#but we're back now sorta. with lore

[retiredcultistredux]

Why did you choose NOW to butt in? Why not follow the death cultists that can ABSOLUTELY destroy the world 99% of the time?

Quincy: "Besides, how was I supposed to know he was working with these 'death cultists'? It's not like he told us anything useful. All we've known for a long time is that he wants power--there's loads of powerful deities and artifacts in the Main Realm, and even beyond. It's like finding a needle in an astronomically large haystack, and constantly finding Nothing upon Nothing is just...I'm kind of at my wit's end here. Cut me and the others some slack, ok? ...Oh, and I saw what you said about some 'long hallway'. I was hoping you could be more precise. You seem to know what's been happening, so surely you'd have more information, right?"

They paused, sighing.

Quincy: "...Sorry. I'm not trying to be rude. This is just...a lot more than you realize, and now that I know Void Termina's involved...I really don't work well under this much pressure, huh..."

[lil-dragon-rawr]

TOH x DC Shenanigans: The Beginning of Vigilante Bingo

This is turning into a whole au oops

Part One, Part Three, Part Four

Masterlist

(Red Hood and Luz during the Batfam/Clawthorne & Co meeting, debating over who had the worst death)

Red Hood: psycho clown beat me with a crowbar

Luz: I raise you: eldritch blasted by a four hundred year old slime monster with a dozen eyes that once was human

Red Hood, getting competitive: died because I tried to save my bio mom

Luz, matching his energy: died to save a kid who reminded me of someone I or my little brother could have been

Red Hood: beaten with a crowbar, then blown up and asphyxiated

Luz: eldritch blasted, then slowly decayed in front of my found family I had just reunited with

Red Hood: my dad got there just barely too late to save me

Luz: dissolved into light, making me question the symbolism of my own name, then floated to the Archives and made my mother cry while she was a puppet (sorry Maman)

Red Hood, not quite sure how to respond to that:

Red Hood: kay but I wasn't even old enough to legally drive

Luz: oh how old were you?

Red Hood, thinking he's winning: fifteen

Luz: fourteen! Ha!

Red Hood: *groans loudly*

Batman, looking on in horror: there's two of them now.

Luz: okay but how'd you come back

Red Hood: well first I dug myself out of my own grave

Luz, immediately accepting defeat: ohhh snap, that sucks dude

Red Hood: yeah, then I got kinda-sorta kidnapped by assassins and dunked in a revival goo pit

Luz: that's the smoothie extravaganza you were talking about??

Red Hood: yeah, but anyways how'd you come back?

Luz: well I almost drowned in between dimensions but the Titan saved me and sent me back with a powerup!

Red Hood: okay literally chosen by a god, pop off

Luz: he revived me with the sole purpose of killing that moldy onion of an emperor

Red Hood, delighted: you killed a guy? An emperor, no less?

Luz, trained by her mom to not accidentally incriminate herself: technically, the rain killed him

Eda, offended: excuse you, I helped!

Robin, still surrounded by palisman: I assume your familiars are magic, given they can turn into wood. How did you acquire them?

Hunter, smiling and kneeling down to Waffle: that's the thing. Palisman and witches have to form a mutual bond.

Robin: ...and how does one do that?

Hunter: well first you have to carve a palisman!

Robin: so they're originally wood?

Hunter: yeah, it's tradition! There used to be a bunch of stray palisman living in the woods, but they've all made new bonds, and the palistrom forests are recovering!

Robin: ...hm.

Hunter: once you carve a palisman, you have to tell it your deepest wish. That's how the bond is formed

Robin, scoffing: sounds childish.

Hunter, smiling softly: it's a lot more difficult than it seems. Luz took months to bond with Stringbean

Robin, crossing his arms: perhaps because she is indecisive. I am not.

Amity, coming over to sit with Ghost: Hunter's right. I thought I knew what I wanted, but all I knew was what my parents wanted for me. My palisman wouldn't wake until I said I wanted to choose my own path, whatever it may be :)

Robin, who doesn't know what he wants no matter what he claims: *having an existential crisis but pretending he's just brooding*

(Barbara and Amity grabbing coffee after work)

Barbara, pretending she doesn't know all the lore: so how's your gf doing

Amity, completely unaware: she's great! :)

Amity: we're winning bingo :D

Barbara, sipping her latte: oh?

Amity: it's partner bingo so we're on a team! We both scored a point the other night so we're beating everyone else!

Barbara, pretending she doesn't know it's vigilante bingo: fun! What's it about?

Amity, trying not to reveal lore to her very normal coworker: it's, uh, tourist challenges

Barbara, narrowing her eyes: mhm.

(Vee, Luz, and Hunter get cornered in an alley after they accidentally wandered* into the middle of a turf war)

*It was Luz. Luz wandered.

Luz, sprinting towards the dumpster Vee and Hunter are hiding behind, bullets pinging off the walls around her: uh oh uH OH UH OH

Vee: hang on I have an idea! Hunter, get me to the roof

Hunter: aye aye! *grabs Vee and blips up the wall*

Vee: *shapeshifts into Batman* I'm gonna scare 'em

Oracle, eight minutes later: hey B, you weren't by the 7/11 in broad daylight just now, were you?

Bruce, looking around the board meeting he's in: ...no.

Oracle, running on coffee and sheer willpower: *rests her face in her hands* yeah, didn't think so

Willow, going to spend the night at Ivy's: Pam you will not beLIEVE the night I just had

Pam, who just opened the door and is so ready to hear the news: spill!

Harley, draped over the couch like she's in a Victorian painting: oh my gosh did Bats finally try to interrogate you?

Willow: no!

Willow: well yes but that's besides the point

Willow, throwing herself facedown on the couch: Luz and Amity got two more points in vigilante bingo!

Pam and Harley: *gasp*

Spoiler, crawling through the Clawthorne's window: hey Owl Lady I brought you caffeine

Eda, mildly disgruntled: uh why are you breaking into my apartment?

Spoiler: can I pay for a moment of your time with coffee?

Eda: depends, why are you breaking into my apartment?

Spoiler: sooooo I was kind of hoping to learn some magic to mess with my siblings and you said you were the most powerful witch for a while?

Eda: *deep, deep sigh*

Eda: gimme the coffee

Spoiler: :D

Eda, chugging half the coffee straight: you know, if I had a snail for every time a human with an affinity for purple wiggled their way into my living space and begged me to teach them magic, I'd have two snails

Eda: which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice

Eda, finishing the cup and tossing it in the trash: anyways, thanks for helping me get another point in vigilante bingo

Spoiler, immediately invested: oh?

Spoiler, back at the Batcave: hey did you know Clawthornes & Co are playing vigilante bingo?

Red Robin: yeah they mentioned it the other night

Spoiler: well Eda just showed me the bingo card

Red Robin: okay, and?

Spoiler: and I think we should meddle

(King, Vee, and Hunter, volunteering at an understaffed and underfunded orphanage (welcome to Gotham))

Jason, walking in for his own volunteer shift: *staring at them*

Hunter: oh hey, you must be the other guy the manager mentioned!

Vee, who can smell magic: *freezes*

Jason, who knows she can smell magic: *narrowing his eyes*

Vee, who knows he knows she can smell magic, realizing she now has to keep his secret identity from everyone: eep.

Vee, an hour later, realizing she can't even get a point for this in vigilante bingo without revealing his secret identity: oh come ON

(Gus gets a temp job as a news anchor because the last anchor left due to...conditions...)

Gus' boss (idk how tv news works lol we're just going to call him Gerald): so you're willing to be our new field anchor? (I reiterate idk how news works please forgive and correct me as needed)

Gus, unaware of the "conditions" the last anchor left because of: yep! :D

Gerald: great, kid. Here's a mic and a complimentary gas mask. Have fun

Current Standings for Vigilante Bingo:

Lumity:

Luz gained the competition point by arguing that the rules never specified the competition had to be something vigilante-related (and she beat Red Hood at trauma dumping).

Huntlow:

Though Amity joined the conversation about palisman, the council declared Hunter to be the only one responsible for defusing Stabby Robin.

Gus and King:

Gus tried to get Red Robin's autograph, but Red Robin refused.

Eda and Vee:

Upon discovering Signal was about to rescue King, the council allowed Eda to claim the "be a hero before a vigilante can" square.

[pant--eater]

wallace x willard art when? 🤔🤔🤔

kicking the rat bastard from Arcane into the sun for a while because GET IN CLAYMATION GANG, WE'RE GOING BACK TO OLD MAN YAOI TOWN (these 2 goobers just keep adopting more children. First 4 woke dogs and now a whole army of robots)

heads up for Vengeance Most Fowl spoilers!!

no but hear me out HEAR ME OUT I have been brainstorming of so many possible ways of how to add Vengeance Most Fowl into my Apple pie with Cheese lore, and AHEM:

Wallace has no visible love interests in this one because he's dating Mr. Tweedy :^) the movie is set during the phase in their relationship when they're sorta not-quite-in-the-beginning-anymore, but not full on married yet either, and are constantly discovering new things about each other. Willard is not present because his apple farm is having a REALLY busy season so he hasn't had time to go visit the West Wallaby Street gang. Which is why Fluffles decided to go to the countryside for a while, to help him and the terrier twins! (and to be Willard's therapy dog <3)

None of them could have anticipated all the crazy shit that would happen in Wigan in the meantime LMFAO but hey, it's what makes being part of Wallace's and Gromit's weird little family so exciting! Though Willard, who has...ahem... PARTICULAR memories about gnomes stealing his stuff in the past, takes a long while to get used to the Norbots and is highly uncomfy at first...honestly, he'd be even scared, as their massive overwhelming amount reminds him of a certain flock of birds. Slowly, he will ease up though, once he learns that the gnomes are only as dangerous as their commands - and surprisingly... it helps him in a therapeutic way to cope more with his chicken farm trauma <3 (he WILL ask Wallace though why he added an evil setting to them LMAO and Wallace answers that he thinks that in case the gnomes gain sentience, they're allowed to choose what sorta people they will become)

ALSO THE FACT THAT BOTH HIM AND GROMIT LOVE GARDENING ANG GROWING VEGGIES/FRUITS???? HELLO???? STEPDAD AND SON BONDING ACTIVITIES RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!!

PLUS!! Now that Wallace has learned his lesson about technology, he knows how to program the gnomes to help with Willard's apple farm in ways that won't damage it or take away from the fun creative part of it :)

[lexicorp]

Y'know, one thing that bothers me about the backstory information we get for the end of the war and Megatron in Earthspark; is /how/ he actually def acts from the cons.

Like, all we really see is how he was fighting them for the allspark in the battle scene, sneaking into Shockwaves lab to steal it, and how the cons behave towards him. Some cons outright call him a traitor, while others still were like "I'd never fight /you/ Megatron!" And it just makes comprehending what exactly went down between them so tricky.

It stands to reason that Megatron had gone behind their backs with his decision to side with Optimus. But why? Why didnt he just stand in front of his army, and /tell them/, "we're doing this now"? He was the leader, why couldn't he do that? Why /wouldn't/ he?

So then the thought trails to perhaps he'd decided that he wanted to quietly remove the allspark, lie and say the bots stole it when it vanished, and let it fade into the shadows in a safe place only Optimus was to know about. That seems like a decently plausible plan. So then in the scene with Shockwave on that theory, Megatron wasn't actually outwardly against them yet, but Shockwave knew. Shockwave already has a bit of his own history in lore of wanting to expand his power over the Cons in his own right, so I don't think it unreasonable for him to have kept a keen eye on Megatron's behavior. Hell, Shockwave had been planning a protoform army that Megs didn't seem to approve of. So maybe that timeline could have been how things went, with Megatron running off with the Allspark after locking the scientist away.

But then it still doesn't make sense. Cuz if we're going off the idea of the first plan, why wouldn't he have simply covered up Shockwaves absence and done it the quiet way instead of it leading to some huge battle? Clearly no one knew where shockwave was since he hadn't been freed beforehand by another con-- or maybe they did since in a deleted scene ravage was supposed to have gathered a remote to release him. Maybe that's why they deleted that scene tho. Who fucking knows. It's jank as hell.

So then Megatron must have already been openly with the bots in that scene, and snuck in due to insider knowledge to the location of Shockwaves secret lab. Okay sure. So then, who took charge after Megs disconnected? Starscream? But Shockwave had literal underground plans of his own. And Star's line of "witness the fall of Megatron!" Is just so funny to me thinking about the timeline shit. Cuz I process that line as "witness the mighty warlord falling from his throne to become a pitiful traitor to everything he created!", but it could just feel like some typical slag of the "Megatron has fallen, now I'm the new leader!" But then if Starscream had already appointed himself as leader by that point, then that'd seem odd in context, especially as it's worded differently. Were the cons all just flailing around disorganized? Some listening to Starscream, some to Shockwave, some to Soundwave?

There are not enough details touched on for my liking. Vague context that leads to more questions than what answers it gives.

I think at least for my fic imma have it as a sorta mix where Megatron decided he was gonna dewit on his own and went behind their backs, he was caught fraternizing with the enemy, and when he tried to explain then his three main lads thought it was bullshit and were actually on the same page at least on the idea that they didn't wanna throw away their advantage and thought what Megatron was saying was dumb. And I bet Optimus and other bots were there during that confrontation so it just escalated into a full on battle where Megatron just left to stay with the bots. It could have also just been Star who initially found out that way and just relayed what happened to the others.

It still just seems so weird tho...so tbh i'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on the matter.

Bro's fumbling-

[bogleech]

If you're still taking mortasheen questions - Can you tell us any lore stuff about the ultimate bioconstructs like hestermoan?

Mortasheen's original three "legendaries," Hestermoan, Tormanshee and Mothneaser, all have names that are anagrams of "Mortasheen," which itself is the name of a disease spread by the Nuckelavee in folklore. They were imagined to be three "kaiju" that would be completely frightening and disturbing with none of the whimsy or silliness of other Mortasheen monsters, and also broadly represent their three common categories: a physical attacker, a mental attacker, and a bioweaponry wielder. Hestermoan is the biggest and strongest and basically Mortasheen's "Godzilla," Tormanshee was meant to have a nasty Silent Hill kind of vibe and spreads "madness" while Mothneaser collects your blood and turns it into other monsters. They're so old by now, they conflict with a lot of the "style guide" i have in my head. I know I just said that was kind of their point, but there's other internal guidelines I impose on the setting that I'd like them to follow by the time I introduce them into the RPG, and they might change a bit drastically, but hopefully they'll keep the same vibe.

Tormanshee in particular was based on one of the very oldest Mortasheen monsters, a simple embryo in a floating bubble, which I then brought back as the "tormite" here and tied them together, also giving Tormite one huge open eye so it can also read as a floating eyeball.

Now for the RPG I'm using Tormite again as the lowest-level and most common psychokinetic creature, though I turned it back into a sleeping embryo thing with its eyes closed:

If you liked the "simultaneous eyeball" gimmick, don't worry! I'm doing a thing with that! I don't know what yet, but one idea is that they kind of "wake up" and then they start to evolve various forms from there.

I think Tormanshee will still connect with them somehow, too, like their "termite queen," but my design ideas for it are a whole lot more elaborate. They still have the "silent hill pregnancy demon" vibe but with a whole lot more body, kind of from a "what if this was also an ultraman kaiju or an evangelion angel" angle.

The more current concepts I had for Hestermoan are odd enough I don't want to spoil it, and it was originally going to be included in the first book - sorta - but we're holding off on it for now and may release them as free supplemental monsters. I also kind of like the idea of doing so because it has a similar feeling to Mew and other "secret" legendary Pokemon. Maybe their first release would even be through a really silly and gimmicky exclusive medium, before they get released as free public downloads.

My newer concepts for Mothneaser are all over the place, but it still has nothing whatsoever to do with moths. I just really like the sound of the name. All three still have the lore that they wake up only when the city's existence is threatened. This is monumentally rare because the city is the size of a continent and it's alive enough to regenerate from almost anything.

[taehyunsluvr]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ Boy Next Door ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

warnings: sub!soobin, afab!reader, dom!reader, making out, friends to strangers to lovers, nerd!soobin, nicknames (noona, soobie), kinda leg riding?, first time, pervert!soobin, not proofread

a/n: short, kinda a random idea but fits him. We all know he'd he such a boob guy. Theres lore guys theres lore okay trust me

!!MDNI!!

Everyone labels him the "nerd" of the neighborhood because he's kind of the guy everyone uses for homework answers. Your friends, they can be a bit harsh. They sorta.. kinda.. bully him? That sounds realllyyy bad but really all they do is tease him from time to time. For small things like his glasses, the way he dresses, yk the usually things. And yeah, you've laughed along a few times. It felt wrong, but it was worth it to be friends with them.

Though he's always kinda been your friend, secretly. He helped you out with math when you were practically failing, listened to your endless rants about whatever drama was going down at school, and never asked for anything back. Thats just all he was though, always there, kind of like part of the scenery of your life you never really paid much attention to.

Then randomly at school, Soobin comes up to you. He's looks of nervous, which honestly wasn't that weird for him. He purposefully tried to meet you when your friends were getting snacks during your break.

"Y/n," he mutters, "there's something I really need to tell you." You just stare at him. You were kind of annoyed because if your friends saw you they would never shut up about you talking to him. "I like you, more than a friend like. I've felt this way for a while but didn't say anything because I know how it is with your friends..I know you laugh with them, and it's cool but we're graduating soon so I didn't want to miss the opportunity." You didn't really give him an answer. You just stared at him, mouth open slightly and with a confused expression before he walked away.

It pissed you off that he just HAD to tell you. It was awkward as HELLL and now you couldn't even ask him for help with work. And not to mention finals were like in a week. And now you stood in your kitchen, pissed of because your mom told you 5 minutes ahead of time that the Choi's would be coming to your house to have dinner. Was this a joke? Well you wanted to make the best of it. At least you could play around with him for the time you had. You tried slightly with your outfit and makeup, but no too hard. When the door opened and his family entered, you were sitting on the couch. You got up to greet them all, glancing at Soobin. He had his usual black framed glasses on, and a plain outfit.

