#realized that if a song tourney of music i by all rights should know and remember happened

[brightsuzaku]

do you dislike songs with lyrics and cannot name words well are are you normal

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 3: Apdnarg is Really Hard to Spell

 Yo guys, people are getting vaccinated, the sun is parting through the clouds, and I felt so nice that I even stopped listening to quite so many throwback 00′s BTS mashups (and yet I keep clicking on these dissonant catastrophes thinking “this time it’s got to be better. This time they’ll figure it out.” and like, no. Turns out you can’t match Brittany’s Toxic with BTS’ Black Swan. You can’t do that.)

This must be a sign that things are getting better. If anything, it means my personal tastes are improving. I mean I only clicked on like 3 “Dark Academia” Playlists where I could pretend I’m some sort of spooky witch in an abandoned library with a bad music player and basic taste in classical music (like can we ban Satie from Youtube for a little while?). Hell, I might even do a prompt update to this blog!

Yeah, you heard me, I’m actually going to stay ahead of the update schedule for Yugioh Abridged (maybe. I haven’t actually watched cuz of spoilers, I just noticed the thumbnail pop up on Youtube and was like “Damn it, they came out of hiatus??? I got hurry UP.”)

Anyway, speaking of the sky parting.

I’ll have you know my bro said this is actually more like a circumcision and it was one of the worst thing I have ever heard.

We get a chance to take in this lineup of confusing and varied character designs, and Joey. who is...still Joey.

The animators probably had to hold a strike in order for them to put Yugi in the audience, lets be real. There are TOO MANY PEOPLE in this shot and one is wearing a turban where you draw every single wrap. I hope those artists charged by the line.

Tea has a subplot where she’s just very frustrated with everyone she knows. They have been traveling together for like many weeks and got trapped in a foreign country so I get it. But at the same time, it’s kind of hard to picture Tea with female friends.

Because right now you got this 12 year old child, the other duelist who does not care about anything besides cards, and Kaiba’s 3 dragon cards that we’ve all collectively decided are female.

Hell it’s almost like the writers are asking themselves why Tea is here. Maybe they forgot. There’s no more ghosts to bus, no more people to knock out with her ass with random Olympic feats. Tea’s just sidelining.

(read more under the cut)

Mokuba is a itty bit bit taller this season, and so I guess that means he can legally climb on top of the cherry picker in order to give a riveting speech.

Really says a lot about Mokuba that he is so unphased about talking to, I dunno...an entire planet of people. Kind of a shame we never see this courage from Mokuba used for anything other than talking really, really big and giving everyone around him a really hard time.

Mokuba takes a moment to dunk on Yugi Muto, as is Kaiba tradition.

And then introduce the first pair of duelists, which obviously must be between the few people in this tournament that we actually know and care about.

Thankfully, in between last episode and this episode, Yugi has figured out who his own Grandpa is. This is a relief, because Yugi is such a mess, that I was fully convinced it would take over half a season for him to recognize it. I mean how long did it take him to figure out he shares a body with a ghost? Like half a season?

Instead Yugi recovered gracefully from not recognizing his grandpa, but it’s not like he bothered to tell anyone else, so the rest of our cast is just gonna be like “Is he my hairdresser? The guy who delivers my mail? Who is this guy who made absolutely no significant changes to his outfit or voice?”

Like sometimes this show goes full Spongebob silly kid’s show and you never know when to take it seriously or not. They might be sacrificing the entire cast next episode. I really don’t know. But for now their big concern is who is grandpa??? Like an innocent card version of “Are you my Mother?”

Faced with public speaking, Yugi decides to have a melt down.

We have seen him face monsters, we’ve seen him on TV dozens of times, he’s been in multiple competitions...but give a speech? Of course he can’t do that. The kid doesn’t attend enough school to know how to do that. Them’s learning skills.

And that was when a newly assembled wife-jet spliced through the sky like a souped up razer scooter and deposited 1 fully equipped Seto Kaiba in a Buzz Lightyear jetsuit.

THE RECOVERY.

Seto always watching over his Brother, ready to save this awkward party if it kills him (and it really should, that suit is held together by two seat-belts), making sure to get on that platform before Yugi starts going off about how he’s half an Ancient Egyptian. (Ah, life before social media. You could just be hella famous and also half a dead dude and people would just not know. I kinda miss the time before I knew literally everything about everyone.)

Please admire how close those flames are to setting Mokuba’s heavily hairsprayed mane completely alight. It would be an unforgettable spectacle.

These were absolutely just random ass jet packs that Gozaburo Kaiba made to kill hell tons of people, right? Like Seto found it in the family cabin, clutched to the heart of some crispy fried corpse and was like “neat! Mokuba! I found a cool toy!” and just plucked that thing out of that skeleton’s clutches and has been flying around for months?

Like this is Seto Kaiba’s Butter Glider, right?

Seriously what type of vehicle license do you need for one of these things? RIP My ‘Seto only has a scooter license’ headcanon.

Which I’m only even thinking about because I’ve had to try and make an appt with the DMV for days to get a freakin REAL ID. I went to sleep in 2019 and I could fly on a plane. I woke up in 2021 and it’s like “Want one last screw you?” and just...can 2020 please stop screwing me over? It’s March.

