#i know i almost never really talk about miraculous here so it might come as a surprise

[aaronwarner]

little anti miraculous rant here, sorry

So, we all know by now (S5) that Adrien is a sentimonster. That’s no secret. And the fans that were so intent on theorizing this for years must be so happy to say “told you so”, but... can we talk about how much bullshit all of this is?? Because it IS bullshit. With the logic presented throughout the latest seasons about the sentimonsters, it retcons the adrien/felix sentimonster fact and just makes for a shitty reveal that doesn’t make sense. And people defending this, calling it a “good plot twist” just-- *starts laughing hard and loud*

[t4tlottie]

hot to go! — RHIANNON LEWIS

— pairing: pregnant!rhiannon lewis x afab!reader

includes smut. repost. just thinking about pregnant rhiannon again. based on the books.

thinking about pregnant!rhiannon who always goes to the little shops along the seaside and pretends like she's gonna buy something just to get away from jim and elaine. god bless them but sometimes they just get too doting and it's annoying.

and good god is she ever horny. even the goddamn carrot jim cuts up for dinner gets her horny. she just needs something inside of her now or she might die. she's resorted to flirting with the mailman in hopes of getting some but she thinks her visible bump is getting in the way.

but, she does notice this cute grocery bagger who always stares at her tits when they check her out (that's you btw). she absolutely relishes in the attention. at first, she thought you might've had a pregnancy kink because no one in their right mind would ogle her body in this state. i mean, she's got dozens of pimples lining her face, her nipples look like they belong on a pepperoni pizza, she's gained about 10 pounds and she's given up on makeup. there must be something wrong with you.

at this point, she doesn't care. you seem to check all the boxes for her. she knows you're above the legal age (she overheard you talking about college classes with your manager, something about rescheduling for next week) and that's all she needs to know before she pounces on you.

she makes her move the following day.

she wore her brightest and tightest white shirt with no bra that day. it's tight enough that it turns into a crop top and shows off her growing belly along with her constantly hard nipples, something she thinks you'll appreciate. she strolls in, heading straight towards the register she knows you always work at and frowns when you're not there. ugh, time looking for you equals less time fucking. now she's pissed at you. she feels something throbbing down there still...

she decides to grab a cart and do some light shopping. maybe you'll miraculously appear like you always do and come save the day by eating her out in the middle of the dairy aisle. god, she can feel her wetness squelch as she walks just from thinking about you. she wonders what the fine would be for public masturbation. she seriously considers it.

like superman, you appear just as she almost gives up and tries again tomorrow. you walk out of the back and head towards your register, turning your light on. score. she leaves the half-empty cart full of random shit she dragged in and practically jogs toward you. baby didn't like that. she halts, the sound of her sneakers making a loud squeaking sound as she grabs her stomach in pain. this little fucker kicks really hard, dammit.

you look toward the noise and see her; the woman of your dreams. she's been coming in for a few weeks now. you've never seen her here before, and you practically know all the townspeople by name. you have developed a tiny crush. okay, maybe tiny is an understatement. it's a massive crush. you don't know if she has awoken something inside of you, but you've never liked the body of a pregnant woman like you have hers. she's so beautiful. she's creating and holding life inside of her and okay, you know what, maybe you do love her tits and her hard nipples that you always notice through her shirt more than anything. and god, when she wears her hair in a ponytail? you'd get down on your knees in an instant for her if there weren't a dozen security cameras around.

you can't think about that right now though, there's a pregnant woman in pain!

you rush toward her, standing awkwardly with your hands hovering over her arms. "shit, uh, are you okay? do you need me to call someone?" you watch her exhale shakily and wonder if you're about to help this woman give birth right now. you're only an hour into your shift, you can't do this shit. "do you need to sit down?"

she nods, letting you lead her over to a bench near the front area, sitting her down and still, awkwardly hovering over her. don't stare at her chest, don't stare at her chest, don't stare at her chest. you check your phone while she calms down and blush and chuckle at her attempts to flirt with you.

"i guess the baby really likes you. so do i."

or

"are you talking to me or my breasts? because i don't mind either one."

you really need to work on your eye contact.

"i'm okay now. she was just kicking like crazy in there," she tells you. she still feels a bit lightheaded, but she's unsure if it's because of the kicks or because she's sitting so close and can practically feel the hormones wafting off of you. "i was actually looking for you."

"you were? what for?" you ask, turning your body to face her, quickly glancing at her exposed midriff.

"i was going to drag you out to my car and ride your face but i couldn't find you." her face is completely blank as she says this. she almost breaks and laughs when she hears you choke on your spit, but just gives you a raise of her eyebrows and tilts her head. "I'm serious."

you swallow hard and can't even open your mouth to say, "yes! fucking hell, yes! take me out to your car and have your way with me! i love you!" so you do the next best thing which is to make an embarrassingly whiny noise from the back of your throat and nod.

so here you are, getting situated in the back of rhiannon's truck as she lies you down and peels off her clothes. it's uncomfortable as hell, but you're not about to say anything and potentially ruin this for yourself. you sit up on your arms and watch her perky breasts bounce as she kicks off her jeans and underwear, your eyes locked in a trance. you're suddenly pushed back down and grunt at the force, smiling a bit at her eagerness.

"ready?" she places her legs on either side of your body and scoots her way up. your breath quickens as you see her pussy get closer and closer to you, and jesus fuck, you nearly cum on the spot when a drop of her wetness dribbles down and hits your chin. before you can even answer her, she slams her cunt onto your face and begins riding. "oh my god." she gasps, nails digging into the car seat and scratching it up.

you moan into her delicious pussy, licking up every last drop of her wetness like you're starving. you reach up and blindly grab for her chest, gripping onto her tits like they're your lifeline. rhiannon purrs when you begin massaging them, grinding her pussy down harder into your face and bouncing on your tongue. you flick and tug at her huge nipples, brows furrowing slightly when you feel some liquid come out of them.

"that's never happened before," she pants, eyes fluttering from the feeling. "but, fuck, keep doing it." she doesn't give you a choice either way, her hands come up and keep your hands on her chest, rubbing them with you.

"i might have to take you back to my house," she says breathlessly, head tilted back as moans spill from her mouth. "keep you locked up in the basement and only use you when i need to get off. bet you'd like that wouldn't you?"

you whimper in response, nodding your head against her pussy and pulling her even deeper into your mouth. you feel her clench around your tongue and grin. opening your eyes slightly, you get a faceful of her belly but you can see her sweaty face above it, drool all over her chin, and eyes shut in pleasure.

as if she can sense you, she opens her eyes and looks down.

"make me cum and i'll take you back home."

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Character Driven vs. Plot Driven

I had someone message me asking what these terms meant and which Miraculous was and if it explained the writing, especially in context of the ending of season five and that's not something I can answer in a quick reply, so you all get a post instead!

Intro

At first glance, “character driven” and “plot driven” are somewhat confusing terms because almost every story has characters making choices that make things happen and almost every story has some kind of plot that's driving the action, so what do these terms even mean? Why do we use them?

The answer is that we generally don’t? These are high-level categorizations that I’ve almost exclusively seen talked about in things like writing classes where the instructor is trying to help you figure out your style preferences or perhaps painting a genre in broad strokes. I rarely see these terms come up when discussing specific works because they’re not that useful in the mirco. They never excuse or explain writing choices the way something like genre might because genre is a meaningful category and these really aren't. They're too vauge.

Also, as with many such binary categorizations, there’s a spectrum here. On one side is pure plot-driven and on the other is pure character-driven and in between them are most of the stories you'll consume in your life. In spite of that minor issue, I am going to start by defining what these two terms mean at their most extremes because that is relevant to the discussion. We’ll then use Miraculous to get into the nuance of the spectrum.

Character Driven

Character-driven narratives are stories that focus heavily on characters doing – or not doing – things because of their unique personalities, thoughts, and feelings. Stories where the events unfold almost entirely because of who the characters are and what very personal choices they make. Switch the characters and the story would look wildly different or even not exist at all.

When I think of pure character-driven works, I generally think of coming-of-age stories where there’s almost no plot to speak of. It’s just a teenage character struggling with life and learning to accept it. Character studies are another good example.

Plot Driven

Plot-driven narratives are stories that you're engaging with for something other than the characters. The characters are just set pieces that are there to be used by the plot. This means that the characters are probably making choice, but we’re not going to focus on the deep, nuanced reasons for those choices. Change the characters and the choices remain the same because the story is focused on something beyond the characters.

When I think of pure plot-driven stories, I think of stereotypical action movies. Movies where the villain is throwing things at the hero and the hero is overcoming them as fast as they can and so much is happening that you barely even know who these characters are because you're not here for the characters. You're here for the action, so it's fine if the characters are pretty generic. Mystery stories also tend to fit this category as those are often just about the mystery and the characters that aren’t developed beyond what is needed for the puzzle to work.

Nuance

So which is Miraculous?

If we must pick a side, then it’s going to be plot driven because that is Miraculous’ main writing style. It’s not here to study the characters and let them drive the action. It’s here to entertain kids in 20-minute-long chunks where the kids don’t need to know the greater context of who the characters are in order to get what is going on. Pick a random episode and it’s probably going to be one where a random akuma shows up and where everything that happens will never come up again. That is not what character-driven narratives look like. This is not a show brimming with things like Chat Blanc and the season five final. Those are exceptions to the rule.

However, the existence of those episodes and the fact that some of the characters aren't interchangeable shows that this isn’t a purely plot-driven show. The writers do want the characters to effect the world in unique ways decided by their personalities and motivations and relationships. Those are character-driven elements and is why these categories are kind of meaningless in this context. Plot driven vs character driven doesn’t justify or explain Miraculous’ writing choices because many of the writing choices make no sense in either type of story!

Narratives that are mainly plot-driven are not narratives plagued by poor characterization. They’re just ones where the characterization elements aren’t the main focus. You still want your characters to feel authentic and make sense and you can even have moments where the action is effected by who the characters are because plot-driven isn’t some hard rule. As I said at the start, it’s just a general categorization! Genre and format are infinitely more limiting and worthy of discussion because they actually come with some pretty clear rules.

Dunking on Miraculous

The problem with Miraculous is not that the plot is the main driving force of the action. The problem is that characters often make no sense! They act widely out of character for the sake of dragging out the plot, which is the plot driving the narrative, but that doesn’t make it good writing! “Because plot” is not an excuse, it’s just an explanation. In fact, because the show so often ignores the characters’ personalities for the sake dragging out the plot, it actually undermines the entire story because it feels cheap when the story tries to use the characters’ personalities to justify further delays Oh, now you’re letting this matter? Really? How nice. F-off.

Here are some examples of what I mean about the plot-driven nature of the show making inauthentic characters:

Alya is obsessed with finding out everything she can about the miraculous and even becomes a full-time team member in season four with the explicit job of tracking down the butterfly and the peacock, but she never does anything meaningful in that role. We never see her trying to track down the villains even though her character would absolutely do that. Her lack of action is wildly inauthentic.

Gabriel and Nathalie learn all of the temp heroes identities at the end of season three and make two minor efforts to do something with that information that before letting their god-tier knowledge fizzle to nothing even though those same temp heroes never stop being used. This is out of character for both of them, especially Nathalie. In a story that was true to its characters, this would have meaningful consequences such as all the temp heroes having to be benched and/or the villains guessing that Ladybug is someone who knows these people since they have some obvious connections.

The secret identities are the only reason Ladybug lost all of the miraculous at the end of season four and Adrien knows this. The season also ends with Ladybug promising to trust him more and the next season opens on an episode where she does just that. In spite of this, Adrien never even tries to tell her about the secret identity thing and Ladybug never seems to become more open with her partner because, if the show did those things, then an identity reveal would happen and they can't let that happen so, once again, plot trumps characterization.

When a show is plagued by asinine choices such as these while also trying to claim it has these overarching plots and meaningful character beats, the story can come to feel disingenuous and frustrating to a lot of fans. That’s why we can get something as divisive as the season five ending. Because of the poor writing that lead up to that final, it’s hitting different people in different ways depending on how tolerant they are of a lot of the shows previous flaws.

Would it be hard for Marinette to tell Adrien the truth? Sure! That struggle is - in theory - a genuinely good character beat, but it falls flat for many because it comes after multiple seasons of forced, inauthentic delaying tactics that spat in the face of established characterization for basically every meaningful character. With those in mind, it’s hard to view the secret keeping as some authentic, meaningful choice for Marinette’s character when she and many others have been denied so many other authentic, meaningful choices.

This is extra true because her choice to keep both Adrien and Chat Noir in the dark just compounds the issue of the authentic growth that Marinette has been denied! I briefly touched on this in that last example in my list, but we just spent an entire season watching her and Chat Noir maintain their distance in spite of that being something that should have changed based on the character-based events of the last season. Remember, season four gave us this moment in Penalteam:

Ladybug: (looks around them and frowns) I'm sorry, I've been a bad captain. I played a solo game, I forgot we're a team. I'm gonna need all of you now, more than ever. Rooster Bold: Are you sure? I'm not really.. Ladybug: You're an excellent player, Rooster Bold. That's why I chose you. That's why I chose all of you! Let's play together, and bring all of our individual strengths together onto the field!

