#I’m not saying max is pixel perfect

[sargeantsarmy]

Crying because I saw someone(a h a ckearney shipper) say that Max seems manipulative towards Laura in the prologue and their relationship is toxic, but like, bro Laura getting with the guy that locked her up for two months and can brutally kill her with no hesitation ISN’T toxic????

[robingurl]

Small rant below on cozy gamers from someone that grew up on island builders, city builders and farming games.

I’ve finally started playing Disney Dreamlight and my god, some of the players are absolutely insufferable. Ive not met one normal player.

I’ve never wanted to strangle so many people at once (and I’m a moonie and kuroshitsuji fan new fans for both fandoms smh 😅) .

It literally non stop complaints about how repetitive it is and how there isn’t room to place their characters and how Disney has failed them and aren’t listening and now they are boycotting and not playing - ITS. SO. DAMN. STUPID.

1. First and foremost Disney owes you jack shit. You bought the game and gave them $60 plus the price of the DLC if you paid for it. They held up their end of the bargain and gave you a game. It’s a complete transaction and they don’t give two shits about your whining.

2. The game is going to be repetitive. You’re playing a harvest moon/stardew valley/animal crossing game. THATS THE ENTIRE POINT OF THESE GAMES. You repeatedly talk to villagers, upgrade your house, grow crops, do quests that will sometimes require 20 fish and 200 carrots. The game isn’t broken or a bad game. It’s doing its JOB and what it was created to do.

These games aren’t meant for everyone and yes once you play this game into the ground and cover every space (then complain your game crashes because you’re overloading your graphics cards 🤦🏻‍♀️) with decorations, complete your quests , buy all the furniture and clothes, and max out your level it’s DONE.

No game has unlimited gameplay especially when you go as hard as a lot of you do. You’re going to run out of things to do until the next update. So sit and be patient or follow below:

Restart your game from scratch and move on.

No game company owes you squat. They don’t owe you updates, they don’t owe you free stuff or even DLCs.

The fact that Disney is doing this, is great and I’m excited.

3. New characters. This is for my overly dramatic players who have to over achieve and cover every single pixelated space on their valley, you will need to REMOVE SOMETHING to make room for the new characters coming in.

Disney doesn’t owe you a new biome and if you’d shrink the 2 acre palace you made for Ariel and Belle, it would fit quite nicely.

First you complain about not enough to do, then Disney GIVES YOU MORE CONTENT (for FREE I might add) and you bitch about where to put it.

No one cares Ashleigh, just change up your valley and move on.

4. Playing on the switch. Yes the gameplay isn’t perfect but I’ve been grinding and I really haven’t run into problems like all of you complain about. I’m not saying you’re lying but my guess is, like I said above, you’re decorating your island too much.

This is like ACNH, you over do it and your game will lag and crash and yes you could corrupt your game file 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s how this stuff works.

“bUt ThAtS nOt fAiR” then get a different console. Can’t afford it, make do with what you have. That’s reality.

5 “omg where is Cinderella and Snow White? 😭😞” first, Disney is putting in their popular characters first and foremost. A lot of the demographic they are pointing to (not a 32 Disney adult) don’t know the older princesses. Second, Cinderella can’t move in when her castle is covered in thorns… just saying. My guess is she’ll be the last we unlock.

As much as I love older Disney, I know they won’t appear until later. I was happily surprised Merlin was one of the first people we met in the game and same with the Fairy God Mother later on. But I know realistically unless these princesses are needed for the main story line, they aren’t a priority.

Yes, I get that older people play this game, I’m one of them, but I’m not disillusioned into thinking Disney will bend to my will just because I cry and beg.

6. “Pay to play” this game isn’t pay to play. Sure you can CHOOSE to buy those blue tokens but THE GAME DOESN’T REQUIRE THE PURCHASE. You can earn these coins through game play and dream snaps. Disney is not locking the game so you have to buy them, I’ve not been locked out once.

So stop lying to people.

If you really want that ride or that dress and you’re an adult with adult money- YOU CAN CHOOSE to spend real money but it’s not a required part of the game.

bUt KiDs pLaY tHiS gAmE 😖 ok and? Put your foot down, remove your payment information from the game shop and step up and be a fucking parent and supervise your child on what she/he’s doing on the console you bought them. Your lack of parenting isn’t Disney’s fault.

That’s on you 😌✨

7. Dreamsnaps. No one is required to vote for your perfectly curated photo with your 1000 hour park in the BG.

There are actual kids playing this game and new or casual players. They deserve a vote as well.

Sure they look great but don’t expect an automatic win. It’s more fun, imo, to find the clever ones of the first time/casual players who don’t have Disney land behind them.

Same with the kids that have Mike from Monsters Inc belching 😂 it’s a game for kids, so there will be lots of those photos.

I vote for everything but the perfect dreamsnaps, but that’s just me.

I’m not saying not to put your all into it because you will still get a hefty amount of star coins (blue things) from following the prompt, but please stop complaining about how people could possibly vote for a “boring” “obviously not following the prompt” submissions.

Your popular mean girl techniques don’t work in the digital world. You can’t bully people into voting for you 🥰

If you’ve gotten this far into this rant and you’re unsure if you want to buy the game: yes do it. It’s such a charming well made game that lets you hang out with a lot of characters from your childhood.

Just don’t go to Reddit, TikTok or YouTube and read the comments. You’ll lose your mind. 🥴

Reach out to me if you want any help for new players. I’m still kinda new but we’ll figure it out together! 🥰

[mitchelldailygames]

Heroes of Song Devlog Part 11: Picking It Back Up

I set this game to the side for a bit to work on some other projects, but recently have found some new motivation and have been diving back into it! As always, the design principles:

The heroes are cute.

Kindness matters.

The world is weird.

Sometimes you don’t fight. Sometimes you do.

Health is hearts.

Art Announcement

One of the main drivers of my new motivation is that I got art back! Check back here on the Wednesday after Christmas to see the first piece! You can also follow me on the website I continue to call Twitter to see it.

Having something to look at, something to grasp of this world I’ve been imagining, is very exciting and life-giving. On all other projects I’ve released, I’ve either done the art myself or used stock images, so there were always limitations. Having a very talented artist actually create the perfect artwork for this game is incredible. I highly recommend it. 10/10.

The artist is @warrenbutgnome. You should definitely check out his stuff.

Layout or “The Look”

I’ve recently been trying out some layout ideas and feel like I’m approaching something that I like. You can see it below. The pixelation is hiding some of the art I will be revealing soon, and the text isn’t final, but you can get the idea. I’ll just say, I’m sticking with “The heroes are cute.”

I like having the solid color corners so you can easily find chapters. The dots in that solid color field are the forj’d rune numbers for the chapter number. I think overall, this look is pretty clean and doesn’t interfere with the text. This is friendlier and softer than a lot of the stuff I’ve made (especially recently) which I think is good for this game.

The text will be justified, not left aligned. I’ve already changed it on the document. The fonts used here are Da Pandora for the title/chapter headings and Palatino for everything else. I don’t know what else to say about it, but getting this done, even though I’m a long way off from actually finalizing text and laying everything out, is really encouraging. If you have suggestions or feedback, I’m open to it!

Character Sheet

I’ve also been working on the character sheet. You can find the current version of first page, which contains the essential information for a character, below.

Knowing how much space I actually have while looking at the page on a computer is always a challenge for me. I have a tendency to give way too much space for some things and not leaving enough for others. Looking at it now, I see there is much more space for writing out the second piece of gear than the first. That could definitely be improved. Earlier versions had huge boxes for the character portrait/description, and I like it slimmed down.

I liked the idea of coloring in the symbols with color for hearts, effort, and spirit based on how much your max was. Trying it out with just normal pencils is a little awkward, so I might end up making a version that doesn’t have that so I can free up space for writing out move descriptions or songs, runes, and rituals. I’m also not sure how to get a fillable pdf that allows filling up the images for the pools without doing some programming that I don’t know how to do. That’s definitely no the top priority at the moment, but it’s on my mind. If someone reading this knows exactly how they’d do it, I’d be willing to pay to get it done.

Other Stuff

I’ve been tweaking the rules. I’ve been stat-ing out enemies. I’ve even been working out some downtime systems including a community building mechanic and mini-games for a variety of leisure/non-adventuring activities like fishing/hunting, foraging, and cooking. I also made a list of prompts for getting to know your characters a bit better when nothing else is going on. Sometimes you don’t fight.

I was going to get into all of that, but as I started writing it, I realized it really was its own post. So keep an eye out for that down the line!

The world is weird; kindness matters.

--Daily

[frabjousdei]

The Technocolour Dreamcoat 3.0 beta

After ten years of faithful service, the Technocolour Dreamcoat 2.0 finally kicked the bucket. The silicone potting over the LED strips hardens over time and when the strip bends, the hardened silicone grips the LED chips and lifts them off the copper substrate. I replaced one glitchy strip and then identified the same problem in the neighbouring one, at which point I worked out was going on and realised it was futile.

So it was time to think about a redesign. This was great, as I’d get to incorporate a bunch of the ideas I’d had and new technology that had been released over the previous decade.

What needed improvement?

It turns out the silicone-potted strips have a lifespan. What’s new in the last few years are “pearl” LED strings which contain (I assume) 2020 WS2812 LEDs potted in little blobs of milky resin. These strings are much more flexible than strips and so will at least have a different failure mode (and I hope they’re significantly longer-lived.) They’re also light—important for a wearable!—and come in an interesting variety of pitches.

Another technology that didn’t exist a decade ago is the PixelBlaze. Don’t get me wrong, FastLED on a Teensy served me very well, but I’m not a huge fan of the “C++ in nose glasses” and “IDE that took a decade after the Retina MacBook Pro to catch on to Retina font rendering” aspects of the Arduino environment.

PixelBlaze also has a very interesting approach to LED mapping: patterns draw to a 0.0 to 1.0 line (or grid, or volume) of floats and the software re-maps that back out to the physical grid of pixels for your particular build. This means it natively supports non-regular pixel maps of arbitrary size from the same pattern code. It also supports 1-, 2- and 3D mappings, including cute arrangements like polar coordinates, which is useful for a piece like a jacket that’s essentially a cylinder. I thought that was worth trying for the trade of its “JavaScript in nose glasses” environment. More thoughts on how this tradeoff went later.

Finally, power. I was peaking at about 4A delivered by two USB batteries. But that is way, way less than what the LEDs themselves can take. I wanted the next version to be able to deliver all the power the LEDs could possibly consume at max brightness.

What worked well?

I briefly flirted with the idea of a new structure but after tearing the electronics off the jacket and washing it (for the first time in… um, let’s not say) I realised that was silly. The original jacket I’d commissioned from the fetish wear shop in Amsterdam[1] was too good a starting point to give up.

Another thing that really did hold up from the first design was the power bus. I’d had my fetish fashion designer friend run a couple of flaps right around the bottom of jacket, closed with Velcro. Through each of those I ran a length of braided copper ground strap with spade connector tabs bolted onto it (the positive bus is split in two, one half for each battery; the ground goes right around.) Wires soldered onto the LED strip’s positive and negative pads had spade connectors crimped on and connected to the appropriate power bus. This gave me a low resistance power bus and basically no voltage drop between the “first” and “last” strips.

Finally, I also liked having physical controls; namely a next/previous pattern button and a brightness pot. The PixelBlaze has a built-in web server for control, but “Wait a minute, I need to connect to my jacket’s wifi” is not something I ever wanted to have to say on the Playa.

The Design Process

I ordered 1m of 50mm pitch pearl LED string to prototype with. After playing around with them and some graph paper, I decided 25mm pitch would be perfect if I offset them in alternating rows. This gives me equilateral triangles of not quite exactly 20mm per side (but close enough for government work) and a non-rectilinear arrangement which I find quite pleasing, plus a high, but workable density. Back-of-envelope calculations with the area of the jacket gets me to about 1400 pixels total with this arrangement.

Next problem was how to attach them to the jacket. The theory about Velcroing the strips to the jacket bottom layer so they could be removed for cleaning was sound, but in practice removing 32 individual strips (and unplugging their connectors) was so laborious I never did it. Plus, the pearl strings don’t really lend themselves to having Velcro attached to them. The docs for the strings (such as they are) recommend injecting power every 100-120 pixels or so and at my chosen density that’s four rows up and down the jacket from hem to collar. So I needed “panelise” the strings in lots of four columns somehow.

I could do this on strips of fabric with Velcro sewn to their backs, which I’d then sew the strings on the front of. For attaching the strings I initially shied away from sewing (because it’s not a skill I had heretofore developed) and tried using small zip ties. This didn’t work out well; it was as slow and laborious as sewing would have been and got you a bunch of sharp edges for your trouble (where you cut the tails of the ties off.) I chose hessian (burlap) as the substrate material, originally because I thought it would be easier to get the zip ties through, but it turns out it’s also amenable to sewing with a darning needle and stout thread. Another advantage is that it has a built-in “grid” that helps me keep my strings of LEDs straight and set my offsets correctly spaced.

The build

First I drew up paper patterns for all the panels; unsurprisingly one half of the jacket is a mirror image of the other so I only had to make six. Using these as templates I drew the panel outlines on the hessian then cut them out coarsely. I have access to an overlocker at my hackerspace, so I used this to hem the panels and trim them to size at the same time. Thank you to whoever had threaded and set the tension on the overlocker before I used it, it was pretty straightforward after testing out how it worked on some scraps first.

I arranged and numbered the panels flat out on the table, being double-triple careful to ensure I had everything the right way up given half of them were mirror images of the other half. Then I outlined two things: lines on the “top” of the panel, correctly-spaced for the rows of LEDs; and on the bottom two sets of “lanes” for the Velcro to be sewn in between. I had to experiment on paper first to get the spacing right as, given you can’t hand-sew through the Velcro, the LED lines and Velcro “lanes” had to be separated properly.

Next up was sewing the Velcro. This was a horrible job, considering that I’d forgotten absolutely everything I knew about using a sewing machine in the two decades or so since I’d last done it. Winding a bobbin, threading the goddamned thing, setting thread tension—I did all of these the hardest possible ways out of pure ignorance. Sewing Velcro isn’t easy either, but made less so by the Velcro I’d bought having hooks edge-to-edge with no “hem” to sew on up each side.

But with a lot of swearing I finally worked it all out and got it done. Next came attaching connectors to the LED string. I had a bunch of 3 pin JST connectors left over from a previous build but soldering them on would have been a massive pain. So I learned about the latest thing in butt connectors: solderless butt connectors! I ordered the smallest ones I could from Amazon and they turned out to be the perfect size to connect the tiny wires on the strings (32AWG?) to the much bulkier (~24AWG) tails on the JST connectors.

I soldered the female JST onto the start of the string, then sewed it onto the hessian from the reel until I got half way down the last row, at which point I’d know what my last LED would be so I could cut the string then solder on the other JST connector. Then sew down the rest of the row. The sewing is the tedious part and took the most time and swearing. You have two choices: tie on a short length of thread and have to tie it off and the new one back on quite frequently, or use a much longer thread and have it tangle on everything from the Velcro on the backs of the panels to the buttons on your shorts as you’re sewing. In the end I went with the longer thread and being careful[2], but I still don’t have a reliable knot for tying the start and end of the thread off on the hessian. Suggestions please.

The important (and deliberate) part about this design with the panels was that I could complete the whole piece in stages. As long as I had done at least two panels and stuck them either side of the zipper at the front, the piece would be presentable and I could test it in public. Indeed its first public appearance was in that form and I took it to Burning Man with only four panels finished.

