#i had ideas like what if she learned she was a contortionist

[mask131]

What Oz could have been: The Great and Powerful

I first heard about the original script for Disney's "Oz The Great and Powerful" through a fan art of Theodora by the brilliant artist hwilki65 over at DeviantArt. The fan-art in question is gone now, but do not hesitate to go check the artist's gallery over at DeviantArt, he is one of the most thorough Oz artists of the Internet with tons of clever and beautiful takes on the Ozian world.

Everybody remembers Disney's "Oz The Great and Powerful", right? This Disney movie that attempted to be a prequel to the MGM movie, and yet couldn't really because Disney didn't have the rights? This VERY divise 2013 movie which was a big flop in terms of Oz adaptation? You remember, this thing which took a very cool concept of prequel, a lot of beautiful visuals and impressive visual effects and just... drowned it in cliche plot points, wasted opportunities and the most insufferable characters you ever met?

Yeah, this movie.

In his description for his fan-art, hwilki65 evoked the original scenario for the movie. His fan-art was of the "original" Theodora, not the one from the movie - and while the final product might seem like a simple cash-grab attempting at reclaiming the MGM heritage, these early drafts proved that the movie ACTUALLY started out as much more faithful to the Oz books and more sincere in its attempt at reconciliating the various Oz heritages into something new.

Of course, the idea of a better original version of the movie, that eventually was butchered into the story we can see today, was very intriguing. So I checked out the original script for the movie (but not after YEARS of searching it around, because it wasn't disponible online at first). And OH MY! The original scenario is indeed very different from the final movie, and quite better in term of overall quality! I did a full breakdown of this script back at my Oz side-blog (@witchesoz ), but to give you a taste of what we lost, and to encourage you to go seek this original scenario, here are some key points different from the final movie:

Oscar, the Wizard of Oz. In the movie? A selfish, greedy, womanizing jerk who starts out as the villain of the story, and his evolution arc is basically just him learning to be a decent human being. In the original script? He was such a positive character - in fact I will dare say he was a saner and cleaner version of Jack Sparrow. He was this kind-hearted, goofy, extravagant stage magician VERY good at his job (he was also a ventriloquist like in the novel, AND an escape artist/contortionist), but unfortunately unappreciated by the folks of 1900s USA, so he was forced to do snake-oil selling just to survive. He wasn't motived by greed or lust, but by his day-dreaming and ambition at being the greatest magician of all time, acclaimed by the masses - and the reason he played into "Yes I'm the Wizard of the prophecy" wasn't because of some girls or riches, but simply because Oz was the first place where his magic tricks actually impressed someone.

Remember this little winged monkey fella that Oscar saves the life of in Oz, and so the monkey swears a "life debt" to the wizard and becomes his funny sidekick? In the original script it was the reverse situation. Oscar was helped by a winged monkey, and thanked the talking animal for saving his life, swearing he had a "life debt" TO THE WINGED MONKEY, not the reverse.

In the final movie, when Oscar is in the tornado, he just whimpers and begs for his life. In the original script? He underwent a King Lear-like monologue, insulting the winds and defying the storm, insulting the tornado and daring it to kill him.

Theodora... Oh, Theodora! The character was originally designed as the very opposite of what she ended up as. She wasn't a shy, naive, nice girl - she was this strong, confident, majestic witch. Oscar didn't manipulate her like a teenage girl: she was the one who manipulated Oscar like a puppet by pretending to be a good witch and forcing him into the role of The Wizard of Oz. Yes I say "by pretending" to be a good a witch. Because originally, Theodora was a wicked witch FROM the start. She knew and was in league with her sister's evil plan. The only difference between the two is that Theodora, as the younger and less experimented sister, still had some humanity left in her - feelings of kindness and human decency that the wizard managed to "wake up" by just... being nice to her and treating her like a regular human being. There was the whole "I give you the music box" scene, but it was the reverse? In the original draft Oscar didn't lie, he just gave her a random music box as a gift for helping him in Oz, just out of kindness without expecting anything in return ; and that DID touch Theodora because indeed, since she is a wicked witch, she never had such a genuine gift out of pure kindness.

Originally we would have the backstory of the Cowardly Lion. Theodora, wishing to "test" if the Wizard truly had powers or not, secretely turned a rabbit into a lion, and had it attack Oscar while he was alone and presumably defenseless... Only for the Wizard to shoot it with a gun, causing in this rabbit-lion the fear of humanity.

Originally the servants of the Wicked Witches were the various terrible tribes of the novel "The Emerald City of Oz", monstrous outsiders the Witch sisters had Oz invaded with. The Growleywogs, the Whimsies, the Nomes (well rather the Gnomes)...

In the movie Theodora "turn to evil" is literaly just "Oh, a guy cheated on me, I'm heartbroken, let me nomnom on some evil". In the original draft? SO MUCH BETTER! Evanora, noticing Oscar had rekindled the last piece of goodness in her sister, first tries to convince Oscar he should kill Theodora because she is "in league with the wicked witch". When Oscar refuses to commit murder, Evanora tries to convince Theodora Oscar was trying to kill her... But Theodora doesn't buy it and, even though the Wizard knows she is a Wicked Witch, she still helps him escape Evanora in return for the kindness he showed her. And afterward, Evanora spends many, many scenes abusing her sister, at first verbally, psychologically, finally physically, to convince her to give up on the last of her humanity and enter a deeper, more monstrous stage of wickedness. Theodora does end up burning her skin due to the tears - but they're the tears her sisters make her shed with her torture. And Theodora resists' Evanora poisonous words, only to give up when Glinda causes a siege on the Emerald City and the Witches must prepare themselves to directly confront and fight Oscar.

And can we speak about Glinda? She was SO MUCH closer to the Glinda of the books! She was this majestic, beautiful and powerful warlord-witch living in a grand palace in the south, all on her own (because, since she is a witch, she literaly needs no servant). As soon as she saw Oscar, she cut through his bullshit and shoot down his dream of grandeur, because she knows what real magic is (all Witches do, but the Wicked Witches played along to better manipulate Oscar). She gathers an ACTUAL army of thousand of people to besiege the Emerald City ; and during the war she uses so much more her powers, bu unleashing blinding mists and huge snowstorms, and literaly stopping or unleashing the winds. Oh yes, and all possible romance between Oscar and her is also clearly made impossible when it is revealed that Witches cannot kiss humans - else humans DIE (which also puts Theodora's loneliness under a new light).

Oh yes, and in the original draft, Oscar's development was actually him going from this ambitious daydreamer who only wished for a fantasy land to escape to, where he would be a great and acclaimed wizard... to him actually being fed up with Oz where everybody wants to kill or manipulate him, and dreaming to return to Kansas to settle down with those he truly love, and live there a mundane, quiet, normal life, as a regular man... Something he ends up being forced to give up, because he is needed to prevent the Wicked Witches from overtaking Oz, and so he literaly is trapped within his own dream and forced to give up what he realized too lat was what he wanted all along...

Seriously, the original draft for the movie was SO INSANELY COOL. It was still a rough draft and it had pacing problems, and some cheesy stuff that definitively needed to be cut, and also some weird phrasing that made it sound somehow racist sometimes? But outside of that, the characters and plot were truly so much better than what we got!

[randoimago]

Request:

Seteth, Shamir, Ignatz & Ingrid notice a crowd of people forming a ring around something. Becoming curious, they decide to walk over & check out what everyone's looking at, only to find their S/O in the middle, doing some VERY painful-looking contortionist poses with absolutely no difficulty whatsoever.

(They had no idea their S/O was a contortionist, just so there's no confusion in what I'm asking)

Learning that S/O is a Contortionist

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Character(s): Ingrid, Seteth, Shamir

Type of Request: Headcanons

Note(s): Contortionist are crazy and I love them, I hope they never get any cramps. Contortionism (?) is just so wild and just watching it hurts

Ingrid

Honestly was very curious with the sudden crowd. She was trying to do some shopping and now there was people in the way. Doesn't even think about being annoyed because she very much wants to see what's happening.

And then she gets closer and has to hold in a gasp when she sees you literally bending over backwards and moving your upper body between your legs, yet still keeping balance.

There are a thousand questions running through her mind at seeing you like this. The first is if you're okay, but judging by the smile on your face you seem fine.

As much as Ingrid wants to stay and watch, she still has things to do. She does do her best to make eye contact with you - which is pretty difficult since your poses make it so she'd have to crouch to get your attention - but she tries to get your attention just so you know she saw so hopefully when you're done you'll find her to talk.

Seteth

With how long Seteth has lived, he's seen many different types of performances. He's seen people juggling fire, he's seen circus's with elephants balancing on giant balls (which he tried to explain the trick to Flayn, but she kept shushing him).

Seteth has seen some contortionists in his time, but that doesn't stop the surprise when he sees you it's you doing the performing.

He had wanted to talk to you about something or other, but it ended up leaving his mind when he joined the crowd gathered around you. Some people were throwing some coin to tip you for your performing and that gave Seteth some amusement, but he mostly stayed silent.

Is a tad upset that you didn't share this talent with him before. This is something that is very interesting and he knows you put so much work to pull off some of these bends and stretches. But he doesn't want to scold you and instead gives you a smile should your eyes connected and continues to watch.

Shamir

While she hasn't lived long enough to see a bunch of things like Seteth, she's still well traveled and so she's seen many things thanks to that.

Shamir is perceptive and so she caught on to you being more flexible than most, she just didn't realize how flexible until she ended up being pulled along by Catherine to the group of people watching some performance in town.

Does raise an eyebrow as she watches you bend and perform. She couldn't decide if some of your bending made her wince in pain or fill with envy because she really could use some good stretching.

Shamir doesn't linger in the crowd long, this is a talent you have that you didn't tell her about so she figures there might be a reason it hadn't come up. So she's not going to let you see that she saw so you can bring it up when you wish to.

[afairytalestray]

Day 13 of @storyweaverofgondor‘s Cats-pril - pipe! I can only apologise for how weird this idea was. I’ve seen the hc before of the pipe being like a portal between the 1998 and 2019, and I’ve written this wild forbidden tuggoffelees thing with it before, so that idea was kinda the basis for this wee drabble! Also on Ao3 here.

..

It was known, in the Junkyard, that falling asleep in the large pipe next to the tyre caused strange dreams of alternate realities. Most Cats who had napped there, accidentally or on purpose, could recall, in vivid details, what they dreamt of. It was almost like they were transported to some eerily similar world, although their bodies never physically left the Junkyard. They would become an alternate version of themselves, sometimes with a radically different appearance, and interact with the other dream-versions of the Jellicle tribe. Sometimes, the dreams were just a bit odd, like the time George had dreamed that they all lived on a rooftop instead of the Junkyard. But others were quite upsetting: Bomba had been shaken for days after she had dreamed she was an agent of Macavity. Everyone reported that their experiences were so lifelike that waking up and coming back to reality was a bit disconcerting.

Munkustrap himself had doubted it at first. He was sceptical, especially after Tugger had gone around telling everyone that he had been a circus strongman, and Misto a contortionist, but his curiosity had won out in the end. That night, when everyone was in bed, he had snuck out to the pipe in question, crawled inside, and curled up. At first he had thought he was mad, waiting for something to happen. But then he fell asleep.

The only word he could use to describe the experience was bizarre. As the others had said, the dream was disturbingly lifelike. He had been an Aircat of some sort, perhaps a pilot, trying to lead his tribe when there was some sort of war going on. Demeter and Bombalurina had been Glamour Cats, Coricopat and Tantomile were evacuated Kittens, along with Jemima, and Alonzo looked to be some kind of scout. The sheer surprise of seeing Skimbleshanks pedalling a human bicycle shocked him back into awakeness, and he bolted from the pipe as fast as his paws could carry him.

Lesson learned. From that day on, Munkustrap was extremely cautious of that pipe. He would need to ask Misto, or maybe the psychic twins to have a look at it, to make sure it was nothing sinister. Misto liked lying there after all, perhaps it had some sort of magic about it? Tugger raised an eyebrow about his change of heart, but thankfully didn’t say anything as he warily shifted any and all sleepy-looking Cats away from it. Until he knew what was going on, he would not take any chances with his tribe’s safety.

[ramblingdisaster73]

Could you maybe explain why you understand why Carlos is mad at TK for talking to Iris? Because I genuinely don't get it. Like, I get it from the perspective of "Carlos is worried and frustrated and is misdirecting that as anger at TK", but not as a legitimate reason to be mad. I have no idea what it is that TK did that was wrong. He wasn't supposed to push her? Carlos, sweetie, honey, Iris is neurodivergent not a baby. She is fully capable of being treated like a regular human. I've seen a few people be like "I understand why Carlos was pissed that TK went to see her" and I'm just over here like... but why? Because he did it without telling Carlos? Okay I guess but that would be the most hypocritical reason of all time.

I should say that I understand why he was mad in the moment. Worry can cause people to make rash decisions/judgements – other than that, I don’t get it other than it being a plot device. The fact that I had been waiting for the show to blame something on TK (even if just to Carlos) has probably helped deal with it a little bit.

In my opinion, TK did nothing wrong talking to her. Had Carlos not agreed to get married in eight weeks, thus putting such a short time frame on everything – which is hard enough with just the wedding planning part, when you add the divorce and the drama of that – it’s even worse.

I hope that Iris tells him that she is stronger than he realizes. That just because she is neurodivergent doesn’t mean he has to treat her with kid gloves. It’s a very frustrating part of this storyline for sure.

It seems like it’s ok for Carlos to do whatever, but TK is expected to sit there and let things happen to him. Carlos doesn’t talk to her for over 5 years (obviously she was ‘missing’ for 3 of them). So, for at least 2 years, he has avoided her, didn’t even mention her to TK (even oh hey, did I ever tell you about my best friend Iris.), like TK had no clue.

Now he decides that since he ‘wants’ to marry TK in eight weeks, he has placed this insane pressure on them both. First by not being honest with TK about his legal status and by agreeing to the venue – to be honest it seems like he agreed to it before talking to TK, based on the way he phrases it. He made all the decisions and needs to be in control of everything.

One thing I have learned from this storyline is that it doesn’t matter what Carlos does, there will always be a way to blame TK. Both in the show and the fandom, its easier to blame the guy with the shitty past over the one that appears more put together. People will go to contortionist level lengths to defend Carlos – while doing the same to blame TK. The hypocrisy both in canon and fandom is always going to be there with these characters.

In the end, they will just brush the whole arc under the rug, expecting us to forget it all. They don't do resolution well.

[starsweepersold]

mobile ooc. twinnie mentioned phillip and now other people with g.reatest s.howman muses have followed me and so now caroline is smiling at me again but idek if i have her icons anymore !!!

[innocentbi-stander]

I’ve decided that this is a fantastic idea so I’m going to tell you all about it:

Acrobat jaskier

Jaskier ran away from his home at the age of 11

(he says he ran away but deep down he knew it was only a matter of time before his displeased father kicked him out anyways)

Being 11 years old alone on the road is not the best experience, jaskier grows used to not having enough to eat and being kicked around

One day when in a small run down town in the middle of nowhere, a troupe of performers arrive

Jaskier instantly falls in love, and watches every single performance

He is caught by one of the troupe members when he tries to swipe an errant coin that was thrown their way

The performer who catches him is a lute player named Maria, who’s soft eyes remind Jaskier of his long dead mother

Maria doesn’t turn him in for stealing and jaskier is rather shocked when she invites him to come have dinner with the troupe

It's the most fun he’s ever had, loud chatter and sharing dishes he’s never heard before

Jaskier stays for dinner and then never really leaves, Maria asks him one evening if he’d like to stay with them and he doesn’t even need to think before he says yes

The troupe is full of a wide range of performers, from musicians, to contortionists, jugglers, and knife throwers

Jaskier loves life on the road with his pseudo guardians and he learns how you can have family that isn’t blood related

Of course one doesn’t travel with a troupe of performers without picking up a few things, and far be it from the troupe to leave their youngest member without the skills to protect himself

They teach him how to charm with a smile, how to disguise oneself with the right clothes

Jaskier learns to have a silver tongue, sharp eyes, and how to dip fingers into pockets so lightly, an unsuspecting person won’t even notice you’ve lightened their pockets until they’ve gone back home

Maria teaches him to play the lute, gently guiding his hands and showing him how to tune and strum

Oswald, who also came from noble descent, is relentless is schooling jaksier, insisting that life on the road or not, he should know his maths

The knife throwers teach him how to punch, how to hold a dagger, how to throw it with frightening accuracy, and also how to do a whole mess of showy tricks that have no practical use but look pretty cool

He learns how to cook a meal out of scraps of almost nothing, the values of carrying spices and not being picky

But what jaskier loves the most, maybe even more than the lute, is what he learns from the acrobats

They teach him to train his body to be flexible, to stretch in ways no common human villager can manage (jaskier isn’t really all human but neither are most of the performers)

He learns to flip and twist, and to love ill advised heights, and he’s good, better than anyone was expecting

Jaskier wants to be a musician but he knows he will always love acrobatics 

Eventually jaskier leaves the troupe to attend oxenfurt, but never stops writing and meeting up with his family at any turn

When geralt and jaskier began to travel together, the witcher is mystified by the manic skill set of the young bard

On the road jaskier strums his lute and sings, stumbling over small rocks and potholes, clumsy like he is still getting used to the length of his limbs

But when they stop to make camp, he pulls himself up into tree branches with immeasurable grace, and geralt watches wide eyed as he swings and flips with little thought to where his hands and feet will land. It’s like breathing

As the years go by, geralt understands that it's just who jaskier is, full of energy and a thousand odd skills

Sometimes as they travel jaskier will perform endless cartwheels, backbends, walking on his hands

There are daggers strapped to his person, and geralt often sees the bard idly flipping them in intricate moves that make geralt fear for his fingers

Jaskier has demonstrated that the daggers are not in fact just for pretty tricks, as he throws them with deadly accuracy and hands movements as practiced as when he plays the lute

Geralt had asked him once about the origin of his skills, and jaskier had simply waved him off with an errant smile and a “oh it’s just a family thing, I just happened to pick it up”

Jaskier may seem like the average bard with his sunshine-y persona and constant smiles, but geralt learns quickly that jaskier has a temper and an awfully short fuse for those insulting the people he cares about

The amount of town’s they’ve had to vacate because the bard got all fancy and stabby over some run of the mill witcher prejudiced towns people is frankly, ridiculous

Geralt’s a little impressed but he won’t tell jaskier that

So they travel, and fight monsters, and argue with each other, and try and disguise how they feel, and everything is pretty much the same except jaskier can lift his foot over his head with minimal effort and geralt tries his best to keep from drooling too obviously

There’s so much more potential for this but I didn’t want to make this post too long, so what do you think folks? Part 2 worthy?

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Another One?!, Part 2

First > Next

Years passed them by. It’s funny how that happens when no one in the house has a distinct schedule to follow. 

The hours blending together was actually really good for them as vigilantes. People couldn’t just plan around their normal patrolling hours.

Also, it meant that they could take days off without anyone thinking much of it.

Like today.

He glared at his reflection, touching his hair for the millionth time in an attempt to fix it. Or, rather, un-fix it. He was going for a messier look, why couldn’t he just get it to cooperate?

He gave his wife a pleading look. “Help?”

She clicked her tongue and looked him up and down a few times to get a gauge for his outfit (which he had purposely made too vague for her to get an idea of what they were doing) then rested her hands on her hips. “Well, I’d love to help…”

“But…?”

“But I can’t use my expertise unless I know where we’re going. There’s certain looks for different occasions, after all.”

He sighed. “C’mon…”

She bit her lip. “Fine. Just tell me how formal I need to be.”

“Casual…” He hesitated as he mulled it over. “But not jeans casual, more like day-dress casual. And wear darker colors, you could get stains on it.”

“There, was that so hard?”

He raised his eyebrow at her. “Considering I’m sure you’ve now guessed the surprise, I’m going to say yes.”

She gave him a cheeky grin and a wink.

He pouted. Man. He’d been so careful about keeping everything a secret from her. It was their tenth anniversary, he’d wanted to surprise her. He’d pulled out all the stops, even using cash for the tickets so she wouldn’t have an easy way to trace the payments.

Only to have it spoiled because of his hair.

Dang.

Then, she laughed and he thought that maybe it wasn’t so bad that she’d found out. The smile was worth it.

She reached up and started running her fingers through his hair. “As always, your problem is that you use too much hair gel… you never learn, do you…?”

“Maybe I do it on purpose to make you mess with my hair.”

She gave him a skeptical look and then pulled away. “Done. Time to get ready for… a carnival…? No… a circus.”

He pouted.

Marinette gave him another one of those laughs before slipping into the bathroom to change.

Two hours later they sat in a circus tent. Front-row seats, of course, they weren’t stingy.

She rested her head on his shoulder as they waited for everything to start. He stole some of her popcorn and smiled at the halfhearted glare he earned. His smile dropped when she dropped some onto his head. He pulled away from her to try and pick the pieces out.

“C’mon, Mari, my hair took so long. The paparazzi always checks on us on our anniversaries. I’m a model, you can’t do this to me --.”

And then the lights dimmed. And the ringmaster walked out.

The both of them tensed. The crowd was buzzing with excitment, but the two vigilantes gave each other wary looks. The ringmaster seemed almost anxious, his knuckles white on his cane.

Still, he gave a brilliant smile to the crowd as he announced the first act.

