#her pronunciation is normal and it looks like her mom is polish

[chicago-geniza]

This is the singer who does my favorite version of O Mój Rozmarynie and unfortunately due to Semiotics and the planned section on British Polonia + WWII fetishism (shared) + weirdness about Jews + the surprisingly large postwar Lwów Jewish emigration to Montreal. I will be writing about Katy Carr's musical trilogy (Paszport/Polonia/Providence) and general career in my fake thesis. She's in the British air force like Piłsudski's daughters and cosplays like it is the 1940s for public appearances

[brwnskin-bunnyteeth]

Golden

A/N: Here it is!! About 2K of gibberish and longing. Hope y’all like this!! I did this as part of @hsogolden ‘s #FineLineFicChallenge. Sorry for the late entry! :-)

summary: heartbreak, Shakespeare, and bars

When she first met Harry, Y/N didn’t know what to make of him. The bar was dark, starlight shining down on a local performing spoken word, the population focused most on the performers and in booths, her friend waving her toward her barstool. Taking in her surroundings, admiring the various vintage posters and shirts that decorated the walls, the exposed brick and homely booths, and the brown-haired bartender that was currently chatting up her friend. 

His hair, curly, a golden brown mess on top of his head, hands decorated with green and yellow nail polish and a spattering of rings, a gaudy dress shirt thrown on them. 

She’d been friends with Dahlia long enough to know that Harry was an ex, someone that she didn’t connect with romantically but claimed he was her “shag soulmate”. But there wasn’t much that she knew about him, just that they were merely friends with benefits at the moment, an arrangement that was largely on hold as long as Dahlia stuck with her current fling. 

His hand reached out to her as she sat down, a dimple appearing on his face, “ ‘m Harry.” 

“ Y/N,” she said, as her hand dwarfed under his large grasp, his fingers calloused, his eyes boring down into her as he nodded and repeated her name as if he were reciting ancient text and couldn’t mess up the pronunciation. Dahlia simply rolling her eyes, ordering a cocktail and shots, and jumping into a work story. 

Harry would join in here and there, chuckling at them. 

 And at times, he’d center his attention to her, head in hand as he intensely listened to her talk, his attention unwavering as cupid’s bow smites at her weary heart. Other moments, he’d be zoned out, listening to the slam poetry and serenades being played by locals and his hands would break the bubble they’d place around themselves whenever he was particularly enraptured. 

 Dahlia would later recant his behavior as normal, that he’d always been so impassioned and affected. Describing him as sensitive and dreamy-eyed.

 The night ended uneventfully after the last of the patrons mulled out at 1 am. Harry calling a cab as he and a coworker closed up. 

Her head full of dizzying thoughts when she was given his number, “I can tell we’re gonna be good friends, better to get this away with”, wide-eyed and just drunk enough to only be able to reply in a stuttering thanks as she drove away. His hand wriggling at her yellow cab, a faint dimple dotting the left side of his face, the sky clear and starry-eyed.

  Waking up, Y/N was greeted with, “ ‘til next time, good night xx. ” to her “ got home safely “ text. They’d only known each other for a night and he already had a hold on her. 

A nice cold shower brings her back to reality, as she scrubs his green eyes and cologne out of her system. His curly brown hair and easy smile invading her senses, butterflies flying about in her chest. It’d been so long, desire and infatuation feeling new and unnatural in her body. But she couldn’t let herself have a girly crush on a man like him, someone as enchanting as him—especially not one who regularly shags her friend. 

Anything romantic was just a figment of her mind, obviously starving for affection and latching onto anyone remotely nice and endearing. He was just a nice guy, one who kept an agonizing gaze on her face whenever she spoke, one who smelled really nice despite working a whole shift at the bar. There was nothing remarkable about him, nothing worth getting attached to.

And yet, it was like her body was punishing her for being away from him, dealing with withdrawals after only meeting him once. Chest hurting as she thought about him.

Two weeks would go by and she’s still thinking of him. She passes by his pub on bus rides and a second always comes where her fingers swipe to his number, yearning to feast her eyes on him again. 

Aphrodite herself would soon take pity on her state this night, Y/N unaware as she walks up the theater steps. Her mood, however, is morose when the night begins. Anxiety eats at her from the inside out, hands wringing as she avoids familiar faces in the theater hall. 

Large posters don the walls, the face of her ex spread out in colossal laminated fashion and staring down at the floor. 

It has been three months since Y/N’d seen him, her heart just as heavy as the day he left. It felt silly, still affected by his frame, still as love-sick, still as devastated. 

He looked good, he was doing well. Memories of auditions and line readings, of all the frustration and dedication and late nights, flood her and she can’t help but be delighted for him. He’d been working hard for so long, and securing a lead role in this play was a dream of his. 

Her ticket arrived after the fight, from when her presence was expected and assumed. And at first, she just ignored it; still too heartbroken to acknowledge his presence without tearing up. But she’d been preparing for this event for so long, too much of her energy wasted on him and this play, that it felt absurd to not at least go and see the damn thing. Even if she wasn’t attached to him anymore, even if she wasn’t even keen on theater. 

Y/N can feel eyes boring into her, a chill moving down her figure as she enters. At this moment, she can tell she’s not going to get through the night without at least one drink if she planned on staying placid. Too many of his friends, his family, and his coworkers occupy the space, people she hasn't spoken to for far too long. She wondered if any of them knew about what happened or if they missed her or if she was even welcomed anymore. 

The bar offers some relief; ordering a chill mojito, she admires the marble counter and intricate chandeliers on the ceiling, her eyes nervously looking around. And when her drink is placed in front of her, she reaches into her wallet, but her actions are interrupted when a familiar voice and ringed hand put some money down.

“Let me take care of that for you, bunty.” 

