#he and rouge BETTER have had a talk afterwards

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

I AM ACTUALLY GOING FERAL

FOREHEAD TOUCHES IN ANY WAY KILL ME

THIS WAS THE MOST TENDER THING NSMDNFNSMWFNZNAKDNXMCNSKFNSMDN

MARIA IS SO AT PEACE AND SHADOW IS JUST IN SHOCK AND IS MISERABLE AND DESPERATE TO SAVE THEM AND HAVE THEM IN HIS LIFE AGAIN UGHHHHH

MARIA'S GENTLE WHISPERING

AND THE WAY SHADOW JUST SHUT HIS EYES AND WAS TREMBLING

HE HAD TO LOSE THEM AGAIN

HE COULDN'T BEAR TO FACE THEM AND WATCH THEM FADE AGAIN HE JUST HAD TO LEAVE (if he'd hugged them that would've been the most painful cherry on top that I would've eagerly devoured)

AND HE. FREAKING. CRIED.

They pulled a thing kinda like in Sonic X where it showed clearly he was crying but it wouldn't show his face as he did, just a passing, silent reveal... 😭😭 And the way Rouge's expression softened into a somber realization as she registered what was going on... AUAUSUGDBFFMKSMDNFMDSMSN

ALL PAIRED WITH THE BEAUTIFULLY DRAMATIC MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND 😭💔💔

[omega-e123]

Prequel to this

A week ago…

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Shadow physically swallows his pride and knocks on Amy’s door. The hedgehog was in town, deciding to give himself a break from tracking down Eggman as per Rouge’s advice. At first he shoved her aside, “Don’t tell me what to do” until a few close calls happened while his mind was preoccupied. Now here he is.

No answer. Ridiculous. What was he doing here. Lowering his fist, Shadow was about to turn around and leave until the door swung open.

“Shadow? It’s been a while since I last saw you. What are you doing here?” Amy asked, clearly surprised and confused as to why the hedgehog has sought her out. She quickly adds“Oh! Not that I mind. Come in!”

Amy steps aside to let Shadow in but he stays put. There’s no need, he wasn’t planning on staying long. Shaking his head, he declines her offer. “Rose, I’ve come to ask for your assistance”

“With what? Hard to believe you need my help,” She replies, crossing her arms. “Come on in, I insist. Wouldn’t want the neighbors to be sticking their nose in our business.”

Reluctantly Shadow steps in and Amy closes the door behind him. “So what do you need?”

His fists clenched as he struggled to get the words out. A sigh is let out, “Do you recall when you had asked me if I had a special person? Someone that I care deeply about.”

Pink ears perk up and her hands untangle themselves. “Yeah!! You said you didn’t have one! The closest person you could think of was Rouge, but she was more like how Tails is to Sonic,” Amy exclaims, “Who is it! Oh pleaaasse, you gotta tell me,” She clasps hers around one of Shadow’s fists, causing him to inch back.

Gently, Shadow pries his hand from Amy. “That is only for me to know. How does one go about apologizing?”

“Alright, fine. Keep your secrets, Shadow. I’ll just ask Rouge about it later. So, did you do something wrong?” She asks, tilting her head. Amy doesn’t doubt that Shadow may have said some off putting words that would have caused this person to withdraw.

He looks off to the side, avoiding her eyes, “That.. I have no knowledge of. Their behavior towards me has changed drastically. If it was something I did, I wish to make amends.”

A wide smile finds itself on the pink hedgehogs face. This is perfect! “Well, flowers always makes things better! Just talk to them. I’m sure they’ll be understanding.”

“I see.. Does it matter the kind of flowers?”

“Not really, but I’d go with your gut. I’m sure they’ll like whatever you get.”

Nodding, he thanks her and takes his leave.

✦✧✦✧

The next few days were spent agonizing over what yep of flowers he should get. Hand pick them or go to a shop? What should he say when he sees you? If he sees you.

That’s right, the man’s gotta hunt you down in a city full of mobians. He could call you to meet up if it weren’t for him going straight to voicemail. Maybe Rouge or Amy would know where you regularly hang out? Having Sonic help wou— hell no. No, no, no. No way he’s stoop so low to get that hedgehog’s help. If he did, Sonic would hold it over his head forever. Shadow, only himself, could run around the city looking for you. That would end up taking forever and destroying the flowers. Rouge and Amy it is.

Shadow decided to go to a nearby flower shop. All the ones he picked were the same ones in that flower field you two stargazed at. It was when he really opened up to you. About the Ark.. Maria.. His eyes close, reminiscing that night. The way you two were lying side by side, pointing at the constellations. Originally he was going to escort you home afterwards, but you fell asleep soundly next to him. Brave choice letting your guard down in the middle of nowhere. Shadow stayed with you until dawn, keeping a watchful eye. Every few minutes or so his gaze fell on to your sleeping form. Muscles tug on his lips, forming a tiny smile.

He received a call stating you’ve been spotted at his favorite cafe. Something, something, looked depressed. Immediately Shadow hung up and rushed over. Dodging civilians and disobeying traffic laws. There he was met with your slumped over form, staring off into space.

Flower stems threatened to crumple as he held the bouquet tightly. You are absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

Shadow marches on closer, reaching out to tap your shoulder. . .

[mpreg-is-always-possible]

Better

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x gn!reader

Tags: Angst, divorce, losing a child, graveyard, reference to child neglect, reference to canon typical violence, grief

Notes: so I’m very new to this fandom and haven’t actually read the comics yet but I’ve been reading a lot of fanfics and couldn’t get this out of my head. Also I tried to keep reader gender neutral but I did write and edit this in the middle of the night on my phone so please let me know if a rouge pronoun that isn’t ’you’ made its way in. Thanks for reading and please enjoy!

Word count: 1.9k

Summary: Falling in love with Bruce had been foolish. Marrying him was an act of down right insanity. You knew it would end one way or another but you had deluded yourself into believing your husband’s crusade couldn’t come at the expense of Jason’s life. Gotham needs Batman and Batman needs Robin. But why did Robin need to be the boys you had come to see as sons?

Or a one shot of the events leading up to your and Bruce’s divorce after Jason Todd’s death

Officially, you and Bruce had divorced only six months ago. Truly though, your relationship had ended nearly three years ago when Bruce came home without Jason. His Robin went off to do the one thing Batman wouldn’t, and the next thing you know your son is in the ground.

The grief was all consuming. You fell to your knees when Bruce told you. Alfred said the scream you let out would haunt him for the rest of his life but the memory of it was lost to you. Those early days after Jason’s death are blurry still. The only tangible feeling being the heavy hole Jason left behind in your chest.

You’re not sure where Bruce went after that. He grew so distant the only time you saw him was to discuss funeral arrangements. After the funeral you don’t really see your husband for the next month. When asked, Alfred informed you Bruce was staying in the cave believing you needed space. Alfred had clearly disapproved of that but Bruce was right. She did need space from him, from Batman.

It’s not a point of pride that you grew to hate him in the early months after. Thoughts of revealing his extra curricular activity plagued you. As much as Gotham needs Batman, Bruce needs Batman too. He needs to protect his city and build towards a future where his parents' deaths wouldn’t ever be repeated. But how could that future exist when Batman won’t even kill Joker? How could it exist without Jason?

The idea is tempting but you never act on it. Revealing Batman’s identity wouldn’t only endanger you but Alfred and Dick as well. You couldn’t stand losing them too. Dick decided to come back to Gotham for a while after the funeral, just to be there for you and Bruce. Bruce tried to send him back to Bludhaven but you had put your foot down. “We just buried one son and now you want to push another way,” you had yelled at him, his face as stony as ever. He acquiesced.

Dick and Alfred tried to get the two of you to talk to each other. Dick would often try to essentially parent trap you and Bruce in various rooms around the manor, inviting both to watch a movie or asking for help with something but not tell you that he’d asked you both. By the second week Alfred refused to bring Bruce’s food down to the cave, forcing him to eat with you. By the end of the month the two just threw out the cot in the cave and Bruce took a bed in a guest room. Their efforts made it seem like Bruce was imposing his absence on you, and maybe he was but there was no comfort to be found in his company, not anymore.

Their antics went on for another month after that until you sat them down and told them to stop. They had for a few days. When Alfred “mistakenly” served Bruce’s food upstairs one night, you cornered him afterwards to tell him you were considering leaving Bruce. “I cannot fault you but he’s the closest I have to a son and I’m afraid another upset would cause him to spiral more. It’s too much to ask but can you please stay until the grief isn’t so raw.”

That’s when you noticed Bruce had bruises and cuts in places he was normally careful to keep clear of thug’s fists and knives. Dick told you he was fighting so much harder; The criminals had started to whisper fears of the bat starting to kill soon. You didn’t think he would go that far, and Dick agreed but he could tell his father wasn’t far off.

So your marriage continued. You woke up alone, went about your day, had dinner with Bruce before he left for patrol, then went to bed. Galas and various other functions for Wayne Enterprises or Bruce's charity events were the only time you two truly acted like there wasn’t this vast distance between you. Most of the time it made your skin crawl to act like things were fine, but occasionally you could pretend - Jason wasn’t dead, he was just trying to find where the servers smoked to join them. Then someone would offer condolences and the facade would break.

It was around this time when you began to visit Jason’s grave. It had been too painful to see it before. The words ‘Jason Todd: Beloved son and brother’ etched in stone had followed you into nightmares for months. But you needed to get out of the house and Jason had spent too long without a visit from you. At first, they were short somewhat sporadic outings - tiptoeing in about once every other week to leave flowers, often leaving them next to a bouquet or two some else had already gifted. After a while, you warmed up to a quick hello and some highlights from the week before, then had graduated to speaking at the tombstone for hours about life after him every week. It was cathartic and maybe a little sad but those one sided conversations became the one place you could talk about the complexity of your family’s situation without having to sugar coat it or be reminded of how staying was helpful to Batman.

For two years this went on and Batman’s anger didn’t cool. Bruce still came home with black eyes, bleeding knuckles, and the occasional gunshot. The hate in your belly for him had dulled considerably to the point where you had begun to patch his wounds up again out of respect for the love you once had. You might be angry with him but you didn’t want him to get himself killed.

When the neighbor boy, Tim Drake, had knocked on your door, you couldn’t have guessed that he came to express his worry for Batman, for Bruce. You and Alfred listened as he waxed poetic about how Gotham needs Batman but Batman needs Robin. The hole in your chest that had since grown less noticeable ached because he was right and it made you want to spit. As Alfred excused himself to get the Robin uniform for the boy, you grasped his thin shoulders and looked into his face, colored in righteous determination.

“The last Robin was murdered, Tim.”

“I know Jason died, but -“

“Bruce will try to push you away. Don’t let him.”

Watching Tim run out the door in the red and green suit made your stomach turn. It wasn’t what you wanted but you had never had a say in that side of your husband's life. The two of you thought more with your heart than with your head when you decided to get married, but you weren’t so love drunk to think that the marriage wasn’t nearly guaranteed to fail. You even expected it to end because of his crusade. You just wished it didn’t come at the expense of your son.

It was foolish to think this new Robin wouldn't worm his way into your heart just as the two before did and maybe it was selfish but you couldn’t do it again. There was no way Bruce could just stop, but you didn’t need to stand by his side while he did it. It was a miracle that only Jason had died.

Despite your efforts to keep Tim at arms length, he was a sweet kid and it was impossible to ignore him. Plus you knew his parents weren’t paying nearly enough attention to him so he needed someone looking out for Tim and not just Robin.

Bruce had been better at keeping the boy out. He let Dick do most of Tim’s training and really only spoke to him about vigilante things. But the armor slowly but surely cracked. It didn’t escape you or Alfred when Bruce began to request foods that you knew Tim liked or when he had Alfred set up a guest room that was meant for Tim to use when needed. A year in and Bruce had long stopped coming home from patrol with careless injuries.

You knew it was coming. You anticipated everyday that Bruce would come home from patrol and tell you Tim had accepted the mantle. When it actually happened though, it still sent ice through your veins.

“Tim’s passed every test Dick and I have given him. I offered him Robin and he said yes.”

“I knew he would.”

“I don’t want him to be.”

“I know.” A moment passed and then you said “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

“I know.”

The divorce was quick. Neither of you wanted anything from the other. Bruce offered alimony but you refused. You kept your job after getting married but you never touched your salary, leaving you with a nice nest egg to start your new life with. Alfred and Dick were sad but they understood. They knew you sacrificed a lot to stay with Bruce even before Jason died, but after you gave more than you had.

Tim didn't really know what your marriage looked like before but he took on its demise all the same. Your heart broke when Bruce told you Tim had tried to give Robin back in an attempt to make Bruce reconcile with you.

“Tim, if I had it my way none of you would be going out every night fighting thugs and criminal masterminds but you were right; Gotham needs Batman and Batman needs Robin. Unfortunately, it’s become too much for me but Bruce won’t stop. He can’t but he needs someone like you there to make him remember himself.”

Tim just nodded his head and went back to the manor.

Dick and Tim visited you at your small apartment in Gotham as often as they could. Though between Dicks commute from Bludhaven, Tim still being in school, and both of their budding vigilante careers, they didn’t have much time to visit. Occasionally, they’d stop by during patrol for a rest or some first aid. Mainly you kept in touch with phone calls and texts.

You never really saw Alfred anymore, unless it was when he opened the door for Tim after dropping him off at him from school or some outing. He does call occasionally, just to say hi and chat. It’s nice, not feeling completely cut off from your old life.

It was surprising how unchanged your relationship with Bruce was after you left. It probably shouldn’t have been - your marriage was one in name alone and had been for awhile. Still, realizing your conversations only revolved around if Dick or Tim needed anything made it clear just how true it was that divorced life with him wasn’t far off from your married one. He never did make an effort to really speak with you after things went to hell but then again neither did you.

