#maybe it’s just the costume and they don’t actually look alike with it off but wow

[galwithalibrarycard]

I watched Starkid’s new musical Cinderella’sCastle. I have some thoughts:

- I’m very unimpressed by the music and lyrics. It’s possible the electro pop style isn’t for me; at least I definitely don’t think it works for a whole musical. It sounds too samey and very few of the songs are memorable. The lyrics feel slapdash and nonsensical a lot of the time. More importantly though…

- A lot of the live singing is very, very rough, especially all of the Narrator’s falsetto. Jeff Blim could make those notes sound okay with autotune in the demos (I actually really liked the demos), but he cannot hit the constant high notes at all in this filmed live performance. I should not be cringing at the vocals in a musical. That’s a big problem. I think he needs to either write to his actual vocal range or cast a different actor who can go that high and still sound clean live. I also think the stepfamily’s Facade song sounded really rough at parts, and I know those women are good singers, so maybe it’s the vocal direction and their character voices dragging them down.

- The book has problems with incorrect word usage, like the writers were trying so hard for fantasy dialogue and cadence that they forgot to make sure their sentences made sense. You and your forebears will rule there forevermore” is wrong. “Forebears” means “ancestors”. The word you meant to use is “descendants”. And the stepmother saying, “I worried you’d befallen some awful fate” is incorrect usage. It should be “I worried that some awful fate had befallen you”. Get a copy editor on that script! (I say this as nicely as possible. I know that I’m more sensitive to usage and grammar issues than most audience members because I am a copy editor, and I don’t usually correct people without being asked, but professional musical books don’t usually make these mistakes. Not a great look.)

- I agree with the reviews I’ve seen that say the book relies way too much on un-funny sex jokes and crudeness. I didn’t laugh once. And I’ve enjoyed and laughed at many a previous Starkid show, so that’s saying something. The prince specifically is deeply obnoxious, and not in a fun way. James Tolbert deserves better material.

- I dislike that the troll forms of the stepmother and stepsisters all look exactly alike. Make the stepmother puppet bigger, a different color, let her keep her wig or give her a funny hat, anything. She should stand out as the biggest and scariest troll. In general, a troll should feel larger than life; these troll puppets have no character. The actors are trying, but these puppets are stunting their great performances.

- Things I liked: The actors were all trying their hardest with rough material, and they did a great job. Bryce Charles has a great voice and makes for a likable lead, and I wish I could see her in a better show. I’m in love with Kim Whalen as usual. Sir Hops-a-lot and Crumb are adorable and everything Joey Richter does with his puppet characters is a delight. The costumes are nice!

- The adaptation of Cinderella is very predictable, of course, but there’s one twist on an element of the tale that’s extremely creative and I liked a lot (even if it gave the stepsister the theoretical power to foil Cinderella’s comeback just by taking off her shoes, which seems like a plot hole).

- The fairytale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” already did the evil troll princess bit and did it better, and I wish that story would get adapted more often (and Cinderella a bit less often, LBR). Castle isn’t all bad, but I don’t think ALW has to worry- modern musical theatre has sadly still not given us a Good Cinderella.

[sparklyshakespeare]

the case for hyper-femme hotspur

this is my tumblr blog and this is like kind of just what we do heresies

OK so basically okay so

first of all i think anytime there is a character who is so strongly associated with an extreme form of gender expression in our collective zeitgeist (i.e hotspur and hyper-masculinity) there’s something not only extremely fun to play with but incredibly valuable about analyzing the story from the opposite end of the gender performance specturm. also canonically there are like 3 female characters in 1h4 and that sucks. also also don’t you want to see hotspur in pink glitter? i know i do and this tumblr is not a democracy!!

in this hypothetical dream sparkly version of the play, both hotspur and worcester would be women. not played by women, i mean textually explicitly women. this is important!! 

worcester should be very nancy pelosi hillary clinton-esque in the way that this is a middle-aged woman who has been taught that to be successful in her field (politics) she will have to strip herself of most of her femininity and perform a certain level of masculinity in order to be taken seriously. this creates a whole other layer to the hotspur/worcester dynamic when all of a sudden this young, hyper-feminine woman is being taken more seriously and being given more praise than someone who has worked and fought through the bullshit and done it all “right”. she hasn’t earned her place, she hasn’t had to struggle - and worcester resents her for that. (there’s like a whole dissertation to be written about how much of 1h4 changes when only worcester is genderbent, i love you queen worcester you are everything not in this version here you kind of suck lowkey)

henry iv is just a misogynist he just kinda sucks but like this is something we all knew screw that guy

ok now we can talk about hal because i know hes like the one all you little gay people care about. 

to me, it’s never made sense why the Henriad is framed as hal’s hero’s journey. maybe it’s because i’m queer (i’m like actually positive that’s why), but leaving home and finding acceptance and family from a group of outsiders who society has deemed as worthless is the path i’ve watched so many friends walk. having to leave that and return to your shitty dad because “duty calls!” and THEN leaving behind and disavowing the same community that opened its arms to you? i don’t see that as an awesome coming-of-age about learning how to handle responsibility, that’s deeply, deeply tragic. and far farrrrr too true a reality for most members of our LGBTQ+ community here (Bible Belt). SO guess where this version of 1h4 is set!!!!!! anyways, its the Medieval Revival of the ‘70s in the Bible Belt south, the Boar’s Head is a gay bar, and hal is trans. 

hal is trans-masc in some way and this needs to be incredibly explicit (like pronouns pin with trans flag on costume explicit). and then when the news breaks, when “I’ll to the court in the morning.” (we’re cutting the text so this is where that scene ends. cool? cool. cool!), hal takes the pin off. it needs to be like A Moment. it should make me cry, and i cry really easily so that’ll probably be pretty easy to do, but this is a gut punch. 

oh and lady percy is still a woman, they’re gay, because i said so. blah blah blah because look hotspur and hal really were so alike all along and look hotspur is fighting so voraciously because she’s hungry for a world where she can openly and unabashedly be with the person she loves but ultimately because i love lady percy and i love lesbians and this play doesn’t need another man. but also because look hotspur is fighting so voraciously because she’s hungry for a world where she can openly and unabashedly be with the person she loves. worcester and vernon should also both be women and have the blossoming of a relationship but be a lot more discreet about it (worcester should be extremely hesitant). now we get a cool split between younger and older generations of activists in both the feminist and the gay rights movement oooo themes oooo motifs oooo lady gagita 

as far as hal/hotspur parallels go, it’s probably pretty obvious at this point. your dad constantly praising someone who represents, at least in his mind, the ideal concept of a woman, disappointed you can’t be more like her, all the while you’re coming to terms with the fact that you’re not a woman, but he’ll never see that, so what the fuck are you supposed to do?!? it’s a LOT! but i think there’s also something to be said about the less obvious parallel. which is that hyper-femininity is NOT an attempt at ideal polite womanhood or self-Stepfordization, hyper-femininity is in fact the extreme performance of womanhood in rejection of that. hyper-femininity is queer in nature (also hotspur quite literally has a wife but i guess hal wouldn’t be able to tell that just by looking at her) there’s something to be said about the moment hal and hotspur see each other, and then the moment hal and hotspur seeeeeee each other. and go hey, you’re just like me. this person who you’ve been constantly compared to and made out to be lesser than  because you dare to be deeply wildly madly truly you is in fact exactly the same. we’re the same. and oh my god, in another world wouldn’t it have been lovely to just like go dancing together? sucks it’s not another world now we’re going to gay fight each other i guess

[rustycopper4use]

It’s Always Been You pt11

(Kyoya x Male Reader)

Chapter eleven

-Big Brother Is A Prince!-

  He dust off your fitted police uniform, as the club waits around for the first wave of guests.

  Y/n kept glancing over to Kyoya, he looked too good in the costume. He like out a huff, decided to deal with these feelings like a rational person.

  By making fun of them, and turning them into jokes.

   Y/n whistle while checking out Kyoya.

“Now I understand why people like a man in uniform.” Y/n grinned, putting his hands on his hips.

“What do you want now?” He looked up from his infamous black notebook.

  “What? Can’t a man appreciate when another man is attractive-“ Y/n barely finished his sentence before breaking out into laughter.

  Before Kyoya could say anything a door opens.

 “Welcome!”

  In the doorway was a little girl, blonde hair in pigtails and the biggest blue eyes you’ve ever seen.

  Tamaki struts over to the girl and bends down to her eye level.

  “Oh my, what an unusually young guest! Well, glad you’re here, my little lost kitty cat!” He kindly smiled.

 “It’s a reverse harem!” The girl blurts out, pointing at the hosts.

   The club is shocked.

“It’s a reverse harem.” She repeated.

 Tamaki nervously chuckled, hitting his head.

 “That can’t be right! Maybe there’s still water in my ears from when I went swimming.”

Hikaru joins in also laughing uncomfortably.

  “Yeah water in the ears that must be it!”

“-because there’s no way this cute little girl said the words reverse harem.”

 “There’s debauchery here.” She bluntly spoke, shocking the club evermore so.

  “Yay there’s debauchery here!” She cheered.

 “You’re the glasses character!” She points towards Kyoya.

 “You’re his hopeless in love sidekick!” Y/n chokes on air.

 “Uhm, you’re the boy Lolita and the stoic type!” She looks at Honey and Mori.

 “Twincest! And the book worm”

She paused looking at Tamaki, a few minutes pass before tears welled up in her eyes.

 “Big brother?” She whispered.

 “Big brother!” She jumped into Tamaki’s arms.

 “My brother is blonde, you must be him!” She cheered.

 “You never told us about this!” Hikaru screamed.

 “-since when did you have a little sister!”

 “I don’t! I’m definitely an only chold, at least as far as I know.” Tamaki is now holding up the little girl.

 “The more I look at you, the two of you do look a lot alike! You’re both blonde after all!” Honey adds in.

 “I want to know if glasses character is superior to ‘Big brother’” Kyoya calmly states, watching Tamaki try and pull off the girl.

 “But does it really matter? I can’t believe she called me a bookworm.” Haruhi grumbled, at this clearly inaccurateassessment of her character.

Y/n is just staring into space, how did this little girl know.

 He was basically overheating.

  “I believe she broke Y/n.” Kyoya spoke waving his notebook infront of his face. But to no avail.

 “Excuse me, do you want to tell me your name little one?” He nervously murmured.

 “Kirimi.” She happily answered, without a care in the world.

 “Kirimi-chan-“ Tamaki spoke putting her down onto a couch.

 “I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake, I’m really sorry but, I don’t have a younger sister.” He kindly spoke.

 “Are you sure-?” She begins tearing up.

 “You’re blonde just like me.” She whimpered. And Tamaki the weak willed fool folded.

 “I give in!” He lifts Kirimi in the air spinning her around.

 “As of this moment, I am your new big brother! You’re so cute!”

 “I know you get carried away by emotion, but don’t you think it’s irresponsible to make such empty promises.” Haruhi brings Tamaki back to earth.

 “Don’t you listen to that mean Haruhi. I’m not irresponsible! Come with me and I’ll look after you!” He counties to spin Kirimi in pure bliss.

 Haruhi still looking at the two leans over to Kyoya.

 “What do you think we should do, Kyoya-senpai?”

  “We should probably find out if she actually has a brother that goes to this school.” Kyoya states, still trying to break Y/n out of his daze.

 “Twins can you help me with Y/n.” He sighed walking over to Tamaki, as the twins smiled know exactly what to do.

 “I think Kirimi-chan got your character troupe perfectly, huh?” Hikaru slides next to Y/n.

 “-especially being in love with-“ kaoru is abruptly interrupted but a eerie door creeping opening, finally dragging Y/n back to reality.

 “Kirimi… Kirimi…” The cloak figure creepily whispered, through the crack in the door.

 The twins, quickly look over to the male.

 He pops his head out the door, and the man is not wearing his usual cloak, revealing his bright blonde hair.

  “Hey who the hell are you?” The twins rudely spoke.

 “He looks like a foreigner!” Honey jumps in.

 “What’s up with that? How come the door looks different all the sudden.” Haruhi furrowed her brows, at the lack of logic.

 “Oh Kirimi…” Nekozawa quietly mumbled, before a girl with a catlike appearance roughly puts on the cloak and wig on him.

 The club freezes realizing who it is.

 “Nekozawa-Senpai!”

“Master Umehito is terribly vulnerable to any kind of bright light. For that reason, if he doesn’t shroud himself in black he will fall victim to the brightness of the outside world and will undoubtedly collapse!” The maid cried.

 “Sounds like a someone we know.” Hikaru teased, poking Y/n.

 “I’m not that bad!” He rebuttals, to unbelieving Twins.

 “-on the other hand Kirimi, his sister, is frightened of dark dimly lit places.” The maid explained gestured towards the girl.

 “So this little girl is Nekozawa-senpai’s younger sister.” Haruhi pointed towards the bright eyed girl.

“You are quite insightful. Yes, that would be correct, sir.” The maid wipes a tear with a handkerchief.

 Tamaki places the little girl down.

 “Kirimi, so this is where you’ve been hiding.” Nekozawa laughed. Frightening the girl.

 “Brother! Save me from the monster!” She screeched, throwing herself back to Tamaki.

 “Please don’t be scared-“ He walked up to her.

 “I’d like to introduce you to someone. This is beelzenef-“ he holds up a cat hand puppet.

 “The Nekozawa family has worshipped him for generations.” He eerily smiled.

 “Y’know, I get the feeling she’s not scared of the puppet. Call me crazy, but I think it’s you.” She bluntly states.

 Kyoya nods in agreement.

“It’s probably your clothes, we’ll help you change okay.” The twins began pulling on his cloak.

 “No don’t do that! It’s far to bright, I may die!” Nekozawa pleads.

 “I know! Why don’t we just darken the room!” Honey smiled closing the Host rooms curtains.

 “Don’t do that I’m afraid!” Kirimi screamed.

 “Don’t worry little one.” Tamaki comforts the girl.

 “Either way someone’s unhappy.” Kyoya states the obvious.

 “No shit Sherlock.” You teased, which earned a glare from Kyoya.

 “Watch your language Y/n.” He scolded. Leaving Y/n with very strong feelings.

 “It’s a tragedy that these two siblings are such polar opposites. As a result they’ve became known as the Nekozawa family’s Romeo and Juliet!” The maid dramatically compared.

 “But Romeo and Juliet weren’t brother and sister, I think their situation is a little different.” Haruhi explains.

 “Now I’m not defending her weird comparison but, weren’t they cousins?” Y/n questioned.

 “Oh I’m well aware of that! To be honest it’s just something I just came up on the fly! Pretty impressive huh? I thought it might make it more dramatic.” She cheerful states.

 “Oh I see.” Haruhi blankly spoke.

 “We were sent by the masters family-“ the butler next to the girl bows.

 “To get our beloved Mistress Kirimi back home safely.”

 “Is the rest of the family-“

“As out of touch as the three of you are?” The twins uttered.

 “How dare you say such a thing! The Nekozawa’s are a distinguished family! They’re descendants of the Tokarev dynasty of Russia!” She gritted her teeth.

 “Tokarev huh?” Kyoya mummered.

 “Wait, you mean Romanov right?” Tamaki tilts his head.

 “There’s a legend that says every few hundred years, a Nekozawa child is born, a child who is destined to be possessed by the darkness exactly like our master Umehito, that legend may or may not be true.”

 “What do you mean in may or not be true?” Honey curiously looked at the girl.

 “Is it or isn’t?” The twins bored with this already.

 “Mistress Kirimi, fell in love with the handsome fairy tale prince of an older brother she seen in portraits, however with Nekozawas issues, master is unable to go near his sister without being shrouded in black. 

  Once she found out that her older brother was enrolled here, she decided to go looking for him. That’s brought her to your host club.” 

 “We’ve tried comforting her with stories with princely characters like her brother, but we ran out of stories. So recently, we’ve decided to start reading her shoujo manga that had princely characters in them! And I’m afraid she’s became completely addicted!”

 “Shoujo manga?” Haruhi gulped.

 “I see, so that’s where that came from.” Tamaki commented.

“Is there really debauchery in your Shoujo manga? But, Sashimi-chan is so young.” Haruhi worried.

 “Did you just say Sashimi?” Y/n grinned.

  “Man I thought I was bad at names.”

 “It’s kirimi.” Nekozawa reminded.

 “So Kirimi-chan doesn’t know that you’re her real older brother?” Haruhi turned towards him.

 “Yes, we’ve talked to her but she won’t believe us.” The maid mentioned.

 “That’s so sad. Well no wonder Neko-chan is upset.” Honey rubbed away his own tears.

 “It’s painful… that’s why, every single night I offer prayers in hopes one day Kirimi will embrace the darkness.” Nekozawa sadly spoke.

 “I think you’ve got it backwards buddy, you should try to get accustomed to the light.” The twins explained.

 “Come along Mistress Kirimi, it’s time to go home.” The staff begin to pull Kirimi away.

 “No! I’m not going with you!” She clings onto Tamaki.

 “I don’t wanna go home! I want to stay with my Big brother!” She cried.

 “Nekozawa..” Tamaki muttered, holding the crying girl.

