#desperately tried to use powder as a reference and failed miserably

[jade-len]

first time sketching bingbing (+ random person) with a sad attempt at the arcane style

can you tell i can't draw baby faces. or anything below the torso.

[jenomark]

➔Pairing: Haechan x Reader (Female) ➔Other Members/ Characters: Xiaojun, Ten, Jaehyun ➔Genre: Supernatural Thriller ➔Warnings: Violence | Death  ➔Word count: 5,139

➔Definition of stranger 1: one who is strange: such as a person or thing that is unknown or with whom one is unacquainted

  He checked his teeth in the mirror. He puckered his lips and stretched them with his fingers to make sure his facial expressions would appear right. He picked the lint from his jacket. His shoes were too big for his feet, but they were all he had. He practiced his speech on the way there, his tongue hitting the front of his teeth to pronounce the words correctly. He felt like he could pass on without a hitch.

  When he got to the office, the line was over fifty people long. Each man before him wore a similar suit: lint-less and grey, void of any personality. A pass only went to those that could blend in with the horde. He saw a man a few heads away wearing an orange pocket square that he knew would be flagged. You couldn’t draw attention to yourself. Doing so would result in an on-the-spot fail.

  He checked the time. He looked back and saw the line growing longer behind him. The whir of machines in the office made him feel tired. He checked the time again. He tried to shake away a fleck of dirt from the top of his shoe. He moved up a few feet. He yawned.

  As he got closer to the front, he could hear voices. The nerves in his stomach were eating him from the inside out. He adjusted his glasses and looked behind him, once again. The smile he gave the man behind him did not change the mans face. Everyone in the line was miserable, waiting, exhausted down to the bone. When he faced the front, a scream pierced through the air. Most of the men in line did not react, but he couldn’t stop himself from jumping in the air in surprise. The heart in his chest was trying to see its way out of his body. He had heard rumors of what happened to people who jumped the line, each one more horrific than the next. He never wanted to be on the receiving end of one of those punishments. 

  “This is insane.” he muttered underneath his breath.

  He craned his neck to see any commotion, but the front of the line looked miles long. He watched the people sitting at their desks in the vast office, their eyes on their computer screens as their fingers clicked away furiously. Any interruption would upset the system, he knew. Any interruption would result in another fail, or worse.

“Hey,” a voice whispered behind him. “Hey, pss. Psss, hey.”

  He turned around to see the man, one person behind him, vying for his attention. The man was the only one stepping out of line, his body too animated, and his voice too jarring. He ignored the man and turned his attention back to the front. He had to keep focused. He heard the “Pss.” again, but he was good at staying disciplined. It was best not to draw too much attention to yourself he repeated to himself. It was best to fly underneath the radar, or they could find any reason to indict a fail. 

  His time finally came, and he was too scared to look at anyone but the woman at the front, a large podium hiding her body. She was pretty, not a hair out of place, and a uniform that looked just as drab as his suit. She looked bored by her job, her ruby red lips firmly set into a grim line. He wondered what it would be like sitting here day after day, your only job deciding which people get a chance, and which people don’t. 

“Name.” she said.

“Xiaojun.” he said. 

“Class?”

  Xiaojun brought out his Class T badge and presented it to her. It was the lowest class possible, but he presented it as if it were wrapped in gold foil. She took the badge and scanned it before handing it back to him. She did not care what class he was in. 

“Reason for passing through?” she asked. 

“Work,” he said. “Business, I mean.”

  Since it was Xiaojun’s very first time passing through, he didn’t know what to expect. The less you said, the better. It was hard to get to the other side if you had marks on your badge, if you were bad, or too talkative. Luckily, Xiaojun’s history was squeaky clean, and he could keep quiet as a mouse. He was proud of himself.

“Your return date is three Sundays from now,” she said. She stamped a few pages on her podium and looked up at him, her eyes not really seeing him. “Not returning on that exact day will result in your death. Do you understand?” 

“Yes.” 