Y/N can feel her heart jump all the way up her throat, gasping up at his frame and meeting his sparkling emerald eyes for the first time in weeks. She can feel her face warm up, heart beating as he peers down and wraps an arm around the back of her barstool. All she can do for a second is gape and gasp out a small objection, “Harry I-”

But his hand comes up, shaking his head, “No, nope”, dimples protruding as he continues to smile at her. “I’ve got this” he simpers, ordering his own drink and leaning in as other patrons squeeze by to grab a drink before the show. His voice turns sincere, low, when he takes a full hard look at her, “You look nice, really like that color on you”

And she wants to admonish him, wants to push his money away, wants to question his behavior, but his scent envelopes her—feeling fixed under his gaze. Tension fills the air and she’s drawing her eyes over him as well. 

He’s wearing a red patterned vest with an embroidered oxford shirt collar peeking out at the top with the sleeves folded; his pants wide-legged and grayish-blue, loafers brown and heeled. His hair is parted in the middle, and his facial hair has grown, nails painted watermelon red and bright green. Several rings occupy his hands, and a pearl necklace winks at her from his neck and she breathes out a light, “So do you” before chasing her drink. 

He’s laughing now, music to her ears, and she wants to bottle it up and save it for later. The two of them take another glance at each other, grins on their faces, silence falling as they take sips of their drinks. 

The play begins after they make their way to their seats, the objection of her despair taking the stage. Seeing him for the first time in weeks affects her more than she realized it would. 

Y/N knew heartbreak. At age 13, she experienced her first. As a cruel joke, the second hottest boy in her grade level pulled her to the side and kissed her, called her sexy, all for a dare, to win $40 for kissing a pig. He’d stolen her first kiss, playing with her emotions for forty fucking dollars. Her first reaction was to kick him in the nuts. And it gave her some relief, but tears still stung her cheeks, his pain doing nothing to soothe the heartache he inflicted on her.

She spent the rest of the night hiding in the bathroom, too ashamed to tell her parents, too broken to even speak of the incident. Weeks later, a new boy from New York tells her that he fancies her, well all she could do was laugh. How could someone as cool and cute as him like her?  Her heart hardened then, the first of many betrayals. 

So when she met Benji, she let herself settle, let herself be taken in by the conceited prick who didn’t deserve her love. They’d been together for almost two years but had known each other longer, Benji’s mom running a daycare next door. And she’d loved Benji, still did. 

But, sitting there next to Harry, a thought occurred to her. Here is Benji, performing and doing an amazing and inspiring performance in front of industry folk. The fruits of his labor were finally blooming. Yet, she had little to show for those two years. It felt like a waste of her time, her youth. All of her focus was on him, not her. 

She felt disgusted, her eyes wetting up and shooting daggers in his direction, his eyesight blinded by the stage lights. She thought she’d gone through the worst of it, that she was done crying, and yet tears threatened to fall down her cheeks—-stomach churning and leg antsy. Why did she drag herself down here? What did she think was going to happen? Was he supposed to realize that he was wrong for cheating on her, for dumping her, and welcome her back in? Was that really what she wanted?

The Shakespearean play continued in the foreground, Y/N slipping into what felt like a panic attack. Her heart dug at her chest, her feet propping her back up and leading her through the double doors. 

The lobby is empty, one patron sitting at the bar, the play muffled but continuing in the background. Y/N feels the cold air and is granted with relief, head still spinning with negativity. Not a minute passes before the orchestra is unmuffled, the doors opening and showcasing Harry. He chases after her, concern on his face. 

She feels embarrassed, embarrassed for him to see her like this, embarrassed to have made a scene. She turns to tell him to leave her alone when she’s engulfed in his arms, head resting on hers. 

“You alright?”, his voice whispers as his arms rub her back, earnestly trying to calm her down. He’s looking at her, his eyes looking her up and down, trying to identify anything concerning. She’s humiliated, clutching onto his body like a toddler, internally deciding if she wanted to tell him everything. When she looks into his eyes, her lips detach from her teeth, and she tells him as much as he needs to know. 

While she explains everything, he’s nodding, his face serious as his hands continue to rub her shoulders and back. He squeezes her tighter, his eyebrows furrowing as he takes in everything. He’s so quiet that Y/N can’t help but feel as though she shared too much. That he was only pretending to care, being a friend of a friend. But then he’s grabbing her shoulders, voice tight, as he speaks up, “Y/N, he’s a dick. He’s an absolute prick, and he doesn’t deserve to be cried over. I’m so sorry he hurt you like that.” He’s letting out a breath, anguish appearing on his face, as he continues, “you are not hard to love. the right people will love you because of who you are, not despite you. you're worthy of that love, and I don’t know if I should be the one to give that to you, but I like you. And I’d like to try and be the one to give that to you.”

Harry’s gripping her hands now, the weight of his words affecting her as she searches his face for any deceit. She tries to speak, mouth opening and closing like a fish, pursing her lips as she gathers her bearings. “Harry, that’s...I don’t know what to say.” 

Mind racing as her mind begins to warp and twist his words. She’s rejecting his statement, mind unfurling and rejecting him.

He can feel her pull away, can see her do the mental gymnastics to reject his words, wracking his brain for some way to convince her otherwise. “I get that you’re scared. Rightly should be. But, you deserve happiness. I want to help you get over this talentless jerk. Wanna mend your broken heart.” 

His hands move to her jaw, bringing her closer and boring into her eyes, “I know I’m acting pathetic, bunty, you’re just so striking that I haven’t been able to go a day without thinking of you. You’ve got me under control, have since you walked into my bar. I can’t imagine the thought of anyone else when I’ve got you right here.”

The air is charged, their bodies close to one another, eyes faced squarely on each other. Y/N can feel her heartbeat out of her chest, hands trembling on his biceps. His face is backlit by the golden chandeliers of the lobby, the only other sounds either muffled or clinking glass bottles. 

He’s right, she’s scared. Scared of getting her heartbroken all over again, of being used by yet another man in her life. And yet, she wants to give in. His green eyes are tracing her features and she’s never before felt as snug and protected like this. 

