#its amazing the random little details I'll get caught up on

[the-larxist-manifesto]

GameGirl31 ~ Dr. Mario

It's Dr. Mario time. We all know it. We've all played it (even if you don't remember how or why). We all are a little more than confused by its existence.

Let me briefly tell my story with Dr. Mario. When I was just a girl—at a time where my only video games were whatever random N64 and PS1 games my parents owned—I really looked forward to the occasional visit to my gamer aunt and uncle's house. Having extended family who are into video games is just the coolest feeling as a child, when all other grown-ups do only boring stuff like reading and fishing trips. During one fateful day out with my aunt, I was gifted my very own Nintendo DS Lite—the first console I felt was truly mine. An amazing feature of my silver DS, I would come to find, was backwards compatibility with GameBoy Advance games! And one of the first games I received to test it out was a little combo cartridge called Dr. Mario & Puzzle League

My actual childhood Dr. Mario & Puzzle League cartridge! (alongside my physical copy of GB Dr. Mario :p)

I'll be blunt here: I hated Dr. Mario. Its companion, Puzzle League, was (excuse my pun) leagues better, offering tons of single player puzzles, customization options, and a catchy as hell soundtrack—in addition to its multiplayer connectivity! Dr. Mario, sadly, only contained a couple of variations on endless mode; not much fun to be had for a child with no link cable to play with friends. Dr. Mario seemed too... simple. Only 3 colors? All you do is clear viruses? Nah, I was above this game.

And that was the last time I ever played Dr. Mario.

UNTIL NOW.

~Earning my PhD~

I began playing this game with the standard GameGirl procedure; playing a few rounds to get accustomed to the new environment, checking out the manual, conducting a small amount of personal research, and then setting goals to beat the game. The manual offered the usual gallery of fun official art and basic tutorial, but it didn't contain anything I didn't already know. That is, except one interesting detail that caught my attention.

Let me ask you a question that was at the forefront of my mind at this time: how do I "beat" Dr. Mario? An endless, arcade-style puzzle game with no story? The manual, Dr. Mario himself, had the answer.

Pay special attention to the second bullet point. I'll see "something special?" It's so ambiguous yet so enticing, and with such a difficult condition to discover whatever it was, I couldn't hold myself back. I knew that my destiny was to complete the game on the highest difficulty on the highest speed setting.

To do this, I put about 10 hours of work into practicing this game; matching colors, creating combos, managing junk pills, refining my reflexes, always looking at the next piece coming up, and then the one after that. I learned some very valuable techniques for getting far in this game. Always having at least one column available with each of the three colors is extremely helpful when you're given a pill (or, when you're unlucky, three or four in a row) of a color that simply does not match the current trouble virus. You must put care into placing each and every pill. You must be cunning to attack viruses from above, below, from the sides, or even a falling combo. You must be dexterous on the higher speeds, shifting pills across the bottle and rotating it twice in less than a second.

When I finally accomplished my first milestone, I was met with a scene I'd never witnessed before. A tranquil, wide open ocean floor...

The viruses sit there, watching the occasional sea life drift by. The sea appears so lonely...

~Dr. Mario master~

Yes, my goals for this game primarily entailed clearing levels at the highest difficulty. Specifically, I considered the game "beaten" if I cleared MED speed levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, and I considered it "100% completed" if I cleared HI speed levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. But what about the actual game? Was it fun? Worth becoming so competent at playing?

Unsurprisingly, this is the simplest and shortest GB title yet. I placed it here in the challenge as sort of a break from larger adventures, after all. The visuals are quite simple; beyond the initial gag of Mario dressed up in a lab coat, there isn't much to look at. The viruses do a funny little dance at the bottom of the screen, then get knocked over and blipped out of existence as you clear them. The game has a total of 6 unique songs: one for mode select, the iconic Fever and Chill that you may choose for gameplay, jingles for winning in multiplayer or setting up a combo of four or more, and then a special song for the special something after clearing one of the four MED or HI speed levels. The songs will easily get stuck in your head, and the special song was well worth earning each time I arrived at the bottom of the infested sea. The blips and bloops of gameplay will sometimes match up PERFECTLY with the gameplay themes; its like the composition is playing together with you, as well as being solid tunes that have been hummed by fans and remade by Nintendo for decades to come. They did a good job with the sound design, overall!