 “Don’t worry about me, Suoh. All I want is for my sister to be happy make sure-“ he chokes out a sob.

 “-she gets the love she deserves.” He bolts out of the room crying.

 “Wait a minute!” Tamaki tried to stop him, but failed.

 “Siblings relations are a source of problems in any family.” Kyoya pushes up his glasses.

  “You and I would know the most of it, huh?.” Y/n spoke, taking a more serious tone.

 Tamaki looked over at the two.

 “Even so, I’m kinda jealous.” Haruhi states.

 They looked over to Haruhi.

“I grew up an only child, so I can’t really relate, but I imagine how tough it must be to have a sibling so different from you that you can’t even spend time together.” Haruhi explained.

Tamaki sets down Kirimi once again.

 “Is something wrong? Tell me big brother.” She looked up at Tamaki.

 “I’m sorry Kirimi-chan, I’m not the big brother that you’ve been looking for.” Tamaki softly replied.

 “Don’t worry-“ he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

 “-he’s still out there. Believe it or not, you have a big brother that’s even more handsome than I am! And I promise you he’s a real prince.” 

 “But senpai-“ Haruhi starts.

“Once she stepped foot into this room Kirimi-chan became a guest of the host club. And-“ Tamaki runs a hand through his hair.

 “It’s our job to make all of our guests happy!”

 “It’s an absolute tragedy to see a brother and sister at odds this way. We have to do something to help them! Starting now operation 

 ‘Change Nekozawa-Senpai Into The Princely Character Of Kirimi-Chan’s Dreams’ is underway!”

 “Are you serious?” The twins asked.

 “You want to change Umehito from the prince of darkness to a prince of light? I don’t even know if that’s possible!” The maid gasped.

 “Senpai! Quit getting carried away by emotions! Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Haruhi scolded.

  “Shhh, I want to see how this plays out. Y’know, so shut it.” Y/n states.

“Oh have a little faith. Have you forgotten that we have an expert on our side? Someone knows the importance of changing characters.” Tamaki smirked.

 “Wait- you don’t mean?” The twins looked at each other.

 The floor rumble, gears turned and up comes Renge with her laughter.

  “Well speak of the devil.” Y/n rubbed his face, already feeling the migraine coming.

 After a few short minutes, the host club room was setup for the perfect training ground for Nekozawa, and Renge was once again taking role of coach, and yelling at him with a megaphone.

 Shooting Y/n nerves straight to hell, if this kept up he would end up having an overstimulated breakdown.

  He was now sitting at a table face down trying to muffle the noise.

 Mori was by a black borde writing down prohibited words.

 Honey was sitting on the table, while Kyoya was leaning against the table near Y/n.

  “Looks like Renge’s on top of things.” Kyoya notes.

 “Yep she’s on a roll.” Honey cheered kicking his feet, the movement only making Y/n feel worse, as a nauseating shiver ran up Y/n’a back.

 “Is Y/n-chan okay? Kyo-chan?.” Honey worriedly looked at the barely living Y/n.

 Kyoya looks at the state Y/n’s in.

 Another sound of screams pierced the room, causing Y/n to try and sink further to the table.

 “Did you bring your headphones today?” Kyoya quietly asked, not wanting to make you feel worse.

 You shakily tapped on the table twice.

 “Do you know where you put them?” 

 You hesitate for a second before tapping twice again.

 “Is it in its usual spot?” 

Two taps were followed after.

 “Do you want me to get them for you?” Two taps again was heard.

 Kyoya gets up, and heads over to one of the rooms to the side of the club, in the room was a bag, Y/n called it his emergency kit. He always supplied it with his headphones, countless fidget toys, and off to the side of the bag was the weighted blanket.

 He quickly grabs the headphones, and a purple fidget toy, with clickable buttons. An addition Kyoya himself added.

 Kyoya leaves the room and comes back to the table, he lightly taps the table next to where Y/n’s head is laying, he lifts his head up slowly. And grabbed the items from Kyoya.

  He puts on the headphones, muffling his surroundings. Kyoya placed the toy in-front of Y/n and went back to leaning on the table.

  “Kyo-chan? How did you know what Y/n-chan needed?” Honey whispered.

 “Hm? What do you mean?” 

“Well Y/n-chan tapped on the table and you knew exactly what it meant. And you were aware where it was?”

 “We’ve been in the same class for years, you think something like this hasn’t happened before?” Kyoya calmly explained pushing his glasses up.

 “I guess that make sense..” Honey mumbled in thought, feeling like his missing something.

 Lights began flashing, trying to get Nekozawa akin to the light.

 He screams, like a vampire to the sun. 

 “-but I thought you rejected the  occult?” Nekozawa questioned.

 “Occult fiction is good, occult fashion is not.” Renge explained as if it was obvious.

 “Oh is that so?” Tamaki tilts his head.

 “Don’t judge him! You’re the one always in cosplay.” the twins reminded.

 “Here you go boss!” The twins mischievously smiled. Pushing a mannequin with a wig, similar to Haruhi’s hairstyle, and wearing a cute pink ruffled bathing suit.

  “We got this one ready just for you!”

 “You should go ahead and confess your love to this Haruhi doll!” The twins explained.

  “You should teach him,by example.” 

Tamaki gulped and nervously closed his eyes.

 “H-Haruhi I-i…” he stammered.

 “Excuse me.” The real Haruhi interrupted.

  “H-Haruhi! You’re the real one! When did you get here?” He nervously tossed the doll off to the side.

  “Kirimi-chan came to the host club looking for you.” She glared at the doll now on the floor.

 “If you’ve got time to do disgusted things like this, surely you can spare some time to hang out with her for awhile!” She scolded.

 “Horrible? Disgusting?” He whimpered retreating to a corner.

 “Why don’t you keep her company Haruhi? What’s wrong, don’t like children?” The twins questioned.

  “Well no, it’s not that I don’t like them or anything.”

 “But she’s made me read about fifty volumes of shoujo manga to her over the last few days, and to my surprise? Those things are really full of reverse harems and debauchery.” She cringed at the memory.

 “Big brother?” Kirimi looks around the room.

 “This room is dark and scary!” She began crying.

 “Oh Kirimi-Chan!” She runs up to  the shaking girl.

 “I told you to wait for me in the other room.”

 Tamaki lifta Kirimi in the air, taking her out to the brightly lit hallway.

  “You see? Nothing to be afraid of?” Kirimi giggles.

 Nekozawa holds a flashlight to his face with new found determination. He flicks it on.

 And chants ‘I am a princely big brother’ to work up the willpower.

 “He did it!” Honey cheered.

 Mori claps.

“Nekozawa-senpai has come a long way! Now being able to flash a light directly in his face!” Renge teared up.

  “Bravo senpai, bravo!” The twins pull pop streamers, and loud bangs came off it.

  Y/n flinched, still overwhelmed by everything.

 Kyoya coldly glares at twins, causing the twins to nervously hide the now popped streamers behind their back, feeling a new sense of danger.

 “Hey look, Kirimi-Chan hasn’t left the courtyard yet.” Hikaru spoke looking out the window.

 “But there’s something down there with her. Oh, it’s just a cat.” Kaoru notes.

 Nekozawa gasped and rushed over to look out the window.

  “Your family sure does like cats.” Hikaru mentioned.

 “Even strays warm up to your family.”

 “They’re revered by our family it’s true, but Kirimi wouldn’t participate in something like that! Kirimi is afraid of animals, and most of all she’s afraid of cats!” He frantically looks around.

 He decided the sane thing to do was rush down the stai- wait no he jumps out the window.

 “But he’s not wearing his black cloak!” Haruhi states.

 The host club watched out the now shattered window. They looked at awe at the former goth’s bravery.

 Kyoya lets out a sigh. Causing y/n to move his head onto his arms, so he could look at him. He clicked the button on the fidget toy, to gain Kyoyas attention.

  “Nekozawa jumped out our window.” Kyoya explained. Y/n hummed, looking blankly at the broken glass scattered across the room.

 “Are you feeling better?” Kyoya spoke, writing the estimate expense of the windows.

 Y/n tapped twice.

 “Hm good.” He writes down in his book.”

 Y/n takes an inhale, and points towards the book.

  “My book? Do you want to say something?” Kyoya spoke.

  He tapped twice on the table.

 He flipped to an empty page.

“Please don’t try and look through it.” He teased before handing the book off.

  He ignore his comment and began writing on the page, he hands it back as Kyoya looks at it.

 His face softens for a second before adjusting his glasses.

 On the page were the words ‘Thank you’ written in messy handwriting.

 This rare moment of affection, was not ignored. Honey, finally connected the dots. 

 Leaving the twins, Mori and Honey. To be aware of the fondness for one another.

[mirai1269]

SYVNH Short: Mermaids?

TW: Drowning and Cannabalism (fun)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vacation is the perfect way to unwind and cool down after a stressful life… unless something happens.

It was supposed to be a nice Summer vacation to the beach, away from 2 crazy yanderes and school that gives an illegal amont of homework, but I guess the universe never wants to give MC a break.

Newt: “Hey Big Bro, I’m gonna join those kids in that giant hole in the sand.”

MC: “Alright, just don’t stay there for too long.”

Newt: “Alright!” He said as he left to join the others.

It was bliss, he was finally alone with his brother enjoying the soothing sounds of waves crashing on the shore.

Vincent: “Heeey Honey!”

MC: ohmygodIjustcantcatchabreakcanI ….. maybe if I pretend to be asleep, Vincent would leave me alone. Possibly think I’m a random look-alike.

Leon: “Hey Dear! Don’t ignore us!”

MC: ah sh*t, Leon’s here too…

He didn’t want to open his eyes, he just wanted to escape everything that’s been happening to him. However the yanderes have tracked him to the beach and are now about to kidnap him…. Dangit!

MC: ugh “What is it-” he paused his sentence as he saw Ariel? No… that was definitely Vincent with a fish tail, Leon too. He saw two mermen on the beach rock looking at him. Leon had a Pink tail, while Vincent had a green one.

Vincent?: “Look who’s finally awake! Happy to see us?”

MC: “No… and WHY are you wearing mermaid tails?! Can you even swim in those!!”

Leon?: “Wearing? Oh no no no! Those are our real tails.”

Leon and Vincent flipped their tails, and that was no costume, they were actually mermen. MC was convinced Newt screwed up a spell or something, but when he looked back, Newt was still digging that hole with the other kids.

MC: “Ok…. Did Newt do this? If so I can tell him to change you two back.”

He wasn’t really going to change them back because this was a way to finally get rid of them.

Vincent?: “No Honey, we were always like this.”

Leon?: “No magic here, just us two.”

MC: “You’re lying, you’re my classmates, and last time I checked, you two had legs… Actually, why am I arguing, you two should be back at home!”

Leon?: “But we are home, we live in the ocean.”

Vincent?: “Come join us, the water is nice!”

Poor MC was so confused at this, what trick were they playing? And why weren’t they fighting each other like they always were? Are they even the real Leon and Vincent? They looked and sounded like them, but the more he talked to them, the more he doubted it. They sounded uncanny valley, like they were being too kind to him.

The only way to find out of Leon and Vincent were joking or cursed was to get closer and talk to them face to face. He took off his shoes and started walking into the water, the mermen both leapt off the rock to join him.

MC: “Leon, Vincent, what is going on-AHH!”

He was suddenly pulled under the water by both of them, they started holding him under and dragging him further from shore. Despite being under water, he could hear them.

???Vincent???: “I’ll have the head and the legs”

???Leon???: “You got the legs last time, we promised an arm and a leg each.”

These weren’t Leon and Vincent, nor were they mermaids, they were Sirens waiting for their next meal, and he fell for it!

Oh God, I’m gonna die, I’M GONNA DIE!!!

He started screaming, but his attempts were futile under the water. He felt his lungs burn from a lack of air as the sirens drop their disguise and started tearing his flesh from his body. Their bite marks were sharp and savage, causing the water to turn red quickly.

?: “big bro!”

It was Newt, he was coming to save him! But where is he? Was he gonna save him in time?

…. big bro ….

……… Big Bro ………

………………………………………

BIG BRO WAKE UP!!!

He was jolted awake by the sound of Newt’s scream. He was lying on the beach towel he layed down and his body was in one piece. There, stood Newt with a concerned expression.

Newt: “Big Bro, are you alright?! I saw you tossing and turning in your sleep while me and the other kids were flying kites.”

MC: “Flying kites? I thought said you went to dig a giant hole on the beach with other kids.”

Newt: “Uhh… I think you (severely) misheard me.”

MC: gasp “THE SIRENS! NEWT, THEY WERE-” his sentences was stopped when he saw no sirens on the beach, better yet, he didn’t see the rock they were laying on earlier. “W-What?! Leon and Vincent, they were mermen, but not mermen, and they were eating me, a-and…”

Newt: “Are you ok? I think the heat is getting to you. Let’s go home.”

MC’s eyes started tearing up from that horrible nightmare with the sirens posing as Leon and Vincent as they drowned and ate him. It felt so real.

Newt: “There there, I’m sorry about that nightmare you had. Whenever I have a nightmare, a nice cup of tea always helps me.”

MC: sniff “Thanks Little Bro.”

Suddenly, the rustle of beach buses grabbed their attention. There, two familiar faces fell from their hiding spot with binoculars in their hands.

Real Vincent: “uhh….. Hey Honey!”

Real Leon: “We weren’t stalking you!”

MC: “AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” starts running away as fast as he could

Real Vincent: “Nice going Neanderthal, you just HAD to lean forward and cause me to fall.”

Real Leon: “How the Hell was I supposed to know you were there, you shouldn’t even be here!”

Newt: facepalms

—————————

Writer’s Note: I hope this wasn’t too violent or graphic. Also, moral of the story, never trust random mermaids on a lone rock. Also, I’m sure there can be scenarios were Mermaid Leon and Vincent are wholesome, but this short chooses to be violent.

Poor MC. Even on a vacation, he can never rest.

Newt: "Wait, how did you two even get here?"

Vincent: "I flew here on my private jet. I don't know how this cretin got here."

Leon: "I got here by bus, jackass!"

Newt: "No, I mean- How did you know me and big bro would be here?"

Vincent: "..."

Leon: "...secret :]"

Later...

Leon: "So... you dreamt about us?" *blushes* "As mermen?"

Vincent: "Was I a pretty merman~?"

MC: "Uhm..." *remembers how toned Leon's muscles were in the sunlight and how elegantly Vincent's hair waved in the air*

MC: "You guys....were..." *blushes* (F*ck this! Why do they have to be so handsome yet so dangerous?! It's unfair!)

[kaylikestodrawlittlenightmares]

@rebuilding-paradise the meeting of two alike Drabble (hehe lore for my Pokémon trainer and their mimikyu lilly)

“Hey are you alright Lil gal?” A trainer leaned down a young one. Seemingly was exploring with a group it seemed. They had been capturing paradox Pokémon left and right. “Hey.. do you wanna come with me? No pokeball or anything I just wanna talk!” The mimikyu was hesitant before it received a kiss on the forehead “I don’t have Pokeballs yet cause I’m yet to get my license… I’m getting it next year and I just want a Pokémon to cuddle and your super adorable! I promise I won’t try to take off your costume! I’ll even sew it back if it breaks!promise!” The mimikyu nuzzled into the young to be trainers hand “I think I’ll name you lilly..” she said with a smile picking up the mimikyu and putting it onto her shoulder. She walked back to the surpise group as her father patted her back “you have a talent. I’m sure Turo would love to know you. We gotta go deeper into area zero. But don’t worry I’ll protect you and lilly with my life..” Lilly tilited it’s fake head in confusion before the group headed back to a base key snuggling the mimikyu the whole way there.. this trainer was sweeter then most.. as the group and its soon to be trainer approached the station an explosion was heard.The mimikyu jolted immediately as the father ran back picking up his daughter and the mimikyu. The rest of the group followed “TOO MANY PARADOXES. WE CANT STAY IN THE UPPER BASE BECAUSE GERALD LOST A BATTLE ��� soon they were deep in area zero the girl holding onto lilly “I won’t let anything hurt you..” she murmured as the went into the other base. She got into bed before snuggling with her mimikyu “good night lilly..!” She said before falling asleep. The mimikyu knew it was lucky to have such a trainer. In turn for the trainer risking their life it would protect theirs. The next day they continued the expedition everyone seemed scared except the father,his daughter,and her well mimikyu lilly. Another battle broke out as an iron hands went for the young child out of anger, the mimkyu let out a hiss before slapping away the iron hands before wrapping itself around the young child. It was pissed off and it’s instinct was to protect its trainer. Though once the iron hands was distracted the feather picked up the two and ran into turos research base as the iron hands followed the door shut behind them as the little girl huffed and puffed.. the mimikyu opened the father bag rummaging before pulling out a water bottle and handing it to the young pre-trainer. As she drank footsteps approched. “Truly amazing.. not even a trainer and already bonding with Pokémon.. “ the father sprang up “hello professor turo-! How can we help-“ “I need to talk to your child and their mimikyu. “ Turo stated motioning the little girl and mimikyu to follow. She followed him quickly picking up mimikyu as they headed into another room. “I know I made no mistake giving you to Evan. Key you have proved to be one of the most successful human experiments of our time.” Key seemed confused and angry “what do you mean..?” Turo sighed “you real father is the actual turo.. he is dead. And your brother is arven. Though I would perfer you two not meet… it seems that the combination of turos dna,your mothers dna, and future generated AI type dna strands make you bond with Pokémon easier. Much like the future. I want you to become a trainer today. Your starter will be lilly. She will help you through many endeavors. Do you agree to this?” She looked at lilly before nodding “yes. “ turo handed her a trainer ID. Seemingly smiling “complete what others couldn’t. Travel to every region. Maybe try to find arceus. To answer your worldly questions.” He stated. As he let her wait back in the main hall as he talked with her father. Hee adopted father

[karenjacksons]

forget dimitria and divatox,are hilary shepard-turner and carol hoyt aware they’re twins separated at birth??