When you finally signed the divorce papers, it felt like you could breathe for the first time in years. No more sticking around because you were afraid leaving would push him over the edge. But the hole in your chest still plagued you, and it most certainly would forever. The divorce wasn’t what was best. What would have been best would be Jason being alive and Batman not needing to put your kids in danger constantly. But Jason was and Batman did. So the divorce is better.

[gazzistt]

·˚ ༘₊· 𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐈 𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 🧘🏾‍♀️

itadori, sukuna and choso headcannon // here me out…all three of them as siblings. sukuna as the eldest, choso, then itadori.

notes┆︎i usually reference this au when writing my [ itadoriolderbrother! sukuna x reader ], so if you want to know more about that world refer to here :))

⊹˚∘ SUKUNA.

Sukuna grew up spoiled. SPOILED. Being the first and only child of Kaori and Jin at the time, they gave him everything he could ever want.

I like to think that Jin and Kaori were rich as hell. I'm talking about five estates all decked out in multiple traditional-style mansions. They had maids, butlers, attendants—everything!This is where Sukuna spent most of his time and can explain why he acts like he’s better than everyone later in life.

Sukuna was homeschooled for the beginning of his life, never having to mingle with regular people. He learned everything from the comfort of his home, attendants at his beck and call. It was here he learned etiquette, manners and basic liberal skills. Afterward, he was sent to the best schools in the country—his parents only wanting the best for him.

As Sukuna grew older he got a job at his father's company and found out that his parents made him the sole successor to ALL of their assets—only adding to his trust-fund nature.

Sukuna had a very close relationship with his parents, so much so that he was devastated when his mother died shortly after giving birth to Yuji.

This led to his more brutish nature, distancing himself from his father and baby Yuji, going off on a more crude path. He became rouge, got in trouble a lot more, and started fighting. Jin tried his hardest to rectify his behavior, but those attempts didn't seem to work out. So he let him be.

Jin soon found himself growing more weary and left Yuji in the care of his parents, Co-parenting with his father. But, shortly after that, Jin passed away.

Sukuna attended his funeral, and although he wasn't as devastated, it still hit him hard. His grandfather asked Sukuna to visit him and Yuji for some time, seeing as he now had custody over the children as their legal guardian.

However, Sukuna only fulfilled this request during Yuji’s toddler years. After that, Sukuna was as absent as could be. So absent, that Yuji forgot he even had an older brother.

It wasn’t anything personal, but Sukuna was too used to the luxurious lifestyle he grew up with. Their grandfather was a lot more…modest, more simple, more basic. And that was precisely the reason why he stopped showing up.

Sukuna only appeared again when his grandfather died, leaving Yuji without proper care. He decided to take guardianship of the boy and ‘rekindle’ their relationship. Although it was a bit of a daunting task considering he was absent for 16 years of his life. Whoops.

Nevertheless, Yuji eventually came around, the two of them growing close despite their constant bickering and opposing views. Sukuna was family after all.

Sukuna and Itadori lived in a condo in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the area. Itadori didn’t realize it at the time, but his brother was insanely rich. Sukuna never really talked about it, and Itadori never wanted to hear anything about his parents—which Sukuna thought to be a shame, because he would never have the childhood that he did.

⊹˚∘ ITADORI.

Itadori didn’t know what to do when this random man suddenly claimed to be his brother. I mean, how does one even respond to that?

Eventually, Itadori had no choice to believe him. I mean, Sukuna looked exactly like him! It was almost like they were twins, except he had tattoos covering his face, was much older, and had much less face fat too.

It also helped that Itadori could remember Sukuna—faintly, but just enough to know that he met him a couple times in his life.

When it came to living with Sukuna, there were some…difficulties. I mean, he was arrogant, pretentious, and shameless—all the personality traits that made up the people Yuji hated. But Yuji learned how to tune out Sukuna’s voice, choosing not to let his temperament rub off on him.

For the most part Sukuna left him alone. He did have a job, after all. He would fly out for days at a time, coming back home only to chill in his room, and never coming out until he had someplace to be.

At that point Itadori practically made the home his own, the emptiness and barren design choices soon becoming occupied with color and random objects. Like the sudden appearance of a sleeping bag (?), a PS5, clothes, paintings, wallpaper—by the time Sukuna came back home he couldn't even recognize his own home!

“Hey you brat, what the hell did you do to my house?” Sukuna snarled, his briefcase dropping to the floor in his stupor.

“Oh! I thought you were supposed to come next week��”

“You thought?” Sukuna shakes his head, walking towards his brother who was sprawled out watching a movie on his couch. “What? We're you gonna paint my walls too?”

Needless to say, Yuji found himself sleeping outdoors that night.

Amidst the discourse, Yuji did appreciate the little moments he had with Sukuna. Like when he taught him how to fight!

Apparently, to Sukuna, Yuji had a lot of raw strength in him. Whatever that meant. Yuki couldn’t see it yet, but Sukuna insisted to step in to teach him how to punch.

“Kid, what enemies are you fighting?” Sukuna chuckles, throwing his head back with laughter. He just couldn't believe what he was seeing, his own brother—trying to throw a punch with the most dubious of forms.

“Shut it. I don't want to hear it from you.” Itadori tells him, continuing to shadow box in the middle of the living room. “If you don't have anything good to say, then don't distract me.”

Sukuna scoffs, throwing his hands up in his defense. “Whatever. I just can’t watch my doppelganger throw punk ass punches.”

Sukuna then gets up, stopping Itadori from…whatever he was doing. He stands in front of him and throws a punch, showing Itadori a visual of the perfect form.

“Hey, that looked solid!” Itadori said with newfound enthusiasm, bouncing around the room.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, that looked like it would connect!”

Sukuna simply smirks, shaking his head. Of course it looked like it would connect. He was the best fighter he knew—and there would be no way he’d let his little brother embarrass that title.

But the most weirdest moment that happened to Itadori by far was when he gained yet another brother.

⊹˚∘ CHOSO.

One day Itadori got into a little scuffle with some guys. Nothing too drastic—just a slight little altercation.

But, by the time Itadori came home, he was beaten and bruised—clearing losing the fight.

All Itadori knew was that he got absoulety wiped clean by an emo guy with black hair and dark circles. A bit embarrassing to say the least, but Itadori was so sure that he would never see that guy again.

Until…he did.

“You’re not Yuji.” Choso says flatly, eyebrows lifting in confusion.

“Yeah, I'm not.” Sukuna responds, just as confused. “Who the hell are you?”

Currently, Choso was standing outside the door of Sukuna’s condo—how he got there is unknown. All he knew was that his brother was in there and he had to see him.

“I’m Yuji’s brother.”

Sukuna stared blankly at him, a scoff leaving his lips. “The hell you are, that kid was the last one to pop out of my mom, that's for sure.”

“Oh, so you must be his brother? Well, I guess that makes us siblings as well.”

“Huh?”

Sukuna was thoroughly confused. Who the hell was this random ass kid? And why did he claim to be related?—he must be mental.

Sukuna couldn't deal with this so he called Yuji to clarify. That is when he revealed that this was the chump who beat him up.

Apparently, they beat each other so badly that Choso’s injuries led him to believe that Yuji was his brother.

And he was thoroughly convinced. Equipped with shared memories that only Sukuna and Itadori could have known.

Being a kind soul, Itadori decided that they should allow Choso to stay with them—just until he could regain his memories. Although it seemed unlikely, he believed that there really was a chance Choso could be related to them.

Sukuna, however, wasn't too pleased at this idea, since that merely resulted in another mouth to feed. Nonetheless, Choso began living with the brothers—an arrangement that soon became permanent.

Surprisingly, Choso fit in perfectly. Almost as if Sukuna and Itadori were missing a puzzle piece. He wasn’t loud like Itadori, nor was he pompous like Sukuna. He leaned more toward the reserved side, acting as a medium between the two extremes.

He would sometimes chill around the house, playing board games with Itadori and sometimes Sukuna��if he willed it. But the majority of his time is spent taking walks, reminiscing, and listening to music.

Choso‘s friends are kind of shady to be honest, always getting into altercations and trouble. But whenever Itadori expresses his distaste for one of them, he drops them immediately.

I just think Choso is such a family man, always putting their interests first. He is a firm believer of ‘blood is thicker than water.’ Always ready to protect his brothers of any harm should become them.

Thankfully, it hasn't come to that yet—and he enjoys the new home he found for himself.

a/n: finally finished this 😩😩 i need some water. also i just think choso random appearance to be so fucking funny b/c what do you mean your related to me?

© GAZZISTT

[cats-mayhem]

Infinite has body image issues. I know that it's a common headcannon, but I'm just gonna go on for a bit.

I think the longer he was with Eggman, the more Infinite stopped seeing his body as his own and more like a vessel, a thing, an object the Ruby can take ahold of and have its power be maximized.

Mostly because Eggman never really gave a shit about Infinite in particular, he only ever cared about the Ruby that he possessed. And anytime Eggman ever talked about Infinite as a person, it was to berate him for his past and how weak he was before the Ruby.

As time went on, Infinite began to think that the Ruby was his own. He gave up his mind and body to the Ruby, and he thought that as an exchange, he had control over the Ruby itself.

Of course that was just a lie, an illusion. The Ruby used infinite and took care of Infinite's body for him due to it being the only thing it's conscious could control.

After the events of Forces, the Ruby is shattered, and it's conscious dying with it, but the power remained in Infinite.

For a while, Infinite didn't eat, drink, sleep, ect. He just used the power he had to satiate himself. However, doing that made him drained all the time, and his power wasn't at its peak because of it.

It didn't take him long to realize the root cause of the problem, but he didn't like it. He gave up his body to become the Ultimate Weapon and inhabit the power of one of the most powerful Jewels on earth, and yet he needs to eat and sleep and do all of that basic shit still? And the reason he's mad about this comes from the fact that he has never seen Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform, do any of that.

Well, he has seen Shadow eat, but never sleep. Infinite has seen Shadow go out to lunch with Rouge or Sonic, but he just assumed that he was eating then because it made sense in the setting.

It's not until one day, Infinite catches Shadow asleep, does he say anything about this. He wakes Shadow up and asks him why he's sleeping when he doesn't need it.

Shadow explains that while he can go for long periods of time without eating, sleeping, ect. It'll make him exhausted. He won't die from it, but it'll definitely affect his performance a bit. He also gets pestered by Rouge and Sonic to take care of his body because they're worried for him, so he does just so that they lay off.

Infinite mocks Shadow, saying that the ultimate lifeform still has basic needs. But Shadow immediately turns the tables by saying Infinite looks like shit. He immediately calls Infinite out on his hypocrisy, and when Infinite admits that he hasn't taken care of himself ever since the Restoration found him, Shadow can relate to him.

When Shadow first joined Sonic & Co, he never took care of himself. It wasn't until Sonic and Rouge practically begged him to start giving a fuck about himself did he actually started doing it, or, attempting to anyways. Rouge and Sonic helped him get into the habit. And he felt a lot better afterwards. He knows what Infinite is going through.

But it's late, and Shadow is still groggy from being woken up, so he doesn't want to have that conversation now. In the morning, he will, but now? He just pulls Infinite in bed with him, and before the Jackal can say anything, he conks out because his body was just THAT exhausted.

Shadow and Infinite cuddle for the night.

[rae-raewrites]

Hi! I goshed over how cute the dog ask was!.and it gave me an idea for a part 2 how would the riddlers react if they or another member of the rouges gallery lost their little buddy's only to see A Dog found poster with there dog on it and has been found by Bruce Wayne!?

The sequel I didn’t realize we needed but now I know we do lol

The riddlers with dogs part 2: lost and found

Or it’s secondary title,dog dad’s panicking

Arkham

Immediately knows somethings up when there’s no sign of Einstein for hours.

He knows the pooch doesn’t exactly have a schedule but this certainly wasn’t normal.

Panic finally sets in when he doesn’t show up the next morning

He’s checking everything from security cameras to every traffic light around the block.

It’s one of his informants that makes him aware of the lost dog poster out of wayne manor.

He is one pissed super criminal

That rich boy is going to suck the intelligence out of the poor pooch!

5 people get kidnapped and a ransom letter is sent to GCPD

Batman and Gordon are trying to figure if the dog is apart of some elaborate scheme

Upon time for the trade off Einstein is wagging his tail,while well pampered at Wayne manor he missed his genius dad.

“Animals aren’t normally something you’re interested in,I hope you’re not intending to hurt him.” “Oh please dark knight this sweet simpleton is apart of a much larger scheme! With lasers! Something even you won’t see coming!” (Eddie literally has a line of dialogue about it in Arkham city)

He’s almost about to sob when they get home. Almost.

Of course he’s not happy Einstein escaped.

They have a long talk about responsibility in his office

BTAS

Jervis calls him practically sobbing. Mumbles something about the door being open when he went to go check on Francine

Quite literally leaves a meeting with Harvey point blank

He’s a whole mess when he finds an empty apartment

She’s a smart girl! Surly she remembers how to-

Oh god somebody took her didn’t they!?

He is stressed out,like he’s barely able to solve a puzzle right now

It’s jervis who finds the poster.

The two of them immediately decide holding up Wayne enterprises is a great idea

I mean they’ve done worse for less.

Bruce is a little taken aback at first but the green detailing in the poodles hair immediately clicks with both him and alfred

“I must admit you certainly take good care of her.” “Royalty deserves the best Mr Wayne and Francine is royalty.”

Francine is just unbothered by this entire thing,girl gets taken care of wherever she is

They spend a long time cuddling afterwards.

