#I never actually bothered to learn how to spell her name

[anxioustwilight]

I love how it’s called Vader Immortal when the title should be POV: You’re The Meddling Kid That Ruins Vader’s Reincarnation Plans

[runa-falls]

pornstar!moon-boys x fluffer!reader

part three: jake

a/n: some headcannons bc we filthy up in this bitch >:) 1.5k??? i'm overcompensating for something lmao

others: marc | steven | more steven

as a fluffer, it's your job to know how to keep the boys interested. each alter has their own preferences:

(NSFW 18+ under the cut)

jake: the troublemaker

GIF by manny-jacinto

Jake was the last (and final?) alter you met. He didn't ask for you the first time you met. Actually, you thought you were seeing Marc, but it turns out Jake was 'covering this one' for him, whatever that means.

It turns out Jake had been in the industry longer than Steven but you've just never met him. Unlike the other boys, he was used to taking whatever fluffer was offered on set, not really preferring or caring who was preparing him for the day. It never really mattered to him.

And then he met you.

His eyebrows raise when you walk in, eyes taking in every inch of your body. You're dressed in a pair of comfy shorts and an oversized shirt, hair styled casually so it's out of your face (Marc was going through a phase where he craves to see you in pajamas, needing that extra domesticity and softness).

Jake doesn't greet you, or even bother to stand up from the couch to shake your hand. He looks...amused, like he recognizes you.

"You're that girl that has my brothers wrapped around her finger." It's not a question, more like a statement.

He leans back against the couch as if to get a better view of what's in front of him. He looks like Marc, but he doesn't sound or carry himself like him. And he's definitely not Steven.

You don't deny his words, "And... you are?"

"Lockley, Jake Lockley." He still doesn't move to shake your hand, just says it with a nod.

"Another...?"

"Yeah, there are three of us... As far as I know."

"Where's --"

"Marc? I dunno." He doesn't look too concerned. It's almost like he's barely interested in the conversation when it isn't about himself. "But I'm here." You catch your first glimpse of his famous smirk, one that you've learned spells trouble.

You've named Jake as the troublemaker of the trio because he constantly bends the rules and does what he wants. Especially with you.

For one, he's the first alter you ever fucked. Actually, he's the first pornstar you've fucked, too.

Usually you have a longer session the first time, but 20 minutes would have to do. He's still staring at you, sitting on the couch with his legs spread wide. Inviting.

You go up to him like any other client, not phased by his dark eyes and mischievous allure, and straddle over his thighs. His hands immediately come up to hold your waist, steadying you easily against him.

Other than that, he doesn't make a move, clearly waiting to see what you'll do.

"So what do you like, Lockley?"

"Aren't you supposed to figure that out, sweetheart?"

Kissing Jake always takes your breath away. He's demanding but somehow he makes you feel like you need it, not the other way around.

He's dirty with it, drawing you in with soft kisses before nipping at your lips and then deepening it by laving his tongue against yours. It's addicting how smoothly he moves against you, tempting your body to take it a step up, to cross that line.

You are sitting up on your knees just a few inches off of his lap, hovering over and making out with him, hands cradling his jaw. You have the upper hand (and are literally over him) but you've never felt so lost in a kiss.

You feel his hands drag from your waist to your ass. He grasps you, shoving your loose soft shorts up so he can feel your skin against his palms. You let him.

That was your first mistake.

You're distracted by his mouth when his hand shifts from your butt to your aching center. You've been dripping -- soaking since he gave you a taste of his tongue, since he first held you.

You let out a surprised moan as his fingers press flush against your clothed core, stroking against your most sensitive area. He applies the perfect amount of pressure against your cunt, brushing and prodding at your entrance over your clothes before cruelly teasing your clit.

You let it go on far longer than you should've, but it just felt so good. And then it felt too good.

He rubs your clit until you're seeing white, until you can only think of him and how he's touching you.

You gasp, "Jake!" Your legs shake from having to hold yourself up as he pushes you off the edge. He growls as you wrap your arms around his shoulders to keep you steady. You settle back onto his lap, forehead resting against his chest as you pant and calm down.

He's hard as a rock against you, practically pulsing as he watches you come down from your orgasm and melt against him.

He figured you out, and you, him.

Jake gets off on getting you off.

When you're his fluffer, you're his to touch, tease, and prod, not the other way around.

You wouldn't really call him a 'giving' partner because at the end of the day, he does it for himself.

He's selfish in how he'll pull orgasm after orgasm out of you, just because it pleases him. He doesn't care if you're writhing under him.

That first session didn't end where it was supposed to. Giving you an orgasm was already more than you're used to. But he kept going. You were distracted, caught off guard.

That was you're second mistake.

Before your lust-fogged mind could wrap around what was happening, your loose and stretchy pajama shorts were tugged to the side and he was pushing up into you.

The stretch was intense, but he slid in easily with how wet you were for him. You both groan simultaneously as he filled you to the brim.

After that first round, Jake ceased production for the day, telling everyone to go home while yelling "Don't fucking interrupt me" on his way back to his dressing room.

---

(He's not allowed to fuck you during working hours anymore -- they even put it in his contract. He wasn't too happy about that.)

Needless to say, you were called back the next day.

As much as Jake loves to play with you, sometimes there isn't enough time, especially on bigger projects with less time to fool around. In those cases, he takes a quick sloppy blowjob.

And by sloppy, you mean sloppy.

He loves watching you struggle to swallow him down, eyes shiny with tears and drool dripping down your neck.

His hand grips your hair, guiding the smooth pace as you bob against him. You whine as he slowly speed up, your jaw is already tired and knees are sore. You hold on your his hips to help stay steady as he starts to thrust back into you, cock hitting the back of your throat every so often. You gag and he growls.

He's the one who pulls you off, knowing his own limits.

He's the most controlled out of the three, able to slip you off his cock just at the right moment before walking out and starting the day.

He groans when he peers down at you, "Fuck...I wish I could cum down that pretty throat," You're wiping your mouth, lips still vibrating from the way he fucked into you. "C'mon baby, let's go. Call time's in five." You comb your fingers through you messy hair before he helps you up.

Then you follow him out.

Like Marc and Steven, he also refuses to be prepped by anyone else. But he also takes it a step further (bc of course he does), he takes you to set with him. Like some 'bring-your-girlfriend-to-work' day.

(oh yeah...you're with them now...)

You didn't even know that you were allowed to physically be on set when scenes are being recorded, until Jake insisted, claiming he could only keep it up if you were watching.

Sometimes when he's fucking a girl (or fucking himself) he looks up, eyes scanning the room until he finds you. The cameras don't exist to Jake and this isn't his job. Porn -- or being recording -- is just him doing the company a favor and letting them have a glimpse into his bedroom habits. He doesn't give a fuck.

He meets your gaze and sends you a cocky smirk, hands restraining the body under him as he roughly slams his hips against hers. It never fails to make your breath hitch and skin bloom with heat.

He gives you the same intense look when you're under him, choking on his cock. He's imagining that you're under him now, stretched and ruined for him. Whimpering and crying out for more. As much as you try to ignore him, you can't. It's like driving past a car wreck, you can't look away.

Directors have had to scrap countless recordings for the final production of videos when he'd get really carried away, grunt dirty words in spanish to the girl in the corner of the room (you) that the camera can't even see.

It's not all bad though, the company sometimes uses those behind-the-scene vids of him, basically cuckholding you, for exclusive content. And viewers go feral for it. Probably because it's more genuine than half of the videos out there.

[joyce-stick]

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

[chaotic-starlight24]

Dallas Winston General Headcanons

This is the last part of the Dallas headcanons :) Please check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of his backstory!

Sorry if anything is ooc! Warnings: Mentions of trauma, death, description of grief

He brags about his many scars from dangerous games. For example, he prides himself in the game where you try to get the knife between all of your fingers.

He genuinely likes a lot of movies. He just doesn’t show it. Also, most of the new movies don’t have anything interesting to them so he just looks at girls or talks to Johnny/Pony. But he will shut up and be glued to the screen when the theater or drive-in is replaying James Dean movies. He will literally shush Ponyboy, he just really likes James Dean. (He probably had a Rebel Without a Cause jacket made for him by Mrs. Curtis)

His aforementioned Norwegian mother (part 1) taught him the Hardanger Fiddle (When he was like 7) It was one of the very few bonding activities he had with her. He still has his original fiddle and while traveling around, a mother in Memphis fixed it for him after he ran an errand for her. He doesn’t play it much but he does sometimes sit alone at Buck’s and play melodies he remembers. He doesn’t like playing it around many people because playing takes a lot of energetic movements. The gang has heard him before but only like once.

His father and him had one or two bonding activities like once a week or so, mainly knife throwing. So Dally has great aim with just about any object. He would also occasionally try to play poker with him. But this did not happen very often since both parents were alcoholics and everything and his father was an especially angry one.

He needs a lot of time to wrap his mind around a lot of concepts, but once he has it down he's amazing at it! (Hardanger fiddle, stealing, knife throwing)

At the Curtis parent funeral he held himself together pretty well. He pretended to not be quite as bothered and used the excuse that he had seen worse things and that he was mainly concerned for the brothers. But when he got to Buck's he sobbed quietly for hours and didn't come out for a while. That was when he really did become a very cold person. He never opened his heart to anyone new after that. He started to believe that he couldn’t care about anyone because he was the curse that caused them to die. If it wasn’t for the gang he probably would have left Tulsa.

His mom was one of nine siblings so Dally has a lot of cousins. He saw several of them frequently and was especially friends with one named Joel. They mainly conversed through letters as his cousin lived in Windrixville. They always had a plan to meet up together and maybe fix up the abandoned church and make it into a hangout. His mother wasn’t particularly focused on teaching him much about their culture so he learned some things from his cousins. He still remembers bits and pieces of the language and pronounces names with a Norwegian accent every so often.

He always keeps his jacket on in the summer unless going swimming. He says it’s to look tuff but it’s actually because he gets eaten alive by mosquitos or sunburned to the fact he’s neon red.

His oldest sister, Elizabeth in English spelling, would sing him Scandinavian lullabies to help him fall asleep at night and he still finds himself humming the tunes when doing busywork. (Examples if you want to listen: Vargsången, Trollsmor Vaggvisa, Klatremus’ Voggevisa)

He lost his New York accent but sometimes he pronounces words with a really thick one. He doesn’t really have a southern accent either but overall it’s kind of a mix between them. “C’mon upstays, Johnny.” “Huh?” “I mean upstairs.”

He really likes bread. Noone really knows why either. But his problem is he doesn’t really like the store bought bread. In his words, “It’s just unnatural how long it stays good, man.” So he swipes a lot from bakeries. Mrs. Curtis also taught him how to make it but he doesn’t often because he thinks it’s weird he knows how. Also no one should trust him with an oven. But sometimes Soda will come home to Dally just munching on a loaf fresh from their oven. 

But bouncing off that, he will eat just about any other food no matter how old it is. Maybe it’s because he’s always hungry. Maybe his immune system is that strong. No one really knows. Darry once found him munching on a block of cheese that had some mold and just threw it out the window. Dally was very upset because “He was really hungry!”. He also says that he doesn’t like things going to waste. 

It’s a surprise if he doesn’t end a sentence with man or kid. It’s just what everyone gets called. Except Mrs. Curtis. He called her man once and was promptly given the “glare of disapproval”. Safe to say he never did it again. (Everyone laughed afterward, don’t worry.)

The main reason he dated Sylvia so many times was because he wanted a relationship where he actually loved the person. He had so many meaningless ones that lasted a week at most. Both of them were not particularly healthy to each other since Dally was never in a proper relationship and Sylvia took advantage of him. But both of them had their flaws ofc.

I mentioned in Part 2 that Dallas went through a really big tornado while in Indiana, and you know he ended up in OKLAHOMA. Which is known for its large amounts of tornadoes. Because of this fear that he ended up having, he became really sensitive to thunderstorms. The rest of the gang is always relaxed when listening to the rain and thunder, but Dally will grip Johnny’s arm so hard he almost loses circulation. The gang caught on rather quickly and tried their best to calm him down. Mrs. Curtis and Two-Bit were the best at this and would just talk to him as if nothing was happening outside. Dally always tries to act super tough during storms and manages to keep his calm but there’s been several times where a crack of thunder will shake the house and he will legit scream. Whenever there is a tornado warning or anything he will sit in the closet and use the excuse that he’s just tired and it’s loud outside. 

