?”
“Most of the people who made the games we play aren’t Ultimates, either,” Chiaki murmured, at Kokichi’s side. She was muted and dusky pink, with a tender, hesitant smile — Kokichi was so glaringly bright and loud next to her. They made a strange team, but of course no stranger than Nagito and anyone in the world. “Please, Nagito. The School Unity Club is going to try and form real friendships… I think it’s a chance for us to do something good, and to learn what it’s like to be in the Reserve Course.“
As if Nagito wanted to understand something like that! Haha! Oh, Chiaki. No.
But that’s what led Nagito here, to the first official School Unity Club meeting. He filled out the Getting to Know Everybody Questionnaire Kokichi and Chiaki passed out, and he hung around in the back of the room, hands folded in his pockets, face perfectly neutral, until a spiky haired Reserve Course guy came storming up to him. What could have possibly gotten this uppity loser so mad? Chiaki had decorated this classroom herself, specifically for trash like the both of them. They should be so grateful. There were streamers and everything.
“Are you Nagito Komaeda?” Mr. Pointy-Hair spat.
“I am. Nice to meet —”
“So you’re the one who wrote that people who joined the Reserve Course have ‘no good reason to be here’ on the questionnaire. Knowing we’d all read it — knowing how much we want to attend Hope’s Peak Academy —”
Nagito nodded, letting himself smile. Ah, okay. This was making a little sense now. “Excuse me, I think you misunderstand something,” he tried to clarify. “I don’t believe I have a good reason to be here, either… really, we’re almost the same, you and me. I probably have more to say to someone like you than my whole class!” Nagito paused. Glanced over at the Ultimate Gamer. “Except for Chiaki. Maybe. If she still thinks so.”
Mr. Pointy-Hair didn’t look reassured by Nagito’s explanation. If anything, his cheeks were flushed red, the fury creeping up to the tips of his ears, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. He was a little shorter than Nagito, but he was standing as tall as he possibly could. “Someone like me?” he asked. It was a question, somehow, but what exactly did he expect Nagito to say? Mr. Pointy-Hair’s teeth were ground together, but there was something honest and wholesome about his mossy green eyes. Nagito might have wanted to ask his name, if he didn’t feel sure he was about to get yelled at. Why weren’t they understanding each other, exactly, here?
“You’re not an Ultimate,” Nagito said, explaining something painfully simple. “This is a school for extraordinary people, and you and I are both unworthy of it. You see? But that shouldn’t be news to you…”
Mr. Pointy-Hair was spitting mad. Was he going to punch Nagito, next? Or simply tell him how awful he was? Nagito was bracing himself either way, but he shouldn’t have bothered. That was when Kokichi Oma’s spotlight found them, after all. That was when the Ultimate Supreme Leader — sauntering around on a stage made of pushed-together desks and using a super-chipper ringmaster voice — declared, “Oh! And what’s this? Mr. Komaeda and Mr. Hinata are already picking a fight! I think we just found some volunteers for a club project, guys!”
There was a scattering of polite, confused applause, and this Mr. Pointy-Hair Hinata spun around on his heel and threw himself out of the room. The door slammed, and his footsteps thudded away down the hall.
Nagito took a stumbling half-step after him. He didn’t mean to. This was the sort of pretender who thought he deserved to be an Ultimate without earning it, after all. There was no reason to wonder what their club project would be together, or if he’d ever learn Hinata’s first name. There was no reason to ask what the Ultimate Supreme Leader had in store for them to work on — there was probably no reason to assume he and Hinata would ever see each other again, or get another chance to try and have an actual conversation.
Nagito asked Kokichi what their assignment was, anyway.
1½. Talking to You’s Like Trying to Paint in the Rain
Hajime Hinata figured if he just never attended a School Unity Club meeting again, he could simmer for a while and then amble on like this never happened. Like he’d never met Nagito Komaeda, with his hazy dark eyes and drifting, shaky-yet-infuriatingly-resolute voice. If he never joined up with the club again, then he couldn’t be assigned any weird-ass “club projects,” could he? And since Nagito was part of the Main Course… an Ultimate, even if he’d tried to convince Hajime they were “the same,” or whatever… their paths wouldn’t necessarily cross, otherwise. They even had passing periods at different times, and if Hajime saw Nagito’s fluffy, flyaway white hair from across the hallway he just stopped in his tracks and stalked away.
But, I mean… that isn’t the end of the story, obviously. Hajime underestimated the Ultimate Supreme Leader, and also how ridiculous things could get at Hope’s Peak Academy. Sometimes, the place barely even felt real.
Hajime received the instructions for his and Nagito Komaeda’s club project midway through math class. The guy in front of him — who he’d known the whole year, mind you, and was definitely just some guy who liked comic books and was often a little late to class — turned around in his seat and stage-whispered, “Hey, Hinata, you wouldn’t happen to know the answer to question thirteen, would you?”
“There is no question thirteen,” Hajime answered. “The worksheet only goes to ten —” and then he actually looked up, to raise his eyebrows at his classmate and/or see if they had different worksheets for some reason. And well. Hm. Wouldn’t you know it, this wasn’t his classmate at all. This was very obviously Kokichi Oma from the Main Course in a wig. The Ultimate Supreme Leader was wearing a Reserve Course uniform with the tie knotted all sloppily, and he grinned like the damn Cheshire Cat as he handed over a big envelope with the words “This is not your School Unity Club project assignment!” scribbled on it.
“Oh! Nice eye,” Kokichi grinned. “Aren’t you a smart one.”
“I don’t want to work with Nagito Komaeda,” Hajime hissed. “And Kokichi, this isn’t your class.”
“Are you sure I’m not enrolled in the Reserve Course, too?”
“Ugh. Yes? And you’re two years behind me.”
Kokichi scratched at his forehead. Hajime thought maybe he was taunting him, intentionally fiddling with his wig so that a little of his flippy purple hair snuck out. “Nagito’s stubborn, isn’t he? Kind of like you.”
“We’re nothing alike,” Hajime said, but even as he spat those words he knew they weren’t completely true. Honestly, Hajime felt sick with guilt for getting his family to pay this ridiculous Hope’s Peak Reserve Course tuition — he’d tried to change his own mind, convincing himself it didn’t matter whether the world called him Special. The Ultimate Students were just people, he told himself. So what if nobody thought he was good enough to be one of them? He could still live a happy, normal life… he could still pour attention into the hobbies he loved, and spend time with the people he cared about, and maybe it was kind of a pain to have your face on convenience store magazines anyway.
Hajime told himself stuff like that over and over again, but it wasn’t like it stuck, you know? It didn’t change the tide of his thoughts. It felt like the minute he painted a nice, encouraging picture of an alternative to Hope’s Peak Academy for himself, it got washed away. Staring into Nagito’s serene, self-righteously knowing eyes had felt a little like that, too. Hajime got the feeling that he could talk to him and talk to him, but it was almost impossible to change this guy’s mind until he changed it himself.
It was infuriating, wasn’t it, talking to people like that?
“If you want to prove you’re really different than Nagito — you’re really not super-stubborn and impossible to reach — you can always just do the project,” the Ultimate Supreme Leader grinned. “Up to you. I told him to meet you by those big fountains after school, and I think he’s actually gonna do it. He asked what your first name was, too… I told him it was ‘Daisuke.’”
“But it isn’t.”
“Oops, my bad. So tell him yourself.”
Hajime read the crayon-drawing assignment sheets waiting for him in that envelope during a break, sitting slumped over at a table with a bunch of students he didn’t really know. Apparently, Kokichi and the Ultimate Gamer wanted Hajime and Nagito to make a short documentary film showing everybody what life was like in the Hope’s Peak Reserve Course. They were supposed to interview students and get some funny stories; they were supposed to go over some of the things people were studying, and rate whether the desks were comfy. Just… get a portrait of the Reserve Course as people, basically, the instructions said. And be sure to let the Ultimate Supreme Leader know if anyone seemed open to helping with this prank he had in the works. Get them to sign a short, totally-harmless liability form. It’ll be fun.
Hajime crumpled the envelope and all its assignment sheets up, one by one, preparing to toss them away with the rest of his trash. But then he unfolded them, running a hand through his sticky-uppy hair.
You know what?
Why not.
Maybe it would do Nagito Komaeda some good, to get to know the people he was insulting. To see the school from a different point of view. Maybe it would be satisfying to see him feel like a jerk, fumbling around, trying oh-so-messily to explain himself to anybody a little less forgiving than Hajime. Anyway, it was sort of annoying the guy thought his name was something random Kokichi Oma had pulled out of a hat, too.
So Hajime went to meet Nagito by the fountains. For a moment, before they actually started working on the project, it had felt sort of right. Nagito had stood up from where he’d been bent over some homework; he’d smoothed down his vest, and smiled awkwardly, self-consciously. Hopefully. It had looked like maybe he would apologize. Maybe he’d thought over what he said, and Hajime didn’t need to spend any time convincing him he was an asshole. In that case, maybe Nagito was the kind of willowy handsome that Hajime liked in drama actors, if you got past the funny way he held himself. In that case, maybe his voice was sort of soft and lyrical, and if they were talking about something else… almost anything else… Hajime wouldn’t really mind listening to him.
But then, uh. Hajime got close enough for Nagito to wave, and call, “Do you understand what I meant, now, then? It’s nice to meet you properly, Daisuke!” And it only went downhill from there.
It didn’t help that the minute Hajime handed Nagito the school-owned camera Kokichi had finagled for them to use, it got carried out of his hands by an actual hawk. What the hell? “Ultimate Luck,” Nagito clarified, but what did that even mean? So then they were gonna record the thing on Hajime’s phone, except that they couldn’t decide where to start. Who to talk to. They got into a half-shouting match in front of a few of Hajime’s friendlier classmates, who excused themselves as quickly as possible. They tried to film the gymnasium, but it was closed for emergency fumigation and they ended up gagging, hunched over outside the doors for about five minutes. They tried to film in the dorms, but Hajime’s entrance pass cracked in two when they attempted to use it. Those were expensive! Augh! Why was Nagito laughing?!
