#nia the porcupine
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abloomsdayy · 9 months ago
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more misc designs, names in tags
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waytooinvested · 6 months ago
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Forgotten, Not Forgiven - Chapter 13
This and previous chapters are also on AO3
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The fortifying effects of Nia’s pep talk lasted throughout the car ride, and it wasn’t until Lena was actually standing outside Kara’s front door, doughnut box in hand, that reality abruptly reasserted itself.
What was she doing?
It was all very well deciding she could remain detached for this conversation from the neutral territory of her own office, but now she was actually here, mere feet away from the woman who had broken her heart and about to raise a subject that would come closer to picking at that wound than anything had since it had happened, it felt foolhardy in the extreme. What if talking about it, even indirectly, really did trigger something that she would prefer to stay dormant? It was a very real possibility, and Lena didn’t want to be pushed into jumping one way or the other on offering a genuine second chance right now, because she was afraid that if she was she would choose to walk away again, and she wasn’t ready for that.
Not yet.
Not until their work was done and Supergirl was once more flying about National City and making her righteous, hypocritical speeches, hands on hips like she had been practising her power poses in the mirror (She probably had. Kara was such an adorable dork).
No, she wasn’t ready to let the complication back in.
She would slip away quickly, and when she got back to the car she would call Alex to come and talk to her sister after all. No one ever needed to know she had even-
The front door opened, and before Lena could so much as twitch Kara Danvers was standing in front of her, feet bare, hair secured into a messy bun with a paintbrush, small smudge of blue on one cheek, and a surprised smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. How was it fair that she looked so effortlessly cute just when Lena needed to keep a level head?
‘Lena! I heard something out in the hall and thought Mrs Warren’s cat must have got out again, but this is so much better than getting in some sneaky Mr Tibbles belly rubs. Come in, come in! And are those doughnuts??’
Oh well, looked like she was doing this.
Lena let herself be ushered inside, then presented the patisserie box to Kara with the dramatic flourish of a second rate stage magician (not that she was over playing how totally normal and at ease she felt or anything).
‘These, Ms Danvers, are no mere doughnuts. They are in fact in contention for the most elaborate, highly decorated and candy covered doughnuts you will find this side of New York. One of them is the cookie monster. With actual cookies.’
(Well, maybe she was over playing it just a little bit).
‘Ohhhh, you are my favourite. How did you know I needed a cookie monster doughnut in my life today?’
Kara took the box from Lena’s hands and immediately began exploring its contents, pausing to exclaim over the unicorn with the marshmallow horn and a rather fretful looking chocolate porcupine before settling after all on the giant cookie monster, complete with mouth full of cookies as promised.
Lena didn’t answer her right away, at first because she was trying to find the right words to broach the subject, and then because her attention had caught on the easel set up by the window. Kara rarely allowed anyone to see her works-in-progress, and even though it was so clearly unplanned, this unexpected glimpse into what was usually such a closely guarded process felt like an honour.
At a glance the painting seemed to be an unbroken, featureless blue, but as she looked Lena realised there was a subtle variation in the colours – a slightly darker shade on one side that lightened at the centre, with the most delicate hints of apricot and rose feathering in towards the far edge. There was texture there too – faint wisps of white that suggested clouds, and a faded crescent, like the moon after dawn had broken but before it dipped below the horizon. It was beautiful, but it was... different.
Kara tended to paint landscapes – fantasy landscapes, so Lena had always assumed. She had tried asking about them once or twice, but had been met with hedging and awkward subject changes. She had thought that her friend was simply private about her art, or even mildly embarrassed about her fascination with painting made up scenes rather than real ones, and had tried to drop in casual mentions of sci fi books she had read to let her know that her secret brand of nerdiness was fine by her, but Kara still never fully relaxed until the conversation had well and truly moved on.
Reframed with the knowledge she now had, she realised that Kara didn’t paint fantasy landscapes at all. She painted Krypton. Over and over again, she recreated her vanished home, preserving her memories of somewhere she would never see again the only way she could. Only now she had lost even that small connection to her heritage, she was left with nothing but a vague sense that something “up there” was important to her, and it made Lena’s heart ache for her. It felt too familiar, that quiet yearning for something you couldn’t quite place.