[le-amewzing]

a taste of your own medicine

I didn't mean to ship any of these dorks and then the Halloween special hit me with feels, wth. :'3 *Note: This is set during s1e11, "Havoc-ween."

Fic: "a taste of your own medicine [FFN] [AO3] [pfio]

Pairings/Characters: Jake Madden & Amy Madden, pre?onesided?Amy/Hartley (with a mention of Jake/Starling)

Rating: K

Words: ~840

Additional info: family, angst, romance, 3rd person POV

Summary: After they rescue Hartley, Jake notes the way this most recent instance of danger sticks with Amy, and he can't help but dwell on what she said to Grandma. Maybe he and his sister are more alike than they realized…

      Halloween definitely has not gone as planned.

      That's the only thing in Jake's mind as Hartley's party winds down after he and Amy trick Grandma back into captivity. There's just—there's no un-ringing that bell. Tonight was supposed to be his family's first big holiday as normal people, not as villains, and they didn't manage to pull that off. Now he (well, mostly Amy) is in Damage Control mode, especially since Hartley keeps her distance for the rest of the night.

      And that's a new one. Hartley's got a good set of morals, a personal code Jake admires. So for Hartley not to forgive Amy this time around, things are bad. But worse than that…?

      Jake joins Amy, sitting by the refreshments, and notes the empty cup in her hand, so he tries to force a plate of cake into her lap instead. When chocolate doesn't breathe life back into his sister, he bumps his hip against her shoulder. Er, well, he tries to bump his hip against her shoulder. That's easier said than done when one's wearing a pumpkin guts costume.

      But at least that earns him a tired sigh from Amy, even if she doesn't look up at him. "What, Jake?" she asks, her tone even.

      He follows her eyes out into the thinning crowd, to that particular girl swathed in gold. He grins and chuckles to himself. "I wouldn't worry about Hartley too much, Amy. Besides, you two go well together." He points at Hartley and gestures to their neighbor's sun goddess costume before glancing back at Amy. "The sun's never far behind the rainclouds, after all."

      But Amy's not here for the nod to her costume complementing Hartley's, nor does she appreciate Jake's attempt to cheer her up. If anything, the small frown on her face deepens to a grimace. Amy sets aside the chocolate cake, untouched, and shakes her head. "I…don't like it, but. I guess I can…maybe comes to terms with Hartley staying mad at me this time. I just—I keep replaying in my head, that scene from earlier, with Grandma's voice coming out of Hartley's mouth, with Grandma controlling her movements." She pauses, and Jake would swear she fights back a shiver at the rather disturbing memory. "As long as Hartley hasn't disappeared…"

      "You'll take a mad Hartley than no Hartley at all," Jake supplies.

      Amy nods. She glances up at him, and, for a fleeting second, Jakes thinks his sister, dastardly tough girl Havoc, is on the verge of crying. Then she blinks, and she's just angry with herself yet again, trying to hide how badly tonight's encounter with their powerful grandmother has left her shaken.

      So Jake doesn't push her to make further conversation, and he doesn't try to cheer her up more. Instead, he mulls over this vulnerable side Amy shared of herself…and he thinks it makes sense, that it falls in line with his sister's character, actually. Maybe, he thinks, Amy's finally growing up, learning to care for the one friend she has.

      The Maddens only stay on the sidelines for so long, though. When Hartley thanks the stragglers for coming and sends everyone else home and it's clear Hartley's got her hands full cleaning up everything on her own, it's a no-brainer for Jake that he'll pitch in and help his friend out.

      But more surprisingly is that the same occurs to Amy, and she grabs a garbage bag and starts cleaning even before her brother does. It's a rare sight and probably can be explained by Amy's guilt for nearly ruining Hartley's special night.

      And yet…Jake pauses in breaking down some of the hanging decorations, because what's going on behind him on the floor to be far more interesting.

      Hartley still hasn't forgiven Amy, and she's surprisingly good at doling out the silent treatment. But more curious is Amy's expression aimed at Hartley's back for the rest of the night. The longer Hartley ignores Amy, the more Amy resembles a hurt puppy to Jake.

      Jake can't say he blames Hartley for not immediately forgiving Amy. But Amy's shown a lot of change, growth, in just one evening, and the way she's holding out for Hartley's ray-of-sunshine attitude to return…nah, the way she's waiting for Hartley simply to look at her again?

      It reminds Jake a lot of him and Starling.

      And the reminder of his hero hits him hard, enough that he's got to tear his eyes away from Amy and Hartley and focus on the task at hand.

      The three of them finish up faster than Jake expected, which finally brightens Hartley's mood. "Thank you guys so much," she chirps, all smiles again as she pulls her sun crown from her hair.

      Jake raises his eyebrows and slides his eyes Amy's way, wondering how this newer Amy will handle the return of the Hartley she's missed all night long.

      But Amy shrugs it off as they make to head home, and Jake wonders if he misinterpreted things before, especially since Amy wears her usual, villainous smirk once more.

Done for the 5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 Fandoms Challenge in the HPFC forum on FFN. That last line is so ominous, *lol*. XD But, nah, Jake's deffo smart and a better people reader than he thinks… ;) I've been enjoying this show and Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion from the get-go, but srsly "Havoc-ween" gave me alllll them feels when Grandma and her possession abilities arrived. It was such a great ep!!! It also helps that Hartley, Celia, and Jake are my favs, but this was an ep where I rly saw Amy's potential for good charrie dvlpmt, and I was so proud of her. ;w; So whether platonic or romantic (bc bby gays exist! -w-), I dig the Hartmy. And also Jarling, hence the comparison. (The ship-thru-others'-eyes storytelling technique used here is just a fav of mine I've done for a bunch of my other fandoms and I couldn't resist for my first VoVV fic~ :D) Aaaand I'm off to write another Hartmy bc the more I think about them, the cuter and funnier everyone is to me. (Also I'm rly looking forward to new eps for the rest of the season coming, so if you're a fellow VoVV fan, pls come chat…! TT-TT)

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave an anon/unsigned review via the FFN link or comment via the AO3 link at the top of the post, especially if you enjoyed this!

~mew

[redhoodieone]

His Girl

Plot: Dick Grayson has a type in women: athletic, feminine, and classy. However, the reader is completely different as she is plus-size, tomboyish, and spontaneous. But a conversation about Y/N between Dick and the batboys takes an unexpected turn one night.

Warnings: Language, Sensitive topics, and Fluff.

“What the hell’s up your ass?” Jason asks Dick, as he hands him a bottle of beer from the refrigerator in the Batcave. It was only until last week that Bruce gave in and allowed a refrigerator to be down there after the boys begged him for one.

As long as it was only for beverages, of course. Bruce had mentioned the boys have been eating too much junk food lately, but the boys knew deep down that his rule is simply for him, because of his age, and maybe for Y/N, too.

Y/N has only been with the Batfamily for a year since her family died at the hands of Two-Face. She had only started training with Bruce for two months now, and the two of them have been working out quite a bit.

Which makes sense of Bruce’s one rule for the refrigerator, though. But that hasn’t stopped Jason from sneaking in food anyways; mostly pizza and lunch meat and cheeses for sandwiches.

But now, Dick’s distant and silence is unbearable since the circus descent acrobat is usually excited and rambling about anything and everything.

“Uh, nothing! I mean...” Dick stutters. His behavior tonight was questionable to say the least. Usually, he would be on his game and even throw some wisecracks but he’s been awfully quiet, nervous even.

“Uh-huh, sure. Whatever you say,” Jason scoffs.

Dick sits on top of the hood of the Batmobile while he peels the sticky label from the beer bottle. He notices Tim and Damian walking out from the showers and are already dressed in sweatpants and t-shirts. Bruce is seated at the Batcomputer, still in costume but minus the cowl. Jason sits at the small table and sips from his beer and snacks on a triple meat and cheese sandwich he must have made quickly.

And Alfred had long gone to bed after Bruce forced him to get some rest since they’ve returned home and are not dead.

Dick suddenly notices Y/N must still be in the showers, on the other side of the cave for privacy where the guys can’t bother the girls.

“Fine...I’ve been...having these thoughts and dreams about Y/N lately,” Dick confesses. He notices Jason staring at him with a confused expression.

“Yeah, and…?”

“Well…lately, I’ve been thinking about her as…more than a friend. I’ve been seeing her in a new light. And you know I’ve always thought she was cool, and funny, and incredibly smart,” Dick continues, with a small smile. “But…I’ve never been sexually attracted to women like her before.”

Jason purses his lips and appears to think it over. “So, I don’t see the problem.”

“I just told you I’ve never felt this way about Y/N or any woman like her before.”

“Because you’re shallow.”

“I’m not shallow,” Dick argues, suddenly feeling defensive at Jason’s attack. “I just…I’ve never seen heavy women as hot, you know?”

“You can try to justify all that, but the point is, you’re shallow.”

“Have you ever slept with a heavy girl before, Jason?!” Dick snaps.

Jason chuckles and grins. “Actually, I have.”

“Bullshit,” Dick scoffs.

“Yeah, I have Dickie-bird. It happened three years ago, when my Outlaws and I kicked Black Mask’s ass. We went to a bar to celebrate in downtown Gotham. Roy and Star left early to go fuck or something. I was left alone and I was about to call it a night until this smoking hot woman took a seat next to me. She had long dark hair, tan skin, and curves that made my mouth water and my cock hard enough to pound nails. She was gorgeous, but there were these assholes around her and were calling her fat and telling her to leave because no one here would take her home. And do you want to know what I did?” Jason asks.

“What?” Dick asks quietly.

“I took her home, after I broke all those guys’ jaws. She was fucking amazing, man. She had a magnificent ass that she actually allowed me to spank. Her curves were endless, and after I fucked her good three times, cuddling and falling asleep with her was probably the best part of the night. I’ve never felt so…comfortable and felt warm, because I actually felt someone beside me,” Jason admits.

Dick raises an eyebrow at him. “Wow, I didn’t think something like that could happen to you, Jason. If anything, I thought you were shallow.”

“I used to be, until I realized I was judging others, when I was actually trying to have others not judge me. Alfred actually helped me with that. I don’t remember every word he said exactly but he said I wasn’t trying all the ice cream flavors out there. Like, I was always sticking to a certain flavor of ice cream, and I wasn’t trying other kinds, meaning I should be looking at all types of women. And after my one night stand with that magnificent woman’s ass, I realized bigger girls aren’t deal breakers; they’re just more to love,” Jason admits, and shrugs with a smug smile.

“That’s…I don’t even know what to say. But Y/N’s different. She’s someone we know and it makes it harder. And my problem isn’t that I’m shallow, it’s how I’m supposed to handle my feelings about her.”

“Yeah, you are, Dick. Y/N’s literally the best woman we’ve ever met. Hell, the best woman I’VE ever met. She’s fucking funny, she’s so caring and kind, she’s smarter than Timbo when it comes to common sense,” Jason lists off his reasons.

“That’s true! I’m not going to lie about that!” Tim interrupts from the distance.

“Y/N’s real, she doesn’t bullshit about anything like other girls. She’s honest, and that’s a rare thing to find nowadays. And fuck…she can really handle her alcohol, she can down shots of Fireball like it’s water,” Jason adds.

“You don’t think I know all that? Of course, I do! That’s why I’m having such a hard time dealing with my feelings for her. I’ve only ever been with tall, athletic women, who wear skirts and dresses, eats healthy, and are…well, feminine,” Dick confesses. A guilty expression shows on his face. “And Y/N’s not any of that. She’s really short, kinda chubby, and she’s more of a tomboy type, who’s loud and rambunctious, and eats like a man.”

Jason snorts. “And that’s a problem why? That’s why Y/N’s fucking awesome, man! I actually really like how she’s not afraid to be herself. She’s not fake. Do you know how long it took for her to be comfortable with all of us and be who she is rather than how she thought we expected from her? And I don’t know about you but I love how she eats, whenever we go out to restaurants, I actually like how I can eat the way I want and not feel like a fat ass because I know her and I both love what we love and fuck all who have a problem with that!”

Bruce turns around in his chair and gives both boys a warning look. Even Tim and Damian silently take a seat and watch closely.

“Fuck…Y/N is the perfect woman. She’ll always be in my eyes,” Jason admits, looking down at his beer longingly before taking a sip.

“If you feel so strongly about her then why haven’t you tried to go out with her or sleep with her?” Dick asks angrily.

Jason’s pause takes everyone by surprise. “Because she can do better than me.”

“You-you actually tried to get with her?” Dick stammers.

“Oh, yeah I definitely did. I think about a year ago. I had spent the summer with her here while everyone was busy with the whole Justice League and Superman bullshit,” Jason explains. “You were with the Titans with Tim and Damian. It was just me and her.”

“Alfred was there as well,” Bruce mumbles.

“Anyways, call it cheesy as hell like those romcoms, but we actually got really close. She’s a spitfire for sure, but she really knows how to get under your skin,” Jason chuckles.

Tim and Damian nod their heads in agreement with that.

“And I obviously made the whole situation uncomfortable as fuck because when I told her how I felt, she rejected me. She said we were too alike, we’d butt heads all the time. And after that, I never brought it up again.”

Jason’s confession gives Dick a sense of confidence.

“Look, if you want to ask her out and do all that then I support you. Just know if you fucking hurt her or do anything wrong, I’ll slit your throat even if you’re family,” Jason threatens seriously.

“I wouldn’t even know how to bring it up with her,” Dick says.

“Well, don’t bring up how her weight and appearance bothers you,” Jason says seriously.

“It doesn’t!”

“Okay. How did you ask Barbara, Star, Zatanna, and-”

“I get it, Jason. I’ll just talk to her and tell her I have strong feelings for her,” Dick interrupts him. “I’ll just tell her the truth.”

“You already did.”

That voice belonged to none other than Y/N. All the guys in the Batcave jerked their heads to the top of the stairs where Y/N stood and looked down with tears running down her cheeks. She was wearing her plaid pajama pants and a loose black t-shirt she stole from one of them a long time ago, she doesn’t exactly know who though.

Dick and Jason slowly stand up. Dick carefully walks over to the stairs while Jason cautiously follows.

“Y/N…” Dick whispers, already feeling guilty and nervous that she had probably heard everything. “Please listen to me…”

“WHY?! So, you can tell me you didn’t mean any of that, when you actually did. I thought you were different! I didn’t know you could judge someone like that! Especially someone like me!” Y/N yells. “I thought you were my friend!”

“I am your friend! Y/N, please give me a chance to explain! I really like you, and-and I was just trying to ask for help so I can talk to you!” Dick pleads.

“Don’t lie to me! You were only asking for help because you didn’t know how to deal with me being fat and manly! I’m sorry I’m not like Barbara and Star! I’m sorry I’m not beautiful and thin! I’m sorry I’m not perfect for you!” Y/N cries out and runs up the stairs.

“Y/N! Wait! Please!” Dick shouts for her. He chases after her.

By the time Dick reaches Y/N’s bedroom door, it’s locked. He can hear her crying, automatically feeling like shit for being the reason why she’s hurt.

“Y/N, please…” Dick tries again.

“Leave me alone, Dick!”

Dick swallows hard and forces himself to move away from her door. There was no use for him to stand there; he’d already broke her trust and possibly ruined their friendship. He might have even ruined his chances with her.

Jason approaches Dick. “Is she crying?” he asks.

“Yes,” Dick chokes out. He runs a hand through his dark hair. “Fuck, Jason…I don’t know what to do. She won’t even talk to me.”

“You should go, Dick. I think you’ve done enough.”

Dick was a little taken aback by Jason’s command. He pushes himself to walk away anyways.

“Bruce wants to talk to you. You should go find him before he finds you,” Jason adds.

Dick exhales heavily and leaves. Jason shakes his head in disappointment at him. He takes a deep breath and knocks on Y/N’s bedroom door.

“Doll, it’s Jay. Please let me in,” Jason says softly. “I just want to talk to you.”

He didn’t think she would open the door for him. He didn’t think she would want to talk to him even though he hadn’t pissed her off or upset her in any way. But Y/N unlocked her door and even opened it for him.

Jason was deeply heartbroken to see Y/N; her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks were wet, and she had the devastating look on her beautiful face. He quickly walked into her room and shut the door, quickly locking it.