BTAA

When lupa is nowhere to be found in the riddle lair she’s had BOTH Eddie and Tuesday panicked

“What do you mean she’s gone!?!” “I mean she’s gone Eddie! As in i can’t find her!”

Tuesday sends out what is essentially a dog amber alert via social media

They have a good half of Gotham not doing well

Edward nigma has having a short out,no riddles are being carefully handcrafted by this time

Tim is the one who finds out where the pooch currently sleeping on the couch came from.

“Aahh so that explains the purple tie…”

While both the caped crusaders heads go immediately to trap they both realize it’s probably not best to do this while Eddie is most likely not doing well

They’re not wrong of course

It becomes a whole affair with GCPD especially considering Tuesday didn’t expect to get a DM from the GCPD account.

The dog goes home but if they try arresting the two the riddler is about to make the park a wasteland

You better believe he is creating the most ambitious gps collar ever made

This isn’t happening. EVER AGAIN

Zero year

He went to bed……and now his dog roommate is gone and the door is open

Just great.

He’s more pissed off than anything let’s be honest here.

I mean they get into disagreements all the time the Shiba Inu just decided to be even more petty

So you can only imagine the shock on his face when he sees Helios on the news with Bruce Wayne by his side.

Oh dear he’s gonna have to go see Bruce isn’t he?

He straight up drives to Wayne manor with every intention of dragging Helios home

“Edward…..how pleasant it is to see you again..” “ya ya great to see you too brucie,Helios get your ass over here!”

Helios is smiling like he hasn’t just made him panic

Doesn’t even wait to get home and starts reprimanding him in the car.

“Really? And you ended up with him?!”

[angeldrawsstuffs]

No Title, Just RBG Angst (Puppet AU)

Summary: After over a year, the ninja have tracked down Kai’s location to a small village, but what exactly he’s doing there, none of them could’ve expected.

(Like all Puppet AU content, the AU isn’t mine, it’s @kittydemon9000’s, go look at their cool shit)

The blood in Nya’s veins is boiling.

Seriously, more than it ever has, even for someone like Nadakhan. Because this? This is too far.

It’s been over a year since she last saw her older brother, and she and the others have barely slept, Lloyd especially. Even Misako and Sensei Wu haven’t rested since Kai’s disappearance.

It was supposed to be a simple mission: capture some rouge Serpentine and get them back to the city for Skales to deal with, nothing new there, just a typical Tuesday.

But it was new.

Because Kai never came back, gone without trace.

That’s when the search began. Posters, emails, billboards, TV appearances… anything they could do to get the word out and let people know to be on the lookout…

And that leads to earlier in the day.

Someone had contacted The Bounty, saying they saw someone that looks just like Kai in a village a few hundred miles from Ninjago City. After a year of dead ends, the ninja team ventured out on foot so as to not alert Kai’s kidnappers. If this was, in fact, Kai.

But they found nothing. Many villagers claimed they saw him, but none could tell them where he went.

That’s when they stumbled upon a chalkboard advertisement.

It was for a puppet show, run by some semi-known legacy performer. The ninja went just because they thought they could use a break, something to take their minds off of things…

The puppet should’ve been their first hint something was very wrong.

“It” looked just like Kai, but, since it was just a marionette, the team didn’t- they didn’t think-

They went up to the owner of the show afterwards, a tall, very unsettling person who only addresses themselves by “Puppeteer”. If they only had the purple suit and cape, then yeah, maybe they were just a little eccentric…

But his mask was downright CREEPY.

It was made to look like one of those comedy masks from ancient theater, the kind of stuff Sensei Wu would’ve seen around when he was young.

Anyway, Lloyd asked about the doll, explaining their situation with Kai being missing. They thought that, behind the creepy mask and weirdly on the nose stage name, Puppeteer was truly trying to help them.

They should’ve known better.

The team was allowed backstage to talk privately, away from any stragglers in the audience, which is where Nya saw the puppet hanging from a giant cross brace on stage left. “It” looked even more like her brother up close, even having a chip in “its” “skin” over “its” eye to match Kai’s scar.

Puppeteer called it attention to detail.

Nya calls it sick degeneracy.

While the others talked, Nya’s gaze was kept firmly on the puppet, something about “it” seeming just… too uncanny for her liking.

And that’s when she noticed it.

A detail so small, so perfect, that not even Puppeteer’s alleged “attention to detail” could catch.

A scar. One small, tiny scar ok the puppet’s foot.

A scar on Kai that only he and Nya knew about. One he’d gotten from a minor blacksmithing accident when they were kids.

That’s when it all clicked.

The puppet didn’t just look like Kai…

It was Kai.

All this time he was gone, he was really here, with some traveling show, stuck as the main attraction: a puppet!

Nya couldn’t imagine how long her brother’s been stuck like this. Could he even think anymore? Was he aware of his surroundings? What exactly is the extent of what this monster’s done to him?

Which is why she and the others are currently outside of the carriage they followed Puppeteer to.

They know where Kai is now. They just need to get him back and hopefully reverse whatever magic’s been done to him.

“Zane.” Nya whispers, “Do you hear anyone inside?”

“I do not hear nor sense anyone is currently in the main entrance. We are free to enter.” Zane replies.

Without another thought to the matter, Nya hastily finished picking the lock and quietly sprints into the main room, which appears to be a small auditorium of some kind.

“Kai’s probably somewhere back there!” Lloyd exclaims, frantically gesturing to the stage.

Jay turns around to look at Lloyd annoyedly “Oh, really? This crazed puppet guy who turned Kai into some sideshow puppet wouldn’t just keep his star attraction out on the open?? WHAT A SUR- mrf-!”

Cole covers his friend’s mouth.

“Shut up! Do you want to find out what happens if we’re caught??” He questions.

Jay shakes his head, still glaring at Cole.

“Well then cram it, Zaptrap. This could be our one shot to get Kai back.”

Cole lets go of the motormouth, with a light shove for good measure.

“Stop messing around, guys.” Lloyd comments as he makes his way behind the curtains.

“But they were not, they simply-“ Zane tries to say but is cut off by Cole’s hand on his shoulder.

“Greenie’s just worried, Frosty. Let’s not focus on the semantics.”

Zane nods before he and the rest of the team follow Lloyd backstage, where, much to their dismay, Kai isn’t.

But that’s when they hear it.

Exuding from a seemingly unimportant door, comes music. Older music, sure, but music nonetheless.

Lloyd looks amongst his team before drawing his sword, the others doing the same with their respective weapons, all understanding they may be in for the fight of their lives.

With a deep breath, Lloyd opens the door to reveal…

A corridor.

A long, dark, creepy corridor.

Lloyd motions for the others to follow him, the only lights in their path being the glow of Zane’s eyes.

Nya hates to admit it, but the whole thing is makes her skin crawl. Has this carriage really been Kai’s whole world for a year?

It must’ve been hell…

The music grows louder.

A few doors down, Zane halts the group, pointing to the door they’re currently in front of.

“Here is where the music is coming from.” Zane states.

“Then what are we waiting for??” Nya impatiently asks, “Let’s go get my brother!”

“Perhaps we should think of a plan before we jump to any-“

Zane’s words fall on deaf ears as Nya and Lloyd bust open the door, trident and sword ready to maim Puppeteer at a moment’s notice.

But that isn’t what they come across when inside.

No, instead of anger, the sight makes their hearts simultaneously drop and pound in their chests. The siblings’ grips on their weapons loosing as their eyes widen in shock, tears pricking at their eyes.

Why?

Because in the door, dancing almost hauntingly perfectly, is Kai.

Not a puppet, nor made of a wood, just… Kai.

He’s in a black dance uniform with his hair slicked down, but he’s still Kai!

“Kai!” Nya exclaims, “We- We’re here! We’re gonna bring you home!”

The master of water’s hear pounds in anticipation of her brother’s response…

But none comes.

“Kai..?” Lloyd asks, “You- you do know who we are, right?”

Nya’s heart practically stops at Lloyd’s insinuation. She hadn’t considered the idea of brainwashing. Puppeteer could’ve convinced Kai of anything he wanted if that was the case…

Maybe even something like forgetting his family.

“Hairgel, this isn’t the time to be ignoring us.” Cole steps into the room, “You need to stop dancing.”

Kai makes a leap across the room…

Still no response.

“Ugh! This is IMPOSSIBLE!” Jay groans, “We’re not gonna get Kai back because he’s probably been BRAINWASHED into thinking this is ok and that- OW!”

Cole smacks the back of Jay’s head.

“Motormouth, he’s been stuck here for a year! Maybe think about that before talking!

Jay rubs his head, but shuts up.

“Kai… please, answer us.” Nya pleads, “We’re going to rescue you! You don’t have to be here anymore! Not- Not with that monster!”

Kai halts his dance, side-eyeing his sister.

The ninja hold their breaths.

Kai silently walks over to the record player, where the music was evidently coming from, and turns it of.

“And what makes you think I want to leave?” He asks monotonously.

“What?” Nya gasps, “B-Because you were kidnapped! We’ve been looking-“

“If you were looking, you would’ve found me earlier.” Kai accuses.

“Realistically, given that you were constantly changing locations, no, we could not have.” Zane rebuts.

“Heh- oh yeah? Then I’m sure you all immediately realized who I was onstage then, right?”

The group falls silent…

Nya wants to say something, but even she didn’t realize until seeing Kai up close.

“That’s what I thought. Just do us all a favor and forget I’m here, I’m not interested in rejoining you all.”

“But- Kai-“ Lloyd chokes out.

“Don’t ‘but Kai’ me! You all abandoned me!” Kai shouts, tears sparkling in the corners of his eyes.

“We were looking! We haven’t stopped this whole time!”

“Then why didn’t you find me?! It’s not like I was in the same village I disappeared in for *days* after Puppeteer took me in!”

“We- we checked the whole village! People saw you run off… but not where to.”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

“Where’s your uniform?” Jay asks without thinking, “You’re kinda gonna need it for-“

“Don’t you get it?!” Kai snaps back, “*This* is my uniform now.”

“You’re not a dancer, Kai.” Cole adds.

“You’re absolutely right.” Kai responds, leaving the others at a loss for words.

Not a dancer? But that’s what he’s been doing, is it not? If not a dancer, then what-

“I’m Puppeteer’s doll now.”

“…What?!” Nya demands, anger rising in her voice.

“Did I stutter?? I said-”

“We heard you.” Lloyd interjects, “But this isn’t you! You- you’re a ninja, Kai! You’re not some- some doll!”

“Last I checked, I get a say in what I am, and I’ve gotta say: being a doll for Puppeteer is better than being a ninja for you any day! So leave me alone and stop acting like we’re still family!”

A silence befalls the ninja.

Lloyd’s sword drops.

Nya has to catch her brother, who almost collapses in shock.

“The hell, Kai?!”

“Hestia.”

“What-“

“I don’t really use ‘Kai’ anymore.” He states, shockingly unresponsive to his little brother’s plight.

“But that’s your name!” Nya shouts back, “You’re Kai! Kai Smith! Master of Fire! Red Ninja! Our brother!”

“Well, it’s too bad you threw away all of those things when you decided to stop looking for me! Puppeteer warned me you’d try to lie like this, and I’m not fucking having it, ok?! I’m not Kai, I’m not your brother, and I’m absolutely NOT a ninja! Ok?!”

Nya grits her teeth, eyes narrowing at her brother.

“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOURSELF! YOU’VE BEEN BRAINWASHED, KAI! LET US HELP YOU!”

“Well I-”

“𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝒮𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓁𝑒𝓇? Is everything alright?” A voice comes from the doorway.

The ninja all snap their heads to face Puppeteer, mask and voice has chipper as before.

Nya hands Lloyd off to Zane.

“Everything is NOT alright you SON OF A-“

As Nya draws her sword to attack, a wall of fire separates her from Puppeteer.

“H-Huh?” She looks at back to brother, flames licking his frame as his arms are outstretched.

“Don’t hurt him. He’s more my family than you were.” Kai glares.

Nya would be lying if she said that didn’t sting.

“And no, Puppeteer, they were just watching me practice our new routine and were about to leave.” he continues.

“Like hell we-“

“Please, escort them out.”

“Kai… we’re not going to leave-“ Lloyd tries to say, but is cut off.

“Out. Now.”

Nya’s grip on her trident tightens as her whole body tenses.

She- she can’t leave her brother. She just- she can’t! He’s so clearly been brainwashed by this lunatic that he- he-

“AUGH!” Nya shouts, all of her pain and frustration unable to be put into words.

“𝒪𝒽 𝓂𝓎, you are quite the 𝒻𝒾𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓎 one, aren’t you?” Puppeteer comments.

“Cram it, asshole! You’re nothing more than a fucking monster!”

Puppeteer falls silent for a moment.

“𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝒮𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓀𝓁𝑒𝓇, might I..?”

“Don’t, it’ll just convince them more I’m somehow suffering here. Just… get them out some other way.”

“Ah, 𝐼 𝓈𝑒𝑒.” Puppeteer comments, looking around at the ninja before speaking once more, this time in some kind of… unknown language.

Nya conjures a torrent of water, channeling all of her rage, all of her fury, and all of her pain into one singular blast of water, and once it’s fired…

It slices a tree clean in half.

…A tree? But they were all just-

Looking around, Nya and the others notice how they’re no longer in the carriage, but, rather, about a few yards away from it outside.

…What?

Before anyone can properly react, the sound of clopping hooves and turning wheels echos throughout the thin forest.

The carriage- it’s leaving.

No- not now, not today, LIKE FUCKING HELL THEY’RE TAKING HER BROTHER AWAY AGAIN!

And so, Nya runs.

For how long? She couldn’t tell you.