And this moment in the final, which is the two-part episode directly after Penalteam:

Ladybug: Why don't you just give up on me? I've lost ALL the Miraculous! I'm the worst Guardian EVER! I wanted to control everything, I didn't listen to you, I lied to you, I kept you at a distance! Every time you offered me a helping hand, I never took it! I really made a mess of EVERYTHING! (continues sobbing)

We are, as always, going to ignore that these things don't really match the story that season four told and instead take them at face value since this is the stated lesson. The viewers are being directly told that Ladybug went into season five having learned to trust others and stop keeping Chat Noir at a distance.

But did she? What actually changed in season five? I can't think of anything. Season five maintained all of the secrets and ended by adding new ones. We also had to suffer through Marinette doing absolutely nothing to try to find the missing kwamis even though that is wildly inauthentic to her character. Once that girl has a problem to solve, she obsesses over it! It's one of the few things that consistently gets her acting normal around Adrien, so why did her brain shut off and go full-Adrien for all of season five?

Add in the fact that a major plot of season five was outing Lila's lies and lies being bad and Marinette keeping this secret falls incredibly flat both plot-wise and character-wise. There's a reason that one of the main justification people use for the lie is a scarf from season one that we have literally never seen again and that Marinette never actually lied about. The show simply did not set itself up to make Marinette's lie feel like some authentic character beat. The best justification most people can give is that a 14-year-old would probably struggle to reveal this secret.

To be fair, that is a believable justification. That's believability is why the season five ending could have genuinely worked in a better show where the characters felt more authentic or even if it came much earlier in the story. If this was the season two ending, then I think that most people would be engaged by it and I’d probably even be defending Marinette’s actions because this is a massive thing to put on someone’s shoulders and she was early in her journey. Heck, I have defended her actions by pointing out that she was the last-informed of the group of people in the know and none of them are telling Adrien, so this is not all on her.

But that's the best I can do while being authentic to the story because this lie isn’t part of a story with authentic characters. Marinette has not been set up to lie like this and the lie is being told at the end of a season full of poor storytelling after multiple seasons of stalling tactics, making it impossible to take this lie seriously. Even if Miraculous was a primarily character-driven show, you can’t use that to justify the lie while ignoring all the poor characterization that surrounds it. The writers gave Marinette the kind of journey that should lead to her being brave enough to tell the truth, not the kind of journey where she was too much of a coward to tell the truth. The writing also never set up Nathalie or Kagami as the kind of people who would just bow to Marinette's wishes. It is glaringly obvious that this is all happening as a delaying tactic and not because it's a good choice for the characters or the plot.

[justmemethings]

𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐏𝐆-𝟏𝟑 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒

Random general RP prompts, without cursing, requested by anon. Feel free to edit pronouns / etc. to make them more fitting !

“Oh my god, what is that !?”

“You should have seen them. I could hardly breathe with their ego taking up all the space in the room.”

“Hey, hey, stop. I literally have no idea of what you're talking about. How about you start from the beginning? Or at least put a subject in your sentences.”

“C'mon, who never had a ‘spaghetti coming out of the nose’ moment?”

“You insufferable...piece of...rotten lemon pie!”

“Do as I say and not as I do. For real, though. You don't want to do what I do. I don't want to do what I do.”

“I thought I’d never set foot in a place like this, but here we are. Congratulations on making my life a little more miserable.”

“Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. I might as well be talking to myself. I surely listen more to myself than you do.”

“Keep up the cocky act, it’ll only make you lose faster.”

“From where I’m standing, you’re the one who should be worrying.”

“Give me some credit. I know that I’m not a good person, but I like thinking that I can be a decent friend.”

“The only thing I trust humans with is dying when you shoot them.”

“How can you be vulnerable with someone who has shut you out over and over?”

“Yeah, not buying it. What is it that you truly want?”

“You know, now I have to challenge you at a drinking game.”

“Absolutely not. Don’t even think about it.”

“...Maybe I just need a real break.”

“I’d say that it’s nice to meet you, but maybe the circumstances could have been more…ideal.”

“You can’t be serious! Don’t you see what’s at stake here?!”

“Oh Lord, you gotta be kidding me. This will take forever.”

“Have you tried telling them that? It’s easy to forget that not everyone grieves in the same way.”

“Look at you, showing some actual good taste. I’m almost impressed.”

“Let’s skip over you judging me and talk business. Will you or won’t you?”

“Don’t get funny ideas. I’m just choosing the lesser evil.”

“Oh yeah? So, what? Are you saying that my problems will miraculously fix themselves, if I talk about them?”

“Let’s bet on it. The winner gets to make the loser do one thing. Whatever they want, no limits.”

“You must be really bored if this is how you chose to spend your night.”

“Patience, [name]. I thought you liked surprises.”

“I really wouldn't do that, if I were you.”

“Anything you’d like to say to plead your case?”

[actual-changeling]

He asks him exactly once.

Some months after the world almost ended, Crowley still smells smoke and tastes fire whenever he first enters the bookshop, and so every single time he stays into the evening, he gets drunk. It's not the ideal way of dealing with it, but it works, and, really, it's not going to last forever.

(Right?)

Either way, it's past midnight and he's absolutely shitfaced. Aziraphale pulled out the good whiskey around eleven, and while he is still nursing his second glass, Crowley has lost count of how many times he has topped off his. Looking back, it is hard to tell why that evening, why that question at that time - not that it matters much.

The room is spinning, he is less than artfully sprawled across the sofa and only held in place by a stern look Aziraphale had leveled at the cushions at some point; they wouldn't dare to let him slide off.

"Stars, angel," he says, responding to... something, surely.

"The whole bloody sky 's full of 'em, but you only see such a tiny teeny sparkling sparkle."

Pushing himself a bit more upright so he can face Aziraphale in his armchair, the liquid sloshing dangerously, Crowley impatiently waits for a response, flopping onto his back when he doesn't receive one within seconds.

"Y'know, 's all so pointless, innit?"

Even with his gaze tracing colourful swirling lines on the ceiling, he knows exactly what kind of frown falls onto Aziraphale's face, half worried and half thoughtful. Distantly, emptying his glass and miraculously not choking, he wonders what his concerned little pout would taste like.

"Maybe we're simply not supposed to know the point, my dear, the-"

"The Almighty 's not here, angel, She doesn't care 'bout my stars."

His interruption ends on a sigh, a puffy exhale laced with the first sparks of millennia old angry frustration, and his mind is jumping between centuries and memories alike, leaving him uncomfortably dizzy.

"D'you think," Crowley begins, his voice oddly steady, "She's still- does She care 'bout me?"

If he were fractionally less drunk, he would have sobered up before the words slipped past his lips, but he isn't, and he doesn't. Regret comes all the same, immediately and forcefully enough to punch the air out of his lungs. Home, he needs to go home, needs to take the question back, needs to run before the pity undoubtedly radiating from Aziraphale hits him. His limbs are dipped in honey, unresponsive to his commands, and he screws his eyes shut just long enough to get rid of the worst of the vertigo.

He does not know the answer nor which answer he wants to hear, and yet he has whispered the question to the stars countless times, receiving nothing but cold silence.

(I still love you, he wants to tell her, sometimes, hoping that maybe-

You made me and I still talk to you and you're my Mother, you're the heat burning in my the stars, you're watching us, me and him, and you have yet to punish us him)

With considerable effort, he pulls himself upright with one hand gripping the backrest, dropping his empty glass onto the floor and swinging his legs down next to it. His vision is a blurry haze, his mind too heavy to fully comprehend the panic raging behind it, and a familiar rush of blood in his ears is drowning out Aziraphale muttering in concern.

"Sorry, 'm leaving. See you t'morrow, angel."

"Crowley-"

Making it to the Bentley with nothing but a twisted miracle, he shakes off Aziraphale's fluttering hands, and falls into the driver's seat; she knows where to go, whether he's actually driving her or not. Loneliness seeps into his bones while the engine cools, and he forbids himself from thinking about the response Aziraphale might have given him if he had stayed.

The stars above London are distant and quiet like they always are, and not for the first time, Crowley accepts the silence as the answer it is.

(He asks the sky again three weeks later, he never did know when to stop with the questions.)

(Deep down, he thinks knows hopes if he just keeps asking, eventually She will answer; he hates Her almost as much as he misses Her.)

(Almost)

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Transmission and Deflagration (The Kwamis' Choice)

Well, it only took until almost halfway through the fifth season, but we're finally getting a two-part episode that isn't a season finale. There have been a few episodes I think could have benefited from having an extra part, like “Cat Blanc”. So obviously, after all this time, there has to be a reason for putting a two-parter here. The story told here has to be big. It has to be huge. It has to be something that will alter the very way we see the plot and these characters, and—it's more Love Square stuff. God dammit...

Let's get into the tenth and eleventh episodes of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Transmission and Deflagration

“Transmission” starts with Marinette having another depressive episode, which seems to be worse than usual, with her offering her Miraculous to Tikki so she can choose someone else. While Tikki tries to remind her of all the good she's done as Ladybug as footage from earlier episodes plays, Marinette points out how she's a terrible Ladybug, once again referencing how she lost the Miraculous because of her feelings for Adrien.

Tikki: You’re overreacting, Marinette!

Marinette: Really? Then, how come I lost the Miraculous I was entrusted with all because of love? Love only ever causes problems. I’ll never fall in love again! Love is weak! And I can’t be sad about it; otherwise, I might get akumatized!

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. We're ten episodes into the season, and whenever Marinette brings up her failure at the end of the last season, it's the same song and dance: She feels guilty about it, she needs someone to try and make her feel better, and she doesn't change anything about the way she and Cat Noir operate. If it isn't that, it's a complete strawman or character who we know already hates Ladybug like Chloe or Lila calling out Marinette for her failure specifically so any negative feedback she gets can be easily brushed aside. The whole point of a hero having to comprehend a major failure is to see how they deal with the consequences to their actions and find a way to improve to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. If Marinette came up with new ways to strategize with Cat Noir, or seriously reevaluate the way she sees Adrien that isn't just brushed aside, I'd get it. Instead, all she does is whine about how much her life sucks over and over, which is the same problem I've had with Adrien for the past few seasons.

And once again, for a show with the lyrics “The power of love always so strong” in its opening, it seems like the writers want to make a bigger point in favor of showing how love can only ruin things. Yes, getting emotional can cause someone to make more impulsive decisions, but at the same time, feelings of love and kindness can get good results, like Ellen Ripley's maternal instincts motivating her to save Newt in Aliens. The problem is that we never get a lot of arguments as to how love can benefit the heroes, not only when we see how much it screws up Ladybug and Cat Noir's partnership, but once again, how Marinette's romantic feelings for someone led to her greatest failure. The closest we get to an argument in favor of love is whenever Marinette and Adrien's friends try to make their OTP come together without considering if it would actually make things better or not.

Speaking of which, after the episode's obligatory pointless Chloe line that's only there so Selah Victor can pay her rent that week, Ms. Bustier asks Alya to deliver Marinette's homework to her, only for Nino to convince her to have Adrien do it instead. Somehow, she thinks this minor favor will help Marinette and Adrien realize their true feelings for each other. Because it's not like Alya learned that she shouldn't choose who she thinks Marinette would be best with last episode, right?

Marinette and Adrien talk and it seems like they're starting to grow a little closer, but Tikki and Plagg panic, trying to intervene so they don't know each other's identities. The attempt fails, but Marinette kicks Adrien out anyway. It's a pretty somber scene, so let's cut to something stupid instead, like Marinette and Adrien's classmates throwing a party under the assumption that Adrien simply delivering something to Marinette means they'll get together now.

All of you are really gunning for the Biggest Idiot Award today, aren't you?

Of course, even though she went along with one of these weird “force Marinette to do something she doesn't want to” schemes before in “Crocoduel”, Zoe seems to be the only one with a smidgen of common sense.

Zoe: Alya, did you hear Marinette’s voicemail message?

Alya: Yeah, but that was before, Zoe.

Zoe: “Before”? Before what?

Alya: Before when Marinette was a complete wreck.

Nino: But Alya sends her the perfect mechanic.

Alya: Adrien!

Nino: He’s fixing her up as we speak.

Rose: Wow! When they come back to school, they’ll finally be an item!

Marc: A perfect plan!

Zoe: But... you guys don’t actually know for sure.

Alya: Trust me. This is it this time!

I'm starting to think that maybe Marinette should reconsider who she chooses to be temp heroes once she gets the Miraculous back.

Adrien starts crying as he leaves Marinette's place, which attracts the attention of Monarch... who then immediately backs out as soon as he senses him, transforming back into Gabriel. Meanwhile, Tikki and Plagg discuss Marinette and Adrien's situation.

Plagg: Sugarcube! Having to force them to choose between love and their mission is just awful! Maybe Master Fu was wrong to choose them.

Tikki: No, they’re made for each other. Love is what gives them their strength.

Plagg: But the impossible part of that love is destroying them, and I know a thing or two about destruction.

Tikki: (sighs heavily) What can we do?

Plagg: We must free them of that impossible choice. We must... free them of us.