She continued, “ Any and all decisions on the other side are yours and yours only. You break the rules, you’ll be removed indefinitely. Now, if you go into the room on the right, someone will attend to you. Have a safe trip and remember where you belong.”

  Xiaojun looked to his right to see a plain white door with a small window waiting for him, a door he would have sworn wasn’t there just moments ago. He turned back to the woman to ask a question, but she was already ushering the next man forward. The noisy man behind him was desperately trying to get the woman's attention, and people were starting to notice. Before Xioajun walked into the room, he saw several of the desk people tear their eyes from their screens. Interruptions weren’t uniform, and would result in failure. 

“Hurry up,” a voice said, pulling him forward. “You’re not the only one here today.”

  The room was empty except for a man waiting by a white, brick wall. He was in a suit so black Xiaojun felt he was getting ready to be sucked into a black hole. His blonde hair was parted severely down the middle of his scalp, the ends just touching the tips of his ears. There wasn’t a bead of perspiration on his forehead or upper lip, which wasn’t something Xiaojun could say about himself. Xiaojun approached the man, ready to extend his class T badge if need be. He was too afraid to look the man in the eyes, but Xiaojun was sure he was used to how people looked at him. The murky red of his pupils was hard not to notice, and even more disturbing was the way they looked Xiaojun up and down, as if his eyes were an x-ray machine. The man swept his eyes from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, all while giving him a look of distaste at what he saw.

“Your skills,” the man said. “Show me.”

 Xiaojun wasn’t used to showing off what he could do for those who didn’t need it. In the grand scheme of things, he felt useless. So many others could do great things, but his skill didn’t warrant a lot of respect. But Xiaojun stepped up anyway, his hands gesturing out like a circus performer.

“I need one of your hands,” he said, keeping his voice gentle so as not to alert the man of any danger.

 The man, whose name badge read TEN, held out his hand without hesitation. He had seen his share of skills walk through the door. Most skills were quite trivial, but each one, in Ten’s eyes, was important in their world. Ten giving Xiaojun his hand meant that he could document every abuse of power in the other world. Ten would remember Xiaojun, cataloging him into the back of his mind for future reference. 

“This might hurt a little.” Xiaojun said.

  Before Xiaojun could take hold of Ten’s hand, a siren sounded. Through the small window, Xiaojun could see the noisy man being dragged away by two hulking figures. The noisy man’s screams were loud, the sound of his fists connecting with muscle too unsettling for Xiaojun. The tantrum the noisy man was having made the atmosphere grow darker. The energy was shifting, and Xiaojun felt scared down to his core. Just as he was getting ready to face Ten and ask him for directions on what to do or how to help, Ten jerked his hand away like it was Xiaojun who was causing a scene.

“Lucky you. Demonstration over,” Ten said. “Cross through. Return three Sundays from now. Failure to come back will result in the death of yourself and everyone you know.”

  Ten ran out of the room and straight towards the fight, his red eyes the only thing Xiaojun could pick out from the crowd. Xiaojun looked at the blank wall before him. There was a ripple in its face, one that beckoned him forward. It would take a few seconds for him to cross over, to finally secure his first turn into the other world. Instead, Xiaojun went to the window, his nosiness making it difficult for him to break away. The other world could wait. He tip-toed so he could see everything and stuck his nose up against the glass. On the other side of the window, Ten was standing before a bunch of people who had finally controlled the situation in their favor. The noisy man was still freaking out, the veins in his neck moving like worms. The ones assessing the damage were all talking, and everyone around them was observing the situation closely. Not many people looked as fearful as Xiaojun felt. It was his first time witnessing what happened when you didn’t follow the rules. 

“What will they do to you?” Xiaojun asked out loud. 

  The noisy man dropped to his knees. The sound of his knee caps hitting the hard floor was enough distraction. The men holding him loosened their grip for a second, but it was enough for the noisy man to get to his feet and hurl his body towards the room Xiaojun occupied. At the last minute, Xiaojun moved out of the way and backed into the corner. The door to the room flew open and banged against the opposite wall leaving a dent. The noisy man stepped through and locked eyes with Xiaojun. The veins in his neck were breaking through his skin like tentacles that threatened to wrap around Xiaojun’s throat if he got in the way. With cold fear running through his veins, Xiaojun pressed his body against the wall.

