#i forgot the brand but it’s ones of the super easy to find ones

[caffeiiine]

ignore the failed attempt at a face above him😞😞 akutagawa!!!!!!!! drivers ed edition!!!!!!!!!

[jbbartram-illu]

Hey hi hello!

I’m a big fan of your work, I bought a small raven witch from you, which I love and cherish, and I was wondering if I could ask you what kind of tools you’re using for your sgraffito?

I’m getting back into ceramics myself, and I just got a little jackalope cup back from the kiln, where I tried to sgraffito détails in my slip, but the cobalt was meltier than I anticipated and it covered most of them. I think I need to work on my application, but also that a thicker line might help, and I was wondering what you were using?

You can check my stuffs at @unnamedartist-portfolio if you want, and if you have any advice, I would be so honored to hear them!

Hope you have a fantastic day! :)

Hello @iam-adreamwalker! My apologies for taking 500yrs to reply to this - I've only just now found the time to take some better photos of my sgraffito gear.

These are basically all of my sgraffito tools, but you definitely don't need this many (I just have a pottery-tool-buying PROBLEM). My core tools are the ones to the left - the two pointy sticks & the two carve-y guys. Both of the wire loop tools are by Kemper, and I'm not 100% sure the brands of the sticks. The colourful set is from Xiem and is nice if you're doing a ton of sgraffito work, because it offers so many options for carving! I especially like the round-loop tools for carving feathers.

Here are some close-ups of my main tool gang:

I especially like the darker-brown stick tool because its point is slightly rounded, making it easier to scrape the slip off the surface of the clay vs. just making a deeper line that won't be as dramatic (more on technique later!).

Speaking of rounded-tip tools, I just realized I forgot my other favourite, a core tool that could replace the lighter-wood pointy stick in my Most Important Sgraffito Tools ranking - the ball-ended, double-sided stylus! This thing is a tiny powerhouse and, like the more rounded point on the dark-wood stick, it gently draws the slip off the clay rather than gouging:

Next up, slip! I'm not sure what you were using as your colour layer, because you mentioned that it ran/moved on the surface of the clay, which my stained slip doesn't do. Did you mix glaze into the slip? Or were you working with a powered pigment?

When I'm making coloured slip, I use a powdered pigment called Mason Stain, which can be used to dye slip, clay, and clear glaze bases (eg. to make translucent celadon glazes). I use a couple different brands, but it's all called Mason Stain.

If you're a sensible person you can find proper recipes for mixing the slip and the stain, but I honestly go by how it looks - I add it to the slip a few spoonfuls at a time, mix, and see how pigmented the slip looks. If you want to really make sure the pigment is well-mixed you can get a stick blender from a thrift store or attach a mixing head onto an electric drill (something I'd like to upgrade to as the stick blender is SUPER messy & hard to clean out), but I mostly just mix it really well with a stir stick.

Once it's mixed, I keep my slips in these little self-sealing glass containers from IKEA, which stop it from drying out too fast (I tried keeping slip in regular jars & it turned into a rock...you definitely need a container with a rubber seal on it!). You'll still need to add water here & there, but it can sit for weeks without too much concern.

My slip is a little thick & gloopy, so I usually brush two layers of slip onto the leather-hard sculpture, letting each dry before I put on the next coat, and I let it dry until it's no longer at all tacky before I start carving (otherwise things WILL smudge and it WILL be terribly messy.

Finally, technique! I did take a look at your blog & the sgraffito project you mentioned & one thing I noticed was that your scratch marks were very deep and didn't reveal much clay under the scratched-away slip. This is an easy thing to have happen, especially if your slip/clay/both are still too wet or you're putting too much pressure on the carving tool.

My best tips for remedying this are:

Make sure the slip isn't at all tacky to the touch & that the clay underneath is leather hard.

Go very gently at first! It doesn't take much to scratch the slip away and you can always come back and take away more slip/make your carving area deeper if you want to, but you can't put the clay back!

Use the carving tools at an angle to the clay (somewhere around 45º ish, this is not a hard science), not perpendicular to it - this will stop you from stabbing straight down instead of scraping. If you've ever done linocut prints, think of the angle you hold the linocut tool at - sgraffito is generally a pulling-towards motion vs. a pushing away one for lino, but the angle is important either way!

Having even just a small variety of tools (eg. my core 4-5 as shown above) will also help, as you'll have options for line-weight/how much slip a tool takes off.

Phew! I sort of got carried away there, but I hope this was helpful?? If you have any more questions (or if anyone else does), please don't hesitate to ask! I'm still planning on making a proper sgraffito tutorial/series of tutorials, but need to find the time for all the filming/editing that requires.

[clarabowmp3]

Could you please predict for me when we will be done with the meathead?

stoppp 💀💀 honestly I didn’t expect them to have lasted till now but also I fully expected that she’d end up marrying joe so what do I/anyone rlly know lmao 🤡🤡

Fully explained below but tl;dr - it’s either until the travis team (i legit forgot the name i know the colour is red or smthhhh) keeps winning the Super Bowl/maintains a relatively good reputation OR until Taylor gets bored of him and looks for another shiny toy to make a complete fool of herself over (so like by this time next year) OR they get married and ride off into the sunset towards some happily ever after.

Howeverrr just for funsies: the way I see it is by working backwards, starting with if I see them getting married, and honestly…based on ttpd, leaning towards yes. When they will get married I have no inkling and I don’t even feel like speculating cuz of all those gross pregnancy/marriage rumours going around 🤢 I think they’ll get married cuz:

their careers are such that they’re both lifting the other up when they show up for games/concerts, there is no conflict of interest (ie no competition) cuz of the vastly different fields they’re in. Also, he was more established than joe at the start of their r/ship which makes for a very rosy picturesque love story image which at least some part of Taylor desires (based on her interviews, the fearless/speak now eras) but she’s also become quite jaded (as per ttpd) so maybe she thinks this is the closest she’s going to get to it

i also think she’s in no rush to leave a r/ship this comfortable after her last 2 emotionally complex ones. Not saying this is good or bad of her; I do understand why she would want to take it easy now (and possibly forever) but given how little they seem to have in common, I don’t think she can find this r/ship as emotionally fulfilling as she would want with a life partner, so I don’t see them sticking it out forever. Ofc I could be wrong and maybe she’s changed, but based on her track record travis does not seem the type of person Taylor Swift would want to spend the rest of her life with (girlie was cringing so hard in the viva las vegas clip)

Possible triggers for the breakup and why:

She finds someone else to obsess over and for some weird reason…she suddenly realises what a temper travis has? And how aggressive he is?? Cue the breakup songs/album, swifties dig up That Clip and go omggg how did we not see this he was abusing mother 😢😢, rinse and repeat until she (hopefully) finds some self-worth NOT tied to a man

travis’ team starts losing the Super Bowl/not doing all that well in other competitions. I think the main reason swiftie are kind of sweeping his messed up tweets and behaviour under the rug is cuz they won. But what abt if/when they stop winning? All that’s left is a hot-tempered football player who isn’t even an “all-star” (am I using that term correctly?) and she’s not going to like being associated with that/have that tarnish her brand. I find it so absurdly hilarious but she would rather be seen as problematic (re: M*tty) than unsuccessful, so she’d prob drop him if this happened

very unlikely, but maybe she breaks up with him and enjoys being single for a while? No reason for thinking this tho

ngl as long as this reply is, im kind of apathetic cuz she’s changed so much recently that im becoming less and less invested in her. I’m not even rlly looking forward to rep tv despite it being such a formative album for me cuz that version/image of taylor has been sooo tarnished by recent events yk? So idc what she does, mostly cuz if I had her as an actual friend I’d cut her out of my life SO fast

again, the usual disclaimers apply, idk her/them or anything abt their relationship, I am literally just a girl sipping her ginger ale and watching this train wreck of whatever taylor swiftTM has become 🍹🍹

[kitty-thinks-stuff]

MURDER DRONES RAMBLE ‼️spoilers for eps 1-5‼️

i have GOT to talk about this show bc i have soo many thoughts. a lot of this is gonna be rambling about my pet peeves and plot holes and what i wished happen though (keep in mind this is with the knowledge up to episode 5, i havent watched farther than that)

feel free to discuss these points with me!! id love to hear other perspectives on it!! (please dont give me spoilers past episode 5 though!!!)

ALSO! i am in no way saying this is a bad show. its amazing and i cant wait to see more, plus obviously its an indie show and its got a small budget and all that stuff

so far my biggest pet peeves are the fact that the show doesnt seem to take itself seriously enough, and the way uzi is written

the whole "not taking itself seriously" thing REALLY shows in episode 4. the whole time all this super crazy stuff is happening and the jokes just ruin it. take the moment where Rebecca is crawling back to the campfire, LITERALLY CUT IN HALF

this is a BIG moment, scary, suspenseful, all that jazz. and imagine how terrifying and traumatizing it would be to see your friend crawl back to you, NOT IN ONE PIECE

but the moment gets really ruined by the "forgot name. not popular" joke. it makes what couldve been a creepy horror moment into a lame, kind of awkward joke.

then you have the scene where uzi is chasing all the campers. HUGE, RIGHT? i mean shes become this mutated, bird like eldritch horror creature, and shes "lost control of herself", murdering the people she knows (obviously shes not super close with these people but. murder is big no matter what)

this should be TERRIFYING!! its huge dude, uzi is running rampant, murdering and eating robots, scaling the trees!!!

and it just gets. kind of smushed by the jokes.

i will admit, they did a *little* better with this scene. so props to that! but still. ouch.

now onto uzis character

she could be SO complex. i mean imagine living your life hating the murder drones, only to end up becoming friends with one, and then realizing ur actually really similar to them (needing to eat people blah blah), to finding out you have powers, you have to eat robots, all that stuff

and so much of her big character moments are small and shrugged off really quick.

take her powers for example. she learned to use them like. right after she found out she had them

i could get it maybe if they just alluded to maybe her learning? or at least made it to where it was a situation where she HAD to use her powers (a fight scene, maybe a scene where n was gonna get hurt?)

but it was all stuff she could do herself, like picking up papers and opening doors

so i think its safe to say we couldve kept a whole "idk how to use these brand new powers" thing going for an episode or two.

"but they needed her to use her powers so it triggered the over heating" i hear u and that makes sense. however, they couldve kept this!!

so she breaks the mirror, fixes the bug. fixing the bug couldve been an "experimental" moment with her powers (thanks reeses for that idea) instead of smth she just. knew how to do. all of this couldve triggered the over heat. dont forget, shes new to these powers! she might not have built up the "stamina" for it yet, so using it these couple of times might be too much for her

she has the moment with v, blah blah, leave the powers out until the arrow scene. then her powers trigger again! she was about to get hurt, it would make sense. then boom, overheat again (remember, considering shes brand new to these powers, this is a lot!)

she runs away, maybe opens the door with her powers (though its kinda unnecessary, i could kinda see it considering shes got all the adrenaline going)

then we have the murder scene, which ive already talked about

then afterwards, its all resolved REALLY quickly.

murdering people you know, even if you didnt like them/know them, is never easy on anybody. literally the whole reason she hated the murder drones was because they killed her people. and the whole reason she excepted them now, was because they decided to STOP killing people.

but its just kind of a whole "oh well!" situation and it! bothered me!!!

i mean, they couldve gone SOOO many routes with the murder scene.

maybe a scene where n comforts her and helps her through the trauma of killing someone? maybe where the people around her struggle to except her again bc shes changed?

my personal favorite is where n attempts to comfort her because shes killed someone, and she makes a comment along the lines of "im not like you!" (but yk. more hurtful and angsty and close to home for n)

this could further her isolation, which could build on how she might see this new version of herself

it could also open the doors for an uzi/doll interaction where doll tries to reach out and help uzi, making uzi conflicted on what side she should actually be on.

but, i digress

now lets get onto the smaller stuff that doesnt really matter (its really just personal peeves)

i wish we got more on the murder drones being excepted into the worker drone society. this kinda falls under "the show doesnt take itself seriously"

i mean, these drones killed their family and friends but, "oh yeah, they said they wont and now we love them!"

this couldve been really good development for v and n but they just move on so quickly. also they brushed past all those missing campers super quick

i wish we got to see more of lizzy and dolls relationship. why were they close? did lizzy feel conflicted about working with uzi and the others instead of doll? (idk maybe im biased cuz i think doll and lizzy should kiss but thats besides the point)

i think that might be everything!!! ill probably make a more positive post too bc I DID LIKE THIS SHOW!!! its soo silly and im really liking it

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hey steph, can I rant for a moment? sorry for the sudden ask but it's kind of confusing to me.

I think I'm on the aroace scale. I rarely ever feel romantic attraction, and even less sexual attraction. At first I thought I was completely aroace, but I think I went into denial about it for like.. two years.

and now I'm talking to someone. and what confuses me is that I can obviously feel romantic attraction, I feel it towards him, but honestly, the idea of romance seems weird to me. It's like I'm looking at it through a commercialized sense, like it's all television to me.

I don't know how to explain this, or my feelings, honestly. then there's the sexual aspect of it all. In my last relationship, it kind of surrounded it all, and I don't know how to feel about it.

I read a reblog of yours, and it talked about how sex was a motive for some people. that confused me, i didn't know that, and I think that's my motivation for asking you the following question:

is it supposed to be this confusing? I don't want to get into the details in your ask box, because I feel that's weird, but is it supposed to be so confusing? It's like I'm in denial for two different things, but I don't know what they are.

again, I apologize for the random ask, I hope you have a nice day

Hey Lovely! *HUGS*

Ah, you must be talking about this post here that was in my auto queue, that I forgot I reblogged, LOL. I found it super interesting from the viewpoint of an ace who just... doesn't understand why "sex sells" or why people in movies have to fuck the second they meet, LOL. It literally doesn't make sense to me, but apparently it IS a thing.

That said, I am LITERALLY the worst person you can ask about this kind of thing. I've never been in a serious relationship, and when I do "like" somebody, it's always one-sided on my end (which has left me believing no one will ever like me "that way" so, yeah, shit self esteem on that end. No one has ever liked me that way and probably never will :/). BUT I do find myself constantly the "level headed friend who can tell you unbiased opinions on a relationship", so yeah, I'll try my best here.

So my thoughts on this, from what limited experience I have about romance, is yeah, it's supposed to be confusing. People rarely "have it all figured out" right away, and if you do, you're in a small minority of people. It's OKAY to question your own preferences and such. Doesn't make you any less of the identity you are comfortable with. I mean, until I went through my four-year identity crisis, I just thought there was something wrong with me. Took me a long time to realize that I'm just not what society deems as "normal", just my own brand of it.

