#haven’t been tempted like that in a while. holy shit chat. did not like it

[a-concert-just-for-me]

May have gotten fuck-all done today, but at least I didn’t [redacted] like I wanted to. Small wins for the criminally insane‼️

[soulmate-game]

Hawkmoth was a bitch, and Marinette meant that with every fiber of her soul. Fu was also a bitch, and Marinette actually had good memories of the guy. Not many, but she had some. The fact that the guy got two ten-year-olds to become super heroes and fight a supervillain for him kinda soured those memories, though. But with Chat Noir not allowed to leave his house? Yeah, even as young as they were it only took about a year to find out who HawkMoth was and another year to take him down.

Except, that left Marinette alone. The final battle took her mom away, and Chat had to move out of Paris after his dad was arrested. Luckily Jagged allowed her and her papa to move into his house in Gotham, and everything was…

Well, it was okay. For about a month.

Then her dad was gone too, and she had no way to talk to Jagged, and the police were scaring her—

Yeah, that was the basic order of events that led to where she was now. Pushing fourteen years old, ex-superhero, protector of a magical box of gods, stealing the tires off of a very nice motorcycle.

Marinette was tempted to just take the whole thing, she loved bikes and knew she could drive it. But the thing had more security than she knew what to do with, and the fact that it belonged to Red Hood… she didn’t want to deal with trackers today, thanks. So the tires it was.

Should she maybe care more about the fact that she was stealing from a vigilante with a violent streak? Maybe. Did she? Hell no. For all she knew, maybe Red Hood was a bitch too. (Yes, she was still learning English slang. She was fluent by educational standards, but learning how to curse in a foreign language was fun and she still had a little bit to go. Her few street friends were very happy to help).

A shadow dropped down in front of her, and Marinette’s hero instincts kicked in. The tire iron she was using cut through the air, slamming right into the side of Red Hood’s knee.

—*—*—*—*—*

“Hood,” Batman’s voice grumbled over the comms, instantly grabbing the attention of everyone else who was on the comms. It wasn’t as gruff as he usually sounded, in fact it almost sounded like… he was trying not to laugh?

“Did you get gassed by Joker?” Dick asked before Jason got a chance to respond. “Need backup?”

“No,” Batman responded, sounding a little more composed. “Not a rogue. But Hood, I need you to join me at my location as soon as possible.”

Finally getting the chance to talk, Jason responded a little warily; “Sure, B. Wait,” he blinked at the location that was sent to him. “Isn’t that where my bike is parked?”

Batman didn’t respond at first, only the sound of labored breathing— again, as if he was trying not to laugh. “Just get here, Hood.”

Sighing, but not too mad since the night had been fairly quiet so far, Jason decided to humor the old man and head over. When he could see the cape-clad back of Batman, he easily leapt over the last roof and sauntered over.

“Okay, B,” he had his thumbs tucked in his pockets as he drawled. “What’s the issue?”

Batman was grinning. As in, actually showing amusement. And he just pointed down, straight at Hood’s bike.

Jason rolled his eyes under his helmet, turning to look. At first he didn’t see anything amiss, until he saw movement and looked harder. Oh. Oh, holy shit.

“Is that a kid?”

“Yep,” Batman’s grin grew.

“Is she… stealing my tires?” Hood was so, so glad he wore a helmet that hid his expression. Because… wow.

“Yep,” Batman finally lost his composure, chuckling. “This seems like Karma, don’t you think?”

“And you just watched her so you could rub it in,” Jason groaned, throwing his head back in exasperation. Of course he would. Nobody knew it (except the other heroes who knew him) but Batman was a petty little jerk when he wanted to be. He bought the whole Daily Planet just to spite Clark, for crying out loud.

“Don’t adopt her,” Batman said as he stood up, patting Red Hood’s shoulder. “It looks like she’s almost done.”

“Shit,” Jason hissed, looking down to see that she was, actually, very close to being done. She had already had one tire completely free by the time he had arrived, and now she was only seconds away from getting the other one completely free.

He took a quick assessment— she was tiny, and really thin. Definitely a street kid, he thought, though he didn’t recognize her. He knew most of the street kids that stole to get by, nowadays, which meant she must have been fairly new. But even though she seemed to know what she was doing, her small frame made her take longer unscrewing the tires than it normally would have taken. Sure that she wasn’t a threat by any stretch of the imagination, he jumped down. His plan had been to startle her a little by showing up out of nowhere, but he didn’t want to scare her too badly. Just make her jump a little.

But he had underestimated her, it seemed. Without wasting a second, she jumped up and swung her tire iron at his knee. He cursed, she was a lot faster than her had been expecting. He was able to move so that the weapon only clipped the side of his knee, his knee pad thankfully taking the worst of it. She still hit hard enough to make him stumble and hiss in pain though, which was an accomplishment.

That’s when she abandoned her weapon and her tires, darting to try and escape only for Batman to drop down and block her escape. Though really, it was the grin Batman had that scared the girl most of all, apparently, making her slowly back away from him.

“Please stop smiling,” she begged with a faint French accent to her words. “It is not natural.”

That made Red Hood laugh, already recovered and right behind her. He plopped a gloved hand on her head.

“I know, it’s creepy right?” He joked. “What’cha doin’ stealing my tires, kid? I kinda need them to drive anywhere,” he was careful to keep his voice light and devoid of any anger. He wasn’t really upset, all told. It would be hypocritical of him if he was.

She looked between the two vigilantes for a moment, clear intelligence behind those bright blue eyes as she seemed to consider something. Suddenly she pulled away from Red Hood and stepped away from his reach, straightening up and trying to look tall.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said as firmly as she could. “My father was Tom Dupain, he was killed in a mugging three months ago. We were living in a house that our family friend leant to us after my mother’s death six months ago, and we moved here from Paris. I haven’t been able to contact him, and the police… I don’t trust them,” she admitted, clearly seeing this as the chance she had been waiting for. “I have been living on the streets since my father died. I am sorry for trying to steal your tires, Monsieur Red Hood. But it was a risk I had to take.”

“Did you expect us to catch you?” He asked, crossing his arms as he re-evaluated the girl. She was a lot stronger than he had assumed earlier, both physically and mentally. She seesawed her hand to indicate ‘kinda’.

“Even if you didn’t, I could make good money off your tires,” she justified with a shrug. “To me, I would win either way.”

“Who is your family friend? Can he help you now, take you in?” Batman asked, moving forward and kneeling down to be closer to Marinette’s height. Neither he nor Jason had missed the part where she was an orphan, but they had expected that considering what they had caught her doing. And they both knew that she wasn’t likely to take any apologies they tried to offer very well. It was best not to show pity, or she might get angry.

Marinette frowned. “... Our family friend is Jagged Stone. He lets me call him Uncle Jagged,” she told them, clearly expecting the disbelieving grunts they gave. “I mean it! You can call him, he might even be looking for me! I—“

“We know,” Hood assured her, now kneeling down as well. Man, she was short. “Calm down, we know you’re telling the truth. Jagged has made several public announcements about his missing honorary niece, we just didn’t recognize your name right away. And Jagged doesn’t have access to very many pictures of you, those he does have the Mayor isn’t allowing him to show because that spineless jackass—“

“Language, Hood.”

“—Cares more about keeping bad press off the air than finding a kid, even if it’s a world famous rockstar who’s asking. That’s probably why you haven’t heard anything, the mayor’s keeping it off the radio and not many reporters are brave enough to take the story and get on his bad side.”

“Oh…” Marinette took a deep breath, fighting the tears that were threatening to rise up. “He has been looking…” she sniffled, curling in on herself a little. “Can you take me to him?”

“I think we can do that,” Batman agreed, standing up. “I’ll contact him. Red Hood, can you handle everything here until I give you a place to meet up with Jagged Stone?”

Jason nodded. “No problem, B. Come on, little rabid pixie. Step one of gettin’ you back to your uncle is to help me fix my bike back up.”

Marinette sighed, shoulders dropping. “All my hard work, undone…” she playfully complained. But in the end she didn’t argue or fight against it, she just sat down and helped him reattach his tires.

All the while, Jason’s family kept teasing him over the comms. Clearly they were also thoroughly amused by the cosmic display of karma.

“...Monsieur Hood,” Marinette asked once they were done repairing the motorcycle and he had given her his too-big extra helmet. He tilted his head a bit to show he was listening. She squirmed. “Can… can we stop by my hideout? I have something really important I have to get.”

Jason smiles gently under his mask. She might not have been a street kid for very long, but she really did bring back some memories for him. He got on his bike and held a hand out to her.

“Sure thing kid. Wanna grab something to eat after? Can’t have a reunion on an empty stomach.”

She gave him a lopsided smile— not quite overjoyed, but definitely hopeful and thankful. Maybe this was the end of her streak of bad luck, she could only hope.

“Only if you don’t mind, Monsieur Hood,” she agreed before taking his hand and letting him help her onto the bike.

“No skin off my back, pixie,” he assured her. Then they were off. He followed her directions until they got to an abandoned building about three miles away, not in a good part of town at all but at least not in crime alley. Marinette easily led him through the building, skirting around other piles of ratty blankets and up broken stairs until they got to the badly-maintained top floor. She led him over to an almost invisible door in the concrete wall that pulled out to reveal what was probably a broom closet once upon a time. It was crowded with what looked like junk and empty boxes, along with a few blankets and two or three changes of clothes that were clearly her’s. A few belongings scattered around— a book, a small pink purse, and… Marinette came out of the pile of mess holding what had clearly been a very carefully hidden box. She also grabbed the purse and slung it over her shoulder, but didn’t seem worried about anything else.

Jason frowned at the box. It wasn’t that big, but it was clearly made of old wood. There were intricate carvings that were painted pink, in a symbol that was itching at the back of his mind. He recognized that symbol, but from where?

“Ready to go, kid?” He asked as he thought about it, getting a nod from Marinette. Twenty minutes later they were at a Batburger, sitting in a shaded booth that couldn’t be seen from the street.

She never let the box out of her sight. She kept it on the seat next to her, and Jason noticed that she tried to keep one hand on it at all times. But when she spoke, now her French accent stood out to him even more than before. But why—?

And then it clicked. Paris. Hawkmoth. Ladybug, Chat Noir, magic artifacts called Miraculous. Wonder Woman had raised a fuss when the heroes disappeared, declaring that something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on what. Then the magic users they trusted were called in, and returned from Paris with the grim news that the former Guardian of those artifacts had activated a failsafe and passed the guardianship on to someone else while erasing his own memories at the same time. But nobody knew who he could have passed it on to, so Batman had been given the green light to do all the research he and his team could into the Miraculous box to try and help track it down.

And here it was. The carvings were in pink now, which might have been the “cosmetic change” that Constantine had mentioned might happen when the box changed guardians. He had found the box full of super powerful magical artifacts… in the hands of a newly orphaned street kid who couldn’t have been older than fourteen at best.

What the hell?

“...” Red hood reached into his pocket and pulled out an old receipt and a sharpie. He scrawled on the back of the receipt and handed to Marinette. The girl was halfway into a bite of her burger when he did, and blinked at him owlishly before swallowing and cautiously reaching out to grab it. She frowned at the numbers scrawled there.

“What’s this?” She asked.

“My contact info,” he explained. “I won’t ask questions about why you have that box,” he watched her instantly stiffen but continued as casually as he could; “but it doesn’t matter. You can call me if you ever need help with anything, kid. Help with that box, help if you get in trouble in Gotham again, or even if you’re having a bad day. You can call me for whatever, got it? I don’t care if you think it’s stupid, if you can’t talk to anyone else in your life you can always call or text me and I’ll do whatever I can. Got it?”

“...” Marinette sniffled for a second and looked down at the table in silence for a second. “... what if I want your motorcycle?” she joked, but the watery tone of her voice gave her away.

Jason laughed, patting her head. “I need my bike, but we can talk about getting you your own once you are old enough to get a license. You almost done? Bats says that Jagged is ready to meet you, I can take you to him right now.”

“Yeah, lets go!” she was newly energized and shoved the last bite of burger into her mouth greedily. “And Red Hood?” She asked as they headed out to where he had parked.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Thanks.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Permanent tag list (I remembered it this time!)

@rosalineandrosemary @neakco @justanotherfanficlovinbitch @trippingovermyfeet @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @bigpicklebananatree @fantasylover-92 @prongs-flowers @jumpingjoy82 @prettylittlebutterflie @queenz-z @literaryhiraeth @waffelyunsure @deathssilentapproach-blog @waiting247 @theirlmikan @unoriginalmess

[shorkbrian]

I love your yan Hizashi and Aizawa teamup fic so much! I love how shy the reader is and how daddy Aizawa is, and then Hizashi comes home - damn! Thinking about that shower ending 🥰🥰🥰

shower sex just hit different bro.

(What to expect - shower sex lol, NSFW, no penetration, just some clit rubbing and hand jobs. Noncon, dubcon, soft domestic stuff too lol)

Like just Aizawa dragging you into the bathroom, Hizashi already in the shower, completely unaware of your presence as he whistles out a jaunty tune.

Aizawa strips you down, pushes you towards the shower before taking off his own clothes. He guides you inside, and you flinch when the water starts hitting your skin, far hotter than what you were used to.

“Oh shit, didn’t know we were gonna have a party!” Hizashi sings as he turns around, eyes twinkling as he looks you up and down.

You’re tempted to hide your body with your hands, the blond’s eyes sweeping shamelessly over your skin, the man grinning when he makes eye contact with you again.

But Aizawa doesn’t give you that option, softly gripping your elbows and pushing you forward a bit more so he can step in completely, shutting the foggy shower door behind him.

“Be gentle ‘Zashi, I haven’t done anything with her yet.”

You assumed the dark-haired man meant “done anything sexual”. He’d touched you quite a few times, hands stroking through your hair, quickly scrubbing you down in the shower, sitting close in bed as he read a book, one hand around your shoulders as he kept you from bolting.

“Oh.... Sho, how could you resist? She’s so beautiful.” Hizashi breathed, hands fluttering up to your face, stroking over your cheeks as the water burned your skin raw.

“I wanted to wait until you got home.” Shouta shrugged, although the tone in his voice indicated that he would rather have not.

His self control was admirable.

Hizashi had less control, hands immediately dropping to grope at your chest, squeezing gently, pulling.

“God, you’re amazing Sho, I wouldn’ta been able to hold back. Look at her, all sweet and ripe.”

Shouta merely hummed, pressing himself firm to your back to stop you from backing away from his husbands’s fondling. His chest was warm against your back, and you could feel his length quickly chubbing up against your ass, excited by the meek little noises of protest falling from your lips.

A pinch to your nipple had you cry out, hands flying to Hizashi’s wrists, pulling them away from your chest.

“Ah, sorry honey, was just feeling’ ya.”

“I told you to be gentle.” Shouta admonishes, wrapping his arms loosely around your shoulders, pulling you protectively towards his body, until there was no room between the two of you.

Hizashi pouted, backing into the spray of water to rinse out his hair, blonde tresses cascading like silk down his back. He was pretty, while the man behind you had rugged looks.

Shouta seemed to share the same thought, because he began slowly rubbing up and down your sides, pressing a kiss underneath your ear that made you shiver before murmuring “Doesn’t he look nice? He’s so beautiful, long hair, long legs....”

He trailed off as he pressed more kisses to your neck, slowly traveling down. One of his hands crept across your stomach, and you keened in discomfort, trying to move away from his touch, but his other hand grabbed hold of your hip, keeping you still.

“You aren’t so bad yourself, mr. mountain man.” Hizashi winked at his lover, before turning around to scrub at his face, hiding his bobbing erection from view.

The man behind you huffed out a low laugh, and then his fingers were slipping between your folds, making you squeal and buck your hips.

Having someone else touch you was entirely different from doing it yourself. You didn’t know the rhythm of his hands, where he’d touch you next, how much force he’d use, if he’d rub, or pinch, or tap.

The heat built up in your stomach so fast that you almost fainted. You came seconds later, knees buckling beneath you with a provocative moan.

“Holy shit, she’s sensitive.” Aizawa kept you standing, leaning you back against his sturdy body as your thoughts swirled loosely in your mind.

It was so intense, you missed Hizashi turning back to the two of you quickly, eyes widening. “Did she just cum? Just from your fingers?”

“I didn’t even get them inside.”

“Holy shit.” Hizashi echoed his husband’s earlier statement, stepping towards the both of you.

At the feel of his long, slender fingers taking the place of Aizawa’s shorter, stubby digits, you cried out, squirming desperately to escape the sensation of too much.

Thankfully, the blond relented. He reached around your body, gripping his husband’s thick length with a kiss over your shoulder with Aizawa, rubbing him slowly.

As you made sense of the world again, you could feel his wrist, how it jostled against the small of your back as he jerked Shouta off, making the dark haired man moan in your ear before capturing Hizashi’s lips in another passionate kiss.

You felt out of place, inserted between the two men, interrupting their private life, such an intimate moment.

Hizashi seemed to notice your discomfort, drawing back slightly so he could find one of your hands in his own.

“Doing so nice honey, bet Shouta made you feel so good. Wanna make me feel good too?”

You really didn’t, but you didn’t know what else to do except let his hand guide your around his cock, jumping when the blond hissed.

“Oh fuck, her hands’r so much smaller than yours.” He told his husband, reaching for another kiss.

“Mm, wonder what it’d feel like to have both of of you strokin’ me off.”

“Don’t be greedy-” Aizawa huffed, easily rocking his hips forward, signaling to his husband that he wanted more attention on his cock, a tighter grip, a faster pace.

Hizashi grinned lazily, letting out a drunken chuckle before speeding up his movements, Aizawa groaning at the stimulation and dropping his head forward onto your shoulder.

The blond’s hand was still on your own, gripping it tightly as he guided it up and down his shaft, the angle awkward and stiff.

But apparently it was doing something for him, because he was moaning breathily. The sound set Shouta off, because he began bucking against his husband’s hand, and subsequently your ass, grunting quietly as he neared his end.

“A bit faster ‘Zashi... ah, there we go. Making him feel good down there?” He directed the question towards you, breath puffing against your shoulder blades as you were jostled from the force of his thrusts into his husband’s hand.

“She’s doing real good, gonna-gonna cum soon.” Hizashi sounded strained, also reaching his climax as he humped against your hand.

And then they were done, cum sprayed over your lower back, dripping steadily down towards your ass, sliding grossly between your cheeks. There was cum on your front too, coating your hand, wet against your stomach.

Hizashi panted for a second, before moving to the side, letting the spray from the showered wash away the evidence of his pleasure, releasing your hand.

“Jesus, you’re amazing hon’, can’t wait to see what else you can do.” A wink was thrown your way, and Aizawa snorted from behind you as he regained his bearings.

“Calm down ‘Zashi, she’s overwhelmed.” And you were, struggling not to let your breath run away, quicken and choke you until you couldn’t draw air into your lungs. This was all happening so fast, and you couldn’t stop it, didn’t know how.

“You’re alright (Y/N).” Aizawa’s voice was soothing, deep and melodic as he shuffled away from your back, moving to your side so he could reach for the soap and a loofah.

“Okay, okay-” Hizashi held up his hands, grabbing the soap for Aizawa while the dark-haired man grabbed the loofah. “-just gettin’ excited, can’t believe our girl is actually here.”

They washed you together, wiping you down gently, careful of oversensitive skin and the tears beginning to brim in your eyes. Hizashi’s hands were quick to get distracted, trying to slip between your legs before Aizawa quickly slapped them away, giving his husband a warning look. Hizashi responded by playfully sticking out his tongue.

“I just can’t help it, she’s just so cute! And I didn’t get to see her when she came, Sho, you shoulda told me it was happening!” The man whined, putting the soap back on the shelf as they finished washing you up.

Aizawa snorted, rolling his eyes as he helped you rinse off. “You’re just an insatiable bastard, we can fool around after we get her taken care of.”

The blond grinned, checking to make sure everyone was thoroughly clean before he switched off the water, hurrying to grab towels. “Fuckin’ sweet! Here, catch-”

A towel was thrown your way as Aizawa helped you step out of the shower, but it was caught by the man behind you before you could blink. He immediately wrapped it around your body, before catching another towel Hizashi threw his way, slinging it around his hips.

“You gonna tell us about America? How did your stomach handle the food?”

Their conversation turned into a gentle drone of background noise as you were dried off, Hizashi’s hands taking over from your own to rub you down while he chatted with his husband.

You were guided into soft shorts, Hizashi holding them for you while you stepped in, Aizawa pulling an oversized shirt over your head.

They set you on the bed while they similarly dressed, and you sat there quietly, lost in your head, dazed, confused, too stressed and scared to do much but stare blankly at the floor.

