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captainremmington-13 · 9 months ago

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A Lady Made of Snow

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own The Hunger Games franchise, the images above, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, or any of the characters in this fic other than Bellova.

SUMMARY: The 10th Annual Hunger Games begin, and things quickly dissolve into chaos. Bellova grows increasingly furious about Coriolanus’s dedication towards Lucy Gray Baird. When she realizes he has cheated just to keep her alive, she decides to ruin him once and for all.

Warnings: spoilers for TBOSAS, death, violence, cursing, overall dark stuff (it’s the Hunger Games franchise so that’s sorta a given)

A/n: I am using a combination of the movie and book version of the events that occur in this chapter. I sort of streamlined the events to make the chapter less boring. Also, I highly recommend listening to “…Ready For It?” and “Look What You Made Me Do” while reading this chapter.

Other than Sejanus throwing a chair at the screen and screaming that everyone in the room was a monster, Lamina killing Marcus in an act of of mercy, and Lucky’s stupid commentary, nothing much had happened yet.

Bellova was disappointed that her tribute was dead. Not because she cared about her, but because it meant she was missing out on the mentor experience. The thrill of having a say in someone else’s survival seemed quite exciting.

If she wasn’t so pissed at Coriolanus for his behavior towards Lucy Gray, she would’ve reconsidered his proposal to work together.

When the day was coming to an end, the majority of Academy students started to leave for their homes. Only a handful remained, consisting mostly of the mentors.

Bellova stifled a yawn, leaning back in her chair. Things has gotten dull, with the tributes doing nothing but finding places to hide from each other. She hoped that Dr. Gaul had something exciting in store for them soon, or people would start switching to Billi Bumble’s horrible comedy channel.

She picked up her Academy satchel and stood up from her seat. She noticed that Coriolanus was still present and slumped over on his desk, his head resting on his hand. He looked so peaceful asleep, his long golden lashes fluttering slightly. The light from the ceiling made his light blonde curls glow ethereally.

He looked like an angel.

Bellova suddenly felt a strong urge to wake him up. She had avoided him for the entire day out of spite, but was starting to miss interacting to him. It was routine, bantering and bickering every day. Not talking felt…weird. And lonely.

She sighed. On rare occasions, she wished she could go back in time and change the way they formed their relationship. Instead of it being based on competition and rivalry, it would be full of support and affection.

Then, an unpleasant thought hit her.

He had only stayed so late to ensure nothing happened to Lucy Gray while he was away.

Now utterly furious, she slung her bag over her shoulder and started towards the door. ‘He’s such a pathetic sap,’ she thought. ‘He’s acting like a fool, I really should stop associating myself with him.’

But she found herself glancing over her shoulder to look at him one last time. And she knew, deep down, that she’s always come back, no matter how much he pissed her off.

She’d never be able to stay away from him.

Not for long, anyway.

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

Bellova passed out as soon as she climbed into bed, and didn’t wake until nine hours later. She hadn’t slept well in nearly a week, as she was still recovering from her injuries. This was the first time she was able to achieve an uninterrupted night of sleep since before the bombing.

When one of her maids woke her up, it was already 8:00. Usually Academy classes started promptly at 8:00, but because of the Games, the schedule had been loosened a bit. And Bellova, who didn’t feel like interacting with anyone, was in no rush to arrive on time.

After eating a breakfast of fruit and assorted pastries, she slowly pulled on her uniform. She has always hated the Academy uniforms, but with the right accessories and makeup, she had learned to make it presentable by her standards.

Bellova checked her makeup one last time in the mirror and then headed downstairs to meet her driver at the front of her estate. He opened the passenger’s side door for her as she slid into the seat.

“How are you this morning, Miss Bellova?” he asked, starting the engine and taking off towards the main road.

“Fine,” she said, leaning against the window. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope that once the Games are over, you can rest up properly.”

She nodded. “That would be nice. As much as I like the Games, they’ve caused quite a lot of stress this year.”

He laughed quietly. “Most certainly. Everyone was so worried about you when you were hospitalized, your father most of all. I haven’t ever seen him so upset in my twenty years of working for him.”

Bellova sighed. She and her father, Julio Augustus Reginelle, had a nice relationship. But he was rarely home, for he worked almost ten hours a day and often didn’t come home until Bellova was asleep. She cherished the rare moments she had with him. He had taught her to be proud of her wit and her combative nature, even if it sometimes got her into trouble.

“You are much more like your father than you realize, Miss Bellova,” her driver said.

“How so?” she asked.

“You are both kind until someone disrespects you. You are incredibly intelligent just like him, and pursue your goals relentlessly.” He paused for a moment. “And, you seem to have the same disdain for certain other Capitol families.”

Bellova raised an eyebrow. “Which ones?”

“Well, he’s not fond of the Cardews, as you know. He thinks they hold too much power for how little work they actually do.”

Bellova laughed. “That’s true.”

“He has never gotten along with the Creed family. He finds them irritating and foolish.”

She smirked. “I’m not surprised. Festus can be insufferable. Who else?”

Her driver sighed. “He despised Crassus Snow.”

Bellova felt her stomach twist. “Really?”

He nodded. “I don’t know exactly why he hated him so passionately, but I’ve heard they were rivals during their Academy days.”

‘I suppose I really do take after him then,’ Bellova thought, remembering her and Coriolanus’s worst arguments. ‘Crassus’s son gets under my skin nearly every day.’

Her driver pulled onto Scholars Road and stopped in front of the Academy’s main building. He stepped out of the car to open the door for her, and she gave him a nod of thanks.

“I’ll see you later, Miss Bellova,” he said, bowing slightly and getting back into the car to drive off.

As Bellova walked to the auditorium where the mentors were undoubtedly already at work, she pondered what her driver had said about Crassus Snow and her father. She was eager to know more about their history, but didn’t want to pry too far. Her father had a temper just like her, and she didn’t want to be on the wrong end of it.

When Bellova reached the room and walked through the doors, she immediately noticed three things: one, that Coriolanus looked exhausted and distressed, two, that he has brought his cousin Tigris to watch the Games, and three, that Sejanus was missing.

She grabbed a spare chair and sat next to Coriolanus. He didn’t greet her or even glance look at her.

“What’s wrong with you today?” she asked, looking at the large television screen in front of them.

He scowled. “I’m not in the mood for your snide remarks, Bellova.”

“Clearly something happened. Either tell me or I’ll figure it out on my own.”

Coriolanus gave her a sharp glare, but sighed in defeat. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Satisfied, Bellova turned her attention back to the Games. According to Lucky Flickerman, one tribute, Bobbin, had died overnight. However, there was no footage shown of him perishing.

Bellova found that awfully suspicious. There was such a lack of action in the arena that the gamemakers would have undoubtedly shown the death of a tribute.

When Bobbin’s death was announced, she noticed Coriolanus tense ever-so slightly. The average person wouldn’t have noticed, but she had learned to read his body language as well as the back of her hand. Clearly, something about his death made him nervous.

She decided to cast it aside for the moment. She’d pry the information out of him later.

“They aren’t showing us what happened to that little boy,” Lysistrata Vickers said. “He clearly was killed right there. There’s cameras everywhere. It doesn’t make sense.”

“They said they were old cameras, Lyssie,” Festus responded. “Probably just another one of Coral’s.”

“Festus, sit down,” Lucky Flickerman ordered. “Same seats.”

Festus scowled but did as he was told. He and Lucky clearly had some animosity, and it was quite amusing to witness their petty interactions.

Suddenly, after a few moments, Lucy Gray appears on screen, looking horrified. Bellova had to bite her lip to refrain from grinning. It seemed that the songbird’s luck was finally running out.

Jessup emerged a second later. He was clearly not well, he looked much worse than he did before the Games.

“What’d you do to me?” Jessup shrieked, backed Lucy Gray against a pile of rubble.

“Nothing!” she responded, her eyes wide with fear.

“Lyssie, what is he doing?” Bellova heard Coriolanus asked frantically.

“Something’s wrong,” Lysistrata replied, bewildered. “He wouldn’t turn on her like this.”

“Jessup going after Lucy Gray,” Lucky commented.

“Stop running!” Jessup demanded. “What did you…” He groaned mid-sentence. “What did you do to me?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Lucy Gray insisted.

“Both tributes from District 12. The same district folding in on itself.”

“Wait, look. The foam,” Coriolanus said.

“I think it’s rabies,” Lysistrata said, clearly disturbed. “That bite. From that train.”

Coriolanus stared at the screen, looking helplessly at his tribute who was nearing her inevitable doom. Then, he turned back to Jessup’s mentor.

“Send him water.”

“Wait, what?” Lysistrata asked.

“You remember the posters in the war? Rabies. It makes you afraid of water. Send him a drone.”

“That’ll scare him,” she protested.

“Yes. Away from her,” he insisted.

Bellova stood up. “Coriolanus-“

“Bellova, be quiet,” he snapped, not even bothering to look at her. “Jessup is done. Lyssie, you’re the only one that can get it right to him.”

Lysistrata clearly didn’t want to, but with a few clicks on her computer, water was being sent to Jessup by a drone.

“Thank you,” Coriolanus whispered.

Within minutes, Jessup was dead, and four lethal tributes were cornering Lucy Gray.

“Oh, look at this,” Lucky Flickerman said. “The Pack doing what they do best. Packing it in. Lucy Gray is swarmed, cornered. Mizzen, propellering his net.”

It looked again as if she was done for, but then-

“Mr. Snow going for his communipad,” Lucky continued. Bellova saw him send nine - no, ten drones towards Lucy Gray.

Bellova knew exactly what he was doing. He was using the drones to give her a chance to escape.

The drones came flying into the arena, causing The Pack to scatter. A few of them got hit, causing them cry out in pain and tumble to the stone-covered floor.

“These drones are not very good,” Lucky commented, as if it weren’t obvious. Some of the students who had caught onto Coriolanus’s plan started to jeer at him.

“Hey!” Vipsania Sickle said indignantly. “You can’t attack the tributes.”

“I’m just sending water,” Coriolanus said casually, as if he was completely innocent.

After gathering her bearings, Lucy Gray scrambled into a tunnel with Coral on her heels. She managed to pull the vent closed just in time, the metal door nearly crushing Coral’s fingers.

Bellova positioned herself a few inches away from Coriolanus. She was seething, but it didn’t show on her face. She simply looked indifferent, despite all of the violence that had just occurred in the Games.

“Snow, do you that time before the Dark Days when you pulled on my pigtails, so I slammed your face against my school desk?”

