#hes always had that tendency to put people ahead of himself

[casualavocados]

[okay 90% of this was written by @grapejuicegay we're just having A Time:]

mes was supposed to represent the good akk did. but akk was already failing at it by the time we met him. there's the scene in ep3 pt3 where wat, kan, and akk had a conversation on the stairs at night and talked about how akk could consider quitting as head of the prefect club if the pressure was too much - because people don't respect their authority as much anymore as they did during mes's time as the head prefect.

but akk sees it as a failure on his part - that HE'S the one who can't keep people in check, that HE'S not good enough. He even says that the struggle & challenge is a good thing, that if they (he) can get through it, it'll be "cool" (it'll mean that he's good enough).

so he's already decided that he's not a good person because he can't do good with this position and therefore he doesn't deserve good things - he deserves the pressure

but then ayan comes in and suddenly his world view shifts

but in this new perspective, he's STILL failed because he's been the bully, he's the one hurting people so no matter how he looks at it he's a bad person and he doesn't deserve good things. even if he still believed he was in the right this would be what he said, because in his eyes he's always failing.

but ayan is just there like i don't care i like you you're my boyfriend now

...so there must be SOMEthing good about him, right? because good things are happening to him?

AS FOR MES. imagine HIS position. he's not just telling akk all of this, this is how he grew up too, he's internalised all of this as well.  and suddenly he leaves suppalo and the world just doesn't work like that? it's not that black and white? and even if it was, what good has he done? his validation was coming from the school and from chadok. with neither around who is there to validate him? and what is he without that validation? no wonder he had a breakdown

which is also why it's so important to me that ayan's response was literally just i don't care. he does know all the bad things akk's done. and he knows all the good about him too. and yet there's no telling akk he's a good person - because that's all still outside validation.

akk is just loved because he is. he doesn't have to prove that to earn it. he just IS.

& that matches all the ways ayan tells akk he likes him. "i like being with you. i like it when you smile widely. i like seeing you with your parents." akk doesn't have to prove anything. just by being, he's enough.

[ccsainzleclerc5516]

His Lucky Charm

Pairing: Charles Leclerc x reader

Warnings: smut, cheating

After a whole day of running errands around town, you finally had an evening to yourself. You've decided that this will be a relaxing Friday night where you'll do nothing but take a bath, wash your hair and read a book in bed to recharge your batteries.

You even told your boyfriend Miles that you needed an evening to yourself and that you would make it up to him tomorrow for skipping dinner tonight.

After a long and relaxing much-needed bath, you put on your short pajama set and started combing your wet hair. Your attention was distracted by your phone vibrating on the washing machine. You took a look at the screen only to see Charles' messages popping up.

Are you home?

I need to see you

You didn't even get to answer the message when you heard a knock on your door. You paused for a moment before heading for the door. As you walked, you looked at the time at your phone, which was already showing 11 p.m. and you knew that you definitely weren't expecting anyone else, well, except Charles apparently.

You looked through the peephole and there he was looking straight at you as if he knew you were looking.

"Charles?" You said opening the door. He was standing there with his elbows resting on the door frame and leaning inward. "What are you doing here?"

You couldn't help but get worried about him. You texted him right after the Silverstone fiasco, but he never responded. You knew he was going through it so you decided to give him some time planning to check on him when he was ready to talk about it. But he got ahead of you and came to you instead.

Charles and you have been best friends for a long time now. Best friends who were always there for each other, who always ran to each other when things got tough and, well, best friends who had sex now and then.

There was always something more than just friendship between you. Immense sexual attraction and tension that you happily enjoyed from time to time. Even when you were in a relationship with other people, it was normal and natural for you two to hook up on a weekend off. Even though it was wrong, you didn't even count it as "cheating" because it was the two of you.

But since you found a new boyfriend, Miles, things have changed a bit between the two of you. Since you've been with Miles, not once has Charles ended up in your bed. He noticed that you stopped giving him attention that he was used to so he started behaving differently towards you. He didn't like that he couldn't have you like before. He also didn't like the fact that you stopped coming to the races to support him. And what he hated most of all was that you really seemed to like that Miles guy.

"I needed to see you. Can I come in?" He pleaded with his green eyes piercing right into your soul.

"You know, you should announce yourself before you come, especially at such a late hour. Miles could've been here." You said stepping aside for him to come in.

"I texted you, didn't I?"

"Umm, yeah 30 seconds before you knocked at my door?" You rolled your eyes following him into the living room. He said nothing but threw himself onto your couch and sighed. He didn't even need to say anything to let you know he wasn't feeling himself and you felt bad for him so you asked "Do you want to talk about it? I texted you right after the race, but you never responded. I figured you needed some time for yourself."

"There's not much to talk about. Every fucking weekend for me is the weekend to forget, I'm getting sick and tired of it." He said running his fingers through his hair.

"I know the last few races weren't the result you were hoping for, but that doesn't make you a bad driver. Don't be too hard on yourself, please" You tried to comfort him placing your hand over his knee and squeezing it.

You hated to see him like this and you worried for him knowing that he had a tendency to blame himself for everything that went wrong. Every time when he’s had a bad race you were the one he came to and you managed to calm him down. But since you've been with Miles, Charles has had a lot more bad weekends, and this is the first time he's come to you for comfort.

"No, it's been too many races now. There is always something else at stake, there is a new problem every time, I don't know..I just..I can't-" His voice cracked and you didn't hesitate for a second to sit next to him and pull him into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Charles" You rubbed his back as he kept his face buried into the crook of your neck tightening his grip around you.

"I'm so tired, y/n" He whispered letting out a deep breath.

"I know you are, but you need to keep pushing forwards. There's just simply no other choice. Giving up is not an option." You put your hand over his cheek to make him look at you. "You get up every day and try again. All the effort and pain will pay off one day, I promise. You know you're one of the best at what you do. The best for me if that means anything to you." You gently caressed his cheek with your thumb and he smiled at your last sentence taking your hand in his and bringing it over to his mouth to kiss it.

"You know what I noticed?"

"What?"

"The last time I won a race, you were there. Ever since you stopped coming my performance has dropped" He said now putting his hand on your cheek and slowly pulling your face closer to his. "Makes me think you were my lucky charm" Your heart trembled as he closed the space between your lips pressing them together.

Even though you kissed back and as much as you were glad to hear him say that, you broke the kiss pulling back and slightly pushing him away from you. "Charles..we can't..I can't"

"Y/n, please..." He took your hand pulling you back to him again. "I need you to fix me"

You got nervous because you knew where this was going so you got up and headed towards the kitchen which was connected to the living room.

You felt like you had to run because you knew Charles was your weakness which you could easily give in to, and you didn't want to do to Miles what you did to other guys with Charles. Miles was good to you and genuinely cared about you and for the first time in your life you felt guilty.

But there was no point in you running away from him because seconds later Charles was behind you with his hands on your waist pressing his chest against your back.

"I miss you, chérie" He said quietly leaning down and pressing a kiss to your bare shoulder. "I need you to make everything better again" He continued moving your still wet hair to the side so he can have access to your neck. Once his lips found your neck, you threw your head back against his chest.

"Charles, we can't do this anymore.." You struggled to resist.

"Why not? It's not like we haven't done it before."

"I-it's different this time. I-I really like him." You almost felt guilty saying it in front of him, but that did nothing to stop him.

"C'mon, it's us. I need you so bad, y/n. Nobody does it like we do." He said nibbling the skin on your neck while his hands slowly slid under your t-shirt. You moaned as he grabbed your breasts running his fingertips over your nipples and grinded his already hard crotch against your ass.

You surprised yourself once again by seeing how easily he could have you whenever he wanted. You weren't proud of that, especially not now when you thought you didn't want the same thing he did. But that's just what you thought at least.

So when he whispered into your ear “C’mon, baby, make me cum” you were quick to turn around and vigorously pull his head down to kiss him.

"And what are you going to do for me, Charles? Hm?" Your fingers worked fast unbottoning his pants, pulling them down and letting them fall to the ground.

"Gonna make you cum so hard you're gonna forget all about that Miles guy."

Niether of you needed any kind on warming up. You were always so ready for each other. Your slit was dripping by his words only and his tip teasing your entrance was already covered in precum.

He pushed himself inside you with ease both of you letting out deep groans in desperation to feel more. As soon as he slid in and felt your warm walls hug him his pace quickened breathlessly thrusting into you.

Your knuckles on one of your hands turned white from how tightly you held onto the edge of the kitchen counter while your other arm was wrapped around Charles’ neck.

His eyes rolled at the sight of his cock disappearing into your pussy that was now making loud wet noises that always drove Charles crazy. He kissed you passionately bringing his hand from your hip to your cheek then down to your neck firmly gripping it making your throw your head back.

“Fuck, Charles” You panted.

“Like that, baby? Does it feel good?” He asked tightening his grip around your neck.

“Yeah, fuck, just like that.” You gasped struggling to breath now.

“I bet he can’t fuck you like this, hm?” Miles was anything but on your mind right now, but all Charles wanted to hear was that no one could make you feel the way he could. “Do you let him cum inside you?”

“Charles..”

“Answer me.” He was kind of scared to find out because he didn’t want anyone to have that privilege but him. It was his way of claiming you as his.

“No, ah-“ You cried out tightening around his cock making him curse under his breath.

“You gonna cum?” He asked looking down at you and connecting your lips after you nodded yes. “Me too, baby. Fuck, I’m gonna fill you up so good, fuuck”

A couple of more thrusts and your orgasms washed over both of you leaving you panting and moaning into each others mouth. His knees buckled and his head fell against your shoulder burying his neck into your neck as he filled you up to the brim.

When your breathing calmed down, Charles took your face between his hands and began to kiss you unusually tenderly. Once he regained strength in his legs he pulled his cock out of you hissing at the sight of his cum dripping out of you. He pulled you to him and wrapped your legs around his waist lifting you up from the counter and leading you to your room.

He gently put you down on the bed hovering over you and continuing with the tender small kisses all over your body. That was unusual for him because normally after you'd fucked he'd kiss you once or twice and you'd both fall asleep right away and in the morning you'd pretend like nothing happened the night before.

“Charles, what are you doing?” You asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” He asked laying next to you and pulling you against his body so he was facing your back as his arms hugged you tightly.

“We usually don’t do this..” You pointed out.

“Do you not like it?” He asked insecurity clear in his voice.

“No, I mean, I do like it, but it’s just not something that we do you know..”

He sighed gathering the courage to tell you what he was about to and what has been bothering him for quite some time now. “I’ve made so many mistakes in my life can’t even count them.” He paused. “One of them is not making you mine a long time ago and letting other guys have you.”

You didn't expect this confession from him and to be honest, you didn't even know how to respond to what he just told you. Some kind of inexplicable feeling appeared in your stomach that you have never felt before so you turned around to face him looking straight into his eyes with parted lips.

“Everything’s easier with you by my side” He said quietly and you were still speechless. It's not like you never thought about Charles, about you, in that kind of way, it’s just that you never wanted to initiate first and you never thought he saw as anything other than his best friend who he fucks here and there. “I hope I didn't realize that too late”

“Charles, I don’t know what to say.. I’m honestly too scared to try anything with you.”

“Do you not trust me?” He asked a little hurt by the choice of your words.

“I don’t trust us, Charles. We secretly hurt other people by doing this and I just don’t want us to hurt each other the same way. And most of all I don't want to lose you. You mean too much to me”

Even through the half-dark room, you could see that his eyes became glossy as he bit the inside of his cheek, holding back.

“When it comes to us, there would be no other people on the side, y/n. I swear, I’d never hurt you like that.” He took the palm of your hand and brought it up to his lips leaving a soft kiss over it. “Give us a chance, baby, please” He half whispered sounding almost desperate.

You kissed him calming his inner turmoil for a second. “Why does this feel so frightening? I don’t even know how to start this?” You said pulling back.

“Let’s start by not seeing other people anymore, yeah?” He said tucking the hair behind your ear as he raised himself on his elbows to be above you.

“Yeah, okay” You whispered.

“And let me start by making love to you, the way you deserve it.” He said between kisses. “To show you how much I love you, how much I always have.”

[our-happygirl500-fan]

A bit ago I made a post bringing up that Leo has been prone to self sacrifice even before the movie & that the movie is just the first time Leo’s self sacrificial nature wasn’t played for laughs 

Leo: Wait! I’m the one who cheated, I created the portal to save my brothers punish me

Leo: Flush me and let my family go!

And on the post I made previously a lot of people brought up that Donnie actually references Leo’s tendency for self sacrifice in the episode Snow Day 

Donnie: Too fast! Leo sacrifice yourself to buy us time!

In Rise Donnie has been know to break the fourth wall every now & then so this could be a reference to the self sacrificial nature that all versions of Leo share

Donnie: Well Leo since you sell the fewest action figures, why don’t you go ahead and jump first?

Donnie: Wow one season later and I still got full battery nice

But Donnie making a joke about Leo sacrificing himself could also mean that he’s noticed that Leo is willing to put himself in danger for family but since it’s mostly been played for laughs, he also treats it like a joke.

So I kind of wonder what was going through Donnie’s head when Leo sacrificing himself stopped being played as a joke, do you think he felt guilty over the fact that he noticed the fact that Leo had always been willing to sacrifice himself for family & that he had done nothing to stop Leo from always trying to sacrifice himself? 

Do you think he felt guilty over the fact that he had even unwittingly encouraged it?

[cheezeybread]

Based off of the headcanon that @thecoolsquirrel made about Yuu losing their memory of their homeworld the longer they're in Twisted Wonderland!

Link to the OG post here!

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"Oh, yeah, didn't your friend Ṡ̷̢̫̞̻͈͋͛̓̅͜͜͜͠͠͠a҉͖̟̜̞̂̃̑̽͢͢͠͡r҉̵҉̛̠̩̥̋ͦ̆͆͟͞͡͞͠a҉͖̟̜̞̂̃̑̽͢͢͠͡h̷̶̘̘̬ͭ̏͞͡ do something like that once?" Ace chuckled, looking over to you.

You glanced over to him after taking a massive chunk out of your sandwich- Ace always did have the talent of asking you questions as soon as you had something in your mouth (something that, yes, he joked about quite often). Chewing thoughtfully, you tried to recall what he had said. Something about a friend of yours? But recalling the name made it sound almost...blurry...in your mind. As if there was a heavy static noise playing over it, teasingly dangling it just out of reach. You heard Ace say it out loud, but thinking about it...huh. Nothing but an itch that it was something you were supposed to know.

"Mmm, mmhm," you agreed, mouth still full. Although you couldn't quite remember what he said 100%, it wasn't that big of a deal, right? Ace had a tendency to get ahead of himself while talking, and as a result, slurred words or babbling slang came out instead. Maybe this was one of those times, where he messed up on his wording and just continued talking like normal, leaving your unfocused self to not hear what he had meant to say.

Nonetheless, your muffled agreement was enough to satisfy Ace, and he, Deuce, and Grim carried on their conversation eagerly, discussing everything from Spelldrive tournaments to school gossip- which was their usual brand of conversations at the cafeteria during lunchtime. You propped your elbows up on the table, only slightly bothered by the odd blank in your mind that the unknown word left behind.

----

There were a few more instances of this happening, and every time, you tried to shrug it off. But it got harder and harder to make up excuses for yourself as time went on.

Kalim was asking you about a favorite dish you had mentioned in your world. You couldn't recall the exact name of it, instead feeling that same static-y blank where you knew the name lie. It was stuck in your memory somewhere, no big whoop. You'd remember it later! Getting put on the spot like this was one way to forget anything- like being forced to do Icebreakers in classes.

Jack wanted to know more about the muscle-enhancing drugs that people took back at your home world, especially the people that overdid it. He was curious to know why someone would do such a thing to their bodies for such a temporary satisfaction. Of course, he was inquiring about all of this while he himself was working out, so perhaps it was just a question to validate his own hard work and make him feel better about himself. Either way, when trying to recall a specific instance of a professional football player who took steroids, you couldn't recall the player's name...nor what happened to him, in the end.

While studying plants in the gardening area for extra credit, Jade approached you with a question that had been going through his mind for a while: how did the flora differentiate between the two worlds? Were these plants similar to yours? Did they share characteristics? Or were these entirely different plant species? You just laughed it off, claiming that you were never one to pay attention to plants back at home. You didn't mention that you were lying, of course, that you often went on short walks to pick flowers and climb trees. That you were quite a curious kid long ago who asked questions about anything you could, especially with the plants.

Late at night, when Grim woke up with a nightmare and curled up next to you in bed, asking for you to tell him a story in that pitiful way of his, you scrunched up your eyebrows and closed your eyes in an attempt to think. You couldn't recall any folklore from your home, probably because you were just tired, right? That fizzy feeling in your head was just because you were exhausted from a day of running errands for students and the headmage, alongside mountains of homework, right? The story you told Grim ended up being your own, from the moment you came to Twisted Wonderland, to the overblots and tough trials you and he faced in the time you've spent together.

But it all finally clicked when you were in Crowley's office the week after all of these events. Of course, you were there to deliver important papers from one of the professors, but he had forced you to stay so that he could update you on his progress on getting you home....and so he could give you a list of things he needed done.

"So the Dark Mirror has been of no help whatsoever," he stated, as he did every time he started a conversation about getting you home. The Mirror never was helpful in the least, despite it being the one to drag you here in the first place "I must make a trip to a country inland nearby in the next month or so, and they happen to have an extensive library, full of books dating back to the time of the gods. If there's any knowledge about your world, it shall be there. Now, what information can you give me about your world? Cultures, lands, religions, wars, anything you think might be helpful?" He tilted his head at you as he looked up, his pen hovering above a notepad as he awaited your response.

You shrugged your shoulders, glad to be able to talk about your world, even if it was just to Crowley for research purposes. Despite some students asking you specific questions, not very many seemed to be too keen on you wistfully talking about your world and how homesick you were. How long had it even been since you arrived here? At least seven months, right? Maybe six, but somewhere in that ballpark, for sure. But when you opened your mouth to speak, it clamped shut just as fast.

Trying to think about something, anything, from your world...it only brought up that static-y feeling again.