It was warm when they tucked you into bed, nestled between them. They were still talking, voices soft and fading to whispers as you closed your eyes, silent and overwhelmed. 

Maybe some sleep would help you feel better, and less like the ground was crumbling from beneath your feet.

[meltwonu]

| 🍒 CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB! 🍒 |     [CHAPTER 5]

pairing; dom!seungcheol x camgirl!reader

this chapter’s notes; camshow, use of toys(sybian), squirting, the long awaited chapter 5 😳💕 do they finally meet?!?!?!?! hehehehehehe also sorry for not being able to post this yesterday, had a busy week and when I tell ya I woke up at 3pm today 😗 💕💕💕💕 as always, thank you so much for your continued interest!! I'm already writing ch 6 and im SOOOO EXCITEDDDD hHEHEHEHEEHEH 💕💕💕💕💕 HAVE A GREAT REST OF YOUR WEEKENDS! 🍒 

chapters; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - ? 

“You guys! I--you have to see this!”

You can’t wipe the smile off of your face when you shimmy to the side, excitedly showing off the new gift that Seungcheol had sent in the mail.

sleepy_wonu: holy hell

universe_WZ: that mustve costed hella

alphagyu97: nothin like feelin extra poor amirite lads

angelhan: it was only a matter of time before dom.cheol was untouchable lol 

You giggle slightly as you adjust the camera so that you and your new sybian are in frame. “Hey~ Don’t say that!! Y’know it’s not the amount of money you spend on me… I’m glad you guys are always here with me~” The sound of coins clinking goes off in the back as you read a few more comments.

dom.cheol: well princess, don’t u wanna show them how you use your new toy? ;)

tangerine_kwan: fuck i bet it can get u to cum so fuckin fast

hoshi_tiger_xx: yessss

dom.cheol has donated $100

hoshi_tiger_xx has donated $50

“Hmm~ How many times do you think I can cum with this? Oh! Why don’t we do this~” You pause, sliding your wet panties down your legs before tossing the material to the side. You grin, swinging a leg over the toy until you’re straddling it. “Rapid fire question! Whoever guesses the right amount of orgasms I can take before I call quits… Wins a special unreleased photoset of me! Go!”

dom.cheol: 5

universe_WZ: 4

sleepy_wonu: 6

angelhan: 3 artist8hao: 5

alphagyu97: everyone took all the good numbers already!!! 7!!!!!

gentleman_josh95: DMAN IT 3

tangerine_kwan: 8, fuck

kitty_junjun: ugh i was gonna say 4!!!!

xcaliburDK: i was gonna say 5!!!!

therealchan99: 2? thats so low tho….

chwenon: as if anyone is gonna say 1, lmao. Uh 6…. If sleepy_wonu happens to disappear

hoshi_tiger_xx: im gonna say 10, but… seems… risky

Reaching for the remote, you situate yourself until the raised part of the toy sits directly on your clit. A shiver runs up your spine at the feeling; already excited for what’s in store. “Um, to be fair I haven’t tried it myself yet so I’m not sure either... Hehe, but I guess we’ll find out together, huh?”

Gulping, you set the sybian to its lowest setting, the air getting knocked out of your lungs immediately as your body lurches forward. “H--holy shit!” The vibrations are already harsh on the lowest setting; your fingers gripping the remote tightly as you try to adjust to the feeling. “O--oh my g-god, I--”

dom.cheol: aww can ur cute lil clit take it?

xcaliburDK: maybe one of the lower numbers was right lol…

The moans spill freely from your lips, garbled noises getting lost in the mix when you start to grind against the vibration. “Fuck, it--it feels suh--so good, hah, already feel like ‘m gonna cum…” You whine, already getting lost in the pleasure. For a second, you’re tempted to raise the vibration intensity but you hold back, letting your wetness coat the toy as you continue to grind down onto it. The sound of donations and comments sound fuzzy to your ears; only the sound of the sybian buzzing reminding you that the camera was still even on.

“Ngh, g-god, I’m--I’m gonna cum!”

tangerine_kwan has donated $75

xcaliburDK has donated $50

dom.cheol has donated $200

dom.cheol: cmon, lets see that pretty pussy cum

Your legs shake as you cum, only a squeak coming out of your mouth as you lurch forward atop the toy. The grip you have on the remote loosens while simultaneously trying to turn it off in the midst of your orgasm.

dom.cheol: awww cumming so hard on the first setting? Cute

therealchan99: lol baby is in trouble now

angelhan: maybe 3 was right lmao

“I--a-ah, fu--fuck!” You cry, shaky fingers finally managing to shut the toy off. Your body immediately untenses; chest heaving with how sensitive you already were and it had only been your first orgasm and the lowest setting of the toy. “O-oh my g-god, I--I didn’t know i-it was that s-strong…” You mumble, body buzzing with the remnants of your orgasm.

sleepy_wonu: well mr dom.cheol did pay top dollar

gentleman_josh95: imagine if u had this for yesterdays show lol

“Oh god, if--if I had this for yesterday’s show, I would’ve been too boneless to do today’s show!” You laugh airily, slowly grinding against the toy already. “It feels really nice though… I’m already super curious about how strong the other settings are…” Trailing off, you reach for the remote again, throat dry as you fiddle with the knob.

kitty_junjun: what if u set it to the max setting

chwenon: idk if her cute lil body could take it

dom.cheol: its okay baby, take ur time. I wanna see how sensitive that pussy of yours can get

“But ‘m already so sensitive~ I dunno how much more I can take~” You tease, biting your lip when all the comments flooding the chat are words of encouragement.

You knew when you started camming that it’d be no easy job. Building up your fanbase and subscriber count had taken you months upon months to even get within the thousands and camming was physically exhausting. Some days your viewer counts were low and some days they were above average and sometimes you didn’t make as much in one show than another.

tangerine_kwan: was therealchan99 right with 2 then? Heh

therealchan99: finally FINALLY ITS MY TIME TO SHINE

Giggling, you slowly start turning the knob; body twitching when the vibrations kick in at full force.

Seungcheol watches in amazement at the way your body jerks atop the machine.

He can see the way your legs twitch unbearably when you cum for the third time; your brows furrowed at the intensity of the vibrations and your taut body when you can barely manage to turn the machine off.

Licking his lips, he slowly thrusts up into his closed palm, spreading the precum down his shaft as he watches you catch your breath.

“I--ngh, fuh--fuck, I---I don’t--don’t know if I--I can cum a-again…”

Seungcheol moans at your breathy whimpers; the arousal in his body pooling up quickly when he sees the fucked out expression in your eyes. His eyes flit to the wetness that coats the silicone portion of the toy, smirking when he realizes how much you really seemed to enjoy the gift he’d gotten you.

Mentally patting himself on the back, he praises himself for making the right decision.

angelhan: please tlel me im the winner im begging

universe_WZ: NO

dom.cheol: is the princess tired already? ;)

You catch your breath, not wanting to give up despite how fuzzy your head was getting and how much your body was buzzing. “I dunno… We still haven’t tried the last setting, you guys… And I’m just so curious...” You whisper, hazy eyes staring into the camera.

hoshi_tiger_xx: god u look so pretty like this, all fucked out

artis8hao: right? fuck, id kill to be that guy who can get u off like this

xcaliburDK: goddamn same

The sound of coins clinking mixes with the ringing in your ears; fingertips already on the knob of the remote.

You take a deep breath, letting the adrenaline kick in as you quickly set the knob to the highest setting, a high pitched cry spilling from your lips when you let go of the remote in favor of holding onto the machine instead. Grinding down onto it, you meet the toy's harsh vibrations as it quickly forces another orgasm out of you in the matter of seconds.

Choked cries spill from your lips as your entire body tenses up; body twitching uncontrollably as you cum for the fourth time. You lean back with whatever energy you have left, bracing yourself on the back of the toy as you relieve your swollen clit of the buzzing machine. Your orgasm refuses to stop and you can already tell how obscenely wet everything’s gotten when your head starts to clear.

alphagyu97: fuck you squirted all over the toy baby

universe_WZ: fuck fucki fuck

universe_WZ: wait did i winf kjfhdsjk

You shakily slide off of the machine, resting on your side as the machine still buzzes with life next to you. Your entire body won’t stop shaking, head muddled as you fight the urge to shut your eyes and sleep for the next 5 days. “I’m--I--” You whimper, still feeling the phantom vibrations between your legs.

“I--ho--holy fuck, I, w-wow, I--I don’t--that--I’m, I’m just… wow.”

dom.cheol has donated $400

dom.cheol: knew you’d like it ;)

universe_WZ: THAT MEANS I WON

universe_WZ has donated $150

angelhan has donated $150

therealchan99: well, at least some of us got close

hoshi_tiger_xx: fuckin speak for urself man i said /10/

You end the show after letting ‘universe_WZ’ know you’ll contact him soon, shutting your eyes as you lay on your soiled sheets.

You can still feel your fingertips twitching when your eyes slide shut, chest heaving in deep breaths as you try to relax yourself, momentarily cursing yourself for pushing your body too far for tonight’s show. 

Groaning, you reach for your phone, the screen lighting up with a text from Seungcheol, a simple ‘don’t forget to drink water ;)’ in your notifications and you can’t help but pout.

Seungcheol was nice, almost too nice. Definitely not in a murderer kinda way though, you think. 

He bought you expensive gifts and never asked for anything in return which made you feel bad sometimes. And while the donations and tips you’d made through your camshows was enough to get by with, Seungcheol’s generous donations helped you always make your rent and bills on time without worrying if you’d have enough or not.

You quickly text him back with a smile on your face; hoping that he’ll like what you had to offer.

Seungcheol feels the exact same way he did when you first contacted him offering him a free show, except maybe ten times worse. At first, he’d been a little sad that he hadn’t won your quick little game but this made up for it 20-fold.

The six simple words read ‘want to meet up next friday?’, a small heart emoji next to the question and he’d almost thrown his phone when he read it, hands shakily responding with a simple ‘I’d love to.’ to make it seem like he was calm when he was most definitely not.

His immediate next order of business after replying was to text Namjoon despite how late into the night it already was, begging for the day off and offering to take any shifts or pay cuts in exchange for it. 

All he needed was one day and he swore he’d never miss a day of work ever again.

Namjoon responds with a quick ‘sure, why not’, momentarily confusing him as to why his boss was awake while simultaneously sending Seungcheol into complete panic when he realizes he finally gets to meet you.

The week goes by extremely quickly to Seungcheol; his mood on a completely different level when he offers to pick up Yoongi’s Sunday shift without a complaint. He cleans up all the messes around the roller rink and even offers to do jobs that aren’t his which have Jeongguk raising a brow at the older male.

In the days that lead up to your meeting, Seungcheol looks up a few cafes that you might be interested in and even goes to get an STD exam, not that he’s expecting anything. Safety first, he says.

Your Wednesday show comes and goes, Seungcheol too excited to even get off when he watches you and he even donates an extra $600 at the end of the show; travel spending money, he offers.

And Thursday comes without a hitch and he all but skips to the employee backroom once his shift is over, humming a tune while he changes out of his uniform.

“Hey hyung, no offense, but are you okay?” Jeongguk rests against the locker next to Seungcheol’s open one, brow raised at the blue haired male that beams back at him. “I’m scared, why are you so… giddy. You even offered to take Yoongi-hyung’s weekend shift? What the hell was that about? I’ve never seen him that giddy either.  Man, this place is getting weird, maybe I should quit...”

Seungcheol can’t help but laugh, patting Jeongguk on the shoulder before shutting his locker.

“I have an important meeting tomorrow, that’s all. And don’t quit, ‘cause who else is gonna give me free food.”

While the excitement had him since Saturday, now that it was finally Friday, he was downright nervous.

The two of you had agreed to meet at 2PM in front of the cafe that Seungcheol had picked out and you’d gotten a hotel in town to make it easier on yourself instead of trying to get back to your place too late. Seungcheol had offered to come pick you up, but you had politely declined; instead opting to meet him first before letting him do anything else for you.

And by nature, Seungcheol gets to the cafe 15 minutes early, fidgeting and continuously running his fingers through his hair as he patiently waits. He can feel his palms getting sweaty when he rubs them against his jeans, mentally trying to keep calm and his head floods with all sorts of thoughts; mainly, how he even got into this position with you in the first place. And he gets so distracted that he doesn’t realize you’d be standing watching him zone out for the last 5 minutes.

“Wow, not sure what’s got you so focused but you’re standing so still!”

Seungcheol hears your cute airy laugh that follows, a cherry blush on his cheeks when his eyes meet your smiling face. “I--oh my god…” He whispers, taking in your appearance.

He feels his face buzzing, fingers twitching when he sees you in a cute simple  sundress. “W-wow, you--you’re just… so beautiful. I mean, you’re beautiful on cam too but just, wow, in person? Incredible.” The blush reaches his ears when he realizes he’s rambling, a nervous laugh spilling out of his lips.

“S--sorry, I, uh, usually I’m more chill than this but y’know…” He trails off, to which you nod. You step closer to Seungcheol and he gets a hint of your sweet smelling perfume, mentally groaning when your cute eyes peer up into his.

“That’s okay! I totally understand~ I’m kinda nervous myself too, to be honest…” You pause, a pink blush coating your own cheeks. “But let’s talk over some food, huh?”

Seungcheol doesn’t want to pry, but he’s not sure if he should address you as ‘Cherry’ in person, or if he should avoid calling you by anything at all.

He watches as you go through the cafe’s menu, biting the inside of his cheek as he itches to ask.

“‘Cheol… I can feel you staring, y’know.. Penny for your thoughts?” You ask, concerned eyes meeting his nervous ones.

“I just-- Sorry, I didn’t mean to be awkward, I just was wondering how I should address you in person? I don’t want to overstep my bounds, I know you don’t put your real name out there so…”

You place your menu down, closing it before leaning on your palms atop the small table. Seungcheol is cute, too cute, you think. You knew this would be a question when the two of you eventually met and you had given yourself the time to get used to the idea that he’d know your real name.

He eyes hyperfocus on your glossy lips, watching as you say your name for him for the first time.

Seungcheol’s heart threatens to beat out of his chest when he hears it; repeating it over and over in his head before he says it out loud.

“Wow, it sounds nice when it’s you saying it~” You tease, leaning back in your chair. “I don’t mind if you call me by my name, by the way! The pet names are cute but maybe we should keep that to the bedroom~” You end in a whisper, winking at the male.

Fuck, he thinks, just as his cock throbs at your comment. He really wishes you wouldn’t say things like that because he’s weak and he knows it, especially when it comes to you. “Okay, cool! Yeah, sorry, I just---I didn’t want to overstep, I know you don’t really let that be public information.”

“Of course! And thank you, I really can’t tell you how much you’ve done for me. I really… really wouldn’t be able to do all the things that I do if it weren’t for your constant support.”

You want to say more, but the waiter comes to take your orders, cutting you off until he leaves again.

“By the way…” Seungcheol looks at you with curious eyes, lips puckered around his drink straw. “Tell me about yourself, ‘Cheollie! I feel like we didn’t really get to talk that one time!”

He swallows the water in his mouth, licking his dry lips. Here goes nothing, he thinks.

“I swear, and please don’t think I’m a loser, but I--I work at a roller rink. It’s really not cool, I’m not some high paid CEO or whatever, I--I just, I work hard?” Seungcheol chuckles, running a hand through his hair as he waits for your reply.

“Wait, that’s so cool! Oh my gosh, I kinda wanna go!”

The surprise washes over Seungcheol, eyes wide as saucers when he hears you saying you’d want to visit his workplace. “Wuh---wait, seriously!?”

“Yeah! It’s kinda, like, retro! I haven’t been to one since I was a kid!” He quickly offers to bring you to the roller rink on Sunday so you could have somewhere to hang out while you were in town.

“And sadly, I took a shift on Sunday so you can hang with me while I work.” 

Seungcheol grins, watching as you jokingly roll your eyes at him. “So you did it on purpose, huh…” The two of you share a laugh, glad that your first meeting seemed to be going okay so far.

“Well, I mean, if it makes you feel any better, my best friend works the concession stand so I’ll make sure to get you a free pair of skates and food whenever you want?”

“It’s a deal!”

The two of you continue to talk over your late lunch, Seungcheol telling you of the various work hijinks he’d gone through at his time working at the roller rink.

“Which, by the way, that morning show you did… Hope you know I holed up in the restroom for an entire hour for that ‘lil stunt.”

You can’t help the tears that fall from your eyes when you laugh, only feeling slightly bad for the blue haired male. “But I told you! Sometimes it’s just like that, y’know~” You tease back, heart blooming at the way you and Seungcheol got along.

In all honesty, there’d been something on your mind since you first sat down and you didn’t know when the right time to ask was, or if it was even appropriate.

The smile slips from your face as you bite the inside of your cheek in thought.

Seungcheol takes the bill from the waiter, slipping his card into the holder before you can even offer. But he notices the way your expression falls, noting the hesitance in your eyes when he looks at you from across the table.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” His voice is gentle, soft and caring when he leans over the table to make sure you’re alright.

“Yeah! Just---Can I ask you for a favor?”

[danieyells]

Yo Danie, I wonder if you've got any ideas on this; in TAS, transients either get summoned to Tokyo because the app reaches out and makes pacts on people's behalfs with willing familiars, or they get summoned by having, like, a wish of some kind and they end up stumbling through a portal to Tokyo to see that wish fulfilled, right? And then they either get unsummoned, or stick around for whatever reason?

Here's the thing; when they get unsummoned, do they go home? The Red Oni in chapter 1 seems pretty convinced that he's going to die unless you make a Summoning pact with him, but Salomon says later that Shiro's familiar whose connection you cut will just end up going home. Further to that, Macan says about Oniwaka when he's vanishing into light that he's going back to his home world, and then when his strength recovers he'll pop right back in.

The thing is though, that there's a remark early on that Stray Transients, who are Transients without a Summoning bond by the game's definition if I'm remembering right, can only maintain themselves for a while by sustaining themselves on the land's energy. Even further, the actual Housamo wiki says that they'll be unsummoned from the game if they don't find a way to sustain themselves, usually by getting into a pact. Guilds I believe are also noted to be one way around this. Does that mean that if you just wait outside of a Pact, you'll go home? Or would you pop back in again after a bit, essentially trapped in Tokyo?

ALSO ALSO, Bathym says that, though this only applies to "his hella demonic self", demons need tons of emotional energy directed at them to survive, and a pact is the most efficient way to get energy.

But we don't see Sitri in a Guild or a Pact (unless you Pact him, but I'm pretty sure that's non-canon), and Sitri also has a family. They're all demons one would presume, so why does he not seem to need anything like Bathym does? We can derive from this that Bathym was either speaking about himself, and only himself, lying to try and get the Protagonist to make a pact with him, or that Sitri has a Pact he isn't chatting to anybody about, right?

HOWEVER. In chapter 4, we see that the Aoyama guild provides supplies for the enormous number of Stray Transients who have nothing and no prospects, but that those strays are unlikely to be guild members. Further to that, she mentions that the ninjas and many other strays are like, literally treated as the dregs of society. So, how come they're still around? Surely the Stray Transient population should be either dwindling all the time, or in constant flux? But I'm pretty sure there's a notable overpopulation issue in canon because of the sheer number of Transients! Not to mention, if they're treated like dirt and killed and traded, you'd think they'd just...WANT to leave, right? So they could just wait until their connection ran out.

AND ALSO, it's noted in the backstory that Transients started pouring through the gates one day in history, and that this generation has never lived in a Tokyo without walls, but the previous generation therefore presumably did; that means like, it's been at least 2 decades, possibly 3. How long could those Transients have stuck around without a pact going by the lore?

Lastly, the Protagonist has the power to rend Transients connections to Tokyo, canonically. How then, do those Transients come back if they've had their connection severed? And shouldn't the Protagonist offer to go to the slums and ask if anybody would like to go back to their homeworld if that were the case? Or will everyone literally just rebound to Tokyo completely?

Further to that, when people fulfil their wish, do they go home? When they've played their Role out completely, is that the end of their tenure in Tokyo?

Basically, I think the whole system is a little underexplained and I've seen you post thoughts here on stuff, so I was wondering as to what you'd make of it all! Am I missing something?

. . .holy shit anon this is an essay innit lol not that i'm complaining, I just was not expecting it when I saw the notification after I woke up. For the record I saw this at. . .7am or so. It is now 11:55 when I'm finishing it. HYPERFOCUS GO BRRRRRRRRR. OKAY LET'S SEE IF I'VE GOT SOME THOUGHTS FOR YOU.

