#and then your mom gets shown up by her younger sister which only makes things WORSE for all of you

[relicsongmel]

The Hawthorne twins suffered more than Jesus

[bumblebeehug]

I've watched season 1-3 of winx in less than 4 days, and I'm so glad I grew up on that instead of cocomelon. Even when the script seemed cringe and not as fleshed out as it could be, they never made the people watching the show seem stupid (they made Bloom seem stupid instead, lol (half-joke)). The dialogue could be simplefied and sometimes a bit naive, but at the same time they never made it feel very simple? Maybe I'm just blinded bc I'm a sucker for illustrated animations, but the fact that they could make a complicated storyline with a lot of character arcs, while keeping the dialogue simple enough for kids to follow, is just amazing. And as if that wasn't amazing enough, the show had good balance in the art - it was colourful, the characters were dynamic and unique with different siluettes (something i rarely see in kids shows today), while also appealing to the preteen audience: the winx girls are strong, stylish, girly girls, who can seek out love from men without needing them to save them. They show that you can be unique in your friend group, and you can still be loved and appreciated (thinking about Musa, Techna and later on Aisha/Layla, who all aren't the stereotypical sweet/soft/stylish girls, but who still find friends who love them for who they are). (More analysis beneath the read more thing - mainly a discussion on how family is represented in the show and how important it is for children to be able to look up to female figures that can represent them. + some other stuff.)

Winx also casts light on a lot of different family dynamics - something i've only really seen Bluey do well recently. Stella's parents are divorced, Bloom is adopted, Musa's relationship with her dad is strained ever since her mom died, Aisha/Layla is an only child who struggled with lonliness despite having both of her parents together (they were absent bc of their royal duties), Techna doesnt seem to have any mayor issues, nor does Flora. And the thing is - these struggles are shown in such natural ways in the show. All of these dynamics turn out to be part of their journeys - Bloom struggles as a fairy because of her unknown past, so she must resolve it and find out more to be able to become a fully fledged fairy. Stella has dealt with her divorced parents most of her life, but in season 3 the entire Valtor thing strains her relationship with her father, and she has to overcome it so she can save him from Cassandra or whatever that duchess was called (girlie practically gets banned from her home planet, don't you forget). Faragonda brings Musa's dad to her first concert, which once again strains their relationship, but then strengthens it when he sees how capable she is, both as a musician and as a fairy. Aisha/Layla displays how it is to have more traditional parents - as a child she had lots of expectations to be a proper princess, which she for a long time still had trauma from, plus that her parents wanted to pick her future husband for her (they were all lucky that the two of them matched well lol). And then we have Flora who showed off sisterhood in an amazing way - worrying over and scolding her little sister, but never doubting for a second that she'd risk her life to save her. To the point though - everyone faces difficulties that can be reflected in most people's lives, and the show makes these journeys meaningful and important. I personally never had a need to see myself represented in my family situation, but my friend had divorced parents, and she told me that Stella's viewpoint made it easier for little her to deal with it. If Stella could overcome it (reminder that she still allowed herself to feel sad about it) then so could my friend.

Now, while I'm at it, I might as well continue ranting:

Maybe I'm just not updated in modern shows, but isn't there an entire market of preteens who are missing these types of shows today? We're always talking about how clothing trends and social media is forcing younger people to grow up eariler, but let's not forget that these kids have nothing if they don't decide to grow up immediately. There's no shows, no "toys" (i'm mostly talking about merch that caters to young people - "H2O just add water" pillowcases and diaries etc) and no older teens in these shows setting appropriate clothing trends. Shows aren't cool enough nowadays for preteens to see the appeal of being young. Too many shows are changing their target audience to younger and younger children - and not only shows! Just look at the Nesquik bunny! He went from 100% drip and style, to 100% millenial.

Ik this isn't anyone in particulars fault, but this is just my way of saying: go back to unique styles and outfits! Shows aren't cool anymore, and removing the illustrated style and exaggeration is absolutely part of that.

I also saw someone on TikTok critique the pace of the earlier seasons - they said everything was too slow-paced and boring, and honestly? I couldn't disagree more. Now, I don't have any difficulties concentrating, so maybe it's a bigger problem for people with ADHD or similar diagnosis, but the slower pace gave more time for me to immerse myself in the winx world. They added amazing vocals and soundtrack, that could either showcase heartbreak or joy, and these details made the show reach much higher quality, despite looking like it was made in the cheapest animation program ever.

I went off on a tangent, but I'm getting back to winx now - what I mean is that kids nowadays have no authentic way of finding shows like winx, mainly because there aren't any! Most shows are made for kids under the age of 8 or over the age of 13, and there's almost no inbetween. Shows don't do it like winx did anymore - they don't make the art appealing enough (bc the shows are never illustrated - fair enough i'll add, bc illustrated animation is too expensive to be profitable nowadays, but not even the animation is appealing anymore, they're all rapunzel-lookalikes/wannabes), they don't trust that the watchers have brains and critical thinking, so they make the stories too dumb, they don't have the guts to make scary storylines, and they try so hard to be inclusive without actually succeeding at it (making all the fairies even paler than what they were in the beginning of the show).

I'm sure everything I've said here has been said before a trillion times, but I wanted to get it off my chest. I won't blame anyone if they decide that they ain't reading allat bc i really ran with this. If u did read this though, thanks! And sorry if i spelled things wrong, I'm writing this on a Swedish computer that insists that every single word is spelled incorrectly, lol.

[rrat-king]

I'm pretty sure I commented on your Kristen and Adaine baking brownies fic about how Kristen is always an older sister no matter what and you fucking get it so for the ask game do you possibly have any headcanons for the Applebees siblings (Kristen, Bucky, possibly Bricker and Cork but I get if they're not there since they've not really been shown). You can pick which questions because frankly, you wrote such a good fic

this is. so unbelievably kind thank you so much i am. crazy about the applebees siblings and kristen's incredibly bizarre but real older sister energy. i have. so many headcannons pls strap in (the fic is Old Habits if anyone is curious)

7. Age/height headcanon

ok. so there are two beautiful realities that i have created in my mind when it comes to the applebees age range.

option one: this is the closest to cannon and the age range i use in On the Nature of Healing, so it follows the cannon that bucky is 2 years younger than kristen with all of the siblings being two years apart. So like for junior year kristen is 16 (maybe 17?? she has a summer birthday which makes it a little confusing) so bucky is 14, bricker is 12 and cork is 10

option two: ok so this was the hc i was working off of pre-junior year and the age range i use for Something Found, that kristen is four years older than bucky and then the two years apart for the rest of the boys again. i did this based on the idea that kristen's parents waited till she was a little older to have more kids so that she would be able to help out more, parentifying her as a kid. so in something found kristen is 20, bucky is 15, bricker is 13, and cork is 10.

for height, i stick with cannon in that kristen is 5'9 and by the time bucky is in high school he is already taller than her. he levels out around 6'1 and everyone expects bricker to be tall too but he just. is not. bricker winds up just a little taller than kristen at 5'10. cork, in youngest child fashion, hits a growth spurt when he is 12 and just never seems to stop growing until he is like 6'3 and all of his siblings are upset about it. in height order from tallest to shortest: cork, bucky, bricker, and then kristen

also one more appearance thing, kristen and bricker take after their mom in looks and bucky takes more after his dad. cork doesn't look more like one parent than the other. also bricker and kristen have the exact same face. if you look at old photos of them when they were young you can only tell them apart cuz of the hair length but they look the exact same it's eerie

ask game here !!!!

[paperstorm]

You know what I'm kind of fascinated by? How different the experience of parenthood would have been for the Reyes' as opposed to the Strand-Morgans. Obviously both are loving families with parents who are complex, flawed individuals in their own rights who love their children but I just find it fascinating to think about how different Andrea and Gabriel getting pregnant with Carlos would have been compared to Gwyn and Owen. It's been implied that Owen and Gwyn were quite young when they had TK and I wouldn't be one bit surprised that TK was a surprise baby based on what we have seen. And two people who were starting their careers/finishing their education having a baby is a very tricky tightrope to walk.

Whereas Gabriel and Andrea are shown to be a very traditional couple. Maybe they got married young and had babies the traditional way. Maybe Carlos was a surprise too but obviously a surprise child when you are already married with two children is very different from a surprise child when you are still in school and possibly not even interested in having kids at the time. And I would imagine that Gabriel and Andrea would have had familial support based on comments made about Sunday dinner with Tia Lucy implying a big tight-knit family. I wonder if Gwyn and Owen had any? Was Owen's mother there for him? What about Gwyn's family? And then balancing co-parenting after the divorce when Owen was still deep into his downward spiral. One thing that does remain the same is that both sets of parents made mistakes but ultimately love their children deeply and want nothing more than to see them happy.

Maybe it's the family science major in me but I'm just really interested in the differences yet similarities between the families.

You know what's so funny. Is that I totally agree with you that the vibe of these characters is that Owen/Gwyn got pregnant young and Gabriel/Andrea were older and much more established (I mean Carlos has two older sisters right). And yet the actors who play Owen and Gwyn are both almost 30 years older than the actor who plays TK, meaning they would've been that age when they had him which is very much not a young pregnancy, whereas the actor who plays Andrea is only 45 years old lmao, if we made her age the character's age she would've had Carlos at 16 and therefore had his older sisters at what, like 12???

This was not the point of your message lmao and I do totally agree with you that I find their differences in family dynamics super fascinating but it's always made me laugh that the show seems to be severely de-aging Rob and severely aging Roxanna up with like her clothes/haircut/makeup in order to make Andrea seem older than Owen when actually the actress is like 14 years younger than him and far too young to actually be Carlos's mom.

[archivalofsins]

This probably meaningless but i think a comparison we can draw between kazui and amane is that Kazui has stated that hes seen by his family as a disappointment and Amane is seen as like the ideal good child. I'm probably making shit up but yeah 👍

I am so sorry for the late answer. I thought I had answered and just realized today that I hadn't done that. I don't believe it's meaningless.

I was just discussing the overlapping similarities between the prisoners. Specifically in reference to how they answer the family question. Shidou and Kazui both answer it in a way I find incredibly interesting that leads into the validity of your statement in my opinion.

When asked,

Tell us your family structure the prisoners answer with,

Prisoner 001 Sakurai, Haruka: My father and my mother and me.

Prisoner 002 Kashiki, Yuno: Grandpa, grandma, mum, me, younger brother←Yura.

Prisoner 003 Kajiyama, Futa: Father and older sister.

Prisoner 004 Kusunoki, Mu: Papa, Mama and Mu.

Prisoner 005 Kirisaki, Shidou: Wife and two children.

Prisoner 006 Shiina, Mahiru: Papa, Mama, Mahiru.

Prisoner 007 Mukuhara, Kazui: It’s only me now.

Prisoner 008 Momose, Amane: It was my father, my mother and me.

Prisoner 009 Kayano, Mikoto: My mother, me, and my younger sister. My sister’s a blossoming high school student.

Prisoner 010 Yuzuriha, Kotoko: Grandmother, father, mother, older brother.

Kazui and Shidou both use their marriages/found family or current status within the family to avoid elaborating on the structure of the household they were raised in. Which was one hundred percent the question and others have answered it accurately including Mikoto who we all know doesn't even live with his sister or mom anymore. So, these two just chose to give answers that were convenient for them.

The way they answered makes them the only people in Milgram we don't know the sibling status of yet. Even Amane is alluded to being an older sister through the credits of Magic but that could be a status given to her within the structure of her religion.

So, we don't know if they were raised by single parents or both if they have any younger or older siblings or a twin. Because they've willfully chosen to omit that information by focusing primarily on the households, they've created not their family overall.

Something that in Shidou's case is understandable given he's paired with Mahiru and both of their stories focus on romantic love. So, there being a focus on his marital relationship makes sense in context of his pairing.

It only gets weird when one takes into consideration that the Shidou we see in Throw Down working in the hospital has a mole on between his neck and collar bone. An area that the Shidou in Milgram is conveniently always covering by wearing a turtleneck or some sort of shirt that keeps the area where that identifying mole is hidden at all times.

Going as far as to sleep in a fucking turtleneck in Throw Down for this reason.

Plus, the one time it's alluding to him doing doctor shit it's conveniently shot from an angle where we wouldn't be able to see the mole anyway. Since it's on the right side of his body and we are seeing the left side. Not even touching on the fact that the likelihood of having twins increases if one is a twin themselves and many have speculated the children in Triage are fraternal twins.

This trend of showing this mole off and then covering the person that area when the character that is undoubtedly Shidou is shown continues throughout Triage.

Made even worse through this scene where we see Shidou reaching out to a guy we know isn't him because both of their hair is a different color they are wearing different clothes- And if those two things aren't enough.

Triage expressly shows us they have different fucking haircuts as well.

All something that will remain highly speculative simply because when asked his family structure he conveniently omitted having any parents or siblings and simply focused on his marriage.

Which is better than Kazui who uses the concept of being disowned to omit having any family at all. Yet conveniently mentions his victim was his wife now. Unlike Shidou who at least answered the fucking question even though he scratched it out.

Which is even weirder since the Kazui is paired with someone who's entire story is deeply rooted in familial issues and yet we know nothing about his family. We don't know if he was raised in a two- or single-parent household if the family that he states views him as a disappointment are his parents, in-laws, siblings, cousins etc.

Hell, we don't even know if Hinako was being referred to when in his statement about family viewing him as a disappointment. But we have to assume she is because she's the only fucking person we have confirmation of being his family at any point in time. Even if that confirmation is tentative at best.

We know more about his childhood friend than his family background and nobody seems to have questioned that.

Overall, I don't think you're making shit up or reaching, but we have so little information on Shidou and Kazui's families that pursuing this train of thought is damn near impossible. It's made even weirder for Shidou because he states this in his second written interrogation.

X

So, his family was greatly involved in him getting into this relationship but he just omits them because technically they're not apart of my immediate family structure anymore. Like okay sir do you have a mom? A father? Siblings? Like what the hell? You got to know your wife through your family you can't mention them now? Okay...alright whatever.

[eighthdoctor]

Can you expand on why being a middle child is a defining trait for Sylvanas? I hope you don't mind if I share my own thoughts on it first: She is objectively the most intelligent and skilled Windrunner sister, but tradition prevents her from taking the position everyone knows should be hers, but as the spare to the throne she isn't allowed to go out and do her own thing either, so she was stuck under an artificial ceiling she was only allowed to pass by the grace of her elder sister.

HAPPILY

so i mentioned this briefly in another ask of yours here, but there's an early psychologist, adler, who proposed that birth order has an enormous predictive effect on your personality. it since looks like it's not AS strong as he said, but also these are fictional characters and i make the rules.

anyway.

oldest sibling: we're all familiar with eldest daughter syndrome, where you're constantly pushed to be older, be more mature, be more competent, parent your younger siblings, etc. this is the conceptual root of that--less built-in sexism, and an acknowledgement that if you're oldest, you HAD some time where you were The Only Child and got 100% of the parental attention, and then had the trauma of losing that when your sibling was born.

psychcentral, which i am pulling from bc i'm lazy, has the following characteristics: controlling, conscientious, cautious, reliable, achievers, structured

middle sibling: for most of their childhood the middle sibling is the left-out one. they're attention seekers. they're not the most obviously successful (just bc they're younger) but they're not the most obviously needy (just bc they're older) so Inferiority Complex time (ALSO proposed by adler)

psychcentral has: Middle children can become competitive or rebellious. But they can also be even-tempered, being able to compromise between family members.

wikipedia also adds: Consequently, the middle child, who would experience neither dethronement nor overindulgence, was most likely to develop into a successful individual yet also most likely to be a rebel and to feel squeezed-out.

aaand youngest: the baby. the spoiled coddled child. the one who gets away with everything.

wikipedia has: Youngest children would tend to be overindulged, leading to poor social empathy

so let's put the windrunners into this bc they're FASCINATING.

alleria: alleria had one moment of self awareness, which is also the most self awareness ANY of them have shown, and realized that Eldest Daughter Syndrome was going to actually kill her. she quit because she could not live up to her mom's expectations, she knew this, and she was determined to save herself. which BACKFIRED HORRIBLY BECAUSE WINDRUNNERS but hey. there was an attempt.

otherwise alleria has the eldest child thing of "i love my siblings but hey do you remember when i was the only child best beloved bc i sure do. i only have minimal resentment about that." and DEFINITELY has the eldest child thing of "the entire time they were growing up i was better (literally because i had had more time to practice) ergo i am STILL better and know more than them wait come back here why aren't they listening to me--"

vereesa (i'm coming back to our girl don't worry): lol. lmao even. vereesa is DEFINITELY the baby. vereesa got away with fucking murder as a child and continues to do so as an adult. on the other hand, she has never ever ever been the best at ANYTHING ever and no there's no resentment about this either. definitely not.

so sylvanas.

sylvanas has never been the best. sylvanas has never been the baby. sylvanas has--literally from birth this is not a post-death phenomenon--ONLY EVER gotten attention when she KICKED AND SCREAMED AND MADE A FUSS ABOUT IT. she has never been impressive for doing something (because alleria did it first). she has never been coddled for not getting something (because vereesa was having more problems with it). she's just there.

and if she EVER wanted one-on-one attention she had to deliberately go get it herself while watching her siblings get OFFERED it, readily.

the FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE she got free serotonin parental attention was after alleria stepped down. no wonder she imprinted on the position so hard, no wonder she's just neurotically obsessed with it.

even if you're doing a pre-third war AU, or even a pre-SECOND war AU and alleria's still around, sylvanas is a middle child. she thinks you get attention by forcing it to happen, by MAKING people pay attention to you. and like toddlers she doesn't really care if it's positive or negative attention, because anything is better than being ignored.

she doesn't think people will help her Just Because, because that never happens. she never got that. she wasn't the oldest, wasn't the baby, was just There, she's always had to figure everything out herself or suffer.

which means from the outside she comes off as an arrogant asshole (don't ask for help) who interjects herself into every conversation (have to get attention) and makes everything about her (nobody else will).

and that's BEFORE the traumas start happening and prove this all 100% right. nobody helps her. nobody pays attention to her. nobody remembers anything she says.

