#also yes i named the cat after black panther

[beautifulpersonpeach]

BPP I have been thoroughly wrecked by Yoongi. HIS VOICE? HIS CHARISMA??

My god. He's been your bias since debut?! You're strong woman. How did you do it?? One concert and I'm ready to bear kids for him. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

/gen

*

Ask 2: I'm sorry!!! But look at this!!!! twitter com/sujimschim/status/1652517741226790913 looolll I think army's gonna be okay (pun intended lol) Sorry I think I'm having a post wlive high right now. lol Also did you hear about that insanely lucky army who got Yoongi video on their phone AND got to sit next to Jimin during the concert?! Like WOW. I'm amazed. Isn't that harder than the lottery?? lol Ok I'll really stop. Have a good night!!

*

Ask 3: A TO THE G TO THE U TO THE STD

*

Ask 4: Yoongi looks SO GOOD IN WHITE T WALKING DOWN THE HALLWAYYYYYYSSSSSS?!@#@!K?!@! THANK YOU JIMIN FOR SCOLDING YOOOONNNNGGGGIIIIII!!!!!!!!!

*

Ask 5: I love how Yoongi sticks to his first iteration of Sorry for being cute choreo. That choreo is becoming a lore of its own. yoominforlife lol Also OMGGGG his concert haegeum performance is gonna be LIT. I personally really love the name of the song and all the word play that's hidden inside it

*

Ask 6: i want to fuck yoongi till the paint peels off the walls i need to suck his thick fat cock clean empty, gobble his midas balls till i gag and after that read him my deontological critique of neitzche's assertion that god is dead. because god is well and truly alive and i just sucked his balls dry. i was lost and stupid in the wilderness of my ignorance of his divine hotness. i doubted your mind for your esteemed love for him. i was foolish but he has made me a believer. i want to be shoooshed by yoongi. then fuck him till he blacks out. consensually.

sorry. pls don't hate me bpp yoongi just drives me so fucking insane.

*

Ask 7: D-Day tour setlist is INSANE. Banger after friggin baanger Bpp! Have you tried to rank Suga's songs before? All his solo songs too can you rank them Bpp?

***

Hi Anon(s),

Anon in ask 2, your link. And yeah, that person was super lucky. 💜

I need to confess to y’all. I caved and got myself an earlier ticket. Usually, I buy my tickets for later in the tour to give myself time to calm down and adjust. I’d have spoiled the setlist for myself, listened to it ad infinitum till the lyrics were ingrained and my hormones were in equilibrium. But this time I couldn’t wait till the Cali dates, (still going). I had to see Yoongi tonight.

And Christ, I have ascended.

I know I will not be coherent, I’m already trying to self censor as I write , but I want to get this out here because many of you have sent me asks about him, some I know I can’t post ever, so I’m hoping someone else gets it whatever it is I’m tying to say.

…

Yoongi is so beautiful.

Yoongi is a rock star, and I mean that in a literal sense. He makes rock music, thinks like a rock star, and sings like a rock star. His live renditions of Amygdala are the perfect example of this. Pairing screamo rock in the chorus with the guitar solos in the outro, everything about Yoongi's vision for that song is centered around liberation, a value that's inherent to a rock star.

*

(Yes. That’s the objective correct answer.)

I laughed reading all your asks btw. (Anon in ask 6, I see you, I get you, and I don't judge you.) Ranking Agust D's songs is impossible for me. My personal taste is screamo rock and dirty trap or drill, I like songs with distinct percussion, lots of guitars, and/or distortion, voice cracks, autotune, etc. Artists like Nirvana, ONE OK ROCK, Kendrick Lamar, Twenty One Pilots, and Jimin give me bits and pieces of that sound, but no one in BTS knows how to scratch that itch for me better than Yoongi.

He’s just the right kind of insane to speak my language.

The duality that shimmers around Jimin like a mirage and is central to his magnetism, where you can’t be sure of who, what, exactly you’re looking at - man, woman, child, king, snake, panther, cat, metal, silk, fire, ice - all in one. That duality, lives in Yoongi’s music.

It’s elsewhere too, but it lives in his music. Even underneath all of that, he just makes some of the best music around.

That beat change at the end of Shadow? That's music tailor-made for me. Cypher Pt 3, AGUST D (the song), What Do You Think?, Trivia: Seesaw, the live performances of HUH?! and Amygdala are a revelation. All his music sounds perfectly made for me.

I honestly have no choice but to love him.

(I have no words when it comes to Yoongi.)

I won’t exactly rank his music here. I’ll discuss some of my favourites based on things like production, message, flow, feel, etc. Maybe.

Production

724148

This song is criminally underrated. I mean it's a crime more people aren't screaming from the rooftops about how crisp this track is. Listening to 724148 was the first time it really hit me how brilliant Yoongi is as a producer.

So Far Away ft Suran

You need to listen to this song on good speakers. It will change your life for the better. Do that, then come back here and tell me how you feel.

Burn It ft MAX

You know, when I heard the live performance of this song, I called a friend to help me re-calibrate my speakers. To recreate that feel. The production on the song is insane. Not to mention Yoongi's flow in the second verse.

Amygdala

The guitars are placed and layered perfectly. I love how forward the drums are in the mix. The autotune is one of my favourite things about it too. The entire song is perfect.

Daechwita

Am I the only person who hears the same static in the song intro that continues faintly in the foreground for the entirety of the song? As though you're entering a glitch. It's so sick. The main/central beat doesn't vary much, all the texture comes from Yoongi's adlibs. And he does an excellent job elevating it to something more.

*

(It truly embarrasses me that I cannot allow myself to talk about him. He’s that… much.)

Flow / Delivery

You've all seen me go on and on about Jimin's vocals. About how much Jimin's voice is the catalyst for ecstasy when I listen to BTS's music. But Yoongi's voice affects me just as strongly, if not more, in a very different way.

I’m a sucker for the kitten. That insane high pitched thing he does drives me to the limits of my sanity. But he’s also a natural baritone. A nasty one at that. You can hear it in the music he makes. And that’s my kryptonite.

Have you listened to HUH?! Like, really listened to it? Do you hear his flow from 1:08 - 1:15?

Do you hear how disgusting this brat is?

Fuck.

Let’s just move on.

Some favourites where his flow, delivery, switch-ups, is frankly ridiculous:

Shadow

Burn It ft. MAX

AGUST D

HUH?! ft j-hope

Cypher Pt. 3

Aside, the instrumental of this track, along with Cypher Pt. 4, Dionysus trap remix, Danger MMA 2019 version, and We Are Bulletproof Eternal, is incredible.

*

Feel

Honsool

Making a list based on pure vibes, Honsool has to show up. Yoongi captured the unmoored, untethered feeling of drifting through haze, distilled and crystalized into Honsool. Genius.

Give It To Me

What Do You Think?

HUH ft j-hope

Tony Montana ft. Jimin

I'm a sucker for the grit in their voices in this song. The live version specifically.

(He’s such a problem for me y’all…)

*

Not to get into this, but he also does sweet, poppy songs too. Some faves being That That, Amygdala, People, Trivia: Seesaw…

He is a true artist.

And nothing is hotter than that.

*

Message

I started writing this long paragraph about the themes in his music and stopped because I’ve really gone on long enough. I’m barely keeping it together here. I just saw him lose his mind with happiness at the ARMY who disguised her iPhone as a Samsung. That wide smile on his face is still replaying in my head. I’m happy he’s happy, because he’s made me so happy.

Anyway, some fave tracks I reach for, for their message:

5 - Strange ft RM

4 - UGH

3 - Snooze ft Ryuichi Sakamoto & Woosung

2 - Amygdala

1 - People

In a class of its own, I have to mention The Last. That song is a reckoning and wake up call. It's everything and I'm forever proud of Yoongi for making it.

*

Have y’all imagined what the concert will be like in 2026? Have you really sat down to think about what it could look like? Because I have. And it looks like pure bliss. No matter what is happening in the world at that time, I must see BTS.

It’s a decision I made last June, but Yoongi on this tour has breathed fire into that desire. He’s made me want him, crave his sound, daydream of his music playing in my head…

If I could I would’ve sued this man already.

Anyway, Anon in ask 1, welcome to getting wrecked by Yoongi. He is layer upon delightful layer of loyal, creative, tortured beautiful genius hovering just on the edge of insanity. I’m hopeful that he completes his tour as planned, enlists as planned, serves as planned, and is discharged and back to BTS as planned.

In the meantime, I’ll fully enjoy the time he’s spending with us and the music he’s making for us. I’m happy y’all are joining me in this too. 💜

[teddiesbestestpal]

As Joker Panther Skull Inari the newly acquired ally Queen and Morgana got into the next room they heard a cry for help.

“ What the.. who is it?” Skull asked as Panther sighed.

“ It could be a trap from a shadow!” Panther pointed out.”

“ Wait I see him! I must get to him!” Morgana says stylishly jumping off of the platform to the protest of the other thieves as he spots An creature as short as the cat, with creamy light yellow skin long saturated brownish tentacle hair pointy elf-like ears piercing reddish pink eyes wearing an golden trident shaped masquerade mask the creature’s eyeliner being apparent, he is wearing a grey trenchcoat with long sleeves and gold colored buttons on them with gold colored shoulder Epaulettes on his shoulders along with an white vest underneath with an light reddish pink tie attached to it the same color as his gloves, he’s also wearing black boots with white stripes and three golden buttons on the side of the boots.

The creature seemed to be cowering in fear before some Incubus shadows as Morgana got into a fighting stance.

“ Zorro!” Morgana said as the vigilante fencer appeared behind him.

————————————————————————

Tiefsee quietly sighed to himself, he was getting tired of playing the helpless damsel role and he wished those incubi shadows would stop pricking him with their anatomically confusing Phalluses already’ luckily he saw the cat’s persona kill the three incubi with it’s rapier as it disappeared, the blue eyed black and white cat turning to face the octopi.

“ So… what’s your name?” Morgana asks lending a hand to help Tiefsee up.

“ Ahem… my name is Tiefsee if your even able to remember it.. if you prefer to call me by a codename then mine’s is Squire..” Tiefsee said as Morgana looked surprised.

“ Another being like me eh..? I’m so excited! do you not remember anything as well?!” Morgana asks excitedly his cat tail wagging.

Lying through his teeth Tiefsee replied.

“ No.. I do not remember…. I was just minding my own business and suddenly I’m here in this bank…” Tiefsee retorted Morgana looking concerned for him his cat ears lowering.

as the other thieves arrived quicker then Tiefsee could of expected Skull was the first to open his mouth.

“ Great… now we have two of these fuckers…” Skull lamented as Tiefsee huffed.

“ Who are you calling a fucker? you fuck!” Tiefsee responded in an uncharacteristically vulgar way but he only did it so he can fit in more with the phantom thieves.

Skull grinned, “ You’ll fit right in….”

Queen opened her mouth “ I guess we should retreat for now and create a strategy right? Kaneshiro needs to be taken down”

as the other thieves head for the exit Mona turns around to Tiefsee.

“ Hey Squire.. promise to meet me again?” Morgana asks sounding confident yet semi-desperate as Tiefsee glares at him before half-faking an genuine smile.

“ Yes.. that would be lovely….. how about you catch up to your friends okay?” Tiefsee replies in a disgustingly sweet and innocent sounding tone yet Morgana proceeded to eat it up as he blushes hard and walked towards the other thieves walking out, Tiefsee dropping the tone and sighing to himself as he hears the sound of an gramophone in his head.

“ Yes Lord Yaldabaoth?” Tiefsee replied to the ringing gramophone.

“ Tiefsee have you gotten in contact with the thieves?” Yaldabaoth asked coldly.

“ Yes I have… though that cat seems to have taken a instant interest in me…” Tiefsee replied trying to hide his genuine blushing from just the thought of Morgana liking someone like him.. are these conflicting emotions what Akechi feels after putting on that detective prince facade?

“ Tiefsee Grail Demiurge! don’t think I didn’t see that blushing your doing! I told you not to get distracted by frivolous things like love and romance.. stay focus!” Yaldabaoth instructed sternly as Tiefsee shivered in his boots, only one thing can make him scared and it’s his creator when he’s serious.

the gramophone ringing inside his head stopped as Tiefsee’s eyes are filled with code to adjust his algorithm Tiefsee thought to himself.

“ No way would I fall in love with that cat… right..? Yes most definitely.. we are on opposite sides… and I must prevail in creator’s goals…” the octopi reassured himself as he exited Kaneshiro’s palace going home to his owner and partner Akechi’s bedroom.

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through BONUS: Marvel Team-Up 3 (#80-129)

MASTERPOST

Continuing the same concept as the first post, that is, a quick catch-up to not miss anything regarding Peter's social life.

In #80, Peter has a date with Cissy, they get attacked by a werewolf, then Peter gets a tarot reading and says Dr Strange "looks fine" by daylight, further cementing his bisexuality, and then after shenanigans, Satana, the devil's daughter arrives at Strange's house.

Folks, this on the level of "Dispayre", hahaha.

In #81, Strange is saved. Yes, he was in danger. No, I can't explain.

In #82, Spidey finds a possibly amnesiac Black Window and without warning...

I love checking out these comics and just see stuff like that. Yeah. Sure. Alright hahahahhahahahaha

Anyway, Nick Fury shoots at her and Peter.

In #83, Peter is absolutely gorgeous.

In #84, things are wild. In #85, Black Window finally gets her memory back and while her amnesiac self had feelings for Peter, this one doesn't.

#86 has the Guardians of the Galaxy. #87 whumps slightly Peter and makes him fight Black Panther and we see Gamelin and Walter, who become relevant a bit later I think. (I remember Walter because he's gorgeous. I'm not even sure I recognize the right character but whatever. I remember the name Gamelin though, but I'm not sure what his point is.)

In #88, Peter takes pictures of Sue Storm and takes the train. In #90, Spidey and Nightcrawler team up against a fake Spider-Man. In #91, Peter's still dating Cissy, "a science major" (wow, such development), but she prefers Beast (very understandable), who Peter gets jealous about (confirming once more his bisexuality), and a guy has a sick suit.

I need the same one.

In Annual 3, Peter's with Glory at an amusement park in Connecticut, which made me Google where it was. Also, Ghost Rider is there.

#92 doesn't matter. In #93, someone slays.

Peter is also very cute.

In #94, Peter has a nice outfit.

In #95, Spidey fights Mockingbird. In #96, Howard the Duck has a really bad time on Earth. #97 doesn't matter. In #98, Spidey and Black Widow team up again. In #99, Peter's still gorgeous.

Actually...

Who is this artist who draws suits so well?

Alright, alright.

In #100, there's a lot of action. In Annual 4, arms.

#101 is uninteresting.

#102 is already more involving, see below.

He also discovers that food at expensive restaurants is expensive. Yes, even the coke.

In #103, there's a teddy bear!

That is not an appropriate outfit in front of your daughter, sir.

homosexuality.

#104 and 105 don't feature Peter. In #106, Peter meets Steve Rogers!

I talked about #107 in another post, it has She-Hulk. In #108 and #109, Spidey fights Paladin, who has very flamboyant hair. In #110, Spidey teams up with Iron Man. In the next issues, we see Dazzler, the Lightmaster...

In #115, Peter roleplays Grey's Anatomy when a hideous creatures arrives.

Peter also has a crisis of faith. It happens.

In #118, Professor X most likely knows Spidey's secret identity.

In #120, May forces Peter to sing in front of a dozen of old people so they can make fun of him. In #121, we have...

homosexuality.

And a dapper man.

In #124, Peter keeps getting bullied by geriatrics.

This is adorable.

Annual 6 gives very important lore.

In #126, Peter and Bruce Banner are besties.

homosexuality.

In #127, I love seeing Peter getting bullied by seniors.

Oh, I can guard Peter's rear...

This is actually a really nice tale. The Watcher wants to bring a granddaughter back to her grandfather, and enlists Peter's help.

"Finis" is even worse, but go off I guess!

In #128, Peter apparently has new friends, Roger Hochberg and Mia Carrera, who're maybe dating, it's not too clear. He also sees Steve Rogers again.

Girl what the heck.

Black Cat's in the hospital, Peter. Because Doc Ock almost killed her. And it's very clear that you're in love with her. What are you doing?

(He's poly, he's poly, he's poly! I need to write a poly fic, don't I?)

In #129, we see Einstein.

(He's actually a clone of Mark Twain. Sure.)

[fantastictrashpolice]

Interrogation Questions Tag Game

Thanks to @holdmyteaplease for the tag!!!! This was perfect timing because I'm trapped at a family gathering!!!!!

❋are you named after anyone?

Nope! My parents just thought my name was neat! No one online knows my real name though because I'm insecure and like coming up with new names for myself!

❋when was the last time you cried?

Last night. I was dehydrated so badly I was having a hard time reading.

❋do you have kids?

Varian from Tangled the series is my child.

❋have you ever played sports?

Does ping pong count?

❋do you like sarcasm?

Yes, I am a lover of SARCASM and NEVER fail to notice when someone says something which THEY DO NOT MEAN. (In all seriousness, I generally appreciate sarcasm as long as it's pretty obvious and isn't a veiled insult.)

❋what do you notice first about people you meet?

Hair color and hairstyle. Occasionally the nose, I guess?

❋eye colour?

Really vibrant blue.

❋horror movies or happy endings?

Why are you making me choose? Can't I have both? Preferably combined into one story. Treat your monsters with sympathy folks.

❋what are your talents?

Writing and procrastination.

❋where were you born?

In a hospital. :)

❋how tall are you?

short.

❋what are your hobbies?

Writing and procrastination. Also video games.

❋any pets?

An outdoor cat named Black Panther.

❋what are your favourite school subjects?

English and lunch.

❋what is your dream job?

Neil Gaiman. That's my dream job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag time! @kanobarlowe and @itschrisboys and umm.... I think that's it. Anyone else is free to answer these!!!!

[ulquiorrapleasecallmetrash]

Ulquiorra: When I first seen her room all i thought was "Unorganized". Her room is messy but it is also organized in a way. One of the things you will immediately take notice is all of the stuffed animals she possess. She has plenty of tiger stuffed animals since those are her favorite animal. But she also had many other animals including cats, snakes, and penguins. Though she did tease me about buying a bat plush because of me but I was not enthused at all when she teased about buying a panther one. I will say, I am mildly interested in this "strawberry bat squishmallow" she has. (He likes it because he loves the tastes of strawberries and it is a bat.)

Dia Akedia: besides skulls and bones and other oddities she also has tons of plushies. From tigers to sharks and penguins. Though I will admit, the mushroom plushies she bought not too long ago are adorable and I may have *hinted* that I would want one for my birthday. Either way, I find them adorable and it is one of her many quirks. (He wants the whole living life on the veg mushroom collection)

Grayson Hotz: She does have quite a bit of stuffed animals. But I find it to be quite endearing. She does have a bit of a collection. She says that she is planning on buying a black horse that reminds her of Nox which I would think it is a great addition to her collection.

Snake: Ah, yes she loves stuff animals. Everyone enjoys laying on them and napping on them. Our favorite one is the rattlesnake plush she bought at the zoo and named it after one of us, which, I hope she will buy more and name one after all of us, says Emily.

-reverse selfship question-

Does S/I have a plushie that they go to bed with? Are they the type to get a special one and make it their buddy or would they just hold it close cause it's something you got them/reminded them of you? Do they go to 'extensive' lengths such as naming it or vocally talking to it? Do yall have matching plushies? Do you ever pretend to talk or interact with their plushie as well?

[nyctohyloph0bia]

Ask game by @scarsmood

(If you still have the template pls pass the link! pft)

1. What’s one feature from your kintype that may be considered unsettling or creepy?

Mostly, everything. A cat as big as a fox, or even more if needed. A shapeshifter who turns into a horrible monster that only leaves it’s teeth and glowing eyes while the rest is purely black matter. The horns and the large canines are honestly the most normal parts of me HAHA

2. Do you study others or do others study you?

I am mostly studied, as I do not care for humans. But, I do get curious sometimes and like to observe them, and other animals.

3. What type of predator are you? Parasitic, pursuit, ambush, psychological, etc. Alternatively, what type of prey are you? Camouflage, stamina, speed, misdirection?