Whatever Hajime tried to do, it felt like Nagito came sliding over to step on his toes. They were getting nowhere. This project was getting nowhere. They had to delete the one decent interview they managed to get because Hajime himself accidentally had his thumb over the camera. He had literally no idea how he could’ve missed something like that.
“Ultimate Luck,” Nagito said, again, for about the millionth time that evening. “See? It’s really not always much of a talent!”
That was the last straw. Hajime was done. Nagito was still obsessed with this concept of “talent”; Nagito was the last person who should be making a video trying to show what life was really like for Reserve Course students. The Ultimate Supreme Leader was probably just messing with them, just being a little shit like people said he tended to be. School Unity? What could Nagito Komaeda do to work towards School Unity? He was probably the sort of person who would want to trap a lizard that thought it was a dragon, just to show the poor little guy how small he really was. Hajime didn’t have time for this.
And so he told Nagito as much, and he gathered up his things. He deleted all the footage they’d recorded for their project, and went back home. That could’ve been the end of it. If Kokichi turned up in any of his classes again, Hajime would just tune him out. If the Ultimate Gamer asked him why he didn’t come around anymore, yeah, okay, he’d apologize, but that was it.
Hajime didn’t hear anything from the School Unity Club for about a month. “Good riddance,” he thought. He imagined himself slamming a book closed. And then possibly kicking said book under the bed, or something.
When he got a text from Kokichi Oma — wait, how had the Ultimate Supreme Leader gotten his phone number?! — Hajime almost didn’t open it. But morbid curiosity won out in the end, as it so often did. Morbid curiosity, and that claustrophobic, helplessly-stricken pull to the Ultimate Students Hajime still felt, even now. He had wanted to be valuable, to be seen; he had wanted to be a revelation. Every breath he took on this earth could have been game-changing, if only he’d been born someone else.
“Nice work on your video,” Kokichi said. “Turned out really insightful. I think it’ll help the Reserve Course students feel seen, too.”
Alright. Hold on.
What?
***
2. The Light
When Nagito Komaeda asked the Ultimate Supreme Leader whether it had been difficult, convincing Hajime to come watch his documentary about the Hope’s Peak Academy Reserve Course together, Kokichi said, “You just better not mess this up, kid,” with a big, sloppy wink. Nevermind that he really hadn’t answered the question, actually, when Nagito thought back on it – nevermind that Kokichi was… again… younger than him. Maybe it meant Hajime had struggled against the idea of ever actually talking to Nagito again, and Kokichi’d had to bribe him with glittery promises like, “If you give the video a chance, I’ll delete your phone number from my contacts list!” Or maybe it meant Nagito should feel lucky – lucky in a good way, mind you – because Hajime hadn’t needed a lot of nagging at all. Maybe Mr. Pointy-Hair was genuinely curious. Maybe he’d be willing to forgive how badly things had gone, and try, Nagito didn’t know, “hanging out” again, sometime.
“Why did you lie about Hajime’s name, to me?” Nagito asked. “I looked… inconsiderate.”
“Who knows?” Kokichi said. “I do stuff like that, you know.”
It would’ve been way too easy, if Kokichi Oma had been willing to answer a simple question for once. But all the same, Nagito ended up sitting alone in a dark, lonely classroom after club activities were over for the night; all the same, Nagito had finished up the Reserve Course documentary film on his own. He’d purchased four separate video cameras, and lost them all to his ruthless luck. He’d interviewed people from Hajime’s classes, asking the questions Hajime had scrawled out on the back of Kokichi’s crumpled-up assignment envelope that time they tried working together. “What brought you to the Reserve Course?” “What’s your most precious goal, and how do you hope the Reserve Course will help you get there?” “Do you like going to school here?” “What do you think Hope’s Peak could do differently, to show that it values all its students?” Some of the answers he’d gotten were genuinely shocking – one of them made him cry, actually, and try to shake the girl’s hand afterwards. (She took his hand, yes, but then asked why there was so much mud on it. Oh, crap. Nagito’d forgotten that happened… he’d been swallowed up by a surprise swamp on the way across campus that day.) All of the answers were… human? Maybe sometimes it was easy to get so wrapped up in this business of hope and despair, talent and luck, that Nagito forgot how learning a person’s abilities just barely scraped the surface of what it would be like getting to know them. He didn’t talk much at all, giving his interviews – aside from asking questions, of course. He laughed at jokes, sometimes, but he tried to laugh quietly, without wobbling the camera too much.
Nagito had expected the interviews would enrage him – would make him think these people were ungrateful, were building themselves homemade trophies to take away from the Ultimate Talents the Main Course actually earned. And sometimes, yeah, sometimes he did want to argue back. Put them in their places, back in the dirt with him; click off the flashlight that thought it was the sun. But he listened, for a while, anyway. Maybe it was because Hajime would’ve wanted him to, at first – maybe it was because Hajime might have said he couldn’t do it. But in the end, Nagito found himself with a lot of footage of people telling him their truths, and so many of those stories tasted familiar. That longing, that hurt, that want, that hunger. It had been written all over Hajime’s face when they first met, but Nagito’d never asked his story, had he?
Ah, well. Nagito had tried making the documentary into something Hajime wouldn’t hate, you know? He’d gone to one of the Reserve Course’s basketball games and recorded the crowds cheering, recorded the players’ teamwork and struggle. None of the players were the Ultimate Basketball Star or anything, but it still mattered when they won, didn’t it? Maybe not as much, existentially, or for the hope of the world as Nagito understood it, but – but it could still be emotional watching them come together and ruffle each other’s hair, afterwards, reminiscing about the game. Nagito had attempted to go to a Reserve Course swimming team competition too, but of course the pool flooded the second he stepped in the building… and like, really flooded, in that most of the bleachers were still underwater and they hadn’t been able to drain the dressing rooms, yet. Some sort of weird, constant flow in from ocean?! Nagito wasn’t sure on the specifics. Point being, he’d stopped attending sports events for a while, but he had asked Chiaki to record the Reserve Course’s musical production of Les Misérables so he could splice some of it into the documentary.
Nagito didn’t ask specific questions about Hajime Hinata while conducting his interviews, but he’d heard some stuff about him all the same. He was a good classmate, people said – a hard worker, soft-spoken, but he didn’t just sit back and take kindly to bullies. He was smart, but his handwriting was terrible, and he and Nagito seemed to like the same type of video games. Hajime’s classmates mentioned him in passing, see, discussing him among themselves… or they said, “Oh, no, Nagito’s probably okay. He was with Hajime a couple days ago, remember? Hey, Nagito, are you two friends?”
Um.
In that moment, Nagito had wanted very badly to say yes, yes they were friends. He would’ve been proud to have Hajime like him, as a person, the way Chiaki seemed to. But he just sort of smiled and shook his head. “We were working on a project together,” he offered. “School Unity Club.” It was probably fair to leave it at that, right?
But now the documentary was finished, and Hajime had been persuaded… somehow… to come to some empty classroom after School Unity Club let out and watch it at Nagito’s side. Nagito hadn’t really felt like he should be going to School Unity Club meetings lately: it was surreal to be back here again, inviting Hajime into the ruins of a game tournament. There was a scribbly, multi-color scoreboard, and bits of the floor were duct-taped off into what looked like a beanbag chair/slime vat obstacle course. The janitors at Hope’s Peak must have hated Kokichi Oma. Or who knows, really? Maybe he was planning to slink back in and clean all this up himself, after Nagito and Hajime finished with their video. Nagito showed Hajime over to some chairs he’d set up in front of his cracked-apart personal laptop. He pulled out Hajime’s chair a little bit, like they were someplace fancy, and Hajime scoffed. He sat down, though. And then he gestured to Nagito’s chair, like, “Well?”
They watched the documentary in silence. Sometimes Hajime shifted, or scratched at his neck. Sometimes he gasped, or shot Nagito careful, considering eyes. Nagito… for his part… tried his best to keep his expression neutral, the same as he’d done at that first School Unity Club meeting. The last interview was with himself, after all, and he thought he’d made his own points pretty clear. He didn’t understand what the Reserve Course meant, in connection to the Main Course here at Hope’s Peak Academy… on one hand he still thought it defied the point of the whole place, but on the other it was a class full of creativity and excitement and hope for the future, too. He’d learned a lot from the Reserve Course students, and it had been fun spending time with them. The interview questions had been written by Hajime Hinata, but they’d honestly become Nagito’s questions too, by the end. He thanked the viewer for watching, and the interviewees for talking to him, and the swimming team for their forgiveness when he tried to explain that it was his weird luck that ruined their tournament.
It wasn’t perfect. Nagito stumbled over his words, sometimes, and he contradicted himself, and he went on a short monologue about how it was possible hope came in innumerable different forms. He hinted at one of his most embarrassing thoughts, too – that maybe… just maybe, possibly, against all odds… it might’ve been more merciful to have a world without the worship of talent, a world where all people could just live as themselves and know that was enough. He had almost edited that part out. In another life, he probably wouldn’t have wanted anyone in the world to hear it. It flew in the face of everything he was supposed to honor, after all. It was skeptical of the very concept of the Ultimate Talents themselves.
Nagito might not have been able to explain exactly why he kept that part of his own interview in the documentary. Maybe he wanted Hajime to get him, if they ever spoke again. Maybe so many strangers had been utterly, vulnerably honest with him, he felt like it was sort of his turn. Either way, he winced, taking in the frustrated surrender on his own recorded face. He kept his arms folded over his chest and gritted his teeth. Hajime was watching him imagine a world where all that mattered was the light, whether it came from a flashlight or the sun. For all Nagito knew, he sounded ridiculous.
“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be,” Hajime said, slowly, after the credits rolled – Chiaki was thanked for most things Nagito hadn’t attributed to either himself or the conspicuously-absent Hajime Hinata. “Thanks, Nagito. You… are you going to the next club meeting?”
“What? Am I…?”
“I mean the School Unity Club. If you go to the next meeting, I’ll come too.”
Nagito swallowed, fidgeting. He brushed a little messy white hair behind his ear. “Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.” He decided to push his luck, just a little, then, seeing Hajime smile: he decided to try and make this raw, beautiful person that hated him laugh. “Maybe Kokichi’ll stop pestering me if I finally participate.”