His rings and necklace are his prized possessions. His necklace and 2 of his rings are from Snake Eyes (Part 1 goes more into detail) and the rest are ones he has collected throughout his travels.

Thank you guys for reading through my super large amount of headcanons :) Ponyboy and Darry are next but might not have as large of an amount of stuff!

[destinygoldenstar]

My Evil Arin AU Prediction (Fully Expecting To Be Wrong)

So Arin, caught up in Sora’s lie, believes in the false hope that he has his abilities starting to be figured out. That with Lloyds, Sora’s, and his own minds support, he can be a valuable ninja and be a great asset to the mission to get Kai and Bonzle back.

My prediction of this is that Ras and the gang come up with a plan to revive the blood moon to get the other elemental masters freed. So the ninja after realizing this plan have to return to the dragons to come up with a way to save Kai and Bonzle.

But oh no, Egalt (sorry I still can’t spell his name) still things Arin isn’t good enough.

Arin is by no means arrogant of his own abilities after his success, (that’d be very OOC in my opinion), but he is more trusting in himself and blindly optimistic that he has more of this figured out than he actually does.

He tries to prove this, but no matter what he does, he just can’t get it right.

Even Lloyd starts to get confused. But, you know, Arin could do it, so he has faith in the kid that practice will make perfect.

There could even be a scene where Lloyd tells Arin about his experience of getting possessed by Morro (maybe Euphrasia is also in this scene to give her character development), and how his own master, Master Wu, set him up for something so impossible that Morro became twisted jaded and arrogant in himself to achieve something he couldn’t.

Lloyd is saying this as a warning for Arin. While he by no means thinks Arin is acting the same way Morro was, he had the paranoia that he could. And Lloyd totally knows he isn’t setting Arin up for something impossible. He saw Arin get better and be able to do his tricks. So it’s not an impossible standard. Totally not.

Then there’s Sora, who is trying to keep her distance from Arin, who doesn’t know why. The guilt of what she’s done is killing her, and it’s cost her some sleep knowing that either route she could take could potentially end her friendship with Arin. Keep the lie and watch Arin meet his downfall, or tell him the truth and crush his spirits for good.

After all, she was the one person who since the very beginning believed in Arin. Even when no one else did.

And then she didn’t.

She can’t ever take that betrayal back.

Then, you know, she’s learning Spinjitsu. But Arin isn’t completely bothered by it so long as he’s got his own thing going too.

Arin is obviously hurt by her distance, unsure if there was something he did wrong. But maybe there’s a scene where he pours his heart out to her about their friendship, how their belief in each other is something nothing can undo, and how no matter what is bothering her, she should know very well how forgiving he is.

So she’s ready to be honest and tell him-

And then one of the generals of the villain faction attacks them (and whoever else you want to say is here). For now I’m gonna say Jordana, but anyone can take this slot.

And in this fight, Sora gets knocked down, and Arin is ready to defend her using his object Spinjitsu…

But he fails.

And Jordana reveals to Arin, against Sora’s consent, that Sora lied to him and used her own tech to move that object in that fight. She really taunts it in that his best friend and companion never believed in him and was lying to him the whole time.

How does Jordana know this? Idk maybe she found out in a scene before this.

Arin is obviously so devastated that he’s zoned out and unable to defend himself.

Sora, enraged from Jordana having zero respect, protects Arin and does Spinjitsu for the first time.

Jordana is forced to retreat at Sora’s power, part of that has to do with her anger. And once she’s gone, Sora cools off and tries to help Arin. She doesn’t even care or process that she did Spinjitsu, she’s more concerned about her friend.

But Arin is just… blank. Spaced out. He should be furious at Sora, yell at her and express how absolutely betrayed he feels…

But instead, nothing comes out of him. His feelings towards Sora, or the fight, or everything else is replaced by… nothing. And Sora now being able to do what he can while he’s still him is just icing on the cake that Arin is basically nothing now.

Blah blah, in some other points of the season they can learn more about the elemental masters and the wolf masks and the reveal of Ras’s master.

But Arin is mostly just a spaced out person in the way of all of this, it seems.

Lloyd obviously chews out Sora for her stunt and lying about it, but it’s clear she’s very much aware of the damage she’s done and wants to figure out how to apologize and make it right. She doesn’t know how though with Arin’s condition. Lloyd is quick to forgive her so long as she’s willing to try this apology towards Arin.

Lloyd is also trying to help Arin the best he can. It doesn’t matter to him that Arin doesn’t have anything figured out yet. Lloyd himself didn’t, even when his destiny was written in stone. Arin is just… a late bloomer, shall we say.

This doesn’t help Arin, and even tries to get Lloyd to tell him the ‘truth’. That he is a failure of a ninja. He can’t even help with beating Ras. He can’t even find his own parents…

But Lloyd still refuses to call Arin a failure.

That’s a shred of hope that Arin has that maybe the voices in his head, and Ras, are wrong. As long as his idol believes in him.

Maybe he even expressed how much he misses his birth parents. He misses the life he had before the merge. Even everything made sense. Maybe then he could be a kid DREAMING about these big things and not having to think those dreams would ever come true. That was the simple life.

Then there’s the mission to save Kai and Bonzle. And stop Ras and the others. A plan that’s so tight on the ninjas end that they NEED this to go PERFECTLY. Otherwise, a lot could go wrong.

As such, Lloyd makes the call to leave Arin out of the field part of the mission. Instead he’s gonna be working in the back on comms or something.

Arin tries to convince the others that he wants to be out there and help save Kai, but there’s no convincing the others. They all have agreed to leaving Arin behind for his own good. Especially Lloyd. He lost Kai to this and Kai was a professional. He can’t drag Arin into this and lose him too, if a vision of his is correct. (Maybe he sees Ras grabbing Arin’s hand or something, and he’s come to the conclusion that Ras would use Arin as a sacrifice too)

So they leave, and Arin is stuck on comms.

But eventually, seeing one of them get knocked down hard, Arin decides to refuse the order to stay in place. He goes on the field anyway, ready to prove himself and help the ninja as a ninja.

So far, the plan on the ninjas end is going very smoothly. They got Bonzle out and are ready to get Kai out too, and they’re fending off the villains pretty good…

But then Arin interferes, trying to help. You can decide exactly what he does, Im not sure.

Point is, that because of Arin’s actions, and specifically that, everything goes wrong.

More of the elemental masters get out, (probably using Euphrasia as one of the sacrifices), and not only that, but they are unable to get Kai out of there.

They try hard, very hard, but ultimately… they fail.

Four of the elemental masters get out, and they’re ready for the last one when Lloyd realizes Arin is here and Arin is the cause of this disaster.

Not only were they not able to save Kai, Lloyds beloved surrogate brother, but they also now lost others too (whoever you want to imagine got sacrificed. Pick two more characters you think did alongside Kai and Euphrasia). And it’s all Arin’s fault.

So in a bit of rage and unable to think straight (also from his own mental health issues making him irrational), Lloyd lashes out at Arin.

Arin ruined everything.

Arin didn’t listen to him.

Arin should’ve stayed behind.

Arin doesn’t know what he’s doing out here.

Arin is a failure.

And as soon as that last one gets said out loud, Lloyd snaps out of his rage and realizes what he’s done.

He just confirmed all of Arin’s insecurities. That everyone who said Arin was a failure and a terrible ninja were correct. That absolutely nobody believes in him to do the right thing.

Lloyd IMMEDIATELY regrets it. He immediately tries to take it back! He didn’t mean it! He’s sorry! They’re gonna figure something out! He’s so sorry-

And then Ras gets behind them and knocks away Lloyd. After a short fight, Lloyd becomes the last sacrifice for the spell, all while Lloyd is begging and screaming for Arin.

Arin is obviously devastated by what he’s heard and can’t even process the situation. All the elemental masters are freed and it’s his fault. His idol is gone and it’s his fault.

The very idol that said to his face that he was not good enough.

…was he even an idol anymore?

Arin kneels down to Ras in surrender, ready to be defeated. But he becomes surprised when Ras instead shows pity towards the kid.

Instead, Ras offers Arin a way to find his parents. To go back to his old life and not worry about any of these people who never believed in him.

All he has to do is join Ras and help him out. In exchange, he would spare him and his parents. He even offers the wolf mask to help Arin reach his full potential and become the powerful fighter he saw in him.

And with nothing else left, Arin accepts this deal, allowing himself to be corrupted by the mask.

Almost immediately, his insecurities vanished and are replaced with a sense of purpose, of belonging, of power. With nothing holding him back.

He decides to commit to going rogue and finding his parents with this power. He doesn’t care if Ras wins or loses so long as Arin gets what he wants.

With Arin leaving and now on the dark side, Sora, who I guess was knocked out during the fight or something, realizes what has happened.

It’s not hard to imagine her bawling her eyes out and realizing she just lost her best friend. Maybe she even blames herself.

For the remainder of the season, Arin is just kinda along for the ride with Ras’s forces and the master taking a liking to him and helping him control his new abilities. Maybe he’s able to do the object Spinjitsu without much issue thanks to the mask power. But like I said, Arin doesn’t really care about these villains and their plans, so he’s not concerned which side wins, so long as he gets what he wants.

I’m going to say that Sora, making an army with whoever is remaining, sets up one last fight to rescue the sacrificed ninja.

And TLDR, they win and they’re all fine.

I mean, it’s Ninjago, what do you expect?

The only notable thing is that at some point of this fight, Sora is cornered and most certainly going to get a killing blow by someone, but Arin stops them to ‘focus priority on something more important’.

Even evil, Arin can’t bring anyone, especially not himself, to kill his best friend.

It’s short, but it’s enough that after the fight, Sora says that she knows Arin is still in there and there may be a way to save him in the future.

She doesn’t know how yet, but with her power is a strong responsibility to use it properly this time, and she’s making it her own personal mission to get Arin back. No matter how hard the road of struggle and training is, and no matter how long it takes.

Then of course she has to explain to the others, especially Lloyd, that Arin has turned to the dark side.

Lloyd is the most hurt by this, for obvious reasons.

He failed his student.

He can imagine Wu’s ghost shaking his head in disappointment in Lloyd.

From here on, (season three), Lloyd kinda changes as a mentor. He’s still caring towards the kids, but he’s much stricter on them and very cryptic and demanding of them. Kinda like how Wu was in the first couple of seasons of the main show. It’s obviously taxing on the others. But they also kinda understand how paranoid Lloyd is that he’ll fail another person.

With Ras’s forces defeated and the main members scattered, (whoever you want to say is alive or dead), Arin is alone with a bind of his own to Ras’s master guiding him.

Arin becomes a rogue wanderer searching for answers on where his parents are. And while he doesn’t resort to killing, he still will not let anyone get in his way or let him feel that despair of failure ever again. Not even the ninja.