Ambush and psychological. It’s said that I drive my prey crazy before I inevitably kill them. That only seems to happen with humans tho, animals…well? They’re not really all that aware, just scared.

4. Any hunting noemata or memories? Do you have any instincts about being hunted or hunting?

Oh, my! Very big cat-ish. Stalking until my prey (humans) has lost it’s senses, then attack. I don’t know why exactly I felt the need to drive them mad before I killed them tho. It looked like I had a really weird effect on them in particular. When it came to animals it was just the normal, stalk and jump after them. I remember that someone tried to shoot me once, didn’t do anything. A bear tried to fight me once, poor thing was thorn to shreds.

5. What’s one defensive maneuver your kintype will do to ward off potential predators or rival animals? Alternate question for less primal types, do you have a protocol or set rules to defend yourself from danger?

None of my attacks are really defensive, if you step in my village, you get killed. I will hunt you down, I can only recall a couple things that escaped me, I guess I decided they weren’t that much of a threat after all.

6. Do you do anything with kills besides just eating them? Collecting bones, a graveyard for remnants, burying it for storage, studying, or soul absorption?

Every single prey of mine is eaten until there is nothing else, or left for little animals that will eat it. Might try and chase them off if they get close to me, other times I am more generous. But I tend to leave death animals all around my village, as I do not usually eat those.

7. You are tied to your environment and labeled as a cryptid by the locals. What would your name be? Ex: the Green River Black Panther or Swamp Panther?

I actually know I have a nickname, I don’t know it tho. I remember Hearing it, I don’t know if I can understand human language tho? It would most likely be “[Name of my Village] Demon”.

8. How would you clean the blood off of yourself? Is it annoying or enriching?

Both. Just casual cat grooming.

9. Are you bound to an object, or do particular objects attract you? (Ex: demons bound to books, animals to blood, etc.)

I am bound to my village, which is, me.

10. How does your kintype view death?

Does not care. Just another part of life, necessary. Sometimes it wishes it’s life had a stopping point, but it’s been too long for it to throw in the towel. It was chosen for a reason.

11. What would be an omen that symbolizes your kintype someone may come across?

Mist.

12. What weather conditions are optimal for you to survive being hunted?

Rain, snowstorm. But in reality, that’s just things that help me attack better.

13. Do you have any horror movies, lore, or media that remind you of your kintype?

Yes! There is a myth about a black cat in the place I live in that I absolutely love, I cannot say which one it is bc I would doxx myself, LOL. The “Shut Eye” animatic by Skailla reminds me a lot of myself as well!

I also have a two playlists for this kintype :]

Cryptid focused!

The feeling of being a loner, or just it’s personality in general more than just what their role is supposed to be.

14. Could you survive your kintype in an attack if you are in a human body?

HELL NO, BAHAHA. Even if I get to dodge an attack it will haunt me down, even if I manage to avoid it for the most of my life, it will get me. A Michael Myers-Laurie Strode dynamic of sorts.

15. What type of enclosure/prison would be required to keep you contained?

I can’t. Unless some kind of SCP stuff finds a way to contain me. But, I guess, in some way I am already contained to the village, could leave any time, from what I know? The village would disappear if I leave tho, I won't.

16. As your kintype, what do you think is stupid about humans, feature and/or behavior-wise?

Thinking they can conquer anything.

[writingblock101]

#RedRobinIsAFurry (Tim Drake x Reader)

Request for @markofthewolf (aye I like your Diego profile picture!): Funny 9 with Tim?

Word Count: 1,200 

Tags: @idkmanicantenglish, @mayahoelland2013

If I didn’t get a prompt for Tim, this would’ve been the one I would’ve written for him anyways. Thanks for the request! Enjoy!

You snort awake to the sound of your phone ringing. Banging your hand blindly on your nightstand, you hear a thud and the music sounds slightly farther away. Groaning, you lean over the bed only to be blinded by your lit-up phone, indicating that Tim is calling you. You squint, snatching the phone off the ground and roll over, swiping your finger to answer it. 

“Hello?” 

While you’re more than aware of Tim’s less than healthy sleep schedule, you would hope your brilliant genius of a boyfriend would think to check the timezones between New Jersey and London. 

“I’m sorry to be calling at 4 am, but how do you turn off the cat?” Tim rushes out in one breath. 

You blink slowly, your barely awake mind sluggishly forming an intellectual response. 

“What?” 

“T’Challa will not shut up and he keeps walking across the Bat computer no matter how many times I put him on the floor. He can open doors, did you know that because I did not.” 

You blink again, barely processing a word of what Tim is saying. 

“...What?” 

Tim sighs. 

“I’m working on a case, but every time I try to sit at the computer, T’Challa sits on the keyboard or walks across it and screws everything up. How do I make him stop?” 

“Um…” You frown, trying to remember how you normally handle your cat when he gets antsy. 

He wants attention, that much is clear, but he doesn’t always ask for attention at the best times. While normally you’d tell Tim to take a break and play with him, a glance at your watch which is still set for Eastern Time tells you that it’s only 11:00 PM, meaning Tim’s night is just beginning. 

Mirroring.

“What?” Tim asks. 

“Huh?” 

“You said mirroring…?” 

That was out loud? 

Tim chuckles. 

“Yeah, babe. That was out loud.” 

“Oh.” 

“What’s mirroring?” Tim prompts. 

“Um… He wants to be involved,” You rub your head, trying to think of the best solution for Tim. “Do you have an old laptop or something? I made one out of a pizza box, but you’re rich.” 

“Um, yeah,” You hear things shuffling in the background. 

“Set it up next to you and he’ll lay on it. It makes him feel… Involved,” You explain. 

“...Cats are weird.” 

“Yeah, well, you dress up like a bird and beat up criminals so you don’t have any room to talk.” 

Tim laughs. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right… Jason started calling me a furry.” 

Maybe it’s because it’s 4 AM or maybe the idea of Tim being a furry is hilarious, but either way, you start cracking up.  

“Rawr XD,” You grin. 

“Yeah, it was all fun and games until Bruce asked me what a furry was.” 

You laugh harder, the mental image of billionaire Bruce Wayne hesitantly approaching his son after hearing Jason call him a furry to ask what exactly a furry is. 

“Do you think he Googled it first?” You wheezed. 

“Probably.” 

“Yiff yiff!” You exclaim, tears running down your face. 

You hear Tim sigh on the other end of the phone. 

“Tim! You may have awakened Bruce to his true identity!” 

Another sigh. 

“He saw the pictures and thought ‘hey, that sounds like me!’!”  

“How are you worse than Jason?” 

“Do you think he’s going to modify his suit?” 

Suddenly, the image of Batman, furry, and bright green with purple eyes pops into your head. You think you might be getting abs with how hard you’re laughing.

“I can’t breathe!” You exclaim between laughs. “Oh my gosh, I need this to be real!” 

“I don’t!”

“Don’t worry, Timmy, one day, you’ll accept your true identity.” 

“Calling you was a mistake.” 

“Maybe we can modify your suit!” 

“I should’ve just suffered through T’Challa.” 

“You know, I think some fur would do wonders on the Red Robin suit.” 

“Is this Hell? I deserve this, don’t I?” 

“Instead of the white eye covers, we can glue on some googly eyes!” 

“Fight crime, they said. It’s for the greater good, they said.” 

“We could even go to the annual furry convention!” 

“People won’t start calling you a furry, they said.” 

“Don’t worry, baby. You’re the only guy I OwO for.” 

“... Is that how that’s really pronounced?” 

“Is that what we should be focusing on or should we talk about how you knew exactly what I was talking about despite not seeing it typed out? YOU’RE TOTALLY A FURRY!” 

“I AM NOT A FURRY!” 

You start laughing again, another round of tears gathering in your eyes before finally, you slump back against your pillow, your eyes feeling heavy.

“I miss you,” You say quietly. 

“Even though you’re bullying me, I miss you too,” Tim responds. 

“Bullying you?” You yawn. “I would never!” 

“Uh-huh, sure you wouldn’t.” 

“I’m just trying to help you accept your true identity!” 

“Wow, I am so blessed to have such a supportive partner.” 

“I’m pretty much the best,” You grin sleepily, pulling your blanket tighter around you. 

“How has London been?” Tim asks. 

You put the phone on speaker, your hand tired from holding it to your face. 

“It’s been amazing. It’s so beautiful here, but British people are weird.” 

Tim chuckles. 

“Yeah? How so?” 

“Hearing a British accent cat calling me is so bizarre.” 

Tim laughs, making you smile at the sound. While England as been amazing, you really miss your boyfriend. 

“Some of the food is weird too, but it’s still good.” 

“I’m glad to hear you’re having fun.” 

“I wish you were here with me, I think you would really like it.” 

“Oh yeah?” Tim asks. “Then I guess we’ll have to go together.” 

“That would be nice,” You smile, your eyes getting heavy. “You playing nice with Damian?” 

Tim scoffs. 

“I’m not the one you need to be worried about!” 

You hum. 

“I dunno, babe. The last time I wasn’t in New Jersey when I came back, you’d gotten a haircut with a flame thrower.” 

“It wasn’t a flame thrower.” 

“Yeah, whatever alien tech. Point is, Damian was the one holding it.” 

“We’ve been fine,” Tim promises. “Playing nice.” 

“Good,” You smile, letting your eyes close. 

The line goes silent. Tim glances over at his phone where it’s resting on the desk. 

“Y/N?” He says quietly, but only hears the sound of soft breathing. 

He smiles to himself, knowing you feel back to sleep and reaches out to pet T’Challa who is happily purring on an old laptop. 

“Do you feel involved?” Tim asks jokingly as T’Challa pushes his head into Tim’s hand. “Maybe you’ll help me solve a few cases.” 

Tim glances back over at the phone and picks it up. 

“Good night, Y/N. I love you,” Then he hangs up, letting you sleep. 

. . . 

Tim blinks awake the next morning, his arms sore from patrol. He stretches his arm then lets it flop onto the bed and reaches for his phone. A Twitter notification is waiting for him. Tim clicks on the notification and sees that you had tweeted: 

#RedRobinIsAFurry No, I do not take constructive criticism. 

“Oh my gosh,” Tim’s head hit his pillow. 

It had over 4,000 likes and over 5,000 retweets, the first one being from Jason, of course. Tim opens his text messages to you. 

Tim: I hate you. 

Y/N:  😘

Tim laughs and puts his phone down then he hears a familiar meow. He glances up to see T’Challa staring at him from the foot of his bed. 

“I suppose you’re hungry, aren’t you?” 

T’Challa’s tail swishes back and forth. Tim tosses back his blankets then scoops up the black cat to go feed him. He can’t wait until you’re home again. 

[alltheficsiwant]

Watched

Watched | A Foxy 🦊 and Wolfie 🐺 One Shot

Summary: Weeks after the encounter with James Barnes or Wolfie inside your head. You embarked on a journey of discovery as you learned who he really was. During those times, he was radio silent. You don’t know why, he seemed eager that night to know you but you took it as a win. You are not by any means going to be involved with the fucking Mob Boss of New York city despite how fucking beautiful he is.

Not until one day, you felt like being watched and you know your effort to come to the police is futile. So, you decided to ask for help. Cash in a favor. After all, he owes you one right? 

Warnings: Mentions of violence, stalking and being stalked, police ignorance and possible assault. If you are triggered about this, please read with CAUTION. On a good note, this also have fluff and comic relief.

Words: 7.1 k

Ratings: 18+ Minors DNI

Author's Note: I was hoping to make this spicy but I ended up making this a bit cute on the end with lots of innuendos. BUT don't fret. I'm gearing up for a spicy encounter with these too but NOT TODAY.

This is also like kind of a sequel of one of my one shots, When Foxy meets Wolfie. Check it out through my Master List link below. :)

Disclaimer: I have not beta reader. I do apologize for my mistakes and errors in terms of grammars. Please do message me if I miss something with my warnings.

Main Masterlist

New York is always filled with people and if you live here long enough. You would be able to at least recognize the regular people. Yes, you might be a person who loses touch of her surroundings but it always has been when you are coding. Though when you are walking around the city that never sleeps. Well, you are as alert as a fucking fox.

Huh, maybe that is why you also named yourself Foxy (You already admitted it was because of your Naruto addiction but nobody has to know about that.). But since the past few weeks, you swear there is someone following you. You could feel eyes watching your every move.

You are quite secure with your identity remaining anonymous to the internet or even on the dark web. After all, you are a good hacker, you just chose not to be a hacker and instead dedicate your life to coding for robotics and tech with Shuri. You already have back up plans in case a cyber bullying would happen (highly unlikely, you hate social media.) or when your accounts or identity is suddenly stolen (that is impossible. You made that sure but still…).

You never really slipped up when you do a thorough background check even to the sketchiest people. That includes the socialites of New York specifically, James Buchanan “White Wolf” Barnes.

Now you get why Shuri named him that. That is basically his name now, the White Wolf of New York. Known for owning the business conglomerate, Barnes Incorporated. An old family business that started in a very familiar place. Brooklyn.

Before he was the King of New York, he was the Boss of Brooklyn known as the Winter Soldier. How do you know this? A magician never tells their secrets. But you found pictures of him and reports of news that involves him.

Though you can’t quite figure out when he had the metal arm. It's a story you're going to ask him if he ever calls or text. The only thing he sent you was an emoji of a wolf just so you can save his number. Then silence. Not that you are waiting for him to text back or call. He’s dangerous but he owes you a favor. So he said so.

Anyway, you had to use the very same emoji and save his name as “Wolfie” . You can’t resist. After all, all the names in your contacts are a total of six plus Wolfie now that he is in it. Shuri is a “Cub” with a picture of a tiger. T’challa is a “Panther” with a picture of a black cat. Tony Stark is “Old Man” with a metal gun (Yes you know him and wish you didn’t because he constantly annoys the hell out of you). Wanda is “Witch” which has the devil emoji (She never took offense to it. After all, your friendship with her happened in a dark place. Another story to tell on another day.) Then her brother, Pietro, whom you named “QuickSilver” with the running emoji. Of Course your Mother who you named “Ghost” with a ghost emoji because let’s face it. She was only a ghost in your life. Only there but never really present, ya know?

Since finding out about him, you have felt as if you are being watched. You are sure you made the precaution when you gathered the intel about him. Maybe he had a taboo kind of thing on his name when searched?

You only learned about his business (which screams MOB all over it) and some of his personal information.

Name: James Buchanan Barnes

Parents: George Barnes and Winnifred Barnes

Siblings: Rebecca and Sarah Barnes

Age: 31 years old.

Birthday: Unknown 

If you are asked what is the best information about him, his marital status. Single. You don’t know why you are relieved but your stomach did a flip on that or it might just have been a facade. You know, he might be secretly married and cheating— Okay, Y/N you gotta chill my girl. 

This is not a fucking novelesque life or fiction. This is real life, as real as it can be at least for you.

Besides a man like that, you can’t help but sigh as you scroll through the plethora of pictures of him in various business functions and news. He was quite an eye candy.

A best piece of candy– maybe more edible than your gummy bears but you wouldn’t admit that. You won’t betray your favorite candy that way.

Focusing on the situation at hand, since obsessing about him by searching through the world wide web and trying to know much about him. You swore someone is watching you.

Your fears were confirmed when you noticed someone new on the route you take to go to your grocers which is coincidentally your route to work too. For the past weeks, it has been busy in Wakanda Industries and Shuri has asked you to come in at the labs to work hands-on. After all, she needs extra hands that she trusts to handle the vibranium that came in from their country.

You noticed him at first, he was tall and towers over you. You never really noticed him until he stood beside you. He was broad too and you knew he could easily manhandle you. He wears a cap over his head all the time and the same black bomber jacket and straight blue jeans. He is also wearing working boots. 

The reason why he raised a red flag, because usually a few people in New York do greet you. Contrary to people’s statement, if you are a regular around the neighborhood, people greet you. Sometimes, foreigners do that and that makes them stand out but this man. Oh boy, this man scares the crap out of you.

If he greeted you properly you wouldn’t have thought about him but the way he specifically reached out to you to tap your shoulders.

“Hey” He breathed out as he smiled or smirked?? You don’t know but it floored you when you saw his eyes. It was dark and fucking dangerous. You scrambled away from him after that, not bothering to greet back. Not your finest moment and you might have thought to toughen it up. But what happened at the club did a number on you. Men these days are more fucking aggressive and why do they choose to be one when you decided to take part in the real world.

That is why you wanted to stay at your apartment and code. Coding can only hurt you because it was a mistake you made that made it wrong. People? Well, you barely cope up with your mother’s absence and mistakes. You can’t deal with them at all.

Since then, you noticed him everywhere and your mind concluded (rather cursed) that it might be James Barnes’ fault that you are now being followed.

You are so regretting giving his number or even getting involved with him. It’s not totally worth it to stare into beautiful blue eyes and have the interest of one of the most eligible bachelors in New York when you might end up in a ditch somewhere.

So, you made a logical move, and reported it to the police. Though, you knew better. Not that you are bashing the police force but the people in Brooklyn PD? Is such a fucking waste of time.

You compiled pictures and evidence. Even the times when he followed your route to the T and even came into the same coffee shop as you. You even brought Wanda into it.

The people in the police station, specifically that dumb brunette that manned the desk for this kind of reports scoffed at you.

“Miss, it just looks like he walks and goes to the stores you are in as a regular. I’m sure you just noticed him now but we would ask around,”

Ask around my ass. That already happened a week ago and they never get back to you.

Now you are walking yet again to your home and you know he is right behind you. You could hear the gum he was chewing. You had your headphones on and no music playing. Afraid that if you got caught up with the sound, you might not hear him approaching.

You just want to get home safe. It's that too much to ask? You decided to pull out your phone. You have to call someone, anyone. 

You looked at the six contacts and sighed. Shuri and T’challa are out of the question. The former is still busy in the labs when you leave the building. The latter is off in Wakanda despite your salary. International calls are expensive. You don’t want to blow him up after all despite being CEO, he is still a fucking king of the country.

Your mom is also out because that woman never answers a call even when it was from her precious daughter. Pietro is a no go, its a middle of the fucking week, he might be somewhere even out of New York. You don’t even know what he does exactly but he is out most of the time.

Wanda is ideal so without thinking you dialed her up and prayed to whoever is listening to let her answer. You continue to walk aimlessly. Trying to make the guy think you are going off somewhere but he never faltered in following your steps.

Though your hope was dashed when it went to voicemail.

“Heya! This is Wanda, if I haven’t answered in the third ring. It means I’m busy, leave me a message and I’ll get back to you babes,”

“Wands, I kinda need you right now. Someone is following me,” You whispered to your phone. You tried to discreetly look back and you knew you shouldn’t have done that because now the man is staring straight ahead at you. His almost black irises turned darker as he grinned at you. He looks so damn familiar but you can’t quite place where you last saw him. You decided that it doesn’t matter now. You are going to die anyway.

You cursed. You put the phone down and looked down at your contacts. Great, being the best hacker and a fucking IT genius. Yet you are here scrambling to do something that is supposed to be logical.

Fuck life, this is a dangerous situation and you cannot deflect or even joke about it. This isn’t about numbers or codes anymore or having the fucking problem how the hell do you write a code that could make a fucking robot flex it’s arms.

You stared down at the last number.

Wolfie 🐺

Fuck it. You pressed the call button. You could have texted but hey, your life is at stake.

The first ring didn’t even finish when it was answered.

“You finally—”

“Listen to me,” You cut him off his sultry greeting with a hissed as you tried to not be too noisy. You are speedwalking now and from your last glance he is matching your speed. “I-I need to cash in t-that favor now,”

Silence only met you as you walked through the streets of New York. You don’t even know where you are going anymore.

“Cash in?” He said, his voice turning serious. You started to breathe harder as you took a turn. Not noticing that you have entered the park just a few blocks away from Winter.

“Y-yes, ummm– It's not ideal but I am in the same situation as before,”

This time you heard a growl. “Someone is trying to assault you?” 

You can’t help the chill that ran down your spine when he said that question. The coldness from it felt like seeping through the phone and to you.

“Might be the end of it if he caught up to me,” You panted as you tried to weave yourself through the people. Panic started to settle on your veins. You cannot hide anymore that you are trying to run away from him.