They relaxed the longer they watched. Nothing seemed to be going wrong, the contortionist was absolutely fine. So was the person doing aerial silks, and the clowns, the snake charmer…

Maybe the ringmaster was just new. He seemed to be growing more and more confident with each act. False alarm.

But then the trapeze artists came onstage.

Marinette murmured something about their outfits that he didn’t catch but knew was insulting.

The young performer smiled and waved to the crowd, then started climbing the opposite ladder as his parents.

The mom grabbed ahold of the trapeze and smiled as she hooked her knees over the bar, then held her hands out for her husband. The man jumped out and caught her hands.

And then the wire snapped.

The couple barely had a chance to scream before they hit the dirt.

The tent was completely silent.

And then the chaos started. Parents rushed to cover their kids’ eyes, people stumbled over each other as they ran, others surged forward to see better.

He could feel Marinette hop the railing in front of them to go check their pulses. There was no need, everyone could see it plainly, but she still tried.

Adrien didn’t move, his eyes locked on the kid.

He was standing there. He was hugging himself tightly, shaking, tears spilling over his cheeks.

He needed help.

A hand wrapped around his wrist. Marinette was pulling him out of the tent. He didn’t want to leave the kid alone but he couldn’t do that as Adrien Agreste. They needed to transform.

It took way too long to find a hiding place because people were already hiding in every obvious place they could think of. After a while they just broke into a trailer and dropped some money on the counter as an apology, unable to waste any more time.

They ran back into the tent and found that, to their horror, the police were there already.

Marinette mumbled a curse. “You deal with the kid, I’m going to steal some evidence before they get rid of it all.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek and then practically disappeared.

Adrien found his way over to the child, who had been covered in a shock blanket. They flinched when he got closer and he gave his most award-winning smile as he held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I don’t want to hurt you, I promise.”

They looked kind of skeptical, but they did scoot over a little on their bench so he could sit down.

He sat as far away as he could, setting his baton at his feet carefully. “What’s your name, kiddo?”

His eyes never wavered from the front of the tent. It was like he was waiting for something or someone, but Adrien couldn’t guess what.

“Dick.”

“Well, Dick, do you have any family that I can take you to?”

Maybe that was what he was waiting for --?

“No.”

His smile disappeared. Ah. Not great.

He followed his gaze to the door and mulled everything over.

The kid didn’t seem to be in much of a rush, the shock was wearing off but it would still make the passage of time kind of weird for him. Adrien could take the time to think his next words through.

He’d met kids who had lost their last remaining family members before. Sometimes Marinette and Adrien just couldn’t get there in time and she wouldn’t be able to bring them back. It was an inevitable and unfortunately common part of their jobs. But every single time felt like a punch to the gut.

But he couldn’t let that show, not really.

He watched the kid out of the corner of his eyes. You always base your approach on how the kid is reacting in the moment. Some wanted open comfort, but this one didn’t want that if the way he’d flinched when Adrien had come close was any indication. Others wanted to just talk, also not going to happen considering the short answers he’d been given thus far. This kid seemed to just want to be left alone, but leaving a child in a vulnerable state was never a good idea.

So, what was he supposed to do?

He sighed. “I’m really sorry about what happened, these kinds of accidents --.”

“It wasn’t an accident.”

Adrien blanked. “Sorry?”

“It wasn’t an accident.” Dick hugged the blanket tighter around himself. “There was two guys. Mean-looking. Tried to get Mr. Haly to do some… protection payments? Left all mad and stuff. Said they would get paid or get payback.”

He was so shocked that the kid had given an answer with more than a few words in it that his brain buzzed right past the information he was given and he had to backtrack to actually process it.

And, when he did, his fists clenched.

“Did they mention any names?” He asked quietly, fighting to keep his voice level. This was still a kid who needs help, he couldn’t allow his anger to mess that up.

“Zucco.”

Adrien filed that information away for later and then gave the kid a once-over. They were no longer staring at the door, instead just fidgeting under their blanket. It was good that they were coming out of shock, but he doubted that Dick would see it that way. The numbness would be wearing off soon, and the feelings that would come to take its place would be painful.

He did the only thing he could think of: try and distract the kid. Good to see he’s passing on the unhealthy coping mechanisms.

“Hey, are you going to stay in the circus?”

“Can I?” Said Dick. He didn’t seem all that excited, just confused. As if he hadn’t thought that an option.

Adrien shrugged. “I mean, there’s that whole thing about ‘running away and joining the circus’. Even if they force you into an orphanage, you can probably just come back here.”

“I hear orphanages suck.”

True. He doubted that Dick would get the mental health treatment he needed (if he got any at all) and the money at those kinds of places were always stretched thin, especially in Gotham. He didn’t like the idea of sending the kid there, but what other choices did he have?

Before he could really think of an answer a hand clapped itself over his shoulder.

He barely even looked back. He knew who it was going to be. He fought back a groan.

“Ross,” he said, the smile on his face becoming more strained. He wasn’t going to fight in front of Dick, the kid was already stressed enough. “Nice to see you again.”

The cop didn’t seem all that concerned about niceties, his grip tightening on Adrien’s shoulder. “Get away from my witness.”

“He has a name. And he doesn’t know anything. Leave him alone.”

Dick frowned. “But I --.”

Marinette popped up out of nowhere, arms crossed over her chest as she openly glared at the officer. “You guys should keep better track of the evidence you actually do have, someone might take it.”

Officer Ross went pale and then ran to his partner to ask where the evidence was.

Adrien was also pale, though for different reasons. This kid didn’t know that the police were corrupt and that telling them anything would likely end in him getting killed? He couldn’t let that happen. Where could he keep him that they wouldn’t check? An orphanage or the circus wouldn’t work, those would be the first places they’d go…

He brought a smile to his face as he carefully leaned towards the kid. To his delight, he didn’t flinch or lean away. Progress!

“Hey, I’ve got some friends that I think I can give you to. Good people. They’ll take care of you until we can find something more permanent, sound good?”

Dick looked a little skeptical but he nodded.

Adrien carefully scooped the kid up in his arms and looked at his wife. “I’m going to take him, you can go home for the night and relax.” He sent her a discreet wink.

She smiled faintly and gave Dick a tiny wave before slipping out of the tent.

Good. She’d understood.

~

She had definitely not understood.

You see, winks are ambiguous.

Adrien’s wink had meant ‘Get home and brush up on your acting skills because we need to sell this’.

She had thought his wink had meant ‘It’s our anniversary and we shouldn’t be working anyways. Go ahead and head home, we’ve already done too much and I want to relax with my darling wife’.

So, when she’d gotten home she’d detransformed and slipped into some comfy pajamas and plopped herself down on the couch to watch some TV.

And then the door had opened.

She’d smiled and poked her head up. “Back already? That was quick --.”

Adrien was still holding Dick to himself.

Tikki gave a quiet gasp of surprise and zipped between the couch cushions.

Her husband smiled. “Hey, can I cash in a favor?”

Marinette opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, and then pursed her lips tightly. She couldn’t exactly say ‘no’, because now that she thought about it they really didn’t have any other options (kids have a tendency to have no filter and this one seemed to lack any common sense at all if she was judging by his outfit)...

Didn’t mean she couldn’t be bitter. They should have had more of a conversation about this than a wink, and she was going to tell him that:

“I don’t know, Chat, my husband isn’t here right now. This is the kind of thing you’re supposed to discuss with your partner.”

Adrien winced almost imperceptibly and had the decency to look sheepish. “I’m sure he’d be fine with it. Please, I have nowhere else I can take him.”

She bit her lip and looked at the kid, then squeezed her eyes shut.

There was a more selfish reason that they both wanted to do this…

They wanted kids. It had just never really been an option for them. If she wanted to get pregnant, she would pretty much have to give up crime-fighting for those nine months (and possibly permanently, that stuff has long-term effects). They couldn’t really bring themselves to adopt, either, because their lives were hectic and every single book in the world says that adoptees need a stable home.

She couldn’t let their wishes cloud their judgment. She was supposed to be the rational one. They would certainly mess this kid up, taking him wasn’t an option…

But leaving him wasn’t an option…

And it was kind of like the universe was dropping Dick into their laps…

Dick started to sniffle, bringing a hand up to wipe his eyes. Damn. She’d taken too long and now he felt rejected.

Her heart clenched. The kid didn’t deserve this...

“I… we can take him… but only temporarily. We need to find a better home for him eventually.”

It was best that none of them got their hopes up. This wasn’t a good solution, just the only one they could think of at the moment. At some point they’d think of a better one, and they’d have to do that.

Adrien and Dick both nodded.

Marinette slowly walked over and leaned down slightly to be at the kid’s eye level. “I’m Marinette Agreste. What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Richard. You can call me Dick, though.”

Listen. She wasn’t proud of what she’d said. But she’d never heard it before -- she was far less social than Adrien was -- and, really, how do you get the name ‘Dick’ from ‘Richard’?

“I don’t think you understand how much I cannot do that.”

Adrien had had to set Dick down, he was laughing so hard.

~

When he came home (as Adrien, this time), he was surprised to see Marinette stress baking.

He wasn’t sure why he was surprised, adopting a child is a stressful situation even if you had been expecting it. And they definitely had not been expecting it.

He watched her bake for a moment in the doorway.

She clicked her tongue. “Are you just going to watch me bake or are you going to come inside? Or do I have to make a ‘look what the cat dragged in’ joke everytime I see you, now?”

He smiled and took a seat on the counter. “What’re you making?”

“Cookies.” She turned around for some flour and then sent him a half-hearted glare when she saw him sitting next to it. “I was using that counter.”

“Unfortunate.”

Marinette clicked her tongue again and then moved to another spot. “When...” She grimaced a little. “When… the kid wakes up from a nightmare -- because there’s no way that he wouldn’t have one after tonight -- I’d like to at least have something sweet ready for him. I know we’re not his parents or whatever, but he should at least feel welcome while he’s here.”

He sobered a little, pulling a knee to his chest. “The whole vigilante thing… we’re going to have to put it on hold for a little while, you know…”

“There’s no way we can properly take care of a kid and be Chat Noir and Ladybug. Or, at least, we’d need to make some changes.” She procured a whisk out of seemingly nowhere and started whisking the batter.

He raised his eyebrows. “Changes?”

“We could take shifts. I’d take night shifts as Ladybug and day shifts parenting the kid. You do the opposite.”

“We’d burn out,” said Adrien with a sigh.

“Well, what are we supposed to do? Give the city over to Superman? Guy is shady enough as it is.”

He rolled his eyes. “He’s not shady, you just can’t handle people being nice to you.”

“MY POINT IS that we can’t just stop protecting the city. Especially not if the mob is going after circuses of all things.”

“Yeah, why are they doing that? Is there really money from circuses? Aren’t they all going out of fashion because of that whole ‘animal abuse’ thing most of them have going on?”

“As they should,” she murmured. She finished whisking and started searching for something in the drawers. She procured a scoop and started making rows of cookies. “But, probably, smuggling. No one bats an eye when circuses cross borders, that’s kind of their whole thing.”

He nodded slowly. “Fair enough. Still seems like a hassle, especially now that they’re probably going to be more heavily regulated because those people died.”

“Well, hopefully their sacrifice won’t be in vain. The bit of trapeze wire I stole from the police might give us some leads on the guy’s pseuds.”

“Are you calling up Nygma?”

She shrugged and set the cookies in the oven. “Kinda. He hasn’t done anything in three months, so he’s due any day now. I’ll talk to him about it after saving whoever he captured this time… unless you want to talk to him instead?”

He grinned. “No, I could never go instead of you. You like making fun of his outfit too much.”

“Awwww, thanks, Chaton,” she cooed. She took a seat next to him and pressed a short kiss to his lips. “You know me so well.”

“Well, we’ve been partners for fifteen years. You’d hope I’d know you by now.”

She smiled faintly and leaned into him. She watched the timer tick down for a little while in silence, biting her lip.

“What’s wrong?”

“I mean, even if the trapeze was sabotaged, what are the chances that the acid is something special that we can trace to him? One of us is going to have to go undercover.”

He raised his eyebrows. “And leave Dick alone?”

“There’s no way Zucco is only going after this one place. We can’t take back what’s happened to him, but we can at least make sure he’s the only one to have to go through this.”

Adrien frowned. She was right, though he hated it. While they had given themselves the obligation of taking care of Dick, they couldn’t just drop everything for him. Especially considering their jobs.

“Okay, M’lady, what’s the plan?”

“Well, I hear that the circus is looking for new trapeze artists.”

~

She smiled as she set the last of the cookies in the Tupperware and started heading towards Dick’s new room.

Her conversation with Adrien had gone a lot better than she was expecting, honestly. She’d explained her reasoning for why it would be safe now and he’d, however reluctantly, agreed that she’d made sense.

She decided she’d wait a few days for everything to end up in the news properly before asking to join the circus. After all, it would be suspicious if she called just a few hours after a tragedy.

She stopped outside the former guest room and considered knocking… and then decided she’d better not. On the off chance that Dick wasn’t having a nightmare, she didn’t want to wake him.

She pressed the door open and then stopped cold when she saw that the kid was crying.

Marinette glanced behind her, wondering if she could get away with just walking past and acting like she was going to the bathroom or something. She wasn’t good with emotions, not with people close to her. Random people on the street were fine, people she’d never have to interact with again were fine, but this…

She was not nearly as good as Adrien… but Adrien was asleep, the fucker...

“Miss Marinette?” Said the kid.

She winced mentally and reached along the wall for the light. “Yes, sweetie, it’s me.”

The light flicked on and she saw Dick duck his head so his hair would hide his face.

“I brought cookies,” she said awkwardly as she walked over and took a seat on the edge of his bed. “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I just went with chocolate chip.”

He nodded slightly and mumbled his thanks as he took the Tupperware from her.

She bit her lip as he nibbled at her cookies, and then couldn’t help but smile at the way his posture relaxed a little.

“These are good.”

“My parents were bakers. I’d have been disowned if I couldn’t make chocolate chip cookies.”

He cracked the tiniest of smiles.

She floundered again in the new silence. There’s a difference between comfortable silences and awkward ones and this was definitely feeling more on the awkward side.

“I could teach you to bake, if you’d like. I doubt you had time to learn on the road.”

He hesitated. “I’d burn the place down.”

“That’s okay. If I could teach Adrien to cook then there’s hope for anyone.”

She had not, in fact, been able to teach Adrien to cook. He had set the entire kitchen on fire in what they now called The Brownie Incident… but Dick didn’t need to know that.

He smiled a little more and leaned back against the bed frame, still eating cookies. He had to be on his third one by now. She wasn’t going to call him out on it, though.

She glanced him over. He was no longer really hiding his face, and the tears had stopped sliding down his cheeks. He seemed content. She didn’t want to drag any feelings back, but...

“Would you like to talk about your nightmare?” She asked quietly.

“No.”

She winced internally. “Okay. Would you like me to leave?”

“No.”

Marinette let a little bit of surprise show on her face for just a second before slowly scooting over to lay next to him. She took a cookie he offered her and closed her eyes, relaxing a little.

“Are you going to sleep again?”

“No.”

“That’s okay. Do you want that baking lesson now?”

Dick giggled a little. “But we already have cookies…”

“Well, we don’t have any cakes, now, do we? Or brownies. And there’s other types of cookies!”

She peeked an eye open and couldn’t help but smile a little at the grin on the kid’s face at the mention of all the possibilities.

Then he gave her a suspicious look. “Are you trying to fatten me up like an evil witch?”

“Yes,” she said gravely. “I adopt little circus kids and fatten them up to eat. The entire house is actually made of candy.”

To her surprise and slight horror, he actually brought the corner of his blanket to his mouth. Then he spat it out. “Liar!”

“I…” She trailed off. She didn’t know how to respond to that. Moving on. “So, about that baking thing, how do brownies sound?”

He grabbed her by the sleeve of her pajama shirt and pulled her out into the halls with a bright smile. She had to do a half-jog to keep up with him.

“Shhhh, Mister Adrien is asleep!” He stage-whispered.

She scoffed. “Me?! You’re the one running!”

“Shhhhhhhhh!”

Marinette clicked her tongue once and allowed him to pull her into a full on jog as they raced through the house. Really, it was a testament to how tired he was that Adrien didn’t wake up.

She grinned and offered him a hand to get up on the counter, and then was reminded of the fact that he was a literal trapeze artist as he vaulted off of her hand and jumped over her head to get to it.

She whispered a quiet “holy shit” in English, then covered her mouth with her hand. She and Adrien had a sort of unspoken rule that you can only curse in English, it’s just a weird thing that bilingual households do where cursing in the second language just doesn’t count, but now this was an actual kid who spoke (as far as she was aware) only English. She can’t teach him curse words!

But he didn’t seem to hear it, instead smiling as he reached towards the sink and started cleaning his hands.

She washed her hands after him and then started pulling down things to make brownies. Should she do chocolate chips or just cocoa powder…?

She remembered The Brownie Incident.

She shivered.

Cocoa powder. Definitely cocoa powder.

She put some butter in the microwave.

“What does ‘holy shit’ mean?”

She wheezed. “Uh-- I-- um--.”

“I’m just messing with you. I already know.”

Oh thank fuck.

Well, maybe not. She was kind of glad that he was feeling comfortable enough to joke around with her, but… the idea of him secretly being a little shit, while not necessarily surprising, was a bit worrying.

“Okay… good? Just… don’t swear in front of Adrien. I don’t really care, but if he hears you he might think I taught you… so it’s just our little secret, okay?”

He smiled and made a zipping motion across his lips. She copied the motion.

Aw, she’d almost forgotten how cute kids were when they weren’t in dangerous or sad situations.

The microwave beeped and she hummed as she combined the butter, cocoa, and sugar. She stirred a bit and then handed Dick the eggs.

“Here, you can crack three of them into the bowl. Do you know how to do that?”

He huffed. “Yes!”

He, in fact, did not know how to do that.

She watched in open-mouthed horror as he attempted to just pull the egg open without cracking it.

“N… no, sweetie. You need to break it on the counter, first.”

He nodded and then slammed the egg on the counter.

Marinette wiped some egg off of the front of her shirt and then took a few breaths to steady herself. Now that the shock had worn off, she was very tempted to laugh and she was not going to do that to this poor, confused kid.

“I think I did it wrong.”

She snickered and then coughed to cover it up. “I… yes. I’ll show you how to do it.”

He gave a tiny smile as she took his hand and taught him how to crack an egg. He repeated the process with the other two eggs and she worked at cleaning up the mess he’d made.

… how the fuck was there egg on the wall? That was a good seven feet away from the island they were cooking on. Sure, he had to be strong to be an acrobat, but what the fuck?

She sighed and set the napkin done now that he was done and smiled as she added the vanilla, salt, and flour.

She handed him a spatula.

“Stir. Go wild, kid,” she said, 

Big mistake.

Dick took her words to heart, and she watched as he stirred madly, batter flying everywhere.

She laughed, only to get splashed with the batter.

She managed to stop his hand and sent him a tiny glare.

“I'm starting to think you’re doing this on purpose.”

“Whaaaat? No.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly, and then gasped when he lobbed a tiny bit of batter at her shirt.

“Oops,” he said, giving her a feral grin.

Marinette couldn’t help but smile back… then she reached past him and grabbed a handful of flour. She flicked her fingers and smiled when it got on his face.

He pouted and started rubbing his eyes. “Ow…”

Panic.

“Oh, sorry, did I get it in your eyes?” She leaned down. “Let me see.”

He nodded and slowly brought his hands away from his face and she checked his eyes with her fingers carefully --.

Only to feel an egg smash itself on top of her head.

She wiped some egg from her face and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ll get you for that one, you traitor!”

He squealed and set the batter down, then did a backroll away from her.

Marinette and Dick grabbed their weapons…

An hour later, they were both breathing heavily.

“Truce?” She said, lowering her flour-covered arm.

He nodded slowly… and then threw an egg at her.

She dodged it easily and glared at him, her hand already reaching for her flour again —.

“Now truce! Now truce.”

She hesitated, then clicked her tongue as she let herself relax.

They looked around the mess that was the kitchen... at the batter still somehow untouched on the counter… the oven, which hadn’t even been preheated yet…

“Do you just want to eat the batter?”

“Let me get some spoons.”

A few hours later, Adrien walked in… only to stop short when he saw his wife and new kid there, covered in cooking ingredients. Dick had fallen asleep with his head on her shoulder. She was fine with this, there was still some batter left.

“Um…?”

“Brownies are cursed,” she told him, then she took another spoonful.

“What?” Said a bewildered and still half-asleep Adrien.

She looked her husband dead in the eye as she pulled the spoon from her mouth with a tiny ‘pop’.

“Brownies are cursed.”

~

Adrien felt bad homeschooling the kid.

Really, it had brought him a lot of grief growing up. He hadn’t known anyone besides Chloe and Kagami until he was twelve years old.

But, as it turned out, Dick really needed to be homeschooled.

On top of just… having no formal education whatsoever and his general knowledge being a toss of the dice, it was also the middle of the school year and everyone knows you can’t just dump new kids into a class halfway through.

Adrien tipped his head back against his chair and closed his eyes.

Dick was taking a test to see what he had to teach him, but he wasn’t concerned about the kid cheating. What was he going to do? Sneak away, grab a textbook, and start flipping through it without him noticing?

He sighed.

The kid was… weird.

