#and now we’re stuck with him being a maniacal villain

[icyhotness]

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I think horikoshi owes it to the todoroki siblings to give touya a redemption arc. or, at the very least, end their storyline with the siblings reaching some kind of middle ground. otherwise i’ll be both devastated and pissed

[wdwmarveldisney]

okay i don’t know if you still write for ouat but i’d die for you to write a henry mills fanfic when he’s a teen and he’s in a relationship with a girl of the same age and her parents are villains(but dead now) so regina, emma and the rest of the gang don’t like her and they try to keep henry away from her but he gets upset at them or something because of it.

there are little to none henry mills fanfics out there and it makes me annoyed since i’ve recently refallen down a rabbit hole of wanting to read love stories about him

Don’t

Henry Mills x Fem!reader

Requested

Summary: Reader is the daughter of two recent villains but is nothing like them. When her and Henry start dating, the family don’t take it so well. They begin to try and separate you two out of the belief it was best for him. Having enough of it, Henry snaps at them.

Masterlist

A/N: I agree with there not being enough Henry fics. Also this isn’t set in a certain season. Mentions briefly death, kidnapping and verbal abuse but not in any detail.

(GIF isn’t mine)

Living in Storybrooke was dull when you weren't one of the heroes or villains and especially when your parents were villains leading to no one trusting you. Your parents had recently tried to kill a bunch of people for some ritual. To everyone else, they claimed it was for you but you knew better. They were greedy and self-centred and blinded by it. Everything they did was for personal gain including marrying each other and having you. As much as you didn't want to believe it, it was a story your mum had told you many a times. How they had to pass on their evil legacy to someone and that they had to have a little villain just like them. And so they raised you by neglecting you and verbally abusing you and making you feel like you weren't worth it.

But you didn't believe it. You couldn't. There was so many heroes in the world and you had the opportunity to help. Through tricking your parents into little unnoticeable things. So when they had started to execute their plan, you had headed straight over to the only person you deemed worthy of your trust for the time being. Henry agreed to not tell the heroes that you helped as long as you did. If something went wrong and you had done it purposely, he had swore that he was going to eat you out, no matter the amount of promises you made.

You gave him valuable information of the next person to be kidnapped and when and he relayed the information. And you were parents were caught. You weren't surprised when Henry told you they had chosen to drink an incurable poison to escape doing time for their crimes. It just further proved the theory that they didn't give a damn about you. Apparently they had asked for their maid on their deathbed instead of their daughter and you didn't plan on visiting them. You were free. No more pretending to be evil because no matter what they did, you had told yourself you'd be nothing like them. They were villains, all that was wrong in the world and all you wanted to be was a beacon of light.

After you not visiting your parents, Henry started asking questions. Questions you didn't want to answer. So he connected things and he had got the idea, confirmed by a small nod of your head. Henry understood you weren't your parents and that you wanted to be different so he stuck by you. His family started noticing and whenever passing them in the street, you'd get hesitant or suspicious looks but Henry assured you it was nothing. And then you started dating. Boy, that did not help matters at all.

It was good at first, amazing. You went on so many dates, spent so much time together and knew each other better than anybody could believe. But his family began worrying more, scared you were using him or corrupting him. You couldn't blame them. You're parents were villains and you had asked Henry if he was ok with keeping what your parents were like a secret because you hated the idea of it defining you. He had agreed saying that it was only fair since it was your life and you should be the one to decide who knows. So his family strongly disliked you and you hated it.

One thing you admired about Henry was his love for his family. They were everything to him and so they were important to you. Them hating you tore you apart because it upset Henry. You tried everything to try to prove yourself to them but the recent kidnappings and murders your parents did were fresh in their mind. You explained that to Henry, every time he began to apologise. They had reason and logic on their side and they had every right to dislike you.

Even with the dislike, they never really did anything to get in between you and Henry until recently. Every time there was a date, something magically happened that Henry couldn't get out of. Decorating rooms instead of the arcade dates, clearing out garages instead of the picnics, running the shop instead of lunches at Granny's, helping Hook with his boat instead of movie nights. You could see what they were doing and, though it hurt, you accepted their side of the story. Henry, however, hadn't noticed what they were doing. He had complained about not being able to spend enough time with you and you didn't want to be the one to tell him what was happening.

He had worked it out soon enough and had ranted about it in his cute little way you loved. The over exaggerated retellings, the massive hand gesture that had made him accidentally hit you at times, the cute little pout. After spending the time with you on your 'secret date', he seemed to have planned something. You were complaining about the old lady in the next room at the inn who couldn't seem to keep her nose out of your business when his eyes had lit up and his grip tightened ever so slightly on your hand. "You ok there?"

"Come on," Henry practically dragged out of the diner, giving just enough time to leave way too much money on the table. He had dragged you straight to the loft, where everyone was and pulled you over to the sofa. He began to put in a movie whilst you had an internal breakdown. You always did movie nights at your room to avoid his family and any possible outcomes it may have. The start to Peter Pan began to play and a smile made its way onto your face, your hand having to cover your lips when you remembered Hook was right behind you. Henry gave you a grin and a shrug before sitting next to you and pulling you into his side despite your attempts to avoid it.

It was silent apart from the TV and you could feel the eyes on the back of your head glaring at you. Taking a deep breath, you moved closer to Henry and grabbed his hand in order to play with his fingers, a habit you had began to do when stressed. His focus went from the movie to you as all your focus was on his fingers. He had this small grin on his face as he watched you interlaced your fingers with his and turn back to the movie. He soared a glance over his shoulder to see his family still watching with hesitant looks. He sighed, grabbing the remote and pausing the movie, standing up in the process. You had ended up almost laying on the sofa from his sudden disappearance and sighed when you saw the look on his face. He was going to have a go at them. You'd convinced him not to but he was going to anyway. You stood up too, in front of him, hands on his chest as you two made eye contact. "Don't,"

"I have to," his voice was strong but soft and you sighed, resting your forehead against his shoulder, praying to every god above this went well. "I know you guys have been trying to keep her away from me because of who her parents are but she's not like that. She's the complete opposite!" He looked to you for permission, understanding that it was probably best to tell them. You nodded, not facing the adults in order to ignore the reactions, "Her parents were horrible. They neglected her and verbally abused her and tried to force her to become this mirror image of them but she's good. She's the kindest, sweetest and cutest person I know. She's spent money she doesn't have on me because I've forgotten to eat or I can't pay for something. She drops everything if I need her and she listens to everything I say. I," he paused, sending you a quick smile, "We hate that you don't like her. She's been trying so hard to prove to you guys she's good and you're just ignoring it!"

"Kid-"

"No mum. You can't justify that. And I've wanted to talk to you about it for a while now but Y/N has constantly stood up for you and stopped me." You finally looked at the adults' expression, the shock and surprise and a hint of guilt possibly. You were never really good at reading expressions. "I love her," that got your attention. You quickly stepped in front of him, eyebrows raised and eyes wide. "Say what now?" He laughed, glancing down to where you had subconsciously grabbed his hand and began to play with his fingers. "I love you,"

"I love you too," his grin widen at your dopey smile and giddy expression. You lifted your hand and shoved his shoulder lightly making him laugh and reach to hold that hand as well. "We're sorry," With what was happening, the fact there were adults in the room had completely slipped from your mind. Facing them, you saw them glancing between you two and let a confused look take over your features. "Why?"

"We shouldn’t have done what we did. We should’ve given you a chance,” Snow was the one to speak but from their similar expressions, you guessed they all felt the same. Even with the apology you were confused. “But you had every right too. You were trying to protect Henry and I’m the daughter of two evil monsters. I don’t blame you,” they all smiled, Regina clapping her hands together before speaking, “Well, how about we watch the movie?” As the adults worked on popcorn and blankets and Hook not so secretly changing the movie, you and Henry sat on the sofa. He wrapped his arm around you, pulling you closer, the two of you smiling like maniacs. You had both wanted this since the beginning and now all you felt was relief and love.

You finally felt like you had a family.

[ginanosakka]

The War Has Begun

Masterlist

Mind of a Monster | Next

Katsuki had been quiet as a mouse since the meeting, and even as he handled the investigation and information he was being relayed by those part of the mission, he looked more in thought than exploding with anger at his current situation. Usually, he would be patrolling the streets, taking down any petty thug or idiotic villain that dared to cause a scene in his area, but he found himself patrolling for as long as many other heroes he knew that preferred to take this profession slow. It didn’t even matter to him that he was seeing icy-hot on the news more than him now when he sat in the living room with his son.

His son.

Those words felt so right now despite the fact that children were at the bottom of his list of things to deal with. Seeing that blonde boy with the same blown out ashy blonde hair as his, sharing the same eyes with that damn sparkle of the girl he was forever intertwined with, he felt nothing but pure satisfaction and peace. The same satisfaction and peace he believed he could only have by being the number one hero, which was the reason why he spent so much overtime as a hero to try and surpass Deku, and to never be lumped into the same category as Todoroki. When he thought of being number one now, he couldn’t find that same passion for it.

“You should feel honored that the future number one hero lets you talk to him.” Katsuki boasted, grinning like a maniac while you sat across from him at the mall food court.

“Being number one is a sham, you know. My dad said that all those heroes at the top do it for money and fame, with the only exception being All Might. I prefer heroes like Gang Orca, he’s super cool and he actually cares about the people he’s saving.” You mentioned casually, picking up another fry from your tray of food and chewing on it.

Katsuki simmered down enough to take in what you said, and felt the slight shade you threw at his goal. “What’s that supposed to mean?! You think I’m a bad hero or something?!” He shouted, and you shrugged while ignoring the stares that you two were getting.

“That isn’t my dream to pick at, but it’s not hard to see that Endeavor doesn’t save lives because he cares about people. . You said the reason you want to be a hero was to make a lot of money and show off that you were better than everyone else. Do you really think you’re an All Might and not an Endeavor?”

He stood up with his hair casting a shadow over his eyes, and before you could even say another word, he walked away from you. You stared after him in shock at such a negative reaction from the truth, but you knew that he wouldn’t take that well. It was the truth that he’d been facing since starting UA that he wasn’t like his classmates who all shared his goal, but you knew he didn’t understand what you truly meant. The heaviness of your words weighed Katsuki down as he walked away from, his insecurities that he’d hide from you shining through in that moment. You were right in that moment; Katsuki didn’t understand what you meant, but he can’t pretend like it didn’t hurt.

“Real heroes don’t care about being number one as long as they’re helping someone. . what a dumbass.” Katsuki mumbled the moral of your words as they hit him like a train wreck.

‘She’s always been that damn wise, huh?’ He thought as he turned away from watching the television with his son to you.

You sat not too far away from them on his recliner, your legs crossed and eyes intently focused on your phone as you typed away. All morning you had been like that when you weren’t talking or doing something with Ryu. The two of you had not moved forward since his apology, but there were no longer small acts of aggression towards him when you spoke, and in your constant teasing of his short temper, there was no longer any comments about the past riddled in your humor. Though that didn’t ease his mind about the unspoken rivalry that had sprung from your reappearance.

He refused to lose you again, and damn sure not to shitty hair.

Without warning, Katsuki stood up and stalked towards you. His sudden movements took your attention away from your emails with your assistant and you looked up at him as he towered over you, and you’d never admit that the butterflies in your stomach weren’t from fear. In a simple tank top and shorts standing above you was a man that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but you’d much rather burn the image in the back of your mind and keep your hormones to yourself than embarrass yourself.

“We’re going out.” He said as if stating a fact, and in his mind, it very much was.

“. . . Who the fuck is we? Ryu, you didn’t hear me say that.” You blinked at Katsuki as if he had grown three heads, before looking to Ryu who’s attention had moved to the both of you when he heard the foul word fall from your mouth.

“When I burn stuff I’m bad, but you can say bad words,” you heard your five year old huff.

“I mean you and I,” Katsuki explained with slight irritation at you. “Pinky’s been bugging me anyway, so she can-“

You cut him off and turned your phone off, “there’s no need to call her. My assistant will watch him and I’ll babysit you.”

“Pain in my ass,” Katsuki mumbled just loud enough for you to hear as you stood up, and you smiled in return.

Being stuck in Katsuki’s house most of the time made you appreciate the outdoors more, and maybe a few weeks ago you’d complain about being in the park without Ryu, but it felt like a stilled moment in time now where you could pretend there was a sense of normalcy. You could pretend like you and Katsuki were just frenemies with complicated emotions, and he could take a breath from that world of constant ridicule and popularity contests. It was never spoken between you two, but it was clear that it wasn’t just you that was causing him to be stressed and consistently explosive; the hero community was wearing him down for a while now.

It only took finding out he had a child, rivaling the girl he lost, and having them both be targeted by her father, for him to realize being number one wasn’t that important.

“So, why did you want to take me to the park . without the child that loves the park?” You said with mild amusement, you two walking side by side in your hoodies and sweats to be at least slightly concealed in public.

Truthfully, in his moment of haste to get a leg up on his own friend, he hadn’t fully thought out an idea to get close to you. It wasn’t until he made it out of the apartment, after barely casting a glance at your assistant, Nanami, that you allowed into his home, that he realized this may not have been the smartest course of action. And he’d never admit that to you.

“You looked like you needed some time away, and I’m tired of looking at you working when you’re not even there.” He said gruffly, avoiding your face and doing his best to fight the small blush he could feel heat up his cheeks.

You chuckled lowly, “some things never change. . Speaking of that, how are things with Midoriya? I was surprised to hear that you didn’t full on murder him when he was announced the number one hero.” You said, giving him a sideways glance to gauge his reaction.

That was quite a blow to his ego. It took him a while to recover from losing to the boy he had looked down on his entire childhood, and then underestimated in his later years until he was forced to realize that Deku was his equal. What he lacked, Deku excelled, and there was nothing he could do about that other than to work harder. It took a long time for Katsuki to truly accept that there was something special about that nerd, and the world needed him.

“He’ll always be a loser to me. . but he’s a decent hero. I’d be a dumbass like the rest of you to kick his ass about it.” Katsuki said and looked you in the eyes, showing that he meant every word. “You know, I can’t tell if you hate me or care too damn much sometimes.”

You hummed with a smile creeping up on your face, “It’s a healthy balance of both. . I’m not ready

to overthink us right now when I can’t be completely open with you, or anyone else for that matter.” The smile that grew had withered near the end of your sentence, and you felt a flash of guilt in you for dragging him into a battle that had little to do with him. You dragged an entire army of heroes into this, and you couldn’t even guarantee they’d have their jobs. . without using them like pawns.

“I’m not letting you go through this alone. I don’t care how much you try to push me away, your shitty ass is stuck with me.” He said without missing a beat.

For a moment you smiled again, and Katsuki accepted the uncontrollable beating of his heart around you. Your bodies had inches closer during your walk, and though your hand never touched nor did your arms link, you felt close to another. It was possible that it was a toxic attachment neither of you should be so content within, neither of you wasted another breath to question it.

You both arrived back at the apartment a mere few hours later. Walking in public together in broad daylight wasn’t the safest idea at this time even in hoodies, so it wasn’t long before you both agreed to turn back. The sun was still shining outside when Katsuki opened the door, yet the eerie silence that welcomed him made a chill run down his spine and every alarm in his body went off at once.

His body reacted before his mind when he stalked towards the living room, then to the kitchen, and lastly to Ryu’s bedroom to find absolutely no one. There were things of Ryu’s missing — some clothes and toys that he took with him wherever he could. There were signs that a child had once been here still scattered around the house, but there wasn’t any sign that Nanami had ever been here.

Rage, fear, and sadness were running rampant in Bakugou’s mind as he frantically searched Ryu’s room for anything that would tell him where they went and that this was some misunderstanding. He was cursing himself for not taking a second look at that girl, and he cursed himself for leaving his only son with her when he knew nothing about her. Had he stopped and checked her out he might have been able to tell something was off — he might have been able to stop his son from going missing and be a good father like he should have.

His frantic thoughts stopped suddenly, along with his movements and time. He remembered who else was here and wasn’t making a sound while he tore the room apart. Who hadn’t made a single sound since leaving the park.

“Y/N.”

The way your name fell from his lips felt like venom being injected straight into your veins, but your face remained neural even as his manic eyes made contact with yours. You didn’t speak in fear that any response would cause him to spur completely out of control, and you knew that whatever response you gave him wouldn’t be good enough. This wasn’t a battle you’d win.

“Where. . Is he?” Katsuki asked slowly through gritted teeth.

“I think you need to-“ you attempted to reach out to him and de escalate this enough to explain, but he cut you off with more fury than a scorned man.

“Where is my son?!”

Before any answer could be given the front door was slammed opened with a deafening smack, sending you whirling around at the sudden action. Thundering footsteps came down the hall and before you could even let the anxiety consume you, men dressed in riot gear appeared in the doorway of the room with guns pointed in your direction. Your hands flew up automatically, and they wasted no time swarming you.

“Y/N L/N, you’re under arrest for conspiracy and premeditated murder.”

A/N: A missing mother, a missing son, and an arrest. What a wholesome story. Anyways, the angst never stops and the tables keep turning, LETS GET CRAZY!

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[superman86to99]

Superman #86 (February 1994)

The most awaited crossover event of 1994: Superman meets the Sun Devils! You know, from that obscure DC comic that ended 10 years earlier! Or Sun Devil, anyway, since there's only one left. We start with Superman stuck in deep space again, only this time it isn't because he killed some villains and got depressed. No, this is Lobo's fault: after fighting zombie robots in space with DC's favorite mass murderer, Superman tried to head back to Earth, only to realize he has no idea where that is. As if being lost in the vastness of the cosmos wasn't bad enough, Superman is also the victim of a hit and run by a big spaceship coming out of hyperspace. Before he can even flip off the pilot, a smaller spaceship shows up and starts shooting lasers at the first one, with Superman stuck in the middle. Superman has had it with all these rude spaceships trying to kill him, so he shoots back.

That spooks away the smaller spaceship, so Superman invites himself into the big one to see if the passengers can help him get back to Earth. Inside, Superman meets a lizard person called Kerrt who claims the other ship was piloted by pirates trying to steal his frail old grandpa's art collection. As Superman admires the fine selection of art pieces from all over the universe, the "space pirates" attack again. Superman flies out to stop those philistines, but the attackers manage to trap him by beaming him into a teleportation booth and leaving him at 95% solid (meaning that if a fly or something goes into the booth, we're gonna see some nasty body horror shit).

The main "pirate" says his name is Rik Sunn, and he has spent decades chasing Kerrt's grandpa, Karvus Khun, who is actually a genocidal maniac (but not a lovable one like Superman's pal Lobo).

After Karvus' forces killed his entire family, Rik formed a group called the Sun Devils to fight the evil reptilian empire, but he's the only original member left by now -- all the others are either dead or think he's nuts. Rik leaves Superman stuck in the transporter and enters Karvus' ship to kill him AND his grandson, just for getting in his way. That's cold, but gotta admit it's kinda impressive that this 80 year old guy easily overpowered and murdered a lizard man who appears to be at least half his age.

Meanwhile, Superman realizes he can free himself from the transporter by frying the controls with his laser eyes, which he used so intensely that he apparently burned off his eyebrows! (Don’t worry, they regrew after one panel.)

Superman arrives on the other ship just in time to see Rik confront he evil Karvus Khun... who is indeed just a frail old lizard man dying in a bed and doesn't even remember Rik. Superman tries to stop Rik from killing the old guy, but it's too late. He's tired and just wants to rest, plus he didn't come all this way for nothing, so he blows up Karvus, himself, and that ship with all the art pieces.

Everyone's dead, the end! (Except for Rik's pilot, but I went through this entire thing without mentioning her so why start now.)

Plotline-Watch:

Sun Devils was a 1984-1985 maxi-series drawn by Dan Jurgens, with inks by this issue's guest inker, Steve Mitchell. The series was originally written by Gerry Conway, but he dropped out on issue 9, leaving Jurgens without a writer... and that's how DJ got his first writing gig at DC. A fortuitous start to an illustrious career!

Don Sparrow says: “While Rik’s vengeful attitude, and inability to let go of the hurts of the past might seem out of place in a Superman comic, it does line up with the way the character was portrayed toward the end of the Sun Devils series. Rik wanted not only vengeance, but would welcome death.” Also, it’s important to point out that one of the things that pushed Rik over the edge in Sun Devils was finding out that the cat lady he was dating as a spy for the lizard people. Understandable.

