#Or lovingly bullied to wear a helmet

[cadrenebula]

What (if any) present did Lancefer get for the Starlight Celebration? Did Tara try to encourage him into a hobby with a thoughtful gift? Or did everyone give in and give him something knight-related, like a whetstone or armour polish? Or was there a compromise, with a purchase of some Halonic Homilies or a gilded prayerbook?

More like Tara and her twin, Theo, jointly kindly bullied Lance with the gift of a helmet. It's a very well made helmet, shaped with his head specifically in mind and with slits down the sides for his ears. Why? Because he's already taken two rather serious head injuries over the past few years. One of those head injuries cost him two years of memories. So now they are kindly bullying him into wearing a helmet for his own safety. Since he has a habit of wearing a metal circlet and not a helmet. And the twins are not above using Jas, Ava, or Evelyn as leverage to get their uncle to wear said helmet. Or even get Kyna and Lothaire in on the guilting party.

Theo also gave Lance an embroidery pattern, floss and needles. The pattern is the one that says 'This is Proof that I have the Patience to Stab Something 10,000 times.' This was definitely in an attempt to make him take up a hobby in his free time.

Tara gave him a new whetstone, polishing clothes and oil for his sword and armor.

Stefan gave Lance a few books. Hoping maybe his cousin would learn to relax and read as a hobby. They're mostly heroic knight romance books since he felt that was more Lance's type of story. He thought this was only fair since Lance kept trying to pressure him into learning how to fight. Pressure his cousin into reading seemed mild enough.

Destiney gave him a locket with a picture of Loth on one side and Kyna on the other. (Naturally she gave Loth a matching one but it only has a picture of Lance in it.)

Aunt Elle gave him a new warm scarf. Long enough for him to let Owlvael get snuggly on his shoulder.

Thanks for the ask @mimble-sparklepudding

[danthropologie]

In your opinion, which driver is the most baby waby itsy bitsy cutie patootie and why?

let's do a full ranking from least to most just because:

20. lance- he's the #1 baby waby to his dad if that counts for anything (it doesn't)

19. nando- literal war criminal. agent of chaos. absolutely not.

18. checo- straight-laced, catholic, father of three. just Some Guy. basically the furthest you could get from baby waby

17. george - you know how in arrested development, the slogan of the alliance of magicians is 'we demand to be taken seriously'? that's george

16. guanyu- too busy serving angles, serving cunt, and being That Bitch 24/7

15. esteban- very cute, very sweet smile, and 'estie bestie' is literally the babiest nickname a person could possibly have, but i'm lowkey convinced that this man holds secret hidden darkness underneath. he's a war criminal lying in wait and i cannot trust him i'm sorry

14. pierre- secretly would love a bit of babying but he'd NEVER admit to it, and instead would probably just give you a death glare and avoid you for the rest of time if you dared even utter the words 'baby waby itsy bitsy cutie patootie' or any variation thereof around him

13. carlos- generally not baby waby because he's too much of a thirst trapping thot to be put in that category, but sometimes the baby jumps out. usually when he's lovingly bullying someone (charles)

12. lando- inherently baby waby in the youngest brother energy he's constantly exuding, but ONLY wants to be babied when it suits him (aka when it personally benefits him). any other time, he absolutely HATES it, gets pissed off when anyone even alludes to him being young, and is very much 'i'm NOT a baby, i'm a big boy!!' type of energy

11. max- less baby waby and more just flat out baby (affectionately derogatory). says what he thinks without much consideration for others, whines and complains about everything all the time, will laugh at even the stupidest of jokes, knows baby shark by heart, etc

10. kevin- former war criminal and furthest you could get from baby waby, but has since been reformed after becoming a dad and getting his seat back

9. seb- 50/50 could go either way. he's a dad and has dad energy (and is also a little bit of a bastard), but sometimes he gets in silly goofy moods and takes the FIA scooter for a joy run or wears his underwear on the outside of his pants. also goes really fucking hard for bees and loves riding his silly little bike, which is demonstrably baby energy

8. val- baby waby but not necessarily in the traditional sense as much as the 'the clear wag in his relationship and more than comfortable in that position' sense

7. yuki- you might expect that because he's small and cute and loves food that he would be higher on the baby waby scale, but he's shown a bit of a propensity for deviousness and general trickster behavior, especially when it comes to convincing others of his baby waby status, which knocks him down a few places overall

6. nicky- if nothing else he's MY baby waby. just having a good time and trying his best, even if his best is a little bit pathetic most of the time

5. charles- just look at him. those big wet eyes, the ever-present stress acne, the way the ferrari marketing team treats him like their personal marionette doll and he just goes along with it. baby waby.

4. lewis- the pigtails, the heart shaped jewelry, the monochromatic and coordinated outfits, the instagram account for roscoe that he posts on AS ROSCOE and then comments on as himself...i mean, cmon

3. alex- sweetest, softest boy you'll ever meet. see also: albon pets and his lavender albon pets helmet 🤧

2. mick- watch the delight on this man's face as he pets a dog and tell yourself he's not baby waby, you can't

1. daniel- yes i'm probably biased but he's also LITERALLY doing it to himself, i don't know what to tell you

[scaryscarecrows]

Hey so quick question. What was the squad dynamic pre and post reveal? Because I’m imagining AK as like “you have a job, do it, and also don’t be so hecking stupid.” (Cough cough, Jimmy) Like, he’s an idiot (the corpse video call thing, driving, etc) but he’s also just done with their stupidity. And then the reveal happens and he’s like 19 or whatever. I just find it really funny if the character who is the most conventionally “adult” (Barring Frank and Mark.) is also the youngest. And also a disaster who’s trying to pretend he’s not. (Granted, I think everyone knew he’s not normal on sight. The suit is a pretty cool look though.)

So Jason wears a helmet for three reasons:

-When he started, he was literally a baby and paid or not, you're gonna have an uphill fight getting people to do what you want when you can't even buy booze or drive alone at night.

-That brand is really distinctive and also traumatic, better to just...not show that to the world. :/

-He has no poker face. None. The armor lets him keep the image he wants to portray; there's been plenty of times that he's cracking up, freaked out or otherwise Emoting Heavily, but the helmet lets him maintain the illusion of 'unflappable commanding officer who ran out of fucks in the womb'. (He's still plenty emotive, but sometimes you have to know where to look.)

End result...

Pre-Reveal

Early on, this guy is definitely dangerous and probably kind of unhinged. Later, they...they respect him when it really matters, and they're willing to keep up Professional Interactions in front of an audience, but they will tease him and/or lovingly bully him, same as they do with each other. Frank does not let him drive. Jason's stopped trying to pull rank to do so. Riley's also banned from being behind the wheel, which takes some of the sting out. There's definitely lines you do not cross (joking about Batman is a Bad Idea), but by and large, they don't have too many qualms about poking him once in a while. He's fine. Jimmy knocked himself out once (Jason startled him; that was an accident), got carried to medical, and woke up to Mark and Jason insisting that yes, the damage was so extensive that you're a head in a jar now, sorry man. Did he believe them? For a minute longer than he needed to, yes.

Post-Reveal

Jason: They bully me.

Mark: I told you to go to bed at a decent hour, you insisted that once you went three days without sleeping and I reminded you that I didn't give a shit, you weren't doing it this time.

Riley: Oh, yeah, I threw Scooby-Doo fruit snacks at him. Frank won't let him do anything to me, it was fine.

Jason: You threw fruit snacks at me on the damn job!

Riley: I didn't have any Snickers bars and you were raving about Bat-bullshit for like, the third time in half an hour. Frank said you were probably hungry.

Jason: He put you up to that?

Frank: Did you eat them?

Jason: ...yes.

Frank: Did they help?

Jason: Somewhat.

Frank: Then you were hungry. We threw 'em at Mark, too, don't feel too bad.

Mark: Yeah, but when it was me, you were bullying.

[artzychic27]

Pure Knight/Blood Knight

As he put his books in his locker, Nathaniel kept staring lovingly at the photo of Marc he kept inside. A few months after the Reverser incident, he and the writer started dating, and Nathaniel couldn’t be happier.

Marc was so sweet, cute, and just thinking about him always left Nathaniel a blushing mess. Especially when he saw that beautiful smile.

And hopefully, he’d be seeing that smile today. Nathaniel had been noticing something off about Marc- he’s more quiet than usual, he’s been wearing his hood over his head more often, and whenever Nathaniel asked if he wanted to hang out with his friends from class, Marc would either change the subject or say he had plans that day.

—

“Hey, Rainbow-“

He pauses when he sees his boyfriend, clearly upset. Marc was just lying on his bed, and looking up at the ceiling while listening to music on his headphones- Now Nathaniel was concerned. Marc would only do this whenever he was upset.

He walks over to Marc, pauses the music, and Marc turns his attention to him “Marc? Is something wrong?”

“... No, I just...” He sits up “... It’s just something that someone said.” Nathaniel sits down next to him and kisses him on the cheek.

“C’mon, tell me what happened.” He urges “I’m really worried about you.”

Marc smiled at his boyfriend’s concern, “Well, you know Lila?” Nathaniel frowns at the mention of the She-Demon’s name. She’s wronged the redhead too many times to count. Marc notices his expression “Nath?”

