#just that I’ve pulled some kind of inspiration from them in some way while building them

[herebecritters]

I was discussing character inspirations with some friends

[neverlookatthisblog]

Bad for business

A/n: I was very inspired hope you enjoyed this let me know what you think I haven’t wrote anything smut related in a while so I was very excited to write this 🥴🥴

GIF from @harlowgifs

Smut

Scalvo x reader the instigators

Life in Boston wasn’t how you expected it to be when you planned to move there with a couple of friends just for a few years later not to even be in touch with them anymore

With your Family back in Chicago you had no one yes you could always go back home but you knew you had to make a life of your own now

You were a successful lawyer working on cases sleepless nights Ironically enough this is how you met Scalvo you’re off and on boyfriend

“I’ve got another case for you” Amanda said handing you the file yawning taking the file ‘Another one’ you thought it never ends with your job you reading the file you wanted to know more about him who he was

“Scalvo” you asked Amanda

“Yup I heard he’s a tough one” she said

“Great” but it only made you more curious about him

You’ve worked for lots of people,Scalvo was different to you in your eyes you loved the way he looked at you even though it felt like he hated everything and everyone

To say the least you were stressed

Turns out Scalvo got himself into some trouble beating up some guy and needed a lawyer and it happened to be you,you took the case

“Why why why” you said to yourself as you made your way inside the building

You approached a tall man sitting down with fluffy hair,jacket,with a hat

“Are u Scalvo??” you asked holding his folder

“Yea let’s just get this over with “ he said getting up

“Hold on wait you can’t just get this over with this takes time especially after what u did” I said making him raise his eyebrow

He groaned sitting back down

“So tell me how you go yourself in this situation” I said taking out my note pad

“Are you really about to write this down” he snickered

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m serious about my job” you said

“Fine” he said

You ended winning case got him out of that shit hole you guys started talking getting to know each other he wasn’t someone you’d date usually it was date nights for you but with Scalvo it was joining him on robberies and much more……

•••

(Present day)

You had the day off spending time at home you made yourself comfortable on the couch seeking into the cushion but that didn’t last it wasn’t for long until Scalvo busted through the doors straddling you

“Hey we need to talk” he said

“Talk about???”

“I know you don’t like this next heist but I have to do it there’s money involved” he said you shook your head

He hurried around the house grabbing his bag

“No… scalvo you’re not doing that” you said eagerly following Scalvo around the house as he gathers things in his bag him doing this kind of stuff was normal to you even when it shouldn’t be

“Are you fucking serious scalvo” you said

You knew he was bad for you but that’s what made it exciting for you loving the thrill and you loved him you knew it wasn’t safe being with someone like Scalvo but you couldn’t resist it

“Y/n please just shut the fuck up I have to do this I made a promise !!!”he said continuing to put stuff in the bag

“No..,Promise to who??? I’m not letting you do this! And if you walk out that door that’s it” you said stopping him he gave you a glare dropping his bag

“The fuck did you just say” he said backing you up until your back hit the wall

“You heard me I said we’re fucking done I’m tired of your shit” you said

“You don’t mean that….” he said making eye contact with you

“Yes I do I’m tired of your shit we’re done” you said pushing him but he wouldn’t move

“And I want you to be done with me too scalvo I’m seri-“before you could say anything he crashed his lips onto yours fighting it you eventually gave in pulling away

“Well I’m not” he said before He picks you up eagerly entering your shared bedroom throwing you on the bed kissing your neck his hands made its way to your button up shirt roughly ripping it

“Scal” you said

“Shut the fuck up” he said kissing your lips his right hand roaming your body until it made its way inside your pants his fingers lightly rubbing circles around your clit

“If you meant that then you wouldn’t be letting me do this to you” he said

“Oh my god” you moaned gripping on to his arm gasping as he continued his movements

“Right??? But your not shit talking now are you?” He said you moaned as he continued on with his movements

“Answer me” lightly chocking you feeling two of his fingers push in and out of you

But you knew you couldn’t You could barely answer mumbling words

He kissed you knowing that you were on edge

You kissed him harshly gripping his tightly

“I can’t….im gonna-“ you cut off by his movements as his fingers repeatedly pushed against your spot

“I know”he said kissing you until you came

Slipping his hands out your pants licking his fingers he hummed as he sucked them clean

“You taste good” he said

“ I’ll be back” he said making his way to the bathroom

He finally came back you wasted no time flipping him over now on top of him you kissed him your hands roamed his around his body but before you could continue he stopped you for a second looking into your eyes you smiled at him

“I know you don’t want me to do this but….”

“Yeah but what??” You said your smiled faded getting off of him

“I’m sorry y/n but I have to do this” he said turning to you both laying on your side

“I knew you would still do it anyways”you rolled your eyes

“Well what did you expect”

“I expected you to not go through with it” you said

“What you thought just because you said we might be done that was gonna scare me” he snickered

“I’m not bluffing scalvo If you do this….” you said shaking your head

“I’m doing this whether you like it or not” he said looking at you

you knew you couldn’t trust him because no matter what you said or did he would’ve did what he wanted to do anyways

that’s just the part that hurt the most was knowing that he may not come back…

[midwestmade29]

Bonded 🪢

I have been wanting to write this for a long time and I'm excited that I finally brought it to life 😍 This fic was heavily inspired by the picture below the line. All hail our World Champion Swerve Strickland 🖤

Word count: 1.2k Divider by: @saradika-graphics Photo source: Twitter

Disclaimers: Cursing, Shibari/Kinbaku (rope bondage), unprotected sex. Read at your own discretion.

You'll do anything to help Swerve escape his demons...

It wasn’t unlike Swerve to come home tense and on edge. After going to war with a cowboy and fighting his way to the top, there was a lot on his plate. Some people under that kind of pressure would turn to anything to help dull the pain and make the thoughts stop. Alcohol, exercise, meditation, just something to slow the speed of the world around them.

For Swerve, you were his drug of choice. His kryptonite that brought down all barriers and walls he continuously builds around himself. So tonight, when he walked through the door with a solemn look on his face, you knew exactly what you needed to do. While you were in the bathroom, you could hear Swerve on the other side of the door in your bedroom shuffling around. You had removed all articles of clothing and slid your silk robe on before securing it with the sash. Once you were ready, you emerged from the bathroom to an empty room. The glow from the flickering candles was all the light surrounding you as your eyes panned around for any sight of Swerve. As you walked closer to the bed, what was lying on top of it proved your instincts were correct. Red jute rope.

“You know me too well, Y/N,” Swerve murmured as he walked up behind you.

He wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you flush against his chest, taking a moment to enjoy the way the silk felt on his bare skin. He pushed your hair away from your neck with his fingertips, causing goosebumps to form in their wake. Your knees nearly gave away when he nipped and kissed the delicate skin of your neck. He made sure to place his lips near the shell of your ear as he whispered, “I’ve been playing with my demons again, baby. You’re the only light in all this darkness. Let me tie you up and give me a taste of Heaven before they drag me back to hell again,”

Swerve helped you slide out of your robe, admiring the way the flames of the candles seemed to dance on your skin. He had you lay in the middle of the bed while he began tying and knotting the red rope around your calves and thighs. His touch was firm yet delicate as he secured each intricate knot, making sure to take his time while he perfected his craft.

“Do you remember why I chose red rope?” Swerve asked as he secured your wrist to the rope around your thigh. “Because you like the way it looks against my skin, especially when my skin is flushed,” you smirked. Swerve’s throaty laugh filled the room as he nodded in approval at your answer. “Very good, baby. Maybe I’ll reward you for your excellent memory,” he said with a wink.

Once your other wrist was secure, he instructed you to give the bonds a tug to make sure that everything felt right and comfortable. You gave him the green light when you were certain the ropes were how they needed to be, which allowed Swerve to stand and admire his handiwork.

You were completely exposed and open to him, vulnerable and putting all your trust in him. The way he looked at you like a man who hadn’t eaten in weeks made your arousal grow, longing to be touched by your tormented lover.

The bulge in Swerve’s pants was evident as he walked over to the dresser and pulled something from the top drawer. Your eyes followed his every move as he walked back to you with a black feather in hand. He hovered above you, placing the feather on your collarbone and tracing along it. As it tickled your skin, you couldn’t help but squirm!

Swerve kissed you passionately as he brought the feather down to one of your nipples, each soft swipe against it made it pucker and stiffen. He covered your nipple with his mouth, taking the stiff peak in between his teeth and pulling before massaging it with his tongue, leaving you panting as he moved over to the other side. The feather created a trail from your breasts down to your navel and across your hip bones. Swerve traced the path it created with his tongue, the coolness of the air in contrast to his warm breath made you shiver.

“You’re so sexy like this, Y/N. Tied up and ready for me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more perfect,” he praised, his words making you tug against the rope.

The look in Swerve’s eyes was pure lust and desire as he peered up at you from in between your legs. He sat the feather aside as he planted kisses on your inner thighs between each knot and twist of the rope. Your chest was rising and falling rapidly in anticipation of his next move.

"I believe I said I was going to reward you for your excellent memory, didn't I?" he asked rhetorically before devouring your sweetness.

Your back arched off the bed as his tongue and mouth mercilessly worked themselves against your clit. Every lick, every suck, every hum of approval from Swerve brought you closer and closer to the edge. Your moans and whimpers echoed off the walls moments before you were about to unravel, but he stilled his movements.

“N-no, please,” you begged breathlessly.

The smile on Swerve’s face was anything but sweet as he stood and began unbuckling his belt. “As much as I love the thought of you cumming on my tongue, I think I like the thought of you falling apart on my dick more,”

With your legs spread wide, Swerve thrusted himself inside of you. The only thing you could do to soften the intrusion was to grab hold of the ropes around your thighs. Your walls stretched around him as he moved in and out at a steady pace, your lower half feeling incredibly full. He pressed your knees to your chest as he began to find his rhythm, your body jolting with each thrust. Swerve made sure he was positioned just right so he was hitting all your sweet spots inside and out.

“Come on baby, give me what I want. I can feel how close you are. I know you need this, let yourself go,” he spoke brashly.

It was as if he had total control over your body as it began to tremble beneath him, you knew you were done for. “F-fuck! Yes, y-yes!” you moaned.

Within seconds your orgasm completely consumed you, each wave of pleasure better than the last. Showing no mercy, Swerve fucked you through your release as he continued to chase his own. “S-so perfect for me baby. So, f-fucking perfect,” he grunted against your lips before crashing his own against them.

As he came, his hard length twitched and pulsed against your walls, filling you to the brim with his hot seed. The two of you were a panting mess as he collapsed onto your chest and savored every sensation his release provided him. When he was able to stand again, he kissed your knee and began to untie the rope. You stretched your legs and twirled your wrists once they were free.

After cleaning up and getting situated in bed, you rested your head Swerve’s chest as he pulled you in close. Your fingers traced over the plethora of scars there before you kissed each one of them. While the ones on the outside of his body were permanent, you had hope that you were helping heal the ones internally. Whatever Swerve needed; whatever he wanted you were there to give it to him. Even if that meant chasing off his demons whenever they decided to haunt him.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group J Round 1: #J4 vs #J5

#J4: Kids conquering dungeons to change the world

A Magi is a magician whose inclination toward magic is so immense that they can be said to shape the world. With their significant influence, each Magi chooses a worthy candidate to become a king, then helps them conquer strange labyrinths called "Dungeons" and acquire the power of mythical djinns within. Above all else, the Magi supervises their elected representative as they build a country that might one day bring the world to its knees.

Aladdin is a young Magi wandering the world in search of his true self. However, his journey is not a lonely one, as he is accompanied by his friend and mentor Ugo—a djinn he summons using his flute. On his travels, Aladdin also befriends Alibaba Saluja and guides him to a nearby Dungeon. With this newfound friendship, they begin an epic adventure across the world, witnessing various irregularities that seem more frequent than ever.

#J5: Girls live in a school, but not by choice

Carefree high school senior Yuki Takeya looks forward to the School Living Club every day. Consisting of the president Yuuri Wakasa, the athletic Kurumi Ebisuzawa, the mature Miki Naoki, the supervising teacher Megumi Sakura, and club dog Taroumaru, the club prides itself on making the most of life at school. There is only one rule the club members have to follow: all members must live their entire lives within school grounds.

[Admin: I didn’t notice it while screening the submissions, but the submitter’s original trailer and tagline contained MAJOR spoilers for episode 1. Luckily, I’ve watched this show before, so I can edit it safely.]

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#J4: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

Propaganda 1:

Imagine characters from Arabian Nights/1001 Nights coming to life in an anime. Even though it is loosely inspired off of the tales, it is a unique time and place from most anime settings. It has action, humor, and deep concepts. One of my favorite parts about Magi is how well-developed the background characters are.

Propaganda 2:

This anime has a lot of philosophical takes on what fate is. Basically, is everything that happened to you caused by a force you can’t control or is it what you make of it? Is there something or rather someone pulling the strings on what should or shouldn’t be? Is the person you are because you were lucky or unlucky to be born in the wealthy family or not? Why are things the way they are? Why was I dealt with a shitty hand in life? Is it because I’ll never amount to anything, or is something doing this to me? Why are we here just to suffer kind of deal, but you know not the meme version, the really sad and real version. Then you have the side of the people who may have not had the best life, but found a way out of it. Why do some people get to feel the light when you went through the same thing, but still lost and in the dark?

Trigger Warnings: Partial nudity and slavery. One of the mains is a slave in the beginning, but the other two mains help free her from that.

#J5: School-Live! (Gakkougurashi!)

[Admin: The official trailer spoils ep1, so here, have the opening instead.]

Propaganda:

If you like Madoka Magica, you’ll 100% like this series. It’s hard to explain without spoilers, but it has a huge plot twist in the first episode. The anime is a short one with only 12 episodes, but it has an amazing manga as well! It mixes a cute slice of life high school anime with a darker plot, and it’s handled so well. It doesn’t seem like it’s just dark for the sake of being edgy like some other similar series. It covers topics like mental health and grief well, and it has as happy of an ending as possible for a series like this. The plot twists were executed so well, and I was sobbing by the end of the series.

Trigger Warnings: Animal Cruelty or Death, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Derealization.

[Admin: I had to remove the submitter’s explanations for the TWs because it will spoil the show greatly. You're on your own now. Proceed at your own risk.]

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

[dwcmarshalarts]

more questions!

Why is major vespira’s uniform slightly different to that of the rest of the navy when it’s been shown before that naval marines dress the same as sailors (that piece showing off the marines & terizikan ground forces) and is it just an accidental oversight or similar to how USMC officers have different uniforms than enlisted marines?

2. It’s really weird to say “can I be your friend” however I was wondering what your thoughts were on more casual world-building discussion were, because you have inspired me with some aspects, like the civil war piece you made regarding how quickly the fancy parade uniforms of the us army went downhill during the civil war & the realities of who’d actually be wearing it, and it’d be great to have a kinda forum you’d be okay with to discuss various ideas and topics, especially because I’ve recently been trying to get into civil war related mythos, especially with the union

3. Damek critou, as far as I know dames is a character owned by another person yet is the main character of one of your side stories? if so that’s cool and I’d love to hear how that came about, aswell as I’d love to hear a little bit more about what’s actually happening in that story, as I’ve gotten the basic premise of cute traumatised lil blue fox gets whisked away by a dashing rebel officer after getting bored of Rafans 6am meetings (not exactly but that’s the gist of it I presume :pp)

4. Not really a question, but I sent a few more asks in but accidentally turned on incognito, one of them was about your characters (Xever’s unit) and what they were like to interact with as people, in a civilian and military setting with subordinates and strangers (because asking if they accepts hugs is kinda boring) because they all seem pretty interesting (also who’s the lieutenant? :pp)

1. Naval Marines and Voidmen (non-Marine soldiers on the Circuit’s ships) do have the same fatigues, but they don’t dress the same overall. The NM are a unique subdivision of the Navy which have their own internal command structure, they just happen to share some resources, and ultimately answer to their Naval Commanders- most often the folks in charge of their ship or squadron. As such, NM get their own dress uniforms.