I guess my biggest gripe is... the overall concept of Dr. Mario? I still find it a bit too simple, even after all this time. There aren't many reasons to come back to it, if you aren't attempting the insane feat of 100% completion. The main draw of this game is the multiplayer and hoping that the satisfying falling-block match-4 formula keeps players hooked long enough to keep coming back when bored. But sadly, there isn't much versatility with the mechanics. Where other puzzle games contain a higher variety of pieces (Tetris), or greater combo opportunity (Puyo Puyo), or slicker visuals (Meteos), or some other wacky gimmick to keep you continuously exploring (Meteos again)... Dr. Mario falls short of a cure-all for boredom.

For the sake of this challenge, I did try out the multiplayer with a friend! A very cool feature of the NSO retro games is being able to connect with friends online, and play as if you were sitting across from each other with a link cable! In this game, you and your competitor (did you know that's what COM stands for? Competitor? Not "computer," as I always thought) race to clear the bottle of viruses before the other. The multiplayer does contain some unique visuals, including an indicator for how many remaining viruses your competitor needs to clear or how many wins you've accumulated (best three out of five).

Shoutouts to @br00f for playing with me! She beat me in a best of five that went all the way to game 5... and I have to call her Dr. Broof from now on...

~Conclusion~

In a vacuum, Dr. Mario is a well-made, fun, fast-paced puzzle game with some cool cutscenes and music to discover if you become skilled enough. Compared to other puzzle games, I find it a bit lacking in single-player content. I also think that the concept is a bit bare-bones, especially in this first iteration. Not much to accomplish beyond basic combos and managing three colors; it's almost too simple even for a casual player (as we witnessed in the Dr. Mario & Puzzle League anecdote).

Granted, I've never played the newer iterations of Dr. Mario. Maybe they've come up with more ways to shake up the formula? I won't be pursuing it anytime soon, I'm afraid; Dr. Mario just isn't for me. I can acknowledge it as a very important and solid GB title, worthy of being a member of the NSO library. That's about it.

Recommend? Sure, try it. It's probably as good as any other version of Dr. Mario

Oh, and I did manage to 100% complete the game! Check it out!

Look! All the viruses have been cleared away, the ocean flows freely with life once again~

[lqfiles]

hello user lqfiles it's your #1 stan cowboy anon (i don't think i have this title but if you ever print photo cards i will buy them. the group is tumblr dot com and i'm lq-biased)

you're honestly so real about haechan i feel the same way about my pookies too 😭😭 likkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW WINWIN CDRAMA??? I NEED THIS MAN SO BAD ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

i also need haechan so bad ur smau is making me FEEL THINGS it's bad i'll be giddy about every single member atp

no cause where is yuta and jisung's awsaz video HELLO?? i live for awsaz content hehehe

oh my god my random rare pair otps are probably renwin, winhyuck, and chenjae. renwin is just I LOVE THEM. they're like so cute together, renjun always scolding winwin and winwin just going 🥺🥺to get out if it. like if you've seen that one live where nct did a chinese broadcast (they didn't have wayv atp but l*cas and kun were members at the time) THE WINWIN AND RENJUN PAIR AGSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHAGH i love them.

ive talked about winhyuck a lot so i will spare you the details but chenjae too... i thrive for them. it's such an odd pairing, but yapper chenle and weird-giggly-but also dead inside jaehyun is such a fun duo.

what do i post? i post content 🤭🤭 i need to be mysterious broski we gotta keep up the appearances. i'm winwin biased though... if it wasn't obvious! that might narrow down your options

-🤠

YOURE FUNNY PLSSS imagine i made photocards… if i did it would just be photocards of my gfx designs :) but i appreciate it and will crown you that title 🔥

i’m honestly not caught up with what winwin does since he isn’t my bias but i saw a few pics of him recently and he seems to be doing well in china with his career, GOOD FOR HIM HONESTLY!!! love that we can relate on that level tho 😼 HSKFHSKD THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT OMG i had people say the same thing about stg where they all became jisung stans and all i can say is i feel honoured 🥹 @ haechan pay me for being your PR manager 🤦🏽‍♀️ i used to be obsessed with that one renwin clip where renjun hugs winwin during that china line vlive 😭 i don’t think i got a rare pair, maybe markwoo? CHENJAE IS RANDOM AS HELL THO