Snapped out of his thoughts, Nathaniel focuses back on Marc “Sorry. What about her?”

“I posted a story on Tumblr that I was proud of, but I guess Lila copied and pasted it on her Tumblr, then she told everyone she wrote it.” A few tears stream down his face “And they all believed her!”

“Oh, Rainbow.” Nathaniel cooed, then kissed him on his forehead “It’ll be okay.”

“No, it won’t. When I tried to tell everyone, they didn’t believe me, and Alya said I was jealous!” He wipes a few tears away. “Only Mari, Alix, Rose, and Juleka believe me.”

“And so do I.” He reminded, then wipes a tear off of Marc’s cheek using his thumb “It’ll get better, okay?”

Marc smiles “Okay.”

“Come on. Let’s work on the comic.”

After three hours of coming up with a storyline and character designs, Nathaniel went home, glad that his boyfriend is happy now. But he wasn’t. That lying fox had wronged him so many times, all because he doesn’t believe her damn lies!

“Accidentally” spilling drinks on his sketchbook, claiming to know a writer who could help improve the Ladybug comics, trying to frame him for stealing art she claimed was hers.

He could forget all of that, all of it, but making Marc cry was something he would not tolerate. He wanted Rossi to perish, not just her though, all of her followers. He just wanted them all to...

Nathaniel remembers he’s in Paris right now. A place where having negative emotions would turn you into a monster. So, he breathed in and out a few times and thought about positive things.

Being with Marc

People loving their comics

Mari having people on her side

Alix, Rose, and Juleka

...

From where he’s standing, Nathaniel glared at the sausage-haired girl sitting on the bench as she told more stories to her clueless followers flocking around her. He almost pitied them... Almost.

Alix sees what he’s looking at, and rolls her eyes “Just let it go, Nath. They’re all lost causes.”

“Yeah, I’ve done everything I could to help them, but they won’t listen.” Marinette says “If they wanna believe that I’m a jealous bully, let them. No more free clothes and food for them.” She folds her arms

He groans “Fine. But if she says one more thing about Marc again, I’m gonna-“ Rose interrupts him and asks “What’d she say about Marc?”

Answering her question, the Akuma class made comments such as:

“I still can’t believe he tried to steal my story!” The Italian whined

“He’s a fake!”

“He wishes he could write like you!”

“As if you could even call that writing!”

Marinette, Juleka, and Rose stared with their mouths hung open.

“Oh. My. Fucking- Ugh!” Alix exasperated “What the hell is wrong with them? That bitch doesn’t even write!”

Nathaniel continued to glare at the Italian, still trying to think about positive things so he won’t get Akumatized again

Being with Marc

People loving their comics

Mari having people on her side

Alix, Rose, and Juleka

“You should give that fake some lessons.”

... Lila getting what she deserves

“I bet that’s not even his work.”

Alya’s tabloid blog getting blacklisted

That lying bitch getting killed by an Akuma.

Those assholes falling off a big cliff!

His anger diminished when he saw Marc, halfway down the stairs. He was visibly crying, meaning he had heard everything they said. Nathaniel wanted to be angry right now, he did, but seeing Marc like that just made the redhead want to comfort him and tell him he loves him

His anger returned once again when Marc ran upstairs in tears.

It was probably enough to attract an Akuma, but he didn’t care. Those idiots deserved what was coming to them... But he didn’t want Marc to get akumatized...

Before Alix, Juleka, Rose, or Marinette could go over and tell them off, Nathaniel grabbed an apple out of Marinette’s lunch bag, silently thanked his parents for making him participate in two years of baseball, and chucked it at Lila while she wasn’t looking, hitting her right in her fat forehead, and ran out the courtyard while his classmates looked for the culprit.

—

Nathaniel could hear the wings flapping as he ran, and knew an Akuma was after him. The flapping got louder, and Nathaniel prepared to get akumatized once again, but the butterfly flew right past him... Marc!

He picked up more speed and ran right past the Akuma. After about a minute of running, Nathaniel found Marc crying in the art room and ran in to comfort him.

“Don’t cry, Marc, please don’t cry.” He whispers to Marc, hoping to calm him down before the Akuma would sense his negativity. “They’re wrong! You’re an amazing writer! I love you, Rainbow.”

The sound of the flapping of butterfly wings got closer. Nathaniel and Marc saw that the Akuma was in the room with them, and trying to pick which out of the two it would Akumatize. It was so hard for it to choose. Nathaniel’s anger and frustration were tempting, but it has originally been sent to go after Marc.

Being with Marc

People loving their comics

Mari having people on her side

Alix, Rose, and Juleka

“You should give that fake some lessons.”

“I know a way better writer.”

“As if you could even call that writing!”

Nathaniel pushed those thoughts in the back of his mind, got up, and stood between his boyfriend and the Akuma.

“Stay away from him!”

He couldn’t let Marc get akumatized again, he just couldn’t! He tried to keep his negative emotions down, but they were too strong. He kept thinking about his classmates. How they’ve hurt his friends, his boyfriend. How Lie-La made Marinette and Marc’s lives a living hell. The rage consumed him, that was enough for the Akuma to finally chose its target, and go in Nathaniel’s yin-yang necklace.

“Nath!” Marc cried as he saw Hawkmoth’s symbol appear on the face of his boyfriend. “Don’t listen to him, please!”

“What you did for the one you love was very noble of you. Almost like a Knight. I’m giving you the power to protect your love at all costs from those who dare try to hurt him.”

“Get out of my head!”

“You will go by two names. Blood Knight, a rage-filled seeker of vengeance. An unstoppable force to be reckoned with. The other, Pure Knight, protector of the innocent, and the defenseless.”

Nathaniel thought about Lila and Alya. Their smug faces whenever Marinette looked miserable, and the lies they spread about his friends. They would all pay...

“You yearn for justice, and to protect the one you love. In return for this power, you must give me Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous’. Do we have a deal?”

“I will protect him with my life.” He swore as the black and purple mist bubbles up from his necklace and surrounded him. When it lifted, Nathaniel was replaced by an armored figure, about a foot taller than him. The armor he was wearing was pure white with blue highlights. The helmet’s visor has a blue butterfly-shaped mark, and the helmet’s comb is a light blue. In his hand is a golden shield with a red and white yin-yang symbol. And around his neck was a necklace with a light blue orb.

Pure Knight heard shuffling from behind him and turned to see Marc has backed himself into a corner. He walks over to the crying boy and kneels before him as if he were royalty.

“Nath?” Marc whispered in horror.

He shook his head “I am Pure Knight. Your protector. I vow to be your shield, and smite those who have wronged you.” He takes Marc’s hand in his armored one

“They all will pay for their transgressions. No one shall ever harm you again, my prince.”

—

Marinette, Rose, and Juleka were trying to hold Alix back from knocking some sense into their idiot classmates.

“Alix, you said it yourself! They’re lost causes!” Marinette said as she pulled Alix by her arms

“Fuck that! They can mess with us all they want, but when they talk trash about Marc, I get crazy!” She argued, still trying to pull her limbs free, but stumbled when the sound of something metallic rang through the air.

Everyone looked to the middle of the courtyard and saw a large broadsword drop down, the point embedding itself on the floor. Holding the sword was Blood Knight. Unlike Pure Knight, his armor was black with blood-red highlights. The orb on the necklace was black. The same yin-yang symbol that was on the shield is now in the middle of the cross-guard of the sword.

Everyone took a step back as Blood Knight pulled his sword out from the floor. He looked at the Akuma class before his eyes settled on Lila. Then, something overcame him, and he surged forwards, pushing away the others to grab Lila by the front of her shirt and hold her up

“Put me down” She wailed “I didn’t do anything!”

“LIES!” He yelled, “Every word you say is nothing but a lie!”

“Nath?” Alix asked as she slowly walked over to the red knight “O-okay. Look, just put Lila down-“

“I have no quarrels with you, Alix. And unless you wish to meet the business end of my sword, you will let me do what should have been done long ago.”

CLANG!

“OW!” Everyone turned their heads to see Kim, clutching his fist in pain, possibly caused by trying to punch the Akuma.

Blood Knight throws Lila to the floor, then faces Kim. The athlete tries to look intimidating, but fails due to the height difference “...You weak, disposable maggot.” He said as he pointed the broadsword to Kim’s neck “You claim to be a defender of the bullied, and yet you aid one.”

Kim frowned “Lila’s not a-!”

In a split second, Blood Knight’s broadsword cleaved right through Kim. Everyone watched in horror as Kim’s figure disappeared in a puff of red smoke. Many students fled the courtyard, not wanting to be next.

“One down...” He turns to the rest of the class, who are still in shock “So many more to go.” He points his sword to Lila, who’s being held protectively by Alya “You are a danger to my Prince!”

Lila once again brought out the crocodile tears “But he’s the one bullying me!” She added a lip quiver for effect “He steals my stories and claim they’re his!”

Blood Knight growled under his helmet “Speak the truth now, or I will show you no mercy!” He pulled Lila out of Alya’s hold

Bring her reign to an end!

“I’m not lying!” She insists

“... Fine.” Thinking she’s won, Lila sighs with relief “Then your dark soul shall perish!” He raises his sword, the metal gleams in the light. Lila pales, knowing she, for once, won’t be able to lie her way out of danger.

Students look away, not wanting to see this again.