Then, there’s the control hardware and software. Available alongside the PixelBlaze controller itself is the output expander. It uses a serial protocol connection to the PixelBlaze controller and can output frames to each of the 8 connected strings simultaneously, greatly increasing your effective frame rate for 3-wire LEDs. My plan was to knock up a quick protoboard harness for the controller and expansion board and socket them in but that didn’t quite work out. The PixelBlaze pins aren’t breadboard-compatible and in addition, despite being the same sizes, the controller and expansion board’s power and RX/TX pins don’t line up. I’ve got to admit I found this kinda odd and it will make it more difficult than it needs to be when I ultimately have to design a proper PCB to mount them on alongside the power components.

But with some socket headers soldered at OCD-triggering angles I got it to basically fit together. Add some header terminals for power and signal and then it’s a Simple Matter Of Programming.

Actually before programming, there’s “mapping”. As I mentioned earlier, the PB software has a really interesting approach where patterns are programmed against an 0.0 to 1.0 line/area/volume and that’s mapped back out automatically to your actual pixel grid—which you have to specify. This can be done programmatically or by uploading a photo of your piece into a web tool and clicking on each LED, in order. This is tedious for 400-odd LEDs, but do-able.

You then take the mapping file (a JSON array of 2D points in my case) and upload it to the web interface the PixelBlaze serves. Its configuration pages can then show you previews of the various patterns that come preloaded with the system as they would look on your project. There’s a “playlist editor” where you can select which patterns will play in what sequence and with what delay, and you can edit the pattern code directly.

That is, you must edit the patten code directly. The editor is built into the interface the PixelBlaze serves over http. You can’t really create and preview a pattern on a computer then upload it to the PixelBlaze—you have to create and edit patterns on the PixelBlaze, which means you can’t effectively keep them under source control. I realise the target user might not be someone who is aware of the existence of git, but as someone who does software for a job it’s a bit of a drawback.

Next the control box. I soldered a couple of buttons and a potentiometer onto a little protoboard along with some pull-up resistors and designed a 3D printable case for it in ShapeScript (thanks to Nick for helping me out with how to do beveled edges!) Then I went to check out the APIs for changing patterns in PixelBlaze and they didn’t exist. There was only one way to change the pattern, and that was to press the button that was soldered onto the PixelBlaze board—or pull the pin it was connected to down to ground. Fortunately, Wizard was able to quickly add an API for me that allowed me to do what I wanted; I wired my buttons to some GPIO pins and everything worked great[3]!

And that’s the state it was in when it came with me to Burning Man. Unfortunately, I got one wear out of it before it started glitching out. From previous experience (it took a couple of outings to get the previous version to be reliable) I’ve determined that attempting to debug this kind of thing on-Playa is futile and not much fun, so I wore other pieces. At home I worked out that poking it in a particular place on the power bus would make it glitch but I couldn’t figure out why so I stripped the panels and power bus off and re-connected everything. It was better, but still not perfect, and for now I’m side-eyeing the power connection to the control box. Given the next phase requires a complete rebuild of that, I’m not too worried.

There are several more things to do before I’m going to count the hardware as “finished”: the most obvious is the grind of sewing and wiring the remaining eight panels. Once that’s done, I will work on…

MOAR POWER

I said earlier my goal was to be able to supply as much power as the final ~1400 LEDs would take. I know this is ridiculous but christ it’ll be cool[4]. I estimate it will draw in the region of 200W, which I plan to deliver from a couple of macho remote control car batteries bucked down to 5V via two 20A Murata OKL/T-20-W12 non-isolated DC-DC converters. I’ve had a good experience with the little siblings of these Murata parts before on another project and you just can’t get 100W out of USB battery banks—even USB-C PD ones generally top out at less than that, and even if you found one that did you’d be losing a significant amount of charge going from the internal cell voltage up to 20V then back down to 5V. However I seriously do not recommend anyone else attempt this. It’s a ridiculous idea, it’s not particularly safe, and 3A @ 5V is part of the USB-C PD spec which, times two (with a split positive rail[5]), is way more than enough to be obnoxiously bright in any situation. It’s entirely a stunt. But if I can pull it off you’ll be able to see me from space.

While we’re talking about power I wanted to note another quirk of PixelBlaze I wasn’t expecting: FastLED has a really neat feature where it will dynamically, every frame, scale the brightness of the output down to fit inside your specified power limit. It’s an estimate based on the type of LEDs you use so it’s not exact but it’s very very handy, especially for wearables. If you know your batteries can only deliver X amount of current, you can ensure your patterns are as bright as they could be without going over that. This is something which is apparently not possible due to some aspect of the design of the internals of PixelBlaze.

Anyway, to do all this I’ll need to design a custom circuit board to mount the PixelBlaze, the Output Expander, the sensor board, two Murata DC-DC converters (with edge-plated castellations), a power bus capable of delivering 20A, fuses in case it can’t and some kind of enclosure for all the above that won’t melt or set me alight. And KiCad and I don’t get along.

So that’s the state of the project right now! Hopefully I’ll see you—or more likely, you’ll see me—at Burning Man 2024.

[1] Walking past one day I saw a heavy canvas strait jacket in the window. Absent the arms and with the addition of Velcro strips sewn laterally around, it was perfect.

[2] Neutralising the hook Velcro by closing it with a strip of the loop Velcro helped, but I still ended up getting tangled at the ends of it.

[3] I added a little bit of debounce logic in software and it’s not 100% reliable, but good enough. Maybe I just need to tweak the constants, or maybe debounce is better done in hardware.

[4] I know, I know, it will be the absolute opposite of cool—even maxing out at 4A the old one got pretty warm to wear.

[5] This is very important; people warned me but my first design, where I linked the outputs of multiple USB battery packs together, fried four of them before I listened.

[ct-multifandom]

Assorted ML headcanons

This post is a mile long, so for that reason I’m putting a read more very early in. That being said, I got like, every character in the season four intro in here, all several times at least, and a few other characters, so come get y’all juice. If you read all of them ily and also which one is/which ones are your favorite(s)?

The semi-popular headcanon that Kagami and Ondine go to the same school and are jock friends? *chefs kiss*

There’s also that,,, not even headcanon,,,, but theory that Alix used to be friends with Chloe and Sabrina as a mean girl trio. It’s based on scrapped early concepts where Alix was the third mean girl, and their three names referenced the main trio of Totally Spies which Astruc worked on. Considering how ml likes to work its scrapped ideas into canon, I think it’s plausible that this could come up in the show, and it’d explain the interesting way Chloe and Alix interact.

Chloe can’t bring herself to treat Alix the way she treats everyone else because she’s intimidated by the person Alix used to be, or maybe she misses that Alix? On the other hand, Alix cut Chloe off completely when she became a better person, and she doesn’t feel bad giving her a taste of her own medicine, but she isn’t scared of her like everyone else because she’s seen her normal side.

Mylene has a little ukelele she plays sometimes while Ivan plays his hand drum. She knows the basics, and occasionally they sing too.

When Marinette was younger, she was obsessed with those popular crafts like lanyard and bead stuff, rainbow loom, and duct tape fashion. She made Tom and Sabine a duct tape wallet and lanyard keychain and they were like aww. One day they walked into her room to see a full ball gown made of duct tape and woven beads and were like AAA

*Marinette cocking a hot glue gun* “wanna know how I got these scars”

When Alya goes to art club she’s usually developing photos from candid street photography

When Max is there he’s either 3D printing little knick knacks or working on making games. His akuma fighting game was a street fighter-like 2D game with pixel sprites, but he’s trying to learn 3D modeling so he can make something more complex.

Marc and Nathaniel’s manga contains information about Ladybug and Chat Noir that they should have absolutely no way of knowing.

Kagami reads their work religiously, but she only noticed the dedication to Marinette in volume one after a few rereads.

Kagami in the locker room: Marinette, your conversation with Adrien a moment ago was just like when Reverser first met The Mightillustrator. In the book, they- Marinette: Marc and Nath? I’m the one who set them up in the first place. Kagami: W- Mari: they’re literally upstairs right now. Wanna go meet them? Kagami: Wh-

Alya and Nino are both massive film nerds. Nino is obvious (Horrificator, Queen Banana) but have you seen Alya’s insta? Constant movie dates with her bf and all the besties. (I counted. Six different posts plus two on Mari’s account and one on Alya’s about Nino making a new film) They watch almost everything notable that comes out and talk about the movies in that pretentious film bro way, but they’re both so into it.

Whatever is going on with Alix and Nath’s hair? They did that together. 2am, random scissors, box dye. That’s gotta be canon, there’s no other explanation.

Zoe listens to Girl in Red and Clairo and stuff (I say this as someone who doesn’t)

Sabrina is scary good at FPSs

Going on stupid one-on-one adventures with Kim is like Zuko Field Trips from ATLA. Truly a formative experience. Have you really lived if you haven’t followed Kim on a dare, messed around, and made some dumb choices? All his friends have.

You also haven’t lived if you don’t have a friendship bracelet woven by Rose

Alix can’t swim

Ivan gets all the tea in class. He sits there in unsuspecting silence minding his own business, but he’s in the perfect location to hear everyone’s conversations at once, even when they’re whispering. Don’t worry, your secrets are safe with him.

Nath chose to sit alone in the back so he could have personal space and privacy while he draws sleeps slacks off learns, but Ms. Bustier just had to put Lila right next to him. He quickly starts to dislike her not because he knows of her true nature but because she just never shuts up like oh my god how can anyone talk so much about nothing? He doesn’t know she’s lying, but that doesn’t matter because he stopped listening anyways.

Eventually, Nath moves into the empty seat next to bestie Ivan and Lila is left alone in the back.

Everyone always expects Juleka to be something goth and/or scary on Halloween, like a vampire or classic horror movie masked serial killer, but she loves dressing up as girlboss villains. Once she was Harley Quinn while Rose was Poison Ivy, and once it was the other way around. That Harley wig was revamped from her Junko Enoshima cosplay from years past. Recently she pulled off a Cruella design that made Marinette wish she came up with it first.

Chloe, wearing a bee costume that’s actually just a cute outfit with an antennae headband: In Girl World, Halloween is the one night of the year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. Alix wearing a Meowth onesie: Meowth, that’s right!

Nath and Marc are Jesse and James. They came up with the idea.

Mylene is one of those girls whose insta story is always full of activism posts

Nino feels the need to appear cool and mature in the media he consumes. He’d be embarrassed if someone caught him listening to dance pop off the top 100 or watching the Ice Age movies. He leaves those movies out of his Letterbox, and he has one of those performative Spotifies where all his “cool” songs are organized by vibe in playlists with pretentious names and captions, and they all have matching aesthetic photography as the covers.

Adrien is the opposite. His Spotify is a mess of spontaneously made playlists of songs he felt like listening to in the moment as well as oddly specific playlists. He only makes them look nice if they’re for someone else, but otherwise they’re either cover/captionless with the default Playlist #n name or names like songs to appease the cheese demon, classical music to cry over algebra to, Ninocore, Chloe watch One Piece, and Persona 4 Dancing All Night OST.

Rose is so good at getting people gifts. She knows exactly what everyone would like, and if she sees something that reminds her of someone while shopping she’ll just buy it and hold onto it. Or not. Surprise present!

Mari, Kim, and Nino childhood friends headcanon my beloved

Zoe and Marc don’t refer to each other as friends, but rather as lab partners, which they are. The word “friend” doesn’t capture the frenemy bond between two people who are surviving Mendeleiev’s class together. Zoe keeps skipping parts of the procedure or accidentally messing up measurements like haha oopsie daisy and Marc’s like *deep breath* yeah :) haha :) oopsie daisy :) you’ll get it next time, though :) ...right?

He’s a perfectionist, control freak on a bad day. Falling behind makes him super anxious, but he also hates when his work isn’t as good as it could be if he had more time. He’s one of those people who hates group projects because he doesn’t trust the work of his group members to meet his standards.

Sabrina’s into murder mysteries and true crime. She watches documentaries late at night and tries to stay ahead of the narrator by analyzing the evidence.

Crime and mystery TV/movies, even the fictional ones, scare tf out of Chloe, as much as she tries to hide it. She makes Sabrina watch corny chick flicks, romances, and hallmark Christmas type movies when they have sleepovers.

Juleka would love to decorate her room with something super aesthetic like a bookshelf full of vintage tomes or a shelf full of candles and cool glass trinkets, but alas, she cannot because. Boat.

Luka doesn’t have this problem because he’s fine with few decorations. He likes the simplicity, open space, and natural light. He’s a minimalist, and he finds his twin’s maximalism overwhelming.

Juleka bullies Luka, but Luka can’t bully Juleka without feeling awful about it afterwards.

Juleka practices cosmetology on Luka, and she’s been doing it since they were little. She got one of those kiddy makeup things for the holidays once, and turned him into a clown, but these days the things she does are much more impressive.

Alix makes friends everywhere she goes. She’s like the “guy who knows a guy” of the group because she has connections everywhere. You thought Marinette meets every single person in Paris? Alix has met their pets and sends them happy birthday texts. Her snap score is insane.

Markov sees himself as mentally a bit younger than Max and his friends even though he’s physically less than a year old, yet contains more knowledge than they can ever hope to learn in a lifetime.

Markov emulates DS games and speed runs them. He’s always looking for new bugs to take advantage of. Despite his ability to do a ton of things at once, he can become so absorbed that he doesn’t pay attention to the things going on around him

Markov: *mindlessly following Kim and Max after school* *bumps into a pole* Max: whoa, Markov? Are you oka- wait. You’re speed running Super Mario 64 again, aren’t you. Markov: ... *blank stare* Max: yeah, okay. Please fly higher when we’re crossing the street, though?

Marinette has Operation Secret Garden code names for all of her friends, y’know, just in case.

Kagami is Nightshade, Zoe is Daffodil, Luka is Iris, Nino is Carnation, Kim is Morning Glory, Max is Hyacinth, Markov is Phlox, Ivan is Foxglove, Nath is Amaranth, Marc is Hibiscus, Chloe is Marigold, Sabrina is Zinnia, and Lila is Lilac (subtle). Good luck remembering who’s who now, Rose. I mean, Tulip. I mean, Rose.

Mylene is the secret prank master, but she doesn’t pull practical jokes very often, so she goes unnoticed. When Alix and Kim are in a heated prank war, Alix comes to her for help the way the hero of a martial arts movie will walk into an unassuming restaurant, say the secret code, and be ushered into the dojo basement to learn the ways of the hidden master.

Speaking of restaurant, the hc that Kim’s parents run a Vietnamese restaurant? Very good.

Nath is immune from pranks because he’s paranoid. No horror movies or weird unreality jokes either

Alya found Marc’s tumblr. She knows it’s his because it’s linked to his AO3 and she recognizes his writing. She reads it. A lot. His icon is Celestia Ludenberg over the rainbow pride flag. She will never tell him because if she did, he’d have a heart attack and die.

Chloe has a private spam insta that very few people are allowed to see

At first, Ivan and Adrien’s other friends from school are intimidated by Luka because,,, cool mature guy,,, but soon the tables turn and Luka is kinda intimidated by them because they could sit down, craft an elaborate bank robbery plan, carry it out successfully, and be home in time for dinner just for fun. They run around Paris doing dumb things and he’s trying so hard to mom friend them.

Marinette always uses the “class representative” excuse to be the leader of the group and take care of her classmates. Mireille is the class rep for Mendeleiev’s class and all she does on a normal day is take the attendance down to the office. Mari knows the details of everyone’s lives like Santa.