HMMMM ok ok we will be doing more investigation with that little piece of information… I WILL UNRAVEL THIS ONE DAY, in the meantime i hope YOU have an amazing day or night 🥺❤️🫂

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Trying to alternate between my writing and my analysis blog sounds good in theory, and then you get stuck writing a scene and immediately start falling behind on the schedule you just made to try and catch up with your usually slow update rate. orz.

Anyways, let’s get into things. I’m already close to 300 chapter behind canon, no need to let that lead get any larger. (Abet I might have to take asides to do stuff like Vigilantes and whatnot… hrm… will see when we get further into this reread.)

[No. 15 - Vs.]

We start off with another ‘cover’ page, this time of All Might front and center, posed like he’s the main character of an American comic book. Which, with the number of jokes we make about him being the OG series protagonist while Izuku’s story is the subversive sequel, would be pretty damn apt.

Our return to the story starts with Toshinori, sitting in the breakroom at UA, worried that he can’t get in contact with Aizawa or Thirteen. He then considers how foolish he was for putting hero work ahead of his teaching, good reasons or not, and then wonders what he’ll have to tell the other teachers when he shows up at the end. He thinks that he’ll be fine in another ten minutes… then inflates into All Might with a splurt of blood as he gets up, deciding to go immediately.

Of course, that’s when Nedzu decides to make an entrance, pulling his ‘am i a-’ spiel for the audience All Might. All Might crouches down in place, rocking a bit on his feet as he complements Nedzu’s coat. Nedzu replies that the secret is keratin, and that ‘no human could produce such luster’ - our first actual confirmation that Nedzu isn’t a particularly extreme mutation quirk, but is in fact a quirked animal!

(Not that we seem to see any others in the series so far… at least not to my awareness.)

Nedzu pulls out a tablet, showing a news report about All Might handling three incidents in under an hour. Nedzu goes on to explain that while the villains haven’t let up even with All Might’s presence in town, running off the moment he hears there’s trouble is so very like the man, and that All Might hasn’t changed at all.

(and a little bonus translation difference)

...anyways. Toshinori deflates again as Nedzu tells him to try taking it easy once in a while. As Nedzu clambers up onto the couch, he goes on to note that Toshinori would only be able to attend a portion of the rescue training class that day. He then reminds Toshinori that while Nedzu had made the offer to teach, Toshinori had been the one to accept it, so he’d appreciate it if he would try a bit harder to prioritize his role as a teacher. The city has enough hero agencies to deal with common criminals.

Toshinori agrees, and that that was way he was just getting ready to head to the USJ. Nedzu pours himself some tea, noting that Toshinori would be forced to return soon thereafter, so why not take some time and enjoy tea and crackers with him? He can even share his theories on education! Toshinori sweats as he watches Nedzu pour his tea, thinking on how there’s no stopping Nedzu once he gets going. He’s also thinking about the fact that he hadn’t even gotten voicemail, and that the fact he hadn’t been able to get through at all was what was worrying him about the situation.

Man’s hero instincts are on point. Another small reminder of how this man held onto the number one spot for so long. 

Nedzu does get into his spiel about the stresses and burdens when walking the line between hero and educator, while Toshinori determines that Nedzu hasn’t changed either.

A couple interesting things I can think about for this last bit:

1) Nedzu and Toshinori have known each other for a while, enough that they can have had some time without much interaction and then come back into contact and go ‘ah yeah this is the same as ever.’ I wonder just how long ago they met, in what circumstances, and how long Nedzu’s known about One For All…

2) People who use this as another reason to criticize Toshinori as a teacher. I mean. He’s only been teaching for three days at this point. He knows he fucked up. Nedzu reminds him he fucked up. People make mistakes, especially at the beginning of a new job they aren’t experienced in. He’s learning. Please just chill.