Yep. This is the titular Kwamis' choice. They seriously think that Marinette and Adrien's romantic problems are more important than them being superheroes, so their best option is to just take away their Miraculous even though Monarch still has fifteen more of them. I'd be more forgiving if this was towards the beginning of Marinette and Adrien's superhero careers, but this is Season 5, where the stakes have never been higher thanks to Monarch's arsenal. Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that MARINETTE IS STILL THE FUCKING GUARDIAN, AND TAKING AWAY HER MIRACULOUS DOESN'T CHANGE A THING! IT'S NEVER EVEN MENTIONED IN EITHER EPISODE, SO HOW THE HELL DO YOU FORGET SOMETING THAT IMPORTANT?!?!

It doesn't even make sense that only now are Tikki and Plagg against Marinette and Adrien actually getting together when they were never shown to have any problems with it in earlier seasons, and just last episode, Plagg encouraged Adrien to go after Marinette after doing so as Cat Noir didn't work out. It comes across as the writers struggling to come up with new ways to have opposition to the Love Square, even if this idea somehow leads to a minuscule amount of progress in that department. Yeah, you figure that out...

Also, it's pretty weird how after four and a half seasons of Marinette suffering from the burden of being Ladybug, only now does Tikki decide to relieve her of that responsibility, but only because of how it affects her love life.

We get another scene showing how stupid Marinette and Adrien's friends are as they talk about how happy Marinette and Adrien must be now, interspersed with scenes of Marinette and Adrien crying their eyes out. Just like that one scene in “Evolution”, I don't get the setup. Is this meant to be a joke, or a serious moment? After Nathalie takes a call for Adrien telling Nino that he can't be bothered at the moment, Gabriel comes into the room to comfort him, giving him an Alliance ring in the process.

Tikki and Plagg talk to their respective holders and tell them how they feel that the burden of being heroes is crushing them. Marinette and Adrien obviously bring up the situation with Monarch, but as soon as their Kwamis mention that not being superheroes means that they can pursue their love lives with no stress, they immediately take off their Miraculous and give them back. After five seasons that this episode confirmed happened just under a year, and this is what causes them to give up their Miraculous: a bad case of heartache. We're supposed to see this as the breaking point that causes the two to not want to be superheroes ever again? They don't consider the innocent lives that could be in danger, or the fact that this heavy burden will most likely be forced on two new and inexperienced schmucks who will struggle even more than they did thanks to Monarch possessing powers of the other fifteen Miraculous.

I'm sorry, but I don't see this as an emotional scene. All I see is what I saw with Adrien in “Kuro Neko”: these characters simply giving up because of how much they're prioritizing their personal feelings over the lives of others. If this was something Marinette and Adrien came up with and made an agreement to quit at the same time (even choosing their own replacements), I'd sort of get it, as they'd at least be on the same terms, but neither of them ever learn the other quit until later on in the episode.

After Adrien breaks down even more, we learn that the whole reason Gabriel hesitated to akumatize Adrien the last time was because he didn't have an Alliance ring on, so now that he does, he's taking a mulligan. However, the Akuma is stopped at the last minute when Adrien sees the homework he was supposed to give Marinette, so he runs off as his negative emotions fade. Instead, Monarch chooses to akumatize someone else with five different Alliance rings.

Monarch: Rejoice, dear Kwamis! Five Alliances enables as many Miraculous powers to transfer at the same time! This villain promises to be exceptional! (laughs manically)

Pretty sure you hyped up Style Queen the same way three seasons ago, yet you still didn't get the Miraculous then, so I wouldn't gloat too soon.

The next scene with Marinette and Adrien is actually a really nice one. Marinette starts stuttering as usual when she tries to talk, but Adrien comes up with another idea: He'll ask a series of yes or no questions, and Marinette can raise her right or left hand to answer them. Adrien asks Marinette about her feelings for him, and Marinette accidentally answers no before changing her mind. Before Adrien leaves, he asks Marinette if she wants to spend more time with him in the future, to which she accepts. This scene was handled really well, and nothing really felt forced here.

Back with Alya, she and the others are once again coming up with a plan to get Marinette and Adrien together (because none of them have lives outside of the Love Square, I guess), when Nora suddenly calls.

Nora: Geez, sis! You never pick up the phone when I like, actually need your advice!

Alya: I couldn’t pick up. I’m at school!

Nora: Yeah, right. So, you see, I had no choice but to deal with it myself.

Alya: Oh, no... Nora. I told you before, you gotta talk before you act!

Nora: Yeah, but I did talk, like, I said stuff in front of Kouki's bros.

Alya: Nora! Not “talk” like that!

Yeah, outside of a few references to Nora trying to call Alya earlier in the episode, I didn't skip anything here. We're just thrown into this plot with little to no explanation as to what's going. What Nora and this Kouki guy were arguing about, much less what Nora said to his friends is never explained. I don't even known if they're supposed to be in a relationship or not. It's not like in “Sandboy” or “Oblivio” where the motivation for how the person got akumatized was only explained near the end of the episode. The episode acts like we're supposed to know who Kouki is and why he and Nora are fighting when this is the first time Kouki has ever appeared on this show.

As the conversation goes on, Tikki chooses Alya to be the new wielder of the Ladybug Miraculous and Plagg chooses Zoe to be the new wielder of the Cat Miraculous. Okay, outside of Zoe being the only one in this episode who isn't a complete idiot, I can see why Plagg would choose her, since she has experience as a superhero, and her identity wasn't exposed. As for Tikki choosing Alya? Yeah, Alya did a good job as Scarabella in “Hack-San”, but she doesn't mention that A) She and Cat Noir still needed Marinette's help to stop Robustus, and B) Alya's already had her identity exposed twice, to the point where she was the one to suggest she not be trusted with one before Marinette lost the other fifteen Miraculous at the end of the last season. Alya's not a bad hero, but these factors don't exactly make her an ideal successor to Ladybug. Also, it's pretty dumb how the whole reason Marinette and Adrien quit was for romantic reasons, yet the whole reason Alya blew her cover last season was for romantic reasons (Rocketear).

Back with Adrien and Marinette, the former plans to leave, but is interrupted by the akumatized form of Kouki, named Kikou.

Kikou's design is... I mean, it's not terrible, I guess? Putting aside the fact that this is the second Akuma in the series to go with the “black boxer” stereotype (who is also a dumb brute like Anansi was), the gold jewelry is a decent touch, and it makes sense that he has the five Alliance rings to show off his wealth. As for his powers, because he has five rings, he has five different powers, the Tiger Miraculous' Clout to power his Gum-Gum Pistol-esque punches, the Turtle Miraculous' Shelter to protect his head where the Akuma is obviously hiding, the Horse Miraculous' Voyage to move around quickly and make up for his size hindering his speed, the Ox Miraculous' Resistance to protect the aforementioned Shelter, and the Mouse Miraculous' Multitude to clone himself with. This is the Akuma that really made me realize that the gimmick of every Akuma this season having the powers of whatever Miraculous Monarch gives them is just an excuse to half-ass writing any new Akuma powers in favor of the same fifteen abilities the other Miraculous have.

Kikou attacks the city, but Alya transforms into Scarabella, soon being joined by Zoe, AKA, Kitty Noire.

Kitty Noire's design is... pretty weird, all things considered. The green lipsick just doesn't look that good, I don't get the green hair extensions, and why are they eyes like that when even Lady Noire's eyes stayed green? At the very least, the hair looks marginally better than Catwalker's, and I like the detailing on the suit itself.

While Scarabella and Kitty Noire quickly get to know each other, Marinette and Adrien get used to being civilians again pretty quickly as they watch them fight off Kikou, the two new heroes struggling to keep up with Kikou's five Miraculous powers. Of course, Marinette and Adrien only look mildly concerned, not even regretting their choices in the slightest.

Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.

Scarabella uses her Lucky Charm, getting a parachute, which is totally different from the kind used in the final episode of the first episode. Scarabella and Kitty Noire taunt Kikou, Scarabella drawing Kikou's fire while Kitty Noire recruits a bunch of firefighters, who then get some paint from the art store Socqueline runs. The firefighters then load the paint into their truck's hose, which is then used to fill up the parachute. Kitty Noire cuts the rope, and the paint blinds Kikou, and as soon as he deactivates his shield, Scarabella breaks his headgear, freeing the Akuma.

Scarabella de-evilizes the Akuma, sort of helps Kouki and Nora make up, uses Miraculous Scarabella to fix all the damage, while Marinette and Adrien compliment the new heroes from afar before promising to meet up at school tomorrow.

The first episode ends with Gabriel's Alliance recording the unusual data in two Alliances, meaning that Scarabella and Kitty Noire's identities have already been exposed... even though Tikki should have known this since “Jubiliation”. Yeah, you all know where this is going.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... TIKKI

While the competition was tough, Tikki was able to get the win for going along with this asinine plan in the first place that prioritized the personal feelings of two people over the fact that Monarch was at his most dangerous. Not only that, she forgot Marinette was still the Guardian, she forgot that Alya's identity was already exposed twice, and that even if she didn't know the Alliance rings were a front for Monarch's plan, forgot that these hi-tech rings track the everyday movements of its users, not even telling Plagg this before he chose Zoe.

The second part, “Deflagration”, immediately starts off with Kitty Noire saying that Ladybug and Cat Noir have nothing to feel guilty about even though they essentially abandoned Paris when Ladybug was shown to be getting backlash for her failure, but of course, that isn't mentioned here.

Kitty Noire: We’ll accomplish our mission just like they did, because the goal we all share is to defeat Monarch, isn't it?

News Reporter: Or perhaps Ladybug and Cat Noir renounced their mission so they could finally live their love story?

Scarabella: They were never in love or in a relationship, and neither are we.

Kitty Noire: (in a flirtatious tone) So far anyway!

I'd make a “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” joke here, but we all know Alya is already in a relationship.

Alya and Marinette meet up, the former congratulating her successor on another great job. The two talk about Adrien, and Alya once again encourages Marinette to focus more on pursuing a relationship with him, no doubt planning another stupid party in her mind.

We then get a scene that actually reminds the audience that Chloe and Zoe are supposed to be sisters. I understand if you might have forgotten, but don't worry. I'm pretty sure the writers did too. Of course, I think the writers might be running out of new ways to make Chloe mean to someone, because this time, she just yells at Zoe for being near her and not being in the “half-of-a-sister zone”. In order to appease her sister and make sure she doesn't call their mom, Zoe offers to wash all of Chloe's shoes. Plagg talks to Zoe about possibly standing up to her sister.

Plagg: How about I Catacylsm that sister of yours instead?

Zoe: It’s pointless, Plagg.

Plagg: Zoe, you can't let them treat you that way; no one speaks to me like that! Just ask the T-rexes... That is, if you can find one! Because they're not so smug anymore now, are they?

Zoe: It’s best to stay out of trouble in this family if I'm going to protect my secret identity.

Plagg: You start by giving up cheese, and then you end up giving up on dignity, freedom, and justice!

Zoe: I feel like you like to blow things out of proportion, don't you?

Plagg: Yes... especially when I’m starving.

Talking about standing up to your mean sister, contemplating murder while casually discussing genocide. Same thing, right?

We cut to Gabriel, who's over the moon about the recent revelation regarding Scarabella and Kitty Noire, even dancing a little. He tells Nathalie and heads to his lair to plan his next scheme, but not before chatting with Emilie's body once again. Gabriel transforms into Monarch and gives himself the powers of the Bee, Mouse, Rooster, Ox, and Horse Miraculous, traveling to the school himself.

Meanwhile, we cut to the Resistance, where we see Max has set up a system where, through the use of the Alliance rings and their phones, the members can alert the school to whenever there's an active Akuma... even though one of the features included in the Alliance includes an Akuma alert (Multiplication), and there's also been an Akuma alarm since Season 2 (Riposte). So once again, this brave and totally important Resistance has contributed absolutely nothing. Okay, there are some other parts, like some of the members planning to fight off the Akuma with paintball guns if there's no other option. You know, this is proof that this show takes place in France, because if this was America, they would most likely have actual guns.

At lunch, Marinette and Adrien get closer, to which Lila uses as an opportunity to manipulate Chloe into trying to break up the moment, but not before we get a joke where Chloe needs Alliance to define the word “generous”. Okay, I'm not sure if the joke was that Chloe is so selfish, she doesn't know the meaning of the word, or if the writers are now resorting to using “dumb blonde” jokes for Chloe now, which totally isn't a cliche that was overused twenty years ago to the point where there was an entire movie starring Reese Witherspoon made to subvert it. Either way, NOT FUNNY, DIDN'T LAUGH.

Chloe tries to ruin the moment by telling Adrien Marinette is in love with him, but he's not having any of that. She tries telling jokes that are supposed to be unfunny, they're funny, but it lacks the charm of something like Hank Hill attempting to tell “yo mama” jokes. Zoe stands up to Chloe, which pisses her off so much, she willingly accepts an Akuma from Monarch (currently invisible thanks to the Rooster Miraculous), turning into Sole Destroyer.

Sole Destroyer is... wow... Just... WOW... they didn't even try with this one. At least Miracle Queen made sense as an upgrade to Queen Wasp, but this? They literally just took Sole Crusher, whose design resembling Chloe made sense thematically in that episode, gave her a new pair of sunglasses, some more gemstones and spikes, and made her eyes glow as if she was a character in an episode of The Nostalgia Critic. Why go to this effort to make a new Akuma when so little is done with the new design? Wouldn't it make sense to bring back Antibug, given Chloe has been against Ladybug since the end of Season 3? As for Sole Destroyer's powers, it's just Sole Crusher's magic kicks, only instead of growing bigger in size after absorbing each victim and making her more of a threat, they transform into singing shoes. You know, guys, it just dawned on me how... how weird this show is. Kinda goofy...

