#I want Chloe’s suffering to be over but I don’t want to let her go.

[icterid-rubus]

😕

[corruptedcaps]

Letting Her Hair Down

“Sarah! You have to help me! I don’t have much time, she’ll take over again any minute. You have to find a way to destroy my ponytail. It’s the reason I’ve become a bully and a bitch and… and… ohhhh no I can feel her taking over again ahhhhhh…. Sarah? What do you want loser? I have places to be. God you’re such a tragic fashion case.”

Sarah looked at Chloe, the resident queen bee of high school and her former dorky friend, with confusion. One minute had been walking down the hall looking like the poster child for being an entitled princess, the next second she slipped and banged her head on the ground.

Sarah being the good person that she was rushed over to help her back up when Chloe started rambling about her ponytail being evil and controlling her. Had she just been pranked by Chloe with this insane story? Then again it did make some sort of sense. Before Chloe had had her bitch makeover she had been a kind and reserved girl, with an underdeveloped body but a good heart. But ever since she got back from her vacation sporting her new bougie and haughty look, with bolted on big tits and a piercing hot stare, she had been a terror to everyone, especially Sarah. Could it be all because of her ponytail? Sarah needed to find out but for now she had to play dumb.

“Oh sorry Chloe it was nothing.” Sarah said sheepishly. Chloe rolled her eyes and pushed Sarah out of the way and left.

As Chloe sauntered off, Sarah's mind raced with thoughts. She couldn't let her former friend suffer in this bizarre predicament. Determination filled her, and she made up her mind to investigate further. If there was any truth to Chloe's claims, she had to find a way to help her break free from the ponytail's grip.

Determined to find answers, Sarah delved into researching anything and everything about hair that could control someone. That’s when she came across the Hairasite.

According to the legend, hairasites were parasitic organisms that resembled strands of hair but possessed a malevolent consciousness. They were known to attach themselves to unsuspecting hosts, taking control of their minds and manipulating their behavior. Sarah's heart skipped a beat as she read accounts of women exhibiting striking similarities to Chloe's transformation.

She discovered that the hairasite's control over its host could be severed by severing its physical connection. The only solution was to cut off the strand of hair hosting the parasite and destroy it completely.

With her newfound knowledge, Sarah formulated a plan to free Chloe from the hairasite's grip. She knew she had to get Chloe alone, away from prying eyes, to execute her daring rescue mission. After careful consideration, she decided to trick Chloe with an offer she couldn't refuse—a coveted invitation to an exclusive fashion event.

Sarah knew Chloe's new vanity would be her downfall. She crafted a fake invitation to a fictitious cheerleader fashion showcase, one that would lure Chloe into a private dressing room on the far side of school where Sarah could safely carry out her plan. The invitation, complete with glamorous details and a promise of VIP treatment, was carefully slipped into Chloe's locker.

As Chloe entered the private dressing room, her eyes which had been full of anticipation soon turned sour as she saw nothing but an empty room. Then she heard the door behind her click as it was locked.

As Chloe turned around to see what was happening, Sarah pounced. With a surge of strength, Sarah lunged at Chloe, grabbing her by the shoulders and wrestling her to the ground. They grappled with each other, their struggle fueled by a mix of desperation and the raw determination of friendship.

“Oh I am going to enjoy getting revenge on you when I get out of here.” Chloe said with a bone chilling laugh as she fought back fiercely, getting the upper hand. Sarah could feel the hairasite's influence giving Chloe’s body strength. But Sarah refused to give up. With a final burst of energy, she managed to pin Chloe down and swiftly reached for a pair of scissors.

In one smooth motion, Sarah snipped the ponytail clean off Chloe's head, severing the hairasite's connection to its host. The air crackled with tension as the room fell into a stunned silence. Sarah watched in wonder as Chloe’s body started to revert back to normal. Her kind soft face emerging from the cruel sharp facade it had once been. Her too nearly slipping off her as her breasts deflated and her height shrank. Disheveled and panting, she stared at Sarah with wide eyes, realization dawning upon her.

Chloe's gratitude poured forth as she regained her senses, her voice trembling with emotion. "Sarah, thank you... thank you for saving me from that nightmare. I don't know what I would've become without you."

However, as Chloe expressed her heartfelt gratitude, a sinister voice slithered into Sarah's mind, intertwining with her thoughts. "Sarah, dear Sarah, I underestimated you," the hairasite hissed, its voice silky and persuasive. "Imagine the power you could possess, the beauty you could radiate if I had chosen you and not Chloe. Join me, embrace me, and together we will rule this world."

Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief as she looked down at her hand to see she was gripping the ponytail she had snipped off Chloe’s head. She watched it’s tendrils reach for her like a weak newborn. Chloe's voice became distant, muffled by the seductive promises echoing in her mind.

The hairasite's voice grew louder, insidious and persuasive. "Sarah, don't you want to be admired? Don't you want to be noticed and feared? You have the power within you. Just embrace me, and we will become unstoppable."

As Sarah grappled with her inner turmoil, she locked eyes with Chloe, desperately trying to maintain her connection to reality. Deep down, she knew she had to find a way to rid herself of the hairasite's influence, but it was becoming harder by the second to not succumb to its alluring promises.

Chloe noticed the change in Sarah's demeanor, her concern deepening. "Sarah, what's wrong? You feeling ok?"

Ignoring the hairasite's relentless persuasion, Sarah took a deep breath and locked eyes with Chloe. "I need to destroy this hairasite once and for all. I have to get to the teachers lounge." Without another word Sarah unlocked the door and ran as fast as she could to the boiler room.

As Sarah's heart pounded with determination, the hairasite's voice grew more desperate. "Sarah, don't you see? I can give you power, beauty, everything you've ever wanted. We can become an even bigger bitch than Chloe was. We can bully her just like she did to you."

Sarah knew she needed to end this fast as she was starting to get turned on by the thoughts the hairasite was putting in her mind. Images of her commanding a clique of beta bitches to do her bidding and lording it over Chloe was making her unbelievably wet.

Breathing heavily, Sarah burst through the door of the teachers lounge, thankfully empty. She saw her goal though, the disused and often forgot about fireplace. With a trembling hand, built a small pyre of sticks and lit a fire beneath and watched the flames dance around and consume the wood, hungry for more.

The hairasite's voice intensified, filled with urgency as it tried one last ditch effort. "You can be in control!" It said as Sarah was one swing away from destroying it forever.

Sarah's hand paused mid-swing, uncertainty etching across her face. She turned to face the hairasite, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You have 15 seconds, explain."

The hairasite seized this opportunity, its voice dripping with convincing charm. "Absolutely, Sarah. I took full control of Chloe because she was boring and dull and had no interest in being a bitch but you… you I can sense want it. You crave it. You want to possess unparalleled dominance over those who have ever underestimated you. I don’t need to control you if you’re lust for the same things I do. Just me on your head, and I'll grant you the power you desire."

Hesitation clung to Sarah's every fiber, but the allure of control tugged at her deepest desires. The longing to be noticed, respected, and feared intensified within her. Swallowing her doubts, she cautiously lifted the severed ponytail, gingerly placing it atop her head.

As the hairasite made contact with Sarah's scalp, a sharp jolt coursed through her body. She winced, feeling the hairasite burrowing deeper, intertwining itself with her being. A surge of power rippled through her veins, and she could feel her entire existence beginning to transform.

As the hairasite's influence surged through Sarah's veins, her transformation continued with astonishing speed and detail. Her nails, once short and plain, elongated into sharp, perfectly manicured talons. Each nail shimmered with a deep shade of crimson, perfectly complementing her newfound allure.

Her makeup shifted dramatically, reflecting the captivating charm the hairasite bestowed upon her. Her eyes were accentuated with smoky, seductive eyeshadow, emphasizing their piercing intensity. Thick, luscious lashes framed her gaze, fluttering with a hypnotic allure. Her cheeks radiated a soft rosy blush, enhancing her flawless, tan complexion.

Her skin took on a sun-kissed glow, a subtle tan that exuded the vibrant energy of a cheerleader on the field. It enhanced her already alluring features, lending an air of radiant confidence that demanded admiration.

Sarah's lips transformed into a pout that demanded attention. They became plump and sensuous, painted in a vibrant shade of pink, adding to her irresistible charm. Each word that escaped her now-glossed lips would drip with a confident magnetism, captivating those who dared to listen.

In addition, her breasts seemed to have defied gravity, becoming more ample and accentuated, drawing attention to her newfound confidence. Her figure, now curvaceous and alluring, would command attention from all who laid eyes upon her.

Sarah's demeanor shifted entirely. Once a kind and compassionate soul, she now exuded an aura of dominance and entitlement. Her voice carried a sharp edge, dripping with venomous superiority. Her posture adopted an air of confident dominance. Her eyes sparkled with an icy gaze that dared anyone to challenge her.

Sarah had become the embodiment of the hairasite's promises—a captivating, powerful force that would leave a trail of both admiration and fear in her wake. As she surveyed her transformed reflection in a nearby mirror, a wicked smile spread across her face.

As she twirled a lock of her glossy, transformed hair between her fingertips, Sarah couldn't help but revel in the newfound attention she would undoubtedly receive. She was now a force to be reckoned with, leaving a trail of admirers and envious gazes in her wake.

As Chloe cautiously entered the teachers lounge, her eyes widened in shock at the sight before her. Standing there, radiating confidence and exuding an aura of dominance, was the transformed Sarah. Her gaze turned icy, and a unnerving smile curled upon her lips as she locked eyes with Chloe.

"Well, well, well," Sarah sneered, her voice dripping with cruelty. "Look who decided to follow. Surprised to see the new me?"

Chloe stumbled backward, her voice trembling. "You let her go! It’s me you want, she doesn’t deserve this! Fight it Sarah, don't let this control you!"

A mocking laughter escaped Sarah's lips as she relished in Chloe's bewildered expression. "Oh, Chloe, I’m not being controlled by anyone or anything expect my long buried desires. It's time you realized that power and beauty is all I’ve ever wanted. I've shed my former self, and I won't be held back by weak friendships anymore."

Chloe's eyes welled up with tears, hurt and confusion etched across her face. "No! You’re lying! I don’t believe you! Give me my friend back!"

Sarah's expression hardened, devoid of empathy. “Friend? That's amusing. I have no use for the weak and pitiful. And just to prove it’s me, how about I let my hair down?”

Sarah reached up to the ponytail tie and pulled it. Her blonde hair cascaded down and flowed hypnotically with every sway. She ran her perfectly manicured fingers through her locks, feeling a pleasurable tingle.

“See? There is no hairasite anymore. No Sarah. We are one cruel, manipulative and sexy bitch called Sasha and you’re just a loser nobody who could of had it all but now you’re just in my way.”

With those cutting words, Sasha pushed past Chloe, leaving her standing there, shattered and betrayed. The transformed Sasha reveled in her newfound power, savoring the control she now held over Chloe's emotions, and soon the rest of the school.

[melt-into-the-night]

I recently replayed the original game leading up to Double Exposure. I ship Pricefield, and even I didn't think the relationship was going to last. When they were 18, Chloe;

Continually got mad at Max for leaving her behind, despite Max telling her it wasn't her choice

Got mad at her for wanting to talk to her suicidal friend on the phone

Gets angry if you don't side with her on every argument with David, even in the moments where David was right

Gets angry if you don't steal from the handicapped fund

Gets pissed off when if Max calls her out on her selfish behavior

Continually ignores Max when Max tries to say they're overusing the time powers

Forces Max to expose her assault by Jefferson in order to get her to take her warnings seriously during her multi-time jump to before the party in polarized

Openly admits she refuses to accept responsibility for her actions, and that it has to be someone else's fault

Honestly, the relationship was not going to last even IF everyone, including Chloe, survived Arcadia Bay. Chloe has too much baggage she has to work through. And Max, who is both neurodivergent and now suffering from PTSD, has her own issues she needs to work through.

I'm the same age as Max and Chloe. At 18, I used to have a relationship similar to theirs where I was the Max. We both thought that if we got away from it all, we'd be fine. That we would never break apart. I thought if we could just survive the worst and travel, we'd get through it. That we'd last forever.

I'm the same age as Max is. I'm no longer with my Chloe. Looking back, all the things I looked past or tried to rationalize were toxic and wearing me down. I did everything for her and it was never enough. I now realize I didn't like who I was when I was with her. The only difference between me and Max is that I'm the one that chose to end it.

I'm not mad that they broke up. I can understand why others might be, but honestly? I'm kind of relieved. Max and Chloe need to figure themselves out before they enter any sort of relationship.

I’m not mad or surprised they broke up either, but I do think Chloe definitely experienced growth by the end of the first game too. She was willing to die to save the town after all.

That said, to me it makes sense that in the bae route, Max choosing to let all of her friends die, including Chloe’s mom would be a heavy burden for her to carry, no matter how much she loves Chloe. This girl did everything she could to save the town and then realized the only way she could was to sacrifice her best friend.

I have theories... Gonna touch on some major spoilers up ahead so for those waiting for the regular release date…don’t read past this point, unless you are a Pricefield fan looking for some hope and perhaps a reason to continue the game and wanting to keep an open mind just in case. Then come on in.

One theory I have is that Chloe probably realized how much it was weighing on her still years later and Chloe realized that in order for Max to make peace with her past, she had to let her go, and breaking up with her in kind of a harsh way was Chloe’s way of making it easier for Max to not fight it.

And because the game is definitely hyper focused on how much it’s weighing on her even to this day I do think ultimately the goal is to have her get to a place in her life where she can be at peace with her choice, regardless of what choice she had made. And depending on how you play this game I do think there will be an ending where they find their way back to each other.

And well, if not then at least so far we seem to be in a game tackling the multi-verse theory where characters appear to be somehow crossing over into different timelines and doing/saying things they normally wouldn’t do or say, so right now, nothing is final. Not even Max and Chloe’s current relationship status. Arguably there is a universe where they are still together, and we just haven’t seen it…yet

[celestiall0tus]

Tales of Bloody Bug and Chat Noir - Chapter 1 - Origins Pt 1

Next

            Alix ran downstairs to the kitchen. She bounded towards the table where she sat and inhaled her food.

            “Woah, slow down, kiddo. What’s the rush?” Alim asked.

            “C’mon, Dad, it’s the first day of school. Can’t be late for it.”

            “This is a switch. You normally hate the first day. My, I remember all the times I had to drag you out of bed. Ever the fighter you are,” Alim reminisced.

            “Yeah, well, it’s the last year of that crummy school before I can finally pursue a school with actual engineering classes. I’ll be people just like me and not, well, the people I suffer already.”

            “Alix, be nice.”

            “Why? They’re all freaks! There’s Marinette the clumsy ditz, Nathaniel whose nose is shoved in a sketchbook as he steals glances at the ditz, Ivan and Mylene just exist, Kim is so annoying with all his pranks, Juleka creeps me out a little, Rose is completely nauseating with all her talk of romance, and don’t even get me started on Chloe and her little pet.”