Relationships are not easy, Lovely, and they do require work and communication. If you're struggling with these feelings, and your partners cares about you, you should both feel comfortable talking about it to each other without judgement. I as an outsider can't tell you what the "right" thing to do here is. That's something that you will have to figure out on your own with your partner. Every relationship is different, and in my understanding of them, communication is key.

It's okay to feel unsure about yourself and things you're going through. Attraction (whatever variation of it you have) IS fluid and is sure to change over time as you learn more about yourself and your life experiences.

Sorry I'm not much help here, but I hope my words brought you some semblance of comfort <3

[geordikisser]

thinking about porter, missing porter.

i just imagine one day porter is injured on treasures door step on day, and unknowingly enough, they end up at lovelys house for help due to them being childhood friends. id like to think treasure is keeping the fact that porter is a vampire to lovely & vincent [ spoiler alert: vincent & lovely already know porters a vampire obviously,, ] but lovely doesn’t know that !

not canon behavior in the slightest don’t behead me

lovely: treasure? wyd here? OH MY GOD—

treasure: please lovely you gotta help!

vincent: whats all this racket? OH.

porter, barely hanging by a thread: ughh,,,

treasure: please lovely! idk how to do first aid!!! :-(

lovely & vincent: ,,,

lovely: so ,,, how’d this happen ?,,, where’d you find him ,,

treasure: he came onto my doorstep weak! he was covered in injuries and at first, i thought it was foreplay— ,,

vincent, slightly disgusted: freak ass foreplay ,,

treasure: but then he fell into my arms and i realized he was actually hurt & came to me for help! :-(,,

lovely: wow. ok uhm ,, don’t worry, we’ll help him! he’ll be brand new when you see him again

treasure: wdym again?

vincent: give us a moment ,,, treasure.

treasure nods as they step out the room

vincent: im not aiding this freak.

lovely: vincent cmon!! your healing magic is better than mine!

vincent, grimaced: god can you believe they thought this was foreplay ,,, they gotta be into some freak shit, lovely ,,,

lovely: god don’t get me started, literally felt my heart fall to my ass when they said that.

vincent: porter being a masochist doesn’t surprise me though tbh, it just justifies the reason he acts the way he did way before now

lovely, giggling: vincent!

vincent: what!? i’m not below kink shaming!!!

lovely: jesus that’s not what i—,, ok,,

vincent: you think treasure was the human he wanted to bring to the summit?

lovely: no, i mean probably not anyway, treasure doesn’t believe in this stuff. i don’t even think they know about my situation

vincent: really? they must be real stupid then if they met porter & haven’t pointed a thing supernatural about him yet

lovely, mad: boy? get to healing since you wanna talk like that >:-(

vincent: ugh. fine.

treasure, wakes up: ,,, mmh, porter?

porter: treasure ,,? where are we ,,

treasure; a super close friend of mine! don’t worry— they don’t know your secret. we are safe here

porter, feeling unsettled: ,,, treasure. who is this friend of yours,,,

treasure: my childhood bestfriend! lovely & their boyfriend vincent.

vincent: hello porter.

porter: wow. this is just my luck.

treasure: and don’t worry! i didn’t tell them your seeecreeet

lovely: uhm what

porter, awed: you poor thing d’aww,,, thank you though, treasure.

vincent: what happened porter. who roughened you up?

porter: i stumbled across the wrong crowd, that’s all i’ll say,,,

lovely: treasure, you got to be having body if you can carry porter from your house to ours tho lowkey

treasure: what?

vincent: i was thinking the same thing lowkey, porter is a hunk of meat ill say

porter: that a compliment, vinny?

vincent: a hunk of meat. that’s easy to cut and tear apart.

porter: oh don’t put such a fantasy in my head infront of your partner mr. solaire!

vincent: jesus— porter, don’t piss me off in my own house,,,

lovely: i’m unconvinced that he pulled them for some reason.

treasure: we should all go on a double date sometime! that would be lots of fun!! i didn’t know you two knew each-other :-3

porter: what do you say, you two? you don’t want to break my poor sweet treasures heart do you,,?

lovely, winced: eeermm yeah treasure,,, social cues were never your thing ,,,

vincent: sure.

lovely & porter in disbelief.

treasure: awesome! maybe a lunch date? :-D

porter: uhm treasure ,,, maybe dinner, how’s that?

treasure: oh yes—!! i nearly forgot. erm. maybe the farish house? they have good mediterranean food!!

vincent, smirking: we can discuss this later when your partner isn’t in agony, yes?

porter looks horrified (didn’t think vincent would say yes.)

[pagesfromthevoid]

Okay but A Fucking Fuck is gonna be so fucking funny I think

A Fucking Duck | a.c. | 2

Adrian Chase x Bat!fem!reader

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: Violence. Language. Kinda fluffy but mostly Adrian being Adrian

Author’s Note: The goal is definitely to be funny tbh. Pls enjoy how ridiculous these two are together because I can’t believe I’m starting another series in the middle of another. Also, love the name change anon.

Series Masterlist | Talk to Me!

“I didn’t realize the arcade would be closed,” Adrian huffed as they walked back to his car. She thought he sounded like a disappointed child. “I forgot it’s after 7 on a Tuesday though. Most places close super early around here.”

She seemingly didn’t care one way or another, walking with her hands in her pockets. “We can just walk around. Give me a tour of your town?” She looked up at him, a reassuring smile on her face. “It’s not freezing, at least.”

Adrian lit up at the idea, nodding. “Oh yeah. I can show you where Peacemaker lives.”

“You really like Peacemaker,” she commented as she fell into step with him. “Isn’t he in prison for like several counts of murder?”

Adrian shrugged. “He did it in the name of peace.”

“So you really like serial killers,” she noted, but couldn’t help but laugh. “You sure you’re not gonna kill me, Adrian?”

He sputtered, shaking his head quickly. “What —no. I don’t like serial killers —I like heroes —“

“But you don’t like Crossfire,” she pointed out. “Whose an actual hero who doesn’t murder people.”

“I never said I didn’t like her! I just said she reminds me of a duck!” He quickly defended. “And she has definitely killed people —I bet she doesn’t even know she’s done it.”

She looked ahead for a moment, realizing that he had a point. The amount of goons she’d definitely put in the hospital? She didn’t actually know which ones lived or not. Never cared enough to find out. And she definitely tried to kill the Joker. She was quite proud of that attempt. Maybe she was just as bad as Vigilante; but at least he owned up to his brand of crazy.

“You’re so easy to annoy,” she finally said, changing the subject. “It’s cute.”

“You think I’m cute?” He asked, stopping in his tracks to watch her walk away. Adrian had this weird feeling in his chest suddenly, like he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

She got a few paces ahead of him before she stopped and turned. “I think it’s cute when I can rile you up over things. Like last week, when you asked me who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman?”

“Your answer is still shit, by the way,” he quickly recovered, catching back up to her. “The Flash wasn’t even an option!”

“See? You’re all red and flustered. It’s cute,” she pointed out, poking his arm playfully.

Adrian didn’t know how to explain this tightness in his chest but it was spreading to his stomach, and he thought he was going to puke. But she was just contently walking next to him, calling him cute like it was nothing.

“You’re cute too,” he decided to say, figuring it wasn’t the worst response as he put his hands in his own pockets. He had the urge to put his hand in her back pocket though. “Like super cute. Kinda unfair actually because I always see you put together and you always see me when I’m at work which is the worst time to see me.”

She looked down and laughed, and Adrian swore to God he wanted to make her do that again. “It can’t be that bad of a time to see you, since we’re hanging out now.”

It was probably a stupid thing for her to do; flirt with the bus boy at the restaurant she goes to every week. She wasn’t going to stick around much longer if she had any say in it; Vigilante showed weakness and she was going to use it to her advantage later on. But the longer she spent with Adrian, the more she decided she liked him. He was weird —super weird, really —but sweet in his own way. And he didn’t seem to care that she just randomly showed up with no explanation. Most people she interacted with in Evergreen gave her weird looks and questioned her every move. But Adrian just liked to talk to her about whatever the hell was floating in that pretty head of his, and she wasn’t willing to complain about it.

“We should hold hands,” he said suddenly, though he kept his hands firmly in his pocket. “If you want. You don’t have to. It’s totally cool.”

She looked up at him, laughing again as she pulled her hand out of her pocket and held it out to him. Adrian didn’t actually think she’d want to. Even though she admitted he was cute, it didn’t really feel real. Like maybe this was some kind of joke. He wondered if this was part of her whole spy thing. But all train of thought sort of left his head when she pulled his hand out of his pocket, forcing him to take hers.

“You’re sweet, Adrian,” she finally admitted, walking closer to him as she squeezed his hand. “It’s a nice change of pace for me.”

She thought he was cute and sweet? What a fucking night he was having. A pretty girl wanted to hold his hand, and she was complimenting him? No wonder he wanted to throw up; he realized suddenly he was just nervous around her. Which was stupid because why would he be nervous around her? He talked to her every week for like hour in the parking lot of Fennel Fields.

But she never held his hand before. Or called him cute. Actually, she never really made any indication that she felt any of those things towards him before. Or maybe she had, and Adrian had just been completely oblivious to what she was doing. That wouldn’t have been surprising; he wasn’t great at social cues.

He was doing pretty fucking good tonight though.

“Is this a date, then?” He asked, looking down at her.

She hummed, considering that she was holding his hand. It felt very high school but it was a good feeling; a normal one. “I think it is, if you want it to be,” she offered as she looked up at him.

“I definitely want it to be.”

Both their phones suddenly went off —his ringing out Barbie Girl, causing her to momentarily be confused then laugh really hard.

“Ha, what are the odds we both got texts?” He asked.

Hers wasn’t a text, but an alert from her police scanner. There was an armed robbery happening down the road, and she was certain Vigilante would be there. She’d have to save the victims and the criminals tonight.

“Hey, I have to go get my co-worker —“

“I realize I have an exam —“

They looked at each other, drowning in their shitty excuses. It was very surreal for a moment, both suddenly trying to get away. Weird, and she couldn’t place her finger on what was going on.

“I forgot I asked my brother to text me to remind me about my midterm,” she explained, pocketing her phone.

Adrian nodded, blinking back his own confusion at the situation. “Yeah, Michelle at work needs a ride and I need to make sure she didn’t get me fired. I’ll give you a ride back to your car?”

Adrian realized that would get him caught but he couldn’t just let her walk back. That was so dangerous and he couldn’t risk her getting hurt. Not now that he was aware she liked him.

“Yeah. Sounds like a plan.”

She needed her fucking suit without him seeing though.

So did he.

*****

“You fucking shot me!” Vigilante screamed at her, yanking the bolt out of his shoulder. He made a pained sound, examining the wound. “We’re literally here for the same thing!”

“You’re going to kill them!” She yelled at him, snatching the bloody bolt from his hand. “I’m not going to let you play judge, jury and executioner. That’s not how being a hero works!”

“They shot two people!”

“What?” She stopped in her tracks, looking back at him. “Fatally?”

“Yeah; the store manager and some cashier. They’re both fucking dead and you’re about to join them —“

She hesitated for a moment, looking between him and the store now. The low level crimes he was killing people for were ridiculous; but this was a double homicide now. These were the criminals that made sense for him to kill. Oh god. It didn’t make sense to kill anyone. But Adrian’s point was flashing in her mind; that she was already killing people without even realizing it.

“Fuck me,” she groaned, motioning to the store. “Lead the fucking way.”

“Maybe later —Whoa wait what? You’re letting me —you’re gonna kill these fuckers with me?”

She nodded reluctantly, loading her crossbow. “Batman doesn’t want me to kill with the bat title stuck to me; it’s good thing I changed my fucking name.” She huffed in annoyance, eyes returning to the store front as the police waited it out. Two people were already dead though. “Don’t get used to it.”

“Fuck yeah, dude!” He yelled out, fist pumping the air. She rolled her eyes. “Wait what was your name before?”

“Do you really not know who the fuck I am?”

“You said you were Crossfire! Who else would you be?”

“I wear the same suit just without the fucking Bat symbol!”

“Oh shit, you’re —“

A gunshot rang through the air, interrupting him. She took off towards the store, leaving him behind Vigilante took off after her, guns drawn as the police scattered at their appearance. Vigilante being there was enough for them to refuse to get involved; but with the Gotham hero suddenly on his team, they weren’t willing to risk their lives.

“How many people are alive inside?” She asked one of the officers. Vigilante was about to go in, guns blazing. But she reached out and snagged the holster of his sword on his back. “No more innocents die, you fuckwit.”

“F-four alive. Two shooters. Two confirmed dead,” the cop stammered out.

She turned to Vigilante. “Get the people out before you shoot, you understand me?”

He groaned, throwing his hands up. “What the fuck ever, you’re so boring —“

But she shoved him forward, motioning to the side of the store. There was an entrance there, and it would be easier to catch the shooters by surprise if they went that way. Vigilante followed her lead, both of them standing on either side of the door as they waited for one of the shooters to not have eyesight on the door.

“This is super hot, you know,” he suddenly whispered.

She looked at him, frowning deeply. “That’s a fucking joke, right?”

“You realize you’re an incredibly hot chick wearing spandex and a mask, carrying a cross bow, and about to straight up kill people right? That’s the hottest shit in the world.”

“Dude this is not the time for this.”

“But there is a time for it?”

“We’re gonna go now,” she ordered, thankful for the interruption as she opened the door. She motioned for him to duck down but he was in front of her almost immediately.

Before she could process what he was doing, Vigilante drew two knives and started to attack one of the shooters. They went back and forth, causing the other to start shooting. She ducked down and started to push the hostages out the side door, telling them to stay low and run. When the last person was out, she took off towards the second gun man, tackling him to the ground.

He pulled her hair, throwing her to the ground, before she kicked him in the face with a satisfying crack. The other shooter stumbled backwards as Vigilante slit his throat, kicking him down. Vigilante offered her a hand, and she took it, pulling herself up. The remaining shooter was trying to escape and she snatched her cross bow back up, aiming and shooting the already bloody bolt into his chest. He dropped unceremoniously.

The feeling of watching the guy drop was way too satisfying for her to feel comfortable.

“We gotta go,” she commanded, shoving him through the back door of the store. Vigilante didn’t argue as they took off into the woods behind the store.