Alya and Zoe attempt to transform, but Monarch, using a combination of the Mouse, Bee, and Rooster Miraculous' powers, stuns the two and steals the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous from them. Plagg attempts to Cataclysm Monarch, but Monarch uses Resistance to block it, immediately going to unify. Before the process can be completed, both Tikki and Plagg use Lucky Charm and Cataclysm respectively, Tikki summoning a trash can with the side effect of creating a new Eiffel Tower, and Plagg destroying the Cat Miraculous. Doing so ends up creating an endless cycle of things being created and destroyed, and unlike in “Dearest Family”, they don't reuse footage from “Style Queen”.

Marinette gets the trash can, and realizes what's happening, and while Adrien and Nino plan to have the Resistance try and stop Sole Destroyer, Marinette works on making her own Ladybug costume. Monarch orders Tikki to tell him what the hell's going on, Tikki explains that since Plagg destroyed the Cat Miraculous, he lost his only method of communicating with the physical plane, and all Monarch needs to do to get what he needs is to take back the Lucky Charm Tikki created. Just then, Marinette arrives, dressed up as Ladybug, and seemingly having the Lucky Charm in her hands, only for Monarch to steal it, unifying into Monarbug.

Given how stupid he looked as Shadow Noir last season, it's not exactly surprising to learn that Gabriel looks just as stupid unified with the Ladybug. The red and black polka dots just don't go with the black and purple. The one thing I'll give them credit for is that the eyes look kind of cool.

The Lucky Charm turns out to be a fake, and Nino jumps in to save Marinette from being hit with Venom. The rest of the Resistance also arrives, somehow having beaten up Sole Destroyer off-screen and turning her into a battering ram. Monarbug undoes the Akumatization, but Rose, Ivan, and Kim dogpile Monarbug, leaving Adrien to steal back the Ladybug Miraculous for Marinette.

Marinette transforms back into Ladybug, and uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage and fix the Cat Miraculous. While Ladybug fights Monarch, she learns that he reforged the Miraculous before Monarch uses Multitude and Voyage to make his escape, swearing that he'll beat Ladybug someday, “We'll meet again, Spider-Man”, yadda yadda yadda.

Tikki and Marinette talk about finding new holders, only for Marinette to choose to take back the Miraculous, figuring that since Monarch doesn't know their identities (once again forgetting what the Alliance rings can do), that's the best option. Plagg takes back the Cat Miraculous and goes to say goodbye to Zoe, reassuring her that she was still brave enough to stand up to Chloe, because I guess to hell with the people who somehow managed to restrain Chloe while she was Sole Destroyer. And so this episode, and by extension, this two-parter, ends with Ladybug and Cat Noir talking about how their Kwamis saved the day... even though they were the reason Monarch almost won in the first place.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... CHLOE

In addition to somehow not knowing the definition of the word “generous”, she failed to come up with a good comeback against Marinette, chose to get akumatized to get revenge, failed at that, betrayed Sabrina and Lila, her only allies, for no good reason, and somehow got defeated off-screen by a bunch of civilians with no superpowers, not even getting to fight either of the new heroes, including her sister.

But yeah, in case you can't tell, these episodes were pretty bad. The entire premise of Tikki and Plagg deciding that Marinette and Adrien's love lives were more important than stopping Monarch was a hard pill to swallow, especially since their replacements didn't get to do anything outside of a single Akuma fight. You'd think that with the buildup Zoe got standing up to Chloe, she'd at least play a role in stopping Sole Destroyer, but instead, she and Alya are benched for almost the entirety of “Deflagration”. It's also really dumb that the ending tried to make them out to be the MVP's of the fight, when their idea was what caused Monarch to almost get the Miraculous.

Even Marinette and Adrien didn't really make a lot of progress here. All they did was talk a little, but even after “Deflagration”, not much else happened. Yeah, Adrien stood up for Marinette, but they still haven't officially started dating yet, even when they had every reason to after giving up their Miraculous. It's still better than nothing, but after four and a half seasons, I think we're allowed to want a little more development with the Love Square Wouldn't it have been interesting to see Marinette and Adrien try to start a relationship during their brief retirement, only to struggle to maintain it after becoming superheroes again? We're almost halfway through the season, and the Love Square is still progressing at a snail's pace. Then again, I guess it's better than nothing at this point.

“Transmission” was pretty boring, all things considered. Other than the first act, nothing really happened. The Akuma fight was like the others, just with two new heroes, and Marinette and Adrien got to bond for a few minutes. Nora and Kouki's drama wasn't interesting, and it wasn't even properly explained like the motivations of other Akumas.

I will say that “Deflagration” was the better of the two, if only because Marinette, Adrien, and Gabriel made some smart choices here. Unlike in “Evolution” and “Destruction”, there's no gloating or wasting time. Monarch cuts straight to the chase, and Marinette comes up with a quick plan to trick him with. Also, while I still don't really care about the Resistance, I like the idea of the civilians standing up to Monarch, and think it was executed better than it was in “Heroes' Day”. Even Sole Destroyer got a few reactions out of me for how exaggerated her facial expressions were. I don't know why they decided to give her One Piece levels of weird faces, but kudos to the animators on that front. Of course, Sole Destroyer was still one of the most pointless Akumas in the show's history, as you could take her out of the episode and nothing would have changed.

Overall, while I appreciate the effort to try and tell bigger stories, this was a really weird choice of an episode to make a two-parter.

[heavenhealy]

so sorry to hear you’re sick :(( buttttt since we’re here can i request a cumplay blurb :)))

sorry this took me a hot minute I got busy and then lost motivation for writing for a sec but here ya go :) content warnings: swearing, unprotected sex, lots of talk about come and coming inside, fingering (f receiving), they’re obsessed w each other and aren’t quite ready to admit it, dirty talk! Please do not read if you’re uncomfortable or under 18! Also there are probably typos but I literally wrote this on my phone while I waited for the bus so lower your expectations for me plz

When you first started hooking up with Matty it was just that- hooking up. A fun fling for the two of you to occupy each others empty nights and you never really minded the one and done nature of your time together. You both had bigger careers and issues to focus on, and the certain nature of your relationship was almost calming in a world full of questions. You had your routine of meeting, talking briefly about life, making out and then sliding on Matty’s condom and getting to business.

Until you grew particularly tired of the condom part of the routine.

“Please, Matty, I haven’t been with anyone else since I haven’t got the time, and I’m on the pill anyway.” You plead to him, already half naked in the silky sheets of his bed. His lips part in shock, eyes round with disbelief.

“You’re sure?” He stares dumbly for a few more seconds, eyes miraculously not even straying to your naked tits, before his mind reboots. A groan rumbles deep in his throat. “I haven’t been with anyone else either.”

You try to ignore the shard of hope that lodges into your chest with that knowledge, but it quickly get overwhelmed by lust as Matty comes in for a searing kiss, wasting no time in shoving his tongue between your lips. His brain has surely caught up with the new information as he desperately scrambles to rid you of your panties, mumbling affirmations of how sexy you look while he goes.

“On your back, wanna see you take this cock.” You follow instructions easily, laying down against the pillows and spreading your legs for him. He moans out loud, whether at the sight of your bared pussy or the idea that he gets to be in it raw you aren’t sure.

He leans forward, strong arms caging in each side of your head, curls tickling against your forehead. You’re dazzled by his beauty this close, all the little gray hairs and pores that make him so endearingly human.

“I’m going to fucking fill you up.” The promise comes just before he drives into you, cock stretching your walls divinely. You both moan at the new feeling of all the ridges of him fitting perfectly within the confines of your warm walls.

Your eyes roll back as he sets his favorite steady and punishing pace, the headboard rattling above the pair of you as he marks the skin on your neck with purple bruises.

“You feel so fucking good, love. Why didn’t we do this shit earlier? I’m going fucking crazy being in you raw, you naughty little thing.”

His words go straight to your pussy and it’s almost embarrassing how close you are just from him talking to you, but the telltale twitch of his cock tells you that he’s just as wound up by this new venture.

“Matty please, want you to come in me, please please please?” If you were any more cognizant you might have even made and effort to bat your lashes at him, but the overwhelming burn of desire to be filled up by him takes over. Tears stream down the sides of your face as your pleasure hangs just moments away.

“You want me to fill up this pretty little pussy, keep you all dripping full of me? Wanna walk around the rest of the night knowing who you belong to?” His words are punctuated by moans as your pussy flutters around him.

“Fucking come then, come on,” Matty pushes two fingers over your clit roughly, just two circles of the nerves before you’re launching headfirst into your orgasm. Your vision blanks but you can hear him talking you through it as you rake your nails over his shoulders.

“Such a good girl, coming so hard for me, huh? That’s exactly what I wanted, love, so fucking sexy.” His words ground you as your body settles, and your eyes focus just fast enough to see the way his own scrunch in pleasure, hips faltering for just a moment before he’s grunting in that deep guttural way that only happens before he comes.

“Gonna fill you right up, love, all the cum you deserve.” His eyes roll as he cums, pushing his hips as far forward as they can go to be sure he gets you full. You keen at the sensation, body going into overdrive at the idea of your fantasy being fulfilled. Matty moans your name and it’s only then you realize you’re coming again just from being filled, a small orgasm that has your walls clenching around him, drawing as much of his release into you as possible.

Your pussy throbs as Matty kisses your forehead, the silent sign that he’s about to pull out of you. You grimace in anticipation for the rush of cum leaving you but it still feels mildly disappointing even as it happens.

Matty catches your face and chuckles, eyes focused on the mess of cum dripping out of you.

“Don’t be disappointed, love. It’s hot watching me drip out of ya.”

You roll your eyes at his boyishness.

“Be hotter if it was still in me,” you comment, half expecting him to just laugh and slap your leg playfully, but his features crumple in concentration, and before you know it his hand is between your legs, fingers dancing along the seam of your pussy.

Your body jolts and you moan in sensitivity but nod to tell him to continue.

Matty gathers his cum as it leaks from you onto his fingers and pushes it back into you. The feeling is odd but having his fingers inside of you sparks pleasure in your stomach again. You moan and Marty’s grin widens: mischief championing his features as he speeds up, hooking three fingers into your pussy and fingering you the way you had taught him you like. The extra squelch of his cum leaking around his fingers makes him moan too.

“Fucking dirty girl, making me cum in you and then push it back in when we’re done.” His tone is gentle despite his words, and he even plants a kiss to the inside of your knee as you squirm from pleasure. You feel the familiar crest of an orgasm coming and you don’t even have to tell Matty, he knows your body so well that he can tell by the way your breathing quickens and your hands clench at the sheets under you.

“C’mon then, love. Come again just from my fingers in this little pussy. Get my cum all up in there, yeah? Make sure your body knows you belong to me.”

You cum again, this time in a way that has your legs trembling with exertion as if you’d just run a marathon. Your tears are plentiful this time, rolling down your face with reckless abandon as your nerves spark with pleasure and sensations you can’t really describe.

Matty hurries to depart from between your legs, carefully climbing up the bed to be beside you as he cradles you, kissing your cheeks as you recover from all the sensations in your body.

“There’s my lovely girl,” his smile dazzles you and you can almost forget that he just made you cum three times.

“Hi, thank you,” you immediately lean forward for a kiss and he meets it, surprisingly sweet and gentle.

“I should be the one thanking you, I never would have had the courage to ask that if you hadn’t first. But that does remind me, we should get dressed.”

You furrow your eyebrows at him, struggling to keep up with the mental gymnastics he uses so often.

“We’ve got to go to the pharmacy. Unless you want to keep the option open for a baby. I’m not banking on that pill, love. Especially since we’re never going back from doing all this.”

Despite the fact he’s literally talking about buying you plan B, it warms your heart to know he knows you well enough that you would want the extra layer of assurance. Your eyes twinkle as he helps you out of the bed, unabashedly checking you out as you walk to the bathroom together to clean up.

[masterwords]

go the f*ck to sleep

Summary: JJ sees Hotch struggling with single parenthood and offers to help. Miraculously...he accepts.

Pairing: none

Words: 1.4k

Warnings: mentions of canon character deaths (haley & jj's sister), insomnia, grief, depression

Notes: I woke up this morning and had this image in my mind. It was written so fast and it's barely a fully fledged thought but...here you go. It's sad Hotch hours. And it isn't hotchgan! (I have a lot of that coming your way in the next week though, between several stories and several moodboards.) Merry Thursday!

*********

It wasn’t much. Hell, it was barely anything at all, she thought as she set the paper cup (extra hot americano, double shot) on Hotch’s desk. She held the card in her hands, hesitant. His office was cleaner than it had been in as long as she could remember, and it made her deeply uncomfortable. Like he was hiding something.

He’d always been an open book when it came to his work load. Case files and reports stacked on his desk, his email perpetually two away from being overflowing, the data on his phone complaining about the number of texts he wouldn’t delete. Just in case he needed them. (And he had needed plenty of them, so the end justified the means, so to speak.) So this new thing, this clean office, clean desk, organized email inbox...well she was a little concerned.

