#first rate villain in all routes EVEN HER OWN but shes everything

[team-avia]

yo wtf did yall put in Miranda's routes be so forreal

i dont even LIKE mean women, i came into this with a bias against Miranda and got even MORE of an anti Miranda bias playing up to her route so how in god good name have yall gotten a set in my ways bitch like myself head over heels for this woman huh??? be honest with me what spell is in this??? is it crack did yall put crack in this i need ANSWERS

She's just that good. Wife material, yknow? My wife, whom you should let go bc she did all those things 🥰

Cinder

[jc96]

[this story is currently in its early development stage.]

The world is divided into two—the “normal humans” and the “powered humans”; people with mutations and abilities that put them above the rest.

It is unknown how the powered humans came to be but it started, one day, when a baby was born with gills on his neck—Case Zero. As the boy grew, so did his mutations—his hands and feet became webbed and it became clear how the boy was born to be in the water.

The next one was a girl—Case One, who was born with wings on her back, which only grew larger as she grew older. Soon, her wings grew so large it dragged on the floor. In a matter of years, her ability to fly and speed became even greater than planes and jets. A girl born to be in the skies.

What started with a baby every few months soon became a baby every month, to a baby every other week to a baby every week.

Today, 1 powered baby is born every 100,000 babies.

With the increasing number of powered humans, the governments of the world decided to implement the Powered Registration Act which aims to, as with normal human beings, register and regulate the powered humans. In line with the Act, the governments of the world created the PHSO - Powered Humans Statistics Office, the governing body solely for the powered humans, led by powered humans for powered humans.

With the emergence of the powered humans, a new occupation is created-heroes.

Registered and regulated by the government, heroes are employed by the PHSO to maintain order and peace while working together with the non-powered force.

Of course, when there are heroes, there are villains—powered and non-powered alike who do not agree with what they call “hero worship” given to heroes.

A never ending cycle of fights between good and evil, peace and chaos which span decades. Nothing new.

Of course, all of these do not concern you. You are not a hero nor are you a villain.

You are a barista with your own café in Sinagtala City.

[rating: 17+ for depictions of blood, non-detailed descriptions of violence, alcohol and cigarette use, off-screen character death(s), and others. this is subject to change as the story progresses]

You are a barista. Sure, your cafe may be a bit odd, compared to others but it is a cafe, nonetheless. Your pride and joy.

You’re the most ordinary citizen in Sinagtala City. Sure, you have secrets you’d do anything to keep, but who doesn’t?

This is a story following your daily life as you entertain customers, buy ingredients and stock your cafe.

...Sure.

— customize your mc! customize your name, pronouns and appearance!

— name your cafe!

— note: this story is set in the philippines and the mc is canonically filipino. as such, customization options are limited to those that are common in filipinos.

— romance 1 out of 3 love interests! are you going for the classic, best friends-to-lovers route? or maybe you'd prefer the enigmatic regular customer? how about the no-nonsense police captain?

— ₜᴿʸ ₜᴼ ᴹₐᴵₙᵀₐᴵₙ ʸᴼᵤᴿ "ₙᴼᵣᴹₐᴸ" ₗᴵᶠᴱ

The Best Friend 

Miguel Rivera [28 years old, he/him][ro]

— your best friend since childhood, Miguel is a constant presence in your life, the one person who has been with you through everything; from childhood quarrels with bullies to the death of your mother. Miguel was the first person to come in during your opening day and has been your #1 supporter from day 1.

— going by the hero name “Torch,” Miguel has the ability to control and produce fire, able to use it for short-distance flight, shoot fireballs as well as turn his whole body aflame for a short period of time. 

— tall, at 188cm, with a muscular build (but not bodybuilder muscles) from years of training. Brown (kayumanggi) skin, black, wavy hair that reaches his ears and light brown eyes. All of Miguel’s clothes are made from a special thread created from his hair to ensure their resistance to his fire.

The Regular

Kahel [26 years old, they/them][ro]

— a regular customer, Kahel is one of your first customers. They’ve been coming to your cafe for the past 5 years almost daily, with no fail. Through the years, the two of you have formed a friendship. Despite your years of knowing them, you know almost nothing about Kahel’s past and what they actually do for work (they told you they’re a ‘writer’). You don’t know Kahel’s abilities, only that they have physical mutations.

— average height, at 170cm, with a thin build. Pale skin with long, straight hair they keep to their lower back and tied into a braid. Kahel often changes the color of their hair, so often, you don’t know their real hair color. Their eyes are a light gray, and their ears are pointed, like an elf’s ears.

The Captain

Cristina Solomon [34 years old, she/her][ro]

— the captain of the Sinagtala Police Force, Cristina is tasked in ensuring the peace and safety of the inhabitants of Sinagtala City. The youngest to ever hold the position of captain, Cristina holds deep confidence in her abilities and in the pride her colleagues have of her. In her 2 years since becoming captain, the number of crimes have decreased even further, to the point that other cities have called on her expertise and guidance.

— Cristina has the ability to produce shields and force fields which are able to withstand even a direct hit from a bomb. Cristina possesses amazing control of her abilities, even using them for maneuvering. Although powerful, the more shields she produces, the weaker they get until they’re barely stronger than a glass panel.

— tall height, at 178cm, with a thin but muscled build because of her training as a police officer. Brown (kayumanggi) skin and short, straight, dark brown hair she keeps in a bob, stopping just above her jaw. Cristina has dark, almost black, brown eyes and a beauty mark under her left eye.

The Part-timer

Lib Santos [20 years old, they/them]

— a college student who works part time for you. they’re very happy to work for your cafe because it’s the only one they applied to that’s able to accommodate their schedule. They’re able to attract small objects to themself, an ability they use in working.

— short, at 150cm, with a round build. Brown (kayumanggi) skin with freckles on their face. Round glasses hide their dark brown eyes. Their hair is short, a pixie cut, and dyed a light blue.

The Mayor

Penelope Pascual [45 years old, she/her]

— Sinagtala City’s mayor. Unlike past mayors that were personally chosen by Sinag, Penelope was voted for by the public. A well-known figure in the city, it was only a matter of time before Penelope was voted mayor. Penelope is able to control and manipulate air. She mainly uses it to allow herself flight while patrolling the city.

— tall, at 175cm, with a curvy build. Tan skin accentuated by her light brown eyes and long, straight dark brown hair usually tied in its tight bun.

hello! jean here, bringing you a new story. of coffee beans, heroes and villains is an interactive fiction in it's early development stage. the story will be released in chapters and will be completely free from start to finish.

[arcsnonexistantfandomblog]

Wish Review

So first, my opinions, obviously.

- Voice acting, I love how the characters talk, and they are well acted.

- singing [Sure the songs themselves aren't perfect but the singing is great!]

- The variety of expressions, I really like seeing this because it helps a lot with art

- I like Asha's character, she is adorable in a few scenes but the thing is that there is so much to her that I feel like is missed. For a teenage protagonist who is still developing I like how she is Determined to stop Magnifico and save everyone's wishes. I feel like a lot of people reviewing the movie are not exactly a teen anymore, and as one I kind of relate to Asha in many ways too.

- To be fair, I think Magnifico does a fine job as a villain: there were just a few things that could be fixed that would make him great. But for the movie, I think it is good for the time being. I feel like even then us as people can make ideas for a better idea for what could be changed

- I feel like I would love Amaya as a character no matter what route she takes now that I have watched the movie. I wish she was in the movie a bit more. Also it was kind of funny that Amaya is the one to say no to Magnifico being let out is great: it just needs more moments of Amaya of being able to grieve if that makes sense at all?

- Another thing, I feel like the songs are good on their own, I think I will listen to them every once in a while because I do believe that they are sung well enough. Oddly enough it had brought chills down my own spine.

- I also like Star, sure might have been made to find "AWE ADORABLE THING, MUST BUY" but...for a silent character that is from the sky I actually like it.

-Like others have said: I think it needed more screentime to develop this stuff: just for more development and in general to let everything happen in more than a day or two.

- I do think that the side characters are good for a movie that plays it safe.

- I did laugh, and to be honest, the goat was not annoying. I think people are just exaggerating the goat: I mean it just got to speak English/whatever language you watched it in: I would be talking my ass off in excitement tbh.

-if anything one of the few complaints is definitely that they could have done more with the possession plot line: if many noticed this little thing on the book: I think it would be a perfect form for an evil-possessed book to take. Might make some art for this monster

- I think that the magic system is not fully explained and does have some holes in it: but over it does good for the movie. Like how Sora's keyblade does what it needs to do. If this were to become a series: there needs some kind of explanation of the magic. The wishes seems to be something that has already known for a while: the cursed book clearly knows the bad way they could be used.

- I do like the relationship between Magnifico and Amaya, I feel like it is a refresher to see a villain with someone they love and are married to you know?

Movie rating?

May have not mentioned everything but to be honest it is not a perfect movie: sure it is disappointing for a 100th anniversary movie but if you take that out and think of it as a movie on its own: it not only does the trick for a movie: but it is something people can like. Just 🏴‍☠️ the movie and see for yourself.

I think that overall other reviews are kind of overdoing it with the " IT'S BAD", I can see why it has mixed reviews and I am with the ones who love it. The reason is because well...it's fun! I feel like the characters are great with a few exceptions and complaints.

If I were to score it, it is not going to be a perfect 10/10, I think it is a 7/10, I don't want to put it down to a four like others, because I think that the people worked hard on this movie when it comes to animating, voice acting and other things.

Final rating: 7/10

I do agree that there are things to be fixed and after watching it...I think I know what the other plot ideas would look like and I think that I will do a rewrite of the plot ideas for fun instead of rewriting the whole movie: so expect a post with my ideas on every idea I have. Note: I also put it up to 7/10 because I enjoyed it, like really enjoyed it: it made me laugh, smile and for me being a teen, it is going to go in my box of fandoms

[donttouchmyasymptote]

A Fair-est Winter - Apple/Darling

This is my gift as part of the @eah-exchange, written for @atomicjuniper!

Hey Kaitie! I also love Dappling and Dexven, so I wrote a fic featuring them. Apple-centric! It’s primarily more on the Dappling side, with some Raven and Apple friendship, though it’s originally based on your prompt of the two ships going on a double date. Here, they’re visiting Snow White’s kingdom for Christmas.

Rating is General.

~*~

Snow fell into the December days, as finals ended and trails of students boarded the carriage cars and trains and portals and private planes and professionally-trained griffins home for the winter. Apple White would normally be one of the first to go, for the current Snow White, in her queenly CEO-frequent-face-of-Faerbes-magazine glory, would never hesitate to make a grand entrance, to remind the students that -- yes, you may be royalty, but the realm this school falls in is still under my jurisdiction, that as long as you study here, Apple is your Crown Princess. Yet, this year, Apple sat waiting on the school steps, suitcases beside, as people filed out past her.

“Stuck on the steps of the palace?” Ashlynn Ella trailed down from the front door past Apple.

She laughed. “Just waiting on a princess.”

It wasn’t that Darling Charming was late. Apple White was merely early, and hexceedingly nervous.

“Is everything spelltacular on your end, Ash?”

With that, Cinderella’s daughter smiled. “The court physicians have hexcellent news. Mama’s been doing her best in months… we might even get to do a trip this year, she mentioned wanting to go east of the sun.”

“They do throw some of the best balls,” Apple said. “Of course any Cinderella would love to go there!”

Ashlynn giggled. “And Papa knows of Hunter now, so things are looking up all round.”

They kept talking, passing the time until a carriage car managed by a mousy-looking footsman rolled up in Ever After High’s arched driveway.

Cinderella stories, rags to riches. Happily ever afters do hexist, Apple thought, and her mind drifted. Commoners, and even minor nobility, had a freedom in taking a highschool sweetheart to their parents, without much of a fuss. It wasn’t as if the royal teens of Ever After High didn’t date outside of the storybook, it was just that bringing it to the palace was a political move at the most minimum.

It was also why Snow White tardied this year.

Nonetheless, a new page was turning. Ashlynn and Hunter were proof. Maybe she and Darling would be too.

As if on cue, a rush of distinctive perfume and strident footsteps. There she was, Darling herself, carrying not one, not two, but three suitcases, on her arms.

“That’s just flexing at this point!” The sentence was said with a good-natured laugh that Apple knew to be her roommate’s. Raven Queen stood behind Darling, and Dexter behind her. “She insisted, Apple, how could I say no?”

With her own demonstration, Raven waved her hands and moved the suitcases down the steps via purple telekinesis. 

There was the other reason why Snow White tardied that year -- the other set of guests.

Apple adored Raven. They were roommates, best friends, walked hand in hand to Thronecoming together. When Raven shot up in the popularity polls, the only concern Apple ever felt was from that call with her mother. Still, befriend your storybook villain all you want at Ever After, risk the judgement of your peers for that, perhaps -- not that Apple was prone to being demonised --, but bringing it back to the kingdom, where you were the figurehead, the fairytale--

She was overthinking things. Apple knew she was overthinking things. Her mother had said yes to guests over for the Winter, anyway, and yes to these specific ones, too.

To be fairest, it was hard to say no to that one particular Charming branch without risking a political infarction. A queen has trade routes to protect!

“Dexter,” Apple greeted, standing up and giving a proper curtsy. He was nice. Respectful. It never sunk in before that she’d one day get to call him her brother-in-law, but after everything with Darling, it finally did.

“Hey Apple.”

To Raven, Apple dove into her with a warm hug. “Christmas is going to be the best,” she emphasised. “I know it.”

“Would be nice not to get threats from Krampus this year,” Raven cracked a grin.

“Nonsense, does coal from Santa mean nothing to you?”

But when you’re the Evil Queen, here are visits that even St Nick is all too earnest to miss.

The odd couple -- prince and sorceress -- stepped aside. Only one person was left for Apple to properly greet.

“Darling,” and here, Apple was acutely aware of the weight of that name, the endearment intertwined in double-meaning. She reached out a hand. Her destined princess took it, kissed the back of it, beaming like the sun glinting off armor.

This was it, wasn’t it? The fairytale love that maidens go to the ends of the world for.

~*~

The D-Charming branch really undersold Dexter. He would make an incredible dignitary. He held the conversation with Apple’s mother that carriage car ride. CEO does not necessitate engineer, but Snow White’s mines sourced power for some of the latest advancements in spelletronics, which Dex -- fond member of the Tech Club -- could talk on.

He took the pressure off. The girls could chat about next spellmester plans, with Apple and Darling comparing their lunch slots and free periods to determine when they could hang out during school.

Still, there was a coldness, not from the winter outside. If Snow White wanted to know about Raven, the question was directed at either Apple or Dexter, or otherwise…

“Well, what will you do for the rest of your life?” articulated with a saccharine smile.

For any princess, it was simple enough: rule, and rule well. Else, be a consort, run the kingdom, so that your spouse rules well.

“Isn’t that what the rest of my life is for?” Raven had responded with an ease that Apple realised she herself would never have had if put in the same situation.

Arriving to the kingdom, too, the atmosphere of the crowds shifted from whence Dexter and Darling stepped out, to when Raven stepped out. Apple clenched her perfect teeth and thought how Ever After High had created a mental microcosm, that returning home would not reflect the popularity polls at school.

~*~

“I don’t like how they’re treating you,” Apple said. She waited until the servants had finished moving her friends’ belongings into guest rooms, so it was just the two of them.

“It is what it is… not that it should be, but hey. I thought you preferred me as your evil queen.”

She frowned. “You already poisoned me!”

“Not on purpose.”

“But it got me here, got my Happily Ever After… I don’t know why they don’t love you now. I’m happy, isn’t that what matters?”

Raven laughed. Of all things, Raven laughed.

“There’s no story without you! There’s no Happily Ever After without a story…”

“Look, Apple, I appreciate you. I’m really happy for you. That’s why I’m here,” Raven said. “And hey, raised villain, remember? We don’t get safety nets, we know the risks. It’s not like I’m throne for a loop here.”

If she had been assigned a villain role -- Apple once thought -- then she’d take it with a strident pride, put on the facade, get a beautiful princess a happily ever after. “It’s more than just a role, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s very real, and it needs to be fixed. And maybe, hey, on the bright side, if evil were just a role, wouldn’t fairytale love be just a role as well?”

“Good thing it isn’t.”

“I agree.”

~*~

“Well,” Darling said, “Snow White’s kingdom is a lot more Christmassy than ours, which is to be hexpected. This is famously one of the biggest Christmas markets in the world.”

“Rivalled by only the Nutcracker Kingdom’s,” the hint of kingdom pride didn’t leave Apple’s voice. 

The apex of the trip. 

A princess had to be resourceful, and on a night where one was busy stuffing herself with German desserts, Apple would never be caught amiss without a bag to carry them all.

She introduced Darling to all the sweets from her childhood. “Other kingdoms are mad about oranges,” she made sure to point out any regional differences, “but if you ever doubted that the Snow White kingdom would value any other fruit over apples…”

As a kid was a phrase that fell often as the two wandered. This was the stall I went to as a kid. Oh, I played this as a kid. They're singing the songs that I heard as a kid.

“Nothing seems to change, huh,” commented Darling.

“It's reliable,” said Apple. “It's home.” She glanced up at her girlfriend. “This time it's different, though, it's with you. Oo!” A stall caught her eye. “Let's get lebkuchen!" and took Darling over to a stand selling gingerbread.

Nothing seemed to change. But now, with Darling in her life--

“Let's do something unhexpected.”

“Unhexpected?”

“Unhexpected. I showed you my childhood traditions, maybe we should create a new one.”

“Wonderland taught me that you should think of six impossible things before breakfast…” Darling trailed off, fuzzling her brow in thought, “but something unhexpected right now?”

“Oo, maybe I should suggest the unhexpected thing! That'd be extra unhexpected, coming from Apple White.”

A chuckle. “Alright, what have you got?”

Apple frowned, and looked around. This out of the box thinking was not her strongest suit. "Let's…" she said, "climb onto a roof, maybe?" Briar would be proud, she thought.

Darling arched an eyebrow, but didn't question it. "Gotta start somewhere. Let's do it."

So they did. Fittingly, it was a local bakery's roof. The two princesses sat there and watched the lights of the market below them.

"Did you…," Darling seemed to be searching for the words. "Did you ever think we'd end up like this?"

Apple looked up at her, mid lebkuchen bite.

"It's just that, well, you know, my family's… traditional," Darling continued. "Like, not necessarily by the book, or else they'd be doing something different. More like 'Chevalier Belle-Belle is an hexception, not a rule!' traditional? Authors, what am I getting at?"

"Darling, what's going on?"

The other princess laughed and kissed Apple on the cheek. "It's just that, I feel like I've been spending the past months rejecting the way I've been raised so much that, surely, maybe it would affect how I like princesses. Like, scared that associations would mean not being able to fully love princesses that fit the mould. I was scared that I wouldn't like you as much as I wanted to -- or do."

"And I'm certain that you do." And Apple was. "I like being a proper princess," she said. "And I like you, Darling. You make me feel like the storybooks were right, that there is a love to believe in and wait for."

Below them, there were voices in unison from the market crowd. A countdown.

Apple rested her head on Darling's shoulder. "Stollen?" she offered the Christmas loaf to her love. 

Darling broke off a chunk. "Stollen," she repeated. 

Together, from the height, they watched the fireworks.