“Yes,” Coriolanus said, furrowing his eyebrows. “What about it?��

Bellova smiled crookedly, the violent glint in her eyes making Coriolanus visibly uncomfortable. “I’m about to fucking do it again, and this time, you’ll have more than a bleeding nose.”

He straightened his posture, smoothing out his Academy blazer.

“I’d like to see you try.”

Bellova’s hands twitched. She knew that decking him in front of the majority of the student board would get her in severe trouble, but it was very tempting.

Instead of punching him, she started to storm out of the auditorium.

“There goes Miss Reginelle. Clearly, the violence on screen has finally gotten to her-“

“Shut the fuck up, Flickerman, before I snap your microphone in half!” Bellova hissed. She threw up open the doors, and made sure to slam them behind her.

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

Bellova sat in the hallway outside of the auditorium, leaning her head against the wall behind her. Her anger was threatening to spill over, and her father would be very disappointed in her if she murdered someone on Academy grounds.

She had vowed to make Coriolanus pay if he pulled any more strings for his little songbird. And he had by sending that fleet of drones after her attackers. But clearly, nobody batted an eye at that. He had not been punished, or even reprimanded.

The thought of Coriolanus thinking longingly about Lucy Gray was almost enough to drive her mad.

Before she could do anything drastic, she heard the speakers inside the auditorium amplifying Dr. Gaul’s voice. Curious, she stood up and pressed her ear to the doors.

“Capitol citizens, I’m afraid I must interrupt our Games to announce a tragic loss, one that affects us all. Felix Ravinstill, son of our beloved president, has, this morning, succumbed to his injuries sustained in the rebel bombing.”

Bellova felt her heart drop. Felix wasn’t all that bad, when he wasn’t bragging about his life at least. She had even gone to the end-of-year Academy gala with him a couple of years ago. They had a wonderful time, and she was gifted a priceless gold necklace by him at the end of the night. She had worn it for a week straight afterwards, which delighted the young son of the president.

“Out there in the districts, they will be celebrating this young boy’s death as a triumph. I will not allow my Games to give our enemy such a victory. I swear to you, here and now, before the sun goes down tonight, a rainbow of destruction will engulf our arena. Even if it means there’s to be no victor in these Games.”

She gasped. She knew Dr. Gaul well enough to know she was completely serious. If she wanted someone gone, she’d stop at nothing until they dropped dead.

Mere moments later, Coriolanus burst through the doors, nearly slamming right into Bellova.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, scowling at him.

He sneered down at her, beginning to walk away. She followed him, despite knowing he really didn’t want her to. “As if I’d tell you.”

Bellova sighed. “I told you earlier, Coriolanus, if you don’t tell me, I’ll figure it out on my own-“

“Fine!” he huffed. “I’d do anything to shut you up at this point. You’re insufferable.”

“The feeling is mutual, Snow. Now spill it, what’s going on?”

Coriolanus, against his better judgement, told her everything. Well, almost everything. He told her about how he retrieved Sejanus from the arena, but omitted the part about killing Bobbin. He explained that he needed to see Dr. Gaul immediately, for the stitches in his back from the previous evening were coming loose.

Bellova frowned. She briefly felt bad that he was in pain, but couldn’t bring herself to actually care. She was still angry at him.

She also noticed he said was being very vague with his details. He was definitely hiding something.

“What’s that face for?” Coriolanus asked as they approached the Citadel, which housed Gaul’s laboratory.

“What face?”

“That scowl. You’re clearly not pleased about something, so what is it?”

She smirked. “As if I’d tell you,” she said, mimicking his words from earlier.

Coriolanus’s jaw clenched, which satisfied Bellova immensely. She loved seeing his patience waver, it was strangely addicting.

“Will you ever learn to keep your bratty mouth shut?” he asked, his voice raising a touch.

“Bratty?” Bellova scoffed. “I’d prefer it if you called me a bitch.”

Dr. Gaul’s lab was just a few corridors away at this point. Bellova knew that causing a scene here wouldn’t be wise, but she honestly did not care. She could easily talk her way out if it.

Coriolanus glowered at her, his blue eyes icier than ever. “Go back to the auditorium, Bellova. I know you love watching the Games, and you’re probably missing all of the action.”

She laughed. “So all of a sudden, you want me to be happy. Seriously, Snow, if you want to get rid of me, just say so.”

He smirked at her condescendingly. “Then I will. Get out of here, you have no place in Gaul’s lab anyway. It’s too much for your pathetically shallow brain to comprehend.”

Bellova stared at him for a moment. It has been awhile since he’d said something quite that harsh. It was normal for him to question her intellect, but calling her dumb? That was low, even for him.

Coriolanus was obviously anticipating a slap to the face. He was not prepared, however, for Bellova to swipe her claw-like nails across his face like a wild animal.

Stunned, he watched Bellova walk away as the new gashes on his face began to sting. As she reached the end of the hall, she screamed “You’re such an asshole!” before disappearing from Coriolanus’s sight.

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

Bellova sat in the stands instead of with the mentors, watching as Dr. Gaul’s “rainbow of destruction” engulf the remaining tributes in the arena.

She had no idea that when Dr. Gaul said “rainbow”, she was referring to hundreds of colorful, deadly snakes.

She watched, entranced, as the beautiful mutations smothered the tributes, picking them off one-by-one. She had never admired the “mad” scientist more. Her work was truly beautiful.

Wovey, Reaper, Mizzen, and Coral were soon dead, lying lifelessly beneath the swarm of snakes.

“Now, all colors lead to Gray,” Lucky Flickerman said.

Coriolanus stood watching the screen, amazed at his own success. “She’s… She’s won. It’s over, she’s won.” He looked over to Dr. Gaul, who was standing to the side. “She’s won, let her out.”

The doctor smiled. “Afraid that’s not your call to make, Mr. Snow.”

Bellova bit back a laugh when Lucy Gray began to sing. At least she’d be able to get in once last performance before her vocal chords went slack.

“Dr. Gaul, she won!” Coriolanus repeated, desperation seeping into his voice. “It’s over, let her out.”

“Why aren’t they attacking her?” someone asked.

“Must be the singing,” Coriolanus replied. “It’s calming them.”

He really was a terrible liar.

“She can’t sing forever,” Festus said.

Bellova noticed some of the students around her begin to cry as they watched Lucy Gray sing shakily. ‘Pathetic,’ she thought.

“Dr. Gaul, please,” Coriolanus begged. “Get her out. Get her out!”

One by one, the Academy students began to chant “Get her out! Get her out!”, almost overpowering the sound of Lucy Gray’s singing.

‘No,’ Bellova thought desperately. ‘Don’t. Just let her die.’

Then, Coriolanus said, “Who will watch the Games if there’s no victor?”

The chanting came to a halt.

Dr. Gaul looked around, seeing that she was vastly outnumbered. “Get her out,” she murmured just loud enough to be heard.

“She’s won! Lucy Gray!” Lucky Flickerman cried over the roar of the student body. “Coriolanus Snow is the winner of the 10th Annual Hunger Games!”

Bellova’s face burned with fury, her patience finally snapping after days of wearing thin.

She was no longer willing to overlook Coriolanus’s behavior. She had let him get away with too much.

It was time that he faced some real consequences.

As she exited the hall quietly, she smiled, a cruel, twisted smile. She knew exactly how she would make him pay.

✧ ‧˚₊ ❆ ‧ ₊ ⊹˚✧ ‧˚₊ ❆ ‧ ₊ ⊹˚✧ ‧˚₊ ❆ ‧ ₊ ⊹˚✧ ‧˚₊ ❆ ‧ ₊ ⊹˚✧ ‧˚₊

TAGLIST: @daenerysqueenofhearts, @squidscottjeans, @euphemiaamillais, @gracieroxzy

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think in the comments! This was another decently long chapter, and I believe it has been the most intense one yet. Stay tuned for Chapter Six!

Also, let me know if you want to be added to the tag list!

#coriolanus snow #tbosas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #coriolanus snow x oc #original character #thg prequel #the hunger games #coriolanus snow x reader #dr gaul #lucy gray baird

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bittasol · 3 months ago

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The thinf you said about the mafia au and dynamics being unlocked is so true, another thing that I really liked about this chapter is the Opera/Ameri rivalry dynamic they have going and I find it really fun!! It's so different from what we're used to seeing from them (actually I don't remember if they've actually interacted that much in the original) (but them being rivals and fighting each other is so fun!!!! I love it)

YEAH even down to its bones the way characters are being presented is very different from the main series! Azz azz’s loyalty to Iruma taking multiple chapters, the age and manner in which Iruma meets Sullivan, Opera and Irumas dynamic being more sibling/partnerish than canon etc BUT it all feels true to the characters i think! Iruma still loves his family and is willing to do anything (even the impossible) to help them, love trio is still together with secrets between them, Kalego and Opera still have their beef)

THE OPERA AND AMERI DYNAMIC is sooo tasty omg…both are so protective (and a tad possessive) of Iruma! Plus they’ve both grown with him and protected him in the different eras of his childhood! It’ll be fun to see them squabble in the future. I’ve always compared their designs as two red/orangey demons with fuzzy ears, both strong and both people who are close to Iruma, so its extra fun to see them as rivals.

Mm yeah they’re sorta an underrated dynamic! Iruma kun has soo many characters to juggle, its easy to forget who and when characters meet. Thank you for the excuse to gather up their major interactions^^

Chapter 70: Walter Park

She’s in Opera’s group during the Walter park arc! They have fun playing dress up along with the misfit girls.

Chapter 81: Invincible Maiden

Ameri fights a mouse beast during the terrorist attack; Opera observes and compliments her bloodline ability.

When Ameri is discouraged, Opera encourages her, assures her shes quite strong with room to grow and even invites her to be a sort of assistant under them within the Sullivan household. I think this is an extremely high compliment! Opera’s a demon who’s been shown to be very protective of both Sullivan and Iruma, and who finds value and purpose in being able to serve them, so wanting Ameri to work with them shows a lot of respect and admiration toward her ability and person

(She turns down this request but then realizes this would mean she’d be around Iruma so she backtracks its very cute)

Chapter 143: Heartful Cooking Lesson

Opera teaches Iruma and Ameri how to cook after noticing they’re both terrible at it.

Chapter 167: The Sound of Anticipation

This one is small but I think its funny how they both set up to record the Misfits’s performance cuz they both love and support Iruma 110%! And Opera shuffling Ameri’s equipment over implies she’s got the best angle in the house, you could read this as a power move from them jeje.