The space between them closes and his nose slides against her, her eyes fluttering closed before softly responding, “I don’t know what to think. You’re so bare, so frank, that it’s scary. How do I know that you won’t do the same as him?”

Harry kisses her. He presses his lips against hers, their bodies pressed closer than ever, eyes shut, as they both enjoy the moment. Harry kisses her like his life depends on it, her jaw in his hands. He kisses her like no one else has ever done. She’s breathless as she chases after him, want increasing by the second. Arms reach his neck and pull at his hair, his grip on her back as the kiss deepens. 

Every fiber of her being is telling her to stop, that she shouldn’t trust him, that he’s just another smooth talker. But she can’t stop. His intoxifying taste has pulled her in, too drunk on his words and actions to even care anymore. 

Pulling away, his lips follow, until Y/N is pushing him back. Her hands rest on his shoulders as the two share moony-eyed looks. Catching her breath, thumb reaching to rub off a bit of her lipstick from his lips, Y/N drops her hands to his. She pulls his arm, his body following after her as she heads for the door, eyes hooded, “I don’t want to be alone tonight.” 

Harry smiles, dimples jutting out, as he nods and pulls her in for one last knee-wobbling kiss, as they head out the door and into the golden sunset. 

[quicksilversquared]

There’s No Camembert in Tibet: Chapter 13

links will be in the reblog.

The Valley of the Temples was stunning.

A clear blue stream meandered through the middle of the valley. The emerald green meadow sloped up gently towards the edges, turning into forest before they sloped upwards abruptly in a circle of rolling foothills, merging into several low mountain peaks. Taller mountains peeked over the slopes from further out, some snow-capped and reaching into the clouds. The meadow was interrupted in places by stands of trees...and the ruins of the temples, right in the center of the valley.

"It was more divided up when I was here," Master Fu told them as they all followed him down the valley, pace no longer frantic. "There were fields down there for us to grow our food, and on this far end we had out livestock. There in the middle- it's so overgrown you can't even tell where it was- that was our training area. One section was brickwork, another swept dirt. We learned many styles of combat there. And that grove over there was where we students like to sit and learn. It looks quite different now than it did back then, of course. A large part of it got flattened in the fight, and a good many new trees have come up."

They all stared as they peered around, trying to envision the large valley full of life. It was hard to visualize, especially since the whole place had a lonely, abandoned feel to it. The former fields were overgrown, no hints of the previous crops left in them. The bricks and swept dirt of the training area weren't even visible. The forest had clearly started to creep forward over time, smaller trees springing up on the edge. If they squinted, they could see where the remains of some structures had been near the stream.

And as they got closer to the center of the valley, the ruins of the temples came into clearer relief. In the corner of the largest one, a white light gleamed and swirled.

Chat Noir swallowed hard. Ladybug slid closer to him, wrapping her fingers around his. Lycaena wrapped an arm around him, pulling him into a side hug as they walked. The Rat gave them a puzzled look, and Chat Noir did his best to square his shoulders and look unaffected by the swirling mass of magic light that warned that his mom was trapped there, because it would not do for the Rat to figure out who he was now.

Not that he actually thought that the Rat would be a threat, but he just wasn't comfortable with it.

They were actually here. His mom was so close, and hopefully, hopefully, he would have her back within twenty-four hours. He wouldn't be able to run up and hug her like he so desperately wanted to- he had to keep his secret identity secret from her, just in case- but he would be able to see her, and know that she was safe.

The nerves were building in his stomach.

"We can set up camp by that orchard over there," Jade Turtle told them, pointing as he headed that way. "There's a mountain stream that runs nearby, and we can refill our water there. It's also gorgeous."

"And not too close to the ruins, which are creepy," Queen Bee piped up. "And- is that a graveyard?"

"I did mention that there was a battle here, right?" Jade Turtle reminded her. "It was not like the akuma battles in Paris. There were heavy casualties."

Queen Bee shuddered. "Gross."

Chat Noir blinked, then looked to the Rat. The other user couldn't understand the conversation at all, of course, but was also looking at the graveyard. Chat Noir looked again, and noticed something odd. Some of the graves were fresh.

Like, just-this-past-month fresh. Or just-a-few-months-ago fresh. Which in turn suggested that there had been burials in the not-so-distant past, even if there hadn't been people dying here recently.

Which also suggested that the Rat hadn't just been returning to the valley just to keep it safe from invaders. He had been returning to give his fallen ancestors and their companions and teachers the burial they deserved.

...that had to be really depressing.

Master Fu pointed out a few more things- some of the old dorms, the large garden where he often sat and studied herb lore, a crater in the ground that hadn't been there prior to the attack- but Chat Noir had more or less checked out. A slight breeze had picked up, and the magical light was bobbing and swaying with it, leaning towards them as though it could sense their presence.

Did his mom have any sense as to what was going on in the outside word while she was trapped? Or was everything just blank until she was rescued?

They reached the orchard and detransformed, pitching tents in a half-circle. Mrs. Cheng and Master Fu worked on preparing the kitchen area while the rest of them headed off with the water filter and every water vessel that had been brought along on the trip.

"Dibs on using this first," Chloe said as she filled up one of their Sun Showers. "I will die if I have to wait another week to get a hot shower, and I know that the sun's gonna go down soon."

"I'll go last," Nino volunteered. "It takes me less time to wash up, so I don't mind as much if my water isn't super warm. Or I can go if someone doesn't have enough water in their bag for someone with long hair to do a complete shower."

"We're going for two people per bag, then?" Marinette asked as she filled their second Sun Shower. "Making sure to turn the water off while soaping up?"

"That's the only way we'll even be able to hope to get through everyone this afternoon." Adrien capped off another water bottle before reaching for the next one. "And we might have to do the heat some water in a pot, mix it with a bit of cool water, and then dump it over our heads thing to get everyone through. The sun isn't going to be up forever."