2. My take on worldbuilding generally is that I think it is a fundamental aspect of writing stories, and I’m thankful that as of the recent couple years, plenty of people are interested in jumping aboard and doing their own. That said, I think there is a tendency with “going too far” into it, and people get very lost in the sauce. I used to be the consummate worldbuilder back when I was working on my In the Red series, but after a while I kind of noticed that a lot of the world-building that I was doing at the time was just a rote regurgitation of what I knew about real world history. This was also a trend with a lot of what I was seeing from contemporaries, no shade meant, but that was just what I was seeing. I stopped, as a result, and spent a while focusing mainly on the characters in my other series, which would become the flagship “Percivals” stories. I would only really start worldbuilding again after I had a clear idea for the character development and arcs, as well as how they, in conjunction to the world around us, would be relatable to a reader. That way, I could pull not from the rote history, but from what *drives* developments.

Not to mention, I’ve begun growing a little less patient with the worldbuilding-forward story aspects, as it can end up making a story feel less “real” or “lived in,” and break some of the immersion. A good worldbuild is one where you don’t think about the worldbuild. There’s this great line about dialogue in films where characters shouldn’t state information that they should already know, just because the audience needs to be let in on some exposition. This is true about worldbuilding as well. Take from our real world too: how often do people think about the Seven Year’s War? How many people drive past the Winfield Scott Hancock statue in Washington DC and consciously thinking about his role in commanding US Forces at Gettysburg? How many people think about the makeup of a fleet of ships-of-the-line when they pass by Nelson’s Column? The answer is- most people don’t even think about it. They don’t bat an eye and keep going about their lives- and- yes, these historical events have shaped the course of history. But more goes on than just those big events- I haven’t even mentioned mundane, bureaucratic processes that reshape neighborhoods, or public constructions that alter a landscape. Oftentimes, those things get overlooked for flashy, “historical” events, when in many cases, boring legislation or changes in regulation end up being far more wide reaching in scope, both in their immediate effect, and later down the line.

The truth behind the matter is that the key to good, “lived in” worldbuilding is restraint. Restraint of putting everything out there, restraint of not giving every single detail to a reader/viewer. Yes, worldbuild, yes, write about the logistics system in x nation, but have the restraint to keep it in the background as yet another mundane thing. Once you treat a world as having been naturally evolved as opposed to artificially developed, with highlights and whatnot, that’ll be when it’ll feel properly lived in.

As for any further discussion- I’m a little busy a lot of the time haha. If you have any more questions, I can always answer them, or get around to answering them through my inbox. Thank you for your interest!

3. I’ve known Damek for a little bit, and as we’re both interested in sci fi, we’ve had conversations about theoretical placement of his character in the Percivals for a bit. I did a piece for him a while ago that was a commission and I set that in-universe. As an idea, it was kind of just sitting there for a while. In the mean time, I had started another stand-alone story with Ezo (another person’s character who I’m chill with) and built up the antagonist for that story, an ICC Admiral Rafan Spex. Back then, he was a mustache-twirling villain who was unambiguously sinister. Andor, the Star Wars show, did a lot to give me an idea for what Critou could be like. After doing some thinking, I rewrote the Spex character, and connected it to Damek to bridge the two stories, and serve as the basis for a three-arc, eleven chapter story. I’ve written the synopses for every chapter except 11, but I won’t be releasing that widely any time soon to avoid overt spoilers.

4. The officers in Xever’s unit are pretty chill, for the most part. Maybe with the exception of Wynn. Now, I’ll admit, this is a pretty broad question, and one that I wouldn’t be able to reasonably or concisely answer in a single post, but I’ll go over Xever to start with. Xever has had a very rigid, and turbulent upbringing. His father was, for most of his crucial, developing years, a broken man with dead career prospects whose own father was also harsh and austere military patriarch. Xever only really ever connected with his brother, whose death early on in his military career robbed him of companionship, and turned his mother into a fish-out-of-water shut-in, too hurt by the loss to be too active. Despite Xever finding some peace with Tycho for a short while, Xever’s lack of broader social interaction made him socially awkward, ripe for bullying during the Academy. His interests, mainly music and introspective, vulnerable ideas were simply not the same as his peers, and that along with being gay, compounded his insecurities. He’d eventually get through the Academy (not without hiccups) but as he quickly rose through the ranks (largely by family connections), he was still largely socially awkward and masked that by talking to his coworkers in Ground Forces with very by-the-book, stock-standard speech. He’d been to explore himself more off-work, especially in the company of Tycho, and be more loose, particularly in areas where his father would be unlikely to know about. This would have made him more sociable and chill in the long run, but due to events in the story, that would be cut short.

Knowing this, we can tell a couple things: without support from others, or the comfort of well-rehearsed, by the book answers, Xever can be quite socially awkward, both to professional comrades and civilians.

Good question though, I’ll likely make more structured, separate posts about the other characters in time! Likely next will be about Ewan Figes, followed by Tycho, then Wynn, Rodriguez, and Dyer.

[tremendum]

I love love LOVE the way you writte. Can you give us some tips for writting good smut? It's been years I read fics (I'm 23 now, may as well have started when I was 14) and its rare to find good stuff like yours

thank you bb !! id be happy to give you some of the tips i consider when writing :) ur too kind i appreciate it so much <3 tips below the cut & please feel free to add on!

dialogue is your friend. dialogue keeps readers interested and is a great way to make a story unique!!!! i alwaysssss start smuts by bulleting certain bits of dialogue that i want to see in my fics. it helps with keeping your characters in character if that makes sense.

i honestly tend to use personal experiences for a lot of writing especially with smut, whether it’s bits of dialogue or things that i’ve actually experienced, so that i can recall the way i reacted (and imagine how someone else may react). it just makes the writing much more authentic.

going along with the aforementioned, i always try to think about how i’d really react to dialogue or a certain scenario and use that to apply it to my fic so that it’s not robotic - this goes for plots, too. try to make it at least somewhat realistic!

ok so songs help so much with mood setting. so if you find some songs that you resonate with, listen to them and pull inspiration from the lyrics/music/ feelings you get!! i promise you will not b disappointed and neither will readers

this is just a writing thing that i was always told but SHOW don’t TELL! that means for smut too - just stating something sexual is not nearly as pleasant as describing emotions or sensations or using metaphors/similes to show what is happening. paint a picture. make a movie. how does their body react? breathing/hands/face/voice? heart?

following off my last point. scene building: honestly, this is probably more of a fault of mine bc my smuts are never less than 3k but i genuinely believe that the best way to write good smut is to build the world (what do they see, what do they feel, smell, what time of day/weather, what’s their mood, etc.) and make sure there’s enough room for imagination for your readers while creating the setting.

i also try my very hardest (and still need to work on it) to avoid specific physical descriptions of the reader if it’s a self insert. this is obviously for inclusivity - small things like wording, phrasing, all small things a writer may not think about (like describing a reader as turning red - not all people turn red over their skin color when they blush!!!) this also imo is good for clothing bc not only is everyone’s style different but also everyone’s body is built different and it’s easier to include everyone if you avoid specific descriptions :) it’s hard to do because i often picture someone similar to me (as i’ve mentioned above) but not everybody looks like me and it’s very important to make sure everyone has equal access to all your beautiful writing!!

also PLS PLS i encourage readers and writers and lurkers to expand on any of these ideas and please leave me some tips!! i’m always looking to improve my writing :)

[project-wildcard]

My inspirations!

My biggest inspiration, by far, is Just Roll With It. It's a TTRPG podcast that is just so good at every aspect of story telling! Every single campaign they've done I've cried out of some kind of emotion that they make me feel. The characters are all incredible! Gillion Tidestrider is probably my favourite and everyone after that is just a close second and they're all tied with each other because they're all so amazing in their own ways.

Wildcard specifically was actually inspired most The Trickster from Prime Defenders. The story of exactly how that came to happen is a little silly and for another time. You'd think with the multiple forms and changing personality gimmick that I'd have been most inspired by Vyncent and yes there's a lot of similarities but I want to make the distinction here and now that every form Wildcard takes is still Charlie at heart. They do not become a completely different person, it just changes the way their emotions work. At their core it's still the same person.

Thank you Mutants and Masterminds for being the system I used to create Wildcard's character sheet back when I was in denial and thought I'd just play them as a character in a campaign despite having no friends available at the time to DM such a campaign. I also use those character sheets to get a good idea of building and balancing all the heroes and villains in the world (although there will be plenty of leniency based on what I think is cool and fits the story).

I've also, definitely taken a lot of inspiration from the Spiderverse films, which might come across more once the first part of the story is released. Those movies are perfection the characters are incredible the story they're telling is innovative and fresh while still falling into the feeling of a Spiderman story. I love Gwen I love Miles I love Pav I love Mayday I love Peter I love the Spot I love Miguel and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hobie! One of the characters in my story that I'm yet to speak about yet is very similar to Hobie and I'm so excited and I love the parallels and as I write them I'm definitely gonna be pulling so much from Spiderverse Hobie's personality. Spiderman in general (most versions of them) is my favourite superhero so there will probably be a lot in my head that I don't recognise I'm taking from Spider people stories but I'm just gonna make the sweeping statement now that there will likely be similarities. I will not, however, be going into multiverse or time travel stories, at least not in the main canon story, maybe I'll do a weird little "what if" after I finish telling my story where a "balanced" and fused Wildcard meets a "corrupted" and vibrant Wildcard.

Shout-out to Marvel in general, comics and movies, I've seen a lot of that stuff so again, it'll probably just leak in without me realising.

This helps me when I'm struggling to let myself write

Finally, a big thank you to all my friends who encourage/enable (in the bad way) me. I am on my shit and my shit is telling an intricate story that I am very passionate about with characters who I love and care for. Namely, all 3 of my friends on that one discord server where I first infodumped about Wildcard, Hazel, for helping me build the character sheet and helping me come up with names and also letting me info dump to you, and Mimi, for basically the same reasons as Hazel, as well as being the first person I made a superhero story for (we did an introductory session of DnD in a superhero setting. Her character will be making a cameo at some point most likely). Also everyone who's tried to help me learn how to draw because I'm not gonna lie, my only motivation there was drawing characters for this story.

[tkwrites]

I had come across some of your snapshots randomly but have now found your masterlist and omg 😍 you are so talented ❤️

I love how you incorporate high amounts of emotion and have some real serious pieces 🥹

How do you figure out what to write next? And how do you manage to upload such high quality content? Do you dot point how you want the storyline to go before you start and then go back to add in all the little details or do you just let your beautiful brain flow and it comes together?

I use to write a lot when I was younger but get way too stuck in my own head and struggle to fix it once I'm not sure. Idk if that makes sense? Do you ever get your friends to read over it and give feedback? I feel like a burden asking them to read over it, especially larger pieces. Do you ever feel you need others input first? Any tips on how to feel more confident in my own writing? 🩷

First of all, ­😭

What a gift of a note this is! It came through and I nearly burst into tears. Thank you for your very kind words. 

I've always been fascinated with how people feel and relate to each other - it's the main reason I started writing - so that highly emotional content comes from that, I think. I'm so glad others enjoy it, too.

I've answered your questions about writing below as I don't want to take over anyone's feed and this got REAL long real fast. 

Because I write this series out of order, I just keep ideas open all the time. I currently have 21 Sanpshots in progress. Some of those will be sunk into each other, but as of right now, there are 21 ideas. I basically write what I feel inspired to, and what gets published next is usually what’s been pulling most of my attention. 

The quality content thing is interesting because I don’t always think all the Snapshots are high quality. I felt really nervous about Before I meet your Parents, I’ll be proud for you, and Sarah meets the parents, and I was convinced all three would flop when I published them. Are they my strongest works? Certainly not. Are they well liked? It seems so. So it just goes to show that we’re all our own worst critic. 

That said, I have been writing for a long time and understand my style (for the most part), so that makes it easier to trust my own writing. I did an exercise about 8 years ago where I kept a blog in which I wrote or edited 1,000 words of fiction 6 days a week for a year. This was a bit of an extreme exercise and won’t be for everyone, but I credit that, more than anything else, to the improvement in my writing. Practice makes perfect, even in the realm of the arts. And if you can practice every day, that’s even better. 

Generally, I’m working on 3 or 4 Snapshots at a time, but they rotate pretty consistently. When I’m near finishing one, I will concentrate on that one for a week or two, however long it takes to get it written and up to standard. 

Most Snapshots and other fics start with an idea. Some start with the beginnings of a scene. Shoot the Moon, for example, started because I wanted to write a more realistic sex scene that included 2 elements: 1. “I don't care if you swallow. I don't really even mind not coming in your mouth, that was just a heat of the moment thing. Thanks for letting me anyway.” And 2. “I want you so bad,” he whimpered, “but I’m so tired, I don't think I can keep it up.” 

So I usually start with an idea and then build around it. Eventually, a loose plot comes into focus, and I’ll concentrate on that for a while. Every once in a while, when I feel really stuck with a piece, I won’t necessarily write down a plot, but I will write down actions that need to happen in order to move the story forward. Some details come as I’m writing, and some are added later. Word smithing takes more time, so that usually, but not always, comes after the plot is established, and I can concentrate on the writing itself. 

It’s so easy to get stuck in your own head. Writing every day can help with that. Also, I’ve had to fight to get to a point where I realized I’m writing mostly for myself and a little bit for everyone else. If you love it, there’s a big chance someone else will, too. That said, I still get stuck in my own head sometimes, and it’s something you just have to learn to push through. Usually, if you keep writing, it will sort itself out. Other times, if you give it space and come back to it, the way to fix it will sometimes jump out. 

I do ask friends for help and feedback! In fact, I had someone read over the girlfriend scene in Good For You because the first iteration of it was very, very flat. I knew it was, but didn’t know how to fix it. She read it over and gave me a few suggestions that really helped. 

I’ve found that I think I’m far more of a burden than my friends ever feel like I am. Usually when I ask, friends are happy to read through my writing. After a while, you’ll discover who gives good feedback and who doesn’t. And unless your friends are telling you that they’re too busy, or they don’t want to read your work, they’re likely not feeling that it’s a burden. It’s their responsibility to tell you if they’re upset or burdened. If they’re not telling you that, it’s likely that they’re not feeling that way. That was one of the hardest but most valuable lessons I’ve learned in therapy. 

Sometimes, I need feedback, and sometimes I don’t. I usually need it if I find I’m writing myself in circles, or something feels off, but I can’t pinpoint why exactly. 

I always read my writing out loud to myself. It’s very easy to pinpoint stuff that’s off or not natural or out of rhythm when you hear it out loud.

The best advice I can give is to write and then write some more. The more you practice, the better you’ll become. They say you have to write 1,000,000 words before you’ll write your first real one, and I think that holds true. As you spend more time writing, you’ll find your style and find your rhythm, and learn to trust yourself a little more. 

I hope this helps. I’m sorry it got to be so, so, so long! 