"Hey you came." You waved slightly to him. He VERY awkwardly waved back, looking at his feet avoiding eye contact. "Mom we'll be in my room." Now this would sound suspicious if it wasn't for the fact that you've known each other since you've worn diapers. You both made your way up your stairs, and into your room. "You can sit on my bed if you want." He nodded silently. "Soo.. anything new with you?" You wanted to talk about something, ANYTHING to break this awkward suffocating feeling. It wasn't just awkward, but you were also still pissed. You weren't pissed at the fact that he abruptly confessed, but more by the fact that he didn't let you give a proper response. He constantly avoided you at school and pretended not to be home when you brought stuff over to his house for his family. Did he think he was alone with his feelings?

"Some people started a rumor at school.." He said breaking the silence again. "They said we're a couple. You raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? You sure you didn't start the rumor yourself?" You teased. He looked genuinely bothered. You scoweled. "What? Does it make you that unfomfortable that people think we're dating?" He quickly retorted, "N-no..! I just thought it might make you.. annoyed"

"Ill decide for myself how I feel, thanks, I dont need you deciding that."

"thats not what I meant.. I'm sorry noona.." He said repentually.

"I never even got to respond to you that day. Maybe the rumors would have been true if you let me speak." You said moving slightly closer to him on your bed. He looked confused.

"My answer is I like you too, and I do want to date you. So does that answer suit you? Or were you expecting rejection?" he paused. He felt a bit embarrassed when you so bluntly expressed your feelings to him. He wasn't expecting a positive reaction, so he felt hesitant on if he should speak or stay quite.

"H-huh?" He couldn't tell if you were teasing him or not. "If you're actually serious then why didn't you just tell me then?"

"Because you didn't give me the opportunity to. Well its good we got that out of the way. I'm actually really excited now. We can do tons of fun couple things." She said facing him.

"We-w-what?" The whole mood shifted. A moment ago you guy's were all serious, which was totally out of character for you. Soobin was taken by surprise as you leaned closer. "What 'couple things' are you talking about..?" His voice broke as he spoke.

"we could play around and.." she leaned closer to whisper to him, "I would even.. let you touch them." She leaned back away from him and laughed hysterically while cupping her chest in her hands.

Soobin felt his entire face immideitatly turn red and his heart rate shoot up. He felt like he could die from embarassment as he felt his body heat up because of the teasing. He could only slightly nod. "W-well I guess.. we can do that.."

"Oh so you're admitting to being a pervert?"

"I-it's.. not like that" He said answering quickly. "I'm not.." it was a joke you often said to him before.

"You've thought about it before haven't u? How they felt?"

"W-well.. um.. yeah.. I have thought about it.. but that doesn't make me a perv.." His face flushed even more than before.

"It totally does. But your wish is my command." She took his big hand and placed it on her chest. Soobin immediately felt a sudden warmth on his hand. It was like every nerve was being stimulated, and his breath began to become more heavy as his heart rate increased. You never knew boobs turned guys on this much. Or maybe it was just Soobin..

"You like it right?" You teased.

"W-well, I mean.. they're- they look really soft and I.." He trailed off and he was stuttering profusely. It was already too much for him to handle.

"you're already this flustered from feeling my clothed chest?' He nodded in a mix of shame and embarrassment. His face was completely red now. You wanted to test his limits. You leaned onto him, pressing a soft gentle kiss onto his lips. You just wanted to test the waters. His eyes widened in surprise as he felt the unexpected sensation. He hesitated for a moment before slowly parting his plush lips. The kiss became more rough, and you pulled his waist, so once he attempted to pull away, naturally he fell onto his back on your bed. He gasped for air, his body trembling under yours. His hands moved up to your shoulders, trying to push you away but finding it almost impossible to resist. The warm touch of your hand started to spread all around his torso as your fingers began to run over his skin. He let a groan before speaking, "M-Mmph...p-please don't.. dont't stop.." You moved your mouth down to his kneck, slowly trailing kisses down his sensitive skin.

A shiver ran down his spine, and he let out more groans as he tried to hold onto u, not wanting you to stop. You lifted up his plain tee revealing his chest. You brought one of his even more sensitive nipples into your mouth, gently sucking. Soobin let out a soft moan, and he couldn't help but arch his back slightly. You could feel his heartbeat now, and he could feel himself getting harder under your touch. You felt it. It was huge. Wasn't he the nerd everyone asked for homework answers? Why did god give him everything. Looks, brains, and a huge cock. She let out a teasing laugh.

"Somone's excited." She lifted her knee in between his legs.

"M-mhhh..mm n-noona.." His moans became even more intense as you pushed into his hard erection through his sweatpants. He couldn't hold it in anymore. "M-more..please," he managed to whisper between ragged breaths. She gave attention to his swollen nipple while still pushing her knee into him. The sensations were overwhelming. His body trembled. He pressed his hips forward in an attempt to get closer to the sensation you were creating. "Fuck.. I can't take m-more.." His voice strained. "Mm.." He tried to hold back, but as soon as he felt your hand slip down under his sweatpants onto his hardness he couldn't help but make noises of pleasure.

"Shhh.. these walls aren't sound proof soobie." You told him, knowing there was no way anyone downstairs could hear if they couldn't hear your blasting music that you usually played on your speaker. His body tensed up and he felt himself about to climax, his hips bucking forward. "noona I'm- I-" With a suppressed and strained moan he released his seed into his sweatpants, panting heavily as the wave of pleasure washed over him. He took a second to fully come down to realize the situation. His legs still twitching, he felt both incredibly embarrassed and incredibly speechless.

"Oh- by the way I'm sorry for laughing with my friends.. before.." She had a complete 360 in the way she treated him but he didn't even seem to notice-- or care. "I-i don't even care anymore." He said calmly. "Can you grab me a tissue?"

[ririchanva]

Chapter Twenty Two Joint Training / Class A vs. Class B (Part Two) 

░❇┊Previous┊❇ ░ ❇┊Next┊❇ ░ ❇┊Masterlist┊❇ ┊AO3 ┊❇░

░❇ Buy Me Some Coffee~? ❇░

Chapter Warning: Almost character death, some dark themes that will include violence. Spoilers for Miraculous Season 6 along with a sprinkle of cameos from other Zag Cartoonz. Spoilers of MHA of the manga and possibly Vigilantes and Team Up Missions.

A/n: Can't believe we're back at it again and we're up to the next part of the Joint Training. So far so good, Season 6 of Miraculous is slowly getting there and the added lore in it doesn't affect much of the story (in total fact, I'm so shocked it is syncing a little too well for the plot). But anyways, enjoy this chapter gang~"

   “Your…lives are at stake?” Nino questioned with a frown, “What does that mean?”

    “It’s exactly what it means,” Devil spoke with a scoff, then glanced towards some other people watching them, “It should be the same for them, no? Considering they are the missing children from the United States, correct?”

     Marinette realized that she was talking about Seraph, Miss Mermaid Greenhorn and the new girl named Peni Lane. This got her thinking for a moment but she remained quiet for now

      Seraph was the one that spoke first, having an almost teasing smile despite it looked tight with edge.

     “Are you afraid that those special hunters will be after you lot?”

     “Special hunters?” Marinette questions, already noticing the teachers were secretly listening to the conversation too, especially Eraserhead.

     “Remember how I said that my father has special connections? The same connections that Tomoe Tsurugi has along with Audrey Bourgeois and Gabriel Agreste?” Once Seraph heard verbal yes’s from Nino and Marinette, he continued, “Well, there are plenty of people that hunt Miraculous and other magical items or strange anomalies for many reasons. Some for their own selfish desires….others think of it as a sport.”

      “Interesting. Thus why you said that you are in danger,” Master Fu stroked his goatee with a hum, “But rest assured, children, you are safe here.”

      Marinette didn’t know if Master Fu’s words registered to them, witnessing the Moonlight Hunters looking at each other warily, and it wasn’t just them. It seemed Seraph, Miss Mermaid and Greenhorn looked unsure too. What were they so afraid of?

      Although Marinette noticed that Miss Peni didn’t looks too surprised. Huh…

     “Guys! Don’t sweat it so much~! As long as we stick together and work as a team, there’s no way the bad guys can get to us!” Nino tried to cheer them up, giving a big, confident smile, “Trust~! We’ve got a lot of strong and smart people on here.”

     Eraserhead decided to intervene, “How about we get on with the next match. We shall discuss what happened during the first match laster, hm? Goddaughter of mine?”

    Marinette winced, seeing how he and Amelie were looking at her. Ah, so they knew...

“Looks like the match is about to begin,” Shinso spoke in a low tone with wary eyes, watching the teams for the second match heading to their starting point, then glanced over at Luka feeding Xuppu, “Who do you think will win this round?”

    “That’s sorta a redundant question considering you are somewhat a time-traveler~?” Luka smiled at the other before he quietly transformed, then twirled his bo-staff, “But I’m assuming that you want my opinion anyways, huh?”

     “If I get a different perspective other than what I know, maybe I can feel a bit calmer at the fact that I can’t control everything that happens,” Shinso looked down at his capture weapon, “To not feel this itch of trying to make sure things go right and to not screw up.”

     Howler hummed as he observed the purple haired hero, then glanced over at the teams, “…In my personal opinion, this might be the match that’ll end up in a possible draw.”

     This surprised Shinso. “What makes you think that?”

     “Well…” Howler tapped his chin with the end of his staff, tilting his head, “Nathaniel and Felix will be against each other. And both of them are real good strategists. Then there’s Momo. I heard from Ochako that she and that Kendo girl are rivals even though they were in a work study along with doing a commercial together.”

     “Hmm…”

     The Monkey Hero watched Shinso for a moment, but then jumped when Shinso started to cough, “Woah! Hitoshi! A-are you alright?”

    “I-I’m fine,” Shinso assured the other, placing a hand on the side of his head, groaning, “I-I guess the match took a lot out of me…”

     Howler frowned. He could sense the other’s song wavering. He was lying.

    “SECOND ROUND TEAMS, TO THE FIELD!”

     Momo took a breath as she glanced over to the other team, her eyes trained on Nathaniel in his new costume and persona. She was indeed shocked that he decided to use two Miraculous in the field at the same time, but it’s not like she could voice out her concern. It was none of her business…right?

    ‘He is old enough to make his own decisions. I should worry about myself and my team rather than think of others.’

    "Hey, Yaoyorozu?”

    Momo snapped out of her thoughts and glanced over at the red headed girl smiling at her, and responded in kind, “Er, yes? What is it, Kendo?"

     “Why weren't you in the pageant? I though I'd see you there,” Kendo asked with a curious look, “I’m sure you would have stood a good chance~”

     “Er, f-for some reason, Aizawa-sensei failed to tell us that something like that would be taking place,” She explained then shrugged while looking away, “I also had band practice, so I wouldn't have had time to prepare for it. I suppose he must have decided that a pageant wasn't necessary for my hero progress.”

     That, and she remembered she was a Guardian in training. 

     Although…is it really something she still wants to be?

     ‘I only agreed because Midoriya requested it of me. But is it really a good idea if I become a Guardian of the Miraculous and it’s New Order?’

     As Kendo and Momo kept on chatting, Argent felt eyes on him. He knew that Neim was giving him a look and the dual wielding bird hero glanced over at the snake.

     “Did you have something to say to me?”

     “No. I just want to know if your head is truly in the game, that’s all.”

     This confused Argent for a moment, “What are you talking about?”

     “The fact you’re using two Miraculous at the moment, what made you decide this?” Neim questioned, tweaking his lyre for a moment, “It almost feels like you’re trying to prove a point.”

      ‘Am I?’ 

      Argent paused in his steps, although he felt a nudge at his back and turned his head to look at Pixie Girl, who gave a reassuring smile.

    “Hey, we’ve got your back, okay? So don’t let the enemy get into your head~”

    Although to Argent, it didn’t feel like Neim was getting to his head. Rather, it felt like the snake hero was trying to tell him something without saying it out loud. But what for?

     Neim walked ahead of them, but then noticed Spilornis and Cybear looking at him curiously.

     “…Yes?” The Snake Hero asked, and the Eagle hero hummed.

     “Was there a point to speak to him like that?” 

     Neim shrugged, “You’ve noticed the tension between him and Miss Momo, right? I suppose I just wanted to gauge his reaction.”

     “Do you think they are having, how you call it? A lover’s quarrel?” The Bear heroine questioned, tilting her head, making both Neim and Spilornis chuckle.

     “I don’t think that’s the case for them. I just wanted to know what made Nathaniel want to unify both the Peacock and Swan Miraculous,” Neim explained but then pursed his lips as he turned serious, “I’m surprised the idiot didn’t collapse immediately since, from what I heard, no holder can wield more than one Miraculous. Too dangerous, Master Fu would say.”

     “I guess that is quite the feat then?” The other bird like hero hummed, but then noticed someone looking at him and noticed it was the shadow-y like young man walking next to Argent, “Hm?”

     “Oh wow, he seems gloomy,” Neim noticed as well, then smirked, “I think this match is going to pair us off with people that might have the same wavelength our energies and fighting styles.”

      “And, who do you think will match with you?” Cybear asked this time, pursing her lips, “I do not know who I’d be against.”

      “Nathaniel might target me. As for you, Miss Hill…” The Snake hero observed the group and tilted his head, “Perhaps Pixie Girl? She’s kinda your opposite since you are the more technologically advanced while she depends on nature. It would be your advantage since there is no life of green anywhere for her to use.”

       “Hey, Tokoyami~”

       The three of them looked up when the shadowy hero from the other team spoke, giving a wide grin.

      “If you think about it, we're basically the same type too.”

      “If you say so?” A frown was placed on Spilornis’ face as he observed the other, ‘Shihai Kuroiro. Also known as the Scheming Hero: Vantablack. Your Quirk lets you merge with darkness and move freely within it.’

      Vantablack chuckled, “You and I share a destiny. We are brothers in the shadows.” 

     “Oh?” Spilornis looked amused, Dark Shadow peeking out from his shoulder, “You have also stared into the abyss?”

     The other shadow user shrugged, although smirked playfully, “Long live eternal darkness, friend~”

     Cybear just stared at the two in confusion, but then glanced over when she saw the gloves that belonged to Invisible Girl waving around in anger and even Can't Stop Twinkling was huffing and puffing.

     “Hmph! Those two aren't twinkling at all!”

      Soon, the two teams walked off to their respective areas discuss their game plan for a few more minutes while Vlad King announced the match was about to begin.

      Argent looked down at his weapon before he felt a nudge at his side and glanced over at Kendo, who told him to use her hero name: Battle Fist, the girl giving a wink and a smile.

     “Let’s do our best, Argent!”

     The dual wielding bird hero nodded, “Yes. Let’s do our best, Leader.”

     “If anything I want you to lead with me,” Battle Fist whispered to him, and the other red head blinked in confusion, making her chuckle, “Don’t get me wrong. I know that the plan we’ve already devised is solid. I just think…you being at my side might trip Creati up a bit, ya know?“

      Argent frowned, “…Are you suggesting to emotionally distract her?”

      “While that is below the belt, yeah, however…” Battle Fist hummed as she glanced over to see Momo glancing at them, but then turned back quickly when caught, “Maybe she also needs a bit of a wake up call.”

     He didn’t like what his team mate was pointing out, but he sighed and nodded, “Well, villains don’t play fair.”

     “Hey! We’re the heroes in this scenario~” Battle Fist smacked his back in amusement, “But you’re right. Anything to win, right? Let’s expect the unexpected, like you said before~”

      Argent was quiet for a moment, but then nodded, “Anything to win.”

     “Okay team! Let’s go!” 

     The red haired girl fist bumped her teammates as all seven of them went to their positions, ready to take down Team A. 

       Cellophane stared at the screen for a moment before glancing over at Tetsutetsu beside him.

       “Kendo seems like a really important part of your class dynamic, huh?”

       “YEAH!”

        The tape hero was quick to cover Rayures’ ears as the silver male started yelling, making Cellophane wince in pain since his ears were now ringing.

       “SHE GETS THE JOB DONE NO MATTER WHAT!” 

      “Why are you yelling?!” Cellophane whined, the Tiger heroine he was protecting from the loud screaming blinked in confusion as if not knowing what’s going o. 

     But Tetsutetsu kept on going.

     “THAT'S OUR BRILLIANT CLASS REP FOR YA! SHE'S SMART AND DECISIVE, EVEN UNDER PRESSURE! IT'S SO AWESOME! SHE'S ALSO BRAVE, RISKING HERSELF ON THE FRONT LINES WHEN OTHERS ARE COUNTING ON HER! NOT TO MENTION, HER ATTITUDE ROCKS!" 

      Somehow, Rayures got the gist of what he was saying, and even glanced up at Cellophane in worry since it seemed he was swaying in a dizzy manner while still holding her. 

     “H-Hanta? Are you okay?” She asked in concern, then smiled when the tape hero gave a shaky thumbs up to signal he’s okay for now

     But Tetsutetsu was still enthusiastic with going on speaking. 

“WITHOUT HER, WE WOULD'VE KILLED MONOMA OR BECOME A BUNCHA FOOLS LIKE HIM BY NOW!”

    “Uncalled for~” Phantom Thief spoke up with a sigh, Star Stallion beside him with a weak smile.

     Meanwhile, Shoto looked up at the screen with a frown, and Queen Bee (who returned from the nurse’s office and transformed) glanced up at him with a raised brow.

       “Something wrong, Shoto-Baby?”

       “I wonder if Yaoyorozu's plan will work.” Shoto replied with a serious look, his eyes showing concern.

        “Her plan?” Queen Bee questioned as Ojiro glanced over at them as well.

       “Why? What she upto?”

       Queen Bee saw the look the red and white haired male had, wondering what was going on in his head. 

    "We'll start reconnaissance immediately!" Momo glanced over at Spilornis with a polite smile, "If you please?”

     The Eagle Hero nodded before he looked to Dark Shadow attached to him, “Report back when you find the enemy.”

     “Leave it to me~!”

     The team of Class A watched as the shadowed being began flying off towards the pipes and such, their hearts anticipating anything from the other team and getting ready.

     “Second chance.”

     Neim twisted his bracelet as he activated his power, narrowing his eyes as he looked to Momo with a nod.