Hajime snorted. He relaxed, just the littlest bit, and Nagito felt his insides twist. That was an unfamiliar feeling.
“Probably not,” Hajime said.
“No… probably not.”
That couldn’t have been part of the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s secret conniving plan, though, right? To get them to bond over mutual frustration… to pester them both until they started commiserating about it…
Right?
But then, maybe Nagito shouldn’t put it past him. Kokichi’d earned his Ultimate Student-status somehow. Maybe he and Chiaki hadn’t been completely wrong about a School Unity Club, either.
Well, now… they’d just played right into the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s hands, hadn’t they?
That didn’t matter too much, somehow, when Hajime was taking Nagito out to arcades with his other friends, and on hikes in the forest, and to read quietly on a bench in the park. Sun on their skin, wind in their hair, ruffling the pages of their books just the littlest bit… or else grabbing Nagito’s book away and hurtling it out horrifyingly fast into oncoming traffic. Or maybe it was the first book Hajime got him as a gift that would get stolen by a randomly-appearing hawk, this time? At least now Hajime knew Nagito usually laughed that desperate, rattling sort of cackle when he was upset. Nervous. Panicking. At least now Hajime would rub his back, a little, and tell him they were fine. Hey, hey. Nagito, look at me. Your luck isn’t your fault. Just breathe.
Breathe.
No, falling for the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s machinations barely mattered at all, this time.
2 ½. So Glad I was Wrong About You
The first time Hajime Hinata kissed Nagito Komaeda, he hadn’t been expecting to do it, himself, if you’d asked him just five minutes before. They were doing homework together, and the year was almost over – Nagito had asked Hajime to come to the Main Course Graduation Ball with him, as friends, of course, and high school was winding down to an end for both of them. Hajime had just worked weekend shifts at a thrift store to buy himself a set of four-leaf clover cufflinks to wear with his suit, small and gold and hopefully not the sort of thing Nagito would think was tacky. They were… Hajime hadn’t known what they were, exactly, until he found himself watching the way Nagito talked with his hands, staring off into the distance, swept away in what they were discussing. He remembered something their mutual friend Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer, had said a few weeks before:
“I don’t think Nagito’s gonna ask you to go to the ball as his date-date. But if he does, be nice.”
Hajime hadn’t pressed Chiaki on that, for some reason. He’d been a little distracted by how she was completely annihilating him in the game they were playing. Why hadn’t he… dammit, why hadn’t he really heard her, then? If Nagito asked him out, like… as a boyfriend… Hajime was supposed to treat him gently. Maybe Chiaki thought Hajime would’ve wanted to say no, to an invitation like that? It was hard to say. Her expression had been all dusty lavender, vague and soft, watching her character defeat Hajime’s so, so mercilessly. The game had been reflected in her eyes, neon and flickering and fast.
But maybe… maybe what Chiaki said had meant more than just some run-of-the-mill politeness advice. It could have meant Nagito’d told Chiaki he was interested in taking Hajime as his date-date, but had backed away squirming from the idea because he was still getting over the concept that he was somehow fundamentally broken. Maybe he didn’t realize Hajime had bought those four-leaf clover cufflinks like a promise, because he didn’t want this Graduation Ball to be the last chance he got to wear them. To be fair, Hajime had only just realized that, himself. Who else was he gonna wear four-leaf clovers for, if not the Ultimate Lucky Student? He’d gotten to know Nagito’s luck extremely well, over the last year together; he knew which scars he tended to keep hidden, because he hated explaining their backstories, and he had watched Nagito’s closing monologue from that Reserve Course documentary over and over in the dead of night. Trying to understand it. Trying to understand this impossible, contrary guy who had just helped him edit his last Japanese Literature essay of the semester.
Hajime had kept telling himself he was done with Nagito Komaeda – for weeks, he’d told himself that. It felt like such a waste, now. They were both growing beyond Hope’s Peak Academy, in their ways, even though obviously there had been a time when Hajime would’ve told you that was impossible. He hadn’t thought he could imagine himself a meaningful future without some link to Ultimate Talent, without this school, whatever exactly it was, but the possibilities had started painting themselves to life without him really noticing it. The change crept in so sweetly, somewhere between the Ultimate Supreme Leader dragging the whole School Unity Club into participating in the next academy-wide musical and that time they’d all gotten lost in the mountains and Hajime found himself spreading his coat out over Nagito while he slept. Living had changed things, brought meaning where none had been assigned by fancy academy board members. When Hajime learned about the Izuru Kamukura Project – a study that had apparently endowed some random Reserve Course student with all the Ultimate Talents under the sun – he was jealous, yeah, but not the way he felt he should have been.
Hajime leaned across the desk and took Nagito’s face in his hands; he kissed him fast and hard, before he could change his mind. Kissed him like he’d yelled his actual first name in his face. Kissed him like truth, and the revelation he’d always thought maybe he could be, if only, if only, if only. He felt Nagito tense and then soften; he felt Nagito try to speak, and then close his eyes, pale lashes brushing against his skin. Hajime ran his hand down Nagito’s neck, and tangled it just a little in his unbrushed hair. Nagito made a wondering, helpless sound, and Hajime held him closer. Pulled back. Kissed his forehead.
“I’m sorry,” Nagito said. Hajime didn’t think he knew what for. Maybe he was still sorry for saying he didn’t think Hajime had any reason to come to this school and that whole tangled-up, confusing introduction they’d had; maybe he was just worried he’d turned out to be a disappointing kisser. Somewhere out in the hallway, Kokichi Oma was laughing, calling, “You’ll never take me alive!” to someone chasing him with a mysteriously bedazzled mop. Somewhere out in the hallway, Izuru Kamukura – Reserve Course student-turned living god – was staring out at the world and realizing it was all immeasurably, heartbreakingly boring, when all the talent possible was limp in his hands.
“Why?” Hajime asked.
“Um,” Nagito said. There were so many words churning inside him, but he was holding Hajime’s hand really tightly, now. He cleared his throat. “I mean, we can try that again, if you want. If I did it wrong.”
Hajime and Nagito were both strong believers in second chances, by that point. They went to the Main Course Graduation Ball with Nagito holding Hajime’s hand just as tight, and no, that absolutely wasn’t the last chance Hajime had to wear those four-leaf clover cufflinks.
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The problem I realized with Adrien Agreste (and many of the other miraculous characters)
Ok, let me just put a disclaimer here.
I love all the characters in miraculous Ladybug, I really do. I mean, aside from Lila and Gabriel, but really who doesn’t? I think all the characters are cool from both design and initial character standpoints and made you wish we see more of them.
But just like most of my other posts, I see both good and bad in the show and acknowledge all of it. I like the concepts, but I don’t have to necessarily like all the executions of said concepts.
I’ve been holding off this post for a while due to me wanting to take some time to review the show first and see if there was anything that would have made me change my mind on my newfound stance. But surprisingly, there really wasn’t.
So let me get to the point
Adrien Agreste...Is one of the blandest characters I have ever seen in a show
As with most to all the other characters in the show as well.
(Cue sounds of betrayal)
“But Arlakos!” you might say, “Why would you think this way? You love Adrien! He has a great personality!”
Yeah, I love him. I love his initial character and I think he as Chat Noir is just amazing. But having watched three seasons of a single show, as well as comparing Miraculous to ANOTHER similar show, I have to address this issue and how it affects all the characters.
So first, let's talk about the show
Spanning three seasons, Miraculous Ladybug, as of this moment has released 78 episodes of this show (also including the Christmas special). In comparison, the show I'm using has released 87 episodes, so I feel that after this long, its fair to now compare the two shows, even with the 9 episode difference.
After watching Miraculous Ladybug for so long, I realized by this point that a lot of episodes in the series are pretty much flash and no substance, along with some ship teasing. I would call it filler, but that's under the implication that there was any plot they were following, to begin with. With each of the episodes bottled into one standalone story, most of the episodes have no impact to each other aside from a few rare few. Season 1 was chock full of this, but it was ok for the time being as Season 1 was used to introduce most of the characters in the show and the world itself. But that has also been the basis for the other two seasons as well, especially those that promised to expand the story of the show.
But it didn’t. Each of the episodes would occur, their story would end, and any important lessons the characters would learn would be forgotten by the end. The episode and its story would never be brought up again, aside from the Akuma if the person in question was to be re-akumatized again. Maybe it would be brought up in passing, such as Kim and Ondine’s relationship, but truth be told, none of the episodes mattered to the lore or plot of the show. You could feasibly cut out most of the episodes, aside from episodes introducing a new hero, the finales and the first episode of each new season and the show would still work plot-wise.
Because of this format of the show, the characters have undoubtedly suffered a lot development-wise, due to character resets cause of the nature of standalone episodes, most characters not being utilized in most episodes unless its for setting up an akuma, and the overall Marinette focused nature of the show not allowing any other characters to have focus.
And nobody has really suffered more, that the Big Cat himself, Adrien Agreste.
But why though?
To understand this, let's go over his initial character traits
He’s Kind
He’s willing to see the good in people
He’s Lonely and has no friends
He’s a model
He loves Ladybug.
He makes puns (as Chat Noir)
He’s flirty with Ladybug (as Chat Noir)
As you can see, most to all of these character traits are pretty much all the traits Adrien has shown in season 1. Actually, all of these traits were shown in just the Origins itself which, being the first chronological show in the series, does a pretty good job of setting up Adrien's initial character.
(Also just a quick mid note here, I just realized why the show produced this episode last compared to the others. If this was the episode that came out first, most to all of the other episodes in comparison would just be seen as boring. With the origins being both action-packed and plot rich with its main cast, most of the other episodes would be seen as filler if they came out after this banger of a season finale.)
But going on the topic of later seasons, ask yourself:
What have you learned about Adrien's Character in season 2 and 3?
And when I say character, i mean actual stuff about him. What other stuff does he like? What does he want to do in the future? What does he do when he spends time with Nino? What does he think of other people (aside from Lila)?