DISCLAIMER: I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS GAME FOR LITTLE OVER A MONTH AND I FEEL LIKE I HAVE FAR FROM ALL OF THE DETAILS. I haven't read three of the translated past events yet and I haven't read most of the untranslated content(including Chapter 11 although I'm super tempted you don't even know.) These are just my understandings of things, I suppose.

ALSO IDK HOW FAR YOU ARE IN THE STORY. . .I mean you mention them being sold so you're probably up to Chapter 10 at least since that's where we learn about Daikoku selling transients because it gets him off I guess, although they also could have mentioned it some other time and I just forgot lol BUT. YEAH PROBABLY GONNA MENTION SPOILERS.

TL;DR:

Red Oni: summoned to Tokyo without a pact. When rended from the land would disappear, possibly die. Likely this is because of whatever conditions are happening where they came from or having had already been dead when summoned. Possibly also just a false belief because they didn't know well what was going on to begin with. Possibly also just part of the game plan originally but retconned by the devs then never rewritten.

D-Evils: Shiro's Rule is Ressurection which causes an exception when clashing with Rending. The world of the Old Ones is gone, the D-Evils are familiars created by/living in Shiro's book. Entities, abilities, and artifacts from Old Ones are able to be used outside of the app/battle zones, so D-Evils can exist if Shiro just summons them. D-Evils don't go away when rended because they're part of Old Ones and Old Ones is gone--if they go away they return to Shiro's artifact where they came from. They also donct go away because rending them causes an Exception.

Oniwaka; Zabaniyya; Ophion: rended from EXCEPTIONS not from the world. Were likely sent back in order to resolve the exception after being rended and to recover the energy that sustained their physical forms in the first place, not because they had no means of being sustained in Tokyo. Returned due to pacts with MC, positions in Guild, unfulfilled pact, etc once their energy to maintain physical form returned.

Stray Transients: likely have outstanding pacts and thus do not disappear over time. However, some don't and those proper strays will likely return home after an amount of time, but we don't know how long. Alp has been in Tokyo for a few months but isn't disappearing despite arriving because he wanted to be loved/popular. So unattached transients stay around longer than a few months. They may also be attached to the school they were initially meant to go to to be monitored, or someone who works there. They may not want to go home due to poor conditions, being dead, lacking a home or people to return to, etc. Remember, even in real life people immigrate to places that treat them poorly--but that's because even that and the potential in those places is likely better to them than whatever they're running away from. If the transient arrived in distress it's because they wanted to be away from wherever they started out or because they desperately needed something. This new opportunity may be what they need--to find someone they lost, to find an answer, to simply start life over fresh. Even if they're being abused, looked down on, they may simply be happy to be alive. If they want to go home, they hopefully just have to wait--but you have to live if you wanna get home, don't you? Best to survive as well as you can.

Stray Transient Population: constantly increasing to sustain/grow the Game for the World Representatives. The overpopulation is deliberate. They do not care about the wellbeing of these people, they only want to create a stadium to fight in, and for that they need more transients and app users than humans not using the app in Tokyo.

Sitri: Aside from forming a pact with him, Sitri's Sacred Artifact is his wings/are his feathers, which cause people to fall in love with someone who touched them after the feathers that had been touched are attached to a second party. Sitri feeds off of the love directed to him. This is troublesome for him more often than not, but I'm pretty sure that's how he gets the emotions he needs to eat if not via pact.

Being around from the start?: The gates appeared in 1999--it's been at least 20 years, assuming the game takes place anywhere near the present year. Off the top of my head we don't know if any stray transients have stuck around for extended periods. How long someone's been in Tokyo rarely comes up. We know Yule has been in Tokyo for a few years because he went to middle(elementary? Idr) school with Ryota. Sitri is similar with Kengo. As such, given Sitri and Yule aren't in guilds as far as we're aware, assuming being attached to a school doesn't make one connected to Tokyo, we can assume they're stray transients. This means that they'd been here for years, as strays. Given we know stray transients disappear eventually, it's safe to assume that there have been stray transients who disappeared and went home. Assuming it isn't different per individual, stray transients can stay in Tokyo for several months to several years, but to my awareness there's no set number.

Going Home: in order to go home a transient who's been summoned must fulfil their summoner/pacted humancs desire. Surtr, Azathoth, and Babalon all disappear after fulfilling Arc's desire for them to be their family, leaving behind their sacred artifacts which contain their memories until they disappeared. So, yes, fulfilling the desire entrusted to a transient/playing out their role will cause them to fulfil the conditions of their pact, causing them to disappear. However, we don't know what happens when they do. Thus far, those three haven't come back despite the reset occurring. Arc was able to summon their artifacts but otherwise could not reach them. Their artifacts were taken by Breke who was able to channel the memories within and allow Arc to communicate with Azathoth's memories.

SLIGHTLY MORE FULL VERSION WITH A COUPLE SCREENSHOTS

(read the tl;dr anyway because I probably remembered things while Inwas writing it that I didn't remember to put in the 'full' version lol I WROTE MOST OF THE LONG ONE, WROTE OUT THE TL;DR, THEN FINISHED THE LONG ONE SO. PROBABLY WANNA READ BOTH.)

Transients arrive in Tokyo either by being summoned, by being summoned ACCIDENTALLY(someone wishes to have friends/meet someone new, etc), by being pulled in by the Rainbow Of Transient Light randomly(?) sucking them up when they're in distress/have a wish to fulfil, or some combination of those.

In Macan's character quest, MC and Macan learn that the one who technically summoned Macan was MC. The same thing happens in I think Xolotl's. They end up going to the collided past--or a collided memory?--and when past!Macan is in distress over being alone, MC approaches him and says they're there for him, however past!Macan can only hear them, not see them. He calms down and asks if they're searching for him and says he's going to find them--which causes him to disappear and be summoned to Tokyo in search of this person who wanted to be by his side. Macan realizes that's exactly what happened to him--he heard a voice saying that they were with him and, in his desire to no longer be alone, the transient light came along and took him.

(it's written as 'Magan' in Japanese hence why it's written that way here--this was likely translated before his English name was given.) (Such a request, perhaps, means that he's with MC until he's dismissed by them specifically.)

Xolotl was running from being sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca and MC and future!Xolotl protected him. Seeing himself be weak and seeing himself be strong enough to try and protect MC and seeing MC who refused to leave him and hearing what they had to say, he desired the strength to live with the people he loves and for there to not be sacrifices again. He may not have gone to Tokyo if he hadn't realized that desire through meeting himself and MC. In fact, he may not have survived at all(though maybe Quetzalcoatl would've protected him if not collided MC and present!Xolotl.)

SO. If you recall correctly, MC is implied to be a transient as well. There's also the possibility that they're not, and simply are some poor sob the Game shoved 23+ memories in at once, broke the memories of the host in the proccess, and thus we have MC coming to in a park confused about everything but their own name(of course if that were the case surely someone in Tokyo would recognize them beyond their being the trophy/exile from their home world, so it's not likely.) Lil Salomon says that as a summoned transient they can only go home if they find and fulfil the wishes of their summoner. However they neither know who or where their summoner is.

Transients can appear simply due to someone's desire for companionship. But they don't necessarily appear atop that person, hence not knowing their summoner. They just hear a voice, may not even hear exactly what's being said or asked for, and the light picks them up and drops them off with no further info or ceremony. So if someone is pulled into Tokyo this way they have a summoner even if they don't know it--even if the summoner themself doesn't know. So they won't just disappear over time unless that person unwills what willed them there or they die or something. Plus we don't know how long stray transients stick around if they have no pact/summoner--we just know that they disappear eventually. It's more than a few months, because Alp showed up a few months ago and hasn't disappeared yet.

Several characters are attached to guilds which may keep them from being Strays. However some, to our awareness, have neither summoner/master nor guild. At most they may be attached to schools. Sitri, as you mentioned, is one of them, as is Yule--whom Shiro refers to as a stray transient he sees every year without being corrected(although the situation wasn't exactly a good time to clarify that lol.)

Both of them have been in Tokyo for years without disappearing--and the app is a kind of but not super recent creation, so guilds likely didn't sustain them this whole time. Neither have disappeared. Of course someone may have summoned them or they may be part of guilds without it being stated or perhaps being in a school has the same effect as being in a guild. But we don't know that for sure, either.

(Japanese middle school is from 12-15 years old. Kengo's a second year High School student now, so 16-17 years old. Sitri was a first year while Kengo was a third year, so there's two grades between them. Sitri's been in Tokyo at least 2 years. I believe he mentions seeing Lucifuge in a magazine in Ghenna so he hasn't been here his whole life either. So a few years, but not 15.)

Transients that disappear don't have pacts but transients that come back probably do/have formed pacts/attachments to the world. Remember, Oniwaka, Zabaniyya, and Ophion say to call on them if you need them. They're attached to the player now, perhaps having formed a pact incidentally, assuming the situation that brought them there in the first place isn't still in effect(or they're not still bound by, say, their guild.)

Also, much like in real life, sometimes whatever is home is worse than the horrific things you deal with wherever you immigrate to. Or perhaps you've formed attachments somewhere you've arrived and are willing to endure suffering for them. It's rarely as simple as "we're suffering, we wanna go back to where we came from." Especially since transients likely arrived due to distress or wanting to be anywhere else but home. Some of their worlds don't exist anymore(Old Ones) or are collapsing(Yggdrasil; El Dorado.) Some people have no one and nothing back home and this is a new start for them, even if the start is bad. Also they could be waiting until they go home automatically, but what're you gonna do while you wait? Probably live your life as best you can. If you're gojna be stuck somewherefor a few months you may as well make yourself at home.

So why doesn't MC go around rending people themself?

Well, for starters, they're made to be a high school student most of the day. Where would they find the time lol. Second they're a bit busy trying to save the world and all. . .and if some teenager wandered up to you and said they could get you home if you had an app battle with them, would you really believe that when you've been told your best bet is to either find your summoner or wait out your incidental connection to the world? Sounds like a kid trying to stir up trouble, and not all transients have the app anyway. I mean really would you expect the local homeless population to have smartphones? Probably not.

Furthermore. Spoiler alert

This system of the game, the gates, the transients, it's no accident. It's intentional. Tokyo is the setting for this inter-world competition to prove which world is strongest or something to that effect--and the winner gets MC, the host of the exiles and perhaps some kind of powerful system. Of course what they do with MC is up to them. The Warmongers want to keep the game going so they can fight the powerful MV over and over again forever. We don't know what the Invaders want yet afaik but based on the name I'd assume they want to use MC as a super soldier to conquer other worlds. And the Rule Makers want to use MC to support one of their own worlds as its System. /smacks MC on the back) this baby can hold SO MANY rules and roles! Hold up a whole damn world apparently!!

So think of it this way. . .they could go around rending everyone until the transient light returns them home or to the deaths they desire. . .but would the World Representatives really allow that? They'd just keep bringing in transients. They need to fill Tokyo with them--until transients and app users outnumber the humans naturally belonging to Tokyo--so they can have their little contest.

MC alone would never be able to pull off sending everyone home as long as the Game is running. The worlds would not allow their contest to be ruined.

As for who goes where and does what when unsummoned. The Red Oni hadn't been there long. And perhaps wasn't summoned in the first place, nor had anyone likely explained much to them for that arrival. Also if you felt yourself disappearing, felt your connection to this world just torn off and uprooted and fading away, even if you knew better you'd probably think you're dying. That'd be scary. You'd want to avoid it.

Of course it's also possible the oni was dead or dying to begin with and their connection being severed would send them back to death--like Shino, who'd died long ago in the Land of Wa and when he died in Tokyo he went back to being dead.

The D-Evils don't have anywhere to go back to besides Shiro's book. The world of the Old Ones is gone. As such "home" for them is back with Shiro--and remember, their rules clash anyway. Rending and Ressurection don't mix. MC couldn't rend the D-Evils from Shiro properly because it causes an Exception. At best rending them will send them back to the book until Shiro summons them again. Plus, entities from Old Ones can use their powers without the use of the app--including those with Old Ones artifacts. Shiro can summon the D-Evils at any time, even outside of an app battle--so to send them 'home' doesn't really send them anywhere but back to Shiro since they both have no home to return to and were summoned to exist in Tokyo.

Demons needing to recieve emotions seems to be more of a feeding thing than a transient connection one afair. Like Alp eating dreams--he'll die if he doesn't. It's like "I need to external feelings or I'll starve" not "I need external feelings or I go back to Ghenna." Sitri likely survived thanks to his feathers--his sacred artifact which cause people they attach to to fall in love with whoever touched them previously--causing a constant stream of love towards him as he needs it. As such he doesn't need to have a pact to live, he only needs to make people fall for him to absorb that feeling and then take his feathers back to stop eating.

The canon-ness of MC making pacts with everyone is perhaps debateable. However events, character quests, special quests, etc have characters refer to Mc as Master or Summoner. And the story can sometimes reference events and such(see: meeting characters in events before they're part of the main story, meeting them in the main story, and being able to go "didn't I meet you in [season/holiday]?" And they go "yeah, we did! It's nice to see you again!" So technically events and the like are as canon as you make them. Also having a pact doesn't mean that person can't be your enemy or can't hurt you or is fully at your command, which means that it doesn't necessarily not make sense that characters can be in pacts with/summoned by the player while still being against them. MC likely has the ability to form pacts easily/unconsciously.

This is likely(and this part is speculation!) because of MC's role as the Wanderer--as the host of the Exiles of the many worlds, they're a system in and of themself(or they'e able to be one.) As such attachments to them are like individuals having 'faith' in them, the way Systems sustain worlds. Especially those who had some relationship with or attachment to an Exile they host. This may also cause a pseudo pact with people they meet and get attached to(and are attached to them in turn, not necessarily in a positive way)--like people believing in a faith. The attachment to them, love for them, hate of them, fear of them, is a sort of belief that causes them to be able to stay in Tokyo longer because they are now unwittingly part of MC's system. After all MC is a transient and transients, as far as I recall/understand, don't summon other transients to Tokyo, they only summon artifacts because bringing a whole person and their memories requires a strong means to bind them. Transients' connections are already dependent on someone/something else--which is already taxing as a pregnancy--and that'd be hard for them unless they were born into Tokyo.

In cases like Oniwaka and Zabaniyya and Ophion, they likely needed to disappear temporarily in order to resolve the Exception on top of regaining energy to sustain physical forms in another world. Think of it like closing a program on your computer. If the program clashed with another and an exception occurs you close the one of lesser importance. You can then maybe open it again once things have cooled down with your proccesser and it can handle them at the same time--thus, they come back to Tokyo even after being dismissed by fixing the exception.

So they pop back in because they're still bound to Tokyo. MC only rended them from the exception, not from the world itself. But transients who truly have no connection will go back and stay until summoned again. . . .

(Now that I think about it when someone fulfils the reason they were summoned to Tokyo they disappear and seem to disappear for good. We don't know if they die or what. They've been eliminated from the game. This happens with Surtr, Babalon, and Azathoth. After they successfully, properly became like Arc's family and that desire was considered fulfilled the pact was complete and they disappeared, leaving behind their artifacts.

Red Oni may have been summoned to be a tutorial for the player. But also a tutorial for the player character. Red Oni thus would go away completely after fulfilling that desire of whoever summoned them, thus giving them their fear they'd die because they'd served their purpose.

I just happened to remember/consider that lol ANYWAY.)

Basically it's a bit underexplained I agree.

But that's because you, as the player, as the MC, aren't supposed to know everything that's going on. You're supposed to learn as you go while also being denied information by the Powers That Be. You don't have your memories, you don't know what's going on here until you see/experience/hear about it. It's part of the immersive understanding/storytelling proccess. The characters don't tell you how things work because they only barely understand it themselves--and then when they learn 'this isn't just a game, this isn't just coincidence, there's something greater happening here' everything they know gets thrown into question. The people who do understand it aren't going to tell you much because they don't want you to ruin their game. You're just the final boss and the trophy to be won--and possibly the system upon which the game resides, resetting every time you die so you can struggle to be won someday.

You "can't win."

So you don't need to know how it works.

That doesn't stop you or anyone else from trying to find out, though, nor does it stop you from trying to change it.

. . .I hope that helped a bit! 8'D I don't think you missed much, really. You're right in that it's underexplained but That's Storytelling, Baby!

[write-haikyuu]

hello! could I request a first date scenario with tendou? thank you ♥️♥️♥️

An unexpected Tinder Date (ft. Tendou Satori) | Scenario

Hi! So so sorry to keep you waiting! I thought this was kind of a cute scene before I knew it was smiling my way as I finished it towards the end :). I hope you enjoy!!! Come back and request for more hehe

also fun fact the sweet potato cheesecake latte in this story is legit a real thing I experienced at a cafe once LOL. and yes, I did try it. I hated it. don’t do it. 

Flipping through the photos of the profile, you took another glance at the dating app on your phone before you tried to match a red-dyed hair and tall figure in the cafe to the photos on your screen. Nervous to hold up the people rushing into the cafe behind you, you plopped down to the nearest seat by the window and texted your date. 

2:50PM: “Hi! I think I’m here! Sitting by the window haha” 

You didn’t expect a reply, considering that you came ten minutes earlier to prep yourself. It was your first Tinder date after all. If anything, him not arriving just gave you more time to calm your nerves and catch a breath. You scrolled through your conversation with this guy, double-checking to see if you had met at the right place and time. Quietly smiling to yourself as you chuckled back the silly messages the two of you exchanged. You’ve hit it off to a great start. For one, both of you were reading the same weekly Shonen manga, and given the fact that he played volleyball, you instantly had a flow of conversation to start with. This guy seemed promising. 

3:07 PM: ETA? I already caught up to this week’s shonen! Lol

No response. 

Locking your screen, you placed your phone down and stared out at the cafe counter. Where was this guy? The back of your head you were hoping he was just running late and hopefully, didn’t just forget about your date. Or even worse, flaked on you. Fixing the hem of your sleeves, you slowly walked over to the counter to begin looking at the menu. 

“Let me guess, first Tinder date and the guy bails on you?” The barista turns around from the counter and tilts his head towards where you were seated. Huffing in defense, you cross your arms and take a step back from the cashier. 

“N-not even! I’m early.” 

“You were early. But you’ve been sitting there for fifteen minutes now and haven’t even bothered to order until now.” The barista raised his brows at you and gave you a grin. Adjusting the beanie on his head, he cleared his throat and the tone of his voice switched over to something more chirpy. 

“What can I get ya?” 

Realizing that there was no one behind you this time, you eased and glanced up to the menu and tapped your chin. Though it may have felt like an eternity for you, the amount of time you spent looking at the menu was unexpectedly enough for a new customer to walk in. Panicking, you quickly blurted out the last thing you could memorize on the menu. 

“A hot, large sweet potato cheesecake latte please!” You exclaimed. 

The barista blinked and stared at you before bursting into laughter. “A hot, large sweet potato cheesecake latte on a scorching hot summer day coming right up!” as he punched in your menu. 

You quickly paid and rushed back to your seat. As soon as you sat down, you looked at the receipt and mentally slapped yourself. Why the hell is this even a drink on the menu? You were tempted to look at your phone again. Scared of being disappointed, you decided it was best not to. You’ve never been stood up before, so to experience in this moment felt completely bizarre and unsettling. If worse came to worse, this would be just a date with yourself. Concentrated on what else you could do for the rest of the afternoon, you didn’t even notice that your order had been placed in front of you, and the barista from earlier was sitting across from you. Resting his chin on his palm, he broke your silence. “A hot, large sweet potato cheesecake latte for this cute person who forgot to give me their name so now I have to personally deliver their drink to.” You rolled your eyes as you grabbed the drink from the table and took your first sip. 

Instantly, you spat it out in disgust. “Holy crap. This is how I get diabetes.” You clicked your tongue and slowly backed down the drink. “HEY! I made that! To demonstrate your sweetness!” The barista argued. Both of you quietly stared at each other before cracking up in laughter, you didn’t care if your date walked in at this point. You just wanted to get your mind off everything. 

“This has gotta be the worst drink ever. But the attempt to flirt was nice.” You smiled, looking up towards the barista, you noticed he was also blushing to your response. It was refreshing to be noticed. Soon, the two of you were chatting away. You were a bit slow to open up at first, but after some time it came to a point where you were practically shit-talking about how online dating sucked and how it left no ability for relationship growth or substance of some sort. The barista nodded along and joked with you how he would rather go on blind dates than those damn Tinder dates. To him, comparing blind dates was like eating an advent calendar while Tinder dates were like an assorted box of chocolates. 