3) 'Stresses and burdens walking the line between hero and educator' is something that I think could actually be a very good summary of Aizawa's character development? Because early on, he very much is Not A Teacher. The only reason he's at UA is because he was basically dragged in there by Hizashi and Nemuri. He demanded the power to be able to expel to give the kids 'a taste of death' without actually, like, killing them.

At the beginning of the series, he's not really all that invested in his students. He's just There. He doesn't care so long as they stay up to his unknown standards. He's much more focused on what he needs to do as a hero, ie the USJ incident. He's acting as a hero, protecting the kids who are basically civilians from a villain attack, even if it means his own life. 

But then we also see him push himself that bit further to save his students, which might be the first point where he might be considering that he can’t afford to die, because who else will teach them to protect themselves from such things? Because a hero can die in the line of duty and all that, but a teacher needs to keep living to protect their students and teach them how to survive and thrive. 

I think we see the culmination of the character arc started here in the War arc, though of course he’s got a lot further to go. I think it’s also a parallel to Toshinori, who’s also learning to be a teacher but from a different direction, which just continues to make them great narrative foils. Hori, man, how do you keep doing it?

...hah, but I might also just be reading too much into what might be an awkward translation.

Anyways, we switch from this generally low tension scene right back into the chaos at the USJ. Tenya gets into class president mode as he asks for a sitrep of people’s locations. Shouji confirms with his extra ears that everyone is still in the facility, abet scattered. Thirteen is surprised (and perhaps relieved) that that is the case, though she doesn’t say anything specifically.

Sero notes that physical attacks are no good against Kurogiri - he can just warp away. The quirk’s just too tough to handle! Thirteen turns to Tenya and gets his attention, then tells him his job is to run back to the school and report on what’s happening. She goes on to explain that the alarms haven’t sounded and the phones aren’t working. The alarm system uses infrared tech, so the fact that it hasn’t activated, even with Eraserhead nullifying quirks, means whoever is interfering with the system has hidden themselves well. With that being the case, Tenya making the run is their best option.

Tenya starts to argue that the class president can’t just abandon his class, only to be stopped when Sato grabs him, saying that Thirteen said to go! Also I thought for a second they were making another emergency exit Iida joke here, but no, it’s just that Tenya needs to escape through said emergency exit. A more serious nod to the previous joke about him and emergency exits. 

Sato then goes on to note that there’s alarms outside, which means the villains can only be causing trouble inside the facility - so if Tenya makes it out, the villains can’t follow! He finishes it off with a motivational ‘shake off that mist with that speed of yours!’ Thirteen adds onto that with a repetition of their request - use his quirk to save everyone.

God, look at these kids, so scared and so brave. Ochako and Mina are both sweating and nervous, but Ochako is still swearing to provide support, just like in the cafeteria, so he needs to do it!

Kurogiri is being a looming shadow as he notes that they have no hope, and wonders what kind of fools discuss strategy in front of the enemy. Thirteen starts using her quirk on him as she states that it doesn’t matter if he overheard because he can’t stop them.

And since the rest of this chapter is dedicated to Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta’s escape from the yacht, I’ll cut this off here so that it’s the focus of all the next post. I guess it’s kind of a good thing I rambled early on, otherwise this would be extremely short…

[stargaze-issei]

ᴅᴀʏ 𝟼; ғᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ʙʟᴏᴄᴋᴇʀ

-> tsukishima kei.

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭; same tattoo, shared dreams, soulmates!au.

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬; none.

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭; 1.8k

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞; fluff.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞; the way i want to make a series out of everything in this challenge sigh.

↳ main masterlist

"what does it mean, tsukki?" yamaguchi asked by his side, looking with curiosity the needle leaving marks on his friend's skin. 

tsukishima wanted to get a tattoo through his complete adolescence, his parents never allowed it, not until he could pay it by himself, at least. and there he was, eighteen years old, watching in amazement how one of his few dreams became true. being honest, he wasn't sure what it meant, but he had dreamed about those numbers a lot. since he was thirteen, the same number appeared not only in his dreams, but was everywhere else too, everytime he checked the hour, the number of his locker, even his volleyball shirt. of course it took him a while to figure it out, but once he saw it, he couldn't stop. it became his luck number. 

"are you sure you just want that?" the artist wondered for the third time.