Anyway, the Jet is removed soon after, so no, this is not part of his new outfit. He goes right back to his Post-S4-Trauma-Normcore.

After wrestling this competition out of his brother’s hands and confusing everyone in the audience, Roland must have gotten the memo to cut the microphone before Seto got too excited and we were quickly ushered on to the next stage of the tournament.

One sec...the BTS Mashup playlist I just clicked on did a Black Swan X 7 rings mashup and it’s the worst thing my ears have ever heard.

Holy crap. I had to actually turn down my volume. Like...Ariana Grande already has music that has way too many overlapping singing parts on it--and then lets just stick a 52-person boy band on top? That’ll fix it. Yeah. Go ahead.

Wow. Even I had to change the song and you know how much I enjoy pop culture mistakes.

Spot the Mickey but like a million times easier because it’s a Massive Dick Shaped Dragon.

Yep. That’s my grocery shopping outfit. Except maybe not a lab coat and a duel disk. Wish I had a duel disk, that would make social distancing just a hell ton earlier. Just a “Yo, only one person in checkout, please” and then bap them on the head with a propelled discuss/hologram.

Anyway, Grocery shopping/Doctor man dueled the Purple Hair Boy, and considering that Purple Hair got screen time and shook Yugi’s hand once--I think that Doctor man doesn’t stand a freakin chance.

Good. I hate him.

Also, every time he breathes he’s gonna fog up his glasses. I have experience in this area. He can’t read his own cards in the same way I can’t read my phone if I’m in the refrigerated aisle.

So the way this tournament works, is everyone has to sit in the stadium to watch the show. Kinda like showing up to a football stadium just to watch a recorded TV monitor...but then again...that is how it feels to watch a football game at a football stadium when it’s live (at least with the tickets I usually get.)

And as we watch Grandpa waiting for his competitor, we find out that his competitor (Joey) is too busy eating snacks to give him the time of day.

Why do cartoon hot dogs always have lettuce? Is that seriously supposed to be relish? Or is there a place in the world where you put lettuce on your hot dog?

Sorry, bro has just informed of his favorite hot dog order, which is absolutely terrible so I will share it with you: a Five Guys hot dog with ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, onions, mushrooms, pickled peppers, and you guessed it--topped with freakin lettuce.

My own kin. How am I over 30 and just finding out that my baby brother thinks it’s normal to walk into a restaurant with normal god-fearing law-abiding people and order lettuce and mushrooms on a hot dog?

I have fully failed him.

The rest of this episode is watching both Joey Wheeler and Mokuba have a shared panic attack while Seto does freakin nothing.

Please remember that Seto has both a jetpack and a dragon wife plane and could have easily solved this problem. But nah.

Then again, Seto Kaiba has given this crew so MANY rides, that maybe he’s tired of being the Soccer Mom for the team?

Like they don’t actually say this episode, but Seto was the one in charge of like...this entire place, do you think he made the 2 for 1 special just to get Joey where it hurts the most? Or does it actually not take any subterfuge to screw Joey Wheeler because he’s just naturally this way?

Like Mokuba wasn’t there when Joey was told “stay right here, and then we will all go together to fight Dartz” and Joey was like “I’mma save Mai from herself although she told me not to!” and then he Hella Died. But, Mokuba did see the result, AKA, Joey’s dead body being carried on the back of Tristan. Maybe Mokuba never realized that Joey died because he went out of his way to be late?

Lets do a tally of every time I can recall with my dodgy memory that Joey was threatened to be DQ’d/pretty much was DQ’d either by his own fault or no fault of his own

-When he wasn’t allowed to go on the boat to Murder Island because he was a stupid nobody kid who did not have a dueling glove

-When he wasn’t actually supposed to be in Pegasus’ tourney and was, in fact, secretly using half of Yugi’s entrance ticket the entire time

-when Bandit Keith stole the ticket that Joey got from Yugi so then Joey had to borrow Mai’s ticket although she had just used it so it really shouldn't have counted. Because, really anyone could have just piggy backed off of each other’s ticket until the whole boat went through that castle.

-When his account was hacked to get entered into Kaiba’s tourney when Kaiba very clearly told him he could not apply solely because he was Joey Wheeler.

-When he was late to his sister’s eye surgery because he got mugged by Marik’s Rare Hunters, so she almost refused to do the surgery.

-When Joey got possessed by Marik, and as Marik, threatened to murder everyone else in the tournament including both of the Kaiba brother’s who’s tournament it was, and then chained himself to Yugi Muto to throw both of them to the bottom of the ocean.

-I think there was a point when he threatened to attack Kaiba in Kaiba’s own tourney while not possessed? Like several times?

-when he got struck by Lightning and almost did not stand up fast enough after being struck by lightning, which is apparently a type of DQ in Duel Monsters.

-When he tried to save Mai from getting hit by a fireball, but then Yugi did it instead, and then so many people were standing on the dueling platform that Kaiba couldn’t possibly DQ them all.

-When he entered the restricted area of the blimp in order to hassle Kaiba into landing the Blimp, which Kaiba did not do.

-When Marik killed Joey before Joey could press the “go” button on his duel disk to play the card that should have won Joey the match.

-When he was dueling a lawyer in a digital universe but then the dice was like...weighted? So Noah had to walk over and be like “The hell is this weighted dice? This is my perfect digital world? How did you even do that?” and then Joey won because the match was no longer legit.