“I’ll start getting better grades if I just buckle down and study, really” “but I’m your class representative! Let me tutor you” “As your class representative, it’s my duty to attend your extracurricular sports competitions and performances” “Marinette, it’s a papercut. It’ll get better on its own” “what kind of class representative would I be if I let you walk around with the risk of infection? Let me clean that and put a bandaid on it”

Kim is really good at cooking. At first, nobody trusts him around sharp objects and fire, but he goes full dad mode at the stove. He loves the attention that comes with feeding a bunch of hungry teenagers and listening to their compliments.

If you’re feeling under the weather, Rose will be at your front door with a homemade care package as soon as she finds out.

I think this is canon? But Ivan shaves the slit onto his eyebrow ‘cause it looks cool. No scar or anything. Just badass aesthetic

Trans Nath trans Nath trans Nath

One of the biggest reasons why Max started building Markov is so that he wouldn’t be lonely at home when his mom goes to astronaut school, and later, space

Marc can get super competitive playing games. No one likes playing cards against him ‘cause he nearly always wins. Don’t even think about Monopoly. Full Nicole Watterson mode

Ivan’s family is Eastern European

Aurore is like the “Queen B” of Mendeleiev’s class, but her mean girl act is more sassy and iconic whereas Chloe is just a bully. Aurore can be self absorbed and entitled at times, but overall she’s pretty well liked. After she lost the weather girl competition, she started goin out of her way to be supportive of the people around her and hype them up.

When Ondine exists outside of the swimming pool, which she does, her street clothes are typically athletic, like leggings and jogging jackets. She wears a lot of flannels. Oh yeah, and canon reminder, she’s suuuper tall.

The canon idea that Juleka got held back one year is a result of retcon bs, but I like the hc that she was held back as a result of her anxiety. I also have an idea that Anarka noncommittally homeschooled the twins as kids, and Juleka ended up being a year behind the typical curriculum while Luka was fine.

Nath and Alix aren’t keen on going out with the whole friend group. They much prefer spending time with one or a few people at a time.

Adrien and Kagami are forced to go to all these rich people events chock full of Paris elite, and even though they’ve met all sorts of celebrities in person, they’re pretty done with them. They’re much more starstruck by their own friends than Jagged Stone, XY, or Prince Ali. Their autographed Kitty Section CDs (cover art by Marinette, burned onto blank disks on Max’s laptop) are more valuable to them than their autographed CDs of Clara Nightingale’s unreleased next album.

I have sooo many future headcanons that I think they deserve their own post, so I left them all out of this one. I will make a future hc post... in the future. >:)

If you made it to the end, here’s your virtual pound-it from me <3

[constantcrisis19]

Perfect Match

Steve Harrington x GN S/O

AN: Dustin's POV

Word Count: 2,305

“No! Max! I just beat your high score three days ago, you can’t do this to me!” Dustin lamented as he and the party watched her absolutely demolish Dustin’s previous high score on ‘Dig Dug’ with terrifying ease.

The ginger scoffed at Dustin’s perfectly valid complaints, not even bothering to pry her eyes away from the arcade game as she replied.

“If you’re so worried about it, you shouldn’t make it so easy to dethrone you.” Max stated heartlessly while completing an intense combo, her fingers a blur on the buttons as her character deftly dodged one of the monsters, the impressive maneuver only making the difference in skill between them that much more obvious.

Max cranked the joystick in order to circle around, coming up from underneath the other monster and taking it out with a mash of buttons before moving into a position that would allow her to attack the second and final creature.

Dustin watched as her score in the top right corner flicked by, the number rapidly increasing with every pixel of dirt that Max moved out of her way.

Max jerked on the joystick when the creature fell into her carefully crafted trap, causing the monster to explode in a spray of red.

The usual browns of dirt faded as the screen was overtaken by a spray of fireworks, words flashing across the screen to congratulate Max on being the holder of the new high score. Then the screen went dark and a white bar appeared, prompting her to type in her name.

“Damn it.” Dustin muttered as he squinted at the impossible score next to her nickname, already trying to figure out a way to beat it so then his name would be back in first place.

Unfortunately, he currently didn’t have the kind of cash it would take to try and steal back the number one spot from Max so -with one last look towards the game- he followed the Party to the table in order to wait for Steve to arrive to buy them lunch.

“Man, that was pretty brutal. Sorry Dustin.” Lucas shrugged, not sounding apologetic in the least as he slid into the booth next to Max, the ginger allowing the close proximity with an eye roll. 

“Don’t think that you’re safe, Sinclair. I’m playing Dragon’s Lair next.” Max stated as she sat back into her seat, taking the betrayed look that Lucas shot her in stride.

Mike snorted at the deadpan stare that the ginger gave in response to Lucas’ expression, causing Max to pry her gaze from the boy next to her in order to regard the pale preteen sitting across from her with a raised brow.

However, before Mike could get himself punched by saying something insulting, Dustin took over the conversation by bringing up a question that he was sure was on everyone’s minds.

“Do you think that Steve will bring his new partner?”

The table went quiet all at once as the question was processed by the group, Will being the first to collect himself enough to respond. “I mean… maybe? We haven’t met them yet.”

Max barked a mean laugh that had all eyes turning to her, her smile mocking as she looked at all the boys, scoffing and crossing her arms defensively when she was met with confused stares.

“Come on guys, there’s no way that he wants to introduce his new piece to the weird children that he -for some reason- hangs out with. That would scare anyone sane away.” 

Dustin thoughtlessly blew a raspberry at the ginger’s ridiculous comment before he slumped back into his seat and, while Max did seem offended by his dismissal, Dustin counted himself lucky that she didn’t try to retaliate with physical violence. 

“You can’t be sane and date Steve. Take Nancy for example, she’s crazy.” Dustin defended when Lucas gave him a judging look. He knew that he was right. With the stuff that they had lived through, there was no possible way that anyone functional could deal with all of Steve’s baggage.

But, however logical his comment was, it still caused Mike to lean forward with his elbows on the sticky table and shoot him a glare.

“Hey! That’s my sister!” Mike snapped, only sitting back when Will placed a hand lightly on his shoulder and gently tugged him away. 

“The same sister that not only owns a firearm but knows how to use it?” Dustin asked sarcastically and Mike’s eyes narrowed even further, the only thing probably keeping him from lunging forward again being the hand that Will still had on him. 

Dustin could admit to himself that the two had always been closer to each other than anyone else in the group, which he guessed made sense since they’d known each other the longest.

“What would be the point of having a gun if she didn’t, idiot.” Mike rolled his eyes, some of the anger that had previously been boiling just under the surface dissipating.

Before Dustin could continue the argument by bringing up the fact that bluffing was a thing that existed, Lucas cut into the conversation and brought their attention back to the original subject.

“There’s no possible way that he’s bringing them.” He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as his gaze jumped from one party member to the next. 

“Do you think that he’s embarrassed by us?” Will asked hesitantly, his hands wringing together in his lap as his gaze periodically darted up from the surface of the table.

Dustin opened his mouth in order to say something reassuring but was interrupted by Max snorting loudly, the harsh sound drawing all eyes to her.

“He should be, you’re all fucking strange.” She stated rudely with a pointed look at the lot of them. Dustin really should have seen a comment like that coming from a mile away, since being polite for the sake of sparing someone’s feelings wasn’t exactly the ginger’s strong suit.

Dustin shook his head as the table erupted in noise, both Mike and Lucas talking over each other in a vain attempt to defend themselves against Max’s statement.

The ginger seemed unbothered by the chaos she just caused, merely leveling the two frantic boys with a flat look as they talked at her and Dustin glanced away from his friends, trusting that they had the situation handled.

He was blankly staring out the window when a familiar car pulled up in one of the open parking spaces out front, causing him to perk up.

“There he is!” Dustin shouted in order to be heard over the others and the table quieted down in favor of all glancing in the direction of the door in anticipation of Steve’s imminent arrival. Dustin on the other hand still had his attention on the window, watching as Steve slid out of the driver's side.

He felt his jaw drop as Steve trotted around the front of his car before opening the door to the passenger side, the very subject of their earlier conversation fluidly stepping out of the vehicle, giving Steve a bright smile when he wrapped an arm around your waist. 

“And they're with him!” Dustin shrieked, his voice cracking in the middle of the sentence as excitement and terror suddenly flooded his system in equal measures. “Oh my God, be cool!” He warned, crossing his arms and slumping down into his seat right as the bell on the door rang, signaling Steve’s entrance.

Dustin could hear you talking as you approached and found himself surprised by the sound of Steve’s easy laughter, it was relaxed and genuine, which were two things that Steve never was when dealing with the Party or the Upside Down. 

“Hey guys!” A new voice chirped and all eyes at the table turned to you, Dustin’s own gaze darted down to the arm that Steve still had comfortably slung across your waist.

“I’m Y/n, it’s awesome to finally meet you, Steve talks about the Party a lot.” You confidently introduce yourself with a little wave, your smile never leaving your face.

“He talks about us?” Mike asked dubiously and Steve’s happy expression shifted into one that looked offended, his brows coming together to scowl at the pale teen.

Before Dustin could even try to begin to play mediator in an attempt to wipe that hurt look on his friends face, Will thankfully piped in and derailed Steve’s mounting distress.

“What does he say?” 

Steve’s jaw snapped shut with an audible click as his expression flew through several different emotions before settling on fond exasperation.

Your smile somehow brightened even more at the question and you leaned into Steve’s side, briefly looking up at him before returning your attention to Dustin and the others at the table. 

“He says that you’re some of the bravest kids he knows.” You hummed, your lips pursing as your eyes slid up to the ceiling as if in thought. “And that you always manage to get yourselves into trouble. Though, that’s expected considering where you live.” You shrugged while bringing your gaze back to the shocked group sitting before you.

“Y/n-” Steve began, sounding resigned, but was cut off when Max straightened in her seat in order to stare you down.

“What does that mean?” The ginger snapped, glaring at you with blatant suspicion. You surprised Dustin by standing your ground against Max -something most adults couldn’t even manage- merely raising a brow as you noticed how defensive Dustin and the others have become as well as the unexplained tension in the air.

“You know.” You began only to be met with blank stares. “The Upside Down? Demogogons, Demodogs, gateways to another dimension that parallels our own. Ring a bell?” You continued, watching them with thinly veiled amusement as the Party slowly registered your blunt statement.

“Holy shit! You know!” Lucas hissed, Dustin’s betrayed stare locking onto Steve, who at least had the humility to look sheepish as he winced under his intense gaze. 

“Steve! You told them!?” Dustin scolded loudly, ignoring Mike and Max when they both tried to shush him in favor of leveling Steve -his best friend- with an incredulous look.

Steve raked a hand through his hair -a gesture that Dustin knew meant that he was anxious- avoiding looking at any of the kids at the table as he spoke, his voice quiet and nervous.

“How the hell else was I supposed to explain the nightmares? Or the bat?” Steve asked desperately and Dustin’s gaze zeroed in on you when you shifted your weight, the hand that you had slung around his waist rubbing soothingly over his ribs.

Dustin spluttered, his brain unable to comprehend the ridiculous situation, before he managed to blurt out a response.

“Lie!” He insisted and refrained from getting up to swat at Steve until the guy grew a brain.

“Don’t worry, I know better than to tell anyone. I don’t even know what they look like, I only know what Steve told me, and he didn’t give many details. No offense, babe.” You grinned, and Dustin’s anger left him all at once.

You were clearly not a threat but he couldn’t help but be wary because of everything that they’ve been through. However, that being said, he owed it to Steve to at least give you the benefit of the doubt.

“None taken.” Steve sighed, motioning for Dustin to scoot over so that he could fit on the bench next to him. Dustin dutifully shifted over into Max, who shot him a glare before obediently moving further into the booth. 

“Well, if you’re going to get involved in this then you need to know what to watch out for.” Dustin declared, being immediately met with protests from the rest of the Party that he was quick to shut down.

“Steve trusts them and I trust Steve, it’s not that difficult.” Dustin shrugged and, when no one spoke up to refute him, he took that as permission to continue.

He started from the beginning, telling you about Will going missing and finding a girl with superpowers out in the woods during a storm. When Dustin got to the Demogorgon and the lab, Steve had briefly left, returning to the table with drinks and pizza, the kids warming up to your presence and taking turns telling the story.

“So the Demogorgon is super freaky. Its head looks like a bulb and, when it’s going to eat you, its face flowers open to reveal tons of razor sharp teeth and vicious strings of drool.” Dustin stated between bites of pizza and you nodded along to his explanation, taking everything surprisingly well considering.

“So it looks like a flower?” You clarified and Will choked on his mouthful of coke, your innocent simplification of Dustin’s in-depth description making Steve snort. Dustin shot the traitor a look before turning his attention back to you, who was staring at him expectantly.

“That’s what you got out of that?” Dustin asked with a raised brow and you just flashed him a cheerful grin as you popped the last of your pizza slice into your mouth, taking a large drink of your own soda as you shrugged.

“Yeah, they’re perfect for each other.” Mike muttered under his breath, the table jerking when someone’s foot violently struck the bottom of it.

“Shut up, Mike.” Max snarled, revealing who had caused the disturbance -the ginger was most likely to kick the other teen- as the two glared across the table at each other.

Your laughter eased tensions and made Max’s death stare shift into a smug smile while Mike’s own angry frown twisted into a pout.

Overall, Dustin had to admit that he had been worried about nothing, he should’ve figured that whoever Steve picked to be with would be a good person.