A couple of Post-Infinite Crisis comics written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jurgens mention the Sun Devils among all the cryptic clues in Rip Hunter's blackboards, but if DC had any plans to bring back the characters, they still hasn't gotten around to it. Curiously, in Sun Devils #3, Jurgens drew a guard who's wearing a uniform awfully similar to one of Booster Gold's early designs -- maybe Rip and Booster were supposed to travel to that time period and become these guards?

Another artistic coincidence that probably means nothing (or does it?!): one of the art pieces in Karvus' ship looks a lot like the fake aliens in buffalo masks from Adventures #469, who came to capture Superman's greatest enemies: freakin' Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught. Could... could it be? Is Jurgens teasing a return for those legendary villains?

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Lois Lane sneaks into Lex Luthor Jr.'s personal gym to snoop inside the locker room, where she finds a bag belonging to Lex's missing personal trainer, Sasha Green. Lois deduces that Sasha MUST have died here, so a LexCorp employee MUST have killed her. That, or Sasha's just super forgetful.

Rik says he caught his "nemisis," and I caught a typo. Where's my Baldy?!

Patreon-Watch:

As usual, special thanks to Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, and Kit, who read an early draft of this at patreon.com/superman86to99. You are the wind beneath our capes.

And now, more from Don Sparrow! Click to keep reading...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

Dan Jurgens’ covers have a simplicity that sometimes treads between iconic and generic, and this one leans a little more toward the generic to me, as it gives little indication of the story, other than the fact that Superman is in space.  Still, it’s a good drawing, and I always like yellow rim lighting on covers.

On the inside, we can tell right away the inking is a little different than we’re used to seeing from Joe Rubinstein.  This is because this issue is inked by Steve Mitchell, who uses a simpler, thicker line most of the time.  It’s fitting, as this is essentially a Sun Devils story, that also features Superman, and Mitchell was often paired with Jurgens in his time on Sun Devils.  Page 2-3 have a pretty great splash of the ship buzzing past Superman—having the rainbow-like trails of the ship really suggest movement more than a starry background might.

Later on page 5, Superman’s multitasking of both crimping and welding the hull shut is well done, and I’d say another hint at the ongoing story of Superman adding bulk.

The most interesting portion of the story is Lois’ investigation into the death of Sasha Green, and the scenes of her skulking around looking for clues are helped a lot by the shadowy colouring.  

The art team excels in this issue at texture, as all the different materials the space teams wear has real weight and substance to it, along with the different skin textures, and signs of age. Lastly, Superman outflying the explosion is well paced.

Story-wise, this is a strange issue.  I get Jurgens’ inclination to go back and revisit some of his earliest work in comics, but this issue could have used a little more exposition.  While Rik and Sarique are named, once, we are thrown into the middle of a larger saga, with only a few lines to get our footing (and those come after Khun has told a completely different story, so it’s hard to know what’s actually true, if we weren’t already familiar with the Sun Devils as “good guys”). And even so, it’s kind of a dour ending—Superman bears witness to Rik executing his old enemy, with barely enough time to rescue one other person. It must have been fun for Jurgens to give these characters a little epilogue, but I’m also glad he got it out of his system, and that these characters don’t reoccur in these pages.  

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

Sarique, we are told, is the daughter of original Sun Devil character Scyla, but we’re given no mention of who her father might be. By the end of the Sun Devils series, Scyla was quite chummy with the clone known only as “Two”, so it might have been a neat connection for this lineage to have been made clearer.

Leaving Sasha’s gym bag behind seems sloppy, even for someone with as much hubris as Lex Junior. [Max: Maybe it was so stinky that he was like “Ew, I’ll just stop using this locker room. I have twenty more.”]

[justcourttee]

I love your sibling Jasonette, so may I please have some more? *Raises gruel bowl*

A little angsty, a little sweet. I hope you love this one too :)

The Birthday Gift

Jason was having a shitty day.

Marinette was supposed to call him when her plane touched down at Gotham Airport, but that was hours ago and she had yet to return a single message. On top of that, stupid Bruce blindsided with yet another intervention with Batman Incorporated and how yes there are terrible villains out there, but we are not the judge, jury, and executioner. A load of hypocrites if you asked him. Finally, Roy stood him up for a drink at their favorite bar due to a meeting with Oliver.

So he could honestly say he was not surprised when a handful of Joker’s thugs dropped in on him on his self-pitying walk home.

“Look, guys, today is not my day. I’ll let you off easy if you leave now.”

The men’s painted smiles sent shivers down his back, reminding him just a little too much of the original. They said nothing as they circled him, waiting for him to make the first move, a mistake he had made many times with them.

“C’mon dudes, can’t you give a guy a break. It’s my birthday today and even my own sister stood me up.”

One of the men began to snicker as if he found the idea of Jason’s loneliness funny. Maybe it was, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to laugh with them. The sound of footsteps approaching caught his attention. He felt his whole body stiffen as the maniacal laughter reached his ears. No one else sounded so deranged, so crazy, but it couldn’t be. The world didn’t hate him this much right?

Wrong.

“Well, well, well, little Jason Todd. Oh my, it’s been so long, you’ve grown so much.”

Joker himself in all of his clown prince glory. His smile sickened Jason’s stomach to the core.

“What do you want, Joker?”

The clown’s face frowned in mock hurt as he placed a dramatic hand over his heart.

“Is that any way to talk to your favorite agent of chaos? Now now little bird, I’m not here as a threat, I’m here to offer you some birthday fun! After all, you always were my favorite little Robin. It’s why I treated you so much more tenderly than the rest.”

Joker reached up to wipe a fake tear from his face before allowing the grin to stretch it’s way back slowly. Jason’s mind was racing with possibilities, the number one being an exit strategy. Four men, all deranged, plus the Joker himself. It wasn’t looking great, but there was no way this clown was going to kill him twice in this lifetime.

“What’s this gift you mentioned? So kind of you to think of me on this day.” It took everything he had to hold back the sarcasm from dripping off his tongue. His hand moved in the slightest, trying to reach the gun he had tucked in his waistband.

“I’m glad you asked-”

Before he could finish his sentence, a figure dropped from the rooftops, landing on the nearest goon. The three remaining men all reached for their weapons, but could never touch them. Something shot out, gripping their guns and pulling them into the abyss of darkness. For a brief second, Jason allowed himself to feel hopeful.

Maybe the old man finally remembered his birthday, maybe he was here to help him. But as the figure stood, taking a step into the light, he felt his heart drop. A small girl stood in front of him dressed in a skintight black suit, small red dots lining her sides. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun on top of her head, her mask solid red matching the side of her suit.

“I’ll give you one chance Joker, let go of the boy and I’ll let you go.”

There was a tense silence for a moment before Joker laughter tore through the air.

“A child! Are you Batman's new birdy my girl?”

The small figure stiffened as Joker’s men began recovering their wits, some drawing pocket knives, others closing in with their bare hands.

“Do I look like a bird to you?”

Jason had to hand it to her. The kid had guts to stand before the Joker and insult his jokes, but he knew the clown’s patience was running thin. Sooner or later, he was going to give the order and the thugs would tear into her. He was so close to his gun, but any sudden movement could put her in danger now.

“Now now, it sounds like you need an attitude adjustment. Why don’t you ask Jason here how it feels?”

His smirk was sinister and with the flick of his hand, the thugs all jumped. They were fast, but she was faster. One by one she knocked them out, flipping and twirling with grace as she dodged each attempt on her life. Jason’s fingers finally wrapped around his gun, a sense of relief flooding through his body.

This was what he needed to shift the fight, but something stopped him. Numbness spread through his limbs as he lost his grip on the gun, the weapon clattering against the concrete. He vaguely recognized the hand on his back giving him a shove forward, but he couldn’t put his arms out to save himself.

“No!” The girl tried to rush forward, but she was distracted as one of the thugs landed a punch, knocking her off her balance. They managed to subdue her, holding her still as Joker moved forward to examine the new curiosity.

“Quite interesting. How do you know my Jason?”

The girl’s eyes clouded over as she mustered as much strength as she could, trying to pull her arms free. Joker raised his hand, a sickening smack coming from the girl’s face as a red mark began to form. Jason tried to move, he needed to protect her like she tried to do for him, but it was impossible.

“Now, I asked you a question. Show some respect for your elders!”  His laughter only enraged the girl.

“Don’t you dare touch him.”

“Oh, you mean, like this?” Joker raised his leg, landing a kick right into Jason’s ribcage sending the clown into a fit of laughter. “Or this?”

“Stop it! No! Jason!”

He knew the voice sounded so familiar, but he couldn’t focus on it, not with the endless pain rolling in.

“All you have to do is answer the question! You have the power to stop this dear.”

Jason tried his best to raise his head to look at her properly, but the best he could do was land one eye on the girl. The face, mask or not, he knew that face. Joker raised his foot once more, stopping only a millimeter from Jason’s face.

“He’s my brother! I swear if you hurt him again I’ll kill you. I’ll kill all of you.”

Jason felt the realization flood through him as his heart dropped. She didn’t abandon him. She was right here. Marinette.

“I see, I didn’t know my dear Jason had a sister. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect him to be related to someone so weak.”

He reared back his foot again, delivering yet another blow. Jason heard Marinette yell in rage, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“What the-”

Jason couldn’t see anything, he could barely move from the paralysis and the bruised rib cage. He heard the sounds of commotion sending panic through his body. These weren’t like the villains Marinette faced in Paris, these were rougher around the edge, their only goal to kill. Parsian villains killed, but almost always on accident, collateral damage. These men did it for fun.

He tested his fingers, a sense of urgency flooding through him as they twitched under his strained effort. Jason just about had his full hand in motion again when five shots rang through the air sucking the breath from his lungs.

“Bug? Bug are you alright?”

Jason couldn’t help the tears that fell down his face and trickled into his voice. She was the only family that mattered to him, the only one that ever cared for him. Using his good hand, he attempted to flip himself, only succeeding in straining his wrist.

“Bug!”

Two hands wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him into their lap, his head lolled backward before a soft touch helped him prop upwards. Two shining blue eyes stared down into his, a splatter of blood staining her mask.

“Bug what did you do? You don’t kill.”

She shook her head, dropping down to hug his numb body.

“I only wounded them. They crawled away carrying their stupid clown leader. Jason, I was so scared they were going to kill you.”

He felt a hot tear hit his face and then another. Soon her tears mixed with his own as the shock faded away. He almost let that asshole kill him again and in front of Marinette.

“Hey, hey, no tears on your birthday.”

Marinette wiped away his before she took care of her own, a shaky giggle escaping her lips.

“Mari, why didn’t you call back? I was so worried.”

The feeling had returned in both his arms as he tried his best to move his legs next.

“I was trying to finish your birthday gift, you know how I get when I’m sewing.”

It was Jason’s turn to laugh, still shaky as well as he tried to push what had happened out of his mind.

“What did you get me?”

“A new jacket. I know leather is your favorite and you always seem to ruin the ones I make you.”

They both shared a laugh as Marinette shook her head.

“Let me see if we’re lucky tonight.”

Marinette gently set him back on the ground as she called upon her lucky charm, only to throw it directly into the air with her signature phrase. Hundreds of small ladybugs circled his body, a warmth spreading throughout where they touched.

As they disappeared into the night sky, Jason tested his legs, a small smile tugging at his lips when they moved at his command.

“You know how much I love that thing right?”

Marinette shook her head as she called off her transformation catching a small, exhausted Tikki.

“You know how lucky you are that I transformed before they laid a hand on you right?”

Jason gently shoved her shoulder as she stuck her tongue out at him. As she finished caring for Tikki, she turned her full attention to him, slipping off the oversized jacket she was wearing.

“Here, this was your gift. It was the only way I could think to protect it without leaving it up on the rooftop.”

He slipped off his older jacket, a gift from his last day in Paris, and slipped on his new one, relishing in the perfect fit.

“You know, you’re a miracle worker Marinette. And since you’re in town, I think we can now use that phone of yours to contact Damian.”

“Don’t even think about it, after all, you don’t want to end up like those thugs.” Her tone was playful as she handed him back his fallen gun.

“I think I could take my chances.” He threw his arm over her shoulders as he guided her out of the alleyway. “Now, how about you  buy me a birthday drink?”

“How about not? This is the States, my friend, I’m technically not legal here.”

Jason cursed under his breath earning a laugh from the smaller girl as they headed down the avenue. Jason felt his phone buzzing from his back pocket, most likely Bruce calling him about his Joker encounter (which he had no doubt he already found out about), but he didn’t have the energy for yet another lecture on his birthday. Not from him.

“Are you going to get that? It could be your family?”

Jason looked down to meet her concerned eyes, a sight that melted his heart. He shook his head, planting a small kiss on the top of her head.

“I’ve got the only family that matters right here and that’s the best birthday gift anyone could ask for.”

Permanent Tag List:

@damianette-is-life @rebecarojas07 @ash-amg

[fandom-thingies]

My Complicated Feelings Toward JK Rowling

I think everyone who’s read Harry Potter and likes to talk has written something like this by now. It makes sense, right? She wrote possibly the most influential book series to come out in the last century. For me and many others, those books are an unforgettable part of our childhoods, and it hurts for the person who took us on such a journey of magic and wonder to be so unmagical herself.

So, here’s my take.

I think the thing I hate most about JK Rowling is how close she came to greatness.

There’s a reason her books became so popular, after all. For all her faults, (and there are many) she’s an amazing writer.

Every one of her characters feel like they could walk off of the page at any time and into your life. 

Dudley Dursley with his absorption of how his parents treat Harry and how his friends treat him, with his slow growth throughout the books into a person beyond who he was raised to be.

Molly Weasley with her overbearing mother henning, sometimes harmful but oh so clearly coming from a place of love, and her complete willingness to adopt any child that stands still long enough for her to do so. (Except Fleur)

Narcissa Malfoy with her belief in the horrible things she’s doing, without that stopping her from being entirely willing to do anything for her child.

Sirius Black with his tendency to unintentionally echo the sentiments he was raised with, and the tragedy of him losing his chance to ever truly grow as a person after being thrown in Azkaban for twelve years and then dying so soon after, and his complete, unconditional love for Harry.

I could write essays on any of them, and my point is that while JK’s treatment of certain issues and characters makes me want to hate Harry Potter, her characterization itself is both consistent and magnificently human.

Her world, too, is beautiful.

I first read Harry Potter before I turned eleven, and I was one of many across the nation who awaited my letter with eager anticipation. 

Can you blame me? The world she created filled so many children with wonder, made so many of us want so badly for magic to be real, to be ours- 

It was beautiful, and I hate her for what she could have been.

She had this fully realized system of prejudice that canonically created genocidal maniacs and put them in power every two generations or so, and she had this very realistic way of writing horribly flawed people that pronounces them as people without exonerating them for the awful things she’d have them do, and I can’t help feeling like “the horrors of war”, as well as she wrote it, wasn’t the story her world deserved.

But that’s a big idea to tackle, and I think it will be tackled best if I start small. I’ve spoken now of the beauty of her world, of her characters. Now I’ll speak of what marrs it.

Like I said, I want to start small.

So, let’s talk about the house elves.

TL;DR? Hermione was right. They’re indoctrinated from birth into believing the only thing they’re good for is housework, as well as being raised to abhor any elf who chooses to do otherwise. It’s a neat little self perpetuating system that bears absolutely no similarity in ideology to the mythology JK built it off of, and as such loses the aspect of choice that’s so significant to brownies.

Add to that the socially acceptable abuse, and you’ve got something that looks far more similar to slavery than it does little fairies who come to clean your home and get mad if pay them because they’re doing it as a favor.

And that’s why it’s so concerning, when JK brushes Hermione’s campaigning off in canon so casually.

It’s honestly hard to say when I started to be leery of JK Rowling, except that it was several years before the TERF scandal occurred. I think this was probably one of the earlier areas, though.

The first time I remember wondering if Harry Potter’s greatnesses were in spite of her intentions, rather than because of them, though, wasn’t the house elves.

It was, rather, a different contentious issue in the fandom, and one I’ve always fallen quite firmly to one side of, as someone who’s been bullied myself.

The first time I remember being suspicious of JK’s beliefs was when I realized she didn’t write Snape with the intent for him to be a villain.

Snape is not a person anyone in the fandom seems to be able to agree on. Some see him as a flat, cartoony villain, while some see him as a tortured soul who only did all those terrible things because he was hurting inside, don’t you see? 

Personally, I drew the line at him being a child’s boggart, as well as the time he attempted to kill Neville’s toad, Trevor, because seriously; what the fuck.

It had always been my belief that while him being obsessed with loving Lily motivated him to work on the side of good, it was more like Narcissa’s willingness to betray her cause for her son than anything else, being a sympathetic trait without absolving his cruelty.

Then I realized that a bunch of people (likely including JK) view Narcissa similarly to how they view Snape, seeing both as people who do bad but are good, rather than people who do good but are bad, and I honestly don’t know what to say to y’all.

You know having good traits doesn’t make a person good, right? Being capable of affection doesn’t absolve people of cruelty or make it your responsibility to forgive them and try to get them to change, it just tells them that they can do bad things without being punished for it. 

Do you guys need an abuse hotline? 

Anyway, that’s when I stopped liking JK, since I’ve been bullied myself and seeing her treat such a horrible bully as a good person kinda soured me on her. I’m not mad at her for letting her bullies grow and change- I love Draco’s and Dudley’s character arcs. I’m just mad at her because unlike those two, Snape is an adult and she kinda wrote it like forgiving him was an expectation of Harry, rather than a personal choice (and not an easy one either! Forgiving bullies is hard and it’s not always healthy!)

I’m getting off topic, but I genuinely believe that discussing this kind of thing is important, so I’m leaving that in.

Getting back to what this is actually about, I’m the kind of person who sees potential in things, often before I see the work itself, (it’s why I write fanfiction) and Harry Potter has so much potential it hurts, because so much of it is just wasted.

I said, earlier, that “the horrors of war” wasn’t the story best suited to this world, and I stand by that.

The first reason I believe that is because I don’t think that the black and white morality this kind of narrative often creates was well suited to JK’s writing style. JK has a tendency to put her characters in boxes of “good” or “bad” and as someone who doesn’t really believe in inherent goodness or evil, this will always feel unrealistic to me.

Because in the end, it’s JK’s minor villains, the ones not directly involved with Voldemort’s war, that really shine.

My favorite villains in the series were Umbridge, the Dursleys, Draco Malfoy, and Cornelius Fudge, because they were the villains who felt real, who felt like flawed people making flawed decisions because we’re all fundamentally products of our environment-

These are the villains who stuck with me, who I still want to take and shake because they were the kind of cruelty we’ve all faced.

Voldemort, as the main villain of the story, would have been more powerful if he’d been an amplified version of these people. In fact, the story would have been better in general if Fudge or Dumbledore had been the villain, because the problem with Voldemort is that unlike the good villains in this story, who feel real because we’ve all met people like them, Voldemort is and will always be larger than life.

A genocidal maniac is a villain few of us have faced societally, and one none of us have faced directly.

Also, rather than being a worse version of Umbridge or Fudge, Voldemort is more akin to a worse version of Snape. He’s a tortured soul who does bad things because bad things were done to him, rather than being cruel through his choices, his own agency.

That’s the first reason why “the horrors of war” wasn’t the best choice of a narrative for this world.

The second is that I don’t think JK sees anything wrong with her muggle hating characters.

She clearly thinks killing muggles is wrong, of course. She’s not that bad.

But, well, the muggle characters in Harry Potter are consistently kind of awful.

First there’s the Dursleys, selfish, entitled, egotistical, and cruel to anyone different from them. Then there’s Snape’s muggle father, who was horribly abusive, as well as cruel to anything different from him.

Then there’s the muggle prime minister, who despite being an important figure, is left completely out of the loop for anything concerning wizards, pretty much only used when the ministry needs the muggle news to say or do a certain thing, like when Sirius Black was declared a criminal.

There’s also the family at the quidditch world cup, of whom who only meet the patriarch, a somewhat stupid man who remarks uncomprehendingly on the oddness of wizards trying to assimilate into muggle society, a man who is canonically obliviated ten times a day.

And that’s it, that’s all the muggle characters I can remember. Aside from the Dursleys, none of them are given more than a page or so of screentime, and none of them do anything significant.