A second before he could bring this lying fox to justice, he felt something wrap around his armored wrist. ‘Who dares to defend this lying witch?’, he thought

“Nath, please!”

Hearing the cry of his prince, he turns his head to see that he’s the one holding onto his wrist. He takes a look at Marc’s face and sees the look of distress.

Kill her. Do it now!

He’s upset. Protect Marc! Keep him safe!

Blood Knight’s armor fades from red to white, and a bright light consumes the sword. When it dims, the shield is in its place.

“I know you’re still in there, Nath. You’d never want to hurt anyone...”

“My prince... I... I...”

Marc smiles, believing he’s getting through to him.

“I should’ve known!” Lila wailed, “You got Nathaniel akumatized so he could hurt me!”

The Akuma class, sans Alix, Rose, and Juleka, start hurling insults at the boy.

Kill them! All of them!

They hurt the prince!

Do you want to protect the prince? Kill them!

Rage consumes Pure Knight, and he becomes Blood Knight once again. Instead of the liar and her posse, he turns to Alix, Juleka, and Rose. In a flash, the blade sliced through them. But instead of them disappearing into smoke, their clothing transformed into pure white and gold armor, and in their hands were gold shields with yin-yang symbols

“Shieldmaidens, dispose of this lying fox!” Blood Knight commanded

“Yes, Blood Knight.” Alix, Juleka, and Rose responded in emotionless voices, then turned to the Akuma class. Before they could strike, Ladybug’s yoyo wraps around Lila’s waist and pulls her towards the spotted and leather-clad heroes, who are at the top of the steps

“I didn’t need your help! I could’ve taken them on myself!” Lila complains

Instead of Ladybug rolling her eyes, she just says, “You know, maybe I’ll just let Blood Knight take care of you, make our jobs a whole lot easier.”

Chat Noir plays along “Yeah, you get akumatized a lot, so this would be a win.”

“Okay! Just get rid of them!”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Ladybug says as she retracts her yoyo. Then she and Chat jump down in front of Blood Knight. Ladybug addresses the rest of the students still in the courtyard “Everyone, get out of here!” The students either took cover in the classrooms or run out of the school.

Marc is about to run but he was suddenly pushed into Blood Knight’s chest, his arm around him in a protective hold

He sighs, “And here I was thinking you two defended the weak!” He turned to the shieldmaidens “Don’t let them leave!” He hoisted Marc in his arms and jumped to the roof of the school as the writer screamed for dear life.

“FOR THE PRINCE!” The three shieldmaidens let out battle cries and surged forward to duel Ladybug and Chat Noir.

--

One short battle later, and the shieldmaidens are trapped in the lockers with no way of getting out, thanks to Chat Noir put a broomstick through the handles.

They make their way outside where many students and teachers are gathered

“Is everyone alright?” They all nod and say that they’re okay.

Aurore walks up to the two heroes

“Two more students were turned into shieldmaidens, and kidnapped Alya and Lila!” She explained frantically

“This is their fault!” One male student yelled as he pointed to the Akuma class. “If it weren’t for that lying bitch and that damn tabloid writer, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“She’s right.” A blonde girl agreed “I heard the shit you guys said about Marc, that’s why Nathaniel got akumatized! All because you believed some lying skeeze!”

“You’re all idiots!”

“Why don’t we just let Nath kill you right here, right now?!”

The students of the Akuma class who were on Lila’s side got into a verbal brawl with the other students over if Lila is a liar or not, and whose fault this was. As the commotion gets louder, a loud whistle sounds out. Everyone turns to see Chat Noir with his thumb and pointer finger in his mouth.

“You can all this discuss this later! Right now, does anyone have an idea where Nathaniel took Marc, Alya, and Lila?”

“Alya might be live-streaming for the Ladyblog.” A boy calls out “You can see where they’re going.”

“Of course! Someone bring up the Ladyblog!” Ladybug ordered

Aurore did so, and the live-stream was running, showing Alya in the clutches of one of the shieldmaidens jumping on the rooftops

“Hey, viewers! Once again, I’ve been kidnapped by a supervillain!” She said while blowing out some of her hair that was getting in her face “At least this one is less handsy!”

“She’s not the best journalist, but you gotta admire this girl’s commitment.” Chat Noir commented, to which Aurore rolled her eyes.

Alya then panned her phone around to show Marc, now in Pure Knight’s arms, looking terrified from being up so high and flinching every time Pure Knight landed on a roof.

“If this faker hadn’t stolen Lila’s story, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

She phone pans to show Lila, also terrified as she’s hoisted over a shieldmaiden’s shoulder

“Lila, care to comment?”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir, get off your fat lazy butts and HELP ME, YOU IDIOTS!” Lila screamed in response

Alta pointed the camera back to her. Confusion is visible on her face. The superheroes scowled. That girl had some nerve. The Akuma class also looks confused. Wasn’t Lila supposed to be Ladybug’s best friend?

“It looks like he’s heading for the Tower. And before he left, I think I heard him say something about the perfect kingdom for his prince.” Aurore says

—

We’ll have our kingdom, my prince.

It will be perfect like you.

What about our revenge?!

Justice will be brought shortly.

Pure Knight turned his attention to Marc, still cradled in his arms with his eyes shut tight. Ever since he became Reverser and almost plummeted to his death, Marc had a terrible fear of heights. Pure Knight gently put Marc down, and when he opened his eyes, he found that they were at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Noticing his uneasiness, Pure Knight pulls Marc closer to his chest “It will all be over soon, my prince.” He turns to the shield maidens and gives a small nod. At that, they drop Lila and Alya with an audible thunk

“You clumsy idiots!” Lila screeched

“I’ve had just about enough of you.” His armor becomes blood-red, and the broadsword returns, much to the two girls’ horror

“S-so, Blood Knight. Any reason you brought us to the Eiffel Tower?” Alya asked, pointing her phone to the Akuma

“So all of Paris can witness the downfall of this liar! She’s going to tell everyone who she really is!”

Alya was becoming frustrated “Lila is not a liar! Why does everyone-“

“SILENCE!” He is about to silence the reporter with his sword but froze when he felt Marc hold onto his arm. He looked into the boy’s pleading eyes and sighed in defeat, “You should be grateful my Prince is merciful, otherwise, I would not hesitate to slice both your necks open.”

The sword starts to glow a bright red

“It is time for you to tell the truth once and for all, Rossi!” He yelled

Lila was about to get up and run, but the two shieldmaidens held her by her wrists. Blood Knight approached her with his sword still aglow. He points the tip of it to her forehead, and Lila began to glow red.

The light dimmed, and the shieldmaidens released her. Lila fell to her knees, clutching her head in pain. Alya was about to help her, but she was met with the sharp tip of Blood Knight’s sword and went back to recording.

“Now tell all of Paris, Rossi. What have you lied about?”

“I... I... I HATE LADYBUG! I WANT HER DEAD! I CAN'T STAND HER!” Lila screamed against her will

Blood Knight nearly dropped his sword out of shock, clearly not expecting that.

“When Adrien’s friend got akumatized into Oni-Chan, I tricked Chat Noir into leaving Ladybug so she would face the Akuma alone. That sword should’ve killed her!” Lila snarled “And I’ve been working with Hawkmoth ever since so I could finally get rid of her!”

Alya and Marc’s jaws hung open. Seeing just how dangerous this girl really was, Blood Knight transformed into Pure Knight and held his shield in front of Marc

“Continue.” He ordered

“That bitch ruined my chance with Adrien! So what if I lied about being some stupid fox hero? She should’ve minded her own fucking business!”

Alya scowled and watched as the comments rolled in on the Ladyblog. A few were jabs at her, but almost all of them were aimed towards the Italian

“Then there’s Maribrat! She’s just as worse as Ladybug! I tried to get her expelled, but look how that turned out! God, I just want those two idiots dead!”

Alya shuddered at that statement. She was now starting to regret how she treated Marinette for so long.

“All she had to do was fall in line like the rest of that dumbasses! But she decided to start a war, same for that skater girl, the pink idiot, the freak, that loser artist, and that f*g!” She pointed to Marc, whose eyes widened in shock at what he had just been called

Pure Knight’s armor began to fade from white to red “What. Else?” He growled

“I’ve never been to Achu! Jagged Stone never wrote a song about me, Clara Nightingale didn’t steal my dance moves, I never saved Jagged Stone’s cat!” She yelled

Alya’s confusion and horror morphed into rage. If her grip around her phone got any tighter, the screen would probably crack.

Back at the school, everyone is watching the live stream on their phones. Every student gives the Akuma class smug looks while they just look away, embarrassed and ashamed for believing the Italian’s lies

“And Adrien’s dad hired me to spy on him in exchange for a modeling contract! He wanted me to keep Adrien away from bad influences, and I was trying to isolate him away from those losers so he’d only have me!”

Chat Noir, who was vaulting from rooftop to rooftop scowled as he heard the live-streams from people’s phones. He knew his father was an ass, but this was just sick.

“Then I stole that sissy’s story and claimed it was mine!” She glared at Marc, who was still in Pure Knight’s protective hold “He had the nerve to call me out when I said I wrote his dumb Ladybug fanfiction! If I could, I’d push him off the railing right now!”

MURDER HER!