“I won’t hurt you.” Xiaojun said to the noisy man.

“But I will.” 

  A man entered the room. Xiaojun had seen him before. His name was Jaehyun, and he was someone everyone knew about but no one ever got to see with their own two eyes. Before the noisy man could breach the brick wall barrier and escape, Jaehyun brought his hand up before him and snapped his fingers once. A loud static crack was sent through the air, and the noisy man burst into fine white powder faster than Xiaojun could blink. The powder was all over Xiaojun, in his hair, and on his perfectly lint-free suit. He coughed some up, and blinked in disbelief. Meanwhile, Jaehyun was completely clean, and he was breathing heavily, as if obliterating a man was a sexual release for him. 

“One down,” Ten said, stepping into the room. “So many more to go.” 

 Jaehyun put his arm down by his side and gave a dismissal look to Xiaojun when he saw him still standing there in the corner, like a coward. He swiveled around to Ten and touched him on his shoulder. 

“Johnny and I are coming by later,” Jaehyun said. “Have someone clean this mess up. We have a lot of work to do. I’m not dragging this on the bottom of my brand new shoes. ”

“Is he still out there in the world?” Ten asked. “I’m surprised no one’s caught him yet. But, I suppose, it is like trapping smoke in a bottle.”

Jaehyun looked at Xiaojun, turned back to Ten and nodded. “Soon enough.”

  Xiaojun stared at Jaehyun’s back as he walked out of the room. Ten followed, his red eyes serving Xiaojun a brief glance of disapproval.  They kept talking, their voices gradually tapering off as distance was put between him and them. Left alone in the room, Xiaojun brushed some of the white dust from his hair. He felt like he was going to be sick whenever he remembered that it was someone else’s remains. 

“You have twenty seconds to vacate,” a cool voice over the loudspeaker said. “Choosing not to step through will result in a-”

“-A failure,” Xiaojun said. “Yes, I know.”

  Xiaojun stepped up to the barrier and touched his hand to it. The wall rippled again, the white brick disfiguring, as if it could feel his energy getting ready to be sucked into it. He moved his fingers into the other side and felt each one stuck in what felt like a cold jelly. 

“Okay,” he said. “No fear. Maybe, a little fear.”

  Xiaojun’s arm went through the portal first. He pushed his chest through and walked into it, the black veil swallowing him up. When he came through the other side, it felt like hours had passed by. He walked out into the sunlight and looked around. He was in a fast food parking lot, and someone was honking their car horn. 

“Get out of the fucking way!” the man in the car yelled. He slammed his meaty fist down on the car horn and let it blare until Xiaojun moved out of the way.

“Nice place.” Xiaojun muttered.

 He settled himself on a grassy hill, watching as a nearby seagull munched on discarded food. On this side, Xiaojun noticed that his suit was completely clean. There was no white powder on his body, no proof of what he had been through at all. He looked at the sun and held up his hands to block it from view. When he was done eagerly taking in everything around him, he shoved his hands into his pockets and went on his way.

  You didn’t say anything. You watched a last wisp of black fog fly into Haechan’s ear and disappear. If you could stomach that, you could stomach anything. You looked him in his eyes, any uncertainty slipping away. You belonged there. Your eyes swept over his body, at his suit and shiny shoes. You noticed that he had two arms, two legs, two eyes, a pair of lips and a nose. There were no teeth like a monster would have, and no red eyes staring back at you. In fact, he was almost too normal, too human-looking. You resisted the urge to pull at his cheeks and stretch them until he formed into something else. Haechan peered into a mirror hanging on the wall and straightened his tie. He made eye contact with you through the reflection in the mirror. His gaze made you feel sleepy, so you sat on the edge of the bed and slumped your shoulders forward.