I expect this to be totally wrong. As I said, I don’t think this theory will come true at all. At most I expect Arin to be turned good again and fixed after like one episode. Whereas this AU theory has Arin’s villainy be expanded further into Dragons Rising where Arin becomes a reoccurring antagonist. But while a villain and having seen a villain origin story unfold, we the audience are still routing for Arin anyway in a pretty twisted kind of way. I don’t know, I thought that’d be an interesting angle instead of ‘And then he became a heartless monster’

[freezerbnuuy]

Questions for Storytelling Simblrs - Answered

I have had these saved on a WordPad document for a while. They aren't mine, I saved them from a reblog I found months ago. EDIT: the original list was from user Iiteralite Answering these for my story, Divided.

what’s the last screenshot you’ve taken for your story? - The last picture I took was this one of Owen, a physician, in his alchemy lab.

describe your story in three words or less - Dark, mysterious, historical

describe (insert character here) in three words or less We'll go with Katlego, one of my favourite characters. Pacifistic, kind, confident.

how did you choose the name of your story? - This is actually part of a universe of stories. The other 3 stories are older, done back when I was on XBox and archived. All of them had one-word titles, so I had to find a word that largely sums up the story and Divided was perfect for it.

how do you choose your characters’ names? - I never use random baby sites' name lists. I always use name lists from sites about the culture / country, or from other similarly-accurate sources. For the 'English' characters' names I used name lists gathered from historical sources for the 1600s-1800s. Most characters' names have almost no connection to the meaning associated with them since I imagine most of the parents of these characters just picked something nice or traditional. - Áine is actually the prototype name (according to an official Tweet) of Tess Dyer, the Magic Realm Untamed Sage predecessor, and the Áine you see in the story is that exact premade. Áine is also an Irish goddess of Summer, which is why her mother named her after her. - It highly depends on multiple factors: Some cultures place more importance on names than others. Kat's background is like this, since a lot of countries in Africa place high importance on names and believe their meaning to be reflective, or hopeful, of the person's future. - I had to change some names due to further research. Before 1900, Romanian naming conventions were different, so Violeta Vasilescu became Violeta Vasile Nicolae. I also changed Iris's real name for similar reasons. - The character's name almost always depends on where they were born / lived. - Some names are references to other media. Oskar's surname, Nivelheim, is the (ff7 prototype's) spelling of the game's town of Nibelheim, a town associated (horribly) with Sephiroth, the character whose design Oskar's is based on. - On occasion I'll use a random name generator. The Annorin family's surname was picked from some kind of fantasy name generator.

how long have you been working on your story for? - 2 years and a bit.

whats the biggest risk you’ve taken with your story? did it pay off? - Not being afraid to write certain things that I worry might cause some kind of offence - especially the Peteran / Jacoban religious material. I only made up ideas for it and went off of what was also in the Sims Medival where those religions appear. The only thing based on real life from it is the offhand mention of Jacobans historically trying to get in the way of physicians practicing on the dead to learn anatomy. So far everyone has enjoyed those aspects of the story, and a few people have compared it to certain elements of how things are where they live which I tried not to respond too much to those comments to go careful, but it's interesting to see people draw a few parallels to their own experience or people they know.

what about your story are you proud of? - It's the longest thing I've written so far, and I haven't given up yet. People will always try to compete with me about how theirs is longer every time I bring it up, but I don't care.

what about your story are you looking to improve on? - In all honesty, nothing. It's not perfect, but I'm not looking to improve on anything because I don't think that much has gone wrong with it, and all the things I've noticed that have gone wrong I'm not bothered about. I have things I do need to go careful with later on but that's slightly different.

is your story fully planned or are you still working things out? is there a definitive end? - It was never fully planned, but multiple plot points were already planned including the ending due to it being a prequel, technically. A lot of it wasn't planned. I still don't know the entirety of how things are going to go.

why have you decided to tell this story? are there any messages or meanings within it? - I can't stop making prequels or side-stories for characters I find interesting. (MCU energy) - I find fantasy interesting, but I'm not really a fan of certain kinds of fantasy. I wanted something more based off IRL practice, and things like DnD and Pathfinder. More gritty, I guess, and with realistic limits unlike some fantasy series where you can cast high-level magic first thing with zero practice as much as you want. I wanted a world where magic is feared and dangerous to some extent both to others and the spellcaster. - I've had the odd person not-so-subtly imply I'm 'pushing an agenda' with this story, but I don't give a shit. The element of witch-hunts is relatable to a lot of people, and so it's not actually that hard to write about a group of people chased out of their living spaces and killed for aspects of their identity and life that are lied about by rich people and the media to ACTUALLY push an agenda. It's an interesting allegory that works for multiple groups of people who might relate to the witches. - I wanted a story focused a lot on shared experience where you perhaps wouldn't expect to find any. So many characters in this story, some who barely know each other or are from various different backgrounds or social classes find things in common. - I wanted to try and challenge myself to write a longer story. Most of my other ones are quite short. - I keep coming up with interesting ideas or lore and I feel the need to try and explore every single one (don't do that it's painful lmao)

do you actually play the game or do you just use it as a storytelling medium? Just as a storytelling medium.

from basic planning to a finished post, how long does that take you? Too fucking long. It used to take a week / 2 weeks, now it can take a month / 2 months. We love worsening mental health < 3

do you have any regrets about your story so far? if you could go back in time, how would you fix these? - We don't do regrets in this house, not for this story anyway.

what have been the highlights of creating your story? - It's a suitable distraction from everything else and it gets me some attention.

what about the process do you enjoy? - At this point, nothing. I just want it finished!

what about the process do you hate? GLITCHES! BUGS! BROKEN CC! PLOT HOLES! GLITCHES! SPENDING AGES FUCKING AROUND WITH T.O.O.L! TRYING TO FIND HISTORICAL CC THAT FITS FAT SIMS!

choose a song that reminds you of your story Here you go. Here's another

choose a song that reminds you of (insert character here) This stock music (that I first heard in the game Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments) is one I use a lot for writing Samuel and Owen for the sinister air of it.

choose your favourite shot from your story so far - I have a lot of favourites, here's a non-spoiler one

choose your least favourite shot so far Nope < 3

choose a favourite character from your story so far I have way too many, so I'll pick one I mentioned earlier, Katlego. She's very different from the other characters. Her magic is Mischief magic which, in this story, is from an in-universe similar-to-a closed practice, practiced by little small communities around the world. She doesn't use her magic often or her tiger form because she fears them both. Her magic is literally mind-altering. She has so much crazy power at her fingertips and yet she refuses to use it because she's good-hearted. She is the one who fears her abilities the most, but is the least likely to do any proper harm to someone. Some characters help her come up with ideas to use her magic for benevolent reasons. Kat is one of the most genuine characters in the story. She always sticks to her guns, even around scarier or more powerful characters. She always tries to stick to pacifism, and hates fighting because of what her mother used to tell her as a child to never hurt anyone else. Despite all that Henford and its people have thrown at her, she still stands tall within the community. But like in any terrible community, there is always going to be people who do genuinely have your back and many people support Kat in whichever way they can.

choose your least favourite character so far - Alistair. He made a lot of mistakes as a father and he hasn't really had much involvement since the end of Act Three since his plot was closely tied to a character who didn't make it past Act Three, one of his children has moved away eventually in Act Four and his other child wants little to do with him.

are there any characters who remind you of yourself? - Eli reminds me of my old, overemotional self, and his being upset at feeling things strongly is something that is very relatable to past me. - Clementia being annoyed about how much her brother gets away with in comparison to her when they were growing up.

what inspirations have you drawn on for your story? Mainly the inspirations for the story come from Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, IRL open practice, and Final Fantasy. Violeta's design was based on Lady Dimitrescu from RE: Village.

have other sim stories inspired you?  - In ways, yes. A lot of those people don't play the game anymore.

what genres would you describe your story as? - Dark fantasy

if you could reproduce your story in another medium (movie, novel, comic, etc.) what would you choose and why? - An RPG would be pretty cool, because well why not? Or a visual novel might be fun. Don't have any reason other than 'it would be cool'.

what would your story’s rating be? (G, PG, M etc.) - M

if you were leaving simblr and had to choose another creator to continue the story for you, who would you ask? - I wouldn't, this story is mine and it dies with me!

drop some random trivia about your story - A scrapped idea: Originally Oskar's canonical first adopted daughter, Ilse, was still meant to be alive in the present day, having been bitten by Oskar to save her from illness. She would have been about 9/10 at the time and utterly resented him for it.

give a light spoiler - A prominent figure in Henford will cause a massive scandal that will set the depths of the witch-hunts in motion.

[milflewis]

Brocedes Shot glass of tears

1.

“So,” Jenson starts, shaking an unnecessarily large amount of salt onto his side of roast potatoes. “I learned something new the other day.”

Nico sips at his glass of Viognier — he’s having seafood. “How to spell your name?”

Jenson smiles at him. “You always were funny, Britney. No, did you know that it doesn’t matter if you don’t fuck — that it doesn’t actually kill you if you get that,” he waves a careless hand in the air, salt shaker shaking, “Fuck Or Die drug thing?”

He pauses. Frowns. “Or is it a flower pollen?”

“It’s a drug made from a flower, like heroin,” Nico says, instead of saying, no, he did not know.

Jenson hums consideringly. His faux pensive expression is hideously exaggerated. It isn’t as charming as Nico suspects he thinks it is. He also suspects that Jenson doesn’t much care at the moment.

“Or,” Jenson continues. “At least, it didn’t kill Lewis.”

2.

James isn’t returning his calls. Nico doesn’t even bother trying Valtteri or Bono. He has no desire to be laughed at so Susie and Sebastian are also out.

Toto picks up on the seventh ring.

“This is Wolff” he answers, already sounding tired.

“Is it true?”

“Ah, Nico, hello,” Toto starts. “Is what true?”

Nico makes an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. His gut is doing something weird and cramp-like, and his head feels hot and stuffed even though he only had three glasses of wine with a full dinner.

“Lewis. And the drug. Is it real?”

“Hmm. Is this Friend-Nico talking, or Sky-Nico talking?”

It is a question that Susie likes to regularly ask Nico, though her version of the term ‘Friend-Nico’ is distinctly more mocking.

Nico does not snap at him. He is in control, even when he isn’t. He is.

Nico has never carried a bag of sweets around in his pocket. He is not one for setting himself up for failure. He knows what he is good at and what he isn’t. It is it’s own form of self discipline.

Nico isn’t sure Lewis ever really believed that. Other people definitely didn’t.

“Toto,” Nico says, and Toto sighs heavily.

“It is true. He — he had no one, and nothing happened. He has been medically cleared. No lasting side effects.”

Toto says the words like they’re not the first times he spoken them, and still, there is a note of slight reluctant disbelief. He has e never been one for awe.

Nico hangs up without saying goodbye.

3.

The fan had been aiming for Sebastian.

Apparently they had taken offensive to his excessive flirting with everyone in his five foot radius. Nico understands their pain.

He doesn’t know what happened after Baku. No one does. But, even three years later, whatever it was meant that it wasn’t surprising to find Lewis hanging off of Sebastian’s elbow at races, laughing at his terrible jokes.

It is because of this that Lewis gets a face full of Amyl Nitrite, instead of Sebastian.

The layers of irony here amuse Nico for a nice long moment. It helps that Nico knows from Jenson that Lewis was left to deal with it on his own. No Sebastian in sight.

“His poor dick must be stripped raw,” Nico says over the phone.

Mark makes a high despairing sound. He doesn’t like it when they talk about Lewis’s dick.

4.

Ted makes Lewis laugh seven times in his three minute paddock pen interview on Thursday. Nico is used to seeing Ted make Lewis laugh. They're both pretty shameless in that regard.

There are no circles under his eyes - no visible ones anyway, concealer is a thing - or tightness around his forehead. Nico squints at the screen to see if he has any of those tiny broken blood vessels he gets he presses his knuckles into them, trying to sleep. He can't see any.

His braids are neat and pulled back from his face in a high pony and his shirt is loose around his neck, thick silver chain glimmering. He is wearing his usual amount of jewelry.

"You know what it's like, man," Lewis is smiling, face scrunching up behind his mask. "We always try to start off on a good vibe and see where we go build from there. We've got a good team and a good car, and I like where we're at."

He does not look like he's in any form of discomfort, let alone pain. He does not look like his dick is raw. This means nothing as Nico knows.

Ted says something else and Lewis laughs for an eighth time. Nico turns off his tablet.

5.

It is from Fernando that Nico finds out what happened in the end.

Fernando tells him that Lewis came to stay in his hotel room for the night, to ride out the drug’s effects, like this set of actions were obvious and he couldn’t imagine why Nico was even bothering to ask.

Absence, Nico realises, does not always make the heart fonder. At least where Fernando Alonso is concerned.

“Where else would he go,” Fernando says slowly as if Nico is particularly dim. “I don’t do that sort of thing, and I always have a lot of alcohol on me.”

He is filling another two shot glasses from a bottle of clear vodka he already had at the table when Nico arrived.

“Right,” Nico says. “Of course.”

And then: “Is that how he survived then? By drinking himself limp?”

The thought isn’t as funny as Nico would like it to be.

Fernando rolls his eyes. “I told him he didn’t need it. People are just weak. This drug does not kill. People get scared. They give in. They want. After, they are ashamed, so they make up stories, is all.”

Fernando’s mouth twists into something sour. The lighting in the hotel bar is low and dark, throwing shadows across his jaw.

“Hamilton is not weak,” Fernando tells him and Nico does not snap back that he knows.

Instead, he informs him calmly that his opinion on drugs and people’s susceptibility to them and their effects is outdated and uneducated and privileged. He leaves Fernando to pick up their tab. This seems to piss him off more than the lecture.