"Well, there was a world....war....that was fought because, uh...." the facts and dates to the 'world war', which had been drilled into your head since some...some class in middle school, were slipping away as you tried to remember them. Like a trick of light in the corner of your peripheral vision that darted away as soon as you looked directly at it.

"But there was also a-" a what? "religion-" what sort of religion? How many gods? One god? Two gods? Red fish? Blue fish? Wait, what?

Crowley frowned at you, his posture straightening a bit "If it's too difficult for you to think about, you have a month until I leave- or you can simply write it all down instead of saying it out loud."

"No, no, it's not-" You stopped, plopping yourself down in one of the ornate chairs in front of Crowley's desk. Your hand gripped at the gilded armrest, sliding up and down the cool surface. How could you explain to him that yes, you were feeling rough about it all, of course, but it wasn't so painful to think about that you couldn't say anything out loud? How could you tell him that you wanted to talk about your home, but every time you tried to hold a memory, it slipped out of your hands like running water? How could you tell him that-

"I....can't remember."

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[anothertimdrakestan]

Jealous Jason Todd Headcanon

~loooong requested hope you enjoy some brotherly competition~

- jason had no idea he wanted you until dick called "dibs" the first night he met jason's mysterious "friend" and newest bat-recruit

- at first, jason didn't care. like at all. but that never stopped him from being an asshole

- "my brother y/n really? what's there to like? i didn't see you as a musical theatre and dad-joke enjoyer" he'd scoff anytime dick tried to make a move

- that didn't stop richard fucking grayson.

- "hey! y/n! fancy seeing you here!" .. "it's the batcave dick i work here" .. "oh, well are you working all night? maybe we can grab some big belly burger after?" .. "we have patrol together you dork"

- honestly, it was endearing being adored, worshipped even. from handwritten poems, to a little mini batarang necklace, and all the weapons your heart could desire

- and for all his dork-tendencies, dick knew a thing or too about hand placement...

- "put me down richard" .. "you literally fell into my arms" .. "i would've landed on my feet" .. "sure princess, but aren't my arms a little better?" he'd tease, sweeping you bridal style out the back door of the gala you two had just rescued

- it was somewhere in between the gift giving, rooftop dates, and stolen glances that jason realized he might want -slightly, just a tiny bit- more.

- okay; he wanted you all to himself.

- but he's always been shit at explaining it

- where dick was obvious and flirtatious, jason started subtle: always inching closer to you, keeping a longing gaze set on your every move-even if it meant tripping himself up in battles- you noticed he would sooner get shot than let you catch a scrape

- and just like dick's coddling, it got annoying

- "jace i've been on the team for months, i think i can watch out for myself" .. "i know, i protect the people i care about" his response was almost a whisper, and before you could pry further, he disappeared, replaced with a familiar cheesy grin "hi y/n! wanna catch a movie tonight?" .. "uh, one sec dick! i need to check on jace"

- but jason was never anywhere to be found. every time he let you in, he disappeared just as quick.

- when you started toying with new weaponry jason was there, you still got butterflies remembering the way he pressed himself against you while fixing your form, his calloused fingertips lighting fires as he subtly adjusted your grip on your gun

- "jay is this right?" .. "mhm your grip is perfect, but the recoil will get you, slide your leg backwards to brace for the impact of firing" .. the minute his hand touched your thigh a shiver ran across your body, against your shaking will .. "oh, sorry i didn't mean to-" .. you cut him off "no it's good, you're good" but before you could turn around to unpack the cloud of tension in the room, jason cleared his throat and gruffly said "fire" ruining any chance of an emotional conversation. three perfect shots to the targets, and with a satisfying nod he was gone once again

- so when dick asked you out on a real date, to a restaurant whose menu alone gave you anxiety at the thought of ordering, you realized you had to give jason the ultimatum

- but for once in his (second) life, jason was way ahead of you.

- "you said yes to dick?" jason was sitting at your desk when you entered your own room, overly dramatic but it was jason todd after all.

- "do i have a reason to say no?"

- "you hate fancy restaurants. you need like a week to plan what you'll order otherwise you'll just be stressed the whole time"

- you rolled your eyes, but jason wasn't finished: "and you hate movies, sitting in one place watching a film you probably haven't heard of, pretending to enjoy the nuance"

- he wasn't wrong. "whatever jace, that doesn't-" .. "i can tell you what's gonna happen. he'll order a wine too sweet for your taste, and talk to the waiter enough to make you want to crawl under the table. then after a perfectly lovely dinner he'll take you to a rooftop to 'show you the sights' and you'll have your first kiss. but you hate the city skyline, it reminds you you're far from home. you like the sound of the ocean and the rusting of the forest. you like something real."

- your heart was in your throat. but you needed something more: "say it jason. don't tell me the future with dick. fucking say it."

- jason stood up, closing the distance between you, eyes now desperate and wild: "say what? that i've loved you since the minute i lost you? that i feel like ive known you forever? that i don't need to learn to love you like he does, i was built for it? that i feel like i was made for you? how do i put it in a few useless words"

- "you just did jay." you whispered, letting him lock his lips in yours with a smile.

- "please go break richard's fucking heart and come home to me." he grumbled, to which you agreed, letting dick down softly and promising to set him up with one of your friends in return for his kindness- a deal which he wouldn't let you forget

- years later, it was more of a household joke, dick claiming he was the catalyst to your and jason's lovestory. to which jason wholly despised, but you never minded giving dick a little credit

[batwritings]

Sorry if im requesting too much, im just obsessed with your works jehdhdvudvsudvsj

How about dragon!Price with a crow!reader? I’ve seen a lot of people making him a dragon, and crows tend to have the same shiny-hoarding thing going on, so it’s kind of a match made in heaven. Maybe things really kick off when Price’s shedding his scales while our crow reader is getting a lot of nesting urges, causing the reader to take a couple of the shiny scales for her nest. Eventually, when her heat arrives, she realizes her mistake. Her nest smells so much like Price, it’s unbearable.

Sure, they had always been pretty close, due to him being her captain and their tendencies to gift each other shiny items, but this was a bit different. At some point, Price goes ahead and checks on his lovely crow friend. While he’s expecting to just stop by to see how she’s incorporated his scales into the inner workings of her nest, he ends up staying for longer than anticipated..

-Hybrid

Okay but this is such a cute concept. Putting the horny brain aside, I can just see you and Price exchanging or comparing shiny stuff that you found on missions or on shore leave at least once a week. Ugh, too cute! Enjoy!~

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You and Price had always had this sort of deal as it were. Your respective species both had an affinity for shiny objects, your captain being a dragon and hording the stuff and you as a crow, just doing it because...well, you could! It was always intriguing to see the different things the both of you would bring to the table after a long away mission.

You weren't entirely sure when you started doing it, but it took a little longer than you would like to realize the consequences to your actions. See, your dear captain had to shed his scales every once in again, their beautiful bronze catching in the light that really sparked a fondness to your one-track crow brain. And with your nest coming together a little disappointingly, you figured they'd be an excellent addition. Not like Price would miss them, he still had plenty to go around.

Yet as your heat grew closer and closer, you couldn't help but get your mind off the familiar and comforting smell of cigars and gunpowder. It was only when you woke up one more, your body deep within your mating cycle that you realized it. You needed your Captain, and you needed him now.

Thankfully for you, from being around you so frequently, Price seemed to be very well aware of when something wasn't quite right with you. Any time you had seemed remotely off, it was as if your captain had a bit of a sixth sense. So you shouldn't have been surprised to hear the couple solid knocks on your barrack door before it opened with a quiet squeak.

"Y/N? You alright?" the man called, voice low in case he was disturbing you. Your whine in response did nothing to assuage his fears, causing the dragon to burst in a little further. "Hey now what's--"

The man stopped in his tracks when he caught onto your scent. "You've started your heat," he mumbled, more to himself than to you, who was painfully aware. "Oh love, why didn't you say something?" He's quick to approach your nest, bright eyes flicking between you and the mess of blankets, pillows, and other shiny things including his scales.

"John...!~" You whimper, wings fluttering in irritation as you push yourself up onto your knees. Price takes the hint, stepping gingerly into your nest, making himself a spot behind you. He covers you, bringing your hips back so they align with his. His wings create a sort of barrier, as if he was trying to shield you from the world.

"I've got you sweetheart, I've got you," the dragon coos, helping your deft hands to slip down your sleep shorts and underwear. The heady scent that follows from your sex being on display earns a low growl as his member twitches eagerly beneath grey sweats. He's quick to pull his cock free, rubbing it along your cunt to soak it in your slick.

"Sing for me love," Price huffs, slowly sliding inside you. You moan so beautifully for him, reveling in the lovely way he fills and stretches you, the way his claws prick at your skin as they hold you in place so as not to hurt you with rushing the penetration. All the while, your captain is littering you in praise, breathing heavier now as he bottoms out inside you.

It doesn't take more than a few desperate chirps and coos from you to urge him to fuck you in earnest. To say the Brit had been wanting this for some time now would be a great understatement. So to be able to finally have you, take you, claim you, made this so much more tempting.

His hips stutter to a halt when you finally reach your climax, claws trailing over the spot where your gorgeous ebony wings meet your shoulders. You shudder and moan under Price's ministrations, trilling when you feel his claws against your skin and feathers. "Feeling better love?" The dragon rumbles, kissing sweetly at the back of your neck.

You nod breathlessly, hand reaching back to rub where you could of his skin in thanks. "How'd you know to find me here?" You ask, still a little amazed at this ability your captain had. The man only chuckles lowly.

"Well I was wondering where my scales had been disappearing to."

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Blood of the Hero Ch 15 (Link’s parents play BotW)

Summary: The Soul of the Hero will always be there to save Hyrule. But when Calamity Ganon is nearly victorious in killing him, it's those that bear the Blood of the Hero who will prevail. Ten years after the Great Calamity, the Shrine of Resurrection is damaged and Link's parents fight to save their son and Hyrule along with him.

i.e. Link's parents play BotW while protecting their boy and they are ready to take on Ganon himself if they have to.

Chapter 15: Fallen Knight - The Chase

Tilieth knew Abel didn’t really pray anymore.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t prayed at all since the Calamity. She’d found him speaking softly to Hylia a mere fortnight before the Shrine of Resurrection had been damaged. She’d heard his voice quiver as he’d asked to see his son again. She remembered her own throat tightening up listening to it.

But it had been a difficult night. It had been a holiday they’d used to celebrate. Abel usually refused to pray unless at the breaking point.

Tilieth was always sad to see it.

How was it that her dear husband couldn’t understand that the goddesses didn’t interfere as he thought they did? The ancient goddesses created the world, leaving its care to Hylia. And Hylia would not force people to do anything they didn’t want to. She acted through others, through their choices to help. Abel seemed convinced that she could have just snapped her divine fingers and just fixed everything, but that wasn’t how it worked.

But in either case, Tilieth knew that when her husband said he just wanted to pray, it was a blatant lie. Abel was up to something.

She lay in bed for a long time, watching Link sleep peacefully. She listened, wondering what exactly her husband was doing. He’d reassured her gently and lovingly and lied to her face. She’d decided not to confront him immediately, waiting to see, waiting to catch him in the act so he couldn’t deny it. She didn’t want to argue. They had enough going on in their lives; she didn’t need to add an argument between them to it. She knew Abel was trying not to cause friction, either, but…

What are you doing, Abel?

She heard a horse. Ama, probably. So he was going somewhere.

Tilieth remembered the last time Abel had been off somewhere in the night and hadn’t told her. He’d gotten hurt. He might have almost gotten killed if it hadn’t been for Sheik.

She wasn’t letting that happen this time. It was time to talk sense into her husband.

Rising, she tucked Link in a little better, kissing his head softly. He would be safe here. She felt confident in that, at least. She crept outside, heading to Epona, who was grazing peacefully.

“Sorry, old girl,” she apologized as the horse perked up, ears pointing forward as she watched her approach. “We have an idiot to rescue, I’m afraid.”

Epona huffed out a breath as if amused. Tilieth chuckled at it before putting the saddle on her. It didn’t take long to finish gearing her up, and Tilieth was soon out in the open field. She gazed up at the sky a moment, distracted by the array of stars, admiring the beauty of it, before she looked back down, focusing. Abel couldn’t have gotten too far ahead, and she had a good vantage point from the top of this hill.

She could hear it in the distance. A horse cantering. Tilieth squinted, trying to figure out where Abel had snuck off to. She had a sudden, insanely strong sense of déjà vu, remembering years ago when she’d have to search for her children when they snuck out in the night.

Honestly, and Abel claimed they got all their mischievous tendencies from her.

The melancholy that came with the memory pulled at her heart a little, but she didn’t have time to focus on it. Instead, she swallowed and held on to her resolve, making Epona walk forward a little as she finally caught sight of something.

She traced the movement a while, recognizing that its rhythmic motions matched the sound of the horse hooves she was hearing. That had to be him. He was down at the bottom of the hill and around the corner, heading down a different trail, and—

Wait a second. That was Eagus Bridge, wasn’t it?

He’s going to Central Hyrule?! Is he insane?!

Tilieth froze up instantly. Central Hyrule was… well, she didn’t know! Neither of them knew what dangers awaited there! What was he thinking?! She recalled how barren it had looked yesterday, how nothing had grown back yet – if nothing was growing, that implied something was still there preventing it, right?

Panic seized her body. She couldn’t move for a moment, couldn’t urge Epona ahead, couldn’t think. But as terrified as she was of what dangers there might be, she was even more terrified of the fact that Abel was heading into it. She caught her breath, she gave a command and Epona was racing—she’d always been a fast horse—and the wind was blowing through her hair, and it was starting to rain, splashing clarity into her face like a slap.

It didn’t take long to reach the point of no return. She abruptly pulled back on the reins.

Tilieth stared ahead at the bridge. Epona waited patiently as she listened to her heart race, as her thoughts spun in circles dizzyingly, worries whittling away at her sanity and resolve.

There could be guardians!

But Abel was there.

There could be monsters!

But Abel was there.

Abel had always been the strong one between the two of them. Tilieth knew that. She’d pulled her weight as best she could on the plateau, hunting on occasion, learning to use a bow. But she knew she was useless against formidable foes.

She should wait for him to return.

No! Tilieth shook her head, squeezing tightly on Epona’s reins. She wouldn’t let her husband get himself hurt. He was exhausted, and he was stressed, and he wasn’t thinking straight.

Abel always protected her. It was her turn to protect him.

Glaring into the darkness, Tilieth spurred Epona forward as thunder crashed overhead. Despite her resolve, she trembled from head to toe, but she would not stop.

I can do this. Abel needs me.

The rain was growing heavier, curtains cascading from the sky, making it difficult to see anything at all. Tilieth stayed alert, downright skittish, really, when she heard a horse whinny up ahead. Breathless, she urged Epona to move, feeling entirely too exposed.

And then she saw them.

Abel was frantic, and he—he and Ama were on the ground! Tilieth leapt off Epona, rushing towards them, and called out to her husband, when—

When… what?

Rain splashed her face. She shivered. Her stomach churned. Her head pounded.

Heavy breaths, screaming, sobs.

Worried voices, warmth, softness.

“She’ll be alright, Sir Abel, I promise. She just needs a potion when she wakes up.”

When she woke up? But she was awake, right?

Good heavens, why did her head hurt so much?

Tilieth slowly opened her eyes, squinting and grimacing as the candlelight was entirely too much. She vaguely made out fuzzy shapes, trying to focus on anything. She was in a bed; she registered that much. But how? Wasn’t she somewhere else? She thought she’d been somewhere else.

Outside. She’d been outside, right?

There were people here. Two or three, from what she could tell. One stood in the distance, watching. Another paced the length of the room. Wait, was there a third? Maybe not. It was probably the pacing one that caught her attention.

Why had she been outside?

Tilieth shifted a little, moaning as her head throbbed. The pacing person stopped immediately before practically materializing beside her in an instant.

“Til,” a shaky voice whispered, and Tilieth recognized it in a heartbeat. Her husband’s features came into focus as he hovered over her, eyes bloodshot, cheeks flushed, hair a mess, soaking wet. He practically fell onto the bed where she was, pulling her into a hug, trembling.

Tilieth… didn’t know what to do with this turn of events. Clearly something was wrong, right? What was wrong? “Abel…?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice muffled in her shoulder, his hug nearly painful with how tight it was. It made her head hurt even more. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry—”

Why was he apologizing? What was— “Is Link okay?”

Abel pulled away a little, breath coming in shallow rasps, and to her alarm she saw he was on the verge of tears. “Link’s fine. He’s fine. I promise.”

Then why was he…?

Before Tilieth could get another word out, Abel was shoving a bottle into her face. “Drink this.”

She listened, wondering what it was she was drinking. It had a syrupy flavor and consistency with a strangely bitter aftertaste, and she made a somewhat disgusted face after swallowing it. Her headache dulled, though, and she had enough energy in her now to cough and protest, “Oh, honey, that was disgusting, what did you give me?”

Abel’s face lit up a little with relief, and he pulled her into another bone crushing hug. Tilieth was infinitely more aware of the fact that he was drenched, how he shivered, how he’d—

Been outside too. They’d both been—

Central Hyrule. They’d been in Central Hyrule! What had happened? Had a monster attacked?

“What happened?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her husband. Her body was sluggish to respond, and it was frustrating, but she didn’t feel dizzy or nauseous now, and her vision had cleared up. Behind Abel, she could see the Sheikah healer, Kollin, standing in the entranceway to wherever they were.

Oh! The inn! That was where they were. She looked to her right, and sure enough, Link was sleeping beside them in the next bed over. She could hear the rainfall on the thatched roof. Behind Kollin, Lady Impa watched them as well.

She tried to piece together what really had happened. Surely… wait, Abel and his horse had been on the ground! She remembered that. There had to have been some kind of attack. She must have gotten her head hit at some point.

“Oh, honey,” she said softly, holding her husband as much as she could. Abel hadn’t spoken to explain anything, and that nearly scared her just as much as not knowing. “Tell me what happened.”

Slowly, Abel pulled away, watching her. He no longer looked on the verge of tears. Some strange resolve was in his eyes now, a fire of conviction that steadily turned him to stone. He leaned in, kissing her on the lips with a tenderness she hadn’t felt from him in a while, and then he pulled away, rising. “Get some sleep, love.”