     “Well done. Now, it’s their move.”

     “They pretty much know what our Quirks are by now along with how some of your so called Miraculous work. But we've been improving on them and developing new moves. So they have to be ready for anything.”

      Argent glanced over at Battle Fist as the rest of their teammates were hidden in their positions, while the two of them were standing together out in the open. Battle Fist turned to the other and smiled.

     “That's why, first, they'll try for some recon.”

     The two stared up at Dark Shadow towering over them in a huge form, and Argent was already pulling out four feathers.

     ‘May the best team win…’

   Spilornis blinked as he glanced at Creati with a look of surprise, “Dark Shadow's found our opponents. It seems it is Argent and Battle Fist alone. They're located near the chimneys.”

    The girl almost froze in place at that, frowning. ‘Why are those two together?’

    “Focus, Creati,” Neim murmured as he glanced over at her, “The others must be hiding to tackle us into a trap. Don’t fall for it.”

    “R-right…” She nodded before looking to her team while running towards Dark Shadow’s direction, “Quickly then!”

  “…Why are you two just STANDING AROUND!?”

   Dark Shadow roared as he grew bigger, reaching out to attack both Argent and Battle Fist, but the two dodged easily.

   “I'll take care of whoever I can catch first!”

    “I’ll leave it to you, Vantablack!” Kendo shouted, already jumping back along with Argent on higher grounds.

    Pushing off from his hiding place, Vantablack blended into the shadows, then appeared to blend into Dark Shadow instead.

     “Into the abyss~”

     Watching Dark Shadow struggle and immediately flying back to Team A, Myst appeared beside Battle Fist.

     “Go?���

     “Go. Argent?”

     “Time to go, my beautiful Amoks.”

    Argent threw four bells on the ground as the feathers embedded into them, transforming into sapphire looking dogs. Closing his eyes, Argent took a deep breath before his eyes opened once more, showing his irises are now a mercury color. Letting out a puff of air, he let a gust of wind blow around them before it suddenly turned into a tornado, following after the amoks marching forward. 

    “Woah! That’s pretty cool,” Myst whispered, as she glanced at Argent, “Is this part of the Swan’s abilities?”

    “Ah, from what I understand from Detty, the Swan Miraculous has the powers of the wind. Pretty much I can control the air around me. Thus, why it’s called the Wind of Change. If all else fails and my Amoks are taken down, my strong tornado is locked on anyone that’s not us, will capture them in the storm and be brought back automatically to our jail….not to mention I have a secret effect in place.”

    “Oh?” Battle Fist wondered out loud as she looked at her partner once the ghost girl moved forward with the Amoks and tornado, “What sort of effect?”

     Argent looked over at her and gave a quirked smile, “If you think Shinso’s Hypnotic Quirk was bad…”

      “Fumikage….He…HE GOT ME!”

       Cybear was quick to dodge, grabbing Spilornis out of the way in time while Dark Shadow was rampaging out of control. It was then Myst appeared, but she was pushed back by a green blur.

      The ghost girl grinned at her brother, “Wow, Fury~ I didn’t think you’d tackle me first!”

      The green ghost stared her down with a grin in return, kicking her off of him and flew up higher.

     “This was a long time coming, sis~! May the best ghost win!”

      “I intend to~” Myst teased back.

      The two ghost teens then were speeding around each other, almost looking like two buzzing blurs as they fought in the skies.

      Momo pursed her lips before she then spotted the four glowing blue beings coming at them, and she readied herself, “Invisible Girl! Cybear! Be ready! Neim, stand back as a last resort! Spilornis, you and Can’t Stop Twinkling push forward!”

       Suddenly, the four beings stopped where they were, confusing both Momo and Neim.

       “W-why did they stop?”  Invisible Girl asked apprehensively.

      But before anyone could answer, a gust of wind blew around them and suddenly Cybear and Invisible Girl were picked up from the air, screaming out in shock as they were caught inside the tornado. 

       “We better get away!” Momo yelled as she was about to run, but it seems the Amoks were blocking her way, “W-what?!”

       Suddenly,  Spilornis was using his new move Dark Angel Wings (a move that he learned from Hawks) to fly and grab for both Cybear and Invisible Girl, trying to pull them from the storm. But he was pulled in as well and felt his world spinning around. 

       “T-this is madness!” He yelled, suddenly feeling his head becoming lighter as he started laughing weakly, “W-what…what is this…?”

       Cybear and Invisible Girl both were giggling almost as if they were drunk, still being up in the air with dazed looking expressions.

       Neim felt himself sweat-drop as he watched his teammates in the tornado laughing louder and louder and looked to Momo in confusion, “What the…?”

    “The Swan indeed is a terrifying Miraculous to use.”

     Chat Noir tilted his head as he looked to Izuku questionably, “So it…does what exactly?”

     “The Swan holder is able to influence the air around them. The Wind of Change.”

     “The Wind of Change?”

      Izuku nodded.

     “Just as the name states, Argent can change the current flow of wind produced. But he could also pull the air out of the atmosphere. Basically? He is dropping down the level of oxygen by using the tornado. Meaning, anyone within the range gets their brains basically feeling like you’re tripping on drugs. However, the lower the oxygen level gets, the more easily Argent could just knock them out in seconds, ” Izuku explained as he was taking down notes with a hum, “In a way, it’s a god-tier ability. He can even pull your very last breath from you if you’re not careful. ”

     Chat Noir gulped, and looked back at the screen to see Argent’s serious expression on screen.

    ‘He’s not gonna hold back, huh?’

    “Second Chance.”

     “Well done. Now, it’s their move.”

      “Wait!”

      Momo blinked as she felt the hand on her wrist and looked up to Neim in confusion, “Did something happen already?”

     “It seems there’s an ambush waiting for us. Not to mention Argent has a few tricks up his sleeves.” The Snake hero looked to the Eagle hero, “Spilornis, pull Dark Shadow back!”

      While he did look confused, Spilornis just nodded and called for his shadowed partner back. 

      ‘Now that he has combined the Peacock with the Swan, he’s an even more dangerous opponent. I can even admit that is impressive,’ Neim hummed as he looked to Invisible Girl and Can’t Stop Twinkling, “You two. Be ready for a Navel Blast and Wrap Refraction!”

      The two saluted while Neim looked to Momo with a nod. 

      Momo frowned before looking to the side, “Fury. Guard our flank. Neim and I are going to charge ahead instead.”

      Fury peeked from the shadows with a blink, then pouted, “Aw, I was hoping to go toe to toe with my sister,”

      “You’ll get your chance, but for now, just follow our lead.” Neim ordered before he spotted Dark Shadow coming back, but his eyes widened, “MOVE!”

      “Fumikage….He…HE GOT ME!”

       “SAY CHEESE!” 

       A yell from Invisible Girl sounded as a bright light flashed around them, and Can’t Stop Twinkling also shot off the laser from his belt. As Spilornis was calling for Dark Shadow to return to him quickly, a familiar figure jumped out from Dark Shadow and blending into some shadows nearby.

        “So, Kuroiro was inside Dark Shadow!” Invisible Girl huffed for a moment while waving her hands, “So not fair!”

      Neim glanced towards the distance and hummed.

       ‘Myst will be here soon along with Argent’s Amoks and that tornado. I suppose we’ll have to go for the direct approach for now.’

    “Creati.”

    Momo saw the outstretched hand, then grabbed for it with a nod.

    “Ready when you are.”

    The two then pushed forward, Fury flying over them as they left their other teammates to take down Vantablack themselves. Neim knew that with Spilornis facing off with Vantablack, there was a chance that Comicman and Shemage are gonna face Invisible Girl and Can’t Stop Twinkling. 

    ‘This leaves Cybear against Pixie Girl. We really are pairing off with the perfect rivals.’

    Suddenly, a magenta blur rushed above them, Fury disappearing with a yell.

     “Myst got ahead of us…” Momo murmured as she looked towards where the ghosts headed off, frowning, “Does this mean that we’ll be up against Battle Fist and Argent ourselves?”

      “Oh. That’s definitely the case~“

     The two looked up to see Battle Fist flying in the air…but her eyes were glowing bright silver as she grinned down at them. Argent was behind her with both arms up, his eyes narrowed. From the looks of things, Neim figured that Argent was using his Wind of Change by floating Battle Fist with his powers and…did it seem she was bursting with power?

     “You managed to work together and try and divide us. Bold move, and certainly unexpected,” Momo murmured as she stood her ground, Neim ready to twist his bracelet if needed when Momo grinned, “No matter. Because I expect the unexpected.”

     “That’s funny.” Kendo laughed dangerously, “I said the exact same thing~”

     Neim was about to twist his wrist but blinked when his hand suddenly was grabbed, and was lifted up in the air by both arms. He glanced up to see…two sapphire versions of Battle Fist.

     “I figured you are using your Second Chance already. And that you have an hour time limit to use it as many times as you want. A very overpowered move, if I do say so myself,” Argent stepped forward with a tight smile, a waft of blue and silver mist surrounding him, “Then again, my powers are also quite the cheat code themselves. So why don’t we let the ladies fight their fight…and we fight ours~”

  “Why doesn’t Neim use his quirk along with Second Chance?” Bonnie Blanche asked curiously, staring at the screen as it seems both Momo and Kendo were having a moment along with Argent and Neim.

   “That would require him to get real close,” Shinso murmured as he observed their fight, “Although Felix’s newly acquired quirk is similar to Eraserhead’s, Felix has to physically touch someone to shut down their power.”

    “Not to mention there is no way that Nathaniel will let him come close to him or Kendo,” Izuku pointed out as well as he smiled, “Which is why him having both long ranged Miraculous is quite OP…“

    “Long range?” Chat Noir questioned, and Shinso frowned when Izuku continued happily.

    “Nathaniel could easily summon anything with any random object and bring it to life. They could fight his battles for him. And with the Swan Miraculous…”

    “He could keep any opponent at bay with his wind. But with Wind of Change, he could steal people’s lung capacity in seconds or worse…they go flying high with his storms.” Shinso finished and then pursed his lips, “Honestly, I’m sorta surprised that he’s going this far…”

    “Nathaniel has always been the competitive type, event he doesn’t show it.” Izuku chuckled while tapping the end of his pen on his notebook with an intrigued look, “He literally takes people’s breaths away.”

     Chat Noir and Bonnie Blanche shuddered and looked up at the screen, seeing Argent giving a maniac like smile while Neim was grinning back at him at the challenge.

      “Damn. And I thought Izuku was the crazy one,” Chat Noir murmured, hand over heart.

     Shinso looked at him and gave a wry smile, “He’s an artist. He’s gotta be creative.”

     Argent tilted his head as he kept his arms up and released Kendo, who was twirling in the air and smacking Momo with her enlarged hands. He glanced towards Neim, who was just staring him down, as if calculating how to get out of this mess. The red head smirked at this, which caught the Snake hero’s attention. It was almost as if…

    “Whack! Thud! Boom-Boom! Ahh! Bam! Crash!”

    The walls around them started to rise, darkness falling around them. Screams from the other team sounded, and Neim almost had felt himself sweat with a wry smile while Argent just had a calm look, the smile on his face showing that he was in control of this fight.

    ‘They’re trying to box us individually so that one by one, we’d face the very people that are compatible to us in a fight. Kendo must’ve planned that out when Vantablack failed to fully control Dark Shadow.’

     Neim realized that Momo was gone, possibly trapped on the other side of the big walls that appeared around them.

     “As I’ve said before…” The Peacock and Swan holder spoke up as he stepped forward now, his Amoks still holding Neim still, “We fight our battle, while the rest of our dear teammates fight their own~”

    “…You’re still not bitter about me besting you during our training with Sir Nighteye, are you~?” The blond taunted, raising a brow under his mask as Argent laughed.

    “We both know we’re equally intelligent when it comes to battle strategies. Not at the same level as Katsuki, Marinette, Momo or Izuku, but we’re almost the second bests,” Argent was pulling a feather from his pocket, which turned into a dagger, “Nevertheless, I am curious on who’d win between us.“

    With a snap of his fingers, Neim was released by the Amoks and Argent readied his weapon at him.

    “So, with that said…why don’t we find out?”

     Neim narrowed his eyes, before he snapped his head when he heard screaming from his female teammates (other than Momo) from the other side of the walls. 

    “Ah, I assume Shemage has activated her cluster of mushrooms by now,” Argent hummed, as he spun his dagger through his fingers skilfully, “She can release spores from her body and instantly grow mushrooms anywhere she wants. The more humidity in the air, the stronger she is. Which is where Comicman would come in. Other than trapping your teammates with mine for their own fights, he’ll just create a damp environment for the troop of mushrooms to grow and increase…which will give Pixie Girl her own advantage as well~”

    Neim narrowed his eyes as he reached to fiddle with his bracelet, Argent tutting almost mockingly. 

    “You can use Second Chance now, but it would be pointless…”

    “What do you mean?”

    Argent grinned, “You don’t think I haven’t made counter-measures when using your Miraculous? That’s why it’s dangerous that me and Battle Fist are paired together. Because we both know how you and Momo are people that tended to overthink and psychoanalyse all possibilities. So what’s stopping us from doing the same?”

     “…So in short…?” Neim’s smile sharpened, “You two made contingency plans to counter us…?”

    “That’s right.” Argent smirked in return, “We called it the A-Z 100 Plans of Actions.”

    Neim was quiet for a moment, and Argent tilted his head.

    “So go ahead. Use your Second Chance. It will always lead to the many other plans I have to defeat you.”

    “I have no idea where anyone is…I lost sight of Felix and the others are probably on the other side of the walls,” Momo murmured to herself as she looked around, “Their attacks were leading toward this specific outcome….”

    Something came onto mind, and she gasped, jumping back for a moment. 

    ‘Don’t tell me…!’

     “We cut off the right part of the brain~”

     Kendo’s voice sounded and Momo glanced up in time to see the red haired girl jumping out from her hiding and raising her enlarged fists to attack.

     “NOW I JUST HAVE TO DEFEAT YOU WITH BRAWN!!!”

     Momo was quick to create a strong shield to block the attack, but she skidded back roughly when her shield suddenly broke through. This shocked Momo to her core for a split second, eyes wide.

    ‘She crumpled the tungsten shield with one hit!’

    “Nath-kun was right when he said to face you head on first,” Battle Fist’s eyes were still glowing, as she laughed, “He can be scary when planning. But, at least he’s given me an opportunity! I won't give you time to plan anything!”

   Momo’s eyes sharpened as she summoned more shields around her, wincing when Battle Fist’s attack were rapid firing down on her.

    “We can make this an endurance test if you want to~! But you have to use materials from your own body to create things.” Each words were spoken with Kendo keeping her punches up against the shields, smirking, “So there's no way you're gonna outmatch me, Yaoyorozu!”

     Momo felt herself waver for a moment as she closed her eyes, just holding her guard as Kendo kept on attacking her. She was correct, she had no time to think, there was too much going on. If only Neim was at her side and summon Second Chance…but if she was still here and not back at the starting point, that meant…

     Felix was in trouble himself— 

     “Second Chance.”

  Momo blinked when Neim was in front of her with a worried look and she took this as a sign. 

     “…How many times now?”

     The Snake Hero sighed, scratching his head, “I lost count at ninety nine. I’ve been going at it for so long…yet at every turn, Argent is ten steps ahead of me!”

      Momo gulped as she glanced at her teammates waiting for them and felt herself sweat. Did this mean that with the combined minds of both Kendo and Nathaniel…they’ll lose?

     Neim then explained each scenario when he used his Second Chance, which made Momo feel her heart falter. She knew Nathaniel was sharply quick-witted, despite that he would rather draw beautiful things on paper quietly and always had a soft shy smile when doing so. He was quite cunning when he wanted to be, something that surprised Momo. But it made their conversations even more interesting when they had tea together, especially when Nathaniel gave his own opinions during Momo’s guardian training.

      ’So he’s really going all out. Not to mention with Kendo as his partner, they’d be unstoppable.’

     “W-what should we do now, Yaomomo?” Invisible Girl asked tentatively, already sensing how both her class rep and the snake hero looked troubled. 

     “…They think they have the upper hand just because Neim and I plan ahead and expect the unexpected,” Momo murmured as she then purshed her lips, then glanced at Cybear, “…Perhaps it is time we use both yours and Tokoyami’s special abilities.”

     Neim hummed, “Right, I suppose Spilornis using Liberation would be an advantage.”

    “He shall use it on all of us,” Momo stated, “If what you said is true, and that Argent is planning to separate all of us to face off opponents that would match us perfectly, then we’re gonna have to switch things up…”

    “By doing what exactly?” Fury asked as he had his hands on his hips, “If Neim has tried to beat them ninety nine times and failing, what makes this hundredth time different?”

    “It’s because I’m usually the one trying to figure things out. I-I tend to forget that I am on a team,” The Snake hero said honestly, pinching the bridge of his nose, “It’s why Argent could go against me so easily. Because he knows that you will depend on my knowledge and my use of Second Chance.”

    “Then that means we should do the opposite of your plans.” Momo smile as she tapped her chin, “Alright, let’s all sit and talk once more. I want to get everyone’s suggestions this time around~”

  Argent frowned as he looked ahead for s moment, watching his Amoks, his tornado and Myst leaving to go forth with their plans to chase after Dark Shadow. He didn’t know why, but he felt…uneasy.

     “You never did tell me what the secret effect of your Wind of Change was?” Kendo spoke up curiously, peeking over at the serious faced dual wielding bird hero, “Is it something like Shinso’s Quirk?”

     “No, but…” 

     Argent had a small smile before he then lifted his hands up in the air as a soft wind blew around them, closing his eyes for a moment and then opened them with a hum.

     Kendo raised a brow at this gesture, tilting her head, “…So, you can paint with the colors of the wind?”

     “Apparently Team A is strategising with their own ideas instead of just Neim’s and Creati’s. Interesting, I suppose Neim has figured out in his uses Second Chance that I thwart him each time,” Seeing the look of bafflement on the red haired girl’s face, he explained, “Gale Force is the secret effect I use. Basically, the wind blows to the direction I want and collects back conversations it picks up along it’s path.”