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.161 thoughts

[Enter the Dragon]

Tozuka, when I asked for “falling action” I didn’t mean the action of falling that we saw last week, I meant a moment to reflect on the events of the preceding arc. I really want an opportunity for Phil to interact with the group outside of the moments of tension, where we can see what kind of person he usually is and the life he usually leads. I’m sure we’ll get that sooner or later, I’m just a little sad that we’re jumping straight into the next arc

HOWEVER!!! This next arc is immediately shaping up to be a very exciting one!!! As you may have seen in the tag, folks are super excited to see the return of Shen, and to top it off, Mei is alive in this timeline!! I’m not entirely sure, but she seems to be older! She looks to be drawn about the same height and build as Fuuko, suggesting that she’s somewhere between 15 and 18 if I had to estimate. I guessed several reviews ago that Shen’s backstory likely happened in 2003 with him being about 13 so that he’d be 30 in 2020, but since his age was never established, he could feasibly be any age, probably pushing 40 if he’s around 18 in 1999. I guess he could have been born early this time, but I’m always hesitant to make that guess

The real significance to Mei being older here, though, is what it means for Shen’s backstory: SHEN DIDN’T DROP HER!!! Feng never pitted Shen and Mei against each other, he never pushed Mei over the cliff, and Shen never got Mei killed with Untruth! Not to say that they won’t end up in that scenario during this arc, but the two of them got to actually grow up together, and it’s all thanks to Fuuko!

Fuuko becoming the object of Feng’s obsession has led to him completely changing his interactions with Shen, though to what extent we can only guess for now. We know he still plans to kill Shen to prove to Fuuko that he’s stronger, but he still needs to raise him to become strong enough that doing so holds meaning. I can’t imagine that they’re on necessarily better terms, but at least murderous revenge isn’t on the table this time

Mei says that Shen needs to be saved, presumably from himself if I had to guess. I figure he’s gotten obsessed with being the strongest for some other reason than avenging Mei this time, and he’s pushing himself to a dangerous degree. Maybe it has something to do with Mui, this time? She’s almost definitely going to be coming into play during this arc (if for no other reason than convenience) so having her be a key player in Shen’s new backstory would be a helpful way to reintroduce her to the current loop

Fuuko’s fight with Mei also served as a great appetizer for this upcoming tournament arc, with Fuuko showing off a new Unluck technique! Using her long hair, she wraps it around her arms as bracers while also forming blades that should look familiar to everyone! They’re almost identical to Andy’s Dead Blades, further demonstrating not only Fuuko’s growth, but Andy’s continued influence on her! Makes me excited to see how Undead has evolved over the last four billion years, likely with some inspiration from Andy’s desire to see Fuuko

Jumping forward to the tournament, LOOK AT THOSE OUTFITS!!! Fuuko and Yusai really pull off those uniforms, and for some reason, I’m really liking how Billy looks. Maybe it’s wearing the jacket as a cape, maybe it’s that big ol’ smile, or maybe it’s because I’ve always had a bit of a thing for that style of pants, but that’s a good lookin’ man right there

Feng’s expression when he sees Fuuko is also pretty fun. I know it’s a self-indulgent read, but there’s...a weird sense of romanticism to anyone being that excited to see another person. I guess this is the feeling people get with hateships? Or yanderes? ...Huh, Fuuko pairs really easily with people whose appearances belie their ages, doesn’t she? Andy, Gina, Feng...wonder what’s gonna happen with Ruin...

As for how this arc is going to go, I’m hoping we get to have a little bit of time with Yusai specifically, as I feel like we haven’t gotten nearly enough development for her. Honestly, since she was the elderly master type like Feng previously, I can see her having a good rapport with Feng

Before I finish up, I want to just touch on the little details real quick, as I am wont to do

I’m glad to see that even without his sense of taste (I assume), Phil is able to eat thanks to Entruster. Wasn’t as much of a downside as it was presented to be, I guess!

Sean closing his eyes when he smiles turned him invisible. It’s always fun to see Tozuka pay attention to that, I’d probably end up forgetting half the time if it were me

Continuing Tozuka’s love of Gundam, the announcer for the tournament is a pastiche of the announcer from G Gundam, right down to the eyepatch and mustache

...Where did Gina get a smartphone in 1999?

While I’ve obviously been loving every arc in this loop (and every arc prior), I think this might be the most excited that the first chapter of an arc has gotten me for what’s to come since chapter 1! I anticipate it won’t actually be a tournament arc, but Negator vs. Negator is always the most fun match-up type for me personally, so any battles we get here are sure to be great! See y’all next week!

[sassyduckqueen]

Miraculous: Rise of Anatis 74

I'm back!!!

Ok so chronically this is set just before Pumpkin King. I was intending to release it around Halloween but things didn't work out that way and I lost inspiration for a while. All the crap that is season 5 was putting me off because frankly it sounds so bad, I can't even deal with it. Luckily, inspiration came back and with good timing too as I heard about the spoilers for the end of season 5. I don't know all of them but from what I've seen it's going to be terrible so have some Anatis to cheer you all up. Also we're got some build up and new character kind of. Regarding Felix Sr, I did intend for him to simply be an Easter egg but this is also me we're talking about. Of course, it wasn't going to stay that way. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and fair warning. This is probably going to the last 'light' chapter for a while as we are going to be dealing with some dark stuff. Truth, Lies and Gang of Secrets are coming up but we also have Trio of Terror which is next, Assassin Bee and a chapter which is going to change everything for our heroes but I'm not gonna tell you who the villain of that one is. Get ready for one hell of a ride.

Also!!! I hope everyone have had good holidays and are looking forward to the new year!!

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

Chapter Seventy-Four: Party Crasher

~Outside Agreste Manor~

 The young man stood outside of Agreste Manor, repeatedly ringing the doorbell but getting no answer. His expression fell as he listened to the sound of people laughing and music playing. Why was he excluded? He was a friend of Adrien's right. Sure, he was his biggest fan and had a habit of getting excited in front of him but he had his number and email. He traded messages with him and tried to treat him with respect so why wasn't he invited? Did Adrien feel deep down that he was only a fan and not a friend? He frowned and took out his phone, dialling Adrien's number. It rang several times but no one answered.

 "This is Adrien's voicemail," Adrien's voice declared, mocking his pain. "Leave a message,"

 He hung up and looked up at the manor with tears in his eyes. 

 "Not only are you allowed to have friends over but apparently a huge party is no big deal either," He declared, looking down. "Why did you lie to me, Adrien?"

 A single tear rolled down his cheek as the scene flashed like a broken tv, changing to a new one. This time, an akuma dressed in silver seventies dance gear kicked down the door of Agreste manor and began to attack people, absolving them into his disco balls. A number of them got away including Adrien but he was relentless, chasing after them. Luckily, Anatis and Lady Noir turned up, causing him to focus his attention on them. The three engaged in a battle, dodging each other's moves but somehow he was able to predict their moves. He kicked Lady Noir to the curb and went to absorb her but Anatis pulled her out of the way with his yoyo. However, the akuma fired at them, causing them to jump from where they were. Just as Anatis landed, the akuma hit him with his disco ball, absorbing him. Lady Noir cried out in shock but before she could work out what to do next, the akuma turned on her, relentless attacking her and forcing her to fight. She tried her best to fend him off but he was predicting her every move. It was obvious she needed backup as the scene once again flashed, changing once more. This time, Lady Noir was trying to catch her breathe as the akuma smirked at her.

 "You can't beat me, Kitty cat," He declared as she tried to hold her ground. "I can read your every dance step and you're all alone,"

 "She's not alone!" A second voice declared as the turtle hero Leatherback jumped down with Aspik and Valkyrie. Lady Noir couldn't help the smile that came on her face. "Don't worry, Lady Noir. We've got your back. Aspik!"

 "Second chance!" Aspik declared as the butterfly mask appeared around the akuma's eyes. Up in the rooftops, Apollo lifted his bow and arrow, pointing it at the akuma as the mask disappeared.

 "Flar-" He started but before he could activate his power, the akuma fired at him and absorbed him. Aspik flicked back the bracelet and went to throw his lyre at the villain but got absorbed and then the villain absorbed both Apollo and his arrow as well as Valkyrie. Leatherback then tried to protect Lady Noir with his shelter but like the others, he was taken out as well, leaving Lady Noir alone. Before the villain could attack her, Dame managed to knock him back and turned to Lady Noir.

 "Get ou-" She didn't even finish her sentence before he absorbed her. Lady Noir backed away as ashes surrounded the area but the akuma slammed his fist towards the right side, absorbing Phenix too. Once again, Lady Noir was the last one standing and this time she didn't last much longer...

 Felix Sr jolted awake with a startle, just as Lady Noir was absorbed by the akuma's power in his dream. He sucked in his breath as sweat dripped down his forehead and Bridgette made a noise, causing him to look over in fear. However, his eyes softened upon seeing her, cuddling to the plushie she insisted on having in their bed. He smiled a little and dropped a kiss on her hair before getting up and going over to their bathroom, glancing at the clock as he did. He regretted it instantly as it was 3.31am. That explained the dream. He shook his head and turned on the light, running the tap and washing his face.

 "Damn witching hour," He muttered, grabbing his towel and drying his face. "Stupid dreams,"

 He walked back into his room and sat on the bed, covering his face with his hand. He needed to do something about these dreams. He's had the same one for the last four days at the exact same time of 3.31am. He groaned as he thought about it. It was clearly an akuma and clearly Anatis and Lady Noir were going to lose but he knew they couldn't afford to lose. If Hawkmoth got their miraculous, it would be the end of the world. He knew what that wish did. He knew how dangerous it was but he swore he was done with this stuff. He didn't want to get involved. He shook his head and went back to bed, closing his eyes. However, the next moment he opened them, his location had changed. He was in the office and the clock read 3.31pm. His assistant manager was looking at him with concern. 

 "Sir, are you ok?" She asked, making him look at her. She honestly looked terrified. Looking down at the paper on the desk and the pen in his hand, he could see why."You zoned out and started to write like you were possessed,"

 He ignored her and picked up the paper, frowning as he looked at the drawing of the akuma smiling like he had won the lottery. This was getting worse. He may need to talk to a therapist again or take something to repress it. He got up and threw the paper away before walking out of the room, ignoring his assistant manager's concerned look. As he walked, he blinked and found himself once again, waking up from his nightmare at 3.31am again. He groaned and blinked. Another day in the office with the same drawing haunting him. Another blink. Back to the dream. Another and back to the office.

 "FINE!" He shouted after waking up from the dream again, causing Bridgette to jolt awake. "Fine! I'll help them ok?!"

 "Felix?" She asked, causing him to look over as she sat up. "Are you ok?"

 "No," He answered, making her frown and wrapping her arms around his torso. "The dreams are back,"

 "What did they show this time?" She asked, placing a gentle kiss on his shoulder.

 "The heroes falling to a new akuma," He replied, making her frown. "I can't stop that,"

 "But can you change the outcome?" She asked, making him sigh. 

 "Maybe," He replied, turning to her. "But I'll have to go see her,"

 "Want me to come with you?" She asked but he shook his head. "Ok but if you change your mind, just call me,"

 "Thank you," He whispered, climbing back into bed and hugging her. She ran her fingers through his hair, soothing him. "I'll call into the office today and go find her in the park,"

 "Tell her that I say hi," She replied, causing him to nod before they both drifted to sleep. A few hours later, Felix was walking towards the park, thinking about the events that were to come. He hated his dreams because he couldn't change the events that were shown in them. He tried but it never worked. He could only change the outcome which might sound like the same thing but it wasn't. If someone was meant to die, they would die but that doesn't mean that someone had to see it. In this case, the heroes would be captured regardless of what he did but that didn't mean Hawkmoth had to win. He could change that. He just didn't know how yet. He came to a stop as he saw an older woman sat feeding the birds and humming to herself. She had her grey hair tied in a bun and wore a yellow dress with a brown jacket. She glanced up with green eyes as he walked over.

 "Felix Culpa," She smiled as he sat next to you. "It's been a while,"

 "Grand Witch of London," He stated, making her smile. "I'm afraid this isn't a social call,"

 "Oh?"

 "Do you still have what I gave to you three years ago?" He asked, looking straight ahead. She pursed her lips and nodded. "Good. I need it back,"

 "Are you sure?" She asked. "You swore you were done with magic and miraculous when you entrusted it to me,"

 "Well, I was but my dreams are back, Marianne," He stated, looking at her. "And the universe keeps on bugging me,"

 "I see. Does this mean you'll also be taking back your official title again?" She asked, making him but he nodded nevertheless. She nodded as well before pulling out her purse and opening it. "Well, then it's lucky for you that I had a feeling that I should bring this with me,"

 She pulled out a collar brooch shaped like two black wings before handing it back to Felix Sr. 

 "Good luck, Felix,"

 ~A couple of Days later in Gabriel's office~

 "Is everything going according to plan, Natalie?" Gabriel asked as he held the phone to his ear. Nathalie was driving 'him' to the airport for Tokyo's fashion weekend but in reality, he was using the peace and quiet to harvest his akumas and study the grimoire with Su Han. Of course, he still had to appear at the actual fashion day but luckily, he had already got a plan for that. As usual, he would appear in tablet form. The whole thing with him in the car was really just keeping up appearances but anyone who knew him knew he wouldn't actually appear in person. 

 "Yes. Enroute to the airport, Sir," Natalie confirmed, dragging him out of his thoughts. "You will officially be spending the entire weekend in Tokyo. No one will ever suspect that you stayed home. Just don't forget to pick up when it comes to the gala,"

 "Perfect and I know," He replied before hanging up and walking over to the painting of Emile. He pressed the buttons in, activating the floor platform before it took him down to his butterfly garden. Nooroo flew out of his pocket and floated next to him. As soon as the lift door opened, he strolled across to Emilie's coffin and stood in front of it with Nooroo following him. "Emilie, we miss you so much but you'll be back with us very soon. Thanks to my akumas and my new mentor, it's only a matter of time before I take control of their miraculous. Merging them will give me absolute power to reshape reality and finally erase our past mistake,"

 "As long as you keep your side of the deal," Su Han's voice echoed as shadows moved around the room, making Gabriel frown. Of course, he had no intention of keeping his side of the deal but Su Han nor his creepy little pet needed to know that. "You've seen what happens to those who fail or betray us,"

 "Of course, I will honour my side," He lied, putting on a brave face as he turned around. He had no intention of ending up the same way as that fool Xavier. "But perhaps your beast should restrain it's hunger for now,"

 And why should I do that? An echo-like voice replied, sending shivers down Gabriel's spine as the shadows moved around, constricting around his neck. Or maybe I should devour your soul too...

 "Do that and I guarantee you won't find the mage," He replied, calmly as the shadowy snake hissed near his ear. "After all, once I have the miraculous in my grasp, we make the heroes talk and reveal who their guardian is and in turn, he will lead us to the mage then you can feast as much as your black heart desires,"

 "Simme, enough," Su Han ordered, causing the spirit to glare at him with crimson eyes but it pulled away from Gabriel and slithered over to the window. “We’ll be having a meeting with the rest tomorrow but for now let’s continue your training,”

 You two have no sense of humour but I digress... It hissed, climbing up the wall as both Gabriel and Su Han rose an eyebrow. I'm off. Have fun with your boring lessons and butterfly pickings...

 Just as the shadow slid out of the window, a number of butterflies fluttered around.