            “Yes, about that. Try not to agitate her this year.”

            “Me, agitate her? Please. That little brat has it coming every time. Besides, if I don’t stand up for myself, she’d walk all over me like she does with ditzy Marinette. The others too, but Marinette is Chloe’s favorite to bully.”

            “Yes, well, please avoid any confrontations. I know you are very bold and will rise to any challenge, but please don’t fuel the fire this year. It took a lot of convincing on my part with the Mayor, Chloe’s father may I remind you, to not intimidate the principal in expelling you.”

            Alix snorted and rolled her eyes. “Spineless, the lot of them.”

            Alim grimaced. “Alix, sweetie, maybe it’s time to consider toning it down a bit.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Well, I just can’t help but notice that you often have issues with getting along with people and would rather jump to harsh judgements of people before getting to know them. Maybe this year you can try to not do that, perhaps?”

            “Why?”

            “I just don’t want to see you alone during these years of your life. They are far from the best years you’ll have, but they are still made more enjoyable with friends.”

            “Oh yeah? Then where are all your friends?”

            Alim chuckled nervously. “Well, you see, it’s a bit different. I’m always so busy and while I don’t have friends per say, I do have business associates and other such acquaintances.”

            Alix rolled her eyes. “Right. Anyway, I gotta go. I’ll stay out of Chloe’s way, but if she comes at me, I’m not backing down.”

            “Well, let’s just hope that the mayor spoke with her too and she’ll listen. But don’t jump to violence immediately, please. Try walking away first?”

            “I’ll give it a try.”

            “Thank you. Oh, would you like a ride to school?”

            “Nah, I’m good. Thanks though.”

            Alix got up and gave Alim a kiss on the cheek before she headed out. She walked her usual route to school. She stopped at a cross walk with the other busy passersby when she saw an elderly man crossing the street. She gasped as she heard the beeping of a car horn. She dashed out and pulled the man to the other side before the car hit him.

            Alix ran forward in the direction the car went. “Fuck you, asshole! Pedestrians have the right of way!”

            “Why, thank you, young lady,” the man said.

            “Huh? Oh, no problem. But, hey, be careful, gramps. These crazy drivers stop for no one.”

            “I will. Thank you again.”

            Alix smiled and ran off. She hurried to school as the first bell rang. She bounded up the stairs to the classroom. She took her seat as Marinette went around the room, passing out fresh macaroons.

            “Hey, Alix. Ready for a new year?” Marinette asked with a big, cheery smile.

            Alix’s eye twitched as she forced a smile. “You bet.”

            “Me too! Oh! Before I forget, take a macaroon. Fresh from my parents’ bakery.”

            Alix took one before Marinette moved on. She glanced around the room to see the same faces as last year except for one new face. A girl with brown ombre hair who sat in the very front row with Marinette. She raised a brow and looked over where Marinette usually sat to see Chloe and Sabrina sitting there. She wondered why the changeup, but otherwise ignored it.

            Alix’s attention shifted to Miss Bustier as class and the year finally began.

~~

            Adrien ran down the sidewalks with the school in sight. Hope flared in him as his feet touched the steps. He headed up them as he heard a car skid to a stop. He paused and looked to see Nathalie and his bodyguard, Gorilla, emerge from the car.

            “Adrien, please reconsider this. You know what your father wants,” Nathalie said.

            “But this is what I want, Nathalie. Doesn’t that matter too?”

            “Adrien,” Nathalie started.

            A pained groan stole Adrien’s attention. He glanced towards it to see an old man on the ground, unable to get his cane. He ran down the steps, helped the old man up, and handed the man his cane.

            “Thank you, young man.”

            Adrien smiled. “It’s no problem.”

            Adrien turned to head into the school, but found his path blocked by Nathalie and Gorilla.

            ���Please. I just want to go to school and be with people my age.”

            Nathalie shook her head and motioned to the car. Adrien sighed and left with them.

~~

            The bell rang to signal the end of the class hour. Alix leapt to her feet and dashed for the door to head to gym class. She paused when she heard Ivan yell at Kim. She glanced back at the guys but rolled her eyes and kept moving. Kim was likely up to his tricks again and Ivan fell for it as always.

            Alix headed to the first floor as Ivan stormed out of the classroom and for the principal’s office. She watched for a moment when he barged in but was sent out. She snorted in amusement but frowned when she saw an odd black butterfly. She tilted her head, then grinned. She took out her phone to get a picture to show Alim. She snapped the photo as Mr. D’Argencourt yelled at her.

            “Miss Kubdel! No phones out on school grounds.”

            “Yeah, but there was this-,” Alix started.

            “No excuses. To the principal’s office, now.”

            Alix growled, stuffed her phone into her pocket, and headed up. She put one foot on the stairs when there was a roar. The ground shook as a rock golem stepped out from the principal’s office. Mr. Damocles, the principal, tripped and crawled to the railing.

            “Students, run!”

            “Kim!” the golem yelled.

            Alix gasped. The monster sounded like Ivan. Was it Ivan? What happened to him? Was this even real?

            The golem jumped down and caused the ground to shake violently. Alix caught herself on the railing before she ran out of the school with the other students. She took one glance back before she headed for home.

~~

            Adrien stared off at the wall while Nathalie asked him history questions. He had been so close to being in school and with people his age. He could have finally been free of this isolation if he didn’t stop to help that man. Perhaps he should have ignored the man and went inside. Maybe then he wouldn’t be stuck here.

            “Nathalie, that’s enough,” Gabriel said.

            Adrien flinched hearing his father’s voice. He looked over at Gabriel’s glower.

            “Adrien, I’m disappointed that you would sneak out when I’ve made it clear you are to never leave the house unless I have given my authorization. There is nothing out there that you could need. Everything you need is within these walls.”

            “But, Father, I want to be with others my age. I want to go to school and make friends. I want to live my life.”

            “Adrien, you are not like those commoners. You are amongst the elite. It’s bad enough the mayor allows his daughter go to such lowly schools, however I will not make those mistakes with you. You will be given the best education and everything else that our wealth and status has to offer. What more could you want?”

            “Friends.”

            “You have Chloe. Is that not enough?”

            Adrien opened his mouth but closed it when he heard screams outside. He glanced out the window, but his view was blocked by Gabriel.

            “Go to your room, Adrien. Now. I want you to think on everything I’ve said.”

            Adrien ran from the room up to his bedroom. He threw himself onto his bed before he tore it apart in a fit. He stopped when he heard a loud roar. He ran to his windows but didn’t see anything. He jumped onto his couch and turned on his TV to the news. His eyes widened seeing a stone golem terrorizing Paris as it chased a guy his age.

            Adrien covered his mouth. He looked down, away from the broadcast, and saw a small black and red hexagonal box on his coffee table. He picked it up and opened it. A bright light flashed and orbited around him. It stopped above the box and took the form of a small black creature with a tiny body, large head, cat ears and tail, and piercing green eyes.

            “Woah! What are you? Are you a genie?”

            “No way, but I did meet him once. Sure, he grants wishes, but what’s the big deal anyway?”

            Adrien raised his brow as the creature flew around his room and admired everything while it bit down on everything. He tried to get its attention, but it ignored him. He huffed, climbed up on the rock wall, and dove down as he caught the creature.

            “What are you?” Adrien asked.

            “I’m a kwami. I grant powers. Yours is that of destruction. Got it?”

            Adrien shook his head.

            “Wonderful, now, got any food? I’m starving.”

            Adrien sat up. “This is a prank, right? My father is just messing with me.”

            “Yeah, no. Your father isn’t and he must never know about me. No one can if you’re to be a hero.”

            Adrien released the creature. “A hero? What good is a hero that’s stuck in his own house?”

            “No good, but you can change that. If you’re willing that is.”

            Adrien looked back at the box that held a silver ring. He nodded and slipped it on.

            “Cataclysm is to use your powers. Plagg, claws out is to transform.”

            Adrien grinned and struck a pose. “Plagg, claws out!”

            “Wait! I hadn’t finished explaining-!” Plagg yelled as he was sucked into the ring.

            Adrien beamed as his clothes transformed into a black full body suit with cat ears, a tail, and a superhero mask. He looked down at himself.

            “So cool!”

            Adrien ran to his window, opened it, and headed out in search of the monster.

~~

            Alix burst into her home and turned on the news. She watched the broadcast of the monster rampaging through Paris as it chased Kim. She had no doubts that it was Ivan at this point with its relentless pursuit and voice. That still left the question of how Ivan became such a monster.

            Alix turned off the TV and headed up to her room. She grabbed her journal and sat at her desk. She reached for a pen when she saw a small black and red hexagonal box. She tilted her head as she opened it. A red orb shot out and flew around her. It stopped over the box and took the shape of a red kwami with three black spots on its head.

            “Uh, what is this? What are you?” Alix asked.

            “I am Tikki, kwami of creation.”

            “What’s a kwami? Was it something like you that turned Ivan into whatever that golem creature thing is?”

            “Not in the way you may be thinking. He was transformed by another holder, someone that also has a kwami.”

            “Woah, you mean like a supervillain?”

            “Something along those lines, yes.”

            “And does this mean I get to be a superhero with you?”

            “Yes.”

            Alix whooped and hollered. “This is awesome! It’s just like my wildest dreams. What do I do? What can I do?”

            “With me, you will wield the power of creation. Your power, Lucky Charm, allows you to create one item per transformation. Once you use this, you will have five minutes before you transform back, so use it cautiously.”

            Alix’s eyes widened as they sparkled. Her mind raced with the opportunity to create her designs she’s only brought to life through sketches and vivid daydreams.

            “Now, this is important. You must find the object that the Akuma is hiding in. It’ll be a little black butterfly.”

            “Oh! You mean like this one?”

            Alix showed Tikki her photo from earlier.

            “Yeah! That’s exactly it.”

            “Got it. So, what do I do with it?”

            “You will catch it in your yo-yo. It’s a magical yo-yo that can purify the Akumas and your mode of transportation. You just need to swipe up along the middle and it’ll open. Once you purify the Akuma, you can use the object you created with Lucky Charm by throwing it up while saying ‘Miraculous.’ Ladybugs will then fix all the damage the monster does.”

            “Got it. Alright, I’m ready.”

            “Excellent. Put on the earrings and say, ‘Tikki, spots on.’”

            Alix took the earrings from the box and put them on. “Tikki, spots on!”

            Tikki disappeared into the earrings. Alix grinned as her clothes transformed into a black full bodysuit with red with black spots and black boots, long gloves, leotard, and a strip along her legs with ladybug emblems on each of them. Her reddish pink hair turned red and spiked out as a red and black spotted hero mask covered her face and her eyes turned red.

            Alix let out a breath as she looked herself over. She eyed the yo-yo at her hip and grabbed it. She opened her window and slipped out. She leapt up to the nearby buildings to the roofs. She scanned the area as she absentmindedly twirled her yo-yo. She grinned as she eyed the Notre Dame Cathedral. She chucked her yo-yo in the direction, and it latched onto the building.

            Alix took a step back and braced herself. She tugged on the string and was sent flying towards the Cathedral. She gasped as she flailed about before she got her bearings. She landed against the wall of the Cathedral. She tugged on the string again to release it, but she shot up. She yelped and flicked her wrist. The yo-yo released and she plummeted. She turned to land on her feet when a boy in a cat hero costume collided with her. He yowled as they slammed into the ground.

            Alix untangled herself from Adrien and glowered. “Watch where you’re going, fleabag. I would have totally nailed that landing if you hadn’t got in the way.”

            Adrien smirked. “I happened to be doing just that. Maybe you should watch where you’re falling and stay out of my way.”

            Alix snorted. “Alright, I’ll give you that one, fleabag. What are you doing out here anyway? Shouldn’t people be hiding from this monster?”

            “I could ask you the same of you, little bug.”

            “Don’t call me little, fleabag.”

            “Yeah, it doesn’t feel right. Perhaps, fun-sized bug? No. Oh, how about mini bug? Sounds cute, doesn’t it?”

            Alix’s eye twitched. She reached up and grabbed the bell of Adrien’s suit. She pulled him close, so they were eye-to-eye. “The name is Bloody Bug, fleabag. Call me mini bug again and I’ll send you flying into the Seine.”

            “Well, pleasure to meet you. You can call me Chat Noir… Mini Bug.”

            Bloody Bug snarled. She grabbed Chat Noir and threw him in the direction of the Seine. She turned and ran in the opposite direction when she saw a pillar of dust shoot towards the sky. She changed direction and headed that way until she found the monster. She grimaced seeing that he had finally caught Kim and was several sizes bigger than he was in the school.

            “Hey! Put the idiot down!” Bloody Bug yelled.

            “Y-yeah! Do what the bug said, Ivan,” Kim added.

            “The name is Stoneheart!” the monster yelled.

            “Fine, Stoneheart, whatever. Put the idiot down!”

            Stoneheart roared. He raised his clenched fist about to bring it down when Chat Noir joined Bloody Bug.

            “You don’t smell like wet cat, fleabag.”

            “Oh, Mini Bug, you should know cats are amazing at avoiding unwanted baths.”

            Bloody Bug’s eye twitched. “Wonderful, now stay out of my way.”

            “I got this. My power is that of destruction. I’ll turn this boulder into rubble.”

            Stoneheart roared again and brought his fist down on them. Bloody Bug grabbed Chat Noir and leapt out of the way. She turned as she raised him over her head and threw him at Stoneheart. He yowled as he collided with Stoneheart’s face. Stoneheart tried to swipe at him, but she lassoed Stoneheart in her yo-yo string, restraining his free arm.

            Bloody Bug grunted as she struggled against Stoneheart. “Let’s see if this works. Lucky Charm!”

            Ladybugs swirled around the yo-yo as a ring of chains were created. It hovered in the air for a moment before it fell to the ground at Stoneheart’s feet.

            “Wonderful. You make what I want, but don’t go where I want. Lovely. Fleabag, do something!”

            “I’m a little busy!” Chat Noir yelled as he leapt around Stoneheart.

            Stoneheart snarled and released Kim along with a purple rock. Bloody Bug released Stoneheart and dove for Kim, catching him and the rock. Kim took off as she turned, lassoed Chat Noir, and pulled him to her.

            “Well, well, we meet again, Mini Bug.”

            Bloody Bug sneered as she held up the rock. “Shove it and destroy this, fleabag.”

            Chat Noir raised a brow, then shrugged. “Cataclysm!”

            Dark energy emitted from Chat Noir’s ring. Bloody Bug watched the rock crumble to pieces at his touch, releasing the Akuma within. She smiled and swiped up on her yo-yo. The middle parted to reveal a glowing white void within. She caught the Akuma and the yo-yo closed. She waited a moment before she messed with it to get the Akuma out. She hit the middle and it opened again, releasing a white butterfly.

            Bloody Bug smiled. “Later, butterfly.”

            Bloody Bug looked to Stoneheart as he reverted to Ivan. She sighed and approached him. She grabbed her charm and knelt beside him.