~*~

The days stretched onwards, and Apple lost herself in countless hours spent with Darling. Exploring the vast private library collections her kingdom held, to sitting on meetings her mother held with other heads of states or company hexecutives, to wandering the orchards that lined the Royal Botanical Gardens.

They drank hot chocolate indoors and watched the snowflakes fall through ebony-lined windows.

But like reigns, seasons too come to an end, and Darling had to hasten home to spend the last week of break with her own family. 

Apple stood at the steps of her kingdom, and waved goodbye to the two siblings, in the practised and poised manner she only knew.

“Hey,” Darling sprinted back. “I forgot something.”

“What w--”

With a wave of her hair, Darling slowed the time around her, and caught Apple’s mouth with a kiss. “That’s what I forgot.”

The Charmings’ carriage car beeped, a frustrated footsman knowing that the children were not going to make it back on scheduled time. 

"Okay, gotta go. Remember that I love you!"

"I love you too."

She’d go to the ends of the world for Darling. She really would. Be one of those princesses who spend seven years, dedicated, searching.

What comfort, Apple thought, being only a border and a carriage car ride away.

[the-bed-gremlins-reading-list]

Code Name: Oracle

This project is in the very early stages of development – everything here is highly variable as I keep working out the details. That said, please send in any questions you like about this project or Phoenix Knight! I’m saving anything to do with PK bugs and fixes until a later date since I’m going to take a break from writing it, but I’m still happy to answer questions about the RO’s and setting.

Summary: Life in Delphi City is pretty much like life anywhere – there’s problems, lots of them, but there’s good points too – maybe a bit fewer. But whatever your feelings are about it - it is home. It is also the city with the highest concentration of super villainy on the planet.

The Guardians are the local superhero team, made up of ‘Paths’ – the people with powers – that are on the side of what is good and right, and approved by the government. Their job is to take care of the villains with powers – and sometimes the ones just smart enough to build doomsday weapons. That kind of thing.

The stuff that’s way above your paygrade.

You might be one of the city’s most skilled detectives but you’re still just a detective. Your bad guys don’t have powers (usually). And messing with one that does ends in a world of pain – kidnapped and experimented on by a previously unknown mad scientist type you’re eventually rescued by a hydrokinetic path.

When your powers are discovered, you’re a chance for the Guardians to snatch up an in-house investigator - a part of the crime fighting process they’d previously been forced to rely on the police and other agencies for. And with people beginning to develop into Paths at previously unheard of rates for some unknown reason, Delphi City needs its Guardians to find the answer.

But now they have you. Formerly one of the best detectives in the city but now... after everything that’s happened, you don’t know what you are, but they have decided what they want you to be:

Their very own Oracle.

Features

An +18 rating, again, more for my own peace of mind than what I believe the content will actually be, but I ask that it’s respected.

Warnings: imprisonment, experimentation, police, injuries, genre-typical violence, more to be added.

Planned Features Include:

Customizable Skill Approach - What kind of detective were you known to be. Are you the sort of detective that is good with getting people to tell you what you need to know? Are you the sort that can chase down and catch and answer even if it has you sprinting across rooftops? Are you the sort that notices the details and can put them together? And is that still your style?

Customizable pronouns (with an option in the player menu to reset them as desired)

Decide why you joined the police in the first place. Also decide how you feel about your maverick big brother.

Four romance routes currently planned: Siren, Warren, Cal, and Victoria

Characters

The Detective – Gender Selectable - MC – A legacy cop, whose grandfather and father were both respected life-long officers, your family has a reputation in the DCPD - one that your older brother managed to thoroughly trash, or redeem, depending on who you ask while you were still on the beat. Your position is hard won but no one can deny your skills as an investigator, family name or no. But when your kidnapping results in the development of powers, making you a ‘Path’ you’re put into the Guardians, not as a costumed hero, but as an investigative specialist.

The Villain: “Siren” – Gender Selectable – RO - Without any evidence to prove that the mysterious Siren was a supervillain and not just a very clever criminal the detective and their partner were originally assigned to attempt to apprehend them – or, otherwise, gather enough evidence to make the Siren the Guardian’s problem and not the DCPD’s.  Now you’re a Guardian and in the six months since that stakeout  and it’s very much your job to catch them – but why are they being so damn helpful?

The Leader: Warren Hughes, “Commander Truth” – NB – RO – The Guardian’s telepathic leader, Warren is a strict person with high expectations for everyone around them, but perhaps the highest set for themself. You know Commander Truth best by their black-and-white-lightning bolt costume from the situations where the police have had to work with the Guardians. You definitely didn’t expect your brother’s best friend – and a vague shadow in your life since Adrian went to high school and first met Warren - to be the one under the mask.

The Rookie: Callum Lindsey, “Titan” – M – RO – The newest member of the Guardians, apart from you, Cal has only been in Delphi City for eight months. The blue-and-gold clad ferrokinetic path who can twist buildings out of shape with his abilities is not who you were expecting to be the team’s grinning cinnamon roll, but Cal is definitely the warmest welcome you get to the team.

The Protector: Victoria Aragorn, “Starlight” – F – RO – One of the longest serving Guardians, she joined the official superhero line-up at the same time that Commander Truth did. Though her abilities as a Path give her control over fire – and to a lesser degree light and warmth – she is most famous for her skilled usage of traditional martial weapons and unarmed combat forms. Before Victoria put in the red and black suit of Delphi City’s ‘Starlight’ she worked for the government doing the sort of things only a Path could. (A/N: Victoria’s code name might change later on, but right now I’m amused by the idea of Siren giving her hell over it via “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” so it’s what I’ve got for now.)

The Partner: Theresa ‘Tessa’ Graves – F – Tessa and you have been partners for two years now, and friends for longer than that. She was there on the stakeout the night when everything changed. Her injuries might have forced her to retire from police work but after everything you’ve been through together she’s definitely not retiring from being your best friend. No matter what your opinion on the matter actually is.

The Brother: Adrian – M – Your elder brother is the only family you have left these days, not that that feels all that new. He’s also the one responsible for ruining the family’s sterling reputation when his work uncovered a massive amount of corruption in the police related to bribes and deals made with the city’s supervillain community and he didn’t do the brass the courtesy of backing down quietly about it – instead handing the entirety of his evidence over to the Guardians to pursue and, what was safe to, over to reporters the same day that he handed in his resignation. He claims he’s much happier these days, working as a PI and writing what he reassures you is going to be ‘the worst novel of all time’.

The Doctor: Elis Mercy - M - The doctor in charge of looking after the Guardians, and because of your position and the circumstances around your kidnapping he’s also been your doctor since your rescue. In addition to being one of the only doctors in the city that specializes in caring for Empathic people, his own Path allows him to heal injuries. But just those of the trauma variety - broken bones, bruises, cuts and lacerations, not infections and not poisons. (A/N: The doc’s name is a stand-in, I’m not happy with it. So I’m going to keep fishing around for one that fits him.)

[secretshinigami]

making the most of it

Author: @realtruesuccessor For: @yagami-raito-kun Pairings/Characters: Near | Nate River/Yagami Light, background Linda/Matsuda, Near | Nate River, Yagami Light, Linda (Death Note), Matsuda Touta, Watari Rating/Warnings: Teen and Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, just typical superhero/action movie stuff Prompt: Near is a superhero, Light is a supervillain, they get set up on a blind double date and have to roll with it to protect their secret identities Author’s notes: This was super fun to write! Thank you for the amazing prompt! I hope this is what you were looking for, and that you enjoy it!

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

Nate River had never given much thought to the idea of romance. He had experienced fleeting crushes in the past, but never any serious feelings, and he had never even been kissed at the ripe old age of eighteen. There were much more pressing issues in his life besides the lack of social milestones, so Nate wasn’t too concerned about his deficits in romantic experience. 

  Unfortunately, his roommate Linda did not have the same opinion. 

  “You’re going to die alone if you keep this up.”

  Nate looked up from the small toy robot that had been occupying his attention before Linda opened her mouth. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  Linda sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve never seen you go on a date,” she said, as if that clarified anything. 

  “So?”

  “So, you’ll end up alone and unhappy unless you find yourself a nice man.”

  Nate raised an eyebrow, and he lifted his hand to curl a finger around a strand of wavy white hair. “You’re making an awful lot of bold assumptions.”

  “Am I wrong?”

  Nate paused, took a moment to consider the brief crushes he had in the past, and then admitted a small concession. “Not about my preference for men, but about my impending lonely fate? That remains to be seen.”

  Linda approached Nate’s spot on the floor, where he was surrounded by tiny action figures. She sat down next to him, and picked up a small gray object from the circle of toys around him. “I’m worried about you, Nate,” she explained. “You’re always holed up in your room, messing around with these toys, but I think you should get out more and I have the perfect idea to help with that.”

  Eyeing the object in her hand, Nate uncurled his finger from his hair. He reached over and plucked the tiny gray circle from her grasp, then stuffed the item into his pocket. “Your concern is noted,” he said, perhaps a bit too sharp. “Unfortunately for you, I disagree.”

  “Can you hear me out, at least?” 

  “You’ve given me no compelling reason to do that, so the answer is no. Please leave me alone.”

  Silence rang throughout the apartment, echoing with the sting of Linda’s hurt feelings. Nate didn’t feel sorry in the least; in fact, he felt entirely justified. After all, Linda had barged into his room and insulted his lifestyle. He was in the right to be short and snappy with her.

Nate watched impassively as Linda’s face fell. His roommate’s usually bright smile turned into a sullen frown, and her blue eyes became downcast. If Nate had been a different sort of person, he might have been moved by this display, but as it was, Linda’s wounded emotions did nothing to stir his heart or change his mind. 

  “Well, that’s disappointing,” Linda muttered, her voice small and hurt.

  “I have no idea why you’re suddenly so invested in my romantic life, but whatever your reasons, you brought this on yourself by disparaging my hobbies.”

  “Okay, okay, I guess you’re right. I should have gone about this in a different way.”

  “Yes, you should have, but there’s no changing the past and no use lingering on this topic anymore. Weren’t you leaving?”

  With a heavy sigh, Linda got up and left Nate to his own devices.

  ~

  The city was dark at night, lit only by the occasional street lamp.

  “Where is the tracker now, Watari?”

  Near made his way through the gloomy city streets, dodging the warm circles of light cast by the lampposts. He stuck to dark, shadowy corners like glue, crouching behind parked cars and navigating narrow alleyways. 

  A voice crackled over the communication device in Near’s ear. “One block away, Near,” Watari said. “The location is pinging from that abandoned grocery store on the corner.”

  As Near approached the store, he tugged his dark cowl down over his hair and eyes, shielding them from view. The streets were mostly empty, but he didn’t want to risk being identified, even by the vagrants who frequented this part of the city in the dead of night. After all, his white hair and gray eyes were rather distinctive. If Near ever let his guard down, it wouldn’t take a genius to eventually trace the actions of the vigilante Near back to the identity of one Nate River.

  “Alright, I’m standing in front of the store now.”

  “Yes, thank you. The tracker you placed on that nasty fellow is still pinging from inside that building.”

  “Hmm, I really do hope this doesn’t end in physical violence. You know how much I hate fighting.”

  “I’m aware of that, and I also know that you’ve had a very long night already, but at least Lidner will be pleased to hear that you were finally able to put some of her training to good use.”

  Near made a face. His mouth twisted into a displeased frown. “That’s not funny.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be funny, I’m being completely serious. She’ll love to hear that you fought off a villain with a stick.”

  “First of all, this isn’t exactly a stick. It’s a bō,” Near corrected. “Second of all, perhaps you’re correct. She seems to puff up with pride whenever I acknowledge her skills.”

  “Yes, people tend to do that when you pay them a compliment.”

  Ignoring Watari’s snark, Near began the task of sneaking into the dark building. He crept forward, towards the front of the store, keeping low to the ground. There wasn’t any light coming from the windows or the door, but Near had learned from experience that one could never be too careful when dealing with villains. The building seemed lifeless and empty from the outside, but there could be traps set inside - or even the villain himself, tracker and all. So, Near was sure to be stealthy as he peeked into the store from a low, dirty window.

  The interior of the old shop seemed to be exactly what Near had expected. Mostly empty, save for a few shelves, and thick layers of dust covering every visible surface. Clearly, the store hadn’t been active in many years. It was the perfect place for squatters to take refuge - or for mysterious villains to set up a hideout. 

  “Best entrance route?” Near asked, eyeing the door in the corner of the shop, which appeared to lead somewhere deeper into the building. If Near had to guess, he would say that the door probably led to some sort of old office or employee break room. The door was dark and heavy-looking, with a shiny silver knob that could have easily been rigged with a villainous trap. 

  “You mean, besides walking right through the front door?” Watari teased.

  “Watari, please, this is serious.”

  “Alright, alright, I understand, I’m searching for an aerial view now.”

  As Near waited for Watari’s next message, he took another look around the interior of the store. None of the dust seemed to be disturbed; the floor and the shelves all appeared to be completely untouched by human feet or hands, at least for the past few months. 

  Still, Near considered, the room could be monitored with hidden cameras and microphones. Best that I don’t use the main entrance unless there’s no other option.

  “According to the aerial view, there’s a skylight towards the back of the building,” Watari announced. 

  Near frowned, and reached up to rub a strand of his own white hair between two fingers. “I don’t see a skylight from my current location, so the skylight must lead into the back room of the store. I can skip the main shop area entirely.”

  “Well, that works out nicely.”

  About fifteen minutes later, Near found himself on top of the roof, breathing heavily from exertion. “I’m never doing that again,” he managed in between gulps of air. 

  “Never say never, Near.”

  After catching his breath, Near approached the skylight and peered through it. The bright moon illuminated the room beneath the glass, casting everything in a soft white glow. Through the skylight, Near could see the back room of the shop, which appeared mostly empty, save for a wooden desk. 

  “I’m entering the building now,” Near said, reaching to unlatch the skylight.

  “Wait, Near!” Watari cried out, at the exact same time an unfamiliar voice whispered: “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Near whipped around, bringing up his bō staff in a fluid motion.

  A masked man stood before Near, with his gloved hands raised in mock surrender. 

  “Who are you?” Near asked, his tone dark and serious. 

  The man smirked, then nodded to one of his hands. A familiar, small gray object rested between the fingers of his red leather-covered hand. 

  The tracker.

  “Shit,” Near muttered under his breath.

  “Looking for this?” The man asked, sounding carefree and quite pleased with himself. His voice was slightly deeper than Near had imagined, but it suited him just the same.

  On impulse, Near jabbed at the mysterious villain with his staff.

  As though he moved through the shadows, the man expertly evaded Near’s attack. He dodged, twisted, and kicked out. His dark boot landed in the center of Near’s chest, pushing the hero back. 

  Near stumbled back, tripping over his own feet. His ankle hit something behind him, probably a ledge of some kind, and suddenly, he was falling. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as the world warped around him. 

  Like something out of a movie, Near found himself falling in slow motion - legs bending, glass cracking from somewhere behind him, his body descending further and further into darkness. 

  Before Near could even process what was happening, the villain turned away. His silhouette was illuminated by the bright backdrop of the moon. He glanced over his shoulder as Near fell through the skylight. His brown eyes sparkled with the dual flickers of triumph and pride.

  The villain’s smug grin was the last thing Near saw before darkness enveloped him completely. 

  ~

  “I can’t believe you finally roped me into this nonsense,” Nate River said. 

  Linda and Nate sat on a bench together, as the sky darkened and the air became thin and cold. She wore a coat and a light scarf over her dress, while he was dressed in only a collared button-up shirt and comfortable pants. The bright yellow bulbs from the nearby carnival casted the two roommates in a soft glow. Despite the warm light, Nate shivered, and Linda looked around frantically; her foot was tapping incessantly against the hard concrete of the sidewalk. 

  “Yes, well, this nonsense is going to do wonders for your social life, if those silly boys ever show up,” Linda said, glancing down at her phone with a frown. 

  Nate rolled his eyes. “First of all, my social life is perfectly satisfying as it is, thank you very much. Second of all, I’m sure they’ll be here any minute now.”

  “I guess you’re right about that second thing,” Linda conceded, pointing towards a pair of young Japanese men who were quickly approaching their bench. “And we’ve already been over the first thing.”

  The two men arrived at their bench, and Nate got a good look at both of them for the first time. One of the men, whom Linda greeted as ‘Matsuda’, had dark hair and big brown eyes that suited his handsome face and gentle expression. The other man was introduced as Light Yagami, a close friend of Matsuda’s and a fellow Japanese exchange student. Light’s hair was significantly lighter than Matsuda’s, and although his eyes were a similar shade of brown, his gaze spoke of a sharp intelligence that far exceeded his bumbling friend.

  Nate knew those eyes.

  That attractive pair of brown eyes had smirked at him, only a few nights ago, on a moon-drenched rooftop.

  “Light Yagami, was it?” Nate clarified, his eyes traveling over every inch of Light’s pretty face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  After a beat, Light smiled at Nate. His smile was polite, but had an air of deceptive falseness about it. There was something lurking underneath the surface of that mask - some dark and dangerous secret that only Nate could truly see. 

  “It’s a pleasure to see you too, Nate,” Light said. His voice was familiar to Nate, just as deep and attractive as Nate remembered.

  Unlike Matsuda, Light spoke English with a near-perfect American accent. 

  As Linda pulled Matsuda towards the carnival, Nate fell into step beside Light. The pair of them walked in silence for a bit, each of them calmly observing their surroundings. Nate noticed that the lights from the carnival complimented Light’s warm brown hair very well; his pretty locks seemed almost golden under the electric buzz of the soft outdoor string lights. Not even Linda’s incessant babbling could distract Nate from his careful observation of Light Yagami’s lustrous hair.

  Suddenly, Light tore his gaze away from a crowd of people near the food vendors. As the group he had been watching moved on, Light turned his head to face Nate and looked at him - truly looked at him - for the first time. 

  “Are you cold, Nate?” Light asked, glancing down at Nate’s chest. 

  Nate could see that Light’s preppy jacket protected him from the slight chill of the night air. After all, Light wasn’t shivering at all, whereas Nate couldn’t help but tremble at the brush of a breeze against his pale skin. He really, really couldn’t help it - he had always been sensitive to temperature changes, ever since he was a young child. It wasn’t a particularly debilitating condition, but it could sometimes be annoying. 

  Such as, right now.

  Nate’s brain was suddenly filled with images of Light offering him his jacket, like a scene straight out of a cheesy romance movie from the 1980s. 

  “No,” Nate said, like a liar. “I’m not cold.”

  “If you insist. In that case, perhaps you’re simply eager for this double date to be over with, so you can go home?”

  Nate raised an eyebrow, suddenly very thankful that Linda and Matsuda had moved out of earshot. “That’s awfully observant of you.”

  Light shook his head, and a small smile crept onto his face. “No, I’m just projecting a bit, I think.”

  “Ah, I see. So, you don’t want to be here either.”

  “That’s correct. Matsuda wanted me to come along though, and I had no good reason to say no. If I had alternate plans, trust me, I wouldn’t be anywhere near this place.”

  “You couldn’t have said that you were studying, or something like that?”

  Once again, Light shook his head. He glared at a flimsy-looking carnival ride. “Matsuda is my roommate, and one of my oldest friends from back home in Japan. We also share many classes together, and he knows my schedule almost as well as he knows his own. He knows I don’t have any exams or major assignments coming up anytime soon.”

  “Hmm, I see, that must be difficult.”

  Light nodded. 

  A moment of awkward silence stretched between them, before Light broke the silence with a question.