 "They're ready," Gabriel grinned before turning to Nooroo. "Time to Harvest,"

 ~The Next Day Outside of Agreste Manor~

 "I can't believe Adrien actually decided to throw a party for Halloween. I'm so proud of him," Chloe gasped, pressing her hand against her heart as she pretended to wipe a tear from her eye before grinning. Marinette and Luka chuckled as they walked with her to the party. Alya had to babysit her sisters so sadly she couldn't come along at that moment but promised to be by later on. Luckily, Nino and the rest of the gang were there to keep him entertained as well as Kagami. Zoe was also coming along. They were originally going to come dressed up but Adrien asked them not to. He also only wanted a small number of people there but progress was still being made. Luka was still proud of how far he had come. "Admittedly it's a bit early since it's half way through October but needs must and all! I'm still proud of him!"

 "Me too!" Marinette declared, smiling as she held Luka's hand. "I just hope nothing goes wrong,"

 "Well, we have the Gorilla on our side," Chloe grinned. "Even Nathalie went behind Gabriel's back and gave Adrien some suggestions on how to make sure the house looked perfect once we're done,"

 "Wow, I didn't expect that from her," Luka replied as they came to the gate of the mansion. They rang the doorbell and soon they were inside, hanging with Adrien. Luka couldn't help but smile as he listened to the music of the room. Normally it was an extremely sombre feeling that came from the manor and while it was still there, it wasn't the dominant song. Right now, a song of joy and fun was playing. Adrien was sitting chatting with his friends, visibly relaxed as Kagami stroked his hair. Nino and Max were playing with music and the girls were playing some pool. The Gorilla had ordered Pizza and not long after it arrived, Alya arrived as well, finally free from babysitting.

 "So what did I miss?" She grinned, grabbing a slice of pizza. "And why is this music so quiet?"

 "Ah that would be the sound control," Adrien replied, making her frown. "And not much. Lila attempted to come by but the Gorilla told her I was busy with my Chinese lessons so she wouldn't be able to tell Father what I'm actually doing,"

 "Urg typical Lila," Alya rolled her eyes as Max sat at the computer.

 "Well, we can't fix her but I can easily fix this volume," He replied, typing as Adrien gasped. "Don't worry it won't be too loud, Adrien. Marvok, care to assist,"

 "Of course, Max," Marvok replied, flying over as Max typed before plugging himself in as Adrien watched with fascination. "I just need to hook into the home's electrical panel,"

 "And we're in," Max grinned as the system appeared before he pushed up his glasses and began to read it. "Whoa,"

 "What?" Adrien asked, looking over. Max turned round and glanced towards him.

 "Your house's power supply is insane," He grinned, causing Luka to look over as Adrien got up and looked over. "This could compete with a nuclear power station,"

 "For real?" Nino asked, making Luka more curious. Why did Agreste manor have such a power supply? He got up and walked over as Max typed.

 "And a lot of it is being redirected somewhere," Max replied, making him frown as he looked over. He didn't understand any of it. "That is odd,"

 "I'm not surprised," A new voice stated, causing them to look over before Adrien broke into a massive grin as he rushed over to Felix who was stood by the door. He hugged him, causing him to pat him on the back before he walked over to Max. "Uncle always had to have the biggest and best things. Chances are that energy is going to some weird fashion device that he just had to buy,"

 "Sounds about right for Gabriel," Another voice replied, causing Adrien to look back. Felix Sr was stood leaning against the door, looking moody as usual as the kids looked over at him, unsure if they should continue with the party. "Oh, don't let my presence stop you from having fun. Adrien, rebelling against your father hm? I'm so proud of you,"

 "Thanks, Uncle Felix," He grinned, causing him to walk over and ruffle his hair. "I didn't expect you to visit though,"

 "If your father was here, I clearly wouldn't be," He replied, making Adrien. "But Felix happened to inform me that my dearest brother in law is out of the country at the moment and suggested I come by to spend some time with my nephew since I never get a chance too,"

 "I'm so glad!" Adrien grinned, hugging him. Felix Sr seemed taken back by it but patted his back nevertheless. "I wish Father hadn't banned you from the house,"

 "Well, that's Gabriel for you," He replied. "Ever so melodramatic,"

 "Hang on!" Nino declared, making him look at him. "You're both called Felix?!"

 "Yes," Felix Jr replied. "Family tradition,"

 "It is believed that good luck comes to our family if the first born son is named Felix," Felix Sr replied, making the kids nod. "But since there's two of us, you can refer to me as Lex. It's the nickname I go by. Though I don't want to interrupt your party so I'll go chat with Anton," 

 He turned on his heel and headed to the door.

 "Of course, I would advise you not to post about this on social media," He stated, making everyone blink. "I'd hate for Gabriel's house to get trashed but then again, you can't really call this a party now,"

 With that, he left, causing the kids to blink as Felix typed away on his phone.

 "And send," He stated, making everyone look at him. "What?"

 "Did you just post about the party on social media?" Adrien asked, a little panicked.

 "Uncle's idea," Felix replied, smirking. "Besides, your old man isn't here and as long as we clear up, he'll never know so let your hair down for once and have some fun. Also I said it was my party, not yours. That way Uncle can't get mad at you,"

 "Felix..." Adrien replied before grinning. "You're the best!"

 "Yes, well someone needs to liven this party up," Felix muttered but he had a smile on his face and soon enough, the small gathering had turned into a full blown party with practically all of Paris' famous there. Luka smiled to himself as he sat next to Jagged on Adrien's piano as he played his guitar with his dad. It was perfect. Adrien looked really happy to have his friends around, Marinette was goofing around with Juleka and the rest of the girls while trying to get Felix and Kagami to join them in their dance. Even Felix Sr had also come back in and had started chatting with Anarka. Seeing an opportunity to share how proud of Luka he was, Jagged stopped playing the piano and asked Max to take over the music before joining in with the conversation. Despite the conversation and the clearly happy atmosphere, Luka couldn't help but noticed that Felix Sr seemed on edge but then again Felix Sr always seemed on edge. Luka just assumed it was his nature. He smiled and jumped down from the piano before placing his guitar on the side and began to head over towards Marinette, who was leading the charge as the girl squad attempted to dance. She marched up and down happily as Alya spun around before both girls ended up almost falling over. They caught each other and burst into laughter as he smiled. However, he stopped as a cold shiver moved down his spine, causing him to look towards the bar area. To his surprise, he saw Master Fu sitting there. His eyes widened in shock but he quickly hid the expression and looked back over at Marinette. She was now attempting to get Zoe to join in. He walked over and gave Marinette a peck on the cheek as Jagged declared that the music should be louder.

 "Do you want a drink, Melody?" He asked, making her look at him.

 "Yes please!" She grinned, making him smile back. Her song was so loud and full of energy that he could write a thousand songs and it would not be enough to describe how beautiful she sounded. "Can you get me a lemonade please?"

 "Of course," He smiled, pecking her cheek again before heading back over to the bar area where Master Fu was sitting. He grabbed a can before looking for a cup near Master Fu before whispering. "Master... Why are you here? Are the miraculous... you know..."

 "The miraculous are safe... besides, don't party like this is bound to attract some trouble, don't you think?" He replied, not even looking at Luka who frowned as he patted the cooler next to him. He had a point. Police could get annoyed at the noise. Not to mention that the Gorilla could freak out. "Mila is here too..."

 Luka glanced around and noticed Mila chatting to his parents and Felix Sr.

 "On top of that, Mila and I noticed a number of people of interest entering the building through the back way half an hour ago,"

 "People of interest?" Luka asked, frowning.

 "Yes, Mrs Bourgeois, Mrs Graham de Vanily and Mrs Tsurugi," He replied, making Luka frown even more. "Yet I heard that Mr Agreste isn't here,"

 "So why would they be entering the building?" He asked, frowning as he put down two cups. "Did you happen to see where they went?"

 "Interestingly enough, they went into Mr Agreste's office," He replied, making Luka frown. He needed to have a look. He still suspected Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth even though he got akumatized but why have a meeting when Gabriel supposedly wasn't in town? Not just that but why did this house have such a massive power supply and where was it going to? "I planned to stick nearby in case but this party gave me the opportunity to come in,"

 "I need to have a look in his office," Luka muttered, frowning before he took the drinks and walked over to Marinette who was now joined by Adrien. "Here we are,"

 "Thanks," She grinned, taking it and slipping the drink as he sipped his own. "This is the coolest party I've been to!"

 "Thanks," Adrien grinned as Kagami smiled. "I didn't even know parties could be so cool. Even my chinese teacher came by and he brought his wife!"

 Luka almost spat out his drink at that. Mila was pretending to be Fu's wife?! Seriously?! He coughed as Adrien made sure he was ok.

 "I'm fine," He coughed, waving his hand. "But I could do with a little bit of fresh air so I'm just gonna step out. There's a lot of songs in this room. It's a bit overwhelming,"

 "Oh, would you like me to come with you?" Marinette asked with a worried look but he gave her a soft smile and shook his head. "Are you sure?"

 "Yep, I'll be fine," He reassured, pecking her cheek. "I won't be long,"

 "Well ok but don't be afraid to get me if you need me," She replied, kissing his cheek. He smiled bashfully and nodded before leaving the room. As soon as he was out, he ducked into a separate room and glanced around, checking for cameras in case. Satisfied with his look, he took out a yellow magicron.

 "Tikki," He whispered, causing her to fly out of his pocket as he held it up. "Time to test it out,"

 "Ok," She nodded as he tossed it to her. She swallowed it whole.

 "Tikki, power up!" He whispered, causing her to transform.

 "Altikki!" She declared, causing him to swipe his ear.

 "Altikki, spots on," He declared, transforming into a new form. His hair was completely black and he wore his usual suit but it was darker than normal and the red section had camouflage. He smiled before his suit shimmered, changing to blend into the place. In this case, it turned white including his hair making him blend in with the walls. "Time to investigate,"

 ~Underneath Agreste Manor~

 "I hope you didn't just invite us here to harvest butterflies," Audrey stated, looking at the butterfly garden with disgust as Gabriel clipped them. "It's like you're not even trying to hide that you're working with Hawkmoth. How much is he paying you to do this? Is that why your fashion house has fallen on hard times?"

 "I appropriate the concern, Audrey," Gabriel replied, placing a cocoon in the basket. "But whatever I have going with Hawkmoth is between me and him,"

 "Alright, keep your secrets to yourself," Audrey replied, smirking. "But seriously why gather us here?"

 "Because I asked him to," Su Han's voice stated, causing the others to look at him with shock as he walked over with his arms behind his back. Simme trailed behind him, munching on some pigeons. "I wish to know if any of you have made any progress with tracking down the mage,"

 "I have not, grand master," Audery replied, frowning. "But my darling daughter is investigating a number of people. I have her look into-"

 "I don't care unless they're the mage," He hissed, making her go quiet. "And you, Madam Tsurugi?"

 "The mage has not made an appearance to me yet nor to my kin," She stated in her usual manner. "I have taken the liberty to contact my brother . He is flying to france as we speak,"

 "Excellent," Su Han smirked. Tsurugi Zenaku was legendary in the underworld. A skilled assassin who could track and find any target and who didn't care whom he killed. He also had the Cobra Miraculous. Not that he needed it. "Send him my way when he arrives,"

 "Yes, Grand Mage,"

 "And you Amelie?" He asked, looking at her. "Any news for me?"

 She went to open her mouth but before she could, the electricity shut off. All of them looked around before Gabriel gasped and left the area. Su Han narrowed his eyes before following.

 "What is the meaning of this, Gabriel?" He demanded as the man checked on his wife before ignoring him and rushing over to the lift. He entered it but got stuck half way up. He slammed his fists against it before transforming into Hawkmoth and breaking free. He jumped down and rushed back over to his wife. "Agreste?"

 "The electricity has been switched off. My wife's cryo chamber is using the back up energy but it won't last forever," He declared, glancing back over there. "I need someone to restore power from the outside,"

 "So akumatize someone," Simme hissed before laughing. "Or your wifeicle will melt,"

 "Hush," Su Han replied, narrowing his eyes at Hawkmoth. "Sort it out while I continue the meeting,"

 "Of course," He replied, closing his eyes as Su Han walked back over to the other area. He tried to focus on a negative emotion. "I don't feel any negative emotion. There's only-"

 His eyes snapped open and widened as he felt it.

 "Joy!" He growled, getting annoyed. "What's going on in my house?!"

 He closed his eyes again and focused harder, trying to track down any negative emotion. As he did so, Wayhem stood outside of Agreste Manor and repeatedly rang the doorbell but was getting no answer. His expression fell as he listened to the sound of people laughing and music playing. Why was he excluded? He was a friend of Adrien's right. Sure, he was his biggest fan and had a habit of getting excited in front of him but he had his number and email. He traded messages with him and tried to treat him with respect so why wasn't he invited? Did Adrien feel deep down that he was only a fan and not a friend? He frowned and took out his phone, dialling Adrien's number. It rang several times but no one answered.

 "This is Adrien's voicemail," Adrien's voice declared, mocking his pain. "Leave a message,"

 He hung up and looked up at the manor with tears in his eyes. 

 "Not only are you allowed to have friends over but apparently a huge party is no big deal either," He declared, looking down. "Why did you lie to me, Adrien?"

 A single tear rolled down his cheek as Hawkmoth honed in on his pain.

 "Ah! I can feel a negative emotion!" He declared, holding out his hand and screwing it into a fist. "At last, an unexpected and powerful wave of disappointment!"

 He held out his hand, causing a butterfly to land on before charging it up with his evil energy.

 "Fly away, my little akuma and evilize him!" He declared, allowing to fly off. It made its way to Wayhem and entered the prank glasses he had just as he walked off, causing the connection between him and Hawkmoth to open. "Party Crasher, I am Hawkmoth... so you weren't invited?! Well, I'm giving you the power to crash that party and end it for good! All I ask in return is for you to bring me Anatis' and Lady Noir's miraculous? Oh and to find the source of this power cut? Do we have a deal?"

 "Let's get this party started, Hawkmoth!"

 "Excellent,"

 ~Back in Agreste Manor~

 Anatis frowned as he looked around Gabriel's office. Nothing seemed out of place but that's why he decided to try out the stealth suit. Not only did it allow him to move without being detected by anyone or anything but it also gave him some other useful abilities. He tapped the side of his mask, causing lens to appear over his eyes that allowed him to see footprints. He really should ask how Sir Rene came up with such an idea and how they worked in the ancient world. He glanced around and noticed several footsteps. So they had definitely been in here but they appeared to only lead into here. As far as he could see, they hadn't left yet but no one was in the room. He frowned and followed the footsteps, leading to the portrait of Emile Agreste. He frowned a little more and looked up. The portrait seemed fairly normal so he trapped his mask again, causing the lens to change once more. This time it allowed him to glance through the portrait. He could see there was a safe behind it but that made sense. Of course, Gabriel has a safe behind it but maybe there was a secret here that he couldn't see. He stepped forward and moved his hand across the frame, looking for a secret button. There might be a hidden passage behind the picture and safe but before he could examine it more, the sounds of screams caught his attention. He turned on his heel and rushed to the door, looking outside. The front door was missing, the gorilla was gone and the guests were running out of the manor, terrified. He frowned and shut the door.

 "Tikki, spots off," He replied, turning back to his normal form before rushing outside and throwing his yoyo. To his surprise, the villain who looked like some crazy disco guy ducked down, causing his yoyo to miss him but luckily his target was able to get away. He fired a silver beam at Anatis who jumped out of the way as Lady Noir's baton flew at the Party Crasher. Once again, he ducked and fired at her but she grabbed her baton as she jumped out of the way, landing next to Anatis. "Alright, Disco guy. This party is over!"

 "Fools!" He declared, pointing at them as he walked out of the house. "All I need is to touch you then your miraculous will be mine!"

 "Well, obviously, we're not gonna let that happen!" Lady Noir shot back. "We'll free your victims instead!"