He had to be cautious though. He knew couldn’t say or do the things he wants to do with her right now. Instead, he slowly and carefully approaches her. She allows him to wrap his strong arms around her, bringing her closely to his body to hold and protect her from everyone and everything.

“Shh…it’s okay, sweetheart. I got you. I’m not going anywhere,” Jason whispers into her hair. He tries desperately to not inhale the addicting scent of her shampoo and lingering perfume so much. “You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Y/N lifts her face from Jason’s chest and gazes up at him. The sight of her glistening eyes makes him draw her closer to him.

“What did I do wrong, Jay? What did I do to deserve all that? Is everything about me really bad?” Y/N asks softly, on the verge of tears again.

“No. No, don’t say that. Don’t say any of that! Nothing is wrong with you. You’re beautiful, Y/N. You’re perfect just the way you are,” Jason admits.

Y/N shakes her head in disbelief. It breaks Jason’s heart more when she tries to pull away from his embrace, but he refuses to let her go. His grip tightens and he holds her as if she’d disappear and leave him all alone.

“That’s not true, Jay,”

“It is true. Hell Y/N, you’re the most badass woman I’ve ever met. You don’t take shit from any of us. You’ve managed to stay here even after all the bullshit everyone has put you through,” he explains. He even chuckles at a memory. “You’ve even made Bruce cry, remember? Remember you called him out on his bullshit when he refused to train you? You’re almost a savage like Alfred, you even make Wonder Woman and Catwoman look like dollar tree prizes, and that’s no lie.”

Y/N looks down at her feet. Jason knows she still doesn’t believe him.

“You’re always perfect in my eyes, Y/N. There isn’t a goddamn thing I would change about you,”

“If I’m so perfect, then why does Dick think so low of me?” Y/N asks. She sniffles adorably and looks back up at him.

“Because he’s a fucking idiot who can’t see the best thing that’s in front of him,” Jason answers, and looks into Y/N’s eyes before he looks at her lips. “But his loss is my gain.”

[parkers-gal]

hi babe!! maybe a tom x reader story where the sebastian and anthony love the reader (but not tom hahahah) and tom just like “you love her but not me?!” and they’re just like 🤷🏻‍♀️!! i think could be really funny!!

combined with:

heyy can u do a fluffy where sebastian, anthony are at the comic con with tom and they start talking about how tom is a good boyfriend to ag!reader?

(sorry it took so long; hope u enjoy<3)

—

“Love, we have thirty minutes until I’m due on stage. Don’t you wanna go explore instead of meeting more of my castmates?”

“Thomas,” You look at him expectantly. “These aren’t just your castmates. This is Anthony and Seb we’re talking about — that’s- that’s better than anything else here.” “Wow, I love you too.” His words are filled with sarcasm, and you playfully roll your eyes.

The two of you share a laugh as you make your way through the backstage hallway and into a room with a long table loaded with snacks for the on-stage presenters. Around the room are various seats and couches — one of which seats the stars of Captain America: Civil War.

“Try not to fangirl,” He whispers into your ear, hand on the small of your back to guide you to the pair of men, who are deep in conversation about something you couldn’t be bothered to catch. You’re too starstruck at their presence to much care. “Hey, guys.” Tom waves. Both pairs of eyes turn to the two of you.

“If it isn’t the spiderling.” Anthony closes his green hydro flask, setting on the ground.

“Be nice,” Sebastian eyes him and he speaks through a laugh. “He brought a girl.”

“Probably paid her to be his girlfriend for the day.”

Your mouth drops as you laugh at the insult. When your reaction is received by the men, they lean forward, intrigued and amused.

“Anyways,” Tom’s eyes are wide in the sense that he hopes everyone gets the message. “This is Y/N L/N, my girlfriend.”

“Hi-”

“We know who she is, spider-boy. She’s like the most popular singer these days.” Sebastian ruffles his hair gently, and Tom rolls his eyes again.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you,” You offer a hand to each of them, both accepting the shake gracefully.

“How long have you been dating the Brit brat?” Anthony points to Tom with his thumb, and you let out a soft chuckle.

“Just a few months.”

“Written any songs about him?”

“Oh… just a few,” you tease. After a few moments, you sit down in between them while Tom goes to get some refreshments. When he returns, you’re so deep into the conversation that you don’t even notice him.

“I come over and he’s drunkenly singing God is a woman. An-and he’s thrown golden glitter all over his chest,” You’re speaking through heavy laughs, Sebastian smacking his knees in such amusement that the three of you can’t even get a breath in.

“What are you talking about?” He sets the bottle of water on a side table.

“You and your drunk activities.”

He groans, head tilting back. “At least I’m cute and clingy when I’m drunk.”

Eventually, the laughter settles down to an attainable degree.

“You’re not that cute,” Anthony rolls his eyes again, and you laugh, going off about another story. You seem to be getting along so well that Tom can’t help but wonder how this was meant to be: you, in his life.

Eventually, a stage director interrupts to tell the boys they’re needed on stage in five minutes, and the four of you are walking down a corridor. You’re holding Tom’s hand, yet still engrossed in your talks with Seb & Anthony.

“I cannot believe you guys spent the entire time talking to each other but not me.” Tom whines, sporting a silly pout. “I introduced this. I can’t believe you two love her but not me. We’re practically twins! We’re so alike-”

“Ah, ah,” Anthony holds up a single index finger, motioning it back and forth.

“Is Tommy jealous?” You pinch his cheeks, and he groans again, causing spurts of laughter to emit from all three of you. When the time passes and they have to go, you give Tom a kiss, squeezing his hand before sending them to the stage.

“We have actually,” Sebastian answers the fan’s question. “We actually just met her today. She’s an awesome girl.”

“That you only know because of me,” Tom reminds them.

“Yeah,” Anthony motions to this guy with eyes that read ‘this guy, again?’ and the crowd laughs. “I will say though, from the way she describes him, he seems like a good boyfriend?”

Tom deflates at the sudden compliment, flattered, and he jutts his lip out cutely.

“Yeah, not to mention all the times he’s late to set because he’s always checking up on her.”

“How often is Tom late to set?” The host asks him.

Sebastian ponders the question for a few beats. “He’s… always talking so pretty much all the time. There was one time, though, where he just skipped shooting for the day.”

“Oh, I remember that!” Anthony clasps his hands together. “I was pissed because I was in my costume and we found out that buddy boy over here wasn’t showing up. But then Evans — Chris, that is — told us somebody needed a mental break.”

“I… remember that, too.” Tom breathes out, blush setting on his face. “I- I left set to help Y/N/N feel a little better.”

A series of “aww’s” goes around the rather large room, and another blush brightens Tom’s golden face. He hides behind his hands, all of a sudden shy. Anthony shoves his shoulder jokingly, in hopes to get Tom to emerge, and the show goes on.

“But yeah, Y/N’s lovely and Tom’s a great boyfriend. Hopefully we can all hang out again and maybe post some selfies.”

And oh, how you do.

[maskyartist]

Hi so, a while ago you put out a post about how Augustus Aquato's mental world is a train and how it might work as a level? And it was brilliant, so I had a question: I'm writing a fic and I was wondering if you'd mind me taking the general idea and twisting it to my own narrative ends- and if you're cool with that, would you want a credit somewhere, like as part of the chapter notes?

oh man I haven’t thought about Augustus’s train level in forever! I don’t mind u using the idea, and I would appreciate credit so thank u for asking!! But I’m not sure I have a real “narrative�� more just a general idea on how the level would go?? Then again this is LONG so maybe it is a narrative…

One note before we go, Raz gets a costume for this level! Similar to in Black Velvetopia or Feast of the Senses. But instead of just a color palette change, tho he does do that here going to more older “yellow red blue” aesthetic is the best way I can describe it-, he gets a whole costume! A mix of his circus garb and a little server outfit, like he’s train staff!!

It starts with Raz at the back of the train, in the luggage cart, where he would end up looking around for a door. This is where he finds all the emotional baggage, shoved away without their tags, ignored and pushed to the side, along with a metal cage that…doesn’t seem to house something friendly.

Once Raz leaves he ends up walking through the whole train to reach the front. There’s a dining cart, the usual sitting cart u see in mystery movies, but then it cuts to a whole ass circus inside one of the carts. It seems to span endlessly upwards, with beautiful set decoration and plenty of space for tricks. Unfortunately, the performers are currently out, which means the circus is closed. It’s almost a bit uncomfortable to walk around this bright, cheery place full of happy circus music only for there to be no actual people there. Just figments. (Similar to Helmut’s mind, there’s a center stage that pictures all the Aquato’s performing the same trick Raz’s mental vault showed off. Even with Raz levitating Mirtala’s tiara. No detail left out.)

Then we reach the fourth cart, last one before the conductor’s cart, and it’s quite the cute homey storage area. There’s train and circus supplies alike stuffed away, but there’s also pictures of the family. New ones and old ones that Augustus is able to remember now, older ones in cracked frames but still lovingly hung on the walls. Though, if Raz looks closer at the old pictures, every instance of Lucrecia or Marona have been scribbled out in either black marker or just torn out completely. Nona remains untouched in the newer pictures, but she’s a bit pushed aside now. Even in memories Raz knows they were close, Nona has been put aside for the rest of the family.

Then, Raz finally gets to the conductors cart, and it’s quite the sight to see! It’s an odd combination of an actual engine/control room on a train and a big top tent, with ropes and trapeze swings for Augustus, our conductor and ringmaster for the evening, to get around easier.

When Raz asks what his dad’s doing, Augustus happily shows him around the head of the train and tells him they’re fully on course to their next destination! The only trouble is…Augustus isn’t sure where that destination could be. He shows Raz a mental map and reveals he’s had three thoughts floating in his head.

Either -his family continues with the circus without Raz, leaving their baby to do his psychonauts training alone

-they make Raz come with them which would upset him greatly, but the family would at least stay whole

Or -give up on the circus and finally settle down. Ruining their livelihood, but staying with family.

Augustus and Raz look at the map, and when Raz offers to find some kind of middle ground Augustus shakes his head, saying there’s too much to find a middle ground. He has to choose one of these options when the fork in the road comes. Eventually, no matter how much prying or poking Raz does, Augustus shoves himself into his work, refueling the train, keeping an eye on the controls, ordering Censors who act like staff here to take care of passengers n all that jazz.

Raz eventually is given a job by a very busy Augustus to find the rest of the family and get them settled in the circus cart. They need to get back to performing eventually.

And that ends up being Raz’s sort of “main mission”, wandering around the train and playing hide and seek with his family, finding them all in different locations and learning how Augustus thinks they view him, be it as a father or a husband or even just family.

Dona thinks he’s a pushover, saying how she’s always the one who has to pick up his slack.

Dion’s upset that he trusted him for so long but now all that trust is gone because everything Augustus said about psychics n mentalists was basically a lie.

Frazie’s pissed that Augustus never taught her anything, even though he’s Psychic too!

Mirtala feels lonely because Augustus doesn’t spend time with her, too busy to play anymore.

And Queepie thinks Augustus is just old and boring, a father he’s stuck with until hes older.

Finding Nona however gives Raz three different mental constructs. One of Nona, the old shaky grandma hes know forever. One of Lucrecia, younger and clearly in her prime before the Deluge. And one of…Marona. She’s in very old coloring style, but she’s there. On a shaky memory but she’s there.

These three aren’t really going to perform, so they’re more like the constructs of the Psychic 7 in Cassie’s mind. Theyre there to show Raz how Augustus thinks of his mothers, the many he’s had apparently.

Marona views Augustus as her sweet little baby. She’s so upset she never got to see him grow up, but there’s an air about her attitude that acts like she didn’t try hard enough, and not that she was literally killed that day. (Augustus trying to twist his own memories so he won’t have to mourn his mother, if he makes her a bad person he won’t have to mourn her.)

Lucrecia is very flippant, waving a hand at Raz when he asks about Augustus and commenting that she hasn’t seen him in so long. He never comes out of the conductors cart, and they’re both too busy to really work together. (Showing Lucrecia wasn’t always there for Augustus before she lost her memories, she was busy with the Psychic 7 n such.)

Nona is an odd mix of the two. It’s clear she loves Augustus, she even shows Raz a cute little family photo of her husband, herself, and Augustus. Though the husband’s face keeps shifting, and Nona keeps going from Marona to Lucrecia to old Nona and back and forth. But Augustus stays the same lil guy.

She tells Raz that Augustus works far too hard, pushing and pushing himself to be the back bone of this family. Nona can’t do it, she’s too old. Dona can’t do it, she’s his wife. The kids can’t do it, they’re children! It’s only up to Augustus.

Basically, Raz learns from the three motherly figures that Augustus from day one has carried everyone else’s weight. After the Deluge, when he had his own family…he took the reigns before anyone else could and made himself the conductor. The ringmaster. The leader of this family, so no one else would have to worry about that kind of weight. And overtime, as Raz sees when he heads back to the conductors cart continuously to inform him he found another family member, it’s weighing too much on him too.

Anytime Raz offers to help, Augustus says he doesn’t need it. That he has a system. That the system works, but it only works with one person manning the machine. He’s the only one who’s known how to do it, and he’s the only one who can keep the train running, so he just needs to focus on keeping the train moving. As long as it keeps moving, he won’t need to stop and ask for help. He looks tired, too. Overtime his face has been covered in dusted soot and his hat is lopsided. His suit is all cloudy and he just looks exhausted…but he keeps pushing the train along.

This all eventually comes to a head when Raz tells Augustus he has the whole family together again, and Augustus informs him that Razputin isn’t there. When Raz tries to tell him he doesn’t need Raz to perform, Augustus insists that he does. That’s the system. He can’t just break the system. Without Raz there, then it’s not the Aquato family circus. It’s just…the Aquato circus. It’s not whole. It’s not complete. But Augustus doesn’t know how to get Raz back, so without Raz they can’t start the show, but with Raz Augustus can’t stop working the train to keep it moving forward.

He’s trapped himself in a loop of constantly overworking himself, to the point where he doesn’t even want to do the one thing he loves so much, that being acrobatics. Or rather, he just can’t stop being busy to try to perform with the family. He can’t find a new system, because the old system is so reliant on him that if Augustus stops he probably won’t be able to remember how to start it again. Like taking a break when you’re super busy, it’s always 10 times harder to get back to work after a break. Especially when the system is so complex like Augustus’ is.

It worked in the past, but it’s outdated now. Augustus can’t keep working on his own. He needs help. But he can’t just…accept his family’s help. He’s done too much damage, reinforcing these ideas of mentalists and the water curse that wasn’t even a curse.

Btw remember that fourth cart from earlier? Yeah, by now in the narrative, every time Raz passes back through that cart, it’s become more full of soot and rain water to the point where it’s like a storm passed through there, water covering the ground and all the pictures being broken.

This all comes to a head when Raz tries to forcibly stop his father from controlling the train just to prove he doesn’t need to be the one to carry all this weight, but the two pushing and pulling on the controls ends up with the train…crashing.

All of Augustus’ hard work, all the time and effort he spent making this work, all the painful nights of holding back his own tears and never saying a word of how he truly felt…has been for nothing. Or basically, this represents how when you’re trapped in a toxic mindset of serving other people, when you’re finally able to stop doing that it’s like the world is crashing down around you. You spent so long helping these people, and it’s just…never mattered? At all? Anyone else can do it? What about me? What about what I’ve sacrificed? All of it was for you, and you’re telling me it’s meant nothing?

This is when that cage from before, which has been slowly loosening overtime the more Raz collects and sorts the Emotional Baggage in the luggage cart, the tags which are found all over the train usually where you’d find the family members, finally cracks open and out pops Augustus’s own Maligula. I picture it like a hybrid of Lucy’s Maligula, with the purple skin and the looming presence and tear tracks, and Raz’s mental construct of his dad, with the stitching and the unrealistic twisting and bending and attitude.

This results in a fight where Augustus’ Maligula becomes this giant water monster intent on completely destroying the train and taking over the system, to which Raz and Augustus need to stop it together. Augustus essentially acts as support, giving Raz a boost of power similar to how he did in Psychonauts 1 and telekinetically tossing projectiles towards him so Raz can fight back against the storm.

Once Augustus Maligula is defeated and recaged, Augustus swears to Raz he isn’t going to do this alone anymore. The train will be…out of commission for awhile, so Augustus can catch up with family business. He doesn’t know how he’ll continue the circus, or what path they’ll go down…but with his family there? And thanks to Razputin’s help?

Augustus is positive they can find a middle ground this time. One that, hopefully, won’t crash and burn.

Tldr; Augustus’s entire mental world is about him ignoring his trauma and feelings after he’s remembered everything and forcing himself into work. Be it caring for the family, focusing on the circus, doing whatever he can to occupy his mind and not think about his feelings. This unfortunately leads him to ignoring his family, which leads into Augustus believing they don’t want him around in the first place for what he’s done.

Augustus keeps feeding into his own bad mentality and habits because this is all he’s known for all his life. So he doesn’t have much else to go off. And because he doesn’t realize it’s bad, he doesn’t talk about it. He doesn’t wanna burden his family with more problems when they already are dealing with enough.