  “And what about you, Nate? Why are you really here, if you’re not actually interested in dating?”

  “Similarly to yourself, I was compelled by my roommate to attend this little meeting. She made it clear that Mr. Matsuda wanted to go on a date with her, but he insisted on a double date, and so she needed me to step in and serve that role.”

  “That makes sense,” Light said, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Matsuda has always been anxious about romance and relationships with women, so he thought more company might take the edge off of his nervousness.”

  Nate glanced over at Linda and Matsuda, who were standing a few booths away, at one of the carnival games. Through the crowd of happy fairgoers, Nate could clearly see the wide smile on Linda’s face. Matsuda said something to her, and she threw her head back and laughed with abandon. Nate recalled Linda’s pleading face from earlier, when she had practically begged Nate to go on the date with her, and her appearance now was certainly a stark contrast to that face.

  Unable to stop the small smile from creeping onto his face, Nate turned away from Light. “Well, they seem to be having fun, so I suppose this night isn’t a complete waste of time.”

  Light nodded, eyeing one of the nearby game booths. “Perhaps we can have some fun as well?” He asked, gesturing to the booth.

  “You can’t be serious. I thought you didn’t want to be here.”

  “True, I’d love to just go home right now, but I can’t without letting my roommate down, so I might as well make the most of this night, right?”

  “I suppose you have a point.”

  With that, Nate and Light approached the game booth.

  Ten minutes later, Nate was holding a giant fluffy white bunny - a stuffed animal that Light had won at the silly dart game. 

  Nate frowned, staring down at the offending rabbit. “You’re better than me at darts,” he grumbled.

  Light chuckled. “No, I think I just got lucky,” he said, looking at Nate with a curious expression on his face. “Regardless, I hope you like it. Are you going to give it a name?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am,” Nate said. He stared at Light’s face, observing the other man with a careful attention to detail. “His name is Kira.”

  There was a beat of silence.

  “Oh? You figured that out rather quickly, didn’t you?” 

  Nate nodded, then glanced away. Light’s expression and words told him everything that he needed to know.

  “And? What are you going to do with Kira, now that you have him?” Light asked, his voice laced with double meaning.

  Scoffing, Nate hugged the bunny closer to his chest, and continued to avoid Light’s gaze. “I’ll turn him over to the proper authorities, of course.”

  It was Light’s turn to scoff. “You won’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because Kira is helping society, and also, you’re wildly attracted to me.”

  Nate almost dropped the stuffed rabbit. He turned towards Light, and a soft pink blush spread across his cheeks. His eyes went wide.

  “Kira kills people,” Nate managed, cursing himself.

  “Only rotten people,” Light corrected. “This world is rotten, but Kira is making it better, so good people can live happy and peaceful lives.”

  Nate shook his head. “Murdering a few corrupt politicians and businessmen isn’t going to magically make the system just or right. All it does is make Kira a murderer.”

  “Hmm, well, if Kira is simply a murderer and a villain in your eyes, what about that vigilante? Near, wasn’t it?”

  “Near doesn’t kill people.”

  “Yet, the police are still hunting him with the same energy that they use to hunt Kira. Isn’t that interesting? I imagine they’d be grateful to receive any hint of Near’s true identity, no matter the source of the information.”

  Well, that was a threat.

  At that exact moment, Linda rushed up to them, holding a plate full of funnel cake. “Come on, guys, Matsu bought me this cake and I can’t eat it all on my own! Share it with me!” 

  Nate looked from the cake, to Light, and then back to the cake. After a moment of hesitation, he reached up and grabbed a small piece of fried dough from the plate. He held the piece up towards Light’s lips. 

  “Here,” Nate prompted. “Have you ever tried funnel cake before?”

  Light’s eyes widened, and he stared at Nate in disbelief. “No, I haven’t,” he admitted, shocked and quiet. 

  Nate held the cake up a little closer to Light’s face, and Light leaned forward slightly, meeting him halfway. When Light took the cake into his mouth, his lips brushed lightly over Nate’s fingers. The lips were warm, and felt almost electric against Nate’s skin. Nate resisted the urge to shiver. Something deep and primal was stirring inside of him, something that he couldn’t really place, but certainly didn’t feel familiar. 

  Something that made him want to be closer to Light Yagami, despite the knowledge of his date’s true identity. 

  From that point onwards, the date proceeded normally for the most part. Nate and Light attempted to act naturally around Linda and Matsuda, saving all double-life talk for later. After all, neither of them wanted to duke it out in front of their roommates, or the dozens of other citizens strolling around nearby. So, they made more polite conversation as Linda and Matsuda dragged them around to different booths and rides.

  Finally, the night seemed to be reaching an end. Linda and Matsuda had snuck off somewhere, presumably to say goodbye to each other properly before parting ways. Nate and Light were left alone, near an empty patch of grass. 

  An awkward silence hung between them, not for the first time that night. Nate wasn’t exactly sure what to say, or if he should say anything at all. He couldn’t exactly leave the carnival and go turn Light over to the police - for one, he didn’t have any physical or concrete evidence that Light was the villain known as Kira, and perhaps even more concerning, Light had vaguely threatened to out him to the cops if he was ever caught. All of which put Nate in a very uncertain position: he knew the identity of the villain Kira, but wasn’t in any position to do anything about it.

  Light cleared his throat, which drew Nate’s attention. When Nate glanced over, he saw that Light was staring at him with another odd expression on his face, a look that Nate couldn’t really identify. 

  “What?” Nate asked, shifting uncomfortably, and clutching the stuffed bunny tighter against his chest.

  “I--”

  Whatever Light had begun to say was cut off with a sharp BANG! 

  Nate nearly jumped out of his own skin. His upper body grew very tense, very quickly, and he shuffled closer to Light. 

  On what must have been some kind of protective instinct, Light reached out and put his arm around Nate’s shoulders. “It’s okay,” Light said, suddenly calm and soothing. “It’s just the fireworks.”

  “Fireworks? Linda didn’t say there would be fireworks.”

  “Maybe she didn’t know? I take it you’re not a fan of loud, sudden noises, huh?”

  Nate shook his head. “I’m not a fan of them in the best of times, and these happen to be the worst of times, so you can only imagine how I feel in this moment.”

  Light winced, and pulled his arm away. Nate found, quite strangely, that he missed the subtle warmth and pressure of Light’s hand on his body, even though it had only been there for a short while.

  “I want to apologize,” Light said softly, barely audible over the continued explosions from the fireworks. 

  “For what?” Nate asked, genuinely confused.

  “For your tumble through the skylight. I know you seem to be fine now, but I’m sure falling through a window and landing on a hard floor hurts like hell at first.”

  Nate blinked. “Yes, it does. And no, I don’t accept your apology, because I don’t believe you’re actually sorry for what you’ve done, or for what you continue to do.”

  Light didn’t respond to that, only gazing at Nate in an impressed silence.

  Suddenly, Linda and Matsuda reappeared, both of them pink-cheeked and out of breath. Before Nate and Light could say much more to each other, they’re both pulled away by their respective roommates, pulled apart, and brought home.

  ~

  At home, in the quiet and darkness of his room, Nate felt a strange mixture of relief and disappointment. 

  A sudden buzz lit up his phone, and he glanced down without thinking - only to see a text from an unknown number splashed across his screen. He read the message silently, and then smiled softly to himself. 

  Nate knew that he would eventually be the one to bring Light Yagami to justice, regardless of the cost to himself. But he still had to gather evidence to prove his case, and in the meantime, well...why not have some fun and make the most of it?

[tamakiamajikistentacles]

Disappearance 2: The Sighting {Katsuki Bakugo}

A/N: Please be sure to reblog, comment, review, and like if you enjoy! Feedback is what keeps me motivated! Thank you all so much for your support with this story so far, I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Disappearance Masterlist

He dreamt of Chiasa often.

On bad nights his mind created terrible scenarios about who she was with and where she was and what was happening to her. Other better nights let him fantasize about finding her and bringing her back to his agency with a smug grin as he reunited with the love of his life.

Most nights, though, his dreams were memories. Soft around the edges and sometimes fuzzy in detail, but as real as he could remember.

That night he had a dream about finding their first apartment for just themselves. It was going to be a far cry from sharing a townhome with Kaminari and Jiro, mostly because it wasn’t going to be as cluttered and full of ridiculous pranks but also because it would finally be theirs.

He could vividly remember coming home from one of the early meetings with the Hero Public Safety Commission about starting his own agency and seeing her in the sitting room practically vibrating with excitement. She’d pulled him down beside her and all but shoved her tablet into his face to look at what she’d found, declaring that their search was over.

And it had been. The building had twenty-four security and desk staff, keycard resident entry, and was in a safer neighborhood with a low crime rate. He could see it was a short walk to the nearest train station and if he got the approval for his agency and secured the building he wanted, it wouldn’t be a long commute at all. Two bedrooms was well within their budget and would allow her to have a dedicated office space for her work from home position instead of her current setup at the foot of their bed.

He didn’t realize he’d been grinning until she poked his cheek and asked an impatient, “Well?”

“Let’s apply.”

She let out a happy squeal as she threw her arms around his shoulders, kissing his face repeatedly as he tried to keep a hold on her tablet. Her grip only seemed to grow tighter the more he weakly fought her embrace.

“Katsuki, this is going to be amazing!” she laughed, kissing his temple one final time as she pulled back slightly to cuddle against him. This time he didn’t fight the embrace, instead wrapping an arm around her to keep her close.

He’d scoffed. “’Course it’ll be amazing. It’s you and me.”

“You and me,” she agreed with a smile.

He could hear her saying those words as clear as day in his memories. It had started as a joke about the first time they’d gone out alone without friends; he’d asked her if she wanted to go to a new mochi shop and she immediately went to text the rest of their friends before he stopped her, grunting, “You and me.”

After some time it just became theirs. Three words with just as much weight as I love you. It was a simple way to say more important things—“I’m here for you” and “We’re in this together” and “The two of us cannot be broken.”

It was a part of how their bond became as strong as it did, and he missed hearing it in person.

Cool, early September air was left behind as the door to his agency closed behind him. He wasn’t thrilled with the weather beginning to take a turn towards lower temperatures, knowing his quirk took longer to build up its power. As much as he hated being called a “slow starter” in the winter it wasn’t entirely untrue.

Hikari greeted him with a curt good morning as he passed her desk and slid a few papers his way without looking up. He grabbed them and in their place set down a travel mug of peppermint tea and a small blue bento, his own low mornin’ barely audible.

Making his way to his office he looked over the patrol routes for the day and the notations about the current goings-on of the areas. It was fairly run-of-the-mill with little suspected villain activity, a perfect time to allow some of the newer sidekicks and interns to tag along with his people for the day.

Surprisingly this was one of the things he enjoyed about running his own agency. Planning and strategizing were some of his strong suits despite how much he did enjoy blasting headfirst into battle when he could. But as the man in charge he liked being control of where his people were posted a lot too.

He had already decided who would be taking which patrol by the time everyone was gathered in the large conference room in their hero costumes, some more bleary-eyed than others. Mugs of coffee and tea billowed steam above the table and Kirishima’s branded shaker bottle stood taller than all of them.

Kaminari yawned lazily and Sero elbowed him in the ribs at the stern glare of their boss.

“Three sectors, little activity save for the corner tea shop on route 2B,” he started as everyone turned their eyes towards him. “Cellophane and Pinky, you two are taking the sidekicks to sector 1. Route A to Cellophane, B to Pinky. Choose your sidekicks and report it before you leave.”

The two heroes fist bumped and shot grins and thumbs up towards the sidekicks across the table from them. They were the best to get collaboration on the brain when it came to the newer recruits.

“Sector 2 goes to Red Riot and Chargebolt. Red, you’re on route A with the two interns and Chargebolt you’re taking route B so make sure that shitty shop isn’t getting worse.”

He knew that Kirishima was the perfect option for guiding the wide-eyed interns through some of their first tastes of the hero life. Plus, he was the best defense if trouble arose and backup would take time.

“I’m taking sector 3 myself. Questions?” When no one responded, he concluded, “Alright, get out there.”

Kaminari shot a smile to everyone he came across on his patrol. Chargebolt was a well-liked figure and regarded very highly as a personable hero when spotted in public. He was proud to have cultivated that good will with the people and was oftentimes the one who handled the media for the Dynamight agency alongside Kirishima, Red Riot’s popularity one of the only heroes higher than himself.

Quieter times to stop and chat with his fans were always his favorite but days like this that required more vigilance he did what he could with smiles and waves to those he saw. Even if there was only suspected villain activity at the tiny tea shop across from the mall he had to keep a close eye on it.

He tried to spend as much time as he could with the shop in view while still patrolling the rest of the route. Nothing of note caught his attention all morning and well into the afternoon.

Then the afterschool crowd and post workday crowds filled the area. He began to see a few suspicious characters that he reported back to the agency when he had a chance, but none of them gave any other indication of wrongdoing. He preferred to be thorough, though, just like Bakugo liked.

Half a dozen notes later, as the sun was low in the sky, he started to plan his evening once he got home. Jiro had the day off which meant she would spend most of it in the studio and bring home their favorite takeout. She was always in a great mood after a day in the studio too, and he loved seeing her so happy.

The tinkling bell of the tea shop’s door opening brought him from his thoughts and his gaze fell on a scraggly-haired brunette stepping into the evening air. From where he was down the street, he could see her pull the hand of a small boy to come stand by her on the sidewalk. Dark, matted hair sat atop his head and he scratched at the arm the woman held.

The closer he got the more he noticed about them—the woman’s ill-fitting dress and oversized sweater in much warmer contrast to the boy’s too short jeans and short sleeved tshirt. The boy shook from the cold and he quickened his pace, everything in him ready to shrug off his jacket and wrap the child in it while giving a few choice words to the mother.

As he approached he saw the woman’s eyes darting furiously as she hurriedly crossed towards one of the mall’s department store entrances, the boy shuffling along beside her as he went from scratching his arm to scratching his neck. Her grip on his arm looked tighter than it should be, and she walked quickly with no regard for if he could keep up with her longer strides.

Kaminari took in as many details as possibly as he began crossing too before stopping dead in his tracks in the crosswalk when the woman turned and said something to the boy. Her profile fit all of his observations in place and he tried to make himself move forward to confirm what he thought he was seeing.

By the time his body started to cooperate the duo had disappeared into the crowded department store and he was left at the door with only startled suspicions and half-formed what if scenarios in his mind. He had to tell someone, someone other than Bakugo who would surely fly off the handle on him for losing sight of the woman.

As he went to radio Kirishima, his comm came on with an incoming message from the redhead instead—“Charge, rendezvous in twenty at our starting point to head back to the agency?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed breathlessly. “Yeah, I’ll see you there.”

Kirishima nudged him in the side, concerned for his usually loud blonde friend who had barely said a word on their journey back to the agency. “Are you okay, man? You’re never this quiet.”

Kaminari chewed the inside of his cheek as he pulled on his street clothes. With a sigh he ruffled his hair with his hand before rubbing his face.

“I saw something weird on my route at the tea shop.”

“Oh damn, what happened? Did you let Bakugo know yet? You know he needs those villain updates as soon as possible.”

He waved his hands to stop the questions. “No, I didn’t tell him yet but it wasn’t… I don’t know if it was villains.”

The redhead’s eyebrows knitted together. “Then what was so weird?”

“Right before you radioed me near the end of patrol I was finishing notes on some shady people around the shop when this lady and kid stepped out. They both looked, I don’t know, greasy? And she was dressed warm while the little boy she was with was shivering in just a tshirt.”

“That’s not exactly our kind of suspicious, dude, but we can—"

“But the fact that she looked like Chiasa is suspicious!”

Kirishima froze, whispering, “What?”

He nodded. “She looked like Chiasa with longer hair.”

“With… with a kid?”

“Yeah, little dark-haired kid that kept scratching at his arms and neck. I felt so bad for the little guy, he looked so cold—”

“Kaminari, focus!” Kirishima said harshly, cutting off his rambling. “We need to tell Bakugo. Even if it’s not her, he needs this lead. He has to see it through. On the off chance it is actually her… I don’t even know how he could react.”

“Plus she has a lot of explaining to do about where she’s been,” Kaminari sighed. “It’s been so long.”

Kirishima nodded sadly. “It has, but we need to let Bakugo lead on this. Whether or not it was really her and will get him closer to finding her, I don’t know. But he needs to do this. It’s the only way for him to move forward.”

Closing their lockers, they gathered their bags and made their way to their small shared office. The day being fairly quiet aside from the two brunettes being sighted allowed them to finish their patrol reports quickly and send them to Bakugo for his review.

They knew he waited until all reports were received to begin looking them over and they had never been more grateful for Mina’s inability to focus, knowing for a fact that she was always the last person to submit her reports. Passing her still in costume talking animatedly to the sidekicks about their day let them know that this time wasn’t going to be any different. It allowed them to speak with Bakugo before he had to read the information and hopefully let them do damage control too.

Hikari was just leaving his office as they came to the doorway, a tired smile on her lips as she shuffled the papers in her hands.

Kaminari knocked on the doorframe as she passed them to head back to her desk and without looking up was called in by their friend and boss.

“What?” he grunted, continuing to loosen his gauntlets to set them aside. Unlike the rest of them he preferred to write his reports before changing completely.

Kaminari cleared his throat awkwardly, feeling Kirishima’s hand on his shoulder for support. As long as he’d known Bakugo and been on the receiving end of his temper and explosions, this had to be one of the most nerve-wracking conversations he was going to start.

“I’ve got some news from my patrol today.”

Red eyes snapped up to meet his. “Villains at the tea shop? What happened? Was it in your report? You never called for backup and I know we didn’t have anyone detained in any of our sectors.”

He spoke quickly, his shoulders tensing with each word as he prepared himself to don his gauntlets once again to find whoever was stirring up trouble in his agency’s territory.

“No, no, it was just an observation but I wanted to tell you about it in person—”

“Then spit it out!”

“I think… I think it’s possible that I saw Chiasa come out of the tea shop with a little dark-haired boy. I’m not one-hundred percent sure if it was her but it sure as hell looked like her.”

Bakugo stood rigid behind his desk. Over four years of not a single clue as to where she was or if she was safe and now she reappeared right in his agency’s backyard. If it was her.

He would pull all the surveillance he could find in the area based on Kaminari’s report and go through it with a fine-toothed comb. He would know if it were her. There was no one he knew better.

If he decided it was her then their patrol routes were about to get a shakeup and he was about to get answers years in the making. But that was for him to know, at least for now.

“I’ll review your report. Send Hikari back on your way out and I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said evenly.

The two other heroes exchanged surprised looks, expecting a much bigger reaction than a few long moments of silence. They watched him sit down and start his computer, his body language tense but not to the level they had anticipated.

“You don’t want to—”

“I’ll see you both tomorrow,” he repeated, eyes flicking up to see their stunned faces. He watched them blankly until they seemed to take the hint ad turned to leave.

He sat alone typing his report after making his request to Hikari to go through the proper channels for the surveillance footage he wanted and warning her that he would likely need more after reviewing Kaminari’s report. She didn’t seem to mind, letting him know that she would tell him as soon as the requested film came in.

So until then he sat in his office allowing himself to grasp onto this small straw of hope, holding tight to the first real evidence he’d had in years that he might be able to use to bring her home.

A/N: Please be sure to reblog, comment, review, and like if you enjoy! Feedback is what keeps me motivated!