     “Ooh! So it’s sorta like a game of telephone in a way!” Kendo clicked her finger with a look of amazement, “So you can pick up on what the other team is planning thanks to your wind blowing around them! Cuz their voices are filled in the air around them.”

      “Exactly. It’s kinda a cool way of spying on them without moving an inch.”

       Kendo stared at him for a moment, then frowned, “…Then why are you looking worried?”

       “They suddenly got quiet. But there is no way Neim figured out my trick.“ Argent tapped his thumb over his lower lip, nibbling at the tip of his fingernail for a second with a contemplative look, “I have a feeling this is going to be a close one this time. But no matter, we’ll be ready.”

       Argent waved his his hand for a moment in caution, tilting his head while listening to the wind blowing around him. Pursing his lips with a troubled look, he sighed and started to walk forward.

       “Eh? W-where are you going?” Kendo questioned with a confused expression, wondering what Argent was up to now.

        “Just…trying something out. Something tells me this time around is gonna be a challenge,” Argent looked back at her and smiled, “Stick with the plan. I’ll be right back~”

     Neim sat himself on the ground as he watched everyone rush to get to their positions for the hundredth time, and closed his eyes with a slow sigh. He had to keep cool and calm. Otherwise, he knew that he will lose his nerve and accidentally trigger his finger to Second Chance once more. It was something that was pointed out to him by Tokoyami in his ninety seventh round. And so, Neim decided to go for another approach.

    “So, what is the plan now?” Can’t Stop Twinkling asked nervously while Momo brought out what seems to be some sort of sack out from her body, “If Monsieur Neim is speaking the truth, then it’s hopeless…They won and we will always be behind.“

    “Like Neim said, if I just use Liberation on all of us, we can actually fight the opponents we can easily take on rather than our formidable ones,” Spilornis stated as he pulled Dark Shadow to him and Liiri appeared instead, “Not to mention, we can witness Cybear’s first time in battle with her Miraculous.”

     “I still think it’s a super cute attack…but will it work?” Invisible Girl asked warily, wringing her fingers together, “I mean what if this time won’t work either.”

     “Then we’ll keep trying until we do!” Momo said confidently, giving a bright smile.

      But then Neim raised his hand up. 

     “What is it?”  The Everything Hero asked cautiously, but blinked when he grabbed her hand and started tracing his finger over her palm.

       — I think it's best if we approach planning silently in this manner. I have a feeling the other team planted something or even assigned someone to listen into our conversations.—

       Momo’s eyes widened as her brain snapped into over-drive. She started signing on his hand in return.

       — I never thought about that. But perhaps that is the reason why Argent is able to thwart your plans each time. But you only just noticed now?—

      — I will admit, I did notice something was up for a while after fifty tries, but I wasn't too sure. The tactics kept on changing for some reason. The last few times it was Myst spying on us or it was Shemege’s mushrooms used by Pixie Girl.— Felix paused with a frown before tracing his finger over her palm once more. — But considering you suggested we do things in a way that is unexpected and to use different ideas at the same time, I figured we do that with either writing it down or use this method to plan without being heard.—

     Momo knew it was a good idea, and she soon turned to the rest of them to tell them what is going on and what is the next moves going forward.

     Neim opened his eyes as he came back to reality.

     ‘Alright. Now the real battle begins.’

   Argent frowned as he kept walking forward, not liking it was too quiet. Maybe it was because he thought his gale force would’ve given something by now. But no. It was almost as if…

    Suddenly his eyes widened at the sight of Cybear running towards him while carrying Can’t Stop Twinkling in her arms. Thinking he was going to be attacked, he readied an object to create an Amok but blinked when they rushed passed him. Confusion spread over its face as he watched them go, but then gasped when he spotted Fury and Invisible Girl were going the opposite way of where Myst, the Amoks and his tornado were coming from. 'Are they deviating from their plans somehow? But they didn't SAY anything--'

  "You look surprised Nath-kun..."

   Argent raised a brow then glanced up to see Creati standing there with a confident smile, and he couldn't help but chuckle in return.

   "Something tells me that you are trying to outplay me somehow. What? You're not going to face your biggest rival, Kendo?" He asked calmly, his eyes shifting to see Spilornis flying away. And no Dark Shadow.

   “I’m afraid that my opponent shall be different. I hope you do not mind,” Momo stated seriously as she felt her quirk activate, pulling out a steel pipe and pointed it at him, “You said we needed to talk. Then let’s talk.”

   “…Ha.” Argent let out a quiet laugh before brushing some of his bangs from his eyes and stared at Momo with a dangerous glint in his eyes, “So, what you’re trying to say is…I’m your target?”

   Momo smiled softly, raising her pipe up in the air, “Expect the unexpected~”

   Argent looked like something in his brain snapped for a moment, as he quickly pulled his twin daggers and jumped in the air, going to attack Momo swiftly. Creating a shield for herself with her other hand, she raised it up to block his hit. It was like fire was burning in between them as Argent kept on swinging his hits over and over against her shield, even trying to make use of his winds to place more pressure into his swings.

   But once he made a powerful hit against her shield, he managed to push her back far enough and he was about to give the final blow, but his facial expression turned from triumphant to bafflement as soon as he saw what Momo suddenly created out of the blue— 

    “IS THAT A CANON?!”

     Everyone in Class A and B looked at the screen in awe, although Class B looked more horrified while Class A looked impressed.

    “IS SHE INSANE?!” Tetsutetsu yelled out with his jaws dropping, and he whined afterwards, “WHO'S SHE TRYING TO KILL WITH THAT?!”

    “Again huh?” A boy named Sen Kaibara spoke up with a whistle, blinking with a look of amazement, “That girl really likes her cannons.”

    Meanwhile, Queen Bee glanced over to Shoto and saw how he had a proud smile on his face, and something in her stomach twisted for a second. Huffing quietly, she turned back to the screen to watch, ignoring that throbbing in her chest.  It’s not anything important…right?

  Argent growled as he jumped back and made a vortex of wind surrounding her, trapping Momo inside as he tried to catch his breath.

   ‘What was she trying to pull with that kind of stunt?! It didn’t look like she was aiming for me though?’ Argent’s mind raced but then it clicked, ‘Was she aiming for the wall or something?’

  “I apologize for threatening you. You were right about before…”

    Argent raised a brow, “…What do you mean?|

    Mom smiled weakly as she had her hand over her throat, knowing she didn’t have much breath left, ”…I am scared. I do think about letting down those around me. Especially when we lost Onez and Bridgette.”

   ‘Is she really going to be talking about this right in the middle of the fight?’ The red headed hero thought with a frown, as his winds wavered for a moment, and Moto caught on.

     “But then thing is, Nathaniel, I was never meant to be a Guardian of the Miraculous. In fact I know someone else that deserves it more. And so…” Momo coughed as the wind was sucking the air around her, but still aimed the canon straight at his direction, despite the wind blocking her way, “When this turned into the kind of fight that you're good at, I could tell my defeat was likely. So, in order for us to win...!”

   "ARGENT!”

   Something rushed by the two bird wielding Miraculous holder, and his heart jumped at the sight of Battle Fist jumping in the air, and Argent took the wall of wind down in time for the red headed heroine to use her Double Jumbo Fist to smack the canon to the side…

    ….but that resulted Momo jumping her surprise attack on Kendo instead of Argent, her intended target.

    Argent rushed over as he looked at the sight before him, “Kendo…”

    Kendo grinned up at him tiredly, groaning as she looked at the sticky webbing that was stuck on her.

   “Heh, better me than you, right? I think she predicted you’d call her bluff and place the wind wall down to attack her yourself, but luckily she got me instead. Good thing I knocked her out, but not before she got me.”

   Momo was hanging off of the other girl, unconscious but still buzzing with her quirk on the sticky substance and the canon glued on her and Kendo. Argent had to admit…that was a close one.

   “So it’s kinda why we’re stuck together. She could have done me solid and let the cannon fall off. It's hard to drag all of this stuff around.” Kendo groaned as she wriggled for a moment.

    “Here, lemme help you out,” Argent was about to reach out to her, but Kendo shook her head, “Wha—?”

    “You don’t get it. There’s no time left,” Kendo warned with a serious look, “Looks like Team A made some sort of secret plan that even your winds couldn’t pick up. All our teammates were knocked out with them.”

    Argent looked confused for a moment before Kendo explained.

   Myst frowned when she looked around the area for a moment, expecting Fury to be flying at her with vigor, but no sign of life was anywhere at all. She even had to pause, making the tornado and Amoks following her also stop in their tracks.

    “Funny…Argent assured us that I’d be seeing Fury by now, and possibly that bird guy and robot girl—“

     It was then she sensed movement behind her and she whirled around him time to see—

     “HEARTS ATTACK!”

     Comicman had a question mark over his head as he looked to the distance for a moment, hearing Myst’s cry and rushed over to the source of the sound. He felt his stomach go into knots as he looked around, but then felt something drip over his shoulder. An exclamation point formed over his head before he slowly looked up, seeing Myst but…it seems she was trapped inside a pink heart shaped bubble. She looked dazed, having a dreamy smile and staring off into space…it confused Comicman for a moment.

   “Woah, this is really creepy—“

    “There you are…”

    Comicman squeaked as a comic bubble appeared over his head to form both a question and exclamation mark in surprise, turning around to see floating gloves forming into fists.

    “Finally! Fury dropped me off to assist Twinkling to take down the others. SO I’LL BE THE ONE TO TAKE YOU DOWN, YOU MANGA JERK!” Invisible Girl yelled at the top of her longs, already throwing hands at him and beating him up.

    Pixie Girl frowned as she was high in the skies, about to call on her teammates when she saw Fury floating before her and raised a brow, “…I thought you’d be aiming for your sister…”

    “That was my plan…” The green ghost sighed before he grinned, “But a wise leader told me, I should probably do the opposite of what I want. And would’cha know it, it’s gonna be taking YOU down. You’d be pretty powerless without your magical partner, huh~?”

    That comment ticked Pixie Girl off for a moment, as she laughed while cracking her knuckles, “Oh I can assure you, I am TWICE as strong as Sorcerer!”

 Phasing out from the shadows, Vantablack appeared shyly towards the mushroom heroine, looking unsure. 

   “H-Hey? Komori?”

   Shemage looked over at the other for a moment in confusion, stopping her spraying around the area of pipes and walls, tilting her head, “Hm? Speak up, silly, I can't hear you!”

   He looked flustered for a moment, before sighing and looking to the side, “U-Um, well I…managed to catch the guy. Twinkles? He's in jail.”

    Shemage smiled brightly, impressed and clapping her hands together. 

     “Really? Nice, Kuroiro! I'm counting on you for the other two toadstools.” She giggled as she then turned back to her spraying and hummed, “Our not-so-fungus opponents don't know where we are, so we can keep attacking them with mushrooms like this!”

    Vantablack nodded, “Y-Yeah…of course…”

    Although he was skeptical at first, he ended up going with the plan because Kendo trusted the new guy. When Dark Shadow didn’t come like they suspected, he was glad that they managed to capture at least one from Class A. But when Kendo left their side, saying that she needs to check on Argent, something in his stomach tightened. Like a bad premonition. 

   “Uh. Hey. Komori?”

   Noticing the nervousness in her teammate’s voice, Shemege looked up, “Yes, shroom?”

    It was then they noticed a chill in the air, and Vantablack felt the gut feeling increasing in a way that was hard to ignore. There was no way…

   “You don't think, um…” He paused, looking away for a moment before he spoke lowly, “Class A knows about this place, do you?”

    The two squinted for a moment before they leaned back in shock, noticing that something dark was flying their direction. And lo-and-behold, Spilornis was seen flying majestically towards them, and he had some special looking specs over his eyes.

   ‘Thermal goggles! Much easier to locate our enemies when I have these.’ Spilornis thought, his red eyes soon flashed of something, “Now when I stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at me!”

    “It definitely looks like he's heading straight for us.” Vantablack murmured as he was looking around for a moment, “Where are the others…”

    “D-Don’t tell me they took them down already!” Shemage whined, already stepping back.

   “I will not allow you to escape or hide from the storm you have wrought!” The bird hero yelled as he increased his speed, Dark Shadow now cloaking around him, “According to Hawks......speed can easily win against strength.”

    He soon zoomed right passed them, knocking them to the ground.

    “BLACK ABYSS! SABBATH!”

     “S-Shroom-y!" Shemege yelled out in pain, falling with a thud.

     "Komori, no!" Vantablack yelled but then grunted as his mind raced, 'He's too fast. Can't stay. Have to sink into the shadows.'

   “Is it darkness that you're searching for?”

    The shadowy male of Class B blinked but then glanced up as darkness swallowed him up, gasping as he was suddenly trapped in…some sort of clock. He groaned in defeat as Tokoyami de-transformed in front of him, holding the clock down firmly. 

   “Then you can borrow my cloak. If there's nowhere for you to move, then there is no need to fear your abilities.”

    “…N-No fair!” Vantablack huffed, sounding like he was pouting.

    Liiri sighed as she landed on top of her holder’s head, breathing out softly, “Your teammates should’ve taken down their opponents by now, correct? So it should be find that Liberation is off them now?“

   “Indeed. By now, Cybear must’ve captured Myst and Fury with Pixie Girl. All we have to do is now wait until Creati and Neim has defeated both Kendo and Kurtzberg.”

   “Fumikage, I caught the spore girl!” Dark Shadow appeared, having Shemege wrapped around it’s wings.

    Fury soon flew over to them along with Invisible Girl and Cybear, the three of them grinning as they held their knocked opponents. Pixie Girl was tied up with green ecto-like goo while Comicman looked beaten to a pulp.

   “We did it!” Fury cheered as he felt himself power down as well, along with Cybear, “With this, we’re gonna be winners for this round for sure!”

   “Do not celebrate yet, we still need to take them to jail and meet up with both Miss Momo and Felix,” Aeon spoke politely, making sure that Team B were to be tied down together. 

   “Aeon-san is correct. Quick, Dark Shadow. Take these the prisoners to—“

    Suddenly, the bird headed boy stated coughing, alerting his teammates with alarmed faces.

    “Fumikage—“ 

    Aeon wrapped a hand over her neck as she coughed as well, feeling her throat tighten and her eyes blurring. Soon, Andy and Invisible Girl followed, the two coughing and trying to breathe and falling to their knees. Dark Shadow looked confused for a moment, and Liiri was flying around Tokoyami in confusion, asking what was wrong with them. Even Maato, the Bear Kwami that belonged to Aeon, looked concerned.

    “Heh~” An evil giggle came from the mushroom girl as she stuck her tongue out playfully, her eyes sharp, “It's not a cutie. So I made sure to keep it hidden away until now.”

   “W-what…?” Andy groaned as he soon collapsed on the ground first, and Hagakure followed after. 

    Aeon also fell unconscious, her breathing slow and Tokoyami struggled to get air flowing into his lungs once more, but couldn’t. He helplessly looked over at Komori, who was released when Dark Shadow was flickering in and out of existence. 

    “I'd be such a bad 'shroom if I didn't use it when we were about to lose, though~”

    ‘My windpipe…’ Tokoyami thought weakly, sweat poring out from his feathers as he fell on his knees.

     Shemage grinned as she walked over to him, tilting her head, “Lungs feel bad? That's little Schizophyllum commune~”

    Before she could say anymore, she squeaked when suddenly something knocked the back of her head and she fell to the ground with a thud, signalling she was down for the count. The tired looking Tokoyami looked up to see Dark Shadow giving their final salute, before disappearing and Tokoyami losing consciousness. 

  “So that’s what happened…”

   Argent hummed as he tapped his chin, then looked towards Kendo.

   “I did turn back to check on them just in case they needed help. I managed to free Vantablack, who was the only one that was still conscious, and told him to place our teammates in a safe hiding place and our opponents to the prisons.” Kendo finalised as she then sighed, looking at Momo still hanging off of her, “And then, this happened…Everything she created showed that she was looking ahead. Covering her bases. Which is why I said that only you and Neim are the only ones left standing.”

   “…Huh. So it comes down to this.” 

    Kendo raised a brow before she felt him tap her shoulder, then felt herself fluster when he smiled.

   “You know you could’ve just helped Vantablack take the prisons back while I dealt with Momo and Felix. But…I thank you for coming after me anyways,” The red head said kindly, really appreciating his partner.

    Battle Fist rubbed the side of her neck with her good hand, laughing a little, “W-well of course. We’re teammates after all. Gotta have each other’s backs.”

    Argent nodded before he then looked towards the other side then started walking.

    “H-Hey? Are you going to face off Felix-san now?” Kendo asked.

     The Peacock and Swan holder looked back at her, then smiled at her innocently.

     Although she knew it was anything but innocent.

    “You guys paved the way for me to end this grade finale. I might as well do my part, hm?”

     Neim still had his eyes closed as he waited, just taking in slow and deep breaths as if he was meditating. He felt a gust of wind blow around him, but he did not panic. Instead, he opened his eyes slowly and saw Argent standing right in front of him with a fake smile.

    “…So.” The red head started with a chuckle, resting a fist under his own chin as if looking down at him with a thoughtful look, “You thought you had me all figured out, hm? Tell me, how many times have you used Second Chance?”

    “…This is my 100th loop,” Neim answered easily as he stood up, dusting off his pants before sighing, “I almost didn’t figure out how you were ten steps ahead of me each time. But I figured…it must be the Swan Miraculous that’s aiding you somehow,”        

    Argent gave a look for a moment, almost as if urging the Snake Hero to continue his words. But once he saw that Neim wasn’t going to continue, he scoffed.   

   “So? Aren’t you a little curious of what I can do? I mean, how I’m using the Swan Miraculous—?”

    “No. I decided not to care.”

     Argent felt his eye twitch for a moment at that, and Neim gave a grin.

    “Ah,” The red headed hero sighed, as he was already pulling out his daggers, “You’re not fun. So? Are we going to “duke it out” or something?”

    “Actually yes.”

    Neim suddenly de-transformed for a second, but snapped his wrist again to transform once more and activated his Second Chance at this very moment. This shocked Argent for a second before he had to step back when the Snake Hero decided to rush forward to attack.

