#I love this stupid comic and I’m happy to hear any other options I just love them

[theminecraftgay]

Yes danganronpa is mainly a battle of hope and despair, but to forget the third category can lead to a huge misunderstanding of some character dynamics. I’m talking about Takumi again. Spoilers for Killer Killer and Zero.

Hope is typically watered down to the “good” side. It can be flexible because “goodness” in itself is a complicated subject, but in the face of disaster and destruction, hope is needed to rebuild, example of course being Makoto risking it all to try to save people who “don’t deserve it” because giving up on people is against everything he stands for. Okay, clear enough, that’s easy.

In the opposite side, despair is chaos and destruction, but more basic it’s the “bad” in the world. Hurting people because there’s nothing else to do and nothing matters. Of course, this is Junko, we know this. A great example is the opening to DR Zero, where she’s killed the entire reserve course but specifically realizes when she’s coming down from the misery of it she doesn’t hurt enough. Despair is the destruction of everything you love because misery is all you know.

It’s stated pretty clear that Yasuke doesn’t align with either side. His motives are our secret third option; love. Love is like a wild card, it’s the grey area between hope and despair. He’s a doctor, he has spent his entire life only wanting to help people out of love for his mother. It’s his love of Junko that allows him to be blackmailed into comprising his morals and working for Jin Kirigiri.

The there’s Takumi. I think when people frame him as the protagonist of DR Killer Killer, they’re making a huge mistake. Misaki is the protagonist, and I believe has the potential to the an ult. hope. Shinji is despair, he’s destructive out of disgust of destruction, he tries to kill Misaki more than once and is upset Takumi cares about her. Takumi though has his own code. He’s obsessed, he wants to be just like Mukuro, and his love of the “perfect” murder motivates everything he does until Misaki is in his life. Once she’s there, however, and actually tries to understand him, his goals shift. While murder is still important to him, so is Misaki. Killer Killer ends with each of them fulfilling their roles perfectly; Shinji has become the thing he hates most, Misaki has put the fate of the world on the unmovable hope Takumi will to the right thing, and Takumi destroys the “perfect murderer” for Misaki.

Takumi isn’t the hope in Killer Killer, he’s LOVE. He’s the wild card, the grey area. And isn’t that more fitting?

[aellynera]

Enumerate (Nathan Bateman x Reader)

ENUMERATE

(hey hey. this is one of my submissions for @wasicskosgirl​ and her 800 follower celebration! congrats on your milestone, lovely! i wrote this in one sitting, which i rarely ever do, but the idea was immediate and persistent so this happened. i just made some final edits, and it was a lot of fun to do and i hope you all enjoy it!)

Word Count: ~1750 

Summary: You have a question for Nathan. He wants reasons. You have a secret weapon.

Warnings: Some language. Innuendo. Smooches. Nathan Bateman. No actual plot, just a thing. Hopefully decently proofread. Superheroes.

with the prompt - “Don’t give me that puppy dog face. How am I supposed to say no to that?”

“This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

Nathan Bateman glares at you over his glasses. Or, he would if he bothered to actually turn his attention away from the monitors in front of him, which, of course, he does not.

On the other side of the room, you’re stretched out on the bed, on your stomach with your legs bent up and ankles crossed behind you, lazily flipping through a magazine.

For once it’s not a technical journal; you’d finally put your foot down a few months ago, told Nathan you’d had enough of the esoteric mumbo-jumbo he kept all over the house, and after a few pleas and a little please, he’d caved. He might make a case that, until now, these celebrity gossip rags were a worse idea, but he can’t bring himself to do it. As a thank you, you always make sure to hand him his favorite one when you’re done with it.

You briefly debate arguing that building an AI and pissing it off so much it thought it had no other recourse than to try to escape and then stab you in the chest is probably a worse idea, but you don’t want to actually fight with him. And you’re not mean.

“I don’t know, I think it would be fun,” you call back to him.

The clicking of the keyboard never stops. He gets so involved in his work sometimes - okay, all the time, if you’re being honest - that nothing else seems to matter. You knew it isn’t really true; the fact that you’re on the bed wearing nothing besides one of his old, soft henleys and a pair of wool socks proves that. The ability to occasionally engage him in actual conversation while his mind blazes through lines of code is rare.

“I’m pretty sure we have different definitions of that word.”

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure they more than occasionally overlap.”

He scans your voice for any hint of sarcasm, any tinge of facetiousness. When he can’t detect any and can’t determine your actual intent, his eyes narrow.

“Enumerate.”

Well, sort of actual conversation.

You toss the magazine aside and sit up on the bed.

“And for every step you take towards me, I want a good reason, not some bullshit half-answer,” he continues. Still typing away, still staring at his screens.

“How do you even know I was going to walk over there?” you mutter.

“I know your operating system, kitten,” he says, “so. Enumerate. And count those steps for me. I know you’re good at counting.” If he’d bother to look at you, you’d see the slight smirk on his face, but it doesn’t matter. You hear it in his voice. You know he’s mostly teasing you.

Then again, if Nathan bothered to turn around to look at you, he’d also see the giant, exaggerated steps you’re taking on the path to his desk. It isn’t very far from bed to desk. Nathan is nothing if not efficient, and one never knows when inspiration or insomnia will strike or you might need quick data access.

But you have a secret weapon and you are going to deploy it with as little delay as possible.

The secret weapon has never failed you before.

You roll your eyes. Smug asshole. “One. It gets us out of the house.”

“We have everything we need right here. Hardly a compelling reason. Try again.”

Another giant step. “Two. A little human interaction, other than verbally sparring with me and taking me on every imaginable surface of this house, would do you some good.”

The clicking might pause for a split second. You can’t be sure because it picks up and keeps going just as it had before, as Nathan replies, “False correlation. I hate most people, in large part because they can’t keep up with me. Not like the way you do.”

You smile, even though he can’t see you, and open your mouth to keep going, but he’s not quite done. “And, if I remember correctly, and I always remember correctly-” you swear you hear his eyebrow arch “-that other part does us both some good. You haven’t had any complaints thus far, and a few of those surfaces were actually rather un-imaginable. You gotta try harder, baby.”

Damn him.

Another step, another reason. “Three. It’s what normal people do.”

The clicking finally stops and Nathan spins around in his chair. He takes you in - one foot as far out in front of the other as possible without you falling over, arms held out awkwardly to keep your balance, wearing only his shirt and your fuzzy socks, hair still a mess from the evening’s previous activities - and gives you a pointed look. “That’s what normal people do?”

You giggle, then straighten your face. You take another step. Now you’re almost in his lap. “Four. You’d look really, really hot in some spandex and a cape.”

Nathan growls and pulls you into his lap. “I said no bullshit.”

There’s your opening. Secret weapon time.

You bite your lip and give him the widest, saddest looking eyes you possibly can. You think of lost puppies and kittens, the ending of Casablanca, that song in Coco that had you bawling. And you blink once, very slowly, just for dramatic effect. Not that you need to. Your trap is set.

Nathan groans and drops his head to your chest for a moment, and then looks back up at you, scowling under his glasses. “Don’t give me that puppy dog face. How am I supposed to say no to that?”

You grin down at him. “You’re not.”

“God damn it.”

“Nathan, it will be fun,” you insist.

In response, he stands suddenly, scoops you up and tosses you back on the bed, his body caging you underneath him.

“You really want me to go to, of all the fucking things in the entire known universe, a comic con with you.” It’s not a question.

“Well, I mean, you did already buy me the tickets.”

“Beginning to regret that decision,” the resignation in his voice is strong, but you can also hear some amusement. And maybe something a little more.

You pout at him. “And my sister can’t go with me now because of some stupid emergency work thing.”

His brow furrows. “Like I don’t have actual work to do?”

“And it would be a shame to waste them…,” You blink at him a few more times.

“I’ll donate them to a children’s charity or some shit.”

You smack him lightly on the shoulder, then your arms wrap around his neck as you lean forward and whisper in his ear. “And I still say you’d look amazing in a super suit.”

“Bull. Shit,” he leans up and nips at your neck.

You smack him harder this time. “Hey, those are good reasons.”

“Will it make you happy?” he sighs.

“Yes.”

He pauses for a few minutes with his face buried in your neck, then pulls back to look at you. His stern expression cracks, ever so slightly, at the hopeful smile on your face. And those damn puppy dog eyes. “You do make a compelling argument.”

You squeal in delight, holding his face and kissing him firmly on the lips.

“But...people. A lot of people. In public,” Nathan grumbles, narrowing his eyes and giving you the fakest stern look he’s ever given you.

He knows you know he was never going to say no to you. He can’t. He may know your operating system, but his own systems fail when you run this particular subset.

And the secret weapon never fails.

You smirk back, your grin and the light in your eyes threatens to throw his brain completely offline.

“That’s where the costume comes in, Mr. Fantastic.”

Nathan scoffs. “If I have to wear a costume, it is not going to be Mr. fucking Fantastic.”

“So you’re saying you will dress up.”

“No, but...there’s better options than that.” A lie. He was serious about being seen by thousands of people in public, and at this point, he’s not above wearing a ridiculous costume just so no one actually sees him at a fucking comic con.

“Isn’t he, like, the smartest superhero though?”

He pretends to think about it for a minute, lazily tracing a finger along your jaw. “True, but. What else does he do? I mean I know I’m flexible but…”

It takes every ounce of willpower you have to not burst into a fit of laughter as you stare back into his deep eyes. “Okay, fine. What about Wonder Woman? I’d do almost anything to see you with some golden wings. And those boots? Damn, that would be hot.”

“Jesus Christ, you’re a menace.”

“You haven’t had any valid complaints thus far.”

“Fucking hell,” he mutters, then sighs. “Almost anything, huh?” His hands have dropped down your torso, and his fingertips are gliding over your smooth skin under the hem of his shirt.

You can see the wheels start turning. Your lips purse and a smile forms. “Don’t change the subject,” you chide him. “What are your other better options, then?”

“Xavier. You could push me around for the day, it would serve you right for even asking me to do this.”

The laughter rises fully and bubbles over. “Even you’re not that lucky.”

“Or maybe Iron Man. I know I could make a working suit, and that would be pretty fucking cool,” he states, matter of fact. You’re honestly not sure if you should be amused or a little worried that he’s not kidding.

“Those are definitely better options than Mr. Fantastic,” he says softly.

You raise your head up to catch his lips, but stop just before you make contact. He makes a small noise of protest, but you just shake your head ever so slightly.

“Hmm, I’m not convinced,” you whisper, your breath fanning across his mouth. “I need some good reasons. No bullshit, Bateman.”

Nathan’s groans are silenced as you surge forth and capture his lips, kissing him fiercely and thoroughly. But his silence is only temporary, and the groans return when you pull away and hook a leg around his hip.

He stares down at you as you look back at him with the biggest, saddest puppy dog eyes he’s ever seen, and you smile innocently and bite your lip. He bites his own as you softly issue one more word into the air around you.

“Enumerate.”

~end~

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[barsformars]

Photobooth

//

g - fluff

p - seonghwa × reader

w.c - 940

t.w - none

c - as the title suggests : in the photobooth with seonghwa

a.n - finally writing something cute and fluffy for seonghwa after a long while, sjjsja i need to do this more often for him, love you park seonghwa muah muah

//

playlist 📸

- …is it ok? by f(x) (please listen to it as you read i promise its super cute)

“It’s counting down, it’s counting down!” You exclaimed between laughter, slapping one hand down onto Seonghwa’s thigh so that he would stop moving about. Being an idol himself, it took him only a second to adjust his position once more and pose for the camera, eyes squeezed shut adorably as he gave a wide toothy smile.

“What are you doing? Taking an ID photo?” Seonghwa teased as he watched you smile and pose awkwardly through the screen in front. Hey, it wasn’t your fault that having your photos taken wasn’t a part of your daily routine, very unlike his.

“You’re asking for a beating, aren’t you?” You glared at him as you pouted, pretending to send a fist flying towards his face jokingly. Playful as he is, he sticks his tongue out at you, earning himself a punch to his arm for real this time. “Teach me then, since you’re so good at it.”

But honestly, did Seonghwa even need to try to come out looking good in photos? He was blessed with such a sculpted face and computer graphics-like features that one would think he walked out of a comic book. Seonghwa could do a poker face, pull an ugly face, or even attempt an expression only a peculiar animated movie character would do and he would still look attractive. Even then, you have to say, photos really don’t do him justice.

“Follow me,” Seonghwa says as he presses the heels of his palms together and rests his chin on it, his slender fingers cupping both sides of his cheeks like flower vines. “And then, you can either tilt your head to either side slightly and smile while looking at the camera-“ he demonstrates-"or, just keep your head centered but look down with a pout.”

It was easier said than done. “I look ridiculous,” you snorted as you looked at yourself on the screen. Acting cute was not your forte.

“You’re just not used to it. I promise you look cute,” Seonghwa reassures as he stares at you with an affectionate smile on his face. You were definitely more adorable when it came out naturally, like whenever you pleaded for something because he initially said no, or when you eat something yummy your whole face lights up and you do a little shake, but he could do with this too.

“You missed the picture, you fool,” you pointed out, causing Seonghwa to let out a little gasp.

Oopsies, he got caught.

“Because someone needed to hear that they didn’t look stupid.” Seonghwa put the blame on you as he felt heat rising up in his cheeks. Oh no, he’s going to look like a hot red tomato mess in the next few photos, Seonghwa thought. What better way to excuse that than to say, “It’s so hot in here, isn’t it?”

“It’s not, but okay.”

The both of you took a couple more shots with different poses — Seonghwa had to teach you — before exiting the photo booth and entering yet another tiny booth to edit the photos you just took.

“I want this one.” Seonghwa tapped your shoulders to get you to stop scrolling through the endless sticker options. He clicked on it and swiftly dragged it onto his face in the photo, giving himself cute whiskers and cat ears.

“Your fans are going to go extra crazy on the furry agenda if they see this,” you scoffed, finding how much he loves the cat filters so funny. All Seonghwa could do was lift his shoulders up into a gentle shrug, he didn’t really mind it that much as long as it stayed innocent.

With a lot of playful bickering over the choice of stickers, you and Seonghwa finally only had one last photo to edit. You strongly protested against adding hearts onto any of your photos just in case any of his fans ever come across these photos (it always happens somehow), afraid that it would lead to misunderstandings and cause him trouble. Seonghwa, on the other hand, insisted that everything would be fine and that it was normal for friends to be so lovey dovey anyways.

“Just this one photo please, it’s not going to hurt,” Seonghwa sulked, desperately wanting to put the heart stickers. “I’ll just keep it in my room at the dorms. No one will ever see it, apart from my members.”

You didn’t get the point of the heart stickers, but seeing as to how badly he wanted it, you had no choice but to let him be. You stood at the side watching as Seonghwa drowns the both of you in hearts of all designs and colours, slightly amused and entertained by it. It was only when he put a kiss mark sticker that you shrieked in horror, warning, “Seonghwa, you better keep that copy safe.”

“Yes, yes. I will, don’t worry,” he replies, not sparing you a glance as he continues adding more stickers.

“Seonghwa, I’m serious. Your fans are not goin-” Seonghwa cuts you off with a peck on your cheeks, taking you aback with his sudden advancement. You weren’t sure how you were supposed to interpret it. Was it just a friendly kiss (his members were all very affectionate), or was this his way of telling you that he had developed romantic feelings for you?

“I don’t need fans who won’t be happy when I find someone that makes me happy, someone that…” Seonghwa says softly, barely above a whisper now that he was right beside your ears. He pauses for a moment, mustering up all the courage in him before continuing, “someone that I love.”

[bluecloudious]

Kinda angst I guess (but it has Zanaz so take that with a grain of salt)

Trying out writing a story this time.

I mean, yeah, I wrote for the comics, but not long dialog.

So yea, as per both the funni boys mature content warning. (There's no canoodling, there is talk of it tho.)

Also there's quite a bit of text (8 pages worth on Word)

So ye:

“Get up, I have some juicy gossip for you.”

...What?

I open my eyes and the world around me is blinding. It’s so bright that it takes a second to adjust to it. There’s nothing around me other than vast white and empty space.

This definitely isn’t Nevada anymore. (Unless Hank managed to ruin everything even further somehow.)

“Get up now, I know you heard me.”

I get up and look around. Who the hell is talking? There’s literally nothing but white for miles.

“I’m in your head, pretty boy.”

Uh, that…

“I’m holding my eyes closed, don’t worry. I regret ever having them open in here, in fact.”

Welp, that answers that. Now for the other question.

“Who I am is not important. What info I have, may be of interest, though.”

Alright?

“There’s a deal attached to this knowledge, Zanaz. Hear me out before you start fidgeting.”

I’ll sure try.

“You know Kits, right?”

No duh, he’s my best friend.

“Excellent. He’s going to die soon.”

…

What?! Wha, when, how, uh--

“Calm down, jitterbug. There’s nothing you can do to stop his fate, so don’t try. If he doesn’t die one way, another thing will go wrong. Understand?”

I-- NO! What the fuck?! Are you gonna kill him?!

“No, not me. I’m just sharing the news.”

Yeah, right, sure. Fucking… When then?

“Soon.”

How soon? In a month, week or a few days?

“Hm… A month then, give or take.”

...Fuck… How?

“Depends on what leads up to it.”

So, there are a lot of different ways it can happen, right?

“Indeed there are.”

...Do I die with him?

“No.”

NO?! In none of the different variations, I don’t die by his side?

“Oh, you can be by his side, of course. But death isn’t after you.”

What if I try to block a bullet, but it goes through both of us.

“Oddly specific. You’ll still survive.”

What if I block it with my head?!

“Brain damage, possible vegetable state. Will still survive though.”

What if Hank slices us with one of his multiple katanas?!

“People have lived through being sliced in half before.”

WHAT.

“This world has zombie clowns with god like powers and the AAHW is lead by a man consisting of black fire.”

...Ugh, fair enough. So… Wait those are all possible deaths for him?

“If you do everything in your power for it to happen, then yes.”

I�� I can kill him before his time?

“Of course! You have free will, don’t you? It’s more of a question if you want to.”

Of course I fucking don’t! I care about him!

“I saw. You daydream about him an uncomfortable amount.”

He’s the main person I’m around, give me a break!

“Have you ever considered not being horny?”

Until I’m castrated, there’ll be nothing of the sorts.

“You’re not even fertile! None of the clones are!”

You think I’m tryna get anyone pregnant at this sausage fest? Besides, that has not stopped me before.

“I refuse to believe that any of those scenes I saw play out in your head happened for real.”

You’d be surprised then.

“WHICH?!?”

Those are for me to treasure.

“...You’re pulling my leg.”

Believe what you want.

“Augh, never mind, TMI. Back onto the topic at hand.”

Oh, yeah, right. Kit… Dying…

Could you for real not give me a date?

“If it depends on the circumstances beforehand, then there’s no possible way to tell which one belongs to this timeline.”

And that means…?

“I don’t know how this Kits dies.”

Can I at least warn him?

“Well, there’s where the other side of the deal comes in. If you tell him, then the effect kicks in immediately.”

What effect? Death?

“Precisely.”

...Ah. Wait, so if I don’t tell him, he dies in a month but if I do, he dies immediately? Of what?

“Stroke, heart attack or brain aneurysm. Chosen at random. Oh, also sneak assassination. That’s also a valid option.”

...This feels set up.

“Mh?”

This feels like either you or whoever sent you here set this up so I’d suffer. You enjoy the pain of others, don’t you?

“I’m only the messen--”

Yeah, yeah, Messenger Bullshit. Then whoever decided this is probably a reality tv producer, who is jacking off to someone pushing in the soft part of a baby’s skull as we speak. You encourage such behaviour by working with them, ya know.

“...Do you think you sound smart?”

I know for a fact I’m not, so no. I’m pretty sure I’m on the money with this one though.

“If I wasn’t here then Kits’ death would come as a surprise to you though!”

I’d prefer that, actually! Now I have to deal with knowing that he… He… Won’t be here anymore soon.

“Well, knowing how overwhelmingly perverted you are, wouldn’t you wanna grab this opportunity?”

...What?

“Shoot your shot, ask him out. Not like you could do it with a corpse… …Right…?”

I may be horny, but I’m not messed up.

“Had to make sure.”

Ugh, you’re just making fun of me, aren’t you?

“Which instance are you referring to?”

Kit would never date me.

“And why exactly do you think that?”

He has standards?

“You’re a decently handsome fellow. You also get along with him just fine.”

That… That’s not a determinant of shit like that. There’s way better out there for him.

“He won’t meet em then. Only a month to live, remember?”

I… It’s not worth it.

“What isn’t?”

I know he’ll say no, there’s no point in trying.

“How do you know for sure until you actually ask?”

Cause it’s obvious! He’s actually got a brain in his noggin and he knows me way too well! He’d be fucking disgusted, man! We’re just friends and that’s that.

“Do you not want to then?”

...Why do you assume I do? How do you know that those aren’t just blissful fantasies like the rest of them?

“He’s the only one that you dream of in a non-perverted way. I see no other person in this graphic landscape that you want to hold hands with. (Also, I am closing my eyes again now, Jebus Christoff.)”

...Ffffuck.

“Well, did hit the nail on the head?”

Y-You’re stupid and gay!

“I’m rubber, you’re glue.”

That doesn’t affect me, I’m already openly gay and stupid!

“I guess we’re both such then.”

Dammit.

“So, you gonna give him a month to remember or not?”

…Eh?

“Come on, how much romance could a member of the A.A.H.W. really experience throughout their lifetime? If you’d make this month worth his and your own time, perhaps it would be less painful to see him go? At least he died happy?”

THAT WOULD BE EXTRA PAINFUL FOR ME, THOUGH!

“Oop, Zanaz selfish, you heard it here first, folks.”

That’s not what I meant. I’d already be upset over losing my best friend, imagine how fucking devastating losing a sweetheart would be.

“…I dunno, still sounds selfish to me. Does his happiness not mean anything to you?”

Who says he’d be happy with me?

“I know you want to make him happy, at least. You dream about his smile.”

STOP FUCKING LOOKING THOUGH MY THOUGHTS!!

“I’m not looking anymore, I just memorized the ones I already saw. (I wish I couldn’t.)”

I- You- Fucking-- UggHHH! It’s not worth it!

“What exactly do you imagine will happen if you tell him how you feel, huh? World combusts?”

I already told you, he already knows way too much about me! He’d be fucking grossed out and we’ll… We’ll stop being friends.

He’d quicken his pace whenever we’d have to pass each other in one of the halls. He’d desperately keep his glance away from me. He’d… I’d stop being the main person he talks and comes to company for a-and I can’t fucking have that, man!

I-I wouldn’t be able to handle it. He means too much to me.

“…I had no idea you were this insecure.”

FUCK OFF! It’s a bitter reality that I’ve come to accept!

“You haven’t even given it a shot!”

You don’t need to get crushed by a piano to know you’d die on impact!

“Those two things don’t correlate even remotely!”

It’s a metaphor!

“I know that, I’m saying that Kits has a thing for you too!”

…He what?

“He has major league crush on you! The things you say when play-flirting excite him! He’s gotten off to the thought of you touching him up! The works! (Why did I word it like that?)”

Whuh-- How the fuck do you know this??

“While you were monologuing, I visited his subconscious and confirmed it for myself.”

You can do that??

“You don’t even know my name.”

...Fair nuff. So, wait, he’s actually gotten off thinking about me?

“I don’t even need to open my eyes to already know you’re imagining it. Short answer, yes. He’s into you, Zanaz.”

Augh, I dunno what to do with this info. It’s kinda... Overwhelming in a way.

Actually, wait, how do I know you haven’t been lying to me this whole time?

“I’m an incorporeal voice in your head that’s having a back and forth with you in a white void.”

Yeah, and?

“…I’m supernatural?”

Yeah, and?

“Come on! I just know, okay?!”

Sounds fake, not gonna lie.

“The part where I knew that Kits was gonna die was convincing, but the moment I mention that he might have a thing for you, you question the validity of my claims thus far??”

One sounds way more far-fetched than the other, you gotta admit.

“NO IT DOESN’T?!?!”

For you maybe! I’ve known him since I’ve been out the cloning tube! We became agents together! I think I’d know what kinda stuff is off the table for him, buddy.

“Well, not only are you wrong, you’re in denial.”

I am not!

“Then try it! Just attempt asking him out! In the very least, you’ll remain friends after. I promise you. Cross my heart and all that jazz.”

…

…You’re absolutely positive? You are also the person that told me he’d die in a month’s time.

“A hundred percent positive. I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”

You have a life?

“Unfortunately. So, you’ll do it?”

Why’re you so adamant about me fucking Kits?

“Affgdgfdgfg, it’s not about you fucking him, it’s you making his last living month worthwhile!”

Okay, so, why do you want me to do that?

“…Do you not??”

I mean, I guess that sounds worth my time. But you didn’t answer my question.

“Sorry for assuming that you want the person you’re madly in love with to be happy, I guess??”

Apology accepted. Now, how do I get outta here?

“Ugh, just wake up.”

Whu--

And I’m sitting up in my own mat, back at the facility. The clock shows that it’s early morning.

What the fuck do I make of what I just saw? Or heard, for that matter? It clearly wasn’t a normal dream, I never remember those. Plus the topic tends to blur together usually.

I gotta tell-- Wait, I can’t do that, fuck.

…

It’s way to early for shit like this, man!!

Augh…

[iturbide]

If you are still up for character asks, how about Sumia. I was sad no one asked about her yet.

