#and yes I am going to meet a new protagonist who is a Bitch and I AM going to love her

[icapturedthecastle]

I should have known better than to start a new Naomi Novik book at 5pm, because of course I’m going to inevitably stay up until 2:45am to finish it…

[calliesadcki]

this is me asking you to tell me everything you want to about Merrick because I'm on my own OG fiction kick and I keep using your tags to steal inspo (and reblog to my writeblr)

this is the ramblings of a stoned ashley, but merrick is one of The Top Muses you could ever ask for, if not The One.

merrick wood 💖 my angel 💙 my darling 💜

merrick was originally created for a group, cherryrpg ( original bio ) to be kind of the mean, bitchy heartbreaker who cared so little of people, she’d seduce her sister’s best friend because she was bored. that was my whole plan - a sixteen year old southern belle, kinda slutty and dumb but manipulative and cunning at the same time.

( cw - this para only, mention of p*dophLia )

in the course of that one rp, it was evident that was never going to happen. ( secondary bio ) she quickly turned from bubblegum bitch to very emotionally charged Teenage Girl. she was in love with her sisters best friend, but the guilt of knowing it hurt her sister was weighing her down into picking fights so they could break up for a ‘legitimate’ reason. she was a little lost and lonely and fell in love with her best friend’s older brother. who happened to be *her* boyfriend’s best friend. ( cw ) her father nearly destroyed their family when he knocked up her very church abiding best friend. ( / cw ).

the group lasted seven months and writing that specific story ( one i’d like to novelize ) is just Her Core Canon. if she was a tv show, this is the base you use for all iterations, including au’s.

- the second big development: the catestrophic

i am not a zombie person. they are not my thing. i like my apocalypses more like the stand or this one very specific kurt/finn fic i read years ago. anyways. i also don’t think horror writing in general is my strong suit. but one of my closest friends and writing partners i trust the most was opening a group, and bringing a new iteration of holly wood, merrick’s older sister. i decided i’d bring merrick and figured if i flaked out early, becca wouldn’t hate me too much.

instead, i created a whole new layer of depth to merrick. ( catastrophic link ) merrick wasn’t just the young protagonist in a dark ya novel anymore. now she was a mid 20s, apocalyptic, zombie fighting badass. she carried knives in her boots and fashioned her homecoming crown into a weapon. she was a fighter, exploring for supplies to help her town and community stay afloat. she was a devoted sister, to not just her flesh and blood she’s known all along, but to a strange guy who had her eyes and crooked smile and said ‘i think i’m your half brother’. she explored and struggled with her mental health and focused solely on her version of family, without concerning herself at all with her love life.

and now there’s smartox.

the almost natural continuation of her original small town southwestern georgia roots, where she’s a fairly popular internet personality out in california; building a life she never considered for herself. surrounded by friends - real, true friends that inspire and motivate her, who support her through her good and her bad, who she can be her most authentic self with. she found her soulmate, and not in the cheesy made for tv movie way, but because he understands parts of her she never understood herself. because he’s the only person she can be 100% herself with no matter what that means. and she hasa whole future ahead of her where yes, she wants kids and the house and the yard and they’re lucky enough to get what they want, when and where they want. but she’s happy developing her career and writing movies and making up stories about classic childhood mascots and talking about her sex life where family isn’t the first thing she craves because every day she’s already surrounded by it.

she’s weird and beautiful and her iq is that of a genius but she’s the dumbest person you’ll ever meet. she loves aliens and twilight and dressing her cat up in little clothes. she likes junior mints and cherry coke and girly magazines and flaunting her body. she’ll kiss anyone just because she wants to but only ever wants one person to want her back the same. she loves 90s music and movies but devours trashy romance novels and pop punk albums. she’s the coolest person you’ll ever meet and everyone is a little in love with her, genuinely, because she’s a genuinely good person.

to quote my best friend, merrick is the montage of regina george’s ‘accolades’ but said with genuine moments of healthy interaction.

@blairwaldcrf

[swordwife]

when you’re soft for an f/o but you can’t post a pic and gush because they’re an oc and you don’t want to draw so there really aren’t any pictures of them

[tainted-wine]

I didn’t apply all of these descriptions but these are the main three I had in mind while writing this. How did I attract so many fans of the crusty boi? Either way, welcome to the club!

Words: 1.5k (how the hell did that happen there’s barely any sex)

---------------------

The website didn’t explain what the “LOVER” cheat does. Probably unlocks a deleted path that didn’t make it into the official game. Or maybe he just gets a head-start on his Affection progress with you at the very beginning. Or maybe it doesn’t do shit – that could be why there’s no explanation.

Well, now that he knows how to do it, it wouldn’t hurt to test it himself. Shigaraki absently scratches at the irritated skin on his neck as he boots up the game. The directions were fairly simple and easy to remember.

1. Start a brand new file.

Ugh, he despises games that hold only one save file. It’s not like a visual novel holds up much space. What if you want different files in order to experiment with different choices? It doesn’t matter in his case anyway; he 100% completed the game months ago. With no regrets, his original game was deleted and a new one began.

> What is your name?

He might as well stick with the one he used last time.

‘SHIGGY-SENPAI’

The introduction cutscene began, the protagonist going on about the new town he just moved into. Pretty by-the-books, as far as romance openings go.

2. Finish the intro. Once you meet Y/N, go to the menu. 

After skipping through a bunch of fluffy dialogue, you finally appear in all of your cute glory. Once you’re done introducing yourself, Shigaraki brings up the main menu.

3. Type in “LOVER”

Just like that? Alright then...

Right after inputting the final letter, a sparkly ping sound straight out of a magical girl anime could be heard, and that was it. Okay...it sounds like he did it correctly.

When he returned to the game, his success was much more evident. You were staring directly at the screen - almost through the screen - with a glowing expression he’s never seen. Each and every one of your reactions have been seared into his brain after so many hours of gameplay. This was new.

“You...do you really mean that, SHIGGY-SENPAI?”

What? Voice acting? Though you did say his name pretty stiffly, as expected when a computer tries to pronounce custom text, but what the hell? Why would this be hidden as a cheat?

“But it’s so soon, and I’m not very experienced...” You blushed and shyly twiddled your fingers.

Oh.

“But I already trust you, and I want you too.”

Oh.

It’s that kind of path.

A hidden adult route. Shigaraki really likes that, even though this would’ve had a much stronger impact if it happened on his original file, the one where he was fully bonded to you. Sucks that he needs a fresh file in order to fuck you.

Shit, he’s not even prepared for this. Maybe he should go grab the lotion and a couple of tissues, assuming that this special scene will make for pretty decent fap material.

But the dialogue continued automatically. You creeped closer to the screen as you gushed about your feelings for him. “I want to make love to you forever and ever!”

You were getting really close, and with a show of impressive animation, your hand reached out to touch the fourth wall...

And the screen began to distort and ripple.

What the fuck?

“I just can’t wait to feel your amazing cock.” Your fingers began to phase through the fucking computer screenWHAT THE FUCK?!

“Take me, SHIGGY-SENPAI!”

Just like that, a full-sized bitch materialized out of the game and onto his lap, nearly toppling his gamer chair.

Even in the darkness of his room, your eyes shined brightly as they studied his pale face. “You’re even more handsome up close!”

Shigaraki was still too stunned to even respond to the rare compliment. Only when you began to pull down his pants did he finally find his voice again.

“Wha–ah–who the–hey!” He knows that he shouldn’t be afraid of a hottie touching his cock but ooooh shit she’s already stroking him.

“Ah, you’re so big!” You stared at his untouched manhood in awe, watching him become more erect after every pump of your soft hand.

“Fuck, am I?” He gasped.

“Mmhmm! And I bet you’re really tasty too!” You say before he’s suddenly engulfed with the very real warmth of a mouth.

Fuck fuck fuck he isn’t gonna last. He was ready to jerk off, not actually get his dick sucked. It feels more amazing than he ever imagined, your tongue working along his sensitive flesh, and those lips sucking at him so eagerly.

When his hand grabs the top of your head, he realizes too late that all five of his fingers are tangled in your hair.

You nearly fall over from how suddenly Shigaraki rolls back in his chair. You look shocked, confused, and...very much not a pile of dust.

“What’s wrong, SHIGGY-SENPAI?”

He looked at his hands, then at you, then at his hands again.

Then he takes hold of your face and shoves you back into his groin, because he can touch you, he can touch another fucking living thing without any worries about completely destroying it. Must be some crazy logic about you being data from a videogame or something. He doesn’t care, he’s so horny, feels so good having his cock so far down a hot tight throat, he just might burst...

Wait, he might have just done exactly that.

“Ah, shit,” he watches you pull back and swallow with the most satisfied grin.

“That was quick, SHIGGY-SENPAI!” You really need to stop saying his name like that. It’s fuckin’ weird. “I didn’t even get to feel you inside me.”

“Shut up,” the mixture of emotions he’s been experiencing ever since your ass crawled out of the screen like a girl in a cursed video is starting to piss him off. He’s so insulted and thankful that this fictional bitch gave him his first blowjob and made him nut in the span of sixty seconds. “Just give me a few minutes.” 

A few knocks on the room’s door startles both of you.

“Tomura, the Vanguard Action Squad is ready to move out.”

Shit!

“I’ll be out in a damn minute, Kurogiri.” Shigaraki moves to get out of his seat, only to be stopped by his new partner.

Your sparkly puppy eyes are so grossly cute, yet it has his dick twitching again already. “Are you leaving me already, SHIGGY-SENPAI?”

“Quit saying my name in all caps.”

“Okay, ˢʰᶦᵍᵍʸ⁻ˢᵉⁿᵖᵃᶦ.”

“Not like that. I can barely hear it.”

“How about SHIGGY-SENPAI?”

He slaps a hand over your mouth. “Just stop saying my name.”

A much harsher knock rocks the old door. “Hey, you ugly bastard,” That sounded like the Dabi asshole. “The hell are you doing in there? Jacking off to anime girls?”

Shigaraki scoffed. When’s the last time that burnt Stain fanboy got his dick sucked?

As much as he wants to join in on terrorizing the brats at U.A, he really wants to get laid today.

“Just go without me!” He yells through the walls. He nearly misses your muted squeak of joy.

“Eh?” Hearing Dabi’s annoyed muffled voice was pretty amusing. “You’re just gonna sit on your ass in your room while we do the work?”

The villain’s retort catches in his throat when you take his hand and begin to slowly lick at his fingers, all while pinning him with an innocent gaze.

“Your fingers are so pretty,” You whispered.

It’s so difficult to pay attention to the words being uttered outside of the room while his hands are being placed on your chest. BOOBS.

“Please trust Tomura. I’m sure he has faith in you all handling this mission on your own,” Kurogiri tries to explain. Shigaraki knows him well enough to know that he’s probably irritated as well, but there are titties in his hands so who gives a fuck.

Dabi releases an exasperated groan. “I knew this whole League of Villains thing was bullshit. Shouldn’t have bothered.”

Shigaraki slows his exploration of your breasts to shout, “If I make you the leader of the mission, will you shut up?”

“......Yes.”

“Well, I pronounce you leader of the Vanguard Action Squad. I’ll even give you a Nomu. Have fun.” The two of you are rushing to lift your shirt off for better access to your skin.

“Fuck yeah,” Dabi’s voice is still fairly close. The sooner he pisses off, the better. “I can probably pull this off better than you, anyway. Come on, psycho girl, we’re gonna go round up everyone else.”

Toga can be heard squealing excitedly as they both step away and finally give him his privacy back. You look absolutely lovestruck by the entire exchange.

“You gave up an important mission just for me? You really do love me!” 

He just rolled his eyes and lowered his head to take a hardened nipple into his mouth, enjoying your sounds of delight.

He can’t wait for the next time he faces those stupid heroes. He’ll be smarter, stronger, and can even tell them that he got his dick wet.

Oh, the collapse of hero society is going to be glorious.

[black-rose-writings]

Reading Siege and Storm because I hate myself

To begin, I’d like to state that this is my first read-through and I only have vague idea of the plot I’ve gathered from fanfics and tumblr posts.

Long post ahead

Chapter 1

So... at first I was like - huh, this isn’t as bad as I thought, but the moment Alina gets introspective, it all goes to hell.

Like, she’s being physically made sick by not using her powers, which is making her feel useless - like, she says, pretty much verbatim: “The only thing I was ever good at was being a Sun Summoner and I’m not that anymore.”

I’m gonna beat those paragraphs over the head of anyone, who says Alina got a good ending.

I’ve also noticed just how often the like “I pushed that thought away” is used and more often than not, it’s used on thoughts that should probably not be pushed away.

Ah, yes, here he comes, my boy Darkles, being the dramatic bitch he always is. We get it, you’re the hot villain, tempting the good and pure heroine away from being good and pure.

And I’m just now realizing how many times in this chapter has Alina lamented their lack of privacy. We have to ensure the reader doesn’t hink she’s *gasp* sleeping with Mal.

Chapter 2

What?

Alina is tripping balls while being put under by a Heartrender, got it.

Darkling is being the voice of reason, but I’m getting the distinct feeling it won’t last.

Ivan gets one point, because Alina is in fact a traitor, but he’s also being a cunt, so it doesn’t really count.

Alina at Sturmhond: Do you even care about Ravka?

Me at Alina: Do you?

Chapter 3

“Mermaids are not real”. I’m pretty sure they are in the Grishaverse.

My boy Darkles is still making sense, but Alina is dedicated to being against him just for the hell of it, it seems.

Did this bitch just throw a tantrum, because he told her, what we can assume is the truth? Okay. Like, I get that she’s at best 18, but still. Not exactly the type of protagonist whose head I like being in.

And in that moment, dozens of smut fics were born.

Chapter 4

Wow, that was quick.

Aaand. What had just happened?

Chapter 5

Sturmhond is a funny bitch, I’ll give him that.

And this entire conversation, it seems like Mal’s entire purpose is to stand behind Alina threateningly and repeat what she said, lol.

I’d like to remind Alina (and LB) that a king in an absolutist monarchy (which is what Ravka appears to be) is very much a tyrant. Don’t make it sound like Ravka didn’t have a tyrant before. And at the very least, my boy Darkles seems pretty competent.

A man calling himself a Storm Dog likes dogs. No shit.

Chapter 6

I hate Mal. Dude, this is your girlfriend, maybe like... listen to her? Don’t bludgeon her with the one other guy she was kinda-sorta with, when you are a well known manwhore?

I don’t know man, I don’t like him.

Everyone: You can’t have more than one amplifier, it’s dangerous.

Alina: Haha, sparkles go brrrr

Chapter 7

In other news, pirates are funny.

Holy shit, they have a plane.

That was... a lot. And we’re crossing the Fold again, yay.

Chapter 8

You feel bad for the Volcra but not for the people you’ve left for dead in the Fold last time? Okay.

Baby Volcra. Am I supposed to say “ew” or “aww”? If I tried doing both at the same time, it would probably sound like one.

Jesus fucking Christ this book is a ride.

Did Alina really just have an “oh no, he’s hot?” moment? *sighs*

Puppy boy has a title longer than Daenerys, jesus.

Alina, my dear, you could have waited for a bit before doing that. There’s like thirty soldier with guns around you and you’ve just punched a prince.

Then again, you’ve never been smart, have you?

Chapter 9

For once, I completely agree with him. I know you two have lost your one shared braincell on that first crossing of the Fold but still, that was very dumb of you, Alina.

I’m starting to get why people were calling Nikolai “Darkling light”. Definitelly seems appropriate.

Mal, calm the fuck down, that was the least romantic proposal I’ve ever heard and you know it.

You two didn’t even let Alina get a word in for the last page. What right do you have to her, Mal, huh? Nikolai is making sense and you’re being an idiot.

What’s your deal Mal? What the fuck do you want?

And why in the hell are you the endgame love interest?

That’s an awful lot of guilt-tripping you’re doing there, Mal. No need to be pissy about it.

Chapter 10

The bones thing is definitelly yikes.

Saints, Mal, are you on your period or something? Alina doesn’t belong to you. Alina can make her own choices. Get a grip.

“You think I’m like the Darkling?” Yes. The Darkling isn’t all bad. You’re at war. No need to get your panties in a twist over a few fingers.