Chances are, that unless the stuff you’re pulling at might be from a headcanon in whatever fanfic you are writing, most of you will answer nothing. I mean, sure some people may say that he’s likes games as made evident from Gamer, but that is probably the only moment where we see a bit more of Adrien's character, and again we are talking about season 1, so it doesn't really count
Some people may say that Gorizilla was an episode that explored Adrien's character. While I do agree that it was more Adrien focused than others, and easily one of the best episodes in the show, looking back on the episode, I realized that more or less all it does is show how Adrien is pretty much a Disney Princess more helpless than Snow White. He’s trapped in the house, unable to escape, waiting for a hero in spots to ‘save him’ from his loneliness. Also, it had some Adrienette in it, but again it was just teasing.
(Note: I just gotta say though that Wayhem’s character and growth were just the best. Being just another fanboy at first, he realized his mistake and even stood up to an Akuma to save Adrien, then apologized at the end even though he would pretty much get no reward for his action, becoming an actual character in the process rather than just a background one. The fact that Adrien became friends with Wayhem was just heartwarming for a background character. Despite Roi Singe being a blast, I’m really sorry that they restricted Wayhems character to just being another Akuma in Party Crasher, it would have been nice for Wayhem to be an actual Friend Adrien could talk to outside of school and add more development into the show.)
So back on the Topic of Adrien, we haven’t really learned much about Adrien's character or see him develop in any meaningful way. The only thing we ever see him really do outside of being part of the Squad (Alya, Nino, Adrien, Marinette) is just either pine for Ladybug in his spare time, or complaining about not being able to spend time with his dad. No seriously, look at most episodes where Adrien's at home and that's all he does!
But now for the topic of Chat Noir. I mean, Adrien is trapped as a normal boy, so it would make sense that Chat Noir would be able to develop as a character and show the world he is more than just a sidekick right?
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Unfortunately, Chat Noir, just like his civilian counterpart, also suffers from a lack of any meaningful character growth. Shorts vids on youtube aside (which btw should never be used to develop the main characters, otherwise what is the point of the show), we never see him talk to Ladybug in any meaningful way (I mean he does try, but chances are Ladybug shuts him up because (a) she wants to leave and (b) blah blah secret identity)
Basically, he has three different moods.
He flirts with Ladybug, often using puns to do so.
He’s a suicidal mofo who takes hits for Ladybug, saying its because she's the only one who can save the day (Hot take though, I just think Chat Noir is just the persona of Tumblr that wants to die)
He worships Ladybug and thinks shes amazing, complimenting her on the daily, as well as comforting her and giving her pep talks when shes low.
Other than that, he’s written as basically useless. Don’t expect him to come up with any plans and if he does, expect them to fail (Reflekdoll). Don't expect him to actually help Ladybug and for Ladybug to always say him. If Ladybug is in any way made useless or incapacitated, be sure that Chat will in no way be able to help Ladybug as he will be made to be more useless than Ladybug so that Ladybug has to take care of him (Reverser). Also Chat will flirt at the worst times to show Ladybug is better and more ‘professional’ at being a hero (Prime Queen)
Also Chat Missile
WARNING: Not suitable for anyone under 13 years old. Only use if your a superhero with increased Strength, otherwise it may hurt your back.
These are all the same traits we see in every episode, without change without fail. I mean, in Glacitator Chat promised to stop flirting with Ladybug because she likes another boy, but since characters reset after every episode he went back to flirting the next episode. So yeah, that's it. Next episode
Aside from that, we never see him do anything else, nor have anything as a hero impact him in any way. The only times I have ever seen him be impacted as a hero was
Syren, where he was tired his partner kept hiding secrets from him (as HE SHOULD), and was about to quit, but reconsidered once Fu arrived and explained some stuff, which bascially set him back to normal, which i guess its fine, but i wish the episode had more of an impact on Chat’s character.
Frozer (where Astruc was making Adrien salt cause Luka)
The Ladybug episode, where he saw a living, thinking duplicate of Ladybug, who had just become free from Mayura and became a hero, killed by said villain, and was just about to have a heroic breakdown and attack Mayura. However, this one was cut off due to Hawkmoth, resulting in Chat going from Heroic breakdown to making puns about Hawkmoths age. Really?
However, despite all that I have said, some of you may still think I am wrong. You may think that Adrien does show more character and that I'm just pulling facts out of my ass. You may think he does show character because of that one ship tease moment that you think qualifies at plot development.
But some of you may also think, why does this even matter? Its called Miraculous Ladybug, the show is about Marinette and Ladybug. Its all about her. Who cares about the other characters? Who cares about Adrien? He doesn’t need character development, we need to focus on Marinette and her making Adrien's birthday gifts for his next 35 birthdays. We should all just stop worrying about Adrien's character. All he should be is just a kind pretty boy for Marinette to idolize and have as a prize at the finale, and for Chat Noir to be useless comic relief while Ladybug saves the day, because she is juuuust that amaziiiiing.
Well first of all
It’s called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Miraculous Ladybug is just a nickname used by fans and writers to simplify the name. The name implies that there is another main character, known as... Chat Noir. It's not called tales of Ladybug and Marinette, get with the program.
The show can still focus on one main character but still develop other characters as well. If anyone thinks otherwise, they either have a character bias or don't realize how to make a good show.
If anyone actually thinks this way, well then screw you. Developing a character should not be made at the expense of another character. Chat Noir should not have to be made to be comic relief just because Ladybug is the only one who can purify Akumas.
Secondly (yes I realized that I used 3 points but IDC) there’s another show that is very similar to Ladybug that also focuses on a school girl saving the world with the help of her sidekick male character.
That’s right, I’m talking about ... KIM POSSIBLE!
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But to be more precise, I’m talking about its secondary hero... Ron Stoppable.
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This guy right here, just in case any of you thought I was talking about the kung fu naked mole-rat.
But in all seriousness though, let's talk about him.
In the series, Ron Stoppable is the partner of the teenage heroine Kim Possible. Just like Chat Noir, he helps KP on her missions, and unlike Chat, is actually seen as a sidekick by the world, including KP.
Then why is it that I think he’s a better Character than Chat?
Well, the thing is unlike Miraculous, the show has a good job of integrating its school and hero stories together, and it helped to explore Ron’s character as well. Sure, he was a clumsy dude who got scared a lot and had an unhealthy obsession with Mexican fast food, but we still got to explore his character.
Just a few small examples:
Most episodes in KP had the fine job of adding stuff to Ron’s Character. Small stuff, but it fleshed him out over time He shows in one episode that despite being clumsy in the hero business, he can cook pretty well! In another episode, he learns he is pretty good at running and becomes a back runner for the football team at his school.
He also gets to have a few episodes where he and his buddy Rufus (the naked mole rat) get to shine despite being a secondary character. He becomes the second incarnation of the fearless ferret (an in show super hero), visits Japan where he gets to learn some monkey Kung Fu, and often times fights villains himself, though this is usually in one of the situations where he gets a one time power up or Kim Possible is not available, but it still showed that Ron could be a hero as well. Hell in the finale, he actually helped Kim Possible as a partner rather than a sidekick.
Now I get that Miraculous and KP are two radically different shows. Secret Identities aside, Kim Possible has a large variety of villains, while Miraculous only has the One big villain, so it's very difficult to have Chat be able to stand on his own two feet while the only thing they are fighting is something only Ladybug can fix.
But in that regard, this also shows the importance of Miraculous needing more plot progressed the story. Unlike Kim Possible, who’s many villains and overall lack of an ‘ending villain’ can allow for one-off episodes involving Ron and some villains, Miraculous only has the one. Once Hawkmoth is defeated, the show technically ends (future version not counting), so It would make sense that the characters should develop over time as the show gets closer to that finale.
So in that Regard, what could I do to make Chat Noir more fleshed out?
Honestly, you could add in some moments in the show where Chat noir interacts with Paris. Like maybe in one episode Chat rescues lost cats and takes them to the shelter, or perhaps he works at a cat shelter in his spare hero time.
Perhaps have an episode or two where Chat saves the day on his own while Ladybug is busy or oblivious to the trouble in Paris. Regarding Akuma, I have often considered Chat should have an ‘ability’ similar to Ladybugs that allows him to ‘purify’ the Akuma by disrupting the magic inside the Akuma (the ability being called Disruption), but can’t use it too often without proper training due to the dark energies in the Akuma being too harmful to Chat to use often. That way Chat can occasionally take on a few Akuma by himself.
Have a few episodes where something happens which allows the audience to learn what Adrien/Chat likes. Maybe there’s an episode where he learns to cook desserts, and finds out he’s actually pretty good at it!
I feel the need to add some ideas in because in the end I still love Chat Noir and consider him my favorite character. But I also have to acknowledge this problem because it ruins the quality of the show.
In fact, I think that Adrien's problem isn’t just limited to him, but also to every other character in the show, and even Marinette to an extent.
Going back to the show and looking at all the side characters, it's obvious that looking at them, a lot of them are very one dimensional in their character. We don't learn much about them or their personality, and even when we do, we only learn about them when it's their turn to be akumatized, or if the akumatized person is related to them in some way like in Markov. Once they usually are done, we don't get to see the characters much, unless there is a second akumatization.
Juleka only became important when she got akumatized twice and aside from that, we don't get to see her much or learn about her. Ivan and Mylene were basically forgotten after they became akumatized. Pretty much no one is affected post akumatization with any sort of trauma or worry, so nothing about the characters actually changes as a result of events in the show.
Even those that do become heroes don’t really get any character growth, they are just considered to be worthy to be heroes because they are good people, but considering the qualifications of good in the show are determined by if you like Marinette, that means pretty much everyone in Marinette’s class could be a hero, aside from Chloe because HEY! SHE DOESN’T LIKE MARINETTE THEREFORE SHE’S VILLAIN!
(God I hate Miracle Queen)
Also, these problems pretty much apply to Marinette as well.
I mean, all the things she does in the show basically comes back to the same simple fact that ‘Marinette is kind and helpful’. That's it.
She helps Jagged getting some glasses, its because she is kind and helpful. Helping her classmates? Kind and Helpful? Helping Kitty Section with Costumes? Kind and Helpful? Helping Adrien? She wants to get into his pants.
(Also because she’s kind and helpful.)