And your latest fan art got me interested in also hearing your thoughts on Takumi. If you feel ok answering since I know you haven't played Fates.

I’ve been sad about that too so thank you for rectifying that situation ❤

How do I feel about this character?

My girl.  I love Sumia so much, she is one of my absolute favorite characters in Awakening and one I will never pass up an opportunity to write.  I love her and how passionate she is about books, how deeply invested she gets in the stories and characters and how she uses them both as an escape from her own life (where she can’t help but dwell on her own shortcomings) and as a source of inspiration and courage.  There’s something intensely relatable about wanting an escape like that, feeling outclassed or useless and getting lost in a book as a way to cope -- and yet she’s so capable, even if she doesn’t recognize it herself.  She seems so used to people looking down on her or criticizing what she does or making fun of her slip-ups that she’s started to really believe all of it, when the reality is that her mistakes have never been her defining trait: seeing her learn to embrace her own skills and talents is so heartwarming and I find myself constantly rooting for her to succeed in everything.

Who do I ship this character with romantically?

Sully!!  Sully and Sumia is one of my favorite ships in all of Awakening, honestly: I love these two ladies who are so gung-ho about horses and bond over that mutual interest and I love the idea of them getting together and learning more about each other, bolstering one another’s confidence (Sully reassuring Sumia that she’s more capable than she thinks and offering to train her if it would make her feel more assured, Sumia insisting that Sully doesn’t need to be girly to be a woman and gushing about how she admires the cavalier) and falling for one another in the process.  It’s just really warm and I love it a lot, and given how encouraging they are in their supports, I really think they’d be a fantastic match for each other.

Also, I do love her with Chrom, and I feel like she’d be an encouraging influence for him, doing what she can to give him confidence and help him keep moving forward in spite of the obstacles; she’s such a bright and refreshing character and I think they could end up working really well together, leveraging their individual strengths to make the halidom a better place.  And I really enjoy her with Robin, too, considering how they bond over their mutual love of books, and I think Robin would be one of those people who really can see her for who she is, rather than the klutz she sees herself as.  It’s especially good when it’s both of them together with her though (yes I love my OT3).

Who is my brOTP for this character?

Robin and Sully, when I’m not shipping them!  Their relationships are so strong and they’re founded on such deep rooted friendship that even when I have them in other relationships, those bonds remain.  Also, even though she doesn’t have any supports with him in the game (which is criminal), I love the idea of a Sumia and Kellam friendship.  Kellam is someone who struggles to be noticed, Sumia’s someone who often seems to wish she could disappear.  The idea of them coming together and overcoming their obstacles together is really heartwarming to me.

What’s my Unpopular Opinion™ about this character?

She’s so much more capable than fandom wants to give her credit for.  Most people seem to write her off as stupid, passing over her as a brainless klutz in favor of the “genius” Cordelia -- but this is such a disservice to Sumia and her character.  She’s a fantastic fighter if given the chance, outrunning and outmaneuvering enemies, and while the game loves to play her off as comic relief, she’s a character with interesting, thoughtful support conversations whose life clearly doesn’t revolve around getting a man’s attention.  She’s her own person with hopes and dreams, hobbies and interests, unique skills and charming quirks, and bothering to get to know her really allows her to shine.

And personally, I don’t think she’s actually that clumsy.  Sure, she can be a little scatterbrained sometimes, but even the smartest and most capable people can be; when she has too many things to juggle she slips up in comic ways, but when push comes to shove she’s incredibly capable; if she weren’t, she never would have been able to rescue Chrom at the Longfort (sometimes I think people forget that she’s the one who swept in and got him clear of the javelins).

(And for a bonus unpopular opinion: I hate Cordelia and Sumia as a ship.  Cordelia is so mean to Sumia in their supports, banning Sumia from telling her flower fortunes because she personally doesn’t see value in them -- she doesn’t even bother trying to understand what Sumia’s doing or why, she just decides that her own way is the only right way, which is not how friends should act; putting them in a relationship is out of the question for me.)

What’s one thing I wish would have happened with this character in canon?

Why does she have so few supports?  It’s not fair that she can so easily end up alone because the game limits her options so much; aside from Chrom, she has the fewest marriage options, but unlike him she doesn’t have an auto-marriage after a certain point.  It’s not fair that the game treated her that way, and I wish canon had given her more supports, platonic and romantic both.  Again, seeing her with Kellam would have been incredible, and I really wish they’d bothered to give her a support chain with Maribelle, too, considering how Maribelle treats her early on; it would have been amazing to see them work things out.

and you know I was wondering if people forgot my favorite Fates character

How do I feel about this character?

I have never played Fates.  I know about these games purely through fandom osmosis.  And yet I will say, in no uncertain terms, that Takumi is my absolute favorite Fates character. Fallen Takumi is still one of my very few units at +10 merges in Heroes because I love him that much.  And it’s kind of hilarious how it came to this because it’s kind of Heroes’ fault that I’m in this situation. 

I remember when the game first launched how much of a pain he was in the early Arena before Skill Inheritance was a thing, and how the only reliable counter I had for him was Hector because I’d never gotten Takumi myself.  And then one day he randomly showed up in a summon, and I was so excited I ran off to train him immediately...and realized as I did that this guy has some massive self-esteem problems.  It’s what got me interested in him in the first place, enough to do some digging in the wikis, and I kind of fell in love with his character: he’s smart, he’s capable, but he has a massive inferiority complex since he’s grown up in the shadow of his older brother -- something Corrin’s return manages to make worse, since everyone kind of loses their minds over it and pushes him down and away despite the fact that he’s the only one being sensible and questioning whether they can really trust Corrin after they were brought up in Nohr.  While he has an attitude problem that needs to be addressed (though it’s nowhere near as bad as Felix’s), he can get better and gain confidence in himself and his abilities...but in Conquest, his fate is an absolutely tragic one, where his self-doubt and anger allow Anankos a foothold, something to prey upon, and ultimately lead to his loss of control, loss of self, and loss of life.  His story just really hits me in the heart, kind of like Lyon, and I just want to see him grow and overcome his doubts. 

Who do I ship this character with romantically?

Okay so this is probably where my not having played the game is going to bite me but I have no idea. There are so many characters in Fates and I don’t even know half of them.  I know Leo is a popular partner for him but I’ve never really seen the chemistry there so I can’t say that’s for me; I could always cheat and say I ship him with happiness because honestly that is true, I really do want him to be happy first and foremost, but I don’t have an actual character answer whoops.

Who is my brOTP for this character?

Azura.  I love the idea of the two of them coming together as friends, both haunted and hounded by nightmares and terrible thoughts they can’t seem to shake, and finding ways to support one another through it.  I get the feeling that Takumi might have treated Azura with some distrust early on, but despite the fact that she came from Nohr, I honestly think they could have ended up having a close bond in Hoshido growing up as they struggle with their own problems, and it would have been amazing to see them come together to overcome them.  Also, I love the idea of him and Sakura being close as siblings, with Takumi protecting Sakura and helping draw attention off her when she’s feeling especially shy while she tries to encourage him and give him a place where he can relax with and get away from all his issues for a little while, someone he can enjoy himself with and not have to think about his problems.

What’s my Unpopular Opinion™ about this character?

I actually don’t know what kind of popular opinions there are about Takumi so I have no idea what kind of unpopular opinion I could have.  Honestly I don’t see anywhere near enough to Takumi in general since he seems to be eclipsed by not only his older brother but the Nohrian royals in fandom-wide popularity; is it an unpopular opinion to want more people to give him a chance, rather than writing him off as just an angry nay-sayer?  Because honestly, he is the only one with any sense, since he’s the only one who thinks to distrust Corrin when they return.

What’s one thing I wish would have happened with this character in canon?

Okay so this is really really niche but I really wish they’d made Takumi Corrin’s half-brother rather than just a step-brother.  It honestly would have made so much sense?  Takumi’s the only other character who has the same kind of pale hair that Corrin canonically does, even if it’s not the exact same shade, so if that came from Mikoto it would fit perfectly with not only Corrin’s and Takumi’s hair color, but Sakura’s hair being that super pale pink compared to Hinoka’s vibrant red, which is what you’d probably expect from Ikona and Sumeragi after Ryoma inherited his father’s very dark hair.  I get the feeling they didn’t do it because they wanted to make all the royals available as romance options, which is both cheap and gross (and after what they did with Azura in Revelations it’s worse), but I think it would have been a really interesting plot element if they’d taken the time.

Give Me a Character  

[artzychic27]

Reverstrator

‘This is perfect, astoundingly perfect.’, Lila thought to herself, hunched over her computer. For some time, she’s noticed her control over the class was wavering, and it was all because of those two idiots from the stupid art club- Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Marc Anciel. They had some nerve, getting into her minions friends heads and pointing out flaws in her lies. It wasn’t her fault people wanted to hear so many of her stories; she just had trouble keeping up with them sometimes! Lila gave them a chance like she gave Marinette. Either believe her lies and keep their friends, or become social pariahs... They always choose the second option.

So, she went around claiming that Nathaniel stole some of her drawings, Marc plagiarized some of her essays, and she even threw in a couple of lies about Marinette, saying she convinced the two boys to go against her. But what Lila didn’t account for was Alix. She never really believed her lies either. Apparently, the famous skateboarder Lila told her about was dead so that got the pink-haired girl suspicious. Whenever Lila tried to make Marc, Nathaniel, or Marinette look like the bad guys, Alix would step in and act like their self-righteous white knight. Well, she won’t look like the hero tomorrow, her and Adrien. When those idiots in her class turn against those two, Lila will be free to ruin the comic book duo’s reputation as she pleased, she’ll have Adrien all to herself, and Marinette gets to suffer. Win-win-win! ‘Damn it!’, Lila mentally cursed as she glared at her computer screen, ‘Undo... Undo...’

How is photoshop so easy for some people?! And how can they edit these crappy romantic pictures without gagging? Especially this photo she snapped of Marc and Nathaniel a couple of weeks ago while they were on one of their dates. ‘Ugh.’ Lila nearly threw up when she took the photo, and this was taking up way too much of her time. Fixing the lighting, finding the right photos of Adrien and Alix, it was so frustrating! But it’ll all be worth it tomorrow when she finally puts those losers in their place

And hopefully, Marc or Nathaniel will get akumatized. Sure, this would be a stupid reason, but people have gotten Akumatized for less. Hawkmoth was a great guy and the Italian admired his work, but Akumatizing a baby, and a man obsessed with pigeons like thirty times? If she had the Butterfly miraculous, she would at least give the Akuma a gun. Then Ladybug would finally perish and be out of her hideous sausage hair.

‘Focus! You can fantasize about her death later.’

—

“Geez, Nath. I haven’t seen you look this happy in a long time,” Alix said as she poked her redhead friend who had a dreamy look on his face with her pencil “So, what’d you and Marc do last night?” she asked with a smirk, making Nathaniel snap out of his daze and blush madly, “Alix!” He looked around the cafeteria to make sure no one heard that

She snickered, “I’m kidding! Come on, tell me what happened. Your date had to have been amazing if you’re all happy and stuff.”

This is one of the things Nathaniel loved about Alix; she was a great listener. Growing up, no one really paid attention to him. Ever since his dad left, his mom has been busy running the diner, he always blended in with the background so no one at school noticed him either. It sucked until he met his first real friends

His mom took him to the Louvre when she noticed his interest in art and while there, he met a brunette girl running all around the museum while a ten-year-old boy tried to catch her. She was loud, energetic, and immediately took a liking to the young boy. Over time, she was able to pull him out of his comfort zone and he listened to whatever he had to say.

Then he met three other girls when he was ten- One with black hair, one blond, and one bluenette. The four of them met at a fine and performing arts fair and were probably some of the youngest people there to enter each of their work in the fair contests. His painting of the Seine took third, which wasn’t too bad. First and second were high school students. The three girls immediately went to congratulate him and asked all sorts of questions (The black-haired girl didn’t talk as much, though) For once in his life, Nathaniel had friends. Friends who noticed him and listened.

“Well, it wasn’t much,” he answered with a smile, “We just got ice cream from Andre’s, went to this new museum that just opened up, went to the park.”

“Didn’t it rain a little yesterday?”, she asked

“Yeah,” he blushes, “I may have used my blazer to cover us up-”, off Alix’s snicker, he playfully slapped her arm, “Alix, come on!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”, she continued laughing while Nathaniel gave her an annoyed look, “Go on, continue. But if you say anything else like that, don’t expect me to keep a straight face.”

Nathaniel rolled his eyes, “So I used my blazer as an umbrella,” he rephrased, “and well, we were just so close, and... God, he looked cute in the rain. So, I just leaned in and kissed him.”

Alix sighed dramatically, “Ah, to be gay and in love.”

“Uh, I’m bi,” he corrected with his arms folded

“Yes, and I’m aroace, Rose and Jules are lesbians and Mari’s pan as hell. These are things we know.” she said as she leaned back into her chair and propping her feet up on the lunch table, relaxed before perking up and asking, “Did’ja give him the necklace?!”

Without saying a word, Nathaniel pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture of him and Marc kissing in the rain. Alix zooms in on the silver half-heart necklaces around their necks. She remembered how Nathaniel begged her to help him look for a gift he could give to Marc on their date. She helped him in exchange for a drawing of her performing some skating tricks. It took hours to find a gift; this is one of the reasons why Alix doesn’t date. Finally, they settled for a simple, but sweet silver heart necklace and Alix had never been so relieved to see jewelry before.

Alix couldn’t help but let out an out-of-character squeal at the sight of the picture. Her excitement turned to bitterness when she looked at something else that made her narrow her eyes “Where’s she going?”

Nathaniel follows her gaze and glared at the Italian girl leaving the cafeteria, “Don’t know. Maybe she’s just looking for more people to buy her lunch.”

“Or carry all of her stuff.”

“Or carry her.”

“Or build her a palanquin.”

“How about a monument made out of solid gold?”

At that last one, the two best friends laughed

“Lying skeeze,” she muttered, “I’m glad the others are sorta taking what she says with a grain of salt, but she’s still got them wrapped around her talons. Especially Bustier and Damocles.”

Nathaniel rolled his eyes at the mention of his teacher and principal, “Ugh, don’t get me started on those two. I almost got detention because Lie-la claimed that I stole her ‘masterpiece’. Thanks again for backing me up.”

Alix responded with a nod, “Yeah, but it’s bull that she didn’t even get in trouble. Claimed it was a problem with her long-term memory or some shit, and Bustier ate it up!”, she exclaimed, “God, we’re surrounded by idiots. How long do you think she’s gonna last?”

Nathaniel pondered before answering, “I give her one more week. She’s exposed by an Akuma who’s after her for lying about them or one of their friends.”

Alix nodded, “Three days. Truth akuma who just blasts people at random and she gets hit, so she’s forced to tell the truth. Put that in your comic”

Nathaniel reaches into his messenger bag and pulls out his sketchbook, “Maybe something like... Lady or Lord Justice?” He pulls out a pencil and begins sketching on a blank sheet

“Truth fairy?”

“Lie-on Tamer?”

Alix shook her head, “Now that just sounds like a bad pun.”

“Akumas have dumb names,” Nathaniel said with an eye roll, “If anything, this is better than what Hawkmoth comes up with.”, he gets back to work on the sketch

“... Can’t argue with you there, man.”

—

“Come o-o-o-on, Marc! Tell us everything!”, Aurore urged the shy writer as the group of four made their way to Mme. Mendelieve’s class

“Who made the first move?”, Julian asked, smirking

Marc blushed, “Guys, keep your voices down.”

Mireille squealed, “Sorry, but you can’t just go on a date and not expect people to be all excited and ask what happened! So tell us!”

Marc loved these three to death and loved them like they were his sisters and brother, but sometimes they got just a little too much for him. When he first announced that he and Nathaniel were dating, the three of them wouldn’t leave him alone for weeks and constantly asked questions whenever they went out together

“Well, went out for ice cream, went to a museum we both like, and spent the rest of the day at the park before it rained.” He smiled fondly at the memory, “Nath actually used his blazer to cover us up.”

“Aww!”, Aurore and Julian cooed while Mireille squealed, “So romantic! Please tell me you kissed in the rain!”

When Marc tried to hide the blush forming on his cheeks, that was a good enough answer for his grinning friends

Julian clasped his hands together and crouched a little lower, “Please, please tell me you have photos!”

Marc laughed at his friend and pulled out his phone, “I do.” He shows them the screen and Aurore immediately grabs the phone out of his hand. Mireille and Julien huddle around her, “Oh my God! It’s like a scene from a movie!”, Mireille exclaimed before squinting her eyes, “Wait... Are you wearing the necklace now?!”

“Necklace?”

“He gave you what?”

Marc knows there’s no hiding it from the people who were very invested in his love life now. He slips his hand under the collar of his shirt and pulls out the little half-heart charm connected to a simple white cord. Marc was once again bombarded by questions

“Guys, can we do this after class? We’re gonna be late.”

Aurore let out an exaggerated groan but complied, “You better be prepared for any question we throw at you, Rainbow.” She said his nickname teasingly as the four of them made their way to class, but stopped to look and see Lila walking out of the locker room

“How long is she gonna be here?”, Julien questioned, his tone laced with venom, “I can’t take another minute of, ‘Oh, but all of her stories are real,’ ‘Don’t be so mean,’ ‘Lila’s hurt, don’t put any more pressure on her,’ ugh! Marc, I’ll say it again, your boyfriend and cousin’s class is full of idiots.”

“Well, their hearts are in the right place, they’re just being taken advantage of.”

“It’s been like three months since she, ‘Returned from Achu,’” Aurore said with finger quotes, “How has that lying fox not been exposed yet? Everything she says is full of holes!”

“It’s because whenever someone tries to point out her lies, she’ll play the victim and get sympathy,” Mireille said, disgusted, “It’s honestly just sickening listening to her fake crying.”

“Here, here,” Julian said in agreement, “I cannot wait for a truth Akuma to appear and just make her reveal everything so her classmates and that teacher will finally stop kissing the ground she walks on.”

“That would make for a pretty good Akuma,” Marc commended

“Hell yeah, it would.”

—

‘One for the soulless redhead. And one for that... “boy.”‘, the Italian sneered as she slipped an envelope into the vent of Marc’s locker, ‘Let’s see if they’re still together after this. Once Alix is out of the picture and Adrien only has me to talk to, I’ll ruin those losers’ lives. They should know damn well than to cross Lila Diabla Rossi.’

--

Nathaniel felt like someone was burning holes in the back of his head... Or rather the side. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he moved his bangs to the side, acting as if he was just scratching the side of his face, and saw Lila glaring at him before quickly looking to the front. ‘God, what’s her problem?”, he thought to himself. ‘Probably gonna spout out more bullshit about how I stole her work. Heh. Good luck you vursht-kherd ligner.’

The bell rang, ‘Finally. I get to see my Rainbow.’, Nathaniel thought as he gathered his books in his bag. He was about to grab his sketchbook, only for it to be snatched by Lila. ‘Great, now I have to disinfect it.’

“Oh, Nathaniel! I’m so sorry about what happened!”, she “apologized” in that over-the-top sweet voice. “I just have so many problems with my memory because while I was helping disabled children in America, I fell off of a ladder while trying to get their frisbee off the roof of one of their homes, and I hit my head.”

‘Maybe that isn’t a lie, because that would explain so much.’, “Okay, so can I have my sketchbook back?”, he asked in a bored tone

“And I draw Ladybug all the time because we are besties after all!”, she exclaimed

“Great, so my sketchbook?”, he holds out his hand

“And your little drawings look so much like mine, and I got concerned. I’m sure you understand, right?”

“Can I have my sketchbook back?”, He repeated, now very annoyed, and even more when Lila sent him a smirk she didn’t think he noticed. ‘This bitch is trying to make me lose my temper or something?’ Then she just started talking again

“I know how awful it is for an artist’s work to be stolen! I actually witnessed art-theft first-hand, so you get why I accused you of stealing what I thought was mine. I just didn’t want to believe that you would steal a fellow artist’s work.”

‘God, strike me now.’

“But if you stole it out of jealousy, I would completely understand.”

“... Excuse me?”

‘Got him.’ “Well, let’s face it. Your art style is a little overused and no offense, but, not very original. So, if you were jealous of my drawing style, then there are no hard feelings. You’re still an amazing artist. While I’ve studied and perfected my work over the years, you-”

“Oh meyn got! Zey shtil!”

The students who were packing away their materials and getting ready to head out turned their heads towards the redhead who was shouting furiously in Yiddish

“Ir zent nisht a farshiltn kinstler! An anoying, lignerish hur iz vos ir zent!”

Alix, who actually understood a little of what Nathaniel was saying, tried not to snicker

“Aun gebn mir meyn sketshbook, ir vursht-kherd tokhes!” At that last sentence, Nathaniel snatched the sketchbook out of her hands, then he looked around and saw the shocked or confused looks on his classmates' and teacher’s faces. He ducked his head down, trying to look as small as possible right now

Breaking the silence was Alya, “What did you say?”

“It... It was...” Nathaniel stammered and his face turned as red as his hair.

Max turned to the little robot hovering beside him, “Markov, can you translate what Nathaniel just said?”

“Certainly, Max,” a little pixelated hourglass appeared the screen on the little robot’s face before disappearing with a little ‘PING!’, “Oh my.”

“Oh, what did he say?”, Lila asked as innocently as possible.

“I’m not comfortable repeating the last two, but he did tell you to shut up, and that you have sausage hair.”

“Oh, crap,” Nathaniel muttered

Lila started rubbing her eyes to make it look like she’s crying right now. “Nathaniel, how could you be so rude?! I was only trying to help you!”, Alya and Mylene went over to console her, not noticing the smirk on her face. The classmates that were on Lila’s side sent the redhead glares and disappointed looks

Mme. Bustier frowned, “Nathaniel, go to the principal’s office, now!”, before Nathaniel could respond, Marinette spoke, “You can’t do that. It’s the end of the day, so you can’t tell Nathaniel what to do,” she sent her enabler of a teacher a sneer

“W-well, I-”

“Check the rule book!”, Alix snapped, “Students are out of teachers’ jurisdiction as soon as school hours are over. So, you can’t send him to detention.”

“But he called me horrible things!”, Lila wailed

“Well, it’s not his fault,” Juleka whispered, but everyone heard and turned their heads toward her, “... He has bipolar disorder, and sometimes he just... Yeah.” Rose takes over for her, “And you did take his sketchbook, Lila. I saw you snatch it off the table before he could grab it.”

“W... Well, I just wanted to see it!” She claimed

“Doesn’t give you the right to snatch it,” Nathaniel murmured. Marinette walked over and took his hand, “Let’s go.” The five art club students made their way to the door, but Mme. Bustier called out, “Hold on! Nathaniel still needs to be punished for using such language in class!”

Alix rolled her eyes, “Did anyone in the class, besides Markov, understand what he said?”, all she got in response were head shakes and some muttering, “Did anyone hear any curse words?”, once again, head shakes. She turned to Mme. Bustier and shrugged, “As long as he doesn’t say it in French, I don’t really think you can punish him. He said it in a language none of us knew, so you can’t really punish him for cursing in class.”

Bustier’s face turned red in embarrassment. A student just corrected her in front of her own class. Before she could say more, the five of them were gone.

—

“Nath, that mouth!”, Alix cackled, “That was priceless!”

Marinette smiled, “I wish I knew more Chinese so I can cuss Lila out in class. The only curse word I know is húndàn.”

Nathaniel blushed, “Thanks for helping me out back there, you guys.”

“Of course, Nath!” Rose hugged him, “Lila stole your sketchbook, you had every right to be upset.” Juleka nodded in agreement

Nathaniel smiled before he realized something, “I left my colored pencils in my locker.” He reluctantly pulled away from Rose’s legendary hug and ran to the locker room, “I’ll catch up with you guys later!”

Once Nathaniel walked into the locker room, he made his way down the row of lockers until he got this. Right between Alix and Nino’s lockers. He put in the combination on the purple lock he brought from home since the school has terrible security. After Marinette’s near expulsion, some of the students bought locks for their easy-to-open lockers so no one could frame them for theft. Damocles tried to stop them from doing this but he was severely outnumbered, and the fact that some of the students had lawyers for parents who could sue the school for not protecting their children’s items made him concede

Once his locker door was open, an envelope fell out as he went to reach for his pencil face. Furrowing his brow, Nathaniel picked up the mysterious envelope he didn’t remember being in his locker. ‘Maybe it’s my report card?... But it’s the middle of the quarter.’, he thought, ‘And why would they put it in my locker?’ With a shrug, Nathaniel opened the envelope and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. He unfolded the paper, and his eyes widened in shock. His jaw hung open, his hands were shaking, and his breathing became unsteady

In his hands was a photo of Marc and Adrien, but not just any photo. It looked like someone took a photo from a distance, but you could make out every detail. The two of them were sitting on a bench in the park, hand in hand, bodies pressed together, and kissing. Nathaniel wanted to cry, to punch Adrien, to throw up. He looked over the picture even though his brain told him not to, but he had to look for something. Watermarks, any signs of smeared paint, anything!... Nothing.

“N-no... No... He wouldn’t... H-he...” He crumples the paper and throws it to the floor, then he makes his way over to the door. When he opens the door, he froze at the sight. Adrien and Marc were walking the stairs, talking. Adrien must’ve said something funny because Marc started laughing. “... Oh my God...” A tear streamed down his heartbroken face which contorted into a scowl. Not able to take another second of this, Nathaniel charged out of the lockers room and ran to the doors, bumping into people along the way, but he didn’t care. He just needed to leave.