Chapter 277: Opera-Sensei

When Opera becomes a teacher, they go around the school and greet everyone including Ameri. Ameri’s super excited, and because she values Opera’s strength, asks them to train the student council given they have time for it. I think this is such a sweet example of Ameri’s character; She’s strong, ambitious enough to ask for extra (hard) training, thoughtful enough to value their time and ask in a way thats not demanding. I think it also speaks of her respect toward Opera, who could theoretically be a poor teacher considering they’re new, that she trusts in them so much!

I’m sure theres more tiny bits of them but it’s been a while since I’ve properly read or watched iruma kun.

My thought process is a little scattered but I did wanna mention that I think these two would meet and be good buddies even without Iruma kun’s presence in their lives! Sullivan being the head of Babyls, and Ameri being a top student as well as a child of a 13 crown, I dunno I feel like they would have ended up training together at some point anyway. Probably not with Opera as an offical Babyls teacher, considering they only become one to keep an eye on Iruma, but in some universe where Iruma isnt in the picture and Ameri reaches for the Demon King’s seat yk? a private lesson or two!

Cannot say the same for Mafia AU tho… Iruma’s the reason those two are doing what they’re doing, and I think it’ll be up to him to get them to get along lol.

#opera san #ameri azazel #sorry if this is a little all over the place omg im new to making posts like this😳#i do love iruma kun with all my heart tho!! my inbox will always be open for that lol #m!ik #mairimashita! iruma kun #welcome to demon school iruma kun #mafia au #mailbox

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andradrawsstuff · 4 months ago

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Gonna start posting bits of my fanfic here since I’ve been working on it for a bit now ✨

This is a sorta continuation/au of the movie franchise set after the penguins movie, since the TV show is considered an au and it inspired me to think of my own thing

I'm still working on writing most of it but I'll post the chapters separately so that this post doesn't get ridiculously long, and I'll link them here ✨

This is my first proper fanfic, so constructive criticism is welcome :)

-The Rise of Dr Blowhole-

Synopsis

Still travelling around with the circus and bored out of their minds, the four penguins seek out a special element core that can upgrade their train to kill some time. As they steal what they are looking for from an unfortunate victim, they unknowingly kick off what is to become the greatest rivalry they have ever known – against the mad scientist Doctor Blowhole. As they now have to deal with the consequences of their actions, they scramble across the US in a cat-and-mouse game of who catches who first, recruiting a familiar companion along the way and re-evaluating their entire past three years.

A bit of swearing in some chapters

Slight skilene later on, but nothing major

I finally gave my OC Otto a role lol

Uhhhh I think that's it for now, enjoy :)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 1: Pondering life and other matters

The golden sun bathed the green hills of California in a warm bliss. Sunrise. The most beautiful thing one could witness, as well as the sound of birds chirping and-

“I like to move it, move it! I like to move it, move it! Ya like to move it, move it! I like to – MOVE IT!!”

The lush landscape was shunned by a cacophony of lemurs yelling and dancing at dawn, as their train sliced out of the rocky mountains towards the green hills. By that time, the entire circus had been rudely woken up… apart from two feathery friends who were already up and eyeing their locomotive in contemplation.

“But will it work, man?” Boomed their leader, the one and only Skipper.

“Uhhh… well, that all depends on whether I can get my hands on a very special element core, also known as-“

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Skipper interrupted Kowalski. “Just make it work, or I might start kicking people off this train out of boredom.”

The truth is, the penguins already started to find their new circus life a little… dull. In hindsight, it was fun travelling around the world, racking up chaos wherever they set foot. But they also had a big responsibility to maintain and organise the circus they so regrettably purchased, which was… not fun. Alex would practically beg Skipper to take them here, take them there, and take them absolutely everywhere, which Skipper quickly grew tired of. It had been a year since their adventures with Dave and the North Wind. In fact, it’s quite a miracle that the penguins lasted here that long without legging it. So, to kill time, they invented crazy contraptions and pulled increasingly daring schemes to suppress their boredom. This invention was no different than any other.

Skipper sighed and turned to look out the window towards the changing landscape, as ABBA’s SOS played in the background. Kowalski’s choice, no doubt. The vast greenness of the landscape transformed into a deep blue, as they neared the Oakland Bay Bridge of San Fransisco. Skipper had already started to lose himself in a trance, only to be interrupted by a sudden BANG.

“Skipper! Can you see it?” Alex burst through the door, startling the daydreaming bird. “Can you see the bridge? I’ve always wanted to go to San Francisco! And now we’re here!”

“Fish and chips, man! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Barked Skipper. He had a tendency to get jump scared if he wasn’t fully aware of his surroundings.

Alex scans the room in embarrassment as Skipper and Kowalski glared at him, whilst the other two had been rudely awoken by the shouting.

“Huh? A-are we there yet?” stuttered a delirious Private, as Rico simply smacked back down into his pillow.

“No.” Skipper replied coldly. “Do any of you hippies know how to knock? Or contain your excitement?” He continued.

Alex attempted to apologize, but he had already been ushered out by the bird. Perhaps if his daydream hadn’t been interrupted, he may not have been left in such a grumpy state. It also didn’t help that the haunting racket of “I Like To Move It” was looming ever so closer.

“Wake up, boys. We’re almost there.” Sighed Skipper. “And Rico, confiscate Ringtail’s Boombox, I’m starting to get sick of this song.” He sternly added.

Rico grunted sleepily as he made his way down the train cars. Kowalski tinkered with the train controls, and Private stretched his sleepiness away. The light grew dim as they entered the underwater railway tunnel, nearing their destination.

“Get ready, boys… we’re almost there.”

#tpom #the penguins of madagascar #penguins of madagascar #tpom fanfic #fanfic

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alazonfire · 1 year ago

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I just had the funniest idea. It might be a bit ooc but like, who cares!

Imagine like every Sonic ship (that isn't something like shipping her with Tails)

like Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, Jet.. even fucking Metal Sonic- Like they all try to swoon Sonic. They all have this sorta rivalry to win the blue blurs heart. But she's Aroace. Like idk this is so funny to me because like:

*Amy, Knuckles and Blaze fighting each other with roses at hand, trying to ask Sonic out.*

Sonic: *snicker* You guys... Do realize I'm Aroace, right?

and their jaws drop because they didn't know that. and when they're distracted Shadow comes zooming from behind and gives Sonic a single rose.

Shadow: Foolish idiots. *scoffs at his rivals.* Go out with me? *gives the rose to Sonic.*

and Sonic fucking bursts out laughing. Shadow is confused and defeated while Amy walks over and tries to tell Shadow that Sonic is aroace.

I don't know man this is the funniest shit ever to me

#sonic the hedgehog #sonadow #sonknux #sonamy #sonaze #sonjet #metonic #idk about the last two but they are implied #aroace sonic

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xxnomadsxx · 9 months ago

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Nomads AU! Branch’s second in command..look I haven’t finished a drawing for them yet ….BUT it’s coming

Originally I wasn’t gonna have them in the story. They were just used to be a reason for why Branch was in the feral troll village, but then I got the idea for a brother rivalry between them and Brozone and I was like “OH! I have to do that!!!!!” (I am so sorry I really wanted to make an Oc please don’t unfollow 😭)

Branch’s Second in command is basically a replacement brother? (no one sure what gender they are? So Branch just calls him his brother?with a question mark) Honestly, the relationship is like SUPER toxic, like I’m talking about his second command has accidentally tried to eat him on a couple of occasions and has gotten him hurt multiple times on accident. (They’re also a huge reason on why is kind of more paranoid and aggressive troll that he is today) also they occasionally just bite Branch, maybe on the arm, leg, or just nibbling on his hair (I promise they won’t eat Branch they just like biting stuff) the biting freaks Branch out a lot (poor guys trauma won’t ever leave 😔)

What they look like is basically a description I gave of the feral (trolls?) a while back claws, tail, sharp teeth, messy looking, slitted eyes, and pointy ears the second in command/brother? wears half a cloak that only really covers one of their sides while also having the most stitched together outfit known to anyone in the village, arms and legs basically covered in bandages and scars surprisingly their face is scar free, their hair is similar to Bruce’s with how it cascades down his back, The only difference is it’s way messier and pitch black sometimes say to Branch how it makes them look more like family (which is cute in my opinion) They have shark teeth and sort of just has this look on there face of “I will bite you if you get close to me and if you’re not close to me, I will still bite you.” Their hair has some branches and leaves in it, but still pretty clean. Sometimes they lay on the ground and just pretend to be a carpet (I mean with how much hair they have it just completely covers their body) people have walked over them on accident before.

The second in command/brother? Doesn’t really have a name. Everyone just calls them Thing and that just became its name. Thing is maybe just really bad for Branch’s mental state, but they genuinely do really care for him. I mean the whole reason Branch is here is because Thing got one look at them and said “new little brother” and sorta just kinda adopted him.

Thing is is like the most insane feral (troll ?)(whenever they do something their motives behind it is either baby brother or feed there is an in between ground of just both) Thing is the head of the militia, and surprisingly is the most trusted with the village, due to their survival instinct/ tactics, and overall mindset of protection they’re kind of dumb though (so branch doesn’t really leave him in charge a lot for long periods of time but still trusts them over anyone else)

Random facts Thing owns a mug that says best big brother? on it, and it is like his most prize possession(and only possession) They once tried to eat a troll egg. Their excuse was omelette.(the egg was fine don’t worry) they are basically the most feral feral troll, (which is honestly really hard to do so claps for him I guess) He has tried to eat Creek on multiple occasions, the only reason he stopped is because they now have some weird deal going on (Creek just feed him bits of his hair.) They constantly run on all fours like a gremlin usually having their claws out just to climb trees and over buildings around the village. The trolls and feral(trolls?) just sort of got used to them and they’re weird freaky antics (they’re surprisingly really well respected and a lot of people quite like them… they just get super scared of them) As a kid they basically saw Branch as a pet until after like a week they were like “OK this is my baby brother now.” Similar to how trolls put their babies in their hair they sometimes just put Branch in their hair (Which Branch has gotten used to he just doesn’t mind it as much anymore but still hates it.) Nonetheless, no one is quite sure how old they are or where they came from in the village they just sort of been running around for years and then one day just showed up with a troll.