“There’s something wrong with me.” you said.

Haechan ran his hand through his hair and smiled. “That wasn’t the conversation starter I was expecting.” 

  Sluggishly, you gave your attention to the motel room door. You anticipated someone coming through it, splinters of wood all over the carpet, and a bullet through your heart with your name on it. You imagined people in military gear stepping in, their boots forcing the carpet to sink in, and how they’d step over your lifeless body. At that moment, Haechan snapped his fingers in front of your face, and you looked up at him. You looked but you didn’t see. You couldn’t focus for too long. You assumed you were in shock, but shock felt an awful lot like horror. He knelt before you and kept waving his hands in front of your face. Eventually, your eyes started following his fingers as they moved from left to right.

“I remember.” you said.

  Haechan groaned and rested his palms flat on his knees. He picked himself up off the floor to give you some space. You thought he would pluck a beer from the mini fridge and take a long swig, but he didn’t. You thought about asking him to give you one, but you needed to be on alert. You were already failing.

  A memory of that day flashed through your mind. You looked around the room at the damage that was no longer done. It looked like the room was never destroyed. So much felt different, yet so much felt the same. Being around Haechan again felt like you had never left him. 

“What do you remember?” he asked. His voice was soft, soothing. He pulled out a chair and sat down. He leaned back, stuck his hand into his pockets and pulled out his knife. It clattered onto the desktop beside him, spinning around in circles on its face. He had hardly touched it.

“What’s that for?” you asked.

“Protection.” he said.

“For who? Me or you?” you asked.

Haechan just smiled and repeated his earlier question, “What do you remember?”

“Everything,” you said, your eyes concentrating on the spinning knife. You remembered the initials: L.D. “I didn’t, originally. I woke up the day after feeling like it was a dream. It wasn’t a dream.”

“Maybe you’re dreaming now,” he said.

You glared at him and blinked slowly. You continued. “ I couldn’t put any of the pieces together, but I knew they existed. I could feel them, just out of sequence. I was convinced they had happened the way I saw them, and that I was crazy. I couldn’t think about it too hard, or try to remember. If I did, I began to feel my throat closing in on itself.”

  You touched your hand to your throat, tightening your fist and squeezing. The knife stopped spinning, and it was pointing directly at you. Haechan picked up the knife and held it in the palm of his hand. Your eyes were brought downwards, to a backpack laying on the floor. It was the kind of backpack you’d take hiking, but this one wasn’t full of anything but clothing. He placed his foot in front of it so you wouldn’t fixate on it.

“You know how this all sounds, right?” he asked.

“Yes,” you said. “About as crazy as watching you turn into a cloud of smoke and not freaking out about it.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “Continue.”

”There is nothing else to say,” you said. “ I filled the days up as best I could. It didn’t really feel like I was there, just moving through like a...like a..stranger in my own home. The nightmares wouldn’t stop.”

“What kind of nightmares?” he asked, his interest perking up. Up until then he was listening to you, humoring you. He leaned forward to hear you better. 

“Ones with monsters who have big teeth,” you said. “Sometimes they were people I knew. Mostly my therapist. I always woke up before I was eaten alive.”

“Were you scared?”

  You looked up at him. He didn’t have a notebook in his hand, but his position was the spitting image of your therapist. Seeing him like that irritated you, and he could tell. Haechan stood up and kicked the chair back into place. It was too late. You could feel the red hot anger jabbing itself through your ribs.

“Was I scared?” you asked. “I almost died. You almost got me killed, and then I go home and dream these horrific things. Of course I’m scared, Haechan. I don’t know who you are. I don’t even know what you are.  I go for two weeks without remembering anything but you, and then things start happening one after the other when I’m just trying to survive. I was attacked. In broad daylight. In my own home.”

“Attacked?” he asked.

  You had him on edge, and you liked the way it felt. Your words roused him and wiped any smirk from his face. He looked towards the door like you were earlier, his eyes on the knob. For the first time, you noticed the industrial-sized locks all along the back of the door. Each one was different, most of them thick. You didn’t remember either of you locking any of them and yet, they were all in place. It felt like the only thing that existed was you and him in the room, nothing else. 