"A couple people could go tomorrow after the valley tour and before we try the spell," Marinette pointed out. "If we need to. It's possible that the last four people might just have to deal with lukewarm water."

They finished filling up all of the bottles and bags with water and headed back. Master Fu already had veggies chopped up for a stew, and Mrs. Cheng was mixing up a flatbread to have with it. The Rat had prowled off somewhere, just leaving the seven of them.

"We'll have dinner cooking soon," Master Fu told them as they set up water bottles and put the sun shower bags out in the sun. "And then we can practice reciting the spell. I know I introduced it earlier in the trip, but, ah..."

"I've forgotten it," Chloe announced right away. She scoffed at Marinette's startled expression. "What? It's not in French, so obviously I wouldn't remember it."

"I've been working on memorizing it every night! Well, almost," Marinette corrected herself when Alya gave her a dubious look. "Every night when we weren't completely exhausted. I tried to get a section memorized, and Tikki coached me."

"And I generally know it because of her, I just need to polish it up a bit," Alya chimed in. Nino nodded.

"Same. I've been listening to Adrien practice."

"Well of course Adrien knows it," Chloe sniffed, apparently choosing to ignore the fact that the others had been working steadily on learning the spell as well. "He's good at remembering stuff in other languages. And I'll work hard on it. I'm good at memorizing things short-term when I work on it. It's how I pass all of my exams. It's easier than studying a bunch."

"That's a, ah, very useful skill," Mrs. Cheng managed, looking as though it wasn't very nice at all but she felt as though she had to say something. "But I suppose we should start working on that right away. We want to be ready for tomorrow, after all."

"And the spell won't work in French, are we sure?" Chloe asked, clearly still not enthused about the idea "Because that would be easier to memorize."

"The kwamis think that it wouldn't work," Master Fu told her. "And it's not as though there's a direct translation for all of the words. This is just how we know the spell works, so I don't want to mess with it."

"Fine," Chloe grumbled. "That's still stupid, if you ask me. But I can start now. So, what's the spell, again?"

  The sun was high in the sky by the time they headed to the temple ruins the next day, all transformed and with the intention of trying out the spell for the first time. They had spent the previous evening taking their showers and polishing up their knowledge of the spells. Marinette, Adrien, and Mrs. Cheng (and, of course Master Fu) all had it memorized. Nino and Alya needed work on their pronunciation. Chloe...

...well, at least she had thrown herself into it and made a good bit of progress. And while they were taking a tour of the valley that morning after their lie-in, the Rat drilled her on the spell.

They were ready. Hopefully.

Chat Noir's grip around Ladybug's hand had grown tighter as they drew close to the dancing light. She gave him a gentle squeeze back, but it was hard to tell if it had helped at all.

"Okay, everyone form a circle," Jade Turtle called. "The main seven, I mean. Try for even spacing. Okay. Now, hands out, like so. We'll go in three, two, one-"

Ladybug raised her hands to mimic Jade Turtle and carefully started reciting the spell. They had worked on it so that they would all talk at the same rate. The column of light grew more solid, settling into a human height. It grew brighter, and brighter, and brighter-

-and then dimmed, thinning out and going back to normal when they were only partway into the spell. Ladybug frowned, hoping that maybe that was just something that was supposed to happen.

They got to the end of the spell. The light remained as it was.

"Once more?" Jade Turtle suggested. There was a slight from on his face. "All together?"

They started again. The same thing happened. The Rat spoke up, saying something in Mandarin. Ladybug looked to Chat Noir for translation.

"He said that the pronunciation might be wrong," Chat Noir explained quickly. The panicked look on his face had faded somewhat. "Which- I mean, I wouldn't be surprised."

"We probably should have had one last run-through before coming out here," Paon agreed. "I bet I was off again. And I also bet that I wasn't the only one."

"Let's break for lunch," Jade Turtle suggested. "We'll review pronunciation again there, then try again later this afternoon. We want to get this problem ironed out as soon as possible, but I'm sure you all would work better on a stomach that isn't empty."

They all made noises of agreement and moved away from the ruins, carefully picking their way over broken stone and brick. Ladybug was at Chat Noir's side immediately, and they lagged behind the group as they headed back.

"I thought it was going to work there," Chat Noir said quietly as their fingers laced together. "I really, really did. The light changed. And then it just...didn't."

"At least we're on the right track," Ladybug offered, unsure of what else she could say. "We got a reaction, even if it ended up dropping off. That's better than it, like, just not reacting at all and just being a blob of light, right?"

Chat Noir nodded and detransformed. Plagg swirled out of the ring to perch on Adrien's shoulder. The kwami looked startled, glancing around. His eyes settled on the light and he visibly drooped, snuggling up to Adrien's neck in his own form of comfort.

"We're going to try again after lunch," Ladybug, releasing her own transformation. "There were probably some pronunciation problems. We should have been spending more of our evenings practicing, apparently."

"But you've had it down perfectly these past few days!" Tikki objected. "I mean, you've got a moderately strong accent when you say things, but it's clear enough that it should work with the magic."

"We're guessing that the problem is probably Nino, Alya, and Chloe," Adrien chimed in. He was slowly recovering from the disappointment of not having their first attempt work. "They weren't quite as dedicated as Marinette about learning the spell. Alya and Nino just need to work on pronunciation. Chloe..."

"She remembered the spell pretty quickly," Marinette said. "Really quickly. The basics of it, at least. But her accent is worse than mine, and pronunciation..."

"It's harder for her to memorize exact pronunciations and words in a foreign language than it is to memorize just enough to skate by in classes at school, which she should have known." Adrien neither looked nor sounded pleased. "I would have thought that she would have put in at least a little effort beforehand."

Marinette reached out for him, her fingers curling around his arm. She didn't blame him for his frustration- none of them could believe it at first when Chloe mentioned that she hadn't even started trying to learn the spell that would release Mrs. Agreste- but it wouldn't help anything for him to get frustrated and take it out on Chloe now. They needed to stay calm, breathe, and try to help the others learn their pronunciation and remember it for at least as long as it took to get the spell to work.