He was always smiling, always in motion, always affectionate. It was something they’d figured out quickly, but it had taken longer to notice that he was only like that when he was talking about things he actually wanted to. If they asked how he was doing, because it had only really been a week since it had happened, he would clam up and start semi-subtly shifting the conversation away.

He was avoiding his problems. And Marinette and Adrien really didn’t know what to do. He had stolen their unhealthy coping mechanism and now they were forced to stand back and watch as the kid destroyed himself the same way they did. And they knew it was a terrible coping mechanism, even Dick might have known it, but what were they supposed to do? They had been around much longer and they hadn’t found a better mechanism, what could they do for Dick?

He peeked an eye open and looked at the kid, who was chewing on the end of his pen as he thought through the question he was on.

… damn, he was actually going to have to learn how to cope, huh?

So, that afternoon, he passed Dick off to Marinette like a baton in a relay race and took a bus to the bookstore.

The psychology section was huge and filled to the brim with case studies. It was honestly daunting to look at. Instead, he made his way to the clerk.

The woman looked him up and down once. “Rough week?”

“You have no idea,” he muttered. “Can I have some recommendations for books on adoption, parenting, and coping with trauma? And also a highlighter, that would probably help.”

He skimmed through the parenting and adoption books. He and Marinette had already done this a few years back when they had first been considering kids, he was mostly just getting a refresher.

And then he turned to the five books on coping mechanisms he’d bought.

He took a deep breath and started looking methodically reading his way through it, highlighter in hand.

The next day, he found Dick, who was drumming his fingers on the table as he glared at the textbook in front of him.

Adrien had some suspicions about the kid in front of him, though he wasn’t absolutely sure yet. Still, he figured he should test his theory.

Besides, it would also help keep the kid safe and physical activity was one of the things a book on coping mechanisms had suggested.

Multi-tasking!

Or maybe it was just efficiency…

Whatever!

He smiled. “Hey, kid, want to try something different for today’s lesson?”

Dick looked up, frowning. “Like what?”

“Well… how do you feel about learning self-defense?”

~

“Where are you going?” Asked Dick with a tiny frown as she started bustling around the living room in search of her shoes.

“Uh… work!” She said.

They’d both agreed that telling Dick that she was going to go do the exact job his parents had just died in was a terrible idea, so they’d thought up a cover story… too bad she couldn’t think of it at the moment. She finally saw her shoes tucked under the couch and dove down to grab them, then sent her kid a smile.

“Have a good day, sweetie, I’ll see you later,” she said, walking over and pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

She ducked out the door and started running all over again. Her eyes found their way to her watch. It was a tryout and she was going to be late…

But she wasn’t.

Barely.

She stumbled inside with one minute to spare, panting, and it took everything in her not to slump over the nearest bench and die.

“Hi,” she wheezed at Haly, who raised his eyebrows slightly at her.

“You’re really cutting it close, here. Have anything to say for yourself?”

She rested a hand over her heart as if that would somehow bring it back to normal. “I need a fucking car.”

Haly paused, then nodded. “That explains that. I’ll let you off with a warning that you should try not to be late again.”

“Oka --.” She stopped, and then looked at him. “I got the job?”

He shrugged and pointed around at the empty tent. “You’re the only one here.”

Wow. She’d suspected that people would be less than eager to take the job offer, but to be the only person…

Well, she figured that she should just be thankful. That made things much easier.

She smiled faintly. “Cool. Should I still show you my skills and everything?”

He motioned to the trapeze. There was a net under it. The man had learned his lesson, at least. “Please.”

It turns out that being Ladybug is really helpful when you want to be a trapeze artist.

Actually, she found that being a trapeze artist was actually easier in some ways. Instead of having to hold tight to one thin string when swinging around, she was able to get a proper grip on a bar.

It was a lot of fun. Recently, she’d been using her cane more. Having a yoyo was impractical as a weapon when people were firing guns, so she’d more or less stopped using it. She’d almost forgotten what it was like to feel the wind in her hair. It was calming...

Also, she got to show off, which was always fun.

She stopped after a few minor tricks and gave a bow to Haly, who seemed to just be glad that she actually had an idea of what she was doing.

“You’ll need about a month of training before you do any shows. Do you have any other expertise?”

She shook her head. It was a lie, she would probably be good with aerial silks or contortionism, but she felt some weird need to do the trapeze…

Just then, her phone buzzed.

She glanced at it and read the news headline.

She groaned and turned to Haly. “Can I have a minute? I need to take this.”

The man nodded.

She scowled as she stepped out and dialled a number.

“NYGMA.”

“Ladybug!” Riddler said cheerfully. She could hear a woman sobbing in the background. “What’s up? Did you see the news?”

“Yes, I saw. I’m at a job interview!”

The smile in the man’s voice disappeared as he spoke next: “Oh, I’m sorry. I can reschedule the death trap.”

“YOU CAN, CAN YOU?”

“Yep! How does tomorrow sound?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to relax. “I can do tomorrow. Thank you. And let go of the poor lady, will you?”

“Fiiiiine.”

She hung up on him and then stepped back inside, giving Haly her brightest smile.

“I can start working in two days, if that sounds good to you.”

~

Adrien hesitated.

Really, he should be getting Marinette to train Dick on self-defense. They had similar movement styles…

But his hunch had been right. This kid seemed to learn a lot better when he was multitasking and, as much as he loved his wife, he didn’t think her English was good enough to teach someone else.

And, besides, he wanted to spend time with his kid, dang it!

He stopped Dick before he could throw another punch at the dummy to fix his form. “I know putting power into it is hard when you’re so little, but you need to rotate your hips so you can get at least some kind of force behind it.”

The kid pouted. “But this is so boooooooring. It’s just the same thing over and over again! I want to do cool stuff!”

“Not yet. You have to understand the basics before you start messing with it.”

Dick gave another pout, this time adding puppy-dog eyes, but, unfortunately for him, Adrien had never been fond of dogs. He raised his eyebrows, unimpressed.

The kid groaned and started punching the pads again.

“I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A, as in neighbor and…”

~

It didn’t take long for Marinette to notice The Guy.

She had a pretty good vantage point from the ladder to her trapeze. She would stop at the top, her hands up in a salute, and pause for ‘dramatic effect’.

Her eyes flicked over the crowd and locked on the face of The Guy.

He was at every show, his face pulled into a bored frown as he rested his head on his hand. He’d sit there the whole time, watching the same performance over and over again, and then leave the moment the show was over.

She pursed her lips for half a second before bringing her face back to its smile.

She’d brought a camera this time. This time she’d be able to get his face so she and Adrien could get information on him.

But, for now, she concentrated on making the first jump to the trapeze…

She sat down after her act, still breathing heavily. She was in shape… but, kwami, that kind of stuff is hard! Still, she couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t been challenged in a while. It was kind of fun.

She wondered, vaguely, if this was what she’d be doing if she hadn’t gone back into crime fighting.

Marinette pushed that thought from her head as she downed her water. It wasn’t the time. She only had a few more minutes before she was on again for the outro. She needed the picture now.

She grabbed her camera from her locker and snuck her way to the stands, and pointed her camera --.

The Guy had spotted her. He looked directly at her camera, his face set in an even deeper frown than usual.

She quickly snapped the picture, then darted back behind the curtain. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. Shit! Shitshitshit --!

Okay. Breathe.

He wasn’t going to just kill her. If the way they’d offed the Graysons was any indication, they didn’t want to draw too much attention to the circus. It was unfortunate what had happened, but not suspicious. However, the trapeze was new and there was a net. An accident like that couldn’t happen again.

No, they’d probably wait until after the show. That would be fine. She could deal with that. At least then she could stall until she had energy by waiting with someone.

She felt a hand tap her shoulder and looked over at the contortionist. “Time?”

“Time,” he said simply.

She hid the camera and ran out with him, smiling like she wasn’t about to face off with a mobster.

Two hours later, she stepped into her train car and crossed her arms over her chest. “Right, I know you’re in here,” she said quietly.

Or, at least, she hoped so. Because otherwise she would be looking a little silly --.

Wait, a knife pressed to her neck. Maybe she wished she was wrong.

She clicked her tongue and leaned into her attacker, closing her eyes. “You Americans still say ‘yo’, right?”

The Guy tensed a little under her, and then whispered a confused, “No…?”

She huffed. “Damn. Why do you change your greetings so often? Whatever. Kaalki, a little help would be nice.”

“Who --?” Began The Guy, but he was quickly cut off.

Because a portal opened under them and dumped them into a back alley in Gotham.

Marinette grinned and grabbed his arm, using his confusion to lean forward and flip him over her shoulder. He cursed as his back hit the ground and the blade clattered to the floor.

She grabbed it nonchalantly and her eyes flicked over the hilt.

A name was engraved there.

Zucco.

“You mob people make this too easy. Now, tell me everything you know.”

He glared up at her. “They’ll kill me!”

“And what gave you the impression that I wouldn’t?” She twirled the knife in her fingers. “Quickly, please, I have a kid to get back to.”

A half hour later, he had spilled everything he knew.

And his guts…

She rolled off of him and glanced at the bloodied dagger in her hand. Her nose scrunched up as she dropped it beside him. There. Now it looked like a mob hit.

She pushed herself to her feet and dusted herself off, only to groan at the sight of the blood staining her front.

She gave the corpse a kick as she cursed him out:

“Asshole. I liked these clothes!”

~

He smiled as he pulled his wife into his side.

Dick had finally gone to bed, so it was just them two. For once.

Marinette had a show in an hour that she needed to portal back for, and Adrien needed to go out as Chat Noir soon, but they didn’t want to get up just yet.

She yawned and curled closer to him. “I guess…” She yawned again. “I guess I should tell you what I found out. Which is basically nothing. Apparently, hardly anyone has ever seen Zucco in person, just the higher ups. He just sends people to do his bidding.”

He groaned and buried his face in her hair. “Great. Did you at least give the sample to Nygma when you saw him yesterday?”

“Obviously.” Her watch beeped and she mumbled a curse. “Alright, I have to go.”

“Nooooooo.”

“Yeeees,” she said, gently pushing his chest until he let go. She stretched out a bit and then walked to the bedroom door.

It swung open before she even touched the knob.

Dick was standing in the doorway, hugging a Chat Noir doll to his chest. “I had a nightmare. Can I sleep with you guys?”

Marinette glanced at her watch and then at the kid and then at her watch again.

“Or are you guys both going out again?”

Adrien winced. “You noticed that?”

“It’s, like, every night,” he said irritably. He sighed and wiped his eyes a little bit. “Fine. I’ll just go lay down again.”

She bit her lip and then leaned down to look him in the eyes. “I’ll be back in four hours, okay, sweetie? Can you handle that?”

Dick looked at the ground. “Sure.”

Marinette grimaced. “I’m sorry.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll be back soon.”

They could hear the coatrack hit the ground in her hurry to grab her jacket and get out the door.

Adrien sighed and looked at Dick, who was still standing in the doorway.

He really should be going on patrol. The people of Gotham had begun to notice that Chat Noir and Ladybug had been showing up less frequently. Crime rates were rising…

He laid back in bed and opened his arms. “I won’t leave. Come here.”

Dick gave a tiny smile, though it seemed a little forced. Still, he got into bed and curled up in Adrien’s arms.

“Would you like to talk about it?” He tried.

“No.”

He sighed. “You’re going to have to talk about it, eventually. Avoiding it is just going to make it harder to deal with later.”

“Nope.”

He gave a tiny laugh. Dang. This kid really was just them but younger. Now all he needed was a miraculous and he’d be a perfect mini version of them…

“Where do you guys even go?” Asked Dick, his voice muffled in Adrien’s chest.

“Work,” he said after a few minutes’ deliberation.

“I thought you didn’t really have jobs.”

He laughed quietly. “Marinette has a million jobs, and I have my one. Though we don’t really get paid for what we do most of the time.”

“Why do you do it, then?”

Adrien raised his eyebrows slightly, then gave a tiny shrug. “Why did you do the trapeze?”

He’d meant for it to be a rhetorical question, meant for it to be something that would make Dick change the subject, so it was a complete surprise when the kid whispered: “It was all that I knew.”

Internally, he was screaming. It was happening! Finally! He had opened up a little bit!

Externally, he nodded and rubbed circles into the kid’s back. “Hopefully, we can make it so it’s not all you know. Help you branch out a little bit while you’re here.”

He felt tiny hands clutch the back of his shirt. “Can’t do that when you’re always gone.”

“I know,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

They stayed in silence for a long time. Adrien was pretty sure that Dick had fallen asleep, but he wasn’t going to move. The kid had noticed that they were gone often, but the two of them had always made sure to wait until he had fallen asleep to leave. He had to be waking up at least once a night, so…

He held the kid close to his chest.

A few hours later, the door creaked open.

Adrien opened an eye blearily and saw Marinette get into bed. He lifted an arm for Marinette to join the cuddle and smiled faintly when she actually did.

He let himself drift off.

~

A few days later, Marinette and Adrien came back from patrols to find Dick talking to the kwamis. All of them gave sounds of surprise when they saw the two vigilantes in the door and disappeared except for Trixx, who turned and fixed their purple eyes on them.

Marinette pursed her lips tightly for a second, considering what to say, and then decided on: “What the fuck, guys?”

Adrien removed his arm from around her waist so he could bury his face in his hands.

Trixx smiled. “It’s not what it looks like. He found us.”

“He…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “So… you’re telling me that this kid pushed our bed aside, pulled up the exact right floorboard, and pulled out the miracle box...”

“... yes.”

“Forgive me for being skeptical, but I’m not buying it.”

Dick pouted and hugged the tiny fox to his chest. “Are you mad at her?”

Marinette hesitated.

Before Dick had known about the kwamis, they had a chance of giving him back. They would have been able to find better parents for him, been able to give him a genuinely good life. But now… they couldn’t risk giving him up. The reason they’d taken him in in the first place was that he was relatively loose-lipped. Now that he knew something so important, there was no way in hell that they could risk him ever telling anyone.

Of course, she doubted they would have been able to give up Dick anyways. She’d grown annoyingly attached to the kid, he was sweet and generally made her life a little more fun, but now there wasn’t an option at all.

Still, this part of their lives… beyond needing to keep things a secret, it was extremely dangerous to involve a kid in this kind of thing.

Adrien answered first: “No, we’re not mad. Just… this wasn’t exactly the plan.”

“And what was the plan? Never telling me that we have a bunch of… what did they call themselves? Kwamis? Whatever, they’re gods. There are just gods living in our house!”

Marinette shrugged. “We weren’t telling you because we didn’t want you to get dragged into this part of our lives, sweetie.”

Dick huffed. “And are there any other secrets that I should know about?”

“They’re Ladybug and Chat Noir,” supplied Trixx.

“TRIXX?!”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY’RE CHAT NOIR AND LADYBUG?!”

The fox kwami laughed and disappeared.

Marinette scowled. “I know you’re still here, Trixx, where are you? I will hunt you.”

“Please, Mari, you don’t need to do that. Just get the fox miraculous and summon her here, it’s much easier.”

“Smart.”

“WHY HAVE YOU STILL NOT DENIED IT?!”

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other awkwardly.

Well… the secret was out.

She opened her purse and he opened his jacket, and their kwamis slowly poked their heads out to look at Dick.

Poor kid was not prepared.

He covered his eyes with his hands and took a few deep breaths. “So… I… wow…”

Well, she supposed there could be worse reactions.

“Wait, so are you investigating what happened with my parents?”

Like that. That was a worse reaction. Fuck.

Marinette carefully took a seat on the floor by her kid. Adrien sat down as well.

“We’re working on it,” she said carefully. “I’m following a lead and I got help from a… an associate of ours.”

Adrien nodded. “It will take a while. It’s just the two of us -- and Nygma, I guess -- so it’s not going to be done quickly.”

Dick removed his hands from his eyes and looked at them both. “I want to help.”

“No,” said both adults instantly.

“But --.”

“Nope,” said Marinette.

“I --.”

Adrien held up his hands. “Not allowed.”

Dick pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why not? They’re my parents.”

Marinette shook her head slowly. “It has nothing to do with that. You’re a kid, we can’t just let you fight crime.”

“Oh? And when did you start fighting crime?”

“Eighteen,” said Marinette, which technically wasn’t a lie…

Which means it was unfortunate that Adrien gave a more accurate answer: “I was twelve, she was thirteen.”

She groaned and rested her head in her hands. “Damn it, Adrien.”

“So, when I’m twelve, can I join you guys?”

Marinette pursed her lips tightly. She didn’t want to be a hypocrite, but she also didn’t want to let an actual kid fight crime. She had fought crime as a kid, it had messed her up. She wasn’t eager to pass that on to someone else…

But…

“Fine. How about this: if we don’t solve it by the time you’re twelve you can join us for that case specifically.”

Dick pouted a little, but seemed to understand. “Okay.”

She and Adrien met eyes. They had three years to solve this case before Dick would get involved, and they couldn’t let that happen.

But it was three years.

How hard could it be?

~

He and Marinette sat on the floor in front of the miracle box, sorting the miraculi into two different piles: ‘Will Protect’ and ‘Can’t Protect’.

Once that was done, they started sifting through the ‘Will Protect’ pile.

“Turtle?” Marinette said.

Adrien shook his head. “Doesn’t fit his fighting style. Bee?”

She shuddered. “Don’t need another Chloe. Snake?”

They tipped their heads from side to side as they considered it, but then Trixx piped up: “I’m right here, y’know.”

The two vigilantes jumped out of their skin. Then they glared at the kwami.

“Must you always sneak up on us?”

“Yes. Anyways, I’m the best fit for the kid and you know it.”

Marinette pursed her lips. Adrien raised his eyebrows.

It was true. From the moment they’d started considering giving Dick a miraculous (because, even if they doubted he was ever going to get to that point, they figured they should at least make sure he was safe), they’d both been eyeing the fox miraculous…

Thing was…

“You’re just going to tell him more of our secrets,” he complained, sighing.

Trixx crossed their paws over their chest. “Do you really have any other secrets you care about?”

They considered this for a minute, before Marinette clicked her tongue.

“Fine. Fine! Adrien, you’ll need to train him on his powers, your secondary powers are closer than mine. I’ll take up sparring to teach him a fight style that better matches his circus training.”

Adrien pouted and fell back until his head hit her lap. “You don’t think I was teaching him well enough? Because our fight styles and training were completely different? I’m wounded, M’lady. I’ll never recover.”

She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips.

He smiled. “I’ve been cured.”

She clicked her tongue.

Adrien smiled…

And then her watch beeped. He groaned and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her stomach. “Nooooo, don’t gooooooooooo.”

“I can’t just not go, Chaton.”

“Why nooooot? It would be so easy.”

She slowly peeled his arms off of her, smiling fondly. “Relax. I’ll be back later. Hang out with… with Di --... Nope. With the kid. Maybe train him a little in his powers or whatever.”

He laid on the floor with a pout as he watched her leave, and then looked down at the necklace in his hands.

Well, he supposed he might as well. What else could he do? Protect the city? Nah.

He walked to his kid’s room and rolled his eyes when he saw the kid standing with his ear pressed to the wall.

“Hello?”

Dick’s face reddened and he turned to Adrien with a bright smile. “It’s not what it looks like.”

Wow, he really was a good fit for Trixx.

He sighed and offered the necklace. “You’re not in trouble. C’mon, we’re going to teach you to use these powers.”

Trixx floated over to rest on Dick’s shoulder and Adrien waved him along to the training room.

Adrien held up a hand before walking to the window and quickly shutting the curtains.

He smiled as the kid transformed.

Adrien stretched lazily. “Right, on your back right now is a flute. It… works like a flute. You can play music with it if you want, and also hit people with it if you want. It also summons your power.”

Dick nodded and pulled it off his back. “What can I do?”

“You play a note and envision an illusion of some sort. The limit is just your imagination.”

“Like a Green Lantern?”

“I… kind of. You just have illusions, if you touch them they disappear.”

“That sucks.”

“I guess. Alright, so you’re probably going to have side-effects.”

He watched the kid’s eyes widen and rushed to explain: “It usually isn’t bad. Just weird. It’s why I like to sit on counters and why Mari’s always so cold. It also changes looks a little. Like… Mari has a lot more white in her eyes and my hair has those two little tufts that I have to gel down.”

Dick’s shoulders relaxed a little. “Okay. So… powers.”

“Yep.”

He pulled out his flute.

Adrien smiled. “Right, let’s start simple. The main thing you need is a clear vision. I’m going to close my eyes and you’re going to make something appear in the room. If you’re doing it right then it should appear real, if not then we’ll figure out what’s going wrong.”

He closed his eyes and waited for a few seconds after he heard the shrill note of the flute. Then he opened his eyes.

And came face to face with a giant, bright pink inflatable elephant.

“I…”

Dick grinned. “Think we should address the elephant in the room?”

He blinked once, then broke into a matching grin. “You’re what’s been missing from my life. Oh my kwami. That was beautiful.”

Then he actually went to inspect the elephant. It was pretty good. The lighting was a little off but it wasn’t plainly obvious it was fake, if he wasn’t paying attention he doubted he would’ve noticed. That made sense. Powers were usually pretty instinctual.

He nodded slowly. “Now try something that makes sound.”

Dick brought the flute to his lips and played another note.

He had expected the elephant to disappear and get replaced by something. Instead, it let out a high whine as the air in it slipped out of a new gash on its side.

Adrien smiled.