No, wait, I did actually forget two.

Hermione’s parents, who are obliviated and sent to Australia when the war starts, because the only thing they could ever do in a war is be victims.

Muggles in Harry Potter are consistently stupid, ineffectual, and cruel to anyone different from them.

Out of the entire massive cast of Harry Potter, there are few enough muggles that I can list them all off the top of my head without googling and the only muggle in the story ever given the all important chance to be kind is Dudley Dursley, who is taken out of the story the moment he stops being an awful person.

I’m sure you see the problem.

The issue with Harry Potter is that JK acts like the problem is solved when muggles are no longer being actively persecuted, when in reality that’s only the beginning of solving the prejudice that plagues her world.

Voldemort is frequently called “wizard Hitler” and I think that’s more accurate than people realize, because as with Hitler, people easily see the problem with Voldemort committing genocide, and they’re fine with working to stop that, but the moment they’re asked to examine their own biases, their own small cruelties and exclusions, the ten thousand cuts they’ve inflicted with their own hands…

The moment people are asked to examine themselves, to look close at the mirror and point to what allowed someone like Voldemort to gain a following in the first place, they turn away and go back to turning a blind eye to the fact that if you don’t address the societal issues that made him gain a following in the first place, there’ll just be another when it’s been a few years and people have forgotten.

In the end, Grindlewald is wizard Hitler. Voldemort and the death eaters are wizard neo nazis.

I’m not Jewish, though, so I’ll let them be the ones to expand further upon this, as many have.

My point here is that JK’s story would have been more powerful if it had been about addressing the issues that underpin the death eaters, rather than killing their leader and acting as if that’ll solve anything.

JK Rowling is antisemetic, racist, and a TERF, among other things, and while I’m glad it shows in her work as little as it does, it does show, and I’m not going to cover that in this because a thousand other people have covered it better than I ever could.

Suffice to say, I’m nonbinary, and I’m glad I was disillusioned with her before I knew she was prejudiced directly against me, because loving her before she said the things she said and did the things she did would have hurt.

The fact that her world shows so clearly the consequences of her beliefs, even in the context of a prejudice that doesn’t exist in our own world…

I guess she’s always been too good a writer for her own good, in the end.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 106

I know I’ve been on a fluff kick lately, and I’m not even remotely sorry. This chapter started out as an excuse to re-visit an offhand comment from a previous chapter, and ended up with Sophia having the kind of night off I wish I could have.

Thanks go out to @baelpenrose (beta and also creator of our favorite teacher-cum-warlord-cum-teacher), @charlylimph-blog (because no one else could have created the ball of chaotic friendliness that is Charly, nor her strong, silent, and charming partner), @werewolf2578 (because I will never not love Maverick), and @creakingcryptid (for donating faerself and Antoine early on to the cause, and putting up with me in real life.  This entire story, from chapter 1, would never have happened if not for faer, and I’m not even remotely exaggerating about that).

“Lift the right corner a bit more,” Tyche called out. “Yeah - Dammit, Arthur, that’s too high. Bring it down a bit more.”

“Do you want to swap?” he quipped, dropping his side of the large, white sheet to exactly where it had been before.

Ignoring him, Tyche asked Maverick to lower his corner instead, to much greater success. At least satisfied with the results, she turned to me and made a ‘ta-da’ gesture towards their work.

I shook my head at her. “And we need this why?”

“Movie night,” she reminded me needlessly.

“Eyeah. It was kind of my idea.”

“And none of us have been to a proper movie theater in ages.” She had a point there.

“Do we even have a projector?” Maverick asked, grinning, as he walked up.

Arthur, right behind him, grinned almost malevolently before Tyche cut him off with a glare. “I told Charly we were doing a movie night,” she offered by way of explanation.

“She insisted she had popcorn covered,” Arthur ventured carefully. “Do I even want to know?”

Eyes wide, I turned to him. “She didn’t tell you?”

He shook his head. “I asked what that meant, and all I got out of her was a maniacal laugh. By any chance, does she always carry around a cartoon-villain moustache in case she needs to twirl it?”

“And cat ears, yeah,” I confirmed absently. “She really didn’t tell you?”

“I just asked if she got the consoles to actually make popcorn that wasn’t better used as packing material,” he admitted.

Maverick erupted in laughter. “You are in for a treat.”

“Will it poison me?”

“Doubtful,” Tyche shrugged regretfully.

“Hmm. Pity.”

Trying to get somewhat back on topic, I pressed on about the projector. “So, you told Charly we were doing movie night this week, so she is going to… obtain? Steal? Jury-rig a projector?”

“I try not to ask, unlike some people,” Tyche arched an eyebrow defiantly. “Gift horses, mouths, you get it.”

“I doubt she’s stealing one,” Maverick offered. “She’s an engineer. Pretty sure she already had one she made, or is finishing one up as we speak.”

Fair. “What movie did we end up agreeing on?”

Maverick and Arthur answered in unison. “Star Wars.”

“Nuh uh. Nope,” my sister argued. “Repo! The Genetic Opera.”

“I’m with her,” I jerked my finger toward the person not insisting I watch a movie about a war in space while actually on a spaceship.

We continued arguing good-naturedly while getting non-popcorn snacks and drinks together. Arthur, to no small amount of surprise, was putting a very impressive amount of thought and consideration into the arrangement of blankets and pillows on every conceivable seating surface in my living room - some of which I didn’t even recognize and probably didn’t want to know where he got them.  At some point, Derek and Sam arrived, judging by the latter sitting happily next to a moving lump in Arthur’s careful construction and petting my cat.

About the time snacks were ready to be carried into the living room, the door opened to reveal Conor, who abruptly stopped to remove his work boots.  Unfortunately, he was knocked down by a clattering intruder behind him and saved only by the - no joke - knee deep ocean of bedding.  A hinged brass lid and a metal piece of something went flying past his head, revealing the intruder to be Charly. “Hi, guys!” she waved cheerfully. “Don’t worry. Coffey has the projector.”

White teeth flashed in a dark, handsome face as the man in question held up the device. “Her hands were full,” he shrugged before glancing past Conor. “You take movie nights seriously,” he added with an approving nod.

Charly, who I couldn’t remember having even seen wear shoes, had already scrambled over Conor’s laughing form so that she could grab the lid and basket, which she brought along with the enormous pot into my kitchen area. “Popcorn,” she declared, gently slamming the pot on a heating surface.  “As promised. I’m thinking green today.”

“That’s not popcorn,” Arthur pointed out, curiosity etched into every bit of his face.

“Duh, Mr. Farro,” she sputtered. “It’s how we’re going to get popcorn.  The consoles never season it, and it’s always stale, or soggy, or just… not good.  So. I made a whirlypop.” With a clatter, she patted her copper contraption. “It makes absolutely perfect kettle corn, every time. And I can make it whatever color I want, too.”

“It’s really good popcorn,” I confirmed. “She brought some to your fight with Jokul.”

“Of course she did,” he sighed. “I thought you said no selling tickets and no concession stand for that?”

“Doesn’t mean she can’t bring her own, screaming blue popcorn with her,” I held up both hands in surrender. “I couldn’t argue with the logic, and she was the only person there with popcorn, can confirm.” 

When I glanced back at her, I saw what I pretty much expected to see: her handy cartoon-villain moustache was pasted firmly on her face and she was twirling one end in what could only be described as a dastardly fashion. Arthur, on the other hand, was almost sputtering. “I - how? I was facing you, Charly. How?”

“Don’t ask, you probably don’t want to know,” I sighed with a wave of my hand. “Besides, I’m reasonably certain the answer involves a collective hallucination, blood sacrifice, or time travel.”

“Two out of three,” Charly nodded, sounding impressed but not clarifying any further. “So! Everyone ready for- oo! Mini pizzas! - popcorn and Master and Commander?”  A collective groan went up at a third movie being added to our ongoing argument over what we had agreed to watch. “What!? It’s my favorite!”

Maverick explained the conversation we had earlier to those who arrived after. Even having nine people voting now didn’t help: we were still split evenly across all three movies.  In the end, we agreed to take a run at watching all three, but that led to another discussion - what order?  We knew the odds of getting through all three were slim, and nobody wanted theirs to be left out.

Sam finally interrupted us. “If we don’t stay awake through all three, can we watch the last movie on another night?”

My jaw clicked shut mid-argument. Tyche tilted her head, “That makes entirely too much sense.”

With that anticlimactic resolution, we quickly took votes to determine which movies were most popular.  In the end, we ended up with Star Wars first, Master and Commander second, and Repo! last, much to my and Tyche’s chagrin.  At least we weren’t the only ones who voted for it, so I was mollified. Somewhat.

While we were hashing all that out, Charly somehow called upon the popcorn deities and managed to fill nearly every bowl and bucket she could find in my quarters with a rainbow of fluffy kernels. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure how she managed to make that much in roughly fifteen minutes, and when I asked, the only answer I could manage to get from her was “Two out of three, like I said.”

I wasn’t asking after that, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know if blood magic was involved, honestly.

Antoine arrived right as I was trying to figure out how to fit on the couch, where Maverick and Conor were cuddling and hogging the whole damned thing.  Unfortunately, between the immense quantities of popcorn, blankets, pillows, and people strewn everywhere - and somehow my Christmas lights were carefully hanging from the ceiling, which I had a sneaking suspicion was Derek’s doing - our poor resident therapist looked a bit confused.

I couldn’t help but grin as I waved at the chaos. “Welcome to movie night, apparently. You can sit anywhere except there,” I explained, gesturing at a particular pile of blankets.

“Why not - ah….” he trailed off in understanding as a hand darted out of the ‘pile’ to snag a mini pizza.

“Eyeah, only Mac can sit there, I think. And nobody better be feeding him pizza?” I warned. “Whoever does gets to keep stinky cat for the night while he has tummy trouble.” Turning back toward the couch, I stuck my lip out in a pout. “Where am I supposed to sit?”

“We’re comfy….” Conor whined, hiding what was probably a grin behind Maverick’s head. Rather than sitting up in any capacity, the two were laying down along the entire length of the couch, both their feet sticking off. There was maybe two inches of couch between them and the edge.

While my attention was focused on my boyfriends, two strong hands grabbed each of my arms and tugged me down. With a yelp, I fell across Charly and my sister, both of them giggling. Deliberately, Charly started to pet my hair as clumsily as humanly possible, and the scowl I directed at her set Tyche off in hysterics. When I opened my mouth to protest, popcorn was thrown in.  With another scowl, I surrendered to being draped across both of their laps, with a fluffy blanket spread over me from somewhere.

I still sulked, and ignored that I probably looked like a particularly perturbed cat.  With much determination, I managed to keep a scowl on my face until the first movie started rolling.  It was hard to stay even faux-upset after that, as what ensued was the most laid back night I had enjoyed in longer than I could remember. Seats were stolen every time someone got up for any reason, snacks were eaten and refilled, popcorn got everywhere….

It. Was. Glorious.

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[hetalia-nordic-trash]

The Heart Gambit (Dennor): 3-One-Way Screen

Word count: 1,480

Summary: Mathias and Lukas look for Emil after he ditched them. Will Mathias be able to apologize to Lukas and get to know him better?

Author's Note: Yay next chapter! Sorry, it's a little late...again. I've had a lot of school work so I try to write these whenever I have time. I hope you like this chapter and do leave me some feedback so I can keep getting better!

Warning: Brief mention of Blood

Previous: 2-The Arbiter

---

Mathias followed Lukas out the door, who was still rubbing his elbow from the fall. It took Mathias a bit before he figured that he should go after him and took off out of the bar after paying his tab. Lukas was quickly walking past shops and heading towards a nearby park.

"Hey wait!' Mathias called out, jogging to catch up to him.

Lukas peaked over his shoulder picked up his pace when he spotted Mathias. Mathias easily caught up to him and started following at Luka's side. They walked silently through the park for what seemed to be the world's longest minute before Lukas broke the awkward silence.

"I can't talk right now I'm looking for my brother. Besides, why would I want to talk to you?" Lukas huffed.

Mathias looked away.

"I...yeah... I get that. But I'm looking for him too! Emil totally ditched me back there!"

"What the hell was he doing hanging out with you?" Lukas asked, stopping dead in tracks.

"We were grabbing drinks when he left right before you showed up!"

"Right before...Damn it!" Lukas pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned up against a nearby tree.

"He's always doing this! Trying to set me up with people because he thinks I need to 'socialize' or whatever. Honestly, he's either waiting nearby because he knew I'd figure it out, or he's back at the hotel waiting for me that dumb smug grin-" Lukas paused, and started patting his at his pockets.

"No....no... no no no! Shit!" Lukas cried. "I don't have my hotel key! Now I actually have to... ugh!".

"Look I'm sorry that Emil dragged you into this mess but I really don't feel like dealing with you right now so feel free to go about your business and pretend this never happened. Though, I also wouldn't be surprised if you used this in some kind of insane 'ad campaign' against me or whatever you do for extra cash nowadays."

Mathias took a breath to respond, but couldn't find the right words despite his best efforts. Lukas rolled his eyes and started walking away.

"Wait!" Mathias called, grabbing Lukas by the shoulder. But he must've grabbed Lukas a little too hard because he pulled him so close their chests almost touched.

"Oh sorry...sorry! I wanted to say I'm sorry!" Mathias managed to blurt out.

Lukas was in the middle of shoving Mathias's arm off of him but stopped at the sound of Mathias's admittedly awful apology.

Mathias pulled his hand away and felt a little heat rise to his cheeks.

"I...look I know I come off as an asshole and it's fair of you to think that...I'm an asshole....but I want you to know that a lot of it's because I'm trying to keep up a kinda image thing. I mean... I wasn't at first...but lately, I just don't feel like it's me anymore...ANYWAY! sorry that was loud but I'm sorry for the interview....what I said...I don't actually think you're a no-life nerd or anything like that...they just wanted me to-"

"Alright! Um...it's ok. Don't hurt yourself."

Mathias finally took a look at Lukas's face and saw that he was completely flustered. His face was bright red and he was desperately trying not to make eye contact with him. Mathias felt his heart skip a beat.

"Look, I forgive you...I guess. And if you want to come with me to help me find my dumb brother ... you can... just don't be weird." Lukas said, taking a step back.

Mathias beamed.

"Aw sweet! Let's go then!" Mathias yelled, dragging Norway by the arm further into the park.

"OK, YOU'RE BEING WEIRD!" Lukas cried out as he tried to keep up.

"Emil! Come out come out wherever you are! Lukas and I are the bestest of buddies now!"

"No, we're not!!!"

Mathias dragged Emil all over the park screaming Emil's name. It didn't take long for Lukas to pulls his hand away from Mathias so he could stop and catch his breath.

"We've been at this... forever!... He's clearly not here!..." Lukas said, between breaths.

Mathias raised an eyebrow.

"We've only been looking for 5 minutes."

"5 minutes!?" he cried, kneeling on the ground.

"Dude...I know I said I felt bad for calling you a 'no-life loser', but .... when's the last time you've run?"

"Shut up!"

Lukas stood up and dusted himself off, face flushed from running. If Mathias's heart wasn't going to jump out of his chest before, it certainly was now. Lukas just looked so ... uh... nice... when he was flustered. Not cute or anything! Certainly not that!

"Look if we're going to find him we're doing it at my way! So no more dragging me around! We'll just walk normally!" Lukas said in a bit of a huff.

"Aw! But it was so much fun!" he said with a playful pout.

"God, you're such a child. Just follow me." Lukas said, taking the lead.

"Ok then!"

The two walked silently for a while. Mathias took in the sights of the park. The sun was beginning to set and he watched as the sky was starting to turn pink and orange. The last light of day was showering the whole world in warm golden hues. He looked over at Lukas. The golden hour light made his eyes shine and his skin looked like it was glowing. Mathias felt sick to his stomach. It couldn't be the dreaded "L" word, could it? No...it couldn't. He was just some...guy. AND he just met him. There was no way! But there was just something about Lukas. His bright eyes, his messy blond hair, and... Mathias noticed that Lukas had a little bit of a scowl. His smile. Mathias desperately wanted to see Lukas smile. But even for all of that, he couldn't place why being around him made his heart beat a little more. He huffed. Lukas would never in a million years have any kind of feelings towards him besides "low-level-tolerance". So why couldn't he Lukas out of his head!

He felt his shoe hit a crack in the sidewalk. He stumbled forward and crashed onto the ground hard.

"Ow!"

"How the hell did you miss that crack!? It's huge! Did you lose your last two brain cells earlier or something?" Lukas asked, crossing his arms.

Mathias grinned. He rolled onto his back and placed his hand on his chest.

"Oh god! This is the end for me! I'm dying!" he cried, dramatically.

"God, can you be any louder? You're acting like a child," Lukas reached his hand out to Mathias. "Here. Just get up!"

Denmark stuck his hand out, purposely make it shakey, as if he were an old man. Mathias felt his face heat up again. He couldn't let Lukas see! He grabbed Lukas's hand and attempted to pull him to the ground next to him. This was a bad call, as all Mathais managed to do was pull Lukas right on top of him.

"Ah!"

Lukas's head crashed right into his own, and Mathias felt a sharp pain in his forehead by his hairline. Mathias felt Lukas's chest on his own, the warmth would've made him blush like mad, but the pain in his forehead was getting worse.

"Ow! My teeth! What the hell was that for!?" Lukas said with his hand over his mouth.

Lukas looked up at Mathias and jumped. Mathias pressed his hand to his hand where the pain was.

"What!?" Mathias pulled his hand away. It was covered in bright red blood.

"DUDE DID YOU JUST BITE MY HEAD???"

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PULLED ME ONTO YOU LIKE A MANIAC!!!"

Lukas pushed himself off of Mathias and got up.

"You seriously need medical attention! We should get you to the hospital!" Lukas cried, helping Mathias to his feet.

"No way!" Mathias yelled. "If I go to the hospital the press will just eat it up! It'll be all over the news that you took a bite out of my head like a zombie!"

Mathias desperately tried to covered his cut with his hands.

"Well, you need some kind of medical help! Come on! I'm pretty sure I have bandages or something back at the hotel room."

"Good because I don't think I have anything like that at mine."

"God, how do you even function?"

"Wait...I....I can't go back to your room!" Mathias said, blushing and turning away. "What if someone sees me there! Then we're right back to square one! Plus that kinda embarrassing!"

"How is that embarrassing? We're both adults. We'll just use the back entrance or something. Look this is the last offer. Let me help you or I'll leave you here to bleed out!"

"Ok geez! Let's hurry tho! It's getting all over my clothes!"

---

Next Chapter: 4-Treat me like a Fool

a/n: I'm so excited to be writing this! Poor Denmark! He got hurt this time! I hope he gets better soon! I’m going to take this time to plug my non-hetalia work “ Intro to Love ” about a college student who struggles to keep her superpowers a secret and while making new friends.  How much of her normal life will she give up to save her friends from a mysterious villain that drains students’ brains and turns them into zombies? The complete Chapter 1 is out NOW! And Chapter 2.1-'The last of the Good Days' will be out soon!

Thanks again for reading! Send some feedback my way! Can’t wait to continue this story!

Quotev link: here

[heartsywritesthethings]

Tickling! Plus Ultra! 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

<This chapter contains mentions of Manga Spoilers>

“We’re nothing alike.” Bakugo growled at the villain in front of him. “I’m way more cooler than you. I’m gonna be the number one hero.”

“Sure, sure.” Dabi said, waving his hand dismissively. He looked Bakugo up and down, a smirk still plain on his face. Bakugo wanted to blast that stupid look off of that face. It was like Dabi was so calm about everything going on, not at all worried about Bakugo or anything else for that matter.

“You’re all gonna be dead. The pro heroes are going to rip you losers to shreds.” Bakugo said, sparks of flames jumping from his fingertips just thinking about when he would be able to safely fight back against these villains. Of course, he wanted to put out a fight now, but it was definitely too dangerous for him to fight back. Even he knew that. 

“Like the last time? Please. You should know by now that the heroes are just about as useful in these situations as the quirkless. The only difference is that they make more of a mess.” Dabi said and licked his lips. He looked around thoughtfully, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket. “Listen, you and I both know how a fire can burn, right?”

Bakugo didn’t respond. Just glared at him. 