            “Hey. Are you ok?” Bloody Bug asked.

            “Uh, where am I? What happened?”

            “What’s the last thing you remember?”

            “I… I was going into the principal’s office, then there was this voice that offered me power to get revenge on those that have wronged me. I… I think I accepted.”

            “Well, you kinda did. So, why did you?” Chat Noir interjected.

            “Does it matter? Look, just don’t do it again,” Bloody Bug remarked.

            Bloody Bug threw the charm up as she yelled “Miraculous.” It dissipated into a swarm of ladybugs that repaired the damage done by Stoneheart. She turned as the ladybugs turned the crumbled rock into crumbled up paper. She took it, read it, and gagged. She shoved the paper into Chat Noir.

            “If you want to help the man out, be my guest, but I’m done. Bug out.”

            Bloody Bug swung out. Chat Noir tilted his head and read the paper. One ear pinned back in confusion as he read Ivan getting mocked for not being able to tell Mylene he likes her.

            “So, you have a crush on someone? And you can’t tell her?”

            Ivan sneered, then sighed. “I just can’t do it. I get nervous and chicken out.”

            “Well, what if you find a different way to express it? I mean, there’s making something special, letters, poems, all that wonderful cheesy stuff.”

            Ivan hummed. “I could… write her a song?”

            Chat Noir beamed. “Oh, a song would be amazing! She’d be sure to swoon. I mean, who wouldn’t want a song written for them?”

            Ivan smiled. He stood and held out his fist. Chat Noir tilted his head and looked at it.

            “Uh, what is this?”

            “A fist bump. Make a fist and we bump fists.”

            One of Chat Noir’s ears pinned back in confusion. He balled a hand into a fist and bumped it against Ivan’s. His ears shot up and turned forward. The small gesture spread a silly grin on his face and filled himself with joy.

            “Wish me luck, uh, cat boy.”

            “Break a leg!”

            Chat Noir watched Ivan leave when his ring beeped. He looked down to see a couple pads remaining in the pawprint. He panicked, not sure what it meant, but hurried home all the same.

[massivedrickhead]

i'd love to see number 6 or number 41! been loving these prompts recently ❤️

Hi :) Apologies that this took so long, my mental health took a dip into the toilet. It's not great atm but it is a little better.

I've already done 41, so here is number 6

6. “Let me be a mom for a second and tuck you in.”

Prompt taken from here

Read on AO3

-

Chloe was pulled from her spot on the sofa one afternoon by the sound of coughing coming from the kitchen. 

She thought she was the only one in the house, her afternoon lecture having been cancelled, so she was surprised when she saw Beca leaning against the kitchen counter. She was pouring a sachet of powder into a mug while she waited for water to boil, and she kept coughing into her shoulder. 

“That sounds bad,” Chloe said, trying not to laugh when Beca jumped. 

“Jesus,” Beca said, her hand shooting up to her chest. “Why are you home?” She sounded rough and congested, and she looked like she hadn’t slept. 

“Lecture got cancelled,” Chloe said. “I guess I don’t need to ask why you’re home.”

“The studio sent me home,” Beca said. “They think I’m sick.”

“I wonder why,” Chloe said, trying hard not to roll her eyes. “Why don’t you go up to bed, I can bring this up when it’s done.”

Beca shook her head. “I’m not going to bed, I’ve got too much stuff to do,” she said. 

Chloe sighed but knew there was no point in arguing when Beca was like this. She was stubborn to a fault sometimes, especially when she was sick. 

She knew it came from her childhood. From the years of casual neglect she’d suffered at the hands of both parents. She was used to taking care of herself, and the thought of asking for help wouldn’t have even occurred to her. 

Even if Chloe understood why she was like this, it didn’t mean it didn’t infuriate her sometimes. 

She picked up the box of sachets and read through the instructions, just to stop herself from calling Beca an idiot. 

“Making sure I’m doing it right?” Beca asked, a hint of a smirk in her voice. 

“Something like that,” Chloe said. “I suppose there’s no point telling you that you should be resting right now, not working?”

“A correct assumption,” Beca said, coughing again. She poured the water into her mug and stirred. “The Worlds are coming up fast and our set still needs a lot of work.”

Chloe noticed the colour of the packet she used and looked back at the box, frowning. 

“Bec, did you read this before you made that?” She asked

It was Beca’s turn to roll her eyes, though Chloe didn’t notice and spoke as if there’d been no response. 

“I think you used-”

“-Chloe, I’m perfectly capable of pouring hot water over some powder,” she said, cutting Chloe off. “I know you want to help, but you really don’t need to.”

Chloe looked again at the discarded packet on the counter. Looked at the tiny z’s and stars that dotted the purple background. She looked back in the box where the orange packets still sat, each one with little sunshine symbols printed on. 

Chloe smiled. 

“Okay,” she said. She put the box back on the counter. “If you don’t want my help, I can take a hint. I’ll let you get on with your work.”

Beca eyed her suspiciously and took a sip of her drink, wincing when it burnt her tongue. 

“Drink all that while it’s still hot,” Chloe said. 

Again, Beca rolled her eyes. “I know,” she said, leaving the kitchen in order to head up to her room. “I did read the box.”

“I’m sure you did,” Chloe replied, throwing away the empty sachet and putting the box back in the cabinet. “If you need anything, text me.” 

Chloe did feel a little bit bad, but she also wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity for Beca to be able to get some actual rest. Yes, she could have just outright told her, but Beca had insisted she didn’t need help, and Chloe was perfectly happy to comply with that request.

She waited about thirty minutes before she knocked on Beca’s bedroom door. 

There was a grumble of a response, and Chloe pushed the door open to see Beca sitting at her desk, head resting on her folded arms. 

“I just wanted to check how you were feeling,” Chloe said. 

“M’sleepy,” Beca replied. “I can’t get anything done.”

Chloe gave a little hum of sympathy and brushed some of the hair out of Beca’s face. “Do you think this is because you used a nighttime sachet instead of a daytime one?”

Beca rubbed at her eyes, confusion pulling her brows together. “No I didn’t,” she said, sitting up. 

“No, you’re probably right. The purple packets full of moons and stars and z’s were definitely the non-drowsy kind,” Chloe said. 

“Oh my god, Chloe, why didn’t you stop me?” Beca groaned. 

“I tried,” Chloe said. “You were pretty insistent that you knew how to pour water onto some powder.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Beca said, rubbing her eyes again in frustration. “I’ve got so much to do.”

“And you’ll have time to do it later,” Chloe said, her voice moving from amused to stern. “But right now you need to listen to your body and rest.”

“My body only wants to rest because you let me drug myself,” Beca muttered, trying to focus on her laptop and not on the fact that her eyes kept threatening to close. 

“Your body wants to rest because you’re sick,” Chloe replied. “You can sit there and try and fight this all you want, but the longer you ignore what your body needs, the longer you’ll be sick.”

Beca knew she was fighting a losing battle, so she shut the lid of her laptop. “I’m still mad at you,” she said, accepting Chloe’s hand and letting herself get pulled out of the chair. 

“I know you are,” Chloe said. “Now let me be a mom for a second and tuck you in.”

Beca let out a scoff as she climbed into bed. “I don’t think my Mom ever tucked me in.”

Chloe felt herself soften, and when she spoke again the sternness was gone from her voice. “I know you always had to look after yourself,” she said, pulling the blankets over Beca. “But you don’t have to do that anymore. You have a family here that loves and cares about you. You’re allowed to ask for help. You’re allowed to show weakness.”

Beca was already asleep by the time Chloe finished talking, but she hoped at least some of it had filtered through. Chloe pressed a kiss against her forehead and left the room, returning a few minutes later with a bottle of water, some Gatorade, and a box of tissues that she left on the nightstand. 

She made a quick trip to the store to pick up some more medicine and other supplies, and Beca was still fast asleep when she got back. 

Chloe took a seat at Beca’s desk and carried on reading a book she needed to finish for class.

It was a few hours later when Beca spoke again.

“Have you been there the whole time, weirdo?” She asked, sounding, if possible, worse than before.

Chloe looked up from her book. “I had to make sure you weren’t faking it in order to get me to leave so you could carry on working.” She put her book down on the desk and went to sit on the edge of Beca’s bed. She placed the back of her hand on her forehead. “You have a fever,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

“Shitty,” Beca mumbled, her eyes closing again at the contact. “This is because I gave into it. If I’d just worked through it, I’d be fine.”

“I don’t think that’s quite how it works,” Chloe said.

Beca sat up and started coughing again. Chloe handed her the bottle of water and rubbed a hand up and down her back as she drank.

“Thanks,” Beca said, putting the half-empty bottle back on her nightstand. “God, I feel like crap.”

“Do you think you can stomach eating anything?” Chloe asked. 

Beca cringed and shook her head. “Can I take some more of that stuff?”

“I don’t think so,” Chloe said, checking the time on her phone. “I think you have to wait four hours between doses.”

“You can’t just bend the rules for me?”

“I’m not letting you OD on cold medicine if that’s what you’re asking,” Chloe said. “I can make you some tea with honey and lemon though, that should help.”

Beca shook her head slightly and moved the blankets so she could get up. “I can make it,” she said before she immediately started shivering. 

“Beca Mitchell,” Chloe said, her voice stern again. 

“Sorry,” Beca said, letting Chloe pull the blankets back over her. “I’m just not used to this.”

Beca seemed like she wanted to say more, so Chloe waited until she found the words. 

“I remember getting sick as a kid,” she said. “Waking up in the middle of the night with a headache and a cough. I went to find my Mom and tell her, and she just… She looked up from her computer like she’d forgotten I was even in the house. She told me to go back to bed and she’d come and see me once she was done with her email. I sat there for hours waiting. She never came. She forgot as soon as I left her sight.”

Chloe swallowed the lump in her throat, and she didn’t speak again in case her voice wobbled. 

“I guess I just don’t get why you would want to help me when my own parents wouldn’t,” Beca said, her eyes fixed on the pattern of her bedding so she didn’t have to look at Chloe. 

“Bec, look at me,” Chloe said, and she waited for eye contact before she spoke again. “I care about you. That’s all there is to it. Asking me not to help the people I care about would be like asking me to walk on the ceiling. I just couldn’t do it.”

Beca sniffed, nodded, and looked away again. “I, um, I care about you too. I don’t always show it, but I do.”

“I know,” Chloe said. “So, are you going to let me look after you until you’re feeling better?”

Beca nodded again, and Chloe smiled. 

“I’ll go make that tea,” she said. She kissed Beca on the forehead before she pulled a face. “Gross, you’re all sweaty.”

“Jerk,” Beca said, letting out a surprised laugh that turned into a cough. 

Chloe rubbed her hand on Beca’s back again as she waited for it to subside. 

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” Beca said. 

Chloe got up off the bed and headed for the door, but Beca’s voice stopped her before she left. 

“Chlo’?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Chloe’s smile grew. “Anytime, Bec.”

[tiny-maus-boots]

Down South pt 2

Chloe

"Quick get him on the table."

Chloe tossed a sheet over the wooden trestle table they usually shared meals together at. Guillome was pale and listless from pain and blood loss and she wasn't entirely sure she could help him. Beca and Stacie wrangled the tall man onto the table and backed away so she could work.

"Guillome? Can you hear me?"

His eyes were closed but she could tell he was on the cusp of awareness. Chloe gave him a few sharp slaps until he roused enough to blink blearily at her.

"Hey there fella. You've been beat to hell it looks like."

He gave a weak nod of understanding and she gave him a tight lipped smile. Chloe turned to ask that one of the girls bring in water but Aubrey was already at her side with a full bucket and a basin.

"Thanks, love."

While the blonde filled the basin for her she took the time to take a pair of shears to Mr. Beauchamp's best pressed shirt. He must have been visiting Kat. Another thought that weighed heavily on her mind.

If he was here in this state, what must the people of the town be suffering? Kat wouldn’t leave her cantina no matter who blew into town. She had run once but since coming to Mexico, Kat had dug her heels in firmly with no intent to ever leave or be run off again. Chloe shook her head and focused on the task before her. The cool well water felt good on her hands as she rinsed them off.

"I'm going to need help. Beca, Stacie, hold him steady. This is gonna hurt something awful."

There was a lot of work to be done and she didn't like the way the bones of his forearm had broken through the skin. Chloe took a deep steadying breath and set herself to the business of fixing their friend and Kat's sometimes paramour.

"Think he'll be able to tell us something?"

Chloe shook her head at Stacie’s question as she carefully pulled and rotated the bones back in place with a grinding crunch. He'd be damn lucky if it healed at all let alone good as it was. Guillome screamed in pain and writhed against their strong grip until he slumped back against the table, out cold. She shook her head again unsure if he would be able to tell them much of anything. It would be better if he rested.

"I think we already know enough, Stace. If they aren't on our land already they soon will be."

They all stopped to look at Beca who shrugged and looked down at the barely conscious man on their table. Her words caused a stone to plummet to Chloe’s guts.

"They beat him bad. Real bad. But someone put him on that horse. A horse with a brand I don’t recognize. Looks like two crooked letters in a star, except one of them is backward. It looks fresh too”

Silver Star Ranch. Chloe felt the world shift uncomfortably. That was impossible. She raised shadow filled eyes to the blonde and swallowed hard. It couldn’t be. Beca was mistaken.

Aubrey set the basin down on the edge of the table and silently walked to the corner to pick up her rifle. She alone understood Chloe’s sudden fear. Stacie started to follow her up the stairs to the bedrooms but Aubrey stopped her with a hand gently cupped to the taller woman's face.

"I'm just going up to have a look. If they're coming I want to know from what direction."

"You gonna be okay up there alone?"

Aubrey smiled sweetly and leaned forward to kiss Stacie with as much softness as she held her face. Chloe tore her eyes from the pair to give them some privacy while she worked. She couldn't blame Stacie's trepidation. It was hard for any of them to let the blonde out of their sights. Those long days of worrying if Aubrey would heal whole or not had scarred and haunted them all.

"It's trespassers that gotta worry, Stace. I'll put a hole in them long before they see me."

Beca didn't even try to hide the darkly amused smile at the thought. Chloe was absolutely sure the tiny woman was itching for a fight. None of them wanted to give up the peace they had found here in the home they were building together. But neither had they been so foolish as to believe they would never need to ride into danger again.

"Hey Cowgirl, how about you go grab those blankets of ours and dunk them in the trough outside in case they get the smart idea to try and burn us out?"

"Beautiful and brilliant."

She gave Beca a wink as the shorter woman sped off and waved Stacie over to help. Chloe was just as eager to strap on her rig to help defend their home but she wouldn’t do it until their friend was as stable as they could get him. Stacie worked quickly to clean up the blood still oozing from several open wounds while Chloe worked to clear and close as many as she could. She never imagined all those years of having to stitch up her brothers before their mother saw them all banged up after one brawl or another would be so handy now.

“Who do you think did this, Chlo?”