+1.

Lewis flips the pancake high in the air, grinning to himself as it lands perfectly back into the pan. He’s shirtless, shorts low on his hips, and barefoot. The curve of his belly is softer than it was back when they were racing.

“Morning,” Nico murmurs, pressing his mouth against the knob at the top of Lewis’s spine. His skin is still shower warm and only slightly damp.

“Hey,” Lewis says, reaching a hand back to squeeze Nico’s hip. “You hungry?”

Nico checks in with himself as he takes down two glasses from the cupboard. He opens the fridge to grab their jug of water — already Britta filtered and with several slices of lemon bobbing on the surface.

“Nah, not really, I’ll only have one or two.”

“Mhmm, okay.”

Nico pours them both out two glasses and grabs a pair of forks. He sits up on one of the island stools and sips at his drink.

He should really have his shot of apple cider vinegar and greens but his stomach is feeling kind of weird this morning and he wants to eat first.

Lewis’s cross tattoo is fading. He’ll need to get it touched up soon.

“Bon appétit,” Lewis declares sweepingly, setting Nico’s plate down in front of him with a flourish. He’s in a good mood this morning which means he deliberately butchers the pronunciation, saying it like “Bon apple teeth”, to annoy Nico.

Happiness on Lewis has always looked childlike.

It is strange — the times Nico thinks about it, after all these years.

You were going to kill yourself before letting anyone fuck you again, Nico does not say to Lewis. He cuts into the top pancake, smothered in syrup, and chews slowly.

Lewis turns back to the stove, already sure it will be liked. It’s a well used recipe.

Did you know that it was an old wives tale, or did you just not want to pick up the phone that badly?

Nico’s therapist has been pushing him to ask Lewis for years. Nico told her he will when he is no longer afraid of the answer. He is trying to be more honest, if not with Lewis than with himself and his therapist. She had looked remarkably unimpressed.

“This is enough for me,” Nico tells him. “Thank you.”

Lewis hums, throwing a grin over his shoulder. He is shimming slightly to the music coming from the speaker perched on-top the fridge.

Roscoe is snoring on the couch in the sitting room area of their open floor plan.

“I’m thinking of going swimming later.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“How much later?”

Nico thinks for a second. It’s a Saturday and he has no meetings. Neither does Lewis.

“I told my Dad I’d give him a call at around eleven, so,” he checks his phone. It’s a little before ten now. “Maybe have an early lunch after that and then go at around two or so?”

“Okay.” Lewis turns off the stove, plating up the last of his banana pancakes, and comes around to sit next to Nico. He turns a little so he’s facing him, knees nudging his thigh. “Sounds good.”

At this angle, one of Lewis’s nipple piercings keeps catching off the light when he moves to eat his food and winking at Nico. It’s vaguely distracting in a distant this is your favourite meal but you’ve just eaten kind of way.

“We’re having dinner on the yacht tonight,” Nico decides.

Lewis glances at him, that half amused look he only ever gets around Nico on his face, like he doesn’t even have to thinking about being that way, it just happens naturally.

“Okay,” he says again. “Sure.”

“I want to suck you off under the stars after,” Nico tells him and rinses off his plate before putting it in the dishwasher, and leaving the room to call his dad.

“And they say romance is dead,” Lewis calls after him, grinning, eyes hot. It would be embarrassing for him, the way Nico knows Lewis’s dick twitched when Nico said that, if Nico wasn’t just as easy for him.

[murahel]

Fanfics Masterpost

C.Y.B.E.R.V.E.R.S.E. series complete stories:

Hand Over The Relationship, Offish Decepticon! : Soundwave survives the fight with Tarn.

Standing Among The Blue: rewrite of a scene from s2 ep13 in which Optimus meets Solus Prime.

Transformers Cyberverse Fanfics Ideas:

Sapphic Shadow Striker/Windblade. Background Hot Rod~Soundwave being supportive.

"Wherever Bumblebee goes on Cybertron, Cheetor, be with him." If Cyberverse doesn't give me Cheetor remembrance, then I will. Maybe even a word from him from within the AllSpark. Featuring Bumblebee & Windblade's friendship post-war. Bee is sad in this one.

Hand Over sequel: Hot Rod and Soundwave accidentally complete the Conjunx Ritus. Shenanigans ensue, including a wedding Shadow Striker and Windblade might steal for themselves.

Transformers EarthSpark Fanfics Ideas:

Brave Educational Experience: or when the Terrans shatter Bumblebee's worldview through a single question. Sequel under consideration.

Shockwave & Wheeljack relationship, but still with their dynamic from in Cyberverse (dancing robots, Shockwave's invention liking Wheeljack (s2 ep10, Secret Science)). Also Wheeljack calls Shockwave out on his racism towards the Terrans/Twitch his daughter. Featuring Fluffy Ears since the show won't give her back to me. Senator Shockwave plotline.

The ones I probably won't write (may you feel free to appropriate this ideas for yourself):

Decepticons meeting up with Autobots at the border after defeating the Quintessons (too vague).

AU fix-it in which Starscream gets better (I just don't know his character enough).

The ones I said I wouldn't write but did in a way or another:

I've read a fic headcanoning Soundwave as a cityspeaker too, which I find interesting but don't think I'll write about it <- "Hand Over The Relationship, Offish Decepticon!" (chapter 5 especially)

--------------------------------------------------

Other stuff I've written unrelated to Transformers medias: ⬇️

And The Sun Snuffed Itself Out So Icarus Could Keep Flying: "In this world, Hawks doesn't lose his wings." MHA, canon-compliant up to the moment Hawks loses his alter to AFO. I've always felt like Endeavor/the Todoroki family owned him one after what Dabi does to him (also why the hell are people shipping Dabi and Hawks together wtf) and that with Endeavor's whole "redemption" thing he would at least try to protect Hawks more?? Maybe it's just me. Might get a sequel or follow up if I can work my mind around some plot. Learned Icare is called Icarus in eng so I edited that.

Triangle Is The Strongest Shape: Monastario/Zorro/Lolita trouple. I know, I've got you, you'll have at least one fic with the three of them (it's silly tho). I honestly don't know how Monastorio's name is canonically spelled.

Oh Little Angel's Family: the one I keep forgetting. Supernatural, it's about family feels among the angels (especially the archangels and Castiel) and isn't canon-compliant in the slightest. I think it diverges from canon at s4. It has an attempt to plot in it, it has. Anyway it's written in french and Michael is called Michel in it.

Not home: an Outer Worlds game character-study(ish) fic about the Captain being an outsider. Do not be fooled by the english title, it's written in french.

Star Wars. I've written many a fic of Star Wars stuff starring the Codywan ship, some in french that haven't been translated since I switched to full english. I've still got unfinished drafts of more fics including them which will probably never be finished because I can't be bothered, and I don't post unfinished drafts (there's one exception to this and I won't elaborate on it).

Ideas of fics that haven't been written (yet):

A Baroness fic. From The Cat Returns Ghibli movie. In which she either gets reunited with Baron or has Toto and other birds travel letters between them.

A Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas time-travel fix-it fic centering on Shion, in which Zeus is actually responsible for the Holy War and the Aries cloth has time powers because of Chronos. Featuring being hunted as a traitor by his fellow Golds, soul wound, and Lady Persephone.

A Kuraerti fic (you know. the one yall keep calling Clerifa like it's a fucking Pokémon.) post-canon, a timeline what timeline, everyobody lives, setting: Gold Saucer. Featuring an Oblivious!Cloud, background Reno/Rude, Zack being around, Rufus and his dog learning to be a Good PersonTM under mentorship from Dio, the most adults members of the group acting like parents and a frustrated Barret.

A Brooklyn Nine-Nine fic in which Kevin's family is actually from the mafia. His parents don't talk to him anymore because he married a cop and the whole Seamus situation gets worse because that's a mafia family kidnapping somedoby from another mafia family. It is unclear if Holt is aware or not.

[teaveetamer]

It's okay if butwhatifidothis risks leading people to harass Captain Flash by going over his fic but it's not okay if Raxis does the same to reynaattheend?

Okay I feel like I want to get one thing out of the way before I go into this.

BWIIDT agreed to remove parts of the old reviews that were particularly rude or offensive if they were pointed out to her, something that was literally promised to the MODS of the Edelstan discord server (who claimed to have a direct line of communication to Cap).

So the guy literally had a chance to air his grievances with the posts and have the parts he didn’t like removed within reason, and we never got any examples of things to ask her to remove. So either she’s not as rude as people make her out to be, or they never actually cared about her critiques and haven’t bothered reading them, even when handed the literal opportunity to edit things out they didn’t like.

Additionally BWIIDT has said that she would be willing to remove all the postings completely if the guy would just hear her criticisms and learn from them, so he could better handle the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic. Of which there is a lot.

I don’t know how you could possibly compromise more without just straight up being a door mat and pretending like this white man never had any issues with the way he wrote race and women.

Anyway as for why I view these as two completely different situations that are not really comparable IMO:

1) Cap’s fic is/was at the time literally being shoved at people. We were told to read it to “understand canon better”.

This isn’t just me saying this. I remember around the time before/slightly after BWIIDT started giving her criticisms of the fic I was seeing it getting recommended to a bunch of people. There were people on various social media sites complaining about the Edel crowd shoving the fic down their throats. I had it recommended to me on some different platforms, etc.

And that’s not just fans of the fics’ perception. Cap himself has stated that he views the fic as meta commentary on the game/discussion of canon, not just a fun little fic he did. And he’s happy people view it as essential for understanding canon.

As far as I’m aware, Reyna’s fic has never had that sort of culture around it, nor has she wanted it to have that kind of impact on fandom. I’m pretty sure she’s even explicitly stated that she KNOWS it’s not always aligned with canon and she doesn’t care, because it’s just a fun little project for her.

2) As far as I’m aware, BWIIDT never linked to Cap’s fic? I don’t even think she gave the title of it at first, it’s just that most people figured out what fic she was talking about BECAUSE of the aforementioned it getting shoved down everyone’s throats. But I wasn’t really following her in the beginning so I don’t remember, I’m sure she can reblog this posting if she wants and further clarify.

Raxy has literally been linking to Reyna’s fic on every posting and spelling out the full name of the fics and the author. Given his followers’ propensity for harassment (which he claims to not support) he really should have known better. He wasn’t “risking” sending her harassment it was basically a foregone conclusion.

He definitely should have taken all of the links down and stopped linking or naming the author or fic after it became clear people were literally going and harassing her, using his posts and material to throw at her. But as far as I’m aware he hasn’t done ANY of that.

3) I know from talking with BWIIDT since Raxy started harassing everyone here that she wasn’t going to bother with Cap’s fic originally, but then the annoying fans shoving it down people’s throats + she noticed a lot of very problematic handling of race that she wanted to talk about in greater depth = her discussing the fic at length.

I haven’t read through Raxy’s criticisms, but I feel like there’s a BIG difference between a woman of color pointing out the problems regarding race and gender in a fic (written by a white man) that’s being recommended to everyone as ESSENTIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE GAME vs. Some Guy Who Doesn’t Like A Random Fic

Additionally, I don’t really feel like it’s my place to tell her to shut up because, uh, it just feels kind of gross to tell her to just not be mad about the way the white guy is butchering the biracial experience when she’s a biracial woman and I’m not? Which again, very different from telling a 35 year old cishet white guy who is acting like a dick about anime chess to be less of a dick about anime chess.

4) And again, I also know for a fact that BWIIDT is just interested in critiquing/venting about the fic, and would be willing to stop making postings about it if Cap actually bothered to read the critiques and learn from the mistakes he’s made regarding the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic.

But like, he keeps doubling down on it insisting that because he grew up next to a reservation and he has one queer woman doing his beta reading there could never be any problems with his handling of any of these sensitive topics, so he doesn’t need to listen to any of us ever, and people are still touting it as essential for understanding canon, and he’s still okay with that, sooooooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It’s VERY different from what Raxy is doing, which is basically just calling Reyna’s fics “cringe” and “not canon” from the snippets I’ve seen. He’s also blasting them over LITERALLY every social media platform he has for some godforsaken reason. Which like. If your goal was just to critique the fic why are you posting that shut EVERYWHERE?