Tilieth really would rather just know how in the world they’d ended up back in Kakariko, but she supposed it could wait until morning. She did still feel exhausted. Sighing, she pat the bed, trying to give him a smile. “Will you join me?”

Her husband was silent, shadows casting over his face. He looked so far away all of a sudden. “Later, Til.”

A pang of annoyance sparked within her, but she didn’t have the energy to argue with him. Her husband could be so blasted stubborn sometimes. She’d get on his case later. In the morning. When she wasn’t quite so… tired…

Tilieth slipped into sleep faster than she anticipated, and the world faded around her.

XXX

Impa watched Sir Abel with heaviness and dread in her heart.

The night had been eventful enough. The man had come into the village at a full canter on his horse, calling for help. Impa had responded immediately, alongside many others, and she’d retrieved Kollin to assist once they’d realized Tilieth had been hurt. When Impa had asked what had happened, the knight was dismissive at every turn.

It wouldn’t have bothered Impa so much if it weren’t for the look on his face.

It had been ten years. Impa had seen her people suffer through the aftereffects of the Calamity. She had suffered through it. She’d been the royal advisor back then, Zelda’s best friend and confidante, a capable warrior but always on the sidelines. When everything had burned, her parents had died, Purah had left the village, her friends had been brutally murdered, and her dearest friend had to hold back horrors unimaginable by herself with the promise of hope that no one had any way of knowing would come. Impa had to cope with the unimaginable, and she had no way of knowing how to do so.

Impa had waited with anticipation for Link’s arrival for days, weeks, months, despite Robbie’s words predicting that it would take approximately fifty years (because there was no way that was true, there was no way they would have to wait that long, there was no way Zelda could hold out that long). By the fifth year, she’d realized this was going to take far longer than she’d initially anticipated.

It had been strange, to be in such a holding pattern, to wait for a continuation of a horrific event, before realizing that she had to close that chapter of her life.

She had a sinking suspicion Sir Abel had not yet done so. She could hardly blame him, but…

She’d seen the trembling hands before, the jumpiness, the lack of trust. Those who had survived the massacre were all scarred from its wounds.

Sir Abel was not doing well. But he would not listen to her, no matter what kind of argument she might throw at him. Impa had dealt with his son, understood the kind of quiet resolve her friend had, and was quickly observing who he had gotten it from.

The knight was pacing Impa’s home. It was no longer the frantic, worried steps he’d had earlier before his wife had awoken and drank some potion. This was slower, contemplative, brooding, heavy and dangerous.

Impa glanced to the side as Kollin watched them both with concern. Her fiancé was always a bit of a worrier. She smiled and nodded towards the door.

The healer sighed and nodded. “I’m going to retrieve some more potions for you wife. She should be fine with some rest – one more elixir will fix her right up in the morning, I think.”

Sir Abel looked at him briefly, eyes dull, and nodded.

Impa shuffled uncertainly, wondering how to proceed. She’d seen the captain of the royal guard prior to the Calamity, and it was still terrifyingly striking how different he was now. Although she and the royal knight had never been particularly close, she at least knew him, she’d seen the gentle way he’d watch his son, the neutral stoicism he’d bear, the strength yet warmth he’d convey in his posture, impervious to pain or fear or worry.

The broken, cold, paranoid survivor before her was not the same man, and she didn’t know how to reach him.

She didn’t even know what she should say if she could. She wanted to reassure him that everything would be fine, but her own heart filled with worry as well. She had to have faith that Hylia would ensure everything worked out – when the two had carried her mutilated friend, still so broken and weak, into her village, she’d nearly fallen apart.

The Shrine of Resurrection is broken. The Shrine was their one hope, yet here these two had found a new avenue to pursue, maintaining the light that would join Zelda in defeating Ganon. But the Shrine wasn’t the only thing that was broken in Link’s life, clearly, and the more Sir Abel paced, the more worried Impa became.

She needed this tension to release. Why had the knight chosen to come to her as if to speak with her, and then done this instead?

“Sir Abel,” she started uncertainly, speaking softly as if to a cornered animal. “I know you’re worried—”

“I need your word,” Sir Abel interrupted, finally pausing, dark eyes boring into her soul. They were Link’s eyes, but their blue was like the sea before a storm.

“M-my… my word?”

“You were friends with the princess,” the knight continued, facing her fully, and the air felt heavier all of a sudden. Impa felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, rather like it did just before a fight. She tried to look as nonthreatening as possible, not wanting to provoke anything. Of all her warriors, she’d never seen one quite as on edge as him. “You traveled with Link. You’re a Sheikah.”

“Yes,” she agreed slowly. “My loyalty is absolute, good knight. I assure you.”

Why was he doing this line of questioning? His lack of trust from the past few days had never been this… she didn’t even know how to describe it. Something was different about the man, something desperate and wild. What had happened out there?

“That loyalty,” Sir Abel continued. “How far does it extend? I need your word…”

“We’ve done nothing that would imply we would hurt Link,” Impa tried to help him parse out the logic. “Link’s my friend.”

“And his mother?” Sir Abel questioned, his voice breaking a moment, face darkening.

What? Had a Sheikah hurt Tilieth? “I promise, she’s safe here. You all are.”

“Give me your word,” Sir Abel growled.

“I swear on my honor as a Sheikah,” Impa said easily, wondering if this was what was causing his behavior. “But please, if one of my people did this, tell me. I’ll ensure there’s justice, Sir Abel. I promise you’re all safe here.”

The knight swallowed, breath suddenly shaky, eyes flicking down to the floor and unable to look at her anymore.

So… not a Sheikah, then? Or…? What was happening?

“Promise me you’ll protect her,” he finally said quietly, fists clenching.

Impa felt the dread grow heavier in her chest. “Sir Abel… I… I swear on my parents’ graves, on my life that she is safe. Please… trust that she and your son are going to be okay. What is the matter?”

Sir Abel was silent, his breathing measured but heavy, loud enough to be heard over the rain on the roof.

Finally, he looked her in the eye once more, dark heaviness dissipating, frozen over by a cold, impenetrable resolve. “I have a favor to ask of you, Lady Impa.”

The rain grew heavier. Thunder rumbled as lightning tore across the sky. The door to the chief’s home slid open some time later, revealing the battered former knight as he purposefully walked down the stairs towards his black mare. He pet the horse a little, whispering an apology to her for all the trouble he’d been putting her through, geared up with a soldier’s sword and shield, and then mounted the saddle.

Kakariko was so quiet in the middle of this cold, stormy night. Abel shivered in the rain, glancing at the inn. Tightening the climber’s bandana he was wearing, he willed all his love towards the small building, body trembling, heart a pile of ash.

Nudging Ama’s sides with his feet, he guided the horse out of the village as thunder roared, covering the sounds of the horse’s hooves. They headed north, disappearing into the curtains of rain, slow and steady, and the sad eyes of the knight hardened, heart turning to stone, determination and self-loathing drowning him more than any downpour ever could.

XXX

Tilieth felt like she must have been sleeping for a year with how sluggish her body was.

The daylight was barely spilling indoors as she fluttered her eyes open blearily. She was on her side, and the first thing she saw was a red elixir on the nightstand, and just beyond that, Link sleeping peacefully on the bed beside her.

Smiling sleepily, Tilieth reached for her baby boy, but she couldn’t quite get to him. Sighing a little, she shuffled towards the edge of the bed, too tired to want to get up but still wanting to reach him. Tilieth stretched farther, head half resting on the nightstand to give her more distance, and her fingers finally tickled Link’s ear.

Her son sniffled, nose scrunching, and she giggled at it. He didn’t quite wake up, but it was still wonderful to see him reacting. Yawning, Tilieth twisted in the blankets, facing the other way to see—

An empty bed.

Tilieth blinked, confused a moment, listening to crickets and birds compete for song as night and day intermingled at dawn.

And then she remembered last night.

Or, well, most of it. She remembered looking for Abel, she remembered seeing him down on the ground alongside Ama, she remembered waking up in this bed injured and Abel being on the verge of a breakdown. Based on the elixir on the table, she assumed she… ah, that must have been what he made her drink last night?

Great heavens, that stuff tasted horrible. She’d need to flavor it some way for poor Link.

But never mind that, where was Abel? She’d never gotten the full story out of him, and he’d said he’d sleep!

Groaning a little, Tilieth tried to wiggle out of the blanket, grumbling as she got tangled in it instead. Huffing, she threw her head back into her pillow in exasperation and then winced. Maybe she shouldn’t do that.

Tilieth moved slowly this time, pulling the blanket here, untwisting it there, until she was finally detangled and standing up. The world tilted a little, but not too terribly, and Tilieth rubbed her face tiredly as her body struggled to keep up. She was a little thankful she couldn’t remember whatever fight she and Abel must have endured that ended with her receiving such a head injury.

But then she remembered Abel’s expression, and she suddenly wondered if she really should feel that way.

Tilieth shuffled towards the entrance when the innkeeper, an elderly woman named Liyah, walked hesitantly towards her. “Hello, dear. That elixir on the nightstand is for you.”

Glancing back at the nightstand, Tilieth bit the inside of her cheek, not particularly interested in tasting that awful concoction again. But given how she felt, she supposed it was reasonable. She walked over to it, sitting on the bed to brace herself as she knocked back the liquid, coughing a little as it went down.

The world sharpened into a clarity so intense it almost made her head hurt. Warmth filled her all the way to her fingertips, and she felt a little more energized. She wondered if Link felt any of this when they gave him some the other day.

Details she hadn’t noticed before became easily apparent. She was wearing something different from her usual attire, a robe wrapped around her like the Sheikah wore, except overly simple in its design, beige in color with no variation in the collar. Her clothes and traveling pouch were missing.

“Have you seen my husband?” she asked the innkeeper.

“I’m afraid not,” the woman answered. “He hasn’t been here since you fell back asleep.”

Of course he hasn’t. Tilieth sighed heavily, a different kind of exhaustion pulling at her. She wished her husband would just listen to her and rest.

Bracing herself for a potentially unpleasant confrontation, Tilieth rose, kissed Link with a promise to feed him breakfast and clean him up soon, and went to seek out the Sheikah chief.

When she recognized that the world was bathed in pale light, she thought it might have been too early to pay a visit to the young woman. But Lady Impa herself was outside, sitting cross legged in front of the statue of Hylia.

Tilieth hesitated, not wanting to interrupt her prayer. Instead, she sat a little bit behind her, saying a few prayers of her own.

Good morning, she greeted a little informally, smiling, before she continued, Oh great goddess, I… I want to thank you. Thank you for taking care of Link, for helping him heal. Thank you for getting us to Kakariko. Thank you for helping me and Abel escape whatever happened last night. Please… I know Abel isn’t… isn’t really talking to you much, but… please look out for him. Please continue to look out for Link and help him heal. Please give me the patience, the energy, the words to get through to Abel so he can rest.

Tilieth took a deep breath, letting the world around her relax her and quiet her mind. She couldn’t quite achieve it, never really able to pray too well, but she felt a little more at peace nonetheless. Her eyes drifted to the water, watching it play and reflect the light as the sun steadily climbed in the sky. Perhaps she should just make some breakfast and bathe Link before bothering Impa – maybe she’d run into Abel in that time anyway.

Resolving herself to the matter, Tilieth rose, leaving Lady Impa to her prayers, when the Sheikah turned a little, just noticing her.

“Tilieth,” she called, standing, face a little worried.

Tilieth smiled at the kind woman. “I’m okay. I’m feeling much better this morning. I was just wondering… do you know where my husband is? Or my things?”

“Your clothes were being washed from the blood,” Lady Impa explained. “I apologize they haven’t been returned to you in time. I believe your pouch is with the Sheikah slate – Sir Abel left them near Link.”

Well, Tilieth supposed that explained a few things. She hadn’t searched too hard beside Link. But still… “And my husband?”

Lady Impa shifted uncomfortably, and the peace Tilieth had been feeling started to fade.

“He… has a message for you,” the Sheikah chief said slowly. “He said you were right. About splitting up. He asked me to protect you while he goes to Akkala. He said he was going to talk to my sister about the slate.”

Tilieth stared. He… he what?

He left?

But—what had happened to—they were going to go to the—and Link—he just—what?!

This wasn’t… this wasn’t just him agreeing to her plan, something was—something was wrong, something was terribly wrong, Abel had been so against this plan!

“What happened?” she asked, she demanded, she choked out of the horror and shock and fear that was squeezing her lungs. “What happened last night?”

Lady Impa’s expression grew more somber, more worried. “I… don’t honestly know. He never explained.”

Tilieth swallowed thickly, trying to think it through. Whatever it was, Abel blamed himself. She knew that. She knew that. There was no way the man would do something so completely—he—what—

“I need my clothes,” Tilieth said. “I need them now.”

Lady Impa hesitated a moment, and Tilieth frantically insisted, “I said now! Please! I need them!”

Urgency and terror were filling her and making the world spin. As the Sheikah complied, Tilieth dashed back to the inn, nearly sending the innkeeper into the ceiling with fright as she slammed the door open. Link had the Sheikah slate tucked under his arm in the blankets, alongside Tilieth’s pouch. She grabbed the slate immediately, looking at the map, desperate to see what route Abel might be taking.

How much headway had he gotten? When did he leave? Had he rested at all? What had happened? What had happened?

“Your clothes,” Lady Impa announced as she held them out, standing just behind her. Tilieth quickly rushed to the corner where a privacy screen was and changed, hastened out, slate in hand, and then froze, looking at Link.

He needed to eat. He needed to be cleaned. He needed to be cared for. She trusted the Sheikah, but she couldn’t ask everything of them, and they didn’t know what to do with him.

But Abel—

Tilieth reached into her pouch, looking for whatever leftover broth she had, and quickly shook Link. “I’m sorry, love, I’m so sorry, you’re going to have to endure a little longer without freshening up, but eat quickly, okay? I have to find your papa.”

Link drank, not seeming to care, as per usual, but once she laid him back down to rest, he continued to stare off at nothing, looking tired but not nodding off. She watched him a moment, a little caught off guard. Was he uncomfortable? He’d hardly noticed anything about his body since the initial shrines on the plateau, whether it was his wounds, the rashes from the harness, the jostling from going everywhere, any bodily needs he might have… anything.

Tilieth snapped her fingers in his face. Link blinked, but he didn’t really flinch from it.

When he still didn’t fall asleep, Tilieth hesitantly tried for more broth. He drank for a little while before starting to choke on it a little bit, and she immediately stopped.

Why was he…? She didn’t know. But she couldn’t wait any longer.

“Please be okay,” she pleaded, kissing him on the forehead. “I’ll be back soon, okay? Hopefully with your father.”

Hopefully. Oh goddess, Abel, what have you done?

Reaching for the slate, Tilieth looked at the map. She’d never been to the Akkala Province, but she knew it was up north, somewhere near Death Mountain. Based on the routes they’d already taken, the shrines they’d been to…

That shrine near Zora’s Domain. That would be her best bet. But what if he hadn’t gotten that far? What then?

Well. It was better to overshoot than undershoot, she supposed.

Wait! The towers! She could probably try to find him with the scope feature Impa had talked about!

With that in mind the only tower that was feasible for such a use was the Lanayru Tower.

Lady Impa stared. “What are you, HEY WAIT—”

Tilieth pressed on the screen, feeling the magic of the slate encircle her, but Lady Impa yelped, reaching out to grab her. Tilieth squealed in response, and both women nearly fell over as they were encased in light. The lightness of the magic carried them before they could actually topple over, plopping them on the hard, cold stone of Sheikah design.

The women groaned, trying to get their bearings, when cool water plopped on Tilieth’s head, startling her. It was drizzling here, but as she scrambled towards the edge, she found that her view wasn’t all that obscured.

“What just—where are—” Lady Impa stammered, looking around in bewilderment and fright.

“Why did you grab me?” Tilieth asked as she looked around, hands shakily maneuvering the slate so she could figure out how to use its scope.

“I swore to Sir Abel I’d protect you,” Lady Impa pointed out, looking around, disoriented. “I can’t do that if you try to disappear into thin air! Where even are we?”

“Lanayru Tower,” Tilieth answered quickly, only half paying attention. “How do you get this slate to—”

Lady Impa snatched it, clicking something, and suddenly the slate showed the world around it with heightened intensity and clarity, zooming in on different points. “I’m assuming we’re looking for Sir Abel?”

Tilieth squinted through the drizzle before looking at the slate as the two women huddled beside each other to stare at it. “Yes. I have to find him.”

Lady Impa sighed heavily.

“He can’t have gotten too far, right?” Tilieth wondered aloud, tracing the path from what she could see of the mountains around Kakariko. The road disappeared occasionally, but for the most part she could see nearly all of it. “When did he leave?”

“During the night. He…” Lady Impa shuffled hesitantly. “He definitely didn’t look well. But I knew I couldn’t stop him. I’m sorry, Tilieth.”

Tilieth bit her lip, anxiety eating her alive. Her worry for her husband increased tenfold. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t already suspected, but…

Please be okay, Abel. Please be okay.

She felt so incredibly alone all of a sudden. She was thankful Lady Impa had tagged along.

As Tilieth looked through the scope, she felt her heart leap to her throat.

There was a person! There was a person on a black horse at a destroyed bridge, staring at the river, trying to find a way to cross.

“Abel,” she whispered before looking frantically at the slate, trying to find a point that was closer to his current location. As she did so, she could vaguely see the figure turn his steed and start to canter away. No, no, no no no no!

“With Thims Bridge gone, he’ll probably try to head farther north,” Lady Impa said breathlessly, trying to track his progress as well. “Let me see—why is the rest of it blank?”

“We haven’t mapped it out!” Tilieth said frantically. “What if we lose him?!”

“I don’t remember exactly where the next crossing is, but I’m pretty sure it’s close to the castle,” the Sheikah chief noted anxiously. “He—Sir Abel knows that, right?”

The castle?!

“Wait, wait, he’s coming back,” Lady Impa interrupted her panicked thoughts, eyes wide and both women nearly headbutted each other to look through the scope. Abel had indeed turned around, seeming to come to the same conclusion, and was instead heading for a set of ruins that were overrun by monsters.