“Right…well, from my observations of the heroes and others like us…they’re far too dangerous to be in the hero business.” Dabi continued, unbothered by the silence of the boy in his care. Bakugo wondered what he meant by that, but didn’t voice his curiosity.

“Take the Number two…well, I suppose, thanks to you, he’s the number one hero now. Endeavour.” Dabi said, spitting out the name as if it were a piece of trash. Bakugo supposed that the league of villains would hate the pro heroes, but the way that Dabi spit out Endeavour’s name made him think that maybe there was something else there. 

“Fire. While people like your so-called teachers will try to convince you that the fire you use can be used for their own good. To save…that is not fire’s true nature. It is only to burn.” Dabi said, pressing his fingers against his scarred chin. He turned back to Bakugo and smiled. 

“You’re talking fucking nonsense! I can be a number one hero with my flames of fury!” Bakugo said, throwing a ball of fire towards Dabi. The villain easily stepped aside, using his own flames to push Bakugo’s aside.

“We can use our quirks to burn down the false heroes like Endeavor. We can expose them for who they really are!” Dabi laughed, stepping closer to Bakugo. He raised a hand and it looked as if he was going straight to Bakugo’s neck. Then, he stopped. 

“You know all about these heroes who claim to better the world, but are only in for their own selfish reasons. After all, the traitor amongst your class informed us about the weaknesses of your dorm so we could snatch you up. Not very heroic.” Dabi tisked, shaking his head. “And then there’s your dear friend Shoto. Has he ever told you about how he had gotten that scar? Why he refuses to use his left side?”

Bakugo went back to being silent. He was seething on the inside. Of course he knew about Half and Half’s scar and the reasoning for it. Ever since the fight between him and Deku, the entire class knew about it. Shoto was slowly coming out of his shell and telling jokes, but they all seemed to be related to his past trauma. 

But the thing that was really bothering him was the mention of a…traitor? Someone among their ranks that willingly handed out information to the league of villains? Who the hell would do something so damn stupid? 

“I’ll let you think about that for a while, little fireball.” Dabi said, patting his head on Bakugo’s spiky hair. 

~

“Oh she’s really giggling now.” Toga laughed as she continued to dig her fingers all over Uraraka’s stomach. She poked around and dug her fingers into Uraraka’s navel. All the poor girl could do was laugh as the tickling continued. It became apparent not too long ago that she definitely couldn’t get herself free from the nomu’s grip.

“EhehahahahahahAH! Nohohoho! Plehehehehehease! Ihihihihhi caahahahahan’t!” She laughed and giggled, her laughter spiking up every time that Toga’s wiggling tickling fingers swiped over her belly button. Unlike Deku, she wasn’t one to wiggle and squirm when she was tickled. All of her energy was usually spent just laughing and trying to think of some kind of counterattack. Not that there was any hope of doing that now. 

“You know, your cheeks are usually pretty pink, but this is ridiculous. You’re super ticklish all over this cute little belly. Is that why you leave it so exposed all the time?” Toga teased. It seemed impossible, but Uraraka turned an even darker shade of red as she was teased. This was just about her biggest weakness when it came to tickling. Sure, she was pretty ticklish, but it was the teasing that really got under her skin. Just as she felt as she couldn’t take any more, Deku yelled from the other side of the room. 

Using only 10% of his concentrated power, Deku twisted and broke free of the intense grip of the nomu. The monster growled, it’s fangs snapping together in frustration. It reached for him as he landed carefully on the ground. 

“Well, I guess I should have worn you out a bit more.” Toga said, stopping her torment of Uraraka and instead pulling out her knives. “Looks like i’ll just have to cut you up a little bit before taking you in as my pet! How fun!” 

Deku jumped again, darting out of the grasp of the incoming nomu. He kept a close eye on Toga as she lept towards him. Using his quirk, he darted out of the way from her as well. Instead of looking frustrated, Toga looked thrilled.

“You’ve grown so much my little Deku!” Toga said, shifting her stance in order to face where Deku was bouncing now. It was hard to actually get a good look at him as he was jumping around the room. He was using the ceiling and the surrounding walls as he did so, using basically anything he could as a jumping off point. 

He needed to get the others free, but he didn’t know how exactly he was going to do that. It wasn’t as if he could pry them out of the nomu’s grip without seriously injuring them. These monsters were ridiculously strong and any attempt to just pry his friends away using brute force would probably end up in some dislocated shoulders and hips. So how–?

A sharp stab of pain darted through his leg and he stumbled during his run, half smashing himself into a nearby wall.

“There we go! I knew I would get you eventually if I just kept throwing my knives!” Toga laughed, getting another handful of her knives in order to get another shot. It didn’t appear as if she would stop until he was a bloody heap…she was having far too much fun. Suddenly, Deku stopped. He stood between Toga and his captured friends.

“Toga. I’ll go with you. Willingly.” Deku stated with more confidence than he felt. He was terrified of what this maniac would do to him. Especially after all of that tickling had taken him apart so carefully. 

“No! You can’t!” Uraraka exclaimed, straining against the Nomu’s grip.

“Don’t give up yet, Deku! You can take her!” Kirishima yelled. Honestly, Deku was kind of surprised to hear something from the red head. He had been quiet most of this ordeal anyways. Strange. 

“Aw, you’ll give up that quickly. I only just pricked you. No fun.” Toga said with a small pout before putting her knives away. As disappointing as it was for her to stop her chase, she was relieved that her new little pet would so willingly run into her arms.

“Only if you free my friends. If you don’t, I’ll have to fight you and believe me, I’ll win.” Deku said, pointing a finger at himself. Just against Toga and this other guy, he could definitely win. He’s seen them fight enough to know their styles. Sure, it wouldn’t be easy, but he had confidence in his abilities now. Thanks to the training that UA had put him through, he definitely had the strength.

But

If it meant that his friends would be freed…he would gladly give himself up. It’s what a true hero would do. 

Toga thought about this, bobbing her head from side to side as she entertained this idea. Sure, she could probably fight her best, but she had never seen her little green bean jump around as fast as he was right now. But, what would that mean for his little friends? Where would they go? Surely to some pro heroes who were always so bent on getting them behind bars. But, jail was so goddamn boring.

An evil smile spread across her face. 

~

Todoroki sent his ice wall at the monsters in front of him. It broke through both the wall of the dorm and the wall of nomus. A few stumbled aside and he managed to catch one in an actual ice trap. He also set ice across the ground, giving Shoji a clear icy path to where they needed to place the mattress. Without hesitating, Shoji pushed himself across the ice and towards the spot they had agreed upon. As he did, several Nomus reached out and swiped at him. Todoroki used both sides of his body to fend them away from Shoji. 

Even Mineta was helping. Well, as much as he could. He yelled as he tossed his purple balls at anything that happened to move.

Which also happened to include Todoroki himself. One of the purple balls stuck right in front of his foot and he lost his balance. Rather ungracefully, Todoroki crashed to the ground. He slid to a stop in front of another nomu, which proceeded to pick him up by his shirt. 

“Sorry!” Mineta yelled, the top of his head already beginning to bleed. He didn’t stop throwing his balls everywhere he could. Some bounced harmlessly off the ground while others hit Nomus and made them stick to the place they were already standing. 

“Now, Shoji!” Todoroki yelled as the heavy arms wrapped around him. The crushing weight was enough to push the air from his lungs. 

Shoji tossed the mattress onto the ground before getting caught himself. Two different nomus grabbed him, tackling him to the ground. 

Tsuyu had assured him that she would be able to get Iida to a specific part on the ground because of her perfect aim with her tongue. Todoroki just hoped that this was true. Though he did have a few back up plans, this was the one that he found the most promising.

Iida dropped onto the mattress. The nomus all turned to look at what had just happened. Not soon enough, however, as Iida began running in the direction of the school as soon as he got his balance.

“We’re coming, guys. Hang in there,” Todoroki muttered breathlessly.

~

“Have you ever wondered what it would be like if everyone was as powerful as we are?” Dabi wondered, getting comfortable on a nearby chair. He tossed his legs up, resting his feet on a table. He lazily bounced around a blue ball of flame between his fingers. “If these so-called heroes were held to the same standards as what they call villains.”

Bakugo ventured a few steps from where he had been standing. Dabi didn’t seem to mind his moving. Slowly, Bakugo began to look at his surroundings, looking for any way to escape.

“We’re just trying to keep these shit heads accountable. They all try and tell everyone that we’re the bad guys when we’re just trying to show the flaws in the heroes as a whole.” Dabi said with a wave of his hand. “They will claim that we’re in the wrong when we’re just taking you on a short ride around the city. They’re the ones who are holding you and your class hostage in that shit building they’re calling your dorms. They’re the ones who willingly send you back to shit homes at the end of the day.”

Bakugo looked over at Dabi curiously. He didn’t think that a villain like this would be this concerned about living arrangements. Dabi noticed his look.

“I’m just saying. If they were anything like what a school should be, they would have had a real talk with some parents already. I mean, some of these kids don’t exactly want to go home, right? Listen, fireball, if you stick with us, you won’t have to worry about your ma wailing on you all the time. That ain’t what parents are supposed to do.” Dabi said.

Just for a moment…a tiny moment…Bakugo considered it. After everything he had been through in the hero course, getting muzzled, getting told he was a monster, being put through hell trying to train for some dream he had come up with as a kid. He was still a kid, damn it. 

“We’re back! Thank you for the escort!” Toga said as she bounced into the building. Bakugo tensed as she sauntered in. Tailing behind her was the rest of the villainous crew…and that damn nerd Deku.

“You were stupid enough to get yourself kidnapped, Deku?” Bakugo barked at his friend. Midoriya looked a little sheepish, but shrugged. He seemed too nervous for a rebuttal. It was weird to see him this nervous ever. Sure, he was a little bit of a crybaby at times, but this was different. His usual hopeful look was completely gone. 

“What took you so long?” Shigaraki asked, scratching at his neck as he did so. He seemed anxious to leave.

“I wanted to have some fun with my new pet.” Toga whined before leaning over and giving Deku a huge kiss on the cheek. Deku huffed in disgust and rubbed at his cheek to get rid of the spit she had left over. Gross. He made his way over to Bakugo, standing near him.

“How are you holding up, Kacchan?” Deku asked, looking his friend up and down for any kind of wounds. When there didn’t appear to be any, a small relieved smile played on his lips. 

“I’m fine, idiot. What about the others? Did they take you too?” Bakugo asked, nudging his friend in the side. Deku’s smile became strained and he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Uh…well…not exactly. I kind of…followed them.” Deku said with a nervous chuckle. Bakugo smacked him on the back of the head.

“You idiot! Now we’re both stuck here.” Bakugo huffed with a roll of his eyes. How the hell were they supposed to get out of this now? Not that he had been placing all of his hope on Deku, but this definitely wasn’t good.

“It’s alright. I left a clue or two for the authorities to find so that they could get to us faster.” Deku said with a small nod. Bakugo grit his teeth. Hopefully, they would be found in time.

“Let’s hurry up and get out of here before some–” Shigaraki said before the wall behind him blew up.

There, standing amongst the rubble, were pro heroes ready to free the students captured by the league of villains. 

They were saved. Thanks to the hard work of their fellow students and the clues that Deku had dropped along the way during his transit, the pro heroes were able to quickly track down where the students were being held. Uraraka and Kirishima were also able to follow along, despite Toga’s best efforts to tickle them both too crazy to even think about following them. 

11/25

GA!babe

[insomniaccreates]

Frostbite Ch. 1

Read it on AO3 here 

Chapter Word Count: 1.5k

Important Tags: Vigilante Fuyumi, Fuyumi Todoroki centric, References to past child abuse, Enji is not trying to be better in this fic, Endeavor’s terrible parenting, LOV plays a prominent role, Timeline Transcendent but mostly during the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, Hawks plays a prominent role, Natsuo plays a prominent role

Summary: Fuyumi wants nothing more than her family's safety. Its all she's ever wanted since she was a child, for her mom and brothers to be able to live freely and happily. There was a time, when she was very young, about 12 or 13 where she thought that somehow the whole family could find a way to live in peace. That they could all be a normal, happy family again, but after Touya's death she realized the truth. That could never happen. And she knew who was to blame. Ever since then she's been working and scheming to right the wrongs that have been done to her loved ones, and even helping others along the way. However, when walking the fine line of what is and isn't legal lands her in deep trouble she is faced with painful reminders of the past and must challenge her own morality. 

Chapter 1: Capture

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a raspy voice taunted as a man with long, unkempt, pale blue hair and the driest skin Fuyumi had ever seen on a living person walked into the room.

“You must be Shigaraki,” she greeted in reply, a mockery of her usual polite tone painting her voice as she sneered at the notorious villain.

The man just humphed before looking down at the captive woman, “And what’s your name?”

Fuyumi leveled a cool, steady gaze at her captor, “I go by Frostbite,” her tone was level and calm, but left no room for debate, a tone very similar to the one she often used on her students.

“I don’t care about code names, I want to know your real name,” Shigiraki pouted. If the man didn’t have the ability to disintegrate her with a single touch it would have been amusing how much like her students he was.

So instead of laughing she instead raised an eyebrow and shot him an unimpressed glare, “Too bad, I’ll tell you my real name if and when it becomes relevant,” she knew it was risky taunting him while in arms reach, but she knew showing weakness was worse. Power-hungry maniacs tended to have more respect for those who refused to back down in her experience.

“I think it is relevant, I need to know who was trying to overthrow a faction of my army!” Shigaraki persisted, beginning to anxiously claw at his neck.

Fuyumi frowned, “Well, you’ve got the wrong person, anyhow, if that’s what you want,” she protested, “I wasn’t trying to overthrow anything. At least not anything to do with you or those Liberation nuts. I was just looking for something,” she explained calmly, if a little indignantly. Honestly, if they seriously grabbed her for a fucking misunderstanding she was going to scream.

“Really? Then why come so far out of your usual territory? Why go blatantly rampaging around asking about us and the drugs Overhaul developed? You weren’t really subtle, girl,” he hissed, shoving his prematurely wrinkled face in hers.

She resisted the urge to freeze him where he stood in frustration before responding in a calm, placating tone, “I am looking for the quirk-erasure drugs that Overhaul supposedly developed but that has nothing to do with you other than you being a lead to getting them. This is something I’ve been working on for years, long before the League of Villains was formed,” she explained.

“Oh? But those drugs are pretty new. The permanent version has only been around for a matter of months,” he grabbed her throat keeping one finger raised, threat clear even as his voice tapered off.

“I know, those are a new addition to my plan, but it doesn’t change that my target has nothing to do with you. I’m not even after a villain at all, I’m after a pro hero. So there’s no reason to get upset, right now we’re on the same side,” she clarified quickly, anxiety spiking from the rough, clammy hand wrapped around her throat.

Shigaraki paused, lifting his hand from her throat before smirking at her, “We’re on the same side? The Queen of Vigilantes is going villain? Now that’s interesting,” he chuckled and Fuyumi could feel her stomach churn violently, “You aren’t just saying that to save your head, are you?” His taunting tone only caused her stomach to sour further, but she resisted the urge to flinch. Any sign of fear would only be used against her and make her response seem less genuine.

“I never said I was going villain, but I’m also not just saying that to keep my head. I’m really after a pro-hero and right now we are on the same side. We have similar goals. You want to destroy hero society, right? Well, I don’t entirely disagree with that. It at least needs massive reform,” she took a deep breath, trying to calm her emotions before explaining, “Heroes are untouchable. Get a high enough ranking and you can get away with unspeakable cruelty no matter how well known that cruelty is… other heroes, the police, and the public will all rally behind the hero while his victims are silenced into submission… I just want to hold them responsible for their actions, starting with the biggest bastard of them all,” her voice trembled slightly in her anger so she took a steadying breath before continuing, “I guess you could say I align with Stain, even if I don’t agree with all of his judgment calls. Most of your members are followers of Stain, right?” She asked, meeting his crimson eyes.

He smirked, “I still don’t understand why Stain was such a big deal, but yes, most of my more trusted members at least were Stain fanboys… Are you looking to join us or something?” He asked, sizing her up.

“I’m looking for my freedom,” she shot back, struggling in the heavy chains strapping her down to the chair she was sat in for emphasis, before swallowing her pride and hesitantly adding, “and possibly some assistance. I really need those drugs, and judging by how defensive over them you are and the fact you guys attacked Overhaul immediately after his arrest, my lead on you was right. I just need one dose, you can keep the rest,” she tried to read the crimson glare giving her a calculating look but couldn’t decipher his thought process.

After a few moments that felt like hours, he finally spoke, “I’ll think about it. I’ll be back to talk it out further…” started to walk towards the door, before turning back to the captured vigilante, “I’ll make sure none of the Liberation freaks bother you so try to spend this alone time thinking about how you’d be willing to pay for that bullet,” his tone was taunting and menacing but he was honestly the least of Fuyumi’s worries.

She had no qualms spending her father’s vast fortune on his own downfall, she planned on destroying him anyway so money wasn’t really an issue. No, she was much more concerned with being stuck here for who knows how long. Not only was it going to be problematic if she didn’t show up at home before morning or, god-forbid, miss work, her costume included contacts to make her grey eyes appear blue (a pale, frosty shade much lighter than her family’s usual turquoise) and make her usual glasses unnecessary, so if she fell asleep or if it took to long for her to get out of here she was risking permanent injury without them laying another hand on her. She’d just have to try and stay awake, she supposed not much she could do about it with her hands encased in a metal cage. Still, being left alone in a dark room for an undisclosed amount of time was something that made her skin crawl, too many unpleasant childhood memories reflected this scenario just a little too closely. At least it didn’t automatically set off panic attacks anymore. Clearly therapy had been doing something. If only she could get Natsu and Shoto to go too.

Speaking of Natsuo, she was now very glad she had denied his request to tag along on her hunt for the quirk erasure drug. Ever since he’d found out about her life as a vigilante last year he had been trying to get more and more involved. She tried to keep him away from it, but now he’s known amongst the underground as Blizzard, her impulsive, short tempered sidekick. Not that she lets him join her on her patrols or missions often. His impulsive, hot-headed nature paired with his stubbornness made her extremely nervous for his well being. He had a tendency to run into unnecessary fights and where she was careful to disguise herself with a wig, contacts, and contour, Natsuo only opted for a ski mask, despite Fuyumi repeatedly explaining why that was a bad idea. She doubted he understood how high the stakes were, that they weren’t just risking death, but if their real identities were to be discovered or if they were to be arrested that they could lose their jobs, Natsuo could be kicked out of school and they’d both be thrown in jail, leaving Shoto to deal with their father alone again. They weren’t like most other vigilantes. They both had a lot to lose. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if he got himself hurt or destroyed his life due to something she let him do. Something she introduced him to. She just prayed that she got out before he realized she was missing. She knew he’d probably try to look for her, he may even try to drag Shoto into it if he was worried enough, and that was the last thing that needed to happen.

Hopefully, though, she’d be able to put all of this behind her. Hopefully, once she was done with Endeavor their family could settle back down, no longer having to live in constant tension and fear. Hopefully, she’d soon be able to retire from being a vigilante and just enjoy being a teacher and spend time with her loved ones. She just had to get those drugs and get back home. That’s all. She could do that.

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 13: Star Trek Beyond

Some attempted thoughts on Star Trek Beyond.

So first it was bad lol. It is the worst. I thought maybe it would be less the worst than I had previously thought but it really, really is just irredeemably bad.

Trying to keep up with what was actually happening and talk in the group chat was too difficult and I now feel very exhausted lol. And I’m not even sure what I watched.

I liked Jaylah a lot, including her back story, characterization, “house,” traps, and cool mirror tricks.

I also like Kirk in that emergency uniform with the jacket unzipped.

That’s it! That’s all I liked.

In the past I’ve also said I liked the Spock and Bones parts but I honestly wasn’t a fan of them either this time around!

None of the characters felt IC and none of the relationships felt true or were compelling. Which is particularly egregious given that the alleged theme was strength in unity.

The movie was especially lacking in K/S content or even K & S interaction, which obviously didn’t please me. And it’s definitely the worst Kirk characterization I’ve ever seen. There’s no excuse for that either because it’s halfway through the 5YM, which means he should be pretty close to TOS Kirk--yes, he has a different set of experiences, so there’s going to be some variation, but there’s comparatively less excuse for a radically different characterization than in STXI and STID. They should have had Shatner read the script and make notes lol because whatever else you might say about him he KNOWS Captain Kirk.

