#but natalie is ace too okay

[t4tozier]

hello. starbreaker ask moment!! first of all, wanted to say that your playlists are absolutely excellent; have been going through them, and Good Looking and Coming Down being on jace's playlist both hit me like a ton of bricks. (the latter, I've always loved and WHOA is it applicable; the former is new to me, and WHOA is it also applicable.) second of all, your takes on what classes the two of them would be if they couldn't, for whatever reason, be their canon ones? (sorcerer and barbarian/paladin, respectively.) typed all that out and went "wait, am I also asking for class swap AU here? whoa" so that's a subset question if you're interested in that too!

yay i'm so glad you enjoy the playlists i have been listening to the starbreaker and porter ones nonstop. i'm ngl i haven't even listened to jace's all the way through yet because his songs are like slow and sad for the most part and i just haven't been in that mood. i actually moved a lot of songs from shattered over to smoke and iron because i needed to make a jace playlist and i thought it was fun to have shattered reflect more of the hatefuck dynamic and jace's playlist to be the obsessive religious devotion songs. i cannot take the credit for coming down that was all my darling natalie beeprich but i do think good looking is so jace. i can't remember when/where i found that one tbh i remember hearing the song before but it may have come up on the suggested for shattered which is how i come up with a lot of my playlists.

okay now to the actual question lol!! this is sooo fascinating i really have to think about it. this is going under a cut bc it’s already too long

i can't see jace as anything other than a caster but i think he has the stats for bard, specifically eloquence bard.

silver tongue means he can practically never fail a deception or persuasion check

unfailing and infectious inspiration aren't as useful to a solo adventurer, but i can see a young fresh jace excited to join a party and then be left with all of these useful abilities that he rarely gets the opportunity to use. it does end up coming in handy later on when he starts working with porter and the rat grinders (plus, with the way his mirror image works, i could see him being able to grant them bardics as well)

porter was harder for me to figure out because it felt like a cop out to make him a fighter. but i think an interesting flip would be to see him as a full paladin instead. in my personal canon, i think he took the oath of devotion before switching to main-classing barbarian, but here, i'm thinking about oath of conquest paladin porter.

this part from dnd beyond specifically sticks out to me in relation to porter, especially with the "survival of the fittest" nature of his goliath background:

Strength Above All. You shall rule until a stronger one arises. Then you must grow mightier and meet the challenge, or fall to your own ruin.

he gets some great spells to intimidate and dominate, and at higher levels he has the ability to physically punish those who hurt him without even taking an action to do it. he also would get resistance to all damage at 20th level and would crit on a 19 or 20.

now in terms of class swaps:

i also felt it was a cop out to make jace a wild magic barbarian, so instead, we're going with the path of the zealot. this ties in well with the deification of porter, and i also think it's funny that it's a hell of a lot easier to raise him from the dead than anyone else due to a lack of needing material components for revivify or any other spell to raise the dead. porter PWKs him? just call buddy over, he'll be back in under a minute. i also think Rage makes for a very fun dynamic between the two of them; jace rises from the dead and immediately goes for porter's throat. he just throws a shocking grasp back at him. it's fun we're having fun :)

i think it is also fun to have porter be a draconic bloodline sorcerer. he gets additional AC from his draconic resilience, and he can resist lightning damage which is rarer than other types of resistance. he also gets dragon wings which i just think is cool. i don't really see porter as a caster in general but i do think for someone who values his ancestry so much he would take pride in getting his magic from his bloodline.

[clairosrealwife]

honestly she’s real for that

Kate’s a MF BOSS for hard launching it during Pride Month. On a Sunday, too.

I just realized there’s a pic of Kate drinking a can of michelob ultra after winning the big ten, and the name of the Aces arena is MICHELOB ULTRA. Okay, this is really the perfect team and situation for her! Not to mention, Hammon and the coaches were at the UConn vs Iowa game along with the GM (Natalie Williams)

well as we know kate loves her titties and beer🙂‍↕️

[elm-writes-stories]

Wish(A Cuphead AU) Chapter Two:

*Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter of the Wish AU with the Cuphead characters. Now things are going to get interesting. This chapter is published on December 16, 2023. If you guys like this chapter, don't be afraid to reblog, heart it, and comment! That would be greatly appreciated! Have a blessed day!*

The dinner at Porkrind’s shop was silent. In the back crowded room with all the strange collections filling the shelves, each of the family had bowls of food in their hands.

Cassidy hadn’t been talking, which was concerning Porkrind throughout the silence. He couldn’t take it anymore when he let out a sigh.

“Okay, what’s on your mind?” Porkrind asked Cassidy.

“Hm?” Cassidy questioned.

“I’ve seen how you are throughout the ceremony. You look like you were ready to break down crying. Are you doing okay?” Porkrind confronted her.

Cassidy kept her mouth for a second. She took a deep breath and said, “I’m just happy for the new couple giving their wishes to the king.”

“That ain’t no tears of happiness,” Porkrind pointed out.

“Po,” Shayna spoke softly, her voice weak a little.

Jerry looked at the one-eyed pig. “Just eat. It’s probably nothin’ to worry about.”

Cassidy bit her bottom lip. Oh, Jerry couldn’t be more wrong. She kept eating her soup from the bowl until she had to put on the courage.

“Actually, there is something I need to tell you guys,” Cassidy finally said.

Porkrind, Shayna, and Jerry leaned forward in anticipation.

Before she was about to tell them, she gasped to see a card of ace of spades with eyes watching her. A realization came to her when she saw the card gesturing her to zip her lips. King Dice might have sent that card to spy on her to make sure she wouldn’t open her mouth.

She shifted her gaze to see her family pale again, reminding her that their souls were in danger if she were to spill the beans.

With a sigh, she lied, “Natalie wants to take me shopping tomorrow night. So…I might be back late.”

“Aw, you don’t have to keep that from us,” Shayna replied. “You and Natalie go have fun.”

“That’s not what you’re about to tell us,” Porkrind replied.

“Porks—” Jerry groaned.

“Cassidy, what are you hiding from us?” the pig questioned. “You don’t have to hide anything from us.”

“You don’t understand,” she muttered.

“What don’t I understand?” Porkrind interrogated.

“Po, calm down,” Shayna scolded Porkrind.

“No, whatever she’s hiding, it’s causing her to hurt. She doesn’t have to hide it—”

“She’ll tell it to us on her own time,” Jerry cut Porkrind off. “Give her time.”

Cassidy bit her bottom lip ragged.

Porkrind sighed to surrender. “Fine. Fine. You don’t have to tell us anything.”

She wanted to cry because she did want to tell them. She wanted to warn them so badly of King Luci’s deceit of his identity. But they would never understand if she told them or the repercussions of what happens when she tells them. She was too afraid of what King Luci will do to their souls if she did say something.

It was getting to the point where she couldn’t sit still.

She got up from her seat and ran out the door of Porkrind’s shop.

The three adults looked on with concern, noticing the way she exited the shop.

“She’s definitely hiding something from us,” Porkrind said, now convinced more than ever.

Shayna frowned. “We need to give her time. Maybe she’ll tell us eventually. Whenever she’s ready.”

“Yeah,” Jerry chirped in agreement.

“I’ll give her the same respect, but I can’t just sit idly while watching her hurt inside.”

“I know, Po. I know,” Shayna said while rubbing his shoulder.

~.~

The soft music played in the background as Cassidy strode through the woods, tears in her eyes. She hugged herself and she started to sing in a croaked voice.

“Why can’t I just tell them?

Am I not as brave as Nat has said?

If I tell them about everything I’ve seen,

Would they believe me if they knew?

Would they open their eyes to the truth?”

Cassidy hugged her shoulders, more tears streaming down on her cheeks.

“But when I speak, no words came out.

How can I tell them when it can kill them?

Oh, this is what happens when we make our wish to him.

Did the generations before us know about this? Maybe not.”

Cassidy glanced up at the stars twinkling at the sky, straightening up. She wiped her tears away and started to sing her heart out.

“So, I will wish upon the stars tonight.

And pray it will be granted.

Mom’s desire to become a singer.

Porkrind’s want to expand his business.

Jerry’s dream to become an entertainer.

My wish for one true love.”

Cassidy frowned once she mentioned her own wish in the mix. She sighed and clutched her chest with her paws.

“Now, I make this wish,

To restore the souls deceived by him.

Now, I make this wish,

To restore the souls deceived by him.”

Cassidy could hear the choir of invisible beings singing in the background as she traveled through the woods towards the tree by cliff.

“Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah.

Restore the souls.”

Cassidy climbed up on the tree to the branch and saw her father’s grave. She took deep breaths and sat on the branch to look up at the stars.

“I never knew there’s more than just wishing to the king.

Yeah, people come to give wishes to him, but they won’t be granted.

Now I’ve been freed from the manipulation,

I’ve seen how messed up our society has become because of him.”

Cassidy climbed down the tree and approached in front of her father’s grave as if she was talking to him.

“But should I let my fears control me?

‘Cause I feel so small

In the world full of giants.

We have generations of lifelessness.

It’s no wonder everyone here is dying inside.

If I can change their minds, how will I go about it?

My confidence shrinks, but I will look up.

Just like how I promised you once.”

Cassidy caressed her father’s grave with a small smile to remember her father and she were sitting on the branch she would usually sit on to look up at the stars.

Cassidy sang her heart out, her environment changing all around her. The winds picked up, blowing against her ebony hair and her skirt of her purple dress. She spread her arms out and closed her eyes, not caring if the winds pick her up and carry her away from this place.

“So, I will wish upon the stars tonight

And pray it will be granted.

Natalie’s wish to have courage.

Chalice’s dream to become a top dancer.

Canteen’s desire to own a mechanic shop.

Bowlboy’s wants to be a knight.

Cuphead’s ambition to explore the world.”

Cassidy opened her eyes, sparkled by the starlit sky. She climbed up on the branch of the tree and stood on it, extending her paw out to the biggest star that shined the brightest.

“Now, I make this wish,

To restore the souls deceived by him.

Now, I make this wish,

To restore the souls deceived by him.”

The invisible choir could be heard around her, but she didn’t care where they came from.

“Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah (Now I make this wish)

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah (To restore the souls deceived)

Restore the souls deceived, oh-ah-ah.”

Cassidy cupped the bottom of the brightest star and sang the last part softly.

“Now, I make this wish.

To restore the souls deceived by him.”

The music ended with a high note until the star started to glow brighter. Cassidy was blinded by the glow that covered her surroundings, but something was off. It was almost like it was someone falling towards her. She could see someone being thrown at her with a scream. She yelped and ducked her head, watching the glow flew over her head and crashed through the woods behind her with strange grunts.

She straightened up and widened her eyes to realize that she was covered in sparkles. “Sparkles?” She noticed her dress glowing, causing her to be lifted up in the air. She yelped in fear and grabbed the branch.

“What the heck?” Cassidy gasped and then she fell on her feet on the ground. The feline looked ahead to find the glow in the dark woods. “What…is that?”

~.~

 Cassidy followed the sparkles that create a pathway through the dark forest. She could see the grass became…greener than she expected. The bushes have eyes and mouths that weren’t normal. The trees came to life, watching the red feline making her way through the woods.

“Hello?” Cassidy called the glow in the dark. She finally approached it to find young boy laying up against the tree.

“Shh, he’s sleeping,” the talking tree he was laying up against said to the feline.

“No, I’m not,” the glowing boy groaned. He moved around, his cape covering his entire head. “Man, I should learn to land better, huh?”

He lifted the cape off of his head to reveal a cup headed boy with a big blue nose and a blue-striped straw that stuck straight up. He focused on Cassidy, examining her from head to toe. He then leaned on his side, his hand propping his head up.

“Hey,” the star cup greeted.

She arched a brow at him. “Who are you?”

He hovered off of his feet, causing her to wince at his sudden movement. “Why, I’m the wishing star. Well, my actual name is Mugman. But I’m part of the Wishing Star Legion. You can say I’m kind of a newbie around here.”

He whispered the last part while leaning his elbow against the mushroom on the tree with a smile, leaving gold sparks on the top of it.

“Yeah, he’s definitely a newbie,” the mushroom spoke out nowhere.

Mugman widened his eyes in shock and moved his arm away from the mushroom. “Oops…I did not mean to make you talk.” Mugman shifted his attention to Cassidy. “Heh, sorry, it’s my first time here. Anyways, I’m here right now. What wish do you want me to grant?”

Cassidy blinked in disbelief. “Wait, wait, Wishing Star Legion? I didn’t think that exists.”

“Yeah, no princess knew about the Wishing Star Legion.”

“Oh, no, no, I’m not a princess.”

“Oh, that’s okay, you look like one to me,” Mugman replied. Then he blushed. “I mean, you looked like royalty. I’m sorry for the mistake.”

“And you’ve never been here before.”

“Well, I’ve never been sent here before. I’ve been to this world plenty of times…but, uh, I’ve never been here in…what is this place called?”

“Inkwell Isles.”

“Ah, yeah, that’s right. Well, what wish do you want me to grant?”

“How many can you grant?”

“Well, I’m here for as long as you need me.” He paused for a second with a blush. “I don’t mean that to be a flirty remark.”

She chuckled. “It’s okay.”

“But I am here for as long as you need me. The Fairy God-Kettle created the Wishing Star Legion to grant many wishes around the world. Or if the wishes were bad and unhealthy, we were sent there to help those that wished those awful things change their minds. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s sad when it doesn’t though.”

Mugman looked away with a frown for a second before shifting his attention to Cassidy. “But I’m sure your wish isn’t that bad, right?”

“Well…it’s not bad…but it’s…risky.”

“Risky? Huh, never encountered a wish that’s risky. What is it exactly?”

Cassidy took a deep breath. “I wish to restore the souls to the people deceived by King Luci.”

“Oh, that isn’t bad…but why risky?”

“Because the people I’m wishing for is…mostly everyone here in the Inkwell Isles.”

“Oh…and the souls—did they lose their passion or…?”

“No, the king took the souls from innocent people and had them locked up in the soul vault in some…fiery place.”

Mugman widened his eyes. “It…doesn’t happened to be Hell you’re talking about, right?”

“I guess so.”

The mug gasped in fear. “Oh no, no, no, that’s Hell. And the king…oh, son of a gun.”

“What?”

“That’s the Devil. He’s been devouring souls since the beginning of time. Does anyone know about this?”

She shook her head.

“Those poor people,” he muttered.

“Can you help me? If it’s too much, then I understand if you don’t—”

“No, I will help,” Mugman replied. “But the thing is…I can’t snap their souls back to their bodies. We need to find a way get those souls out of Hell. If I remembered correctly, if we burn soul contracts of the people he took wishes from, their souls would no longer be tied to Hell.”

Cassidy’s smile brightened.

“Hey, there’s this card spying on you both—” the tree next to them said while holding King Dice’s card in its branch.

Cassidy gasped in fear. “Oh no.”

“Oh no what?” Mugman questioned.

“It’s one of the king’s spies.”

“Oh, the Devil’s spies. Say no more,” he responded and took the card to rip it to shreds. He plucked the eyeballs and made them disappeared in his sleeves. “There, now we don’t have to worry about the spies.”

Cassidy took a moment to ponder. “We need a plan to get into the castle and fast. And…I think I might just know the way.”

~.~

 In the early morning, when the bell rang loudly to wake the kingdom, Cassidy had a blue hood, sneaking through alleyways of the town.

Mugman followed behind her, wary of his steps. He seemed fascinated with the city around him until he looked at her, watching her every movement with interest.

However, his attention was off of her, and he noticed a chef pig selling hot dogs with a gloomy look on his face. He read the price for hotdogs was about fifteen dollars a hotdog. It was no wonder the chef wasn’t getting any customers. He covered the price sign with his hand and slid against it, changing it to a dollar and sixty-nine cents with added words, “Buy one, and get two free”. The customers came to the chef pig’s stall in an instant, buying all the hotdogs he could ever imagined.

Mugman smiled and continued with his walk with Cassidy.

He noticed the lady selling fruits and vegetables, but they don’t appear fresh. He walked up to the stall and spread his gold sparkles, freshening up the fruits. The lady seemed shock at the gesture. She took a small bite of her apple, and her confusion melted into a grateful smile.

He gave her a grin back and continued walking with Cassidy.

He noticed a group of children playing, with one of the boys stealing a toy from the little girl. The little girl was left crying and chasing after the boys who stole her toy. With a huff of annoyance, he took the toy from the boy’s hand when the boy ran past him and gave it back to the girl when she came up to him. She held her toy close to her chest, giving him the satisfaction that he helped someone. The toy was covered in sparkles, causing it to come to life in her arms. The little girl almost screamed until the toy showed how friendly it was by dancing with her. The little girl giggled and danced with the toy, who was now her new friend.

He noticed a humanoid lady named Hilda, limping around with metal parts. Her brown short hair frizzy and red outfit falling apart. She looked up at him. She faked a grin, but he could see pain in her eyes. He walked up to her with a sympathetic gaze. He took her hands gently and watched the glow fill her body, getting rid of the red twisted part in her soul. A glow came from her chest, straightening her up. She could walk better now and she’s flying in the air without having limitations and hurting from flying so much. He beamed when he watched her take off.

He noticed an elderly woman sweeping near the fountain, sweeping all by herself. She appeared to be slow, her back pain bothering her. He rubbed his chin and snapped his fingers, making more brooms appear with arms and brushes as their feet. Her broom came to life as well, sweeping the floor around her. She seemed in shock before more brooms showed up and guided her to her lawn chair under the shade of the palm tree. One of the brooms got out a pillow to ease her lower back and the other two brooms helped her sit down on the lawn chair. The other broom showed up with a palm branch and fanned her from the heat. The brooms were multiplied magically and swept the entire square around the fountain.

He caught up with Cassidy as they hid behind the wall. They peeked around the wall to find the entrance of the castle.

“There’s the entrance to the castle. Only Cuphead and Bowlboy knows that secret entrance. Maybe Canteen too since he’s snuck into the castle many times. Or we can blend in with the—.”

She looked back and noticed the brooms cleaning around the square magically while the people behind them seemed happier than they were before. She looked at him, who stared back at her.

“Yes?” Mugman responded.

She smiled softly at him. “Nothing. Nothing at all”

He looked around the town some more. “Man, you guys have so many diverse folks here. Who’s the queen?”

“King, actually. Two kings ruled the kingdom.”

“Oh, wow. Most countries don’t have that.”

“Mugman, I need you to focus. We can take the secret way or we can enter through the entrance.”

“We can split up and try both ways.”

“Great idea. We can meet in the closet in the kitchen. Or wait…you can teleport us there, right?”

“Well…if the castle is magic resistant, we can’t really risk it,” Mugman responded.

“Okay, then let’s split up. And don’t try to stand out,” Cassidy whispered to him before taking off to find Cuphead and Bowlboy.

Mugman snapped his fingers to disguise himself with a spark.

Meanwhile, Cassidy snuck through the plaza and reached for the stables at the back of the castle. She noticed Cuphead and Bowlboy working raking the hay. She decided to hide within the pile Cuphead was working on, but was stopped by someone.

She gasped in fear until she realized that it was just Canteen.

“What are you doing?” Canteen asked.

“Uh…sneaking into the castle,” she answered.

“Oh cool, I know a shortcut. It would take long for Cuphead to notice ya anyway. C’mon.” Canteen led Cassidy towards the trimmed bushes, which was noticed by Bowlboy. Bowlboy arched a brow in confusion for a second before going back to work.

Cassidy followed Canteen towards the side door, which they saw King Dice by the front entrance of the castle. She noticed how his arms were crossed with a sneer on his face. He appeared to be angry.

“So, since you’re with me, you get a sneak peek of the latest theory I came up with. So, you know how Cuphead said that the wishes might possibly be locked into a vault yesterday? Well, I thought up a joke-theory that the wishes were not the only ones locked up in the vault, but people’s souls as well. I know that it sounds ridiculous and there’s not enough evidence—”

Cassidy turned her head to Canteen and placed her paws on his shoulders. “Canteen, you can have so many wrong theories or theories without proof. But for this theory, or joke-theory you have, you’re right.”

Canteen blinked in confusion. “Wait, what?”

“You need to swear to me that you’ll never say anything to anyone about it. People’s lives are at risk if this secret gets out.”

Canteen zipped his lips and crossed his heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Which hopefully will be never.”

“What?”

“The mere fact I’m even telling you this is risking your life,” Cassidy responded to Canteen.

“Oh, well, me being here every day is risking my life, sooo, this isn’t my first rodeo.”

“What the hell—?!”

Cassidy and Canteen turned their heads to notice King Dice staring at someone in the distance. It was a woman cup with big breasts. She wore a cyan-colored dress, a bright maroon fluffy scarf, and a silver headband with a maroon feather.

“Hi, your Majesty,” Mugman’s voice came in but with a higher pitch in an attempt to sound feminine. “I’m Tallulah. Tallulah Piccolo.”

Cassidy dropped her jaw once she recognized Mugman’s voice.

King Dice arched a brow and smirked. “My, my, haven’t seen you around here before. You must be one of the new tourist.”

“Nah, I’ve been here for a while. I don’t come out much since I’ve been a washed up dancer for years, but I’ve heard that you are holding auditions for dancing and I thought I would give dancing another try,” Mugman answered as Tallulah Piccolo.

King Dice arched a brow. “Huh, I didn’t think we have any auditions for the dances.”

Mugman became discouraged as Tallulah. “Aw, I must have heard wrong then. Well, since I’m here, do you have a bathroom I could use?”

“Uh, yeah, by the kitchen,” King Dice responded while pointing into the castle.

“Thank you, your Highness,” Mugman responded while walking into the castle with his heels clicking on the tile floor.

Cassidy blushed and looked at Canteen, trying to change the subject from what they witnessed. “Can you sneak me into the castle? The others can’t know I’m here.”

Canteen nodded his head. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I got your back.”

~.~

 Canteen and Cassidy hurried up the stairs and towards the kitchen, noticing Natalie and Chalice there. They hid behind the wall.

“Oh no…they’re going to notice me.”

“So, why don’t you want them to notice you again?” Canteen questioned.

“Because it will get them kill if they see me,” Cassidy replied. “The Devil is looking for me by now.”

“The Devil?”

“That’s King Luci’s real name.”

Canteen gasped. “Oh, that makes so much sense. I think I got something to distract the others. Hold on.”

He rushed into the kitchen without Cassidy being aware of what he was doing.

Canteen seemed out of breath from running, catching their friends’ attention. “Guys! I got a new theory!”

“Oh come on,” Natalie groaned.

“I swear, this will be worth your time,” Canteen responded. “Follow me!”

Canteen led them to the broken window. “So, remember me jumping out of the window yesterday?”

“Like a fool,” Chalice responded with a giggling grin.

“What if I told you I thought of something last night about how gravity works and how we control the gravity of our fall?” Canteen asked the girls.

“That makes no sense,” Natalie responded.

“Well, I landed the hay and that broke my fall and—”

“You’re suggesting us to try it?” Chalice questioned.

Canteen started to sweat nervously. “Uh, yeah.”

Chalice looked at him in suspicion before smiling. “Okay!” Immediately, Chalice jumped off the cliff.

“Are you kidding me? I broke my leg jumping off a cliff,” Natalie grumbled at Canteen.

“Oh, you don’t have to jump off if you—”

“Whoa, there’s plenty of hay down here!” Chalice screamed from the bottom.

Natalie and Canteen exchanged gazes.

Natalie sighed. “Here, hold this.” She gave him a crutch and jumped out of the window.

Canteen looked down to find that Cuphead caught Natalie in his arms instead of her landing on the pile of hay like Chalice said.

“DANG IT, CHALICE!” Natalie barked while blushing madly. “I COULD’VE BROKEN MY OTHER LEG!!!”

“At least you got him catching you when you’re falling,” Chalice responded with a wink.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Cuphead replied from the bottom.

Canteen watched from above as Cassidy snuck through the kitchen behind him. When he turned around, she smiled at him.

“Thank you. I owe you one,” Cassidy whispered.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Canteen insisted while holding onto Natalie’s crutch and jumped out the window with a cheer.

Cassidy turned a corner to find the closet door. She saw Mugman, disguised as Tallulah Piccolo, approaching the closet door in the opposite direction when entering into the kitchen. They both hurried into the closet to realize they’re full of chickens. Once Cassidy shut the door behind them, Mugman snapped his fingers and turned into his normal self.

“Okay, now that we’re here, we need a way to get to the Devil’s bedroom,” Cassidy whispered to Mugman.

Mugman kept his eyes on a chicken, tilting his head at the way it moves and pecks at nothing on the cobblestone ground. “Hi there. Can you fly?”

“Oh, no, chickens can’t fly,” Cassidy responded.

The star cup smiled brightly. “Aww, every bird deserves to fly.” When he scooped the chicken up in his hands, the sparkles were on the chicken’s body. The chicken flapped its wings and took off flying around the room.