“We have to help him!” Lady Impa immediately said.

“Sheh Rata Shrine,” Tilieth pointed to it. “It’s close enough. Hold on!”

The pair disappeared in streams of light once more.

Meanwhile, in Moor Garrison, Abel circled the area, fire in his blood as he snarled at the horde of monsters that had taken residence in his fallen brothers-in-arms’ home. He eliminated one easily by letting Ama knock it over before he stabbed it. Then he leapt off his horse, climbing the ruined wall to peek over and aim a bomb arrow at the two archers who were keeping lookout. The explosion caught the attention of the rest of the monsters, and Abel descended upon them from above, slamming his sword down on them. There were four in total, though only three had managed to reach him quite yet, allowing him to dodge and weave around them well enough. His shield took a few hits, knocking him against the wall, but he ignored the screaming of his mind and muscles, instead letting all of his anger broil over and fuel him.

Abel swiped out just as a bokoblin tried to aim for his head, leaving an opening, and he killed it quickly. The other two fell in succession, though his sword broke clean in half with the final blow. He scrambled to switch weapons as the last bokoblin came running into sight, and the guardian sword was the only other one he had brought with him.

The beast fell in one blow.

Abel glanced at the bluish blade, huffing. He supposed it certainly was useful. His stomach twisted a little as he stared at it too long, its hue hauntingly familiar, and he sheathed it, exiting the structure and picking up what arrows and weapons he could find as he whistled for Ama. He heard her running up from behind him, and he glanced back to see her gaining ground quickly. Just as she got within reach, he tore across her path, hand on her chest to try to avoid startling her. He traced his hand alongside her until it gripped her saddle, and the moment of the sharp turn in conjunction with the horse’s speed allowed Abel to leap into the air and onto her back seamlessly.

They moved expediently. He knew the next crossover point he could take that didn’t require a bridge.

Well. It did later. But he remembered seeing the structures from Lanayru Tower. A monster encampment of its own making was tolerable enough. He just had to tear through it while he still had the strength to do so. Staying up for two nights hadn’t done him many favors, after all.

But he was determined. He would get to Akkala quickly. He would accomplish this. And he prayed Tilieth would resolve to go to the Gerudo Desert like she’d originally planned so that he wouldn’t be anywhere near her.

How could he be anywhere near her? After what he’d—what he’d—

Abel bit his tongue, urging Ama to run faster. She couldn’t go fast enough. He had to move. Killing more beasts would help.

A fair distance behind the former knight and his steed light coalesced into two figures, and Tilieth and Impa looked around wildly in search of the man.

“ABEL!” Tilieth yelled as she caught sight of him, rushing ahead. Lady Impa gasped and hurried to keep up, managing to catch up to her companion quickly as the two attempted to call the man’s attention.

She’d never run so fast in her life. She couldn’t even call out to her husband anymore with as breathless as she was, but she refused to slow down. She had to reach him.

She had to reach him.

The blood rushed through Abel’s ears. His breathing was in tandem with Ama’s, both panting with exertion, readying for battle.

Tilieth felt her body starting to give out. She growled, pushing harder, until she felt like her chest would burst if she kept going.

Abel drew his sword once more as Ama crossed the haphazard bridge into the monster camp. Tilieth fell to the ground, Lady Impa dropping on one knee at her side to check on her.

She couldn’t get to him.

Abel focused intently, blind and deaf to everything outside of the battle. But when his first quarry leapt out at him, his heart skipped a beat.

It was a Hylian.

The horror of the last twenty-four hours screamed through his head for an instant before he followed through on the move automatically. The Hylian was clearly moving to attack. His guardian blade pierced through the man’s defenses quickly.

Tilieth screamed in horror from the shore. Lady Impa stood quickly, drawing her kodachi to protect her charge. More Hylians appeared out of different hiding places in the encampment, bearing monster and Hyrulian weapons alike, as well as strange foreign blades that looked vaguely similar to Impa’s. Tilieth covered her mouth quickly to stop herself gasping, horrified as her husband moved to defend himself from the sudden ambush.

“Stay out of sight,” Impa hissed, running ahead to assist him. Tilieth didn’t dare protest, heart racing.

There were more enemies than Abel could count. Ama lended him some protection, but it put her at risk, and he had no armor for her. She kicked when one bandit got too close, sending him flying into the water. Abel leapt off her saddle at that point, letting her buck more without throwing him off balance. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver on these rickety pontoon bridges, and Abel nearly got knocked into the water from a blocked blow. He dug his sword into another enemy, ignoring the warmth of the blood that saturated his gloves, and kicked yet another away to create some distance. Ama neighed in distress, running a few paces ahead to get away from the pandemonium, distracting the former knight.

Maybe he wasn’t distracted from her. Maybe the sleep deprivation was just catching up. Either way, he moved too slowly, and next thing he knew fire seared through his left shoulder as one of the Hylians managed to sink his spear into him. Abel grabbed the handle of the spear quickly, jerking it out of the man’s grip and kicking him back. He moved his left arm to try and grip the wooden handle so he could chop most of it off with his sword, preventing it from impeding him, but he could hardly move his arm. He yelled out in pain instead, stumbling back, feeling his world spin as his left arm tingled and burned.

The Hylians parted ways a little, strangely, until Abel saw the cause of the ruckus. A Sheikah warrior—Lady Impa—charged in, knives at the ready, already bloodied from taking on an unseen opponent.

What was—but Tilieth—

Abel burst into motion quickly, frantic now, mind and body both reaching their limits as he fought desperately.

Tilieth watched, terrified, hiding behind some trees, praying over and over and over, begging for this to end.

The remainder of the Hylians fell or fled, but before there could be any kind of reprieve in the fighting, Abel swiped his sword threateningly towards Impa, making her yelp and leap back.

“You promised,” he hissed, stumbling, face flushed with both fury and anguish, a broken trust and hopeless, desperate, terrifying energy in his eyes. “You promised.”

“She’s safe, she’s safe!” Impa insisted.

Tilieth heard the words carry across the bridges, and she gasped, running in. “Abel!”

The world froze between the couple as they took the sight of each other in.

Abel felt indescribable pain and relief mixing in a dizzying whirlwind. Seeing Impa here alone had scared him enough, but seeing Tilieth in the midst of this bloodshed, so soon after she’d—after he’d—he couldn’t even finish the thought, the panic of last night still so present within him that seeing her made him nearly stumble backwards and fall into the water. Tilieth looked completely winded, beautiful curls a frizzy mess, brown eyes glassy, sweat stains saturating through her tunic. Abel ached to comfort her, and his arm twitched a moment, but his shoulder hurt so damn much, and he saw blood leaking around where the spear had entered, pulsating a little. His wife shouldn’t be here, this place was dangerous, he was dangerous, he couldn’t be trusted for anything with her or Link, he was terrified.

Tilieth felt utterly out of control, helplessly looking at her husband unraveling before her. He was exhausted, dark circles under his eyes practically passing for bruises, face pallid and sweaty, hair and clothes disheveled, torn, bloodied and filthy, breathing ragged. His green doublet was steadily staining red from his shoulder as he guarded it with his right hand, hovering just over the spear’s entry. She didn’t know what to say, what to do, she just wanted to hold him and make him rest and stop the entire world from hurting him and Link, to stop everything.

The dead Hylians around her made her shudder, hugging herself as she trembled. Impa knelt down, examining one of them, finger tracing a symbol that looked strangely like the Sheikah one.

Abel took another step away. “Go back to Kakariko.”

Tilieth shook her head, choking on her tears and worry. I won’t leave you! Tell me what’s wrong!

Her silence wasn’t helping, and she knew it. Abel usually would pick up on it, would recognize that she was overwhelmed and step in to take over, but this time he was the one who needed someone to step in, and she—

Tilieth gritted her teeth, swallowing hard, taking a step forward. If she couldn’t find her words, she could at least do something.

The movement made everything worse, though, as Abel took several steps away, eying Ama.

“What’s wrong?” she finally desperately burst out, voice raw and breaking. She started to cry, hesitating to step forward but wanting so desperately to do so. “Abel, what happened? Why did you leave me?”

“I—I didn’t—I—” Abel stammered, sounding hoarse. “Tilieth it’s my fault—”

She knew he blamed himself for her injury. “Honey, don’t you understand—”

“I’m the one who hurt you!” Abel yelled, continuing to step away, backing himself near into a corner like a terrified animal. “Til, don’t you—don’t you see, I—I set that hinox on a rampage on the plateau that led to the shrine’s destruction, I gave you that concussion – I can’t be near you two, I’m going to get you killed, I—”

He cut himself off, right hand snaking around the spearhead, entire body shaking.

Tilieth felt the blood drain out of her face, mind numbing at the words and pushing them aside as she saw what he was doing, what he was planning. “Abel, no—”

“Go back to Kakariko,” he said, his voice lower, growling, threatening. Go or I’ll pull it out.

Her world was spinning, and her fingers and toes were tingling with how shallow and quickly she was breathing. What had—

Her injury had been from… him? How?!

What had happened?!

He was slipping. Her husband was slipping, and she was suddenly terrified for him, terrified of him, and she hated everything about this.

This wasn’t the man she knew, the man she fell in love with and married.

But it is, her heart cried. It is, he’s buried in there, buried in fear and grief and hurt.

But how could she reach him if he wouldn’t let her?!

A risk popped in her mind. A prayer, a hope, a desperation, an insane idea, putting such a precious life on the line.

But that life was already on the line.

Tilieth said a prayer. She said a prayer over and over and over. She mustered up all the courage she could, she grappled with every ounce of spontaneous, fiery, daring energy she had within her.

And she rushed for him.

Abel froze for a heart stopping moment, giving her hope, his eyes widening. But the surprise was quickly supplanted by absolute terror, and he ripped the spearhead out with a desperate, pained cry.

Tilieth couldn’t even get a scream out of her throat at this point, but oh her heart did so as the blood poured, excessive in its flow, increasing and decreasing in pulsating rhythm, bright red and entirely too much.

Lady Impa was faster than Tilieth could ever be, tackling the man and slamming her hand on the wound. “What are you thinking?!”

Tilieth stumbled to a halt in front of the pair, falling to her knees, hands gripping her husband’s tunic desperately, tears falling, sobs scraping out of her. Abel watched her, eyebrows pinched together, looking so much like a scared child, crying, eyes begging and apologizing more than any words could ever convey.

“The slate!” Lady Impa hissed. “Get him back to Kakariko – Kollin can help him! I’ll get the horse.”

Tilieth quickly pulled it out, numb fingers fumbling to pull up the shrine in the village. She put pressure on the wound, garnering a whimper of pain from her husband, his hand reaching for hers. She expected a fight of some sort, she expected that he’d completely lost his senses at this point, but instead of pulling her off him, his hand simply rested over hers, weak and trying and failing to grip. Their eyes locked as she finally selected the right shrine, and for a heart stopping moment, the world froze all around them.

She could see her husband, young and shy, smiling at her with a little nod of his head as he visited Hateno with other soldiers. She could see the brave young man who marched off to his next assignment after their marriage, holding her so closely, telling her how much he loved her. She could see the relief on his face when he returned to see her after his multiple year mission to Zora’s Domain, the joy that radiated from him and their son as they finally got to see her healthy again. She remembered his whispers in their most intimate moments, the way he held her to comfort her through the years, his promises to keep her safe after the world fell apart and burned, his silent vigil at Link’s shrine.

Tilieth leaned in, kissing him as the Sheikah magic carried them away, her tears intermingling with his own, falling to his cheeks as they trailed through the dirt together, carrying the blood away. She didn’t notice as the world came back to life, as birdsong replaced the sound of the water, as sunlight warmed the chilly drizzle that had soaked both of them. Abel hiccuped against her, falling apart at the tenderness of her touch, whispering over and over until the words sank into Tilieth’s mind.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Til. I love you, I love you, I love you—”

She found her voice. “You’re going to be okay, Abel. You’re going to be okay.”

[naturecalls111]

I wrote this on twitter but I thought I'd put it here too, since I occasionally get asks on how I draw/any tips I might have. On twitter I also made the caveat that I don't feel I'm qualified to give anyone tips, LOL, but I was drawing today for an assignment and felt like this is worth noting to any beginner artists who have a tendency of clinging onto sketches that they feel like they finally got right! (A.K.A, a habit I still have years later HA!) This isn't so much of a tutorial as expressing my thought process in this discovery of how to draw more dynamic pieces. I found it to be satisfying on my end, seeing it unravel, so hopefully it can help someone who may be struggling with the same thing I am.

MAKING MORE DYNAMIC PIECES, A PERSONAL STUDY!:

I wasn't upset by this drawing, but I could tell there was something stagnant about it so I ended up pushing it and redrawing it a million times to see if I could somehow make it look more dynamic.

Here's one part of the timelapse - I'm clearly adamant on trying to make this pose/composition work but while the sketch itself may look better, the stagnation hasn't changed. Perhaps this works for some people, but anyone seeking a dynamic visual will be able to spot that this simply isn't working as anything more than a semi-decent anatomy study attempting to be applied.

I changed the position of both arms, I tried to play around with the angle of the head, I tried to just the hips forward more so that the spine had increased curvature, but the main issue, really, was that the initial composition lacked the dynamism in general. It prioritised dramaticism over dynamism. Both can exist in the same piece - it did not, in this one.

This was the new sketch I started with. Less rigid base to go off of. Just getting down the general shape I wanted to score - make the spine and tail take a sort of mid-whip path, shoulders hunched, hips cant forwards, as if he's curling in on himself. I think for a dynamic piece, it's more helpful that your initial sketch uses the body as a general marker as opposed to something to do lineart over (granted, I don't really do lineart anyway, my sketch is usually the extent of my "lineart", but since this is just looking at creating a more dynamic composition, I think it still applies!)

Here it's the same principle. For the left image (the legs) I've established where the knee of the right leg goes, and where the hip that precedes the left leg will sit. These are just base anatomical structures that help me figure out 1. Whether or not the mere idea of this composition will work, and 2. where I have to stop once I start drawing. For me, having some sort of limitation for the body helps me stay within range of proportionate anatomy (not that I particularly care for the anatomy to be realistic, just proportionate to the style I'm drawing in)

On the right image is also the same principle. Establishing the movement of the arm, the elbow/arm bend, and the hand. (If you see the full sketch before the two above, I established the hand in that one too - it really is helpful figuring out the placement of the hand ahead of time.) If it looks atrocious afterwards I always have the lasso tool/eraser to save me.

The new attempt brings me to this. While preference in art is subjective, I do think I'd be staying in SOME realm of objectivity when I say this is more dynamic than my initial sketch, LOL. Of course, lighting/rendering choices help push the composition a little more, but this achieves what I couldn't do with that first sketch. I had a general idea, but it's important to know when to let go of something that clearly isn't working.

Would love for anyone to add their own tips or ideas to this post - I'm not particularly known for dynamic pieces so I'm always looking to learn. This was a really valuable study for me so I wanted to share it, but everyone has their own method and what works for me may not work for the next person!

There's a few other asks that asked me for tips on general anatomy, and more specifically legs (oh dear god, I'M going to need to study for that before writing out any sort of resource guide for that, lol) that I hope to get around to doing in the near future. Thank you for your guys' vote of confidence, haha! ❤️

[kinky-pen]

Got any general Ouran headcanons?

More disorganised, general thoughts!

Tamaki:

When Tamaki found out about renfairs, the whole host club wasn't just dragged to one (I don't believe they're a thing in Japan, but I may be wrong), Tamaki made them help him organise one. Yes, Kyoya had thought he'd escaped budgeting for Tamaki's whims in adulthood, and yes he felt stupid for thinking that.

Paints his nails frequently. It's an activity he finds fun, but he also repaints them constantly because he changes his mind about the colour constantly! He also wants them to match his outfit, and god forbid he plan ahead.

Was raised Catholic in France, but finds much more love for the aesthetics and community than the religion himself.

Haruhi:

Haruhi was always androgenous, but she embraces her gender nonconformity and identity even more as they become and understands themselves. Lots of lovely suits, both masc and fem. (They do use all pronouns, also, but use she/they the most)

Keeps the short hair!! I know she grows it out in the manga, but the short hair is nicer, more in character, and Haruhi said on multiple occasions that they prefer it.

When she's a lawyer (not if, let's be real), she's actually scary good at employment law and making sure companies compensate and treat their worker's fairly (comrade Haruhi, everyone)

Kyoya:

Keeps a sketchpad handy a good portion of the time. He found art really relaxed him, and he's pretty talented at it, but he'll keep it to himself as it's something he actually considers for him, not profit or prestige.

Has had a crush on every member of the host club, at some point, except Hanni for obvious reasons (boo, you whore)

Has diagnosed depression, and is half convinced he has a personality disorder of some flavour. He can be a bit of a hypochondriac, however, and his doctors haven't confirmed anything as of yet. Who knows.

Hikaru:

Dyes his hair constantly, all sort of colours. Like Tamaki and his nails, Hikaru recolours his hair very often - as soon as he gets bored of it. It got to the point where he dyed it four times in a month, fried it all off, and had to get a buzz cut. He eased up a little after that.

Loves getting tattoos. He's one of those people that really love the sensation of it, and he also gets a cool piece of art on his body forever! Yes there's something wrong with him, he's seeing a therapist!

Loves spending time in his office, tinkering about with new things - whether it be finding new ways to put together certain pieces of hardware, or coding new software. He can disappear in there for days straight, sometimes (he has a mini fridge stocked with drinks and snacks, don't worry)

Kaoru:

Goes through phases of growing out his hair, then cutting it all off again. Changes hairstyles frequently. When you're head of a designer brand, you do have to balance keeping up with the latest trends with setting them, and I think Kaoru does well with both sides of that.

Loves flower arranging (which is semi-canon), but it's something he keeps up his whole life.

Kaoru actually does have some """mild""" HPD (that's the phrasing he uses, but he generally means he's high functioning) he's just like me frfr

Mori:

This man matures like a fine wine. Will always be attractive, honestly. He went from hunk to DILF to GILF effortlessly.