__

Marc laughed, “Oh my God! He really cursed Lila out in Yiddish?”

“Yeah, it was pretty funny,” Adrien chuckled, “If I knew we could do that, I would’ve cursed Lila out weeks ago. But yeah, if he seems a little off in art club, it’s because of Lila.”

“Thanks again, Adrien,” Marc smiled

“No problem. I’ll see you around Marc.”, and he left

Marc still couldn’t believe his sweet boyfriend cursed someone out. But, it was Lila, so he could understand that. He made his way into the locker room and walked over to his locker. He pulled a silver key out of his pocket and uses it on the lock he bought for his locker. Marc’s always been a little protective of his stuff, but after what happened with Marinette and... Her... He and most of the students took action and bought locks for their lockers.

As he opened his locker, he noticed a crumpled ball of paper on the floor. Before Marc could go to pick it up, out of peripheral vision, he saw an envelope fall out of his locker and land on the floor. Marc picked up the envelope he didn’t remember being in his locker before and looked over it to see if anyone write anything like their name. With a shrug, Marc opened the envelope and found a folded piece of paper. With some hesitation, thinking it might be something bad like a photo of something gory or inappropriate, he pulled it out and slowly unfolded it... It was worse.

His widened green eyes scanned over the photo of Nathaniel and Alix, holding hands as they kissed on a bench in the park. He dropped the photo and sat on one of the benches, looking pale and shaking. Then he brought his gloved hands to his face and started crying. “What did I do wrong?”, he asked himself

__

“Anger, despair. Both caused by an untrustworthy partner, and those who turned out to be false friends. So hard to pick.” Hawkmoth beckoned a butterfly that landed in the palm of his hand. Once covered by his other hand, the butterfly was consumed by dark magic and turned black. Hawkmoth released the Akuma, and it fluttered away, “Fly away my little Akuma, go towards the one who feels the most pain!”

__

The akuma fluttered over to the school and found its target. Sitting on the steps of the school with his head tucked into his knees was Nathaniel. And while he could sense Marc’s sadness, Nathaniel’s feelings of rage and betrayal were too good to pass up. So, it dived down and flew into the half heart necklace turning it black. He looked up, revealing the Akuma symbol over his face

__

Once Hawkmoth felt Nathaniel’s emotions, he smirked, “Welcome back Evillustrator. I can assure you, you’ll have your reven-”, Hawkmoth stopped mid-sentence, a look of confusion on his face, “What’s this?”

__

Marc lifted his head up from his hands, revealing an Akuma symbol over his tear-stained face. And his necklace was now pitch black

Hawkmoth rubbed his temples, obviously overwhelmed by the emotions these two boys were feeling. Anger, sadness, betrayal, disbelief, “Well, there’s no need to choose now. Reverstrator, I am Hawkmoth. With my help, you won’t be separated from the one you love again, no one will come between you. All I ask in return is that you bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous.”

“Yes, Hawkmoth,” they say in unison. Once the Akuma symbols disappear, the purple and black mist bubbled up from their necklaces and surrounded them. The purple mist that covered Nathaniel went towards the front doors of the school, phased through, and made its way through the courtyard, startling a few students, then it went into the locker room and combined with the mist that covered Marc

The mist lifted up revealing a tall akuma, around Kim’s height, who looks like a fusion of Evillustrator and Reverser. The left side of his face is purple while the left is black, and his lipstick, while the same colors are inverted. The left side of his short-sleeved hoodie is white with black slanted stripes, the hood is black, he has black sleeves with white stripes under the hoodie, and he has white fingerless gloves which reveal black fingers. The other side is inverted. On the front of his hoodie is a black and white circle with the primary colors on it, but one is half yellow and half black. His pants are half black and white, he has a black boot on his right foot and red on his left. His hair is similar to Evillustrator’s but is more downward, the purple tips at the end are now black and white, and he has a black beret. Two noticeable traits about this Akuma is that he has two forearms on each upper arm, and he has four eyes, but two are closed at the moment while the top eyes, which are turquoise, are narrowed.

“I’m coming for you, Agreste.” He summoned Evillustrator’s tablet and pen in his hands

__

“Man, why isn’t Nath texting back?”, Alix questioned as she continued texting Nathaniel for the sixth time, “He’s been gone for like five minutes.”

“Yeah, and Marc isn’t here either.”, Marinette said, “You think they got... Sidetracked?”

Rose giggled, “Maybe.”

M. Haberkorn intervened, an amused smile on his face, “Now let’s not assume anything. They’re probably helping each other look for something.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”, Juleka said, a hint of playfulness in her monotone voice

Alix shook her head amusedly, “Alright, they get three more minutes, then we gotta go looking for them.” The three other girls nodded in agreement before they heard some screams coming from the courtyard, “Must be another Akuma.”, Alix said. The students and the teacher peaked out of the window and saw the Akuma running rampant around the courtyard

“WHERE IS HE?! WHERE’S ADRIEN AGRESTE?!”

“Who’s that?”, Juleka asked, shocked at the appearance of the enraged Akuma

“Damn, Hawkmoth,” Alix whispered, “you’ve made some weird-looking ones, but this one is just... God.”

“And why does he have Evillustrator’s tablet?”, Marinette piped up when she noticed the familiar Akuma weapon on one of the arms, and in the akuma’s hand was the drawing pen. She took a closer look at the Akuma and noticed a necklace with a heart charm around his neck. The more Marinette took in his appearance, the more she noticed how similar it looked to Evillustrator and Reverser, “Guys, I think that’s Marc and Nathaniel!”

The four looked at her in bewilderment before she urged for them to take a closer look at the Akuma. “It is them!”, Rose exclaimed

“They’re fused like Oblivio,” Juleka said, “How did this happen?”

M. Haberkorn shook his head solemnly, “I don’t know. But the four you need to get out of here before someone gets hurt.” As if proving his point, a loud crash was heard followed by more screaming. “Wait until I say it’s safe.” The four of them nodded. He made his way over to the door and carefully opened it. Peaking his head out, he saw the Akuma was erasing walls to classrooms, trying to find Adrien. His back was turned to the art classroom. “Alright, hurry out,” he whispered

They nodded and quickly ran out of the classroom; M. Haberkorn went to help any of the other students evacuate. Alix, Marinette, Juleka, and Rose ran through the crowd of panicking students, but Marinette stopped suddenly and ran in the direction of the locker rooms while Alix, Juleka, and Rose made it out

She opened her purse, allowing Tikki to fly out, “How do you think this happened?”, Marinette asked the tiny goddess, “I don’t know, but this Akuma is a combination of Reverser and Evillustrator, so you need to be careful. You remember how they were last time.”

Marinette nodded at the memory. Marc and Nathaniel were reckless, hostile, and apathetic as Akumas. Nathaniel almost killed Chloe with a buzz saw, and Marc nearly caused a meteor shower that could’ve destroyed Paris. Fused together, there was no telling what destruction they could cause. Before Marinette could say the phrase and transform, she noticed a crumpled piece of paper on the floor. Curious, she picked it up and opened it, revealing the photo of Marc and Adrien kissing

“What the?”, she whispered. Tikki’s eyes widened, “Well that answers Nathaniel’s akumatization, but what about Marc?” Marinette shrugged, but then noticed a piece of paper by the bench. She picked it up and saw that it was a photo of Nathaniel and Alix kissing. “There’s no way these are real. Marc and Nathaniel would never cheat on each other, Alix is Nathaniel’s best friend, she’s aromantic, and Adrien’s dating Kagami!”, she narrowed her eyes at the fake photos, “Someone must have wanted this to happen, t-to get them to break up, or maybe even deliberately try to get them Akumatized.”

“Well, you can figure this out later!”, Tikki told her chosen

“You’re right.”

TIKKI, SPOTS ON!

__

“He’s obviously not here, you jerk!”, a voice that sounded a lot like Reverser’s exclaimed

“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!”, Reverstrator shouted, “Fine. I’ll go look somewhere else.”

“NO! We’re going after Alix first! You let her get away!”

“What’s your deal with her?”, he growled, “She didn’t do anything!”

“Neither did Adrien!”

“Oh, of course, you take his side!”, Reverstrator exclaimed as he drew a boxing glove that punched the front doors open. Before he could walk out, Ladybug’s yoyo wrapped around his waist and flung him into a wall, “Oh, great. You’re here.”

Ladybug retracted her yoyo and spun it, preparing to use it as a shield, “The feeling is mutual! Marc, Nathaniel, whatever happened-”

“DON’T SAY HIS NAME! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT RIGHT NOW!”, he shouted, then drew seven swords, all aimed at Ladybug

From her hiding spot under the stairs, Lila watched the scene unfold with a twisted, unsettling, sadistic grin on her face. “Come on, do it!”, she whispered

Ladybug dodged each sword, quick and easy. They embedded themselves into the courtyard floor and formed small cracks. Lila stomped her foot in frustration and cursed out the Akuma for his failure to kill the spotted heroine, “Stupid akumas can’t do anything right!” Caught up in her ranting, Lila doesn’t notice Aurore standing a few feet away, but still in earshot, recording the battle and her. The blonde weather girl looked appalled.

“HOLD STILL, YOU PEST!”, Reverstrator was becoming angrier and angrier every time Ladybug dodged his drawn weapons. Swords and axes? Avoided and embedded into the ground. Missiles? Uses her yoyo to fling each one into the sky so they don’t destroy Paris. Boxing glove? Jump over it and just let it fly through the holes in the school walls. As she prepared to dodge more attacks, Ladybug noticed Reverstrator holding his head, and it sounded like he was muttering to himself

“God, you suck at this.”

“Well, why don’t you try it if you’re so great at it?”

“Maybe I will!”

“Don’t you dare- AH!”

Reverstrator seemed to go limp above the waist for a moment and stops moving. Ladybug slowly approached him, but stopped when he suddenly straightened up, and she grimaced when a few bones made an audible crack. His turquoise eyes closed and two monochrome eyes below them open up. Evillustrator’s tablet and pen disappear and are replaced with four monochrome paper airplanes sitting in Reverstrator’s hands.

“Let’s try this again! Your powers are useless now! REVERSION!”, Reverstrator hurled the four paper airplanes at Ladybug who acted quickly and shielded herself with her yoyo, blocking each one, “Are you KIDDING ME?!”

“Not so easy, is it?” Evillustrator’s voice snarked

“Shut it!”, Reverstrator yelled to the voice in his head as the glowing Akuma symbol appeared over his face

“Reverstrator, focus!”, Hawkmoth yelled, “I want my Miraculous!”

“Forget this!”

“No!”

Reverstrator’s body convulsed a bit, and as the monochrome eyes closed, the turquoise ones opened, “I’m going after Adrien,” Evillustrator's said, speaking through Reverstrator. His tablet and pen reappeared, which he used to draw a ball and chain around Ladybug’s ankle, preventing her from moving

“Don’t go after the boy!” Hawkmoth commanded, now concerned for Adrien’s safety

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t,” Reverstrator snapped, “You don’t even care who lives or dies when you send out a damn Akuma every week!”

“Your prime objective is to take the Miraculous!”

“Sure. Right after I give that rich boy what he deserves!” He drew a jetpack on his back and took off. Ladybug wrapped the string of her yoyo around the anklet, and it snapped open due to the strength of the magic weapon. Before she could swing away, Ladybug noticed Lila glaring up towards where Reverstrator flew away. ‘Later,’ she thought to herself before swinging off after Reverstrator.

__

Adrien, Nathalie, and the Gorilla sit through some traffic. Nathalie scrolls through her tablet, “You have a piano lesson in two hours, then tomorrow after school, another photoshoot...”

Adrien just zones out as she drones on in her monotonous voice. Plagg pokes his head out of his pocket and gives him a bored look as he munches on a piece of cheese. Adrien feels himself dozing off when suddenly- “ADRIEN AGRESTE!”

Nathalie put a protective hand on Adrien’s shoulder and ushered for him to duck down. She looked out the window, seeing nothing but cars and a few people getting out of there to see what’s going on. It was quiet for a moment when suddenly, an arm penetrates the roof, making Adrien let out a yelp as the hand grabbed his head, two more burst through and grab his face. Nathalie reacts, hits the first arm with her tablet, making it recoil, and grabs the other two arms wrists, “Adrien, run!”

With a nod, Adrien bolted out of the car and ran down the sidewalk, catching a glimpse of the Akuma as he rounded a corner and made his way into an alley. Plagg flew out of his pocket, eyes widened, “Did you see that guy?!”

Adrien nodded, “Hawkmoth is officially twisted.”

PLAGG, CLAWS OUT!

__

Reverstrator finally releases himself from Nathalie’s grip and runs off to find Adrien, “WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Lookin’ for me?!”, Chat Noir’s boot made contact with his stomach, sending him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him, “I know I’m no Adrien Agreste, but you gotta admit, I’m way better.”, he smirked

Reverstrator got back up, “That, we can agree on. Adrien Agreste is a backstabbing two-timer who steals people in relationships!”

“What are you talking about?!”

Chat Noir furrowed his brown in confusion, and he didn’t have time to react when a fire hose drawn by Reverstrator sprayed him with a powerful blast of water. Chat backed away, grabbed his baton, and spun it around so it acted like a shield, deflecting the blast

“Marc, Nathaniel! Stop!”, Ladybug yelled as she dropped in and wrapped her yoyo around Reverstrator

“Don’t call me that! I’m Reverstrator now!” Suddenly, his torso started rotating around rapidly, unwinding Ladybug’s yoyo. Chat surged towards him with his staff ready. Reverstrator grabbed the staff with one set of hands and used the other set to grab Chat Noir by his waist then fling him into the streets. Ladybug threw her yoyo at him, but he managed to catch it just an inch away from his head. Grabbing the string of his yoyo with all of his hands, Reverstrator kept a tight grip as he spun his torso around and then flung Ladybug right into Chat Noir when he abruptly let go of the yoyo

Reverstrator got out his pen and drew a hole on his tablet, then a second later, one appears beneath the heroes and they fall in, “See? That’s how you get rid of heroes!”

“...”

“Oh, silent treatment, huh?!”

“Reverstrator! Why didn’t you take their Miraculous before sending them into the hole?!”, Hawkmoth asked, enraged

Reverstrator rolled his eyes, “They can’t get out of there. I’ll come back for them later.” He leaped onto a roof and made his way to the Agreste mansion

__

“Oh, I hope Marinette’s okay,” Rose voiced her concern as she, Juleka, and Alix walked back into the school when they saw that Reverstrator was gone

Juleka places a hand on her shoulder, “Maybe she just got separated while we were running. I’m sure she’s okay.”

Alix agreed, “Yeah, she can take care of herself. Maybe she just hid in the locker room.” The three of them walk into the locker room and look around for the pigtailed girl, “Marinette?!” She called out, “Marinette?!”

Juleka knocks on a few lockers, “Marinette? You in here?”

Rose walks out of the bathroom and shakes her head, “I don’t think she’s in here.”

Alix furrowed her brow in confusion, “Okay, maybe she got swept up in a group. Jules, you might be right about her getting separated.” Juleka smiled at that

Rose sighed with relief and then sat down on the bench, “Well, that’s good.” She felt her foot brush up against something and looked down to see the photo face-down on the floor, “Hm?” She picked up the photo, flipped it over, and her eyes widened in shock, “... Alix? Could you take a look at this?” She hands the photo over to Alix. The pink-haired girl gave the photo an incredulous look, “WHAT THE HELL?!” She stomps over to Juleka who’s looking down at something in her hands, “Are you seeing this?! I did not kiss Nathaniel!... Jules?” Juleka shows her and Rose what she’s looking at.

Rose gasped, “That’s why Reverstrator is after Adrien!”

“So if Nathaniel saw this photo, then Marc must’ve seen the other one.” Juleka turns to Alix, “So Reverstrator might be after you next.”

“But I didn’t kiss Nath!” She exclaimed, “And Marc definitely didn’t kiss Adrien!” She takes the photo out of Juleka’s hand and examines both photos, “These had to have been photoshopped, o-or something!”

Rose notices something on one of the photos, “Hey, what’s that?” She points to an orange smudge in the corner of the photo of Alix and Nathaniel kissing, “Looks like nail polish.” Juleka smirks, “Or Nathaniel uses hair dye.”

“Wait.” Alix narrows her eyes at the nail polish stain, “There’s only one person in the whole class who wears orange nail polish.”

“LILA!”, Rose and Juleka said at the same time

Alix nodded, “It makes sense. They know she’s lying too, so of course, she’d pull this shit! We gotta tell them before they go after Adrien!” She’s about to head out of the locker room, but Juleka stops her by placing a hand on her shoulder, “But what about you?” “I’ll be fine. It’s Lila you should be worried about when they find out what she did.” After that, she stormed out of the locker room with Juleka and Rose behind her.

__

Ladybug and Chat Noir were still in the hole. Ladybug tried using her yoyo to get out, but there was nothing for it to wrap around outside the hole. Chat Noir then wrapped his arms around Ladybug and extended his staff so that they rose out of the hole

“Nice thinking, Chat.” Ladybug commended as Chat shortened his staff

Chat smiled, “Thank you, m’lady. Now let’s go!” He and Ladybug vaulted and swung away

__

Reverstrator landed on top of a roof and just stands there, “... Why can’t I move? What are you doing?!”

“We need to talk right now!”, Reverser’s voice shouted

“I don’t want to!”, he yelled back while covering his ears, hoping that will block out his voice

“Well, I’m not letting you go until we talk!... Please?”

Reverstrator sighed, “Fine.” The monochrome eyes slowly opened, and immediately a few tears pour out as Reverstrator has a conversation with himself

Reverser speaks through Reverstrator, “... Why would you do this? W-what did I do wrong? I... I love you and you just...” One of his right hands wipes away the tears. Evillustrator speaks through Reverstrator, “I could ask you the same thing. I-I don’t know why you’re mad, but you really hurt me.”

“How did I hurt you? You kissed Alix!”

“W-what?! I never kissed Alix!... Is this why you’re mad at her? You think we kissed?”

“... Yeah.”

“No! That never happened! And I saw the photo of you kissing Adrien!” The turquoise eyes start crying, “Then I saw you and him laughing. An-and I just-”

“Well, that’s only because he was telling me what you said to Lila in class! I-I would never cheat on you. I love you...”

“I’d never cheat on you either, and Alix would never hurt you like that.” Reverstrator’s right hands wipe away the tears forming in the monochrome eyes

“I’d never do something like that to you... But where did the photo come from?”

The turquoise eyes narrowed when they noticed Alix, Juleka, and Rose walking down the sidewalk, “Let’s find out.”

__

“When I see that girl tomorrow in class, I’m gonna-!”

Reverstrator dropped down right in front of the three girls, startling them and cutting off Alix’s rant, “ALIX!” Upon seeing the menacing glare he was giving their friend, Juleka and Rose shielded Alix from the Akuma

“You better explain why there’s a picture of you kissing Nathaniel!”, Reverser shouted through the Akuma and summoned two paper airplanes in the two left hands

Alix gently nudged Juleka and Rose out of the way and approached the Akuma, but the two girls held onto their friend’s arms for protection, “Nath, Marc...” Hearing Reverstrator let out a low growl, she corrected herself, “Reverstrator, those photos are fake! I never kissed Nathaniel, and Adrien never kissed Marc! We wouldn’t do that!”

Before Reverstrator could say anything, Juleka spoke, “Lila faked those photos. W-we found some of her nail polish smeared on the back of one of them

“That... That...”

“Lignerish shlang!”

Without saying another word, Reverstrator crushed the paper airplanes in his hands and ran off to find the lying Italian who nearly destroyed a beautiful relationship. Alix called out to him, but he was already gone, leaping over the city once again. A second later, Ladybug and Chat Noir land by them. “Are you okay?” Ladybug asked as she checks to see if Reverstrator hurt them in any way

Alix nodded, “Yeah, we’re fine. But it’s Lila that you gotta save.”

Ladybug tried not to show her disgust at the mention of the liar, but Chat Noir wasn’t holding back, “What’d she do now?” he asked bitterly

“’Now?’“ Rose parroted

Chat continued, “Yeah. This wouldn’t be the first time she’s pissed off an Akuma.”

“Chat,” Ladybug hissed, “Not now.” She turned back to Alix, “So what happened?”

“Lila photoshopped a photo so it would look like Marc kissed Adrien, and Nathaniel kissed me,” she explained. Off the heroes’ looks of disgust, she continued, “Yeah, and all because they knew that she was lying!”

Ladybug took a sharp inhale. That liar could ruin her life all she wanted, but rope her friends and cousin into this? There will be hell to pay, “Alright. I guess we have to save her again. The three of you better get to safety.” Then she and Chat swung and vaulted after the Akuma as the three girls just stood there

“We’re gonna see how this goes, aren’t we?” Juleka asked after a few seconds of silence

Alix nodded, “Hell, yeah!” She exclaimed as they began springing in the direction of Reverstrator and the heroes went, “Hey, if we’re lucky, Lila might be exposed in front of everyone.”

__

Lila was walking on air. Marc and Nathaniel were probably beating that pesky bug to a bloody pulp right now. She was a little miffed that they didn’t slice her open with one of those swords or reverse her powers so she’d be useless as always. And hopefully, when she fails, those two f*gs will become public enemy numbers one and two. She could spin a whole sob story about how they were jealous of her relationship with Ladybug and they’ll be banished from Paris. Maybe she could even throw in something about Marinette and those d*kes she hangs out with. They are close; maybe get the idea of them working for Hawkmoth into those idiots’ heads-

“So, what do you think of doing another interview tomorrow?”

‘Ugh. Remember your fanbase, remember your fanbase,’ Lila reminded herself every time she hung out with Alya, “Alya, that’d be wonderful! I’d love to!” She exclaimed, before quickly dropping her expression, “But I just hope I’ll be okay to do it tomorrow. I’m just so worried about my bestie getting hurt!”

Alya nodded, “Yeah, Reverstrator doesn’t seem like the type of Akuma to hold back. But, I’m sure she’ll be fine... Though, I wonder why Marc and Nathaniel got akumatized in the first place.”

Lila internally smirked, ‘Perfect,’ “You don’t think it was because of me, do you?”

Alya immediately went to comfort her, “Girl, I’m sure it was just something else. Maybe stressed out from their comic, or-”

“But we haven’t been on the best terms lately, and-” She choked back a sob, “I can’t help but feel that I’m the reason they were Akumatized... Or... Maybe they were jealous that I’m friends with Ladybug?”

Alya frowned, “Well then, that’s just not right. Once they go back to normal, we’re gonna confront them about this!”

“ROSSI!”

Parisians cleared the way as Reverstrator dropped down from above and landed in the middle of Pont des Arts. “It’s time to reveal every single one of your lies!” Four monochrome paper airplanes materialized in his hands, “REVERSION!”

Lila ducked out of the way as the planes came for her, and they instead hit a few pedestrians who started revealing everything they’ve lied about, “I-I didn’t do anything! Please, whatever happened, I can help you!” She whined while throwing in a few tears for good measure

“ENOUGH!” Evillustrator’s pen materialized in one of his left hands, and the tablet on his right arm. He began drawing, “You won’t try to tear us apart ever again!” A buzz-saw appeared beside him and spun its way towards the two girls. Not taking any chances, Lila grabbed Alya and put her in front of her like a shield

“LILA?!”, Alya screamed as she struggled to get out of her hold, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” The more she struggled, the more Lila’s nails dug into her skin and she let out a pained scream

“Call it off! Erase it!”, “I’m doing it!” The buzz saw was erased from existence, and Alya was safe. Lila pushed Alya to the ground then ran away. Reverstrator was about to run after her, but when he saw the look of betrayal on Alya’s face, he said to her, “I’d start looking for new friends if I were you.” And he ran after Lila, leaving Alya horrified at what just happened

‘How could she do that?’ She thought to herself, ‘She used me as a human shield, I-I could have died. Why would she do this?... I thought we were friends.’

Rousing her from her thoughts was the sound of a notification from her phone. She wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks and checked her phone. She furrowed her brow as she read what was on her screen. Aurore had made a post on her blog, Bug & Cat Chat. She wasn’t a fan of the blonde girl having a blog that rivaled her own and stole most of her viewers, but she kept tabs to see what she posted and how she could make the Ladyblog better. ‘Ladybug’s Supposed Bestie Roots for Akuma?’

__

Lila ran as fast as she could down the streets of Paris, but Reverstrator was faster. She dodged every paper plane, every sword, dagger, and flaming arrow, shoving pedestrians out of her way and almost getting them hit in the process. When the attacks stopped, Lila stopped running and took a few breaths.

“Damn it, Hawkmoth,” she cursed under her breath, “Control your freaks.” This moment of peace was cut short by a scream. Lila looked back and saw a car being tossed into the air and heading right for her. She leaped out of the way as the car hit the ground

“Lie-La~” Reverstrator called out, “It would be easier for everyone here if you just gave yourself up!” He started lifting another car

Lila rubbed her eyes to make it look like she’s crying, “I didn’t do anything! Why are you after me?!” She looked through her hands and saw people in the vicinity giving her wary looks, ‘Why are none of these idiots helping me?! Can’t they see I’m in danger?!’

“Mommy! That’s the girl who put the Ladyblogger in danger!” A little boy shouted

Lila looked again and saw many of the citizens scowling at or backing away from her. Some were even looking down at their phones. When she listened closely, she could clearly make out Alya’s panicked voice coming from their phones

‘Who the hell recorded that?!’