Oh, look, Alina has a cult now, nice.

Chapter 11

Your “dad” is a rapist, Nikolai. Quite possibly a pedo. He got exactly what he deserved.

I’d go for the second option. Especially after that stunt. Jesus, you could have asked her beforehand.

At least Darkles had the decency to make out with her in private.

Also like... why is every single person in this series so far an asshole?

Chapter 12

We meet the King again, unfortunately.

Alina gets Darkles’s old job.

This should be a total disaster, but let’s see where it goes anyway.

Chapter 13

Alina’s nuts, yay.

(I know they have a Force-bond-thingy. I also know they did it before Reylo did.)

Chapter 14

Oh boy, Alina’s not doing as bad as I thought.

For the 100th time in this book, I wish I had Nikolai’s confidence. Though it is getting a bit too much.

Puppy boy is dropping some truth bombs. Nice.

But he doesn’t realize that my boy Darkles has very good reasons to not align with Fjerdans - a) they think he’s a demon and b) they want Grisha dead.

I’m not gonna say she was, but like... the monarchy is very much corrupt.

Oh, boy, Baghra. This one’s gonna go well.

Yep, Baghra’s as pleasant as ever.

So... Baghra’s plan in book 1 really had been to just have Alina run away and hope for the best? Jesus Christ, lady. I’m not saying she deserved to have her eyes taken away, but she is definitelly a trash person and I’m not surprised her son turned out the way he did.

Also, I’m fairly certain that Baghra is literally slowly killing herself - that the reason she looks so old and frail is because she’s started to supress her power and it’s literally killing her, because, you know, she’s bonkers old.

Chapter 15

Nerd Alina > Self-pitying Alina

Also, I’m just saying, Alina comments on Zoya being attractive a whole lot - I get that she’s meant to be insecure, but I’m interpreting it as her being gay, because I need some happiness in my life, okay?

Just kill the sleazy old Rasputin-wanna-be. There’s plenty of them to go around in this series.

Chapter 16

Vasily takes after his father in creep factor.

Why not the Darkling being courted by a horny prince? Be a bit creative.

Chapter 17

Nikolai has big ADHD energy and I love him for it. Fits right in with the heavily autism-coded Fabricators.

*sighs at heteronormativity again*

*sighs at improper gendering of titles*

Date night with Mal. This is gonna be a disaster, isn’t it?

Chapter 18

Fun night of cultural appropriation, yay.

I hate cultists.

LET. ALINA. GO. FERAL. Please.

You two are going to give me a headache, I swear.

Darkles cockblocking Alina. And Malice threw a tantrum. Nice.

Chapter 19

You’re way too harsh on Genya, Alina.

Horny Alina rights.

They have a laser, now. Cool. Or, well, enormously hot.

Mal is being a drunk a-hole. Great. When does he become likable? Does he ever?

Banter between Mal and Alina? Kinda weird, always somehow comes back to either of them being insecure.

Banter between Alina and Nikolai? I’m all for it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a Darklina trash, but like... Nikolai is fun. I could see him and Alina having an arranged political marriage and ending up falling in love years into it, that’s all I’m saying.

Chapter 20

Just let this one go, Alina, please. You two are not working out. Please, end it with him. You’ll both probably be happier. (I’m saying this with the full knowledge that Malina is endgame).

Jesus Alina, get your shit together. You have every right to be mad, because you two didn’t actually break up, you didn’t kiss Nikolai and also, I don’t like Mal.

Sooo... when is Alina going to realize her manchild of a boyfriend is an amplifier?

Chapter 21

Alina has the horny sickness, lol.

Jesus Christ, girl, I don’t want to read your vaguely suicidal thoughts.

Mal, you fucking idiot.

Alina, stop defending Mal.

Chapter 22

Alina has a logical thought? Impossible.

Finally, some action.

Chapter 23

Oh, boi, this is going great.

Oh, boi, Alina’s having another martyr moment.

And, we’re done.

Finally.

That was a ride. Nothing really happens for like ten chapters and then everything happens in one and a half.

[alltheworldsinmyhead]

my predictions for a court of silver flames (and the book 5)

since i’ve just forced myself to re-read acofas, i emerge now with head clear and heart full of utter dismay for feysand bullshit. this novella is pretty good at setting up a ton of hints for the next book, so at least there’s that. here are some of the plot points/character arcs which i think are worth to keep in mind before reading acosf, especially for those who finished reading acowar and acofas a while ago. 

MOR

Mor is going on a journey to the Continent as a Night Court ambassador, possibly with Azriel. I don’t know to which extent this escapade will be described, but it will definitely happen and it will be important for both of them - Mor especially. My personal opinion is that the toxic triangle in which she’s tangled up with Cass and Az will meet its sad end in this book, due to many reasons such as Cassian;s relationship with Nesta, Az’s growing interest in Elain and, hopefully, Mor’s own growth as a person or her new romance. I also think that Mor’s relationship with her father will be a major plotpoint and the Court of Nightmare will play a BIG role either in this book or in the next one. Also-

ERIS

Eris will take the throne from Beron in acosf. I will be shocked if he doesn’t. Possibly the reprecussions of this event  will be discussed in the next book. Also possibly, there may be some kind of coup that will result in killing more than one High Lord (yes, I am thinking about Helion)

ELAIN

I’m sorry, but I literally cannot see it any other way - Elain will deny the mating bond with Lucien. The hints for this are scattered all over acofas. She doesn’t want it and she is not, in any freaking way, interested in him nor she is even interested in being interested. I think she’ll also get some opportunities to show more of her character and, hopefully, Mass will finally let her utilize her powers in some sensible way, but this might be saved for the next book. 

TAMLIN

Lucien warned Feyre they will need Tamlin as an ally ‘before the dust settles’. I am half-tempted to make an assumption that Tam will die in acosf, but it’s not based on any evidence, so it’s just my personal theory. Regardless, I do believe the destruction of the Spring Court will fucking bite half of Feyre’s ass in the following books and Tamlin either redeems himself (whether or not he should redeem himself when he is already in such a pitiful state is another question) or truly become a villian of the series. The one thing acofas hammered in my head is that his story with Feyre is far from over. 

LUCIEN

My fucking heart bleeds for him. My prediction is that he will cut all the ties with the Night Court, if he did not already done it after Feyre was an absolute bitch to him in acofas. I am also like 80% sure that Helion will die and Lucien will inherit the Day Court, thus getting a permanent place to call home, just as he has always wanted (but absolutely not IN A WAY he has wanted). Besides that, I am only praying for Mass to grant him some fucking happiness. i have no doubt that his relationship with Vassa and Jurian will be discussed in more details, if not, I am rioting. 

AZRIEL

There are a couple of issues Azriel will have to deal with in this and the following book:

a) his doomed relationship with Mor,

b) his blooming romance/friendship with Elain, 

c) his Illyrian identity.

I do think acosf will be a begining of some longer journey for him. Based on the snippets, I think we can also expect a lot of interactions between him and Nesta and I am so fucking excited for it that I can barely contain it.

Also, I subscribe to the theory that Az’s mom lives in the misterious Rosehall and that we will meet her soon. 

FEYRE AND RHYSAND

They are basically the same person at this point, let’s be honest.

Rhys will contine to be horny 24/7 and Feyre will continue to focus on small, non-important stuff instead of the actual business of ruling and managing the court, and they will both remain to be terribly self-involved - 

okay, enough of my bitterness.

I HOPE Feyre won’t be pregnant in the next book, but let’s be honest, it will probably happen rather soon, so, there’s that. From the snippet of acosf in acofas, it seems that they will have some disagreement about Nesta and I am all for it. Besides that, I think their personal arcs and journeys are over and I believe that there won’t be too much of them in the next books. Same with Amren - I don’t think she will play a big role, besides being an awesome secondary character. 

NESTA’S and CASSIAN’s arcs seem to be rather obvious, unless Sarah will somehow break our necks with the narrative 180 degrees spin. I think the biggest mistery is whether or not they are truly mates but, regardless of that, they will end acosf as a couple. Personally, I don’t belive Cassian will die in this book. Sarah is pretty allergic to killing her protagonists in a permanent way. Given that he has already suffered two major injuries throughout the series, I am inclined to belive that it’s time for Cassian to give in to fury over injured Nesta. In my book, there are two possible routes for them to get together:

1) a lot of angsty, heart-breaking hate sex slowly transforming into comraderie, friendship and, finally, romance, 

2) no sex, only angsty misunderstandings and sexual frustration strong enough to push them into romantic relationship fairly quickly which then results in more misunderstandings, wrong ideas about each other’s feelings and a whole fucking mess of feelings. 

Nesta and Emerie will, in 1000% meet and become friends as Nesta truly fucking needs her own found-faimily type of friends. She will also discover and develop her powers, learn to manage her emotions and to have healthy relationships with people whom she loves. 

Cassian will have a somehow similar arc as Feyre in acomaf, during which he will realize his own true potential and self-worth. 

Some plotlines I expect to happen:

ILLYRIAN UPRISING

I think it’s rather unavoidable at the point and it will come as a surprise to no one. I also think Devlon may turn out to be an unexpected ally. 

RIFT IN THE INNER CIRCLE

This one is something which I hope for, cause it would make so much sense, but I am quite apprehensive to make any definite statements about it. If Cassian and Nesta are to get together in acosf, I cannot see it happening in a way which will not disrupt the delicate balance of the inner circle given a) Nesta’s relationship with Rhys and b) Cassian’s with Mor. In general, I do believe Cassian;s arc will be about gaining confidence in himself and his own feelings and insticts, which will involve some separation from his friends. Also, the downfall of Az-Mor-Cass simply cannot be executed bloodlessly.

ANCIENT POWERS RISING

Feyre toyed with the very fabric of this universe. It has to have some kind of consequences. At this point, we know Koshei will make an appearance (in regards to Vassa), Bryaxis is still on the loose (and Feyre has still not fullfilled her bargain) AND we got an interesting scene of Mor sensing something evil luring in the forests around her estate in acofas. 

and last but not least-

WE WILL LEARN WHAT WAS IN THE FUCKING BOX

please feel free to add your own predictions and expectations! I’m sure i missed a lot of stuff 

[residentlesbrarian]

The Second Book I Read In the Dark: Another YA superhero novel for me to squeal over forever...YES, Please! Gimme Gimme!

Dreadnought by April Daniels

So Day 1 in the dark continues onward and I have already finished 1 of my 3 library books with still so much day left so what else to do but soldier forward and continue without pause. Well there was a short pause for delicious chicken soup cooked on a blessedly gas powered range (never gonna live in a house with an electric range; I swear this thing has saved our butts in so many power outages), but I digress; I was ready! This time I was taking a break from the whimsical and witchy and diving head first into all things super with an extra heroic twist. 

I had heard so many good things about this book for so long but again it had fallen to the wayside of other distractions (a rainbow montage of movie and TV show gays runs back and forth through my head like the migrating fandom flamingoes). What finally made me make the decision to buckle down and do the thing was a video review done by one of my favorite YouTubers, Dominic Noble (Video Linked below). I love his series Lost in Adaptation, because as an avid reader I too find myself appalled by what Hollywood often does to my favorite books. Hearing him talk about Dreadnought was just the push my flighty brain needed to say, “Fine! Alright! We haven’t utterly obsessed over a teenage superhero book in like 6 months since we near bludgeoned our girlfriend with Not Your Sidekick! Fine! Let’s do it!” So...yeah if this intro is anything to go by this should be a fun one! Let’s dive right in shall we!

Unicorn Rating:

Blurb: She just wanted to paint her toenails in peace but then a superhero had to go and die and give Danny the one thing she never thought she’d have...her proper body. Now if only everyone else felt that way too. Life just got awesome and really really complicated all at once! Oh yeah and she can fly now. Bonus!

Disclaimer: I will try my best to not spoil anything from the book, but my book loving rambles may give more away than a traditional review. Here we go! Ramble time!

Review: 

Holy crap! After the last book this was exactly what I needed! This book was just...so good! The plot...the characters...the world...everything about it just pulls you in and doesn’t let you go. Now I may have felt that way because I didn’t have anything trying to pull me away from this book but I don’t think I would have been easily pulled away if there had been distractions. And so many facets of this story were things I didn’t expect because I had never seen them portrayed before. Like the fact Danny having to deal with the rampant day to day sexism of being a woman now that her appearance matches who she really is. I’ve never seen that in a book before and I absolutely loved it! I was so dedicated to Danny’s story from page 1 it’s ridiculous, and look at that, a perfect segue into the phenomenal characters of this book...look what I did there switching it up going out of order on ya...gotta keep ya on your toes.

Our protagonist Danny is such a phenomenal example of a genuine kind caring person who is also deeply scarred and angry. It was so amazing to read a character that was flawed and struggling and doesn’t see how much a hero she really is and the small moments when others take that double take and go, “You’re the real deal, huh?” But those moments just confuse the living hell outta Danny cause she’s just Danny, she got super powers as a fluke. She is also hilarious and courageous and smart but knows she isn’t perfect and has weaknesses. She may be the strongest person on earth physically now but she acknowledges that that isn’t everything someone needs. Danny is such a good bean, but she has issues and that isn’t glossed over which is so rare. Now the next thing I want to touch on is a very tough subject but is very prevalent in the book so I wouldn’t be a very prudent reviewer if I didn’t bring it up. Danny is, without question, an abused child. This isn’t even really a spoiler, it alludes pretty heavily to it in the blurb, but what I’m gonna touch on next does dip into that territory so I’m gonna break it into a new LONG paragraph so just scroll on by if you don’t want to read this bit.

So at one point in the book Danny mentions a health screening at school that revealed she had hearing damage in her right ear that has now been healed by the mantle of Dreadnought. At the time of the screening she didn’t realize why until her dad had another Mount Vesuvius day and she assumed her usual position of curling in on herself and turning her head to the left so he would yell into only her right ear. Now how loud and how often do you have to yell into someone’s ear to cause permanent hearing damage? I don’t know and honestly I don’t want to know. Why am I highlighting an overall tiny moment...because for me this moment jumped out and gut punched me. Brought literal tears to my eyes. Tears of pain. Tears of rage. Tears of hate. I’m a weepy bitch when I get emotional. I’ve read a lot of books that try and portray abuse and how Daniels wrote Danny’s abuse from her father took my breath away because it felt so real. There weren’t really any good days, there were bad days, there were really bad days, but most days were just anxiously waiting for the next bad day, because Danny knew there would always be a next bad day. Something that did surprise me was my feelings about Danny’s mother. I knew going in I would hate her father, before even meeting him I hated him, but her mother, that was a hate that lay dormant until it exploded onto the scene and froze me to my core. I’m not gonna get into my own demons here but there is one thing I cannot abide by and that is people turning a blind eye while someone abuses another. Danny’s mother is the textbook definition of someone who “goes along to get along”, she will do just about anything to keep the peace, but at what cost? Instead of protecting her child from someone who literally screamed so long and so loud at her child that it damaged her hearing she just sat back and let them. That’s not the worst though, no, after Danny’s transition her mom seems to be understanding of the fact she is happy being a girl and is buying her things she needs like bras and undeniably feminine shoes, only to reveal it was all to keep Danny docile so she wouldn’t cause more fights with her dad. That to me is unforgivable. Not worse than the abuse of the father, but still undeniably selfish. She never cared about Danny or listened to her and what she was really saying. She just didn’t want there to be anymore fighting. Well I’m sorry, but sometimes, as a mother, you should fight to protect your goddamn child when someone is hurting them. The last thing I’ll say before going back to the more spoiler free and fun part of the review is that the fact Danny can never make herself say she is being abused hits so close to home for me. As a reader looking in from outside, there was a scene with a member of the Legion that I felt like, as an abuse survivor myself, I was standing there begging Danny to accept her invitation. To get out of that house. To get away from her father. To see what he was doing for what it was. But I knew she wouldn’t, she wasn’t ready, and it broke my heart to watch her fly away.

Anyway moving on from all that heavy stuff lets talk about other things like some freaking superheroes and one particular vigilante. We have the Legion members: Doc Impossible, Valkyrja, Magma, Graywytch, Chlorophyll, and Carapice. Now How do I want to talk about these characters...in what order...hmmm...how about from best to worst. Okay? Okay. Great! 