When they could no longer hear the sirens or see the lights from the police, she stopped and leaned against a tree. Her breathing was heavy, and she wasn’t sure if it was from the fact that she just willingly killed a man or had just run a fucking mile. There was a solid chance that it was a combination of both. Vigilante was standing a short ways away, one hand on his hip as he pointed at her.

“You’re fucking cool, I knew we were gonna be friends.”

“We’re not friends, you fucking psycho,” she snapped at him, catching her breath. “I’m still gonna arrest you. You’re wanted for several counts of murder across like six states.”

“Oh c‘mon! Tell me that wasn’t the least bit fun for you!”

“It wasn’t fun,” she argued, moving to stand up straight. “I killed a guy. I haven’t —I haven’t knowingly killed anyone before.”

“Didn’t you try to kill the Joker though?” He asked, tone curious as he moved to sit on the ground. She watched him with a deep frown. “It was all over the news.”

“The key word is ‘try,’” she said, sliding down the tree to sit too.

“Someone fucking needs to. Batman’s a pussy,” he offered, pointing at her. “You though? Fuck that. At least you tried to do something. You’re clearly capable of it.”

“That’s not our place to decide whose guilty or not,” she reminded him, cracking her neck now with a groan.

“Admit that you liked it just a little bit and I’ll leave you alone.”

She looked at him with annoyance, huffing in frustration. “I didn’t…enjoy it, okay? I’m not insane. I don’t get off on violence.”

“Oh man I definitely do —“

“That’s so weird, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

He shrugged. “Nothing as far as I’m concerned. Maybe I don’t feel things like normal people do but I’m all there,” he tapped his temple. “It didn’t feel even a little good to shoot that guy?”

She looked at her crossbow for a moment before giving another heavy sigh. “Okay, so it felt a little good.”

“The first step is admitting it.”

“Please shut up.”

———

Taglist: @ladybug023

[pervysenpaix]

Our Flower| BakuDeku X BlackFem!Reader - Chapter 1

Welcome to my first Tumblr Series! This post will serve as the "Masterlist" for this fic. Chapters can also be found through the tag "our flower 💕" I'll try to update at least once a week. Follow me and turn on your notifications, so that you won't miss any updates. Enjoy - Unique 💕

Synopsis: You, Izuku, and Katsuki have been bestfriends since UA. One thing leads to another and you find yourself waking up in bed between the two future pros. No big deal, right? Well, things start to get a bit awkward and you start to get really "sick". A major bombshell is dropped on you the day before graduation, and you decide that it's best for everyone if you just disappear. But, what happens when the pair walks into your café four years later?

Warning (18+) NSFW Content| Viewer Discretion is advised.

I do not own MHA, MHA Characters or anything associated with the brand. I do not own the art, all images were obtained through google. If you know the artist, please tag them. DO NOT STEAL MY SHIT.

©pervysenpaix 2022

Chapter 1

Shambles.

You are in literal shambles this morning. Nothing seems to be going right. First, you woke up late because you forgot to charge your phone when you came in last night. So, you were late out the door and had to skip breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Then, your car wouldn’t start so you were forced to order an uber, which was too fucking expensive during rush hour in Tokyo. THEN, you were written up at your first job for bring late for the fifth time this month. And to top it all off, your best friend Gabbie wouldn’t be able to babysit Blossom tonight.

“I’m so sorry, babe” Gabbie lamented, “I have this twenty-page paper due at 11:59, and I’ve only written three sentences. She pouted, looking up at you with puppy dog eyes that only a true bottom could muster, hoping that you weren’t upset. Which you weren’t. How could you be upset when you’ve been there before. Assignments piled up so high, it seemed like you’d never make it through; but you always found a way and pulled through. You had to. There wasn’t any other option; Blossom needed you. “Don’t worry about it, love” you smiled, petting the pouting bottom’s head, “I’ll figure it out.”

Work progressed slowly. Thankfully, there weren’t a lot of customers coming in today, so you were able to listen to a recorded lecture while folding denim. Every moment of your free time was dedicated to studying, you couldn’t afford to fall behind. Was it tiring? Sure, but sometimes the end justifies the means.

Take Blossom, your beautiful baby girl, for example. Being pregnant at 19, in Japan wasn’t easy. Especially, when you’re black and your parent’s disowned you. On top of that you lost your child’s father and best friends. It was hard being alone, but you got by. Moved to Tokyo, found a job, moved into a small apartment, and started taking online classes. Now, you’re two semesters away from your degree, and you’ve gained a new best friend to replace the two that you’d lost.

Blossom was an amazingly gifted three-year-old, no doubt like her father. Super intelligent, oddly perceptive, and incredibly understanding for a toddler. She understood mommy’s situation and she rarely put up a fuss when you couldn’t do something. Always, on her best behavior, well most of the time. She was a mischievous little thing, always finding herself in the middle of something but never backing down. Again, like her father.

You missed him, both of them actually. How could you not when their faces were plastered on billboards and tv screens as some of Japan’s hottest up and coming heroes? Honestly, you didn’t even need to see advertisements to be reminded of them. Blossom was literally his twin, just with curlier hair and darker skin. The resemblance was uncanny.

Sometimes you wonder how things would have gone if you’d handled it differently, but it was best for everyone involved for you to go off on your own. They had big dreams; been trying to accomplish this goal their entire lives. Plus, they had become a couple. Why cause a problem if you didn’t have to? You weren’t resentful, though. On the contrary, you were extremely proud of your former friends. Smiling proudly whenever you’d see their faces on hero news; you even had a scrapbook outlined of all their victories and interviews. You’d show it to Blossom when she got older.

The conversation hadn’t really come up yet. When she asked why her daddy never came to play, you told her that he was busy keeping all of Japan safe. She wanted to know who he was, but you told her that you needed to keep his identity a secret, so the villains wouldn’t find out. The child had been obsessed with heroes ever since, and oddly enough they were her favorites.

Time was passing quickly, and you still didn’t know what you were going to do about Blossom. Your friend, Nani, wasn’t available because she was “going out with her man”. She had started dating this retired pro hero and she was sprung. Sis was open like a can of pig’s feet. You were glad for her, get your bag sis. This is your life and your daughter, it wouldn’t be fair to burden other people with your issues.

With a sigh, you texted your manager and let him know that you’d be bringing Blossom in with you tonight. It was the closing shift, in a developing area downtown, so there wouldn’t be many customers. He was a sweet old man and didn’t mind at all, you’d done it a couple times before. Plus, Blossom was always on her best behavior and stayed hidden in the back. So, what could possibly go wrong?

**♡**

“I’m fuckin’ exhausted” Katsuki sighed, plopping down on a leather couch in the waiting room of their new agency. Todoroki, Kirishima, and Izuku were all stretched out in similar positions. Muscles strained and bones aching from hero work and moving furniture. Katsuki insisted on doing everything themselves because, “you can’t trust no fuckin’ extras to do shit right!”. It was hard work, but it paid off. Now, they were all resting in the beautifully decorated lobby of their joined agency. They worked well together in high school and during their time as sidekicks at the Endeavor agency; so, it made sense for them to start their career off as a team.

Normally, it would’ve been hard for heroes as young as them to branch off on their own. But, with their awesome quirks, and Endeavor’s credit card, they’d been given a head start. It was really impressive; they were only 24 but they’d made it into the Top 20 hero chart. Katsuki was number 10, with Izuku, Todoroki, and Kirishima taking 11-13 respectively.

“Same, man. Today was brutal.” Kirishima added, “I can’t wait to get home.”

“We should all probably head out. I have a date” Shoto replied, never looking up from his phone. Katsuki scoffed, “Probably shouldn’t consider BJ’s from thirsty IG models in the backseat of your Jag a date.” The dual haired man glanced up with a frown, “I shouldn’t?” he looked confused, making the others chuckle. “Todoroki-kun, if that was the case then you’d be dating half of Japan.” Izuku says, and the others nod in agreement. “You’re a fucking slut, Icy-Thot”.

If Shoto was concerned about this new development it didn’t last long because when he answered a facetime call with three chocolate baddies, he was shrugging on his jacket and heading out the door. Kirishima followed closely behind, because if we’re being honest, he’s a bit of a whore too.

“Wow” Izuku deadpanned, shaking his head in disbelief. “I don’t know why you’re still shocked, hell if we weren’t dating, you’d probably be going with ‘em”, Katsuki smirked. They all had a reputation with the ladies back in the day. There were plenty of girls that they fucked back at UA, but they just got the dick. Only one girl had their heart. The same girl that disappeared without a trace. (Y/N)’s sudden departure was devastating.

She’d missed graduation and ceased all methods of communication. Even her social media profiles were taken down. They’d learn a few weeks later that she’d given up her dream of becoming a rescue hero to return to the states for college. Her parents sounded bitter and upset when they shared the news with the duo. The father eyed them suspiciously the whole time. They never paid attention to it, too distraught over their lost love. They’d had flings with different girls since then, but nothing seemed to stick. Just a fun way to blow off some steam. No one could compare to (Y/N) (L/N).

Izuku shrugged off the comment and yawned, “I’m tired but I want something to eat” “You can eat my di-“ “Kacchan, please !” Izuku groaned, shaking his head but not stopping the smile that was spreading on his face. He loved his flirty, aggressive, and wildly inappropriate boyfriend. “It’s a place that I went to around the corner for breakfast last week. They don’t close until late. Wanna go?” Katsuki nodded and followed his boyfriend out into the cold night air.

**♡**

Hand in hand, the heroes walked along the sidewalk. Silently enjoying eachother’s company as the made their way to the café. Always the gentleman, Izuku held the door open for Katsuki who scoffed as he brushed past him. The pleasant warmth of the café tickled his cheeks, and the smell of food filled the air.

“Just a minute!”.

Katsuki froze, the voice sounded so familiar. He couldn’t place it, but he knew that he recognized it from somewhere. Izuku shuffled in behind him, huddling close to steal some warmth. “Smells good” Katsuki didn’t respond, eyes locked on the double door. He just couldn’t shake this feeling.

“Sorry about that!” You breathed, smoothing your apron down as you burst through the door. Blossom had made a mess with the cupcakes, and you were helping her clean up. You didn’t even look up, body so tired that you were on autopilot. “What can I ge-

“What the fuck?”

Your eyes widened and back straightened, it couldn’t be? Too afraid to look up, you stayed locked in place.

“(Y/N)?” It broke your heart. You’d never heard your name said with such emotion. The slight tremor in his voice made your chest tighten, and you found yourself on the verge of hyperventilating.

“(Y/N) (L/N)!” you flinched, finally looking up and wishing you’d braced yourself because the intensity of their gazes almost knocked you off your feet.

Why here? Why now? Oh my god, I look like shit you thought, fidgeting with the strings of your apron, and chewing your lip. “Yes?” your voice was soft, too soft. It pissed them off. “That’s all you’re gonna say?” Katsuki snapped, clenching his fists to contain the explosions that were threatening to pop off. Izuku wasn’t much better, left eye twitching and unreadable expression on his face. You couldn’t tell if he wanted to fight or cry. Knowing him it’s probably both. “Bakugo, please keep your voice down.” Your voice was a lot more confident than you felt.

“Bakugo?” he spat, deeply offended that you’d address him in that manner, “Since when am I Bakugo?”

“I-

“What happened (Y/N)?” Izuku interrupted, “Have you been in Japan this whole time?” Swallowing thickly, you nodded yes and both men groaned. “I don’t know whether to hug you or choke you.” The conflicting emotions were apparent in his stormy gaze. Both, men seemed upset, but they were also sad. Really sad. “Why did you leave us?” Katsuki says, it was almost a whimper. Tears stung his eyes, threatening to fall, but he blinked them back.

“i-I can explain”.

Suddenly, the double doors swung open and out ran Blossom holding a little pink cupcake.

“Mommy, Mommy! Look!” The two heroes whipped their heads around in the direction of the small voice. Katsuki looked as if he’d been punched in the gut and Izuku’s mouth kept opening and closing. “M-mommy?” His voice caught the little girl’s attention, and her eyes widened when she saw the two heroes.

“Mama! He’s from the tv! Look Mr. TV man, I’m just like you!” She held the cupcake up and it exploded splattering icing all over them. The two of them stared at you slack jawed and you laughed awkwardly.

“Heh, it’s a girl !”

@xogabbiexo, @xosuki, @plussizeficchick, @tenyaiidasslut, @dabilovesme, @thicksimpx, @indiecursor, @riozakii, @sizeklink, @sintiva, @simp4rengoku,@dejwrites,@presidentmonica, @angwritez, @gabzlovesu, @namjoonswifeyy, @nasty-quillz, @blkchxrryblyss, @bl--ankhaeji, @kaizokuluv@rinhoes

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E113 (Oct. 27, 2020)

Good evening and good night, lovely people of the world! We’re on the internet and ready to go. Tonight’s guests are Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel. This will be calm, controlled, and sane, I can feel it. Brian points out it’s been seven months since either of them were on Talks. Oof. (Sam asks if it’s been going the whole time without him. Bigger oof.) Travis keeps sneaking bites out of an acai bowl or something and tries to look sneaky about it, and I laugh every time because he’s just...so big. He’s such a big person.

(Brian is wearing a lobstrosity shirt. He and Travis talk about Dark Tower for a bit; then Sam tries to get into the conversation: “Is that the thing from It?” Brian: “Is what the thing from It?” Sam: “Is that lobster the clown from It? I’m not very literate. Is that a Langolier? Is that a Shawshank?”)

Announcements: none! Maybe they just forgot. We’ve been talking about Sam’s spooky skeleton decorations for like five minutes. Brian suggests taking them to Travis’s house. Travis: “That’s the fastest way to get to the smell of burning plastic.” Brian: “Speaking of your girlfriend...”

On Avantika: Fjord wouldn’t call it a relationship as much as a casual sexual interaction. Not official! Super not official!!

The first sea voyage wasn’t great for Fjord, but he tried to be thoughtful about preparing for this one before they left: praying, kneeling at the bow of the ship, etc. He’s a little disappointed the Wildmother didn’t even throw him a “yo, fam” heads up.

They weren’t sure how to resolve the conflict at first, since Avantika went for Fjord rather than the crystal. No one expected it to get exposed in that way. Travis thought the necklace was a pocket dimension and was alarmed to learn it wasn’t. Travis wants it destroyed along with the third gateway, so until they are he won’t rest easy.

Everyone enjoyed watching them all fail on the battlefield again. (Sam: “You used [Counterspell] so effectively!”) Travis thought he’d said Thunder Step, which would imply Avantika was running, rather than Thunder Wave. Sam says it’s fine since none of them have that spell and he wouldn’t know it anyway.