“There was a pizza man.” you said.

“What did he look like?”  he asked, tearing his eyes away from the door. “Teeth, like in your dreams?” 

You blinked. “I think so. Actually, I don’t really remember. He was chasing me down the stairs. I made it outside and he disappeared. I hailed a cab. I knew I had to find you, I knew the answer was to come back here. I was waiting at the curb, I looked up and- ”

“-were you followed by anyone?” he said. “ I need you think really hard. It will be difficult to remember, but you need to try.” 

“No,” you said.  “The only person I came into contact with was the taxi driver who, by the way, hates this place.”

  Haechan went to the window and looked out. The sun was setting. It didn’t even feel like you had been there that long. He took the string from the side of the curtain and pulled it. The thick curtains came together, meeting in the middle with a kiss.

“Are you keeping someone out?” you asked, your eyes on the door. “Or are you keeping me in?”

  Haechan didn’t answer you. He was going around the room touching things and picking them up, just to put them back down again. He opened the bathroom door and looked inside. Before he could shut it, you put your hand on the door to keep it open. The inside of the bathroom looked different from when you had last left it two weeks ago. It looked like it had just been redone, with a brand new tub, window, and an updated toilet and sink. 

“I think we need to have that conversation now.” you said, looking at him. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Haechan closed the bathroom door. He went over to the fridge, opened it, and took out the long awaited beer. Only, when he took it out, he threw it against the wall, causing the bottle to explode. You covered your face and head with your arms, not daring to look up again until you could hear his breathing become even again. A shard of glass flew by your face. You focused your eyes on it as it made a turn and hovered in mid-air. Many fragments followed, moving in slow motion to join the first one in the middle. They all spun in circles, like a tornado of glass, until they mended itself back into the fully intact bottle it had been before Haechan obliterated it. Before the bottle could drop back to the ground and shatter again, he caught it and set it on a table.

“I’m not from this world,” he said. “I’m not like you.”

“What does that even mean?” you asked. “Are you from outer space? Are you from Europe?”

“You know what I mean,” he said. “Everything you’ve witnessed is real. The monsters. Me. The taxi driver’s fear is authentic, and there is a good reason for that fear. This motel has a portal to the other side in it. How you’ve been feeling for the last two weeks? It’s residual energy from that portal. You’re not supposed to remember me, or anything about this place. What I am, where I come from, it’s a little hard for humans in your world to grasp. It’s affecting you. You feel tired, right? You feel like you can’t think straight? That’s my world trying to protect itself from you. “

 You tried to digest everything he was saying, but the grogginess was palpable. All you could see at the front of your mind was the glass. You remembered how the motel looked before you left it, and how it looked now. Haechan made that happen. You opened your mouth to speak but closed it again. Your thoughts were hard to collect and bring together. When you opened your mouth once more, your voice was raspy. You said, “Where do you come from? Is it... Hell?”

  Haechan looked offended. You registered the hurt in his eyes before it disappeared. He tried to recover with a clearing of his throat. Before he spoke again, he reached into his pocket and handed you his knife, urging you to take it with his eyes. You didn’t.  “Not hell,” he said. “That’s a very different place. I’m not evil. Take the knife, if you don’t trust me.” 

“If you’re not from hell,” you said, ignoring the knife. “Where are you from? What is it like there?”

“It’s another world, sort of like a dimension. It’s almost like this world, only a little different. Time is different, “ he said. “Everyone’s...special.”

“Special? Can they turn into a rolling fog too,?” you snorted. Your voice was on the edge of hysteria. You were trying to make light of the situation, trying to convince yourself that what you were hearing was a prank. 

“Some of us,” he said. “Everyone's skill is different. Some people have one thing they can do, others have more. Some use it for good, some for bad. Power runs adjacent.”

“Do all of you turn into monsters?” you asked. “Is that what you really look like underneath that handsome face.”