-When Joey yelled at Noah too much and so Noah turned Joey to stone for being a rude ass spectator

-When Mai was like “Wheeler and Valon, listen closely: do NOT murder each other” and then Joey did a murder on Valon so she was like “I guess I have no choice, I was very clear” and killed Joey straight up.

-When Joey decided to block Seto’s fireballs while Joey Wheeler WAS a playing card, somehow disrespecting both Dartz and Seto Kaiba at the same time.

-When Joey was playing cards but then got absorbed into a giant Leviathan and basically couldn’t play anymore after that.

-There’s probably hell ton of S0 stuff I just haven’t seen yet.

-This episode

And Joey runs fast for a montage of wacky things that really have no business being in a theme park. Things like this:

(remember when Bakura almost died from a rock that ended up being a balloon? It comes full circle.)

The stuff that the Kaiba brother’s think is normal and fun.

Anyway Joey fights off a bunch of hologram snakes and bats and everyone is like “Should we tell him it’s just holograms???” And it’s like wow, guys, how many times have these ‘holograms’ straight up murdered Joey Wheeler and everyone else on this cast? Too many? Because I have a google doc with so many deaths on it. 7,805,844,048, to be exact.

Anyway, he gets there with five seconds to spare and Mokuba’s like “well at least you were still entertaining while we filmed you in front of a live audience being a total spaz for 15 minutes straight, so I’ll let you go.”

Grandpa and Joey start playing, Joey completely oblivious that this is just an older Muto, while Hawkins walks up awkwardly and is like “hey guys. I’m so sorry about this.”

(welcome to my font choices, for those new here, I have to make weird font color choices to make sure it’s legible for the colorblind and also for the non-colorblind. This one is not much contrast, so I may change it up in the future, but for now, this is Grandpa Muto’s new font. I apologize to every graphic designer reading this. Please don’t tell anyone who has ever hired me for graphic design about this blog.)

What’s funny about this exchange is that after they find out that Yugi’s Grandpa is Apdnarg (HOLY my brain cannot get around the spelling for that, and I will not change it in the caps. I cannot do a ‘pdn’ ever again), they don’t stand on his side of the field or anything. Hawkins is legit Solomon Muto’s only fan during this exchange and like...damn. Way not to back your Grandpa, Yugi.

Yugi immediately strides up to Mokuba to non-confrontation-ally inform him that he has stepped over a line and Mokuba is like “what are these things you say called ‘lines?’”

According to Mokuba, Solomon Muto begged him to be in the competition so he could relive his glory days (glory days making no sense here, because the game has only been released for the past 15 years, so glory days is like...the before times that can only be referring to disgraced archeologists and Pegasus ((who is, in his own way...a disgraced archeologist, too))) and Mokuba was like

“You trained Yugi Muto, right? Hey that’s good enough for me. This drama is gold. People will eat it up. Hell yes. Don’t be afraid to abduct him a little bit. Maybe trap a couple people in a digital hellscape for a little while? Now we go by Pegasus house rules here, so fire as many lasers as you want, but just make sure not to hit anyone in the face. Oh man, we are going to be swimming in cash. Love it, Muto Sr, love it.”

But I dunno, I feel like Grandpa won’t make it past next episode. It is Joey. We kinda need him to make it past Ep 4 of the arc. If Grandpa Muto becomes the new Joey Wheeler, that will be a weird transition for this show to make.

But that’s all for today, as always, here is the link to read these in chrono order becuase there’s SO MANY that you don’t need to read backwards--don’t do it--just use the chrono tag (and I don’t know if you can add compound tags, but I did separate the Season from the Episode, so if you write S4, it should only pop up stuff from S4. I didn't’ do that to seasons 1-3 though because I just...didn’t.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And because I brought it up: here it is, the best BTS Mashup that I found on my deep dive. Like legit--this one isn’t a mess:

Most of other ones are horrible in a fascinating way. Like I’m not even a BTS fan, I think I sort of age out of that metric, I’m just bored and quarantined. And lets be real, we all appreciate a good bop when we hear it.

[98prilla]

Defender

Spiritual follow up to Cornered. Inspired by @coquettishcass and their lovely art.

He doesn’t know quite how it got this bad. He just knows one minute it was fine, and the next minute it wasn’t.

Deceit had shown up, all suave suit and knowing smirk, butting in on the latest dilemma. The others dismissed him, of course.

But something was different. He could feel the frustration rolling off the side, at not being listened to, not even being given a chance, and the more he looked, the more he saw.

The scowl on Deceit's lips that he’d taken as perpetual disdain was a mask to hide the sting of being ignored, the splash of yellow on his clothes was to make himself brighter, force them to notice him. He could see the fury and hurt and hopelessness on him like a well worn coat, and frowned, thinking of Virgil.

Once they’d opened up, actually gave Virgil a chance instead of dismissing him, everything had become smoother. He’d opened up, he’d been heard, he didn’t need to be scary anymore to be accepted.  

Why was Deceit any different? He was just trying to help. He was putting on the act he thought they all might listen to, at least be forced to pay attention to, because he didn’t have a seat at the table.  