Everyone deals with grief differently and as she looked around at this office she barely recognized, JJ could see his grief written in every tidy corner, every neatly filed piece of paper. Maybe he was on top of it so he could be home with Jack, that was best case scenario, but what she thought might actually be happening was that he’d simply begun taking all of it home with him. That he was drowning in his apartment where no one could save him.

She looked at the card in her hand and thought about her parents grieving over her sister. How her father stopped talking to her for months, how her mother doubled down on the anger and the intensity. How she became a surrogate for what was lost but not in any helpful way. She could remember it all vividly while knowing there was a lot of that time she’d never really be able to access. She was older than Jack when her sister died, Jack would have even fewer memories when he was grown. He’d barely have a glowing faded ghost of a mom in his head, but he’d have a hardened father who can’t smile and can’t sleep that is tangible and be full of resentment. She knew that from experience.

That was enough to make her set the card down. She might be overstepping, she probably was, and he might just drink the coffee and toss the card in the garbage can (she knew he wouldn’t) but she had to try. Derek was still trying, still absorbing a lot of the work load, anything he could without stepping on Hotch’s toes but everyone else had gone back to business as usual. She couldn’t leave Derek to shoulder this burden on his own, she had to try to help.

She was in a meeting with Strauss and Garcia when he finally made his way to his office. The coffee, once piping hot, was cold and he stared at it long and hard for a minute in disbelief. It had already been a hellscape of a morning, putting out fires left and right...most of which weren’t even his fires...and the sight of the coffee there almost pushed him over some inexplicable ledge. He sat on the couch, but it looked and felt a lot more like falling, like collapsing, like his legs simply giving out.

If the coffee came close, the card did the real pushing.

“Hotch,

When I had Henry, everyone made jokes about finally really knowing what it was like to need coffee...well they weren’t kidding. I know Jack isn’t a newborn, but I have a feeling the sentiment will ring true still. So here’s to coffee, huh?

From one caffeine addict to another, if you ever need help with Jack, call anytime. Henry could use a big brother to show him the ropes.

JJ”

The tone of the card was light, casual, but the sincerity in it made his chest ache. The likelihood of him asking JJ to babysit Jack for him was slim, he thought she knew that when she wrote it, but all the same he was touched by the sentiment. And the coffee, once reheated, was exactly what he needed to pick himself up and finish the day on his own two feet. (Before collapsing into bed as soon as Jack was asleep only to toss and turn all night long again and again and again and again. Only to finally crawl out of bed at 3am after sleeping in rough ten minute intervals all night, dragging himself to his messy home office and watching the sun slowly creep through his closed blinds with tired eyes and piles of paperwork as high as his knees.)

When he did finally call JJ for help, he’d been at the sleepless night thing for three months and things were starting to feel filmy and unreal. He was at the end of his rope. Derek had been his lifeline in many ways, absorbing the work load when it got to be too much, but he didn’t know the first thing about kids so Hotch couldn’t ask him to babysit. It would be a disaster. Then he remembered JJ’s card, and it felt like his last line of defense. A hail mary. “Could you watch Jack for me for an hour or two?”

“You have a date?” she asked with a cheeky smile, pushing a spoonful of mashed potato into Henry’s waiting little mouth while holding the phone between her shoulder and her ear. Hotch let out the saddest laugh she thought she’d ever heard.

“Not exactly. I was hoping to try to take a nap.”

“Ahhh, yes. I hear you. If I didn’t have Will forcing me to take naps during the day…” she paused, biting into her lip. The queen of foot in mouth has done it again, she thought. “Well. Just give me a time and I’ll be there.”

He made a pot of coffee and showed her around, giving her the lay of the land like she’d never been inside before. Like she hadn’t gone in after Foyet, gone in with Derek and Emily and Dave, ducked beneath crime scene tape to check the place out, look through his intimate things. But it was different now, there was life here. Jack’s things were brightly colored and littered the place with tiny happy bombs. An Iron Man blanket laid on the couch, a splash of bright crimson against the dull grayish brown. Legos were in the carpet, crayons all over the table with play doh crumbs and the remnants of the toast Jack was still insisting he wasn’t done with from breakfast. “I’m sorry I haven’t picked up,” he muttered, and she laughed.

“Hotch, it’s fine. This is pretty clean for someone with a kid that age. Really.”

He glanced around and shrugged, shame clawing at him in spite of her words. He should have done more to pick the place up. It really was the least he could have done, she wasn’t even accepting money from him for her time.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” he asked finally, glancing at Henry teetering on chubby little legs, brand new at the whole walking thing. He was invested in whatever it was that Jack was playing, he just had to get there first and that was slow going as a newly bipedal creature. Hotch glanced around and saw all of the choking hazards, the glass, the outlets not covered, the corners to bang his head on and the kitchen drawers easily opened to danger and death. His apartment wasn’t baby proofed because he never had Jack here at that age. He hadn’t thought this through. Not only that, but he noticed that Jack still had bright purple and green marker on his chin and forearms, remnants of his unsupervised tattoo session while Hotch was shaving one room away. He thought he'd gotten all of it washed off.

“Hotch...it’s okay. I’m going to sit here with them and they’ll play and that’s it. Maybe we’ll read a few stories, color a picture, rob a bank if we get really bored…”

“Thank you JJ.”

“ Wow. Not even a laugh huh?”

He smiled weakly. “I’m sorry. I haven’t really been sleeping.” Like that should explain it all. Judging by the look she gave him, it might have. The look on her face was compassionate, but he detected a little pity there too. He figured he deserved it. If he looked in the mirror he’d give himself the same pitying look.

"Do you need a bed time story?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. His eyes went wide for a moment, his features finally giving way to a tired smile. A real one, unprovoked.

"No. Thank you though. Really."

"Alright then, go. I’ll try to keep them quiet. Thank you for the coffee. Get some sleep Hotch.”

[flightfoot]

do you have any fic recs about the miraculous squad post-canon as adults, that focuses on other characters besides just adrien and marinette?

Hmmm. So I guess for this, I'll look for any fics set in the canon universe where the main characters aren't Adrien or Marinette. Or at least, where other characters get equal billing.

---

The 8 Weddings of Alix Kubdel by The_Rabbit42

The bet is simple: with the Rabbit Miraculous, Alix will be speaking at all of her friends’ weddings. No matter what age they tie the knot, she’ll be there looking the same. From Alix’s perspective, she’s going to each ceremony and reception one right after another in a nonstop bender.

This fic’s a lot of fun! I loved seeing all the different weddings, as well as how Alix slowly felt more and more out of place, with going forwards in time. Some of the weddings could get, uh. Exciting as well XD. And while there’s been years in-between Alix’s appearances for her friends at the wedding, for Alix, it’s only been a few hours, if that…

---

Strangely Familiar by @sunfoxfic

Alya Césaire’s life is perfect. Indeed, between the success of the Ladyblog, how well she’s doing in school, and the fact that she’s a superhero who has never bore the weight of a crisis of epic proportions, her life almost couldn’t be better. Almost. But Alya has always been a go-getter, and so she’ll chase after that perfect life if it kills her. Which is how she ends up rushing to move out of her father’s apartment and in with Marinette, Adrien, and a complete stranger: Nino Lahiffe. And in fact, her life does seem perfect — she and Nino are fast friends. They spend a lot of time together and get to know each other really well. But in the end, fortunate situations will bear unfortunate truths, and she learns things about herself that aren’t quite comfortable. Like I said, though: Alya has always been a go-getter, and she won’t let new feelings deter her from chasing after her perfect life.

This is the single longest DJWifi-centric fic on AO3 (which is a travesty) and it is GLORIOUS. Alya and Nino are both well fleshed-out here, with their own problems and baggage they’re dealing with, but it’s easier together.

---

When Feelings Are Too Big For Words by ClockworkCaptain:

When Luka takes a gig playing for a drag show he’s falls hard and fast for the drag queen Buttercup who uses her performances to work through her own em otions. Meanwhile Adrien’s been using drag to work through his own emotions and thinks maybe Luka coming back into his life and showing interest might mean a second chance. Made for @mlsecretsanta 2022

Published on New Year’s Eve, this just barely makes it to the deadline for this list. I’m glad I don’t need to wait a year to talk about it though! One of the issues I tend to have with Luka shipfics, and with Lukadrien especially (though I think Lukanette actually has this problem worse) is how Luka tends to disappear within the fic and the pairing, feeling more like “The Love Interest” than his own person. Not so here! While most of the intrigue surrounds Adrien, I still got the sense of Luka being his own person, not just existing in the fic for Adrien.

 I adored Adrien getting to display an aspect of himself through persona and performance - that does align well with how he approaches Chat Noir -  and overall I just had a lot of fun with this fic!

---

Everybody's Changing by @coffeebanana

Alya's finding it a little hard to adjust to her new normal, post-Shadow Moth. Which...might be why she's a little more focused on getting Marinette and Adrien to finally figure out they have feelings for each other than actually enjoying her graduation party. She knows she should feel relieved that Shadow Moth's gone, but...things just feel so much more complicated. It's hard to accept that some things just won't be the same, anymore. Thankfully, Nino knows exactly what to say and do to help her figure things out. Or: DJwifi for day 11 of Kiss Prompt November (effervescent)

---

may we write it all down (in cursive light) by @sunfoxfic

Since retiring as a journalist, Alya hasn't been involved in an interview in several years. But now that her identity is out, that's about to change.

---

Number One by christallized

Marc and Nath have been dating for a while, but the rest of the world doesn't have to know that. It's complicated, it brings unwanted questions and anxiety. But the Comic of the Year contest is coming up, and Marc knows that sometimes what matters most isn't the thoughts of the rest of the world. Sometimes it only has to matter to one.

---

raw honey: a coffee with chloe bourgeois by demistories

I meet up with Mlle. Bourgeois at a classy, upscale café just in time for brunch. When I arrive, she’s sitting at an outside table and typing on her phone, glittering nails clicking against the screen. She doesn’t even look up at me when she says, ���Fancier than you’re used to, huh, Césaire? Think it’ll break the bank?”  I remind her that she still owes me a meal from the last time we saw each other, and she scoffs and removes her sunglasses.  “You asked me for an interview,” my former classmate says. “The polite thing would be to foot the bill, but I suppose I can cover you just this once.” Her sarcasm is biting, but her smile is genuine.  an interview between alya césaire and her former classmate, chloé bourgeois

---

I hope these satisfy you!

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

Dream-Killing Bitches, Evil Exes, and Bad Moms: Portrayals of Women in "The Kindly Ones"

So, I've been attempting to write a more formal meta about this for months, but I've not gotten it to ever gel properly, so I thought I'd share my thoughts more informally here.

COMICS SPOILERS AHEAD

Basically, there is something really weird about how women are treated in The Kindly Ones arc of The Sandman.

The semi-official guidebook "Sandman: King of Dreams" basically called The Kindly Ones a #GirlPower arc, but I don't find much particularly empowering about it. Lyta literally goes insane from the stress of being a single mother, albeit exacerbated by supernatural forces. Thessaly is a TERF bitch who serves the role of "spiteful ex" to the protagonist. Nuala is passive and sad and ultimately just pushed around by the whims of the men around her, and when she finally makes a choice of her own it kills the person she cared about. Rose's quarter-life crisis is miraculously "solved" by an unplanned pregnancy. Chantal and Zelda die of AIDS. Even the unstoppable Furies are ultimately a tool in a man's orchestrated suicide-by-magical-cop.

Maybe this is a leftover from when the books were written? Maybe this was the epitome of feminism in the 90s? Or maybe the guide was meaning that the women were powerful as in LITERALLY powerful...women sure do wield a lot of deadly strength and magic in this, even if none of them are particularly EMpowered, if you catch my meaning.

There's also layers as to how we're supposed to interpret this in relation to Morpheus, our doomed protagonist. I've written previously about how we might be intended to see him as an unsympathetic misogynist. If that's the case, then perhaps his doom at the hands of multiple female forces is supposed to be karmic and positive, no matter how questionable those women are. Support for this interpretation is the myth the old ladies (a manifestation of the Kindly Ones?) tell Rose, wherein a deceptive man who abuses and kills his wife meets a karmic comeuppance at the hands of his magically transformed daughters and resurrected wife.

There's also the fact that Overture reveals that Morpheus has MASSIVE issues with his mother. If one decides not to interpret Morpheus's death as a suicide, there is the possible alternate explanation that he frankly underestimated Lyta's threat level to him. Having never experienced a mother's unconditional love, he couldn't fathom that a mother could love her kid enough to literally go insane and kill gods over them.

But even as motherhood is a negative path to stress, insanity, and threatening the fabric of the universe, it's also VERY uncomfortably presented as a cure-all. Rose only gets her heart back by getting knocked up, and we're supposed to see Lyta's suggestion of an abortion as further continuance of Lyta's madness. But of all people, Lyta knows what she's talking about! She knows how difficult single motherhood is! She was going mad even before supernatural intervention... In fact, multiple sequences in The Kindly Ones make it ambiguous what elements are supernatural and what are just her mind interpreting mundane signs as godly while cracking under realistic stress!

This goes outside of the arc I chose to focus on, but I also can't help but contrast the two lesbian couples: Foxglove and Hazel vs. Chantal and Zelda. Foxglove and Hazel end up on the path of traditional motherhood, down to having to choose a child over a career, despite being lesbians! Meanwhile, Chantal and Zelda, as mentioned, die horribly of AIDS. The paths for women are motherhood, tragedy, madness, or some combination thereof.