“The monsters are...” he began to say before he changed direction. “ You think I’m handsome?”

“No,” you said, covering yourself.  “Don’t change the subject.”

“Anyway,” Haechan continued. “You don’t have to worry about them. They are bottom feeders, and I won’t let them hurt you. It’s the ones that look like me you have to worry about.”

“Like those men who came for you that day?” you asked. “They didn’t sound like they wanted you alive.”

Haechan nodded. “If they find me, I’m as good as dust. One snap and it all ends. They’ll never stop looking for me. Usually, I keep moving to avoid them, but something..or someone..has been keeping me here.” 

  The way his eyes bore holes into yours, the way he cocked his head to the side, made your skin burn underneath your clothes. 

“What did you do to have them hunting for you?” you asked. 

“I never went back,” he said. “They don’t like it if you don’t come back. ”

“Why not?” you asked.

“Because this isn’t my world,” he said. “As you can see, if people know about us, it puts us in danger. Less time means less time for something to happen that’s out of our control. “

“Why risk it in the first place?” you asked. “If other dimensions exist, why come to this shitty existence?”

He shrugged. “You’re all easy to use. Your bodies. Your minds. You’re play things. For a lot of us- the normal ones- there is something about humanity we admire. The chance to be normal is one hell of a drug. It’s very hard to resist once you’ve had a taste.”

  You were aware that he was still holding the knife out for you to take. You took it from him and tossed it onto the bed. It bounced on the mattress and drew both of your eyes to it. You stared at the handle where his initials were. You met Haechan’s eyes and felt a pull towards him. As he was opening up to you, the sleepy feeling threatening to pull you under was starting to lift. Your mind felt more clear.

“Telling you all of this has repercussions, “ he said. “I don’t know if you want to throw that knife away so easily.” 

“I can handle myself.”

  You went to him, crossing the room without fear. You reached your hand out to touch his cheek but thought better of it at the last minute. When you went to pull away, Haechan caught your hand and rested his cheek gently against it. His skin was soft and warm. He felt human. The tender moment lasted only a few seconds before he rejected it and moved away from you. 

“You’re going to get yourself killed,” he said. “If they’re made aware that you know about any of this, they’ll hunt you down. If you think the hunt for me is scary, imagine them hunting a life they have little regard for. You don’t want your family nailing missing posters for the rest of their lives.”

 “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t freaking out right now,” you said. “But I would also be lying if I said I didn’t feel safe around you. You feel different.”

“I’m the most wanted man in both worlds right now,” you said. “Be careful of what you say.” 

You licked your lips. “Yeah? And what kind of man is that? What can you do? Is your power limited to what I saw?”

  Haechan laughed. There was no lightness in it, only darkness. He sneered and crossed his arms. You wished for the tender moment back, for him to reveal what kind of humanity he picked up while living in your world. Instead, he let the laughter bubble out of his throat until it spilled over, and there would be no putting it back together again.

“There is still so much I don’t understand.” you said, trying to get him to stay open. “You’re telling me that this hell dimension exists, that there is a portal to it right in this very motel, and that the people in that dimension have special powers. They want you dead. They’ll want me dead because I know the big secret. I need more answers, Haechan.“

“Your world,” he said. “-this human monstrosity- is just one place of many. It exists separated only by a thin veil. You can see it, if you pay attention. The glimmer of heat in the street on a hot day. Diners at 3 a.m. with pies in their showcases, whose slices never really disappear.  Have you ever seen something move out of the corner of your eye? That feeling creeping up your spine, those eyes watching you while you sleep.Those sleep paralysis creatures you think are demons are real. The things that move across this world if you truly paid attention would drive you mad, if you knew. Lucky for us, humans rarely notice anything. You spill into bars unaware of who is watching. You get into taxis and make chit chat with the drivers. You offer up so much of yourself without realizing. I’m beginning to think you’re all the monsters you’re so afraid of.”

[heizerux]

Okay. . . But HEAR ME OUT

So you guys know how it’s looking like they progress a bunch of steps forward in one episode, but then in another, it’s like nothing happened?