Thing can speak! Most of the time they prefer to just make weird animal noises or hiss and growl. They really only speak to Branch and anyone who has a genuine concern or anything (I mean he still has to be a good second in command) and even when they do speak it’s always in this raspy sounds like it hasn’t been used in like weeks voice. Has the most broken English ever they also speak in 3rd person quite a bit. (They can’t read and just ask a bajillion questions to anyone about anything or just run their own “tests” on stuff to see how it works)

I’m going to give it to you straight, the only reason Thing exists is so I can have a brother rivalry between them and Brozone I mean Branch’s biological brothers who he loved very much as a kid vs the creature who cared and raised him for 20 years after they left (The scenarios would be amazing!!! 🤩)

Branch and Thing have a very good relationship, Branch really loves them since Thing hasn’t abandoned him like everyone else and raised him with love (never mind how toxic of a home it was and still is)

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iamnmbr3 · 6 months ago

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Hi again :)

Two questions actually:

First why didn't Lucius buy Draco another broom? I know JKR meant for Harry to have the bestest broom ever but I wonder why Draco never got a broom upgrade? His parents can afford it and I dont see why Lucius would deny his son a faster broom. Especially after he became prefect.

Second, why exactly is Harry so obsessed with Draco early on? Its obvious why Draco goes after Harry given he is famous and all. But why the other way around? Before Draco ever really did anything to hurt him, he was putting Draco on the same level as his abusive cousin, which makes no sense, and getting all angry at Draco getting care packages. What's his problem? Why pay this rich kid so much attention??

Hello! :D Once again, thank you for your patience. This was a cool ask so I wanted to do it justice.

On your first point, I think a couple of factors are at play, but basically Lucius was probably feeling a bit fed up at that point and also he quickly had other things on his mind due to Voldemort's return. What do I mean by that? Well, in second year he already seems annoyed with Draco for coming second to Hermione in school and is kind of Done TM with hearing Draco talk about or complain about Harry (to be fair Draco did seemingly spend the whole summer doing this). Then he goes out and gets Draco on the Quidditch team and buys the entire team really good brooms. And Draco STILL loses to Harry (though only just). And presumably still comes second to Hermione in school. I think Lucius might've been less than pleased with this.

Plus, Draco's more of a talker than a doer. Yeah he complains about Hermione but he doesn't actually do anything to her because of his aversion to violence. If Lucius and his Death Eater buddies had got ahold of her at the Quidditch Cup they wouldn't have insulted her. They would have hurt her. And they would have enjoyed it. Draco would not have the stomach for that, and Lucius might already be beginning to suspect that. Not to mention, Lucius actually doesn't approve of Draco's open rivalry with Harry. He feels that it is smarter to at least pretend (at this stage) to like Harry since openly seeming anything other than grateful for Voldemort's fall is unwise politically. Draco of course is incapable of leaving Harry alone since if he can't be in Harry's life as his friend he's determined to be in his life as his Nemesis TM. Lucius probably views this as shortsighted and is likely annoyed by it.

Furthermore, the Firebolt is REALLY expensive. Even Harry, with all his wealth, decides it would be unwise to buy it. I mean, it's not really something you would usually use for a school team. It's what professionals at the Quidditch Cup use. So after buying a whole team's worth of brooms and being a bit displeased with Draco, Lucius may not be in the mood to get him something so fancy. Still, Lucius might have bought it for Draco eventually but let's remember the timing. Harry gets the broom midway through third year. Lucius doesn't feel inclined to rush out that minute and buy Draco a new broom (again).

And then fourth year rolls around. The Triwizard Tournament means there's no Quidditch so there's no point. Plus Lucius is probably distracted by the fact that his Dark Mark is getting clearer every day and oh no what if Voldemort isn't actually dead? What if he comes back? What if he's mad at all the people who didn't stay faithful to him...?

And then Voldemort DOES come back. And Lucius has...so many problems. First he has to tell Voldemort that he kinda sorta might've lost his diary. Whoopsie. And that...does not go well. then he's busy trying to stay alive and un-tortured and trying to regain Voldemort's favor during fifth year. And then he gets caught at the Department of Mysteries and arrested. Probably broom buying is the last thing on his mind.

(First, as an aside, I don't know that Draco's interest in Harry is purely based on his fame. I mean, he tries to befriend and impress Harry in Madam Malkin's before he even knows who he is.) But anyway, both of them seem to be mutually drawn to each other even though their relationship is an acrimonious one almost from the beginning. Yes, Harry almost immediately takes a dislike to Draco. But he's also very aware of him. And that...never stops.

I'm not sure I would say that Harry exactly puts Draco on the same level as Dudley, but he is immediately reminded of Dudley due to Draco's boasting. Draco speaks in a way that makes Harry think he is spoiled and privileged...like Dudley. Draco also declares he'll bully his father into getting him a broom. This is a boast because he's trying to show off to impress Harry.

Lucius and Narcissa are not Vernon and Petunia. They do a lot for Draco but they would never allow him to push them around the way Dudley does his parents. Harry doesn't know this however, and takes Draco at his word which makes him draw a parallel to Dudley in his mind. Draco's bullying and bigoted behavior also further turns Harry against him. He's never afraid of Draco though in the way he is of Dudley, so the dynamic is different.

But yeah. Harry is...really hyper aware of Draco. Not because he's scared of him. But just because he can't seem to look away. They orbit and play off each other right from day one. Harry immediately recognizes Draco when he meets him again on the train (and Draco also remembers Harry right away). He watches Draco's sorting and where he goes to sit. He dreams of Draco his very first night.

I'm not sure Harry even knows why this is. There's just something about Draco that he's drawn to, even when they aren't friends, even when they are bitter rivals. They can never forget each other or look away from each other. Harry isn't like this with other people he dislikes. He's not like this about Zacharias Smith or Crabbe or Goyle or Michael Corner or Cormac McLaggen or even Snape or Voldemort.

There's something different with Draco. Something more. To me, that something is drarry.

#asks #Harry Potter #drarry #Draco Malfoy

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fontasticcrablettes · 4 months ago

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I recently watched an 11 hour critique of Arise, because I'm the kind of person who loves an 11 hour video essay, but it's got me thinking about all the building blocks Arise put in place but under-utilized. So I've been brainstorming some "I can fix him" ideas.

For now I'm focusing on the lords, and how each one sorta has a connection to a party member in a way reminiscent of the God Generals or the Chimeriad. But those connections are flimsy and not fully realized, so how can we make this better?

Originally this post was going to be ideas for all of them, but my total rewrite of Vholran and Alphen's backstory got away from me so this is just focusing on Vholran for now.

Vholran desperately wants to be a dark foil for Alphen, but he comes across more like Zagi in his meaningless obsession with cruelty and totally one-sided rivalry with the protagonist.

So what if, Vholran and Alphen had a pre-existing relationship? 300 years ago, they were soldiers together in Dahna, with a bit of a friendly rivalry going on. Both came from noble Dahnan families, and they became friends when they entered the military academy around the same time (for even more spiciness, they could also have been lovers).

That friendly rivalry, though, was started to become progressively less friendly as Vholran grew jealous of Alphen receiving more attention and higher scores. It got even worse once they were actually officers on the field, and Alphen was promoted faster and received more decorations from their superiors.

One of their biggest clashes was in how they valued their troops. Alphen cared about every soldier, and was hesitant to use strategies that would cause large casualties, while Vholran saw them as expendable and would use reckless tactics to secure goals even if it led to high casualties for his troops. Vholran justified this by claiming that since they were of noble birth, it was their right to use the lower classes for their own gain. Alphen, meanwhile, thought all people had equal value, and nobility meant he had a duty to defend those with less power.

Then, they both got kidnapped by Renans to be used in the sovereign experiments. Neither of them really knew what was going on, except that it involved giving them some kind of power and the researchers were trying to find the 'strongest' subject to receive them. Vholran's jealousy intensified, and he was furious when Alphen was chosen and not him.

Vholran escaped the lab and sabotaged the Spirit Channelling Ceremony, and it was his interference that caused Alphen's powers to go berserk and cause all those people. Naori gave Alphen the mask as per the game, and took Alphen to the space ship back to Dahna.

Seeing this as a chance to get home, Vholran stowed away when she wasn't looking. Naoir had set the ship to cry-sleep for the trip home because Alphen had been injured in the destruction and needed the healing. But, Vholran once again fucked things up when he snuck his way onto the ship, and instead of being frozen for a few months to heal, they both ended up sleeping for 300 years.

Vholran came to his senses a bit before Alphen did since he hadn't been injured to start with. A quick scouting trip from the ship gave him some idea of what was going on in Calaglia. With his ability to use magic and pass as a Renan, he dragged a weak and still mostly out of it Alphen to the nearest Renan troops and announced he'd captured a runaway slave.

(At which point they would have put a spirit core on his hand, because... seriously why didn't they do that)

From there, Vholran does his thing in Ganath Haros, killing and replacing the current lord. His goal from here is to win the Crown Contest so he can return to Lenegis as the true Sovereign and take his revenge on the Renans for what they put him through 300 years ago. Once he hears about the uprising and Balseph's death, however, he decides to go investigate.

When they first encounter Vholran in Cyslodia, Alphen has a sudden flash of memory that this was the guy who'd sold him out to the Renan's a year ago. They have no idea who he is or where he came from, but the party is immediately wary of him as they see him as someone who had the chance to help an escaped Dahnan find freedom and instead turned him in.

The next time they meet, on their way to Mahag Saar, Vholran talks to Alphen more and flashes of memory come back, leaving him certain that he knows Vholran from somewhere. It's even more powerful than his sense of knowing Shionne from somewhere, because he actually does have strong memories of Vholran rather than her simply resembling someone he knew.

So when we finally get to the Ganath Haros arc, Alphen's mask has been smashed and he has all his memories back. Now, the opponent they are facing is not just the lord of Ganath Haros who kidnapped Shionne and has a one-sided grudge against Alphen. Now Alphen is out to confront his old friend who became his enemy out of jealousy and an inability to work together or value others. Alphen wants to rescue Shionne, but he also wants to confront the man who sabotaged the ceremony and put all those people's blood on his hands, the man who sold him into slavery, the man who ruined his life in so many ways over the years even though all Alphen ever wanted was to be friends.

But this shouldn't end in Ganath Haros. As the main protagonist's biggest foil, Vholran should be the main antagonist through to the end. So, after they defeat him in Ganath Haros, Vholran flees back to Lenegis with the Helganquil. Vholran isn't a Renan, so he has been able to see the Red Women the entire time, and figured out what was going on.