It’s very difficult for Veth to find reasons to stay with the M9. She loves the adventures and making a difference, but she also wants to come home and have weekends and have a husband and life. “She’s a career girl!” He’s very excited about the possibilities of Caleb’s transportation effectively creating an easy commute for her. He also, as a player, doesn’t want to be the person who’s always leaving the party. “My characters wanna roam!”

Travis was fully tilted that Avantika might have gotten away right before the break. He doesn’t think he could have focused on Vess DeRogna’s task knowing Avantika had gotten away; he was seriously working out how Fjord would leave the party to go make a last stand at the third gate if she’d escaped.

Sam looooves how Matt plays Yeza, but it honestly makes him feel a little worse at how encouraging he is for Veth to chase her dreams. “He’s always like - go shine! Go blossom!” He wants to have the conversation about Yeza feeling a little ignored. It’s fun to share the tales of adventures with Luc & Yeza. 

Travis says there’s no way it’s Molly--it’s all Lucien. They don’t know if it was a resurrection, if he’s undead, possessed, etc. Everyone--everyone--rags on Taliesin’s accent work. Brian surreptitiously claims Ashly was brought on to relieve him of the burden of the accent. Poor Ashly, ha!

Initially, Travis landed on the Oath of the Ancients, but it had more nature & pacifism in it than he felt fit Fjord very well. Many of them also had a focus on good & lawfulness, which also didn’t feel quite right; he also wasn’t that vengeful for some of the others. He & Matt got together and discussed options. Matt asked what Travis liked about Fjord; Fjord’s love for the ocean was a huge part of it, since Travis himself also loves the ocean & scuba diving, and so Matt created a custom oath for him. Travis does not plan to post its details, but he thinks Matt will at some point.

Cosplay of the Week! a lovely Scanlan by Air Bubbles Cosplay! Sam tells us the “canon” Scanlan cosplay was actually borrowed hodgepodge, and the boots were falling off all day.

It was really cool to see how Yeza & Luc have made a home in Nicodranas. Felderwin was okay, but kind of your basic D&D fishing village, and she likes the Nicodranas is much better. She’s confident & comfortable knowing her family is safe and sound.

Why is Fjord so interested in finding Sabian? To him, post-orphanage, his time with Vandren was the best of his life & the most love he’d ever received, because he mattered & had worth. It was taken by someone he’d known basically his whole life, so Fjord is not going to let that go. “That fuckin’ bill needs to be paid, my friend.”

Sam acknowledges that he should NOT have looked at his phone in re: the Vilya reveal, but it was pretty surprising! He can’t believe none of them recognized it! Travis points out the M9 had never met, heard of, or known anything about Vilya, so it’s not that surprising. Brian points out Matt has also done a really good job keeping the two campaigns separate, so any references were tasteful. Sam marvels that it was so well done: it was tasteful, had emotional and story impact... “That Matt. He’s getting better!”

Liam texted Sam back something like “oh SHIT.”

Knowing Veth had a chance to help someone else return to her child made Veth feel almost karmically forgiven for being away from her kid, but it also made Veth a little guilty--”this lady wants to desperately return home, shouldn’t I want to go home too?” Caleb’s teleportation spell couldn’t have come a better time.

Sam wants Caleb & Astrid to get back together (well, he says “hump each other”), and Dani’s eyebrows climb off her forehead. Veth/Nott really thinks Caleb needs to have a roll in ze hay, and feels like after meeting her that there is a kindness or vulnerability to her that could be worthwhile. Travis thinks she feels like someone tethered, that it feels like she has a bomb or something in her chest that’ll explode if she tries to leave. Sam thinks Eadwulf is super cool. None of these names are spelled like I think.

Travis found the dinner super frustrating, because he felt Caleb was trying to walk a diplomatic line and he just wanted to backhand Trent. 

Fjord is still coming to terms with his feelings for Jester, and the feelings are definitely real, but there’s a lot of timing that he’s considering and he also wants to figure out what the relationship is like outside of constant tension and battle. Fjord is also having trouble figuring out how to exercise the ability to display affection as well since he’s never received them, and is feeling out how to give and receive them. “It’s fine now, because he’s feeling it, but once you say it out loud, or once you come to a point where you make it known to the other side, then what happens? It might be ruined. It might be broken. Or it might not be!” The moment with the porcelain unicorn was too good not to try. Travis also sighs that he’s not a romance D&D guy, “but now I am! Fuckin’ Laura Bailey!” He’s definitely feeling it out and will see how it unfolds in the game.

If Jester hadn’t let go of the Traveler, Fjord would have either attacked the Traveler or the Moonweaver and tried to kick them both off.

Sam doesn’t think the Traveler’s realized yet what a dick he is. Brian thinks it may not happen in this campaign, but agrees the full weight of what he deserves hasn’t been felt yet. Travis: “Yeah, he came to the edge, but it didn’t cost him anything.” Brian: “Yeah, he’s a real edgelord.”

Fanart of the Week! a beautiful portrait of Molly in the snow by @claygryphon on twitter.

Veth acknowledges that they work for shady people with shady pasts, so Vess DeRogna isn’t her first rodeo, but this time it’s personal. It’s Jaws 2: Electric Boogaloo. Sam can’t commit to actual actions, since Vess is like level 20 or something, but “I will get some kinda revenge. Be it petty or significant, I will get revenge.”

How are they feeling about being in Eiselcross? They’ve only just landed, so not sure yet. The cold is intimidating. They’re excited to explore a new island that’s part of Wildemount, especially with the river of lava running through it. “It’s icy with lava? Sounds like a Dairy Queen.”

There’s still a ton of unknowns regarding the Tombtakers, Vess, the nature of their job, and who’s here on whose orders. They’re excited to see how it’s all going to play out. Travis laughs that he doesn’t take notes, he’s just here to fight things. It just washes over him when Matt starts talking about names and places. “It’ll reveal itself in time. [...] I don’t write those notes down. I don’t even know how to spell it off the bat.” I have never identified more with Travis. Sam actually does pay attention and take notes and was really impressed by Marisha’s dive.

Veth became interested in branding her own spellcraft as soon as she saw Caleb doing it. “That’s what the influencer agents are gonna be looking at. It would be nice to leave the world better than we found it, but also with some branded spells.”

What were Fjord’s thoughts on dropping so much money on the ring & the Ioun stone? It wasn’t about money for Fjord, it was about a cool thing to acquire. It’s why he saves money in his campaign. Caleb needs “as much of a flak jacket as he can get.” He also REJECTS the idea of buyer’s remorse on the ring and touts the effectiveness it’ll have on the lava river.

Travis talks about his old coins - a 340AD coin he bought at a ren faire and a 120BC coin that was a gift from a friend.

Sam marvels at the love and thought that Caleb put into the tower. Sam points out they forgot to go to the top two floors altogether. Travis: “Did the mansion get as much careful planning from Scanlan as the tower did from Caleb?” Sam: Absolutely not. But they were still thinking small in C1, figuring out how things went, and they didn’t have as much detail in their heads yet.

And that’s all the time we have for tonight! We end on everyone whispering way too close into their mics and tapping fingernails on mason jars. A fitting end to this crazy episode, I think.

Is it Thursday yet?

[haikyuu-appreciation-club]

•How the Captains Take Notes•

warnings: none

genre: crack?? idk 🧍

characters: daichi, kuroo, bokuto, oikawa, ushijima, kita, & terushima

a/n: this was stuck in my head at 3am and i was too lazy to format this sooo enjoy this shit show 🏃🏻‍♀️ alsooo this is solely my opinion and it’s just for fun so pls don’t take it to heart :)

~ Daichi ~

-> honestly the most basic notes out of all the captains

-> not too neat but definitely not too messy either

-> probably not one to try and get every single detail on his paper

-> just writes whatever information he’ll need for tests and assignments and calls it a day

-> he has pretty decent handwriting and is usually the first person to offer his notes to anyone who needs them

-> not really one for formatting his notes farther than the typical ‘grocery list’ style

-> definitely the only one in class who has the guts to raise their hand and ask the teacher to go slower when no one can get anything on their paper

-> he’ll just write with regular #2 pencils and name brand pens

~ Kuroo ~

-> oh where do i begin

-> okay he tries...? but it’s definitely not like oikawa’s or kita’s

-> i imagine kuroo to have that doctor’s type of handwriting soooo

-> no one can understand jack shit that boy puts on his paper

-> like he color codes things and has a pretty decent format but that handwriting hun, it’s just not it

-> if he takes his time to write things he actually has pretty nice handwriting

-> but when it comes to notes he feels the need to get all the information down so it just becomes chicken scratch

-> but hey, he can understand it really well and that’s all that matters

-> also definitely writes with those multi-colored mechanical pencils that break after two days

~ Bokuto ~

-> definitely has the type of notes that no one else can comprehend except for him

-> and even he struggles to read his notes sometimes

-> this boy is just trying to get everything down on the paper so he really doesn’t care how nice it looks

-> he writes super big too, like unnecessarily big

-> like i’m talking takes up twenty pages for one lecture type of big

-> probably writes in wide ruled notebooks bc college ruled makes his notes 20x messier

-> definitely will space out every five minutes and has to ask the person next to him what the heck is going on

-> writes all his notes with an old dirty pencil he found on the floor a week ago

-> it definitely lost the eraser before he picked it up so he’s constantly tapping on people’s shoulders asking for an eraser

-> yes he’s that type of classmate

-> but we love him anyways

-> one of my lovely reblogs mentioned that they thought bokuto doodles and i 100% agree-

~ Oikawa ~

-> this motherfu-

-> the prettiest notes you’ve ever seen

-> like seriously pinterest worthy

-> would probably copy down all the notes in class and then rewrite them all pretty once he gets home

-> brags to everyone about how neat and organized his notes are

-> color codes everything and has the nicest handwriting

-> he draws little graphs and pictures on the sides of his notes too

-> is definitely the go to person to copy notes from when people miss class bc they’re so easy to read

-> definitely writes notes with the most expensive stationary known to man

-> like i’m talking about those $7 japanese pens and the really nice metal mechanical pencil

-> he really goes all out

-> i assure you, his notes will be just as perfect as his hair

~ Ushijima ~

-> okay listen, he’s got nice ass handwriting but he’s awful at taking notes

-> like he definitely tries but he end up copying down all the unnecessary information and leaving out all the important bits

-> doesn’t even bother to format his notes, just kinda writes a whole paragraph but somehow knows where everything is..?

-> semi ends up shoving his own notes in his hands so he doesn’t end up failing every single one of his classes

-> he’s not stupid, he just ends up focusing on the wrong things

-> rarely asks questions but when he does he’s always super blunt about it that it takes the whole class a minute to process

-> just jots down notes with whatever black pen he has laying in his backpack

-> overall, definitely not the best note taker but at least he’s got volleyball going for him-

~ Kita ~

-> okay kita’s notes are like a more toned down version of oikawa’s

-> things like color coding and post it notes are way too distracting for him so he sticks with a plain pen and paper

-> yet his notes still turn out to be so freaking pretty

-> has super neat handwriting and formats everything in a way that’s super understandable

-> very minimalistic but still super beneficial

-> always gets everything down while still maintaining his neatness since it’s such a routine thing for him

-> he is definitely the go to when someone just dozed off in class and needs a few things they missed since it’s so easy to find information in his notes

-> will let people borrow his notes but makes sure to let them know how important it is to stay focused during class before he does

-> writes with a 0.5 black gel pen, i don’t make the rules

~ Terushima ~

-> this man has so much energy that he genuinely doesn’t care to make his notes all pretty

-> he finds note taking pretty boring so his main goal is usually to try and get it over with asap so he can move on to more entertaining things

-> so even though he’s smart, i think he’s another one that takes pretty basic notes

-> writes a header and just does bullet points all the way down

-> he copies down most of what the teacher is saying but he’ll definitely forget about anything he thinks he won’t need to know later on

-> probably writes with a plain mechanical pencil he borrowed from one of his classmates

-> speaking of, if you let this man borrow anything, don’t expect it back

-> it’s probably already lost or he forgot it was even yours to begin with

-> also this man is definitely a pencil/pen tapper

-> like if he’s bored or stressed, all you’ll hear in the back of the classroom is the tapping of him damn pencil

-> like hush bby, the class is almost over i swear

-> anywho probably a huge pain in the ass when it comes to lectures buuuut we forgive him

[helpicant-stop]

Captain Puffy's Hair Tutorial

[ or : what actually happened when Hannah was with the Egg ]

please reblog!! it brings more attention to the piece and likes don't really do anything so it'd be super helpful if you did [[:

image id and funky drawing info [ + bonus sketches ] below the cut :

Image I.D. :

{the first panel is of captain puffy in a white void, smiling. her hair is immensely curly and large and literally looks like you could hide a whole person in it. she says, "hi guys! so lately, a lotta people have been asking," with a connecting speech bubble below adding, "'omg, puffy, how the [censor bar] does all your hair fit into that bun???'"

in the second panel, she says, "well, today i'm gonna show you exactly how!"

the third panel shows hannahxxrose, red sucked out of her normally very pink outfit, siting in the dark with a Gapple™ laptop open in front of her. she says, "oh pog! seems easy enough, guess i could try it."

the fourth panel cuts back to the video. puffy holds up a blue-grey bandana and says, "so first, i take a cloth-"

then the fifth panel cuts back to hannah, who's holding a cold green bandana in her hands while the video plays. the first speech bubble starts with, "and then you just . . ." with the other two speech bubbles being scribbles. the fourth one is much smaller than the others and says, ". . . hannah, if you're listening, which i [censor bar] know you are, sam's on his way please hold on i swear to god-"

the sixth panel simply shows puffy with her hands splayed, simply exclaiming, "TA-DA!!" with a pleased expression. all of her ridiculously voluminous hair has been somehow tucked into a tiny bun atop her head, decorated with the bandana wrapped over her head.

the seventh panel shows an extreme close-up of hannah's confused and disgruntled face, with a small speech bubble to her right simply saying, "what the fuck".

finally, the last panel zooms out to show that yes, she's still in a black concrete box beside the egg, and someone offscreen - presumably bad or ant - remarks, "HOW does she keep getting access to these computers???"}

End I.D.

captain puffy has one goat eye, and one human eye with goat pupils.

they also change colour depending on emotion : red is angry, orange is scared, yellow is happy, green is disgust, blue is sadness and purple is surprise, as seen in the sketch i made below [ yeah the colours are wrong because there's no option for yellow text jehekwb ] :

also, complicated emotions have multiple colours swirling together so that looks kinda cool [ i forgot to make a drawing for this lmao rip ]

her right horn was cut off after she became anti-egg since it was kind of overgrowing from lack of proper maintaining [ don't look up overgrown horns if you're sensitive to body horror ish images please ] , and her left horn was severed near the base after she presumably fell off her ship after the storm that took her to smp lands

speaking of which!! i have a headcanon that lightning struck her during the storm at some point and turned her hair white [ which is completely nonsensical but shut up], and she decided to dye the right side of her hair brown [ only the roots for some reason ] out of impulse once she got her pirate outfit back.

puffy has a detatchable hook hand and eyepatch! she found them in the ship with her pirate outfit and likes to put them on when she's in full dress to complete the vibe. and the hook actually does help with pulling up eggheads by the collar to scream "FUCK THE EGG" at them! /hj [ also i drew this particular sketch before the captain's tale episode so her outfit and hair are different and the drawing quality is significantly worse don't @ me ]

hannah keeps finding ways to access the internet and bad and ant have no idea how

hc where a legitimate laptop brand in the dsmp universe is Gapple. [ the competitor is obviously still samsung just to make the "phil fucked a samsung smart fridge" thing canon ]

follow - up headcanon : streams are like some kind of religious activity in the dsmp universe and everyone still does it despite everything else going on. everyone's actively encouraged to watch each other's streams; the difference from real life streams, though, is that they're all in character no matter the content.