Augustus needs to be a strong husband and father right now. He needs to keep the train moving for his family. Even when he’s so exhausted he can barely think, he has to keep going. It’s all worth it when it’s for his family.

…so yeah that’s basically it :D use this however u will, and again I appreciate u asking about credit!!! Ur very sweet!!!

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 21: Apologies (Father’s Day)

AO3

Prev

Marinette purses her lips as she looks at the neatly wrapped package in her hand. She knew she should still give it to her dad, shouldn’t let her hurt over the Gala stop her from celebrating Father’s Day with him for the first time. She’d already gotten confirmation from her Maman that her present for her Papa had arrived. So that was taken care of. A small part of her, the petty part, wanted to use Kaalki and go back to Paris for Father’s Day. But she also didn’t want to hurt her dad, no matter how much he’d hurt her. She had to be better than that, she is Ladybug after all. Sighing, she drops the present onto her bed. Grabbing the rest of what she needed for a movie night at one of Jason’s safe houses, she rushes out of her room. She knew that her dad’s conversation with Superman in the Batcave wouldn’t last too long, and then he’d be looking for her and Damian to lecture the hell out of them. Unfortunately for him, neither of them planned to be around to listen to it. 

“Got everything Pixie Pop?” Jason asks as she rushes down the last of the steps, barely stopping herself from falling. She quickly balances herself and shoots her brother a small grin. 

“Yup. Let’s go before I can get grounded.” She says, rushing past him and out the door, grinning as she hears his loud cackles behind her. It will get better. She’d talk to her dad eventually, and shove the bad feelings away. But she was going to let herself mope for another day. After all, letting herself feel negative emotions was part of the reason her parents agreed to let her stay in Gotham for the summer. 

---

“What do you mean there’s an entire movie about you and Cat boy?” Jason asks, shoving another cookie in his mouth. Marinette shrugs. 

“I mean we have a movie. It’s not my favorite, it’s kind of ridiculous. None of it is accurate. Except, Adrien did voice Chat Noir for the movie...still not sure why he thought that was a good idea.” She says, thinking back to the original premiere of the movie and all of the drama that came with it. 

“Well shit. He’s not the brightest kid, is he?” Jason asks with a snort. Marinette opens her mouth to argue, then remembers some of Adrien’s….less brilliant moments. Okay, so maybe he’s not perfect.

“Ya know, we were once cast as Ladybug and Chat Noir in a music video.” She says, snorting at the look on Jason’s face. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding. Really? Kid, please tell me you didn’t go through with it.” He says, looking mildly distressed. Marinette just rolls her eyes. 

“No, we didn’t. The concept for the video changed and so no more hero costumes. I was terrified though. Kept losing the mask on purpose ‘cause I was convinced the mask would be what gave it away.” She admits with a small laugh. 

“Ya know, that’s almost as bad as the time that someone at WE thought it’d be a good idea to enter B in a Batman look alike contest. Sent in his photo and everything.” Jason says with a snort. Marinette’s jaw drops.

“Wait, really?” She asks. He nods. 

“Yup. But that’s not the best part.” He says. Her eyebrows furrowed together. What could possibly be better- Oh. No, oh my-

“He lost, didn’t he!” She cheers, laughing at Jason’s huge smile. 

“Of course he did! You didn’t really think Brucie Wayne could ever be THE Batman, did you?” He asks with a smirk. 

“Who entered him?” Marinette asks, kind of assuming that Jason did it with Tim’s computer. 

“No one could ever prove anything, but Lucius Fox couldn’t stop smiling for weeks after it happened.” Jason says. 

“No way, Lucius Fox? Oh my god!” She starts laughing again, the negative feelings from earlier almost completely gone. Disappeared. Times like these, she was beyond relieved that she wasn’t an only child anymore. She doesn’t know how she’d ever function again without her brothers and Cass. 

---

Bruce takes a deep breath before knocking on Marinette’s door. He’d spent some time talking to Clark in an attempt to calm down. He still couldn’t believe his two youngest children had gone to the Watchtower without permission...well, he could believe that Damian went. But not Marinette. And then there was her attitude towards him at the Tower. Her posture was very Damian, but her words and tone were very much Jason. He couldn’t decide if he was glad that they were bonding, or frustrated with the way his sons were corrupting his daughter. Not hearing an answer on the other side of the door, he knocks again. 

“If?” He says. Alfred nods. 

“Marinette, I know you’re angry, but shutting yourself away in your room is not the answer. I’ll give you ten more minutes, but then we need to talk about your behavior today.” He says, nodding to himself. That sounded good. That was right, right?

“I’m certain that wouldn’t work on Miss Marinette even if she was in her room, Master Bruce.” Alfred says, giving him an unimpressed look. Bruce’s eye twitches. 

“Indeed, sir. It seems that Miss Marinette will not be sleeping at the manor tonight.” He says, turning to walk away. 

“And I’m assuming you know where she is?” Bruce says, doubting that Alfred will actually give up her location. He’d definitely been picking the kids’ side the last two weeks or so. It was different, and he wasn’t fond of the change. 

“Of course I do, sir.” Alfred says, raising an eyebrow in a silent challenge. 

“Will you tell me where she is?” He asks, trying hard not to huff when Alfred shakes his head. 

“Of course not, sir.” He says before walking away. Right. So she wasn’t sleeping at the manor, but she was safe. If she wasn’t, Alfred would have told him where she was. He mentally runs through a list of possible places she could be. Dick’s apartment, one of Jason’s safe houses, the Siren’s apartment, Paris- He pales as he realizes that she could definitely be in Paris. Was she really so upset that she would go back to Paris? Would she ever come back if she left? He lets out an uneven breath. He messed up. He messed up and now she was going to go back to Paris and she’d never talk to him again. Unless- maybe she didn’t. Swallowing the guilt that appears at the thought, he pushes her door open. If she had left for Paris, she would’ve taken everything with her. The sight of her clothes and sewing supplies still scattered around the room makes him breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn’t left Not yet. He’s about to walk out when an envelope on her bed catches his eye. Frowning, he walks over and picks it up, ‘Dad’ written on it in neat cursive. Now standing by her bed, he realizes there’s also a neatly wrapped package (Batman wrapping paper) on it. He smiles, then glances back at the envelope. He opens it, smiling at the art on the cardstock. It was clearly Marinette’s art, but he was confused why it was addressed to him. 

‘Dad, I just wanted to let you know that I’m so happy you’re my Dad, and I’m so glad that I got to meet you. Finding out that I was adopted was a little scary, but you’ve made sure I’ve been okay through it all. Happy Father’s Day! Love, Marinette’

Bruce blinks. She was scared. If he had to guess, she was most likely scared that the family wouldn’t accept her. They’d been getting along so well, until the Gala mistake. Until he’d decided for her. Assumed she wouldn’t want to go to the Gala. And now she didn’t even want to stay at the manor tonight, and she was angry enough earlier to throw a chair at him. He pushes a hand through his hair, cursing lowly under his breath. He had to fix this. 

---

A sharp pounding at the door makes Jason leap off the couch. He holds up a finger and gestures for Marinette to hide. No one should be here. No one else knows which of his safe houses he was at today. Grabbing a gun, he walks over, glancing through the peephole. He scoffs. 

“Get the fuck outta here Bruce.” He calls through the door, watching Marinette as she immediately tenses as if she’s gonna run. He shakes his head at her. She didn’t have to run, he sure as hell wouldn’t open the door if she didn’t want him to. 

“Jason, open the door. I need to talk to Marinette.” Bruce calls, Jason snorts. 

“Yeah, not gonna happen B.” He says. 

“I would like to apologize to her.” Bruce says. Jason blinks. That’s new. Did the old man finally figure out that fuck ups warrant apologies? He glances over at Marinette, raising an eyebrow. It was her call. The unsure look on her face almost makes him decide for her. Almost. The kid’d had enough of people deciding shit for her. 

“Let him in.” She says. He opens the door, glaring at the man. 

“Is it okay if he comes in?” She whispers, and Jason nods.

“Up to you kiddo.” He whispers back. She stands taller, pushing her shoulders back before nodding. 

“She’s the one who let you in. Don’t fuck this up.” He warns before stepping aside and letting Bruce walk in.

“Marinette.” He says, nodding at her. Jason groans. Yeah, B was totally gonna fuck this up. 

“Father.” She says, shifting so that her arms are crossed, a neutral expression on her face. God, he really hopes her mimicking Demon Spawn is just a phase. 

“I would like to preface this conversation by letting you know I went into your room.” Bruce says. Marinette just raises an eyebrow. Yeah, Jason wasn’t seeing the connection either. “I apologize for invading your privacy like that, Damian has definitely reminded me several times that your personal rooms are not to be messed with. However, when Alfred let me know you weren’t sleeping at the manor tonight, I was worried that perhaps you had gone back to Paris.” 

“I wouldn’t have gone back without telling you. Well, other than akuma attacks. Do you really think I’d do something like that?” She asks, frowning. 

“I know that I’ve done things I’m not proud of when hurt. Things that I came to regret. And I saw earlier today how hurt you actually are. I didn’t realize-” He pauses. “I also read the card that was on your bed.”

“What! No, that was- that was for Father’s Day.” She says with a sigh. 

“I didn’t open the gift. I originally thought the envelope would have a note from you on where you had gone. Or that you never wanted to see me again. I thought the chances were pretty even.” He says and Jason snorts. 

“Oh, okay. Wait, why would you ever think that? Yes, I was hurt. I still am hurt, if I’m being honest. But I don’t want to cut you out of my life.” She says, shaking her head. 

“Nor do I want you out of ours.” Bruce says. Marinette blinks. “I realize now what it must have looked like, to you. Not informing you about the Gala, taking the rest of the family. It was, admittedly, not my best moment. I made a decision for you when I should’ve asked you what you wanted. You could have even come with us as MDC, but I took that option away from you. I am very sorry, Marinette. I am glad that you’re my daughter, sweetheart.” He says and Jason blinks. Well shit. The old man did have feelings. Too bad no one would ever believe him if he tried to say something about it. He watches as the tension in Marinette’s body drops almost instantly before she runs over and launches herself at Bruce. She wraps her arms around him and Jason can see the way her body shakes. Bruce just stands there, staring down at the top of her head in shock. 

“You wrap your arms around her.” Jason snarks. Bruce blinks before listening, returning Marinette’s hug. Well, they were still dysfunctional as hell, but at least now he’d be able to take Pixie Pop to the manor without feeling like an asshole brother. 

---

Marinette bounces nervously in her seat as she watches her brothers hand her dad presents. She’s shocked when Jason hands over a small gift, knowing that the two’s relationship wasn’t….great. She leans forward in anticipation, watching and waiting to see what he’d picked out. 

“Thank you, Jason. Clark will never let me live this down.” Her dad says, the fondness in his tone not matching the frown on his face. He turns the box around and the room erupts in laughter. Somehow, Jason had found a company that made customizable bobbleheads. The body was probably just a stock body, dressed in civilian clothes with a superman suit peaking through the shirt. And the head, the head was hilarious. It was very obviously crafted to look like their dad, specifically with his ‘Brucie Wayne’ smile. It was awful and amazing at the same time. 

“I think Jaybird wins best gift.” Dick says with a grin. 

“Tt. Unlikely. The new katana that Cass and I gave him is obviously superior.” Damian says, crossing his arms. 

“I don’t know Damian, I still haven’t given him my present.” She points out, grinning at the slight frown on Damian’s face. 

“While I doubt your present could be better than mine, there is no doubt it will be better received than Todd’s.” Damian says. Marinette snorts at the look on Jason’s face. 

“Listen Demon Spawn, there’s this thing called humor. That’s what my gift had. I know you wouldn’t know anything about humor, so let me explain it to you.” He starts, and Marinette jumps in to cut him off before they can start arguing. It was Father’s Day, the least they could do is avoid fighting with each other for a couple more hours. 

“And this one’s from me.” She says, passing him the present wrapped in Batman wrapping paper. She grins as Tim and Dick both laugh, not having seen it before now. 

“I think Mari might win just ‘cause of the paper.” Tim admits, taking a large drink of his iced coffee that Marinette had picked up for him. She’d had to fight an akuma right before they started presents, so she’d stopped and got Tim coffee from the shop that he’d tried when they’d all been in Paris. She watches in anticipation as her dad carefully unwraps the box, opening it and pulling out the black suit jacket. He smiles at her. 

“Did you make this? It’s amazing.” He says, and her brothers nod in agreement (though Damian does so reluctantly). 

“Look at the inside of it.” She says, gesturing for him to unfold it. His eyebrow twitches, but he does as she says. She watches his face for the moment he spots it, and grins when his face drops into a wide smile. On the inside of the left side of the jacket, she’d added a breast pocket. It wasn’t really for anything though. Instead, it was so that she could embroider all of his children’s names in a way so that it would rest above his heart. The jacket also had tiny bat logos embroidered at the cuffs of the jacket. The thread was shiny and very dark so that it would barely show up against the black of the jacket. It had to be lit just right to see it, but as he tilted the jacket again, she knew he saw it. It had taken longer than suit jackets normally do for her, but it was because she knew that it had to be perfect. It was, after all, the first piece of clothing she’d made for her dad. 

“It’s perfect, Marinette.” He says softly, running a hand over the names. She lets out a sigh of relief before smiling at him. Things were still a little rough, but they were so much better than they’d been the night of the Gala. She was glad that she had stayed, that she hadn’t ran like she had so badly wanted to.

Next

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @trippingovermyfeet @mizzy-pop @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82 @lady-bee-fechin

[hshines]

I just want to know who looked at the mysterious blonde woman in the Loki trailer and went “yeah that’s definitely Lady Loki”

The woman’s hair is blonde. Blonde. Since when has Loki ever been blonde? No matter what form Loki takes one thing’s always a constant. Loki’s hair is dark.

And before you go “maybe the actress didn’t want to dye her hair.” - the actress literally has dark hair. She actually dyed it blonde for this role. If she was an actual Lady Loki wouldn’t she keep her natural hair?

Or “Loki is a shapeshifter, they can have whatever color they want.”. Then someone should tell Hiddleston he didn’t have to dye his hair black for this role. Or the kid who plays little Loki who dyed it black as well.

After all this comic accuracy when it comes to characters and their appearances and costumes lately I find it extremely hard to believe that Marvel would just go “you know what? f this” and make Loki look so unlike Loki. Especially this version of Loki who is so important to so many people. Honestly at this point the woman looks more like Lady Thor than Loki.

Lady Loki is an iconic character and has a very specific and established look. Even in the current ongoing comic run “Double Trouble” she looks how she always does.

And it’s not just her hair, it’s also her fit. I definitely don’t expect the revealing garb Lady Loki usually wears in the comics. But Marvel has shown time and time again that they can take female characters’ comic costumes, revamp them a bit but still keep their essence. Scarlet Witch’s new costume is a perfect example. It exudes power, it looks honestly godlike. And I’m sure Mighty Thor will get the same treatment.

And I love Lady Loki, she’s an icon in every sense of the word but this fit looks...too human. Especially when you compare it to Loki’s Aesir garb. If it wasn’t for that golden accent on her chest plate I doubt anyone would even connect this character to Loki. The hair, the trousers, the boots...I swear, sometimes she gives me cosplayer vibe.

And before you go “comic accurate or not, her outfit is still similar to Loki’s!”

Odin and Thor’s are extremely alike as well, down to the same red cape (lol even the hair), yet it doesn’t mean they’re the same person or variants of each other. It just shows that they’re father and son and that Thor’s the favoured son who looks up to Odin.

So no, I don’t believe this is Lady Loki or a Loki variant. And I hope we get Lady Loki and I sincerely hope they won’t go the “Female Loki is an alternate reality Loki who was born female and is her own character”. I want Loki and Lady Loki to be the same person. I want Loki to shapeshift into his female form, like he did in Agent of Asgard. And it seems like this show took a lot of inspiration from AoA so I’m expecting to see that, Disney. 

As for who I think Sophia is...I don’t think she’s Lady Loki. For obvious reasons. And even though I included Amora in one of the pics, I don’t think she’s Amora either, because while she’s blonde, her outfit doesn’t echo Amora either. Unless Amora has a bone to pick with Loki and decided to cosplay him and frame him for something he didn’t do. Jk.

The fact that she’s blonde, and the fact that her outfit seems influenced by Loki at most and the fact that there’s a child actress cast to play young Sylvie, I think she might be Sylvie, but more grown.

For those who don’t know who Sylvie is. In the comics Loki, for his own chaotic reasons, decided to ‘create a mortal who believes she’s one of his kind’. In short, he seemingly magically created her (that was later also confirmed by Big Zero and Wiccan). She had some deeply rooted identity issues going on (isn’t identity the running theme for this show, anyway) and more than anything Sylvie wanted to be a God and one of the Aesir. She even pretended to speak in a faux Aesier way of speaking. 

At some point after her ‘creation’ she started emulating Amora the Enchantress. In.literally.everything. She even stole Amora’s name and alias ‘Enchantress’ and that’s why Sylvie’s often referenced as “Sylvie the Enchantress, the second Enchantress, the fake Enchantress, the pretender etc” 

Life wasn’t very kind to Sylvie and in the end Amora found her and furious as she was with Sylvie for imitating her and stealing her name, she banished her to one of the ten realms, trying to kill her.