“Aurore got a video of her rooting for the Akuma!”

“She wanted Ladybug dead!”

“I bet she’s working for Hawkmoth!”

Lila scowled, ‘That blonde b*mbo!’ She put her hands behind her back and pinched her wrists to make herself cry, “I-I’d never do that! I’d never put Ladybug in danger!” Another car was thrown her way, she ran with Reverser hot on her tail

“IT’S NO USE RUNNING, LILA! JUST GIVE YOURSELF UP! EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS WHAT YOU’RE REALLY LIKE!”

Lila was about the round a corner, but Reverstrator grabbed her by the back of her jacket and held her up in the air, “It’s over! Now confess everything you’ve lied about!”

Even when her life was on the line, Lila would not own up to her lies, “I didn’t do anything wrong! I don’t know why you’re after me, but-”

“ENOUGH!” Evillustrator summoned a paper airplane, “You are now forced to tell the truth! Reversion- HEY!” He tried to yank his arm away as Ladybug’s yoyo wrapped around his wrist

“Reverstrator, stop!” Ladybug called out as she and Chat Noir arrived, “Everyone already knows that Lila is dangerous-”

“SHUT UP LADYBUG! NO ONE ASKED YOU SHIT!”, Lila screeched, making everyone gasp. Lila was about to say more, but one of Reverstrator’s other hands wrapped around her neck and she started choking, but then he dropped her to the ground when Ladybug yanked on her yoyo and flung him into the side of a building

Chat narrowed his eyes at Lila who had taken off running a while ago, “Better hurry before she causes more trouble.”

Ladybug nodded then called for her, “LUCKY CHARM!” What dropped in her hands was, “Another yoyo?”

Chat Noir extended his staff, “Better figure out how to use it quick; Reverstrator won’t go down so easy!”

Reverstrator started drawing again, and another buzz saw came spinning for them. Chat Noir jumped in front of Ladybug and yelled out, “CATACLYSM!” The buzz saw crumbled into black dust, and immediately, the heroes were barraged by arrows. And with his free hands, he threw paper airplanes at them. They take cover behind a flipped car. Not wanting to risk getting shot by an arrow or reversed, Ladybug used the mirror in her yoyo to find a way to use her lucky charm

Use your yoyo to deflect his attacks

Wrap both yoyo’s around Reverstrator’s arms

He has super strength, so you won’t be able to hold him down on your own

Tie the ends of the yoyos to the lamp posts; they’re bolted tight to the ground

Break the necklace, catch the Akuma

Ladybug turned to Chat Noir with a determined look, “Hey, Kitty? Ever use a yoyo before?” With a grin, Chat takes the lucky charm yoyo and extends his staff. Ladybug spins her yoyo; the two run out from behind the car and start deflecting Reverstrator’s planes and arrows. Once they got close enough, Ladybug wrapped her yoyo around Reverstrator’s left arms, and Chat wrapped the Lucky Charm yoyo around the right arms. They ran in opposite directions and tied the yoyos around lamp posts so he can’t get free.

“NO!” He growled with tears in his eyes, “You won’t separate us!”

Ladybug walked over, reached into the monochrome hoodie, and pulled out a black heart-shaped necklace. She threw it to the ground, making it shatter into many pieces so the Akuma would fly out. She quickly unwrapped her yoyo, “No more evil-doing for you little Akuma... Time to De-Evilize!” She caught the Akuma, “Gotcha!” Fluttering out from the yoyo was a pure white butterfly, “Bye-bye, little butterfly.”

Chat Noir tossed her the lucky charm yoyo. She tossed it into the air and yelled out, “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!” The yoyo burst into millions of ladybugs. The swept around the city, fixing the school, getting rid of the weapons drawn by Reverstrator, removing the reversion curse of citizens who were hit by the paper airplanes, and finally, Reverstrator was washed over by a black and purple mist that lifted up and revealed Marc and Nathaniel passed out on the ground

Ladybug and Chat Noir did their signature fist-bump, “Pound it!”

“Ugh,” Nathaniel got up and rubbed his head, “What the hell...?” His eyes widened when he saw Marc on the ground, “Rainbow!” He rushed over to his boyfriend’s side, “Baby, are you okay?” Marc’s eyes fluttered open, and Nathaniel let out a relieved sigh, “Marc, I’m so sorry I thought you cheated on me, I- You’d never do that! I just-” “Nath...” “When I saw that photo, I just panicked!” “Nath!” Nathaniel was cut off by Marc throwing his arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. “... I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions either. Nath, I’m sorry.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir offered their hands and helped the two boys up, “I’m guessing you guys remember what happened.”

Nathaniel furrowed his brow, “I-I just remember seeing that photo of Marc kissing Adrien...” No one noticed the look of shock on Chat’s face, “Then I remember Alix mentioning...” His expression darkened, “...Lila.” Marc held his hand and kissed his cheek, “She’s sort of had out for us ever since we pointed out a few holes in her lies.”

“Well, don’t worry. I’m sure you won’t be seeing much of her anymore.” At the superheroine’s words, the two boys smiled. Suddenly, the distinct beeping of Ladybug and Chat’s miraculous’ were heard

“Well, we best be off,” Chat said as he extended his staff and vaulted away

Ladybug gave the two one last smile, “Bug out.” and she swung away

__

Hawkmoth threw his can to the ground, “NO! How could they have beaten Reverstrator? He should have unstoppable! Ladybug, I swear, I will have your Miraculous!”

__

Lila felt all eyes on her as she walked into Dupont. Normally she would preen at the attention she was receiving, but these looks were hate-filled. They all looked like they wanted her dead. Ignoring the glares, she put on a prideful demeanor as she strutted her way to class...

...Where she was met with even more death glares.

Alix stood from her seat, “You’ve got some fucking nerve coming back here, Rossi.”

She reared back, “Oh, Alix!” tears began to pour, “How could you say something like that?!”, she started sobbing into her hands but no one was buying her fake tears

Nino wrapped his arms protectively around Alya and glared at the Italian, “Just get lost, Lila. Everyone in Paris saw the shit you pulled.”

“I-I don’t know what-”

“YOU PUSHED ALYA IN FRONT OF A BUZZ SAW, YOU BITCH!” Marinette screamed as she stormed over towards the Italian, “You could have killed her!”

Lila backed away from the enraged pigtailed girl, “I-I was trying to push her out of the way, but my carpel tunnel acted up, and-”

“Cut the crap, Rossi!” Nathaniel yelled, “Marc and I almost killed Alya because of you!”

“It wasn’t my fault you two got akumatized!”

“IT WAS!” The entire room went silent when the redhead slammed his fist on the desk, “You photoshopped pictures of us cheating on each other, and that’s what got us akumatized!”

Lila forced tears out of her eyes, “I’d never do something like that!” she whined

Juleka spoke up, “We found your nail polish on one of the photos,” She held up the photo and pointed to the orange nail polish. Before Lila could retort, Marinette held up one of her hands, her nails were still painted the same shade of orange as the nail polish on the photo

“Th-that was just a coincidence! It’s a very popular color!”

Chloe laughed, “Newsflash, Rossi. Raw sienna looks good on no one. Especially not you.”

Adrien stood from his seat, “And I’m sure you can explain why there’s a video of you cheering for the Akuma,” he sent Nathaniel an apologetic look, “then saying Akuma’s can’t do anything right.”

The Italian went silent before, “Ow! My head hurts! See, while I was in Africa, I hit my head and-”

“That explains a lot,” Ivan muttered

“B-but guys, I’d never...” Seeing that no one was buying a single thing she said, she scowled, “Alright, fine! So I pushed her in front of me, so what?! Better her than me!” Marinette and Nino looked ready to strangle her. She points to Nathaniel, “And you and your f*ggot boyfriend should learn your place you k**e!”

The entire room gasped at the slur used against their friend

“Lila Rossi!” Everyone turned to see Mme. Bustier standing at the doorway, “Principal’s office, now!”

“B-but Mme. Bustier!” Lila stammered

“NOW!” She repeated, “I will not have that type of language used in my classroom!”

“But Nathaniel cursed me out yesterday!”

Mme. Bustier nodded, “Yes, but no one could understand him.” She shot the redhead an apologetic smile and he smiled back, “You on the other hand, we understood you loud and clear. I will not tolerate the use of derogatory terms in this class! Now go!” She points to the door. Defeated, Lila trudges out but not before she adds, “And I’ll be giving your mother a call as well.”

Mme. Bustier followed her out and slammed the door behind her, leaving the classroom in silence

“... Okay!” Kim yelled out, “No one’s saying it, so I will.” He approaches Marinette, “Mari, I-I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you. You’re one of the most honest people I know, and I just picked that... Cáo nói dối over my own sister.”

Marinette smiled and embraced Kim, “Thanks, Kimmy.” The athlete wrapped his arms around her, “Anytime, em gái.” The whole room started apologizing to the students who didn’t believe Lila’s stories and gathered for a group hug

Marinette hummed, “Guys, this is nice... But if you ever do this again, I will not hesitate to knock some sense into each and every one of you. And believe me. I will be very violent.”

Mylene chuckled nervously, “Noted.”

__

“Hey, Rainbow.” Marc looked up from his journal and saw Nathaniel standing by the stairs, “Hey.” Nathaniel went under the stairs and sat next to Marc before littering his face with kisses, making the black-haired boy blush

“What’s got you so happy?”

Nathaniel smirked, “Two things. First: Lila’s being arrested for possibly working with Hawkmoth,” off Marc’s incredulous look, he nodded, “Seriously! After that video Aurore posted, the police took her in for questioning.”

Marc tackled Nathaniel into a hug, “That’s amazing! So, what’s the second thing?” He gives Nathaniel a knowing look

“Well,” he takes Marc’s hand and kisses it, “Ever since we were fused together, I just... I’ve never felt closer to you. Even though we were Akumatized, it just felt amazing.”

Marc can’t help but blush, “Yeah. I-I know we were arguing most of the time, but I still loved being that close to you.” His smile dropped a little, “I could feel how upset you were. That also showed how much you really care about me.”

“Of course I do, Rainbow,” Nathaniel said as he caressed his cheek, “You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. I was prepared to murder Adrien because of that photo.”

“And I was going to throttle Alix...”

“... Not our best moment.” “No, not really.”

“But,” Nathaniel pulls his sketchbook out from his messenger bag, “It does give me a few ideas for our next comic.”

Marc shows Nathaniel the page he was working on, “Me too.”

[xxtha-blog]

Traits People in the Fandom like to give Dream that instantly turn me away from their comics.

Wow, that's a long title. Okay, did you ever just want to hear me complain? If so, you came to the right place!

Im on a little salt bregade right now with my exasperation at lack of enjoyable Dream content in this fandom so this isn't some in depth analysis post or some if you give Dream these traits, you're a bad writer and need to stop. No. This is just a: here's some character traits people commonly write Dream with that severely conflict with the character I love him for, thus making me incapable of enjoying whatever 'Dream' they're writing because to me it doesn't look like Dream at all. And also why I don't like it and why I think this happens so frequently. And because this is just my opinion, you can either agree or ignore me. (And I mean, second one is a good option lol)

Jerkish - The classic asshole Dream. The one that says 'all this bad things that happened to me? Pffttsgsf I don't want to be a better person so I'm going to be a dick to everyone else.' This is probably the most common and usually comes with a lot of the other traits I'm about to mention

Sarcastic - This ones not that bad and if it's the only one I'll usually be fine with it, but he isn't sarcastic or passive aggressive, his closest trait to this is that he's stubborn. He's not going to shoot back something to make someone upset or because he's mad at them, even Nightmare, he's going to say something that might contend with someone for the purpose of making that person think about the bad or negative thing they're doing and won't stop until the person is either rethinking their originally negative position or is growing too negative for it to be rational to keep pressing and will try something else. In one it's a good intention, and with sarcasm it's this 'I need to get back at them and I don't care if it helps the situation or makes it worse' intention. And Dream is always the former.

Violent - The Dream that's always ready to get into a fight no matter what. Talking calmly? what's that?

Unsympathetic/Insensitive - this one is super easy to slip by the radar of a lot of people, so I often get people who ask me why I don't like certain ways people write Dream and it's usually because of this. This is him not understanding or sympathizing with someone else's situation even if it differs from his own, mainly for harmless things. People not wanting to do something because they're uncomfortable and Dream being written as trying to get them to do it to the point they get upset. A negative or toxic stubbornness, so to speak. Which really sucks because Dream is one of the sweetest most sensitive character I've seen and it gets rid of all that nuance.

Egotistical - :( I really don't like this one. It's your typical, I'm better than you, (usually toward Nightmare). It makes me sad. Combine unsympathetic and egotistical together and you get the jerk Dream that hates negativity and thinks negative people are bad.

Ableist - Hear me out, this isn't the same as people saying canon Dream is ableist for like, not being friends with Ink? (Wheeze). it's the type of Dream that purposefully targets someone's mental illnesses in cruel or unfair ways, usually Nightmare.

Neglectful - The Dream that says fuck protecting positivity lmao. And I need not say more.

Cowardly - The Dream that either won't own up to the problems he caused, pretends he never caused problems, and/or won't do anything to stop problems occuring.

Underhanded - the type of Dream that won't talk shit to someone's face but will make either subtly or blatantly mean comments about them behind their back.

Stupid - The type of Dream that makes decisions that will clearly cause the suffering of a lot of people for stupid reasons and/or the type of Dream that couldn't solve a 2x2 rubix cube and relies on everyone else to solve things for him because people think lack of knowledge = stupidity in the original. Which isn't true.

Selfish - The type of Dream that makes decisions that will clearly cause the suffering of other people for selfish or self absorbed reasons.

Controlling - I see this one so much and it hurts me. It's most likely due to people trying to make his desire to do good negative in this way, but directly conflicts with the fact it does no good if he becomes a toxic asshole with it. It's the type of Dream that won't let anyone do anything he doesn't deemed 100% positivity approved and becomes a toxic, controlling, manipulative asshole. Usually with a relationship bonus. ;')

Dense - Another negative stubbornness. A Dream that can't see when something's clearly making someone upset.

Overbearing - a branch of insensitive and stupid. the 'Everything is great! Isn't everything great! You're suffering? No! Everything is great and happy, be happy! I'm ALWAYS happy' Dream. Toxic positivity.

Irritable - The Dream that gets really angry at people for some reason? Normally because they're being negative or just not taking him seriously. This contends with Dream's canon in the sense that instead of getting angry he gets more sad/upset rather than some dry anger, and only when someone is being really cruel. I never like seeing a purely angry Dream. I'd rather him break down into tears, asking quietly why someone is doing this, instead of scream insults at them. Because we all know taking your anger out on someone helps solve problems and doesn't escalate situations.

Venegeful - The Dream that won't stop until the people who have wronged him or are doing wrong are either punished or dead. What's helping people be better, am I right?

Unforgiving - The Dream that never forgives people for wrongdoings and/or actively brings up past mistakes for no good reason, or just to get back at someone, usually to Nightmare. Often used as some moral superiority complex.

Smug - whenever he's right, he'll make sure you know it.

Overlycompetitive - the sore winner that wants to challenge people all the time, that'll rub it in their face when he's better. A subcategory of smug. This isn't to say canon Dream is never competitive, its just to say he isn't a dick about it.

I think a lot of people give them these traits because they think he's not 'flawed' enough. Like, they don't see to understand that 'good' traits can be flaws, or as we've seen here, think Dream's other good traits should be made into even more flaws, which directly conflict with his core morals and motivations.

I know a lot of people just write him like this for fun, and that's fine. I like Swap Dream by song-song-a actually, I think he's cool. There are a couple of exceptions where it's set up well enough that this isn't the Dream I know that I dont get fucking whiplash while reading. I'm not saying its wrong to write him like this, I'm just saying it's not enjoyable for me.

For the most part, it turns me away from the comic, or au, or am, almost instantly. I'm not interested in reading about Dream becomes an asshole edition 600. and it wouldn't be a problem for me if almost anyone wrote him well like every other character gets the liberty of.

Like, I also hate Chibi Blueberry but at least there's a ton of good Swap content out there so I'm not here talking about Chibi Blueberry lol.

Anyways, I'll probably add more traits if I think of any, so if you're trying to write Dream close to canon, you can use this as a what not to do post I guess. Otherwise enjoy my rant xD.

[snusbandxknifewife]

Jurdanweek2020 Day 2 pregnancy/labor

Hey y’all so this is based on the story of my birth, because I’ll be damned if my mother didn’t play the part of Jude Duarte while my father acted as Cardan. In this fic, Jude is so sure that their daughter won’t be born on her due date, that she drags Cardan to the mortal world. Things go downhill quickly.

“Cardan shut the fuck up, we are fine!”

Cardan Greenbriar had tried for hours to convince his very stubborn—very pregnant—wife that maybe a trip to the mortal world this close to her due date wasn’t the wisest idea. Naturally, she stomped her foot and crossed her arms over her swollen belly and that was that, off to the mortal world they went.

“Jude, my love, will you at least let me carry your purse?” He would keep trying to help her until she finally snapped and killed him.

Jude wasn’t happy about having to carry a purse now, but she was unable to lean down to strap a knife to her thigh and her breasts had grown too large for her to force a dagger between them without risking injury, so a handbag was her only option to carry her weaponry. Cardan, wisely, had long since decided that questioning his wife’s ability to even wield a knife in her current state wasn’t the smartest move.

She huffed and shoved the bag square into the center of his chest before turning on her heel and waddling her way down the baby aisle of the local Target.

She had no mortal maternity clothing, so she’d settled for wearing a simple dress of flowing silk, held closed by a belt just under her breast and giving way to the large belly that she always kept one protective hand on. Cardan walked closely behind her, his mortal sneakers squeaking against the linoleum floor as he tried not to remind himself that this was very stupid.

Jude Duarte Greenbriar, his wife and the High Queen of Elfhame, had given new meaning to the term stubborn today. As the entire palace tittered with excitement over it being the baby’s due date—she would forever curse herself for sharing that information from her human OBGYN—she’d lost her cool. A strongly worded letter had been sent to every one in her family and any courtier or guard close enough to the royal chambers could hear her screaming at her husband about how “THE BABY WILL NOT BE COMING TODAY SO EVERYBODY CAN JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!”

Then she’d decided that they needed something called a “pacifier,” whatever that was, and next thing he knew they were walking into Target.

Jude had wanted to go alone, but Cardan had been wise enough to insist that Fand and the Bomb accompany them. She’d finally given in, but only once they’d promised to stay out of sight the entire time.

He was, naturally, fucking panicking. Today was their daughter’s due date, and now that Jude had gone and told everyone off, all their family and friends would be preparing for the upcoming Christmas festivities, set for two weeks in the future. They had no way to get in contact with anyone if the worst were to happen.

Jude picked out a set of pink pacifiers with different zoo animals drawn on them. Evidently unsatisfied, she then set about grabbing every baby blanket and stuffed toy she could possibly reach. Cardan was bemused, but chose to hold everything she handed him, rather than fight her.

“Do we need diapers?” She asked, both hands under her belly as she looked over her shoulder.

“Our baby will be fae,” he reminded her. “No need to worry about all that.”

He couldn’t help his snort of laughter as she looked heavenward and thanked the gods.

Then she was back on her quest, looking for something or another that they suddenly, desperately needed for the baby, despite her not even knowing it had existed a few minutes ago. When her eyes catch on a baby pink stuffed lion on the top shelf, she got up on her tippy toes and reached for it, her fingers just barely brushing against its little feet.

Cardan, seeing his wife struggling and being comically taller than her, reached over and plucked the little toy with ease, not noticing how Jude froze when he did.

Her face twisted in anger and disgust and she stomped her foot once more. He, thinking he had somehow offended her by helping her out, was halfway through apologizing before she loudly announced that she thought she’d just peed herself and he needed to go get her new panties while she went to the bathroom.

She left in a flurry of silk skirts and wild hair, headed for the woman’s restroom and leaving her poor husband behind with an armful of baby products and a rogue thought about how uncomfortable it must be for mortals to have to do things like go to the bathroom.

After so long with his Jude, he had come to love all her mortal quirks. Her rounded ears were his favorite part of her body and her dulled senses made it all the easier to surprise her. But he still found himself occasionally wishing that she wasn’t a mortal, now solely because he saw all the discomfort it brought her. Pregnancy had kept her sick and cranky for nine full months. He’d never known a fae mother to have such terrible morning sickness, and he had no idea how mortal women did anything while pregnant, given how often they had to pee.

“I’ll get her the panties.” He about jumped out of his skin when the Bomb popped up behind him, like she’d been lurking just one aisle over and had heard everything.

By this point in the pregnancy, he’d long since learned when he just needed to shut up and go with the flow, so he went about purchasing all the new baby products with a few leaves glamoured to look like mortal money. When he looked up, Target bags hanging from his fingers and handbag firmly situated on his shoulder, his wife was waiting by the exit with her arms crossed.

“The Bomb promised to stay away,” she explained with a scowl. “Why’d she bring me panties?”

“She promised to stay out of sight,” he countered as lovingly as he could in an effort to calm her. “I’d say, as long as she didn’t come in the stall with you, she kept her promise.”

He transferred all the bags to one hand so he could grab hers. Jude, scowl still plastered across her face, took his hand and led him out of the Target.

“I want donuts.” She switched her direction mid-step and started stalking down the sidewalk towards the little donut shop in the same plaza as the Target.

Cardan sat across from her at a two-person table in the donut shop for close to an hour, just watching as she angrily ate three glazed donuts. He’d left their shopping bags outside for Fand to grab and have sent back to Elfhame.

It was as he watched Jude eat her third donut that he began to sense something was amiss. Every so often, his darling little demon of a wife would get inexplicably angrier, her brow furrowing and her nostrils flaring and her teeth grinding down. Then, after a minute or so, she’d go back to her calmer level of pissed off.

As Jude announced that she wanted to go buy something called “pads” for after the baby’s birth, Cardan started paying more attention. He grabbed her handbag and kept his other hand firmly on the small of her back, feeling how she’d tense up for a few minutes and then go back to normal.

Holding Jude’s brand new supply of extra absorbent pads, and the few extra things she’d spent an hour dragging him around the store for, Cardan fully began to panic. Jude’s episodes were getting longer and closer together.

He’d done enough reading to know she was having contractions, and he’d done enough reading to know that when you have contractions two minutes apart, you aren’t getting on a ragwort steed and making it back to Elfhame.

When Jude went to the bathroom again, Cardan was ready for the Bomb.

“She’s in labor,” they announced simultaneously.

“Send word to her sisters and have the healers ready for when we return.” Cardan let out a sigh. “I think we’re having this baby in the mortal world.”

“I’ll call Vivienne.” Just like that, the Bomb was gone.

Cardan could fall to his knees and weep with relief at the reminder that Vivienne lived close. She was only a few minute’s drive away, she would know the way to the hospital, she’d be able to help him get Jude in the damn car.

By the time Jude was out of the bathroom, Vivi had broken a minimum of seven laws to get to them and she was waiting outside the front door, heavy parka pulled up over her pointed ears and dark sunglasses blocking her cat eyes.

“What’s all this?” Jude looked ready to murder Cardan, and he didn’t doubt she could do it even with him having all her knives. “Cardan, I wanted to be alone!”

“Jude, you’re in labor,” he announced, doing his best to keep his voice calm. Internally he was losing it, but he didn’t think that letting her see that would help the situation.

“No I’m no—“ she breaks off with a growl, her face contorting in anger right on time with the counting in Cardan’s head. From his reading and the stories he’d heard, he expected tears or screaming when her contractions got this bad, not to have her hide her pain behind a wall of pure fury.

He opened the car door and threw their shopping bags in, offering a hand to his wife and desperately trying to coerce her into the car. “Darling please, we need to get to the hospital. I don’t know how to deliver a child, and I don’t plan on finding out today.”

“They’re just Braxton-Hicks,” she tries again, almost whining. “I’m not having the baby today!”

“Baby says otherwise,” Vivi calls out from the front seat as Jude once again tenses. “Now get in the damn car, it’s a fifteen minute ride to the hospital.”

“We can’t go to the hospital!” Jude digs in her heels and looks to Cardan with wide eyes, suddenly coming to terms with the fact that they were in the mortal world. “Cardan, our baby has pointed ears and a tail!”

They’d been going to regular OBGYN appointments and seeing ultrasounds of the baby so they’d have an idea of what animal characteristic their child would present, glamouring the doctor after every visit. They knew that their little girl had a tail like her daddy. That would be a fucking problem if the hospital noticed.

“You focus on the hard part and leave the glamouring to me, darling,” he said with a kiss to her forehead.

Vivi had to threaten to knock her out and drag her into the backseat before she finally gave up and climbed in, grumbling the whole time.

“Cardan, start timing.” Vivi threw an old wristwatch over her shoulder and he caught it mid-air, marking the time and then staring at his wife as his sister-in-law did her very best to break the sound barrier with a beat-up SUV.

By the time they made it to the hospital, Jude was silent, save for her episodes of heavy breathing. A minute and a half apart now.

They pulled up to the women’s center and Cardan picked his wife up like she weighed no more than a feather. Vivi sped off, promising to go pick up Heather and return with food and a baby bag, since they were going to be in for the long haul.

Cardan made it to the maternity ward check in and was suddenly faced with the fact that he had literally no idea what to do here. Back in Elfhame, Jude would’ve had the baby in the comfort of their private rooms, with healers waiting on her hand and foot. The sterile smell and white walls of this mortal hospital made him infinitely more nervous than the comfort of their home would’ve.