“You just pick which ones look good and then you try it right? But then it’s like-”

“Disgusting!” You finished his sentence and continued “And it’s always the plain-looking ones that are the best!”

“Exactly!” He laughed. You both threw your head back and held your stomachs, wheezing and huffing for some air. The whole cafe could hear you two. But no one cared. Especially not you two. You couldn't help but giggle as you watched him wipe what seemed to be tears from his eyes as he laughed with you. As he leaned back on his chair, he took off his beanie to comb up his red-dyed silky hair before speaking up again. 

“Well my shift ends in about five minutes. If you’d like, I would love to take you out to dinner. Sorry to keep you waiting Y/N. I’m Tendou Satori.” He sat up again and smiled at you. You gaped at the man sitting before you. Immediately it clicked to you as you started to recognize the streak of red sticking out of his beanie. You almost felt enraged with the fact that your so-called Tinder date had tricked you this whole time. But the other part of you was thoroughly impressed that someone had the balls to actually pull this off so smoothly. Tendou Satori was definitely no ordinary man. 

“I-It was you this whole time?!” You stood up, gawking as he took off his apron and swept the crumbs from his clothes. He nodded and apologetically grabbed your hand. He signaled his manager to clock out, and as the two of you left the door he swung his hands along with yours and finally said “Well since I’m considered an hour late, dinner, dessert, and the second date is on me!” he cheekily smiled. 

Excited to continue your conversation over dinner, you nodded in agreement. Already you were contemplating and anticipating for the next chance to prank your Tinder date, Tendou Satori. 

[homerofthebraves]

I’m sorry this is so late, but this is my gift for the @hockeynetwork winter gift exchange! It was a lot more fluff than I originally intended, but I hope you like it @antoineroussel! 

“Paaaattttyyy. Pat Patty Patty Pats. Paaaaaaaaaaatts.” Travis drawled from his upside down position on the sofa. His feet were in the air, hanging over the back of the couch, kicking idly, and his head was almost on the floor. It was surprisingly comfortable. They were finally both back in Philly, for the first time in what felt like forever, getting ready for a season. He wondered if this is what the lockout felt like a few years ago. He’d have to ask one of the older guys. He turned his head to look at Nolan, who was sitting on the couch with his legs across TK’s torso, scrolling through his phone absently. Travis could hear the sounds coming from it. Patty was 100% on TikTok like the Gen-Z trash he was. 

“What.” His voice was completely flat. He didn’t even bother to look at Travis, just paused the video he was watching. Travis blinked up at him. His hair was long, like really long, to the point where he’d started tying it back with ribbons or those elastic things TK started finding all over the house. It was currently down, pushed back behind his ear. His face looked weird from this angle, and Travis could, like see the inside of his nose. His beard was gone. He complained about masks making it itchy, but Travis just thought he was struggling to grow it out. It always came in patchy anyway. Patty made a noise and nudged his foot into TK’s side impatiently.

“What do you want, asshole?” He muttered. Travis frowned. He’d actually forgotten why he wanted Patty’s attention in the first place. 

“I love you.” 

“Oh my god you’re the worst.” He turned back to his phone, and Travis could hear the start of that annoying Lady Gaga trend.

Travis pouted, looking up at Nolan. “You love me.”

“Asshole.”

“An asshole you’re in looooveee with.” Travis responded, turning his pout into a smirk. 

Nolan pulled his legs back, reached over and shoved Travis off the couch completely, backflipping him onto the floor. 

“Motherfucking OW.” Travis complained from where he was now sprawled out on the floor. “If you put me on IR, I will…” Travis trailed off because Nolan started laughing. He was laughing loud and obnoxious and holy shit was that a snort. 

“Holy-shit, Teeks- your face.” Nolan got out between huffs of laughter. Travis wanted to glare. He absolutely one hundred, two hundred percent wanted to glare. But he found himself smiling instead. It had been so long since he’d heard his boyfriend laugh like that, all carefree and happy. That’s not to say Nolan hadn’t been happy, but that last year and a half had been tough on him. He waited Nolan out, watching as tears formed in his eyes before could catch his breath. He stretched his legs out and cracked his back before standing back up. “You’re lucky I’m flexible.” He muttered, but the smile on his face completely betrayed any fake anger. 

“The luckiest.” Nolan smirked, pleased with himself. Travis sat down on the couch and leaned into Nolan’s side, looking over his shoulder to Nolan’s phone that was playing one of this or that videos.

“We should make one of those.” Travis gestured to the video. Nolan was watching one of his sister’s tiktoks from the summer. 

Nolan turned and gave Travis a look that basically said “who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?” Which like, fair. Travis had been against social media, and was vocal about his low screen time. Which was definitely off-set by the amount of time he spent playing COD with Patty. But he made fun of anything and everything to do with social media.

He shrugged in response to Nolan’s question. “Could be fun? And like, I can totally carry you piggyback.” He laughed. “Nothing serious, all like, hockey stuff? Maybe some hunting?” Travis was definitely not the type to share like, health diagnosis on the internet, but he could say whether he preferred hunting or fishing, top shelf or five hole. That sort of thing.

Nolan nodded, opening the notes app on his phone. “Believe it or not, I did learn how to make these things just from being around them so much. Just like, no dancing.” 

“No dancing.” Travis agreed. He could hold his own on a dancefloor, but these tiktok dance trends were way too complicated. He’d had enough of watching Haysie try to learn the WAP dance in the bubble. The images were scarred into his brain. 

Nolan was writing out an actual list of this or that for them to choose from. Shoots right or shoots left, mouthguard, yes or no, hunting or fishing. Travis had no idea this much thought had to go into this.

“Blondes or brunettes?” Nolan asked, his voice almost bored. 

“Depends on the day.” Nolan rolled his eyes at that. “Cause like,” Travis continued, “sometimes your hair is blond and sometimes it's brown and it’s very confusing.” 

“Stupid question. I’m throwing it out.” Nolan decided before Travis could have a full on breakdown over the color of his boyfriend’s hair. 

The tiktok took over an hour to film, which Travis was not expecting when he’d suggested the idea. Nolan was determined to finish it though, and it’s not like they had anything better to do with their time. They wouldn’t be heading into training camp until after New Years, and Christmas was over. Travis’ apartment wasn’t particularly decorated, since he’d come back to the States after the holiday. They’d had to clear out some space in the hallway, which had been covered in hockey equipment and various suitcases. 

They’d ended up watching more of those videos to get ideas, for their own, and Travis was ready to never hear this stupid song again. 

“We should ask to film the last one at the rink.” Nolan suggested, looking at his list. They’d covered hunting, fishing, planes and buses, equipment brands, soda or water, typical stuff.| “What’s the category?” Travis asked. He was currently digging through his gear bag looking for an extra Flyers beanie for baseball caps vs toques. 

“Top shelf vs five hole. Maybe it could be fun to get some of the guys involved.”

It was Travis’ turned to raise an eyebrow. “Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?”

Nolan rolled his eyes in response and shrugged. “I mean, it could be fun. I haven’t seen them in a while, do something with the team.” His voice was especially mumbly now. It got that way when he was feeling emotional and didn’t want anyone else to know. Travis was tempted to tease him about it, but chirping Nolan about his emotions was like skating on an edge. One movement too far, and you fall flat on your face. 

Instead of chirping Nolan about it, he smiled, walked over and kissed his head. “I’ll text the group chat. Tell G to make it mandatory team bonding.” TK lowered his voice into what was honestly a horrible impression of their captain. “Everyone better be in Patty’s tiktok tomorrow or your footing the next team dinner.” But it made Nolan chuckle so that’s all that really mattered. 

“You’re an idiot.” He smiled, reaching over to press a kiss to TK’s lips. Travis pressed into it, reaching up to grab at Nolan’s long hair. 

“Idea.” Travis said against Nolan’s lips. “We table this tiktok shit for tomorrow and we spend the next hour making out-” he cut off as Nolan but at his lip. 

“Why are you so incapable of shutting up.” He muttered, pulling Travis into his lap. And like, yeah Travis was totally on board with this. 

“Alright everyone! I have an announcement.” Travis yelled to the locker room as they got dressed for practice the next day. He’d forgotten to text the group chat after getting distracted by Nolan and then his phone was dead and then he figured he’d see everyone at practice anyway. 

“Did you finally propose?” Provy shouted back, throwing a roll of tape at TK’s head. Which like, rude. 

“Did Patty finally propose?” Haysie countered, laughing as Nolan threw a dirty sock at his face.

“No, no ones getting married. Patty wants everyone to help him make a tiktok because he’s Gen Z trash.”

The locker room exploded in laughter and chirps. 

“What’s a tiktok?”

“Will we be expected to dance?”

“I had enough of that WAP shit in the playoffs.”

Travis tuned them all out. Nolan was taking the reins now, explaining to everyone what he needed to make this. It turns out he’d already arranged it with the PR team, which explained why he was all brains, brawn and beauty in this relationship. They would be spending an extra hour after practice filming this, but it was totally worth it in Travis’ opinion. Nolan was back on the ice in Flyers orange, where he belonged. The season wouldn’t be starting for another few weeks, and if goofing around with his teammates is what Nolan needed, then Travis was going to support him. Even if it meant Haysie giving him a piggyback ride on the ice.

[thebluenebula]

Ashleigh Wayne AU Masterlist

Siobhan's First Visit (Part 1/2)

~1700 words

Kidnapped (Part 2/2)

Major Characters: Ashleigh(OC), Siobhan (OC), Cassie Sandsmark, Harper Row

Minor Characters: Alfred Pennyworth, Carrie Kelley, Duke Thomas

Ashleigh's best friend from back Ireland is finally coming to visit, what could go wrong?

"Nervous?" Cassie asked, as the pair watched another plane land.

"A little," Ash admitted.

"Why?"

"It's been over a year, maybe she'll be different, or not like me any more."

Cassie took Ash's hand in hers, and gave it a gentle squeeze. "She's one of your best friends, time or distance won't change that."

Ash lay her head onto Cassie's shoulder. "Thank you for coming with me."

"I wouldn't miss the chance to meet Siobhan in person. So, what exactly should I be looking for?" She asked, gesturing to the crowd of people going in, and out of the terminal.

"Curly red hair, pale skin, freckles, green eyes."

"Irish, got it."

It wasn't long before Siobhan arrived. She immediately dashed over, and wrapped her arms around Ash. "It's so good to see you."

"You too, I've missed you."

"I'm sorry I took so long, I couldn't find my bag," she let go of Ash, and looked to Cassie, "At least you weren't waiting alone, Cassie Sandsmark, right?"

"Right," she shook her hand, "it's nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise," Siobhan glanced at Ash, "I was beginning to think she'd made you up."

"I'm as real as you," Cassie stated.

"Or are you?"

"Yes?"

"Maybe," Siobhan turned to Ash, "you're just paying her to show up, and pretend to your girlfriend."

"Yes, Siobhan, I have in fact paid Cassie copious amounts of money to pose as my girlfriend."

"Knew it."

Cassie giggled. "Should I expect a lot of this?"

"You never know what to expect with Siobhan."

"I don't know what to expect of you," Siobhan retaliated, prodding her, "we have a lot of catching up to do."

"We can catch up in the car, I don't want to be late for dinner, Jay's cooking."

The three headed to the car.

"So who drove you here," Siobhan asked, "or have you learned to drive yet?"

"Alfred," Ash replied, gesturing to the man waiting by the car, "and I am learning to drive."

"About time," Siobhan smiled at Alfred, "I've heard a lot about you too."

"Likewise, may I take your bags?"

Siobhan spent the car ride to the manor catching them up on what she had been up to in Ireland since Ash had left.

Soon they reached the manor, and Siobhan's jaw dropped as she stepped out of the car. "Holy shit."

Ash stood by her. "I showed you photos."

"None of them did it justice."

"I know."

"Think he'd adopt me?"

"Do not tempt him," Alfred warned as he walked past, carrying her bags.

"Let me help you," Ash said, attempting to take a suitcase.

Cassie smacked her hand away. "I'll help him, you go catch up with her. Why else did you bring me, if not for manual labour?"

"You know, that's not why I invited you."

"I know, Ash, it was a joke, I promise, but seriously go catch up with her, I've got these."

Ash reluctantly agreed, and went over to Sobhan, who had wandered away to admire one of the many sculpted bushes.

Siobhan glanced back at her as Ash approached. "Cassie's cute, Ash, the pictures didn't do her justice either. If she wasn't dating you, I'd definetly try my luck."

Ash glared at her. "Seriously?"

"You still haven't forgiven me, have you?"

"You broke his heart."

"He forgave me."

"I never will, not for that," Ash sighed, "look, I don't want this stay to get off to a bad start."

"A little late for that, don't you think?"

"You two coming?" Cassie shouted to them from the door.

"Can we just pretend this never happened?" Ash asked Siobhan.

"Course," she lightly punched Ash's shoulder, and took off up the steps, "last one in is sleeping on the floor."

Ash smiled, and quickly took off after her. "You know neither of us have to sleep on the floor."

"Whichever one of us is last does."

Siobhan beat Ash to the door by a second, due to Ash slipping halfway up the steps.

"I'll inform Master Bruce that you have arrived," Alfred told them, "if you head to the dining room, Miss Siobhan can get acquainted with the others before diner."

"Thanks Alfred."

The three headed to the dining room where most of the Wayne's were waiting for dinner.

As Ash expected, Siobhan immediately got along well with her siblings. Dinner soon arrived, along with the rest of the Wayne's. The dinner went well, typical questions, lots of banter, everyone had taken an immediate liking to Siobhan's outgoing personality.

Afterwards, the three decided to head to Ash's room, along with Harper, Carrie, and Duke.

"So, where's the famous Kate that I've heard so much about?" Siobhan asked as they left the dining room.

"Italy, hopefully enjoying herself."

"And I was so looking forward to meeting her."

"One of her friends planned a trip away, she didn't know even know till the night before."

Once in Ash's room, Siobhan plopped herself down on the bed. "So soft, though I still don't understood your insistence on having a single bed."

"It takes up less place."

"This room is at least three or four times bigger then your old one. How much more room could you need?"

"You never know."

"So, what now?"

Ash glanced to the others, they all shrugged. "I don't know, what do you want to do?"

Siobhan smirked. "I've got a couple of ideas."

The week came, and went, and soon came the final day of the visit. The group had managed to do everything Siobhan could think of, leaving her with only one idea left.

"I can't leave America without visiting at least one pub."

Harper looked to the others. "It has been a while."

Carrie excitedly jumped up from the couch. "I'm in, let's go."

"I'll grab the IDs," Duke said, as he left the room.

"Oh yeah," Siobhan muttered, "You have to be twenty one to drink here. Will that be a problem?"

"Not where we're going," Harper explained, "the IDs are just incase."

Carrie, and Siobhan left the room, excitedly chattering, leaving Ash, and Harper alone.

"Are you alright?" Harper asked.

"Fine."

"It's just... you've been quiet all night."

"I'm fine, Harper," Ash smiled at her, "let's catch up with the others."

"Alright, how about you call Cassie, see if she wants to meet us there?"

"I'll call her, yeah."

Cassie met them at the bar. Once inside, Siobhan insisted on ordering the drinks, so her, and Ash took a seat at the bar, while the others got a booth.

Once she order, Siobhan looked to Ash. "You're paying, right?"

"Course."

"Then I am going to enjoy tonight." She turned to the bartender. "One for me, one for her."

"Just for her. I'm not drinking tonight."

"Boring, two for me then. Trust you, Ashleigh, go to a bar, and don't get alcohol. I bet you haven't even drank yet, have you?"

"I have too."

"Is that right? What happened?"

"Nothing, I had a couple drinks with my siblings, that's it."

Harper leaned against Ash's back. "You seem to have left out the part where we got pissed drunk, and begged Kate to give us tattoos."

"You what?" A look of surprise was struck across Siobhan's face. "Maybe you're not the same girl that I knew back in Ireland."

"Maybe not."

"Did you get a tattoo?"

"No, I didn't."

The three headed to the booth with the drinks, and the group enjoyed the night

Almost an hour later Cassie stood up from the booth, and tugged Ash's arm. "Come on, let's get some fresh air."

Ash followed her out of the pub, a cold breeze went through the two, Cassie wrapped her arms around Ash, and cuddled into her. "You alright?"

"Course, are you?"

"Don't flip this around, Harper mentioned you seemed off."

"You know I get like that sometimes, you don't have to worry about it."

"This is different, the happier everyone in there gets," she gestured to the pub, "the more off you seem."

"It's nothing  Cassie."

"Ash, you can talk to me about anything, you know that."

"I know," she leaned into Cassie's shoulder, "and thank so much for that."

A cough caught their attention. Siobhan stood a few feet away, grinning. "Am I interrupting? I can leave."

They broke apart. "That's okay," Ash said, "what are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you, you just kinda disappeared."

"I just needed some air," Cassie lied, "that place smells like someone died in there."

"This being Gotham, someone probably has," Ash added.

"How about a walk?" Siobhan suggested, gesturing up the street.

The two agreed, and they headed up the street, chatting, and looking in the windows of the shops they passed.

Cassie stopped outside of a chipper. "I could die for a burger right now," she looked to the other two, "want anything?" The two shook their heads. "Alright, I'll just be a few minutes."

"Alright, we'll wait here." Ash said. When she turned around, Siobhan had wandered up the street. She ran after her. "Where are you going?"

"I'm just window shopping, we're only up the street," the two stopped outside of clothes shop, "I still can't believe you of all people got a girlfriend."

"Did you really think I would be alone forever?"

"I was starting to, I mean you could barely talk to a person you didn't like, never mind someone you really liked."

"Fair point, but Cassie's different, she's one of my best friend's, and takking to her is easy."

"I'm happy for you. I really am."

Before Ash could respond a car came to a sudden halt beside them. They barely had time to shout as three people jumped out. One swung a bat at Ash, she blocked the first swing, then struck the attacker, knocking them back, but a second bat struck her from behind, knocking her to the ground.

She looked up to see one of the attackers toss Siobhan into the back of the car. Another reached for Ash but was sent flying through the air.

Cassie took a defensive stance over her. "Get the hell away from her!"

The two remaining attackers pulled out a pair of pistols, Cassie dodged the shots with little effort, and slammed into one, sending them through a nearby store window. As she charged at the other, the driver of the car sped off.

After Cassie took down the last attacker, she rushed to Ash's side. "Are you okay?"

"The car! Get the car!"

Cassie quickly took to the sky as Ash fished out her phone, and quickly rang Babs.

So this idea has been in the works for quite a while, and surprisingly hasn't change as much as I would have expected from the original idea.

For once, I actually have the second half already finished, so that'll be posted tommorow about 7-ish GMT if your interested in it, and as always, I hope ye enjoyed - TBN :) 💙💜💙

[sentient-stove]

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko- Chapter 2

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Roman, Roman & Virgil, Roman/Virgil (way down the line), Remus & Roman, Logan & Virgil, Janus & Marinette Dupain-Cheng  (More later)

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Virgil Ito, Logan Ito, Patton Hart, Janus Dupain-Cheng, Roman Prince, Remus Prince, Tikki, other kwami

Summary:  It’s been almost fifty years since Marinette’s used a miraculous.  And unfortunately, someone’s stolen the butterfly and the peacock.So when the missing miraculous turn up in the US, she’s forced to hand out a new team of heroes, finally hanging up the mantle of ladybug forever.

Virgil did not sign up for a kwami(?) that’s obsessed with cheese curds.

Roman is ecstatic that he has the ladybug miraculous, after all, superheroes are cool!

Logan wants to live his life and avoid racial slurs, too bad the annoying ass heroes keep destroying his fucking bedroom.

Patton spends his time hero chasing, maybe he’ll get a super power one day too!

Janus is done™

Chapter Summary: Virgil and Plagg meet, Roman and Tikki meet, Kuro Neko and Ladybug meet.

Notes: I want to write for Whumptober and then my brain focuses on this :/  what is wrong with me XD

AO3  | Previous | Next

Virgil upended the contents of his bag onto the small pull out bed that nested under Logan’s. Half of the sketchbooks were soaked beyond ruin and the others were wet, but he could probably hang them to dry and they’d be okay.

He wrapped a blanket around himself as he sat down, slowly beginning to sort through the mess that was on his bed.

There was an origami box among the books and Virgil lifted up, confused. The paper was dry and it wasn’t even slightly smushed from being in a teenager's backpack.

So obviously he opened it.  Virgil had often been compared to a cat with his stupid amounts of curiosity and gosh damn it, he was going to live up to the stereotype.

The box almost fell apart, a glowing ball of light flying around him a few times before condensing in front of him.

“What the--”  Virgil fell backward as the cat-like creature opened its eyes and yawned.