Prompt: Flower

[mckkachins]

gif cut-out tutorial

ok ok so @subtledean requested a tutorial on how to do stuff like this post with the gif cutouts and the text effects. hopefully this helps aria ;w; i’m not the best at explaining things but i included some screencaps for clarity. i’ve tried to compress all the sample gifs and screenshots down to under 3mb to avoid tunglr compression on mobile so if they look a little different from the actual gifset, that’s probably why!

what you’ll need:

photoshop, i’m using PS 2021 but any version of photoshop will work out

a basic knowledge of gif-making (i’m assuming you already know how to make a gif and color it).

step 0: storyboard

this isn’t strictly necessary but i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it. you don’t have to do any photoshopping this first step, but it’s really important to check out your footage and the shots you have gathered to see what works, especially if you’re trying to combine three or more gifs onto the same canvas. like literally take a piece of paper and draw out where you want the character’s faces to be, where you want the cutouts to be in relation to their faces, and think about whether or not there’s enough empty space to the right or left of characters heads for a cutout to be placed. is there too much movement that would be distracting or messy in an already busy gif?

things like that really help, and it also makes you double check on your footage quality and feasibility. if you end up making a gif where you want one character’s face to be on the left side of the gif but it turns out there’s not enough empty space on the right side of their face to place a cutout and you then have to hunt for new footage or start all over, it’s kind of a trainwreck and you just waste another hour of your time as you deepen your procrastination hellhole. that’s not a real story—

step 1: make the base gif

i’m assuming you know how to color it already. and aria i KNOW you know how to color already so :) size it accordingly to your desired dimensions.

as you can see, i left enough space on the right side of abaddon for the knight cutout to be placed.

save this as a .psd file. you don’t actually have to sharpen and do everything that comes at the end of making a gif right away, but make sure your layers are clearly labeled. do NOT convert to video timeline/smart object just yet.

step 2: make the cutout gif

this is critical: make absolutely certain your cutout gif has the same number of frames as your base gif. otherwise it could get really messy! abaddon has 20 frames, so the cutout will also have 20 frames. again, do not convert the cutout gif to a video timeline/smart object. just keep it as a frame animation. here’s my cutout gif. it’s just a simple b&w gif but i added a touch of purple for color consistency sake whatnot.

now for this particular gif i’ve actually cropped abaddon to be roughly exactly where i would want her face to be in relation to the first gif, but that is unnecessary. helpful, but unnecessary. you do NOT need the cutout gif to be cropped exactly perfect in order to make this work.

step 3: combining the two gifs

there are many different ways to combine two gifs onto the same canvas. some people like to do it via video timeline. i prefer to do it by frames and convert everything to a video timeline only at the end (it’s just a personal preference). here’s a tutorial if you prefer working with timelines, but i’m gonna go over how to do it by frames.

first group everything in your base gif into one folder. then group everything in your cutout gif into one folder as well. you can name them however you want to keep track of things.

then, select all of the frames in your cutout gif. in this case, all 20 of b&w abaddon get selected. make sure its not just frames 4-20 or whatever, but all the frames you made. you can click frame one and then shift-click your last frame to double check.

click the timeline tab group options bar and then go to options > copy frames

now go to your base gif canvas. select ALL the frames of your base gif as well (it’s critical that all of them are selected).

now do options > paste frames.

a popup should appear and you’re going to select the “paste over selection” option. do not link layers.

your cutout gif should now be completely or partially obscuring your base gif. however, now you should see two groups on your sidebar of layers. one for the base, one group for the cutout. if you labelled them with names you can tell which one is which.

step 4: creating the cutout

in order to create the cutout, we use my favorite thing in the whole world of photoshop. layer masks.

to make a layer mask, you simply select a layer or group you want to mask and then click this little icon on the row of icons at the bottom of your layers panel.

white on a layer mask means whatever group or layer is getting masked is completely visible. black on a layer mask means that the group or layer is invisible. if there is 50% gray on a layer mask, then its 50% visible. so on and so forth.

i love these so much i abuse them on the daily. i’ve made a few gifs where i’ve masked every frame one by one because i wanted to get some cool effects. admitting that kind of embarrasses me but oh well.

anyway this is simple though. just find a picture or an outline of a knight. i used these boyes:

obviously i cropped out the knight of the bunch, got rid of the watermark, and then i placed it on the canvas where i wanted it to go.

select the interior of the knight with the magic wand tool. should be pretty simple since it’s all black.

now click over to your layer mask. make sure you have selected the mask and not the group. you can tell you have selected the mask when a little white rectangle pops up on it.

when you know you have the mask selected, click command+i or control+i to invert. if for some reason you do not have this keyboard shortcut, just take a brush tool and color over the area in complete black. as long as the magic wand tool is still selecting just the interior of the knight, it should be fine.

now once again, black means a layer will NOT be showing, white means a layer will be showing. so right now after i disable the visibility of the top layer we used as a reference for the silhouette, it looks like:

do not fear the clownery. layer masks are great because they are always non-destructive. meaning that even if you somehow mess up and your canvas is showing something completely gross, you can always go back and edit your layer mask and your original gif would be unharmed as long as you did not touch any layers in the group, only the mask. simply invert the mask (again, make sure your mask is selected and then command+i or image > adjustments > invert) to get:

for a layer mask that looks like:

you could have also just made a black layer mask to begin with and then inverted the knight outline to be white. many different ways to do the same thing.

another tip: if you select your outline and then click layer mask upon a group or layer with no mask at the current moment, it will automatically make a layer mask with your selection as white and the unselected pixels as black. this is normally how i do my cutouts, because it’s a time-saver even if it like. saves a few seconds max. but i typed out the above for explanation and clarity, so hopefully i didn’t just make anyone more confused.

anyway.

now say you don’t like where the cutout abaddon is positioned. layer masks can also be linked or unlinked, depending on the little link icon you see between the group and the layer mask in the image above. if the icon is visible, the layer mask and the group are linked. if you cannot see the link icon, they are unlinked.

linked layer masks will move in conjunction with the group if any type of transform is done upon them. if the group moves, the layer mask also moves. but if a layer mask is unlinked, you can move the mask and the group independently of one another. for instance, i can change where the cutout is located on the overall canvas of the gif by simply moving ONLY the layer mask (and thereby changing where the blacks and whites of the layer mask occlude the cutout gif contents). but i can also transform the cutout gif layers without changing where the overall outline is located relative to the canvas itself. basically, i can transform the interior contents of the cutout independently. so here (make sure all of your frames are selected):

group unlinked. i’m also making sure that now i am selecting the GROUP (ie. the frames of the layers you are actually going to move) and not the layer mask. you can tell because the little white rectangle around the layer mask can no longer be seen.

now i can transform/adjust the contents of the cutout solely “within” the cutout, and i don’t have to worry about changing where the cutout is located in relation to the overall gif. when transforming, make sure all the frames of your gif are selected. like select the whole group and not just an individual layer, basically.

i’ve seen a lot of how to combine and cut out gifs tutorials on this website, and here is a really good one that i know sully also used <3 big shoutout to all the photoshop queens being inspired by each other!! however i haven’t seen anything that mentioned the linked vs. unlinked layer masks, which i really feel like deserves a shoutout. you don’t have to crop your gifs out perfectly every time, you can always adjust them later. for demonstration, i’ve positioned abaddon in a few different positions with an unlinked layer mask.

step 5: creating the outline

so in order to emphasize the shape of the cutout (the knight), i simply delete the white space surrounding the picture of the knight in the original silhouette that i used. magic wand tool + delete. you can also make a new layer, then paint bucket tool it. many ways to do the same thing.

now with only the knight on a transparent background, i double click the layer to pull up the effects. select outer glow. i used these settings:

when you are doing this, make sure you are on frame one of the frame animation and the “propagate frame one setting” is selected, otherwise you might end up only applying the effect to one out of your many frames, which blows.

then i go change the fill setting to 0%, BUT i leave opacity at 100%. fill is basically like opacity, but it doesn’t affect layer effects (whereas opacity does). so you basically get only the outline but not the black. you can also set the blending mode of the layer to screen and get the same effect, etc, etc. feel free to adjust however you see fit, in addition to the outer glow settings.

i move this layer over a couple pixels to give it the little offset effect, but you don’t have to.

step 6: adding the text

okay the two fonts i used are avenir and perla. i think a LOT of gifmakers use them because they’re really pretty.

i make TWO different text layers, one with avenir in a smaller size and one with perla in a bigger size. this is because for the perla one, i’m going to be changing the blending mode whereas i don’t want to be changing the blending mode for the smaller text. i position the text where i want it to be and make sure the perla font is in the color i like:

then i change the blending mode of the fancy text (perla) to difference. ONLY that layer, and again make sure to check “propagate frame 1″ and make changes on the first frame to apply the change to all of your frames.

but i still don’t think it produces enough of a difference. so i right click on the text layer for knights of hell, and then go to: select pixels.

then i click the curves adjustment layer. this will automatically make a curves layer with a layer mask that occludes everything BUT the area you selected. beautiful. i drag the curves around until i get enough of a difference that i like. normally i make the lights lighter and the darks darker. yeehaw.

again there are sooooo many different ways to achieve the same effect on photoshop. this is just want comes easiest to me, and it’s totally okay if you find a different way that works better for you at producing the contrast you want or the colors you want.

step 7: export and cry

NOW you can convert everything to a video timeline, put your video frame layers to smart objects, and then apply your finishing sharpening filters. export, cry, and hope tumblr compression doesn’t screw you over.

hopefully this was helpful! pls like... idk support my edits if you found this helpful or reblog this post. feel free to dm me about how u do some of the text effects as well bc i’m always trying to learn new things and i am by no means an expert on like. any of this.

aria please go write your fucking thesis before i delete this entire tutorial challenge. :D

[marvel-and-mischief]

His Saving Grace - Part III

Title: His Saving Grace - Maxwell Lord x F!Reader  Words: 2700 Warnings: Swearing, a conversation about a domestic abuse case but nothing graphic Synopsis: Maxwell finds out what you’ve been hiding and confronts you about it

Part I  -  Part II

It was like the floor had been wiped out from under Maxwell’s feet, the wind knocked from his lungs. Had he seriously made a mistake again? Was his judgement really that skewed that once more he had done what he thought was right and it was turning out to be wrong? You had been so unassuming, the first to be truly kind to Maxwell when you could have been like everybody else. There had to be more to the story, surely?

It hadn’t taken Maxwell long to find your old place of work in the telephone directory. He had spent the morning finding law firms specialising in family law, and rang them one by one asking whether they had previously employed you and had hit the correct one on the sixth try.

Myles and Cooper were a family law firm in the centre of Washington D.C. The secretary who spoke to Maxwell had given him the spiel on when it had been established and what they could offer potential clients but he hadn’t really been listening. And as soon as he had mentioned your name the sickly sweet old woman had quickly turned sour. 

“Look, we’ve put out all the press statements we have, you’re not getting any more on the story.”

Maxwell frowned. Press statements? He knew there had been more to the story you were refusing to tell him, but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end and the feeling of being left in the dark was beginning to frustrate him. 

“I’m no journalist. I have recently employed your former colleague-“

“Oh you haven’t, have you? Dear me, do you not read the local newspapers?”

Maxwell bit his tongue at being interrupted, tapping impatiently on the arm of the couch he sat on. 

“I’ve been a little busy lately, would you mind telling me what happened?”

The woman on the other end gave an exasperated sigh.

“Will you be requiring any services from Myles and Cooper?” 

“What? No-“

“Then go to your local library and you’ll find out.” And with that the connection was cut off.

Maxwell took a second to stare at the handset before slamming down the phone and making a mental note to never employ that particular law firm in the future.

But that was how he came to be hidden in the shadowy back corner of his local library, a table to himself with various newspapers dating from 25th April, all the way up to the last article he could find with your name in it on 10th July. 

Maxwell knew how the media worked, the sensationalist headlines, the hyperbolic language, even the pictures they used of you, it was all contrived to make you into someone you weren’t. Usually someone worse, and he was ashamed to say it was working.

Shameful Lawyer Wins Case in Favor of Unfit Mother

Maxwell re-read the headline on the front of the earliest newspaper. It was tame compared to some of the later articles that unnecessarily picked apart your personal life and painted you as a heartless witch who hated children. In the short time he had met you Maxwell couldn’t believe any of that was true. 

Or maybe that was exactly who you were and Maxwell had been fooled. He had been desperate when he called you up, was practically begging for anyone to help him. Was this just an elaborate way of making him pay for all he’d done? Get close enough to him to give him false hope then tear him down even further? And he had fallen hook, line and sinker.

“I’m being paranoid, you can’t be as bad as this,” Maxwell mumbled to himself, eyes flicking over the pictures of you shielding from the flashing lights of the cameras, hiding behind your purse, head in your hands in coffee shops and even one picture of you sticking up a pixelated middle finger to the press. 

Maxwell had been scared before, anxious at times especially in recent weeks, but he wasn’t going to add ‘paranoid’ to his growing list of problems. Pulling up the hood of his coat, Maxwell knew he had to get your side of the story.

-

You hadn’t expected to meet Maxwell again so soon, but he had been insistent on the phone, demanding to see you that evening over an ‘urgent matter’ that he had to talk to you about in person. You had left his apartment the day before on such good terms that you weren’t worried. 

That was until you reached his door. He hadn’t been waiting for you like the first time so you had to knock and wait. When he opened the door he did so slowly, features emotionless, eyes not able to meet yours as he indicated to you to follow him inside. 

He didn’t say a word when you entered the apartment and headed towards the couch. 

“Has something happened?” You enquired, matching Maxwell’s stance when he stayed standing in the middle of the living room. His arms were crossed, hair slightly out of place as though he didn’t take the time to do much more than comb through it this morning. Something was on his mind and you hoped it wasn’t what you feared.

“I want to hear you say it. I want to know what your truth is.” Maxwell’s voice was stern but not unfair, you imagined it was his ‘dad’ voice whenever Alistair had done something naughty. It made you feel so small, pathetic even, that of all the people to be talking down to you it was Public Enemy Number One. 

You knew then that he had found out. And he saw that recognition in your eyes when you guiltily slumped down onto the arm of the couch, making yourself physically smaller under his intense scrutiny. Maxwell chuckled humorlessly and that made you sit up, a look of defiance taking over. Who was this man to judge you? When he didn’t know the full story, when he knew perfectly well what it was like to have the world against you? 

“It’s not what the papers say,” you stressed, swallowing down the lump in your throat before continuing, “I took on a case that had been passed on and on and that should have been the first indication that it wasn’t what it seemed.”

You couldn’t bare to look into Maxwell’s penetrating stare, but you saw his shoulders relax as you started to talk, encouraging you to keep going. 

“The case was a woman with three children, she’d already divorced her husband and wanted full custody of them. She claimed her ex was abusive, an alcoholic, that she was terrified of what he would do to the children if he was left alone with them. It was all lies. I didn’t realise this until it was too late.”

Maxwell quietly sat on the other end of the couch whilst you spoke, listening intently as you tried to keep your emotions under control and the shake out of your voice. 

“I only saw the ex-husband for the first time on day one of court. But I knew immediately she had been lying. Whilst she spent most of the time applying her make-up to look good for the judge, he was a complete mess. He couldn’t look away from his children. I felt terrible in that courtroom. But I had a job to do. I couldn’t have backed out of it if I tried.”

You shook your head, reliving the memories of that case like it was happening all over again. You dared to look up, to see disgust in Maxwell’s face but all you saw was understanding. 

“But you won the case?” Maxwell asked. You nodded.

“I had good evidence. Pictures of bruises on her arms, property damage in their shared home. Even character witnesses that painted her as the perfect wife. She was very good at playing a character. It was all lies to get her own way. I mean, who wasn’t going to believe her?”

“The press.”

“Yeah,” you sighed, moving to sit beside Maxwell when the arm became too uncomfortable, “there were a couple of journalists in particular, I can’t remember their names. They had tried to get in touch with me during the case but I ignored them, which made it look like I knew the truth and didn’t care what they had to say. As soon as the case was won, they were out for my head. They had evidence of their own, you see, that showed exactly what she was like. Paparazzi shots, secret recordings, stuff like that.”

“But you didn’t know, how was any of that your fault?”

“I won the case, everyone said I must have known. And honestly? I just didn’t bother to correct them. I felt like such a fucking idiot, Max. I should have known! So I hid myself away afterwards. My life was invaded, my career was in ruins so I hid.”

It wasn’t lost on either of you that this was the exact reaction Maxwell had to his own life being turned upside down. You shared a knowing glance, to which Maxwell reached over to place his warm hand on top of yours in comfort.

“I am sorry that happened to you,” Maxwell whispered, patting your hand before removing it, “but…” You watched as Maxwell bit his lip.

“What is it?” You frowned, not liking where this was going.Maxwell turned and offered you a sympathetic smile.

“I am sorry for what you’ve been through, truly, but how will it look if it gets out of all the people helping me… it’s you?”

You immediately felt your walls go back up, involuntarily shifting away from Maxwell on the couch.

“No one else is going to help you, are they?” It was more of a statement than a question, defensive in the face of Maxwell’s question. You felt anger rising as Maxwell continued to bite his lip and ponder what to do about the situation. You weren’t going to beg him to keep employing you, your pride wouldn’t allow that, but you weren’t going to leave without a fight either.

“You understand my predicament-“

“I understand you asked me here to listen to my side of the story, what more do you want?”

“I need somebody on my side that I can trust.”

“You can trust me!”

“I need somebody reliable, somebody who is good at their job.”

“I was brilliant at my job, it was one mistake-“

“That cost you everything!” 