But by the end of it, the carriage is at least half a mile away and the sun is peeking up over the horizon.

She falls to the ground, legs too exhausted to carry her anymore.

She isn’t sure when she falls asleep, but she wakes back in bed to Misako holding a cold washcloth onto her forehead.

Misako says something Nya doesn’t understand.

But she doesn’t care.

She’d care if her brother were around.

But he isn’t.

She failed.

[kenobiwhump]

Closeted Bisexual

I found this in my saved posts, I couldn't find the author but if you're reading! Thank you for all the inspiration!

_______

Hello there! My name is Kristy. And this short work is about my life as a closeted bisexual.

It’s 2023, so many of you might wonder why I hide my feelings. Well, let me answer that. I am the oldest of five children and the daughter of a strict religious family. Now do you know? I think by using the words strict and religious; I might have given it away. But not only am I bisexual, but I also do not want to follow in their religious ways.

Now some of you might be wondering, move out then. Live your own life. Well, that would be a bit tricky since I’m 16 and have no job, car, or any place to crash for a while. My plan right now is to wait till I’m 18, and then go and move in with a relative.

Ever since I was little, I’ve always been fond of a close relative of mine. He’s gay and lives a very happy life with his partner. He visits every once in a while, and I look up to him so much. But my parents always told me that his life was bad. That loving the same gender is a sin. But every time I saw my relative with his partner, and I saw how happy they made each other, that made me wonder… Why is it so bad when they look so happy?

So, when I got older, my parents explained to me in detail, what being gay means and how it is disobeying the Bible. They didn’t bluntly tell me, but they did insinuate that if the relative didn’t change his ways, that he’d go to Hell. I remember countless nights, where I’d stay up and think, and then eventually cry myself to sleep, scared to death of the relative going to Hell. I didn’t want that, so for like a year, I was all religious, taking the Bible seriously, telling the relative stuff about the Bible, and trying to subtly change him. I was always talking religiously.

When I was about 12, I hit a huge emotional roadblock. The next two years were not good, I was depressed. I always have been since I can remember, I have just never been an upbeat and happy person. But I’m never always depressed. But for some reason, I was just so very depressed. I was also dealing with multiple mental health issues. When I was 13, I tried to kill myself on many occasions, some I was close, and some I never had the guts to go forward. I was put in a hospital once, and bullied there, which really wasn’t helping my mindset at the time. I’ve dealt with self-harm, and the scars I have from it will forever remind me of that time. So yes, I was a very messed up teenager.

After a while, I got better. Not totally better, not even now, but I got a bit better. During my late 13’s and early 14’s, I begin to branch out and explore what the world had to offer. I found out there was so much better music than the Christian artists I listened to. There were amazing movies and tv shows, way better than Veggies Tales or some Christian hallmark movie. There was a whole world out there, ready for me to see.

So, I got into Marvel, which was on Disney+, and streamed all 19 movies. Over and over again. Until I could start memorizing lines. I had a huge obsession with watching Jurassic Park and World, again, I could memorize lines. I became a nerd, really, a proud nerd, but a nerd nonetheless. Then I was banned from watching Marvel or Jurassic Park, I was “idolizing” it, according to my parents. When new movies came out for Marvel though, they didn’t have to know I secretly watched it on a made-up profile and then deleted it afterward.

Then, when I was 14, I loved Star Wars. More specifically the prequels. And I loved/love Obi-Wan and Ewan McGregor. I watched a lot of his movies, The Island, Our Kind of Traitor, Big Fish, Trainspotting 1 and 2, Incendiary, Son of a Gun, Raymond and Ray, Christopher Robin, Young Adam, The Ghostwriter, Doctor Sleep, and that’s just to name a few. He’s an amazing actor. Then I watched one of his best movies in my opinion, Moulin Rouge. I still can’t get the songs out of my head today. I listen to the soundtrack all the time. But that movie, is when I realized I was different than my family.

In Moulin Rouge, Ewan plays a character named Christian who falls in love with a woman named Satine. Satine is played by Nicole Kidman. And when I saw her beautiful auburn hair, her beautiful complexion, and when I heard her amazing voice. And when I thought she was so hot, that she was pretty. That was when I realized I was attracted to her character, I began to understand I was different. And maybe… It wasn’t so bad.

I have been a closeted bisexual for two years. I just recently told that relative, and it felt so good to be able to get that off my chest. I was so scared, though, Rationally, you’d think he’d be fine with learning I’m bisexual because he’s gay. But irrational me thought maybe he only thought you can be attracted to only one sex. Maybe being attracted to both is just weird. But one day, when we were alone, we were just talking, and then I blurted it out. And that was one of the best days of my life. He accepted me for me, he didn’t see anything wrong with me. He understood me. And that was all I wanted. After two years, I told my role model and the person I looked up to, and he accepted me. And the feeling that I experienced was one of the best.

Lately, I’ve gotten more bold with showing my pride, I wear a pink, purple, and blue bracelet, representing the bisexual flag. I wear a rainbow pin on my jacket, representing LGBTQ+. (My parent’s just thought it’s a special pendant I got from a friend, but my relative’s partner actually gave it to me, I was little, but I recently found the pin stored away somewhere and it was perfect) Instead of saying one day when I’m married to my husband, I say spouse.

When I was speaking to my relative about this though, he asked me a very important question. When will I tell my family?

I will tell them when I am 18, and when I have a place to live. Because honestly, I’m worried they’d kick me out. My parents are always saying, if you’re not going to abide by our rules, then you can move out when you’re 18. I think being bisexual in a strictly Christian home is breaking a lot of rules. Plus, sometimes they talk about the “man” I’ll one day marry. A Christian man who is like my parents, strictly religious. And they’ll talk about me, a Christian wife, who is below her husband, because that’s what the Bible says, and a wife who is to have children and raise them in the same environment I grew up with.

The thing is, while I’m also bisexual, I’m also asexual. I’m not interested in sex and never will be. I just want to settle down with my future partner, and cuddle. Or kiss. Sex doesn’t define a relationship, love does. And sex is not the only way to show you love someone. Another thing is, my parents know I’m asexual, but they still talk about it. They tell me I’ll grow out of it, and that in the Bible, it is said that the woman shall become one with a man, and bear him children.

And that’s hard to hear. One, because I don’t want that, but apparently, my feelings on sex don’t matter, it’s my duty to my “husband.” I thought this whole women-serving men thing ended a while ago but I guess not. And second, them telling me I’ll grow out of it, that’s the last thing I ever want to hear. It’s not a stage, and more people need to realize that. It’s their sexuality, and it needs to be brought to awareness. The thing is, through the years, PRIDE is bringing all of this to awareness and I am proud to support it and be a part of it.

I’m proud to be bisexual. I’m not scared of it. Not anymore. And one day, when I do decide to tell my parents, I’ll still be proud to be bisexual.

My dream is to one day be in a relationship with an amazing partner, maybe we adopt children, or we don’t. I just want to be happy with who I am and not hide myself.

But, happiness has a price, because when I decide to embrace myself, I’ll lose everyone but my relative and his partner. I’ll lose my family and my friends. All my friends are devout Christians, I already know their feelings on this, it’s not good. My siblings are so, so loyal to my parents. They’re so engrained in their teachings. I think maybe one or two would still speak to me but that’s it. My parents are strictly religious, so I know that would be goodbye. I know that if I ever married a woman, my dad would not walk me down the aisle. And that really breaks my heart.

I love my family so much. More than they will ever know. Even though they don’t like people who are like me, I love them. Their my family, they raised me, and they took care of me. And to think one day, that that might be all gone. That I’ll probably be the family outcast and disappointment, truly makes me sad.

But I have to think about myself. And I know that I am totally attracted to women. And one day, I might end up being with one. And right now, as I write this, I hope that anyone out there who has the same struggles as me can at least have one person to talk to. Even if it’s just one, it makes all the difference. I know it did for me. I hope that I can be happy one day and fully embrace my sexuality. And I hope anyone who is like me does too.

And I wish the people reading this all the best in life. I hope you find your true self and embrace it. Without caring about what people will think about you. Because that just makes you end up in a sad place. I hope with reading this, you understood too just be yourself. Because that’s the best you.

[batteredwarriorstillstanding]

I love you....but, I don't think you are going to talk to me....and, that makes me angry, frustrated, indignant, desirous of starting an explanation from the beginning, adding every piece of fact that I have learned independent of you...every single artifact, large and small (yes, there,are some undeniable groundbreakers....but, they don't necessarily apply today, do they....they may have only been important during a time when I could have been classified as yet another man who loved you....did you not know? REALLY? I am not calling you a liar, but this seems positively bizarre to me. I always assumed that it was even more obvious to you as it was to everyone else....it doesn't take a gypsy and her crystal ball to deduct that a guy who stares at a woman. Nonfucking stop. For an hour, uninterrupted, whose face turns a noticeable Rouge at the mention of your name....who pitely asks the tenants of 1c, where our chess games temporarily migrated, to please end their 45 minute long detailing of every single noise and sentence they heard during the previous night from the adjacent apartment. When they did not take this request seriously, my next reaction caused your future boss (I actually miss that dude a lot....but, I let him know that both his handling of that situation, and, especially, the manner in which he explained everything to countless inquiring minds "after the fact"was not acceptable by any standards, particularly if those standards are derived from a "way of life that demands rigorous honesty", sidenote: I happened to know the entire story, because he whined about it constantly lingbefore you left.So, to hear...why am I talking g about this?Anyway, until years afterward when he was my apologies he thought I had "serious anger issues" cuz of my eventual reaction the aforementioned aituation....I guess that subject is even worse.lol Anyway, I do 't know what the fuck is going on, bit I don't have a good feeling. I would love to be wrong. I care about you, either way....you don't even have my number, or I would say so.e fizzly bullshit like,"whenever, wherever,after whatever,with whomever (actually...I don't know about that one)but it doesn't matter....I wish really 2 things 1) That you could know the true nature and essence of my feelings. I am dogshit at explaining them in any profound way, almost certainly, this is due to the fact that I do not understand the how and why of their existence myself. They are separate from me...operate independently of my will. I used to think of them as unwelcome foreign invaders. I don't anymore...but, I do wish you would hu.or me at least a little bit on this one. 2) It ducks that you don't know me. At all. Worse than not knowing someone is assigning attributes to them that are the opposite of true....and, it seems, the harder I try to improve this situation, the worse it gets...

That's not odd....it is to be expected with the aid of ABSOLUTELY NO REAL communication, and a slew of people most, uhhhhh....LESS THAN compelling from where I sit, who you wilfully allow to constantly alter your views. All in all, I must say things are goid....better, at least. Much better. But, God damn,I want this to change and know that ot really should. I SHOULD SAY "THE SERENITY PRAYER. DONE...WOW!! FUCKING PROBLEM SOLVED.

[kiwanopie]

Psych Kick

saiki k x reader (wc: 1k)

intrusive thoughts won on this one lads. [also, little reminder that saiki k is canonically asexual but coming from someone who’s on the ace/aro-spectrum who sometimes enjoys sex, i made it a little suggestive.] college au, duh.

“What? Big hotshot can’t join his friends for a hangout?”

“Hot-?” Saiki blows a short breath out of his nose as he adjusts his glasses. “Like I said, let's do it later.”

Nendo frowns. “Whyyy~”

“Must have another meeting with the president this time.” Hario you too?! “It’s best we let him go save the world again.”

“Why are you all being so bitter about this-“

“Come on! What could possibly be so important that you can’t hang out with your pals for once?” And now Kaido’s talking like Nendo. It’s best to cut this short. “We haven’t seen you in forever since that whole meteor thing! Do you really think you’re too good for us now?”

Saiki sighs.

There’s no way to go about saying this without getting haggled immediately afterwards. Especially given the extreme circumstance. He’s not stupid. He’s not shallow but he’s not blind either. Ever since this whole thing came about he’s been chiding himself on picking so outside of his current dispositions, making himself so open to attention and fighting that pesky feeling of being so okay with it. His first idea was to keep it a secret, but now with his feelings - new feelings in the way; he has to stop himself from making a show of it like someone he knows would. For a second he wonders if this was the kind of path that drove his parents to madness.

His cheeks grow hot as he thumbs over his phone in his hands, and at the very least, he can be thankful it’s just these four for now.

He wants to turn his head. “My… girlfriend-“

“Stop lying!”

He didn’t even let him get it out!

Torituska pouts from his chair across the room, sitting backwards on a computer seat that turns his expression mushy as he leans against it. “Seriously, if you’re gonna make up something, at least come up with a more believable lie.” Now you’re just being mean.

“Hah? What’s so unbelievable about me having a girlfriend?”

“You can hear yourself when you speak right?”

He’s gonna start scowling at this rate.

“Wait, hold on.” Hario repositions his back against the bed as he but’s in, raising his hands to interject. There’s a look on his face like he’s trying to placate the two. “Let’s not act like Saiki isn’t a spirited guy! He’s helpful and faithful to his ideals! And his personality isn’t even that bad.” You’re not helping.

“He doesn’t even own a porn mag. - And his search history is squeaky clean.“ What does one have to do with the other?

“If you have a girlfriend, why haven’t we met her yet?”

That would be a pretty good question. Had one quick glance along the room not make him shiver at the prospect of introducing them to his pride and joy. God, he’s starting to sound like his dad.

“Is she in our lectures? Does she go to this university? Does she know you exist?”

“Does she belong to the Dark Reunion?”

“Do you own a pair of her panties?”

Do you know what you’re asking him right now? Aside from a quick flick of his finger and a harsh eraser mark on Torituska’s forehead, Saiki turns his head toward the door in favor of a response. He can barely think under these conditions to begin with. No better that he knows his friends don’t plan on going anywhere even after he leaves his dorm for the night, and with his luck might even be here by morning. But that’s beside the fact. If these guys don’t believe he has a girlfriend, they’ll never believe what he’s leaving so prematurely to do.