Like, he (Kirk) lacked humor and charm and, often, confidence. He had moments when he was very smart and moments when he had a commanding presence. But he had just as many moments when he was whiny or bored and his Captain’s log??? I deserve financial compensation for every time I’ve listened to that. Bored of space?? No, this man is bored when he’s stuck on Earth. He stagnates in desk jobs. He is an adventurer and explorer before he’s ANYTHING else; if you don’t get that, you don’t need to be writing Star Trek.

Also, as I have frequently complained, I’m tired of him having no internal conflict or emotional complexity past his father issues. First reboot movie: dealing with his dead father’s memory and his step-father’s abuse. Fine, that makes sense for how they set up the AU. Second reboot movie: entirely motivated by the need for Manly Vengeance upon the person who killed his father figure. And for this redundant story line (in many sense) we had to lose Pike? Third reboot movie: you’d think he’d finally be ready to move on to other conflicts but actually no this time he’s sad about his birthday and having a longer life span than his...you guessed it!! father!! Yet again.

What else has ever motivated him? Legitimate question.

The destruction of the Enterprise was truly horrific. Long, boring, unwarranted, and without any emotional punch. As if it were just any ship! No, she’s a character in her own right and she’s not to be sacrificed like that but please tell me again how Simon Pegg is a true fan who brought the franchise back to its roots?

B said he did like that they split up the crew into unusual units but I have mixed feelings about it. I don’t entirely disagree, but I don’t think they did a lot that was interesting with any of those separated units. Uhura and Sulu are a cool pair (but this would have been a good opportunity to include Sulu’s semi-canonical crush on Uhura but whatever... a different rant) and they almost did some interesting stuff with them. There were glimmers of a caper in that story line and times when I could tell they were straining especially hard to make Uhura, their Sole Female Main--now that they cut out Rand, Chapel, and even Carol Marcus--into something Feminist and Interesting. But it didn’t quite gel for me. Like, Uhura would be having almost interesting dialogue with the villain and holding her own...and then she loses track of her colleague and has to watch that person die, thus undercutting everything she just said about unity and seeming to prove the villain’s point. Is she competent or not?

Bones and Spock are a pair I care about and like but again I think their canonical relationship in TOS is more interesting than STB showed. I personally read them as like...reluctant best friends who originally just had one person in common, and then realized they also like each other too, but they’ll never really say it. They understand each other but pretend not to. They have fun with the barbs they throw at each other. They both deeply love Jim but in different ways. They enjoy their intellectual debates. (That’s one thing that was definitely missing from them here! The intellectual debates!) So again, there was something there but not enough.

And Kirk and Chekov just happened to land near each other; nothing was done with that relationship per se. They really aren’t people who have much of a relationship in TOS so there’s not a lot to work off of but then on the other hand there IS an opportunity to create something new. Maybe I’m being too harsh and too vague but it just didn’t gel for me. The only specific K and C moment I remember was that supremely un-funny joke about Kirk’s aim as he sets off the “wery large bomb.”

But like there are possibilities.. they’re both pretty horny and Chekov is a whiz kid and Kirk is also very smart and has always been smart... Like in other words people Chekov’s age don’t end up on the bridge crew, in either ‘verse, without the Captain’s say, so even though he’s TOS!Spock’s and AOS!Scotty’s protege, Kirk is important to his life. Something with that maybe??

I’m upset that Spock’s individual story line was about whether or not he should go off and make baby Vulcans because, again as I have complained many times before, that was a conflict he faced and resolved in ten minutes two movies ago, and it doesn’t make sense to me for him to bring it up again now just because the Ambassador is dead. Like... the Ambassador told him to stay in Starfleet!! “Ah, yes, I will honor him by doing precisely the opposite of what he wanted me to do.”

Also--if they had made his motivation different or gone into it more, I would have been more into it. Make it about New Vulcan! Say there’s news from New Vulcan that it’s not doing well. Or what if T’Pring got in contact with him? Or what if we used this as an excuse to bring in Sarek?

This is part of a larger point for me which is that STXI set up a really cool AU and STID tried to do something with it--a little hit or miss, but it tried--and instead of pushing even more at the AU and developing it more and doing more with it... STB just ignored it! Was that part of what Paramount was warning about with making it “not too Star Trek-y?” Was it SUPPOSED to be a movie you could watch without having seen the last two? If so they did succeed but like.. .why? They made the supremely ballsy move of blowing up a founding Federation planet two movies ago and now they’ve just forgotten about that and all the reverberations that would necessarily have?

But of course we got a call back to Kirk being a Beastie Boys fan so.... Guess it was Deep all along.

We all three agreed that the core story of this film was potentially interesting but could have been done as a 50-some minute episode of a TV series rather than a whole-ass 2 hour movie. First off, cutting or cutting down the action sequences would have shaved off half an hour easily.

I’m frustrated in large part because there are certain things that are interesting here. I do like the concept of the crew being pulled on to an alien planet by a ship of former Federation crew, from the early days of the Federation/deep space flight, who were presumed missing but are somehow still alive because they have turned into aliens/used alien tech to prolong life, and who have also captured other aliens, like Jaylah, for the main crew to interact with. All of that was cool.

I would even be okay with these old Federation crew being villains but I don’t think that’s necessary or even the most interesting take.

But...first of all, as my mom pointed out, Krall was basically Nero in his illogical motivations: feeling aggrieved because someone who couldn’t help him didn’t help him and then just maniacally wanting revenge. It made more sense to me with Nero in a way. Maybe that was because he was better characterized, maybe it was because his anger was more personal (the loss of his wife), maybe--probably--it was because he was angry at Spock and Spock had actually promised to help, so there was some kernel of logic in his sense of betrayal, even if it was out of proportion etc. Also, Nero’s mania was portrayed as mania--we were all supposed to recognize that the strength of his emotion was warranted but his logic was deeply flawed. I think we were supposed to think Krall had some kinda... real criticism of the Federation, but in fact he doesn’t! He’s wrong! So like if he’d been angry with the Federation for abandoning him but the narrative and the other characters explicitly recognize that he’s wrong--the Federation tried but he was just doing something very dangerous and he recognized that danger on signing on--that might have been more palatable to me.

I’m not sure I’m making sense here entirely or explaining myself as well as I could.

I just don’t entirely get Krall’s beef with the Federation. I don’t get that whole “being a soldier and having conflict makes you strong and having people you can rely on and connections and community makes you weak.” That seems pretty obviously false. It also doesn’t really seem, not that I’m an expert, but particularly in line with military ethos either.

BUT the idea that he had a life that was comfortable to him as a soldier and then the Federation comes in and forms Starfleet and says, actually, we’re going to pull back on the soldiering and up the diplomacy and the exploration and the science--yeah, I could see that. I DO think Starfleet is military but even if you must insist it’s not, it’s clearly based on and formed from the military, and it has certain military functions. So obviously the first people to join or be folded into Starfleet probably were more explicitly military.

So he’s one of those people. Now he’s supposed to be a scientist and a diplomat and an explorer and he doesn’t like that. He’s given this very prestigious and interesting mission and jumps at it. Starfleet warns him, you might go beyond where we can reach, we might not be able to help you. That’s fine. But then when his ship is stranded and he is lost, he gets angry--maybe somewhat irrationally, but understandably--why?? Why did the Federation do this to him? What was even the point? When he put himself in danger before, at least he knew why. But just flying around space for the hell of it, and this is the cost? So that’s what creates his anger.

I thin this could be tied into Kirk’s diplomacy at the beginning--if the scene were written to not be a comedy bit where Kirk looks like an incompetent buffoon and is completely disrespectful the whole time. He’s good at this job and we should say it. But we could emphasize that this IS a diplomatic mission often, just as often as it’s a military or scientific mission. Maybe we could include other bits of their missions, too, to play up the variety of things they do and roles they play.

Another thing I think could be interesting, going back to my point about Spock, Vulcan, and using the first two movies and expanding on the world building... what if Spock wanted to leave Starfleet for better, more well-defined reasons, and we used that? Paralleled the two? Connected the two?

Because I think Vulcan in the AOS verse is very interesting and the movies didn’t do nearly enough with it. First, we have the Romulans showing up way earlier, at least visibly: in TOS, no one knew what they looked like or their connection to Vulcans until Spock is in his late 30s. In AOS, it happens not long after he’s born. So he’s growing up probably with more anti-Vulcan racism floating around the Federation. THEN Vulcan is destroyed. Now it has nothing and it needs to rely on the rest of the Federation, which must be both humbling and frustrating to many Vulcans, on top of the extreme tragedy of losing everything. Most of their population, a lot of their history, their manufacturing, their scientific facilities, their resources, their animals, literally whatever else you can think of that a planet has--all gone. Now all of the survivors have lived some period on an alien planet, by definition, and they’re probably very dependent on the Federation not just to set up the new colony, but to replace all of the resources--natural and Vulcan-made--that they lost. And they’re a founding Federation member, Earth’s first contact. They’re especially important. And now they’re weak, and reliant on others.

So maybe Spock, early on, hears from New Vulcan and they’re not doing well. Maybe we hear from Sarek or T’Pring (...I’d just like to see reboot T’Pring). Maybe it’s not about, or just about, having children, but about being from an important and ancient family, and being seen as a hero for his part in the Narada mission, that makes him want to go and help rebuild their government (taking his mother’s place perhaps? she was on the High Council) or their scientific facilities, or the VSA, or their space travel capabilities--you know Vulcan had space ships of their own, outside of Federation ships. This would be the perfect place to showcase that tension between wanting to be independent--out of pride, out of fear, even--and needing help, because Vulcan could not survive without the Federation, probably less than 10 years out from the original planet’s destruction.

And then you feed it back into Krall.

So I could see like... well the tension, and then Krall comes in, and he's angry that the Federation "abandoned" him, but we actually explicitly address this. Maybe Spock gets to interact with him and say "I get it. You had a life and a mission and a purpose that was comfortable for you. Then the Federation came in and changed everything. A lot of my people are also feeling upset for similar reasons. But here's why actually you're wrong."

So anyway as you can see I’m smarter and more interesting than Simon Pegg.

I also hated, speaking of writers of this movie, the gay Sulu thing and HEAR ME OUT on this. It’s homophobic. His husband doesn’t have a name? Might not be his husband at all? Looks like he could be his nanny or his brother? As B said “at least grab his butt or something.” That was the most sanitized, no-homo depiction of a gay person I’ve ever seen. He’s gay (see, progressives and queers! gay! you like that right!) but DON’T WORRY STRAIGHTS--he’s in a monogamous relationship and has a child, he’ll show nothing but the most platonic physical affection with his male significant other, and the plot point will be so minuscule you’ll need a microscope to detect it. Also, we’ll throw in a no homo joke about two male characters not wanting to hug and we’ll make sure Kirk and Spock interact as little as possible, because we know they give off Big Queer Vibes every time they’re together.

Yes the last point is a little unfair but can you blame me for being angry about all the “look how hip to the times we are” back-patting that went on in 2016 when canonical bisexual Kirk is RIGHT THERE and we could have had ex-boyfriend Gary Mitchell instead of Unnamed Nanny??

Also Sulu is a hella random choice because again, like... he may not have had an s.o. in TOS but nor was there any indication he was gay. So it seems a LITTLE like they picked him because (1) his original actor is gay and gay people can’t play straight people duh so probably Sulu was Gay All Along I mean did you not get vibes???; and/or (2) asexual Asian stereotypes preclude giving Sulu any kind of love interest, male or female, that is actually... sexual, outright romantic, anything.

Anyway I can’t remember if I had any other thoughts, but I’ve said quite enough I think.

I miss Kirk so much... real Kirk... even my version of AOS Kirk who is probably not even characterized that well but at least I worked with love!!!

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 73 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch and co. are still stuck in China and Xingke’s flipping out because the Chinese assholes are gonna kill the Empress and go with someone less problematic for their political marriage to Britannia’s creepily overaged prince. However Lelouch pulls out a Knightmare that’s basically the Twink version of the Gawain and busts everyone up as well as pulling a Father Cornello on them and letting the people know they’re all elitst 1% assholes that don’t care about them, which I suspect all countries probably know about their leaders but it sucks to hear it in a recording so riots show up all over China and CC Geass Flashes Anya to take her out so Britannia has to back out because the Chinese Hierarchy are now the least popular people in the world. So Xingke gets to be with his Empress and joins the Black Knights but Dietard wants the Empress to marry someone on their side so they can basically do the asshole move Britannia just tried to do but for them. All the girls are like ‘hey no’ and Lelouch is like “Oh hey Tamaki buddy, let’s go talk and get me the fuck out of here” so before Lelouch actually has to give Tamaki more lines and elevate him beyond the Black Knight’s Yamacha Shirley calls and Lelouch just straight up asks Shirley about love in a weirdly forced series of circumstance. But Shirley’s like “Yeah don’t fuck with love, don’t you love anyone?” and Lelouch is like “Yeah I do, Nunally!” and I don’t think that’s at all what Shirley meant but it does mean Lelouch sees that fighting for something beyond politics is powerful and agrees to not marry off the twelve year old girl, so that’s good. Lelouch decides to return home while they hunt down the Geass cult which is in China for some reason despite that being one of the like two places on earth Britannia doesn’t control and the Geass Cult largely being a Britannian affair. Meanwhile Sayoko is basically a Lelouch Vtuber at this point with her insanely accurate Lupin III mask of Lelouch and kisses Shirley so Shirley’s a little bit more gay than she was before and is not sure how to feel about that. When she’s about to tell the real Lelouch he kisses like a girl, Anya and Gino show up because we’re retreading the whole ‘sleeping with the enemy at school’ thing from the first season except with way less interesting enemies. Also the preview for the next episode is Lelouch dramatically talking about enemies finding out he’s Zero overtop footage of Shirley and Milly absolutely naked in a batthouse scene so I think we know what kind of episode that’ll be.

Inuyasha: The Panther Demon filler concludes with everyone meeting at the site where the Panther Master is being revived behind a strong barrier, if only someone just got a barrier upgrade to their sword, oh wait. But yeah everyone manages to free the hostages so even though Kagome’s jewel shards revives the Panther Master he’s still a zombie without a sacrifice which is weird since Naraku managed to completely revive the Band of Seven with one jewel shard each from skeletons and the Panther Lord has three shards so idk the rules here but yeah he steals the souls of his own men to revive and is Wind Scar Proof because he just is. It’s pretty cool to see him shooting his claws and lightning and shit but he’s too big and slow for it to be much of an interesting fight. Sesshomaru’s about to go full demon which would be interesting since we haven’t seen his full demon form since he lost his arm but in a neat bit of character development, Tenseiga calms his rage and tells him to use it instead. You get the feeling Sesshomaru only goes full demon when he flies off the handle and forgets about speed and strategy so him opting to not repeat the mistake he made against Inuyasha is pretty cool. Anyway Tenseiga heals the souls of the Panther Demons and drains their energy from the lord so he’s back to Zombie Cat Man which Inuyasha can Wind Scar because that’s what happens to villains on this show, all Wind Scars all the time. The Panthers don’t wanna fight anymore since their boss just killed them and tell Inuyasha to tell Sesshomaru the feud is over and they’re going back to the West. Honestly this is basically the same backstory they gave Kirinmaru in Yashahime so it’s funny for them to say they’re going back to the same place Kirinmaru is from, wonder if it’ll ever come up in Yashahime since most filler seems canon there.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke and Kuwabara continue the assault on Tarukane’s compound and basically plow through the lower demons easy since they’ve been fighting minor deities up to this point. It’s always pretty cool in Shonen to just have a few rounds to show how much power creep the heroes have had where certain things just don’t bother them anymore. Toguro murders a Chimera which has an oddly similar backstory to Nina from FMA and he seems really bummed about it but he’s like “Hey we’re both monsters made by humans telling us to do shit, so sorry for killing you bro”. And Tarukane basically sees Toguro is the next boss and is like “Yup time to scam some people off of this” and he sets up a betting ring for how far Yusuke and Co will get into his compound. This is kinda neat because it puts Tarukane in the weird position of betting against his own guards and hoping Yusuke will make it all the way to Toguro and then lose after everyone else has seen how awesome Yusuke is and bets on him. And funnily enough Sakyo’s in on the betting and he’s watched anime before so he knows to bet on the plucky teenagers with weird powers. So yeah Yusuke and Kuwabara finish plowing through the demons while Hiei kinda stalks them and remembers getting his eye surgery and wanting to help his sister but it’s kind of against spirit world rules for demons to just go plow through humans even if they’re scumbag humans so now Yusuke and Kuwabara have to go fight the Triad of boss demons Toguro has under him before Hiei busts in and just murders everyone for kidnapping his bird-loving jewel-crying little flower of a sister.

Fate Zero: So Kiritsugu can break Kayneth’s Terminator 2 Gaara defenses with rib bullets that just say ‘no’ to using magic and fucks his arrogant ass up. Saber and Lancer do some combo shenanigans to stab Caster right in the book and disrupt all his hentai tentacle demons but the book heals so idk why he can’t just make more. Kirei fucks up Maiya and Iris but didn’t double tap Maiya and DID double tap iris but she’s got Saber’s bullshit healing scabbard on her which no one knows about so Saber’s like “uhhh why are you healing” and Iris can’t tell her so she’s basically “Uhh internet?” Lancer comes in to save Kayneth’s worthless ass and tells Kiritsugu to stop being a dick to Saber because she’s pretty dope. But as usual for an early Fate encounter, no one dies and nothing of terrible consequence happens despite it being teased a couple times. I’ve noticed a trend with Fate that it really doesn’t like killing characters early so you’re basically guaranteed to have the first 2-3 major battles have a zero net gain/loss. Rider in UBW was probably the subversion to that since it happened crazy fast and anticlimactic but even that wasn’t till like ten episodes in.

Konosuba: So we finally meet Wiz the big booby Lich and Kazuma learns a new skill, both fun things. Also the gang gets a house to stay in after escapades with an army of haunted dolls and the most “I need to pee” in a horror setting since Corpse Party. But yeah, good progress this time honestly, the living in a stable gag was getting kind of old so Kazuma’s a bit stronger now and they have a home base so that’s pretty cool. Also Wiz is a Demon General or some shit but no one cares cause there ain’t no money in murdering busty zombie waifus.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So turns out Minako is Princess Serenity, except everyone who knows anything about Sailor Moon or indeed plot structure knows Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity, that’s like the Luke I Am Your Father of this series. But still turns out Minako has been guiding everyone with the power of video games but also thinks the power of friendship sucks and she’s gotta go do everything alone. This makes things super awkward because Mamoru’s pretty sure he was in love with the Princess but likes Usagi, now instead of running with this interesting thread of a reincarnation falling in love with someone new we’re gonna do the reveal that Usagi’s the princess and the whole ‘till death do us part’ part of marriage was just a metaphor and you’re stuck with one person no matter how many times you reincarnate. But yeah, Minako fights the bad guy on top of the tower but he has Naraku’s Barrier now and Minako doesn’t have the Red Tessaiga upgrade yet so she needs the power of friendship but this barrier is friendship-proof and this fight is basically a bunch of kids on the playground making up increasingly stupid powers that negate the other powers the other guy just made up. Anyway Tuxedo Mask shows up and is like “Holy shit Sailor Moon I love when you kiss me and kick ass, go get em sweetie I’ll hold your flower” and they kiss and Usagi has learned that if she just pretends she got this the power of her confidence will beat the bad guy. Unfortunately she does not got this and Tuxedo Mask has to pull a Piccolo and throw himself in front of the blast.

Durarara!!:  So now that we’ve had our climax for the arc we have a six month timeskip and everyone’s just kinda living life, Mika and Seiji are being clinically insane together, there’s cops harassing Celty to the point of mental breakdown (normal cop stuff) Shinra’s dad’s in town, Namie’s become Izaya’s secretary for blackmail shit, you know, normal stuff. Also there’s a katana-wielding maniac going around slashing people and Anri’s being bullied and sexually harassed to the point of mental collapse, normal stuff.

[ardenttheories]

Homestuck's always been antagonistic and insensitive, but I don't recall seeing any of you try to dox Hussie? But please, continue to rationalise how cyberbullying lgbt people for not being nice enough and having opinions about a fictional character you disagree with puts you in the right. A story doesn't go the way you'd like and this is how you respond? You COULD have just not bothered reading it instead of CHOOSING to make your online life about something you hate like a toxic weirdo.