Because simply being ruler of Lenegis isn't enough for him, especially when he realizes Rena is empty. What's the point of being sovereign of a dead planet? But they have starships, and there's a whole galaxy out there. The water master core already gave him massive amounts of power, so what could he do with the astral energy of an entire planet?

The final act sees Vholran as the main villain, who has given up ruling Dahna, in large part because he's a petty bastard and wants Alphen to watch his world die, and has set his sight on the stars. He uses the wedge to begin draining Dahna of energy, and plans to use the Great Astral Spirit + Dahna's energy to power Renan starships to another world and begin the colonization and extraction of astral energy all over again.

We can tie Shionne's thorns into this, too. In the year since Vholran awoke and began plotting to use the Great Astral Spirit, his manipulation of it triggered heightened activity in her thorns, giving her the visions of the thorns destroying the world and convincing her to set off on her own journey.

I'm not entirely sure how he fits in with the Helganquil. I try to keep as much as possible from canon in proposed rewrites, but... I really think Vholran needs to be the main architect of evil schemes here. Perhaps he's overthrown the Helganquil and part of the third act sees the Helganquil reaches out to the party for help.

#nightfoot plays arise

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lightningqueen11 · 9 months ago

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You know, as someone who adores the Four swords adventures manga, I'm always confused by Green's characterization. Vio, Blue, and Red are obvious. Brains, brawn, and heart respectively. But Green? He's just a tad to vague for me. His main thing in the manga is some form of classic heroism, which doesn't really feel like a character trait iykwim? It always just kinda feels like he's supposed to be Link™ but that kinda defeats the purpose. So! I'm going to be rambling about a couple Green concepts that I think give him a bit more spice.

Aggressively average Green. Exactly what it sounds like, he is so horribly, terribly average at everything. Take his dubious characterization and dial it up to 11. Massive potential for an identity crisis, and easy to paste into the manga. His heroism is sorta the only thing he clings to, after all, if he's not the hero, who is he?

Mans fucking tired Green. This dude has been trying desperately to wrangle 3 would-be heroes into some state of cohesion, because he's the actual braincell. Sure, Vio has a lot of facts, but he has no common sense. Green is just trying to make sure his brothers(?) don't die. If it were up to Green, they would all be sitting at home with some hot cocoa and a kitty.

Go with the flow Green. Drawing particularly from the four elements that forged the four sword, we're leaning into the idea of the air element. Green's got absolutely 0 braincells this time, he's moving on vibes. Oh, we're four people now? Sounds good to me. I'm in the middle of the desert? Sure, why not. Vio's being gay with the enemy? Good for him. This is arguably harder to implement in the canon, but we can just say at the time he was just doing what felt most in line with the goal of "be a hero, save Zelda"

Ew Vio Green. Leaning more into their rivalry that was pretty awesome, we're making Green as opposite Vio as possible. While Vio is all "the ends justify the means" Green thinks you can't break the rules even for a good cause. While Vio is very into book learning, Green is very experience oriented. While Vio is an introvert, Green is an Extrovert. You get what I mean? Relying on Vio's incredible characterization to help bolster Green's.

Add more green character types in reblogs or comments pls! I really wanna see it, or heck, if you have complaints about another FSA manga character I'd also love to hear your changes!

#legend of zelda #loz #link #green link #four swords manga #four swords #characterization #can we call him grink?#y'know #green link? grink?#i'm a genius

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bigshymen · 5 months ago

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You do male reader right 🌚🌚 this is the same person who gave you a heads up about the tags (🍪🍪)”sorry if I came off a little rude but I wanna request something 😭🙏🏾

But if so can I get a Sam sulek x male reader where the reader and sam are like gym rivals but like they secretly like each other but won’t tell one another but one a guy or a girl flirts with the reader and sam gets jealous you can finish all from there smut or fluff is good. ( like I said last time have a great day and night 🩷)

You didn’t come off as rude at all don’t worry! (this was originally going to be a one shot buttt i got a little carried away with it 😅) Enjoy!

SAM SULEK X BODYBUILDER RIVAL MALE READER (PART 1)

sam sulek x male reader

summary : a friendly-ish rivalry between you and fellow bodybuilder and crush, sam sulek, quickly turns sour when someone else gets involved.

no smut , jealousy, swearing , pinning , rivals to a little something-something , unresolved feelings , eventual comfort and fluff ( trust ) , i hate the oblivious character trope

You swore you weren’t obsessed.

You swore it when you got out of bed in the morning on weekends. Swore it when the first place you hit was the gym. Even swore it when the secondary and only primary thought in your head was him.

Over the sounds of the gym equipment and the grunts of the people working out, there was only one sound you really heard. Sam Sulek.

Around his initial rise to fame, you had been keeping tabs on his content for a bit. The 21yr old bodybuilder impressing you with his obsessive-like discipline and dedication to the sport. You actually wanted to befriend him at first, seeing as you and him both go to the same local gym and have common goals, but that changed.

You’d always had a tight knit friend group of fitness influencers, some having known you since childhood. But since Sam came onto the scene, suddenly he was hot shit now.

They were practically crowding over each other to get a piece of him. Collabs, pictures, autographs… and suddenly you were irrelevant.

Late nights at the ice cream parlor after workouts and group bowling with your friends morphed into crashing at Sam’s after hours and them ditching you to hang out with the HOSSTILE team.

It seemed like they were always busy whenever you wanted to hang with them, texts left on delivered, and voicemails never returned so on and so forth.

You felt abandoned. You thought about joining them and their Sulek-craze but your pride haulted you. As hurt as you felt, there was only room for one renowned bodybuilder here and he just stepped into your territory.

You assured yourself that he had nothing on you as you had been in the game longer, hence you were more seasoned. But his already massive physique at such a young age just poured more salt in the wound.

Although you knew basing your self worth on the opinions of others would only result in you losing in the end, with the type of ��friends” you had, envy and resentment only clouded your view.

Despite your well veiled animosity towards the man, he was nothing but friendly to you. Of course, nice guy Sulek was loved and praise endlessly by his supporters and fans for being so humble and just the totally perfect guy.

Was the jealousy obvious now?

It didn’t help that he was also extremely attractive. You didn’t consider yourself bad looking, but next to Sam? He was the perfect combination of boyish and masculine features. Wide, gorgeous brown eyes, full lips that seemed to always have the sides perked up, but simultaneously the jawline and cheekbones akin to a lumberjack-man.

His cheekbones perfectly contoured the acne-scarred plains of his face, and underneath them his reasonably long, bare and sharp jawline curtained by his pretty curls made him sorta resemble a super ripped fairytale prince.

No wonder he was popular with virtually everybody he met. Despite his massive bodybuilder trademarked-muscles the dude was a supersized teddy bear. Hell, a big baby. Who else drinks that much chocolate milk?

What’s worse was that you kind of liked that. More then you wanted your friends back, you wanted his attention. His admiration. You already had made a name for yourself in the industry, and this guy was already trying to take your spot.

The smiles he flashed you when he caught you looking his way gave a pit in your gut, butterflies flying out of your ass whenever he waved you over. But you never did. You always denied his attempts to get to know you, opting for a cold and mysterious persona in contrast to his chummy one.

Apparently, it made you all the more magnetic because to your friends confusion, he became a regular on-looker to your gym workouts. He even went as far to try to out-lift you, Haha!

You had to give it to him, he was trying hard. Some fans even noticed how similar his personal technique he was utilizing became to yours. You would be flattered, if he didn’t seem to mock you as another hit after basically robbing you of your friend group.

Even so, you couldn’t stop yourself from feeling the way you did towards him, anger aside. It was almost impossible to hate the guy. From his looks, additude, and personality… he had you geeking like a teenage girl while watching his videos.

You considered twirling your hair and laying stomach down on the bed while you rocked your muscular legs back in forth to his car talks, giggling whenever he looked at the camera. Positively cooked.

To not entertain these thoughts for longer, you worked even harder at the gym. Trying to forcibly throw him out of your mind, you focused on your gains and nothing else.

For awhile this worked. You curbed the urge to watch his videos and learned to tune him out at the gym. You even met someone new, a fitness guru named Mia who apparently took a liking to you. Don’t get it wrong, you wanted to make new friends and.. maybe get a girlfriend but you knew deep down that’s what your head wanted, not your heart.

And right now the heart wanted some Sulek.

It was subtle at first—smiles here and there. Compliments. You liked the attention you’d admit, but it wasn’t hers you wanted. No doubt she was pretty. All toned muscle, and you could tell those youtube glute workouts payed off. Always looking put together, clear and tanned skin coupled with perfect french tips every time you saw her. Has she ever had a bad hair day?

It came to a head after a hard workout one morning when Mia approached you as you wiped down a bench you had been using previously.

“Great pump today, right?” She praised, her voice warm as it always was.

“Yeah. You too,” you praised back, trying to keep a casual tone.

“Hey, so I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink at the 24th cafe across the street? Would love to pick your brain about some training tips.”

Her invitation took you aback and you couldn’t help but hesitant. Your eyes darted around the gym and just behind Mia, on a machine was Sam. It seemed he was already laser-focused on you when you met his gaze, expression unreadable. It was like a new tension had been released into the air around you, like an airborne virus.

You knew it would be wrong to lead her on when you weren’t really interested, so you didn’t. You still went out to eat with her, accompanied her on hikes, and even met her rowdy french bull dog, Cookie. All while remaining extremely buddy-buddy with her.

All of the time you spent with her in and out of the gym made you happier. She was funny, smart, and really passionate about maintaining physical fitness. With the absence of your former friends, it seemed like the higher power sent her your way as a trade off for your lonely days.

At the same time, every time you laughed with her and she spotted you, you could feel like you had eyes burning into the back of your skull. Now that you thought about it, Sam hadn’t smiled at you or even acknowledged you in how long?

One by one, your friends that previously hanged around him like groupies completely disappeared and he was working out again by his lonesome. To you it looked like the problem solved itself.

That was until a clip of one of Sam’s car talks appeared on your fyp (you thought you had pressed not interested about a thousand times.) that looked pretty recent. You went to click the not interested option again before the caption caught your eye. It read “Sam Sulek is HEARTBROKEN.” Shamefully, you were intrigued, so you kept watching although you expected it to be merely dumb clickbaity nonsense.

“…You guys know I generally take a stoic approach to working out, because it’s a long term thing. I spoke about how, you know, doing this because your girlfriend left you or to prove something like shit ‘oh I’ll show them’ isn’t sustainable.”

