#i struggled on the chibi so much this time it was ridiculous

[pepsimanan]

#33 SONiKA

[bakugous-tits]

Standing in the Sun

So! Since my old blog got hacked and deleted, I'm finally ready to come back! I'll just be posting a few of my faves for now, and this is number one to come back out! I love Mirio so much, and this was a labour of love for me to write but I'm so happy with it and I hope everyone enjoys it <3

Pairing: Mirio/Reader

Word Count: 14,031

Warnings: Soulmate AU, violence, awkwardness, smut but this one is fairly vanilla I believe? There is a creampie though!

Thank you and enjoy!

You were 16 when your mark showed up.

Everyone in school had laughed when it showed up, the child-like sun showing up on your wrist looking absolutely ridiculous. Most soul marks were a little more refined, looking like fancy tattoos more than anything.

Yours looked like an 8 year old’s interpretation of a sun, minus the cartoon sunglasses and poorly drawn smile.

It was so basic. One of your friends had an intricate rose across her ribcage, another had a detailed mountain range on his back-

And you had a simple sun. 

What the fuck did that even mean? 

In a world full of quirks it was always difficult to know whether your soul mark had something to do with your soulmate’s personality, hobbies, or their quirk; and with one as plain as yours, you figured that you’d never find your person. Were they someone with a light based quirk? Did they just like being outside? 

Years later, you still didn’t know. 

You stared down at your wrist, sighing as you leaned back on your sofa. The TV played on in the background, but you were unaware of what was on anymore, mostly using it as white noise at this point. The paperwork you’d been doing for your students was scattered around your coffee table in various piles, only half done. As a developing quirk advisor, you spent your days helping kids whose quirks had recently manifested to learn to control them, and spent your nights marking their progress through various reports for their parents and teachers. It was rewarding work, even if it took up almost all of your time in order to keep up with the number of kids under your care. 

A glance over at the digital clock on your oven revealed that you’d been sat there for longer than you’d thought- it was starting to get late and you still hadn’t even thought about what to eat. Stretching your arms over your head, you groaned in satisfaction at the way your joints popped. Leaving your paperwork on the table, you ran a hand over your pomeranian’s head as he napped next to you on the sofa, ignoring his little grumble as you stood up. You smiled at his grumpiness as you padded over to your kitchen, only to groan when you opened the fridge.

Nothing. Nothing you could use to make a substantial meal anyway, and the way your stomach was growling at you said that a snack wasn’t going to cut it. Your eyes dragged over to Chibi when he raised his head to glare at you, as if he knew what you were thinking already. As you closed the fridge you smirked, tilting your head at him. “Hey buddy, you want to go for a walk?” 

Chibi snorted, turning around in place on the sofa and flopping down, his back facing you. 

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After 20 minutes and a lot of unnecessary furry struggling, Chibi was reluctantly trotting along the pavement beside you as you headed to a nearby ramen shop that knew you by name. You smiled down at him fondly as you walked, knowing that even though he likely hated you right now he’d be back to snuggling you in bed later. 

A small commotion further up the street stole your attention away from your companion, your head shooting up at the shrill scream that tore through the air. A woman was on the ground, having been pushed down by a large man that was running around the corner-

A man who was currently barrelling toward you. 

Before you could even react, he’d crashed into you and sent you crumbling to the ground, Chibi’s leash flying out of your grip as you fell. You cried out as you hit the pavement, the breath knocked from your lungs momentarily as you registered the footsteps of more people running towards you. Scrambling to grab Chibi’s leash, your heart was in your throat as you watched him jump away from all the people sprinting past. He yelped as he ran out into the (thankfully empty) street, little legs pumping and taking him away from you. 

You watched him go with frantic eyes, only looking away from him briefly to glance at the incoming group of people.

Heroes. 

While part of you was relieved that the brute that knocked you down was going to be taken care of, your focus was quickly drawn back to the rapidly disappearing canine that was running still. Pushing yourself up quickly, you took to chasing him on your own, the other civilians in the area too distracted by the hero chase to really pay attention to your frantic calls of your dog’s name. 

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You still hadn’t found him. 

You’d been searching for what felt like hours already, calling out his name between sobs. As your only companion, Chibi was probably an attachment that would be considered unhealthy at this point but he was your world. Losing him would be a huge blow, and it had your heart pounding in fear at what could have possibly happened to him. 

“Excuse me, Miss? Is this little guy the one you’re looking for?” 

Whipping around quickly, you gasped at the sight of Chibi panting heavily in someone's arms, not even looking up at the person straight away. You choked out his name, your arms shooting out to grab him as you sobbed out a yes to the stranger. Chibi happily snuggled into you as you held him close to your chest, licking at your cheeks before settling in your arms. You finally looked up to thank the stranger, relief flooding you as your eyes flicked up to meet-

Blue. His eyes were so blue. 

And he was big . The man towered over you, the brightness of his outfit surprising you for a moment before you realised that he was a hero . And not just any hero either, this was Lemillion . His grin was still boyish despite the fact that he had to be in his mid twenties by now, not too far from your own age. Your mouth hung open, your eyes rapidly tracing over him as he chuckled at your response. 

From what you remembered seeing back in your school days from the sports festivals, Lemillion had always been big, but now that he’d graduated and become a pro hero, the baby fat was completely gone. He was all hard planes of muscle, broad shoulders and massive arms, and god damn those thighs looked powerful. But as your eyes returned to his face, a heat coming to your cheeks at so blatantly checking him out, you realised that there was definitely a boyish charm to his look. 

“Sorry it took me so long to find him! I saw the whole thing before but he’s fast ! And even when I caught up to him he was so grumpy at first! You’ve got a little spitfire there!” Lemillion was looking down at Chibi in your arms with almost the same fond expression you’d had before everything happened. You reached a hand up to swipe the tears from your cheeks, sniffling once before getting yourself together and smiling at him.

“Thank you for finding him for me, I didn’t think it’d really be a priority when there was something like that going on…” Lemillion blinked at you for a second before laughing, reaching out to stroke the top of Chibi’s head softly. 

“There were plenty of heroes around to catch that guy, and he was nearly out of steam anyway! When I saw this guy run off I knew I had to do something to help, so I split off and hunted him down. He’s a smart cookie though! Knew to take the back streets and alleys, and when I found him he was huddled in a bush!” Lemillion’s hand moved down to scratch under Chibi’s chin, the canine’s eyes squinting in satisfaction. “Now that you’ve got him though… It’s pretty late, you should be getting home! After all that excitement, both you and the little guy probably need to rest.”

You opened your mouth to thank him one last time before you left, but halted when your stomach grumbled loudly. Your face flushed with heat once again as Lemillion’s eyed dropped to your stomach, his eyes widening in understanding after a moment.

“Oh! You haven’t eaten yet? Well, if it’s okay with you… d’you wanna grab something to eat with me? My patrol is over now and I’m starving!”

You blinked. Lemillion wanted to have dinner with you? You knew from the various people who posted about him online that he was a friendly hero, but this seemed a little over the top…

But the look on his face was open, genuine, like it was something he did all the time. You couldn’t help but nod, a small smile on your lips.

“Sure, but you have to let me treat you, okay? As a thank you for rescuing Chibi…” You raised the arm holding your dog, gesturing to him with your head and rolling your eyes playfully. Lemillion’s face tinted pink, his head shaking and a protest that you could already hear starting to form. “And I won’t take no for an answer, mister, so just accept it.”

Lemillion almost seemed bashful as he nodded, even though he was the one who boldly offered in the first place. As you led him back to your favourite ramen shop, you chatted amicably about mundane things. You didn’t pick up on it straight away, but by the end of the walk you had caught him staring at you a few times as you walked, eyes always tracing over your face. As you sat down at the table in the little shop, placing Chibi on the chair next to you, you gave him a curious look. 

“Is something wrong?” Lemillion’s face blazed at your question as he sat down across from you, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck and chuckling nervously. His eyes avoided you, instead focusing on the menu as he cleared his throat.

“Nothing! It’s fine, don’t worry about it!”

You ended up dismissing the thoughts and focusing on food yourself, and soon enough the two of you had your orders and were tucking into them heartily. The shop owner (who knew you very well from your years of coming here, and absolutely loved Chibi.) even provided your little man with some strips of meat, patting him softly on the head before toddling off to serve other customers. As you ate, you stole glances at Lemillion, catching him watching you a few times again and both of you quickly breaking eye contact and looking away. 

You couldn’t shake a nagging feeling in the back of your head, a feeling you weren’t able to identify constantly swimming at the edges of your mind. It felt… warm. Like even though you two just met, you’d known each other longer than that, and that this was just another comfortable hangout among many others.

In reality, his costume was drawing curious eyes as people passed the ramen shop. You bristled slightly when a couple of teenage girls came up to your table requesting an autograph, unsure of why you had a pit in your stomach at his resulting smile. The girls were fawning over him and somehow, it put you off the rest of your food, making you put down your utensils and push it away from you slightly. You focused on stroking Chibi’s head, giving the dog your full attention as Mirio fielded their questions and signed some of their belongings. When he finally waved goodbye to them and turned back to you, your previously happy mood had dimmed and you were simply getting tired, the emotional nature of the evening finally catching up with you. Lemillions eyes widened as you yawned, pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking the time before slapping his forehead dramatically.

“Oh man! I didn’t realise how late it was! We should get you home, right?” Nodding your head, you quickly pulled out some money to pay for both of your meals and picked Chibi up once again. You waved to the owner of the restaurant as you walked out, ignoring her pointedly raised brows when she looked between you and Lemillion, and stepped out into the cool night air. Crossing your arms over Chibi, you were glad you’d pulled a hoodie on before you left the house earlier, the night having cooled considerably already. 

Lemillion took a deep breath and set his hands on his hips, smiling up at the night sky for a second before turning to face you.

“That was some good food! Thanks for showing me this place, I might have to come back sometime.” His head tilted to the side as he noticed you wrap your arms a little tighter around Chibi, a frown twisting his face slightly. “Are you cold? Here, let me just…”

Lemillion reached up, fiddling with where his cape meets his costume for a moment before the fabric came loose, reaching out to wrap it around your shoulders gently. Your eyes widened for a moment as you unwrapped one arm from around Chibi’s belly, clutching the cape closed and looking down to the floor sheepishly, heat rising in your cheeks again. Lemillion fiddled with the fabric until he was satisfied with its placement, smiling at you gently and gesturing for you to lead the way. He was going to walk you home?

The heat in your cheeks stayed firmly in place, your stomach flipping even as you internally berate yourself. He’s a hero, of course he’s going to be nice to you. Don’t look into it too much, it doesn’t mean anything to him . Forcing your feelings to chill the fuck out, you started walking toward your home and gave Lemillion a soft smile as he fell into step beside you. The walk wasn’t all that long, the two of you chit chatting as you went and Chibi resting comfortably in your arms and panting as he watched the world go by. Lemillion seemed to be showing actual interest in you and your work when he asked questions, throwing you for a loop and making your stomach flip flop dramatically even though you knew he was just doing his job as a hero. 

As you walked, your mind started to wander. You couldn’t understand why you felt so… relaxed? That wasn’t quite the right word, but the feeling in the back of your mind refused to show itself any further to let you identify it. This was a hero, a man you’d never met before that night, but you were walking and talking like you’d known each other for years, laughing and poking fun at anything and everything. Lemillion’s sense of humour was… odd at times, but you found yourself enjoying it nonetheless. You almost felt… upset when you arrived back at your house, a soft frown on your face. Lemillion noticed, because of course he did, and raised a brow at you in question.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” His voice was softer than it had been all night, and it made something in your chest twist. You ignored the feeling, schooling your features and smiling up at him with a nod.

“Of course! Well, this is me! Thank you so much, Lemillion, count me as one of your ‘million people saved’, okay?” Your joking words had him smiling widely, hands going to his hips once again.

“Don’t mention it! Have a good night, okay?” With those parting words, Lemillion turned with a mock salute and headed off into the night. You smiled after him for a moment, before making your way into your house, letting Chibi down and removing his harness. The dog immediately ran over and settled himself into his spot on the sofa, huffing as he lay down to fall asleep. 

You groaned when you realised that Lemillion had forgotten to take his cape from you. As you held the material in your hands, you sighed and buried your face into it for a second. It still smelled like him, something citrusy and light, but still distinctly masculine, and you cringed when it occurred to you that this was super creepy . You can’t just sniff a guy’s cape like that!. You folded the fabric carefully, placing it on the small table by the front door in case he realised and came back for it, before removing your hoodie to hang it up by the front door.

You failed to notice that rapidly fading glow of your soul mark on your wrist, too focused on staring fondly at your canine companion. 

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Lemillion never came back for his cape, but you saw a news story a few days later about a rescue he’d been part of and he had a new one, so you figured he wasn’t all that bothered. 

You started using it as a throw on the sofa, snuggling up with Chibi under it when you were watching TV in the evenings, hoping he never came back for the damn thing. It was the perfect thickness to provide comfort, but thin enough not to overheat you, and it was so damn soft . You loved it.

The whole encounter became just another crazy story you could tell your friends and coworkers. Lemillion found your lost dog, had dinner with you and walked you home- who else could say that? In the weeks following the event, you told it countless times, until everyone already knew and it started to fade from your repertoire. Some of them were jealous, others told you you should have dragged him into your home and had your way with him. You always felt heat rise in your cheeks at that, shaking your head vehemently to deny the idea. He was hot, sure, but he was a hero , and you were just a simple everyday woman. 

Once the novelty wore off, you threw yourself back into your work. One of your students had been struggling a lot with her quirk- it had manifested recently and was a mutation, so none of her family were really able to help her all that much with learning how to control it. 

Your own quirk was almost perfectly suited to your job: Empathy. You were able to feel the emotions of others when you concentrated on them, and with time you learned how to influence their emotions too. This meant that when your students were scared, frustrated or angry, you were able to calm them down a little and help them see the situation clearly. 

Growing up, you hadn’t really known how to apply your quirk most helpfully. You’d never really wanted to be a hero, but that didn’t mean you didn’t want to help people, and it was only when you were volunteering to help a neighbor out with their young child that it occurred to you.

Man, I wish I had your quirk! Being able to calm this little one down during a tantrum would make my life ten times easier!

And with those words in mind, you realised what you wanted to do. Helping others by helping the next generation of heroes get to grips with their quirks, help them grow and flourish- it was perfect. Many years of studying and internships later, you were finally one of the best in the city, sought after by many schools for their problem children. It was exhausting, but you’d never trade it for anything now.

This particular little girl- Mika- had a quirk that allowed her to create storm clouds. Not just rain, but thunder and lightning too, and since she came from a family with all ground based quirks they were out of their element with her. The school had contacted you a while ago when she accidentally started making clouds inside the classroom when she got upset or didn’t understand something, and then became scared at the thunder. It would make her produce more clouds, only making the situation worse and ending with lots of the students in tears. 

Mika was a quiet girl, a little on the shy side but with a heart of gold, and you wanted to help her so damn bad. She idolised heroes, and wished for a different quirk every day because she didn’t think she could become one with hers. As you were walking home from your most recent session with her, lost in your head, you didn’t even see someone exiting the shop next to you. 

You crashed into what felt like a brick wall, your ass hitting the ground harshly as you dropped your work bag. Your eyes had closed in surprise, but shot open when you heard a familiar voice.

“Oh-! I’m so sorry- Hey, it’s you!” Lemillion stood in front of you yet again, although this time in civilian clothes. You gaped up at him and blinked, before scurrying to your feet, grabbing your bag and shaking your head.

“No! It was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention…” Your eyes drifted to the takeout bag in his hand, before glancing up to see that-

You were outside the ramen shop. He’d come back after all. Noticing your wandering gaze, he looked up to follow your eyes and chuckled, one arm coming up to rub a hand over the back of his head sheepishly.

“I uh- I really liked our dinner the other week, so I’ve been coming back here a few times since then.” Lemillion’s cheeks flushed, and you raise a brow. He almost seemed embarrassed, but you didn’t understand why until he spoke up again, uncharacteristically quiet. “And I was- well, I was kind of hoping to run into you again to be honest…”

Your heart kicked into overdrive for a second, your stomach flipping again until you realised- his cape. He probably just wanted it back, not to actually see you , because why would you even register on his radar? You were just a person he’d saved once. One of his million.

“O-oh, of course… If you’d be willing to walk home with me I can give it back right away, sorry for taking it in the first place but I didn’t really know how to give it back…” Your eyes didn’t lift from your hands, readjusting your bag and making sure all of your files were in place and that nothing had fallen out. When you finally looked up, Lemillion had a confused look on his face, his head tilted slightly. You raised a brow, your brows furrowing slightly. “...Your cape? That’s why you were trying to find me, right?” 

Lemillion blinked at you, before bursting into laughter. All you could do was stand there, confused, people passing by giving you odd looks as they hurried past the hysterical man. He managed to reign it in, swiping at one of his eyes as his breathing began to level out.

“Oh, man! I forgot I even left it with you! I’ve had so many spares made over the years so I don’t really notice when my team swaps ‘em out.” The smile he gave you was genuine- and the softness in his eyes as he gazed down at you made something in your chest flutter before you could stop it. But you do- you had to stop being like this, you’d only met the man once and he saved so many people in one day, there was no way you were ever going to register on his radar and you refused to get your hopes up.

Besides, you had a soulmate out there somewhere who was waiting for you, you couldn’t let yourself get hung up on him just because he was lovely, and had nice eyes and you wanted to bite his thighs and rub your hands all over his pecs and-

Stop it .

You took a deep breath, shaking your head slightly. If it wasn’t his cape, then why the hell was he looking for you? Opening your mouth to ask, Lemillion cut you off before you could even speak.

“I wanted to speak to you about the kids you work with and if maybe we could set up some kind of group meet and greet, or something. I know it always motivated me to work hard at figuring out my quirk when I saw heroes in action as a kid, so imagine what it might do to actually meet one!” And there it was. The rational explanation that helped cut your thoughts off, despite the fog of hurt that suddenly swirled in your chest. This was for the best, you didn’t need to obsess over a man who’s world was so far removed from your own. You cleared your throat, adjusting your bag over your arm as you smiled up at him.

“Seems like a good idea, yeah! If you’re not too busy, that is…” 

“Of course not! I wouldn’t have offered it if I didn’t think I’d have time.” Lemillion rubbed at the back of his head, digging into his pocket for a moment. “So, I think it would probably be a good idea if we swapped numbers- to organise something, of course, just to keep in contact more easily.” There was something odd about his face as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, but you didn’t have a chance to dwell on it before he was handing you the object and prompting you to fill in your information. Once you’d shared your contacts, you asked him if he’d like to wait at the shop for you to go retrieve his cape. The hero laughed, waving you off.

“Like I said, I didn’t even realise it was gone! You may as well keep it.” You went to protest, only to be cut off by his phone ringing in his hand. As he answered the call, he gave you an apologetic look, muttering softly to the person on the other side before hanging up. “Shoot, they need me back at the agency- here, I won’t have time to eat it now, so you may as well have my order. At least it won’t go to waste then, right?”

Without waiting for a response, he placed the bag in your hand and darted off, your jaw dropping as you looked after him. With a heavy sigh, you trudged home and set the takeaway on the kitchen counter, Chibi circling at your feet in excitement. Opening the bags to inspect what he’d bought, something fluttered in your chest when you saw the contents.

Lemillion had ordered the exact things you’d both had on the night you’d met. 

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This was getting ridiculous.

You shouldn’t be feeling like this about a man you’ve only met in person twice . 

Lemillion was just too nice, too lovely, though, and as you texted back and forth in the weeks following your second meeting you couldn't help the little flip flops that your stomach went through when you saw his name light up your phone screen. The man was always so happy in his texts, so understanding when you ended up delving into the more serious discussions about your students. 

It was playing absolute havoc on your heart. 

It was finally the day before Lemillion would be coming into your afterschool class to meet your students, the whole thing set up as a surprise for the youngsters. Putting down your phone after sending him a text to confirm that everything was still good to go, you sighed and turned your hand over to stare at your soulmate mark. This wasn’t fair. There was someone out there for you, and here you were getting all worked up over a man way out of your league. You shook your head, letting your arm drop down onto your bed, curling up further onto your side and closing your eyes. 

“What are you doing…? Just- stop it. It’ll never work. He probably already has his soulmate, so there’s no point…” Murmuring to yourself softly, your eyes shot open when your phone buzzed next to your face on the pillow. Lemillion’s name filled your screen, your heart kicking up a gear as you swiped to open the message.

Lemillion: All good on my end! As long as there’s no emergencies tomorrow, I should be there around 3! I can’t wait to see you!

And there was your heart, pounding even heavier as the chat bubbles came up again, signalling him typing once more.

Lemillion: And the kids, obviously! Haha, that’s the main thing tomorrow, isn’t it!

Your heart calmed down a little, but heat remained in your cheeks from his words. He hadn’t corrected himself, he’d just added on the kids. Did that mean-?

Groaning, you turned your face into your pillow. You really needed to stop this, damn it. You peeked one eye out when your phone buzzed with an alert. Tapping on the notification, you were taken to a news page about a fight that had broken out earlier in the day. Your heart swelled when you caught sight of a certain blonde hero, a video showing him engaged in a hand to hand fight with a villain that was attempting to rob a bank. The villain couldn’t land a single hit, Lemillion’s permeation quirk frustrating him more and more as the hero kept punching him over and over. Eventually, the villain fell to the floor after a particularly solid hit to the face, knocked out and drooling on the floor. 

The determined look in Lemillion’s eyes throughout the fight only made you admire him more, his drive to protect the civilians from harm and save as many people as possible… He truly was an inspiration. You tapped out of the video, going back to your messages with the hero. Sighing once again, you decided to turn in.

After sending him a thumbs up and wishing him goodnight, you plugged your phone in and turned over, closing your eyes once more and attempting to fall asleep so you wouldn’t be completely knocked out the next day. The last thoughts in your mind swirled around him, head filled with visions of his eyes, the sounds of his laugh.

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Hot. It was so hot, sweat dripping down your spine as you perched on the edge of the bed, your ass raised high and your face buried in the covers. Hands were clasped around your waist, big and reassuring as the man leaned forward to place kisses across your shoulders, a whine sticking in your throat as you arched into him. You felt his lips stretch into a smile at your movements before he straightened, one of his hands leaving your waist to move between your legs, the tip of his finger circling your clit and forcing a moan from your chest. Starting at a teasing pace, his finger gradually got faster, making your legs shake and hands grasp the sheets where they were stretched above your head. 

Somehow you were already dripping wet, your walls aching to be filled, clenching around nothing. A deep chuckle met your ears as he removed his hand, the feeling of something much thicker taking its place as he rubbed the head of his cock against your clit. Trying to push back against him, you gasped when he softly swatted at your ass, laughing once again. 