"Hopefully we can get them all ready by the end of lunch," Marinette said, pulling Adrien closer. "Then we can try again. And we do have the Rat to help coach people."

Adrien nodded, and then the two of them sped up to re-join the group. Master Fu had leftovers from their dinner re-heating on the stove, and Mrs. Change was listening to Alya's recitation of the spell while Nino listened. To the side, the Rat was listening to Chloe. In the few seconds since they arrived, both had received a pronunciation correction.

"Hoo boy," Adrien muttered as they went to join Master Fu. "Okay, we definitely should have spent our rainy days getting drilled on that rather than playing games all day. And back when we were doing normal hiking, we could have been memorizing, too."

"They're all close," Master Fu told them as he handed them the water jugs to fill. "Very close. We should have just done a run-through a few times right before heading to the temple, and that probably would have eliminated the problem."

Adrien just nodded.

They practiced all through lunch, going over the same words over and over until everyone had the proper pronunciation absolutely memorized. Then the kwamis got re-charged and they headed back across the field, still muttering the spell under their breaths.

Ladybug hoped that it would work this time. It had to.

"Keep your focus, guys." Jade Turtle called. "Ready? Three, two, one-"

The pillar of light gleamed and grew stronger, getting less translucent. It condensed to the height of a human, and then started narrowing. It had just started to look human-shaped when it dimmed again, going back to the loose swirling mass.

"Let's try again," Jade Turtle suggested as soon as they had finished and nothing had changed. "Focus and make sure that you're saying everything right. I know we can do it. Again."

The same thing happened. Chat Noir's expression had turned worried again.

"Let's break again and do a bit more practice," Master Fu proposed. "Surely someone is tripping up somewhere."

Chat Noir frowned as they all stepped away again. "Again. This is going to take forever."

"It might just be one person at this point," Ladybug pointed out. "Which could be easy to fix."

"Or it could be the wrong spell and it won't work at all."

Ladybug hoisted herself up on top of a broken wall, detransforming and pulling Chat Noir against her so that his head was tucked under her chin. "Tikki, you can understand the spell, right? Does it sound like the wrong spell?"

Tikki shook her head. "No! No, it doesn't. It definitely mentions release from a trap. It sounds right, and obviously it's working to some point."

Chat Noir sighed, settling into her arms. "That's true. There must just be an error, then. You're right."

"We'll get it, kitty."

Jade Turtle came up to them then. "The others are all getting the spell right. If you two could run through it really quickly, just to check..."

Marinette went first, followed by Chat Noir. Jade Turtle's frown grew deeper.

"Well, we're all pronouncing things correctly," he said, frowning. "We got that fixed, at least. We'll try it one more time. If that doesn't work, I'll revisit the spell and see where I've gone wrong. I'll keep an eye on when we lose the spell and pay particular attention to the translation there."

Marinette transformed again and one more time, they formed their circle. Chat Noir was looking properly nervous now, but he let out a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and lifted his chin. His eyes went to Jade Turtle, awaiting the signal.

Ladybug couldn't be prouder of him. Shoe couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it must be for Adrien to stay composed and focused through their failures. She was having a hard enough time with staying focused and not letting her mind wander to worries of what if it doesn't work, and it wasn't even her mom that they were rescuing.

The group started again, frowns on all of their faces. The light grew, then died back again, just like it had before. Chat Noir pulled his eyes away from it as soon as their recitation was finished, a pained expression on his face. Ladybug was at his side immediately, wrapping him up in a hug.

"Master Fu still has to look at the spell again," she reminded him, feeling the way he leaned into her, limp and miserable. "There might be something translated wrong, or maybe there's some hand motions to go along with the spell that we don't know about. We'll figure it out, kitty cat. No matter what, we are not giving up."

  Their group had headed back to the campsite in silence, occasionally glancing back at Chat Noir as they went. Once they were back, the kwamis were released in a multicolored flash of light, and then both kwamis and wielders settled down in their little cove. Master Fu headed into his tent to pull out the Miraculous book and settled down a short distance away to double-check his work.

After glancing at Adrien, Alya pulled her things out of her and Marinette's tent and brought them over to Nino's tent, waving Adrien over so he could join his girlfriend. Adrien managed a smile at her and carried his things over to Marinette's tent, crawling in immediately and setting up right next to Marinette's sleeping bag instead of on the other side of the tent like Alya had before returning to Marinette's side.

"I can't even imagine what he must be going through right now," Nino murmured in her ear as they watched Adrien. His knees were drawn up to his chest and his chin was perched on his folded arms as he stared a bit blankly at the fire that the Rat was setting up. "We've come so far, and now the spell isn't working right." He sat up straight all of a sudden. "You don't think we need all of the Miraculous active, do you? I don't know if we'd be able to find holders for them all."

Alya worried her lip. "I don't know. That seems like a really big thing to miss. But if that's the problem, then at least we would know where to go from here." She glanced over at Adrien. "But I don't know how we would be able to get away with another trip like this. It's not like it's a weekend camping trip. I had such a hard time getting my parents to agree to this, when we had no idea when the end date would be. They weren't expecting me to be gone this long, either, which is going to make it difficult if we have to go again."

Nino snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "But we know where to go, now. Maybe we could hire a 'copter- when I say we, I mean Chloe, or Nathalie once that money is cleared- and just fly out and back. Then we could say we're on a weeklong camping trip and get away with it."

"We'd have to find people with passports to be holders, though. Either that, or find people here." Alya glanced over at Master Fu again. He was immersed in his notes, brow furrowed as he checked his translation against the copy of the original text. Over on the side of the camp, Adrien was still in the same position as before, but Marinette had returned to her spot at his side. Her arms were around him and her head against his shoulder as she whispered to him. Tikki and Wayzz were there as well, clearly trying to cheer Adrien up a bit. Wayzz didn't stick along for long, though, before flitting off to re-join Master Fu and the Rat in bending over the notes in search for something that they might have missed.