“You’re being chased?” You heard him shuffling on the end of the line. If you have focused, you could hear him clicking on something then a car door closing but you’re not. You are too focused on losing the man.

You chance another glance and saw him quite obviously chasing after you, making you curse.

“Yes,” You told him in panic as you turned back around only to slam into a girl. You nearly let your phone go but you held on tight to it as you apologized furiously to her. You could hear James’ muffled voice over the phone as you looked behind to see the guy had caught up to you.

“I’m sorry but I got to go,” You only said to the girl and started to walk away. You held your phone back to your ear.

“---Foxy, you better speak to me now. Where the hell are you?” 

“I’m here, I uhh–” You looked around as you saw the place. “At the park, four blocks away from Winter.”

“Okay, you know about Sarah’s Bake Shop?” James' voice said to you. He was eerily calm and quiet now. Momentarily you forgot you are on the phone too caught up by looking over your shoulder and where you are going. “Foxy, talk to me baby. Don’t go quiet on me,”

“S-sorry,” You muttered and confirmed that you knew about the bake shop. You remember opening a couple of years ago. You never really had a chance to visit since bread isn’t something you consume on a daily basis but Wanda and Pietro are regulars despite living in Manhattan. You looked around and saw the exit to the park. “It’s the artisan bakery around the corner,”

You took a turn, your feet already walking you towards the Bakery.

“Good, go there and come up to the counter. You will see a brunette with the same eyes as mine. Tell her Bucky sent you and you need to be kept safe,” James explained.

“Bucky?” You can’t help but snort at that name. It wasn’t an unusual name per se but it reminded you of a certain man back in college in Utah. His name was Buckett with a double “t”. He always emphasized that and he was a total tool bag to say the least. He tried to hit on you and you can never forget the words he uttered to you the first time. Earning him a big ole slap. Your hand had to be bandaged up and you were restricted to move it for a week making you miss a coding class. (This is the reason why you also started your obsession with Naruto. You can’t really do anything but watch TV when you badly want to code instead.)

“I heard quiet girls are freaky. You might want to show me if it's, baby girl?”

You had to do it though and you did not regret that slap. He was such an extraordinary human being. Though last time you heard, he was locked up. Figures.

You know it's not the time to be amused by that but you can’t help it. You are scared out of your mind and you are uncomfortable with all the human interaction you had to do for the past few weeks. This is what you result into when you are in that state. 

“Now is not the time baby, just do as I say,” James grunted as he heard the quiet giggles now that you made your way over the bakery.

“That name reminded me of a douche bag in college,” you told him, your filter off now as you made it through the crowd. Though your voice still sounded panicked.

“Tell me all about him later, doll but I need you in the bakery now okay?” James coaxed you and that made you glanced back to see the man’s eyes are now dark. A sneer on his face as he neared you.

You cursed. “He’s nearing me,”

“Do you see the bakery?”

You frantically looked around and once you saw the distinct pastel blue sign and “Sarah’s Bakery Shop” on the front. You sprinted, willing your short legs to please not fail you this time. You could hear him running after you now, and you didn’t even look at the road that you were crossing. Cars started to blast their horns but you didn’t care.

Your eyes tunneled towards the door and luckily a man was coming out of the shop and opened the door. Just in time for you to dash past him. The bakery was a bit filled despite it being 7PM at night. A few people were dining there and once you crashed in they all looked at you shocked.

“Excuse me Miss?” You looked towards the voice and then you were struck dumb thinking you are seeing James but in his place was a woman a bit taller than you. She is wearing a long sleeved white blouse and she is looking at you weirdly. Though what caught your eyes is the electric blues she sported. Almost the same ones as James but he was more beautiful. Sorry to say or is it just biased thinking?

You looked out to see the man ready to cross the street so you blurted out the words that James gave you.

“Bucky sent me here and to tell you to keep me safe,” you told her in a rush. Your eyes wide as you clutched the phone to your chest. Momentarily forgotten that James is on the other side of the phone. The woman looked at you for a moment and then followed your vision to where you turned. She must have seen the man because the next thing you know she was already shielding you from him as he entered the bakery.

It suddenly felt like the air in the shop was sucked out. The chatter quieted down as the man entered the shop. His eyes fixed on you.

“There you are babe,” The man suddenly exclaimed as he looked towards you. You remain frozen to where you stand but the woman behind the counter stepped right where he won’t be able to see you.

“Do you know him?” The woman only asked as she stared at him down.

“No,” You outright told her and you tried not to flinch as the man sneered for a moment before replacing it with his maniacal smile.

“Come on babe, don’t be like that. I already said I’m sorry to you, come on lets just—”

“Don’t touch me!” You exclaimed as he reached out over the woman. The woman, despite her fearless way of shielding you, wasn’t strong enough to deflect his reach. He was able to hold on to your forearm but you managed to twist it out of his grip. The woman then pulled you away from the man.

“That is not nice, babe. Don’t pretend you don’t know me. I have been walking with you for the past weeks,” He mused. You only glared at him as you held your forearm. He tried to reach out for you but this time the woman slapped his hand making him glare at her.

“I don’t even know you, you freak.” You told him as you leaned towards the woman who has her arms around you now. “You were stalking me,” you spat out.

“I was just trying to protect you babe.”

“Don’t call me that, i’m not your babe,”

“Of course you are,” He snorted and then reached out again. 

“Don’t you dare touch her,” The woman threatened as he slapped his hand away. “She is not your babe. She is my brother’s girl,”

The man growled at that. “She is nobody's but mine and I can do anything to her,” he spat back as he reached out again. You tried to step back and produce space between you and the man but to no avail, he was big enough to be able to reach for your wrist this time.

“Oh, my brother would be so pissed off if he learns that you are touching his girl,” The woman threatened as he finally closed his hands on your wrist. When the words finally processed, you froze, which was a wrong decision because the man now has easily pulled you to him but your mind is elsewhere.

Brother?

“Oh yeah, what is he going to do—”

“You will be dead,” A voice interrupted. You knew that voice and the next thing you know you are in his arms this time. You look to see him staring at the man down who glared back at him.

“Who the hell are you? Give back my girl—”

James only laughed at that while your eyes suddenly caught a quiet murmur. The patrons were being escorted out by two men. One of them is Sam who offered a nod to you while the other is a tall blonde man. He has piercing blue eyes but his eyes are kind despite the stoic expression on his face.

Though the moment he saw you looking, he offered only a smile as he continued his job. Soon the shop was empty and the window blinds were closed.

James still has you in his arms and the woman is now standing alongside Sam and the blonde man. The man suddenly realized he was outnumbered.

“Just give her back to me. She has been making trouble—”

“Buddy, how many times am I going to tell you that she is not your girl?” James mused as he pulled you closer. You only leaned against him, quite shocked at yourself on how much you let him touch you. Again, your filter is off and you are in a dangerous situation. You might have been uncomfortable with human touch but if it comes from James it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable.

You remember the way he touched your face that night and— now is not the time,

“Fuck it, she’s not worth it. I could find a different whore—”

The only warning all of you had was the sound of his vibranium arm’s plates clicking and the next thing you know. The man was flying until he hit a wall and you swore you heard a crack after. You jumped and gasped at that. 

James momentarily let you go and in his place came the woman who took your trembling figure in her arms. Though your eyes remained fixed on James who menacingly stepped towards the man whose eyes are half-lidded. Without any more words, you heard his metal arm wired to life, suddenly you are momentarily distracted by that as it reminded you about the code you are still working on to help with that. But then before you can finish that thought, the man cried out as you heard another crack.

You looked back at James but before you can even see what happened to the man. Sam and the blonde man blocked your view. Then you are back in James’ arms.

You tried to look again but you felt a hand behind your head turning you gently towards him.

“Don’t look,” is all he murmured as you nodded. You buried your face on his chest, knowing you wouldn’t like what you are going to see anyway. Your grip on your phone loosened a bit and then you completely let it go as you felt his vibranium arm wrapping itself around you.

“I got you Foxy. You’re safe now,” You didn’t know you need to hear those words. You sagged against him. The adrenaline and the rush of trying to save yourself seeped out to you. Your knees buckled and you felt James leaning down to take you in his arms. Your phone fell down on your grip and you might have winced when you heard the crack but you don’t care. You're safe.

You felt James move somewhere and the next thing you know he is seated in one of the booths with you on his lap. Your head now leaned against his shoulder as his vibranium secured you on his lap while his flesh one caressed the back of your head.

You stayed there trying to get your thoughts and your body to cooperate. In another situation, you might have quipped something inappropriate or joked about it. A defense mechanism of yours when things are overwhelming but right now. You seek the comfort you thought you didn’t need to the most unlikely person ever.

As you stayed quiet, you heard James murmuring orders to the two men. While the woman, who you later on will know as Sarah Barnes had busied herself in the kitchen. She even pulled out a cup of water and a cup of coffee towards the both of you. Your broken phone also laid on the table. 

But you didn’t move and you remained in James’s arms. James continues to caress you and continue to whisper sweet nothings. Assuring you that you are safe and no one is going to touch as long as he is around.

You don’t know how long you and he stayed there but eventually someone has to break the silence. James decided it's going to be him.

“We should really stop seeing each other like this,” James said and that finally broke it as you can’t help but snort.

“It's your fault,” you can’t help but say as you leaned back to look up at him. His electro blue eyes staring down at you amused.

“My fault?” He asked his eyes now, swimming in amusement.

You nodded. “I got involved with you and now I am in my quota for dangerous situations,”

James chuckled at that as he reached up to you and cupped your cheek. Your brows scrunched at the deja vu feeling this situation is giving you.

“I guess I owe you one again?” James asked as he looked at you.

You huffed as you looked away making your cheeks squish against his hand making you pout. James must have found your huffing amusing because you heard him chuckle again.

“What is it? You don’t like me owing you?” He asked as he tried to catch your eyes but you continued to dodge him as you huffed.

You felt like this is going to be the cycle between the two of you and you wanted not to do anything with him. Even if he is the most beautiful man and you wanted to do things to him that you rather don’t want to think about. You don’t have your filter on. (You will never have it back. Let’s face it.)

“I’d rather not have anything to deal with you,” You grumbled but it only earned you a chuckle from the man himself.

“Oh Foxy, do you think I would be able to let you go now?”

“Well, you did a good job ignoring me for the past few weeks,” you blurted out and then your eyes widened at what you just said. You looked back at him to see him looking at you taken aback before it morphed into mischief. You huffed again.

“You are waiting for me to call you?” James asked amused.

“No!” You exclaimed and when you tried to move away. You noticed that you are still on his lap. You immediately move to stand up. James again, let you not make any move as you stared back at him incredulously.

“I thought you don’t want to deal with socialites like me?”

“Shut up,” You quipped not knowing what comeback you will give him. Shit shit shit. You just outed that you are thinking about him. Soon he would discover you were stalking him through the world wide web. Oh gosh Y/N, you really did it this time. You’re dead. Completely dead.

“I was out of the country,” James suddenly said, making you look at him in confusion. He turned his body so he is still facing you. He remained seated in the booth as he laid both of his hands on his thighs. You just noticed his outfit now. He was in a casual black sweater paired with black jeans and doc martens. An outfit that usually is fit for traveling.

“I was in Russia and then Wakanda for the past months doing…” he trailed off as if trying to find the right words.

“Mob business” you completed it for him and then your eyes widened again. Oh shit. 

James then looked at you before he smirked. “Yes,” he didn’t even deny it as your eyes widened more. “I’ve been busy and I wasn’t able to hold on to my phone until today. I just landed when you called me,”

You bit your lip at that. He came all the way here? Then your eyebrows scrunched together. 

“How come you came here so fast? New York is like a labyrinth of traffic,”

“I came here through my building. T’challa let me use one of their Quinjets.” He explained and you nodded now. Not knowing what to say anymore.

“So you’ve been busy huh? What more did you find about me doll?” James asked and your eyes widened at that.

“I am not inclined to answer that question,” You decided to tell him. To hell with it, you won’t snitch on yourself.

James chuckled at that as he looked at you though his face grew sober as his eyes trailed down towards your arms. You followed his gaze and saw the mark that the man left on it. Suddenly, you felt your knees become jello as the events of today crashed to you again.

“How long is he following you around?” James asked quietly as you shakily looked up at him. 

“A few weeks now,” You told him and you watched as he clenched his jaw. “I-I tried to go to the police but—”

“They didn’t do anything about it?” He sharply asked and you shook your head. You heard him curse before he took a deep breath, calming himself down. “Well, I guess it's a good thing I ended it before it became too much,”

You looked up at him and then your eyes trained towards the wall where the man was slumped. You didn’t hear James stand up but the next thing you know, he was right in front of you again. Blocking your view and making you look at him.

“Hey Foxy,” He murmured quietly as he hovered his arms over your face. His eyes asking for permission. You can’t help but nod. He kept doing that, even on the first encounter. He was always asking you before he touched you. You liked that.

Once he held your face, one flesh and one metal, he stared at you for a while. His eyes roaming around your face making you self conscious. You scrunch your nose and were about to remove your face from his hands. This time his hold was gentle yet firm.

“I’m sorry for not reaching out to you for the past weeks. I really wanted to know about you, Foxy.”

You only stared back at him. Oddly, he sounded sincere.

“I think it's also bad that I get to see you when you are in danger,” James added as he smirked at you. You huffed at that. 

You pouted. “Well, you are trouble personified as much as I know,” 

James chuckled. “You attract trouble, baby.” He answered back and you looked at him offended.

“I do not! I just have poor luck,” You mumbled but James just looked at you with amusement.

“Then, I’ll be your lucky charm.” James declared as you raised a brow at him in questions. He gently ran his thumbs over your cheekbones as he looked down at you with a small smile. 

“I didn’t know people like you can be this cheesy,” You told him.

“It's a hidden talent,” James joked and you have to stop yourself from laughing. Instead you just ballooned your cheeks. James just finds it amusing but then his face turns serious. “But I’m serious Foxy. Whether you owe me or I owe you one. When you run into something bad, you call me okay?”

You looked at him for a moment. “Why are you so adamant on knowing about me?” You questioned instead. Your stand of having nothing to do is still up but you are curious about his fascination with you.

James then thought about it with a playfully expression on his face before he looked back down at you. He ran his tongue on his bottom lip before he spoke.

“You intrigue me Foxy,” James said and you were about to protest that it was such a vague reason when he added. “Trust me, I don’t get intrigued or amused easily.”

You blinked at that. Intrigued? No one really told me that before. 

“Bucky?” You and James turned around at the mention of the name. You saw the same woman before, her eyes the same as James trained on his hand which was holding your face. An amused expression fixed on her face. Though the both of you didn’t make a move as you both looked at her expectantly.

Then something clicked in you. Bucky.

You snorted suddenly, the memories of a man named Buckett coming back to you as you looked at James. Then it clicked.

“...You will see a brunette with the same eyes as mine. Tell her Bucky sent you and you need to be kept safe”

“She is not your babe. She is my brother’s girl,”

Bucky = Brother = James

“You’re Bucky,” You concluded out loud and James looked down at you amused. Then you heard a giggle to look back at the woman. Then your eyes widened.

Sarah’s Baker Shop 

Siblings: Rebecca and Sarah Barnes

“Holy shit, your his sister Sarah,” You mumbled and the woman, Sarah nodded. She turned to Ja—-Bucky with a smirk.

“She’s smart. Different from the girls that flocked around you Buck,” She retorted towards her brothers. James rolled his eyes at her before letting go of your face but then you snorted and couldn't help the giggles that came out of you.

Now two identical blue eyes looked down at you amused yet confused.

“Why are you laughing Foxy?”

“Bucky? Seriously Wolfie?” You can’t help but let the nickname you have for him slip out as you continue to giggle. “Where the hell Bucky came from?”

“He hated Buchanan and he hated being called James before,” Sarah mused as she caught on to what was funny to you. She looked at Bucky now with a small smile. ���He insisted everybody call him Bucky. Steve joked about that sounding so much like Bucket–”

“Oh gosh, Buckett. The college douche bag,” you exclaimed and now you are full on laughing. Sarah snickered at you while James just sighed.

“Glad I could make you laugh Foxy,” James grumbled and that just made you laugh more. It was a while before you had your laugh under control. Then you sobered up as you looked back at Sarah remembering how much she tried to protect you before.

“Thank you,” you blurted out as you looked at her. Sarah then offered a small smile. “You didn’t know me yet you protected me,”

Sarah then glanced at Bucky before looking back at you. “Any friends of  Bucky are friends of mine too or is there something going on?” She mused.

Your eyes widened at what she was implying. “Umm– we-we are not– something! We- we are–”

“We are not yet something,” James slyly replied as you looked at him now with wide eyes as he looked back at you. “But we are friends now,”

“I said no such thing!” You exclaimed as you tried to take a step back away from him. “Besides you are one of our clients in my work place and I do not—”

“I am friends with Shuri,” he cut you off again as he looked at you with a tilt of his head. “Why can’t I be friends with you?”

You opened your mouth but honestly, you don’t even know why he can’t. Yes he might be involved with the mob but honestly, you just blamed him for the situation you are in. It was honestly a coincidence that you had a stalker and you happen to know one of the dangerous men of New York. Maybe because you knew once you let him in your life. You would be dealing with shit you never dealt with before and you knew that you wouldn’t be able to walk away. As one of the articles says about him; “James Barnes, the most charming CEO over 30’s”. Of course, you won’t admit that. Over your dead tiny body. So you say your default reason.

“You’re dangerous,” 

James chuckled as a sense of dejavu washed over you. “I told you, you are the safest with me,”

You looked at him for a moment and sighed. “I will never be able to get rid of you now huh?”

James then turned serious as he looked at you. “You never really told me you want me out of your life.”

“I did,” you mused as you looked at him but James shook his head. 

“You have to mean it, Y/N.” You can’t help but blush at the way he said your name. “And when you do, I would know.”

You continue to stare at him. For once, you are lost at what to say back to him. You know your resolve is crumbling. Who are you even kidding anymore?

“Maybe it is best if Y/N take her rest,” Sarah interrupted as you both turned to her. Your eyes widened when you realized you weren’t able to introduce yourself properly.

“Oh right, I forgot. My name is Y/N Y/LN,” You offered a smile at her. Sarah beamed back at you.

“Nice to meet you Y/N. I’m Sarah Jane Barnes, Bucky’s youngest sister.” She introduced herself. “Well, as much as I want to know more about you and how you met my pain in the ass big bad brother. It's best that he takes out for a bite first before ensuring you are safe home?”

She said that as if she was talking to you but one she mentioned James, her gaze turned to him as she finished speaking.

“I’ll make sure she’s eaten and home safe,” 

“Good, see you Y/N.”

After that, James— rather Bucky now in your head. Escorted you to the car he drove here which was parked right outside the shop. Sam had greeted you and then you were introduced to the tall man.

“This is Steve—”

“Oh the one who joked about your nickname sounding like Bucket,” you blurted out and then blushed at that. Steve had looked down at you amused. His stoic expression is long gone.

“You are really cute,” He commented, making you blush deeper and lean more towards Bucky who glared at him.

“Stop flirting with her dumb ass.” Bucky said before he led you towards the car. When you were situated, he turned to instruct them on helping Sarah up. You didn’t know what they talked about but the next thing you know Bucky is inside the car.

“Will you be taking me home now?” You asked without thinking about your question before you even realized the implication of it. It was too late as Bucky turned to you with a dark expression and smirk.

“I would love to take you home now Foxy,” He flirted and your eyes widened at that.

“No! That is not what I meant— I meant if you are taking me back to my home,” You emphasized but Bucky only laughed at you as he put the car on drive.

“I promised SJ I would be feeding you and then taking you home,” He said as he spared you a glance before turning back to the road. “Whichever home you prefer,” He teased and you huffed at him.

“You don’t have to–”

“I want to,” Bucky suddenly turned serious as he gave you another glance. “I might have promised my sister but that is what I’m going to do anyway,”

“If you are going to feed me, I want pizza.” You said and then you hurriedly added. “But I don’t want high end things. I had too much stress today. I want the pizza at Hal’s the little store near Wakanda,”

If he wants to know you, you both do it on your terms. If he is uncomfortable, then he’s not worthy to be your friend—

“Sounds good.” He then pulled out his phone and handed it to you. The same phone he handed me before. “Why don’t you call ahead and order in advance?”