Your wishes were granted when you felt him start to push into you, your jaw dropping open at the stretch of him- long, thick and heavy inside you. He gave you a minute to adjust to him, before he started to move. His thighs hit against your ass with each pump of his hips, leaving you achingly empty when he drew back and pulling moans from you when he pushed back in. 

“Always take me so well, baby, so good…”

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You jolted awake, sweat covering your skin and the sheets kicked off around your legs. Chest heaving, you reached up to wipe the sweat from your brow, noting the mess of wetness between your thighs. 

That voice… That was Lemillion…

You shook your head, reaching over to grab your phone and check the time. With only about 20 minutes before you had to get up to get ready for work anyway, you switched off your alarm and slunk into the shower to clean up. It felt so real, the warmth of his hands on your skin almost lingering on you even in the heat of the shower. 

After staying under the hot spray for much longer than was strictly necessary, you managed to pull yourself together and sat down for a small breakfast, wondering how the fuck you were going to look Lemillion in the eyes today after that dream. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and forced yourself to calm down. 

Damn it, I’m a professional! I can do this.  

Breakfast cleared, you grabbed your bag and your files, patting Chibi on the head softly before leaving for the day, the dog looking up at you with a huff to see you off.

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“What’s the surprise, huh? We wanna know!” 

“Why’d we gotta wait ‘till after school? Tell us!”

“ Please? ” 

The kids were practically frothing at the mouth when you told them you had a surprise waiting for them during their last official lesson of the day, many of them getting frustrated when you refused to tell them what was happening during your session after official school hours ended. While most of the kids in this class had a good handle on their quirks, there were more in here that struggled than any other class so for the time being you had a group session with them one day a week. The kids with more difficulty had individual sessions with you on other days, like Mika. 

Your eyes drifted over to her where she sat quietly in the corner of the class, fiddling with a keychain on her backpack. As the other kids began packing up their things, you wandered over to where she was sitting and crouched down to her height, smirking when you realised what she was messing with.

A Lemillion keychain.

“Do you like Lemillion, Mika?” The little girl jumped at your voice, but smiled when she realised you were asking her about her accessory. The smile spread as she looked down at it and nodded, her fingers tracing the raised metal that framed a cartoon version of the hero. You pulled the sleeves of your cardigan further over your wrists as you raised a brow at her.

“He’s my favourite! He’s strong, and nice, and he saves so many people!” Resting your hand on the top of her head softly, you gave her a grin. “I wanna be a hero like him! I wanna save lotsa people just like Lemillion!”

“I just know you can do it, Mika! Work hard, and you can be just like him!” You straightened and headed back towards the door, leaning against the frame as you waited for the kids to be ready to leave. A buzzing in your pocket had you pulling out your phone.

Lemillion: I’m in the gym, ready to go! Can’t wait!

Placing your phone back into your pocket, you clapped your hands as the kids lined up in front of you, getting their attention. They quieted down quickly, eager to find out what their surprise was. You led them easily through the school grounds until you got to the gym, pausing outside the door and clearing your throat as you turned to your group.

“Okay guys, I need you to listen to me closely! Your surprise is in here, and I know you’re all gonna be excited, but please remember your manners, okay?” Murmurs erupted through the group, brows furrowing in confusion until you opened the door and ushered them in. Collective gasps filled the room as the group finally saw their prize: Lemillion, in the flesh, standing in the middle of the gym. Your eyes strayed to Mika, taking in the shining of her eyes and the way her jaw dropped before she looked back at you. She grinned, a look mirrored on your own face, before her eyes returned to her hero.

The next hour or so was mostly Lemillion fielding questions, signing things and hyping the kids up, many of them leaving with their parents afterwards with smiles filling their faces, as well as new determination. You had to hand it to him- he’d been right about this encouraging the kids, but there was one more thing you wanted to squeeze out of the experience.

“Mika?” the girl in question looked up at you, still clutching her backpack with careful hands. Lemillion had signed it for her, and you had a feeling that it was now her prized possession. “Can you come here for a moment?”

Having already cleared an extra fifteen minutes with her parents, you knew this would be just what the girl needed to help with her quirk. As she approached, you looked over to Lemillion once again, meeting his eyes and tilting your head down towards her. A look of understanding filled his face as he walked towards you, his smile returning as he approached Mika and yourself. Mika looked sheepish, especially now that everyone else had left, but Lemillion gave her a soft smile as he crouched down. 

“Hiya Mika! I hear you’ve been having a little trouble with your quirk?” The girl’s smile fell, her eyes drifting down to the floor as she nodded her head. “Well, would you believe me if I told you that I had a really hard time with my quirk when I was your age?”

Her eyes shot up to meet his, shaking her head slowly. The smile never left his face as he began to explain his quirk to her in a little more detail, telling her how dangerous it had been for him at first. Mika’s eyes shined at the information, her fists clenching slightly in front of her chest.

“It was hard work, because even though my pops has the same quirk, he never learned how to use it like I do! I had to figure it out all on my own, sorta like how you’re figuring out your quirk too! And a lot of the time I was scared of my quirk, so me and you are practically the same!” 

Mika froze, her eyes widening. You held your breath, hoping beyond all hope that this was what she needed to get her out of the slump she’d been drifting into. Lemillion tilted his head with a broad smile, and Mika’s eyes filled with tears as she smiled back at him. Her posture straightened as she swiped at her eyes, that same determined glint in them that you’d seen on the other students. She gave him an intent nod, sniffling slightly. 

“I’ll work hard, Lemillion! Just like you!” Mika’s parents entered just as she made her bold claim, Lemillion laughing and ruffling her hair as he stood up. They came over, thanking the hero profusely and chatting for a moment before ushering a highly excited Mika from the gym. You heaved a sigh of relief as the door swung shut behind them, resting your hands on your hips as you swung your head around to look at Lemillion. 

“Thank you for that, I was really struggling to get through to her but I think you did it!” A smile on your face, you rubbed at one of your arms with your other hand, a little bashful. “I think she’ll be okay thanks to you. Another citizen saved, Lemillion.” 

Lemillion grinned, giving you a thumbs up and nodding his head. As you helped him pack up, you kept feeling his eyes on you, always averting when you turned to make eye contact. When you finished, he cleared his throat and approached you, a faint dusting of pink on his cheeks.

“Thanks for letting me do this! It was super fun, and I think it helped the kids a lot.” You nodded to him, giving him a smile in return. As you exited the gym with your things, Lemillion holding the door for you, you looked up to see the sky darkening with clouds rather quickly. He came up beside you, letting the door swing shut behind him and glancing up himself. “Oh shoot, looks like it’s gonna rain pretty hard… Did you walk here?”

You nodded your head, searching through your bag for your umbrella and raising it with a flourish once you dragged it from the depths. A frown seemed to be cemented on Lemilion’s face, making you raise a brow at him. “I’ll be fine, it’s only about fifteen minutes from here if you know the shortcuts like I do!” He shook his head once, placing his fists on his hips as he sighed and looked at the floor, only raising his head again when you made a questioning noise. 

“Only one thing for it. I’ll have to walk you home again to make sure you get there safely.” His words made your jaw drop, a scoff escaping before you could stop it. A grin snuck onto his face once again, that same pinkness returning to his cheeks. “It’s my duty as a hero, and it’s starting to get late! Don’t say no- I’ll do it either way so you may as well accept it.”

With a sigh, you decided that maybe walking home with him again wasn’t so bad. The fluttering in your chest was impossible to ignore, and it gave you more time with the hero so- who were you to complain, really?

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

Ten minutes later, you were sure he’d regret his actions. 

He was dripping wet, the rain having come down hard and fast shortly into your walk and the wind picking up to the point where your umbrella was useless. You weren’t faring much better yourself, trying to shelter your bag as best you could with all your files inside it. The duffel bag he had with him was a little more resistant to water, but even that would only go so far and you could see the bag changing colour as the water started to seep into it. When you finally saw your house in the distance, you sped up a little, jerking your head toward the door when you finally got there and trudging into the hallway with a groan, Lemillion following you in for a brief respite from the rain. 

Looking up at him with his hair flopping into his eyes limply, water dripping off it, you couldn’t help but admire him. He still had a sparkle in his eyes even as he shivered slightly, trying to wring out his cape a little in the entryway to not let it drip all over your floor. Chibi came barrelling over, sniffing at the newcomer with intent as he realised someone had come home. Lemillion smiled broadly as he bent down, stroking the top of the pom’s head and tickling under his chin.

“Hey little guy! Good to see you again!” You dropped your bag to the floor, looking at the hero with a scrutinising eye. He turned to you, tilting his head at your study of him and looking down at his outfit with furrowed brows. “What? Is something wrong?” “Are you done for the day or do you have to rush off?”

He blinked at you. You blinked back at him. 

When he finally shook his head no, you nodded yours and started removing your shoes.

“You can shower and wait here for the rain to stop if you want, don’t want a hero like you catching a cold, now do we?” You tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, though your heart was thundering in your chest. Would he take this the wrong way? You just didn’t want to be the reason he got sick, and it really was throwing it down outside. He seemed to hesitate, making heat rise to your face as you finally wriggled a boot off. “You don’t have to, but I just thought I’d offer.”

When you looked up at him, his face had softened, making your heart thud painfully for a second at the look in his eyes. He sighed, reaching up to rub at the back of his head again. 

(You definitely didn’t admire the way his arm flexed. Nope. No sir.)

( You did. )

“Y’know, I think that’d be gre-” His phone rang in the side pocket of his duffel bag, making him wince as he checked the ID. Tamaki . He raised a finger to you, an apologetic look on his face as he spoke quietly into the phone. You tried not to listen in, frowning as you headed further into your apartment and scratched at Chibi’s head softly when he followed you. 

Tamaki. That was the pro hero Sun Eater, Lemillion’s close friend- or were they more than friends? They’d always been very close from what the tabloids reported, even close enough for a few to claim that they were together romantically, but it was never confirmed. What if they were soulmates? It would make sense, they often spent days off together, often worked together extremely well on missions, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch…

“Sorry ‘bout that! I- uh- I have to go meet someone, he really needs me right now and-” “It’s fine! You go do whatever you gotta do, no harm, no foul! Just try and get out of the rain fast, okay? I don’t want you getting sick.” Your words came out fairly neutral, you hoped, the smile on your face only slightly forced. Lemillion frowned, another apology spilling from his lips as he left your house quickly. 

You looked down at Chibi with a sigh, the dog tilting his head at you and wagging his tail slowly.

“I’m screwed, aren’t I?”

Chibi simply huffed, heading over to his food bowl and placing a paw on it, looking at you imploringly. You shook your head fondly, going to feed the little gremlin before he got too grumpy with you.

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

How you ended up here was beyond your comprehension, really.

Your talks with Lemillion never ceased after the meet and greet. The hero always found time to text you, or call if he needed his hands free while he was cooking or something, forming a rather… odd friendship? There was no one else you spoke to as often, but you also still hardly knew the man. Your little crush, however, didn’t care in the slightest and continued to grow with each day. Trying to hide it was getting easier with time, though, the way you two spoke becoming more and more comfortable, and you didn’t understand why he was really bothering with you in the first place. When you asked him, he had simply chuckled and said a very cryptic I just have to! I’m not too sure why, but I always follow my instincts!

Whatever that meant.

The colder months had creeped in, the leaves changing colour rapidly and the weather turning almost before your eyes. Lemillion- no, Togata , as he had started insisting you called him- was telling you about an upcoming hero gala while you cooked dinner. You had him on speaker phone as you cooked, the man walking home from his patrol as he chatted away. Not properly listening as you cooked, you only caught the end of what he was saying.

“-So you should come too! It’d be fun, and I can introduce you to the others!” 

You choked, lowering the heat on your stove as you scrambled over to your phone on the opposite countertop. 

“I’m sorry- what?! You want me to-?” 

“Yeah! I think it’d be great, don’t you?” Swallowing thickly, your tongue felt too big for your mouth and you sputtered slightly. “Nejire has been asking about you, and Tamaki wants to meet you too! Plus we can hang out properly for a while, please come with me?”

Your face flushed, your heart kicking up a gear as you thought about it. He wanted to go with you? You’d be out of your element around a bunch of heroes but- you couldn’t deny that you wanted to spend more time with him…

“Sure…?” Togata’s answering cheer had you smiling softly at your phone, shaking your head slowly in fondness as you returned to cooking your dinner. 

Which led you to the situation of incomprension.

Weeks later, you’d procured a beautiful long sleeved dress, just thick enough to stave off the cool temperature without a jacket so you could be comfortable. You’d made your way to the venue in a car Togata ordered for you, texting him on the way and smiling when he said he’d meet you at the entrance. As the car pulled up, you saw him standing at the edge of the curb and your breath caught. 

The suit he was wearing was perfectly tailored, sharp lines and fabric clenched around his thick arms and thighs. His face lit up as the car stopped, his hand already outstretched to get the door for you. When you stepped out, his jaw dropped as he took you in.

“W-Wow! You look amazing!” Heat flooded your system at his words, forcing you to look down and tuck a stray lock of hair behind your ear. 

“You don’t look so bad yourself, Togata…” He chuckled as he closed the door, gesturing toward the venue with a grin. You made your way inside with him, looking around nervously at the expensive decor of the hotel the event was being held at. There were heroes everywhere; Creati, Mirko, Chargebolt and- holy shit was that Deku ? 

What the hell were you doing here? You were nothing in comparison to all of these people, saviours of humanity and fucking heroes and-

And then Togata grasped your wrist softly, and it felt like the world stood still. All you could feel was the warmth of his hand, the tension leaching from your body almost instantly. The noise in the room became a dull echo in the background, all of your senses focused on that single point of contact. 

Heart pounding for an entirely different reason now, you looked up at Togata with a curious face. He smiled down at you, tugging your wrist gently and inclining his head outward one of the quieter corners of the room. As you followed him, you frowned down at his hand, prompting him to drop it.

(You missed the warmth of his hand almost instantly, but you’d never tell anyone.)

“Sorry, Tamaki and Nejire are this way. Tamaki isn’t exactly fond of the big crowds at these kinda things, so you can usually find him in the corners.” Togata had to speak up a little for you to hear him over the din, but as the crowd thinned and you approached the edge of the room, the noise levelled out to be much quieter. Just ahead, leaning against a wall, you recognized Togata’s friends and swallowed thickly. Nejire, as you more commonly knew the hero- looked absolutely stunning in her seafoam green dress, her shoulders bared elegantly. Her hair fell in soft curls around her shoulders, wobbling slightly with every pat on the back that she gave the other person standing against the wall. 

Sun Eater looked like he’d rather be anywhere else- at least, from what you could tell from where he was seemingly trying to become one with the wall by attaching his face to it. Nejire patting his back seemed to be doing absolutely nothing to make him feel better, unintelligible words falling from his mouth in a near constant mumble. As you and Togata approached, Nejire spotted you and immediately lit up, smacking Sun Eater’s back a little harder. 

“Ooooh! Amajiki! They’re here! Look!” Nejire smiled brilliantly as you both came to a stop beside her, finally ceasing her assault of the shy hero. Mirio went to introduce you, but had hardly gotten your name out before she was cutting him off. “I know who she is! Oh wow! We’ve heard so much about you, it’s so nice to finally have a face for the name! I love your hair, and that dress is to die for! Hey, Togata has told us about your quirk and stuff, what’s it like working with the kids? Was it hard to get started in your line of work? How did you know you wanted to do it? Have you been-” “Okay! Nejire, let her breathe!” Togata ended the questioning, placing his hand on your shoulder gently. “This isn’t twenty questions, we’re just here to have a good time. How are you holding up, Tamaki?”

The man in question groaned, turning his face to the side slightly but still not turning around. Togata left your side to go to his friend, placing a gentle hand on his back and leaning in to continue his conversation, leaving you and Nejire alone. She leaned toward you, a grin on her face that you nervously returned.

“Y’know, Mirio talks about you all the time . Like- he’ll be walkin’ around and see something and just- talk about how much you’d like it! It’s adorable!” You flushed at her words, looking down at the floor and grasping one of your wrists with the opposite hand. 

He talked about you? It almost sounded like he- but there was no way! You really hadn’t done anything to earn Togata’s attention. He was more likely just excited about having a new friend.

That must be it.

Togata coaxed Nejire away before you could respond, enlisting her help to get Sun Eater away from the wall. It took a few minutes, the two of them making you giggle at some of the ways they tried to get him to move, but eventually they got the reluctant man away and you all headed into the main hall of the venue. 

And it was stunning. 

Tall ceilings, gold ornaments, thick red velvet curtains. You were miles out of your element.

The event was being held as a fundraiser- an auction where all of the items would be sold and the money would go to charity, and it seemed they were ready to start selling items off. You nudged Togata and pointed towards the refreshments table, letting him know to come find you there after the auction part of the evening. Grabbing a drink and settling into a chair at one of the tables, you watched as pro heroes bid their money on seemingly useless objects for people who made as much money as they did- spa hampers, signed merch from other heroes, tickets to a local play; all things donated by local businesses and the other heroes themselves. 

As the heroes were preoccupied, you took a moment to admire the room, and the outfits of some of the heroes and their dates. Even the waiting staff were dressed to the nines in well pressed suits and-

Wait. 

… Why are there so many waiters gathered by the doors?

Pausing mid sip of your drink, you tilted your head and frowned at the three sets of double doors, watching as the waiters all seemed to have some kind of meeting. You placed your drink down on the table, rising slowly when the waiters spread out across the doors. A person in front of each one leaned their hands against the closed doors, and your heart rate picked up as one of them sealed the door by turning it to stone. Another door became locked shut when roots and vines cracked through the wood, knotting around each other until it was nearly a solid wall, and the last one was encased in what looked like a thick purple paste. Some of the partygoers nearby cried out, prompting the heroes to turn and notice what was going on. A few of the waiters grabbed nearby guests, grasping their hands behind their backs and holding up syringes right over their necks.

Unfortunately, you were standing near one of them. You gasped as your arms were grabbed, twisting behind your back uncomfortably and a needle held just above where your pulse was pounding.

“Hello, heroes! Hope you don’t mind if we crash the party!” The heroes swung their heads back to the stage just in time to see the MC for the auction fall to the floor, blood dripping from a wound on his temple. A large man stood behind him, a cane in his hand with a carved raven on the handle- red liquid dripping from the beak. Draped in a dark cape and a tailored suit, thick sunglasses on his face, the man was grinning widely at the group of heroes before him. “Please, don’t move a muscle! If you do, I’ll be forced to do something- well, just awful. That means you, Deku! And you, Dynamight!” The two heroes in question had moved to the front of the crowd, but halted when the man reached up and took hold of his glasses. The villain slid them down his nose slowly, looking down at the two top heroes with a sick grin. Dynamight growled, moving his arms to his sides, his palms lighting up as he prepared to attack the villain-

Until it suddenly stopped. With a green glow surrounding his body, Dynamight’s body began to turn an odd grayish hue. Deku turned to his friend with a gasp, panic filling his features as the number two hero was turned to stone.

“Like I said- I don’t want to have to petrify so many of Japan’s top heroes in one go, after all! Not to mention- all those lovely hostages around the room would suffer so much if you disobey me…” The villain’s words seemed to echo with how quiet the hall got, your chest beginning to ache in fear as your eyes searched the crowd. Togata’s eyes met yours, his gaze focused entirely on you. Through your tears you could see how tense he was, his teeth bared in a grimace as he realised he couldn’t get to you. His head swung to look over at the villain, your eyes widening at the absolute rage that seemed to vibrate through him. You’d never seen him like this before, how could this be the same man who called you in tears a few weeks ago when he watched a video online about some rescue dogs?

At the front of the crowd, Deku had turned back to the villain. His face was grim, a deep frown directed straight at the stage and his eyes hardened. 

“What have you done to Kacchan?!” “Now, now, don’t worry! I’ll be more than happy to undo it once we get what we came for! And I hate to be so boring as to ask for it, but- we want your money. You came to donate to charity, correct? Well, I have a very worthy charity case for you to donate to! All you have to-” 

A cry sounded from within the crowd, one of the lower ranked heroes launching himself at one of the waiters nearby with a hostage- if you remembered correctly, it was his date. All three of them hit the ground, his date scrabbling back to him as the waiter moved away quickly. 

To your dismay, the waiter that was next along jammed the needle into the neck of his hostage. 

The guest began to scream immediately, the woman’s skin starting to sizzle and steam as she was thrown away from the waiter, her hands scratching at any bare patch of skin and ripping it off of her, as if it was barely even attached. She looked to be in absolute agony, bubbles of skin growing on her face before they popped. 

It was horrifying. 

Tears were falling thick and fast down your cheeks, your body shaking with fear. That same needle was hovering above your neck, above the necks of about 20 people in the room, and it looked like even saving one would result in the death of another.

“I did ask you all to stay perfectly still, you know. I wanted to avoid this…” The villain shook his head in mocking disapproval, as if the woman’s screams weren’t still echoing. “Now, as I was saying… We have a lovely bank account just waiting to be filled with all your precious money, and it’s for a very good cause. Me and all my friends here could really use it!”

The screams had finally died down. The woman was lying on the floor, her skin mostly melted off, still steaming in places. Your eyes found Togata’s once more, his own looking frantic as it really set in that he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t save you or anyone right now .

You could see the same look on the faces of all the other heroes present. 

Deku looked like he was going to combust, Nejire-Chan and Sun Eater looked at each other with furrowed brows, as if they were trying to figure out their next step.

Togata couldn’t take his eyes off you.

There was a level of desperation there that you didn’t quite understand. Even though the other heroes looked upset at not being able to help their dates and friends, Togata seemed especially upset when his eyes were latched onto your figure. 

You hated it.

That look in his eyes, it was so unlike his usual smiles. Something inside of you bristled at the lack of brightness in his expression. Blinking a few times to try and clear the tears from your eyes, you made sure he was looking at you before giving him a small smile. Reassurance. 

It’s okay. 

Togata’s eyes looked watery, although you couldn’t really tell from this distance, before he suddenly broke eye contact. He grit his teeth, his eyes screwing shut for a moment as he swung his head to glare at the villain.

“All this?! All this just for money ?! You just killed someone !” Togata’s voice cut through the silence, the heroes around him gasping at his outburst. He was shaking with anger, his eyes blazing as the villain simply laughed. 

“Ah-! Not quite! I didn’t kill anybody! After all, I did warn you all that I’d have to do something awful if you didn’t listen!” The villain sounded so full of glee, so proud of what he’d done here.”Besides, it’s only cause of this stupid hero system that people like me struggle to get work and need to resort to this shit! If we could all use our quirks freely then things would be different!”

… wait.