"Hopefully Master Fu figures out what went wrong soon," Alya commented quietly. "So we can at least know that something wasn't right, and that was why it wasn't working, instead of just...this."

They kept sitting. Nino once opened his mouth to suggest they maybe play a game, but then caught sight of Adrien again and thought better of it. Then Sabine got up to start preparing dinner and he hopped on the opportunity to get up and help. Anything was better than sitting around and moping until they figured out what had gone wrong.

Mrs. Cheng was distracted as she directed Nino, glancing over to Adrien frequently. Nino winced as he watched, hoping that she wouldn't accidentally cut herself while working. When he saw an opportunity to take over, he took it.

"I can chop those, Mrs. Cheng," Nino said, snagging the cutting board from her. "Then you can get the, uh, rice started. Or whatever it is that we're having with this."

"Is this a ploy to get me away from the knife?" Mrs. Cheng asked with a small laugh, seeing right through him. She handed it over to him regardless. "That might be a good idea, I will admit."

Nino managed a small smile as he took the knife and started cutting. "Yeah, I can tell that you're a bit distracted."

"I so hoped that we could get the spell to work today," Mrs. Cheng told him by way of explanation. "Just to get that part of the trip over with. Hopefully we can figure out where we went wrong and try again tomorrow."

Nino nodded, slowly and carefully making his way through the vegetable cutting. "Yeah. Having to have an entire day of waiting would stink."

"It really would. And can you cut those a bit finer, please? It's so difficult to get everything to cook through in such a large pot when the pieces are big."

"On it, Mrs. Cheng!"

Even with Nino's super-careful fine chopping, dinner didn't take nearly long enough to make. He brought two bowls over to Master Fu and Tsomo, who hadn't made any move to leave their work at all, then got in the end of the line to serve himself up last.

"Do you know where our food is stored, Nino?" Duusu asked politely, appearing at his side. "We- the kwamis, I mean- are hungry, too."

"Of course, dude!" Nino leapt and the chance to stay busy. Setting his bowl aside, he dug in the big backpack with all of their food and supplies. "Okay! Uh, dried figs for Trixx, sugar cubes for Tikki, a chunk of cheese for Plagg-"

"Can I have two?"

"No, we don't want to run out. I can throw in a couple dried mushrooms, though."

Plagg made a face and snatched up his cheese. "Nah, I'll hunt for fresh ones. We have the time."

"Okay. Wayzz, some dried pea pods for you-"

"Thank you!"

"Honey for Pollen- how much do you get?"

Pollen whizzed up to him, a grin on her little face. "An entire bottle!"

Nino laughed. "You do not. Chloe, how much does Pollen get?"

Chloe glanced over. "Just use that little cup that's in the kwami food bag. That's what it's for."

Nino dug, and it didn't take long for him to find the measuring cup. "Got it! Thanks, Chloe."

Chloe just gave one sharp nod and turned back to her food.

It didn't take long for the last two kwamis to get fed, and then Nino could finally finish dishing up his own food. He sat down between Alya and Marinette, shoveling a generous forkful of food in his mouth. Across their little circle, Adrien was nervously picking at his food, but at least he did seem to be eating some.

Gah. Nino understood the tension in the group, but it was going to give him indigestion. And indigestion was not something that he wanted to deal with in the wilds, not when their options for a bathroom were behind a tree and in a destroyed ruin of an ancient bathroom.

Maybe he shouldn't complain. Normally they only had one option, aka behind a tree. Or a rock. Or a bush. But Nino couldn't deny that there was also something deeply unsettling about using the bathroom in an outhouse that had half a wall blown out and the roof completely gone, particularly when the view out of the blown-out wall overlooked the new graveyard and part of a destroyed temple.

Dinner finished, and Alya and Chloe dove in to volunteer to package up the leftovers and clean up the dishes. Nino raised a brow at Chloe's sudden enthusiasm for cleaning, but he guessed that she wanted to try to avoid the uneasy tension as much as he had earlier. He had just started trying to figure out what he could do as an excuse to get away from the campsite when there was a shout from the far side of the site. They all jumped and turned to see a triumphant-looking Master Fu sitting there, beaming.

"I have found it!" Master Fu announced, sitting straight up and grinning at them. Next to him, Tsomo was looking pleased. "With Tsomo's help, I have discovered why the spell didn't work! There was a simple mistake in my translation."

[nefariouscryptid]

Hm, so I have tons of other questions about Tariq, but instead of spamming, how about me requesting the "character polishing" prompt with him? As much of it as is established at least. Man, I'm lazy haha!

Once again only doing 25 cause it would kill me to do 50 hahah

1. How does your character think of their father? What do they hate and love about him? What influence - literal or imagined - did the father have?

As a young kid he didnt know what he father did, so he thought the world of him. Then, when he died, he found out everything. His father and mother worked for SLATE and he was appalled. Every ounce of admiration and love went down the drain. As he got older he learned to separate his father as being his father and from the man he was. He still loves his dad and understands that in his head he was doing what he had to do to help his family, but his image of him is still forever tainted. The influence he had on Tariq was him being a family man and acting as a protector and the whole “family is everything” mindset.

2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have?

The same applies for his mom. Loved her, then despised her, then sorta loved her again. However it became apparent as he’d look back on his life and realized his mom never seemed happy when coming back from work. He doesn’t know why for sure but he knows that there was always regret in her eyes. He learned to pity her.

3. Brothers, sisters? Who do they like? Why? What do they despise about their siblings?

He has his sister Aisha, who he is very close with. She’s like a best friend to him. Of course they don’t agree on everything and she was actually against him joining Morgan at first because of how dangerous it was, but soon joined herself. The problem they often have is that Aisha acts like she’s older then Tariq by 10 years and treats him as such. So like he’s incapable of making his own decisions. That causes some problems but mostly they get along very well. He loves her dark sense of humor and how outgoing and fun she is to be around. Hates how she can be condescending even without meaning to.