--except jaina.

[autumntouched]

Okay I couldn't stop thinking about this, but as someone who's spent all 14 years of my education pre-uni in a very regimented/tough school, it can be hard to let go of certain habits or just going with the flow. And it got me thinking about how Phoenix might suffer with the same thing. Being a pilot in the Navy means she's always operating at a certain standard, and even during leave, it's hard to fully relax. It's not that she doesn't want to, but getting used to living a certain way and then breaking out of that routine can be hard! She's glad to have her hair down (literally and metaphorically lol), though, and will try to make the best out of it.

Sorry to post this so late! Here we go with Day 2 of Ode to Phoenix:

For you @coraphoenix

My thoughts on Phoenix are at the end!! Hope this is what you were looking for. xx

Time to Let Go

Natasha "Phoenix" Trace

Summary: Natasha struggles to go with the flow during her cousin's bachelorette weekend.

Natasha has always lived by lists. They keep details organized, goals on track, life in order, and pilots alive. She has fun lists of the things she wants to try, the places she wants to visit. She has banal lists of the chores and errands she needs to do. She has lists she doesn’t like to think about like the one her mom will receive if she were to die in the line of duty. Then there are the checklists she goes through each time she flies. Lists limit the unpredictable, the unexpected, the unforced error. 

And with lists come schedules. Schedules make sure the lists get done, everything completed and delivered on time. 

But lists and schedules are not exactly what her cousin, Dani, is thinking about a bottomless brunch of mimosas and bellinis in during her bachelorette weekend. Natasha has tried several times to persuade her cousin to hurry up, but her efforts have only earned her pouts from Dani and dirty looks from the other bridesmaids. 

Waiting in the living room of their airbnb, Natasha checks her watch for the fifth time. They are not going to make it to their pole dancing class on time when nearly everyone is still getting ready. How long does it take to match a top and leggings? She struggles not to pace out her impatience and opens her phone to triple check the time on the confirmation. Yep, she has it right. They’re going to be late. 

“You may as well stop worrying and just accept we’re not going to be on time for anything,” Gabby sighs. “I’m sure these places are used to it.” Her sister lounges with her legs over the arm of a chair, scrolling through the pictures she took at brunch. Natasha’s still getting used to Gabby being blonde, but the color looks good on her. Without the blonde, they would look like twins right now. Her younger sister took one look at Natasha’s black sports bra and dri-fit shorts for the afternoon and let out a long-suffering groan. “This isn’t the Navy, Sash. You’re supposed to look hot for this.” 

Which is how she ended up in makeup and a matching cornflower blue leggings and tank set. The top dramatically lifts her and plumps her modest breasts into almost a whole other cup size. Natasha has never shown so much chest in clothes meant for working out, and she can only imagine the looks she’d get if she strolled into a military gym wearing this outfit. And she really doesn’t want to imagine what some of her friends would have to say about it in the Dagger Squad group chat if they saw. 

Gabby also took offense to her low ponytail so now she’s wearing her hair down with the front braided back. The braids are the only concession to Natasha not wanting her hair in her face. Otherwise she’d be looking more ready for a runway than a dance class. 

She checks her watch again, and Gabby throws down her phone. “That’s it! Take it off!” 

“Take what off?” 

Gabby flings herself out the chair and marches over. Her glare is even more formidable than their mother’s, and Natasha shrinks like she’s about to get in trouble. “Your watch,” Gabby demands, holding out her hand.

“But I need–.”

Her sister cuts her off. “What you need is to calm the fuck down and enjoy the weekend! We’re here to have fun, not worry about what’s next on the schedule or what time we’re getting there.” 

Natasha cradles her watch protectively. “Okay, fine. But I’m keeping my watch.” 

Gabby shakes her head. “Too late. Give it to me.” Her voice doesn’t leave much room for argument except that Natasha is older. 

“No.”

Her sister thrusts her face in front of Natasha’s, her perfectly plucked and filled brows drawn into a scowl. “Give me the watch, Natasha, and I’ll have everyone out the door in less than ten minutes.” 

She considers that. Gabby can be a force to be reckoned with when she’s on a mission, and the other women have warmed up to her far more than they have Natasha. When she mentioned it to Dani the night before, her cousin just laughed and told her that they thought she was intimidating. “I mean, what do you expect, Nasha? You’re a pilot,” she’d said, as if that explained everything. Although Dani didn’t mean it to, that stung. Natasha usually has no trouble getting along with people and being a pilot is just her job. 

“Fine. If we’re in an uber in the next ten minutes, you can have it.” She’ll still have her phone at least. Or will Gabby try to confiscate that too?

Gabby narrows her eyes, determining whether she can push Natasha harder to turn it over before. Natasha glares back, and her sister straightens. “Deal.” She turns on her heel and practically skips from the room. 

They’re in cars in less than ten minutes, and she has to surrender her watch. “When do I get it back?” she hesitates. 

“Don’t forget to ask me for it before we leave for the airport. I’ll send it to you if I forget.” 

Natasha sighs and lets it drop into her sister’s hand. Gabby carefully stores it in the monogrammed bag Dani gave each of them for the weekend. “I promise, letting your hair down a little might hurt, but it’s not going to kill you.” 

They’re half an hour late to the class, but the instructor, Clare, seems unfazed. She puts on a pop playlist and doesn’t bat an eye when they stop to take a series of group pictures in front of the wall with the studio’s name in neon lights surrounded by ivy and flowers. Natasha’s grateful that Gabby made her switch outfits so that she blends in with everyone else, and especially when Dani squeals excitedly about how much she loves the pictures. 

Clare starts the class by showing them the full choreography and then walks them through a few of the moves. She lets the women stop to take individual photos of themselves posing on the poles before they get too sweaty. 

Natasha spends the time putting together what they’ve learned so far. Everyone else is sticking to the easier, modified versions, but she tries out doing the actual moves. She comes out of a spin to find Clare watching her thoughtfully. 

“You said this is your first time right? Are you a dancer? You’re getting the hang of this pretty fast.” 

“Not since high school,” Natasha smiles. “Also, sorry, we were so late.”

Clare laughs and waves her hand. “Happens all the time. Most people get tired after forty five minutes to an hour anyway. It’s harder than it looks, although you could probably get to a couple of intermediate moves. Your arm and core strength are really good. I leave some time at the end for everyone to record themselves doing the choreography. I can show you something then if you want.” 

“That’d be fun,” she agrees. The instructor gives her a thumbs up and goes to correct someone else’s grip. She looks at her wrist before remembering her watch is gone. 

“I saw that, Sash!” Gabby calls mid spin. Natasha gives her the finger and hops back on her pole. 

As promised, Clare comes over after they’ve finished learning the choreography. “Can you do a handstand?” she checks. 

Without hesitation, Natasha flips herself onto her hands, legs straight in the air. “Like this?” Back when Gabby did cheerleading, the two of them had handstand competitions to see who could stay up the longest. When she started Naval aviation training, she’d do them before going up to help with her spatial reorientation. She was one of the few pilots who didn’t get sick during their first training flights. 

Clare claps and grabs the pole as Natasha springs back onto her feet. “Exactly like that. Want to try an invert?” 

It takes Natasha a little longer and some help to manage the inverted crucifix Clare shows her but as soon as she does, Gabby demands to try it. “Wait, me too!” insists Dani who did cheer squad with Gabby. After all the alcohol Dani had at brunch, Natasha is mildly impressed she doesn’t get sick flipping herself upside down. 

“Okay, okay! Do it together,” Kelsey, Dani’s best friend and maid of honor, insists. “I want to record it.” The cousins line up at their poles and wait for Kelsey to find the best angle. “Okay. Got it. On the count of three. Go on three!” 

Dani throws out her arms. “No, hold on. Let’s do a practice run.” She’s right. It takes a few tries for her, Natasha, and Gabby to synchronize their timing. By the time they do, all of Dani’s bridesmaids have gathered around to cheer them on and take their own pictures. 

“All right, ready!” Gabby calls. 

Kelsey counts them down, and Natasha grips the pole, pulling then pushing her legs up and over her head. They hold the upside down position then dismount one after the other. Feeling surprisingly accomplished, Natasha adjusts her top when her feet are back on the ground. 

“Oh my god, this is amazing!” Kelsey yelps, playing back the video for everyone to see. 

Clare congratulates them on their class. “We did run a little over ladies, so quickly as you can, please make sure you have everything and make your way out to the lobby so we can set up for our next class. Thank you so much for coming today, and I hope you had as much fun as I did! Congratulations again to our beautiful bride, Dani, and give all of yourselves a round of applause and high fives.”

Kelsey and Libby rush up to Natasha to high five her. “Oh my gosh, I got the cutest picture of you!” Libby gushes. “Here let me send it!” 

“And let me send you all the ones I took!” Kelsey adds. 

Gabby gives her a significant look as she wraps her hair on top of her head, and Natasha falls back to walk with her. “See how much fun you can have when you’re not worrying about whether we're on schedule?” 

“Yes okay. You were right. I survived. May I have my watch back?” Natasha sighs on their way down the stairs to the street. 

Her sister looks over her shoulder with a dangerously sly look. “If you send a picture of yourself in this outfit to Hangman, you can have your watch back.” 

Natasha nearly misses a step and flails for the railing. “What!” 

“You heard me,” Gabby sing songs. 

“No!”

“No picture, no watch.” 

Natasha resigns herself to relying on her phone. And maybe trying to enjoy letting her hair down a little.

A/N: This one was a little tough because while what you describe is me to a T, it's not quite how I've imagined Phoenix. I can totally see it though!

My thoughts on Phoenix:

Growing up, I definitely knew plenty of people who brought their military discipline home, but there were also a lot of people like my dad who didn't. It had less to do with how the military shaped you and more to do with the kind of person you were going in, especially in the Navy. Some of the most fun, child-at-heart adults I've ever met have been in the military, and Phoenix reminds me of them in the way that she lets loose singing along to "Great Balls of Fire" and the sense of humor with which she handles Hangman's trolling. She and Hangman are also the two most openly impressed and amused by Maverick stealing a plane and sticking it to Cyclone, so they have a healthy distance from the military's rigidity. She's serious and focused when she needs to be, but she can let that go when she's off duty.

I feel like the media often portrays people in the military as intense, serious, and regimented in their personal lives so one of the things that I love about Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick is that they have fun when they're off duty (and occasionally on the job too.)

Ode to Phoenix Masterlist

[coffinsister]

Eeee so I can't pick a favorite between Ashley and Andrew but when I was playing it I definitely saw Ashley as sorta yandere vibes? Like yknow with the girl dying in the box was the primary example, Andrew going along with it too was like 👀 because why would he go along with killing someone unless he was either The Biggest Doormat (which i definitely understand seeing the creator's notes) or he was also vaguely yandere but not acknowledging it. There's a lot of toxicity between them obviously and a lot of trauma (not sure where from aside from whole being locked in the apartment for Hecc knows how long and maybe neglectful parents) but they seem to be reading the same book but they're not the same page if that makes sense. Andrew probably also has some Older Sibling syndrome going on there because he cares about Ashley if reluctantly sometimes and takes responsibility for things, while Ashley makes sense as the younger sibling (as an older sister myself it at least was recognizable with how Andrew was telling Ashley she had to realize what they'd done at the end of the chapter) and with the whole demon thing it made me wonder what the talisman will show Ashley or if there will be more complicated horror with the two of them encountering more cultists or if their parents had something to do with the issue because I definitely agree on the whole sus mom thing

All in all I love how the game gives us enough information to see kind of where it could go but doesn't spoil the plot and the Coffin part of the title definitely gave me 4th wall thoughts similar to Homestuck. The apartment/demon occult based horror is similar to Sally Face too so it just took the gremlins and made me super interested in the story. If i ever write anything i'll definitely send it to you!! I work as a writer off of tumblr for a larp company currently though so my brain is a bit fried but I love this game a lot and it was super interesting to see what was going on in the story 👀

Thank you !!! Don't overheat your brain anymore than necessary to survive in the techno capitalist hellscape singularity we are currently in but if you do find the time to write anything that would be amazing :D

And now to answer everything else:

I love both siblings for their own reasons I really do but I fell in love with Andrew the moment I saw him because brocon tendencies defeat all sorts of common sense immediately for me

Yeah Ashley totally fits into the yandere archetype except she's more real I would say and she's definitely more western than full on anime like

I say she's more real because she's actually shown to struggle a lot with socialization and with her parents and just seems to be rejected by the world around her because of her personality instead of just being a random girl who somehow exists with that behavior and it's okay

Yeah I actually don't really understand Andrew's motivations for going along with stuff all that deeply I always feel like there's something I'm missing with him but mostly I just see it as well he genuinely really cares for his sister and doesn't want to see her in distress and he's super codependent as well and cannot lose and he's a pushover too and finds it easier to go along and blame her for everything instead of standing up to her and risk losing her and then having to confront himself

As Ashley did say she's the only person he can be real with so he can't stand to lose her

I also totally think he's yandere on his own right like maybe yandere wouldn't be the right term for him because he definitely doesn't present himself at first as more approachable like Ashley does but he's still super overprotective of her

Like straight up one of the like 7 times the Rage sprite is used twice are just for the time where Ashley makes the comment about getting pregnant from their neighbor

So yeah they are both yanderes for each other and we love that for them

Personally I see the trauma from them steming from yeah killing that girl that's definitely not something you can just walk off but also from their parents seeming to be very detached and neglectful of them and also from Ashley specifically I see her as somebody who's never managed to have a long lasting relationship of any type with anybody other than Andrew

She expresses that just who she is and her personality makes people turn away from her and that over so much time and starting up from so young can really mess a person up

And then she starts isolating Andrew too and they wind up becoming dependant on each other and no matter what forcing one person to carry the weight that a whole entire social circle should is always going to end up turning toxic ah~ which is what I so love about them I'm just a natural sucker for toxic siblings dynamics

Actually your perspective saying that Ashley fits as a little sister is really interesting to me because I am a little sister I can't really understand how older siblings look at their younger siblings but I can see a lot of how me and my older sister are like in just how they banter and stuff

Like that bit where Andrew is like nope you go get the batteries It was like a Deja Vu for me swear to God

I definitely think the whole prophetic dreams stuff is gonna play a big role in the full game and I'm really looking forwards to the horror potential of it all

I also really enjoy the idea of Ashley being super paranoic all the time about everything she dreams because what if she interprets it wrong what if she doesn't see the right thing what if it ends up getting Andrew hurt and as much as he doesn't want him to be able to live on without her that stems from the fact that she definitely cannot live on without him

One thing I really enjoy about dystopian stories is that they tell you just enough they make you feel like the world was already here before you and you are just watching it at the moment and this game does that so well

I know nothing about Homestuck but everyday I learn something new about it as it seems

And sorry, as you can probably tell, I can talk a whole lot about my special interests jejeje (☍﹏⁰).

[shipcestuous]

(another Miraculous submission)

It's been wonderful to see Miraculous Ladybug** mentioned here!  I'm the anon who sent in asks about Adrien Agreste (one of the main characters) and his dynamics with his parents, Gabriel and Emilie, a while back during the first or second season!