The villain was still ranting, but you couldn’t even hear him anymore. Use your quirk freely… What if you could influence someone? Your eyes roved over the villain, unsure about how this would go… you didn’t have a licence to do hero work, but you did have something of a concession for using your quirk due to working with the kids. No one would even know, there’s no visual representation with your quirk on you , it only shows around the person you’re influencing. So the only people in the room that would know it was you would be Togata, Nejire and Sun Eater… You didn’t know if you were covered with your partial-licence, but surely you had to try.

The other risk was whether or not taking the leader out would impact the waiters. You were hopeful that if you took him out of the equation, in the chaos they’d just drop their hostages, but there was always the risk that they’d just inject their hostages anyway. You had to get a message to someone, somehow…

Togata looked at you again. Locking eyes with him, you schooled your face into the most neutral expression you could, and activated your quirk. A subtle blue glow, almost like a very tiny glitter shower, began around Togata’s ears.

Calm. Collected. Relax.

His face melted from it’s disgruntled rage, his mind clearing for a moment as you stopped your quirk, your eyes shooting to the other hostages and back to him before looking at the villain again. When you looked back at Togata, he didn’t seem to understand for a moment before it seemed to click. 

A nod. A smile.

Togata turned and kept his voice to a low murmur, saying something to the other heroes as subtly as he could while the villain kept yelling about the inadequacy of hero society. You really hoped that he got your idea right.

Please.

When Togata finally looked back at you and nodded, you realised that many of the heroes seemed to be bracing themselves, each one angling their body slowly towards one of the hostages. Relief flooded through you as you turned your eyes toward the villain at the front, focusing on him directly.

Activating your quirk, you were suddenly filled with a chaotic swirl of emotions. What this man felt wasn’t just rage, there was sadness, fear, pain. You didn’t want to do this to him, but there was no other choice. You grunted softly as the blue glow, much stronger this time as you were concentrating so hard, began to sparkle around his ears.

Relax. Calm. Peace. 

He stopped talking. The man’s face, previously screwed up in anger, relaxed swiftly as he stared off into space for a moment and you held onto his emotions as tightly as you could.

A moment was all the heroes needed.

All at once, the heroes jumped, each one launching towards a hostage and knocking the waiters over in the same breath, a coordinated attack. At the same moment, Deku jumped at the main villain, tackling and subduing the man as you finally let your control go, a splitting headache taking up residence in your mind immediately. 

Togata came for you, because of course he did. 

His fist flew past your head and rammed into the waiter’s, the man behind you dropping the needle and falling to the floor, the hand gripped around your wrists ripping your dress as he fell. You stumbled forward, Togata’s arms pulling you into his chest immediately and securing you there. Sobbing immediately, you buried your face into him and clutched at his shirt, eyes screwed closed.

“I knew my soulmate would be smart, but you’re a genius, you know that?” 

... What?

You opened your eyes, ready to question him when your eyes caught on your soul mark, bared thanks to your ripped sleeve on your dress.

Glowing.

Eyes widening, you looked up at Togata, seeing the soft smile on his face even as around you the other heroes were busy dealing with the waiters (who had immediately panicked at their leader being taken down with no fighting) and working on getting the doors open again. He chuckled at your confusion, one of his hands leaving your waist to reach up and cup your cheek carefully. 

“You-? But-? What?” Your brain seemed to grind to a halt, nothing making sense even as you absolutely relished in the warmth of his hand on your cheek and his arm around you. Togata burst out laughing this time, leaning back enough to put a bit of space between you both. He reached for the hem of his shirt, lifting it slightly until his lower abdominals were on display. You would have blushed if your eyes hadn’t locked onto the glowing mark on his hip.

A little seed, with a sprout coming out of it. 

You frowned, looking back up at him and shaking your head slowly until he started speaking again.

“I had a feeling it was you when we first met. It felt like coming home even though we’d never even seen each other before… But I didn’t understand until you explained your job. You’re nurturing the next generation of heroes, your own little seeds, helping them grow. That’s when I really knew it.” Togata looked down at his hip again, smiling fondly at the mark and then back at you. “You’re amazing. I’m so glad it’s you.”

Your eyes filled with tears again at his words, at the soft grin he gave you as he lowered his shirt again, at the pure joy that you could feel radiating off him now that you were out of danger. It was too much, you couldn’t handle it, all the emotions of the day catching up to you as you sobbed. Togata’s eyes immediately widened in panic, his arms shooting around you again and pulling you close. 

Comfort. Safety. Love.

Your quirk was working on it’s own, opening you up to Togata, letting you feel his emotions and pouring your own back into him, his arms stiffening as they registered and he realised they weren’t his own feelings this time, that you felt the same . 

How could you not?

He leaned you back again, hands cupping your face and wiping the tears from your cheeks as he beamed down at you, uncaring that your face was soaked, uncaring that your makeup was running-

He leaned in, and he kissed you.

Just like before, the world stopped.

There was nothing other than you, and him, and the fact that you’d been denying it for months but he was your soulmate . You finally felt like you could breathe after being underwater for so long, like you fit perfectly against him, in his arms. It was intoxicating.

The kiss, while it started loving and almost chaste, a relief that you’d made it through all this, quickly became more desperate as you realised that this man was yours .

And then Nejire cleared her throat.

Togata and you broke apart, faces flushed with heat as you stared at her wide eyed. 

“I’m so psyched that you guys are together and all, but we kinda need to finish up here you two! C’mon, you can suck each other’s faces later !” Nejire walked towards the (now open-when did that happen?) doors, making you realise that in the few minutes you two had carved out together in the chaos, everything had calmed down. Police were escorting the villain and his waiter-lackeys from the building, the heroes were giving their statements to other officers, and ambulances were arriving to help the hostages. Togata helped you toward them, noting how weak you’d become after using your quirk under the circumstances. 

What followed was a few annoying hours of being checked over by the EMT’s, police taking statements, and a lot of suggestive looks between you and Togata. He knew what he was doing, the bastard, taking off his suit jacket and placing it around your shoulders, his smell surrounding you in both comfort and frustration. Rolling up his sleeves so you could see the muscles in his forearms flexing. 

Now that you weren’t yelling at yourself for being attracted to him, it seemed like the flood gates had opened. You were openly ogling him even as they announced that you were free to go, your eyes laser focused on him. As soon as you were standing you made your way straight over, Togata’s eyes catching your movement before you reached him and prompting a smile.

It wasn’t one of his usual smiles.

It seemed that, like you, Togata was feeling the effects of that kiss, an edge of hunger in his eyes and on the curve of his lips that had you aching in your core. As you came to a stop in front of him, he reached for you automatically, pulling you into his side and resting his hand on your hip to keep you pressed against him. He bid the heroes he was talking to goodbye quickly after that, pulling his phone out to get a car called and looking down at you when you were waiting at the curb for it to pull up.

“Can I take you home? Wanna make sure you get in safe.” 

You’ve never nodded so fast in your life.

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

As soon as your door was closed, he was on you.

Togata pulled you toward him, wrapping his arms around you and planting his lips on yours, your own arms wrapping around his neck as you pressed yourself against him. The adrenaline from nearly dying had worn off, but in its wake a new excitement was building in your veins. The thought that this man was all yours was still swirling through your mind, and now that you were pressed up against all that muscle you were aching between your thighs. 

Togata pressed you against the wall in the hallway, parting from you and panting heavily, his forehead pressed to yours. Your hands moved to cup his cheeks, your nose nudging against his gently as you tried to reconnect your lips, feeling him smirk at your insistence. 

“Togata…” A soft utterance of his name had him growling, pressing his lips to yours once again. His hands smoothed down from their place at your waist, moving over your ass and squeezing gently. When he pulled away, he pulled your hips against him, letting you feel his hardness against your stomach. 

“Mirio- Call me Mirio, okay?” His voice had dropped, a roughness to it that wasn’t usually present that made a thrill run down your spine. You nodded, leaning back against the wall and looking up at him with hooded eyes. Mirio took your hand, lifting your wrist- the one with your soul mark on it- to his lips without letting his eyes leave yours, and brushed his lips across the mark itself. Your lashes fluttered at the soft contact, the air around you charging with each movement, your chest beginning to heave.

“Mirio, please…” With his eyes sparkling, Mirio lowered his head slowly, moving past your lips to your jawline, his hand coming up to tilt your head further and allow himself better access to your neck. You gasped as his lips and tongue assaulted your pulse point, your hips nudging toward him in pleasure, the feeling making you throb in need. “M-Mirio, bedroom, n-now…”

The distance seemed to evaporate with how quickly Mirio dragged you through the house, following your directions between heated kisses. As soon as you were in the bedroom, Mirio flung his jacket from your shoulders with a solid yank. 

“I really love you in my clothes, but I also really want you out of ‘em right now…” He murmured against your lips, reaching for the buttons on his shirt and swiftly undoing them, shrugging it off as soon as he could. Your hands had a mind of their own as they roamed his chest, dragging over his nipples and relishing in the little twitch he gave. 

Mirio’s hands moved to your hips once again, starting to drag your dress up by bunching the fabric at your waist bit by bit. Despite the heated atmosphere, and how much the both of you wanted to move this along, Mirio was taking his time where he could, teasing you when he finally pulled it up and over your head. Once your hands were free, they immediately moved to his belt, working it open as he dipped his head down to reconnect your lips. Your dress fell to the floor, his hands fastening to your waist once more as he moved you backwards towards your bed. Mirio helped you lay back, before straightening and undoing his pants properly, letting them drop to the floor and leaving him in some rather tight boxer briefs. 

The outline of his cock was daunting, but it made your mouth water with how thick it looked, the idea of it stretching you forcing wetness to pool between your legs. Mirio made to step forward and out of his pants-

Only to get his feet tangled and fall over, barely catching himself on the edge of the bed.

You burst into giggles, covering your mouth to stifle them when Mirio shot you a look of exasperation. He struggled to unhook his feet from the fabric, groaning in frustration before ultimately deciding to use his quirk, letting the fabric pass through his feet as he crawled onto the bed.

You reached for him as soon as he was done stepping out of his pants, grasping his shoulder and neck to bring his lips back to yours. With only your panties and his briefs in the way, you could feel him pressed against you so much clearer, the pressure on your clit forcing a whine from deep in your chest. 

Mirio smirked into your kiss, rolling his hips forward as he settled between your legs, eliciting a gasp that he took full advantage of, slipping his tongue into your mouth. 

Having his hands roving over your body, feeling each and every curve, squeezing at your flesh- you felt like you were on fire, Mirio’s desire for you evident in the way his hips rolled desperately against you, the cling of your panties to your soaked core betraying just how much you wanted him in return. 

“Been thinking of you like this for so long…” Mirio muttered between kisses, moving his kisses back to your neck, down to your collarbone and nibbling at the flesh there. Your back arched, Mirio taking advantage of the opportunity once again to reach behind you and start undoing your bra.

After a moment of struggle that elicits giggles form the both of you, he finally gets the damn thing undone and drags it off. He stops for a moment, leaning back and admiring the view of you utterly debauched below him, eyes hooded, lips kiss swollen, chest heaving. Reaching to cup your cheek for a moment, he rubs your cheekbone with his thumb and chews at his lip for a moment.

“I don’t- I’m not super experienced , if you know what I mean…” His face flushed at his admission, eyes focused on tracing your jawline instead of making eye contact. You giggled at him, reaching up to cover his hand with your own as you turned to nuzzle into it. 

“I’m hardly the queen of experience either, you know. But this already feels so much better than anything else…” Mirio smiled at your words, finally looking into your eyes again. He leaned down, nuzzling at your breast for a moment before sucking your nipple into his mouth, dragging his teeth slowly over the peak and watching as your face contorted in pleasure. 

The air between you became charged with tension once again, Mirio’s hand moving between your thighs and softly stroking at your slit over your panties. He groaned as he felt how soaked you were already, his teeth biting down a little harder on your nipple. Your legs flexed around his hips in response, a soft moan escaping that he relished in. 

He suddenly growled, leaning back and letting your nipple go with a soft pop as he focused on practically ripping your panties from your body. Considering he said he wasn’t overly experienced, the way he flipped the switch and had your knees by your ears, his mouth covering your cunt and eating you with fervor- you wouldn’t have thought he was even the same man.

You cried out at his assault, his tongue flicking over your clit between it’s journeys into your walls, his hands pressed behind your knees to keep you folded over. Hands flying to the sides of your head, you screwed the sheets up in your fists with how hard you gripped them. Your mouth hung open, pants and moans constantly falling from your lips as your eyes screwed shut, almost overwhelmed already. The pressure was already building so rapidly, the knot in your belly tightening by the second. You panted his name, Mirio’s efforts increasing even more when he heard your voice so strained.

When you finally crested the wave of pleasure, your head thrown back into the pillow, Mirio took every drop you gave him, your cunt crying out for something to fill it, aching with need. When he finally let you drop back to the bed, your legs flopping either side of his hips, you pushed up and latched your mouth to his instantly. 

You’d never wanted someone so bad in your whole life, something in you snapping as you pressed up into him. Desperation laced your movements and you reached down, pushing his briefs down enough to free his cock and wrapping your hand around it, swallowing up his answering hiss and pulling him back on top of you, maneuvering your hips to line him up instantly. 

Mirio’s hands flew to your hips, stilling their movements and ripping his lips from yours with a growl. 

“You definitely-” “Mirio, if you don’t fuck me right now, I’ll take care of it myself. I have toys in that drawer.” He froze at your words, tilting his head as he processed your words. He shook his head, reaching down to replace your hand with his as he rubbed his cock up and down your slit, bumping against your clit to tease you.

“We’re revisiting that later, but right now…” Mirio pushed his hips forward, his jaw going slack as your walls engulfed him in slick heat. You yourself weren’t fairing much better, eyes rolling at how thick he was, at the little burn of the stretch even though you’d already come once, your wetness helping him slide home until he was filling you to the hilt. 

Mirio waited for your go ahead, waiting until you gripped his shoulders tight and gasped out a please … 

And then he started moving, and you were soaring. 

The drag of his cock in your walls was heaven, his big hands gripping your hips and lifting you into each thrust and slamming his cock into that spongy spot inside you pulling sinful moans from your lips. Mirio watched your face as you writhed in pleasure, his heart hammering in his chest at finally being with his soulmate, your own heart pounding in time with his. 

“So beautiful like this… you really were made for me, huh?” He punctuated his words with an especially harsh thrust that had your vision whiting out for a moment as you nodded, your nails digging into his shoulders making him hiss and screw his own eyes shut. The view above you was glorious, his broad chest and shoulders with their rolling muscles with every movement. His face, torn between watching you and enjoying his own pleasure, teeth bared with his efforts to make you feel good. You couldn’t take it, your climax approaching too rapidly, your legs tightening around his hips as you tried to gasp out a warning, to tell him you were close-

“ Fuck - I can feel you, baby, come for me, please …” 

Your head threw back once again, throat bared to him as you were overcome by pleasure, your soul mark shining brightly for a moment as you clenched down onto him. He grunted through it, his own mark glowing as his hips stuttered, burying himself deep inside you as he filled your walls with white, until both of you bonelessly fell to the bed. Your marks glowed for a moment longer, before their lights slowly ebbed away, settling down once more. 

Mirio panted above you, holding his weight up on his elbows so he wouldn’t crush you while you caught your breath too.

When he finally pulled out, you groaned at the feeling of emptiness as he pulled you into his arms, flopping onto his back beside you on the bed. You’d both need to clean up soon, go to bed properly, but as you stared at your soul mark resting against his chest, you couldn’t quite bring yourself to move just yet. 

Looking up at Mirio, you smiled when you caught him already watching you, a cheeky grin on his face. Thinking back, you had no idea how you hadn’t figured it out sooner.

Mirio was of the purest, childlike glee. The sunshine of anyone’s life, whoever knew him could attest to that. Your mark made more sense than any other mark you’d seen in your life. 

“... So... toys?” 

...You were going to hit him, sunshine man or not.

[kyogre-blue]

Finally finished HSR 3.0 story.

It is....................... fine. It's perfectly fine.

Tbh I'm not even being facetious about this, I do think it's fine, and I'm mildly interested in where this is all going. My biggest reservation is that I simply have no faith in MHY being able to actually take the setup anywhere.

3.0's greatest... weakness? is that it's almost entirely setup and pretty much nothing else. Phainon walks off into a trial and even explicitly states that defeating Nikador didn't do anything for his mental state. Mydei's theoretical emotional stakes in this are told to us by others while he's offscreen (more than once) and he doesn't have any particular internal changes based on the events here. Aglaea implies an internal conflict, but it definitely hasn't come to a head yet. Tribbie is just straight up not explained yet. Castorice has the most emotional something going on, which also ends up making her the most interesting character here imo, but again, it's all setup for her search for Death and whatever her deal is.

The setup is fine, but since it does nothing else, everything is going to hinge on where this all goes. And I have yet to see MHY actually payoff a story in a satisfying way. Even Belobog notably tripped over itself in the last stretch specifically. The fact that this is all going to take the better part of a year is.......... ouch. Not encouraging at all.

Aside from that, I would say 3.0 had two issues. One is the "puzzles" they used as padding in between story scenes. I get why these sections are there, and I don't think it's a bad thing to have this kind of break in between talking, but the implementation was lacking. You arrive at a location, you watch some talking, you walk forward five meters, you get three more dialogue boxes, you walk forward three more meters, you get a tutorial popup, and this repeats like 3-5 times per area. And the "puzzles" are basically just interacting with things. It just makes things feel dragged out, a bit stupid, and ridiculous, since this is all supposed to be about fighting anyway.

The second issue is that a lot of character stuff is just not shown to us. Mydei's everything is just told to us by other people when he's not around, so his one instance of actual emotion is when he gets momentarily worked up when asking Castorice about what happened in the memory, which she doesn't even answer, so we don't see his reaction to any of that. Phainon harps on about his internal struggles, with everyone else as chorus, but it's very ambiguous what is supposed to be going on with him. Maybe this is intentional, given that his story is obviously not supposed to be paying off yet, but since he's pretty much the most constantly present character, having his everything be so vague is just not great. Aglaea brings up losing her humanity, but what does that even mean? Etc.

And not helping all this is when they give you a book that recites backstory to you. For four characters in a row. Like... at least stagger the unlock for them or something. But better yet, integrate this stuff in the actual story! Why am I reading a non-canon story book about the characters?

That said, it's not particularly bad about things. The pacing, aside from the "puzzle" interludes, is imo not worse than general fantasy stories that need to do a ton of setup about their setting. The stuff they are setting up seems potentially interesting, with plenty of mystery and twists (a thing that Belobog lacked almost entirely). Castorice in particular had a surprisingly good showing in the last third. I came away liking her much more than I ever expected from that design and the faint wiff of waifu around her early on. And as someone who played games where everyone was a low polygon chibi model, I don't find it a deal breaker that the visuals are generally whatever aside from the background set pieces.

It wasn't bad, and I'm curious where it'll go.

[airisu7425]

July Shopping

A little haul this time - as expected. I need to cut back since from July 1st all incoming packages are taxed (27%!!!). I struggle with the authorities (Customs & Hungarian Post) since books/djs/calendars are supposed to be only 5% VAT yet they automatically charge with the 27%... And as is, I would need to pay a LOT to have it correctly. Anyway, hopefully when my next sea package of mangas will arrive, they will find out how to pay the correct amount.

This month I got a few English BL manga - TokyoPop being back on the market means more licensed titles, yaaay! Nice summer reads.

The final volume of Crimson Spell was released and they even published a special edition, complete with an artbook with all the gorgeous colored artworks. Since honto.jp is not fulfilling orders to foreign countries anymore (boooo), I tried buyee.jp’s forwarding service. It was quite easy to use and they were fast.

Mashiro no Oto’s opening song is a huge favorite of mine so I ordered the anime cover version (because of my super talented son, Setsu).

I loved this DIY JJK image so much, had to had a shitajiki with it - everyone is super nice in it.

A used figure (Eugeo from SAO - to match the Kirito one) and a new one: Galo Thymos noodle cup stopper. I was upset when my preorder got cancelled at BIJ and they said they did not plan to get him when he finally got released, but I found it elsewhere! I like his chill pose and that ridiculous hair of his. Lio is on it’s way, too, probably will arrive in 2 weeks or so.

Those little earphone jack Naruto figures were also used but could not leave them.

The FKBU little metal charms are adorable! I mainly got them because of that domestic scene one & because the chibi are super cute.

I’m amazed how they still release brand new Drrr! merch, and with my Shizaya ship! The stand has the image of Izaya in cat hoodie, while Shizuo is in a bunny one and he is on leash. :P The keychain also features only two of them. :3

Last but not least - found these little gachas and they screamed of Free! XD Even the floats’ color coding is matching our main trio’s color scheme. :)

to be continued...

[itsclydebitches]

New pet peeve: "You can't criticize the story of an episode, because a later unreleased episode might justify it. But you can still praise the story of an episode even though, by the same metric, a later unreleased episode could retroactively make it worse."

Oh yeah, that one has been a pet peeve of mine for RWBY going on three years now lol. And it's not an entirely baseless stance. Audiences aren't wrong for picking up on cues (deliberate or otherwise), recognizing that this is an ongoing series, and concluding that this will be developed further — potentially for the better. Don't slam the show for not doing X when X needs the rest of the season (or even multiple seasons) to come about/develop. The problem is that a) the fans pushing this perspective likewise tend to ignore RWBY's history of dropping plot threads rather than just slowly unfurling them — making that perspective appear less and less reasonable the longer time goes on — and b) they're applying it to situations that have already messed things up.

Let's take two examples. Example #1 is Penny getting her human body. Putting aside for the moment the thematic issues with that, fans weren't wrong to say, "Wait and see." At the time of "Creation" none of us had any idea what might come of this change. Whether this would lead to a new and exciting arc for her, whether all our questions would be answered... or whether this potential would get dropped along with so much else. Though there's still plenty else to criticize in the episode, specifically criticizing RWBY for not doing more with Penny's change is silly because then and there the story only had 20 minutes we had no idea what might happen in the following episodes. The fact that they didn't do anything with Penny, just killing her off again, is beside the point. The potential did exist and fans aren't wrong to praise potential for being potential. A well-written story doesn't smooth every edge, answer every question, and wrap up every arc in the span of a single episode. It wouldn't be a long-form story if it did.

However, Example #2 is Emerald joining the group, wherein fans say "Wait and see" regarding her redemption. Problem is... that arc is done. We saw it. The group had a brief argument about trusting Emerald, Oscar stopped Ruby from attacking her, there was another few lines of annoyance in the dining room, the group accepted her via laughter, and then Emerald got to smile about how "weird" it felt to be doing good. Badly done as it was, that functioned as an arc! We saw a conflict, a resolution, and growth. It was terrible, but it existed. Which means that all these claims about how the group is going to struggle more in the future, or Emerald will prove herself more in the future, or whatever is currently getting said under the assumption that it will be Good Writing doesn't hold up. Even if RWBY backtracked and gave us that, it's too late. It would read as ridiculous to have the group go from laughing happily at her 'lol remember how I used to try and kill you guys a few hours ago?' speech to suddenly treating her with the reservations her actions always deserved. This isn't potential, this is the RWBY writers backing themselves into a corner. Either we're left with a "redemption" that was never a redemption to begin with, or the story tries to do that work in Volume 9, making the Volume 8 material look like even more of a mess in the process. There is no way to fix this now.