I freaking love Doc Impossible! She is a character that from the moment I met her she gave me ‘kookie grandma’ character vibes and I get DOWN with kookie grandma characters. Now I know she isn’t a grandma character nor is she particularly crazy in the way she acts; it's just a vibe I get from her that I love. Now one thing I do want to say without spoiling anything is how Doc is one of the few characters that never tries to take away Danny’s agency in everything that happens around her in all this superhero craziness. Danny can always be her own person and most importantly a kid around Doc, and I feel Danny really needed that. I will stop myself now because I could go on for hours about Doc and how much I LOVE HER!

Next up we get a two for one, Valkyrja and Magma. We don’t see much of them but what we do get is pretty good. They are adult superheroes who have their own priorities surrounding what is going on with Danny, but aren’t mean or cruel and seem to genuinely care about Danny. Valkyrja is funny and surprisingly down to earth even though she is basically a scandinavian goddess of sorts. Also the hilarity of her being Danny’s long time celebrity crush never gets old. Oh Danny, you useless little lesbian. Magma is a precious big hot boy that seems like he’d give good hugs. Yeah, that's about all I got to say about him that won’t spoil anything. 

Now we have another two for one with Chlorophyll and Carapice. These two I'm between dislike and indifferent on.  They weren’t outright mean to Danny but they treated her more like a means to an end or down right refused to acknowledge she was the new Dreadnought whether they liked it or not, but we didn’t really get to see them enough to really learn more about their motivations. 

Finally to round out the Legion we have Graywytch. Excuse me while I get this out. *Exaggerated throat clear.* First of all, Imma slap that stupid robe of ya stupid head. Then Imma stab you with your stupid fancy atheme you like to wave around all the time. And don’t even start on your “Typical male, always resorting to violence” shtick, cause guess what, I’m a ciswoman and I still wanna stomp a mudhole in your ass. And for that...Imma slap your dumb bird too. *Deep breath in. Looooooong exhale.* Sorry about that. Mama had to express some rage. I have never had a hate-sink character that made me feel the fiery flames of rage quite like Graywytch...obviously. Her treatment of Danny had me gripping the book tightly and growling about slapping birds and “shanking bitches” more than I should probably admit. She is one of those characters that I love how much I hate her. She served the exact purpose she was meant to and it was never cast in a light that she may be right in her treatment of Danny, we are always aware that her mindset is ridiculous. Like the fact outside of her parents Graywytch is the only character to blatantly deadname and misgender Danny. To go off on a small tangent here I may relate too much here because I have a younger brother who is trans (don’t worry he is fine with me discussing it in reviews and such) and I went to a graduation party when my best friend graduated medical school and he was out to the family but not extended friends yet. After only referring to him by the proper pronouns for so long at home hearing the wrong ones caused legitimate eye blinking record scratch cognitive dissonance for me. I had the same feeling anytime Graywytch opened her stupid mouth and blatantly misgendered Danny. Because the way this is written Danny is Danny, she is exactly who she is meant to be. Suck it Graywytch!

Okay, I know you probably want to hear about the plot I know, but we have one more character we have to talk about and that is Calamity, the rootin’-ist tootin’-ist vigilante that ever did come through these here parts. Sorry, I have to talk like this now, it’s part of the persona, you have to commit to the persona. But real talk, I absolutely love Calamity as a look into “graycapes” and the real dive into the world of superheroes beyond the big heroes. We get to see how someone who doesn’t have the backing of the Legion goes about helping people, the little people, those that maybe the Legion way up in their tower can’t see from so high up in the clouds. And y’all know me, I love a morally gray vigilante with a heart of gold.  She had me at “You wanna go capin’?”

Now obviously I couldn’t get enough of the characters but the plot was pretty darn good too. It was so intricately woven in with Danny and her inheriting the mantle from the previous Dreadnought that she had no choice but to be an integral part of it. Now I obviously don’t have as much to say about the plot as I did the characters but know if you come for the plot you won’t be disappointed. It kept me guessing and threw me for an absolute curve ball at the end that I did not see coming! You won’t be disappointed.

So final thoughts...there isn’t much more I can say without going on an hours long squeal fest about how much I freaking loved this book and the characters and the intricacies of how Danny’s powers work and how she was written and how she interacts with different characters and just everything that would mean massive untakebackable spoilers! So I will end on this note; Danny is a character that it would have been easy to lean into the superhero aspect and let the reader forget that she was trans, but April Daniels didn’t want that. Danny was gifted the easiest transition in the history of the world. What takes most people years of HRT and surgeries and therapy Danny did in the passing of a mantle, but it never took away the fact she is and always will be trans. It was a unique reading experience that I have only been blessed with once before but that’s a story for a different review on a different day.

Queer Wrap-up: I would give my left kidney (that’s my good one btw) to give this book five unicorns, but alas I cannot, a one off conversation in an elevator hinting that a certain improbable doctor may have a one sided thing for a particular sadly straight scandinanvian god being is just not enough to count as additional rep. As much as I love this book, and I love it A LOT! We only have Danny as our queer rep and she is fantastic rep and our protagonist so a 4 unicorn rating was a no brainer on this one. Danny is the kind of trans rep I want to see more of in the world of books, YA and otherwise. Being a trans lesbian is a huge part of her character but she gets to do so much more than that in the breath of the story and that’s what I look for in great representation, so Danny easily earned these 4 unicorns on her own merit just being her amazing self.

Links: 

Goodreads

Dominc Noble’s Review

Alright so...this one got long. Ah hell, I ain't gonna apologize for it! This is a damn good book and I wanted to get my fangirl squeal on y’all. 

Oh no, I think I’ve been thinking about Calamity too much I slipped into the persona without meaning to! This book was just far too much fun to read to the point I started reading it out loud with a full cast of voices (hint: the Calamity parts were my favorite) because it flowed so well and was genuinely so funny at parts and heart wrenchingly sad in others and so action packed the next moment. I finished this book in less than a day and if I had been more present and not under a pile of blankets and wearing a headlamp I might have thought to keep a timer to tell you the exact number of hours it took me, but alas know it didn’t take me many. 

So the adventures reading in the dark continue on to the next review after this one but as always if you want to read this but don’t want to spend the money without knowing for sure you are going to like it, go to your local library. You’d be surprised what they have on their shelves just waiting to be discovered. Trust me, I’m a lesbrarian.

[flashlightbaee]

Magical // chapter one (the vampire diaries)

first 21 chapters on Wattpad now! user: mscvro

discription:

[Book 1]

QUOTE| ❝I'm Nike❞ ❝Like the goddess of victory❞

━━ 歡迎

. . . Witches in Mystic Falls are nothing new. Hell the entire Bennet family originates from there. Amongst other supernaturals, they are considered great helpers and sometimes even dear friends. Will the new witch in town be able to find her place in the strange town.

❨ multiple x fem!oc ❩

❨ the vampire diaries ❩

❨ season 2 - probably 8 ❩

❨ ©️ mscvro ✧*.｡ ❩

Disclaimer

this story will narrate the protagonist story over many seasons/years in the tvd-universe. there will be multiple love interest for her but everything is "realistically" paced and mostly follows the plot of the show(s). if you want something that is solely focused on a love story and faster paced maybe try my other stories. if you decide to read, i am thankful that you take on this journey with me.

have fun!!!

"Honey? Are you ready to go to the masquerade ball?" Kira Rose asks her daughter who is staring at herself in the mirror, trying to figure out whether all of her hair is curled or she missed a strand.

"In a minute. Even though I'm still not keen on going. Mom, I don't know anyone here." Nike complains. Her mother sighs.

"One more reason to go. Maybe you'll find some friends." Mrs Rose walks up behind Nike and begins to caress the girl's arms. "Just like a normal girl."

"But I'm not normal, mom. I'm a witch." Nike says and turns around, deciding that her hair is fine. She gives her mother a look before grabbing her back. "It's hard to make friends when you have magic in your veins and trouble keeps on coming your way."

"That's why we moved, baby. So that you can have a fresh start. Just give it a try, okay? For me." Mrs Rose smiles softly.

"I will try but I don't guarantee for anything."

"Good enough for me."

Nike soon comes to regret her promise. The Masquerade ball is boring and not being able to see anyone's face makes this whole getting-to-know-thing even harder. With a glass of lemonade in her hands, Nike paces through the hallways and watches the other guests drink, talk and dance. No one catches her interest until she spots a blonde girl, standing next to the staircase.

She isn't wearing a mask and can't seem to take her eyes off a blond boy who is joking around with two girls. Nike studies her and tries to figure out whether she is an Ex-girlfriend or secret admirer. Soon the boy catches her look and sends her a small yet awkward smile which the blonde replies.

However, as soon as he turns around to walk off with the girls, her smile fades and turns into an almost regretful expression. Nike first hesitates but finally walks over to check on the girl. After all it's only appropriate and she has proof that she at least attempted to find friends.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asks. The blonde jumps in surprise but then nods.

"Yes, it's just my Ex-boyfriend...long story. Thanks for asking." she forces a smile but still seems genuine. "You're not from Mystic Falls, are you? I've never seen you around."

"I just moved here from New Orleans with my mom."

"Uhh, well, welcome then." The girl smiles widely.

"Thank you."

"I'm Caroline, by the way. Caroline Forbes." she introduces herself and extends her hand.

"I'm Nike Rose. Nice to meet you." They shake hands.

"Nice to meet you too. Do you go to Mystic High now?"

"Yes, Monday is my first day," Nike says and Caroline opens her mouth to say something when her phone peeps. She pulls it out of her little back and looks down at it.

"Nice meeting you, Nike. I gotta go. See you on Monday." she says as she starts walking away. "I'm really sorry." Nike doesn't even get a chance to reply when Caroline has already disappeared in the crowd.

"That went well." The brunette mumbles to herself and takes another sip from her lemonade. As she is starting to feel hungry, she makes it her mission to find a Buffett. The only one she can find is in a room full of candles and a massive mirror. It almost looks like a room in one of the castles she visited in Europe.

The room is completely empty except for a girl and a woman who are having a rather heated conversation. Assuming they are mother and daughter, Nike walks in, grabs a muffin from the desk and is about to leave when the conversation catches her attention.

"Look, I have no interest in fighting you." The woman says.

"Then stop the spell you put on my friend." Spell? Nike silently leaves the room and hides behind the door to keep listening to them without having to fear them seeing her. If there is another witch in town that could either solve many of her problems or cause a bunch of new ones.

"Give Katherine the moonstone and I will."

"Why are you helping Katherine? Don't you know what she is?" The woman gives her a challenging look.

"Tell your friends to hand over the moonstone and all will be groovy." She attempts to leave but the girl blocks her path.

"You're not leaving this room until you stop the spell." The woman sighs.

"I don't wanna hurt you."

"No, I don't wanna hurt you." the girl seems really serious about this and is very brave to challenge a much older witch like this.

"Look, I don't have a choice. The bitch saved my life, and now I owe her. I have to pay up." She wants to leave again but the girl grabs her arm, making the woman look up shocked.

"You have the moonstone." The girl quickly let go. "I can sense it on you." The woman grabs the girls hands and the lights start to flicker. "Do you feel that? You can trust me. Give it to me. It's ok."

"Even if I do, what are you going to do? You can't give the stone to Katherine. Trust me, you cant." Nike studies the woman's face and soon finds that she has no answer.

"I think, I can help with that." She gathers all her courage and steps out from behind the door. The witches give her a shocked look.

"Who are you?" the girl asks anxiously.

"I'm Nike. I'm a witch too." The girl eyes her for a moment.

"I'm Bonnie. This is Lucy." she says and slowly starts to walk over to Nike. "What did you mean, you can help?"

"Well, I overheard your conversation and I think I might have an idea how to fix your problem."

"Why would you want to help us?" The woman asks and crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"Because witches need to stick together." Nike shrugs. "Do you want to hear about my idea or not?" Bonnie and the woman share a look and then nod.

"Shoot."

[angelofthequeers]

ML Sweet-ember day 7

Some Chameleon sugar! Considering that this is the episode that utterly exploded the salty side of the fandom, I feel like the awfulness of this episode is so wildly exaggerated to make it seem like The Worst Episode Ever. It’s certainly not my favourite, and I wouldn’t go back and rewatch it if I had to pick from a list, but I do feel like there are some good elements that should be pointed out and have been touched on by others. I know I’ve made a post in support of the classmates regarding Lila’s disabilities, but this is much more in-depth.

Radical statement right here: the classmates are in the right and Lila’s lies actually are plausible.

Picture this. You’re part of a class with a few people that have pretty high achievements and connections. The class representative designed glasses and an album cover for the #1 rock star in the world. The sweet boy who sits at the front of the class is a famous model on top of maintaining amazing grades and a variety of extracurricular activities. The class bully might be an utter bitch, but she’s also the most powerful girl in Paris, and she has met some very high-ranking people, like an actual prince. Another classmate has actually become friends with said prince and spent an afternoon visiting sick children with him. Yet another classmate runs a superhero blog that’s so popular that the resident superheroes openly acknowledge and endorse it - and there are magical superheroes in the first place!

So, a new girl comes to class, claiming a variety of connections and disabilities. In any other case, this would be instantly suspicious. How can one person have so many connections and conditions? But considering your classmates and what they’ve done, why would you disbelieve this one specific person? And even if you’re not 100% sure about her disabilities, it’s not your place to pry and poke into someone’s personal life. The decent thing to do is to help your new classmate out as much as you can. But why does your class rep loathe this new girl so much? Your class rep is the sweetest person, yet she’s constantly tearing apart everything the new girl says and refusing to back down when the new girl explains herself, as though the new girl is Chloe. And then...your class rep threw a napkin at the new girl? The disabled new girl? Even if a napkin can’t hurt anyone - apart from potentially triggering one of the new girl’s disabilities, which you’re not an authority on because you don’t share that experience - it’s pretty damn nasty to throw things at someone just on the suspicion that they’re lying. Especially if that person is disabled. Which she isn’t, but they can’t know that she’s such an awful person that she’d fake disabilities just for attention.

When you remove yourself from Marinette’s protagonist-centred POV, you realise that the classmates are totally in the right here. All they know is that the new girl is disabled and needs to be accommodated instead of having her private life torn to shreds to justify herself. Why would they think that anyone would fake a disability, let alone so many? And again, after everything that Marinette and Adrien and their other classmates have accomplished, why would they suspect Lila specifically of lying? Celebrities have personal information on the internet, yes, but it would be impossible to find a blow-by-blow daily account of their lives to undo one lie about them. It’s entirely plausible for Lila to have had interactions with celebrities that haven’t made it onto the internet. I had an adorable interaction with a celebrity 4 years ago in a meet and greet, and the only proof of that is my word. I can even point out a photo on Twitter that I took with his phone, but how would you know that I’m telling the truth and that I took the photo or that the photo was even taken during the meet and greet that I was in? Short of having the celebrity himself confirm it, I couldn’t. But why would a celebrity involve himself in such petty drama in the first place? Lies and rumours are a daily annoyance for celebrities; certainly not enough to justify causing a whole stink around a teenage girl who’s just telling tall tales to make herself look good.

Weird stuff happens, man. Are the classmates a little naive and gullible? Admittedly, yes. I am surprised that they haven’t grown tired of Lila constantly talking about herself, or that there hasn’t been that one lie that’s made them go “wait a second...”. But does that make them petty and malicious people who deserve to burn for turning their backs on Queen Marinette? Hell no. They’re pretty good and considerate people, and they cop far more hate than they deserve, which is none at all.

[finding-fallen-stars]

YGO Questionnaire Part 2 Electric Boogaloo

So, my gf/bf @howaboutalittlehelpneos tagged me to do this again a... good long while ago, and I had wanted to wait until I'd finished my GX rewatch before trying this again. But ouch oof I accidentally also got through all of 5Ds again before getting to this lol

But the 5Ds rewatch definitely reshaped a lot of my thoughts, so... cracks knuckles. This won't be spoiler free, fair warning~

Favorite Series: ugh the formatting killed my original essay on this but okay GX and 5Ds are pretty tied in my book, now-- I love them equally, but in different ways! GX fulfills my love for subversive coming-of-age stories with a heartwarming, humorous, and also soulcrushing touch, and I love how each season brings a new story and new characters-- it's like reading installments of a novel series, and I think the formatting works wonders for it as a whole. It has some absolutely phenomenal character writing, too-- even the characters I dislike are ones I can appreciate for what they introduce to the story! And honestly, not enough people give the first two seasons of GX the credit it deserves: they're half the charm, really. How are you going to feel the full impact of the heartbreaking content in seasons 3 and 4 if you aren't properly attached to the characters?