“Nice.” He sighed and let his smile lessen. Now for the reason they had thought the fox miraculous could be used for protection: “Okay. Make yourself disappear.”

He got a frown for that one. “Sorry?”

“It’s… you’re still a kid. You need to know how to cloak yourself so you don’t get hurt. We can’t really stop you from coming with us in an ethical way, but we need to at least make sure you’ll be okay if you come along.”

Dick frowned. “I thought you were going to let me help.”

“In three years. If we haven’t already solved this case yet. And if we think that you’re going to be able to handle it.”

“But --.”

“We were heroes at a young age. True. We weren’t ready for it, though, and we don’t want to screw up a kid in the same way we were screwed up. That’s the whole thing about having kids, we want you to have a better life than we did.”

The kid gave an annoyed expression before bringing his flute to his lips. With a shrill note, the annoyed face disappeared.

Adrien tipped his head from side to side as he considered this. He was pretty sure that he could sense something off, but he wasn’t sure if that was just his mind messing with him because he knew that Dick was there…

He walked towards where he’d last seen him to make sure and then stopped short when he realized what was off. His feet weren’t making any sound.

There wasn’t any sound at all, actually.

“You’ve done too much. You got rid of all sound, not just your own.”

Dick appeared, a grin on his face.

“This is boring. Can we make it into a game? Like hide-n-seek?”

Adrien hesitated, then shrugged. “Don’t see why not.” He brought his hands up to cover his eyes. “Thirty… twenty-nine…”

~

She hummed absently as she and Dick stretched to warm up.

She was a little jealous, if she was honest, he was way more flexible than she was even though he was out of practice and she wasn’t. She’d been stretching before this kid was even born. How dare he still be more flexible than her.

Still, she rolled to her feet and offered him a hand up.

Dick’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly and he did a backhandspring from the floor.

How the fuck?

But she wasn’t going to act like this was an amazing thing. She was already bitter enough about his flexibility, admitting that he was also better at gymnastics would be even worse.

Instead, she grinned. “Hey, kid, what should we call you?”

He thought for a minute, taking his flute out and twirling it in his hand like a baton. “Robin?”

“I…” She held up a finger to say ‘one minute’ and then pulled out her phone. After a quick google search to make sure they were talking about the same animal, she gave her kid a confused look. “You’re a fox.”

“Yes.”

“Robins are birds.”

“Yes.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. She really didn’t know why she asked a kid who called himself ‘Dick’ to name himself. Really, she should have expected this.

Marinette shrugged to herself. “Fine. I’m just gonna keep calling you ‘sweetie’.”

“Okay!” He stopped twirling his flute and pointed it at Marinette. “So, you’re going to teach me to use my circus training for fighting?”

She sighed and pulled out her cane, leaning against it. “Right. I’ll need to check to see how well you know the basics, first, though.”

Dick groaned. “I’m ready. I feel like I’ve been ready for ages!”

“I know, I know, but I need to make sure, okay?”

He gave her an annoyed look.

Marinette pursed her lips tightly. “Okay. Fine.” She dropped her cane. “Spar with me.”

Dick’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yep. You’ll have first swing and I won't get a weapon.”

True to her word, she let him have the first swing. She dodged and grabbed his arm, then pressed her foot to the middle of his back. He hit the ground with a groan. She pulled the flute from his hand and sent him a tired glare.

“You got lucky,” said Dick, his voice muffled against the floor.

She pulled him back to his feet. “No, you’re a child and I’ve been fighting for years. Like pretty much everyone else you’re going to fight. Which means that we can’t rush your training, okay? You have years before we let you into the field, if we do, so…”

He brushed himself off with a bitter expression.

“Fine. We drill basics.”

~

Riddler grinned, spinning around in his chair.

“Ladybug and Chat Noi --.” He stopped short, his eyes widening as they spotted something behind them. “What the heck? You guys brought a kid to this?”

He glanced behind himself and cringed lightly. He reached out and gently pulled Dick behind himself a little. Nygma had never been one for random attacks, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to make sure that this kid was safe.

And why had they brought him?

Marinette clicked her tongue once in annoyance. “Hey, sweetie, show the nice man your powers for a second.”

Dick brought his flute to his lips. With one high note he was gone.

Yep. They were really regretting giving him that miraculous right about then. They hadn’t even realized that he was coming along until Adrien had missed a jump and realized that his bones hadn’t audibly cracked like they usually did when he messed up like that.

He reappeared with a fox-like grin playing across his thin lips.

(Or maybe they just thought it was fox-like because he was currently dressed as a fox. Who knows.)

Riddler considered this for a minute, then nodded. “I understand now.”

Adrien sighed. “Yep.”

Marinette pulled out her yoyo and summoned a coloring book and some crayons. Dick beamed and plopped down on the floor to color.

The parents smiled fondly at their kid and then turned to Riddler.

“Now, you have news?” Adrien said.

“Good news and bad news.”

The adults looked at each other and gave tiny shrugs.

“Good news first,” said Marinette.

“Good news is that there’s only one person who supplies that specific acid.”

Adrien’s eyebrows knit together. That sounded good, but…

“Bad news is that she’s pretty popular. Over two-hundred customers popular.”

Ah. There it was.

Marinette covered Dick’s ears so she could curse.

Adrien, however, shrugged. “Do you have a list of her customers?”

Riddler nodded slowly. “Of course. I’ll forward it to you guys.”

“Thanks for the help, Nygma. See you in a few months.” With that, Marinette picked up Dick and held him to her hip.

“I’ll get you with the next one!”

“Mhmm. Sure.”

Adrien gave an apologetic smile and a friendly wave as he hurried out after his wife.

~

Marinette hummed absently as she pulled her jacket on, then froze up when she heard a gun click behind her head.

“Turn around. Slowly.”

She pulled a smile to her face and held her hands up in a kind of surrender, then turned around.

Wow. This man looked exactly like how gangsters looked in movies. She probably would have laughed if he wasn’t pointing a gun at her.

And, even with the gun pointed at her, she had to suppress a smile.

“Who are you?” He asked.

She frowned. “Shouldn’t I be asking that of you, sir? You’re the one attacking the random trapeze artist.”

“You’ve killed every single man I’ve sent in here to make sure everything was going to plan.”

“Maybe you should’ve sent a woman. We apparently get the job done better.”

“Who. Are. You?”

“Marinette Agreste, but I’m sure you knew that. Otherwise you wouldn’t know that I’ve killed ‘every single man you’ve sent here’.”

He scowled. “That wasn’t what I was asking and you know it.”

“Do I? Maybe you should be clearer,” she said. “Or, you could just tell me your name and I promise I would be much more compliant.”

The man seemed to consider this for a minute, his face tinged red with annoyance. She tried to push down the twinge of satisfaction. Even if this wasn’t Zucco, he at least had to be pretty high up and was likely the person who had ordered the goons to kill Dick’s parents. This bitch deserved all the hell she gave him, in her not-so-humble opinion.

“Giovanni,” he said carefully.

She smiled. “See? Was that so hard? Now, who am I...? I don’t know. I sometimes fight people. What else is there to say?”

He didn’t seem amused. “Why are you killing all my men?”

“I wouldn’t have to if they didn’t notice me noticing them every time. It’s getting very annoying. Send less observant people.”

Her eyes caught Kaalki’s. The kwami was hiding in a duffel bag that had been left open and she gave a tiny shrug to say go.

The man gave a scream as a portal sliced his hand off.

Marinette hummed absently and leaned down to pick up the gun. She pried the hand off of the gun and tossed it aside.

“WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK --.”

“I know, I know, it hurts, but could you be quieter?” She rubbed the side of her head. “Right, I have a few questions about Zucco.”

“He’d kill m --.”

“Yes. Yes, he would. But maybe you should concern yourself less with him, who has already made up his mind about killing you, and more about me, who’s still mulling it over.”

An hour later she stepped out of the changing room, humming as she tossed the gun back over her shoulder lazily.

“Haly?” She yelled, and smiled when his head popped out from his train care.

He looked stunned for a moment before he pulled himself together. “Yes?”

“I’m quitting. It’s been fun, though!”

She bit her lip as she strode out into the night.

Well, if she wasn’t already on Zucco’s radar she definitely would be now.

Greeeeaaaat.

~

It’s hard to look into people when you’re on the run from the mob.

They’d done everything they could think of. Marinette had withdrawn everything from their accounts, Adrien had altered all their appearances, Dick had... come along.

And it turns out tracking down 237 people is hard or something. Who knew.

You have to:

Figure out whether or not the person you’re after has pseuds. In order to do this you have to track their income patterns. This requires pretty high tech stuff, which they were generally trying to avoid because of the whole ‘mob out to get them’ thing.

Then, if they do have pseuds, you have to find all their assets. Then you have to go and check every single safehouse to see if it is, in fact, Zucco or someone working for him. It’s not fun. Most people in the mob are trained to not tell secrets no matter what, and getting to the point where you can get that information is… time consuming.

And they didn’t have time.

They glared at the remaining names. Dick was turning twelve tomorrow. They hadn’t even realized it because time was getting fuzzy again, but then they had come home to him hanging upside down from one of the lights on the ceiling and chanting about how close his birthday was.

After checking to make sure their kid hadn’t somehow gotten high or drunk, because what the heck, they had flown into a panic about how much work they still had to do.

“What’re the ethics of killing all 92 people tonight?” She asked, leaning back against her husband as he clicked through files.

“Even if we could, I’d say it’s probably frowned upon.”

She groaned and closed her eyes, then opened them again to glare at the papers in front of her. “How much you wanna bet that the very first one we choose after the kid joins us is going to be the right one?”

“Knowing our luck? That’s definitely going to happen.”

She gave a bitter laugh before pushing herself back up. “I’m going to break into a bakery to make a cake.”

“Cupcakes. You know he’s going to want to spend the day out in the field looking for answers, we might as well have food we can travel with.”

She clicked her tongue but nodded.

He fell back on the bed and glared at the list. He should have said they started at eighteen...

~

Well, at least it hadn’t been the first person that they’d looked into with Dick.

It had been the second.

After… ‘interogating’ the guy they’d found, they’d been given the name of this cruise ship and where it often docked. Then Dick had given them all cover so they could sneak on undetected.

And now night had hit. The three of them sat, perched on a railing as they observed the goons below them.

She watched Adrien send a wave before disappearing to take out the captain and destroy anything that could be used to contact land.

She turned to the kid next to her and reached out to ruffle his hair. “Ready, sweetie?”

Dick gave a slightly nervous smile before pulling out his flute.

“You’re only allowed to get involved if I’m dying, remember?”

He nodded, though she got the feeling that the kid wasn’t listening. Or, rather, he was listening and just opting not to take the words to heart.

She clicked her tongue once. Then she began walking along the outer edges of the ship, Dick trailing along behind her. She twirled her yoyo absently. They needed to get to the private quarters, as she was pretty sure that Zucco wouldn’t be anywhere else (he sent people out to do all his work, there was no way he was doing any work on his ship).

Then she heard laughter.

She looked up and scowled at the three henchmen who were leaning over the side of the railing above them.

“Oh my god, Ladybug has a kid!”

Her yoyo came to a stop. “Hilarious, I know.”

“Kinda! I mean the most deadly vigilantes in the world have a little kid trailing around like a lost puppy! That’s so good!”

She pressed her lips together tightly. “Mhmm. Please, tell me more...”

“Gonna say ‘or else’? Or else what? You’re going to change our diapers?”

She nodded slowly, then turned to Dick. She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. She opted to ignore the way the three roared with laughter above her at the action, instead concentrating on him.

“Sweetie, I want you to cover your eyes for a second, please. I’ll tell you when you can look again, okay?”

He nodded and brought his hands to his eyes.

She wheeled on the criminals, whose laughter was quickly dying.

“Oops,” said one of them, his voice so quiet she’d barely heard it.

But she did. And she fought off some laughter of her own. “‘Oops’ is right.”

Three minutes later, she smiled and pulled Dick’s hands away from his eyes.

“Hey, sweetie, how’re you feeling?”

He glanced behind her and she winced, expecting him to become horrified, but then he suddenly tossed his flute.

There was a satisfying ‘thunk’ as it made contact with the guy’s head and he fell over the side.

Marinette looked at Dick and gave him a tiny smile. He beamed in return.

“Thanks for the save.”

“No problem.”

She tossed her yoyo and recovered his flute for him, then took his hand. She led her kid through the ship.

~

When he caught up with them, Adrien smiled and rested a hand over the top of the kid’s head. “I found out where the private quarters are.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Follow me.”

The three of them went along in silence. Whenever they passed someone they’d casually knock them over the side. They might live that way.

But probably not.

Still, it was relatively easy.

They walked along the private quarters, poking their head in doors and then closing them.

Eventually, they came to the most grandiose-looking cabin. Really, they should have checked it first, but whatever. Marinette, Adrien, and Dick all gave each other wary looks before Adrien kicked the door open.

The poor guy had been asleep. Sucks.

Zucco looked up slowly and then gasped, reaching under his pillow and pulling out a gun.

Ah. Now that sucks for them.

Dick gave a high-pitched whine.

Marinette and Adrien instantly reached for Dick to push him behind them, only to stop short when their hands passed through clean air. They turned to look, confused expressions on their faces, only to find that the kid was gone.

Uh…

They frowned slightly and looked around. Their faces drained of color when they found their way back to where Zucco was.

Or, rather, had been. Because he was missing, too.

Marinette cursed beside him and Adrien felt like punching a wall. Dick hadn’t been making that noise because he was scared, he’d been making that noise because he’d been creating an illusion.

They had to stop Dick before he did something he would regret.

Their eyes searched the room desperately, their ears strained. There had to be something off. Dick and Zucco hadn’t left, Marinette and Adrien were covering too much of the door for both of them to squeeze past without the illusion breaking, so they were still in the cabin.

Marinette pursed her lips tightly and pulled the door shut, then lopped off the doorknob with her yoyo.

Adrien nodded and they began to shuffle through the room.

It was needlessly huge, but there was a lot of stuff in it. A bed, a mostly untouched kitchen area, a bathroom with a jacuzzi, a possibly real treasure chest, a vanity…

He knocked his staff against things absently. It should reveal illusions…

Where was this kid?

He kicked some jewelry on the floor in irritation and then blinked when they hit the wall nearby without a sound.

Wait a minute…

He swung his staff in a large circle around him and couldn’t help but wince when he hit something that he couldn’t see. The illusion shattered and Dick groaned in pain as he stumbled off of Zucco, holding his side where Adrien had hit him.

But, for once, Adrien wasn’t looking at the kid. His eyes found their way to the floor, where Zucco had curled up. He was beaten and bloody, bruises starting to form on his pale skin.

“Robin…” He whispered, looking at Dick.

Dick was crying, the blunt end of his flute bloodied.

Adrien walked over and carefully pulled the flute from his hands and then drew him into his chest. “You can’t kill him.”

“But --!”

“No buts.” Marinette gave Zucco a kick to the head to make sure he was down before joining the hug.

“But you kill people!”

“And we’re also adults. When you’re an adult you can kill people, too.”

“M’lady…”

She winced a little. “Yeah, I hear it. But… anyways, sweetie, we can’t let a kid kill anyone. Killing… it messes with you. We don’t want that life for you.”

Adrien sighed. “You’re a kid. You can’t kill someone, it’s not good for your psyche. Leave that kind of thing to us.”

Dick took a shaky breath, and then nodded.

They’d been right to not want to include him in this. Vigilantism wasn’t healthy for kids.

And they especially shouldn’t have brought Dick along for this part, they should have expected that something like this would happen. He was too close to the case.

He swallowed thickly and hugged him closer.

Marinette pulled away carefully. She hummed, grabbing Zucco by the back of his nightshirt and dragging him away.

He gently rubbed circle’s into the kid’s back. “You want some ice cream? I think there’s still some at home…”

Dick giggled a little. “That ice cream is so expired.”

“You don’t know that!”

“It’s been, like, three years.”

Adrien sighed. “Okay, maybe, but hush.”

He pulled away slightly from the kid and wiped some stray tears from his cheeks.

“Want to go home anyways?”

Dick smiled faintly and nodded.

~

She dropped back on the bed and smiled as she curled in the blankets. The night had been… interesting… but at least she was home now.

She felt tiny hands wrap around her and her smile widened as she felt a face bury itself in her stomach.

But then her smile lessened. She slowly combed her fingers through the kid’s hair.

“I need your miraculous back, sweetie.”

“No. I want to keep doing it.”

She gave Adrien a pleading look and he sighed, slipping into bed and wrapping his arms around them. “She’s right. We don’t want —.”

“And what about what I want?”

It definitely wasn’t an angle they’d considered. They’d been very concerned about the kid ending up like them (they had given up on trying to fix themselves a long time ago, but they were still self aware of the fact that they didn’t cope healthily). But… what if they were too late? The kid had already been exhibiting signs of their bad coping mechanisms, had been since the start, had they accidentally encouraged it just by being around him?

She didn’t know.

What she did know, though, was that they’d messed up by letting him come along. He’d had a taste of the adrenaline, and there was no going back.

She flinched. “I… are you sure?”

Dick nodded against her stomach. “I want to help people.”

She bit her lip. Dick was one of those kids that would sneak out and do it anyways, the least they could do was make sure he was safe.

Adrien seemed to come to the same conclusion, because he sighed again and squeezed them both tighter.

“As long as you make sure to always be with one of us while you’re doing vigilante work…” he said reluctantly.

“I can do that.”

Oh, thank kwami. 