She watched with fascination, noticing his child-like grin. She couldn’t help, but smiling at his gentleness when he watched the chicken flying around the room. More chickens approached Mugman.

“You guys want to fly too?”

“Uh, Mugman, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea—”

She watched as he sprinkled pixie dust from his hands on all the chickens that approached, watching them take off with their wings flapping around the room. He gasped in fascination, smiling.

She tilted her head. “How are you doing that?”

“What?”

“Do what you do…I noticed people were happier after you walked by them. How do you know what their wish was?”

“Well, people have many wishes. It’s connected to who they are and their souls are what drives them to pursue their wishes. Without their souls, how will they ever obtain the drive to pursue their dreams?”

“Yeah, I guess. I wish that I found out about the Devil taking wishes sooner. I wonder if the generations before knew about this.”

“I highly doubt it. They’re probably dead if they knew. You know, you should consider yourself lucky that the Devil spared you.”

“Why did he?”

“I don’t know…killing you would lead to some suspicions towards him and his acts. Or maybe you got too many people around you already.”

“Not really…”

Before Mugman could retort at her statement, they heard the door opening.

“Say, where’s Cassi?” Chalice’s voice could be heard from the other side of the door. “Has anyone seen her? King Luci and King Dice had been looking for her everywhere.”

“Maybe she’s late again,” Cuphead predicted.

“I saw her with Canteen,” Bowlboy’s voice replied.

“Pssh, what? No, I haven’t seen her at all—”

“Liar, you were with her. You must be taking her somewhere private,” Bowlboy growled.

“What? What on earth do you mean?”

“I mean that you took her somewhere private…just the two of you,” Bowlboy snarled.

“Whoa, whoa, just because you and Cassi used to be together, that doesn’t mean you gotta get possessive over her,” Cuphead responded, attempting to diffuse the situation. “Besides, you guys just broke up three months ago.”

“I’m not being possessive over her!” Bowlboy argued. “I’m just saying. She moved on quick.”

“It’s not like that at all. I don’t even see Cassi like that—”

“SHE’S WITH YOU!!!” Bowlboy pointed out.

“Whoa, calm down,” Cuphead soothed.

“Hughes, you sure you haven’t seen Cassidy?” Natalie questioned.

Cassidy clenched her teeth.

“Nope, haven’t seen her,” Canteen lied.

“Then why are you sweating?” Chalice interrogated.

“What?”

“You sweat when you lie,” Chalice added.

“I don’t sweat when I lie. I sweat when I’m nervous—”

“Of lying,” Bowlboy ended with sass.

“Shh, wait, did you hear that flapping sound?” Cuphead interrupted.

“Oh no. We have to—”

It was too late when Cuphead opened the door and the chickens flew out of the coop and out of the door, blinding Cassidy’s friends temporary until the chickens flew out of the broken window.

Canteen looked into the coop for a second to see Cassidy and Mugman with a small wheeze and shut the door quickly. He stood against the door before the friends glanced back at him.

“Why did you shut the door so quickly?” Chalice questioned.

“Uh, no idea,” Canteen said, starting to sweat.

“You’re sweating again,” Chalice responded.

“W-Well, since we don’t have chickens anymore, what’s the use of this room anyway?”

Cuphead gave Canteen a deadpan stare and moved him out of the way. “Get out of the way.”

“Wait, don’t open the door!” Canteen shouted.

Cuphead opened the door to find nothing in front of them. He stepped further into the coop and looked around before glancing up at the corner of the ceiling by the door and noticed Mugman keeping himself up on the corner of the ceiling, his cape draped down.

“Hey,” Cuphead greeted in the most nonchalant tone.

“Hey,” Mugman responded. “Uh, how are you?”

“Besides seein’ chickens flying and a strange guy hiding at the corner of the chicken coop, I gotta say pretty good,” Cuphead answered. “How about you?”

“Well, I say good. It’s a nice day out,” Mugman replied.

“Sure is,” Cuphead agreed.

Chalice, Natalie, Canteen, and Bowlboy came into the coop.

“What the—?” Natalie gasped.

Chalice let out a giggle. “Whatcha doin’ hiding like that?”

“Uh, nothing. Just gettin’ my daily exercise,” Mugman responded.

“Uh-huh. And how’s that workin’ for ya?” Chalice questioned.

Mugman noticed his legs wobbling. “Uh…well, my legs hurt now.”

Chalice turned to Canteen. “Is this who you’ve been hiding this whole time?”

Canteen faked a smile. “Oh yeah, definitely.”

Bowlboy glared at Canteen. “But I saw you with Cassidy.”

“I don’t know what you’ve seen, man. You must have been seeing things,” Canteen responded.

“Are you gaslighting me?” Bowlboy growled.

“What? No, no, no, not at all—”

“Really, because it sounds like you are—”

“Guys, chill,” Cuphead replied. “Take a pill and chill.”

“Yeah, calm down,” Chalice added while shifting her gaze up at Mugman. “Why don’t you get down from there and we can meet face-to-face—?”

Mugman lost his grip and fell forward with Cassidy clutching at his back. They tumbled onto the ground together, causing the group to gasp in shock.

“By golly!” Chalice exclaimed.

Cassidy and Mugman were covered by Mugman’s cape when they crashed on the ground. Cuphead and Canteen hurried towards them and uncovered his cape to find Mugman on top of Cassidy.

Both Cassidy and Mugman blushed at the position they were in and they looked up to find her friends staring at her with confusion.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Cassidy replied.

Natalie smirked. “Uh-huh, I can see it now.”

Cuphead helped Cassidy up from the ground. “What are ya doin’ with that strange guy?”

“Yeah, what are you doin’ with that strange guy?” Bowlboy interrogated.

Cassidy clenched her teeth. “Guys, look, I can’t say a lot, but…”

“But what?” Natalie asked in concern.

The red-furred feline kept her lips sealed until she sighed. “If I tell you guys this, it will cost you your lives.”

Cuphead leaned in. “Now, I’m interested.”

Natalie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, tell us—”

Cassidy shook her head. “But you’re going to be killed if I tell you this—”

“Does it look like we care?” Chalice questioned. “Just tell us.”

Canteen kept his mouth shut, letting Cassidy do the talking.

Mugman glanced at her, waiting for her to say something.

Cassidy was about to say something and took a deep breath. “Shut the door.”

Cuphead shut the door without hesitation.

She took a deep breath and began, “Yesterday, I was assigned to clean the king’s study.”

“Wow, that’s rare,” Chalice responded.

“No one ever goes in there. How come you’re different?” Bowlboy questioned.

“Is it cool?” Canteen asked.

“Yeah, it is,” Cassidy continued. “So, he told me to never open the black door in his study. Only to clean it. A-And I did. I cleaned it until it opened by itself. I heard someone scream and ran through the door…and-and I was at someplace strange…”

“How strange?” Cuphead asked.

“Very strange. I think Mugman says it’s…Hell. So, I saw a vault. I opened it and…then I saw souls of those that gave their wishes away to King Luci for years.”

The kids gasped in shock, except for Bowlboy, who stared at her with disbelief.

“It’s no wonder everyone looks so tired all the time,” Natalie blurted out.

“Huh, I had my suspicions,” Cuphead added.

“Then…King Luci caught me and…I saw his true form. He’s known as the Devil. I saw him taking wishes along with people’s souls. I-I couldn’t say anything to my family about it. S-So, I wished upon a star for the souls to be restored to the people he deceived and there he is,” Cassidy said, referring to Mugman.

Mugman gave her friends a friendly wave.

Bowlboy glared at Mugman more, his arms crossed.

“So, we’re trying to free the souls from Hell,” Cassidy said with tears in her face. “And now…you guys know.”

Chalice softened her gaze when she noticed Cassidy tearing up. “You okay, girlie?”

“You have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this,” Cassidy replied.

“We promise,” Natalie said with a soft smile.

“Yeah, your secret is safe with us,” Canteen added.

“Are you lying?” Bowlboy asked Cassidy while glaring at Mugman still.

Cuphead gave Bowlboy a withering glare. “What? Do you seriously think Cassidy would lie about something serious like that?”

“She lied about loving me once,” Bowlboy responded.

Cassidy felt her heart sank at the statement.

“You know what. I’m done with this. It’s been three months since we broke up and she moved on with this wishing star guy already,” Bowlboy blurted out.

“It’s not like that…” Cassidy told him.

“Really? Because it’s getting hard to believe you,” Bowlboy responded before striding out of the coop, leaving the door open.

“Bowlboy, don’t be like that,” Natalie called out.

Cassidy frowned and sighed.

“Don’t let what Bowlboy said get to ya, girlie,” Chalice said softly.

“No…he’s right. I thought I did for a while. I didn’t mean to make him feel lied to,” Cassidy replied in a sad tone.

Mugman noticed with a frown and patted her shoulder. “We need to get back to rescuing souls.”

“Well, King Luci is up in his room. He’d been cooped up there for a while,” Natalie responded.

“And King Dice had been hunting you,” Cuphead added. “Do you think he knows about this?”

“I believe so. He wouldn’t send his card to spy on me,” Cassidy answered. “We can’t get in the room if he’s up there.”

Chalice pondered for a moment. “I think I have an idea on how to get him out of his room.”

To Be Continued... 

[creepypastalover97]

K time for another creepypasta au headcannon

Today’s headcannon is going to be about

Clockwork

Ok time for the headcannon

. Honestly?

She didn't go to Slender for protection, Slender went to her.

. Her first encounter with the Pastas was when her and Masky got into a " little " scuffle that resulted in Tim having multiple stab wounds on his torso, and Natalie with a bruised, empty eye socket. This was before they had introduced themselves. - She was pissed that she had to get a new clock.

. Slender came to her multiple times, although she refused. That is, until he took her by force with he help of Jeffery, the Proxies, and Eyeless Jack.

. She hates all of them. Masky and Jeff especially. Except toby. She loves toby.

. She's incredibly reckless with almost anything she does. The first few times she went on missions, she had to be watched to make sure the cops didn't show up, and that she didn't decide to have a death match with them.

.Aggressive as fuck, she loves to argue and debate and is super competitive too. She has no boundaries or filters when arguing and doesn’t care if you cry, sorry

. This girl is straight up Doja Cat Tia Tamara vibes. She don’t give a fuck about nobody! Except Toby. She does care about him.

. She swears way too much. She owes too much to the swear jar.

. Other than in fights she’s pretty chill though and she has a fantastic laugh, it’s deep, loud, throaty, and super contagious

. Natalie while she enjoyed drawing and such before eveyrthing happened, she never really wanted a career out of it

It’s more of a hobby, something too pass the time rather then something she practices

. Janey Janey Janey Janey—

They are best friends :>

They are so freaking loud together omfg. They scream laugh and run laps in the mansion when one of them tells a joke. It’s ridiculous.

. She doesn’t really get along with Circe , but she’s doesn’t hate her in any sense. They have a few quarrels here and there, but they are never enough to damage their relationship

. Her and Toby have thought about getting married and settling down. They aren’t too sure yet, though. Even though they’ve been together for 6+ years now. Speaking of which, yall have been together for 6+ years and yall STILL yell at each other and accuse each other of farting in the bed?? 🧐 seems sus but okay

. Her face got really infected from the eye and the stitches, so EJ helped her out. Now she owes him like $100 still. 😬

. She had the clock taken out since it kept getting infected and had it replaced with a glass eye

. Somehow she has managed to evade all pop culture knowledge. You could say ‘oh look! There’s Chris Hemsworth!’ and she’d have no idea what you are talking about. The only celebrity she knows and respects is our lord and savior, Bill Nye.

. She is always the first to lose at monopoly. She’s also the one who throws the board at the end of the game

. She likes the forest and goes on walks a lot. She collects pretty flowers and presses them in between pages in her sketchbook

. She got a new giraffe plushie. She sleeps with it :)

. She hates smoking, and she hates all alcohol except ice-cold vodka.

. Clock absolutely has washboard abs, my girl is ripped as fuck and could probably tear a phone book in half if she wanted to

. really good at card games and gambling, though half the time she is confused sure if the other pastas even know what they’re playing the same game, Circe on the other hand just rolls with it

Circe, setting down a card: Ace of spades

Ben, pulling out an Uno card: +4

Toby, pulling out a Pokémon card: Jolteon, I choose you

Natalie, extremely fucking confused: What are we playing?!

. she has a german shepherd dog named Luci

. Bitch needs to drink some water, she’s surviving off of monster and 7/11 coffee

. She’s interested in shooting or knife throwing, learning something long ranged but ya know, no depth perception

. Lactose intolerant, but still has dairy anyways

Whenever she gets sick it’s 50/50- too much to drink or she chugged milk earlier that day

. Is a huge twilight fan. Owns all the moves and books. When she found out about Circe’s love for her books and book collection, well it went like this:

“Wow,circe really like books”- clockwork

“ Yes, she sure does”- slenderman

“do you think she read twilight?”-clockwork

“Oh god!clockwork don’t!”-slenderman

Circe throws bible at clockwork

“I’m not trashy enough for that shit”- Circe

. Owns a motorcycle with a side car for toby

. She, like Brian, has a few stick and poke tattoos from when she was younger

. Has a few piercings too, is scared too get more after the piercing gun she got online got stuck and wouldn’t unclamp from around her ear

. Collects dream catchers

. She doesn’t go by Natalie anymore.

Overall clockwork is a bad bitch,with a heart♥️

P.s none of this is canon, so don’t take seriously if you don’t want to, so don’t hate,if you do take it somewhere else. Thank you, bye 👋🏻

P.s.s. Go check out Circe’s origin story on archive of our own. It’s called rabbits are not what they seen.

[koolkat9]

What are your favorite musicals and which musicals would you assign to your favorite countries based on personality? Yes, This is me asking what Music themes you'd assign them too I guess without looking at youtube and seeing videos 10 years old. I miss seeing Character Theme videos.

Oooh this is a good one! I'm also going to share musicals that make me think of some ships too because I want to ramble about the two musicals that make me think of a GerEng AU.

Okay but Characters.

Canada- Dear Evan Hansen

I know. Kind of basic. But I love DEH. "Waving Through a Window" is such a Mattie song. But what really sells the idea for me is that "So Big / So Small" is such a good song for Royal Red Bros. Francis is the dad that left, and Arthur tries to pick up the pieces, but also fails Matthew. Just the dynamic between Evan's Mom and Evan is just perfect for these two. Like Evan's mom does love Evan, but being a single mom isn't easy and to provide for him she has to work ridiculous hours so she's not there for him physically. Which is a similar postion Arthur finds himself in.

Also the lines

"That night I tucked you into bed

I will never forget how you sat up and said

'Is there another truck coming to our drive way?

A truck that will take mommy away.'"

Just hit me so hard with feels for Arthur and Matt. Just imagining a little Mattie asking Arthur one night if Arthur is going to leave him behind too. Because Francis left and Arthur seems so much more focused on Alfred. Matthew it terrified it will happen again. And it breaks Arthur's heart.

ALTERNATIVELY

Canada - Next to Normal (Specifically the song "Superboy and the Invisible Girl")

I don't know enough about what this musical is actually about other than we follow our main character Diana who is struggling with bipolar disorder and hallucinations of her dead son. And basically I think it shows how her condition affects her family?

But we did "Superboy and the Invisible Girl" for some concert once and I actually played Diana. And every time I rehearsed this song, all I could think of was ACE Family.

It is primarily Natalie, Diana's daughter, feeling neglected and ignored because of her Mother's grief over her son's death.

This line really makes me think of the two, especially after Alfred has become independent and Matthew attempts to pick up the pieces of a broken Arthur:

"Super boy and the invisible girl

He's the one you'd wish would appear

He's your hero, forever your son

He's not here, I am here"

---

America - Hamliltion

For obvious reasons. American history. Main character is smart, but also so impulsive. "I'm not Throwing Away my Shot" always make me think of Al.

---

England - Mary Poppins

Of course I choose something obvious. You know how much I love Arthur with kids. And Mary Poppins is that strict parental figure, but she does want what's best for the kids in her care, and I think that's perfect for Arthur.

Also I just love imagining Arthur singing "Feed the Birds."

Also also. get 2p England involved and make Oliver Bert. So double the Englands making it more fitting. Alternatively Gilbert could be Bert to make it Pruk instead.

---

GerEng - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I have this whole musical casted with Hetalia characters. But the summary first because its probably a musical not many know. I really don't know how to encompass everything so I'm just going to steal the summary from IMDb:

"A down-on-his-luck inventor turns a broken-down Grand Prix car into a fancy vehicle for his children, and then they go off on a magical fantasy adventure to save their grandfather in a far-off land."

God I had orginally had a long decription of a cast list for this but I'll ramble about that in another post. All you need to know though:

Arthur as Caratacus Potts - The down on his luck inventor and single father. Sometimes his work distracts him, but he really does love his kids

Ludwig as Truly Scrumptious - A candy heiress who meets the Potts family after almost running over the children when they run out into the road. She and Caratacus kind of get off on the wrong foot when she argues that the kids should be in school and not running around. But after he impresses her with his inventions and she joins them on their adventure in their magic car, the two fall in love.

Peter as Jeremy and Jemimah - Because I can't think of a second child to go with Peter I just have Peter right now. Because I love GerEng being dads to him.

Anyway. The songs.

First we have "You Two" which actually makes me imagine things separate from this au. Because this is also so good for ACE Family. I ramble about it more here.

"Doll On a Music Box" One of my favourite songs to listen too to daydream about GerEng. Just them pulling the same stunt Caratacus and Truly do to rescue the kids. Also Ludwig dressed up as a doll is a nice image.

"Lovely Lonely Man" Could work for either of them, but I always have loved the idea of Ludwig singing this about Arthur. Because Ludwig fell fast just like the song suggests while Arthur took a bit of time. It's just a perfect monologue of Ludwig admitting his feelings to himself.

God I could go on but I'll save the rest for a separate post

---

Okay one last one for GerEng! Music Man.

Summary from Stage Agent: "There’s trouble in River City! When smooth-talking con man Harold Hill arrives in a small, tight-knit town in Iowa, he expects to dupe its residents with his elaborate moneymaking scheme: Despite his complete lack of musical literacy, he will convince everyone that he is a brilliant bandleader and recruit all the boys in town to form a band, pocketing the cash for instruments and uniforms. The problem? Some of the town members, especially the stern librarian, Marian Paroo, don’t quite buy Harold’s story. As Harold struggles to keep his scheme afloat, he also finds himself increasingly attached to the townspeople, who have all experienced a positive change since Harold came to town. Complicating matters even more, Harold is also falling head-over-heels for the beautiful Marian."

God I could go on about this one too, but keeping it brief:

Arthur as the con man Harold Hill selfish and prideful only to have a change of heart by forming genuine connections within the town.

Ludwig as the stern yet also hopeless romantic Marian. That despite knowing Arthur is a con man sees him grow and falls for him

"Goodnight My Someone / Seventy-Six Trombones (Double Reprise)" The two leads main songs coming together with them singing each other's half way through. God I just love thinking of GerEng for this scene so much! I think its so romantic to sing each other's themes to each other.

Also "Goodnight My Someone" on its own is very fitting for Ludwig. As is Marian's chacter as whole. Both are stern indivduals, refusing to take nonsense from anyone. They seem like a stick in the mud, perhaps a little cold, but both have a sweetness deep down, longing for connection. And "Goodnight My Someone" is when we first see this side of Marian.

"Marian the Librarian" Just the back and forth and tension in this song. Hill/Arthur is kind of a dick. Flirting, but really he's just playing a game at this point and bugging Marian/Ludwig at work when they're clearly aren't having it. It's another fun scene I like imagining GerEng. Especially since Arthur is really pushing his luck angering someone who could snap him like a toothpick he'd be into that let's be honest but that's not a discussion for this blog

Thank you anon for letting me combine my love of musical theatre and my love for Hetalia together! I encourage more questions like this actually so don't be scared guys!

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 154/310

2015 Monaco GP

And it’s already time for the worst GP of the year... yay...

So I don't have the full broadcast for this one and honestly I'm kinda glad because Monaco is so damn fucking long as it is already. 

Welp now I have it and I have no excuse not to watch it so here we go. (Spoiler : retrospectively the full broadcast was so worth it)

Lewis is on pole. Nico locked up and messed up his lap, twice in a row. Hill says Lewis has struck back after what happened in Spain and compliments him a lot but Simon calls him out, because if you remember he said he'd been too distracted during the break and Lewis hit back at him (I don't know if it's figuratively with the racing or if he said something about it). Johnny is grinning from ear to ear listening to him trying to justify himself now. Hill says nobody likes to have people commenting on their lifestyle but– Simon cuts him off : does he stand by it though? He maintains he thinks there is something in it, he thinks you can't travel the world and show up at the race at your best jetlagged and all. Simon asks for Brundle's opinion. Brundle says it's not his place to comment on how he lives his life, he seems very relaxed compared to how he feels himself sometimes. Johnny chuckles. Brundle thinks Lewis looks very comfortable and at the top of his game. He says right before his final run, Lewis went "okay guys let's all just calm down." Apparently it wasn't going too well and then he aced it and Nico made a mistake and that's that. 

Let's hear from Lewis himself. He says it feels very special and wow the broadcast is shit it's completely lagging. He says it feels like a great achievement and it's gonna be a tough race no doubt (can't hear, can't hear) Natalie says he's only won one and by his own very high standards that's not enough, can he win again? (can't hear) …it isn't enough but he's grateful for the one he does have and he'll work as hard as he can to win a second one today. 

Simon says he's read somewhere that Lewis went away to work on a couple of areas he felt he'd been weak over the years on this circuit. He says it shows his attention to details. 

Anyway it's Lewis' first Monaco pole! Of course Nico is right behind him. Then it's Seb and Daniel, Kvyat and Raikkonen, Perez and Maldonado, Verstappen and Jenson. 

Meanwhile Nico could become the fourth driver in history to win 3 Monaco GPs in a row after Graham Hill, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. 

Oh god… Lewis went to play football?! With fucking Thierry Henry?!

There are famous people there but I don't know who they are so I'm not impressed. Some of them are not in elite-athlete shape so I’m guessing either retirees or not sportsmen.

So yeah, Thierry's team won. Oh they have a lovely talk. It's a looooong one though (like it lasts almost 10 minutes) so I'll just tell you about what interests me the most and post the thing afterwards so you can listen for yourselves. 

Lewis says Thierry has been doing it for years but for him it's the first time (the video has a bug I think?) then he says he never played in front of people and Thierry says neither did he and they laugh. 

"The guys were really happy to be around you," Thierry Henry tells him, "at the end of the day you ARE, you know, a living legend, like they're saying."

I like his calm voice and demeanour, it's attractive. Lewis denies it but Thierry doesn't care, he insists : "Yes you are! You know, you're gonna play it down obviously because you're humble."

(Look at him babygirling I’d say he finds Thierry as attractive as I do)

A bit later he says : "I always explain to people that when I do something to win, I see, if I can say, myself in Lewis because he wants to win everything. Everything that he does." Lewis says he thinks they share the same mentality, when you go out there it's do or die. "I hate losing. Do you hate losing?" he asks. Thierry scoffs. He says he doesn't understand people telling people they should be good losers. They agree that they don't know what that is, (although of course Lewis has shown us he knows, since then. Or maybe he's learnt since then. Idk.) Lewis says he thinks people like that will never be champions. (Yeah. He definitely learnt. There's a difference between not caring about losing and losing with composure, if you know what I mean. That might not be the best way to word it but you get it, I trust that you do.) 

They must have recorded right after the Spanish GP because Lewis talks about getting a lot from what happened "yesterday". He feels like because he had to gain some places back he was more successful than maybe if he'd won the race. He calls it a challenge of composure. (But that's literally what I was saying about being a good loser. The same word even, lmao. Lewis you do get it you dumbass (affectionate)). He talks about the moment when Bono told him not to try and catch Nico at the end because he wouldn't be able to. He's proud of overcoming all that and not getting flustered. He then says he knows he needs to be better prepared than ever, he says the previous year he wasn't prepared the best he could for Monaco. "I've had a good car for the last two years and I haven't capitalised on it," he adds. (Bro you won the title, is Monaco really that important that you would say you didn't capitalise on it?) He thinks third time's lucky. 

Thierry asks how you find the right balance with a teammate. He says it's not easy as a footballer to be an individual in the collective. Lewis says he doesn't get paid to lift the other one up. On the one hand you want the other guy to be second for the team, but at the same time sometimes you want "the Ferrari guy or someone to take points away from that guy". "You wanna be a team player, but also you wanna win."

He's gotten older though (he says 'a lot' but he's 30 at this point so I refuse that) and now he thinks there's an opportunity to be a leader. (Oh that’s truly… Actually I've been thinking this season we’re seeing more and more of the current Lewis in him and that's another thing he did actually emulate right? He definitely did become that leader in the end.) When he was younger he only thought about "me me me" and wanting to win and nowadays he thinks if he wants to earn the place to be a team leader for all these people, there's a way he needs to conduct himself. Even though he wants to win, he also needs to make sure the team gets a 1-2. 