He looks into the camera with a solumn expression before the video cuts ahead.

“ …but I’ll admit. I’ve been going through something…” (cut)

“Don’t make fun of me, but I’ve had a bit of a gym crush for awhile now and they’ve met someone and I think their dating.” He abruptly pauses before continuing, “I’m hurt, of course, and I channeled that into my workouts but like I said it’s not good for you in the long run…”

What?

No way.

Noooo way.

You didn’t like the places this was taking your brain. There was a possibly. And would it be wrong to assume? But there was a number of people at the gym. And his behavior does track… but you’re not over him, and your head’s desperate clawing at straws to connect the dots of delusion will only make you more unhappy.

You turned off your phone.

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fahbev · 9 months ago

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Hi! Saw you jumped on the tim hate train, welcome to the club! Aplarently you're Damian fan, which is good bc hes also one of the characters who's hit by tim's..woobification? Victimization(???) while simultaneously being the bestest, most competent batfam member. You Damian fans honestly have my respect for the pure amount of shit Damian gets because of tim.

hi lmao. Thanks xD. I usually try to keep all my negativity off of the internet, but last night I was going the anti Tim drake tag bc my frustration was flaring up. At first i was collecting posts by liking them instead of rb, then I was replying, and then at some point... “Fuck it. I want this on my blog.”

(This is gonna be a ramble btw, I don’t care abt making a good post rn.)

I used to be fine with Tim! I think the whole thing was a lot less prominent in the dpxdc fandom bc DANNY was the fan favorite/community elected woobie, but then I kinda moved out and... well. It still took awhile for this issue to seep in bc those Tim fans (you know the ones) are certainly a minority, but I just don’t think you can be a Damian fan for longer than a few months without getting frustrated.

Nowadays I refuse to read anything tagged with any variation of “Tim Drake angst” that features the batfam. Timkon fics are usually just fine though.

Actually— recently? Shit’s been bothering me so bad that I don’t wanna risk reading fics that have Tim in the first relationship tag at all. He’s gotta at most be in the second one. Ship fics are again an exception, but I don’t tend to seek out ship fics much anyway.

But, like I said, I usually keep it to myself. Every time i catch myself venting in the tags I either screenshot the tags and delete, or I delete and retype them. I put them into a private notes document. I also journal in there a lot instead of posting it.

That document is pretty long.

I do wanna say that there’s nothing wrong with what tim fans are doing. It is fun to woobify your fave. It’s fun to prop them up and tear others down and make everything about your blorbo and it is harmless. I do it too (usually in my daydreams). It’s a fantasy, and that’s what fanfiction is for. People who act like it’s “problematic” are wrong. That doesn’t mean it’s not annoying. Because it is. It’s annoying as all fuck.

Also wanna mention that I once read a damian fic that like... started off with some delicious whump, but then it turned into a whole Damian pity party and it guilt tripped all his friends and family. Damian IS my blorbo and I couldn’t read that. I didn’t even know who Maps was at the time but it seemed so bizarre to throw her under the bus. Anyway I feel like that’s what a quite large portion of Tim fic is like except a bit less extreme.

I used to tell myself that “ohhh it’s just a rivalry. I’m sure Tim fans get the same shit in reverse all the time” but I literally NEVER see it in the other direction and spend the most of my time in Damian circles. The only time I see tim hate from damian fans is frustration at those particular fans in response to it or in response to favoritism of authors.

I mean i saw a good chunk of it last night, but what else can I expect from the anti tim drake tag?

It’s actually funny how most of the stuff in anti tags is polarized hate shitting on the character with a lot of bad takes, but in tims anti tag it was almost exclusively frustration from Damian and Jason fans, and usually pretty mild takes. Also people calling Tim boring.

Ngl, Idk much about Jason. I’m familiar with his fanon, but the only comic i’ve read that featured him in a major way was Gotham War. I don’t know him well, and I don’t have too much interest in him. However, I hate “Jason falls over in guilt and kisses Tim’s fingers begging for forgiveness” type posts in solidarity. It’s yucky.

Anyway, I didn’t even mean to get on this anti tim train you speak of, It just sorta leaked out of my vent doc. Don’t expect me to keep posting about it.

but also... don’t not expect it. It might happen.

Even so, my dms are absolutely open for Timothy Drake related frustration! I’m pretty tired of being nice to him.

#anti tim drake #ask #i may delete this later #i might also delete all my anti tim posts #i might also continue hating on him #depends on my mood #also lmao idr how much i rbed you but your blog was the source of so many of the anti tim posts

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coralpaperthoughts · 9 months ago

Text

I am drawn between two options !!

So Adrien and Marinette Do Not get along as superheroes, due to the rivalry over their love interest, but is it the same as civilians?? Coz there's two options:

1) Adrien and Marinette have a rivalry over something in civilian form, maybe Marinette caught Adrien with the gum on her seat and the umbrella scene didn't happen, maybe it just never rained that day so there was no chance for Adrien to redeem himself

So now Marinette lumps Adrien together with Chloe, coz no friend of her could possibly be nice, and Adrien just doesn't have the energy to correct her so he just rolls his eyes and gets on with his day (coz please let me boy have at least a bit of back bone and let him stick up for himself for once) and they sorta just send daggers through their eyes to each other coz they're melodramatic

They also have an academic rivalry coz they're battling for second best of the class (obviously Max is first) and also they battle for Class President too, dragging Nino and Alya into their rivalry too (but they love each other too much to let it get to them, they just play along)

OR !!!

2) Adrien and Marinette are like this 🤞 out of the masks, they are the bestest bestest friends coz, although they love Nino and Alya very much, they always end up getting stuck together for outings and hangouts, Nino and Alya will constantly ditch them to go on dates

This time the umbrella scene does happen, but instead of Marinette falling in love (because by this point she's already falling in love with Scarletbug) she just realises that Adrien isn't actually an asshole like Chloe, so she decides she'll accept his advances at becoming friends

And they just get along so well !! they have so much in common, so many similar hobbies and interests and just a lot to talk abt and they pretty much hit off immediately

These four become inseparable,

and obviously there's the ppl who start shipping Adrien and Marinette but they either ignore them or are oblivious to the talk - they're just really good friends coz they're superhero counterparts have a rivalry and the irony of the situation is just hilarious and also they just haven't fallen in love with each other yet,, yet

And I mean ig I could make it that Marinette does fall for Adrien during the famous umbrella scene, but I don't think that's fair coz Adrien thinks he's gay, in this AU, and he doesn't realise until later on that he's actually bi

and also he's very open about his gayness, it's one of the first things he casually mentions after he gets to know a person and can trust them (didn't take him that long to trust Nino or Marinette) so Marinette would know that she doesn't stand a chance (yet) and I just dont think that's fair on her and I wouldn't wanna write that either

edit: i wanted to clarify that Adrien isn’t out yet to the public, he isn’t a public gay figure (yet) because he hasn’t really told his dad yet and he doesnt even feel like telling his dad coz his dad is a POS that probably wouldn’t even remember his name if it wasn’t plastered all over the city so Adrien just doesn’t waste his breath (eventually though, Adrien comes out to his dad in a heated argument and idk what the outcome that discussion will be just yet)

masterpost

#i think im liking the second option :)#adrien agreste #mlb #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #adrienette #adrien x marinette #adrien and marinette #adrienette rivalry #best friends adrienette #luka couffaine #luka x adrien #coralbabbles #mlb au #miraculous au

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1moreff-creator · 1 year ago

Text

Trying to figure out the Ace "murder" method

Hey, it's me again!

Seeing the great reception to my Arei murder theory (which, in case you missed, has an important second version (adult warning for Arei's BDA) and a less important third post, and beyond), I decided to try and figure out a method for the Ace murder attempt from episode 6. That and I have a sorta friendly theory rivalry going on with thebadjoe-

Seems like a fun challenge. Let's get into it!

Truth Bullets

Before the murder:

After:

1- Ace's body and wounds: Ace's body is sitting against a wall, slumped over. His neck has what seem to be three slice-type wounds across the front. These are the only visible wounds we know of. His face is angry, but this being Ace, it'd be weirder if it wasn't.

2- Bloodstain on the wall: There is a faint bloodstain just behind Ace's neck. Notably, this is the only trace of blood outside of Ace and the wires.

3- Lone wire: Because I clearly didn't have enough thinking about ropes and pulleys in the other murder, this one involves a wire! That's practically just a sharp rope! Notably, there is blood around a huge chunk of the middle of the cable, and a bit on one of the sides.

4- Wire taped to the fan: There is another piece of wire, wrapped around and taped to the broken ceiling fan. There is blood on the end of the wire not connected to the fan. The roll of tape used is right there. Fun fact, the tape actually dissappears from the background in the middle of the investigation, as pointed out by thebadjoe. Eden took it. This has more to do with the other murder than this one, but it's something to consider.

5- Broken fan: The fan on the right (door view) is broken, and on the ground.

6- Moved benches: Two benches have been moved from their original position. The one on the left is just moved to the side, while the one on the right is toppled over next to Ace. Notably, it's under the broken fan, meaning it must have toppled over before the fan got there.

7- Stool: There is a stool.

I have genuinely no idea where the hell this thing came from. It wasn't in any of the second floor rooms, or any of the first floor rooms we've seen. Was it in storage?

??????????????????

Hey, how fucking far did they drag this thing?! I have to imagine it was somewhere else, as there are actually a few doors which have never been opened, such as in the laundry room.

Whatever, no one cares. There's a stool, let's live with that.

8- Broom: There is a broom. I really hope they didn't get this from storage as well.

9- Toppled over weight rack: The weight rack has been moved closer to the... lifting bench thing, and now lay sprawled across the floor. Yeah, I got no idea about gym terminology.

10- Isolated weights: There are two small weights off to the side. Yep, they sure do exist.

11- Non-functioning fan: The fan on the left isn't moving (I know you can't tell from the picture, but trust me on this). This is especially strange, as we see the same fan moving the next day when Teruko and Rose go to the gym, despite the other fan still being gone.

12- Clean pull-up bar: The tape which was around the pull-up bar since the first day the second floor opened has disappeared.

13?- ???: So, uh, I got no idea what's going on in this general area. Apart from the bench press bar apparently disappearing, there seems to be a whole ass chunk of a mirror missing, which makes absolutely zero sense. It almost looks like someone took a bite off the damn thing, but I don't think anyone here eats glass, not even MonoTV. I imagine this is an animation error, but I'll point it out anyways in case it's somehow important.