Hi, Kate. I’m so glad you could find my blog. (Edit: that was a joke. Apparently, some anons find it impossible to tell that I don’t actually think you’re Kate). It’s clear to me that you didn’t take the time to read through any of the content that’s actually on here, since you’re throwing around rather wild accusations, so let me take this down step by step.

Homestuck has only rarely been antagonistic and insensitive. Things like the Alpha Trolls - which were clear criticisms of fandom culture - were relatively few and far between, and when we complained about them, they actually stopped. Remind me, for instance, how relevant the Alpha Trolls were to the plot? How long they stayed as mockeries towards the fandom? Yeah, not long. I actually have talked about this before on the blog - alongside other things I thought were negative towards the fandom from the original comic - but the difference here is that... in the entirety of Homestuck, these things were outliers and inconsistencies. They stuck out because they were in stark contrast to the otherwise wonderfully handled content Homestuck went over.

For instance, Homesuck is critical of abuse - especially in terms of relationships. We see through a critical lense the shit normalisation of parental abuse can do to a child - with actual talk of triggers and of the mental and emotional scarring left behind, and the complexities of the child’s feelings towards the parent’s death through Dave - and we see how self destructive relationships can be, how harmful they are, and how hard it can be to leave them - such as Terezi’s very toxic blackrom with Gamzee, which was always portrayed as something negative and harmful especially with how worried Karkat was for her and how withdrawn she became during its run, and Dirk’s relationship with Jake, which goes very much over how communication can cause a deterioration in romantic relationships especially when the two participants have conflicting mental illnesses. 

It also goes over how men, though they can be mired in toxic masculinity, can choose to be good. How sometimes we’re not born as good people, but we can become good people through the love we have for the people around us, through frequent attempts to check what we’re doing, through the sheer willpower to be good. Dirk’s entire arc, knowing that he could very easily become Bro but deciding he doesn’t want to be, that it’s something he wants to work on, is so important and incredibly powerful. Mental illness in men is often just given as an excuse to make them violent with no attempts at betterment - so Dirk actually existed as proof that you don’t have to be that stereotype. 

In contrast, Homestuck^2 completely uncritically gave Jade, who was cis, a dog dick, made her, a bisexual woman, a sex maniac and the yaoi “woman who gets in the way of the gays” trope, made her a cheater and someone who forced her partner into the relationship to begin with, and made her a neglectful mother after having cheated with her best lesbian friend in something that has incredible recall to just about every futanari video ever - and they tried to claim that this was good representation of trans women, actually, and that the only reason we didn’t like it is that Jade is “a woman” who “has sex”.

Likewise completely uncritically, they made Gamzee, an anti-black stereotype, enter a relationship with Jane, a fascist, and then made the entire thing into a cuck joke wherein Jake being frequently drunk and sexually assaulted was funny because he wasn’t “man enough”. They then forced him to go back to his abuser after he left her in a scene that read very much like, “ridiculous man thinks woman is abusing him, go back and do your manly job”. 

This, of course, doesn’t even go into the travesty that is any form of trans representation in the comic. Roxy, a trans man, is barely even focused on as trans; they make no attempt to enforce in the fandom that he’s a trans man the way they do that June is a trans woman, and even then, they seem to think that just saying someone is a trans woman is actually good representation. Not, like, bringing it into the comic - just saying that it’s a thing. And of course, that’s not even going into the completely uncritical lense they have of Vriska, wherein her being a trans woman completely frees her of any and all blame for the past abuses she has comitted, and once again she becomes an amazing character to save the day without a single flaw - which in turn inherently associates trans women with abuse apologism, abusers, and the ideology that just because we’re trans we can get away with anything scott free. 

I honestly cannot think of one instance of good and genuine representation in Homesuck^2, nor can I think of any scene where negative content was actually treated as the negative thing it actually is. There’s no critical lense at all, not like we have in Homestuck; there’s just no fucking comparison. And this isn’t a one-off situation, either. Whereas Homestuck does do fuck ups - isn’t perfect - in between the otherwise brilliant content, Homestuck^2 is just founded upon these horrific takes. There’s almost no good content in between, and what is left is a slog to get through when surrounded by the thick slurry of shit that compromises futa Jade, abuse apologism Vriska, and victim blaming Jake. 

Of course, we didn’t “doxx” Hussie. Hussie actually listened to our complaints, for the most part, and worked with us to create something that worked well. The way Homestuck^2 was touted to work. You know, since it was meant to be written with the fandom in mind, influenced by the things we suggest and react to. We went into Homestuck^2 with the explicit idea that we were going to be listened to and taken into consideration when it was being written - the way we were with old Homestuck. I’m very sorry to say that, when you make these expectations, people are going to be a titchy bit upset when you then commandeer the entire thing and exclude the fandom from any of the process that you said they were going to be part of.

Additionally, it’s rather funny, isn’t it, that what you call doxxing is actually just people upset with how triggering content is being handled, and going to the people who actually wrote the content in order to voice their complaints? It’s almost as if social media exists to allow this communication between reader and author, which is a fundamental thing you’ll learn in any creative writing course, such as the one I’m on currently, wherein you’re actually taught how to respond to social media and to build up your image with your fans. 

Homestuck^2 is an ongoing piece of media. We’re well aware that we have a potential to change these uncritical takes and the horrific way they’re being handled if the writers will just listen to genuine criticism. This is, frankly, no different to the people who go to J. K. Rowling’s Twitter to tell her how harmful her transphobic comments are; because if she believes these things, they will work their way into her texts and will perpetuate harmful ideologies. 

The literal same thing is happening in Homestuck^2 - again, such as futa Jade, which normalises the point of view that bisexuals are cheaters and completely trivialises what it means to be trans, or Gamzee, which perpetuates just about every anti-black stereotype possible. Media does have a very powerful impact on what people see in the real world. This is why, for instance, positive black characters are so important in media; if they’re always portrayed as villains, then people will see real world black people as villains as the ideology is perpetuated to the point of fact. This is especially true if the people already believe in the ideology.

Fiction is one of the best ways that we can counteract this cycle. If you make a character that they like, and they happen to be positive representation, and then they watch more media that is likewise positive representation, it’s more likely to stick that these positive representations are the actual experiences of minority groups. Also? It’s important TO those minority groups. A black person, especially right now, doesn’t want to see an anti-black stereotype fuck a fascist, engage in sexual assult, and then enact pedophilia - only to die at the hands of a hero and be laughed at for the death. Surprisingly, shit like this is why we need to tell the writers that what they’re doing is harmful, that they’re perpetuating phobic ideologies, and that we need better representation - especially in a comic that is this widely read, and also has a very large minor fanbase. 

I shouldn’t need to explain why exposing minors to anti-black stereotypes, transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, abuse apologism, victim blaming, and the trivialisation of rape and sexual assault (especially towards men), might be a federal fucking issue. 

So, no, we’re not actually cyberbullying LGBT+ people. We’re trying to hold shitty writers accountable for the incredibly toxic and harmful ideologies they’re forcing into a text that has always been written with critical thought in mind. 

I should also point out how funny it is that you’re focusing on how some of the writers are LGBT+ - as if we’re not? I’m trans, I’m gay, and I’m ace. Yes, I can actually be these things and absolutely furious that a trans women is writing some of the most transphobic shit I’ve seen in a while into characters she then claims to be completely free of blame. We can be furious that people within our own community are enforcing negative stereotypes.

Being LGBT+ does not make them free from blame. We cannot give them a free pass to be racist, to be transphobic, to be homophobic, biphobic, to be abuse apologists, just because they’re LGBT+. Not only because that’s just a terrible fucking idea to begin with, but because it also reflects so, so badly on the community as a whole. As if being part of the community instantly means that you can do no wrong? As if there can be no toxicity within our own community, despite the fact that there very much is and it is still an issue to this day?

That is such an issue, one of the biggest issues even shown just in Vriska and the way Kate handles her as a whole - and, once again, is WHY we need to get them looking at this shit more critically. This view that LGBT+ people can do no wrong and cannot be criticised is shoved into Homestuck^2 and, once again, perpetuates the ideology. This isn’t something to be proud of. This isn’t something that’s actually okay.

Also, your point that the writers aren’t nice enough and that we disagree on fictional characters - well, I’ve already been over the second part. But for the first part, I would like to remind you that they aren’t just random LGBT+ people on the internet that we’re going to because we think their takes are a little shitty. They’re actual writers working on a piece of media. They are official content creators. 

Again, one of the first things you learn on any creative writing course is that when you become a writer, you gain a significant amount of responsibility for your interactions with the fandom. This is something that you genuinely have to expect, and if you don’t, then, unfortunately you just don’t know what it means to write something that thousands of people have a potential to read. As a writer, it is your responsibility to portray your image online; it is your responsibility to engage with the fans in a meaningful way; it is your responsibility to not cause drama and to listen when criticism is brought up, to have genuine discussion and not to perpetuate hatred - especially towards your own fanbase.

Consider, for instance, the way I’m talking to you right now. This is the sort of tone that someone should take when talking to a fan about genuine criticism. When things are brought up, you go over them step by step, you listen, you write back - you don’t go on a flurry of “fuck yous” to a minor who asked you why your team didn’t post anything about the BLM movement on the official Twitter, and you definitely don’t respond to every comment with genuine criticism with the word “pigshit”. You almost definitely don’t tell your trans masculine and masculine-aligned nonbinary fans that their opinions don’t matter.

As a writer, Kate and the rest of the team have a responsibility with their interactions with their fans. They aren’t just normal fandom voices anymore; they’re official fandom voices, voices that have more weight behind them than anyone else. They’re who people are going to turn to when it comes to anything regarding Homestuck^2. Their words now reflect literally everything about Homestuck^2, the future of Homestuck as an expanded universe, and the opinions of the group as a whole. They have to be careful with what they say. They have to be held to the same standards as industry voices because that’s essentially what they are - especially now that Homestuck is something you pay for. 

Also, this isn’t a point of the story not going the way I want. This is a point of many of people in the fandom being upset with how content is being handled, upset that their voices are being shut down, upset that triggering content is being laughed at or used flippantly and without care or respect. This is people being upset that trigger warnings were removed specifically to make the comic unsafe for them as a punishment for daring to say that something was wrong. This is people being upset that a piece of media that used to be so fucking good at portraying sensitive content in a critical light, that used to be so good at normalising LGBT+ identities and healthy representations of those identities, has suddenly turned to this. 

The story can go whatever way it wants - and frankly, that’s fine be my. What isn’t fine is that content is being used specifically to hurt and to incite.

And, of course, that final piece; nothing will improve if we don’t say that it’s wrong to begin with. Someone needs to voice the complaints of the fanbase, othrewise these toxic ideologies are going to go unchecked. One of the biggest things I’ve come to understand while making these posts is that a significant portion of the fandom feels isolated in their hurt; they don’t think other people feel the same way they do, and several people have mentioned feeling like they were going crazy because they were upset with things that the text and writers are normalising. It’s so important to make sure that these people know they’re not alone. It’s so important to make sure that our voices are heard. It’s so important to try and create critical discussion and debate over something that so many people still fucking love. 

The thing is, I don’t hate Homestuck^2. I actually really, desperately wish I could enjoy it. I wish I could read through it and theorise, could go in depth about how amazing the characters are, could write long and extensive posts on how creative and engaging it is - could even just go on about how interesting the Meat-Candy divide is, and all the points they’re trying to make about canonicity. But I genuinely fucking can’t. There is just so, so much wrong in the text that is completely unrelated to plot and to the overarching Point that makes it impossible for me to read, to want to read, to try to encourage other people to read. They’re things that literally don’t need to be in there, either; stereotypes and toxic ideologies and uncritical or badly handled sensitive topics that could be rectified so, so easily. 

Homestuck^2 could be amazing for a lot of the fandom. It could be something that we all rally around the same way we did for the original comic. For for a lot of people, it has ruined their fandom experience, has ruined their desire to want to read anything more to do with Homestuck, and has caused a significant portion of the fandom to just drop out entirely. That in and of itself should be a sign that this isn’t just a little fandom drama. That this is something much bigger and much more serious that, just maybe, needs to be looked into, talked about, understood - and, potentially, changed. 

[thechosenburrito]

The Heart Gambit (Dennor): 3-One-Way Screen

Word count: 1,480

Summary: Mathias and Lukas look for Emil after he ditched them. Will Mathias be able to apologize to Lukas and get to know him better? Author's Note: Yay next chapter! Sorry, it's a little late...again. I've had a lot of school work so I try to write these whenever I have time. I hope you like this chapter and do leave me some feedback so I can keep getting better! Warning: Brief mention of Blood Previous: 2-The Arbiter --- Mathias followed Lukas out the door, who was still rubbing his elbow from the fall. It took Mathias a bit before he figured that he should go after him and took off out of the bar after paying his tab. Lukas was quickly walking past shops and heading towards a nearby park. "Hey wait!' Mathias called out, jogging to catch up to him.

Lukas peaked over his shoulder picked up his pace when he spotted Mathias. Mathias easily caught up to him and started following at Luka's side. They walked silently through the park for what seemed to be the world's longest minute before Lukas broke the awkward silence. "I can't talk right now I'm looking for my brother. Besides, why would I want to talk to you?" Lukas huffed. Mathias looked away. "I...yeah... I get that. But I'm looking for him too! Emil totally ditched me back there!" "What the hell was he doing hanging out with you?" Lukas asked, stopping dead in tracks. "We were grabbing drinks when he left right before you showed up!" "Right before...Damn it!" Lukas pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned up against a nearby tree. "He's always doing this! Trying to set me up with people because he thinks I need to 'socialize' or whatever. Honestly, he's either waiting nearby because he knew I'd figure it out, or he's back at the hotel waiting for me that dumb smug grin-" Lukas paused, and started patting his at his pockets. "No....no... no no no! Shit!" Lukas cried. "I don't have my hotel key! Now I actually have to... ugh!". "Look I'm sorry that Emil dragged you into this mess but I really don't feel like dealing with you right now so feel free to go about your business and pretend this never happened. Though, I also wouldn't be surprised if you used this in some kind of insane 'ad campaign' against me or whatever you do for extra cash nowadays." Mathias took a breath to respond, but couldn't find the right words despite his best efforts. Lukas rolled his eyes and started walking away. "Wait!" Mathias called, grabbing Lukas by the shoulder. But he must've grabbed Lukas a little too hard because he pulled him so close their chests almost touched. "Oh sorry...sorry! I wanted to say I'm sorry!" Mathias managed to blurt out. Lukas was in the middle of shoving Mathias's arm off of him but stopped at the sound of Mathias's admittedly awful apology. Mathias pulled his hand away and felt a little heat rise to his cheeks. "I...look I know I come off as an asshole and it's fair of you to think that...I'm an asshole....but I want you to know that a lot of it's because I'm trying to keep up a kinda image thing. I mean... I wasn't at first...but lately, I just don't feel like it's me anymore...ANYWAY! sorry that was loud but I'm sorry for the interview....what I said...I don't actually think you're a no-life nerd or anything like that...they just wanted me to-" "Alright! Um...it's ok. Don't hurt yourself." Mathias finally took a look at Lukas's face and saw that he was completely flustered. His face was bright red and he was desperately trying not to make eye contact with him. Mathias felt his heart skip a beat. "Look, I forgive you...I guess. And if you want to come with me to help me find my dumb brother ... you can... just don't be weird." Lukas said, taking a step back. Mathias beamed. "Aw sweet! Let's go then!" Mathias yelled, dragging Norway by the arm further into the park. "OK, YOU'RE BEING WEIRD!" Lukas cried out as he tried to keep up. "Emil! Come out come out wherever you are! Lukas and I are the bestest of buddies now!" "No, we're not!!!" Mathias dragged Emil all over the park screaming Emil's name. It didn't take long for Lukas to pulls his hand away from Mathias so he could stop and catch his breath. "We've been at this... forever!... He's clearly not here!..." Lukas said, between breaths. Mathias raised an eyebrow. "We've only been looking for 5 minutes." "5 minutes!?" he cried, kneeling on the ground. "Dude...I know I said I felt bad for calling you a 'no-life loser', but .... when's the last time you've run?" "Shut up!" Lukas stood up and dusted himself off, face flushed from running. If Mathias's heart wasn't going to jump out of his chest before, it certainly was now. Lukas just looked so ... uh... nice... when he was flustered. Not cute or anything! Certainly not that! "Look if we're going to find him we're doing it at my way! So no more dragging me

around! We'll just walk normally!" Lukas said in a bit of a huff. "Aw! But it was so much fun!" he said with a playful pout. "God, you're such a child. Just follow me." Lukas said, taking the lead. "Ok then!" The two walked silently for a while. Mathias took in the sights of the park. The sun was beginning to set and he watched as the sky was starting to turn pink and orange. The last light of day was showering the whole world in warm golden hues. He looked over at Lukas. The golden hour light made his eyes shine and his skin looked like it was glowing. Mathias felt sick to his stomach. It couldn't be the dreaded "L" word, could it? No...it couldn't. He was just some...guy. AND he just met him. There was no way! But there was just something about Lukas. His bright eyes, his messy blond hair, and... Mathias noticed that Lukas had a little bit of a scowl. His smile. Mathias desperately wanted to see Lukas smile. But even for all of that, he couldn't place why being around him made his heart beat a little more. He huffed. Lukas would never in a million years have any kind of feelings towards him besides "low-level-tolerance". So why couldn't he Lukas out of his head! He felt his shoe hit a crack in the sidewalk. He stumbled forward and crashed onto the ground hard. "Ow!" "How the hell did you miss that crack!? It's huge! Did you lose your last two brain cells earlier or something?" Lukas asked, crossing his arms. Mathias grinned. He rolled onto his back and placed his hand on his chest. "Oh god! This is the end for me! I'm dying!" he cried, dramatically. "God, can you be any louder? You're acting like a child," Lukas reached his hand out to Mathias. "Here. Just get up!" Denmark stuck his hand out, purposely make it shakey, as if he were an old man. Mathias felt his face heat up again. He couldn't let Lukas see! He grabbed Lukas's hand and attempted to pull him to the ground next to him. This was a bad call, as all Mathais managed to do was pull Lukas right on top of him. "Ah!" Lukas's head crashed right into his own, and Mathias felt a sharp pain in his forehead by his hairline. Mathias felt Lukas's chest on his own, the warmth would've made him blush like mad, but the pain in his forehead was getting worse. "Ow! My teeth! What the hell was that for!?" Lukas said with his hand over his mouth. Lukas looked up at Mathias and jumped. Mathias pressed his hand to his hand where the pain was. "What!?" Mathias pulled his hand away. It was covered in bright red blood. "DUDE DID YOU JUST BITE MY HEAD???" "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PULLED ME ONTO YOU LIKE A MANIAC!!!" Lukas pushed himself off of Mathias and got up. "You seriously need medical attention! We should get you to the hospital!" Lukas cried, helping Mathias to his feet. "No way!" Mathias yelled. "If I go to the hospital the press will just eat it up! It'll be all over the news that you took a bite out of my head like a zombie!" Mathias desperately tried to covered his cut with his hands. "Well, you need some kind of medical help! Come on! I'm pretty sure I have bandages or something back at the hotel room." "Good because I don't think I have anything like that at mine." "God, how do you even function?" "Wait...I....I can't go back to your room!" Mathias said, blushing and turning away. "What if someone sees me there! Then we're right back to square one! Plus that kinda embarrassing!" "How is that embarrassing? We're both adults. We'll just use the back entrance or something. Look this is the last offer. Let me help you or I'll leave you here to bleed out!" "Ok geez! Let's hurry tho! It's getting all over my clothes!" --- Next Chapter: 4-Treat me like a Fool a/n: I'm so excited to be writing this! Poor Denmark! He got hurt this time! I hope he gets better soon! I’m going to take this time to plug my non-hetalia work “ Intro to Love ” about a college student who struggles to keep her superpowers a secret and while making new friends.  How much of her normal life will she give up to save her friends

from a mysterious villain that drains students’ brains and turns them into zombies? The complete Chapter 1 is out NOW! And Chapter 2.1-'The last of the Good Days' will be out soon! Thanks again for reading! Send some feedback my way! Can’t wait to continue this story! Quotev link: here

[marjansmarwani]

Trouble Will Come

Chapter 3/4 (Chapter 4 is up now!)