Like, this isn’t bad, but nothing seems to change about her, she goes and helps people as Marinette, helps people as Ladybug, and despite this, is unaffected by the school or her life. What is she going to do post Lycee? How is she going to become a fashion designer? Work as an intern at a fashion company. Work at Gabriel Agreste’s company? Startup her own local business? The show refuses to acknowledge any of these things, despite her being a schoolgirl, because she has more important things to worry about than school. Such as being a Guardian for a box magically bound to her that will take away her memories if she tries to get rid of it.
(God Miracle Queen was a mistake, she didn’t even learn how to be a Guardian yet! )
To close things up, most of the characters in the show lack any meaningful character development, which i can safely say is due to the structure of single-story episodes in a show that has a defined ending (and therefore doesn't work) lack of care for writing these amazing characters, and just the writing in general.
Despite what some people may say about Astruc, it's clear that beyond all that, he’s not good at writing stories and characters beyond initial design, he’d rather go making one-dimensional characters and show off how amazing Marinette is, rather than allowing them to develop in any logical and meaningful way that shows the distinction between earlier and later seasons
Here’s to hoping these characters get some character development in season 4. Even if all we get is Plagg learning he likes milk.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. As always, thanks to the amazing @twin-books for talking to me and helping to refine my views on the characters and the show!
#Miraculous Ladybug#Miraculous Ladybug salt#ML salt#Miraculous Ladybug critique#Miraculous writers salt#Adrien salt#Though not for Adrien himself but its lack of character growth#Marinette salt#Miraculous class salt#Salt of every character for its lack of character growth#Astruc salt#Long Post#REALLY LONG POST
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Second kid
Part two of my Found Family Overwatch self-insert story, staring me and my squad. This time how I wound up adopting my lovely daughter @bopin-lucio-beets
In which I go back to work
“Well hello, little one~” Zenyatta happily cooed as a now one-year old Ari crawled her way onto his lap.
I glanced up from adjusting Genji’s arm just to be sure she was safe. Yes, I trusted Zenyatta, but it was a nervous habit I’d picked up. Ari was constantly getting into things she shouldn’t, and she’d pulled more than a few cables while being handled by Omnics.
As to be expected, Zenyatta handled Ari perfect. He floated gently off the ground and pet her hair, softly cooing his hellos down to her. I felt myself let out a relaxed sigh.
“Are you ready for this?” Genji’s question snapped my attention back to him.
“Huh?” Was all I could muster, he took his half repaired arm from my hold and flicked my forehead.
“Traveling with me to Japan, more specifically leaving Ari. You’ve been stressed about it all day.” He was... correct. Genji could, unfortunately, read me like a book.
“It’ll be fine.” I said, more for my own comfort than his, “The monks are all very caring, and Cross will be back from Con in a few days. I just hope she doesn’t say her first words while I’m gone...” I drift back to looking at Ari, who was now babbling nonsense to Zenyatta, to listened and nodded as though she was speaking the Iris Gospel.
“Besides, you need me.” I snatched Genji’s arm back, huffing, “Who else is gonna fix you up after you kick your brother’s teeth in?” I smirked.
Genji rolled his eyes and leaned on the table, “We’re not going to fight... Well I’M not going to fight, just defend and speak to him. No attacking.”
“Uh-huh...” I say, unconvinced as I return to fiddling with Genji’s shuriken dispenser.
With one final baby bah noise from Ari, Zenyatta chuckled, “You are so wise, young one.” He lifted her up, placing the baby on the table, “You two should be going soon, the plane won’t wait forever.” The monk gently took Ari’s tiny hand in his own, waving it, “Say bye-bye to daddy, little one~ Bye-bye uncle Genji~”
Of course, all that came from Ari was a little wah, but it was enough to make my heart weep. I gently hugged the baby, kissing her head, “I’ll be home soon, okay? Be good for all your Uncles and Aunties, okay?”
Another babble and a little pat to my face was our send off.
In Hanamura, Genji and I set up in a hotel far enough away from Shimada castle as to avoid being noticed on the streets. Not that anyone would recognize either of us.
I’d already checked in with Zenyatta on how Ari is doing. He sent me a picture of her laying in the snow in her snowsuit. I missed her already.
“You need to stop.” Genji said, snatching my phone, “This should be like a vacation. Relax a little.” He tried, I just sunk into the bed.
“I can’t. I won’t. I will lay here and suffer.”
“I know a good arcade~” Genji leaned over my slunk form.
I glared up at him, with no intention of going.
The arcade was pretty cool, though. Four floors, a big poster of the rising gamer, Hana Song, all times of games. I kicked Genji’s ass at ski-ball, won a handful of Pachamari in a claw game, and admired Genji’s locked in high scores on almost every game.
It was the break I needed.
Kill a kid ran into my leg.
“Daddy!” He cried, clinging tightly onto my thigh, tears streaming down his face.
“W-Woh, h-hey...” I gently pat his head, “I-I’m sorry, I-I’m not...” I trailed off when the kid looked up, his bright blue eyes full of tears.
Genji stepped in quickly, lowering down to the blond child’s level. He asked the panicked kid something in Japanese. He just hugged my leg tighter.
I gently pet his hair and knelt down beside him, “Are you lost, honey?” I asked gently. The kid nodded. So he spoke English, that was good at least. “Okay. It’s okay. We’ll help you. I’m Emile, this is my friend, Genji, he’s a ninja. Cool, right?” I tried.
The child looked at Genji, gripping my shirt, “A... real Ninja...?” He asked, timidly.
Genji nodded, “Yeah! Look!” In excitement, Genji flicked his wrist, releasing three shurikens from his reload. The kid immediately stopped looking scared, and excitedly reached for the throwing stars.
I quickly stopped him, of course, “So, what’s your name?” I turned him back to face me as Genji hid away his shuriken.
“Jojo!” The boy smiled.
“Jojo. Good. And where did you last see your daddy, Jojo?”
“Outside. Some big guys in suits wanted to talk to him.”
Genji gained a look of concern and joined us back on the ground, “Big guys in suits...?”
Jojo nodded, “Yeah! Really big! Like giants!” He over exaggerated.
I looked to Genji, he rubbed his arm and glanced around the arcade for a moment before looking back to me. Despite his visor, I could tell he wanted us to get out of here.
“Okay then... Jojo, is it okay if I pick you up?” I asked. The little boy nodded, and I quickly scooped him from the floor, following Genji as we quickly exited the arcade.
Is this kidnapping? Probably, to some extent. He wasn’t our kid, and weren’t positive his father was assassinated by the Shimada clan, but as we rush walked down the streets of Hanamura, it became increasingly more obvious he probably was.
So. Back at the hotel with some random kid. Luckily, he’d fallen asleep on the walk back.
“Now what??” I whisper shouted at Genji as he paced a circle into the carpet.
“I don’t know! We can’t leave him here, or take him to the police. The clan has no morals, he’s a witness, they’ll take him out too!” Genji panic whisper shouted back, running his fingers though his hair.
I rubbed my temples and sank into a hotel chair, “We could figure out where he came from, take him home?” I suggested. Genji shook his head.
“The clan has resources outside of Japan, they’ll find him...”
“They’ll go though all that for a four year old who maybe saw his dad get kidnapped?” I tilted my head. Genji gave me a clearly panicked glance. I sighed and beckoned him over.
Genji sat on the floor infront of my chair, I tilted his head forward and opened his neck paneling, gently readjusting the wiring hidden inside. “Deep breaths. In the nose, out the mouth.” I told him.
The cyborg took a shaky breath in, then released it, relaxing a bit.
“We’ve got the kid. He’s safe, he’s blissfully unaware, and he’s sleeping. Right now, everything’s fine.”
Genji nodded, leaning back on my knees.
“You still want to go meet Hanzo tonight?”
He shook his head, closing his eyes and he sunk down onto the floor a bit.
“You gonna sleep right there?” I chuckled a bit. Genji nodded, smiling a bit. I chuckled at him, petting his hair, “Genji cat returns...” I joked.
The next morning, I found my luggage packed, and an excited little Jojo tied to Genji’s back.
I didn’t have much time to question anything before we were on a plane back to Nepal, our relaxing trip cut short.
I walked into my small, two bedroom home with Baby Ari in one arm, and a 4 year old excitedly clinging to the other.
“I’m back...” I said, half awake to what I assumed to be an empty home.
However, Cross was also home early. They poked their head from the kitchen, glanced down at the excited toddler, slowly looked to me with a look that read they hadn’t slept in three days.. and went back into the kitchen.
#Emile's Arts#Jojoa is adopted!!! Yay!!!#For the purpose of plot Jojoa's dad is a con-artist who used Jojoa in his cons#And eventually.. conned the wrong people and got himself killed#No where to go#Soon after this Ari probably says her first words#And it's either Jojo or something brother related#Or maybe she just says Cross while I'm trying to explain to Cross why I brought home another child#Who knows#Anyway there's one more child to be adopted after this one#Moss's story! Which might get a smidgen heavier?#Maybe. It'll also be when Zayne gets to step in as well#And Cross gets to do more than leave the scene exausted#That'll be tommorrow night maybe#Or later tonight if I can't play Overwatch
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Sentimonster Theory
My own thoughts on this theory brought up by the episode Ladybug. Spoilers ahead.
1. Validity Of The Idea.
First off, Ladybug introduces this idea of a sentient Sentimonster. Not something brought up before, albeit we’ve only seen a few Sentimonsters so far. We know very little about the Peacock Miraculous ourselves, but just what we’ve been shown and told. Such as we know it’s broken, though not necessarily how.
But Ladybug said her Sentimonster was her own being. Since the series is from her perspective and the Sentimonster agreed to act with her, we can take this as a truth to a certain extent. Which is honestly all sorts of messed up. In particular because we are introduced to this concept only a minute or two before this sentient girl is then erased from existence.
If this was a generally dark show with dark concepts in the vein of Rick and Morty, then maybe this could be a one off. But it’s NOT. This is a generally light hearted show that glossed over a girl just got grant freedom and then died and barely played with that idea. Really Ladybug should have been a two parter and that Amok should have been a hot potato so we could explore Sentibug’s mental state and ability to choose.
But wasted potential aside, a light hearted show does NOT bring up something that grim dark and NOT have a payoff. Which means one of two things.
There will be a sentient Amok arriving and they will be a thing for a while, possibly Felix, possibly someone else, and there will be some kind of witch hunt or stab in the heart.