**This show is called so many different things.  In the US, it's called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.  It's also called Miraculous Ladybug, or Miraculous, so there can be some confusion that way. (Sorry for making your tagging system harder....)

Anyway, since we're in the fifth season, we've seen more of Adrien and Gabriel's relationship, which continues to be chock-full of dramatic irony, seeing as Adrien is a superhero and his dad is his and his partner's supervillain nemesis.  Lately, Gabriel has been making more of an effort with his son, paying more attention to him and being less neglectful.  I suspect he has ulterior motives, just because he's the Big Bad, but whether that turns out to be true or not, it's so sweet to see how happy Adrien is anytime his dad does anything remotely nice for him.  He gets these big, earnest "kitten eyes" and it's cute, but also so sad because we know his dad is a supervillain and he doesn't.

But I'm actually here because, since my last ask, we've met some more of the family--so I'm mostly here to talk about Adrien's cousin Félix.  Who is a bit of a mysterious character in terms of his motivations sometimes, and doesn't have a single relative who he doesn't have a noteworthy relationship with, in one way or another.

First off--I'm aware of which blog I'm sending this to. But Adrien and Félix's respective moms--Emilie and Amelie (whos matching names are adorable even if we don't know much about their relationship--are identical twins, making the boys genetically siblings.

Plus, they themselves are identical.  Legitimately identical.  Félix is just Adrien with a slightly different hairstyle.  There are a few different theories about why this is: some people think it's just for plot convenience (more on that in a bit) or animators not wanting to make another character model.  Some people think maybe one of their moms actually gave birth to twin sons, but gave one to her sister who wasn't able to have a child for some reason.  And there's a theory that's slowly gaining more canon support, that one or both of them are magically-created beings instead of natural-born humans, so some people think either one boy was created based of the other, or they were both created at the same time.  (I have no idea, but I figure if one of the magic ones are true, they'd still be genetic siblings?)

Anyway, while Adrien is a fairly well-behaved teenager--aside from "constantly sneaking out his window in a cat costume to fight his supervillain dad to save the city"--his cousin(/genetic brother) Félix is... to be blunt, a little sh*t.  When he comes to visit, he likes to impersonate Adrien and stir up trouble for him.  And Félix is one of the only people who Adrien will actually show dislike for, even if Adrien still cares about him.

From the sound of it, the boys were really close when they were younger.  (Félix's dad died within the past year, so maybe that's when he started acting out more? We don't know for sure.  We do know Gabriel didn't let Adrien go to Félix's dad's funeral, which may explain some of the resentment.)  And even if Félix pesters Adrien a lot, he does seem to care about Adrien in some way--he's been shown encouraging Adrien (in a jerky way, sure, but still) to do what Adrien wants to do, instead of blindly obeying what his dad tells him.  When Félix finds out Adrien doesn't want to go on an extended trip for his modeling job, Félix volunteers to impersonate Adrien to talk to his dad for Adrien, and tell Gabriel that Adrien doesn't want to go since Adrien has trouble standing up to his father.

(It's implied, around this time, there might be magical reasons why Adrien can't disobey Gabriel, hence support for the magical theory I mentioned before.  Which is kind of horrifying if true, but even if it is, part of Adrien's unwillingness to stand up to Gabriel is just because he loves his dad and doesn't want to disappoint him.)

On to Félix's relationship with Gabriel: like I said, Félix resents how Adrien obeys Gabriel seemingly without question.  Félix has a long history of tricking his uncle-by-marriage--by impersonating Adrien, and then in his first appearance in the show, Félix steals (back) one of Gabriel's rings (which might have something to do with the magic control I talked about? seriously, this family/show is complicated).

The next time they meet, Félix has actually figured out Gabriel's identity as a supervillain--something that nobody else in the show has managed to do.  (He may be a little sh*t but he's also one of the smartest people in the show.)  Félix later confronts his uncle about it in a very tense scene.

However, despite his obvious disdain for Gabriel, Félix--when disguised as Adrien--siezes the chance to get hold of a lot of the magical jewels that supervillain!Gabriel wants, and Félix offers to trade them to Gabriel in exchange for the one magic jewel that can make those magical sentient beings I mentioned before (another point toward that theory).

His motivations for all this still haven't been explained to the audience, as of the time I'm sending this, but no matter what they are, Félix is an interesting character who has these interesting, tense, complicated dynamics with both his cousin and uncle.

But onto Félix's relationships with his mom and aunt, because those are interesting too! But in a different way.

First, Félix and his aunt Emilie--since Emilie "disappeared" before the start of the show, we don't get to see them interact.  But from everything we see of Félix, he seems to have really cared about her.  (Makes sense, she is his aunt but also, biologically, has the same genes as his mom--and he loves his mom a lot. More on that in a sec.)

Since he and Adrien used to switch places as kids, we can assume Félix liked to play jokes on Emilie.  But unlike with Adrien or Gabriel, he seems to be actually sweet with her.  We see him smiling with this soft, genuine affection at a painting of Emilie that hangs in Gabriel's office.

And then--huge spoilers--when he first stumbles on Gabriel's secret underground lair, where he keeps Emilie's comatose body in a Snow White-style coffin (that seems to be life support?), Félix is visibly shaken and distraught in a way we've never seen him before.  So he clearly cares about Emilie a lot.

But the most suggestive (unintentionally) relationship here is between Félix and his mother Amelie.  Like I said, Felix is a jerk to basically everyone--but he's far sweeter toward his mom than most teenage boys are.  They have a strong bond.  When I mentioned that he stole Gabriel's ring, Félix stole it in order to return it to Amelie.  But then, it turns out Amelie had wanted it back in order to give it to her son!

Whenever we see them together, their interactions are very cute and sweet.  A notable example is here in this gifset: Amelie kisses her hand and presses it up against Félix's hand, and then he presses his hand up against his cheek.  By the looks of it, it's something they do pretty often, even if he's somewhere around 14 or 15 by now.  From the way he acts around everyone else, it's surprising to see how soft and happy he seems around his mom.

And it turns out Amelie has a sneaky, cunning side of her own--after Félix  steals most of the magical jewels and gives them to Hawkmoth, the main characters come to his house looking for him.  Amelie tells them, seemingly sincere, that Félix hasn't come home.  However, after Ladybug and Chat Noir leave, Félix comes out of hiding, and we realize that Amelie lied to protect him (even from Paris's beloved superheroes!).  It's not clear exactly how much she knows about what he did, but I don't doubt she would protect him even if she knew everything.  Their bond seems that strong.

And on a completely different note--I wanted to talk about the Couffaine family too, since another anon mentioned Luka and Jagged Stone on your other blog.  Long story short, two supporting characters are the twins Juleka and Luka Couffaine.  Juleka is the MC's friend and classmate, and Luka is the MC's secondary love interest.  They live with their rebellious mom Anarka on a houseboat on the Seine.

We haven't seen too much of the twins' relationship, but from what we've seen, they're very close and sweet with each other.  They're in a band together along with some of their friends.  (I love siblings who do music together!)  Juleka introduces Luka into her friend group, and Luka listens to his younger twin sister when she talks about her dreams of modeling despite her shyness, and he encourages her to go for it.  After Luka's relationship with the MC falls apart (due to her always having to sneak away for superhero things), Juleka encourages them to be friends because she wants her brother to be happy.

And! They both eventually get to be part-time superheroes, and so far, we've seen them work together once.  Naturally, they make a good team, and so far, they don't know who the other one is!  (So hey, "siblings as superheroes" anon--half of what you wanted is canon already.  And there are actually a couple of fics out there where the two get crushes on each other in their superhero forms without knowing they're twins IRL... even if they're more crackfics than real shipping fics.)

(Juleka does have a ~very close friend~ who it's implied is her girlfriend--and they're very cute--but the show has never explicitly said they're dating or not.  And even if they are, Rose has openly crushed on someone else before and Juleka seemed to encourage her, so they might be polyamorous.  Who knows?  Honestly, polyamory would solve most of the romantic problems on this show...)

And then there's the twins' parents.  As mentioned, their mom Anarka is cool and rebellious. She used to be a musician too, and she seems like a good mom who has a fun dynamic with her kids.  But what about their dad?  Their mom has tried to keep his identity secret from them, but...

Their dad, it turns out, is famous rockstar Jagged Stone.  (The whole family is into music, and I love that for them.)  Both Luka and Juleka have been fans of his for a long time, and Juleka even met and asked him for his autograph earlier in the show before the reveal.  It's fun because a lot of Juleka's class is a fan of his, and some might even have celebrity crushes--it's not hard to believe that Juleka and/or Luka might have had a celebrity crush on him too, at some point, even if it's never stated in canon.

Eventually, their mom does tell them Jagged is their father, and Jagged tells Luka that the reason he wasn't part of their lives before was because Jagged feared he would be a bad father to them. The twins start to get to know him better as their dad.

For a bit, Juleka fears that Jagged favors Luka over her, because she sees them getting closer and sees Jagged give her brother a cool record on their birthday.  She feels neglected, until Jagged gives her his first bass guitar as her gift.  (Awww!)  Juleka's first venture as a superhero is actually in this episode, as both her parents get akumatized (basically turned into a mind-controlled villain) and she has to help save them.  Afterward, she and her dad have a heart to heart.  Jagged reassures her that he loves her and he always wants to be there to listen if she needs to talk, and she tells him that she loves him.

That's the last we've seen of these relationships in canon so far, but there's so much good material there.  I love them.

On another note: one of Adrien's childhood friends and the MC Marinette's bully is Chloé, and her family is also interesting.  Her mom Audrey is usually on another continent and she makes Gabriel Agreste look like a good father by comparison.  She barely remembers Chloé's name, but on the other hand, Chloé idolizes and adores Audrey and is desperate for her attention.  It's really sad.

On the other extreme of bad parenting, Chloé's dad André spoils her rotten, lets her get away with anything, and throws around his weight as mayor to get her special treatment.  It isn't healthy, and he could stand to show his love in better ways, but he seems intent on making up for her lack of motherly affection.

And then eventually, we learn Chloé has a half-sister around the same age, Zoé, who comes to live with her and André in Paris.  Chloé resents her and calls her only "half a sister," but in the meantime, Zoé really wants Chloé's love and friendship.  At first, she tries to act more like Chloé in order to have a relationship with her, but gives that up after Zoé realizes that isn't good for anybody.

Still, Zoé keeps trying to reach out to her sister.  When Chloé is akumatized out of jealousy for her sister, Zoé tells her (quoting a movie she's acting in, but still), "You may hate me, but I love you, and I always will, even if the whole world hates you, sister."  Chloé is startled that Zoé would still reach out to her and want to be around her, after the way she treats her.  (I suspect that, if the show ever follows through on Chloé's redemption arc, her relationship with her sister will be involved in that.)

Zoé also has an interesting, touching bond with her stepfather André.  Both of them feel like they've had to hide their true selves and their interests from their family in order to be accepted.  In contrast, they're able to be a bit more open around each other, and André starts growing a spine to stand up for Zoé, even disagreeing with Chloé in order to stick up for his stepdaughter.

(tl;dr: Zoé seems like she's going to be a good influence on both of them, and I hope we get to see an arc for the whole family.)

And finally, just because it feels weird to talk about one main character and not the other, I want to touch on Marinette Dupain-Cheng and her family.  There's not a lot of overcomplexity or tension there, but a whole lot of sweetness.  Marinette and her parents, Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng, are always shown to be supporting each other.  Marinette helps them out in their bakery, and they encourage and love her.  Sometimes, Tom and Sabine worry about their daughter, since she disappears a lot (and they don't realize she's a superhero because she doesn't want to endanger them with that knowledge), but they still believe the best of her.

Even though they don't know she's Ladybug, they are still encouraging and supportive of Ladybug whenever they're around her.  They're big fans and have absolute faith in her.

Despite not knowing this huge secret, they still know her very well.  Sabine is so used to her daughter's clumsiness and forgetfulness that she usually has something prepared to help Marinette out (even placing a basket of soft clothes at the bottom of their steps because Sabine knows she'll trip, lol).  And she is very protective of Marinette, willing to fight for her sake.

Tom is also very fond and proud of Marinette. The two share a lot of interests, like playing video games together.  When Tom is akumatized, it's actually because of Marinette--he thinks she's had her heart broken by Chat Noir due to a misunderstanding, and he becomes "Weredad," basically putting his daughter in a tower like a princess to protect her from ever being heartbroken or hurt again.  It's really sweet.

Her extended family's relationships are also sweet.  Marinette loves her grandmother Gina, even if Gina babies her, and she pretends to still enjoy the things she enjoyed as a little kid just to avoid hurting her feelings.  (Also, Gina gets her a motorcycle for her birthday!)

Marinette doesn't actually meet her grandfather Rolland until the events of the show, because he and her dad had a falling out about Rolland's traditionalism.  But even if he's stubborn, he still ends up caring about her and she about him.  And despite the short time they've known each other, Marinette trusts him, even enough to leave him with the kids she was babysitting when she has to slip away to save Paris.

And then on the other side of her family, there's her great-uncle Wang.  At first, Marinette doesn't speak Mandarin well, and Wang doesn't speak French well, but both of them make an effort in order to be able to communicate with each other.  She helps him as he enters a cooking competition, gets furious on his behalf when his food is sabotaged, and saves him when he's akumatized.

During a special, she goes to stay with him in Shanghai, and his French has improved a lot.  She goes missing during this stay, much to his concern.  There isn't a lot to say about their relationship, it's just sweet.

It's also mentioned in this special that, apparently, Wang raised Marinette's mother Sabine when she was a girl.  It isn't stated why, and we don't know too much about their relationship, but they seem to have a good relationship, as he's both Sabine's uncle and her adoptive father.  (Which I guess makes him another grandfather for Marinette,as well as an uncle?)

As you can tell, there's a lot of big families in the Miraculous Ladybug universe.  Some

---

Anon, I'm so glad to hear from you again! You always make Miraculous sound like such a fascinating show. Wow, I can't believe all of the family relationships, it's so wonderful to have all of that on one show. Poor Adrien's family is so complicated. I love the introduction of Felix into the mix, so many possibilities there.

It looks like the ending of your submission got cut off, but hopefully we got all of the ships. Thanks so much for this great write-up. It certainly makes this look very appealing to fans of incest shipping!

[ketchup-monthly]

it was actually Jaime’s uncle in the trailer that called Batman a fascist! (pretty sure he’s not in the comics, tho im not caught up on jaime’s rebirth solo run)

I’m more familiar with the 2006 and New 52 Blue Beetle comics, in which Jaime isn’t shown interacting with his extended family too much (though in his new 52 run we meet his Abuela (Alberto’s mother) and in Graduation Day, we meet his Tias Gloria and Marisol (who i love very much)), so i’m more familiar with his parents, sister, and best friends that he’s known since he was in elementary school. I’m excited to see where the movie takes Jaime’s family, since he is in Palmera City in the movie and most of his comics take place in El Paso, Texas.

Also Brenda’s aunt, who took her in after calling out a hit on her father, is the head of the local mob, so she has a very nice house (until it’s destroyed lmao) that is filled with old books and artifacts and anything else that La Dama (Tia Amparo) thought was worth owning. Jason would love and hate that house at the same time. Like its filled with things that remind him of the Manor but also its filled with things that remind him of the Manor. He and Brenda would talk for a long time about academic stuff and various old books that Ti Amparo has, since Brenda graduated valedictorian of her class in high school and Jason was at the top of his class before he died, and i think he’d at least casually pick his academic studies back up, if only to beat Tim, who never graduated high school, or Dick, who never graduated college. Jaime would be watching them talk with heart eyes and Paco would be making fun of Jaime and absolutely kicking his ass in Mario Kart.

Paco also has a very large close knit family, and his mom is basically like another mom to Jaime, so Jason as to not only impress Jaime’s parents, but Brenda’s aunt and Paco’s mother and siblings. Paco’s younger sister would not like Jason, and I say that bc Jason has a larger chest than she does and she has a one sided crush on Jaime.