“Hello sir,” the receptionist lady started, eyeing how he held his wife and how she didn’t seem at all panicked, and deciding that she has another father who had no clue what’s going on. Her tone was somewhere between soothing and mocking, like she’d dealt with this sort of thing all day. “If you’d like to fill out these forms—“

“My wife’s contractions are a minute and a half apart,” he cut her off, his fear somehow taking a backseat and his voice coming out with all the authority of a High King.

The receptionist’s eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, what?”

He maneuvered Jude so he could throw the watch down on the desk. Then he counted down from five and, right on time, Jude tensed with a contraction.

Then it was a flurry of movement, the receptionist throwing the papers to the side and calling for a wheelchair as Cardan stood dumbfounded. A nurse took Jude from his arms and settled her in a wheelchair before running through a set of double doors, leaving him to chase after her.

They ended up in what looked like a little sitting room with a table in the center. Then, as he watched, the nurse hit a few buttons in the wall and the whole room transformed. The two chairs pulled away from the table and the table unfolded into a bed, lowering down enough for Jude to climb up.

His wife was far past claiming that the baby wouldn’t be coming today. She’d gone somewhere within herself, both hands on her belly and focus written in every line on her face.

He helped the nurse undress her and tied her into a hospital gown while they strapped her into a bazillion different monitors. Soon, her heartbeat filled the room and he was watching all the screens, utterly terrified by his confusion.

“Can you give a urine sample?” A small nurse with a sickeningly fake grin asked, holding up a little plastic cup.

“Not with my baby’s head in the way,” Jude grunted in response, her teeth grinding down and one of her hands reaching for her husband’s. “Can you get the doctor?”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad, sweetie, let’s see how far along you are.” Cardan’s brow twitched at the offhanded way she spoke to his wife and he found himself gripping her hand harder to keep her from swinging for the nurse as the woman bent under the blanket, pulling Jude’s knees apart.

She was down there for a few seconds before popping back up, that smile even bigger as she said, “you’re at about nine centimeters. Don’t you worry at all, I’ll go get the doctor!”

Cardan, unaccustomed to speaking to many mortals, would’ve never thought twice about her words, if it weren’t for the way Jude snorted at the nurse all but sprinted out of the room.

“She’s lying,” Jude observed, sounding callous.

“My love?” He turned to her, new fear sprouting in his stomach.

“The nurse is lying about how dilated I am.” She nodded after where the woman had run out. “They have you start pushing at ten. She checked me and then said I was a nine and ran. That’s what they tell you when you’re at a ten and the doctor isn’t here.”

That comment leaves his mouth tasting like ash and she must see something amusing in the way his face changes, because she gives a little laugh.

For the next ten minutes or so, nobody came in except for one nurse who tried to force Jude again to give a urine sample, only getting blood and one pissed off couple for her efforts.

Jude turned onto her left side and Cardan sat on the bed by her hip, fingers carding through her hair and opposite hand rubbing her back to help her through a contraction.

They were like this when the door slammed open and a man, wearing a suit that most definitely wasn’t even close to sterile scrubs, ran in.

“I’ll be right back!” His hair was wild and his jacket half off as he held out both hands, almost like he was telling them both to wait. Just that quickly, he was gone again.

“What in the hell—“ Jude broke off with a groan and her heart rate spiked. Cardan may not know a lot, but he wasn’t that stupid, he knew this baby was coming soon.

A minute or so later, the door crashed open again and the doctor skidded into the room sideways, his scrubs pulled up to his elbows and a nurse tying on his cap as he finished adjusting one of his gloves.

“Let’s have a baby!”

Cardan watched in fascination as the man picked up what looked like a magic wand with a bulb on the end. He held it high above his head and pressed a button, causing the bulb to flash and all the lights to come out of the ceiling and angle towards the wand. The doctor then ordered the nurses to get Jude on her back and aimed the lights between her legs.

“Jude, did you see that?” Cardan asked, his jaw on the floor as he battled between awe at mortal technology and amusement at how his wife was now lit up like a stage. “The lights followed him!”

“I’m a little busy!” Jude hissed back and Cardan suddenly remembered that, oh yeah, his wife was literally in labor, and he should probably be paying attention to that instead of the lights.

“Shit, sorry!” He gripped her hand once more and kissed her forehead.

The whole room was alive with movement as the doctor got Jude in the right position and she began to push. One nurse was watching the monitors, keeping an eye on both mom and baby. Another was trying to force Jude to take some oral medication called Tylenol, because she had nothing to ease her pain, and Jude was batting her away. A third nurse held an oxygen mask to Jude’s face and kept one of her legs back.

Cardan held his wife’s hand and kept his other hand on her knee. He tuned into her, watching how a preternatural calm took over. The only thing giving away her pain was how she was nearly breaking his hand with every contraction.

He knew that a lot of woman were in labor for a long time, and that some pushed for hours, so this all seemed to be moving quite quickly. He kept his eyes on her face, on how focused she was on their baby. She still wasn’t crying, wasn’t screaming in pain. She just looked angry with every push, like she was using her fury to keep her cool in the situation.

Then something changed, just a little. She’d been pushing too hard, hadn’t stopped long enough to recover. For just one moment, Cardan saw fear flit across her face.

“I can’t breathe!” Cardan’s heart leapt as his wife cried out and he frantically ran through his options, trying to find something, anything to do to help her.

Then the nurse with the oxygen mask made a mistake.

“I just don’t think you’re trying very hard,” she snapped at Jude. It was the same woman who’d lied about how dilated Jude was.

Pure, unadulterated rage grew from the very pit of his stomach, but he didn’t get the chance to unleash it. Instead, he watched his wife’s eyes go murderous, her face go as blank as it did every time she held a knife to someone’s throat.

She stopped pushing and sat up, raising one finger to point at the nurse’s forehead like a witch laying a curse.

“GET THE FUCK OUT!”

It was the loudest he’d ever heard her scream, and her shout was a low bark instead of a shrill order. She was a general ordering a court marshall, the High Queen ordering an execution, not a woman going through the pain of childbirth.

The nurse fell back in shock, turning to him like she expected him to counteract his wife’s wishes.

“Get the fuck out!” He waved a hand to the door and made a face at the very idea that he’d even think of going against his wife’s word when she was busy birthing his daughter. How fucking dare this woman?

The nurse, now completely flabbergasted, turned to the doctor, who had only looked up when he heard the screaming. He took one look at Jude’s face and told the nurse to get the fuck out.

Jude grabbed the oxygen mask from the nurse as she left and held it to her own face, turning back to the ordeal of childbirth with twice the ferocity of before. It wasn’t a minute afterwards that the crying of their child filled the room.

Cardan threw himself full-force into glamouring away their daughter’s ears and her tail, a short little tail of fluffy black fur, sticking out like a sore thumb the way a kitten’s tail always does. The nurse and doctor didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary as they laid the little girl on Jude’s chest and asked Cardan to cut the cord.

She had a shock of midnight black hair just like her father and she certainly shared her mother’s temper as she angrily cried her little heart out, her face turning red.

Jude didn’t relax as they took her away to clean and measure her. She stayed focused on the rest of the birth, nodding her head to Cardan to tell him to keep an eye on their daughter.

It wasn’t until the little girl was weighed and cleaned and wrapped in a blanket that Jude keyed into the fact that it was over, their baby was here. She took the child in her arms again and wept, holding her as close as she could.

Cardan reaches a finger out, running it over the tiny pointed ear that only he and Jude could see. In response, the baby flexed her little hand and showed that she had the claws of a housecat.

His heart swelled with an emotion he couldn’t really describe as he took in the sight of his wife and daughter, his two girls.

The next two hours consisted of Vivi and Heather showing up, the Bomb in tow with a carriage to take them home since there was absolutely no way Jude was getting on a ragwort horse in her state. Vivi couldn’t believe that the baby was already there, just a half hour after she’d dropped Jude off. Cardan had to glamour their way out of the hospital after stealing the baby from the nursery, removing a little pink bow from her forehead that they’d affixed with toothpaste.

“Who the fuck puts toothpaste on a baby?” He raised an eyebrow at Jude from across the carriage, holding their daughter during the ride back so Jude could lay down.

It was a mess getting her out, especially so soon after birth. He’d had the Bomb ensure that healers were waiting in their chambers to help her in ways that the mortal doctors couldn’t, so he knew that it was best to move them both as soon as possible, but it still hurt him to see how drained she was.

“I can’t believe they put toothpaste on our baby,” he continued, looking down to where his daughter was watching him intently with big black eyes. He knew then and there, as he looked to her, that he was in trouble. He’d never recover from how much he loved this little girl.

“What in the world are we going to name her?” His whisper filled the carriage and Jude blinked back tears once again. Just seeing him with their little girl did things to her heart that she didn’t even know could be possible.

“Well,” she started, doing her best not to move too much, “why did your parents name you Cardan?”

“I don’t pretend to know why my parents did anything,” he snorted. “Why were you named Jude?”

She smiled up at the carriage ceiling. “I was named after a song that my mother enjoyed. Hey Jude. It was by a band called The Beatles.”

“You’ll have to show me the song sometime.”

She laid her hands on her belly, which still looked pregnant, and studied how her husband’s long fingers curved over their bundled up daughter.

“How about Lucille?”

He made a questioning noise, obviously having gotten lost in their baby’s eyes.

“Lucille,” she tried again. “The band who wrote the song I’m named for had another song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. We could name her Lucille and only ever call her Lucy. It would make it all the harder to guess her truename.”

“Do you ever stop scheming, my darling nemesis?” He smiled as he turned the name over in his head. He liked the idea of naming their little girl after a song, especially a mortal one. He wanted her to be proud of her roots.

“Not when it comes to protecting my family,” she promised, her voice suddenly grave.

Cardan just smiled again and looked up at his wife, at his whole world.

“Lucille Greenbriar,” he tried the name out. “Little Lucy.”

Jude’s face softened once more and she reached out to take the baby, tucking the child close to her chest as they sailed over Elfhame.

“I like it,” he announced.

~~~~~~~~~~~

For those of you keeping track at home, here’s a list of things that:

My mother actually did during labor/my birth that Jude Duarte 100% would’ve done:

•Refused to believe I would be born on my due date. Was so adamant that she called every family member and told them to leave her the fuck alone/stop fucking asking about the baby/there was no way the baby would be born on her due date so shut up

•Confused her water breaking for peeing on herself

•Had to be threatened with physical violence before she’d go to the hospital

•Had to remind a nurse that she couldn’t actually pee with a bABY’S HEAD IN THE WAY DIPSHIT

•Called a nurse out for lying

•Pointed at the nurse who told her she “wasn’t trying that hard” and screamed to GET THE FUCK OUT

•Took no medication because she was a fucking boss, held her on oxygen mask after she fired the nurse. Didn’t cry or yell, just got angry

•Had her baby 30 minutes after showing up to the hospital. On the baby’s due date

My father literally did during my mom’s labor/my birth that Cardan Greenbriar 100% would have done:

•Stood by and let his wife call all the family yelling, even though it was two weeks from Christmas and he knew they’d have no way to get in contact if the baby came (everyone was 15 hours away and it was pre cellphone)

•Started timing his wife’s contractions and then dragged her into the car when they were 2 minutes apart after a huge fight

•Slam dunked on the receptionist when they checked in

•Was in awe of the hospital technology

•Literlly, I’m not kidding, when the doc did the whole “lights pointing at the wand” thing and aimed all the room lights at his wife’s crotch he actually yelled “Honey look! You’re a star!”

•Backed his wife tHE FUCK UP when she fired a nurse (the doctor also literally told the nurse to get tf out that really happened. He also really 100% did slide into the room with scrubs half on)

•Asked a nurse why the fuck she put toothpaste on his baby

•Named his baby after a song

My parents’ best friends did that Vivienne would’ve done:

•Brought the baby bag because the dipshits forgot it

•Went “what the fuck do you mean the baby is already here it’s been half an hour”

•(not in the story but) Offer the pregnant lady fried chicken and then never make it iT’S BEEN 21 YEARS SIR WHERE IS HER CHICKEN

•Help no-longer-pregnant lady sneak out cuz she didn’t wanna be there anymore

~~~~~~~~~

Tag list: @cardan-greenbriar-tcp @hizqueen4life @slightlyrebelliouswriter23 @thewickedkings @aelin-queen-of-terrasen @cheekycheekycheeks lol just tell me if you wanna be added

[beholdme]

All the Many Shades of Gerry - Chapter 11

Chapters: 11/19

Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist

Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Gertrude Robinson, Elias Bouchard

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Library AU, Librarian Jon, Artist Gerry, Trans Male Character, Trans Martin Blackwood, Canon Asexual Character, Asexual Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Ace Subtype - Sex Positive, Polyamory, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romantic Fluff, Falling In Love, Boys in Skirts, Kissing, Demisexual Gerard Keay, Minor Character Death, Past Character Death, Canon-Typical Child Neglect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Flirting, Minor Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Adventures in Hair Dying, Happy Ending, Banter, Gerry has a lot of sass, Gerard Keay is Morticia Adams, Jon is a very grumpy Librarian, Martin adores them anyway.

Summary: In which Gerry is a kaleidoscope and Jon and Martin can’t help falling in love with him.

He happens to love them back.

Find it on Ao3

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Jon has a terrible, sinking feeling about what he considers their new Mary Keay problem.

He knows Gerry feels more confident that he can deal with her now, as an adult with his own resources and a solid foundation, but Jon doesn't want her ever walking into their lives again.

He feels the threat of her existence hanging over their hard-won peace like an anvil on a lace string.

"I think we should try to find her," Jon tells Martin one evening when they’re alone in bed. Gerry is downstairs painting, and even though he almost certainly can't hear them, Jon whispers it like a dirty secret.

"You think-" Martin looks up from his book with an almost comically incredulous look on his face. "You think we should look for a murder who threatened your life?"

Utterly uninterested in secrets between the three of them, Martin does not attempt to speak quietly.

"Well, when you put it like that," Jon grumbles, returning his attention to his book and pretending to drop it.

The next day at work, he puts his researching skills to the test. It doesn't even take very long, and in less than an hour, he has an address in Morden, where she apparently owns a bookstore of all things.

The information available is fairly spartan, updated more than a year ago, but Jon can see enough. He can see that she lives less than an hour from Gerry, and it itches at him.

He knows he shouldn't go. Knows that Martin and Gerry will be furious if they ever find out that he snooped, nevermind if he goes there and unsettles old ghosts..

But still, he takes a half-day off from work and gets on a bus to Morden.

*

When Jon arrives and finds the storefront boarded up, he is half reassured, half perturbed. He had felt almost relieved when he had a concrete lead to follow, but now all he has is more questions.

"She's dead."

Jon startles at being unexpectedly spoken to and turns towards a teen girl sitting in the storefront doorway next door.

"She died, like a while ago? Apparently she lost her shit and cut herself up with a piece of glass. Bleed to death on the floor." She inclines her head towards the dilapidated bookstore. She seems quite taken with the gossip, as if it's the most interesting thing to ever intercept with her boring life. It probably is, Jon thinks, uncharitably.

"When did it happen?" He prods, hoping for as many details as possible.

"Oh, like two years ago?" She nods at herself in confirmation. "You can go in if you want. It's haunted. People are always going in to see if they can find Mary's ghost."

Jon shudders, feeling that Mary's ghost is already plenty present enough in his life. He asks how to get in anyway.

Jon doesn't find any obvious ghosts inside, only a lot of dust, a few vandalised books, and a trashed building.

There's a staircase leading upwards and he stares up at the upper landing for a moment, weighing his options. Might as well , he thinks, and proceeds up it carefully.

There's literally nothing but more dust, and Jon descends into a sneezing fit just as he is deciding to cut his losses, feeling slightly dizzy.

The sneezing turns into coughing, and Jon takes a step back to lean against a wall.

But the wall isn't there, and he falls.

And falls.

And falls.

*

Jon calls Martin from the hospital. He’s down in Brighton, meeting with a business supplier, and Jon assumes this makes it a safe bet he'll arrive without Gerry. He assumes wrong.

Gerry arrives, alone, in half the time it would take Martin to make the trip, looking flustered and scared.

"How did you get here so fast?" Jon demands incredulously, made short by his shame and physical discomfort.

"How did I-" Gerry pauses and takes a deep breath, but his next words are still slightly shrill. "I took a fucking Uber, Jonathan. How did you get here?"

Jon opens his mouth, but Gerry cuts him off as he goes on.

"You went looking for Mary, didn't you?" Jon's guilty face must tip him off, because he simply goes on, pacing angrily. "Christ, Jon! What the hell were you expecting to find? And you know what, Martin didn't even sound surprised when he called me to tell me you were here. You know, I can understand this uncommunicative bullshit from you, but not Martin."

"That's not very nice," Jon grouses.

"And do you think it was nice for me to hear from Martin that you were hurt? I'm glad to know he was your one and only phone call from an ambulance."

"Gerry-"

"Don't fucking Gerry me."

"I'm sorry," Jon says, looking down at his hands.

"Are you, Jon? Because you don't even know the worst part yet. If you had asked me, I could have told you Mary was dead, and then we wouldn't be in this mess at all."

"You knew?"

"Of course I knew! I was her next of kin!"

Gerry stops, pressing his fingers into his eyes and blowing a hard breath out. He takes several more breaths, heart-pounding, anxiety through the roof.

"Jon, how hurt are you?" Gerry asks quietly, coming closer to gently take a hand.

"Just a few bruises." Gerry raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "A mild concussion." And the other. "Maybe a few broken ribs."

"Oh, my sweet, sweet idiot. How loving you makes me want to climb the walls sometimes."

"Only sometimes?" Jon fills his voice with false levity, although it comes out rather shaky.

Gerry grunts, but leans down to kiss his forehead very gently. It's a minuscule point of contact, but Jon knows Gerry and can feel the tremble of fear (fear for him, who would have thought), and the tension of his frustration.

"I'm going to go talk to the doctor, okay? Just- just take it easy. Everything will be fine, love."

Jon doesn't believe him, not really, but he lets Gerry go. There's a lot of noise and movement after that, and Jon's head spins through most of it. Gerry is there, talking to doctors, querying the tests they want to run, and just generally making his opinion in regards to his partner's care very clear.

*

Martin knows it's bad when he arrives at the hospital and finds Gerry chain-smoking in the parking lot. His expression mostly just looks exhausted, but in his favorite black trench coat, and most intimidating combat boots, he looks ready to burn something down.

"That bad, huh?" Martin tries, but Gerry simply waves him towards the entrance, not making eye contact.

Martin almost cuts his losses, wanting to deal with one idiot at a time, but doesn't want to leave Gerry to sulk.

"How is he?" Martin asks.

"He's in one piece. They asked me to leave so they could do the x-rays. Apparently, he fell over a banister."

"A banister? How?"

"Your guess is as good as mine until we can interrogate him." Gerry takes a long, contemplative drag of his cigarette. "But apparently it's not all that bad and as long as the x-rays look clear, we can take him home in a couple of hours."

"He couldn't have chosen a worse time."

Gerry grunts in agreement. "He's going to tell us he wants to go back to his own flat, but that's only because he thinks I'm angry at him."

"And why would he think that?" Martin questions.

Gerry takes another long drag of his cigarette as if testing Martin's attention span, or patience, or both. Martin just waits, still and easy.

Gerry explains what he knows, his earlier outburst, Jon's guilty, stupid face.

When the cigarette is smoked and put out, Martin finally approaches Gerry all the way, and Gerry sinks into his arms gratefully.

"Everything will be fine."

"Hardly. This is my fault to begin with, and I yelled at him. In a hospital bed!"

"It's as good a place as any other, love. Come on, let's go get him so we can take him home."

Martin kisses him gently, before taking his hand and dragging him off to find Jon.

*

"Your partner is very loud." The blonde nurse with the buzzcut tells Jon as she wheels him to imaging.

"In his defense, I'm an idiot." He sighs, causing his battered ribs to ache.

She laughs heartily, wheeling him into an elevator. "Almost everyone I meet as an A&E nurse is. At least you seem like an interesting idiot."

Jon actually smiles, somehow pleased with the observation. "I'm Jon."

"Daisy Tonner." She offers a hand, which Jon shakes as firmly as he can manage. "You seem a bit old for trespassing in haunted houses, Jon."

The elevator dings and she wheels him out into the imaging wing. "I was looking for the woman who died there." Daisy gives him a skeptical look and he sighs dramatically. "I didn't know she was dead."

Daisy nods her understanding. "I remember when she died actually. They brought her here that night. Never seen someone with so much blood loss be so… Erratic. We had to strap her down." Daisy looks contemplative as she recalls the memory.

"She was a crazy bitch to the very end, then?" Jon asks, bitterness creeping through his tone at the woman who caused Gerry (still causes Gerry,) so much pain. Jon doesn't allow himself, yet, to dwell on the heartache of the years of Gerry she took from him.

"For sure," Daisy tells him. "What do you do for a living then?"

"I'm a librarian?" Jon tells her, but it goes up a bit at the end, like a question.

"Really?" Daisy asks wryly, "You don't sound very sure."

Jon considers laughing but remembers his ribs in time to settle on a tired smile. "I do work in a library but to be frank, most of the time I just feel like my boss's busy boy. Always running here and there and doing everything but what I thought I was supposed to be doing."

"Most professions aren't what we think they are when we sign up for them," Daisy observes. She parks his wheelchair outside a door and leans around to let them know a patient is waiting.

"Do you like being a nurse?" Jon asks her when she settles against the wall beside him, looking rather more intimidating than one would expect from the average health care worker.

"Most of the time. Sometimes it can be just exhausting and draining." She shrugs, contemplative. "Sometimes I get a patient that makes all the shit worthwhile. Mostly I just want to deck someone, though."

She cracks up at that and looks down at Jon to give him a feral grin. "Your boyfriend seems like a worthwhile candidate. Very punchable face."

"Careful, he might enjoy it," Jon warns her, deadpan.

They exchange a pointed look for a moment, before bursting into laughter. It pains Jon significantly, but he considers it worthwhile to enjoy the moment with a strange new friend.

*

By the time Daisy returns Jon to his room, both Martin and Gerry are there. Daisy looks pointedly between blue-haired, pierced, goth Gerry, and pink-haired, jumper clad, soft Martin and then eyes up 'born an 85-year old man' Jon for good measure.

Jon just shrugs at her and she nods in acknowledgment, before helping Jon into his hospital bed.

"As soon as the imaging comes through, it'll be checked by the surgeon on duty," Daisy informs them briskly, "then they'll come through and let you know what's happening. You'd best settle in for a bit of a wait. Buzz if you need me."

With a curt nod and a small smile for Jon, Daisy is off.

Martin comes over and pulls Jon into his comfortable arms, pressing his lips to Jon's forehead. He sighs out in relief to have solid reassurance that Jon is alright, alive, and relatively unscathed.

Gerry also moves over from his perch on the windowsill, and folds himself onto the bed, cross-legged in front of his errant partner.

They settle all together, Martin beside Jon, one unwavering arm around his shoulders, Gerry in front of Jon, both of his hands holding both of Jon's.

Jon opens his mouth to apologize.

"I'll go first," Gerry tells him, gently. "I am sorry that I was so upset earlier and that I raised my voice. I was fucking scared and I took it out on you when you needed me to be soft and steady. I'm also sorry that I didn't tell you Mary was dead before."

Jon tries to interrupt now, but Martin silences him with a squeeze.

"I meant to tell you, but it was all very messed up and over-wrought and I honestly forgot." Gerry looks chastised, a rare blush staining his cheeks. "I hope that we can get better at talking these things out so that this doesn't happen again."

He pauses, considering. "And I hope that if I have made you think that you can't talk to me by avoiding telling you things in the past, that you can forgive me and I will do what I need to be better."

Jon is truly floored, and utterly speechless. The words themselves had been a little bit halting and slightly awkward, as Gerry struggled to express himself, but the earnestness proves to Jon just how much Gerry loves him.

"I- I'm sorry too." Jon stutters out. "I'm an idiot but I love you. I hope we can get better at this together."

His words feel downright juvenile after Gerry's acknowledgement, but it's all he's got, pounding head and trapped emotions preventing similar declarations (oh and his total lack of social skills). Gerry beams at him regardless and he leans forwards to kiss Jon sweetly on the forehead.

Martin grabs Gerry's hand and places a kiss on his palm, sending him a significant look. It feels like approval to Jon, and he can't help but appreciate their bond just as much as his own with each of them.

They settle to wait, and they take turns reading from Martin's book to pass the time, each of their voices having a few moments to fill the air and weave around them.

Dr. Basira Hussain eventually comes in, assuring them that Jon's concussion is mild, his ribs are only bruised, and that he should make a full recovery (if he rests), in just a few weeks. They thank her profusely and she leaves them with Daisy to check out.

Gerry goes off to take care of the paperwork and in a few minutes, they're saying goodbye and walking out of the hospital together. Martin and Gerry flank Jon carefully, there to support him if he stumbles.

He also sits between them in the taxi, head on Martin's shoulder and one hand grasped between both of Gerry's. He feels exhausted and floaty from painkillers, and every jolt of the car makes it difficult to breathe.

He smiles, rather unexpectedly. Despite his current predicament, he's glad enough to know that Mary Keay is dead and that chapter of their lives is definitely closed. He does wish he had just asked Gerry, but he hopes that the strained feelings and injuries will blow over and she will finally be out of their lives for good, nothing but a sad, angry memory. A shade living only in the memories of those that didn't know her.