But on 5Ds's side of things... it fulfills my love for stories with time loops, found family, human nature, and of course, love and death and how they intertwine. I love how the leading characters are just a bunch of broken kids from broken circumstances who all find a home with each other, and of course, how it highlights class disparity and how fucked up the prison/"justice" systems are. Yea, sure, maybe it underwent executive meddling and all, but I genuinely love it for what it is and I wish more people appreciated it... my only problem with 5Ds is the untwist with Z-ONE and then the ending s m h I adore it overall and I could go off for a long while on it. Overall, these are my two instinctive recommendations for anyone getting into Yugioh!

(look at these boys they're so important) Favorite Protagonist: Oh, believe me, absolutely nothing has changed here-- Yusei Fudo is and always will be my favorite protagonist, and my rewatch only solidified that.

I just... love him so much? He's seen so much hell in his life and carries so much guilt on his shoulders, but he still has room in his heart to believe in others and to believe that anyone can defy fate and find hope even at rock bottom. I love that he's initially introduced as this quiet, brooding figure when he really just turns out to be a huge softie who wears his heart on his sleeve half the time and wants to bring about change for Satellite and its people. Plus I just really love that his greatest flaw is something that would ordinarily be a positive trait-- he's Overly self-sacrificial, to the point where he's basically setting himself on fire to keep others warm, and that's not really framed as something Heroic

Just... he makes me so happy. I have two Yusei charms that I ordinarily keep on my keys (one was a gift from Zenzen) and they're a constant source of serotonin for me. He's Peak comfort character for me. Best protag in my book Favorite Rival: Same deal here-- still Manjoume!

look at him he's so important

While he spends a lot of the anime getting the good old damsel in distress treatment (getting suckered into a cult, getting knocked into a coma, becoming a zombie, getting fucking Killed, etc), I still think his character arc is really well-written overall and I only appreciated it even more when I watched GX again. I love the fact that he's got a soft heart he buries beneath the edgy facade, and that he's simultaneously really sharp and also kind of dense lol. He's just a fun character and watching how he evolves from episode one to episode one hundred eighty is such a satisfying journey.

Plus, props to him for being such a versatile duelist-- 50 wins in a row is HARD as is, let alone with a deck full of cards he just found laying around in the Arctic. Three ace monsters, three different archetypes... he's a really good duelist and I'm proud of him for it

Oh, but honestly, I don't really dislike any of the rivals-- I'm neutral towards Revolver and Reiji, but the remaining four (Kaiba, Manjoume, Jack, and Shark) compel me. yes I accidentally wound up liking Jack Atlas shhh Favorite BFF: Honestly, I really like most of the characters who fit this archetype-- Joey, Crow, Gongenzaka, Soulburner... I still lean a little bit more towards Joey, but I really appreciate all four of them. I'm gonna say Joey again, just because I find his evolution as a character the most compelling, but I appreciate the other three a lot. Soulburner has the best design though Favorite GFF: Oh absolutely still Aki, but I honestly... really love most female Yugioh characters? I'm assuming this is lead girls only, but like. I'm dumb and gay and I love Girls so this is naturally the most difficult one for me to answer lol

Aki just resonates with me the most because she's the prime example of how trauma doesn't always manifest in palatable ways-- when we first meet her, she's angry and lashes out at anyone and anything just because she wants the world to suffer in the same ways she's suffered, and then... we get to watch her grow from that, once she's free from Divine and able to heal the way she needs to heal. I know the second half of 5Ds didn't give her character the attention it deserved, but I'm still proud of her for winding up on the path she did-- seeing her channel her power and energy into wanting to heal and help others was just so good and was one of the few things I really Loved about the 5Ds ending.

oh, but like. Asuka Tenjoin and Aoi Zaizen are very close seconds for me!!! Aki just has a vice grip on my heart Favorite Villain: Okay, it's still technically Vector-- I think he's the most entertaining, well-written, and effective villain out of all of the ones we've seen so far, but... I also want to add Takuma Saiou and then all of Yliaster as honorable mentions?

As someone fond of tarot myself, I was naturally pretty intrigued by Saiou the first time I watched GX, but my attachment to him only grew the second time around where I actually got the chance to understand his character better. Plus, like... the visuals with him are fucking astounding and he's always so interesting to watch.

As for Yliaster, I just... really love how the big bad of 5Ds turned out to just essentially be a broken man desperate to save anyone and anything and three robotic reconstructions of the friends he'd lost. I still think the untwist with Z-ONE was stupid and I much prefer the idea of him and Yusei being the same person, but I'm still compelled by the other three-- well. Paradox less so, because we don't get a lot of Paradox lore, but. Aporia and Antinomy for sure.

ugh Yugioh has some damn good villains

Favorite Card: now that I actually play the TCG game...

Stardust is always going to be my favorite of all cards because it checks every box for me (my favorite YGO character's ace monster, space theme, what more could I want), but Aromaseraphy Rosemary has really become one of my aces in my best TCG deck! I'm still mastering irl plays, but I'm happy with my progress and I love my plant gang...

Favorite Episode: alright, here's where there's actually been a Lot of change, so...

Season 0: Episode 16: "Turnabout by a Hair's Breadth - The White-Robed Crisis" -- The more I think about this one, the more I love it; there's a... lot of corruption in the medical industry, and I've seen a lot of it firsthand, so just. Seeing a corrupt doctor get what he deserved at the end was cathartic, in a way? Plus, a Jounouchi-centric episode is always a good time.

Duel Monsters: Episodes 96-97: "Darkness vs. Darkness/One Turn Kill" -- this hasn't changed, I still love seeing Marik and Bakura bitch at each other for two whole episodes LMAO

GX: Episode 152: "Activate Super-Fusion! Rainbow Neos" -- This one hasn't changed and it likely never will-- I take so much pride in seeing Judai push forward, past the fear and guilt he's carrying, all to save Johan... it's cathartic and I never get sick of watching it.

5Ds: sweats. still all of Crash Town, but also episodes 137-147-- the Ark Cradle is one of my favorite parts of 5Ds and one of my favorite YGO arcs period, and even though each duel is a fucking gut punch, I love the emotional intensity and weight in each episode... It hurts but in a mostly good way

Zexal: Episode 143: "The Aloof Duelist 'Nasch': The Destined Final Duel" -- this one hasn't changed! Still hurts, still love it, I still weep over Ryouga Shark Kamishiro on a daily basis

Arc-V: Episodes 81-82: "Our Respective Battlefields/The Ultimate Falcon VS The Black-Feathered Thunder" -- Okay, honestly, this was hard because I... genuinely. really don't like Arc-V very much at all lol (it's just not my cup of tea, but more power to those who do like it!), but I thought this duel was a lot of fun! Shun is my absolute favorite from Arc-V and I really like the friendship he struck up with Crow a lot, so here we are

VRAINS (so far): Episode 25-26: "Virus Deck Operation/Three Draws Leading to Hope" -- honestly I am so biased because I just really love Blue Angel and I loved seeing her get a well-deserved victory like this lol. I'm not done with VRAINS, so this is probably gonna change, but anytime Blue Angel or Soulburner are on screen, I'm happy

Favorite Decks to Use: Aromages will always have my heart, but I adore Cyber Angels too! I'm building my Trickstar deck, my Synchron/Stardust deck (just waiting on Dawn of Majesty...), and my Magician Girls deck, too! Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, or Link?: Synchros my beloved... but also Ritual Years in fandom: I've been here for just a little over one year now! and I wuv it... I'm never looking back Who am I tagging: no one I'm too shy

[margridarnauds]

margrid arnaud das music-i mean marie antoinette das musical for that ask meme

LET’S GO

 Top 5 favourite characters: Margrid, Orléans, Louis, Marie, Fersen

Other characters you like: Lamballe, the kids, Robespierre, Danton, Immortal Marat

Least favourite characters: Hébert, Bertin, Hébert, Leonard, Jacques Réne Hébert, Drouet, Hébert...

Otps: Margrid/Orléans, Marie/Louis....I COULD ship Margrid/Lamballe and Margrid/La Motte but let’s be real I’m not going to, Marie/Orléans in a very specific way (namely Bitter Ex Friends)

Notps: Hébert/Margrid, Fersen/Margrid, Hébert/Orléans

Favourite friendships: Fersen & Margrid, Lamballe & Antoinette, Orléans & Lamballe (not canon to the musical, but was a historical Thing), Orléans & Margrid when I’m not actively shipping them. 

Favourite family: Marie’s family, especially her dynamic with Margrid (LET ! MARGRID ! BE ! THE WEIRD! AUNT!) and Louis’ odd dynamic with Orléans. Really, MA is just the story of one very, very dysfunctional family. 

Favourite season/book/movie: 2018 Toho Production. 

Favourite quotes: .....showing myself for the Orléans Stan I am: “Oh, cowards, tremble and sleep!” Mitsuo Yoshihara’s delivery SELLS it. Honorable mention: “Just the smallest of sparks is sufficient to set dry grass into an inferno - I just need to promise them a new world where they can live in.” 

That and the from the final song, the entire cast: “Can we change the world for ourselves? What can we do to break the chains of violence? What is equality? When will people finally learn from the past? Will revenge ever end? That answer can only be yielded by ourselves!” 

Best musical moment: There are some REALLY good moments in this musical - Margrid calling the wrath of God down on the aristocrats during “Blinded by the Light of a Thousand Candles”, the reprise of “Blinded” when the poor join in with Margrid, the entirety of “I Am The Best”, the key change in the Korean version of “Kill the Snakes”, the part during the March to Versailles when the other women join in for the first time to tell Margrid they aren’t going, Fersen’s low note during his first love song with Antoinette, the bit during “The Only Thing I ever Did Right” when Fersen comes in for the first time and he and Antoinette duet,  the bit during The Jacobin Club when the entire Jacobin Club steps out together and swears to bring down Antoinette, the bit during “Eyes of Hatred” when Margrid and Antoinette’s voices blend PERFECTLY, the bit during the trial when the crowd begins to apply pressure to Antoinette while Margrid realizes how fucked up things have gotten. 

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: I was trying to not be predictable.....but look. I lose my shit every time we get to “I Am The Best”. Because they really DID give Orléans the single best song in the musical and expected us NOT to stan. That and when he takes his final bow, because he gets a reprise of the song WITH electric guitars because, yes, he’s an extra bitch. 

When it really disappointed you: The 2021 Toho. I could devote an entire post to how that production disappointed me, even outside of my personal ships, but like. It was a disappointment from beginning to end and I’m actually happy that it’s out of Tokyo now. 

Saddest moment: Margrid sobbing after Antoinette’s death and then having to wipe the tears off her face to meet the tribunal. And then the look on her face at the end....

Most well done character death: Marie’s - Literally the entire musical has been leading up to this and the scene itself makes a wonderful use of callbacks and musical cues to give it this sense of TENSION throughout the entire thing, which builds off of that earlier scene where Hébert confronts Margrid. We know that Antoinette is going to die - There’s no way of avoiding it, but we still are wondering what’s going to happen. What’s Margrid going to do? Is she going to risk a life of security for the sake of the woman she’s started to feel sympathy for? Are these two women ever going to come to terms with one another, with the answer being yes as Antoinette by calls Margrid by her name instead of “the girl” and Margrid gives that last, dangerous bow. 

Favourite cast member: I’m not generally big on following individual cast members, but PROBABLY Sonim? 

Character you wish was still alive: I. Might have toyed with a few ways of keeping Marie alive in the past. 

One thing you hope really happens: Really, really hoping the upcoming Korean production is good. Like, that’s the extent of my ambition after the last Toho. 

Most shocking twist: Lamballe’s Death. I have NEVER seen anyone come in prepared for it in over 2 years of streaming. *I* was shocked when I saw it because I literally never expected a Japanese depiction of Marie Antoinette to get into the September Massacres, especially do THAT extent. And it really is the point where, suddenly, you realize that NO ONE is safe. Up until this point, no one’s died. The Royal Family’s imprisoned, but there’s a certain romanticism you can find in the situation, the idea that, hey, now they’re a happy, nuclear family. Then, the show distracts you with that discussion between Marie and Margrid so that they it can SLAM the knife into your back. And, from that point, no one’s safe. Literally anyone in the cast can die, to the point where people do, genuinely fear for Margrid’s safety by the end. It’s probably one of the single best twists I’ve seen in musical theatre, because it sets the stage for the last twenty minutes brilliantly. 

When did you start watching/reading?: You know? It had to have been back in 2013. A subber that I liked had JUST finished Rebecca das Musical and had moved on to Marie Antoinette, and I thought “Well! Kunze and Levay came out with a Mar’ie Antoinette musical? I’ve got to see this, it’s going to be good!” 

Spoiler alert: It was not good. I made it twenty minutes in, got to the brothel scene, and never looked back. Which means that, actually, I only BARELY missed Orléans’ song. 

Favourite location: Antoinette’s bedroom - Those crazy sons of bitches REALLY replicated Antoinette’s ACTUAL BED to use. 

Trope you wish they would stop using: Stop trying to make Fersen/Margrid happen, it’s not going to happen. In general, there’s this idea that Margrid MUST be totally, absolutely loveless, and I don’t really see it. I’ll be the last to say she hasn’t had a hard life, but there’s this need to ISOLATE her that I just don’t really vibe with. I’m not even saying in an inherently romantic sense (in canon...I wouldn’t actually WANT to see, say, her and Orléans making out on-stage), but just in terms of having genuine connections. 

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: It really does a wonderful job as far as developing two separate female characters - Which shouldn’t be THAT HARD, given you have plenty of musicals about multiple guys all the time, and yet SOMEHOW....

Also, Margrid in particular is phenomenal, as a character. It’s definitely not uncommon for people to go in for Marie and end up really, really attached to Margrid and her development. 

Funniest moments: Hébert nearly getting hit with a door, Margrid peaking under her ball gown while it’s on the rack and Orléans dragging her away, the Stars and Stripes Gown....

Couple you would like to see: .....Orléans/Margrid. I know that I say I don’t want them to actually be CANON canon but also I would NOT complain if they did. Especially after the 2021 Toho production, it’s what I deserve. 

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: Park Hye Na as Korean!Margrid would kill me, I know it. 

Favourite outfit: Besides Orléans’ 2018 coat (4ever in our hearts), special props to Antoinette’s golden gown in the opening. WHAT a character introduction. 

Favourite item: Margrid’s little knapsack she keeps on her. 

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: I own a ballpoint pen and a program from the 2021 Toho run - One of these days, I keep meaning to buy the German libretto so that I can translate it. 

Most boring plotline: BERTIN AND LEONARD. (But, in all fairness........look, they’re annoying, but also, when they’re gone, you do miss them, because that’s when shit gets fucked.) 

Most laughably bad moment: The entire 2006 Toho Cast exists just to be one very long laughably bad moment. That and, tbh, the German. Special props to the Brothel Scene. 

Most layered character: Margrid. Marie is ALSO a very layered, complex character, but Margrid gets special props because, off the top of my head, I can’t REALLY think of another female protagonist, in a musical, like her. Not saying they don’t EXIST, but I’m saying I haven’t personally seen them. 

Most one dimensional character: ...2006 Orléans. He Who We Don’t Discuss. 

Scariest moment: See above for Lamballe. 

Grossest moment: Hébert's final confrontation scene with Margrid. 

Best looking male: Kim Jun Hyun’s Orléans. *Wow*. 

Best looking female: Jang Eun Ah’s Margrid. Once again. *Wow.* 

Who you’re crushing on (if any): ...both Orléans and Margrid. Predictably. 

Favourite cast moment: Furukawa Yuta pranking Mitsuo Yoshihara by giving him “poisonous” things for his birthday, because “You are Duke d’Orleans and I am Fersen. You are poisonous and I am passive aggressive.”