Does he keep that box of condoms in his closet or his bathroom?

“What’s her name?”

Saiki’s lips twitch up as he reaches into that black box tucked near his extra blankets, half inclined to hum it as it rolls over his tongue. “_____.”

Hario’s mouth shapes into an astonished little “o” as Kaido tilts his head, too preoccupied with that foreign shade of rouge on his friend’s face to notice Torituska’s gone pale. “Sounds foreign?”

Saiki glances at Nendo’s puzzled expression and follows it to Torituska’s ghostly body. Decidedly he should leave before things get loud. “It is.”

“W-Wait you mean,” Hario blushes. That’s appropriate. “______ from the-“

“I’ll kill you!” That’s not.

The pointed finger keeps Tori frozen in the air but his strength is enough to make Saiki start to strain. Maybe it should stay a secret. He sighs at what’s sure to be some psychosis driven tirade that he really doesn’t have the time to sit through.

“What does a guy like you get off on trying to call dibs on my precious, _____?! Peon’s like you shouldn’t be able to speak her name let alone spread lies about being her boyfriend! What are you some kind of stalker or something?! A pervert?! Were you gonna stalk her outside of her house and steal her used gum out of the garbage near the gate?!” Why was that last part so specific…?

“______’s really smart and cool and beautiful…” Hario scratches behind his pinkening ears. “And she’s really good at fighting despite looking so soft all over. - If you’re really dating ______ then…. Well it’s certainly hard to believe…”

Saiki’s brow twitches a little. “I didn’t know you were all such big fans.”

“I don’t know her. But she definitely doesn’t seem like the type of person who’d date Saiki-kun.” Kaido adds.

Saiki’s phone buzzes in his hand as he sighs. And he doesn’t even have to look. He was supposed to be there minutes ago and knowing you you’ve probably gotten needier by the second. Although, that might not be so bad.

“I gotta go.” He pockets his phone.

Torituska knocks him back with a hard push as he breaks out of his bind. “You’re probably using your telepathic abilities to trick her into dating you! You sick-“

His condoms fall out of his pocket.

The silence that falls over the room is deafening as the five men freeze in place, eyes immediately pulled to the golden wrapper making waves on plastic as it's illuminated by the ceiling light overhead. And he’s sure that they’ve all collectively stopped breathing. Never mind that his friends now know what kind of heat he’s packing in his trousers, but there’s multiple of them. If the whole group was here he’d be half considering the most appropriate way to ditch town after something like this, but in this case he’s only considering the best way to get out of this situation before all hell breaks loose.

He’ll teleport. Like he should’ve minutes ago. Though this time with likely less precision.

Saiki reaches for the grouped up squares and staches them in his pocket, phasing his overnight bag into his hands as he does. “If I’m not back by noon, push the mail in.”

He glances at a lifeless Torituska. “Bye.”

He’s gone in a blink.

reblog if you personally have been targeted by Torituska, you may be entitled to compensation

[ladyofthenoodle]

Summary: Alya didn’t want to come between Ladybug and Chat Noir. But she didn’t want to stop being Rena Rouge either. And if Chat Noir didn’t want to talk to her, then she’d need to find a different way to prove all three of them could be a team.

Her plan unintentionally brings a few secrets to light, which leads to even more secrets coming to light, which leads to... well, Alya is sure it'll all work out eventually.

post-Rocketear, rated T, follows two is company and curiosity cared for the cat

written for @mlcorefour appreciation week

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

day 1: pranks

thanks @eggrestes for the beta read

with a thousand lies and a good disguise

Of all the ways for the rift between Ladybug and Chat Noir to be healed, Alya never expected it to be via Ladybug revealing her massively debilitating crush on Adrien Agreste. And yet, that’s exactly what happened.

It went like this:

“We should have a team bonding night.” Rena Furtive declared on Saturday evening with all the confidence of someone who expected her plan to be immediately questioned.

Ladybug questioned it. “A what now?”

“Team bonding night! You know, like a sleepover?”

Rena noticed Chat Noir’s ears perked up at that. She filed that away for later.

“Rena, we can’t have a sleepover. We don’t have a place to sleep over at, remember? Since we don’t know where each other lives?” Ladybug said, eyeing Chat Noir, whose expression had since fallen back into the neutral professionalism that he’d wielded around Ladybug since they’d fought Rocketear.

She still hadn’t pieced together exactly what had changed during that fight. She’d known that something was wrong with Chat Noir after Sentibubbler, but he’d been so carefully cheerful in Ladybug’s presence afterwards. Outside of Ladybug’s presence was a different story — she’d seen that as Scarabella — but after Rocketear, his attempts at cheer had fizzled into cool indifference.

At first, Alya couldn’t figure out why. She’d thought things would be better after she sent Marinette to talk to him.

She’d gone over and over it in her mind, and in the end, could only think of one thing that had changed that could’ve set him off: the emergence of Rena Furtive.

Hence, team bonding. She’d urged Marinette to come clean to Chat Noir about Rena’s behind-the-scenes involvement, and Marinette, despite her initial reservations, agreed. She’d noticed the difference in Chat Noir too, after all.

Still, Rena wasn’t surprised that team bonding night would take additional convincing. Marinette could be so stubborn sometimes.

But so could Alya.

“That’s why I said like a sleepover. Obviously it won’t be a real sleepover,” Rena admitted. “But we can still do the late-night bonding, you know, truth or dare, prank calls, watching bad mo—”

“I know where Rena lives,” came Chat Noir’s voice, so quietly that if it weren’t for her magically enhanced hearing, Rena probably would’ve kept talking and missed his statement entirely.

“What.” She couldn’t have heard that correctly. There was no way — Ladybug wouldn’t have told him, and Alya had been so careful with her identity — she knew how upset Marinette would be if she slipped up.

(How upset Marinette was already going to be, when she learned Alya had told Nino.)

“How?” Ladybug, for her part, looked genuinely dumbfounded. Not a trace of suspicion that Rena had slipped up or told. Rena wasn’t sure Ladybug’s faith in her made her feel better or worse.

Chat Noir scratched the back of his neck. “I, uh… figured it out?” He didn’t meet Ladybug’s eyes.

He’s lying, Rena thought. Why is he lying?

And why does that movement seem so familiar?

“Are you sure?” Ladybug’s voice was a gentle lie that settled easily into the space left by Chat Noir’s steadfast avoidance of her eyes.

Only Rena, who was looking directly at her, could see the panic etched across her best friend’s face, the way her brows raised so high that the spots on her mask pulled into ovals and the corners of her smile rounded tightly at the edges.

“Sentibubbler!” Chat Noir exclaimed, making Ladybug jump.

“It wasn’t too hard to figure out what everyone in the bubbles had in common, and, well, Hawkmoth was trying to get Rena’s miraculous, wasn’t he?” He finished this speech off with a shaky smile and finger guns, of all things.

Unbelievable that she was the one who’d been found out if Chat Noir was just as bad at lying as Ladybug.

Except he wasn’t, was he?

Rena didn’t know very much about Chat Noir, but she was certain that he was a much, much better actress than Marinette. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe he was really just this nervous to tell Ladybug he’d figured Alya out.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about his explanation. If it was that easy to figure out someone’s identity based on that type of context, she would’ve figured out Marinette long ago.

Maybe she would’ve figured out Chat Noir too, based on the increasingly frequent glimmers of recognition that she kept failing to hold onto in her mind.

Ladybug hummed. “I suppose you’ve figured out who Carapace is too, then?”

“Ummm… yes?” He scratched the back of his neck again, and there it was: the glimmer.

She wanted to chase after it, desperately, to finally capture his story, but she was Rena Furtive right now, not Alya Cesaire, and Rena had a more important job to do. Besides, if she played her cards right, there’d be plenty more opportunities to track down her lead.

“Great!” Rena casually slung her arm around Chat Noir’s stiffly hunched shoulder. “Nino can join us. And since obviously Ladybug knows who I am too, we can just go to my place!”

As Rena talked, Chat Noir carefully disentangled himself from her arm, shifting his body closer to Ladybug, but still keeping a careful distance from both of them. He looked decidedly unsettled.

“What about your family?” Ladybug asked.

“Nora actually has an out of town wrestling competition on Friday and my dad is going to watch. And Friday nights are always crazy at the restaurant, so mom just passes out as soon as she gets home, and she sleeps like the dead.”

“The twins?”

“I’ll ask Lila to watch them. And Chris, if needed.”

At Ladybug’s disapproving look, Rena continued. “Look, I know she’s a liar, but she’s good with the kids. And as far as she’ll know, she’s babysitting so that Nino and I can get some alone time in my bedroom.”

Ladybug didn’t look convinced. Even worse, now Chat Noir had shifted himself into position beside her, echoing her disapproval with eerie precision, from the parallel downturn at the corners of his mouth to the way his arms crossed the same way hers did, right over left.

Rena didn’t remember being Lady Wifi, and looking at them right now, she was suddenly very glad she didn’t.

“What’s the worst she can do with that information? Spread rumors about Nino and I playing Super Penguino? Who cares. Besides, Lila doesn’t ask a lot of questions, because she doesn’t want me asking questions and poking into her business.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Ladybug admitted, biting her lip.

For a second, Rena started to relax. If Ladybug agreed to it, Chat Noir would follow. Sure, Chat Noir didn’t seem fond of Lila, understandably given her history of akumatization, but he didn’t have any personal reasons to dislike her that way Marinette did.

Or at least, that’s what Rena thought.

“Are you kidding me?” Chat Noir did not seem to be following at all. “The worst she can do? She almost got Marinette expelled!”

“What?” Alya remembered Marinette being expelled, of course — and Marinette’s admittedly likely, but still unproven, theory that Lila had framed her — but she was a bit shocked that Chat Noir knew about it.

Why would Ladybug tell him something that closely connected to her civilian life?

“How did you know about that?” Ladybug’s voice quivered as she turned to Chat Noir.

Okay, maybe she didn’t tell him… but then…

On cue, Chat Noir’s eyes shifted away as he began talking.

“Adrien Agreste told me.” Lying. “He mentioned that a huge group of people had almost been akumatized, including Marinette. He came to me because he was worried that even though he’d managed to get her back into school, it could happen again.”

“Adrien did what?”

“He, uh, he flagged me during patrol one day?” Chat Noir tapped his fingers together as he talked. “And told me he was concerned.”

Rena narrowed her eyes at him, trying to zero in on that glimmer once again. If I could just focus…

“No, not that part,” Ladybug said, shattering Rena’s attempt at a figurative zoom lens. “What do you mean, he got her back into school?”

And why do you know that if Marinette herself doesn’t?

“Oh, um,” Chat Noir’s eyes darted back and forth, as if he was looking for some way to escape. “I probably shouldn’t say, he told me this in confidence—”

“If Adrien thought Marinette getting akumatized was a big enough concern to tell you, then surely it’s something all the heroes of Paris should be informed of?” Rena interrupted. “Surely it’s something her best friend should know about?”

His shoulders slumped, defeated. Rena should probably feel bad about that, but Alya had always hated being left in the dark.

(She steadfastly ignored the little voice in her head that reminded her that they’d been doing exactly that to Chat Noir for weeks.)

“Adrien made a deal with Lila,” Chat admitted. “He’d play nice with her in exchange for her getting Marinette back into school.”

A sharp gasp, from Ladybug.

Chat swiveled towards her; Rena followed suit.

Chat Noir probably wasn’t expecting the starry-eyed, utterly besotted look on Ladybug’s face, but Rena wasn’t even a bit surprised.

“Adrien did that?” Ladybug’s voice floated across the air like a melody. “For me—Marinette?”

Careful not to move, Rena flicked her eyes back towards Chat Noir. He looked completely pole-axed.

And there it was again, that glimmer. So close this time, Rena could just reach out and…

“Oh no, now you’ve done it. All she’ll talk about for the next 30 minutes is how great Adrien is. She has a massive crush on him, you know.”

…snatch it.

“Alya!” Ladybug shrieked.

“She WHAT?” Chat Noir choked out.

Got him.

“Oh yeah, she’s totally crazy about him,” Rena mused nonchalantly, as if she didn’t know she’d just earned the wrath of her best friend and also possibly given Chat Noir reason to rethink the entire last year of his life. “You wouldn’t believe how many times she’s watched that perfu—”

“Rena, that’s enough,” Ladybug snapped.

Rena didn’t understand the anger at first — indignation, sure, embarrassment, absolutely, but anger?

She didn’t understand, until she processed the rest of the scene in front of her. Ladybug, glaring at Rena with one protective hand laid on Chat Noir’s shoulder.

Chat Noir, who looked like an absolute wreck.

Ladybug must’ve seen Chat Noir’s deeply reddened face and slackened jaw and assumed he was heartbroken hearing about the boy she loved. That Rena was teasing her about his rival in front of him. It would be sweet, her protectiveness, if any of it were true.

If only you knew, Ladybug, Rena wanted to tell her. It’s so much STUPIDER than that.

But she couldn’t tell her, so she’d have to apologize instead. “Sorr—”

“No, please continue,” Chat Noir interrupted. Miraculously, his face had already begun to return to normal, with only a pale pink flush still peeking out from the bottom of his mask.

“I’d just odor to hear more about my lady’s type. So she’s interested in blondes?” He preened, fluffing his hair. Or attempting to fluff it anyway.

I can’t believe that’s Adrien Agreste.

Rena stifled a giggle as his claw caught in a tangle, leading to a flurry of motion as he desperately tried to recover his dignity, only for Ladybug to step in and gently comb out the tangles with his fingertips, freeing his claws from their flocculent prison.