I think Jason would have less to worry about with impressing the various siblings that Jaime and Paco have between the two of them, since Jason spent time living on the streets and has younger siblings of his own (and is canonically really good with kids!) but impressing the parents and Tia Amparo? That’s a bit scarier for him, especially since he’s got some noticeable scars and was, yknow, the head of a crime organization for a while. And he’s from Gotham, which brings a whole slew of worries to the table

i also forgot to talk about Khaji Da at all in the ask! Khaji Da (in my head)(to Jaime)(in Jaime’s head) either sounds like Eric Lopez, who voiced both Jaime and Khaji Da in the YJ tv show, or some sort of futuristic beeps and trills like in brave and the bold that only Jaime seems to understand, since technically, the scarabs operate in Interlac, which is the language used by the Reach and is a sort of universal space language in some areas, since Lobo also speaks Interlac. To me, Jason can’t understand Khaji Da, can’t even hear them most of the time, but he is expertly good at discerning the topic of a conversation and what the scarab wants through Jaime’s side of the conversation. Jason is intimately familiar with having a voice in your head, since the Pit has a voice and speaks to him in his head. Jaime does the same for him, easily able to figure out what is going on in Jason’s head when Jason goes distant because he’s having a conversation with the sentient ooze that brought him back to consciousness.

you are also so right about Paco teasing Jaime relentlessly for the absolute unit of a boyfriend he managed to get. teasing is Paco’s love language, and unfortunately for Jaime, he is incredibly easy to tease

re: the jaime/jason thing

Paco would love Jason so much either that or he'd absolutely hate him and be suspicious from the beginning. either one. Brenda, i think, would like Jason well enough, but I think she'd get along better with Jason's siblings than Jason himself (im thinking Duke, Tim, or Cass). Traci, Jaime's ex, would want Jaime to be happy, even if thats not with her.

Bianca Reyes would adore Jason, and would try at every opportunity to feed him "proper" food. No shade to Alfred, but he's a rich person butler, not quite in tune with the normal folks. When Jason visits, he'll try to help out in the kitchen, and learn her recipes with her, but she'll try (to no avail) to kick him out because he is a guest. He'll end up helping out anyway, but Jaime will just sit at the counter and watch, a stupid smile on his face, which is good because it means Jaime won't mess anything up (unless asked to help with something) but also shows Bianca how much he really does love Jason.

Alberto Reyes would be a little more wary of Jason, since there are mob problems in El Paso that are decently prevalent in Jaime's original solo run and Alberto got caught in the middle of them, which led to his leg injury that causes him to need a cane. However, Jason is good at working on cars, and Alberto owns an auto shop, and the more Jason is around and wants to help out in the shop, the more invested Jaime gets in helping his father out with the business. And anyone who is that good at working on a car and makes his son happy is alright in Alberto's book. It helps that should Jaime get into any trouble, Jason (and the rest of the Red Hood gang) would be there to help.

Milagro likes Jason. He's like the big brother she never had.... Milagro also canonically likes Guy Gardner so i think that bodes well for her vibing with Jason. Jason also totally bribed her into liking him faster with some homemade cookies and a cool knife that she's not supposed to let her parents or Jaime see.

(sorry this was a really long ask! i just know ive seen stuff about jaime interacting with the wayne family but not jason interacting with jaimes family, who i love very much)

PLS! I'm familiar with Jaime's family from the trailer alone, but the ' they don't get out much' tells me everything I need to know.

Jason watches these people be so tight knit and open and playful and he's like WHATS THE FUCKING PROTOCOL?

The Waynes are clawing and fighting their way towards something just like this, of course, but they've never wanted something softly.

Honestly, I love that Jaime's dad (i think) called Batman a fascist? Which just makes me smile, because Brenda DEMANDS Jason brings his family over for a house warming dinner (Jason might have bought them a house...Maybe)

Imagine Jason squeezing Jaime's hand to keep from laughing as Alberto goes on a SCATHING RANT abt batman, arm around Bruce's shoulder as they're having drinks (Tequila for him and apple juice for Bruce)

Also, I love to imagine Paco saw 6'5 Jason standing next to his very much not 6'5 best friend, and the first thing he did was send jaime the hamster eating a banana meme

[joyousgeekeryabounds]

Another parallel that makes me think Mirabel is meant to be the next Matriarch of the family:

Abuela and Mirabel are the only ones shown giving a one-on-one pep talk to the newest gift recipients. For the sake of the narrative and to show how their relationship has grown strained over the years, I see why it had to be Abuela talking to younger Mirabel. But for Antonio? It could’ve been anyone - his mom (who was actively looking for him), his sister (who I’m sure could have HEARD where he had gone), his brother, his dad, anyone - but Mirabel knew Antonio the best, right? They’ve been roommates for most of Antonio’s life.

Adding another layer to this, if you will: They both bring a “gift” with them. Abuela brings the candle, the family’s miracle, their ultimate gift that came from Pedro’s sacrifice and Alma’s grief. Mirabel brings a gift that she also made from, albeit to a much lesser extent, sacrifice and grief. Think on it for a moment. The whole time she was making it, she was preparing to lose Antonio, just in a different way. Mirabel was going to lose him in the same way she lost the rest of the relationships with her family - by being left behind, as the only one without a gift. Again. Assuming Antonio’s ceremony doesn’t fail like hers did, which she gives very sturdy reassurances to him that it won’t, but if it does go wrong, that she’ll still be there for him. So he won’t also have to face the grief alone, like she did.

(On top of that, we’ve got the whole “the miracle is you” thing, and the jaguar plush is just a physical representation of that. Mirabel made the plushie herself, with her own talents and skills as she is, no Gift required. “The miracle is you, not some Gift, just you.”)

And then, we’ve got this almost direct parallel of Abuela and Mirabel being the ones to walk the child to their ceremony. This is also actually a good representation of how much the family has changed over the years after Mirabel’s ceremony flopped. Younger Mirabel is excited, pulling Abuela along, eager to get downstairs, and they’re both smiling. Whereas Antonio is so much more nervous, with Mirabel again having to nudge him along. (Also there’s a ton of candles? Around the stairs? And specifically on the wall on their left, then to their right are candles that are more similar? That one may be a reach, but c’mon.)

Antonio knows what the risk is here, because he may be a kid, but he has still caught on to how the family behaves around Mirabel versus how they behave with each other. Kids are smarter than you think they are and while they might not know exactly what is causing an issue in their home, they can still understand vibes and negative behaviors. For the entirety of his existence, Antonio has only known Abuela and Mirabel’s current relationship, as it is - strained and buckling. And we know Antonio wants to impress Abuela and make her proud (I mean, all the family wants that) but specifically how, as soon as he’s gotten his gift, the very next day, he’s ALREADY trying to do something for her. “I told them to warm up your seat!” It’s such a small, cute comment, but ultimately another window into what he knows is expected of him now that he has a gift.

ANYWAY. tldr; Mirabel is meant to be the next Matriarch of the Madrigals because she has what it takes to nurture and lead everyone in the same way Abuela did, but with less toxicity this time.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 302: As the Todoroki Turns

Previously on BnHA: 

Today on BnHA: We have a very fun chapter in which (1) Shouto grows up lonely on account of his parents being worried that his siblings will literally try to kill him, (2) Natsu and Fuyu grow up neglected on account of not being special and/or self-destructive enough to attract attention, (3) we get to revisit all of that exciting spousal abuse from chapter 39, and (4) Touya burns to death right on cue, pretty much exactly like we expected it to happen. Thankfully since this is a shounen manga, Horikoshi finds some hope in all this misery as the Todoroki family rallies together, with Shouto getting his long-overdue credit for being a perfect sweet angel who put up with all of this shit for sixteen years and somehow came out of it strong and kind and empathetic and determined. Anyway, so that flashback was a barrel of laughs. But now that it’s over, we can put all of that angst behind us, and move on to... well I guess, probably, more angst. Look, we’re short on variety at the moment. Bear with it.

ouch. we knew this was coming, but still

A+ parenting move there. “ho boy, our eldest just tried to murder our youngest, now what? hmm how about we isolate our youngest from all human contact”

though in their defense, we probably shouldn’t have expected this rabidly strength-obsessed fire man and his wife who was groomed since childhood to obey her family’s whims to have any idea of how to raise stable, well-adjusted offspring

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS

this is a perfect example of Enji’s tragically self-revolving viewpoint right here. just because being a hero is your entire world doesn’t mean you can just excuse yourself from anything outside of that and act like it’s out of your control. “alas, all I care about is hero stuff and my son can’t be a hero, we are doomed to inhabit two different worlds” no you jackass, it’s called having more than one hobby?? figuring out how to spend some time with your son that doesn’t involve training?? the same exact thing you were telling him to do last week, while ignoring that you’ve never done that yourself in your life??

that said, yet again we have that complexity though because it’s obvious that Enji at least on some level is aware of his own flaws, even though he seems unwilling or unable to confront them. honestly, from what we’ve seen so far, Enji’s obsession with surpassing All Might might be more accurately called an addiction. he literally can’t let go of it even though he’s fully aware of how it’s slowly destroying his life. and so in the same way that a lifelong smoker or alcoholic might tell their child to stay away from cigarettes and booze, Enji tells Touya not to follow down the same path as him, even though he himself doesn’t know how to leave that path. so yes, it’s hypocritical as fuck, but there’s also an element of helplessness there as well because Enji literally doesn’t know how not to be like this

though all the same he sure could stand to put in more than just a token effort. but it is what it is, and we already know how much he’ll come to regret it

and meanwhile Baby Shouto has frozen his sleep bubble with his quirk lmao. so I guess his quirk did come in early. that’s a recipe for chaos right there

once again Shouto is ruining every single dramatic panel in this flashback

this was so dark and intense... and then I spotted the lil bubs in the corner. Horikoshi please control yourself

“some hero you are, running away” and then all of a sudden, “FIVE YEARS LATER” lol what. OKAY THEN

(ETA: love the confirmation that eight-year-old Natsu comes from the Iida school of puberty and is basically a fully grown man, and meanwhile Touya comes from the hobbit school of puberty and has been perpetually eight for the past five years.)

“HEY BIG BRO WANNA COME RECREATE AN ICONIC FLASHBACK SCENE WITH US. WE’VE GOT THE SOCCER BALL RIGHT HERE, BUT HURRY UP OR WE’LL BE TOO LATE FOR SHOUTO TO WALK ON BY AND STOP TO LOOK”

lol and that’s literally the next three panels. but Horikoshi did add this extra bit after Endeavor starts to drag Shouto away

seriously Enji what the hell did you expect was going to happen here. “Touya went nuts and tried to kill his little brother out of jealousy, so let’s make it clearer than ever that Shouto is the important child and all the other children are just rejects. this will definitely not make the problem 100x worse, and will surely lead to Touya giving up and living a happy life, having been emotionally abandoned by the person he admired more than anyone.” good for you pal you figured it all out. no need for that plan b, “we all just go to therapy”

anyway so he’s telling Shouto he can’t play because he needs more endurance training. and meanwhile Touya’s patented Todoroki Drama Genes are going through puberty as well

definitely the face of a happy, emotionally stable child who’s not still plotting to murder his younger brother in his sleep

“WELL ACTUALLY MAKESTE” lol I stand corrected??

apparently during the five year interim Touya actually stopped blaming Shouto and realized Enji was the one at fault. good for him! a bit inconsistent, given what we know happens later, but I assume we’ll get to that in good time

anyway. “yeah man I agree that dad sucks, but it’s the middle of the night and I’m only eight and you’ve been monologuing for the past two hours bro”

LMAO

the manga is making my jokes for me, only better. fine then

looks like someone’s still miffed about that disagreement he had with his baby sister back when she was like four

“Fuyu doesn’t get properly riled up like I want her to so ranting to her is annoying.” okay but having been in Fuyu’s shoes, it really is just a different way of coping, and I can guarantee she’s not as fine with the whole situation as Touya might think. but making your peace with something is often a decision that’s made for emotional self-preservation reasons. and I sure as hell don’t fault her for trying to shut out a situation that she had no control over, and trying to make the best of it, and scrape together as normal a childhood as she could manage

and now in Touya’s defense as well, that is of course easier said than done, and I’m sure if there was a “push this button and instantly get over all of the trauma in your life” switch readily available for Touya then he would have pushed it too. unfortunately it’s not always that simple

so now Rei is pleading with Touya not to go train up on his little emo hill again, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed since he was eight

I don’t think he gives two figs about being a hero; he just wants his father to look at him again with pride. fucking hell, stop doing this to me you damn Todorokis

guh, they keep telling him the same thing over and over again

even if we hadn’t already known he was gonna go melt his jawbone off soon, I wouldn’t have expected a line like that to go over well

yep. fuck

that Todoroki puberty angst, though. nothing else quite like it

“you have a part in this too, Mom” ooooooh man

okay but look, he’s not entirely wrong. like, I’m not saying any of this is Rei’s fault at all! she’s in an impossible situation where she’s afraid to stand up to Enji (who by this point has shown that he’s willing to physically attack her if things get too heated, which is terrifying), and doesn’t really have anywhere to turn for support. her parents aren’t helping much if at all, and Japan in general is just a terrible country to be in when you’re in a domestic abuse situation. everyone’s expected to put on a brave face and deal with their problems all on their own in private. Rei is basically completely isolated at this point, and she doesn’t know what else to do, and so she’s just trying to keep the situation as stable as possible for the kids

but on the other hand, “for the kids” is also where that argument starts to break down a bit, because at this point Shouto is also being physically abused by his father, and the other kids are continuing to be neglected (emotionally if not physically), as they have been for years. so the situation really isn’t stable at all for them. and as a kid, what you end up learning in that type of situation is that you can’t rely on either parent. not the abusive one, certainly, but also not the other one who can’t protect you from any of it. even if they love you and they’re trying, they’re just as helpless as you. Rei is struggling to deal with all of this with one hand tied behind her back, and I get it, and I’m not blaming her at all. but all the same, particularly given that she’s (understandably) putting almost all her focus on Shouto, the end result is that the other kids have basically been left to fend for themselves

so yeah! a shitty situation all around. and one of those cases where it’s not really anyone’s fault (aside from Enji’s), but I can understand the resentment Touya is feeling all the same. and I’m so glad Horikoshi is acknowledging this, because it’s something I probably would have been too uncomfortable to bring up otherwise. as it is it’s still an incredibly heavy subject, and one that I probably have too many personal feelings about

anyway, so once again the whole “we’ll try talking to him and then just shrug our shoulders when it doesn’t work” parenting strategy doesn’t really pan out for the Todoroki fam

sob this boy is Anakin Skywalkering before our very eyes. all that’s missing is AFO to come and start whispering in his ear. any minute now...

“anyway so then he got taller and his fire changed from red to blue”

guess we’re getting pretty close then huh. this is the part of the flashback that I really don’t want to see, but also unfortunately the part that I’m most curious about :/

oh for fuck’s --

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IGNORING HIM FOR FIVE YEARS DIDN’T ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM” sob. back to the drawing board I guess

I thought he got taller, why is he still only like a third of Enji’s height here

oh fuck me these are armor-piercing feels. this is the heavy artillery right here

ENJI I’M BEGGING YOU PLEASE STOP AND THINK FOR ONE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE BEFORE DOING SOMETHING YOU’LL REGRET FOR THE REST OF ALL TIME. your child just told you that he still thinks beating All Might is the only thing you care about, and that he believes his existence is a mistake unless he finds some way of doing that for you. please stop for a moment to contemplate that and choose your next words with care and grace and oh who the hell am I kidding

-- OR WE COULD JUST BLAME REI

go on and blame everyone but yourself then!! that’s a great solution!! jesus christ man I know this is Endeavor at his literal worst but still this is fucking hard to watch

POOR BABY SHOUTO IS YELLING AT HIS DAD NOT TO HIT HIS MOMMY THIS LITTLE BRAVE BOY NEEDS SO MANY HUGS OH MY GOD

AND MEANWHILE THE OTHERS ARE HUDDLED IN THE NEXT ROOM TRYING NOT TO CRY AH FUCK

(ETA: Fuyu covering Natsu’s ears cuts RIGHT TO THE CORE OF ME. Horikoshi if you’re really not gonna get these kids some therapy then at least consider giving your readers some. what is this.)

you know it’s bad when you’re starting to think the part where the kid burns to death might actually be a less traumatic thing to cut to right now

holy shit, actual Rei thoughts

“I was the one who ultimately made that choice” well there we go, wonder if that’ll put that whole argument to bed at last. I doubt it, but you never know. actually who am I kidding it’s not gonna settle jack shit lol

oh thank god, they decided it was getting too intense and cut away back to the present to narrate this next (final?) part

get ready to cue up that Alicia Keys. THIS BOY IS ON FIREEEEEEE

yeah I think that’s one thing we can mostly all agree on. neither of them had any clue what the fuck they were doing pretty much at any point. though I will say that the hypocrisy of him being all “WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HIM” followed by him IMMEDIATELY DOING THE EXACT SAME THING is a bit rich

(ETA: and he still has this problem, doesn’t he? he froze up when Ending snatched Natsuo, and again when Dabi was attacking Shouto. he’s so afraid of doing the wrong thing that he ends up not doing anything, which of course is exactly what led to Touya’s death. damn Enji I guess you’ve still got some additional character development to unlock.)