Thierry says it's like the guy on the bench, he might need to replace you for the end of the game or because you're injured, and you need him to win for the team so you give him advice and lift him up but if you give too much, you might become the guy on the bench, and you might find out that once that guy plays he's not looking at you anymore. That's where he sees a similarity between them in that sense. People don't get it, how you need to be nice but not let him take over. He jokes : "I will help you. But you will never play."

Lewis says the thing with F1 is that everything is recorded, from your heart rate to the vibrations. So you don't even need to tell the guy, he can just go in the backroom and look at it. "All of your talents are on display." He says the difference in your heart and in your ability can still come through even though it's diminished because of that. (I never thought of that part, actually. I didn't know they had such easy access to their teammate’s data. I guess it depends on the team and all that as well but yeah it makes it that much more difficult to navigate. It's kinda crazy to think that eventually Lewis developed in such a way that even with that data his teammates aren't able to emulate him? Or maybe they didn't have as much access anymore after that brocedes fiasco? I wonder.)

I still wrote most of it down in the end because pretty much all of it was interesting lol. Thierry says "see you soon on the field". He adds he won't see him on the track because it's too dangerous for him. "I'm soft." They laugh.

Back on the track it's another footballer. Fucking Cristiano Ronaldo. Meh. We see super models greeting Lewis in the garage, I think it's Gigi Hadid? Idk. Idc. They're with Spinz. While Johnny says he does think Lewis took control of his life and the whole management thing had a role in that too, we see Lewis joking around with the models, handing them his steering wheel then his very heavy bling necklace. Johnny says he feels comfortable with everything that's going on around him which is funny because it's true of his life and of the models lol. "Something he hasn't had for many many years," he continues, "he's always been open on that fact." And it gives him ultimate confidence on track. (I like Johnny Herbert I have to say, I feel like he's often right and doesn't take any of it too seriously.) 

There's a segment about Jules winning Marussia points here in 2014 and it makes me incredibly sad to hear these people talk about him. They all sound so proud. Max Chilton, his teammate at the time, says he got goosebumps just talking about it.

It's time for Lewis to get in the car, the models have to go. Oh, Nick is there! They hug.

I also read that Mercedes announced that they renewed Lewis' contract for an additional 3 years ahead of the weekend! Somehow I don't think they mentioned it during the broadcast but maybe I just missed it idk. 

Formation lap. 

They're racing! 

It's a tight start, Lewis is ahead but just about. Behind him, Nico is level with Seb and there's a Red Bull, Daniel I imagine, trying to get in-between them but locking up as he tries not to collide with the Ferrari. The cars fall into place, it's actually Kvyat who almost made contact, he got ahead of Ricciardo. Yellow flags in sector two. Yeah someone is in the barriers and reversing. It's Hulkenberg. As he tries to go away again he runs in the debris of his own car. The marshals jump the barrier to take them away. His front wing is gone. Massa is dead last and saying on the radio it's finished. What happened to him? Ohhh on the replay we see Hulkenberg was actually SENT into the barriers by Alonso… Hulkenberg pits, and Massa pits and they're both getting new front wings. And Max and Maldonado make contact. Verstappen is trying to race wheel to wheel in Monaco. Which isn't a thing. Unfortunately. But tbh good on him for trying. Alonso gets a 5 second time penalty for the collision with Hulkenberg. Max and Maldonado are indeed wheel to wheel and it made me inhale through my teeth, it's scary scary. I mean. It would be scary with any drivers but it's Max and Maldonado. On paper, terrible pairing for wheel to wheel racing on a tight street circuit. Verstappen takes P8. Ted says Maldonado has a brake by wire failure so things are gonna get worse for him. Yeah, they retire him. 

It's lap 10. Lewis, 3.1 in the lead, is told to manage his front left brake. Behind him it's of course Nico, then Seb, then Kvyat and Daniel, Raikkonen, Perez, Verstappen, Jenson and Alonso is currently P10. Lewis is having issues with brake balance and temperature. It's affecting the strategy, Ted says, as they're telling him he's not making a gap to Seb quick enough now. It's so early in the race to be struggling, I'm worried. 

Lap 20. Lewis is 3.9 ahead now. The order behind him is obviously unchanged. He's told the brakes are coming under control and he can reduce lift and coast. Nico is told it's important to reduce the gap to Lewis in case there's a Safety Car. A bit later, they tell him prime warm up looks better than they thought so Vettel is a threat to the undercut, hence he has to push. He's not getting closer to Lewis though. Lewis complained he lost time in traffic but now it's Rosberg and Seb caught in it and it's helping him a lot. 

It's lap 30. Lewis is 8.6 ahead and the pit stops are ongoing. After the top 3 it's now Daniel, Raikkonen, Perez, Jenson, Kvyat, Alonso and Nasr. Verstappen is just exiting the pit lane after a 31.0 wheel change in a 52.821 pit stop. His race is ruined. Seb pits. Daniel pits. Nico pits to cover Seb. Raikkonen pits. Nico is still ahead but it was close. 

Lap 40 (sigh). Lewis still hasn't stopped and he's 8.2 ahead. Why aren't they pitting him. He's losing time. Behind Seb is now Kvyat, Raikkonen is P5, then Daniel, Perez, Jenson, Alonso and Nasr. Nico just set the fastest lap… Alonso just went straight on in a run off area. He's out. 

Lap 50. The Monaco gp is always so testing for whatever is wrong with my brain wiring istg. It makes me wanna bite things really hard. Anyway, Lewis is, guess what, still ahead, by 10.8 seconds. So there was no reason to worry about Nico earlier. But he clearly must have stopped and I missed it because otherwise it wouldn't be possible. I mean this race is fucking boring and I can't focus so no surprise. Anyway. They keep showing us "battle for P2" between Seb and Nico but Seb is over 1.5 seconds behind so they're really grasping at straws there in reality. 

Lap 60. Lewis is a healthy 15 seconds in the lead. Bla bla bla. Please make it end. Max tries to overtake Grosjean in the hairpin and can't make it. That's another risky pairing. He's told to push the engine. Oh. Guess what? They crashed. It's actually a quite heavy one… One of them changed direction and Max's front left hit his rear right. That suspension is shredded and Max goes straight into the barriers at high speed. It must have hurt… Grosjean is able to leave the scene. All the RBR mechanics have horrified looks on their face. Can we hear him over radio? He's moving. Virtual Safety Car. From his on-board we see him hand his steering wheel to the marshals. "You OK Max?" – "I'm OK." He's struggling to climb out of his car though, maybe because it's embedded in the tepco barrier. He's up and out. Safety Car. Max is being checked upon by marshals. Ooof the replay is scary, that must have been a serious amount of Gs. On the radio Grosjean asks if he has damage. "He's a (beep) that Verstappen. That was stupid." Plenty of Safety Car pit stops. Wow. We see Verstappen's car hooked on a crane and the marshals are reaaaally struggling to extract it from the barriers. It's quite shocking how deep into it it went. Lewis pits???????????? He had to wait a bit to avoid an unsafe release. 

Oh shit. Nico is ahead. Lewis and Seb are side by side behind the Safety Car. Now what. Lewis is P3. No, come on. If Nico wins I quit. Not really but that would be infuriating. How did they fuck up that much, Lewis will be furious. Ted says Lewis on the radio said "I've lost this race, haven't I?" but Bono answered not if they lose tyre temp and he'd be fast behind on supersofts but that would work IF WE WERE ON A FUCKING TRACK ON WHICH YOU CAN FUCKING OVERTAKE FOR FUCKS SAKE 

Ooooh this is so frustrating. 

Lewis asks "what's happening guys?" and Bono says they're reviewing a video? What's that about? Is it about P2? Because we just saw a replay of him leaving the pits and he was clearly behind Seb if that's what he's on about. Seb on his radio says he was in front. Yes you were. He's told they can see from the TV and it was clear. Brundle keeps talking over the radio message to say the same thing just shut the fuck up man. We know. 

10 laps to go. He needs this SC in but they have to repair the barriers… lapped cars can overtake. Brundle is pissed because that's optional and they don't need to do it. Honestly fuck off. (I'm sorry I'm really pissed off by this race.) Yeah that's a lot of lapped cars but still. What's the use keeping them lapped that's just traffic for the midfield. Be real. Bono : "Lewis can you let us know who was ahead when you crossed Safety Car Line Two?" – "Nico was ahead. I was alongside Sebastian." No you weren't love I thought we'd left the bad faith with McLaren come on. Seb is complaining : "This is like sending swimmers to swim with weights on their legs, this makes no sense. We need at least two, three laps at better pace to get a bit of temperature, I mean this is a joke." 

Safety car coming in at the end of lap 70. That'll leave them 8 laps. Fucking hell. 

Here we go. Lewis is all over Seb's rear, he needs to get ahead quickly so Nico can't get away but if he rushes he'll crash. I'm losing my fucking mind. He can't make it. Nico is already over 2 seconds ahead. You can tell he's pissed from the way he drives. Don't fuck it up though… DRS is enabled. Daniel overtook 2 cars since the restart and is up in P4 but very honestly who cares right now. 

5 laps to go… Nico sets the fastest lap. He says it's impossible to pass. I need you to try though, like last race, don't give up. And Daniel sets the fastest lap, he's right behind Lewis, so I guess he became relevant in this race after all. He's under investigation for pushing Raikkonen wide though. 

3 laps to go. Bono : "Strat mode five and you have strat mode two available." – "Please stop talking to me, please." He's losing on Seb, getting closer to Daniel, I'm so very very angry at this race how did they fuck up THAT BAD. No further action for Daniel. Come on Lewis. Fight back please. 

It's the final lap. I can't believe what I've seen. And Daniel is told if he can't overtake Lewis he'll have to give his position back to Kvyat. 

It's the end of the race. 

And so Nico fucking wins fucking Monaco fucking again. Seb is P2 and Lewis is P3. Ricciardo did give the place back to Kvyat. 

Bono : "Sorry about that Lewis, mate. Just going to have to have a word with the pit wall." 

I have no words. 

Lewis stopped by the side of the track?! He's gone again. What was that. 

Ted tells Niki it seems like the team has lost Lewis the GP. "Yes, clear." Why on earth did they pit him? "I don't know. Confusion… in the overhead… I will say… a lot of people talking. And, wrong decision." Ted is adding fuel to the fire saying the Ferrari weren't even about to pit, there was no threat and the gap wasn't big enough. "Full agree." He says he was listening to the talks and there was too much confusion. Ted asks, if he's the boss now, how does he handle it and how does he handle Lewis, who's gonna be "absolutely spitting blood." Niki says he honestly feels really sorry and even apologised to his engineers. It's unacceptable. He asked Toto to analyse it properly and see what the mistake was.

Rosberg is out of the car, Seb is out of the car, Lewis' car isn't even there. 

Ted is with Toto now. He tells him Niki said it was unacceptable. "You've lost Lewis the grand prix. Why?" Toto says they did, they made a mistake, they thought the gap was a different one than it actually was, then Lewis called in that the tyres temp dropped and he had no grip. "A complete misjudgement." (As he talks Lewis finally arrives and straight up runs over the P3 sign.) Toto says he's just so sorry, "we just screwed it up for him". Ted says he's already apologised on the radio, what is he gonna say to him? He says there's nothing else to do but to apologise, and apologise, and apologise. (You know what else there is to do, actually? find out what happened and make sure it never ever EVER happens again, but we already know that it did.)

Lewis slowly, methodically, gets out of his car, while Nico is beaming on the side. Lewis is walking very slowly to them. Seb offers his hand first.

Lewis shakes it but barely looks at him. Seb whispers in his ear as he sets down his helmet (while I make the gif I hear "[something] won this race", possibly you should or would have won this race).

Nico did not make one gesture in his direction, he's still smiling on his side. They head up the short flight of stairs to the Monaco royalty. He's just so happy and expansive about it honestly it infuriates me. Like I get it, he's happy, he's won Monaco three times in a row but fuck that.

But Lewis is good so he walks up the stairs, taps Nico's shoulder and shakes his hand.

(See now the whole conversation with Thierry Henry just. Yeah I don’t need to spell it out, you get it.) Charlene pats his shoulder amicably after kissing his cheeks.

He barely lifts his trophy to the crowd without a smile and sets it down.

Seb says something to him again.

He looks down during the anthem. Nico's satisfied grin as Lewis wipes his face istg. I know it's not his fault but he's so grating right now. Also Lewis' face… if I was from his side of the garage I would be shitting myself. The crowd is chanting his name though. He gives them a thumbs up but it doesn't cheer him up.

They hand them champagne. Nico grabs his bottle and runs off with it. Lewis walks away with his.

Some official stops him in his tracks though as he's truly walking away.

The interviews begin. Will he even talk to Brundle? 

Nico says he's very happy but he also knows it was just a lot of luck today. "Lewis drove brilliantly and would have also deserved the win for sure. But that's the way it is in racing." Lewis is back, we see him sitting down behind Nico with his head bowed still. Honestly… this is such long moments after a race like that it must suck so bad. Brundle asks Nico if he has an explanation as to why Lewis was brought in and not him, he says he doesn't. You don't know the decisions being made as you're in the car. The restart on cold hard tyres was very hard but it worked out. 

In his interview Seb smiles as he says it was pretty close but he's confident he was ahead of Lewis out of the pits. He's happy to be on the podium again and he feels like they were closer in the race than they were in quali. 

Yeah Lewis does NOT want to talk. Brundle says he thinks he speaks for millions of people when he says he's sorry for him. Behind him, the whole royal family starts clapping for him.

The whole crowd starts cheering for him. "Yeah that was not… the easiest of races. But you know the team has done amazing all year long and we win and we lose together so uh…”

“You know I'm just grateful for the job that I did and congratulations to Nico and Sebastian."

… He's matured a lot, hasn't he? It makes me genuinely emotional. Remember the first seasons? He's grown so much. Also it's remarkable how he actually doesn't get very angry but rather sad. I'm pissed af as you can tell. He's just disappointed.

Brundle asks if he can tell them why he was pitted. He takes a big breath in. "I'm sure we'll sit down afterwards and try and think of ways we can improve." 

How bad do you feel now, Brundle asks. You've lost a Monaco grand prix it's been taken away from you. What's going through your mind? "... Uh… come back to win the next one."

A couple of people in the crowd yell "yeah!" and people start clapping, including the Royal family again. 

I just realised Nico's ears are absolutely not the same size. 

I read that in the post race press conference Lewis said the stop was made after he complained of his tyres, and he thought both Nico and Seb had already stopped. He was asked if he'd have full confidence in the team's strategy after that and said yes. 

Max got a 5 place grid penalty for the next race after his crash with Grosjean. He also got 2 penalty points. Oh wait lol. Until now I was like yeah okay, fair. But then I read that he claimed Grosjean brake tested him. Bro stfu. We all saw what happened. Grosjean did not slow down. Verstappen was criticised by Massa, who said he deserved the penalty. He said he did nothing wrong and pointed Massa to his own accident with Perez in Canada 2014. Bold move child. Sit down and drink your milk. 

Let's check out the postrace content now that I have it.

They sent Ted to talk to Nick. He says they're all gutted, he did such a good job. He's massively proud of what he's done yesterday and today. He seems emotional. He says he doesn't know and he doesn't want to comment on it. Ted explains what Mercedes said the mistake was due. He talks about Senna who crashed and went straight to his apartment. Nick says you can see Lewis' emotions right away. He's obviously hurting right now, but he's gonna remain positive. He says he'll make sure to give him as much support as he can, he knows he's there for him and hopefully they can pick him up and get him ready for the next one. Ted says this race kinda means more to him than others, "100%" Nick answers. Monaco is very special for everyone. 

From the commentators cabin, Crofty says he can see just above Mercedes garage, in the offices, Paddy Lowe, Toto Wolff, Bono and James Vowles. They've been talking for 15 minutes, basically since the end of the race. 

We get to hear what Lewis says in the press conference. He's not okay. He says he can't express how he feels so he won't attempt to.

He says he saw a screen and it looked like the team was out so he thought Nico had pitted. He couldn't see the guys behind him so he thought they were pitting. The team told him to stay out so he said the tyres are gonna drop in temperature, assuming the guys behind would be on options, while he was on hards, so they told him to pit. So he went in with full confidence that the others had done the same. 

Natalie bravely went to interview him as well. Let's see how that went. Oh fucking hell. Natalie starts by asking if sorry is enough from the team. He says yes with a small smile but it sounds like he's about to break.

She asks how he gets over this, because none of them can imagine how frustrated he is, and angry. He says he'll refocus tomorrow, enjoy his evening, and try to win the next race. "As simple as that?" – "It's all I can do."

She said they talked before about him wanting to be a leader in the team, is that just another big challenge he has to overcome in that respect? "Um… Yeah, I guess so." – "So you can actually be that reflective and you can actually say to yourself 'you know what I can be the bigger man here, I can grow, I can learn from this'?" He says it's very difficult at the moment, "but you know I'll…" He interrupts himself, looks down and shakes his head.

"I'm world champion so I need to behave like one and I'd like to be the team leader and I think today I showed my pace, I showed what I can do here in Monaco and… So… I feel content in my heart that I did everything I could." (The cameraperson is struggling real hard and just zooooomed on his cheekbone freckle lol) Natalie asks if he's spoken to the key strategist. He says no but it was a collective decision between all of them (he says “us”).

Then Toto is with Ted. He says they had a problem with the maths. They thought they could afford a stop to protect against Seb. But Ted cuts him off out of sheer disbelief. "But Ferrari weren't out in the pitlane!" he exclaims in a hushed voice. "You weren't protecting from anything! They weren't out, they weren't gonna make a stop!" Toto says they were 10 seconds behind them so they could have made a pit stop when Lewis was in. There was plenty of time to do a stop. But he says at the end of the day there's no excuse, because they got the maths wrong. He seems furious. The calculations for the gap were giving them a bigger gap than what they had. "Full stop". He says the margin mistake was 3.5 seconds. Now the question is whether they should have made the call with a 3.5 seconds gap or not. 

Ted is back with the others and he's not convinced by his talk with Toto. He says first of all even if Ferrari had pitted someone, the Merc (aka Nico) would still have had track position. "What circuit did they think they were at?!" he bursts out. "Track position is key!" Then he adds even if Seb had been on the quicker tyre at the end, he wouldn't have been able to get past just like Lewis wasn't able to. He's very right. The issue here isn't the gap miscalculation. 

Ted, although he says himself he might be a bit dramatic, wonders how Lewis can ever again trust a call from his pit wall after that. Simon says twitter is weaving conspiracy theories. Brundle says what they've got to remember is the million calls they've made that were spot-on. But Ted maintains it will stay in Lewis’ head though. 

Nico says yes it's a weird one to celebrate because not all of the team is excited. Indeed on the team photo I felt like there weren't as many people as usual. Of course Lewis himself wasn't there. Johnny asks if it matters, with a mischievous smile. Nico says he's learnt to take it. Sometimes the sport isn't nice to you and sometimes it is, he knows he's been incredibly lucky today, and he'll take it. Hill says Lewis will get over it, right? They're all racing drivers, they know how it is. Nico says it's not the first time and won't be the last, but he's sure today ranks as one of the worst moments for him. Losing in such a way really isn't good, especially since he's done such a good job this weekend. (He's actually being remarkably gracious about this I have to say. Very fair.) He says he has a lot of empathy for him but also a lot of space to just be happy. 

[desertgremlin]

Omg I was out all day yesterday and forgot to reply lol.

I actually saw a post on IG that had Molly's character and Cicero together, like a splitscreen of their faces, and then I was like, "Wait..." so maybe Carmy knows her from childhood? Which would also be interesting.

But for some reason I still have a strong feeling she will be some sort of love interest. And like, I agree, I think it's okay if there is no romance in the show but I always side eye people who are like, "Why do we have to have a romance? Why are you ruining the show?" And they need to keep that energy for her too and I'm not seeing it =/

As if romance isn't a part of people's lives? Yes it's heavy-handed and overly focused on, especially on television shows. And I'm not saying that it needs to be a telenovela, but like, I trust the writers and the showrunners. Some people were so nervous because they were like, the first season was so good, what if they mess it up? Which I think is so disrespectful. As if they could write a script for a TV show. An actual good one. There's a possessiveness people seem to have over this show in particular so when they are adamant about no romance, it's weird to me because....they didn't create the show and don't know these characters and stories as well as the creators.

I know the actors were surprised that a lot of people saw any sort of romantic or sexual potential in the story but it is there. Maybe Jeremy Allen White doesn't know what he looks like in the mirror but his face is quite expressive, especially his eyes. And we can see, as the audience, what he is feeling just by looking at him. And he always had that "I love you" look when he looked at Sydney. I've seen so many guys look at people that way when they are enamored. It's a very specific look and I always know what it means whether it's with children or parents or significant others. He has it when he looks at Syd. He doesn't even look at Sugar in any way that conveys like care or anything and Natalie is his sister! Like even with the people he tolerates and likes, he isn't like that. That look is reserved for Sydney.

I personally do think Carmy and Syd are soul mates. Maybe not romantic soul mates but they get one another. It can be platonic, it can be familial. But it's there. And I'm open to it being anything, but......I really do think it's more than platonic or familial. And the people who are like, oh Carmy is just a mentor.....I'm like, what are you on about? A mentor would NOT look at me the way he looks at Syd. A mentor would not put me in charge of literally everything. It's such a paternalistic way of viewing their relationship when they are clearly equals and could be intimate in kore ways than one.

no omg that's totally fine!!

Ooh okay, I do love characters who show up and know a lot about the main character's past and possibly upheaves some memories, so if that is the case 👀 Interesting!!

Once a show is out there it definitely gets subject to possessiveness - whether it be because people have interpreted it a certain way that's meaningful to them or whether they just think they know these characters better than the writers. So like, I get the people who are all for ace!carmy or more really good platonic relationship representation through this show. As for the other people, side eye-ing them along with you!

100% agree with you about The Look. It is there. It is undeniable!!! It gets me weak in the freaking knees. Carmy and Sydney just Get each other and those are my fave types of relationships. Ones where there's a synergy, a shorthand. And that doesn't mean they get along 24/7 - because lol just look at season one - but there's always an understanding there at the bottom of it all and I live for it. So I agree, whatever way the writers go with it - there is def a soulmate type bond there. I can't waitttt to see more of it in s2.

[tilliam-w-psears]

#grelleboss

listen to it here 😍🪓

some lyric annotations under the cut 

primadonna (marina)

i can’t help that i need it all/the primadonna life the rise and fall/you say that i’m kinda difficult/but it’s always someone else’s fault

bloody mary (lady gaga)

we are not just art for michelangelo to carve/he can’t rewrite the agro of my furied heart/i’ll wait on mountain tops in paris cold/je ne veux pas mourir toute seule

i/me/myself (will wood)

say my name like a slur, but i’ve been called worse/yeah i’ve heard it all before no this isn’t a first

townie (mitski)

i want a love that falls as fast/as a body from the balcony and/i want a kiss like my heart is hitting the ground/i’m holding my breath with a baseball bat though i don’t know what i’m waiting for/ i am not gonna be what my daddy wants me to be

cop car (mitski)

i miss riding horses, i miss running fast/i was meant for running fast/i pretended you were mine, it made me calm babe

hermit the frog (marina)

did you find your bitch in me/oh you’re abominable socially/you’re just a little bit too much like me

sandy (alex g)

my name is sandy i’m 14 years old/my insides are changing and right now i just wanna grow up

natalie wood (tv girl)

cause when you’re born into this life/recited lines is a waste of time/just go in there and close the door behind ya/and there’s a world of difference between acing the audition and doing whatever it takes to win the part

ideal world (girlpool)

i thought i found myself today/no one’s noticed things are okay

bubblegum bitch (marina)

i’ll chew you up and i’ll spit you out/cause that’s what young love is all about/so pull me closer and kiss me hard

the same (alex g)

i’ll be downstairs, let me do my hair/and put my makeup on, it feels so wrong

skate witches (teen suicide)

cause i don’t like myself/and i can’t be someone else/and i don’t like you/you don’t like me too

bag of bones (mitski)

and after everything’s done and i’m all undone/you can hear my high heels walking on/clickity-clacking through the night/i’m carrying my bag of bones

video girl (fka twigs)

trying to make a stand for the main squeeze/please, you don’t stand a chance/stop acting like you can

leavin on your mind (patsy cline)

if you’ve got leavin’ on your mind/tell me now, get it over/hurt me now, get it over

[welcome-to-gaytown]

Hello beloved Ace, god of being amazing <33

How was your day?

seriously being a god is the only explanation for how amazing and lovely you are. just too awesome to be human. It’s not possible.

ill let you return back to dinner with the olympians. 💖

CRYONG BESTIE IM CRYING

hello beloved natalie, goddess of awesomeness <33

my day was okay, i went to school to get my schedule and i only have three periods with my best friend <//3 but my day was good other than that dshjfsdhkj

how was your day?