Pure Knight let out a yell, and Blood Knight was back in his place, somehow appearing more menacing than before. He’d gotten what he wanted- For all of Paris to know the truth about this wretched girl. Now to do everyone a favor, and deliver a final blow, then his prince would be safe from her lies.

The sound of Ladybug’s yo-yo whizzing by is heard. Before Blood Knight could react, the end of the spotted hero’s weapon wrapped around his wrist, refraining him from using his sword. The heroes land between him and Marc. In Ladybug’s other hand is a tube of lipstick

“You dare to stand in the way of justice?!”

“Nathaniel, this isn’t justice! It’s revenge! Ladybug tried to reason, but to no avail

“Don’t call me that! I am Blood Knight! And as long as I’m here, no one will harm my prince ever again!”

Blood Knight pulls on his sword and flings Ladybug over the railing. She manages to hold on by one hand

“Shieldmaidens, advance!”

The two shieldmaidens surge towards Chat Noir who uses his staff like a sword against their shields. Alya rushes towards Ladybug, making sure to keep an eye on Lila in case she tries anything, and pulls her up

“Thanks, Alya.” Ladybug looks around for any way to use her Lucky Charm

Chat Noir Cataclysms the sword so Blood Knight will be forced to be defensive

Have Marc distract Pure Knight

Take the necklace while Pure Knight is distracted

“That’s it! Chat, cataclysm his sword!” She ordered

“On it, m’lady!” Chat nodded and called out “CATACLYSM!” He maneuvered past the shieldmaidens, knocking them down with his staff along the way, then ran over to Blood Knight and touched his sword just before he could swing it at the hero. The sword disappeared in his hands into black ash.

Ladybug looked over at Marc, yelled, “Heads up!” then threw her yoyo at him. Pure Knight rushed in front of him with his shield up and deflected the weapon. Repeatedly, Ladybug threw the yoyo at the shield, making Pure Knight keep it up.

While Ladybug does this, she tosses the lipstick over to Marc. He looks confused for a moment until Ladybug winks. He gets the message.

Protect him!

They won’t take him away!

“Pure Knight?”

Is the Prince okay?

Help him!

Pure Knight kept his shield steady as he turned his head towards his prince. Marc couldn’t see it, but he was blushing under that helmet. How could he not when his prince looked so... So innocent. He was clinging to his arm for safety, he had dough eyes, and... Were his lips always that shade of pink? He looked so beautiful...

Pure Knight felt the writer’s hand reach up to the visor of his helmet, and lift it to reveal his red face. Marc smiles, relieved to see Nathaniel under the cold armor. He tenderly strokes his cheek and stood on his toes so he could reach his lips.

Pure Knight’s grip on his shield loosened as he kissed the soft lips of his prince. The shield fell to the floor with a thunk as he wrapped his arms around his Prince’s waist, and lifted him to his face so Marc wouldn’t have to crane his neck up.

They were so oblivious to the world around them. They didn’t notice Alya was still live streaming, Chat Noir trying not to squeal, and Ladybug, sneaking up behind Pure Knight, grabbing the necklace, and throwing it to the floor.

The Akuma flew out, only to be caught by Ladybug’s yo-yo.

“No more evil-doing for you little Akuma. Time to de-evilize!”

The purified butterfly fluttered out of the yoyo

“Bye-bye, little butterfly.” Ladybug told it, then threw the lipstick into the air “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

 The thousands of ladybugs flew around the town, fixing any damage caused by the Akuma. Alix, Juleka, and Rose returned to normal and were standing outside with the other students. Kim was brought back. The other two shieldmaidens reverted back to their former selves. And the truth curse on Lila was lifted.

Black and purple mist engulfed Pure Knight, then lifted to reveal Nathaniel, his head resting on Marc’s shoulder. He looks around, confused

“Rainbow? Where am I?” He asked, but then noticed his yin-yang necklace on the floor, Ladybug and Chat Noir, and realized what happened “Oh my God.“ he looked to Marc, concerned “I didn’t hurt you, did-“ He didn’t finish as Marc hugged him tightly

“Don’t you ever do that again.” He whispered

“I... I didn’t want you to get akumatized again.” Nathaniel said as he ran his fingers through Marc’s hair “I love you, Rainbow.”

”I love you too, Nath.”

“You could’ve gotten here sooner, you know!” Lila screeched “I HATE YOU LADYBUG! HATE YOU!”

“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU LITTLE FUCKING CUNT?!” Ladybug cursed, much to everyone’s shock “I AM SO FUCKING DONE WITH YOU! I can live with you getting akumatized five dame times, hurting an innocent student, but I will not tolerate homophobia! Don’t think I didn’t hear what you said about Marc on the live-stream!”

Lila backed away, actually afraid, but bumped into Chat Noir who was snarling

“I should’ve cataclysmed you instead.”

Lila scoffed “Like you’d hurt me! Imagine everyone’s reactions when they see Ladybug and Chat Noir hurting an innocent civilian!”

“You’re just a little dumbass, aren’t you?” Ladybug asked coldly “Did you seriously forget that Alya has been live-streaming this whole time?” Lila paled as she saw the phone in Alya’s hands, and the news-choppers recording the scene “All of Paris heard every. Fucking. Thing.”

Chat Noir places a hand on her shoulder, and dug his claws in “And I’m sure the feds would love to hear how you’ve been working with a terrorist for the past three months.”

Lila tries to lie her way out of this once again “Th-they were all lies!” She claimed as she brought out the crocodile tears “The Akuma made me say them! He was just doing what Marc told him to because he’s jealous-“ She’s finally silence when a fist collided with her face. She falls to the floor with a thud.

Everyone looked at Alya, shocked.

“That’s for turning me against my best friend!” She yelled. No one noticed the touched look on Ladybug’s face

—

The police arrested Lila, and she was sent to life in prison for working with a terrorist, forging signatures, stealing money from students that were meant for charities, and many more. She went to a prison in Italy, because she was still kinda pissed about being exposed, and Hawkmoth could easily send an Akuma and allow her to break out.

Alya was the first to apologize to Marinette. The bluenette accepted her apology, but it would be a while before she could forgive Alya and the rest of her classmates. Adrien also apologized for giving her such stupid advice. It would also be a while before Marinette could forgive him.

Nevertheless, she still hung out with them, and their friendship slowly rekindled.

Marc and Nathaniel also received apologies, same for Alix, Rose, and Juleka for being treated as outcasts and badmouthed for months. Like Marinette, it would take time for them to forgive the Akuma class.

And Marc made Nathaniel swear to never be stupid and take an Akuma like that again. If the redhead weren’t so cute, Marc would gladly knock some sense into him.

[silvermoongirl10swfics]

501st Legion OCs

Doc (CT-4153) - Medic. Doc has military regulation black hair and is clean shaven. Before the war, he was one of the medics responsible for training medics on Kamino. He trained Painkiller and Needle of the 212th. During training Doc became very protective of Needle, partly due to Needle fainting every time an IV or injection had to be administered. Seeing how close Needle and Painkiller became during training, Doc actually made sure they were assigned to the same battalion and he also used his sneaky skills in getting them both assigned to the 212th under Patch (his best friend from his own medic training). Doc appears mild mannered and calm. But if you mess with or hurt one of his ‘chosen’ baby brothers e.g. Needle, you had better run for your life. He is the living defintion/example of ‘never annoy the medic’. Once the war started, Doc could have remained on Kamino training the new medics, but he volunteered for active service and was assigned to the 501st. While he didn’t train Kix, Kix still finds it weird being the Lead Medic, so in charge of one of the medic trainers he knew on Kamino when he was training. Doc was named for all the historical dramas I watch and how every medic gets nicknamed Doc.

Jek ARC Squad of the 501st - the ARC squad I have added Echo and Fives to. This is the squad in the Vopak series Echo is a corporal of. There will be a reunion fic of Jek squad on Vopak. (I’m not sure if ARC squads exist in canon, but in the Vopak AU series they do now.)

Hefty (CT-5620) - ARC Sergeant of Jek squad. Bald with a scruff beard. Hefty has a tough guy persona, but if you are in his squad, you know he is really a softie. Has the bad habit of not sleeping or eating enough when he is stressed about an upcoming campaign or just generally worrying about his Jek boys. Once Echo and Fives were made ARCs, he snapped them up into his squad knowing they would be a good fit. Relatively quickly, he had Echo promoted to Corporal of the squad. He and Echo worked really well together and Hefty became protective of his little brother. After the Citadel mission when Echo was presumed dead, Hefty grieved the loss of his little brother, but carried on knowing he needed to help support a grieving Fives, just as Echo would have wanted. As the clones and Jedi left Coruscant Rex told Hefty that Echo was alive and was travelling on the Negotiator with Fives. In the privacy of his room, Hefty held onto a holo picture of the squad taken three days before the Citadel mission and cried because he was so happy that Echo was alive.