and of course neither of them could possibly have known how badly it was going to turn out. like, the consequences here were WAY disproportionate even for the shittiest of parenting. no one expects “I didn’t know how to talk to my son” to snowball into “my son burned to death and then somehow came back as a villain and murdered thirty people”

ohhhhhhhh fuck me

LITERALLY INCINERATED THE ENTIRE HILLSIDE. fuck. and I am so not ready for the scene of Enji finding the remains of his jawbone afterwards. at least we were spared anything super-graphic (for now at least)

I feel like the timeline here is off, btw?? wasn’t Touya’s death supposed to happen after Rei got hospitalized? this might be the first actual retcon of the entire flashback. although I think it makes more sense this way tbh

I do appreciate that ten years later Enji is finally reflecting on the fact that if he’d just given up his stupid obsession he could have stopped his family from crumbling apart. that probably sounds sarcastic as fuck, but it’s not. there are countless jerks out there who would have still managed to find a way to blame literally everyone and everything under the sun except for themselves. at least he finally figured out how to take responsibility, even if it came too late to stop his son from dying and being radicalized into a villain terrorist organization

and speaking of, it seems to me we’re missing a third and final part to this little tale of woe, and one which only Touya himself will be able to shed any light on. so we’ll see how that goes

oh man seeing the other kids blaming themselves even though none of it was their fault hits hard af. Rei wasn’t kidding when she said they’d been bearing that burden of guilt far longer than Enji

SHOUTO I SWEAR TO GOD IF THE NEXT PANEL IS YOU APOLOGIZING FOR BEING BORN, I WILL... WELL I’LL BE VERY SAD, I GUESS. SO DON’T DO IT

oh good he’s just being quiet. good. it absolutely is not your fault lil bean. it’s not theirs either, but feeling guilty about things that aren’t your fault is a time-honored shounen tradition

goddammit I braced myself for the angsty Shouto panel a page too early. gotta do it all over again now lol. okay here goes

;_;

well well well would you look at that

imagine that. talking things out with your child before they make a rash decision. looks like the Todorokis’ parenting skills are finally leveling up

OH MY GOD

holy shit. this is the most quintessential moment of father/son Todoroki bonding in the entire series. for me it even tops the “nice scar” scene lol. Enji sobbing at the fact that he still has a chance to set things right. and Shouto offering his hand in what is actually the most mature and selfless gesture I’ve ever seen, and being all “we’ll stop him together” to his dad who he hates, but also doesn’t really entirely hate anymore. and all of that is incredibly moving... BUT ALSO HE STILL REFUSES TO MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH HIM AND HE WOULD LIKE HIM TO STOP BEING SO FUCKING DRAMATIC ALREADY IF YOU DON’T MIND. “WHEN YOU’RE DONE CRYING...” fkjldsk

OH MY FUCKING LORD

(ETA: wouldn’t be a Todoroki drama fest if there wasn’t somebody listening in on the whole thing in secret just around the corner lmao.)

“you think we should have waited somewhere else?” “yeah, probably.” “are you feeling a lot of secondhand embarrassment too?” “god, you have no idea.” STFU HAWKS IT’S NOT EMBARASSING TO BE MOVED TO TEARS BY YOUR FAMILY ALL COMING TOGETHER IN YOUR DARKEST HOUR TO GIVE YOU HOPE THAT YOU PROBABLY DON’T DESERVE BUT ARE NONETHELESS INDESCRIBABLY GRATEFUL FOR

and anyway you chose these guys as your found family, bucko. too late to back out now. next time go get yourself adopted by the Iidas then

AND MEANWHILE NO WORD ON THE WHOLE “HOW DID A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SURVIVE A FIRE THAT COVERED HIS BODY WITH HORRIFIC SCARS AND MELTED HIS JAW OFF, AND HOW DID HE SOMEHOW THEN MANAGE TO GO INTO HIDING FOR TEN WHOLE YEARS, AND WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INTERIM TO CHANGE HIS GOAL FROM ‘SURPASS ALL MIGHT TO IMPRESS MY DAD’ TO ‘KILL ALL HEROES TO MAKE MY DAD SUFFER’.” as if we don’t know the answer to that. but still, would it kill Horikoshi to just confirm AFO’s involvement in all of this already. at this point it’s basically just a formality

so here’s hoping next week we’ll either get that, or more Hawks action, or (DARE I EVEN SUGGEST, I’M AFRAID TO JINX IT) finally cut back to Bakugou and Deku and All Might omg. either way I’m hyped

[damangaka]

Main Characters

The Pauper - Juan Antonio Mendez.

A low class resident from Iztapalapa who wakes up at 3am in order set up his peanut and snack cart nearby Zócalo. His father died due to crime related things (un ajuste if you know what I mean). His mom managed to hop over the US border and is now trying to get her kids papers while she works in a farm and sends them cash. He has a younger brother, Jaime, whom he teaches of his little business while encouraging him to stay at school and do better than him.

The Prince - Alberto Ignacio Molina Villanueva.

A Whitexican nouveau rich from Polanco, with a summer house in Cancún and yearly trips to chalets in Europe. His father is one of the top businessmen in Mexico, formerly a director of the Mexican para-state oil company. His mother, happily divorced as she states from time to time, is a socialité who is the top presenter of a celebrity gossips show. Alberto is slated to become the next head of a telecom company his father owns but there are worries that his laidback attitude and overspending - on top of rumored sex-fueled parties - may be a detrement for the future.

The Support Cast

The 'garnachas' seller - Maria Juana Sanchez

Maria Juana, or Juanita as Juan calls her, is a petite lady that comes all the way from Ecatepec, Estado de México, to sell her tacos de canasta at the Mexico City Metro. Because of the similar routes they take and their similar names, Juan calls her her 'little sister' something which grants him an elbow bump to his ribs from her. Despite her overall looks, she is a very clever woman who knows the whos and what about the city and can provide you with interesting insights with your serving of 4 tacos at 10 pesos.

The new kid in town - Francisco Alejando Estrada Velasquez

Born and raised in Madrid, Francisco was dragged against his own volition to Santa Fe after a scandal in Spain forced his family to flee to Mexico. Thanks to some connections, his family have established a new telecom business that has quickly become as influential as the Villanueva's. Knowing the rumors circulating about the heir to the company and thinking himself a better more disciplined person, he proposes his father a way to not only overcome his competition but, perhaps, get the Villanuevas entirely out of the way.

Plot

Alberto is having the greatest time of his life: partying like crazy, going to exclusive events and showcasing his lifestyle via social media. It all comes crashing down when in his latest party some invitees were caught using illegal substances. On top of that, photos of him making out with a boy his father does not approve of make their way around the internet. Even his mother has shown them up on her gossip show which is among the top rated in the country.

As a way to quell the rumors, his father sets him up to go to a tough but elite boarding school to set him up straight. Not wanting to give up his lifestyle while he still has youth, Alberto decides to run away from home in the most humiliating way possible: a pesero headed to Mexico's largest plaza, el Zócalo.

Meanwhile, Juan is a humble man trying to make enough money to send his dear younger brother to a good school and to help out the neighbors of his barrio as best as he can. Though the money he obtains monthly from his mother - currently residing in the US - is useful, it runs out quickly due to the monthly rent increases from his asshole landlord bent on gentrifying the building he lives in and the time to time bribes given to the police so he can put his snack cart and sell in peace.

It is in this plaza where the two meet and lament each other's problem, quickly turning into some sort of game where one is trying to top the other with their struggles and misery.

Alberto, jokingly, suggest that they should swap places with one another and live the other's life so they can experience the meaning of 'true struggle'.

Seeing this as a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Juan happily accepts the deal.

In turn, Alberto thinkers about how to use the experience to generate clout on his social media which was currently being bombed by some 'haters' after the whole party ordeal.

They set up some guidelines for each other - with the idea to make the ruse as passable as possible - and swap clothes (and tools!) to embark on the other's life.

And thus, our story begins. . .

So here I am, talking with my life partner about how I'm somewhat dissatisfied with the way some social movements (in particular the LGBT+ and Women's rights) are managed and how, while they have their hearts in the right place the execution is sometimes done poorly, which has lead to - in my opinion - a sad regression done in the progress of several areas in dire need of improvement.

My focus was on how they're done in the Western-anglosphere where I'm inclined to say they've reached a peak point where it should become less bloated and more laser-guided on how to promote causes and work for the better of marginalized people. Other spheres like Eastern Europe, Middle East and SEA could still benefit from the 'love bombing' approach of "All Representation is Good Representation" - without becoming too overbearing as I feel it has become - so as the population slowly shifts their paradigm to provide minorities better understanding and the opportunities they need while also having in mind their historical and cultural differences.

And then there's LATAM. Born and Raised in Mexico myself, I concluded jokingly that the approach should be to show just how equally miserable they are in regards to 'normal people'.

"Oh, so like a Telenovela?" my partner said, a little imaginary lightbulb popping on his head. I had recently been feeding him Funny or die videos about the utter ridiculousness of 90s telenovelas from Televisa where the plots are so convoluted and bizarre you really have to see to believe it. Despite how different their plot can be, they often - if not always - follow these notes:

Main protag is a poor and/or an orphan woman who suffers due to their social/race class.

Suddenly stumbles with a once in a lifetime opportunity - usually a rich family - that could make her life better.

Some bitch - usually female - can't stand the girl protag and makes her life miserable.

Destined protag lover is a beefcake that will be fought over like a trophy (extra points if he is in fact the bitch on the earlier bullet).

Car explosions, poisoning, lost or stolen kids, death in the family, falling from the stairs. . .

The protag, despite the odds, succeeds and obtains her happy ending. Main antagonist explodes, dies or is institutionalized due to the crazy shit that went through this whole ordeal.

And so, it is with this utter ridiculousness in mind that we started developing what I think might be the BEST way to promote LGBT+ normalization in LATAM.

Ladies, Gentlemen and all in between, I would like to present to you a 'modern audiences' version of the Prince and the Pauper, Telenovela edition:

El Principe y El Méndigo

Una Telenovela para audiencias modernas.

Por Da Mangaka.

[18sweetmusings]

General Metal Bat Headcanons

1. Bad probably gets asked about his name pretty often. Mostly asked because people have a hard time believing him that he was legit named Bad.

2. He probably beat up a few people for teasing him about his name, mostly because they thought his parents was on something for naming him Bad. Can you imagine the kids in primary up to junior high saying, “What kind of idiot names their kid, Bad? How stupid!” (His mother named him. Lol)

3. And what happened after…Bet he made sure no one teased him about his name ever again...

4. I feel like Bad likely had some ridiculously tough parents. Tough as in these two were some STRONG people both mentally, and physically. But they were pretty balanced as parents who made sure to teach him, and Zenko good values.

5. His father is likely his inspiration on manhood — being a respectful, and dutiful man with conviction. I would think his father was the type of guy who look like he could kill with his looks, and was a man who said only what needed to be said. But he’s a big ol’ softie, especially around his family that it can be a stunning contrast.

6. So consider him just being an average working man who everyone was certain he was this jacked up Yakuza looking dude only to find out he’s the best guy to work with, and much kinder, and the most helpful person than people originally thought.

7. It’s just that he’s a big dude who rarely smiles. He always smiles for his kids, and wife though. Oh, he simps hard for his family.

8. But papa is a good guy with a simple background. Can’t help that he’s a big dude with a serious looking face.

9. And Bad’s mom? She was a traditionally pretty housewife; unassuming, and sweet looking. But don’t mess with her family or you’re 🔪😵. Maybe not literally dead, but do you really want to test a mother who knew every possible way to hurt someone? She was capable of physical feats you didn’t think she’d be capable of. Otherwise, she was as sweet as could be, and impressive with finding ways to save money or earn more money.

10. Mama was no weakling, and she knew way too many people that it was borderline scary. We may never know about her connections. But she’s more sociable than her husband.

11. I think Bad’s mom may have some tattoos on her back or somewhere on her body that her kids don’t know about. She’d be a mystery, a petite mystery y’all wouldn’t want to mess with. Trust me.

12. One would have to wonder if she has any associations with the Yakuza? The world may never know…

13. Her son Bad, and anyone who knows her knew not to test her patience. If she said get your butt downstairs for breakfast, you better not dawdle.

14. As for Bad, he’s learned from his parents how to be a gentleman with a healthy dose of respect of equality. Which is why, just because you’re a girl, does not excuse you from being a menace to others. Bad will, and does make this clear. Aside from that, he has no problem being respectful.

15. And it’s clearly shown with Tatsumaki. He was not afraid of her nor would he deal with her bullshit just because she’s a woman, and a powerful psychic…She can get the bat too if she think he won’t do shit.

16. If you’re an inconsiderate jerk, he’ll check you on your nonsense— or bash your head in if you have no regard for other people.

17. Despite his bad boy persona, he actually doesn’t break the rules. He just has a low tolerance for certain types of behaviors, and acts from people.

18. I think Bad does have some fan girls, and there are plenty of girls who think he’s awesome. But its rare for him to get love confession letters. Most of his fans are guys around his age or younger saying the same thing about him being cool.

19. Even if he did get a confession letter, he’d likely turn them down for the time being since adding dating to his life is just another complication he doesn’t want to deal with for now.

20. Not that he’s uninterested in dating, but he has his little sister to consider, and to care for. Being a hero is already complicated even if it’s arguably the simplest out of anything he has to do in his life excluding school. Oh, and eventually he’ll have to seriously think about the future; it’s all a bit too much to think about along with being a good boyfriend, too?

21. And Bad is a simple guy who hates complicated things. If the method ain’t broke, there no need to fix it, right?

22. That’s why beating monsters to a pulp with his bat works for him. It’s too the point, and it gets the job done. Also, it’s the best way to get his pent up anger out especially when he’s having a bad day.

23. Bad SUCKS at studying. It’s too much stuff to remember, solve, and…Just give him something that’s straightforward. Although many people do seriously think he’s just a brainless brute...He at least has some common sense, and street smarts…Just no complicated plans, its not his thing.

24. He’s an all action type of guy who does what he say he will.

25. He’s also not detail oriented, and prefers the most direct method to solve problems. He’ll have some solid insight, and is perceptive. But he’s simple-minded, and direct.

26. He might be a thug, but he has good manners. He was raised well.

27. Bad might have came from a decent family, and had a decent economic background. But don’t waste food, don’t waste money, and be respectful. So, it should be pretty evident that he doesn’t like spoiled inconsiderate, people.

27. He has no interest in going to college. At least for now he has no interest in pursing education beyond high school. He‘s still attending high school because he can at least honor his parents wishes to finish even though he’s disinterested.

28. Now if Zenko wants to go to college, Bad would be so excited for her, and a big crybaby because at some point Zenko will be all grown up. He wants to spoil her as much as he can.

29. By the time Zenko is ready, Bad is going to go overboard making sure she has everything she needed like the doting big brother you’d expect him to be.

30. But any boys who attempt to court Zenko better be on their toes, he’ll screen every last boy like his father likely would for the best guy because his sister deserves the best.

31. This may get on Zenko’s nerves when she’s older. But Bad is old fashion when it comes to dating, and one could never be too careful in his eyes.

32. And if a guy can’t treat his sister as well as she’s been treated, he won’t get far. Lol

33. Last but not least, Bad’s hair smells nice from the shampoo, and the products he uses. I bet his hair is silky soft.

[flightfoot]

If anyone wants to read a fanfic focusing on Alya’s problems and feelings, centered around her as a person, I HIGHLY recommend “can you keep a secret?” by euphorickiri. 

It starts off looking like it’s mostly just gonna be interested in shipping Alyadrien (which it DOES do very effectively), with early chapters having a good portion of the plot be driven by Alya suspecting that Adrien’s Chat Noir and wanting to spend more time with him, find out more about him in order to become sure of it.

But even then, even as early as chapter 1, you get to see that there’s more going in with Alya than you’d normally see in such a fic. That she can’t get herself to post to the Ladyblog after the Lady Wifi business, that people at school are treating her differently after being akumatized, along with going over her current issues with her friends and family, things that are shown and develop more and more as the series goes on.

In chapter 1:

Nino was her closest friend besides Marinette. They bonded quickly over their mutual love for comic books and have only grown closer since then. Often when Alya felt like she couldn’t talk to Marinette, Nino was always there to lend an ear. This was happening a lot more recently than she wanted to admit. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but Alya wasn’t stupid. Marinette was hiding something from her. Something big. She showed up to school half-asleep most of the time and when asked to hang out she came up with every excuse in the book to avoid going. There were even certain times she would just disappear without telling anyone. It seemed like it was taking a huge toll on her and Alya didn’t want to add to that burden. So she plastered a smile on her face for her best friend and supported her in any way she could. Still, she couldn’t help but be suspicious about what was going on.