"yeah, it's important to me" the smile on tsukishima's face was completely different to all the others yamaguchi had seen since they knew each other. 

*.✧☆ﾟ.*･｡✧*⊰⊹ฺ

"please, come see me play, you're always busy!" your friend, koganegawa, could be a pain in the ass if he wanted to. he could be one withouth wanting too. your job as an assistant teacher kept you occupied half of the day, add the hours at college and how much you had to study, to say it was hard to make room in your life was an understatement. which was why you never went to kogane's games after highschool.

"i told you i can't! i have... work" 

"you don't work at nights, idiot! come see me play" he was so annoyingly persistent, that you had to accept, earning a excited hug from him.

after he left your appartment, only because you made him, you let yourself drop onto the couch, sighing. in fact, you were tired, but going to see kogane, one of your only friends, was something you could do. he was always so supportive, in his own unique way, it was the least you could do for him. you scratched your collarbone, unconciously going over your tattoo with your fingers, like checking if it was still there. somehow, that piece of inked skin gave you strengths when you felt like you were at your limit. the memory of a well known dream came to your mind, making you giggle.

*.✧☆ﾟ.*･｡✧*⊰⊹ฺ

you knew koganegawa's team was a professional team, but you never expected them to have a cheering squad, and local tv cameras and periodists focusing on them. it was your first time at the gym where they were playing, a little anxiety growing in your chest not knowing where to go. you tried calling him to help you, but all you got was a text saying he had sent somebody to your rescue. 

"hi, are you kogane-kun's friend?" said a short blonde girl, touching your shoulder. she seemed really kind, making you feel more comfortable instantly.

you mumbled a positive respond, and she quickly grabbed your hand to take you to the bleachers like she knew the place by hand. she introduced herself as yachi hitoka, and said the game was about to start. she was also a friend of one of the players, but met some others, like koga, in highschool. 

in the exact moment that you and yachi sat, the starting whistle blowed, starting with the power serve of a bleached haired guy.

yachi guide you through the game, explaining the basics to you, but you couldn't take your eyes off of the blond man with glasses, he looked so familiar, though you were sure it was the first time you saw him. he intrigued you, a lot. you were too shy to ask yachi for his name, hoping to catch it on through the speakers at some point, or trying to remember if kogane had said something about him. the game went on, points were made by everyone, and every single one the setter did, he looked at you, searching for a reassurance smile. 

when it finished, a crushing victory from the frogs, you and your new friend went to wait for them outside of the compound, yachi felt the need to warn you before you met everyone. 

"see, kyoutani can be a little... intense, some times, but he's really nice, and tsuk-"

"y/n! did you see me!? did you see my points!? we were so great!" she was interrupted by an overly excited koganegawa walking towards you, along with two ther blondes. your cheeks burned at the sight of whom you had glared so hard just minutes ago, wondering if he had noticed. his face was buried on his phone, too busy to look up, disappointing you a little.

"i saw you, dumbface, that's what i came to do" he pouted at your fake insult, proceeding to shout to kyoutani by his side how awesome you were for going to his game. you introduced yourself, one of they boys said to be kyoutani kentaro, the one of your interest didnt't even reply.

tsukishima had heard your voice many times before, but for the first time, he was awake. his eyes opened wide, a soft hum of confusion left his mout. it couldn't be you, you were just a made up person from his dreams, someone who he had never seen, less say heard talking, to recognize that fast. although it was you. those eyes, that voice, that hair, it was you. he had dreamed about you for so long, in his mind, at the beginning you were his same age, growing up as he did. you were exactly like that woman.

"...tsukki!" he came back to earth thanks to kogane, who was frenetically moving him from his shoulders trying to get his attention. 

"get off" was all tsukishima answered.

"where's yamaguchi?" asked yachi. you didn't know what they were talking about, but you had witnessed the glasses boy, whom's name appears to be tsukki, go through a complete life crisis in the last minute.

"he's joining us at the restaurant" he said, starting to walk away by his own, followed by kyoutani and yachi, later by kogane pulling you from your arm to walk. 

yachi and koga talked enough to fill the uncomfortable aire in the table once everybody ordered. a man named yamaguchi arrived a few minutes earlier, still in office clothes. he congratulated the guys on their victory and greeted you nicely, presenting himself as "tsukki's friend". 

the minutes became hours, everyone, except you and tsukki, was drunk, even kyoutani had that red color on his cheeks because of the alcohol. yachi, who had stated that she was just a little tipsy, sober up when she saw how late it was. 