Word Count: 3027

[Read on Ao3]

[Chapter 1]    [Chapter 2]  

Ever since TK had been caught up in Austin’s latest serial bomber’s attack, Carlos has thrown himself into looking for the mysterious bomber. He had watched his boyfriend almost die at the hands of this maniac, and he needed to do everything he could to make sure that never happened again. It makes him feel better, helps to counteract the helplessness he felt in that moment.

What he didn’t expect was to actually find him, and to be trapped with him and a bomb in another abandoned factory. Now he just wants to make it out alive, because he is pretty sure TK will find a way to kill him if he doesn’t.

Chapter Summary: A look back inside to see how Carlos and his new friend with the bomb are doing.

--------

To say today wasn’t going well would be an understatement. 

“Do I at least get to know the name of the guy who’s about to kill me with a bomb?”  Carlos asked from his position on the floor. He had been directed to sit and stay where the man could see him as he worked; one hand clutching the gun, the other working methodically with the wires on the explosives in the duffel. 

He kept running through scenarios in his head; testing out different approaches, considering different outcomes. So far he kept running into the same problem: in most of the scenarios, the odds of him getting shot were too high for his liking. He just didn’t know enough about this man or the situation to make any rash decisions. For all Carlos knew this guy was the “shoot first ask questions later” type and Carlos would really love to not get shot today. He had plans later, thank you very much.  

The man glared, “you wouldn’t have to die if you hadn’t poked your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Well, if action was out; that just left talk. Fortunately, Carlos was good at talk. 

Carlos held up his hands placatingly, “Unfortunately it happened, and we’re here now and there’s nothing I can do about that. But  since we’re stuck here, maybe we could chat; and that would be a lot easier if I knew your name.”

The man paused in his tinkering. He considered for a long, silent moment before he looked back to Carlos. “It’s Jared,” he said before returning his attention to the mechanics before him.

Carlos added a tick to the ‘pro’ column in his head: he had given him a name; that meant there was a possibility to build a connection. And a connection might just mean he could find a way out of this that did not end in a body bag.

“Do you want to tell me why these buildings need to be destroyed Jared?” he asked slowly. 

He was met with silence, so he tried again. “I can see you have a mission, but I’ll be honest with you Jared, none of us can quite figure out what it is. And - I could be wrong - but I thought that the point of most bombings was to deliver a message. Unfortunately, none of us have been able to figure out what yours is yet.” 

More silence. 

Carlos tried again, voice tighter with frustration, “What good is a mission if it’s private, Jared?”

The silence that met his question was louder this time. Carlos realized with a start that Jared had stopped tinkering. He seemed to be considering something. The silence stretched for several more long moments before Jared finally spoke, his raspy voice matter of fact as he said, “They need to pay.” 

Carlos blinked. That wasn’t at all what he had expected. As far as he knew, these buildings were abandoned. No used them, and if they had owners, they certainly weren’t worrying too much about upkeep. 

“Who needs to pay Jared?”

“Them, the company - Gall Corp.” 

Now Carlos frowned. That name did sound vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t remember anything specific about it. “Why do they need to pay Jared?” he asked in a measured voice. 

“Because they destroyed my life!” 

Gone was his calm demeanor; the man in front of Carlos was now filled with rage. The hand holding the screwdriver was shaking; the hand holding the gun even more so. Carlos backpedaled, looking for something to say to placate him. 

“I’m sure they did, I’m sorry,” he replied evenly, all the while watching Jared nervously. His words seemed to have the desired effect; his hands stopped shaking and he calmed ever so slightly. 

“They did,” he insisted. “They threw me out of my job, left me with nothing. Do you know what it’s like to have nothing?” 

“I don’t,” he answered honestly.

Jared nodded grimly, “if you did then maybe you’d understand.” 

Truly, Carlos mused, there was only one thing in his life that he could truly not live without, and that thing had almost been taken from him by the very many standing in front of him. Though Carlos had to admit, the nervous twitchy man before him was nothing like the villain he had been concocting in his head. 

As Jared returned his attention to the duffel, Carlos finally asked the question that had been on his mind ever since the dust had settled at the last bomb, “Did you want to hurt people with your last bomb?”

Jared looked up sharply, “Why do you ask that?” 

Carlos met his gaze, studying him to gauge his reaction; “because two firefighters almost died in that explosion. They were there because someone had called in for a welfare check on some suspected squatters. No one knows for sure, but a lot of people think that maybe that was done on purpose.”

Jared blinked at him. He was quiet for a long moment before he finally shrugged, “I’m sorry those firefighters got hurt. That wasn’t my intention. I didn’t plan for anyone to be there.” 

“So you didn’t make the call?”

Jared shook his head, “No,” he insisted adamantly, “they could have gotten in the way. Everything must be perfect; they need to be destroyed.” 

Carlos studied him, “So why are you doing it again? The same thing could have happened today, or the next time. If you don’t want to hurt people, why are you still setting up bombs?” 

“I need to destroy them; they need to pay.” 

The statement was said matter of factly, Jared barely even glancing up from his work. A chill ran down Carlos’s spine. Maybe Jared wasn’t actively looking to hurt anyone, but he was not concerned by any collateral damage in the slightest. He did seem to care who got hurt, as long as he accomplished his goal. 

Which did not bode well for Carlos at the moment. 

If he wanted to get out of this alive, he was going to need to act fast. He couldn’t let this play out. He glanced at Jared, who was still working diligently on his package. What he needed was a distraction. He needed something to shift Jared’s focus just enough that he could--- 

The sound of Carlos’s phone ringing cut through the tense silence. They both startled, Jared pulling his focus from his bomb back to Carlos. 

“What is that?” he asked tensely. 

Carlos spoke slowly, making sure to keep his voice even, “That’s my phone. I’m sure there are people outside here now, and I’m sure that they want to talk to you. Will you talk to them?” 

Jared looked startled, “I don’t want to talk to anyone,” he said, “I just want to finish and go home.” 

“I can’t make any promises, but maybe if you talk to them we can work something out.” 

Jared put down his tools and stepped away from the duffel bag, walking over to Carlos. He held out his hand and Carlos placed his ringing phone in it, the screen flashing an unknown number. Jared took it, studying it as if weighing his options. Carlos let him silently consider; feeling a rush of adrenaline when he noticed that the hand holding the gun had gone lax in his concentration. 

He was distracted and the gun wasn’t pointed at Carlos’s face - if he was going to act, now was the time. 

He lunged forward, springing up from his position on the floor without a second thought. He acted on instinct; going to tackle Jared, aiming to bring him down. Unfortunately, the other man reacted far more quickly than Carlos had anticipated. There was a deafening bang and a sudden pain that spread like fire. 

He crumbled to the ground, clutching his throbbing left arm to his chest. He had been shot; Jared had just shot him in the arm. That solitary thought and the while hot pain were all Carlos could focus on. He was dimly aware of angry words being shouted, of a steel-toed boot kicking his ribs, forcing him to turn onto his back. The ache of the kick barely registered - every fiber of his being and every nerve in his body was centered on this white-hot pain. 

Jared was still shouting, but now he was standing above Carlos; glaring down at him with fury in his eyes. Once he was sure Carlos was watching his lifted the ringing phone to show him, before throwing it to the ground and smashing it with the same boot that had assaulted his side a moment before. 

Carlos closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to focus; losing his head was not going to help anything. He had already read Jared wrong once - he wouldn’t be so lucky again. He needed to pay attention; he couldn’t afford to be anything less than his best. It was the only way he might survive this (though, given recent developments, his optimism for such an outcome had significantly dwindled). 

He opened his eyes and focused back on Jared; his angry words finally piercing the haze, “You made me do this - if you had done what you were told this wouldn’t have happened!” 

Carlos cleared his throat before he spoke,  willing his voice to sound stronger than he felt, “You can’t blame me for trying though, right?”

Jared did not look impressed. “Just stay here and don’t fucking move. I’ve already shot you once, don’t make me do it again - the next time, it’ll be a headshot.” 

Carlos nodded and Jared scowled at him one last time before turning on his heel and going back to the duffel of explosives.

Carlos took the opportunity to close his eyes again and will his heart into a more steady rhythm. He had sorely underestimated this guy. Carlos had thought he was skittish, easily startled, and overpowered. He had underestimated him and he had paid the price. He pulled himself up into a sitting position, leaning heavily on the pole behind him for support. He gently removed his arm from its protective embrace against his chest and peered at it. 

It didn’t look good, to put it plainly. 

Carlos counted himself lucky that the bullet had missed the artery.  The fact that it was not an arterial bleed meant he might have hours, not minutes. Still; it was gushing blood at an alarming rate. He managed to rip a section off his uniform shirt to wind tightly around the wound in the best impersonation of a pressure bandage he could muster. Even with the tightly wound covering and his hand pressed firmly on top, blood still seeped out and ran down his arm. 

He flicked his gaze from the wound to Jared; who had returned back to his duffel. Yes, he had underestimated him. He hadn’t expected him to actually go through with shooting him. But Carlos was certain he had not read him wrong during their initial conversation. He wanted these buildings gone and he was willing to do anything to do it, but he didn’t want to kill anyone if he didn’t have to. That had to be his way out. If he could appeal to that...well, maybe he would live to see the outside of this place again. 

“You haven’t killed anyone yet Jared,” Carlos said as evenly as he could with his voice tight from pain. “But that changes today if you keep me here. If you don’t diffuse that bomb and let me walk out of here, my death will be on your conscious. Either from that bomb or from blood loss, because I’m going to be honest with you Jared; if I don’t get help for this bullet wound soon, I am not going to make it. Do you want my death on your conscious Jared? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you want me to die?” 

Jared was quiet as he looked at the bomb, running his hands over the wires. Carlos could see his resolve wavering. He changed tactics. 

“We can find another way to destroy these buildings Jared; a way that doesn’t put so much at risk. That’s all you want right, for these buildings to be gone? Let me help you find another way.” 

The only sound in the room was the sound of their breaths and the light dripping of Carlos’s blood onto the cement below him. The makeshift bandage was completely saturated now; the blood was slowly beginning to form a puddle on the floor. He had meant what he said to Jared - this wound was not good. He had spent too many years with a paramedic for a friend to not know what fatal bloodloss looked like. He wasn’t there yet, but it was only a matter of time. 

And time isn’t something he had a lot of right now. 

“Okay,” Jared finally said. 

Carlos whipped his head up to look back at Jared, who had lowered the gun. “Okay,” he repeated, “as long as those buildings are gone, I’ll leave with you. I don’t care how it happens, I just want them gone.” 

Carlos sucked in a deep breath, hardly willing to believe his luck. “That’s great Jared,” he said evenly, “can you diffuse the bomb so I know for sure no one else will get hurt? Then we can go.” 

Jared nodded and bent over the duffel. A few moments later he straightened up. “I’m ready,” was all he said. He walked over to Carlos and handed him the gun, “Let’s go.” 

Carlos stared at him for a long moment before he shook himself. He could not believe that had actually worked, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Now was the time to get the fuck out here and that is exactly what Carlos intended to do. 

He pulled himself off the floor, groaning as he did so. He swayed as he made it to his feet; the sudden change in elevation coupled with the blood loss nearly toppling him back down. He flung out an arm to the nearby pole and steadied himself. He took measured breaths, willing his equilibrium to return. Finally, his vision stopped swimming and he straightened up. He picked up the gun Jared had dropped and checked the safety before slipping it into his belt. Then he raised his eyes to the man in question, hovering by the doorway uncertainly. 

“I’m assuming it’s a given that you’re under arrest and will be formally taken into custody as soon as we get out of here.”

Jared nodded meekly and Carlos tried to pull himself up straighter. “Ater you then,” he said drily, gesturing towards the doorway, 

Jared exited into the main hallway and Carlos followed close behind. Every step jostled his wound and sent a new wave a throbbing pain down his arm and into his body, but he gritted his teeth and kept moving forward. When they neared the doorway he gestured for Jared to stop.

“There will be police right outside that door, and they don’t know what’s going on. I need you to stay next to me, and we’re going to exit at the same time with our hands up so they know we’re unarmed, okay?” 

Jared nodded meekly and Carlos gave him a small, tight smile. Then he raised his good arm up and Jared followed suit. Then they both crossed through the doorway into the commotion. Carlos squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight after hours in a dim room, but even through his obscured gaze, he could see every eye turn to them. It was quiet for a beat before chaos broke out anew. 

There was a barricade separating where he had been from reality; on the other side was a mass of people and lights and uniforms, and his friends. He could see Michelle, her face already furrowed as she pulled together medical supplies no doubt preparing herself to take care of his wound and give him a lecture about scaring her.  He could see Mya and Owen standing side by side, wearing matching expressions of worry. 

Mya placed a hand on Owen’s shoulder before moving forward with the small group of officers moving to intercept them. Their gazes met and he gave her a small smile that was returned with a scowl that let him know he was in for a talk about not scaring your partner half to death; though even from here he could see the worry and fear in every bit of her body language. 

He allowed himself to relax. They were outside, his friends were here; he had made it. 

He put down his arm and quickened his pace. He was ready to get out of here - he wouldn’t even fight Michelle on the ambulance this time. The pain from his arm was making his head fuzzy and he wanted to go home. He wanted to see his friends; he wanted to hold TK with his one working arm. 

He wanted to be the one to tell him they had got the guy; he wanted to let him know that whatever he had gone through today would be worth it if it meant that TK’s would-be murderer was facing justice. He wanted to be able to bask in the fact that they were both safe and alive.

Instead, several things happened at once. 

Carlos heard a thundering boom from behind him and saw Mya’s eyes widen a split second later. He turned to look; to see what had happened, but he never got the chance. A wall of heat hit him at the same moment as an unknown force knocked him from his feet. He crashed the ground, instinctively throwing his good arm over his head in instinct. He felt a sharp pain as his wounded arm was pinned under his body and countless smaller pains over the rest of his body. There was a ringing in his ears, and the feeling of being pelted by he knew not what. 

Then there was darkness, and he knew no more. 

[Read on Ao3 - and maybe leave a comment if you’d like]

[perditaalottachocolate-blog]

Oops, I Did It Again!

I can finally share this fic with you here! Or rather share the fact that this was actually my work. How many of you suspected that? 

I want to thank all the people who made this event possible and took their time for it to happen! Anyway, this was fun so I hope you liked it, or you will once you read it ;) Check out other fics from the Who’s Who pt. 2 challenge as well, if you haven’t. And now without further ado:

Summary:  Oops! Leaving an akuma unattended is not a good idea, especially when you’re Hawkmoth. Gabriel learns it the hard way, inadvertently saving the day in the process. He hadn’t planned to make a habit out of it, but of course when he starts playing with akumas, trying to save his assistant, his son or Adrien’s admirer (who Gabriel’s been trying to akumatize, no to avail), somehow he becomes an accidental hero of Paris. He even manages to knock some sense into his own kin and put an evil Italian girl to shame at the same time. All in a day’s work for Paris’ bravest civilian.

AO3 / fanfiction.net

***

“Adrien, duck!” Gabriel yelled at the top of his lungs. 

THUD!

Oops. A boulder the size of a bus smashed to the left of where his son had been just seconds earlier . Gabriel paled at the thought of what could have been had Adrien had slower reflexes. The agility from the fencing and karate workouts apparently paid off.

THUD!

Another rumble reminded him that it was time to run, not ponder upon the various extracurriculars Adrien attended. 

“Father!” he heard his son’s panicky voice. “Look o-”

Smash! He ran face first into a leathery wall. 

Squish! Gigantean fingers closed over him and lifted him off the ground.

Akuma: 1; Gabriel:0.

He cursed inwardly as the giant lumbered through the streets. Each step thundered between the old walls and raised clouds of dust, making Gabriel’s eyes water.

“Father?” he heard Adrien’s muffled voice nearby. He squinted to the side. 

His son was trapped similarly to him in an enormous fist of the monster. Only the mop of blond hair stuck out from behind the green fingers. 

“I’m here!” Gabriel called and the blond mop sighed in relief. 

“Any ideas how we escape?” Adrien asked.

Gabriel bit his lip as he considered their situation. He felt a bit responsible. It wasn’t entirely his fault, but seeing as he was the one who released the akuma in the first place he couldn’t claim he was not to blame. It would be much easier to say that it was Mademoiselle Rossi’s fault - and it was, to a degree...

After all she ’ d been the one to drop by the mansion uninvited and to force his bodyguard to let her in. Then she bullied Nathalie into letting her meet the boss immediately . His assistant knew perfectly well he’d been busy with his other project, but apparently Lila had been extremely persuasive.

The way Nathalie passed on her request made Hawkmoth sigh in exasperation, drop his transformation and rush to his study, the freshly released akuma left to its own devices. And why had Lila come under the pretence of “discussing her appearance” at the new collection’s premiere? To badmouth Marinette and her “uninspired creations”. Again .

Gabriel would rub the bridge of his nose in irritation, had his hands not been pressed to his sides inside the trap. He’d known for a while that Lila had been holding a significant grudge against Adrien’s pigtailed friend. Which, if you’d asked Gabriel could mean only one thing - she must have been terribly and utterly jealous. Gabriel had yet to meet a more talented, modest, polite, kind and considerate teenager, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he desperately needed a successful champion, he’d be happy to nudge Adrien in Marinette’s direction. Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng would make an excellent girlfriend, and dare Gabriel say an even finer daughter-in-law. 

Maybe he was going out on a limb here, since Adrien stubbornly claimed Marinette was his friend, and a good friend only, but just one look at the gooey eyes his son was making at the mere mention of the girl told a quite different story.

But he digressed once again, pondering on how exactly had he and Adrien ended up in two of the four hands of Hawkmoth’s newest creation.

The truth was he had no idea who accepted the akuma, what were their reasons, motivation or even powers. This was Startrain all over again. Gabriel hated being helpless, a victim at the heroes’ mercy. Yet here he was, trapped, waiting for the rescue. 

Although… maybe this wasn’t Startrain? After all, even if he couldn’t control the akuma, he was still here. He could act. Who needs the heroes anyway? (He did, but only because he wanted to play with their toys for a bit). 

Gabriel concentrated, analyzing the villain’s size, posture and looks. He listened closely to the constant muttering of the beast he hitherto had been ignoring. He took notice of the direction they were headed. He assessed his resources, considering if Adrien would be of assistance. Finally, he crafted a plan. 

Step one, bite.

“YOOOOOWL!” the villain bellowed.

He smirked. Akuma:1; Gabriel:1.

***

“How does it feel to save the day? We’re about to find out,” the reporter chirped to the microphone. “Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news.” She winked to the camera. “We’re at the Grand Palais, waiting for the newest collection from Gabriel to hit the runway, but all everyone talks about this week is the bravery and aptitude of none other than the fashion mogul, the owner and creator of the Gabriel brand, Monsieur Agreste himself.” 

The cameraman turned to him and Gabriel suppressed a groan. This was so typical. You pull just one miraculous rescue before Ladybug can save your butt, and suddenly you’re a national hero. Still, you don’t look a gift horse, that is publicity, in the mouth. You just roll with it or whatever kids say nowadays.

“All in a day’s work,” he drawled, minding to keep his voice modest yet confident. This wasn’t the first interview that followed his reckless stunt and despite the fact that he’d just been reiterating the same speech, journalists didn’t seem to get nearly enough of “Paris’ bravest civilian hero”. 

Nathalie, who’d been shadowing him for the time of final preparations for the show, gave him a short nod and disappeared in the crowd. It was time to launch their concurrent plan, the sole reason this new collection even got a show in the first place. 

Gabriel kept the reporters properly busy so that no one would notice the little blue feather floating harmlessly towards the intended goal: the pink purse of one very stressed Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who fidgeted nervously at the edge of her seat, waiting for another of her original creations to feature in a Gabriel show. Nathalie had made sure Adrien’s friend got her fill of the Bourgeois’ finest brand of malice, which would put her in that fragile, disturbed state perfect for accepting an amok. Just a little trick to lure Ladybug and Chat Noir and hopefully to put an end to the ludicrous series of failures they’d been experiencing ever since Hawkmoth made his presence and demands known.

And then things went haywire. An unexpected wisp of air from the high window intercepted the amok and it sailed in a completely different direction, sinking into, oh great , Lila Rossi’s bracelets. 