   “Now that I managed to reset my Second Chance, we can keep on fighting forever until you yield~”

    ‘Blast it all!’ Argent thought as he blocked the attack with his fan, trying to swish his dagger to jab at Neim’s side, but Neim soon blocked that with his leg, ‘He’s not bluffing, I can tell. So even if I manage to get close, he might just end up using his quirk on me and take me down.’

    He soon blew his wind to push Neim away, but his eyes widened when he saw the other twist his bracelet.

    “Second Chance!”

     “Now that I managed to reset my Second Chance, we can keep on fighting forever until you yield~”

     Argent tried to attack this time around instead of blocking, even trying to summon his Amoks to his side.

     “Second Chance!”

     “Now that I managed to reset my Second Chance, we can keep on fighting forever until you yield~”

     Argent made an army of Amoks to hold Neim down, but his eyes widened as he saw the hand reaching for the bracelet— 

    “Second Chance!”

     “Now that I managed to reset my Second Chance, we can keep on fighting forever until you yield~”

      Frustrated, he summoned a whirlwind of tornados towards Neim, hoping to blast him to the sky and let him drop—

       “Second Chance!”

     “Now that I managed to reset my Second Chance, we can keep on fighting forever until you yield~”

      Neim paused as he finally (after ten more loops) managed to have Argent pinned down on the ground, already reaching to pull The Peacock and Swan brooches off of Nathaniel, watching him de-transform back.

     “Looks like I win,” Felix stated as he transformed back and sighed, “I’m assuming Kendo is still conscious and maybe one or two of your teammates are not knocked out by my own. Therefore, I should go and check once I feed Sass and win this match—“

    It was then he felt his world shift and felt himself on his back, staring up at a dead-panned Nathaniel staring down at him. It almost…looked familiar.

   He didn’t have time to think as the Swan Miraculous was snatched out of his hand and heard Nathaniel murmured ‘Detty, Ethereal Winds.’ and suddenly Nathaniel was in a Swan motif. 

   “Shhh~” The red headed Swan Hero whispered as he placed a finger over his lips, then let the finger rest on top of Felix’s.

    Felix looked confused at first, but suddenly felt an intense tightening in the chest for a few seconds, then the discomfort started increasing to his throat. Suddenly, he gasped as a wisp of air was slowly leaving past his lips, almost like a small tempest formed and exiting his being.

    “STOP THE MATCH!”

    Marinette yelled from the stands where the teachers, Nino, the Moonlight Hunters, Seraph, Miss Mermaid, Greenhorn and Peni were standing alongside her, and Marinette couldn’t really believe her eyes. She couldn’t believe Nathaniel was capable of doing something so…so…

   Inhumane.

   But before anyone could move, it seemed The Swan Hero snapped himself out of whatever trance he was in and quickly stopped what he was doing, Felix relaxing but passing out due to lack of oxygen. Amelie was quick to move and ask Star Stallion to take her to the battlefield, and Aizawa stating that the match was over.

   Both Class A and Class B were silent from this, as Vlad King coughed and shakily announced.

   “Er, Second match! C-Class B wins this round…”

    Izuku pursed his lips as he close his notebook and took a breath. ‘It’s scary how Nathaniel could easily kill Felix if he didn’t snap out of it…although…I can already guess what’s going through his head…’

    He watched the screen as Nathaniel de-transformed and moved away when Amelie showed up, her crying over her unconscious son’s body while the recovery bots came to escort them away to Recovery Girl. He even saw how Aizawa had approached Kendo and Kuroiro, explaining the situation to them. Izuku couldn’t help but look in sympathy when Kendo looked frantic and saying something to Aizawa while Kuroiro was looking sorta grey, almost akin to being pale.

   “This is bad…” 

    Izuku glanced over at Hitoshi, who looked sort of put off.

    “…Are you afraid?” He asked the purple haired male as the hypnotist froze.

    Hitoshi frowned, as if insulted, “I’m not afraid of Nathaniel. I’m afraid how everyone else is going to perceive him now.” 

    Izuku didn’t think about that. 

    He dared to look around and saw that even Nathaniel’s own class looked a bit frightened. Tetsutetsu didn’t have anything to say this time around, and even Monoma looked wary enough that he didn’t have it in him to shout his praise in his class’ victory.

    Izuku sighed. ‘Of course Shin-kun would know this feeling better than anyone.’

    “Nathaniel is still Nathaniel. I don’t see why we should think otherwise.”

     Izuku and Hitoshi looked up in surprise when Chat Noir spoke up angrily, fisting his hands together.

     “If people have a problem with him after this, then they are just a bunch of two-faced hypocrites!”

     “That’s right!” Trickster Tails said in a huff, hands on her hips, “As if we don’t have powers that we almost used in fights against bad guys that seemed extreme! Hello! Chat Noir uses his Cataclysm on the daily—Ah! I mean, glad to have you on our side Chat, you know what I meant—“

    “I mean, I use my Clout a lot on bad guys too. It’s just one punch and WHAM! I send people flying,” Rayures also spoke up loudly, as she looked to Cellophane, “S-So, would that make me dangerous?”

    “Wha—?” The Tape Hero looked confused before he looked sheepish, “Oh! Of course not! I mean, it’s your quirk—Power? I guess?”

    “Let’s not forget what I can do…” Dynamight stepped up as he let his explosion pop off in his hands, tilting his head in a bored fashion, “So instead of looking so damn afraid of what that bird can do, worry about yourselves. What he did was just a way to win this match, nothing more.”

    Izuku smiled a bit, knowing that his his childhood friend was aiming this conversation to those that thought badly of Nathaniel, and was relived that the blond was taking Nathaniel’s side and defend him. In his own way, he supposed. 

    He even glanced over at where Marinette was at, his eyes softening as she looked flushed and ashamed at having thought otherwise. Not that he could blame her, but he sure hoped that this was a lesson they all needed to learn. That there will be circumstances that would lead them to choices that might seem immoral…but are the only ways to reach a better future. 

    Nathaniel looked down at his hands, holding both the Peacock and Swan Miraculous that seemed to be mocking him with the way they glinted under the sun’s rays. 

    “Hey…”

    The red head looked up from his place to see Kendo approaching him along with Liv and Holly, who had woken up thanks to Shemege’s quirk of mushrooms that bring people back from slumber.

    “…I didn’t think you guys would want to talk to me after what happened?” Nathaniel spoke quietly, almost scooting away as if expecting something to happen.

    Kendo rubbed the side of her neck as she sighed, “Hey now, don’t look at me as if I’m going to beat the ever living crap out of you…kinda hurts my feelings, partner,”

    Nathaniel blinked as he looked up at her in surprise.

    “You…aren’t afraid of me?”

    “Pfft,” Kendo laughed a little as she shook her head, “I might have been surprised at being told you practically AIR BENDED the life out of Graham de Vanily with that power of yours, but I knew that you weren’t trying to kill him. Because I know you would never.”

    Nathaniel looked away, “I lost my head there. I thought…I wanted to beat him. To win, for us…”

    “And we did win, thanks to you,” Liv said assuringly, sitting by his side and placing a hand on his leg, “If anything, we wanna say sorry we didn’t do much in helping our team win. If only I expected everyone else other than my brother attacking me,”

     “A-and I know I shouldn’t have let my temper get the best of me too,” Holly admitted while scratching her cheek sheepishly, “I let that boy get to me about how I was dependent on Aster a lot, and it tripped me up. It was lucky that Kinoko managed to even the odds, just like you told her…”

   Everyone looked to the side to see the mushroom girl approaching Tokoyami, lifting her quirk up and holding some sort of container to him as he was coughing for air.

    “Sorry about that, Tokoyami. You want a cough drop?” She asked kindly, but Tokoyami was shooing her away.

    “I don't need your pity.” He would state weakly, making her laugh.

     “Fair enough. At least see Recovery Girl and get some medicine for your throat.”

     “Kendo! Remember your surroundings. The same for you, Kurtzberg. Damage should be kept to a minimum. You will also have to tell Fukidashi this when he wakes up!”

    Vlad King’s voice sounded at the monitors, and Kendo apologises, Nathaniel looking down once more.

    ‘What happened to me back there? All because I didn’t want Felix to win?’

    He gripped the Swan Miraculous in his hand…and then, he noticed it.

    The red head gulped when he shakily held the Swan Miraculous up to eye level, and he felt himself pale.

    This Miraculous was damaged.

    Izuku was about to get up to stretch his legs when he heard a female cough, trying to get his attention. He turned his head in surprise to see Marinette walking his way along with Nino, and he had a feeling on what she wants to talk about with him. The green haired male even noticed how Nino went to Eijiro and Kagami, and immediately clocked on what’s going on.

     ‘Ah. I suppose it was about time…’

     “Izuku.”

     The boy smiled at the pig-tailed girl, “Mari-chan.”

     “We need to talk,” She stated, and she pulled him to the side for a moment, then deeply exhaled, “I…I’m sorry about what happened earlier.”

    “No, I should be the one apologising,” Izuku stated as he and Marinette sat down together on the railings while they watched the teachers sort out the next match and even calling for a sort break, “I get that sometimes I tend to do things without consulting you or anyone else, or that I leave you out on information that probably wouldn’t make sense to you. But you have to understand that like you, I have to do it in the moment before it’s too late.”

     Marinette did understand. She did, and she took another breath as she shifted in her seat.

     “…You ever think about how much more responsibility we have now compared to before?”

     Izuku blinked in surprise at the change of subject, then nodded slowly, “All the time. Back then, it felt like we could just wing it. Now, everything feels...heavier, I guess?”

   “Yeah. Like, even the smallest of decisions seem to carry weight. Whether it’s being a Guardian, or just being a hero — it’s all on us.” Marinette stated as she reached up to touch one of her earrings for a moment, her eyes softening with some thoughts that weighed on her mind, "I used to think responsibility was just about doing chores or getting homework done. But now, it’s about doing the next right thing, saving the world and our future. To save everyone.”

    Izuku hummed, closing his eyes, “I completely understand. Sometimes it's not even about what you want to do, but what you need to do…because people are counting on you.”

     Marinette knew they were getting somewhere.

     “Yeah. Responsibility isn't always fun, but it gives life structure. Purpose, even.”

      Izuku opened his eyes now to look at her, “True. And I guess the more we take on, the more we grow. Ready or not.”

      Marinette nodded, “Ready or not. But at least we're not figuring it out alone.”

      She saw the way Izuku froze and her heart grew heavy. Ah, maybe it was good that Nino did talk to her before this. How did she not realise she wasn’t the only one that was agonising about everything, everyday. That there was someone else in her corner suffering alone in the silence. All because they didn’t want to bother anyone with the burden of knowing too much in so little time.

    “Izuku…”

    The green haired hero tilted his head, as if gesturing her to continue, and Marinette felt her eyes water once more.

      “I want to sincerely apologize.”

       “Eh?” This confused Izuku for a moment as he straightened up, and Marinette shook her head while raising a hand up to him for her to talk first without interruption.

    “No, l-let me finish first. I…I know I’ve hurt you, and for that, I am truly sorry. It was never my intention to cause pain or disappointment, and I regret my actions deeply. I understand that words alone can't fix everything…but I hope this apology is a start. If you're open to it, I’d like the chance to make things right and rebuild the trust I may have damaged. Please take whatever time you need—”

    “Marinette, you don’t have to apologise!” Izuku spoke up as he grabbed her hand, “I get why you are mad at me, really! A-and you have ever right to be—“

     He then felt the arms wrapped around him and his eyes widened. He looked down at Marinette staring right back at him with a look of sorrow and regret.

    “It wasn’t too long ago that we fought side by side in New York,” Marinette murmured, squeezing the hand holding hers, “We bonded. And so that means that I should learn to trust you even when things don’t make sense. You and Hitoshi both. This is why I want to apologize. You’ve already proven so many times that you have good intentions and…I know that I have trouble depending on people. That I’m not alone.”

     Izuku pursed his lips, then leaned his forehead to rest against hers as he laughed quietly, “Seriously. I’m not holding any ill feelings of how you think of me. I know I tend to come off as someone that is holding too many secrets. But then again, I get what you’re saying. Because…I am the same as you.”

    “It looks like Izuku and Marinette are talking again,” Kagami murmured as she watched the two talking and smiling, which made her sigh in relief, “It’s good that they made up. This was a long time coming, they should clear the air with one another if we are going to be working together.”

    “Yeah. I mean those two hold in so much, I was afraid either me or Kats would have to talk to them,” Eijiro hummed but then tilted his head when looking at Nino watching them as well, “So? Did you talk with Marinette about what we talked about before?”

    “She actually told me first before I could say anything, believe it or not,” The Turtle holder glanced at the two, “You two were right. But how did you know…?”

    “It was something that I thought about for a while,” Eijiro shrugged as he had his arms folded, “Even if I took on the role as Guardian because Midoriya asked me to, it didn’t feel like I earned that spot. Besides, I feel kinda better if the responsibility goes to someone that might actually be worthy of it.”

    “And you are worthy of being a Guardian,” Kagami argued.

    “I agree with Kagami,” Nino nodded, but then hummed, “But I feel like something else is on your mind?”

    Kirishima looked a little put out for a second, but then looked sheepish “Well I was thinking of maybe stepping down from being Guardian because…because I wanted to have more time to help Gami-chan.”

    Nino looked understanding at this, “Ah I guess it would make sense that you’d want to help her investigate her mother and the rest of those adults?” 

   Kagami turned her head to look at Eijiro with a raised brow, then asked, “You want to help me find out more about my mother?”

   “From what we’ve seen on TV live and online, you want to get to the bottom of what she’s up to, right?” Eijiro asked, looking over at her.

    Kagami nodded.

    “So what better way than to figure out a plan to spy on her and the people with her.” Eijiro stated, “Marinette and them had the right idea, but they went about it the wrong way. Which is why I think that maybe if I step down as Guardian, you and I could—“

     “You don’t have to step down as Guardian for that,” Nino interrupted before placing a hand over his chest, “Look, I’ll talk to Master Fu about me becoming a Guardian…but don’t quit. Who says there has to be a limit to how many Guardians we have? Isn’t the point of having a New Order to lessen the burden?”

    “Nino is right. And we do not have to rush on the plan on spying on Kaa-san,” Kagami added before she tapped her chin, “Not to mention we should inform Adrien as well of what we’re planning.”

    “Yeah, you have a point,” Eijiro hummed, then saw Nathaniel was walking alongside some Bots that were carrying students to Recovery Girl, “Speaking of Guardians…”

    “I should talk to him for this one. Dude looks like he’s got a lot going on,” Nino stated, leaving the two and walking over to Nathaniel, “Hey, man…”

     Nathaniel looked up at Nino for a moment before he sighed, “Hey…”

    “You okay?”

      The red head shrugged, “Not really…I can tell everyone is now pretty scared to approach me now.”

     “Nah, they just surprised you pulled that move at the last second, that’s all,” Nino noticed Nathaniel’s hand in a tight grip, “What’s that?”

    “Nino…” Nathaniel opened his hand to show Nino the Swan Miraculous and frowned, “Apparently this Miraculous is damaged.”

    “What?” Nino took the Miraculous off of his hand and looked closer, “Wait, how did we miss that this was broken like the Peacock?”

    “It’s small, so it makes sense that myself and Momo did not check properly,” Nathaniel sighed, “Which is why I’m going to talk to Momo about it when she wakes up.”

    Nino whistled, tilting his head while adjusting his cap, “Woah, imagine if Momo went ahead and used this Miraculous during the fight. Who knows what could’ve happened—ah!”

    Nino felt himself sweat drop at the sight of Nathaniel looking gloomy, turning his head away in shame. Nino was waving his hands in front of him, trying to explain himself before Nathaniel stopped him.

    “No. Maybe this is why Momo hesitated. It’s because her instincts are sharper than my own. Honestly, I was impatient and wanted to prove a point, it was stupid of me...” The red head moved his bangs from his eyes, smiling wryly, “It’s something that I should apologise to her for when I see her. But honestly, I wonder if she wants to see me after this…”

    “Hey, don’t say that. She’s not gonna hold this against you dude. Like, you guys are pretty tight, close even,” The former DJ stated with a smile, patting Nathaniel’s shoulder, “I’m sure once you two get talking, everything will work out. She won’t be mad at you so easily, since she likes you and all.”

   “What?”

    Nino squeaked before whistling innocently before walking away robotically, Nathaniel blinking when he started running. The artist thought that was weird, but then looked down at the Swan Miraculous, glad that Detty wasn’t summoned at the moment so he could think. 

    But how in the world did he and Momo both miss that this Miraculous was broken? 

[bed-of-ashes]

I love E!False because when you take a step back and look at everyone's series, everybody else has gotten used to that type of roleplay from season 1. They're leaning full into it now with lots of creative liberties, and all of them are using magic as much as they please. Joel is a god, Lizzie's town is full of animals, Shelby is getting kicked out of witch school, Katherine's got her curse, Sausage is restoring magic, etc. And False, well, she's not huge on role-playing stuff—mostly she does hermitcraft. She doesn't have tons of experience, her emotional support Ren isn't here, she's just sorta floating through. Her early lore is about a pumpkin guy just sorta moving about her empire and these dreams she has about builds. She has no memory and she stole a dead guy's clothes, but mostly her videos are kinda like "hey guys today we're building a bridge because I sorta feel like there should be a bridge here :)" She has no scope of how insane she can actually be until the rift happens and she's like "oh shit I've been sorta tame actually" and then she makes a whole plot line about trying to kill her twin sister and getting tortured and imprisoned because of it. Iconic

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 42 Thoughts: Spooky Scary Skeletons

We're back in the Primeline for a very lore heavy one. Y'all know what that means. I've got very little to say on this one over all as I know you lot are smart enough to not need me to just recap the episode for you. I thought this episode was fine over all but I am hoping the PL stuff is going to move beyond TMA fairly soon. As much as I adore TMA I'm not really one to get much from the exposition in these types. Still, a couple of bits to talk about that may or may not mean anything.

I still haven't gotten around to 40's post. I'll do that soon. Probably. Well, maybe probably.

Spoilers for TMA , and TMAGP episode 42 below the cut.