 He charged at them, causing them to jump back into the street as they avoided his disco balls.

 "Lady Noir, would you mind distracting our party fiend?"

 "You got it, bug boy!" She winked before charging at him as Anatis threw his yoyo and flew up to a statue. He was about to summon his lucky charm when he saw Lady Noir being kicked by Party Crasher before he went to touch her.

 "Lady Noir!" He called out, throwing his yoyo and pulling her to safety. "You ok, Kitty?"

 "I am now," She grinned as he held her in his arms. "But how did he figure out my moves?"

 "He must have anticipated our moves?" He frowned as he put her down. "We're gonna need to figure out how to surprise him,"

 "How about we use some of that luck of yours then?" She grinned, leaning on her baton. "We might just need a party favour to sort out this guy,"

 "Sounds good to me," He replied, putting her down and throwing up his yoyo, causing his outfit to transform into the power up version. "Lucky charm!"

 The magical swamp appeared from his yoyo and formed a shape that dropped into his hand.

 "An old cassette tape?" He questioned, looked at it but before he could work it out, Party Crasher fired at him and Lady Noir. Both of them jumped out of the way and Anatis went to land on the ground but as soon as he did, Party Crasher slammed his disco ball into him, causing his eyes to widen in shock before he disappeared.

 "Annie!" Lady Noir screamed as he disappeared but Party Crasher soon came after her. She dodged and jumped out of the way but he was relentless in his attacks and she was clearly outmatched. She really needed backup and she needed it now.

 ~Meanwhile~

 Felix Sr frowned from where he was. He was stood on top of Agreste Manor Anatis had been captured and Lady Noir was on her own, just like his vision showed. He narrowed his eyes and saw the guardian of the miraculous placing various miraculous to whom he would assume were temporary heroes. Not far from the scene, Dame and Phenix Rogue stood nearby, already instructed by their mistress on what to do. She was smart enough to stay out of the fight and told them to wait until things were truly desperate before joining this one. He understood why they weren't moving yet, even with Anatis absorbed. Giving away their positions right now would be a stupid move. Their mistress had taught them that. His eyes returned back to the scene as Apsik was absorbed. It wouldn't be long before the others were absorbed, causing Dame and Phenix to try and save her but they will be absorbed too then finally Lady Noir. He knew he couldn't stop it but he will not let Hawkmoth win. He took out a swan brooch from his pocket and fixed it onto his shirt, causing a swan like Kwami to manifest. It resembled a black swan in looks. It blinked as it looked at him.

 "Fee!!" It declared, zooming around him. "I thought I'd never see you again!!"

 "Likewise, old friend," He replied, smiling a little. "But my time with the miraculous is not over yet, Vinne,"

 "Yay!!" Vinne declared, flying around him. "Let's kick butt!"

 "Yes, let's kick butt indeed," He replied, swiping his hand over the miraculous. "Vinne, Assemblé!" 

 "Whooooo!!" Vinne declared as he was sucked into the miraculous, causing it to glow and charge up before he moves his arms up and across each other, causing a red glow to appear on his hands before bringing them down and causing it to absorb his body. When it disappeared, his suit had changed into a new outfit. He wore a red shirt with a deep purple waistcoat that had silver buttons and swirls on it. His pants were black and he wore brown knee high boots. On his hands were fingerless gloves and his nails were painted black. The red glow formed a silver brooch with a red gem inside before travelling down as it created a red ruffle on the shirt. It spread across his shoulders, creating a black feather cape before it flowed down in three different areas, creating the rest of the cape that was black faded into purple in colour. He held one of his hands up in the air, creating a glowing red orb that transformed into a wooden staff with a red crystal ball on top that was surrounded by a black swan. He brought it down past his head, causing a mask to appear over his eyes and his hair to grow longer and wilder. His mask resembled a masquerade one. It was black and red with a silver line and half of it flickered up, resembling feathers. His eyes had also transformed from grey blue to red with black siries and upon his left ear sat a silver earring with a red crystal hanging off it. With the transformation complete, he casted his gaze down to Party Crasher who was now talking to Hawkmoth. Atrarus narrowed his eyes before diving off the building and slamming his staff into the ground, interrupting their conversation. Naturally, he missed Party Crasher but he dodged the beam fired at him and using his foresight, blocked Party Crasher's arm and slammed his staff into his ribs, sending him flying.

 "Now who's ruining my fun" Party Crasher demanded, glaring. Atrarus closed his eyes and saw Party Crasher coming at him, swinging his left disco ball before switching to his right. He opened his eyes as Party Crasher ran at him, swinging the left. He ducked and grabbed his right hand as he switched, throwing him over his shoulder and slamming him into the ground. "What?! How?!"

 "Did you think you're the only one who predict dance moves?" He questioned, smirking a little as Party Crasher growled.

 "Your miraculous is mine!"

 "Really now?" Atrarus answered, jumping back as Party Crasher rushed at him before almost hitting him.

 "Your miraculous won't help you predict my dance moves!" 

 "Funny because I'm not even using my miraculous power right now!" Atrarus replied, keeping up with Party Crasher's dance. "I'm using my own natural ability,"

 "Natural ability or not, I'll predict your next move!" 

 "Predict this!" Atrarus declared as Party Crasher fired at him as he lifted his staff. "Temporal Hiatus!"

 A red glow appeared in the crystal ball and echoed out, causing everything in its radius to suddenly stop including Party Crasher and his beam. Only Atrarus could move.

 "Even an akuma like you is not immune to the laws of time," Atrarus replied before jumping over to where Master Fu was hiding before he opened the cooler where the miraculous were hidden. "Excuse me, guardian but I need to borrow the monkey miraculous and I have just the person in mind,"

 He grabbed the miraculous and rushed back into Agreste Manor, heading into Adrien's room. When Party Crasher had crashed the party, most of the guests had ran out but to his surprise, Alya Cesaire, who previously had rushed head first with no regard for her own safety or her others, had actually used her brain and slipped into the bathroom instead during the chaos. Party Crasher didn't even think to look in there, he just assumed everyone had in fact left the building but Felix Sr had noticed her do that and saw the way to change the outcome because of it. He stepped inside the bathroom and saw her looking out the window. He only had a minute left of frozen time but he doubted that Party Crasher would follow him. 

 "Where did he go?!" He heard the sound of Party Crasher's voice and couldn't resist a smirk.

 "Wasn't there another hero?" Alya asked herself, causing him to clear his throat. She screamed and turned around. "What?! But you were just next to the villain!"

 "Yes and now I'm here,"

 "How?"

 "Magic," He deadpanned. "Now let's not waste any more time, shall we?"

 "Huh?" She blinked as he held out the box with the money miraculous. "Wait, is that? Anatis told-"

 "Anatis and Lady Noir are about to be delivered to Hawkmoth where he will then take the miraculous, merge them and use a wish that will destroy this world," He stated, shocking Alya. "And I have no intention of letting that happen so you're going to help me. Put that on and say the magic words,"

 "I'm sure Anatis has a full-"

 "Now Miss Cesaire before my patience wears thin,"

 "Ok, ok!" She gasped, taking the circlet out and putting it on her head. A golden ball of light appeared and spun around before turning into a monkey miraculous. "Oh wow!! This is wild!!"

 "Hey, what's going on here?" It declared, glaring at Atrarus. "You're not Anatis or the guardian!"

 "No but I am an ally and the acting Grand Mage of Paris," He replied, making the monkey gasp and Alya stare. "Now hurry up before the butterfly man wins,"

 "Right!" It replied, turning to Alya. "I'm Xuppu. To transform, just say Xuppu, showtime!"

 "Xuppu! Show time!"

 ~Outside of the Manor~

 "Excellent work, Party Crasher," Hawkmoth declared in his mind as he listened. "Now all you need to do is send me the miraculous!"

 "What about that other hero?" Party Crasher asked, concerned. 

 "He's run off like a coward," He replied, not caring. "Besides, he can't stop me! Now send them to me!"

 "Let's dance!" Party Crasher declared, using his powers to make a plane to get the miraculous to Hawkmoth but before he could get it to fly off, the annoying hero reappeared, slamming into him with his staff. "You again!"

 "Yes and this time I brought a friend to the party!" He replied, jumping out of the way of his beam before a staff was thrown at him. Party Crasher growled as he dodged it before looking up as a new hero joined them. She was wearing a brown and white suit with dark brown detail on the legs. Her boots were combat boots and she had some leg warmers that resembled ropes around her legs. She wore an orange jacket with dark brown arm pads and had brown gloves on. Her hair was tied up in a very messy bun with strands of her hair looking like a mane with two stands of hair by the sides of her face. The color was red brown that faded into orange and she wore a golden circlet on her head. There was a brown mask around her eyes and she had a rope around her waist that resembled a tail. She grinned as she grabbed her staff and jumped over to a statue, hanging off it.

 "Aww, you called me a friend!"She grinned before spinning her staff that turned golden. "Uproar!"

 Her staff created a golden light that in turn created a toy banana. She caught it and squeezed it, causing Party Crasher to laugh as the little plane flew off.

 "This is the best you could get?" He asked Atrarus who shrugged as the girl threw the banana. It hit Party Crasher in the chest and appeared to do nothing. "Seriously?"

 She smirked as the plane turned into a silver lama, causing Party Crasher to panic.

 "What's going on?!" He declared as the girl laughed. He stepped back in horror as his vision messed up, showing all kinds of things and colours. He couldn't predict anyone's moves right now.

 "Sorry about Tamarin!" Atrarus grinned as she ran towards the lama and jumped up. "She just loves disrupting others' powers! Right?"

 "Right!" She declared, slamming her staff into it. It exploded, causing a number of random things to rain down as she hopped back over to Atrarus as the other heroes and everyone else who had been captured appeared behind them. "Whoa, it worked!"

 "And to think you doubted my plan," Atrarus replied, placing his hand to his chest as Anatis looked around.

 "Everyone, get to safety! Me and my team will deal with Party Crasher," He ordered before turning to the new heroes. "Thanks for the assist,"

 "Yes, well I'd rather not see the end of the world," Atrarus replied as Tamarin grinned before he pulled Anatis out of the way of another beam. "Leatherback is it? Protect us will you?"

 "Yes, sir!" He replied, holding up his shield. "Shellter!"

 The force field appeared around them as Anatis rubbed the back of his neck.

 "Head in the game, Anatis," Atrarus stated sternly. "Now I believe you summoned a lucky charm before you were captured. Do you still have it?"

 "Yes," He replied, taking it out. "It's a cassette but I didn't get a chance to work out how to use it,"

 "Hmm, well Party Crasher's ability to prediction but clearly it's not on my level since I could easily outdo him,"

 "Your level?" Lady Noir asked, confused. "Wait, does your miraculous give you the same abilities?"

 "No," He replied, rolling his eyes. "I can simply see certain outcomes. Anyway, that doesn't help any of you. He can still predict your moves,"

 "You're right," Anatis replied, looking at the cassette before it lit up, along with everyone else. "Unless he can't predict our moves! Valkyrie, teleport here and get something that can play this!"

 "Yes, Boss!" She declared as he showed her a location, opening a portal and reaching in. "Sorry! I'll return it!"

 She pulled out an old cassette player.

 "Our friend here can predict our moves so the only way to defeat him is to make ourselves unpredictable," He declared, putting the casette in and pressing play, causing music to blast out as the rest of the group looked at him like he was insane. Atrarus had a feeling he was use to this. "In other words, freak out and show me your moves! Dame, would you mind making our dance moves better?"

 "Of course," She grinned, holding up her sword. "Empower!"

 The green glow went over all of them, making them feel stronger and faster. 

 "Well, here goes nothing," Phenix replied as Leatherback's shelter disappeared. Party Crasher grinned and went into a fighting stance but to his surprise and slight horror, the heroes just began to dance with no real rhyme at all.

 "What are you doing?! It's nonsense!" He stepped back as his vision began to be disrupted. "What the?!"

 He shook his head and charged at the group but thanks to empower and their own unique movements, they were able to block and dodge his moves before striking back. Phenix tripped him up and Dame aimed her sword at him, knocking him back as Apollo used Flare to blind him. He never got a chance to use it before he got captured. Aspik threw his lyre at his face as he charged at Valkyrie who ducked and kicked him in the back. He bounced back and charged at Leatherback who blocked his move with his shield then struck him in the gut, causing him to fall back. He growled and threw his fist at Tamarin who grabbed his arm and pushed him towards Lady Noir who kicked him in the first. Tamarin then struck him with her stick before Anatis jumped over and kicked him in the gut, causing his glasses to fall.

 "Anatis! The Glasses!" Atrarus declared as he saw them. "That's where the akuma is!"

 "Got it!" Anatis nodded and grabbed them, throwing them towards Lady Noir. "Kitten!"

 "Cataclysm!" She declared, grabbing them. As soon as they touched her hand, they crumbled into pieces. The akuma flew out and Anatis took out his yoyo before throwing it to capture the akuma and brought it back to himself. 

 "Bye, bye, Little Butterfly," He smiled as he tapped open the yoyo and let the now purified butterfly fly out before he pressed stop on the music and took out the tape, throwing it into the air as his outfit turned back to normal. The tape exploded into the magical swamp and swiped across the area, fixing everything before disappearing as Party Crasher turned into Wayhem. Anatis helped him to his feet before turning to the newcomers. "Thanks for- where did your friend go?"

 "Huh?" Tamarin gasped, looking around but Atrarus was nowhere to be seen. It was like he vanished into smoke. "Whoa! I guess he really is magic!"

 "Magic?" Anatis questioned before shaking his head. "Well thank you for the assistance, Tamarin but I'm afraid I can't let you keep the miraculous,"

 "I figured as much, Anatis," She grinned as Phenix and Dame said their goodbyes and jumped away. "But how come they don't have to give them back?"

 "They answer to someone else," He replied, making her nod as a number of the miraculous beeped. "I do have a lot to collect. Everyone, find a good hiding place. Lady Noir, could you lend me a paw to collect these?"

 "Sure!" She grinned, following Apollo, Valkyrie and Aspik while Leatherback hid in a different area. Tamarin followed Anatis to an alleyway before her transformation dropped, causing Anatis to look at her. "Hey,"

 "Alya Ceraise," He smiled as she handed him the circlet. "You did a good job today,"

 "Thanks," She grinned, rubbing the back of her neck. "But I guess this will probably be the only time,"

 "Keep on the right path and I'll be sure to call on Tamarin again," He smiled before swinging off to go get Leatherback's miraculous. Alya grinned and ran back to Agreste Manor to see if everyone else was ok from the attack.

 ~Underneath Agreste Manor~

 "I was so close this time, Nooroo!" Gabriel raged, slamming his fist against the wall. He had practically won then that new hero had appeared with his sidekick and saved the day. How did he even disappear like that?! Nooroo flinched as he slammed his fist again before hiding as someone knocked on the door. He opened it and glared at Su Han. "What?"

 "The meeting is to continue,"

 "Yes, that makes sense," He muttered, leaving the room as he walked over to the rest of the group. He looked at Su Han who looked annoyed. "Master Su Han, tell me is there a swan miraculous?"

 "Yes-"

 "A Swan?" Amelie asked, shocked before jumping up. "Forgive me, I must sort out something urgent,"

 With that, she rushed out. Su Han pinched his nose in annoyance.

 "Fine, this meeting is over," He replied, glaring. "I expect better results when we next meet,"

 The others nodded and left but Audery failed to notice Simme, following her. He tailed her inside the hotel then went his own way, searching. Not long after he came to Zoe's room and slipped inside as she sat in front of her vanity while her kwami brushed her hair.