I'd almost say that the ultimate message of The Kindly Ones regarding women is "no matter what type of woman you are, things will go horribly for you, you cannot win, and no matter what you are at the whim of a violent patriarchal system. The closest you can come to 'winning' is unfortunately by playing into the male-POV fantasy of devoted motherhood." But. like. that was DEFINITELY NOT THE INTENDED WRITTEN MESSAGE. BUT THAT IS THE MESSAGE THAT RESULTS.

Forget asking if Morpheus is a misogynist, the NARRATIVE ITSELF of The Kindly Ones pushes misogyny more than any individual character does!

tagging those who I know like discussing/reading meta:

@serenityspiral @orionsangel86 @violetoftheendless @duckland @notallsandmen

[starwarsmum]

Day 11 ✨ the prompt for today: Careless Whisper

@maribat-calendar-events

“Someone needs to talk to Ladybug,” Tim said without preamble as he sat down in the Batcave. Both Dick and Bruce were already there, arguing over a case. It stopped them both as they turned and raised an eyebrow each at him. “Seriously, she's getting really burnt out. Do either of you know if she's talked to Black Canary?”

“No clue,” Dick said, looking worried now too. “Not that she would tell us if LB did decide to sit down with her. But she's been dealing with villains and things since she was fourteen, right?”

“But she's never had a permanent death on her team before,” Bruce said, sounding equally troubled. “When she was fighting a Miraculous, she could set everything back to how it was before. Now…”

“Exactly,” Tim said enthusiastically. “I read her mission log for that particular one and it's…she blames herself. She forgave Bunnyx, who apparently knew before it happened, but she's internalising everything and it's killing her. We have to do something before she self-destructs.”

“What do you suggest?” 

“I don't know! Why do you think I'm asking you two?”

But other than getting Dinah involved, they couldn't think of a way to help Ladybug.

_ _ _

Marinette had settled into a kind of rhythm. She spent her day time working with Wayne Fashion, doing the day to day things required of her. Then she spent her evenings on the WatchTower, volunteering for every mission she could. On weekends, she did commission pieces.

Her sleep schedule had hit an all time low. Alya had called her more than once and tried to convince her to sleep but it didn't work. She had even begun to avoid her parents’ calls, worrying that they would try to fly out and see her if they heard how she really was. She always sent a follow up message, apologising for missing their calls and it kept them from completely smothering her.

She was up on the WatchTower again when Alya finally caught up to her in person. The concerned look she gave Marinette made her almost start apologising on the spot.

“Ladybug, do you realise you've been clocking in almost every day up here?” Alya said gently, hovering close to Marinette without touching her. There weren't many people around, but Marinette could see both Robin and Nightwing watching them as well as Nino and Zoe. The other faces didn't register immediately so she put them out of her mind.

“I just want to help people,” she replied, wincing when Alya gave her a disapproving look. “Rena, I can't sleep anyway so I might as well do some good up here.”

“But you're going to burn out. LB, people have been talking to me about how you've been acting. The reckless way you keep jumping into battles, the refusal to sleep…we don't need you to throw yourself into everything. We need you to be rested, to be at your best. Can we go somewhere quiet to talk about this?”

Knowing she wouldn't be getting out of it, she nodded begrudgingly and followed her friend. Nino broke away from Zoe and followed them, clearly coming to give Alya back up. Marinette felt a desperate sort of panic start to crawl up her throat as she wondered if they were going to tell her to go home.

“You need to take an absence,” Alya said as soon as they were alone, and Marinette couldn't help the wounded noise that came out of her. “I'm sorry, I meant to be tactful about this but you've been avoiding everyone for the past month and we're scared we're going to lose you too. Bug, you're falling apart. People are talking, and I know how important it is to you to be taken seriously so something has to change.”

“Rena…I can't go home. Every time I spend time alone I'm stuck with the memories of what happened and I can't sleep unless I literally run myself into the ground. I just want to do something good, to balance the bad-”

“You haven't done anything wrong!” Alya hissed, taking hold of Marinette's shoulders and shaking her lightly. There were tears gleaming in her eyes and Marinette felt shame burn through her. “Please, Ladybug, you don't have to go home but you need to take some time from this. You need space to grieve, to let Viperion go in a way that's healthy and safe.”

“We'll come visit you, if you don't want to be in Paris, dudette,” Nino chimed in, coming to wrap an arm around Marinette. She leaned into his solid form and felt her resolve begin to crumble. “Maybe you could arrange time to talk to Black Canary, she's trained to help. Just for after you've had some time away.”

She hung her head in defeat and allowed them to drag her over to talk to Wonder Woman. She felt hot and embarrassed, imagining that everyone was staring at her - which might be true. She'd heard just enough people whispering carelessly when she walked past to know they were all curious about what was going on with her.

When she was safely home, she got two texts, from Alya and Nino, promising that they would be on the first available flight to America so they could join her as civilians. She chewed her lip and thought back to just before her flight to Paris and Chloé's offer to get in touch. It would be more immediate than waiting for her other friends to get there…

Refusing to think too hard about it, she found Chloé's contact information and sent her request for company.

[plusvanity]

idk if youve done this or want to do this but, any travis headcanons? 👉👈

just love your style of writing. :3

Ofc!!! <3 and thank you very much, you're such a lovely person, I've seen you a lot on my reblogs/ likes and I wanted to thank you for supporting me <3 I honestly HOPE this doesn't sound too weird, haha.

So, here comes Travis:

-Travis is a very soft boy inside but he's masking it very well.

Growing up, he was a pretty curious and active child. He loved his mother to no end as she was the most beautiful, compassionate, generous and gentle soul he ever found in a person. (He realized that a lot later in time)

He'd do anything with her. Play, pray three times a day, thank God for every little beautiful thing in his life, help around and just be the silly little boy that he was.

He always feared his father even though, when he was little, all the punishment was verbal and/or regarding the chores that he hated to do.

(There was tension, hostility and disinterest in his father's behavior but nothing to be too outrageous..Yet. Needles to say, this stayed like this due to his mother's presence in the house that acted as an referee, calming down her demented husband and soothing little Travis's pain away)

Unfortunately from here, things only go dark and.. blindly assuming that u know what I'm talking about lol, here's the part when Travis mothers gets ill, the cult doesn't do anything about it, Travis is way too young and insignificant in this whole equation to do anything himself and... she eventually dies.

-Travis's first trauma hits harder than his father's slap.

Now, young Travis found himself in a very disturbing and visceral reality. It might all seem like a horrible nightmare (and that's how he saw it back then) but unfortunately it's not.

Dissociation was his only way out. No, he didn't develop the full DID, but his massive trauma triggered his brain to such an extent that it needed to shut down lots of processes in hope to self-preservate and get away from the pain. (This is the easiest way I can explain it but of you're curious in HOW utterly shocking the whole process is, search on Google 'brain neuroimaginy while dissociating' and you'll see that the cerebral activity shrinks to almost no activity at all)

He went on living with this whole disaster on his shoulders, suppressing the trauma as much as he could.

Nobody was on his side, nobody acknowledged that what they 'let happen' was absolutely immoral and cruel. Nobody fucking admitted they were wrong.

Classic religious approach for 'Meh, SHE wasn't meant to be, I guess???'

- Now, alone with his barely-wanted son, the passive-aggressive treatment began to escalate into nasty shit.

Travis got much more involved in the church community, now with a stable role in the church's chorus and as his father's 'right hand'. Their dynamics never screamed 'abuse' from a distance... or maybe it did but that's how ignorant the church community was????

Punishments moved from verbal abuse and degradation to physical. Fists, kicks, hair pulling and dragging across the floor (This one is bad, believe me for a fucking reason lol) and food interdiction.

-With no way around or soul to listen to his pain, he kept everything inside, locked the misery with a key, crossed his fingers and hoped for it to.... miraculously dissolve overnight?????

-First romantic interest.

I wouldn't really call it a 'romantic interest' as he was a middle-schooler BUT first crush.

It was a boy his age that he befriended within the church community.

The little attention, compassion and fun they had, quickly unlocked the emotional burden on Travis's heart. In a naive and very impressionable state of mind, Travis found himself pouring his heart out to that boy. He told him the things he wasn't supposed to tell anyone in hope for understatement and more compassion.

Not gonna lie, it made the other kid feel very weird and confused. He didn't say too much, thing that made Travis's heart..... ache.

The second Worst Day of His Life quickly came when Travis, naively assuming that the other boy had mutual feelings for him, made the worst mistake.

The kiss was like a blink of an eye.. and the kid went broadcasting the event to everyone around the church.

When Travis's father found out it was...bad to say the least. The rage, the shame and the disappointment for his brat of a son came in bloody fists, kicks and bruises.

That day, it teached Travis an important lesson in life. 'Don't you ever open up'

As the things escalated, fear naturally turns into hate. Hurt turns into rage (you see where this is going) and he begins to harden up.

-Travis puts on a mask but... not so much really?

His anger is almost unbearable. The steam and fuel drives him to act as a semi-copy of his father, crashing on small prey, in his case, Sal's gang (with Sal especially as a target) This reaction is natural and expectable from a deeply traumatized kid.

Jealousy acts as a reassuring factor that 'Yes, he needs to slash and burn the blue haired boy'

He uses all the slurs and insults that destroyed him as a weapon because in the end, he doesn't hate Sal. He hates himself.

-He desires happiness, human relationships, closure and security. He does. He misses his mother so much, he'd rip his heart apart to see her one more time.. he seeks comfort, softness and understanding in Sal. He sees the love he needs the most and he's utterly incapacitated to chaise that love. Not when he treated Sal this way for all these years.

-Travis lets someone in, learns a healthy coping mechanism and earns a valuable friend.

When Travis and Sal get close, Travis explodes with everything that hurt him, narrating Sal his whole damn life, finally allowing himself vulnerability for the first time in the eyes of a true caring person.

-Travis follows the journey of healing without hating himself and allows Sal to guide him through the process.

Travis has a very long way to go but he finally realizes that there's light at the end of the tunnel. Generational trauma is a new perspective that he needs to explore in hope to give himself a bit of comfort. 'It's not you personally that they try to bring down, it's anyone in your place that will experience this conflict'.

He comes to terms with how beyond repair his father's roots and beliefs are and he tries his best to distance himself from the misery... as much as his still-minor position allows him.

It's all about making it livable for now..

-Travis learns to value his new friendship with Sal more than he desires a relationship.

Some happier trivia now.???

-Travis is pretty good at singing!

-Travis gets to love David Bowie because he reminds him of the time Sal sang and played 'Heroes' for him. The song and the meaning grew inside his mind as one of the best memories and happiest moments of his life.

Another song that he listens and laughs a bit in irony is: Modern Love. "Never gonna fall for (modern love) Walks beside me (modern love) Walks on by (modern love) Gets me to the church on time (church on time)' it's about Sal, obv :3

-Travis used to get involved around school activities too to put on the 'Pretty Preacher's Son' mask to simulate false-perfection but he grew out of it thanks to Sal.

-Travis loves long walks and talking and laughing at silly little things.

-Travis vision on religion:

Part-time atheist, Part-time believer. The religious trauma and guilt is not something that he'll ever grow out of. It's something that can't be changed and in order to survive, he needs to change his life vision.

There are times when he hates God, blames him for turning his back when he was suffering. There are times when he still clings to the idea that there's something out there, something that... brought Sal in his life. There are times when he sees Christianity as nothing but a mass-controlling copied and revamped religion imported from Egypt that instead of bringing the people closer to God, it actually alienates them because of all the punishment and un-bendable rules that made the Bible be the fucking Bible.

It makes people selfish, judgy and look down on other religion because FUCK U if u don't think like me- broken mentality.

Alright, I genuinely HOPE this is a bit of a more in-depth analysis of Travis and his contradictory personality. If you feel like asking anything, feel free to do so! I doubt that this post is fully readable lol.

Anyway, have a great day!! <3 :3

[catreginae]

Thou Shalt Not Fall: The Past - Return to the Castle

Link might be a vampire now, but he still had a role to fulfill.

[Previous] - [Next]

View the Master Post here!

Being at the castle again felt odd and almost wrong. That wasn’t to say Link wasn't happy to be with his friends again, people who actually enjoyed his presence even though they knew he was a vampire, but his condition made him anxious and he knew everybody else was feeling it too. He wasn't sure if he could trust himself. He was convinced he would somehow blow his new secret without the other vampires watching his back all the time. Zelda, thankfully, had no expectations that he was good for duty just because he returned, so his first goal was to get used to being at the castle again.

Tune was surprisingly helpful. He never expected the kid to be so knowledgeable about vampires. If vampires were such a closely held secret, how come Tune knew so much about them? How did Tune always manage to figure out what he needed or what he was concerned about? Link was sure that if he had a moment to sit down and think about it, he could come up with some theories, but as it was, Link was currently distracted with trying to pretend that he was a normal Hylian.

“What did Zelda even tell everybody anyway?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes. Mask and Tune took to sleeping in his room, sometimes sleeping in temporary cots that they set up while he was gone, or sometimes sneaking into his bed sometime during the night. It was their way of letting him know that they were still there for him, but they also used the fact that were in the same room to literally drag him out of bed in the morning. He was beginning to get used to it but he still hated waking up every morning, especially if he woke up because his body hit the floor.