“Got any Camembert?”

“What?” Virgil shook his head.  “I’m lactose intolerant and it’s not like Chinatown’s gonna have fancy ass cheese.”

“Chinatown? Where are we?”  The cat thing floated to look out the dirty window before turning back to the emo.

“San Francisco, 2065.  United Commonwealth of States.”

“Huh.  Where’s Chat Noir? Do you even have cheese here? Oh, does cheese still exist? You’re probably my new holder, I’m Plagg.”  The cat, no, Plagg did an odd flip in air while Virgil tried to process everything.

“Are you talking about Paris Chat Noit? Or Noir I guess...”

“Noir, yes.  Adrien Agreste? My old holder.  Oh! I can say his name now!”  Plagg looked excited for a moment, before his face fell.  “oh…” 

“What does that have to do with you?”  Virgil held out his hands to catch the small cat thing, who had a look of melancholy on his face.

“It means that he’s dead if I can say his name.”

“I’m sorry Plagg.”  Virgil gently scratched the top of the creature’s head.  “So you were Chat Noir’s familiar?”

“Kwami.  I, with the ring, gave him his power.  Ladybug, with her kwami did the same.  You wanna be free?”

Virgil looked back to the origami box.  He could see the ring there, black and green tempting him.  “I don’t know.”

“You’re nothing like Chat.  I like that.”  Plagg flew out of Virgil’s hands and down to the ring, picking it up and placing it in the teen’s palm.  “To transform, say ‘Cat Daddy.’”

Virgil looked horrified.

“I’m just kidding, you say ‘Claws out!’  I had to prank you.”

Virgil slipped the ring on, watching as the green faded out and it shrank a bit to better accommodate his small hand.  “Do I need to feed you first?”

“No, I haven’t been used in a while.  Go ham Virgil.”

“Claws out?” …

Logan opened the door to the shared room, expecting to see his brother curled up in a mound of blankets, not an empty room with an open window.

“Fuck.”

…

“Fuck.”

Virgil listened to Logan move around the room, completely unaware that there was a slightly new hero outside the window.

At least the outfit wasn’t ridiculous.  Virgil felt slightly… off, as if his usual style had been pushed to the left and then a few extra embellishments had been added.  There was also an added strength and when he jumped, he felt like he was launching himself way higher than needed.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, just get used to moving…. 

Virgil faceplanted on a roof, almost crashing through someone’s laundry.  It was painful and by the time he peeled his face off the ground, someone was on the roof, staring slack jawed.

“Hēi māo, Hēi māo!”  

That probably wasn’t good.  Virgil couldn’t understand them, and so he shrugged and jumped forward, clearing them easily and landing on the next roof with less difficulty.

He could get used to this.

…

Roman found a small octagonal box on the dressing room makeup counter, a note to him on top.

The box was small, looked old and it easily fit into the palm of his hand.  Roman held it and shakily opened the note, hoping that it wasn’t a termination of work.

Roman,

It seems that the services of a ladybug hero are needed once again.  I trust you to wield the power of creation.  Good luck, kwami knows you’ll need it.

(I recommend heading in the direction of Chinatown to meet your partner.)

The rest of the day is yours,

-Ladybug

Roman slipped the note into his pocket, excitement bubbling up inside him as he opened the box.  The effect was instantaneous, a glowing ball of pink solidifying into a strange creature.

“Hi!  I’m Roman, and you are?”  

The creature blinked, almost surprised.  “I’m Tikki and I am your kwami.”

“Cool… This is so cool!”  Roman bounced on his heels and looked back to the box, noting the familiar earrings that rested there.

“How much do you know about your new powers?”

“Nothing, except that these earrings give me magic powers and I have a partner near Chinatown.”  Roman set the box on the counter in front of him, pulling out the earrings.  They flashed, and once he’d blinked the stars from his vision, two gold studs sat in his hand.

“I’m gonna have to pierce my ears, aren’t I?”

“Yep, but the earrings will prevent you from getting an infection.”

Roman sighed and bit his lip as the first earring went in, wincing as he put the backing on and did the other ear.  “Ow, shit, that really hurts.”

“The pain will fade.  Would you like me to explain how to transform?”

“Sure.”

“To detransform, you say Spots off.  And to transform, it’s the reverse, ‘Spots on.’  While transformed, you will have a power that you can use one time before you have ten minutes to detransform and feed me.”  Tikki smiled and Roman nodded solemnly.

“Tikki, Spots on!” 

…

Virgil was barely getting the hang of it when the blur of red and black slammed into him, sending them both crashing to the ground in a dirty alley.

“What the fuck??”

“Language! Unless you’re a villain, then I guess the foulness is implied!”

Virgil hissed and squirmed out from under the person, blinking rapidly as he recognized the black and red pattern.

“You’re the new Ladybug?”

“Why so disappointed Alley Cat?”

“Not my name.”  Virgil spat and when Ladybug didn’t respond, he sighed.  “Kuro Neko works I guess.”

“Is that Chinese?” “No dumbass.”

“Dumbass doesn’t work as a superhero name.  And besides Kuro, we are in Chinatown and you do look like some anime emo hero.”

Virgil grit his teeth together, glad that Ladybug couldn’t see it due to his mask, which covered the bottom half of his face rather than the top.  “Japantown and Chinatown combined after 2036.”

Ladybug’s brown eyes blinked a few times before he seemed to snap himself out of the thought.  “I’m sorry for being insensitive.”

“It’s nothing.”  Virgil stood and held out a hand.  “Truce LB?”

“Sure thing Kitten.”

“Hell no on that nickname.”  Virgil pulled his new partner up and laughed as Ladybug pouted.

“Then you can’t use nicknames on me.”

“Ah, but there’s the kicker Scarlet.  I have a bunch to use since you didn’t rename yourself.”

“But Ladybug is English!  It works!  I don’t see why we don’t call you Black Panther… oh wait…”  Ladybug trailed off, his expression slowly growing more confused as they stood there.

Virgil smirked, gave a two fingered salute and grabbed his staff from the ground, using it like a pole vault to catapult himself back to the roof.

“See you around Bug Boy!”

And with that, he was gone.

…

Roman watched Kuro Neko leave, feeling excited.   His partner may have looked dark and vaguely emo, but holy hell, did he have a sharp tongue.

He was 100% Roman’s type and he knew that he was screwed.

[craniumhurricane]

sometimes you have to break a few

Based on a Tumblr post I saw like forever ago and thought I took a screenshot of but can’t find:

I was in Publix and saw this woman buying a shit ton of eggs in front of me, she turned and looked at me and said “I don’t actually like eggs, my daughter’s boyfriend cheated on her and I’m going to egg his car.”

Because Clarke would be that mom.

On AO3!

It's later in the night than Bellamy would usually be doing his grocery shopping but it's the only time he was able to carve out during his busy week. The Ark High Spring Fling dance was tomorrow and somehow he was roped into signing up to help on the party committee. (Scratch that, he knows how, it's because he can't say no to Miss. Vie.)

There's only two registers open and since one is reserved for customers with 10 items or less, Bellamy opts for the other. He's zoning out and going over his mental checklist for the next day when the golden hair of the woman in front of him comes into focus. He watches her as she attempts to juggle about a dozen cartons of eggs from her hands to the conveyor belt. There's something familiar about her hair…

And then he hears her cursing and mumbling under her breath and all at once it clicks.

“Clarke?”

She startles and Bellamy is honestly shocked she doesn’t drop any of her eggs. She turns around, eyes widening as she takes him in, “Bellamy?”

He smiles, can't help it, “Holy shit, it is you. What's it been? Six years?”

She's smiling too, “Give or take but who's counting.”

He hasn't been counting, not really, but Bellamy knows he hasn't seen Clarke Griffin since she and his little sister graduated high school. She went off to some prestigious college and Bellamy stayed in Arkadia. He tried to keep in contact with her but she must have gotten a new number and then his Facebook was hacked and he didn't see a reason to set up a new one. Basically, it just seemed like they naturally drifted apart.

Except here she is. Standing in front of him in line at his supermarket at 9:30 at night purchasing approximately 144 eggs.

He feels like he's been staring too long, all his thoughts and questions jumbling together, so he asks the first thing his brain sends to his mouth...

“Come here often?” and cringes immediately but Clarke snorts out a laugh so maybe it didn't sound as bad as he thinks it did. 

“Wow, that was awful,” she answers for him, but she's smirking. “Is that your way of asking if I've moved back to town?”

“Yeah, that's the appropriate way to word that question.”

She chuckles, “I've been back almost 2 years now. I got a job over at the physical therapy and rehab facility on Second.”

He tries not to let it show but he's surprised she's been back that long and he didn't know about it. Clarke was the same age as his sister but the two of them were always closer. He always thought that if she ever did come back that she would reach out. She must see something on his face though because she continues.

“I didn't know you were still in town, though!” she says in a rush. “I follow Octavia on Instagram and she seems to be as far from Arkadia as she can get. I assumed you'd be with her."

He shrugs, “Arkadia was always more my home than it was her’s.”

She ducks her head and tucks some hair behind her ear, "Yeah that seems right."

The cashier is done ringing up the eggs and calls for Clarke's attention; the poor woman only looks mildly alarmed by the purchase. Now, Bellamy’s seen enough movies to know that the cool thing to do in this situation would be to tell the cashier to ring up everything together and he’d pay for all of it… But that's a lot of fucking eggs.

Clarke pays and then to his surprise she waits for him at the end of the checkout line.

“I would ask if you were baking enough cakes to feed an army,” he says on the way out to the parking lot, “but for the Senior Year bake sale you definitely brought store bought brownies.”

She purses her lips at him for a second before exhaling in a huff, “No, these aren’t for baking. My daughter’s boyfriend cheated on her and I’m going to egg his car.”

The first thing he registers from that sentence is that she has a daughter. It’s only been six years so if she had a kid right after she left for college then at most they’d be in Elementary School. Egging a 5 year old’s car seems a bit excessive. And then the rest of the sentence hits him and he laughs.

“Finn Collins?”

"Old habits?” she smirks. “Clearly I haven't matured with age… and to be fair, that time it was Raven's idea."

He chuckles and shakes his head. "So you got a kid?"

He can see Clarke's face visibly light up at the question, despite the fact that it’s growing dark out.

“Madi, yeah," she says, "I fostered her for about a year and it was rough at first but we got through it and I think we both realized just how much we needed each other. I started the adoption process after that and then moved back here once it was finalized.” She pauses for a breath, thinks about it, and then adds, “She goes to Ark High actually."

He stops walking which makes her stop too. 

“Wait, Madi Griffin?” he asks and when all she does is tilt her head in confusion he clarifies, “I teach freshman at Ark High.”

She gapes at him. “You’re Mr. Blake!? Madi talks about you all the time.”

“She’s never had a class with me," he says, dubious.

“Yeah well, you’ve always been able to make an impression.”

And suddenly it feels like old times. Clarke saying something nice about him and him not quite knowing how to accept it. She used to do it often, and adamantly, and he never felt like he deserved the praise but it never stopped her from giving it. Just like before, he feels warmth spread through his chest.

“So,” she shrugs, “you want to come with me? For old time’s sake?”

He doesn’t normally believe in signs but it feels like the universe is definitely trying to tell him something. He wants to keep hanging out, wants to catch up on the last 6 years and see if any of those lingering feelings are still there. He considers her offer for probably a bit longer than he should before reasoning finally sets in.

“Tempting but unfortunately it’s a school night,” he says, mostly as a joke but it's true. “Besides, I don’t think it would look good if a teacher gets caught egging one of his student’s cars.”

“You don’t even know if he’s one of your students.”

“And if I’m not an accomplice to vandalism then I’ll never have to know.”

“Wow, look at Bellamy Blake all grown up.”

“Well, one of us had to,” he teases and then before he can chicken out, “Let me give you my number though. In case you need bail money.” 

“Wow. Smooth,” she smirks but she starts juggling her bags so she can take his phone.

“The smoothest,” he says when she hands it back. He sends her a quick text so she has his number and after that there's nothing left to do but leave.

“I'd give you a hug but,” she lifts her hands, laden with bags. And then he suddenly feels the weight of his own bags digging into his wrists.

“Next time,” he promises with a smile. “It was good to see you, Clarke.”

“You too. Bye, Bellamy.”

He almost makes it all the way to his car before he has to turn around and take one more look at her. It might be wishful thinking, but he thinks she's just turned back around from doing the same.

*

He contemplated texting Clarke all night but figured that would be creepy and make him seem eager, which he wasn’t. She texted him a thumbs up emoji while he was putting away his groceries, which he assumed meant she made it home alright. He hadn’t known how to respond to it last night any more then he knew how to respond to it the next morning.

So he just ignores it, or at least tries to. He has work and then the dance, so in theory plenty to keep him occupied.

Apparently, he had no reason to worry about social norms and the proper etiquette for responding to an emoji because Clarke shows up to the Spring Fling dance that night. She doesn't notice him so he avoids her and asks Maya about it instead, like an adult. Apparently she signed up to chaperone. He really should have paid more attention to this thing.

He’s about to go over and talk to her but Maya stops him and requests his help rehanging some decorations that fell down. After that she sends him off to his position at the refreshments table for the night and he completely loses sight of Clarke. He wants to go look for her but that would require abandoning his post and he doesn't trust these kids not to spike the punch bowl.

He’s not sure how much time has passed since time seems to speed up and yet stand still at these things. He also gets absorbed in his job and even chats with a few of his students as they stop by. He’s just confiscated a flask from Ethan Hardy when there’s a commotion over to his left.

“I know it was you!”

When Bellamy turns, he finally finds Clarke again. Unfortunately, it looks like she’s pissed off Nia Winters.

Nia Winters, or Queen Nia as many teachers call her behind her back due to the fact that she constantly gives this “I’m better than you and I have the attitude and money to prove it” vibe, is a long time parent of Ark High and tries to get her hands in every committee. Her eldest already graduated years ago, but now she has two more that go to the school. Bellamy will honestly be happy when they’re done with her and her overbearing “my child can do no wrong” parenting.

“I know it was you that threw eggs at my son's car!” she’s yelling at Clarke now and it doesn’t take long for Bellamy to connect the dots.

It must have been Nia’s son that cheated on Madi. Now that he thinks about it, he vaguely remembers hearing about them dating.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Clarke replies, expression completely cool and unreadable.

“The hell you don't!” Nia gets right up in Clarke’s face. They’re starting to draw a little bit of attention so Bellamy slowly makes his way over, ushering kids to get back to the party as he goes.

“I wasn't near your son's car last night,” Clarke says, complete with a straight face that even Bellamy would believe if he didn’t know otherwise. And then she looks Nia right in the eyes and adds, “Though whoever did do it was probably justified.”

Nia rears back like she’s been slapped before settling into a position that Bellamy can only describe as a predator ready to pounce. “How dare-”

“Sorry to interrupt,” he says as he closes the distance with two long strides. There’s still a few students looking but at least they’re trying to be discreet about it. “Can I help with anything?”

Nia whirls around to look at him and thrusts a finger out a Clarke, manicured nail just inches from her chest. “I want this woman to admit what she's done and be removed from the premises so I can press charges.”

Clarke looks like she's about to say something but Bellamy cuts her off. “I'm sorry, but I'm afraid she's telling the truth.”

Both women turn to look at him, each with their own look of bewilderment and shock.

Nia looks from Bellamy to Clarke and back. “And how would you know that?” she asks defensively.

Clarke’s looking at him with that quizzical head tilt again. He meets her eyes for a second, hoping they’re still able to communicate without speaking and then turns his attention back to the other woman. “Because she was on a date with me last night.”

Nia’s jaw drops and out of the corner of his eye he can tell Clarke is biting the inside of her cheek to try and suppress a grin.

“W-Well,” the woman stutters.

“Maybe check with one of his other girlfriends,” Clarke says as she steps forward and puts her hand on Bellamy's arm. “From what I understand, it's a pretty extensive list. You might want to get started.”

And with that Clarke leads him back over to the drinks table, leaving Nia absolutely fuming. He’s afraid she’s going to try and follow them but she just stands there for a few minutes before marching towards the doors of the gym.

When they reach the table Clarke doesn’t remove her hand from his arm. “Thanks for the save,” she says, looking at the dancefloor, purposefully not meeting his eyes.

“Anytime,” he half shrugs. “But if you had told me that Madi was dating Queen Nia’s son last night then I probably would have helped you out.”

She finally turns and smiles up at him, “You got to help me out tonight though.”

There’s a pause again as they lull into a slightly awkward silence. Or maybe he just thinks it’s awkward. He’s afraid if he doesn’t fill it then she’s going to leave and then he’s right back where he started with a stupid thumbs up emoji.

“You know,” he starts to say and she looks back up at him. “Maybe we should grab dinner sometime. To make this whole dating thing more believable.”

“Wow, smooth,” she teases, but the effect is lost by how bright her smile is.

“We already established last night that I was smooth.”

She laughs and moves her arm to lace it properly through his. “Dinner sounds great.”

[theydontknowaboutusimagines]

Outside the Rain - Harry Styles Series (Part 12)

Part 11

It was the night of the VMA’s and you were currently getting your hair and makeup done. After getting in super late the night before, you all were up and at it early that morning for rehearsals. You all had done everything you could do to make sure the performance went smoothly. The only thing left was to go through with it. 

Harry had went shopping for an outfit for the show. When you invited him, you sort of didn’t think about the fact that he wouldn’t have anything to wear. Yes, he wasn’t going to walk the red carpet, but he couldn’t exactly just wear some trousers and a shirt. 

“And just like that we’re finished,” your makeup artist smiled. 

You got up from your chair looking into the mirror. You smiled moving some hair out of your face. 

“I love it,” you smiled. “Thanks.” 

“Well, you look beautiful,” she smiled. “And remember you’re going to do great tonight.” 

“I really hope so,” you said. “Tonight’s a big night for us.” 

You went over to open up the bag that held your red carpet outfit. It was velvet purple blazer dress that you wore with matching heels. Harry walked into the room, just as you putting your things into your clutch. 

“Wow, you look beautiful,” Harry smiled. “Not that I expected you not to look beautiful.” 

“Thank you,” you smiled straightening your dress. “You look very handsome.” 

He smiled placing his hands on your hips, “Thank you, baby.” 

“Thank you for being there for me tonight,” you said. 

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he smiled. “I’m proud of you. You girls have been working your asses off these last 48 hours and I know you’re going to fucking smash it.” 

You smiled pressing your lips against his. He smiled pulling you closer to him. His hands ran down your back, stopping just below the edge of your dress. He smirked against your lips and you laughed pulled away. 

“Down boy,” you giggled. “Save that for after the show.” 

“But you’re just so tempting,” he groaned pulling you back towards him. 

“I also didn’t just spent almost two hours in hair and make up just for it to be messed up by my boyfriend within two minutes,” you laughed. 

“Hey! We both know it would at least be four,” he defended. 

“Oh my god,” you laughed. “That’s not where I was going with it.” 

“Well, I went there,” he joked. 

“Anyway, it’s time to go,” you said. “Our car is probably outside. Now, I’ll be let off at the carpet waiting area, but the driver will drop you off in the back. That’s okay right?” 

“Yeah, are you walking alone?” He asked. 

You nodded as you waited for the elevator, “We decided if we all walked the carpet together, it might ruin the surprise.” 

“That makes sense,” he said. “I wish... I do wish I could be there next to you.” 

“I do, too,” you sighed. “But we’ve only just got together and I think it’s best we don’t go public this soon.” 

“I agree,” he smiled. 

“Besides, just having you there is enough of me,” you smiled. 

“And there I’ll be,” he smiled kissing your head. 

**

Hearing the sounds of screams as you walked the red carpet brought a smile to your face. It had been a while since you attended an award show you would be performing at and the fact that no one knew about it made it even better. By the time you were done with the red carpet, your eyes were blinded and seeing little white dots from all the flashes from the cameras. 

Before the performance, you and the girls wouldn’t be sitting next to each other, but you would be sitting in the same section. You weren’t sure where Harry would be sitting either, but you wished it was near you. You two had gave it some thought and since there would cameras most likely landing on you throughout the show, it was best if you two weren’t caught sitting next to one another. 

You always hated this part of being in a relationship. It always made you feel as if you were ashamed of who you were with or that you couldn’t be yourselves in public for fear of being found out. But it was the cost of wanting to keep your relationship private. Plus, it wouldn’t always be that way, you hoped. 

You were waiting at the bar for your drink, when you felt someone behind you. 

“God, you’re so hot,” a voice whispered in your ear. 

Chills ran over you as you turned around to face your boyfriend who was already holding a drink of his own. 