So we pick up very shortly after 39 left off and everyone clearly had a lovely time running away from [Error]. I can only assume it was so hype that the budget wouldn't allow for it to be shown. Sam's new body mods are reminiscent of RedCanary's jaunt to the Institute's ruins and it does make me wonder why Sam didn't put that together. I feel the link is pretty obvious and when that's his special interest you'd think it'd be on his mind. It's hard to say if it really means much of anything being the continuing transmutation themes though.

Near enough the whole gang is back together now we've got PL Basira, and she seems to be doing about as well as you could hope. I think all the interactions here were great but there isn't a lot to say on it for why you, dear audience, reads these things. I think it's doing a reasonable job of straddling the line between sequel and standalone in so far as providing new information along with the requisite exposition for new audience members. However, I also think this episode sort of cements the whole thing as just not really that standalone. If you didn't listen to TMA in the season 1 break then this one probably doesn't improve things.

MELANIE Meh. A guy called Jonathan Sims. He was the archivist for the Magnus Institute, and we all ended up working there at one point or another.

Another sneaky avoidance of having to mention the B-word. The B-word being Bastardman Bouchard.

SAM Oh uh, I think it was something like: Alchemy cross referenced with human bones or something-

Ackshually it was Transmutation (Human) -/- Ceremony (Academic). Duh. Although we never actually saw that one get filed and this implies that [Error] harvested the statement and then it became a case. So that's something.

Then something changed. I don’t know how to describe it exactly. It was like the fear inside me, mixed with something, became something entirely new, not just inside me anymore.

For my money this is really the interesting thing here but there isn't a whole lot to say on it. It's not the first time we've seen this sort of thing happen. Heinrich's story involves people essentially manifesting their fears into reality in much the same fashion. Which ties nicely into the overarching alchemical themes given it's essentially a physical and spiritual transmutation, and that's sorta the whole point of it. I'm hoping this doesn't turn into something like "Sam is just very special and so it happens to him" and it's more of a universal phenomena. Which could be caused by, say, the Powers being sent through a cosmic blender and suffusing the fabric of the setting more completely than their TMA-style outside of reality vibes.

BASIRA Anyone else clock when it turned into a statement?

Of course not. As discussed in 39's post the crew is largely oblivious to this stuff. I'm curious why Basira noticed and not anyone else but I'm also pretty sure it's not something that'll get an explanation.

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

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: N/A

CAT# Theory: The drill, etc. See episode 34's post for thoughts on this.

R# Theory: N/A

Header talk: See episode 34's post for thoughts on this.

[genericpuff]

The Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Hiatus - Part 1

So Lore Olympus' return is right around the corner, and I realize I've never actually talked about the S3 midseason finale. I think I said I was going to, but then I just sorta didn't, probably because I was still reeling in the absolute absurdity of it for weeks afterwards. In hindsight, I should have written about it back when it was still fresh, but I feel like I can do it just as much - if not more - justice writing about them in hindsight, now that they've had time to sit and I've seen what Rachel and WT are clearly planning to do after the comic ends (whether or not they succeed... that's a different story).

CAUTION: THIS IS PART 1 OF A 3 PART SERIES IN WHICH I WILL BE SPOILING MUCH OF EPISODES 251-253. THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE INVOLVING STRANGULATION. THIS WILL BE A LONG POST. BRACE YOURSELF.

So one of the things that really motivated me to finally talk about this was a conversation that happened recently in the ULO Discord - the realization that there are many readers who still don't know what happened after the free to read finale cliffhanger.

Y'know, the one where Hades gets possessed by Kronos and attempts to choke Persephone-

Now, awful dark jokes aside about how Persephone frankly deserves to have her balloon head popped, this was a wild cliffhanger to leave on for free readers, but the strange thing this time around - unlike with the previous midseason hiatus - is that this is where the cliffhanger has stood for free readers for the past 3 months, and it will be 4 months by the time the series returns.

And frankly... this just highlights a huge problem with LO's writing, because this cliffhanger? Like all the others, it's literally resolved within the next episode. The one that's currently under the FP lock.

Man, isn't it a little fucked up that we only ever get trigger warnings when it's concerning Persephone? Where was the warning for when Minthe got turned into a plant? Where was the warning for the entire episode that depicted Hera's trauma from Kronos and how it's still affecting her in the present? It's always either the Persephone, Hades, or Apollo focused episodes that get the trigger warnings, they couldn't care less about the violence being done onto other people in the story.

Anyways. Episode 251 opens up by reminding us, oh yeah, Kassandra exists!

Remember back in Episode 227 when Psyche stole Apollo's USB drive (and by "stole", I mean she picked it up off the ground where Apollo had conveniently dropped it?) And they found a folder with a picture of Kassandra? Well, Episode 251 opens by reminding us of her... 24 episodes later. SEVEN MONTHS OF REAL LIFE TIME, LITERALLY THE LENGTH OF BOTH THE SEASON 2 AND SEASON 3 MIDSEASON HIATUSES COMBINED-

Anyways, I guess Rachel finally figured out what she was gonna do with Kassandra after all that time, and it's... really stupid.

But wait, don't worry about that yet, because only the comic's opening reminds us of Kassandra, we gotta establish the title first and get back to that cliffhanger from before, the one that free to read users have been waiting 4 months to see.

(pay attention to the episode titles here btw, it's probably one of Rachel's lamest 3 parter title sequences yet)

Turns out Kronos is still intent on getting his hands on Hera, even though we've literally already seen Kronos haunting Hera. Is he just a ghost? A hallucination of her traumatized mind? We don't know, it never really explains itself. So Kronos is still looking for Hera.

(kinda weird that we're getting all these redrawn fullbody angles of Hades-possessed-by-Kronos choking his noodle-bodied wife who is doing literally NOTHING to actually fight back besides yelling at him, but okay.)

Turns out Hades isn't really hyped about this choking game going on between his dad and his niece wife, so he goes full on "release the beast" Naruto mode on his ass.

And that's it. That's literally the conflict resolved. The cliffhanger that free to read users were left with over the 4 month hiatus is resolved literally within a handful of panels and Hades just "believing enough" to save his wife.

And then that's just it, it cuts away, and we get this sorta awkward conversation between Persephone and Hades (now himself again) over the fact that he just choked out his wife.

The scene transitions to Hades waking up in his bed (literally that last shot of him and Persephone was it, it transitions immediately). I'm trying not to use up Tumblr's 30 image posting limit so I'm not posting the 3 fucking copy pasted panels of this that just involves Hades waking up, use your imagination lmao

There's literally no actual conversation here, no amount of Hades asking "what happened", somehow despite his possessed state he remembers everything so succinctly that he jumps right to demanding Persephone to see her neck.

(literally removed the panel of Persephone saying "Hades..." because these types of "let me do the thing" "Hades :(((" "let me do the thing" exchanges are literally just Rachel trying to hit her panel limit, once you start seeing these '3 panel' exchanges that copy paste the same shit over and over again, you can't unsee them and you realize this is why so little happens in the comic as a whole, because it's just constant repetition of dialogue and reaction panels to pad out the episodes).

And then we get what I like to call "guy in a position of power manipulating his more vulnerable partner into pitying him without actually apologizing":

No for real, I didn't cut out a single thing from this exchange aside from a couple copy pasted reaction panels, this is the entire conversation. Hades doesn't apologize, he doesn't ask Persephone if she's okay, he just pulls the "you can leave if you want toooo :(((" baiting Persephone into further trapping herself with this jackass. SHE'S the one who's stuck with HIM.

Like, obviously Hades wasn't the one who choked her, that goes to Kronos, but he doesn't even ask her if she's okay. He just looks at her moldy ass bruises and immediately goes "YOU CAN LEAVE IF YOU WANT TO I'M A MONSTER OH GOD-" and then of course she's having to comfort him which is fine but where's the balance? It's always Persephone having to comfort him and listen to his trauma and we never get Hades doing the same for her - the times we do get Persephone talking about her trauma and struggles with him, he always finds a way to make it about him.

Hades proceeds to talk more about his childhood and more of the shit he's already talked about multiple times before, I don't even need to go over it at this point.

That said, Rachel does remember to bring his stutter back. When's the last time he stuttered? 200 episodes ago ?? (literally I don't remember, it's like when he used to twist his napkins, he doesn't have these character traits consistently anymore).

THERE we go, finally some semblance of an apology. It came after more trauma dumping, but at least it's something-

Oh for fuck's sakes.

This is literally such generic "you've come so far!" motivational jargon. And it's made even worse in LO because what has Hades overcome exactly? Just a reminder, here are the things we've seen in Hades' backstory since he was rescued by his brothers:

He started a business in the Underworld that he's been operating with slave labor and profiting off ever since as a tyrannical oligarch

He entered a multi-century-long affair with his brother's wife, his own sister in law

He cost Demeter - Persephone's own mother - the role of Queen of the Mortal Realm and Persephone still does not know this.

He abused and neglected his adopted son - who was literally abandoned on his doorstep - for hundreds of years and used his role as his adopted father to guilt trip his son for getting "special treatment".

He never took responsibility for the financially dependent relationship he created between himself and a lower class nymph and tried to bribe her out of his life as soon as he fell for a 19 year old intern

HE LITERALLY FELL FOR THE 19 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER OF A WOMAN WHO HE HAD SCREWED OVER AND PRETENDED LIKE THAT WOMAN WAS IN THE WRONG FOR NOT APPROACHING HIM DURING THE EVENTS OF THE ACT OF WRATH, AND THEN HE HAD THE GALL TO PROPOSE TO HER DAUGHTER RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER WHEN SHE BASICALLY HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO SAY YES.

Everything he's legitimately had to overcome involving his trauma has gone completely ignored until pop in comes the pink cinnamon roll girl to solve all his problems and do for him what apparently even a therapist couldn't do (because haha he thinks his therapist is a hack.)

Persephone saying "look at all you've done" should be a reminder of all the crimes Hades has committed against people weaker than him, but instead it's used as a term of endearment, because Persephone literally got with him when she was 19 years old. And apparently the whole "eternally 19" thing applies to more than just her body, because even now, 10 years later, she's still lacking all the smarts and self-awareness and maturity to realize marrying this man was a mistake.

At this point Persephone isn't too naive or stupid to realize what she's gotten herself into, she's just a terrible person who's entirely complacent in Hades' bullshit and frankly, they deserve each other.

They literally keep talking about him for several more panels. Hades literally whines on and on about how much of a failure he is, how he feels like he failed the child who's trapped in Tartarus, and then of course Persephone tells him "no honey, you're the most important being in this process!" and she's LITERALLY STILL JUST TALKING ABOUT HIM, THIS WHOLE EPISODE IS PERSEPHONE TALKING ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL HADES IS, NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. HAVE YOU NOTICED WE HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN KASSANDRA YET ?? HAVE YOU NOTICED THE COLD OPEN FOR THE EPISODE HASN'T BECOME RELEVANT YET ?? I'VE ALREADY HIT THE 30 IMAGE LIMIT AND I HAVE TO START CUTTING STUFF OUT-

Persephone and Hades talk about how they should name the interloper, but they don't come up with anything before transitioning to Leuce and Thetis.

And y'all, this has gotta be one of Rachel's worst cases of backpedaling in the entire series. You thought how she turned Leuce - Hades' first wife - into a homewrecker was bad? You thought it was absurd the plot tried to turn Leuce into Minthe 2.0?

Remember those text messages that Leuce and Hades sent between each other? The ones we never saw but kept getting alluded to? Well of course we couldn't have Hades actually text Leuce during Persephone's banishment, because then that would mean he isn't 100% loyal to his little pink cinnamon roll "qween", so what was the next best thing? Kronos possessing Hades and texting Leuce like so many people - even fans - assumed? No. It's worse.

The text messages... weren't real.

This literally makes no sense. First of all, it's once again Rachel creating drama out of "haha woman delusional!" much like she did with Minthe. But second, it literally doesn't make sense after what we've seen leading up to this.

Leuce didn't just talk about Hades texting her. She went to his office, intent on seducing him, with the knowledge of these text messages being real. She even TALKS ABOUT THESE MESSAGES WITH HADES.

But of course, they were interrupted before Hades got a chance to respond, so this was convenient enough for Rachel to try and pull off some 'twist' where she could easily absolve Hades of "cheating" on Persephone (again, the girl he only knew for like 1-2 months) but also not have to deal with the weird logic of Kronos possessing Hades just to text some random nymph.

This is absolutely one of the most absurd retcons Rachel has ever tried to pull to get herself out of the corners she writes herself into.

Now the episode is still going and FINALLY, it gets to Kassandra, after teasing her at the beginning of the episode and proceeding to do a whole lot of nothing throughout the entire thing.

This has to be one of the funniest panels in the entire comic, bar none. Rachel's gotten worse at drawing men despite making this comic for 5 years and having plenty of opportunity to improve, and he literally just looks like the fucking Amazing Bulk, haunting this poor mortal woman with his very presence.

So yeah, it turns out that the "curse" Kassandra suffers from in this "retelling" is, rather than having prophecies no one believes (or at least, if she does, we don't see that), she sees Apollo and no one believes her. Again, Rachel takes these weird liberties with the original myths that don't make a whole lot of sense all for the sake of seeming original, but whatever, Rachel hit her panel limit for the week, because that's essentially where the episode ends, with Apollo greeting Kassandra. As quickly as it was shown at the beginning of the episode, the one part of the episode actually featuring Kassandra is wrapped up in literally 7 panels.

THOUGHT VOMIT TIME

So with Episode 251 now summarized and out of the way, I really wanna talk about how this episode operates as the first FP episode after the midseason finale for free readers.

Despite the fact that it was a 4 month break and despite the fact that WT has always still released these episodes for free on schedule - with the idea that every reader will be up to date with the current content and can start fresh with a new set of FP episodes when it returns - this time around Episodes 251-253 have remained locked.

And I say Webtoons specifically because as far as I know, the creators typically don't have control over this type of decision. From what I've heard from other Originals creators, it's often WT who decides shit like coin costs, FP release dates, etc. This is why during hiatuses the numbers on the episode unlocks never actually align with their real return dates, sometimes they completely undershoot and reset, sometimes they overshoot and tell people LO is coming back in January despite the fact it's been confirmed it's coming back in November. This isn't Rachel's doing. It's clearly Webtoons trying to squeeze as much money out of this series as they can so they think the 4 month hiatus will motivate people to pay... but even the newest episode is still only sitting at 17.9k likes, which is just slightly above the average amount the FP episodes normally wind up sitting at by the time they're unlocked after 3 weeks, but this has been after four months. The hiatus of the comic and its communities absolutely put LO out of sight, out of mind.

That said, I don't know what this means for the series' return, if it'll have 6 FP episode unlocks going forward or if it'll just return with one new FP episode and Episode 251 unlocking for free readers, but holy shit, if that's the case, this is gonna be a shitty way to return from 4 months of nothing. The cliffhanger from 250 implies so much more than what it ends up being and it's, again, highlighting a fundamental issue within LO - it operates purely on a week to week basis, producing episodes on the fly, and concerning itself more with filling up its panel quota so that it can get readers from beginning to end when they can drop some new cliffhanger that likely won't lead to anything or will be completely resolved within three swipes of the next episode. Season 3 has been especially egregious with this and it's clear Rachel has run out of track to run on.

There is speculation that perhaps the reason the timing of this cliffhanger is so off is because Rachel didn't know the hiatus was going to happen and WT forced her on it. That said, it's not something anyone can really confirm besides Rachel. I wouldn't blame her for taking the time she did considering she was attending both NYCC and SDCC this past summer, and it's hard enough for her to keep up with any sort of buffer to begin with, so those conventions would have definitely resulted in episodes getting postponed anyways.

What I'm really interested in seeing is the reception when the comic returns. Hiatuses like this are brutal for traffic, it's incredibly difficult to get every single person who you started the hiatus with to return after it's done. It's not uncommon for comics to come back to only a fraction of their readerbase - and that's where the marketing comes in.

S3's return has been incredibly undermarketed. I've talked about it already but I'll mention it again here - they have done nothing to hype up LO's remaining audience for the ending of LO. Not only has the fact that the comic is even entering its final part been mentioned on either Rachel's or WT's social media pages, but the fan groups have been shut down for almost the entirety of this hiatus, shutting fans away from discussing the comic, making predictions, and just participating in their most active and direct part of the fandom. This was an absolutely absurd decision on Rachel's part, I don't know if this was her trying to shield herself from criticism or if she genuinely just doesn't give a shit about her fanbase anymore, but it's not a good thing if the only active groups to be found online during a comic's hiatus - it's final hiatus before the series ends - are the critical ones. Fans of the comic should not have to find out about its ending from me. I know I've got a way with words, but it's not fair to the long-term fans of this comic that they're being shut out by the comic's own creator, simply because she either doesn't care or is just so afraid of the critics that she'd rather hurt her relationship with her fanbase by shutting them out just to maybe shut out any critics who are nearby.

I don't know what the reasoning is and I don't know how it could have been beneficial. But that leads us to the other theory, one that I can see as plausible-

I don't think Lore Olympus was supposed to end here.

We've talked about this theory before, but to reiterate - it's been speculated for a while (prior to the news at NYCC that the comic would be ending) that S3 of LO wasn't going to be the final season as so many people had been assuming based on past info. There was no indication or marketing implying this was the final season - meanwhile webtoons like City of Blank were marketing their final seasons from day 1 of the premiere - and there were loads of new plot threads being established in S3 that we knew couldn't possibly be wrapped up by the end of the season. Case in point, it took Rachel seven months to get back to Kassandra, and while during that time she's rushed plotlines that shouldn't have been rushed (the wedding) other plotlines have proceeded to drag at a snail's pace or been dropped altogether. The speculation that S3 wasn't going to be the final season was plausible.

But now, suddenly, LO is coming to an end, likely within the next 20-30 episodes, and neither Rachel or Webtoons have said a word about it. No announcement post, no hype, no promotional art, no statement from the Webtoons VP of what to be excited for (which he's done before). It seems like they're either intentionally trying to bury it to keep people from panicking while Rachel retreats into the shadows to hide from the crimes she's committed, or they're intentionally keeping the ending of the comic unannounced so they can backpedal on it later to generate hype over it "deciding to stick around". Chances are, it'll be based on how the return of the series goes, and whether or not it's able to get the performance numbers back in the green.