Or there is already a Sentimonster present within the show and the pay off will be finding that out. No one makes a Chekov’s gun like that and not use it.
2. The Candidates.
Who could be a Sentimonster? Obviously only those close to the Agrestes. The Agrestes themselves, Nathalie, Gorilla being the obvious ones.
I’m disinclined to believe it’s Emilie because they say she disappeared. Not ‘gone’ which is what’s usually said when shows don’t want to say ‘dead,’ but disappear. Gone implies they know what happened. Disappear means they don’t. So I really think it’s her body in the basement. And the reason she’s in a coma is because she’s the one who made the Sentimonster.
Gorilla is the next one I find hard to believe if only because the Agreste’s are rich enough to just buy a man like that. He’s dedicated to his job, he’s a beast of a man, but he hasn’t done anything to warrant his worth in being put into a magic coma when money would do. And while a likeable guy on his own, we haven’t had enough focus on him to warrant the emotional payoff a sentient Sentimonster warrants. And personally, it puts a bad taste in my mouth making the mute person the secret inhuman being.
Gabriel certainly has the crazed focus that would be assumed of a Sentimonster. They are made with a purpose in mind, and if something unfortunate happened to the real Gabriel, then it makes sense Emilie would make him even at the cost of herself. But Gabriel would also be made by Emilie, and if she’s even half the saint Adrien paints her as, then it seems far more likely Emilie would be focused on him being back for her AND Adrien. Even if he struggled with the emotional, I doubt something like Riposte or Gorizilla would have happened with a Sentimonster Gabriel. Plus that would just be needlessly painful for Adrien because not only does he learn the man he thought was his father was the villain he’s been fighting for months, his dad is also probably dead. It’s like kicking a dog when he’s down.
Nathalie seems pretty likely if Emilie knew something was going to happen to her. Her job is to take care of Gabriel and Adrien and Nathalie does genuinely show care for both. She’s helped Adrien get what he wants, she will do anything Gabriel asks of her. For someone who seems to a not particularly passionate person, she loves two extremely socially inept people fiercely. If there was a guardian to be left behind by Emilie, Nathalie fits that criteria. The biggest question for this idea is the idea of an Amok being able to use the Peacock Miraculous itself. That seems like it shouldn’t work, but there’s nothing that says it can’t either. But even the Butterfly Miraculous has to be removed before it’s user can be Akumatized.
Then there’s Adrien. And oh boy, does a lot of things start lining up when looked at it like this.
3. The Narrative.
The thing about stories is things don’t have to be strictly in universe to reveal a truth of the story. That’s the fun of being an audience. We know Gabriel is Papillon because we’re the audience, so we see things the people in the story can’t. And the thing about Miraculous Ladybug as a narrative is there’s supposed to be a happy ending.
This is a show meant for kids. And while kids can handle dark things, Miraculous Ladybug is again, not that kind of show. The longer things go on, the less chance it seems like Adrien can have a happy ending, especially with the way they handle things between him and his father.
Adrien is getting closer to his father, but Gabriel is just diving further and further into his villainy. He keeps hurting people, he’s caused Adrien in particular some horrifying things from the times he’s died, to his three months as Aspik, to having him attack the love of his life. That sort of thing wears on a person and from Adrien actions in Gamer 2.0 and Partycrasher, both of which are after Viperion, Chat is certainly suffering from those three months. Finding out Gabriel did that to him is going to hit and it’s going to hit hard.
In particular for a point everyone has been talking about since we figured out it was Gabriel: he’s terrorized Paris to save his wife, while he treated his son like dirt. Gabriel is a man who seems intent to do anything and everything he can for love, much like Adrien does, but he also treats Adrien terribly. Their home situation is toxic at best, and abusive at worst.
Finding out the truth is going to break Adrien. More than that, with all Gabriel has done, and has treated his son, its hard to see how any end of this could allow enough room for Adrien to forgive Gabriel enough to be happy himself.
Unless, of course, the circumstances aren’t what they seem.
4. The Evidence.
Most evidence comes from what we, the audience, see, as well as some presumed things of Sentimonsters.
A. Cataclysm.
In Miraculer, Adrien gets hit with Cataclysm. Much to everyone’s surprised, he doesn’t turn to dust from something that’s turned harder things then flesh and blood to dust. We’ve seen it destroy indestructible items like the Bee Miraculous. We know Plagg killed the dinosaurs.
The first assumption is Adrien survived because he’s the Black Cat User, so he’s got some resistance to his own attack, or perhaps it’s because Miraculer was using the ability and thus it was a weaker version of it.
But here’s the thing. There’s that narrative thing again. Adrien got hurt. He got hurt real bad. We rarely see these kids hurt thanks to their supersuits, and here Adrien is, getting hit with his own death touch. This is something that, one it’s own, should have been an episode. This could have been great character development, they could have talked about the dangers of their job, or show a lot of Ladynoir, or how stubbornly stupid Chat is to fight like that.
But this wasn’t an episode about it. This was an episode about Chloe being Queen Bee, and meeting Mayura, and a five superhero team up, and a power stealer. All those things are episode worthy, so having Chat injured is odd. Especially since it wasn’t necessary where it was.
Miraculer had already established her threat levels, Ladybug had left to give the other Miraculous. She only finds out Chat is hurt when she’s handing off the Bee to him. If it was a matter of getting Chat to disengage, there’s many ways where Miraculer could have tossed him away as many Akuma have done. There is no reason to go that extreme. He certainly doesn’t need to be hurt for Mayura to have still grabbed the Bee like that, and struggling against two opponents is reasonable. There is no real narrative reason for him to be that hurt. The only point it MIGHT make sense is it meant Chloe really did have to go after Mayura herself.
But then it’d have made more sense to have him hurt on the rooftop. It would make the fight seem more high stakes because we don’t know how long it’d take, it makes everyone afraid, it’s dramatic! So why have him suffer half an episode like that?
Because the episode was overly full. It was to distract from what happened. There would be questions of why Chat is lasting this long, is this how it always is with people, or just him? Instead there’s the distraction of the new villainess, Ladybug needs to get the MIraculous, she needs to tell Chloe she can’t be Queen Bee. She has no time to wonder about Catacalysm, and Adrien doesn’t like dwelling on the unpleasant.
But we the audience see it. Adrien can take a Catacalysm and he can last a long time under the effects. And only one other thing has.
Reflekdoll, the Sentimonster Lady Noire used the power on. A thing made of pure magic. It was messed up, but it still functioned. It freaked out because it had no controller, but what if it could control itself? It may have done better, instead been dealing with it’s slowly breaking down body instead of wildly attacking everything.
Much like Adrien.
B. Adrien And Taking Charge.
Here’s the thing about Adrien taking charge: He’s terrible at it. We see it in Mister Bug, we see it in Viperion, we it in in Evillustrator. Adrien does not do well in that position. He gets too easily flustered and gets stuck in a tunnel vision or too emotional.
He’s great at second in charge! When he knows generally what he’s supposed to be doing, he’s great. He knows to protect, to teach, to comfort. He’s shown to be clever, a point actually made in Reflekta when he helps despite not having powers. Which makes it stand out even more when he struggles to do so in Reflekdoll. The difference being he’s no longer support, he’s the one whose supposed to be ‘in charge.’
He struggles as Mister Bug.
He uses Second Chance for Three Months because he can’t calm down, step back, and calmly watch things go down so he can gather information.
And all the way back in Season One, he has Marinette take away the stylus because he can focus on protecting her, but he couldn’t think of a good way to get the pen away, and he misses an obvious way out of the box.
We know Adrien is smart. We know he’s clever enough to keep up with Ladybug’s plans when she needs him to do something. But the moment he’s in charge, it’s like something in his brain just shorts out.
C. Adrien And Memories.
So something that has bugged me for ages is the fact he was not allowed out of the house until he got to go to school. He’s been locked up his whole life. Which made sense when I thought his mother disappeared years ago and his father became overprotective as a result. Then we learn his mother hasn’t even been gone a year by the time Christmas rolls around.
That changed a lot in regards to Emilie.
In Jackady, Chat’s outburst reminded Gabriel of Emilie. Which implies she was a woman who was at least somewhat of a spitfire. Someone Adrien saw as kind and who wanted him to be good. The person Adrien thinks about right before he almost destroyed the Christmas Tree and he stopped. Kind and willing to fight.
And still agreed to isolate Adrien.
And before she disappeared, Gabriel was supposedly less severe as he is now. Now this could be evidence that Gabriel is the Sentimonster, but with both Gabriel being at least a little more caring and a woman Adrien sees so highly, it’s weird they both agreed to raise him in basic isolation.
Not that I’m saying Emilie is anywhere near Gabriel’s level in canon, but Adrien is definitely looking at things with rose colored glasses. It’s not okay to raise a kid isolated from their peers like that. Especially a ray of sunshine like Adrien whose desperate for friends.
But at the Agreste parents very best, they were overprotective as hell.
We know Adrien is starting to realize his father is being unfair and overly harsh, we’ve seen him run away because of it, and he’s terrified of being locked up. He still sees Emilie as this saintly way though.
It may be because she made him. Of course he’d see her this way because she wouldn’t think there was anything wrong in wanting to protect him or she wouldn’t have gone to that extreme.
D. Adrien’s Demeanor.
Adrien is obedient. He’s a good boy who listens, and does as he’s told. Again, Adrien does not like to take charge. He rarely starts confrontation for his own sake, but he’s willing to step in for others. More so as Chat than Adrien, and Adrien is certainly more sneaky and subdue about it.
A Sentimonster is a being made to obey someone else. It’s not a giant leap to assume a sentient would still be highly inclined to obey, and more likely to stand up for others than themselves.
Then there’s Adrien’s more obsessive nature. Because let’s be fair. He’s obsessed with Ladybug. Most of the time it’s charming flirts of the safe nature, but he’s had times he’s let it distract him from the job, or made him sulk and pout. He can usually snap out of it to focus on the job, but it’s weird how he can go from one day handling his rejection with grace to the next handling it absolutely terribly. Like maybe he wants to accept it, but it’s hard to do so for a being whose usually focused on one person.