Too much of RWBY is read through the lens of what fans assume is going to happen, to the point where some in the fandom actively ignore what is happening on screen in order to maintain that presumed potential in their minds. Those who put faith in Penny getting a fantastic arc as a human may have been a bit too optimistic given RWBY's history (and I do include myself in that), but they're not wrong to point out that such potential existed for a time. Those who put their faith in Emerald getting a better redemption are actively ignoring the canon in order to preserve the better written version of RWBY they've got in their heads. And then yeah, we have the hundreds of cases in which "Wait and see" is used simultaneously as a way to dismiss criticism while also praising the current canon. Up until we know, say, what happens with grimm!Summer, "Wait and see" allows fans to say that the Volume 8 Hound material was incredibly well written AND that critics are fools for doubting what will come next because they've already jumped ahead and written RWBY to their own standards. They've already imagined a version of RWBY one, two, three years from now where grimm!Summer is handled in a spectacular fashion (whatever that means for each individual fan), thereby validating both the writing we currently have and throwing a metaphorical middle finger up at the critics. Never mind that this version doesn't exist and that a bad version is equally possible, it's treated as fact. Thus, we're left with a community where potential is, so often, assumed to be leading to good things... despite how often RWBY has proven otherwise. Because whenever we do get to that future writing — when it's clear we're done with Oscar's outing, or forgiving Ozpin, when Penny is dead and Raven never showed up in Volume 8 and a ton else — when it's clear that "Wait and see" didn't actually lead to anything good like so many claimed... the fans who made those claims suddenly no longer want to engage with that. They ignore it rather than going, "Huh, yeah. That didn't turn out like we'd hope. I can see now why you'd be hesitant to put your emotional investment in this new question the show has raised. If they dropped the ball before, they can definitely do so again..." Instead, it's this round robin of "Wait and see" applying to the newest plot point, ignoring the dropped plot points behind us, a catch-all response to praise the current canon and shrug off anyone who would doubt the brilliance of the writers... not matter how much evidence they can point to in order to say, "Hey, this doesn't appear brilliant to me." I mean, it certainly makes for happier viewing, but if you're at all interested in discussing the canon as it stands and what, based on history, is possible, if not likely to happen... that's not a good perspective to take. And that catch all "Wait and see" response will continue all the way up until RWBY ends. Potentially even longer if the other publications — Chibi, novels, etc. — continue beyond it. I can easily imagine a community where one half is frustrated with how the RWBY series finale ended and the other half is going, "Well, we haven't see the next novel yet that's definitely going to make all this better, so your criticisms mean nothing."

[lov3nerdstuff]

Voluptas Noctis Aeternae {Part 7.9}

*Severus Snape x OC*

Summary: It is the year 1983 when the ordinary life of Robin Mitchell takes a drastic turn: she is accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite the struggles of being a muggle-born in Slytherin, she soon discovers her passion for Potions, and even manages the impossible: gaining the favor of Severus Snape. Throughout the years, Robin finds that the not quite so ordinary Potions Professor goes from being a brooding stranger to being more than she had ever deemed possible. An ally, a mentor, a friend... and eventually, the person she loves the most. Through adventure, prophecies and the little struggles of daily life in a castle full of mysteries, Robin chooses a path for herself, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more, and two people abandoned by the world can finally find a home.

General warnings: professor x student, blood, violence, trauma, neglectful families, bullying, cursing

Words: 1.5k

Read Part 1.1 here! All Parts can be found on the Masterlist!

______________________________

A glimpse into the eighth week of travels (or the third week of August):

"I told you this was a terrible idea!"

"No you didn't!"

"Well, I should have!" Snape hissed quietly and rolled his eyes, but the painfully loud roar coming from the creature that was currently creeping up on them made him drop the annoyed act in but a second.

While it had been rather easy for Robin and Snape to enter the huge system of caves and tunnels they found themselves stuck in now, and even easier to gather the crystals they had come to Sweden for in the first place, the gigantic bear-like thing standing in front of them obviously hadn't taken too kindly to them intruding in its home. Or perhaps it just hadn't found anyone stupid enough to wander into its trap quite so deeply in a while.

"We're still too far underneath the ground to apparate out, right?" Robin whispered in badly suppressed panic, not daring to take her eyes off the creature in front of them that was effectively blocking their only exit.

"Unfortunately…" Snape replied just as distractedly, while both he and Robin slowly backed up into the tunnel they had just come from. It only led them down further into the caves again, further away from the exit. Damnit, things had gone so well up to this point… They had just been on their way back outside when this enormous creature had appeared in front of them out of nowhere. Silent as night, fast as light.

It came approaching them just as slowly as they were backing up now, but the coiled muscles that were visible under the short fur told Robin that it wasn't long until it would pounce. And then there wouldn't be any time left to think of a spell that might have saved them.

If she had learned anything from her years of classes on magical creatures, it was to never just use a random defensive spell if one didn't know what kind of creature they were dealing with. At least not if there was any other choice. Since neither she nor Snape knew what the thing in front of them was though, they were left with the only other choice currently available to them: running. And they only had one way left to go.

"If we can get to the gap in the wall a good hundred feet down the tunnel, it won't be able to reach us anymore. The space is too narrow." Robin breathed in a tone as calm as she could manage with her heart racing like it did. "Then I can look up what it is and how we can get past it. I have a few books in my backpack we'll have to check."

"But we will literally be stuck between a rock and hard place then, in a space we might not get out of again! That really is a terrible idea."

"You have a better one?" She huffed, resisting the temptation to roll her eyes. No answer. "Thought so. Now, it would be faster than us at a distance like this… Can we distract it somehow?"

"You can distract anything if you know how to." He replied, but went straight on instead of making her guess like he usually enjoyed to do. "It lives here in darkness… A very bright light should irritate it for a moment."

"Are you guessing or do you know that for sure?"

"It is an educated guess."

"Great…" Robin took a deep breath, then released it again slowly to calm down her body enough to function. "Let's hope we're both right, then."

"What?"

"We run." She whispered while drawing her wand out of her sleeve. Then, fast as lightning itself, she sent the brightest possible light directly at the beast in front of them, a broken second before grabbing Snape by the arm and dashing off down the tunnel. Neither the beast's furious roar stopped them, nor the sound of thundering footsteps echoing through the space behind them with a shocking pace that came closer by the second. Stopping meant dying, and Robin had no intention to do either.

To their luck, the crack in the wall she had seen wasn't as far away as estimated, barely 80 feet from their original position, and it took them only a few painfully long seconds to reach. Robin didn't hesitate to squeeze herself through the narrow gap and pull Snape right with her, even if it meant they were both pressed against the opposing walls, and even more pressed against each other. Well, better embarrassed than dead. They managed to get a few feet away from the opening before the crack became too narrow, but going by the size of the animal that had arrived outside their awfully tight prison by now, they would need as much distance to it as they could get. Even if that left them pressed together chest to chest, with hardly enough space to breathe at the same time.

Safe from the immediate danger for now, Robin closed her eyes and let her lead drop back against the wall as she tried to catch her breath. It had been sheer dumb luck that the crack had been wide enough for them to fit in… but they had, so she wouldn't waste precious nerves on wondering what could've been otherwise. At least she'd had the brains to take off her backpack before squeezing in here, or it would now be stuck between her and the wall. Much like she was stuck between the wall and Snape. Honestly, this was a highly dangerous situation, could her pathetic touch starved body please not react to it like that?! Bloody hell, being human was stupid sometimes. She had an angry bear-like thing reaching for them with its gigantic claws a good few feet to her left… and all her brain could focus on was Snape. How oddly comforting and exciting at once it was to feel his chest heaving against hers. How neither of them knew where to put their hands without being an awkward mess. How close his face was above hers.

Good gods, Robin! Danger! Angry bear! That stupid little thing called brain; use it, idiot! She took another deep breath to calm herself down from either distraction, but it left her with too little air and too much of his scent. He smelled like rain and sunshine at the same time, coloured beautifully by a hint of timeless depth and delicacy. Oh bloody hell… who was choosing to torture her like that today? Changing strategies, she decided to breathe through her mouth instead, which at least solved one of her problems.

"So… that worked." She got out after a moment of finally being able to calm down indeed.

"Apparently."

"Is this the kind of thing you meant when you said I might run into trouble, at the beginning of the holidays?"

"Not precisely, but it makes for a better reason than the original one, so I might as well say yes."

Robin had to snort at the comment, and she couldn't believe how he managed to make her laugh even in a dire situation like this. He probably hadn't meant to, but it was quite the astonishing achievement nonetheless. One only he seemed to be capable of these days. At the very least, it helped calm her mind back down to a working pace now.

"I better get us out of here, huh? As much as I enjoy being stuck with you, it's getting a little hard to breathe." She said before she thought better of it, and then could only hope that he would put it off as humor in return. Either way, she went to pick up her backpack from the ground where she had dropped it, trying to somehow get a hold of it without being able to turn around or bow properly.

"Will you stop moving already?!" He grumbled after a few seconds of her struggling to reach down far enough and thereby pushing him into the wall even further, but Robin ignored him until she finally had a grip on the leather bag.

"Sorry, I didn't have a more spacious gap in the wall to offer." She rolled her eyes, then pressed her bag against her hip with one arm and reached over both their chests with the other to summon out her books. "Help me find that beast out there in the paperwork and next time I'll make sure to find us a space to get stuck in that's more to your taste."

"Don't be ridiculous, this one is perfectly fine." He objected in an instant, and Robin quirked an eyebrow at him with a humored smirk while he seemed to realize what he had said, and rolled his eyes in return. "Just find the creature in the bloody books, will you?"

"Give me some light and I will."

______________________________

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[starshine-selfships]

1, 10, 11, and 12 for the ask game ? 😺🙏💟

Hi hi hi!! You're getting long answers to these bc any excuse to talk about this man makes me go crazy stupid 🙌🙌🙌💕

1) What's a Hot Take you have about your f/o?

HE👏IS👏NEURODIVERGENT!! I'm specifically talking adhd, but he checks a lot of boxes for something more ambiguous too. I'm actually rewriting my adhd sh.aiapouf post and I'm gonna put it here too, but the cut time version IS: noticeable hyperfixations/special interests in music and the monarchy, practically no empathy + has difficulty understanding the emotions of others, fast thinking + thinks a LOT, almost weirdly analytical + book smart with little to no interpersonal skills, extreme emotions all over the board, like there's a LOT here and it explains like 80% of why he's Like That 😤

10) How did you feel when you realized "oh of course I had to like That Character"?

Okay I have a lot to say on this one djnfkffk please bear with me as I write a whole novel

✌U_U ✌

Honestly,, , I wasn't happy LMAOOO, around the time I watched the anime for the first time i was actually still pretty into j.jba and unfortunately was really into dio U_U

I was fascinated by pouf as soon as I saw him in the opening, lots of neat ant designs and then this butterfly man?? I need to know everything about him 👀 His intro with the rainbows in the wings, the fairy chimes, the solo violin, all had me like 👁👁 Sir I Am Going To Study You Like The Insect You Are, and then I saw him actually play the violin and was sold lmao. He was funny as far as comic relief went and then? The giant improv ballet breakdown and antagonistic turn drew me in further and then I was invested in a no going back sorta way as soon as he went chibi for the first time, just watching the chaos of the entire scene with this ridiculous huge grin dhjdkxkf every single thing he did was in the extremes and it was like watching a train de-rail in real time, I saw him face down in the dirt at the end of the arc and didn't even feel anything, he was just so WILD

So I finish h.xh not too long after that and texted a friend and was like hmmm. I need to watch j.jba to return to my roots and also to forget that I think I might've accidentally given myself a lil crush on the butterfly man 😳 idk if that return ever happened but I DO remember being frustrated with how pretty he is,, I didn't really wanna shift hyperfixations at the time and also didn't know if it was attraction or gender envy bc. what I would give to simultaneously look so fem and so masc 👁 either way it was a 3 month struggle of "oh no oh my god I wanna kiss a bug so bad?? 😞" and then I caved at midnight in a denny's and was like okay. fine. I'm gay for a bug, I really really like him but *i* don't have to like that 😤

I did, in fact, proceed to like it, enough to make an entire separate blog for him. It was a slow progression of "I mean, I'd share a ballroom dance with him, like a waltz maybe", "hmm okay he's funny but whatever", "oh uh. he uh. I mean he's neat, a lot of people didn't like him but I just think he's an interesting character 😳" and. and then I finally caved and I never stopped talking sjdkfkf though to be fair, I was already talking about him a LOT on my main, I just decided that maybe it would be nice to have a space to just. contain 90% of my poufposting LMAOOO

Final note on this, but I think what really got me is how many characters are in this series and yet I gravitated towards the one no one could stand 😞✌ though to be fair the hatred for him has definitely gone down compared to what I can remember from a few years ago; absolutely does not change the fact that He Is The Way He Is, but I saw the war crimes, malice, potentially treason, and I won't name it but it's by far the most uncomfortable thing to sit through in the arc, I saw ALL of that and still went hmmmm yes I want that one U_U true love huh

11) Do you think it's better to have copious amounts of content for your f/o, even with the risk of finding a lot of ship art, or better to have a lot less?

The art situation with him is strange bc there's a decent enough to be notable amount of art of him captioned with some variation of "I hated him but he had a really cool character design", but it's still content. Surprisingly, I actually don't track the tag for him but take a look at it anyways almost every day and there's maybe one new thing there like once a week, minimal content bc so many people just didn't like him, which is fair!! But also, he was definitely there as a prominent character, I'd just like to see more of him U_U I would put more art here but I'm too conscious of the art ops seeing my bs over here jdkdkfkk

There actually are a handful of ship art drawings of him, which astounds me bc this man wasn't there to make friends, not even with his own siblings :/, but the errant art of him with morel or kite is honestly pretty cute, please just let this man be happy, I love to see him smile 🥺

12) Aren't you tired of being nice? This is an excuse to rant.

He wasn't the worst guard!! All three had reasons for doing what they did and arguably, pouf's motives were the most complex. Yes he did some pretty awful things, but he considered them to be the right thing to do without a doubt in his mind, all his actions were selfish in that they were based off his own feelings, but he did things ultimately for the king, so his actions also had an edge of selflessness to them as well. He was just. so much more than annoying and while his character development wasn't positive, it was still some pretty astounding growth; as an antagonist, he's also fairly plausible 👀 sometimes people just are manipulative, sometimes feelings do get the better of you, pouf just has all those factors amped up to 11 at all times so they're magnified. I have. a lot of thoughts on him, he interests me very much 😞👀🤔👀

[kessielrg]

A Quiet Place (Part 2)

Summary: Part 2 that i promised for this piece: here. Still inspired by a chaotic rp @chibi-mushroom and @animacreates are doing. This one takes place a month-ish after the last, and further dives into what trauma the foster siblings got themselves into beforehand.

Rating: K+ (for a precision f-strike on Brain’s part)

Word Count: 2,409 words

If you liked this story, please reblog!

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They kept the blanket on the couch just for her. Not that she had any reliance on the purposely quiet nature of Oswald's hobby room. It was just… a good place to be, that's all. Oswald held true to his word- Ortensia really didn't bother him when he was in that room. The closest she ever got was a polite knock on the door to say that dinner was ready. He even held true on ignoring Sabrina whenever she went under the afghan blanket. Even on days like today when she sat up and simply had the blanket draped over her shoulders; he would come into the room, notice she was there with a little nod, then continue on as if she wasn't there. It was… nice. It came in handy when she decided to do her homework in the hobby room.

But she wasn't here to do her homework today. She was waiting for Oswald. Sabrina hugged the blanket as close as possible while she kicked her legs over the couch. Her face was between a scowl and upset. She and Brain had been with Ortensia and Oswald for nearly a month now- one of the longest times they'd ever stayed with a single family before. The absolute longest had been at six months. It was another nice couple, like Oswald and Ortensia, until they were expecting their first child. In the rush for the new baby, Sabrina started to cling to the caretakers. She didn't know a baby was a lot to care for. She just knew that her dependance on this one family who seemed so nice were suddenly drifting away. They didn't even bother to give her a second chance at being a good kid after she accidentally pushed their foster mother down the stairs. It was an accident. Honest. She only wanted to help arrange things for the baby too...

“One of these days I'll learn to say no to her.” Oswald grumbled as he entered the hobby room. It nearly gave Sabrina a start, having been too busy wondering just what happened to that particular foster family. “She and Ortensia. Make me talk to that rat. As if I'd ever-”

“I want to watch a Audrey Hepburn movie.”

It was almost funny watching him jump at her voice. Then again, it probably was rather surprising that she wanted to have a conversation with him- even if it was just a request to watch a movie. But there was a glint of determination in her eye. Oswald noticed it and nearly tossed his trouble out the window. This kid needed that attention at the moment.

“Alright.” he agreed. He went over to the bookshelf holding the VHS tapes as he asked, “What are you in the mood for? Funny Face? Love in the Afternoon? Charade?”

“I want to watch Sabrina.”

Oswald cocked an eyebrow as he pulled it from the shelf. “I thought you hated that one?”

“I do. A lot.” she agreed, rather prudently. “But I wanna watch it anyway.”

“Alright then.” her caretaker laughed. “If you're so sure, we'll watch Sabrina, Sabrina.”

The child gave a rather smug grin as he came back over. She was rather pleased as he turned on the TV and got the movie ready. Oswald plunked himself on the couch with a grunt. He then eased into it with a long, well needed sigh.

“Can I lay on you?”

Oswald blinked. He looked over at Sabrina to see her give him the same glare she gave her schoolwork. It was a look of deep thought. Of experimenting. Of very harsh scrutinizing.

“Sure.” he agreed. “Can't guarantee I'm any good as a pillow, though. Do you mind?”

Sabrina shook her head, then nearly fell headfirst into his lap like she immediately passed out. Oswald would have thought that was the case before she carefully moved herself to face the TV.

“Comfy?” he jokingly asked. She gave a small nod, which only got another chuckle out of him. “Can I put my hand on your head? You didn't really leave me a good spot for it.”

“Don't braid my hair.” came the rather sharp answer.

“I won't.” he laughed in agreement.

Sabrina made herself a bit more comfortable before focusing on the movie. This one really wasn't her favorite. The title character, the one who shared her name, was a girl who was enamored with a guy whose family had hired her father as their chauffeur. That Sabrina loved David (the guy) so much that when she was sent to Paris to learn how to cook, she tried to kill herself. David's much older brother, Linus, found Sabrina and stopped her before she could go through with it. When the Sabrina in the movie came back from Paris, David was attracted to her because she looked like a woman. But Linus didn't want David to fall in love with Sabrina, he had his brother arranged to marry a sugar plantation heiress so he could produce a lot of sturdy plastics in their family's name. And so, he did something that our Sabrina found quite ridiculous; he tried to make the movie Sabrina fall in love with him instead. Suffice to say, it worked on both accounts. Sabrina fell in love with Linus, and Linus fell in love with Sabrina. In the end, they were on a one-way cruise boat going to Paris, happy and in love.

If our Sabrina had her way, that movie would have gone very differently. The first change would have been when David decided he liked movie Sabrina because she looked pretty now. Instead of going along with him finally liking her, our Sabrina would have pranked him. She would have made him work for her affection after spending most of their lives pretending she didn't exist. And when Linus tried to sway her away from David? Our Sabrina would have come clean. She would have admitted that she was just messing with David. Perhaps she still loved him, maybe not. Either way, she could still fall in love with Linus, but it would have been over a mutual dislike for how dumb David was.

There were some funny lines in the movie, though. Our Sabrina couldn't deny that. One of the ones she enjoyed was coming up right about now. It was when movie Sabrina was in Paris, and her father was reading a letter he had gotten from her during breakfast.

“What about David? What'd she say about David?” the cook happily asked as she made something in the background.

“Not a word.” the father said as he went through the letter.

“That's good.” the butler nodded as he took a bite from his toast.

“No, wait a minute,” the father then said. “Here's something. 'I don't think of David very much anymore.'”

“That's good.” a maid at the kitchen table nodded.

“'Except at night.'”

“That's bad.” the butler frowned, taking another bite.

“'I decided to be sensible the other day, and tore up David's picture.'”

“That's good.” the bartender nodded as he was washing a glass at the sink.

“'Could you please airmail me some scotch tape.'”

“That's bad.” the cook dismally noted.

Our Sabrina couldn't help her little snicker. She liked the way the actors bounced off each other into perfect comedic timing. Oswald noticed it and gave a smirk of his own.

“You're a good kid.” he idly noted, giving her hair a gentle pat.

The child shrank. “No I'm not.”

“You are, and you deserve the world.”

“Stop.” the child desperately begged, even sitting up to be at his eye level. “I don't want you to talk like that. I don't want you to ever talk like that. Bad things always happen to the people that do.”

Oswald just looked at her for a moment. “Like what?” he asked, trying to play it off as a joke. But her face… It was too serious. Too… terrified.

“They get mean.” she insisted. “They say that they care, but then they decide they don't want you anymore. You try to defend your brother, and you get yelled at instead. Or… or maybe they just wanted your brother, so they're mean to you every time he's not looking. And he doesn't always know. He just says that you're just scared, and exaggerating, and… and…!”

“Sabrina,” Oswald said, interrupting her and even gently taking her by the shoulders. Even if he didn't have a strong grip on her, she still tried to struggle out of it. “Sabrina, listen to me. Ortensia and I will never do that to you. To both of you. You have my absolute word.”

The child violently shook her head. “No!” she cried before breaking free of his hold. She hid herself in a corner of the couch, blanket over her head, and refused to budge. In her desperation, she even shouted at him, “I don't exist! I'm under the blanket and I don't exist now!”

He wasn't going to lie, Oswald almost broke that one ounce of trust she had in him. But he couldn’t. Instead, he tried to relax in his seat again and tried to focus on the movie. It was hard when all he wanted to do was give that little girl a hug.

The movie now had switched back to what the heroine was during in Paris. She was in her second class where they were learning how to make souffle. The instructor was shrewd- he had something negative to say about every student’s effort. Once he told movie Sabrina that her souffle was ‘too low’, the titular girl went off to the side with an older student. This student was a character only used to justify a dress movie Sabrina would wear later, and Oswald knew that his Sabrina preferred the chemistry between these two than movie Sabrina and Linus.

“I don't know what happened.” movie Sabrina sighed as the two of them placed their souffles on the table.

“I'll tell you what happened, dear.” the older student laughed. “You forgot to turn on the oven.”