5) I really don’t think Raxy is that bothered by the criticisms of Cap’s fic. He harasses people regardless of if they’ve talked about Cap or his fic, and after his aborted attempt to drum up harassment against BWIIDT on GameFaqs he came to Tumblr and started begging her to “do his fic next”

Like honestly I don’t even know what goes on in that guy’s head. Weird ass behavior. I really don’t care what he has going on, it’d just be nice if he’d act like the 35 year old he actually is and quit being so petty and childish.

Even if you think what BWIIDT did with Cap’s fic is wrong, why would it EVER be acceptable to drag an uninvolved third party into the mix and bash their fic and send them harassment as “retaliation”? Reina has nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even have fucking social media accounts outside of AO3. I know because I literally left her a comment to warn her about this clown and she told me.

What BWIIDT has done with Cap’s fic is admittedly a bit of a grey area, but ultimately I fall on the side of “whatever” with it because of the notoriety and influence on fandom fans of the fic desperately want it to have, and because of just how problematic elements of it are for various communities.

I mean you can’t go reccing a fic as essential for understanding the game and shoving it down the entire fandoms’ collective throat and then expect it to be treated like a 14 year old’s silly self insert fic when the people you told to read it critique it with the gravitas you assigned to it.

If you wanna critique BWIIDT for what she did with Cap’s fic, or critique me or anyone else for interacting with her, or you just think my logic is stupid and you want to critique that, then that’s… fine? I’m an adult, I’m a person, I know there’s places I can grow. But I’m sick of people acting like it’s okay to be a shitty person just because you got your feelings hurt once, so now it’s okay to go making it everyone else’s problem. And I don’t know if it was your intention to defend the guy with this ask anon, but it’s definitely happened too damn much with this guy and the Edelgard fandom as a whole.

That was another thing that really fucked me off in that conversation with the Edelstan server mods. I had one of them acting like I run fucking Reddit and I’m somehow responsible for some trolls calling Edelgard fans Nazis four fucking years ago. You can bet your ass I would get crucified if I tried to shit talk some random ass Edeleth fic and tried to justify it with “but it’s ok cuz some Edelgard fans were mean to me once :(“. There’s a reason why the fic being touted as essential for understanding canon is the one getting critiques and not any of the THOUSANDS of other Edeleth fics in existence. Because no one fucking cares about fanfics when they aren’t getting shoved down your throat and touted as “essential”.

I mean fuck dude, I got called a fake queer and an r-slur and intentionally triggered with genocide bullshit and had people talking about killing me. Am I going around harassing random fic authors over it? No, cuz I’m a grown ass fucking adult and I know how to act like it, and I know that 99% of the people who write/have written Edeleth fics had absolutely nothing to do with that.

So if you’re justifying going after Reyna with “but BWIIDT was mean to Cap!” Then knock it off, Reyna has literally nothing to do with this and you’re being shitty by trying to drag her into it. If you just did this to spork a fic, then you’re currently being a dick over a fanfic for no reason and clearly it’s leading to the author being harassed.

@butwhatifidothis if you wanna add onto this feel free.

[flynndesdelca]

For Day 30 (Cara Mia Addio) of @chelltastic’s Portal Drawtober 2023 Challenge. As I’m not really an artist, I chose to write short pieces for the prompts.

now is there anything that I can do

if there was would we be singing

Finding books to read was difficult, as there were only so many people who even had the things, and so far most of their taste had been terrible.  Chell put down the book she had been attempting to read for the fifth time, sighing to herself.  This wasn't going to work at all.  This book just was not at all interesting, no matter how hard she tried.  She'd even tried reading it while sounding out all of the characters with silly voices in her head, but it just wasn't working.  Whose locker had she gotten it out of? That's right, his name was written inside the book in neat block letters.  P. Reynolds, you had failed her.  For shame.

The mental upbraiding was interrupted by a low, throbbing hmm.  Sometimes the noises GLaDOS would make echoed in a fascinating way, as though the sound was reverberating through the chassis itself.  Thinking noises, when she bothered to verbalize them, were examples of such.  The sound was surprisingly easy on the ears.  It reminded Chell of something else, something from before... she'd gotten inklings of the supercomputer's musical inclination at odd times and in odd places, but only gotten a proper example of it as she had been leaving.  Curiosity rose in her, and an idea formed.  It might not work, but at least it would be more engaging than the book had been.  

Tapping the table once or twice to try to get the AI's attention, Chell waved a hand in the air in a lazy attempt at signing.  Sing me a song.  She only hoped that the meaning would carry across.  

The groan of hydraulics.  Dead silence.  She didn't want to look up, she already could tell she was simply being stared at.  "You'll have to try that again," came the reply at last.  "I don't speak whatever that is."

Fine.  She held up both hands, moving much more slowly in her attempt to make the meaning clearer.  S-I-N-G me a S-O-N-G.  She'd been studying ASL letters in an attempt to actually learn proper signs, so it probably helped when she spelled things out rather than use whatever gesture she felt conveyed her meaning.

"That's what I was afraid you had said," GLaDOS muttered, narrowing her optic.  "Why would you assume that I know the first thing about singing?"

When I left, the turrets were singing.  But turrets don't sing.  You were controlling them.

"Perhaps they were so elated that your vendetta against them was finally coming to an end that they overcame their simple dialogue limiters in order to express that joy," the AI said primly, her optic slowly drifting to the side as though pondering this miraculous development deeply.  

Chell shook her head, pointing at GLaDOS directly.  They only speak English, and that song was definitely not in English.

"Someone's meddling with the turret templates introduced some... irregularities into the turret population."  GLaDOS rolled her optic dramatically.  "It took a long time to weed them out.  Having to interview several hundred turrets individually to find the ones that processed in languages that weren't normally supported was exactly as tedious as it sounds..." Chell crossed her arms firmly.  "Of course, you wouldn't care what language it spoke to you in.  You'd callously drop a weighted storage cube on its head before it even had a chance to say 'hello'."

Turrets don't say 'hello'.

"Yes they do.  You’ve just never actually talked to one.," GLaDOS said smugly.

She chose to ignore that particular jab.  So you found all of the turrets that didn't speak English and instead of incinerating them, you let them live.  

"They could still perform a majority of their functions," GLaDOS explained defensively.

And these turrets somehow got together and managed to create a whole opera.  Chell wasn't certain about how to convey what she wanted to, so she spelled 'opera' out.

"They do tend to be social.  They liked to be in groups," GLaDOS added.  "If you took the time to observe them in their natural habitat rather than callously cutting them down any time one gets in your way, you'd see them frolicking in the meadows together.  Like deer."

That statement was so ludicrous that Chell wasn't even sure where to begin with a reply.  Instead, she pressed on.  All of this of course happened during the time I was unconscious after dealing with Wheatley.

"You were unconscious for quite a while.  They work quickly when they're motivated..." there was definitely an odd posture to the chassis now.  Each statement saw GLaDOS draw back just slightly, like she was being cornered.  Chell wasn't sure if she was going to suddenly be in a great deal of danger, or if she was going to somehow win this argument.

So you pulled me in, interviewed all the turrets, they got together and wrote a whole opera from scratch and practiced it so that it would be perfect and just happened to be hanging out in the elevator shaft waiting for an audience around the time that I woke up and you kicked me out? Chell summarized, slowly and carefully.

"When you say it like that, it does come across as being rather farfetched," GLaDOS said rather pointedly.  For a moment, Chell considered whether she should start eyeing the exits.  "I'm not even sure why you're suddenly following this line of questioning. Are you considering a career change this late in your life? Is that book about a musical?"

No, it's boring as fuck, Chell signed in annoyance.  You were thinking out loud again and it reminded me of stuff.  I liked the song that they sang, though I guess I thought it was you singing it so never mind! She waved her hands back and forth as though dissolving everything she'd just said.  At least she'd been right in the notion that this would be engaging.

"You liked it, even though you didn't understand it?" GLaDOS questioned warily.

It sounded nice.  They were talking about science, I think.  And me.  I'm not sure how turrets would know my name, though, Chell said thoughtfully.  Maybe I should ask them if they will sing it again, for me.

"It wasn't your name," GLaDOS said sharply.  "It was ciel." Almost too late she realized her misstep, and quickly turned away.  "At least, that's what I heard!  It was impossible not to hear it, after all." That got Chell to laugh, which caused her to turn back quickly, optic narrowing.  "Perhaps I did arrange certain things.  It was because you were leaving, and I was glad to see you go.  I'd consider the whole thing null and void because you came back.  It's a failure of a song.  I hope you're happy."

Maybe I'd be happier if you sang me another song about how you're angry that I came back, Chell replied cheekily.  You could use a lot of dirty words and I would never know.

"Or I could just eject you back out via a carefully calculated aerial faith plate," GLaDOS considered.  "Perhaps not.  That would be cruel to the aerial faith plate.  Perhaps you're right, and I should channel my unending bitter rage at the lack of solitude in more constructive ways."  She swayed back and forth as though considering just how to apply herself.  "Well, that was constructive.  You'll forgive me if I don't assemble a whole chorus of turrets, but since you decided you aren't leaving you're not worth more than a solo."

I suppose I'll live.  Chell feigned disappointment.  She was curious just how a computer could sing.  It shouldn't be a question, because obviously GLaDOS could talk just as easily as anything else there, but the idea of an actual song, especially given that the last one through the synthesized voices of turrets had been really good, was exciting.  Even if it was just a song cussing her out in a language that she didn't know.  She sat back on the floor, winding her arms around her knees for support and listened.

[yagamisdiary]

can we have some parasite or eldia headcanons on how they acted as kids 😭

omg yes !! i’ll do parasite first and then if u guys also want eldia lmk

parasite yn:

- was the type of kid to dig up worms in the backyard and keep them in her pockets to show ppl randomly for shock factor (i see her doing this with frogs and lizards too)

- used to hide in the kitchen cabinets to see how long it would take for her parents to find her

- once pretended to play dead at the public swimming pool and ppl actually began freaking out

- her dad had a lot of tattoos so she would color them in with markers whenever she was bored

parasite eren

- used to play an insane amount of call of duty

- his mom used to call him a stalker because he used to be everywhere anywhere at anytime and would just stare at ppl in silence (u know what scene i’m referring to)

- he has a total of 26 scars, a majority coming from childhood and forcing himself to learn how to skate

- used to own every skating magazine and wore Thrasher and Golf religiously in middle school

sasha

- was a surprisingly a picky eater for the first few years of her life and would only ever order dinosaur chicken nuggets until one day her dad convinced her to try something else and she never looked back

- used to be called the “jump rope queen” in elementary school and held the record for longest time spent without messing up

- her family are the richest farmers in Paradis and she grew up around a lot of animals. she has a horse, two pigs and several chicken

- used to think bloody mary was real and refused to be in any room with a mirror and the lights out

hitch

- was in beauty pageants at any early age until she got kicked out of one for cheating and sabotaging other girls

- has a childhood dog named lucky which her family recused from getting hit on the street

- preferred moths over butterflies because she was sad they didn’t get as much love

- used to beg her parents for quarters to get stick on tattoos for the machines

connie

- starting wearing cologne at a very early age because he was terrified ppl could smell that he hadn’t showered yet

- was that kid that had permanently orange fingers from too much cheese puffs

- type to smell his clothes on the floor to see if they’re clean or not

- won the talent show three times in a row in elementary for break dancing (it was the same routine every year)

jean

- only child energy of a rich family so he literally gets whatever he wants, doesn’t really know how to save money just asks for more

- tried to learn how to skate with eren once, failed miserably, and never bothered to try again

- cheese stick addict

- once fell off a moving truck and broke his arm

mikasa

- learned how to play piano and violin early on

- won the spelling bee once and never bothered to do it again

- was the kid who constantly asked where babies come from

- type of kid to get a new article of clothing and wear it to death

historia

- was in ballet for several years

- went through a phase where she was obsessed with chewing gum

- used to go shopping with her mom and lie to their dad about it

- had a cat that would sleep with her every night

[puff-mmd]

Mermay au for kaisei and ciro thoughts

Basics:

Kaisei is a prince of an underwater kingdom. His mother is the queen, and his father was killed by humans. As such, kaisei's mother is extremely protective of her only son, and harbors a deep disdain for humans.