After all, Sentimonsters are protectors. Getting a little obsessed with who they’re made for makes sense.
E. Adrien’s rebellion.
It’s an interesting to note how Adrien rebels. He does things his father wouldn’t approve of, but usually goes the route of ‘what he doesn’t know won’t hurt me.’ If Adrien is told he can’t, he’ll go ‘but Chat wasn’t told he can’t.’ It’s rare we see Adrien disobey an actual direct order from Gabriel.
The only time that comes to mind as direct disobedience instead of just never asked or a technical loop hole was when he ran to school. You know. Right after he got Plagg and experienced chaos energy for the first time.
And yet, for the things Adrien deems truly important, he does try to bargain with his father. Like seeing his mother’s movie, or going to Marinette’s party, because these are important things to Adrien, and he wants his father to approve.
Oddly, when Adrien actually pleads and breaks the rules and shows how important a thing is to him, his father seems inclined to give it to him. Which I’ll get more into later.
F. Plagg, The Peacock Miraculous Was Right There, How Did You Miss It????
Listen, Plagg is a little gremlin who cares a lot more for people than he likes to show and it still seems weird he wouldn’t recognize a piece of jewelry he’s been in contact with for centuries when he could recognize the BOOK.
But that’s the thing, Plagg is a little gremlin who cares a lot. Who cares a lot about Adrien. Who, you know, he regularly fuses with and gives superpowers. There’s a good chance if Adrien is a Sentimonster, Plagg knows, and now he’s like ‘SHIT’ about the whole thing.
It’s likely Fu getting the Peacock Miraculous would spell the end of Adrien, so Plagg is hoping for an Alternate Solution to come up before he outs where the Peacock Miraculous is. He’s like millions of years old, he can be patient for a few years until he sees something, and the humans can take a little chaos in their life. Adrien’s HIS.
G. SYMBOLIC FORESHADOWING.
Gosh, copycat sure was a sculptor ‘in love’ with someone he couldn’t reach.
There sure is a lot of False Adriens and False Chats in the season where Mayura is a player between the wax statue of Adrien, Chat, and Adrien playing Chat’s Voice in the Ladybug Movie, and Lila pretended to be Chat and Adrien for a while in Chameleon.
Chat keeps being turned into a meat puppet by Gabriel an awful lot.
Reflekdoll got Catacalsymed by another Chat.
Miraculer sure was about Chloe’s friend trying to become another person for her love, while her other friend was living through something we never thought should be livable by a human.
Chat did think the Sentibug was a real person and choose her first.
Ladybug said Sentibug was too perfect to be human. While Gabriel and Marinette both call Adrien perfect. And Lila, and I think Chloe. Basically a lot of people call the boy perfect.
Thomas has a tendency to make tweets about ‘in universe’ views on the characters, thus when he said Chloe was a terrible person who would never have a MIraculous. And he sure calls Adrien perfect a lot himself.
H. Allergies.
Allergies are the immune system’s hypersensitive reaction to something. Worried about something being a threat even if it isn’t. And Adrien is allergic to feathers. A thing he may be made out of.
Maybe Sentimonsters don’t play well with feathers, maybe another feather can mess with theirs, I don’t know, but I find it very interesting one of his parents had a feather based superpower and he’s allergic to them and it feels like that should mean SOMETHING.
I. The Promise.
Gabriel talks to Emilie about a promise. A wish. A way to reverse a mistake. He never says he’ll bring her back or fix her, which is the obvious thing. He’s cryptic which means whatever he WANTS, it’s not as simple as saving her. He says it the way he does because we the audience aren’t meant to know yet.
5. The Wild Mass Guessing.
Because the rest was super coherent.
Two other points: A pure theory on Party Crashers. Gabriel is shocked at joy in his house, which could just be him realizing how many people were there, or an even more disturbing thought that he never expects joy from Adrien. OR it could be Gabriel can’t sense Adrien at all because he’s a Sentimonster, and neither Nathalie nor the Gorila are big on the joy spectrum;.
As for Chat Blanc, it could be Chat Blanc will be a seperate Sentimonster (and MORE foreshadowing????), or it’s because Plagg is also involved. Plagg is definitely a full entity, after all, and that may be enough to allow for an Akumatization.
BUT here is how I see things going down.
Adrien Agreste died, somehow or someway, probably preventable, and it was with his parents so it didn’t become news.
Emilie, unwilling to lose her son, decides to use the peacock. She may have sculpted something like Mayura did Ladybug and he’s got an Amok hidden around somewhere. Maybe Emilie used his body which is grim and also necromancy. It could be a lot of things.
But the Peacock is NOT the Miraculous of Creation. A Sentimonster is a temporary creation, a guardian, it’s not meant to be a longterm sentient being. Having a Sentimonster capable of some intelligent thought is understandable, because better guardian then, but it’s NOT meant to be a person.
Emilie pushes and this is what breaks the Peacock Miraculous. And this puts her into a coma because now she has to support Adrien’s existence with her own emotions and it’s too much of a burden for her to bear and remain conscious.
And Adrien the Sentimonster is born.
At first, he doesn’t have a lot in the way of emotions. This works out because now he’s supposed to be mourning his now disappeared mother and being blank is pretty understandable. He has the memories from his mother, maybe his father, he knows generally how he’s supposed to be, but he’s still figuring it out. Meanwhile he thinks it’s the depression because he doesn’t know he’s not real.
And Gabriel?
Gabriel lost his son, then his wife, and now he has This Thing in his home. Who thinks he’s his son and his wife almost lost her life for it and he has to. Deal with that. So he goes complete hardass because if he has to deal with it, then it would represent the Gabriel brand well. He models, he learns, he becomes the poster boy of a perfect son.
Adrien doesn’t understand why he’s being treated so coldly and he chalks it up to his father also being in pain at losing his mother. It makes sense.
Then Chloe demands to see Adrien and, well, telling Chloe no doesn’t work for long. And when Gabriel is ignoring Adrien, and Nathalie knows and is just being a professional, and the Gorilla is going about business as normal, Chloe just sees her depressed friend, and at some point there’s discussion of his wanting to go to school, to make friends, because Adrien is REAL. He’s a Sentimonster, but he’s REAL because that’s what Emilie wanted.
And real people crave love and affection eventually.
So Chloe gets him into school. And Adrien goes and passes his test with Fu. Because Adrien was always a kind and caring boy and a Sentimonster helps.
He’d forbidden.
And he meets Plagg and he’s magic and that feels right in the world.
And suddenly he’s not just Adrien. He’s Chat Noir. He has a purpose. He has people he can PROTECT and he is so eager to do so. He has powers he expects no hard limit to. He has a partner he has to work with.
He comes alive. There’s just been a pit of loss and need and yearning and suddenly he has that and more and moreover, he has a little bit of chaos on his side. Chaos that takes this order he’s been given.
And says no.
And Nathalie knows she has to tell Gabriel.
And he’s so, so very surprised. Because Adrien should not have been able to say no. And he thinks maybe, just maybe, Emilie did leave him a son after all.
So Gabriel let’s Adrien go to school.
Adrien’s birthday comes. Gabriel would always buy his son a gift. He can’t bear the thought of getting him a new fountain pen, a useful tool, a professional tool, because he’s still not sure he’s invested, so he puts the responsibility on Nathalie for the first time.
Jackady happens, Gabriel almost died, and all he could think about as he stepped away from the ledge was he almost left Adrien alone. And for the first time he hugs this boy who might be his son.
He destroys his office because it’s easy to pretend to be mad about this boy he might love and he hates he may make him lose his wife and perhaps his firstreal son. And yet the concern once he’s purified isn’t near the act he wishes it was.
Riposte becomes a test. Could he put the boy in danger. And he finds he hates himself more by the end of it then any other time.
Christmas, he decides to show a little care, maybe embrace this, and he’s terrified when he’s gone. Not enough to forget his wife and other child when an opportunity arises, but he finds himself wanting to make him happy when his friends show up.
Adrien starts asking for things. He pleads to hang out with his friends. He make arguments. He WANTS. He wants because he wants to be there for his friends, he makes a hand made gift because someone is important to him. These are not the actions of an obedient beast. Because that’s the thing, when Adrien begs, Gabriel gives in. And when Adrien wants to know more about Emilie, see her in other things, it shows someone whose view of her isn’t only her own self view.
He’s terrified when he thinks he might be Chat Noir. He has to be sure, he has to know NOW because he seems so very real and whether or not he is, he finds himself loving this Adrien and he doesn’t want him to be Chat Noir, and yet he does when he fall because the thought of him dying-
He even ponders giving up his wife for this boy. After he put him in danger. After he almost fell apart into glitter. He can’t bear to lose him too, he’s sure of it.
Adrien is growing. He’s learning to love others. He’s learning friendships. As Chat Noir, with chaos and purpose in his hands, he acts with abandon. He has love, he can protect, everything is clear.
But when Ladybug suffers and he’s unable to help, he just because more desperate and determined to save her next time. Even if it takes well over twenty thousand times and three months because that is his PURPOSE, so next time, he throws himself off the stage, and he won’t listen to Fu.
As Adrien, things are still confusing. Adrien wants to defend, but he also wants to be good for Gabriel, and making a scene is bad. Still, he sees Lila hurt people he loves, he cares about, so he decides to that being underhanded. If sincere earnestness doesn’t work like it does with Chloe, then he’ll make sure Lila knows if she won’t be his friend, then he’ll find a way to make her regret being his enemy. It’s not as direct as he likes, but he must be good for Gabriel to.
Gabriel is becoming more desperate by the day. He must save Emilie. He must save their son. And maybe this boy is their son? Maybe Adrien’s soul was there because they were so similar. He doesn’t know, all he knows is he needs the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous and once he has though, he can make everything RIGHT.
And there is the thing about happy endings.
As canon stands, Adrien is unlikely to get a happy ending. Because as the series progresses, he BONDS with his father. They seem to be getting closer, healing this rift that had been between them. If Adrien is to get out of this, he should be recognizing his unfair treatment, pulling away, getting farther to see how bad the situation is. Not getting closer. The closer he gets to Gabriel, the more it’ll hurt because how does he make peace with that? This man terrorized the city of Paris for his wife, while he barely gave his son the time of day.