 "Zoe," He hissed, making her look over as he appeared in his smaller form. "I require your assistant,"

 "Aren't you Master Su Han's kwami?" She asked, making him hiss and turn into his giant snake form. 

 "I am not a kwami, foolish girl!" He screeched, causing the shadows in her room to move and take scary forms. She gasped and jumped up in fear. "And he is not my master!"

 "I'm sorry!" She gasped, bowing. "I didn't know!"

 "Of course not, my dear child," He replied, changing back into his kwami form. "Now that we've cleared that up, I wish to have some fun and you're gonna help me,"

 "H-How?"

 "I want to join your school,"

 "B-But there's no more openings,"

 "Then make one!" He growled, making her gasp. "I'm bored and your school is a hot spot for akumas! A guy like me could have so much fun there. It's practically an all you can eat buffet,"

 "B-But you joining and then suddenly an increase in negativity could look really weird," She gasped, making him look at her. "That would bring the heroes to your front step so to speak but I have an idea if you're interested,"

 "An idea hmm?" He asked, moving around her as her kwami cowered away. Shadows wrapped around her neck making her gasp with fear. "It better not be a boring idea or I'll eat your soul,"

 "We-well, th-there's a school sports contest that is going to occur this week," She gasped, making him hum with interest. "Y-You could join the other school and play everyone against each other without looking too suspicious,"

 "Oh, my dear wasp," He smirked evilly. "Now that sounds like fun!"

 ~Felix Sr's House~

 "So are we back as a team?!" Vinne asked, flying around Felix's head as he placed a crystal on his window seal. "We were the best team!"

 "Well, I had every intention of leaving this world behind," Felix admitted as he waved his hand over the crystal, causing it to light up. "But apparently, it had no intention of leaving me behind so I guess we'll be working together but there will be some house rules. No dangerous pranks and you need to listen to me,"

 "Of course, of course!" Vinne grinned, placing his wings behind his head. "Ah this is gonna be great!"

 "I'm glad you think so," Felix replied as someone knocked on the door. "Vinne, stay here,"

 "Yes boss!" He declared, saluting him with his wing. Felix rolled his eyes and opened the door to his study before heading into the hallway as Bridgette let in Amelie. "Amelie, what are you doing here?"

 "I came because I need to talk with you,"

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

Next Chapter: Coming soon (hopefully)

[dracolunae]

I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT SONIC lay it on me. sits head in hands attenative mode

I’ll just give you a general ramble of whatever I can think of but if you wanna know anything specific like lore or the different comic runs or stuff about the music lmk!!

Sonic is a franchise that I’ve found so fucking fascinating for a long time because it combines just so many fun things: a mostly non-human cast, intricate world building a continuity between games, interesting abilities, and a protagonist that is not only cool and fast and heroic but also a wildly fascinating personality!

My start into Sonic was, ironically, not any of the actual mainline games or anything because my ass was a DS kid with no consoles. It wasn’t even one of the mainline DS games! My start was Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the DS.No clue of any lore, all I knew was that this franchise had really interesting character designs and was really cool because YO IS THAT A ROBOT??? (I was also. Very into the transformers movies at the time so robots were fucking awesome).

Anyway, from there my brother and I shared a copy of Sonic Colours for the DS! Sonic Colours for the Wii is often regarded as one the better if not one of the best modern Sonic Games with unfortunately really bad writing but fear not! That’s where the DS version comes in! Entirely different gameplay wise since in that sense it’s a continuation of the earlier Rush games but the story is nearly identical to the Wii version except there’s more of it and the characters are significantly better written!

It’s pretty common to make jokes about people who play games for the plot but honestly the plot is really one of the main draws of Sonic for me! The Adventure era (Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and kind of Sonic 06) had overarching story elements and would legitimately flash back to what happened in previous games, which at the time (1998-2006) was huge!

There’s also several runs of comics and manga as well as several tv shows that accompanied the franchise, most of which are entirely non-canon to the games but still add so much to the characters and in some ways the world.

The original 2 shows and Comic runs were Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (more commonly known as Sonic SatAM), the Sonic Archie comics and Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway. The shows were both made simultaneously by the same people and a lot of elements from both (though mainly SatAM, the grittier of the 2) were adapted into the Archie Comics. Sonic the Comic (more often referred to as Fleetway) was the British run of Sonic Comics and while Archie went kinda wild with a lot of stuff, Fleetway did so in a way that was less insane and more just incredibly contradictory to the games, such as changing the way that Super Sonic worked (it splits Sonic into 2 different beings instead of just being like a Dragonball Super Saiyan inspired power up) and also entirely changing the design and origins of Chaos, the additional antagonist of Sonic Adventure.

Both Fleetway and Archie have been canceled, Fleetway quite a while ago and Archie in 2017, which has brought a new Comic into the scene, published by IDW! The staff is comprised almost entirely of former Archie Sonic staff, who were pulled over by head writer Ian Flynn, who took over this position for Archie in 2006 and was hired by IDW pretty immediately once they got the comic license for Sonic. These comics directly tie into what was at the time the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Forces, and are confirmed to be canon, unlike literally every other piece of extended media we’ve ever gotten!

The American Sonic comics are very dear to me because I used to read them a lot (in what is possibly the most annoying way one could possibly read them, YouTube videos panning through incredibly slow pans of each individual page or panel). And the staff post Ian Flynn takeover is fascinating to me because a decent chunk of it consists of Sonic fans that started out as fancomic artists, got recognised for their talent and then hired to work on the real deal! What kind of Dream job is that???? The amount of passion the current staff has for the world of Sonic is palpable and so refreshing. Ian Flynn also got to write the story for the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers and holy shit I love the way he respects the previous world building done by older games. It might come off a little awkward to some but I’m just glad they’re acknowledging their past

With all my love for the comics tho I gotta say the Archie comics are a wild fucking trip, especially when Ken Penders had free reign of the plot. I’m rereading the Archie comics and I skipped over the first 60 or so issues the first time I read them as a kid and wtf???? Why did I just read about a bee dying of an LSD overdose???? (Yes. This is a real plot point. It is relevant for one 3 issues side arc and never again)

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Josh trivia: my first tumblr URL was the-legend-of-elder-scrolls (I actually can’t remember if the dashes were there though lol), with “the legend of” referring to guess what, and the Elder Scrolls referring to, uh, yeah.

Skyrim’s a game that throughout my life I’ve probably put over 2000 hours in. I don’t actually know the exact number - I’ve played it through I think 3 different Xbox 360s with lots of corruption across them all, and even outside of the Xboxes failing me I’ve had plenty of 200+ hour files where I got bored of the character I was playing or bored by having done every major questline and would just start new files that would get however far they do.

Obsession went beyond just playing the game as well - my favourite YouTube channel was Fudgemuppet and I’d watch tons of other channels too, especially modded content, I think longing for the PC version of the game while I remained trapped on console lol. I’d stare at the UESP for hours, get into arguments in comment sections, Facebook even had a political beliefs thing you could add in your personal info for some scuffed reason where I established myself as a firm follower of the Stormcloaks. I was too stupid to get dosbox running on my laptop so I couldn’t play Arena and Daggerfall, and I was too “I don’t have a way to digitally use cash at all” to play Morrowind, but I could certainly get Oblivion on Xbox 360 as well and... not quite play the fuck out of it to the same degree because man that core gameplay feel is very rough around the edges, even compared to Skyrim. But still! For a few years I lived and breathed Skyrim and it was the best.

But yeah that, did kinda stop. Primarily because of how long I’d played the game for. It was just very easy for me to get bored of it. “Seen it all” mentality because true enough I’d finished every main guild questline and DLC story and Daedric quest like ten times over. I knew how to game the systems so strongly in my favour that I wasn’t so much “playing Skyrim” as I was just menuing all the challenge out of the game. I was also so committed to roleplaying specific characters with specific equipments that I’d almost lock myself out of doing fun things as well as purposefully kind of cheat the game (as much as 360 allows anyway) to achieve my desired build faster. But that’d mean once I had all the components of a build I’d kind of lose all desire to play that character anymore lol. I just lost the ability to actually enjoy the game anymore.

However, I’d never say I lost interest. There’s a classic question - if you could replay any game again for the first time, what’d it be? - obviously it’s purely a hypothetical you can never really do but, my answer’s probably Skyrim. And while I can’t replay it for the first time, perhaps if I give myself a good few years away from the game, it can feel fresh to me again? And that’s what I’ve done. After god knows how many years, I’ve gotten the game on PC and started finally replaying it. Several times before now I’d considered pulling the trigger and buying the Switch version for ease of accessibility - but the £50 price tag for an 11 year old game is steep lol. So we’re on PC now using Steam’s family sharing thing, since my little brother owns the game. It was actually helping him out with mods that kind of inspired me to push myself towards playing the game again, and yeah, here we are. I have Skyrim on Steam. We gaming.

Since it’s a relevant detail, I am running a couple of mods - but it’s important to me to fundamentally preserve the vanilla experience here. That’s what I fell in love with in Skyrim in the first place, and it’s what I’m here to re-experience all these years later. Accordingly, I’d describe basically every mod I downloaded as just adding a bit of atmospheric and some gameplay flavour. I didn’t even wanna fuck with Nexus so I’ve just gone workshop and downloaded the entire cities and villages enhanced collection, the entire sounds of Skyrim collection, what’s basically an immersive armours substitute adding the armours individually (I deliberately excluded one set that pushed outside the lore a bit too much for my taking) and an actual immersive weapons substitute just to get a couple more weapon types that still work with the world. I actually think the only gameplay mods I really got are a few that make like Daedric and other unique weapons a bit stronger to justify their lore position a bit more. For all intents and purposes though I really am just playing vanilla Skyrim but with a touch more atmosphere by way of sights and sounds. And that’s what I wanted.

Aside from that, the one other rule I’ve really set for myself in order to get the most out of this is just try play it like it’s my first time. By which I mean, let myself get distracted. Don’t lose myself in overarching goals. Wander into that cave. Take your time exploring. Chat with NPCs. I have a character, but I’m not really roleplaying. I’ve not specifically decided on an armour set I’d really like. I’m playing on apprentice even to avoid getting bored by damage spongy combat encounters. On finishing Helgen I walked westward, away from Helgen and that first main story segment I’ve done to death. I’ll get back to it eventually, sure, but I’m not interested in the urgency anymore. Instead I met Angi in her cabin in the southern mountains of Skyrim, where she trained my archery - which is not a thing I think I was ever even aware of having existed. Then I went down to Falkreath, where I learned that the current Jarl is a lazy bastard whose uncle the former Jarl was basically demoted in what almost seems to be an Imperial ploy. It’s weird, a younger Josh got so wrapped up in Tamriel’s version of the creation myth or whatever that I didn’t even really engage with the minutiae of actual current lore in just Skyrim as a place. And sure, reading wiki pages for hours has its charm, but just playing the game itself and talking to people and reading books? This is what I missed. This is what’s making Skyrim fun for me again.

I don’t know if I have a fun or interesting or really at all conclusive way to approach this post. I’m really just playing Skyrim again and wanted to talk about it, for nobody’s sake but my own. I’m just so happy to finally be playing it again.

[ayellowcurtain]

Eu postei 218 vezes em 2022

201 posts criados (92%)

17 posts reblogados (8%)

Blogs que você mais reblogou:

@revengeisalwaysanoption

@lucidpantone

@thisfeebleheart

@skamsnake

@caffelattedellequattro

Eu marquei 144 posts meus em 2022

Só 34% dos meus posts não tinham tags

#wtfock - 35 posts

#skam france - 33 posts

#skam italia - 27 posts

#young royals - 24 posts

#sobbe - 17 posts

#sander driesen - 16 posts

#young royals netflix - 14 posts

#robbe ijzermans - 13 posts

#skam - 9 posts

#prince wilhelm - 8 posts

Maior tag: 104 caracteres

#maybe i’m that inspired by their fic that i’m gonna have to write something to fill the gaps for myself…

Meus principais posts em 2022:

#5

I would love to read something about Simon comforting and talking to Wille while he's having an anxiety crisis

TW: mentions of anxiety attack

Simon misses Wilhelm, of course he does, it’s kind of ridiculous for him to think he would ever not miss being around Wilhelm. But it also feels like the right thing to do, to build a distance between them…it would be better, easier for both of them.

Until something happens - he can see and feel from a mile away just by watching Wilhelm -, how closed off he looks, how he always walks looking down, with his shoulder up high, tense, like he’s trying to make his walls even taller. It feels like Wilhelm thinks that is what’s needed when you’re a prince, way too out of reach for the crowd, and when you have two bodyguards constantly around you.

It was Wille’s choice to keep his bodyguards away when he wasn’t on holiday. They were still there, but mostly at his bedroom door or when he was out in the open, going to the city or something. But the bodyguards were back to following him anywhere, and Simon felt like breaking the rules just because. Since they were always there, he wanted to finally get close, to see if the Wilhelm he got to know was still there, and how much work it would be to bring him back to the surface. It was all Simon could think about after weeks of watching the same soulless Wilhelm walk around without acknowledging anyone else.

He decided to do something about it while making it look like it was an accident. The bodyguards were finally off or something, Simon assumed because of the holidays, and Wilhelm was finally walking alone after a swim, Simon assumed again, based on the wet hair and the towel hanging on his shoulder. He unlocked his phone and tried to walk a confident, straight line to Wilhelm, bumping a little too hard against him. They both stumbled, but naturally Wilhem was holding Simon’s shoulders, trying to prevent him from falling or hurting himself.

“Are you okay?” Wilhelm asked with a deeper voice than what Simon remembered, catching him off guard.

“Hm, yes, yes, I am. Sorry…”

Wilhelm took his hands away like he suddenly realized he was touching Simon.

“Good…”

They both stayed there, moving with the soft, late afternoon wind, trying to look at each other but not be caught doing it.

“Was the water good?” He decided to ask, keeping his eyes on Wille’s, hoping to give him some comfort and confidence to do the same.

“Cold. A little too cold.”

“People say taking cold showers…or swimming makes you feel good, or better, I don’t know. Like a shock to the system.”

Wilhelm nods his head, adjusting his towel closer to his neck, “I’ve heard something about that.”

“So…? Did it work for you?”

Wilhelm finally looks at him but it’s different than before. Simon hopes what he’s seeing is still some residue of how it felt before, when they were together, sort of, and madly in love. But mostly is the same way Wilhelm looked at him when they had their first conversation, talking about the class, introducing themselves.

“It made me cold, so I guess I have actual physical feelings to worry about and keep my mind busy.”

Simon tries to smile, nodding his head, squeezing his hands shut to not pull Wilhem closer and kiss his whole face to see if that would help both of them too.

“Are you busy tonight?” Wilhelm shakes his head, waiting for an invite, “You wanna hang out?”

“Do you?” He asks softly, and Simon hates how Wilhelm could ever think Simon wouldn’t want to spend all his time with him.

“Yeah.”

It was a long, dreadful walk back to the dormitories. Wilhelm was staying in a new place, the very last bedroom, facing the back, enchanted garden behind the buildings, and he had no instant neighbors.

Simon tried not to stare but it was hard to miss how Wilhelm kept adjusting his damp hair, biting his nails even though he was clearly fighting not to do it in front of Simon. Once they were finally inside, Wilhelm made sure to lock the door, and he couldn’t fight it anymore, leaning against the door, with one hand on his chest, almost at the base of his neck, pressing his palm against his sweater, trying to make small circles with some pressure against his chest, and he was shaking, Simon wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold anymore. He tried to stay calm, walking to Wilhelm, helping him walk to his bed, lay down for a little, trying to calm his breath.