So much for carefully woven, detailed plans and handpicked victims. 

“Sentimonsters!” Gabriel cried. “Everybody out!”

If he’d learned one thing working with Mademoiselle Rossi, it was that things got unpredictable and much more calamitous when she was involved. That’s why he had wanted to leave her out of his plans this time. That’s why she had been offered to actually model a piece, just to keep her occupied, even though she didn’t have even one model bone in her entire body.

Now Lila’s grin turned positively evil, as she sent the senti-snakes after… of course… Marinette. That Italian girl had some serious issues if anyone asked Gabriel. Why haven’t Nathalie called off the amok anyway?

Gabriel set out to find his assistant. Lack of control over their evil little friends was usually the source of big inconvenience. He’d learned it the hard way last time. Searching would go much faster if it wasn’t for the brainless crowds panicky sloshing inside the Grand Palais hall. Oh, for the love of-

“You must evacuate!” Gabriel yelled. “Find the nearest exit!” He squinted at the walls. Was it really that hard to actually read the signs that were there? “Here, and here, and here,” he said as he waved at the doors and people finally listened. The crowd started to file out of the building. 

“Please stay calm,” Gabriel continued to shout over the heads of the evacuating viewers. “There’s no need to trample each other. The sentimonsters are busy.”

He risked a glance at the snakes. Indeed they were kept busy. Marinette was doing exceptionally well at keeping one at bay. Sadly the other two weren’t engaged with her, but went off to attack someone else. A cold sweat covered Gabriel when he saw whom.

Adrien batted at the two remaining senti-snakes with a clothes rack, while shielding an unconscious Nathalie, curled in a corner. She must have been knocked out cold. 

The older Agreste cursed under his breath. Where the hell was Ladybug and Chat Noir when one needed them? This was supposed to be a perfect trap. 

At that moment the rack Adrien had been fending the snakes off with snapped in two and the first monster launched itself at the boy. 

Red flooded Gabriel’s vision. He pushed, leaped, ran, slid. He acquired a wrench somehow. He hit, thwacked, walloped and smacked until the sentimonsters scuttled away and huddled in the opposite end of the hall.

Ladybug arrived just as he and Adrien helped Nathalie to her feet. His assistant sported a nasty bruise on her forehead. Adrien’s clothes, the showcase items, hung in tatters from his shoulders. His trousers looked as if they were made of sieves. 

“It’s the bracelets,” Gabriel muttered, motioning towards backstage, where Lila’s maniacal laughter could be heard. He gritted his teeth.

“Got it,” Ladybug nodded.

One throw of a yoyo later, the heroine had the crazy Italian girl tightly gift wrapped as she went for the amok. 

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Gabriel actually sighed in relief as the swarms of butterflies cleared the hall. Thank goodness it was over.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” a familiar voice cut into his ease, “you’ve all seen this here, live, in TVi! Paris’ bravest civilian hero in action! Wasn’t he amazing?” 

Oh, that was the one thing he’d forgotten about. Why had he thought the reporter would have enough brains to run away? Of course she’d been broadcasting the whole thing live - what would get her a bigger audience than a fashion show turned heroic rescue mission?

“Oh no,’ he groaned, “not again .”

“Monsieur Agreste,” Madame Chamack shoved her microphone right under his nose and asked hopefully, “a few words of comment?”

Gabriel looked around helplessly. Adrien was searching for Marinette, Ladybug was trying to free herself from Lila’s hug of fake gratitude, and Nathalie took a sudden interest in the ceiling. A shadow of a smirk danced on her lips and he knew she’d never let him live this down. He might have to give her a raise just to keep her quiet.

“Sure,” he took a deep breath and turned to the reporter. “Why not?”

***

Gabriel swore this would be the last time. Either the plan works and he gets the most cunning, powerful and brilliant akuma ever, or he declares Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng off limits. Some gut feeling told him she was really special. If anyone could get him those miraculouses, it would be her. 

This was attempt number too-many even by his standards, but he was grasping at straws here. So when Lila offered to prove Marinette was a false friend, a liar and a bad influence, if not a threat to Adrien, Gabriel got tempted. One last time. If the Italian Job, as he started to think of it, didn’t work, he’d stop trying to akumatize Marinette whatsoever. As for Mademoiselle Rossi herself, he was still on the fence. On one hand, she had displayed incredible talent at riling people up. Chloe Bourgeois had nothing on her. On the other hand, Lila’s presence near Adrien, her more or less veiled suggestions that she wanted to be his girlfriend, her nosiness and conceit, the way she seemed to believe she got Gabriel himself wrapped around her finger, that he was actually buying her bull, well, suffice to say it was starting to get on his nerves.

And he was quite fond of his nerves, thank you very much.

Gabriel wasn’t even sure how exactly Lila wanted to provide proof of her claims, but it surely wasn’t anything legal. Even better. If it worked and he’d get the akuma it wouldn’t matter. If it didn’t work, he’d have a substantial leverage in case she’d decide to go after him one day.

His tablet chimed and a notification from Lila’s instagram account popped up on the screen. She started a live stream. A public live stream. 

“A dangerous game you play, Mademoiselle Rossi,” Gabriel muttered under his breath. He clicked on the notification and transformed into Hawkmoth not taking his eyes off the feed.

Somehow Lila had managed to corner Marinette in an empty dressing room. Despite the buzz of a photoshoot in progress and tens of people milling around the two of them were alone.

“What do you want, Lila?” Marinette’s tone was confident, even a bit exasperated. “Out of the two of us I am actually interested in learning a few things by taking part in a photo shoot.” 

“I told you to leave Adrien alone!” Lila ignored her classmate’s jab, getting to her own agenda. 

“What’s it to you? You don’t own him.”

“I don’t,” Lila admitted, the unspoken “yet” implied in her smirk. “But I am his close friend and I know bad acting when I see it.”

“Bad acting? What are you getting at?”

“You know, Marinette,” Lila murmured, adjusting the phone so that the other girl’s face would be seen. “You know very well. We’ve talked about it before. Might as well admit it now.”

Marinette, bless her heart, stammered something incoherently. Poor girl , Gabriel thought. If even he was aware of her gigantic crush on his son, then probably everyone and their dog knew (bar one oblivious teen in denial). But it was one thing to know people knew, and quite another to be forced to voice such a personal, intimate detail. And yet it turned out Lila had more tricks up her sleeve.

“We all saw the posters in your room,’ the Italian girl tsked. “ And Alya told me about the Athanase gift….” She raised a brow. 

Marinette’s eyes got bigger. All her bravado seemed to evaporate under Lila’s insinuations. 

“Nino mentioned an all boys party…” Lila drawled, pausing for effect.

Marinette gulped. “There’s nothing wrong-”

“In being a fan? I agree.” Lila smiled sweetly. “But considering the, ahem , scale and detail, wouldn’t you say it’s more than that?”

“More?”

“You’re not just a fan of fashion, Marinette. You’re obsessed. My question is - is it just fashion? Or maybe you’re Adrien’s crazed fangirl?” Lila circled her classmate, minding to keep the camera fixed on her. “Or maybe…” she suspended her voice, before going in for the kill, “maybe you’re trying to make a break in the industry on the backs of Adrien and his father? Connections are everything after all.”

A wave of pure, white hot hatred rammed into Hawkmoth. On the screen he saw Marinette seething, her lips pressed tightly together, her fists clenched and eyes narrowed to slits. He dropped the tablet and summoned the akuma.

“Go, go, go!” He rushed the butterfly.

When he returned to the device, the stream had already ended. He had no idea what had happened, but at that moment Lila posted a new picture - of herself with Adrien with the make-up artist in the background. An innocent smile and a V gesture had been paired with a few cringeworthy emojis and hashtags: #truefriends #friends4ever #friendshipgoals and so on.

There was no sign of Marinette, but Hawkmoth already felt the strong emotions ebbing away. No hatred meant no target for his akuma. He remembered himself before he broke the tablet in half. He sighed, calming himself down. At this rate he’d become the next champion.

And then the sirens started to wail. Fire alarms blared from every corner of the facility. 

“What on Earth-,” Hawkmoth scowled at the flashing red lights. It couldn’t have been an akuma. It was still somewhere out there, searching for its target. So the alarm must have been caused by something else. 

Footsteps outside told him something must have happened. He sniffed. The unmistakable stink of smoke filled his nostrils. For a second he considered his options, but ultimately he dropped his transformation and left his hideout. 

Around him people headed for emergency exits, but Gabriel felt a sudden urge to look for Adrien. He broke into a run. The boy had an awful knack of getting himself engaged in dangerous situations, and if Lila was nearby, it was probably a good idea to keep an eye on his son. 

Sure enough he found Adrien tucked in a corner, checking his phone instead of running to safety. Gabriel set his course to intercept. Without slowing down he grabbed the boy by his shirt and dragged him outside. On his son’s phone the last seconds of Lila’s Instagram story unraveled. Adrien’s brow furrowed in indignation.

“Where’s Lila,” he growled, before remembering himself. He swallowed the bile that was probably up in his throat.  “Have you seen Lila, Father?” he asked.

Gabriel was actually impressed. As an empath he could appreciate both - the extremely strong emotions and keeping them in check. 

Adrien climbed to his toes and inspected the crowd that fled the building. “Where’s Marinette?” This time his voice wavered. 

He spotted his Italian classmate nearby, talking to a reporter, a studied concern marring her face. 

“...of course I had to do something,” she said with emphasis. “All my friends are very dear to me. One of the things Dalai Lama has taught me-”

“Lila!” Adrien cut in, ignoring her ramblings and the audience. “Where’s Marinette?”

BOOM! Something blew inside the building. Glass shattered on one of the roof windows and plumes of smoke poured outside.

Lila paled and stammered something. For the first time her face seemed to be honest. She was genuinely scared as her eyes set upon the building’s entrance. 

“What did you do?!” Adrien cried. 

Gabriel’s stomach clenched as it dawned on him.

“She can’t get out?” he hissed, grabbing Lila’s elbow.

The girl gulped, shaking her head slightly. Then the terror disappeared from her face, replaced with well-practiced innocence. “The door locked behind me. I was going to get help but the alarm-”

Adrien beelined for the building. Gabriel cursed under his breath and dove after him. He briefly considered a quick transformation once he got inside. But it would rouse too many difficult questions if not only Gabriel Agreste but also Hawkmoth suddenly started rescuing people, so he dismissed this idea. He had enough brains to grab an extinguisher on his way.

“Adrien! Wait!” he yelled. He was about to jump into smoke when a string wrapped around him and he was yanked back. 

“Monsieur Agreste, what’s going on?” Ladybug released her hold on him. “Is Adrien there?”

Gabriel tried to keep the scowl off his face. He wasn’t used to being treated like a toy.

“His friend is trapped in that building,” he explained. “We need to-”

Ladybug’s yoyo beeped. 

Chat’s face appeared on the screen. “Could you lend me a helping paw, my Lady?”  Thick clouds surrounded him. “I have an akuma and a fire source here,” he said.

Ladybug shot an anxious look at Gabriel. “Any civilians?”

“Still looking,” Chat grunted. The screen blurred and a creak sounded when he forced a door open. “Ouch,” he hissed as the sprinklers started to work. “This cat doesn’t like to get wet,” he complained.

“Coming, Chat!” Ladybug shut her phone. “Please, stay here, Monsieur. This is not a job for civilian heroes,” she added with a faint smile and ran into the building.

Gabriel waited a whole minute, which said a lot about his self-restraint. When the swarms of ladybugs buzzed out of the roof window, fixing the damage and taking the rest of the smoke with them, he broke into run. 

Adrien was wrestling with a door to the only closed dressing room. 

“It’s stuck,” he shot out as a way of explanation. The corridor was too narrow for him to get a good running start, but he was doing his best to force his way in.

“No Ladybug or Chat Noir to help?” Gabriel scowled. Maybe this was below their paygrade.

“They put out the fire, but they had to leave,” Adrien mumbled. “They were each down to their last marker.”

Gabriel pushed the boy aside and grabbed the knob. It wouldn’t budge. “Marinette���s in there?”

“Yes, sir,” came a faint reply from behind the wood.

“Please get away from the door,” he instructed. He swung the extinguisher and smashed it into the lock. It did the trick much better than Adrien’s shoulder. 

His son burst inside as soon as the door swung on the hinges. Gabriel tactfully turned away when the boy pulled Marinette into tight embrace. He was wondering if the accident finally knocked some sense into Adrien, or if his son was still on the adrenaline high. Either way Gabriel made a mental note to finally address the “good friend” issue. For now he settled for averting his eyes and leisurely swinging the extinguisher he’d still been holding only to get a flash in his face.

Click. Click. Click.

At least three reporters decided to capture this moment for posterity. 

“Ah, and once again our local star, Gabriel Agreste, saves the day, or rather a member of his crew-” a journalist for TVi entered the scene, the microphone at the ready. “Can we get a comment on the latest video one of your young models posted shortly before this dangerous incident? I believe it featured the girl you just rescued,” he pointed towards the teens behind Gabriel’s back. 

Thankfully Marinette managed to free herself from Adrien’s bear hug, but her face was a battlefield between blissful blush and whitewash mortification.

Gabriel cleared his throat. “No comment,” he stated.

“But the conflict might affect the performance of your staff-”

“I value Mademoiselle Dupain Cheng’s talent and skill in design. I appreciate Mademoiselle Rossi’s hard work on the set,” he admitted. “But I refuse to be dragged into any personal conflicts. Now please, leave the set. We’ve already wasted enough time and money. No further comments,” he gestured towards the exit. 

“-oh I’m sure she was just trying to make a victim out of herself. You know, to gain pity or instant fame-”

That was Lila whispering in hush tone somewhere nearby, already spreading rumors. Gabriel’s fists clenched. He’d had enough.

“-Jagged Stone, who wrote a song about me, you know, he once said that fame-”

Gabriel flinched. He watched Adrien’s back as the boy led Marinette to the bathroom, steering clear off any prying journalists, keeping close to her, as if he would never leave her side again. 

Fame, Gabriel thought. That’s a dangerous game. I’ll show you instant fame, Mademoiselle Rossi. 

***

“We’re at Le Grand Paris, with Paris’ bravest civilian hero, Gabriel Agreste, although I imagine he needs no introduction!” Nadja Chamack exclaimed, starting her interview. “Monsieur Agreste has proved that you don’t need a miraculous to beat akuma after akuma. Ladybug and Chat Noir must be big fans of yours,” she grinned.

“As I am theirs,” Gabriel bowed, suppressing a flinch, and he went into monologue mode, providing the meat every reporter was after these days. From the time he slid across the table to thwack the akuma that threatened his fashion show, to the time he unloaded a bucket of hot coffee on another villain’s head to save Adrien, to numerous occasions he had managed to outwit his akumas (which wasn’t really as difficult as people seemed to think) before Ladybug and Chat Noir managed to get to the scene, he slowly but surely established his image as the civilian hero.

“Can you tell us more about today’s event?” Nadja asked. “You’ve been very secretive about it so far.”

That was the plan. His newest collection, the spotlight of the event, was only an excuse, as he had a particular fox to fry.

“All I can say is a night of quality fashion awaits us,” he said with a smile. “Our dear guests are going to be models as well!”

Nadja took the bait, and Gabriel was proud to say she hadn’t been the only one. 

“Ah, guests as models!” The woman leaned in. “Does this mean we won’t see your regular models?”

“On the contrary, the show is going to feature many familiar faces,” Gabriel replied cryptically. 

“I already see one - is that Lila Rossi?” Nadja zeroed in on the girl who just arrived at the red carpet.

“Indeed.”

“And her companion for the event?” the reporter asked, eyeing the crowds curiously.

Lila waved at the photographers and came to a halt next to Nadja, undoubtedly expecting a few questions. She was looking around, very much interested in her partner herself. Gabriel nodded to Nathalie, who led the boy fresh out of the dressing room.

“Your son, Adrien-” Nadja regarded him.

Lila’s lips stretched into a sly smile. The boy shot her with a toothy grin so unlike Adrien, that she recoiled in surprise.

Gabriel suppressed a smirk as he shook his head. “May I present Felix Graham de Vanily, my nephew and Adrien’s cousin.”

Felix bent in a deep, respectable bow. If he wanted, his manners were impeccable.

“Remarkable,” Nadja marveled. “They easily could have been taken for-”

“Twins?” Gabriel interjected. “Yes, they even managed to fool us a few times,” he let out an amiable chuckle, he’d been practicing in front of his mirror. “Felix is going to be Lila’s partner for tonight. I think I can let you in on a little secret: Adrien is going to accompany his girlfriend.” 

“Girlfriend?!” Nadja and Lila shrieked in unison. 

Gabriel allowed himself just a little smile. He put a hand to his chest. “A development that warms my heart,” he declared. “A very talented designer, who’s behind a few accessories for this collection. But I’m sure you already know her-, “ he gestured to the red carpet, where a new pair of guests appeared.

“ Marinette ,” Lila growled under her breath.

“I must leave now,” Gabriel nodded to the reporter. “I need to see to a few last minute details. Let me show you around, Felix. And Lila,” he added looking at her above the rim of his glasses.

Felix offered the Italian girl an elbow. She shot one last look at Adrien and Marinette, but she had no choice but to make room for them as she was led to the building.

“Mademoiselle Lila Rossi!” Felix chirped in delight. He was giving the girl a smile worthy of a shark straight from a dentist appointment. “We meet at last! Adrien has told me so much about you!” His grin widened, a feat Gabriel never thought possible. “So many celebrities are going to be here tonight. I can’t wait for you to introduce me to them, since you know so many famous people.”

Up to this point Lila was giving him a sour smile, but now fear flashed in her eyes. “Ce-celebrities?” she stammered. “S-sure, I know a few,” she added, anxiously looking around. “What the-?!”

That last exclamation was at the burst of flash in her eyes. 

Felix just shot the two of them in a selfie. “Great! This goes straight to my Insta! I’m tagging you of course,” he added in theatrical whisper. “I hope many more pics with all those celebs are going to follow!”

Gabriel trailed after them at a distance. He was very pleased with himself, humming in content at placing the right boy at the right place. Nathalie appeared at his side.

“Excellent job with Felix,” he praised. “I see you even managed to brief him, despite the short notice.”

His assistant’s smile was positively sinister. “I haven’t,” she said. “Apparently he’s been keeping in touch with Adrien and he kind of took the initiative himself.”

“Even better,” Gabriel nodded in approval. There were few things he appreciated more than champions with drive. 

He kept close to Felix and Lila, as his nephew led the girl from one cluster of guests to another, snapping pictures, and crying in disappointment whenever someone wouldn’t recognize Lila. He spent a significant amount of time in each group introducing her, and explaining how she knew so many people, alas no one in particular. At one point Gabriel thought he saw the boy pocketing Lila’s phone, but he might have been wrong. 

He checked the social media. Felix’s Instagram feed was full of pictures with their guests and Lila, who’s frown deepened with every photo. Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling, Prince Ali, Clara Nightingale and Audrey Bourgeois. Name after name, face after face, and not even a sparkle of recognition, which of course hadn’t escaped Felix’s attention. Two hashtags #sheknowsthemALL #thoughNOTthisONE accompanied every post. Not so subtle, but infinitely less brutal than what he initially had in mind. It might not destroy her reputation, excuse his pun - instantly, but a gradual decline was fine by Gabriel. Everything done in white gloves. Why didn’t he think about it earlier?

Felix and Lila stood by André the ice cream maker, who’d been appointed as a sort of celebrity catering novelty. He was shaking his head at the girl and Gabriel knew that meant he had no idea who she was. Felix feigned a moan of disappointment. The boy’s eyes twinkled with amusement.

“That looks like some just desserts,” came a comment from behind Gabriel’s back. It was Adrien hand in hand with Marinette. 

Gabriel hadn’t been lying to Madame Chamack. Marinette’s petite hand was tightly and tenderly wrapped in his son’s palm. The gooey eyes look was really good on him. The older Agreste made a mental note to use that for their next shoot. 

“Astonishing. It’s a miracle she hasn’t been akumatized yet,” Adrien reflected, observing the scene with André. 

Marinette elbowed him, but she was smiling.

Not really a miracle, Gabriel pondered, just your everyday Agreste hero miraculously restraining himself. Oops, he thought, did I do it again and save the day?