I can’t believe that’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng, untangling Adrien Agreste’s hair like she’s done it a thousand times.

She watched as Ladybug interlocked her fingers with Chat Noir’s, giving them a quick, tight squeeze, before letting go. Chat Noir’s eyes lingered on his hands, dazed, as Ladybug’s eyes crinkled in adoration.

On second thought, maybe I can.

“Honestly, kitty, I should just bring a hair brush with me on patrol,” Ladybug teased as she resumed fussing over him, finger-combing his hair into a big blonde pouf. “Have you ever used one?”

And just like that, the two were bantering and laughing like the tension between them had never existed.

(It had.)

Just like that, Rena was the odd one out, the third wheel in the team.

She found she didn’t really mind it, though she was glad she had her own partner to invite to the sleepover. Watching the two of them might get uncomfortable real fast.

But for now, it was sweet. For now, Alya Cesaire was content to watch Marinette Dupain-Cheng scratch under Adrien Agreste’s chin as he leaned into her touch, both of them comfortable in the illusion of a good disguise.

Turns out, there was no bigger prank than secret identities.

She just hoped it was one they’d all be able to laugh at in the end.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Lila Rossi: I’d Say She’s a Good Villain, but Then I’d Be Lying (300 Follower Special)

Deception and cunning are easily two of the most important traits an antagonist could have. It shows that even if they don't have the strength to overcome obstacles, their wit is more than enough. This kind of trait is why characters like Lex Luthor, David Xanatos, and Princess Azula are so beloved, simply because of how intelligent they can be as villains and pose a real threat to the heroes.

It's clear that the Miraculous Ladybug writers want Lila to be seen as this, but the writing seriously fails to back that claim up.

Easily one of the most controversial characters in Miraculous Ladybug is Lila, mainly for the writing surrounding her. But there was a time where she was actually more of an ambiguous character, mainly for the lack of screentime she had until Season 3. But unfortunately, the more appearances she's had have painted a very poor portrait of an antagonist.

Lila's Tragic and Sympathetic Motivation for Hating Ladybug

Lila's first appearance was at the tail end of Season 1, “Volpina”. She was a new transfer student from Italy, and quickly made friends with a lot of her classmates for the lies she told, including being friends with Ladybug (which Alya blindly believed without doing any research like any excellent journalist). But because of how close she was getting to Adrien, Marinette, in a rare act of selfishness, transforms into Ladybug just to chew out Lila for lying about knowing her, humiliating her in front of Adrien. And this is the only motivation we get for what Lila does afterwards.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for Lila to get upset at Ladybug for doing this, and I like the moment of weakness Marinette has, but this is literally the only explanation we get for Lila deciding to side with Hawkmoth, a literal terrorist. As much as I hated the way the arc turned out, I could still understand Chloe siding with Hawkmoth, as it was clear that Hawkmoth was manipulating her and taking advantage of her ego. Lila? Ladybug's mean to her one time, and that inspires her to conspire with a complete stranger who brainwashes people to attack the city, which endangers innocent people and causes God knows how much in collateral damage if not for Miraculous Ladybug fixing everything.

I just don't get how a single negative interaction with someone is enough to conspire with a literal supervillain. Even in Season 3, when Marinette and Lila truly became enemies, it was because she risked exposing all the lies she told, which could damage her reputation. Sure, it's petty, but it makes sense for Lila to want to keep up the illusion. If she was simply an antagonist to Marinette in her civilian life like Chloe was before “Miracle Queen” , I'd be fine with that, but the writers clearly want her to be seen as on the same level of evil as Hawkmoth. I'll get into why that doesn't work later on.

Why Lila is an Excellent Liar

In my Master Fu analysis, I had pointed out that despite all the flaws he had, the narrative insisted on portraying him as an incredibly wise mentor. The same problem applies for Lila as well. We're supposed to see Lila as an expert manipulator and liar, but her lies are insultingly obvious. She always claims to be friends with celebrities and does all these awesome things, and in an age where we can have almost any question answered thanks to the internet, nobody ever stops to question her.

It's even more frustrating when you hear Lila talk about saving Jagged Stone's cat, when Jagged Stone is established to be very fond of Marinette (evidentially more than his own daughter), and nobody ever points that out. I think if Lila's lies were more stories about her travels around the world than outright lies about real people, it could have worked. It'd still be hard to believe, but it's something.

But this is a problem with writing shows aimed at children. As much as we hate writers who need to spell out things to kids, sometimes, they just don't understand some of the media they consume. Seriously, I never got this joke in SpongeBob as a kid, and I can't believe Nickelodeon actually approved this.

So the dilemma when writing a show with children in mind is finding that sweet spot between assuming your audience can figure it out, but not being too vague in your details. It's even harder when you need to find a way to convey the fact that someone is lying without being too obvious. Unfortunately, the show clearly fails to do that

Okay, this is going to sound like an incredibly weird thing to cite, and I only know about it because I used to know someone who was a huge fan of the franchise, but the movie Monster High: Friday Night Frights does a better job of subtly explaining to the audience that a character is lying. Please, just hear me out.

The movie follows the main characters competing in their high school's roller derby for the season after everyone on the usual team gets injured, and the championship match is against another school whose team tends to cheat to win matches. How they manage to do this without getting caught is anyone's guess. While the main characters are practicing, their coach, Clawd, notices a spy for the enemy team taking video of them to study their moves. In response, he calls over one of the athletes, Operetta, to chew her out for her showboating attitude. In reality, he's alerting her to the spy. Only using facial expressions, he clues her, and by extension, the audience, in on the fact that they know what the opposing team is trying to do.

This soon leads to Operetta pretending to tell the enemy team about their secret plan for the championship match, which was really an attempt to outsmart them to gain the advantage in the final stretch. The brilliance of this is how the audience is informed of this with no dialogue, and there's no scene afterwards spelling it out for those who don't get it. It manages to convey deception without being too obvious that Clawd and Operetta are being deceitful.

I think if there were more subtle hints to show the audience Lila was lying, she would be seen in a better light. As it is, Lila's lies are just pathetic, and it's ridiculous that everyone believes her. Which leads me to...

Lila, the Master Manipulator

I once read a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic that poked fun at the series by claiming that the reason a lot of the dumber episodes like “Threshold” and “Twisted” happened was because one of the crew members was an alien who unintentionally produced mood altering pheromones, with Captain Janeway actually realizing they were all high because of said pheromones, while two of the unaffected crew members were wondering what the hell they were doing before they found out the cause. Why do I bring this up? Sometimes, it feels like Lila is an unintentional parallel to the alien in that story.

Like so many characters, it's clear the show desperately wants the audience to view Lila in a certain way, but her actions do very little to actually back up that claim. When she's not using lies to tell stories about so many famous people she knows like her uncle who works for Nintendo, Lila is using strategies to manipulate everyone that are so obviously deceptive, the Thermians could pick up on them. Everyone and their mother knows how ridiculous a lot of what Lila does in episodes like “Chameleon” and “Ladybug” are, and I've talked about them before, so I'll try to be quick.

First off, as someone who had access to accommodations through high school and has had assistance in college so far, there is no way in hell that Ms. Bustier should take Lila's tinnitus at face value in “Chameleon”. If a student has a disability that could interfere with the education process, physical or developmental, not only does the school have to evaluate their performance, and determine if they're eligible for an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, but her teachers would have to be notified in the first place. As her primary educator, Ms. Bustier would be part of the team to oversee Lila's IEP and determine what accommodations she needs to help her learn better with her tinnitus and arthritis. But because the writers don't know what Google is, they just ignore it,  assume that Lila can just say she has a disability, and have everyone believe it. Even when Eric Cartman pretended to be disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, he put in more effort to look the part, even if he looked like a caricature.

Then there's the fact that that in “Chameleon”, everyone just believes Lila when she says Marinette stole her grandmother's necklace when not only is said necklace from the Agreste line of jewelry, but Alya, who is Rena Rouge, can't pick up on the fact that it's a fake. All she does to justify these lies is come up with a sob story about how nobody believes her, yet nobody ever tries to defend Marinette except Alya one time, and it was after she got expelled.

Or what about in “Oni-Chan”, where Lila thinks having Kagami kill Ladybug while claiming she'll back away from Adrien is a good idea? Let's say Oni-Chan does kill Ladybug or at least take away her Miraculous, what then? We know Lila wouldn't go through with this promise, and as soon as Kagami sees her harassing Adrien, she'll be ripe for akumatization again. Overall, not a great plan.

And yet somehow, this last example is what made her worthy enough to become one of Hawkmoth's most trusted agents. I'm just going to say it: Lila is not a good fit for the power of illusion. Whenever she's Volpina or Chameleon, she always goes out of her way to make a big show instead of being subtle with her deceptions. “Chameleon” is the worst offender, as even though Lila gets the power to shapeshift into someone else, instead of being discreet and cornering people into kissing them and gaining their appearance, she just runs around to get Ladybug's attention instead of being subtle. Even Felix had the bright idea to pretend to be Adrien to catch Ladybug off guard. How do you lose to something that happened in “Felix”?

Despite all of these screw-ups, we're still supposed to see her as this master of deception worthy of allying with Hawkmoth in both his supervillain and civilian form, when really, she's a terrible liar on the schoolyard and on the battlefield.

Why Lila is an Important Character

In the grand scheme of things, Lila just isn't as important of a character that the show loves to parade her around as. She's nothing more than a plot device used to raise the stakes in an episode, given how much reality seems to bend over just to accommodate for her lies. Even when the show alludes to her being part of bigger things, like her deal with Adrien, or her rivalry with Marinette, they don't even go anywhere.

She just feels pointless when you remember Astruc's brilliant idea to force Chloe into being the final Akuma for the season while Lila isn't even mentioned once. She only really makes appearances whenever the writers feel like it, which is why it’s hard to take her seriously. Why should I take this character seriously as a threat if the writers refuse to take her seriously as a threat? Why build Lila up as a big threat and not give her a major role in the finale? Why even include her in the show in the first place when you could show Chloe being more manipulative to fill in the plots Lila plays a big part in?

As of the time I am writing this analysis, four episodes of Season 4 have aired, three of them have been about lies or deception, and Lila hasn't been mentioned at all. It honestly seems like she won't appear unless the writers need a easy way to drive up the conflict, so they can justify it by saying that Lila's “superpower” of lying is more powerful than the common sense of everyone else.

I'm sorry this post was shorter than the last one, but compared to Master Fu, there's not that much to say about Lila that I haven't already said. Even the show barely gives her any attention, so it's hard for me to really find a lot to talk about.

[in-love-with-a-singing-plant]

Here’s a few things that one of my partners and I have discussed about Roguefort and Almond being parents for Walnut and shenanigans that would ensue!

Just to preface this, we both headcannon that Roguefort uses he/they pronouns, and these are just our thoughts. This was also for an rp we’re doing where Almond and Roguefort are indeed a couple.

I’d like to know if any of you guys have different or similar headcannons!

Roguefort would definitely use a baby harness and take lil baby Walnut on heists, she finds them fun, but she ultimately takes after Almond and wants to be a genius detective. Roguefort still definitely takes her on heists, especially if they’re fairly safe and if she does well in school n stuff

Rougefort: spends the most time with walnut cuz almond is always busy at work

Walnut: immediately takes after almond wanting to be a detective now that shes learned how a criminal thinks during a heist

Rougefort: “wait no-“

Rougefort: “okay sweetie, say Papa!”

Walnut: “ALMOND!”

Rougefort, to a sleep deprived almond sleeping at the table: “darling im going to castrate you.”

Roguefort: “Okay Walnut, since you held up your grades we get to commit a heist of your choosing!”

Almond probably gets so nervous whenever Roguefort takes Walnut out to steal, But he also loves how happy she is afterwards, and knows Roguefort will keep her safe.

Walnut would definitely try to solve cases with Almond, though that’s already cannon.

And she’d always be like “My Papa’s Phantom Bleu and my Dad’s a genius detective!” to her classmates, and concerned parents would contact the school, and the school would reach out and contact Almond about it and he’d have to lie his way out of it.

Some brat has the audacity to be like, “yeah right, then how come he hasnt CAUGHT phantom blue you liar”, and she throws hands like any good five year old would.

In those cases Roguefort would probably go to school, probably handling the situation better than Almond would. They wouldn’t reveal that he’s Phantom Bleu, but he’d be calm and rational, but you know he wouldn’t punish Walnut for throwing hands, minus a little talk about how good thieves only use violence when necessary. Walnut says “But papa it WAS necessary! I had to knock the sense into him or it wouldntve stuck!” and Roguefort’s just like “That’s my little girl!” Almond just tiredly goes, “our child is nuts..”, cuz hes too tired to ACTUALLY be angry, Rouge just cracks up over the stupid joke and has to leave the room cuz it was just so funny in the moment hes like howling with laughter. (Nut pun haha).

Roguefort would definitely be like “Now Walnut, if you see someone bullying another person, it’s okay to fight them. If someone’s bullying you, I’ll fight them.”

Almond: Lawful Good

Roguefort: Chaotic Neutral

Walnut: Chaotic Good

[mansions-maiden]

Can I request promt 1 with isaac, if you still take request if not then you can ignore this

Prompt : You make a great pillow

pairing : reader x Isaac

Word count : 1.2K

Isaac was returning to the mansion from yet another stressful day at University. Teaching was hard and stressful sometimes. But it's the thing he enjoyed the most. Sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for science with his students was his passion.

You noticed that your boyfriend would often be found locked up in his room for hours at a stretch, after the university. You were worried about him. You knew his unusual bloodlust and its consequences when he doesn't take food and rouge. But he wasn't the type to rest upon a single request.