Movie Sabrina’s face went into one of disappointment as she let out a sullen, “Oh!”

“I've been watching you for a long time, mademoiselle.” the older student admitted. “Your mind has not been on the cooking. Your mind has been elsewhere. You're in love, and I would venture to one step further that you are unhappily in love.”

“Does it show?” movie Sabrina asked, casting her gaze down.

“Very clearly. A woman happily in love, she burns the souffle. A woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven.”

Oswald took a look back at Sabrina. Even under all of the covers, you could see how tightly she had tensed up. All he could think was, ‘Oh, kid…’ and really wish he could have gotten to these two siblings sooner. He didn’t leave her while the movie still played. When it ended, he got up to rewind the tape and carefully made his way back to the shelf to put it away. Never once did his Sabrina move. He hoped she had gone to sleep instead of still being catanoic. At least he knew he had the heart for this parenting thing; people who didn’t care wouldn’t have the insatiable urge to cuddle that poor kid, kiss her forehead, and promise her the world so long as they lived. Tell her the lies you always told kids when they were sad- it would get better, the world’s brighter than this, sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you.

Would they even work on her? He had severe doubts about it after today.

“I might have dinner up here tonight,” he said out loud. It wasn’t directed toward little Sabrina, but it was a habit to communicate his intentions when he left the hobby room while she was still there. “I’ve really been meaning to work on that blasted clock all week.”

No response from the lump on the couch. He didn’t know if that was a good thing, or a bad one.

Again, resisting the urge to just hold the child and never letting go, Oswald let out a small sigh as he headed on out. He gently closed the door behind him, then started to make his way to the living room. Finding that Blaine was relaxing on the living room sofa was a small relief. He sure did look comfortable- back against the armrest, feet up on the sofa, and laptop balanced on his knees.

“Hey you,” Oswald teased, “No making scam sites until you have your own bank account. I won’t let you trace that stuff back to me.”

Like a true teenager, Blaine just slowly lulled his head over to look at his caretaker. A smirk was etched on his face in seeing Oswald there.

“I’m a renegade foster kid,” he said in delight, “I already have my own bank account. Those poor suckers think I’m 28, and Sabi’s a college student.”

“Going for a bachelor's, then?”

“Master’s actually.”

“Ah.” Oswald snorted. But the thought of their futures made him frown. “Blaine, I've got a question.”

“Fire way.”

“Do you still have the number of your case worker?”

“Sure do. Got it on speed dial.” There was a pause, then the boy asked in a rather defensive tone, “Why?”

To this, Oswald nervously rubbed the back of his neck. It was only now dawning on him how terrifying the request would sound to these kids. So he tried his best to lighten the situation a bit by saying, “Do you think there's a nice way to ask if I murder your previous foster parents? They've got a lot to answer for.”

Turns out, Blaine's glare was just as ice cold as Sabrina's.

“You don’t need the case worker to tell you that.” Blaine darkly informed Oswald. “I can tell you exactly who decided to gaslight Sabi in a heartbeat. Among others.”

“I hate that you know what the word is…” Oswald mumbled under his breath as he rubbed the back of his neck. Blaine cocked an eyebrow at him in response.

“You really are a good one.” he decided with a click of his tongue. He turned his attention back to his laptop before adding in a dark voice, “Don't fuck it up.”

And Oswald had no intention of doing so- not over his dead body.

[mahou-furbies]

Magical Girl Raising Project Limited - character design ranking

Captain Grace

An alright pirate design with enough little details that keep it from being forgettable (I especially like the anchor buckle on her belt, and the earrings and hooks on her hair). The spikes on the coat are what stands out most to me; makes me think of a Mario enemy or something. However I’m not sure how much of a Magical Girl design it is. Like pirates and frills already go together, so the well tested formula (put a miniskirt and frills on it and it’s a magical girl look!) doesn’t really do much. Maybe it’d be better if she had some cutesy detail in there somewhere? Also is that an tail again or what, or some kind of blunt hook? What is it with these unnecessary tails in Magipro designs. 6/10. 

Funny Trick

I’ve always liked Funny Trick’s look, and it’s probably because of the pleasant colour palette, unique eyes and two-tone hair (I’m easy to please with two-tone hair). The nail polish and colourful glitter on her fur are also good little details. But apart from that I guess this is only barely strange enough to be any kind of “magical” look rather than just an anime stage magician, but at least that’s pretty close to magical girls already. Also is that a frigging tail again?? At least it goes well with the hair I guess... 8/10.

Kuru-Kuru Hime

It’s a cute design, but when I think of a ribbon magical girl I somehow expected more ribbons? Like this feels like an the higher end of an average magical girl amount of ribbons? Or maybe it’s totally over the top and my perspective is just skewed since I love ribbons and want them everywhere. Either way I like her outfit from neck down, but I’m not that into the headgear, the combo of the bonnet thingy and the weird crown just sitting on top if it looks strange to me. Nice hair tho even if it could use more ribbons. 6/10.

Weddin

I absolutely love Weddin’s design. The muted and light colour palette is very appealing to me, and the dark chains break up the mostly monochrome design so it doesn’t look dull and faded and also give the otherwise super frilly appearance quite a lot of edge. There’s repeating elements (braids in her hair and veil, the same kind of flowers everywhere, flower yellow also appearing in her eye makeup) so it doesn’t get too complicated, and all of them go well with the wedding theme too. The flame... is a bit of an odd touch and I’d rather associate it with a birthday party or Christmas than a Wedding but I guess you can have candles at weddings too, and I don’t find it too distracting.

I’m not a huge fan of the lingerie like look though, but at least visible garters go with the wedding theme and she’s so covered in veils and frills that it doesn’t look so bad. Also the back train looks kind of lazy. But overall still one of my favourite Magipro designs. 10/10.

Rain Pow

A tail again! However this time I actually like it, since she has that rainbow hoop behind her it looks good to stick something through it, and at least it somewhat resembles her twintails. 

As for the rest of the design, it has zero frills and ribbons and looks more like some kind of scifi spacesuit than a typical magical girl design, but somehow I still really like it. I think the weird heart hair is just enough to pull it into magical girl territory for me so my impressions are more on the “an unique take on an mg look” rather than “not mg enough” side. Then all the rings keep the look consistent (I absolutely love the rainbow halo) and the suit itself looks alright enough. I also find it interesting how muted the suit colours are for a rainbow magical girl and even the rainbow is pretty pastel, but I figure this is a better choice than all the expected seven colours in all their eye-strainy glory. 9/10.

Postarie

Please put on some pants, that is a shirt and not a dress.

Not too interested in this one, but I find it a commendable effort on making a design on the idea of “postal delivery girl”. Still lots of repeating elements so that’s a plus, especially the back epaulette is such an absurd idea but somehow it works and its wings and the wing hairstyle add the required fantasy touch. Bonus points for the cute birds. 7/10.

Tepsekemei

An inoffensive genie design but I struggle to really have emotions towards it. Butt flower is silly and I have no idea what the things hanging from it are, but at least they’re consistent with her head decoration. Don’t care for the shoulder spikes in an otherwise soft looking design. Huge earrings and multicoloured nails are a nice touch. 6/10.

7753

Also one of my favourite Magipro looks. It feels like the design philosophy here was “gakuran jacket and some frills, and then some hearts. And more hearts! More! Even more!” and I think it’s a great way to go with when designing a magical girl. Using just hearts everywhere makes the outfit cohesive, but since they’re all implemented in different ways it doesn’t get boring. I especially like the little hearts on her hands and under the eye, and the one in her pocket.

Two-tone hair in twintails is also one of the best design elements out there and the hairstyle is quite memorable (and also manages to incorporate the heart motif) and I’m always a fan of caps too. The green eyes and the little bit of green nail polish which you unfortunately can’t see here go well with the otherwise reddish look. Maybe the hair looks a bit too clunky (I only just realised it appears to be tied in a hoop behind her) but I won’t let it bother me. 10/10.

Mana

A solid witch design, I especially love the dimensional cape and hat. I also like the huge collar with the lace detail, but I’m not sure if it works with the hat brim. Not a big fan of the hair, I think it clutters the design. The snake leg accessory feels weird and a bit out of place but I do appreciate the asymmetry and also having something dark to break up the otherwise plain bottom part of the design.. 7/10.

Gekokujou Hana

I tend not to be a huge fan of kimono-based clothes, but this one is an exception I guess. The great colours must play a part in it, and the bottom part is fun. Then the dangly decorations add the correct amount of strangeness so it’s not just a bunny girl in a mini kimono Also, another tail, but this time it’s almost a requirement and I love how ridiculously huge it is (and also repeats elsewhere in her outfit). But really I can’t think of anything to dislike about this, must be the colours and the tail. 10/10.

Archfiend Pam

I believe this is the record on how little clothing you can wear in this franchise... At least she has the personality to pull that off. But that is not a top! At least it’s something new...? The wings fit the description in the story, but I don’t think these blank rectangles look very aesthetically pleasing. I like the tail best, the fur edge makes it a lot more interesting than just the usual demon tail. I don’t know, if the theme is a sexy demon girl this design definitely accomplishes it in a unique way, but also I don’t care for this fanservicey designs. Also not a fan of the hair. 4/10.

Pythie Frederica

Before drawing her for the chibi series I thought she had some kind of a helmet but upon closer inspection of course it’s a veil. But what are the horns? 

Upon closer inspection this one is also very fanservicey, in that her “dress” is actually see-through and the only thing covering the critical areas look like thin belt-thingies. At least she doesn’t look like she’s ten... But a major issue I have is the bottom part of her outfit, like how is it supposed to work? Is it one big piece of cloth, or multiple thin ones? What is the “fire” behind her? Is the dark part her hair, or the clothing, and is it supposed to be black or just shading? I do like the stars; otherwise the design gives a more mature “sexy” air, but the little stars everywhere adds a cute element. The colour palette is pleasing, but as much as I like multicoloured hair it doesn’t grant points this time, because the wiggly stray strands look very out of place here and the colour change makes them even more noticeable. 2/10.

Tot Pop

This one really isn’t my aesthetic, I very much prefer the cutesy style and there isn’t really anything ‘magical girl’ about this design. And it doesn’t really evoke the supposed image of ‘pop star’ to me either, like if you remove the guitar I’d think her theme was a prisoner or halloween. Though I don’t really know what a ‘pop star’ should look like anyway, like can’t they wear anything they want, I know Lady Gaga had a meat dress or something. But as of this design, I don’t think there’s anything specifically wrong with it, the colours are pleasing, the details are consistent and it’s not bland or boring either, but it just doesn’t do much for me because of the theme. I like the blood-stained hair and the spiky hair accessory, the long hanging part makes for a nice silhouette. Meanwhile the skulls on her shoulders feel somewhat tacked on, and in general I don’t care for piercings in anywhere else than ears. 5/10.

Pukin

And it’s a tail again. What is it with the stupid tacked on tails on every other design in this franchise? Sometimes it’s not so badly out of place, like if you have an youthful cutesy design, a fluffy animal tail can still add to the cute effect even if it’s otherwise out of place. But Pukin is supposed to be this dangerous and majestic authority figure and a cutesy tail very much doesn’t fit that image. And while we’re on the topic of animal features, the story describes that she has a feather decoration in her hair, but the way it’s drawn as a tiny feather jutting directly up in the middle of her head gives me more the impression of a character whose theme is a baby bird rather than a fantasy prince.

Now that we’ve dealt with the tail let’s get the biggest issue out of the way: I’m aware that there was a time in history when people used to wear these kind of giant ruffled collars but I really don’t care if there’s some kind of history based reasoning. It looks like your head is on a plate and it’s something I can’t ignore. I don’t feel even clowns can pull that off. There is no way getting around this.

When I first read Limited I thought Pukin’s appearance was an absolute mess and an instant 1/10, but upon closer inspection there is stuff I like about it too. She has a good colour palette, great shoes and gloves, and as a friend of multicoloured hair I welcome the yellow hair tips. The big heavy cape balances the small top and pants, and I really like the fur. Earrings go well with the pants too. The theme is a bit confused, or at least I don’t know of any fairy tales about pumpkin prince, but it’s not like I would complain about pineapple or cauliflower princess so that’s not really a problem. 3/10.

Sonia Bean

And we end Limited with yet another excellent design. I like how this manages to look kind of tattered and messy without actually being gross and dirty with the patchwork dress, dustball-like thingies, newspaper clippings and asymmetry. Even her hair looks disheveled. The headgear gives the design an old-fashioned vibe which suits her well since she’s so old. The light palette, soft design elements and ribbons give the look a cute feel, but at the same time she feels suspiciously pale, and the manic expression screams danger, like you can’t reason with this girl. She’s like a ghost of a Victorian era child who wants to play with you but you know you definitely should not follow her.

The design only works if I don’t think too much about it though, like dust is gross and newspaper paper is crinkly and not soft at all, but since we’re magical girls here I can ignore that and enjoy the image the clothing evokes. 10/10.

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Limited average: 6,9.

[chatonne-rousse]

The Pole Kit and Kaboodle

Written for @smutember, Day 3: Striptease

@tsuki-chibi, I owe you one for all your encouragement and the great ideas you provided.  You’re the best!  ♥

This can also be read on Ao3.

They break apart for air, heaving breaths amplified in the silence of Adrien’s cavernous bedroom. Marinette’s hands still clutch at his back beneath his t-shirt; he lowers his head to her bare shoulder and sucks a possessive mark into her skin.

Her sundress is long gone, unbuttoned an hour ago by eager yet careful hands and parted reverently to reveal the lacy bra that now hangs from one shoulder.

Lips and tongue and teeth explore that same shoulder now, claiming every inch of skin up, up the curve of her neck and oh! The jolt of arousal that zings down her spine has her hips pressed to his of their own accord, while he soothes the spot his teeth have just nipped.

“You like that, Mari?” He purrs, huffing a pleased laugh against her skin before dipping back down to do it all over again just behind her ear.

She can practically hear the smug grin in his voice, but imagining it on Adrien’s sweet face seems wrong somehow. It’s a look more suited to a certain black cat, whom Marinette has no intention of thinking about while her boyfriend tugs her bra strap further down her arm and follows its path with kisses.

This is wonderful, of course, and her senses sing with delight at the smell of his shampoo, the taste of his minty lip balm still on her tongue, the delicious weight of his body between her legs and his soft skin beneath her fingertips. But when her bare thighs rub against his jeans as her hips search for more friction, it’s not difficult to notice the disparity in their states of undress.

He’s just freed her breast from its confines when she decides they need to even the score a bit.

Her hands glide whisper-soft down the plane of his back, and she’s gratified by the surprised gasp she hears (and feels) at her chest. She takes a quick detour just below the waistband of his jeans to feel the warm skin and tight muscles there before grabbing his t-shirt hem and starting to pull it up so it can join her dress on the coffee table.

It’s a shame he has to pause the magic his tongue is working right now, but the sacrifice will be worth it when she can feel their bodies pressed skin to skin, a pleasure she’d imagined in fantasy but still hasn’t gotten used to the wonder of in real life.

When he realizes what she’s trying to do, he makes a noise of disapproval against her skin before quickly sitting up and tugging his t-shirt back down.

It happens so fast that Marinette is left wide-eyed in surprise, the cool of the room making her still-wet nipple harden further.

This does not go unnoticed.

“I’ll be back for you,” Adrien reassures her bare breast, pointing a finger at it, “And I haven’t forgotten you,” he reminds the other, still tucked behind lace.

It’s one of the most ridiculous things she’s ever witnessed in her life, and she can’t stop the bark of laughter that bubbles up in her chest, cutting through the sting of his sudden retreat.

She quirks an eyebrow and gestures between them. “I'm feeling underdressed. Care to even things out?”

“Uh uh uh,” he sings, wagging his index finger dramatically like a ticking metronome. At the confused furrow in her brow, he deflates a little, his hand moving instead to the back of his neck.

“I, um, had an idea,” he says sheepishly.

“O…kay?”

His answering grin is pure elation, his playful swagger returning as he leaps from the sofa.

“I think you’ll love it!” She hears him call from the vicinity of his desk.

Her heart swells, her smile returns.

Oh, this boy.

She pulls her wayward bra strap back up onto her shoulder and resituates everything comfortably. Whatever he has planned will probably lead them back to the sofa - or the bed, or his desk, or the skate ramp - and her underwear will be added to the clothing pile in a few minutes anyway. At least, she hopes so.

Intimacy isn’t brand-new for them, but it’s still as thrilling as it was those first few times they’d explored each other’s bodies and discovered just how euphoric it could be to fall apart against the fingers and tongue of another, turning love into something tangible by way of racing hearts and trembling hands. Alone time in the quiet of her loft was eclipsed forever the first time she saw his climax cross his face at the same moment she felt it inside.

They’re still clumsy sometimes, still learning about sex and each other, but the shine hasn’t worn off yet, and she hopes it never does.

Peeking over the sofa, she finds him holding his desk lamp in one hand and scrolling frantically through his phone with the other. She smiles to herself when his face lights up upon finding what he was looking for. He lifts his head and finds her watching him, his eyes going soft with adoration at the same time his lips quirk in a sly grin.

Seriously. This boy.

He pushes the foosball table toward the corner with his hip before tucking the base of the lamp between the rows of players and setting his phone on the turf beneath their feet.

Looking around for a nearby plug, he has to push the table back in the other direction until he can find a spot the cord will reach. He finally switches on the lamp and maneuvers the adjustable neck to create his own spotlight as Marinette watches with amusement as the scene unfolds. That is, until he fumbles it and shines the bright light directly into her eyes.

She shrieks and hears him curse before running over to her.

“Shit!” he mutters again, placing a finger under her chin and tilting her face toward his. “I’m so sorry, Marinette.”

It takes a few blinks to clear the blinding spots from her eyes, but the relief in his gaze is a sweet consolation once her vision clears. She rises just enough from the sofa to press her lips to his and delights in his sigh against her cheek.

“I’m fine, Adrien,” she assures him as she settles into the sofa, tucking her legs beneath her and propping her elbow on the back cushion. She shoots him a cheeky wink. “You certainly have my attention.”

His lips quirk in a crooked smile and he rubs the back of his neck as he returns to the foosball table, reaching down and pressing play on the song he’d chosen earlier. A slow and sultry melody begins as he takes his place and strikes a pose that makes her giggle.

“Are you ready, Mari?” He asks with an eyebrow wiggle.

“You have the floor. Seduce me, beau gosse.”

His cheeks pinken but he catches the rhythm of the song’s intro and starts to sway his hips with the music. A moment later, he bends down to quickly untie his shoes, still punctuating each beat with a shake of his behind, even as he struggles with the laces.

Marinette bites the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, thankfully keeping the warm smile on her face when he pops back up to meet her gaze again.

He shucks one shoe, which she watches sail toward his desk before landing with a thunk. The other shoe is kicked off just as the words to the song begin, but neither of them pay attention to the English lyrics as they watch the orange plimsoll head straight for the television. It clips the top edge before tumbling to the floor behind, leaving the giant television rocking precariously for several long, long moments until it finally settles back in place, unharmed.

Crisis averted, Adrien continues unfazed.

His socks are quickly discarded, mercifully without incident.

Next comes his t-shirt, which Marinette doesn’t think will be any trouble since she’s watched him tug it over his head by the back of the collar numerous times in their haste to undress and come together again.

She is wrong.

In the momentary struggle to remove his shirt from where it’s somehow become stuck on his head, Marinette is treated to the sight of his very, very chiseled abs, muscles rippling as he flails his arms above his head. She’s always wondered how on earth he got so ripped - when does he have the time? - but she’s definitely not complaining.

Finally free, Adrien gleefully throws the shirt to his solo audience member, who catches it with a laugh and clutches it to her chest like the prize that it is.

This striptease is proving two facts she already knew: One, he is an absolute doofus, and two, she loves him beyond measure.

Refocusing on her beloved doofus while shamelessly inhaling the familiar scent of his t-shirt, she watches him begin to unbuckle his belt and feels a little fluttery all of a sudden.

When a few sweet kisses while watching an anime an hour ago had led to roaming hands and discarded clothing and his body pressing hers into the sofa, the destination was clear. However, the entertaining detour of the last few minutes got her sidetracked. Suddenly, the clink of his buckle has her very much looking forward to the removal of those last few articles of clothing.

Buckle undone, hips still swaying languidly with the beat, he takes a moment to unbutton and unzip his jeans before whipping his belt from its loops with a flourish.

Just as the singer croons, “Throw your clothes on the floor,” Adrien’s jeans fall to the hardwood.

Marinette’s jaw is clenched, lips pressed tightly together, practically vibrating with her attempt to keep from laughing.

Undeterred, he steps from his jeans to the tune of “I’m gonna take my clothes off, too” and promptly trips, falling toward the armrest of the sofa and just barely catching himself with one hand instead of his handsome face, though his knees hit the floor with a heavy thump.

Marinette jumps up, nerves alive with adrenaline and worry, and rushes around the sofa toward him.

“Oh my god, Adrien! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

He’s clearly mortified, blushing from the tips of his ears to the top of his chest.

“No, no, I’m fine,” he hastily assures her as he gets to his feet again and kicks his traitorous jeans under the foosball table, sending a withering glare in their direction.

Marinette perches on the sofa again, but she’s still wound tightly after watching him fall.

The song nears its end, trailing off in a medley of warbling voices. After a pause, the slow and sexy intro builds again as the song repeats.

Adrien matches the rhythm with his hips once more, now clad in only black boxer briefs, and dance-walks to the fireman’s pole.

"No..." she whispers under her breath.

"Yes!" he sings, drawing out the vowel on a long, dramatic vibrato.

He grabs the pole with one hand and leans away, letting gravity take over as he spins once, then twice around it.

In the next moment, he's shimmying to the top, only his bare feet visible beneath the mezzanine floor. Suddenly, his upper body drops through upside-down, his head missing the metal by inches. Right knee wrapped around the pole, his right hand grips loosely as he slides slowly toward the floor.

The look of sheer joy on his face is contagious. Marinette squeals with laughter and applauds his showmanship when he unhooks his knee and flips to the floor, throwing his arms in the air like an Olympic gymnast who's just landed a perfect dismount.

Clearly soaking up her approval, Adrien spins lazily around the pole, this time locked around it by the crook of his elbow.

Soon he scrambles up the pole again, calling down to her, "Hey, Marinette! I'm Père Noël!"

When he pops up against the mezzanine railing, he finds her face looking up at him scrunched in confusion.

"I'm at the North Pole!"

"Boo!" she heckles, rolling her eyes. "Two out of ten. You can do better."

He's still laughing on his next descent, this time going for a "Look Mari, no hands!" approach. He leans his entire body away from the pole and slides down on one hooked knee, using the core strength that must be hidden in those sculpted abs she enjoys so much to keep his torso nearly perpendicular to the pole.