.

Well, I’m adding more than my two cents on that thought train this time around.

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It all started the night after I saw Backwarder, in which I came to a realization both in that post and in a mini discussion in the comments of another post that Backwarder is actually around right after Riposte and such. For those that don’t really catch my drift, allow me to elaborate.

.

Let’s start with what got released first, what we know, and then move down to what’s to come:

Riposte- We meet Kagami in this episode. By the end of it, she clearly notices something is between Adrien and Mari, but is nice about it and doesn’t get pushy.

Gigantitan- Marinette and the Squad try something extreme to get Adrien’s attention. She fails obviously. Trust me, I’ll talk about why this one even matters in the development timeline.

Frozer- Adrimi and Lukanette double date, and Kagami gives Marinette a push that seems harsh at first, but it comes from a good place. Also keep note, Mari refers to Kagami as the ice queen. (Hmmm. I wonder what happened that led Mari to say that?)

Backwarder- Marinette gathers the courage to give Adrien a love confession. Kagami silently glares/watches. Take note she also doesn’t interfere when she had EVERY chance to.

Oni-Chan- What we know: Lila will catch Kagami’s reakumatized fucking hands.

Ikari Gozen- What we know: Kagami’s mother is the akuma victim and upset with her daughter, but Marinette and Kagami are described as actual enemies here when before it was like. . . Not there?

So looking at these episodes, specially from the ones that already aired, it’s like we’ve got pieces missing here and there. We keep jumping back and forth and the conclusion I often see is that:

“The writers are BAD! How CAN they double back on DEVELOPMENT!!!”

And here’s where I then say. . .

“What if I told you that maybe the development IS there and was written a certain way. . . but it just got produced out of order when it was time to animate?”

.

Given the above episodes, allow me to now present to you a possible timeline in which the episodes were probably written. (I’m not saying that this is exactly how they were supposed to go right after the other, but it’s just an idea as to why behaviors may seem to make a LOT more sense when seen this way.)

Gigantitan- Marinette is seen coming up with crazy and elaborate ideas on how she’s gonna tell Adrien how she feels. As much as her squad tries to help, it fails, she stutters BADLY and when Adrien offers to give her a ride, she declines in her embarrasment. Still stuttering.

Riposte- As if it was the next plan on Marinette’s ideas to gather the courage to talk to Adrien, she joins his fencing class and she wasn’t doing too bad despite her clumsiness. Even Adrien picks up on it. . . But then we meet Kagami. A girl whom we now learn that accepts a challenge fair and square and if she loses it, she accepts it with honor, even though she’s not happy about it. If the opportunity to regain back her place as winner presents itself, she will gladly take it. (this about pretty much sums up Kagami) In conclusion, this episode goes from Kagami being angry with Adrien over that “lost” battle, to ending with Kagami being on good terms with him, and even acknowledging that he and Marinette are quite close. Adrien shoots this idea down on sight and it ends in Marinette being openly friend zoned, and Kagami now knowing the real tea being served in the Adrienette cabin of the ship. It looks promising to her. . . *proceeds to add Matcha powder*

Backwarder- Marinette, after in person hearing that Adrien views her as “just a good friend” and is being more friendly with Kagami, hears they’re both going to a wedding over the weekend. This means they’ll be alone together all weekend, and so she recalls the squad into her room to go over plans to prevent the “just a friend zone” from spreading. Since the flower operation failed (like miserably), the squad is tired. Seeing as this really all boils down to Marinette leaving behind the crazy plans and just doing things herself, she finally realizes that and instead decides to just write a letter and hand it to Adrien in person. Kagami witnesses this, and glares at Marinette. Notice that: Kagami doesn’t try to play catty like Lila and Chloe would. Instead, in this VERY moment, she accepts a challenge. One that is fair because both girls have feelings for him, but no one is trying to sabotage the other. It is respectable.