Disappearance Masterlist

[purplesurveys]

1275

When you were younger, did your mother or father ever let you open a few presents before Christmas or your birthday even arrived?  We open all our presents the night of Christmas Eve to begin with; but no, they don’t tease by letting us open a few of them before our usual schedule.

If you could receive a 100 dollar gift card for either blouses, pants, dresses, shoes or purses, which would you chose?  If I could change blouses to shirts, then I would go with that because I’ve recently gotten into t-shirts and sweatshirts and no longer the trendy and preppy tops I used to like haha. But if not, I would go for shoes.

What is your favorite thing to do after crying? Ex: Sleep, listen to music, have some alone time, talk to someone, etc?  It varies as it depends on how much I cried. The harder I cried the more I’d want to sleep it off, because it can actually get pretty exhausting. Sometimes I’ll reach out, sometimes I write. It’s really different every time, but at the end I’m just glad I can no longer even remember the last time I cried out of sadness.

Do you think Trump will be assassinated, or will he survive his term?  Well we know the answer to this. It’s satisfying to notice him disappear off the face of the Earth immediately after his term, though. I don’t have a clue what he’s up to now.

Last time you felt suicidal?  For some reason I felt down last Thursday and I felt the slightest, slightest tinge of suicidal thoughts. No idea where it came from.

Last time you had butterflies?  Ugh idk but it was probably BTS-related hahahahahahah

Biggest asshole you know?  Certain politicians.

Did you ever leave someone because you know you’d hurt them?  No, I was on the opposite side of the coin for this one. I was broken up with because they believed they would hurt me, if not already doing so.

What song did you last listen to?  Hip Hop Phile by BTS.

Ever ridden in a police car?  Nopes.

Ever witnessed a murder?  Hmm, not that I can recall. I do remember having to monitor crime stories for one of my very first journalism assignments and the one time I didn’t tag along to the fieldwork with my classmates, they got to witness a stabbing incident :/ By itself of course it always sucks to have violent situations like those, but as a reporter it would’ve been interesting to see the scene and its aftermath.

Have you ever lied under oath?  I don’t think so, no. I can’t even remember the last time I was put under oath.

Have you ever failed a subject before? I’ve failed exams but never an entire class.

Have you ever had a deadly animal as a pet?  No.

Have you ever kissed someone of the same gender?  Well yeah, I dated one.

Have you ever been in a hot tub before?  Sure.

Have you ever been to a movie that sold out?  I’ve never experienced trying to buy tickets only to find out they’re all sold out, but that’s also probably because we have hundreds of malls in Manila alone and you can always find a theatre that are still offering tickets.

What movie last made you too scared to go to sleep?  I’m not usually that way with horror movies, but I do remember running into a jumpscare on TikTok while I was scrolling at 3 AM. Not fun.

When you’re on a laptop, do you hook up a mouse or use the touchpad?  Touchpad. I never use a mouse.

What’s your mom’s mom’s name?  Agnes.

Would it be hard seeing someone else kiss the person you like?  I’m not interested in anyone so this shouldn’t be a problem.

Have you ever been tempted to steal?  Sure, but the urge is never so strong.

What is the main character’s name in the book you’re reading? I’m not reading anything.

Do you have a favorite local band? Who are they? Nah. I did have a Ben&Ben phase, though I haven’t revisited their music in a long time.

Who’s the last person you saw naked, aside from yourself?  I’m not sure about completely naked, probably still my ex. As for partially naked, my dad sometimes goes shirtless at home as most Filipino dads do lol.

Who’s your favorite horror monster/killer?  The most iconic for me would be that porcupine looking ass from Resident Evil 4, I believe it was meant to be for one of the boss stages or something. Anyway, it’s memorable for me just because that fucker had been impossible to defeat and I loved watching my older cousin do attempt after attempt. I don’t think he ever got to beat him and by the time he did us cousins were already adults, lol.

On a side note, we called him ‘Porcupine’ as kids since a shitload of spikes would stick out of him unpredictably during the boss stage, and I thought that nickname had been just our thing; but I’m actually surprised that that villain actually comes up when you do a simple ‘Resident Evil 4 porcupine’ search haha. I guess other people called him the same thing too.

What kind of music do you prefer to listen to when driving?  I usually put on a playlist of BTS’ rapline; I tend to enjoy high-energy songs while driving.

Would you ever own a hairless rat, cat or dog?  I don’t see why I wouldn’t when it comes to the dog. I don’t want a cat or rat. 

All the people you’ve kissed, what did their names start with?  G.

What did you and your ex fight about most?  It was about the deeper, more profound stuff. We never saw eye to eye about the future, if we were helping the other grow, etc. Someone was always scared or insecure about something that the other could never help with fixing.

Don’t you love long hugs?  Sure, I love getting hugs as long as I’m comfy around the one giving it.

And long kisses?  Mhm, they’re nice.

Have you ever purchased condoms?  Only for Angela when she had still been too shy to ask for it herself. 

Have you ever gone on vacation with your boyfriend/girlfriend?  No. We had gone out of town for daytrips, but never for a fully-decked out vacation.

Have you ever trashed your ex’s car after an argument?  I wouldn’t do anything that loud. My resentment’s a lot more reserved and subtle, definitely on the passive-aggressive side.

Would you leave a note on a car claiming responsibility if you damaged it?  If I left like a paint scratch, no. If I was somehow stupid enough to manage wrecking the car then yes.

Have you ever used someone's handicapped parking pass to get a parking spot?  Oh that’s just gross. No. I do remember unknowingly parking over a spot meant for the handicapped once just because the paint was so fucking faded. It was genuinely so hard to tell but in the end I ended up just getting out of the spot and looked for another just to be on the safe, unassholey side.

Are you embarrassed to tell people your job?  Not at all! I love telling people I work in PR and sharing the brands I work with...it’s just a bitch trying to explain what exactly it is I do on a normal day. I’m still blanking out on it now that I’m thinking about it, haha. PR’s a challenge to summarize in one or two sentences.

If you ran over an animal would you keep driving?  I honestly have no clue how I’d deal with it. Ideally I would pull over and help bring it to the side of the road, and try to ask for help from passersby as well. I’m still not sure what I should/would do next.

Where’s the best place to eat a romantic dinner?  French, Spanish, and Italian restaurants always seem to carry a pleasant, date-y atmosphere to them, so any of those cuisines should be ok. I also like quieter restaurants with warm yellow lighting, since that makes me feel at home the most. The place definitely doesn't have to be super popular; I would just want for it to serve good food.

What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?  Flying planes.

What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?  Probably something that’s booked with thrill-seeking adventures? Like a day of wakeboarding, paragliding, skydiving, riding an ATV...I would be exhausted as fuck and sleep for the next three days, but I can’t even begin to imagine how fun it would be.

When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with? Writing stuff. < Yeah, essentially. My friends ask me for general life advice too.

Has anybody criticized the way your significant other looked like?  Yeah. But I always defended her.

Have you written or drawn anything for somebody else?  I mean I’ve written long letters, but I haven’t made a poem or song for anyone.

Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished?  These days it would probably be Arlan. He just finished his Masters in Journalism at Columbia and I couldn’t be more proud. I remember wanting to attend Columbia too, but seeing how my love of journalism turned out...I’ve long accepted the fact that that route was not meant for me, hahaha.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?  Finish a painting, which can also serve as a callout to me lol.

What would you rate 10/10?  Seafood.

What do you hope never changes?  My relationships with my best friends.

Would you ever have sex with the last person you texted?  No, I barely have a clue who she is and she seemed decades older when she called me up this morning.

Is there anyone that you’d love to just spill your guts to?  I’m good.

Where is the person you have feelings at right now? 

Are you happy with your relationship status?  Yessssssss. I love not having to worry about another person to spend on LOL

When did you last cry? What for?  Two Saturdays ago. The one-year mark of my breakup had been coming up and an overwhelming wave of emotions just flooded me all of a sudden, I guess. There was happiness and relief from not being stuck in it anymore; feeling sorry for myself as I remembered the turmoil and deterioration I went through in the latter part the year; anger for the shit she pulled; and there was also just the general feeling of being grateful that I’m still here after everything.

Do you think you’re wasting your time on the person you love? 

When’s the next time you’ll kiss someone?  No clue. I’m not holding my breath for it and that’s okay.

Were you ever scared to death of anyone you knew? Or are you currently?  Yeah, unfortunately I’ve always been surrounded by at least one person who terrifies me.

What’s the longest you’ve been away from home by yourself?  Nothing more than a day. That’s something I have yet to try out.

Have you ever been made fun of, because of what you look like?  Athenna was relentless in her insults. I dunno why I was friends her for as long as I was.

Have you ever made fun of others, because of what they look like?  If they’re some random person on the internet with disgusting political views, then yeah; but it’s just thoughts I keep in my head and I never verbalized the bullying. But not anyone in real life. Do you think it’s cute when you’re leaving a place, and a guy says “no hug?”  If I’m friends with the person I’ll banter with them for a bit until I give in for a hug. If it was any other guy I barely know...I would be disgusted and throw them the dirtiest glare.

Do you wear short shorts (if you’re a girl)? I didn't know short shorts were specific to females. < LOL same. Anyway no, not these days. I used to but they’re not really a part of my personal style anymore.

Who are you the most uncomfortable around?  Relatives with the wrong political views.

Who has your heart?  Nobody.

Should cloning ever be allowed to happen?  I don’t see the point. No.

Are you impatient with really shy people? If it gets to the point that they seem aloof and radiate very I-could-not-care-less-about-getting-along-with-any-of-you vibes, then yeah I feel like I would get irritated pretty fast. But I was an extremely shy person once too, so I’m typically friendly with them and I would usually be That person who constantly stays next to them so they feel like they belong.

Does your house have air conditioning throughout, or do you have one that sits in your window?  It sits in the window, as with most households here.

What is the most ridiculous band name you’ve heard recently?  I haven’t encountered anything wacky recently.

Would you ever get a fashion mullet?  No.

Do you believe that Jesus lived and is returning?  No.

Do you believe in spiritual gifts?  No.

Do you believe in callings?  Not really, no.

If you were rich, would you get a professional photoshoot done?  Hell no. I get extremely sheepish in front of a camera and a thousand times worse at posing.

[gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights]

Rating: T

Summary:  Marinette needs a model to finish her figure drawing portfolio. If drawing Chat Noir will distract him from asking why she refuses to ask Adrien, then she'll make it work. (It's not like his suit leaves much to the imagination, anyway.)

Word Count: 4729 | Chapter 1/2

Notes:  See AO3 for notes. tldr: the main genre is humor and despite what you may think, there are no sexy times

XXX

“This is terrible!”  Marinette flopped face-first onto her bed and wailed into her pillow.  “I’m going to fail figure drawing, and get kicked out of the design major, and never get an internship and starve trying to get commissions and I won’t be able to afford cookies for you which means you’ll have to find a new chosen and Chat Noir will hate me and—”

“Marinette, breathe!”  Tikki ordered, lightly smacking the part of her cheek that wasn’t buried in her pillow.  “You’re catastrophizing again!  None of that is going to happen.”

On a conscious level, Marinette knew that.  But that didn’t particularly matter right now when her mind was racing and the final due date for her portfolio was days away and there was no way for her to catch up now.

The figure drawing lab was closed for the models to prepare for their finals.  This wouldn’t be a problem, except she had missed too many classes due to akuma attacks to finish the pieces she needed.  All she had were five out of fifteen finished drawings and six loose sketches, hastily abandoned while she made increasingly awful excuses to go transform.  “I need to go water my plant” had been the most recent.  It was a miracle Professor Carbonneau hadn’t kicked her from the class already, considering how coveted the seats were.

But it didn’t matter if she was technically in the class if she couldn’t draw enough live models to pass.

“It’s hopeless, Tikki.  There’s no way they’ll let me retake this class. I barely got a spot in the first place.”  

“It’s not hopeless,” her kwami said more softly.  “You’re Ladybug.  You’re luckier than that.  And you’ve worked too hard to fail now.  I know you’re stressed, but you can’t give up!”

She rolled over onto her back, shoulder brushing a drawing that had slid down the wall and gotten lodged in the crack next to her bed.  She pulled it out only to crumple it and toss it towards her trash can.  Even the better designs she’d hung from a wire with tiny clothespins felt more like mockery than inspiration right now.

“If I wasn’t Ladybug, I wouldn’t have had to miss so much class in the first place.”  She sighed.

“I know, Marinette.”  Tikki patted her shoulder consolingly.  “I wish it didn’t have to be so hard on you.  You give everything you have into both being Ladybug and  creating your art.  You shouldn’t have to give up one for the other.”

In a way, it felt like she already had.  She’d never abandon Paris, no matter how frequently fighting Hawkmoth’s villains cut into her classes.  But could she really abandon her dreams of becoming a designer either?

“You’re right, Tikki.  I’ll… figure something out.”  She smiled and rubbed Tikki to her cheek.  “I can look up reference pictures online, I guess.  The details won’t be as good as drawing from life, especially for the size of paper I have to use, but it’ll have to work.”

“I could always model for you!”  Tikki joked, flashing a few poses she’d surely seen from the Agreste magazines Marinette used to have plastered everywhere.  She figured she’d look weird enough to her flatmates from her odd sleeping habits and patrol times without adding photos of her old crush into the mix.

“Thanks for the offer, Tikki.”  Marinette giggled at the kwami’s attempt to look flirty.  “But I think this course is meant to teach human anatomy.”

“I bet one of your other friends would model for you if they knew how important this was,” she insisted.  “What about Adrien?”

“No!”  Marinette smacked her fist to her forehead to try to dislodge the image of Adrien shirtless and posing for her that came unbidden.  “I can’t ask him!  I’m trying to actually get art done, not drool all over the carpet.”

“I haven’t seen you drool in a while.  Not over him, anyway.”  Tikki smiled knowingly, and Marinette glared.

“I do not drool over Chat Noir either.”

“I never said anything about him.”

She groaned, flopping back and wishing the mattress would just swallow her up already.  She didn’t drool over Chat.  He’d gotten over his crush on Ladybug before they came to university.  Unlike her, apparently, he knew how to move on.

Not that it mattered, because she didn’t have time for a boyfriend!  She was stressed enough as it was!

She took a few deep breaths and pulled herself back to the matter at hand: finishing her portfolio.  She wouldn’t dare ask Adrien to model for her, even if there was a slim chance he’d actually do it.  They were finally comfortable as friends, and while she was used to staring at nearly-nude models in class, she didn’t trust herself to not make things weird again if she had to stare at him in his underwear for hours.

Though unfortunately, he was probably the only one of her friends used to sitting and being stared at for hours.  Maybe it would be worth it…?

“Nope, nope, not doing it.”  She shut her eyes again.  She hadn’t been able to confess to Adrien in the past four years.  There was no way she could risk revealing her crush in such an embarrassing way, even to save her final grade.

...Granted, she’d done worse.  He’d gotten her constipation pills and she hadn’t given up.

“What are you not doing?”

“ACK!”

Marinette bolted upright, nearly toppling off of her bed at the voice from the window.  For a moment it had sounded like Adrien himself, summoned by her thoughts.  Thankfully, it was just the blond boy who was a more regular visitor to her fifth-story window.

“Chat!”  She whirled to scowl at him through the windowscreen.  “Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

How long had he been there?  Had he heard Tikki?  Had he heard her not-confess to drooling about him?

“You left the window open.”  He shrugged from his perch on the outer ledge.

She had left the window open because she needed some fresh air to keep from suffocating under the pressure of her deadlines.  Sure, usually the open window meant Chat was welcome in, but… 

Actually, maybe Chat Noir was exactly who she needed right now.

“I guess I did.”  She sighed before prying off the screen to let him in.

He slipped over the sill, bowed, and produced a pink rose from behind his ear.

“For your hospitality.”

She laughed and tucked it in the vase on her desk, replacing the wilting flower he’d brought her last week.  She was lucky her roommates weren’t as nosy as Alya, or she’d never hear the end of it.

“You know, if you’d really wanted to get me something, you could’ve brought the rabbit miraculous.”  She leaned back against her creaking desk as he took his usual spot on the cushion in the corner of the room.

It was a joke, but as she said it, the idea sounded tempting.  Alix wouldn’t mind parting with Fluff for a day while she patched her portfolio back together, would she?  If she weren’t worried about causing some kind of temporal paradox, she would’ve done it.

“Rabbit?  Sorry, someone else has already hopped on that one.”  He grinned, crossing his legs beneath him.  “You don’t feel like squeaking by with the mouse again?”

She stifled a laugh.  “You’re terrible.”

“But you’re smiling.”  Only he could look so smug about it.  She always frowned just to prove him wrong.  But she did feel better already, the way she always did around him.  “So what’s up?  I didn’t come to my favorite civilian’s house just to drop a few amazing puns.”

“Awful puns.”

He waved her off.  “Anyway, I just wanted to see how you were doing, with finals coming up and everything.  Akuma attacks always spike around now, you know.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”  She rubbed her temples.

“Don’t worry, though.  Ladybug and I have special patrol routes this finals week.  We’ll take care of any akumas faster than you can say ‘thank you Chat, you’re the best superhero ever’.”

Despite everything, she laughed.  The daily patrols would be just one more stress placed on her, but it was necessary after Finalizer destroyed the entire university last semester.  But Chat was surely dealing with the same thing, and he’d still taken the time out of his studying to come make sure she was alright.

“Thank you Chat, you’re the best superhero ever,” she said with a teasing grin.  She didn’t expect the blush that spilled out from under his mask.

“I-I guess I am pretty great.”  He rubbed the back of his neck.

“And I guess bragging about yourself is supposed to scare off akumas, huh?”

“Yeah, I mean—hey!”  He pouted, sending her giggling again.

“Sorry, sorry.”  She joined him on the ground by the cushion.  “You are great.  I wasn’t expecting you, but I’m really glad you came.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.  It’s just… been a long day.”  She sighed.  “I missed my last class today, and now I don’t know how I’m going to finish my portfolio for my final.”

“Are you feeling okay?”  He reached out to press his palm over her forehead, as if he’d be able to feel anything through his glove.  “I’ve heard people get sick around finals week, too.  Do you want soup?  I can bring back some soup—or juice maybe?  What do you like when you’re sick?”

“Stop, Chat, I’m not sick.”  Though her face probably warmed enough at his concern to pass as a fever.  “I just missed class because… um—I stayed up too late studying and accidentally fell asleep!”

“Oh.”  He pulled back his hand and nodded sagely.  “That makes sense.”

She held in a sigh of relief.  “Anyway, I need to finish at least four more figure drawings before… three days from now?  Which wouldn’t be a problem except I need a live model and it’s not normal for friends to strip down to draw each other.”

He shrugged.  “Doesn’t sound that weird to me.”

She pointedly did not imagine him stripping down in front of her.  ...Not entirely, anyway.

“Yeah, well, unless you want to model for me—”

“I will.”  He grinned before pink tinged his cheeks.  “Um, or I would.  I don’t think I can take off my suit without revealing my identity.”

“You—take off—”  She made some noise that vaguely approximated a keyboard smash.  Not because of the thought of seeing him shirtless!  But he really trusted her that much, even as a civilian?

“Sorry, forget I offered.  It was stupid.”  He suddenly looked even more embarrassed than her, which was saying something.