She smiled and ruffled his hair. “I guess it would be kind of cool to have a whole family of vigilantes...”

~~~

As it turns out, I am unable to write pure fluff. It eludes me.

On the other hand, I managed a Christmas update!! Go me!!

~

Taglist

@i-am-ironic @nathleigh @mialuvscats @golden-promises @sassakitty @deathwishy @toodaloo-kangaroo

[peach-the-owl]

A platonic one with Vox Machina and the Might Nein where the reader is a dancer/bard/entertainer and the group is a little tight in money or whatever reason so they go off and perform to help out in some way. The groups didn't know so they kind of state at them with jaws dropped

May have gotten slightly carried away, especially on that second scenario, but I had fun with it (might even continue a small story off it, who knows). This should be interesting, I hope this turns out well…… Enjoy 😁

Payed Preformance

Mighty Nein, Vox Machina & Reader (Platonic)

Mighty Nein

Just starting up in the adventuring business has proven to be very tricky, especially when it comes to making and managing money.

"No matter how we try it, there’s just no way we can afford enough rooms for everyone." Beau scratches the back of her head as she recounts your small amount of coin the group had for like the fifteenth time.

"We could always steal some." Nott points out.

"I don’t reckon that to be a good idea, we're tryin' to be in these people’s good graces remember." Fjord counters, rubbing at his temples.

"Just a friendly suggestion." Nott shrugs, clearly still plotting to actually do it. Everyone starts discussing what to do next, you let out a small sigh.

"I have an idea, that doesn’t involve stealing." You speak up, gaining the group’s attention. They stare at you in silence, waiting for you to continue and explain. You look away a second and take a breath. "Look just… just trust me on this."

"Hey, if it’ll help, I say go for it." Beau encourages. You give a nod, stand from your chair and leave the tavern with the group following behind curiously. As you look for a nice open spot you also dig around in your bag until you grasp the item you’re searching for, pulling out a small lute.

"I didn’t know you played!" You hear Jester pipe in, you turn to her and give her a smile and a small laugh.

"I don’t, I’m not the one who’ll be playing it." You get some confused looks, you just roll your eyes playfully and cast Unseen Servant, whispering your command to it whilst handing over the lute. Music begins to play and you start performing some fine acrobatics and contortionist abilities, quickly gaining a crowd as you did. Soon enough people start tossing their spare change, as they do you up the ante of the music and your performance baiting people to want to toss more coin your way just to see what you would do next. The whole time you can see at the corner of your eye the Nein staring in awe, as a grand finale you kick off a wall, do a tumble roll through the air and cast Prestidigitation to make a small fireworks display go off behind you. There’s a pause before the crowd you'd drawn in starts to clap and cheer a few "good show" being yelled here and there, you gather your spoils into your bag and walk over to the group.

"Will this do?" You ask, holding you bag open for them to inspect. Caleb stares into the bag giving a quick head count.

"I believe this’ll do just fine." He comments. There’s a small awkward silence that soon falls onto the group.

"Alright, since no one else wants to ask the question that’s on all our minds, I’ll do it myself." Molly quickly breaks away from the silence and looks to you. "Where did you learn how to do that?" You give a sigh.

"You know, you and Yasha aren’t the only ones who lived with a circus." You say somewhat matter-of-factly.

"Oh now that’s a story I have to hear." He perks up and gets uncomfortably close to your face until you shove him away.

"How about first we actually go through how much coin we *cough* I *cough* earned, then I might tell my story." You exaggerate on the might as a means to say you weren’t going to willingly give away your life story. Before anyone has the chance to say or ask you anything else you turn and make your way back into the tavern.

Vox Machina

"Alright! What did you boneheads do!" The doors to the tavern slam open and a very angry Vex marches her way over to the table giving a hard glare towards Grog and Scanlan. You, Keyleth and Percy all share a look then sit back and take a swig from your drinks ready to watch the show unfold.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about." The gnome tried to play things off smoothly, it didn’t work.

"Really." She raises an unconvinced eyebrow at him. "Well then I’m sure you have a perfectly good explantion for where that gaudy belt you’re wearing came from." You have to hold back a laugh at Scanlan's obvious discomfort. Vax comes and places an arm around his sister's shoulder.

"Hey relax, I’m sure it can’t be that bad." She eyes him a moment.

"Right… that’s a nice new cloak you got there. Where’d that come from?" Vex asks suspiciously. Vax then slowly removes his arm from her shoulder and she lets out a sigh. "Until we can sort this out you’re all banned from taking any money." You and Keyleth both nearly choke on your drinks.

"Come on Vex, don’t throw us into this mess. We’re not the ones who did anything wrong." You try to reason. She turns to you and pinches at the bridge of her nose.

"Look, I’m not trying to be the bad guy here, but we barely have enough gold for rooms and a meal." You let the words sink in, contemplating if you should suggest the idea that popped into you head or begrudgingly go along without spending money. When you come to your conclusion you take a deep breath to spike yourself up.

"What if I told you I had a way we could make back… at least a good some of the gold we’d lost." Everyone looks at you curiously.

"Please, by all means." You nod, chug down the rest of your drink and stand up walking around the table.

"Scanlan I’m borrowing you for a moment." You say grabbing the gnome by the collar of his shirt without letting him answer. You head out to find an open space on the road and place him down once you do.

"What was that for?" Scanlan asks, brushing himself off.

"I have a special request, if you don’t mind." He raises an interested eyebrow at you. You whisper to him your request and give an expectant look. "Think you could do that for me?"

"You got it!" He shoots you some finger guns then pulls out his instrument to help fulfil your request. You wave your hand letting the magic shimmer over you, changing your outfit to something more fitting and wait for your cue. Already a curious crowd starts to form around you, and when the music hits your ears you begin to move your body perfectly in time with the notes. As the song plays you match your movements with each note as if your body was a physical interpretation of the song itself. People start to toss gold and silver coin your way, some cheers and whistles being heard amongst the crowd, all the while you do what you can to repress any memories that try to resurface themselves, you were not gonna let the past ruin this for you. When the song is finally done you give a bow to the crowd breathing heavily to catch your breath, they all clap, cheer and some toss even a few extra coin your way. Once you’ve finally regained a normal breathing pattern and the crowd had dispersed you look back to the group, seeing them all jaw dropped.

"You’ve got quite the talent there." Scanlan says astonished. You give a light laugh, waving your hand as you do to change your outfit back to the way it was before.

"Where in blazes did that come from?" Grog asks, confused by your secret talent.

"That was incredible." Percy compliments.

"Where did you learn to dance like that?" Vax questions.

"You have to teach me how to dance sometime!" Keyleth quickly jumps in excitedly.

"Whoa, whoa slow down everyone, please." You hold your arms up defensively. "Look, it’s no big deal. Does that help make up some lost change?" You quickly change the subject, directing your attention over to Vex as she finishes collecting the last of the coin people left behind.

"I certainly does. I too am curious though as to where you learned to dance like that?" Vex reiterates her brothers question.

"Eh, it was a long time ago really. I don’t really dwell too much on it though." You wave them off.

"Well now I'd like to know too." Percy raises an eyebrow your way. You let out a sigh.

"Right, and I’m famished after all that. Can’t we just head back into the tavern and enjoy ourselves?" You ask, avoiding the question. Realizing they wouldn’t be getting a straight answer from you they all nod.

"You know what you need to really hammer home a job well done?" Grog gives you a big goofy smile, you knew where this was going but look at him curiously nonetheless. "A nice big mug of ale. Come on then!" He gives you a hardy laugh and a pat on the back, his immense strength making you have to catch yourself from falling to the ground.

[fbwzoo]

Question about small dog socialization

I’ve loved seeing all the progress you’ve made with Spring. There’s been so much really helpful information I’ve learned through that. 

Anyway, I was curious. What are your thoughts on dog strollers? Specifically for help socialize small nervous dogs. 

I have two yorkiepoos who are rescues. (Two sisters who had never been separated from their mother and their siblings before. And we only found out after adopting them that their previous owner was murdered in a domestic violence dispute while the dogs were inside the house with them.) We got them slightly before the pandemic shut everything down. They have some understandable issues with humans and are clingy as heck. Right now, I’m trying to get them to a point where they’re okay going out on short walks so that hopefully we can work on teaching them that bad things won't happen just because there are other people around, but so far we’ve only made much progress with one of them. She’ll go on short walks around the front yard on a leash but I’d love to eventually be able to take one or both of them on longer walks.

Another problem is that at least one of them is a little contortionist who wiggles out of her harnesses if I'm not careful. I can't seem to get any of them to stay on. (LUCKILY she just runs straight back to the front door every time because she wants back inside.)

I'm not their main, person. The one they've latched onto the most is my mom. They took a while to warm up to me but I was able to win them over once I knew what they were dealing with and why they respond how they did. By listening to their behavior and what they were trying to tell me. Remembering not to point my feet in their direction. Not approaching my mom or the dogs and instead letting them approach me. That kind of thing. And the dogs love me now too.

Anyway. I guess I'm just wondering if you had any advice or links to resources for dog socialization that would apply here. And if you have any particular thoughts on strollers or dog carriers or stuff. Anything else I could use to get them comfortable just being outside the house and backyard before trying to tackle leash training. 

We've had these girls a while now. Long enough I feel like I have a good grasp on their personalities. I want to keep them healthy and happy and keep their minds engaged. And maybe they'd be content to just stay inside and cuddling all the time, but I feel like I'm not doing enough.

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

Oooof, poor pups (& previous owner). I'm glad your family adopted them & it sounds like they're doing really well with you!

I'm still so new with dogs that I'm not sure I have any specific links or anything. I can say what we've done with Spring and what I would try, but if any other dog people want to add info, I know I'd be interested in more discussion that would be helpful here!

I'm glad that I've been able to help somewhat already though! A lot of what we've worked on with Spring has been influenced by @doberbutts talking a lot about small dogs and their autonomy & such, so a lot of thanks to him too.

I do think strollers could definitely be helpful if you go slowly and build up lots of good associations with it. Making it a great place to relax and get treats and such in the house, then slowly increasing exposure outside while they're in their safe space. I know Spring is often happier in our arms if we're in a situation where he's unsure, and he'd probably react the same with a stroller.

I'm afraid I'm not sure if I do have any more advice here though, other than just going slowly and not pushing them too fast. The nice part of small dogs is that it is easier to get them decent exercise inside or in a backyard, and there's lots of enrichment you can do with that space too! I don't think it's a bad idea to work on expanding their comfort zone, but at least it doesn't sound super dire to get them out and about.

Anyone else have ideas? Or is this a situation where it would be best to look into a trainer to help in person?

[magnusmysteries]

Part 15: The Conspiracy of the Unknowing

The Magnus Archives was a horror podcast. It is now completed. Many of the show’s mysteries were never explained on the show. I intend to explain them. Spoilers for the show, but also spoilers if you wanna solve these mysteries yourself.

Quote from Gerard talking about the rituals “They… kind of ‘shift’ the world, just enough for the Power to come through. Merge with reality. Some say, or well, they guess, that it could bring other entities through with them. I mean, I doubt The Buried would be bringing through The Vast, but you know.

So Gerard thinks the Buried and the Vast are too different for one to bring through the other. He is wrong, The Eye managed to bring through its opposite. He is also wrong in thinking that the Buried and the Vast is far apart. (see Part 3.)

But there is an idea here that a fear can bring through nearby fears with its ritual. I think Nikola believed this also. I think she was trying to bring through several fears with the Unknowing. And she only tried to bring through fears that were close to the Stranger on the wheel.

Why was she trying to help other fears? Well, the previous attempt at the Unknowing was stopped by the Slaughter. The more fears she’d bring through, the fewer fears would try to stop her. How could she bring other fears through? I think if they help create the music during the Unknowing, they’d be brought through.

In Tightrope we see the calliope is played when one clown is beating another. Music inspiring violence is very Slaughter, and the calliope is of that fear.

Now some might object that in Strange Music, the calliope made a creepy doll come alive. Seems very Stranger. But in Heavy Goods, we learn that pieces of Nikola were fed to the organist. I think this made the organist’s calliope in a dual Stranger-Slaughter artifact. And the creepy doll is indeed violent.

The Coffin from the Buried was present at the Unknowing. And it just so happens, the coffin can sing.

In We All Ignore the Pit Nikola says “I don’t even have a voice box. I had to borrow this one.” In Breathing Room, an avatar of the End kills victims and shreds their vocal cords. I think he was harvesting voice boxes and giving them to Nikola’s mannequins to sing with during the unknowing.

In The Masquerade Jonathan sees some skinless people that he thinks will be part of the chorus. He thinks they are the leftovers from the Anglerfish's’ victims. I think he is wrong. Was he right it would mean one could make two avatars out of one victim, one avatar from the skin and one avatar from the meat. (Consider Sarah Baldwin claims to have some of the memories of the original Sarah, in Return to Sender.) I think these are creatures of the Flesh.

In Flesh Jared says that “others of skin and hunger” had talked with him and tried to persuade him to participate in rituals. He refused, but says some of the ones he had changed went instead. I think Jared was invited to two rituals. Those of hunger were from the Flesh. Those of skin were from the Stranger. So one or more of Jared’s companions was probably at the Unknowing. In part 3 I say why I think Jared is both Flesh and Spiral.

So that’s Slaughter, End, Flesh, Spiral, Buried. If you ignore the theoretical sixteenth fear, which Nikola may not have known about, that are five of the six closest fears to the Stranger. Would be neat if the Lonely was involved too, but I see no evidence of that. Let me know if you do!

Nikola collaborated with many powers when she ran the circus. Maybe getting them to trust her so they’d cooperate during the ritual. In Tightrope we have the violent clowns (Slaughter), the child being put in a sack (Buried), the child walking the tightrope (Vast) and the freak show (Flesh or Flesh/Spiral). In Strange Music there is a photograph with a fire-eater (Desolation) and a Contortionist (could be Flesh of Flesh/Spiral if it focuses on having a weird body. Could be Buried if it focuses on getting into tight places).

There is another reason to think the Spiral was involved with the Unknowing. In Another Twist Nikola is planning to kill John, take his skin and use it during the Unknowing. Michael hates John. He has only kept John alive because John might stop the Unknowing. But now it looks like John might unwillingly help the Unknowing instead. So Michael intends to kill John. Then Michael dies and is replaced with Helen. Then Helen saves John.

Why did Michael die? Michael is evil, but not entirely so. Not evil enough to want a ritual to succeed. But part of the Distortion, the part that isn’t Michael, do want the Unknowing to succeed. That part can kill Michael, but that is not ideal. If Michael dies, Helen becomes the Distortion. And Helen is nicer than Michael (initially) and therefore harder to use for evil.

But now Michael is about to kill John and therefore ruin the Unknowing. The non-human part of the Distortion is desperate and kills Michael. Helen becomes the Distortion.

Later Helen becomes even more evil than Michael. In Checking Out she wants the world to stay a nightmare. But in Another Twist, we can tell that isn’t yet true, because then she would have handed John back to Nikola.

In Taking Stock Helen tries to be friends with John. She seems sad and it is implied she is feeling guilty about killing. John rejects her. This is a turning point for Helen. The next episode she shows up in is Flesh. She is much more cheerful, and remains so for most of the series. I think she is no longer capable of feeling guilt. In a Gravedigger’s Envy she says she chooses to not feel guilty.

In Flesh Helen says: “You are very welcome. I have decided that I support what you’re doing, and I’m happy to assist. I think we’ll all be much happier this way.”

What she means is she will help John in performing the Eye’s ritual. Helen thinks she, and John and Melanie (who was also there) would be happy as avatars in the changed world.

[marastriker]

The red caboose for the ask game?

I didn't know which number you wanted so I just did them all 🤷

1) CB doesn't necessarily see anything about himself to be proud of. He's content with his acting ability and being able to keep his lifestyle of crashing trains under the wraps so well. But it's not something he would brag about to others, unless, of course, they attempted to undermine him.

2) At first, he really wants to please Greaseball when the diesel is paying him to rig races in his favor (not always with money. Sometimes with sexual favors.) He thinks that, perhaps, if he can get Greaseball to reigning champion, GB would maybe give him more of the time of day. Maybe see him as more than just a tool. It's a foolish endeavor, of course, since Greaseball has eyes for a certain dining car instead. CB can't bring himself to be angry or resentful, because Dinah is his best friend and she also genuinely likes him. He just feels like a forgotten third wheel. I think he finds new purpose in helping Electra rather than Greaseball, though. And even if Electra treats him as more of an equal, he still doesn't want to let them down. 

3) I guess the funny thing about being the token errand boy is that many engines depend on him. It gives him a feeling of power that he knows he can't misuse, but he does have his own fun in knowing that he could ruin everything at the drop of a pin if he wanted to. 

4) Come to terms with it. Very quickly. He would actually probably shut himself away from the world and wait for it to happen, or maybe try to accelerate the process. If Electra was in his life at this point, they would probably encourage CB to live life to the fullest in the meantime. It would take a lot of convincing though. 

5) His Chessie System sticker/tattoo (I see them as tattoos, personally). His mother was an original Chessie yellow caboose and it reminds him of her.

6) CB has gotten so used to being on his own for so long, but he'd be lying to himself if he didn't wish his parents were still alive. Things could have turned out so differently. 

7) Electra or Dinah. They're the ones he's closest to.

8) If CB had the money, he would dish it out on a fancy red convertible. But he's just fine rolling himself where he needs to get, or if not, public transportation is just fine. 

9) Someone playing with his hair, massaging/scratching his scalp. It's like a damn reset button, it immediately puts him at bay. He only trusts a select few with this information though. 

10) He simply lives with it. End of story. He never wants to be seen as weak or vulnerable to anyone and has learned to bottle up all his problems so no one will know just how broken he really is. 

11) His neckerchief is especially important to him. It was the last piece of his old baby blanket, and he still likes to keep it close. It's a comfort thing. 

12) How doesn't he sleep? He moves around so much that he's fallen off the bed multiple times in his sleep. It doesn't wake him up, because he is a very heavy sleeper. But he needs to be a special kind of tired to stay still during sleep.

13) Someone who would vow to make sure nothing would ever get in the way of them having a normal childhood. He's not going to make them go through the same bullshit he did, no one deserves that. 

14) CB was one of those students who didn't do any of the homework and goofed off in class (typical class clown, of course.) But he would ace the tests, quizzes. Teachers thought he was just cheating, and asked him questions out of the blue during class. All of which he got correct. He's not stupid, by any means, in fact he's a genius. He just doesn't feel the need to do homework over stuff he already knows. 

15) Something crisp and clean once he can afford it. Perhaps he might also use body sprays traditionally marketed toward women, but he likes the fruity scents. 

16) It's actually quite confusing, after trying to date Dinah, he assumed he was gay after not being as attracted to her sexually. Sexual stuff with other men turned out to be much more enjoyable. But in actuality, he's probably Pan, since he doesn't mind Electra being genderfluid. 

17) I have this idea that he's actually really into Disney movies so I imagine him and Dinah would have fun doing some Disney duets. Love is an Open Door, A Whole New World, etc. But in the way that Sharpay and Ryan always played the romantic leads in High School Musical - just because they're comfy with each other, not because they're in love. 

18) He's a very bendy lad. He has some mad contortionist/acrobatic skills that he casually shows off. Totally didn't think it was special or interesting until others pointed it out though. He's just like what? You can't put your leg behind your head? 

19) CB is someone who despite being able to hold his own and take care of himself, desperately wants someone to be there for him. That's why he feels safest with Electra. Electra is someone who thankfully sees him for who he really is and fiercely loves him despite his flaws. 

20) Washing dishes. He hates touching wet food, it's a sensory issue. That might be one of the only things that could get him to easily vomit.

21) The first Christmas he could remember when his parents were still alive was when he got his first kid's radio set. It really fueled his love for radio communication and he appreciated it greatly since he knew his family was always tight on money. He can clearly remember the happy look on his mom's face when he opened the present. 

22) Foolishly. He will pour hundreds into his hobbies and interests but not on stuff he actually needs to survive like food. Or even proper bed sheets. He thinks it's completely justified, because he thinks life isn't worth it if you can't do something you enjoy. 

23) Don't get me wrong, CB is very much a lightweight, but he likes his blackout nasty liquor. He will do shots of basically anything you give him. Though if he had a choice of drink, it would be a fruity concoction that's sure to get him wasted ASAP. 

24) He's always longed to rise above his station. Racing is something he truly enjoys and wishes he could be an engine like Greaseball or Electra. Unfortunately, that's just something that's not possible. Crashing trains aside, he loves the feeling of the wind in his hair as he's speeding down the track. It's when he feels the most free. 

25) Others would probably prefer that he didn't crash trains, but it's not like he cares. That's not something that's worth changing about himself in his mind. He wonders if people actually got to know the real him they would understand what he wants out of life better. But it's always difficult for him to trust someone enough to be that vulnerable with.

[wonkasmissstarshine]

The Chocolatier’s Rose {Willy Wonka x OC} Ch.13

GIFs not mine. Credit go to owners.

Summary: Charlie’s prize is revealed, but it’s not what he was expecting.

Tagging: @holdmeicant​ @willymywonkers​ @sleepiesapphicxoxo​

"Now, how many children are left?" Willy said. He turned around, taking his goggles off, and faced Charlie and Rose.

"Willy," Rose said, taking off her goggles as well. "Charlie's the only one left now"

Willy's eyes widened and he looked at Charlie. "You mean you're the only one?"

A smile played on Charlie's lips as he nodded. "Yes"

"What happened to the others?" Willy asked playfully, causing Rose to grin. The same grin grew on Willy's face. "Oh, my dear boy! That means you've won!" Willy took Charlie's hand and started shaking it. "I do congratulate you. I really do. I had a hunch, you know, right from the beginning. Well done. Now, we mustn't dilly or dally. Because we have an enormous number of things to do before the day is out!" He grabbed Charlie's wrist and broke the handshake. He then let go of his wrist and walked for the elevator. "But luckily for us, we have the Great Glass Elevator to speed thing al—" Willy ended up walking right into the elevator. Rose gasped as he fell to the floor. Willy stood back up soon after. "Speed things along" He finished. He pressed the button and the elevator opened. "Come on" He urged the Buckets. They got into the elevator with him, dumping their goggles into a bin.