"i have to work tomorrow! we all have to! oh go, i can't believe i let kogane- tsukishima, could you please take y/n home while i get these three an uber?" despite being so small, the girl seemed to be completely in charge of everything, probably because of her years as manager in highschool, you thought.

"are you sure you don't need help with them?" you asked, a bit curious about how was she going to handle two giants and a man with rabies by herself.

"don't worry, i've been doing this since highschool, i'm more worried about you arriving safe"

"i'll take her, you stay at yamaguchi's and text me when you're there" intervined tsukishima, he had been quiet most of the night, even though he couldn't look less interested in being there, he still refused to leave. sometimes, he would stare at you when you weren't paying attention, without knowing that you actually felt his look on you. the girl agreed to his proposal, kissing your cheek goodbye and giving her friend a small hug before you took your things and got out of the place, followed by the tall man. 

the walk was silence after you told him you lived near enough to walk, him just nodding to your words. you didn't feel uncomfortable, though, and you wanted to believe neither did he. both of you were at a really short distance, and he didn't seem to care, but you smell of strawberry shortcake coming out of him. you giggled, thinking how funny it was that such an intimidating guy smelled like cake. tsukishima glared at you, disconcerted by your sudden laugh at no apparent reason.

"i used to go to this coffee house in highschool, they had the best strawberry cake i have ever eaten" your random fact caught tsukishima off guard, because he went to a coffee house with a really good strawberry cake since highschool too. he stayed silence, affraid to keep finding more shared details betweent the two of you. "i mean, don't think i talk about cake when- you smell like- i'm sorry" had you just made the situation hundred times worse? yes, you had. 

the rest of the walk was as silent as the first half, now, tsukishima was uncomfortable, so much that you could tell, but still, he choose to stay close to you instead of making distance. despite being a autumn night, you felt hot, your multiples layers of clothing were now making you sweat. without giving it much thought, you took off your jacket and sweater, leaving at sight you tattoo in you collarbone. tsukki tried, he really did, to not look at you, stripping like it was nothing, so when he did, and saw his exact same tattoo in your body, he stopped walking. his jaw barely hit the floor, you could swear he saw a ghost.

"are you okay? d-do you...? what are you doing?" he got over his shocked, and in a light of boldness, he started to take off his coat and sweater, not only that, but lifting his shirt until you could see his nipple and ribs. it was then when you saw it too, your tatto, the exact same details, were on his skin, like it was printed of the same printer. you hadn't chose a design from an artist, you drew one on your own, wanting to be the only of its kind, yet, there you were.

like someone had opened a door in your mind, memories of lost dreams came back, you remembered from where tsukishima seemed so familiar. that damned dream you had for years, of him, who you thought was a creation from your subconscious, was now standing right in front of you, in flesh and bones. not you nor tsukishima knew how to react, maybe, fearing that the other would run away. a strange urge to cry invaded you, and for some reason, a intense desire to feel the blonde closer.

"i want to take you on a date, if that's okay with you" 

"yes" you said not a second late, almost begging him to be with you from that day to your last.

"and i wanna kiss you right now" he didn't even let you answered before jumping to your lips, leaning a bit. you sighed in the middle of the kiss, relieved to feel him and his warm arms around you, your lips moving at synch.

his lips tasted like strawberry too.

⌙ 𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 🥳

[magnus-the-maqnificent]

Lost Book of the White Countdown Event - Parenthood

Lost and Found

(Read on Ao3)

"Oh!" said the warlock when she caught sight of Magnus. "Is that your baby?"

The night sky stretched over the Shadow Market of New York like a large canvas, dotted with a sparse covering of stars like specks of white paint. Magnus was supposed to spend this night in the comfort of his home, looking after his son while his boyfriend hunted down demons in the darker corners of the city. Magnus had been making futile attempts to lull Max to sleep, but then he'd received a call from a warlock acquaintance of his, saying that she needed his assistance immediately and that a few mundanes had been turned into toads.