She had been so young when her mother died, she almost didn’t remember her first home at all. There was just the odd fragment of disjointed moments, mingled with snatches of sense-memory. The smell of woodsmoke and wet earth intertwined with a sweet, buttery flavour she had never found an exact match for since; a hummed lullaby in a voice that was both bone-deep familiar and too distant to recall how it sounded making words; the warm surety of arms that reached out to catch her as she stumbled and swooped her up into the air, turning her fall into flight before she could hit the ground…
She wanted to ask Kara about the sky painting, to understand exactly what it meant to her (she wanted to understand all of them now she realised they weren’t made up, but of course Kara could no longer tell her about any but this one), but she held back. It wasn’t what she was here for, and now she had resolved to have this conversation, she needed to get on with it right away or she would talk herself out of doing it at all.
She returned her attention to Kara, who had finished her first rapturous bite of doughnut and was now sucking icing from her thumb and looking back at Lena with a quizzical expression.
‘Well actually… Nia sent me. She said you seemed a bit upset after your talk today, and thought maybe you could use a friend.’
‘Oh no, she picked up on that? I thought I was managing to be so cool about it!’
‘She said you didn’t finish your doughnut.’
Kara huffed as indignantly as she could through a chocolate chip cookie.
‘That doesn’t mean anything, I leave things sometimes! I might just not have been in a doughnut sort of mood.’
She didn’t say anything, but Lena’s raised eyebrow in the direction of the semi-demolished cookie monster got the point across. Kara Danvers had never once not been in a doughnut sort of mood, except possibly when she was actively dying. And even then, chances were 50/50 that she just fancied potstickers instead.
‘Well... she didn’t know that. Did she tell you what it was we were talking about?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you already knew that-?’
‘That Nia is Dreamer? Yes, I’ve known for a little while now.’
‘Oh.’
Kara moved over to the couch and slumped down onto it, like the weight of her own feelings was suddenly too heavy for her. It was a pose of abject misery, but she didn’t put down the doughnut, which Lena figured was a good sign.
‘I didn’t realise you guys even knew each other that well. How come she told you and not me? Did I do something to make her think I would react badly?’
‘We don’t, really – through you more than anything else. But it wasn’t like that Kara, I just put the pieces together after seeing both Dreamer and Nia at the DEO while I was working on this project with Alex.’
‘That figures. You’re an actual genius, of course you would have realised right away.’
Lena winced internally. Some genius. She had been best friends with Kara for years, as well as having frequent up-close-and-personal encounters with Supergirl, including but not limited to being carried in her arms with their faces mere inches apart, and yet still somehow hadn’t cottoned onto the fact that they were one and the same person.
What a waste she had made of being carried by Supergirl before their rift. If only she’d known it was Kara she was cuddled up with, she’d have-
But no, she wouldn’t have. Kara never seemed to notice all the times she had flirted outrageously with her throughout their friendship, and Lena would never have jeopardized what they had had for the fleeting excitement of a mid-air make out with a best friend who was in all likelihood entirely heterosexual.
In any case there was no point in dwelling on what was past and would never come round again. This wasn’t about her and Kara. It was about Kara and Nia.
Lena put the doughnut box down on the table in front of Kara and went to sit beside her, not quite touching, but closer than they usually sat these days.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
‘No… Maybe? I told Nia how happy I was for her. And I am, I really truly am, and I’m glad she told me. I guess I just feel a little weird about it. I get that it’s this huge personal thing, but I can’t help wondering why she didn’t feel like she could trust me when all the rest of our friends knew. I know they’re mostly DEO so it’s a bit different, but… I don’t know. I guess it just makes me feel like the outsider. Like I’m not this cool, powerful secret agent so it doesn’t even matter what I know. I thought Nia and I were closer than that.’
Lena should have felt vindicated, smug even. Happy that Kara was now feeling some measure of the pain she’d caused Lena, even if on a much smaller scale. But she didn’t. She just felt sad.
For Kara.
For Nia.
For herself.