Willy pressed a button, and Charlie became curious about it. "Up and out? What kind of room is that?"

"Hold on" Was all Willy told the boy. Charlie smiled at that, and he looked straight up. The elevator shot up. It was gaining more speed the higher up it went. "Oh, my goodness" Willy said, looking upwards. "We're gonna need to much faster, otherwise we'll just never break through!"

"Break through what?" Charlie asked. Rose had an idea of what Willy meant though, and she internally panicked.

"I've been longing to press that button for years!" Willy stated, staring at the two siblings with an excited grin. "Well, here we go! Up and out!"

"But, do you really mean?" Rose questioned.

"Yeah, I do"

"But it's made of glass!" Rose protested, her panic now becoming externalized. "It'll smash into a million pieces!"

Willy laughed maniacally and looked up again. Rose grabbed onto Charlie, and held him close to her. She closed her eyes, never once daring to open them as they rapidly sped up. Though, she opened her eyes when she heard glass shatter. The elevator had shot up so high that they were in the clouds. Then, the elevator began plummeting to the ground. Rose gripped on even tighter to Charlie, all the whole Willy was giving them a spaced out and dreamy look.  He turned around and pressed a button. The elevator stopped, now with the support of rocket propellers.

Rose let out a sigh of relief, and let go of Charlie. She looked up at Willy, who was smiling gently at her. She returned the smile. The elevator moved along and from it, they could see the other guests leaving the factory.

Augustus was covered in chocolate and licking his fingers. Rose wouldn't be surprised if he was part chocolate.

Violet was back to her normal size, but she was blue now. She was doing cartwheels, flips and contorting in ways contortionists only knew how. Perhaps she could find a new passion in gymnastics.

Veruca was next. Both her and her father were covered in trash. Rose saw Veruca glance up at the elevator, and then turn to her father, presumably asking for a flying glass elevator. Looks like that girl didn't learn anything. Mr Salt must have told Veruca no, because she stomped off a little bit just before her father.

Last, but not least, was Mike. Mr Teavee was carrying Mike's jacket for him, since he was now too tall and skinny to wear it. Well, if Mike by some miracle ever got into sports, basketball would be perfect for him.

Rose couldn't say she felt bad for the children though. It was their own fault, and by extension, their parents fault as well, especially Mr Salt.

"Where do you live?" Willy asked the two Buckets.

Both of them turned around. Charlie pointed out their home. "Right over there. That little house"

******

Mrs Bucket was chopping cabbage in the kitchen, Mr Bucket was reading a newspaper, Grandpa Joe was sweeping up the floor, and Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgina were lying in bed, as usual. "When do you think they'll be back?" Mrs Bucket asked.

"Hard to know, dear" Mr Bucket answered her.

That's when the glass elevator crashed through the roof and landed right in the house. Mrs Bucket shrieked in surprise. Mr Bucket jumped onto the couch. Grandma Georgina, having just woken up from her nap, said, "I think there's someone at the door"

"Hi mom!" Both Charlie and Rose waved at Mrs Bucket. Willy waved too, albeit a small and awkward wave.

Mrs Bucket waved back at her two children, and the man that was with them. "Hi"

Rose and Charlie exited the elevator. They ran over to Mr and Mrs Bucket, and Grandpa Joe. "Mom, dad! We're back!" Charlie exclaimed. The five of them shared a group hug.

Willy had finally stepped out of the elevator, and approached the hugging Buckets. "This is Willy Wonka" Rose introduced, smiling lovingly at the man. Willy looked at Rose and returned the smile. "He gave us a ride home"

"I see that" Mrs Bucket said, glancing up at the ceiling.

Willy looked between Mr and Mrs Bucket. "You must be Charlie and Rose's p...p..." He was struggling to say the word.

"Parents" Mr Bucket finished for him.

"Yeah, that"

"He says Charlie's won something" Rose explained to her parents and grandpa.

"Not just some something" Willy began. He started looking around in the cupboards. "The most something something of any something that's ever been. I'm gonna give this boy my entire factory" Everyone grew shocked expressions on their faces.

"You must be joking!" Grandpa Joe exclaimed.

Willy began to explain. "No, really. It's true. Because, you see, a few months ago, I was having my semi-annual haircut, and I had the strangest revelation. In that one silver hair I saw, reflected my life's work, my factory, my beloved Oompa-Loompas. Who would watch over them after I was gone? I realized in that moment, I must find an heir. And I did, Charlie. You"

"That's why you sent out the golden tickets!" Charlie concluded with glee.

"Uh-huh" Willy nodded.

"What are Oompa-Loompas?" Mrs Bucket asked in a whisper.

"I invited five children to the factory and the one who was the least rotten would be the winner" Willy opened up one more cupboard, finding Charlie's toothpaste tube cap replica of the chocolate factory.

"That's you, Charlie" Rose said, giving her brother a hug.

Willy walked up to Charlie and asked, "So, what do you say? Are you ready to leave all this behind and come live with me at the factory?"

"Sure, of course!" Charlie said. Rose wasn't sure she'd ever seen him smile so brightly. "I mean, it's alright if my family comes too?"

"Oh, my dear boy, of course they can't!" And just like that, everyone's smiles dropped. But it wasn't only Rose's smile that dropped. She could feel her heart sinking down into her stomach. "You can't run a chocolate factory with a family hanging over you like an old, dead goose" Willy glanced over at the grandparents. "No offence"

"None taken, jerk" Grandpa George replied.

Willy threw him an annoyed glance but ignored the comment all the same. "A chocolatier has to run free and solo. He has to follow his dreams. Gosh darn the consequences" Willy stepped back into the elevator. "Look at me. I had no family, and I'm a giant success"

Rose's eyes were brimming with tears. She wanted to say something to Willy, but as soon as she opened her mouth, it immediately snapped shut. Charlie grabbed her hand, and gave it a comforting squeeze. "So, if I go with you to the factory, I won't ever see my family again?" He asked.

"Yeah" Willy nodded. "Consider that a bonus"

"Then I'm not going" Charlie decided. "I wouldn't give up my family for anything. Not for all the chocolate in the world"

Willy's smile fell from his face. "Oh, I see. That's weird" He gave one more shot at trying to convince Charlie. "There's other candy too besides chocolate"

"I'm sorry, Mr Wonka. I'm staying here" Charlie told him sharply.

"Wow" Willy frowned, and his eyebrows furrowed. "Well, that's just...unexpected and weird. But I suppose, in that case, I'll just... goodbye then" He gave a nod and was about to press a button. He looked at Charlie again. "Sure you won't change your mind?"

Charlie nodded. "I'm sure"

And for the first time during that whole discussion, Willy tried meeting Rose's gaze. "Rose" He tried. And then he suddenly felt guilty when he saw her face. How could he say all those things in front of her?

Rose looked away, wiping the tears from her face. "Just go, Mr Wonka"

If Willy wasn't feeling defeated before, he definitely was now. It hurt him to hear Rose call him Mr Wonka instead of Willy. It broke his heart. He found himself to care deeply for the girl all in the course of one day. Now, she wouldn't even look him in the eye. With a final goodbye, Willy pressed a button, and the elevator flew out of the house.

"Things are going to get much better!" Grandma Georgina chirped optimistically.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Mrs Bucket went to answer it. It was Harry, and he was holding a wedding dress in his hands. "Hello Buckets!" He greeted, but then quickly noticed all their sad faces. "Is this a bad time?"

Mr Bucket glared at him, and immediately stepped in front of Rose to hide her from view. "What do you want, young man?"

"Oh, well, I've just come to drop this off" Harry explained, holding up the wedding dress. Rose peeked over her father's shoulder, and felt even more tears coming when she saw the white fabric. "It belonged to my sister, but it'll fit Rose" He handed off the gown to Mrs Bucket.

"Er, thank you, Harry" She said unsurely, folding it nicely over her arm.

Harry looked in Rose's direction. She was trying to remain hidden behind her father. Harry smiled, trying to get her attention. "Rose?"

"She's not in the mood to talk, young man!" Grandpa Joe said to him.

Harry got the message and backed off. "Alright, well, I just came here to tell her that the wedding will be tomorrow. One o'clock sharp" His eyes scanned the other Buckets. "And I apologize, but none of you are welcome to the ceremony. I hope you can understand" Harry didn't even wave or say goodbye. He just left the house, leaving the Buckets speechless. "Darling," Mrs Bucket said, turning to face her daughter. "Can you explain to us please?" The tone she used wasn't mad. Her voice was full of concern, and her expression was too. All of the Buckets were.

"Rose, what have we told you?" Mr Bucket said, using a gentle tone, and gripping his daughter gently by the shoulders. "You don't need to marry that boy"

"Well," Rose began, calming down from her sobbing. "Dad, I know you lost your job, and Mrs Mason said the pie shop would be closing soon. Things were only going to get worse, so I saw no other choice other than accepting Harry's marriage proposal"

"But Rose, you don't need to marry him" Mr Bucket assured his daughter. "The factory offered me a much better job in fixing the machines"

"And sweetheart," Mrs Bucket spoke up, rubbing Rose's back. "Mrs Mason stopped by earlier today. She said it was the busiest day she ever had. The bank is giving her an extension, and she's positive she'll be able to pay. She's even able to hire more employees, and she's promoted you to a position in the kitchen baking the pies"

"R-really?" Rose asked both of her parents. Both Mr and Mrs Bucket nodded.

"Rosie" Charlie spoke up, making Rose look down at him. "You're not really going to marry him, are you?"

"Well..." Rose paused, not really sure of what to say. "I..."

"Because, what happens if you do marry him, but he doesn't allow you to see us ever again? I mean, he doesn't even want us at the wedding" Now tears were starting to form in Charlie's eyes. "I don't want him taking you away from me"

This was becoming too much for Rose to handle. She was feeling conflicted. On one hand, she really didn't need to marry Harry anymore for her family's sake. But for Rose's own sake, she was still considering going through with it. She might as well, considering she'll never love anyone the way she loved Willy Wonka again.

She had only known Willy Wonka for one day, but she had fallen deeply in love with him. She never felt that way about anyone before. But now she was never going to see him again. So, Rose figured, she might as well be stuck with Harry for the rest of her life.

"I can't do this right now!" Rose burst out into tears again and ran out the door. The other Buckets couldn't do anything but watch as she did. She needed her space right now.

"Charlie" Grandpa Joe looked down at the boy. "What exactly happened today?"

The boy answered his grandfather. "Rose and Mr Wonka fell in love with each other, but now..." Charlie gazed at the door which Rose ran through moments ago. He then looked up at hole in the ceiling. "They'll never see eachother again"

[nelllraiser]

the kids are alright | adam, ariana, athena, blanche, connor, nell, orion, & winston

TIMING: a few days before the full moon. LOCATION: connor’s beach house. PARTIES: @walker-journal, @letsbenditlikebennett, @athenaquinn, @harlowhaunted, @connorspiracy, @nelllraiser, @3starsquinn, @danetobelieve SUMMARY: just a truly wholesome and youthful time.

Connor didn’t know what everyone liked, so he tried to get a little of everything; chips, dip, beers, spirits (no pun intended), and a few takeout menus scattered around in case they wanted to order. The house wasn’t huge by any means, but one thing he prided himself on was having a bloody good entertainment system, complete with several consoles and a massive telly. They’d have some fun. Watch some shit movies, play some Mario Party, forget that the world outside was shit, at least for a few hours. As the first knock at the door came, he headed over to answer it. “Hey, welcome. Come on in. Make yourself at home. Telly and consoles are obviously in here, but we have this bit of beach as well if we decide we want to take it outside.”

While Ariana wasn’t sure of who all would be in attendance tonight, she knew she hadn’t wanted to leave Athena back at the apartment. Especially with everything that had happened recently, she knew they could both use a fun evening. When she knocked on the door, she smiled brightly as Connor greeted them and introduced him to Athena. “I think I’ll skip testing my luck with the beach, I’m more interested in seeing how I can build a new entertainment system for ya anyway,” she turned to Athena and said, “This is my friend Athena. Athena, this is Connor. You may have seen some of his YouTube videos.” She held up a bag and added, “We brought some extra snacks, too.” 

She wasn’t entirely sure that she was up for a party, but she also knew that she didn’t want to be all by herself with her thoughts. So when Ariana had offered to bring her along to the party, Athena had quickly agreed. “Hi.” She waved to Connor from where she was standing behind Ariana. “I don’t watch a lot of YouTube outside of some videos about baking, or science, or one of my sorority sisters has a vlog channel, so I’m subscribed to that… but still! Nice to meet you.” She grinned, and it still didn’t feel entirely comfortable, but she knew that she had to get back to the usual routine to some degree sooner or later. She nodded over at the bag Ariana was holding up, using that time to look around the house. Her fingers, bare except for one with a golden ring that Amanda had gotten her for her birthday, found her cross necklace and she twisted it around, a bit out of a nervous habit. “Thanks for letting me come, it looks like you have a really nice place.”

“Always love a good snack,” Connor teased. “That’s why Adam’s coming.” Pity that boy was so painfully heterosexual. “Hi, love,” he greeted as Ariana introduced Athena. “Nice to meet you. Nobody else is here yet, but come on in, have a drink, let Ariana check out my furniture…” He gave a little chuckle, helping himself to a beer. 

Nell and Blanche had arrived in tandem, sporting their matching ‘burn your bra’ crop tops in a yin and yang color scheme with Nell in black, and one of her best friends in white. As she walked through the open front door, an amused grin cracked her lips as she saw Blanche and her hadn’t been the only ones to have a similar idea. “Well I’m glad we all got the memo,” she said with a nod towards Athena and Ariana’s complimentary jerseys, knowing full well there had been no such thing. Then she was raising a hand to wave a group greeting towards everyone, and presenting the plate she’d brought. “I brought these- they’re brownies obviously, but the kind that might make you astral project a couple planes over.” Probably stuffed with enough homegrown pot to get an elephant high, they were a staple when it came to party favors.

Orion had been to Connor’s on quite a few occasions now. Since the two had first met up at the old haunted house that Rio had grown up learning about, the two had hung fairly often while Rio helped film and edit videos every now and again. He was still clearly a beginner, but either Connor was desperate for the help or just enjoyed Rio’s company. He came hand in hand with Winston, overly excited for the night. Ever since his birthday, people seemed to walk on pins and needles around him and he didn’t know how to convince him that he was completely fine without potentially coming across as a sociopath. “Connor’s place is nice! He has a really cool set up for editing videos. Maybe you two can geek out about computer stuff together?” Rio grinned as the two made towards the front door.

Connor took a look at everyone’s outfits. “Well, if you brought bras to burn, I already mentioned we’ve got the beach for a little campfire,” he teased. “And Nell, maybe we let people settle in for a bit before getting high on brownies, yeah?” He gave her a playful grin. “But I like the way you think.” There was another ring from the doorbell, and he momentarily excused himself to go answer. It was Rio and his roommate. Holding hands. Cool. “Hey, you made it,” he greeted, smiling over at Rio. “Did you know we were supposed to coordinate? Everyone else has come dressed in pairs,” he teased, then looked to Winston. “Hi. Nice to meet ya. I’m Connor. Come on in.” He led them inside to the rest of the group. Now that almost everyone had arrived, he made sure everyone had a drink and knew where the snacks were, and where the bathroom was. “Just waiting for Adam then. For movies we’ve got pretty much anything that’s on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or anything I can illegally download.” 

Glancing around the room, Winston shot Nell and Blanche a knowing smile before keeping their hands tightly interlaced with Orion’s. Things seemed to have relatively blown over with Athena, the fact that she was here with Ariana was a separate matter. “Thanks for the invite, if I’d known we were supposed to coordinate I’d have joined in but I guess we’re always the last to hear about these fun facts…” Winston gave a gentle smile before continuing into the house. They were about to mention that they were pretty sure they could connect Connor’s place up to the database in their home, but they weren’t sure that they wanted to potentially share any info that was not entirely secure. “Adam’s coming too? This really is going to be a party.” Winston just hoped he wasn’t armed with assault rifles and grenades this time.

 “Hey guys,” Blanche gave a wave. She hadn't expected Athena to be here, but then again, she also hadn't expected Rio either, especially after… everything. But she wasn't one to judge when people needed to blow off steam. “I would highly recommend the brownies. Once, you know, we’ve all settled in.” She nudged Nell playfully. “I have a 12 pack of beer too if anyone wants a drink.” She set it down on an end table, before curiously eyeing the TV. “Alright then, why don't we focus on picking a movie while we wait for Adam -” would he roll in with kegs like he did at Nic’s party? She fought back a snide internal comment, reminding herself that she promised to rewind for the evening, and honestly… she was so tired of being angry. Not just at Adam, but with everyone. “What genre are we feeling? Horror?” she asked, hopefully.

It seemed like she and Athena hadn’t been the only ones who showed up matching. Ariana waved to Blanche and Nell appreciating their crop tops. She stood up to grab some drinks for her and Athena though she was pretty sure she’d be skipping out on the brownies. She’d never tried them before and wasn’t sure a big group of people was the place to start. “I’ll take you up on one of those beers. Did you want one, Athena?” At the mention of horror movies, Ariana shrugged. “Sounds a little close to real life, but I’m down.” 

She figured that her brother was going to be here. Athena gave a small, half-wave to Rio, though she didn’t look over at him for too long. They hadn’t been together since everything and she still wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. The idea of the brownies wasn’t especially appealing, even if part of her wondered if Nell’s addition to it was a bit more magical than most. “Uh, sure.” She said, looking at Ariana. “If there’s cider I’d prefer that but beer can do.” She waved at Nell and Blanche. “Nice matching.” It didn’t hurt to at least appear pleasant, and she could only do so much to calm down her nerves - getting into an argument wasn’t going to help with any of that. “What horror films? I can’t say I’m super expert on that genre.” Ironically enough.

There was the sound of a large truck pulling up and a loud bawdy conversation on the street about someone being manscaped with a weedwacker, only for said someone to shout back an incoherent taunt about some physically impossible things Adam’s mother engaged in last night. More voices joined in the from the truck until it was unclear where mothers, weedwhackers, body hair, contortionist sex positions, chocolate fudge, and lighter fluid all fit into this. However all involved seemed to part even more cheerful than before and the car departed. 

Sporting a letterman jacket and a red baseball cap with faint stains of a deeper scarlet,  Adam burst in smelling faintly of lock-room soap and the lingering grass scent of the football field. 

Still flush with post-practice endorphins, Adam vaulted over the back of the nearest free couch as if it were a track hurdle and crashed down into the open seat. 

“Sup my bodacious bastards?”

"Horror is good by me. Blair Witch or something? Could always go with Scream. Classic slasher." Connor grabbed a cider for himself. He had bought enough so that nobody needed to bring their own, but it was a nice gesture. It wasn't long before Adam turned up. You really couldn't miss him. "Life of the party, I see," Connor greeted. "The loud-mouthed jock of my dreams,” he teased, his grin flashing all the way up to his eyes. “Want a beer mate? We were just deciding on a movie." 

Nell abandoned her pot filled brownies on the coffee table, grabbing a few drinks after waving a welcome to Winston and Orion, and first offering one to Blanche with a “For you” before taking another. Then she plopped herself down on the same couch before also handing one to Adam should he want it. “And here you go, ‘bodacious’;” she said with a slight snort. Nell couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t a bit worried to have the two of them in the same place after Winn’s death, but maybe alcohol was another key factor in glossing all of that over for the moment being. She popped open the top of her own bottle with a household spell, realizing she’d forgotten a bottle opener before taking a swig of it. “I’m right here,” she joked at the mention of Blair Witch, even if she knew it was less about witches and more about general spookiness.

Swallowing a mouthful of beer, Winston watched Adam enter the room. This was not your classic set up, hunters, werewolves, exorcists, spellcasters and god knew what else. But they were their friends and Winston was doing their best to be more normal in their endeavours and their life. “Not everything is about you Nell sweetie,” Winston reached down and plucked a brownie from the plate, tentatively nibbling on it and smiling. Thank God they weren’t driving tonight. “I’ve heard that Midsommar is meant to be really good, Heritage too. Not sure if any of those appeal to you. They’re meant to be more nordic or something? I don’t know. I read something about them a while back.”

The place was full of familiar faces, and maybe for the first time Orion found himself at what could basically be considered a party surrounded completely by people that he considered friends. Or at least, friends plus one very odd addition in the first of his twin sister. She stuck close with Ariana. The pair still baffled Rio, seeing them together and matching was even more jarring. Coupled with Blanche and Nell wearing the same thing maybe Rio and the others really had missed some sort of memo. Athena’s small wave was maybe a step, but not much of one. Rio returned the wave, both of them turning their backs to each other as Rio made his way to the kitchen, pondering whether or not he was going to drink. He decided to go for it after a long moment’s hesitation and picked a cider, “It’s someone’s job to make sure I don’t get drunk. I have an embarrassingly small tolerance.” He said aloud to no one in particular, only sort of joking and then found his way to the couch where Adam had just leapt over, “A cult movie may be hitting a bit close to home, don’t you think?” Rio laughed, but shrugged the concern away, “It looks pretty though. I’m down for anything.”

Connor was pretty indifferent to any drama that might have existed between anyone in the group, so he didn’t pay any mind to Blanche’s reaction to Adam. "Yes, Nell, you're our White Crest witch, very different," Connor teased. Since everyone was here, it wouldn't do any harm to grab a brownie. He'd just have to pace himself. "Oh shit, if we're talking 'high brow' horror," he made little air quotes around the words, "Hereditary and Midsommar would be sick. Get Out, too. I just figured we'd probably want something we can get pissed and stoned to and not pay that much attention," he snickered. "Oh, there's also Happy Death Day and The Babysitter if we want newer Netflix shit." He shrugged, sipping his drink. “I’m not fussed though. Whatever anyone else wants to watch.” 

It was good to see Adam in seemingly better spirits than the last time she saw him. Ariana still felt a twinge of guilt that her trust in others had nearly led to his death, but he was here now and they were all going to have a good time. “Hey, Adam,” she greeted with a wave as he swung over the couch. She looked back to Athena with a small smile and said, “Cider it is.” She made her way to the kitchen and chimed in, “I’m not sure Winston, I’m pretty sure Nell took a DNA test and she’s 100% that witch.” She grabbed a beer for herself and a cider for Athena. It dawned on her that she hadn’t seen any of the movies mentioned but she laughed a bit over the cult part. “I’ve seen like none of those, so I’m good with whatever.” She slid back into her seat by Athena and handed her a cider. “Here you go,” she said brightly. She knew Athena was still down over everything that happened and she wanted this to be a nice night for both of them. Hell, she was pretty sure everyone in this room needed a break from White Crest being White Crest and she wanted that for all of them. 