And that’s who Sylvie is. She’s a pretender. A copycat. And Loki is directly tied to her origin. She’s an interesting character.

I’ve already seen a lot of discussions about how Sophia is the adult Sylvie who’s imitating Loki instead of Amora (because there’s no Amora in the Marvel cinematic universe and it wouldn’t make sense for her to copy someone who doesn’t exist). It would certainly explain her hair, outfit which is obviously influenced by Loki, but doesn’t really give off Lady Loki vibes and why there’s a young girl cast as young Sylvie, indicating that there’s also an adult version of her in this show and from all known cast so far, Sophia (the blonde lady) is the only one who fits the description. 

[touyasdoll]

DILF HAWKS WHO’S BABY BIRB IMPRINTS ON YOU AND NOW THERE WILL BE BIRB COURTING AAAAHHHHHHHHH 😳😳😳!

 

~Plus a mystery~

 

Like, you’ve never met.

Either of them.

Ever.

But one day at the park, you’re eating lunch on your day off, sitting there with your bentō, and this small child, a toddler of maybe 3, is screeing and giggling as he chases a ball around the walk near you.

It’s so dang cute you have to a hold back a laugh after you’ve taken a bite of your sandwhich. You love seeing kids being happy, carefree when you normally see people of all ages at their worst.

You’re a rescue and medic hero with a Healing Quirk and also studying. Idk what. There’s a lot of options. Let’s say some in ‘verse medic level ranking exam. Right now you’re level 4. There are 10 levels in total.

Point is, you’ve seen things.

So watching people enjoying themselves, adults and children alike, soothes your soul.

You watch the little bird in amusement. There’s a smile on your face as he chases the ball, but then you frown.

He’s getting awfully close to the road — he never strays off too close, staying on the sidewalk near by at most, but you get a bad feeling.

You’re hyperfocused on him. You don’t hear anything as you start to stand up, everything moving in slow motion and suddenly you move.

You let your lunch fall to the floor as you’re at the kids side, grabbing him and throwing yourself back as a car wildly swerves, jumping the sidewalk all the way to the grass on the other side and then corrects itself into an old street light that breaks.

Debris comes flying from both car and light.

You’re shielding the child, curled around him and ducking your head close, closing your eyes because you’re out of uniform, you don’t have your visor on you (like an idiot, you think self-deprecatingly, even though it’s your day off and you’re not even in costume) and even the weak protection of your eyelids is something against a spray of glass.

Except, you feel nothing hit you.

You don’t even feel yourself hit the ground.

And that’s because you don’t.

There’s red feathers cradling you as you cradle the child in your arms. Feathers anyone would recognize.

Oh, you think, that’s really lucky.

You vaguely note the form of the #3 hero heading towards the car, as well as a medic already on scene. Good.

Your attention is immediately on the child in you arms who’s distressed crying and chirping, stress gripping you and you begin to speak softly as you check him over, mimicking a gentle coo you’ve heard before from an owl. Maybe. Or a dove? (Hmm.)

You don’t know why, you did the cooing of a maybe owl. It. it just feels right?

The baby birb still cries, but it’s less and less as he realizes he’s safe and okay. There’s still an upset chirp, a hiccuping one, though.

You coo again and wipe away some of his tears. He nuzzled into your side.

“It’s okay, sweetie bird, but that was really scary, huh?” / “NnnhgH…. Mmhmm…”

“I didn’t see any ouches on you, but do you feel hurt anywhere?” Your heart drops as he nods, gripping you harder and you’re pretty sure your arm is bleeding but so what. The kid is hurt and you missed it!

“Can you tell me where, sweetie bird?” / “Inside. Cold hurts.”

Cold hurts? you mouth the words to yourself, gently running your free hand through his hair, gaining a surprise by calmer chirp, but you’ve always been quick on the uptake and oh!

“Do you… Do you hurt from all the scary things? Does it feel a big, big, BIG rock is in your tiny birdie tummy?” You asked, watching his expression. The kiddo looks to you in amazement that you could describe it so well!

He nods his head quickly, eyes never leaving you. You smile gently and whisper that you know something to help that, but he has to listen well. He can do that, right?

The vigorous, serious nodding he does seems to indicate he agrees with you and you choke back a giggle at how cute he is.

You begin to hum to a melodic tune, soon singing without actual words. Vocalizing? Something along those words.

And the baby bird calms. He’s no longer stress gripping you, but holding on still and looks at you with awe in his adorable little face instead of the miserable distress he had earlier.

As you sing the last note, though, you end in a little coo again, surprising yourself once more.

What surprises you even more is the clapping coming from near by… You glance and see Hawks, as well as some civilians who had been paying attention.

The little bird in your arms gives a series of happy chirps, bouncing and partially letting go of you, holding one arm open towards the well known hero.

“Daddy!” …daddy?

FFS it’s so obvious. Omg how didn’t that enter into your mind??

You feel like an idiot as Hawks holds out his hands, one to help you down as his feathers begin to lower you, from cradling you safely, and the other to his “baby bird!”

You grab his hand and gently allow him to help you down. Only he turns it to grabbing you and twirling you and his son around for a moment before setting you both on ground level.

You make a surprised noise. that sounds an awful lot like a songbird’s startled chirps.

Hawks and the kid, who still hasn’t let go if you, both turn to face you. Hawks with a startled, then perceptive gaze and the son with a giggle.

“It seems we have a lot to talk about.” What.

And that’s how you find out your Quirk should’ve really been named Caladrius (from how it works in conjunction with the bird traits you’re beginning to show), you and the kid have imprinted on each other, only the kid realizes it full force as he’s more in tune with his bird instincts, your bird characteristics (and isn’t that a trip!) are just now coming in about 16 years late (at the least if you had gotten your Quirk when you were 4 like everyone else, but most likely had it in part since birth, theorized due to trauma from how your own imprint bond was broken when your father died when you were a toddler yourself) and that Hawks — Keigo would like to “court” you.

…really. All you wanted to do today was eat lunch and take in the peaceful, happy vibes of the park.

Now you’re a mama, a bird, a mama bird, potential mate to a high profile limelight Hero and digging into a mystery of your past that you never even knew was a mystery.

……hopefully the sex will be really good.

 

🦊

this is so cute!! little baby birb omg <3

[theresthesnitch]

Crooked

A/N: another entry for @harryandginuary BINGO. I had a lot of fun with this one. I hope you do too.

Did you know that Charlie Chaplin once came in third in a look alike contest?

Read it here on AO3.

Prompt: O 73. You've dared me to do this as a joke but there's no way I'm backing out now.

***

"You don't have to do it."

Harry scoffed. "Of course I do.

"Listen, mate," Ron said. "I realize I'm the one who dared you to do it, but you don't have to actually enter the Harry Potter look alike contest."

"You may have meant it as a joke, but I'm committed now. I'm going to do it."

They stood in line at the registration table, and Harry looked around the room. The costumes were really bad. Did people think he really dressed like that? Looked like that?

The person in front of him moved, and Harry stepped up to the table with a nervous smile. "One entry, please."

"You can't charm your eyes green."

Harry, confused, replied, "I didn't?"

The witch sitting at the registration table narrowed her eyes at him. "It's against the rules of the contest. You can charm the scar; you can't charm the eyes."

"Solid rule. Good catching this one," Ron said from just over his left shoulder.

She pointed her wand at Harry's face, and his hand twitched for his wand before she said, "finite incantatum." Harry stood there staring at her, eyes unchanged. "Fine, whatever, it's not the right color anyway, so it won't help you."

Harry wondered briefly if Ron was going to die of laughter. "Er, right. Okay. Can I enter now?"

The witch rolled her eyes. "Name?"

"Harry Potter."

The witch fixed him with such a glare that he was sure he was going to implode under it. Ron, meanwhile, was struggling to breath.

"Obviously, buddy. But I need your real name to register for the contest."

Harry blanked. "But, my name really… James. James Evans."

"Alright, James. You're going to be number 4. When the time comes, they'll call you on stage."

"Right, thanks."

Harry walked away with Ron wiping tears from under his eyes. "Merlin, I'm glad you did this. It's going to be so fun for me."

Harry smiled. "I've never been so anonymous in my life. No one's even looking at me!"

"Of course not, mate. You don't even look like Harry Potter."

"Yeah, apparently I got the eyes wrong."

Ron looked around the room that was slowly filling up. "I can't believe you let my sister judge this."

"First off, if you think I let Ginny do anything, you are very much mistaken about how our relationship works. And never let Ginny hear you say that I let her do something. Second," Harry shrugged a shoulder, "it's for charity."

"Alright, I guess that's-"

"Your scar is crooked."

Harry turned around to face a slightly short, wiry man wearing a number 6 with blond hair and the most elaborate lightning scar he had ever seen. Do these people even know what I look like? "Excuse me?"

"Your scar is crooked," not-Harry 6 said. "You messed up the charm, and it's not even straight. Sloppy work."

"Huh," Ron said, looking Harry straight on, "your scar is a bit crooked."

Harry chuckled before turning back to not-Harry 6. "Thanks, mate. Good looking out."

"You can't really expect to compete if you don't put in the effort. Better luck next time." Not-Harry 6 walked away and left Harry standing with his mouth hanging open and Ron, once again, dying of laughter next to him.

"Ron, I think I might lose the Harry look-alike contest."

"Harry, your fiancée is judging." Ron clapped Harry on the shoulder. "You're absolutely going to lose the look alike contest."

"Welcome, everyone, to this year's War Orphan Carnival. We're ready to start our Harry Potter Look-Alike Contest. Can I get all the contestants on the stage?"

Harry walked on stage with a handful of other contestants, and lined up next to a witch with a number 3 around her neck. Harry did a double take looking at her. She looked remarkably like him. He looked out to where Ron was standing in the crowd with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He raised an eyebrow in question. It has to be charms, right? Ron shrugged in response.

"Now everyone, we have a very special guest judge for our contest this year," the announcer said. "If anyone can tell us who the true Harry Potter look alike is, it would be her. Let's give a big round of applause for Ginny Weasley!"

Ginny walked on stage and immediately locked eyes with Harry. He shrugged a shoulder, and her eyes glimmered with mischief. She walked to the microphone, said a few words, and then was walking down the line of contestants. She chatted briefly with not-Harry 1, who was a tall wizard wearing Gryffindor robes, and not-Harry 2, who wore red and gold Quidditch robes and carried a broomstick.

Ginny stopped in front of not-Harry 3 and looked her up and down. She looked over at Harry with wide eyes, then back to not-Harry 3. “That’s a really impressive costume. Did you use charms?”

“No,” said not-Harry 3. “I’m Harry Potter.”

“Right, of course,” said Ginny. “It’s very good. Is that your natural hair?”

“Yes.” Not-Harry 3 was not very talkative.

“Great!” Ginny seemed a little lost now. “Well, good luck!”

Ginny stopped in front of Harry and looked him up and down. “Tell me about your Harry costume.”

Harry smiled. “Apparently I got the green eyes wrong and the scar is crooked.”

“Idiot.” Not-Harry 6 was apparently listening in. “You don’t tell the judge how you messed up the costume. Amateur.”

Ginny looked up to Harry’s forehead. “Huh, it is crooked.”

“Told you,” mumbled not-Harry 6.

“Maybe I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself,” Ginny said with a coy smile.

“Oh?” Harry asked. “What do I have to do?”

“Just answer a few trivia questions.”

“Were we supposed to memorize Harry Potter trivia for this?” asked not-Harry 2 to not-Harry 1. “I don’t remember seeing that in the rules.”

“Anyone can do Harry trivia,” Ginny went on, poorly concealed glee on her face. “I’m going to ask you Ginny trivia - things only the REAL Harry would know.”

“Alright,” Harry said. “Give me your best Ginny trivia.”

“Favorite color?”

“She’ll tell you it’s blue, but it’s really green. Green like a fresh-pickled toad.”

Ginny shook her head. “Favorite food?”

“French toast, but only if it is served with powdered sugar and not syrup.”

“Favorite number?”

“Seven.”

“Favorite season?”

“Autumn.”

“Favorite flower?”

Harry froze and his jaw dropped. Did she have a favorite flower?

“I - uh - Gerbera daisies?”

“What, no. That’s Hermione’s favorite flower.”

“It is?” said Ron’s voice from the audience. An echo of laughter went around the crowd.

“It is,” Ginny said over her shoulder. “One more chance. My fiance would absolutely know my favorite flower.”

Harry racked his brain, but he couldn’t think of a single other flower. “Lily?”

Ginny snorted. “No. Daffodils. Nice try, but you are clearly not a very good Harry Potter.” She winked, and moved down the line to not-Harry 5.

Not-Harry 5 was a little child who barely came up to Harry’s waist. His hair was rumpled, and he wore black robes with a stuffed white snowy owl on his shoulder. Ginny squatted in front of him. “Hi, sweetie. What’s your name?”

“Connor.”

“Hi Connor. I like your owl.”

“Thanks. I have a wand, too.” He held up a stick that had tape and glue around the end for a handle.

“Where did you get that wand, Connor?”

“I made it,” he said. “See, I put glue and tape, and it goes swish swish.” He waved the wand around.

“It’s very good. I was afraid I was going to have to tell Harry you had his wand. It looks so much like his!”

“Thank you. Mummy drew a scar on my forehead too. See.” He pointed at his head.

“I see. Your scar is not crooked, Connor.” he nodded his head. “Connor, do you know what Harry Potter’s favorite spell is?”

“Expelli-arms!” Connor waved his wand around when he said it, and Harry’s heart melted.

“Very good! You’re a very convincing Harry.”

“Thank you. He’s my favorite.”

“He’s my favorite, too. I’ll see you later, okay Connor?”

“Bye, Ginny.”

Ginny stood up and moved down to not-Harry 6, who was now sporting a black Harry wig. Not-Harry 6 regaled Ginny with an explanation of how his clothing choice was authentic and how he had done extensive research into the kinds of clothing that was preferred by Harry when he was at Hogwarts. Harry rolled his eyes and hoped no one was taking notes on this.

At last, Ginny walked back up to the podium. “Ready to make your choices?” the announcer asked.

“I am.” Ginny conferred briefly with the announcer, then stood to the side

“In third place, Number 6!” Not-Harry 6 walked forward to accept his medal, and returned to his spot. Harry could hear him grumbling slightly.

“Second place, Number 3!” Not-Harry 3 accepted her award quietly to a smattering of applause from the crowd.

"And finally, our grand winner in our Harry Potter Look-Alike Contest is, drumroll please," The announcer paused everyone in the room drummed their hands on their legs, "Number 5!”

Connor lit up like it was the best day of his life, and walked forward to grab his trophy. He tripped over the edge of his robes a bit, causing not-Hedwig to wobble on his shoulder, and then stood next to Ginny.

“Congratulations, Connor.”

“Thank you, Ginny.”

“Connor, would you like to meet the real Harry Potter?”

Connor’s eyes were as big as saucers, and he nodded emphatically. Ginny turned back to the announcer. “Roger, I happen to know that Harry is here today, and I think I can convince him to come up and say hi.”

The announcer’s face lit up. “Oh, ho ho! A special treat indeed. Mr. Potter, are you here today?”

The crowd went absolutely silent, and Harry waited for a beat before walking forward.

“Not you, you wanker,” not-Harry 6 said. “Get back in line!”

Harry continued forward, and shot a wink over his shoulder. He walked straight up to Ginny, dipped her dramatically and pressed a kiss to her lips. The crowd went wild. He set her upright before breaking the kiss and heard, “Oh merlin. I just called Harry Potter a wanker,” from somewhere over his shoulder.

Harry knelt in front of Connor, who looked like he couldn’t believe what was happening in front of him. “Hi Connor. Congratulations on winning.”

“Thank you, Mr. Potter.” His voice came out at barely a whisper.

“Can you call me Harry, Connor?”

“Yes.” Still a whisper.

“You know, you get to go home and tell all your friends that you beat Harry Potter in a Harry Potter look-alike contest.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Harry parroted. “I like your Hedwig.”

“Thank you.” Connor’s voice was a bit louder now. “You’re my hero.”

“Want to know a secret, Connor?” He nodded emphatically. “You are my hero.” An “awww” went up from the audience. Connor’s face lit up and he threw his arms around Harry in a hug. “I bet your mom is here. Do you want to take a picture with Ginny and I?” He nodded again.

A few minutes later, they finished a round of pictures with Connor’s mom, and a few more for the Prophet with all three winners.

“Thank you, everyone,” Roger the announcer said. “Congratulations to our winners, and let’s hear a round of applause for Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley!” The crowd roared, and Harry and Ginny made to leave the stage when they heard a gasp.

“Oh my merlin. I told Harry Potter that his scar was crooked!”

[kaypeace21]

Will’s fear of clowns

*Ps -not mine. this is a submission from an anon. tw: for s.a. It’s an interesting submission. ANON-please make a tumblr account already . I’m begging you XD

Hi! It’s me, Lonnie Meth Anon. Back with more depressing thoughts about Lonnie!