[ c!tommy has probably released a " prison visit vlog - finally getting closure! " stream, in which there was like a 30-minute long segment where he argued about not being able to vlog the visit itself to sam, and ended up grumpily raiding sam nook's " 10 hour hotel grind " where he stood, unmoving, for hours on end with the exception of random instances of the typical dialogue lines to random passersby ]

[practicalmagicintuitions]

Here is the Chris Reading for the anons asking for it:

I’ve placed a whole bunch of things down for this one. You guys wanted general, so until I could hone in on something, I had to just test the waters on all things. (I’m not following him so I don’t know what’s going on at all) if you guys notice something in this reading that you think could be symbolism for something you actually know of in his life, let me know! :)

I was asked for General, how he feels about relationships, how he feels about marriage, career? And love life.

1. I put down Chris

2. Being in a relationship” second. BIAR Wanted to be in front of Chris, Chris also wanted it there

3. Career was confused where to go, Being in a relationship was in the way. Career decided it’s gonna jam itself between them. (Already this is super telling.)

4. Being Single - single was attached to career, it wanted to stay with career it wouldn’t move elsewhere

5. Family are right behind Chris, (good that’s where they should be. Doesn’t look like any animosity atm)

6. Strangely, marriage wanted to be in front of in a relationship……..? That’s gonna be a fun one to figure out.

7. “Having kids” is behind him, past family and on the left (it’s the furthest placement away so far”

Chris is staring ahead at Career, single, BIAR and single. They’re all in a line.

Chris is staring straight at career. I can’t feel anything from him besides the fact that this big brick wall called a career is in front of him. I see nothing past that. “Single” though, rather than seeming as big as career, seems to represent itself as a little flag thats just been pressed into the side of the brick wall, single isnt giving me any feeling either.

That being said, the career brick wall is not intimidating. It’s just more like he’s looking up at it like, “huh. Big guy” he has the need to climb over it.

Yeah, listen this wall is a wall but he’s not trying duck his head to the side and see past it, he just has the need to jump over this brick wall. The wall is maybe 7 foot tall, so in comparison to himself and how big he feels in this scenario (he feels his normal 6 foot self) he absolutely could. But it’s just interesting that what I’m seeing/feeling is a brick wall that’s like 5 foot in length and yet he has no desire to just bypass it and go to the side, he wants to climb the fucking thing?

Chris stans, tell me what the HELL that is about. You know him better than I. Does he like the competition or accomplishment? Does he feel he needs to prove himself the hard way?

Anyway, he’s pretty confident he can jump this wall. And single is not even a thing to him in its current position.

He’s thinking very hard about how to jump this wall. Like he knows how, you lift yourself up and jump over it I can see that image in my head very easy, but he’s struggling to actually DO it?

Nope, ok he doesn’t want to.

He knows he can jump it, he knows it’s blocking everything else, but I go to take an action for him and he’s like “nah I’m good tho”

Seems a fitting time to put in “anxiety.”

I laughed out loud when I had to place anxiety. Take a wild guess where it felt it needed to be?

You bet chya, it’s on the wall.

And then it couldn’t make up its mind. Officially I’ve placed it on the wall together with “single” and “career” but the energy for anxiety is actually that’s it’s jumping in front of the wall, to on the wall, to behind the wall and it keeps doing that. Just back and forth.

Makes total sense as to why he can’t cross this wall.

Now that anxiety is there he doesn’t want to look in its direction at all.

He’s gotten a bit warm and a bit of a headache too now, and a bit dizzy. The headache is real present.

The good news is in these situations where someone can’t move due to anxiety or otherwise, it’s always a good time to place supports, so the person can feel supported to do the thing they want and move forward. Luckily, his family are already placed behind him, they seem to really love him, so it’s just about me utilising that now.

This part I’m going to do more privately (as in I won’t type it) cause this would be a personal thing (maybe even generational thing) that he needs to move through with his family in order for them to feel that support. His anxiety didn’t come from nowhere. That being said I’m also not going to do a whole ass constellation with him cause 1. He’s not here and 2. It would take hours.

All I’ll say is his mum is a MASSIVE support for him, and also……. 😬 kinda swamping him a bit. He doesn’t mind it, it’s actually very comforted, but she truly is just physically in this reading SWAMPING him. An outsider could see that she’s maybe a bit too involved with his life.. which isn’t great for a fully grown man. But, he finds it comforting, what are ya gonna do. Clearly he doesn’t want it to end… :/

(For reading purposes So it’s not just jumping, I took about 5 minutes with him and his family to help move past anxiety, his family love the crap out of the guy it’s real cute.)

I thought this was important to note:

What Career feels in relation to CE:

Very big, bulky, serious. Reminds me a bit of Wilson Fisk from into the spider verse. Just very big, bulky, serious a bit of a bully. Not gonna move. You’re gonna do what I tell you. Restrictive. That kind of energy. It doesn’t HATE him, but it has rules. And Chris is gonna follow them. (That’s a threat) it also feels like within career is actually a powerful male that kinda owns his ass? Not sure who that could be, once again CE stans, gimme the tea.

For the next part I might… get in trouble. I know that when it comes to the talk of relationships no one likes to hear it. Don’t kill the messenger here you guys:

he has his back TURNED from “single”

I could encourage him to look everywhich other way for any other representative, but single? Back turned.

Doesn’t wanna look at it.

Single on the other hand is kinda looking at him like a little kid like :) hi Chris look pls. Chris! Pls :) Chris look at me Chris pls :) Chrissy! Take a look!

For whatever reason “single” in this reading is feeling very adolescent. Maybe he feels that being single isn’t a grown up thing to do anymore? (I forgot to mention, the things in the field take on the energy of the person it’s focused on, not necessarily how it is perceived by EVERYONE in the world, only how it’s perceived or how it acts in relation to the client. Single to ME might be a knight in shining armor that protects me, Single to Chris seems adolescent.

So, Chris is looking at both “marriage” and “being in a relationship” he’s not feeling particularly drawn towards either, but he is giving a lot more attention to “being in a relationship” than marriage.

Which is weird, cause if you don’t want single, yet you don’t want relationship, what do you want?

I have now brought in “situationship” “flirting w/ someone” and “fwb”

situationship is closest, but doesn’t have his full attention, as it’s to the left side of him at an Angle. FWB is just behind situationship but more aligned to be in front of his eyesight, and flirting with someone is on the right from him, at an angle and is the furthest of the three.

Ok, FWB feels the most comfortable for him, he actually took a step towards it. He’s not feeling super fond of any of the three in any way, but FWB is nice it’s comforting, he’s.. semi happy? It’s not even really happy… it’s just like “doing ok!This is ok! This is comfortable.”

He’s side eyeing the shit out of “situationship” though and is anxious at how close it is. He doesn’t actually want the situationship there, but it’s close now and it’s not moving, and he’s having a bit of anxiety about it. He can’t stop looking at it though. FWB is immediate comfort, situationship is SO ANXIETY INDUCING but it’s also more interesting to look at?

(Chris get therapy 🙄)

Flirting with someone is out of the picture, been there, done that doesn’t care about it. (Could be that he’s already gone through the flirting stage with someone that’s why it’s of no interest to him)

Now that he’s finding situationship more interesting, he’s looking past FWB and to “being in a relationship” which he also finds nicer to look at. The thought coming up is “that would be nice” but in a wistful way.

Marriage is still right out, we’re not looking at marriage.

I’m gonna move relationship closer to situationship to see if he feels better or worse.

Lmao ok, I put them both together and imagined situation ship and relationship being close, like they’re holding hands. In his mind, situationship is a cute little brunette that’s like 5’4 and “being in a relationship” is built like an Amazonian 6’5 goddess and he’s both in awe, yet intimidated a bit, but also not hating it, but the only thought that came up was “ahhhhh…. Fuck.”

Two thoughts came up but they both got crossed out before he could finish it.

“I don’t want-“

“I’m not ready……..-“

And now he just keeps hesitantly saying relationship over and over again but he’s saying it like he’s brand new to the word, like he’s trying to find the word for the word - yet he’s already speaking it??

And now it’s just a flatlining “😐 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……”

Sat with this for a while and didn’t have much movement so time to move to:

Question time:

Q: Chris.. are you in a situationship?

I don’t know what I’m in

Q: Ok. Are you… sleeping with someone

Yeah

Q: Are you FWB?

He’s hesitant? Like he’s not sure. That word doesn’t seem to fit what he’s up to atm. He seems very confused about what he’s in.

Q: Are you going on dates with someone?

I’m going on dates

Q: With many people or just one?

Just…. One… (not sure why he was hesitant about telling me, but I feel like I’m starting to cross on something I’m not meant to talk about, so I’m ending it here. If he wants to keep it to himself, he is absolutely in his right to do so)

I will say when He said just one, a person did show up: brown hair, she’s shorter than him (but that’s obvious) and she’s slender and kinda perky. When I see her she looks like she’s fun! I saw her dancing around a bit. I liked her energy.

Sound like anyone you guys know?

Note: this is where I’ve ended it. Wasn’t gonna push on it he was getting more and more hesitant it’s not my place to push anything that he doesn’t want me to access. Now that we’ve created the focus though it will be easier to go from there :)

Hopefully that covered it for the anons that asked :) I’m over @energyanon to anyone that needs anything clarified.

Thank you for doing this @energyanon ! Your gift is amazing and thank you for your dedication!

[forthehpfanboys]

Weasley’s Wild Ways

Pair: George Weasley x Reader x Fred Weasley; he/him.

Summary: You, a head strong Hufflepuff, stands up against Umbridge once and catches the twins attention, which most would say was a bad thing. What happens when they swap from sweet to sour and back again?

Warnings: Manipulation, abuse, swearing, probably more, god I’m bad at this.

Notes: Requested and I’m so sorry this took so long and it’s low-key cringy! And it’s super long, to be honest. I’ll edit it tomorrow? I’ve been having a lot of computer problems and second guessing myself on stories. I’ve been rewriting them at least once lately. 

~DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE~

-

You really should’ve noticed when they noticed you.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Umbridge’s classroom all but melted into ashes and smoke the day after you stood up against her and her squabbling little butler and got detention. It should’ve been clear when Draco and his gang apologized not even an hour after teasing you about your family, their faces covered in bruises and small cuts. 

You probably should’ve noticed how your friends held their tongues around you, how teachers avoided you and how two shadows seemed to follow you between classes, how your usual bullies left you alone and so much more. There was a lot you should’ve noticed, but with the pink toad and her helper turning Hogwarts into actual hell, you were far too stressed to focus on others. Stress on uniforms being perfect, staying 8 inches from the opposite sex, doing hypothetical school work instead of actual spells. 

While there was a bucket load of stuff you didn’t notice, there were a few things you did notice, like how the Weasley twins paid attention to you during your shared classes. Like the time you got called on by Snape for a potion ingredient and one of the brothers, you assumed it was George, but you didn’t like assuming, slid you a ripped piece of parchment stating the one you forgot, just about saving you from losing house points.

How you caught their attention, you weren’t even sure. You were a Hufflepuff, they were gryffindors, but everyone knew they should’ve been put in Slytherin, judging from the reputation they held up. In the end, it made sense, they were quite brave, especially since they could look Umbrigde in the eyes and cuss her out if she was doing something they weren’t fond of to friends or family. However, they did become fond of you.

They used to see you as a small, stereotypical, soft Hufflepuff but that changed when you stood up against the pink disaster. You caught their eye, you intrigued them and that was a feat in itself. Everyone, except you apparently, could tell the red-headed twins wanted you and no one exactly stopped them from getting what they wanted, which led to their next move.

You just entered the dining hall, text books in arms, and moving across to your yellow themed table to join your friends. You sat in the usual spot, and greeted them with the usual cheery hi and a bright smile. Your group nodded at you, casting a nervous smile and quick hello your way.

You watched the faces of your friends turn pale when the room grew ever so darker and they fled like cockroaches exposed to a light. You looked around at the now empty benches before turning around to check out what the big fuss was. What you say made your own reflection turn pale. Your eyes met red and gold robes before glancing up at two identical, freckled faces.

“H-Hi?” You stammered out, your voice shaky as you fiddled with your own robes. “Um- Can I um- help you?” Your brain was wracking over what you might’ve said to gain the attention of the Weasleys. Oh fuck, was it over what you said to Jordan Lee yesterday? “I-if this is about Lee? Because I was just joking!” 

The twins let out a chuckle at your panic before sitting, one on either side of you. 

“No, no, this isn’t about that. Lee can take a joke.” The one to your left spoke up. Your eyes frantically bounced between the two red-heads and it dawned on you that you couldn’t tell them apart if your life depended on it. 

“Besides, we’d never target you. You’re perfect. We’re just here to see you, dove.” Leftie spoke up, chuckling as he rested his chin on his palm. His blue eyes looked you up and down before glancing at his doppelganger.

“Oh thank Merlin!” You sighed out, your shoulders relaxing slightly. You couldn’t help but think their chuckles were actually quite charming. “T.. Wait, see me?” You could feel your body heating up. 