That was hard to say. It wouldn’t be the Army, not this far south. Might be banditos, they had a couple of nomadic gangs in the area. Mostly horse rustlers with a healthy respect for the town. Or at least respect enough not to cause too much grief for anyone but Kat when they got a little too drunk at her cantina. No, this felt a little bit heavier than that. Guillome was hurt in a way that was meant to make a statement. Not a dust up over a spilled drink and a pretty girl.

“If I have to guess? Bounty hunters."

Or worse. Pinkertons. She didn't have to say it. Just the thought of them brought a tingle of fear to the room. Pinkerton men were brutal and vicious. They weren't just law men, they were worse. They were true believers.

Not in God of course. But in the power of man. The power a man had granted them to do unspeakable things to ensure order in the chaos of a wild and growing country. They would do anything in any way they could to achieve what they believed was for the greater good.

Including rousting a family of emigrant Irish farmers from their beds in the middle of the night and burning their ranch to the ground to make way for the train and progress of the people. She would never forget the fear and despair of that night. That was the night she had decided the law no longer applied to her. And she had been spitting in its eye ever since.

For just a moment she heard the roar of fire consuming the walls around her and felt the heat of flames licking at her skin as her eldest brother, Cole, pitched her right through the bedroom window into mama's garden below. It wasn’t the softest landing but it had saved her life.

Chloe shook off the thought and snipped the end of her thread savagely with her shears. If Pinks were here they were in big trouble. It meant they weren't bringing the girls back for trial.

"Riders. Half broke off from the pack to go around back. A dozen in total."

Beca burst through the front door dragging wet blankets and all the linens they had. She frowned and dropped them in a pile by the door at hearing Aubrey's news from the top of the stairs.

"That hardly seems fair. Only twelve of them for all four of us.” Beca made a stink face and kicked at the pile with a leather moccasin clad foot. “I thought we were actually gonna have a scuffle. Aubrey’s gonna have them so full of holes before they get here I won’t even get to play.”

“I’ll save you a few, Bec.”

Chloe chuckled as Beca’s expression went from cloudy to bright as she ran to the foot of the stairs and shouted back up.

“I could kiss you for that, Aubrey Posen.”

There was only a quietly amused grunt from above. Stacie shook her head with a smile and dumped the bloodied water out the back door. She gave the basin a rinse and refilled it so Chloe could clean her hands before touching anything else. Beca bumped her shoulder lightly with her own and surveyed Chloe’s work.

“We’re gonna have to stash him somewhere.”

“We’re not gonna have time to get him upstairs before they get here and if there’s a fire…”

They’d never get him back down before they all burned to death. Beca nodded off the rest of Stacie’s comment and scuffed her foot lightly at the floor. The edge of a rough woven rug flipped up to reveal the dry timber floor they had laid down together.

“Help me pry out these boards, willa ya?”

“Beca Mitchell you’ll NOT be prying up my kitchen floors!”

Beca blinked once at her before looking around startled. When she didn’t see the apparition she was looking for she heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thought your Ma was here for a second.”

Chloe’s eyes widened and Stacie knew better than to even let out a hiss of a laugh from behind clenched teeth. Bright blue eyes bored into Beca who shivered and shrank in on herself.

“I mean I’ll leave them if you want him to get shot to hell when they get up here…” She paused to consider then sweetened the deal. “I promise to dig you that root cellar in there for all your herbs and stores and whatnot.”

“Aye, and this one will help you!”

Chloe sighed and jerked her head in tight agreement. She couldn’t bear to watch Stacie and Beca rip up the floor. Maybe she really was turning into her mother now that she had settled some in her life. Chloe certainly sounded an awful lot like Cerridwen when she was good and fired up. She shrugged and crept up the stairs to find Aubrey, she should be so lucky to be as strong as passionate a person as her mama.

The blonde was crouched near the window in her bedroom watching patiently for someone to get close enough. Aubrey pulled back her hair into a neat bun and lowered her head to gaze back down the length of her barrel without glancing toward Chloe.

“They here yet?”

“Just about. Can you see them yet out your bedroom window?”

Chloe trotted the few steps down the short hall and looked out at the south facing window. A handful of them had just dismounted and were cautiously scanning the area, creeping forward with rifles drawn. Still too far to shoot at but not quite far enough to make her comfortable. The redhead knelt by the foot of the bed she shared with Beca and raised the lid on the cedar chest her father had hand carved for her mother in Ireland. She took her well oiled rig and strapped it low on her hips. The weight of the heavy leather and steel felt comforting, familiar.

It had been awhile but her body remembered each movement without thought as she drew both pistols and gave them a smooth and practiced twirl before sliding neatly in their holsters. She raised the rifle from its spot resting on a pair of long horns mounted on the wall and set herself to the task of loading it with ammo.

Chloe was more of a brawler than a shooter but she’d taken every lesson Cole, Conner, Caleb, Christian, and Corwin taught her to heart and knew she could plug a man dead between the eyes if she needed to. Two rapid fire shots rang out from the next room over followed by a soft cackle.

A part of her winced at breaking out a small pane of glass to shoot out of but she rested the barrel of the rifle on the window sill and sighted down its length. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she found her mark. She inhaled slowly and tightened her finger around the trigger, squeezing smoothly on the exhale. The man’s body dropped an entire breath later, dirt rising in a cloud where he hit the ground. The men around him spread out, but didn’t creep any closer. They didn’t have to. If they were in range, so was she.

She tucked herself down low behind the cover of the wall and the heavy dresser propped against it as their shots rang out and shattered the rest of the window. Footsteps rushed up the stairs and Beca burst into the room to throw herself over Chloe’s body protectively. They could barely hear each other over the ringing aftermath of the shooting but Chloe was fixated on the soft curve of Beca’s lips as they moved with the words she was shouting.

“Yeah…yeah I’m okay, Bec. Put one of them down and they took exception. Where's Stacie?"

Chloe could hear the sounds of reloading and tossed the rifle to her partner. She drew both guns and started firing at the men below. They scattered under their duel onslaught, scrambling for what cover they could find.

"Oh she's gonna greet our gentleman callers."

Beca shot a man just raising his rifle and snickered. Chloe raised her brows at that. Well that sounded damned suspicious and if she knew Stacie at all whatever she had planned would be wild.

"Of course she is. I hope she shows them our Southern hospitality."

[ashnagog]

88 + pricemarsh?

Thank you for the prompt! It walked away from me a little, but I think I did pretty good!

Warming up

Cold steel presses into her stomach, pushing her against the wall. Her head darts around, looking for an escape, but there’s none to be found.

“You don’t know who I am, or who you’re messing around with!” Nathan shouts, his face no more than four inches away from hers.

She already knows how this goes; she’s seen it a thousand times.

It never gets any easier.

“Where’d you get that?” she hears herself say. “What are you doing? Come on, put that thing down.”

She feels detached, yet present. It barely feels like a dream, but she’s not in control. She knows the script by heart, yet can’t change the story, just watch as it unfolds again and again and again, the same fear freezing her blood, locking her muscles.

“Don’t you EVER tell me what to do. I’m so SICK of people trying to control me!”

“You’re gonna get in hella more trouble for this than drugs –“

“Nobody would even miss your punk ass, would they?”

“CHLOE!”

-0-0-0-0-

Kate wakes up to a dark room and a cold bed. The spot beside her, where Chloe had been, is empty, the covers thrown off in a hurry. The alarm clock beside the bed reads 03:39 AM. The world is asleep, but Kate and Chloe cannot have that pleasure, it seems.

With a sigh, she gets out of bed, padding quietly to the living room.  

The bright moon shines through the windows, illuminating the apartment, lining the furniture in dark shadows. It’s cold in here.

Chloe’s leaning against a windowsill, the window itself thrown wide open. Cigarette smoke dispersed by soft winds, a visual reminder of a now-broken promise to quit. She’s dressed in a dark t-shirt and her boxers, the same clothes she went to bed with. She’s shivering.

Kate doesn’t think it’s just because of the cold.

She shuts the bedroom door behind her, purposely making it click into place. “Hey” she says, her voice quiet.

Chloe blows out more smoke. “Hey angel” she says, her voice rough. “I’m sorry.”

Kate approaches her, leaning on the windowsill next to Chloe. “What for?”

Freezing wind blows past them, fall truly setting in now. The sound of rushing air fills the silence between them as Chloe takes another drag from her cigarette, then exhales lengthily.

“For waking you. For breaking my promise. For becoming this miserable sack of shit again. I mean, God, it’s been a year, shouldn’t I be over it by now?”

“I don’t think so” Kate says. “Do you expect me to be over everything that happened that week?”

“No, of course not!”

“Then why do you expect that from yourself?”

Chloe deflates a little. “I don’t know. My brain just won’t shut up.”

Kate puts her hand between Chloe’s shoulder blades, rubbing slightly, trying to soothe the turmoil inside of her. “I know. I’m just reminding you that you need to give yourself time to heal.”

Chloe leans in to the touch, putting her arm around Kate, kissing the top of her head. “you’re right. I’m… sorry I’ve been so distant lately. I just…”

“I know.” Kate says. “Just… tell me what you need, okay? You don’t have to be strong for me.”

A shuddering sigh makes its way through Chloe’s body. Kate wraps her arms around Chloe’s back, pressing herself to her girlfriend’s chest. Chloe sinks into the hug, some of the tension draining out of her. Her skin is cold.

“Yeah” Chloe sighs. “You know you can tell me too, right? I don’t want you to suffer in silence like last year.”

“I know” Kate says. “you’re so good to me. I don’t know where I’d be right now if we hadn’t found eachother.”

Chloe sighs deeply, sinking further into Kate’s hold. “Yeah, same. I don’t – I don’t want to think about what would’ve happened.”

A minute passes as they stand there, basking in the warmth of one another, the forgotten cigarette burning uselessly.

frigid air blows in through the open window. Kate shivers. “Let’s go back to bed, I’m starting to get really cold.”

“Yeah, let’s”

They separate, Chloe stubbing her cigarette against the outside wall before dropping it into the trashcan. Kate shuts the window, then pads back to bed.

“Can I hold you?” Chloe asks, as she falls back into bed.

“Of course,” Kate says, nestling closer.

Chloe’s arms wrap around her stomach as her entire body curls around Kate’s warmth. Tomorrow, they’ll have to face the day again, face their grief and their trauma and their thoughts, face the rest of their lives.

But for now, this is enough. For now, the warmth they share is all that matters.  

[plumsaffron]

Cherry Crimson Brine Final (2-3)

Immortally Wounded

And

Improbable For Healing

return to the previous part of the finale

To Each Part Of The Story Link Here

Otherwise continue (one more part after this section)

4 Days Later NPC Cop: She got kicked out again or this time, 

thrown out the clothing store window. Earlier, people were preventing her from eating. Officer Roger: Yep I guess they want her to starve. NPC Cop: Why don't we simply send her to solitary confinement? Then she can stay there forever for her crimes. Roger: It's not that simple, son. I suggested that but you know what happened? My daughter told me they will threaten her. 

She said 2 days ago that, if any member of our force,

who puts Lila Rossi behind bars, 

will deem to use Sabrina as their toy of unrelenting torment that they planned for Lila. Officer Roger: Didn't you get a notification from the Mayor of why we can't arrest her? NPC Cop: Nope. Phone buzzing

Notification from Mayor Bustier

After Reading NPC Cop: What's wrong with these citizens. They don't want her to be away from their sight but want her to suffer but keep her alive? And they are threatening Mayor Bustier's family unless we conform to their standards and anyone else that thinks differently will pay? Officer Roger: Yes. We can't do anything about it. 

And the news is soliciting this propaganda 

and making it worse than it actually is.

NPC Cop: But isn't the evidence we know true? Officer Roger: Who knows. However, there's some problems with it. 

don't know what to believe either. 

And clues to know more information have been lost unfortunately. NPC Cop: Is she really a kid? Officer Roger: What kind of question is that? I do think she is. NPC Cop: But it's said she lies about everything and tricked 3 woman that are no longer here. Officer Roger: You don't know enough information. None of us know about what her and parents relationship is like. 

Don't go there thinking like these Parisians out there. 

Don't jump off a cliff thinking there's a net. There's a chance that this is a hoax. Still... NPC Cop: Still what?

Officer Roger: We can only do what we can.

Not let these furious Parisians go too far with her.

(At least since Sabrina told me how dangerous people are becoming, the heroes are monitoring the city. 

Trying to prevent her from being harmed. And I'll do my part).

NPC Cop: I still am perplexed. Why are they treating her worse than Chloe? I mean Chloe Bourgeois deserved it from showing off. But this Lila girl just came out from the hospital when she was previously a pitter pounded pattered pulp. They are treating her far worse than Hawk Moth 

or anymore that does worse. 

This is leaving me rather vexed.

Roger: Maybe it's not to understand 

(Maybe that's who they are).

It could be they are scapegoating her over something that they hate of the past or because the evil entity.

Hawk Moth or Chloe aren't present, and she's the winning ticket.

You could never tell why or what's the point.

(Maybe it's selective). NPC Cop: I guess people do really like deciding what's the greatest deal, even if it's just small snow from a tree that hit their heads.

Hours Later Starving Lila idling Walking npcs a side walk away They rub their heads with their heads with smiles on their faces Others put wigs on and then use scissors to cut pieces off They laugh at her and the state of her hair stating they are pleased and laughing at what Firefighter Jean Theo and a girl took joy in doing to her the other day 5 minutes later Alya: It’s Lila Nora: Let’s go the other way. Alya: Why? Nora: She’s a horrible person Alya: Not you too. Alya proceeds to walk towards Lila Nora: No. Alya: What do you think you’re doing. Nora: Mom and dad told me to keep you and the twins away from her. Alya: Step off. Angry at her older sister as she takes her away Nora: It’s for your own good. Alya: Mine or your own good. Nora: I don’t have time for this Carries Alya away like Shrek did with Fiona The Final Night The door breaks open She awakes nervous as she knows something is in her residence minute later NPC: so that’s where you been hiding. NPC 2: It’s the end of your bridge. 

You see the world would be better off without you. 

Unlike the rest of the good people of Paris, 

we don’t want to keep you caged and abused. NPC: We want you dead. Lila: You don’t have to do this to me. NPC 3: Way past that after the endless pool of lies. Infinite will end once you’re flatlined by our hands. Lila: Why do you believe this? 

What makes you hate me this much? Why?! I’m sick of this crap! I’m tired of this town trapping me and tormenting me! I’ve Had Enough Of This! Stop This! NPC: You don’t have the right to decide after the crimes you did to Adrien Agreste. NPC 2: You overgrown female. Lila: I am not. NPC 4: Like I’d believe you.

Don’t even know what your deal is. 

This is the night your misery finishes, you disgusting human lying filth. Lila: Don’t do this. NPC 3 laughing NPC 3: Ignorant Womanchild Nothing you say that will stop your immeninent immediate death.