“No, no!  I—I really appreciate it, Chat Noir.”  She squeezed his arm and smiled gently.  “I would never ask you to detransform for me, but it means a lot that you even thought about it.  Really.”

“You know you’re one of my best friends, Marinette.  Of course I would.  Besides, I’m used to—nevermind.”  He ruffled the hair at the back of his neck.  “Anyway, I’d gladly model for you if I could.  But hey, don’t you have a friend who’s literally a model?  Why don’t you ask him?”

Her eyes widened at the sudden subject change.  “A-Adrien?  NO!  I—I mean I can’t, I—”  She groaned and dropped her head in her hands.  It was bad enough for Tikki to tease her, but if Chat Noir found out about her maybe-not-so-old crush?  She would never hear the end of it.

“Why not?”  His head tilted, his brow creasing beneath his mask.  “He is your friend, right?”

“Yes.”  She sighed.  Just a friend, who would probably not enjoy her ogling him half-naked.  Which wasn’t the point!  She was just trying to pass her class, not stare at boys!

Maybe she should ask Alya at this rate.  She was ride-or-die enough to do it.  But Alya had a worse finals schedule than any of her friends, with all the journalism papers she’d put off while chasing akumas for the Ladyblog.  Nino, then?  No, he had several music scores to finish composing.

Adrien probably had as much work as the rest of them, with his math and physics classes.  It wouldn’t make sense to ask him.

“Then I don’t see what the big deal is,” Chat said.  “I’m sure he’d love to model for you.”

“He’s probably busy,” she said, which was true.  “And besides, modeling for figure drawing is completely different from clothes modeling.  You have to hold poses much longer, and some of them are weird, and you have to, you know, wear a lot less clothes.”

Her face burned.  She was stupid to even bring it up; she was just digging herself an even deeper hole.

“I think you underestimate how long photoshoots take,” he quipped back, and she raised an eyebrow.

“How would you know, anyway?”

“I-I wouldn’t!  I just think, all things considered, he’s your best choice.  I’m just trying to suggest what’s best for your grade, as a good, supportive friend should do.”

“Uh-huh.”  She frowned.  It did seem a bit odd how insistent he was on this.  Had he guessed her not-so-secret-crush after all?  “It doesn’t matter, because it’s not going to happen.”

“But—”

“Nope,” she cut him off, shoving him a little to make room for herself on the cushion.  He scooted to let her smush in next to him.  “I’d sooner draw you suited up.”

“...Would that work?”

She glanced at his chest, which was about at her eye level with the way she was slouched against him.  She never really thought about it before—really, she hadn’t—but the suit didn’t leave too much to the imagination.  If she used Chat as a model and just fudged a few parts, would anyone really be able to tell?  It would definitely be easier to get the proportions right than it would be drawing from a screen, especially for the quick gestures that were supposed to comprise a third of her portfolio.  

And if it distracted him from asking about Adrien, well, that was just a bonus.

“You know what?  I think it would.”  She grinned and scrambled up to get her drawing board, which she’d dropped against her desk as soon as she’d gotten home, too exhausted to store it properly.  Part of the giant pad of newsprint was coming off of its clips, and she adjusted it before propping it up against the foot of her bed.  It was even less comfortable than the benches in the drawing lab, but it would do.

“You—really?”  He beamed.

“Of course, silly cat.  I might not be able to use you for the detailed figures, but need gesture drawings too.  Your suit is tight enough that—nevermind.”  She flushed again.  This was such a bad idea.

But it would work.  If she could be professional with Chat Noir while fighting akumas, then surely she could be as professional as she was with the paid figure drawing models.

She expected him to tease her over that last comment, but he just sprung up and started striking ridiculous poses.

“So, how do you want me?”  He flexed, and she snorted.

“Not like that.  These are warm-up gestures, so let’s have you do a few that you can hold for at least thirty seconds.  They can be standing or sitting or using props, it doesn’t matter.”

“Props, huh?”  He tapped his chin before reaching behind his back for his baton.  It wasn’t like it was unusual for models to pose with staves in class, but she still had a feeling she was going to regret giving Chat Noir that permission.

Two seconds later when he had an arm and a leg wrapped around his baton, she knew she regretted it.

“How’s this?”  He asked, flashing a toothy grin.

“Chat.”  She glared, and he laughed before stopping his joking attempt at pole dancing.

“Sorry, sorry.”  His grin was unrepentant, but he rested the baton behind his shoulders instead.  “Better?”

She shook her head while letting out a little laugh.  He was just such a dork.  

“Sure, that’ll work.”

She fished her conté sticks out of her pencil case, set a thirty second timer on her phone, and swore that she wouldn’t make this awkward.

She looked up to find him pursing his lips in a kissy face.

Aaaand she promptly burst out laughing.

“If you’re going to make that face, I’ll have to ask someone else to model for me.”

“Nooooo!  I’ll be good, I promise!”

True to his word, he schooled his face into a neutral expression.  His charcoal-lidded eyes peered up through golden bangs. 

She forgot to breathe for a few seconds.

“Marinette?  Is this better?”

“Uh—y-yeah!  That’s great, just hold that until the timer goes off, then switch poses.”

She pressed the start button and brought her conté to the paper before she could get lost in his eyes again.

From there, it was much easier.  She was used to staying professional during her figure drawing classes, and all she was doing was capturing his form, not the bright green shade of his irises.  Not that the sharp curves of his shoulderblades and defined calves couldn’t be distracting too.  But the timer helped with that; she couldn’t lose focus when her warm-ups each lasted thirty seconds.

“How do you draw so fast?”  He asked after shifting to pose where he knelt close to her sketchpad.

Her face colored in embarrassment.  It was much harder to draw someone when they could watch you.  Gesture drawings weren’t particularly interesting to the untrained eye; he probably thought she was wasting his time drawing glorified stick figures. 

“Woah,” he breathed.

“Stay still,” she said before he could learn farther into her space.

“Sorry.”  He snapped back into position.  “It’s just your drawings—I don’t know much about art, but they just.  They look like they’re moving.”

“You can tell?”  She smiled hopefully, briefly forgetting about the timer.  “That’s the point of gestures.  It’s to warm up and get the form on paper without getting lost in details.  It’s not what I draw the most, since I’m taking this class to prepare to draw my fashion designs, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot.”

“It really shows.  And you can do this even though you missed so many classes?”

“Er—well I do practice outside of class as much as I can.  It wasn’t easy.”  She’d nearly snapped her conté sticks from frustration those first few weeks.  Professor Carbonneau was pretty lenient with her students, but that didn’t stop her from comparing her drawings to all of the studio art majors who had clearly been practicing for much longer.  She knew her art still wasn’t the top of the class, but as long as she could pass with a grade high enough to stay in her major, she would be grateful.

The timer buzzed, reminding them both to get back to work.  

“Let’s move it up to a minute this time,” she said.  

“Whatever the Princess wishes.” Chat Noir bowed, holding the pose for her to draw.

She laughed and went back to putting him down in black and white.

Tension leaked out of her as she swept her conté in long arcs, soft shadows, sharp edges.  Somehow Chat Noir was a much better model than she’d expected.  He barely twitched under her scrutinizing gaze.  Every once in a while he cracked a joke that set her line shaking, and she had to force herself to glare at him.

It was normal.  It was fun.  Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

At least, that was what she thought until they finally got to the fifteen-minute pieces.  

Fifteen minutes.  Fifteen minutes of staring at her partner lounging on the cushion like a real model.  Taking down the contours of his legs and side and maybe-occasionally just staring at his chest.

If he noticed, he was at least kind enough not to comment.

She swallowed, glanced at the timer, and kept drawing.  This one would be for her portfolio; she couldn’t afford to get too distracted.  Not that she should find him distracting in the first place.

“Let’s take a break.  You’ve been at this for a while,” she said when the timer finally went off.  She folded the cover back over her sketchpad and set it aside.

“You’re the one who’s been drawing.  All I had to do was sit there.”  He shrugged.

“That must not be easy to do for so long, though.  In our class, the models get breaks every thirty minutes.”

“Really?”  His eyes widened.  “That must be nice.”

“We can’t have anyone falling asleep on us,” she joked, standing and holding out a hand to help him to his feet.  “Come on, I’ll order us a pizza.  It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for me.”

His cheeks pinked below his mask.  “It’s nothing, really.  I’m a pro at sitting and looking pretty.”

She rolled her eyes, but unfortunately couldn’t argue with that.

XXX

“So,” Chat Noir said before swallowing a mouthful of pineapple pizza, “did you get enough drawings for your class?”

“Not quite.”  Marinette sighed, running her fingers over the edge of the paper plate in her lap.  “I still need a few thirty-minute pieces.  I don’t want to keep you here all night, though.”

“You know cats like to stay up late, Princess.”  He winked.  “But in this case, I do actually have a study session early tomorrow.  What if I came back tomorrow afternoon?”

“Hmm… I guess that could work.”  She took a bite of her pizza.  “I didn’t want too many drawings of the same model, but I don’t have many other options.  And you are really good at this.  I just wish I could...”

“Could what?”

“I could really use someone who doesn’t wear a full body suit for the longer poses.”  She sighed.  “Your suit’s too shiny for me to pass it off as skin, and I can’t make up the shading from scratch.  My professor will know.”

“There’s always Adrien,” he said with a smirk.

Marinette had half a mind to throw her pizza at him.  “Why won’t you let that go?”

“Because I know for a fact he would love to help you out.”  He shook his crust at her.

Her face flushed at the word love.  She thought she was better than this by now!  

“Really?  And how can you be sure?”

“Because I—uh—because…”  He glanced back and forth before shoving the pizza crust into his mouth.

“Come on, spit it out, Chat—no not literally!” she exclaimed when he frantically spat the crust back onto his plate.

He sheepishly grinned and put the slobbery food back in his mouth.  She smacked her forehead, probably getting pizza grease there.

“You’re gross, you know that?”

He swallowed.  How he didn’t choke on the crust, she didn’t know.  

“But you love me anyway.”

“Keep dreaming, kitty.”  She managed to get it out without so much as a stutter, despite the heat remaining in her cheeks.  Whatever feelings she did or didn’t have for Chat, it wasn’t like she could act on them.  Not when they couldn’t know each other’s identities, and not when she still couldn’t get over Adrien.

Not when he’d already gotten over her.

“Anyway, what were you trying to tell me?”  She asked before she could dwell on that.

“Oh.  Uh.”  This time he didn’t have any more food to use as a distraction.  His eyes darted back and forth before he sighed.  “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but… IthinkAdrienhasacrushonyou.”

Marinette felt her brain cells fizzle out at trying to process that sentence. She had to have misheard, hadn’t she?  “Come again?”

“Adrien,” he said more clearly, “has a crush on you.”

Was she dreaming?  She was dreaming.  She had to be.

“And how would you know that?”  She asked, her voice a little higher than normal.

He crossed his arms.  “A cat never reveals his secrets.  And besides, even if I’m wrong—which I’m not—he’d still help you because you’re his friend, and he cares about you.  So I really think you should ask him, or else I’ll use my superheroly powers to get him to model for you myself.”

“You wouldn’t.”  Her eyes narrowed, though her heart was beating out of her chest.  Adrien?  Having a crush on her?  It wasn’t like they’d seen each other too often this semester, with both of them being busy with their classes.  Why would he like her now?

At first she thought he was going to argue, but then he seemed to deflate.  “Fine.  I’m sorry for being so pushy, I just… you really don’t like him, do you?  Did something happen?”

Why did he seem so hurt by that?  “N-no!  I mean, I do like him, I like him a-a lot actually, and—you can not tell him this,” she threatened with a finger near his nose.

He went cross eyed trying to look at it, but nodded. 

She dropped her hand.  This was stupid.  If Chat knew about her crush… she’d worried about him teasing her, but really, he was her friend.  Her best friend.  She had to keep enough secrets from him because of her identity.  It would feel good to at least be able to share one.

“I’ve had a crush on Adrien forever, Chat,” she finally admitted.  “That’s why I didn’t want to ask him to be my model.  I don’t want to get distracted.  I need my drawings to be the best they can, and I especially don’t need him catching me ogling him.”

Her face burned.  It was one thing to share secrets, but maybe she didn’t need to share that much.

He laughed.  Was her crush really that funny?  He almost sounded surprised though, like there was any chance she wouldn’t fall for a sweet, caring, kind friend who also happened to be unfairly attractive.  Maybe he was only surprised because he thought puns and roses were the way to a girl’s heart.

(His way had worked too, though, hadn’t it?)

“So you want to ogle him.”  He wiggled his eyebrows.

“Yes—no—shut up!”  She shoved him, and he collapsed laughing on the carpet. 

“I’m hurt, Marinette.  And here I thought you wanted to ogle me.”

“I hate you,” she said through her fingers as she contemplated ways to erase this conversation from existence.  Could a Lucky Charm do that?  “I can’t believe I ever thought I liked you.”

“Ouch.  And here I thought your dad’s punches hurt.  Whoever made up that ‘sticks and stones’ saying was a liar.”

It took her a moment to realize he was referring to the time her papa was akumatized.  Of course he wouldn’t expect that she actually liked him now.

That was for the best though.  She wasn’t supposed to admit that, not as Marinette, especially not when she’d just learned Adrien (probably) had a crush on her.  She could hardly go out with Adrien when Chat Noir snuck in her window a few times a week, could she?

It hurt too much to think of letting her strange more-than-friendship with her partner go.

“So, you think there’s time for one more drawing?” he asked, brushing his hands off on his suit.

“If you’re still up for it.”  She couldn’t turn down the opportunity, even if she was even more afraid of giving her feelings away now.  Besides, if he thought she only liked Adrien, he wouldn’t notice her acting weird.  Right?

“Of course.  Can’t deny you the opportunity to capture all this.”  He flexed his arms in a few different poses.

“You know, I was going to thank you, but now I think that might go to your head.”  She laughed.

“Ah, it’s too late for that.”  He grinned.  “You’ve already inflated my ego beyond repair.”

She didn’t see how, but he was already holding his pose, one hand on his hip, the other arm flexing up near his head.  His legs were braced in a slight squat that would probably hurt to hold for too long, but left her with an all-too-good view of his quads.

She set her timer for thirty minutes and hoped that she could keep her secrets to herself a little longer.

[swgoji2001]

My Thoughts on Jedi Fallen Order

So after upgrading to a new, stronger laptop (pretty sure my stupidity in attempting to run this game on my old laptop hastened its tragic, untimely demise), I finally finished Jedi Fallen Order last night. I had mixed feelings going into this game, as I have some friends who said it was amazing while others said it was a mediocre story with decent gameplay.

Now after playing, was it the greatest Star Wars game I’ve ever experienced? No, but it was very good. Some minor gripes here and there, but overall I had a blast playing the game.

Warning: Some spoilers will be included, I’ll try to keep them as minor as possible though.

Story:

So I’m not gonna go overly deep into the story as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who still hasn’t played the game, but to be honest I found the plot of Fallen Order to be a bit generic at first. It’s a classic light side vs dark side narrative with a redemption arc or two sprinkled in. In fact, I found the plot of Fallen Order to be quite similar in structure to the Disney Trilogy. Both have MacGuffin hunts (holocron and wayfinder), both include journeys to different planets following the trail of someone else (Eno Cordova and that one assassin dude mentioned in IX), both have mentors who have distanced themselves from the Force (Cere and Luke), and both have antagonists who were failed by their masters (Trilla and Kylo). 

Fallen Order splits off from this more generic route after returning to Dathomir and does it’s own thing, but I found myself asking why I enjoyed the first 75% or so of Fallen Order when I absolutely hated the DT. I found the answer to lie mainly in two things: the characters and the world they found themselves in.

Characters:

Cal Kestis: I absolutely loved Cal’s character arc. He has his own deep personal struggles with his past, feeling responsible for the death of his master. He faces those fears and comes to terms with his past, determined to make a better future. Cal not only comes out of his journey a Jedi Knight, but as a stronger person. Compare this to Rey, who had no meaningful flaws or personal struggles. Plus Cal’s the first ginger Jedi! Score one for diversity!

BD-1: My fourth favorite Star Wars droid, only behind HK-47, KOTOR 2′s T3-M4, and K-2SO. He’s cute, adorable, and loyal to a fault. What more could you ask for in a droid? (Other than a tibanna-powered blaster rifle and a bloodthirsty, anti-meatbag personality of course!) Plus there’s a revelation about his history towards the end that only makes him better and better.

Cere Junda: Star Wars has always had its mentor characters, but in all honesty I found Cere to be pretty generic. A Jedi Master who failed her Padawan and touched the dark side, only to be horrified by it and renounce the Force. Throughout learning her story, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had already seen something like this before. Her arc isn’t bad, it’s well done and feels natural to her character, it was just rather generic.

Greez Dritus: Gotta say Greez grew on me as the game went on. He has his flaw in his gambling problem which bites Cal in the ass a couple times, but towards the end I really felt the connection between him and the others grow. He’s also the source of a good deal of humor.

Nightsister Merrin: Sadly, Merrin being an eventual ally was spoiled for me, but I love the subversion because it was built up that she would be an eventual boss fight. Merrin might be my favorite character besides Cal, I wish there were more interactions with her in game! She’s hot, has a great accent, a wicked sense of humor, and is powerful with Nightsister magick. But beyond all that, she’s a parallel to Cal. Both are survivors, the last of their kind, and I’m hoping that if a sequel is made, it goes deeper into their relationship because Merrin and Cal have great chemistry. I also love how Merrin challenges Cal and Cere’s plan to train the next gen of Jedi using the holocron, putting that idea in a more realistic, less idealistic light.

Prauf: I really feel bad for him. I liked him and you could feel the camaraderie between him and Cal, how he wanted Cal to succeed and do great things. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.

Oggdo Bogdo: Fuck this frog! He killed me so many times!

Trilla Suduri (Second Sister): The Jedi Padawan that felt betrayed by her master and became an inquisitor. I always love it when antagonists have a personal connection to the protagonists in some way, shape, or form. Trilla shakes Cal’s faith in Cere, and plants seeds of doubt in him. She wants revenge and the Emperor’s favor, and therefore we know why she chases Cal across the galaxy. She has motivations for all her actions, which is something that Kylo lacked in the DT.

Taron Malicos: I knew something was off about this guy the second I met him. I quite enjoyed the clash of beliefs between him, Merrin, and Cal. Malicos proposes a way forward, a new Jedi Order, but one founded on darker teachings. He offers Cal that power, but Cal proves his stature as a Jedi in refusing it.

Ninth Sister (Masana Tide): Probably the weakest of the villain characters for me. Ninth barely has any presence in the game at all other than the start and to serve as a boss battle on Kashyyyk. I honestly just don’t think she fits into the story as is. Perhaps if they tweaked it so that Ninth and Cal knew each other back before Order 66 she would have fit better. Ninth just doesn’t have any personal connection to Cal and the Mantis crew (like Trilla does) and doesn’t really serve as a trial like Malicos does. Remove her from the story and not much changes.

(If you somehow haven’t had this next one spoiled yet, I’m impressed. Please skip to ‘World’ if so)

Darth Vader: I absolutely loved how he was portrayed. A terrifying, unstoppable force. You won’t last in a fight with him, your can only hope you can outrun him.