Still wins Judo competitions and such well into his early fifties, but decided to retire from competing at 53 due to some joint issues. Still keeps it up for fun and health, though.

Had a bit of a revelation about putting his foot down and protecting his boundaries during university. It actually helped him a lot with the self destructive tendencies he has in canon.

Hunni:

Living his best life with his goth wife! He just adores that girl so much and she'll kill for him! (Ask her to kill for you, Hunni, she really wants to)

Takes up baking his own cakes, which does actually save money in the long run - not that they need to worry about that.

Had a similar revelation to Mori in university, caused by Mori standing up for himself more. He realised that he can still be true to himself and what he wants, without running roughshod over those who care about him. He can still be a little selfish, but better than what we see in canon.

Also, as this is a kink blog and I don't really want to encourage engagement from people not into NSFW/are minors - please only 'like' this post if you're the aforementioned :)

[bebx]

So I'm not in the Harrow fandom but like, what would happen if he met Henry (or Eddie because I'm biased w my boys) or Jack?

Harrow is a crime show from what I can tell?

Just curious what your thoughts are.

*for my other moots and followers, this is about Henry Creel from Stranger Things, not Henry Morgan from Forever (though I love both Henry’s very dearly).

okay, a little background for my beloved Doctor Daniel Harrow (played by the one and only Ioan Gruffudd)

Doctor Harrow is the main protagonist of a series called Harrow, and he’s a talented pathologist who’s… well, highly stubborn, so he doesn’t follow the rules and always does things his own way. he can be reckless and arrogant, some people call him selfish (also a pain in the ass) but in a good way, and he’s a good person. (he’s also extremely gorgeous it’s insane.)

so basically in the show, we often see Harrow conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of each body’s death. except that sometimes (most of the times) Harrow does more than his job description says, and goes out of his way to investigate things by himself if he suspects a foul play was involved. and he’s always right and basically he’s the one who solves crimes with his stubbornness and recklessness and also his talent.

I love this show so so very much. it’s so very good, one of the best shows I’ve ever watched, and it means so much to me (and I need a season 4).

now back to your ask! I call it a sign because a crossover between Harrow and Henry Creel is actually something I’d been thinking about writing for like a couple of months now. then I got your ask and I was like ‘now this is a sign. I really have to write it into existence!’.

so here it is: a modern age AU Stranger Things where Henry and Harrow met!

anyway, I think, if we’re talking about canon Stranger Things, I think Harrow would never be okay with Henry’s actions, what he did (the massacre, which, for the sake of the plot, never happened in the crossover fic I wrote). he would never condone the abuse Henry went through, but that didn’t mean he’d think the massacre Henry committed in canon could ever be justified.

I mean… I don’t know, that didn’t mean Harrow wouldn’t understand either (understanding something =/= condoning or justifying something). because, in the series, Harrow himself also had his own dark secrets that he had to hide. so I think… Harrow would understand why young Henry felt the need to kill his parents. but adult Henry who murdered those kids in canon? yeah, I think that would be another story.

from how I see it, if Harrow could, he would have done anything and everything to stop adult Henry from hurting innocent people. that meant either he or Henry would end up dead, because Henry would have to kill him first if he wanted to go ahead and hurt those innocent people.

however, Harrow also had the tendency to do anything and everything to protect the people that he loved. so I think it would depend on who Henry was to Harrow. if Henry wasn’t a friend, then I think Harrow would stop at nothing until he stopped Henry (and yes, that meant either Henry killed him or he killed Henry). but if they were friends, then I think that would be where things got complicated. because while, in canon, Harrow used to break laws to protect people he cared about, what adult Henry did was still something I really don’t think Harrow could ever accept or condone. so, even if they were friends, I think Harrow would still do anything in his power to stop Henry. he would hope he could stop him by putting him behind bars so that Henry was at least alive and so that Harrow could try to help him walk the right path, but if his hands were tied and if stopping Henry meant killing Henry, I think Harrow would probably go with it still, only because he didn’t have any other choice. and then he’d probably blame himself, thinking maybe if he’d done something differently he could have saved Henry. but basically Harrow would end up with yet another lifelong trauma.

(good thing is that the angst isn’t this severe in that crossover fic I wrote, so don’t worry, they’re both okay there!)

moving on to Eddie Munson. if Harrow met Eddie, oh I think that would be interesting and nope, it wouldn’t be anywhere as angsty as his meeting with Henry, that was for sure.

I think Harrow would see Eddie as a son, and Eddie would see Harrow as a father figure of sorts, a role model even.

in the show, Harrow did (almost) have a troubled son whom he looked after. I think if he met Eddie and if Eddie had a rough childhood, was somewhat troubled, then Harrow would step in and look after him.

As for Jack Sparrow, I think these two would probably find each other annoying at first. But after some rum, I believe they would be some sorts of a chaotic duo who caused shenanigans together.

Harrow and Jack are actually alike in several ways in my opinion: both are stubborn, reckless and Harrow sure can be mischievous.

so yes, him and Jack together would be hella fun.

[shoechoe]

do you have any thoughts on diavolo and donatella's relationship, headcanons or otherwise? hard to say with so little in canon, but it must've been something pretty special if diavolo allowed himself to get close to her (as shortlived as it was...)

I absolutely do. I've talked about Donatella a bit in the past, so I'll link some relevant posts to this one here.

(x) (x)

But I do feel like I have more I can say, which I will put under a cut.

In some sense, I don't consider Donatella fully a character as much as I consider her a vector for the plot to get started. She doesn't have a single speaking line in the manga, she's dead before the story starts, and she's only brought up to elaborate on other characters- namely, Diavolo and Trish. Canonically, she has functionally no agency other than being a former partner to Diavolo and mother to Trish (both relationships we see as close to nothing of as Vento Aureo could possibly manage).

Donatella is, in my opinion, a combination of two common writing tendencies in Jojo: one, its tendency to throw in background female characters to have an unexplored relationship with a male character just so they can have a child, and two, the characterization of Diavolo in particular being full of "throwing in a bunch of things that imply something really interesting about him, but with a complete lack of elaboration that leaves the potential unexplored and intent vague" (as I've said before, that's a thing the series likes to do in general, but I think Diavolo has got it bad).

The most obvious implication with Donatella is the nature of Diavolo's past. As we see him in the series, Diavolo is aggressively paranoid of any and all connection with anybody else, including any knowledge about or contact with him. Him having a girlfriend briefly/one-night-stand(?) in the past suggests that he was once not this way, or maybe not as bad as he is in the present story. The knowledge of Donatella also comes with the knowledge that he used to have an alias he would use for interacting with people before he became the Boss and hid away from society entirely, which adds to this.

However, we already have things to suggest that he displayed odd and paranoid behavior even then; namely, him burying his mother under the floorboards at around the same time. To me, I always thought this suggested blood relations were something that always bothered him, though for what reason back then, I'm not sure. Still, this suggests he was never quite a normal person, making his brief relationship even more of an interesting behavior for him (with the implication that Doppio was the one fronting to the public most of the time, yet Diavolo being the one who had the relationship, making it even more peculiar).

We don't really know how long they dated for and we don't know exactly how Donatella felt about Diavolo after he abandoned her and left her with a child. Similarly, we also don't know how Diavolo felt about her; at most, we know his relationship with her is something that he regrets, and when he goes into tangents about how his past haunts him, he's usually alluding to said relationship with her. We do not know about what Diavolo thinks of Donatella as a person present-day.

Personally, I can't see Diavolo carrying particular sentimental attachment to Donatella in present-day Vento Aureo. By that point, he's too far gone to care about anybody, I think. If anything, he probably ceases to view her as an individual and more as a fragment of his past come back to haunt him. If he does have feelings about her as a person, it is likely contempt and frustration.

I have often seen it portrayed as a plot hole that Diavolo didn't just go ahead and kill her early on to save him the trouble; I actually disagree that this is a plot hole. Killing Donatella, I imagine, would only have caused him more trouble than it's worth. Wouldn't people get weirded out at him ordering for the killing of a seemingly random woman, tempting people to look into it? I imagine the only chance he really could've had to kill her was at the same time he faked his death in his hometown, but we don't know if he could've done that, given she was likely somewhere else in Sardinia at the time and he'd have to rush to flee without people noticing.

It is perhaps a little more character-contradictory that Diavolo was not paranoid about Donatella going to look for him until it was revealed she had his child. To me, I think that Diavolo could've not been concerned about her because he couldn't believe she would particularly remember him for so long after he just dated her for a few weeks; he didn't kill everyone in his hometown, after all, just burnt it down. One of Diavolo's shown traits is that he is utterly unable to understand other people caring for each other, so it makes sense he lacks understanding why Donatella would care about her memory of his younger self.

I have also seen it asked why Donatella did not go looking for Diavolo before she was dying. This is something that's not explained, so I find it a fair plot criticism. Personally, I think the most logical explanation is that she was looking for someone who could take care of Trish after she passed. It sounds like she was left without anybody that could take her daughter if she was gone, and so in desperation, she sent someone to search for Trish's father. This explanation would mean that it's less of a sentimental "I want to see the person I dated so long ago just one more time" thing and more of her last-ditch effort for anybody so Trish wouldn't be left orphaned. (It seems most likely to me that Donatella would have a complicated mix of resentment but also a sense of remaining feeling for Diavolo after he accidentally left her with a child. She doesn't seem to ever speak badly about him, but he did do something terrible to her by abandoning her like that.)

As for how Diavolo and Donatella met and got attached to each other... Honestly, I don't think very much that doesn't go into complete fanfiction-territory. That's something we are given literally nothing about. I like to think that Donatella was something a little special to him, even if she only managed to charm Diavolo for a very short time. It does feed into the tragic nature of Diavolo's character; the idea that he once had the inklings of someone who cared about him and he was/could've been happy with, but his paranoia and greed ultimately overpowered anything else, so any kindling of love was never meant to be.

This is pretty long now so I'll leave it at that haha... but that's how I feel about Donatella, generally. She's probably the background Jojo character I care and think about the most. (And I didn't even get into her relationship with Trish as a mother to her lol...)

[collectorcookie]

YEAH, I think people forget that Subaru can be unapologetically mean (most of the time he doesn't do it to hurt people though) and it makes his dynamic with Natsume soo.. so nice.

You. You ask me this knowing fully well i won't shut up about subaru once i start talking. Well. Long post ahead.

But i agree. I think most people won't know much about him besides the kira-kira front he keeps putting out (unless they actually read some other trickstar stories). And i mean, yeah he's super adorable and cute and energetic but he's been through A LOT. And that energetic front is some sort of a weapon for him.

Like, he's not pretending to be happy, he IS MAKING himself happy despite all. Despite all his anger at the injustices that took away his father's life and his mother's happiness. Despite all the suffering he endured from the press that kept harassing him and his mom after his father's death. Despite the industry that covered up his father's death as a mere scandal rather than facing the uncomfortable truths and corruption within the industry. And the ungodly anxiety always surrounding him because all people think about when they see him is "son of a murderer"

And where does that lead subaru? Nowhere, really. All alone with no one beside him and nobody to guide him anymore, he just clings to memories of the past for guidance and tries to follow in the steps of his dad.

Which is i feel like why natsume reached out to subaru in the first place. Subaru is a natural genius but unfortunately a weirdo loner at a corrupted high school, natsume is also a weirdo loner genius at a corrupted high school. And unlike subaru, natsume is not traumatised and really likes helping people and making them happy (he will never admit to this, the tsundere tendencies are off the charts), so naturally he reaches out to subaru.

AND THEIR FIRST MEETING IN ROCKET START IS JUST AKSHDGSKAVVDKFKSJDV

it's like.... natsume starts talking to subaru, subaru automatically puts out this positive attitude regardless of who is talking with him, right. natsume cares about subaru but god forbid anyone knows that natsume has feelings and cares about people, so he starts talking aaaall mysterious wizard stuff. Subaru immediately notices something is up with natsume, he's not sure what, but this guy is not to be underestimated and there's something this guy knows about him, and he instantly drops his happy facade and gets serious. The more subaru talks to natsume the more he realizes that natsume...is actually really nice. And so he goes back to his positive attitude. And it pisses natsume off, tsuntsun is not pleased lmao.

But their first meeting is so wiiild to me. Like imagine meeting someone for the first time and immediately they metaphorically strip you off and leave you naked and vulnerable. Like literally your first conversation with this person. And then you do the exact same thing to them. And now you're friends???? Profit.

You know those videos of cats snuggling their sad owners and then their owner happily tries to kiss it and now suddenly the cat is pissed that the affection gets returned? Subanatsu. With natsume being the cat.

But yeah sometimes people forget that subaru has years upon years of anger that he never really had an outlet for and that's probably why he likes violence so much. Like the one thing that got changed in the anime is the fact that when anzu went to meet kiryu (famed strongest most violent guy in the whole school), the anime portrayed subaru going in with anzu to meet kiryu to protect her. This literally doesn't happen in the main story at all. Don't get me wrong, subaru IS overprotective of anzu, like everyone else in trickstar. But he didn't go with her, he sent her there on her own and then was like "ok, if anything happens to you, scream, and then i'll come in and ambush kiryu with a bat". I want you to imagine that. This dude was standing outside with a bat fully prepared and thrilled to hit the academy's strongest guy. He literally sent anzu as bait.

And then there's that one time he wanted to bomb the student council (jokingly). And that one time he took a hammer in front of rinne out pretending that he's going to hit him. And like. Every time he fights with hokuto. I genuinely have no idea how these two HAVEN'T physically hit each other yet considering that hokke also seems quite fond of violence. And also how unabashedly confrontative he was when he met eichi at the council for the first time. And please never forget the time he meets nagisa for the first time and immediately calls poor baby nagisa a bastard in a very happy tone.

Nagisa. You know. Godfather's legal successor. Leader of adam. Leader of eden. The top unit at that time. Subaru has Zero Fears. I love he

And honestly seeing how often natsume hits tsumugi for fun i can see why subanatsu get along

subaru 🤝violence🤝 natsume

[sultrybaby]

Enhypen Jake boyfriend headcannons

💞Warnings: there are instances where the reader is advised to assume a certain character trait- even otherwise, it might not feel completely self insert (although I feel like that is pretty common in these headcannons so 🤷‍♂️), profanity💞 Word count: 300+ 💞Pairing: Jake x gn!Reader💞 Genre: Fluff,  (established relationship)

I always imagine jake having a sort of ritual with their S/O where he sends them pictures of random memes on the internet that he claims to look like you (the memes being like, psychotic, batshit crazy)

He seems to be someone who would put substantial effort into conversing with you when you're discussing an interest of yours that he is not familiar with. For example, if you were talking to him about a new movie that you watched that you are absolutely obsessed with, one that he hasn't watched  yet or isn't interested in,  rather than just being like "who's your favourite" (which of course, he will ask) he will also ask you what your favourite moment in the movie was- why that was your favourite moment; if fantasy, then he would ask of your opinion on the worldbuilding, "Were you okay with the pace of the plot, you know, as someone who only tends to watch long shows?" He takes lots of conscious effort into doing this, and is well aware- and proud- of it

I think he is one of those people who can tell whether you require advice or comfort, whether it is the right time for it, whether you would be okay with physical touch as comfort, whether a joke would be appropriate in the moment, etc just be observing the state that you're in- he just gets you.

He seems quite versatile in his social energy. Like I know he is an ISTJ, but he seems to be introverted in the sense that he requires time alone to recharge, rather than having a preference for being by himself (if that makes sense- like he had isolationist tendencies but nothing against social interactions). I feel like this makes him capable of complementing his partner. If you are extroverted, he would look out for how you are exerting yourself, whether you are going into people pleasing mode, whether you are socializing as a method of escapism and warn you to fix the problem properly. If you are introverted, he would find the right situations with the right people to help you learn how to not depend on anyone to get your point across, he would help you develop confidence without losing control, and help you maintain it.Hhe would tell you of plans three weeks in advance, and when discussing things you could do together, checks in his schedule way ahead to make sure you have time to mentally prepare for it. He will cuddle up and watch netflix with you after you cancel a plan last minute because it just felt exhausting.

I feel like if you are someone who is not good at communicating, then it will be frustrating for jake, and so the two of you will create a communication- comprehension system: you have to communicate certain things with jake, and jake offers to learn how to comprehend your behaviours. I think this will create some cute traditions like going to the same cafe after work on fridays and taking it slow, discussing work life until the cafe closes and then coming home at 8; Small sticky notes posted around by jake with his concerns, asking you to either tick an option or write something else in case you don't want to talk about it.

Taglists:

Permanent all works:

@thomas-the-tank-engene @goldenhypen

Permanent kpop:

@soobin-chois @one16core

Enhypen:

@yogurteume @annoyingbitch83

(taglists are open)

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 24

Hello all! Here we are, just two episodes before this fiasco of a season finishes, and if I'm being honest? This review is one I've been looking forward to the most.

Now, there is... not much going on this episode. On one hand is a lazy Akuma fight, on the other is a bad and overly dramatic play.

This episode is the one where the writers' go all in on trying to make the audience like and sympathize with Felix. And... it kinda falls flat on its face because it glosses over, retcons, and straight-up ignores all the times Felix has been nothing but a selfish, manipulative weasel whose actions have done nothing but hurt Adrien. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

One of the most prominent things about this episode is that it has Felix and Kagami detail the history of the Agreste family, and one thought was screaming through my mind after seeing all of it... Emilie was a spoiled BRAT.

To explain what I mean, the play basically starts off by implying Emilie and Amilie's parents were tight-fisted and controlling, so Emilie rebelled and forged her own path in life... but that's not what was shown. Beyond a vague comment on 'making' Emilie fall in line, by all accounts the Graham de Vanily's let Emilie run wild as a child and did nothing to curb her tendency to run away from her lessons to do her own thing, and even as an adult, they funded and enabled her desire to study abroad and see the world without a word of complaint. And she was the twin expected to be the family heir; by all rights, Emilie should've been under incredible scrutiny... yet her family let her get away with just about whatever she wanted.