-

It’s been hours since they came to Wille’s bedroom, and Simon asked - and Wille managed to nod his head - when answering if he should close the curtains. It was dark anyway but the closed room makes it more comfortable, intimate and relaxing. Simon lets Wilhelm choose how they’ll stay now that he has calmed down enough. It’s not often that he’s seen Wilhelm like this: fully out of breath, anxious, doing all these things he has to do to himself and by himself to calm down.

Simon obviously worries about Wilhelm, and he told Simon a few times about these anxious feelings that overwhelm him, but he bites his lip not to tell Wille that he should look for professional help.

In his selfish thoughts, Simon likes the way Wilhelm finds the most comfort by tangling him all around Simon, only changing positions every few hours.

Ver o post inteiro

50 notas - publicadas em 28 de janeiro de 2022

#4

Even squeezes the armrests of the chair until the old wood corners start to ground him back to the present, staring at a quiet and sleepy Isak as he continues to stir something in their old pan. Isak just woke up - he’s barely awake actually - but Even has been awake for an hour, maybe. He already took a long and warm shower, he decided for some old jeans, and a white, basic shirt. He even styled his hair even though it’s a boring Sunday. They have no plans for the day but Even woke up with this idea stuck in his head. It’s nothing new, it’s the biggest certainty that he has in his life since he met the grumpy human cooking them breakfast.

He finally decides to get up, standing right behind Isak. Their tiny kitchen literally doesn’t leave much room for second thoughts. He puts his hands on the counter, one on each side of Isak, and he still doesn’t care, almost done with their scrambled eggs.

“Will you marry me?” He whispers, well aware he doesn’t sound as confident as he wishes he did, but he’s trusting his deep voice got the message across anyway.

“Huh?!” Isak frowns deeply, still too sleepy and grumpy to consider Even’s words, and if he is being serious.

The lack of surprise or excitement is partially his fault. They basically live a married couple life anyway, and he’s sure they both made jokes about getting married countless times during the years they’ve been together.

The gap between becoming a couple, and moving in together was tiny, and he knows Isak is not big on traditions, especially these ones, the ones that, even if neither of them is religious anymore, can have a deeply rooted religious undertone because society build them like this. And also, Isak loves being stubborn just because he can. And Even is not complaining, at all. He’s still in constant search to find something in Isak that doesn’t mesmerized him and he found nothing yet.

He sighs, as Isak is deeply focused on putting the eggs on one plate - because they basically share everything, and because is less dishes to wash later. He can’t back down now, it doesn’t matter if the words flew by Isak’s half asleep brain. He won’t stop thinking about it, and he knows Isak will come back to the question inside his brain once he’s awake too. He kisses his boyfriend bed-warm neck, and turns back around, crossing the short hall to go back to their bedroom, opening the only drawer on their nightstand, pushing all the condoms, lubes, toilet paper, vintage books and notepads, old pencils, and erases aside to find the velvet, tiny bag, that he hid there a couple of months back. Isak is not a jewellery type of man so once Even had casually found the ring, he couldn’t pass the opportunity to buy it, even if he never found enough reasons to ask a question that sounds meaningless to a relationship that’s so strong and deep as theirs to put it back, almost literally, into a box that society asks everyone to fit in.

Fuck it. Even is a die hard romantic at heart. He’ll gladly do as society tells him to do this one time. He squeezes the bag deep in his palm and goes back to the kitchen. Isak is already sitting on the chair Even was using a few minutes ago, eating his part of the eggs, his long, very pale legs crossed, making his black boxers go up in his thighs, the loose vintage shirt that Even used yesterday exposing his collarbones. Even runs his fingers through Isak’s loose curls and kneels in front of him. He’s not that cliche, but he laughs at how the situation - to be on the same eye level as a grumpy and sleepy Isak - made him end up in one knee anyway. He opens his other hand, and opens the bag, carefully sneaking his fingers inside to grab what he needs, showing Isak the ring.

“Will you marry me, Isak?”

71 notas - publicadas em 18 de abril de 2022

#3

👀👀

76 notas - publicadas em 3 de março de 2022

#2

I miss them:

89 notas - publicadas em 28 de fevereiro de 2022

Meu post nº 1 de 2022

I was just thinking about the next time Wille sees Simon’s fish.

It’ll still be a little bit awkward for them, after everything, with a fresh reconciliation that feels very much like a completely new experience. It feels more real and serious now that well, the whole world sort of knows about them. But the boys are still trying to keep some sense of normality and complete privacy of their bubble. And Wille is doing everything he can to keep Simon comfortable, safe, and enjoying their relationship as he should or wants to. So it’s his first time back at Simon’s place, the first as his real boyfriend and Simon clearly doesn’t know how to act, and neither does Wille but he tries to not put too much pressure on the situation.

Thankfully, Simon’s mom is not home yet, so they have some time to calm down and relax.

Wille remembers how to get to Simon’s bedroom like it’s his own, but he walks slowly, in case Simon doesn’t want him to go there. He looks over his shoulder, can’t help smiling every second he’s with Simon, and Simon laughs shyly, shaking his head at their total lack of knowing how to act normal.

And of course, Wilhelm remembers the fish! So he walks to the tank.

“I remember you.” He says like he’s meeting old friends. He gently presses one finger against the glass, one little piece of food completely forgotten there, and he looks at Simon at the door, frowning a little bit like Wilhelm just accidentally discovered something in his bedroom.

“I doubt you remember their names.” He decides to say after a second, crossing his arms against his chest, really doubting Wille’s memories of anything they ever had, talked to, or experienced together.

“It’s kinda hard to tell them apart, but Olle, Oski, and Felle.” Wilhelm is sure, but he looks at Simon anyway to double check if he’s right.

Simon tries to fight it, to keep his smile small and not give that much to Wille but he loses that one, smiling as he walks to Wilhelm, holding his hand between both of his, leaning against his shoulder, looking up.

“How do you remember every word?”

“That was a good night, no?” Simon nods his head and Wilhelm leaves a soft kiss on his lips. “And you were being all nice to me for once, not fighting back, being all sweet and cuddly…” He teases, kissing Simon’s cheek, squeezing one of his hands, as he whispers in his ear, “and the sex was good too.”

Simons laughs, pushing him away, but Wilhelm still holds his hand, their arms extended, and he turns around, changing the hand that’s holding Simon’s, looking at the room now, at an orange sweater tucked close to Simon’s pillow.

“I know that sweater.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No. It’s an old, very smelly sweater I found.”

“I was looking for it.”

“It’s mine. Don’t even try.”

Wilhelm huffs a laugh, nodding his head, pulling Simon closer for a kiss again.

213 notas - publicadas em 4 de novembro de 2022

Veja a sua Retrospectiva 2022 →

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Building cute mechanical robots to bring a smile to someone's face

I can’t remember the last time we had a crafting event related to mechanical stuff, specifically robots. Daisy Jane and I were just visiting to catch a performance at the opera house when Connie managed to snag some tickets for us. It was done by a local theater troupe, which was why that was possible, though just barely.

Seems like they weren’t exaggerating about how just putting Madeleine’s name on something will make crowds instantly flock to it. In other words, if it was a larger scale sort of thing, like the more renowned and well known theater troupes, they would be sold out in an instant, so getting tickets would be near impossible, especially if you’re not from these parts.

The show is called A Butterfly’s Rose, a loose adaptation of a mystery romance novel. According to Aurelie, who has tried to read the book several times, the story has a good premise, but the writing makes it difficult to follow. She said the best way to describe the author’s writing style is superfluous, which she finds a shame as it could’ve been good. A lot of people felt the same, and so it’s been adapted to theater multiple times in hopes of making a coherent story.

Prior to Madeleine and the Allaire theater troupe’s version, the last adaptation was done about 50 years ago. What makes this current adaptation different is how much it strays from the source material - in a good way. Basically, Madeleine took a lot of creative liberties and managed to condense the story by only focusing on one aspect and expanding on that.

What’s interesting is that the characters she chose to zero in on were Bea and Florentin as their parts are often left out of most adaptations. From my understanding, they’re more like supporting characters, but they kinda set the stage for everything else that’s going on, so they are important. Madeleine says she gets why they’re cut, and that’s why she wanted the spotlight on them because, like many aspects of the book, there was potential, but it all got lost in the chaos.

Since I know absolutely nothing about the source material, I find the play a good standalone kind of thing. I mean, I’ve been told that it’s a very loose adaptation, so the source material isn’t essential to know. Rather than going for a faithful adaptation, which sounds impossible and probably wouldn’t translate well to theater anyway, they went for the inspiration route, which they pulled off well.

I found the drama and musical numbers engaging, and based on the standing ovations, so did the audience. Pai did say that getting Madeleine involved is sure to elevate things, not because she’s practically a celebrity, but because she knows what she’s doing when it comes to the arts. The others note that she’s a lot happier working behind the scenes, especially now that she’s free to do whatever she wants without being burdened by her past.

While the show was the main reason why we’re up here, we also wanted to come to chill and hang out, as well as explore more of Marippe. Now that the cleanup is done and reconstruction is almost finished, things have been pretty much back to normal. Aurelie’s hometown, Marillon, was hit pretty hard, so they still have a bit of work left there, though it’s nothing they can’t handle, she says.

Compared to the last time I visited, the difference is like night and day. Sure, it’s a busy city, but things were a lot quieter back then, mainly because a lot of places were closed. It was also cold and rainy because it was winter, so obviously there wasn’t gonna be a lot of people outside. Plus, there was the fact that I didn’t really spend a lot of time at the city as we were underwater exploring some ruins.

We didn’t really have anything planned after the show, so we tagged along with Connie and Pai. Well, mainly Pai because Connie had some important matters to attend to outside of the city. It ended up working out well because Layla, Melody, and Bennett are visiting too because they were dispatched on missions here.

Then we tagged along with Topaz as he was commissioned by someone to make toy robots for a pediatric oncology ward. I remember Beryl saying that Topaz often works with mechanics and occasionally takes commissions for custom stuff.

Apparently, he often gets mistaken for an engineer from the research institute, and when they find out he isn’t, they often ask why. Truth is, Topaz doesn’t really have an answer other than he’s not the studious type, so he just says he doesn’t have time, which isn’t completely far from the truth. After all, he’s said that mechanics is more of a hobby for him and he wants to keep it that way.

Since this is a special commission, Topaz is looking for help, so this is where we come in. He wants to make it special for the kids, so he’s going above and beyond not just to make toys, but companions for these kids. Like, for example, one kid wants a koi fish that sings their favorite song, while another wants a penguin that can act like a pet - unique stuff like that. Obviously, Topaz wouldn’t have given the kids the options to personalize like that if he couldn’t do it, so I guess that says a lot about his abilities.

Along with me, Daisy Jane, Pai, Layla, Bennett, and Melody helping out, Topaz also found another helper, a visitor from abroad who’s in a bit of a bind. While the rest of us handle tasks like gathering materials and some basic crafting, Topaz and Misha did the more technical stuff. I’d say it’s not that much different than gyroid events, maybe just a bot more intensive, which I found refreshing.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Bennett and Melody, so it’s nice to catch up with them. Bennett’s visited Marippe a few times and actually met the toymakers Topaz occasionally works with. Apparently, one of them was so inspired by him that he made a limited edition board game based on his adventures in Marippe. However, the gameplay was said to be a bit confusing and it didn’t really sell. Still, it made for a nice collector’s item if you’re into that sort of thing. Now I’m kinda intrigued.

Melody’s been busy doing doubles for Connie by going on various missions abroad, research on the side, as well as training Aurelie and Coralie, another new member of Connie’s ever growing adventure party. She’s one of the few members who’s on call, meaning that anyone in the group can call her over and she’ll be there, even if it’s overseas.

Even though she’s part of the same guild as Bennett, her job’s more of an office type thing where she doesn’t have to come in often, leaving her with a lot of free time on her hands while still being paid really well. Some have actually accused her of being paid to do nothing because of her hotshot adventurer parents, which is obviously not true. In a way, they did kind of hand that job to her, but they wouldn’t have recommended her to reconnaissance if they didn’t think she was up to it, nor would she have decided to stick with it.

With the process of getting clearance to travel to Sazona about to begin, Melody’s prepared to begin gathering information to prepare for what’s ahead. She did a thorough job with Adrikha and Marippe, and so by now she’s got a routine down. It’s a lot of work and someone has to do it, so why not her? She finds the work engaging, not to mention that she’s one of the first to travel to a new place. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Along with just wanting to travel and adventure more, another reason why Melody’s doing doubles is because she just got her own place, which happens to be in the same building as Meggie’s. She still has a lot to do, and part of it has to do with her not being home a lot, but since moving is expensive, especially when you’re starting from nothing, she just wants to be safe in terms of finances. Thankfully, the rent is low, which is why Meggie’s able to stay there.

Living on your own for the first is exciting and scary, so I wish her the best.

Speaking of new living situations, Layla’s on the search for a new place too. She went from living in the dorms to a campus apartment because it was cheaper. However, she’s not too satisfied with the housing arrangement as she’s living with four other people. Her roommates aren’t bad, but she’s more of an introvert, so having to share a space with them has made her feel kind of cramped.

What prompted Layla to move was that a couple weeks ago, one of her roommates got doxxed. Basically, a neighbor of the roommate plagiarized one of her short stories by tweaking some things and submitting it to a magazine for publication. The roommate considered suing, but then decided to talk things out with the neighbor, who was uncooperative and basically dared her to sue.

Roommate decided not to press the issue further as she saw it was pointless. Then for whatever reason, the neighbor decided to dox her and now he’s in a lot of trouble obviously. After all, he didn’t put her at risk, her housemates are also affected by it. Damn, fuck that guy.

Campus security has been helpful in terms of keeping everyone safe as well as trying to help those who want to move. Since Layla’s a student, her options are kind of limited at the moment, but she’s on the waitlist for a single dorm. She literally got an email this morning that there will be an opening soon as someone’s moving out, so that’s good news. That means when she gets back in a couple days, she’ll have a dorm ready to be moved in. That’s a relief!

Topaz’s assistant, Misha, is from overseas, though his mother was from Marippe and was actually a research engineer from the institute. He had hoped to follow in her footsteps, but realized early on that he wanted to branch off. As for what exactly that is, he’s still trying to figure that out. In short, he’s made some bad investments for some sort of project and is trying to dig himself out of that hole without having his family involved. Apparently, the last time that happened, his mother had to intervene, which I can imagine was embarrassing, and his reputation took a hit because of that.

It’s a good thing he ran into Topaz, who was looking for an assistant with specific skills. Pai says it’s not uncommon for her and Connie to run into people like Misha who are stuck in bind and need help. While getting paid is a factor, Misha also hopes this experience will help him bring some insights he can use to hopefully salvage the project. As for what it is, he says it’s hard to explain in layman’s terms because it’s super technical, but to put simply, he might have been too overambitious.

The reason why the painter, Desiree, commissioned Topaz is because of her son, who passed away a couple months ago from cancer. She had talked about her son as if he was still alive and really wanted to make something special for him. We later found out that her son basically grew up in the pediatric oncology ward and was said to be inquisitive and artistic. All he wanted was to be healthy enough to run around and play like other kids his age. Such a simple thing to ask for, and yet it was basically a fantasy for him.

About a year ago, his cancer became terminal. which made him depressed and withdrawn. Desiree tried her best to lift his spirits up, even giving him the possibility that despite his grim prognosis, maybe a miracle can still happen. In the end, however, that was not meant to be.