Now, that's at least relatively impressive.

Marinette whistles her appreciation, judiciously ignoring his crash landing.

"Bravo, bravo!" She blows him a flurry of kisses as he bows. "You make a great case for why every child should grow up with a stripper pole in their bedroom."

His face falls into an indignant pout. "It's a fireman's pole and you know it," he huffs.

She waves her hand. "Semantics."

This is quickly devolving into a nearly-nude comedy routine punctuated by feats of strength and agility, but the sultry music still plays in the background, the song now entering its third encore.

Adrien shakes his head at his girlfriend in mock solemnity.

"I should've known you weren't ready for the pole shebang."

She bites back the immediate and obvious retort that comes to mind on a wave of red and black and green déjà vu. There's no way she's heard that awful joke before...right?

Marinette shakes the thought of her superhero partner from her mind and focuses instead on watching - okay, appreciating - Adrien's delicious backside when he bends forward and grips the pole with both hands. Although this current view of a muscled back, strong thighs, and black-clad ass that could've been carved from marble by a Renaissance master is eerily reminiscent of her longtime partner, she is absolutely not thinking about Chat Noir right now.

No. Way.

Except she is. She can't help it.

Because when Adrien hops from the floor and uses the strength in his upper arms to hold himself upside down, knee hooking around the pole, she knows she's seen this before.

Long ago, on a dark rooftop in La Défense, high above the city, two teenage superheroes out way past their bedtime talked and laughed and ate day-old pastries, sharing a thermos of hot tea.

"Hey, Bugaboo! Watch this!"

Famous last words, she thinks, giving him an amused half-smile and shaking her head at the disaster that's certainly to come. He's such a try-hard. Such a dork. No one could be a better partner than he is.

Chat Noir walks to a spot beneath an air duct that crosses the roof about fifteen feet overhead. He presses the button on his baton, and it creates a vertical tension rod between the ground and the metal above. He tests its sturdiness before cracking his knuckles and grinning at his partner.

It's almost impressive, watching him climb upward using only his hands and his Miraculous-granted strength, back and legs perfectly parallel to the pole until he gets to the top and slides back down in a curving arc to the roof below.

Ladybug claps politely when he bows but can't hide her grin.

"Well, what else can you do, Acrochat?"

"Ha! Good one, My Lady! Prepare to be amazed." He claps once to psych himself up before taking to the pole again, this time holding on with only one hand as he kicks out from the ground in a spin, whirling around the pole like a superpowered human tetherball. He catches the pole with his other hand after a few rotations and uses the momentum to bring his legs up over his head to hook one knee around the pole. Dangling upside-down, he spreads his arms wide with exuberance.

She giggles at his antics and claps again, this time adding a little cheer for good measure. It was a pretty cool trick, after all.

"That, Bugaboo," he says cockily, shooting her upside-down finger guns, "is the pole kit and kaboodle."

Ladybug rolls her eyes and groans. "That was bad, even for you, Minou."

She wonders how he'll get down from that position, but isn't left wondering for long. He grips the pole with both hands close to the roof above his head. This looks...precarious. When he unhooks his knee, he tries to hold himself up with his arms, but gravity is too strong for even a superhero sometimes.

He flops to the ground, then konks his elbow on the baton when he tries to stand up. He shakes out the tingles and grabs his staff with his other hand, shrinking it to its stowable size.

Howling with laughter, Ladybug whips her yo-yo from her waist and opens the communicator, typing the number 10 in a large font on the screen. When he turns to face her, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, she holds it up high, hollering, "Woohoo!"

The true, celestial stars really aren't visible above major metropolitan cities like Paris. But tonight, Ladybug sees them in her partner's eyes as he laughs along with her. Moments like this with your very best friend don't come along every day, especially for two 16-year-old superheroes carrying the weight of the world.

"You might want to practice that dismount, Chaton," she wheezes.

"You know what, My Lady? I think I can do that."

It's a precious memory, and Marinette is reliving it right now.

Adrien's knee is hooked around the fireman's pole that's inexplicably part of the decor of his bedroom and not a superhero's baton wedged beneath a commercial air duct. But it doesn't matter. The sheer joy on his face, the way he spreads his arms wide and gazes at her upside-down - it's Chat Noir through and through. She didn’t know it two minutes ago, but she knows it now with an ironclad certainty.

And she knows exactly what he'll say next.

"That, my love," he declares, finger guns and all, "is the pole kit and kaboodle."

Marinette laughs because there's nothing else she can do.

When he grasps the pole above his head to prepare the dismount, Marinette reaches for her phone on the coffee table and opens the text app. This time, he lands on his feet, though he still konks his elbow on the pole as he stands up.

"Why does that always happen?" He mutters under his breath as he shakes the tingles out of his arm.

Adrien turns toward the sofa but stops in his tracks when she holds up her phone, a large-font perfect 10 lighting up the screen.

"You might want to practice that dismount, Chaton," she says softly, voice trembling with both nerves and the hysterical laughter she can barely suppress. "You did better than last time, though."

She watches the emotions cross his face one at a time - surprise, confusion, shock, and a dawning incredulity - before he looks from her eyes to her phone and back again.

"My...Lady?"

She nods, wide-eyed, blushing, her pulse roaring in her ears. There's no way this is happening. There's no way she's sitting on Chat Noir's sofa in her bra and panties.

Adrien stares at the floor and rubs the back of his neck. (Of course he does. In all these years, how did she not see it? How did she not see it in every little thing he did?)

"I..." he trails off, taking a deep breath. "I forced myself to get over you...because I'd fallen in love with you."

Marinette nods again.

"And I turned you down over and over because I was in love with you."

Forget him talking to her chest. This exchange is the most ridiculous thing she's ever witnessed in her life. Wild laughter bursts from her again unbidden, and this time she can't stop.

Hundreds of moments and memories of the past five years crash over her, friendship and love and heroic duty, anguish and joy and everything in between. Four separate lives become two before blending into one incredible relationship.

Holy shit.

She’s been dating Chat Noir for more than a year. She’s been sleeping with Chat Noir for six months! She is, in fact, intending to have sex with Chat Noir in approximately the next ten minutes.

She’s...truly, wildly, deeply in love with Chat Noir.

Of course she is. Of course.

Tears spring to her eyes even as she laughs herself toward hyperventilation.

Adrien - Chat Noir! - kneels on the floor in front of the sofa, his beautiful features painted with worry, and takes her shaking hands in his.

“My Lady? Marinette? Talk to me, please. Are you--?”

“I’m fine,” she manages to croak. “I promise.”

Several deep breaths later, she’s almost gotten herself under control. Her pulse is racing, but that’s probably not going to settle for quite a while, especially if he’s still amenable to what she’s now nearly-desperate to do in the next few minutes.

The relief in his eyes when she smiles and reaches out to caress his cheek makes her heart ache.

“I love you so much,” she whispers. The words are spoken without thought, as though they’ve come straight from her heart and bypassed her brain entirely, but the statement shines with the same truth it held the first time she said it to him and every time since.

“Still?” He asks quietly.

Oh, Minou.

“More,” she answers. “Always.”

He surges up on his knees, wrapping her in his arms and pressing his lips to hers in a kiss so full of passion it sends a shiver down her spine.

Marinette responds in kind, willing him to feel every bit of love she has for him, no matter what name he goes by.

This is beyond her imagination, and she'll undoubtedly freak out about it later, but right now, in Adrien's arms, it's shockingly easy to slot the two together, her partner and the love of her life. Of course they'd been in love with each other all this time. They're meant to be partners in every facet of life, it seems.

There is a very important discussion in their future, but it's already waited five years, and it can wait until they show each other exactly how much they love one another. Moments like these don't come along every day, especially for two young adults in love, who also happen to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.

The blissful, lovestruck look on his face as he enters her is stamped on her memory anew each time they find themselves entwined like this. It’s so beautiful, and only, ever, always for her. Tonight when he fills her and she gasps, “Yes, Chaton!” against his lips - oh, his expression is priceless.

From the other side of the room, Boys II Men quietly sing “I’ll Make Love to You” on an endless loop. And Marinette delights in letting Adrien do just that.

[okayto]

Mini-Review: The Royal Tutor

An enigmatic professor who's often mistaken for a child is hired to tutor four problem princes who'd rather do anything but study with a teacher.

Ah, the miracle teacher who sees through student struggles and pain to connect with them and teach them both their lessons, and how to open up. I love this trope--who wouldn’t want a teacher who not only knows their shit, but knows how to teach said shit, and also realizes the depths of your potential and helps you realize your passion and build on it?

This is primarily a lighthearted, humorous series. Despite the fact that the princes are being tutored because their father the king kinda thinks his adult firstborn (these are princes #2-5) might not be fit for the throne, we don’t get into politics, and barely get into court factions and rivalries--and even then, it’s basically just one guy close to Prince #1 (no, literally his name is Prince Eins) doing his best to make the younger princes less desirable by digging up scandals occasionally. I’ll touch on the serious aspects a little later.

At its core, you’ve got 4 teenage princes in late-1800s psuedo-Austria who have chased off their previous tutors for an unspecified length of time, but it’s been a while since they had consistent, proper schooling. Their new tutor is a no-name man who looks about 12 years old, who has to not just teach the pampered dorks, but convince them he’s worth listening to. Also at its core is a show so dedicated to the joke that the tutor is an adult! but small and looks like a child!!! that he’s often animated as a chibi and shown interacting with the world in a way only possible if he was actually 2 feet tall.

It’s a gag but you know what? It made me laugh. So: good gag. (Plus, at 12 episodes, it doesn’t really have time to get tiring.)

Looking at the princes, you’ve got Kai, who doesn’t have Resting Bitch Face so much as Resting Murder Face, a contrast to his love of all things small, soft and fluffy; Bruno, glasses-wearing nerd supreme;

Leonard, the sweet-toothed, athletic airhead; and Licht, the irrepressible flirt. The tutor, Heine, has to understand what makes each one tick and help them be better people in the way that all great-teacher-trope characters must. That’s not a criticism.

The anime is very light. You’re not going to find out if any of the princes are chosen to be heir. Instead, the episodes are filled primarily with Heine teaching them Something Useful (such as “this is what non-palace city life looks like” or Conversational Basics 101), and the princes, y’know, being dorks about it.

Now, it’s pretty clear early on that Heine has a secret. I mean, look at this face. This is the I am so much more capable and dangerous than you think anime face.

I won’t spoil the show, but we find out in the first couple episodes that a) Heine knows the king on a first-name basis, 2) the king and Heine are pretending they don’t know each other, and 3) Heine took the job with the understanding that if the truth about his past ever got out, he would quit.

oh ho HO that is some mysterious backstory there! Now, the manga is ongoing and to date Heine’s history is still unknown. We’ve learnt about some of his talents, but not how he developed them or where he met the king, much less how he formed a close friendship.

The anime has actually gone and given Heine a backstory to explain everything, so by episode 10 (of 12) we are solidly in anime-only territory. This isn’t a bad thing--in fact, I think the decision makes the anime by itself have a pretty good story arc, letting it close without a cliffhanger. A good decision for an anime that is unlikely to ever get a second season.

Verdict

English dub? Yes. It’s solidly good--I think they sound more like college adults than teenagers, but they didn’t sound jarring. I loved Bruno’s voice. His voice actor often--not all the time, just on occasion when the emotion levels called for it--showed Bruno’s ridiculous emotional devotion to Heine. Heine’s VA also conveyed his excellent deadpan.

Visuals: Shiny! I mean, all the time. Their hair. So shiny.

Worth watching? Yes, it wraps up nicely, and while the final episodes get a bit more serious (as they finally delve into Secrets and History that it’d been hinting at forever), the majority of the series is just nice stories with happy endings.

Where to watch (USA, as of August 2020): Funimation (dub); Crunchyroll (sub)

Click my “reviews” tag below or search “mini review” on my blog to find more!

[katsukikitten]

Irritated 6 (?)

A/N I know I never have to apologize but when I do series I feel like do the most and possibly extra BUT I also feel compelled to do these long series for more depth. Hopefully that translates well into my stories as I want them to be read similar to short stories instead of we went from 0 to 100 real fucking quick. So I'm sorry if this series is coming off as more filler than a build up of content. (This is why I'm struggling with my longer series like princess etc) ENJOY BBs

Finally your last task of the day and then you'll be free.

Free to go to that damned hotel room to pack your bags to board a plane. You swear to yourself that you will never come back.

The lights on the stage are again overly bright but this hostesses asks appropriate questions to the ten of you.

And even the fan's questions are dolce and decent.

"Ah Red Riot-sama. I'm sad yet happy that you're taken off of the market but will you televise your wedding?" A box dyed red head asks eagerly, clutching the microphone with slightly shaking hands.

You bite back a smile, nudging Bakugou. Scarlet eyes rove over your face and give you a smirk in return in agreement.

Cute but ridiculous request.

"Ahhh I'm not too sure about the details yet. I've only just asked her a few nights ago." Kirishima laughs, rubbing the back of his head suddenly bashful.

The crowd erupts in roars and majority of the Q&A is now focused on the Kirishima wedding.

A blessing for both yourself and Bakugou.

Although you two become bored quickly as a long line of box dyed red heads of men and women alike wait idly to ask whatever their heart desires.

So you begin to scribble on your pad, you draw the hostess in chibi form, you move down the line of the table mentally stopping on Bakugou. Soon your pen swirls on it's own. The hot head looks odd in your cute chibi.

That is not an adjective that you want to use for him.

He is not *cute* or kind or hot..

Just hot headed.

A snarl to yourself as you begin to engulf Bakugou's chibi in flame before adding yourself lifting a gas can to pour over him.

"That would only encourage me." He murmurs in your ear, a hint of a dark laugh. It is hard to keep the dusting of pink off of your cheeks.

"Fine." A whisper as the pen slicing a line through gas and puts water.

You look to him and he sneers your way, biting back a smirk.

"What's going on with Icy hot?" Scarlet rovers over scratch paper, a snort escapes him, "You did well with Deku he looks utterly useless."

You bite back your laugh, although it is hard, looking up at Bakugou who takes any chance to hate on Izuku.

The hostess walks down the table, stopping before the two of you.

"A fan has a question for you Tejina." She smiles brightly, although you can see some annoyance in her eyes. This must not have been the first time your name was called.

You look out to the mic stand, the lights blinding you for a moment before your eyes adjust, the lighten the illumination over the patient fan.

Your blood runs cold in your veins, smile fading ever quickly depsite you fighting to keep it in place.

Green eyes stare up at you with a mix of emotions. Anger, adoration, jealousy.

You bite the inside of your lip until you taste the tang of pennies as you watch him lick is lips.

"Tejina." His voice speaks your hero name as if it were a dusty sonnet, unused but never forgotten, "Did you enjoy what I picked out for you?"

Nails dig into the tender flesh of your palm as you hold back.

No, *fight* back the urge to shove that microphone so far down his throat you could hear the gurgling of his stomach digesting it. You'd give anything to watch him claw at his throat in uncertain panic, watching his naturally ruddy cheeks flash in hauntingly delightful hues of red, blue, purple and white.

Katsuki notices the shift in your demeanor, his eyes spy the soft glow of your hands before he looks at the fan.

He wears a face he has since committed to memory, an audibly growl is caught by the microphone.

"Oi." Katuski's voice brings you back from your desires plunging you into ice cold water as you register the emotion on his face.

You had never seen Bakugou so angry before. Sure you knew he has a short temper, was easy to pop off at the mouth and the hand.

But you had never seen such unwavering malice in his eyes, or the firm way in which his jaw set.

Grinding teeth with clenched fists, that sweet burnt caramel smell that tickled your nose in dreams wafted to you in heavy waves.

You knew what came next.

Next he would pop, jump into action pair is impulsive temper with the look in his eyes you wonder if that man will ever be able to walk again.

Hell breathe again.

But he would win, even beyond the grave.

You grab onto his powerful thigh as if to hold him in place. He cuts you a look from the side of his dazzling scarlet eye.

He reads you well as you do him.

*"Let me fucking kill him."*

*"No."*

A silent exchange through body language before Bakugou stands anyway.

A deadly snarl as his body heat increases rapidly before the room plunges into darkness.

Screams erupt as the pros automatically jump into action.

Todoroki illuminates the room with fire, Momo makes flash lights, while Denki pulls the hostess over the table protectively as Deku, Asui, and Jhiro move through the crowd to make them calm and to find a threat.

All the while you grab onto Bakugou pulling him back stage. He grabs onto you with rough, inspecting hands.

"We need to be out there. *He's* out there." Bakugou snarls, although his hands have not left your hips. His dancing explosions send flashes of burning Scarlet in your direction.

Rapidly the heat rises in the backroom as well as in your blood.

You grab onto his forearms talking through your teeth, trying to soothe his popping skin.

"It was me." You grit, one hand gesturing about as he looks down at you confused before realization washes over his handsome features.

Washing away some of his wrath with it.

Suddenly the world is flooded with light, Bakugou looks harsher than ever, letting go of your body as if you were hot coals.

He is reminded too quickly of powerful you really are. He gives his back to you, furious over a lot of things.

But more so over the fact that you willingly give power to such vile scum.

And for what? Lingering outside of your door?

"Tch." Is all he says as you watch his retreating back, "Let's get Deku so we can fucking leave this shit show."

To say you were relieved to be stand in front of your shitty hotel room would be an understatement.

Although a looming weight hangs over the door, as if you were to open the cheaply wood fiber door a giant black serpant with hungry greeneyes would meet you.

You swallow thickly as you wait patiently and yet impatiently for Bakugou to retrieve your hotel key from his wallet.

Instead your phone rings from his black pants to which you freely rummage through.

"OI! OI!" Hot explosions pop near your skin but you brush them off staring at who's calling.

Director Yumi, good. Hopefully he will have moved up the time the three of you were scheduled to leave.

"Hello?" Your answer with cheerful disposition.

Although you are unaware that this is the beginning of things going from bad to worse.

Much worse.

Your vision blurs as the director speaks and the two men beside you feel the air charge with an onset heaviness.

The kind that Bakugou knows comes from rage, he notices your clenched fists. The tension making your normally fluid body go rigid.

He wants to rest his palms on your shoulders, let them soothe over your smooth heated skin.

But he barely allows himself the thought.

"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" It echoes down the hall and Izuku jumps. Jade eyes widening while scarlet narrow.

"A fan party tonight?! Did the boys know about this?" You turn with eyes so angry they glow fiercely with your power.

Both raise their hands to show empty palms and shake their heads no.

"So what is the fucking dress code to this mandatory party hmm? Is it formal? If so I don't fucking have anything." The two men watch you with wary eyes as your voice and temper spike again.

"YOU CANT FUCKING TELL ME?! oh wow you know what a surprise. But what is more surprising is the fact that you're the director of an agency. I'm not sure what it is that you do aside from pissing away your daddy's hard earned money. I know you aren't here to make business deals, talk about hero loans or get your own exposure like the other directors of agencies or as your Father used to do. I know you do little to no research before making a decision nor do you consult your employees as your father did. I know that you have no fucking idea how to run this business, that you do not even posses a fourth of the abilities your father was capable of and I *know* all you're good for is bending Nezuko over your desk to fuck her stupid."

Both sets of eyes widen, your cellphone screen cracks from the pressure of your grip.

"You're right. We *do* need to have a conversation when I get back. Now if you'll excuse me I'll go ask another pro hero or another director who actually knows what the fuck is the dress code and itinerary for this surprise fan event." You say in even breaths and tones before you snap. Throwing your phone onto the floor with heaved breaths.

Gasping for air as you near black out rage, the doors rattle.

Both men stand, eyes wide and staring.

Sure you've been angry, they've now seen you distressed but they've never seen you like this.

Consumed by your wrath and fury.

Izuku looks to Katsuki depserstly, who is biting his lip.

Hating to see you so unraveled.

Did this really all have to do with the dress code to the last minute party or did it have something to do with that scum bag plus whatever the hell else you'd clearly been claming up.

"Oi if you need a dress we can find you one. You have a similar body type to Momo. She's always prepared and probably packed an extra." Katsuki wraps his arm around your shoulders turning you on your heel.

"Or she could make you one." Izuku pipes up, you shove away Katsuki's arm.

"What about you two?" You hiss, "Did you guys lie about knowing?

Bakugou laughs at Deku's blanched face.

"No he's a nerd and always prepared." He snorts, hand finding the small of your back guiding you towards the stairs once again.

"And you?!" A vicious snap that he ignores

"Kirishima is in the same hotel as Momo. He will have an extra for me."

"How can you be so sure?"

Katsuki gives you a sideways glance before pulling you across the street and down the block towards the other heroes' hotel.

"Ever since he dragged me to that nerd island event he's packed an extra." He crosses his arms as the three of you get into the elevator. You wonder what that's like, to have a friend who always has your back.

It has been so long ago since you had actually trusted someone and the only person you could...well she turned up missing shortly after you became a hero.

She was the one person you could never save.

You swallow your shame as you follow Bakugou and Izuku to the fourth floor.

"Take Y/N to the girl's room please Bakugou." Izuku beams as Bakugou snarls, opening his mouth to retort but you interrupt.

"I can go by myself, really. It's just three doors down." You smile, they both look at you with worried eyes that make your skin crawl, "I'm a big girl I can handle it!"

With that you turn, making long strides to the door lifting your hand to knock.

"My two number one heroes!" Kirishima exclaims pulling them into his room.

"Oi oi!" A snarl as their door slams shut.

Your fist seems suspended in air as you ponder.

Would it be rude to ask for a dress?

Would now be a bad time to slip away to just buy one and save yourself the debt?

Before you do a 180 a voice calls from the otherside of the door.

"I'm going to get my extra charger from Eiji" Mina talks loudly enough to be heard through the thick wood before swinging it open to reveal herself and the other female alumni of class 1A, all perched around the room primping.

"Oh Y/N-chan!" She sings wrapping toned pink arms tightly around your frame. You clear your throat, unable to hug her back. Lightly tapping your fingers against her arms.

"Hello..." You say a little awkwardly with a small wave, "I'm sorry to bother y'all but I need to borrow a dress for this party I....forgot to pack one."

"Come in come in!" Mina ushers you in forgetting that she flipped the latch on the door, it sits ajar and goes unnoticed.

She walks a full circle around you.

"Welp my glutes are not nearly as toned as yours...." She looks around the room before settling on Momo, "Mo! Love! Yall have similar measurements!"

"Hmm, yes we do. I believe her thighs to be more muscular than my own and my breasts to be a tad bit larger..." She ponders before an idea crosses her mind, "Ah I'll make one!"

She pulls a measuring tape from her forearm measuring your frame, all the while you protest.

"Oh that's too much trouble. I can go and buy one I dont ne.." But she gives you a look that oddly silences you.

"Its no trouble at all. Plus it will give me great practice! I usually use cloth to make blankets." She scrunches her nose at the thought.