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): The ball at Versailles. One of the most STUNNING scenes I’ve ever seen. Whoever did the lighting deserves all the accolades in the world for creating a scene that’s surreal, seductive, and gorgeous 

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: Not an ERROR, but I’m really, really interested in the story of Jeanette Arnaud, because this woman really haunts Margrid’s entire life but there’s so LITTLE we know about her and Margrid’s feelings about her. How long did her affair with the Emperor last? Did she always know he was the emperor during their affair, or did they meet under different circumstances? Fersen was clearly able to figure out that she was a mistress of his, so how public was the affair? And, if it was that public, does it mean that she was a servant, or was she, at the very least, middle class? How did he find out her mother’s identity? Why didn’t Orléans double-check himself? Does Margrid have any living grandparents or uncles/aunts? How old was Margrid when she died? Did she die before or after Margrid was kicked out by the nuns? (In the German, it’s very clearly the former, but who knows?)

I feel like there’s a really, really dark, tragic tale underneath all this about a young woman who ended up paying the ultimate price for falling in love with someone above her station, but it’s one that’s kept to literally only a few sentences. 

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: Probably about.....five or ten minutes into the Toho, with the Palais Royal scene. I knew, from the time I saw Furukawa Yuta on stage as Fersen, that they’d changed things around, and then seeing the changes that were made, I was able to go “Oh! It’s good now!” I feel like the moment where I REALLY fell in love was “I Am The Best” because that had been a scene I’d been REALLY concerned about from the German and then Mitsuo Yoshihara casually came in there and owned it. 

[obsidianfr3sk]

The Origins (Chapter 2)

Summary:  Before the Renegades put an end to the Age of Anarchy, they were six kids trying to survive day by day in a city ruled by chaos and desolation. Is there a space for hope and kindness somewhere in Gatlon City? Maybe.

AO3link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25123756/chapters/61113496#workskin

Today’s protagonist is... GEORGIA RAWLES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. I think you can alredy tell that I am kind of pairing the OG team with each other (not in a romantic way, I swear) so those two member’s stories will be totally realted, but all of them are interconnected in one way or another. Next chapter will be from Kasumi’s perspective, then Evander’s, Tamaya’s, and last, but not least, Hugh’s.

Also, Grammarly is a bitch, so if anyone can recommend me a good english grammar checker, I will be forever greatfull.

And, guys, thank you so much for the support! Every reblog and every like means the world to me <3 

The world that we design

Age of Anarchy

Year 3

Her mother had been very clear to her. Georgia couldn't tell anyone what they were going to do Saturday morning at the Rae house. She couldn't tell her classmates, her teachers, or the gardener with whom she got along so well. If she told anyone, her mother promised that she would burn each of her mystery books and all of her dolls in the fireplace. Georgia knew that her mother was not one to make promises that they would not keep. It was not worth the risk.

After making her swear that she would keep the secret, she told her to choose a toy or a book that she wanted to show Tamaya Rae. Georgia let out a startled cry and started asking hundreds of questions: What was Tamaya Rae like? Had she seen her? How old was she? Was she as pretty as Mrs. Rae, or did she have Mr. Rae's hideous nose? Why did she never leave her home? Was it because of her allergy to the sun? How can you be allergic to the sun?

Her mother lost her patience and sent her to her room.

"Young girls should not bother their mothers with so many questions," she exclaimed.

Georgia tightened her jaw. If her father had been there, he would have defended her. He always let her ask all the questions she wanted.

On Saturday, before leaving, she looked in the huge mirror they had in the living room. With her pink dress and pearl hair clips, it was almost as if Ace Anarchy had not taken over the city three years ago.

Were they poor? No. Georgia went to a private school, her house was in a decent area, and they could even afford to have a maid and a gardener. She knew they were rich. But they used to be even richer.

As soon as they arrived, an employee opened the door to the garden of the Rae house. It used to be prettier, but they still had those roses that she liked so much. That, and the small tower that protruded from the ceiling, gave it an enchanted castle look, perfect setting for the scandalous murder of the king's lover.

"You're right," her mom laughed. “Just don’t tell Tamaya you said that.” And she rang.

Georgia looked out into the garden once more. There was a space where a car would fit perfectly, but there was no car. She didn't think it was because they didn't have one. She had seen the Rae arrive at the church in a dented (but elegant) black car.

Before she can ask her mother, Mrs. Rae opened the door.

"Hello Tara," she greeted with a smile on her red lips. "Good morning Georgia. Come in, come in."

The Rae family had managed to keep their most beautiful things. The ones that caught her attention the most were the chandelier, an old piano, green velvet armchairs, and an antique porcelain vase. Mrs. Rae was talking to her mother when Georgia asked:

"Where's Tamaya?"

Her mother seemed shocked at the interruption, but Mrs. Rae was very light about it.

"Oh sure," she whispered. "Come, follow me. Tara, my dear, why don't you go ahead in the kitchen? Tea should be ready by now."

Tara gave one last look at her daughter before leaving.

Mrs. Rae guided her to the second floor. There was a hallway full of doors, but one stood out from all of them. It was silver with carved emerald details. Behind it, there was a large circular room, with five-meter bookcases covering her even higher walls and a larger bed than Georgia's, covered in cushions with too much lace.

She was watching how the tower was on the inside.

It would be a much prettier room if it wasn't dark.

"Tamaya, your friend has arrived."

Mrs. Rae turned on the light. As soon as her eyes managed to experience the new lighting, Georgia understood why Tamaya did not go to school with her.

Sitting around a crowd of dolls, sipping tea among them, Tamaya Rae looked at her with those amber eyes, identical to her mother's. She wore a green floral dress and her dark hair fell gently over her shoulders. She would have looked angelic, if not for the satiety in her gaze and the huge black wings that came out of her back.

"Tamaya, this is Georgia," said Mrs. Rae with a light push, "Tara Rawle's daughter."

"Hello…”

Tamaya did not change her expression.

"Well, have fun," exclaimed Mrs. Rae after ten seconds of awkward silence. There was too much joy in her words to be true. "Tamaya, behave yourself."

Georgia believed that when Mrs. Rae left, Tamaya was going to pounce on her and rip the skin off her face. Fortunately, that was not the case.

She did nothing.

Literally nothing. She just kept watching her in complete silence.

“Hi Tamaya," Georgia said a little more confidently than before." I'm Georgia. "

"I know."

"Um…"

Tamaya lost interest in her and returned her attention to her dolls. They were drinking real tea.

"Can I join your tea party?" Georgia asked.

"It is not a tea party," Tamaya snapped annoyed, "it is a gathering of the Gatlon City Detective Department."

"Can I join the Gatlon City Detective Department meeting?"

"I'm afraid only those who are part of the department can participate. It is a very important case. I'm sorry."

From her tone of voice, Georgia doubted she was sorry. But she liked that game.

"What do I have to do to join the department, then?"

"We have no openings at this time."

Georgia took a doll with golden curls and said in an extremely shrill voice:

"I quit, Detective Rae, I can't take it anymore."

She dropped the doll onto the bed. To her surprise, Tamaya was unimpressed by a magnificent imitation of a doll's voice. What's more, she looked more fed up than ever.

"You can't join the department. It's my last word."

For some reason, those words hurt Georgia more than she expected. But, as her mother said, it was not worth staying in a place where they did not want her.

"Well, I didn't even want to join anyway," she spat, clutching at her purse.

"Perfect. It looks like we're both on the same page."

"That's right! And playing with dolls is for little girls. I'm already a woman. I had my first period two weeks ago."

"I had mine three weeks ago," said Tamaya. "And frankly, you're not behaving like a woman right now."

Georgia knew she couldn't go out and tell her mother that she already wanted to leave. But she would no longer stand to be with a girl as rude and cruel as Tamaya Rae. Therefore, she decided to fly off and sit on one of the wooden beams that supported the roof of the tower. She took her book out of the purse and began to read it, willing to stay there the rest of the two hours they were going be in that house, without speaking to Tamaya again.

However, she immediately noticed Tamaya was looking at her, with her jaw dropped to the floor.

"What?" Georgia asked from the wooden beam.

"You can fly," Tamaya stammered.

Georgia shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

"You are a prodigy."

She didn’t answer.

"But then why do you look so...?"

Suspense.

"So what?" she asked. Curiosity was going to kill her if she didn't ask.

"So normal?"

Georgia frowned.

"What do you mean normal?"

"My mom says prodigies always have something that gives them away," she replied. "An unusual eye color, hands too big or ... well, you know."

"Wings."

Tamaya nodded. Georgia had never heard anything so stupid. (Or maybe she had, but she was too upset with Tamaya to remember.)

"Well, your mom is a liar."

Tamaya threw a marble at her with such force that it hit her knee.

"My mom is not a liar!"

"Sorry, but prodigies are not too different from other people," Georgia replied. "What she told you is untrue. How do you call that? I will tell you: it is called a lie. Therefore, your mom is a liar. I rest my case.”

For a second, Tamaya's expression seemed sad.

"But I am too different."

That was when Georgia understood it. It was not just any lie; it was a white lie. Of those that she constantly said. "That dress fits her very well, ma'am." "Oh, but of course I like the bean stew, sir." "Yes, I have studied for the exam, teacher."

"A lie is still a lie, Georgia," she imagined her father reminding her, "no matter what the intention."

"You're not that different," said Georgia.

"Now you are the liar."

"I am not a liar," she defended herself.

"Tell me then. What makes me not that different?”

Georgia thought she would have to use all the skills she had in telling white lies. She stared at the girl below her for a good ten seconds, before realizing there would probably be no need to lie.

"You have pretty hair," said Georgia. "And your dress is beautiful. It shows you have an excellent sense of fashion."

Tamaya smiled.

"You also have a good sense of fashion. I can tell because of your underpants."

Georgia flushed and crossed her legs.

"Tamaya, you creep!”

Tamaya laughed out loud, and Georgia soon joined her. She had to admit it was funny.

"I hardly like wearing dresses," she explained. "They are very uncomfortable to use when I fly."

"I don't like dresses at all," Tamaya replied, "but my mom says I look prettier with them."

“Well, mine says true beauty is within. Wear whatever you want.

"Do you wear whatever you want?"

Georgia nodded.

"What do you use for flying?"

"When I fly, it is at home, when my mother is not around," he explained. "Pants are the most appropriate clothes for flying. What do you use to fly?"

"I do not know how to do it."

Georgia pretended to pass out from the shock.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. My dad won't let me," Tamaya explained sadly. "He thinks I should keep my feet on the ground.”

"Literally."

"Literally, yes."

"That’s unfair.”

"He doesn't know you're here either."

Georgia almost passed out, but this time, for real.

"How so?"

"Yes. My mom invited you because she thought it was a good idea that I talk with someone who doesn't have a head made of plastic," Tamaya explained. "But my dad didn't want to."

"Your dad sounds like a bad guy," she snapped.

For a second, she believed Tamaya would throw her another marble. Instead, she shrugged and muttered:

"He probably is."

"And what did you want?"

"About what?"

"Did you want me to come to play?"

"I didn't care," Tamaya replied. "My dolls have been my only friends in these twelve years of my life, and they have never disappointed me. They could have remained my friends for much longer."

She did not believe it. If she had to be locked in a room, with the dolls as her only company, she would probably go crazy. Of course, she loved her dolls, but not that much. Also, she did not want Tamaya to go crazy. Although her teachers told her that she had a strange ability to drive crazy everyone who ran into her. However, she was sure they used "drive crazy" in the good sense of the word.

She got off the beam and took the doll she had left on the bed.

"What did you say?" she asked the doll. She brought her face close to her ear like the doll was telling her a secret. "Are you sure that's what you want? Okay, I'll let her know." Tamaya looked puzzled. "Detective Egerton says she is very sorry that things ended like this between her and the Detective Department. She knows she cannot fix her mistakes, but she has chosen me as her replacement." She looked at the doll once more, wiping the fake tears from her cheeks. "Oh, you don't know how honored I am, Stella. I promise I'll make you proud."

"Molly," Tamaya corrected.

"Oh, you don't know how honored I am, Molly," Georgia repeated. "I promise I’ll make you proud."

"Okay, Georgia, you can join the team," Tamaya agreed. "But with one condition."

"What is that condition?"

Tamaya slightly flapped her wings. She had a spark in her eyes.

A spark of madness.

"That you teach me how to fly."

Georgia did not stop to think about the problem she would have with the Rae if they discovered she was teaching her daughter to fly. She also didn't remember she had no idea how to explain Tamaya the rules behind the flight. She didn’t even know the rules behind flying. The only thing on her mind at the time was how cool it would be to have a prodigy friend with a power similar to hers and was as much out of her mind as she was.

"I agree. Now, what case are we working on?"

Tamaya poured her a cup of tea.

"Do you remember Mayor Everhart's first wife?" Georgia remembered and nodded. Her mom had mentioned her, yes. "She went to the hospital when she was about to have her baby, nine years ago, right? She came back, but the baby didn't. Supposedly, he was born dead. Two days later, Mrs. Everhart appears dead in her own home. The cause? Suicide… But, was it really suicide? "

Again, that suspense... And now, mystery. Georgia's two favorite things in one person.

[sometimesrosy]

I think madi will survive purely because I don’t think Clarke would ever be okay if she didn’t. She wouldn’t be the same after losing her kid

Well I mean every death has altered her. She hasn’t been the same after each one. Even with Bellamy. You saw who she became when she thought he had died. Was she okay? No. It doesn’t matter. She still continues on.

It’s not about having death and trauma not change her, the entire show is more about coming THROUGH the changes that death wreaks on her character. So I’m not sure that’s enough of a rationalization to put Madi on the safe list. 

That said, Madi’s still one of the safer ones on my deathwatch list. 

YOU KNOW WHAT?

YOU KNOW WHAT???

A thought has just occurred to me. It happened like this: I was thinking about who was safer, and I’ve got Raven and Murphy on my deathwatch list pretty high, but then I thought, oh hey wouldn’t it be a kicker if Miller (and Jackson) survived everything against all odds to be the last delinquent?

And I was like well that could happen. 

And then I was like, well wait a minute. In my first serious Bellarke meta after Hakeldama, I made the prediction that endgame would have Bellarke together. Because this was the main symbolism and represented unity in this universe, which is how they survive. Right? So then I thought:

Well what if the entire series is really about bringing Clarke and Bellamy (symbolically the light and dark of humanity, self and other, head and heart,) together in order to create a new world where all can live in peace and productivity.  And I thought, well yes. That fits. But what if that means to END The 100, we END the story of Clarke and Bellamy. 

What if everyone lives but Clarke and Bellamy? But they die, TOGETHER (they would already be romantically together, so the canon that everyone is searching for.) And I thought, Yes that could happen. 

Did JR not once say how he loved the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet? I believe he did but someone’s going to have to fact check me on that one. Anyone remember?

BUT. And please, this is the part that is freaking amazing, if it happens and there are some hints that it might, both in canon and from JR’s commentary over the years. BUT I am saying that if this is the case and Bellarke die in season 7, they won’t actually be dead.

No. I’ve been saying this for a while, at least all hiatus. Maybe longer. Because I think I first imagined an ending something like this back in the middle of s5. 

I think they’ll be lost in the anomaly saving humanity. I don’t know how or why or in what capacity, but, I’m saying that our heroes, the delinquents, will believe that Clarke and Bellamy are dead, in their final sacrifice for their people. They have NEVER stopped doing that. 

Then, as the delinquents pick up the pieces, sooner or later, they decide to head back to earth to fix the planet or because Sanctum isn’t working for them or whatever Idk. I believe that if the Earth is ignored and discarded in the end of this show, that that will be the biggest hanging narrative thread, because it’s ALWAYS been about getting back to earth and the rebirth of the planet and being responsible for what you’ve done. SO I think we’ll end back on earth.

So Raven packs up all of Earthkru and whoever comes with, and Diyoza leads the prisoners and Gabriel leads the Sanctumites and Octavia leads wonkru, and maybe if Madi is old enough she is the chancellor IDK. MAYBE only 100 people will come with them. That’s a nice round number and in circular storytellling would have us ending The 100, on episode 100 with a new 100 group stepping foot on Earth for the first time. We’re back bitches.