You looked at the phone and then him. “Are you seriously handing me your phone right now?”

Bucky raised a brow as he glanced at you. His hand remained, one hand on the wheel and the other giving his phone to you.

“Ugh yes,”

“What if your mob business got–”

“This is my personal phone,” He explained and then he lifted it again as an offering. You took it and shrugged but then you have another idea. You are still not that comfortable with this so you decided to be a little shit that you are.

“I’m going to order a whole pizza. Half and half. Are you okay with pineapples, olives and mushrooms?” You asked as you looked at him. Then he gave you quite the opposite of what you expect. 

“With extra cheese?” He asked and you blinked at him.

“Ugh, yes.” You can only answer.

“Sounds good.” He only said and then you just continued to stare at him. Bucky must have noticed before he chuckled. “What do you expect me to say no and force you to be taken to a high end restaurant just like in fiction?”

Honestly? “Yes.”

Bucky laughed at that and you can’t help but admire it. “I’m not going to force anything on you Foxy,” He then looked at you with a mischievous look before looking back at the road. “Besides, the only thing I exert force on is in my work and in bed,”

You can’t help your first instinct and lightly hit him on the shoulder earning a laugh from Bucky.

“Stop with innuendos!” You exclaimed and Bucky laughed.

“Can’t help it, Foxy. I like it when I can make you blush,” He said and then made you tuck in to yourself.

“Gosh, now I'm starting to see how you are going to be in the future,” You grumbled and Bucky only smirked at you.

“I’m just starting, Foxy. I have a lot things in store for you,”

Again, what have you got yourself into Y/N?

[thefaithfulwriter1]

Her Serendipity || 1

✒ Summary - In which a woman with secrets happens to be the leader of a Mafia gang with the five loves of her life. But what happens when they soon come across two hybrids that they become very attached to. 

✒ Pairing - OT7 x Mafia!Fem!reader 

✒ Alternative Universe - Hybrid + Mafia 

✒ Warnings - language, fluff, violence, gore, weapons, angst, poly. relationship, ???

✒ Characters - || Y/N, alpha, mafia leader ||  Yoongi, Beta, human, second in command || Namjoon, gamma, human, third in command || Seokjin, delta, human, fourth in command ||  Taehyung, hybrid, tiger || Jungkook, hybrid, black panther || Hoseok, hybrid. wolf ||  Jimin, hybrid, cheetah ||

✒ WC - 1763

CHAPTER ONE

A black car could be seen driving down a road alongside trees. Driving, it came to a slow stop and was met with a gated entrance that was hard to spot. Upon coming to the entrance, a camera appeared to move and scan the car as the window began to roll down. As the window rolled down further revealing a man with sunglasses on, a female voice could be heard in the air seeming to come from an unseen intercom.

"Please state your name, and business."

"Namjoon, Gamma, and I live here!" Namjoon grunted loud as he took off his glasses as he looked at the camera showing his face fully.

"Yes, sir you may enter," the woman answered as the pressing of buttons could be heard.

"While you're at it tell everyone that we need to have a meeting, it's urgent!" Namjoon shouted as he sped his car through the opening gates. Driving past a patch of trees revealed a huge pristine mansion. As Namjoon stopped abruptly in front of the mansion he was met with a man in a suit. Stepping out of the car he sends the man a small smile and drops his car keys in his hands. Moving he walks and enters the mansion and closes the doors behind him. Turning he was met by two men and one male hybrid.

"What's so urgent that we need a meeting Namjoon," one of the men questioned with crossed arms.

"Yoongi, we have a problem that I'll explain in the meeting." Namjoon answered the man known as Yoongi or Beta. With that said all of them understood and started their way down a hallway. With a few turns the group was met with a pair of black doors. The third man who's name was Seokjin, Jin, or also known as Delta was the first to open the doors.

Entering the room there was a desk in the middle of the room with a window behind it. Papers were scattered everywhere in piles along with books. The chair behind the desk was a big black cushioned chair that was facing the window. When the group walked in more a full grown cheetah jumped from the front of the chair and walked over to Yoongi and rubbed against his legs purring. The man smiled at the feline and reached down to pet their head.

"Alpha?" Namjoon was the first to break the silence but wasn't answered. After a few moments Yoongi then stood up fixing his coat and shouted. Upon hearing him shout the cat ran out of the room quickly.

"Y/n!?"

"What the fuck do you want," A woman named Y/n growled back at the group from her seat in the chair. Turning the chair around slowly a woman was revealed. This woman was Y/n L/n, she had long h/c hair that was slicked back into a low ponytail, and e/c colored eyes with her bright red painted lips and black suit with a red tie.

"I told them to tell you that we needed a meeting urgently." Namjoon said as he sat in a chair in front of her desk. When he said this the door to the office was opened quickly to reveal a male feline hybrid that seemed to be running as he quietly closed the door behind him. Seeing the attention on him he sent a shy smile and went to sit next to Yoongi who was sitting on a couch in the office.

"Yeah and you could do the meeting without me and have Yoongi or one of the others report back to me." Y/n stated as she crossed her arms and legs as she leaned back in her chair. Y/n was very much aggravated right now. Before the men had come and bothered her, Y/n was in her own little world thinking of things that could have been. Y/n wasn't one to get lost in her head much, she couldn't afford to. So when Y/n did get lost in her mind and was disturbed it put her in a foul mood.

"Sorry. I couldn't because this is a meeting for all of us, including you. We need to make a plan to raid a gang's place and you need to oversee it." Namjoon informed Y/n with a grim look. Namjoon knew Y/n was going through something that no one knew about so he tried to leave her be as much as he could. But this was a problem that came up that he needed her to oversee being she was the leader, and she was the one that specializes in raids.

"What now?" She grunted with a clenched jaw.

"James and his group have been trying to take over one of our territories discreetly and he almost has control." Namjoon started as he reached into his coat pocket and took out a few papers with sell numbers and names. Leaning over he handed Y/n the papers and continued his speech," I got a call from an undercover informant in James' gang that I placed a while back to keep an eye on him. And they got a hold of these numbers and names that were being documented for proof. And they even told me that it would be best if we raid today. They faxed all of this and a layout of James hideout." Namjoon finished telling everyone. Y/n looked over the papers and began to search through her own papers to see any connections. Upon seeing it was indeed true she began cursing under her breath. She was livid that something like this had happened.

"Why the hell does this informant want to give us all of this information? They didn't just hand this over out of the goodness of their heart." Jin questioned Namjoon from his spot on the couch with Yoongi and the feline male hybrid. Y/n placed both of her arms on the desk waiting for Namjoon to answer because she was more interested now than ever after seeing the papers.

"Truly, all they wanted was us to take down James, to stay anonymous, and to get enough money for them to get out of this business and start a normal life." Namjoon faltered, knowing that what he was going to say next was going to anger her.

"And?" Yoongi asked, coming into the conversation. He knew Namjoon was holding something back.

"Well they know it is a long shot... but they want us to consider sparing the two hybrids James has. They were very adamant about the two hybrids saying they were being treated horribly and they didn't deserve to be killed with James Gang." Namjoon answered, informing the group about the last thing the informant wanted.

"Well that's not up to them, I'll take it into consideration. But I make the final decisions," Y/n snapped, pointing to herself, not liking being told what to do. Y/n then turned to the two male hybrids in the room. One being the hybrid sitting in between Jin and Yoongi on the couch named Jimin. And the other a wolf hybrid sitting on the arm of the couch named Hoseok or Hobi. Y/n then asked both with a small smile, "do either of you know the hybrids that James has."

"I don't know much just that they're rare breeds," Hobi informed. This led everyone to look over to Jimin. Jimin smiled at everyone as he thought about all the hybrids he knew. Hobi and Jimin were the organizers and links that the group had to hybrids all over. From gangs to businesses all were mostly informants but some could be more if they chose to be. Many humans underestimated hybrids and looked at them as if they were below them. Using this to their advantage they would help hybrids all over and ask if they'd like to join. Which many agreed too. Especially upon seeing how Y/n treated her gang and hybrids alike no discrimination. But they could also always see that Y/n had a soft spot for hybrids for some reason.

"James doesn't like hybrids. But I do know he bought two on the black market a little over a year ago. I think a tiger and black panther. Both males and both are very rare predator breeds. That's all I can remember getting informed I was never able to get in touch with them. He has them under lock and key," Jimin answered with a grim look. Everyone else had looks of sadness and sympathy knowing that they must truly be treated horribly. Knowing that Namjoon's informant was telling the truth about James taking over their territory, why would they lie about the hybrids and be persistent about them?

"Well I guess we're doing this," Y/n said as she got up from her seat with papers in hand. Straightening her suit Y/n led the group to the doors heels clicking against the floor as she took out her phone.

"Get everyone to the meeting room now!"

Y/n ordered through her phone before hanging up and placing it in her pocket. Hobi opened the door for everyone, giving Y/n a wide smile as his tail wagged while Y/n sent him a small one in return. Walking by she reached up and ran her finger through his hair. Which granted her pleasant grumble from Hobi leading her to chuckle.

When Y/n's hand left Hobi's hair her arm was soon taken by Jimin who looped his own arm with hers. Shaking her head Y/n looked at the feline hybrid and was met with a smile. Smiling, Y/n leaned in and kissed Jimin's cheek. A purr left him as he hugged her arm to him. They were soon walking in sync with each other as Jimin leaned his head on her shoulder. Continuing on her way through the house to another area, she studies the papers. She then hands them over to Yoongi who takes them gratefully studying them himself.

Reaching a room, a man in a suit opens the doors for the group. As they walked in Jimin detached himself from Y/n but stayed close. Everyone entered silently, still handing off the papers to each other all wanting to take a look. Looking around the room Y/n was met by many men and women. Along with hybrids of all kinds male and female.

"Let's begin shall we?" Y/n announced getting everyone's attention.

[4e7her]

october writing prompt #14 - clothing swap

-

character: floyd and jade leech, twisted wonderland

(floyd focused but both appear)

contains: oc used as main character - not an x reader, slight yandere themes, male main character, azul mentioned

view the oc here. for basics, he's more or less a black panther beastman (referred to as hybrid, as they are different things, but similar) named yuujirou. you can read the fanfic i'm writing for him here (quotev) or here (ao3).

Yuujirou let out a rather... undignified yelp as Floyd tugged him into the water, hissing slightly at the feeling of his uniform getting drenched, resisting the urge to shake out like a dog as he instead glared at the eel.

"Whaaat? You weren't comin' in!" Floyd whined, wrapping around the panther with his mer-form, petulantly pouting. "I can squeeze ya so much better in here!"

Sighing, he rolled his eyes and pushed him away with ease, a soft growl rumbling through. He wasn't truly irritated - Floyd would have been out of his life much sooner, if he was - but that didn't mean that he enjoyed the feeling of rough fabric sticking to his skin.

"Yes, but... I was trying to ask you if you had swimming clothes of any sort that I could borrow. It's a bit late for that now, though..."

"Huh? Silly Yuuji, why would I need swim clothes?" The eel was rightfully confused, gesturing down at his form as he continued to circle around the hybrid playfully, still keeping his proper distance after being pushed away.

"Oh... yeah."

His tone was apparently sad enough to make Floyd to burst into laughter, shaking his head and darting around as he watched the panther flatten his ears with the hint of a flush high on his cheeks, adjusting the collar of his shirt uncomfortably.

"Eheh! You totally didn't realize, did you~?" He teased, inching closer once more, watching how Yuujirou reacted with a smirk on his face. "Silly kitty cat! Come on, let's play tag~! If you win, I'll let you borrow some of my clothes, m'kay? I'll even let you be it!"

The scene flips within mere seconds at that, Yuujirou's pupils suddenly shrinking into slits as a feral grin started to sneak onto his expression, the idea of the thrill of the hunt coaxing him into acting on the instincts that he suppressed most of the time.

Floyd giggled at his expression before quickly racing underwater, starting the chase.

-

The duo was always like this - causing trouble by feeding off of each other's more animalistic instincts, play fighting like this wherever they went.

Typically, the panther tried to be more aware of where this happened, but there had been more than one occasion where Jade had to break them apart in the middle of the hallways.

At least now, it was in a pretty okay location - the pool that also served as an aquarium in the Monstro Lounge. There would be some stares, but nothing that Azul and Jade wouldn't deal with.

He was sure it would be more amusing than anything else, anyways, watching someone with Floyd's reputation get chased by someone most didn't quite perceive as a threat yet. A mistake on their parts, not that they would know that.

It took only minutes for Yuujirou to catch the eel, much to both of their delights, and they both surfaced to get out with a giddy energy about them. If it wasn't for the lack of proper clothing, he thought that he might've been able to play like that all day - it was rather refreshing.

Jade was there waiting with an expression somewhere between fond and exasperated, poorly disguising a laugh when he saw just how soaked the hybrid was. "It's impressive that you caught Floyd that fast underwater, you know." He tries to compliment, seeing how he received a glare for his laughing.

"Panthers are known to drag out crocodiles out of the water whole when they're hunting." Yuujirou replied bluntly, satisfied to see the way that both of the eels shiver at the fact. "Dragging out a little eel was nothing."

"Ehhh? But you're smaller than me, Yuuji!" Floyd reminded, wrapping his arms around the panther with a grin despite his slight nerves with the fact brought up. "Look! Ya fit in my arms so cute, ehe~!"

Huffing, he rolled his eyes and shrugged the eel off of him, getting out of the water without another thought and taking the towel that Jade was offering out.

"Floyd, here." The more responsible twin handed off a potion to relieve the other of his mer-form, making it so he could continue with his day. The only reason that he let it wear off was because he wanted Yuujirou to see, and so they could play together. With that done, he didn't raise a fuss and took the potion without issue.

Besides, how would he be able to see how cute his Yuuji was in his clothes if he was still stuck in the water? That wouldn't be fun at all.

The hybrid had dried off his clothes as much as possible with the towel, now focusing on his hair and ears. He was gentle, with furrowed brows and a scrunched nose, trying his best to make sure there wouldn't be any water stuck in his ears before moving on to gingerly drying his tail.

"Okay, kitty, deal's a deal!" Floyd hummed, wrapping one arm around Yuujirou's shoulders, grinning happily when he heard the little grumbling chuff he gave at the nickname - anyone else would have been dead for the familiar term, and he knew it. "Wet clothes must feel reeeal nasty, huh? Lucky you, ya have me to let ya borrow some~!"

"You're the reason he has to change in the first place." Jade chided, keeping his twin from getting too overexcited, a familiar glint in his eyes as he observed the two of them. "If Floyd's clothes aren't to your taste, you can always borrow mine, Yuuji."

He took the other side of the panther, slithering his arm around his waist with a mischievous air, truly living up to his eel-mer origins.

Floyd tightened his grip slightly and leaned down to nudge his head against Yuujirou's neck, sending a pointed look Jade's way as he seemed to try and stake some sort of claim over him - not that the hybrid noticed, instead sighing and shaking his head.

"It's just something to wear back to Ramshackle, don't make such a big deal of it, you two." He hummed, a rumbling making it's way through his frame and calming the two eels clinging onto him.

"The Lounge is still open, isn't it?" He brought his gaze to Jade, regarding him attentively and smiling slightly when he noticed how he had been brought back to himself. "You should go back to help before the little octopus gets overwhelmed. You are his most competent worker, aren't you?"

It was almost funny how oblivious Yuujirou was, the full focus of Jade's intense gaze on him and he still didn't even realize how enamored the two eels were with him.

Of course, it brought back a new round of complaints from Floyd, whining and saying that he could be the best employee at Monstro Lounge if he wanted to, but that was silenced soon enough by reminding him of his wet clothes.

-

It wasn't long after when Yuujirou was situated in Floyd's room, studying the clothes he was given with a wrinkle to his expression. He hadn't expected them to be so... large.

Sure, it made sense, seeing how much of a height difference him and the eel had, but for some reason he hadn't even thought of it.

A long sigh drug it's way out of his lungs before he recollected himself, shrugging off his drenched clothes onto the towel from earlier so they wouldn't get wet, and getting into the eel's clothes that draped down and made him feel... unordinarily small.

The panther huffed a little, lightly rubbing his face against one of the sleeves to get rid of excess moisture from before, frown tugging down further when he realized just how much they smelled like Floyd.

Not to say that they smelled unpleasant, they actually smelled quite like the sea with something distinctly like the mer in question, but they weren't his.

Knocking on the door is the only thing that pulls him out of his thoughts, paired with Floyd's childish whining about him taking too long, and Yuujirou pushes his complaints away as he gathers the soaked clothes in his arms.

Safely protected by the towel covering them, he doesn't risk making Floyd's shirt anything more than damp, and he opens the door with lightly flattened ears - immediately getting bombarded by the eel.

"Yuujiiiii! You took so looong-" He cuts himself off when he sees the hybrid, giggling at the sight. "You look so tiny!"

He starts to form a response, but he's cut off by Floyd scooping him up in his arms, earning himself a short growl for the action. "I knew you were small, but I didn't know you were this itsy-bitsy! And now you smell just like me~!"

There's not even a chance to process that fully before the eel is running with him to the Monstro Lounge, still carrying him bridal style and excitedly showing off the growling disgruntled panther to everyone who so much as glanced at them, making a rather large commotion in a matter of moments.

Jade comes out, at some point, and upon seeing the duo just... walks over and shakes his head.

No words are spoken, but Floyd slowly puts down Yuujirou with a hopeful look in his eyes, remembering now that he probably... shouldn't have run full force into the Lounge and disturbed customers like that. Azul would likely be rather upset.

"But... look?" The hyperactive eel does some weird gesture, as if he's trying to show off Yuujirou, doing his best to convince Jade not to tell on him. "Small!"

It... seems to do something, though the panther can't say that he would describe it as anywhere near convincing.

"Yes, small." Jade sighs affectionately, taking a moment to regard Yuujirou before shaking his head and pulling his attention back to Floyd with a frown tugging at his lips. "Go escort him back to Ramshackle before his cubs come cause more of a fuss - I won't say anything unless Azul brings it up first.”

-

[click here to go to masterlist]

[mysticraven20]

Destiny - Chapter 12

@adrinetteapril

[Prompt 27: Ring]

“So, little black mole rat, you’re telling me that I put this ring on and I’ll transform into a superhero?” Adrien placed a hand to his head, “what the hell did I drink last night?”

The little black … what did he call himself? A korma? No that’s not right, a kwami? Yeah, kwami. This little black kwami had appeared from nowhere, trying to get him to put on a black ring and say some sort of ‘abracadabra’ spell. A ring which apparently held the unlimited power of destruction.

If he didn’t know whether he was going insane or just received his first load of luck in a year. What a day!

“I am not a mole rat, and I’m actually quite offended by that.”

Adrien held out his palm allowing the kwami to place the ring down in it. He studied it, noticing the paw print on the crown of the ring.

“A cat?”

“No shit Sherlock,” the kwami said, rolling his eyes.

“So I’ll turn into a cat? Will I be like Black Panther … you know, undeniably awesome?”

“That depends, do you still pun?”

“Never stopped.”

“Then no.”

Adrien sulked, running his thumb over the small piece of metal. This tiny thing could change his life, but did he want the responsibility? There was a lot going on in his life at the moment and he didn’t know how this would fit in.

“Do you have a name?” Adrien asked.

“I do.”

“And would you like to share it with the class?”

The kwami smirked and Adrien couldn’t help being a little freaked out by the shift in the kwami’s mood.

“Well you're different … I like it.” The black floating blob began to cackle as he flew around Adrien’s dorm room. Thank God everyone had gone to their classes, this was definitely something he couldn’t explain. “The names Plagg, and I like cheese, I also hate your father but enough of that.”

“Guys an asshole, not many people do like him.”

Plagg’s mouth gaped open, his small mouth moving up and down. “So … you don’t do everything he asks?”

“Within reason I do, but at the moment I’m choosing to ignore him which is going to piss him off and probably cause him to storm my room in the next hour if he can be bothered to leave his office.”