And truly, was his idea so bad? Thomas needed a break, they all knew it, perhaps he and Virgil felt it more than the others, but he needed a day off. Hed scheduled the day off, before one of his friends texted asking if he could help a friend of theirs move.

Deceit’s plan was simple: say he couldn’t. The reason didn’t really matter, Thomas was sick or had an appointment elsewhere or had family stuff going on. Patton, of course, wouldn’t hear it, thought they should help, because it was “the right thing to do" and Logan thought they should just tell the truth but…

But why not lie? Thomas needed the day. Deceit had an excuse. A simple text, no one the wiser.  

He met Virgil's eyes, who had been standing silently, anxiously, taking the arguments in. He tilted his head, teeth teasing his lip, and nodded, as if reading Roman’s mind. He nodded back. At the least he’d have Virgil on his team, then.

He cleared his throat, stepping forwards. Deceit’s eyes narrowed, shoulders tensing in anticipation of a blow yet to come. Logan simply looked done, and Patton gazed at him with those puppy dog eyes, making his next words even harder.

“I think Deceit’s right.”

“What?!” Patton.

“surely I misheard, Roman you certainly did not just agree with me.” Deceit, and Roman almost laughed at the genuine surprise in his voice.

Now it was all wrong. Patton is speaking, scolding, lecturing about the right thing to do, Logan is talking over him, trying to convince Patton that a break is needed, Deceit is defending himself, his actions, trying to defend Roman, but no one listens.

It is too loud, too confrontational, too much. Words are overlapping and he can’t hear right and he’s swamped in noise, ringing in his ears, despite his hands clapped over them because it was too loud and too much and his fault and if he was just better he wouldn’t be cowering right now, he’d be doing something-

“ENOUGH!” He flinches at the volume, so loud and so close, but the others stop their fighting and he sighs in relief at the utter silence in the wake of Virgil’s shout.

Roman realizes Virgil is standing before him, eyes crackling and arms spread, as if to hide Roman from view. He finds the gesture oddly soothing, oddly protective, Virgil shielding him from the stares, the glares.

“Kiddo-"

“Shut it, Pat.” He snaps, a hint of tempest tongue lacing his words. Roman flinches as Patton draws back as if struck, hurt flashing across his face, but Virgil clearly doesn’t care at the moment. Instead he turns to Roman, instantly softening as he crouches down before him.

“Hey, Princey. You ok?” he murmurs gently, and all he can do is shake his head because no, he’s not. He’s tired, bone deep tired. He’s been running on nothing, brainstorming for days. Just the thought of going out, of moving, makes him want to crumble to dust.  

“Ok. That’s ok, Ro.” He feels Virgil turn back to the others, hears the steel in his voice.

“Roman was right. Deceit is right. The “right thing" Pat? It’s not always the right thing for Thomas. You might not get this, but some of us are exhausted. There’s a reason today is a relaxation day. Lie, tell the truth, I don’t care. But we are not helping with a move. We are not leaving the house. Thomas is going to sit on the couch and eat chips and watch the office bloopers again and I’m going to go take care of Roman, and no, you cannot help,” Virgil stopped Patton before he could speak “because if you’d just listened for once instead of berating and scolding him for having an opinion different than yours, he wouldn’t be like this!” His tempest tongue had returned on his final words, and even Deceit looked shocked at his outburst, but he didn’t care, right now.

“Don’t come find us until you’re ready to apologize and mean it.” Roman is as stunned as the others when Virgil turns back to him. He is amazed at how fast that face goes from hard and furious to soft and concerned.

“Your room?” He asks, and Roman nods, he doesn’t care, really, just needs to not be here, and his room will do as well as anywhere else. Virgil nods, placing a hand on his shoulder, and they sink out.

“sorry" is the first word out of his mouth as they rise up in his room, face burning with shame. What kind of prince falls apart this easily, can’t handle a simple argument, made a fool of themselves as he had?

“Nope.” Virgil, popping the “p". He looks up, confused, despite his tone, Virgil is watching him seriously.

“W-what?”

“I have reviewed your apology and rejected it,” Roman wilted, seeming to grow smaller, “because it’s unnecessary and you have nothing to apologize for, Ro.” Virgil finishes firmly and Roman simply gapes at him because of course it’s his fault, everyone is upset because he spoke up.

He realizes Virgil is looking around the room, and internally curses. It’s a mess right now, crumpled up papers strewn across the floor, rejected ideas thrown aside, his art supplies scattered throughout the room, his clothes tossed everywhere. He hadn’t had the energy to clean it, to stop trying to think because it was his job and he could do it, just one more idea, and he’d call it a night.

“Roman.” He jumps. He’d forgotten Virgil was there, he’d zoned out. He was swaying on his feet, unable to hide just how tired he was without the others there to pretend for.

And Virgil is furious, he knows exactly why Roman didn’t speak up, didn’t tell them it was this bad, that he desperately needed a break, that he was one step away from falling apart. But it isn’t Roman's fault, and he doesn’t want Roman thinking he’s angry with him, so he pushes that away in favor of kinder feelings as he realizes Roman is crying, silent tears, face almost numb.

“Let’s get you to bed, okay?” he guides Princey to his bed, he's almost sleep walking, and climbs beneath the covers with no added coaxing. He tucks Roman in, about to excuse himself when Roman’s hand grabs his wrist. He doesn’t speak, but the desperation in his eyes is easy to read and Virgil softens.