NPC 4: Many want you to stay alive as free punching bag but me and others want to take a fresh kill. I don’t mind fulfilling what their death wish to you.

I’ll be standing proud doing the deed. NPC 2: Honestly we’ve been requested to do far worse forms of torture to you. You should know where I’m going with that. Petrified Lila NPC 3: They also wanted us to relay back of the things we promised to them that they would celebrate and call an epic quest for us legends. NPC: What a shame for a pretty face to be in a casket. 

Well you would be burned to ashes anyways or dumped into the ocean. Accept your fate, repulsive life-form. This Is Where You DIE!

Lila closes her eyes NPC: Are you praying? NPC 2: It doesn't matter. No one will save the entity. NPC 4: It's a miraculous end to the nothing’s tale

NPC 3: It's time to meet your maker. Oh wait you probably killed those and so many lives you probably replaced. Slowly opens her eyes with a smile on her face NPC 4: Smiling? This grotesques existence must have lost their mind. Lila: I haven't. I've accepted my end. NPC 3: You're lying! Lila: Four against one. Maybe you are. 

I realized that I won't be seeing anymore anyone or myself.

Me being a sacrifice for the peace and justice amongst all mankind.

I'm willing to accept my fate and the evidence against me. Lila: So make it quick. NPC: Are you mocking me?! Lila: Nope. I deserve death and torture. 

It's the path I've chosen.

Please. Finish me off. 

There's no reason for me to stay alive anymore.

If none of you don't I'll just. NPC 2: Is she?

NPC 3: BUHRREK They look towards the damage sound that NPC made NPC 2: Gguh khuh Lila kicks NPC 1 in the neck NPC 4: YOU! Tries to grab her Lila throws covers at the NPC proceeds relentless punches and jabs towards the NPC NPC 1 Tries to kick her She throws a hard object at that NPC Takes hard objects and beats the crap out of them all

After several minutes of beating the tar out of them Lila: Tell me. With a smile Lila: How about I wipe away your lifespans? You 4 can't do anything anymore. Kicks one of them Lila: How about I crush your neck with my boots? Do you want that? Lila: LOOK AT ME! Oh You Want To Look Away Now Because I Am Now Your Decision Maker?! You don't know who you are messing with. I hope you know a fragment of the crap I've been going through these days. 

I should exterminate you all for my greater good. Stops smiling stares emotionlessly When you're finished recovering, you can let yourselves out. Playtime is over for you vermin. You and all of your associates; never show your faces around my sight here again. Lila goes outside leaving them their walking to a stop Lila: It seems my body sustained too much previous damage from the previous days Seems I made it to the end of myself. Well I- falls Seeing the water (At least I ended things on my terms) As seeing her vision fading inside the water

(The last amount of control I had left...)

Click here to get the last part of this Brine Story

[babsvibes]

Okay, you probably know which story of yours I want commentary on, but do you know which particular part I am going to ask about?!

Hopefully not, because that'd be weird! But the below 403 words contains two of my favorite parts of the story, and I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on it:

“Kaylee!”

Expecting a twisted ankle or a face full of ground on the fall, Kaylee tensed. It took a moment to realize she befell neither fate. Instead, Rudy caught her. 

The moment wasn’t quite as romantic as the love stories made this kind of scene out to be. One of his arms wrapped a little too tight around her ribs to the point where she couldn’t appreciate his closeness. She supposed the grip was meant to make up for the awkward hold he managed with his other hand, somewhere between a pinch and a grab at her shoulder.

Still, he kept her steady, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

They stared at each other for a second then broke apart, both safely on the ground.

“I’m sorry,” he started.

“No, wait, I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“Neither do you.” Kaylee gestured to the shelf. “All you did was save me from falling.” 

“Oh. Right, sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry!”

“I’m-” Rudy couldn’t complete his thought as Kaylee put her hand over his mouth. 

“Shh!”

He looked down and then back up at her, his eyes squinting in amusement.

She felt a puff of breath against her hand and pulled back. “Sor- ugh, we’ve fallen into an apology loop.” 

“Don’t worry, this isn’t my first rodeo,” he said with a bright smile. “Let’s try something. When you want to say sorry, say thank you instead.” 

This big dork. 

This sentimental goof.

This absolute golden retriever of a human being.

“Hmmm. I think… yeah, I think I can do that.” Kaylee took a deep breath. “Thank you for catching me.”

“Thank you for trying to help when I was having trouble finding a stool. Speaking of, let’s give this old girl a whirl, huh?” 

Rudy scooted the stool from where he set it down to the desired destination with his regular sized foot then took a steady step up.

While he plucked their book free, Kaylee rubbed her forearm.

“And thank you for not telling anyone I misused library equipment,” she said slyly.

“I didn’t… ohhh,” Rudy said as it dawned on him. He winked down at her. “You’re cute when you try to be sneaky. Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.” 

If he wasn’t so oblivious, Kaylee would swear he knew about her crush and made it his mission to prolong her suffering.

Ahhh my fellow rarepair enjoyer, hello! We’re matching in the excerpts we picked for each other because The Dork Identity is my least viewed fic. Seems people aren’t picking up on Kaylee’s potential, huh? Oh well, at least we see her!

For catching Kaylee, I love taking those “cliché” or romantic tropes and thinking how would this go wrong? If Rudy is catching her on instinct, then chances are it’s going to be an awkward hold. And to look at that imperfect moment and still find joy in it screams romance to me. It doesn’t matter the circumstances, they’re happy to be together (one of the reasons boblin is top tier).

The apology loop actually inspired the whole story! It was the first scene I wrote when thinking about what these two would be like if they interacted more. Rudy has a big heart, so he seems ready to apologize even if he hasn’t done anything wrong. Meanwhile Kaylee is working to undo even the tamest of pranks in her second episode. There’s a kind of nervous element to them that’s really highlighting their soft centers. So… apology loop. Breaking out of the apology loop is the age-old advice of being grateful. Reframe the situation to look at what good there is instead of focusing on blame or hurt, real or imagined.

All of it comes together this way because I want to give Rudy chances to be the hero even in a low stakes environment like the library. He likes the ideas of honor, nobility, and bravery (fessing up for the prank he didn’t really do, protecting Chloe from a science experiment, helping them get off the spinning ride in Dawn of the Peck). Kaylee seems to have similar values because even if she says she wants to prank, her real goal is to not face the fear of rejection or be alone anymore (which is why she undoes the pranks). Wouldn’t an only child of divorce know what that’s like? Plus they’re both excited by corny jokes and science experiments! So there’s plenty for them to bond over and support each other with.

Saving Kaylee from a fall AND apologizing for it is just so Rudy to me, and I think it could melt anyone’s heart, especially a nerd with a wizard cape!

[bandedbulbussnarfblat]

Quartet-chapter 8

here or read it below. this chapter is perfectly safe to read at work.

Daniel calls Alice on Monday to say they need to talk and she invites him over for dinner the next night.  The girls will be out on the town with her younger sister who flew in to visit for the week so they can speak privately.  His old home isn’t particularly far from his current one.  This is because when Armand said he was buying them a house, he had asked Daniel if he had any requests.  His only request had been to be near his daughters, in case of an emergency.

Alice is wearing leggings and an oversized tee-shirt when she opens the door.  Her brown hair is up in a messy bun, and she’s carrying a huge glass of red wine.  She’s wearing her square, black-framed glasses instead of her usual contacts.  “It’s been a day,” she says.  “Your daughter is smoking.”

Daniel frowns and follows her inside the house and into the kitchen.  It’s small, but sunny and warm, the walls an inviting yellow.  The round table had barely been big enough to fit the four of them.  Daniel supposes they have more room now.  

“Which one?” Daniel asks.  Erin is older and less rebellious, but she’d taken the divorce harder than Chloe.  

Alice slides a plate of hamburger and macaroni over to him.  Alice never cooked anything fancy, not with Chloe, who is a picky eater.  Armand never cooked, he merely hired top of the line chefs and had them prepare all sorts of rare and exotic food.  But sometimes a person just wanted Hamburger Helper.  

“Erin,” Alice says and slides into her normal spot across from him.  “Guess where she got them?”

Daniel does have an emergency pack of cigarettes hidden in his office.  Or he did.

“She found my emergency smokes.”

Alice eyes him and takes a huge swallow of wine.  “I thought you quit smoking.”

He has.  Except for emergencies.  What classifies as an emergency depends on how bad he needs a cigarette.  

“I’ll talk to her, okay?”

Alice takes another swallow of wine, and her body goes tense, like she’s bracing for something.  “Why did you want to talk, Daniel?”

“I’m not using again,” Daniel says, and Alice’s entire body slumps forward and relaxes.

“Oh, thank god,” she says and takes a gulp of wine.  

Daniel doesn’t think she’s going to like what he has to say next any better than if he had.  “I’m trying to work things out with Armand.”

Alice drains the rest of the wine.  “Well, that makes sense.  I’d like to believe I wouldn’t be cheated on unless you were absolutely stupid over the other person.”

She sighs and levels her gaze.  “But honestly, I do want you to be happy.  I mean, I wanted you to suffer appropriately for cheating, but I’m over it.  And if this guy is who makes you happy, then go for it.”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming.”

Alice grimaces a little.  “But it’s going to be an uphill battle with the girls.  They won’t care he’s a man–we raised them better than that–but they will consider him a homewrecker.  They’ll hate him once they know he was the reason for the divorce.”

“Maybe I just don’t tell them?”  Daniel says, but he knows it’s pointless.  Erin is whip smart and quick to put things together.  She’ll ask if Armand is the one.  She’d ask about whoever Daniel started dating.  

“Good luck with that.”

/

Bianca had called him after she delivered the papers to Nicki, naturally.  But today he’s in her office in the Upper East side, only a few minutes from home.  The wall of windows lets in an enormous amount of light.  Bianca went around and closed the blinds, then sank down gracefully into her seat behind her large desk.  

Armand is sitting across from her in a very stylish and compact cream colored armchair.  A matching one is a few feet away, both facing Bianca’s desk.  Her shoes are tossed on the cushion, white with white lace flowers and in the center on each flower a pearl, and a strap of real pearls that wrapped around each ankle.  They matched the pearls in her braided bun.  Golden ringlets frame her face, perfectly placed.  

A deep groan cracks her perfect image.  “Nicki’s been using Lestat’s lawyer.  She’s heinous; do you know how hard it is to stay polite with that level of passive-aggression?”

He runs a theater, so he has some idea.  Drama is what actors were good at.  “If you can make it through dinner with Father, you can manage anything.”

Bianca sighs and kicks her feet up onto the desk.  Her toenails are painted a bright pink.  “Speaking of Uncle Marius,” she says, as if she didn’t have the most torturous and terrible crush on him when she was in college, “he’s been pestering me about you.  He says you aren’t returning his calls.”

“He’s been calling more often.  It’s exhausting.”  He means Marius is exhausting, but Bianca knows that.

“Well, call him back.  He’s starting to suggest we set up a regular family dinner,” Bianca says then swings her legs off the desk and leans forward on her elbows conspiringly.  “I think it has something to do with Pandora.  You know how they are.  She withdraws, he lavishes her with attention and smothers her; she leaves for a while, she comes back.”

Bianca knows the family dynamics well; she’s practically Armand’s adopted sister.  She had met Armand and Marius when Armand was only fifteen.  She was nineteen and stunningly beautiful, one of Marius’ pupils.  Armand had developed quite the crush on her.  She developed quite the crush on Marius.  Marius was frustrated that Bianca would not focus on her painting, and still silently furious that Armand had never begun to paint again.  Not after he’d been kidnapped.  

Bianca had always been kind to him, and so gracious about his obvious affection for her.  Never condescending and always warm and friendly in a way that couldn’t be misinterpreted as flirtatious.  Eventually, she grew close enough to them both that she shared her family were criminals, and made her commit crimes.  Marius had offered to take care of it for her, and had taken Armand with him.  He had essentially bought Bianca from her family, giving them an insane amount of money to leave her life and leave her in his care.  

Marius had gotten her an apartment, a car, and paid for her schooling.  Said something about her being a diamond in the rough.  Armand has always been pretty sure it had more to do with the fact that his father really, really, wanted to fuck a teenager.  A teenager who was one of his students.  Armand believes they must have fucked at some point, just to get it out of their systems, but Bianca is demure on the topic.

And she enjoys messing with him too much to ever let him know one way or the other.

He and Bianca had fucked, after he turned eighteen.  It was a now-and-then thing during his college years, when both of them were too focused on school for anything serious.  Every few months they would hook up, and they’d see each other at Marius’ during the holidays, because of course, she was invited.  That had just been convenient at first, he didn’t even have to leave home for a booty call.  After a while, it seemed too intimate, too much like a real relationship.

And maybe it could have been.  Armand doesn’t know if he could have ever loved Bianca like he loves Louis, but he knows he loved her as much as a teenage boy could.  Nearly as much as he loved Lestat.  He’d always been so careful to keep them away from each other.  He had been terribly afraid they would meet and instantly love each other and forget him.  

But Marius had discovered them, and he had been disappointed.  He hadn’t said so, but it was obvious.  Later, Bianca would tell him with red-rimmed eyes that Marius had pulled her aside and told her something shocking.  He’d been waiting until she was ‘old enough’ to declare his love for her and he thought she knew, and thought she was waiting as well.  Bianca had told him off for expecting her to wait around some arbitrary amount of time, and had stormed out.  

At least, that’s what she told Armand when she found him outside.  He’d been hiding in his old treehouse.  She had swiped at her bleary eyes, and explained it to him.  Armand had thought she was gone an awful long time, for just talking.  He’d been sure they had fucked after that fight.

Probably just the once, as some sick form of closure.  Marius would be too self-righteous to ever try an honest relationship with her, and besides, Armand had already had her; she was spoiled.

She climbed into the hammack beside him and laid her head on his chest.  Her voice had been so small when she spoke.  “I don’t think I can do this anymore.  This thing between us.”

Armand hadn’t said anything, just stroked a hand through her hair.  He felt her crying onto his shirt.  “I feel like we’re on the precipice of something, and if we keep going we’re going to tip over.  I’m going to tip over, to a place I can’t come back from.”

Armand had been surprised; while Bianca freely admitted she loved him, he never thought it held romantic connotations.  She freely told Riccardo that she loved him.  She said it to several of those girls from the gaggle that followed her around.  

“I thought you were in love with Fa-Marius.”

Bianca smiled sadly.  “I am;”  she looked up into Armand’s face and met his eyes.  “But I’m in love with you too.  I don’t know how or when it happened.  But I am, and I want you both and it’s not fair, but I do.”

And Armand hadn’t been angry.  The idea of Bianca being in love with someone else wasn’t appalling; it was that it was Marius that was the problem.  

“If I choose one of you, the other will resent me.  And I will be the reason for strife between you.  I can’t do that.”

“You can,” Armand had said, and kissed her, because it was the perfect time too.  She tasted salty from her tears and she had trembled against him before she pulled away.  