She gave a small wave to Adam as he arrived. At least he seemed to be in relatively good spirits, which was something. “How’s it going Adam?” She raised an eyebrow. “This feels a little different than our usual sort of party, doesn’t it?” Athena nodded at Ariana’s comment, watching as she went over to grab the drinks. “One of my sisters is a sociology and film double major and wrote a paper about Get Out - she had us all watch it so I actually have seen that, but I can’t say I’m too familiar with the others.” She did know that if anything was too full of jump scares she might react poorly, but that was what fiddling with the hem of her shirt was for, wasn’t it? She accepted the cider from Ariana and took a sip. “Whatever everyone else wants to go with.” She couldn’t help but sigh when she noticed that her brother had the same drink as her, though only a small smile covered her lips.

Connor had a big grin on his face as they drank and chatted. It had been a while since he'd had a proper group of friends like this. He had friends, of course, but high school and college he'd still been coming into his own as a medium and starting up his YouTube channel. People thought he was kind of weird. In White Crest, he wasn't weird at all. He was probably one of the most normal. "Okay, we're gonna have to take votes on the movie," he snickered, smoking his vape. "Probably something on the less serious side of things, yeah? We've got enough shit going on. Happy Death Day or The Babysitter are both on Netflix." He got a feeling there was a little more going on with the ‘serious’ side of things than he knew about, but he didn’t want to stick his nose into other people’s business. This night was about relaxing, not rehashing the bad shit.

Adam had once been taught that he’d been born to stand apart from humanity, amongst but not a part of it. The preservation of mankind’s destiny required forsaking anything that’d inhibit neutrality or cause a Hunter to become entangled in disputes between human beings. Thus Adam had grown up play-acting, his life during the day just a pleasant cover identity for who he really was. 

Now it was all he was. 

This reversal tugged at Adam as he watched his friends banter and meander on the way to actually choosing a movie. All his life Adam had been told to focus, remain vigilant against the inevitable return of the old gods. Was that why he lost his powers? Focusing too much on enjoying humanity’s company instead of protecting it? 

These and other thoughts whirled behind Adam’s grin as he accepted the beer. “Glad my beach body lives rent free in your head Con,” Adam replied with a wink to Connor at the mention of being the jock of his dreams. 

“Dunno about Happy Death Day, I’ve had about enough dead chick drama for a while.”

Adam ‘thought’ for a moment, which is to say he took a few glugs of beer like a man dying of thirst in the desert and went with the first idea that popped up in his brain when the alcohol hit his system. 

“Let’s do truth or dare while we decide? Bet that should be a trip with well...us”

Blanche had a hold on the remote, somewhat zoning out while people debated the choice in movie. She was doing that more, lately, but she had always been easily distracted. That was more because ghosts though. Only at the mention of Truth or Dare did Blanche snap out of it. Leaning against the armrest, she took a sip of her beer, glancing over at Adam. Considering it a moment, she put the remote down. “I'm down for a game of Truth or Dare,” she said, glancing around. Was this what all parties were like? She looked over at Nell, almost a little unsure for a second. “Sounds like fun?”

In all honesty, Nell much preferred the concept of Truth or Dare in comparison to a movie. At this rate with all the strangeness that made its home in White Crest, horror flicks were nearly laughable at times. Besides- Truth or Dare was probably something that demanded more attention, which was a welcome distraction from current stressors. And that was the whole point of this get together, wasn’t it? Giving Blanche a reassuring nod, Nell sat straighter on the couch as if readying herself for the game. “Let’s do it.” She took another draw of her drink before looking around the circle with a new and challenging glint in her eyes. “Who wants to go first?”

“Truth or Dare? That’s on Netflix as well,” Connor said, flicking through the horror suggestions until he found it. Only a few clicks in did he realise that wasn’t what Adam had been referring to. “Oh, did you mean the actual game?” He laughed, just switching to a music playlist in the background and folding his feet under him while he made himself comfy on the sofa. “Wait a minute, I’m down and everything, but someone’s gonna have to explain what rules we’re playing by. Everyone does ‘em different.” 

Truth or dare sounded like the worst idea possible. Orion did not consider himself to be a very daring person by nature. But at the rate life had been going the last month, he wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of answering any truths either. Not that he was far bound to answer truthfully anyways... unless that was a thing in White Crest. Regardless, the result terrified him. But the Rio here tonight wanted to be the okay version of Rio. The one not bogged down by the death of his parents. So he took a long drink from the cider and wiped at his mouth, making the gesture overly dramatic to try to hide the soured look he gave from the taste of alcohol. “Me. I’ll go first. Dare me.” This was absolutely a bad idea, but Rio had gotten pretty good at those. “Oh. Rules?” Rio heard what Connor questioned, but had never played the game before. “Cool. Well explain the rules and then dare me.”

This was just about the last game that Athena wanted to play. Even if she chose truth, which she wasn’t planning to, she could still omit certain aspects of it. It came along with her training and she didn’t trust most people here enough to reveal any deep secrets. So dares it would be - and it seemed like her brother was following the same path. “I mean, different versions are different but you get asked truth or dare - if it’s truth, someone can ask you any question about anything,” she raised an eyebrow at him, “and if it’s dare then you have to do whatever they ask. There’s sometimes consequences for not completing either.” She took a sip of her drink. “But dare? Since you’re new at this, we can start easy. I dare you to drink the rest of your cider in under a minute.” She crossed her legs. “Whoever’s up next, I also choose dare.”

Orion was surprised that Athena had been the first one to dare him. She had even been pretty lenient, daring him to just finish his drink. Easier said than done to a complete lightweight who had no experience drinking, but as far as the things he could have been dared to do this felt like he was getting off easily. “Done.” He had seen the movies before, so Rio kneeled down on one knee and tipped the bottle against his mouth, chugging as fast as he could. The drink instantly turned bitter against his tongue and he thought it would never end. But if he could survive his birthday he could finish a cider. He finally finished the thing off with an explosive coughing followed by him falling back on his butt. “I’m totally not going to puke.” He wasn’t sure if he was telling everyone that or trying to convince himself not to.

Adam stood up from the couch and strode to the far side of the room, gingerly stepping over and around people so as to not crunch knees or beers. He took an empty solo cup and placed it on a piece of furniture. The footballer knelt next to the door and produced a small grip-exercise ball. He offered the little squishy ball to Athena with a grin.. 

“I dare you to close your eyes and try to throw this call in the cup. Take a shot each time you miss.” 

Adam performed another one-handed vault over the back of the into his seat, but the alcohol and post-practice endorphins in his system caused the Hunter to land far more ignominiously in a heap of sinewy limbs and cushions.

“Truth”

“Easy-peasy.” Athena smirked, before standing up. She handed her cider to Ariana and grabbed the ball from Adam. “I’ve got this no problem.” She took the ball and closed her eyes, concentrating on the location of the solo cup before rolling her shoulders and giving a small toss, eyes flickering open as she heard it hit the inside. She turned around, walking by Adam before bending over to whisper in his ear. “I do have excellent reflexes, just to remind you.” She found her space back by Ariana again. “Feeling rather successful right now, I think.”

”Wow, nice!” Connor enthused as Athena hit the shot. “I’ve got a truth,” he blurted out, feeling the effects of his drink and Nell’s magic brownies, a pleasant tingling sensation overtaking his body. “Have you never done anything even the slightest bit gay? Because honestly, only the most heterosexual guy ever could have not understood those sword crossing comments,” he laughed at the memory. Ah, simpler times, when he didn’t know that half these people were murderers and there weren’t freshly resurrected evil spirits out to get them. Then again, Connor was starting to get the impression that stuff was common in White Crest. Best not get too comfortable. “And you can truth or dare me all you want. I’m not bothered, mate.” 

Ariana watched somewhat in awe as Athena performed her dare. It was definitely impressive to watch and she couldn’t help the small grin on her face as Athena came back over to take her seat by her. “That was awesome,” she said as she gave Athena a small pat on the back. There was another dare to be dished out so she quickly chimed in, “Connor, I dare you to do a dance challenge as your next YouTube video. I’m thinking the In My Feelings Challenge.” She realized that meant it was her turn, so she added, “I pick dare for myself.” 

“A Dance Challenge?” Connor snorted, waving his hand, affectionately dismissive. “That’s not my style, babe. Oh, I could definitely do it on TikTok though. You didn’t say which platform it had to be on.” He whipped out his phone, looking up a couple. “I can probably film it right now, since I’m tipsy, but you’ll have to hold my phone.” He looked up a few examples then got up, only a little wobbly on his feet. “I have no fucking idea how to do this shit,” he laughed, looking over to Ariana and handing her his phone. He’d watched a few versions of the thing he was trying to recreate. “Ready?”  

Adam hadn’t been raised with particularly strong feelings on different sexualities other than that they existed. Really, Dad had been far more concerned that his sons knew the proper masculine values of honor, wilderness survival, coordinated squad tactics, and the domestic arts of building explosives from homemade materials rather than getting hung up on what dangly bits were going where. 

“Uh,” Adam thought about Conner’s question. “Was never really wired that way, but after I pledged I was curious bout what I was missing,” the footballer acknowledged with a shameless ease. “Talked to some frat brothers who were all about that life, and they uh…showed me around…in the showers.” 

“Was kinna funnish-awkward,” he admitted with a shrug, “but not really my speed…. not sure that lgeit counts as gay though. It was just educational, y’know?”

Nell saw her opportunity as it became Ariana’s turn for a dare, and leaned forward on the couch to set down her now empty bottle on the table, feeling a nice, warm buzz as the alcohol began to do its work. She hummed for a moment, as if taking her time to come up with a suitable enough dare for the girl. Ariana knew how to go big or go home— which admittedly was something the two of them had in common. “I dare you to....” Then the idea came to her. What was the most horrendous thing that White Crest had to offer? “Match with a mime on Tinder. Match with the mime- and have at least five back and forths of texts.” Then Nell sat back, satisfied with her work to say, “And I’ll take a dare.”

“Educational and gay,” Connor nodded. “Sorry I missed it.” He made sure Ariana was ready to record and then going into the routine. He pretty much nailed it. Although he was a little drunk, it was evident that the experience and intent behind the moves was there. “Did I forget to mention I did ballet and theatre for years?” He winked into the camera before grabbing it for Ari so he could edit and laugh. “Aw, that was sick. Sorry, what was that?” His expression changed when he heard what Nell’s dare was. “There are mimes on tinder?” 

Ariana whooped and cheered into the camera as Connor finished showing off his moves. She tilted her head surprised by his revelation. “That explains the moves,” she said with a laugh, “Gotta respect a guy who knows ballet, right?” As Nell took the chance to dare her, she looked to her with a raised brow that was practically challenging her to do her worst. She burst out laughing at the thought of mimes on Tinder. “Oh god,” she said through laughs, “Blanche get over here and help me mime-ify my Tinder.” It was only a few back and forth messages. Hopefully, the profile update wouldn’t ruin future matches, but she found she was losing interest in it anyhow, especially with her current roommate. “I’m thinking more dramatic and artsy to go with the mime vibe?” 

“Nell!” Blanche said, “That's cruel!” But she was laughing. She pushed herself to her feet, though, and carefully made her way to grab Ariana’s phone. “Artsy, got it.” A Connoisseur of Mime. Don't talk to me if you don't mime. And if you do mime… you know what to do ;-----). Blanche read over what she wrote, before she grinned, hanging the phone back to Ariana. “Happy swiping!” Which meant… Blanche turned to Nell, a mischievous smile on her face. “In order to get revenge for poor Ariana… I dare you to call the Stripe Club to inquire about employment opportunities and if you get an interview, you gotta go.” Blanche said proudly. 

She paused, considering her own options. “Truth. For me, I mean.”

“There are definitely mimes on Tinder,” Nell confirmed with a grin, having seen some of them for herself during perusals of the app. “Maybe Ari will find her true love with a mime, who knows?” It was disturbing to say the least, though sometimes she’d match with a mime just to troll them for a while. After all— every mime was guilty by association. She should have expected the mimery to be turned back on her, but still pulled a revolted face at the thought of going anywhere near a mime establishment. “If I die- it’s your fault,” she pointed an accusing finger towards Blanche all while googling the number for the Stripe Club. She wasn’t sure who exactly it was that asked Blanche her truth while Nell began her job search at a mime strip club and Ariana commenced her swiping. Someone was leaning over to watch the dance video Connor had made, and another person was getting up to grab another drink from the fridge. The air was warm and bright as the night stretched onwards, and it seemed that against all odds the youth of White Crest had finally managed to find a single evening where they were allowed to exist only as themselves, and not the people the world forced them to be. 

[tsipasce]

Same Difference, Ch.08

A/N: [ insert “Growth” gif]

Chapters: 01  |  02 |  03 |  04 | 05  | 06 | 07

AO3 | Fanfic

The weekend flew by, mostly thanks to the great time she had with Hitomi. Though after Saturday night’s events, Nanami’s only thoughts were on her friend’s suggestion to get self-defense training. Well, that and the cute doodles on a now-bookmarked page in her planner. She smiled to herself remembering that night and the unexpectedly pleasant company. The image of him sitting next to her as they joked brought a warmth to her face she was very reluctant to accept. Snap out of it and focus. She chastised herself as she quickly remembered what had happened earlier that night when she felt she couldn’t defend herself.

Sure it turned out fine, but what if he’d been more aggressive and I was alone? Or what if he had a quirk or got training to use it against people… Nanami didn’t finish the thought but she knew where it led and she was honest enough to admit it scared her. Sunday night she made a list of classes to check out. Usually being a thoughtful shopper, she figured it would be smarter to vet the classes by observing before diving in. She had an hour or so after work before she went to the lab, so why not squeeze in an errand?

Packing up her things, she headed out of the office, pulling up the directions on her phone. After a couple blocks, she arrived in front of a studio with large, glass windows and a dozen or so occupants inside. It wasn’t very long before she realized this wouldn’t be a class where she’d learn much. The “assailant” was really just some poor guy in a thick layer of padding, standing still as the students formed a line to shyly “punch” or “kick” him with all the brutality of a raucous pillow fight. Everyone moved at their own pace, but pragmatic as she was, Nanami knew whatever she learned from this class wouldn’t be enough to repel someone who really meant trouble. After checking out two other classes yielding similar results, she decided to give it a rest for the day and head to the lab. They had a lot of data to analyze from the most recent round of tests, and she wanted to get a leg up on preparations.

Parking in her regular spot, she walked up to the front gates and knocked. She cocked her brow in confusion after waiting for a minute. Where the heck is Kurono… Usually if she was due to arrive at 6:00pm, he’d be in the front room waiting with an extra cup of tea he’d just so happened to have made at 5:45pm. Despite their initial meetings, they’d gotten closer over the past couple months, trading looks when Overhaul was in one of his “moods” and taking breaks together. No one was as meticulous and punctual as Overhaul, but Kurono would definitely be a close second, so seeing him late was surprising. This is odd. Nanami began to think as the door opened and she was greeted by another man she’d seen in passing.

“Good evening, doc. This way, please.”

“Oh, good evening. Lead the way,” she said, brushing off the concern from earlier. It wasn’t unreasonable to think they’d changed schedule every now and then.

The man escorted her to the lab and shut the door, leaving her to some work she was happy to do alone. After Saturday night, she wasn’t completely sure how to interact with her lab partner. Sure they hadn’t necessarily done anything untoward, but it would be a lie to say it was nothing.

Five minutes passed by, then ten… once minute number fifteen rolled around she began to get Worried? Nope. We’re not going there today. It’s probably just “business” or something else shady. If he doesn’t think this research is important, that’s his loss. She convinced herself, a little irritated he’d blown her off without even one of his curt “I’m busy. We’ll speak later” texts. Just as she was about to mentally practice the argument she’d have with him when he finally decided to come in, the door burst open, startling her as she almost dropped the samples she was moving.

Turning towards the door, she saw the angry little Muppet, already preparing to hear some kind of smart remark. Thought everyone else had warmed to her in one way or another, Mimic made it clear the only person worth any courtesy was Overhaul. “Well how can I help you Mimi—”

“Please—please just come with me right now. I don’t have time to explain, just hurry and follow me!”  the small creature shrieked. Well, in a way, he always shrieked, but this time Nanami could hear a desperation she’d only heard during her E.R. days. Switching gears, she knew to drop what she was doing and follow him. Whatever he needed, it was serious.

Racing down the long, winding hallways behind him, she was grateful to have kept in some semblance of shape. Just before she reached her limit, they stopped at a familiar door. Her heart sank, Isn’t this his office? She realized before Mimic quickly opened the door and promptly closed it once they entered. She looked confused as she saw Overhaul lying face down on one of the couches in the office. Kurono was blocking most of her line of sight to him as he was kneeling by his side. Hearing the door close, he looked back, moving out of the way, a grave look on his face. As she took in the scene, she heard a voice croak out “I… I can’t reach...”. She was confused for a moment before she saw there was a sizeable, deep gash across Overhaul’s back and hives, Probably from being touched and carried in here she guessed. By the look of it, she knew even breathing had to be excruciating and even a contortionist would find it challenging to bend their arm behind their back to touch it. Traditional medicine would be a gamble…she thought, as she took off her gloves, resigning herself to the obvious option.

“Alright, lift him up, very gently.”  Nanami commanded firmly, noticing the significant blood loss.

“Touch me again and I’ll kill the lot of you.” He seethed as his subordinates backed away, knowing better than to take the threat lightly.

She tried to think quickly as she needed to see if there were any other injuries before acting. Remembering all the times he’d touched her yet hadn’t broken out, she decided to give it a shot. “Then I’ll do it.” She said resolutely. He mustered up enough strength to turn his head and glare in warning. She cautiously moved forward and knelt beside him to whisper. “You’ve touched me before without breaking out, remember? You and I both know there’s a time limit and the longer your wound is open, the harder it will be to repair. I promise I won’t let anyone else make contact, just let me help you.”

He seemed to accept she was right and that he had no other choice. The warning was still in his eyes, but he nodded reluctantly. Though moving him was a two person job, she knew she’d have to make due. With one of her hands at his head and another along his side she tried to keep his head, neck and back aligned while rolling him onto one side. She tried her best to be careful, but it was hard moving him at all without earning a wince and hiss. Good, it’s just the back. She confirmed noting the lack of blood underneath him as she quickly looked over him before her arms gave out.

Letting him down, she knelt down beside him, assessing the situation. His weak, but at least he’s conscious. I can do this. She reassured herself, not used to having such a captivated audience watching behind her. Usually when she’d used her quirk to fix something so drastic, she’d make sure she was alone with the patient and they were sedated. The Eight Bullets knew about her quirk, but it was still nerve-racking having to perform in front of so many eyes.

“Just do it” he exasperated from behind gritted teeth. He seemed to be bracing himself, but she was confused as to why.

Brushing it off, she took a deep breath, disassembling his shirt to get a better view of the wound. It was as bad, if not worse, than she thought. Within seconds she reconstructed the damaged bones, sinew and then skin until the wound vanished, earning her a sigh of relief from her patient and the onlookers.

“There you go, good as new.” She piped, almost slapping him on the back like a fixed car before stopping herself short and gently patting instead. “Who did this to you?” a note of genuine concern in her voice.

“It doesn’t matter, it was a cheap shot. None of them exist anymore.” He replied too simply for someone who’d probably just murdered multiple someones. Nanami never forgot what he was, but it didn’t make the regular confirmation any easier. “Kurono, Mimic: Leave us.” He added, now moving himself to rise from the couch.

They filed out of the room, Kurono looking back, giving her a small nod and thankful glance before closing the door behind them. Turning her attention back to him, Overhaul was already at the closet in his office, putting on another, identical shirt. Knew it. She thought remembering her theory about his wardrobe.

He continued buttoning it up, his back turned to her as he began,” How did you do that?”

“Um… the same way you do?” She replied, perplexed as to what he meant. She’d disclosed most of what she was able to do with their shared quirk already, and he’d shown that he knew how to heal himself. She’d become leagues more cooperative and transparent during their research, so the question caught her off guard.

“No, you don’t. It’s been a long day, and I’d greatly appreciate it if you gave up this little act and just explained it to me.”

“I... I don’t know what you mean…” Ok now I’m really confused…

He turned around, an obvious look of suspicion in his eyes, “I won’t ask again.”

Nanami was taken aback, insulted,” So I save your ass and in return I get an interrogation?”

“First of all, it was my back, not my ass. Secondly, I only interrogate uncooperative parties, so cooperate and explain how you healed me like that?” he intoned, now stalking towards her, an accusatory look still in his eyes.

“Like how? I have literally no idea what you mean!” Genuinely confused at why he was so angry with her all the sudden, she was really hoping he’d throw her a bone here.

“Without the pain!”

“…the what?” She looked at him searchingly before realizing what he meant, a pained and slightly embarrassed look on his face. Her tense stance relaxed before continuing, “Have you… just been feeling it all the entire time?”

“You haven’t?”

“Hell no,” she shot back before continuing, thinking out loud, “To feel every singular cell being ripped apart and put back together every time? That would be…” His eyes were no longer meeting hers, his jaw tightening, “…unbearable.”

Clinically, she knew they utilized their quirk differently, but seeing the real-world effects was another thing entirely. Of course, someone who’d grown up only weaponizing their quirk wouldn’t think about minimizing pain, and conversely someone who’d used it almost exclusively for healing would prioritize comfort. If it had just been a theory she’d concocted in a vacuum, she’d probably think it was fascinating, but now it just seemed… Sad. Knowing he’d been in that kind of pain for so long caused an aching in her chest.

“Do not pity me.” He seethed, misjudging the look on her face.

“What? No. Look, I know this may be a novel concept for you, but there is such a thing as empathy.”

“I have no use for that either.”

“You sure did a couple minutes ago when you were bleeding out.”

“Yes, and you were useful, as most tools are, but for now I need nothing else from you.”

She couldn’t help the look of hurt that flashed across her face, his hard stare unwavering. Looking him up and down with disgust, she knew it wasn’t worth the effort to continue the discussion. He was lashing out at her because he was embarrassed, and she wouldn’t tolerate it.

“This… was a mistake. Fuck you.”