She hated how much Lady Wifi took over her life. She pretended not to see the dirty looks people sent her, ignoring how hurt she felt. Nino was right. They weren’t themselves when they were akumatized. But that didn’t mean everyone sympathized with akuma victims. And she was no exception. Even Chloe was wary around her now. Chloe . The most fearsome person at school. So Alya preferred not to talk about it at all. It was just something else she had to deal with.

She wasn’t weak. She wasn’t . She could handle herself.

And with chapter two, it starts laying the foundation of her family situation.

“What do you guys want?” Alya asked tiredly.

“Breakfast,” Ella replied. “Can you make chocolate chip pancakes again?”

Alya ran a hand over her face and looked over at her alarm clock, relieved she had a decent amount of time to get herself and her sisters ready for school. Her parents worked during the day so it became Alya’s responsibility to look after the twins. Make sure they get to school, pick them up from school, feed them, dress them - everything. It could be draining, and as much as she loved her sisters, they were still kids who acted out and refused to cooperate at the worst times. But if she didn’t look after them, no one else would. Her parents, especially her mom, were too engrossed in their work. The one time Nora did come home to visit, Ella and Etta didn't know who she was. That’s how long she’s been gone.

So, this was Alya’s burden to carry. Alone.

“You guys have to eat something other than pancakes every morning,” Alya scolded, reaching for her phone. “I’ll make oatmeal with some fruit instead.”

As the story goes on, Alya’s family situation with her parents fighting and using her as a go-between while pretending everything’s alright, with herself being her younger sisters’ rock, becomes a bigger part of the story and necessary background to the emotional struggle Alya goes through, informing a lot of her character and why her thought process is the way it is.

The rest of the day consisted of Alya trying to get Marinette to speak with occasional assistance from Nino and Adrien. Nothing worked. The only person able to get a reaction out of her was Juleka. The other teen waved passing their table during lunchtime and Marinette waved back. And as worried as she was, Alya couldn’t help but be a little annoyed. There have been days where all Alya wanted to do was yell at anyone who dared to approach her. But she never took it out on Marinette or anyone else. But here they were, the situations revered, and Marinette wouldn’t even look at her . What made Juleka the exception?

No one wants you.

Alya pushed her tray of food away, her appetite gone.

She almost pulled her hair out when Miss Bustier told everyone to sit with their partners during their last class of the day and Marinette bolted out of her seat. Alya tried to hide her irritation when she saw Marinette and Juleka talking out of the corner of her eye as if everything was normal.

“Remember your projects are due tomorrow! I’m giving you the entire class period today to finish up,” Miss Bustier announced. “I’m very excited to see your presentations!”

Adrien slid into Marinette’s empty seat. “We need to find a couple more pictures for the poster but other than that we’re good.”

“I agree.” Alya glared when Marinette laughed at something Juleka said, not paying attention to his words. “We should do that.”

Oh? So quick to replace me? She tensed up as her own words mocked her.

Marinette rested her head on Juleka’s shoulder. Don’t worry, you’ll always be my number 1 partner. You’re irreplaceable.

Wrong. You’re disposable .

Alya’s feelings and emotions are validated by the narrative, even though she has the wrong idea about Marinette replacing her. 

Lady Wifi plays a big role in the story as well, since she’s not actually gone, and serves as a kind of embodiment of Alya’s negative emotions and worst impulses, as well as a looming threat. The tension between her and Alya helps accentuate the emotional heart of the story.

Alya also gets to disagree and talk things out with Ladybug and Master Fu, when she doesn’t agree on their handling of situations, though with them not being demonized in the process either. 

Just... if you want to read a fic focused around Alya’s problems and emotions, but that treats everyone else well too, that gives her a lot of agency and also a lot of support, I HIGHLY recommend this fic.

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

You Marked More Than Just My Skin - Supercorp

Read it on AO3

Kara’s first instinct was to blame Alex because, if she was going to be honest, Alex was the one to blame for many of her stupid decisions. Sisters' competitive nature or something like that. That's what their mother would say when they were teenagers and they randomly started a fight. A just adopted Kara who had just lost her parents was not letting an overly cocky Alex win without fighting back.

So, naturally, she was going to blame Alex for this. However, Alex had nothing to do with Kara walking down the street from her job one day and entering the tattoo shop she walked past by every day on her way home. No, it had started with Winn, her best friend, saying that Kara wasn’t the type of person to do things out of impulse. Which he wasn’t exactly wrong, although he hit a sore spot because "I can be very spontaneous!" had been Kara’s answer and everyone around them gave her that look that made it pretty clear no one believed her.

Then, just about a week after that, Nia was walking home with her after a stop at Noonan's for their killer milkshake and saw the tattoo shop still open even if it was past 10 pm. There was no one inside that they could see, but the sign read "open" in neon letters and Nia did a double-take when she saw the walls covered in drawings.

"Oh, my God! Look at that thing!" she had screamed. And that thing was a fairly beautiful drawing of a girl lying in bed with a cloud above her head as though she was dreaming about a myriad of things.

Nia grabbed her arm, dragged her inside and, ten minutes later, she was sitting on a chair while a young man that couldn't be older than Kara permanently marked the skin on her forearm with the same drawing.

"Did you draw it?" Nia asked and Kara could tell she was just a little bit in pain because she was clutching the arm of the chair and hadn’t stopped babbling for two seconds. Not that Nia ever stopped talking, actually.

"No," the man replied in an excited voice. Like he was happy to be doing a tattoo on a girl that had just ten minutes prior decided she wanted one. But Kara held back her tongue, took some pictures while Nia made her goofy faces and sat on a stool at the corner like the good friend she was. "My boss did. She does most of the drawings we have available."

"Well, she has a hell of a talent!" Nia exclaimed, bit her lip when the needle hit a soft spot and flashed another smile once it was gone. "You should tell her she's amazing!"

Jack, that was his name, Kara reminded herself, laughed like that was a big joke that only he was aware of, but nodded all the same. "She's in the office right now, maybe she will stop by to hear you say that. She loves when people pick her drawings, but she will never say it out loud."

The woman, whoever she was, didn’t leave her office, not even when they left, way past midnight, listening to Jack's careful instructions on how to take care of Nia's arm for the next week. In the end, Kara had to admit Jack was a nice guy. And he did an excellent job. Nia's tattoo was perfect. Perfect for her and perfectly done, and her friend had no problem showing it off the next day.

"Holy crap!" Winn screamed when he saw it on game night on Friday. "I didn't know you were into tattoos. It looks awesome!"

"Thank you! And I just decided to do it," Nia shrugged, as though deciding to do a tattoo on a Wednesday night at 10 pm after getting a milkshake was a normal thing. "Thank Goddess Kara was with me so she could keep me company."

"Wait," Winn eyed Kara with the same incredulous expression from a week before and she immediately felt defensive. "Kara was there and didn't try to stop you?"

"She did say I might regret it," Nia conceded with a smile. "About ten times, but she stayed with me."

Kara rolled her eyes, picked up the pizza box and sulked on the couch while her friends made fun of her lack of spontaneous nature. Kara was a planner. And she had learned her lesson when she decided to walk to the park instead of going home one day after school and returned to the Danvers' household to find out three police cars parked at the street and a frantic Eliza giving them a photo of her and saying she had disappeared. So, yes, Kara wasn't one to do things out of the blue anymore, but that was hardly a bad thing.

She tried to tell that to herself for the next week while everyone still awed and cooed at Nia's tattoo. She tried to remind herself of Eliza's panicked face while James, with his impressive looking dragon tattoo on his back, said Kara would never be one to make a tattoo because she would keep changing her mind. She tried to picture Alex's disapproving stare while Nia's boyfriend, Querl, made comments on how he loved Nia's carefree and spontaneous nature.

In the end, what pushed her to do it was her boss and Kara couldn’t even blame her, or Alex, or any of her friends. But she would, anyway.

"Kiera, the reason why people hardly remember your name-" she wanted to point out that Cat was the only one who had a hard time remembering her name but bit her tongue instead "-is because you are so... blank."

"Blank?" Kara had asked, trying and failing not to look so offended.

And Cat nodded because she knew how to get to her. "Nothing remarkable. You use terrible sweaters and write articles that everyone could write. Did you ever do something, I don’t know, remotely spontaneous in your life?"

Kara was sure - or almost sure because you can never know with Cat Grant - that her boss was trying to push her to fly to Midvale to write about the scandal surrounding some tech company there even though Snapper had decided William would cover that for CatCo. It was either that or to make her wear something that wasn’t in pastel color.

Well, all it did was send Kara straight to a tattoo shop where she hoped to find Jack and demand he did something as spectacular as Nia's tattoo. And she went on a mission, marching down the ten blocks from CatCo to the tattoo shop - that only that day she stopped to read the name of and what weird name they chose, Le Vintage Ink - her feet hitting the ground with a purpose, her hand pushing the door open with a vengeance, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses with one goal in mind.

It wasn't Jack she saw, however. She didn't see anyone at first, actually. The shop was empty like it was a week before and very silent, with the air conditioner doing a soft hum and nothing else.

The anti climax moment was enough to make all her determination wave off. Her shoulders dropped, her eyes rounded, her feet started to stamp and her determination, well, she didn’t quite remember it anymore. Nobody needed to know, Kara told to herself. Nobody knew she was going to do it, so she could just turn around, leave, go back to her apartment and try to do some online shopping. Maybe buy a red dress for once. None of her friends would ever believe she went back to the tattoo shop, so there would be no problem...

No. That was exactly the problem. They wouldn’t even believe her if she told them. They would laugh, call it a bluff, and keep teasing Kara for not being adventurous like they were. Alex does this long motorbike drives all over the state sometimes, and James goes hiking and jumps from planes from time to time. Winn would point out that the last thing Kara did without meticulous planning was to change pizza night for potstickers and that was only because the pizza place she always orders from was out of pineapples.

However, Kara reasoned with herself, instead of doing a tattoo, she could just go with Alex on her next trip. Maybe she could ask James to teach her how to hike. Querl adopted a cat he found behind his building, so maybe that could be Kara’s unplanned moment too. And what did Winn do so adventurous or spontaneous that he had the right to make fun of Kara? She couldn’t remember.

Yes, any of those things would be more reasonable. She could even do an impromptu visit to her mother. It would count for something. She knew Eliza would be happy and she loved making her mom happy. She could even pick Alex's old helmet so her sister could use it to ride with her girlfriend, Kelly, and Eliza makes a killer chocolate pecan pie too.

Already dreaming with the taste of the pie crust in her mouth Kara turned around. She must have been inside the tattoo shop for less than ten seconds and Jack hadn’t shown up yet, so that was a plus and a sign, even if she wanted to greet him and tell how nice Nia's tattoo looked after a week.

The second her back was turned to the counter, though, she heard a door opening and then a voice filled the silence. "Can I help you?"

That wasn’t Jack's voice. That much she knew. What she didn’t know was that someone could sound so... husky and still be so clear on the words. What she also didn’t know was why her body froze like she had been hit with lightning. Or why she ever decided to leave when a voice like that was inside the shop.

It would be rude to just keep walking, Kara told herself and even she knew it was a lame excuse for wanting to see the owner of that voice. But she still turned around, eyes blinking fast as she tried not to miss a second of what she was about to see, and then immediately felt her soul leave her body. That was the only explanation on why her mouth fell open and why her brain's function slowed down at least 30%.

Because the voice's owner was... for the lack of a better word, striking. It was a woman, looking a few years younger than Kara, with dark as coal wavy hair falling down her shoulders, green piercing eyes framed by some heavy eyeliner and plump lips painted with red lipstick. The woman was wearing a black t-shirt from a band Kara had never heard of, the v-cut being deep enough that she could see a black bra under it. The shirt looked like she had been cut at home - maybe she wasn't designed to have such a deep v-neck, maybe she had sleeves at some point and maybe the deep cuts by each side also weren't a part of the initial product. But, damn, it looked great on her. Since she had no sleeves and the shirt moved as she walked and showed a great expanse of her sides, Kara could see that the woman’s body was covered in tattoos.

Her arms, from shoulder to wrist, were almost totally covered. Her left arm almost looked like a flower shop, with dozens of flowers in different colors drawn all over it. Her right arm had tattoos from her shoulder to her elbow, and they were a mix of chemical elements and computer parts that, somehow, worked together in all black and white. Kara got just a few glimpses of the tattoos on her side - something that looked like a cartoon character, another one that assembled a lake, a few words that Kara couldn’t read from that far - but that was enough to make her lick her lips and try to picture what else was there. There were no tattoos on her chest area, that Kara could see, but there was a small musical chord on the left side of her neck, and Kara wondered if she had any tattoos on her legs. She couldn't see them from where the woman was standing behind the counter, and something dragged her feet forward before she could stop herself.

"H-hi," she choked out and her face immediately heated up with embarrassment. Her sister would call it 'gay panic' and make fun of her for three days, and Kara was suddenly very thankful for being alone. "I, uh..." The woman blinked, Kara mimicked her, and lost every coherent thought inside her head. "Jack."

The woman arched one perfect eyebrow, resting her hands flat against the counter, and Kara’s blue eyes were suddenly very interested in the long fingers spread over some papers. The papers, she noticed as a second thought, were unfinished drawings, but she could hardly tell what they were. Feeling her face get even hotter, Kara demanded that her eyes moved up and she was almost proud of herself when they paused for only a second at the woman’s cleavage. Of course, as soon as her eyes met the woman’s face again, she had a tiny smirk like she knew Kara was having a hard time being in the same space as her.

"I'm sorry, love," she said and Kara noticed an accent behind the last word, like she had spent years trying to get rid of it but still couldn't brush it off some words. "Jack doesn't work here on Tuesdays."

Oh. Well, that's a bit of a relief, Kara wasn't going to lie. No Jack, no tattoo, and she still could say she tried. She still wanted to say ‘hi’ but...

"Can I help you instead?"

Oh, boy. Kara almost turned around and ran away right then and there because the things she was thinking this stranger could help her with were kind of mortifying. Instead, Kara bit her bottom lip so hard that it went numb instantly, and leaned forward until she was resting her hands in front of the woman's fingers. She dared to glance down really quick, just to find out the woman was wearing black jeans and boots, before she looked up again - with a quick stop at the cleavage because good lord.

"I don't know, I..." Kara couldn’t even say her own name if the woman asked at that moment, let alone remember what she was doing there and where there even was.

The woman chuckled then. A deep, husky sound from the back of her throat that brought a small smile to her lips, and then she ducked her head - as though she had no idea that was the most blinding smile Kara had ever seen in her twenty-six years of living. Neither the chuckle nor the smile was mockingly, and her green eyes were just a little bit amused when she looked back at Kara.

"Don't get me wrong but... you don't look like the type of person that would get a tattoo."

Okay, what is it with people just assuming Kara is too boring to do something? Kara took a look at her own clothes. She wasn't even wearing a sweater that day! Sure, beige trousers and a blue button up hardly screamed "living on the edge" but come on! Was it the glasses? Alex always said she should use contact lenses, but she liked the glassed!

Feeling a new wave of determination, Kara set up her jaw and crossed her arms. "Well, that's exactly what I came here to do."

The woman raised both eyebrows now, clearly amused. "To get a tattoo?" She asked like there was any other reason for Kara to be inside a tattoo shop on a Tuesday night.

So Kara nodded, her blonde hair wiggling from side to side on her ponytail, and straightened up her back like she was about to enter a fight. Not that she ever fought before, not even when the cruel kids at her new school would call her weird and push her inside her locker. Alex would beat them up for her, so she didn’t have to, it was fine.

"Yes," she said and her voice only trembled for a second. "To get a tattoo," she confirmed like there was any other reason for her to be inside a tattoo shop on a Tuesday night.

"Okay," the woman said, clicking her tongue once before she picked up a pen from the desk, a smirk permanently spread on her lips. "Do you have any idea of what you want?"

Shit. Kara hadn’t gone that far. Maybe not even her own brain thought she would do it because she had neglected the most important part of the entire process. She had no idea what she wanted permanently marked on her skin.

(Permanently marked also sent a thousand of red lights inside her head because, you know, it was permanent)

It must have shown on her face because the woman’s smirk became more of a smile, not exactly gentle but not mockery either. "What's your name?"

"Kara." She was so glad her brain hadn’t come up with something ridiculous to say. She could remember when she met her cousin's sister-in-law and answered the same question with "mashed potatoes" for some reason she would never be able to grasp. Lucy never let her forget that embarassing moment.

"Well, Kara," and Holy Goddess of all the universe and beyond, how could her name roll out of her lips like that? "why don’t you take a look at the drawings we have here, see if you like one. If you don't, we can always come up with something for you."