World:

Fallen Order’s worldbuilding was on point. Cal’s ability to sense Force Echoes lets you get a more detailed understanding of the environment around you. It’s a small-scale Star Wars story, but the planets all feel lived in if you take the time to explore them. It’s the small details like the probe droid witnessing your initial use of the Force on Bracca or the side-stories you can discover like the tragic tale of the family running from the Empire on Zeffo or Malicos’ corruption and manipulation of Merrin that really flesh out the world. Compare this to the galactic-scale story the DT told, which somehow made the galaxy feel extremely small and uninteresting.

My only complaint with the world-building is the Zeffo. They’re just... there. Very little is explained about them. Who were they? Why were they important? What happened to them? Why did they disappear? Perhaps this was to leave room for a sequel but to me the Zeffo just felt like discount Rakata. I wish the devs had gone with the Rakata instead, but maybe that’s just me.

Also the wildlife on every world is more than capable of killing you if you aren’t careful so you almost always have to be on your toes for them, which rolls us into the next part...

Gameplay:

The gameplay was great fun in Fallen Order. Leveling up and unlocking new abilities was exciting and once I got the hang of them all, it was so much fun just cutting through your enemies. I played on Jedi Master difficulty (died approximately 75 times, give or take a few I may have missed) and it felt really well balanced. It forced me to study my opponent’s moves and adapt to them instead of being a hack-and-slash type of game. Combos are fluid and fun to pull off, parrying opponents leaves an opening to attack, and you can experiment with different fighting styles.

Customizing your lightsaber and appearance was also great fun. So many different options and combinations for everything! Plus you got rewarded for exploration with these extra customization options, so it adds incentive to do that if you care about appearances and whatnot. You can become the General Grievous of ponchos!

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Overall Fallen Order was a great game that could have been even better. Of course I have to admit I’m looking at this through the nostalgia of games like KOTOR 2, which flipped Star Wars completely on its head. I would have preferred if Cere’s story had been a bit more nuanced, the Ninth Sister had more reason for being in the story, or if the game had Cal seriously question the use and role of Jedi in the galaxy (he does a couple times to BD-1, but it’s never really built on).

And then there’s my overall gripe about this type of story set after Order 66. It sets up questions like... where was Cal during the OT? Was he dead? Somewhere in the Unknown Regions doing something else? I know the ending of the game sets up the opening for Cal’s story to continue, but still, these types of stories usually end in death for the Jedi protagonist, so I am a bit nervous for his future.

Despite that though, I am super happy I finally decided to play this and am eagerly awaiting a sequel to continue this story.

[mrslittletall]

Now that I played through the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, it is time to rate it! Graphics The graphics are painted backgrounds as well as hand drawn character models with different expressions/tiny animations. They are pleasing to look at and never feel out of place. For a game that released first on the GBA, they are surprisingly clean. I have no qualms with the graphics whatsoever. I love that, to this day, the character animations from the courtroom are used in animations where stuff gets debated. Sound and Music The music is fantastic, though I have to say, the one of the first title is the best and feels like the most iconic, especially the Objection theme, which is even used as part of the main menu theme for the trilogy.  The first title has a lot of songs that are so nice to listen too, the court theme, the objection theme, the cornered theme is godlike and even the music outside of the court is fun, especially the theme song for the easy go lucky characters, like Lotta Hart.  The other titles declined a bit, I think the music is a bit too somber and sounds too serious and the objection theme, while still remixing the first one, just doesn’t have the same impact.  The second title has a fantastic new theme for the Search Core situation, used for a villainous reveal, but the third title kinda ruined it by using it EVERYWHERE. I kid you not, that theme played like... a 50 times or so, while it only was used for a certain character in the second one.  The sound effects are fine. The blips of the text aren’t annoying and the way the text is sometimes written faster or slower got a good impression how fast or slow a person was talking.  I liked that some of the sound effects from court were sometimes used in the dialogues to convey certain emotions also. Gameplay The game is a mix of a visual novel and an adventure game, so prepare to do LOTS of reading. You basically go to an area, then murder happens and then you have to find your defendant and proof their innocent. There are two kinds of gameplay, the first is the investigation, where you go around and look at stuff and talk with witnesses and the police and such. That is the most classical for an adventure game. The second one are the trials, where you have to proof your client’s innocence. It generally is by getting a witness on the stand and having to find the contradictions in their testimony. You can press them to get more information or present evidence once you spotted a contradiction. That is like a really nice puzzle and it could be pretty hard to find a contradiction, but it was all the more satisfying, when you found it and the testimony crumbled in itself and the prosecutor had their damaged portray after a good counter.  I have a bit of problems with it though, because sometimes you are obliged to show a certain piece of evidence. Most of the time, several are allowed, but I had one case, where a crime photo very much proofed what I wanted to say, namely that the victim used his left hand to hold his coffee cup, but for some reason, the lip stain on the coffee cup was the only valid evidence. Huh... In the second and third title, the investigation part actually got spiced up by making Phoenix able to see when people hide secrets from him and then we need to gather evidence and get them to spill their secrets. It is similar to the court room, but with only two parties. I really liked that parts. The gameplay was pretty fun, for me at least, but it has a few weaknesses of course, which are the usual adventure game weaknesses. Once you know the solution to the puzzle, the replayability is gone. Story and Characters That is where the game shines. Like I said, the game is basically a visual novel. It has its own individual stories for each case as well as some over arching storyline, mostly centered around a certain case, the DL-6 in the first title and then about the Fey Family in the second and third title.  The cases are sometimes a bit crazy, but that is too expected, the whole series is very whacky and filled with jokes and humours, sometimes good and sometimes bad jokes. The stories are interesting to follow and I often wanted to find out the truth myself, see if my suspicisions were correct and if we could get the real murdered on the stand to make a confession.  It is the most interesting when the overall storylines are getting involved, like in the first title, the DL6-Incident was both for the fourth and the fifth case and seeing how it all came together and got solved completely, was amazing.  The characters are a bunch of regulars and a bunch of case specific. Our main characters are clearly Phoenix Wright, the defense attorney, we play as and Maya Fey, a spirit medium. We also get a few regular prosecutors, with Miles Edgeworth for the first title, Franziska von Karma for the second and Godot for the third title. They could be considered the “villains”, but in a sense, they only try to serve justice, even though all of them have pretty nasty personalities at first.  We also have Detective Gumshoe, a very unlucky homicide detective, Larry Butz, Phoenix’ creepy friend and Lotta Hart, a woman who can’t decide on a career, but loves making photos, and Pearl Fey, the little cousin of Maya. We also have Mia Fey, Maya’s big sister and Phoenix’ mentor, but she tragically died... but that isn’t too much of a problem, because Maya is a spirit medium and can channel her, so that she often helps Phoenix out. All of them, besides Larry, who I have some troubles with, are absolutely adorable, they are quirky, they have moments, they have character growth, they have certain speech patterns and I love them. What I especially like, Maya is kind of Phoenix’ assistant and in pretty much every other story, I would have expected for them to go the shipping route, but Maya and Phoenix, despite being shipped heavily by Pearl, never show any romantic energy in my book. They are more platonic, more like little sister and big brother. It may come from the fact, that Maya is the little sister of Mia Fey, Phoenix’ mentor, and he views her more as a little sister, but their platonic relationship truly touched me.  When it comes to shipping, Phoenix and Miles have more erotic energy between them that Phoenix and Maya could ever have! Especially in the first title! It doesn’t surprise me that they are a popular ship.  Pet Peeves  Ok, some gripes I have with this game are the ages of the characters! Like, we had a case where a 14 year old girl planned a fake kidnapping, good, everyone was super stoked about that, but then it turned out, her 18 year old sister was a police woman at that time. And at age 23, she was considered a police veteran. What?! We also had a doctor who was said to be 31 years old... he looked like he was 55!  Franziska is another offender... one of these japanese tropes of the “child genius”. She became a prosecutor at age 13 and only was 18 when Phoenix first met her. She is from germany and I am pretty sure it is downright illegal to be a legal prosecutor there when you are not of age, so... Then... we have the fact that this game so OBVIOUSLY is set in Japan, but the localization acts like it is set in America... Yes, America has a super traditional japanese village, Maya Fey is wearing traditional japanese clothing, we have a case centered around the Steel Samurai, typical japanese kids TV where an actor is wearing a full body suit and masks himself. I am actually surprised that when they were in super obvious japanese settings, that they actually talked about everything like it was japanese, and not made onigiri into donuts. But ok, I can forgive this, because it is so dumb and the original setting is more than obvious.  Larry! The guy turned out to be creepy! He first got introduced as Phoenix’ idiot friend with a weakness for hot woman, but getting used by them a whole lot, ok, that is still fine. But with each entry, guy turned more and more creepy, until he tried to hit on a married woman and said that he wanted to date Pearl. Pearl is a nine year old child, wtf, Larry?! He had some moments, but even the game acknowledged what a waste of space he is and made him the butt monkey. Which I can fully and totally understand.  Ok, that has been it! Overall, I enjoyed these games a lot! I would like to try and find the others in the series, but I don’t think I will be able to find them...

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

So, Rakepick, and potential redemption for her.

First, a disclaimer. I’m speculating on what may or may not actually happen in the game. Whether or not she deserves to be redeemed is a different question. I’m just going off the hints that Jam City has dropped. This has nothing to do with whether or not I want Rakepick to be redeemed. (I admit, I do, but that still has no bearing on this theory.) 

@heleneplays​ @dat-silvers-girl​ @missnight0wl​ As the other members of the Rakepick fan club, I had to tag you in this. Let me know what you think!

As of this point, the Double Agent Theory is seeming less and less likely. If Rakepick was a spy for Dumbledore, or some other force fighting the Cabal, then she would never have actually killed Rowan. Because that’s simply a point of no return. Dumbledore would sever ties with her if that were the case. Now, if Rowan were secretly alive, that would be one thing. But after the Head Kid TLSQ, it doesn’t seem like they’re coming back. So Rakepick really did kill them. How on earth could she be redeemed after that? How would Jam City manage it? Well, I think I might know the answer. 

At this point, it’s not about trying to justify her actions. They’re unspeakable. There’s no defending what she did to Rowan and Merula. Someone made the point that Rakepick could simply have “just been following orders.” but not only is that a pitiful excuse that as we know from real world history, doesn’t hold up...it’s also tremendously out of character for Rakepick. And yet, the only reason she would do those things, in a redemption scenario, is because she was ordered to. So it comes down to why she’s serving the Cabal in the first place. Because that still doesn’t make any sense. That is also out of character. Even if Rakepick is shamelessly evil, she’s not the sort of character to try and curry favor with the biggest bully on the playground. She’s not Lucius Malfoy. Good or evil, it just makes no sense for her to do this - even if Rakepick just wants more power, I still think she would go her own way. If she’s serving R in earnest, we  have to ask ourselves why. Which returns to my previous point. It’s not about justifying her actions, because she clearly made her choices and she bears full responsibility for them. The question is why she made these choices. What are we missing, what’s the context? Why would pledge herself to the Cabal? 

I can only think of one reason. And it would explain the Lioness Patronus, which sticks out like a sore thumb in the Forbidden Forest scene. She saved MC and friends from the Dementors. With a Patronus that symbolizes motherhood, and protecting one’s young. In a scene that was shot to code her as looking almost heroic, with the way she walked through the Patronus. Not only did they specifically choose that animal, and choose to reveal it to us - they chose to shoot that scene in a way that stressed how much the Lioness symbolizes it’s caster. All this, in the scene where Rakepick fires a killing curse at Ben and winds up hitting Rowan. This is what I mean - the writers are still hinting at another side to Rakepick, at a potential redemption for her. It blows my mind, because we all know how that scene ends, but I think we’re forgetting how it starts. There has to be a reason that they shot the scene that way. 

There are also other things that we’re forgetting. I know I’ve talked about this a lot, but what the hell happened between Jacob and Rakepick? That journal that MC found in Year 5? The one Rakepick refused to comment on, and broke MC’s wand to stop them asking questions about it. For someone who’s usually a good liar, she had a terrible poker face during that scene. A forgery? Seriously? As if MC wouldn’t know Jacob’s handwriting, and his writer’s voice. Why even pretend that it’s a forgery, when she could have used it to build trust? Because that journal gave a pretty strong case for Rakepick being an unsung hero, at least at the time. Jacob credited her with saving his life, and saving the life of MC. We’ve never come back to that. We never found out when this happened, or what the circumstances were. But if it’s true, and I maintain that we have no reason to assume it’s not, that seriously suggests that there’s more to the story here. 

Jacob also talked about the Cabal. Technically, he didn’t say “R,” and I know there’s a theory circulating that there are two different Cabals...but I personally doubt it. That would be kind of confusing, and I feel like Jam City wouldn’t write it that way. I truly believe we’re meant to assume he was talking about R. But in any case, the most important detail here is the Jacob said Rakepick was afraid of them. That’s actually quite startling, because Rakepick has always been the most dauntless character in this entire game. She gives no fucks, she takes no shit. If she’s afraid of the Cabal, there must be something going on here. There must be a reason for her to fear them. And in hindsight? I think we can assume that this reason is directly related to why she joined them. Why she turned on MC and Jacob. Because this journal basically confirms that she was at one point, on their side. So what happened? Why does she have a Patronus that symbolizes motherhood? Why would the ultimate rebel sell her soul to big brother? Why, if she feared them so much that she shared it with Jacob, did she ultimately join them? 

All I can think of, is that R must have some kind of gun to her head. Some leverage over her, something to threaten her with. But Rakepick, again, is a renegade. She wouldn’t care. She’s not the kind of person who just complies when someone puts a gun to her head. To continue the metaphor, she knocks it out of their hand, or pulls out a bigger gun. I keep stressing this because everything we were shown during Years 4 and 5 leads me to doubt that she would be easy to control. It would have to be something priceless. R would have to have some card they could play, that Rakepick absolutely cannot afford to let happen. And...thinking back to how she advised MC to watch over Merula. Thinking back to how she saved a young MC’s life, not to mention Jacob’s...well, there’s only one weakness that Rakepick could theoretically have, that would give R this level of control over her. I believe Rakepick has a child. It would explain the Lioness Patronus, and it would be something that R could use against her. If they have her child, they control her. 

“Never apologize for doing what you know in your heart that you absolutely must do.” - Patricia Rakepick.

This is why she turned on MC. This is why she murdered Rowan. Because when a shady Cabal is holding your child captive, you do as they say. This is what I mean - trying to justify her actions is going down the wrong route. They’re inexcusable, as I’m sure she knows. The question is why she did it. And I believe this is the answer. Rakepick isn’t the sort of person to show any remorse. Even if she felt regret, she would never speak it aloud, certainly not to MC. But let me ask you, doesn’t this sound like the kind of thing R would do? They have a history of scare tactics, and they’re not above killing children or otherwise using them as tools. They do what they need to, in order to gain control of people. They make serious threats and then they deliver on those threats. Which is why Rakepick knows she cannot defy them openly, if at all. It’s why she warned MC ahead of time about a group that is “not to be trifled with.” (I maintain that she wrote that unsigned letter, it was written in her character’s voice.) Rakepick probably doesn’t believe she deserves forgiveness, nor would she give a damn about trying to earn it. At this point, her only motivation would be keeping her child alive and unharmed. 

Whether or not this is enough to forgive her crimes is, again, the wrong question. Because as far as redemption goes, forgiving Rakepick is going to vary from person to person, between the characters and the fan-base. At this rate? No one will care, and everyone will still hate her. But indepedent of that, is it in any way possible for her and MC to fight on the same side again? Well...if this theory is true, then yes, it is. MC might hate Rakepick, but her child is innocent. If R is holding them captive, The Circle of Khanna will surely want to rescue them. Which would give Rakepick and the Circle a common goal. Hell, even if MC is heartless and doesn’t care about the child...rescuing them would enable Rakepick to turn on R, which is beneficial to the Circle anyway. Of course, all of this doesn’t mean Rakepick won’t still die, because she very likely will...but when she does, I feel like the game will have made an effort to put her in a new context. Even after the Infiltration, we’re still getting Dialogue Choices that hint at there being more to Rakepick. Why would MC even entertain the idea that she’s doing what she thinks is right? At least in terms of presentation, she isn’t. But the writers keep hinting that there’s more to her...and this is the only way left, that I can think of anyway, that they could make this happen. After all...hasn’t this series always had a motif about the power of a mother’s love? Wouldn’t it be interesting and make the Cabal stand out if they had found a way to weaponize that power against MC? And if doing so later proved to be their undoing?

No one has to like Rakepick. She’s tortured and murdered children - she’s a villain. But I just cannot believe there’s nothing more to this character than a one-dimensional monster. There has to be more to the story. She was way too interesting prior to her turn, for this to be all there is.

[josie-effortposts]

The Woman Who Fell to Earth

I stopped watching Doctor Who in 2013 after the 50th anniversary special. Up to then I was deeply obsessed by its reams of stories, hidden subspaces and detailed production histories. It wasn’t just entertainment, it was a case study in a massive shared universe, and a direct function of the times and places it had been written. 

It’s never been very controversial to anyone I know to dislike Moffat’s run of the show, and as it drew to a close everything that followed seemed pretty well-telegraphed: Chris Chibnall would become the head of the show, it wouldn’t be very good, reactionaries would blame bad writing on a female Doctor while plenty of others would just lost interest, the ratings would drop and the whole show would become less culturally relevant. It was a Cassandra truth.

But that said, I still wanted to try it. I watched a bit of the Twelfth Doctor and had mixed feelings, and when I watched the first episode of the Thirteenth I found myself taking notes on it. So, without a lot of structure, here are my thoughts.

1. New Who treats first episodes as very important, the first moments that we see new Doctors and their statements to the world. Call it a modern tradition - where “Robot” and “Time and the Rani” play the change for comedy before jumping into the week’s adventures, “The Christmas Invasion” and “The Eleventh Hour” are primarily statements of continuity. By Twelve’s first outing the villains themselves become metaphors for change, and now Thirteen delivers a brief speech about deciding to become different while paying respect to the past.

2. Speaking of that speech, I feel like there must have been an earlier draft that connected the plot to these metaphors a lot better. The villain of the story keeps pieces of his past triumphs with him at all times, but these trophies are body parts taken from the dead, and they disgust the Doctor. At least Twelve’s flesh robots were stumbling towards eternity.

The villain as a whole is just what you’d expect from a low-grade Doctor Who monster, I guess. He’s supposed to be on a hunt, which sounds really cool, but this consists entirely of him walking places and murdering random bystanders by touch. He’s not keeping the masquerade up or succeeding in his goals by doing this, and the rest of the story implies that he’s at least shrewd about getting what he wants. The Doctor’s complaints against him center on him being a cheat who can’t do the hunt fair and square and on his desecrating corpses, but she never seems very angry at him over murdering people. 

The idea of the Doctor stopping a proper hunt actually sounds interesting to me, especially as someone who sat through all of DWAD’s The Most Dangerous Game. There’s a lot of suspense in dealing with an intelligent, directed killer with a small number of targets, be it in Predator or Day of the Jackal, and a villain that stalks, hides or sets up ambushes could be easier on the budget. Or you could keep the villain the same but add a second member of his species to the setting and have them in competition, conflict on conflict. (That sounds like it’d make a good module for TIMELORD, actually...)

3. The Doctor feels simplified. I don’t mean the new personality of this incarnation, although I think the slight amnesia-until-climax is a bit forced. There’s just stuff that comes off wrong. For instance, things are outlawed in “every civilized galaxy” and the villains traveled from “five thousand galaxies away”. Despite ostensibly going anywhere and anywhen, the show’s always respected some species of distance, in that going far enough away or leaving the universe itself is a pretty big deal (especially since so much of it sticks to Earth). This line could’ve been any distance and nothing else would’ve changed, but it kills the idea of space - how can galaxies be civilized? It feels like the setting is shrinking - the word just sounds big and spacey, and this is the part where the Doctor says that something’s out of place, so big, spacey words go there.