Quote (CT-1721) - ARC Corporal of Jek squad (was promoted after Echo’s presumed death). Quote is bald and clean shaven. He has two quote mark tattoos on his head above his right ear. His armour is painted in blue quote marks of varying sizes, he likes you to know who exactly he is if he is wearing his helmet. The front of his helmet has a single quote mark painted on it, covering top to bottom. The same is painted on the back of his helmet. He got his name in training because he quoted people and things he read, his batchmates gave him his name lovingly. After Echo’s ‘death’ and after Fives refused Hefty’s offer of a promotion to Corporal, Quote was promoted to Corporal and while he accepted his new rank, he hated it. He felt like he was replacing Echo, but he had looked up to Echo for the nine months he served with Echo (Quote became an ARC Trooper three months after the Domino twins). He also knew Echo would want someone who knew Hefty well to serve as his second-in-command of the squad and who would continue to look after the squad. Quote cried the first time he hugged Echo on Vopak.

Dace (CT-4135) - ARC Trooper. Dace has buzz cut black hair. He was the second member of Jek squad, Hefty choosing him personally. Dace didn’t mind Echo being promoted to Corporal, he actually laughed at Echo when he apologised for being promoted before Dace. Dace doesn’t care for promotions, apart from being given ARC Trooper status, he is happy at the bottom of the pecking order. He silently taught Echo how best to be Hefty’s right-hand-man and helped Echo and Fives adjust to being ARC Troopers. He was very proud of the Domino twins and also helped them with some of their chaotic schemes, privileges of not being a higher rank. When he heard about what happened on the Citadel mission, he hugged Fives and then went to the gym on the Resolute, where he punched four punching bags so hard they came loose from the chains holding them up. He was non-verbal for a week and then went back to his gruff self, if he was spotted keeping a closer eye on Fives, then nobody mentioned it. On his arrival to Vopak he kept a close eye on Echo, obviously reluctant to have the injured brother out of his sight. Dace laughed when Echo and Fives’ speeder ended up on the lake, happy to see the twins back to normal. The first time he saw Echo back in his ARC armour (that day on the lake) he cried.

Error (CT-5181) - ARC Trooper. Error has military regulation red hair and a red scruff beard. He was not named because of his hair colour, it was actually because every time he learnt something shocking, his facial expression would freeze, with wide eyes, representing/being a living embodiment of the error.code message you get on a computer. Error was made an ARC two months before the Domino twins and was transferred to the 501st, Jek squad from the 126th Battalion. He was so happy to have brothers the ‘same age as him’, as he had taken to calling Dace and Hefty the ‘goldie oldies’, which Hefty complained about, only because their armour was blue, not 212th gold.

Xerus (CT-2418) - ARC Trooper. Xerus has short blonde hair and is clean shaven. His batchmates are Patch and Fixer from the 212th. He loves that the 501st and 212th often work together as that means he gets to see his batchmates. While training on Kamino, he had initially wanted to be a pilot, but when he watched Commander Colt and some of the other ARCs train, he decided he wanted to be an ARC more than a pilot. After being assigned to the 501st and six months into the war, he happened to confess his aim to Rex while drunk. The next day, the Captain began training him and once Xerus distinguished himself in battle, he was given the official word that he was going to become an ARC Trooper. He liked Echo and Fives immediately and called them the ‘best of the 501st’. After the Citadel mission, he hid for the entire night on the Resolute when he cried himself to sleep. The next day, like Dace, he kept a close eye on Fives. Spent most of the journey from Coruscant to Vopak crying when he found out Echo was alive and travelling on the Negotiator. He and Tactless chose to live together on Vopak and live next to Fara and Quote.

Tactless (CT-2013) - ARC Trooper. Tactless has longish black hair he puts in a nerf tail. He became an ARC four months after the Domino twins. Originally from the 184th Attack Battalion, the same as Copy’s batchmates. He did not like Avid, Gloomy and Vex (Murk was the best of the four of them) and so Tactless may have rubbed in his ARC Trooper promotion and transfer to the 501st to the three Tango squad members. (He absolutely rubbed it in!) Tactless did not know Avid, Gloomy and Vex were the Cadets Echo and Fives spoke to about bullying Copy, once Tactless found out on Vopak. He would take the time, every day, to walk past Tango squad and would grin as he pointed to his ARC armour. As you may have guessed, Tactless is named Tactless because he does not possess a lot of tact. But I love my petty boy.

Fara (CT-6118) - ARC Trooper. Fara has military cut brown hair and has a scruff beard. Fara is the baby of Jek squad and is the most protected of the squad. Fara became a member of Jek squad two months before the Citadel mission, Echo took Fara under his wing and Fara hero-worshipped Echo. When Rex told Jek squad about Echo’s fate on the Citadel, Fara found a corner of the hanger and cried for a few minutes. After composing himself, he went to the ARC’s barracks and found Fives curled up crying on Echo’s bunk. Without saying anything Fara went and cuddled Fives for the entire night. Even though, thanks to Echo’s influence, Fara didn’t need to be watched over anymore, he let Fives be protective of him without a word. Four months before the end of the war, Fara was badly injured in a battle, Fives got him to Kix and then proceeded to have a meltdown in the middle of the Medbay. Once Fara was conscious he comforted Fives and pulled the older ARC onto his medical bed and they cuddled for the night. Once he heard Echo was alive, Fara spent the journey to Vopak smiling and helped Rex gather up pieces of ARC armour for Echo. Once he saw Echo, Fara hugged him tightly and was relucant to let Echo go. Once living quarters were chosen in the Vopak Temple, Fara and Quote made sure they lived next door to the Domino twins (Hefty and Dace lived on the other side of the twins). (Fara’s name was inspired by the lotr character Faramir.)

[vanvroom]

*:･ﾟ･✧･ the name’s VANELLOPE VON SCHWEETZ and she is TWENTY THREE years old working as a PROFESSIONAL RACER in town. she’s from CORONA and is often mistaken for CAMILA MENDES, although some say she reminds them of VANELLOPE from WRECK IT RALPH ･✧･ﾟ･:*

tw: death, bullying, loss

*:･ﾟ･✧･ who am i?: vanellope has never known her parents, as they were both gone from her life before she was even a toddler. her mother is an absolute mystery to her, but van does have a small heart shaped locket that was supposedly hers and she wears it everyday. her father, however, was quite affluent and vanellope later in life came to find out that he owned the very successful racetrack in corona that was always intended for vanellope to inherit after his passing. since she was a child, she was put into foster care and mostly lived in group homes in which all she knew was that her parents had passed away and weren’t able to provide a sense of family to the girl. she truly never felt as though she belonged anywhere, not even in the group homes that she was so eager to get out of as soon as she turned sixteen. the mystery of who her parents were always lingered, but she was too scared to find out the answers to her questions until some of them were dumped onto her lap. 

*:･ﾟ･✧･ half of the story: when she had turned eighteen, vanellope opened her mail to find legal documents that essentially detailed the ownership rights to the racetrack, and that was also the day she came to know who her father was. it took nearly three years of legal battle to finally acquire the track, since those who had taken it over after her father disputed her property right claims for years but van had gotten used to fighting for everything she got in life by that point. given how difficult and shady the acquisition seemed to be with the businessmen, vanellope grew suspicious of how her father had died and why she had never known of her inheritance, or him, until well after his death, and it’s something she intends on finding the truth in. she lovingly renamed the racetrack, which had been the one she had been coincidentally racing at for years now, Schweetz Racing and she is just now learning what it means to own something and belong, even if it’s just a little bit. being at the track, she feels a sense of familiarity since it was once her father’s, and for that she is ever grateful. it is one of the things that has restored a part of her faith in corona.

*:･ﾟ･✧･ va va vroom: vanellope’s a professional racecar driver, and has been racing at the track in corona for years. of course, when she first started, she never realized that it would later become something she owned, but it’s always felt like home. as soon as she got her license, it’s been nothing but cars and fast speeds ever since. she’s obsessed with all of the makes and models, the repairs, the upgrades, the new uniform designs and sponsors to be on the lookout for. it’s a huge part of her life and it’s what has kept her so sane. practice makes perfect and vanellope has made racing the biggest part of her life, which means that she works the most at being the best at it.

*:･ﾟ･✧･ outsider looking in: that being said, however, vanellope has never found herself to be accepted by anything or anyone for much of her life. throughout school, she was rather bullied and there were constant rumors circulating the brunette which really ate at her and her self-esteem growing up. still people call her ‘the glitch’, as if there’s something inherently wrong with her for being different. so she’s a bit of a loner in corona, but she’s come to enjoy that about herself. that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder about being ostracized, however. there is a part of van that wants to have some genuine connection with others - beyond the relationship with her racing fans. with her talents, which she’s working to hone, some of that void is filled but still she knows something is missing from her life: acceptance

*:･ﾟ･✧･ but weird is cool: she isn’t a typical corona girl; vanellope knows that all too well. she’s a racer, after all, and lives by it. leather gloves and hand painted helmets are kind of her thing, and so is her sweet tooth. van’s got a serious candy addiction and her chocolate stash rivals that of hershey’s, but it’s one of those simple pleasures that she enjoys. considering she’s so often revved, and can seem pretty high energy at times, she also suffers from adrenaline & sugar crashes, when she is at her most grumpy. after being told for so many years that she’s a glitch, and not someone worthy of associating with, vanellope’s grown quite the tough exterior and it’s beyond difficult to crack. she’s got a sharp tongue and is quick-witted, and without much of a filter she doesn’t notice how harsh she can come across for it’s simply who she has become after all of these years. sarcasm is her best language, though, and she has been able to use that to her advantage while forming relationships. truly she means well, and she is incredibly loyal and caring to those who she befriends. 