[justreadingfics]

Looking For a Heartbeat (21/?)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Reader

Series Summary: You and Bucky used to be in a relationship. Feelings were hurt, you left.  It’s been two years and you’re back. You both will handle the reunion well, won’t you?

Word Count: 2.8K

Warnings for this chapter: fluff, medical procedures that might be poorly written, birth, sappy moments that made this author cry a bit.  

 A/N:  Thank you @suz-123 for being so amazing. Links are messing up posts, you can find the masterlist link on my description.

Beautiful and magical.

That’s what you’ve always heard about giving birth. So far, all you’ve been feeling is excruciating pain and sheer panic.

After the water break, medical help was quick to get to you, since you were already at the med-bay. Doctor Nadine got there in record time and after examining you she said you were ready to give birth, despite you hadn’t even reached the 30th week. She offered a C-section, but also said the baby was in the right position and by how your dilation was progressing quickly, she thought a natural birth would be suitable. You said yes.

Damn you.  

Ugh, there it goes again.

Your face contorts into a grimace and sweat rolls of your forehead while strays of hair plaster all over. A guttural growl comes out of your lungs as another cramp twists your insides. You grip the hand in yours harder.

“How about those meds now, huh, sweetheart?” Bucky’s sweet and filled with concerned voice does little to soothe you while he carefully brushes the damp hair out of your face. Despite being recently shot, he only snarled at suggestions of resting and letting you be, at least for a moment. Not for a second he left your side and, if you’re gonna be honest, you’re grateful for that tight hold on your hand. “It’s time, isn't it, Doctor?” He addresses Doctor Nadine, who’s giving directions to nurses.

“Let me check one more time,” She hurries to put on a new glove and examines you as you breathe fast. “Oh, yeah. Right on time.”   

“Yes-ah-yes, please.” You groan and the grip in his hand grows even stronger as your head drop back in the chair. As much as you have thought about it before, the arguments to go completely natural seem like a bunch of stupid ideas right now when you’re so close to start pushing and you have no idea how you’ll live through the agonizing pain you’re already feeling, “Just give me anything.” You plea, eyes squeezed shut.

“It’s ok, it’s ok.” Bucky soothes and nods at Doctor Nadine.

“Ok, hun, hang in there. Our little soldier is anxious to come out,” She answers and moves to prep the medication.

After another, and powerful, contraction tightens your belly, you position yourself for analgesics to be applied under Bucky’s protective and vigilant eyes. You glance at him and he gives you a small nod and a sweet smile, offering his hand for you to hold again as he whispers for you to breathe.

Leaning back on the chair once again, you take in a deep and long sigh. You accept Bucky’s offer of his hand, but can’t quite respond to the smile. Yes, you’re in pain, but what’s been worrying you the most is how soon this is all happening. Doctor Nadine said that your body probably wasn’t being able to go on with the pregnancy anymore and that’s what caused the water to break after you exhausted yourself. Despite the assurances that the baby is fine and perfectly ready, you’re terrified. All you want is for all of this to be over soon so you can see for yourself their little face and make sure they’re safe.

Bucky is putting on a serene and strong façade for you, but you know he is just as worried. Nevertheless his presence is calming and a reminder that you're not alone to face whatever. He’s there with you and he’s the perfect partner for the mission of bringing your child to the world.

“Ok, mama,” Doctor Nadine stands at the end of the chair, “You’re ready to go.”

“That’s it, sweetheart.” Beside you, Bucky whispers close to your ear, “Just a few more moments and we’ll meet our little peanut.”

Yes… he’s right. You finally smile back at him.  “Ok.”   You nod at Bucky and  then at Doctor Nadine, “Let’s do this.”

~ ~~

Push… Push…Push…

Scream. 

“You’re doing so good, Y/N. We’re almost there.  A few more.”  Doctor Nadine encourages you.

Push.

You cry.

“Breathe baby, breathe.”

You focus on Bucky’s secure touch and his comforting voice and push again.

When you feel like you’re combusting in heat, Bucky rests his cold metal hand on your forehead and you breathe at the much needed relieving sensation. Much better than any wet washcloth.

You breathe. 1,2,3,4,5… Push.

You almost crush his hand when the ache coiling your core becomes unbearable. Fucking useless meds…

“Oooo, I can see a little crown.” The doctor’s words make your heart race even more.  

You and Bucky look at each other. In his eyes you catch the anxiety and excitement, the same feelings fuzzing your chest.

Push… Push….Push.

“I can’t...  I can’t anymore.” You sob, shaking your head, when exhaustion and pain take over all the other feelings that had been giving you the courage to keep pushing.  

“Yes, you can,” Doctor Nadine urges, “You’re doing so good, I bet that with another big one or two you’ll be able to see your little baby.”  

“One more, my love.” Bucky kisses your temple, gently whispering, “One more… You’re the strongest person I know. You can do this.”

Crying, you turn to him and at the sight of tears misting his gentle and expectant eyes, you nod, before pushing harder than ever, screaming all the air out of your lungs. The most powerful pain and pressure you’ve ever felt washes over you before it’s completely vanished. In a mix of exhaustion and relief, you pant. Letting your head fall back, you notice Bucky gasping beside you.

The sweetest sound of a cry fills up the room.

Your head snaps up and everything around you fades away.

A girl. A beautiful baby girl.   

Seconds later, Doctor Nadine places your baby in your chest and you’re already sobbing again. Not from pain anymore. Her little chubby face is scrunching up with feverous crying and time stops at the moment she clenches tightly her tiny fists to the air. You gave life to a child. Your whole heart out in the world. You fall in love immediately. You count every single little finger and she’s perfect. She’s perfect, big, and strong and beautiful.

You know right away this is the magic you’ve been hearing so much about. And it’s worth it. Everything you’ve gone through to get to that moment is completely worth it.

You take your eyes from her to look at Bucky and the expression you see on his face as he watches the little bundle of love in your arms will be forever engraved in your heart. The extraordinary feeling in your chest is intensified by the pure adoration in his face watching your daughter.

His daughter.

He brings his flesh hand to her chubby cheeks and you know immediately you’ve given birth to a daddy’s girl, because her crying turns into little sniffles before it ceases completely at her dad’s touch. 

“Our little girl,” He sobs with an enamored gaze stuck on the perfect little creature nuzzled against your chest, “Summer.” He smiles through his tears. “Our little Summer.” His watery eyes find yours.

You frown and, noticing the love lacing his words, a speed up film flashes in your mind. All the pain he’s been through, the life that has been taken away from him, the horror… How he overcame all of those years of cold and harsh winter and somehow continued to be the best man in the world. Seeing the sheer happiness on his face, you realize how much he deserves it. More than anyone.  Light is the only thing that should be in his world after all the darkness.

You smile. “Summer.” You forget all the name options you had thought about before, “It’s perfect… Our little sun.   Hey there, Summer, I’m your mama,” Your voice is shaky as you look at your daughter and she blinks, quietly observing you and Bucky with her big and already curious blue eyes. Just like her dad’s. You’re doomed.

You turn to him at the same time he does. His forehead leans against yours and, just like the most natural thing in the world, the kiss happens. It’s chaste, pure... and it tastes like forever… a kind of forever you’ve never experienced before. There’s no other intention behind it than to put into action the strongest feeling you’ve ever felt and shared, having your baby in your arms. When it’s over, quickly after it begun, your foreheads remain linked for a little while more and easy smiles adorn the lips of both of you.

After the doctor quickly dries off Summer, she offers Bucky to cut the cord, which he promptly and eagerly accepts, doing it without an ounce of hesitation. When she’s wrapped around a small blanket, you notice Doctor Nadine opening a curtain, revealing those waiting at the other side of a big glass window.

You smile at your friends, your family. You start crying all over again and wave at each one of them. Steve, Nat, Wanda, Sam, Vision, Tony, Pepper, Clint. Your breath catches in your throat at the sight of Bruce, Thor and Carol, who had been long gone into space up till now. Laughter takes over you at the sight of some of them in pajamas while others in tactical gear.

After all the brave but exhausting work she’s been through with you, Summer is already sleeping against your chest when Bucky carefully takes her in his right arm, holding her like she’s the most fragile and valorous thing in the world, which she is, but doing it like a pro, which kind of surprises you. You have never seen him holding a baby before. After taking his time staring down at the precious little person with that adoring stare that belongs to her now, he turns and slowly steps closer to the window.

It’s almost comical to see the group of mighty superheroes come close together to get a better peek at your baby girl. You spot Steve, Nat, Wanda and Tony crying, Sam snapping some pictures with his phone while the others chant words of admiration and stupid grins. 