“You want me to stay?” Roman nods so fast it makes Virgil chuckle. “ok, Ro. Music?” He asks, and Roman nods again. Virgil pulls out his phone and taps on the playlist he’d made ages ago for moments like this, when he was feeling overwhelmed. A mix of instrumental tracks, ambient noise, calming songs.  

“When you feel better I’ll help you clean all this up, yeah? Maybe we can play a Smash tourney or something.” Virgil says as he sets his phone down on the nightstand, looking back over to Roman. He is still crying, curled tight, but he nods slightly, smiles bravely. Virgil lets out a smile himself, surprising Roman by slipping under the covers with him, becoming the big spoon. Usually that’s Roman’s role, the protector, the warmth giver, but today Roman could use the safety and security more than Virgil could.  

He’s proven correct as Roman curls tighter against him, burying his head against Virgil’s chest, crying until his sniffles die down into breathy gasps. Virgil is holding him tightly, murmuring sweet things in his ear, how special he is, how important, how amazing, how remarkable, how talented and strong and brave, and Roman doesn’t have the energy to argue against him, because Virgil is wrong. He is none of those things, doesn’t feel like any of those things, he feels weak and silly and stupid. Especially after today.  

But Virgil won’t hear it, just responds fiercely that he’s wrong, he’s worth so much more than he knows, than any of them realize or acknowledge, that he is important and very, very loved, until Roman starts to maybe believe him, just a bit.

“thanks.” He manages, feeling himself starting to drift. It’s warm, and quiet, and Virgil’s presence screams of safety and calm and peace, and he can’t help but succumb to his exhaustion.  

“Of course, Ro. I’m always here. I’ll always help, if you need it. Doesn’t matter if it’s Remus or Patton. I’ll be here.” Roman wraps his arms around Virgil’s middle, hugging him just as tightly as Virgil was, taking in his scent of coffee and wood shavings, never having been more grateful in his life for Virgil.  

They would worry about the others later. Right now, right here, they were content to catch up on all the sleep they’d been missing.

[tbehartoo]

All I Want for Christmas is You(r Last Name)

for @jazztastic-panda and @mlsecretsanta for ML Secret Santa 2017

Characters: Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng, also mentioned Nino Lahiffe and Alya Ceasire

Rating: General

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Adrien has started to realize that he has more than a little crush on his “good friend” Marinette. He realizes this when he sees what he’s been doodling in the margin of his notebook.

Word Count: 2940

On AO3         On FFN

Adrien Agreste was sitting in his Chinese class waiting for the time when he could be back with his friends. He had most of his classes with Nino and a very few with Marinette and Alya, but Chinese was the only class where he didn’t have at least one of his close friends with him. The only thing that made this class bearable was that lunch was right afterward, which meant an hour eating with them. That was usually his favorite part of the day when they were able to hangout together and eat good food. After lunch today would be his last class before the winter break started. Adrien was looking forward to the break for once. His father was going to be traveling to New York and he’d been given permission to stay with Nino. That automatically meant they’d be spending lots of time with Alya and Marinette. This Christmas was going to be awesome!

One of the things that made this class nearly unbearable is that he only took it to fill the foreign language requirement for the lycée. He’d had tutors in Chinese almost since he could speak, and this stuff was so basic that he practically did the class half aware and still passed with flying colors. He’d tried to test out of the class but, though the teacher complimented him on his command of the language, he was unable to get an exception to the requirement, so here he was in his first “year” of Chinese listening to students murder their pronunciation and trying not to laugh when their penmanship turned an innocuous looking character into something decidedly racier.  

They had been assigned writing some basic sentences in their notebooks while the teacher walked around correcting penmanship and grammar. Adrien had finished the page in record time. He’d torn out the paper and had it waiting to be turned in at the end of class and then started writing some more complex sentences so that he wasn’t just sitting there. Instead of merely writing, “I go to the park with my friends” as he had for the page to turn in, he wrote, “On sunny days, when the blue sky calls, my friends and I romp carefree through the jade colored grass.” He was proud of this sentence. For one, it had taken him a full two minutes to remember the Chinese character for “romp” and for another it reminded him of the picnic in Nice he’d had just last summer with Marinette, Nino, and Alya.

He’d had a lot more of those kinds of times lately. Over the last three years, since being allowed to attend school, he’d had plenty of moments spent with this family of his heart. It seemed like Nathalie had been able to convince his father to give him more time for his studies and less time in front of the cameras. As long as Adrien’s grades stayed up this translated to more time with his friends.

“After school I like to…” He’d answered the short sentences with “practice fencing” as there was no way he was going to say “save Paris from ridiculous, but highly destructive, monsters while wearing magic spandex.” It just didn't translate well... and he didn’t know the Chinese word for spandex. There was so much more to his after school life than just fencing though it did figure big into the picture. It was one of the few things he and his father had in common and another reason he’d been given more time. Monsieur D’Argencourt had doubled his training time as he had started winning more tournaments. Their hard work was showing great results. He thought back to his last fencing match.

“Are you ready for this?” Marinette asked as she walked into the arena with him. It was an overwhelming sight to see all of the best fencers from around France gathered in one place.

“Well, ready or not, the tournament is here and I’m not getting any more practice,” he replied with a grin.