I do not think it will. As I said already, hiatuses are already notorious for destroying built up traffic, especially on Webtoons where people (many of whom are teenagers and children) are conditioned to expect regular content on a schedule. But there's one other thing that's been bugging me - there hasn't been a shred of promotional art. We're currently less than a month away from the return of LO and not only are Rachel and WT being incredibly hush hush about it, but all the art Rachel has put out has been largely on her Blue Sky, where she has the smallest following, and none of it is exactly indicative of being "promotional art", rather just random sketches and doodles that she's doing on her downtime. Everything else has been promos for her books, SDCC/NYCC, of course, Rachel Smythe Presents, her next venture which she has been hyping up more than the actual return or ending of the comic that made her famous in the first place.

At this point, I'm not even fully convinced she's even started working on the next episode yet, let alone any sort of buffer. If anything, she knows that she's coming back to the series with 3 episodes still locked under FastPass, so all she'll need to technically have ready for launch is one new episode. Rachel has never been good at building buffers, not even in the beginning when she apparently started off with 2-3 episodes of buffer. Even when her comic is nearing its end, she's not learning any lessons, she's not setting herself up for success. And I'm not setting myself up for the hope that the series could possibly come back any better than it was when it left - if anything, I think we're about to see Rachel and the comic outdo itself once again on how bad it can possibly be.

And we still have two more episodes to talk about, which includes the cliffhanger for FP readers that we've been waiting four months on. Part 2 and 3 of these FP episode analyses will be going up as soon as I can get them done, ideally I'll have all three parts done before it returns so we can start off fresh with the newest episode.

Buckle up folks. Pour yourself a drink. We're gonna need it.

[wazzappp]

Alrighty my dudes buckle up

GHOST RIDER D&D AU

also WOE. ART STYLE CHANGE BE UPON YE.

First things first thank you to my beloved mutual @moosemonstrous, who was basically the brains behind the operation I basically just wanted an excuse to draw tiefling Robbie and then got smacked in the face with an awesome story way beyond what I had ever thought of with KILLER fucking lore to match <3.

While I usually like to start with Robbie when introducing an AU, we're going to unfortunately have to start with Eli. A man who fucked up so monumentally that the kinda sorta god he's supposed to be serving went 'Bitch??? How about NO.' and humbled him faster than my DM can say 'roll perception'.

Ok I'm getting ahead of myself. Eli is pretty much the same personality wise as he is in canon. Insecure and desperate for power/control. He grew up surviving with Beto by doing jobs for the Myriad crime syndicate. Somewhere along the way he started serving his patron, Desirat, the twilight phoenix, in exchange for her power.

Im just going to directly quote what moose said about Desirat cause its phrased WONDERFULLY:

"Desirat, The Twilight Phoenix - companion and mount of Asmodeus during an ancient war, was torn from her master and captured by uppity mages. They were eventually killed, but she remained chained under a mountain, creating weird thermal phenomena in the area. Her sanity fractured in isolation so she thinks herself divine, and she lends through dreams and visions to those who 'carry a seed of fiery vengeance'. She now speaks to the minds of those who lie spurned and angry at night, calling them to unlock their inner flame and let Desirat aid them in their vengeance."

Desirat chose Eli as her champion to free her. She believed his faults would make him easy to manipulate for her purposes.

But eventually Beto wanted to settle down, and Eli refused to (to quote moose) 'Stop that warlock bullshit that EVERYONE SAID will get him in trouble'. And the brothers separate. During that time, Eli gets it in his head that he can steal more power from her by becoming a Litch. Great! In order to become a Litch he needs to have the most important person to him engage in a willing life sacrifice. Not great.

So he finds Beto and tries to get him to oblige to his sacrifice, and while there might have been a time where Beto might have laid down his life for his brother, he wont anymore. He has a family now. People who rely on him who AREN'T Eli. Unfortunatly, Eli is PISSED by this and kills Beto even though he isn't a willing sacrifice. Eli figures 'Whose really gonna care? A life is a life right?'

DESIRAT cares. She basically obliterates Eli on the spot and stores his lifeforce for later purposes.

(all stat sheets curtosy of the great Moose. Also I feel obligated to mention there was a scary moment during the art process where Eli looked like a beautiful butch lesbian. Horrifying.)

After Eli's spiritual, physical, and magical bitch slap, Desirat starts looking down his bloodline for a NEW champion. Lucky her, Robbie is RIGHT THERE. Protective of his brother, a strong sense of justice even from a young age, a hatred of when things aren't fair; he's PERFECT. She has plans for this one. Eli was a good test run. But she has IMPROVEMENTS planned for Robbie.

So Desirat waits until Robbie is old enough and strong enough to serve her purposes. In that time, Julianna goes out adventuring to get more coin so she can pay for Gabe's treatments of Greater Restoration and just. General food and water and general supplies. But she doesn't come back. She was responsible though and hired someone who was willing to take what she could offer to take care of the boys. Gabe still believes that she's still out there and trying to come back to them. Robbie thinks she's either bailed on them for a life of adventure or dead.

Around when Robbie turns 18, Desirat puts her plans into effect. Seeing as tieflings carry innate magical abilities (most commonly thaumaturgy, hellish rebuke, and darkness) it would be far more advantageous for her champion to be a tiefling than human. In the span of about 4 months, Robbie goes through a rather drastic transformation.

His fingernails harden, then blacken, then sharpen. Awful pressure builds in his skull that is only relived when the beginnings of horns break through his skin. A similar process begins with a lump forming at his tail bone and eventually bursting out into a long pointed tail. His canine teeth fall out and grow back in sharper and longer. His eyes cloud over to black and yellow, all the while his skin reddens and forms hard ridges on his arms, ribs and spine.

To say this is disorienting and painful is an understatement. Not to mention how it changes how the other people around the village look at him (not to mention how it changes how he looks at himself). Even though the stigma around tieflings isn't as strong as it once was, it eventually causes Robbie to be out of a job. So he decides to sell the house, pack up his things, prepare schooling money for his brother and move to the city where more opportunities will hopefully await.

GABE!!! THE LITTLE ADHGH. Idk why but I got extreme cute aggression when drawing this version of him fdjkslaf.

Gabe still has CP like he does in canon, but with the magical advantages of ✨Greater Restoration✨ he can generally function pretty well. He still gets tired sometimes though, so he carries around a walking staff as an aid just in case he needs one (also he can go whack whack. at least thats what Robbie tells him when he gets a little self conscious carrying it around).

Robbie has saved up enough money for Gabe to get a months worth of schooling at the Dawn Father Chantry in the city so he can learn to cast Greater Restoration on himself. Gabe's recent growth spurt has been causing him to need more and more frequent healings, and the Chantry in their home village of Hill Rock has been less and less obliging as of late (partially due to Robbies recent uh... condition. not that anyone would dare say it to his face of course).

Some extra fun doodles with expressions and thinking about how Desirat might look and interact with Robbie. I love when gods have a kind of twisted love for their special chosen people (plus some fun transformation horror cause its ✨me✨ were talking about what did you expect).

Also I really REALLY liked that top left sketch and got the rendering itch so I had some fun and painted it in.

Theres a whole fuckin. Second post to this au all lined up cause Moose when HAM on this. But its gonna take some more character designs so I'll need just a little time. but this will not be the last you see of this lol I promise <3

[kamenstranger]

A review(?) of Dandadan

Starting these reviews off is always the hardest part, but it often comes to me after some time filling out the rest of the article. Dandadan has been stubborn in that regard, so much so I've been trying to figure out where to start with this series since it first came out.

I began reading DDD before tankōbon's were being printed, hell before it even made it to NA digitally (There were translations in Europe which got them early iirc.) Then batches starting coming out, and I still have those original single chapters from Sept. 5 '21

I became captivated, but, like its namesake, describing why I enjoy DDD is daunting in how esoteric it all is.

The general plot is straightforward on its own: Momo Ayase, the granddaughter of a spirit medium, though circumstance meets with an occult obsessed otaku, Ken Takakura, and, yes, he's named after exactly who you think, which drives the Takakura obsessed Momo nuts. She calls him Okarun, which I will also be doing for the rest of this.

Okarun's big obsession is UFOs and aliens, which he believes in, but not ghosts. You see where this is going. Hi-jinks ensue, both go to hot spots for each others interest and what do you know, Momo gets abducted by Aliens and Okarun is possessed by a geriatric genital biting speed demon.

Feel free to re-read that last part a few times.

Suffice to say, Dandadan gets fucking nuts almost as soon as the first chapter, but we're not even close to how off the rails this series gets.

I'll save you the details of how they deal with the Turbo Granny, but I will say the mythos and rules surrounding the various spirits, urban legends, cryptids and aliens is handled with a shocking amount of intricate care. If you're like me, you grew up surrounded by a plethora of Unsolved Mysteries, caught UFO Files as it was airing, maybe you even had some of those Forbidden World books laying around from the 80s before getting into stuff like Yokai. Even though I don't really engage with that sorta thing outside Weird NJ nowadays (It stops being fun when people in public office are into conspiracies-- particularly of the nazi variety like lizard men and flat earth)

The narrative and aesthetic appeal of them has stuck with me.

Anyone that's read my Kamen Rider reviews would know how much of a sucker I am for that quintessential cryptid look, which Dandadan has plenty of along with just being absurdly unhinged and hilarious.

The first two volumes do a fantastic job setting up the limitations and powers of spirits in particular, eventually resulting in part of Turbo Granny's soul being trapped in a Meneki Neko and leaving her speed abilities with Okarun. Unfortunately, Okarun only got 1/3 of his bits back.

So now have two super powered protagonists touched by the supernatural and the unearthly on the search for…missing nuts. Or I guess testicles that look like magic golden orbs of power. That's seriously how we're kicking this off.

And yes, there is a basis for that in mythology called Kintama. If you're familiar with Gintama you probably knew that.

But beyond that basic set up… where the fuck do I even go from there? The series is far more than OTT action and good monster lore, but it's also hard to delve into the how and why of its overall qualities. Sure The supernatural and sci-fi bits are fantastic, and the comedy is wonderful, but it's a by product of the real core of Dandadan: the interpersonal relationships of the characters. Surprise.

Which yeah, if it wasn't clear from the get go, DDD has a romantic angle between Okarun and Momo.

Under the monsters, dick jokes, and the completely unhinged nature of everyone and everything is an oddly captivating and flat out adorable love story between our two leads, one that slowly unfolds but is challenged by the various shake ups from monsters, invaders and cast additions that occur to hinder that development; or in some cases push it further by bringing the two closer.

Okarun in particular very well might be one of my favorite interpretations of the Otaku with a heart of gold. He's a legitimately sweet person, cares for people, he trains his ass off to earn mastery over his powers to make things easier on Momo and to keep up with the ever increasing threats they face. In a sea of otaku power fantasy characters, it's nice to be reminded that characters with limitations and weaknesses to be overcome or dealt with are still showing up.

He's also just a total sweetheart to Momo.

And it's pretty clear even early on that the feeling is mutual. Momo is easily flustered whenever a cute girl gets a little too chummy with Okarun, or strings him along. She even retaliates in some cases.

Momo is also about as dorky as Okarun (As seen above) just in different ways, which makes the two complement one another while also contrasting in how much of a hot head Momo can be.

For a series that gets as bonkers as DDD, Momo's grade A shit talking "too stubborn to admit her feelings" gruff Gyaru personality helps ground the series with a rather realistic portrayal of a girl her age-- albeit one with psychic abilities and goes through some extreme struggles much later in the series.

In fact one of the more overlooked aspects whenever I read about Dandadan is how surprisingly dark the chapters start to get in the 80s onward. Because despite the major kick off involving Okarun having his balls stolen, the series is capable of being very sardonic.

For all the absurd fun like giant enemy crabs or the Flatwoods monster as a Sumowrestler, and even a daikaiju way later, you also have things like human sacrifices and tragic ghost stories which are treated with a heavy tone that is never undermined by that off-kilter comedy. You even see tones of that with Turbo Granny of all things, involving the trapped spirits of butchered girls.

Don't misunderstand, however, the series is first and foremost a romcom with horror elements, but sometimes the horror shines through in surprising ways. That nuance is also seen in the rest of the cast, which I've yet to talk about much because one of the biggest challenges of this whole thing is figuring out how.

Talking about Dandadan beyond the very bare basics of the opening chapters is difficult without spoiling something, it's part why I was hesitant to review it back when I first started reading, despite how enamored I was. For one thing, focusing on any one aspect would be a gross oversimplification, doing a disservice to how each angle of the series is handled. Conversely, delving into Dandadan as whole would mean recapping the story arcs and events because Dandadan has some of the most tightly woven threads I have seen in some time. I can barely graze the surface of why character dynamics work or are unique before inevitably getting into a full blown synopsis and spoiling character arcs and entire narrative structures, which is… frustrating, to say the least.

For example, I can't really give you a good look at Aira Shiratori without getting deep into how she's a schoolmate of Momo and Okarun, gets into a rivalry with Momo because Aira thinks she's a demon while viewing herself as "The special one"; a delusion made stronger when she gains her own demonic powers which is basically Sedusa. But over time she forms a bizarre friendship with the two over their trial and tribulations, while also dealing with the massive weight of guilt over cruel rumors she spread about Momo. But that really doesn't even begin to tell you how much of an absolute fucking perfect little bitch she is, and yet what an enjoyable dork she becomes. To do so would be to just tell you everything that happens in her story, which, while not complicated, is tied heavily into the narrative.

It's a similar scenario with Jin "JiJi" Enjoji, Momo's first crush, which you can imagine the upset that causes; one that's pretty goddamn funny because the dude, while handsome, athletically fit and arguably the strongest of the entire cast, has the personality of a goddamn muppet. So Okarun's getting all strung up on a guy even more goofy than him.

In a nice subversion, his relationship with Okarun develops into something surprisingly positive pretty quickly, if not without complications due to a fairly dark story with his character, which pushes Okarun even further in his training after Jin gets his own possession. And it also makes it all the more hilarious that the chipper muppet baby has a secondary Shadow the Hedgehog cracked to 11 persona that's a legit threat.

Then there's Kinta "Kinny" Sakata who is basically if Okarun was even more socially inept and a dipshit Gunpla addict who tried really hard to be a Jojo. His strengths is a vast knowledge of sci-fi tech and a chuuni like ability to imagine entire fantastical constructs; quite handy when mind reading alien nano machines enter the picture. It also helps break up the monotony of everyone else having or developing some sorta supernatural power.

And then we have Vamola, a character I literally cannot say a single thing about without giving away massive plot points. I can't even show a photo because her design itself contains spoilers. Just know that her story is when shit really hits the fan and will be a gut wrenching read while also having the most Battle Manga goodness.

What I can at least tell you is that for as much as Momo and Okarun are the main protagonists, Jin and Aira get damn good focus and are fully formed characters in their own right, they're not just a monkey-wrench thrown into the fray. I mean, they are also that, but they add to those elements while being more than a foil to our main heroes developing relationship, making the story much more varied and expansive than a supernatural will/won't they. Vamola especially in that area.

If there's one takeaway from this it's that Yukinobu Tatsu is capable of creating a great, varied cast full of humor and impeccable chemistry. (not to mention a lot of cheescake that shouldn't work as often as it does.) I'm constantly surprised with how masterful all the different pieces come together to create a compelling dynamic in this deranged Sci-Fi, Supernatural comedy mishmash. Hopefully I can convey a little bit of that Dada-esque appeal despite my spoiler aversion.

What's a lot easier for me to get across without spoilers, however, is the drop-dead gorgeous artwork. Good god is this series beautiful to look at.

Tatsu has a backround in, uh, backgrounds, and it shows on just about every page. Any one side panel has more detail than most double-page fight spreads in other books, and when they do a splash page it is breathtaking.

The fact this is a Weekly series is goddamn insane and… honestly kinda makes me a lowkey worried about their work ethic. But a lot of panels feature just the character on simple stark backgrounds (And some pages feel a little heavy on the reference material, if you get my meaning.) But even so, it's hardly a sacrifice for the impressive amount of work that goes into each chapter and how just about every other page has at least one impressive environment to gawk at.

Not only is the detail impeccable, but the layout, timing and expressions are goddamn phenomenal and a big part of making the series legitimately funny. That same talent translates seamlessly to high energy fights and impactful creepy moments.

This truly is one of the most compelling reasons to read the manga. At the time of this writing we're 5 episodes in the Science Saru anime and I want to make clear I'm enjoying it and do highly suggest watching it. I think their high octane stylistic approach is, in many ways, perfect for the series. There's clearly a lot of love put into translating page to screen best they can. Realistically, I know there's no way you could completely capture Tatsu's style 1:1, especially with what the industry is nowadays. The budget and man power it would take for that wouldn't be worth it.

But that sense of scope, scale, the depth, shading and a ton of small eccentricities is something unique to the manga and a big part of why it works. If you only know the anime then I think you're missing out. Plus you've got 8 volumes to read up on.

But also still watch the anime, I'd love a season 2. Hopefully with a bigger budget. Frankly, they're gonna need it.

That said, while I have praised and gassed up Dandadan, I should mention it has a number of trappings that by all means should not fly with me. As previously stated, there's a lot of cheesecake, and I like cheesecake, but it can bog down stories like this and they're a dime a dozen in the manga and anime world. At first glance DDD can look like that from the outside. There are so many instances of things that are annoying in other works, schlocky things (derogatory) that are sell themselves only on the limp-dicked exploitive elements like Fan service. Make no mistake, Dandadan is schlocky (complimentary) but it's also incredibly endearing not only outside those aspects, but in them. At least for the most part. I have to imagine it's aware of the more stupid indulgent elements but wisely plays them straight while at the same time employing a cleverness many other series fail to have.

For example, the characters are comically stripped very frequently, even (and usually) during otherwise semi-serious moments like battles (although not if the stakes are dire.)