"Oh did you pick your song yet?!" Uraraka asks with delight as she plops on the bed beside you.

Your eyes narrow in confusion as your brow furrows.

"What?" Your heart pounds into your ears as she continues to speak.

"You know for your little opening appearance before all the dancing and booze. Bakugou, Deku-kun and you are the stars for the "surprise" fan party. You get to walk out to your very own song!" U-san produces her phone her screen is lit with a promotional poster.

"TOP HERO SPECIAL APPEARANCE"

It reads across the top, your rage quickly turns into something else as you stare down at the phone.

Before you know it your eyes well over and fat droplets darken the material on your thighs. Your hands fly to cover your face as your rage comes out melted and raw.

"I..I'm sorry...." You sob, "I'm having the worst weekend of my life."

The six women exchange looks as they silently debate how best to approach their new friend.

"Is it Bakugou?" Jhiro's voice comes out harsh as Mina behind you chimes in.

"Yea do we need to kick his ass?" It comes out harshly. A laugh escapes your lips, it sounds foreign.

"Ah no, I can handle Bakugou." You wipe away your tears feeling stupid, "He, he's actually been...fun this weekend."

"Wait wait wait." Mina pauses, "Bakugou? Like Bakugou Katsuki? With red eyes and blonde hair?"

"Yes." You giggle some more, "Hard to believe I know but like I said he's been fun. Helpful even. Kind."

"Wooooooow" The women say in unison.

"So what's bothering your so badly?" Momo's soft voice takes on a tone of motherly concern. You sigh as you debate.

Do you tell them? And if you do how much do you actually reveal? How far back do you need to go?

"Just my male fans are too overbearing. How do you deal with it?" You settle on a partial truth, omitting majority of the details. Plus anyone following your Instagram could see.

"Your fans are too much." Mina agrees, "Momo you get a lot of comments because of your suit right?"

"Yes, some are very hard to ignore. Especially when the go into detail on what they would do to me regardless of my consent. It used to bother me. A lot actually to the point where I thought of changing my hero costume to attract less attention but Sensei Midnight stopped me. She said all I would be doing was putting myself in a more difficult situation with less skin for my quirk to benefit me. That it did not matter what I wore I would still get the comments." Momo pulls a little more of the black fabric from her exposed stomach, giving it a critical look, "That my obsessing over them is what gave them power."

The last sentence settles over you in an odd manner.

Had you given these trolls power over you?

Or has Yayorozu never been blackmailed before?

Still it was sound advice, you had given those comments power.

"Alright I believe its finished. Let's try this on shall we?" Momo says lifting the dress up to you.

"Get ready here with the rest of us. I'm dying to play with your hair!" Mina pleads before squealing when you nod your head yes.

"Bakugou, what are you doing in the hall?" Izuku asks before Katsuki raises his hand to silence him. He retreats from the slightly ajar room, not answering until the hot head is mostly to Kirishima's door.

"I was gonna tell Y/LN about the party but I think the girls just did. Let's grab my stupid suit and come back to pick her slow ass up later." Bakugou dismisses it with a wave of his hand.

And yet he cannot dismiss your words.

"Bakugou has been...fun."

"Please stay Katuski"

He squeezes his eyes shut trying to get your voice and your sad eyes out of his head.

Only to encourage them to haunt him further.

[floraone]

So, Rec'tober is almost over and I come in at the finish line.

But I wanted to write a special kind of fic rec, something beyond what I normally do. And so I target this post not towards our little corner of the internet that have read every big fic that was posted in the last two decades, but towards those who pop in from time to time, to those that loved Sailor Moon in their childhood and youth and feel that pinge of nostalgia for the world. This post is for you!

Not everything in the Sailor Moon franchise survived the test of time. There are parts of canon we REMEMBER differently - we remember what it made us feel at the time, but re-watching it, it just doesn’t have the same impact. We grew up, and we STILL LOVE THE FRIGGIN CONCEPT, but we notice the flaws we didn’t notice before. But we want that back - we want the feeling that we had watching the show when we were little. We want that wonder, that newness, that full heart about how GOOD and wholesome Usagi is, we want the miracle romance, we want our favorite characters but how they grew with us in our heads.

And well, there IS a place where we can find this fix of what it felt like. And it’s preserved in a treasure box of fanfiction. Of people who write these characters as they might be today, of people who take their essence and make it new.

So, this list is filled with tons of fics that tried to re-create canon with that affectionate, nostalgic feeling. I specifically for this list chose fics that dealt with canon themes - either through fix-it fics that took specific episodes and put their own spin to it, or to spins on canon, the what ifs - what if this specific choice weren’t made, what if the break up arc didn’t end, what if we took this plot point and spun it somewhere new, playing with the things we vaguely remember to have loved so dearly. (Though, of course, the world of Alternative Universes and Non-Senshi fics is vast, and if you are looking for a fix of that, please check out @uglygreenjacket ‘s elaborate worlds and @queenrisa14 fantastic AU spins out especially for this purpose!)

(Take note that these stories prominently feature stories revolving Usagi and Mamoru and the Miracle Romance, since that is my absolute jam. (Though it didn’t even used to be my most favorite part of the story growing up!) And some categories feature more stories by the same authors (for instance those that just like to dabble in What Ifs  - a not all TOO common trope, though I hope it were!))

So, let me transport you back into your childhood:

What If’s:

Forget Me Not by Antigone2 What if, post-stars, Usagi was suddenly the one to forget Mamoru for once, and he had to try really hard to make a new good first impression? This plays off all my buttons, and @idesofnovember is a master of making you remember the small details of these dorks that were so special.

What If by Antigone2 Canon had the habit of making Mamoru forget his memories, and @idesofnovember is a master of taking this trope and making it better. Here, Usagi wonders if Mamoru would have ever dated her if it weren’t for their history, and Setsuna, fed up, makes it happen.

Desperate and Divine by Antigone2 (Rated M) This story will always have a giant place in my heart: What If Mamoru never remembered after Beryl’s defeat, and Usagi was trying to get that one special night of closure. This had such an impact on me, reminding me how much I loved these characters, that it caused me to start writing fanfiction once more.

Royal Pain and Similes by Antigone2 What If the Senshi had found out Usagi is Serenity, but never that Mamoru is Endymion in this spectacular pinefest that will make your heart bleed.

Coming Of Age by Kasienda What if the R story arc surrounding Chibi-Usa was a little more sensical, a little more tragic, a little more realistic? This kid shows up in front of Mamoru’s door, Sailor Pluto informing him she’s from a great war in the future and him being the only one of age, he is now her legal guardian. Watch Mamoru and Usagi becoming parents to a war-traumatized Chibi-Usa, and all the struggles with it.

The Reveal by Kasienda This is a series of unconnected fics set in first season primarly and beyond, and it reinvents that crucial moment where the superhero personas of our favorite characters are revealed over and over and over again, because that moment can never be special and new enough.

A Craving for Milkshakes by Kasienda What if during first season, a monster-of-the-week had caused Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon to be telepathically linked? Watch how it would progressively have changed their dynamic in this endearing, sweet story!

Wring My Emotions and interpret canon anew:

Six Birthdays by Kiyoshi Dot This Fic reads like a poem, and it runs your through the ups and downs of the Miracle Romance via gifts Usagi receives forher birthday through the years, and it has the feeling of the Manga written all over it.

Aisuru, Mamo-chan by ellephedre Post-stars, Mamoru receives a package from Harvard. In it are all the letters Usagi wrote to him while he was dead during Stars. And yes, this read is as painful and therapeutic as you imagine it is.

Song for a scribbled out name by Antigone2 Centered in the first season during the anime’s Evil!Endymion arc, this little story teases you with what might have become of this enticing little nugget of piney, deliciously angsty plot!

The Odds Considered by Kiyoshi Dot Takes you through the secret romance of Usagi and Mamoru in the first season in this hauntingly beautiful way of forming words, and made me hurt in the way I always wanted the manga to hurt me.

Resiliency is My Mask by MamaLadyKT This is an episode fix surrounding the time Usagi was nearly suffocated by a monster-of-the-week in the infamous Saori-episode, and Mamoru cares a LOT about it.

Feel Good Little Moments with these characters as we remember them:

Je t’aime by Antigone2 A snapshot moment where Usagi uses the disguise pen to sneak into a university event of Mamoru’s and takes him for a little test. This little story feels so delightfully, essentially THEM in the way they behaved during later seasons of the anime that it makes my chest feel light and happy!

Day Of Delinquency by UglyGreenJacket A snippet of a moment that captures the humor of the series as my heart remembers it, in which Haruka takes Usagi on a joy ride, Usagi lands them in jail, and Mamoru and Michiri have to bail them out.

Distractions by Antigone2 follows Mamoru unsuccessfully trying to help Usagi study and it feels like home.

The Untouchable King in the Day and Night Lacunae Series by Tina Century What if we let @tinacentury show King Endymion the Sailor Moon Crystal series? This is exactly as delightful as it sounds.

A Romance For The Small Things by amomo Newest on this list, @spider-momo wrote these fall-themed snippets of Senshi interactions in the way that feel so painfully right and homey and warm they are bound to make you ache to re-acquaint yourself with these old friends of yours.

Public Eye by Antigone2 Canon never gave us a terrible lot of interaction between Usagi and Tuxedo Mask or Mamoru and Sailor Moon. This is a cheeky and delightful little ficlet about Mamoru having to pretend he has No Relations Going On With This Superheroine.

Rainbow by Kasienda I’m pretty sure I put this fic on every fic rec list I ever wrote, but @kasienda encapsulated everything I love about Mamoru and Usagi’s dynamic in the first season of the anime and made my heart ache in its simplistic beauty.

The Space Between by Uglygreenjacket This series of ficlets explores the space between R and S and gives you that sweet feeling of Usagi and Mamoru tender baby love as we were used to in S!

A Week With Mamoru Chiba by Dreams In Pink This fic takes us through a series of Mamoru-centered mini-stories in a mostly first season second that feel so delightfully warm and funny it will warm your heart.

Flower Power By irritable-vowel-types Do you miss the absolute ridiculousness that were these show’s monster-of-the-week, or Tuxedo Mask’s outrageous speeches? This fic is a crackfic, and yet it somehow manages to feel EXACTLY as ridiculous and not a tad more than those original canon monsters.

All’s Fun With Love and Orbs by irritable-vowel-types This is set in Super-S, and reads like an episode as it should have been. What if one of the Amazon Quartett’s shenanigans was to flip all love into hate for one delightfully hilarious read?

The Thing About Your Transformation by AngelMoon Girl Delightfully funny, this little ficlet explores the fact that Mamoru can’t quite deal with the fact that for a short moment before every battle, Usagi may be all glitter, but she’s also briefly naked as she transforms.

Shall We Dance by ncisduckie A snippet in time and a secret relationship as Serenity and Endymion share a bittersweet dance.

And, if you still want more, I wrote my own canon spins, too. Most notably, the Ikigai and Yugen duo (Rated M), in which I tried to hand-pick everything I loved about the Sailor Moon story, manga and anime and all, of all the seasons, and tried to reinvent it in a way that felt contemporary and told one consecutive narrative within the anime setting. And in contrast to that for the manga meets anime setting, my story Priorities (Rated M) tried to encapsulate what the feeling of reading the Manga for the first time felt like to me, but now with a very adult and mature and heart-aching spin to it.

This list I gave you is non-exhaustive. There are many, many more where they come from. And if you need a fix of Sailor Moon nostalgia, they are waiting for you. Have FUN!

(And if you liked any of them, please consider leaving the author a review, so they will keep motivated to supply us with such beautiful, free, nostalgic treasures!)

[taehyungiestummy]

Stuck -- Chapter Eleven

Masterlist     Previous     Next

Word Count: 3278

           “This is perfect,” I smile, clasping my hands together.

           The laptop on the table in front of me shows Emily, Eve, Abigail, and Laurel on the video conference I have set up.

           “Ja, it is so nice to meet all of you,” Eve smiles. “Amber always gushes about her other friends, so it’s nice to get us all together.” Her accent is a bit of a shock, a twinge of European with her California base.

           “Everyone is so pretty,” Abigail smiles, showing braces with pink bands.

           “I agree,” I grin, nodding a few times. “Such pretty girls Skyping one another.

           Eve chuckles, her blue eyes lighting up in happiness. Her hair seems quite long, reaching her hips when let down. It’s pulled into pigtails at the moment, naturally dark brown with blonde streaks dyed into the pieces near her face. Her face is a bit puffy, cheekbones high with a button nose. It seems to me that her skin is naturally tanner than my own. She’s the oldest out of us all, along with Laurel at twenty-three.

           “Do you speak German?” Emily asks. “Amber and I took that as our foreign language in high school.”

           “Oui,” Laurel grins. “And French. Korean, not so much. Good thing you haven’t forgotten English.” She has slight difference that make her look different than her twin sister Eve. Her eyes are light green, a nose slightly pointing upwards, normal cheekbones, a thinner face. There’s also a lot the same to show that the twins are indeed related. The tan skin, face structure, eye shapes, hair color, and height. Her hair is shorter than her sister’s, stopping at her ribs, and ombre to be even more different yet similar to Eve.

           “French is such a beautiful language,” Abigail runs a hand through her spiral curls. Her dirty blonde hair is cut to be above her shoulders. She has light brown eyes behind glasses, but I know she has contacts. Her face still has baby fat, as she’s younger than me, and her nose is a bit flat like Namjoon’s. Her skin is a lovely caramel thanks to her mother’s background. I’m pretty sure she’s taller than me by a few inches.

           “So, Amber, you think that it’s a good idea to Skype friends while BTS perform?” Eve teases.

           “I can watch the concert on YouTube later,” I shrug. “Plus, they tell me all about it after they come off stage. I want to learn about the three of you.”

           “I’ll start,” Abigail raises her hand for a few seconds. “If that’s okay.”

           “Yes, go ahead,” Laurel smiles. “You seem like the most interesting.”

           Abigail’s cheeks become dusted with pink. “Um, well, I guess I’ll start from the beginning. Um, I was born in Washington state, and lived there until I was five. That’s when we packed up and moved to Korea. It was hard for me. My Korean was terrible for my age, and I am super shy.”

           “You poor thing,” Eve frowns. “I’m sure you powered through though.”

           “Not on my own,” Abigail slightly smiles. “No one came up to me at lunch on my first day of school, and I thought I was going to have a meltdown. Then, a boy came up to me, wanting to cheer me up. He understood what it felt like, even just a tiny bit, to move across the ocean.”

           “I think I could guess who it was,” Emily taps her index finger on her cheek a few times.

           “Yeah, it was Vernon,” Abigail giggles.

           “That’s so cute!” Laurel blurts out.

           “I guess,” Abigail shakes her head. “That began our friendship, and I’ve been by his side ever since. I’ve supported him in every decision he has ever made. Even when I thought him becoming an idol would split us apart. It brought us closer. A lot closer. But, I think we would have become a couple eventually. I hope.”

           “I’m sure you would have,” I tenderly smile. “He really likes you. In fact, he loves you. No doubt in my mind.”

           “He’s such a dork, so it’s hard to tell. Does his emails to you ever say anything about loving me?”

           “I’m not allowed to say,” I wink. “Has he never said he loves you?”

           “Just a handful of times,” Abigail shrugs. “It’s sweet in a way.”

           “So, what do you do?” Emily asks. “Like, I work at a daycare, taking pictures when I can. Amber writes literally whatever, dances backup for BTS. Eve draws, and I assume makes money. So, what do you do? And Laurel, you too.”

           “My parents are very successful doctors, so I love volunteering at any place I can. Animal shelters, cleaning up parks, bringing Seventeen food I make, and more. I’m also in online school, so I live in the city with my roommate. We’ve been friends for a while, but just started living together recently.”

           “You are always welcome to help at Eve and mines pastry shop,” Laurel smiles. “We’d pay you, of course, but it would be fun.”

           Abigail giggles, “I’ll think about it. Sounds fun though.”

           “I need to hear the story behind the pastry shop,” I fidget with my glasses.

           “Start the story of us, Laurel,” Eve chuckles.

           “From the top then,” Laurel claps her hands together. “Okay, so we were born and raised in Long Beach. Oh yeah, we are California girls. Our parents didn’t even grow up in the United States, though. Our mum is from Germany, and our dad from Canada. That’s why we know three languages.”

           “I know four languages, thank you,” Eve rolls her eyes. “Korean is hard, but Jae and I can have a conversation. He struggles too.”

           “Yes, yes, shut up,” Laurel pats her twin on the head. “Dad is high up the corporate ladder at some company, and that’s why they settled down in the states. Mum started a donut shop, and we’ve helped her with that for years. I love cooking, so that’s a big reason I asked for money to start up a sister store over here. I do have a degree in the culinary arts.”

           “I wanted to move over here to reunite with Jae,” Eve smiles. “Selling art as a living means I can work anywhere.”

           “Eve works the counter because she can talk to customers,” Laurel nods. “Just the two of us running a small pastry shop.”

           “That’s where we can all meet,” I blurt out. “Ah, sorry.”

           “That is actually a great idea,” Abigail speaks up. “I would be okay with that.”

           “Before we plan that,” Emily breaks in. “Eve, how did you meet Jae?”

           “Ah, yes,” Eve grins, nodding a few times. “Time for that story. Well, Jae and I have always been in the same classes, but I was an artist geek while he was a music nerd. He says he always admired me from a distance.”

           “He’s such a dork,” Laurel chuckles.

           “Yes, well, it’s cute,” Eve shoves her sister. “Anyways, I was working the counter one day, six years ago now, when Jae walked in. He wanted to see if he could sing on Friday nights, and Saturday afternoons.”

           “Of course she said yes,” Laurel teases. “Jae was a huge nerd back then, but she was already crushing hard.”

           I giggle, “I’m sure Eve fell for his personality.”

           “Jae was cute back then,” Eve pouts. “Enough of that, I’m telling a story. So, we began to hang out a lot because he felt he owed me. Then, he asked me out. We were on awkward couple, but I was so happy. He loved looking at my art, and I always listened to him when he wanted to play his guitar and sing.”

           “That sounds so cute,” Emily gushes. “Amber, you have some competition.”

           I roll my eyes, “We can all be cute couples in some regard.”

           “The cuteness ended, though,” Eve sighs. “Jae broke up with me to pursue music, and we were apart for a few years. End of last year we made the move, and I saw Jae again.”

           “Like a damn movie,” Laurel interrupts. “They locked eyes, and Eve ran to him. Bursting into tears. Jae even cried a bit. It was touching.”

           “We aren’t really dating now because of contract reasons, but I know it will happen when he is able to. We love each other. Have since the day he entered the donut shop that day.”

           “Now, Amber, Emily, you have to tell your story,” Abigail smiles. “I’m interested to know how you met BTS.”

           “Hold on,” I hold up my hand for a brief second. “I have one question for Laurel.”

           “Ask away,” Laurel gives me a thumbs up.

           “Who are you dating?” I run my fingers through my bangs. “There’s Tae and me, Namjoon and Emily, Vernon and Abigail, and kind of Jae and Eve. Who are you with?”

           Laurel smirks, “Do you know the group Infinite?”

           Everyone else in the call nods and voices their acknowledgement of the group.

           “Well,  you wouldn’t believe the groups that come into our shop. One day a couple of Infinite members came in, and I struck up a conversation with L, or Myungsoo, and we have gone out a few times. He’s sweet, and I am waiting to see if it’s all right.”

           “That’s is incredible,” Emily smiles. “I hope it all works out.”

           “Thank you,” Laurel smiles back. “Now, I think you two have a story to tell.”

********

“This is ridiculous,” I grumble, bouncing around on the soles of my feet.

           “We did our performance, and now you can dance for us,” Taehyung smirks. “Even though you didn’t watch us.”

           “What?” Jimin and Jungkook have wide eyes as they look at me.

           “Such a brat,” Yoongi teases.

           I pout, looking out at the boys lounging on the two best in Jimin and Jungkook’s room. “Tae, that was mean. I was Skyping my friends.”

           “Taehyungie just likes to be a meanie,” Seokjin chuckles. “Be nice to your jagiya.”

    ��      “Thank you, Jin,” I smile, turning up my phones volume. “Always looking out for me. Unlike some people,” I move a chair so the area I will dance in is bigger.

           “Jagi,” Taehyung whines.

           “So kid, what are you dancing to today?” Hoseok kindly asks.

           “Well, Hobi-oppa, I will be dancing to some BTS,” I smile at the boy. “Thanks for asking.

           “Mr. Son has been teaching you well then, I’m guessing,” Namjoon sets his phone down on his lap. No doubt he was previously texting Emily.

           “He’s the best teacher,” I fix my sweatshirt with chibi BTS on it before pressing play on the mix made to test my memory of dances. “But, you can judge for yourselves.”

           The mix starts with the ‘Attack on Bangtan’ beginning, giving me the chance to hype myself up. I bit my bottom lip and send winks; smiles on the boys faces as I scrunch up my nose and make finger hearts. Doing anything silly to make the seven boys laughs. Then the real test of my dancing skills begins as the choruses of different songs play. First is ‘I Need U,’ and I execute the moves flawlessly. It was the first dance I ever learned, and I’ll never forget it.

           “Nice going kid,” Hoseok cheers out.

           I give him a quick grin as the next chorus starts.

           The pace quickens as ‘Danger’ is the next song. I do my beset to be like Taehyung when he performed this routine. My tongue passes over my lips, and I wink right at my boyfriend.

           Taehyung’s mouth hangs slightly open as his cheeks redden.

           Before anyone can say anything, ‘Boy in Luv’ starts up, and I am falling into the moves. A smile graces my lips as I see the looks on the boys faces. The song fades into ‘War of Hormone,’ and I stumble for a second as I get my bearings.

           “Kill it, cutie!” Jimin blurts out.

           I giggle, sending a wink at the boy to make him become a squish.

           ‘No More Dream’ is the next song, and I feel the burn in my lungs. Just a little while longer, and the end bit will begin.

           “Tease,” Taehyung chuckles as I fake lifting up my sweatshirt as I learned Jimin’s part.

           I take  deep breath as ‘Dope’ finally starts up. The last chorus I have to dance to. As I do the hip thrusts, the boys lose it.

           “Ah!” They all shout out, clutching their hands over their hearts as they fall over on the beds.

           The end of ‘Butterfly’ starts up, and I slowly lower myself to the ground. My breathing is labored, and my legs are burning, but it felt so good to dance like that for the boys.

           “You killed it, kid,” Hoseok gives me a thumbs up. “You have skill.”

           “I learned all that,” I grab my phone and glasses off the desk, placing my glasses on my face and turning the music off.

           “Okay, we all knew you could dance,” Jungkook is back to a sitting position, along with the rest of the boys. “Maybe not that good, but we knew.”