Maxwell’s outburst made you leap from the couch away from him in frustration. You didn’t need to hear what you’d already told yourself hundreds of times. You knew you’d messed up, and you were here to put things right, to move on with your life. You took Maxwell’s case to help him as well as yourself, and here he was throwing it back in your face. 

“We are both in the same situation,” you replied calmly, hoping to quell the heated atmosphere, “we both need each other to pick the other up from where we’ve put ourselves. Nobody else will help you Maxwell because nobody else understands what you’re going through better than me.”

Maxwell, still seated on the far side of the couch, leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eyes to the floor as he listened to your reasoning. He couldn’t disagree, but he was also scared. All he saw when he closed his eyes was the face of his boy looking up to him, he was so scared of letting him down. 

It was so long before either of you made a noise that you decided leaving would be the best thing to do. Let Maxwell calm down and come to you when he was ready. You didn’t want to push your luck too much with him. 

As you turned to leave you passed a pile of unopened letters on a table near the front door. You hadn’t meant to look, it was a quick glance whilst you took your time to leave his apartment (a small part of you hoped he would call out your name to stop you before you reached the door). You recognised the solicitors mark on the front of the envelope and the name above it, Spencer and Brown, a family law firm that were close rivals to Myles and Cooper. 

There was only one reason a family law firm would be in contact with Maxwell, his son.

You could have left it, Maxwell didn’t trust you and you doubted he wanted you poking into his personal business, especially when it came to Alistair. But you wanted to help him. Not out of pity, or even to prove that you could, it definitely wasn’t out of desperation for employment anymore either. 

You liked Maxwell. 

It really hit you as you stood in his entryway, heart heavy with disappointment at Maxwell’s shunning of you, head aching from your argument and the prospect of going home sad and alone. It wasn’t as shocking as you thought it should be, after all what was there to like about the man who nearly destroyed the world? 

It wasn’t that Maxwell that you liked though. It was this version of him, who had been kind to you when he hadn’t known your secret. The man who loved his son and wanted to be a better role model for him. The Maxwell who could be charming but not ashamed to be vulnerable in front of you. And because it was that man you were stupidly falling for, you knew you had to at least try to persuade him to let you help him.

“Maxwell,” you called, picking up the letter and walking back to the living room where Maxwell was pouring himself a glass out of a decanter. 

“You need to go,” he didn’t sound convincing though so you held up the letter to get his attention. He raised an eyebrow, curious as to what you thought you were doing with his mail.

“I can help you,” you urged, head held high and ready to stand your ground, “I might be a terrible person but I was really brilliant at my job.”

“You’re not-“ Maxwell began, before sighing in defeat before the battle had even begun. Maxwell swallowed his drink in one go and took the letter out of your hand. You watched as he opened it and read through it half-heartedly, though you saw a spark of sadness in his eyes.

“Is it Alistair’s mother?” You asked impatiently.

“Yes. She wants full custody.”

“Okay, well considering this is very special circumstances,” Maxwell frowned, silently asking what you meant, “I don’t think anyone has fought a case on the basis of ‘my ex-husband failed on his quest for world domination’, so you can use that to your advantage.”

“Listen, I know you’re trying to help me but you can’t win this for me.” 

You ignored him and asked, “When was the last time you spoke to her?”

Maxwell paused, mulling it over before shaking his head, already knowing what you were going to suggest.

“Weeks ago, she won’t talk to me unless it’s through her lawyer.”

“Then we need to arrange a meeting. We need to show her that you’re serious about turning over a new leaf for Alistair. We can’t do that without sitting down with her.”

Maxwell didn’t look convinced, his frown creating creases on his face that made you want to smooth them away. Clearing your throat you stepped away from Maxwell, feigning deep thought. You needed to keep this professional, you reminded yourself. Otherwise you would only get your heart broken. 

“You’ll help me?” You almost didn’t hear him he spoke so quietly. You nodded, a meek smile on your lips and offered him your hand to shake, just as you had the first time you met. Maxwell huffed in amusement and took your hand, allowing his to linger in yours a little longer than necessary.

Permanent tag list: @autumnleaves1991-blog @kaelyn-lobrutto24 @galactic-rhi @phoenixhalliwell @thewayofthemandalorian @computeringturtle 

[silvia7272]

ML Salt Songfic ~ 1 Good For You

I actually forgot about this, but I think I can put it out now considering you’ve all read about/seen my OC Rosina, if you haven’t it’s on my page. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and like the song.

Also, this is an AU of my AU? I guess that’s what I’m calling it yeah. So, it’s not canon and it never was going to be canon, when I heard this song it just inspired me to write this and I could’ve done it without my OC, but I wanted to include her. Well anyway, I hope you like it.

Word Count: 2553

Tags: @queenmj10, @fangirl39, @animegirlweeb, @northernbluetongue, @daminett4life, @raisuke06, @indecisive-mess-named-me, @luleck​, @themamaravenclaw, @emmathedestroyer, (I know you wanted it) if you wish to be tagged all you have to do is say. Sorry, it’s different but this was the reason I started posting in the first place.

***

Akuma Alert! Akuma Alert!

The alarms were blaring in the park, and yet no one could move from their place.

Because the Akuma was right in front of them.

It was Marinette, she had been Akumatized. But it seemed somewhat unusual, she didn’t look any different, but they had seen the purple mist cover her, maybe she was like Chameleon?

So then why did it feel like it had changed?

Adrien couldn’t tell, and he needed to transform into Chat Noir, but he couldn’t just leave his friends to deal with the Akuma alone? Right?

Lila didn’t think that, she tried to make her escape, but a musical note blocked her way. She really was Akumatized!

Her face was contorted with pain as the pink mask covered her face, she was trying to break free!

“C’mon Marinette, you can do it,” He shouted, He tried to reach out, but someone pulled him back.

“Are you crazy, she’s been Akumatized she’ll hurt you, it’s what she’s always done to us. She’s already gotten her other friends hurt because of that transformation!?” Lila spoke, gripping his arm like a lifeline. But it was true, Rosina, Kagami, Chloé and Luka all tried to reach out to her mid-transformation, but they all fell to the ground and no one was brave enough to check on them.

“Shut up!” It was the first time Marinette had spoken since she had been Akumatized, tears were raining down her face, but the blond couldn’t tell if she was talking to the class or Hawkmoth.

“Just shut up, stop lying already, just stop hurting me” She had to be talking about Hawkmoth, she must still be fighting it.

But not everyone thought that.

“Come on Marinette, for once just admit you were wrong already. It’s getting really tiring.” Alya rolled her eyes while reciting how that was the only reason, she got Akumatized in the first place, the piece of paper she was holding had been a music draft of Lila’s that she was going to throw away in the first place.

Everyone knew Marinette didn’t write songs, she only made clothes and baked treats, that the class wasn’t provided with the past few days, and Adrien did think it was strange that she had a music draft, she probably found it and would’ve returned it to its rightful owner.

Why was she so upset about it anyway?

But she stopped, she lifted her head up, her face full of shock.

“You… Really still think I’m lying?” She sounded so disheartened, and Adrien would’ve sent her a ‘don’t rock the boat anymore’ look but she didn’t even spare him a glance.

Weren’t they friends?

“Of course, Lila’s so talented at making song lyrics so she had someone write them down for her. And now you’re holding onto a draft claiming it to be your own, that’s pathetic, even for someone like Chloé never mind you. Just stop being so pathetic and admit it. You’re jealous of Lila and everything she could do for us while you did nothing but whine like a child!” Adrien thought that the last line was a bit overkill, but he wasn’t about to say anything.

But all of that struggling, all of that resistance had completely vanished from Marinette. Why had she given up? Why hadn’t she continued fighting?

“I’ll show you my Melody” It was a whisper that only Adrien was able to pick up. Melody? What did she mean by that?

But he didn’t have time to think of that before everything in his vision turned white. He couldn’t feel his body. He couldn’t move… He couldn’t…

***

“Adrien? Yo Adrien, wake up man” He groaned as he opened his eyes.

“Nino? Is everyone alright? Where are we? What happened? Where’s Marinette?” Nino put his hands up startled.

“Whoa easy there one at a time dude. Anyway, yeah, we’re fine, we don’t know it looks like a white void, Marinette happened and we don’t know”

He couldn’t believe it. When he took in the view, it was devoid of life, it was devoid of colour.

It was just white all around him, he didn’t understand it. It reminded him of Pixelator.

“Oh Adrien I’m so scared, what are we going to do?” He couldn’t shake her arm off so had to relent, everyone around him tried to console the girl.

“Stick together, there should be an exit around here, but I’ll post it on the Ladyblog, that way Ladybug and Chat Noir will come.” He sighed, knowing that his Lady would be all alone for this one.

“Hey, my phones not working!” The others then tried to get their phones. No result.

“Oh no we’re trapped in here and no one is going to save us! What do we do!?” Everyone was panicking, but what could he do, if Chat Noir were to show up now, they would all get suspicious.

Nathaniel wasn’t doing great either. But he stepped back and heard a crunch.

“Huh?” He looked down and found a note.

“What’s that?” Max noticed the discovery and went over to Nath to see what it was.

“It says [The Song Of Truth Is Your Only Escape In This Labyrinth] What does that mean?”

“And why is it on a music sheet?” A simple question they all couldn’t process.

♫I’ll never know why I ever wanted to restore my friendship with you!?♫ The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. But he knew who it was.

“Marinette stop this please, we can get through this together” He shouted, he had to get her to stop being so angry.

♫Silence. I am Marilody, Marinette is no more. And you will all be punished for your lies and harassment towards your students! My friends!♫ It was there that she revealed herself.

If it wasn’t for her hair and dress, she would’ve been camouflaged with the background. But she didn’t look like a regular Akuma, no.

Her skin was pure white, along with the white flowing dress she wore. It was embroidered with musical notes, similar doodles he had seen previously on her sketchbook. It was shoulderless with the same pattern, and her hair was the same colour but in a small ponytail to the side. Her eyes were hidden by a giant accessory in the shape of a musical note resembling a hat.

If Ladybug didn’t already occupy his heart, Adrien might be thinking Marinette was more than a friend.

“Marinette please, you’re stronger than this! Don’t let Hawkmoth-”

♫Hawkmoth isn’t controlling me! The one who made me become Marilody is myself. And I will show you the truth of what I can and have done for you selfish people, my Melody will be performed before you and you will see the truth!♫

They heard the sound of a guitar being played. And notes in the air with a red dot flowing through it.

“What’s going on?” Rose and Juleka huddled together along with Ivan, Mylène, Nino and Alya scared. He was scared. He had the power to protect them but couldn’t use it. You could sense the irony looming over the boy’s head.

♫So you found a place where the grass is greener And you jumped the fence to the other side♫

The class was treated to a front-row seat of a scene that had just happened mere moments ago. When they were at the park.

Just what was Marinette’s power?

♫Is it good? Are they giving you a world I could never provide?♫

The scene cut to Lila being crowded around by everyone while Marinette was alone.

But she was still smiling. Even if it seemed fake.

♫Well I hope you’re proud of your big decision Yeah, I hope it’s all that you want and more♫

They saw the past of when Marinette was always handing out free pastries to them, wearing that happy and bright smile on her face, they had forgotten what it had looked like.

Because it was never directed towards them anymore.

They had forgotten.

Everything she had done for them.

♫Now you’re free, from the agonizing life you were living before~♫

Then it changed to everyone leaving her for Lila, she was telling a tale of her time in Achu, Rose couldn’t stop gushing about Prince Ali. He thought the lies wouldn’t hurt anyone.

♫And you say what you need to say So that you get to walk away It would kill you to have to stay trapped when you’ve got something new♫

They couldn’t move.

♫Well I’m sorry you had it rough And I’m sorry I’m not enough♫

Everything single thing Marinette had done for them had flashed in front of them.

♫Thank God ‘they rescued’ you♫

But then Lila appeared, and everything she said was almost out of a fairy-tale, it was amazing, they wanted to hear more. They needed to hear more of her adventures.

♫So you got what you always wanted? So you got your dream come true? Good for you Good for you, you, you!♫

They were addictive. They couldn’t get enough.

♫Got a taste of a life so perfect So you did what you had to do Good for you Good for you!♫

Marinette had vanished from view but the scenes were still playing. The blond needed to find a way to free himself. He needed to get Plagg to cause a mini-explosion, to cause a distraction maybe. Anything! But he couldn’t get to him in time. Because he saw someone who he hadn’t seen since at the park.

“Rosina?” They all turned their heads to their new red-haired friend. But Adrien was able to notice, the Cat Miraculous had certain side effects he was giddy to have but that’s not the point. Instead of a black pupil, it was a musical note.

“She’s under Marinette’s control” They all gasped, horrified at what had happened to their friend. They believed her being near Marinette was bad, never mind this!

♪Does it cross your mind to be slightly sorry?♪ 

She really was under her spell! Adrien desperately wanted to shake her awake and free her, but now his arms couldn’t move.

♬Do you even care that you might be wrong?♬ 

Kagami!? Oh god, his two friends were under Marinette’s friends. He watched as they circled each and every one of his friends.

♬Was it fun?♬ 

They flinched.

♪Well, I hope you had a blast while you dragged me along~♪ 

They started to walk away when there was a whine from Lila, they were still able to turn their heads and saw Chloé, she kept prodding Lila as she cried, he wasn’t able to tell if they were even fake tears anymore.

♩And you say what you need to say! And you play who you need to play! And if somebody’s in your way! Crush them and leave them behind!♩

Even if they wanted to help Lila they couldn’t. Their legs wouldn’t let them. It was like they were in quicksand, only they weren’t sinking into the ground, they were sinking into their sorrow and sadness they were feeling. If Marinette wasn’t already Akumatized Hawkmoth would be having a field day.

♮Well I guess if I’m not of use Go ahead, you can cut me loose♮

And then they saw it.

A scene that shocked them.

♮Go ahead now, I won’t mind♮

If her power was to sing the truth.

And all of the scenes had been of the truth.

They felt sick to their stomach.

Then the scene of Lila cornering Marinette in the bathroom must’ve been true as well.

If Lila had been so kind to everyone why were the words [Soon you won’t have any friends left at all. Trust me. You will lose your friends and wind up all alone] written underneath, they couldn’t think anymore, just look.

♫I’ll shut my mouth and I’ll let you go Is that good for you? Would that be good for you, you, you?♫

Some couldn’t believe, they kept screaming how it had to be wrong, how it might just be Marinette’s doing. But the more it came on, the more they started to believe.

♭I’ll just sit back while you run the show Is that good for you? Would that be good for you, you, you?♭

Just like how they should’ve believed Marinette, and they had only just realised their mistake.

♯All I need is some time to think♯ Max. He never needed time to think, he was the smartest one in the class.

♭(I’ll shut my mouth and I’ll let you go)♭

♯But the boat is about to sink♯ Rose. Wasn’t she meant to be the kindest one out of everyone? Why didn’t she give Marinette a chance?

♭(Is that good for you?)♭

♯Can’t erase what I wrote in ink♯ Alix. She had written some things on her desk once… Twice… She had lost count.

♭(Would that be good for you, you, you?)♭

♯Tell me how could I change the story?♯ Lila. She had been caught, and she needed to spin her story. Fast!

♯All the words that I can’t take back♯ Alya. All those mean comments claiming Marinette was a bully. She was the bully. Weren’t they friends? Besties? She didn’t deserve to be called anything like that.