So you were naturally forced to find an alternative way to make him rest.

The following evening, when he returned to the mansion, he searched for you and found you in the kitchen, baking something. His senses could recognize the sweet aroma of pie crust being baked and also the sweet smell of apples.

He wasn't aware that you were preparing his SECRET favourite dessert, apple pie. He looked around; his path was clear and no other vampire could be found in the vicinity.

He immediately approached you and hugged you from behind, resting his chin on your shoulder. You were surprised at first but then laughed softly at his affectionate action.

You turned your head to his side and kissed him on the cheek, stopping for a moment from your cooking and putting your hands on his wrapped ones around your torso.

"What is it Mr Professor? Did you miss me?" You joked as you turned around in his engulfed arms. But your smile morphed into a concerned look when you saw prominent dark circles beneath his eyes. You rested both of your palms on either of his cheeks as you examined his tired face and cherry blossom eyes that lost their lustre to tiredness. "Isaac, I'm sorry to keep you away from your science, but you are to go to le thermae, right. Now. "

He became reluctant on hearing your words. But he saw the pleading look in your eyes and nodded his head. " That's great Isaac. Join me in your room afterwards. " You waved him bye as he marched towards le thermae.

In the meantime, you continued your cooking, making apple pie, some sandwiches and soon you made a beeline to his room taking a bottle of rouge and blanc along with the dishes on a tray.

15 minutes later, you saw him a bit relaxed after taking a bath. "Come here, Isaac. Today, I'm going to make you rest and make sure you are spoiled. " You patted the space beside you on his bed and told him to sit there.

As he sat down, you checked his temperature just to make sure that he didn't tire himself so much to the extent that he would be down with fever. You sighed, feeling relieved. You brought him the tray with dishes and sat down again.

He looked at all the dishes and cast a curious gaze at you. You sighed softly as you explained to him, " You look like a zombie, Isaac! You're working yourself to the bone. Tonight, you're under my watch and I'm forbidding you from working late into the night. Now c'mon! Let’s eat this!"

He smiled a little and you both began eating the apple pie and the sandwiches you had prepared. And eventually, the tray was empty.

After filling his stomach to the brim, he burped and smiled sheepishly at you. " Hehe, thank you for baking these. I really loved them! "

"It's okay silly! I was worried about you. Now, what shall we do next?"

Isaac thought for a while before answering," Hmm… how about we talk about our day? "

"Sure, how was your day? Are you working on anything new?" You asked as you turned to face him.

"Nothing new at the university. And I am working on this thing…" Isaac's face lit up again at the mention of things he was doing and working on. While he continued his passionate speech, you can't help but shake your head at the realisation that nothing really can quench his passion for physics and science, and a small appreciative smile crept onto your lips.

It was past dinner time as you both were lost in your own little world you both built together. You realized how late it was as the clock in his room chimed.

"Hey Isaac, shall we sleep? It's already past midnight. " You said as you rubbed your suddenly drowsy eyes.

His eyes widened at the realization and immediately apologized for keeping you up this late. You brushed it off telling him it's fine and that you enjoyed listening to him talk about something passionately.

He looked at the clock and asked, "Sleep here with me tonight. It’s late anyway." You shrugged nonchalantly, agreeing to his statement. You stood up from your spot, to get ready for sleep.

He suddenly pulled you back by your waist gently and you landed on his lap. You let out a gasp of surprise. He nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck, inhaling your scent and perfume's fragrance. His voice came out muffled as he whispered, "It's been a while since we've spent time together. I missed having you in my arms, MC."

"I missed being with you too. Shall we go on a date this weekend? But for now, let's sleep. " Isaac agreed to both of your statements.

You both laid on the bedside by side and soon fell asleep, engulfed in each other's warmth and company.

THE NEXT MORNING

You opened your eyes at the usual time and turned towards Isaac, who was still sound asleep. His face was peaceful, ridden of stress due to his profession and daily activities. You brushed his bangs aside with a gentle touch and kissed him on his forehead. You began playing with his hair, running your fingers through the locks of his hair. "You silly, no matter how much you love something, you ought to take a rest sometimes. You never stop making me worry about you." You whispered, with only walls and objects to listen to your words.

You saw movements from Isaac and he hugged you tightly, leaving you surprised with the unusual strength he possessed even during the half-asleep state. "Mmm… Thank you for forcing me to rest yesterday… I am feeling so much better. And your body is so soft and warm, I can't help but fall into a deep sleep. And your fragrance is so soothing. You make a great pillow, MC"

"Let's stay like this for a little longer then" you hugged him back and rested your head on his shoulder, and he dozed off again. But he was unaware of the effect his words had on you. Your pulse went up as you remembered his words of an instant ago.

But you were asleep after some time. You woke up to the sense of ticklishness spreading along your torso and face. This time, he was giving you tender kisses along your jaw, on your face and arms. "I-Isaac! Stop..haha..stop it p-please!" You were fully conscious by now. He stopped and looked at you with a teasing grin. "Today I'm taking a day off. So we can stay in bed as long as we want." You smiled at him but were laughing again until your stomach ached as he continued to tickle you with his hands and tender kisses.

[miraculouscontent]

All the thoughts:

First off, the plan.

I don’t get Shadow Moth’s plan or Optigami in general. Like, it was already weird that we had the phone that picked up on a kwami’s voice (I’ll hold my tongue on that one until we have all the episodes that take place before this, though my hopes aren’t high), but both Optigami and the phone happening in the same episode when it’s been resaid in this season that kwami can’t be seen/heard by technology is just silly. I get that Optigami is a sentimonster so it’s “magic technology,” but I dunno, something feels weird about it.

The reason I bring it up is because what’s shown contradicts what happens later in the episode. The footage shown by Optigami shows Carapace de-transforming and Wayzz popping out of the miraculous right afterwards, but when Senti!Carapace and Rena Rouge detransform at the end of the episode, the kwami don’t pop out. The former is also consistent with most detransformations; the kwami usually pops out (for the easiest reference, the beginning of “Miraculer” does this with both Alya and Nino, and Alya detransforming in “Gang of Secrets” also does this).

I presume this was done to force Ladybug to use her Lucky Charm in order to figure out that Senti!Nino was Shadow Moth’s sentimonster, because otherwise I just imagine Wayzz popping out to complain that there’s something in his miraculous and how it isn’t even paying rent.

Gabriel also non-subtly invites “everyone” to the event, yet “everyone” apparently only means conveniently the people who Shadow Moth knows as heroes, plus Marinette for no explained reason whatsoever. Chat Noir could’ve even noted after the fact that everyone invited were past heroes (because he knows Multimouse and probably wouldn’t think “wait, that doesn’t make sense--”), or the characters themselves could’ve noticed it, but that would’ve meant the show pointing out the blatant plothole that Marinette is lobbed in there. This could’ve also been a chance for the characters to all establish, “hey, we were heroes!” and have a cool camaraderie between them (presuming they know that they were outed), but instead they serve no purpose beyond being essentially background characters for Style Queen to tick off like a checklist. They had the perfect moment to do something to give everyone more character and they wasted it to do an unneeded scene of Alya trying to shove Marinette towards Adrien (I’ll get there).

It also puzzles me that Gabriel’s plan was to cause an akuma that would force Ladybug to bring another miraculous when...

Style Queen didn’t cause her to do that?? Now, if one isn’t really thinking (like it seems the writers didn’t) and/or only vaguely remembers the episode (i.e: that Chloe got a miraculous and Queen Bee/Wasp is the immediate follow-up), then they’ll recall that Ladybug did indeed go to Master Fu’s to get a miraculous, but only did she not need it in the end, the reason the Lucky Charm sent her there in the first place was to get Plagg, i.e: the cat.

And yes, Shadow Moth does have Style Queen glitter the building so that no one can get in, which ends up blocking Chat Noir off, but that only works if he knows that Ladybug is in the building but not Chat.

Speaking of Ladybug, and this one is more of a nitpick, but she delays using Miraculous Ladybug and I feel like it could’ve been done better, like if she went to use it but stopped herself because something didn’t feel right, but instead she points out the weirdness of not using her Lucky Charm while not thinking further on it until she sees the handshake. Regardless of the comments she makes towards the Lucky Charm, the episode leaves a weird feeling of, “Why haven’t you used Miraculous Ladybug yet? The akuma is gone.” Marinette even saw the sentimonster, which clearly isn’t Style Queen, yet the episode forgets about it because--oh wait, it was just there to build up to an attempted identity reveal that went nowhere.

So, yeah--the elevator...

Say it with me: it’s stupid, it’s pointless, it makes no sense, it serves no meaning to the plot, its only roles in the episode is for love square fuel and to embarrass Marinette.

And on that last note, I know I said I’d keep quiet on the phone, but I swear, if it’s not explained in any form why the kwami can communicate with her, then it was literally just invented so that it could startle/embarrass her.

Also, to the surprise of no one, the kwami who live with her still don’t understand how to deal with her. :|

Not only does the scene draaaaag and the chances of Adrien and Marinette not only thinking of the same hiding place (an elevator, something that both makes no sense because Style Queen can easily pop up if she hears the elevator, but also that they rarely ever choose as a transforming spot; in fact, I can’t think of a time they’ve chosen an elevator??), but also happening to pick the same elevator.

As for it making no sense, the identity reveal was completely unnecessary. Either of them telling the other their identity would’ve done nothing, and even if they planned to tell the other to block the eyes watching them so they could transform, it wouldn’t matter, because that just makes it obvious what they’re doing. Plus, if the concern was needing to tell the other so they could get out of the elevator somehow, then there would’ve been no reason not to tell them after the eyes were gone. Marinette could’ve texted Alya at any time when they were being quiet.

And as if the setup wasn’t already contrived enough, Nathalie takes far too long to leave Adrien and Marinette alone. Optigami goes into the elevator on Nathalie’s orders (which is the whole thing that makes the two go quiet and consider doing a reveal in the first place), and it takes fourty seconds before Nathalie finally notes that it’s just Adrien and Marinette. Like, unless she got up to make a sandwich before she analyzed the footage, I just--???

Anyway, the last thing to really talk about is Alya and oh my gosh, the sheer amount of double standards here...

Like, just starting with the scene where Alya physically shoves Marinette towards the elevator, despite Marinette’s protests, it just makes me shake my head all the more, especially after “Mr. Pigeon 72.” I already knew the show wasn’t going to follow up on the whole “when you’re ready” stuff in “Gang of Secrets,” and “Mr. Pigeon 72″ just forwarded that with Alya immediately pressing for Adrien, but I didn’t expect Alya to try and force things this hard.

Just gonna add as well that both Luka and Kagami saw Alya do this, which would’ve been a great opportunity for it to trigger alarm bells for both of them (Luka going, “oh, it’s no wonder Marinette struggles with Adrien when--” and Kagami like, “hey this is familiar, almost like Marinette thought it was okay because it happens to her all the time and maybe I should step in to say something”; by the way, for those who want another fix-it, yeah, that’d what it’d be), because Marinette was literally totally fine until Alya tried to force the matter.

But again, blatant show of “fine if it’s for the love square, not fine if it’s not.”

And after “Mr. Pigeon 72″ and now this, do the writers really think that I wasn’t going to notice the fact that Marinette is only getting the “damsel in distress” role now that the kwami and Alya are conveniently there to save her? It’s like they knew the backlash that would happen from Marinette telling Alya her identity (the rightfully deserved backlash, not even because of the identity thing - I understand narratively that Marinette was at her breaking point, though the timing is awful - but because Alya was like--one of the worst choices), so they decided to justify it by having Marinette be put into peril multiple times this season to the degree where Alya would have to swoop in and save her. Essentially, they’re nerfing their protagonist and forcing her into these situations to lift Alya up and make Alya look like a better/more intelligent friend.

Marinette didn’t need a confidant because she was constantly one step away from danger, she needed one emotionally, yet now the show has been continuously letting Alya figure out important guardian matters and saving Marinette’s backside because apparently, “Marinette is more emotionally stable now that she has someone who knows her secret,” wasn’t enough. Handing Alya the win on Lila and either ignoring or excusing all of her past actions to make her look good wasn’t enough.

Trying to make everything about Adrien instead of Marinette wasn’t enough. Now they’re throwing in Alya and giving her stuff to do while Marinette sits idly and just waits to be saved. Yes, Marinette ultimately does the most in the end and Alya screws up, but what happens?

Alya gets rewarded for it. She gets to have the fox miraculous given to her permanently, which the narrative lowkey chided Marinette for not doing (with Trixx’s snippy comments and Alya pulling a “Gang of Secrets” where she’s suddenly 100% “on Marinette’s side” so that it makes it feel like she deserves whatever she’s going to be given). The show is both setting Marinette up to fail so they can continue having their drama (regardless of how well permanent Rena Rouge goes, they wanted to leave the episode on a cliffhanger) and getting on her case for breathing while rewarding other characters after they’ve failed.

Which, spoiler alert for the next episode, ends up working out, thus making it the “”“right”““ decision. Apparently Marinette is meant to suffer and be given all these consequences/embarrassment when she screws up, but people like Adrien Alya get rewarded and given a free pass to do whatever they want with no consequences (Marinette doesn’t even remotely get on Alya’s case or be upset that Alya made decisions without her; even Fu gave Marinette, Tikki, and Plagg a look in “Sandboy” and made them explain/apologize; but of course, that’s because Marinette was involved, I guess).