“You are going to be fantastic,” Marinette told him. “And win or lose we’ll still have the celebratory cake and ice cream waiting back at the house.”

“Oh?” Adrien knew it was there. Her parents had insisted that they have such celebrations after his tourneys when they found out that his father had left town on the day of his first national competition. “What flavor of cake is it?”

“I’m not telling you,” she said with a glint in her eye. “Last time I told you I’m sure you threw the  competition just to get to the cake that much quicker.”

“How many times do I have to have to say it?” Adrien asked the sky. “I did NOT throw my match against the 100th world ranked foil fencer just to get back to the triple chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache!” He laughed at her scoff. “It just really helped lessen the sting of losing to someone else’s lucky shot. That’s all.”

They had a short staring contest and then broke into giggles.

“I’m still not telling you,” she sing songed. “You’ll just have to find out later.”

“It’s a deal.”

They scanned the crowd to see if anyone else from the school had been able to make it. Nino and Alya both had work so they wouldn’t be there. It was a long shot that anyone else would be able to come, but sometimes they did show up. Marinette had made sure that everyone on the class chat page knew when all of his competitions were. It was a little embarrassing, but also kind of nice. Marinette almost never missed a match if she could help it. It was really nice to have her support at those events. He always felt better when she was there.

Adrien came back to his Chinese class when one of the other students asked him for help with their sentence. Adrien helped her out and then turned back to his own writing.

He’d written “My friend, Marinette” before he’d drifted off into his memories. How should he finish a sentence beginning like that?

“My friend, Marinette, likes to play video games in which she always beats the snot out of me”- Well it was true, but not the full picture of the girl in question.

Marinette played video games with a competitive zeal that bordered on obsession. She loved to play them anywhere, at home or the arcades, against anyone, friend or stranger, and played them with equal determination to win whether or not she was familiar with the game in question. Adrien loved to play against Marinette, but he really loved to watch her play. There was a fire in her eyes when she was competing and trying to figure out a game. Her celebratory dance was also one of the things he loved to watch, especially when she wasn’t celebrating his downfall.

She had a passion and enthusiasm for life that was infectious.

He’d spent hours working on class projects with her, Nino, and Alya and was never surprised at the creativity and dedication she put into her school work. Their class presentations were often the high point of any semester. Between her creative ideas, Nino and Alya’s technical expertise and his flair for the dramatic they almost always had a spectacular performance for their teachers. They were becoming the stuff of academic legend and lore.

Adrien thought of quieter times with Marinette. There were evenings where they had movie nights at his house. Nino would bring the movie, Alya would bring the “smuggled in” candies, and Marinette usually brought the popcorn. Sometimes there were cuddle piles at Alya’s when the Ladyblogger was feeling depressed and overwhelmed. There were track “parties” at Nino’s where it was mostly them sitting around listening to his music mixes and playing Truth or Truth (Alya’s prefered version of the party game Truth or Dare). There were so many little moments spent together just laughing and smiling that Adrien couldn’t count them.

There were times he’d visit her as Chat where they’d talk on her balcony about the day’s events or her dreams for the future. Sometime they’d discuss how he was doing when he was not feeling particularly able to talk as Adrien. It was nice that she didn’t know he was talking about a life he felt he didn’t have the right to complain about, but that she freely encouraged him to share as much as he could. He felt a little guilty using his anonymity to talk to her that way, but it was nice to know that she treated him as a friend in any situation.

Sometimes he’d visit as his civilian self and get caught up in watching her as she sewed one of her designs. They often talked about her drawings and her dreams of becoming a great fashion designer. Other times she talked about how she worried that pursuing such a dream would turn her into someone like his father who would get too busy for her friends and family, which Adrien strongly denied could ever happen. She knew the statistics for those who tried to break into the profession and those that actually succeeded at it. She had backup plans, and backups for those backups in case they fell through, but still she felt uncertain about her choice of profession.

Adrien tried to share everything he knew from his own experiences with the industry in hopes it could help her. He’d even taken every opportunity to bring her to any fashion event where he was required to bring a +1. Adrien chuckled to himself. They had certainly increased in number ever since he started approaching his 18th birthday. Nathalie had stopped asking who he’d be bringing with him and just forwarded the invitations to Marinette telling her the dates and when to be ready. A lot of the paparazzi had labeled her his long time girlfriend, but he had always insisted that she was just his good friend. They had started placing the title in quotes in front of her name in most of the magazines where he appeared. He shook his head. Couldn’t a guy just have a friend that was a girl?

Marinette was a great friend to everyone. There were so many mornings that she’d come racing into class, nearly late, but with treats for everyone including the teacher. There wasn’t anyone in any of her classes that she wouldn’t help if she saw they needed it. She would stand up to adults or bullies alike if she felt someone was being treated unfairly. Birthdays were special days as Marinette often presented the day’s special celebrant with a thoughtful and handmade gift. Holidays were even better in Adrien’s opinion as that usually meant Marinette would be spreading treats and presents to everyone. He was amazed that she found the time to do any of it.