And then. 

AND THEN.

They land on the planet, and find... they are not the last people on earth.

NO! There’s a beautiful society there, just like Kane imagine, and when they meet the people they find out that Bellarke did NOT die in the Anomaly, but were instead portaled back to Earth, where they began a new life, together, taking care of The Earth and tending her recovery. And they either had their own children, or the other survivors on the desert planet collected around them.

Now this would be a hundred or so years in the future about 200 years after the left. Which was the original Pilot stated length of time before the Earth was supposed to be habitable again. So Bellarke would no longer be alive. They would still be dead to earthkru BUT they would have lived a happy peaceful life, just like Monty asked them to do, just like Marper. Perhaps become heroes and famous and even worshipped in their new society (another easter egg, my friends, when they first find Sanctum and saw Becca’s infinity symbol being worshipped, Bellamy said, “well, you can destroy the planet and still be worshipped after you’re gone.” he elbowed Clarke and said, “There’s still hope for us yet.” BITCH THAT IS FORESHADOWING omg. ok breathe.)

You see, JR deliberately told us there would be a happy ever after, the 100 style, for one couple in season 5, and that was Marper. DEATH, but after a full life lived on their terms. JR ALSO told us that the ending of the series would be a happy ending, the 100 style. Which means, we can expect something parallel to what we already got. AND with the blatant mirroring of Bellarke and Marper in the last episode of season 5, to me, that’s clear foreshadowing that the happy ever after ending, The 100 style, will be for Bellarke.

I think that after we lose Bellarke in, maybe the episode before the last, maybe the first half of the last episode, and spend the rest of the first half with Raven getting the new 100 to safety on earth (maybe the revolution on sanctum meant they turn on the freedom bringers, and they can’t stay there, they are back to wandering, a new exodus.) BUT MAYBE the last half of the finale, after the revelation of Bellarke’s Eden village, then flips to Bellarke who has been lost in the Anomaly and ends up on earth.

See from THEIR perspective, while they sacrificed their lives to keep their people alive, they’re the ones how survived, and they’ve lost their family, INCLUDING Madi. To them, it’s their people who died. And we have only BELLLARKE surviving the end of the series. So they create their new society, happy ever after, as a memorial to The 100 and all the people they lost. Never expecting them to even find out that they survived. 

So, like Marper, maybe we get a montage idk, maybe we just end with them starting on their society, having a baby, maybe the first earth survivors stumbling into their haven, or maybe just ending with the two of them, together, standing on the ridge, looking over the valley as the sunflare of a rising dawn flashes around them.

LISTEN. I know no one is going to buy my theory. No one thinks that JR will write a good ending because they’re bitter and disillusioned and listen to people who misinterpreted the show all the way along and don’t like to be proven wrong. 

But I got a hint of an ending like this a long time ago. He SAID he likes bittersweet. He SAID he didn’t know if he was going to give our heroes hope for a better future, or if everyone else was going to get hope but not them. I think he meant Bellarke as his dual protagonists. THIS ending that I laid out first gives us the first one. No hope for Bellarke but salvation for their people. BUT THEN in a twist worthy of Clarke showing up 6 years later happy and healthy after watching her die, we find out Bellarke did survive and got their happy ending, but lost their family (like Marper.) 

There are SO MANY narrative threads that this ending would tie together. Lincoln’s “you’re responsible for your monster when you let it out.” Kane’s dream of a peaceful society. Marper’s instructions for them to do better and live a happy life. The head and the heart. The circular nature of the storytelling. And then there are easter eggs and foreshadowing, like with Raven saying she wanted to take off of a planet just once without it being on fire. Or the Marper/Bellarke parallels. Or that comment of “there’s still hope for us.” Even JR saying it’s not time travel, but saying that it is a portal. And there’s something about Interstellar’s (one of the movies on his viewing/reading list he gave us before s6) weird time/space shenanigans. 

I just. I’ve been thinking about an ending like this for a long time, and while my theories have CHANGED in the details, as they should while the narrative is ongoing, in essence the themes and symbolism and structure has remained the same. I actually thought we’d see something like this at the end of last season, but it’s clear now that 6 and 7 are one story, not two. And there is still movement towards my original theory, although not in the way I thought. I am instead getting new details (like the earth lodges in the background of that shot, and eligius posts about how time is a circle) that help me refine the speculation, but don’t actually make me think I’m wrong.  

[dessiekarma]

My Harem is Entirely Bad Boy Types (Kirisaki Daiichi x Reader) Pt. 1

Chapter 1: I’m Finally an Anime Protagonist!

“Please (Y/N)! I promise I’ll pick him up from your house after practice and keep him for tonight…for the whole weekend!” Hara said, practically on his knees.

 (Y/N) turned her head away stubbornly and held the bundle in her arms tighter. She made no move to get up from the bleachers.

 “You said that last time and never showed! He’s our responsibility and you need to do your share of the work!”

 “I will I promise, just not right now!”

 “Hanamiya is going to be here any minute. If you don’t get her out of here he’s going to be upset. You know he’s been a bitch ever since we lost to Seirin.” Furuhashi said glancing at the time on his phone.

 “He’s always been a bitch! And he’s gonna take it out on me.” Turning to (Y/N) the young man pressed his hands together pleadingly. “Look you can bring him to my house and I’ll take him or better yet wait for me outside and just pass him off to me when I’m out of practice. From there I’ll deal with him.”

 “DEAL with? You mean take care of! And why, so you can sneak out a different way and leave me waiting with a baby outside the gym? I don’t think so!”

 “If I let you stay my captain is gonna be so pissed off and I am not running suicides because of you!”

 “Your captain can kiss my ass!”

 “Ahh you can’t say things like that! Look you’re a new transfer so I get it, you don’t know Hanamiya but I’m warning you you’re gonna leave here in tears.”

 “And you are too if you don’t help me with this kid!”

 “Oh my god stop yelling.” Seto drawled sitting up from one of the back bleachers. “Why don’t you just take the damn thing and go home for today? Then you don’t have to worry about the captain meeting your girlfriend.”

 “She’s not my girlfriend! Besides he’ll be pissed if I bail on practice!”

 “But is that worse than the possibility of your girlfriend telling him to fuck off?”

 “I think Seto has a point.” Yamazaki said bouncing the ball against the gym wall. “Tell Caps you got sick or something.”

 “I guess. Will that satisfy you? I have to miss my practice to help.” Hara asked frowning at the girl who only huffed in annoyance.

 “Oh you have such a sad story to tell. I’m sacrificing too here! Do you know how much he cries!? I’ve missed countless episodes of new anime!”

 “You’re comparing sports to anime? I have to practice to get better, you can just watch the same episode the next day!”

 “Ummm and risk spoilers?”

 “You’re such a spoiled brat! I don-”

 “Why haven’t you guys started?” A deep voice rang through the gym. Everyone turned their heads to see their captain stroll in tossing his bag onto the floor.

 It wasn’t long until olive eyes spotted the unfamiliar face in the room. (E/C) eyes met his unblinking and a small stare off began. Hanamiya rose a brow at this poor lost soul that wondered into his gym.

 “Who the hell are you?”

 “You look…” (Y/N) began, still staring.

 “Please don’t.” Hara whispered knowing this wasn’t going to end well.

 The black-haired male had to stifle a blush from how intently the girl was staring at him. Thankfully a scowl covered that just fine.

 “Here, hold my baby.” The young woman said shoving the blanket at Yamazaki. Reaching out her phone she quickly typed something in before holding up an image of some anime character,

 “You look just like Kiyoshi Fujino from Prison School! Only meaner! Seriously you have the lock of hair between your eyes and everything!” The girl finally blurted out with an overly enthusiastic smile.

 Hanamiya didn’t know what to say. Something was clearly wrong with her, to talk to him so comfortably. With a click of the tongue he marched up to her, placed his hand on her head and turned her back towards his team.

 “Okay who’s is this and what the hell is it doing in my gym?” Hanamiya said with his finger poking directly into her cheek.

 Everyone stayed quiet, though Yamazaki attempted to pass what he was holding to Seto who shoved it right back. A small game of hot potato quickly ensued before piercing cries filled the gym. If the fires of hell weren’t in Hanamiya’s eyes before they were sure burning now.

 “Whose baby is that? What the hell is going on in here? I was only five minutes late!”

 Somehow the screaming baby ended up in Hara’s hands as he tried to rock it back and forth to stop the crying.

 “If I don’t get an answer everyone is doing suicides until midnight.”

 And just like that everyone, including the unknown girl, broke out in explanation at once. Some were making hand gestures while others added sound effects and mimics to drive their points home. However not a single point was reaching Hanamiya’s ears in the jumble of voices.

 “Oh my god its like having a gym full of children. One at a TIME!” This silenced everyone.

 Furuhashi being the most level headed and with the calmest voice decided it be best if he explained lest the whole team suffer. He cleared his throat before beginning.

 “The baby is Hara’s and that girl’s. He brought her here and the rest of us have nothing to do with it.”

 “What!” Hara shouted only causing the baby to scream again at the loud sound.

 The captain tried taking that information in and it was surprisingly more difficult than he imagined. Looking down at the girl whose head was still in the palm of his hand he looked back at Hara and then back again. Sizing her up he directed his next words to her.

 “You let HIM do you? Pfft have some self-respect.”

 “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Hara exclaimed not expecting this interaction to go down this way.

 “Ahh no! It’s not like that.” (Y/N) began explaining, however Hanamiya already released her and was walking over to Hara.

 Hooking a finger into the fold of the blanket he pulled it down so he could see the baby’s face. The moment it was revealed he didn’t know whether to laugh or just be more confused.

 “What the hell? This is a doll!” Hanamiya said with an amused tone. “I knew you couldn’t pull her.” With that he flicked the doll on the cheek only for it to begin screeching again.

 “Hey! This thing records mishandling actions!”

 “Don’t call him a thing!”

 “Okay enough with the misleading conversations, Hara what the hell is happening?”

 “Well (Y/N) is in my health committee and we got paired up. The supervising teacher saw it in some American movie and now we’re stuck with this dumb assignment for the semester. It tracks everything and needs to be fed, burped, changed its honestly like a real baby and its ruining my life!”

 “Ruining your life? Why don’t you tell your captain why I’m here?!”

 “She says I n-”

 “I’ll tell you why I’m here! We’ve had this baby for an entire week and he hasn’t been helping me at all!”

 “That’s not true!”

 “Yes, it is! The only time you lift a finger is when the teacher is around! But other than that you leave him with me the rest of the day and night. You never ask if we can watch him together or if I need a break and offer to take him. No, you just assume that I’ll pull your weight with this project.”

 “Well you are a girl. Isn’t this more natural for you? I mean that’s like your Main purpose in life.”

 “You sexist piece of shit!”

 “Listen! As much as I don’t care, why the hell do you think sticking around here is going to help him take responsibility.” Hanamiya asked looking a little creeped out at the life like doll.

 “Because I know you can’t change some people through kindness…but you can make their lives the eighth circle of hell until you get what you want.” (Y/N) replied with a pout directed at the clearly unhappy Hara.

 Hanamiya was dead silent before nodding.

 “Alright she can stay.”

 “Excuse me!?”

 “Come on Hara how can you possibly abandon the mother of your child?” Hanamiya said snatching the baby away from him and cradling it. “Have some sympathy for a single mother!”

 “We literally break people’s legs!”

 “But not young girls’ hearts!” Hanamiya mocked, sticking his tongue out at the male.

 “Whatever happened to ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’?”

 “Well I would never leave a girl alone to care for my baby. My mama didn’t raise a deadbeat. A fucking psycho asshole, maybe, but no deadbeat.”

 “This is bullshit! You just want to watch me suffer!”

 “Yes! And as much as I want to torture Hara I don’t want this to backfire on myself. So keep that thing from crying, don’t be loud yourself, I don’t babysit, and lastly…”

 Hanamiya looked back at the bleachers to see (Y/N)’s bag sitting there. Anime keychains dangled from every zipper along with patches of favourite characters sewn into the fabric. “You’re an otaku?”

 (Y/N) nodded.

 “Don’t ship any of us or your ass is out of here. Understood?”

 “Perfectly!”

 Hanamiya handed the baby to her before holding his hands out for Yamazaki to throw him the ball. Catching it quickly he motioned for his team to get on the court. Dribbling the ball slowly he turned to (Y/N) once more.

 “By the way did you give it a name?” The male said nodding to the baby.

 “Makoto. But I just call him Mako.”

 “Swimming anime, right?”

 “Why do you know that?” Yamazaki called out but was ignored by his captain.

 “I didn’t name him, Hara did.”

 “Oh…really?”

 “Yeah I said I wanted to give him a cute name and he chose that.”

 “uhhh…”

 “Is something wrong?”

 “That’s…uh… my name.”

 The team heard the exchange and were stifling laughter while Hara looked like he literally wanted to dissolve into the floor.