4. What type of discipline was your character subjected to at home? Strict? Lenient?

It was strict, because after joining SLATE they went from being extremely poor to very wealthy. Because of that they were often made to take every opportunity they had and to constantly be the best they could. Their parents weren’t mean to them but they often pushed them to their limits way too much.

5. Were they overprotected as a child? Sheltered?

Overprotected because their parents now knew what horrible things could happen to their kids. They didn’t know WHAT to protect them from so it ended up being over things that were harmless.

6. Did they feel rejection or affection as a child?

Affection, even if they were being punished or at the most feeling like they were wasting their privileges they were still very cared for.

7. What was the economic status of their family?

From 0-8 very poor, probably 20k a year. After they were at at least 600k a year.

8. How does your character feel about religion?

He’s Muslim, and while he’s not a die hard Muslim he still prays and participates in holidays if he can. He thinks religion is wonderful when you’re not abusing it to your power.

9. What about political beliefs?

Anticiv and believes in a lot of ideologies from anprimitivism

10. Is your character street-smart, book-smart, intelligent, intellectual, slow-witted?

He’s very book smart, great at math like physics, and he’s street smart as well. It takes him a while to learn things, but he’s very intelligent. He just has a hard time remembering stuff

11. How do they see themselves: as smart, as intelligent, uneducated?

He sees himself as smart but not as smart as everyone makes him out to be. He tries to humble himself, even though he should just embrace he’s a math wiz lol

12. How does their education and intelligence – or lack thereof - reflect in their speech pattern, vocabulary, and pronunciations?

Fluent in both English and Farsi, and in both he speaks using little slang. I don’t know how to describe it he just talks like a normal guy. However some Farsi pronounciations bleed into when he speaks English

13. Did they like school? Teachers? Schoolmates?

He doesn’t have an education past sophomore year of highschool but up until then he really liked it. He got along with everyone really well and had good grades.

14. Were they involved at school? Sports? Clubs? Debate? Were they unconnected

Nope, didn’t do any of those stuff. He hung out with his friends mostly haha.

15. Did they graduate? High-School? College? Do they have a PHD? A GED?

Didn’t graduate, parents died before he could. And with the stage of the world it made it impossible to get a GED.

16. What does your character do for a living? How do they see their profession? What do they like about it? Dislike?

Before he worked as a car mechanic, then he quit his job and joined Morgan’s squat. He liked his job but he hated the demand and just the whole premis of having to buy a house, pay rent, taxes ect.

17. Did they travel? Where? Why? When?

Traveled a lot via train and hitch hiking in America (no longer America cause of Frikoski). Had to get around for planning and plus it’s fun being on the move.

18. What did they find abroad, and what did they remember?

Found a lot of crazy shit, and he was one of the first to witness some hanging gardens at their newer state. He remembers or of people he met.

19. What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now?

He just hated the state of the world, he he hated how much money controlled everyone and that money was deemed as a privilege. It fueled him to join something that would put an end to it. He’s now an avid figure in the revolution

20. What were the most deeply impressive political or social, national or international, events that they experienced?

Revolution

21. What are your character’s manners like? What is their type of hero? Whom do they hate?

He’s fairly polite, not overly but he’s not rude either. He likes hero’s that fight for the good of all people. Hates hero’s that fight to fill some void in themselves

22. Who are their friends? Lovers? ‘Type’ or ‘ideal’ partner?

His friends are Morgan, Brenda, Aisha obviously, and he’s dating Leslie at some point. He likes people that are just outgoing, easy to get along with, good views, and opinionated

23. What do they want from a partner? What do they think and feel of sex?

Same thing everyone else does, love, not too clingy but emotionally available, and someone that’s like him but not completely like him. He likes sex a lot, not obsessed but he likes it

24. What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually?

He attends obv riots, meetings with Morgan and the squat and more international meetings, he also along with Jackie gets intel with people. He’s like a mentor in that department for her so he takes being the leader. Most of the time he doesn’t care though

25. What are their hobbies and interests?

He loves playing acoustic guitar, harmonica, banjo, and banging on a tub

[neon-ufo]

The Lyrics Hero: CANTOMANCER

Real name: Kashi Utau

Quirk: Lyrics

Uses song lyrics to make things happen - this can summon objects, give him additional powers, effect his surroundings or even manipulate people. The elements he summons are active and real as long as he's singing that particular song.

Even a minor mistake in lyrics completely cancels out his power. The strength and function of the quirk greatly depend on him being able to hit the right notes as he sings.The amount of emotion with which he sings also effects the power level.

                                         Patreon  ★   Commissions

[Personality, backstory, trivia & more under the cut]

Personality: Kashi generally comes across as aloof and a bit pretentious, but rarely refuses a conversation and is very relaxed when interacting with others.

However, he is very stubborn and has a hard time settling on a compromise. He is quick to anger when it comes to disagreements, as his pride won't allow him to back down, however he doesn't get aggressive as much as he gets incredibly condescending.

He is an extremely intelligent person and is very willing to help out his classmates with school work. He tends to show great generosity from time to time, as well as active loyalty. Despite being of a fairly short stature and not even remotely the strongest kid in class, he will often be the first to stand up for his own, feeling a great deal of honour and alliance - as long as he gets to be the leader. The more admiration he gets, the more loyal he is in return.

Being a class rep, he feels great responsibility to his classmates and shows genuine care, but it's mixed a lot with his bossy attitude. If he sees a classmate in distress he will generally see if it's in his power to help them. While his snobby attitude annoys many classmates, they also can't help not to at least a little admire him and all his achievements.