“Just that you had a family emergency to take care of and you were given leave for it... so don’t be surprised if people ask you how your family is.”

Well, it was a good thing there wasn’t a lot of people who knew about his family to question the excuse. He supposed that Zelda wasn’t too far off the mark considering how easily Elena took him in though. He was sure she wouldn’t mind being called family.

“It’s time for breakfast and I’m starving. We can talk and eat,” Mask mumbled.

Link smiled, mostly to himself. He couldn’t believe that they were acting like nothing really changed. He appreciated that. “Okay, fine. You don’t have to pout.”

“I don’t pout.”

“Sure you don’t.”

It was a few months later when Zelda and Impa called him and Proxi for an emergency meeting and he knew before stepping into Zelda’s office that the news wasn’t good. If there was good news, Zelda tended to come to him, not the other way around.

Link sort of expected what Zelda said, or at least he considered the events a possibly. Ganondorf resurfaced – Link was waiting for him. He knew the man would come back, just not when or where. Lana was requesting help as Ganondorf was approaching, according to a note that Zelda miraculously got from a small gate. It was too bad that Lana could summon creatures and move other people through her gates but she couldn’t move herself through them to get away. Lana could generally take care of herself but against Ganondorf? The fact that she asked for help was enough of an answer.

“We have to help her!” Proxi called out. Link merely nodded as Proxi, who always knew him so well, already said what he wanted to say. He would help her even if she didn’t carry precious cargo. He didn’t need a reason other than the fact they were friends to go and rush to her aid. It just helped that Ganondorf was the man he was looking for too. If he could kill Ganondorf, then they wouldn’t have to worry about him coming to the castle.

“We’ll send whatever help we can,” Impa stated. “I will personally go and lend her whatever aid I can. However, I think the two of you should stay here.”

“With all due respect, General -”

“Link, you’re still adjusting,” Zelda said quietly. “Besides, should Impa and Lana fail, we’ll be needed here. We can’t leave our people undefended. It’ll be up to us to launch a counterattack.”

Link chewed on his lips. He hated what they were saying but he knew he probably wasn’t going to convince them otherwise. Deep down inside, he knew he wasn’t quite ready to fight him just yet. He wouldn’t be a slouch on the battlefield but he didn’t feel like he was at the skill level he was at before he became a vampire. Swordplay used to come easily to him but for some reason, having a sword in his hand didn’t feel quite as right as it did before.

And as nice as it would be if his vampire powers were enough to make sure Ganondorf was no longer a threat, he doubted that his life would be so easy. He had to regain his skills. No, he had to surpass the skills he had previously.

“Isn’t it dangerous to let him come to the castle too? We should be taking the battle to him.”

“Link...” Proxi mumbled.

Zelda looked away, her mouth settled into a frown. Impa didn’t look away but her gaze held no warmth, only calculations.

“I don’t know what the best answer is, Link. All I know is that I can’t bare the thought of leaving Lana alone and I can’t bare the thought of leaving my people either.”

“Okay,” was all he could say as he left. He knew it was inappropriate to just walk out on Impa and Zelda, at least by military standards, but he knew there wasn’t any point in him staying any longer. The decision was already made after all. He didn’t even know why he was called for the meeting if they didn’t actually care about what he had to say.

He would stay if that was what Zelda wanted but he wouldn’t like it.

Link thought that they were as ready as they possibly could be for Ganondorf’s arrival. Link decided to do his best to prepare the surrounding defenses and drill the troops through exercises just in case Impa and Lana couldn’t repel his attack. He was grateful that he did, even as Ganondorf and his army tore through whatever defense he and Zelda set up. It would have been worse had they not tried at all.

Or at least, that was what he was telling himself as he down a potion that Tune handed him before shoving the empty bottle back into his hands. At least potions seemed to work on him the same, instantly healing the worst of his wounds even before the regeneration kicked in. “Wait, where do you thinking you’re going?” Tune asked.

“Ganondorf is still out there! I can’t just leave Zelda to fight him alone. If we lose today, Hyrule falls. We don’t have a choice.”

“You’re injured. You should rest just a bit longer.”

“I’m fine.”

Proxi hovered between him and Tune for a moment before flying to his side.

“Link, I think you should listen to Tune. You’re just going to lose to Ganondorf again if you go back to fight in that state.”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, we’re going in with a change of plans.”

One of the things that Link and Zelda practiced together once Link returned to the castle was calling upon the power of their pieces of the Triforce whenever they needed it. Before, Link was only able to use it in the heat of the moment, like how he used it to defend Impa and himself against Volga’s flames. He had more control of it now. He didn’t want to use its power if he could help it. Both he and Zelda agreed that it was a last resort.

He couldn’t afford to lose to Ganondorf.

“What does that even mean?” Tune asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Link mumbled as he left one their remaining forts to charge right back into battle. If he could just use the Triforce to regain the fort Ganondorf was using as his headquarters, then they could potentially trap him and his forces in the middle. They could even sabotage Ganondorf’s ability to plan, organize, and retreat. Without a base of operations, an army could definitely fall.

Link considered using his vampire powers to rush to the gate but instead, he went as fast as his Hylian legs could take him. He had better control of where he was going – the tree was still fresh in his mind – and it didn’t hurt that he was able to take out more of the monsters that Ganondorf was controlling as he got there.

He got to the fort but he wasn’t able to do much of anything before he could sense Ganondorf’s looming and foreboding presence follow him inside. He only had the chance to turn around and raise his sword before Ganondorf closed the distance between them with a long stride – damn his height – and wrapped a hand around his neck and raised him in the air. His sword clattered to the ground.

Link resisted the urge to bare his fangs and hiss. Ganondorf’s presence set him on edge just from the other side of the battlefield, but for Ganondorf to be right in front of him, hands around his neck, made his nerves go haywire. Link tried in vain to pry his fingers off and he knew that if he forced his fangs out, he would have more than enough strength to free himself but he didn’t dare to. He tried to kick but his legs were too short to reach the man. Link didn’t think of himself as short but he was definitely short in comparison to Ganondorf.

“You don’t have to hide anything from me, boy,” Ganondorf chuckled with a smirk. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice the corruption? Did you really think I wouldn’t know what the sorceress did to you? Though, I suppose there is a good reason why you don’t hold the piece of wisdom.”

He wasn’t going to give into his taunts. Anger was boiling in his veins but he wasn’t going to give in, dammit! He wasn’t going to give Ganondorf an inch. He tried to focus his power and he could feel warmth rush in his blood as his piece activated but Ganondorf’s simply grabbed his wrist with his free hand and the feeling instantly died down.

Suddenly, there was a shout from just outside of the fort. He didn’t need his superior hearing to hear Zelda’s voice calling out his name.

“Oh? You’re just going to pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about?” he asked, pulling Link closer so that their faces were just a couple of inches apart. “Tch, just as well. I don’t need you to admit to anything. In fact, let me to test out my theory.”

Link raised an eyebrow when suddenly, the world spun and Link was face to face with one of Zelda’s arrows, imbued with light magic, flying right for him. Ganondorf was holding him in place, and even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to move fast enough, not even with his vampire powers.

He was blinded by pain when the arrow hit. It felt like his entire body was on fire, spreading from his right shoulder, down his arm, and across his chest. It felt like he was being torn from the inside out. If he screamed, he didn’t hear it over the buzzing in his head. If Ganondorf let him go, he didn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel anything other than his soul being set ablaze and he couldn’t hear anything but the static in his head.

Somehow, he stayed conscious. His vision cleared a little, so he could tell that he was on the ground and that he was probably staring at Ganondorf’s feet, but that was about it. He tried to move but all he could do was twitch his fingers and even that felt completely agonizing.

Ganondorf bent down beside him, grabbing his wrist and pulling his unresponsive body up. Link didn’t even have it in him to hiss or lift his head.

Suddenly, his body was burning with pain again, this time radiating from his left hand. It took his groggy mind a second to realize what this meant, but even if he picked up on it quicker, he was in no shape to stop Ganondorf from taking his piece of the Triforce. He knew the kingdom would be doomed if Ganondorf managed to get his hands on it, but getting hit with one of Zelda’s light arrows made his head spin and quite frankly, it was a miracle Link knew what was happening at all.

The pain didn’t last long at least. Ganondorf let him go, and he passed out as soon as his body hit the ground.

Tune wished that he watched Wild extract blood from dead monsters more often because he always made it seem so easy. Wild could harvest anything from a monster with an ease and grace that most people didn’t have. Granted, Tune didn’t know he had to study or take notes because he was completely unaware of the fact that he was part of the same war that Time and Warriors spoke of. He didn’t blame them from keeping it a secret because thinking about how he was probably the source of all the knowledge Time had – the knowledge that Tune relied on in the past – was headache inducing. However, the point still stood. He didn’t know there was going to be a test, so he didn’t know he should have been studying the fine art of extracting blood from dead monsters.

But he had the general idea, at least. He knew Wild used gravity to make blood pool, then he would make an incision to collect it.

Tune made it a point to carry rope on him at all times since Link was now a vampire. He doubt he would lose control again, at least not until Link became Warriors, but he was glad his habit of bringing ropes with him meant he could tie a dead bokoblin to a tree and make a cut on its foot. He filled a couple of the bottles, untied the bokoblin, stuffed the bottles into a bag so they were out of sight, and returned to camp.

The mood at the camp was abysmal. Without the chaos of a retreat, all that was left was the misery and the anxiety. Tune didn’t blame anybody for the mood – they did lose a very important battle and both their princess and their captain were sidelined. Obviously, they were in for a happier ending if Link would eventually earn the name Warriors and go on another journey that involved time travel, but it wasn’t like he could tell them that. Tune ignored the chill and walked into the tent he knew Link was recovering in, which was guarded by a Sheikah outside.

The tent was sparse. It was mostly just Link resting on a rickety cot, with a couple of stools around it. Mask was sitting on one of those stools, hands resting on his knees. There was an extra, thinner blanket thrown on top of Link to protect him from the little bit of sunlight that passed through the tent during the day. Even though it wasn’t day time now, the blanket was barely pulled back, so Tune couldn’t see his face until he much closer to the cot.

He pulled one of the bottles out, catching the attention of Mask – a little baby Time, he would never get used to it.

“I have a couple of these,” Tune started as he popped the cap off. “One bottle should make him feel pretty full, but it won’t be enough to heal him.”

“How many more of those will we need?” Impa asked, coming to join him by the way of Link’s cot.

“I don’t know for sure.” They weren’t the worst wounds Tune ever saw him with but it was pretty bad – the skin around his right collar bone was completely charred, along with the upper half of his bicep. He still had burns down the right side of his body, stretching slightly over his chest, and down the rest of his arm, but those burns were thankfully mostly first degree burns. He obtained worse burns after donning the name Warriors. “We’ll see how he feels after this first bottle.”

One of the other things that Tune learned in his past was the fact that young vampires were pretty reactive to the smell of blood as long as they weren’t completely unconscious or in a deep sleep. He was hopeful that Link was just sleeping as held the open bottle of blood under Link’s nose. After about half a minute, Link cracked his eyes open, revealing yellow and red. He didn’t seem to be entirely awake and aware but as long as his eyes were open, Tune knew he would drink blood.

“That’s normal,” Tune said when Mask’s eyes widened. “The fangs come out when vampires are hurt badly. Let’s get him up.”

Together, all three of them moved Link into a more comfortable position by propping up the pillows underneath him, which was enough of an angle for Link to comfortably drink at. Thankfully, aside from holding the bottle in place, Link didn’t need any help to drink and the more he drank, the more he perked up. Once he emptied the bottle, Link settled back into his pillows, his eyes scanning the room.

“Fuck, it hurts...” he muttered. “What’s the situation?”

“Just focus on getting better. There’s no point in getting worked up when there’s nothing you can do about it,” Impa answered simply. “Rest assured though, we’re safe for the time being.”

“What about Zelda?”

“She’s still injured but she’s only has to take it easy, so she’s still helping where she can. She’s next door making plans with Lana, in fact.”

Link frowned but Mask tapped him in one of the burn free places of his arm before Link could say anything. “I know you’re an idiot so you’re not going to listen,” he started, earning a hiss in response, “but right now, the only person you gotta worry about yourself. You have the most injuries out of everybody in the camp right now.”

“And they’re burns, so regeneration will take some time,” Tune added. “You really have to take it easy for now so you can repay the favour, got it? We lost the battle but we haven’t lost the war.”

“Haven’t lost the war huh,” Link mumbled. “I guess that’s true.”

“It is. Get better so we can put our heads together. We’ll win back Hyrule if it’s the last thing we do, got it? At any rate, I have to go check in on the princess. Tune and Mask are in charge of you,” she said in her General Impa voice before leaving the tent. Link rolled his eyes.

“I’m doomed,” Link mumbled.

Okay, so there's a lot more I could have included but I really only wrote this chapter - and this arc as a whole - for the friendly fire scene. That being said, this is the end of The Past Arc and we'll return to the present in the next chapter!

[trainsinanime]

WIP reblog game

I got tagged by @chaos-has-theories and @into-september. Sorry for the delay in doing this, I just forgot about it.

If you're like me and you have a million WIPs and are anxious about updating them, play this game!