14- Rose's account: During her painting session with Nico, her turpentine went missing.

15- Teruko's account: "[Ace] stayed unconcious for much longer than can be explained by blood loss or asphyxiation." Teruko believes this means Ace was likely knocked out with Rose's turpentine. Now, why she believes this when turpentine inhalation cannot cause unconciousness, only vomiting and nausea at worst, is beyond me. But since no one ever corrects her, I believe turpentine just... works differently in the DRDT universe.

16- Banging noise: Shortly before Eden and Teruko entered the crime scene, they heard a strange banging noise which came from the gym, followed by a clattering sound. This noise is... definitely strange, and in fact, I struggle to say what exactly it was. Since it doesn't match anything perfectly, I guess it must either be the weight rack toppling, or the fan falling. Also, this noise must have been caused by Nico, as no one else ran out of the gym afterwards.

17- Nico's missing cloak: Nico's usual cloak (that's what it's called, right?) is nowhere to be seen. Where the hell it went is a fantastic question, but the fact they don't have it in the first place could mean a lot of different things. Also to note, Nico doesn't have any blood on them.

I believe that about covers it. Let's see what we can manage. Also, I apologize in advance if it seems like this isn't very structured, I'm doing the best to explain my reasoning step by step.

What was Nico doing?

This may seem like an odd question to start with, but it's actually one which gives way to one of the most fundamental truths of the crime. One which I need to establish before getting anywhere in terms of theorizing. No, I'm not about to claim Nico didn't try to murder Ace, It's something else.

The answer seems obvious at first: they were clearly killing Ace, right? Well, not so fast. Nico was standing quite far from the body, yet holding a wire covered in blood. It almost looks like they just stumbled into an already established crime scene and were just investigating. Some claim this means Nico wasn't the one who set up most of the crime, but we have to remember this line:

Charles: But did you not intentionally try to make a serious attempt on Ace's life? Answer honestly.

Nico: Y... Yes...

Nico admits to, at some point, having tried to kill Ace. Of course, this isn't conclusive, but there is actually something else which makes me believe Nico might be the sole culprit of this almost-murder. A piece of evidence I haven't seen anyone mention in detail before.

The isolated weights.

What's the issue with this weights? Well, there are three truths which make them particularly strange.

1- The fact they're isolated means they were likely involved in the murder method.

2- They are decently far from any other piece of evidence.

3- They are neatly stacked on top of each other.

The fact they're neatly stacked means someone put them like that intentionally, yet they were clearly involved in the murder method. However, if they were involved in the method, how are they this far from everything else?

Well, let me answer those questions by raising others in return. Why is Ace so far from the wires, and why was Nico holding one of them? Why are the weights the only thing in the room which seem to be placed intentionally, when everything else is all over the place? When did Nico lose their cloak? What did they do to make that banging noise?

All these questions lead me to one answer. Nico wasn't actively trying to murder Ace when Eden and Teruko entered the scene, they were cleaning the crime scene. This could include moving Ace's body around, screwing around with the wires in a way which broke the fan, and, the important part, instinctively stacking the weights on top of each other. Maybe because Nico was getting bothered by the general mess of the room, or something like that (I know I would try to put some order in the room if I was nervous), and the weights were the easiest things to move around.

Whatever the reason Nico had for moving the weights, the point is, they did. This movement clearly didn't have anything to do with the actual method, as again, the weights were pretty far from everything, so it seems to me like they were just sorta "cleaning". And the reason everything else is in disarray is because they weren't done when Teruko and Eden got there.

Of course, you may be unconvinced. You may have questions like "why didn't Nico check Ace was dead dead?". But I promise, this will all make more sense as I explain further, so for now, let's assume Nico was cleaning the crime scene.

What does that mean? It means the position of most of the objects in the room could have changed between the time the attack was carried out, and the moment Teruko and Eden entered the gym.

With this possibility in mind, let's take a deeper dive into some of the evidence.

Two Wires on a Bird

(Wait, that's not how the song-)

Now, as you may remember, there were two pieces of wire in the gym; one by itself, and one taped to the fan. A lot of people assume these two were pieces of the same wire, which was broken when the fan went down, probably.

However, I do not believe this is the case. Remember, these wires are metal. From what I could find, their black color could imply they may be aluminum or iron, for example. These have, scientifically speaking, a fuckton of tensile strength. You would need a force of no less than an elephant stampede to break that with tension alone. They can be broken, quite easily with enough effort and tools, but not easily snapped.

No, I believe the answer is much simpler. There were always two wires; there was never an unintentional breakage. If these two things were ever one solid piece of wire, the would-be-murderer must have separated them before they set up their scheme, with whatever they could find. Maybe there could be tools in storage? Not too important.

But, beyond stealing the turpentine, is there really any evidence the killer really thought the method through with that much anticipation? After all, there is this line:

Veronika: Is this what you were envisioning when you tried to kill Ace? That the trial would happen like this, but with Ace instead of Arei dead?

Nico: I didn't... I never thought about it... I...

If Nico is the sole culprit as I'm claiming, doesn't that line mean there wasn't much forethought on Nico's part?

Don't worry, I'll explain that line later. For now, let me show you that the almost-killer absolutely planned the method in advance.

Broken Fans, Broken Hearts

One of the evidence pieces which confused me the most at first was, without a doubt, the non-functioning fan on the left. Why the hell isn't it moving? It's not the other fan falling, as we see the fan on the left working independantly the next day. Clearly, something happened which broke this fan, and it may have broken the other one as well.

Now, I looked through Google to see how ceiling fans work, see if I can figure something funky out. As a quick and oversimplified explanation, they run a current to create magnetic force which moves a rotor which moves the blades. From this, I thought of maybe using magnets to screw them up, but there aren't any magnets we know of in DRDT. I looked into Nico's laser pointer, but that also went nowhere. Despite the lack of evidence of its use, J's remote was the only thing I could think of for a while.

That is, until I realized one fundamental truth:

I'm an idiot.

The answer is much, much simpler. And it comes from one important question. Why is the tape on the fan facing the ceiling?

Most people, myself included, see a stool, tape, and tape on a fan, and assume the killer used the stool to reach the fan and put the tape there. But the problem is, that would only allow you to place the wire on the underside of the blades. And I'm pretty sure the fan wouldn't do a cartwheel in midair to land upside down.

No, what the tape's position implies is that the killer had access to the upper side of the fan's blades. This means they were likely able to bring the fans down before the murder, and put them back later. However, it's very likely they wouldn't be completely able to fix them, explaining why the left one isn't moving.

I'm not sure how they'd do that, and it sorta relies again on tools from storage, but it doesn't quite matter. There's no point in taping a wire to a fan unless you want it on the fan, aka close to the ceiling, so the killer must have put them back. They likely did this way before the murder, though that raises the question of why the tape would still be there in that case. I do have an explanation, but it'll have to wait for now.

The fact the killer had this ability to take down and somewhat fix the fans makes the left fan's state trivial. They would just take it down to break it, like they did the fan on the right. Of course, the question is why.

I have two answers. The boring one is that the almost-killer thought having one fan moving while the other was broken would be suspicious, and would make Ace more cautious than just seeing both fans broken.

The more fun answer, but one I don't think makes much sense, is that breaking the fans could make the turpentine more effective. Keep in mind Teruko says it is inhaling the fumes from turpentine which can cause unconciousness, and the fans, moving the air around and stuff, would make it harder for the fumes to really be effective... somehow? Again, impossible to know from real life turpentine, as it doesn't work the same as in DRDT. There are a decent bit of inconsistencies with this answer, but eh. As long as Nico could conceivably believe it would help, they may do it. The killers don't have to always know exactly what they're doing.

Alright, Murder Time!

Now that you know how my brain interprets most of the evidence in the crime scene, it's time to get to the actual method. Just so you can get a taste of the insanity required to come up with something which is at least even slightly believeable, here's a highlight reel of the silliest ideas I seriously considered at one point or another!

-Using the broom to beat the shit out of a fan like a piñata.

-Putting the fan on the treadmill and making it run. Don't ask me how this would work.

-Creating a yoyo with the wire and the isolated weights. I almost wanted this one to be true.

-Creating a weird garrote thing with the wires and the weights.

Alright, got it out of my system. Let's actually start now.

The first thing we have to look at is the blood on the wires.

This is, hands down, the part of the crime which drove me the most insane. We need to somehow figure out a way to have blood on quite a bit of the end of the fan-wire, a huge chunk in the middle of the lone wire, and a bit on its right side as well. All of this, while only leaving injuries on the front of Ace's neck, and not the back.

The simplest way to do this would be to "drag" the bloody parts of the wire across Ace's neck, but the question is how to "dodge" the parts which aren't bloody. If you try to think about this for yourself, you're gonna notice this is a lot harder than it seems. The bloody part on the middle of the lone wire is long, but the one on the right is small. Additionally, you have to somehow figure out a way to bloody up the end of the fan-wire, which comes with the problem of "where the hell even is Ace to have his neck cut by this thing".

The first thing I figured out is that the end of the fan-wire was likely attached to the middle of the lone wire, the latter doubled over the point of contact.

(My art is back with a vengeance)

The lone wire could have even been tied around itself to triple over itself, if the length was still too long for the killer's taste. This would also help to explain the multiple injuries on his neck.

However, the problem with this is that goddamn little bit of blood on the right of the lone wire. It can't be solved by just dragging Ace a bit further, as there's a part of the wire which isn't bloody. This took me a while to figure out. In fact, at one point I was close to calling it quits, and just leaving that bit of blood unexplained.

But then, it came to me. A noose!

If the killer made a noose with the wire (let's assume that's possible), and Ace was dragged along the base of the noose, but not the noose itself, then the point of connection would leave a bloody part of the wire which would appear separated from the rest once you extended it out.

(The main takeaway from this "drawing" is the noose, don't worry if you don't exactly understand the triple over thing. After all, I'm not even sure it was actually used)

Of course, now we have to ask ourselves why in the hell is the killer making a noose, then having Ace's neck drag across the base of the noose. The first thing which comes to mind is putting the noose around something, something like the pull up bar. That's sorta the only object near the fan I could see this working with. And we know the other end of the wire must have been on the fan.

This all points me to a theory I was already cooking up beforehand. The killer may have used gravity as a weapon, letting Ace's body lean on the wire as it tenses and untenses to slowly slash at his neck. This is sorta the system I'm envisioning.

Obviously the drawings aren't to scale.