*:･ﾟ･✧･ wreck’d it: vanellope is clumsy. like, real clumsy. which probably has to do with her ‘go, go, go!’ personality, but she’s also really learned from it. she always has band-aids on her and has learned a thing or two about making repairs, of any kind really. although of course her strong suit is repairing cars. plus, there’s no injury chocolate can’t fix in vanellope’s mind and she always has that on hand.

*:･ﾟ･✧･ all mixed up: she is dyslexic, meaning that she has always struggled in school and never truly understood why until the illness came to her attention from one of her teachers later in life. it takes her a lot longer to read and understand what is written than the average person, and truth be told the only thing she’s ever enjoyed having to read was poetry because it always sounded so pretty to her. however, she isn’t much of a scholar so college was never a consideration to vanellope and she went straight down the professional racing track instead. racing and mechanics, anything more hands on, is much more up van’s alley and she prefers it that way. 

*:･ﾟ･✧･ a learning lesson: vanellope can be prickly, and certainly vengeful, so approaching her might be intimidating or generally off-putting. really, this is simply her defense mechanism after getting as hurt as she has. maybe there’s nothing wrong with her, maybe there is. either way, pushing people away or keeping them at arm’s length is van’s prerogative and that’s what she has learned to do; she’s a ‘glitch’, after all. deep down, though, she’s rather sensitive and all of her walls are only built so she can protect her vulnerabilities and herself. she is starting to realize how lonely that can be, however, and maybe with all of these new additions to corona it is her chance for some new starts. same with her racetrack, it may be an opportunity to extend some olive branches now that she’s got a place that is all her own for people to come and enjoy themselves. letting new people into her life, or rekindling with old ones, it’s terrifying to vanellope ... but it’s something she’s decided to slowly introduce into her life whenever she can.

TLDR: she’s a moody racecar driver who never got to know her parents and spent most of her life in group homes on corona, having been bullied for years as she’s been deemed ‘the glitch’ since she is just so different and seemingly undesirable compared to everyone else. she recently came to own the racetrack, which was once her father’s, and has renamed it Schweetz Racing. van’s hella sarcastic and quick-witted, not really one to make many friends since she’s got her walls built up high to protect herself, but to those she does befriend she’s hella loyal and caring and would do anything for them. i’m crying ajskdflsa

[thissupposedcrime]

jealous of the nights (that I don’t spend with you) (wip)

When Yuri is nine, he names his cat Puma Tiger Scorpion. He never regrets it.

In hindsight, that sort of behavior was a neon bright sign of things to come.

“You haven’t spoken to me in three days because you had a dream I liked someone else?” Otabek’s sigh is heavy.

“A nightmare,” Yuri corrects cooly, unsure if his tone should be outraged or Lilia-Pointed-but-Proper.

Yuri’s not one to victim blame, but honestly, Beka should have expected something like this from him.

(pieces of a sequel to every time I try, every time I win that I’m working on)

When Yuri is nine, he names his cat Puma Tiger Scorpion.

A decade later, he stands by the decision.

In hindsight, that sort of behavior was a neon bright sign of things to come.

“You haven’t spoken to me in three days because you had a dream I liked someone else?” Otabek’s sigh is heavy.

“A nightmare,” Yuri corrects cooly, unsure if his tone should be outraged or Lilia-Pointed-but-Proper.

Yuri’s not one to victim blame, but honestly, Beka should have expected something like this from him.

Let’s bring this story back to the start, then the present.

Yuri at seventeen: cheeks flushed by the Russian cold, by the embarrassment that trails him like a shadow whenever Victor hangs off Yuuri, mouth bitten red, first by his own angry teeth as he gnaws down on the vile oaths he wants to hurt at the chests of men who catch Otabek’s attention, and later by Otabek’s own mouth, soothing because of the force, the intensity of kissing Yuri back; golds, silvers, and bronzes pretty collars around his neck when his limbs aren’t out of control.

Yuri at twenty: cheeks flushed from Mila’s prodding about Otabek, a metaphorical battering ram going through his phone and sending selfies to Otabek and hosting a password protected group chat of Katsuki, Victor, and Mila on Yuri’s phone; mouth bitten red because at some point during his tenure with Yakov he learned silence was a viable option but goddamn is it hard, mouth bitten red to match the trail of hickeys under his clothes; golds and silvers, no room for bronze, pretty collars around his neck, swan graceful once again and the apple of Lilia’s eye.

Otabek in the years before, during, and after: Yuri’s.

Unfortunately, it’s Yuri himself who occasionally forgets that fact.

Day Six

The thing is, Mila doesn’t call. Text him vague threats when he first began dating Yuri, speaking not just for her own protective instincts but also the vengeful wrath of the Russian Skating Federation, specifically members coached by Yakov? Absolutely. Tag him across the spectrum of social media accounts he is lovingly bullied to use at least once a month? Constantly. Send him adorable pictures as Yuri cuddles with his cat or breathtakingly lovely images of Yuri, taken as his back creates a graceful arc on the ice? Happily and with pleasure. So when he ends practice to see three missed calls, two voice mails, and a few texts, his heart plummets out of his body, sinking past the changing room floor, to the core of the earth. Yuri. His Yuri. Famed composure abandons him as his fingers shake, thumb pressing the call button. He can’t control his limbs long enough to remove his second skate. The taste of bile might be permanently ingrained on his tongue at this rate, a disgust he will gladly cope with the moment someone reassures him Yuri hasn’t wound up in the hospital or the local jail. He’s not sure which is less plausible.  

God he hopes it’s jail. “Otabek!” Mila’s voice calls him to attention, almost sing-song as it separates the syllables of his name. Immediately, Otabek’s panic mellows, a dull thrum instead of a thumping beat. “Is Yuri okay?” His voice doesn’t waver, but he still can’t manage to stop the nervous twitch of his fingers. “Your boyfriend is being especially bratty,” she declares, and Otabek realizes he’s in for a new hell. Normally, Mila refuses to claim Yuri as one of hers when he’s being a dick, but she sounds happier than past experiences allow. Her voice is musical, teasing, and Otabek understands Yuri can hear them. Faintly, “You hag! Put down your damn phone and check your makeup. The wrinkles are showing!” echoes across the miles between Almaty and St. Petersburg. “See? Such an ugly mood for our Yura,” she croons, and clearly he has become spectator not participant. “HANG UP THE PHONE!” “No!” There’s a crash in the background, more shrieks. Otabek puts the phone on speaker and places it on the locker room bench while he sips his water, grateful to lose the sick taste in his mouth from before. He’s managed to remove his other skate and change his shirt before Mila returns, victorious in abandoning Yuri but simultaneously riling him up with the knowledge Otabek is about to know something. Otabek is glad his relationship with his family does not reflect in the Mila-Yuri dynamic. “Ah, that was fun.” She sounds winded for a professional athlete, but Otabek doesn’t comment, slightly impatient for her to tell him about Yuri now that he’s calmed. “Is Yuri okay?” He starts again. “You tell me.” “I don’t understand.” “Has Yuri been off when you speak?” Mila asks, no longer breathless. Ah. This indeed is something for him to deal with. “What has he done?” “I have a list,” she announces brightly. A brief cough, a hum of her throat follow, and Otabek wonders if there’s something in the water at Yakov’s rink considering his least dramatic student of the past decade was Georgi Popovich. (Yuri is the love of his life, but he thrives on dysfunction to an alarming extent. Otabek understands this and accepts it as best he’s able; it is why they’ve managed to stay together for the past three years.) “To start, he refused to leave practice yesterday. Victor chased him around for nearly twenty minutes until he caught him and dragged him off. Did you see my upload?” “No, but I’ll check when we’re done speaking.” He hopes it isn’t on Instagram. He doesn’t want to deal with the comments from Yuri’s fans.

“It’s on Instagram!”

Naturally.

“Yuri keeps growling at one of our skaters, a boy named Dmitry. We’ve found him crying under a table in the break room four times this week. For some reason, he’s wearing a helmet and runs out of the room whenever Yuri enters. Do you know about that?”

“I forgot you had a Dmitry at your rink,” Otabek replies flatly, memory blank as he tries to recall Yuri ever mentioning a Dmitry.

“Yuri calls him Tiny Bastard if that helps?” Mila offers, and Otabek sighs.

It does. Tragically, it does.

That damn dream.

Sometimes Otabek wonders if he’s become more dramatic since Yuri twirled his way into the center of his universe.

This phone call is all the proof he needs.

“Those pains in the ass are talking about kids!” Yuri shouts across the kitchen, voice somewhat tinny over the speakerphone, hands busy making dinner.

“They’re getting another dog?” Otabek replies, half listening as he reviews the new diet plan suggested for him, nose wrinkling in disappointment in his own kitchen in Almaty.

“I trust them with poodles,” Otabek hears a faint huff and pictures Yuri blowing stray wisps of blond hair out of his face. It brings up a pang of longing and another needless reminder of the long month since their last reunion.

“A human child Beka.”

“You’ll always be my favorite Yura.” It’s an achingly sincere statement.

“That’s not-” A loud exhale. “Thank you, but don’t start with that. I’m the only one who realizes how unhealthy codependency is apparently. I’m worried about what they’d do to a child, not what their child would do to me.”