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

Let's start with the stories. So, I don't trust myself with multi-chapter stories, it takes me forever to write one-shots already, so (almost) none of these are out yet. You can read the ones that are out over here.

Operation Multifail. Three-chapter story where Marinette tries to convince Chat Noir to stop thinking about Multimouse by fighting as Multimouse, badly, on purpose, so he'll think she's incompetent. It doesn't quite work out.

Kwamidaddy Adrien. Assumes Marinette is the guardian. For reasons, Chat Noir has to take the Kwamis for a while. They all promised not to tell him anything about her private life. Shouldn't be a problem, right? This one may also end up being like three chapters

Chlogami Sabrina's Wedding. I think I posted a rough outline for chapter one here: It's Sabrina's wedding, and drunk Chloé confides in also-drunk Kagami about her complicated relationship to Sabrina, how she's happy for her but also jealous but also knows that because of their baggage, it could never work, while Kagami also has feelings about Adrien's and Marinette's upcoming wedding. I have like half a first draft of a first chapter here and absolutely no clue where this might go next.

Wings AU - Learning to Land. So there's a wings AU concept for Miraculous that keeps coming up every now and then. A bit too angsty for me, but when I first heard it, I thought it was a fun idea to talk about aerodynamics and world building in that context, specifically where Marinette teaches sheltered Adrien how to fly.

Plagg Interview. Now we're deep in the dregs, I picked a folder at random. Alya publishes interviews with someone close to Chat Noir's thinking. That someone: Plagg, who has been bribed with cheese. Marinette is not happy, but she can't say anything because Alya can't learn she's Ladybug. Yeah, this one's been sitting in my folder for a while. As have the others. Probably a one-shot.

Stuff I'm looking forward to in each fic:

The whole thing is based around big action set pieces. Three big Akuma fights, one in each chapter, which Marinette tries to fail at in different ways, and fails to fail, so to speak. I have no idea how to write these well, but I think that can be fun. Super-unpopular opinion: Fanfiction has way too much angst and romance and not enough action, and I'm definitely part of the problem myself.

Adrien interacting with the Kwamis who imprint on him as their father should be really adorable. As should the Kwamis trying their best to get Adrien and Marinette to marry (without revealing too much (they will reveal too much)).

Writing the banter between Chloé and Kagami is fun. I want to write more of it. I can definitely see someone taking that concept and turning it into, for lack of a better word, "normal long fic"; you know, thirty chapters, misunderstanding, they take a trip for a few chapters and return, so on and so forth. I'm not doing that, I don't have the work ethic and it's not actually my favourite genre of fanfic anyway. But what else could this story be? Figuring that out is an interesting challenge.

Aerodynamics! Learning to land! How do you learn to fly in a Wings AU? What does "rich kids aren't allowed to fly" mean for the world building? I don't have a story here at all but I do like the setting.

Plagg and Alya scheming together should be gold. Plagg trying to barter with a Marinette who can't reveal she's the Guardian has also a lot of comedic potential. Plagg trying to teach both of them how much Adrien needs them could be very emotional. Just Plagg.

Also, do you have any title ideas for any of these? I think Operation Multifail is good, the rest are just literally the file names I chose when I started with these projects.

I am tagging, very much at random, @sizzleissues, @pauliestorylover, @oblivionhold, @wrw47, @precious-notes, @kyuunonana, @aidanchaser, @aanabear2803, @valtionrautatiet-official and @cosmiccarrotcake. The requirement for inclusion was "I found you in my activity view in the past three months", so if you don't know what fanfic is, or don't feel like doing this, do feel free to ignore this.

[mercurygray]

hiiiiii you know i have to ask about the bitb/rowing idea!! dick taking up rowing is something i never knew i needed until now haha

She never thought she'd see another regatta.

College felt impossibly far away from where Joan was sitting in the grandstands of the Potomac Rowing Club - the sweaters, the flags, the weight of Ben's fraternity pin on her jacket. The world had looked different, in 1939 - and while she remembered that she liked a great many things about Bennett Hilliard, she also remembered being quite sure that becoming Mrs. Hilliard while he want to law school wasn't in her cards. Still, he'd come from the right sort of family and danced well and she'd liked the way she felt in his arms. Everyone at Poughkeepsie had been talking about Helsinki, and how it was a shame no one would be able to follow up the miraculous success of the UW team at Berlin.

The river in front of her today, however, was not the Hudson, and ten years was a long time in between races - a lot of water under many, many oars. Bennett Hilliard had gone on to marry some other Goucher graduate and she had gone to war.

Someone cleared his throat - a well-dressed man in glasses and a Syracuse scarf. "Captain Warren, it's so good of you to come out today. Your husband said we'd be seeing you. Usually we have to save Go Army for the football season. I like Dickie's chances - he's got to be one of the most natural rowers I've ever seen. It's Mort Greenstan," he said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Joan finally placed the name, and abbreviated the smile that sprang to her lips hearing him called Dickie, a name he never owned to if he could help it. "The club chairman, yes, Dick mentioned you might stop by."

"Do you mind if I join you? I brought binoculars, in case you forgot."

"Thanks, I have my own," Joan said, patting the well-worn pair that had seen her through most of Europe.(She'd noticed the woman down the row a little had a lovely pair of pearl-handles on hers, but now wasn't the time for getting self-conscious. Joan Warren didn't follow things like fashion and if she wanted to bring her army binoculars to a regatta, she was damn well going to bring her army binoculars.)

"My, those have really been through the war, haven't they?" Mort said, trying to make a joke as he made himself comfortable on the seat next to her. Joan nodded serenely.

"Three campaigns in Europe and two combat jumps," she said, and smiled even wider when Mort went silent.

Down at the dock, the competitors were just getting into their sculls, each man wearing the colors of his own home club. A few colleges, here and there, Georgetown and Harvard and even Greenstan's Syracuse colors, and the other out of towners, Hudson and Annapolis and Newport. And there was Dick in his racing singlet and shorts, arms and legs all whipcord and muscle, and she allowed herself a good long look at the man she married. He caught sight of her in the stands and smiled, waving. She touched her hand to her lips, a small personal symbol of a kiss, and watched his smile widen.

The announcer was blazing through the names of the competitors, and she caught, almost missing it as it blew by, "-Colonel Richard Winters, rowing today for Potomac in the single men's sculls."

She had been just as surprised as anyone else when she'd came home from an assignment and realized there were muscles under his suitcoat that she'd hardly noticed when she left. "I joined the rowing club," he'd explained. "They were talking about it at lunch and Ken's a member, so I started going on Saturdays. It's a lot like running - the way you can lose your mind in it."

She'd nodded and agreed and made a joke about other things he could lose his mind in that required stroking, and that had been the last they'd talked about it for several hours, at least. But he'd kept at it until it was silly calling it a hobby, and now they were here, at a regatta, in the starting heats of a crowded and talented field.

The sculls were at the starting line, the rowers crouching into position at their oars, eyes ready for the flag. Joan tightened her grip on her binoculars and waited for the starter, her feet yearning for starting blocks and racing spikes, and a sudden surge of energy filled her as the flag dropped down and the race was on, and she was right there with him in his boat, shouting for the pace.

[booksrbetterthanpeople]

Some static shock quotes with miraculous characters especially the science kids?

Ismael: Mutant? Now that's degrading.

Simon: You have a better word for it?

Ismael: I kind of like... meta-human.

-

Doctor: Do these changes involve another person?

Zoé: A lot of them.

Doctor: ... Does your father know what you've been doing?!

Zoé: What?! Whoa, Doc, we're talking about two totally different things here.

-

Akuma: You're that freak from TV!

Wyvern: You say freak, I say unique!

-

Wyvern: Lucky that water main was

Minnie: Uh, Wyern...? That wasn't a water main. It was a sewer line.

-

Nathaniel: What's that guy got that I don't have?

Alix: Let's make a list. Looks, height, all-state in track and field - shall I quit while you're behind?

Nathaniel: I thought we were tight, Alix.

Alix: We are bro, just keeping it real.

-

Nathaniel: Do you know what hanging with Marc Anciel is going to do to my rep?

Alix: Uh... Start it?

-

Simon: Where're you taking us, Aurore?

Aurore: Patience, we're almost there. It'll be easier when we're old enough to drive.

Denise: Hey, we could have gotten on my shield and flown.

Reshma: Well, no disrespect, but I've seen you fall off that thing.

Denise: One time, and they were shooting at me!

-

Ismael: You gotta be kidding me. You'd have to renovate before this place could even qualify as a dump.

Aurore Oh, come on, use your imagination; right now this place might be a broken down, rat-infested...

Jean: (interrupts) Rat-infested?!

Aurore: We'll get some traps. The point is, with a little work, this could be the nerve center of our entire superhero operation.

Simon: And what would we call it, the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude?

Aurore: Ahh, that's funny.

Cosette: Hey, I'd have built us a tree house if I had a tree.

Lacey: I wish I could just go out and rent a decent headquarters, but that takes money.

Reshma: Nobody ever said the superhero gig would be a profit center.

Marc: Yeah, but it's costing me; I keep tearing my costume, melting my shoes.

-

Nora: *banging her hand on the locked bathroom door* Alya Ovid Césaire, get your ashy butt out here right this minute!

Alya: *unlocks the door and sticks her head out* Nora! My middle name is never to be spoken aloud, you know that! *sticks his bed back into the bathroom and slams the door closed*

-

Yvette: Don't you ever go home?

Zoé: *Cuddling with Cosette on the couch* I smell an insinuation.

-

Lapin: He even had purple skin and orange hair!

Rooster Bold: Ugh, Akumas. They just have no fashion sense.

-

Leonardo: You ok, sir?

Driver: You almost threw me into orbit! I was scared to death!

Leonardo: I'm sorry, but something's happened to my powers. They're way stronger than they used to be.

Driver: That so? Well, can you drop me off at 44th and 3rd?

Leonardo: Didn't you just say you were scared to death?

Driver: Yeah. But the traffic in this town is even scarier.

-

Lacey: This looks like a job for...

Jean: Don't finish that sentence, Lacey. Superman already owns the rights.

-

Reshma: You told them we were doing homework? On a Friday night?

Ismael: Think they won't believe me?

Reshma: No, they will, which doesn't say much for our social lives.

-

Fennec: Look, can we just talk for a sec'?

Evillustrator: No! Give it back! It's mine!

Fennec: Give what back? *Evillustrator prepares to attack* Wait?! Is this about that photo? HEY, you can have it back! Come on, Nathaniel. Chill out!

Evillustrator: You... You know my name?

Fennec: I found out from some people!.. People who care about you.

Evillustrator: Nobody cares about me!! *He hits her with some of his ink*

Fennec: Whoah! Come on slow down! I care... And I wanna help you... I know what you've gone through...

Evillustrator: How could you know...?

Fennec: Because... I lost my dad, too. *Evillustrator stops attacking. She returns his picture of Nathaniel and his father* I know how hard it is, how the pain never really goes away...

-

Zoé: That doesn't make any sense! Why am I changing now?! You all got your powers the day the lab exploded!

Simon: I don't know. Late boomer, maybe? I mean, others had delayed reactions.

-

Pluto: *admires herself in the mirror in her new uniform* Well? What do ya think?

King Cobra: I think you spend too much time in front of the mirror than Lemon Bee and Rooster Bold do! And that worries me.

Pluto: Now I just need to come up with a superhero handle. How about, Fido?

Minnie: Nope!

Pluto: Fluffy?

*Hamlet rolls his eyes*

Pluto: All I've got left is Pluto!

Minnie: Hey, as long as your costume doesn't match the character, you're good.

-

Caprikid: What? Afraid I'm gonna show you up again, rooster boy? Well, you can relax.

Rooster Bold: I am relaxed. You're the one jumpin' around like a demented cheerleader.

-

Pluto: Time we used Plan "B".

Bronco: Okay. What's Plan "B"?

Pluto: Stop using Plan "A".

-

Wyvern: Look at this; it’s a review of your debut.

Roi Singe: I don’t read reviews.

Wyvern: Don’t or can’t?

Roi Singe: Look I’m dyslexic all right. They put me in a special learning program. They showed me techniques.

Wyvern: Like what?

Roi Singe: A lot of stuff. You change words into something you can feel instead of looking at, but it takes patience. I could never sit still as a kid.

Wyvern: So you dropped out of the program?

Roi Singe: I felt dumb! Don’t tell anyone about this ok?

Wyvern: You’re not dumb! Look what you made of yourself. A hero. An athlete. But…

Roi Singe: But I messed up.

Wyvern: I was gonna say ‘But you can’t give in’. You said you can read, it just takes some work. Do the work.

-

Hamlet: Austin Tomassian, I'm glad to see you're ok.

Austin T: You can drop the act, Songbird.

Hamlet: You know?

Austin T: Wasn't hard to figure out. Why else kidnap me to get to Hamlet? And maybe, just maybe, in the back of my mind, I've always known.

-

Marinette: Is that... Marc?

Rooster Bold: Uh... You have to understand the most secret part of a superhero is their secret identity and, well, uh-

Lapin: Yeah, that's Marc.

Rooster Bold: Hi.

-

Alya: Look! It's the Miracle Squad!

Nino: And as usual, Mme. Mendeleieve's class is nowhere in sight... You don't think?

Alya: Nah. It couldn't be.