IM NOT A GOD YOU ARE YOU ARE JUST SO SWEET AND NICE AND INHUMANLY AMAZING

thanks shawty but you are here dining with me because you are part of the olympians too <3

[homo-nouveau]

if you had to cast a riverdale actor as EVERY true blood character who would play who

!!! First of all I think all the actors would suffer terribly trying to do a Louisiana accent which would only make it better and we already know that kj HAS to play Jason but here's my s1 rundown (+ some extras);

Suki: Suki's a tough one because lili like looks the part but I've not seen her as anyone other than Betty and the idea of her playing like an innocent southern bell (at least initially) is....jarring? So maybe vanessa morgan

Bill: Sean depner cause I think it would be very funny

Eric: Again none of the men on Riverdale look like a centuries old Viking or even like a thirty year old Viking so we're gonna have to go with Chad Michael Murray

Pam: Gina Gershon simply because why not

Tara: the issue with riverdale is the lack of poc in the cast in general 🤪 but also the fact that the only young male black character was stripped of his comic book identity and turned into a villain and then like kicked off the show, so for Tara and Lafayette there is an issue but I can see Ashleigh Murray pulling off Tara pretty well, we'd just have to look elsewhere for Lafayette

Jessica: Madeleine obviously

Sam: Jordan connor? Perhaps?

Hoyt: the guy who plays moose without a doubt

Andy: we bring back skeet, he does a terrible job it's brilliant

Arlene: Natalie I think she'd ace it honestly

Rene: Rob raco simply because I advocate for Natalie having a boy toy on her arm and also he COULD pull it off

Adele: nana rose cause there's literally no other geriatric in Riverdale other than like?? Pop??

The hillbilly couple that tried to drain bill in the first episode: I think the guys that play Charles and chic would be really in their element here

Sarah newlin and her husband: Lili! She would be brilliant I think and like??? Casey Cott as Steve??

Russel edginton: lochlyn? OR Mr conseulos himself

Sophie-Anne: mädchen she has the range

Maryann: Erinn Westbrook, she wouldn't even have to use her powers people would just like fall in love with her anyway

All the waitresses and women who are killed in association to Jason in season 1 are all just Cole Sprouse in a different party city wig

Okay this is too long anyway ahaha sorry but yeah there's so many I've missed but those are all like the solid visions I have, anyway thanks for the best question I've ever received!

[spiderling-space]

This started as a joke but I wanted to take it further and make a smut fic with a bit of crack at the beginning. 

I was conflicted between going through the normal route and starting the regular fanfic to introduce my MC but introducing via smut is OP and it is something I’d do.

Featuring my MC… Natalie and the horny boy Malleus

Established relationship

Italics indicate thoughts and emphasis 

Explicit content below the cut

“I bribed Grimm to leave us alone, he will be with Ace and Deuce and won’t be coming back to Ramshackle tonight and I asked the ghosts to give us some privacy.” The redhead beamed at Malleus, smiling widely, standing in her pajama shorts and top tank.

“I thought you wanted to watch just a movie. Why would you send your friends away, Child of Man?” Malleus questions Natalie’s motives. Is he dense or is he doing that to make me say it out loud?

Natalie tiptoed, closing the distance between them as she stroked his cheek. “I didn’t want anyone interrupting our date. And I don’t think calling me Child of Man would be good for the mood now… After all, it is a date.” She said cheekily before grabbing his hand and dragging him to the lounge. “Also, it isn’t one movie. There are 3… Uhm… short movies… Yeah… short movies.” She explained curtly before asking Malleus to sit as she connected her laptop to the TV. She couldn’t pass the opportunity to tease him considering the nature of the movies they were about to watch so she wiggled her butt when she was sure Malleus was looking at her way. She was disappointed when she didn’t see any reaction from him instead, he was sitting his back straight and focusing on the TV. Either way, this was no time to be focusing on trivial things, they had 3 interesting short movies to watch and she would be getting his attention at the end either way. “You can take notes while watching. In fact, I would recommend it.” She couldn’t contain the giggle that she tried to surpass whilst she was taking her position on the couch, laying on it and putting her feet on Malleus’ lap to flaunt her slender legs to him.

“Is this how humans watch a movie?” He asked curiously, “We do not have movies in the Valley of Thorns, television is not used. We have various plays in the theatres.” 

“You can watch TV however you want and whatever position that’s comfortable.” She changed into a sitting position, planted a chaste kiss on his cheek before winking at him. “I doubt you have the type of movies that we are about to watch as plays.” She wondered if he was understanding the nature of what they were about to watch and even thought of informing him but she also wanted to see his reaction. “One little info before we watch… these aren’t 100 percent real but it gives some vague ideas.”

So she pressed the play, she already knew what was going to happen so she wasn’t paying much attention to the screen, instead, her green eyes were focusing on Malleus to see his reactions.

Malleus’ eyes widened at what he was seeing on the screen. “Oh dear… Did something happen?” Natalie feigned innocence, amused by his reaction.

She paused the video when Malleus looked with a bewildered expression. “What is this?”

Natalie kept her voice neutral, trying to contain the hilarity hidden. “It is called porn. To be precise, lesbian porn.”

It seemed like Malleus had no idea what she was talking about or why she would make them watch such a thing. “Do humans enjoy watching other humans having intimate time?”

Realizing that she couldn’t explain it from her position, she was once again sitting. She took his hand in hers, making eye contact while she explained her standpoint. “Actually, I prefer soft porn over hardcore one but the circumstances demanded this.” She cleared her throat. “Before we started dating or in your words courting, I asked you if you would be okay with premarital sex since you said this is the first time you are experiencing these feelings. You said you are okay with it and Lilia told you about the intimacy between partners. While I’m sure Lilia didn’t leave any stone unturned, seeing the action is better just hearing about it. Of course, hands-on is the best way of learning but that’s a topic for another time.” She kissed his knuckles, hoping that he would see it as a romantic gesture. “To be fair, I know that porn is unrealistic but I found these that focus on female pleasure. I spent hours to find the best 3 videos. I needed to bleach my eyes after seeing some stuff.” She shivered after recalling certain cursed videos.

“Bleaching your eyes would blind you.” I should teach him 21st-century slang. 

Natalie chuckled, “It’s just an expression used when you see something that is disturbing.” At least I didn’t say cursed images… He could have taken that literally and go ‘who cursed you?!’. “Where was I?... Ah yeah, the pleasure part. It’s the part where I said you can take notes... So about that…” She grimaced, recalling that awful memory. “In short, the preparation time, or in other words foreplay, is an important part of sex. I don’t want our first time to be as disappointing, unsatisfactory and anti-climatic as my own first time.” She gave him a sheepish look, “I hope you understand. It is fine if you don’t want to watch it though, we can pick a PG13 movie or do another activity.”

Malleus had kept a stoic expression whilst Natalie was talking, which was making it hard for her to understand what he was thinking. She was wondering if she somehow ended up offending him until he finally spoke. “It is fine. As you said, one learns better when it is shown.”

Nat got back to her previous position and resumed the movie. The redhead had already watched the movies she picked so she wasn’t focusing on the screen, all of her attention was on Malleus and trying to gauge his reaction. Though there was none, no excited expression nor an absorbed one, he was just apathetic. Nat even accidentally brushed his crotch with her feet but didn’t feel any hardness. Is he really not interested in porn? Maybe he is sleeping with his eyes open… Or maybe he has experience in this, built up a tolerance against… He is quite old too though he didn’t say his real age… 

“So what do you think?” Natalie asked after all 3 videos she picked ended. She closed all the tabs, cleared the browser history before shutting down her laptop. One can never be too careful. 

Natalie withdrew one of her legs and placed it behind Malleus’ back, inching close enough for her chest to almost touch his arm. Malleus took a glance at her new position before answering her. “It was interesting.”

“How so?”

“I saw everything Lilia told me and more. You are right, seeing the action is better for learning.” Malleus turned his body in her direction, his hand found its way to her long locks, grazing them lightly, having a smug expression along the way. “But as you said, hands-on is the best way of learning.” He held her chin before closing the distance between their mouths, eyes closed as his lips started moving.

Natalie didn’t expect him to take action immediately but she wasn’t complaining. She wondered how far he would take it. Her hands were wandering on his chest, back and finally, she pulled him closer by his shirt's neck. It must have encouraged him since she heard him growl. She was proven right when he fully turned her way and slowly pressed her to the couch below. His hand started to explore her top gently under her tank top, starting from her belly and moving on to her chest, cupping one of her breasts. 

Nat patted his cheek and pulled a little away from him, “I know in porn, it is comfortable to do it on the couch but in reality, it isn’t. So-”

Before she could finish, Malleus teleported them to her bedroom, on her bed. “Is this better? I can take us to my chambers as well.”

“No, no, this is fine.” She gave him a peck. “I just have 2 more requests from you.” Malleus nodded, signing her to go on before starting to kiss her neck. I need to focus on my demands and don’t let myself be distracted. “Hehe… Wait, wait...” His hair was tickling her neck as well, making her impossible to stop giggling, so she resorted to grasping his chin and tilting up, making him look at her. “Before we go any further, I need to see your nails.” He looked confused by her request so she added a quick explanation. “Nails can scratch and tear muscle down there which would bring me great pain and maybe go to the hospital as well, so…”

“I would never harm you, Natalie.” He showed her his nails which were perfectly trimmed. “What is your second request?”

“I need you to wash your hands. You know how much of a hygiene freak I am, I just can’t stand the thought of something dirty getting inside of me.” She hoped it wouldn’t kill the mood but the thought of germs on hands just gave her goosebumps. Malleus didn’t answer her, rather he kissed her forehead before teleporting to somewhere. She was dumbfounded momentarily but soon the sound of water running from her bathroom relaxed her. “Don’t forget the 20 seconds rule!” She yelled out the reminder.

The moment the water stopped running, Malleus appeared on top of her, startling her. “I believe we wasted enough time.” Nat nodded in agreement. She was so distracted by the feeling of his lips on hers that she didn’t realize Malleus vanished their clothing with his magic. “I shall take care of you now.”

Malleus started prepping kisses all over her neck and jaw while his hands traveled to her breasts. When his lips were inches apart from hers, Natalie ran her tongue over his lips slowly, leaning towards him and capturing his bottom lip, biting it lightly as to taunt him. Malleus craved to taste her lips once again, yet he couldn’t forestall his instincts from taking over, his hands found their way to her face, holding her delicately while gazing into her eyes. Since the minx was brave enough to tease him, he didn’t need to hold back. He clashed his lips against hers frantically, their teeth clicking together. Her tongue darted, brushing his fangs before exploring his mouth. He, soon, was swirling his tongue around hers, battling for domination. He was persistent and she was too stubborn to lose, so he resorted to distracting her. His hands left her face, moving back to her perky breasts. 

Malleus’ hands were large enough to cover her each boob, rubbing them gently and his fingers were playing with her pink nipples every time he got a chance. It was too arousing for her as her moan was silenced by the kiss. Malleus took advantage of the opportunity to delve his tongue into her mouth, exploring it with his tongue. 

Natalie was never someone to gave up on the fight, including the bedroom. Two can play the game. Malleus had told her that his horns were sensitive and she was about to find out how sensitive they were. She ranked her nails through his soft hair, moving towards where his horns were connected. Her fingers moved along them softly, she was stoking his horns up and down with her hands. Malleus growled loudly, ending the kiss when it became too much for him. 

Natalie withdrew her hands from his horns, moving to hold his face between her hands. “Oh?” She purred, “Did something happen?” She asked with faux innocence while looking straight into his eyes.

Malleus had a smug smile on his face, “You are lucky I didn’t breath fire.” Nat wasn’t sure if he was joking or not but she didn’t have much time to think about it as Malleus attacked her neck with kisses once again. His kisses became harsher and quicker, covering all over her neck before he moved down to her chest. He captured her nipple with his mouth, sucking it whilst his tongue twirling around the areola while his hand was busy with her left breast. Nat arched her chest and moved her head to the side so his horns wouldn’t his her face all while biting back moans. The warmth and wetness of his tongue were becoming too hard to handle, finally, she moaned breathily. 

Satisfied to hear her reaction, Malleus switched to her left nipple, sucking it as his tongue circled the areola while his hand was messaging the previous breast. Nat tilted her head to the other side for him to move freely. Her breathing became erratic as he worked on her breasts more and more. She jolted when Malleus grazed her breast with his fangs, making her pant ruggedly. She had never been together with someone with fangs and had no one with amazing they would feel against her skin and she was more than happy to experience it with Malleus. She could feel him smirking on her skin, his chuckle confirmed that. 

Malleus was done toying with her chest, making eye contact with her as his fangs slowly grazed her skin from her chest to her groin. Natalie laughed shakily, she was a ticklish person and the way his fangs moved across her body was both tickling and arousing her. Finally, he reached his desired place, he placed his hands on her inner thighs and slowly spread them apart.

“Give me a sec,” Nat whispered, grabbing a small pillow and putting it under her butt to give a better angle to Malleus, winking at him. “Do continue please...”

His only response was kissing her inner thigh. He started from the knee, moving up to her cunt but just before reaching there, he switched to the other thigh, leaving Nat whining. He was kissing every inch until the same spot. She thought since he wouldn’t tease her anymore, oh how wrong she was. This time he was dragging his fangs along her inner thighs, making Nat bite her lips and tremble from the sensation.

After what seemed like an eternity, Malleus started to play with Nat’s wetness. He crawled over her, one hand staying between her legs while the other one was resting near her head, gazing at each other’s eyes. She leaned forward whilst pulling him towards her, giving him a lascivious kiss. He returned with pleasure as his finger entered her cunt, relishing the way she moaned into his mouth. His index finger explored her cunt was exploring her cunt, moving in a circular motion but he didn’t deem it enough. He added a second finger, making her gasp then began to scissor her as his thumb rubbed her clitoris, setting all of her nerves on fire. 

The more minutes passed, the more it became hard for Natalie to restrain herself. She was moaning between the kisses, digging her fingers on Malleus’ shoulder as to get a grip on the reality. Feeling her orgasm coming, her breathing hitched as her vaginal muscles tightened around his fingers. “Malleus…” Her moans mixed with his name as she cummed. 

She was coming down from her high, panting to catch her breath, a divine sight for Malleus, “Do not tell me you are already done, Natalie.” He was wearing a smug look on his face. Two can play the game.

“Why? Is this the best you can do?” Teasing and provoking people was her favorite pass time activity. It was all better when she was doing it to her boyfriend in the bedroom, adding some spice to sex.

His response was chuckling, not uttering any word, he trailed down kisses to her naval region. He slowly licked her slit, devouring her cum and sending shivers through her spine. He made eye contact with her before dipping his tongue into her vagina. Nat arched her back as she grabbed the sheet below. Malleus was moving his tongue in her cunt expertly as his nose was brushing her labia, his fingers were playing with her clit again. Her grip on the sheets was no longer enough, her hand found its way to his hair, raking and pulling the hair between his horns. Her actions just made him ravish her more, his tongue reaching as far as it could touching everywhere it could. Nat couldn’t help her hips but buck her hips against his mouth, his other hand moved to her belly to press her to the mattress as if he was the one in charge during sex.

Natalie wasn’t someone who would let Malleus get away with it. If he prevented her from bucking her hips, she would try to hold back another orgasm from surging, making him work on her more. Malleus must have sensed her defiance as he changed his method. He pulled his tongue back and stopped rubbing her clit, leaving Nat aching for her release. She whined and pouted at him for leaving her wanting - no needing for more. 

Malleus wasn’t a cruel fae, at least towards Natalie, he wouldn’t leave her in this state. He just wanted to observe how she would look when she was desperate for him. He swatted away her hand which was going down her cunt to finish what he started, causing her to pout once more. He would finish what he started, he deemed enough time has passed so he quickly got between her thighs again, licking her cunt, his tongue flickering around her clitoris then delving his tongue into her cunt. Nat was already on the edge of her orgasm, now the stimulation was bringing her closer to her sweet release.

With one last tongue move of his, her toes curled and her muscles tightened again, not even realizing she was pulling his hair. As Natalie cummed, Malleus ate it all up. When he finally withdrew from her groin, he made sure Nat would see him lick his lips. “Divine.”

Natalie’s breathing was erratic, trying to collect herself, balancing herself on her elbows. Her green eyes were taking in him, noticing how hard his cock was. “I guess it is your turn now.” She finally spoke after cooling down.

Malleus lifted her chin to look directly into his eyes. “Tonight was for you.” He crawled on top of her as she laid down on her bed again. His hands slid down her body down to her knees, pulling them towards his waist. Natalie hooked her legs behind his back, going towards his upper body as much as she could. “You better have a condom or you will get me a morning-after pill or potion. We wouldn’t want any surprises, would we?” She noticed his eyebrows knitting together briefly when she said condom but that was a talk for another time.

I should also ask where he practiced that tongue and finger game too.

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

Safe sex is the best and it is more than just wearing a condom. It is about preserving your health during sex. BDSM is also safe sex if people take care of safe words. Prep time or foreplay is important for people with vaginas and nails can tear your skin and get an infection. Even without the whole corona situation, don’t put unhygienic stuff to your vagina. Lastly, you can’t learn sex from porn, it is highly unrealistic and they are to show the fantasy. Please research on safe sex before having sex. 

[arsonistslut]

TW: This part of the story is inconceivably violent, so if that triggers you or you're uncomfy with this sort of stuff, please skip this chapter of my rewrite.

Chapter 18: The Killer's Rampage

CRASH!

The hospital chair proved more than effective at breaking the locked window that held him inside, the moon shining in and providing miniscule light for Jeff Woods. He knew he had to be quick to get outside, as the faculty would probably be barging into his locked room any second now,so he scrambled through the broken window frame, ignoring the glass shards cutting into his bandaged body and hospital gown as he jumped down from the room. It wasn't a long fall, as he was on the first floor of the building, so he quickly proceeded off the hospital grounds and on the road toward his house, grabbing one of the larger shards of broken glass on the ground, just in case he might've needed it. He wasn't waiting anymore. It had been far too long already.

Randy Ellsworth was still thinking over his decision to split off from Keith and Troy on his way home. His mind wandered through ideas, questions he had. Did he really hurt Keith and Troy, or were they just caught up in the moment? One thought led to another, and soon, his thoughts were back at the party. He had invited Jeff there as a peace offering, something that could keep everyone happy for a bit and let everything settle down..but he just had to do that, didn't he? He had to glass him, send him tumbling into that fire..he could only hope and pray he was doing alright. His train of thought about his transgressions was stopped when his headlights highlighted a figure walking down the road, wearing some sort of hospital gown. The figure looked like they were bleeding, so Randy pulled over and got out of the car, cautiously approaching the figure.

"H-Hello? sir, ma'am, whoever you are..you need a ride or something? I can drive you somewhere, if you want."

Randy looked at the person standing before him, before looking into their eyes..the black hair was a start, but those black, sunken-in, terrifying eyes that peered out from the bandages wrapped around their head were a dead giveaway.

"J..Jeff..is that you?"

Jeff's breathing got heavier, gripping the glass in his hand so tightly that his hand bled, until he let out a gutteral yell and charged Randy, driving the shard deep into his chest and tackling him onto his car. Randy screamed in horror and pain, and Jeff took the shard and stabbed him with it, over and over into his gut as blood sprayed onto his face and body. Ellsworth cried and screamed as Woods proceeded to reach into one of the open wounds on his body and violently string out his intestines, his guts flowing out like streamers. Randy hurled a mixture of vomit and blood onto his car, before finally perishing in the killer's grasp.

Jeff shivered as the cold nipped at him, the wind howling as he opened the door to his family's home with the spare key under the floormat. The house was much warmer than the outside, as Jeff just took a moment to soak it all in..the warmth, the stench of blood on his body, what was to come next. Making sure his footsteps were muted, he made his way to the drier and began rummaging through for clean clothes, something warm to replace his hospital gown. A white hoodie and a pair of red jeans would fit him nicely, so he threw the gown aside and slid his new clothing over his athletic frame, hissing as the cloth made contact with his tender, bandaged flesh. His spare pair of steel-toed military boots tied off the outfit quite well, so he proceeded upstairs, retrieving his switchblade from his drawer and pocketing it. He then went to the bathroom, wanting to see his face after not having seen it in over a month. When he peeled away the medical tape from his face, the sight he saw horrified him. His face..it was horrible. All of his skin was a cadaverous white, now, and the old mouth scars he had were gone, overwritten by the hypodermic scarring that had turned his body into a chilling reminder of the party that had gone terrifyingly wrong. He began to chuckle at the sight, the grisly state his face was in, before taking his switchblade and digging it into his cheeks, letting out awful sobs and laughs as bloody tears began to slide down his face.

"Who's there?"

His mother's voice called out into the darkness, and with rivers of crimson pouring from his wounds, he patiently waited. Carla turned the corner, a switchblade to the throat quickly silencing her. Her eldest son watched her gurgle and choke on her own blood, a cold, unforgiving glare meeting her gaze as she died on the floor. The cathartic sensation that washed over Jeff felt unending, his breath growing shaky as he entered his father's room. Carla had gotten out of bed and left Jeff Sr. asleep in his bed. Woods slowly approached his father, before raising his blade and driving down into his head, his father's eyes widening as he realized what was happening.

He was going to die.

Liu was asleep, downstairs, his earbuds blocking out any commotion he might've heard otherwise. He was a light sleeper, so the overpowering smell of blood and sweat that wafted into his room as his door opened was quick to wake him up. When he turned around, he saw his brother standing in the doorway, holding a blowtorch he'd surely gotten from the garage and sliding something down the back of his pants.

"Jeff..is that you? W-What're you doing here?"

A sickeningly prideful chuckle came from Jeff, turning on the blowtorch in his hand and holding it in the air so Liu could definitely see it.

"I am the devil, Liu. And I am here to do the devil's work."

Liu had no time to question his brother about anything he just heard, as Jeff had pinned down the boy with his left hand, igniting the flame of the blowtorch with the other. Then, every neuron in the boy's brain shocking him with pain as his brother rammed the blowtorch into his face, laughing at his screams and cries of pain, a smile soon charred into his face, much like Jeffrey's. Drawing his switchblade from his pocket, the elder sibling jammed the knife into Liu's shoulder, his screams delighting Jeffrey as his blood sprayed onto his face. Jeff, however, was soon knocked away by a lamp thrown at his head. He dropped the blowtorch and held the side of his head, looking to see who threw a lamp at him. He had just enough time to make out Natalie's face as she then struck Jeff with a wrench, knocking him even further back. Liu's body slumped off his bed as Woods tried to kick Natalie away, to no avail when she struck his ankle aside.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!"

She cried out as blows from her wrench followed, each one more and more painful than the last. However, Jeff had an ace up his sleeve. Reaching into the back of his pants, he grabbed his father's 1911 pistol and pressed it against her cheek.

"Go to sleep, bitch!"

The gunshot that then rang out was deafening, Natalie screaming as her face bled, both of her cheeks blasted open by the 45. ACP that was shot right into her face. Jeff groaned as he stood up, his body still aching from those wrench strikes, and reached down to Nat's face, gripping her right eyeball and beginning to yank it out of her head. With a disgusting snap of her eye's optic nerve, he succeeded, dropping the eyeball next to her. Natalie screamed until her vocal cords no longer let her, Jeffrey running his bloody, bandaged fingers through his hair without a single notion of guilt for his terrible crimes as she eventually passed out from blood loss. With 3 people surely dead at his hands for sure and 2 more in a less certain state, Jeff proudly smiled as he wrote a message in blood on one of the walls, Liu's sobs the only audible sound in the house.

"Why...? Jeff, why did you do this?"

Jeffrey turned to his brother..his crying, bleeding, surely dying brother. A member of his own family, laying in a pool of his own gore. He just looked at Liu, unable to conjure an answer.

"...Why?! Answer me, damnit.."

As Jeffrey began to walk toward the front door, he internally struggled to find an answer for Liu's pleas. The truth was..he didn't have an answer. These were crimes he committed out of impulse, out of a blind hatred he felt for the world. Jeff felt that his brother hated him anyways, so the truth wouldn't change anything. He slowly walked out of his home, not a single word leaving his lips as his brother pleaded for a reason for his killings.

Jeff had a moment of peace outside, his hoodie shielding his body from the cool winds around him. Then, he saw an old '68 Dodge Charger pulled over on the side of the road, and when he caught sight of Keith Winchester at a nearby payphone, he knew killing him would get rid of the aches his body faced from Natalie's attack, and take Liu's seeming demise off his mind. The car's hood was up, and as he got closer, Jeff was able to catch a glimpse of Troy trying to fix the engine.