Of course Adrien tried to be a good friend back to Marinette. One of his favorite things to do was to bring his friends warm drinks on a cold day. He was so proud of himself when he’d finally been able to get Marinette to say how she truly preferred her tea and then surprised her with it the next day. He’d made a special note of it so he could do it more often. There was also the time that he’d been at her place while she’d been working on a commission and looking at some sparkling notions to give it a particular flair, but had chosen not to get them as they were out of the range of what she considered reasonably priced. It had been his greatest delight to order them and have them overnighted to her. That particular stunt had gotten him both a hug and a kiss for his thoughtfulness. Adrien blushed in delight at the memory.

Of course there were ways that Marinette was a good friend to him personally. One of the things she often did was send him memes and pictures of cats while he was at a shoot. It was always so much easier to smile for the camera when she was on a meme sharing spree. It was a much harder challenge to keep a straight face at those times though. They often had texting chats in the evening as they’d go over homework or just catch up if he’d been gone. It always filled him with happiness to see her wishing him goodnight and sweet dreams at the end of those conversations. There were also all the times that Marinette invited him over to hang out at her house, knowing he didn’t particularly want to go back to his empty home. Her parents would almost always insist he stay for dinner and they would ask him the same things as they asked Marinette. Her being willing to share her parents and her family was one of the things he was most grateful to her for.

Adrien rewrote the beginning of that last sentence. “My very good friend, Marinette, likes to spoil her friends at every opportunity in meaningful ways.” It seemed like an inadequate summary of all that Marinette was, but he only had fifteen minutes left of class and there was no way he’d be able to sum up everything Marinette was in such a short amount of time.

At least he only had fifteen minutes left until he’d get to meet the others for lunch. They were supposed to be going to a new cafe that Alya had discovered, but chances were that she and Nino would ditch him and Marinette, only to show up five minutes before class was supposed to start in a state of slight disarray. He didn’t mind the chance to have lunch with Mari, but sometimes he did tease Nino that if he and Alya kept it up that they would be having their “little dude” show up much earlier than the ten years that Alya insisted had to intervene before she was ready to have children.

“No worries my dude,” Nino said one time, “Between Alya’s pills and my capotes our Little Dude won’t be making any early appearances.”

Adrien had nodded his head, but couldn’t help but think that he didn’t want to wait that long before having kids. Of course, he’d have to find someone that wanted to date him first, not just be seen with him or wanted to be with him for the fame or the money his family had. This someone would have to be a person that his father could approve of and that could stand his father, or at least tolerate him during gala functions. Adrien was well aware that his father could be an intimidating and standoffish person, anyone that dated him would be facing the dragon daily. And they would need to be willing to have kids with him. Adrien knew he wouldn’t ask them to put their career on hold while the kids were born and raised. He’d been working as a model since he was a baby and almost all of his income had been put in funds that would be his free and clear just about the right time for him start a family. He could stay home and his partner could work. If he needed to model, well it’s not like he’d ever forget how to stand in front of a camera. But was there anybody that would even want to have a family with him?

His thoughts traveled forward in time trying to guess what they would all be doing in ten years’ time. No doubt he would still be working for some branch of the Gabriel empire. Nino and Alya would undoubtedly be living together in a little flat somewhere. There would be Alya’s breaking articles framed on the wall next to the pictures of the happy couple every where and Nino would have music playing since he couldn’t stand to not have good music going. They would be inviting him and Marinette to spend every holiday with them. Knowing the girls they would both be too busy to do anything other than show up for dinner, but he and Nino would be able to hang out. Adrien sighed, Marinette would be out of university and probably just finished with an internship. She’d be the picture of a professional woman and probably have some model or other designer with her as her date. Adrien’s mind balked at the image and he came back to class seeing his teacher standing over him.

The teacher was collecting everyone’s work while excusing them and wishing them a happy holiday break. Adrien handed up his prepared paper and noticed that the woman seemed to be having difficulty keeping a straight face. It wasn’t until he looked down at his notebook that he could see why.

At the top of the paper she’d given him a 6/7 for his more detailed sentences. At the bottom of the paper she’d put a smile next to the doodle he’d last been working on. Adrien finally took a good look at that part of the page. Without saying goodbye to his teacher or anyone else, he grabbed his things and raced from the room. He needed to find Marinette. He needed to find her now.

There was a smile working its way from the center of his bones to light his whole face when he thought about what was written on that paper. He’d drawn a spiral of ladybugs and cat faces around the words “Adrien Dupain-Cheng.”

[alley-cat-sunflower]

unpopular opera opinion…???

literally nobody is going to care about this, but Il Trovatore always gets me fired up (I’ve spent the better part of 14 years contemplating this, ok), so here are all the reasons Count di Luna [the villain] should have gotten the girl, Leonora, instead of Manrico [the hero]:

Dmitri Hvorostovsky. seriously, look up his appearances as Count di Luna if you haven’t seen him already (or look at the link several points below) and then show me a comparably beautiful Manrico. you’ll probably have a tough time of it, if you can even find one at all.