♭(I’ll just sit back while you run the show)♭

♯Like a train coming off the track♯ Kim. He wanted this pain to end, he should’ve trusted her, she had been the one to console everyone before an Akuma had gotten to them. And they treat her like this?

♭(Is that good for you?)♭

♯‘Cause the rails and my bones all crack♯ Nino. They had been childhood friends! How could he think she was lying!?

♭(For You!)♭

♯I’ve got to find a way to♯

♯Stop it, stop it! Just let me out!♯ Adrien. If only she had told him Lila had threatened her, if only he had done more, taking more of the brunt, if only- no he had to stop, he had to accept it was all his fault. He could’ve stopped it, but he was afraid he’d never get to see his friends again. He had to accept that he had hurt Marinette so much she had been Akumatized. He had to accept that- maybe he couldn’t save her, after all, you could never really trust someone who had betrayed you… Right?

♭So you got what you always wanted So you got your dream come true Good for you Good for you, you, you♭

They were sorry.

But images of Marinette gone from their life terrified them.

♭Got a taste of a life so perfect Now you say that you’re someone new Good for you Good for you Good for you Good! For! You!♭

But what would it matter? She probably would never want to speak to them ever again.

♭So you got what you always wanted!♭

What had they done?

They had seen the truth.

All of it.

But they didn’t have time to dwell on that, because as they continued to watch the scenes in front of them, they couldn’t help but feel slightly tired. Only a bit… Maybe if they had a small nap it would… Help.

♫The truth will come out… There will be no more lies for anyone… Anymore♫

***

End. I changed a word for Lila because I thought it would fit better. They, in the song, are Lila and a bit of Adrien. Originally, I wasn’t going to make a two-parter, however, if anyone has an idea I could use, and then a song as well, I will consider continuing this to become a two-shot. Or even if someone wants to continue this? Feel free to do so, just tag me, please.

Well, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you have a nice day.

Edit 1: This is how Marilody looks like, I thought she’d look a bit more fashionable since you know, Marinette. and since she has more control hawkmoth didn't design her.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

This is probably a strange question since KH is already a crossover in and of itself, but... KH-Crossovers you'd love? XD Not limited to Disney or any medium in particular btw :)

Fun question!

Hmm... Off the top of my head? Things that I love, because I’m selfish like that. Haha. Something like Inception comes to mind (and I’ve actually written a KH and Inception crossover. Though it would never entirely work out, but shh). But they lend themselves well to each other. Mainly because DDD was clearly inspired by Inception. What?

The Mortal Instruments, Percy Jackson, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as I think all three of them would mesh well with KH. Also, Dark Angel (and a lot of Fox shows, like Dark Angel and Tru Calling), because again with the selfishness. Also, Fox movies. More on some of that later.

Edit: ABC shows, like Alias and LOST, as they’re mystery box stories like KH.

W.I.T.C.H. Gargoyles too, though I barely remember it.

Kilala Princess, probably. And perhaps Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey (at least the villain from it would be great for KH).

I know there are some companies out there who have adapted fairytales that Disney already has. And it would be cool to see their take on them in KH. In my Namiku multi-chapter story--that I’ll sadly never finish--this was going to be a thing. There was something wrong with Kingdom Hearts, so the characters would go to a world and be like, “Wait... I know this is supposed to be Cinderella’s world, but something is off about it.” But that could also work with things like Once Upon a Time and the new Disney live-action movies.

That being said: Once Upon a Time.

National Treasure... that could actually potentially be in KH (as a few on these list could be), but I doubt it ever will be. So I might as well include it. Enchanted, too.

Phantom of the Opera or Phantom of the Megaplex. Preferably the former.

Some DCOMS Pixel Perfect and Disney Channel shows, tbh. Kim Possible!

I think people, like Shire Folk, who have written the characters with Digimon are on point.

Things like Soul Eater... and probably other animes, Square Enix made or not.

Syfy Alice, because it’s my favorite version of Alice in Wonderland.

Pokémon. Because I think Ash and Sora have a lot in common, of course (perhaps also Misty and Kairi, and somewhat SoKai and Pokeshipping). And because, as weird as it is to say... in the first game, where they made a big deal about the Keyblade choosing its master and choosing Sora (and it was very much sentient), the bond that Sora made with his Keyblade (that eventually chose him over Riku) somewhat reminded me of Ash and Pikachu’s journey. To a lesser extent, of course. But still.

Square Enix worlds...

I don’t think I want a “Beauty and the Beast & the Enchanted Christmas” world per se, but I want a Forte boss fight, somehow and some way.

Winx Club.

A crossover with Clamp could be interesting. Especially since Tsubasa and KH are so similar.

I’m down for the Muppets and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to be cameos.

Anastasia and Titan A.E.

Tales of Vesperia or something? Just because I once made a manip of Estelle and Naminé together, and someone commented that that wasn’t a bad crosier idea and I kind of agreed?

It would never happen in a million years, for so many reasons, but A Song of Ice and Fire could be interesting. They’re both fantasy theories that keep you guessing, with a lot of theory crafting in both.

People have often theorized what KH would be like if it had been Nickelodeon or something. LOL People say “Spongebob would have taken on Mickey’s role”, and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing what could be done with a Nickeloden crossover, a Cartoon Network one, or what have you.

Grimm’s Fairytales, maybe? Or even the show Grimm? -shrugs-

I could maybe give the Star Wars, Marvel, and Indiana Jones ideas a try...

Roswell?

Tenchi could be interesting... The sword from that/Master Key reminds me of the Keyblade, somewhat.

Madoka Magica?

Sabrina: The Teenage Witch? I have no freaking clue. But I’ve been rewatching episodes of that show on some week nights lately, so it’s on my mind.

Firefly could probably work, and I am trying to write that. And parts of Dollhouse would lend itself beautifully to KH.

Oh. Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Danny Phantom.

People have been saying stuff like Naruto for years, and I agree.

I also wouldn’t say no to DC. I once wrote a Smallville and KH crossover once, but that was wish-fulfillment. I don’t know how much it would actually work. Haha.

Static Shock. Teen Titans and/or Young Justice. Batman Beyond.

I’m also someone who thinks a High School Musical could work, and would like to see it. XD. I once wrote a KHxHSM crossover, and at least one reviewer seemed to think I handled it pretty well. So it can be done, imo. .

..Maybe even things like Boy Meets World, even though it shouldn’t work. But ever since the fandom joked that Jason Marsden will be announced for KH, and then the fandom will war over whether he’s voicing Max Goof, Noel Kreiss, or Kovu, and I added on that, “You guys are forgetting Eric’s friend on Boy Meets World. Don’t forget that Boy Meets World is Disney owned”, I’ve weirdly been thinking of Boy Meets World in KH. Mostly as a joke. But meh.

Perhaps “I am Number Four”...

Oh! Harry Potter! Duh! People have been doing that for years, and it works.

People have also written Fullmetal Alchemist/KH crossovers, I think. And I haven’t seen FMAB yet (for shame, I know. It’s been on my list for ages, and hopefully I’ll get to it soon), from what I know of it, I love the idea.

The Kingdom Keepers series would probably be good for KH, even though I haven’t read it yet. Descendants?

Phineas and Ferb!

I’ll just add Sailor Moon, because. Actually, you know what? Sailor Pluto’s staff was pretty much the first Keyblade. So it works and works well.

And why am I now imagining things like NCIS and Castle? IDK.

Hocus Pocus!

And can we get Rinoa in the series, already?

Wizards of Waverly Place. Maybe not as a world, but something. I think that exploring what went wrong with Jerry, Kelbo, and Megan’s relationship could be a good warning for Sora, Riku, and Kairi, perhaps. And there are other things you could, too. To a lesser extent: Phil of the Future and That’s So Raven. Again, they probably wouldn’t work as worlds (maybe cameos). But I think there are interesting things there the games could use. Like, “Oh, you can time travel, Xehanorts? Well, let me hop in my friends’ the Diffy’s time machine and beat you at your own game.” Or, “You can see the future Master of Masters, so can my friend Raven.”

Doctor Who.

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.

Moana.

This is everything that I can think of right now...

I also think it would be fun to add in little cameos, like Proud Snacks from the Proud Family.

Edit: I want Max Goof in this series.

Edit 2: Oh! The Swan Princess and Quest for Camelot!

Edit 3: Hanna Barbara and Paramount’s monster movies could be a good idea.

Edit 4: Studio Ghibli!

[adultingautistic]

Can autism make a kind of... Social anxiety because you always think "am I doing this correctly?" and "what if this is wrong?" and you don't really know either because everyone just tells you "come on you can do this uwu" but never actually calms your fears?

Yes, absolutely.  Social anxiety is very common among autistics for this exact reason.  We’re told to “just be yourself”, but then when we are, we’re told “Why do you have to be so weird?” We’re told to “Just relax”, but when we do, we’re told “Can you pay more attention?” We’re told to “Don’t think so hard about it, just do it,” but when we do, THEN we’re told to “Think before you speak, what’s wrong with you.”

Who wouldn’t have social anxiety, if they were treated this way?

The only way I found out of my social anxiety was to just embrace my weirdness.  Just accept that that’s who I am, and others are going to have to deal with it or move on.  It’s not easy to come to that place.  It took me years and years to get there.  And it’s not perfect either; when I’m in front of my partner’s family, I mask the shit out of myself to the point I”m unrecognizable, and yes, my social anxiety is very high because I’m so busy checking that mask and making sure it’s perfect constantly.

We all go through this.  The best way to be happy is to accept yourself, and allow yourself to be your weird, autistic self, and when others can’t handle it, don’t care.  I know that’s a tall order.  I know it seems impossible to get there.  But you can start small.  Start with one thing about yourself, and then stop compromising on it.  Let’s say it’s bread crust.  So you stop eating it in front of others, to spare yourself.  Let’s say you’re in a 5-star restaurant and there you are, cutting your crust off your bread in a suit and tie (or evening gown).  And your judgey relatives look at you.  You know what? Tough shit for them.  It’s their choice to be judgey.  You’re you, and your’e beautiful, and your mouth is safe from gross crust.  

And then you do it again, and again, and next time again.  And then eventually, “Oh, Max is just like that.”  They will accept it.  Because you haven’t given them a choice.  And bam, you’re being your real self, and your social anxiety has gone down by 1 point, because you have 1 less pixel on that mask that you have to maintain.

[komkommertijd]

Let’s ignore that it took me forever to actually do this, thank you so much for tagging me @verstappened @scharletred 💛💛

Rules: It’s time to love yourself. Choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artist/etc. you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

It’s actually been about a year since I’ve started writing for this fandom, so it’s the perfect chance to look back at what I have created so far. I have no idea who to tag but if anyone sees this and wants to do it, feel free to say I tagged you 🌻

(Putting this under the cut so I won’t spam everyone’s dash - have fun kids 😌)

1 - One Million Words

When a stranger texts the wrong number and accidentally sends Daniel a declaration of love, he knows he can't let it go.

This one is probably not my best work but it’s my first full-length fic for this fandom and one of the first multi chaptered fics I have finished in general. It holds a very special place in my heart and I actually really like the plot. There’s comfort and love, and the plot twist/how it all comes together in the end is something I’m quite proud of. I initially started writing this story to cope with some personal stuff and it worked, so it’s probably good, right? Anyway, it’s set in Toronto and I love it 😌

2 - Here for Christmas

There was a single snowflake falling down from the pitch-black sky, landing on Daniel's nose right before he stepped back into the warm apartment. He turned around one last time, whispering into the night before closing the door behind him.

"Merry Christmas, Maxy."

I wrote this one in the car on our way to my relatives for Christmas last year and while I don’t consider myself good at writing about grief, I do like how it turned out. And I know I keep telling that story, but I read this one out to an actual published author and they genuinely liked it, so it holds a special place in my heart and my memory. It reminds me a bit of my friend whom I miss dearly, which probably plays into my bias.

3 - ‘Cause you’re a sky full of starts (I’m gonna give you my heart)

The viewscreen on the main deck has dead pixels in the upper right corner and Daniel slowly thinks that it's driving him insane. It doesn't help that none other but Charles Leclerc is sitting next to him on Max's seat, legs kicked up to rest on the table. It drives him insane how chill Charles seems with the whole situation, almost as if he's making fun of Daniel. He has always been the better commander out of the two of them, hell, Charles calls himself captain and that's not very professional at all, but it's hard not to compare himself to Charles.

Or

Glimpses of the life of crew members of the spaceship Exodus and the chaos that ensues.

The Space AU 😌 I had an unreasonable amount of fun writing this and I still think about this fic a lot. I did start working on a sequel back in summer but I don’t really have much faith in myself when it comes to finishing it. I loved the concepts in the fic and the different crews, and George and his Gameboy are just <33 The relationships in this story and the character dynamics, the porn virus, the chaos, it’s perfect and I’m glad I managed to throw this all together at 4 am.

4 - the victories and the lows.

Well, maybe it's one constant, he thinks when he finds Valtteri in the crowd of celebrating people and clinks their bottles together. They drink to the season and to their therapy-drinking-sessions throughout it and Daniel smiles a little harder and laughs a little louder after that.

I am so proud of myself for writing a oneshot this long and the amount of work that went into it always surprises me when I think about it. It’s not quite heavy? but I worked through a lot of feelings there. I’m not that into writing season recaps usually but the Renault pity party was too tempting not to. I like how it played out and it’s still one of my favorite works of mine, which I love recommending once in a while. It’s a bit more out of the ordinary but it means a lot to me.

5 - when it comes to art, it’s important not to hide the madness

coincidence /kəʊˈɪnsɪd(ə)ns/ noun a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

or

the uni/texting/coffee shop au no one asked for but i wrote it anyway.

shenanigans (may) occur.

I mean, it’s a work in progress and we’re only three chapters in but this fic means a lot to me. It’s self-indulgent, it’s relatively light content (so far..?), and working on it makes me very happy. There are so many cameos, characters I love and it’s just genuinely so much fun. Especially when things get a bit stressful and rough in real life, this fic offers me a way to escape and deal with it in a different way. It’s one of my favorite things to work on and there’s so much exciting stuff about it, so it really deserves a spot on this list.

other honorable mentions

quarter past midnight Can’t breathe (I’m waiting for the exhale) I got this feeling on a summer day (knew it when I saw his face) Midsummer Night Dreaming home

[tokumusume]

tokumusume’s list of best and worst movies and dramas watched in 2019:

There’s a new category this year. Inspired by kpopalypse, welcome the Honorable Mentions! Movies that weren’t exactly bad but also weren’t good. Movies and dramas are qualified to enter if I watched them for the first time this year, not that they were released this year. Click on ‘keep reading’~~

Best Movies:

1.      Parasite

Another masterpiece from the director of Snowpiercer (let’s pretend Okja never existed). A poor family con their way to a rich household. Choi Woo-Shik from The Witch (see below) is the eldest son and mastermind, fabulous as always. Definitely the best movie of this year. For me, movie of the decade.

2.      The Witch Part 1 The Subversion

This movie is amazing, hard to describe without spoilers. A perfect mix of Stranger Things and Hanna. Choi Woo-Shik can come to my house and kick my ass anytime. I can’t wait for part two.

3.      Death Trance

Visually stunning, kinda like Amemiya Keita’s style in early Garo or Mad Max. I wish the movie was longer and the characters were better fleshed out, Ryuen the monk and the little girl had so much potential... The most interesting thing about this movie is how sexualized the main male character is compared to the female ones, and apparently, the swords were designed to look like veiny penises (can’t find a source for this info), and yes, they do look like veiny penises. The final showdown is heavy with sexual energy. Have I already said that Ryuen deserved better? #RyuenRights

4.      Gintama 2: Rules are made to be broken

The barber shop scene is a fucking cinematic masterpiece. I never laughed so much like I did with this movie. The way it doesn’t take itself seriously, the meta jokes, everything is perfect. Even better than the first one.