She then pushed some heavy black portfolio across the counter towards Kara and opened the leather front cover to show her the first drawing. They were all separated by plastic, and she started the task of turning the pages while trying very hard to look at the drawings and not at the woman in front of her. She wasn't sure because she wouldn’t dare to look up, but she could feel green eyes staring at her and her blush returned full force.

"So..." she heard after a couple of minutes in silence. "What kind of dare you lost?"

Kara took full offense on that, glaring at her for a moment before going back to the portfolio. She had gotten on the dragon section and decided to skip it all together. "There was no dare."

The woman hummed, watched her for another minute, and then leaned over with her forearms touching the counter. She reached out, taking the plastic from Kara's fingers, and started skipping the pages until they reached the flowers. Kara looked up, catching a glimpse of the woman's arm, before meeting green eyes with a light glare.

The woman shrugged. "You look like a flower kind of girl."

"What else do I look like to you?" Kara mumbled back and stubbornly went back to the drawing she was seeing before - the ships and anchors section - even though she left a finger marking the flowers page.

The brunette seemed even more amused now, barely able to hide her smile, and she chuckled once when Kara turned the page to see another ship. "Like you randomly decided to get a tattoo because someone pissed you off."

Kara tried not to give her the satisfaction of being right, deciding to focus on studying every ship and every anchor. She heard another chuckle, but the woman wisely didn’t push the subject.

"You could save us a lot of time by just going to the flowers."

Fine, maybe she was right about that too. Kara would never pick a ship, or a dragon, or a coffee cup, or any other drawing she saw before. Although Kara never thought what type of drawing she would get tattooed. With a sigh, she went back to the flowers, throwing the woman a dirty look when she huffed a laugh.

"Hey," she said, raising her hands in playful defense, "if I'm going to do something that you will regret tomorrow, at least let me help."

"Aren't you going to try to talk me out of this?" Kara asked, remembering when Jack asked Nia five times if she was sure before touching her skin with the needle.

"No," another shrug. "I will get my money and you will get the regret. Works fine by me."

Kara scoffed and shook her head, but finally spotted something she liked. It was a rose, not larger than a paper ball, black and white with a few leafs to the side. She was almost pointing that one out when she heard a deep sigh and looked up. The brunette was staring down at the drawing with enough judgment that Kara changed her mind in a blink.

"What?" She still asked because it was a beautiful flower.

"Nothing, it's just... does that even mean something to you?"

Kara looked back at the rose and frowned. "I like roses," she defended herself.

"I like kale, but I won’t tattoo that."

"You like kale?" Kara didn’t mean to sound so disgusted by it but it was stronger than her. Her face twisted in a grimace, shocked more than anything.

The other woman laughed a real laugh this time, and Kara felt the sound into her xcvery core. "Please, don't ask me to tattoo a burger on you. You're too pretty for that."

It was like she knew exactly what those words would do to Kara because she winked right after, making her blush ten times more. "What do you suggest, then?"

The tattooed brunette smiled and tapped her finger on top of the rose. "If you liked this one, it's fine, but I would go with..." She let her voice die as she started turning the pages until she found what she was looking for. "This one."

Kara looked at the drawing and was immediately sold to the idea. It wasn't just any flower. It was a plumeria. Well, two plumerias side by side, with a few leafs to the sides and a mandala carefully placed behind them like it was the third flower. She knew she wanted that one the second her eyes landed on it.

"It would look good on you," she kept talking. "I wouldn’t add any color, though." Kara kept nodding although she was only half paying attention now that she had found the right one. Her silence must have sent twisted signals because the woman’s voice became softer. "I know I said I wouldn’t try to talk you out of this but... are you sure?"

Kara’s eyes moved up then, metting slightly concerned green eyes, and she smiled. "Yes. I'm sure."

The woman studied her face for a few seconds before she nodded once. "Okay, then. Where do you want it?"

Shit.

The panic on her face told her out again and the woman’s laugh filled the space around them like a melody. "Come on, we can figure it out inside."

‘Inside’ being a closed room very similar to the one Nia had gotten her tattoo, albeit it was clear that that one wasn't Jack's. First, it lacked the smell of cigars and heavy cologne that Kara smelled last time and made her nose itch. But it also held a more personal touch like more drawings and a few words scribbled on the black walls. Kara didn’t feel nervous while the woman turned the sign from open to close, explaining that she was the only one who worked on Tuesdays' nights. She also didn’t feel nervous when she entered the room and spotted the comfortable chair she would be sitting on. What made her nervous again was taking her shirt off so she could decide where she wanted the plumerias to be.

She placed the printed drawing on several parts of both of her arms, her shoulders and asked the brunette to hold it at some spots on her back as well. But Kara was only satisfied when she put the paper against the right side of her ribs, a few centimeters below her bra. The woman gave her a knowing look and arched one eyebrow when she said that was the place she wanted her tattoo.

"Are you sure? It can be quite a painful area to get a tattoo, especially if it's your first one."

Again, she wasn't making fun of Kara and she appreciated it, but she also wasn't going to change her mind. "I'm sure."

"Okay. I will put the outlines, then."

It was only when the brunette had her hands against her side and her face a few inches from her chest that Kara realized she didn’t even know who she was. "Hey, I, uh, I didn't catch your name before."

Green eyes glanced up, bright and slightly amused, before they returned to the task of perfectly positioning the flowers on her ribs. "Lena."

"Lena," Kara found herself echoing the name in a whisper before she could stop herself. Lena looked up again, even more amused than before, and Kara felt herself blushing. "It... it suits you."

She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Lena smiled and tilted her head to the side. "Thanks." She pushed back the stool she was sitting on. "Take a look at the mirror and see if that's what you want."

Kara took a step closer to see her reflection and tried very hard to ignore the fact that she was standing in front of a stranger in her bra. The plumerias were exactly what she wanted and exactly where she wanted them, and she said that to Lena, who told her to lay down after turning the chair into an improvised bed. While Kara tried to find a comfortable place to lay, she heard Lena slipping on rubber gloves and moving a few things around before approaching her again. She was half expecting her to ask one more time if she was sure, but Lena said nothing when she touched her skin with the black gloves, and raised the needle to her eyes level to make sure it was ready to go.

Kara wasn’t sure if the shivers were from nervousness, the chill air of the room, or the fact that this very attractive woman was touching her just below her breast, but she did her best to ignore it. Lena had pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, Kara realized, and she could see her sharp jawline more easily now. She also spotted five different piercings on the woman’s right ear. For a second, she wondered if Lena could feel her heart beating under her skin or if she could maybe even hear it.

"Be ready for some pain, but try not to move," Lena said while she lowered the needle to her skin. "It will take longer if you keep moving. You also don't want me to fuck this up," she offered Kara a smile to let her know she was joking - at least that's what the blonde hoped for. "Tell me if you need a break."

So, Lena wasn't lying when she said it would hurt. Nia neglected to tell her about the painful part and Kara would make her pay for it by typing down her next article, but, holy crap, it hurt. The first touch of the needle made her jump and hiss, and Lena pulled it away like she knew it was going to happen, giving her a few seconds to recover.

"Sorry," Kara whispered once her body relaxed again.

"It's fine," the brunette mumbled back, totally concentrated on her job now.

It went like that for a few minutes - Kara squeezing her eyes shut, biting her lips, clutching the sides of the chair slash bed, and hissing under her breath whenever she couldn’t hold it back anymore. Until she started to get used to the pain and allowed herself to focus on other things. Her eyes trailed to the few drawings hanging on the walls, taking in the delicate traces and the lack of colors from all of them. She decided that talking would help her with the pain.

"Jack said his boss makes those drawings," she commented lightly.

There was a brief pause before Lena answered her. "That would be me."

"Oh," the blonde breathed out in shock. "So, you..."

"I'm the owner, yes." There was another pause while Lena cleaned her skin with a soft paper. "I used to work for a tattoo artist back in Metropolis before I decided to open my own business. Jack followed me."

"Well, you certainly have talent. Your drawings are beautiful."

"On paper," Lena teased and Kara didn’t need to look at her to know she was smirking. "Let's see how it translate to your skin."

Kara wanted to play along and tell her to ‘please, don't make something awful that would be permanently marked on my skin’, but she found herself saying something entirely different. "Plumerias were my mom's favorite flowers. My dad would bring them to her every Saturday after work because those were the first flowers he ever gave her." She could still remember her father getting back home on Saturdays right before lunch with a bouquet in his hand to her mom and a box of chocolate for her, all smiles and offering hugs. If she tried hard enough, Kara could still remember the smell of her mom's stew mixed with the flowers' smell, could still taste the chocolate. "They died almost fifteen years ago."

Kara had no idea why she was sharing those things with this stranger wearing black rubber gloves and breathing too close to her ribs, but she also couldn't stop. Maybe it was a tattoo thing, like sharing too much about your relationships while cutting your hair.

Lena didn’t shy away, though. She made sure their eyes were locked before saying, "Let's make sure those are perfect, then," and went back to work.

Kara felt herself relaxing more after that, although she didn’t say anything else for a few minutes. "I work as a reporter to a magazine," she found herself saying. "My boss is... both of them are impossible to deal with. I dream about throwing them into space sometimes, but... I love my job. One of them is the reason I'm here today."

"Who should I be thanking?"

Kara blushed one more time, even if she wasn't sure it was said to be flirtatious or if she was just imagining it. "Cat means well, she just... push some buttons sometimes."

"Well," Lena stopped her movements to look at Kara again, this time with a soft smile. "I will be sending this Cat some flowers anyway."

The blonde chuckled at that. "Go back to work. I don't want to end up with a dragon on my ribs."

Lena hummed, eyes dropping back to the outlines of the flowers and needle touching skin again. "I wouldn’t draw a dragon on you," she contemplated. "You're more of an iguana kind of girl."

Kara gasped in faked offense and turned her head to fully stare at Lena with narrowed eyes. "How dare you? You know nothing about me!"

The tattoo artist shrugged, not bothered by her explosion. "Maybe a kitty." Kara huffed and puffed, letting her body fall back on the chair, and did her best to keep frowning. "Definitely a kitty," she heard Lena whispering under her breath, playfully and amused, and Kara was soon smiling. "So... will your boyfriend approve this?"

"Are you fishing for information about me?" Kara teased.

"Huh," Lena sighed. "You didn’t sound this confident when you were stumbling over your words when you first saw me."

She was sure her entire body turned pink with that and she mumbled weakly that: "I was nervous about getting a tattoo."

"Yes, of course," Lena replied and Kara blushed again.

"No boyfriend," she ended up replying because the other alternative was to dig a bigger hole to herself. "Or a girlfriend."

She was ready for another teasing from the other woman, but Lena pulled back instead and eyed her tattoo with her head tilted to the side. "I need you to hold your breath for a few seconds, okay? I'm getting to a delicate part and it would be better if you hold it for, like, ten seconds."

Kara nodded and got ready to pull in a breath to hold it while Lena got her needle ready to go again. When the other woman said so, Kara took in a large intake of breath but, as soon as the needle touched her again, she exhaled in surprise when the pain shot to every nerve in her body.

"I know," Lena said. "It's the hardest part. I promise to be done with it as fast as possible. Can we try again?"

There weren't many options since Kara was already in the middle of getting her tattoo done, so she nodded and waited for the new signal. Kara grabbed the chair with both of her hands, pressed her eyes tightly shut, bit her bottom lip and held her breath for the longest ten seconds of her life before Lena tapped her skin and pulled away with a smile.

"There," she declared in her husky tone. "Good girl."

It was embarrassing how those two words made Kara react. She gasped, the breath still stuck in her lungs almost causing her to choke, and her entire body went stiff when a shiver left goosebumps all over her skin on its way down her spine. She couldn't see Lena and that was a blessing because she could feel the pause that her reaction gave the brunette. So, maybe that was a weird way to find out a praise kink, Kara decided while praying that Lena would brush it as a perfectly normal reaction to have.

"That was interesting," Lena whispered and, this time, the blonde knew she wasn't supposed to have heard that.

The blonde bit her bottom lip so hard that she could feel the taste of blood and she was totally sure that Lena could hear how fast her heart was beating. She could probably feel it, and, God, that was so embarrassing. Kara had half a piece of mind to just pull back her shirt, leave and never go back there, but the other woman didn’t give her time to react before she was once more piercing her skin with the needle. It was still painful, although the mortification she felt numbed it a little bit.

Lena didn’t sound so cocky when she spoke again and she even had to clear her throat so the words would come out less hoarse and more audible. “Just a while longer and we will be done. Can you handle it or should we finish it another day?”

Kara didn’t trust herself to ever come back – and not just because of what had just happened but also because she didn’t think she would be brave enough to get any tattoo needle to ever touch her again. So, she exhaled slowly and nodded. Lena went back to the draw immediately after that and they fell in a half comfortable silence until the trickiest part was over. Or, at least, that’s what Kara thought the trickiest part was because it hurt like hell and Lena had this crinkle between her brows when she glanced back that made her look... cute. Even with the tattoos and the five different piercing sets on her ears, the black clothes, the black room and her undeniable confidence.

It wasn’t until Lena leaned away to get more ink that she spoke again. “Plumerias were very common where I lived.”

Kara thought back on their conversation and wondered aloud, “Metropolis?”

“Ireland,” she corrected gently.

“Oh,” Kara breathed out and then hissed when the needle was back to her ribs.

“Not many people know I’m Irish, so I’m trusting you with this secret, Kara.”

She could hear the joke in the woman’s voice and Lena even poked her side playfully, and Kara heard herself giggling like a schoolgirl. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“That’s not how it works,” Lena declared with a huff. “Now you need to tell me a secret of yours.”

“What?”

“Yes, so we’re even and I can make sure you will never tell anyone what I just told you.”

“It’s not like you just confessed a murder,” Kara argued with an eye roll that was quite too fond to be directed to someone who she had met only two or three hours before.

Lena looked up for a second and their eyes met, making Kara’s face flush red. She was pulling a very uncomfortable position to keep her head raised and turned to the side so she could watch the other woman, and she had just been caught doing that one more time. “No? Well, you shouldn’t go to my office then.”

Kara hummed, trying to sound unimpressed by the joke while fighting back a laugh, and shrugged. “I knew it was weird I didn’t see Jack.”

The brunette let out a breathy chuckle, her hot breath hitting Kara’s side and making her shiver again, before she pursed her lips. “I see you’re too fond of Jack already.”

“Jealous?”

Lena quirked one dark eyebrow and gave her a look – the type of look that Kara tried to pull out her entire life while trying to look all sexy and misterious and was never able to do it – that made the blonde’s entire body warm up. “I’m the one poking your skin with a needle right now, so I think he should be the jealous one.”

Yes, Kara couldn’t keep up with that. She was weird, she rambled, she stuttered more times than not, and just, overall, was terrible at the whole flirting thing. Lena, on the other hand, seemed to be a master on it. Kara didn’t really stand a chance against it, not even for a second. She could try, pull out a word or a phrase here and there, but, in the end, Lena would find a way to leave her blushing and flustered so easily that made her head spin.

(She couldn’t be sure if Lena was just that good or if Kara was just super gay, but, whatever it was, it was working wonderfully)

“Now, come on, spill a secret,” Lena said after a long silence that stretched between them while they just stared at each other’s eyes.

Kara felt hypnotized by the green eyes and that was so unfair. So, damn, unfair. “I get my boss’ coffee order wrong every day.”

Lena stopped with the tattoo again to blink at her a couple of times in what seemed to be confusion. Then, she tilted her head to the side, glanced to the ceiling and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something. No sound came out, she closed her mouth again, and she looked so adorable that Kara felt her rambling coming to the surface again.

“Cat has this really complicated order at Starbucks that makes my head hurt just to think about. 3% fat, quarter milk, a spoon and a half of organic sugar, or whatever that is. It’s my job to get her coffee every morning and there’s no Starbucks close to my apartment, so I stop at another place called Noonan’s and get an order from there.” Lena still hadn’t said anything and Kara couldn’t bring herself to stop talking. “I used to work there, so I have a discount. I can buy a coffee for myself too with the same amount of money I would spend at Starbucks. And she never noticed it!”

There was a pause where Kara tried to come up with more things to say before a loud laugh cut the space around her. She looked at Lena with wide eyes and only slightly offended by her reaction, but the other woman was too busy laughing at her expense to notice it. The brunette used the back of her hand to cover her mouth while she shook her head and kept laughing freely.

“I’m sorry,” Lena said, waving her hand, before being interrupted by her own laugh. “It’s just... Fuck! That’s the worse thing you ever did in your life?” The tattoo artist looked at her again with her eyes crinkling at the sides and Kara felt her anger melting away.