So Magnus had brought out his best strap-on baby carrier and put Max in it, and walked over to the Shadow Market while Max pointed to random objects like streetlights and cars and gurgled the whole time. Magnus had simply nodded along to his meaningless blabber, occasionally dropping a comment like 'that's right, blueberry' and 'you're so smart, blueberry'.

Now, he nodded at the warlock and said, "Yes, Misa, this is my child. Say hello, Max."

He took Max's hand and waved it at her, though he seemed disinterested in conversing with the warlock. He was intently staring at the pair of antennae that stuck out from the top of Misa's head. 

"Hello Max," Misa said, giving him a cheerful smile. Her antennae waved about, probing the air, and Max giggled at the sight of them. Misa looked at Magnus. "I'm sorry for bringing you out here at this time."

"It’s alright. How about you show me the problem?" Magnus asked. He wanted to finish this as quickly as possible.

"Of course, come in."

To summarize the problem, a bunch of teenage mundanes somehow found the Shadow Market, and requested Misa to make a potion that would enhance their beauty. Clearly they hadn't known much about magic or its use, and just wanted to attract more attention to themselves at school, and thought that magic was their best solution.

"But something went wrong with the potion. One of the boys was poking around the tent and knocked an entire bottle of newt's eyes into the potion. Before I could mitigate the damage, however, the potion went awry and vaporized, and they all turned into toads. Luckily I came out fine, and called you as soon as possible," Misa explained.

Magnus extracted some more details from her, such as the nature of the potion she had been preparing and the precise amount of newt's eyes spilled into it. While they talked, Max squirmed around in the baby carrier, occasionally mumbling something unintelligible. Around them, on the ground, the toads were merrily hopping around.

"I don't think we can do anything," Magnus said after a while of conversing. "You'll just have to wait for them to turn back. That will hopefully teach them not to meddle with magic."

Misa sighed. "Very well, then. I'll-"

She broke off with a gasp. The baby carrier felt much lighter all of a sudden, and Magnus jumped when something swooped past his face.

"Did he just turn into a bat?" Misa asked, wondering.

"He does that sometimes," Magnus said nonchalantly, though there was a twinge of panic in his heart. "It's nothing to worry about."

They watched as Max, now a bat, flew around the roof of the tent for a few moments. Then, swift as a bird, he changed course and flew right through the open flap of the tent.

"Max, no!" Magnus yelled, running out of the tent. But Max was much faster. Magnus looked in every direction, but he couldn't see Max anywhere.

Magnus's breathing became labored and his heart picked up speed as he realised with a sinking feeling that he lost Max in a bustling, large, crowded market. How was he supposed to find him?

Luckily, Misa agreed to help him search and they split up, agreeing on a rendezvous spot and to call the other if they found Max. Magnus hustled through the crowds, asking around if anyone had seen a blue warlock baby or a lone bat flying around.

Max!

Panic was starting to set in, making Magnus's hands shake as he held up his phone, showing Max's photo to passersby and asking if they had seen him anywhere. No one knew where he was.

Max, where are you?!

"I think I saw a bat near Willow the werewolf's stall earlier," said one at last. Magnus thanked him profusely before running off to the stall, praying that his son was safe.

Max, come back to bapa, please!

The demon could hardly believe his eyes.

It was a child, a warlock child, sitting on the grimy floor of an alleyway and playing with a few stray pixies. He was giggling as the pixies swarmed around him, playfully tugging at his hair while blue magic spilled from his hands like water. He was so young, and so full of life.

A smile spread across the demon's mouth as it shuffled on the wall, a sharp razor-like tongue flicking out and lashing at the air. It could already feel the taste of the boy in its mouth.

The boy looked up and caught sight of it, his giggles fading as he met the demon's eyes. He looked at it with a sort of wonder, as if he had never seen a demon before. The pixies gasped and flitted away as fast as they could. At least they knew to be scared.

The demon waited a few moments, staring at the boy. His hands sparked with magic, but clearly he was too young to know how to properly use it.

Good.

Bending back its hind legs, it poised, and then lunged at the boy.