"Yeah, our car's broken down and it needs to be towed somewhere it can be worked on. Yeah, we're on-"

Keith suddenly felt the phone cord wrapped tightly around his neck, Jeffrey strangling the life out of the boy from behind. The chuckle that sounded out from behind signaled to Keith that somehow, someway, Jeffrey was out of that hospital.

"I can't decide, whether you should live or die~ Oh, you'll you'll probably go to heaven, please don't hang your head and cry~"

The cord tightened around his throat, as Jeff softly sang into his ear, he desperately tried calling out to Troy, but the boy was unable to.

"No wonder why my heart feels dead inside, it's cold and hard and petrified!~ Lock the doors and close the blinds, we're going for a ride~"

Winchester eventually grew limp in the killer's arms, so Woods dropped him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"Hey, Keith! I think it's the timing belt, it got fucked all the way up!"

No response.

"...Keith? You okay?"

A series of hard thumps running up the car was the eventual response he got. Before he could even scream, the stick holding the trunk up snapped as Jeff jumped on top, crushing Troy's hands inside with a sickening crunch, the bones in his hands shattering under the combined weight of the heavy hood as well as Jeff's full body weight. Troy yelled at the top of his lungs in pain, his horror only growing as he saw the mess that was his assailant's face. Woods squatted down so he could talk to the poor bully face to face.

"Hi, Troy! How are ya? Hey, quit screaming, I'm talking here."

When Troy didn't stop, Jeff shook his head in annoyance.

"Okay, how about we teach you some anatomy, huh? It takes about.."

His bandaged hand took hold of one of Troy's ears, ripping it clean off.

"15 PSI to rip off a human ear. The same applies for both, actually! Why Mike Tyson was able to bite his opponent's ear off so easily."

As he talked, he ripped off his victim's other ear, reaching into his mouth as he cried and then yanking out his tongue, throwing it aside with disgust.

"That was your tongue, won't be needing that anymore..now, for the teeth! Good God, your teeth are bad..they aren't usually piss yellow, lemme just.."

Two punches to the boy's mouth and a face slam onto the car's hood loosened one of his front teeth enough that Jeff was able to yank out one of his front teeth, the blood flying out of the stump Troy once called a tongue soddening Wood's bandages with even more blood, to the point where they were beginning to fall off his hand and reveal the burnt, pale skin underneath.

"There! Now, it takes about 1,000 to 1,250 pound-feet of torque, or force if you're a neanderthal, to break a human neck! Here, I'll show you!"

Jeff then slid his hands into position, finally ending Keith's misery by breaking his neck, killing him instantly.

"I think this surgery went pretty damn well!"

The killer hopped off the hood of the car and continued down the road, his mission becoming clear in his head. It wouldn't be long before the police caught up to him, so before they found him, he needed to hit one last place.

Ingrid groaned as she made her way downstairs, having decided to crash at Jane's place for a bit since she recently got thrown out of her house. She began rummaging through the freezer when she heard the wail of several police cruisers speeding past.

"What's with all the cops at this hour?"

She went to look out the window, but a hand soon clasped over her mouth, a knife quickly slitting her throat as well. As her blood dribbled from her throat, her attacker spun her around so he could look at her..look at the girl Jeff felt he was replaced by.

"You..You took my Janey away from me..and now, she'll die for her nerve, to leave me when she knew I had issues, and you'll die for daring to touch her!"

3 more strikes to the neck followed, Ingrid's head coming clean off and rolling along thee floor after the 3rd slash connected. Jeffrey took a look around the house Jane brought him to when they were together during one of the only meaningful relationships Jeffrey had. So many hateful, vile thoughts ran through his head as he grabbed a canister of gas from the garage and 2 chairs. He used the chairs to barricade Jane and her parents in their rooms, before pouring the gasoline around the house. Jeff then struck a match he found in a kitchen, walking outside and carelessly dropping the matchbox as he went. He gazed into the small flame for what felt like ages, all the memories he had with this house flashing before his eyes as he threw the match on the gasoline. An inferno quickly started, Woods turning around and walking away as his former lover's house burned. 3 police cars soon pulled up to the burning home, the officers seeing the blood-soaked perpetrator of the crime calmly walking down the driveway.

[elm-writes-stories]

Cuphead: Isle of Memories (Rewrite)

*Hey guys! I'm back with another episode of the rewrite of Cuphead: Isle of Memories. This is published on August 31, 2023. If you guys like this episode, don't forget to heart, reblog, and comment! That would be greatly appreciated! Have a nice day!*

Episode Three: Angels and Gamblers

Porkrind hadn't been himself lately.

Jerry was well aware of that, but he had never seen a pig so obsessed before. Porkrind had been on the floor, trying to map out Hell for a few days. He marked all the possible locations where Cassidy might be and tried to find entrances around the island. Brineybeard volunteered to go with Porkrind around the island to find any entryway to Hell, but they hadn't found anything through his scouting.

Porkrind refused to give up. If he had to get his daughter out of the Devil's hands and back home where she belonged, he will do whatever it takes. He made a promise a long time ago to take care of Cassidy to an old friend of his and he wasn't intending on quitting on that promise any time soon.

But Jerry noticed Porkrind getting bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep. Some nights, Jerry could barely sleep because of Porkrind staying up all night to find Cassidy. He tried to get Porkrind to go to sleep in the most polite way possible, but the one-eyed pig refused. Porkrind had to believe that he was close, right? Right?

Jerry didn't believe so. Dice ended up sleeping in the other room after a few days of staying with the Howling Aces since he couldn't sleep in the room Porkrind and Jerry was in. Jerry was very tempted to follow Dice and share a room with him.

Today, the kids were gone for some reason with Murray and Elder Kettle looking for them and Jerry and Dice stayed behind with the Howling Aces, who were busy doing their own thing with fixing their planes. Porkrind stayed behind too...cooped up in his room to draw out the map in Hell.

Dice and Jerry stood outside of the room, now concerned for Porkrind.

"This is the fifth day and he's still in here," Dice whispered to Jerry.

Jerry shook his head. "I've never seen him like this."

"Really?"

Jerry nodded in confirmation.

"You know, I can hear you guys talkin' behind me," Porkrind replied while drawing the map. His tone sounded irritated.

"Sorry," Jerry responded. "Eh, we're just worried about you."

"I'm fine," Porkrind answered while focusing on the map. "Don't worry about me."

"Do you need help with the map?" Dice asked with a brow raised. "You've been on it for five days."

"Nah, I'm fine," Porkrind replied without looking behind him. "Thanks anyway."

"O-Okay. If you need anything, we'll be right here," Jerry let Porkrind know.

Porkrind simply nodded.

"Come on, let's leave him be—" Jerry grabbed Dice's arm to gently pull him along until Dice moved his arm out of Jerry's grasp and peered over Porkrind's shoulder. Jerry watched in curiosity of what Dice was doing.

Porkrind noticed a silhouette looking over his shoulder, getting him to finally look up and notice King Dice. "What?"

Dice examined the map that Porkrind drew with his head tilt and his brow furrowed. "No offense, Porks, but that map for Hell is not even close to accurate."

"Porks?" Porkrind uttered with his brow raised.

"Is it okay to call you that? I was thinking of Porky, but that kind of sounded offensive. Or Po—"

"Please...don't call me Po," Porkrind replied with a frown.

"Okay, Po is definitely off-limits along with Porky. Noted," Dice noted to himself. "So, Porks it is then...unless you have any objections."

"Wait, why are you even giving me nicknames?" Porkrind probed. "You barely know me."

"Oh, I gave nicknames for everyone," Dice responded while sitting down next to the pig and crossing his legs in doing so. "For example, I called Cuphead and Mugman, Cups and Mugs. For Chalice, Chal. For Natalie, Nat. For Aurora, Rori since everyone is calling her that. For Canteen...eh, it was kind of hard to come up with the nickname that sticks with him...so I'm calling him Hughes for the time-being. Murray is still Murray. Elder Kettle is...EK. Um, Sergant O'Fera is just Sarge. Bulldog is Big Bone because of the sweet bone tattoo on his shoulder. The Yankee Yippers...I call them yippies. And for Jerry, I am debating between JJ or Jay. So...you're not the only one I'm thinking of nicknames for if that makes you feel any better."

"Immensely," Porkrind responded with a sigh.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that I nicknamed Tabitha as Tabitcha," Dice added.

Porkrind almost blurted out a laugh. "What?"

"Oh yeah, that's her nickname alright...but I'll be calling her that behind her back."

"If we ever see her again, I dare you to call her that to her face," Porkrind replied.

"Ooh, what am I getting out of that dare?" Dice asked with a flirty grin.

"A bag full of coin," Porkrind answered.

"Ooh, sounds good."

"If we ever see her again."

"I don't doubt we'll see her again soon."

Jerry smiled underneath his scarf to see Porkrind loosened up a bit around Dice.

"Okay, okay, you're distracting me," Porkrind replied while trying to focus back on the map.

"Right, the map. You have it drawn completely wrong," Dice pointed out.

"How would you know?"

"I've been down there for years. I know what I'm talking about," Dice indicated with a finger raised and drag along the map. "Let's see...hmm...okay, there are chances where Cassidy is kept in the dungeons of Hell because you know, that's where Big D would usually take the prisoners who are mortals. Even though he's not supposed to do that."

Porkrind tilted his head. "How come?"

Dice shrugged his shoulders. "Contract with the Most High...or something. I've never really pay attention to the politics of that place."

"Do you think that Cassidy might be where Mugman was at? In the prison cells by the library?" Porkrind asked.

"Possibly," Dice said. "Big D's got many places in Hell that had the lava pit, which is where the souls go to suffer and be tormented forever. He also got a big soul vault where he stuffed all the souls in. The prized soul cage was where Cuphead's soul was next to the soul vault. And—" as King Dice rambled on about all the places in Hell and where they were exactly to help Porkrind out, Porkrind stared at Dice to listen to him.

If Porkrind could say one thing he learned about Dice was that the pig could sit and listen to Dice talking for hours straight without stopping. Could anyone really blame him though? It wouldn't be a surprise if everyone else felt the same way. Dice's voice was like honey whether he was trying to lure anyone or not. If he could talk anyone in the base in giving up their souls for the Devil, he could without fail...if they didn't know him any better. It was no wonder Dice was able to get souls to the Devil without fail for a while until Cuphead and Mugman showed up on his radio show. It was no wonder people would always gather to listen to the radio with his voice specifically.

Heck, even Porkrind found a guilty pleasure in listening in to the radio show despite knowing that the game show Dice was hosting was rigged for players to win. It was a miracle that Cuphead and Mugman managed to break Dice's spell by just being their stupid chaotic selves.

"—And that's the map for Hell," Dice replied.

Porkrind didn't realize that Dice was drawing on the map the entire time, showing all the right places and spots where Cassidy might be at. Shoot, he had been thinking too much about Dice's voice.

"Sooo, any questions?" Dice asked Porkrind.

Porkrind blinked his eye. "Uhhh..."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to go on a tangent, but I figured if you are going to be working with a map, might as well be the right one, right?"

Porkrind blushed and nodded. "Yeah. Might as well."

Dice blushed back and shook it off. "Heh, well, I guess I'll leave alone. If you need anymore help, you know where to find me." He said this a flirty grin before walking away.

Porkrind blushed madly and shook it off. Ugh, it was just a stupid crush. Wait...why was he having a crush all the sudden?! Why?! Porkrind covered his face with a groan. He had to go somewhere else where he could focus more and not that stupid flirty grin Dice walked away with.

Porkrind sighed and looked at the map, which was detailed of all the possible locations of where his daughter could be at. But maybe...he needed something a bit more that might uncover the entrances to Hell. Porkrind got up and picked up the map, exiting out of the base.

~.~

Porkrind searched for his other shop that he had here a long time ago. Of course, it had been a while since he had seen it along with Cassidy seeing it. He wouldn't be surprised if she didn't know that he had another shop here in this island. Jerry already knew and he would upkeep it during his monthly trips to the other island when the oceans were safe to travel across.

Porkrind found his other shop over by where the mountain climbers were competing each other. He looked around to make sure he wasn't followed and entered into the shop. He didn't have as much stuff in this shop as he did with his old shop before it was ransacked by that crazy maniac. He entered the back of the shop, looking around for a map of the island. He found the map folded into the second shelf of the wooden shelf next to the back door. He pulled it out, dragging out something else. The book fell from the shelf, causing him to back away for a moment. He looked down and noticed the title of the old leather book.

"Memories to give to Cassidy when she grows up."

Porkrind blinked in shock and sat down on the chair, picking up the book. It turned out to be a scrapbook. Now, he was no arts and crafts kind of guy, but he thought of making the book for Cassidy ever since she ended up under his roof. He wanted to tell her everything, but he knew he couldn't put it to words. She wouldn't believed his words anyway. He had worked on it for years...although, it admittingly got lost in all the mix-up once she started to grow up.

He might have accidentally placed it in the crate to ship it to the other shop. Jerry probably didn't know about the book. Which was fine anyways. It was his secret project after all. He opened the book up and the first thing he saw was a photo of Shayna and Porkrind as kids at church in black and white. It was where it all started. Porkrind smiled a bit when he flipped the book to find the next photo of them being teenagers, sitting at a parlor shop and eating ice cream together. That must be their first date. He could hear the awkward conversations while they were dating during the time.

He flipped to the next page and frowned to see the wedding photo of Shayna and Jack, smiling together at the alter with no one else around them. Not even Porkrind. Up above the black and white photo, he saw the letters he placed together.

"This is your parents."

Porkrind flipped to the next page and saw a set of photos of Jack and Shayna's wedding. One of them was Shayna shoving cake into Jack's mouth with teasing grins, earning a chuckle from the pig. The second photo had them dancing together and laughing throughout the dance. Porkrind wasn't in the wedding photos much but that didn't matter. This was about Cassidy knowing her parents, not about him. He looked at the third photo to see Shayna and Jack on their honeymoon at the beach. The last photo was Shayna and Jack standing in front of their first house with Jack picking her up bridal style.

He kept seeing Shayna smiling through the photos the more pages he flipped until he started to tear up. He couldn't keep going. It has been fifteen years since Shayna has died, but Porkrind was still not over it. Had he grieved properly? Raising Cassidy was his promise to Shayna, a way to keep the memories of Shayna alive...

Porkrind clenched his jaw and was about to close the book until a page slipped and revealed the photo of the hospital with Jack and Shayna showing Cassidy to Porkrind. Porkrind stopped and opened it to examine it.

"Huh? I don't remember putting this here," Porkrind uttered.

Porkrind flipped through the next page to find more photos of Cassidy as a toddler, which had some burns on the corners of the black and white photos. He blinked to wonder if he was seeing things, but he wasn't. He saw Cassidy as a kitten, playing dangling toys with her pupils enlarged and Jack dangling the toys in front of his daughter with a smile. In the next photo, little Cassidy was resting on Jack's shoulder while Jack was watching Shayna cook with a fond smile.

Porkrind tried not to cry while looking at another photo to see Shayna reading a book to Cassidy while the kitten smiled in excitement. He flipped through the next page and he froze to see a picture of himself with baby Cassidy sleeping on his shoulders now. The pig turned the page and saw more photos of him and Cassidy. One of them that caught his eye was the brown photo of Porkrind and Cassidy dancing when she's a little girl. Porkrind took the photo out of the book and looked at it further. He clenched his jaw and finally released small sobs, hugging the photo. He tried not to cry so loud, but he couldn't contain it any longer.

"I'm so sorry," Porkrind uttered an apology. "I let you down. I let you both down."

With that said, he gripped the photo tightly, swearing to himself he will never let it go. 

~.~

"What are you doing?" Jerry asked Dice while watching Dice exploring the kitchen of the base.

"I am just making sure Porkrind ain't overhearing my plan," Dice replied and glanced at Jerry. "Look, he's been cooped up in his room and I kind of want to do something...eh...well..."

"Nice?"

"No, not nice...just something get him out of the room. Take in the fresh air and relax a bit, you know? And you're the only person that knows him well enough. Sooo, do you know what he likes or what gets him out of the room?"

Jerry looked around the room and leaned forward. "I'll tell you secret. It's..."

Dice leaned forward in anticipation.

"Nothing."

Dice gave him a deadpan stare. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," Jerry replied. "Porkrind is the most antisocial guy I've ever met. I had to get him out of his shop by making some deliveries. And even that doesn't work because he had Cassidy run the delivers when she got older. So...there's nothing we can do to get him out of the room."

"So, we're just gonna sit there and let him wallow in obsession and guilt?"

"I don't like that solution either," Jerry said with a sigh. "Unless you got a better idea."

"Hmm...what does Porkrind like? Like maybe there's something we could give to him as a gift or something to cheer him up."

"Uh...gold and Cassidy."

"Huh? Really?"

"As far as I know him."

"Hey guys," O'Fera called while entering the kitchen. "Porkrind wasn't in his room. Do you guys know where he went?"

Dice and Jerry exchanged glances at each other.

"I have no idea."

"He might be at his other shop," Jerry predicted.

"He has another shop here?!" Dice shouted in shock.

Jerry nodded his head. "We should check there to see how he was holding up. There might be a reason he was there."

Jerry and Dice exited the kitchen and the base to find Porkrind's shop. As they reached Porkrind's shop, they heard sniffling in the shop. Was Porkrind crying in there?

Dice and Jerry exchanged gazes with Dice shrugging at Jerry.

Jerry opened the door and the door creaked, causing the sobs to die down.

"Porkrind?" Jerry uttered. He looked around the shop.

Dice and Jerry tiptoed around the shop and peeked to the back room to find Porkrind sitting on the chair, gripping a photo for dear life.

Jerry softened his gaze and approached him. "Porkrind...you okay?"

"I'm fine," Porkrind replied, his voice croaked from crying earlier.

Dice glanced over at the book and attempted to look at the pictures until Porkrind closed it and moved it away from him.

"What are you reading?" Dice asked in curiosity.

Porkrind picked the book up and stuffed the photo back into it, carrying it out of the shop. "It's nothing."

Dice and Jerry stood there, dumbfounded.

~.~

 Dice and Jerry walked around the village after exiting Porkrind's shop with Dice trying to think of something by rubbing his smooth edged chin and humming.

Jerry arched a brow at Dice, trying to read his face. "What are you thinking about?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm just remembering what you said about how Porkrind only likes gold and Cassidy, right?"

"Uh...yeah."

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe we could get him some gold and he could buy whatever he desires," Dice replied with a small smile.

"No amount of gold is ever going to help him get over his grief," Jerry responded.

"You said so yourself—"

"I know what I said. Didn't you see Porkrind in there? He had that book with pictures of Shayna and Cassi in it and he's obviously looking through it."

"Wait, what? Who's Shayna?" Dice asked.

Jerry sighed. "Well, Porkrind knows more about her than I do...but she was his childhood best friend. She died a long time ago when Cassidy was born."

"Oh," Dice uttered. "Maybe gold might buy him...uh...something nice to wear."

Jerry gave Dice a deadpan stare.

"What?! I'm trying to think of something that can be...uh..."

"Nice?"

"No! Again, not nice. Just something...uh...to get his mind off of Cassidy for a moment. You know, like going to a party or something."

Jerry snorted. "Good luck with that. I've said this before and I'll say it again, Porkrind is antisocial. He hates socializing with people."

"Is it because he lost his childhood best friend a long time ago?"

Jerry softened his gaze. "Maybe."

They suddenly heard alarm bells ringing, causing them to tense up. They shot a glance over at the bank, being robbed by a familiar cow in cowgirl clothes, sucking all the gold with her vacuum attached to her back.

"Esther?" Dice recognized.

Chips and Mr. Wheezy shoved bags of gold coins into the trunk of the black sleek car.

"I think we got everything we need!" Chips shouted and noticed Dice and Jerry. Chips saw the bug cops approaching the scene.

"Put your hands up!" one of the bug cops shouted.

Dice and Jerry turned to face them with wide eyes in fear.

Chips hurried behind Dice and pointed a small pistol on the side of Dice's head. "Don't move or I'll shoot him!"

"What the frick, man?!" Dice shouted.

Mr. Wheezy did the same thing with Jerry. "Yeah! We'll shoot them both if you don't play your cards right!"

Jerry growled and elbowed Mr. Wheezy in the gut. Mr. Wheezy doubled over as Jerry snatched the gun from Mr. Wheezy and pointed it at both of them. "Would you be so kind and let my friend go?"

Dice blushed a bit at Jerry's movement. Before Chips could let go of Dice, a dart flew into Jerry's neck. Jerry gasped and took the dart out immediately to see a purple fluff at the end of the dart. The darts flew and hit the cops approaching them. The cops passed out quickly along with Jerry.

Dice clenched his jaw as he felt something on his arm. He looked to find a dart on his arm. "Oh come on—" Everything went black quickly.

~.~

 "Thanks for the save, Phear."

"Where would you be without me?"

"I can't believe y'all robbed a bank! Can't you just get a job before robbing a bank?!"

"Sorry, dear, but the job slots are full in this village."

Dice groaned awake, his wrists bound against Jerry. He fluttered his eyes open and his vision was nothing but a blur at first. The light was the only thing blinding him in some dark place. His vision was clear finally and gasped to realize that he was in a dark cavern. He struggled in his binds and glanced over his shoulder to find Jerry still unconscious.

"Rise and shine, sleepy beauty," a familiar voice echoed.

Dice glanced up and noticed Esther Winchester staring at him with a smirk on her face.

"It's about time I see your face again since you know...your little cup blew up my wagon," Esther responded.

"Okay, that was an accident—"

"And you stole the desert limes."

Dice went silent for a moment. "But to be fair, Saltbaker didn't use the limes at all. I mean, you had the limes back, right?"

"I had to snatch it back from you," Esther growled.

"Look, I'm sorry for stealing the limes and-and blowing up your wagon. Is there a way I can make it up to you?" Dice questioned.

Esther straightened up with her arms crossed and a sneer. "Hm, you know, you could do something for me. Both you and your friend there could do something for us."

"And...what is that?" Dice asked timidly.

Esther gestured to the shattered wagon. "Help us rebuild the wagon and maybe you might get yourself some allies."

"Allies?"

"Yer fightin' against something. Something big. I can sense it. We can all sense it," Esther said, referring to the rest of the casino gang surrounding her. "Y'all didn't think we notice some weirdos in black hoods roaming around the village after that pirate guy told us about...what is it? What are they called?"

As Esther was talking, Jerry woke up and recovered his vision in a short amount of time and realized that his hands were bound...well...not all of his hands. Jerry started to cut through the zip ties with his other arms hidden underneath the green trench coat and a pocket knife.

"Uh...the Night Stalkers, I believe," Pirouletta responded.

"But they're dead. They were all dead down in Hell," Dice responded.

"They were?" Chips asked while arching a brow.

Jerry managed to cut through the zip ties that bound both him and Dice. Before Dice could understand what happened next, Jerry stood and spun around, taking off his green trench coat and pulling out his pistols with his six arms stretched out to aim at the gang.

"You better have a good reason for kidnappin' us!" Jerry growled at the gang.

"Whoa! Put the guns down, partner!" Chips shouted while raising his pistol up along with Mr. Wheezy and Phear Lap. Ginette, Pip, and Dot ducked behind Pirouletta, who took out her shotgun. Esther drew out her two pistols to aim it at Jerry.

"Boy, ya better put down yer guns or it's gonna get real messy!" Esther threatened with a Southern drawl.

"If I were you, I'd be listenin' to her," Mr. Wheezy warned.

Dice stood up and stepped between Jerry and the gang. "Whoa, whoa, let's not start a fight here. Who knows what we will summon if we start a fight in the dark caverns?"

"Nothin' will come up to get us," Esther reassured coldly. "We've checked."

"You've checked?" Dice uttered with a brow arched.

"Yepperoo," Chips responded. "Safe from the Night Stalkers...or maybe it's more cozy than out in the heating desert."

"Well, we need the wagon to shelter everyone. Do you think you can help us or not?"

Jerry lowered his guns. "What do you need us to do?"

"Well, if you can gather the planks, that would be wonderful," Esther instructed.

With that said, Dice, Jerry, Esther, and the rest of the gang started to rebuild the blue wagon plank by plank.

~.~

 Porkrind was back in the room at the Howling Aces' base, staring at the book he carried out with him. He tried not to cry while looking through the photos of Cassidy and Shayna once again. Porkrind glanced over at the maps, frowning. Brineybeard and Porkrind hadn't found the entrances to Hell from this island yet...maybe...maybe there wasn't any entrance besides the ones back in the other island.

The one-eyed pig sighed until he heard someone rushing towards the room. He perked his head up and found Dice stumbling into the room with heavy pants. He had blue paint all over his purple clothes while the die wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"H-Hey," Dice panted.

"Hey?" Porkrind uttered.

Dice took out a bag of coin. "I got you some coin."

Porkrind arched a brow. "But you're not buying anything."