How sad it is to watch your child slowly wither and die in front of you? It’s not fair for a kid whose life is just beginning to just be taken away like that. No wonder she chose to live in a fantasy world where her son’s still hanging on for a miracle. I remember hearing something about how some people would rather believe a beautiful lie rather than confront the ugly truth, and honestly, who can blame her?

I think talking with the kids at the cancer ward was an eye opening experience for us, one that Desiree really needed. A handful of these kids are sadly terminal and they have their ways of coping with their futures, which is basically making the most of whatever time they have left. It can’t be easy, especially for those who have been sick for most of their lives, to live with the fact that your life is ending before it can begin.

So, along with making toys for the kids, we were helping Desiree deal with her grief. Misha seemed to be right when he realized that she was dealing with a lot of regrets, which isn’t uncommon. He was close to his mother, who died unexpectedly not too long ago, and that was what prompted this project, which was based on her research. In a way, he wanted to sort of cement her legacy, though he doesn’t think he’s doing a very good job of it considering the predicaments he’s in. Sounds like he was close to his mother and understands what Desiree’s going through, so it makes sense that he was able to reach out to the grieving mother.

After learning the full story, Topaz and Misha decided to go all out to create something special for Desiree. She had requested a heron and gave them her son’s illustrations as reference, which look like they came out of a fairy tale. According to one of the nurses who took care of him, he wanted to be a painter like his mother. Since he was often in bed, he would make up fairy tale stories with his paintings. Unfortunately, as his illness progressed, holding a paintbrush became difficult for him, and when he could no longer do that, it seemed like he lost the will to fight.

The heron took Desiree by surprise, especially since Topaz did a really good job of turning a painting into a physical object, like it was taken right out of the paper. He also gave the heron a voice, using various quotes from the story. Maybe for a moment she thought that her son really was right there with her, and because she could feel his presence, she could finally say goodbye to him. A bittersweet ending all around.

Of course, the kids enjoyed their companions, and now Topaz has more requests from other floors. Since he has the time, he’s gonna work something out. Misha’s not planning to go home anytime soon because of his predicament, so he’s happy to help out too. He said that he mainly tagged along in hopes of finding a distraction, but instead, seeing Desiree’s ordeal made him confront some things he’s been trying run away from, like his own grief. Despite the challenges he’s dealing with now, Misha’s determined to honor his mother’s memory like the heron and Desiree’s son. I wish him luck.

No matter how long or short your life is, it’s bound to leave an effect on someone. Regardless of what you might think, your absence will be felt. I know it’s hard to believe, but as I got older and experience more of the world, I realize how true it is. As insignificant as you think you are, as long as you exist, you’re still leaving footprints regardless of how much or little of an impact you think you have. And I think that’s what makes being alive worth it.

Now that I think about it, these robots aren’t simply just companions for these kids who are fighting tough battles with uncertain futures, but they’re something for them to leave behind, a reminder to the world and to their families that they once existed, that they will never really be gone. A lot of the more complex requests came from those who know their time is limited, so they want to offer a parting gift to those closest to them. I can imagine how special these companions will be long after they’re gone.

[sincerely-krp]

About Nocturne and Paradigm

Hello, this is Verona’s writer. I’m only coming forward because this is getting out of hand.

  I know the admin of Nocturne and they’re not Paradigm, I dislike those guys as much as anyone with common sense. Like me, I know Nocturne admins were in Paradigm briefly and also left after the racism incident. 

  Why is Paradigm liking their post? Take a wild guess. They love inserting themselves in the drama even if they later come here to ask to be left alone. They keep using your assumptions to make sure other rps get closed before they’re even open. 

But they take advantage of that because YOU do that. You just want to believe it’s them so you have something new to hate on. The rp that had to close because people were sending dead threads to them? You need to realise this is getting out of hand.

  Do you want to keep using any detail to claim it’s them? Okay let’s go. 

Why do they have so many apps already? People write in rps and form connections with writers. And when we know of new places, we invite them to come and keep writing with them. For every person you invite, you might get them inviting another 2. I’ve shown that rp to people that like to write because they CAN’T find a rp to write in, because guess again, THEY’RE NOWHERE. So while Nocturne is not the other group of friends rp either, I do know many of the writers behind those muses, because we wrote in multiple rps together, so yes, some of us are friends.

  But what about the similar fcs, you say? Oh you mean fcs that get taken almost right away in many rps? And anyone can use them. Can I vouch for every single muse that is already waiting in their acceptance post? No, I can’t. If one of Paradigm joins to spy, do drama or who knows what, I can’t know, yet. 

  But the aEsThEtIc- It’s a template. People like to make their rp look good because also, some of you refuse to join a rp if they don’t have nice graphics. But if they do have that, then it must be Paradigm. Make it make sense, really.

  But the application is- Stop, please. There have been other rps requiring writing samples. Because some that don’t bother writing or reading their lore will still try to join, to do what? Who knows. 

  But the lore is so similar! Have you read their carrd? Where they state where they’re getting inspiration from? Are now vampires exclusive of Paradigm’s previous rp? When it was basically The originals? Please. This is not the main admin’s first rodeo and they work hard making lore and the rp. It pisses me off how you’re treating their rp when it’s not even open.

I’m seriously tired of seeing a rp being dragged in Paradigm’s mess just because people have nothing better to do. Do you want to believe it’s them? Then don’t join. I assure you it’s not the rp’s loss, but yours. 

But if you do love writing, and want to find more people to develop a muse with, give it a chance. I’m going to be there, and unlike some of those Paradigm members, I know most of the members won’t have ridiculous elitist demands in order to write with them. They’re friendly and great at plotting and writing. 

And if someone pulled any toxic behaviour like in Paradigm? I’d call them out too. 

  Now can you please stop with this talk and show some respect to any other rp that might come out? These attacks must be so discouraging for many admins that want to create a place but don’t want to face this kind of hate that they have not earned at all. So what if Paradigm is opening another rp? If you happen to join that one you’re going to know pretty soon, and then, as long as you have proof, we can believe it and avoid it like the plague.

Have you also considered that maybe they spread that rumour to make precisely this kind of mess? Let’s face it, they know they can’t start fresh in another rp they build, because they won’t be able to leave behind the mess they’ve made. But instead of accepting it, they go cry wolf on any other rp opening. This is their ridiculous way to try to stay relevant. 

Why are y’all still entertaining an entitled bunch of people that just want the attention? Indifference is what I’d give them after all this.  sincerely admin edit: proof of identification was sent to us in our dms!

[sumeru-academy]

Delivery girl.

synopsis: you’re the cute delivery girl they have a crush on.

character(s): hu tao, yae, ei (seperate).

warning(s): suggestive flirting (yae).

note(s): female reader, second POV, modern AU.

P.S: this prompt was inspired by my hunger and overwhelming desire to order food at 11 pm.

—mod angel 🎐

HU TAO

Hu Tao was one to order takeout often, however in all her years of ordering from this one specific chain, she had never met a delivery girl as pretty as you before.

Lounging around in her PJs while chatting idly with a phone lodged between her cheek, she made her way over to the door and was barely even paying attention when your voice short-circuited her brain.

“Delivery for Hu Tao!”

She nearly dropped her phone at your voice, body frozen stiff as she shakily ended her call to put her focus on you. ‘Holyyyy crap is this the new delivery girl??? I’ve never seen her before…!’ She was practically gawking at the sight, drool building up in her throat as she struggled to find her voice.

“Wow, I heard our food was pretty good but I didn’t expect you to salivate that much upon arrival,” you teased. “Do you…need a tissue?”

OH RIGHT SHE’S STILL STARING—

“No! It’s okay!” That was a lie, Hu Tao was in fact not okay. “I just— I’m just hungry!”

“(Chuckle) I can see…”

Hu Tao was internally cursing herself for wearing such unflattering PJs. Why in the everliving heavens did she decide to wear this of all things? Especially her ghost slippers! The ones that had the derpy looking faces on them! Agghhh what must you think of her now?!

‘She must think I look ridiculous!’ Hu Tao grimaced.

‘Cute slippers. I want them.’ You smiled and kept on staring.

‘She’s staring at them! Oh noooooo!’ Hu Tao screamed.

“As cute as you are staring at me, can you take these inside, please? They’re really hot and kind of burning my hands.” Hu Tao snapped out of her panic and realized that you were still holding the food she had ordered. Cursing herself even more as you must’ve stood there waiting for her to take them for god knows how long.

“Right, let me just get these off your hands…” Hu Tao shivered when her hand brushed against yours, noting how soft and warm they were as if you weren’t just scalding your hands moments ago. “This is everything, right?”

“Mhm! Everything you ordered is here.” You wiped away some sweat with the back of your hand and Hu Tao swears she saw god for a moment. “Now for the bill…”

“Oh, yeah! Let me just go grab my wallet.” Hu Tao stiffly walked back inside with the grace of a nutcracker and exhaled sharply once her back was turned to you. Has– Has the house always been so warm? Hu Tao pulled at the collar of her PJs and fanned herself as she went to go find her bag. Or was she cold? It feels like her heart is pounding right out of her chest! Good gods she must be possessed!

After paying you the bill –as well as a very generous tip may I add— Hu Tao shut the door with a quiet thud and practically raced to her upstairs bedroom. Launching face first into her pillow and screaming as loud as she could muffle without disturbing the neighbors. 

‘AAAAAAAAAAAAA-’ She kicked her legs up and down and had long forgotten about the food she had left in the kitchen. Her mind instead flooded with thoughts of you, your pretty smile, your face, your whole…everything! 

“She must be a fiend…” Hu Tao murmured, sinking her face into her pillow as heat began to pour from her cheeks. “What a devilish restaurant, using such a temptress to get me to order again next time…I’ve been bewitched…”

YAE MIKO

Miko in a modern setting would totally be a Starbucks kind of girl. Ordering it every chance she gets and even having her name spelled correctly as she was a frequent customer.

However, as frequent as she may be, there are times where she is simply too lazy to drive there herself. So, she settles for delivery whenever she couldn’t be bothered to.

Though, after this one occasion, it seems like Miko will now be ordering delivery every time she gets…

Halfway through with getting her nails painted, Miko’s ears perked up at the sound of the doorbell as she remembered that she had ordered drinks twenty minutes ago. Blowing profusely on her barely even dry nails, she struggled to even open her door as she didn’t want to ruin her tedious hard work. ‘I really should’ve thought this through…’ Miko seethed, fumbling with her elbows of all things to twist the knob open. ‘At least the only person seeing this would be the awkward little delivery boy—’

Girl. 

Miko’s eyes widened when she saw a newer, cuter, more prettier face than the one she was already used to. Instead of some awkward teenage boy that could barely look her in the eye, a more attractive, pretty-faced woman stood in their place instead. “Starbucks delivery for Miss Miko?” you smiled sunnily. 

Of course the one day Miko wasn’t looking her best, a hot girl decided to show up. Great. 

“Yes, that is I,” Miko instinctively took up a flirtatious pose, even though it lost its effect as she was wearing pink fluffy sweatpants. “And who is the pretty lady if I may ask?”

“Oh, I’m just the delivery girl,” You chuckled bashfully. “Here’s your order by the way, Sorry for the wait, it appears that lots of people wanted to order from home.”

“D’awww, I’m not your first customer?” Miko jabbed playfully. 

“No, I’ve actually been working as a delivery girl for a week now. So of course you wouldn’t be my first.” Miko frowned at your blunt response. “Here are your drinks. Better take them fast or else they’d melt.”

“Hmm. Fine. But can you be a dear and put them on the counter for me? My nails aren’t done drying you see,” she presented them to you proudly and gestured for you to follow her inside. “Wouldn’t want them to smear after all.”

“Of course!” You slipped off your shoes and stepped inside to set the tray on her countertop. “There you go. As for the bill…”

“Oh! The bill…” a devious smirk made its way onto Yae Miko’s lips as she had an excellent idea to make you blush. “I’m sorry dear, but I seemed to have misplaced my bag. Perhaps…I could pay you in other ways…?”

That sultry tone in her voice implied something seductive. However, you didn’t comprehend it as such as you only assumed she wanted a different payment method. 

“Yeah we take Apple Pay.” You beamed innocently. “Would you like to–”

“No! That’s not what I meant…”

“...We take CashApp too.”

“No no no–!” 

Miko groaned inwardly. Her attempts thwarted by your obliviousness as she turned to not spare you another thought. “I’ll…I’ll go find my bag…” 

Sighing defeatedly, she paid you and sent you on your way. Plopping down at her kitchen counter and staring at her Starbucks drinks chilling in the tray in front of her. Damn, has her game been that bad lately? Miko wanted to bury herself in her hands in pity. In front of a pretty girl too… 

She set her head against the cool countertop and thought about how she could woo you over to make you hers. Her drinks long forgotten about as they melted under the fiery blaze of her longing for you. 

‘Looks like I’ll be ordering from home more often…’

RAIDEN EI

Since Ei can’t cook at all, takeout and delivery is basically all she eats. She’s a frequent customer of pretty much every fast food chain you could think of, yet the one chain she orders from the most is a certain bakery she loves for their sweets. 

Most often than not, the delivery drivers for that certain bakery have all delivered to Ei’s place a numerous amount of times. However, since you were a new hire, this was the first time you’d be delivering to the well-known customer, and boy was it rough.

To put it short, you got lost.

Ei was getting impatient as she had ordered her boba and sweets over half an hour ago. What was the delivery driver doing? She was getting hungrier by the minute and her craving for sweets got much stronger with each passing minute. The moment the doorbell rang, Ei ran like lightning. Nearly tripping over a couch cushion as she stumbled to reach the doorknob in time. 

‘Finally! I can see the person responsible for delaying me of my desserts–’ Ei flinched when she was greeted with a young woman breathing heavily while holding up a box of her delicious freshly-baked desserts. The smell wafted up to her nose and instantly calmed her down as she took in the appearance of the disheveled woman. Who, despite being completely out of breath, had a very pretty voice Ei noted. 

“Your…Your order…miss…” you wheezed weakly. Clutching your stomach and presenting the box of goodies like it was the head of a monster you had just slayed. “Sorry for the delay. I got a little lost around the…the neighborhood.”

Your arms shook and Ei took it as a sign to grab the box before you could drop it. Watching as you picked yourself up painfully and analyzing your features as she had realized that she had never seen you before from the bakery. 

‘So they hired a new girl to deliver to my house…’ Ei let her eyes wander across your face and took note of how oddly cute you were despite being all hot and sweaty. ‘Very pretty. Though punctuality is not her forte…’

“You were awfully late still.” Ei spoke bluntly.

“I know. I’m sorry. Please don’t tell my boss!” You winced. 

“I won’t.” Ei murmured, grabbing the hilt of your chin and tilting it upwards to make you face her. “I quite like having you deliver to me, so I want you to keep your job.”

Unintentionally, the loser Raiden Ei had made you blush. Who would’ve thought?

“I-I…erm…” Ei watched as you fumbled over your words, heat radiating from your cheeks as she still hadn’t let go of your chin. 

‘Not good with words either.’ Ei noted, ‘And her face is all warm. She really must be out of breath…’

“I will go grab my wallet,” she murmured quietly, letting go of your chin to go back inside the house. “I will be ordering from the bakery a plentiful amount of times. Expect to memorize my route by then, understood?”

“Yes ma’am…”

“Good.”

And as Ei sent you off with the bill and your tip, she sat back in her kitchen and pulled out a pastry from the box. Chewing on a mouthful and letting her thoughts drift to you once more. Thoughts wandering as a blush suddenly spread across her face.

‘Is it just me…or are these desserts even sweeter than before…’