The one time they put their foot down with Emilie? When she met and started dating Gabriel. The narrative likes to paint Gabe as having once been an idealistic young man... but given how he and Emilie apparently always kept Adrien isolated from other people, the way this situation is framed feels more like Emilie's parents finally had enough when she expected them to approve of her rushing to get married to a guy she had apparently barely known... and Emilie's response was to disown them. Not her parents disowning their disobedient daughter, but said DAUGHTER cutting out her parents for the crime of not approving of her boyfriend. Oh, and lets not forget how Emilie essentially stole a family heirloom to use as her and Gabe's wedding rings! Not a word of complaint from her parents then either.

And yet, when Emilie had fertility troubles, and swallowed her pride to come to her family for support, they welcomed her with open arms. We aren't given any word on what rejoining the family entailed or what responsibilities Emilie was expected to maintain, yet, despite not being made to cut off or divorce the husband her parents never approved of and being given all the support she required, the narrative treats Emilie as having made a great sacrifice.

Then... we get to the Amilie side of things. Unlike her sister, who ran wild, Amilie was a more quiet kid, and acted as the dutiful daughter her parents allegedly wanted, doing all she could to meet their expectations. We aren't given any word on how they treated her, but given how she apparently married a weapons manufacturer from the United States at their behest, the implication is that they were controlling... but given how they, I cannot reiterate this enough, did nothing to rein in Emilie doing her own thing all this time and let her get away with stealing a family heirloom, I'm willing to give them the slight benefit of the doubt that if Amilie had stated she didn't want to marry Colt or later asked for a divorce, they wouldn't have been against her doing so.

That brings me to Colt. Colt is presented by the narrative as a cold-blooded, black-hearted businessman who only cares about himself. Yet, prior to Felix being created, his big "crimes" amount to "makes weapons for a living" and "married a woman who didn't love him." Here's where I get to theorizing again; when Amilie and Emilie BOTH started having fertility issues, it was presented as a big problem for both of them, even though while the narrative insists upon how much Emilie wanted a child, and believed her and Gabe's "love" couldn't be complete without one, Amilie never seems to care about having a kid beyond meeting her family's expectations. Yet, when Gabe and Emilie manage to get the Peacock and Emilie uses it to conceive, a furious Colt later comes in and demands to know how they did it.

Gabe's answer? Coyly avoid answering the question by claiming "it's a miracle." Which, at it's core, speaks volumes of Gabe's personality. For a person the narrative treats as a former idealist and artistic soul, the only person who he seemed to ever show that side to was Emilie. To everyone else, even his own brother in law, he comes off as apathetic, sarcastic, and smug. It took Emilie basically demanding Gabe help them for him to do so (I'll give her props for wanting to help out her sister, at least), and even THEN, he refused to do so for free, extorting a promise of a bodyguard from Colt. How in the world is a man who would hold hostage the gift of life over his own family's heads for his own gain supposed to be a good person?

Even when he DOES finally give the Peacock to Colt, temporarily, so as to ensure Amilie can have a child, the closest thing to a warning he gives to Colt is that the Peacock "has a price for its use." This... this is where things get messy for me. See, what this implies is that, before Adrien had even been born, or just shortly after being born, Gabe and Emilie knew full well that the Peacock would have consequences for its use, possibly DEADLY ones. Gabe had YEARS to come to terms with the fact that his wife was most likely going to die, YEARS to prepare himself emotionally... and yet, when it actually happened, he shut down, and immediately started preparing on how to best go about ignoring all of her wishes to selfishly bring her back, for his own happiness. Because in the end, that's the cold hard fact of the matter; for all he tries to frame it as being all for Adrien, given how he had no problems keeping Adrien isolated and alone throughout his whole childhood and repeatedly tried to keep him from attending school with other people his age, it becomes apparent that he's just using Adrien as an excuse to justify his own inability to move on with his life.

And what makes his granting the Peacock to Colt so egregious to me, honestly, is just how vague he's shown to be. He didn't even tell Colt the thing was damaged and that there were risks involved in its use. He said nothing beyond "it has a price." Does Colt seem like the man who is knowledgeable on magical artifacts or lore? To me, he doesn't. So, what this comes off to me as is Gabe essentially deliberately giving Colt unhelpful advice because he knows it won't stop him. To me, it feels like Gabe set Colt up to DIE. It wouldn't be the first time; we know he masterminded the death of Fei's adoptive father in the Shanghai special, after all.

But yeah, that misinformation Gabe spread to Colt feels like it comes into play rather quickly; namely, whereas Gabe eagerly embraced the new child he and Emilie created, having full knowledge of what using the Peacock entailed and what it meant, Colt, who had no real clue as to how it worked beyond Gabe's unhelpful words, was wary and frightened. One could interpret his hesitance to embrace Felix's existence after it was confirmed Amilie was pregnant as his being worried he had somehow hurt his wife... or just plain having jitters about being a father, which is a very normal reaction. Not everyone in life leaps at the knowledge that they are going to be a parent, even those that want to be one.

Then we get into the details of the Fathom family's home life after Felix was born. I'll be blunt; child abuse is NEVER okay, under any circumstances, and how Colt treated Felix is entirely on him. No matter what mind games Gabe might've been playing with him, it was Colt's own choice to take his fears and paranoia and failing health out on his son, someone he was supposed to love and protect unconditionally. Shame that the writers seem to think child abuse only "counts" if it happens to someone the audience is meant to sympathize with...

I'm not gonna go into too much detail regarding Felix's life, since beyond being treated like crap by his dad and nearly dying when Colt accidentally cracks the ring he anchored Felix's existence to in a fit of rage, Felix's life has little to nothing to do with his actions; the show tries to present his arriving at the Agreste Manor as him looking for the Peacock in order to save his own life... yet he never once bothers looking for it, and instead spends his entire time going out of his way to ruin Adrien's social life and later stealing the heirloom rings Emilie had stolen to use as her and Gabe's wedding rings to give to his mother.

There's a LOT I could cover here. I've already covered a ton. So I'm gonna simplify my thoughts; I think that this entire story that Felix told is based on Amilie's perspective of things, and what it tells me is that I think Amilie was jealous of Emilie, or rather, jealous of her life. Whereas Amilie felt forced to do what her parents wanted, despite them letting Emilie run wild, and married a man she didn't love, whereas Emilie chose her own partner, it comes off as Amilie romanticizing and idealizing Emilie's life while ignoring how Emilie's attitude comes off largely as entitled to getting her way and honestly a bit selfish. Amilie wanted what Emilie had, and while she may not have resented her sister for it, that want covers every aspect of the story, in how it glorifies Gabe as this dashing romantic who came from nothing yet degrades her own husband as someone she was forced to be with.

Honestly, Colt comes off as someone who fits the mold of "good husband, bad father." Given how Amilie's parents were willing to let Emilie do just about whatever (side note: the play also glorifies Emilie cutting them out of her life, treating it as a big romantic gesture instead of an act of petty spite at them not being perfectly supportive in all things she chose to do), I wouldn't be surprised if Colt genuinely was interested in Amilie and approached her parents for her hand in marriage because it was what an "old-fashioned gentleman" and someone of high society and old nobility like the Graham de Vanily's are implied to be would be expected to do. It comes off as an infatuated rich man expecting to have a happy life with a woman who is only marrying him out of obligation, and when he learns that his, in his mind, spoiled and ungrateful sister-in-law and her husband managed to overcome her fertility troubles yet didn't share the method with her own sister, got pissed off about it.

I do not think Colt is a good man. But I think that, if the writing were more realistic, the situation would be far more complicated and gray then the show insists it is. In the end, however, we are only going off of what Felix says things were like... and given his track record for lying, I can't say I trust him at all.

Anyway, that's my monologue over, onto the review! As always, warning for my profanity.

Episode 24: Representation

Yadda yadda, normal pretentious intro that blatantly lies that Marinette is a "normal girl with a normal life."

Okay, opening with the news, and it's in Britain we are starting with. Props for them actually showing off the new location, even if I don't really care. Honestly baffled that the opening news story is about Paris' elections. I have to ask, is that any kind of normal?? From my experience, unless it's something genuinely major like the new leader of an entire country, most news organizations are not gonna give a shit about the election of a Mayor, even if that Mayor is for a country's capital.

Aanndd... the news is immediately shit by auto-hyping Ms. Bustier as "going the distance." Which is just... why? She's someone with no experience, no training, no background in ANY KIND OF POLITICS. What makes her seem a choice to "go the distance"? Also, apparently Tomoe and Gabriel have been boosting their PR Game to ensure that their preferred narrative is in control; now if only Gabe could apply that kind of competency towards being a villain, and he wouldn't be such a fucking joke.

"Perfect Love" NOPE NOPE NOPE!!! For fuck's sake, the way this show keeps throwing around "perfect" so much, it's rapidly becoming a berserk button for me. For FUCK'S SAKE, WHY ARE PEOPLE IN-UNIVERSE OBSESSING OVER A TEENAGE COUPLE SO MUCH!? GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!! THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE THEN ROMANCE PEOPLE!!!

Also, why are they describing Britain as "going over seas" for Kagami and Adrien? Granted, I'm shit at geography, but I'm pretty sure they are STILL IN EUROPE. If they'd gone to New York or something, I might've bought it. This, this is just fucking LAZY. Oh, and my obligatory ADRIEN CAN JUST HAVE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP WITH MARINETTE WHY IS THAT SO FUCKING HARD TO UNDERSTAND FOR PEOPLE!?!?

...Okay, someone who looks like Adrien saying "Kagami is the greatest love of my life," yup that's Felix, WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK ARE YOU DOING YOU FUCKING MORON!? FOR FUCK'S SAKE, YOU ARE ACTIVELY DAMAGING ADRIEN'S REPUTATION ALL OVER AGAIN YOU FUCKING JACKASS!!! Or maybe it is Adrien, and he's letting Gabe push him around because "reasons" again. Seriously, this whole Sentimonster shit is just BULLSHIT!!! Oh, and Plagg once again pointing out how Adrien lets himself get pushed around by his dad is spot on. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOY WHO BROKE OUT OF HIS OWN HOUSE TO GO TO PUBLIC SCHOOL, HUH!?!?

Yup, Kagami gets pissed off about the lies... then the Feathered Fucker shows up. Howdy Argos!! What hypocritical bullshit are you gonna spill today!? Also, for real, I cannot tell if this "interview" is something that Tomoe and Gabe whipped up on a computer and sold to news groups, or if they are literally spineless enough to just meekly go along with their parents' toxic demands, despite actively working to DEFY THEIR PARENTS IS LITERALLY THE ENTIRE CORE OF THEIR CHARACTERS!!! FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!

Aanndd Argos drew a heart. Vomit. I am literally feeling sick to my fucking stomach. Nope, NO FUCKING GIGGLING OVER THE ASSHOLE WHO LITERALLY GENOCIDED THE ENTIRE CITY NOT EVEN A MONTH AGO!!! HE IS NOT SOME MISUNDERSTOOD WOOBIE, HE IS A PSYCHO THE NARRATIVE IS TRYING TO PRETEND DID NOTHING FUCKING WRONG!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!

"I can never seem to go against my father," OH, I WONDER WHY THE FUCK NOT!? Also, that is blatantly untrue, since if he couldn't ever go against his father, HE NEVER WOULD'VE MET MARINETTE TO START WITH!!! "I can go see her as often as I want as Astro-Cat!" Or, you could JUST FUCKING VIDEO CHAT WITH HER!!! For fuck's sake, YOU CAN JUST HAVE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP!!! IT IS NOT THAT COMPLICATED!!!

Now, we're back in Paris, and apparently it's still night, I guess? This... what the fuck is this? How the fuck is this even happening!? I'm just totally confused on how the timing is supposed to be working. Marinette's still a weepy mess from the last episode, no sympathy from me because of the rampant character assassination from last episode, fucking deal with it people. I have no care for Marinette's feelings at this point because this series has just butchered her for the sake of dragging out this nonsensical drama FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME!!!

Marinette... shut up. Stop with the "fought so hard for this happy ending" you have done JACK AND SHIT up until relatively recently doing the bare fucking minimum, and have routinely blown every chance to do something meaningful because you are that much of a fucking disaster. Grow the fuck up, and get the fuck over your hurt feelings. If you ever thought convincing Gabe was in the cards, you are fucking delusional. This is the man who explicitly stated that he would ruin you if you kept trying to pursue his son and has kept his son essentially trapped for the vast majority of his life. You are an absolute moron if you thought there would be any other outcome by going for this option.

NO Tikki, she ISN'T brave. She's a fucking coward who has wussed the fuck out on every fucking chance to grow the fuck up and act her fucking age, and acts as if she deserves a fucking medal for "putting on a brave face for her friends" instead of admitting she uses other people to ignore her own problems while also forcing them to DEAL with her problems because she can't get the fuck over herself. What, you think she'll never love again!? BULLSHIT!! THAT IS NOT HOW LOVE WORKS!!! THAT IS NOT HOW PEOPLE WORK!! THIS IS A GUY YOU HAVE DONE THE BARE MINIMUM TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT AND HAVE KNOWN FOR LESS THEN A FUCKING YEAR, GROW THE HELL UP!!!

And of course her "friends" made a big spectacle out of her arriving, on the stupid fucking assumption that Adrien would be with her. For fuck's sake, I forget, did Adrien ever tell ANYONE that he was leaving!? Some friend. Some friends. This... this is shit.

Oh, and Argos and Kagami are spying on the dance, and Kagami is spilling Marinette's secret... oh, and the obligatory flashback detailing how she found out just makes her falling for Lila's lies about Marinette not being her "real friend" EVEN FUCKING STUPIDER because she is literally overhearing a damn good reason why Marinette doesn't tell her some things and isn't always able to spend time with her, and yet she falls for Lila's bullshit hook, line, and sinker. Someone get me a fucking drink.

"It's the only possible explanation." Yeah, because overhearing Marinette confessing to have a Miraculous still despite all the Temp Heroes being gone clearly has SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!!! Seriously, the way they try to frame this stupidity as some brilliant deduction instead of something being blatantly obvious is obnoxious.

"Do you think she can be trusted?" Felix, YOU HAVE NO FUCKING RIGHT TO SAY THAT WHEN YOU ARE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR GIVING HAWKMOTH ALL THE MIRACULOUSES BESIDES YOUR OWN, CHAT NOIR's, AND LADYBUG'S!!!

"We don't have a choice." No Kagami, you very much do have a choice, AND IT IS A FUCKING EASY ONE. Since when are you this much of an obnoxious idiot?! Oh yeah, since this season.

"My mother and Gabriel Agreste will never allow us to love each other." For fuck's sake, Kagami, YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW THIS FUCKING PSYCHO, AND YOUR LOVE LIFE IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THIS FUCKING SCENARIO, GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELF!!! They really are just trying to make her a re-skin of Marinette.

"Without you, I never would've had the courage to run for mayor!" Yeah, no. Fuck that. She had nothing to do with you running for an office you are entirely unqualified to hold.

Oh, and has anyone else noticed that Argos is still using the same transformation and de-transformation phrases as Mayura? The supervillain who has been enabling Hawkmoth? Huh, almost makes you think HE IS STILL A BAD GUY!!!

It's really fucking stupid how this show is already presenting Caline winning the election as a guarantee, or that she'd even have that much influence. Seriously, this show doesn't even pretend to present the complexities of being an elected official appropriately. The Ghost and Molly McGee presented how being an elected official works better, and it's aimed at the same target audience, so this sloppy presentation has no excuse.

Oh, and Marinette is now rushing at Felix, once more impersonating his cousin, and isn't stopping to question how the FUCK 'Adrien' could even be IN THE CITY when she LITERALLY SAW HIM FLYING OFF ON A PLANE!! Speaking of which, HOW AND WHEN WAS FELIX ABLE TO GET BACK TO PARIS WITH KAGAMI!? ADRIEN APPARENTLY LITERALLY LEFT TODAY, AND FELIX DOESN'T HAVE ANY FAST TRAVEL POWER-UPS LIKE ASTRO-CAT!!! God fucking dammit, they aren't even trying.

NOW her classmates notice that Marinette clearly isn't feeling well, bravo, much surprise. Much skill.

Oh, and Marinette walks in on Nathaniel and Marc holding hands, and they notice she's crying.

I'm just gonna say it, Felix deciding that THIS, essentially gaslighting Marinette with Adrien's image rather then just, you know, WAITING UNTIL SHE'S ALONE AND PULLING HER ASIDE, in order to draw her away from the crowd and talk to her is just plain fucking cruel. Because that's what this is; gaslighting. Also, just hit me that the writers' establishing that Kagami knew Marinette's identity (or at least heavily suspected) but didn't hit her with the "Alix Card" like they did Luka is a fucking blatant double-standard and retcon.

This gaslighting routine Felix has going is just disgusting. This is abusive. I have little to no sympathy regarding Marinette, and even I think that this is a needlessly toxic and cruel way to get her attention. Heck, he literally could've just placed himself somewhere in her line of sight in Argos mode and gestured that he needed to speak with her; this? This is just tormenting her for no goddamn reason. Fuck this asshole.

And now Alya and Nino are there, and they think she's just imagining things. GREAT JOB, FELIX!!!

"What if he's come home?" MARINETTE THAT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE. HE LEFT LITERALLY THIS NIGHT THERE IS NO WAY (as far as you know) HE COULD'VE MADE THE DISTANCE BACK TO PARIS!!! Goddammit these dumbass writers are almost making me feel bad for her. And all it took was them making the guy they went out of their way to go "no really, he's just misunderstood!" over emotionally torture her with the image of her boyfriend. Also, seriously, HOW DO PEOPLE NOT GET YOU CAN JUST HAVE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP!? IS THAT REALLY SUCH A STRANGE IDEA!?!?

Also, another thing that makes the time zones weird. I literally just looked up how long it takes to get to London from Paris. By car, it would take just a little bit over five hours. It really isn't that far, so why the fuck is Adrien in bright sunshine while the Parisian cast is currently in night time??