Your smile is just as stupid as theirs.

~~~

Later that night, you tried to breastfeed Summer – which turned out to be harder than you expected and a bit frustrating, but in the end you two managed to make the colostrum start to come out. Doctor Nadine told you she was born with 20 inches and a bit more than 7 pounds, which would already be big for a regular newborn, but it was amazing for a premature baby. She related it with Bucky’s genes but, apart from that, nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. She would keep running tests, nevertheless. You tried not to worry and focus on your beautiful and healthy baby. After all of that, both of you fell to slumber, which you knew it wouldn’t be long before you would have to feed her again.

Now, you’re only half-awake when a low and sweet whispering reaches your ears.

“You’re so beautiful.”

Peering through your barely opened lids, you see Bucky through the dim lights in the room. It must have been less than an hour since you slept. He’s holding Summer, who remains peacefully looking up at him as he slowly rocks her and paces around the room. Still not fully awake, and for completely selfish sneaky reasons, you decide to stay unnoticed for a little while longer and listen to the soft interaction. 

“Just like your mama… did you see how beautiful she is?”

You can hear the smile through his words as your heart twirls inside your chest and your lips curl up a bit. A warm wave flushes up to your cheeks.

“I was so happy when I found out you were a girl,” He continues whispering, “Don’t get me wrong, I would love you just as much anyway,” He’s quick to add and you can’t hold back the smile to come out fully, “but then I knew you would be just as perfect as your mama, and you are. I love you so, so much. I’m your daddy you know? And I will always be there for you, to keep you safe and happy and kick whoever’s ass you want me to.”

You suppress a laugh – because you know he’s telling the truth - and he stays quiet for a moment, just gazing at Summer in his arm. You can’t help but notice that, despite not showing hesitation in holding her, he hasn’t really touched her with his metal arm, always using it only as a support for the flesh one. You make a mental note about it. 

“Your mama loves you, too, you know?”

You suck in a breath.

“You got lucky, my little sun, you have the best mama in the world.” He smiles down at the quiet and observant newborn, “I’m gonna tell you a secret, but you gotta promise you’ll keep it, ok? I lo-”

Deciding you already have intruded enough in a moment that doesn’t belong to you, you yawn loudly and stretch your arms, making your awaken state noticeable.

“Hey,” You smile at him, carefully sitting up straight on the bed.

“Hey, did I wake you up?” He slowly walks over you.

“It’s ok,” you shake your hand, smiling, “I think it’s about time to feed her again. Is she awake?” You straighten up your neck to peek at your baby daughter, whose eyes remain on Bucky.      

“Yes, she whined a bit a few minutes ago, but then I picked her up and she got ok.” He can’t even hide the pride in his words, “You needed the rest, so I let you sleep a little more.”

Moving to the side of the bed, you pat the space you make for him and he promptly sits beside you, always careful in his moves while holding Summer.

Her eyes meet yours and then you become her new object of interest. You wonder if the emotions spilling inside you at her sight will cool down at some point… Probably not.

“Hi, sweetheart,” You scratch her little belly.    

“She looks just like you.” Bucky mumbles, not tearing his eyes away from her.

“She has your eyes,” you say, “She’s perfect isn’t she?”

“Yes she is. Just like you.” His eyes meet yours, “What you did tonight…It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I always knew you were strong but that was just a whole other level.”

You have to take a moment to breathe, but you did hold back the tear to run down your face under his intense and devoted gaze. “It was worth it.” You whisper, as your words come out strangled, “I can’t believe we did it.” You add.

He scoffs. “I did nothing.”

You place your hand over his flesh one supporting Summer’s little back, “I wouldn’t have done it without you, Bucky.”

“Yes you would’ve.” He states, holding your gaze to his.

“It wouldn’t have been the same.” You state back, just as firmly as him. 

He swallows and nods shortly as a small smile shapes his lips.

“Our daughter… Can you believe it?” Bucky turns back to Summer.

For a long moment, you both sit in silence, admiring the little one in his arms. And that’s when you realize the truth in that old saying… everything happens for a reason. You wouldn’t have changed a thing in your past if it meant you would get to that moment. That perfect quietness among the three of you, that extraordinary feeling of sheer love…  

“We’re doomed. She’s got us wrapped around her tiny little finger, doesn’t she?” You cut through the silence and sigh, deeply, as you caress her hand with the back of yours.

Bucky chuckles, but before he could answer Summer starts fuzzing and his little face scrunches up before she starts crying. A loud and angry cry to put her first one to shame as she wiggles her clenched little fists to the air.

“Someone is hungry.” You laugh quietly and reach out your arms.

Promptly, but carefully, of course, Bucky hands the baby to you. He gets up from the bed as you adjust yourself and Summer to start opening up the buttons of your gown and nurse her.   

“Can- Can I stay?” Bucky asks tentatively, fidgeting with his fingers.

You look up at him and smile, “Please….” You nod, “Please, stay, Bucky.”  

~ ~~

Part 22 coming soon (ish)

[alphacrone]

title: for better or for worse pairing(s): Zen & Kiki, Zen & Kiki & Mitsuhide tags: au - canon divergence, arranged marriage, manga spoilers summary:

In a world where Zen never meets Shirayuki, he is still expected to marry. Unfortunately, Kiki is the best choice among his suitors.

Or, Zen has many awkward conversations and realizes something about love.

-

Zen Wistalia, second prince of Clarines, was 20 years of age when his brother commanded him to marry. 

It wasn’t that Zen misliked women, or even that he had grand dreams of finding true love. But Zen had never been comfortable in the company of noble ladies, who did not share his interests in sword fighting and horseback riding through the mountains. He loved his mother dearly and looked up to Queen Haki like an older sister, but the only woman who’d ever truly understood him was Kiki and she, unfortunately, was not an option. 

“I don’t understand the issue,” Izana said, only the barest hint of frustration in his tone. “Lady Kiki is one of your closest aides and a dear friend, is she not? That is a better choice than most in our position ever have.” 

Zen clenched his jaw. “She is…” he hedged. 

“Then it is her appearance?” Izana continued, casting his eyes down to the papers on his desk. “She’s grown lovelier since the days of being mistaken for a boy. But perhaps you prefer a brunette, or something else entirely…” 

“Kiki is very beautiful,” Zen snapped, more out of habit than anything. He’d grown very protective of her when she first arrived at the palace, and there had been more than a few hushed comments on her boyish appearance. “That’s not the issue.” 

“Then, my dear brother,” Izana sighed, bringing a few slender fingers to press at his temples. “What is the issue? I thought, of all the acceptable candidates, Kiki would be the best option—no, the only option. You’ve refused marriage interviews with any other lady. Please.” He cast a tired gaze at Zen. “Enlighten me.” 

“She’s in love with Mitsuhide.” 

Zen smacked a hand over his mouth, horrified. He hadn’t meant to tell his brother anything of the sort. 

Izana blinked once. Twice. Then he closed his eyes and sighed. 

“Is that all?” 

“What?” Zen froze, mouth agape. “What do you mean? I couldn’t do that to her or Mitsuhide.” 

“What is it you would be doing to either of them?” Izana asked, idly picking up one of his papers and examining the contents. “It’s not as if they are ever going to marry.” 

Zen pinched the bridge of his nose. “You don’t know that! When Kiki returns to take her father’s place-” 

“Kiki has already proposed to Mitsuhide,” Izana said without looking away from the document, reaching out to grab a pen. “And he has already rejected her.” 

It was said, for many years later, that every soul within a mile radius of the palace heard Zen’s strangled cry that day.

“He did what?! ” Zen slammed his hands down on Izana’s desk, scattering papers everywhere. Izana glared at him. “Why did he- How could he- Why didn’t she tell me?!”

“I didn’t ask,” Izana said drily. “I was quite too busy discussing the logistics of an heir marrying a crown prince with her and Lord Seiran.” 

“Kiki knows about this ?!” Zen slammed his hands down again, knocking over an inkwell. Izana stood swiftly, righting the bottle and tossing a handkerchief onto the spilled ink to soak it up before it could stain his work. 

“Of course she does,” Izana snapped, tossing a few books to the ground, out of harm’s way. “Because, unlike you , she understands her duties to her family and to her country. If you are to ask for her hand in marriage, Lady Kiki Seiran is ready to accept.” 

The blood in his veins turned to ice and Zen’s hands went cold and numb. Kiki, the third friend he’d ever had, the only woman who’d ever treated him as a peer, was willing to marry him. For life! For her whole life, she’d- she’d what? Support him? Work beside him? Dance with him at balls and parties? She did all of those things already, usually with a sword in hand. Perhaps…

But there were other things that came with marriage, things that resulted in heirs . Zen’s face burned at the idea of seeing his friend naked, of doing... things with her. He’d never even kissed a girl before, and now he would have to- he shook his head to rid himself of the thought. 

“This is my ultimatum, Zen,” Izana said, voice heavy with an unleashed sigh.  “Either make Kiki your fiancé, or I will choose another woman for you.” 

Zen buried his face in his hands, too overcome to respond immediately. Finally, after a long, torturous moment of silence, he nodded. “Okay,” Zen whispered. “Alright. I’ll talk to Kiki.” 

Izana tilted back his head, shoulders drooping as if he’d just set down a heavy burden. “Thank you,” he said, and it sounded sincere. “I do think you will find happiness in each other.” 

“Thank you, brother,” Zen said. He thought of his sister-in-law, the way she threw everything she had into her duties, the way her eyes lit up when she caressed the growing roundness of her belly. Haki certainly had not been in love with Izana when they’d said their vows, but every day the two of them worked together to find small joys in their marriage. 

With a tense bow, Zen left the King’s office, hurrying away to his own wing of the palace. He needed to talk to Kiki, then yell at Mitsuhide, then- 

Zen huffed in frustration. Were he a coward, he’d have let his brother choose someone—anyone—else and live with the consequences. But Zen was too bullheaded to let his brother make that decision for him, and so his stubbornness would trump the terror he felt at the idea of asking Kiki to marry him. 

“Zen!” 

That voice...was not one Zen wanted to hear just now. He turned to see Mitsuhide approach and he felt all his earlier anger well up in him. 

“ You ,” he hissed. “You idiot !” 

Mitsuhide stopped in his tracks, hands raised in defense immediately. “What? What did I-”

“You-! Kiki proposed to you?!” Zen jabbed a finger in Mitsuhide’s face. “And you rejected her ?!” 

His aide’s eyes grew wide. “I-I-” He grimaced. “Yes. I did.” 

Zen stared at him until Mitsuhide averted his gaze. He knew the man before him could be thick at times, even downright stupid, but this …

“Don’t bully him, Zen. He’ll cry.” 

Startled, Zen jumped as Kiki approached, face far too placid for someone approaching the man who’d turned her down and the man who was reluctantly planning to propose. Zen frowned. “I think he deserves to cry a little.” 

“You know, I asked King Izana to let me tell you about this,” she said with a sigh. “I assume you’ve just come from speaking with him?” 

“Yeah,” Zen said. “I, uh. I think we need to talk?” Despite himself, Zen felt his face turning pink. Mitsuhide clearly noticed, because the fear in his eyes turned to concern. 

“Is everything okay?” he asked, looking between Zen and Kiki. 

Kiki nodded, still far too stoic. “Zen is going to propose to me, I believe.” 

The silence that fell was staggering. Zen’s face burned like he’d stuck his head in an oven. Mitsuhide’s eyes grew comically large. Kiki, the demon she apparently was, had the gall to smile, just a little. 

“Y-y-you-” Mitsuhide sputtered. “P-p-pro-pro-pose?”

Kiki looked at Zen. “Am I mistaken? The King seemed certain you’d choose me over a stranger.” 

“I…” Zen rubbed at his forehead. “I didn’t imagine Mitsuhide would be here for this conversation.” 

“Really?” Kiki looked genuinely surprised. “I imagined he would be here for every step of our marriage.” 

Despite his better judgement, Zen asked, “ Every step?” 

That, it seemed, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Kiki’s impassive stare turned dark. Mitsuhide doubled over, hyperventilating. The hallway was suspiciously devoid of staff.

“That’s not what I meant!” Zen exclaimed, gripping at his hair. “I just- fuck .” 

“Maybe I should leave the two of you to talk,” Kiki said, slapping Mitsuhide on the back as he struggled for air. 

“No,” Zen groaned. He could feel a headache forming in the base of his skull. “No, you and I need to talk about this.” 

“What is there to discuss?” Kiki asked. “It would be mutually beneficial for us to marry. Your brother and my father approve. We don’t hate each other. It seems logical.” 

“Don’t you find it weird?” Zen asked, his voice shooting up an octave. Next to him, Mitsuhide was still wheezing, so Zen joined Kiki in pounding on the man’s back. “The idea of marrying me ?” 

“Not particularly,” Kiki said with a shrug. “I’ve always known I would probably need to marry for political benefit, not love. Since my love belongs to Mitsuhide, who can’t return it, then I’d rather marry someone I care about than someone I don’t.” 

The sound Mitsuhide made sounded like a cross between a dying cat and breaking steel. Zen sighed and moved to rubbing comforting circles in Mitsuhide’s back. 

“Okay, but what about the...intimate parts of marriage? Heirs will be expected…” 

“Zen.” Kiki cast him an incredulous look. “Did no one prepare you for that when you were younger? Does Mitsuhide need to give you the talk? He can explain how it works.” 

“I know how it works!” Zen protested. “But isn’t it weird, doing it with someone you don’t...love? Love like that?” 

“I have three cousins, all girls,” Kiki said, hand stilling on Mitsuhide’s back. “All of them married much younger than me, all to strangers. They all have children now. As nobles, we are raised with the understanding that we will have to copulate with someone for whom we bear no feelings.” 

Shame and embarrassment stung the back of Zen’s throat. “So you...aren’t scared?” 

Kiki’s gaze softened. “Of course not. It’s you .” 

“ I’m scared,” Zen admitted, pouting a little. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship.” 

“Aww…” Mitsuhide cooed. Zen smacked the back of his head, causing him to fall to the ground. 

“It would take more than sex to do that, Zen,” Kiki said drily. 

Zen looked down at his feet. “You’re right,” he said. “But things will change.” 

“They will,” she agreed. “But then, they always do.” 

Zen swallowed back his worries and smiled, genuinely. Then, unceremoniously shoving Mitsuhide out of the way, he bent down on one knee, reaching out for Kiki’s hand. She gave it to him, returning his smile. 

“Kiki Seiran, would you do me the pleasure of becoming my wife?” 

“Why Prince Zen,” she deadpanned. “I thought you’d never ask.” 

Zen pinched her arm in retaliation, then placed a chaste kiss to the back of her hand.  Kiki turned her grip to haul him back to two feet, and they stood there for a moment, hands clasped in a familiar gesture of comradery.  This was what their relationship was built on: trust, loyalty, and years watching each others’ backs. If it was like this , Zen thought, then maybe marriage wasn’t so scary. 

A loud, watery sniff came from the floor, and both turned to see Mitsuhide watching them with emotional, teary eyes. “You guys ,” he said, then pulled them both into a tight hug. “You’re both- Zen, you’re so grown .”

“Oh, don’t even ,” Zen sniped, trying to wriggle free. “I’m still angry with you. Kiki, did he make you cry? Be honest with me, I’ll put him to work in the stables if he did.” 

Kiki cast a look between the two men. “I did find myself getting a little misty-eyed, now that you mention it.” 

Mitsuhide gasped. “You did not -” Then grunted as Zen pulled him into a chokehold. “ Kiki- help-” 

“Oh, no,” Kiki said. “I consider this a wedding present from my fiancé. I’d like to see how this fight ends.” 

Zen laughed and let Mitsuhide break his grip, then yelped as the older man lifted him off the ground. Kiki hid a smile behind her hand, watching her closest friends wrestle, and Zen felt a weight lift from his chest. 

It wasn’t a storybook romance, this love of theirs; it wasn’t a romance at all. But when Zen was with Kiki and Mitsuhide his world was soft and warm and safe. These were his friends, the people he loved most in the world, and while their dynamics would change and relationships would grow, this —the family he’d found for himself—would be the only love story he’d ever need. 

[sanderssidesfanfiction]

If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Eighty One

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

July 16th, 1999

Remy glanced up from the back corner of the library as a girl laughed a little too close to comfort for him. His mom had let him come to the library on the condition that she be there (and monitor what he checked out, but neither of them acknowledged that), but he was allowed as much time as he wanted in the teen section. Which meant he could sneak in some magical-girl-manga-reading.

He checked to make sure his mom wasn’t around and continued to read. He loved this, probably a little too much for his own good, but he didn’t care right now. Right now, he just wanted to make sure the Sailor Scouts would get out of peril safely.

And maybe, one day, he’d find a place where he could rent out the books and not have to pray that no one checked out the one he was reading while he was gone.

  February 14th, 2002

Remy looked over his list again, grumbling. That idea was too sappy, that one was too plain, that one didn’t have the right amount of sentimentality, the other one had too much! How hard could it be to find a proposal plan that worked?! Seriously, he was going insane figuring this out, and he hadn’t even decided on a ring, yet!

Maybe he should do that first? But no, he wanted the ring to fit the occasion too. Because Emile was a traditions sort-of guy, but Remy wasn’t. And he was pretty sure Emile would kill him if Remy bought Emile a diamond, but that meant the options for rings just grew.

“Decisions, decisions...” Remy grumbled, staring at the paper. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back in his chair. He had no idea what he was going to do.

An idea struck him over the head in an instant. What if he proposed at Sleep Easy, once it was clear that the store was going to be a success? Opening day would also be dramatic, but Remy wanted to be sure that the store would do well, in case in the heat of the moment he made allusions to the success of the store relating to the success of their marriage. Yeah, that could work!

...Gay marriage would have to be legal for them to actually get married, but hey, they could probably invite their friends and Emile’s family to a ceremony even if the actual marriage part didn’t happen.

Remy smiled. Yeah, he could find a ring that he’d be willing to show off to the patrons of Sleep Easy in a ring box as he proposed to Emile. He could work with that...

He was rooting around in his desk for another piece of paper and a pen to write down more ideas when there was a knock at the office door. Remy turned with a smile to see Emile there. “Hey, stranger,” Remy said. “What’s up?”

“You’ve been in here for at least two hours. It’s Valentine’s Day. I demand attention,” Emile said, offering a playful smile.

“Oh, come on,” Remy said, letting his arms fall off the armrests of the chair. “You can’t even give me a couple hours to scheme something romantic for you before you want me back with you?”

“For me?” Emile said, moving closer.

Remy slammed the papers into his designated drawer of the desk and locked the drawer. “Uh, no, nuh-uh, you are not reading what this is about, mister!”

“Oh, I see, so you can get grumpy about me keeping the shop from you for literal months but the second I try to read something you wrote I’m not allowed to?” Emile teased.

Remy rolled his eyes. “I admitted you were right, that the shop was much better as a surprise. Same thing applies with this. You don’t want to know.”

Emile did an exaggerated pout before he grinned. “So, what’s up? Do you have the time to spare to pay attention to me?”

“Yes, honey, I can spend time with you,” Remy said, rolling his eyes and standing up, leading Emile out of the room. “What are you hoping to rope me into today?”

“Maybe a little...afternoon out?” Emile asked, grinning. “I’m willing to take you to the local comic shops to browse, maybe buy a few things that you’ve been eyeing for a while.”

Remy’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, really?”

“Mhm,” Emile agreed. “And then we could go out to dinner, and maybe afterwards we could head to the park, stargaze a bit, and have a little bit of time to ourselves this Valentine’s.”

“As opposed to every other day when we’re, what, surrounded by children?” Remy asked, amused.

“No, but we have outside worries, and things to focus on that aren’t each other,” Emile said with a shrug. “And I think just focusing on each other for a bit would be nice.”

“You’re right, that would feel good,” Remy agreed, smiling softly. “I’ve been way too caught up in my own head recently and I want to spend some quality time with you.”

“So what say you to going out and having some fun, girl?” Emile asked with a wink.

“I say...sounds perfect,” Remy said, kissing Emile’s cheek and grabbing his jacket.

Emile grinned and Remy let himself be led out to their car and got in the passenger’s seat. Emile got in the driver’s seat and started the car, a smile on his face. Remy frowned when instead of a left out of the neighborhood, Emile took a right. “This isn’t the way to the comics shop,” Remy said.

“Yes it is,” Emile said.

“No, Emile, I’ve driven there a thousand times, we make a left if we want to get there. Right is how we get out of the city,” Remy said.

Emile just grinned and continued to keep driving.

“Emile, I don’t understand you, and I hope you realize that when you realize you’re wrong, I will be saying I told you so,” Remy said.

“That’s fine,” Emile said, “Because I’m not wrong.”

Remy rolled his eyes and let Emile drive, arms crossed. He listened to the music on the radio, not really paying attention to anything until he noticed they were in the same city that they went to Pride last year. “Emile, where are we going?”

“I told you, we’re going to the comic book store.”

Remy shook his head. “No, seriously.”

“Seriously,” Emile said, pulling into a parking lot and parking the car. “We’re going to the comic book store.”

Remy blinked and got out of the car, looking at the small building in front of them. It didn’t look run down, but it wasn’t some top-of-the-line huge corporation either. Emile led Remy inside and Remy gaped. Wall to wall to wall and dozens of bookshelves were holding comics, graphic novels, and geekery of all kinds. “What?” he asked barely above a whisper. “What is this place?”

“I got on the subscription list for that comics startup you were interested in,” Emile said. “This is their first store. Obviously, they carry some of the bigger comics, but most of their stuff is local, start-up based, and queer.”

Remy looked around in awe. “Unbelievable,” he breathed. “Un. Believable. And you were going to tell me about this?”

“Yeah,” Emile said. “If you weren’t up for going out today I would have told you. But they only opened in January, I figured we should give them a little bit of time to stock everything.”

Remy nodded idly, already drifting towards the shelves upon shelves of comic books. He hesitantly reached for a couple before pulling his hand back and looking at Emile. “Don’t judge me?” he requested.

“Why would I judge you when I literally brought you here to geek out?” Emile asked.

“Because people can be arbitrarily mean and weird about my interests for whatever reason they can tangentially tie to it,” Remy said.

“I’m not people,” Emile said. “I’m your boyfriend.”

Remy considered that a moment, before reaching back to the comic and pulling it out. “I’ve been really wanting to read this series for a while.”

Emile looked at the cover, frowning. “What is it?”

“Think... Sailor Moon crossed with Darkwing Duck,” Remy said, a blush creeping up his face as he realized exactly how stupid that must sound.

“Magical girls crossed with a super-powered duck?” Emile asked skeptically.

“More like...magical girls crossed with found family and crime fighting. Darkwing Duck was the first thing I thought of that you might recognize.” Remy shrugged. “I know it sounds dumb...”

“You kidding me, Rem? That sounds really cool!” Emile exclaimed. “I didn’t take you to be one for magical girls, though.”

“I...well...I always had this guilty pleasure about it,” Remy admitted. “I always wanted that, in a way. The ability to have that confidence wearing a miniskirt.” He laughed weakly.

Emile didn’t. “I think we all have those,” Emile said. “Rem...”

Remy’s stomach sank. “Oh, I know that tone.”

“You’re really sure you’re not trans?” Emile asked, grimacing.

“I...I don’t...know...” Remy admitted. “I always get clocked as trans, I know this, you know this. I like wearing blouses and one day I want to be brave enough to try a dress or a skirt, go full drag. But I never really...” Tears were coming to his eyes. “I never really felt like a full woman for more than a day or so at a time. And the rest of the time I’m mostly happy being a guy. I don’t...I don’t want to be a woman. Not all the time. I just want to be...me. Whoever that is.”

Emile looked Remy up and down and said, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Remy repeated dumbly.

“Okay. You want to be you? Be you. Whether that’s a man, a woman, that non-binary thing we hear about at Pride, or a genderless blob. We can call each other boyfriends for simplicity’s sake if you want, but I won’t judge if you don’t want to be what everyone expects a man to be,” Emile hugged Remy tight as he continued, “I just want you to be happy, Rem. Forcing yourself to say you’re a guy all the time doesn’t make you happy. So if you just want to be Remy, then you absolutely can just be Remy. Not a guy, not a girl. Just you.”

Remy didn’t realize how much he wanted, or needed, to hear those words until he heard them, and he broke down crying. He clutched Emile’s shoulders, comics all but forgotten as he realized that he was safe here. He had a safety here that he hadn’t ever felt with any of his family, including Toby. He was free to be his one hundred percent authentic self, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have that.

When his tears finally dried, he took a step back from Emile, and he was beaming. “Let’s get these comics, I have a feeling that you’ll like them too,” Remy said, picking up the stack.

Emile smiled genuinely at Remy as he moved around the rest of the shelves, continuing to geek out for as long as they were there. Once they had purchased the comics Remy was interested in, they went to dinner at a sit-down restaurant (which Remy still had to remind himself would not break the bank, much as he worried otherwise), and they went to the local park as the sun was setting. The February air was brisk, but Emile laid out a blanket for the two of them to lie down on, and Remy got settled into Emile’s side, just a hair away from lying on top of him. No one would mistake them for simply being friendly like this, but Remy didn’t care.

“Tonight was nice,” Remy sighed. “I really, really loved it.”

“Good, I’m glad,” Emile said with a smile. “You know I love you, Rem.”

“I love you too, Emile,” Remy said back, a smile lacing his words.

“Hey, Rem?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to come to the next monthly meeting with Dice? It’s coming up at the end of the month...”

“That’s okay, Emile, I’m not too worried about it,” Remy said with a hand-wave, eyes never leaving the sky as the first few stars started twinkling. “If something important happens, I trust you to tell me, or at least...y’know, set up a surprise for me. You wouldn’t keep the information to yourself indefinitely.”

“You love Toby too much to let me get away with that, first of all,” Emile laughed. “Second of all, I love you. I want to see you happy. And I know, one-hundred percent, that this will make you happy. It might take some time and catching up and therapy, but this would be good for you, Rem. I don’t want to hold you back from that.”

“I love you too, I hope you know that.”

“Trust me. I know.”

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

This is something a bit different from me, but in light of the recent announcement from Ubisoft that there’s going to be a remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time coming out in January 2021, I thought I’d share some thoughts.

(This started out small but got outta hand so super long post incoming, no spoilers for the games)

So first off, a bit of my history with the original game.

 I’m a big fan of the Prince of Persia (PoP) franchise, and I’ll fully admit that nostalgia plays a big part in it. You see, in many ways this 2003 classic was my real entryway drug into the world of videogames.

It wasn’t the first videogame I had ever played. My friends had consoles, there were some games on the school computers, but I didn’t own games as a kid. As far as my parents were concerned, these were all the spoils and soul damning devices of Lucifer himself. You know how it is, every generation goes through this thing of blaming all the world’s problems on a new artform: rock and roll, comic books and then videogames.

So yeah, a gaming console or buying games for the home computer was a BIG NO-NO! 

But of course, the more an authority figure says you can’t have something, the more you want and crave it. It was only a matter of time until the opportunity presented itself to me.

And then the day finally came.

It was just me and a couple of friends, going to this new magazine store near the school. And there it was: the dvd case that came with a gaming mag for like 5 euros if I remember correctly, stupid cheap for such a great game. 

There was doubt, there was fear, there was anxiety. I didn’t know much about the game, only the old 1989 DOS Prince of Persia:

This had the same name but looked different. I was seduced immediately.

The case stared longingly at me:

 It’s not my fault, I was bewitched and I bought it.

My symbol of rebellion, my first big transgression, and my first real treasured posession that I bought with hard earned money.

PoP:The Sands of Time was my original sin so to say:

Accurate representation of what happened that day

I furiously installed the game as soon as my parents left the house. Played it for a couple of hours and stood in awe at the thing - the cinematics, the cool parkour moves, the arabian nights setting, the time manipulation to undo mistakes when platforming or in combat, the Prince breaking the fourth wall saying:”no no no, that’s not what happened, let me start over” whenever I died and got a game over…

You have not experienced true fear if at some point in your life you didn’t feel the cold sweat running down your back as you hear the very distinct sound of your parents’ car arriving when you’re doing something “prohibited”.

 As soon as I heard that sound, I quickly quit the game, uninstaled it (I could not run the risk of them finding out I had tainted their machine with a videogame *gasp!*), and ran to my room to hide the game before opening the door for them. 

Neetheless to say, I never made much progress since I had to start over every time after quitting and uninstalling the thing. I would just play those first couple of hours over and over, never knowing how the story progressed, but I was happy all the same. At one point I knew every line of dialogue, every music cue, every sound effect of that beginning part. It would be some years before I got my first laptop and finally managed to complete it. 

All of this to say that the game means a lot to me. Not just as a product or piece of entertainment. This wasn’t casually playing on someone’s gameboy advance or PS2 to have a bit of fun and pass the time.

 This was more intimate.

 It was just me; the game; a dark room and a blanket; and a sincere and charming, simple but compelling story told seamlessly through mechanics that only enhanced it. This was me witnessing gameplay and storytelling going hand in hand in a way that even many of my other favourite games don’t do, or don’t do as well (there’s usually some disconnect where a game only manages to really excel at one but not the other).

Ok, so on the announcement and trailer:

As a big fan you might think I was super hyped for this. 

But I gotta say…no, not really.

I’m not super angry, but I’m not really excited either honestly. And I don’t think it’s just the rough and uncanny character models and animation that people are pointing out all over (although that doesn’t help).

I guess to talk a bit on that, I should stress out that my problem isn’t that it doesn’t look realistic enough. To be honest, and this is going to sound rich from a big Witcher 3 fan, I think that the gaming industry overall, moreso big tripple A titles, seem to have this unhealthy obsession with photorealism. Like, I don’t need to see the characters’s pores to care about these polygon people. Strong art direction is what I feel is more valuable. I just don’t think this arms race to photorealism is sustainable. Games are taking longer to make and fund, and I’d rather have dev teams spend more time polishing and refining the games’ mechanics and/or story if the trade-off is less “realistic” graphics.  

It might just be personal preference, but I wish we were getting more stylized character and world design. Go look at some screenshots for Pathologic 2, a game that came out last year that hits that sweet spot between full-blown cartoony/caricature and realistic by today’s standards:

And I think that is somewhat what they were going for with this remake’s character models (or I hope it was). But it’s still not quite there, hopefully they’ll work on improving those so they can hit that sweet spot also.

(in defense of my hipocrisy and love of The Witcher 3, I think the more realistic look was appropriate for the world they were portraying, it benefits from it. However I don’t think I would love it any less if it had less detailed models and environments)

One last thing on the graphics.

I will say this though, at least from the footage we see in the new trailer the team seems to be capitalizing on colour. Big vibrant reds, blues, whites and yellows in the environment look great, and really captures the 1.001 nights/arabian nights feel that I absolutely love. I appreciate that since there’s always this tendency for remakes to suck all the colour and life from the original (in both games and movies), regardless if it fits the setting and tone or not.

Anyway, I think the reason I’m very much without a big reaction is that I believe the 2003 original is a true classic, a masterpiece even - I guess I should stress out that when I say masterpiece, I don’t mean it’s perfect. Just that the whole is bigger and better than the sum of its parts, that the things it does right, it does so right, that it completely overshadows the flaws. 

The story, the art direction, the gameplay (the holy trinity of platforming, combat and puzzle solving), the brilliant introduction of the dagger of time as a gameplay and story mechanic (one of my favourite mechanics in all of gaming), the music, the charming duo that is the Prince and Farah, the tight pacing with the game being just the right length and not overstaying its welcome, the outstanding level design where you’re never stuck doing one thing for too long (the game is always juggling between combat, story, platforming and puzzles, mixing and matching)… 

Looking at all these things, I just really don’t think we need a remake because I don’t think there’s that many glaring terrible flaws that could justify it. 

Adding more scenes and content could be good, or it might backfire: bloat and ruin the game’s already excelent pacing and fluidity (which I think is the main keyword that better describes the original, everything flows superbly). The original was only 6-8 hours long and it is better for it. I’m not confident that adding dozens of hours of gameplay like the big tittles today would help at all.

The only real improvements I can see are: 

tweeking and perfecting the combat (I’ve seen it mentioned that they’re implementing a targeting system which sounds good); 

perhaps also better Farah’s A.I during combat when you have to help protect her from swarms of enemies;

Maybe throw in a couple more enemy types? The cut sand tigers for example? 

usual things like adding the option of subtitles, add the ability to skip cutescenes;

But other than that…

I don’t even think the graphics of the original look bad. They’ve aged of course, with the game being 17 years old, but still. I installed it last night and played through the first hour to take some screenshots and I think they’re still good:

I can understand the MediEvil remaster, the Spyro remaster or the more recent FFVII remake in terms of wanting to update the graphics. I can understand that not everyone can easily go back to these low poly lads:

 But this game? I know I’m influenced by nostalgia and all, but I don’t think it needs that makeover that badly, especially when compared to these other remakes and remasters. Funnily enough, I just noticed that these examples I just listed were all PS1 games. PoP: SoT was a PS2 , PC and Xbox game. PS2 era games have aged far better visually and don’t need that big a makeover in my most humble opinion.

It would be one thing if the original was out of print like a Rule of Rose scenario ,where you can’t find the game unless you go to ebay or something and it’s stupid expensive. Or if it was a pain to get running on modern systems like it was with Grim Fandango, until it got a remaster. 

But no, you can find the Sands of Time trilogy and the PoP (2008) reboot on GOG and Steam (on Steam only there’s also the PoP:The Forgotten Sands midquel). So there isn’t the usual problem of the game no longer being accessible to people who want to play it, which helps justify the need for a remake.

The original still plays nice, sounds nice and looks nice, so I guess this all goes to show that at the end of the day, this remake just feels a bit unnecessary to me, at least from what little the trailer showed (I would love to have my bitter cynical ass proved wrong though!). 

 Maybe I just have a superhuman tolerance for older games and how they look, I really don’t have that big a problem if the game itself is good or interesting, so I don’t always think older games need remakes.

Maybe my falling out of love with Ubisoft in this last decade has curbed forever any hype I might have for their announcements, even when they pull out my  son, my baby boy Prince of Persia out again.

 Maybe I’m just burnt out and too pessimistic about remakes, remasters and adaptations (although game remakes usually do better than film ones).

And this makes me a bit sad because I don’t want to sh*t all over the first piece of “new”  Prince of Persia content we’ve had since 2010??? Oof, it’s been a while.