“Well done kid, you’ve grown some balls, I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, I think …” Why was he having such a natural conversation with this ‘thing’? It was almost as though he’d known it for years, like that had some deep down bond. Maybe he’d passed out somewhere? After all, he had asked Marinette out on a date, that was a big deal and could easily cause him to hyperventilate.

“Okay, here’s the low down.”

“You’re quite hip for someone who’s thousands of years old.” Adrien said, a smile on his lips.

“What can I say? My last holder was a very cool kid. Anyway, the world is in need of the ladybug and cat miraculous holders. There’s a villain out there that has activated the butterfly miraculous and it’s up to you two to stop them. You can destroy things and your ladybug can create them. You’re two halves of a whole -“

“Hold up?” Adrien stopped the kwami in mid rant. “Two halves of a whole? Like soulmates?”

“Oh, yes! You’re definitely that.” Plagg laughed, floating over to Adrien’s mini fridge and phasing inside. “Good to see you like cheese kid.” The muffled sound came from inside the fridge before the door unlocked and the kwami came out carrying a couple of pieces of Camembert.

“So I’m meant to be romantically linked to this person?”

“Sure,” Plagg said, tossing the cheese in the air before swallowing it whole.

Adrien looked at the kwami horrified. “That’s not how you treat that kind of cheese.”

Plagg repeated the action with his second piece “Sue me,” he said, grinning up at Adrien. “If you want to be a hero you need to feed me cheese.”

“But it’s so expensive.”

“You’re rich, you can handle it, by the way what’s up with this pokey room? Where’s the climbing wall, and the skate ramp?”

Adrien couldn’t quite get to grips with what was happening. How the hell did this kwami know so much about him? About his life?

“My parents are rich, I’m just trying to be normal.”

“Pfft, try all you want kid, you’ll never be normal.”

“Thanks for the boost of confidence. So about this ladybug person?”

“Oh yes,” Plagg continued, “you work as yin and Yang, you balance each other out and one can’t be active without the other. Once a millennia a perfect pairing comes along, and surprise, you’re part of it.”

“But I have a girlfriend - well, not a girlfriend yet but we’re arranging a date and I’m quite sure I love her … so you know … maybe I’m not the right guy for this.”

“You’re the only guy for this,” Plagg said, his face exasperated. “Whoever this girl is will have nothing on your partner. She’s everything you could ever want.”

“Ha! Not going to happen! Nothing can beat my girl. She’s perfect.”

Adrien looked curiously as Plagg flew in circles mumbling something about still not having a brain and here they go again, along with something about a never ending square.

“Let me guess, blonde.” Plagg said, rolling his eyes.

“Nope,” Adrien threw the ring in the air before catching it and repeating.

“Red head?”

“Nope.”

“Model?”

“Hell no!”

“Black hair?” Plagg asked the question tentatively, looking at Adrien with one eyebrow raised and a lot of interest plastered over his face.

“Oh yes, wonderful gorgeous raven hair,” Adrien sighed out dreamily.

“Does she fence?”

“She probably could if she wanted to, but she’s quite clumsy so I could see that failing quickly. I used to date a girl with black hair who fenced though. She was cool, we’re still good friends.”

“Good friends? Or just friends?” Plagg asked, eyebrow raised.

“G-good friends? Why? Does it make a difference?”

“You have no idea!”

The kwami, sorry Plagg, moved closer to Adrien, looking him in the eye. The little dude was being quite freaky.

“Okay then, does she have blue eyes?” Suddenly, Plagg sounded hopeful.

“Like a bluebell.”

“Short?”

“Fits perfectly under my chin.” Adrien remembered how they’d danced together. How perfect Marinette had slotted against his body.

“Creative?”

“Oh yes, and practical, she fixed her sofa by herself after I’d broken it.”

“You broke her sofa?”

“Not intentionally.”

“Gutted I missed it.” Plagg laughed.

“She’s beautiful, and confident. She’s forgiving and caring and … her eyes, and her hair and …”

“Okay, lover boy, I don’t need anymore information. I get you’re crazy for this girl.”

“I am,” Adrien smiled. “She told me last night that she likes me too.”

“Such a sap!”

Adrien smiled at the kwami, holding up the ring once more and watching the sun coming through the window and glinting off it. He pursed his lips in consideration.

“You sure there’s no one else who could control this power?” Adrien asked, sudden fear overpowering him as he poised the ring on the tip of his finger.

“Once in a millennium kid.”

Adrien nodded, watching the band slide down his finger and change colour to a startling silver. It felt good … no, good wasn’t the right word for this sudden absorption of power. It felt great.

“Will I need a super name?”

“Most certainly! You’ll become a black cat … so you know …”

“Yes I do! Night Feline!” Adrien stood up and punched into the air.

“What?” Plagg squealed, “hell no!”

“The panther,”

“No.”

“The Jaguar.”

“You’re not even trying now.”

Adrien began to pace his room. A black cat name … the name of a cat that’s black …

“Black cat, no! She’s in Spider-Man. Black Panther - Marvel, Cat Black? No. Black cat? Rubbish. Cat - cat - cat -“ he began to click his fingers growing ever impatient with himself as he tried to find the right name.

“Noir Cat?” Plagg threw in.

“Noir Cat? Hummm… not bad! Cat - cat - cat … I’ve got it.”

He turned to look at Plagg, his eyes wide and a smile plastered on his face.

“What’s your name then kid?”

“Catwalker. Because, you know, I walk down the catwalk.” Just in case Plagg didn’t know, Adrien commenced into his best model walk, moving up and down his room before striking a pose in front of the mirror.

Plagg hit a little flipper/fin/hand thing to his head, a groan leaving his mouth. “No, no, nope!”

“How about you transform my costume into white and I become a white cat and I can be called Chat Bl-“ Plagg flew forward, placing a flipper/fin/hand thing to Adrien’s mouth. Restricting those words from leaving.

“I refuse to turn white, not going to happen, nope, black, black, black.”

Grabbing Plagg by the waist he pulled him away. “Fine. How about Chat Noir?”

Plagg’s smile was the only answer he needed.

“Welcome to the World of the Miraculous, Chat Noir.”

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Sole Crusher

Well... It's finally here... the episode introducing the new bee hero. And what do you know? It looks like I was right about how the new character would be portrayed.

It's kind of funny how I made predictions exaggerating what could happen, and they were surprisingly accurate. Isn't that funny?

Let's just get into the seventh (chronologically the seventh and the seventh episode in the season to air after “Mr. Pigeon 72”) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Sole Crusher. Damn, I hate that a pun this clever was used for the title.

We get to the point pretty quickly with the first scene being Zoe arriving in Paris and getting a tour of the city. She asks to stop at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, where she meets Marinette through some brief Unfunny Marinette Slapstick. The two quickly strike up a conversation.

I mean, it's not like Zoe is the sister of the absolute worst human being in existence, right?

Marinette compliments Zoe's shoes, and she points out that she designed them herself, and wrote every good thing anyone has ever said to her on them. But because she only has one friend, there's only a standard “I <3 U” on the left shoe.

So Zoe leaves the bakery and heads to Le Grand Paris where she meets her mother, Audrey. Unlike how she talked with Marinette, Zoe pretends to be just as snobby as Audrey in order to fit in. She then meets up with Chloe, who criticizes her for having poor person things like a phone without any diamonds embedded in it. And then she sees Zoe's shoes.

Look, that meme was already dated when it was referenced in Black Panther three years ago. Please don't try to reference memes in 2021, Miraculous Ladybug.

Chloe offers some golden heels while saying that those kind of shoes are for winners to wear and crush the losers underneath. This is the only episode to mention this kind of ideology, and believe me, it gets worse when Chloe decides to teach Zoe how to be like her.

Get used to this. This episode is all about demolishing any semblance of likability in Chloe's character. Now that Astruc doesn't have to bother with writing Chloe with decency since she's not Queen Bee, watch as he turns her into an absolute caricature of her former self.

Yes, Chloe has ordered her father to give her a lot of frivolous things in the past, but she has been shown to care about him, like immediately rushing to hug him after she was safe in “Origins” and showing concern for when he was akumatized into Malediktator while apologizing for causing it. For the love of God, one of the first things she did when she allied with Hawkmoth at the end of Season 3 was to have him unto her parents' akumatization. I guess she only cared about her rich parents for their status and not because she actually loved them right?

Next up on the list of Chloe's positive qualities to ruin is her friendship with Sabrina.

🎶It's seven o'clock in the morning🎶 🎶I can't believe they made this scene🎶 🎶With the writing Astruc's enforcing🎶 🎶It's like he's trying to piss off me🎶

Yep, Chloe doesn't view Sabrina in a twisted view of friendship anymore. Now she's a slave. I'm not exaggerating by the way, he actually said that in a tweet.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES

Okay, so I guess all those times we saw Chloe playing superheroes with Sabrina in “Antibug” and “Miraculer” were just a slave driver playing with their property. Actually apologizing to Sabrina for getting her akumatized in those episodes? Protecting her from the Scarlet Akumas in “Ladybug”? She was just interested in keeping her slave around. I think Astruc may have slept through the slavery unit in his history class. Yes, Sabrina was mostly used as a joke to show how controlling Chloe could be, but there were still semblances of an actual friendship between the two.

Chloe arrives at school and introduces Zoe as her half-sister, despite being the same age and having the same mother. Because I guess we can add basic biology to the list of things the writers don't understand. Now that we're at school, Chloe's friendship with Adrien is next up on the chopping block.

Yep, despite being Adrien's only friend and making a big deal about valuing his friendship to the point where she threw a big party just to make sure he wouldn't leave her and risked cooperating with an Akuma to save him, now Chloe just sees Adrien as a rich meal ticket. Two of the earliest episodes to show Chloe had a more compassionate side to her, and they just undid them. Even as much as I hated the episode, “Felix” showed Chloe was willing to cooperate with Marinette and her friends just to find a way to cheer Adrien up on the anniversary of his mother's not-death.

For the love of God, Astruc, 1984 was supposed to warn people about what could happen if they rewrote the past, not encourage people to rewrite the past. He probably finished Animal Farm thinking Snowball really did work alongside the humans, didn't he?

Marinette comes up and Zoe pretends to hate her, leading Marinette to wonder why she did that. She texts Zoe (she gave her number to her earlier) and invites her to a concert on the Liberty, but Chloe finds out. Zoe thinks fast and pretends it's just so she can torment her more. Chloe then takes out a book listing all the ways she can torture Marinette. I wonder if this is a metaphor for the writing process behind most of the episodes last season.

Zoe decides to go outside for some fresh air, and Andre comforts her. Funny how Andre bends over backwards to give Chloe whatever she wants, yet he's willing to actually talk to Zoe like an actual parent. Andre tries to cheer Zoe up, but she talks about her past where she had to put on an act so she would be liked, but (bet you've never heard this before) she just wants to be accepted for who she truly is. The surge of emotions is enough for Shadowmoth to akumatize her into Sole Crusher.

In addition to having one of the most clever puns for an Akuma name, I actually like Sole Crusher's design. Not only is it a good excuse to reuse Chloe's character design, it makes sense thematically, as Chloe was trying to mold Zoe into a copy of herself. The gold and diamonds also make sense given Chloe's love for shiny things. Her powers tie into the bizarre belief Chloe has about stepping on the winners. Whenever Sole Crusher kicks or steps on someone, she absorbs them and gets progressively bigger, making it easier to do so. While it's not cracking my top ten anytime soon, it's still an interesting character design.

Sole Crusher heads to the hotel to get Chloe, and she manages to get away pretty quickly. Maybe in an alternate universe, she's a track star? For some reason, she runs to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and then... Oh my God... pushes Marinette's parents so they get absorbed by Sole Crusher, before trying to do the same with Marinette.

When has Chloe ever done something like that? Whenever she endangered someone during an Akuma attack, it was unintentional or a result of her naivety. She was only trapped in Pixelator's dimension because Adrien tried diving to save her, she only alerted Rogercop to Ladybug's presence because she eagerly called out for her, and during “Zombizou” she only tried to throw Sabrina towards the horde of kissing zombies once, and that was meant to highlight her growth. The only person to actually do stuff like this consistently is Lila, but I guess she got vaporized by Big Brother offscreen.

This episode is determined to make the audience hate Chloe by retconning everything about her character while portraying her as a complete monster. As bad as Chloe could get, she was never selfish enough to use anyone as a human shield. This kind of behavior honestly could be explained by saying Chloe was lashing out as a result of losing the Bee Miraculous permanently, but the events of the Season 3 finale aren't mentioned ONCE, not even in the next episode that introduces Queen Bee's replacement! How the hell can you set up the next Bee hero without explaining why the original needs to be replaced in the first place?! And trust me, I'm going to talk about Zoe replacing Chloe later.

Sole Crusher grabs Marinette in her hand, so the Horse Kwami, Kaalki, uses her power to teleport over to Adrien's house and inform him Ladybug needs help, meaning once again Adrien did nothing in this episode before becoming Cat Noir.

At the Liberty, Chloe offers more victims to Sole Crusher in the form of the band Kitty Section (consisting of Luka, Juleka, Rose, Ivan, and Mylene) and theatens the giant golden supervillain she can send her back to Paris, even though she's really not in a position to bargain right now. And she STILL continues to insult her. Do you hate Chloe yet? Come on, do you? The writers won't stop until you do.

After we see Sole Crusher's conflicted emotions, Marinette is set free by Cat Noir and transforms into Ladybug, immediately summoning her Lucky Charm, a shoehorn. They only learn Zoe's sneakers were where she were akumatized thanks to Chloe's ranting, so the episode unintentionally made Chloe save the day. Ladybug breaks into Le Grand Paris and breaks the sneakers where Zoe hid them, using the shoehorn to open a door. So Sole Crusher is de-evilized, Ladybug fixes the damage, and gives yet another charm to Zoe.

Afterwards, Zoe goes to the Liberty, apologizes for the act she put on, all while divulging to the audience her “tragic backstory”.

Of course, everyone welcomes her with open arms.

And right here is where the biggest problem I have with Zoe as a character. I normally hesitate to use this term given how often it gets thrown around when criticizing characters these days, but I really can't say anything else.

Zoe... is a Mary Sue.

For those who don't know, the term Mary Sue originated in a Star Trek fanfiction from 1973 satirizing several self-insert stories at the time. Most of these stories showed a beautiful young woman joining the crew of the Enterprise and immediately gaining the attention of the crew. Mary Sue parodied this character archetype by showing how much she was appreciated by Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, the latter being driven to tears at her funeral despite his species being emotionless normally.

What does this have to do with Zoe? She has the exact same storyline as Mary Sue in the parody fanfiction. Her mere presence is enough to make Chloe act extremely out of character in an attempt to make her look better, and as soon as she apologizes while giving a frankly vague backstory, everyone just accepts her as their friend, and I mean everyone in the entire class. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't feel earned. Why was she bullied at her old school? What did her bullies have against her? What caused her to stop going along with her peers, and why did everyone turn against her? How the hell did the bullies who put cockroaches in another student's locker get no punishment while the victim was forced to transfer schools? It's an intentionally unclear backstory designed to make the audience feel sympathetic towards Zoe without actually doing anything else.

I want to ask anyone reading this who watched the episode a question: Outside of her backstory, what do we actually know about Zoe?

What is her personality like? She's nice? Socially awkward? We've never had a character like that in Miraculous Ladybug before! Sorry Marinette, Adrien, Juleka, Nathaniel, Mylene, and Marc, there's a new character with more personality than all of you combined!

What are her goals? She wants to be an actress? Great, but why? Even though there's no clear answer for why Marinette loves fashion, or why Alya loves journalism, or why Nino loves DJing, you can still see the passion in their lives when they do something related to their goals. Zoe only says she wants to be an actress, connecting it to her people pleaser backstory (and given how it ended, she must be a terrible actress), and in the next episode, she immediately gets the lead role in a student film.

When Mylene got the starring role in the movie in “Horrificator”, we at least got snippets of her acting skills in the same episode that established her desire to be an actress, which is also implied to be because she was inspired by her father in “The Mime”. She didn't just say she wanted to be an actress and got the leading role. She still had problems to overcome like her cowardice, which threw her own self-confidence into doubt. Here, Zoe just says she wants to be an actress, and is rewarded for no reason the very next episode.

Zoe basically exists only to be a foil to Chloe, and the writers had no idea what to do in terms of a personality, so they just dumped a bunch of extremely likable character traits onto her without thinking of how her character could come off. And like I said, she's a Mary Sue.

I'm not the only one who thinks this. I've seen a handful of posts on this very site calling Zoe a Mary Sue. In fact, I even asked another Tumblr user @anxresi​ to quote their take on Zoe being a Mary Sue, which I couldn't even top in terms of accuracy. They basically listed off five things that made Zoe a Mary Sue.

She has to have a ‘tragic backstory’ so all the other characters will fall in love with her. Usually within minutes, in the very first episode they’re introduced.

She has to have a supercute design so that the audience at home will fall in love with her. And if they don’t, they’re automatically dismissed as ‘haterz’ even if their objections are purely from a writing POV.

Her only flaw will be thinking too little of herself. “What, lil ol’ me as the Bee Miraculous holder? With my shyness, colorful shoes, chic beret and personalized pink strip in my hair? Gosh, who’d have thought it?”

The contrast to her half-sister will be a constant plot point, with Chloe always getting dumped on. “You see, kids? Bad things happen to bad people. But you see this super-sweet girl over here? She gets a free DAD. Instant FRIENDS. To star in her own MOVIE. The chance to be a SUPERHERO, even though she only arrived last week. Who cares if she has no depth, no personality and barely any reason for being in the show, apart from being a massive ‘Up Yours’ to all the Chloe fans out there?”

What about character development, Mr Generic Zag Guy? “Development? What’s that?! Zoe is already perfect as she is. The only ‘development’ she’ll receive is having her hair done in the first episode she’s introduced. Besides, That‘d’ word is banned here at Zag studios. Why do you think we abandoned Chloe’s stillborn arc so quickly? This is a KIDS show, why bother trying to create a complex character with more than one dimension?”

This is essentially who Zoe is. She's perfect, has no character flaws, has a cute design so the audience will love her already, and was designed only to replace Chloe as Queen Bee. That's all she is.

So the episode ends with Zoe feeling happy at all the new friends she made while we get one of the most blatant attempts of symbolism in the ending card I've ever seen.

See, look. While Marinette is happily talking with Zoe with the image of Ladybug next to them, Chloe is to the far left with an EVIL purple aura, showing how bad she is compared to how great Zoe is. Only a braindead moron would actually like Chloe over the super awesome and pretty Zoe!

I'll give my final thoughts on the episode in the next part where I analyze this plotline as a whole.

LINK TO “QUEEN BANANA” REVIEW

[bumblesimagines]

Green Thumb

Part 9

Request: Yes or No

Almost at double digits y'all. Can someone be an angel and send me the ages of every one between civil war and endgame? Ik Wanda was 18-19 in Age of Ultron and Civil war and Sam was probs in his mid to late twenties in Civil War.

~

You frowned, touching the collar around your neck. It made you feel like an animal. It was to prevent you from using your powers. Rhodes had mentioned it would shock you if you attempted to use your powers. You weren't sure if it was instantaneous or if someone controlled it but you didn't feel like finding out.

"You like cats?" Sam asked T'Challa, prince of Wakanda.

"Sam." Steve called, glancing over his shoulder like a disapproving parent. You snorted softly, biting your bottom lip.

"What? Dude shows up dressed like a cat and you don't want to know more?" Sam asked, looking at Steve.

"I like cats." You mumbled, looking at Sam with a small smile. Sam turned towards you with a small grin.

"Of course you do, Animal Planet." You rolled your eyes at the new nickname, shifting slightly. You really didn't want to trigger the collar.

"I'm a dog person."

"You look like a dog person."

"And what do dog people look like?"

"Morons." You answered, giving a slight shrug as Steve cracked a smile, trying to bite back a chuckle. Sam huffed lightly, looking away from you. A moment of silence passed before Steve spoke.

"Your suit.. Vibranium?" Steve asked T'Challa. The prince turned his head slightly.