“I’m confident they wouldn’t send it cowering under a kitchen table in the break room four times a week,” Otabek offers and hums an acknowledgement while Yuri starts cursing Mila’s name. 

Guess who remembered she needs to get back into writing Yuri on Ice if she ever wants to finish soldier boy

For those of you unfamiliar with my past work, Otabek references a fit Yuri threw after having a dream Otabek, his boyfriend and later fiancee, was in love with a Russian skater, one he never even met. From there, an anon begged me to write this.

I felt this would be a better attempt at remembering the voices and characterization than a WIP so well liked but also on such a long hiatus (soldier boy). 

also my friend @dizzytea said the original story is a comfort fic so I thought I’d bring more joy. 

gonna try to have this out this by this time next week, if not sooner if I can keep it under 8k.

[theinvinciblenoob]

It’s hard to imagine a better demonstration of the state of AAA gaming today than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a game where the whole of the wine-dark Classical Aegean is available for you to ply with your oars — but which operates according to a risible, cartoonish video game logic that seems, if possible even more anachronistic. Should you play it? Absolutely.

(Very minor spoilers ahead.)

In case you haven’t been following the Assassin’s Creed… well, odyssey, the last few years, the game took some time off following the lavishly produced but ambivalently received Unity and Syndicate games, set in revolutionary Paris and Victorian London respectively. The series, critics said, was wearing itself a bit thin despite the fabulous set dressing.

You can imagine everyone’s surprise when AC returned in Origins, set in an enormous swathe of ancient Egypt. New systems nudged the game from the stealth action of its roots towards the expansive, open-world RPG currently in vogue. It was a little rough around the edges but the scale was welcome, as was the shift away from the increasingly turgid Assassins vs Templars secret society scramble.

The news that the next game would take place in Ancient Greece at the time of the Peloponnesian War thrilled me to no end. I’ve always been a fan of the Classical era, Homer and Herodotus and Periclean Athens and all that. I’ll also admit to an unironic love of 300 and the story of Leonidas’s last stand — the graphic novel, not the movie, which was awful.

Are you kidding me? Look at this.

Here, then was that world brought to life with all the fidelity that Ubisofts hundreds of artists and modelers could bring, with a narrative combining secret societies with classical warfare, historical figures, and high-seas adventure (I loved the pirate-themed AC Black Flag). On paper this is the greatest game ever to grace the screen.

And in a way, it is. Ubisoft’s rendering of the Classical world is so beautiful, so massive, so obviously a labor of love and skill and intensive research that I have spent much of my time in the game simply gawking.

The costumes! The statues! The landscapes! The light! It’s a feast of details at every location, from the idyllic backwater of Kephallonia, where your hero begins their story to the sprawling, bustling Athens just approaching the zenith of its glory. I (that is to say, my character) walked past the Theatre of Dionysus in its construction, which I have visited in person (now ruined and restored, of course), and on up to the Acropolis, where I scaled the Parthenon and looked out over the tiled roofs under one of which, for all I know, I may find Plato sitting and writing the Symposium.

Seriously.

Then I meander to the harbor, board my black ship, and split the seas to explore any of the islands in the entire Aegean — any of them. The whole Aegean! Well, most of it, anyway. Enough that you won’t ask for more. Here be mythical creatures, political machinations, stormy seas and sunny shanties.

The world that Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey in habits, I feel confident in saying, is the largest and most impressive that I have encountered, with special credit given for having to reflect reality to a certain extent, which is not a limitation shared by its eminent competition in the open-world genre, like Horizon: Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild.

In my opinion, both as a gamer and a lover of antiquity, it is worth the price of admission to experience this world, to see and hear Ancient Greece in a way that was heretofore impossible, and simply to revel in the almost inconceivable level craft that was so obviously put into this mind-boggling world.

And now, having made that judgment, I will proceed to trash the game I just recommended for about two thousand words.

The game itself

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, the game itself, is embarrassing to play. The characters you interact with and the minute-by-minute gameplay are so uneven that I truly believe that Ubisoft simply didn’t have time to adequately play-test it. It feels like the game was just too big to run through once they’d made it so they just shipped. If someone from Ubisoft were sitting next to me as I played, I would expect them to be cringing constantly.

It’s an incredibly lopsided collection of old and new ideas, balanced and unbalanced systems, good and bad UI, intuitive and baffling combat, beautiful and repulsive graphics, and excellent and laughable voice acting. I haven’t finished the game, let alone all the side quests, but although I expect to encounter more good things as I go, the bad things were apparently pretty much from the first few minutes and haven’t abated.

The AI of the people in this game seems to have regressed ten years to a simpler age. They are truly idiots all, from people on the street to elite soldiers.

Good old Adrastos the Logician, engaging in hand to hand combat.

One of the first things that happened when I got my horse and learned to have it follow a road was that it mowed down a few laborers. This, I found, would happen everywhere I went: every character in the game walks right in the center of the road and dives madly out of your way as you canter down it, screaming and cursing. Wild animals cluttered the road, and reacting confusedly as I approached and throwing themselves under the hooves of my steed, Phobos.

This was my first taste of what would become a theme. Why, I asked myself, wouldn’t these people just walk on the side of the road? The developers clearly accounted for horses riding down it, and have behaviors and barks for when that happens. But it’s so weird, so unrealistic, so video gamey. Surely in this lovingly rendered world it is not unusual for a horse to run down a mountain road? Why then do they behave in this way? Because the people were not created intelligently — it’s as simple as that. None of them.

I once emptied a military camp of guards and then set about looting the place. A woman was being held captive in a cage — not an uncommon thing to find — so I let her out. As she escaped, thanking me, I turned to take the items out of a nearby chest. The woman, mid-escape, screamed with rage at me for this theft, snatching a nearby spear and rushing me in righteous anger. What?

Perhaps I can’t expect every peasant to be a genius, but guards too (of all ranks) are unbelievably dense. They will step over the corpses of their fellow men to get to their post and not say a word. They will fail to hear the clashing of swords, or not notice a guy being violently flipped over and disemboweled, a matter of feet away. They will follow you one by one around corners where you can dispatch them individually and fail to see or care about the ever-widening pool of blood. They are as dumb as the dumbest guards from games that came out 10 years ago.

“Mother of Spiders”

Not much better are the much-ballyhooed mercenaries, who come after you if you do too many bad things. It’s not really clear what the bad things are, but eventually you’ll see a red helmet icon on your map and know you’ve been naughty. They’re basically guards with special weapons and a few characteristics like “weak to fire” or “takes 20 percent less ranged damage.” Technically they have backstories but you have to drill down to their description to find them, and by the time you’re doing that you’ve probably already killed them. You can recruit them for your ship, like you can recruit anyone, but they generally amount to stat bonuses with funny names like Demos the Drunk. He didn’t act drunk — just had a spear I wanted, so I took him out. I mean, the variation is welcome, but it’s nothing like, for example, the nemesis system in the Mordor series.

Combat is a real mix. You are no longer a fragile assassin who can be killed from a few good hits, but a powerful warrior with supernatural skills like instant mid-battle heals and teleportation. This is combat between equals, but your equals are generally stiff types with two or three attacks they repeat over and over, glowing a bright red or gold before doing so.

A slippery-feeling dodge system zips you through these attacks, or you can parry some of them, then slash away at your attacker. Some guards or targets, especially if they’re a level or two above you, will take minutes of patient slashing before they drop. I was sent on a hunt to kill a legendary boar that I gave up on after a couple minutes because I had only taken its health down by a quarter while not being hit myself.

Compared with other action RPGs it’s pretty listless stuff. More appealing is the stealth, which the fools of guards are obviously there to encourage, since you can empty a camp or fort of its occupants systematically and it can be quite satisfying. But with the perfect knowledge effected by scouting such a place with your eagle’s x-ray vision, it feels more like bullying than anything.

The Peloponnesian War is going on around you, though you’d be hard-pressed to notice most of the time. You don’t exactly take sides, since whatever area you’re in, your enemies are the ones in control. You can weaken the faction in power by various means and force a battle (a melee in which the combat, now against dozens, feels frustratingly sloppy), but ultimately the guards and camps feel much the same as one another — Spartans have different helmets from Athenians.

I thought at first this would be deeper than it is. I had looted a variety of armor pieces, several of which suggested I could use them to blend in among the Athenians whom I was at that moment working to undermine. So I donned them and headed to the nearest camp, hoping to walk about unsuspected, Hitman-style, sowing chaos by releasing caged animals and setting fire to supplies. Nope: I was immediately attacked on approaching the gate, before I’d even come in or done anything suspicious. The guard that had never seen me before apparently recognized me as the bloodthirsty mercenary who’d wiped out a camp a mile or so away, minutes earlier. No espionage for me.

It’s never really clear who you’re fighting or why, because the locations and people are just names. It doesn’t matter if they’re Athenian or Spartan, just that they’re the ones between you and the treasure chest. I guess that’s the life of a mercenary, but it doesn’t make you care a lot.

That was a quest?

The RPG elements, from gear to abilities, have almost no integration with the game itself. From the very beginning you can see your whole skill tree, including things involving the magic spear that you don’t yet know is magic. You gain new abilities and upgrade your ship not through interesting quests or meeting interesting people, but simply by spending points and resources.