“What? Did you expect a murder?”

“I was hoping that you would say you spit on her coffee, at least.”

Kara gasped. “I would never do that!”

Lena narrowed her eyes at her, a tiny smirk adorning her lips. “But you think about it, don’t you?”

“Every day,” she admitted with a groan, letting her head fall back against the chair.

The brunette laughed again and a cold hand came to rest against her thigh, making Kara’s body vibrate from head to toe. “I won’t tell your secret if you don’t tell mine.” Lena winked – winked – at her and Kara felt her throat too dry all of sudden. The woman chuckled again when the blonde gulped before she gently tapped the hard muscle of Kara’s thigh. “We’re done here.”

“Oh.” Kara blinked in surprise and her eyes immediately fell to her ribs. The skin was red and swollen, but she could see the delicate lines of the flowers and the leaves, and she was hit by the urge to cry all at once. She felt like a little girl again, being six or seven, and running to the door to meet her father, seeing the plumerias in his left hand and the chocolate on his right.

“Hey,” Lena called her gently, ducking her head to be able to catch the blue eyes again. “You're fine over there? I had people regretting tattoos before, but not so fast.”

Kara laughed and shook her head, trying to discreetly brush a tear from the corner of her eyes. “Everything is fine. It’s really beautiful.”

“Well, don’t say that before you take a better look,” Lena pushed her stool away and got up with a refreshed excitement. “Come on, stand up so you can look at it in the mirror.”

That’s what Kara did, sliding off the chair and walking with slightly trembling legs to the full body mirror that she had seen before. The fact that she still didn’t have her shirt on was in the back of her mind while her eyes traced the ink. It looked even better on her ribs than it looked on the paper and she made sure to tell the other woman that, earning a smile that she doubted she would ever be able to forget.

"Here." She turned around to see Lena's hand reaching out a piece of white chalk between her long fingers and sporting a kind of smile that Kara hadn’t seen on her yet - satisfied, the type of smile you give after accomplishing a task that meant something to you. "All of my clients have to write something on the walls. It's tradition," Lena shrugged in the end.

Kara’s eyes swept through the room again, taking in the black walls and words written in almost every inch available under a new light. There were small praises, thanks, some jokes and even a few doodles, and Kara wondered what she could write that could sum up her entire experience inside Lena's tattoo shop. She took the chalk more out of instinct, her brain still working on finding the right words, and Kara took a few steps around the room until she found the right place to write.

It was just below one of Lena's drawings that were hanging from a string, between a Scooby-Doo doodle and the message of someone saying they loved their new rose tattoo. Kara’s handwriting wasn't the best one - sloppy and crooked - and it looked even worse when she was trying to write on a wall, but she managed to write her first and last name to make it look readable. Then, she added her phone number under it and put the chalk inside the small box she found just beside her. Kara turned around making sure her body would cover what she had just written, suddenly feeling too nervous about it, and accepted the plastic foil paper Lena handed her.

"Remember to put on the ointment I told you about and keep it covered so it heals. It should be all healed in a week, tops. You're free to call if you have any doubts."

Lena led the way out of the room and they found themselves once again at the reception desk. Lena picked up the pen she had played with before and scribbled something on a piece of paper beside the computer while Kara reached out for her wallet in the pocket of her trousers. Their fingers brushed when she handed Lena the money and her face flushed red for the millionth time that night. Lena gave her a knowing smile before putting the money away and just like that they realized that they would part ways soon. A small part of Kara, primal and shameless, tried to come up with any reason that would make her stay for a while longer. Anything would do, really.

Even so, there was no reason for her to stay and Kara tried to mask her unjustified sadness by joining her hands in front of her body and forcing a smile to look real. “Thank you again.”

Lena waved a hand dismissively, the pen still hanging between two fingers, before her hand came to rest on top of the other one on the desk. “It was my pleasure.”

“If I regret it in the morning, I will come back with a vengeance,” Kara joked, swaying on her heels, and the laugh that came from the other woman was worth any type of regret she might end up having in the near future.

“As much as I would like to see you again, I would hate for that to be the reason you came back.”

Lena winked at her and Kara’s mouth hang open before she could stop herself. That made the brunette laugh in delight, made a deep blush rise from her neck to her cheeks, and Kara started taking steps back before she could embarrass herself anymore. Alex, Nia and all of their friends were right: she’s a gay disaster. None of them would be able to judge her if they just saw Lena though, of that she was sure.

Stumbling over one of the chairs, Kara let out a nervous laugh and, to her utter terror, she pointed finger guns at Lena. “Have, ah, have a good night, ma’am.”

She missed the door handle twice before she was able to open the door and, by the time she looked at Lena again, the other woman was smiling broadly at her. Ducking her head, Kara walked out the door and let it close behind her. Once the slightly chill air of the night hit her face, she closed her eyes and resisted the urge to hit herself for some very stupid decisions made inside that shop. She wondered if she would ever be able to live it down if any of her friends ever found out she just did finger guns at a beautiful woman as a way to say goodbye.

Well, to be fair, she wasn’t sure any of her friends would let her live it down when they found out about her very spontaneous tattoo.

God, Alex was going to kill her. Not for getting a tattoo, but for doing so without giving it enough thought. And, for Christ’s sake, Alex could be a real pain in the ass when she decided to lecture her for whatever reason it was. She was so not ready to deal with that.

It was only when she opened her eyes again that she realized she was still standing outside the tattoo shop – and that Lena could still very easily see her from her place behind the counter – and, with another blush, Kara pushed herself to start walking. Her apartment was only five more blocks down the street and she took that time to clear her mind from anything negative she was thinking about.

If her crazy and very unusual night taught her anything was that she had the thing inside her that could make her do some very adventurous things. She was capable of doing those things. Maybe randomly getting a tattoo wasn’t the ideal way to prove that to herself, but, damn, she had just renewed faith in herself.

Her poor attempts at flirting were the last thing on her mind when she pushed the door to her studio apartment open and stepped inside, making a beeline to where she had left her laptop earlier that day on the small kitchen table. She pulled a chair after turning the computer on and, reaching out for an apple inside the fruit bowl, she waited for the laptop to come to life so she could open a new file to start typing. She had an article to write, and a trip to plan.

 XxxxxxxX

 It was two days later – after Alex had scolded her for making decisions in a rush, after Nia took pictures of their tattoos side by side to post on her Instagram, after Querl had awkwardly given her a thumbs up, after James raised his eyebrows, after Winn yelped in shock – that something changed.

Kara was lazily reading something Nia had written so she could suggest some corrections before the girl submitted it to Snapper’s approval, when her phone buzzed from its place beside her mousepad – her rainbow mousepad, thanks to Winn. She picked it up, thinking it was Alex inviting her for lunch so she could yell at her a few more times, but the number who had texted her was an unsaved one. She frowned, but didn’t give it much thought before unlocking her screen to read it.

“Since you didn’t barge inside my shop to kill me, I take it that you didn’t regret it?”

The smile that curled her lips up came from within her and it was apparently too obvious because Nia, who was sitting across from her, gave her a weird look and arched one eyebrow in question. Kara shook her head, biting her bottom lip, and turned her chair around so the girl couldn’t see her anymore before typing a reply.

“I never said I was going to kill you.”

“The threat was clear to me,” came the next text just a few seconds later and Kara chuckled to herself.

“Please, don’t tell me you were scared.”

“Why do you think it took me two days to reach out?”

Kara paused at that. She had spent the last two days being sure that, despite their easy flirt with each other, Lena didn’t actually want to talk or see her again. So, to have her texting her now was really... reawakening something inside her.

“Who are you texting?”

Kara jumped on her chair, startled by Nia’s voice so close to her ear all of sudden, her phone almost slipping from her fingers and crashing on the floor. Thankfully, her reflexes were still working and she was able to grab it, but not without throwing a glare at Nia for scaring her like that. The girl gave her a sheepish smile, although she shrugged and didn’t back away from where she had perched on the corner of Kara’s desk to look over her shoulder.

“No one,” came the childish, and not at all convincing, reply and Kara didn’t need to look at her friend again to know she was busted. Now Nia was not going to let it down.

“Really? Because you have been smiling to your phone for five minutes and you just smile like that when Alex says she’s bringing extra potstickers for game night.” Nia smirked and leaned over, trying to read the texts again, but Kara quickly pressed the phone against her chest to block her view.

“Alex just invited me for lunch,” Kara attempted to throw her off.

However, Nia arched her eyebrows. “Really? Because I just texted Kelly asking her to go to that vegan place with me and she said she already has plans.” A pause. “With Alex.” Another pause. “For lunch.”

Kara groaned and turned her chair so she was facing her computer again, slipping her phone screen down on the table. “Fine, it wasn’t Alex, but I’m not going to say anything.”

“Okay.” Her friend gave up way too faster than usual and Kara watched her with narrowed eyes as the girl jumped from her desk to turn the corner back to her own cubicle. Nia was about to sit down when she tried to snatch Kara’s phone away with one surprisingly fast move, but the blonde was even faster, taking it out of her reach in the last second. “Damn.”

Kara rolled her eyes and pushed her chair back. She grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair, throwing it over her shoulders and slipping her phone inside one of the pockets, and threw an overly sweet, clearly fake, smile at Nia. “Now you will have to eat alone because I won’t have lunch with you either.”

Nia stuck her tongue out at her. “I will call Querl!”

Kara waited until she was safely inside the elevator before opening her texts again. There were three more texts since the last time she looked and a smile immediately spread over her face when she read them.

“Okay, I confess, I was a little nervous.”

“You still there? You didn’t change your mind, did you?”

“About the tattoo, not the... leaving your name and number on my wall thing.”

She barely noticed when someone entered the elevator a few floors below, too focused on replying to the texts.

“You? Nervous? You don’t look like the type of girl that gets nervous. And no, I didn’t change my mind about any of those things, actually.”

A new text only came after she was already walking down the street to Noonan’s, but she wrote a quick text to invite Winn for lunch before opening Lena’s text.

“I’m also not the type to text any of the numbers left on my walls. And good.”

“Do you get a lot of numbers on your walls?” Kara asked and she had to make a conscious effort to cross the street to Noonan’s instead of walking straight for a few more blocks to the tattoo shop. She could picture Lena leaning against the counter with her gorgeous smirk and her impressive tattoos – and even more impressive cleavage.

“Jack enjoys them more than I do.”

Kara was about to make a comment about Jack but another text came in before she could and she stopped in her tracks so suddenly that the man walking behind her shoved against her shoulder. She tripped over a few steps, but quickly held herself again to read the words over and over in disbelief. She hoped, of course, but that was... wow.

“I don’t want to be too straightforward here, or overly confident or something, but I have a client coming in five minutes, so I don’t have much time. This won’t sound romantic at all, but would you like to have dinner with me? Tomorrow?”

Kara didn’t have to think too much about her answer, of course. Alex would give her a piece of her mind for agreeing to go out with someone she barely knew – and ‘that’s the whole point of going out to meet people’ was not a good argument on her sister’s book – but Kara would deal with it later. Right now, she had a very gorgeous woman asking her out and she already knew what her answer would be.

“I would love to.”

“What? Really?” Kara chuckled at the rushed text she received back, but another one came just a second later. “Pretend you didn’t read that. I meant ‘okay, great!’.”

Chuckling again, Kara typed a new message. “I know you were the one who asked me out, but may I suggest a place? I don’t have a car and it’s close to both of our workplaces.”

“Whatever you want, just text me address. Let’s say, tomorrow at 7 pm?”

“Can’t wait.”

 XxxxxxxX

 “Hey, Kara?”

“Yes?” She asked, not taking her eyes away from her computer screen and typing away as fast as she could to be able to put all the ideas in her new article. She had never written like that before, but she wasn’t about to complain about small inspirations spikes.

“The front desk called and said there’s a pack for Cat downstairs. Can you pick it up?”

With a small sigh, not because she was mad at Winn for interrupting her but because she would have to go all out of the way to pick a pack she didn’t even know was going to come in, Kara saved her file and pushed her chair back. Nia glanced up and was about to remove her earphones, ready to follow Kara to whatever she was going to learn more about the journalism world, but the blonde made some gestures with her hand that she hoped meant ‘boring things, stay here’ before she started making her way to the elevator.

Jenny, the woman that stayed at the front desk, was kind, around Eliza’s age, and very chatty, which worked fine with Kara when she wanted to waste a few minutes talking along. “Good morning, Kara! How are you?”

“I’m great, Jenny. And you?”

“I’m fine. What happened? I recognize that smile.”

Kara tilted her head to the side, although she couldn’t stop smiling, doesn’t matter how hard she was trying. “What smile?”

Jenny narrowed her eyes and waved a finger at her playfully. “That’s the smile of someone who had a very good night.”

The blonde could feel her face heating up and a nervous chuckle escaped her lips before she could stop herself. She had been leaning against the counter, but she leaned her torso back and tapped her fingers against the hard surface nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right,” Jenny scoffed, rolled her eyes and started pulling out the packages that she would need to take upstairs with her. There was a yellow thing that was sent by one of the photographers of the last shooting they made, some letters and a few small boxes, which made Kara believe Jenny had been holding those things with her for at least a few days. Cat hadn’t asked for any of that, so it wasn’t a problem. “Don’t tell me then. You don’t have to. Is all over your face.”

Blushing even harder, Kara huffed an anxious laugh and looked down at the counter. She put one hand on her hip as the other one raised to push her glasses up her nose, but she kept her eyes down to avoid seeing the smirk on Jenny’s face. She would have to agree with her, if she did. Because she knew it was, in fact, written all over her face. She hadn’t been able to stop smiling since she woke up that morning – who was she kidding? It had been like that since dinner last night.

It had a reason – and the reason had a name – but she was not going to share any personal details about her life with Jenny. The old woman had the tendency to share everyone’s secrets – which was another reason Kara liked to talk with her so much, but she would never admit to being a gossip girl. She did tell Nia, mostly because her friend wouldn’t stop asking why Kara was fifteen minutes late that morning, though she had made the girl promise not to tell anyone.

It was still pretty new, she had argued.

“If you two slept together, it’s not that new,” Nia had teased back, making her face turn red so fast that James, that had been coming back from the bathroom, asked if she was feeling well.

Even if the whole ‘sleeping together on the first date’ thing was new to her, Kara hadn’t regretted it in the morning. Much like the tattoo. Although, it would be remarkably harder to regret sleeping with Lena when the said woman was spooning her from behind than it was to regret a tattoo that recquired a lot of afterward care. Either way, Kara was living the best morning in her life and it clearly showed on her face.

“Looks like you’re not the only one who’s having a great time.” Jenny’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and Kara looked up in time to see the woman pulling a big bouquet from under the counter.

The flowers looked cheap and scruffy, which made it seem like someone had just thrown them together without much care. They were yellow and pink daisies, the colors clashed and didn’t work well together, but the card hidden between the flowers was black and easy to see. She knew she shouldn’t because it had her boss’ name outside the card and it was clearly not for her to see, but curiosity took the best of her – that and the fact that the card had been clearly already open, and by Jenny’s face she knew who had done it.

“Thank you – L”

Well, that wasn’t helpful at all.

Sighing and feeling silly for stealing a look, she put the card back and started to try to find a way to pick everything she needed to take back with her. She knew there was a small cart some other companies in the building used to transport stocks and other products, but she was sure she could use her hands if she just pilled everything right. Kara had just come up with a plan when Jenny spoke again.

“There’s also this one. It doesn’t have a card, but it came with the bouquet. Same delivery. The guy couldn’t say anything about it, but I’m sure we can find something if we call the shop and...”

“I think there’s no need,” Kara interrupted gently, without looking up from the growing pile in one of her hands, but she raised her head eventually.

Only to lose track of every thought she was having.

Jenny had put a single plumeria on top of the counter. As the woman had said, there was no card or any type of identification – who it came from or who was supposed to receive it – but Kara connected the dots quite easily. Smiling, she reached over to grab the simple flower and brought it closer to her face to smell it.

“Oh, I see.”

“I have to go!” Kara said suddenly, knowing everyone in the building would know she had just randomly smelled a flower at the front desk that morning. “See you, Jen!”

The look on Cat’s face when Kara gave her the bouquet, not offering any other explanation othan than that there was a card attached to it, was worth every step on the stairs she had to walk up, holding the woman’s coffee every morning. As soon as she was back to her desk, Kara pulled her phone from her pocket and sent a text before Nia could start asking any questions.

“Thought you said that you’re not good with romance.”

The reply didn’t come right away, Kara ended up putting her phone to the side and went back to work. However, as soon as it rang beside her, she grabbed it.

“Guess we’re both learning new things about ourselves. Want to have lunch together?”

And, yes, she totally did.