"Eh, a little birdie told me that you like gold," Dice said with a flirty grin.

Porkrind blushed and shook his head. "Keep it."

"What?" Dice questioned. "Why? You might want to purchase something."

"Like what?"

"Uh...you know, something you like. Like maybe new clothes...or new shoes. Something along those lines. You know, something to cheer ya right up."

"What cheers me up is finding my own daughter," Porkrind responded while closing the book with pictures of Cassidy and Shayna.

Dice noticed the title of the book and glanced up at Porkrind. "Touche...maybe it could for a party."

"A party?"

"Yeah, Jerry and I helped fix Esther's wagon in the cavern in the Western area. Esther decided to throw a party at the wagon and you're invited to come."

Porkrind arched a brow at Dice. "And what do you get out of this?"

"What?"

"You're doing something nice for me. It ain't something you normally do for a common folk like myself. So, what's your game?"

Dice arched a brow. "Well...I was hoping maybe you could...you know...stop isolating yourself in your room."

"I'm not isolating myself."

"Yes, you are. You do realize Jerry is worried about you."

"He shouldn't be."

"Well, he is."

Porkrind huffed.

"Look, Porks, I'm looking out for you—"

"Why?"

Dice frowned.

Porkrind arched a brow. "You don't know, huh?"

"No, I do know...it's just...it's complicated."

"Why make it complicated?"

"I don't know. You and Jerry looked out for me. I thought that maybe I return the favor at least," Dice blurted out.

Porkrind softened his gaze. "Let's call it even then." He went back to look at the book and the maps of both the island and the underworld.

Dice frowned and sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you alone. But just know that you're invited to the party." With that said, Dice walked away and placed the bag of coin by the doorway.

Porkrind watched Dice's silhouette disappear, frowning more. He shook his head and tried not to think about what Dice just said. He looked to see the bag of coin staring at him right in the face. Where did he even get a bag of coin in such a short amount of time? Porkrind ignored his questions and continued to look at the maps.

Part of him felt someone standing behind him. He knew that there wasn't anyone behind but the wall. However, he could sense someone standing close behind him, almost like she was looking over his shoulder. Shayna might be disappointed in him. Maybe he wasn't going fast enough to save her daughter. He might not be doing enough to watch over Cassidy back in Hell. He made a promise he could never keep. The ghost of Shayna stood behind him, her gaze soft. She would pity at what kind of a pig he became. She walked closer and closer to him to only comfort, unaware of the cold shivers he was getting and the destructive words in his head from her presence being near him.

Porkrind stopped what he was doing and pressed his hands against the sides of his head, hearing all of the dark voices in his head.

"You're not doing enough!"

"Are you really going to wallow up here in obsession and guilt?!"

"Why can't you do something?!"

"Why did you break your promise to Shayna?!"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Porkrind clenched his fists while tears trickled from his eyes. He growled and stood up. "That's it!"

Porkrind stormed off and hurried out of his room, getting away from the ghost and the voices in his head.

~.~

The music was lively at the newly built blue wagon within the cave.

Esther gambled with her friends while Dice was the card-dealer with a smile on his face. Esther had a hot winning streak, putting both Chips and Mr. Wheezy to shame. Pirouletta didn't really care about winning, smiling at her friends enjoying themselves. Phear Lap placed his bets, trying to one-up Pip and Dot.

Ginette watched them all with her eyes rolled playfully until she noticed Jerry sitting at the bar and staring down at the whiskey glass. She walked over and leaned against the counter.

"Need somethin' stronger?" Ginnette asked.

Jerry shook his head. "No, no, it's fine. I think I had enough for today."

"You only had one drink."

"Mhm."

Ginette frowned. "So, what seems to be concerning to you?"

Jerry glanced up at the martini.

"I can tell by your face," Ginette responded.

Jerry stared down at the glass. "A...friend of mine is...um...well, he's been cooped up in his room. He lost his daughter down in the underworld and now he was trying to find a way to get down to Hell and get her back."

"His daughter?"

"Yeah, her name is Cassidy...she's the last of her kind of red cats."

"Red cats?"

Jerry nodded his head solemnly. "But I've been concerned about both of them. I don't know if Cassidy is alive or Devil is just using her corpse now as a puppet. I want to find Cassidy just as much as Porkrind does...but I don't know what I'll see once we find her. I either find her dead, puppeteer, or alive and was beaten and tortured. I don't know if I want to see any of those outcomes for Cassidy."

Ginette cleaned the glass. "Well, I'm not sure if this is gonna to make you feel better, but I figured I should tell you something. I think we're still confused on what we saw. A couple of days ago, we saw the Devil with six hooded men and two demons at his disposal and...well...this red-furred cat. I'm assumin' the cat must be this Cassidy you're talking about—"

Jerry widened his eyes in shock, his grip on the whisky glass shaking. "C-Cassi? Is she okay? Wait, where did you even see her at?"

"Last I checked, Devil was making deals with the Moonshine Mob, selling 'em some booze. But it looked too...different to be booze though," Ginette responded.

"That ain't booze," Jerry uttered in horror.

They heard someone bursting through the doors as everyone looked to see Porkrind huffing as if he had been running.

Dice brightly smiled. "Porks! You came!"

"I came to drink," Porkrind responded while looking up at Ginette. "Give me the strongest liquor you got."

"Coming right up," Ginette said while Porkrind hurried over by the counter next to Jerry.

"Porkrind, there's something you oughta know—"

"Here's the strongest we got," Ginette interrupted by placing the whiskey bottle and the whiskey glass next to Porkrind. She poured it for him.

"Leave the bottle here," Porkrind commanded, which Ginette nodded in understanding.

"Porkrind, I know what happened to—"

"Ya sure you're not up for poker?" Dice asked, sliding next to Porkrind.

"For Pete's sakes, Dice, I'm trying to tell Porkrind something important," Jerry replied while Porkrind took a gulp of whiskey between them.

"Like what?" Dice questioned.

"It's about—!"

"HEY! Haven't seen yer face 'round here, stranger!" Esther bellowed, leaning next to Dice in a drunken state.

Dice smiled. "Oh! Porkrind, meet Esther. Esther, Porkrind—"

"I'm trying to say something important—"

"Say, friend, why the long face?" Phear Lap, a skeleton horse, asked Porkrind while sitting next to Jerry.

"Yeah, you look like someone punched your eye out," Mangosteen, the black billiard ball, said with a dumber tone. He floated next to Phear Lap.

"How could you punch someone's eye out?" Pip asked while Pip and Dot were jumping together on the counter in front of Phear, stacked on top of each other as an anthropomorphic domino.

"Oh, come on, ding dong! You don't punch someone's eye out! You cut it out!" Dot responded below him while kicking Pip in the face.

"Hey!" Pip shouted with offense.

"Hey, Gin, get us another round of whatever he has!" Chips pointed.

"Will you all just shut up for one second?!" Jerry shouted.

"Geez, ya look like you need more than just one glass of whiskey—" Rumulus, the anthropomorphic whiskey bottle, replied while falling over onto the floor.

"Yeah, you need something nice and relaxing—" Ol' Ethan, the anthropomorphic whiskey glass, said while collapsing against the wall.

Jerry groaned. "It's about Cassidy! She's with the Devil!"

The music stopped dead in its tracks while everyone glanced at Jerry with wide-eyed shock.

Dice tilted his head. "Wait. What? How did you—?"

"I told him that we saw them," Ginette explained to the rest of the group.

"OH! I forgot we saw a little red cat next to that big-horned cat," Chips uttered drunkenly.

Dice blinked in shock. "Wait! Where?!"

"Saw her with Devs...trading some booze or whatever—" Ol' Ethan said while smiling drunkenly.

"They saw us and we ran before we got a closer look," Chips said with a drunken giggle and a hiccup. "It was funny actually because—because we were scrambling for our lives and hid ourselves in this cave."

"The Devil will never find us here!" Mr. Wheezy replied.

The patrons drunkenly laughed in pure euphoric before hearing something teleport behind them.

They all turned around slowly to find the Devil standing behind them outside, rubbing his nails against his chest. Porkrind and Jerry noticed Cassidy standing next to Devil, her eyes red with white slit pupils. Her grin had fangs, causing them both to look in horror.

"Oh, don't stop the party on our account—"

"RUN!!!"

Phear rushed outside of the wagon and pulled it.

"NO, CASSI!!" Porkrind shouted.

Phear Lap sprinted away from the Devil while pulling the wagon.

The Devil chuckled at their reaction while putting a hand on the cat's shoulder. "Such cowards."

Cassidy giggled maniacally.

~.~

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Cuphead asked Canteen as they were running from the Moonshine Casino. Cuphead was carrying passed out Mugman in his arms while Chalice was flying behind Canteen as a ghost.

“Yep! I know where I—AAH!” Canteen yelped when he slipped and tumbled down the ditch.

“Oh golly!” Chalice shouted and flew down next to Canteen. “Are you okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Canteen said with a smile and a thumbs up.

“GET BACK HERE!!” Charlie’s voice shouted from behind them as Cuphead slid down the ditch and sprinted ahead of them. The kids trailed behind Cuphead, but it was hard to keep up when Cuphead started to speed up again.

Cuphead didn’t realize how fast he was going until he bumped into Brineybeard’s leg with Mugman in his arms.

“Ah! Lad!” Brineybeard whimpered in pain.

“Oh, sorry,” Cuphead uttered. He looked around and realized that he was by the Howling Aces’ base with O’Fera, Bulldog, the pups, Murray, and Elder Kettle approaching them.

“Where have you kids been?!” O’Fera said with a scolding tone.

Chalice and Canteen approached the group with heavy pants.

“You gotta hide us!” Canteen yelled in panic.

“From who? Wha’ are ye runnin’ from?” Brineybeard questioned.

Charlie stormed into the scene with Light Bug, Lenny, Anteater, Announcer Snail, and five other mobsters by his side. Ribby and Croaks were running behind him.

“Whoa, Charlie, let’s think for a second,” Ribby said while standing between the group and the Moonshine Mob.

“Think?! That mug possessed us and had us say some weird mumbo jumbo language!” Charlie shouted at Ribby. “There ain’t nothin’ to think about!”

“Mugman possessing people?” Elder Kettle questioned. “How?”

“I don’t know! Ask your kid!” Charlie snarled while referring to Mugman groaning awake in Cuphead’s arms.

“W-What happened?” Mugman uttered, disoriented.

“Look, as far as I know the lad, he has no malicious intentions. We dunno wha’ caused whatever control he had on ye ‘n yer gang, but we needs t’ calm down afore we could—”

“THE DEVIL IS HERE!!!!”

Everyone glanced to see Phear Lap pulling the blue wagon and running towards the group. Mugman fluttered his eyes open to finally wake up and realized what the situation was happening.

“What?” Mugman questioned.

Phear Lap stopped in front of the group, panting. His two legs were wobbling from running for so long.

Dice, Porkrind, and Jerry peeked out of the wagon and walked out of it

They hurried to the group.

“Guys, Big D is here,” Dice alerted the group.

“Big D?” Charlie questioned. “Wait, is that the gangster’s name with, uh, six hooded figures, two demons, and one red feline? That Big D?”

“You saw the Devil?!” Croaks gasped in fear.

“Cassi?!” Mugman shouted.

“Well, if that’s the Big D…then yeah, I saw ‘im! A couple of days ago! He gave us some booze though. That’s pretty much all he did,” Charlie replied while rubbing his chin.

“Although,” Light Bug added. “It strangely didn’t look like booze.”

“Well…it’s enough anyway—”

“It’s not booze,” Murray said with a shaky tone.

“So, it was Tremaine this whole time?!” Canteen shouted in fear.

“I knew there was something off about that coloring!” Chalice added.

“What in the world is Tremaine?!” Charlie asked.

“It’s where you turn into a monster,” Chalice explained.

Charlie nodded his head in understanding. “Oh, huh…I hope the patrons are not turned into monsters in the casino.”

“What about Cassi?” Mugman questioned. “Is she okay? Is she hurt?”

“Who’s Cassi?” Charlie probed.

Porkrind frowned and looked away. Jerry rubbed his shoulder while Dice clenched his teeth.

“Is-Is Cassi okay?” Mugman uttered to the three men.

Dice frowned. “Uh, let’s just say that…um…shoot, I can’t even bring myself to say it.”

“Please tell me,” Mugman begged.

Porkrind tried not to cry, gritting his teeth to help withhold the tears.

“Cassi ain’t the same person,” Jerry responded finally. “The Devil took control of her.”

Mugman’s pupils shrunk in fear. “N-No. No…”

“Yeah,” Esther added while popping her head out of the wagon. “She’s got some orange glow in her veins!”

“Wait…there’s Tremaine inside of her?” Cuphead uttered.

“We can cure her the same way we did with Mugman!” Chalice chirped excitedly.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Canteen responded.

“Wait, wait, if Tremaine is inside of the booze and youse kids found the trail from the sewers under the casino…then—” Croaks noticed something off in the distance. He walked towards it, his eyes widening more in horror.

“Croaks?” Ribby uttered and followed his brother.

Everyone else followed the frog brothers, including the Howling Aces, Moonshine Mob, Esther, and her gang. As they approached the cliff, everyone looked on with terror.

“So…that’s Tremaine,” Charlie muttered to himself.

Right over the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, Tremaine was spreading across the blue waters. It wasn’t covering the entire ocean just yet, but the spread was faster than they have ever seen.

“Oh no…” Murray said.

They heard someone teleporting behind them, causing everyone to whirl around to find Devil with six hooded figures, Henchman, Stickler, and Cassidy by his side.

“Like my handiwork?” Devil replied with a cheeky grin. “I had some help.”

“You little—” Charlie growled and charged towards Devil, but was stopped by Light Bug and Lenny. “Youse got a lot nerve showin’ up here!”

Ribby and Croaks noticed Cassidy, their gazes softened.

“What did you do to Cassi?!” Croaks snarled at Devil.

“Yeah!” Ribby added before the frogs charged towards Devil, but they were held back by Brineybeard and Bulldog.

Mugman peeked through the crowd and noticed Cassidy, his heart breaking at the sight of her form now. “C-Cassi?”

It was sudden that when Cassidy saw Mugman, her red eyes with white pupils faded, reverting back to her normal eyes.

“M-Mugsy?” Cassidy recognized instantly, her tears trickling out of her eyes.

Devil lost his cheeky smirk and clenched his fist, controlling the veins inside Cassidy. Cassidy screamed in pain.

“HEY!” Ribby growled while everyone took out their weapons. They were about to charge towards Devil for torturing Cassidy until they saw twenty citizens coming towards them with Tremaine in their veins. They all came from the Moonshine Casino.

Devil smirked. “Well, hate to end the party so soon, but there is some…minor problems that needed to be fixed. Ta-Ta for now.”

With that said, Devil disappeared with Cassidy, Henchman, Stickler, and the six hooded assassins, leaving the resistance gang with the infected citizens.

“What do we do?!” Lenny shouted in panic.

Phear Lap brought his dart gun and shot the darts at the citizens, knocking them all out.

“Wow…uh…that was quick,” Ribby responded.

In the distance, they heard screams of terror from within the village and roars from more citizens infected with Tremaine.

“Back to base?” Bulldog asked O’Fera.

O’Fera nodded her head. “Yep. We got new people to hide.”

Everyone hurried back to the Howling Aces’ base to hide from the chaos that was happening in the village.

To Be Continued... 

[peachymilkshakes]

About High Guardian Spice

So, I have some thoughts after seeing a whole bunch of opinions of people who have seen the show. A lot good, a lot bad. And I figured I'd write down how I feel about it. I haven't watched it though, nor am I planning on watching it. As I refuse giving crunchyroll any money whatsoever.

I've seen a whole bunch of videos on the topic, and I have to say, a lot of them are repeating each other. "It's trash" "It's pandering" blah blah. Yes, I too am not too fond of the whole man hating down with cis mentality. I however have never been trans, so I can't put myself into that headshpace (even though the whole hating thing goes too far for me and I feel like these people need therapy) but with every critisism video of the show the whole arguement gets older and older. They're just repeating each other. The only ones that were honest and had a good well informed opinion were the clownfish people and the Vtuber Natalie with this video right here

I haven't seen the show, but from what I can tell it's a steven universe type show, that uses PNG assets from pexels.com. Though, it's not as terrible as some people make it out to be. It's I guess just a show that's not for me, and thats alright. I wasn't going to watch it anyway.

I'm not saying that people who complain about the show aren't valid. There are a lot of valid reasons to hate the show. Like I mentioned before, a show looking more like a Cartoon Network show shouldn't be on crunchyroll funded by money that people assumed wouldve gone to Japan. That's about my only gripe.

People are allowed to like High Guardian Spice too though. And I see a bunch of people on here who do. Which to that I say, more power to you. And if you havent seen it yet and do have a crunchyroll account, I guess give it a watch at least. It might be for you, it might not be.

I don't think HGS is an anime per sé. HGS fits more in the steven universe, adventure time, She-Ra corner. I do think anime can be defined as animation which it liturally is an abbreviation of, but when we're just going off of feel, its just not an anime at all. Anime is Japanese animation. if we're going by that definition it should either be derived from a japanese work, be animated and produced by a japanese studio, or be heavily inspired by anime to the point people are still debating wether it's anime or not (im looking at you, Avatar)

Crunchyroll shouldve invested in animation studios in Japan, who are already struggling to pay their workers properly. We all know that that industry is fucked. If only Crunchyroll did something about that, even a little bit.. but I digress

People always like to claim that Japanese media isn't queer enough. Even though we're living in a world with shows like Revolutionary Girl Utena for example. So it's kind of pretentious to claim that HGS is the first anime ever to welcome LGBT characters. Especially since there is no subtlety in it at all. It's shoved in your face as far as I can tell. I'd hate to use that sentence but I have to, tbh. I would love to see more representation. I'm queer myself. I'd love to see more demi or fully ace characters out there. There is a way to bring it, though. And HGS is too obnoxious about it as far as i can tell from the scenes that ive watched on youtube.

Okay that's it. I didnt expect it to become a full ass book size rant. I just have thoughts.

TLDR people gotta stop whining.

[vln-vibes]

Unwanted, Unreliable, Unstoppable

Yeah so this thing is crazy long so I’m dividing it into three parts. Anyways this is very self indulgent but I hope you like the content.

Summary: They were tired, they were so so tired. This fight has been going on long enough, this war was getting harder and harder to fight as the years went on but no one ever helped; Not the citizens of Paris, not the French government and certainly not the Justice League. But what is they received help from a man that was practically a myth himself; the Batman.  Is this exactly what the Miraculous Team needs or will this lead to their falling from grace?

🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫

“I’m so tired of this!” Ladybug scratched at her head feverishly. Currently she was standing at the second most top of the Eiffel Tower with her team: Chat Noir, Ryuuko and Viperion.

“I know m’lady” Chat sighed, letting his cheerful mask take a break as he stood next to her, leaning into the railings.

“Those— Those assholes that call themselves the Justice League just keep ignoring us; it's like they just don’t give a shit about us” Viperion rolled his eyes. They had tried, time and time again, to get help from older, more experienced heroes with their situation in Paris; they were fucking teenagers thrust into an adult’s war. One they didn’t even care for anymore.

“They don’t care for Paris… Why should we?” Ryuuko spoke up, cold fury clear in her eyes. “If they cannot find the need to handle the Paris situation themselves then why must we be the ones to? No one even appreciates out efforts, its like they just want us to have everything handled”

It was true.

At first the Parisians praised the Dynamic Duo, Ladybug and Chat Noir, for stepping up and saving the city from the terrifying Akumas they had no way of handling. They even got the heroes to help out with things not in their jurisdiction; suddenly any crime, as minor or major as it could get, required their attention, any fire could not be handled by the fire department alone, schools needed the heroes to make guest appearances, they were wanted in television interviews, everyone needed to know everything about them. It was fine, for a while, they didn’t mind helping out.

Then Heroes’ Day happened.

Suddenly they were pathetic.

If they were supposed to be so strong then how come other heroes had to come to help? It had never occurred to them that they were chosen by Ladybug and Chat Noir, all they knew was that the duo was not as strong as they once believed.

After all it was just one criminal,

How hard could it be?

Sometimes, Ladybug wishes, she had just let Alya keep the stupid earrings. She was sure the girl would have taken them immediately at the time but, given her brashness and temperamental nature, she would have already lost to Hawkmoth.

Plus she didn’t blame the small kwami or even Master Fu all that much: She resented the man but still respected him very much and knew he went through the same thing as she did at an even younger age with absolutely no way out. She was aware that if she truly wanted to all she could do was just give the earrings to someone else or even hand them over. But Ladybug was stubborn and the earrings were her’s now, just like the ring was Chat’s, the choker was Ryuuko’s and the bangle was Viperion’s.

That didn’t mean this battle was theirs to fight.

“... Why don’t we leave?” Viperion asked, disturbing their silence. The trio looked at him curiously, as though he broke an unspoken rule.

“Why would we?” Ladybug responded, knowing fully well that Viperion didn’t tend to speak up unless he was certain of his words.

“Because they’re running us dry, this city is killing us” Viperion raised his voice, aware that they could already, “Adrien and Kagami are living shitty home lives with abusive assholes that want to call themselves parents. Mari, you’re being burdened with too much responsibility by that bitch Bustier and that class full of sheep! I hate seeing you all kill yourselves for people that will never appreciate it because they think they’re above it!”

At the end of his rant Viperion’s eyes were nearly glowing, his breathing a bit more rough than normal, looking away from his teammates knowing he stepped too far. “Sorry, but I don’t want my friends to die on me when I can do something to stop it”

Ryuuko, Chat Noir and Ladybug understood where he was coming from but it was like a slap on the face, a reminder of what civilian life was like for them. Ryuuko could feel the sting coming from her leg, where mother had hit with her shinai after failing to be in proper form. Chat Noir still felt the ache of having to do photoshoots all day and then staying up at night to have to do his make-up work; not that his father cared with his disregard of child labor laws. Ladybug still had some redness from bruises Alya had caused by tripping her on her way to class.

“... Okay so these are the sad gang hours” the group turned back seeing Roter Fochs land, Roi Singe and Pegasus landing behind them. The Parisians were really only aware of ‘The Core Four’ as they’d rather have some aces up their sleeves; not that the three were ready to confront the Parisian backlash just yet. They didn’t want to deal with anymore bullshit than they had to in their civilian lives.

“Is everything alright? Or is it just Life™?” Roi Singe asked, leaning onto his bo-staff next to Viperion.

“It takes 60 euroes to go to therapy but no money to say it just be like that sometimes” Roter Fochs shrugged, much to the dismay of Viperion, Roi Singe and Pegasus.

“Can you please stop joking about your mental health” Pegasus found himself groaning. A small hovering screen appeared next to him, a cowboy hat firmly attached to the top with an antenna sticking out.

“Yes studies show that LGBT youth have a higher percentage to suffer from depression, some even to the point that they𑁋”

“Thanks for the concern CowBot but, really, I’m fine; let me have my fun” Roter softly tapped the little robot. It was nice having people, well sentient beings, still concerned with his well being.

Suddenly the group tensed, their artificial ears and enhanced senses picking up a light clink, the sound of something quickly winding up followed. Two male figures landed in front of them, quickly surrounded by the Parisians. The taller one of the two quipped:

“Well aren’t you a merry bunch”

“Who are you and why are you here?” Chat Noir kept an icy cold edge to his voice, emulating how his father would talk to employees that weren’t Natalie.

“They’re not Akumas, no magic radiating off of them” Ladybug analyzed, looking closely at the duo but she couldn’t recognize them at all. The male that had spoken had a lean and relatively tall body, he couldn’t be more than four years older than her team, so around his late teens early twenties. He had long raven hair, his bangs framing his face perfectly, even in the moonlight she could tell he had a pale complexion though the black domino mask he sported helped hide most of it and his eyes. His uniform wasn’t one she recognized from any superhero from the League; black kevlar, if she had to guess, made up nearly the entirety of his suit, from his boots, pants and even gauntlets, heck she wouldn’t be surprised if his cape was bulletproof. One of the only things to bring color was his crimson chest piece, with two belts across it holding up a golden bird symbol, the same one on his canary utility belt.

“Tt, we just came here to talk” the smaller male scoffed, his posture not looking any more tense or relaxed, just attentive. His build was also lean like his taller partner though she could tell his body would be able to build more muscles with his broader shoulders. She assumed they were around the same age, his jawline defined but not to the same extent an adult’s would be. His hair seemed almost darker than that of his partner’s and was slicked back though maintaining most of its volume, a naturally tan skin was found beneath a green domino mask, much like his companion’s. His uniform was definitely more colorful, almost as if he was meant to garner attention(and boy wasn’t that concerning); black seemed to be the main color in his suit with the outer cape, pants and sleeves being that color, ruby red tunic that went beyond his belt with dandelion accents on its edges and a golden R over his heart, pine boots and gauntlets matching the shade of his mask with dandelion yellow covering the inside of his cape and hood as well as his own utility belt.