“You’re really trying to get me to drag your ass to the bathroom and have my way with you aren’t you?” You joked. 

“It wouldn’t be the worst idea I ever had,” he smirked. 

“I can’t with you,” you giggled taking a sip of his drink. 

“How was the carpet?” He asked. 

“Blinding,” you laughed. “I forgot how much I hate it. Between the shouting and the flashes. Luckily, I didn’t have to do too many interviews, so that was a plus.” 

“Do you think anyone has an idea about why you’re really here?” He asked. 

“No one seemed to be on the trail,” you said. “What about you? Anyone notice you’re here, but didn’t walk the red carpet?” 

“Nope,” he said. “Luckily for me, I’m able to go unnoticed when I want to be.” 

“You are pretty good at going MIA,” you laughed. 

“But not from you,” he smiled. 

“Good thing too,” you smirked. “Or I’d have to hurt you.” 

“Well, what do you have in mind?” He asked. “Cause I might be interested.” 

“Oh my god,” you laughed pushing him away. “Stop it.” 

He laughed kissing your cheek, “Where are you sitting?” 

“Like second row in the middle section from the stage,” you said. “You?” 

“I’m fourth tow, middle section,” he smirked. 

“So, we are still pretty close then?” You said. 

“I couldn’t be too far away,” he smiled. 

Once you finally got your drink, you both walked into the venue and to your seats. You both saw some friends and acquaintances, so you made sure to stop and chat with them prior to the show. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the rest of the girls coming in one by one. Each of you gave the other a small smirk, knowing you had accomplished your first task of the night. 

Getting in without blowing the surprise performance. 

And now, you had to wait and hope you accomplished the second task. 

The performance itself. 

**

The show had been on for an hour. Many performances had already taken place and they were phenomenal. Tons of awards had been handed out and it was getting closer to the time of your performance. Throughout the night, all of you were sneaking glances at each other. You were also sneaking glances to Harry as well. 

He would give you a wink and a smirk every time he caught your eye. He even sent you texts off and on. You would shake your head each time you read his messages. He was definitely setting the scene for an afterparty only including the two of you. 

When it was time for you to head backstage to warm up and change, each of you got up within in a few minutes of the other, so you all weren’t getting up at the same time. As you made your way towards the back stage, you gently ran your hand over Harry’s as you passed him. He squeezed your hand with a smile before you pulled it out and kept going. 

Backstage you all were changed and warming up. 

“I can’t believe we’re about to do this,” Rachel said. 

“We’re gonna crush this, right?” Jess said. 

“Not if you bitches go out there questioning it,” Daisy groaned. “We didn’t work our asses off the last two fucking days to give a shitty performance. These are our songs, our ideas, and our dances. This is us. The only thing is that we haven’t performed on stage together in a few years. But we’re still us, we’re still y/band’s/name.” 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud,” you sighed. “But Daisy’s right. Don't get me wrong, I’m nervous as hell, but we’re not doing anything on that stage that we’ve not done before.. except maying performing the new single, but other than that... we’ve done this more times than I can count. We’ve got this.” 

“Group hug!” Rachel said opening her arms. 

“Let’s fucking go!” Daisy smirked wrapping her arms around all of you. 

You each took your places behind the screen. The venue was in complete darkness, at least as much as it could be. You took a deep breath and waited for the cue. The first song was an a capella piece that would transition into the opening of the next song. 

And now it was time. 

**

Gasps and screams erupted inside the venue as soon as everyone realized it was your group. It didn’t take long before all of your nerves left your body and the only thing left was pure adrenaline. Each of you hit every note and dance move. The lights, the pyro, and the other dancers meshed so well with the songs. 

Just when everyone thought the performance was over, the opening notes of the new single started playing. 

“Now, I know you didn’t think we’d come here tonight and not give you a new song, right?” Daisy smirked. 

You didn’t even think it was possible, but the screams grew even louder. When you hit the final note/run of the song, you all stood there taking it all in. Your chest heaved up and down as you looked out into the crowd. Everyone from as far as you could see, was up on their feet cheering all of you on. Your gaze zeroed in on Harry and his was whistling as he cheered you on. 

It was time for each of you to go backstage and of course, you were all bombarded with questions from reporters. After downing some water and answering a few questions, your manager finally shooed off the vultures and took you all back to your dressing room to change. 

When you got there, Harry was already in the room and he quickly wrapped his arms around you. 

“We did!” You screamed jumping in his arms. “We fucking did it!” 

“I told you,” he smiled kissing you, “God, you girls were fucking amazing! The biggest performance of the night. I swear the crowd was the loudest of the whole night.” 

“Do you think they liked the song?” Rachel asked. 

“It’s already number one iTunes,” your manager said. “We released it just before the performance and it’s already number one. The fastest song to reach number one.” 

“No, fucking way,” Daisy said taking the phone out of her. “HOLY SHIT!” 

“I’m so proud of you,” Harry smiled. 

“Thank you,” you smiled. 

“Okay, love birds, now that this performance has been crushed, it’s time to fucking party and celebrate!” Jess smirked. 

“She’s right!” Daisy said. “It’s afterparty time, bitches!” 

“That okay with you?” you asked Harry. 

“Hey, tonight’s your night, love, I’m just the plus one,” he joked. 

You giggled pressing your lips against his. You were officially on cloud nine and you didn’t want to get off anytime soon. 

[meximorrita]

Hi, I was wondering I could request Noir from Spider Verse with the song “Box of Secrets” by Zarif for the songfic requests?

Hi, anon! Of course you can! I am so sorry this took an eternity. But I really had troubles finishing it due I was out of inspiration, but oh boy, I AM BACK!

This is my first time writing for a Marvel character so I am sorry if this is not the best. Also this was translated from Spanish since that's my first language so I am sorry for any grammar errors you may find, but I pray you enjoy it.

Spanish version here (X)

Also anon, I wrote this with a gender neutral reader, I hope you don't mind.

_____

BOX OF SECRETS Spidernoir x GN!Reader

You were having a peaceful time chilling with the Spider family at May's living room. You could swear you almost forgot the pressure of being a superhero, you haven't felt like an ordinary person in a long time. Yeah, you were distracted by the conversation but mostly because you were too busy glimpsing at Noir. You had to admit it, the mysterious, serious and gentlemanly Spiderman got your eye from the first moment you saw him. Meanwhile Noir was paying attention to Porker who was trying to explain some jokes to him, it wasn't working as you could see. Peter only seemed highly confused and kept asking any sort of questions.

"...Tell us why, Y/N" Peter B's voice called you out. Shit! What had he said? He was staring at you as well as the others. You prayed that they didn't realize you were eyeing Noir."I-I am sorry, what was that?" You asked. Peter rolled his eyes "Pay attention. I am not that old for you guys to ignore...Am I?" You moved your hand in a "So so" gesture. He pouted. Gwen brought back the initial question "We were wondering, why is it that you never take your mask off? I mean, it has total sense in your Universe but here it has no use."

Right, the mask, you hadn't given it a thought yet. Peter B. And Gwen didn't wear them most of the time, even now they weren't wearing them. "Uhm" you mumble looking for an explanation "well I think is a bad habit" You laughed nervous "Since I'm always wearing it, I only get rid of it when I'm taking a shower or about to go to bed" you shrugged trying to lessen importance to it "But I don't know why am I the only one being questioned here. These two" You pointed at Noir and Porker "Never take them off as well"

They joined the conversation. "Literally I am a pig." He said kinda bugged." I don't know what were you expecting" "What about you, Peter?" Penny's sweet voice asked "A hero's identity is a precious secret. This mask is the one thing standing between those rotten eggs out there and my home." Everybody went quiet after his answer "Peter, you aren't in your Universe you know?" Miles pointed out "Here nobody has idea of who you are. Plus, we already know you're Peter Parker" Noir was muted for some time and finally said "That's quite right but, still, It isn't going off." "As you want" Peter B. responded.

A little bit of chatting later, bedtime had arrived. Miles had school the next day and, frankly the rest of the team needed to rest. That's how Peter and you were left alone. "Woah Peter, you really like being mysterious, uh?" You tried to start a conversation "I'm guessing being a private eye had something to do with that". "Fella" his low voice answered you as he accommodated his hat in the right place "After all I've seen, it's a miracle I'm not inside a wooden kimono. I like to believe luck's always been on my side. " You nodded slowly. You couldn't help but feel sorrowful for his unfortunated life. You just couldn't sit there arms crossed, you felt the urge to do something about it, maybe that intriguing man needed a friend. Even if you felt like it was a stupid idea you had to try it.

Open up your box of secrets

Take one out for me

"Hey Peter!" Your voice went up as an idea crossed your mind "I don't feel like sleeping and I think there's a place near by where we can get an egg cream, wanna go?" You couldn't believe what you had said but it was the best you could come up with. Your heart was beating fast, why? You were hanging out merely as friends, nothing else. But if that was so, why did you expected him to accept so badly? Noir gave you a susprised look "Well, that sounds like a good idea." You sighed in relief. "Awesome!" You walked towards that place wearing your spider suits but people just took a quick look at you thinking you were nothing more than spiderman fans.

The place was nothing out of the usual and you could count at most 5 people there. You ordered the egg creams and something to eat. At first, it was kinda uncomfortable due Peter's serious nature and also because you still felt uneasy to be having dinner with the man that had caught your attention. The conversation slowly went better; Peter talked to you about how was like to grow in the middle of the great depression while you chanted about your family and your hometown. Of course, you were the one doing the most part of the conversation but he didn't seem to mind, actually, you could tell he was gladly listening to you by the amount of questions he came up with. "Yeet?" "It's just a meme" "A meme?!"

I'll show the number on my ticket

And take one home with me

Oh the night just got better and better. Eventually the conversation took you to the top of a building. It was a quiet night for New York, the lights of the city danced right under your feet and a small breeze got to you along with the night bustle. Now you were so happy, having Peter next to you, being so honest and open with you made nothing but make you smile tenderly at him. Sooner or later the conversation stopped, leaving you contemplating the view in front of you. "Peter" your sweet tone interrupted the silence "Why did you tell me all of that?" You questioned. Noir kept his gaze to the horizon not giving you an answer. He waited a few seconds meditating his answer. You were right, he barely even knew you but he poured his heart out without hesitating. "Being honest, I have no idea. You are so kind and true. I guess I trusted you enough to tell you. Of course, I omitted the most disturbing parts." That was so sweet coming from him but his tone on the last sentence made your heart sank. Behind his words you could perceive so much pain and rage, you wanted to cry. "Peter, you are a box full of Secrets. Thanks for sharing it with me." You put your hand on his and looked him right into his eyes offering him a soft, comforting smile "If I had to guess, I would say that all it needs to get information from you is an egg cream" you tried to lighten the mood and shook your head playfully.

"Well Peter, I can assure you that I feel the same way about you, like if I could tell you anything" Peter froze flustered at your unexpected words. That was so weird, so unusual comming from him. "You know what?!" You continued "Since we've got so personal. Here goes one of my secrets" you pulled your hand away from his and took it up to your face. Will you ever learn to not have such dumb ideas? Maybe one day but now you were sure to show Peter a part of the real you by removing your mask. You smirked subtlety "This" you pointed at your bare face "is my face". You obtained no response from the suited man.

Noir was astonished at your revelation. You were far more attractive than he had imagined. The first thing he focused in were your bright eyes than seemed so captivating that night. Later he took notice of your tempting lips curled in a precious smile. "Holy..." you could barely hear it "I know, fighting the crime makes you look 10 years older" you laughed nervous "What do you think?" You finally questioned. "I think" Noir interrupted his response so that he wouldn't stumble over his words. "I think you are a total knockout" he said softly. You felt flustered and he noticed it "Well, thank..." "But in that case you should know my identity as well" he added before taking off his mask without hesitating. Your heart slipped a beat when you finally saw his eyes, they showed so much affliction yet so much spark and determination. You noticed his dark hair messed up because of the mask. You studied the various scars decorating face, they led you to his striking lips that you've ached to kiss since you met him. You were speechless before this man. "I know it looks bad but, c'mon it isn't that bad" His words bewildered you "What?! Did you just make a joke, Peter Parker?! You?! You know? After your face this is the second revelation of the night. I've seen everything now" Peter let out a cute laugh that you adored "I may know one or two things about joking. Porker isn't an awful teacher." He explained "Now, It's my turn to ask, what do you think?" "I think I wouldn't mind to kiss that face of yours" You said almost instinctively. You didn't move an inch but Peter only got closer and closer until your lips melt in a cherished kiss. What a way to end the night. "Peter now more than ever, you're a box of secrets" you said before meeting your lips again.

Show me show me what you got

Take it take it soak it up

Open up your box of secrets

Take one out for me

[gospelofme]

About Kylo and Rey though

Like, I get what Reylo fans are seeing, and I admit I’m a bit of a Reylo myself. But lately I’ve been thinking back on the films, and really I don’t see any thing that screams “they’re in love”.

The Force Awakens

The guy legit first hears about Rey when he’s upset over losing BB-8, when he is told the droid was last seen with her. Eventually when he meets up with Rey, I think he’s surprised she is force sensitive. I think it’s been a while since he met someone who’s force loyalties weren’t decided yet you know. Anyways, when he takes her it’s because he finds out she’s seen the map the droid had. And let’s be honest, it’s MUCH easier to carry a person instead of a droid. Although I guess you can always just use the Force.

So, during the interrogation part he isn’t watching her sleep. The chick is unconscious which is much different from regular sleep. I think he’s again curious, I get the impression there isn’t many other force sensitive people he interacts with (The Knights of Ren don’t seem to be around all the time). Anyways, again there is no sign from either of them that they’re in love. Rey is repulsed by him and he doesn’t really show much emotion. After he kills Han Solo she is really disgusted and they actively try to kill each other in the forest after.

The Last Jedi

I can see more of a case for “feelings” in this one, but not “love”. When they’re first connected by the Force, he is curious AF. Like this is something he’s heard of but never experienced. He knew it was something beyond her ability to do and probably his as well. Every time they speak, he is curious and she is again repulsed by what he did to Han.

I can tell there is something there in the infamous “hand touch scene”. I can sense some deep vulnerability there, from both of them. Rey feels like she’s failed. She doesn’t know where she belongs. She’s lost. She didn’t get any answers when she ventured into the pit on the island. Kylo knows her feelings I think, understands them. Kylo isn’t trying to hide his feelings of pain and misery anymore, killing his father didn’t do anything to quell the confusion inside him. I think both of them feel alone in this moment. In the novel it appears like she’s venting to him about it a bit, I don’t know this for sure though since I haven’t read it (just seen excerpts). A lot of emotions are exchanged when they touch hands as well as visions. However, I think it’s important to remember that these visions may not be accurate. Snoke was the one orchestrating the visions so he may have had a hand in creating or altering them.

When Rey essentially mails herself to Kylo, his smirk could be at how easy it was to get her there. He promptly cuffs her and takes her to Snoke. They do chat in the elevator and the novel goes into more detail about her sensing his emotions regarding her, but that may be that he is conflicted about taking someone innocent to Snoke. I don’t think killing Han solved the confusion inside him at all. Later he only really kills Snoke when the guy is bragging about how well he knows Kylo and how much control over him he has. Leaving Rey alive made sense since the Red Guards were after them now and an ally is better than an enemy in that instance. There are moments of interest during the fight (the leg grab, the steeling himself after seeing Rey hurt, the whispering of her name) BUT after he has a “holy shit I killed Snoke” moment. After he does use the whole “but not to me” line, but I mean he is trying to convince her to join him. Again she is a valuable ally as another force user at his side would be an advantage. I think the “please” is more vulnerability. When she rejects him by taking the lightsaber and they have that whole tug-of-war with it, I don’t see any love there. I see betrayal.

Many of the things people point to as proof of Ren’s feelings regarding Rey can be disputed. It seems odd to me that someone who doesn’t really express that feeling of love would suddenly fall madly in love with the first girl he saw that wasn’t part of the First Order. And I don’t see any feelings of being in love on Rey’s side either. She realizes that Kylo can be turned, or at least she thinks she sees that. Again, Snoke was controlling those visions so perhaps he allowed her to feel that. He did mock her for it in the throne room, reinforcing how much control he has over Kylo. It was something that was possibly decades in the making.

Idk, maybe someone can help me understand where people are getting this thing of them being in love with each other. I see them being curious about each other.

Kylo: here is this girl who is an adult and who doesn’t have any real force training, plus how has she managed to remain unaligned Force-wise this long? Maybe there’s still time to tempt her to my side? I can sense she doesn’t know where she belongs.

Rey: here is this guy who I hated as soon as I met him and then was disgusted by him when he killed his father (I would give anything to see my parents again and he is throwing his away like garbage), oh hang on...he’s in real pain and feeling extreme sadness...plus he doesn’t feel completely evil, perhaps I can save him and Leia can have her son back and maybe start to heal from the death of Han. I am a hopeful, optimistic person (even though I can be nieve).

Could someone give me some insight. Like I said, I do see myself as a bit of a Reylo shipper but I’m having trouble actually seeing something akin to love between the two.

[lovelylapins]

au august day 2

au august day 2: college for @auyeahaugust

as always, i made this way longer than intended. enjoy i guess.

Studying was hard.

Even harder, Marinette supposed, was running around the city of Paris in spandex at the wondrous age of twenty, catching articles on the size of her thighs and waist next to ones demanding the space trash age finally be done with.

“Honestly, who even thinks that Ladybug would look the same after six years of fighting crime? A lot of things have happened, people. Puberty happens,” she complains to Alya, textbooks strewn about them yet ignored. She throws her head back and chugs her coffee, the burn only fueling her anger.

“I feel you,” Alya comments, taking a cool sip from her frappe. “Rena Rouge hasn’t been getting lots of love either these days.”

“But Chat Noir is, of all things. I can’t believe it,” Marinette mutters. She picks up her pencil, tracing designs in the air as she continues talking. “He gets all muscly and lands ten Cosmo articles on how cool and strong he is. You and I suddenly get boobs and next thing you know, we’re shamed in those same articles. They don’t even let Chloé live much these days. I heard her ass was talked about on E! just the other day.”

“What? Jealous about how much love Chat’s getting?” Alya teases. She can’t help it, after all. The envy is practically radiating off of Marinette, filling the coffee shop they’re in with the stench of anger.

“No,” she denies quickly, shaking her head.

Alya throws her a look, one that only her best friend could do.

“Okay, maybe a little,” Marinette admits, sighing. “But, can you blame me? If only I knew who he was, then I could have someone to really push all my anger on.”

“Wait, don’t tell me you two haven’t revealed yourselves yet,” Alya says. “It’s been six years!”

“And?”

“How is it that you still haven’t mustered up the courage to tell that cat? You won’t even let us tell you who he is!”  Alya questions, eyebrow raised. Quicker than Ladybug or Chat Noir could have ever done, Alya, Nino and Chloé had been quick to share their identities amongst their friend group, even going so far as separately telling Chat and Ladybug. The two most revered superheroes, however, have been dodging a confession from each other from years, going so far as purposefully causing the timer on their Miraculous to start to leave the scene quicker.

“It’s different,” Marinette says. And in a way, it is. Chat’s always been different. To her, at least.

“Different my ass. If anything, you know how long he’s been ready to tell you, and I bet you can’t wait to tell him either.”

“Why don’t we get back to studying?” she suggests, trying to change the subject. “Our final is only in two weeks.”

“I’m letting this go for now only because we have to pass, but this is not over,” Alya says, picking up her textbook and opening it up to a random page.

“Okay,” Marinette sighs. She opens up a textbook of her own and reads a section aloud, hoping if she repeats the words enough times it’ll get stuck in her mind. “Although the atom is considered the smallest unit, the atom itself contains smaller particles. Those particles are identified as- “

“Quarks and leptons,” Adrien finishes, sitting down next to Marinette.

“Adrien!” Marinette exclaims, the corners of her mouth raising upwards. After six years, he still manages to bring out the all too familiar feeling of butterflies in her stomach. The only difference now from her fourteen-year-old self was she could actually hold a conversation now (although it did take some time to master). He smiles, lifting up his own copy of the textbook.

“Nino told me you two were studying, and I thought I could lend a hand.”

“You’re a saint,” Alya murmurs, eyes unmoving from her textbook. “We’ve been here for the past thirty minutes with nothing good coming out.”

“Well, what have you guys been doing? Taking notes? Making flashcards?”

“Well, er… kinda just gossiping,” Marinette admits, slightly embarrassed.

“Gossiping?” Adrien raises an eyebrow. “Care to share?”