“Godric, I knew we picked a good one.” Leftie spoke up again as Rightie scooted closer to you.

“Hush, mate, don’t give us away that easily.” Rightie was chuckling close to your ear as he wrapped an arm around your waist, scooting you closer.

“Oh, come on, Georgie.” Leftie Fred stated as he also advanced into your personal bubble. “Have a little fun.”

“Just don’t wanna scare him, is all.” George shot you an easy smile. The room was starting to feel like an active volcano to you.

“Right, right, Hufflepuffs scare easily-” Fred’s voice was filled with sass. 

“We do not! Don’t you dare fall into that trap!” You pressed a finger into his chest, your face pulled into a sneer. “Hufflepuffs can be just as brave as Gryffindors. I’m sure Cedric and one Dora Tonks proved that very well, wouldn’t you say?”

“Ohhoo, feisty! I hit a nerve.” Fred was smirking now. You should’ve known he would’ve wanted a reaction out of you. Fred was like that; always pushing buttons, trying to piss people off and see the reaction. One could say it was his favorite thing above quidditch, but that might be a stretch.

“Fred, apologize. We’re not here to patronize him, remember?” George smiled, gently patting your head to try to get you to calm you down. 

“Alright, alright. Love, I’m sorry. Now between you and me, I don’t really believe someone’s house defines them.” The tall red-head leaned in close to you. Probably too close, but you could see the flicks of green in his eyes. You knew your face was turning bright red. 

“Fine. Whatever.” You grumbled out, pushing him back. You turned away, only now remembering the hand around your waist. “Oi, let go.” You gently bapped at his hand away. “And what exactly did you mean by ‘picked the right one’?” You shot Fred a glare.

“Don’t worry about it, muffin.” George grabbed your chin and made you look back at him. “You’ll find out soon enough.” With that, both the twins just.. Left.

They got up and left like they didn’t call you three couple-esc nicknames and fluster the shit out of you. You spent the rest of your lunch mulling over what just happened and barely eating. You were anxious for Potions class to happen.

You had every right to be anxious. Snape had changed everyones seats, mixing up the houses against his better judgement just to separate the two Weasleys. He was convinced that the two trouble makers managed to cheat, even with the none cheating quills and seperate seats during the test. 

Anyway, the dark glares the Weasley’s kept shooting toward Snape were terrifying to say the least. Snape had unknowingly moved them away from their price and away from each other. Fred was sat next to some sour Ravenclaw who was forced away from her friend while George was sat next to one of your Hufflepuff friends, who was literally sweating bullets.

You didn’t know the two were fuming with jealousy or feel them glance your way every now and then to make sure the Slytherin sitting next to you didn’t cause you problems or touch you the wrong way. Luckily, you managed to recreate the potion skillfully, even helping the Slytherin every once in a while. 

When class finally dismissed after what felt like forever, you gathered your books into arms and began to follow the crowd of students. You could barely get out the door, however. A hand grabbed your arm and pulled you from the crowd. You looked up to see one of the twins grabbing your arm while the other walked behind you. They couldn’t stand seeing you next to that green branded snake anymore.

“Guys?” You looked between them, once again losing track of who was who. When you didn’t get an answer, you spoke up again. “What’s going on?”

“We did mention how we picked you, right?” The one behind you spoke up while the other tightened his grip on your wrist. You nodded your head as the twin in front of you stopped walking. He observed the hall before opening a hidden passageway and dragging you in. “Now that we have privacy we can explain.” 

The passageway was dark, except for the few torches that lined the watts. The shadows of the twins loomed over the pale yellow walls, making you feel so, so small. You looked along the arched pathway, an audible gulp heard in the near silence. You jumped back a bit when they took a testing step toward you.

“But what about our other classes?” You stammered out, biting your lip as they took steps toward you. You took one step back for every one they advantage toward you until your back bumped against the wall. “We shouldn’t be late.” You looked back at the bricks your back bumped against, patting it with your palm to make sure you were, in fact, against a wall.

“We can just make up the classes, doll, relax.” One put a hand against the wall by your head, leaning over. “Just listen to us, will ya?” 

“Freddie and I have been watching you for a while now.” George spoke up as he leaned in a little himself. Ok, that isn’t creepy at all. “And we’ve decided, well, your ours.”

“..What?” You stared at them before shoving yourself between them and walking down the hallway a little bit. “Excuse me? I’m sorry- I’m yours now?” You put a hand over your chest as the red-heads glanced between each other. “Hold on, let me get this straight.” You clapped your hands together before continuing. “You have been watching me for the past couple of- well, who knows how long and have just decided, out of blue AND without asking me, that I’m just yours?!”

The twins glanced between each other for a second time, before nodding at each other, turning to you and nodding again.

“Yeah, Pretty much.” They spoke in unison, moving their hands in a so-so manner. A wicked grin appeared on both boys, causing you to feel uneasy.

“Hit the nail on the head.” Fred spoke up, turning to his brother.

“Should’ve been a Ravenclaw.” George crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Still, pretty sma-”

“You have no right to decide that!” You shouted, hands balled into fists at your side. Both twins snapped their heads to you, their faces barely lit under the light provided by the torches.  “I’m a person, ya know, with feelings and opinions and right now, I’m starting to think I don’t you should go fu-” You were cut off by Fred grabbing your neck and pushing you into another wall. You grabbed his wrists, groaning when your head snapped against the brick. He wasn’t squeezing your neck hard enough to choke you, but just to hold her still.

“Finish that sentence, dolly, and you may end up on our hit list.” Fred’s voice was deeper than you’d ever heard before and it was causing panic to flood inside your veins. 

“See, (Y/n). When we want something, we get it.” George spoke up, his head popping up over Fred’s shoulder. “And what we want is you.”

“Whether you come with us, be ours and do what we say is up to you.” The man holding you still let out a deep laugh. “And if we can’t persuade you with our.. Reputation, I recommend you just remember one thing,” Fred paused and leaned into your ear, “We can do a lot more damage than that pink toad can.” He gave your neck a squeeze while he spoke, causing your squeak to echo in the empty hall.

“So what do you say, love?” A sinister smirk was across George’s lips. Fred’s grip eased up, allowing you to take in a big breath. You wanted the thumping of your heart to not be in your ears.  

“W-Well- I- Uh-” You stammered out. Your brain was trying to figure out the correct response to ‘Hi, we own you now and if you fight back, say goodbye to your future-’. “I-I-I think, um-” Suddenly the hand around your neck was leaving and instead straightening out your uniform. 

“Where did our manners go, Georgie?”

“Your right. Mum would kill us for disrespecting someone so soft.”

How do they act like they aren’t threatening you all? How are they acting so calm when Fred’s hand print was surely on your neck?

“Reckon we should give him some time to figure out what side he’s on?” Fred finished fixing your uniform for you and backed up, putting his hands in his pocket.

How were they smiling like they didn’t hurt you?

“Sounds like a splendid idea!” With George ending the conversation, they both left the way they came, leaving you on the cusp of freaking out as they strolled to their next class. 

You slid down the wall, a shaky hand going to your neck to feel any kind of damage. You stared blankly at the wall. You mulled over words, sentences, expressions- everything. In the end you had several questions, just like earlier, but one stuck out the most.

Why you?

You weren’t sure what time it was when you left the hidden passageway and, frankly, you didn’t care. You strolled down the hallway, hand rubbing your sore neck as you walked to the Hufflepuff common room. You tapped the barrels the same way you had for the past 7 years and slipped inside. You immediately went up the winding staircase, to your dorm and plopped yourself down on the bed.

You didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. You mostly stared at the ceiling thinking over your options. It felt like you only had two. A; be their whatever and stay with them until they get bored and live in hell or B; say no and live in hell.

Either way, hell was coming for you. 

You stared out the window, watching the sun come up. You didn’t want to go to breakfast but you haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday and your stomach was deciding to go to war with your tired brain.

You dragged your body out of bed, heading to the bathroom to do bathroom things and got dressed.. Kinda. You ended up buttoning your shirt wrong and not even bothering with your tie, letting it just dangle awkwardly as you walked to the dinning hall. You were faarr too tired for this shit and it wasn’t even noon yet.

Your tired legs led you to the nearest empty seat at the Hufflepuff table. You shoved the plate away and opted for letting your skull thump against the table. You didn’t bother looking up when you heard a familiar chuckle, instead you just closed your eyes, ignoring the two warm bodies pressing into your sides.

“Aw, come on now, dove. You gotta eat.” A sickeningly sweet tone that you recognized as George’s voice whispered to you.

“I’d rather sleep, thank you.” You spat out, your lips pulled into a grimace.

“Wait, you didn’t sleep?” Fred spoke up, his mouth full, you could tell. “Why didn’t you sleep?”

“Fred, relax. I’m sure he has his reasons.”

“Just stress, guys. Please give me space.” You grumbled out. How the hell do they expect you to sleep with what happened yesterday? The hand print on your neck had faded, thank god, but still. You were surprised when they scooted away from you a smidgen. You should’ve noticed them sitting beside you. Of course they saved you a seat- or did they? Who cares. 

“Was it over our offer?”

“Offer? Was it really an offer? How the hell could you consider that an offer?” You lifted your head, shooting one of them a glare before sliding the plate back in front of you and biting into a slice of toast. 

“Still so feisty, especially for someone half asleep. Ow!” Fred rubbed his arm after George hit him. “Ok, ok.” Fred fiddled with his fingers before reaching out to gently caress your neck, causing you to flinch away every so slightly. “I’m glad it healed up some. I’m sorry I lost my temper yesterday. I didn’t mean to hurt my little dove.” 

“It’s, um.. It’s ok?” Of course your statement was more of a question. It wasn’t ok that he nearly choked you out against the wall, but at least he apologized. You couldn’t help but smile a little when he smiled brightly at you. You didn’t want to admit his smile was cute.

“So did you decide?” George spoke up, his head tilted when you turned to look at him. 

“No.. I.. I need more time.” You turned back to your plate, gulping quietly. You went back to eating, trying to get rid of the small bubbles of anxiety in your tummy. The flip flopping of the twins personalities had your head spinning. Maybe they were only being nice for appearances and would beat the shit out of you later. You ate as much as you could handle, hoping it would counter the sleep your brain was begging for, instead it only seemed to make you more tired. 

You let out a small huff when one twin wrapped his arm around you, pulling you into his side. He gently directed your head to lay against his shoulder, only confusing you more. You opened your mouth to question him, but he interrupted you.

“Nap. I’ll wake you up for class.” His voice was soft. Seriously, what the fuck? You licked your lips anxiously. You tried to fight it, but his warm body and your full belly dragged your eyelids down.

You were woken by loud chatting and someone shaking your shoulder. You blinked a few times, adjusting to the light before rubbing your eyes and stretching. You looked around, realizing you were in transfiguration, your first class of the day. You furrowed your brows before looking to your side and seeing George next to you. 

“Good morning, muffin. How did you sleep?” He smiled at you, patting down any stray hairs on your head.

“Good, I guess.” Your voice was rough and scratchy, showing how out you’d been. “How did I-”

“Georgie here decided it’d be better to give you a few extra minutes of sleep instead of waking you up.” Fred turned around in his seat, shooting you a classic Weasley Half Smile.

“Oh.. Thank you.” You casted the younger twin your own small smile just before McGonagall came in and started going on a long tangent to herself about students being inappropriate attire in the halls, making you question what the poor witch had seen.

Class mulled over as it always did, slower than a snail racer. While McGonagall was going on about the many uses of transfiguring a log into a tiny hut to hide from shelter, you were busy in your head. Suddenly the twins weren’t as bad as everyone said, but.. But at the same time they were worse. You were brought back to reality when Fred slipped you a note. When you opened the folded paper, you covered your mouth to stop yourself from giggling. It was a moving drawing of McGonagall as a cat, all fluffed up in the rain, running in a circle trying to avoid the droplets.

Before you knew it, you were in potions with Snape again, but it was different this time. Fred and George had done something, apparently, leading the three of you allowed to sit next to each other once again. George repeated instructions to you without judgement while Fred showed you the proper way to add the ingredients, and of course they made you laugh with cheesy jokes while doing it all. The three of you ended up making a pretty stable potion by the end of the hour.

The day went on relatively uneventfully after your classes finished up and you soon found yourself all but passing out in your dorm room after dinner. As days passed you grew closer to the red-headed beaters and soon forgot the mishap that happened when they cornered you all but a week ago. So you gave them your answer, not that you had much of a choice. 

The twins were nothing but sweet to you after that. Fred would carry your books between classes, even if you told him not too. He’d help you finish long assignments and take the blame for your failed potion projects if it was needed. George would leave small gifts on your pillow, usually treats they swiped from Honeydukes. He’d remind you that you are, in fact, human and need to rest after hours of studying.

Everything was going great! You three were giggling and joking, occasionally pushing each other, trying to knock the other off their chair, disturbing the piece in the library when it came to a halt. It came to a halt when a fellow hufflepuff girlie literally wiggled between you and one of the freckled quidditch players. She went on to ask for help about some magical creature care homework she’d gotten. Before you could answer, the twins swept you out of the library, grumbling about how their mom would give them an earful for hurting a girl, so Ginny would have to do it. 

“Oh, babe, no! Not again.” You spoke up, trying to pull your arms free. “Come on! No need to be jealous.” You giggled. Yup, the truly had you wrapped around their fingers.

“But dove, we’re just-” They spoke at the same time, turning to look at you.

“Trying to keep me safe, I know! She just wanted help!” You smiled at them, standing on your tippy toes to give them a short kiss on the nose. “Relax, guys. If I feel uncomfortable, I’ll tell you.”

“Will you?” George asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course! Have I ever lied to you before?”

“No.. Alright. We trust you, muffin.” Fred pressed a hand against your lower back, shooting you a sweet smile. “Now, how about you scuttle ahead, hmm? Head off to the Gryffindor common room; password is chalk dust. We’ll meet you right there.”

“Are you sure?” You looked between them but let out a tiny gasp when Fred gently pushed you forward with the hand on your back.

“Of course, (Y/n). We’ll be right behind you!” George spoke up, the usual sugar coated grin across his face. With that, you nodded your head, practically skipping down the hallway. You were oblivious to the dark glare the twins shot the Hufflepuff girl who awkwardly excited the library before heading to find their little sister. You should’ve noticed when Ginny came over to them with some bandaged knuckles and a small cut on her lip the next day, but you didn’t. You were too wrapped up in the sugar quills George gave you that night and the cute compliment filled note Fred left by your wand on your bedside table. 