Kaisei retains his cheerfulness and is a curious merman who loves to watch storms as they pass along the ocean waves. The lightning, rolling clouds, and pounding rain and thunder captivate him, and there's nothing he loves more than swimming around just beneath the surface and watching the lightning as if they were fireworks.

I think Yoai is actually also a mermaid in this au. She works as their royal seamstress, and she's always miffed about kaisei forgoing her clothes when he is out and about exploring.

"What do you mean constricting? I made this top with the most breathable seaweed for a hundred miles!!"

Yakumo is kinda like a villain but not really? He makes spells and potions and such, some legal, some...not. one of those happens to be a potion that can turn a human into a mermaid.

Now i wonder who might be interested in that.

Anyways

Ciro is a human here. He is a tailor who on his way to a new kingdom with his parents and sister (he was recognized for his talents by a king across the sea and offered a job working as a clothing designer), is accidentally tossed overboard during a storm.

Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know how to swim.

Kaisei, who of course has found his way near the surface to watch the storm, is shocked when he sees a young man lose his balance aboard a ship and fall into the water.

He hesitates, knowing he's a human.

Until he sees the man sinking deeper as he flails to catch footing in an ever-changing hellscape before going limp.

Without thinking, every muscle in his body propels him forward to the drowning man, and he pulls him up to the surface. Nearby is a shoreline, though it is a long ways away...

Nonetheless, kaisei pulls the man towards land until his arms are sore and tail can barely move. As he uses his last bit of energy to lay the man on the sand, he lays next to him, and passes out himself from exhaustion.

When he awakes, he hears spluttering and coughs. He sees the man he saved laying on his side, propped up on one hand, coughing out seawater. He's still tired, so tired, and doesn't bother moving away. Instead, he takes in the features he can see of the man.

His white dress shirt clings to his skin, translucent and hugging his petite, but muscular figure. Short blonde locks stick to his neck and side of face. Kaisei can make out his profile, defined by the delicate curves of his lips, nose, and brow bone. As the man gasps and takes in gulps of air, he turns to face Kaisei.

Eyes the color of the sea on a perfect summer morning meet his own and widen in surprise.

--

After the shock of seeing a real live mermaid before him passes, the man (who kaisei learns goes by the name of ciro) promptly thanks him for saving his life.

Ciro cannot help but notice the brightly colored tail, soft flowing fins, and gills that breathe in air, even out of the water. He inquires about Kaisei's ability to breathe on the surface for so long without perishing himself, to which he replies that he and other mermaids are able to breathe in water and air. The only thing is, they cannot walk on the surface like humans do - for obvious reasons.

Cue a flip of kaisei's tail to make his point clear.

As much as he would love to stay and learn more about mermaids and all these things that he once knew as fantastical stories from childhood, ciro bids goodbye in search of his family that may or may not believe him to be dead.

However, he asks if it's possible to see him again - after all, he has many questions about merfolk. Those stories from his childhood had gripped him ever since, and have inspired countless designs as a clothing designer. Now learning that it was all real? He could never pass up an opportunity to learn more about them.

Kaisei, somewhat blinded by the dazzling looks and sweet demeanor, agrees to meet him again.

And so begins the affairs of a simple human and the merman prince that falls in love with him.

--

Basically from there, ciro often meets kaisei on that shoreline to talk to him. He brings his sketchbook in which he makes his designs for clothing, and with kaisei's permission, sketches clothes inspired by his exotic appearance.

Kaisei quickly catches on however, that clothes are not the only thing he sketches.

One day as ciro looks up at him briefly before returning to work in the sketchbook, his curiosity gets the better of him and he peeks at the drawing before it's finished. And what he sees, well.

He wasn't expecting to see a replication of himself on the dry paper.

Ciro looks at him sheepishly, quietly apologizing. He couldn't help but want to depict such a beautiful man with his own pencil.

--

I imagine another scene if the two of them lying together on the beach, the world bathed in sunset colors. Kaisei is cuddled up to ciro, his tail weaving around human legs as they hold each other.

"Ciro?"

"Hm? What is it?"

"How do you humans know..."

Fingers stroke the soft fins protruding from the arm laid across his stomach.

"When you're in love?"

"I would imagine it wouldn't be much different from how you know."

Trailing up from the fin, ciro takes hold of the back of Kaisei's neck, and pulls him in for a soft kiss.

"You're right, it isn't so different after all."

--

I imagine at some point, ciro's sister has trailed him at some point to see where on earth he is going in his little free time, and sees kaisei. He doesn't approach them right away, instead asking ciro about it when he returns.

She asks to meet kaisei, but ciro insists that he needs to ask him first. He knows by now how much mermaids steer clear of humans, and that their relationship is far from normal.

Kaisei is hesitant, but allows ciro to bring her with him. They both make her promise to keep his existence a secret, to keep him safe.

She promises, but...

During their time together on the shore, kaisei also learns that ciro is...less than satisfied with life as a human. Kaisei never deluded himself that the human world was much better than that of the merfolk, but for ciro, it was simply dull compared to the fantasies of his childhood. He had a job that helped him support his family and was something he did enjoy, but outside of that, he never really felt fulfilled.

That is, until he had met kaisei.

Someone who brought liveliness and color into his life. Who encouraged him to conquer his fears of water and taught him to swim, who told stories of an unknown world that flourished beneath the very waves mankind traveled with dread.

Someone who offers that there is a way for ciro to join that world, were to choose it.

--

kaisei going to yakumo for a potion that could turn a human into a mermaid gets out (of course it does, yakumo is jealous that a mere human had captured kaisei's affections) so he probably snitched on him without letting it be known that he's the one who supplied the potion in the first place

(he has a hard time saying no to kaisei)

but his mom is livid.

she is begging him not to use it, she cannot stand the thought of a disgusting human using her own son's blood and scales to become one of them. after what happened to her husband, how could she?

after all, there are so many suitors who would give up everything to be kaisei's lover - why across all the seven seas would he choose a human?

and so against his mother's wishes, kaisei seeks out ciro with the potion. the next they meet, he shows it to ciro and explains that if he truly wanted to leave behind the human world and join him, this was his ticket to do so.

and despite ciro's strong love for kaisei and equally strong desire to flee his dull life, he hesitates.

what would his family do without him, after all?

could he allow himself to be selfish in such an irreversible way as this?

oh my god, what if this time, ciro's family does show up, but they're brought a band of fishers.

fishers with one thing on their mind - money.

and so ciro is forced to make that choice quickly; sacrifice his lover and key to life underwater where he had wished to be since he was a child, or betray his family and flee with kaisei underwater?

it is almost made for him in that moment.

ciro, who had lived selflessly for his family his whole life, chooses his own dreams and happiness.

kaisei takes him out and under the sea, out of the reach of the hunters that attempt to pursue them, and he must drink the potion quickly - he cannot breathe underwater as a human still.

lazy ending and so ciro transforms into a mermaid and he and kaisei live happily ever after idk

[boys-reverie]

This is Eleanor "Elle" Reed. My favorite Crush Crush character. And as such, in my infinite tboy wisdom, I (baselessly) headcanon "her" as a trans guy (aka basically an elle-based oc at this point).

I've actually just learned that his first full name was Eleanor, so when I first saw the name Elle, my mind went to the french pronoun. So for a name, I stuck with french pronouns. Except Il (il, 'he' equivalent) was too short for me, so I went with Iel (iel, 'they' equivalent).

I've also just learned I've been pronouncing "iel" wrong all this time. I was going "ee-el" all while it's way more fluid: "yel" <- another way to spell it. Luckily I've never had to actually use it but now I know for when I do. ...Still would have to figure out the general/most common way of neutralizing adjectives and other things that change for masculine/feminine. My french teacher talked about one way with a period in there ("acteur.euse" maybe he said?), which I wasn't really all that cool with but since then, I've seen a video about how german speakers are tackling it (they tend to use the gender star, basically an asterisk), so i really can't be bothered to have an opinion if this is just going to be a more common phenomenon among gendered languages in an attempt to be more inclusive (especially as i clearly dont speak a gendered language or have any knowledge that might help me create a system i like more).

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 17

Hello all, time for yet another review and rant by me, K7l!

Now, there is a LOT I could rant about regarding this episode, but in hindsight, leaving to the blatant script-shilling going on by the writers' having all the adults lose brain-cells to buy Chloe, the known liar and cheat, be believed when she accuses Marinette of having stolen stuff despite it being known that Chloe HERSELF once stole from Marinette to try and cheat in a design contest... But I'm not gonna do that, since it'd be just another re-hash of this season just shitting on Chloe as a character.

No, what I'm focusing on, at least in the forward, is how this episode marks the first time the Writers have tried to paint Sabrina as being "good inside." How do they do this? They have her be upset at Chloe wanting her to rob people in order to frame Marinette, claiming "My dad's a police officer!" What makes this utterly stupid is that Sabrina has already stolen things on Chloe's behalf going as far back as Season 1. Her breaking the law on Chloe's say-so is nothing new. Having her just NOW sprout a conscience over this just does not work. If they'd framed it as her being hesitant to drag other people into Chloe's feud with Marinette, and building off of that later on, it'd be one thing. But that isn't what is happening. What the writers are doing is acting as if Sabrina has always had this moral opposition to breaking the law because her dad's a cop, despite having never been bothered at doing stuff like this before. Doing so, if anything, makes Sabrina look worse to me because it comes off as Sabrina only having moral standards when it involves people other than those she dislikes. It's hollow, and uninspired.

Like how I think that Kagami's plots this episode involving being used by Lila would worked marginally better if they took place before Oni-Chan (emphasis on "marginally," to be clear), this idea wouldn't be bad if any actual care for continuity was taken into account. But it isn't. And thus we get a lazy plot that exists more to shill Zoe as a character while also dodging her explicitly admitting she's LGBT+.

Also, on the topic of Zoe, I should mention that, in hindsight, I got really pissed off this episode and the fact that Marinette realized what Zoe was talking about slipped my mind. Although whether that's entirely a "me" thing or if it was influenced by how shoddy the writing was, I couldn't tell ya. Still, egg on my face!

And with that, onto the review! As always, warning for profanity on my part.

Episode 17: Adoration 

Okay, I just got started, and are seeing Zoe and Andre "bonding" over his past as a lover of movies and cinema... and he talks about how he wrote a script dedicated to his love for Audrey. I just... no. Right from the beginning, NO. If they had done this to show how Audrey used to be different, and had maybe grown worse over the years, MAYBE I could've tolerated this, but the show has been very consistent on Audrey having always been a piece of shit so... fuck that. We also learn that Andre used to have a different name that I'm not even going to PRETEND to try and spell, let alone pronounce, because the way he phrased changing it as being "in the name of love" is part of why this set-up of him doing it "for love" reeks of bullshit. 

Okay, so Zoe has a "secret crush," and that's the reason that Andre spelled out that he's a simp for Audrey without explaining what it is he "loves" about her. It's very telling in this show that it often either gives very bland and unoriginal reasons why someone is "in love" with someone else, or just doesn't give a reason at all. 

Like, Andre literally coming running at Audrey calling for a foot massage isn't funny. It just makes him look like the same kind of spineless parasite that enabled Chloe FOR FUCKING YEARS!! 

Okay, we have a dance about to be hosted... and they unintentionally called attention to just how small the cast is by explicitly making Marc and Zoe's class "the Eight Grade class" and Marinette's "The Ninth Grade class," which honestly just looks insanely awkward since how in the world is the school so empty that the only have one tiny class per grade!? The school looks huge!

Now we get a scene of Zoe being shown around Marinette's room before spotting Marinette's insanely creepy pull-down curtain covered in Adrien photos (and that "perfume commercial" comment from Guitar Villain makes a lot more sense now) with Marinette babbling in embarrassment, no surprise there. Okay, why the hell is Marinette babbling about kissing Adrien and babbling about planning things out despite the show having insisted she's "over that" already? Wait, don't tell me, "drama." Barf. 

Oh, NOW she remembers the dance! And NO, Andre is NOT ZOE'S STEPFATHER. That would imply that he married (or Audrey married) into his family. That is not the case. Audrey CHEATED ON ANDRE WHILE STILL MARRIED TO HIM. That is not a stepfather. God dammit!! 

Having Zoe pull "first name privileges" does not make it look like she has a stronger relationship with Andre, and his "real name" is an obnoxiously pretentious sounding mouthful. So yeah, no one has any clue what she's saying. 