For the whole tangled web of truth and lies that they were all now so inextricably ensnared in that Lena could no longer see which thread was supposed to hers. She could just see Kara, and the pain and confusion in her eyes as she struggled with feelings she didn't have the full context to understand.
She found herself stepping almost without realising it into Supergirl’s shoes – giving all the same arguments that she herself had dismissed when Kara had tried to explain why she had kept her own secret for so long. That it wasn’t about trust, it was about safety. That knowing something like this could put both of them in danger, and by hiding it Nia had been trying to prevent people using Kara as a game piece against Dreamer. That Nia had probably been afraid that she had waited too long, and now Kara would hate her for not telling her sooner, and she couldn’t bear to lose her.
The irony of what she was saying and who she was saying it to was not lost on Lena, but somehow, although they were old and tired to her now, telling these things to Kara made her feel the truth of them in a way she never had before.
After all, was she not doing something similar, even now? She had no choice but to keep Kara in the dark about her Kryptonian identity, but that wasn’t the only secret she was keeping. Kara still didn’t know that she had deliberately sabotaged her happiness at Catco, and Lena knew as surely as Supergirl must have that if she revealed this truth it would end the way things were between them. And she didn’t want to lose Kara yet. So she didn’t tell.
She didn’t tell, and it ached and festered inside her like rotten tooth she refused to spit it out, but she would rather keep it close than accept the gap that would be left by letting go. Instead she focused on the present, and on Nia and how much she clearly cared about their friendship, and Kara listened to her in a way that Lena hadn’t been ready to do when she had been the one in her position. Eventually Kara sighed, and allowed herself another bite of doughnut before conceding.
‘I know you’re right and I’m not being fair. I just can’t help feeling so out of the loop. I don’t even really know why – whether it’s because of things changing at Catco or because Alex and Nia and everyone seem to be so busy at the moment, but it’s like something has shifted for me recently. I feel so frustrated and so limited in what I can do. I think if I’m honest… maybe I’m a bit jealous of Nia. I mean yesterday she was like me – just an ordinary woman doing her best to make a difference through her writing in spite of Andrea’s new ‘sparkly media’ vision, and today? Today she’s this awesome kickass superhero who’s out there every night fighting crime and saving the city while I’m making boil in the bag rice and watching NSYNC videos on Youtube for the millionth time. Does that make me a terrible person?’
‘Of course it doesn’t. It just makes you human.’
And you were never meant to be just human.
But she couldn’t explain, so she offered comfort in the only way she could think of. She reached out across the unacknowledged barrier of physical space that they had so carefully maintained over the last several weeks, and pulled Kara in very gently against her side. After a moment of stiff surprise Kara relaxed into the embrace, allowing her head to find a resting place in the crook of Lena’s shoulder.
Lena waited for the pain and anger to rise up in her at the breach of this protective buffer, for her to have to fight the urge to push Kara away again and leave the apartment. But it never came. Her arm settled comfortably around Kara’s shoulders, and it was as though a piece of her that had been missing for months slotted back into place. With a pang, Lena realised that no one had really touched her since before Lex had revealed Supergirl’s identity. Not properly. Not like this. It simultaneously soothed and inflamed her need for physical contact, and it was all she could do not to pull Kara closer still.
She closed her eyes and let her cheek rest against the top of Kara’s head. She just needed a minute. Just a minute for this to be enough, and then she would turn her focus back to where it was meant to be. Project Atlantis. Restoring Supergirl and ending this brief, beautiful bubble of time when she could be Kara’s best friend again without all the history and hurt.
Just one more minute...
‘Thank you Lena, I’m so glad I have you to talk to about this stuff. And I guess now I can understand better where you were coming from about our thing.’
Lena tensed immediately.
Had Kara just remembered the real reason for their fight? Could this indirect trigger really have been enough to bring her own memories along with it, and without any sign of a neurological episode? Was all of this just… over?
She could barely get the words out, but she had to make sure.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Sorry, of course I know it wasn’t the same as finding out someone is secretly a superhero, but I guess it just gives me some perspective, being the one on the other side of a secret. It is not the greatest feeling in the world, and I know it must have been worse for you because I was supposed to be your best friend, and I still lied to you for such a long time.’