Also, I fucking hate how they keep using "ending" to describe things. Like, right after Nino suggests they find a way to go visit him (FUCKING FINALLY THEY HAVE NINO BE A BRO AND IT IS TOO FUCKING LITTLE TOO FUCKING LATE!!!), Alya describes this as "not the ending they expected." Because for FUCKS SAKE this is not the end of the world or even their god awful relationship!! They can call, they can video chat, they can text, heck they could literally just beg their parents to take a roadtrip and surprise him if they wanted it bad enough, WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE ACTING LIKE THIS IS THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD!?!? I can get and even accept that Marinette has a right to be sad, but everyone, and I do mean fucking EVERYONE, is treating this like it's the death of her precious relationship. It's barely a fucking SET BACK if they honestly want to pursue it still.

Oh, now we get Tomoe and Gabe throwing a hissy fit over their dolls children are missing, with Gabe going to look for Nathalie, who is sick in bed. Oh, and also watching those dumb as shit video diaries from Emilie. It'd be easier to by that she "just wants Adrien to be free" when she was complicit in Adrien living in isolation his entire life up until now. And her watching those videos on LOOP doesn't make Nathalie a good person, writers, she has known about them this entire time and STILL was fully complicit in Gabe's efforts to keep Adrien under his thumb. Stop babying her and have her face the consequences of her aiding and abetting a terrorist like a fucking adult.

Also, why the fuck is Gabe assuming Nathalie would know where Adrien is, or why she would even tell him!? Bullshit attempt at making her sympathetic aside, she's very visibly IN NO SHAPE to have helped him, and wouldn't tell Gabe anything. Oh, and Gabe FINALLY seems to FUCKING GET THAT NATHALIE IS NOT ON HIS FUCKING SIDE!!! Little bit late for that, Gabe, considering she once put you in a fucking armlock and called you insane to your face. Are you delusional or just stupid!? ...probably both.

And it's ONLY NOW that he takes the Ring from her. NOW. God fucking DAMMIT, none of this is adding tension. This is literally Gabe just being too fucking stupid in that he's only taking actions to consolidate his power AFTER DOING SO NO LONGER MATTERS. This man is not competent. This man is a rabid DOG that needs to be put down before he gets people killed.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng! I'm sure he went to find her!" Wow, it's as if it's the obvious thing to do after someone forcibly separates you against your will from your girlfriend! Seriously, this is not a big brain moment for Gabe, this is him realizing the fucking obvious way too fucking late, as per usual.

Okay, now we actually get a moment of Gabe using his brain by using an Akuma as a spying tool- Nevermind, he's just Akumatizing himself, AGAIN, to try and scare Adrien out into the open and obeying him, because OBVIOUSLY that won't backfire and doesn't involve him pointlessly putting himself at risk of getting captured and defeated for good!!

One thing that really baffles me about this current stupidity is how Gabe doesn't seem to question how Adrien would even be able to GET to Marinette, you know, considering that even if he left, Adrien would still have to travel from London all the way to Paris, and it's not like he can get on a plane in anything approaching a timely manner!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled instance of Marinette being gaslit by Felix!! Felix leads Marinette away from the party (still wearing Adrien's get-up), and Adrien himself arrives and overhears his "friends" talking about Marinette and Adrien not being there. Heck, Nino even mentions that they would've helped him if he just told him! Which, yeah, they would've, nice going leaving all your friends, not just your girlfriend, in the lurch like that bud. But I'm laughing at Nino going "his dad can't have that much control over him." Do- do the writers not understand how parental rights and guardianship WORK?? Unless they can hire a good lawyer and make a rock-solid case why Gabe shouldn't have guardianship over Adrien anymore, there is jack-shit they could've done... not that I think Adrien was thinking about that in the slightest when he made his decision to keep it all to himself.

Nighttormenter, and WOW that is a crappy name, having the power to make their worst nightmares come to life would be more effective if it wasn't limited to just them having an image appear briefly in their heads. Like, it's a fucking waste; this is a power literally BUILT for emotional torment, and could give insights into the thoughts of his enemies, and it's a fucking let-down because it does nothing other then make people collapse to the ground clutching their heads. Like, we KNOW he could've made it do more, we've literally seen a better version of this power with Sandboy, why the FUCK is this the best he can do!?

And after Nighttormentor runs for the hills to try and find where Marinette is (despite LITERALLY having a power that causes immediate debilitating suffering and Chat Noir right in front of him), Nino decides to get... sigh... "The Resistance" involved. Which I can't even pretend to take seriously.

Marinette rushing after Felix through the streets of Paris... what is the point of all this? Like, for real, he had PLENTY of chances and ways he could've covertly taken her aside and talked with her. All this? This is just torturing her by forcing her to run through the city (is she wearing HEELS!?) in the vain hope she'll see her boyfriend again after watching him be dragged away onto a plane before.

...It's the school. He went to all the freaking trouble of gaslighting her by imitating Adrien, leading her on a goose chase throughout Paris, crying her eyes out while dressed in clothing absolutely inappropriate for running through the streets at night, just to get to the school. (Inhales deeply) FELIX YOU ABSOLUTE MOTHERFUCKING COCKEATING PISS-SOCKET SON OF CANNIBALISTIC WHORE I AM GOING TO RIP YOUR SPINE OUT AND MAKE A BACKSCRATCHER FROM IT YOU PIECE OF UNSANITARY SELF-SERVING SLIME BALL!!!!!

Okay, glad I got that out. That was... a very ugly feeling.

Oh wow, the room he lead her all over Paris to had a picture of her and Adrien and now she's crying over it, way to go Felix, you must feel so proud of yourself! Hey, Kagami, what a catch, right? You must feel so happy your boytoy tormented your alleged friend, don't you? After all, you wouldn't go along with all this nonsense if you didn't approve, right? You wouldn't torture someone you call a friend just because, right? THERE IS SOME DEEPER, HUMANE REASON BEHIND ALL THIS, RIGHT!?!?

"The reason we're doing this Duusu is because we're hoping for a happy ending!" ...How. IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD DOES EMOTIONALLY TORMENTING HER AND MAKING HER CRY HER EYES OUT AFTER MAKING HER THINK HER BOYFRIEND CAME BACK FOR HER EQUATE TO A HAPPY FUCKING ENDING YOU PIECE OF FILTH!?!?

"Then it's wonderful!" Duusu... I'm gonna bitch-slap you.

"Oh Amok, let our thirst for truth take shape! I am giving you life so that you can bring the truth to light." ...Get the fuck out. GET THE FUCK OUT. SHUT THE FUCK UP, GET OUT, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THAT FUCKING CHICKEN SUIT NOW YOU CONDESCENDING PIECE OF SHIT!!!! YOU HAVE NO FUCKING RIGHT TO TALK ABOUT BRINGING THE TRUTH TO LIGHT WHEN YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT LIE, MANIPULATE, AND TORMENT EVERYONE YOU CLAIM YOU CARE ABOUT WITHOUT GIVING A SINGLE FUCK ABOUT THE INNOCENTS CAUGHT IN THE FUCKING CROSSFIRE!!

Alright, a reprieve from my burning anger, Nighttormentor is in Marinette's room and throwing a hissy fit over her creepy love shrine to Adrien. It'd be understandable if it weren't for the fact his hatred is because someone HE didn't pick DARES to pursue his "creation." And after briefly subduing Chat Noir, Nighttormentor once again misses a prime opportunity to subdue him and take his Miraculous, because obviously missing out on the perfect chance to accomplish his ultimate goal right here and now is worth being a parasitic control freak towards the poor boy who has the misfortune of being his son.

One dive through Voyage alongside Nighttormentor, and now back to our regularly scheduled bullshit!

...This is really the best he could come up with. Having an Amok put on... a bad play involving him and Kagami acting out roles on screen. Instead of, you know, just TELLING HER THE TRUTH!?

I would face-palm at Marinette automatically assuming she's looking at "Adrien" and Kagami if it weren't for the fact that FELIX HAS BEEN FUCKING GASLIGHTING THE HELL OUT OF HER ALL FUCKING NIGHT!!!

Okay, play begins, and he's... telling her about the backstory of the Graham de Vanily twins (Amilie and Emilie).

Now back to Nighttormentor! Somehow we missed a bunch of steps since Nighttormentor is staring out at fireworks on a rooftop, and Chat Noir is somehow far enough behind him he needs to make a running attack... Seeing how THIS occurred would be more interesting than whatever fever dream Gaslight Piss-stain and the Wind-up Doll that is his Girlfriend cooked up. And NOW the Akuma FINALLY focuses on what Akumas are MEANT to focus on and gives Chat Noir his full attention rather than wasting his time throwing his little hissy fit, and all it took was Chat calling him out on being a shit dad!!

The one thing I'll say about this episode, even discounting the gaps in fight scenes, the current battle between Chat Noir and Nighttormentor is actually entertaining. Like, him timing a Voyage to perfectly dodge Chat Noir's attack, and Chat Noir landing so hard he shatters the ground behind Nighttormentor, while snarling that he's a coward. Why can't we see Adrien LIKE THIS as a civilian, instead of a mopey brat? WHY!?

Back to the shitty play, apparently "Daughter One" was a wild child who went against her parents' wishes to live her own life whenever she could, whereas "Daughter Two" was an indoors kid who wanted her parents' approval. Still no fucking clue why Marinette needs to KNOW ANY OF THIS BULLCRAP. Oh, and apparently Marinette is actually invested in the play. Not sure why, since if I was in her shoes, I'd have been pissed and screaming at the two by this point for dragging her all over town, tormenting her by making her think Adrien was back, and taking her away from her friends... for a FUCKING PLAY.

And apparently Emilie and Amilie's parents were control freaks. No clue if that's true or not, or if it's the biases of Amilie bleeding into Gaslighting Shit-Weasel, who bleeds it into the play. Either way, it fits the "All Rich People are Evil Bastards (unless I say they aren't)" attitude Astruc has going on in the writing.

Okay, "Daughter One" is Emilie, and they described her immediately finding "true love in a humble tailor." Now, to avoid going on a screaming rant again, I'm just gonna summarize what's wrong with this scene: firstly, it once again pins "true love" onto a relationship and idealizes romance without engaging with the toxic elements that can occur, acting as if Emilie and Gabe's relationship HAD to have been pure and wholesome without any issues, because 'that's how romance works' or some shit. Secondly, it carries the common undercurrent of the show demonizing wealth and success by implying that the "Gabe" Emilie fell in love with is practically a different person from Gabriel Agreste, treating Gabe as having once been a kind, loving man... while once again ignoring how Emilie and Gabe both kept Adrien isolated and controlled throughout his entire childhood, and both were complicit in keeping him alone.

Oh, and the fact it had Kagami (As "Emilie") swooning in Felix's arms is fucking disgusting given how many unhealthy undertones there are to their "relationship." Also, Marinette seems to be catching on to who they seem to be talking about.

Second Scene: Apparently Gabe used to be a more altruistic designer whose designs emphasized how he worked to bring out and enhance the natural beauty of the wearer rather than dictate HOW they can be considered beautiful. Again, this scene carries the vibe of the writers side-stepping how much of a toxic control freak Gabe is to push the narrative that "fame and success corrupted him."

Third Scene: Emilie apparently gave up all of her prior connections to her family to live her own life. (Sighs in contempt) Yeah, I was kinda expecting this. It's exactly the same kind of vibe that Astruc pushes online and pushed in the form of how Chloe, Audrey, Zoe, and Andre are written; being wealthy and successful is inherently a "bad thing" and to be a good person you have to "give up your privileges and live humbly." I'm feeling a bit of spiteful glee at the fact that Gabe is really exactly the kind of person her parents would have approved of, going by the vibes I'm getting; a control freak who gained incredible wealth and success in his chosen fields and grinds anyone who goes against his design under his thumb. Also, them once again pushing the "wealth and success are bad!!" narrative falls flat on its face by the fact that their "successful trial run" to "prove" that giving up your wealth and "privileges" makes you happier (Andre) only gave up his office and still owns a ludicrously successful and important Hotel, and never actually made any kind of amends for the harm he caused, he just acted like he got his happy ending when all he did was get rid of a responsibility and leaving it up for grabs.

Fourth Scene: The Wedding Rings apparently used to be a single ring, for some reason, and Emilie apparently is of the belief that 'babies make everything better' in how she (Kagami acting as Emilie) said that "we only require a child for our happiness to be complete." Like, I get wanting a kid, there's nothing wrong with that. But acting as if you absolutely NEED a kid is not a healthy mindset, especially if you have no way of knowing if you are even really fit to RAISE a kid (newsflash, they aren't), and to me it illustrates that, despite claiming she's free and gave up her attachments to her family and their means, Emilie picked up way more from them then she realizes. They idealized having an heir, just as Emilie idealizes having a child of her own.

Pulling back the nostalgia shades that the writers seem to have placed on the scene, this scenario paints Emilie as a spoiled brat to me. It frames her childhood as having a lot of expectations placed on her, only for her to shirk those responsibilities and run wild, doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. Even if her parents disapproved, they never sincerely tried to stop her. Heck, when she got older, they literally let her study abroad and get away from them and live her own life. And when they finally put their foot down when she insisted a random tailor she met in Paris was her "one true love" she cut them out of her life in a fit of spite.

Now, I'm not saying she should've been obligated to do whatever her parents wanted, and I think that them insisting on putting the burden of being their heir onto her while apparently neglecting her sister was toxic and unfair... but Emilie, by all accounts, didn't have ANY of the typical burdens the heir to a noble or royal family would have, in the modern era or the past. But the ONE TIME it seems like her parents EVER really were strict with her, she cut them out of her life without a care in the world, and essentially stole a family heirloom to make into her wedding rings in the process. Heck, they might've disapproved of Gabe because they could tell he was secretly really toxic, we don't know! But the vibe this image paints for me is much less optimistic and idealized then the writers intended.

Now, back to Amilie's side of the story, without her sister around, and still eager to please their parents, she agreed to marry a weapons manufacturer (who is portrayed as such an obnoxiously offensive American Stereotype I'd probably be screaming if my rage hadn't reached the point of tranquility) that they introduced her to, Colt Fathom. Apparently her parents and Colt all wanted her to have a kid and were really eager for it. Colt is stated to be "heartless." Amilie is not presented as having wanted a kid herself.

...The reading this comes across to me is that this story is Amilie's perspective of her childhood, with her older sister living an idealized life of freedom and romance with someone she loved, while Amilie resigned herself to misery due to being unable to not please her parents and bow to their wishes. I'd even go so far as to say that the only reason that Emilie's portrayed as good as she is is because Amilie is projecting all her childhood resentment onto her parents and the circumstances they shaped for her, with the irony that Emilie really kind of WAS the heir they wanted in how not only was Emilie the family favorite, she even wanted to have a child, an "heir," just like their parents wanted. Or at least it is at this stage. I feel like I know what's coming up.

Okay, back to Nighttormentor, with him having apparently once again abandoned his focusing on Chat Noir in favor of his temper tantrum in tracking down Adrien. Oh, and Chat Noir basically unloading his problems with his dad through the veil of anonymity by ripping into how shitty Gabe is as a father. Naturally, Gabe doesn't give a damn about someone criticizing his parenting skills, but this scene would honestly be awesome if this was how Adrien acted around Gabe in their civilian lives instead of only having the guts to say it when Gabe is unable to recognize him.

Also, the fact that Gabe is sincerely delusional enough to believe that ADRIEN IS HAPPY with everything he's done is just plain disturbing. Anyone so twisted that they could believe being under another person's thumb like that is a good thing, that someone would be happy being so controlled, is fucked up in the head. This isn't the kind of attitude that comes from nowhere. This is how Gabe has always been, it's just only now that the veil of sanity is coming down. That "Humble Tailor" never existed; he was always a monster, he just used to be better at hiding it.

Okay, back to the play, and we learn that neither Amilie nor Emilie were able to get preggers. Amilie was probably secretly happy, since she apparently wasn't really all that invested in having a kid, whereas Emilie was more sincerely upset. After all their struggles, Emilie apparently swallowed her pride and went back to her parents to ask for help; the fact that they apparently didn't turn her away for defying them, let her keep her life with Gabe without any apparent strings attached, and even helped get her treatments to get pregnant... I'm thinking my "Emilie was actually a spoiled brat whose parents coddled her" theory is spot on. Even after essentially running away from home to be with a guy who would turn out to be awful to their future son, nothing yet indicates that they made her miserable over her choices and just accepted she was home. Heck, they could've demanded she give back the rings she took, but didn't, and unlike when Felix stole them, they would've been in their rights to do so given that the rings legally belonged to them in the first place.

Next we learn that Emilie "was pregnant" with imagery of the Peacock (REAL subtle there, Astruc), and apparently Colt got insanely jealous over it. Which, I can honestly understand to some extent; ignoring the confusion that Emilie and Gabe apparently created a Sentichild INSIDE HER to grow like a regular baby gives me, they apparently never bothered to share with Emilie's sister, who was also struggling to find a way to get pregnant, that they had found a means to overcome their implied infertility. ANYONE who honestly wanted a child and was left out of the loop of a means to do so would probably be pissed off and jealous.

Heck, honestly, his jealousy doesn't even seem to be for himself. He's jealous on behalf of his wife, that SHE deserved to have a child more than the spoiled brat who ran away from home and got hitched to a tailor she met in Paris and married with stolen rings. Even if his attitude his unacceptable, his feelings are somewhat understandable; not only did she run away from home, abandon her family, then come crawling back to get treatment for her infertility, when she FOUND a method to overcome, she couldn't even be bothered to share it with her twin sister? WHO DOES THAT SHIT!?

While his confrontation with Gabe was harsh, the fact that Gabe's response to being confronted was to act coy and essentially snub his stepbrother... yeah. I really do not buy the whole "used to be an idealistic, humble tailor" routine; I'm pretty sure he was totally fine leaving his extended family out to dry so long as his branch of it benefited. One positive point on Emilie's side, she apparently had the good conscience to eventually realize that keeping a means of getting pregnant away from her sister who (she thought) wanted a child herself after she had benefited from it and talked Gabe into talking with Colt about it. I'm honestly baffled on how Gabe knew that the Peacock "would have a price to pay" given that Emilie hadn't shown any signs by this point (since this was apparently shortly after she got pregnant and her "fading" took place over several YEARS), yet never actually bothered to TELL Colt what that price would be.