"The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. It's meant to pass from warrior to warrior. Now, because your friend murdered my father, I also wear the mantle of king. So I ask you.. How long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?" T'Challa asked, finally looking at Steve. Steve stayed silent, looking forward. You sighed through your nose, feeling the tension return. You wondered if Clint had been notified of your arrest yet. The van pulled into a parking garage, officers opening the door once it came to a stop. You got out, following Steve to the man and blonde.

"What's gonna happen to him?" Steve asked. You turned your head, looking over at him. You made eye contact with him again, holding it for a minute before looking away.

"What was that?" Sam asked quietly. You frowned, brows furrowing.

"That- That little staring contest."

"Oh, shut up." You huffed, looking away from him.

"Same thing that's gonna happen to you. Psychological evaluation." The man replied.

"This is Everett Ross, CIA operative and Task Force Commander." The woman, Sharon Carter, introduced him. Her gaze flickered to you.

"The shock collar will be taken off after the evaluation." She said, voice stotic but gaze pitiful.

"What about a lawyer?"

"Lawyer, that's funny. See their weapons are placed in lock up." Ross instructed the officers. Sam scoffed, following the officers. Steve spared one last glance to Bucky before following Ross and the officers. You walked besides Sam, being escorted through the building.

"You'll be placed in offices instead of cells. Do me a favor and stay in them." Ross stared straight forward as he spoke. T'Challa moved to walk beside him.

"I don't intend on going anywhere." T'Challa said. You spotted Natasha, feeling some sense of relief.

"Clint was informed and I assured him I'd keep an eye on you." Natasha told you, giving a small reassuring smile. She looked at Steve, addressing him. The relief went away upon hearing Tonys' voice. He finished his phone call, approaching you and the guys.

"Consequences?" Steve questioned, staring at him. You looked around the large room, noticing the screens and everything going on.

"Secretary Ross wants you three prosecuted." Tony said, motioning to them and you. Your brows furrowed slightly. There were two guys with the last name Ross who looked vaguely alike. That definitely wouldn't be hard to remember.

"I'm not getting that shield back, am I?" Steve asked as Tony and Natasha walked away.

"Technically, it belongs to the government. Wings too." Natasha said, shrugging.

"That's cold." Sam muttered.

"Warmer than jail." Tony called back. You looked at the security cameras, noticing the room Bucky had been moved to.

"You got the hots for him or something?" Sam asked. Steve turned to look at you, blinking a few times. You shot Sam a look, raising your brows.

"No, Samuel. I do not and if I did, why would you ask infront of his longtime bestie?" You asked, almost gritting your teeth. Sam raised his hands in surrender as Tony pulled Steve into a meeting room to talk.

"Why have a meeting in a glass box?" You asked quietly. Sam shrugged, looking it over.

"To prevent fighting." Sam answered. You watched at Steve and Tony seemed to argue. You looked at Sam with an amused smile.

"Physical fights." Sam clarified as Tony stepped out and Sharon had you and Sam enter. You took a seat across from Sam, looking at the security camera footage. Sharon entered, placing a paper infront of Sam.

"I'm sorry about the collar." Sharon apologized softly. You leaned back in the seat, shrugging lightly. She pressed a button, allowing Steve to listen to the footage. Sharon slid over some photos over to Steve.

"Why would the Task Force release this?" Steve asked. Sharon gave a shrug.

"To alert the public, I guess."

"Right.. A good way to force a guy into hiding. Got seven billion people looking for The Winter Solider."

"You're saying someone framed the guy to find him." Sharon mused quietly. Sam seemed confused, looking at Steve. You looked back at the footage on screen.

"Steve, you looked for the guy for two years and found nothing." Sam reminded him.

"We didn't bomb the UN."

"That doesn't guarantee that the person who framed him knew that we'd get him." Sharon looked at Steve. She suddenly frowned, brows furrowing as Steve turned towards the footage. You looked up as the power went out, seeing the staff begin to freak out and try to locate the source. You looked at Sam, slowly standing up. Sharon took out a key, sliding it over to you.

"Level 5 east wing." She said as you unlocked the collar, tossing it to the side as running out of the room with Sam and Steve. Whoever had framed Bucky had found him. You followed the two down the hall and down some stairs. You reached the area, finding guards on the ground. The interviewer lied on the ground, calling for help. Steve approached him with you hesitantly following. You noticed movement out of the corner of your eye, dodging Sam when he was thrown towards you.

"Hey, dude." You breathed out, swallowing. Bucky had a deep frown on his face, blue eyes holding nothing but bloodlust. He looked downright terrifying. You thrusted both hands forward, shooting a fireball that sent him flying back against the wall. Steve quickly stepped between you and him as you turned and rushed to Sam.

"Sam? Sam!" You shook his shoulders, shakey fingers pressing against his neck. You felt his pulse, relieved to feel his heartbeat. You slapped his cheek, waking him up.

"I've always wanted to do that." You muttered, watching him wince. He groaned, turning his head. You followed his gaze, seeing the guy from before looking down where Steve had been thrown. You stood, helping Sam up and following him up a set of stairs. With Steve out of commission temporarily and Bucky in a frenzy, the guy was the only hope of stopping everything.

"Can you try to stop him or trip him up?" Sam asked, rushing up the stairs.

"I can't see him and I'd rather not make this whole building collapse on accident." You replied, almost tripping over your own feet. Sam found an exit, following the crowd of people running.

"He looked like any other guy." You said, taking in deep breaths. Sam shot you a weird look.

"We just ran up like five flights of stairs." You breathed out, hands resting on your knees. At least the chilly weather provided some help. Sam noticed a jacket, jogging over and picking it up. You stumbled after him, looking it over.

"I really need some water." You whispered, lightly fanning yourself. Sam rolled his eyes, following the crowd of people. You sluggishly followed, giving him a small smile when he stopped by a shop to get you a bottle. He took out his phone as you drank half of it.

"Come on." Sam pulled you along, following direction and entering warehouse. Steve had Bucky laying against some machinery, unconscious and metal arm trapped in a wedge.

"You two okay?" Steve asked, looking you and Sam over with a concerned frown.

"Yeah.. Someone over here needs some more training." Sam glanced at you with a teasing smile. You rolled your eyes, licking your lips as you heard the sound of a helicopter.

"Could you ice over his arm?" Steve asked.

"He broke a stone wall. Ice won't hold him but sure, I'll do it." You shrugged, approaching the unconscious man. You licked your lips, splashing the rest of the water on the machinery and touching it after. The ice creeped down, covering over the metal arm. You looked at him, finally getting a proper look. He was handsome. Brown hair that barely reached his shoulders, facial hair just growing in, those icy blue eyes that either swirled with sadness or anger.

"You're giving him bedroom eyes again." Sam called, his voice echoing slightly. You clenched your jaw, looking at him.

"What? I can't admire something that looks nice?" You asked, watching his demeanor change. He looked alert yet amused. You frowned, looking back at Bucky and finding him staring right at you. You rolled your lips into your mouth, clearing your throat.

"God, that's so embarrassing." You whispered, speedwalking towards Sam as he cracked up. You ignored your burning face, arms crossing. Sam calmed down, wiping away a tear. Steve walked over, watching Bucky grunt and sit up. He looked at Steve, calling out his name in a hoarse voice.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asked, staring at him intently. Bucky stayed silent for a moment before speaking.

"Your moms' name was Sarah... And you used to wear newspapers in your shoes." Bucky said, smiling softly. Steve relaxed, gaze softening.

"You don't read that in a magazine."

"Just like that we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asked, giving Steve a slightly wide eyed look.

"What did I do?" Bucky asked, looking between you, Steve, and Sam.

"Enough." Steve answered. Bucky shut his eyes tightly, shaking his head as he hung his head.

"I knew this would happen.." He whispered. "Everything HYDRA put inside of me is still there. All he had to do was say the god damn words."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know." Bucky answered, though you weren't sure if it was truthful or not. He didn't seem like the type to lie, at least not to Steve.

"People are dead. The guy did all that just to get ten minutes with you." Steve pointed out, watching his old best friend. Bucky looked defeated and confused. "I need you to do better than 'I don't know'."

"He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was captain." Bucky said quietly, gaze flickering around as he tried to remember.

"He wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he need to know that?" Bucky stayed silent, licking his lips as he stared at the ground. He looked at Steve.

"Cause I'm not the only Winter Solider." He revealed. You looked at Sam in confusion and surprise. Bucky was strong and deadly on his own but a whole army could overthrow governments all over the world.

"That's terrifying." You whispered, leaning against the wall and sliding down so you were sitting down. Steve chose to lean against the wall after letting Bucky's arm free.

"Who are they?" Steve asked as Bucky brushed some hair out of his face.

"Their most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history and that was before the serum." Bucky responded.

"They all turn out like you?" Sam asked. Bucky looked at him, swallowing.

"Worse."

"The doctor... Did he control them?" Steve tilted his head. Bucky looked down at his lap.

"Enough."

"Said he wanted to see an empire fall." Steve told you and Sam. Bucky looked up at his words.

"These guys could do it. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate. They could take a whole country down over night and you'd never see them coming."

"Color me impressed." You whispered, playing with the strings of the jacket you were given after getting to Berlin. Sam slowly walked towards Steve.

"This would've been a lot easier a week ago." Sam said quietly, arms crossing. You stood up, dusting off your pants and approaching them.

"If we told Tony-"

"He'd have him locked up." You cut off Steve, glancing back at him.

"Plus, he'd never believe us." Sam added.

"But if he did-"

"It wouldn't matter and who knows if the Accords would let us help him." Sam stared at him. Steve let out a defeated sigh, looking away from you and Sam.

"We're on our own."

"Not completely. Dad would help." You pointed out. Sam nodded, glancing at you.

"And, I know a guy." Sam said with a light shrug. You looked at him with a raised brow.

"You have friends?"

"I said I know him, not that we're friends but to answer your question, yes. I have friends that aren't you. Jealous?"