The simultaneous rush of relief and crashing disappointment was dizzying. Kara didn’t remember. Whatever she was talking about, it wasn’t her Supergirl secret.
Then what was it?
The part of Lena that desperately wanted to find out Kara’s version of their fight warred with the part of her that just as desperately wanted to leave it alone so they could go on as they were. She should try and find out, of course. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be worse than the truth, and it wasn’t real in any case… but even if she wanted to, that was easier said than done. They had had a huge fight about it and almost parted ways for good, it was hardly as though she could claim the details of what it had been about had just slipped her mind for a moment. Especially when Kara had tried to talk about it before, and Lena had been the one to shut the conversation down. Besides, hadn’t she been right to do so? Things between them had been great since then, and who knew what would have happened if they had opened the can of worms that was their history? They might not have stayed close enough for Kara to keep co operating with her treatment. And alright so maybe she didn’t need to be cajoled into the Q-Wave sessions anymore, but if anything that was all the more reason to keep Kara on side, just in case she needed to ask her to do something else later on.
The arguments for each side went round and round in Lena’s head, neither one gaining enough ground to decide on a course of action, until at last Kara pulled away and looked at her with a worried frown, apparently sensing the change in her mood.
‘Are you alright? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up after what you said last time. Please don’t be mad at me again.’
She couldn’t ask. Not now.
‘I won’t. I’m not. I’m just – I’m glad we found our way through that. I really thought our friendship was over, and I was just thinking how glad I am that I was wrong.’
Kara relaxed, though she didn’t resume the cut short cuddle.
‘Me too.’
Trying not to mind the loss of Kara’s warm weight against her side, Lena stretched as casually as she could, and leaned forwards to choose a doughnut of her own.
‘Shall we watch a movie? Your pick.’
‘Oh yes, a movie night would be the best! Maybe we could invite Nia as well? I feel so bad about how I reacted earlier and I want to make it up to her and let her know that I really really do support her as Dreamer.’
‘I think that’s a great idea. Why don’t you give her a call, and I’ll make a quick supply run. Wine, chocolate, and popcorn?’
‘Sounds perfect.’
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seiwas · 6 months ago
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nyello sel!!! for the ask game,, mayhaps 21 and 25 for bakugo :3 ?!
nia my dear!! hello 🥺 thanks for asking!!! for katsuki too 🥺🥺🥺 i feel like i don't talk about him enough
21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?
omg writing for katsuki is my biggest hurdle this year hsdbhjs i've written for him but only very small blurbs/drabbles that barely scratch the surface of what i really want to do to give justice to his character sdbfj i have an ex!bkg outline that's like 5 pages long and has been under construction for a year or so (im hoping to write and post the fic this year!!)
THAT BEING SAID, my favourite thing to do when writing for him is definitely writing him a bit more aged up and mellow; still a bit troubled and haunted by all that's happened to him. i like to write him in the process of healing, where he's this kind of mishmash of some of his old habits while trying out new, better ones. i also think a big part of katsuki's character is the whole saying-something-but-doing-the-other typa beat 🥹 OH AND i love writing him flustered LMAO i just KNOWWW he gets so shy with affection in the beginning of a relationship.
idt i've written him enough to know what i don't like yet but i definitely have a hard time writing him a bit more suggestive!! mostly bc i do think he's actually good at teasing n being smooth when he's comfortable in a relationship (and dialogues like that aren't my forte shdgfvh)
25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?
omg i hated his guts fr HAHAHAHAH could NOT STAND HIM HAHAH like why is he such a brat why is he such a bully why is he SO MEAN. izuku is my BABY and i really couldn't understand why this goddamn PORCUPINE kept barking at him like a damn dog UGH.
but then i rewatched bnha and it all started to click and make sense and here i am now sdbfj shouto was my first love but admittedly, i think... katsuki has... overtaken... maybe... hsbdhjs i love his character development and... thinking abt him now has me gnawing on a STICK lol
ask me stuff from this character ask game
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thepaladincosplays · 9 months ago
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What exactly did Envie do to make her want forgiveness from Astro, Nia and Dai Tai? 👀
So, as stated in previous fics by the characters, Envie more or less almost got Nia killed. Of course, it was a complete accident that she felt guilt ridden for for years.