Also, apparently he was "given" Adrien's bodyguard in exchange for the Miraculous... because just hiring a competent bodyguard normally and giving his stepbrother and stepsister the thing that would allow them to have a child for free as a favor to his wife would be too big of an ask. Yeah, the vibe of "Emilie's parents opposed her marrying Gabe because they could smell the slime on him" is getting stronger with this scene.

And aside from being briefly freaked out over the idea of using magic to create a kid, Colt went along with it. The narration says that it was his jealousy that created the child (Felix) but given this is all second hand via Felix himself, it could've been anything. Similarly, when it shows him hesitating to touch Amilie's pregnant belly, the reasoning could be just about anything. Naturally, the narrative is gonna paint this as him being bigoted against his son, but the root cause is that we simply don't know anything beyond what Felix says, and I don't trust a word he says in the slightest. And the scene ends with the narration having both women give birth "to two boys as similar as their mothers were," which is kinda bizarre as I don't know why that would happen in the slightest, even if "jealousy" were a factor in the equation.

And NOW we get a scene showing off how fucked up Nighttormentor's power is with a fully detailed scene showing Adrien's nightmare. And apparently his nightmare is him getting Akumatized and ending up causing something like Chat Blanc to take place. ...Okay, back the fuck up, WHEN WAS THIS EVER HINTED AT!? Chat doesn't even KNOW about Chat Blanc, how could THIS be his worst fucking nightmare!? You can't say it's because of him being afraid of cataclysming someone, given he was fully willing to fly off the handle and do it to "Dark Humor," yet he's somehow upset he did it to Hawkmoth!? AND AGAIN, HE HAS NO WAY OF EVEN KNOWING WHAT A WORLD IN WHICH HE CATACLYSMED EVERYONE WOULD EVEN LOOK LIKE!! Why would THIS be his worst nightmare!? It's completely unconnected to all of his personal hardships and struggles!!

It'd make more sense (if make me roll my eyes) if his "nightmare" was him acting as Gabe's model son and breaking up with Marinette to be with Kagami... and then Marinette just shrugs, goes "I never loved you anyway, have fun being under your dad's thumb" with all of his friends abandoning him to his fate and laughing at him or something. THAT would fit his character more then having THIS scene crammed in out of nowhere. Oh, and apparently Nighttormmentor can communicate with the people he's put into nightmares? When was THAT implied, ANYWHERE!? If this were a reveal that Nighttormentor can somehow control what nightmares he gives people, it'd be a cool reveal and make for a good explanation as to why Chat's secret wasn't blown wide open. But it's not the case, it's just an excuse to have Chat lose his confidence and act like a weepy baby.

I seriously do not get why Nighttormentor didn't just yank it off of Chat's finger. There's no reason for mind games. His power just works, so obviously he can just take it and Chat's in no shape to stop him. This? All this scene does is neuter the one badass scene Chat has genuinely gotten this season for... dumb shit.

Now, back to the lame play that makes me want to light things on fire!

Alright, we're at the scene where we learn that Colt got sick from using the Peacock Miraculous, and projected his fears onto a young Felix. Fear that later turned to hatred. You know, I feel like this might've been avoided if Gabe had just explained to Colt what he meant by "consequences" especially when Colt was obviously able to puzzle it out himself when the symptoms started. Because Colt was right, he WAS experiencing the consequences, but it's not because he made a kid with Magic (I wouldn't be surprised if Colt thought it was some "equivalent exchange, life for a life" bullshit), but because the thing he used to do it was busted and thus dangerous to use.

(Inhales deeply) Yeah. This pisses me off. We have wasted... basically HALF THIS FUCKING EPISODE devoted to Felix wangsting about his life. Like, yeah, Colt yelling at him and calling him a monster (possibly worse) is incredibly fucked up. But given that prior episodes this season were whitewashing Felix's bad actions, I have a sinking feeling where this is going.

Okay, yup, looks like Colt became a toxic, verbally abusive control freak. Honestly, on the orders thing, given Colt was apparently so ill that the scenery of the play implies he was constantly bed ridden and on monitors for his vitals, I'm not certain how aware he was of all that was going on. Needless to say, Colt was an abusive fuck, but the way the play implies that Gabe was somehow better, when he helped contribute to all this by withholding the truth from Colt, was deliberately vague about the "consequences" his miraculous child would bring about to him, and even using the situation to extort a bodyguard from Colt... yeah, Colt's an abusive fuck. No doubt about it. But the way this play implies Gabe wasn't his own flavor of "monster" is infuriating.

Also, if they are trying to use this to imply why Felix dislikes Sentis being called Monsters, it rings hollow when he has zero fucking problem labeling the rich kids at the Diamond Dance as "monsters" despite none of them calling either him or Marinette monsters. Did they remind him of his father? Who knows? All I know is that the worst they did was act like snobby brats, and he took that as justification to try and murder them with his Sentimonster of a Red Moon.

See, what kills me about this scene is that, if Colt was such an abusive monster, then why in the world would Felix cop an attitude to Adrien during his debut attitude and try to shame Adrien over his father's death? Why did he go out of his way to impersonate Adrien and try to ruin his personal life? Why? Why!? WHY!? The one, ONE, possible redeeming trait regarding his behavior in that episode was him lashing out over his father's passing, but if his father was such a piece of shit, then that flies out the window and he treated ADRIEN like shit just for giggles!! I sincerely fucking doubt Colt ordered Felix before his death to ruin Adrien's life, so all that bad attitude was ALL him. Heck, the episode says he was trying to look for the Peacock; WHEN!? He never did ANYTHING to try and find it, he just spent the entire time harassing Adrien, ruining Adrien's personal life, and acting like a snobby brat (just like those rich kids he criticized/tried to murder) while Amilie tried to bully and emotionally manipulate Gabe into handing over the family rings that Emilie had taken when she ran away from home and eloped with him.

..."He had to steal other magical objects to make an exchange." THE ABSOLUTE FUCK HE DID!! He KNEW Gabe was Hawkmoth, he KNEW Gabe wouldn't recognize him under the influence of a Miraculous, he had the PERFECT Miraculous to steal the Peacock and get away with it, THERE WAS NO FUCKING REASON TO MAKE AN "EXCHANGE!!" He literally only did it because he could, and mocked Ladybug over it. This!? THIS IS BULLSHIT!!! THIS IS UTTER HORSESHIT!!! THIS IS COMPLETE AND UTTER DOGSHIT!!! SHIT!!!!!

"The day I lost the Miraculous!" No, Marinette, the day Felix STOLE THE MIRACULOUS and gave them to Hawkmoth in a pointless deal he could've avoided but didn't because he didn't give a shit if he made the lives of you or the rest of Paris harder in the process.

Now, we get a scene of Nighttormentor oh so carefully reaching to take the Cat Miraculous, when the Resistance shows up, and the best Nino can say is "Why do you have to be so mean to people!?" Wow, much impress. What a great burn.

Oh, and he just stood there and let them throw stuff at him when he's the one with superpowers and literally has the perfect power to incapacitate them with. And whatever badass factor he gained this episode (Negative 1, but he's normally negative 10) just dropped down nine whole points. What a fucking joke.

"And the miraculous boy met a girl like him. They fell in love." No. No you didn't. That is as rotten as you claiming you came to Gabe's house to find the Peacock to try and save your life, while ignoring how you did nothing the entire visit besides steal the rings for your mother and tormented your cousin and damaged his social life. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up, right now.

"Just like the curious princess and the tailor before them" KAGAMI JUST STOP! STOP IDEALIZING THAT ABUSIVE PIECE OF SHIT!! YOU KNOW HE IS AN ABUSIVE PIECE OF SHIT!!! YOU LITERALLY JUST TOOK PART IN A PLAY DETAILING HOW HE'S AN ABUSIVE PIECE OF SHIT!!! STOP!! IF YOU REALLY ARE "JUST LIKE THEM" THAT IS A RED FLAG THAT THIS RELATIONSHIP IS A BAD ONE!! JUST FUCKING STOP ALREADY!!

"They just wanted to be free." Kagami... Felix already WAS free by that point, there's no way Gabe would ever bother undoing him, and you had made a point of already breaking the limitations your mother set for you, AND unlike Gabe and Colt, she actually let you have your Amok, so she never enforced orders on you. You can't pretend that Felix has done ANYTHING to help you be free. He hasn't. He's just put you in a new cage, and made it look nicer.

...This entire stupid as hell play to explain information Marinette never needed when they could've just told her "we're sentimonsters, Gabe is Hawkmoth, PLEASE stop him. Please." Fuck this shit.

And now Felix and Kagami are doing the echoey voice thing that has them talk to Marinette while not even being in the room. Fuck that. Fuck this. Fuck these shitty writers.

Oh, and the writers trying to draw parallels about having "to lie all the time," which in this context I guess is meant to imply that Felix and Kagami are "forced to lie," despite nothing implying that's the case, when Felix has rather gleefully lied and manipulated others in the past, and Kagami is no longer under any threat of being compelled to lie and is just enabling her mother's abusive attitude (I would normally never go there, but the writing is just that bad).

Now it's morning, Gabe was defeated without Ladybug, and all of Felix's attitude about the rights and plights of the Sentis is a load of shit as the utterly meaningless Sentimonster he created was erased as soon as he no longer needed it.

"Will she have the courage to face the father of the boy she loves?" Given that said "father" is an abusive piece of garbage who has threatened her career, her love life, her actual life (as both Ladybug and Marinette), and her friend's lives for MONTHS NOW, I'd say she is fully willing to face him because NOT FACING HIM IS NOT AN OPTION YOU FUCKING MORON.

And Argos and Kagami share a kiss. Please wait a moment while I hurl.

...Oh, and Adrien has a panic attack/PTSD episode when he tries to go tell Marinette the truth. Ah yes, because clearly an artificial and utterly nonsensical nightmare that Gabe crammed in his head with Akuma powers regarding a knock off of an alternate future that technically never happened would totally traumatize him to the point of being unable to confess the truth to his girlfriend and there's no way this isn't the writers forcing more needless drama in place!

...They are seriously fucking going with "Ladybug didn't undo the Akuma's damage, the nightmare's still there!" Dude, if that were the case, YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO EVEN MOVE YOU FUCKING IDIOT.

"You were right Plagg, I can't tell Marinette I'm Chat Noir, and I can't disobey my father either." ...THOSE TWO THINGS HAVE JACK AND SHIT TO DO WITH EACH OTHER YOU FUCKING JOKE OF A SUPERHERO!!! YOU HAVE BEEN DISOBEYING HIM SINCE THE START OF THIS SERIES!!! THIS SERIES ONLY EVEN BEGAN BECAUSE YOU DISOBEYED THAT ABUSIVE PIECE OF SHIT!!! AND THAT FUCKING NIGHTMARE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH EITHER DISOBEYING YOUR FATHER OR TELLING MARINETTE YOUR SECRET IDENTITY!!! GROW THE FUCK UP!!!

And now that the episode is over, we end on a scene of Kagami and Adrien being put through "White Torture." What WONDERFUL parents they have. What fucking bullshit.

[purity-town]

Ask responses are typed up & under the cut!

I'm happy I was able to work in some more of the NPCs even if it was just into the background, so I'm glad you're liking seeing them. And yes! I don't have specific measurements on anyone's heights beyond a vague “X is taller than Y,” but she's the tallest member of the cast, all divinity and ancient magics and humanoid-but-not-human. And thanks for reading; I'm glad you're excited for the next chapter!

Andrew much prefers to deflect over lying outright, but if pressed claims to be 26 with a summer birthday (putting him as “29” in the comic now as he's lived in town for 3 years). Mid-twenties roughly aligns with his physical age, as he slowed and eventually stopped aging around that point, so people don't have any obvious reason not to believe it.

In the past, Andrew usually just moved around every long while, assuming things were otherwise peaceful. The jump from “this guy is weird and aging gracefully” to “this is an immortal being inextricably tied to this world and its fate” is quite large, especially since Andrew mostly kept to himself.

Living in Purity Town is a first in many ways for him, particularly in that he's serving an actual purpose to the town and has to both interact with people and stick around for the foreseeable future. Under normal circumstances he would absolutely gracefully arrange his leave, but then once you throw the hero being present into the mix things just get messy.

Honestly, with enough time he probably would come clean to the townsfolk. If he explained it to Chris delicately enough initially, Chris (and Alalia!) would eventually back him up and that'd likely do a lot to sway folks. Between their input and him having just…been around town long enough to show that he’s not a bad person and actually form some relationships, I think it would go okay.

Thank you!!! I'm glad you're liking the comic so much!

Honestly, I have no idea! It's probably a combination of factors in my art style (like my tendency to use solid/clean lines and keep painted portions to the background) playing nice with however Tumblr crunches images. I know that Webtoons struggles a good bit more with my pages due to color/resolution limitations, but Tumblr’s always been pretty good with it. That's all just a rough guess though; I couldn't find your art on your blog to examine so I'm just throwing out ideas!

Possibly relevant, each page is 2320x3587 pixels (350 dpi) after I trim the edges and export it as a .png. Downloading pages from Tumblr saves them as a 1987x3072 (72 dpi) jpeg, but preserves the fine details pretty well. So that’s what we’re working with here!

(Interestingly, after some testing I found that Reddit preserves the higher resolution of pages, but crunches their colors around areas of shading, while Tumblr smoothly fuzzes them when it downscales.)

I'm happy to see more folks caught what I was going for there! I didn't draw much of her shimmered design since she's mostly covered and under some heavy effects, but it was cool to work with. Here's a snippet of her shimmered design in that panel without the effects, since I had it on hand already from a comment a while back.

Thank you!! It feels crazy to me that it's been going on so long, but I'm really happy to have continued with the comic for so long. I'm also happy to be done with college, haha -- I’m liking my new job a lot more than the school grind!

Thank you so much for this!! It’s super touching that you’ve stuck around so long -- I definitely recognize the folks I’ve seen popping up in my notifications over the years, and I’m really glad that people are liking being along for the ride. I’ve learned so much through working on this comic and I’m really really happy that other people are enjoying it too, because I love these characters and this world and this game so so much.

I’m not articulating this well but- thank you for this! I hope that whoever you are, you’re doing well, too :)

Go right ahead! Though this serves as a reminder to myself to make sure that all of the pages on the various sites are all updated, since I usually go back through after a chapter is done to correct little errors, haha.

I totally understand if you want to remain anonymous, but if you need files or anything give a shout here or on Discord (@ariibees)! Purity Town is somewhat formatted for print by virtue of having pages instead of vertical-scrolling but I know that the chapters are kinda short and pages would probably need to be re-formatted around the edges to fit book binding.

All that said -- if you end up going through with it it'd be insanely cool to see how it turns out, if you're comfortable with sharing!

Chapter titles are done in Albertus Medium (with the exception of the "Purity Town" text and character intro bubbles, which is in the Terraria font Andy Bold). Speech bubbles use Segoe Print. There's not really any concrete reasoning behind the fonts I picked (beyond the obvious choice to use the Terraria font), I just chose ones that looked good enough, haha.

[sanguine-tenshi]

Right so, I'm playing through the game for the second time and i have... opinions. I'll put all of it under the cut since I know some people are waiting for the full realease.

Final warning, spoilers ahead.

Okay so, I'm not exactly happy with how the main plot turned out, primarily because of Pen.

To begin let me say that I'm not a fan of Pen. He's a good character, but god is he cunt. He is entertaining tho and I kinda do miss seeing him around town.

Anyway, when Logan and Grace were explaining the whole thing to you I was fully expecting Pen to be a red herring.

I just kinda expected for them to make Pen this convenient, prideful idiot. Someone the main bad guy manipulated to their ends.

I expected for his backstory to be something along the lines of a weak kid who failed at protecting someone/himself growing up and working towards becoming this big strong muscular guy only to fail again. There being something about him losing to Heidi or Hugo or someone like them, ya know, some bad guy with inhuman strength. Like maybe some bandit or something attacked Sandrock, he tried to protect everyone and failed because the person was genetically altered. Maybe even somehow tie it into the Duvos plot.

He heard about Vivi inhaling fumes and because of that Hugo and Heidi came out overpowered, so he's like al'ight imma do that. And so he goes off into the dessert, because no matter how much he works on himself he'll never be enough. Instead he stumbled onto this ancient weapon.

He plays the whole trip as some sort of training trip, as him finding the secret to strengthening his body or something. He keeps the weapon a secret partly because he is a part of the church, but mostly because Pen WANTS to be The Protector of Sandrock. He wants the credit. He wants the praise.

This way it's explained why he has the weapon and also why he blamed the tower incident on Logan.

And if they had done that they could have used the fan theory of Pen and Owen being brothers (with a strained relationship). That way you can fluff up both their backstories. Hell, throw Logan into the mix as well. Like maybe despite Pen being a small sickly kid he always got himself into trouble (his delusions of grandeur being ever-present) and so either Owen or Logan or both had to save his dumb ass.

And maybe Owen still has those overprotective brother tendencies Pen accidentally trained into him.

And you can still get him tangled into the Miguel plot, but make him the useful muscle headed idiot. Like maybe Miguel is just manipulating him, maybe he found out about the weapon and is blackmailing Pen, depends on which direction you prefer.

And then you have a line for a legit redemption arc for him, as yes he did a bad, but he's still redeemable.

Idk, I just feel there's a lot more to play around with this way and they wouldn't have to just drop a whole ass character at the end of the game... again.

And even if you disregard all of my ramblings so far, it straight up just doesn't make sense for Pen to be the one to poison Howlett. I'd expect that from Matilda, but definitely not Pen. For crying out loud! I'd expect him to punch Howlett to death and then play it off as 'Oopsie! Daddy got crushed by rocks! Guess he shouldn't have been sniffing around old ruins, huh? It's almost as if old ruins are dangerous and stuff. Who could have guessed that one?'

Also, all focus is put on Pen when Matilda is supposed to be the main villain. There's just not enough of her being the bad guy. The set up is great for her, yes, but all we really see of her villainous self is her betraying us during the Duvos fight and the final robot fight. Outside of that all the focus is on Pen and I just don't get that. Like either commit and make him the main bad guy or let Matilda actually do something.

Like I'm hoping they are holding back stuff for the main release but I doubt it.

Anyway, that's my rambling two cents. Thoughts? Opinions? Agree? Disagree?