"Imaginary friends don't count."

~~~~~~~~~~

The drive was silent, Steve and Bucky occasionally reminiscing about the old days.

"On a scale of one to ten, how impressed is Clint gonna be when he sees you?" Sam asked. You smiled, letting out a chuckle as you watched the snowflake float inches above your hand.

"Probably an eleven, but he'll give me the typical dad speech infront of mom." You answered, lightly blowing on the snowflake and watching it disappear. Bucky turned his head to look at you. His muscular figure was semi cramped in the backseat. Steve picked the worst possible car to hijack.

"Hawkeye's your father?"

"Adoptive. He has a tendency of taking care of strays who once tried to take down the team." You told him, giving a small smile. Bucky hummed, nodding.

"Speaking of strays, how are you and Wanda?" Sam asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.

"Uhm, good? We're still good friends, even after the kiss." You shrugged lightly.

"Woah, kiss?" Steve repeated, brows raising.

"Yeah, we kissed but it felt.. Weird. There was no spark or overwhelming emotions. The love I have for her is the same love I have for Lila and the boys. She'll always be like a sister to me." You told them, glancing at Bucky. Bucky was still a bit on edge but you could tell he was trying to get adjusted.

"What are your powers?" Bucky asked, attempting to get comfortable in the car.

"I'm like the avatar, I guess."

"Who?" Bucky furrowed his brows. You blinked, lips parting as you stared at him. He was from the 1900s and worked for a criminal organization, obviously he wouldn't know a kids show from the 2000s.

"It's- It's from a show. An avatar is someone who controls all four elements and they basically save the world, I guess." You explained, growing a bit embarrassed at how silly it sounded. Bucky didn't seem to judge, giving a small smile.

"We could watch it together, if you want. It's a nice show." You offered, smiling. Sam raised his brows.

"Wonder what Clint will think about that." He muttered as Steve glanced at you and Bucky through the rearview mirror. You shot Sam a small glare, reaching out and touching the back of his neck with cold fingers. He hissed and leaned forward, pouting as he rubbed his neck.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Bucky said softly, nodding. You looked back at him, a smile appearing on your face. Bucky was incredibly attractive and you couldn't deny having a small growing crush on him but you didn't want to cross a boundary. He was from the 1900s afterall.

"How'd you end up fighting the Avengers?" Bucky asked, focusing all his attention onto you.

"The orphanage I grew up in threatened to kick me out since I had turned 18. I freaked and caused an accidental forest in the orphanage so the team was called." You told him, chuckling softly. Buckys' gaze softened, a hum leaving him.

"You've got some pretty cool powers, doll."

"Doll?" Steve and Sam repeated. A flustered smile appeared on your face, giggling softly. Bucky glanced at the two, wondering if he had crossed a line or said something wrong.

"Thanks." You looked forward, biting back an even bigger smile. You weren't completely sure if he was flirting or not but it was nice to get a compliment from an attractive guy, even if he had almost broken your friends' back an hour before. Steve slowly parked the car, getting out to greet Sharon.

"Could you move the seat up?" Bucky asked Sam, arm moving so it resting ontop of the carseats. His metal fingers lightly brushed against your hair but you weren't bothered by it.

"No." Sam replied. Bucky let out a deep sigh. You bit your bottom lip, looking at him.

"We can switch." You shrugged lightly.

"It's fine-"

"No, you shouldn't be squished back here." You faced him, feeling him gently grab your waist. He was incredibly gentle and cautious, moving you onto his lap briefly before he scooted to the side. You sat behind Sam, lightly kicking the seat. Sam moved it forward ever so slightly. You looked over at Steve and Sharon, blinking when they kissed.

"Oh? When did that happen?" You asked, brows furrowed. You knew there was some attraction between them but you didn't expect them to already be at the kissing stage.

"A while back, I think."

"Huh.." You whispered. Steve returned to the car with Sam's wings and his shield, putting them in the trunk. He drove to an airport parking lot, pulling up beside a van. You smiled widely, quickly getting out when Sam pulled the seat forward.

"Thanks for keeping my kid safe, Cap." Clint said, opening his arms as soon as he spotted you. You happily hugged him, feeling a sense of relief and safety wash over you.

"About time you started causing me trouble." Clint grinned as he pulled back. You noticed Wanda, pulling her into a hug as well.

"Saw it on the news. You okay?" She asked softly. You nodded, pulling back and brushing some of her red hair out of her face.

"Vision let you go easy?" You asked. Wanda shook her head, chuckling softly. Sam approached you, glancing back at Bucky.

"Might want to keep an eye on these two." Sam said, motioning to you and Bucky. Clint stared at him before looking turning to look at you. Wanda tilted her head, looking at you as well.

"You're such a dick." You muttered. You knew Sam was just being protective. He had always seen and treated you like a brother.

"Bad boy and older, huh? God, I hoping you had skipped those phases." Clint sighed heavily. You were partially suprised he hadn't mentioned or pointed out that Bucky was a guy. You hadn't really spoken about sexuality and attraction with him but knowing Clint, he'd be supportive about it.

"Not bad." Wanda said quietly, giggling softly as she smiled. You gave her a playful smile.

"I've got good taste."

[vavuska]

CRUELLA, THE STORY OF A PUPPY SLAUGHTER (Part 2)

Here for part 1:

Part 1 - Summary:

In the previous part we saw how was originally described Cruella de Vil in Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmatians: a rich heiress, bossy, cruel toward animals, obsessed with fancy jewls, luxury and also fur coats. Cruella met Anita at school, they were in friendly terms, even if Anita described Cruella as a menacing student, expelled from school for drinking ink. Dodie Smith wrote that Cruella comes from a troublesome family: her ancestor was a serial killer, with the supernatural ability to summon storms and a tail (reference to Bram Stoker's Dracula and the devil). Cruella has strange eating habits (uses a lot of pepper, the Devil's spice) and is usually cold (as a corpse or a vampire). Cruella was so obsessed with fur to marry a furrier not for love but only for his job. Cruella's husband is weak and she is the dominant element in the couple, she also forced him to take her surname after their marriage.

We saw also the rapresentation of Cruella in 1961 cartoon version of 101 Dalmatians. Cruella is still a old friend of Anita. Her main colors are red (her loudy red car is the fist thing we see of Cruella) — expressing blood, anger, determination and passion — and green (she is always surrounded by nasty green smoke that comes from her cigarette) that rapresents envy, sickness and greed.

Her appearance is very particular, because she looks like a skeleton and her skin is very white - pale, very different from the healthy pink one of the other characters. She looks like a corpse, she looks sick in this 1961 version of 101 Dalmatians.

Her entrance is accompanied by a song, written by Roger, in which he anticipates the evil intention of Cruella and underlight the disturbing connotations of her surname (Count de Ville is one of Dracula's alias; Cruella de Vil is a pun name on “cruel devil”).

3 - Cruella in 1996

The 1996 live action of 101 Dalmatians the entrance of Cruella is anticipated by a sequence in which we heard a news London Zoo discovered the excoriated carcass of its prized 3-year-old female Siberian tiger, then the news reporter says that according to animal protection groups that monitor the international trade that a white Siberian tiger's fur is so rare that the offer of a pelt would surely draw the attention in contraband. And then the journalist ask “Who cold do something so horrible?”

Then enters Cruella. She wears veiled garment complete with Balenciaga-inspired extreme shoulders and floor-length black and white fur cape.

We saw this mysterious woman with veiled face and a long fur coat - we doesn't know she is Cruella yet - , exiting from her black and white 1974 Panther Deville, license plate “De Vil”. This version of the car is more closed to the book's one.

In Dodie Smith's book, Cruella's chauffeur-driven car is black-and-white striped, which Mr. Dearly describes as “a moving zebra crossing”, and Cruella boasts that it has the loudest horn in London, which she insists on sounding for the Dearly couple.

We saw Cruella shaking the ashes of her cigarette on the shiny and impeccable shoes of her vallet Alzonzo, while he tries to not look bothered by this lack of respect, and then we saw Cruella entering in a luxurious place called “House of De Vil”. Her red cigarette holder — switching from the turquoise the 1966 animated version favored — matched with her brilliant red lipstick, makes a great contrast to her black and white attire and also underlight the psychology of color typical of Disney villains: red is associated with malice, evil (hell and the devil), blood, danger, strength, power, determination and passion.

Now we have a sight of this long railway-like white hallway surrounded by exotic fur-clothes. Now we know she is a stylist and that she is maybe the one who cold be interested in the fur of the dead Siberian tiger.

A crowd of terrified / adoring employees hurry to greet the woman: “Good morning, Miss De Vil”.

Finally Cruella enters in her office and takes off her hat with veil, reveling her double-colored hair. She is Cruella De Vil in all her glory.

This sequence recalls openly the Devil Wears Prada.

This version of Cruella played by Glenn Close is much more human that the 1961 version. She is more charismatic too and also more fashionable. Her entrance is not as scary as the 1961 version, but shows her obsession for fur, her violation of the law and abuse on animals (also at those at risk of extinction) and her high level stylist house of fashion.

She isn't Anita's friend anymore, she is Anita's boss.

While walking to her office, Cruella meets Anita, played by Joely Richardson. She spots that Anita is working on a new model (no more white tiger stripes, but dalmatian's spots). Anita's design catches her eyes and interest, as well as Anita's dog, Perdi: they had a strange chat about Perdi's fur. That, knowing already the plot of the movie and the news details Roger and Pongo were hearing in the previous scene, well, this conversation sounds a lot disturbing.

Cruella: “Anita, darling.”

Anita: “Good morning, Cruella.”

Cruella: “What a charming dog.”

Anita: “Thank you.”

Cruella: “Spots?”

Anita: “Yes, she’s dalmatian.”

Cruella: “lnspiration?”

Anita: “Yes.”

Cruella: “Long hair or short?”

Anita: “Short.”

Cruella: “Coarse or fine?”

Anita: “l’m afraid it is a little coarse.”

Cruella: “Pity!”

Anita: “But it was very fine when she was a puppy.”

Cruella: “Redemption! We need to have a little girl talk. Come to my office. Bring the drawing.”

Ok. The next scene contains a very popular quote from this movie.

We are in Cruella's office: she has just invited Anita to talk about her design. Cruella wants a new coat and would love to wear the one that has just see at Anita's desk. Let's remeber she doesn't want to wear Anita's puppies already, for now is just an abstract idea about someone else's puppies, but they are still talking about Dalmatians' spots, compared with leopard ones and Anita seems to be perfectly fine. I don't think she knows already of Cruella's criminal way to obtain fur from animals at risk of extinction that her henchmen steal from Zoos, but Anita works for a woman who loves to wear REAL fur. I just can't imagine Cruella wearing any faux fur coat. This is not a crime, because it's legal wear fur coats made of mink, sable and ermine and such, but I found very weird that Anita is not having any suspect about Cruella's intention, because she is working on a model of striped tiger fur and Cruella lives for fur, worship fur. She just could not accept to wear faux fur.

However, Anita doesn't seem bothered at all by this strange talk about her dog's fur (yes, dog are not coats), but as a woman who works for fashion/fur industry and loves dogs she should know that in some parts of the world it is legal using cat and dogs to make clothes. I simply can't understand why she is not having any reaction at Cruella's strage interest about Perdi's fur.

Cruella and Anita talk about their work and Cruella makes lovely appreciation for Anita's drawings: she says she is talented and she doesn't want to risk to lose her pen.

That's now that Anita says she would not left Cruella's House for another job, she would left only if she decided to be a stay-at-home mother and wife. Well, no, she talks more genericly of "plans" with a hypothetical, for now, husband/boyfriend, and this could means everything, for example moving to another city, the assumption about marriage is an association made by Cruella that told us a lot of things about how producers would she looks, compared with the family-oriented Disney business plan. This is a very relevant issue we was also in her 1961 version: the losing comparison between Anita's family's oriented live choice and Cruella's — who is sigle, rich and indipendent — one. Cruella loves only her fur coats, while Anita have an husband, a simple house and also a lot of dogs. Cruella is alone, evil, ugly, wears a lot of make up, and not happy, while Anita is married, preatty but in a natural way and happy of her simple lifestyle with her husband and their dogs.

Cruella: “Now, darling, tell me more about these spots. l did leopard spots in the ‘80s. Well, dalmatian spots are a little different, aren’t they? Cozy. Classic.”

Anita: “Cuddly. Less trashy.”

Cruella: “Exactly! Do you like spots, Frederick?”

Frederick: “Oh, l don’t believe so, Madame. l thought we liked stripes this year.”

Cruella: “What kind of sycophant are you?”

Frederick: “Um, what kind of sycophant would you like me to be?”

Cruella: “Frederick… l’m beginning to see spots. What would it cost us to start again on next year’s line?”

Frederick: “Millions.”

Cruella: “Can we afford it?”

Frederick: “Well, yes--”

Cruella: “Pay it, darling. Now go away. l have to talk to Anita.”

(...)

Cruella: “Sit down, please. How long have you been working for me?”

Anita: “Uh, two years last August.”

Cruella: “And you’ve done wonderful work in that time.”

Anita: “Thank you.”

Cruella: “l don’t see you socially, do l?”

Anita: No.

Cruella: “And you’re not very well-known, despite your obvious talent.”

Anita: “Well, notoriety doesn’t mean very much to me.”

Cruella: “Your work is fresh and clean, unfettered, unpretentious. lt sells. And one of these days… my competitors are going to suss out who you are… and they’re going to try to steal you away.”

Anita: “Oh, no. lf l left, it wouldn’t be for another job.”

Cruella: “Oh, really?bWhat would it be for?”

Anita: “Well, l don’t know. Um, if l met someone, if working here didn’t fit in with our plans.”

Cruella: “Marriage.”

Anita: “Perhaps.”

Cruella: “More good women have been lost to marriage… than to war, famine, disease and disaster. You have talent, darling. Don’t squander it.”

Anita: “Well, l don’t think that it’s something we have to worry about. l don’t have any prospects.”

Cruella: “Thank God.”

Cruella makes a very cynical — but historically appropriate and also very sharable — critic about marriage. She was right, expecially because of what we saw about her 1960s version and how she is rooted in anti-feminism and in an open condamn of women's growing emancipation from the “traditional family role” imposed by media in the 1950s and 1960s, rapresented by 1961's Anita. However, Cruella is a cruel, evil villaness, so what she says to Anita is just a condamn made by Disney on women who choose career over family and love.

But, here, Cruella is not a friend of Anita who gives her a kind and appreciable life advice (if we ignore that Cruella is evil), Cruella is Anita's boss and doesn't want to lose a valuable and talented employee, so from this point of view her statement sounds a lot more controversial: women in the 50s lost their job if they got married, they were fired because most of the time bosses made them sign a contract with a marriage bar that allow employers to withdraw from the contract, so their contract would terminate on marriage, or said in a simple way: employers used to fire the soon-to-be wife, because it was clear for them that a wife should focus more on family and house care than on a career (that's because the soon-to-be wife is going to have an husband, the bread-giver of the family).

Nowdays, it's a bitter different, but women that want to have also a family are discriminated in workplaces: employers ask constantly in job interviews of they plan to have a family, if they have some relationships or if they are single. That's because employers would lose money paying for maternity leaves to their female employees that cannot work for some month. A young woman in fertile age with a stable relationship is a risk for a employer more than a young man in fertile age with a stable relationship. A newly mom is more closed to chose a lesser paid job or a part time one compatible to her family then a newly dad.

And also this quote, remember we are talking about the 90s, gives a clear flashback on women's unstable careers back then, but also puts in highlines some stereotypes about women who menage to balance both work and family: their quility of work is lower than before (this is said by Cruella to the new-mom Anita, we will see it below), they are not productive enough, they makes employers lose money, ecc. Nowadays, unlike in the 90s there is a constant svalutation of women who chose to put family first: they have no free time, they have no a social life (well, some shy single woman like Anita doesn't have a frizzy social life too), some kind of lifes are better than others (luxury and exotics vacation are better than reading books, dancing and going to bars with friends is better than playing sports or painting, ecc.) and if they dare to go out with their friends or take time for themselves and their hobbies, society is still ready to shame them for “not being good mothers”. That's not right: everyone should be able to live their life as they want, to have a frizzy social life or just enjoying a little time for themselves, without receiving criticism of any sort.

In the US the marriage bar, the practice of restricting the employment of married women was never explicitly eliminated by federal laws. Marriage bars were widely relaxed in wartime, during World War I and World War II due to an increase in the demand for labor in the assistance of war efforts (mostly because men were at the front).

Since the 1960s, the practice has widely been regarded as employment inequality and sexual discrimination, and has been either discontinued or outlawed by anti-discrimination laws. For example, in Italy marriage bar is declared illegal with law nr. 7 of 1963, that establishes the prohibition of dismissal of female workers for reasons of marriage (later extended also to male workers), and law nr. 1204 of 1971 prohibited dismissal of the working mother within the first year of the child's age (maternity bar).

The main reason of the bar is that married women were supported by their husbands, therefore they did not need jobs. However, marriage bars provided more opportunity for those whom proponents viewed as "actually" needing employment, such as single women or married men (needed to support the family).

Discrimination against married female teachers in the US was not terminated until 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act.

Marriage bars generally affected educated, middle-class married women, particularly native-born white women. Their occupations were that of teaching and clerical work. Lower class women and women of color who took jobs in manufacturing, waitressing, and domestic servants were often unaffected by marriage bars.

However, some State law provides protection for people discriminated for their marital status. For example, in California, discrimination in employment based on marital status is against the law. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), it is illegal for an employer to discriminate based on an applicant’s marital status or perceived marital status.

Under the FEHA, it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to treat an applicant or employee differently based on the employee’s marital status. This includes: Refusing to hire or employ, Refusing to select a person for a training program, Firing, bearing, or discharging an employee, Discriminating against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.

Marital status could refer to whether an individual is married or not, has been married, or plans to get married. This includes: Currently married, Divorced, Married to a same-sex partner or opposite-sex partner, Engaged to be married, Married but separated, Married but seeking a divorce, Widowed, Annulled marriage, Plans to get married someday, Plans to never get married, Other marital states.

Forty years ago, on October 31, 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) was signed into law to prohibit discrimination in the workplace on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Since its passage, more women have been able to continue working while pregnant; they have also been able to work further into their pregnancies without being forced to leave their jobs.

Pregnancy discrimination involves treating a woman (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of pregnancy, childbirth or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) forbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance and any other term or condition of employment. Pregnancy discrimination also includes perceived bias when expectant employees experience subtly hostile behaviors such as social isolation, negative stereotyping and negative or rude interpersonal treatment such as lower performance expectations, transferring the pregnant employee to less-desirable shifts or assignments or inappropriate jokes and intrusive comments.

Claims of pregnancy discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) increased sharply in the 1990s and 2000s, and pregnancy discrimination remains a widespread problem across all industries and regions of the United States. Yet statistics show that in the last 10 years, more than 50,000 pregnancy discrimination claims were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Fair Employment Practices Agencies in the United States.

So, yes. Disney here touched a lot of points in about two levels:

Family is more important than a career (successful, unmarried stylist Cruella is the evil one) and if you, a working woman, put career over family you are wrong. Nowday, we know that there isn't anything wrong about putting career first, but also we know that there isn't anything wrong also on putting family first or find a balance between the two. The important thing we should remember is that if we have not equality in working places, we should have not real free choices about our dream life;

It's perfectly fine excluding women in stable relationships or women with children from workplaces, because their work would not be at the level of a single woman, that can sacrifice her free time working late (employers exploitation logic deny free time);

Only child-free single women should be allowed to work, but only until they meet a soul mate (reminiscent of the old Disney penchant for old traditional gender roles).

However, returning at the plot, after that Anita reassures Cruella that she has no marriage prospects on the horizon, Cruella asked to Alonzo to bring Anita's drawings to her and the two women start to discuss about Anita's work, because Cruella want to add a long fur stole to Anita's original model: “I look wonderful in spots”, says Cruella,“we could do this in linen. It would be stunning in fur”. Then Anita remarks that would not be appropriate wearing fur in April, so Cruella give her famous lines: “But it’s my only true love, darling. l live for fur. l worship fur. After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn’t?” and then makes a joke that anticipates what she will plan to Anita's puppies more over in the movie: “lt is rather amusing, isn’t it? (...) If we make this coat... it would be as if l were wearing your dog.”

Then Anita and Perdi meet Roger (Jeff Daniels) and his dog Pongo, they fall in love and get married. Cruella doesn't like this. Obviously. We see a very enraged Cruella, wearing a black cellophane velvet with black and white coque feather trim, screaming against Anita's “betrayal”, when she read Anita and Roger's wedding publication on a newspaper.

Her anger toward Roger for stealing her best employee, maybe envy for Anita's love (well, it’s Disney), are promptly consoled, when her two henchmen bring her a little present from Mr. Skinner (Nomen omen, this surname fits perfectly creepy scared guy that work as furrier): it's the Siberian tiger found dead and excoriated in the London Zoo at the beginning of the movie. It was Cruella that wanted her fur and at the end she obtained it.

This Mr. Skinner (John Shrapnel) is a sadic taxidermist that enjoys killing and skinning animals alive, just like he did to the female white tiger at the London Zoo. He doesn't speak beacause when he was young, a dog attacked him by tearing open his throat and ripping out his vocal cords in the process, leaving him with a bad scar on his neck and is a little based on Mr. de Vil, Cruella's husband in Dodie Smith's book, but with the difference that Mr. Skinner has a more strong and menacing personality, while Mr. de Vil was weak and totally dependent by Cruella's desires.

Near the end of the movie, we will see in a crescendo of more explicit references to animal abuse, this charming version of Cruella de Vill ordering Cruella De Vil to Mr. Skinner to kill the dogs, because she fells that the police's suspicion are mounting against her: “poison them,” says Cruella “drown them, bash them on the head. Got any chloroform? I don't care how you kill the little beasts, just do it, and do it now!”

(See here for references: X and X)

In second relevant scene, Roger and Anita are out, walking the dogs, when Anita spots Cruella's car. In fact, as happen at the beginning the black and white 1974 Panther Deville is the first element we see in this scene and anticipate the entrance of Cruella. Recognizing the car, Anita runs to home and there she found Cruella. She welcomes in a very lovely way Anita in her own home, but she is very rude with Roger, who tries his best to be polite during the whole scene. Cruella then mocks Roger about his job (he is a videogame designer, a well paid job nowadays, but that in the 90s can just make snobbish people like Cruella turn up their noses, it's not the classical respectable professions “to make money”). Anita and Roger are just returned from their honeymoon and Creulla acts very nicely toward Anita, she says she missed her and their exchange of ideas, but she isn't happy when Roger announce they are going to have a baby, but Cruella remarks that “she has no use for children”, but she is very interested in Pongo and Perdi's puppies.

Unlike her cartoon version Cruella during the movie shows a lot of different, hiconic and fashionable outfits: at her visit at Anita and Roger's house, she wears a zebra coat dress with mink sleeves with matching Russian-inspired hat, red PVC boots that match with gloves in the same color and material (long fake red nails on each finger) and her red cigarette holder. Her dress also features a practical detail: a cigarette case paired with ammo cartridges as if they are military medals. The zebra stripes also give off the impression of bones or a rib cage for that extra goth vibe. Her lips are permanently stained the color of crimson, while her winged eyeliner adds to her high drama aesthetic.

Despite being set in contemporary London, everything about Cruella's closet defies a specific time period. It is as if she stepped in from the '60s of the original story combined with a century's worth of high fashion references. This is very logic: people have a lot of clothes and is natural for a very fashionable stylist to have and wear a lot of haute couture outfits.

Cruella: “And you must be Rufus.”

Roger: “No, it’s-- it’s Roger. And it’s a pleasure, Miss De Vil.”

Cruella: “What’s a pleasure?”

Roger: “Uh, making your acquaintance.”

Cruella: “Such a sweet thought. l wish l could reciprocate. Tell me, darling, you married him for his dog. Oh, darling, l’ve missed you so. l hate that you’ve taken leave.”

Anita: “But l’m still working. Um, you’ve been getting my sketches?”

Cruella: “Well, it’s not the same thing. l miss the interaction-- And what is it that you do… that allows you to support Anita in such… splendor?”

Roger: “l design video games.”

Cruella: “Video games? ls he having me on?”

Anita: “Oh, no, he’s very good at it. Um, and it’s a growing business.”

Cruella: “Those horrible noisy things that children play with on their televisions?Someone designs them? What a senseless thing to do with your life.”

Roger: “Oh, did Anita tell you the news? She’s going to have a baby.”

Cruella: “ls this true?”

Anita: “Yes.”

Cruella: “Oh, you poor thing! l’m so sorry.”

Anita: “We’re very excited about it, Cruella.”

Cruella: “You can’t be serious.”

Roger: “She is!”

Cruella: “Well, what can l say? Accidents will happen.”

Anita: “We’re having puppies, too!”

Cruella: “Puppies! You have been a busy boy. Well, l must say, that’s somewhat better news. l adore puppies! l’ll expect a decline in your work product.”

Anita: “Oh, l shouldn’t think so.”

Cruella: “Be sure to let me know when the blessed event occurs.”

Anita: “Oh, well, it won’t be for another eight months.”

Cruella: “The puppies, darling. l’ve no use for babies.”