And... look, it’d be one thing for Marinette to want an understudy, or to want someone to have a permanent miraculous as a form of protection in case she needs it, but Alya wasn’t even suspicious when Senti!Nino didn’t give her their usual high-five. Alya claims to be this great reporter and tries to imply in “Gang of Secrets” that she suddenly knows all things about Marinette, yet doesn’t change her expression at all when the person she thinks is her boyfriend gives her a regular high-five instead of the one they made up? I guess the show wanted to give Ladybug something more after Alya and Kaalki did a chunk of the work, but if they wanted to present Alya as a worthy guardian, then that should’ve set off red flags, especially after the whole Ladybug reveal and Alya realizing that Lila’s full of it (which I know still hasn’t been shown but if she’s gonna be Ladybug’s confidant then she has to step up her suspicion game).

Like, I don’t know if they’re just trying to have Alya work off any bad things that the fandom might have on her, but with this episode and the next episode, it just feels like they want Alya to stay in the role that she had with Marinette: the “Alya knows best, is presented as a supportive friend, and has a leg up on Marinette in terms of mental/power dynamic.”

Because, despite knowing that she’s Ladybug now, Alya’s relationship with Marinette really hasn’t changed. She’s still forcing Marinette into situations with Adrien, she’s still got the doubtful eyebrow raise whenever Marinette does “Marinette things,” and Alya still has the, “I got you, girl!” attitude about everything, even if she really doesn’t have Marinette’s back in the right way. Heck, even the kwami (or at least Trixx) seems to go to Alya over Marinette, the kwami themselves just whining and behaving like children around Marinette herself.

At this point, why not just hand Alya the ladybug earrings and call it a day? If Alya’s not only an understudy for being guardian but is also apparently going to keep saving Marinette, she’s clearly “better,” and that moment with Senti!Nino ended up getting her rewarded, why not just let Marinette hand over the metaphorical mantle and be officially stress-free? Then Paris would have a “““non-clumsy, less emotional, less anxious”““ Ladybug.

Well, because that would mean lessening Marinette’s suffering and the show would be over without that. *sigh*

I don’t know, it’s just upsetting. It’s the "Malediktator”/”Gang of Secrets” thing where Marinette tries to follow something she’s been taught by other characters (who are presented as wiser than her) and it ends up blowing up in her face. “No permanent miraculouses” wasn’t her rule - it was Fu’s - and then the show immediately chides her for it.

Basically, Marinette tries to make her own decisions and it blows up in her face. Marinette tries to follow her own rules and it blows up in her face. It’s the love square all over again: she can’t confess to Adrien, but she can’t move on either.

That’s why “Optigami” is so insulting. It puts its double standards on display for the world to see and sets things up to go exactly the way it wants with no regard to making sense or working to an interesting story.

[flightfoot]

Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Episode rankings (As of Optygami’s release)

ML season 4 has knocked it out of the park so far! It’s been absolutely amazing, and I’ve greatly enjoyed every episode.

That being said, some episodes have still been better than others (or have contained elements I find more appealing at least), so what better way to show that than with a ranking?

9. Queen Banana

We got a new hero this episode, and she is awesome! Vesperia and Chat have a nice little interaction, and while Vesperia gets taken out, it’s for a good reason - distracting Queen Banana so Ladybug can put glue in her pocket, disarming her. It was a really nice way of showing Zoe’s humility and ability for teamwork, even when it meant giving up the starring role, in order to complete the group’s overall goal.

The mini-movie felt like foreshadowing, what with the “Superheroine of Creation” being an obvious Ladybug expy, while the “Supervillain of Destruction” was a Chat Noir expy, though with fewer connections. Interestingly, it’s also used to parallel Zoe’s and Chloe’s relationship, with Zoe even quoting from the movie at the end.

And Andre’s character development was top-notch! Bully him around to do material things as much as you like, but hurting Zoe is off-limits. She’s Andre’s daughter too.

So why is it so low down? Simply put, it didn’t feel like it changed things as much as Sole Crusher did, nor did it showcase Marinette’s and Adrien’s relationship as much. It was good, but there was less to talk about concerning it than I thought there’d be.

8. Furious Fu

The first episode of Season 4 aired (even though it was episode 6 in production order), we got some lore drop this episode! Su Han gave us a better idea of what to expect from the Guardians and what their relationship with the kwamis had been like overall. Poor Plagg especially, he’s just treated like a bomb that could go off at any moment.

I especially liked seeing Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship this episode, and their differing reactions to Su Han and his proposals. Ladybug was insecure about not having defeated Hawkmoth yet and thought Su Han might have a point about the Miraculous being better in other hands, and for this to be something for the Guardians to handle.

Chat Noir meanwhile didn’t give a crap about Su Han’s authority, about this random guy who just showed up and tried to boss them around; but he DOES respect Ladybug’s, and made that known. That he’d give up his Miraculous, his ticket to freedom and also the vessel for one of his closest friends, Plagg, but only at LADYBUG’S request, not this dude.

But it also showed the limits of that, with him refusing to go along with even that when it’d mean that Ladybug would get amnesia. That he’d not only lose his Miraculous, but his closest, dearest friend as well.

The episode was well done, but just didn’t feel like it either changed things as much or showcased character development as much as the other entries on this list, which is why it’s lower.

7. Sole Crusher

This was our first look at a new character, Zoe, and she did not disappoint! She was absolutely adorable and I really felt for her, with needing to pretend to be nasty in order to not be practically disowned from her family. 

It showcased how much Marinette had grown as well, with having Marinette see through Zoe’s Mean Girl act when they reunite and not jump to hasty negative conclusions, like she did with Adrien, instead considering that there may have been other factors involved with making Zoe act differently while with Chloe.

Also character exploration and growth for Andre, of all characters! Very unexpected. I really wanted him to succeed in his original dream, and I was thrilled at him comforting Zoe, with him empathizing with her, with acting as a parent towards her, even with her being his stepdaughter and presumedly not knowing her very well before this.

Zoe’s ability to anticipate how she’d need to act in order to conform with her family’s expectations while still getting to do what she wanted (for the most part), like with her pretending to be all prissy and stuck up when interacting with Audrey, or pretending that her messaging with Marinette was a setup to betray and humiliate her, showed a great understanding of the people around her as well as some great acting ability. And her realization of how she’d been putting on acts like this for so long before this, of her people-pleasing and afterwards attempting to just be herself, felt like foreshadowing for Adrien’s own arc.

 And we got a few seconds of Marichat. Yay for crumbs!

6. Mr. Pigeon 72

This episode was PACKED. We got to see the followup to Gang of Secrets, with Ladybug freaking out and Alya trying to center her, as well as some followup to Lies, with Marinette trying to “help” Kagami get back together with Adrien. And on top of the stuff that forms the premise of the episode, we got to see Rena Rouge be badass again, Plagg and Ladybug team up, and even Umbrella scene 2, which I don’t think ANYONE saw coming!

Marinette was a lot of fun and we got to see some good stuff from Kagami and Alya here. It felt a little disjointed with how much was crammed into it and I missed Chat Noir, but overall it was really good!

5. Guiltrip

What an amazing episode! Rose is one of the least developed members of the class, mostly being known for being really sweet and being Juleka’s girlfriend, and not much else. Here, we got an inner look at her, at WHY she’s so positive, and how powerful that positivity can be. That she’s not innately positive just because, but that it’s a choice she makes.

Plus the class is AMAZING here. They care about their friends SO MUCH, even if they go about it the wrong way. We got to see Juleka and Rose caring about each other, and even though it went wrong, Rose understands why Juleka ended up spilling her secret and doesn’t blame her for it.

It also really showcased Marinette and Adrien, there different ways of dealing with serious issues, with Marinette jumping ahead and trying to do whatever she thinks will help immediately (help now, ask questions later) while Adrien tried to do the opposite, asking Juleka what she wanted first and trying to stick with that (ask questions first, then help). Both can be useful, depending on the circumstances.

Also got to see a bit more about Adrien’s turmoil, with him being borderline suicidal, and Nino feeling guilty that he wasn’t able to help Adrien with his father, hinting that something bad went down with Gabriel before this. 

There was just a LOT to unpack with this episode, but it all fit together neatly!

4. Lies

All of the “Truth” related episodes were amazing! Lies being no exception. Also our first (and so far only) Adrien-centric episode this season.

Lies catapulted discussion of Adrien’s looming identity crisis, as well as his deflections and near-suicidal behavior, stuff that becomes even more apparent in Guiltrip. The breakup was handled well, with it not being Adrien’s fault (he had to leave and lie for the same reasons Marinette did), but with Kagami’s reaction being totally understandable and valid. She was a very active participant in it, even testing to see whether Adrien had lied. And she was ALLOWED to be pissed afterwards, to not trust him, even though she could tell that he wasn’t just doing this for no reason. 

I wish we’d gotten more time with her as an akuma, but I can see why we didn’t. There just wasn’t that much time in the episode, and the emotional crux of the episode occurred between her and Adrien - there just wasn’t much she could do as an akuma that was gonna add much impact to the episode.

3. Optygami

Oh WOW did this episode make an impact. Major Wham episode in a season chockful of major revelations, status quo changes, and character progression.

 Nathalie and Gabriel actually had a pretty clever plan, spying on the revealed wielders this whole time using the “one sentimonster per wielder, but there can be multiple sentimonsters from different wielders out at the same time” loophole. It meant that Nathalie was actually doing something while she was benched, and I’m willing to bet that she’s the one who came up with the plan in the first place. Say what you will about her morality or her taste in men, but she is an effective supervillain who may be an assistant (and totally fine with that role, which isn’t so common), but one with a lot of agency. And using impostors and try to force a situation where Ladybug would have to give a Miraculous to one of them, and using that opportunity to plant a spy sentimonster in a Miraculous in order to discover Ladybug’s identity and the location of the other Miraculous? Was inspired!

We were baited on there being a Reveal, but that wasn’t exactly a shocker. In any case, we did have a bunch of OTHER cool, impactful stuff. 

Hawkmoth stepped up his game with his sentimonsters, making a couple of impostors to control the situation, with Senti Alec and Senti Nino. Seems like foreshadowing about there potentially being more sentimonsters in disguise...

The major developments everyone’s screaming about though, are:

1. Alya getting her Miraculous permanently, being the first “temporary” wielder to get that honor, and putting her in a greater position to help with any akuma that’s causing more trouble than usual.

2. And the one that’s gotten everyone theorizing, screaming, and writing fics: Chat Noir and Ladybug’s seemingly deteriorating relationship, with a special emphasis on how left out Chat is and just how much he’s being kept in the dark, and how he’s beginning to realize this, feeling unneeded. How much Chat’s hiding his hurt, and how that’s going to lead to some sort of emotional confrontation or breakdown down the line.

My ranking of Optygami may go up or down depending on whether future episodes follow through on what it sets up, especially with the foreshadowed Ladynoir confict.

Looks like we’re gonna have a hiatus after Optygami, considering that we don’t currently have airdates for any more episodes, but what a note to leave off on!

2. Truth

This episode was AMAZING. We got to see Luka and Marinette just hanging out casually, having fun together, like with the little trivia game they played on the way to the theater. Luka even showed a bit of a playful side, with setting up the last question so that the answer would end with “kiss me”. 

Luka was also allowed to feel negative emotions for reasons aside from protecting Marinette, with him feeling down and a little abandoned because of Marinette constantly ditching - something that was given more context, with how we learned that he never knew his father, and how much it bothers him that his mom won’t tell him who it was.

The revelation of Jagged Stone being Luka’s father was one that’d already been leaked way back in January, though few people believed it at the time and it got little attention. It gave Luka a plotline that had nothing to do with Marinette, something that was sorely needed and one that I’m hoping gets expanded on later.

Also had some great Ladynoir, with Chat Noir and Ladybug discussing their relationship during the akuma fight, when they were forced to be truthful to boot! Ladybug really does like Chat’s sense of humor, and Chat doesn’t have a problem with Ladybug’s status as Guardian, so long as it doesn’t interfere with their relationship.

1. Gang Of Secrets

Gang of Secrets was a great followup to Truth, showing Marinette attempting to cope with with breakup, and the subsequent realization that she has to lie to everyone always, and how little time and trust that leaves for her regular relationships.

Meanwhile, the people around Marinette worry and try to help and comfort her as best they can, even when they don’t really know what’s wrong or what to do. From the Girl Squad to Chat Noir to... kind of the kwamis (though with them it’s more lack of understanding of romantic relationships rather than lack of knowledge that holds them back), everyone attempts to help her, but it’s just not feasible under the circumstances for her to be helped the way she needs to be while keeping her secrets.

And in order to keep those secrets, she snaps, forcing all her friends away.

But they don’t take that easily. They want to be there for Marinette, they want to be friends, and become akumatized specifically in order to find out what was wrong, comfort her, fix whatever it was, and become friends again. They really care for her a lot.

And then- AND THEN-!

ALYA DEAKUMATIZES HERSELF

BECOMES RENA ROUGE AGAIN

AND MARINETTE EVEN CONFESSES THAT SHE’S LADYBUG TO HER.

It’s one of the biggest changes to the status quo we’ve had. Like, Master Fu being introduced changed what Marinette was doing, meaning that they could call on new heroes and she had someone to discuss Miraculous stuff with besides Tikki, and Master Fu renouncing his Guardianship and passing it on to Marinette changed what Marinette was doing on a day-to-day basis more, but... well, it didn’t represent as big of a change in themes, of things that had been built up for seasons. Breaking the Secret Identity Rule? DOES.

Also sets up for some potential LadyNoir conflict down the line, with her not having told Chat that she told her identity to someone else yet. I’m sure they’ll be okay in the end, but it could test their relationship and the rules they’ve lived by since they started being superheroes.

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

So that’s my ranking with the episodes we’ve had released so far. We’re a third of the way through the season and I gotta say, I’m really happy with it so far! Can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for us.