She turned on her heel out of the office, slamming the door behind her.

Fuck that guy. Fuck that guy. Fuuuuccckkk that guy. She cursed to herself as she stormed down the hallway and back to the lab. The nerve of him to be bleeding all over me, begging for MY help one second, just to turn around and humiliate me the next. Fuck him.

Bursting through the doors to the lab, Nanami saw Kurono redrawing one of her diagrams in their notes, “I’m sorry Dr. Watanabe, it’s nothing against you it’s just—Wait, what are you doing?” he asked, noticing she was angrily shoving her things into her bag.

“I’m leaving.”

Kurono sighed, confident that Overhaul had to have said something cruel. “I’m not sure what he said to you, but I do know he’s been lighter than he has been in a long time since you started working together.” He confessed, hoping it would strike a chord with her. She paused, a sad look crossing her face before it reverted to anger and she began packing again. “Is there anything I can do to convince you to stay?”

“Help me kick Overhaul’s ass and make him apologize.”

“… it has been a pleasure working with you.”

Pausing for a minute, her fists clenched in frustration, she realized what she’d be losing by leaving. “Just this morning I had one of the most exciting research projects of my career and felt like maybe we’d become just a little bit closer to… whatever counts as forward in this weirdass partnership thing. But he just had to piss it away.” It was upsetting to say the least, months of work would now come to a halt and collect dust, all because of his ego, “It’s not fair.”

Her eyes were trained on the ground, too angry and hurt to move when she heard him get up from his chair and walk over. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Care for one last cup of tea before you go?”

Sighing heavily, trying to release the tension from her shoulders, she nodded solemnly attempting to give a small smile, “Yeah, one more for the road.”

“Ok, I’ll leave you to your things. Come to the front room upstairs when you’re ready.” Kurono patted her shoulder as he walked past her, leaving her alone to finish packing up.

The anger was still present, but soon enough the sadness of loss came washing over her. No. We’ll feel all the feels later, let’s just get out of here she thought sniffling and recomposing herself. She was going through some papers when she heard the door open behind her.

“Sorry, Kurono, I’ll be done in just a minute,” she said, still focused on her task. When there was no response, she looked to see who came in, a grimace instantly plastered across her face. He walked over to the workbench across from her and stood quietly, his arms folded. She scoffed before turning back to her task, ignoring him. Packing up the last of her things, she glanced around briefly before her eyes landed on her planner that laid on the workbench he was in front of. Rolling her eyes, she marched over, standing only inches away from him before reaching past to grab the booklet behind him. As she turned to walk away, she thought she heard something.

“Excuse me?” she looked back at him, a tinge of irritation in his eyes. She rolled hers before turning again. “Why do I even ask...”

“I said, I’d like our partnership to continue.”

She was sure she was going to get whiplash from dealing with him, but responded anyway, unable to let this slide. “You have a real funny way of showing it.”

“But I am showing it, right now by asking you to continue.”

“You do not get to humiliate me and then just pretend like saying that will be good enough. You’re calling it a partnership right now, but a couple minutes ago I was a tool.”

“So, you’d give up all of this work because your feelings were hurt?” his tone cold and almost annoyed.

“Because my feelings were hurt? No, you disrespected me. I helped you—which I was glad to do—and you spit in my face. No thank you, no nothing. Partners don’t do that, at least not any I’d consider working with.”

“We may be partners, but our standing is not the same. My mastery of overhaul exceeds yours, thus you need direction.”

“You have a mastery of violence. Just because I don’t use it to fight or kill people whenever my ego isn’t stroked just the right way… that doesn’t make me lesser than you, and it certainly doesn’t make you better than me.”

“You agreed to come into this world knowing exactly what it was. This is not about ego, this is about the natural order of things here. You admit you couldn’t hold your own in combat, so where does that leave you in a world that bases order on the violence you’re abstaining from?”

“I’d say right next to you.” She stepped forward, solidifying the confrontation. “For all your power, you still had to be saved, by me. As far as I’m concerned, whatever fight you were in tonight would have been a draw without me, so who really decided the ‘natural order’? My value is the same, whether I’m inside or outside this world, and I will not stay where people refuse to see it just because it doesn’t conform to their narrow definition of it.”

He stared at her a beat searchingly as she stared back in complete defiance. She knew logically she’d have little recourse if he made the snap decision to disassemble her, but she wouldn’t want to live with herself if she let him think this was ok. As much as she lectured about ego, her pride never ceased to get the best of her.

“You…have a point.” He managed to get out, the words sounding like they were causing him physical pain. He couldn’t deny respect was paramount in the world of the underground and her demand for it was not unreasonable, not to mention how useful she could be in the future. However, for that to be true, he’d have to acknowledge the possibility that he was in the wrong, something he’d only ever done for his father, the only other person to save him. He knew what had to be done. He closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath, unintentionally inhaling what he knew was a light smell of lavender. She was standing much closer to him than anyone he wasn’t planning on fighting, but he found himself not loathing it. Savoring it for a moment, he turned to walk around to her side creating some much-needed distance between them. Clearing his throat by swallowing what could best be described as his own pride, he locked eyes with her. She was still royally pissed, but also watching intently, reluctantly curious.

“I…I do find you valuable. To compare you to a tool was… unfair.” By his tone and furrowed brows, she could tell this was difficult for him, but she needed to hear him say it. Her expression softened slightly, but she stood firm, waiting to hear the rest. She didn’t want to leave, but their arrangement couldn’t continue if he was going to treat her like he had earlier, and she needed to know he knew that. “You have my gratitude. I would like for you to reconsider your decision and to move forward… with me… on this project.”

It was a relief to hear, but he’d left out one important word. “… is this your way of saying sorry?” she asked, knowing the answer. His arrogance might not let him say it outright, but judging by how worked up he’d gotten, she was sure it was as close to an apology as anyone had heard from him.

“Think what you want,” he replied turning his gaze from her to stare at a cabinet that was suddenly very interesting. “… I won’t refute your assumption.”

Close enough. For now.

Her gaze dropped from his face as her hand massaged the back of her neck, resigning herself to this curve ball fate had thrown her. She sighed, walking back to the workbench, placing the notes down as they had been earlier. She went into her bag and retrieved a small box and began walking towards the lab doors.

“… Where are you going?” He asked, the slightest tinge of worry in his voice.

“Tea break and snacks.” She said waving the small box,” I’ll be back in 30. We can go over notes then.” She replied simply.

“… I see. I’ll be waiting then.” The subtle sound of relief in his voice did not go unnoticed. She paused, with her back still turned to him and spoke over her shoulder.

“Overhaul?”

“Yes?”

“To answer your question, I disassemble the nerve fibers connected to the tissue I’m repairing until I’m finished. I’d usually just rely on the anesthesia since most of the patients I work with have to go into surgery anyway, but in cases like tonight, that is how I do it without pain.” She explained before leaving the lab.

“…I see. Thank you.” He intoned with a level of sincerity that felt foreign to him. Though he’d never admit it, the sight of her lab coat hanging next to his brought a strange sense of comfort.

[pseudofaux]

Author (!) Interview

Thank you for the tags, @alloveroliver and @otonymous!

Name: pseu (I lowercase it on purpose, but it doesn’t bug me if you treat it as a proper name/capitalize!)

Fandoms: Now: SLBP (lingering-- I love some of the characters too much to quit!), Cybird’s Ikémen series, FE3H. I’m also reading STUPID amounts of BTS stories lately, those writers are amazing! Looking forward to: Hopefully getting back into The Arcana when some of the routes conclude. I started TAISHO x ALICE recently and I’d love to write stories for that and some of the other otome I’ve enjoyed. And like so many other writers, some original projects. :)

Where You Post: pseu slings and gift stories are here on tumblr, and everything pre-dumblr. Longer/refined pieces on Ao3. Many, many things languish in my google docs or emails I’ve sent myself and don’t get posted. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Most Popular One-Shot:  Not what I thought it would be! Here it is Venture (Kanetsugu/MC). On Ao3 it’s Something Blue, IkéSen Masamune/MC. I tried really hard last year to edit Something Blue to bring it up to where my writing is now, but couldn’t get through it. Learned my lesson in letting things be. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Real (ao3 / tumblr), which is Shigezane/[named] MC. Another one I feel compelled to edit, because I would change a lot about it if I were writing it today. But I also cherish it for what it is.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Oooooh! Hard! I think from last year that is Frost-Edged Fire, a “what happened” story for Sansa post-GoT. I like the way it reads, it felt good to make, and the response has been positive somewhere where I didn’t have my name to stand on, so I feel very satisfied with that one. I also really like one of the pieces I wrote for an Arcana zine coming out this year. :)

Story You Were Nervous to Post: I swing back and forth between “what happens, happens, I’ve written what I felt l needed to” and “PLEASE LET PEOPLE NOT HATE THIS sob sob sob”. I remember when I was working on Real I was trying to let go of some of my own standards for MAKE IT MAKE SENSE BACK FIVE GENERATIONS, so I was scared people would pick it apart even though it was such a soft, smooshy story and such a soft, smooshy thing to write. It still makes me feel vulnerable! I had my first run in with an anti in 2018 and for a while that shook me. I didn’t change what I wrote after that, but the experience was so jarring and gross I was tense.

How You Choose Your Titles: I like sideways titles, in the way of allusions and references. I usually choose single words that are either meant to encapsulate the tone or primary action of a story, or a word or short snip from a phrase, which I hope a reader will read in full in their head even though part of it isn’t there. But I understand that once something is out there, it’s really up to the reader to make of text and title what they will! That or phrases in French I try to make myself but often have to run by a native speaker to make sure they mean what I think they do (often: not quite).

Completed: I have no idea. The pseu slings bump the number way up, it’s probably around 150 total? For non-snippets, around 50? (Ao3 has 53 works, some of which have multiple sections)

Incomplete: I have an idea, and it is mortifying. There are some things I’ve written a little bit for but I know I won’t go back to and sometimes I think about putting them up as free prompts for others. Things I’m really trying on? 7. Given up but not ready to say so... 15ish? More I’m forgetting?

Do You Outline? Sorta! I start with the scene or scenes that motivate me to write in the first place, and then I have to outline to connect them. They are not usually the beginning or end because life is not fair and those parts are really hard.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: More IkéVamp! More parts in at last (MLQC). More FE3H! Maybe this will be the year I finally write the Isshiki-sempai story I’ve had floating in my head for Shokugeki no Soma. WHO KNOWS?! (I do. I won’t.)

Do You Accept Prompts? Sometimes! I love doing pseu slings twice a year (once in March and the other later in the year for a follower milestone or something). tbh it can be incredibly freeing, motivating, and feel-goody to write what I know someone has asked for-- connecting to requests and filling them feels wonderful and I have less time to dither or gather rosebuds or whatever, so it’s productive. I think some of my best work is writing that others have requested. 

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: 

More of aesthetes, belligerents, contortionists (IkéSen Yoshimoto/MC).

♥️ ASH EXTRAS! ♥️

What do you use to edit?: Just me! I’m not flawless, but I trust myself more than any automatic service. I consciously choose to ignore several best practices when writing anyway. When I’m not as confident as I would like to be about something new, I may ask someone I trust in fandom to look it over as a one-time thing.

Writing setup: This is my desk right now! That’s a draft of this post on my laptop screen.

I need silence and steady lighting to write, so I set up my ~space~ in our basement. When I get a better desk chair and my cozy chair in here for brainstorming, it will be heaven! 🥰 Need: better record storage, more bookshelves, to paint, a rug instead of one of those Barnes & Noble quote blankets on the floor...

Do you use a beta reader? No. I love the just-right feeling of a good collaboration with (or being!) a beta reader, I’ve had it and it is magic! But it has proven incredibly difficult to find anyone who can be trustworthy long term + available. + interested. adflkjsf

Where do you get your writing inspiration?: Nature, conflict, and consuming other media. Museum trips. New foods. Sometimes dreams!

Can we get a quote from an upcoming WIP?:

Every lord of Kasugayama (even the lord of Kasugayama) had given her fine thread and cloth. It was Yoshimoto who made a quiet gift of needles before she could attempt to find them herself. They were in a slender little canister, painted blue and cream and gold, and when he placed it in her palm goosebumps bloomed over her arms and legs. One of his hands held hers from below and the other lingered on the other side of the needlecase, close enough for warmth, close enough that she felt like a carefully-captured butterfly. A part of her soul waited to be appraised and wished she had wings.

If you see this and you wanna do it, please do, and please tag me so I can see! I’d love to know more about your process.

[rocket-roach]

People make me better

this is a gift to the amazingly talented and hilarious @causeimanartist who drew a wonder woman so beautiful it wiped my brain and rendered me incapable of rational thought. thank u. this doesnt even begin to repay the debt i owe you.

summary: Dick moved into the manor about a year ago. Bruce’s been dating Diana and Clark for a while. It’s time he brought everybody together (and he’s nervous as hell)

word count: 2014

Dick could tell Bruce was anxious about something, but every time he’d asked the question, it’d been avoided. He kept himself busy on his bars all day while he tried to puzzle out just what was making Bruce so nervous. It wasn’t Batman stuff, because when they had patrolled the night before everything had been fine. Alfred hadn’t been commenting on Wayne Enterprise’s stock price, so it wasn’t work related. He was confused. He wanted answers. After one final flip, Dick’s feet hit the floor. He’d get the answer out of Bruce if it meant sitting in his office and bugging him all day.

Dick grabbed the batman slippers he’d been gifted that Christmas. They swished across the floor as he padded towards Bruce’s office. He should be home by now, it was well after five. Bruce, being a diagnosed workaholic, would no doubt be in his office hidden behind a wall of paperwork. He pushed open the door and cleared his throat.

But the billionaire wasn’t hidden behind paper at all. He was staring at his phone, his head in his hands and looking more morose than Dick had ever seen him.

“Bruce?”

He looked up, and he was awfully pale. “Dick? What’s up, chum?”

Dick walked closer to the desk, and didn’t miss the way Bruce locked the phone before he could reach him. He was hiding something.

“Is… is everything okay?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Bruce began to lie, then stopped as his son began pouting. “Damn it. You’re too hard to lie to. C’mon, let’s go to the den. We can talk in there.”

He took Dick’s hand and led him across the hall. All manner of terrible thoughts flashed through his mind as they settled onto the couch, so he scooted closer till he was tucked under Bruce’s arm. The billionaire looked even paler in here. It was starting to make Dick really nervous.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time. You know how I work with Superman and Wonder Woman?”

Dick nodded his head.

“Good. Well, we’ve all been working together for a while,” he looked like he was about to expand on that, but instead he fell silent.

The boy sat there, with the patience of a saint while Bruce strung his thoughts together. They’d only been in each other’s lives for a little over a year now, but both Dick and Bruce had learned to read each other like a book. There were times where they had entire conversations without saying a word. This was starting to feel like one of those conversations.

“I really have no idea how to say this. They’re coming over. Tonight. The both of them.” He sounded annoyed, but Dick didn’t miss how soft his eyes got. “Diana and Clark have wanted to meet you since you moved in but I was… am, nervous about it. They’re not bad people. God, they’re the best people I’ve ever met. Clark’s so goddamn midwestern,” he was babbling now and he knew it. “and Diana’s the strongest person I’ve ever known. And we’ve… we’ve all been dating each other.”

“… that’s it?” Dick asked. Bruce still had that constipated look on his face.

“Um, yeah.”

“I get to meet Superman and Wonder woman?” he was starting to bounce now. “And you’re dating them?”

Bruce blinked. He’d expected outrage, denial, rejection, or even just distance. He didn’t expect Dick shaking with excitement and yanking on his arm in disbelief. He realized, for the umpteenth time, that he really had no idea how to raise a kid.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. They’re actually gonna be here soon- you’re really okay with me dating them?” he double checked.

“I grew up in a circus, Bruce. A lot of people did that. Mom and Dad were kind of the weird ones because they were only married to each other,” he shrugged. “Besides, they make you happy, right? That’s what all the contortionists always said. Stay with people who make you happy.”

“They make me very happy,” he said, reaching out to pull his bouncing son close again.

“Well, that’s good then! I can’t wait to meet them. Why’d you wait so long?” Dick nearly flew out of his skin as the doorbell echoed through the manor. He looked at Bruce, his hair practically frizzing.

Bruce simply took his son’s hand and led him to the foyer, where Alfred was holding the mahogany doors open as Clark, dressed in a nice blue button up and khakis followed a yellow sundress clad Diana. They smiled, their eyes lighting up at the sight of Bruce standing there with Dick. He gently nudged the boy forward, leaving his hand resting between his shoulder blades for support.

“Dick, this is Clark Kent and Diana Prince,” he introduced before Alfred could jump on his case.

Dick looked up at them, his eyes the size of dinner platters. He shook their hands gingerly, and the two of them didn’t miss the small shake in that gesture. Bruce watched all of this like a hawk, a small irrational part of him screaming to protect Dick. He quashed that part down. Dick was currently the safest person in the world, after all. He was surrounded by Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

“Hello, Dick,” Diana smiled as she knelt so they were eye to eye. “It’s very nice to meet you. You’re all Bruce’s talked about. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.”

“I- you- me?” He just about squeaked.

She smiled gently at him, and it reminded him a lot of his mom’s smile. Gentle, understanding, and she had a dimple just like his mother. He’d been so absorbed taking her features, he missed Clark bending down to his height as well.

“I’ve read a lot about you, and more about Robin. You’re doing great work, Dick. Are you taking Bruce’s lessons seriously?”

Now Superman was talking to him. Dick felt like he might combust. He looked over to Clark, and realized he was wearing glasses.

“D’you have bad eyesight?” He blurted out. Immediately following that, he clapped a hand over his mouth. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”

But Clark just laughed. “No, it’s okay. It’s something I do to separate Superman from me. Secret identities and all,” he rose back to his full height.

Diana stood as well, and offered her hand out to his. He took it, his fingers slipping into her strong grasp. He was holding hands with Wonder Woman. She began leading him through the manor, which felt a little weird but he guessed as they turned to the corner to the dining room, she’d spent much more time walking its halls than he had. Diana sneaked a peek back, just in time to see Bruce giving Clark a quick kiss.

“Bruce told me you’ve enrolled in a new school,” she said as they sat at the large table. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah, I do. I don’t get bullied like I did at the old school. Plus, it’s close to where Bruce works so sometimes, he picks me up and we go get- “Dick paused as Alfred walked into the room. “nutritious snacks.”

The butler’s infamous eyebrow stayed in it’s resting position.

Bruce and Clark walked in a moment later, and once they were all settled in, Alfred brought drinks. Apple juice for Dick, bourbon for Clark, Malbec for Diana and scotch for Bruce. He promised dinner would be served shortly, then left them alone.

“How long have you all been dating?” Dick asked after the silence went on for a little too long.

“Two years,” Clark answered. “This uh, doesn’t make you uncomfortable does it?”

“No,” Dick answered quickly. “No, lots of people did that in the circus. I was telling Bruce; my parents were kind of the weird ones because they were exclusive. They didn’t get treated bad or anything because of that,” he shrugged. “I just thought it was a circus thing. I think it’s nice, loving more than one person.”

Diana caught the proud smile that slipped across the billionaire’s face. Underneath the table, she took his hand and squeezed.

“Thank you,” Clark said. “You have no idea what that means to us, pal.”

Alfred wheeled in dinner at that. Pork steaks, mashed potatoes, green beans were laid out in front of them, earning dual groans of happiness from Clark and Dick. The two dug in with gusto, each telling stories of the times they’d eaten this same meal. Diana and Bruce were a little slower in joining them. The rest of the meal passed with a familial ease that hadn’t been experienced there in nearly twenty years. Once every one had been stuffed to the gills, they were shepherded into the den by Alfred who promised cookies and milk, and the adults were promised a digestif. Dick curled up in his usual spot, underneath his guardians’ arm. Diana sat to Dick’s other side, while Clark sat by Bruce and stretched an arm across the back of the couch.

“Tell me about the circus, pal. It’s been so long since I’ve been to one,” Clark prodded after a moment’s silence. “They used to come to Smallville all the time, but that was a long time ago.”

“It was amazing, Clark,” Dick hummed. “Every day Dad and I would go and help feed the animals. I loved the elephants. They were so nice! Pop always said that they knew I was a circus kid, so they were always extra gentle with me. I used to ride them around before I was old enough to fly. We had horses, too. A few of them were still pretty green, but I got to help the riders break one of them.”

“You broke a horse?” Diana asked, amazed.

“Well, they already did most of the hard stuff by the time I got to ride her. But she was a pretty white color, kind of beige. Pop said she was an American cream horse. But yeah, I got the saddle on her and rode till she stopped bucking. It was kind of fun,” he blushed, missing Clark’s look of glee and Bruce’s sudden paleness.

“That’s a pretty rare horse,” Clark couldn’t stop smiling. “How long did it take you?”

“’Bout a day,” Dick shrugged.

Diana and Clark laughed. The boy gave them both inquisitive looks.

“Sorry, Dick, that’s so impressive! Even on Themyscira it takes some of best riders a few days to break a horse. Maybe one day you could teach me something?” Diana nudged him.

“Only if Bruce is okay with it. I miss riding horses. Elephants, too. They’re so much fun to ride, you know? You just get so high up and their skin is so wrinkly but if you get the right elephant? It’s like flying.”

Bruce was already shaking his head no at the question forming on Clark’s lips. It was hard enough seeing his kid get shot at nearly every night, he didn’t need the added stress of watching him being thrown from a half ton animal.

Clark lightly punched him. Damn his hardheadedness.

“My Ma and Pa have some horses at their farm. Why don’t you come out sometime and show me what you’re made of?”

“Please, Bruce?” Dick asked, his lip beginning to move out into a pout. “It’s been so long since I’ve ridden.”

For the first time in their relationship, Diana and Clark watched as Gotham’s Dark Knight finally gave in. It was like watching the side of a mountain slough off. Something that was previously seen as immovable, vanishing in seconds.

“We’ll find a weekend,” he finally allowed. “But you’re wearing a helmet.”

Dick grinned as he squeaked, “Well, duh.”

Alfred returned with the food and the drinks, and not long after that Dick was snoring softly against his guardian’s chest.

“He’s wonderful,” Diana murmured as to not wake him. “You’re a very lucky man.”

“He makes me better,” Bruce agreed as he felt Clark’s hand rubbing his back gently. “You all do.”