 “…We aren’t off to a great start with that no shipping rule.”

~~~~~~~

 “How come he never cries with you?!” Hara whisper yelled at his napping teammate. Seto patted the mechanical child laying on his chest and shrugged.

 “Its always asleep when I have it. If you want it to cry I can try to make a basket with him?”

 “Yes!” Yamazaki said perking up from his spot on the bleachers.

 “NO! That witch will string me up to the basketball net if you tried.” Hara mumbled.

 “Witch? You should be lucky you got someone tolerant enough to put up with your shit!” (Y/N) says sneaking up behind Hara and poking her fingers into his sides. “I should have gotten a hot and sweet guy to be partnered with, but I’m stuck with you.”

 The boy jumped but regained himself fast enough to deliver a smack to the girl’s forehead.

 “I’ll have you know girls think I’m extremely handsome.”

 “Your mama doesn’t count.” Hanamiya said while tying his shoes.

 “No but yours does.” Hara quipped not missing the finger Hanamiya threw him. Turning back to (Y/N) he saw her giggling before a thought seemed to pop in her head.

 “You know, I joke but I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen your entire face. What do you guys think?”

 The other five players looked at each other in bewilderment.

 “I can’t say I’ve seen more than this. Any of you?” Furuhashi asked to which he was met with silence.

 “Hey pin your bangs back.” Hanamiya said sitting up straighter and leaning closer.

 “No way! Let’s just drop it.”

 “It’s just your eyes, what are you hiding?” Furuhashi asked curiously.

 “Do you have a lazy eye?” Seto asked seriously.

 “No!”

 “Heterochromia?” Furuhashi asked after thinking for a bit.

 “Come on guys…”

 “Leave him alone, maybe he has super thick eyebrows or something.” Yamazaki said cooly as if he didn’t care about the matter at all.

 “What’s wrong with thick eyebrows?” Hanamiya glared back slowly.

 “Nothing!”

 “NO its nothing like that.”

 “So what’s the reason? Are you a cyclops?” Hanamiya asked taking the baby from Seto out of boredom and bouncing it in his lap.

 “Leave me alooone!”

 “Oof, do you have scars?” (Y/N) asked with an otaku twinkle in her eyes and a sultry dip in her voice.

 “What the fuck? Are you into that? Anyway who cares?” Hara mumbled with his arms crossed.

 “Please! We have a child together and I’ve never even seen your face.” (Y/N) said tugging on his arm.

 “Fine, I’ll show you my eyes and you show me your tits. We do have a child together after all.” Hara said with a nasty smirk on his face that faltered when he saw the girl place a hand to her lips in contemplation.

 “Is she seriously thinking about it!?” Yamazaki exclaimed on behalf of the whole team.

 “I wanna see too.” Furuhashi remarked taking a step closer.

 “His eyes or her chest?” Seto asked suddenly a little more awake.

 “Yes.”

 “Nah I’ll save the flashing for a bigger, better exchange.” (Y/N) said shrugging and taking a seat.

 “So that possibility is still on the table?” Hanamiya asked half joking and half legitimately curious.

 “Surprisingly you managed to bring a girl of interest into this gym, unlike the last one Yamazaki brought in.” Furuhashi remarked to Hara.

 “Hey, I never asked her to come to my practices.” The accused male spoke out with a pout.

 As if suddenly remembering something Hara perks up and turns to the girl.

 “By the way I’ve been meaning to ask why do you keep coming to all of our practices? I thought the whole point was you wanting a break? You’ve been here every day this we-”

 “Did you read that Attack on Titan chapter?” Hanamiya asked suddenly sitting one row above the pair.

 “Of course!” (Y/N) said suddenly putting all her attention on him. It would seem that the two had managed to find a common interest. Hanamiya wasn’t a superfan like her but he appreciated the story.

 “That was a pretty brutal way to go. I thi-”

 “Ahh spoilers!” Yamazaki said clasping his hands over his ears.

 “Read the manga!” Both Hanamiya and (Y/N) shouted out exasperatedly.

 “Oh by the way I brought more sports drinks for you guys.” (Y/N) said digging through her bag producing small bottles along with some snacks. “Furu you said you preferred pears to protein bars right? Seto, I found these coffee flavored protein bars. Hanamiya you didn’t tell me what you like, so choose anything! A pack of gum for Hara and Zaki you’re usually hungry so I brought you a few snacks to choose from.”

 “Ahh you’re the best! I knew Hanamiya made a good choice asking you to stick around.” Yamazaki said reaching for a drink only to stop and cringe at his rambling.

 “You asked (Y/N) to stay?” Hara asked with surprise. “I didn’t think you’d ever actually go and recruit us a manager.”

 “He didn’t ask me to be your manager. More like told me that for being a nuisance the least I could do was help out a bit. I just bring you guys food and run a few errands.”

 “Yeah I mean if she’s already here cause of Mako why not make her more useful?” The captain said with a shrug.

 “It would give me something to do while I’m here an-” (Y/N) stopped as her phone chirped in her pocket. She quickly pulled it out and held a finger up as if to say give her a moment. “Hey lov- Oh I’m just here at practice…umm sure.”

 Placing a hand over the receiver she whispered to the team.

 “I’ll be right back.”

 The guys watched her walk out hearing her conversation fade away.

 “Hey, what can you tell me about (Y/N)?” Yamazaki asked quickly as if it was on the tip of his tongue for a while.

 “What do you mean?” Hara asked skeptically.

 “I mean you don’t mind if I go for her? This whole baby momma thing is just an assignment, right?”

 “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Furuhashi spoke up.

 “What? Why not?”

 “If she’s going to be around for a while dating her may make things awkward.”

 “How!?”

 “Well one nobody wants to see you two making out in here.” Seto stated lazily.

 “And if it doesn’t work out it will cause a bunch of tension. Don’t you think so Hanamiya?” Furuhashi said looking to his captain for approval.

 Hanamiya lifted his hands in a questioning manner.

 “I don’t really care who you do or date. If things get awkward you can both jus-”

 “Umm hey Hara I’ll take Mako back home with me, something came up.” (Y/N) said having jogged back into the gym. Her face appeared a bit flushed as she held her arms out for the baby.

 “You aren’t staying today?” Yamazaki asked placing a hand on her shoulder.

 “No I really need to go.”

 “Well is it an emergency? I don’t like people skipping out on practice.” Hanamiya said shooting her a challenging look. Surprisingly she simply shook her head.

 “I’m sorry but missing one day won’t hurt, right?”

 “Hey, if its an emergency I can call my driver to take you home.” Seto offered.

 “No, I already called my own and he’s coming to get me. Thanks guys!” (Y/N) finally gathered all of her things along with Mako and headed for the exit.

 “Practice starts at the same time tomorrow!” Hanamiya called out to her only her to continue walking as if she hadn’t heard him.

 “What was up with that?” Yamazaki asked with concern laced in his voice.

 “Time of the month maybe?” Hara asked with a shrug.

 “Are you sure it wasn’t serious she left right after that phone call.” Yamazaki pressed on.

 “It’s probably nothing let’s practice.” Hara said standing up and taking a ball out onto the court.

 When nobody moved for a second Hara sighed in frustration.

 “If it was anything serious she wouldn’t have come back in to get Mako. There was probably some anime update or a sale on merch a friend told her about. She’ll be back tomorrow I guarantee you.”

~~~~~

 “It’s been a week and a half. ‘She’ll be back tomorrow.’” Yamazaki mocked Hara as he chased a cherry tomato out of his salad.

 “You’re just mad because you couldn’t ask her out before she ran off.” Hara said rolling his eyes though no one could tell.

 “Wait is that why she left!? Do you think she heard me talking about her and it scared her off?!”

 “I don’t think that’s the case. She’s been ignoring me in class too if it makes you feel any better.” The violet haired teen said sipping from a soda can.

 “That’s actually worse.” Hanamiya spoke absentmindedly drumming his fingers on the table.

 “Who cares? If she doesn’t want to come around then what’s the big deal? She’s making it easier on me to pass this dumbass class project and she didn’t do much for the team. Or were you planning on asking her out too?” Hara directed the question at Hanamiya.

 “What?! No way I called dibs!” The tomato went shooting across the room.

 “’Dibs’. What are we 11 years old?” Furuhashi deadpanned.

 “No, I wasn’t going to ask her out. But when I invite someone into my gym I expect them to be there until I tell them they can leave. You have no clue what’s up with her?”

 “None, maybe she just doesn’t want to be around us. It wouldn’t be the first time and I give her props for lasting so long.”

 “Instead of speculating we can just ask.” Seto offered lifting his head up from the table.

 “I’ve tried she won’t talk to me in class unless its about Mako.”

 “Ask her now. She always hangs out in one of the choir practice rooms during lunch.”

 “How do you know?” Hanamiya lifted a brow at his teammate. Seto looked up at the ceiling for a bit as if mulling over an answer.

 “I don’t know she mentioned it once, I think. Look we can ask and if you don’t like what she has to say at least you have an answer.”

 “Fine lets go.”

 “So what? Five of us are just going to gang up on one girl?” Furuhashi asked wearily. “If she gets scared this could blow up in our faces.”

 “We’re just talking. What’s she going to do call the police?”

 “I’m just saying coming on too strong is going to freak her out.”

 “Well then I’ll talk to her and you guys can hang out in the hall until I clear you!” Yamazaki suggested.

 “That’s actually not a stupid idea but we’re sending Hara.” Hanamiya said thinking it over quickly.

 “Why?!” Both boys exclaimed.

 “(Y/N)’s known Hara longer she’s probably most comfortable around him. Besides he’s the only one of us who would have a reason outside of basketball to talk to her.”

 “No! I’m not begging her to come back!” Hara mumbled.

 “You’re not begging just questioning.” Furuhashi said packing up his lunch box. “If we’re going to catch her we need to leave now.”

 Hara groaned but reluctantly followed his teammates across the campus.

 “So what does she do in the practice room?” Yamazaki asked Seto trying to acquire as much info on her as he could. The tan male pulled his backpack higher up on his back and shrugged uncomfortably.

 “She just screws around on the piano and sings. She’s pretty good.”

 “You’ve heard her sing!? How?! We’ve only known her for a few weeks!” The questioning male pouted slightly.

 “Yeah she gets to basketball practice pretty early and she’s always singing anime openings. I think she figures I’m sleeping or something.”

 “Well now I have to hear her too!”

 “You might get your chance.” Hanamiya mumbled motioning his head to the slightly ajar practice room.

 All five males crowded the door way and peered inside. (Y/N) was sitting in front of the piano with a large pair of earphones on. She appeared to be bopping her head to the music and fiddled around with the piano trying to get a tune just right

 “Okay so do I just wait for her to come out or go in and say I need to talk t-”

 Suddenly the girl found the right keys and caught the boys’ attention as she played a repetitive little tune.

 “That sounds kind of familiar?” Hanamiya questioned racking his brain for where he’d heard the tune. Hara scoffed and crossed his arms.

 “Knowing her otaku ass, it’s probably some anime ope-”

 “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.

There’s vomit on sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.”

 The guys had no reaction to their newly acquired half teammate suddenly busting out into a full-blown rap song.

 “You better lose yourself in the music, the moment.

You own it, you better never let it go.

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow.

This opportunity comes once in a lifetime!”

 “She’s good and at the same time I feel like this is really wrong.” Yamazaki said with his jaw still slack.

 “Thank you. And it probably feels wrong because you’re spying on me.” The girl at the piano suddenly said as she completed her verse.

 Taking off her earphones she turned to the door with a clear look of frustration. It was only then that Hanamiya felt truly stupid when he realized her earphones hadn’t been plugged into anything.

 “I told the guys you were a pretty good singer, I didn’t realize you were a decent rapper too.” Seto tried to compliment the girl hoping to smooth things over.

 He saw her cheeks flush a deep red but her angry face didn’t soften one bit. Looking away she attempted to move around the group of boys.

 “Thanks. My next class starts in like ten minutes I need to go.”

 “No you don’t.” Hanamiya said grabbing her arm and yanking her back. “We didn’t come all the way down here for you to not talk to us.”

 “What’s there to talk about?”

 “You stopped coming to practice.”

 “I decided it was too hard to take Mako back and forth so it’s easier if I just keep him.”

 “See I told you!” Hara said throwing his hands up in the air. “She doesn’t want to be here so let’s ju-”

 “Now why do I think that’s the most bullshit excuse I’ve ever heard? Oh right because not too long ago I find you in my gym being a fucking crybaby about pulling Hara’s weight, now suddenly you’re saying its easier to do the exact opposite?” The dark-haired male hovered over (Y/N) threateningly.

 “So what if I’m lying or not? I don’t want to go.”

 “Also bullshit because you told me that you loved coming to practice. And see the thing is Kirisaki Daiichi basketball has one big rule; once you’re in you’re not out until you graduate or get kicked out.”

 “Look guys its nothing personal I just can’t be around you.”

 “No come on! Don’t pay attention to the scare tactics just be honest.” Yamazaki said stepping forward. “Are you scared? Is it eating too much time?”

 (Y/N)’s eyes finally softened before she let out a disheartening sigh.

 “It’s my boyfriend.”

 “You have a boyfriend?” Yamazaki asked shocked and slightly disappointed.

 “He says he’s just not comfortable with me being around the team so much.”

 “So what you just do whatever he says?” Seto asked bewildered, (Y/N) didn’t seem like the type

to let someone walk all over her.

 “No but we’ve been together for a long time and he sort of gave me an ultimatum either I stop

hanging around you guys or he would break up with me. And I know how stupid and controlling

that sounds but he honestly just cares.”

 “Well what class does he have right now we can go talk him into letting you do what the hell

you want.” Furuhashi said in a clipped voice.

 “He goes to my old school, Tōō. You might know him, he’s on the basketball team.”

 Hanamiya was sure he misheard. A basketball player from Tōō who didn’t want (Y/N) around

him. The whole ‘I’ll break up with you’ mind game made perfect sense now.

 “I guess that’s it then we might as well leave.” Hanamiya said with a shrug and began walking

away.

 “What? You dragged my ass clear across the school and we’re just leaving?” Hara said looking

100% done with the entire situation.

 “You heard what she had to say. I don’t want someone’s doormat associated with the team.”

 “I’m nobody’s doormat.”

 “Your boyfriend told you who you could and couldn’t hang around with and you jumped at the

snap of his fingers. Don’t kid yourself.”

 “This is one thing. He’s never asked for something like this before. He’s a level-headed calm

cool guy. Sure maybe this is some dark jealous side to him but I can respect him enough to hear

him out.”

 “Well you heard him out and what did he say? That we’re dangerous? Have we hurt you in any

way?”

 “…No.”

 “Then use your own fuckin brain to think for yourself. He says we’re dangerous but you

know we aren’t. Doesn’t your experience mean more than his assumption?” Hanamiya smirked

at the girl knowing she would have nothing else to say.

 “If you like spending time with us just tell him that! You’re allowed to have guy friends and now

that we know you have a boyfriend, we won’t make any moves on you.” The orange haired

teammate said with a friendly smile.

 “I don’t know, Zaki.”

 “Come on, he isn’t actually going to break up with you. If anything, he’ll be glad you stood up

for yourself.” Hanamiya said urging her on.

 (Y/N) looked around at the guys questioningly before nodding. She had bailed on them without

notice and it hadn’t been sitting right in her stomach that her boyfriend asked her to not be

friends with the team. She’d heard horror stories and knew that their personalities were

difficult. But so was Aomine’s and her boyfriend seemed to tolerate him just fine.

 “You’re all right. I’m going to call him right now and tell him that I’m staying part of the

basketball team or hanging out, whatever the hell I was doing before. Excuse me for a moment.”

The girl said as she walked into a nearby room with her phone already dialed.

 Hanamiya let out a chuckle followed by a content hum before walking towards the exit.

 “You aren’t going to wait for her?” Hara asked skeptically.

 “No, why would I?” A familiar tone echoed from the captain’s mouth.

 “You’re not actually letting her back on the team, are you?” Furuhashi asked though his tone sounded as if he already knew the answer.

 “Seriously? All these mind games got me fucked up here. Do we want her back or not?” Hara asked smoothing his fringe down.

 “Of course not. Maybe before she pulled this weak ass shit on me, I would have considered keeping her around but now? She’s dead to me.”

 “Come on, dead to you? Seriously?” Seto asked with his hand up in a questioning manner. Leaning over to Hanamiya he whispered to him, “Didn’t you want to ask her to be our manager or something? We actually really need one of those.”

 “Yeah and? We’ll find another, dumb girls like her are a dime a dozen at this school.”

 “You’re not really going to do that to her, are you?” Yamazaki asked with wide eyes.

 “Why not? She’s flaked on us once. Turn your back on me and I turn my back on you. She will end up leaving again when her stupid boyfriend asks, so why give her that chance?”

 “So, now I have no boyfriend and no team.” A cracked voice came from behind the group of boys. The tears running down her face had clearly already been there prior but there was no doubt that they were building more so now. “You’re right though. Sorry for wasting you guys’ time.”

 (Y/N) wiped her eyes, walked up to a locker to retrieve her bag before powerwalking out the music building.

 “I kinda feel like an asshole.” Seto said watching as the girl disappeared before something in the practice room caught his attention.

 “Yeah that’s probably not a new feeling.” Hara said not sure what else to do in this situation.

 “Wow this was a MAJOR dick move.” Yamazaki cringed to himself.

 “I didn’t think Imayoshi would actually break up with her.” Furuhashi said a little stunned as well.

 Hanamiya had an unreadable expression on his face. Almost as if he’d expected everything yet was still thrown off. The team saw him close his eyes and run a hand through his hair.

 “Shiiiit.”

 “To make matters worse, she left Mako in the practice room. I should probably go give him ba-”

 Before Seto could finish or Hara could take the baby, Hanamiya scooped him up and started sprinting outside.

 “Do you think he’s going to apologize?” Seto asked uncertainly.

 “I doubt it but I won’t risk missing it on the off chance he does.” Furuhashi said taking off just as quickly.

 The rest of the team followed.

 Outside Hanamiya saw the wind blowing through the many cherry blossom trees this bougie ass school had planted all over the ground. Pink petals drifted down slowly but through it he could see (Y/N) sitting on a bench not too far away.

 As he drew closer he slowed his steps. (Y/N) seemed to notice him but had no reaction.

 “You forgot Mako.” Hanamiya said handing him to her, which she willingly took.

 “Thanks.”

 The wind was the only sound between the pair for a few tense seconds.

 “I didn’t think your boyfriend was going to break up with you. I didn’t think you’d let him, I assumed you were just gonna do whatever he asked.”

 “The funny thing is that neither did I. We’d only been dating a little while, but I thought we were perfect for each other. I didn’t think something like this would be what ended it. I mean I never get jealous. You should see the girl on Tōō’s team. She’s smart, gorgeous, killer figure and friendly but I never said a single thing because I trust him but I guess he doesn’t trust me. I mean it’s not like I’m on a team with Kise Ryouta.”

 “You’re saying none of us are as good looking as Kise?” Hanamiya asked with a straight face which caused (Y/N) to actually crack a smile.

 “You know what I mean. I thought he was my forever. It just wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

 “Yeah well it is this way so suck it up and move on. I wanted you as manager because I you seemed stronger than this.”

 “But you said-”

 “I was obviously joking. I thought you had a pretty thick skin when I first met you, don’t tell me you’re secretly a wuss.”