A quick reminder: Envie was still getting used to the power the Crown and Ring provided her, and with her limited experience with her abilities before it only made things more difficult when she got that unlimited power...
But the event itself is a little more complex than that. Envie, still trying to get used to the powers of the Crown and Ring, felt a tear happen on Earth so she went to investigate - lo and behold, a monster from Tartarus appeared and was wrecking house, but thankfully Nia, Astro, and Dai Tai were all there already to fight the thing. Astro told her to stay back but she wasn't having any of it.
It was taking them quite a while, too. See, this one was deadly intelligent and seemingly unbeatable. A hard carapace, eyes that could look all the way around itself, spines like a porcupine that it could shoot out of itself and regrow instantly. The thing was a walking fortress with almost no weaknesses. All throughout the battle, Envie was having difficulty focusing her powers directly onto the beast. Everything she tried seemed to bounce around between her friends and the monster. The thing nearly tore through half the city as they struggled to fend it off.
Envie saw it as a last resort, but it had to get taken down somehow. She snapped her fingers and opened a portal to the Ghost Zone - vines from the Wilds shot out and ensnared the beast, pulling it into the Ghost Zone. But Nia was caught by a stray vine, caught off guard and completely constricted. The beast resisted and struggled, all the while Nia was very nearly pulled in. Envie focused her magic on pulling Nia out while Dai Tai and Astro shoved the beast in, and once the beast was finally through the portal Envie closed it. The vine that had ensnared Nia was severed and went limp, and she was freed from its constricting form. Envie began apologizing almost immediately. She tried explaining that she was trying to open a portal that would suck only the creature in, but Astro, fed up with Envie up to that point, went ballistic on her. He told her to never go near Nia again because she almost killed her with what she had been pulling that day. The asphyxiation was just the icing on the cake.
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ushisrever · 3 years ago
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Claim your Order ☕
A CUP FOR TWO - NIA’S 100 FOLLOWERS EVENT 
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ONE SHOT ESPRESSO for @porcupines-n-sharkteeth​
Here’s your order
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 I match you up with...LEV HAIBA 
ROMANCE TROPE: Love at First Sight
Lev is not the type of person who just looks at someone and just instantly fall for them 
No.  Definitely not.  Or so he thought 
He doesn't really believe the thing called love at first sight
But he knew he just had that when you entered the gym where he's currently in 
You were currently helping out the volleyball team while the manager of the team is at home feeling sick 
So, you're the one doing the manager duty 
And ever since you become their temporary manager and give them your sweetest smiles, he never thought he'll get tired of looking at you like you are the only sunshine in his life
Sometimes, Kuroo will catch Lev staring and will have to nudge Lev to get him to pull his act together 
And sometimes, you'll strike a conversation with him, but he just becomes a blubbering mess 
Kuroo is there to save his ass 
Sometimes, after volleyball practice he'll catch you walking home with earphones on (listening to nightcore music) 
He sure wants to talk to you especially when you stop to greet the neighbourhood cat 
But then, hesitancy comes to play.  He just fears you'll reject him 
This...is probably where Kuroo comes to play (such a good captain lol) 
One time during practice, he calls Lev over
"I got these two extra tickets for a movie and another two tickets for a museum visit.  I'm supposed to bring my girlfriend with me, but then I changed plans.  So I'm giving you this and ask her out," He explains 
Lev is practically frozen still 
"I-um-uh" Lev couldn't even comprehend the words 
Then it hit him when he suddenly sees you talking and laughing with some student who came to visit the gym 
He'll lose the opportunity if he doesn't pull it together
Therefore, before anything else, he grabs the tickets from Kuroo's hands and walks over to you and the student talking 
"Would you go on a date with me?!" The words didn't really come out as calmed and reserved its supposed to be 
That's why it took time before you can actually comprehend what he said 
Then it's your turn to become a blushing mess 
And shyly but surely said "Yes," 
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Here ya go! I hope you liked it :)) 
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abloomsdayy · 9 months ago
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brown and blue
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abloomsdayy · 9 months ago
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just like me fr
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