           “A few slips ups are expected, she just learned it all,” Namjoon smiles. “And she’s only been doing it seriously for a year.”

           “Thanks,” I breath out. Finally feeling my lungs fully filling up.

           “When you have your breath back, you have to sing for us,” Jungkook smiles.

           “What song, Kookie?” I ruffle the hair at the back of my head.

           “Why does he get to pick?” Taehyung crosses his arms over his chest.

           “Such a child,” Yoongi rolls his eyes.”

           “Okay, I’ll take a vote,” I stretch my legs out in front of me as I sit on the floor. “The choices are ‘Just One Day,’ Hold me Tight,’ or ‘Save Me.’”

           “So, how many votes for ‘Just One day’?” Seokjin asks.

           No one speaks up, and I pout. It must be too old of a song for them to want me to sing it.

           “I’ll vote for it,” I raise my hand for a few seconds. “So it doesn’t feel bad.”

           “Votes for ‘Hold me Tight’?” Seokjin asks.

           “Me,” Taehyung, Jimin, Namjoon, and Hoseok answer.

           “Then, ‘Save Me’?”

           “Me,” Yoongi, Jungkook, Seokjin, and Taehyung reply.

           “Tae,” I chuckle. “Babe, you get one vote.”

           “But, I want to hear you sing both,” Taehyung slightly pouts, widening his eyes to look adorable.

           “Do a mash up,” Jimin suggests.

           “Hm,” I tape my lips with my index finger. “I will do my best.”

           “I’m sure you’ll do great, adorable girl,” Jungkook claps a few times.

           “Go jagiya!” Taehyung falls onto his side, giggles passing through his lips.

           I smile, taking a deep breath and sitting up a bit straighter. “Look, I’m fair with everyone else but you,” I slow down Jungkook’s part. “Now I can’t live a day without you. Please,” I hold the word for a tad longer than usual. “Listen to my heartbeat,” I switch songs. “It calls you whenever it wants to. Because within this pitch black darkness, you are shining so brightly. Hold me tight, hug me. I need your love. Can you trust me? Can you rust me? Give me your hand. Save me, save me,” I look down at my lap, cheeks burning from my poor mash up.

           “I need your love before I fall, fall,” Jungkook and Taehyung harmonize.

           I giggle, but keep my head down. “So, what else do you want me to butcher?”

           “Butcher?” Hoseok is genuinely confused. “You did a great job mashing the two songs together, and your voice is lovely.”

           “Yeah, and you did it all by memory,” Seokjin adds in. “No background music to help.”

           “Don’t be sad, princess,” Taehyung shouts out, tackling me to the ground in a hug.

           “Gah!” I can’t help the giggles that erupt from me as Taehyung nuzzles his face into my neck. “It tickles!”

           A couple of the boys chuckle at the mess I’m in.

           “Emily’s right, they are the cutest,” Namjoon has a smile in his voice.

           Taehyung lifts his head away from my neck. “I love you and your impromptu mash up of songs.”

           I shyly smile, “I love you, and wish you’d get off me.”

           “Oh, sorry,” he moves off me as his tan cheeks redden.

           “Hey, little one,” Yoongi speaks up.

           “Yes, oppa?” I slowly sit up and look at the boy.

           “You feel up to rap what we’ve been practicing? Yoongi smirks.

           “Oh, fuck yeah,” I smirk back. “Let’s do this.”

           “S-U-G-A, aka Agust D,” Yoongi and I rap together. “My secret name when I walk in the streets, they whisper my name. From Daegu to Apgujeong, my beat that have been laid. The lives of my music that breathe and live here and there all over the world. I’m a baby shaman who dances on the blade of a straw cutter. That’s me.”

           “Damn!” Jungkook runs a hand through his hair. “Hyung, she kept up with you.”

           “Jagi, why don’t we ever rap Cypher’s together?” Taehyung pouts.

           “I think we have found our guest for part four,” Namjoon nods thoughtfully.

           “Sorry Tae, you’ve been beat out,” Hoseok chuckles.

           “And by your own girlfriend,” Jimin bursts into giggles.

           “No, no Cypher for me,” I shake my hand, pinching Taehyung’s cheek to make him smile. “We can rap it together some other time, I promise.”

           “Great performance overall,” Jungkook says. “Thank you for showing us your skills.”

           I jump up, hopping onto the bed with Jungkook. “You are very welcome, oppa,” I tease, kissing his cheek as he cringes.

           “I’m always nice, but I never get a kiss,” Jimin whines.

           I roll my eyes, crawling over to press a kiss to Jimin’s cheek. “Happy, Chim-Chim oppa?”

           “Very. Thanks to the oppa,” Jimin grins. Only a light blush seems to be on his cheeks.

           “Okay, enough of this,” Taehyung speaks up.

           In the next moment, I am lifted off the bed and tossed over my boyfriend’s shoulder.

           “Taehyung,” I gasp.

           “My princess and I are heading to bed, and we will see you tomorrow,” Taehyung turns, heading to our room’s door.

           “Tae,” I wiggle around.

           “Night you two,” Seokjin grins.

           “Someone is jealous,” Yoongi shakes his head.

           “Go easy on her Tae,” Jimin calls out as Taehyung opens the door. “Remember, we are over here.”

           The door closes, and the other boys are gone from my sight. A chill runs through my spine with only a lamp on in the room for light.

           “That was not nice, baby,” Taehyung pinches my butt, tossing me onto the bed seconds after. “Kissing my friends.”

           “On the cheek,” I stumble backwards, hitting the backboard in a second.

           “And, you teases me as you danced,” he runs his tongue over his lips. “Bad, jagi.” He pulls his shirt off, revealing his tan chest.

           “Tae, they’re my friends, but I love you the most,” I nervously mess with the hem of my shirt.

           Taehyung’s face softens the instant he sees my trembles. “Amber, are you shaking? Am I scaring you?”

           “Are you mad?” I choke out.

           “No, no, of course not,” he crawls up to me. “I just wanted to make sure I was your number one.”

           “Of course you’re my number one,” I run my hand over his tummy, snuggling into his side.

           “I just get scared you know? And want to make sure that’s all platonic. So, I get possessive.”

           “I know, but you don’t need to get that way because of them.”

           Taehyung puts his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer. “I’ll be better jagi. I promise.”

           “I believe you, Tae. Let’s sleep it off. We’ve had a long day.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hope you enjoyed reading! Eve, Laurel, and Abigail live in their own stories that I created that take place in this same universe. I’m not sure if they will ever get written, but they precious to me.

[murfeelee]

Backed Up Replies! (Long AF)

So, small RL update: I’ll be starting a dinky little summer internship starting this Monday. (I’m just doing it for the résumé boost, cuz the pay’s literal peanuts; not even enough to cover my frikkin train fare. Effing exploitation, effing scam, I hate everything.) I won’t know exactly what my schedule’ll be till I go in and talk to them, but this is just a heads up in case I can’t be around much. I’m not dead (heavens willing), just out here doing more for less. ^_^

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@simaddix​ replied to your post “Replies? On a Tuesday?! Say whaaat!”

Geeks out a little bit - you replied to little old me!(((: lol Thank you!    

I love comments and simmer interaction more than anything -- I will reply to absolutely anyone! It saddens me to see just how little interactive exchange there is in the simming community. I don’t want anyone ever feeling too shy to drop in and speak to me. 😘🤗

solori replied to your photoset “Chibi Pics! I’m seeing everyone and their mother turning their OCs &...”                        

awesome!! :)                    

I can’t get ove how cute that app is. :3

ice-creamforbreakfast replied to your photoset “Memes Charts - sims!Spartacus Household Thanks to @in-sempiternam for...”

This post had me at "would you stab someone" XD Best post of the day.

Sometimes you just gotta stab someone. 😂

altaaira-ashuratan replied to your post “Replies? On a Tuesday?! Say whaaat!”

Wow, cool! I may have watched too many documentaries about people living in Russian countryside... o_o Anyways, well done! ':                    

I love watching historical & cultural documentaries. So cool.

bloody-personalblog-mary replied to your photoset “Windows Meme - Pt1  Super super SUUUPEEERRRRR late, I know. (－‸ლ) ...”

wow what a cool house !

Thank you! I was very inspired. ^__^

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DA:I REPLIES

bloody-personalblog-mary replied to your post “Replies? On a Tuesday?! Say whaaat!”

oooooooooooh, how nice !!! Herah is very happy about it !!!                    

I thank your sim!Herah Adaar for convincing me to get back into Dragon Age Inquisition! 👍

altaaira-ashuratan replied to your photoset “Party Banter on the Road - Adoribul Pt2   Dorian: I hope it doesn’t...”

Need time to play DA:I. So far, I've got the GOTY version for PS4 and created my character - and I bought it over three years ago. Lame. ._.

SAME. My first run was bad. I bought it in 2015, for like $60. Mofo took for EFFING EVER to install. Then the gameplay was just SO slow going for me, stuck in those frikkin Hinterlands & going on endless fetch quests and requisitions and blah blah. And Bioware’s glitchy AF animations are...interesting to experience. By the time we FINALLY got to the actual PLOT and met the big-bad at Haven, Corypheus was just running his mouth monologuing, and after wandering aimlessly around Skyhold I lost my patience with DA:I entirely. I returned it at Gamestop and got The Witcher 3 instead -- BEST DECISION EVER.

But DA:I was always at the back of my mind, and after all this time I decided to revisit it. I like it! TBH, the best part about DA:I is the party banter, and getting into the lore about Thedas’ history and what’s up with the Fade and effing Solas and everything. And I already told y’all about my crush on The Iron Bull -- I missed him so much! XD

nemexia-of-the-nightfall replied to your photoset “Party Banter on the Road - Adoribul Pt2   Dorian: I hope it doesn’t...”

AHHHHHHH! love these so much!!!!! Great job!! XXXX

omgdoubleume replied to your photoset “Party Banter on the Road - Adoribul Pt2   Dorian: I hope it doesn’t...”

Cool❗

rottenxroses replied to your photoset “Waylaid on the Road  Inquisitor Lavellan and her fellow mages take a...”

I love this!! amazing!

nemexia-of-the-nightfall replied to your photoset “Waylaid on the Road  Inquisitor Lavellan and her fellow mages take a...”

Love your DAI posts! so accurate :D                    

I’m blown away by all the positive feedback, y’all! ❤️ Thanks!

omgdoubleume replied to your photoset “Thawing the Ice Queen Iron Bull: You know, ma'am, you’re not bad with...”

I see someone's flirting here 🙈🙊                    

LOL, Vivienne ain’t slick! XD She DEFINITELY wanted to Ride the Bull. Too bad he only sees her as a mother-figure. :P

nemexia-of-the-nightfall replied to your photoset “Thawing the Ice Queen Iron Bull: You know, ma'am, you’re not bad with...”

Damn, really can't get over Iron Bull, you really made him perfect!!! ❤️❤️❤️

gaiahypothesims replied to your photoset “Banter at the Campsite: The Lone Vint  Vivienne: I presume you know...”

That bull is amaaaazing    

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! I’m relieved that sim!Bull’s being well received. I’m struggling with the joints being kinda awkward in places, and there’s some UV mapping I need to fix, and close-up his whole horns/eyepatch business is NOT kosher. But I’ll keep working at all of it. The support means a lot, trust! ^_^

simsmidgen replied to your photoset “Banter at the Campsite: The Lone Vint  Vivienne: I presume you know...”

Lol, look at those healthy appetites with a dozen sausages on a skewer XD

LMAO! It’s so effing ridiculous, the nonsense these stupid sims roast at the fire pits! XD A whole frikkin pumpkin? Come on, EA. XD #Because TS3.

andantezen replied to your photoset “Banter at the Campsite: The Lone Vint  Vivienne: I presume you know...”

gorgeous scene!                    

Thanks so much! Frikkin horses PERSISTENTLY kept photobombing all the pics, but yeah. :D

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TUTORIAL REPLIES

pitheinfinite replied to your post “Hologram Lights - Tutorial Time!”

Awesome!! Murf’s School of Crap and Crap-Making is my all time favorite!!♡♡♡

Aw schucks, thanks! XD

nornities replied to your post “Hologram Lights - Tutorial Time!”

Thank you!

rollo-rolls replied to your post “Hologram Lights - Tutorial Time!”

Hottttt. Thank you for sharing! 👏👏👏

The more we know, the more The Sims grows!

gaiahypothesims replied to your post “Hologram Lights - Tutorial Time!”

Omg this is amazing. I may need to try this out one day.

Do! It’s extremely versatile, what y’all can make -- neon signs, glowing crystals, magic sigils/seals, holograms, etc etc.

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CC REPLIES

samkat10423 replied to your post “DAI Guitars”

Thank you!

simsmidgen replied to your post “DAI Guitars”

Thank you!

bmit04 replied to your post “DAI Guitars”

cool!

bmit04 reblogged your post and added:

brilliant!

swordcoastsimming reblogged your post and added:

WOW

packagedblyss replied to your post “DAI Guitars”

They look great! Thank you so much 😍

simsmidgen replied to your photoset “Maker: A Bard’s Song ♪♫ Maker, have you left me here? /...”

Your guitar thingie is looking awesome!

Cuz we can never have too many exotic & cultural musical instruments! ^_^

enchandycorn replied to your post “TS4 to TS3 Crystals as Lights”

Hoooleeee sheeeeet!!! Thank you so much Murf!!! This is just what this crystal thirsty dork needs!!!! 💙💙💙                    

I feel you! I’ve been wanting those TS4 crystals for a LONG time; just never got around to it till now. :P

doka-chan replied to your post “TS4 to TS3 Crystals as Lights”  

Yeah ! Thank you !

nornities replied to your post “TS4 to TS3 Crystals as Lights”

Oh, wonderful, thanks!

pitheinfinite replied to your post “TS4 to TS3 Crystals as Lights”

brilliant idea!! thank you♡♡♡                    

simsmidgen replied to your post “TS4 to TS3 Crystals as Lights”

Ooooohhh, shiny! Thank you <3                    

Glad y’all like them!

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Enjoy, and Happy simming!

[italicwatches]

Comic Girls - Episode 11

Today I have to decide whether or not to do a batshit thing to build hype for Smash. But also, it’s Comic Girls, episode 11! Here we GO!

-It all starts at the dorm, where the girls have gotten one of those career-goal surveys from school to fill out. Which has them in a bit of a trouble, since three of the four here already have their plans figured out and even Kaos knows her goals, she’s just struggling to, you know, achieve them. Of course, they all have to put down more than just the obvious first choice…

-So what’s Ruki’s backup plans if this manga train stops? She’d love to teach children. And Kaos gets all sad about the idea of losing Ruki and Tsubasa says, and I quote, “How could you leave Kaos behind to take care of other people’s children?!” And Koyume even backs her up. I’m sorry, Ruki, you’re stuck with this little pink blob thing for life.

-Opening!

-So why teaching, and especially at a nursery school of all places? Low supply, high demand, and she loves working with kids. Really, as much as she loves manga, Ruki would still be pretty dang happy if teaching was what paid her bills, and it’d be a lot more stable…She intends to get the license after she graduates, in fact, just so she has the option if things go sideways. …Just don’t draw any smut in front of them on accident. That’s how you got into this mess in the first place, remember.

-Well, Koyume’s thinking she could always fall back on her family’s sweets shop! She knows most of the recipes already! Oh hey it turns out Kaos’s folks also run a small shop, but they do traditional Japanese confectionaries, not Western sweets like Koyume’s folks. Koyume suddenly totally wants to do a fusion collab. East meets West! They’ll take the treat community by storm, Kaos! Would anyone even buy that…They could build it into a great cultural icon! Have enough space to do events, work with up-and-coming idols, it’d be the coolest! Koyume please focus on your actual current plans and not your wild ideas for if those plans don’t work out.

-So what about Tsubasa? Nothing. And she is NOT putting down anything her parents would want god dammit! …Tsu, you got issueOMINOUS CHANTING. We can never escape. I’m sorry what were we talking about? Oh, right, jobs. Tsubasa is having to figure out actual plan Bs to continue her rebellion. How about being a superhero? No, that’s too unrealistic. A professional swordswoman, maybe…You, you know what, let them help—

-SUZU IS HERE

-FROM THE CRAWLSPACE

-SHE WANTS TO BE A GHOST WHEN SHE GROWS UP

-Actually she also wants to be a caregiver. There’s lots of demand for it back home, as she casually starts to lower a rope to come down to the ground. …Suzu, you’re as much of a dork as Tsubasa. Also she really does want to be a ghost when she grows up. KAOS RUN FOR IT SHE’S COMING FOR YOU

-So after they banish Suzu to the shadow realm, back to this damned form. Tsubasa still has no idea what to write after ‘manga artist’. And Kaos…Kaos has the problem that she has no idea of anything she could do. She’s much too clumsy to help out at her parents’ shop…And she’s the only one without a serialized gig! She’s doomed, DOOMED she tells you! And cue Ririka to come check up on them.

-Soon they’re all talking over coffee and tea, and she explains her own past…How she was facing much the same decision. She was nearly serialized when she was your age, you know…But, she gave it up. The pressure of being a professional manga artist just…took the fun out of it for her. The freedom. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit in front of actual working pros, though she did get to to release a one-shot volume, “The Afternoon Smells Like Oranges”…

-Kaos perks up. Because wait. Wait wait wait. YOU’RE Rika Sonoda-sensei?! You still have fans! Look at all these reviews! And Ririka is embarrassed, most of all to admit that even under that, she just, couldn’t hold up her end of things…It’s one of the reasons why she runs this dorm, to give people a better place to work, to find the strength to be able to do what she couldn’t. Because there is nothing that makes her more proud than seeing an artist become strong enough to stand as a professional…And of course, she still does some hobby work from time to time.

-…Kaos wants to see it. Right now. Right now right now! Koyume also wants to see it! Nnnnope. (It’s all incredibly trashy yuri manga, isn’t it. I remember the flashback scene, I know you were pushing for girls smooching on the cover!)

-But then it’s a firm cut to the notice going up. The dorm’s final days in its current state. Everyone’s got to have their crap gone by February 2nd, because that’s when the wrecking crew is coming. It’s a painful moment for all of them…As Ririka decides she wants to make their remaining time special. And since nobody has deadlines, she needs help going through the storage room…Full of the history of everyone she’s held in these dorms. It’s all got to get organized, boxed, and ready for its next home…And treated right.

-There’s tons of history and weight in this little storage room. Sketches, photos, reference books…Everything that years and years of growing young professionals used. All carefully stored in closed book cases, to keep them safe from the ravages of time. Tsubasa and Kaos end up talking about those damn career forms…Tsubasa just gave up and wrote “manga artist” twice. Let them try and call her on it. But Kaos…Kaos still doesn’t even know if she’s confident enough to write it once. She absolutely wants to be a manga artist…But she gets so scared…

-That’s normal. It’s a scary thing to do. All you can do is just…Put the fear aside, and keep pushing forward. Focus on the dream. Now, come on, help her get this poster down…And when that poster comes down, there’s something behind it. A simple drawing on the wall. A little cheer for the artists still to come, written by someone who long since left this place. The history hits her like a freight train, and she properly realizes she’s standing upon the shoulders of giants…!

-Hard cut to Kaos and Koyume trying to get all fired up. Which mostly means a lot of wiggling and shouting.

-And then it’s night time, and Kaos has been working her ass off all day…When Koyume goes to get her something to drink, and finds Tsubasa and Ruki sipping cocoa. Everyone’s having a bit of a late night, it seems…I can only assume it’s the last night in the dorm, or close to it.

-But then the next meeting, when Kaos brings four storyboards to the meeting with Mayu. She, needs, to, have, SOMETHING accepted before the dorm shuts down! So, each of them is a little different…The first is a rom-com, borrowing some skill from Koyume. It’s…Well, it’s very Kaos. Her idea of strong and manly is firewood-chopping and mighty lung capacity. And full of ridiculous dad-jokes. Because her best concept of ‘manly’ is, well, her own dad. That’s kind of adorable, actually.

-So next. It’s a naughty comedy! She pulled from Ruki but it was like 2 in the morning and seemed like a good ideate the time even if now it feels like a terrible plan in the stark light of day. Also Kaos’s super simple chibi stylings don’t, entirely, work with eroticism. And also the height of perversion that Kaos can internally parse into her art is panty shots. Oh and the firewood again. You’d think someone so thirsty could go heavier.

-Third storyboard…It’s a comedy isekai! You know, that actually has a lot of potential meat on the bone. Meat that Kaos wasn’t really able to properly use, because it’s very cliche…Though Mayu points out that it just needs one good twist. Find a way to make the protagonist stand out, and…he’s chopping firewood. I’m sensing a pattern. Mayu is quietly despairing…

-When the fourth one comes up. It’s core slice-of-life, with a lot of the lessons she’s learned in her life so far…And without a lot of the real zaniness. No, without the over-the-top comedy, the cutesy art is able to just be…cute, and let the real heart shine through. The feel of a girl running on genuine fears and loves, passions and anxieties…It, it’s genuine. Mayu has to admit that she’s a bit brain-drained from chewing on all of these, as it’s been hours now, but…Let her hold onto this one. She wants to read it again in the morning.

-And so Kaos is off…Having left behind her manuscript with Mayu. For a simple, heartfelt manga about four plucky lesbians by the name of The Lord of the Ri—Er, I mean, Comic Girls. Yeah, that. Kaos is full of uncertainty herself, but as she walks home under the light of a full moon, and remembers that simple cheer that was on that wall, from someone who themselves finally escaped rejection hell on their last days in the dorm, she feels like she’s at least gotten her path forward…

-Even if she ends up staying up half the night in fear. Until she gets a call! From her mother! Oh, wh—ANOTHER CALL! It’s from Mayu! Who lets her know…She’s been APPROVED! She made it! She’s getting published! Not just that, they want her to expand Comic Girls into a two-parter! If the surveys come back well, it could even be serialized! Oh god, OH GOD SHE MADE IT! Making it. You ain’t there just yet, kid. Deep breaths!

-And everyone hears and YES you did it! You DID IT! Even Suzu is there, openly admitting she only shows up out of nowhere.

-So when the morning arrives at school, everyone’s got those career forms. Tsubasa’s is simple: Choice one? Manga artist. Choice two? “There’s nothing else.” It is true to her. And Kaos?

-…Kaos no.

-Kaos you’re doing into my bad place. That’s my bad place, stay out of there. I have it just comfortable for me. But anyways she wrote manga artist in the first choice so that’s the important bit.

-Episode 11: My Life Has Reached Its Peak

-Credits!

Well, much like Kaos’s own manuscript, this episode skipped a lot of the absurdist comedy to just…Be really from the heart, for a minute. And it hit fuckin’ hard, too. I guess now we will see what happens in our wrap-up, and if Kaos can stand on her own two feet, next time in the finale. Episode TWELVE of Comic Girls! Wait for it!