When your ship’s captain says the hull ought to be upgraded, it’s not the start of a quest to find some cool big trees or visit his hometown where he left his ship-building tools and pals. It’s literally just a reminder to stock up on wood and iron and press the button to upgrade in the pause screen.

When you meet a talented carpenter whose brother is being held by bandits, it isn’t a quest to reunite these guys for a power team that enables a ship repair superpower. He just turns out to be a regular guy who increases your hull strength by a couple percentage points.

Quests, talked up ahead of release as being fully voiced and emergent, as though you’re receiving a request from help from a needy merchant or the like, are nothing of the sort. Every one I’ve encountered so far has been a variant of: Kill these five wolves specifically. Kill these three Spartan elite guards specifically. Kill these bandits. Sink these ships.

Each has a flimsy justification (they’re blocking the road; they stole money from me) and are often atrociously acted. In one I found the quest giver asleep; he obligingly woke me up to say he wanted to take the fight to some bandits who had been demanding money from him. As soon as I agreed, those very bandits appeared not ten feet away and instantly ran him through. Quest failed.

There are deeper side quests, to be sure. But the hundreds of quests you’ll see on quest boards or appearing randomly in the wild are like this, and rarely give more than a spritz of XP and gold. Sometimes you can recruit the quest-giver, though they might or might not be helpful on your crew.

I wish that they had taken the time and effort that went into creating 20 or 30 of these quests and made one single side quest with multiple steps, characters that mattered a bit, and provided substantial rewards like a new ability for your ship.

Even main story quests, such as the targets you’ll be taking on, can be disappointingly shallow. You’re supposed to be following threads and clues, but several are just handed to you: Here’s some lady. Here’s her exact location. Go kill her. No dialogue, no footwork, no alternatives. Stab this person and take their shiny thing. Shouldn’t I at least try to get some information out of her? Why isn’t there even a death cutscene like in so many of the other games?

The writing is hit and miss. The main story and its immediate side quests are fine — I’m perhaps 25 hours in and I’m interested to see where it’s going, even if it’s not particularly surprising. And it helps that the writing and voices for the main characters are leaps and bounds above the rest.

I chose to play as Kassandra, as opposed to Alexios, for a lot of reasons. And I love her. She’s well-acted, her writing is funny and occasionally realistic, and I like that she is indistinguishable from her male alternative in every way. Your companions, especially Herodotos and your exuberant captain Barnabas, are great.

Yet other characters are ridiculous: badly written, worse acted. Even major ones. I remember one exchange with a soon-to-be-target who was pressuring me to torture some poor sap. His voice acting was so bad, especially compared to his interlocutor Kassandra’s, that I was laughing out loud. He was far from the only example of this.

Games like The Witcher 3 have spoiled us on the quality of the writing and quests, but that should be a new bar to meet, not a high-water point. It’s sad that Ubisoft hasn’t upped its game here, so to speak; it feels like 90 percent of the game I’ve played so far is purely mechanical, and even at its best it sits like a layer of butter spread thinly across an enormous Greek piece of toast. But what toast!

It’s tantalizing to see how good a game like this could be, only to be let down again and again with elements that would feel out of date ten years ago. I’m having a great time when I’m not shaking my head at it, and enjoying the scenery when I’m not being attacked by one of the evidently 50,000 bears out for my blood in the Classical world.

As I wrote earlier, to me it is worth buying just for the good parts. But as someone who cares about games and loves the idea of this one, I can’t help but observe how dated and baffling it is at the same time. It doesn’t live up to the world it was created to inhabit, but that world is practically a complete game in itself, and one that I immediately loved.

via TechCrunch

[thissupposedcrime]

LISTEN I'LL PAY YOU LIKE MY WHOLE AMOUNT OF WORTH (LIKE 3 DOLLARS) IF YOU HAVE THE TIME TO WRITE ABOUT WHEN YURIO GOT MAD AT OTABEK FOR HIS NIGHTMARE ABOUT HIM MARRYING DMITRY. LIKE, I CAN JUST IMAGINE HOW OTABEK VALIANTLY TRYING TO CONVINCE HIS INNOCENCE DESPITE THE CONSTANT HISSING AND SCREECHING BEFORE BEING HUNG UP ON BY HIS DARLING YURA. HOW DMITRY HAS TO SURVIVE THE CONSTANT ATTEMPTS OF ASSASSINATION ON HIS LIFE AND CURSING HIS PREDICAMENT. then the sweet reunion and makeup sex that follow

story being referenced: every time I try, every time I win

Anon, I adore you for this prompt/request and will try to have the complete version up by the end of the month. I’m currently writing a soulmate AU but took a break from it and binge wrote for half an hour. Sorry I don’t have time to finish, but I promise to fulfill every part of your request when I do publish. 

Day Four (Thursday)

The thing is, Mila doesn’t call. Text him vague threats when he first began dating Yuri, speaking not just for her own protective instincts but also the vengeful wrath of the Russian Skating Federation, specifically members coached by Yakov? Absolutely. Tag him across the spectrum of social media accounts he is lovingly bullied to use at least once a month? Constantly. Send him adorable pictures as Yuri cuddles with his cat or breathtakingly lovely images of Yuri, taken as his back creates a graceful arc on the ice? Happily and with pleasure.

So when he ends practice to see three missed calls, two voice mails, and a few texts, his heart plummets out of his body, sinking to the core of the earth.

Yuri.

Flawless composure abandons him as his fingers shake, thumb pressing the call button. He can’t control his limbs long enough to remove his second skate. The taste of bile might be permanently ingrained on his tongue at this rate, a disgust he will gladly cope with the moment someone reassures him Yuri hasn’t wound up in the hospital or the local jail. He’s not sure which is less plausible.  

“Otabek!” Mila’s voice calls him to attention, almost sing-song as it separates the syllables of his name.

Immediately, Otabek’s panic mellows, a dull thrum instead of a thumping beat.

“Is Yuri okay?” His voice doesn’t waver, but he still can’t manage to stop the nervous twitch of his fingers.

“Your boyfriend is being especially bratty,” she declares, and Otabek realizes he’s in for a new hell. Normally, Mila refuses to claim Yuri as one of hers when he’s being a dick, but she sounds happier than past experiences allow. Her voice is musical, teasing, and Otabek understands Yuri can hear them.

Faintly, “You hag! Put down your damn phone and check your makeup. The wrinkles are showing!” echoes across the miles between Almaty and St. Petersburg.

“See? Such an ugly mood for our Yura,” she croons, and clearly he has become spectator not participant.

“HANG UP THE PHONE!”

“No!” There’s a crash in the background, more shrieks. Otabek puts the phone on speaker and places it on the locker room bench while he sips his water, grateful to lose the sick taste in his mouth from before. He’s managed to remove his other skate and change his shirt before Mila returns, victorious in abandoning Yuri but simultaneously riling him up with the knowledge Otabek is about to know something.

Otabek is glad his relationship with his family does not reflect in the Mila-Yuri dynamic.

“Ah, that was fun.” She sounds winded for a professional athlete, but Otabek doesn’t comment, slightly impatient for her to tell him about Yuri now that he’s calmed.

“Is Yuri okay?” He starts again.

“You tell me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Has Yuri been off when you speak?” Mila asks, finally calm.

Ah. This indeed is something for him to deal with.

“What has he done?”

“I have a list,” she announces brightly. A brief cough, a hum of her throat follow, and Otabek wonders if there’s something in the water at Yakov’s rink considering his least dramatic student of the past decade was Georgi Popovich.

(Yuri is the love of his life, but he thrives on dysfunction to an alarming extent. Otabek understands this; it is why they’ve managed to stay together for the past three years.)

“To start, he refused to leave practice yesterday. Victor chased him around for nearly twenty minutes until he caught him and dragged him off. Did you see my upload?”

“No, but I’ll check when we’re done speaking.” He hopes it isn’t on Instagram. He doesn’t want to deal with the comments from Yuri’s fans. 

“Yuri keeps growling at one of our skaters, a boy named Dmitry. Someone has found him under a kitchen table, crying, every day since the week began. For some reason, he’s wearing a helmet and runs out of the room whenever Yuri enters. Do you know about that?”

“I forgot you had a Dmitry at your rink,” Otabek replies flatly, memory blank as he tries to recall Yuri ever mentioning a Dmitry.

“Yuri calls him Tiny Bastard if that helps?” Mila offers, and Otabek sighs.

It does. Tragically, it does. 

That damn dream.

Sometimes Otabek wonders if he’s become more dramatic since Yuri twirled his way into the center of his universe.

This phone call is all the proof he needs.

Cue like 5k words, mainly in Yuri’s POV (idk why I did this in Otabek’s) where he awakens from a bad dream, takes it out on everyone, just constantly hangs up on Otabek to the point where Otabek goes to a store to make sure the hissing and disconnection isn’t his actual phone but his moody boyfriend. 

Otabek has no idea what’s going on until he’s like, flowers. Flowers fix everything. But they don’t. God help him, they don’t. 

Eventually he flies over and bam, awesome sex despite the fact he’s in love with an idiot.

Oh, Dmitry is an OC I did for another fic ‘soldier boy’. You can find out more about him here. The two stories aren’t in the same universe, but he was literally created as a comedic joke character who fears the wrath of Yuri Plisetsky so it seemed fitting to bring him in.