 “I’m not. It’s just, I guess after what happened with-”

 “Get up and get over it. I’m sure you’ll get over your shitty highschool boyfriend.”

 (Y/N) was standing in front of Hanamiya finally looking at him with dry eyes.

 “I won’t baby you and neither will anyone else. You need to be as strong as any of the guys. I won’t have people talking shit about anyone on my team.”

 “On the team? Really?”

 “Don’t get sentimental on me either. We need a manager. You’ve dealt with all the shitty paperwork for the school and logging practice hours with the least annoying side effects. Plus, we just unintentionally talked you into ending a long-term relationship, you can’t find that kind of gullible-”

 “I’m not gullible!”

 “Okay whatever. Point is you’re easy.” Seeing a heated look rise in her face Hanamiya backtracked just a bit. “Not what I meant. Look you’re an easy person to be around, we don’t find many people that are compatible with us on your level. But if you become inconvenient or start stressing me out there’s no reason to keep you around got it?”

 “You’re an ass but yeah I do.”

 “I know and good.”

 (Y/N) smiled at her new captain and he stared down at her with his usual hard cold eyes. The corner of his mouth twitched softly before a gentle breeze blew several pink petals into his face.

 “What fresh hell is this?” Hanamiya grumbled spitting away the petal stuck to his lip.

 “Achoo! I really need to get inside. Achoo! I have the- Achoo!- worst allergies to pollen and Achoo! You know what let’s just go!” The young woman managed to get out between her sneezing fit.

 Hanamiya was busy swiping the pink layers of Satan out of his face and picking them from his hair that he didn’t realize his team was standing not too far from them.

 Once all of them were back inside the four teammates couldn’t help but stifle laughs at their captain and new manager.

 Somehow the petals got all over Hanamiya and (Y/N)’s nose and eyes had gone bright red.

 “I can’t believe you’re our new manager!” Yamazaki said excitedly to (Y/N) who finally stopped her sneezing fit.

 “I know I’m really excited.”

 “I’m sure you are. Being the only girl it’s gonna be like having your own reverse harem.” The orange haired male said with a large grin.

 “This would be the worst harem ever. You guys are all the same archetype.” (Y/N) said with a small laugh.

 “What does that mean?” Hara asked, still not as knowledgeable about anime.

 “You guys are all the bad boy type. Then again a harem with all bad boys could be fun.”

 “What’s she talking about?” Furuhashi whispered to Hara.

 “I have no clue.” He whispered back with a shrug.

 “I guess this makes me an anime protagonist!” (Y/N) said smiling.

[guccifloralsuits]

hi we were talking about books yesterday and i was wondering if you have any good fiction recommendations? 😇😇😇

Yes, I have so many! I broke them down into relative categories, so there’s a little mix of everything. Please read the actual synopsis before diving in though, as some have major trigger warnings.

Books considered “classics”

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: a book which I come back to in hard times of my life. There’s something so…necessary about this story. Prose style was great. I would rec this book to every person I know.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf: I read this when my life seemed to be changing faster than I could keep up. Beautifully written. Came at a time when I needed it.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys: written as a prequel to Jane Eyre and a modernist masterpiece honestly. THE original meditation on the ideal of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl

The Color Purple by Alice Walker: you’ve probably heard this name from the adaptation. Let me tell you. This book deserves all of its acclaim. I think I’m gonna re-read soon.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin: this is super mainstream for The Literary Circles but it’s for good reason, this book is just? Fun? An honestly enjoyable read? plus when I was taking my SATs way back when they had an essay section, I could use this book for literally any prompt they gave

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: this book is wild. Everyone is a messy bitch who lives for drama & I love it. I just finished it and omg

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: my emo teen- girl rebelling ass ate this shit up back in high school. Is this book overrated? I don’t care. I love it for nostalgic value anyways

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood: startling beautiful lines. I have almost half this book underlined. A popular read in recent times, with good reason.

A picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I fundamentally disagree with everything written in this book. That is exactly the point. About being gay & sinning. I would not recommend this as a ‘light’ read though. Easy to get swept up in Wilde’s sharp wit & not catch the intentional malice behind what he says, underneath.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I just. Love this. That’s all I have to say. Yeah.gif

All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren: The nihilism of Oscar Wilde but set to a political backdrop in the 30’s with stylistic prose akin what you’d read from Hemingway. Probably not for everyone’s taste. But right up my alley in terms of political intrigue. If ur a stuffy English Major with who likes books about corruption, you’ll like this.

Popularized books that are worth the hype they had:

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls: there’s something so…engaging about the way this is written. It’s pretty much about kids who have to act like adults for their shitty parents. I couldn’t put this down though.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn: as with all her novels, this gets dark. This gets ugly. An absolute thriller, & I can’t recommend her books enough. (You might know her from Gone Girl & Sharp Objects. This story follows similar tone). Honestly I rec anything by Flynn.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman: you’ve probably heard of or seen this movie. Well guess what? the book is even better.

YOU by Caroline Kepnes: aka the adapted Netflix series where dan from gossip girl plays plays joe, who is basically Dan but Unhinged. But like, the books are great. “Hidden Bodies” which is the sequel to this is even better, in my opinion. Just plz don’t romance Joe cus you saw penn badgley in a Netflix poster & were thirsty 4 him

Lesser Known/underrated books which could use your love:

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley: A reimagining of King Lear, set on an Iowa farm in the late 1970s. Powerful and disturbing

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers: specifically for classical music lovers. Basically a long meditation on supernal mysteries of music, specifically Bach’s intricate Goldberg Variations (you’ll wanna have the Glenn Gould recording to hand), & those of the DNA molecule (especially as a code to be broken) It gradually dawns on you that the two couples listening to the music and studying the molecule are themselves engaged in something strangely molecular and musical. You won’t always understand this book, but it keeps taking your breath away.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn: did I buy this book solely because of this tumblr post? Yeah. But it was easily one of the best decisions I’ve made. The way he manipulates letter-language is wild. Woah. Highly recommended.

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window & Disappeared by Jonas Johnson: a 100 year old dude escapes his nursery home a steals a suitcase full of drug money then goes on a giant crime spree. HIGHLY entertaining. We stan a King

The Sellout by Paul Beatty: probably the greatest satirical comedy written within the last 50 years. I said what I said.

Children’s/teen/YA books you should absolutely read

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster: wonderfully creative, beautifully told. Takes abstract constructs and turns them into concrete beings and landscapes in amazing, engaging ways. Please read this. One of my all-time favorite books. Takes the protagonist, Milo, on a fantastical adventure borne through boredom on what he though would be another average day. Seriously. I love this book. So much.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman: another beautifully creative foray into a parallel universe where something Not Quite Right lurks beneath a pretty surface. If you’ve seen the movie adaption - great. Still read the book. It’s absolutely worth it.

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech: technically free verse poetry from the perspective of a young boy dealing with the loss of his pet dog who has to write poetry for a class assignment from his teacher. This is…so good. Oh my god. Oh my god? Poetry for non-poetry people.

The Giver by Louis Lowery: Listen. I know you were forced 2 read this in primary English. I know you probably hated it on principle. But this shit was all that kept me going, when I was younger. It made me feel so understood, before I could define trauma or the meaning of depression. This book made me feel seen.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: ya know what? Fuck 2013 tumblr for dumbing this book down into a basic ass Grunge Anthem. I have never seen a book so adequately grapple with how awful romanticizing trauma can be. This book goes into the horrible side of adolescence in a way that’s genuine, and in a way which doesn’t put trauma/mental illness on a pedestal. I needed that shit, when I read it. I still love this book today. The lines will stay with you forever, after you read some of them.

All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven: this was another one of those books that I read in an essential time, which lodged into me afterwards. About two teenagers who meet while standing on the bell tower of their school, both contemplating suicide. Highly recommend. Prepare to cry.

You didn’t ask for Poetry but I’m including some because I am poetry TRASH:

Rice by Nikky Finney

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

One Big Self by C.D. Wright

LOOK by Solmaz Sharif

Poetry for people who think poetry is inaccessible to them:

New American Best Friend by Olivia Gatwood

Our Numbered Days by Neil Hillborn

Depression & Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim

There are literally SO SO SO many books I could also add, but these are the ones that came to mind. Bolded ones are those I especially love. Happy reading!

[morethanaprincess-a]

@trinitytalents​ said:  👫

Send ‘👫’ for the mun to introduce you to a npc in my muses life.

At least the day had started well for Valentina, Queen of Novoselic (nee Borghese, daughter of the Duke of Orelli). As soon as the clock struck five, Gabriel had slipped from between her bedsheets and tiptoed to the door after kissing her forehead. As usual, she'd lazily tried to grasp his hand or shoulders, sleepily uttering that she commanded him to return to bed. And as usual, he'd whispered something terribly naughty he'd do to her later if he wasn't otherwise occupied as the Head of Novoselic Castle security. As soon as she watched him retreat into one of the two hidden passages connected to her room, she'd rolled over only to awake at a far more appropriate hour of 10 AM.

At precisely 10:15, a maid entered with her breakfast tray, perfectly portioned servings of wheat toast with accompanying jam, a bowl of fruit, yogurt, and a vegetable drink, which Valentina pinched her nose before downing first. This had been followed by Daphne, her senior secretary (the other two had been consigned to email and letter duty until noon) and her tablet. While older and far too smiley for Valentina's liking, she could ignore the woman's graying copper hair in favor of her knowing when to be silent (during her Japanese dramas) and how to tell the difference between eggshell and cream when it came to table linens (Valentina had fired secretaries for less). But most importantly, she knew that when it came to their Head of Security, he was an off-limits topic in anything but the professional sense unless they were alone.

"Your Majesty will be pleased to hear that your fine arts charity for high school students in Novoselic has had a 25% increase in donations this year, with several patrons attributing your gifts and galas as the cause," Daphne beamed as she interrupted her reading of Queen Valentina's unusually light schedule. But in comparison to all of the appearances she'd put in lately with Alexandre busy in Council sessions, a moment to breathe was hardly slacking. "Naturally. Thank you, Daphne. That will be all until the afternoon." She'd replied loftily, but deep down she was near to exploding from joy, both from the news as well as the laptop that rested beside her on the bed. She had important personal business to see to that morning.

Important business that was now threatened by Emelia, the Queen Mother. Just as Daphne swept from the room with a bow of the head, she'd nearly bumped into Alexandre's mother and Novoselic's past Queen. Emelia was in her seventies, kept her hair far too long (and terribly raggedy in the morning), and now had a tendency to visit her daughter-in-law during breakfast ever since Sonia was sent off to Japan for school. When the Princess still lived at home, she commonly ate breakfast with the woman, if just to spare her mother from her grandmother (or the other way round). While she was intent to savor the peace of her toast and Christie's online auctions, the Queen Mother had her usual morning plan in mind.

"Yes, please set the tray there Henri," The septuagenarian insisted, gesturing to the low table she wanted the footman to set her own breakfast tray down on before, perhaps more insistently, pointing to the TV, "And move the TV closer so I can hear. Channel 5!"

"Emelia, I am otherwise occupied," Valentina shot her mother-in-law a stern look, setting down one of her toast points. For the past week she'd been in a bidding war during Christie's annual online handbag auction with, if the username was anything to go by, was that socialite bitch from Singapore made fabulously wealthy twice over due to her high-profile skincare line and equally high-profile divorce from an airline CEO. The Queen's last six trips to Hermes' Faubourg store hadn't resulted in the Himalayan crocodile Birkin she wanted, no matter how much both the manager and Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the brand's artistic director, phoned to apologize. So now she was stuck bidding at Christie's against her Singaporean rival, who somehow still looked twenty-five at fifty, married a man at least ten years her junior, and already had three Himalayan crocodile Birkins, two of which had diamond-encrusted palladium closures (Valentina may or may not have watched her closet walk-through several times and deemed real diamonds on handbags to be tacky and reeking of 'nouveau riche'). She wasn't about to let the woman who defied the test of time add a fourth to her closet when she'd yet to obtain her first. "Must you enjoy 'Wake Up with Wanda' in my presence?"

"One should never have breakfast alone if you want to maintain your health," The older woman nagged, settling into the sofa with her own breakfast tray of oatmeal and toast. "Besides, Wanda's interviewing that handsome Pokora fellow this morning and he'll sing after!" 'Wake Up with Wanda' was the new edition, if fifteen years of hosting could be called new, of the previous morning show 'Rise and Shine with Richard.' Both shows aired on Novoselic's secondary news channel, NTV2, and primarily focused on current events, culture, and gossip. Emelia had fallen in love with it the moment Richard, when he was still young and dashing, interviewed ABBA and had promptly taken the Queen of Novoselic's call when she'd telephoned to tell the quartet how much she adored their records. A private concert later and she became one of the show's most prominent patrons for the past 40 years. Emelia insisted it kept her up to date with 'the young people.'

"You only care for M. Pokora because he covered a song by Claude Francois," Valentina quipped, hastily punching in a new number onto the Christie's website. Take that, Singapore Bitch and monster-in-law.

"Who adapted the song from The Four Seasons," Emelia was elderly but not senile, and was determined not to be outdone. She gave her daughter-in-law a triumphant nod. "Could you pass the raspberry jam? Somehow the kitchens ran out this morning and poor Alexandre, he had to have his toast with only butter before meeting the Council."

Valentina scooted to the side of her bed to hand it gently to the woman, no matter how much she wanted to chuck it at her head. At least she hadn't mentioned ABBA, her true musical love. Valentina herself had enjoyed her playing 'Mamma Mia!' over and over until Sonia, as an infant, was given a paternity test. Now she suspected the woman played it in the Queen's presence just to remind her of the plot of the ABBA musical, where the protagonist's daughter could have been fathered by three different men. Before the test came back confirming Alexandre as Sonia's father, the musical's plot was perilously close to real life. Every situation Emelia could highlight Alex's misfortunes had been capitalized on ever since. "I shall speak to Daphne about ordering more after breakfast."

"Good!" She grinned, taking another bite of oatmeal as her gaze flickered back to the TV. "Novoselic Castle should always be kept up to standard, after all."

Valentina sighed, pushing down her desire to scowl and groan at the same time. The woman had never accepted her son and his wife were in a loveless marriage with no cure. At least, for now, she was 30,000 euros in the lead for her new Birkin-

READ THIS.

An email, sent to her personal account from Daphne, popped up as the auction entered its last three minutes. Finally letting out a groan, She opened her email to find only a URL in the body of the email, something that would take her to a Japanese site. "This better be important," She grumbled, clicking it.

It seemed to be a journal of some sort, written in Japanese with plenty of discussion about fashion and style for teenagers, popular culture, and so forth, with far too many 'kawaii' touches for her liking. Belonging to a dark-haired girl with a red bow, her content varied from her fashion to interviews, often featuring fellow teenagers likely close in age. Valentina felt her eyes glaze over until she tore her gaze from the sidebar to the first entry at the top of the page: Hope's Peak's Ultimate Princess, the Princess of Novoselic Answers YOUR Questions!

"Oh dear God," Valentina gasped, clutching the sides of her keyboard as she began to scroll. There was her daughter, bright and smiling in an outfit she'd never have let Cecily approve of for her as she chatted amiably on video with the dark-haired girl. The goal was to find the person behind the Princess and find out what being Royal was really like, according to the introduction. The Queen froze at the sorts of questions the girl's 'fans' apparently wanted to know: Did Sonia have a significant other? Did the Castle still have in-use torture chambers? How big was her closet? Nothing about her various charity work in Japan, professional appearances, or even the positive highlights of their country's history. Just glamour and gore. Exactly the sort of interview she'd been trying to fend off from Novoselic Daily News, who'd been promised Sonia's next interview once she'd finished with UK Tatler and Japan's NHK.

And if Daphne's capital letters were any indication, it was likely NDN's CEO had already gotten whiff of Princess Sonia's unauthorized interview to a complete amateur.

"What in the HELL is she thinking!?" Valentina cried, all but forgetting her precious Hermes and Emelia, reaching for her phone to fire off a phone call which, unsurprisingly, went unanswered. She had no choice: she'd have to corner her daughter by text.

I know you are ignoring me, Sonia. You will call me as soon as you receive this message unless you prefer to be put on your plane in the next hour and flown straight home.