5.      Kingdom

While I think that some fight scenes were way too long (like the bamboo forest one), the dynamics between Shin and Hyou/Eisei were highly entertaining, at least in my shipper eyes. I like that (SPOILER) the King of the Mountain People is a woman and not once they try to call her Queen. She is a King. Hashimoto Kanna is adorable as a Ten, Kanata Hongo does a great job as Eisei’s psycho brother, Sakaguchi Tak waves his sword around, the usual stuff but with added layers of dirt and sweat.

6.      Bravestorm

A movie I lovingly call “Japanese Pacific Rim”. Full of Kamen Rider stars (Hino Eiji! Misuzawa Haruka! That girl from Heisei Generations, the one with a sword! She has a sword in this as well!) and giant robots (god, I love giant robots!), I waited so much for this movie and it exceeded my expectations. I just wish I could’ve watched in theaters, it had a limited showing in my country.

7.      Twelve Suicidal Children

What begins as a murder mystery ends with a twist you won’t see coming. All of the actors are amazing, but special mention to Sugisaki Hana and that guy from that one boy group I forgot the name but can’t be bothered to Google.

8.      Gakkou Gurashi

Four girls and their teacher try to survive the zombie apocalypse trapped inside the school. This one destroyed me for days.

9.      Forest of Love

I’ve watched some Sono Sion movies but nothing prepared me for this. Be aware of extremely gory sequences and sensitive topics. Hinami Kyoko is so amazing as blue-haired, punk girl crush Taeko that I totally didn’t notice she was AkibaBlue in Akibaranger.

10.  The Host

After watching Parasite I decided to go on a Bong Joon Ho binge and watched this horror movie. Not as good as Snowpiercer and Parasite in my opinion but heart-wrenching nevertheless. The little girl is the star of the movie.

11.  The Hungry Lion

A story about the dangers of social media and slut-shaming. I want to punch Mizuishi Atom in the face.

12.  Cromartie High

A little absurd comedy about yakuza-style high school boys (played by middle-aged men lol) forming a club to battle aliens summoned by themselves just because. It made me laugh like a child. A hidden gem.

Honorable Mentions:

1.      River’s Edge

Depressing as fuck. Warning: the cats die. It’s not graphic but it’s traumatizing. Yoshizawa Ryo is a gay boy who sleeps with old men for money. There’s a graphic sex scene (not Yoshizawa, sadly) where my only thought was “That thing is gonna get stuck in there! Use a condom!” Can’t remember much from it except for these three scenes.

2.      The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Yamazaki Kento has the acting chops of a dead fish but it comes handy for playing a teen with psychic abilities and zero social skills. Hashimoto Kanna is one of the prettiest girls in Japan. Yoshizawa Ryo with white and blueish hair looks more like Sakata Gintoki than Oguri Shun in the Gintama live action. The end is a huge let down but the fun ride is worth it.

3.      Ano ko no, Toriko

Congratulations to Yoshizawa Ryo, he has FIVE movies in my list of favorite movies this year! This is to make up for crowning GIVER as the biggest waste of time of 2018, this list is totally not biased, lol. “Ano ko” could be just another romance movie but the (very) little insight into how the entertainment industry works and not focusing on school life made me love it. Poor Sugino Yosuke being left behind again, when will this boy get the main girl?

4.      Monstrum

It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s pleasant enough to fill a rainy afternoon with a lot of blood and spilled guts. Hyeri of Girl’s Day is the heroine and Choi Woo Shik is the commander she falls in love with.

5.      Weirdo Go

I confess I watched this one just to see Ji Li (aka my snake son Nie Huaisang) dressed as a woman but it was enjoyable and not that problematic.

6.      Real - Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryu no Hi

Directed by the same guy that did “Creepy” and “Before we vanish”, there are lots of twists you won’t see coming. And a dinosaur. A fucking dinosaur.

7.      Tomodachi Game: The Final

The movie loses its focus halfway through then picks up again minutes before ending. Yoshizawa Ryo delivers again as the sadistic Yuuichi, much like his role in Gintama. The plot twists are the star of the movie.

8.     The Living Dead

Sorry Wen Ning. I saw the plot twist coming in the first 30 minutes of the movie, not very smart of the writer. His personality did a 180° turn for worse and I’ll demote the movie to an honorable mention for it. Gao Han is cute though, I would like to see him as a better character.

9.      Backstreet Girls

Some recycled scenes from the drama to situate the viewers, a completely new story for the movie, it is certainly funny and enjoyable, if you can get past the forced gender reassignment surgery background and transphobic jokes (you shouldn’t get past it btw). I like the soundtrack.

Best Dramas:

1.      The Untamed

Do I need to say more?

2.      The Tale of Nokdu

This Korean romance had everything to be a mess but it wasn’t!!! *claps* I don’t hate the main female character and the whole palace politics actually kept me interested until the end. The complete shift of atmosphere mid-season was strange at first but ultimately very welcomed.

3.      The Naked Director

Netflix original Japanese content is amazing. This one is a look at the life of a legendary porn director in the late 80s, I learned a lot about the history of Japanese porn and censorship (yay pixels!) and went looking for his, erm, works. Very graphic, 69/10 don’t recommend watching with people in the house.

4.      Channel wa Sonomama!

I don’t remember it well but it’s about a news station and what is like to be a journalist and it was very interesting and funny.

5.      SCAMS

Forgettable. Sugino Yosuke with black hair cons old people via phone calls.

Worst Movies and Dramas:

1.      The cat in their arms

The cats spend 90% of the movie in human forms, and halfway through it they simply abandon the cats’ plot to show a fucking long montage of a weird guy painting a picture of a nude girl. It’s also super creepy to see a grown-up man acting like a cat, getting belly rubs and eating cat food from a bowl. Yoshizawa needs to choose his roles more wisely.

2.      Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

A waste of Suda Masaki’s talent. Can Japan stop casting Tsuchiya Tao already?

3.      Samurai Marathon

Almost two hours of dirty men running through a forest. Maybe Japanese History experts will enjoy it, because I certainly didn’t.

4.      Lady Vengeance

While there are legit great moments, I didn’t find this “classic” to be anything special. The animal cruelty was too much for me.

5.      Hot Gimmick

This movie makes Bohemian Rhapsody’s editing look like a work of art. There are more flashing cuts than a T-ARA music video. I have no idea who likes who, who’s banging who, what even are they saying. Too much poetic shit for my like. I wanted to see Shimizu Hiroya naked. I was bamboozled.

6.      The Divine Fury

While some parts were interesting, at the end I still don’t know if the protagonist is possessed by a demon (if yes, then why would he help a priest destroy his friends?) or if he was blessed by God when his father died and talked to him (the glowing hand thing, why and how??). The exorcism parts are really, really scary, or maybe I’m just a chicken, but I had to avert my eyes. The best (only) part is that the protagonists are hot. Hello Woo Do-Hwan, you can sacrifice me to Satan any time…

[angelofthequeers]

Ladybug and Reine Nuit: Chapter 20

Pixelator

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Okay so I’m extra salty about ‘Animaestro’ and That Guy’s self-insert tantrum but by god am I gay for Buninette

I really don’t like Pixelator, but I do need to introduce Uncle Jagged within this story’s universe, so…yeah, I basically used the necessary intro scene.

@miraculousl4dybug @livinthebilife tagged as requested :)

Check out my Ko-fi for writing commissions!

Chapter 19 | Chapter 21

“I like it!” Tikki chirps. Marinette hums in indecision as she turns her head, examining her reflection from all angles.

“I haven’t worn a bun in years,” she says. “I found the pigtails way cuter and easier. I’m not even sure why I decided to try this today.”

“The bun makes you look cute too!” Tikki says. “You look cute and mature. Not that I don’t like your pigtails!”

“No, no, I know what you mean.” Marinette twirls a lock of hair framing her face to give it a slight wave. “I actually kind of like it.”

“Well, you’ve got about two more minutes to decide before you’re officially running late.”

“What?” Marinette springs into action to grab the nearest pair of jeans and a flowy pink top that’s just big enough to tie it at her waist fashionably. Once she’s dressed, she snatches up her purse and tries to balance hopping down the stairs with pulling on her usual ballet flats, which she thankfully pulls off without tripping and breaking her neck.

For once, she’s actually not late to school, which is probably thanks to Tikki keeping track of time because heaven knows Marinette can’t. She’s still sweaty by the time she makes it there, though, and she needs to collapse on the stairs outside the front of the school to catch her breath. Not only is she not late but…she’s early. She actually has time to relax beforehand rather than freaking out and trying to get to class.

“Dupain-Cheng,” sneers a familiar voice as a shadow looms over her. Marinette rolls her eyes and looks up to see Chloé blocking the sun, hands on hips and smirking widely.

“What now, Chloé?” Marinette sighs. Chloé reaches out and flicks Marinette’s bun.

“After what happened last year, I’m surprised you’ve got the nerve to wear that thing again,” she says. Oh, that’s right. That’s why Marinette’s been wearing pigtails. Her hair used to be long…until Chloé had thought it would be very funny to stick a wad of gum in her bun. As a livid Sabine had carefully and soothingly cut a bawling Marinette’s hair to the length it is now, that’s one of the only times Marinette can remember being terrified of her usually quiet, cheerful mother.

“It’s called change, Chloé,” Marinette says. “Something you don’t seem to understand. You can’t even be nice when it’s Adrien asking.”

“Adrikins and I will always be friends,” Chloé scoffs. “Even if he’s being utterly ridiculous right now. I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand true friendship like ours.”

“Are you done?” Marinette’s not even annoyed at this point. Honestly, Chloé’s daily antics have just grown exhaustingly bland with the knowledge that she’ll never change and that she’ll just keep being the same old nasty girl, even when she’s lost both her best friends. It’s not like she’s harmless, what with how many people she’s bullied to the point of vulnerability to Hawkmoth. Just…more like a mosquito hanging around and buzzing, rather than a venomous snake constantly striking and biting.

“I’m sorry, am I boring you, Dupain-Cheng?” Chloé says.

“It’s old, Chloé.” Marinette stands up, brushing the dirt off her blue jeans. “You show up, say some mean things, then walk off laughing while I get angry. You can’t even be original when it comes to bullying me.” She turns to head into school.

“Original?” Chloé storms in front of Marinette to block her way with crossed arms and a dangerous scowl. “I am original! Everyone looks up to me! I’m original and exceptional and you’re just a ridiculous –”

“Oh, back off, Chloé,” says Alya from behind Chloé, her arms crossed. Marinette climbs to her feet. “Picking on Marinette is the least original thing about you. Although you are exceptional at being a bully.”

With a snarl, Chloé shoves Marinette out of her way as she storms up the stairs. Marinette shrieks and teeters on the edge of the step, then topples forward and would have cracked her head and ribs if not for Alya rushing to grab her.

“Um…thanks!” Marinette says with a sheepish grin. “Nice reflexes!”

Alya just smirks and pulls Marinette back to her feet. “I gotta have good reflexes with you around, girl. Love the bun, by the way.”

Marinette rolls her eyes with a grin as they head after Chloé at a more sedate pace.

“Marinette!”

Marinette and Alya pause at the top of the steps to let Nino catch up. Before Marinette can react, Nino’s throwing his arms around her and saying, “Thanks again for getting Reine Nuit to take me to see Luka, dude.”

Marinette smiles as warmth blossoms in her belly. “Of course, Nino. I’m glad she could help.”

“Sorry, wait, what exactly am I missing?” Alya says with her hands on her hips.

“Never mind,” Marinette says as Nino releases her. “Just something I did for Nino.”

The three of them head inside for class as the bell rings, Alya pestering Nino for details the whole way there. They’re the last ones into the room, which has erupted in drama with half their classmates on one side and the other half on the other side. Only Chloé’s sitting separate from the drama, painting her nails with a scowl.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Alya says.

“My last video got nuked for graphic violence,” Adrien says sullenly. “Again. I’m losing subscribers because people don’t see the point in sticking around for someone whose videos keep getting taken down.”

“Uh, I can help you make your own blog,” Alya says. “Then you can post whatever. Why didn’t you ask me before?”

“It didn’t occur to me!” Adrien’s eyes start to sparkle. “You’d do that for me, Alya?”

“Yes, yes, because I am a kind and gracious queen.” Alya sits down next to Adrien and pulls out her laptop.

“I get the feeling that’s not what the drama is about,” Marinette says. She’s immediately confronted by Alix, whose eyes are narrowed at her.

“Which team are you on?” Alix demands. Marinette blinks.

“Um…what?”

“Which. Team?” Alix says. She jabs her thumb at the people on Adrien’s side of the room. “Those losers think that Ladrien is where it’s at. But we are dedicated LadyNuit fans.”

“Ladrien? LadyNuit?” Marinette stares at Nino, who just shrugs.

“Ship names!” Rose chirps from the LadyNuit side. “Ladybug with Reine Nuit, or Ladybug with Adrien!”

“Wait, as in…romantic?” Nino says.

“Oh, come on!” Ivan says. “Adrien’s always running after Ladybug! And she’s always saving him! He’s the Lois Lane to her Superman!”

“Yes, there is an eighty six percent chance of Ladybug and Adrien eventually realising their feelings for each other within the next year, what with their obvious fondness for each other,” Max says, adjusting his glasses. “LadyNuit only ranks at –”

“Excuse you, but Reine Nuit is Ladybug’s partner,” Juleka says. “They’d die for each other. They’ve always got each other’s backs.”

“You weren’t there when they kissed!” Kim boasts. “But I was!”

Marinette freezes as ice coats her insides. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Alya’s cheeks darken furiously. “K-Kissed?” she says.

“Yep!” Kim slides down to the front of the room and slings an arm around Marinette, no doubt thinking that he can lure her to the LadyNuit side. “When I was Dark Cupid and hit Ladybug with an arrow! Reine Nuit kissed her to break the spell after destroying my akuma so she could use Miraculous Ladybug!”

“Because true love defeats hate!” Rose squeals, bouncing up and down.

“It could be platonic love,” Mylène pipes up. “There’s no reason why Reine Nuit’s platonic feelings wouldn’t break the spell.”

As her classmates argue, a dazed Marinette sits down in her usual seat. Nino sits with her, since Alya is currently helping Adrien establish his new blog.

“The Ladyblog!” Alya declares, waving her hands. “It’s perfect!”

“But I like being called Ladybugreste,” Adrien sulks.

“Just use that as your pen name,” Alya says. “And Nino can make up his own name. Duh. Look, you can livestream and upload videos and pictures and posts – I can handle the blog posts, by the way, since I’m the journalist around here – and fans can interact with you and – it’s gonna be so cool!”

“You’re just living vicariously through me, aren’t you?” Adrien says.

“Of course,” Alya grins. “If I can’t be the Ladyblogger then I’ll just have to settle for leading the school blog and nudging my little sunshine apprentice who got in first.”

“Good morning, class!” calls a voice over the din. Everyone immediately shuts up and scrambles to their seats, saying good morning to Ms Bustier as they do so. Alya and Nino switch their seats back in the chaos.

“LadyNuit and Ladrien?” Marinette hisses to Alya, who just shrugs.

“I’m personally on team LadyNuit.”

“Alya!”

.