…now that the shallower stuff is out of the way, I’ma get to my main point and say that Manrico x Leonora isn’t any more healthy than Count x Leonora. sure the count is kind of an obsessive stalker but Manrico demonstrates the exact same behaviors and it’s apparently ok because she “loves” him I guess

Manrico is so insecure that when Leonora accidentally mistakes di Luna for him in the dark, he instantly assumes she was cheating on him or something. like, instantly. I’d also like to point out that by the beginning of the opera, Manrico and Leonora have only met approximately once (maybe twice??), and are not an item yet. they’re just kinda mutually into each other, although the depth of their attraction is questionable. the Count is implied to have been courting Leonora for a lot longer, or at least having admired her instead of running into her one time at a tourney and dedicating a song or two to her

Manrico picks a fight with the Count offstage and loses so badly his mom goes looking for his corpse. when she finds him barely alive instead, she nurses him back to health. except when Ruiz shows up and tells Manrico that Leonora’s going to become a nun bc she thinks he’s dead, he promptly ignores Azucena’s warnings—ya know, how he just finished recovering from wounds that probably should have killed him???—and runs off to throw himself headlong into another dangerous situation. (and speaking of which, the Count plotting to snatch Leonora away from God was bad enough, but Manrico did have the exact same idea)

edit: I just realized that the entire time Manrico was recovering, which has to have been quite awhile if he’s in good enough shape to go running off like that, he never even thought about the impact his alleged death would have on Leonora, since it comes as such a Shock when Ruiz tells him she’s going to join a convent. like. did he never even bother checking in on her or letting her know in any way that he was still alive?? I guess he just expects her life to stop or something whenever he’s not a part of it??? what a colossal douchebonnet

the Count gets a better love song to Leonora than Manrico ever sings: “The light of her smile / makes the light of the stars seem pale […] May the light of her gaze drive off / the tempest raging in my heart”. (this link also contains the kickass fight song he gets afterward, in which he rallies his spirits to defy everyone and steal Leonora. my favorite line is “Not even a god, my lady, / can take you from me now!”)

…come to think of it, all Manrico’s ‘love songs’ are really self-centered: “Ah, yes, my love, in being yours, / in knowing that you are mine, / my soul will now be braver, / my arm stronger” and “Now I pay in blood / for the love I gave to you! / Never forget me!”

just like he ran out on his mother to reclaim Leonora, Manrico turns around and leaves Leonora at the altar to go save his mom despite Leonora’s warnings and falls right into the count’s trap and gets captured. tbh that’s one of the funniest scenes in the opera because there’s “Di quella pira” to rally the troops and then immediately after the aria ends… sad oboe music. there wasn’t even a struggle song or an onstage scuffle. this idiot has never actually won any of the battles he fights in this opera, with the minor exception of stealing Leonora from her nun friends

by contrast, di Luna has won pretty much all the battles he fights in this opera, and is also clever enough to figure out who Azucena is (with a little help from Ferrando and the poor woman’s dementia) and use her as bait to lure out Manrico

while Leonora is hanging around outside Manrico’s prison cell singing about how much she loves him and how there’s never been a love stronger than hers and how she’s 100% willing to trade her life for his, Manrico’s busy singing about how much he wants to fuCKING DIE (no joke, literally, “Ah, how slow is death, / how slow in coming, / for one who wants to die!”)

Leonora did swear [before God, in fact] that she’d marry the Count in exchange for freeing Manrico, so they were canon for the .5 seconds it took for her to secretly drink poison so she wouldn’t have to actually follow through. then while the Count sings about how happy he is and can’t believe his luck and wow all his dreams are coming true, Leonora sings about how happy she is to die now that her actual bf is safe

let me just break that down for you. the Count is happy for approximately one song in the entire damn opera, two if you count his love song since he’s reminiscing about Leonora, and then she goes and breaks his heart. and before you tell me he doesn’t care about her as much as he does about possessing her, name one (1) time in the entire opera Manrico doesn’t act like Leonora is His Girl™

speaking of which, Manrico is such a god damn self-absorbed mama’s boy that Leonora has given her life to free him from jail and shows up to deliver the news, but then he gets all insecure about how she gained that favor and jumps to mad conclusions.

no, really. when Leonora tells him to leave, with zero cuts in dialogue, he tells her, to her face: “I care nothing for my life. / Now, woman, look into my eyes! / How have you done this? / And at what price? / You won’t speak? Monstrous thought! / From my rival! I understand, I understand! / This wretch has sold her love…”

…and then he proceeds to shout her down while she is literally dying, rejecting her and her attempt at explanation when she is prostrate at his feet begging him to just shut the fuck up and listen, and only when she points out that he should be praying for her instead of cursing her, does it occur to him that maybe, JUST MAYBE, something might be wrong??? what the hell?? terrible husband material.

after finally seeing the error of his ways, Manrico still doesn’t fully catch on to what she wants for him, because he proceeds to stick around and wait for Leonora to die… so obviously the Count goes through with his execution and her sacrifice was for nothing, all because he was too much of a tool to believe she actually loved him the first time. how fragile does your confidence have to be for you to be THAT much of an asshole about fidelity??? holy shit

edit: also it’s worth noting that the Count stumbles upon the two of them after Leonora reveals she’s dying and would have every right to interrupt since he [justifiably] hates Manrico’s guts and Leonora is supposed to be his fiancée but instead he just lets the scene play out like a respectful onlooker

yeah, sooooo that’s why Manrico doesn’t deserve Leonora and the Count should’ve gotten a better chance. but hey at least he lived and they died?? even though that’s really more a curse than a blessing due to all the shit he’s been through. but tbh you gotta take the small victories in opera considering a lot of them end in death all around.

anyway thank u for your time, I just have a lot of Thoughts™