“I can’t, I can’t,” she said.  “You can’t do anything to make me fall more in love with you.  Anymore and I’ll never be able to come back from it.”

The selfish part of Armand had wanted that, but the rational part of him told him that while he did love Bianca, he wasn’t really in love with her.  At least, not the way he had been as a boy.  It was a love so pure, and so blinding in its intensity that whatever Bianca was, she could never be what he dreamed her to be.  So they had let each other go, and distanced themselves from each other for a bit.  Then one day they just fell back together again, as friendly as they ever were, but with not an ounce of flirtation there.  Armand had found he didn’t mind.

All three of them had come back from it.  They are…family. 

“I’m not here for family gossip, as fascinating as Father’s suffering may be.”  Armand doesn’t think he actually means it.  He wants Marius to be happy.  To be happy away from him.  

“Right, Nicki,” Bianca says, “We finally reached an agreement.  Do you care about the details?”  

She and Lestat’s lawyer, working on behalf of Nicki, had spent most of yesterday and today arguing an agreement for Armand to pay for Nicki’s physical therapy.  Nicki really didn’t want to do the drug tests, and had plenty of unkind things to say about him, Armand imagined.

“Not particularly.”

“The juicy bit that I didn’t want to get into on the phone is why Nicki thinks you’re doing it,” Bianca says with a grin.

“Guilt?” Armand guesses.

Bianca laughs, a tinkling sound.  “He knows you too well for that.  No, he thinks you’re trying to impress Lestat.  He believes you’re in love with him.”

In love with Lestat.  Well, Nicki would think that, wouldn’t he?  Historically, he would be correct.  But Armand is hardly a teenage boy anymore.    “That just means he’s still hung up on him.”

“Oh, it is unhealthy,” Bianca says.  “But I’m sure whatever you’re actually scheming will work perfectly.  Marius wouldn’t have picked us if we weren’t brilliant.”

“It will work.  It involves Lestat being a slut.”

“He’s blond.  Blonds have the right to be slutty,” Bianca says.  Then she points a finger at Armand.  “I will see you at family dinner.”

“I’m not-”

“Forty-eight hours.  I have not slept in forty-eight hours working on this Nicki business for you.  You owe me.”

“I’ll add it to your billable hours.”

Bianca’s eye twitches.  “Armand, you will come and save me.  Marius is talking about introducing me to some ‘nice young man.’”

That is solely one of those things that is not his problem; but he cares about Bianca.  “Fine, but only because you’re playing damsel-in-distress.”

Bianca clutches hands over her chest and pretends to swoon.  “Armand, my hero.”

Armand is going to hate every minute of this.  At least he’ll have Louis to bring along and make things bearable.

[acaciapines]

lol I meant to type actually the middle number of 46 but you can do 31 too! I love hearing about this au

both of them it is! im glad you love hearing about it bc there is. truly so much. <3

31. Baptisms – Radical Face

“it’s not that bad, you know.”

mari looks up at her, ears still pressed flat. whatever sickness has been hurting luz has left her mostly quiet the entire time amity has been sitting here, and though there’s a hint of pain in the way mari holds her shoulders her eyes are bright and alert.

in amity’s lap, alma shifts: cat, glowfish, spottedfish, lionfish, and cat again. amity rests her hand across her palisman’s back, brushing soft fur.

“it’s not the same.” mari looks away, out towards the window where the moon trickles in. “you never…you get to figure out who you are. i already did, and i…”

“got it wrong?” alma offers, and mari’s lips curl back in a growl. alma’s purr rises in volume, loud enough that mari should hear it, too. it rumbles though amity’s own veins. “that’s okay. we did, too.”

46. Bugbear – Chloe Moriondo

she’s not so sure why she’s here, at school, doing this, when eda and king and firefly and lilith and burkit and every single adult she cares about save for mom is back stuck in a world under the collector’s control.

“it’s to make mom happy,” hunter says, a tiny red bird on her shoulder. he’s been doing that a lot—the bird, and the slipping up. calling camila mom, just like she would. “this way, we at least are able to somewhat pass for normal.” he fluffs up his feathers. “but…yeah. i get it. i wish we were with mari and flapjack, too.”

“it’s not fair,” luz whispers. she’s hidden herself away in an empty corner of the hallway for lunch, because people always stare at her weird when she and hunter talk to each other—just another one of those ways where she won’t fit in, talking to her daemon in public. “i want mom to be happy, i do, i just…why doesn’t this make me feel better?”

hunter shrugs. “i don’t know.”

“yeah.” luz huffs. “just five more hours of this.”

“five more hours,” hunter echoes, flapping down to peck at her sandwich. “let’s get through them together.”

DISCUSSION

starting w 31: OH MY GOD I KNOW EXACTLY WHEN THIS IS FROMMMMM its from episode 9! eclipse lake! when luz is sick w. common mold i think its called? yeah that but anyways in that episode luz is super out of it but mari isnt (for Reasons like: it isnt common mold lol but they arent important for this scene).

anyways! that means that amityalma and mari have a really sweet scene together...both of them have been struggling over being unsettled (luz n mari bc they were settled but unsettled, amity n alma bc they spent all of s1 pretending to be settled as something they werent) and they get to bond over it...mari cant talk about this stuff w luz but she CAN with amity and alma, and sort of. figure it out then.

also this is before i decided cats in the demon realm were fun shadowy nightmare creatures lol. originally alma took the form of a white cat (like ghost in the show) but bc i have A Thing im doing w forms that changed.

and 46: yet another luz and hunter suffering in the human realm scene! i think ive said it before but bc of the four of them hunter is the only one able to change form, and luz needs to pretend to be settled for long plot reasons im not getting into, luz and hunter go to school together as a human-daemon pair and neither of them like. enjoy it. theyre still melding together a lot and this Doesnt Help, and luz is used to the demon realm way of human-daemon interactions (aka the way i like them) vs the human realm way (aka Every Other Daemon Au).

hunters also supposed to be a lizard here hence luz commenting on him being a bird. its a fun time! a fun fun time. these kids are Going Through It

[amtrak12]

Ooph, calling my current fic struggles “middle book syndrome” is just... Too Accurate. I don’t like it. I don’t want it to feel like a middle book! I want it to be a good story!

Though, I do understand that the true purpose of Books 2 and 3 are to entertain the readers who aren’t ready to leave my world behind. Because Book 1 honestly can stand entirely on its own! I don’t need sequels! I designed it that way on purpose because I have the epilogue of toddler Rory returning home to a changed timeline so the reader knows the happy ending. What they don’t know is how we got there. They don’t need to know that. It really doesn’t matter. But I thought it would be fun to explore Lucifer and Chloe taking the long way to meet back up with their daughter, because the last we see of S3 Lucifer and Chloe is them grief-stricken over saying goodbye to their daughter.

And by god I want to explore that grief. This isn’t like canon where Chloe is already pregnant with Rory when they say goodbye to their adult daughter. This is S3. It’s going to be years before they see her again. YEARS. They had their toddler daughter for two months! They were fully adjusted to being coparents and now their daughter is just -- gone. I want to eat that angst with a spoon like it’s ice cream with chocolate syrup and rainbow sprinkles. It’s fucking delicious!

There’s also the fun awkwardness of them still not being a romantic couple but they know they’re going to have a daughter in the future. That’s not going to put any weird pressure on them that will mess with their heads! :P And I want to explore that too, so that’s the other purpose of the sequels. Just allowing me to continue playing in this universe. It is purely self-indulgent for both me and the readers.

Doesn’t mean I want it to suffer middle book syndrome, though. I do think the grief exploration will make it compelling enough to not feel like a middle book. The real problem comes from incorporating the S4 plot into this. Sure I could ignore it, obviously. But I’ve decided I do want Lucifer to have to go back to Hell for a bit, because I absolutely adore the idea of Book 3 opening with it being a year exactly before Rory is meant to be born, and Lucifer’s not on Earth. That sounds delicious and is perfect given that the final scene of the series will be Chloe learning she’s pregnant. Now the main plot of Book 3 is them trying to confirm the timeline has been changed because they both want to ensure Lucifer will be there to raise Rory. They have no idea the timeline has already changed. All they know is the few things Rory mentioned have all happened. So they focus on stopping the one thing that hasn’t happened yet: Dan’s death. (Hence the title: Save the Douche, Save the World.) (The readers will already know Dan lives thanks to Book 1′s epilogue but that’s not the point. The point is the characters don’t know that.)

So, yeah I need the demon invasion still and I’m actually good with keeping the rabid priest and his prophecy because I’m moving up Chloe learning she’s a gift from God to the S4 era in this series, and prophecies mesh well with free will struggles from a thematic standpoint. Eve comes back to Earth for this too. Her storyline will obviously go differently from canon but I’m not sure exactly what journey it takes yet. So that’s some of the cloudiness I’m dealing with. I also want to foreshadow Michael’s push to become God, but it is going to stay at foreshadowing. I thought about pulling him into a more active role early, but I’ve ruled that out now.

... Though if I’m having Abel be the first soul to make it from Hell to Heaven... and that’s happening in Book 1.... Maybe I don’t need a demon invasion to pull Lucifer back to Hell....

Okay thank you everyone for letting me talk to thin air! I now have something productive to think about! :D

[storybook-with-a-hug]

Fix-It Miraculously: Analyzing Alya (Season 1 focus)

So, with the next chapter in my story being another of the OC chapters, it gives me a chance to explore the supporting cast more. Though over-all the chapter is going to be Adrien-centric, one of the things I’m doing in it is exploring his relationships with other people besides Marinette. Particularly, this chapter is going to focus rather heavily on the budding friendship between him and Alya on both sides of his mask. To do so, though, I figured I’d take the chance to expand a bit more on my take on Alya and who she is as a character in the start of the series.

So I don’t think anyone would call it a stretch to say Alya is a very passionate person. She’s the sort to throw herself head-long and completely into every new theory she comes up with an exuberance that is quite admirable. She is fiercely loyal and always wants to do the right thing, even if she doesn’t always go about it in the best way. 

However, the problems of her character are so intrinsically linked to the best parts of her character that it’s more to say she takes her best qualities too far and hasn’t yet learned how to temper herself to an appropriate reaction. Which is not to say she’s strictly in the wrong or that she’s a bad character/friend/person, just that she’s a young teen (13 in my story, probably 14 in canon, but this is an analysis for my story specifically so I’m making her 13) who still has a lot to learn. 

As such, Alya has three glaring problems that over the course of this story she will learn to address. Her primary problem, which isn’t even so much of a “her” thing as it is an age/experience thing, is that she tends to jump to conclusions too quickly and then once she’s latched on she has a lot of problems letting go. This was her big problem with the “Chloe is Ladybug” theory in Lady WiFi, she made a conclusion and then set out to make her proof match her theory and disregarded everything that countered her foregone conclusion instead of letting the facts prove of disprove the hypothesis. If she had taken the time to step back and examine her facts, or listen to the advice of those around her, she never would have gotten herself in that situation. And while getting getting suspended and proven thoroughly wrong was a bit of a nasty wake-up call for her, she hasn’t quite learned her lesson yet. 

She jumped to conclusions again in Pharaoh, where she (rightfully) believed Ladybug was a student in her grade in her school and then (wrongfully) changed her mind to believe that Ladybug was an ancient Egyptian demi-goddess that’s thousands of years old. Now, beyond the fact that in the canon episode Alya apparently found the book, researched what schools used it and how many girls were in their school year, went all the way to Marinette’s house, and then all the way to the Louvre and spent all that time looking at the scroll without ever once even bothering to open the front cover of the book and see Marinette’s name written in it, the fact that she so easily believed this lie makes me think it has something to do with the quantum masking that protects their identities. That’s why in my rewrite of the episode I had Chat Noir start to fall for it before Ladybug reminded him of the facts and knocked him out of it. It’s also for this reason that I had Alya mistakenly believe that Chat Noir was the Fairy King of Cats after he started dropping names related to such. 

So, while she hasn’t completely learned her lesson yet, the first steps have been taken. She still has a ways to go on this point, this problem won’t start really being fixed until season 3-4 where she starts settling down out of fangirl mode and actually taking her journaling more seriously. By that point, she’ll be 14-15, have been a hero on the front lines of this war herself, and had suffered a few more wake-up calls that each move her a little further in the direction of a mature young woman who is competent at her job. 

Next real problem, which is also in great part due to her age, is Alya’s inability to get out of her own head. I don’t mean that in a mean way, but children are horrible at seeing the big picture and truly empathizing with those around them. They lack the experience and they lack the basic brain development that lets them get out of their own head and really understand other people and the consequences to their actions. Alya’s still very much in that place where she goes “well, I can do it with no problem, so you should be able to as well!” Especially where Marinette is concerned. She can talk to Adrien easily, so Marinette should also be fine doing so. She comes from a large supportive and loving family who like any family that has many siblings is full of teasing and banter and she’s fine with it, so Marinette should have no problem with her making fun of her either. She doesn’t know of any commitments to Marinette’s time, so therefore Marinette can’t possibly be busy and if she says she is it’s only with sleeping. 

The problem is that, in my story especially, Marinette’s past is that of a bullied child. And just like how Alya can’t get out of her own head to realize her and Marinette’s situations are different, children have a hard time getting out of their own heads to realize the long-term damage they’re doing to their target by bullying them. And as such, otherwise nice children can be downright cruel and torturous towards their target when swept up in the mob mentality and given basically a green light to do whatever they want to someone. Marinette is a very strong girl to be able to pull through something like that with an intact sense of right and wrong and a disposition of STILL wanting to help people. It’s why she was chosen as Ladybug, a hero to save the whole world from a megalomaniac. But it also means she’s not equipped to take friendly teasing. She is desperate to keep that one friend that she’s gotten after being alone for so long, so she’s not going to stand up for herself and tell Alya off for saying hurtful things, but for a self-esteem as fragile as Marinette’s is at the start of the series that doesn’t mean those sorts of things aren’t still counterproductive. 

Now, don’t get me wrong: in no way is Alya trying to be mean to Marinette or reaffirm the kinds of harsh words her bullies used. But Alya doesn’t strike me as someone who’s been the target of long-term bullying before, given how confident and brazen she is. She doesn’t have a frame of reference for understanding the sorts of things Marinette faced while she was growing up or how her words cold be misconstrued. To Alya, she’s just being playful and treating Marinette as part of her family. To Alya, Marinette is as good as another sister, with all the love and bickering that goes along with it. But Marinette is an only child and didn’t grow up with sibling banter, so being treated like that doesn’t hold the same emotions for her that it does for Alya. Not yet at least. 

This is further proven by the fact that in season 1, Marinette doesn’t ever really sass Alya back. She complains about Alya a few times behind her back to various individuals, but she’s not yet comfortable enough with the friendship to be snarky or put Alya in her place when Alya throws out a few lines like that making fun of Marinette over something. At this point in their relationship, Marinette is just taking it like a victim, and Alya doesn’t have the knowhow to be able to recognize this behaviour and alter her own. 