Apparently, today is their year’s work experience today at Le Grand Paris, although Marinette can’t be sure if she’d just forgotten this or if she’d been actively trying to block it out. The latter seems more likely when their class arrives at the hotel and not only are Alya and Marinette assigned trash sorter and gopher as jobs respectively, but Chloé’s job is specifically to hang around an uncomfortable Adrien and cling to him. This is payback for the confrontation that morning, isn’t it?

“Wow!” Chloé gasps. An annoyed Marinette turns to see what Chloé’s so stunned over, only to feel her jaw drop to the floor at the sight of Jagged Stone walking into the hotel! Jagged Stone is here? Here?

“Mr Stone, welcome to Le Grand Paris Hotel!” André rushes to simper to Jagged Stone. “I am Mayor Bourgeois, the owner of this luxury establishment; in fact, the most luxurious in all of Paris! How might we serve you?”

“How d’you think?” Jagged Stone says in his British accent. Marinette giggles behind her hand. “I didn't just come here to admire your lobby.”

“Jagged would like to check into your most luxurious suite,” says Jagged Stone’s assistant, a woman with bright purple hair that’s still not as bright as Jagged Stone’s.

“And Fang better get a real bathtub, not a tiny water hole like the one in that hotel across the street!” Jagged Stone adds.

“We have everything you need, Ms Fang,” André says to Jagged Stone’s assistant. “Even a state-of-the-art entertainment centre!”

“That’s Penny,” Jagged Stone says. “Fang’s me crocodile.”

André lets out a nervous little laugh at the sight of the collared crocodile at Jagged Stone’s feet. “Mr Stone, we have everything you require for your…Fang. Would he, um…enjoy a bubble bath?”

“Crocodiles don't like bubble baths. That dries their scales out!”

Marinette frowns at Fang as he trots around a large planter box to where a blond man is hidden with a camera. She nudges Alya and points.

“Oh no, not him again,” Jagged Stone groans when the blond man is frightened out of hiding by Fang.

“Remember me, Mr Stone?” the blond says. “Vincent Aza! Just one photo to show everyone in the world that we're best buds! Come on, please! I'm your biggest fan!”

“I know, you've been to my last thirty-six shows,” Jagged Stone snaps. “But we are not friends.”

When Vincent tries to take a photo with Jagged Stone, Penny promptly ejects him from the hotel. Once the stalker fan is gone, André personally escorts Jagged Stone, Penny, and Fang to their room, with Marinette and Ms Bustier following, although Marinette can’t figure out why she’s being dragged along. Not that she’s complaining when she gets to be in the same elevator as Jagged Stone!

“Mr Stone is going to need a new pair of shades for tonight's gig,” Penny says once Jagged is settling into his room by playing hoops with Fang. “Red, white, and blue, with two large Eiffel Towers on them. Can you get that for him?”

“Of course we can!” André says. “Marinette here is our gopher. She'll take care of that for you.”

“Huh?” Marinette says. André leans in to whisper in her ear.

“A gopher is an employee who goes for anything a customer needs. Anything at all. So, go ahead. Goph!”

With a sigh, Marinette trudges out of the room and leans against the wall. “How am I supposed to find those sunglasses?” she complains. “They don’t exist! Ugh, I knew Chloé was setting me up to fail.”

“Then don’t give her that satisfaction,” Tikki says, poking her head out of Marinette’s purse. “So what if they don’t exist? Get creative!”

Marinette gasps as an idea strikes. “You’re right, Tikki!” she says, speeding down the hallway. “Let’s go!”

Once at home, she rummages in her drawer until she finds an old pair of sunglasses, then pops the lenses out and gets to work. It takes the better part of an hour, but she manages to create a pair of sunglasses with two large Eiffel Towers over the lens holes in the French flag colours, and so she runs back to the hotel to deliver them. She’s gasping and panting as she hands them to Penny, who looks a little concerned for her wellbeing but promises to pass them on to Jagged Stone when he’s finished resting.

Just as Marinette’s about to enter the elevator to head back down for her next assignment, a bright flash of light bursts behind her. Her eyes widen at the sight of the bright blue and black figure standing in the doorway to Jagged Stone’s room, and she ducks into the elevator and cries, “Tikki, spots on!” Her work experience is going to have to wait a while. Hopefully she doesn’t fail from lack of effort in the meantime…

.

BONUS:

“I'd like to dedicate this song to the girl who saved my life!” Jagged Stone announces at his concert that night, wearing Marinette’s sunglasses, while everyone in Ms Bustier’s class minus Chloé cheers from the front row. “This one's for you, Ladybug!”

Best. Day. Ever.

[endangered-liaison]

Prompt #15: Snowbird

There are many discreet, quiet houses in Ala Mhigo.

Many places for people to hide away when they don't want to be found, especially after the wars.

This particular quiet, discreet house...rattles a little.

There's a yell from within, and one of the window shutters shakes. Another yell, and the sound of a spell being cast.

A muffled "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck y--"

The front door of the building shatters apart, and a hooded, cloaked woman crashes through it. She slides across the stone pavement of Ala Mhigo like a ragroll, groaning and muttering curse words.

A highlander arcanist steps out of the building, a book in one hand and a knuckle duster in the other.

"Nobody fuckin' told me Boartusk was a fuckin' fighter."

She staggers her way to her feet, one fist raised to fight while the other clutches her stomach. Behind her mask, she smirks.

"Let's fuckin' go, yeah?"

Another doorway opens, and half a dozen assorted Ala Mhigan goons wander their way out. A rifle, a sword. One of them has an honest-to-fuck spiked bat.

"Oh, come the fuck on."

Her vocabulary is getting more limited than usual. In her defence, this situation is fuckin' bullshit.

"Who the hells sent you?" Boartusk asks. His Mhigan brutes close in just a little more.

"See..." Maxima raises one of her hands slowly, as if to surrender. The other stays holding her side. "About that..."

Max seems to recover from her 'injury' remarkably quickly. She draws a revolver from her waistband, firing two rounds towards Boartusk.

His magicked barrier absorbs the first one, and the second is deflected, leaving a long gash across his arm. Fucking mages.

The one with the spiked bat swings for her, and she shoots him in the leg before shoving her way past him.

She'd love to stay and chat, really.

Nothing personal, yeah?

She's just got places to be.

She sprints out of the quiet alleyway and into the main street of Ala Mhigo.

It's at that point that she realises that she just sprinted into the main street of Ala Mhigo while holding a gun, right after three gunshots went off.

A Resistance... wait, Ala Mhigan Army soldier spots her, and yells something.

A rifle shot blasts over her shoulder, and she she shoves her way past the guard. No time to explain the situation right now this moment.

Which would be great, if not for the fact that everyone is running and screaming, and an alarum just sounded.

Fuck.

She really stirred up the wespe's nest, didn't she?

She's got about a minute until the whole fuckin' Resist-- Ala Mhig-- it's the fucking Resistance, okay?! - comes down on her head.

Right. Great.

She reaches the entrance to another alleyway and stops. Turns, raising her revolver. The first of Boartusk's enforcers rounds the corner from the alley she came from. A shot to the chest, and he drops. She hits the second in the leg, and he goes sprawling.

The man with the rifle rounds the corner, and Max aims towards him. She fires her last round.

The bullet skitters against a barrier.

Fucking mages!

She ducks around the corner as the enforcer retaliates, running again.

The corridor is long, and narrow, and an exceedingly straight shot for anyone who wants to shoot her in the back.

Max dives into cover behind a pillar as a Ruin spell almost blasts her head (or at least her hood) off. She fumbles a little then clicks the side of her mask, switching on the overly-expensive thing's vox unit. "III to Snowbird, that name's still stupid, come in Snowbird!" The Resistance have got to be closing in, and that damned caster and his lackeys are still on her tail.

"You're stupid," comes the languid response, half-garbled by static. "What do you want, Max?"

She snaps open her revolver, loading rounds in as quickly as she can manage. "Emergency pickup, on the uh..." a rifle blasts out a large chunk of the wall she's hiding behind. Okay. Three rounds will have to do. She snaps the revolver closed again. "East side of the city rooftops."

There comes a long pause. "What city?" the voice on the vox demands, exasperated. "If you need evac from Limsa, you're shit out of luck."

Another gunshot, another Ruin. "Y'think I'd get vox signal that far out?! Ala Mhigo, you shite!" Max breaks cover, firing three rounds towards the advancing brute squad (that fucking caster is the Brute Squad, she swears), before running.

"Ala Mhigo?! If you're trying to kill yourself, you're doing a magnificent job. You think the Alliance won't blow me out of the air the moment I show my face? Have you seen what dragoons do to fliers?"

"Nope. Seen what they do to cannons, though." It's a low blow. In Max's defence, she's being shot at. She slides below a merchant's cart, and the cart promptly shatters behind her as a spell blasts shitty Rhalgr charms in all directions.

She ducks into an alleyway. There's silence on the vox save for Max's perpetually-ragged breathing for a few moments, then a wooden crash and a bang. The background noise seems to die down, and Max lets herself wheeze more freely.

"...Laelia. Please." A please from Maxima Sawyer is rarer than a thank you, and almost, almost as rare as a sorry.

For a moment, there's just static.

"...Fine. You're lucky I have some spare nitro. Get to a high point and carry something bright. You're going to have maybe thirty seconds to jump on board. And afterwards you're paying me for the fuel cost one way or another. I have to steal this stuff now, you know." There comes another, longer pause, and then: "Don't you dare fucking die."

"No chance," Max whispers. There are voices, muffled, nearby. "I've got a date."

_

"Snowbird to III, you still kicking?" comes the voice at last over the vox.

Max lets out a sigh of relief. "Yeah." She's had to run a few times, her hiding places getting found out, and at one point she had to hit someone repeatedly in the face with the butt of her revolver. But she's still kicking. "Guessing I need to make my run for it now?"

"Yeeeeeeeeeep," Laelia drawls. "See that balcony to your northwest? Run like you're being chased by the Frumentarii."

Max groans. "Great. Fuckin' great." She holsters her revolver (it's out of ammo by now, anyway) and flexes her fingers. Takes a few slow, steady breaths. Then kicks open the door in front of her, and sprints out into the streets. She makes it almost a full twenty paces before someone yells "there she is!"

At the same time, the Delphinus descends like a great wyrm upon Ala Mhigo, burning bright and blue. Max sees it roar past her, just for a moment.

Max doesn't know if it's the Resistance or the goon squad yelling behind her, and she doesn't much care to stay and find out.

She leaps and grabs a loose stone on the side of the building to her left. Thank fuck for Mhigan building techniques. She clambers her way up the side of the building quickly, and looks around as soon as she reaches the rooftop. There. Aligned, pixel-perfect, with the balcony.

She's never been so happy to see an airship in her life.

A gunshot blasts the minaret next to her head and she yelps. "Seriously?!"

She starts running, slipping her bow from her back and nocking an arrow as she sprints across a wooden bridge between rooftops. Almost there. "Ten seconds out!"

"All you have is ten!" Laelia warns. Already dragoons begin to spring across the rooftops, and cannons train on the gunship from below.

Max shoots an arrow towards the Resistance marksman who seems determined to make her life miserable. It misses, but she wasn't exactly aiming for him. She isn't here to kill the Alliance, as weird as it is to even think that.

Another bridge between buildings, and she's one house from the right balcony. Her lungs are burning from her sprint, but she can't stop yet.

She leaps. The marksman peeks out of his cover again...and fires at her. Max stumbles on the landing, almost dropping to her knees before staggering the last few steps into the Delphinus. "GO!"

Laelia doesn't need to be told twice. She punches it, pulling away at such a harsh angle that gravity threatens to knock them both out. It doesn't, however, and they fly free, screaming over the alabaster salt-flats below.

"You okay back there?" she asks at last.

Max staggers towards the cockpit, gripping one of the handholds. She lifts her jacket a little, looking towards her back. A rifle bullet is digging into her armoured vest, and a small amount of blood trickles down to her pant leg. "Bastard shot me!" she grumbles.

"Dunno what you were expecting." Laelia doesn't turn, fully immersed in her flying. "So you wanna explain what madness made you decide that going to Ala Mhigo was a good idea, or do I just have to speculate?"

"New job for a cute cyclops." Max tugs off her hood and unclips her respirator. She gives Laelia a shit-eating grin. "Hey Belisar. Glad you could make it."

"You're a shit," comes the blunt response. Laelia still doesn't turn, though she's grinning. "You're lucky I like you. I wouldn't go out of this way for just anyone, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Max pauses. "...Thanks." She slumps into the co-pilot's seat and hisses as it jostles her injury.

Laelia finally glances aside, slowing some as they finally put distance from the danger. "We've got to find you a medicus."

"Careful; I might start thinkin' you care about me." Max grins again. "It's not bad. Barely pierced my armour."

Laelia stretches. "Nah, you're just useful. Either way, where should I take you?"

"Wherever you're calling home now. I can get the rest of the way back to Ul'dah. You gotta steal your fuel now, after all." Max seems to be mulling over her next words with considerably more care than she usually would. Finally, she seems to reach the decision point of sod it (her usual decision factor in life), and just says what's on her mind. "...Castellus is alive."

"'Wherever' is my home. I go as far as my fuel can take me. I don't know if they want us here but I'm going to guess no." Laelia frowns, her expression hardening more at the mention of Victoria. "...Is she...?" comes the quiet response.

"Survived the Reaper, just about. She's got some stylish scars and a missing bit of ear, but...she's okay. Working out of Ul'dah, keeping her head down." Max tugs a little at the collar of her coat and coughs. "...Got herself a girlfriend. Roegadyn, if you can believe that." She snorts, and that transforms into another cough.

"Roegadyn!" Laelia laughs, falling back into her chair. "So we've lost her to the savages. I knew she was hopeless." Despite her harsh words, there's humor to them. It's clear she's only joking. "I don't know. I've mingled some among the Eorzeans, pretending I'm a knife-ear. They've proven pretty boring thusfar."

Max cackles. "You've got the attitude to be an Elezen."

Laelia shrugs. "I'm only channeling our dear late emperor. He'd not have fired upon his own, I'll say that much."

Max winces at that particular statement. "...Yeah."

Laelia falls silent, flying them on. At last she pulls up in the East Shroud, landing them not far from Baelsar's Wall. "I don't want to send you too far on a hike, but this is the best I can do," she said. "If you travel west along the road from here you'll come upon a tiny homestead called the Hawthorne Hut. It's staffed with knowledgeable conjurers and they'll be able to patch you up."

Max nods, getting to her feet. She staggers, just a little, and clutches the injury. Alright, she might have been slightly downplaying how deeply the bullet pierced her armour.

She pauses, just for a moment.

"...Thanks, Lee."

"Anytime," Laelia murmurs, not able to reach her comrade's gaze. "Keep in touch, alright? I'll be around."

"Will do. I'll bring Vic over to see you sometime. Promise it won't be for an evac, next time." Max smiles, and it seems genuine, for once. "Stay safe, yeah?"

"Good. I'd love to see her again. Tell her to keep her chin up, kay?" She turns to glance behind her seat, smiling. "Like I said, don't die. I'd be pissed, and that's way too much effort."

"Really?" Max hits the 'open door' button with the side of her fist, and waits for the stairs to extend outwards. "Always felt like the easiest emotion for me to get a handle on." She smirks, and offers a lazy Imperial salute before stepping out of the Delphinus and into the Shroud.

Laelia chuckles. She waits until she's certain that Max has her feet on the ground and then pulls away. The Delphinus vanishes behind the canopy above.

((Featuring Laelia Belisar’s flying talents and snark.))

[blogfgdjwrt-blog]

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