“It’s a bit on the girl talk side. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to listen in,” Alya says. She grabs her cup of coffee and downs it, feeling the regular caffeine buzz come over her.

“Fair enough. I suppose you’ll let the girl talk rest for a while so we can get to some proper studying?”

“Of course,” Marinette says, beaming. “Do you think you could help explain a bit more on the whole quacks and liptons thing?”

“Quarks and leptons,” he corrects, laughing at how Marinette’s eyes widen. “Hand me a pencil, will you? I’ll write down the definitions for each one.”

Their hands brush a bit as she hands over a pencil, touch lingering for a second. He grabs a flashcard and quickly jots down the definitions, grabbing a highlighter and marking the words for extra measure.

“How can you memorize them so easily? It takes forever for me,” Marinette sighs out, propping her head on her hand.

“I can help you memorize if you want,” he offers, looking at her.

“What? Oh no Adrien, you have to study too!”

“We have all of the same general classes, remember? If anything, it’ll help me out when I become a teacher’s assistant next semester.”

“You’re too nice,” she says, not wanting to trouble him. His schedule is packed to the brim from classes to shoots, and God knows what else.

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Only if you let me buy you coffee during study sessions.”

“Deal! When are you free?”

Marinette closes her eyes, racking her brain around for anything coming up. Patrol tonight and Wednesday with Alya, a quick ceremony with Chat in the morning before class on Thursday, and she had planned to go shopping with Chloé and Alya on Saturday.

“I’m free on Friday all day? And I guess I’m free these next few weekdays, but only if we meet up maybe around lunch.”

Adrien frowns, running his schedule through his mind. Tuesday and Friday he had patrol with Nino, and Thursday was a ceremony with Ladybug, with his weekend coated with various photoshoots.

“Yeah, I guess lunch would be a good time for me as well. I guess I’ve been getting a little busy these days!”

“You could say the same for me,” Marinette says, laughing. A familiar blush is on her cheeks, and she feels the slightest shred of teenage excitement ring through her as she realizes she’s agreed to lunch. With Adrien. For the rest of the week.

“Should we get back to studying?” Adrien suggests. “Just point out anything you don’t feel comfortable with.”

“Will do!”

Alya closes her book silently, looking with increasing frustration at the two. God, did she hate how neither knew the other’s identity. It led to moments like this, where she felt tempted to beat up both of her best friends and just scream “How can you not see!?” in their faces. But, it also led to her growing fond of the moments. Even without knowing, Adrien and Marinette reflected their superhero personas outside of the suit with each other. Marinette was leaning slightly on Adrien’s shoulder to better view the words he was writing out, with Adrien scooting close enough so that his hair brushed against hers.

It was almost like they were destined to be together.

Slightly raising her phone, Alya takes a quick picture. Hey, she can’t help it. She’s been a journalist since she got her first phone. It’s like a reflex now to document things like this. Pulling up the groupchat, she starts typing, glad for once that Chat and Ladybug refused to get added in as an attempt to avoid sharing their identities to each other.

Paris’ Baddest Bitches

Alya: y’all we WON today

Alya: [image]

Chloé: holy shit

Chloé: mari is being BOLD

Nino: FINALLY

Nino: who do you think is gonna reveal their identity first

Chloé: mari

Chloé: I love adrien but he’s a lil bitch

Alya: ^^

Nino: true

Alya: but that’s not it

Nino: what else happened??

Chloé: we’re WAITING

Alya: THEYRE GOING ON LUNCH DATES ALL WEEK

Alya: FOR “STUDYING”

Nino: FUCK

Chloé: FUCK

Chloé: THEYRE 10/10 GONNA FUCK

Alya: I KNOW

Chloé: WE WON

Alya: I KNOW

Nino: tell adrien i want notes for the chem final

Chloé: oh shit same

Alya: already planning on taking pics of it xoxo

Chloé: you’re the only bitch in this house i ever respected

Nino: have i ever told you how much i loved you alya

Alya: always

Alya: gotta bounce they’re giving me LOOKS and want me to HELP and FOCUS

Alya: ugh if they don’t end up together at the end of this what’s the point

Nino: uh maybe a degree??

Alya: yeah maybe

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 5, Part 2/2

And now for the actual story of Chapter 5: This is Our Coup de Gravy!

There were... so many Coup de Gravies in this chapter. Too many. It seems like everyone had one

You know, thinking about the Sidequest Roundup last time, I don’t think I’ve ever said how much I love the way Bravely handles obtaining jobs. It would be so easy to just hand you a magic job crystal at different story beats, but no. You have to fight someone using the job you wish to obtain. You have to figure out how it works and overcome its abilities at their most powerful before you can use them against others. It serves as both a neat tutorial for how the job works, since you’re on the receiving end of most of its attacks, and proof that you deserve to have the job since you overcame its user. It feels earned every time you get a new job. It’s kinda like how I feel about the Island Trials in Pokémon Sun and Moon, where you have to fight a difficult boss of a specific elemental type, and once you do you gain the ability to use the strongest move of that type. I dunno, I just really like this trend in games of proving your worth for the skills you gain by besting them in combat

Anyway, let’s head on to the Harena Sea Caves to stop Geist from performing his heist

You could absolutely stab a man with that compass

Oh, come on, Edea. When did you get possessed by Rev? Just now? When we walked in? How long have you secretly been a ghost child?

Heyyy Templar Braev to the rescue! TBH, I’d stop running if Edea’s dad was staring me down

Wait... Geist didn’t recognize him until he said his name? Dude, like, even NPC #67 knows Braev, get with the program!

I wonder if the exploit I used to insta-kill Rev the first time will work again. I also wonder if Geist might be able to undo that

Oh, it’s backstory time. Geist left his ill son because he got called to do an exorcism in a foreign country. I guess he was probably a priest, fitting with the Bestiary tidbit of his name, Grace, being given to those respected by the Orthodoxy. But the girl wasn’t possessed, she was sick. Patient Zero for the Great Plague. And she was taken onto his boat because she wanted to go home one last time. But she was used to spread the disease around. He still blames himself for what happened and wants to make up for both spreading the Plague and his botched attempt to revive his son

Geist may be the bigger problem with his Undo abilities, so I’m gonna focus on him

Rev actively refused to move on because he loved his daddy and didn’t want to go without him. Ohhhhh my god, kiddo, that’s so sweet in a morbid way

Stop being dramatic, Geist. Best timeline rules dictate that we’re keeping you alive. You’re not dead. Relax

Undo HP after Rev possessed someone does work, it just took him until he was about halfway down to start possessing people

This poor kid’s in a tough spot. I don’t expect him to understand the full implications of “rewrite time to fix things.” He just thinks they’re gonna make everything better. He doesn’t understand the Butterfly Effect, and how it’ll erase the future. He just thinks what he’s doing will make his dad happy, so he’s gonna do it

At least we got through to Geist. Changing the past could wipe his son from existence. A second “death,” if you would. And harming Rev is the one thing he could never do

Now that is a cute hug. even if it’s between a man drenched in blood and the ghost of his son possessing armor that’s a full head taller than him

And Geist does know Braev... but on a personal level. Braev was a young priest back when he worked with the Orthodoxy

And there it is. Geist sent a warning back, which allowed them to gather a team of physicians to find a cure. The Plague would have been much worse without that warning, but all Geist can see are the people who died in the first place

And he finally gets some closure. His son doesn’t care that he’s a ghost in a suit of armor, he’s just happy that he can stay with his dad. And his actions did save plenty of people. It’s just that the guilt has been crippling him for years. Now that he’s free, he’s allowing himself to be arrested for crimes of the present, and no longer for assumed crimes of the past

I really appreciate Edea’s speech to Rev here. She talks about how she used to blindly believe everything her dad told her until the events of the last game. It broke her heart to fight him, but ultimately, in doing so, she started to actually understand him instead of just parroting what he said. And when they met again? It was as equals, and their bond was stronger than it had ever been. So she encourages Rev to come up with his own ideas, try to understand his father’s, and then come together as equals. Truly understanding each other, instead of blind faith, because that’s the best way to support your loved ones. And she says this all in front of Braev, too, and the pride he feels towards her is so evident. It’s moments like this that make this game a great sequel. Edea’s come so far from the person she was at the start of the last game, but she’s still not flat in this one. Sure, the focus is more on Yew and Magnolia’s development, while Tiz and Edea had the brunt of it in the last game, but our returning party members are still growing, too, and it’s nice to see them in a mentor role

Phase 2 of Magnolia’s plan: use the compass to lure out the Kaiser. Unfortunately, it seems something’s come up on Kamiizumi’s end of this plan, so now we’re off to Florem Gardens to help

Also, I love how Kamiizumi is so useless with the pendant call. He can’t work the thing at all

On to Florem Gardens. Good to see my old grinding grounds are doing well. I’ll be back for more next chapter!

Aww, they called Edea’s dad with the pendant. It’s really nice to see them getting along in this game

Yew’s call to Norzen didn’t go half as well, though. Turns out Norzen, Braev, and Kamiizumi have a shrubbery group chat

Altair is now telling them about how he and Vega would call each other using cell phones and video phones. The more things change, the more couples keep talking forever on the phone playing “No you hang up”

Chill, Kamiizumi, I’m like, one screen away. We’ll be there in two minutes

Oh dear lord Angelo set up shop in the forest. And Aimee’s here, too. Time to beat her down using her own job I guess

So they think the last timeline was a dream, but Angelo’s memories of Aimee’s dying words spurred them on to being an actual couple. Also, they’re still gonna fight us, because definitely fight people who made you mad in (what you assume are) dreams?

Also, Aimee is literally from Florem Gardens. They met there. That’s why the shop’s there

Some neat tactics going on with them, with Angelo inflicting the party with fire weakness and then having Aimee use Firehead to give all her attacks fire damage. Not much else of note though

And Yew just totally hired them to open up shop in Gathelatio. Not... sure they deserve it, but I guess they were the least attached to the Kaiser’s plan in the first place

...thanks for all the help, Kamiizumi

Oh good lord there’s so many cats here. I see where this is going. We’re gonna have to take on Minette, aren’t we

Kamiizumi’s cat’s here. Forgot that was a plot thread

Hide the compass in Sagitta? With how easily Geist got in? I don’t know if that’s the best plan

Ah, I see. We’re feeding the cats false information to report to Minette, who will lead the Kaiser right into our SP Cannon’s blast. Not a bad plan

Of course Tiz is “all catted out.” He’s been my dedicated Catmancer for a long freaking time

Alright, Elder Sirius. Time to shoot that Skyhold out of the sky

I appreciate Yew’s conviction in stopping Denys. He may be his brother, but he’s also gone (or about to go) too far. And I’m sure Yew feels responsible for it, since this all started after Denys lost his hand due to Yew’s mistake

Making Yew be the one to fire the cannon seems a BIT cruel to me, though

I can’t believe that plan actually worked

Minette’s gonna buy time for Denys, Janne, and Nikolai to escape, and they’re all treating it like she’s gonna die, but guys. We haven’t killed a single person this timeline. We have fought six of your people and the worst they got is prison! You really think we’re gonna kill the kid and only the kid?

You can see Denys actively fighting with his Big Brother Instinct to protect the kid. But he renounced that to be the Kaiser. Best he can do now is send the lion with her, just in case

Please. Child. Just stop the cat puns. You keep making it so tempting to actually kill you

Okay, I know this kid was experimented on and crossed with cat DNA or something equally ridiculous, but her backstory and mannerisms REALLY say “I’m a cat who was turned into a human”

She became a cat to... please her mom? What? Why would her mom be upset her daughter WASN’T a cat? Did the experiment fail? Or did she just have a kid and go “you know, I should’ve just adopted a cat instead”

Holy shit, I was gonna say “not a hard fight” but then Minette got off a lucky full-party Catnap+RIP combo and totally wiped the team

Definitely sticking a Clothespin on Yew this time

I probably went about that in the dumbest way possible, but we beat her

Child! I will take you in if you just! Stop! The cat puns! That’s it! That’s all I ask of you! Maybe people are abandoning you because every time you open your mouth you make yourself as insufferable as possible!

Oh no Kamiizumi just adopted her. Dude... dude please break her of the cat pun habit

Hey! She’s not a cat! She’s a human who thinks she’s a cat! Stop telling her she can sleep in front of the fire all day every day! How about you freaking rehabilitate the kid and then send her to school like Gho

You are adopting a daughter, not a pet

Minette is one of the worst characters in this whole series. I can’t even muster any sympathy for her because all she is is a GIMMICK with a cute face. She isn’t even a character! She’s just the human embodiment of cat puns! And I hate it!

So Norzen, Rifa, and Pudgius just enchanted a crystal to trap the Skyhold. Guess we’re storming it again already, huh? I’ve gotta say, after the Empire being constantly one step ahead last timeline, it’s nice to be the ones in control for a change

And Norzen knew Minette’s mom. He was working to make a cure for the Plague. It killed so many that it mostly died down, but they saw that it was going to make a comeback, even worse than before. Minette’s mom noticed that no cat got infected, so she used them as the base for her vaccine, and tested it on herself. And died. But not before giving the vaccine to Minette, who the scientists took in and studied, and in doing so found the cure they needed to stop the Plague for good. Nope. Still feel nothing for Minette. This is a half-assed justification for making a Walking Gimmick. Minette could be deleted from existence and I would not care and it is entirely to do with the fact that her entire character is Cats™ and Abandonment Issues™ with no further substance

Back to the Skyhold. The big diamond in the center is looking quite a bit worse for wear now that the SP cannon landed a direct hit on it

I hate this stupid dungeon and its useless map that does a really awful job of showing how platforms overlap

On the way back to where we fought Anne. Everyone’s treating this as a point of no return, but I’ve gotta wonder about that considering there’s three jobs, one summon, and several more Catmancy skills left in locations that I can’t access yet

“Regrets... are like rutabagas - far better overcooked than left untouched in the pantry.” Altair I have never eaten a rutabaga in my life, your metaphor is lost on me

Oh, we’re finally going to hear about Vega. Good, I was looking for a reason to be invested in Altair and his story

Wait... Altair’s from the Celestial Realm? Does that make him a Celestial? Does he know the Celestial/Player from the first game (and probably also this one, since I’m assuming it’s the same Celestial guiding the party both times)? ...is he aware that I’ve been making fun of his metaphors and the way he pronounces his name for a while now?

Vega was his wife. A great Calamity befell the Celestial Realm, so they planned to take a ship and flee to Luxendarc... but Vega never made it to the ship. Altair didn’t realize she wasn’t onboard until after the ship had left on its one-way trip to another dimension. He doesn’t say it outright, but he probably doesn’t even know why she never made it or if she’s even alive anymore. He never said goodbye to his wife. He wasn’t expecting to need to. The last time he saw her was never supposed to be the last

Since a female voice narrates the ends of chapters, and what seems to be Altair’s theme plays there, I can only assume that that’s Vega. I don’t think she’s THE Celestial that guides the party, but I do wonder if the two know each other and The Celestial/Player is showing her what they’re seeing. Or maybe just intercepting messages from her

Yeah, I’m sure this is a “final” battle and your backstory is entirely irrelevant, Altair. The Kaiser is definitely the Big Bad, just like Braev was last game. Definitely

So I have Magnolia as a Black Mage and the brim of her hat is just barely covering her eyes. It almost looks like she’s trying to hide tears behind it, which is especially noticeable since she had the biggest reaction to Altair’s story

“With the right dressing, a simple piece of lettuce can become a salad.” Have you ever even eaten a salad before because it takes more than one piece of lettuce to make those. Otherwise it’s just lettuce with some sauce on it

Altair, we both ship Yew/Magnolia, but maybe lay off the kid a little? I know your romance went poorly, but I have no intention of letting these kids die. That only ever happens accidentally

“Give Tiz the pendant. ...I believe he has something to tell someone.” Agnès probably already knows... but I think they both need to hear it spoken. Two years can be a painfully long time to wait just to hear someone say “I love you, too.”

And all I can think of during this is poor Edea. I think she loves Alternis... but as a brother. The Alternis that she’s in love with, the one who grew and changed, the one she shared an adventure with, who she came to care for beyond their shared history but as an equal... well as far as she knows he isn’t in this dimension anymore. She’s already had her Altair/Vega situation, a goodbye that never was. Of course, if my theory’s right and one of the Alternises running around is Ringabel, then she may have another chance. But as for now... she just has to sit here listening to her new family get resolutions that have been lost to her

So I did end up grinding out the Bestiary entries for Skyhold just on the off-chance it was a one-time location and let me just say: Ranger Edea is terrifyingly strong and I love her

Dammit, Denys, just stay still so I can fight you, rip your sword out of your robot hand, and then steal your job!

Oh fuck OFF, Janne!

“In the end, you understood me. You’re a true friend, Yew.” Yeah, he’s a much better friend to you than you are to him. It’s a two-way street! So kindly take that newfound modicum of introspection and use it for something, you brat

So it’s a Janne/Nikolai dual boss as they cover Denys’s escape. My team’s level 65 and pretty damn tough at the moment, though. Nikolai’s gonna have a hell of a time trying to out-heal Tiz’s Exorcism HP Undos and Janne’s barely gonna make a dent with Yew’s Spellcraft-boosted Healing

“Now isn’t the time to wallow in sentiment!” Sure, Janne. “Stop thinking about the past!” Yep. Sure. You fucking hypocrite

Whaaaaaaat the fuck was that rumbling. What did you three idiots doooooo!?

Don’t know why Nikolai thought using Sacrifice was a good idea. Janne’s really useless on his own

Guys. We haven’t killed anyone this timeline. Stop being dramatic! We aren’t going to kill you. ...but you are going to prison for Mook #4′s death, Janne. You brought that one on yourself

“Only death can stop us” or some really good chains, you know

Atta boy, Yew. Don’t compromise your own morals for these idiots

“You can still change the world without destroying the past!” And that’s the crux of this whole game, isn’t it? What’s done is done. We’d all like to go back and change things. It seems like it would be so easy to erase the mistakes of our lives... but things aren’t that simple. How much good can come of the bad? If the Plague hadn’t happened, a cure never would have been developed, and the technologies and medicine that arose from it can be used to great benefit in the future, and so on. This is a game about accepting the bad and moving on. Working not to undo your mistakes, but fix them and be better the next time similar situations arise. And as someone who struggles a lot with self-blame, that’s really powerful to me

“But... what about my revenge!?” Oh. MY GOD!!! I get that you’re 16 and moral complexity seems to fly right over your head, Janne, but have you listened to nothing this entire game!? I actually hate you more than Minette, and she makes insufferable cats puns every. Fucking. Sentence. I swear you two are the worst goddamn characters in this game. Give. It. A. REST

Oh, so Janne’s motives are entirely selfish, too. Because according to him, he’s not looking to see his family again. He’s not looking to bring back his parents because he loves them and thinks they deserved better. No, he just wants to undo the years of emotional suffering and living on the streets he had to go through in the aftermath, and he’s taking it out on everybody else

God, fuck, why do people like this character!? Is it because he falls into the “tortured-but-physically-attractive character with a tragic backstory, so even if they do awful things they’re sympathetic so I can change them (or have the other participant in a ship with them do so)” archetype? Because fuck that archetype, it’s been romanticized to hell and back and I have literally always hated it. I’m not shy about my distaste for Kylo Ren in the new Star Wars films, a certain villain from Pokémon Sun and Moon, Merula Snyde in Hogwarts Mystery, and I’m certainly not shy about my distaste for Janne Balestra, the most self-centered brat in existence still trying to pretend that just having a tragic backstory somehow justifies all of the shitty things he’s done in this game, with no effort to make amends on his part. People don’t deserve to get off with no consequences like that!

“What am I supposed to do!?” How about you grow the fuck up, listen to what we’ve been telling you this whole game, and stop taking your frustrations out on everybody! Get a therapist! Open up an orphanage or something so other kids don’t end up on the street like you! You’re the one who decided that rewriting time and killing anyone with even the slightest connection to the Balestra deaths was the way to handle this. Honestly, your lack of direction is not our problem to fix now that that’s out the window. The only thing Yew’s obligated to make right is his relationship with Denys

Oh, nice! Yew’s gonna hand control of the Crystalguard from House Geneolgia to the Orthodoxy. That won’t stop corruption entirely, but I’m sure Agnès will make good use of being able to control the knights sworn to protect her and her faith

And the other Houses in control of the guard are in agreement. Enough of using the Crystalguard as a tool against each other, now we’re letting Agnès decide. One, unified voice in the organization, instead of the warring factions it’s been made of

And Braev, Goodman, Norzen, and Lotus will help out, as counterbablances to Agnès, representing the needs of the four Continents (with Crystals on them. Sucks to be Caldisla, I guess)

Yew’s finally figured out who he is and what he wants out of life. He’s not just the kid following Crystalguard orders or filling in for Denys out of a sense of duty. He’s seen the corruption and he’s going to work to change it. To make the organization he was told was his to inherit into something worth inheriting. Something to be proud of. And now, he’s not doing it alone. He sounds just like a certain blonde in our party...