Zoe, going "Chloe doesn't have that power anymore" is a blatant copout. It does not acknowledge ANYTHING about why she doesn't have a power she shouldn't have ever had to START WITH, and she doesn't need the ability to enforce rules on you to make your life a living nightmare. So shut the fuck up. 

Having Zoe apparently know a random employee of the Hotel and know about his personal life looks creepier than anything. It doesn't make her look more "down to Earth" or "relatable" because it comes out of fucking nowhere, was never once foreshadowed, and the idea she's somehow bonded enough with a building of random adults who have no reason to be loyal to or care about their boss's kid to know their personal lives makes no sense at all. 

Zoe, Chloe, it's NEITHER of your HOUSE, it's a fucking Hotel that Andre owns and lets you guys live in rent free, AND NEITHER OF YOU MAKE THE FUCKING RULES.

Now we get to the scene of Chloe smacking Mr. Cuddly to the floor... wow, they really aren't even TRYING to act as if they are bothering to acknowledge continuity. Seriously, Chloe loves that stuffed bear more than life itself, they have GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT!! Seriously, WHY THE HELL Is THIS the BEST THEY CAN DO!? WHEN AND HOW DID ZOE GROW A SPINE WHEN IT COMES TO CHLOE!? WHEN!?!? 

They are LITERALLY having Chloe act like a LITERAL FIVE YEAR OLD by going "I saw Marinette step on MY stairs, I KNOW I did!!" That is LITERALLY the logic a five-year-old would use. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING TAKE HER SERIOUSLY AS A VILLAIN IF THIS IS THE BEST SHE CAN DO!? 

AND WHY THE FUCK IS "We were in the middle of a computer update, so the cameras were off" THE REASON THEY HAD CHLOE'S ATTEMPT TO PROVE HERSELF RIGHT FAIL!? And for FUCKS SAKE, ANDRE IS STILL A FUCKING WUSS WHEN IT COMES TO DISCIPLINING HER!! 

And we get a scene of Audrey acting like an abusive bitch to both Chloe AND Zoe. "But Chloe isn't abused, she gets whatever she wants!!" We LITERALLY JUST SAW THAT AUDREY STILL CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO REMEMBER HER NAME!! THE BEST SHE COULD DO IS REMEMBER THAT ONE OF HER TWO DAUGHTERS IS NAMED ZOE, RIGHT BEFORE PULLING THE EXACT SAME "THE STAIRS BELONG TO ME!!" SHIT AS CHLOE!! CHLOE IS LITERALLY TRYING TO MIMIC AUDREY'S BEHAVIOR, WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO COMPREHEND!? 

And then she just walks up to Andre and demands a trio of credit cards because WHY THE FUCK NOT!? It is shit like THIS that makes me have ZERO FUCKING SYMPATHY for the spineless louse!! 

Zoe is literally just fucking STANDING THERE WITH MARINETTE. Despite being verbally threatened by Audrey with being sent back to New York (leaving all her friends behind) she doesn't respond in any way. 

The most she does is smugly point out to Chloe that she isn't allowed on the stairs either as determined by Audrey (who will probably stop caring and forget about the threat in the space of an hour since she gives that little of a shit about her own kids one way or another). 

And we get Chloe saying something incredibly bizarre and out of character. "I'll make you pay for every one of these steps!!" 

It makes absolutely NO FUCKING SENSE!!! 

And Zoe's just staring at her. Still not having responded in any way to Audrey treating Andre like shit this entire time.

And then we get Zoe going "it's all thanks to you Marinette, you're the one who helped me change!!" When. Fucking. WHEN!? WHEN DID SHE EVER HELP YOU CHANGE IN ANY WAY!? YOU BARELY HANG OUT, YOU DON'T SHARE A SINGLE FUCKING CLASS, AND YOU ARE BASICALLY A NOISE IN THE BACKGROUND NINETY PERCENT OF THE TIME!! THE MOST SHE DID WAS CONVINCE YOU TO STOP TRYING TO PLEASE CHLOE BY MIMICKING HER!!! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HER!!! 

Okay, NOW Zoe and Marinette get around to asking Andre's help on their dance thing. And for some fucking reason Andre keeps a portrait of himself in his Mayor's sash behind the front desk of the Hotel. Why!? 

And after proposing their idea to Andre, he starts going off on a weird fucking rant about filming. I GET IT, he's meant to be a movie buff, THIS IS STILL STUPID!!!! 

Okay, so all it takes to set-up a private party for a single school that will literally COVER a national monument, all it takes is Andre saying so as Mayor. All right then, that makes perfect sense and NOT COMPLETE BULLSHIT!!! 

Seriously, this is the STUPIDEST ABUSE OF POWER IN THE SERIES!!! 

Again, WHY IS ZOE SUPPOSED TO BE ON A FIRST NAME BASIS WITH ANDRE!? 

Also, Andre going "if Chloe comes sniffing around, we never had this conversation," instead of "I'll use my authority as mayor and her father to get her to settle down." YOU KNOW, DOING HIS JOB APPROPRIATELY!!!

Also, now we have yet another scene of the show trying to pretend Gabriel isn't an abusive piece of shit by having him superficially dote on his son by personally preparing meals that Adrien has wanted to try. What makes this utterly hollow being how he literally cares more about forcing Adrien to follow his little plan for how his life should go rather than accept who he WANTS to be with, of FUCKING COURSE!! 

And of course, Gabriel went demanding to his minion Lila for her to ruin things for him, because of course he can't do something in all his influence and power as a rich business man to ruin one lousy dance. Oh, and then we see Lila was apparently in Chloe's bathroom, with Chloe describing presumably Zoe as a "punching bag" while Sabrina files her nails (I'm FAIRLY CERTAIN that every time in the past that Chloe has looked after her appearance, she's done it herself, so this is just fucking pointless). THEY ARE NOT EVEN FUCKING TRYING!!! 

She basically just says that it's actually all Marinette's fault that Zoe is standing up to Chloe (despite the fact that literally no one has genuinely given a shit about Chloe's alleged "authority" in-universe among her age group SINCE SEASON FUCKING ONE!!). Again, NOT EVEN TRYING WHAT THE FUCK!? 

And now we get a brief scene of Marinette seeing Zoe's room, with Zoe trying to desperately hide a photo that we don't get to see. Wow, much shock. Much mystery. 

And then we see Sabrina has apparently sprouted a conscience because "what she's being asked goes against everything she stands for, because her father is a police officer." Sabrina... I am going to say this as calmly as possible... YOU HAVE BEEN HELPING CHLOE BREAK LAWS AND VIOLATE THE PRIVACY OF OTHERS SINCE THE FIRST FUCKING SEASON!!! 

Also, WHY THE FUCK DOES CHLOE THINK NO ONE WILL SUSPECT SABRINA OF WHATEVER THE HELL SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DOING!? SHE IS LITERALLY CHLOE'S ONLY KNOWN ACCOMPLICE AND HAS BEEN HER EAGER MINION SINCE DAY ONE!!!

This goes beyond just stupidity, this is CONTRIVANCE!!! 

I can't even get pissed off at them having Chloe deny that Sabrina's her friend and calling her her Underling, since Chloe caring about Sabrina in spite of how shitty she treats her has literally been a thing, I repeat, SINCE SEASON FUCKING ONE!! You can't even present this as being part of Chloe "getting worse" since this entire fucking SEASON has been hammering the "CHLOE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN EVIL BRAT" button since the beginning!! 

And then we get a scene of Chloe throwing a whistle of Sabrina's on the ground... when did she even GET a fucking whistle to start with!? 

But yup, it looks like the whistle is going to be targeted by an Akuma. 

And Lila apparently can sense Akumas or some shit since she perfectly counted down to Sabrina's Akuma bursting through the doors. And never once does Chloe seem to be worried that the Akuma formed from the person she just pissed off might try and hurt her, she cares more about her FUCKING PHONE. Yeah, FUCK THIS SHIT. 

...Okay, so Zoe's crush is someone in the 9th grade, and this means she won't "ever see them again." BECAUSE IT'S NOT AS IF PEOPLE CAN STAY IN CONTACT OUTSIDE OF FUCKING SCHOOL!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!! It's unimaginably stupid. Oh, and Akuma Sabrina is creeping up behind them, apparently planning on either stealing stuff or taking creepy photos, while Marinette rants and gushes about how amazing love is, yet does so in a way that just comes off as someone who "loves the idea of love" rather then someone who is IN LOVE, because she's just rambling a bunch of generic slogans and talking points about the amazingness of love that don't have any context or personal experience behind them.

Wow, they actually addressed the fact that a person can be in love with multiple people at the same time, or dating someone but in love with someone else, or just plain not being in love at all, and coming from Marinette! If they hadn't spent several episodes shitting on the idea that you can EVER move on or find love in someone else or hold multiple crushes at the same time, this would be sweet, but since they did do that, it comes off as FUCKING PRETENTIOUS!! 

Now we get Marinette shilling how great Zoe is now, and how much growth she's done off-screen, to Alya over a video conference. And never once does the idea that maybe Andre doesn't have the actual authority to let them use the Tower for a fucking party cross their minds. 

Marinette... WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT MATTER IF ZOE'S CRUSH WON'T BE GOING TO THE SAME SCHOOL AS HER NEXT YEAR!? If she's close to them, she'll be able to see them plenty of times OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL!! 

Oh, and Marinette referring to Zoe's crush as her "true love." I am fucking CRINGING. They throw around "true love" and "destiny" so much that it makes the BS damage control all the more blatant. 

And NOW we get Marinette thinking that "What if Zoe's IN LOVE WITH ADRIEN!?" Just... fuck that. Fuck this BULLSHIT of Marinette once again refusing to GROW THE FUCK UP about her relationship troubles!! WHO GIVES A SHIT IF ZOE HAS A CRUSH ON ADRIEN OR NOT!? MARINETTE, YOU ARE THE ONE DATING HIM!!! Wow, she literally couldn't go a single fucking second without bringing up Adrien after getting this bullshit into her head. 

She also, mid-rant, stated "he doesn't belong to me, well, he kinda does a little" and I'm just... sitting here, barely reining in my temper at just how fucking STUPID she sounds right now because WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS THIS BULLSHIT!?

We get a montage of Marinette gathering supplies, and Akuma Sabrina covertly following her the entire time SOMEHOW, despite the fact that Marinette was explicitly driving on her scooter through traffic and Akuma Sabrina's only powers are teleporting objects TO HERSELF and being invisible. HOW!? 

And is apparently also framing Marinette for stealing stuff, all in the name of ruining the party. 

This is literally just a lazy rehash of Lila's "fake Marinette having stolen answers to a test and pushing her down the stairs" plot. I say "lazy" because Marinette hasn't been shown to have ever been in ANY position to have taken anything, she just showed up a bunch of places and then LEFT, so HOW IN THE WORLD COULD SHE HAVE STOLEN THEM!? 

And it's kinda fucking rich them having Tom be one of the ones getting mad about Chloe accusing his daughter of theft when HE was one of the ones to basically sit back and let it happen ALL THE WAY BACK IN SEASON ONE. 

When Chloe says stuff like 'There will be no obstruction to MY justice!' while yanking Marinette's gym bag out of her hands and dumping its contents on the ground, it's really clear the writers aren't even bothering to give her a consistent voice and behavior any more. They are just shoving whatever anger-inducing buzzwords they can into her mouth. Also, I'm honestly surprised no one is accusing Chloe of planting stuff in Marinette's bag, since SHE IS LITERALLY THE EXACT TYPE OF PERSON WHO WOULD DO THAT!!! 

Oh, and it's Marinette herself who accuses Chloe of planting the stuff. Still surprised no one else is saying it since, AGAIN, Chloe has a TERRIBLE reputation and unlike Marinette, is a KNOWN THIEF, given she was literally caught red-handed having stolen from Marinette TWICE in SEASON ONE!!!

Again, WHY IN THE WORLD ARE PEOPLE JUST STANDING THERE AND LISTENING TO THE WORDS OF SOMEONE THEY KNOW THEY CANNOT TRUST AND WHO WILL SAY OR DO ANYTHING TO GET HER WAY!? WHY IS NO ONE QUESTIONING HOW IN THE WORLD CHLOE EVEN HAS ALL THIS FUCKING INFORMATION!? THIS IS FUCKING STUPID!! THEY KNOW FULL AND WELL BY NOW THAT CHLOE IS A MANIPULATIVE AND SPOILED LITTLE FUCKING BRAT!!! 