"Max!" Magnus yelled, looking around for a trace of his baby. He was close to the stall where Max had been sighted, but the owner hadn't seen him, and neither had any of the neighboring stall owners.

He was beginning to get some looks, but Magnus could care less.

"Max!" Magnus yelled again, his throat feeling hoarse and tight and his heart beating frantically in his chest. Max had to be somewhere close by. He couldn't lose his baby just like that. He had to find him.

Magnus was about to yell once more when he heard a loud scream emanating from somewhere behind two stalls. The voice was unmistakable. 

"Max!" Magnus pushed through the tiny gap between the smalls, which opened out into a wider alley between two brick buildings. He froze when he found Max at last.

There was something clutching onto him, something lumpy and black. The figure rose, and Magnus had just begun muttering a spell to fire at it when it turned to look at him.

"Magnus," said Alec, holding a crying Max in his arms, in the light of his own magic Magnus could see a fresh stain of ichor on Alec’s gear. "What happened?! I was patrolling nearby, and some pixies dragged me here just in time. If I had been a moment late-"

Alec didn't need to finish his statement. If I had been a moment late, the demon would've gotten him. And it would all be my fault.

Magnus shook off his half-muttered spell, and stared at Alec for a long time. The only sound was of Max crying.

In retrospect, the image of Alec, fresh from a demon hunt and holding a baby in his arms was very sexy, but in that moment all Magnus could feel was immense relief. He slumped back against the alley wall, but Alec was there first, supporting him with one hand behind his back.

Then the shame hit him. He had almost gotten his son killed. If only he had been more careful-

"Magnus," Alec said in a low voice. By now, Max's cries had been reduced to sniffles, and he was wiping his tears against Alec’s gear. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Magnus said, his voice shaking a little. He reached up a hand to brush his hair out of his hand, and was surprised when his wobbly fingers met a layer of sweat on his forehead. He had been thoroughly shook by the whole experience, and hadn't even realized it. "I'm fine."

Alec was silent a moment, then said, "Come on, let's go home."

Alec was silent the whole time Magnus recounted the events of that night, sitting beside him on the couch with Max held in his arms.

"I'm a terrible father," Magnus muttered after he was done, hanging his head. "I couldn't even handle him for a night."

"Don't say that," Alec said softly. "You did nothing wrong - Max ran away on his own. What matters is that we found him in time."

"But if we hadn't found him-" Magnus couldn't even think of the possibility.

"But we did," Alec reiterated. "We did, and he's safe now, and that's all that matters. And you're an amazing father, Magnus. Don't ever say that you aren't. We're still learning, and we make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we're being terrible parents."

"How can you be so sure?" Magnus asked, though a part of him had calmed down at Alec's words.

Alec smiled. "I know you, Magnus. I know you're never terrible at anything - well, except maybe for the charing."

"I told you never to bring that up!" Magnus protested, but Alec ignored him.

"Also, Max loves you. Don't you, Max?"

Max looked up at Alec. He was playing with a slinky, though it now resembled a jingly mass of wire, and stared incomprehensibly at Alec. Magnus smiled and took Max from him, holding him up at eye level.

"Don't you ever run away like that again, okay?" Magnus warned in a light tone. Max only blinked at him in reply.

"You silly baby." Magnus said, and kissed Max on the cheek. Max stared at him with wide eyes after he pulled away, and then leaned in, brushing his mouth against Magnus’s cheek in an imitation of a kiss.

"Did he just-" Alec broke off, and he and Magnus stared at Max in surprise, though he was oblivious to their attention.

Alec's eyes softened, and he pressed an experimental kiss against Max's cheek. Like with Magnus, Max leaned towards Alec and bumped his mouth against Alec's cheek.

"Oh, my baby," Alec said, taking Max in his arms and kissing him all over his face. "My sweet baby."

Max giggled at the onslaught of affection, and Magnus's heart cracked open in that moment, spilling happiness and love into his veins. He moved in, wrapping his arms around both of them and kissed them on their heads.

"I love you," he said, holding them close, his love and his son. "I love you both so, so much."

"I love you too," Alec whispered, turning his head up and placing a kiss against Magnus’s jaw. Magnus smiled, and held on to this moment, promising to himself to be the best possible father to his blueberry.