She had no clue who they were.

“And why should we trust you?”

“Because we don’t like the Justice League any more than you do”

🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫

One Week Ago

“Hey B, we found something interesting while reading the League’s data” Barbara Gordon’s voice echoed in the BatCave. Currently she and Tim were doing the weekly check-in on the League, something those heroes never seemed to notice. Not that they were surprised.

“What did you find?” Bruce asked, telling Duke and Damian to take a break from combat training while he did.

“There’s an alarming amount of distress calls from France, specifically Paris, that the League has been either ignoring or not receiving” Tim showed him the graph of all the history, going back at least three years closer. It was small at first, once every two months at the beginning, once a month when the second year began, every two weeks bordering on weekly near the end of it, by the start of the third it was daily until some time three months ago they just stopped.

Well wasn’t that cause for concern?

“Can we get any audio of the calls?” Bruce’s detective side coming up as Barbara was able to bring up a few that hadn’t been automatically deleted by the Justice League’s system. The first one was the very first from three years ago, a video call.

“Uh hello!” the girl on the video said awkwardly, clearly nervous but determined to get her message out, “My name is Ladybug”

Her costume looked like it was simply made by spandex, a rather plain design of red with black spots around, a domino mask with open lenses was the only thing really concealing her identity.

“Paris has a supervillain, his name is Hawkmoth and he feeds off of negative emotions. His power can turn anyone into his enslaved champion and we- my partner and I are the only ones really fighting this. I- I know you’re all really busy saving the world and all that but- but we’re just kids! We have no experience and well, we were hoping you can send someone to help? We’ve only confronted him three times now but well, we were just pushed into this”

Bruce could feel his blood growing cold, she couldn’t have been older than thirteen when this was recorded. He knew no Leaguers went on missions to Paris for the past five years… He told them to play the next video, from two years ago.

“Hello Justice League” Ladybug still wore her simple spandex though now standing tall next to a boy with a black cat leather outfit. Behind them was a girl with a bee themed outfit, a girl with a fox themed outfit and a boy with a turtle theme.

“We just came out of this Heroes Day disaster”

“No thanks to their help” the bee girl snapped before looking away.

“Look, Hawkmoth is getting more and more dangerous. He was able to transform half of Paris into his minions, they took over Paris and nearly won”

“What is it going to take you for you guys to finally help?” the cat boy growled much to the surprise of the others.

“Chat Noir!”

“Oh please we can totally handle Hawkmoth without them; you two should be enough already. With us three helping you, defeating him should be easy, power of teamwork and all that” the fox girl waved off, much to the surprise of the turtle.

“Rena did you seriously not remember what just happened. We were compromised, we nearly let Paris fall. We’re not trained for this, not even LB and Chat, and they’ve been doing this for the past year”

“Whatever”

“What was the last transmission?” Bruce found himself asking as the cave suddenly grew silent, all eyes on the monitor as their last transmission played.

“Why are we even bothering with this?” a new male voice asked, the video was shaky before finally pointing at the Parisian streets. If you could even call what was essentially a river of water, reaching to the top of most rooftops streets anymore. Items were floating about, bodies littered around them.

“They’ll never listen, they never did” another female voice agreed, they assumed it was the girl at the corner of the screen, looking down on the streets in what could be described as pity.

“I know” Ladybug’s voice sighed from behind the camera. “But they should at least see the consequences of their actions”

“If they even bother watching these, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just delete these as soon as we send them” Chat Noir entered the screen, eyes cold and calculating.

“Paris should be thankful that Lucky Charm is able to bring them back” the male with the snake themed outfit shook his head. “This is probably the 1,000 time most of Paris died with an akuma, second with Syren”

“Super lucky” the dragon female rolled her eyes “It’s not even worth trying to save citizens since all they do is cretique us”

“And the officers; Apparently we should be able to deal with city-destroying being and protect the people at the same time while officers just stand behind the lines waiting for us to do both” Chat Noir hissed

“What's done is done. This will be our last call for the Justice League; I hope you’re all happy, knowing that you’ve forced children to grow up and fight in a man’s war. Bug Out”

“There are no records of these videos even being played, or even of these events happening as far as Parisian government records say. But there’s clearly a lot of cover up going on, most of Paris’ emergency broadcasting doesn’t make it out of its borders, heavy encouragement of tourism even though there have been complaints by the people about… akumas?” Tim reported as soon as the video finished playing.

“There’s even records of a city-funded statue being made for Ladybug and Chat Noir yet no indication of where it is or what its for” Barbara continued “This blog keeps coming up, it used to be called the Ladyblog before it switched to Fox Tea. Look at these videos”

The screens were suddenly filled with shots of these Akuma; one that froze the city over, one who controlled the weather, one who began dropping adults from the sky, Syren, Heroes’ Day… All of them had to be handled by scared children. 

“These look too real to be edited” Duke said in awe. He was very aware of his children all surrounding the screens, looking at the countless destruction of one of the major cities in the world.

And none of them had ever heard of them or these children who were forced to deal with it.

Ones who seeked out help and were never given the time of day.

“Red Robin, Robin” his two sons standing in attention “I want you to investigate the matter and offer our help; convince them that we’re on their side on not aligned with the League”

“We’re on it, Batman”

🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫

“So you just want us to believe you found out about us and suddenly want to help?” Roter Fochs looked at the duo skeptically. 

“We wish to assist you with this whole… situation. No one has heard of Akumas or of Parisian heroes before, we concluded that it may be the government attempting to keep tourism up” the shorter male, Robin, they later learned, spoke up while keeping his hands in the air.

“Though that doesn’t excuse the League, who we know you personally sent distress messages” Red Robin echoed the message “We understand the incompetence of the League better than anyone else. Did you know they never bothered to even open most of those messages?”

Red Robin was surprised by the sudden animalistic growling coming from the group, some of their eyes glowing while others looked disappointed.

Ladybug looked hurt.

“Who do you work for?” Ryuuko  asked, curious but not letting her sword lower from its position.

“We’re Robin and Red Robin”

“Like the food chain?”

“.... Yes. Anyway we’re vigilantes sanctioned in Gotham, New Jersey in the United States; we’re both proteges of the Batman” Red Robin held back the need to roll his eyes at the monkey boy’s statement.

“Never heard of him” the French heroes turned to each other, trying to see if the name rang any bells.

“According to the internet the Batman is almost a folklore for Gotham; people claim to see him and his array of birds and bats but none could ever get clear photos” CowBot replied after a quick search.

“If the League never saw our messages then how do you know about them?” Chat Noir stared right at them, as though he’d know they were lying, which he couldn’t but Roter Fochs could and would.

“Because we’re better than the League” Robin said with the same certainty one would say the grass was green.

“Why should we believe you?” Ladybug asked skeptically, if they were so good then why didn’t they handle what the League wouldn’t? Why didn’t they just try to take over the Hawkmoth situation without their input? Why didn’t they just take down the League by themselves?

“You shouldn’t, “ Robin shrugged once more “But we’ll actually help where the League wouldn’t”

Ladybug stole a look from Chat Noir, both turning to Roter Fochs, who shook his head softly indicating the duo wasn’t lying.

“If you really want us to talk then give us the coordinates to meet with the Batman” Ladybug demanded, Robin looked outraged at the implication while Red Robin nodded.

“Alright, but how will you know if we’re lying to you?” he asked curiously, typing something in his communicator, the center of his utility belt, before handing it over to her.

“Trust me, we know when you’re lying plus we’d know when we get there” Viperion smirked, “Also you can stand down now Bunnix, MultiMouse”

The duo were not surprised to see two figures standing behind them, one male with a mouse theme and rope wrapped around his hands, and a petite girl with a bunny theme and a sharp looking umbrella pointing straight at their backs. They were just surprised that they hadn't sensed them before.

“Did you get those coordinates, Pegasus?” 

“Yes Ladybug, waiting for your signal”

“Well then birdies, we better hope you weren’t lying or you’ll find Hawkmoth won’t be your biggest problem”

“Voyage!”

🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫

“Why don’t you guys like the League?” 

The meeting between the Bats and Team Miraculous had gone much better than any of them had expected; it had certainly helped when they found out one of their own, Agent A as they called him, was once a wielder.

They had both been surprised by the amount of members each team had: The Bats had expected Ladybug, Chat Noir, Ryuuko and Viperion; Roter Fochs, Pegasus, Roi Singe, Bunnix and MultiMouse had been a surprise.

Meanwhile Team Miraculous had only heard of whispers of Batman and many Robins, even a theory on a bat girl of sorts from their brief research; having Batman, Robin (V), Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Signal, Batgirl, Batwoman, and Black Bat not to mention Oracle and Agent A; they had almost thought it was an ambush.

They supposed they each knew how to keep certain secrets tight.

“The Justice League, though still consisting of some of the most powerful people in this Earth, are too high and mighty; none of them really consider the consequences of their actions and are too reliant on their powers to be able to resolve all their problems. None of them have any contingency plans if their enemies find out their weaknesses and exploit them. Not a single member is a ‘normal human’”

He pulled up a hologram in the middle of the meeting table, every person who's worked with  Justice League showing up, each showing their array of powers and abilities before showing their membership status.

Batman, Green Arrow, Speedy, Robin, Artemis; Non-Members

Two Green Lanterns, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, Bumblebee, Rocket, the Atom, Blue Beetle (II), Superboy; Reserve members with clearance.

“That does seem pretty discriminatory” Viperion hummed as he thought of the people on the list, those on the Non-member list had no power or enhancement at all while those on the reserve, with the exception of Captain Marvel and Superboy, had powers or suits but the vulnerability of humans.

They weren’t considered strong enough, or maybe even reliable enough.

“We’d probably be considered in the same capacity as a Green Lantern” Pegasus concluded “Take away their ring and their powers go away”

“Which brings us to the next question” Batgirl chimed cheerfully “What is it exactly that you’re facing off against?”

“The Miraculous are ancient artifacts that lend you the powers of certain godlings named Kwami. Kwamis are the essence of concepts and ideas: The Ladybug who represents Luck and Creation, the Black Cat who represents Misfortune and Destruction and Horse who represents Transportation and Innovation are just some examples” Ryuuko explained for them

“Hawkmoth is in possession of the Butterfly Miraculous of Metamorphosis and Desire along with the Peacock of Emotion and Will” Ladybug paused briefly as she saw the look of surprise on Agent A’s face, wondering if she’d feel that way if she found out Tikki was being used for evil in the future. “Both were thought to be missing, possibly destroyed, when the last Master of the Order was able to salvage them from the attack to the Temple of Miracles. He was only a child when the Temple was attacked, thus he was able to escape without being detected by the enemy”

“If I remember correctly,” Chat Noir interrupted “I believe Master Fu said their name was “The Shadows” or I think he said they now go by𑁋”

“The League of Shadows” Nightwing softly added, the air tensing immediately.

“You know of them?” MultiMouse was weary considering the Shadows were very keen on keeping to, well, shadows. That had to mean that the Bats had confronted them.

“Intimately so” Batman growled out.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bunnix’s brows furrowed underneath her mask, feeling as though they wouldn’t like the answer.

“The Shadows have been a pain in Gotham’s ass in the past” Batgirl explained before turning to Batman “Especially since the Demon’s Head was interested in having Batman as a Son-in Law, though his daughter is sometimes an ally”

“Batgirl!” Red Robin admonished

“Don’t forget the little demon over here” Red Hood joked, missing the look of shock in the Parisian heroes.

“Or the fact that it sometimes seems like he wants to get on Red Robin’s dick and have his babies”

“Batgirl, Red Hood that’s enough” Batwoman sternly looked at the duo.

“You’re saying Robin is related to the Shadows” the Parisian heroes in the Reserve Team looked at them suspiciously while the Core Four just patiently waited to see what the Bats would say.

“That’s in the past” Nightwing steely stated “He was born into that lifestyle, but his mother let him chose to leave and live a different life”

“We had no choice of who our parents were” Black Bat reinforced, the team taking a mental note that she was once a shadow as well.

“Noted” Chat Noir said cooly “Though you must understand our reluctance when hearing the Shadows; like we said the Shadows destroyed the temple that was meant to safeguard the Miraculous and killed off every Guardian in the process”

“It would be foolish of us to not be on guard when hearing of them being so close to us again” Ryuuko explained “Though we will give the benefit of the doubt”

And so was the beginning of their partnership.

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“You’re all skilled fighters for not having any proper training” Oracle commended, looking at the statistics of the spars they all had, by far the Core Four had the strongest stats but it wasn’t because of the others’ lack of skill.

“Thank you, Oracle” Ryuuko bowed after finishing her match with Robin, an intense sword fight having just finished. If she had truly wanted to she could have ended it by cutting Robin’s katana but she found it both dishonorable and the easy way out considering they were testing skill sets. On the other side of the room was Red Robin and Roi Singe’s fight, bo-staff against bo-staff, being monitored by Black Bat.

“Oh kwami” Ladybug whispered as she and Chat Noir were called for the next match… against Batman and Batwoman.

“This is where we die Noir”

“It’s been an honor m’lady”

The fight had been entertaining, each side coming in with an array of attacks. At first the Bats had played offensive with the Miraculous duo playing defensive, dodging Batarangs and all their little gadgets. The Bats hadn’t expected just how durable the simple looking yo-yo and staff would be or any of its features.

At some point there had been a flash bomb, Chat Noir blocking it from Ladybug and getting temporarily blinded, Batwoman had planned on attacking while he was disoriented however the attack amplified his enhanced hearing, extending his staff and tripping her in the process.

In the end the Bats had won but it had been a close victory considering the Miraculous Team had not bothered to use their special abilities during any of the fights.

As they were taking a breather, resting and getting drinks, Robin spoke up.

“How are you allowing your city to step all over you?” Team Miraculous looked at him briskly before Red Hood, of all people, continued for him.

“We’ve seen the reports and the Parisian news, they’re relying on your team of four, considering they aren’t aware of the others, to be there to solve all their problems”

“It’s okay for your people to put so much trust in you but it's gotten to the point where they expect it of you” Robin concluded.

“I’ve tried telling them” Viperion sighed, facing his group “We really should be leaving Paris to handle their own problems, we’re busy enough in civilian life and akuma fights as it is”

“How do you suppose we do that when we already face scrutiny for not dealing with Akumas fast enough?” Chat Noir asked, his tail flickering behind him.

“You could always stop patrolling in broad daylight if you don’t want to leave the city altogether” Red Robin suggested, “Hiding in the night is easier to avoid any authority or anyone trying to get interviews. Plus this way it's less predictable where you’ll be certain hours of the day”

“He does make a good point” Ladybug said, mostly to herself, before nodding “I think it's a good idea”

“You heard her team,” Chat Noir turned to face the others “All for stopping daylight patrol?”

All of them nodded in agreement, the beginning of a long list of necessary changes in their lives.

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“My father is planning a press conference to talk about his ‘concerns’ with the lack of your appearances” Chloe rolled her eyes. A year ago, after the Heroes’ Day Disaster, she and Carapace had chosen to stand down while Rena was ultimately retired. She’d found out about Adrien when she went for a visit only for him to jump in through the window.

It was awkward between the two of them before they called for Ladybug.

She gave her neutral face of disappointment first before making a plan.

They were all aware that Lila must have been the one to start the disaster, being Volpina was the only explanation, as Ladybug confessed that Lila had a vendetta against her. Chloe also figured she must have been lying, something she had already suspected before, about being in another country considering Hawkmoth’s attacks only stayed in Paris.

Due to Chloe’s secret identity being out in the open they realized Hawkmoth wouldn’t be above targeting her family again. Thus Chloe became Ladybug’s spy.

Meanwhile in civilian life Nino was getting tired of Alya and Lila’s antics, especially the ones against his bros Adrien and Marinette. Well more against Marinette and more sexual harassment/getting together with Adrien. That’s not even touching on their newest content on the blog which was just criticizing the Miraculous Team for all their weaknesses and shortcomings, in the guise of offering “suggestions” on how to get better. 

They thought it’d be good to have an inside man, someone who could warn them of anything Lila and Alya might come up to.

They were both the secret members of Team Miraculous.

“Holy shit are you serious?” Nino exclaimed in Chloe’s room. They’d all come in secretly and by different entries to meet up in case certain nosy classmates had spotted them.

“Yep, I may or may not have threatened my father with a lawsuit against his violation of child labor laws and me not receiving my paychecks” Adrien said excitedly.

Chat Noir had made an off-hand comment on how his father had tired him out with a packed work schedule. This resulted in prodding from the mother hen known as Nightwing asking for details which ended in Chat Noir confessing that he works for his father’s company, had been homeschooled most of his life and often had a packed schedule full of extracurriculars, including up to around 12-hour work days sometimes. Turns out with that brief information Oracle informed them that his father was violating child labor laws due to the fact that he had worked more than thirty five hours a week since he was fourteen.

“Holy shit” he’d say in awe at the moment “My father is rich though… who knows if this would even go through with his influence”

“No man is truly above the law” Nightwing had given him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, “But… is everything alright in your home life?”

“I- I shouldn’t say anything that reveals my identity… '' the usually chaotic boy said solemnly, his cat ears downcast.

“Chat Noir,” the group turned to Ladybug, the one who’d help introduce her team to the life of masks and magic “Your own safety is much more important than keeping your identity safe. We both know the kind of person your father is… I’d rather you have the best options possible to face this”

“How come you’re so fast to trust us?” Robin asked, surprised but keeping a stern face.

“You do realize that she has the coordinates to this place, right?” Viperion smirked “She’s known who you are for a while and never mentioned anything. We just expect you to return the courtesy”

“That seems about right” Red Robin sighed before taking off his mask, the others of the Bat Clan following suit. Team Miraculous gave Ladybug one last look before dropping their own transformations, some of them looking familiar to the Gothamites.

“Marcus is that you my boy?” Agent A, otherwise known as the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth made his way to MultiMouse who nodded shyly. 

“I actually go by Marc now great-uncle Alfred”

“Wait what, Al has siblings?” Stephanie exclaimed, Jason was whispering for Tim to write it down in The Book.

“Yes, an older half-sister” he said with an impeccable raised brow “I would have never thought you’d follow after my footsteps Marc”

“I guess it does run in the family”

“Adrien Agreste! Like son of the fashion mongul Gabriel and late actress Emellie Grande de Venily?!” Stephanie exclaimed as soon as she focused on the blonde teen.

“Yep” was all he could find himself saying, taking comfort in Marinette’s presence next to him.

“Don’t worry Adrien,” the boy looked up to the slightly intimidating looming figure of Bruce Wayne “We’ll help you deal with your father”

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“Boys” Bruce had said as soon as he entered the living room, where the group had devolved into a video game competition. “Remember tomorrow is your monthly therapy session”

“Already?” Damian groaned, his brothers, with the exception of Dick, looking like they would rather not go.

“Timmy isn’t prepared to face his inner demons” 

“And it seems Timmy hasn’t slept in some time again, hasn’t he?” Luka teased, continuing to run his hand through Tim’s hair, the boy practically purring in response.

“You have a therapist?” Marinette asked Bruce skeptically.

“We’ve all… gone through things growing up. Alfred made me realize that we were all in need of some help”

“And do you umm… talk about your nightly activities?”

“They’re trustworthy and confidential, yes”

“Do you think you could give me their information?”

That’s how Team Miraculous found themselves on the day after another akuma attack, in a private room within Wayne Tower, each waiting their turn to see the doctor.

“You’ve been through alot Luka” the teen was lying on his back, facing the ceiling as the psychologist who worked with Bruce talked. “Losing what you’ve come to accept as your family, watching your friends die, even though you knew you could change the outcome. Doing it over and over again in order to save the city… It's not something anyone could be expected to handle, let alone a child your age”

“I… I know Dr.Quinzel. But I can’t allow myself to feel guilty over everything or even get overly emotional. If Hawkmoth found out it’d be a disaster, especially because Marinette trusted me with the miraculous… the first for her to assign full time as the Guardian…. I can’t let her down” Luka gave her a lost look, one rarely seen on the charming boy before.

“Keeping all of that inside… It could fester up and explode if you’re not careful Luka”

“So you’re telling me that you are perfectly fine with how your life at home is going, Nathaniel? Even after everything we’ve discussed”

“Look I’ve tried telling my parents they were wrong but they just keep saying I’m confused, not to mention think my art is a joke… and maybe they’re right”

“Those are important parts to who you are. Saying that would be like considering yourself a mistake… Do you feel that way Nathaniel?”

“I…”

“I think I have pretty bad taste in girls, though my friends usually call me a himbo for not really thinking things through. Maybe I should think before acting more?”

“I’ve known I was going to become Bunnix ever since I was fourteen, it was always just a matter of when. So when I was finally called to action I was so excited but… I can’t help but wonder if I’m cut out for this”

“My mother has groomed and taught me to be perfect at all I do. It was something ingrained to me since I was a child; It wasn’t until recently that I learned that is impossible to achieve. Why was mother so pertained to me being it?”

“I know I’m the smart guy but I shouldn’t be expected to have all the answers, especially for my classmates who refuse to look at evidence as it is. Seriously, if I had known they would have taken my comment about how dangerous a napkin can be as pure fact then I would have not said anything that day”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m not enough for my grandmother. She’s getting older, she’s starting to forget a lot. I help by telling her things like stories but I’m not sure how long that will last… She’s the only family I have left in Paris, I don’t want to leave my friends or boyfriend behind”

“My father has always been a distant man but ever since my mother… I’m not sure if he even sees me as his son at this point. There are some days I’m treated as nothing more than a trophy boy or a regular employee. I wonder if this would have happened regardless of my mother’s passing”

“I am Ladybug, I am also the last Guardian. But I’m just a teenager! I have a life I want to live outside of Paris… I want to be a designer, start my own brand, find love and have my own family… But Hawkmoth is in the way of all that”

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“Are you sure about this LB?” Nino asked from the terrace of Chloe’s penthouse. They’d been talking strategy when an Akuma attacked, given the chaos displayed by the news via LadyBugOut livestream, they could only assume it was another Volpina attack.

Unfortunately Volpina had a Sentimonster to help, Reality Check. A glorified 3D printer who could temporarily make Volpina’s illusions tangible and real.

It had proven to be a difficult battle, especially since Luka and Adrien had been caught up as civilians and couldn’t help Ryuuko and Ladybug. The others still had to wait for Ladybug to give the signal before they’d consider going out to help in broad daylight lest their hidden cards be revealed too soon.

In the middle of the fight the two heroines had made a strategic retreat, one the Fox Tea blogger did not hesitate to call the coward’s way out. Suddenly the two appeared at Chloe’s along with Roter Fochs. The scarlet hero had taken out two familiar boxes with extremely familiar jewelry inside. 

“I’m certain of it” she said with a determined smile, “Besides this could finally get Hawkmoth and maybe even Alya off your backs if I introduce new heroes; Of course your costumes will have to be different, as will your codenames, but I trust that you’ll know what to do”

“Hello my queen!”

“What’s up dude”

Paris was in uproar when they heard of the new heroes; Abeille and Anselm.

Abeille’s costume was much more armored than that of Queen Bee’s; the whole suit had a honey yellow bodysuit with black armor pieces, her chest piece in the shape of a bee’s face, black elbow length gloves with some honey stripes, thigh high black boots with honey kneepads. Her own mask was different from her former as it changed her eyes to royal blue like Pollen’s while being honey colored with black v shaped lines. The golden gauntlets on top of her gloves would be able to send out small shocks, capable of stunning enemies for small intervals at the time, nowhere near as potent as Venom.

Anselm’s own attire was not so different from Carapace; Anselm still kept the hoodie his predecessor did though beneath it is where the differences began. Anselm wore a pine green helmet, yellow tinted goggles on top of his red eyes, with pale thin daffodile lines going from the top to the bottom of his hood. The hoodie and his undersuit was sacramento green, bordering on black, though the majority of the suit was also armored with pine pieces like the hexagonal chest piece, shoulder, thigh, shin, knee and elbow pads. He also had much thicker gauntlets than Abeille’s along with armored gloves and reinforced sneakers.

Of course, Chloe Bourgeois and Nino Lahiffe were quickly off of the suspect list when the two were spotted separately looking for shelter amongst the Akuma attack during Fox Tea’s livestream.

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“So you’re part of the OG Team huh?” Stephanie asked as she gave a once over to the two newcomers.

“Deep undercover missions, you know how they go” Abeille scoffed, her honey blonde hair swaying along with her five black streaks around it.

“What she said. We couldn’t help as Queen Bee and Carapace anymore, compromised identities, so we helped as civilians before covering our tracks and coming back” Anselm tried to keep back Chloe’s prickly personality.

“Like what?” Cass’ appearance startled the two, though both looked like they were about to draw out their weapons.