And that’s if Gabriel doesn’t die using the Miraculous to save Emilie. Then Adrien will lose his father to get back his mother after his father didn’t even give him good memories to leave off of.
But the story changes if Adrien is a Sentimonster.
Because Adrien’s existence is draining Emilie. She can’t wake up while he exists. And Gabriel is a man who loves so fiercely and doesn’t want to love this boy, but DOES because how can he not? So like his son, so like his mother. So it becomes even more important to win, so Adrien will never know what his existence has cost Emilie, to make sure Adrien’s existence is never threatened by the loss of the Peacock.
Everything will hurt, but it’s not a man who choose a nearly lost wife while completely forsaking his son.
It’s a man whose nearly lost both and trying to save both.
And maybe, just maybe, the cost of stabilizing Adrien’s existence will be a cost he can bear instead of asking someone else to die.
#ml spoilers#sentimonster theory#adrien agreste#gabriel agreste#nathalie sancoeur#the gorilla#emilie agreste#miraculous ladybug
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Mercy76 Week Day 3 “Family”
Hello! So for this day I have an original fic actually! I found some time in my busy life to write something new! I am IN LOVE with the idea of Soldier 76 being like a dad figure to D.Va, and that is what inspired me to write this fic. Anyways, enjoy!❤😀
Oh, the good ol’ after mission mayhem. Mercy never missed the insanity that ensued after the arrival of the dropship after a certain dangerous operation or a mission gone wrong. If she wasn’t dealing with medical emergencies in the heat of battle and attempting to keep everyone alive on the front lines, she was waiting for everyone to return where she would play the role of doctor and hero after the fact.
At the present moment she was sitting enjoying some lemonade and a book on a balcony overlooking the sea, but she found herself looking at her watch frequently in anticipation. The dropship’s ETA was 15:30, and it was currently 15:00. She was always extremely antsy leading up to the arrival of the team who went out on the mission. They were her family, and she hated to see them sad, sick or injured. She was always doting on them even when they weren’t injured, and she had earned herself the title “Mama Mercy” because of her behavior. It didn’t help that her boyfriend was the commander of the group, and because of his father-like leadership, he was affectionately (and sarcastically) called “Dad”.
Dog-earing her book page, she decided to get up and make her way towards the hangar. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to see if she had received any texts from Jack. There were none. That could either be a great sign, or a bad one. Sighing, she stopped by the kitchen to deposit her glass in the dishwasher, and continued on her way to greet the returning agents.
She had waited a mere 5 minutes before the dropship arrived.
“They are early.” she thought to herself after checking her watch.
Again, this could be very good, or very bad.
The second the dropship touched the ground the door flew open and everyone who had been on the mission piled out. By the looks on their faces and the fact that everyone was huddled around what looked to be a makeshift stretcher, she knew something hadn’t gone right. She quickly made her way over to see who everyone was huddled around, and her heart dropped when she saw their bloodied and bruised form. It was Hana.
Something about the young Korean girl evoked a strong motherly instinct in her. Sure, she cared about everyone on the Overwatch team like they were her own family, but something about Hana awoke something inside her. Maybe it was because she was young, or maybe it was because she also knew what it was like to be raised on a war torn world full of destruction. Regardless of the reason, she felt like she saw the face of a child of her own on the stretcher in front of her.
The first thing to snap her out of her moment of shock was a strong hand placed on her shoulder. Pulled out of her trance, she turned around quickly to meet the blue eyes of someone she desperately needed the comfort of at the moment. She could tell by his expression he was just as worried as she was.
Like herself, Jack had taken a fatherly role in the young girl’s life. Just like she had watched him step up to be a fatherly figure to Lena and Fareeha, she saw him become a rock and a supporter to Hana. He always made sure she was well prepared before missions, and always helped her out with something she needed (sometimes even if it involved pranking someone). The infectious happiness and giggles that came from the gamer was good for him, and Angela was glad that the two had become close.
“She took quite the blow from an enemy explosive.” he said gruffly. Behind his serious facade Angela saw he was worried. She knew him better than anyone else.
“Hurry.” she said plainly, attempting not to let any emotion seep into her voice. “Let’s get her into the Med Bay as quickly as we can.”
As soon as she finished her thought, the group set off racing towards the Med Bay. Reinhardt helped Jack carry the stretcher while Mercy hurried ahead of them. While she was scared for Hana’s well being, she was also slightly angry. She new that what happened on a mission was most of the time unpredictable, but she found part of herself blaming others for Hana getting put in this condition. As she opened the door leading to the Med Bay, she tried her hardest to push her feelings out of the way. The worst thing to happen as a doctor is to let emotions affect your work.
As soon as Reinhardt and Jack set Hana’s small, limp form on the table, she began to get to work. After checking her vital signs (which looked surprisingly good other than a slightly elevated heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure, which is to be expected from someone with blood loss), she started assessing her wounds. By peeling off her battle worn jumpsuit, she discovered she had one, if not a few, broken ribs. The broken ribs had not punctured her lungs, which was fortunate. An X-ray would have to be conducted to reveal the extent of the damage to the bones, but for now, there were other things to worry about. Any other injuries she found littered across her body were just minor cuts, scrapes and bruises; nothing that would require more than cleaning and some antibacterial ointment. What concerned her the most was the bleeding coming from Hana’s head.
The blast from the explosion must have caused her to hit her head on something, because there was a large gash on the back of her head that was bleeding. The blast hadn’t totally crushed her skull, but could very well have fractured it. She would suffer from a concussion for sure. Mercy began cleaning the blood from her hair, and disinfected the wound. The gash looked like it would require a few stitches, so she began to get to work.
The whole time Angela was working on Hana, Jack was pacing the hallway outside the Med Bay. Hana was like a daughter to him, although he probably wouldn’t outwardly admit it to anyone. She was so young, so cheerful, and had so much more of a life ahead of her. He always felt guilty if she got injured, even if it was just a small cut, because he felt like he was supposed to look after her. This was the first time she had gotten injured more than just a scrape or a sprained ankle on a mission, and he felt like it was totally his fault.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he heard the door open to reveal a tired-looking doctor. He quickly made his way into the room to see Hana’s condition. A sigh of relief escaped his lips when he saw her blood free, laying on a bed, chest slowly rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern.
“She’s lucky it didn’t turn out any worse.” he heard Angela say from behind him. “All the cuts and bruises on the outside made it look much worse than it actually was.”
“What’s the real damage?” he asked.
“Well, she has two broken ribs. Luckily both of them are nothing more than bad fractures that won’t need surgery to heal correctly. Her head took most of the damage. She has nine stitches in her head to close up the cut that was bleeding and she definitely has a concussion. She is lucky her skull didn’t fracture as well. Besides not being able to play video games for a few weeks because of the concussion, she will definitely be ok. She’s tough and young. She’ll bounce back in no time. She should be awake soon”
The tone of her voice was filled with alleviation, and Jack knew she had been just as worried as he had been. He let out another sigh of relief. She was going to be ok. Not happy, because not being able to play Starcraft makes for a grouchy D.Va, but she was going to be alright. Turning around, he wrapped the small frame of his girlfriend into a hug. He could tell she was surprised at first, but she quickly melted into her embrace.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t keep her out of harm’s way Angel. I really try to keep my eye on her at all times, but it’s not always easy. She has a mind of her own and you know how Hana get’s when she sets her mind to something. I always try to return her in one piece but this time I didn’t. I know you care about her a lot and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to keep her safe.”
Angela just shook her head and rubbed her hand along his toned back. “It’s alright Jack. I know it’s not easy because you really care about her too, but we all know the risks when we load up onto that dropship. Both of you know the risks involved in fighting for what’s right and you do it anyway. Things like this happen, and even though it’s hard to witness, especially when it is someone who you love like your own child, it is a price that sometimes has to be paid to do what is right.”
Jack smiled and kissed the crown of her head, smiling into her platinum blonde hair. “I don’t know how I’d do it without you Ang. It takes so much out of me keeping tabs on these crazy kids.”
Angela just laughed brightly and brushed her fingertips against his jawline. “Oh don’t give me all the credit. Sure I keep them alive, but you have to get them to do what they are supposed to do. It’s like herding cats!”
The both of them shared a laugh before Jack leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips. She smiled into the kiss, happy she shared her life with such an amazing man and incredible groups of “kids”. The loving moment between the two didn’t last long before a high pitched voice killed it.
“Ewwww!” Hana said from her spot on her bed. “Get a room you two!”
The couple couldn’t help but laugh. After being blasted by an explosive and hitting her head, Hana was still her same joking self. “How are you feeling honey?” Angela asked. “You suffered some pretty serious trauma to your head, how is it feeling.”
Hana proceeded to tell her that her head hurt, and she gave her some painkillers to help. She then asked her some questions about where she was, what happened, what day it was and who she was to gauge the severity of her concussion. Luckily she answered all the questions correctly. After telling her what she would have to do to allow her brain to heal (and dealing with the tantrum that ensued after telling her no video games for two weeks minimum), she stepped back and allowed her her to nap. “We are going to get something to eat real quick. We will be back in a little bit.” Angela said, referring to her and Jack, who was still with her. Both of them were hungry and exhausted.
Hana just nodded. Taking off her lab coat and draping it over the chair at her desk, she grabbed Jack’s hand and made her way to the door. Before she reached the door, Hana called out, “Hey! I’m thirsty!”
Angela could see the corners of her boyfriend’s mouth twitch into a smile, and she rolled her eyes. She could see this coming from a mile away.
“Hi Thirsty,” he said, “I’m dad.”
The look on Hana’s face was priceless. Angela laughed and shook her head. “I will go get you a bottle of water.” she smiled, barely able to speak through her laughter.
“Thanks mom! Looks like you are good for something other than bad jokes like Mr. Blondie over here.” she rolled her eyes, gesturing at Jack, who still had a satisfied grin on his face.
Giggling again, she made her way down to the kitchen with Jack, beaming. Her little family was going to be ok.
#mercy76week#mercy76#day3family#overwatch fanfiction#fanfiction#overwatch fanfic#fanfic#overwatch fandom#Overwatch
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