And this sort of leads into her third main flaw: disregarding others personal boundaries. Alya is almost notorious for not listening when people tell her “no” and pushing on anyway because she wants something. Be that to quell her insatiable curiosity about something or seeing her best friend achieve her happily ever after with the boy of her dreams. When Alya wants something, she is relentless and nothing anyone else has to say or think on the matter means anything to her. 

Ladybug’s life could be in danger because her identity was publicly revealed? Don’t care, I wanna know the answer to the secret so let’s all get excited together about figuring it out! Marinette’s on the verge of a panic attack, freaking out and spiralling because she’s not ready to take that next step in her relationship with Adrien yet? Don’t care, I wanna see my ship sail because it’s fun to get swept up in the drama of it all just like a real-life romcom so I’m gonna force it anyway! An akuma’s attacking and going near it could endanger her life and make Ladybug and Chat Noir’s job all the harder because they’re having to protect the kid that keeps running on to the battle field? Don’t care, I wanna live my dream and enjoy the excitement of seeing real lives superheroes fighting a real life supervillain and get loads of views on my blog while doing so! Marinette is being extremely insistent about a prior engagement that she’s trying very hard to keep secret? Don’t care, I wanna see my ship sail and any prior engagement is either a flat out lie or I demand to know all the deets because my best friend isn’t allowed to have anything in her life that is personal and private and I’m not intimately part of!

Admittedly, most of these sorts of problems stem from an honest desire in Alya to help out and make a difference in the world, mixed with her black-and-white morality and inability to get out of her own head, as well as her boundless thirst for knowledge about everything and anything that interests her. And while all of it (save perhaps the morality bit, but again, she’s still a child and kids tend to have trouble seeing the shades of gray between) it can be problematic at the levels she takes it to. 

Do people occasionally need a push to get them to take the actions they really and truly desire to make their lives better? Sometimes, yes. But those pushes have to be situational and you have to be willing to listen to the person you’re giving a push to in order to understand if they really need a push or if they just need time. When Marinette was having troubles getting up the guts to actually hand Adrien his birthday present? Yeah, giving Marinette a bit of a push to get her actually out there and talking to the boy was the right call. Perhaps going out with her and helping lead the conversation might have made it easier on Marinette and actually guaranteed he got the gift, but she believed Marinette could do it on her own. Encouraging Marinette to stand up to Chloe in the Origins episode? Definitely okay, as Marinette more just needed to be assured that she wouldn’t be abandoned completely for putting her foot down than actually be pushed to stand up for herself as Alya more let Marinette take the lead and just followed her cues and gave her unwavering support in taking her chair back. Pressing the call button on Marinette’s phone when the girl is insisting she’s not ready to ask Adrien out yet and can’t read aloud the script she wrote her without even giving her the chance to read it over and prepare at all? Not cool. Dragging Marinette away from an actual job she’s supposed to be doing (babysitting Manon) in order to go out and stalk Adrien at his place of work? Again, not cool. 

But for Alya to start learning her lesson about how much is okay to push and when, people really have to start putting their foot down and refusing to budge and pointing out Alya’s bad behaviour for what it is. And unfortunately, Marinette really isn’t the sort of person who is able to do that short of being pushed too far and blowing up with her lashing out. Alya’s gonna need someone else to teach her what is and is not okay as far as pushing other people to get her way, and someone other than Alya is going to have to be the one to be there for Marinette to let her know it’s alright to tell Alya to back off sometimes when she’s getting too pushy about things. Thankfully there’s an entire girlsquad to choose from, but friendships between the squad have to develop a bit more before something like that can start really taking affect. 

So, basically in conclusion, while Alya may be a wonderful person on her own and even a pretty good friend, I don’t really think she’s the best friend a girl like Marinette needs. At least, not so early in their respective character arcs. With a bit of growth on both ends, they could develop into something closer to what each of them requires. Or they could diverge into a state of merely being friends instead of best friends as they each find other things to fill their time and other relationships to complete themselves with. 

So then what other things are there for Alya? Well, most blatantly for anyone who’s seen canon is her relationship with Nino. I don’t know about most of you, but I recall when my friends first started dating, that first relationship they had seemed to consume like 90% of their mental capacity. Their dates, what it was like to kiss, how fast should they be moving, that one funny thing he said last week that they just have to share, etc. Dating Nino would be a very easy and convenient way to distract Alya away from Marinette and give the other girl a chance to grow and develop. 

Another, rather obvious option, is to expand her social circle to include their other friends. The girlsquad already exists. It is there and waiting for the opportunity to interact. Mixing Alya with the others so that Alya can learn boundaries and such with characters that have more self-esteem like Alix or Rose who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and feelings to Alya over how she’s behaving towards them would be a good way to start her on the process of personal growth without leaving everything on Marinette’s shoulders to initiate. It would also let Marinette see that just because you’re friends you can still speak up for yourself without ruining everything, and that real friends won’t hold it against you or abandon you for doing so. It would let her see and know that such things are okay and she could then follow their examples to start building up some boundaries of her own that are then respected. 

Alternately, there’s also fulfilling parts of Alya’s desires in order to keep her distracted somewhat form other parts which is sort of what I start doing in this upcoming chapter using AdriChat. While Adrien Agreste (TM) had to grow up dealing with everything that was involved in being Adrien Agreste (TM) (*cough*Gabriel*cough*), he also grew up with having Chloe as his one and only friend. He’s shown as Chat Noir that he knows how to throw down in a verbal spar, and being poster boy for the Gabriel Brand I’d be very surprised if he was also not coached on how to talk to reporters and give an endless non-answers to any number of inane questions. So as Chat Noir, having successfully pulled the wool over Alya’s eyes and making her believe he was King of the Cat Fairies, he approaches her again for assistance in his investigations into the identity of Papillon. Now Alya, being Alya, as soon as she decided that Chat Noir was a character from Celtic Mythology, of course then went and looked up everything there was to know about dealing with fairies. Including rules of conduct and warnings about behaviour.

So when Chat Noir hands her all his combined data that he’s collected so far, requesting her to help him compile it all and to store it safely, but on the condition that she not tell anyone, she is both excited enough for the opportunity as well as scared enough about not offending him that she doesn’t dare refuse. I mean, gifts from fae are never what they seem and the rules of the contract are to be followed to the letter or else horrible consequences can occur. As much as she wants this, she can’t go blabbing and spreading the information around, it’s also filled with people’s personal experiences at their lowest moments and as much as she’s nosy, she does still seem like she WANTS to be respectful of others and be a good person. So now she’s his junior detective/sidekick and ripe for a friendship to blossom between the two. After all, they have so much in common, it’s shocking they’re not shown more in the show as being friends. They’re both huge geeks about superheroes, both huge Ladybug fans, both brand new students at the school, etc. 

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

i've watched everything except the last two episodes now. i'm almost... afraid to? i know that the end of this season is essentially the end of this era of miraculous -- that even if the show continues beyond this point, it'll be different from how it was before. this, here, is the END. i've been watching for 8 years at this point. in a way i don't feel ready, even if i haven't thought about this show much recently. i've been here so long it'll always have a place in my heart. i can't believe it's "over".

i'll watch the final two episodes after dinner and scream about those later. until then i've put all my liveblogging (aka incoherent reactions) under the cut

intuition: YOOOOOOO NEW ROBOT IN MAX’S FAMILY?? YESSSS!!! there were a lot of parallels to the episode where markov got akumatised, which was awesome! and it was great to see claudie again! (on a slightly more depressing note, a relative of mine passed away from cancer just last night and although it wasn’t a super close relative or anything, seeing the effect of the cataclysm on gabriel and how he and nathalie know they don’t have long to live as it gets progressively worse, it sort of... hit a bit close to home at times... i’m alright though, don’t worry, like i said it wasn’t a close relative) in other news, marinette and adrien’s relationship continues to be adorable

protection: i was going to say “kagami needs a freaking hug” but she did get a double hug at the end, which was sweet! it hurts to see someone like her, unused to showing strong emotions and having relationships, suffering so much from being in a tough situation on top of being manipulated by lila, god this poor girl. (marinette and adrien’s relationship is still adorable but rather cheesy at times, especially with marc and nath trying to make it like a shoujo manga kjhksfjhsjkfhgk and i find myself going “I CAN’T WATCH THIS” with more frequency, but that just might be me and my romance repulsion lmao) (also strong ot3 vibes with kagami)

adoration: ZOE IS IN LOVE WITH MARINETTE THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!!! i freaking knew it!! all the way through the episode i kept thinking “marinette girl omg it’s YOU she’s in love with smh” and i was right!!! that was pretty cute! and i’m proud of marinette for managing to tell adrien “je t’aime”, but that ending oh my god... gabriel doing the senti-control thing to his son... (well i’m presuming adrien is a senti, it’s not fully confirmed yet)... that was haunting. i also feel bad for both chloe and sabrina from a writing perspective because i do still miss chloe’s redemption arc from season 2, it really feels like they just dropped that in order to make zoe look better by comparison, and sabrina just can’t get a break no matter what. ah well, whatever... other things: in the rain playing at the end of the episode yeeted me back into origins for a sec, i can’t believe they’re still letting nino be part of kitty section even though he can’t play the guitar, kitty section merch in general, i didn’t realise marc and zoe were in the year below marinette

emotion: gobsmacked... sobbing. that was a work of art. from the colours and lighting, to the symbolism, the callbacks, the felix reveal... everything. my god. what the hell. felix crying almost made me cry. the way he called the blood moon his little sister and showed so much pain when destroying it -- after all, he too is a senti, he knows how it feels to be one. all he ever wanted was to be free!! he wanted to help adrien!! he’s horrified by the lengths he himself went to, he breaks down into tears skjamn nkbgksbergnse jrgluiesrgkjaebrltgekrjtbajerbgj aauuguuuuuuuuguughhghhghhHJHKJDFHJS

pretention: and it just keeps going?? first the epic roast battle between gabriel and marinette where marinette basically slam dunked him and it was epic, and then.. f-feligami? you know what, i think i’m here for it actually, it’s chaotic and felix has no idea how to do anything in a normal way and it’s very crunchy and interesting. and the stuff he said!! so kagami is a senti too? or did he just mean metaphorically, since she’s under her mother’s control? (yeah i’m not calling them “sentimonsters” anymore, it feels cruel... just “senti” now) anyway my god this show is fantastic. also i love how “we’re sending you to LONDON” is considered such a threat lmao like yeah as a londoner it just be like that

revelation: SKDJGHKJDFHA;HDFK??

confrontation: yes sabrina!!! you go girl!!! i hope her newfound courage sticks, at least. and then there’s lila... what on earth are we going to do with you? she really just disguises herself and keeps on lying...

collusion: that was extremely french, i can feel the revolution coming... *checks episode list* oh yeah, the next episode is literally called revolution, that makes sense. also omg ms bustier has a wife?? and she’s awesome! i love how far things have come in terms of censorship when you consider how it was several years ago

revolution: HELLO EXCUSE ME???? here i was thinking “ah yes this is Very French, of course there’s a revolution, and ooh nice they grew up a bit and can use their powers continuously now, and--” only for the end of the episode to absolutely slam me with the feeLS WHAT THE HECK, THEY KISSED AND THERE WAS THAT DRAMATIC MUSIC AND ADRIEN HAS HALF OF THE BRACELET AND CHLOE IS SOBBING BECAUSE SHE’S LOST EVERYTHING AND MIGHT FINALLY REPENT AND OOHHSDHGSK KMY GO DS KRJHSKRJNS

representation: two seconds in and i’m already laughing SO HARD at the “BBD” news presenter taking a sip of tea and then saying “god save the king” before starting the news what the fuck i’m laughindfjks aso hard no you don’t understand, i’m english so this is extra funny rksjfgksemOKAY anyway now to watch the rest of the episode...

(two seconds later) NO WAIT I’M NOT DONE YET OMG PLAGG WITH THE BRITISH CHEES.E PLAGG WENT TO TESCO OH Y GDODS HE REALLY WENT TO TESCO I’M DYINGGGGG PLAGG WENT TO TESCO IS CANON NOW HE WENT TO TESCOOOOOO YOOOOOOOOOO

(another two seconds) wait so kagami also knew that marinette is ladybug? did i forget about that or had they not shown it? i knew that luka knew, but.. oH and marc and nath were gonna kiss and marinette interrupted them omg hahahahsbdjfsfjgsk ah well i need to stop stopping every two seconds now don’t i

(finished watching the episode) another work of art. chat noir’s nightmare is just chat blanc. his fight with his father. felix’s backstory. marinette’s pain. too many thoughts, no words... *lying on the floor gasping for air*

i'll the last two once i've eaten dinner bc i'm dying scoob

i really have to catch up on miraculous, don’t i? every second post i see is tagged “ml spoilers” so i can’t look at it but from the sounds of it things have been wild

[tarysande]

Oh no, I've been thinking.

Okay, I can't stop thinking about something ending-related. I don't know this for certain, but based on previous statements and such, it feels like the writers were always aiming for a bittersweet ending. Like, no matter what else happened or how the story evolved, come hell (lol) or high water, that ending couldn't just be happy. For reasons. I guess.

Now, I don't mind a bittersweet ending ... if it makes sense for the ending to be bittersweet.

I critique stories for a living. I'm literally taking a break from the developmental edit of someone's novel to write this post. And the persistent thought that bugs me about the Rory setup is that it is so artificial. Time travel is a pain in the narrative ass. Time travel suddenly introduced in the sixth season of a show that has never touched on time travel? As an editor, I probably would've pointed out that time travel for the purpose of angst, especially time travel without rules that make sense ("I don't know anything about time travel! Except I do know you have to take the most painful path!"), seemingly introduced as a final ploy to make that bittersweet ending work ... well, to me, it breaks the narrative contract they established with the audience. Your audience is going to be confused. An editor's job is to alert the writer to any potential confusion so it can be fixed before the story goes to print, etc. Confused audiences get mad, annoyed, frustrated. They feel hurt. They put down the book and don't pick it up again. Usually, writers don't want that. But they're so close to their work that they need a completely outside perspective to say, "Hey, I'm not sure you realize this, but..."

I mean, I keep referring to Rory as "deus ex daughter" because in literary terms, she is a blatant deus ex machina. Rory is the god in the machine of the Bittersweet Ending.

Now, I loved a lot of S6. I did. My overall feeling about the season is not negative. But ... I can't stop thinking about why the things I didn't like REALLY didn't work for me.

I loved the emotional growth we saw in Lucifer and Chloe facilitated by the question of parenting and parental love. I did. And I would have loved to see a lot of those notes hit not with an angel kid out of nowhere ... but with the daughter already in the picture. Especially because it would have circumvented the icky idea that a child has to be one's flesh and blood to induce such feelings. I also understand that coronavirus and Scarlett's age and schedule made this difficult. But I just can't swallow that the only way to wrap up the story of this show--a show about found family, non-traditional family, friendship, connection, FREE WILL, love in all its many shapes and forms and colors ... was to introduce a brand new character via a device (time travel) that fails to make sense almost every time it's used, no matter the medium. (And then had only that brand new character be there when her mother died. Don't even get me started. Ugh.)