Honestly, the Weasley Twins had you wrapped around their finger. They were wild individuals who always got what they wanted and no one could stop them. They had their ways, some painful, some humiliating, and no one fought against them, not even you.

[rigelmejo]

apps i’ve heard that are good for various aspects of language study:

Japanese:

WaniKani for vocabulary and kanji - the creators of it seem to think their app, plus a good grammar guide (so grammar textbook working through exercises) should be enough to learn and move into immersion. So I imagine at least their kanji/vocab coverage is large. People seem to like this app - I like that it supposedly has mnemonics. I imagine its kanji/vocab coverage goes up to N1, a benefit as stuff like Lingodeer only covers the basics.

Bunpro - Japanese Grammar SRS. What I like about the ‘concept’ of this, is that if fully used it would be a lot like doing textbook exercises/review of grammar which may help grammar correction/production more (versus what I do generally which is just passively read grammar which helps with comprehension but not production). I also specficially like that it GOES UP TO N1 GRAMMAR. Which pretty much all other apps for japanese don’t go past N4-3 at the absolute best. 

KanjiKoohi - not an app but a site, free, super nice to just reference for kanji meanings and mnemonics. 

Anki/Memrise - self explanatory, good for flashcard study of kanji/sentences/words. I personally really like Japanese Core 2k deck etc, and personally have only ever stuck with Nukemarine’s LLJ Memrise Courses. (*To be fair, the Nukemarine courses include Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide, Kanji study, and vocab study like Core 2k, so its a pretty comprehensive all-in-one if you can’t be motivated to study multiple materials).

Chinese:

Skritter - like Wanikani, its for learning hanzi characters, seems to cover most characters, and is well liked by people. However I used it and remember finding it not beneficial and quitting so I’ve got mixed feelings. I can’t remember if I only quit because the app wasn’t worth the subscription cost to me, or because it taught too slow/without enough mnemonics etc. (One big benefit I find to Anki, Memrise, Clozemaster specifically is you have a LOT of control over how much you study per day - you can grind through 100-200 things in less than an hour or just 15 words and skip some days then return, but stuff like Skritter really has a ‘plan’ they keep you more rigidly on if I remember correct which doesn’t work well for people like me who cannot study X amount of time the same way each day consistently).

HackChinese - I saw this mentioned recently for hanzi AND vocab. What I like, it includes vocab up to HSK 6. It also seems easy to add new vocab and vocab lists from textbooks. However I don’t think it covers more than that, so perhaps an alternative to Skritter and Memrise etc.

Anki/Memrise - again self explanatory. Specifically there’s some really good chinese specific decks out there (like Hanzi with Mnemonics chinese anki decks, Chinese Spoonfed anki deck - and just audio files someone made which I use a lot). Timo’s All in One Chinese 3 part anki deck is also useful. How good/bad what you study really depends on the materials you find. 

Chinese Pronunciation Trainer - a simple, free app. I fully recommend it as its built perfectly for Shadowing. It shows text (with or without pinyin) you hear the audio, you record yourself shadowing by just pressing a button, then you hear a replay of your voice compared to the audio. Shadowing works best when you can get feedback comparing your voice to the example you’re shadowing, so this is a great tool for that. Its also like 1000-2000 sentences, so even a beginner can find it useful as they’re generally daily life sentences that aren’t too complex.

普通话学习 app - I use the free version (I don’t think it will let me pay where I live, but it did let me register). This app is all in chinese so there’s a little learning curve but I figured it out back with a vocabulary < HSK 4 so its pretty doable. The free activities include a LOT of shadowing drills like individual syllables, sentences, and paragraphs. The app has native audio and hanzi/pinyin as a transcript, then you record your voice and it will compare how you did and grade you. It will tell you if you were comprehensible and how much, tell you what places you made errors, and let you compare your voice recording with the example audio. It also has tests, and doing those is nice as it will show you specifically if you mess up tones, initials, or finals and which specific instances you mess up. So for example it helped me realize I really mess up eng final a lot, the c initial, tone pairs of 3-4, etc - which helped me pinpoint WHERE to listen for my errors and try to figure out the correct pronunciation compared to them. I think it really helped me a lot in that beginner-ish stage where I could not tell very well what sounded right or wrong, since it can get so specific with what my struggle areas are. It also helped me figure out once I was doing tones correct (assuming its just shadowing and not free convo where I’m coming up with words on the spot), because it would show I got to a point where if I saw pinyin for 1-4 tones, I’d be replicating them correctly (most of my mistakes now are b, c, q initials and  eng, en finals).   

Pleco - I don’t know how I almost forgot! Specifically I use Pleco Reader tool every single day. Pleco also has flashcards, and community made flashcard decks, so it could replace Anki/Memrise easily as your SRS system with sentence mining etc. And its got a huge dictionary, graded readers, etc. I usually use Pleco or Baidu Translate or Google translate for random word lookup. Pleco is best for individual words, google translate is best for ease (loads fast and recognizes real messy handwritten input), BaiduTranslate is best for sentences. I use Pleco daily to read, in their Reader area I can open up any website, click a button so its all just text, and read the text with a pop up dictionary or audio for a word/idiom or the entire selection, and save any word/sentence/phrase into my pleco flashcards with all the dictionary info and audio.  It’s a better reader tool with a built in dictionary than LingQ by far. The reader features are free under “Clipboard Reader” so just copy paste text in there to use these features. I bought the one time cost $24 Reader Tool (and a graded reader and an expanded dictionary, the extras didn’t cost much), so I can open any website in the Reader or pdf/txt file etc. It also came with an OCR reader so I can just point it at real books I’m reading, and a handwriting lookup feature so I can lookup words in pleco by handwriting too (but I usually use Google translate as it tolerates my sloppiness better). Because I can save words in Pleco Reader, I can immediately see if words I’m looking up are ones I’ve seen before (and should try to recall) or brand new words/hanzi. Which helps me prioritize study. I can also Bookmark sites/pages/books in the Reader, so its just really convienient.

[scrapyardboyfriends]

Sooo tired of this boring ass Meena stuff. Have there been any spoilers indicating when they are FINALLY getting rid for her? Cause now with the Lucas stuff they are just gonna drag it out some more aren't they? like when Rebecca was still missing and Lachlan wouldn't tell them where she was blah blah blah...

I’ve always had rather conflicting feelings about Meena. Because I fully admit that she doesn’t really fit the Emmerdale brand and that this is not necessarily the direction the show should be taking. But also, she is fun most of the time and I’d rather watch her campy brand of crazy over pub drama or Cain wallowing over scaring Kyle because of his dumb and pointless feud with Al.

I do also agree that it’s now at the point where it’s definitely gone on too long. And I do wonder if part of the reason for that is retooling the story for Billy and Dawn rather than David and Vic (which, by the way they were super lucky they had Billy and Dawn as a back up because there’s literally no one else this story would have worked with).

I really thought it was going to end after this week but there are definitely spoiler bits for next week and the teasers for the following week so I’m not sure how much longer it’s supposed to go on. I mean I still think they need to find the stupid trophy box even if I feel like that’s irrelevant now. I don’t know. It’s gotten super messy and badly paced now which doesn’t surprise me because these three don’t know what they’re doing.

I feel like Meena worked fairly well through super soap week and then it started falling apart and I think to some degree it still would have even with David and Vic. Because if we’d had to put up with Meena being fake pregnant with David’s child, I would have been extra annoyed because we’d already been so back and forth with them already.

So yeah…it should have just ended the last time it was ending. I mean I kind of loved her getting away cause it was fun but either that should have been it and they then used the trophy box to clear Liv’s name. Or they should have caught her but she refused to confess to Ben’s murder just for fun to see Liv suffer. Bonus points if they were on remand together. And then they find the box. Or they should have waited way longer to bring her back because it kind of feels like too soon to be doing all this again.

Also, that Harriet twist yesterday would have been really good if it was at the end of the week and she was actually dead. Cause I highly doubt she is because they played that hand too soon. But imagine if everyone just forgot all about Harriet, easy to do, because they were so caught up in saving Billy and Dawn and Lucas and Leyla etc and then came back home after all of it and there’s Harriet dead on the floor after Meena has already been caught. It would have actually been really good. But alas, they’re not that good. I just really want her to take out one more character I want gone and Harriet or Will would fit the bill. Plus it feels anticlimactic if she doesn’t kill anyone else.

So that was an incredibly long winded answer you didn’t ask for but suffice to say, I don’t know when it’s ending but it probably won’t be for at least another two weeks. Sorry.

[feminaexlux]

Branded

It’s the @lukanette-exchange fic! After a long while it’s here!! @kingsglaivian I hope you enjoy! Also thanks to LBSC and @quickspinner in particular for finding the cool soulmark prompt lol

I am super, super excited to share this with you!

Original prompts: “childhood friends AU, soulmate AU, and an AU of the exchangee's choice.”

∴

It’d been just a few minutes after they first met when she first wrote her name on him.

She had come closer and stared over his shoulder when she saw he’d been drawing something. Was it a drawing? It looked like he had been drawing circles on a bunch of lines. Oh, Maman had showed her how music was written, it was music! “Hi! Are you drawing music?” She had asked cheerfully.

The boy had startled, apparently not having seen Marinette earlier. His pencil had marked across the entire page. “Aah!”

“Oh no!” Marinette whined. “You messed up!”

“Y-you made me do that,” he frowned. “You scared me.”

“Are you drawing music?” Marinette continued asking.

“Oh, yeah, yeah I am,” he said, turning the pencil around and erasing the errant mark. “I think about music all the time.”

“So what does that mean?” she asked, poking at his paper.

“That’s uh… that's…” he thought a bit. “I think that’s D and the next one is F and another D but this one’s higher. It’s a song from a video game.”

“You play video games?! Papa and I play games too!”

They talked back and forth about a bunch of different little things and he completely forgot what he’d been doing. Then it got to the point where Marinette had pulled out one of her markers and started writing her name on his arm. “– and if stays tomorrow it means you found your true love!” Marinette smiled up at the boy she’d been talking to. He looked like he was a few years older. Maybe he was even 10? Maybe he was younger, he looked really kinda small to be 10.

She was at the playground next to her family’s bakery. She’d been running around and playing with a few other kids there, but she saw this one boy sitting by a tree in the shade. He looked like he was alone and Marinette wondered if he’d been bullied. She knew what that was like, even at the tender age of 5. But it was easy to talk to this boy, he was much less Crazy Mean Boy than Kim was. He was more like Nino! And Nino was nice.

“Is that your name?” the boy asked, staring at her neatly written letters. “Marinette?”

“Yeah!”

“So if it stays tomorrow you’re my true love?” He asked, confused. “Mom told me that writing names on other people is bad… But why?”

“Maman and Papa have their names on each other’s arms,” Marinette said. “It’s not bad! Oh but you have to draw over it ‘cause it’s important that you do it,” Marinette added.

“Why?”

“It’s important,” she clarified. It looked like he was going to keep asking why until his mom called out.

“Ay laddie, it’s time to go,” a lady with a long braid said in their general direction. She had a girl on her hip and was walking over to the boy. “Why hello there lass, are ye makin’ friends with me boy?”

“I’m Marinette,” she said up to the lady. She wasn’t Lass, she wanted to say.

Marinette saw the boy quickly pull down his sleeves from his hoodie to hide her name. “Itwasnicetomeetyoubye,” he said quickly, before Marinette could whine about him hiding her name. He ran away to hold onto his mom’s hand. “Let’s go mom,” he continued, pulling his mom away in a slightly embarrassed fashion.

“Don’t ye want to say farewell? We won’t be ashore fer a while son.” Well, she didn’t know at the time he had wanted to run away and hide so the nice new girl wouldn’t be weirded out by his mom like most people were.

“See you tomorrow!” Marinette yelled after him.

She didn’t.

∴

It’d been just a few days after they first met.

Luka scrubbed and scrubbed at the M on his wrist but it wasn’t coming out. He’d scrubbed himself raw at the sink, his flesh feeling tender and his skin close to bleeding. He’d written over the girl’s marker with a pen a few days ago, idly curious if the mark would stay. At least he’d written over just the M, thinking about the nice girl who’d been curious about him.

“Luka?” He heard his mom call out. No, no, no. It wasn’t coming out and his mom would see it and she’d freak out and he’d have to make an excuse or find some of her makeup or something. He’d been told to take off his hoodie by… that man and so he ran back to the bathroom to try to do something about the M on his wrist.

Anarka opened the door. “Luka, my boy what are ye–” Oh no oh no she saw the mark. He put his hands back in the sink and kept scrubbing, starting to cry. “Luka what…” His mom started, initially alarmed and then… and then she came over to hug him.

“Mom what do I do?” He cried. “It’s not coming out!”

“Who'd… no, it doesn’t matter. Luka stop doing that, it’s not going to come out. It doesn’t, lad.” His mom took his hands from the sink and started to dry them. “It stays no matter how hard ye try to get rid o’ it.” She spoke to him with the rare moment of solemnity. “Ye'e been Branded, and there’s nothin we can do about it.”

“I don’t wanna be Branded!” he wailed.

In a quiet, heated hiss Anarka whispered “This is why I told ye to never write names on yerself!” She looked at her son crying and sighed, shaking her head. Luka would realize later she’d been more disappointed in herself that she’d let him get Branded like he did. She thought she warned him, but how could she blame him for something no one ever thought would happen at 7 years old?

Who finds their soulmate at 7?

But it’d be a shackle for the rest of his life. Luka would grow up wondering if this M would ever be part of his life again, whether M would even want to be his partner. If he did find someone else to be his partner, they’d wonder if they’d ever be loved like whoever this M was. “Here,” Anarka sighed. “Ye can’t get rid of that Luka. But ye can cover it. Forget about it now, lad,” she said gently, taking off the wide leather cuff she had on that had covered her own Brand. “This 'ere’s yers now. I’ll get ye all freshened up. Granpa’s waitin for us,” Anarka said, pasting on a fake smile.

Luka hated that man. He was angry and hateful and mean, but Anarka had wanted to see her own Ma again, to have her Ma help guide Anarka in the raising of two children Anarka never originally planned to have. Granma was nice. But Granpa? No. Luka swore to himself he’d never be like Granpa.

His mom put the cuff around Luka’s Brand, looping twice to fit the small wrist better. “All covered up now. Is that fitting, Luka?” He nodded, staring at the “S” on his mom’s wrist.