I just read your post on Jonathan’s ab*se at the hands of Lonnie, and I second it all. It breaks my heart. But it also got me thinking deeper about Will’s fear of clowns. I think you’re right that part of the horror for Will is that the clown attacks in bed. The bed is, obviously, like you say, a common site for s*xual assault. (Doesn’t El’s picture of “three legged Brenner” also have a bed in it? In a picture with not much else?) The fact that Will needed Joyce to sleep with him for a week suggests he was specifically feeling unsafe in bed, or at night. 

But maybe it’s not just the location of the attack in Poltergeist that Will found so harrowing. Maybe it’s the combination of that location with the fact of a clown being the attacker. 

I think Lonnie might have dressed up as a clown for Will’s birthday one year, and something happened. 

In this instance, I don’t think Joyce would know what happened. I think the incident in her mind would be something like “Lonnie dressed up and Will was scared of the costume”. She might even have thought it was cute. Just a typical little kid fear of something mundane. When she teases him about Poltergeist, she doesn’t actually say the movie was the START of his fear of clowns. Just that he was afraid of that particular clown. The general fear of clowns could have been an older one, going back to when Will was even younger.

Maybe Will even liked clowns, before whatever happened with Lonnie turned them into a source of fear for him. Will has a lion plushie (lions are commonly found in the circus) and the circus seems like the kind of vibrant, colorful environment full of outcast, that a young gay kid would really enjoy. If Will did like circuses and Lonnie poisoned that for him, that’s just another reason to hate Lonnie. But it definitely seems possible. 

Lonnie is a deadbeat dad in general, but we’ve seen before that he’s capable of faking the “family man” act in front of Joyce and their neighbors. We’ve also seen that even though he treats Will horribly, he would also try and keep Will on his side with father son bonding activities, like baseball. And Will’s birthday is one of the few occasions Lonnie makes a half-assed kind of effort, even when there’s nothing directly in it for him. He sends that card, even though it’s late. Maybe Joyce made called him up and made him send it, but she always seemed happy to keep Lonnie out of the picture. She didn’t even want to involve him when Will went missing. And we know Jonathan would never try and facilitate more interactions between Lonnie and Will. So it seems like Lonnie did this of his own accord, when he realized he’d missed the day. Kind of weird. And it’s classic abuser behavior, to make contact on an anniversary date, reminding you they exist and you can’t escape them. Reminding you to keep quiet. Or hoping you’ll miss them, remember the “good times” when they made an effort, and let them back into your life. (Ugh.)

So, anyway, back to my theory. Young Will likes circuses, and the Byers family are poor, so they can’t afford to take him to one, or throw him a party at an ice cream parlor or a bowling alley, like other kids. It makes sense that they would have a party at home instead, and that the family themselves might dress up. We know Joyce made Will’s Ghostbusters costume in season two, and a clown is a pretty easy costume. Most of it is just make up. It’s possible the whole thing was Joyce’s idea, and she made the costume, and Lonnie just went along with it to look like a good dad in her eyes. 

Remember how we see Bob (Will’s new father figure) dressing up in costume for Halloween? Joyce loves it. This is a thing good dads do, to have fun with their kids. That’s also the same episode we see Will scared by a guy in a clown costume, and Jonathan is hyper-protective of him that night. School is okay, but he doesn’t want him trick or treating. (Like he knows that school is a safe environment, but in other contexts, costumes and parties might be a trigger for Will.) Jonathan is convinced to leave Will and “let him have fun” and what happens? The clown attacks. Later that night Jonathan goes to a costume party himself, where he finds Nancy upset and takes her safely home.  Maybe this is how Will’s birthday party ended - with Jonathan finding Will upset, and trying to comfort him. The whole night could be playing out like a parallel to that birthday party, from Jonathan’s perspective. 

What actually happened with Will and Lonnie is up for debate. It’s possible there was a s*xual assault, and that’s why the clown scene in Poltergeist was such a trigger for Will. Or maybe Lonnie thought circuses weren’t “manly” enough for his son to like, and actively tried to scare Will, so he wouldn’t like them anymore. It’s hard to know. Something would have happened though, and probably something pretty formative, because the fear of clowns lasts a long time. 

Something else interesting is that when Mr Clarke is talking about the Upside Down in season one, he uses the metaphor of the flea and the acrobat. Acrobats are a main act in the circus, and, well … fleas. Flea circuses. That’s a thing. Maybe it’s a hint that the trauma that created the Upside Down was circus / clown - related?

Kali, El, and their gang wear clown masks too, when they’re going to confront their childhood trauma, and the child-like Alexei is surrounded by clowns when he is killed at the fair. 

Clowns are just so associated with birthday parties and little kids, that it doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me they’re Will’s biggest fear. Especially as the show keeps dropping hints about Lonnie and Will’s birthday. It feels like there’s more to the story. I have a horrible feeling SOMETHING happened. 

RESPONE (kaypeace):

I think it’s very possible-that maybe he did dress as a clown for Will’s birthday and something happened. We have alexi (paralleled to Will) playing carnival games with kids. Then he's attacked by the Lonnie-look alike : and alexi looks at his wound then stares at all the clowns laughing around him. Joyce and Murray find Alexi bleeding/dy*ng next to a clown statue. As joyce looks in horror and Murray says to her, he was “only gone for a second” (which sounds like something you’d say in relation to a kid you were supposed to watch-running off ). We also had sarah at age 7 die while wearing a gown with clowns on it (Will: it was a 7 the demogorgan it got me). Death of innocence symbolism? Hopper also describes his depression as a cave- he goes through the carnival ride where it mentions a "cave of horrors", which had decor of a tiger and a clown painting. So yeah... whatever happened probably isn't good. So- there may be some symbolism there in relation to Will’s past. Not only because (like I and you have mentioned before) Lonnie is highly associated with birthdays. And canonically we know he mentally scarred jonathan on his b-day. But also, s4’s ‘victor creel’ may be an easteregg to the xmen character victor creed- who had a tradition of tra*matizing family members specifically on their bdays

As another alternative:I could also totally see Lonnie “ruining” circuses for Will because it’s not “manly” to him. Like how Jonathan liked thumper the rabbit-from the film bambi. in the film, Thumper is bambi’s bff, and the hunters are the bad guys who k*ll Bambi’s mother and terrorize all the wildlife. SO yeah- making Jonathan become a hunter, and k*ll a rabbit ,despite this fact, is really messed up. And shows Lonnie has already tried to ‘ruin’ things the boys like. By mentally scarring them in one way or another…

I also mentioned how Will’s bday could even be a trigger for jonathan in a diff post.

if the s4 bts calender hinting it’ll be near Will’s bday and easter it could be relevant to Jonathan.we know in s1 el has tra*matic flashbacks when seeing certain things- coke, closet, cat, etc. And Will in s2 has his ‘anniversary effect’ where memories flood back based on the time of year.But like … Easter has bunnies - could seeing rabbits jog stuff up for Jonathan? El seeing a cat made her have a flashback of brenner trying to make her kill a cat. Would Jonathan seeing like Easter bunny decor jog up a flashback of lonnie making him kill a rabbit? (It happened on his bday too). So Will’s b day being around easter would only fuel that memory. (heck even popped balloons may trigger gunshot symbolism idk). And then for Will there is clowns that could be a tr*gger at a party.

The flea and the acrobat analogy (in relation to Will and circuses is very interesting) and could be foreshadowing- it’s even a title for an episode so I feel like it’s narratively an important hint to …something. similar to a s1 ep being called “the bathtub”.  Also, Will was compared to a circus flea- which were placed in an enclosed space, where heat was applied as they jumped  and tried to escape the increasing temperatures as they burned .Which could relate to my theory about Will having a se*zure due his body overheating due to Lonnie injecting him with m*th.

 If Will’s bday is in s4- I feel like Lonnie will come back in some capacity (flashback or literally). The ‘sorry, I forgot you b day’ card from Lonnie in s2, in Lonnie’s shed Joyce mentioning Will’s b day, the rainbow ‘happy birthday cup’ placed next to Will at Mike’s -while Will explains the supernatural, Lonnie already tra*matizing Jonathan on his bday, etc…

[mortimer-writes-sometimes]

Idk if this is a good prompt but im always a sucker for clothes swap fluff so 👉👈 smth with grillby wearing sans’ jacket maybe?

This is so freaking cute. I might have to write like, three alternate versions of this.

Once again, I think I strayed a bit from expectation writing this one. Also, it’s entirely off-season. And I think I got a bit sloppy at the end, so I apologize for that. If you can’t tell, I don’t think very highly of my own writing. In any case, here’s the one-shot that nearly turned into multiple chapters!

Grillby Looks Good In Blue

Word count: 4961 Summary: When it’s revealed that Grillby doesn’t have a Halloween costume, Frisk comes up with a great idea.

Grillby had never been particularly festive. Even after opening his new bar on the surface, the ‘holiday spirit’ people talked about continued to elude him. The older members of his family didn’t celebrate many holidays, and what celebrations they did have were never more than another family gathering. He enjoyed them, of course. Any opportunity to see his brothers and niece was a welcome one! But he’d never decorated his bar or hosted any sort of seasonally themed party. So, when he learned about the human holiday of ‘Halloween’, he didn’t plan to come up with a costume.

(He planned to close early and hand out candy, of course. He had a soft spot for children.)

The night before Halloween, Grillby’s bar was lively with excited monsters and humans alike. The anticipation for the big night was palpable as people chattered among themselves, talking about their costumes, the best places to get candy, and parties that were going to be held. The sun had only just started to set when the bell above the door rang, a familiar family of monsters entering with a single human child.

“Welcome back,” Grillby greeted with a small smile. The whole gang was there- Toriel, Frisk, Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, Sans… even Asgore was there. Sans and Frisk made a beeline for the bar while the rest of the group discussed seating arrangements. Grillby started pouring a glass of apple juice for Frisk automatically, placing it in front of them as the child struggled up onto a barstool. “It’s good to see you all again. What’s the occasion?”

Sans shrugged and hopped up into his usual seat. “Well, we’re gonna have a little All Hallows Eve Eve party while we put the finishing touches on everyone’s costumes. Thought that since we’re all here, it’d be nice to go out to eat together. It was mostly Frisk’s idea.”

Grillby chuckled. “Well, I think it was an excellent idea. Now, what can I get the two of you started with?”

The night wore on with plenty of food, drinks, and laughter as everyone caught up with each other. Frisk and Sans went back to sit with the others during dinner, but when it was time for dessert, Frisk was right back up at the bar to talk with Grillby. They were excited to tell him about their costume. “Guess what I’m going as for Halloween!” they demanded, bouncing on their stool.

Grillby set a piece of cake in front of Frisk as he carefully monitored the stool’s stability. “I don’t know, what?”

“Nooooo,” Frisk whined, “That’s not how it works! You have to guess!”

“Alright, alright.” He pretended to think for a moment, tapping his chin. “You’re going to be… adorable,” he teased, ruffling their hair.

Frisk laughed, pushing his hand away. “No, I’m not! I’m going to be scary!”

Grillby shook his head. “Forgive me for being unable to imagine that. What scary thing are you going as, then?”

Frisk was unable to contain their excitement any longer, jumping up on the stool. “I’m going to be a zombie!” they yelled. As they did, the stool teetered beneath them.

Ding! You’re blue now!

Grillby had reached out and grabbed Frisk by the shoulders at the same time Sans turned them blue and levitated them, the unbalanced stool the child was sitting on hitting the floor. Sans walked up to the bar and righted the stool, chuckling as he found a seat of his own. “Careful, kid. Don’t want you partying too hard now.”

Frisk gave both of them a sheepish grin as they were set back on their stool, looking up at Grillby. “Sorry. Anyway, as I was saying, I’m going to be a zombie for Halloween. It was Sans’s idea!” They shoveled a big bite of chocolate cake in their mouth as they looked at the skeleton.

“Yeah,” Sans said with a shrug. “I mean, a supernatural being that keeps coming back to life no matter how many times you’ve killed it? It seems appropriate.”

Grillby wasn’t sure what Sans meant by that, but at that point, he was used to it enough to not bother asking. He turned to Frisk and poured them a glass of milk to go with their dessert. “Well, make sure Sans sends me a picture. I’m sure it will look great.”

Frisk nodded eagerly, taking the glass of milk and drinking half of it in one go. Grillby offered them a napkin before they could wipe their mouth on their sleeve. Frisk took it, scrubbing at their face and smiling up at him. “So,” they asked, “What’s your Halloween costume gonna be?”

“Oh, I’m not really doing anything for Halloween,” Grillby responded as he moved to wipe some crumbs from his bar. “I will be handing out candy, though, if you’d like to stop by.”

“You don’t have a costume?!” Apparently, in Frisk’s mind, this was a horrible tragedy. “But everyone put a costume together! Even Sans made one!”

Papyrus, overhearing this, looked up from where he’d been enjoying a plate of pasta with chocolate sauce. “Wait, Sans, you actually made a costume?! I thought you said you were just going to buy one!”

Sans shrugged. “Yeah, well, everyone else was making their own. Besides, the costume I came up with is a piece of art. You can’t get that at a store.”

Frisk didn’t look impressed. “Sans, your costume is literally a shirt with the word ‘life’ written on it and a bowl of lemon drops.”

“Well, I didn’t really have much to work with. You know what they say- when life gives you lemons…”

Papyrus groaned. “SANS THAT DOESN’T COUNT AS A COSTUME AT ALL!”

Grillby chuckled from behind the bar, fond. “I think it sounds very you, Sans.”

Sans grinned up at him. “Heh, at least someone appreciates my talents. Anyway, Grillbz, the kid is right. It’s our first Halloween on the surface. You gotta do something more than just hand out candy.”

Apparently, everyone was listening at that point, because that was when Alphys stood up. “O-Oh! If, um, if you still n-need a costume, I, uh… w-well I have some material l-leftover from making mine and Undyne’s! I’m sure we can- um- c-come up with some ideas, haha…”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Toriel chimed in. “You should join us for our costume-making party tonight, Grillby. Then you can accompany Frisk with us for trick-or-treating.”

Grillby adjusted his glasses, a bit flustered by all the sudden attention. “I-i wouldn’t want to intrude…”

Undyne laughed, getting up. “Too late, fire dude! If Frisk says you need a costume, then that’s that. Now let’s close this joint and get going already!”

As Undyne and Papyrus began rounding people up and making them go home so Grillby could close the bar, the fire monster chuckled to himself. Maybe, just this once, he could have a little more fun with a holiday.

It felt odd, being in Toriel’s house. Grillby considered the others his friends, but he’d never actually hung out with any of them outside the bar before. Everyone was gathered in the living room, where multiple old bedsheets had been spread on the floor and furniture. The group spread out around the living room as they helped each put finishing touches on their designs with hot glue and paint. “The bedsheets are a clever idea,” Grillby commented lightly as he took a cup of tea from Toriel (he didn’t have the heart to tell her that he usually didn’t drink tea. It was basically just hot flavored water).

The motherly monster smiled, sitting in an armchair and watching the scene in front of her with a fond look in her eye. “Dr. Alphys suggested it. She’s very good at arts and crafts!”

“Speaking of arts and crafts,” Sans interjected from his spot on the couch, “It’s time to figure out what Grillby’s costume is going to be.”

Alphys had a lot of ideas. “Oh! Y-you could go as a gender-bent v-version of Sailor Mars! Or maybe, um, if you c-can burn blue for- for the evening you could go a-a-as Rin Okumura from Blue Exorcist! Oh, I b-bet you could m-make a great Kyoya! Uh, from O-ouran Highschool Host Club?”

...Grillby didn’t understand what she said, but was flattered anyway. Kind of.

Sans decided to step in and rescue Grillby before Alphys put him in cat ears. “While those are all good ideas,” he said thoughtfully, “Maybe we should think of something that we can, y’know, throw together overnight? Plus I’m pretty sure all those characters wear like fancy clothes and stuff. That’s what Grillby wears already. Hardly counts as a costume.”

Papyrus stood up specifically so he could put his hands on his hips. “Well the whole point of a costume is to dress up for the evening! What is Grillby supposed to do? Dress down?”

That gave Frisk an idea. They got up, walking over to Grillby and pulling on his arms to make him stand up. “Come here for a second!” Then, they went and grabbed Sans, pulling him to stand next to Grillby. Frisk took a couple of steps back, rubbing their chin in thought as they inspected the two side-by-side. Apparently, they liked what they saw, because they smiled. “Hey Sans, do you mind if I change your costume a bit?”

“Uhhh, what are we talking about when we say ‘a bit’?” Sans asked, unsure of where Frisk was going with this.

Alphys seemed to catch on, because anyone who has read lots and lots of fanfiction can guess where this is going. “Ohhhh, that’s g-genius, Frisk! But, u-um, Grillby’s a lot taller than Sans.”

Frisk’s smile only widened, the plan coming together in their mind. “Sans’s jacket is big enough! And I’m sure we can find him a white T-shirt that’s big enough!”

The skeleton waved a hand at them, interrupting. “Sans’s jacket is big enough for what?”