Especially knowing that Yuri Lowenthal is coming back and excited to voice the Prince again. And I also don’t want to be too harsh since we’re looking at an alpha of the game. But so far I’m just very numb to this, I do seriously hope it turns out good and that they don’t rush it out the door. But I’m not convinced we need a remake in the first place. The original is a milestone, a game changer. I’d rather see a game that had great ideas and poor execution being remade than something people already love and consider a masterpiece.

 Guess we’ll see how I feel once more news and footage come out.

Oh and feel free to share your own thoughts on this remake. I’m curious to know what both fans and newcomers alike think.

small edit: I can’t believe I was just watching this Sands of Time playthrough on youtube and at one point it is said: “Another game that is designed similarly to this is Soul Reaver actually.” 

Of course! I didn’t even see it! All of my favourite things are connected!!! Maybe that detail was another thing that helped me getting really into Soul Reaver as I was first playing it.

[inventedbymelvin]

Ch.4: Advanced Learning

   ( Disclaimer: Sorry if this chapter is lacking or isn’t right in some places. I had a trouble figuing out how to end it properly but I hope you enjoy it anyways. Shout out to @kittykat-creations​ for the help when it came to accuracy about adhd )

 Once he got home, Melvin quickly went to the drawing board to draft his revenge. He surprisingly worked fast to draw and build his new invention in the garage, showing up for dinner and going to bed at a reasonable hour. His mother was more than glad to see he was in a much better mood.  At dinner he explained he had recived some good news and mentioned the field trip, handing her the slip to sign. Once everything was prepared, Melvin finally had a peaceful night's sleep. He wanted to be ready to surprise them and prove he's better than third place.     The morning of the field trip, all four stood in the morning fog as the monthly cut grass collected dew on it's leaves. Krupp stood with them, as he was chaperoning the trip. All of them had been given special jackets to go along with the trip and they could keep them as souveneirs. They also helped with the morning coolness and were fashionable.     Thirty minutes later, the bus arrived at a futuristic looking campus complete with everything the aspiring genius needed. The inside was sleek and clean as everyone's footsteps echoed through the shiny hallways. In the main office, they chatted while waiting for their tour guide. Krupp immediately took a seat and looked around at the much better kept school. Melvin seemed particularly better than the day before.

     "I'm glad you're feeling better." Harold patted his shoulder. "It's nice to see you back to normal." George smiled. Erica felt something was a bit off. The four had filled their backpacks with neccessary items like lunch, notebooks, pencils and paper but Melvin's seemed to have something more. She wanted to believe it was just a lunch box but she'd never seen the nerd carry one. He insisted it would ruin the value of collectable Advancimals merchandise.      Erica decided to pull the boys aside for a moment. "I think he's hiding something. It doesn't make sense he'd turn around this fast, usually it takes him a week to get over an A minus."      "He seems fine to me, much better than screaming at us all the time." Harold nodded his head in agreement with George's statement. "You're just being paranoid, he's fine. We'll all have a great time and he'll learn-" George was cut off as the guide entered the office and greeted them.      "You must be our winners! Erica I loved your idea to clean up our waters! Boys, it truly is important to laugh! And Melvin, you have a budding career in robotics! Of course, Mr. Krupp, hes clearly doing his job well to have amazing students." The tour guide woman said cheerily as she shook their hands. She was in uniform with a pencil skirt and blazer outfit matching the colors of the school logo.       After introductions she lead them to the first part of their tour, a lecture experience to feel like they're part of the school. Today happened to be a talk on Einstein's thought experiments taught by a young red headed girl named Max. Her record showed you could mix both imagination and smarts, having a positive reputation all around the world at the age of twelve!      Surprisingly George and Harold paid attention. They had expected a boring mumbling professor that only Melvin would understand but Max seemed to encourage thinking and daydreaming. During the hour while the two were highly interested in hearing Max speak, Erica took a chance to observe the other boy in their group. Meanwhile, Krupp took a seat in the far back and immediately took a nap. He didn't quite understand why Melvin wanted to be here so badly, but sleeping was easier than figuring that out.      Melvin simply took notes and was just as interested in the lecture. She was starting to think maybe she was expecting something too big. This changed when Melvin took a moment to check something inside his backpack, pressing a few buttons that seemed to be a code or as if he were setting something. Immediately she went to investigate, taking a seat next to him.      "Whatcha doin?" Erica casually greeted.       "Just checking something, it's not important." Her sudden interest seemed to annoy him, but it wasn't new that asking about any of his inventions or tech bothered him. "Do you think I'm going to do something?" He asked in return with some pain to his tone.       "Look Melvin, I'm not trying to hurt you. There just seems to be a record of you...overreacting alot."       "We already have a lecture in progress, I would respect you save yours for later." Despite his mask of cheerfully enjoying the trip, he was still getting over things. "I was answering a text from my mother." he took his phone out of his bag, showing the conversation. She felt a bit bad for her suspicions and returned to focusing on the lecture.        At the end of the day after an extensive and winded walk through the whole school complete with a science experiment demonstration, provided lunch break and complimentary themed stationary, the tour guide asked if there were any leftover questions about it all.      "Yeah! Why is this place so big! It took us all day to get around, and you don't even have those little golf carts!" Krupp complained for the upteenth time that day that his legs felt like jelly from walking so much. All the guide could do was offer him a bench to sit on and apologize for the strain.      "Remember! You all three hold potential for attending this school with your wonderful thoughts and inventions." She smiled.      "What makes certain potential less worth than other's then?" A familar voice asked.      "Oh! None of you are less than each other! It's just there's typically a rigourous evaluation process with many factors that include--" Her sentence was cut off as a mech was heard putting itself together and Melvin was being seated where it's controls were. It was typically smaller than his usual but big enough to still cause property damage. He had to make it portable after all. "--include's emotional stability...."     "I won't hurt anyone, I just want talk to the two who decided I got THIRD PLACE!" He grinned with a tone that sounds like he absolutely would hurt someone.       Melvin kept his focus on the tour guide. "Where are they?! I just want to talk!" "I don't think theyre around today..." She tried to keep her best smile, trembling as she spoke.      "Then GO GET THEM!"  his voice was magnified by the speaker in the controls.      "I'm afraid meeting them isnt part of--" She was cut off by Melvin walking down the hall with no choice but to look for them himself. She followed behind, stating that this was against the rules and asking for any form of help. Multiple students and teachers turned their attention to the commotion, as a small mech searched for two specific people. Max jumped a bit, associating sudden commotion with her run-ins with the corp even though they were no longer a threat.      Melvin however, kept wanting answers from staff until he either found them personally or got their names. After yelling at a few teachers, he finally got some names and stomped off looking for their office. Anything thrown his way was met with being destroyed or pushed out of the way. Doors were broken, walls were smashed in, and offices were invaded as he searched. Drones, other bots and the occasional attempt to power down his own invention slowed his mission but he refused to quit in his blind rampage. George and Harold immediately summoned Captain Underpants much to Erica's disbelief.      "Do you really think he's going to help us?" she sighed. "What other option do we have?" both boys shrugged. "He's fought Melvin before so it's easy to do again." Harold hypothesized based on very repetive data.      "I'm here too! Plungerina!" Erica held her arms out dramatically. "Don't you think calling me would work too?"     "If they need their toilets unclogged, we'll call you." George cheekily grinned, running off with Harold and CU to follow the sounds of hydrolics coming from the west wing.      Plungerina followed after them with an exasperated sigh, doubtful of their abilities.     Down the hallway, CU and the boys could hear Melvin unleasing his breifly contained anger at the judge's he now held in the mech's right hand. He sounded like he wanted to cry, being reminded of the shame. It seems the boys were a bit late but tried to talk some sense into him before any punches were thrown. The boys were dropped onto the robot's shoulders.     "We really hoped you wouldn't try this. Erica thought you would but--" George couldn't finish in time.      A metal fist slammed in the ground out of frustration. "I KNEW IT! YOU'RE JUST WAITING TO POINT AND MAKE FUN THAT I DIDN'T WIN!" He pushed them off his shoulders, both being before hitting the ground.     "Someone didn't wake up on the right side of the bed." Captain remarked as he held the boys by their collars.     "Well if he wont listen to us, maybe you can do something. Go try to stall him, we'll be right back." CU put the two down and flew in front of the robot waving his hand enthusastically. "You know, you don't seem happy right now, maybe a hug would--" The free metal hand slapped CU away like a bug as attention was turned back to his original targets. "Hey! That isn't how you treat a friend! I'll forgive you, but you have to stop--" He was swatted away again, only to return each time. This left Melvin with no choice but to drop the judges in a small cage as the nerd focused on trying to get rid of the soft boiled egg.     "I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIENDS! IT WAS ALL A CRUEL JOKE!" came from the speakers as Melvin failed again and again to catch the caped hero. "I TOLD THEM TO LEAVE ME ALONE! I KNOW THEYRE JUST GOING TO PROVE THEIR STUPID COMICS AND CAPED BABIES AND FRANKENSTEIN DOGS ARE BETTER THAN MY ADVANCED ROBOTS!" "Well actually--" Captain attempted to respond which gave Melvin time to grab him by his cape and toss him in the prison with the others. A screen showed up in the small space, the feed coming from the control.      "Now tell me WHY I won third place and not first, not even second!" He gave them a second to respond as he breathed in his inhaler. Angrily yelling took the wind out of him.      The two stammered in their response, baffled why a science fair winner had inprisoned them in part of his impressively built mech with a man that needed to put on pants. "W-well, it didn't prove anything...." The male mumbled.     "WHAT?!"     "It didnt.....prove anything...." The lady repeated her collegue's words. "Melvin, your robots are impressive but you can't win by impressing people. We chose the others as better because they studied something. We see robots every day, if you had put your robot to beneficial use...." She tried to be gentle as possible but no words could soothe the fiery child at this point.     "CHANGE IT!"     "We can't...our requirements said  the best would be judged by how it would provide insight or benefit--"     "IT DOES BENEFIT! TEACHERS CAN GRADE MUCH FASTER!"     "That's not..."      "THAT'S IT!" The robot's foot stamped the ground in response to the controller's actions before taking off to simply destroy things. In blinded rage, more walls were smashed on the way to a garden greenhouse. Other staff, students and teachers tried to help but were no use unless they wanted to risk being thrown in a growing prison now consisting of two students who attempted to use a drone, a body guard, Captain Underpants and the judges. He hopped out of the mech and ran in, sitting among the greenery. It was calming and alot better than the darkness of his room. The other three eventually caught up via a golf cart that was allowed on school property for security purposes, winded by running to find one. Krupp might've had a point about needing a little bit of transportation help.     "Where is he?" they asked in unison, as all pointed to the greenhouse.     "Wait, why didn't you get out, you can bend bars!" Harold asked.     "I couldn't leave my new friends! Jeremy was just telling me about his new favorite show!" The man mentioned as Jeremy(which was not his actual name) was shaking his head, clearly uncomfortable. The three ignored this and ran off.       They kept calling Melvin's name only to hear footsteps far off trying to get away from them. Even mentioning that he was safe with them only made all four run in circles. Eventually with no more unwalked paths, they met in the middle. With no other form of defense, he held out his inhaler as if it would do anything damaging. "THIS IS BATTERY ACID YOU TRAITORS!" Unfortunately for him, this only worked on evil clowns and not three school children.        "Please tell us what's wrong. Remember older you doing really dangerous things? We don't want you to do the same." She tried to be gentle but the mention of Melvinborg seemed to cause him pain.        "You DONT understand! Leave me alone!" He tried to back up but George and Harold wouldn't let him leave.        "Don't understand what?"      "Losing...losing is bad. Shame." For someone who used big words, he was at a loss for them now.       "Hold on Erica, he's....he's having a hard time with words." Harold backed away. "I was like this one time after school. A teacher couldn't help me with math and I couldn't find the words to explain myself." George backed away too, leaving Melvin free. Melvin looked at both of them nervously knowing Harold was correct. He had helped explain the homework better after Harold came home distraught from a teacher poorly understanding how to tutor him after school. He even made a better fidget cube when George complained he couldn't stim, resulting in a detention for going into a meltdown. Despite this, he still didn't entirely trust them right now.       After a moment of silence, they handed him a pencil and paper. "If you can't say it, draw it." George offered. This surprisingly interested their frenemy and he quickly went to work doodling a small comic of his recent nightmares and feelings. It felt kind of nice and he wondered if this is how they were able to handle emotions better.       Once he was finished, it was shoved into Harold's hands. When he was done he passed it off to George and after he was done, it was passed to Erica. She chuckled a bit, trying to hide it. The irony was very clear to her. "I think you're between two people who understand completely."       "Who told you we'd laugh at you?" George asked. His answer came in the form of the comic author grabbing it back and flipping to a page, pointing at a very square drawing of Melvinborg.        "He's gone, he can't hurt you." Melvin shook his head in response, pointing to his head.         "So.....you spent the whole weekened and Monday thinking you were a target?" Erica looked towards him. He nodded in response.      "What about our comic? Why'd you hate that?" On his phone, Melvin scrolled through pictures of various comic issues mocking him in one way or another, looking indignant at Harold. "Oh...right."      "We wouldn't do that to you now. You're...not always aware of social cues but it's not cool to make fun of someone's insecurity. We made you this to show you we cared." George handed him the comic to read. When he finally got to the end, Melvin hugged his friends, still a bit wary of Erica. Suddenly the two judges came in with CU following behind them. "How did you guys get out?" George asked in confusion.      "That bald man worried after a while about the small space and smashed through the bars allowing us to be free." He pointed to the visible broken jail just by the door.      "I forgot I was claustraphobic until someone mentioned it was cramped." CU grinned, going over to the boys and Erica.      "Let's forget all this happened, sometimes geniuses need a way to express themselves." They really didn't want to have to explain all this, since robot attacks were a frequent occurance in Piqua anyways. All of them nodded in agreement and headed to the bus.  Just as they left the greenhouse, water misters started spraying the plants and hit Captain on the way out, turning him back to Krupp. When getting back on the bus, he quickly said "DONT ASK" to the bus driver, Mr. Meaner who had spent the day napping. Melvin salvaged what he could of the mech with it's prison broken, noting to fix it later.        On the way home, he started to get his voice back too. "Th-thank you."  It felt weird to be nice.         "No problem, we just wish you told us earlier. You don't have to win everything to be good enough for us." Harold yawned.        "You're already good enough making cool stuff for us to 'borrow'...and--" The rest of George's sentence got cut off as he dozed on the way back. Melvin smiled. It felt kind of dumb to worry about nothing but at least they understood. He still wanted to win and be better than the others, but maybe losing won't hurt so much if it happens again.

[minervahopebeyond]

Blood Petals.

You have no idea of how happy I am that I finally got to write this! Let me know what you think!💕

Ps. Sorry if you find any errors (from vocabulary or grammar)

Chapter 16: Slug Club Christmas party (part 1)

The thing that Draco hated the most about everyone knowing, was being treated like a fucking <cite>toddler</cite>.

Because he lied about his condition for months, no one trusted him. They didn’t tell him that, of course.... but Draco hadn’t been alone for not even one second in almost two weeks. He was losing the little patience he had. He even told Weasley last week.

“I’m not a child you know? I can go to the bloody bathroom by myself.” To which his friend only responded.

“Yeah, but since usually you go to bathrooms to cough your lungs out in secret... I prefer to come with.”

Stupid fucking weasel; there was a reason why he did that. The only positive thing was that, since he woke up, he seemed to get the coughs so bloody often that nobody could know who was the person he was in love with. Well, except for Severus and Theo.

His godfather didn’t say a thing, only that he understood why hadn’t he told him sooner. ‘<cite> I’m not justifying your behavior, but I understand why you told Black and Potter. That being said: do not lie to me again, Draco. It’s going to be a problem.’ </cite> The words kept repeating in his head, Severus’s broken voice at the end... The blond boy felt kind of guilty.

With Theodore, it was different. They didn’t talk since he was at the hospital wing and Draco couldn’t help but to miss him a little. He shouldn’t, he knew that, but he felt so at home when he woke up to see the boy.

“Rise and shine, Draco.” The brunette was looking at him with a soft smile. There was something in the air that smelled wonderful... when he looked at the boy’s hand, he saw a little potion vial. He frowned.

“It’s just Amortentia... I read somewhere that the smell could help patients with the flower thing you have.”

Draco narrowed his eyes at that. Theo didn’t like to <cite>read</cite>, if he had read that, then it was because he was looking for an answer...Which meant that the boy still cared. He chose not to point that out, though; the brunette had a tendency to be mean when he felt vulnerable.

“What day is it?” His voice came out rough, his throat was dry.

“It’s Wensday.”

The blond boy widened his eyes, must had been in a comic way because Theo chuckled.

“Don’t say anything about this” The boy said, pointing to the vial before putting it in his pocket. “You weren’t waking up and I couldn’t think of anything else.”

Draco felt so happy, he woke up to a reality where Theo still chose him to keep his secrets. He smiled as he looked at the hazel-eyed boy.

“Your secret is safe with me, Theodore.” Then everyone got in and that was that.

And even though both, Severus and Theo, knew that Draco was in love with Potter, neither of them made a comment about it. It helped him to feel less pathetic.

The coughs were small, he had them more often but they rarely ended up in a coughing fit. Maybe he would cough one or two petals effortlessly and move on with his day. Unless, of course, he saw Potter <cite>pining</cite> after Ginevra.

You know what was sad? That Draco woke up to a worried Potter. When the boy broke all of the bottles at the infirmary, with his magic being all over the place... It gave him hope. He never saw the green-eyed boy so upset and that made him hope for it to <cite>mean something</cite>. It didn’t.

Potter was actually coming to terms with his feelings, so that meant that he kept doing things to make Ginevra smile or (this was Draco’s worst nightmare coming to life) he would talk to <cite> him</cite> about how ‘he didn’t understand’ Thomas and Girl-Weasley’s relationship.

The excuse he had came up with to explain why he coughed all the time,while talking to Potter about Ginevra, was the most basic thing ever. When Draco thought of it, he was hoping that it would be so stupid that ,maybe, it could work.

“Talking about people that are disgustingly in love, makes me think about how unrequited my love is, Potter.” The boy looked at him with pained eyes. The flowers started to move again, this time in a good way. “Stop pitying me. I hate that.” The boy chuckled.

“I know. I just-” The boy sighed as he rested his back against the wall of the hallway. “<cite>Who</cite> wouldn’t want you back?”

The way he said it... so aloof. Like it wasn’t the most precious thing that Draco had heard from his mouth in six years. He blushed, the daffodils were moving like crazy. Then, he remembered, the boy in front of him was like this with everyone, kind, caring, he just loved that much. Right now, Potter and him had this weird kind of friendship going on... For the boy, that meant that he wouldn’t want Draco to feel bad, so he had said something that could make him feel happy.

Draco cleared his throat.

“He is straight.” The blond boy saw the face of the boy fell. Then, he blinked as he frowned.

“But that is not fair! What kind of deal is that??” He was glad to have the habit of casting a muffliato, because Potter was speaking too loudly for his liking.

“It’s a life for a life, Potter. I already told you.”

“Did you ask him?” Draco snorted.

“I don’t need to ask. He only looks, talks and gets crushes on girls.” He pulled his knees to his chest. He hated this conversation, he had it with everyone already. It’s always the same: ‘you should at least try’... Draco didn’t want to try anything, he wanted to keep moping in peace.

“Who is it?” Potter was looking at him, determined eyes on his face. Oh, For Salazar’s sake. Saint Potter already had a plan.

“I’m not telling you. And whatever the fuck you have in mind: it’s not going to work.” The boy crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

———————

Since the hospital, the golden trio and the slytherins were something that went together. They would meet on the free periods, studied at the library, of even join him and Weasley on Sundays. Draco thought it was amazing.

He was kind of worried about how it looked for his best friends on the public eye, he even told them that. Long story short: Pansy said that if her best friend had a terminal disease, she could pretty much do as she pleased. Blaise, on the other hand, said that his family couldn’t care less about his life at Hogwarts. Draco knew it wasn’t true but with the little time he had... He wasn’t going to complain about it.

They were at the great hall, classes had finished for the day; and there wasn’t anything else to do, but to hang out.

He was talking to Pansy about how much he missed having fun, <cite> real fun</cite>, with the stupid curfew it was impossible for them to sneak out. Then, his best friend widened her eyes in realization, she turned to the rest of the group.

“Golden trio: you are going to Slughorn’s Christmas party, right?”

“<cite>We have names.</cite>” Potter groaned.

“I honestly don’t care. Answer the question.” Then Weasley spoke.

“I’m not invited, this two are going with <cite> their dates</cite>” Weasley’s annoyance was palpable. That was a comment clearly directed at Granger.

“Ronald, you were the one who told me that the club was stupid! You can’t get mad because I invited someone else.” The girl responded.

Potter started to hit his head against the table repeatedly.

“Why did you invite him? I asked you a million times and you still can’t answer. That’s because you made it on purpose.”

“You are impossible when you get like this.” Granger said as she closed the book in front of her harshly.

“Can you NOT fight about this just for one bloody day?” That was Potter, he had stopped hitting his own head to yell at them. Blaise chose that moment to intervene.

“Pans, this is a touchy subject...” He said raising his eyebrows at her. “Was there a point..?”

“Yes, but they started to yell.” The short haired girl said pointing at the them. “Blaise: drum roll please.” His friend started to pound his hands on the table, chuckling. “We are going to sneak out to the Astronomy tower on that night and get extremely pissed. The teachers and Filch would be too busy with the party going on so it’s perfect!!” Then she looked directly at Ron. “And you are coming with us, Weasley. You don’t have an option!”

The redhead’s face seemed to light up at that, he nodded as he smiled brightly at them.

“You could get in serious trouble!” Granger hissed.

“Oh, <cite>Please</cite>. You’ve been sneaking out to do dangerous shit since first year! All involving the Dark Lord or Death eaters one way or another. If they found us, we’ll lose house points and live with it.” Draco said as he made a gesture with his hand, indicating that it didn’t matter.

“I have your favorite firewhisky, Dragon” His best friend pinched his cheeks and he smiled at Blaise.

He could hear the green eyed boy, whispering with the gryffindor girl; arguing. Potter groaned in a dramatic way.

“I don’t want to go to this stupid party, Mione!”

“But you <cite> have </cite> to.” Granger hissed at him.

Why was so important? He couldn’t imagine Potter going to the party to talk about his career options... And the girl’s tone indicated that there was something that they knew and the Slytherins didn’t.

“Who are you going with, Potty?” He asked as aloof as he could. The boy just shrugged.

“Luna. We are going as friends.” Draco nodded. That wasn’t so bad. Luna was beautiful but Potter wasn’t attracted to her, so it would be fine... No possibility of kissing.

“Draco, if you pass out we can call your Prince Charming.” Said Pansy while wiggling her eyebrows. He blushed and reached over to hit her in the head. She should know better than to make that kind of comments in front of the Gryffindors.

“Prince Charming?” Asked Weasley with a smug smile. Draco rolled his eyes.

“Ignore her, weasel. There is no prince.” But Blaise also had said something at the same time as he did.

“She is talking about Nott!”

Potter turned to look at them, frowning. Draco sighed.

“The prat’s lips kissed you and you woke up; I don’t have proof, neither do I have doubts.” He could punch her, she was so annoying when she got like this.

“For the millionth time: <cite> he didn’t do anything, it was just a coincidence</cite>” Then he glared at her. “And stop talking about it, you are going to get him in trouble.” And then it was Blaise’s turn.

“My my, Dragon! Look at you, all worried about the prat.” Draco groaned.

He turn to look at the Gryffindors. Granger was looking at him in a curious way, while Weasley looked thrilled... The only one who was looking like this were the worst news ever was Potter. To be fair, <cite> there wasn’t any news</cite>, Pansy was just being a bitch. Draco was pretty sure that the girl would actually punch him if he kissed Theo... It was clearly just a joke.

Potter looked at Weasley, and pulled a face of disgust as the redhead took out a notebook and a pencil. Draco raised an eyebrow.

“What are you writing?” He asked.

“Private stuff, ferret.” The blond boy rolled his eyes.

“Then maybe write them privately, weasel.”

[anwenwrites]

Justice—A Landry Oneshot

A oneshot of Landry’s thoughts as he prepares to send that fateful email to Mrs. Martinez’s family.

I don’t care if she’s supposed to be my friend. She can’t get away with this. Not this time.

Earlier today, Bryce, Jackie, Sienna, Elijah, and I told Casey that Mrs. Martinez died, and she broke down crying. The others all tried to comfort her and feed her the “You gave Mrs. Martinez enough time to live her dream” crap. Yeah, right; I’m sure her family will find that super comforting. The rest of my roommates all flocked around Casey with hugs and words of comfort, but I just stood against the wall with my arms folded. Why should I bother to comfort Casey? She brought this all on herself. She killed a patient, for God’s sake!

And yet somehow even being a patient murderer didn’t stop Casey from becoming the number one intern. Such bullshit. Casey never deserved the number one ranking. That was supposed to be me. It absolutely blows my mind that this girl even made it past her first week. She was late on the very first day! But of course some lady had to collapse in the waiting room, and Casey was at the right place at the right time. And so it happened that she got to impress Dr. Ramsey by assisting him with a hemothorax patient, which by default meant that no one gave a crap that she was late. She got herself lauded as a hero with the power of her luck alone. I, on the other hand, get up at the ass crack of dawn to show up early every day—every single fucking day—and no one gives me any credit for it. 

It’s totally unfair. Casey spends all her free time parading herself around with guys, namely Bryce and Rafael. She must have thought no one noticed that she hooked up with Bryce at our housewarming party—I heard everything because I stayed up studying after all the guests left—only to flaunt Rafael right in Bryce’s face at dinner weeks later! I’d like to think that I’m not one to slut shame, but...well, you know. You’d think getting drunk at every opportunity and sleeping around like she does would cause her performance to nosedive, but somehow she’s number one. She even beat Aurora! I knew the competition would be rigged in favor of the chief’s niece. That much was to be expected. But I never in a million years would have imagined that some frivolous, drama-loving girl would snag that elusive top spot by worming her way into the great Ethan Ramsey’s approval. Is she sleeping with him? There must be some reason why he picked her to come to Miami with him. I know there was more to it than just her being number one. 

I should be number one. I never slack off. I study way harder than Casey or any of my roommates. Probably even more than any of the other interns. And I don’t let girls get in the way of my progress as a doctor. Casey offered to be my wingwoman at the bar after our first day, but I said no. Sure, I was nervous about talking to the girl at the bar, but more than anything, I knew better than to trust another intern who was probably just trying to distract me so she could make a better first impression than me. And when she offered to get Dr. Ramsey to sign my book for me? Yes, I’ve had literal dreams about working with Dr. Ramsey, but I saw that as the perfect opportunity to make Casey look stupid in the hopes that Dr. Ramsey would laugh at her. She made the better first impression, even though she was late and I was early. So I had to level the playing field a little. 

Unfortunately, he actually signed the book. I mean, it was cool, but still. My resentment for Casey started brewing deep inside me that very day. Why was it that she could get my idol to notice her, and I couldn’t? It was so embarrassing that I had to enlist her help to get him to sign my book, even if it was all part of my scheme. 

That was when my plan changed. I knew I had to get on Casey’s good side and convince her to put in a good word for me to Dr. Ramsey. But she never did. She claimed the competition would ruin all our friendships, and was even against joining it at first, yet she couldn’t even be bothered to teach Ramsey my name. Some “friend”, I say. 

  She didn’t teach Ramsey my name, so the only option I had left was to tarnish hers. It was only fair. That’s why one day, when Casey wasn’t looking, I turned off her pager. Ooh, the attendings must have been furious with her! And I’ll never forget the look on Casey’s face when she started treating a patient only to discover that her chart was missing. At first this seemed to have the desired effect. Dr. Mirani’s face went beet red with anger, and he ripped Casey a new one right in front of her patient. I faked words of encouragement to her before standing back and savoring the panic in her eyes, all the while crumpling her chart into a tight ball and hiding it in my scrubs. But that plan didn’t work either; even though some interns laughed, everyone still loved Casey. Everyone who mattered, anyway. If only Dr. Ramsey had seen Casey “lose” her chart. 

My next plan was to pull as many nurses as I could aside and tell them that Casey was trash talking them. All of them but Danny believed me, too. Even Jackie believed me when I said that Aurora must have been the one turning off Casey’s pager and hiding her chart! We joked about how pathetic Aurora was, and I smirked to myself as Jackie walked away grumbling about Princess Nepotism, without even the slightest inkling that I was the real culprit. So far, sabotaging a friend—I mean rival—who’s been getting all the recognition I deserve has worked pretty well for me. I guess sometimes life can be fair after all. You just have to make it fair. 

From the beginning, Casey clearly had an undeserved advantage. But that was forgivable, because that could be dealt with. I could make her look bad in front of the attendings and get all the nurses to hate her. What couldn’t be forgiven, however, was Mrs. Martinez’s death. She’s gone and she can never be brought back. Mrs. Martinez is dead, all because Casey stole an unapproved drug from a pharma rec—a drug with a forty percent chance of death—and administered it to Mrs. Martinez without the hospital’s knowledge or permission. When Casey first told us of her plan, I couldn’t believe my ears. I thought she was crazy. I told her resolutely that I would have no part in this. She and all my other roommates tried to make me feel bad for telling her that what she wanted to do was wrong, but I stood my ground. She still thought that it was some kind of two-sided argument, but I knew that I was doing the right thing, both legally and morally. But Casey did the wrong thing, and now the only way to even slightly remedy the situation would be to tell Mrs. Martinez’s family exactly how she died. They deserve to know the truth.

And I have the power to give that to them.

The day after I learned what Casey was planning, I paid a visit to Mrs. Martinez myself, during which I brought her some of Sienna’s homemade cookies and one of Elijah’s comic books (both happily gave me what I asked for when I told them I wanted to treat Mrs. Martinez) and asked her to tell me all about her family. Normally I would never waste my time on such unimportant details when there are symptoms to be treated and diagnoses to be made, but Mrs. Martinez’s case was totally different: in the likely event that Casey failed and Mrs. Martinez died, the only comfort Mrs. Martinez’s family could possibly have was to know how she died. And so I politely listened as Mrs. Martinez told me all about her son Luis. Where he lived, what his job was, how special he was to her. I don’t remember a word of what she said to me, but I wrote down where he worked. Then when I got home, I stayed up all night during the longest break I had all week to track Luis down. After a harrowing search, I was just about ready to give up, when I finally found a page about the Luis Martinez on his company’s website, with his contact information at the bottom. I wrote down his email address on a little pink sticky note, which I hid carefully away in a big green textbook.

Except there’s only one problem: several minutes of digging around in my desk drawers has revealed that the big green textbook is not in any of them. I must have left it outside. 

I lay an ear against my door and hear the sound of giggles on the other side. Crap. Everyone else is home now too. 

I tiptoe into the main living room to find my roommates with their noses buried in their laptops. Sienna folds chocolate chips into a bowl of cookie dough while she reads. Elijah taps out the theme song of one of his favorite shows on the table. Jackie is so deeply engrossed in her own little world of focused studying that even God himself couldn’t shake her out of it if He tried.

The only one not studying is Casey. She speaks in not-so-hushed whispers into her laptop, only stopping occasionally to let Rafael respond. Her feet are propped up on the table, dangerously close to knocking over her coffee. Next to her mug is my green textbook. Of course.

Sienna hears me and looks up. “Hey, Landry!” she says cheerfully. Elijah stops

drumming on the table long enough to wave at me. 

For the first time since I started formulating my plan, a strange emotion washes over me. Sadness, perhaps? This little scene of five happy roommates won’t last long after I contact Luis Martinez. The others may have been easy to fool, but Casey will surely figure out I was the one sabotaging her, and then she’ll get everyone to feel bad for her. This little roomie unit is about to meet an untimely, drama-filled death. And it’ll all be because of me.

I thought Casey and I were friends. I really did. Even when I got her to sign the book to make her look stupid. As long as she made me look good, she was a friend in my book. 

But she never did. And now she’s going to lose her license and drag the rest of our roommates down with her. 

But not me. 

I won’t be dragged down. 

There is absolutely zero reason why I should feel bad about sabotaging her.

“Uh, Landry?” Casey asks, confused. I realize I’m standing over her, one hand on top of the textbook. 

“You didn’t read this, did you?” I blurt before I can think. They cannot know about that little pink sticky note.

“No…” Casey says slowly. She eyes me suspiciously. “What’s going on?”

Shit. My heart begins to race and my hands get clammy as I rack my brain for an excuse. “I just...realized I misdiagnosed a patient!” I lie, grabbing the textbook and scurrying back to my room, ignoring my roommates’ perplexed whispers.

That was too close, I think to myself as I close the door behind me and clutch the textbook to my chest. I set it on my desk and flip to page 329, where the little pink sticky note is waiting for me, all but beckoning me to finally put the information it contains to good use. 

This is it. It’s time.

I snag the sticky note and flip open my fully charged laptop. I have at least ten unread emails, but they can wait. Ignoring the emails from work, I log into the fake anonymous account I’ve created just for this. Without a moment’s hesitation, I type Mr. Martinez’s address into the recipient box. Justice is about to be served.