But the cheescake is always balanced out by the other qualities. Hell, the cheesecake is often imbued a certain charm that is funny in itself or oddly sweet, which certainly becomes more true in the later chapters. Think more Cutie Honey and less Highschool of the Dead in terms of how it's handled.

A big hand in that is they're not afraid to get silly with all the characters, especially the girls, so it typically feels more tee-hee fun. They're almost if not equally goofy in their own ways and that does a lot in keeping it from being obnoxious. And ya know, they also have real developed personalities and relationships outside just having their clothes blasted off, which also happens to Okarun if that wasn't clear. Actually it's worse because he usually loses everything, and the same is also true for Jin.

It's so audacious in every aspect that I simply can't fault it. I mean, I also wouldn't fault anyone not gelling with it, but I just sorta expect it and roll with it for a series this absurd. I'm a critic, not a goddamn puritan. I know exactly what it is, and it's doing it far better than most. It is, at worst, background noise.

That's not to say the series handles all of its exploitative elements well. Rather infamously the first chapter has an almost not quite sexual assault for Momo. It's… not as bad as it sounds-- in part because it doesn't happen and also the situation is so absurd. Honestly I think there's been a bit much blown out of proportion with it. Still, the over the top nature of an Alien with a metal syringe dick getting his comeuppance by having it bitten off by a granny speed-demon can only mitigate the general grossness of the implication so much and I still wince at it. It's the only part of Dandadan that dips into a level a cheapness it otherwise sidesteps in most other endeavors. Thankfully, it happens early on, but it also isn't a great first impression, especially if you didn't have more chapters or episodes to view at the time, leaving you to wonder just what the hell kinda story this is.

It's worth noting some of the other early chapters have bumps here and there, but nothing quite on the level of chapter 1, and those parts are ironed out overtime to be a lot more palatable. Compare how chapter 3 handles T&A to chapter 26 and you'll know what I mean.

Aside from that, however, there is at least one semi major stigma I have against Dadadan's otherwise enjoyable self indulgent nature, which is that a lot of the monster designs are painfully derivative. And I mean DERIVATIVE. Just about every alien creature in this series is an Ultra Kaiju.

Oh Shin Godzilla in the case of Nessie.

And, look, I get homaging stuff you like. Dr. Slump has loads of references, Patlabor has references to Ultraseven, depending on which version of Urusei Yatsura you're looking at it's loaded with them, Project A-KO has them, Eva is a love letter to Jissouji Ultra (along with flat out copying a few fights from various 70s mecha anime) and even something like Bocchi The Rock is at least a quarter references. References are not the problem. Well, maybe a little, but I'm not gonna get Orson Wells on you here.

Regardless, its hard not to think that maybe they could've dialed it back a little bit.

The Z'gok in Gundam is based on Alien Zarabe but it's doesn't look like a knock-off version of it. But the Dover Demon in Dandadan looks like "original the character" Kanegon that turns into Baltan. Because it is.

Like come on, man. Even the Space Pirates in Metroid aren't this blatant.

Why this sticks out to much is because the art is so damn impressive but the design aspect is lacking in certain areas. I'm willing to give leeway for some designs if they're based on folklore elements like Ghosts, Yokai, and crypids. You want to make them recognizable, but can still work in cute references or original ideas without being as glaring as "we have Ultra Seijin at home." For what it's worth, I guess Dada knockoffs with Pegassa eyes are better than generic greys. But while it's cute at first, I felt it got irksome by the time I saw Shin Godzilla… and then Hipporit as a subterranean shows up. Then a tail-less xenomorph. And Alien Guts, and a Metal Gear, and Elecking, even an Alien Zarabe.

A lot of those do end up as cannon fodder so I can understand not wanting to put a lot of work into stuff that ends up being one offs. I can't deny the art looks incredible and hype as fuck. But man, it gets distracting sometimes, especially when Gomora shows up at one point with the body of Red King and later on they end up making that a major deity in an alien culture. It's not played as a joke at all. It is one of the most dead serious chapters… But it's still just an Ultra Kaiju. Sometimes I'm reading Dandadan and I'm having a great time and I'm getting all the referential designs, and I don't *hate* this, but in the back of my head all I can think of is that line in Akibaranger.

And on some level I do get how that borderline level of infringement adds to the absurdity, how the near mono focus of a singular love for Tsuburaya is charming. Hell, it's even refreshing in some ways considering how that hasn't really been a thing in Japan since the 80s. But it does still get a bit much from the sheer volume.

I think on some level Tatsu knows this because in the more recent chapters the Serpo Aliens are primarily depicted in their disguised forms and the fake Gomora gets a slight redesign in later appearances that's a lot more generic. I sort of get the impression things that were maybe meant to be one off gags ended up becoming reoccurring elements, but given the tone and humor of the series that's really hard to tell, for better or worse.

Although kudos to Science Saru saying fuck it and making the opening to the anime one big Ultraman reference. They know what they're doing.

All that said... I don't really know where to lead off from here. Dandadan is still ongoing, currently at about 170 chapters in Japan, while the anime is still currently airing the first season. So I can't really give a full review of either. Likewise, for all I know the series could go completely off the rails at some point-- in a bad way, I mean.

As it stands I'm still finding enjoyment out of this series and now seems good a time as any to suggest everyone check it out. There's multiple manga out, it's easily available digitally, there's the anime across multiple platforms in NA, we've got figuarts coming out. It's good to see.

I was long over due for look since first reading those Glitter screen-grabs some years back.

Funny enough, this late August I visited my Girlfriend in Illinois and got to see 8 volumes of Dandadan on the shelf in a comic shop, that was a nice surreal experience for something that wasn't even available digitally in NA when I first started reading it.

What I didn't realize at the time was when I took a photo of them on the shelf, it was September 5, three years to the day I got the first few chapters. So yeah, it was time for this to happen.

Given the on going status of DDD, I'll certainly be revisiting the series for a future look at and proper review. Until then, I encourage you to read the manga and see if you see what I see. It might not be some super deep narrative, but it is most certainly unique and well worth your time.

As always, thanks for reading.

[tenaciouschronicler]

November 21 2024 2009

Oh.

My.

GOD.

Yall. YALL! I have no words. None! Rose: Ascend was so good, just so so good!

Finally powered up, Rose checks in with John and notices some pretty intense rumbling is happening. Our new little loading logo gives us an idea of what we are gonna get into.

This flash, like Daves, starts interactive, putting us in Roses shoes as she navigates up to the platforms where John is just demolishing these Ogres. Hes found his footing and things are getting serious.

He starts focusing on the right ogre, spin-hammering (like a spindash, but with added hammer) with such speed theres a green after-image with each consecutive hit. The left ogre tries to pull that tire swing move we witnessed previously but Nannaquin shows off her own power with an even larger lazer than the one used on the cookie-snatching imp.

Rose, ever so helpful assists in the only way shes done so far: dropping household furniture.

I honestly love that we start out so zoomed out and then zero in on the fridge. Like a cameraman trying to capture all the action and not believing his eyes at this turn of events. Unfortunately, the ogre has some sorta sixth sense, catches it without blinking (figuratively, i dont know if theseo ogres Can blink), and parries John back with probably the same force Bro did to Dave.

Nanna makes her own sweet catch with a conjured (?) oven that John busts out of like Donkey Kong from a barrel.

I actually have some questions here like, how?? Is this a standard sprite power, that they can like, create objects from their lazer eyes? What exactly is that lazer now that Im thinking about it? Sprites have to made of something semi-physical right? Cause the object Nanna made caught John. You know what, thats not important right now lets go back to the fight.

... ... ...

...Whatever power this is Nanna can apparently use it to create other objects which she rains down upon the ogre. John, having bounced back in the air gets stopped by Rose wielding the alchemiter to create another platform.

John strikes the killing blow. One down, one to go. Surrounded by spoils, John faces the other ogre. And just a neat detail, the way John is animated makes him look like hes breathing a little heavy. Unlike Dave, I dont think John is very used to this level of excertion.

Now the oven has a cookie lazer? Ok, whatever. John lands some more spin-hammer hits and Rose finally gets a win and drops the alchemiter of the ogre, ending the battle.

Rose and John have a small chat before we get to see how far John has risen in the echeladder, a whopping 9 levels to Boy-Skylark.

Gains:

Boondollars- 11,575

Cache Limit- 2400, up from 80

Build Grist- 2260

Shale- 1040

Tar (new)- 490

Mercury- 350

Upgrades people, upgrades!

Because of the sheer size of the ogres, there is more grist scattered about that John will have to get, one of which is in the hole above Dads room. Will we finally get to see the forbidden space? Before he goes gallavanting off, Nanna reminds John to take Sassacres book. Apparently its very important he "give it a read when you have a moment. Particularly the first several pages!" Well that sure isnt suspicious at all. But honestly if it gives us more lore I am all for John plunking himself down right here, right now. But he wont. Its John we're talking about, ya know?

The last bit of their conversation feels like some sort of in joke, especially since John specifically requested "a series of really coy riddles about [his purpose] and then sort of giggle". Like:

NANNASPRITE: When you pass through the first gate, everything will change. You will find the place where the constellations dance beneath the clouds. And then your true work may begin.

NANNASPRITE: Hoo hoo hoo!

JOHN: i suddenly understand everything!

Thats great, John! Because I sure dont!

This boy is gonna be the death of me I just know it.

[luna-mayham]

Aight, imma not tag the mh stuff on this because I don't know how far other hunters are, but in case anyone else who follows me plays, this is like I guess a minor spoiler? It's more so lore stuff, but it made me happy to see. So if you don't wana read anything that goes on, this is your chance to scroll past me rn.

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I absolutely loved how they handled guardians and Arkveld! I've been playing mh as a series since 2005 (long time) and you pick up on lore here and there. One of the biggest things I'm so happy with is that Alma, your handler, is a more active handler and you can see how heartbroken she was after seeing Guardian Arkveld's situation. She knew Nata wanted to try and understand it and try to help. But given how it wasn't killing to feed and was just hunting, it was posing a threat to the surrounding area. I'm like... Fuuuuuck. She wants to ease the situation for Nata, but her job comes first. Just reading the line "For the continued preservation of this ecosystem... The Guild authorizes you to slay the Guardian Arkveld." Like that just made my whole body shiver. I'm sorta explaining this as if people don't know, but just stay with me for a min. There's like.. 4 classifications on hunts technically. I say 4 because repel exists, but there's 3 main ones: Capture, Hunt, Slay. Capture is self explanatory: Bring it back alive, no other option. Hunt is freedom of choice to capture or slay the target. Usually this is your standard mission type. And you'll hear Alma say the Guild authorizes you to hunt "X" monster, which enables you to do either option. But for Guardian Arkveld. It's specifically Slay. The reason this was so significant to me is because lore wise, the only things subjected to Slay style hunts are elder dragons or extremely violent monsters that cannot be calmed down. Considering Alma stated "For the continued preservation of the ecosystem..." it's acknowledged that Guardian Arkveld is capable of causing cataclysmic damage to the surrounding ecosystem and threatens its stability. By "technical" definition, that's a classification for an Elder Dragon. But seeing that Guatdian Arkveld is synthetic, there's nothing there to officially classify it as one. So we're treating it as an elder without it being officially classified as one. I absolutely love this detail in the game! It's so good!

Which also brings me to my other bit, the guardian monsters. They're synthetically created, which I think is a great thing to touch on in the mh universe. It was sorta a minor lore entry in one book about the Wyverians creating the Equal Dragon Weapon as a force capable of beating back elders without issue so they could survive, but it got out of hand and caused the downfall of their own people and civilization. So there's always been the question of of this was possible. The Keepers showing that the Guardian monsters were creations by their ancestors essentially confirms this lore and now begs the question of if the EDW is an actual thing. They're bringing so much hidden lore into play now and I'm all for it! I heaaaaard imma lose it at the next hunt, which I plan to do when I go home after work, but I told my friend all this and they just said I gotta hunt. So I'm excited to see how this plays out!

[louiesselfshipramblings]

Once in a Lifetime: ENA selfship!!

My relationship with ENA as a series is a bit interesting. I knew of her through tumblr for a while, I'd say, but never looked into it. My friend showed me the trilogy of shorts that had her (it was "Auction Day", "Extinction Party", and "Temptation Stairway" at the time), and I thought the style was cool! I didn't think much of ENA as is, but to be fair, I was still a blossoming bud when it came to figure out what I liked. After all I was only, like...eighteen. Lol.

Ena is def one of my more recent selfships, and I was kinda unsure of her when she re-entered my mind. I was unsure if it was really smth special, or just kind of a spur of the moment situation. I was still kinda feeling that as I got this quite frankly amazing commission, but seeing the WIPs and ESPECIALLY the final product made me go "Oh yeh...that's my gf!!!"

The Lore!!

My sona here is known as Lüc, which is a somewhat corruption of my own name? I wanted something that matched the sorta off-kilter, fake-video-game vibes of ENA as is. Tho, given the sparse nature of world building as of now, I'm kinda just making the setting...Earth-like with special features, lol. Maybe DreamBBQ will change things, idk yet.

But!! Lüc!! He's a starry eyed (quite literally) mid-twenty-something who owns a local theater, but it's a lil crummy. Has an old, 80s style appearance due to lack of budget, which also effects the showings. Since I can't afford big releases, I mainly show older public domain films and cartoons, with "new" content being indie films. It attracts...people, at least. I also sell cashews instead of popcorn cause I don't like how kernels get stuck in my teeth (and in lore an unpopped kernel cracked a tooth of his as a kid)

Ena sorta just stumbled in, as she does, and hung out in the lobby. Didn't even see a film, but she did buy some cashews. We did chat for a while. It was a brief encounter, but...I kinda fell for her at first sight XD

The feeling of liking was mutual, course, but she didn't really think it romantic at first. Which is why she visited so often! To see her friend! Yippie...but eventually I had the guts to tell her how I feel (we were close enough friends by then), and she was a little surprised at first! I was worried I upset her at first, but turns out she was just thinking it over. The look of realization on her face and the way she blurted out "THAT'S WHAT THE CARNATIONS MEANT!!!" still stick in my head, heh!

We didn't start right there, exactly. Ena said she needed time to think it over, so of course I let her. I was bracing myself for waiting a whole week of not seeing her, but she ended up popping back in three days later, roughly. She seemed a lil lost for words, which shocked me seeing as she usually had such colorful vocabulary. I tried to give her some support in realizing her feelings and such, before she blurted out, again, "I LIKE YOU A LOT TOO?? CAN WE DATE MAYBE???"

And we just kinda started dating! I took her out to a very nice restaurant, and that's also where we had our first kiss!!! And we've just been kinda going regular since! She still lives at her place, but she visits a lot to mine (second floor of the theater, saves space and money!!).

We're still very much enjoying being each other's bf and gf, so marriage is hardly on the table. No kids either, probably. Neither of us think we'd be able to handle it, lol. Moony visits sometimes too! We...get along best we can. I realize she's Ena's best friend, she realizes I mean a lot to Ena. We tolerate one another for her sake.

But yeah! That's my self ship with Ena! The series timeline is kinda...nebulous? Especially with DreamBBQ and the whole "second" Ena. I mainly just ship with the OG blue-yellow pre-TempStair version of her; gonna have to wait and see with this new gal!

The amazing art of me and Ena coming together was done by the always spectacular @cupiidzbow! I said before but you did just AMAZING here!! Like my sona is great but also your Ena is so cute???? I def gotta get more with her from ya! And you, the reader, should support Freddie and his monkey business!

[can-i-explode-now]

Guys I've accidentally made a Legally Blonde (musical) x Life Series + friends AU ft. Martyn's vtuber lore and I need to rant about it

Spoilers for Legally Blonde under the cut

Martyn is shoved into Legally Blonde as Elle Woods through the datastream. Now, I know Martyn is a chronic "commit to the bit" person but for the sake of this AU he is not, and is very annoyed that he has to be Elle, especially when he finds out Joel is Warner?! (He vaguely remembers the plot of Legally Blonde from that one time Scott made him watch it and does not want to spend half his time here pining after Joel of all people.

In the scene just before What You Want, he finally asks the Delta Nus what the fuck is going on and they sorta bend rules and show him the cast. When he finds out Ren is Emmett, he decides that he's gonna follow the plot long enough to get to Harvard, then he'll do whatever it takes to befriend Ren, and hope that he replaces whoever Elle's love interest is supposed to be (forgetting that Emmett is Elle's canon love interest)

The Delta Nus are slightly worried that Elle's going rogue but at least she's not completely ruining the plot? What you want in this AU would be less about following Warner and more "I need to get to Harvard so I can meet ren" (working on lyrics rewrite. using the London version because I like that one better btw)

Martyn spends his time as Elle not trying to get Joel (Warner) back but trying to get Ren (Emmett) to notice him (her?), so Chip on My Shoulder being between him and Ren wouldn't make sense. It'd probably be between him and Joel, if we're doing that, but it doesn't really make sense either. Lizzie (Vivienne) could very easily do it but then Legally Blonde (Remix) being the reveal that Vivienne doesn't actually hate Elle is slightly ruined. So. I'd have to work that out.

Martyn skips the bit with Callahan (Etho) by simply leaving before he has a chance to ask him to stay behind. He does not know what he avoided. Legally Blonde is more "they all think I'm a dumb blonde" than canon because there is no kiss or any of that. (This is purely Martyn not remembering the plot properly and his "magically knowing all the words and choreo" stuff is only for songs.)

Legally Blonde (Remix) is still "Warner might've seen a dumb blonde who's sleeping her way to the top, but all I see is a woman who doesn't have to" but instead of the two of them seeing different scenes, it's that Joel knows Martyn's after Ren desperately and he doesn't know it's genuine love rather than "Ren's important if I'm with him I'm important"

Etho still gets fired (but that's probably for less of "he's a creep" reasons and more of Cleo is Brooke reasons and also i need to think of that)

Scar is Chutney because he's absolutely capable of murder and lying about it, but he also would make a stupid mistake like she did. Also limited life where he was Cleo's son.

BigB will probably be Paulette. I need a Kyle for him tho. Would say maybe Scott or Grian but they're already taken (Nikos/Carlos idk + Margot)

Oh yeah, Scott and Jimmy are Nikos and Carlos. Can't decide which way round though.