Frisk and Alphys shared a mischievous look. Sans looked up at Grillby (who was still confused and clueless) and came to a terrible realization.

He was going to have to tie his shoes for once.

 “Do I really have to keep the shirt tucked in?”

“Yes! Grillby always has his shirt tucked in!”

“A-and don’t- don’t slouch. You have to, um, g-get into character!”

“When did this go from a Halloween costume to full-on cosplay?”

Sans tugged at his suspenders as he inspected the completed outfit. Somehow, Frisk and Alphys had managed to find a white button-up, dress pants, and dress shoes to fit Sans. Grillby’s suspenders could be adjusted down to fit Sans, and bowties tended to be one-size-fits-all, so Sans got to wear the real deal in those departments. Finally, Toriel had taken the lenses out of an old pair of reading glasses she didn’t use and set the frames on Sans’s skull (Frisk taped the sides since Sans didn’t have ears).

The skeleton couldn’t help chuckling. “Man, no wonder Grillby is pretty fit. Getting dressed in this stuff is a whole workout.” It didn’t look bad, though. He glanced upstairs, where Papyrus and Toriel had whisked Grillby away for his ‘transformation’. Sans had already managed to get fully dressed, and his usual outfit was way simpler than Grillby’s. What was taking so long?

The others seemingly had the same thought. Undyne crossed her arms, walking to the base of the stairs. “HEY PAPYRUS! WHAT’S THE HOLD UP?!” she yelled through the house.

Papyrus cracked the door to Toriel’s room open for a moment. “JUST BE PATIENT, UNDYNE!”

Toriel pushed the door the rest of the way open, sighing. “Please, both of you, no shouting in the house. We… had a minor issue with finding a T-shirt, is all. Grillby is changing in my bathroom, he’ll be down in a moment.”

Just then, Papyrus spotted Sans, eyesockets widening. “OH MY GOD! Sans, you actually have style for once!”

“Heh, thanks, I guess…” Sans felt nervous, for some reason. What if Grillby thought he looked dumb? What if Grillby got really uncomfortable with this idea? What if he got mad? Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to force him to-

The door to Toriel’s room opened again, a warm light filling the hall. If Sans could have blushed, he would have.

Sans’s shorts were wide enough around the waist to fit Grillby, although they didn’t quite go down to his knees. The old white shirt Toriel had found him was a bit more form-fitting than the ones Sans usually wore, clinging near his waist and the center of his chest. Amusingly, Sans’s slippers were a bit too big on the fire monster, if the way he had to shuffle in them to get them to stay on was any indication. What got Sans, though, was the jacket.

Sans’s hoodie fit Grillby perfectly. 

Grillby had shot Papyrus a questioning look when he was handed Sans’s jacket, still unsure about the whole thing. “Will this even fit me?” he asked skeptically. “I’m quite a bit taller than Sans.”

“Well, it’s very big on Sans,” Toriel pointed out. “Just try it on. I’m sure we can go find a cheap blue hoodie in the morning to complete the look if that doesn’t fit.”

Papyrus nodded. “Or if it smells too much like ketchup for you to bear!”

The bartender still wasn’t sure, but it couldn’t hurt to just try it on, right? Blushing a bit under the attention the other two were giving him, he shrugged on the blue jacket. Papyrus was right, it did smell a little like ketchup. But…

As the weight of the fabric settled around his shoulders, something in Grillby relaxed. The fabric that lined the inside of Sans’s jacket was surprisingly soft, and the sleeves were just long enough that if Grillby wanted to, he could pull them over his hands. The fire monster’s face grew hotter, a bright blush spreading across his cheeks. He was wearing Sans’s clothes. He was wearing Sans’s jacket. He wrapped his arms around himself without thinking, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, he found that Toriel and Papyrus were both staring at him. He shifted a bit, fiddling with the hoodie strings. “...wh-what? Is something wrong?”

After a long moment, Toriel smiled, raising a hand to her mouth in an attempt to hold back laughter. Papyrus tilted his head, entirely bemused. “Grillby, why did you turn blue? Is it that overwhelming? I told Sans he needed to wash that old thing more often!”

Toriel lost her composure, laughing softly. “That’s not what it means when a fire monster turns blue, Papyrus.”

“W-wait, I’m what-?!” Grillby ran back into Toriel’s bathroom. Sure enough, the blush on his cheeks had turned a vibrant blue, along with some of the flames that made up his hair. “Oh. Oh no.”

“‘Oh no’ what?! I don’t understand! Ms. Toriel, why are you laughing?!” Papyrus frowned, unhappy at being left out of the loop. 

Toriel was all too happy to clarify. “Fire monsters blush differently than other monsters. The flames that make up their faces change temperature depending on the emotion. When they’re embarrassed, they may turn red. When flustered, a brighter orange. The most dazzling display, though, is when a fire monster is-”

“You can’t tell Sans!” Grillby suddenly cried out, nearly shouting it. He went back into the bedroom, willing himself to calm down. “Fuck, I can’t let him see me like this…!”

Toriel decided to let the language slide, focusing on calming Grillby down. “It’s alright,” she said soothingly, “We won’t tell him. You should tell him yourself.”

Grillby shook his head. “No, no no no no no. Sans can’t know about this. It’s entirely inappropriate, and it would ruin everything we already have-”

Toriel held up a hand to stop him. She tilted her head a bit, concerned. “Now why would it be inappropriate? You’re adults. If you both consent to a relationship, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Don’t phrase it like that,” Grillby groaned. “It’s- I’m a fire elemental and he’s a skeleton. We’re not going to be compatible.”

Toriel frowned at that. “Now that’s an outdated mindset and you know it,” she huffed. “You like him, don’t you? I’m sure even if he didn’t like you that way, you could still be friends after telling him.”

“Like him in what way?!?!” The Great Papyrus interrupted, starting to get irritated that the author seemed to keep forgetting he was there.

Toriel looked at Papyrus, then sighed, smiling a bit as she looked back at Grillby. Grillby groaned again, hanging his head in defeat. “Fire monsters turn blue,” he mumbled, “When they’re in love.”

Papyrus took a moment to process that. Grillby was in love… he’d turned blue when he put Sans’s jacket on… Oh! The pieces clicked in his skull. “HOLY FU-”

“LANGUAGE!”

Grillby took a deep breath as he walked down the stairs, trying to stay calm and, more importantly, stay cold. Sans would probably say I just need to ‘chill out’. Or be ‘cool’, Grillby thought to himself, his awkward smile becoming a bit more genuine in amusement. He stepped into the living room, holding his arms out in a sort of ‘Ta-da!’ motion. Frisk started clapping while Alphys took pictures, both of them far more excited about the outfit change than they should have been.

“Well if it isn’t the ‘hottest’ new fashion trend, Grillby casual.”

Sans caught Grillby’s attention, the fire monster turning to look at him. “Ha, funny, Sans,” is what he said on the outside. On the inside, he was screaming. Stay chill stay chill stay chill stay chill god damn it now that terrible joke is stuck in my head holy shit just stay chill! 

“Y-you look nice,” Grillby managed to stammer out. “I never thought I’d see you wear a tie that wasn’t printed on the shirt.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Sans replied with a wink. “So I guess it’s decided then? We’re going as each other for Halloween?”

Grillby nodded, barely trusting himself to speak. “I suppose so…”

Frisk jumped up on the couch. “WHICH MEANS YOU HAVE TO GO TRICK OR TREATING WITH US!!”

The next several minutes were filled with Toriel lecturing Frisk about jumping on furniture and yelling in the house.

The next day, the whole group met at Grillby’s to get ready, taking advantage of the fact that the restaurant had a total of four bathroom stalls. Grillby volunteered to put his costume on last, soul thrumming with anxiety. He was sure that the evening was going to be the hardest evening of his life (oh, the things he put himself through for Frisk’s sake).

Grillby was far from unaware of his feelings for Sans. He’d had a bit of a crush for a long time, and in the time since they’d been released from the Underground, that affection had only grown. There was just something about the skeleton that made him want to sit and talk with him forever. It would never work out, though. Relationships were complicated, and Grillby didn’t want to mess up what he already had. If he made a move and it didn’t work out, it would be hard to go back to just being friends. Needless to say, Sans’s new ability to turn Grillby’s flames blue without even being in the room was a huge problem.

“Hey fire dude, your turn!” Undyne pulled Grillby from his thoughts, thrusting the bartender’s costume into his arms. “Hurry up and get changed! It’s almost time to get going!”

Grillby nodded, a bit overwhelmed all of a sudden. “R-right. I’ll be back in a moment.”

He took his time getting dressed, carefully monitoring his temperature. For the most part, he was fine. He could forget that he was dressed as his favorite skeleton, even be amused by it. There was no problem at all… until he got to the jacket.

Slipping on Sans’s hoodie, Grillby felt his temperature immediately rise. He was never cold, but he could still appreciate that the jacket was comfortably warm. Between the smell and the weight, if he closed his eyes he could almost imagine Sans had his arms around him. 

Oh god, there was no way he was going to make it through this night.

Cautiously stepping out of the bathroom stall, Grillby looked in the mirror and confirmed what he already suspected. That bright blue tint had returned to his face. He took a deep breath, willing it away, but some of the flames that formed his hair and cheeks wouldn’t cool off. The traitorous streaks of heat flickered and Grillby felt like he was being mocked. 

The door to the bathroom suddenly opened and Grillby panicked, pulling up the hood of the and ducking his head to hide his face. Glancing to the side, he wanted to scream. Of course, it was Sans.

Sans looked worried, dress shoes clicking on the tile floor as he walked over. “You okay, Grillbz? You’ve been in here for a while. I was starting to get worried.”

“I-i’m fine,” Grillby stammered, turning to look at the wall, the counter, anywhere but at Sans. “I’m just nervous. It’s the first time I’ve participated in something like this.”

Sans chuckled, a gentle sound that soothed some of Grillby’s nerves. “C’mon, you can’t mess up Halloween. Just ‘chill’ out and enjoy yourself.”

Sans was right. There wasn’t any reason to be this worked up. So long as he focused on the festivities, Grillby didn’t run any risk of being flustered again. “Alright. I’ll be out in a moment.” He straightened up, looking in the mirror again and sighing in relief. For now, the blush was gone.

Later that evening, the Halloween festivities were in full swing. Monster and human children alike were wandering up and down the streets with their parents, laughing and playing as their buckets and bags slowly filled with sweets. Frisk insisted on dragging as many people as they could up to each door with them, insisting that, “Larger groups of people get more candy!” 

Of course, being a pretty big group of monsters, they couldn’t all fit on a doorstep at once. Instead, they all took turns. Two people would go with Frisk at a time, and the rest of them would just wave from the street.

Sans put his hands in his pockets as he watched Grillby and Asgore walk Frisk to the door of the next house, chuckling a bit as the former king stopped to admire the flowerbeds. His gaze drifted to Grillby. He’d been worried that the bartender would feel a little out of place, but he seemed to be enjoying himself, holding Frisk’s hand as the child cheered, “Trick or treat!”

The couple at the door stopped to ask about their costumes like any other house, putting a few pieces of candy in Frisk’s bag. Sans couldn’t hear what was said, but when Grillby explained his costume, whatever the couple said made him laugh. Sans smiled to himself, fond. 

Undyne elbowed Sans, arching an eyebrow at him. “Dude, you’re staring again.”

Sans rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, well, he’s being really cute. Besides, anyone could appreciate a guy that hot.”

Undyne groaned. “Okay, but being serious, why don’t you just talk to him already? The guy obviously has a thing for you. Nobody would let you rack up a tab like yours if they didn’t want to cook for you all the time.”

“I know,” Sans admitted, “But he can be kinda shy. I don’t wanna scare him off by making the first move.”

She just rolled her eyes. “If he’s shy, he’s never gonna confess to you. Just go for it, man!”

Sans looked back at Grillby. In the time they’d been talking, the fire monster had picked Frisk up and put them on his shoulders, smiling as Frisk declared which house they should go to next. He was so good with the kid. He let Frisk hang out at the bar after school all the time, and he’d even helped them with their homework once or twice. The bartender was one of the sweetest guys Sans had ever met. How could the skeleton not like him? And Sans had to admit, he was getting a little impatient. “You know what? Fine,” he said, looking back at Undyne. “I’m gonna tell him.”

Undyne looked genuinely surprised. “Really?”

“Yup.”

“Tonight?”

“Right now.”

“Oh my god.” Undyne whipped out her phone, pulling up her camera. “Fucking finally. You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this. Alphys! Alphys, it’s finally happening, come help me film this!”

Sans laughed, pulling his hands out of his pockets to fidget with his suspenders. “Thanks for the enthusiasm, but this is something I kinda want to do alone? Grillby’s a private guy. You’ll make him nervous.”

Undyne groaned. “Fine, but you better tell me how it goes!”

Sans gave her a thumbs-up. “Sure thing, captain.”

“I mean it!” she emphasized, jabbing a finger at his chest. “I want every detail.”

Sans chuckled. “I’ll make sure to ‘burn’ the moment in my memory. Now get out of here, they’re coming back.”

Grillby and Asgore rejoined the group, Grillby handing Frisk off to Toriel. “I believe it’s your turn, You Majesty.”

Toriel smiled a bit. “Now what have I told you about that? It’s just Toriel now.” She turned to the others. “Sans? Would you like to come as well?”

“I’ll c-come!” Alphys quickly interjected. “We sh-should all go! Except Sans and Grillby! G-Grillby just went, and, u-um… Sans, well…”

“I’m too lazy to go all the way up to the door,” Sans finished for her. “I’ll hang back here with Grillby. You all go on ahead.”

Toriel tilted her head, trying to figure out what Sans was planning before understanding hit her. She smiled a bit and nodded. “Alright, you two. Don’t fall too far behind.”

“This won’t take very long,” Sans assured her, waving them off. Frisk lead the way, and pretty soon it was just Sans and Grillby, walking side by side in the cool autumn evening.

Grillby adjusted his glasses, glancing curiously at Sans. “...alright. What is this all about? I can tell you’re plotting something.”

Sans chuckled. “Yeah, you’ve always been able to read me pretty well.” And somehow the bartender was still totally oblivious. “I just wanted to talk with you for a minute. Just you and me.” He stopped walking, looking Grillby up and down. “...y’know, you don’t look half bad in my jacket.”

Oh god. The fear of blushing and tipping Sans off returned at full force, Grillby swallowing hard. “Th-thank you? Um, I think you look nice, too. Dressed up, I mean.”

“Eh, you pull it off better.” Sans shrugged. “You know, you’ve been kinda quiet this evening. You doing okay?”

“I’m fine,” Grillby answered too quickly. He’d honestly been avoiding talking to Sans too much. Sans was far too good at flustering him and making him laugh. “Why do you ask?”

Sans huffed, fond as he tilted his head. “Well, I’ve been thinking. Hanging out with everybody is great and all, but I’d kinda like to spend more time with just you, y’know?” He rubbed the back of his neck, a little nervous. He didn’t want to make Grillby uncomfortable by being too direct, but he couldn’t be too subtle. Otherwise, it would go over the fire monster’s head. He took a deep breath and braced himself. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go get breakfast or something sometime?”

Grillby nearly choked. What was Sans trying to say? Surely he wasn’t asking what Grillby wanted him to thought he might be asking. He felt his temperature rise without his permission and reflectively pulled up the hood of the jacket, covering his face with his sleeves. If anything, remembering that he was hiding in Sans’s jacket just made it worse. He tried to say something, but to his dismay, all he could get out was a flustered squeak.

That was about the reaction Sans was expecting. “Grillby? You okay?” Sans asked gently. He stepped closer, trying to move into the bartender’s field of vision.

“F-f-fine…!” Grillby managed. He was dead. He was going to die. This was a disaster.

“Heh, sure,” Sans mumbled, giving him a small smile. “Alright, if you’re gonna be shy about it, let’s try this a different way.” The skeleton reached up and gently took Grillby’s hands in his own, pulling them away. Grillby’s face was burning with beautiful shades of red, orange, and blue, all mixing together. Sans chuckled a bit, putting his hands on the bartender’s shoulders and making him lean over. “Come here, you dork.” He stood up on his toes, pulling the fire monster’s hood down as he did.

The light show when Sans kissed him was spectacular.

Papyrus, who had been watching the whole time, jumped out of the bushes. “OH MY GOD, SANS!” He was shortly followed by Undyne, Alphys, and Frisk, who were all rewatching the scene from Frisk’s phone.

“That was s-so cute!” Alphys gushed. “You’re so adorable t-together! I think it’s my new OTP.”

Grillby groaned, covering his face with one hand as Sans laughed. “I hate all of you.” He stopped as a hand slipped into his own, looking down at Sans.

Sans smiled up at him, still chuckling a bit. His gaze softened a bit as he ran his thumb over Grillby’s knuckles. “So,” he said quietly, “What do you say, firefly? Coffee this Saturday.”

Grillby smiled, finally letting himself blush without panicking. He laced their fingers together and gave the skeleton a gentle nod. “That sounds lovely.”

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it! If you did, consider leaving me a comment to tell me your favorite part. If you want to send me a prompt, my asks are open!