Ikari Gozen?- An episode that could or could not go after Frozer. For now, I’ll set it before Frozer. My reason at the moment being because the sypnopsis uses he words “best enemy” to describe Kagami to Marinette. Could it be where “ice queen” originated from? Or could this be an episode where both girls openly respect each other with no Adrien involved? (As far as respect goes, I think they do respect each other a lot without Adrien in the picture, but in a battle kind of way. Ya feel?)

Frozer- Note Marinette’s stuttering is much less now and she even holds a decent conversation with him. Once Adrien confides in her that he’s interested in asking Kagami, her world shatters, but she agrees to help him. The squad upon hearing this is S H O O K. *They desperately try to save the Adrienette cabin from flooding with water due to the overflow in Matcha powder. Kagami can’t take down this side of the ship dammit!* Marinette by this point, however, doesn’t have anymore crazy plans. She’s done with the unnecessary plans that would only lead her nowhere. If Adrien wants to be happy with Kagami, she’s gonna help him, even if it hurts her. Finally at the rink ,Mari and Luka have a moment (who I JUST NOW realized was both answering/showing Adrien how to go for Kagami while also going straight for Marinette. He’s smooth as fuck, that one 👀). Kagami thinks it’s off right off the bat that Marinette is here too. If this is her getting Adrien, then why did it feel like he wasn’t here for her even though the date is between them too? Marinette is having a good time with Luka on the sidelines and he even alludes that he’s got music planned *cough*Silencerthatyou??*cough*, but Adrien is still paying more attention to her than Kagami. It’s at this point, that Kagami, after watching Mari “fall” over and over with her attempts YET somehow STILL manage to get Adrien to come right back to her, has to tell Marinette directly that this side stepping shit she often does needs to end if she wants to get anywhere (both in general and with Adrien). This needed to be fair and square again. Little did Kagami know this advice would be instantfuckingtanious since Adrien leaves her for Mari like RIGHT after. Congrats, Kagami. You played yourself. Anyway, the date officially ends after the akuma is out and Adrien asserts he’s not giving up on who he likes. (Kagami still thinks he’s talking about Mari. She accepts this and keeps up with this fair battle pretty much.) Marinette, finally could have told him what she’s been trying to tell him these past episodes, but instead, she backtracks and keeps the friendship going. After that day, it really wasn’t gonna be so simple, even if they were much better friends then before. (From here we can just assume that Adrien is obviously grounded in Anansi, and this episode probably was the source since he published he was at the rink and not fencing lol.)

Oni-Chan?- YOUTHROWTHOSEFUCKINGHANDSATLILAKAGAMI.DOIT!! *clears throat* Again, we both haven’t seen nor know much about this episode aside from a vague sypnopsis, but just for the timeline purposes, I’ll go ahead and say it COULD go right after Frozer? I’m saying this only because Lila is involved, and by Frozer, it is openly established between Kagami and Marinette that they are the main love interests Adrien really only could consider. So for Lila to swoop in with her shit and get Kagami angry? In her eyes, she probably thinks “How dare this unhonorable person think she’s worthy of going against me?” (Also it was mentioned in Backwarder that Kagami doesn’t lie, so it could only mean she, just like Marinette, hates liars. And doesnt back down to expose them, either, hopefully.)

Obviously Oni-Chan and Ikari Gozen are a big question mark right now, but that’s in general what it’s looking like to me regarding the “Marigami” development. I don’t think it’s too wild since these two seasons were written and worked on around the same.

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I hope my explanation and order not only maybe painted a better outlook, but also gets you guys thinking on what the real written order could be from here.

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Like Christmaster is obviously set for long before any of this since Marinette is still obsessive with Adrien and unintentionally lies, which is something she’s slowly abandoning in season 3. (The tweet Thomas made only confirmed it too.)

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So please! Feel free to add your thoughts!

We really could be better off at pinpointing the written order of every episode that’s been realesed so things don’t feel off lol

Also excuse the dots. I hate it that the text gets too cluttered together

@fanficaddict4ever @miraculouslysam / @sweet-nibbletss