Kashi loves attention and he gets a lot of it from girls, because not only is his quirk gorgeous but also he's a good looking boy, polite and high class. Despite being charming and occasionally responding by flirting, which pinned him as somewhat of a womanizer, he doesn't hold any actual interest in starting a romantic relationship, as he finds the idea of having to adapt to other people in his own home entirely unattractive.

History: His father is a pro hero who places among the top 10, while his mother is successful in some other profession. Kashi shares his quirk with his mother, but she never polished it and feels somewhat ashamed for it, so she projected her insecurity on Kashi and had him polish it as much as possible and as soon as possible, in order that he wouldn't 'waste' the quirk as much as she did. On one hand, Kashi is glad that he learned to control his quirk so well, but on the other hand he hates the fact that the reason for his training was someone else's insecurity. His mother pushed him hard so that she could feel better about herself, and forced him to grow up into her perfect idea of a son, leaving him little free spirit or free choice, which is why he adapted a more rebellious persona later on, wanting to pave his own path.

His father's quirk is not very physical either, meaning he had to build up his skills as wekk, which gave him connections to some amazing martial artists who trained Kashi from an early age. He also has a very villainous-type quirk, but is a very jovial person and spends a lot of his home time with Kashi (he knows that his mom stresses him out and 'steals' him away), so Kashi learned from early age that scary quirk does not a scary person make. Knowing his dad made Kashi very accepting and understanding of people with 'villainous' quirks.

He was homeschooled and raised in a very proper manner, provided with best education to boost the effectiveness of his quirk. The exceptional preparation he was given before entering UA has made him a bit of a stuck up person at first, but like many of his mindset, he was quickly put in his place and shown that he has a ways to go before he can call himself a pro.

While his first impression made some students a bit wary, the relationships he had with his class quickly turned normal and casual.

Despite his rather traditional upbringing, everything about Kashi screams 'rebel' to his parents, and while he has great respect for his roots, he is also extremely determined to create his own path and succeed in his own way and on his own terms. This tenacity served him well as an additional boost, as it was somewhat hard for him to compete with many other students with more physical quirks. He's very proud and wants people to remember his name, which led him to studying and memorising bigger and greater songs that showcase both his vocal range and the variety and adaptability of his quirk.

Fighting style:

Due to the nature of his quirk, Kashi had to build up where it couldn't protect him. He has excellent martial arts skills that he uses for both assault and defence.

He can even enhance his physical abilities if he sings a fitting song - for a limited time he could have incredible strength or fire powers if he could find and memorise the song lyrics that could give it to him.

If it's possible at all, he tries to stay away from physical combat and sing to fight his enemies with his quirk only, however it would usually take another hero or two to give him a good cover so that he doesn't get interrupted. Sadly he can't use this quirk alone and expect to stay unnoticed, due to obvious reasons.

His regular approach to battle is by starting to sing from a far enough distance to be able to strike at least a few times before his opponent got to him, and then proceeding to either fight them off or run to a different place to get more time and sing more attacks.

He prefers using English songs for his attacks, at it gives him an advantage over his opponents due to the element of surprise - if they don't know what he's singing, they don't know what to expect.

Quirk weaknesses:

Does not have limitless voice. His voice can grow weak the more he uses it, and a raspy voice makes his attacks much weaker.

A short lapse of memory when it comes to lyrics can be deadly if it happens in a bad situation.

If the lyrics aren't exactly right, he's just wasting time.

Often he has to decide between skipping ahead to a certain verse or singing the entire song - the former allows him to use the power he needs faster, but shortens the song, while the latter takes longer for him to reach the desired power, but he can utilise other lyrics that occurs up until that point.

Getting physically exhausted makes him a very bad singer, meaning he has to balance his quirk and his fighting carefully.

Outfit info: His outfit was one of the few things that Kashi got to create all on his own, without his mother's input. He designed it in secret and didn't show it to her for approval before sending it in. He designed a very fun, upbeat costume which might speak a lot about his inner nature, which was greatly oppressed by his strict upbringing.

Because his quirk doesn't work well with stealth at all, he decided to don vivid colours for the hell of it.

He has music players on both his arms, just in case one gets broken. He has a playlist of his favourite combat songs on it.

The players are connected through the sleeves to the speakers by his neck, so that he can hear music to make it easier for him to keep a proper melody, while not having headphones that might slow his reaction time

He wears thick skin-tight black shirt and pants below the vest and shorts for some extra protection, it doesn't rip easily.

(Not shown on pictures) He has an earpiece that allows him to listen to his own voice clearer as he sings, which helps him hit the right notes.

Trivia:

Unsurprisingly, Kashi is an excellent singer. He can sing tenor, bass and everything in between.

He's fluent in English and French, which helps him with pronunciation of foreign lyrics and gives him a bigger arsenal of songs to choose from. He hardly ever uses Japanese songs in combat, as he prefers using songs that his opponents won't understand.

Hitting puberty has greatly sent back his quirk progress, as his voice broke and dropped, putting him on unknown grounds.

He's very careful not to eat or drink things that could hurt his throat. He avoids cold foods and drinks, and very spicy foods.

His casual attire is generally punk in nature.

He wears a surgeon mask in public so that he doesn't catch other people's germs

He spends a lot of time on music-related forums, looking for new songs to add to his arsenal

He kind of likes it when people have assumptions about him or underestimate him, as it allows him to blow their mind. (People often assume he can't sing as well as he claims, that he can't hit certain tunes or notes, etc)

While he loves punk rock (because it's easy for him to sing) he doesn't actually have a musical preference. He claims he can't afford limiting himself within a genre he just listens to everything.

He often switches up his battle playlist in order to remain unpredictable.

He usually chews mint gum, which stimulates his vocal chords.

Kashi loves musicals (animated as well) because they always have themed and catchy songs that he can quickly recall if he's in a bind. (He is a fan of Disney and Broadway)

Being raised rich and sheltered, he never had friends until he got into UA. He's extremely excited about finally having friends but tries to play it cool.