If time travel was always going to be on the table, couldn't we have found a more plausible way to use it with the characters we already knew, loved, and had spent four or five seasons with? A time-travelling older Trixie, say? If you're going to use the impossible device, just ... twist it another way to make it work.

Okay. Okay. So, leaving Trixie aside for now just like the show did, let's say we leave everything about the season the same, even Rory. Do you know what ending makes more narrative sense?

Future Rory sacrificing herself by NOT forcing Lucifer to make a cruel and impossible "choice" so the baby that might have been her grows up with a family that loves her. Chloe's already pregnant. That's not going to be undone. And this nonsense of a "closed time loop" falls apart if you side-eye it for even a few seconds. The Rory who came from the future never exists except in the memories of those she met when she came back from that future. Chloe and Lucifer lose that daughter even as they gain the new one whose existence is not a tool of unrelenting fate because wow this show has always been about free will what the heck happened there yikes. And a choice made under the duress Chloe and Lucifer were under, forced out of them, and forcing them to "choose" a life apart for *handwave* Reasons has nothing to do with free will. A "choice" made at gunpoint is not a real choice. Future Rory basically bullied them into ensuring she got to exist--something, quite frankly, neither her parents would have done.

Instead, how much more appropriately bittersweet is it if Chloe and Lucifer lose that child while gaining one who, because of that angry time-travelling version, will never suffer as she did.

Also as an editor: the groundwork for my version is already laid, by the way. It should have been Rory learning about the importance of free will over fate. The importance of personal sacrifice. The importance of not thinking your young self knows best ... because experience and therapy will help rid you of that self-centered world view. That's the contract the writers made with us with this show. And Chloe and Lucifer have already BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT. (See: the end of S4.)

Furthermore, this season finally HAD Chloe and Lucifer DEAL WITH the only thing that actually would have contributed to a narrative, characterization-based reason for Lucifer to disappear: His history of running and his putting Chloe on a pedestal. Once they really talked that out, his "disappearance" became a Rory-induced trauma of inexplicable fate that flies in the face of all the progress Lucifer made over six seasons. (I would rather have had more of that and less of mysterious disappearing oh no plot.)

And I'm sorry, the "Once you get to Hell you're going to work 24/7" excuse given for why Lucifer won't be around and why he can't make time for Chloe until she's DEAD(????!???) is ... it's lame. If AMENADIEL AS GOD can make time for his kid's birthday party, I refuse to believe Lucifer can't work out some Hell/Earth-work/life balance. Never mind that in the show about partnerships, the Bittersweet Ending just ... destroyed it. Chloe was planning on being God's consultant; she could have helped Lucifer solve Hell's Trauma Mysteries (it's what she did with Jimmy, setting up that yeah, Lucifer could do it alone like he accidentally did with Lee, but doing it with HIS TRUTHSEEKING PARTNER would be more effective). Just as Lucifer could have continued helping HER solve some of the problems within "that corrupt little organization" of hers.

tl;dr: I think the writers fixated so completely on their version of Bittersweet that they missed all the foreshadowing, groundwork, and clues that were right there, already built into the story, poised for a different kind of ending than the one they once imagined. That's why so many parts of it feel almost-but-not-quite right and why these aspects are so off-putting. That's why it's just not ... organic. It's something squeezed into a box it grew out of ages ago.

Ironically, certain elements of this season involved the writers insisting on the FATE they decided long ago instead of letting the story and the characters have the FREE WILL to choose a different, more fitting, more organic ending--one that had long-since evolved past that original flavor of Bittersweet.

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Con Man's Daughter (3)

I have probably said it before but I haven't watch MLB except for a few episodes and I basically looked at the wiki for the plot of origins. But whatever, Hope you like it.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 2)(Part 4)

----

Because Marinette has John Constantine as a father. She might retaliate against Chloe in more….magical ways.

John brings Marinette over to his house to tutor her in magic more safely in a place more equipped to handle stray spells.

And said house is full of books filled with magic spells and some of them are exclusively filled with curses.

If a 9-year-old Marinette happened to go home one day with a book that was definitely off-limits to her. Her father doesn’t have to know.

Well, it’s just a coincidence that Chloe was unable to talk for a whole day because she could only ribbit like a frog.

And that she had a very nasty rash afterwards that made her absent for over a week.

And she somehow had her hair in a horrible shade of purple that was such an eyesore that made her too ashamed to come out of her room.

It was also a big coincidence that Chloe suffered from those bad things after she bullied Marinette and made other kids cry.

------

Sabine while talking to John about something on the phone one day, “I know I agreed to let you teach Marinette to protect herself but were the curses really necessary?”

John was confused and a horrible niggling feeling started in the back of his head. “Curses? Like what?”

“There is this mean girl in her class. Teachers let her get away with bullying because her father is the new mayor. Making people have lumps all over their body like a bubonic plague victim got to be one of your magic tricks. I appreciate you looking out for her like that but you have to tell me about things like this beforehand.”

“Sabine, darling, can you hold on for a few minutes? I need to check something.”

“What? John! Don’t you dare hang up on me! I just want some answers.”

A few minutes later….

There were a few swears heard on the other end before John came back. “Oh Bollocks!”

“Sabine, if I didn’t believe you then, I believe you now. Marinette is definitely my daughter.”

“Okay, what happened John?”

“Well, it looks like one of my books has been replaced with…’The Witches’ by Ronald Dahl. I don’t know whether to be angry or proud.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“The one about Witches. It is a classic, Mr Dahl nearly got it right except for the money thing, witches actually make diamonds and other gems and sell them off instead. The book of Hecate? It would be best if I took it off your hands before one of those spells backfires badly.”

----

Marinette was grounded but she somehow got her parents to agree to let her learn curses. She can only cast them at most five times a year so she had to make them count. (Sabine shouldn’t really encourage this behaviour but Chloe had made Marinette miserable and that school lets her get away with bullying other children. And because of Chloe’s father, they can’t do anything much. This might teach that awful girl a lesson or two.)

Chloe suspected that Marinette was behind the bad things happening.

No. Chloe knew for a fact that Marinette was behind the bad things happening to her.

After nearly everyone left the class except for Marinette, Chloe walked up to Marinette and did her usual mocking and how superior she was.

Instead of the expected reaction of tears, the ravenette simply looked at her straight in the eyes and chanted ominously in a foreign language.

Chloe at first rolled her eyes and commented that she was a freak until light shone from Marinette’s hands and Chloe began to glow but not in a good way.

“What did you do?!” Chloe shrieked, struggling to move.

Marinette after the spell was done, held up a mirror and Chloe saw that she had fur all over her body and she looked like a monkey. She screamed.

She felt something moving from her butt and turned around to see a tail sticking out of her skirt.

Chloe screamed again and fainted on the spot.

Marinette used an invisibility charm and got out of the classroom as the teachers came in to see the source of the screaming.(CCTV just showed Chloe being alone in the class with Marinette being the last one to leave. She tried very hard not to laugh when they questioned her.)

The doctors couldn’t figure out how Chloe ended up like that and every time she shaved the fur off, it grew back the next morning. They discuss surgically removing the tail to which Chloe paled although it was hard to tell with the fur.

Chloe didn’t leave her room until Sabine told Marinette to lift the curse when she found out about it. Which was two weeks after the incident.

During that time, Chloe plotted revenge.

First day back, Chloe stomped up on Marinette and began accusing her of turning her into that monstrosity and she will pay for it.

Marinette simply rolled her eyes to the back of her head so the whites of her eyes were shown which John had taught her how to do for funsies and began chanting in that unknown language. (Which was actually the recipe for her family’s famous cupcakes in Latin. She only had 2 chances left for curses and was going to save them.)

Chloe freaked out and she scrambled away from Marinette as far as she could, calling her a freak and a monster along the way.

“I prefer to be called Enchantress.” Marinette shouted after her good-naturally, her eyes back to normal.

The entire courtyard was silent before cheering. Congratulating the pig-tailed girl on defeating the wicked witch of the west.

Kim being a drama queen and kneeling before Marinette, “O Enchantress, you protect us from the wicked witch. We are forever in your debt.”

“Rise and live out your lives free from her ugly eyeshadow and terrible colour scheme.”

Chloe tried many different tactics to make other people believe that Marinette had magic and was putting curses on her.

Mme Bustier lectured Marinette about being the perfect example and to stop with the magic curses.

Marinette, not agreeing with the bullshit philosophy and being a Constantine, meaning she treats the rules as more of a guideline, cursed her teacher to have bad luck for a while.

(Sabine was at first angry that Marinette cursed her teacher until she found out about forgiving others' philosophy that Bustier tried to force on Marinette even though Marinette didn’t do anything wrong and Chloe had insulted Marinette’s heritage.)

Marinette, being a little petty, entered the school talent show and did non-magical magic tricks, lessons courtesy of Aunty Z (Zatanna) and looked straight into Bustier’s eyes as she announced what she was going to do.

This all results in Chloe less likely to pick on Marinette and try to stay out of her bad side as much as possible. Picking on other kids also results in curses so she is much less of a bully.

Chloe still thinks that everyone is beneath her but she doesn’t try to cause trouble as much for fear of retaliation.

She does actively try to prove that Marinette was the one putting curses on her which mainly backfires because everyone thinks it’s cool and Marinette is magic confirmed after placing first in the talent show. (John was there with Zatanna to see the efforts of her lessons and looked like a proud parent the entire time.)

Bustier doesn’t push Marinette to be the perfect example anymore but deeming her as a problem child and giving her detentions for it.

Tom and Sabine got the school board involved who were upset at Bustier for giving detention to a student who wasn’t even causing trouble in class except for entertaining her classmates with ‘magic’ tricks during lunch.

She was reprimanded and had to attend a few training courses and seminars.

Chloe gets away with less things afterwards. Mayor’s daughter or not

-----

When Adrien and Alya came into the picture, things were more different.

Marinette’s first day of school, happened like in canon.

Except Alya walked in on Marinette was arguing with Chloe about her seat and Marinette began chanting in Sumerian, causing Chloe to scream in horror and calling for Sabrina to stop her. Alya thought that was cool and wanted to befriend this awesome quirky girl with pigtails.

Marinette thought that the new girl would make a nice friend with how she backed Marinette against Chloe. She might have to be more careful of her things when letting Alya over.

Stoneheart still happened except Marinette’s first reaction to Tikki was a little different.

Marinette called her dad because the stone monster thing that was once Ivan had a hint of magic and she didn’t know what it was and how to fix it.

She told John about the Stoneheart before noticing a black box on her desk.

She didn’t have this box in her room before and someone managed to get through her wards to put it there so she was very suspicious of it. (Master Fu didn’t take note of the small shock when he went through the invisible barrier. Wyazz on the other hand was curious at the magical protection surrounding the new Ladybug but kept his observation to himself.)

“Dad, you didn’t happen to come into my room while I was at school, did you?”

“No, why?”

“There is a strange box on my desk that wasn’t there before. I am going to open it.”

“Don’t open it until I get there-”

She cautiously opened it, a spell on her lips when there was a flash of light.

“Hello, Marinette. I am Tikki and you are going to be a super-”

Tikki didn’t manage to finish her sentence before being trapped in a magic cage that resembles a crystal.

“Hello, sweetheart, Mari, darling you there?” John’s worried voice came from the phone speaker.

“Yeah, there is a floating red bug mouse thing called Tikki trapped in my room. How fast can you get here?” Marinette replied.

“It will take a few days to tie up some loose ends, after that I will be taking the next flight to Paris.”

Tikki giggled, “I am not a bug mouse. I am a kwami and I give you superpowers to be a hero.”

Marinette gave her an incredulous look, “You are joking, right?”

“A Kwami? Haven’t heard that in a while. What is a powerful magical artifact doing in the hands of my little girl?” John was very surprised and curious. He was also worried because they were only in use when the world needed it most.

“I don’t have time to explain but Marinette was chosen for the task. There is an akuma loose in Paris. It’s the stone monster you saw earlier. Marinette, you need to put on the earrings and transform.” Tikki quickly filled in her powers and what she can do.

“And this is important. No one can know about your identity.”

“Too late for that. My dad knows.”

“Your dad is that strange talking metal tablet?”

“What? No. Don’t you know what a phone is? You know what. I will explain later. Tikki, spots on.”

Her costume is more like a black bodysuit worn under a red coat with a black hood, buttoned up with black buttons and strategically placed black dots that wasn’t an eyesore to her designer senses. Instead of a domino mask she wears an all black one that covers her head with white lenses to show where her eyes are. Think Spider-Gwen from the Spider-Verse style except that the hood is part of the coat. (Okay, it sounds like the Sparrow's suit now that I think about it. But *throws canon out the window into a burning pit* Let's continue.)

------

Marinette slumped on her chair, exhausted.

Apparently, she had a partner. Chat Noir was a little over the top and not properly informed or trained for what they are up against. She might have to talk to him about it later.

She looked at the black butterfly fluttering around in the jar with trap wards carved into it. Marinette wanted to keep it and study it

Tikki told her to purify it with her yo-yo like it was something that made sense. But when it comes to Magic, everything and nothing does.

Right now, she was catching Tikki up on what has changed since the last time she was out.

Tikki was a little worried about her dad knowing about Ladybug. But Marinette assured that her father was good at keeping secrets and he isn’t in Paris all the time so there are less chances of him getting akumatized.

Apparently there is an idiot with a powerful magic brooch loose in Paris and is responsible for turning Ivan into that Stoneheart thing. And the city of Love is going to see more of these attacks often.

Boy, was her dad going to love this.

------

Marinette goes to school the next day while she is there, the butterfly somehow manages to escape.

She meets Adrien and upon feeling his destructive aura which surrounds him like she saw on Chat Noir yesterday. She tried not to groan at the fact that Chloe’s friend is apparently her partner and she doesn’t want to put her life in the hands of someone who is going to ‘torment’ her in her civilian life.

She wonders how he even got chosen as Chat Noir and be trusted with something as powerful as the embodiment of destruction.

She is going to have a talk with Tikki to find this mysterious person that ‘chose’ her and she was going to give them a piece of her mind when she finds them.

------- Time skip -----

Turns out the idiot with the powerful magic artifact is a dramatic bitch that chose the name ‘Hawkmoth’ who wanted her earrings and Chat Noir’s ring.

She was also going to have to find better entrapping spells.

Another thing is that Chloe’s friend is not as mean as she is. So one less thing to be worried about. A bit too trusting and naive for her taste.

No crush because this Marinette is much more cynical. ( It’s obvious that he wears a mask to school and this boy was given the miraculous of destruction for a reason. She tries to find out why, resulting in Alya thinking she has a crush.)

----

Taglist: @vixen-uchiha, @laurcad123