Again here we have a remark of how horrible is Cruella as boss (she says to Anita she expect a decline in her work, and this would make her useless and less precious for Cruella's House) and as person: according to Disney people who doesn't like children are horrible and cruel, but there is a double meaning in Cruella's word: “Iʼve no use for babies” could mean both that she is not interested in maternity (that's perfectly legit, not all like children, are comfortable with them or just dream to have children someday) but also that she couldn't find any material use of babies, while for puppies we know she knows well how to use them: as material for a new fur coat.

The next scene is a classical recall to the original Disney cartoon of 1961: it's a stormy night and during the lightning flash for a few frames only, we see Cruella as a complete silhouette while few second after she opens the door and enters in Anita and Roger's house, with a big menacing smile on her face.

Pattern clashing will not only stand, but it is also encouraged, as the tiger cape with a leopard lining reveals. Paired with a leather skirt and tiger bodice featuring claw clasps

Again there is the recurring joke about Cruella misnaming Roger (Rufus, Rupert, Roland), if it's intentional (and this version of Cruella doesn't seem to left anything casual) it's a clear remark about how she dislikes Roger, the guy that stole her best designer, if it's not intentional, shows how Cruella find him irrelevant for her purpose at the point she doesn't even bother to rember his name to flatter him. Cruella is not polite or kind to Roger as she is with Anita. She doesn't need Roger, she need Anita and hates Roger for turning down Anita's value for her interests.

In this scene Cruella uses the same words she uses in the 1961 version (“How marvelous. How marvelous! How perfect... Oh, the devil take it! They’re mongrels! No spots! No spots at all! What horrible little white rats!”), but with something new that shows her uncaring nature (“All right, put them in a bag. l’ll take them with me now.”) and again mocks Roger for his “strange” and not prestigious job, when he firstly deny her offer for the puppies (“Oh? You’ve come into some money, have you? Did you design some silly game… that will drive the delinquent kiddies into frenzies of video delight?”).

However, compared to her 1961 alter ego, this Anita is more assertive and talks for herself, saying a determinated “no” to Cruella. Anita also starts to be a bit suspicious about Cruella's intentions (“But, Cruella, what would you do with 15 puppies?”). Roger and Anita this time seems to be equally determinated to refuse Cruella's business proposals.

Cruella crescent rage is underlight by the sounds effects of thunderclaps and it is Anita who says the final “no”.

“All right, keep the little beasts. Do what you like with them. Drown them, for all l care! You’re a fool, Anita! l’ve no use for fools. You’re fired! You’re finished! You’ll never work in fashion again! l’m through with all of you! l’ll get even! Just wait! You’ll be sorry, you fools! You idiots!”

When Roger and Anita refused to sell the puppies, Cruella's rage exploded as happened in the cartoon version (she screams and insults Roger and Anita, she tears the check into a thousand pieces and throws them in Roger's face), but let's remeber she is Anita's boss now: she uses her power and fired Anita's too, now that Anita and Roger refused to Cruella what she want, Anita become immediately useless. In fact Cruella has yet the design for her new outfit, from Anita needed only the puppies and if she cannot obtain them with good manner, well, as happened in the cartoon version, she will steal them.

In the previous part we saw how in the 101 Dalmatians of 1961, the car was the alter ego of Cruella, well, in this 1996 live action, her personality and her obsession is channeled into her outfits. Before it all goes to hell for the fashion maven, her rotation of zebra, leopard, and tiger print reveal she wasn't bluffing when she exclaimed of her fur obsession.

The costumes as designed by three-time Oscar winner Anthony Powell (co-designed with Rosemary Burrows) take Cruella's love of all things animal print to the extreme, delivering jaw-dropping results.

Cruella's entire life is a performance supported by her wardrobe, makeup, and hair. Cruella increases the level of red (it's the outburst of her bloody determination to obtain what se want, it's her mad passion for furs that determinated her end) during the climax with her fur coat of choice, which will soon be ruined by some farm animals. That smell is going to be hard to get rid of, and there aren’t any dry cleaners in prison.

As we saw in the previous part, Cruella's change of luck is well rapresented by her ruined clothes: she is going to jail, her life and career are over, her clothes aren't perfect and fancy anymore.

This happens also in the 102 Dalmatians live action of 2000: red clothing anticipates Cruella's criminal climax, while her ruined clothes are the sign of her defeat.

Nearly at the end of the movie, when her plans are finally reveled, Cruella wears a very unique red “flames” dress: the bodice is organza and silk satin beaded, sequined with a beaded net collar. The skirt is silk satin and nylon net beaded and sequined, lines in ostrich feathers. The headdress is tiered flames made of mirror, metal and painted glass. While her attire during her final metch with the Dalmatian is a black dress with large shoulders that recall Balenciaga, a black lather waist belt and a Gothic necklace with rubies, pearls and diamonds. The fur coat is floor-length black and red, while her headdress is a little hat with black and red feathers.

(See here for references: X and X)

4 - Cruella in Once Upon A Time

More recent version of Cruella can be founded in the ABC TV show Once Upon A Time. I will not make a summary of the themes of the TV because it has a very complex plot and that is not relevant for our comparison. So, let's say only that is a show who feature the adventure of Emma Swan, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas)'s daughter, and her biological son Henry (who was adopted by Regina Mills, the Evil Queen, now mayor of Story Brook) to break the magic curse that turned Enchanted Forest to a modern day Maine town called Storybrook, in which live all the characters from the popular fairy tales we know from Disney adaptations, unaware of their true identities.

Cruella is introduced in Season 4. The evil Rumpelstinskin (Robert Carlyle) recruited her and some other evil lady to regain his Dark Lord magic powers and take his revenge on the people of Storybrook as well as his happy ending.

The first we saw Cruella is at her ungodly hour: she is divorcing from a guy called Mr. Feinberg, strongly in debt and FBI is repossessing her husband's belongings, including her fancy fur coats, her big mansion in Long Island, New York, and her other goods. (See here for references: X)

Cruella plays little importance in the plot, until the Author is released from the book; unable to kill him herself, she pretends to threaten Henry Mills's (Jared S. Gilmore) life to force Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina/Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) to do so. However, Emma confronts her, not knowing the restriction the Author placed on Cruella, and magically blasts her off a cliff to her death.

The actress chosed to play Cruella de Vil is Victoria Smurfit and her appearance recalls more the 1961 version than Glenn Close. She wears a black night gown with paillettes or little pearls, long red PVC gloves and a white fur coat, but drives her black and white 1974 Panther Deville. However, during the show she is seen also wearing leather black pants, red boots matching with her gloves and several different types of fur coats. Cruella's phone case has dalmatian spot patterns.

Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold snarkily remarks that he recognized Cruella's scent as “desperation and gin”, somewhat suggesting or implying that Cruella is an alcoholic of sorts. Cruella later confirms this, having blamed her misfortunes on “bad judgment and gin”.

Unlike her other version, this Cruella has some a very limited magic powers, and has only been known to accomplish a few specific spells. Her most remarkable power is the ability to control any animal, whether it be a Dalmatian or a Dragon. The green smoke that comes out of Cruella's mouth when she uses persuasion magic on animals is designed to reflect Cruella's green and yellow cigarette smoke in Disney's 101 Dalmatians.

Her other main power is a very limited telekinesis: Cruella is able to enchant her car to drive itself around.

In the 5 Season, after her death, Cruella ends up in the Underworld, a purgatory run by the deity Hades (Gregory Germann). She makes a deal with Hades, who offer her to rule Underworld in his absence and help trap the heroes there. Delighted with the idea of getting to torment souls for eternity, Cruella agrees to the deal. This makes even more evident the similarities with the goddess Hela from Norse Mythology, as both ruled the underworld and have half-black half-white hair.

However, the most important episode about Cruella is “Sympathy for the Devil”, in which we learn about her true story.

"Sympathy for the De Vil" Season 04, Episode 18

In 1920s England, a young and blonde Cruella De Vil (played by Milli Wilkinson as child and Victoria Smurfit as adult) is being mistreated by her mother Madeline (Anna Galvin) as she instructs her Dalmatians to chase her daughter, and is locked in the attic in the same setting that resembles the 1979 Gothic novel Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews. The room where Cruella is locked up is filled with her mother's dog statuettes and dog show trophies. Fast forward to several years later, and that a reporter, who is revealed to be the Author (Patrick Fischler) but is using an alias by the name of Isaac Heller, is paying a visit to the home pretending to seek out a story after having seen Cruella from the attic, only to have Madeline warning him to stay away. Isaac returns and helps Cruella escape from the attic. He then takes Cruella out for a date that includes dinner and dancing. Cruella reveals to Isaac that the reason she was kept in the attic was that she witnessed her mother kill her father and her succeeding husbands; Isaac then reveals to Cruella that he was more than just a reporter and has the ability to use his pen and ink to create magical stories. Isaac proposes that they run away together, and uses his quill and ink to give Cruella her persuasion powers to control animals.

(See here for references: X, X, X and X)

However, for Isaac, his future with Cruella would later take a unique twist that will put his future in danger. When Madeline pays a visit to see him, she tells him that Cruella had lied to him about what actually happened to her husbands: as child Cruella killed her own father, Madeline's first husband, by putting a poisonous flower in his tea. Cruella was a troubled child and her parents had hoped she would grow out of her disturbing behavior. But after Cruella murders her father, her mother fears that Cruella's murderous tendencies will get worse and will become a full fledged serial killer. Not wanting anyone else to get hurt or killed by Cruella and not wanting her daughter to go to prison, Madeline had no choice but to lock her Cruella away from the outside world and keep her close to try to snap Cruella out of her disturbed mind. However Madeline's intentions were in vain as Cruella ended up poisoning her next two husbands. Terrified that Isaac will set her daughter free and start killing more people, Madeline warns Issac to stay away from her, because she is dangerous and can not be saved, while Isaac doesn't believe her, Madeline tells Isaac that Cruella takes everything someone loves and destroys it and tells him to stay away from her or he will suffer the same fate as her two husbands and lose all he holds dear.

(See here for references: X)

When Madeline returns home, Cruella was ready for her, and eventually kills her mother by controlling her Dalmatians and commanding them to attack her.

Afterwards, Isaac discovers that Cruella has stolen his pen, and goes back to her house to find out that Cruella used her ability to control animals to make her mother's pet Dalmatians turn against her and rip her to shreds, before Cruella herself slaughtered the Dalmatians and made a fur coat out of them.

«Some people struggle not to be drawn into the darkness. But ever since I was a little girl, I've said... "Why not splash in and have fun?"», says Cruella to an astonished Isaac.

Horrified, Isaac makes a dash for the pen to stop her, but during a struggle the magic ink is spilled onto Cruella. She accidentally ingests some and the ink shows her true colors. As Cruella is about to kill him, Issac uses his powers as the Author to make it so that Cruella can never kill anyone ever again by writing it down on a piece of paper "Cruella De Vil can no longer take away the life of another." As he leaves, Cruella tells him she's not done.

Cruella kept this secret, as intimidation would still work for her needs.

This episode have a lot of Disney reference to the old 1961 version of 101 Dalmatians:

Madeline's car is similar in design and color to Cruella's car from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

The song that Cruella hears on the radio is a jazz instrumental version of the song "Cruella De Vil", from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Ink spills on Cruella, just like Cruella spilled ink on Roger Radcliffe and Pongo in the movie. (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961)

When Cruella uses persuasion magic, the magic comes out of her mouth in the form of green smoke, which is designed to reflect the green and yellow cigarette smoke that Cruella puffs in the movie. (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961)

This 1920s version of Cruella de Vil we see in Once Upon a Time is inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Interestingly, in "Sympathy for the De Vil", Isaac can be seen reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. While he is captive in Mr. Gold's cabin, Isaac reads F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. And largely recall what we already saw of Cruella's original version in the book by Dodie Smith: Cruella is a cruel serial killer. She is smart and manipulative, shows no empathy and emotions and uses people for her own needs. She uses Dalmatians as her own weapons to take her revenge on her mother: she turned her own dogs against her and finally removes the last obstacle to her own freedom. Is important to notice that Cruella slaughters and skins the Dalmatians to create a new dalmatian fur coat for her own, that wears victoriously under Isaac horrified eyes. The Dalmatian fur coat is her trophy. Killers like to take trophies and souvenirs from their victims. Keeping some memento — a lock of hair, jewelry, piece of clothing, newspaper clips of the crime — helps prolong, even nourish, their fantasy of the crime or to relive the crime over and over in their minds. Cruella at the end fully reveals herself as the serial killer she is.

When Cruella drinks accidentally Author's ink that transforms her hair black and white, is another reference to the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, in which is said that Cruella used to drink ink as a child. The dress Cruella is wearing at the jazz club is the dress Bérénice Bajo wears in the the famous 2011 comedy-drama film The Artist. Also the dancing scene between Cruella and Isaac recalls the one between Bérénice Bajo and Jean Dujardin, when play the role of actors Peppy Miller and George Valentin filming a ball scene for a mute movie.

Conclusion

As we saw, all the version of Cruella that were developed time by time, still share the characteristics of a sadic, cruel villaness.

Glenn Close version of Cruella doesn't care about animals' lifes, doesn't care about workers rights or other person's life projects. She uses creepy hanchmen to obtain what she wants, she steals and plot the death of even rare animals for their fur. She uses and manipulates people.

Victoria Smurfit's Cruella is a real serial killer. She is selfish, cunning, manipulative and the violence against animals is just a moment on her murderous revenge on her mother: she used Madeline's pretious dogs to kill her and then kept their skins as souvenir, as serial killers do.

There's no doubt that all those versions of Cruella are evil and Disney simply can not create any positive emotional connection with a woman who murders dogs. It's simply impossible to explain why Cruella hates dog in a way that can justify abuse toward animals. That is why this Cruella movie with Emma Stone is a huge mistake.

As conclusion, I will borrow again the words of composer Bill Lee from the 60s animated version of 101 Dalmatians to say what I think of trailer with Emma Stone as Cruella:

This vampire bat, this inhuman beast

The world was such a wholesome place until

She ought to be locked up and never released

Cruella, Cruella de Vil

[helenarlett-rex]

Helen Arlet’s Favorite Cryptids

#7 The Fresno Nightcrawlers

This is a new one for me that I only just recently learned about. I don’t even know how I missed these guys before now... But I’m instantly fascinated with them. They are just so weird and cute. And we have multiple cases of them caught on video?! I love this already!

Do I believe in them?

Well I’m new to the whole Fresno Nightcrawler scene, but for now I’m going to have to say no... I’ve watched the videos of these guys and I’m trying to figure out what they actually are, but weird alien creatures isn’t at the top of my list. The first video could very easily just be a guy in a sheet. I could see how that could be done. The second video that was captured of them almost looks more like puppets to me, but I just can’t figure out how the puppeteering would have been done... Either way I’m fascinated by it. Who knows... Maybe I’ll change my mind as I delve deeper into it.

#6 Snallygaster

I honestly don’t don’t know a ton about Snallygaster. I know it’s the signature cryptid of Maryland and I lived in Maryland for a short time... so I guess I have some attachment to it that way... I know he’s a big tentacle dragon and he looks pretty cool... But that’s about the extent of what I know. I haven’t taken the time to do research on him yet. I think honestly, I just really like the name. Snallygaster... That’s just fun to say. Say it with me... Snallygaster...

Do I believe in him?

Not at the moment, but then I haven’t really looked into this guy yet so I haven’t seen what kind of evidence is out there to support the belief of such a creature. I just look at the pictures of him and I feel like if such a thing existed, we’d probably be hearing about it... a lot... like every time he swooped out of the sky and snatched someone off the street...

#5 The Wampus Cat

It’s a big cat with 6 legs. And it might possibly be a shape shifting woman. That’s pretty cool. Plus she’s also the signature cryptid of my home state of Tennessee. I may not exactly like certain things about Tennessee, but I’ve still got to show some loyalty to our state cryptid. Funny thing is, despite the fact that I moved to Florida when I was very little and grew up there, even then I knew about this thing and heard about it all the time. We actually believed there was a Wampus Cat living in the woods there in the town I grew up in. I even knew an old man who had claimed to have been attacked by it. So the Wampus Cat has always been a part of my childhood.

Do I believe in her?

Debatable... Do I believe in a shape shifting cat woman with six legs? Probably not... But Tennessee has a lot of panther sightings. People see panthers, especially black panthers, around here all the time. And the thing is... officially there are no black panthers (or any other kind of panthers) in Tennessee. Officially, Tennessee doesn’t have any kind of cat larger than a bobcat. Black panthers, which are just a variant of jaguars, are extinct in the United States. But people still see them here all the time. It’s just kind of a known fact they are here regardless of what anyone else says. So hey... Maybe that’s just the Wampus Cat? *Shrugs*

#4 The Van Meter Visitor

The Van Meter Visitor is super interesting because it’s one of the few cryptids that is really hard to disprove, and yet, hardly anyone ever talks about it. It’s one of the more obscure cryptids out there to the point where I’d bet nine out of ten people reading this list have never even heard of it before. And you may be thinking, it’s a big pterodactyl with a horn on its head that shoots light... How is that hard to disprove? But when you think about it, this isn’t just some random cryptid with a few isolated sightings by a couple random people who may or may not be trustworthy. An entire town saw this thing. In 1903 the Van Meter Visitor terrorized the entire town of Van Meter, Iowa for days before they tracked down its nesting place and then the whole town showed up to shoot it and it’s mate(?), which they in fact did. Yeah, the creatures vanished into the mines after being shot at and were never seen again... so there’s no body... But it doesn’t change the fact that an entire town saw these things multiple times, lived in fear of them, and then finally shot them. So regardless if you believe it was a pterodactyl that could shoot light from its horn, there was obviously some kind of creature terrorizing the town of Van Meter that October in 1903. And the fact that it was so widely sighted just makes it really interesting to me.

Do I believe in it?

Like I said. Something terrorized that town that week. I believe that much. Was it a spotlight pterodactyl? I’m open enough to consider the possibility... But I’m also open enough to consider the possibility that it was something more on the normal side and it being 1903 people just didn’t know what they were looking at. We can’t really rule out mass hysteria as a possibility.

#3 The Jackalope

I simply love Jackalopes. I’ve thought they were awesome ever since I was a kid. I even used to love those creepy Jackalope videos they used to run on America’s Funniest People (Remember that show? Don’t feel bad if you don’t...) There’s just something weirdly captivating about the idea of a vicious rabbit with antlers.

Do I believe it in?

Well, despite the fact that I have an “I believe in Jackalopes” patch on my jacket, no, I don’t actually believe they exist. I’m a reasonable enough person to understand the history of Jackalopes and know where it came from. I wish they were real, but I know they aren’t.

#2 The Flatwoods Monster

The Flatwoods Monster is equal parts cute and creepy, which is really cool. She’s nowhere near as popular as Mothman, despite the fact that they are both West Virginia cryptids, and that’s kind of a shame. She certainly has one of the coolest designs of any cryptid. And her story is pretty interesting too. It’s one of those cryptid stories I still sit and ponder over.

Do I believe in her?

Not exactly...? I’m highly skeptical of aliens. Now did something happen in Flatwoods, West Virginia on September 12, 1952? Yeah. Something clearly happened. And the reports are strange enough that I can’t quite figure out what exactly happened... But as for the monster herself, as cool as she is, it’s more likely that she was just an owl in a tree that a group of people panicking in the dark mistook for a giant alien.

#1 Nessie

Of course Nessie has to be my favorite. She’s my home girl. Okay... Nessie is Scottish and I’m Scots-Irish, with more Irish than Scottish, but it’s close enough. I’ve still got some Scottish in me. Plus she’s like, a big dinosaur, so we have that in common as well. And Nessie was the first cryptid I ever truly believed in so how could she not be number one on my list? I love this girl.

Do I believe in her?

I’m going to say yes. There is totally something down there. There’s enough evidence at this point that it would be harder to convince me there isn’t something down there. We’ve got scientists who are now saying she’s a big turtle, and I guess that’s possible... probably more possible than an actual plesiosauria... Although I haven’t seen a ton of evidence to support the turtle idea yet... But whatever you want to think she is, I certainly think there’s something down there.

[thr-333]

Drastic Measures- Part 16

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Royalty~

Hmmmm write an ending fight scene or play with the brand new kittens.... you may suffer for my lack of work but I will not.

Ao3

First < Previous

----------

“So Batman sent you,” The Queen asks escorting them through the palace.

“Yes, yes he did,” Marinette lies easier knowing it’s gonna piss off Batman.

“Are you Robin?” 

“Ye...” Damian trails off looking at the ground instead.

“We work with Batman, I promise we will protect your son with our lives,” Marinette turns to her earnestly. Luckily the lens of her domino mask is removed and her eyes are enough to convince anyone of anything.

They are set up in the Prince's room. Just a baby who someone put a hit out on. They are preparing somewhere safe to hide the child but for the time being, security is up to them until they can otherwise solve the issue.

 “So we should probably come up with a new code name for you,” Marinette says once they are left alone, stationed in front of the cot.

“And you,” Damian agrees, “Just for this job,”

“Sounds good, and nothing with birds please, you’re meant to be getting away from all that,”

“Then you can’t do anything with bugs,”

“I wasn't going to,” She was.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Code names are hard,” Marinette admits, relaxing her posture.

“Yeah,” Damian matches her, leaning slightly against the wall, “What were your other ideas before ladybug?”

“Nothing it was a spur of the moment thing,” To say the least, “Besides there's only so many options when you have a red and black spotted costume,”

“Fair enough,” Damian shrugs now fully leaning against the wall.

“So were you always going to be Robin?” Marinette checks on the baby, still sleeping and oh so cute.

“I grew up being told it was my birthright,” Damian sours, maybe not the best topic to bring up, “Part of my legacy to become Batman,”

“... well…” Marinette stalls looking around, “... Panther?”

“Nothing with cats,” 

“Ugh, no animals then,” Marinette huffs, the baby stirring awake, “Bad and good luck?”

“Really loyal to that brand,”  Damian smirks, the prince waking up.

“There's only so many things I know,” They’re both smirking when the baby fully wakes up, “Aw the babies crying,”

She takes him out of the crib rocking him gently and spewing baby talk.

“It’s alright sweetie,” Marinette coos the prince reaching for Damian, “Here Damian take her,”

“I only know so many things,” Damina shys away, taking a step back as she approaches, “Baby care is not one of them,”

“Is holding things one of them?”

“... yes,” Damian spits.

“Then you’ll be fine,” Marinette passes him the child, patting Damian on the shoulder.

Damian holds the baby awkwardly, Marinette will be sure to tease him about it later.

“Baaabbyy,”

“We are not putting Baby in the name,” Damian snaps as if he wasn't just fixing the child's blankets.

“Protector?” Marinette hums.

“Something like that could work,”

“Hey, we’re making progress,” She giggles.

“Yeah we are,” Damian's smiling now and Marinette tries her darndest to keep the blush off her face.

“Alright, forget Robin, forget Batman forget anything the league told you,” Marinette turns to him utterly serious.

“How did you know about the league-”

“Forget that part,” She waves him off pushing forward, “Damian what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know,” He looks at the ground but Marinette isn’t going to let him, she moves into his line of vision.

“That's ridiculous, come on Damian there's so much about you more than Batman or assassins or anything,” Hands-on hips now Damian is looking at her, albeit hesitantly, “I didn’t see any of that the first time I saw you,”

“When I threatened you?”

“Ok I saw a little of it then,” She shrugs, “But I meant before that when you were just watching me and Titus, and that's one right there, Titus, don’t you want him?”

“Of course I do,” He looks down at the prince, fist twisted in Damian's shirt, “I also want to work on the pet store with you,

“So do I,” There's a hesitant smile shared before he focuses again on the Prince.

“... I also want to make up for everything,” Damian says oh so quietly, “I know you forgave me but I did try to stab you twice,”

“Kill me,”

“Yes, thank you for the specification,” Damian rolls his eyes but won't let himself be distracted by banter, “How about I take you to somewhere snowy?”

“Damian I can’t,” No matter how much she wants to, “After this, I have to go back to Gotham to defeat Hawkmoth, there's just no time,”

“Then after,” Damian compromises, rocking the baby, “After you defeat Hawkmoth I’ll take you as a celebration,”

“If I make it,” Marinette whispers, still too loud.

“You’ll find him one day, I know it,”

“That's not what I’m worried about,” It’s quieter this time. But they stop talking and that's enough for Marinette to know he heard.

“What about you?” Damian asks eventually, a new severity to his words, “You’ve always talked about going back to Paris are you really ok with never being Ladybug again?”

“Yeah... yeah I am, I want to design, I love baking and I love my city, it’s just,” She could live without being Ladybug, she would still be guardian but she could live without that too, “I’ve looked Paris has taken a hit, crimes rising, people can finally let out their negative emotions and people don't have to fear their mugging victim getting turned into a supervillain, it’s in trouble and I do still want to protect it,”

“So you really will be going back to Paris,” It’s not a question, it’s acceptance.

“Yeah,” She answers anyway, “What about you? Do you want to stay in Gotham?”

“The city needs protection too,” Marinette takes the baby off him, it being a too convenient distraction.

“There are plenty of heroes Damian,” She turns to put the Prince back in his crib, “There would be more if Batman wasn't so stubborn,”

“Yeah,” Damian huffs a laugh, they both let the topic drop having plenty to mull over, “... So Marinette about soul mates, I know they aren't romantic but would-”

He doesn't get to finish that sentence, and he never will. The memory of their conversation. Of them. Disappearing in a blinding flash of light.