This probably sounds nitpicky, but it feels lazy. Where Davies and Moffat both repeatedly made the Doctor or companions into the Most Important People in History, Chibnall seems to take it as read that the Doctor can just do stuff as the plot demands it. The climax involves her making a jump over a dangerous drop to the gasps of all assembled, but her first appearance is after an even longer fall where she breaks through the ceiling of a train car and isn’t even scratched. She "reformats” a phone into some kind of tracking gadget with six seconds of thumb typing and builds a new sonic screwdriver out of random scrap, which then solves basically every issue in the story. And, naturally, she can pinpoint things from a billion light-years away.

My favorite Moffat story is probably “The Eleventh Hour” because it presents the Doctor with a genuine challenge at his most vulnerable. If he had his regular tools handy then it would’ve been a much more straightforward Doctor Who story, but there’s no time to stop and build a new sonic screwdriver, because people are going to die by the time he’s finished. I wish more modern stories had that.

4. I can’t tell how I should feel about the side characters here. Not the companions, although it feels like Chibnall looked at RTD’s companions and thought “why not bring the entire family along?” There’s just this odd tension in characterization between comedy and drama for them, and without a very detailed soundtrack it’s hard to tell what emotions the script’s trying to go for.

One of the hunter’s victims has spent years trying to find his missing sister after another hunter abducting her. Instead of any resolution coming to that story he just gets murdered without ever knowing what happened to her and then the Doctor commandeers his workshop. (It’s even made clear that these human trophies are all still alive, just “in stasis”, so there’s no reason to think they couldn’t save her and presumably several others.) Meanwhile one of the main characters suffers a short fall and dies, taking up most of the final act with a funeral despite us hardly knowing her.

Other victims are worse. A man throws pieces of his salad at the monster for no discernible reason - he doesn’t even seem drunk, and then he dies as the hunter crushes that salad underfoot. A security officer gives a heartfelt goodbye to his family and tells them what a lucky granddad he is, then walks offscreen to be murdered. Neither of these scenes had to happen, and both together don’t even fill a minute of the runtime, so what was the motivation? The first is at least charmingly odd, but both of them feel like bizarre, extremely cheap set-pieces.

The soon-to-be-trophy himself listens to positive affirmations in a crane, then shouts them as he’s being chased. “I’m important! I matter!” The implication would seem to be that this is goofy behavior, and yet the things he shouts are in some ways the themes of the show. Is this self-critical deconstruction, unabashed humanism poorly delivered, a running gag?

5. The other half of a new Doctor, classic or modern, is this shedding of old things. Not always in terms of showrunners, but sometimes in attitudes or fans. The change from Six to Seven was motivated by a desire to change the tone of the show, for instance. Nowadays this is reflected a lot by the fandom - every Doctor has newcomers who jump back out because they don’t want their hero to be replaced, but the jump to Eleven confronted a lot of younger fans with this for the first time. Then Twelve culled some fans who couldn’t stand the Doctor being old and unkissable, and now Thirteen’s wiped out her own contingent of grognards who think the Doctor being a woman is a radical idea invented in the last three years.

That said, I’m not a fan yet. Some Doctors I don’t like as much for aspects of their characters, particularly Five, but Thirteen just doesn’t feel Doctorly. (To be clear, neither did Twelve.) I grew to enjoy Matt Smith’s performance where I thought I wouldn’t, and I’ve found a lot to like in every Doctor, but for some reason both of them still feel like actors playing the role to me, where Unbound Doctors and Mark Kalita have captured whatever the core is.

6. I feel like I’m getting old. So much of the beauty of Doctor Who just feels transparent now. After Moffat the maximalist decades of worldbuilding can never convincingly pretend to add up to a coherent universe and they can’t escape into the freedom of canon-indeterminacy any more than they already have. Even Big Finish, which I used to adore, feels strangled by a mandate to realize and box-set every possible combination of whatever actors they can summon from the show, no matter how many tedious hours they have to fill with cardboard characters and back-of-the-napkin monsters.

There’s no excitement in the adventure for me, because I know the route and the destination. And I don’t know if that’s Doctor Who being formulaic or disenchantment from seeing the patterns too much, or some personal lack of spark and imagination. I feel like there must be some drive I don’t have, one that would re-energize my own perspective in the face of concrete understanding, that would see it as a good thing that I understand another layer of what I enjoyed so much without sacrificing that enjoyment. But if it’s there, I just don’t see it.

But hey. While there’s life, there’s...

[spidercakes]

ABO prompt if you will - Tony is an alpha but Peter is a beta. They can’t be together as laws prevent alphas from mating with betas so they pine in silence. Peter gets kidnapped by Ross who is trying to figure out how Peter got his Spider-Man powers and one experiment changes Peter into an omega. When he is rescued, he is in heat and throws Tony into rut and the alpha claims his omega.

This prompt: implies smut

Me: ok, angst.

I mean, its still technically what you asked for minus the smut but also there’s like many angst.

*

Its not, Tony has decided, that they don’t want to. Its more like they can’t, not really, not without a level of backlash at every level that would make a relationship impossible. Its not exactly reasonable to start a relationship with someone full well knowing that everyone, including the damn government, will do their damndest just to tear you apart. Tony has no idea why there are laws preventing alphas and betas from being together, there’s no reasonable explanation for it. Omegas might be more fertile and have an easier time with alphas reproducing but its not like betas are infertile. And also he and Peter wouldn’t be a reproductive couple anyway.

Beyond that the reasons get even more senseless given that betas are just as capable of dealing with heats as alphas, and its not like alphas can’t survive without omegas in heat- they make it through most of their lives without that. That particular set of laws are, Tony has gathered, little more than forcing people to fit into the hegemonic mold of acceptability and he’s never been fond of that, but he’s also not stupid. Generally speaking any alphas and betas who test that shit see betas in jail for an extended period of time, not alphas. And he can’t do that to Peter. If either of them should end up in jail its him- first of all he’s actually broken like a stupid amount of laws in his lifetime and Peter hasn’t, and also he’s the older one. He’d miss out on less in prison, but the laws are designed to punish betas for not falling in line, not alphas or omegas.

So he gets stuck watching Peter from afar, working with him in the lab, and trying his best to avoid him blowing up in the field. “You know we wouldn’t say anything, right?” Bruce asks softly, disrupting his line of thought. Across the lab Peter is trying and failing to teach Dummy to fetch.

“Wouldn’t need you to. Since when have I been known to do anything subtly?”

Bruce sighs because they both know he makes a point. Its not like he hasn’t thought of that either, and Peter absolutely has. Came to him a couple months ago insisting they could manage it and Peter he’s sure could. But Tony has never been known for his ability to keep secrets or keep anything from the public eye. He literally decided to throw out Pepper’s cue cards and proclaim himself Iron Man because that felt less difficult than playing like he wasn’t. There’s no way Peter wouldn’t end up in jail over his stupidity.

*

When Peter goes missing it takes them a day to notice. Its not entirely unusual for him to disappear from the public eye for a day or two thanks to school and its exam season so Tony hadn’t thought much of it until May showed up at his door. “So you haven’t talked to him either?” she asks, clearly on the edge of panic.

Tony is too but he’s also not totally stupid- Peter isn’t exactly easy to contain with his abilities and hurting someone with super healing permanently is difficult. He once tested out a few theories on Steve and the guy is next to immortal. He can be killed, Tony is sure, but not through any normal means and that includes aging. Peter’s genes share a lot in common with Steve’s now, so he suspects he has a lot of the same resistances not that he’d ever dream of testing that out on him.

“May, I once watched someone drop an entire building on him and he mostly crawled out pissed off. I’m sure he’s fine, we just need to figure out where he is.”

“Is that actually supposed to make me feel better?” she asks and Tony sighs.

“My point is that he’s durable, exceedingly so. Causing genuine, permanent damage is nearly impossible. Its why we tend to send him out with Steve and Bruce- the three of them are stupid strong, hard to kill, and their collective intelligence makes them hard to deal with strategically too. Trust me May, wherever he is it might not be pleasant, but he’ll more than likely be fine when we pick him up.” Psychologically? Probably not, but he doesn’t want to freak her out and they’ve all, in some way or another, been held captive and tortured. At this point its like an Avengers rite of passage. That’s at least half their hero origin stories.

“How are you going to find him?” May asks and Tony sighs.

“His suit has tracking in it partially to keep tabs on him but also to keep tabs on the suit itself- that kind of technology wouldn’t exactly be put to any good use in the wrong hands. If we’re lucky no one has turned the tracking off. If we aren’t we’ll see where it went before he disappeared and go from there.” There’s also the added benefit of seeing where Peter ends up the most, where all of them do. It tracks villain patterns well so Tony will cross reference the rest of their tracking against Peter’s too, see if any data points stick out.

*

Bruce looks at the screen in front of him while Tony paces. Bruce is more than capable of tracking a wayward spider suit, a literal child could do it if need be, but Tony is stressed. “Ping is coming back,” Bruce tells him. “In uh… Florida? He have anything going on there?” he asks.

Tony walks over to the computer and pulls up where, specifically, he is. “No. We’ve all heard him refer to Florida as the smelly armpit of America so I don’t see why he’d go there on his own either,” he points out.

Bruce sighs, “I maintain that the smelly armpit is Texas, but you make a point. The suit shows a pretty much direct travel path too, which is unusual. How the hell would someone manage to get someone with his abilities that far in a straight path? It doesn’t even look like Peter fought back.”

No, it doesn’t. He went from one spot to the other, no zipping around in between to indicate a sign of struggle. He pulls up Peter’s vitals around the time he went missing and frowns. “What the fuck?”

Bruce leans in and frowns too. “Stasis?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re telling me you think he was instantly frozen?” Tony asks, eyebrows drawing together.

“Not instantly, looks like he reacted but not in time. And the information is from his web shooters, not his suit. Don’t think he would have been in it at the time. Isn’t it pretty much frozen proof anyway?”

Not exactly, but for the purposes of this conversation yes so Tony nods. “Okay. Given the time of day he was probably about to patrol but why the fuck would anyone freeze him? Why the hell would that be a solution to how to kidnap Spiderman?” Seems kind of stupid, convoluted too. Yes he would be exceedingly difficult to get a hold of given that he’s flexible, strong, and not exactly lacking in intelligence and fighting ability but freezing him? That could go wrong in so many ways. The fact that it didn’t is probably a weird fluke.

Bruce frowns, looking over the information again before pulling up his location. “Tony. I could be wrong, and I’m probably not, but I’m pretty sure that’s one of Ross’ beach houses.”

Tony squints, “who the hell is stupid enough to take their victim to their house? Can’t be Ross.”

“The freezing would make sense if it was Ross,” Bruce says. Tony raises an eyebrow, unsure how Bruce figures that. “He has most of out data on our genes, he’s already tried to experiment on me like five times, and Steve was at his least dangerous when he was frozen. And he’d have enough information on Peter to know they work in really similar ways. Freezing makes sense if its Ross otherwise what kind of idiot would decide to try and freeze a super person with no guarantee that it would work? If not for the information that being frozen essentially stuck Steve in a suspended state of animation, which would make it a lot easier to run a few tests on him, then that makes no sense.”

He says that like villains make any sense at all. The last couple Tony has personally dealt with rode his ass because his father was a dick and because he was kind of mean and didn’t talk to the guy on a roof. Villains are people too, and people make no god damn sense. But he does make a point about the freezing thing, with knowledge of Steve’s suspended animation it would make sense to try and recreate those conditions and hope for the best. It might be common knowledge that he was found frozen in the ice and lived, but its not common knowledge how that happened. There are whole fan theories about it that proper everything from the correct assumption that the serum made him able to withstand extreme cold with a lowered heart rate and slowed brain activity to conserve energy to aliens. And clearly whoever took Peter wanted him alive otherwise what kind of dipshit tries to freeze their victim to death, then panics and takes them to Florida? Though, Tony supposes, that does seem like a Florida man thing to do.

“Do you really think Ross is that bad at strategy? What if it failed? What if Peter didn’t react to freezing the same way Steve had? What if he chose a different route that day for patrol? Ross might be a dumbass, but is he really that stupid?”

Bruce laughs a little. “Sometimes I forget how often you and Steve run every available option through your heads before you do something. Ross isn’t stupid by any means, but he has Peter’s patrol schedule and around this time of year he doesn’t break pattern, can’t because of exams. Strategically its a good time to move on a plan that requires him to be in a certain spot when you know he’s far less likely to deviate from his normal plans. And Peter might be super, but he’s not going to not have a reaction to being flash frozen. If Ross’ goal is to experiment on him if he managed to escape the freezing he still learned something. Its unethical science, but its not exactly bad science.”

Yeah, he’ll agree to disagree there. Tony knows a thing or two about winging it when it comes to experiments and it never goes well. Okay, it never goes well for him. Everyone else seems to not have problems with it but he’s got bad luck. Still makes him weary of that kind of thing and also Bruce has a vested interest in pointing the finger at Ross. Tony doesn’t think he’d do something like that on purpose on account of unlike Ross he’s not a shitty person but still. its worth it to verify Bruce’s suspicions. He runs the address and turns back to Bruce, “you seriously think Ross would be dumb enough to drag Peter’s ass back to his house? Come on, even Ross can’t be that stupid.”

“Its under his mother’s name, I think. Its still not smart, but its close to a secret army base in the area. Peter might be there, not the house.”

“But they left his suit in the house?”

“Ross might not be dumb enough to do that but a tactical team might be,” Bruce points out.

Yeah, alright. Address results return and sure shit Bruce isn’t wrong, including the bit about the house being under Ross’ mother’s name. Except the woman is dead so it shouldn’t be but that’s a whole other bag of shit Tony doesn’t give a damn about.

“Is he really this stupid?” he asks Bruce.

He shrugs, “he tried to shoot me with a gun he knew wouldn’t work given that I’d survived being bombed at that point so yes, I think he’s that stupid.”

Tony sighs. “I guess I should be grateful for it but something about this feels too easy.” Nothing these days is ever this easy for him, usually its Steve that gets all the luck so something is going to go wrong, he knows it.

*

Steve lets Bruce take the lead because he knows Ross the best but it doesn’t work well when he keeps deferring to Tony. Probably because he knows Peter’s suit’s information best, and the information they got from the web shooters, but still. That and he probably has the most vested interest in getting Peter back. But Bruce’s suspicions are right in that he’s not in the house- his suit was, and one of his web shooters, but Peter was nowhere to be found.

“Are you sure your scans are accurate?” Steve asks him and he knows he can’t see his face in the suit but he glares at him anyway. Steve’s cheeks turn a little red. “For a mask that thing has a surprising amount of judgement on it,” he mumbles.

“We’ve found him,” Natasha says over the comms. “Bruce was right about that army base- Clint, don’t you dare piss on- oh my god, someone get here and deal with this,” she mumbles.

Steve frowns and Bruce sighs, concentrating for a moment before he turns green and gets considerably larger. Tony’s mostly glad that the pants he made to accommodate worked and no one has to risk being exposed to Hulk dick ever again. And if Natasha isn’t concerned he assumes Peter is okay, if likely shaken. Or still in stasis. That’s probably the most preferable option, all things considered.

*

“He’s loopy,” Natasha tells him, leaning against the door frame and Tony frowns.

“Can you smell that?” he asks Steve, who looks red enough for Tony to assume that’s a yes.

“Smell what?” Nat asks, looking between the two of them and Steve sighs.

“Shit. Neither her or Clint have a strong sense of smell. Budapest,” he says in way of explanation not that Tony believes it. They say that to everything and fuck sakes he knows, he knows that’s Peter.

He pushes past Nat into the room they’ve found Peter in and his brain is already fuzzy but he forces himself to focus through the smell and attraction. Peter has bigger shit to worry about than Tony’s biology to react to his. Shit. Peter notices him fast too, perking up as he sees him and when Tony gets to him he reaches out, circling his arms around Tony and pressing his face into his neck. Tony swears for a moment he sees white and he doesn’t mean to let out a small, strangled moan in response but its almost impossible not to all things considered.

“Hey, Tony,” Peter murmurs, voice at his ear and Tony counts to ten to try and refocus.

“Hey, baby. Lets get you out of here, hmm?” He pulls away, or tries to, but Peter pulls him back fast.

“No, don’t go. Please,” he asks, voice small and eyes wide.

Jesus Christ.

*

Bruce looks over at Tony, who looks half lost himself let alone Peter, who is happily curled into his lap, face at his neck smiling away deliriously. Every time he sees some poor omega in heat he’s a little happier he’s a beta because it looks awful. “Do… do you think you can reverse that?” Steve asks.

His self control is remarkable, Bruce will give him that. His senses have to be going haywire at the moment and Tony is having a hell of a time holding back. Granted out of the two of them Bruce supposes he expects Steve to have the better self control anyway. He looks over at Peter though and winces. “I… don’t think I can,” he says not because he can’t, he’s sure he could figure it out eventually. But after so long of watching him and Tony dance around each other  it seems cruel to pull them apart when they can actually be together now.

“How the hell does that happen?” Steve murmurs.

Bruce shrugs, “no idea. Presumably some type of gene therapy but it looks like the rest of his biology is the same, including the altered bits. I don’t see why Ross would want to turn a beta into an omega, there’s no real use for that.” And of all the eugenicist ideas that have stuck around the idea that betas are useless and should be either eliminated or turned into omegas or alphas isn’t one of them. Now the assumption is mostly that they should just stick to being with each other because omegas and alphas belong together and betas don’t fit into that binary at all. There’s no real reason Ross would have done this except by accident and that’s one hell of an accident. The Nazis spent years on it and they never figured that out either, and god knows his own experiments went terribly.

“What did he want with him to begin with?” Steve asks.

Good question but they don’t have all the answers at the moment. Right now there’s like five different police agencies crawling all over that army base looking for motive and evidence. “As far as we were able to tell he wanted to know how Peter’s powers worked, and yours. But I suspect he chose to capture Peter because he’s the easier target. You’re well versed in military strategy and Peter is a stressed twenty two year old- he’d be my choice too.”

“And off the record?” Steve asks, correctly assuming that Bruce has his own theories.

He sighs, “off the record I assume he picked up my research where it left off. We found one of those spiders Oscorp had, the one that turned Peter into what he is. It looked different from the one Peter drew out for us.”

Steve snorts, “are you sure that’s not because Peter isn’t exactly a good artist?”

Bruce smiles too, looking over to Peter, who’s still curled up in Tony’s lap looking content. Tony looks like he’s given into his urges to actually react to Peter and he’s got his arms curled tightly around him, face tucked into his hair as he gently runs his fingers up and down one of Peter’s arms. “Could be that, but I doubt he got the colors wrong. They look cute together.”

He looks over at Tony and Peter but something looks off in his expression. “Yeah, I guess they do,” he murmurs.

*

Tony knows he should leave Peter be, stick him in a warm bath to cool his skin some and leave him alone but he can’t. Peter doesn’t want him to either and its hard to say no to him when he’s wanted him for so long. Peter has had an interest in him for longer, probably since before they met given that he wasn’t exactly unknown to Peter before then. He’d been so gangly and adorable and green, but full of promise and someone had to get the damn kid out of crime fighting pajamas. May might have lost her shit when she found out but Peter was Spiderman before Tony and he’d be Spiderman without him though he suspects Peter would have grown a brain cell or two and made himself a suit.