“Was… that dad?” Luka asked, pointing at the Brand.

Anarka laughed. “It stands for Scotland,” she said lightly. “It stands for the Sea. It’s not yer da, no,” Anarka lied.

∴

It’d been a few weeks since Marinette met Adrien Agreste.

She’d been convinced Adrien was her True Love, and was continually disappointed every morning when his name disappeared off of her arm. “Tikki, it disappeared again,” Marinette sighed.

Tikki shrugged. “Maybe he’s not ready?” The Kwami had seen this before. The Brands were a form of magic that humans had that linked two souls together, signaling that they’d found their soul’s mate. A person would have to write another’s True Name on themselves somewhere, and it would disappear at sunrise if it wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes, though, it depended on if the other person was even capable of loving back. A Brand that had disappeared earlier might “take” later, when the soulmate was ready.

Tikki wasn’t sure if it was a good thing for Marinette that Adrien wasn’t capable of loving Marinette back yet. Maybe Adrien had a different name? The kwami wasn’t going to put forth the suggestion that it might not be Adrien at all. Marinette seemed convinced, and Tikki knew better than to doubt her bearers.

Marinette’s parents proudly wore the names they had on their arms, a very simple “Tom” on Sabine’s wrist and a beautifully formed script of “Sabine” scrawled across Tom’s massive forearm. Of course it simply encouraged Marinette into writing several names on her own arms throughout the years, even if most people found writing names on themselves taboo.

Recently, though, it’d just been Adrien’s.

None of the attempts ever stuck.

“It’ll happen one day!” Tikki said cheerfully. “I believe that you’ll find your soulmate one day. But right now you should get ready for school!”

∴

It’d been a few months after Juleka showed him that the picture curse was broken that he met the girl that’d been able to break it.

“I’m Ma-ma-ma-Marinette!”

He’d laughed a little and it hurt her feelings. Good job, Luka, that was a great first impression. Luckily he was able to apologize and smooth it over.

It tickled him, just a little bit, that he’d met another “M” in his life that he actually ended up liking. He ended up liking her a whole lot, which… ultimately kinda sucked because she’d been interested in someone else. Well, that was alright. He’d been used to the idea that he’d never find “the one” since he technically already had and lost them so many years ago.

But this one? This “M”? She was pretty cool and he found himself more interested than he’d ever been in anyone before.

There’d been one other “M” in his life a couple of years ago before his mom decided to move them all back to France, and Paris in particular. Her name had been Meryl and she was a pretty awesome girl, but she’d been several years older and already in University. She’d still given Luka some attention though, apparently finding it cute that she had a boy doting on her like he did. She was nice and she said he’d look good with some blue in his hair, and it’d been the last thing she said to him before she found herself her own soulmate. It hadn’t been Luka, of course.

He’d gotten into a fight with Granpa over his hair after Luka had dyed it. Juleka joined him by dying her hair purple. Anarka had finally had enough of her and her kids being put down and said she was going to go back “home”. It’d been a hard conversation with Granpa, but after Granma had passed Anarka and her kids had little reason to stick around in their Scottish family house. Anarka’s little wildlings were less little, and Juleka and Luka were both in their tweens to teens, largely old enough to handle themselves now.

Anarka had found some nearly-derelict fishing barge and spent a few weeks with her kids fixing up the ship, making it their new house, and they left Scotland as soon as they could. She sailed the newly christened Liberty back into Parisian waters, claiming the Seine as her new home. She gave a little wink to Luka, a nod to the new “S” in Anarka’s life that her Brand now represented.

It’d been good to see his mom coming back into her old self, the wild, chaotic, free spirit that she’d always been. He was no longer embarrassed of her like he’d been so many years ago. And he had to be honest to himself, the boat wasn’t the first choice he’d make in having a place to come home to, but something about Paris just felt right.

Juleka had been feeling better too. The younger Couffaines had been under their Granpa’s oppressive shadow for too long. And now they were slowly discovering more of themselves over time.

Rose was one of the first friends Juleka had made after coming back to Paris a few years ago, and they were “best friends” since. Today, Juleka showed him a neatly written “Rose” in a flourishing script on the back of her right hand. Juleka apparently hadn’t minded getting the Brand at all. “Marinette did this too,” Juleka smiled. “She’s been drawing names for people who ask. It’s so cool,” Juleka mumbled.

“She’s amazing,” Luka said out loud. Jules gave him a look and even he couldn’t figure out what it meant. “What?”

“She’s got eyes on Adrien, you know.”

“I’ve heard your schemes, I know.”

“I’m on team Adrienette.”

“Alright.”

“She deserves to be happy.”

“Sounds good.”

“It’d be weird if you two dated, anyway.”

“But we’re not dating. She doesn’t seem to notice me.”

Jules frowned at that and grumbled something that sounded to Luka like “she notices and it’s weird.”

He thought to himself, Not where it matters.

∴

It’d been a year since Adrien lost his mother, and Marinette finally said the words “I love you” to him.

Yes, it was a video recording and yes, Felix had apparently gone through and deleted it before Adrien ever got to see it, but she’d done it! She’d done the thing! She could do it again! It had to be easier the second time, right? The second… time.

She couldn’t bring herself to do it. It’d been nearly a full year of her attempting Adrien’s name on her arm, and nothing changed. She’d stayed up and watched it fade out when the sunlight hit it during a few fitful mornings. She wrote his name so often it stopped looking like a word and more like a familiar pattern. Just shapes and no meaning.

Marinette had tried out a few different names over the year as well, just so she’d be certain… in a slightly unsettling way. She kept it discreet, writing on her ankle or in another place easy to cover up in case it was… taking. She’d written “Nathaniel”, once. It disappeared. She’d written “Chat Noir” and nearly sighed in relief (and maybe deep down in slight surprise) when it disappeared. Not that it was his real name anyway.

She’d secretly tried “Nino” once, even though he and Alya had gotten together. It hadn’t stuck. Nino and Alya hadn’t asked for Marinette to write each other’s names down, and maybe… maybe that was actually healthy? Like they didn’t need any external validation in order to really enjoy time spent with each other.

There might have been a lesson in that.

She tried “Kim” and “Wayhem” and “Theo”, even though the last one kinda creeped her out a bit. She tried “Kagami.” Nothing stuck.

There was still one name she hadn’t tried but… but she’d been absolutely terrified of it. Luka had more or less admitted to the world at large that he loved her after he’d gotten akumatized. There’d been genuine affection that was unfiltered, unbiased, uninfluenced by whatever the magic was that made names stay on people. He didn’t seem to mind that she was so, so into Adrien. Even if she wasn’t his soulmate, he’d love her.

S-So she’d be able to do that for Adrien! Yes, that made sense. Yes, that soulmate stuff was all kid fantasy anyway. Even if it was demonstratively real.

But if Adrien found his soulmate and it wasn’t Marinette… what was she supposed to do? Just step out of the way?

∴

It’d been a decade since Marinette and Luka first met except neither remembered that first time when they were young children, even if they’d been in the same place: the park nearby the bakery.

He’d held onto her as she broke down crying about the heartbreak and how tired she was. Luka told her he’d listen and be there and hadn’t lied about any of it. It was why she chose to sit next to him after letting her infatuation go and stepping out of the way for Kagami, watching Adrien and Kagami have their Sweetheart’s ice cream together like it was always meant to be Adrien and Kagami instead of Adrien and Marinette.

Marinette chose to sit next to Luka instead of going home.

She went to bed that night deciding that the whole names and soulmates and True Love thing was just a big huge distraction from what she really needed to focus on, which was getting through school, defeating Hawkmoth, and getting her name out there as an up and coming Fashion Designer!

It lasted all of 3 days until she finally gave into her curiosity and wrote an L in the crook of her left arm before going to bed. She really had meant to write out the rest of his name, but then her phone buzzed and there’d been an akuma alert. She sighed and rolled into action.

Her Lucky Charm gave her a guitar pick. That was a little too on-the-nose, Tikki? Ladybug zipped over to the Liberty, somehow not surprised that Luka was still up and leaning against the Liberty to overlook the Seine, looking cool and thoughtful. Actually, scratch that. He looked a little haggard and worried, and he’d been expecting to see Ladybug. Well, at least it meant she didn’t have to go in and wake him up.

“… you must return the Miraculous after…” Ladybug trailed off, noticing as Luka reached out to take the bracelet that he hadn’t been wearing any of the normal… accessories he chose to wear most of the time, most notably the leather cuff he usually had on. Something bothered her and she caught his hand before he touched the bracelet. She turned his right hand over and looked at the pen mark on his wrist. “Is that an M or an E?”

Luka pulled back his hand immediately, embarrassed. “An… M,” he said reluctantly.

Then Ladybug remembered it’d been incredibly rude of her to ask. “Oh, I’m so sorry I-I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It's… been 10 years since I got that, I don’t even remember much about it,” he shrugged.

Ladybug smiled, biting back a sudden urge to scream, and offered Luka the snake Miraculous again. “If you agree… I’d like your help, Luka.”

Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Viperion were able to save the night and have everyone able to go to bed on time. She picked the Miraculous back up from Viperion, who seemed to be confused the akuma victim wasn’t who he’d expected it to be. “Anything wrong, Luka?”

“No… no, I’m glad I was able to help. I’m okay,” he said, clearly still a bit frazzled. Ladybug furrowed her eyebrows at him and he eventually sighed. “I guess I’m worried about a… friend. She’d been going through a lot so I’d been… I’d been waiting to see if she’d either call me or… or God, I don’t know,” he laughed, a little bit in disbelief. “I almost thought she’d been akumatized tonight. I’m so glad it wasn’t her. But it kinda makes me feel like crap for even thinking that.”

“It’s kind to be worried about your friend. W-Which friend by the way?” Ladybug asked. “I could pay her a visit if you’d like?”

“I don’t know if she’d appreciate that, actually,” he sighed. “She can kill me later if she wants, but yeah it’d be great if you’d check up on her. It’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Instead of being worried that Luka was worried over her, she asked “Is she your M?” Ladybug got blindsided by her own question, but she only felt the impact and implication after she asked it. “Oh no, no, I’m so sorry I’ve been so rude.”

He blew out a breath. “I wish,” he mumbled. “I don’t know,” he said, his tiredness making him slightly more obvious about being miserable. “I guess I could know for sure by writing out her name.” That was said like he had been convinced it’d disappear…

“I’m pretty good at writing out names. If you want I could write… the rest of her name out on your arm?” Ladybug offered impulsively.

“… Sure,” he agreed. He watched her as she grabbed a nearby marker and wrote out Marinette on his arm. “Wow, that… looks pretty dead on to her signature.”

“Pfft,” Ladybug laughed. “That’d be the worst identity reveal ever. Marinette’s signed a few things for me too, I’ll have you know.”

“You might have a future in crime with your forging skills if you ever decide to stop being a hero,” Luka chuckled.

“I’ll stick to saving Paris, don’t worry,” Ladybug giggled. “You do have to write over it yourself if you want it to stay. I mean… if she is… you know…”

Luka nodded. “I know. Probably a long shot. Thanks,” he said.

“I’ll check up on her. Thank you for caring, Luka,” Ladybug smiled. “And you know, I’ve got a good feeling about this one,” she said quietly, biting her lip while tapping his arm. “I’ll be off. Have a good night, 'Bug out!”

Ladybug landed in her bed and detransformed. Tikki floated back to her little nesting spot while the kwami watched Marinette pull out her phone.

hey luka just got a visit from LB! thanks for thinking of me

Marinette looked down into the crook of her arm, grabbing a marker and filling out the rest of Luka’s name. She’d recognized that M on his arm.

Had it really been 10 years when she first met him? It was kind of funny that she didn’t remember until now. He hadn’t given his name back then but she remembered the disappointment the next day when her new friend didn’t show.

Had it really been a whole year of writing… the wrong name on herself?

It’d been months since Luka told her she’d been the melody in his head. Months.

And she had spent a week in heartbreak over the wrong boy.

It’d just been a few days since she decided she was going to let Adrien go. And she found her soulmate after that? How lucky was she? Marinette looked up at the sleeping Tikki and squinted suspiciously. Maybe she was Lucky™, except that she had apparently met Luka when she was 5.

Marinette stared at her phone, watching the minutes go by. She wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight.

The sun rose after an agonizingly boring time of rolling back and forth in her bed, too excited to go to sleep but too tired to do anything productive. She kept checking the name on her arm and it’d still been there all throughout the night, but now at first light… she was… scared. She closed her eyes and covered her head with her pillow, half dreading what she’d see if she looked down at her left arm where she wrote his name.

“It’ll be there,” she said to herself, feeling more certain of that than anything. The warmth of sunlight hit her left arm. She lifted the pillow off of her face but kept her eyes closed. Slowly she opened one eye.

His name was still there. “It’s you,” she whispered, feeling the tears fall from her eyes.

She launched herself out of bed, turning into a little hurricane of activity. She threw her jacket on and ran downstairs, kissing her Maman and Papa on the cheek and telling them she’d be out for a while. They’d been too surprised to see her up at the crack of dawn to complain much, just insisting that she take her phone with her and that she wear proper shoes.

She ran down to the subway entrance and guessed the nearest station where Liberty would be moored, taking the subway train there. She emerged from an entrance about 10 minutes later, ignoring the confused looks the other commuters shot her since she’d been a mess of pigtails and pajamas. She ran toward the Liberty, climbed up and leapt over the railing onto the ship when she saw that the gangplank wasn’t extended.

“Marinette!” she heard Luka’s alarmed shout. She knew he’d be up. She knew it! He ran over to her. “What the heck–” He’d been wearing a different hoodie, a long sleeved one that covered up both his arms. She frowned at him, noticing the dark circles under his eyes.

“You’re up early,” she said.

“S-So are you! And you’re-you’re here? What’s wrong?” His voice had dropped from a high pitched panic to his deeper, concerned tone in the span of two words.

She took off her jacket and extended her left arm. She saw him flush but start pulling up his hoodie from the hem, taking it off and tossing it aside. He turned his right palm up to show her the name written across his forearm.

Their names had stayed. He breathed out. “Did Ladyb–” She cut him off, her hands on either side of his face to pull him down, planting a kiss on his lips. They pulled back a second after, looking at one another in surprise.

“It’s you,” she said, resting her forehead against his shoulder. To be honest she’d been embarrassed that she’d just kissed him in the disheveled state she was in, having left to see him as soon as she got out of bed, but she felt giddy and… right.

He pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her to hug her tight. “And… it’s you.”