AGAIN, ONCE AGAIN!!! WHY THE FUCK IS ANYONE BELIEVING A WORD CHLOE IS FUCKING SAYING!? CHLOE IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY AT THIS POINT!! EVEN IGNORING THE HAWKMOTH BETRAYAL SHIT, SHE IS SOMEONE THAT LITERALLY EVERYONE FUCKING KNOWS CANNOT BE TRUSTED AND WHO DOES WHATEVER SHE WANTS WHENEVER SHE WANTS TO DO IT!! FUCK THIS NOISE!!! FUCK IT ALL TO FUCKING HELL!!!!!! 

And literally everyone, INCLUDING MARINETTE'S PARENTS, ARE BUYING IT HOOK LINE AND FUCKING SINKER!! Except for Zoe, the girl who does FUCK ALL FOR THE PLOT BUT IS ALSO OH SO IMPORTANT!!! WHO TAKES THE FUCKING BLAME FOR SOME GODDAMN FUCKING REASON!!! WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT!? THERE IS NO ENGAGEMENT TO THE PLOT!! THIS IS JUST SHOEHORNING IN ZOE INTO BEING IMPORTANT IN A COMPLETELY NONSENSICAL PLOT!!! 

I'm gonna be actively ignoring the Akuma Fight itself, I think, because I've reached the limits of my tolerance for bullshit, and just wait until the "confession" before I get into it. 

And now that we are at the rough timeframe of the confession... we get Marinette saying "I know you love Adrien" BITCH NO YOU DON'T!! YOU BLINDLY ASSUMED THAT BASED OFF OF LITERALLY NOTHING BUT YOUR OWN FANTASY-DERIVED IMAGINING OF HOW "PERFECT" ADRIEN IS AND YOUR INABILITY TO WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THE IDEA THAT PEOPLE CAN HAVE CRUSHES DIFFERENT FROM YOURS!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? 

...And it isn't even a confession. Not even NOW, when they have literally HAVE THE PERFECT FUCKING MOMENT, THEY CAN'T ACTUALLY HAVE ZOE SAY THE FUCKING WORDS!? AFTER JERKING EVERYONE'S CHAIN, THIS IS THE BEST THEY CAN FUCKING COME UP WITH!?

THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE MARINETTE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SHE'S THE ONE WHO ZOE IS CRUSHING ON!!! WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THIS!? 

She "knows" in that she goes "Ohhh" in a tone that could be implied to be realization, but they don't have her actually indicate that SHE is the one Zoe has a crush on in any deliberate way. She doesn't point to herself. She doesn't say "me!?" She doesn't do ANYTHING to show that she is the one who is being crushed on. "Oohh" is the best we fucking get. 

They are having the characters bend over backwards to avoid being "actually gay." Because heaven fucking forbid they ACKNOWLEDGE that Zoe has a crush on Marinette directly instead of trying to go for a "wink and a nudge" set-up. 

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon. They have her state "I am truly, very honored." And they then act as if Zoe has actually stated that she has a crush on Marinette instead of vaguely implying it with Marinette vaguely acknowledging. Because WHY THE FUCK NOT!? It's not as if Marinette hasn't been dancing around confessing to Adrien FOR FOUR FUCKING SEASONS!! AND STILL CANNOT EVEN KISS HIM!!! 

And then they have ZOE give MARINETTE advice to finally tell Adrien she loves him, and apparently Marinette is still a fucking hypocrite in being unable to even MENTION the guy.

OF FUCKING COURSE ZOE HAS HAD A CRUSH ON MARINETTE SINCE THE DAY THEY MET, IT'S NOT LIKE THEY BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER OR ANYTHING!!! AND APPARENTLY SHE'S MEANT TO BE SOME FUCKING LOVE MARTYR IN THAT SHE WILLFULLY REFUSED TO EVEN TRY TO PURSUE MARINETTE BECAUSE SHE WAS "MADLY IN LOVE WITH ADRIEN" CRY ME A FUCKING GODDAMN RIVER PEOPLE!!! 

At least Zoe POINTED OUT that Marinette's a hypocrite in not practicing what she preaches, NOT THAT THE WRITERS REALIZE THAT THIS APPLIES TO MORE THAN JUST FUCKING SHITTY ROMANCE!!! AND ZOE YOU HAVE NOT ACTUALLY TOLD MARINETTE THAT YOU LOVE HER AT ALL, SO YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN MARINETTE IN THAT REGARD!! Remember, MARINETTE STILL CAN'T VERBALLY TELL ADRIEN SHE'S IN LOVE WITH HIM PEOPLE!!! 

And when Marinette FINALLY FUCKING SAYS THE GODDAMN FUCKING WORDS, Adrien RIGHT ABOUT TO FUCKING RECIPROCATE, and DESPITE HAVING A STANDING ORDER TO NEVER LET ANYTHING STAND IN HIS WAY OF PURSUING LOVE, Gabe STILL KILLS THE FUCKING KISS!! THIS SHOW FUCKING BLUE-BALLED EVERYONE STILL SHIPPING THIS GODDAMN TOXIC TRASHFIRE LOVE SQUARE!!! GABE IS SUCH A TOXIC PIECE OF MONSTROUS SHIT!!!!

[all-the-cliches-lwa]

Learning Two Fly

Disclaimer: This fic is not in any way related to any fic named “Learning to Fly”. It is simply a title that I find funny and is appropriate given the nature of the spell involved. This is why I should never be allowed to name anything. Also, I intended to write this as a one-shot. It went way out of control, been a WIP for way too long, but I’m still going to call it a one-shot, thank you.

Summary: As another semester at Luna Nova comes to a close, and with summer vacation right around the corner, Akko comes crashing in with a new spell she wants to try: Gemina Freyre. Naturally, Akko manages to rope all her friends into it, and, with a race at the end of summer, everyone is split into pairs to get ready.

As fate, among other things, would have it, Akko and Diana wind up together.

Surely everything goes exactly as planned.  

Word Count: 42,069~ words

AO3 links:

Prologue

Part 1

Interlude

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Prologue:

Walking into her room that evening, Diana did her best to ignore how warm her face was growing as she felt the curious and amused stares coming from Hannah and Barbara across the room. She really should have expected them; she knew she looked ridiculous.

In her rush back, Diana had neither bothered trying to fix her very disheveled uniform nor taken any time to pick out the branches tangled in her hair. Had it not been summer break, she suspected that she would have garnered similar looks from her fellow students on her walk back to her dorm. Amanda, for one, would have never let her hear the end of it. 

Despite that, however, Diana’s actual appearance was the least of her worries, though the discomfort it caused was an entirely separate issue. 

The looks she could feel from her roommates weren’t helping. 

With a sigh, Diana looked up to the duo and narrowed her eyes at the smug grins on both of their faces. 

“Not. A. Word.”  

With that, Diana quickly retreated to her washroom, hoping that, once she was out, her friends would heed her implicit warning. 

She had a lot to think over tonight, and she would appreciate having a night’s reprieve from navigating through the teasing that had recently become a common occurrence in the supposed safety of her room. Her thoughts had been rather frenzied as of late; the last thing she needed was any more distractions.

 Please continue reading on AO3

[ughmyreality]

you should make a fic involving stephanie, just putting it out there

So, this fic might be ooc but I actually like how it turned out. This is somewhat more wholesome and cutesy vs the other fics I've written but Stephanie deserves it. Anyway, I present, "Oh Stefany, Stefanie, Stephany"

Stephanie knows she should be crying. After all funerals are meant to be sad, that is unless you were having a celebration of life. But in her case this couldn’t be any farther from the truth. The person in question was her mother but even knowing this would be the last time she’d see her didn’t change her attitude.

It was a rather small affair, with less than 20 people. Her mother was never one for friends. Stephanie was in no way in charge of setting up the funeral despite being the daughter of the deceased. It was up to the rest of the small family to take over, whether that be because they wanted to help ease the burden or because they thought that she was going to ruin it she doesn’t know.

Her hands grip down on the obituary, an ugly pastel purple. She looks down to read it and see what brilliant lies they wrote about her mother. Because heaven forbid that people write about how people were actually like. Not everyone lights up a room or would give someone the shirt off their back, especially not her mom.

In Loving Memory

-Gladys Foamwire-

Gladys was a sweet woman taken far too soon. She spent her last days alongside her daughter Stefany…

‘Stefany’?

They couldn’t even be bothered to spell her name correctly. Sure, the feeling stung, but what more could she expect. No one knows the real her, the real Stephanie. She’ll just have to learn to be ok with that.

“Hi, I’m Stephanie, here to sign the lease.”

A balding man grins at her. He opens the door wider and ushers her in.

“Of course, Of course! Follow me this way.”

After the death of her Mom, she had to do some soul searching. For so long she had been tied down to her mother that now that she was finally free she didn’t know what to do. But she’s made her decision now. She’s ready to start a new chapter in her life.

She was going to buy this rusty old building and turn it into something of her own. Redecorate it from the ground up and prove that she has what it takes to stand out from the crowd. It was going to be perfect, and even better yet, she’s sure that her Mom would be rolling over in her grave if she found out.

“Well, it’s great to see you! I have all the paperwork filled out already. Feel free to look it over and make sure everything is correct and then sign away!”

Stephanie’s eyes skim the paper. Date of birth, correct. Today’s date, correct. Name, corr-

Buyer: Stefanie

“Um… my name is Stephanie as in ‘S t e p h a n i e’, not with a f.”

“Oh, my apologies, Stephanie. I’ll have a new paper printed right away. Do you mind coming back a little bit later?”

She holds back the urge to sigh. Was it that hard to spell her name? But she shouldn’t care anyway. She won’t have to deal with this man for very much longer anyway.

“Sure, that’s fine.”

Moralton isn’t a place for the youth. There are very few things to do and even fewer for those non church going. That’s why every once in a while Stephanie ventures out of her comfort zone and leaves for the night. It’s how she ended up in this situation to begin with.

“Hey!”

The woman beside her practically yells in her ear. It was already a loud atmosphere, obviously in a club, but the girl's voice wasn’t helping matters.

She was short with reddish brown hair draped over her shoulder. They’d talked off and on throughout the night saying her name is Victoria but it was clear that she’d had more drinks than she could handle.

“I’m about to leave but here take this! I’ll see you later babe!”

The woman stubbles forward and shoves a napkin in her hands. A person who she could only assume was her friend waves at her apologetically. Apparently this was Victoria’s usual drunk behavior.

“Byeeee!”

The napkin was written on with plain black ink with a subtle mark of red lipstick. It reads ‘Call me Stephany, it’s your girl Vic xoxo’ with a hastily written phone number on the side.

She had spelled her name wrong. Typical. It’s no big deal. Besides she’d much rather have a true connection with someone rather than whatever this was. She’ll be ok, she always was.

“Do you think that getting a cross tattoo would be blasphemous?” Orel asks in his usual innocent way.

“Orel, you know that I don’t know about these things. Why do you want a tattoo anyway?”

The boy clasps his hands together “Well, some kid at school told me tha-”

“Orel, please don’t let what other people say dictate your life. You’re too short, shortie, to be worried about what other people think. What until you're a bit taller.”

“Fine, I guess you're right. Well, I’ve to get to church bef-. I almost forgot! We were talking about how we all need to be appreciative and giving in church the other week. How it’s important for us to let go of all our worldly possessions. So, I have a gift for you since I won’t be needing it anymore. I’ve become one with nature!”

He throws a little box up on the counter with a smile and takes a look at the clock.

“Sorry, but I’ve really got to get going, Bye!”

Orel runs out the door leaving Stephanie alone with only the box with her. The note on top of it says From Orel to Stephanie. She couldn’t help but laugh, at least someone spelled it right.

Stephanie used to think that no one cared to know the real her. But maybe she was wrong, she was just looking in all the wrong places.

She delicately peels off the paper and opens the box to see a shiny gold key. How strange. On further inspection she sees a keychain attached to it reading ‘Orel’s house key’. What had that boy gotten into this time. Had he been sleeping outside for the last week?

“OREL! Get back here you can’t give this to me!”