And then he got better, seemed to learn from everyone else’s mistakes and he grew up too. He stopped being so gangly and filled out, and his voice started to sound more like an actual person’s and not a squeak toy and he’s smart. He’s always had a thing for intelligence but with Peter its different than the way he usually is. Normally he likes the showy types, not unlike himself though usually they don’t present that showiness in the same way. Pepper was brilliant and had no problem showing off, but she never actually stated that’s what she was doing. She’d just do something better than everyone else and give them a look. Rhodey was the same way, except he had no problem rubbing someone’s nose in it if he felt like they didn’t get the point enough. Even Christine Everhart fell into that given that she’s tenacious and kind of an asshole, but genuinely better at reporting than most.

Then there’s Peter, who’s so quiet about his intelligence, who mostly just uses it to help people and make other people’s lives easier. Its a soft show of the way his mind works but its just… hard for him to get out of his head, the way Peter consistently manages to find easier and faster ways to evacuate people out of cities, or respond to whatever calls for their help they get, or new features for his suit that help him do his job better. People like to think of Steve as the golden boy but the truth is that he’s jaded and stubborn and sometimes that makes him mean and hard to work with. Peter is the one everyone should look toward but he’d never say so himself, even if Tony is sure he knows its true.

“Missed you,” Peter murmurs, curled right into his side, one leg thrown over Tony’s hip and his arms curled tightly around him. Every time Tony moves a little Peter clings harder and that’s adorable even if he’s sure that’ll leave bruises in the morning.

“I missed you too,” he says, running his hand up and down Peter’s back. Poor thing starts to get fussy if Tony stops, irritated that he’s no longer being scented. “Are you okay?” he asks. Its the first time he’s gotten the opportunity to ask and he can feel Peter smile.

“I can finally be with you, so yeah.” Fuck, doesn’t that just break his heart. He curls his arms tighter around Peter, earning a soft noise of happiness for it and Tony feels his heart squeeze. He’s wanted this for so long and he can finally have it so he huffs out a laugh and releases Peter from his grip. He gets a dirty look for it but Tony quickly tilts Peter’s head up and kisses him to remove the frown. Peter lets out a surprised noise and presses himself into Tony, shifting fast so he’s straddling him and Tony has no idea how they ever managed to go this long without doing this anyway.

*

When he wakes up Peter isn’t there and something doesn’t smell right. He frowns, wrinkling his nose and getting up. He feels hungover, which he knows is stupid but taking care of omegas in heat takes a lot out of someone and more out of the omega, so he has no idea where Peter has gotten off to. Can’t be far but he’s not in the bathroom so Tony decides to check the kitchen only to find him absent of that space too. He does find Steve though and he looks weirdly guilty.

“What’s up with you?” Tony asks, somewhat irritable.

Steve looks away for a moment and sighs, “whatever… whatever Ross did didn’t stick,” he murmurs and no. No. This can’t possibly- he just got Peter, he can’t give him up now.

He turns and walks out of the room fast, hoping he’ll manage to find Peter in the lab.

*

Bruce looks pained and Peter doesn’t have the patience for it because he felt his fucking heart break this morning and he has no time for Bruce’s pain too. “Please, you have to be able to do something,” he says, voice cracking.

He shakes his head though, taking a small step back. “Peter, the last time I did anything like this I turned into, as Tony not so delicately put it, a giant green rage monster. Do you seriously want to take that risk?”

Peter throws his hands up, “well I might as well!” he yells. “Because I’m tired of living like this, always skirting around my feelings because I’m a beta and I can’t date anyone who isn’t! Its bullshit Bruce and you should know that!” He’s the only other beta in the Avengers, he figures if anyone can relate is has to be Bruce. No one else has to deal with all the stupid weird laws that they have to follow to properly fulfill their role in never shaking up the alpha/omega binary that people think makes some type or equilibrium or something- he doesn’t fucking know. But he does know its all a bunch of garbage and all because people don’t like betas dating alphas or omegas, there’s no other reason to act like that.

“Peter,” a soft voice says from behind him and he turns to find Tony there. He turns back around immediately and squeezes his eyes shut because he can’t deal with this right now. “Hey,” Tony murmurs and Peter can feel his arms circle around him. He wants so badly to hug him back but he won’t, not when he knows Tony will just leave him and he can’t do it, he can’t deal with that. “Peter,” Tony says, “baby, I love you.”

He feels his breathing slow a little as he sinks into Tony’s arms but he doesn’t turn, doesn’t respond. He can’t because Tony is telling him that to make him feel better, not because he’s actually going to stick around in their barely even was a relationship. Bruce, on the other hand, looks uncomfortable and Peter wants him to leave as much as he wants him to stay.

“You’re just going to go,” he tells Tony, “so do it.”

Tony’s arms tighten around him some and he hears Tony let out a shaky breath. “I should,” Tony says, voice cracking a little, “because you’ll be the one punished for this if anyone found out but-” his words cut out for a moment and he takes another deep breath. “But I can’t, I can’t leave you.”

[cintanna-stuff]

Today I decided to write about something “controversial”. All of the people who follow me know I love Lance’s character and would like to have him as a route. Is this problematic? Apparently. Would they have a healthy relationship? I wish, but I don’t think it matters. Wouldn’t this give women the wrong idea about how a relationship should be? wouldn’t it be better if this never happened? This is what this post is going to be about. This is going to be long and it applies not only to eldarya but also to any otome, novel or movie you can think of.

I’m going to be direct. Please don't treat grown women like they're susceptible children, this game is clearly for young-adult women and some of us like this type of content. You could argue Beemoov isn’t very clear about that rating, sure, but that’s it. Women aren't dumb (let that be clear) and can tell the difference between a game or book and real life as well as make their own decisions. You don’t have to choose for them wether something is acceptable to see or not, could be toxic for them or not or if it should or shouldn’t be enjoyed. 

I can guarantee you that one of the things abused women want is to have their own life back under control and make their own decisions, make their own mistakes, because guess what abusers do: control your life. Control what you can or cannot see, eat, listen to or read, make you feel guilty for enjoying things. Do you really think an abusive man would let “his woman” play a game where she can date 5 virtual dudes? No. So please, consider letting women enjoy books and novels, videogames or movies, doesn’t matter how problematic or controversial might seem to you. 

Some women like reading about sweet romances, others enjoy romances that would be considered unhealthy, toxic or even dangerous in real life and that’s okay. Because when you’re reading a book, watching a movie or playing a game, you are the one in control and you made your own decision and are enjoying yourself without harming anyone, you can stop it whenever you want. And no, women won’t date abusers because they saw it in a game. Just because I liked the movie The Martian doesn’t mean I’d sign up to get stranded in planet Mars.

Now, if you ever start dating an abuser, you won’t know right away. Abusers don’t harm you since day 1, they start as sweet, compromising, romantic people who groom you into the relationship. Once you’re in love and everything is “perfect” they’ll start to control you “for your own good”, they’ll make you feel guilty for enjoying stuff and you’ll think they’re right, they’ll start to control who you’re talking to, what do you search on the internet, your phone calls, will put you against your family and friends, they will keep abusing you mentally while saying “it’s for your own good, I don’t like to do this but you’re making me do it, I just want the best for us” and eventually might end up physical. Women end up in these shitty situations because they get lured into them, because they’re guilted and shamed by someone they “loved and trusted”, not because they saw it in a stupid otome game, thought it was cute and started dating the first dude that punched them on the street.

You want good advice for women to not fall into abusive relationships? don’t let anyone tell you what to do, keep your friends and family close and never let any of your partners put you against them or make you choose, never let anyone shame or make you feel guilty for enjoying yourself with a book or a game, doesn’t matter if it’s a book about taking care of your cactus or a game about dating a villain. If a man loves you, he’ll let you do the things you enjoy and won’t make you feel bad or weird about doing them, might even support you (yes, my boyfriend supports me in my quest to date Lance, he even jokes about it “I already have blue eyes but should I dye my hair white for you😫?” xd)

This might be funny but I think a good example of “I’m actually protecting from dangerous things” is in the movie Tangled. Gothel lies to Rapunzel telling her she’s her mother and locking her in a tower, forbidding her from going outside because everything outside is too dangerous for a young woman. Rapunzel has few books in her shelves, has to spend her time doing harmless hobbies like painting the walls in her tower and when she asks her “mother” to take her to see the lights, she dismisses her wishes and sings a song to scare her about how much she’s protecting her from the outside world. In the end, Rapunzel breaks free with the help of Eugene who promises to take her to see the lights and lives some cool adventures in the process, she goes through some dangerous and life threatening situations but also meets unexpected good people and finds love in Eugene, a burglar and wanted criminal in the realm. Rapunzel took control of her own life and chose to disobey Gothel and risk to go outside to see the lights, with Eugene by her side, she started to do whatever she wanted. This is why for me Tangled>Frozen 🤣 

But back to the topic, what about this game, Eldarya? If you don't like a route, don't play it, choose someone else. No one is forcing you to romance Lance, you have the option to spit on his face, insult him, bite him and try to push him off the cliff if you want to. So, think of this character whatever you want, but consider that other women enjoy or could enjoy him and want him to be an option eventually, there’s no need to advocate against them. Please, consider that maybe some of the women you’re advocating against and trying to make feel guilty for liking Lance (or Leiftan who isn’t clearly a healthy relationship either) might have been victims of abuse themselves in the past and now they’re seeing people who shame them and want to censor that game they chose to play 🙃. Let women be free to choose and enjoy.

As for myself, I can tell you I expect Lance to change if he ever becomes an option, I like seeing the journey of redeemed characters. I enjoy his attitude as a villain but no, I don’t like him hitting or trying to harm my character, but that might change in the future. I don’t care wether this is realistic or not because this is a fantasy game and even if I believe the writing must follow a certain logic, these characters we’re playing with aren’t in our own context nor existent. Lance isn’t even supposed to be a human being and I hope he never fully behaves as one, that’s part of what makes him attractive to me.

[onceuponakdrama]

True Beauty KDrama Review

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Bingo Card For True Beauty

Synopsis: Im Joo Kyung is a high schooler who is upbeat and positive about most things, except for her appearance! She hates the idea of being seen in public without makeup, but fortunately has become a self-taught makeup expert, with a little help from a plethora of internet video tutorials. What she has learned online has transformed her life. At school, she is known as one of the prettiest girls in class, although she secretly lives in fear of her schoolmates discovering what she looks like behind the makeup. In fact, there is only one person from school who has ever seen her minus her “mask” – Lee Su Ho. He is a top-grade student with impressive basketball skills. He is also dashingly handsome, and many of his female classmates have a crush on him. However, Lee Su Ho harbors a few dark secrets from his past, and shuns attention in class. Slowly, these two individuals become drawn together and learn more about one another’s secrets. 

Overall Main Plot: Rating - 8 out of 10 

Personally speaking, I really like dramas that center on the conception of beauty (although it is problematic because she IS pretty and it’s seen without her makeup, but like whatever I guess). I think the main thing that drew me to this point was the fact that insecurity is a big thing in this drama and watching the main lead (Ju Kyung) progress over time and grow more confident with her bare face, along with making real friends who don’t judge her from her face alone. Since that’s the main plot that drives the story, there were a couple of points that threw me off. 

High School Dramatics - maybe it’s because I’m older, but there were so many high school antics that were happening. I understand that, in Korea especially, there’s the issue of high school bullying but it was just so... dramatic. Especially with how Ju Kyung was being discovered as... ugly? I don’t even know if that’s how I would describe it. Although, I do understand that these characters are young, but the dramatics of it all in high school was more funny than annoying for me. 

Trauma - one thing that I felt needed to be addressed more was the trauma, especially Suho’s because homeboy has been through a lot. What I appreciated was the representation of him having a panic attack, but that was the only time it was addressed that he’s developed a lot of psychological issues. Obviously, Ju Kyung also has psychological issues due to her insecurity and her mother (until the end-ish when her mom found out that Ju Kyung was getting bullied, but again, a WHOLE different story). I just felt like there was less closure about these things and I really hoped that Suho would get the help he needed after everything he’s been through. 

Characters: Rating - 9 out of 10 

↣ Lim Ju Kyung [played Moon Gayoung] - wowowowow. I absolutely loved her character and her character development. She was the stereotypical female lead, but she’s absolutely precious and watching her grow as a person was so satisfying. I felt for her so much because she’s gone through so much and that’s impacted the way she’s viewed life and I just wanted her to be happy. I ultimately give her a lot of credit for trying to move on from Suho though and knowing where she wants to take her life (especially after dealing with all the heartbreak). The only real problem I had with her was her center on romance even though she couldn’t even get her grades up, but also like... it’s a romance drama, what was I supposed to expect? But she did have her own interests (make-up, horror comics, etc.) and her own personality to things. Overall, I thought she’s a great female lead and she’s absolutely precious. 

↣ Lee Suho [played by Cha Eunwoo] - okay, he’s also precious. It took a bit for me to warm up to him, but after seeing what he’s been through, I get why he would keep his distance from others. What I didn’t like was the fact that he broke up with her and then comes out of nowhere, which then he proceeds to take a longer time to apologize to her for even though he could have just... texted her, called her, something. He acted like nothing happened when he was the one who broke up with her (for a good reason, but it was still stupid to have a break up sequence that felt unnecessary). Anyways, I did like his development and how he came to mend things with Seojoon and it didn’t ruin their friendship. I also liked how he grew to have an interest towards creating music, especially after what happened with Seyeon. There was also his relationship with his father, but it was still unclear as to what happened after his mother died. But yeah, he’s also another precious bean and Suho and Ju Kyung are a great couple. 

↣ Han Seojoon [played by Hwang Inyup] - second lead syndrome hit real hard here. His character is so great, probably because he’s the soft bad boy that everyone dreams of having. I didn’t like him at first because he pushed all his anger and frustration onto Suho and tried to use Ju Kyung as a way to hurt Suho. However, he grew to understand what actually happened and also, the way he cares for his family is super cute. His friend group is also super cute because they look like a bunch of gangsters when they’re just a bunch of idiots.Again, I noted this with Suho, but when the two made up and became friends again, even though they liked the same girl... Love, love, love. Obviously, he’s also super handsome and had so many chaotic, but iconic, scenes. His character is just so great. He was casted so well and your heart hurts when you look at him. 

↣ Kang Soojin [played by Park Yoona] - okay, Soojin [episodes 1 to 9] is the best. She was so iconic and such a girl crush. After that? So far downhill that she doesn’t get recovered until the last episode. The writers did her so dirty and that’s a hill I will die on. Lowkey, Soojin and Ju Kyung should’ve gotten together but they didn’t because this is not a girl love drama and that was a major missed opportunity. Anyways, while I hated her as a second female lead, I understood her motives, in the sense of the household she was growing up in. This was important because of her character development when she apologized to Ju Kyung and realized her mistakes. It also wasn’t just out of the blue; it was a slow progression that built up to the climax and it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch because Ju Kyung and Soojin lost a best friend. But yeah, the writers did her dirty and I was crying on the inside when they made her a second female lead, when they could’ve just made Ju Kyung fall for her instead. 

Personal Notes: A major strength of this drama is the character development, for all of them. Watching them grow from their problems was so satisfying and the only reason it got docked off a point is the fact that the writers did Kang Soojin so goddamned dirty and her redemption was saved for episode 16 and I will always be angry about it. They also made Seojoon to be a more sad character who didn’t get the girl, but notes about the drama compared to the webtoon will be made in a later section. 

Romance: Rating - 9 out of 10 

I actually really liked the main couple. It was clear there was chemistry and, while I didn’t really like Suho trying to blackmail her, it was also kind of sweet because he just wanted to spend more time with her and she was just.... so dense. While Seojoon provided hard SLS, I liked Suho with Ju Kyung better because he’s seen her at a low point and so has she and they both try to support each other. They were really cute together too, especially since they spent a lot of time at the comic shop because of their aligned interest of horror comics and then they would go to the movies too to watch, even though Suho is scared. I think my favorite scene is when he took her to see Selena and she visibly brightened up. The only reason it isn’t 10 out of 10 is the one scene where Suho was jealous about Seojoon and was super possessive, but he also apologized and admitted his mistake. There was that and also the break-up, which, again, wasn’t really necessary but for the sake of the drama, it had to be there. 

Second Plot/B-Plot and Secondary Characters: Rating - 10 out of 10

Okay, first things first: Hee Kyung and Mr. Han are the cutest couple in this drama. I looked forward to seeing their romance progress more compared the main couple, primarily because they were not the standard couple we see in kdramas. The traditional gender roles were switched with Hee Kyung pursuing Mr. Han and I ate it all up because they are just super cute. Anyways, I think the secondary characters really did a great job of amping up the main plot and the romance, which is the whole point of these characters. I really didn’t like the mom, but it did transition to a better mother-daughter relationship (even though it happened near towards the end). The villainous characters got what was coming to them; the actors made me hate their characters really easily and it was amazing how upset I got at the bullies and when they got beat up, I was laughing on the floor. Again, the secondary characters really complemented the main characters and overall plot line. 

Additional Notes: 

Comparisons to the Webtoon - they really did manage to make this a kdrama. If you’re a fan of the webtoon, there are clear differences that make this a stereotypical kdrama, but (personally) I think it worked fairly well. This also meant major changes to a lot of what happened in the webtoon, so it felt so... interesting. The drama and the webtoon each have their strong points, so, while they stem from the same plot line, it was interesting to see the different routes it took. 

Bromance - Jesus Christ, I LOVED the Suho x Seojoon bromance. It was so nice to see their friendship mended and how they didn’t let romance break their bond. A lot of people talk about the bromance in this drama and it’s actually worth it. There wasn’t just the bromance between those two, but also Seojoon’s friend group, there was also Taejoon and Suho, and there was also Ju Kyung’s younger brother and Suho. It was all so great. 

The Conception of Beauty - okay, this is a major problem in a lot of Korean beauty standards, but like.... Ju Kyung isn’t ugly. I think a lot of people can agree that the whole, pimple face + glasses combo is kind of old. Compared to My ID is Gangnam Beauty (completely different dramas, but still centered on the theme of conceptualized beauty), they didn’t show the face of the “ugly” main character and I really appreciated that because it meant that the main lead perceived it as ugly rather than putting the face of “ugliness” on her. But, I really do like that the drama itself is centered on self-confidence of her bare-face, but... everyone was making it seem like she was really ugly, but like.... come on. 

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10

Recommended? 

↣ Yes: it’s a youth/school drama (most of the time), so if you’re into that, I would recommend it. Again, one of the strengths of the drama is character development and growth. Another reason to recommend this drama is that the main female lead is very lovable and you always root for her and for things to go well for her because of all the shit she’s been through. There’s also the whole concept of self-confidence, which she gains, and it’s an overall satisfying drama to watch. 

↣ No: if you’re a webtoon fan, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it because it definitely strays from the original idea and that’s a bit off-putting to some people. This drama also has hard SLS, so if you don’t wanna have your heart broken, not recommended. They also talk about suicide and if the topic is triggering, you shouldn’t watch it. There’s also the annoying beauty standard that makes the main lead ugly and, if you’re the type to be annoyed at that, this isn’t a drama for you.