“Well I get them intel from what’s happening in the mayor’s office that Max and Markov can’t get out from the computers, daddy is a bit of a pushover and squeals pretty easily”

“While I get intel from Fox Tea’s disastrous dude duo. I’m usually among the first to find out about anything their plotting… though I’ve had to drop that. It was getting too much for me to continue being with Alya so we broke up”

“So you kept dating Cesaire just to gather intel? Doesn’t that seem manipulative?” Duke asked from his seat on the monitor, the two Parisians looked at one another before beginning to laugh.

“Not compared to what those two are capable of”

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“Are you sure about this?”

Currently Viperion, Ladybug and Bunnix were on the Gotham rooftops, shadowing the Bats for the night. The three were honored to be trusted with the responsibility but still felt foreign in the much darker environment, literally and metaphorically.

“It’ll be a good experience” Oracle said in their ears, their comms being synced to those of the Bats “And you won’t be alone, I’ll be here and so will your partners”

Right on cue Robin, Red Robin and Black Bat landed on the same rooftop. The plan was for the six to cover the patrol for the night, the others would be getting rest or doing specialty training with their abilities. It was a surprise for the Miraculous gang when it was revealed that Signal and Red Hood would be joining them as fellow trainees. Alfred and Black Canary, a metahuman who often worked together with Green Arrow in Central City, would be in charge of the training while Bruce also oversaw their progress.

Honestly they hadn’t known what surprised them more: the fact that Batman had metas on his team or that he trusted other heroes with the training of his children.

“It should be a regular night; standard mugging, gang fights and possible robberies should be all that happen tonight”

Of course that was not what happened.

As it turned out Riddler had escaped Arkham, no surprise, and had gone too long without his medication. Edward Nygma was usually a pretty tame man, if a little eccentric with his love of riddles and his brilliant mind.

He decided to hold Gotham Grand Terminal hostage.

Ladybug was decidedly trying not to panic as she saw the very obvious bombs spread across different sections of the terminal. There were too many for them to deactivate in less than three minutes and there were probably more hidden around.

“Riddle me this; What is Joan of Arc made of ?” Ladybug and Robin were the first to arrive at the scene, Viperion and Red Robin being the closest to coming as back up. Robin seemed as confused as she felt but decided to really think about it…

This was so stupid.

“Maid of Orleans” the look Robin gave her, like she just made the most foolish decision of her life, was seen spread across the faces of hostages before Riddler began to laugh.

“Why you are correct, little red” he wiped a tear from his eye “Bats would never think of something so punny like that!”

“Yeah well I’ve had a lot of experience with annoying puns”

“What’s colorful, loud and is a mess to clean up?” Ladybug’s eyes widened as he pressed the big red button on the remote control, Robin bringing Ladybug down and shielding her as the hostages began to scream.

BOOM!

“...Confetti cannons” Ladybug muttered, her whole body covered in the colorful paper pieces with glitter in the mix.

That son of a bitch!

It was April 1st.

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“So what is it that we’ll be doing?” Bunnix asked as Black Bat silently leaped through the Gotham rooftops, camouflaging effortlessly with the shadows unlike her because of the white and baby blue costume she had on.

“You two will be checking up on Red Hood’s sector for the night, Crime Alley” Oracle’s voice responded for her.

“Right, so is this just a standard patrol?”

“Something like that”

Bunnix was admittedly a bit nervous about being with Black Bat, Cass didn’t really talk much and was kinda hot. Bunnix had just dutifully shadowed her, staying as quiet as she could even if she did more parkour than necessary, when they stumbled upon a drug deal. Bunnix was about to go down to smack some people around with her umbrella when Black Bat shook her head.

“One of Red Hood’s men, let’s wait to see the deal go through”

Bunnix wasn’t sure what to think as she watched the deal go down. Weren’t they supposed to be the ones to stop this from happening and not helping them? It was a bit confusing and against her moral code…

“We do this to keep the kids out of the involvement” Oracle seemed to read her mind, explaining their reasoning “Before Red Hood decided to get involved with drug trafficking Crime Alley was full of children who would be taken advantage of by dealers; whether it meant getting them addicted or becoming their messengers and delivery boys. He made it very clear to his ‘allies’ that no child from Crime Alley was getting involved in their plans again or else the deals were off. Those who tried going above him… well they’re no longer around to try and take him down”

Still that did not help ease Alix’s worries as the night continued on. Black Bat came to a sudden stop on top of a warehouse, gesturing for Bunnix to follow behind her, and climbing in through a shattered window. Inside were dozens of wooden crates, each with cameras pointed at them and only one with an open lid. Black Bat walked towards the open crate with ease, going inside and taking out three duffle bags from inside. She placed two on her, criss-crossing each other before handing the other one to a reluctant Bunnix.

The tow then headed to a hidden tunnel underneath one of the empty crates, making their way in a closed (?) Gotham sewer. It didn’t smell as disgusting as Alix imagined it would be, musky at best, though she thought that it may be due to the fact that there was no dirty sewage water there. They walked in relative ease, essentially walking for what had to be at least 15 minutes in numerous twists and turns before reaching a ladder. The two got out, Bunnix recognizing it as part of Crime Alley with how run down the area looked.

Black Bat knocked on a rusting steel door, three times, five, once and then a tap with her palm.

The door opened up, a boy no older than 12 being the ones to greet them.

“Where’s R.H?” he questioned, he looked disappointed but not alarmed, clearly he had met Black Bat before.

“Was busy. This is Bunnix, she’s helping for the night” The boy was clearly unimpressed with her but he closed the door and led them down the long hallway. She noticed the few scattered toys along the way, with some open doors showing mountains of writing supplies and even a little library.

What was this place?

“This is Red Hood’s sanctuary for the kids of Crime Alley” Black Bat whispered next to her “Batgirl and Red Hood are usually the ones to come here though all of us have come at some point.” they entered the large room showing children of all ages, some as young as infants and others looking close to early adulthood. They dropped the duffle bags in front of what she thought was the leader of the pack when Red Hood wasn’t around.

They were filled with non-perishable food, wads of money that will probably be used to provide for the group of 30 or even more for the next month, toys, books and some new clothes.

As the children gathered around, each a little dirtier than Alix remembered ever being as a child, lining up to get a new something that Red Hood got for them she couldn’t help but think;

… Maybe things were never so black and white.

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“I know it may seem frightening, even unnerving, to let go of your control but if you keep your powers bottled up it may prove to be disastrous in the future” Black Canary told the group of teens.

“With abilities bestowed to you like those of the Miraculous are left untrained then it may prove to lead to your downfall” Alfred nodded along to Dinah’s words.

“As capable as Ms.Lance and I are, we have realized that we would need further assistance to properly be able to train each of your abilities”

From one of the Batcave’s entrances they could hear the screech of tires before a slick black car parked next to the Batmobile and Hoodcycle.

“Sorry, we’re late” a red headed woman said as she stepped out of the car, her pale freckled skin slowly gaining a green tint to it as she removed her lab coat and glasses, “Selina here thought she could make a quick steal on our way here”

“Oh c’mon Pam, you know you love the rush as much as I do” a tanned woman laughed, twirling around a golden necklace with one of the biggest rubies they had ever seen in its center.

“Now, ladies; Pam-a-lamb has a class of powered kids to teach” they recognized Dr.Quinzel belatedly as she was missing her glasses and uniform. She was now wearing a much more colorful array of clothes with the consistent theme of red,black, and white. Her skin seemed paler than they remembered and her blonde hair had red tips on one side and blue on the other.

“Hey girls” Barbara came down the elevator at the same time as Stephanie and Cass, seemingly cutting their conversation when she saw the newcomers”

“Babs!” Dr.Quinzel exclaimed, making her way to the other girls after giving a quick kiss to the green skinned woman.

“Well you’re right on time Pam” Dinah sighed, cocking her hip before pointing at the newcomers “These are Dr.Pamela Isley otherwise known as the Gotham Rogue Poison Ivy, Selina Kyle a more vigilante type thief Catwoman, and, of course, you know Dr.Harleen Quinzel or as she prefers to go by Harley Quinn”

“Hey kittens” Selina waved at the group “By the way it's been too long since we girls have hung out; how’s about a Birds of Prey raid? You in?”

“Only if Oracle agrees” 

“Oh pleasepleasepleaseplease!” Stephanie and Harley’s persistent pleading could be heard immediately afterwards. A polite cough interrupted the chaos.

“As enthusiastic as you ladies are for your plans, may I remind you that we have prior plans to care for first. Namely the training”

“Sorry Alfie” Harley said, chastised, “We’ll get out of your hair. C’mon ladies!”

“...So training?” Marc asked

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“What happened to you?” was the first thing Kim laughed out as the duo stepped into the cave, leaving a trail of confetti and glitter behind. Marinette looked back at her team, unimpressed, in their own state of disarray.

Chloe, Max, Marc and Nathaniel seemed to be nursing their own cases of migraines; most likely having pushed the limits of their own new abilities which relied on mental fortitude. Chloe and Jason’s powers were the most similar to Alfred’s which involved manipulating and projecting thoughts and ideas to the people around them or to specific targets. Nathaniel was developing the power to create illusions that only his target would be allowed to see. Marc could create intangible clones of himself but could still project what they were seeing and hearing to him. Max could teleport objects a few meters away from or towards him.

Kagami, Kim, Adrien and Nino seemed the most physically exhausted. Kagami was beginning to have slight control of fire, wind and water but not yet conjuring it; given her slight burn marks, wet clothes and messy hair Marinette would guess that she still hadn’t fully grasped the manipulation aspect outside of being Ryuuko. Kim’s own face was dirty and slightly bruised and matched that of Adrien’s. Kim had begun to use his chaotic energy to make the wackiest things happen but to have the outcome he wanted while Adrien could suck the luck out of people for small intervals lest he want to have the misfortune backlash cling on him. Nino’s was more tame though he now had to focus on two things since he could now use his energy to both heal and to create a shield that encompased his body like armor.

“Oh god you guys look like messes!” Alix laughed along with Luka, the only two that looked fine as they had a fairly tame patrol with Cass and Tim.

“Next time I see Riddler remind me to throw a glitter bomb” Marinette grumbled as she made her way to the showers.

“Not before I stab him with his stupid cane” Damian growled heading for the male showers.

“So how long till Daminette guys?” Adrien asked

“Definitely before the end of the year” Duke concluded, the others not being sure if he used his power or not.

“I’ll take you up on that. I’ll bet we make more money than with Red Scales” Stephanie laughed.

“Red Scales?” Luka asked curiously before the others yelled out.

“Nothing!” 

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“Okay how come no one warned me about that!” Jason yelled as he came out of the Cave’s entrance. The group either gave questioning or amused looks.

“Oh, so you saw that too?” Alix asked, perched from one of the sofa’s armrests.

“You assholes could have given me a heads up” he complained before groaning into a sofa “God, someone get me some bleach”

“What’s Jaybird talking about?” Dick asked, coming in from the kitchen with an array of snacks for the rowdy bunch of teeneagers.

“Oh just Timbers getting some with the big bad snake boi” Stephanie sang, causing Jason to groan and Dick to choke on his own spit.

“More like trying to eat each other’s tongue out” Nathaniel responded in disgust.

“Timmy, no!” were the words the oldest yelled out before heading into the Batcave in record time.

“Anyway,” Stephanie began “It’s time to pay up bitches. Marinette and Cass get the loot”

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“Hmm, so I guess that’s what fresh blood splatters looks like” Chat Noir said in morbid interest.

“Well it's certainly more noticeable than dried blood” Viperion nodded along, watching as Red Robin and Red Hood carried out the interrogation from a one-way mirror. There was a new gang who specialized in child trafficking, most of the kids coming from Crime Alley and therefore not getting reported to the police; luckily they had Red Hood looking out for them.

“Yes, well we are here to see how they carry out their investigation and get used to all the squeamish things” Ladybug gave a calculated look, as though she herself were in there and what she would do to get the information out of the man they captured earlier that night.

“Do you guys think this sort of thing is going too far?” MultiMouse asked curiously, he was beginning to grow a bit uncomfortable with the amount of blood the man had begun to lose. 

“I mean this asshole deserves it” Roter Fochs glared “I don’t think it's too much if it means saving all those kids”

“Standing on the edge of what is seen as a hero𑁋”

BANG

“Let’s you see all the things you can’t from the center” Ryuuko watched as the man was forcibly being held back up by Red Robin after Red Hood slammed his face on the interrogation table. 

“World is not black and white” Black Bat spoke from next to them “Many shades of gray in between; We are in the gray”

Ko-Fi

[rulesofthebeneath]

Hey guys!! 

Here’s the new thing I’ve been writing! I hope y’all enjoy lmao this started as a dumb idea but now I’ve been really emotionally invested in it. I’m gonna try to post about twice a week. Let me know what you think, please!!! Tags: @abunchofbadchoices, @mrsbhandari, @lilmissperfectlyimperfect 

The first time he’d ever told anyone, it was his first boyfriend, and he was met with a sarcastic snort.

“Come on, ‘Jay. That’s just what gay guys say when they’re scared to come out all the way. You can’t be both gay and straight, you have to choose.”

He was fourteen, and had no idea what to make of any of his feelings, much less the weird ones that made his heart beat faster and made butterflies storm his stomach. So he accepted that, and listened to Jake, who was older and wiser than him.

“Are you sure?” he’d asked.

“Yeah. Wait, ‘Jay, do you not like me anymore?”

“What? Of course I do.”

“Oh, good. I was scared you were trying to break up. But I don’t know why you’d say something as crazy as that. You know you can always talk to me, okay?”

Ajay nodded, but deep inside he sincerely doubted that. In retrospect, it was the first of several red flags that had led to a less-than-happy ending for him and Jake.

The next people he told were his parents. As far as Indian parents went, they were pretty open-minded, and hadn’t really cared about him liking guys. He’d even been able to bring home boyfriends or school dance dates without making too many waves with his parents. They didn’t really understand why he couldn’t just date a nice girl, but they loved him anyways, and he knew he was lucky.

But when he’d said he liked both guys and girls, he was met with polite parental confusion.

“What? But you only go out with boys, putra,” his mom had said. “You’ve never brought a girl home. How do you know you like both, hm?”

It was an excellent point. Ajay couldn’t explain how he knew he liked girls, just like he couldn’t explain why he liked guys. But he just did.

His father shook his head. “No, no, no. You’ll have to choose someday. You don’t have to hide yourself and pretend you like girls just to make us happy. You know we love you.”

Ajay hadn’t even known how to respond to that one, so he’d just nodded and excused himself from dinner. He’d never brought it up again.

He’d posted anonymously on a forum for gay youth that he’d found, but hadn’t recieved much other than “that’s not real”, “you can’t like both”, “you have to choose”, “so you’re a cheater?” and “you’re just saying that because you’re scared of committing to life as a gay guy”.

It wasn’t long before he’d just logged out completely, questioning himself. Did he just think he was attracted to girls because he felt like he had to be? Because society said guys were supposed to like girls? Was it true that he was scared of being gay, because of all the homophobia he’d have to face? Especially as a second-generation Indian, he was expected to life the perfect heterosexual American lifestyle, getting a good job and having two or three kids and making his family back in India proud of their success story. Even though his parents knew he was gay and didn’t care, nobody else in his family knew. He hated to think what they’d say about him if they did. They already talked smack about Ajay’s only openly gay cousin, Aditya, and Ajay knew he was basically dead to the family.

So was he just pretending he liked girls to escape the full ramifications of being gay? It was possible, he thought, but probably not. He’d never had a girlfriend or even been on a date with a girl, but that was due to an unfortunate outing incident orchestrated by his ex (another of those red flags he’d ignored).

Despite the fact that he was outed, though, he’d found a group of friends who had thoroughly supported him. Rory, in all of their genderfluid nonbinary aro/ace glory, Clint and Natalie whose sexualities seemed to be oriented towards whichever gender Rory presented as on a given day, Skye who was a goth sapphic icon, James who was the token straight ally, Trevor who was so deep in the closet that Ajay doubted he’d come out this century, then two mysteries.

One was Erin, Ajay’s longtime best friend. He knew she liked guys, but he didn’t know if she only liked guys or if she liked other genders too. He wasn’t about to ask, though, because asking her would lead to her asking him, and he wasn’t quite prepared for that.

The other was Grace, James’ twin sister. As far as James was known as a heartbreaker, Grace didn’t appear to have dated anybody. Or at least, she didn’t talk about it and neither James nor Rory, who’d known her since childhood, said anything about it either. And again, he wasn’t about to ask because of the possibility of the awkward return question.

All his friends would pick on him, good-naturedly, about just how gay he was– how he always dressed sharp, his hair was always neatly combed and occasionally slicked back with gel, how he liked theatre way more than a straight guy could ever, the fact that he couldn’t do math, how his best friend was a girl, his taste for iced lattes, his distaste for anything athletic. Erin had even caught him doing a facemask one morning, and had teased the living hell out of him for it. Ajay didn’t see the big deal– he just wanted to keep his skin clear– but was willing to accept that basic hygiene and skincare were not something that straight men typically did.

It was all in good fun, and Ajay knew that, and he would even laugh along with his friends when they pointed that stuff out. It was funny, he could admit that. And he was gay— that was the only part of his sexuality that was easy for him to admit. He’d found comfort in that label, even though it wasn’t the full story.

In all honesty, he was scared to be openly bisexual. Coming out as gay to his parents after being forcibly outed at school was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, and he couldn’t imagine doing it again. And how would he explain that he liked both guys and girls? He’d seen what they said on TV and in the movies, even in some books. Bisexuals are promiscuous, bisexuals are cheaters, all bisexuals choose to be either gay or straight eventually. It’s just a phase.

In previous years, in weaker moments, he’d wished he could just be gay. After a particularly disastrous encounter with a girl named Kelly and his very unfortunate crush on her, he’d cursed himself for liking girls when everyone knew he was gay. He tried to convince himself to be gay, to just only like guys, but it never took.

It never took, and it was one of the reasons he resented Rory, who was unapologetically themself. Rory didn’t care what people said, and either way they weren’t interested in dating. Rory had it good, anyways. They had parents who loved them, accepted them unconditionally, and had even thrown them a coming out party. They were just a far braver person than Ajay was, and Ajay wished he could have their accepting family and their confidence and just be who he was.

Ajay sat down heavily at the lunch table, having gotten there surprisingly early. Rory sat there, picking at their lunch absent-mindedly while scrolling through their phone. Grace sat beside them, twirling her hair around her finger and completely ignoring her lunch in favor of staring at something across the cafeteria. Ajay followed her line of sight but only saw the new poster advertising their spring musical, The Tempest.

Grace had snagged the lead role of Miranda after making her high school theatre debut as the lead in their fall play. It was her sophomore year, after she and her brother transferred from a school in Seattle when her parents decided to move back to their hometown and start their own business, a small diner called the Golden Griddle. Grace herself was an impressive actor, and even though Ajay didn’t want to admit it, she was an impressive person as well.

She turned her head as if snapping out of a trance, looking towards Ajay.

“Hey,” she greeted him. “Just checking out the new posters. I didn’t see them before.”

That’s right, Ajay reminded himself. Of course she might not have seen them until now. She had been noticeably absent from rehearsal yesterday, where Skye and Mr. Olsen had presented the new posters and the entire group had spent the last half-hour putting them up all over the school. It hadn’t been a huge deal- there were plenty of scenes that needed blocking, and Ajay had just had Skye stand in for Grace where it was needed. But he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t concerned, especially since he’d seen her twin heading home from soccer practice.

“Yeah, we put them up during rehearsal yesterday.”

“About that,” she started, looking uneasy. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to rehearsal yesterday. I… wasn’t feeling well, and I had to go home early.”

Ajay furrowed his brows. Grace looked so uncomfortable while she was saying that that it was obvious it was a lie, or at least not the entire truth. He wanted to ask her about it, but then James loudly sat down beside her, chatting with Erin, and he dropped it. Grace looked relieved at her brother’s interruption. Ajay shook it off– it didn’t really matter anyways. But he was worried all the same.

“Stop pouting,” Erin interjected,shooting him a ferocious glare. He was so surprised that the frown slipped off his face, causing the whole table to break out into giggles. Even Grace, which eased the worry a little. He shot a fake glare Erin’s way, then had to dodge another glare.

Skye, Natalie, Clint and Trevor showed up not long after, and Rory finally looked up from their phone.

“Hey,” they said. “How was everyone’s morning?”

Skye groaned. “Math test. Kill me now, before my parents see my grades.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “You know you got this, Skye. You knew everything on that test when we were studying last night.”

“Test anxiety is a bitch, though,” Trevor added. He prodded Skye’s shoulder. “I get it. We can’t all be the modern-day Einstein.”

“I resent that,” Grace mumbled, though a small smile remained on her face.

“I signed up to take the SAT at the end of the year,” Erin interjected. “I’m starting SAT prep tutoring this weekend. Three hours on both days.

The entire table except Ajay cringed. “Me too,” he admitted. “I’m gonna need a lot of help if I want a good score on the math section. I can’t make heads or tails of some of this trig stuff.”

Privately, he’d been thinking of asking Grace to help him out after rehearsal. She was already helping Skye on weekends, and though he couldn’t pay her like Skye’s parents could, he thought he’d offer to buy her dinner if she agreed. But that thought remained stuck inside his head, some part of him inexplicably nervous about being alone with her.

While he was caught up in his thoughts, wondering why the girl made him nervous and furiously trying to ignore that part of him, the conversation at the table had continued on without him. James jabbed Grace with his elbow and she jabbed him back. Erin and Rory talked about the college application process, Erin admitting that she wouldn’t be trying for any BFA Drama programs. Clint and Natalie hung on to Rory’s every word, echoing their indignation that Erin wouldn’t pursue drama in higher education. Skye and Trevor talked about set design, Skye even whipping out her sketchbook to add in some details.

By the time Ajay regained attention of the conversation around him, triggered by Erin asking him about that week’s rehearsal schedule, Grace had already zoned back out of the conversation, staring at the poster again. Ajay frowned again. What was up with her?

“Earth to Ajay”, Erin said. “We were arguing over which team was better, softball or soccer. What do you think?”

Ajay quirked an eyebrow. “Erin, I don’t do sports.”

“I don’t know why not. They’re fun! Even just to watch.”

“You know full well I have a complete aversion to any physical activity. But I guess if I had to choose, I’d say soccer.”

Erin nodded knowingly, a smirk playing on her lips. “I can see that. Scoping out the hot guys, are we?”

Ajay sighed “Sure,” he said, trying to sound as defeated as possible. Erin knew how he’d dated Jake a while ago, and he was now the team captain in his senior year at Berry. Erin had a theory that he still held a torch for the guy, though, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The only games he went to anymore were the ones that the whole theatre group went to with Grace to support James. Even though James wasn’t cast in the musical, he was an honorary part of the crew, having stepped in with his calm demeanor during various theatre emergencies. Everyone liked the guy– it was impossible not to– and they made up the loudest group on the bleachers cheering for him.

The only reason Ajay still liked soccer was because it was the only sport he understood. Jake had made sure he’d known everything about soccer, talking about it constantly. Ajay knew his ex planned to play pro soccer in Europe after graduation. Ajay had grown into a soft spot for the game that didn’t end when his relationship with Jake had.

The bell rang to signal that lunch was over, and everyone got up except Ajay and Grace. Ajay, because he was still reeling over the exchange, and Grace, because she was still lost in space, staring at that poster.

“Hey,” he said to her, barely able to make himself heard over the chatter in the cafeteria. “You okay?”

Grace’s eyes snapped to Ajay’s, looking startled for a half-second. “Oh, yeah, just distracted,” she said unconvincingly. She started to gather her stuff, and Ajay echoed her.

He fell into the crowd beside her, trying to make their way through into the hallway. Ajay screwed up all his courage to ask her about tutoring, because he really did need that extra math help.

“Hey, so, I was wondering if you’d be able to help me with my math stuff? I’ll be working on the SAT problems on the weekends but I’m falling dangerously behind in class again. I can’t really pay you but I can buy you dinner or something?”

Grace looked over, a little surprised. “Oh, yeah, sure. You don’t need to buy me dinner, though. I don’t charge my friends.”

“You don’t? But don’t Skye’s parents pay you?”

Grace looked a little embarrassed. “They insisted, and I tried to resist but Skye told me it was just a drop in the bucket for them. So really, I don’t need anything.”

“If you’re sure,” Ajay said. “But if there is anything I can do to repay you, I’ll do it.”

Grace paused for a moment. “Um… if you could help me with English it would be great. I don’t know what any of these old British writers are saying.”

“Sure, that stuff can be hard to digest. Sounds like a good deal for me.”

“Alright. Think we could hit up a coffee shop or a fast food place or something, say twice a week after rehearsal?”

Ajay nodded. “Thanks, Grace.”

“No, thank you,” she smiled. “See you at rehearsal.” Then she ducked her head and disappeared into the crowd.