And Nikolai and Janne agree to help us... without even the slightest hint of an apology from Janne. Fuck you, just leave the story already

And Denys’s in the Geneolgia mausoleums beneath Gathelatio. Time to kick some sense into big bro’s ass while surrounded by the corpses of our ancestors?

I can’t help but notice the game’s letting me walk around but still hasn’t addressed the shaking during the fight. I get the feeling there’s another boss coming and it isn’t Denys

I got off Skyhold and literally nothing happened, but I don’t think that’s the end of the rumble shenanigans

Ah, making use of that tiny door next to Yew’s house. Down into the Crypts we go!

I love how Alfred’s first thought upon seeing Nikolai and Janne is “Hey, it’s you jerks who betrayed Yew! Get lost!”

And we didn’t even need Alfred, because Denys left the door open instead of locking it behind him, as would be smart. Though in his defense, the only people he’d want to stop could just use Alfred’s key, and Denys doesn’t seem like he wants Alfred to know who he is just yet so it’s safer to leave his old butler alone than sneak in and grab the key

Denys has the other key because he told Alfred he wanted to lay flowers on his mother’s grave before he was exiled. So even if her son wasn’t the favored heir of House Geneolgia, they still had the decency to bury her with the rest of the family

I love how Alfred really loves the Geneolgia kids, more than even their father. He doesn’t want to believe that Denys is the Kaiser, it seems so out of character for the boy he knew, but when it’s Yew saying it... how could he not believe?

No, Yew, let Nikolai and Janne turn themselves in to the police. I know you still hold some affection for them (despite how much Janne doesn’t deserve it) but they totally committed some atrocious crimes and need to atone in some way

“A crime is a crime. How can we hope to reform others if we cannot admit our own trespasses?” And that, right there, is why I have sympathy for Nikolai and not Janne. He’s willing to admit he did wrong, and willing to attempt to make it right. Janne may be going along with him, but he still hasn’t apologized and is throwing a minor fit about explaining himself. His behavior is beyond unsympathetic, no matter what his backstory is, and his “reformation” comes across more like he’s just doing it to please Nikolai. Like when a child begrudgingly apologizes because their parents told them to, but you can hear it in their voice that they don’t mean it

The Geneolgia Crypts. The location of the final summon, one of two remaining places with Catmancy skills... and the last story-mandated asterisk. Time to find Denys

I know it plays in a lot of locations, but I love the music in the Crypts, “Dungeon of the Nature.” It’s somber, but grand. Soft, not bombastic, but still powerful. It’s great, I’d recommend people look it up if they haven’t heard it yet

Why are there instant-kill rabbits in here

Also can’t help noticing that the other enemy types are female mummies and ghost knights. Doesn’t seem like the Geneolgia family is really at rest, does it?

So it’s a maze, where I have to light each crystal to unlock the door, huh? Not too complicated

Susano-o Obtained! He’s been changed from non-elemental to Dark, but it’s otherwise our same old friend from Default

I find it bizarre that Amaterasu is listed after Susano-o, despite unlocking earlier. I suppose most people would run into Susano-o first, since there’s literally nothing out by Amaterasu’s anchorite and no reason to go there

I also appreciate that the two “strongest” summons are named after sibling gods from Shinto mythology, though I do wish there was a Tsukuyomi to go with them, considering the abundant moon symbolism in this game

Ah, is Yew’s fear of ghosts from being down here as a kid? He says he came down to bury his father and pay his respects, but he doesn’t remember it well because he tried to forget. He didn’t want to remember how lonely his childhood was because of the emotional divide between Denys and his mother, Yew and his mother, and their father. Going off to school was his first taste of freedom

“It’s... perfect.” God, can we give Michael Sinterniklaas an award for just the delivery of that line?

Hey, Denys. Fancy seeing you in what is clearly a boss room. No hard feelings for what comes next, yeah?

OH MY GOD I put my 3DS down and the screen went black for two seconds. Scared the hell out of me I thought I was gonna have to play part of that over again

I can just leave the room. The stairs are right there. The game is letting me walk right past him and go... but that won’t solve anything, will it?

We stand at the grave of Foundar Geneolgia. Captain of the Crystalguard, first leader of the Three Cavaliers... and completely corrupt beyond belief, using his position to take out personal enemies by accusing them of being enemies of the Orthodoxy, all to keep his own power. Sometimes to gain more

This was the standard of House Geneolgia. Those who deviated, who tried to be better... what remains are unmarked gravestones. Still here, within the family, but shunned and forgotten. Even in death. Denied the opportunity to be remembered by the lives they touched and shackled by the legacy of a bloodline they were unable to escape. Lost to an underground cavern for eternity.

And that’s his goal. Denys, disgusted by his ancestors and bearing the weight of a bloodline he never asked for, planned to travel back in time and kill Foundar, erasing the entire Geneolgia line and their sins with it

He’s so caught up in his plan that he’s failed to see something that I think Yew’s already figured out: these brothers are the only members of the Geneolgia family left. They aren’t beholden to the laws of the family anymore, because who will enforce them? Each other? There’s no guarantee someone worse won’t spring up in the place of Foundar, but Yew and Denys together can take what their bloodline has been given and turn it into something worthwhile. Erasing the past is a gamble on a brighter present. Working together is a guarantee of a brighter future

*squints* There’s a single dead pixel on my screen right in the middle of Denys’s face right now and it’s driving me nuts

“So you, too, would slumber in an unmarked grave. We are more alike than I thought...” And you always have been. If you’d spoken openly to your brother, you would have noticed who he is deep in his heart. Someone who doesn’t care for money or power, who takes in and cares for others as if they were family, an idealist who wants nothing more than a better world for those they care for, even at the cost of their own life... You two make quite a pair.

This whole conflict probably could have been avoided if these two had the chance to be closer as kids. If Denys had a single family member to confide in... If Yew had someone to guide him away from the indoctrination of their father... The tragedy is that the only times they’ve been able to speak freely to each other... have been at the end of this game

It’s just a shame Denys wants to fight. He wants to be proven wrong, not just have his baby brother spout nice platitudes at him

Still, I warned this chinstrap-beard-sporting jackass. I’m going to RIP. THAT. SWORD. OUT. OF. HIS. DUMB. METAL. HAND!

(By which I mean I’m stealing the Chaos Blade, the only missable item as far as I’m aware, from him. I was just being dramatic about it so I wouldn’t forget)

No pretense of fighting “The Kaiser,” an untouchable force of nature. Now he’s just Denys. A brother lost to his own guilt. Flawed, human, and in need of a guiding hand to bring him towards a redemption I think he’s willing to start

Aaaaaand of course he has reraise

I mean... that’s a decent argument. If Denys goes back to change the past, he actually ruins the future because he’s given Anne access to the Holy Pillar

And now the party gets the Kaiser job. Almost like a spiritual relinquishing of the role from Denys

I assumed we’d be taking Denys home to rest. Can’t help but notice we took his coat, though. Really shows off the fact that Yew cut off his entire right arm, not just his hand 

Denys was always going to try and make a martyr of himself. It didn’t matter what he did, how bad his actions were, his final act, erasing himself from existence, was supposed to be his atonement. Now what does he do, living with the things he’s done and no easy end to absolve him of it?

It’s like the game thought I wouldn’t recognize Agnès‘s voice immediately

Agnès is willing to give him the chance to atone. Not forgive him outright, but a chance to earn that forgiveness. And why wouldn’t she? Agnès was once the puppet of a fairy herself, nearly driving the world to ruin with the goal of its salvation. Killing countless Duchy soldiers (and I know the game’s gonna act like the random encounter soldiers didn’t exist, but they did) in the name of her cause. Denys really is in the same position as Tiz, Agnès, Edea, and Ringabel were just two years ago

Denys really thinks all of his companions are dead, huh? “The only mercy I need is a quick death, so I may apologize face-to-face.” “Then come with me to the Sanctum.” We’re just gonna arrange a prison meet-and-greet with the other Glanz Empire higher-ups that we didn’t kill, just stuck in prison, and Denys’s gonna have a change of heart and join us, I can already see it coming

According to the Bestiary, Denys met Anne when the Great Chasm “disappeared” (where... did it go?), captured the Ba’al Diamante and seized the asterisks left behind in the crater, and then created the Skyhold using Diamante. So the Ba’al that the Sagitta thought they were firing on, and the one sealed within... is Diamante, which I thought was just the official name for the Skyhold when it appeared on the location intro card. I... I think I know what those rumbles from before may have been

Yew makes sure to note that everything he wrote was told to him by Denys, presumably off-screen. And there’s a little note that makes a similar point to what I did during the fight: his Bestiary entry is listed as Denys Geneolgia, not Kaiser Oblivion, because should anything happen, Yew wants him to be remembered not as the leader of the Glanz Empire, but as his beloved brother

“To meet those who sacrificed themselves for your cause... This is what you truly wish? Then let it be done!” I see you trying to be dramatic, Agnès, but let’s cut the man a break, yeah? Faking him out like this is just a bit mean. The look on his face is gonna be great, though

Yup! And Minette even got adopted with no jail time. Isn’t that great?

“I-I do not deserve...” Maybe not forgiveness, but no one has given you a second chance to atone yet. It’s about time we do

Okay, I know Braev was cutting his restraints, but it still looked like he slashed Denys across the back. Could you imagine if he had! “Grand Marshall! I meant cut his restraints!” “Oh. OH. Oh no. My apologies. I thought this was going somewhere else! Oh dear... someone call a healer! Nikolai!”

Family dinner! FAMILY DINNER! FAMILY DINNEEEEEER! Aw man, get in here, Agnès! It’s the whole dang team! Magnolia, Tiz, Edea, Yew, and Agnès all sharing some down time together is what I live for!

Aaaaaaand Agnès made it sad by asking if Magnolia’s gonna go home to the Moon when her work is done. Now Yew’s sad. And Magnolia’s sad

Denys, get in here! If the team’s willing to forgive and forget, well, I’ve been willing to with you for a while! Family dinner! Estranged older brothers and adoptive extradimensional aunts and all!

I am desperately in need of a reconciliation hug between Denys and Yew right now

“What do you say we go for a bath, Brother?” Or... you can make it weird, Yew. I feel like that’s a few steps past a hug

Just two bros chillin’ in a hot spring, five feet apart ‘cause they’re estranged siblings awkwardly attempting to reconnect

This is good for both of them, really. Just finally getting to chat it out, maybe air some grievances...

Denys never blamed Yew for what happened with his arm. It actually gave him the perfect opportunity to walk out on their father and never look back. One of his big regrets was that he never got to tell Yew that before he was forced to leave. He’s just glad they even have the opportunity to talk again. That he had the opportunity to finally tell his brother that he doesn’t have to bear that weight anymore

And now he’s giving relationship advice to his little bro... awww, that’s sweet, but I gotta wonder what Denys actually knows about romance. Like... at all

Denys’s just sitting here like “Oh this dense kid. It’s so obvious they belong together. Come on, Yew, confess. That’s gonna be my new sister-in-law, I can tell.”

Nothing like a GIANT FUCKING DEATH LASER IN THE SKY to ruin your nice chat with your brother, huh!?

Dammit, I knew Anne was suspiciously absent and yet I still overlooked her. I bet she used Sylvie to overload the Crystals and form the Holy Pillar

MMMMMMmmmmm Skyhold again. I’ve got... a bad feeling about what’s going to happen to Denys. Please don’t go Redemption Equals Death, please don’t go Redemption Equals Death he has so much potential...

Yew’s apologizing to Magnolia because she helped him repair his relationship with Denys, but he still hasn’t returned the favor in helping her defeat the Ba’al and save the Moon. God, I love this kid’s sense of honor

Oh, hey, confirmation that the Moon and Appleberry are still okay. At least until Anne does something again

I knew it. The Matriarch and Sylvie are here

Anne you fairy fuck get over here! I know you’re aware of my existence, you’re the one who asked me to play the original game!

“You’re here already? Not bad! You beat my estimate by fourteen minutes.” Not bad considering I took a day’s break before getting here. That estimate must have been pretty generous

She pulled an Airy on Sylvie and the Matriarch and convinced them to help her. Where the Fairy Flies, am I right?

“Denied!” Denys you ham this is supposed to be serious

Oh... I forgot that Anne sent Denys to the future instead of the past and he still remembers that

You didn’t realize she sent you to the wrong time!? How do you not notice the technology and architecture being way off?

She had no intention of sending him to the past. Of course not. Why would Airy’s sister have you invalidate all the work she had the player/Celestial do last game?

...Master?

Here we go. The freed Diamante, Ba’al that destroyed the Moon civilizations. And Magnolia’s freaking out, but her new family won’t have it! We avenge her people together!

Diamante looks freaking awesome. A diamond unicorn with a skeleton rider, with butterflies in her long, teal hair and shredded wings for arms.

And don’t think I haven’t noticed the background. A woman with a ponytail kneeling behind a chain-link fence, reaching her left hand out towards what appears to be a rocket ship flying off into the distance. The ring on her finger glinting every once in a while

A married woman left behind, longing to reach a ship... Vega...

Diamante, the diamond ring

Health doesn’t look too bad, but I’m worried about the 100% Mirror. Seems it even reflects physical attacks

It’s gone down to 60% after a round of attacks. Maybe I’ve just got to wear its shield down

It did... something to Tiz that prevents him from doing anything besides Default and Summon and brings its Mirror up for one more hit every turn, but this seems manageable. Turns out attack items count as hits to bring it down, so if I toss one out per turn it can’t do anything

I love the effect of the diamonds on the unicorn breaking away to reveal an electric interior

Reraise was to be expected at this point

They only make you fight it twice and it still revives at the end, but I think it’s poetic that I beat it while I had Magnolia’s theme playing thanks to her special being the second-to-last hit on it

Do what you did to the Moon? “Let the cleansing fires cover the world, and burn for three days and three nights!” Why so specific, Anne? It sounds like you’re quoting a Bible verse at me

You sound ridiculous, Anne. Tone the formality down a peg

“Yes, it is time I atone for my sins.” Denys don’t you fucking dare

Yew, do not give him the compass.

You are not taking this Ba’al to the end of time, young man! No! You aren’t allowed to pull a Redemption Equals Death on me

“I trust you. My sacrifice will not be in vain.” You don’t have to do this! I can keep this boss fight going forever! We weren’t even struggling! I’ve got the resources to keep trying!

Denys, please. You could be Party Member #5. You could have a well-written, non-copout redemption arc. Let’s think about this

God...

...dammit.

[shadowofthelamp]

Beginnings

So, that Swap AU post got more attention than I thought it would so I figured I’d quick write out how the two of them met their spirits.

To those who didn’t see the post, it’s a swap au where Atem and Bakura are the ones who get the puzzle and the ring, while Yugi and Ryou are the spirits in them. So far nobody else has really switched but that might change, I was just curious how changing just that would switch the dynamics.

If you have questions or suggestions for this au feel free to send an ask!

Word count: 1,186

There were two reasons to go to the Kame Game shop.

The first was obvious: Solomon Muto had a surprisingly wide collection of games for a relatively small shop, and was very good at figuring out which of them a customer would like best from a few sentences. He’d wink and rummage around and pull out something, either dusty or new, showing it off like a king would with his prized jewels.

The other was his grandson, Atem. He was often sitting in the corner of the shop with either a book or a puzzle, and had a little sign on the card table that said ‘If you beat me at a game of your choice, you get half off your purchase.’ Many had taken him up on the offer, but rumor had it he’d never been beaten by anyone except that eccentric rich kid Kaiba. He’d play everything from Duel Monsters to chess to ancient games like senet. He had quite the prideful streak, and wasn’t one to be humble when he was winning, but playing with him was tradition for anyone new to the shop.

Currently, Atem was fiddling with the Millennium Puzzle he’d gotten as a birthday present as the last rays of sunset filtered through his window.

“There are only 27 pieces, why won’t they just fit?” He muttered, trying to jam two together. He’d worked on it on and off for years, but what seemed to fit one day wouldn’t the next, as if the pieces themselves had a mind of their own.

His cheek hit his hand as he ran a finger around the rim of the piece that held the eye. “What am I missing?”

_______

Across town, the Domino Museum had a visitor. One that had a particularly baggy red hoodie and twitchy fingers.

He didn’t always steal when he went to the museum his uncle was the curator for. If he did, it was the wallets of wealthy patrons who snapped at their children for smudging the glass. He mostly just liked seeing what remained of dead civilizations, and the mummies were kind of cool. But there was a new exhibit, and the large ring-like pendant that was brought in on a small cart with barely any escort was too tempting a prize.

He’d always had a weakness for gold, and something in his chest tugged at him when it was uncovered. The guard was chatting with a rather fat old man about something he didn’t care about, so he lifted a handkerchief to the ring, wrapping around the cool metal so the tines wouldn’t clink when he stuffed it into his front pocket.

It isn’t until he was outside and feels the metal heat up that he realizes stealing an ancient artifact might not be the best idea.

_________

For the tenth time that night, Atem reads aloud the inscription on the puzzle box, the Arabic sliding out smoothly, the same way his mother had taught him.

“The person who solves this puzzle will have their wish granted, and will receive my knowledge and power.”

“Maybe I just haven’t been believing in the spirit of the puzzle,” Atem mutters to himself, half sarcastic. “I wish I could have better friends, who actually spent time with me instead of just getting huffy when I win.” He paused. “Or magic powers, that would be fun.” He continues to fiddle with the puzzle, sliding two pieces together. And then another two. And another two.

His eyes widen as he realizes that the puzzle is, for once, being solved. He straightens up in his chair, slotting one piece into another, heart thudding against his ribcage as he holds up the final piece. The sun has set, but the light from his desktop lamp illuminates it. The gold, normally cool from its box, warms in his palm, a mini sun, and he sets it against the center, slowly pushing it in.

For a moment, nothing happens, before a light from within the puzzle blooms, the iris of the eye lighting before spiderwebbing between the cracks where the pieces fit together. It’s impossible to look away, and when the white reaches the loop at the top, the entire eye becomes a bright dot.

He has half a second to realize that the light is aimed directly at his face before everything goes white.

_________

Bakura’s hands were frozen to the outer edge of the ring, no matter how much he tries to wrench them away. He can’t even pull them out to look at the thing- as it would require ripping through the fabric, and all the strength seems to have left has arms. For all he knows, the damned thing has turned purple.

“Let go of me, you stupid piece of-”

Light floods out of his pocket, and it feels like he’s stuck his hands up against a lightbulb that’s been on for hours. Bakura can’t help a sharp gasp that hisses out between his teeth, and he finally manages to get one hand off of the ring, allowing him to pull it out.

It’s begun to quiver, the tines pointing directly at his chest, and then he feels nothing at all.

_________

Atem wakes up with his cheek smushed against his desk, and sits up so quickly his head spins. The finished puzzle rests around his neck, a long strip of leather running through the loop on the top, with a haphazard knot on the thick material to make it work as a necklace.

“Did I…?” He remembers finishing the puzzle and passing out, but not much else. His neck hurts a bit- from sleeping on the desk or from the weight of the now-completed pendant, he can’t tell.

“Are you coming down for breakfast?” Solomon called up the stairs, and Atem cupped the puzzle in his hands, running his thumbs over the grooves.

“I’ll be down in a moment!”

Is that your grandpa? A soft voice echoes in the back of his head and Atem nearly hits the ceiling. He does, however, stand up fast enough to knock over the chair, fingers tightening around the pyramid.

“What- who are you?”

My name is… my name is Yugi.

__________

Bakura has woken up in some strange places, so the bushes of the park near the museum aren’t too bad.

It’s the fact that he’s still holding that stupid ring that bothers him.

He remembered grabbing it off of the cart before it was to go on display, but after that, nothing. He doesn’t like not remembering things.

The sun is beginning to beat down on him, white hair sticking to the back of his neck as he holds the ring in front of him. “So, what are you, some cursed thing that is gonna try and kill me?”

I’d prefer not to.

Bakura stares at the ring.

“Did you just-”

You can hear me?

“Yes, I can hear you- you’re actually haunted? Holy shit, the one time I take something from the museum-”

My name is Ryou.

Bakura tries to drop it, stomach churning, but if the ring hadn’t killed him already for stealing it, it probably wouldn’t now, right?

“Bakura.”