Now, if we miraculously (and it really would be a miracle) get this to work, it could explain those damn bloodstains that stumped me for hours. It could also explain the meaning of those isolated plates: if you manage to secure them to Ace's chest, they would weigh him down in such a way that his neck would press harder on the wire, causing more damage. I'll get to the way I believe it's possible the killer secured them later, but for now, this is the gist of my idea.

Now, there are a significant amount of questions and concerns you may raise just by seeing this, so let me address those.

The first concern you may have is the length of the wire system. Keeping in mind the fan-wire is atteched to the end of the blade, it would practically be impossible for this system to work if the fan spins all the way.

For the fan to actually spin automatically and not break anything, the "fan-out" position must exist only when the blade with the wire is as far away from the pull-up bar as possible. With how large the fan is, the end of the wire would be somewhat over the treadmills, maybe a bit closer to the door. The problem is, as the fan spins and the wire "tries to slack" (remember, Ace's neck pressing against it would mean it never fully slacks), it would end up practically touching the floor by the time the blade gets closer to the pull-up bar. Not to mention the issue of Ace's weight possibly fucking with the fan's automatic spin. In other words, it's impossible to create this system if the fan is spinning on its own.

...The sharper of you will have already realized why that argument doesn't work. It's not a problem, because the fan isn't spinning on its own. We established it earlier, remember? The fan was likely broken before the murder attempt even formerly began. That means the fan is spinning manually.

Perhaps that piñata idea wasn't so far off after all, we just needed a gentler touch. Using the broom and probably the stool, the almost-killer would be able to make the fan move on their whim. And this means there's no reason for them to make the fan do full revolutions. If they just move the blades back and forth a little bit, they would be able to "straighten" and "slack" the wire system however they wanted, and wouldn't need the system to extend all the way to the other side of the room. In fact, they would actually want the system to be as short as possible while still reaching from the fan to the pull-up bar, since that simplifies the positioning of Ace's body, as you'll see later.

But before we get to that, I have to answer something else. This method, you may have noticed, wouldn't exactly leave the deepest wounds, would it? I mean, it could definitively cause bleeding, but the wounds would likely be quite shallow, unless the wire is ultra sharp. It seems like a pretty bad murder system if it only leaves mostly superficial wounds.

Except, who told you the wounds weren't superficial? Remember, Ace didn't actually die from this. And although I'm no expert in anatomy, I believe any neck wound would be fatal if it's deep enough. Thus, whatever the method used was, it could only leave shallow wounds.

That still raises the question of why the killer would do this, but I'll get there. For now, let me give you a sneak peek: I believe the attacker knew Ace didn't die from the wire attack. Intriguing, right?

And if you're worried about the amount of blood being too much for shallow wounds, don't worry. As I said, I believe Teruko and Eden ran into the crime scene a while after the crime actually happened, so Ace must have been bleeding for a while. And I'm no forensic expert, but I believe people who are alive bleed faster than corpses, since the heart is still beating and all that. Essentially, there's a lot of blood only because Ace has been bleeding for a while.

Now comes the hardest part of the visualization, and frankly, the one thing which really makes me doubt whether or not this is possible. With the two benches found on the crime scene, you have to play jenga with them and Ace's body in a way which makes sure his head reaches the pull-up bar in the "fan-out" position, and which doesn't run into issues holding his body up in the "fan-in" position. Considering the height of the pull-up bar, I think the best way to do this would be placing the benches parallel to the wire, and Ace's body kneeling perpendicular to it. You might also want to put a space in between the benches for the knees to bend forward, but I'm not sure.

(Not to scale)

Again, I know this is hard to visualize, and probably harder to pull off, but I don't think it's completely impossible. If anyone has better ideas on how to put the benches, I'd love to hear it.

Now, the sharper of you would realize a problem. As Ace's body flops onto the wire, it's likely going to get pulled forward, but it would also likely slide down towards Ace's chest. That's a problem, since his wounds are only on his neck. However, I have a possible solution for this. You know how I said you could secure the isolated weight plates on Ace's chest to make him press harder onto the wire? Well, if you secure them high and well enough, with tape for example, they might be able to stop the wires from sliding down.

The unfortunate part of this is that we can't be sure if there was any blood on the weights, which there likely would be in this case, since Teruko didn't check them closely. But the bigger issue here is the tape itself: where'd it go?

Well, I'll answer that question with another question. How is there no blood on the floor? Under this method, gravity would make at least a fair bit of blood fall to the floor. There's no way Nico cleaned it up, so how?

Well, if you don't want a liquid to stain a floor, what can you do? You can drape something over the floor so that gets stained instead of the floor. And this is how I plan to explain Nico's missing cloak. Their cloak was draped over the floor in the place where the blood would fall, as to avoid staining the floor with blood. Nico later removed the cloak from the crime scene, possibly leaving it in the dress-up room or somewhere else for the time being.

Now, that sounds ridiculous. Why would Nico leave the crime scene so early? Is there any actual evidence they left at some point?

Well, actually, there is. It's the other place where blood should have been in this method. Since Ace's neck must reach the base of the noose, it would touch the pull-up bar and stain it with blood. Or rather, it would stain the tape on the pull-up bar with blood. The tape which is also missing.

Before.

After.

In fact, this missing piece of tape is extremely important evidence for my theory. The fact it's missing means the pull-up bar was involved, possibly being stained with blood. It also means the culprit took evidence out of the crime scene, which helps explain why Nico is missing their cloak. It also gives credence to the theory the killer taped the isolated weights to Ace's chest, since one missing piece of tape could imply two missing pieces of tape. And- hey! That's why the roll of duct tape is still there! They didn't need it for the fan, since that set up was likely done before the murder attempt as established earlier, so they must have used it somewhere else!

Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

And with this, as you've noticed, we've sorta already arrived at my conclusion on the culprit. Since I believe Nico's cloak was involved in the setup, but was later removed, I firmly assert Nico is the sole almost-murderer. After all, even if the killer knocked out Nico and put them in the crime scene or something, there would be no reason to discard their cloak, and if Nico took it out the gym after waking up, there's no reason to return until they tell someone else about the body.

At this point, I should also address the hidden quote I know is gonna be brought up. Like with every character, if you inspect element on Nico's page you get a hidden quote, which in their case is "why should I own up for the mistakes someone else made?". That makes it sound like they didn't do this, but keep in mind, Nico did confirm having attempted to kill Ace, so I don't think it makes sense for the mistake to be "tried to kill Ace". I actually think this line could be a lot darker. I think this line could imply Ace made the mistakes being referred to, and Nico feels as though they don't have to own up for that. Like, "Ace was the one who fucked around, I just made them find out". Though I am admittedly biased towards evil Nico interpretations, so I can't be sure. Also, this could be about something from another chapter entirely.

Now that we sort of have an idea of how the attack could have gone down, we have to start thinking of the clean up. Unfortunately, this part of the plan wouldn't leave many clues behind, so it's largely speculative. Also worth keeping in mind, I believe this started a while before Teruko and Eden even arrived at the second floor.

The first order of business is taking Ace's body out of the mechanism. They would need to gently let it lean on the wire until the fan wouldn't turn anymore, before quickly stepping off the stool and going over. I'll explain why they're so worried about the body later, but for now, trust me bro. They would push the body off the wire, moving the benches to maneuver better, but their movements are sort of sloppy. This results in the rightmost bench falling over, and when they push Ace up against the wall, they do so haphazardly, leaving behind a small blood stain behind his neck. This is unfortunately the only explanation I have for the bloodstain on the wall which still fits all the other evidence. I say unfortunately because it's a sorta odd explanation for something I would usually consider quite important, but I've had enough trying to explain the blood on the wires, I'm not gonna worry too much about this little thing.

After making sure the body is off the wire, Nico would want to take care of the most incriminating evidence first: their bloodstained cloak. They would probably roll it up into a ball to carry it, though I imagine they may wipe some of the blood off the wires as well. After all, it's the one piece of evidence which can be directly be linked back to them. Since they just took the body down, they would also pick up the evidence closest to them; the bloodstained tape on the pull-up bar and the tape and weights on Ace's chest. They decide to leave the weights in the gym for the time being, and carry out the cloak and the pieces of tape, likely leaving them somewhere else on the second floor. I think one of the changing rooms in the dress-up room is the likeliest spot, or the trash can. They were later planning on disposing of it in a better way, I imagine, but I don't think they wanted to leave the body alone too long, since as I said, they may have known Ace was alive.

Timeline-wise, it's hard to say how much time passes between Nico going out and into the gym, and the moment Teruko and Eden meet in the dress-up room. Especially because part of my other theory is that Eden was actually doing some stuff on the second floor at this time. So here's how I see it; when they return to the gym, they put the weights they had just sort of left there one on top of the other, probably move the stool a little, but most importantly, they start trying to figure out a way to take down the wire system. They initially try things like untying the noose or undoing the knot in the middle, but they're worried about blood getting on them or getting cut by the wire. This hesitation on how to take the wire system down is what explains the time difference between the start of their cleaning and the moment Eden and Teruko get there. I am deeply aware this isn't a very satisfying answer to that issue, but I don't think it's too outlandish, especially since Nico is clearly not in the greatest mental state.

Eventually, they decide they're not going to take the wire system down carefully. To avoid getting blood on themselves, the best way would be to rip out the entire system all at once. I imagine they looped the wire around the broom, and pulled hard in one direction. Do it well enough, and I believe both the noose and the knot between the wires would come undone. However, in doing this, Nico also accidentally knocked down the ceiling fan. This causes the banging noise Eden and Teruko hear.

However, Nico doesn't think anyone else is nearby, and thus doesn't worry about the noise. They just pick up the lone wire (by the parts which aren't bloody), which had flown towards them thanks to their broom trick, and stretch it out... because they felt like it. Yeah, I'm not really sure. But I know a lot of people do weird things to calm themselves when nervous, and Nico is not thinking straight. Fixing up the wire could be something they felt compelled to do without logical reason. I hope this makes sense to you as much as it makes sense to me. Regardless, this is what Teruko and Eden catch them doing. Nico runs away, and probably picks up their cloak on the way as to at least have the slightest argument for their innocence. Since the lone pieces of tape are there, Nico probably picks them up too.

That's basically it for what happened, though you may have noticed there is one piece of evidence I never mentioned. That being the toppled over weight rack. However, there's a pretty simple explanation for this, one I have to give credit to thebadjoe for. Essentially, it's possible the weight rack was moved by Ace to train. If he was bench pressing, it would make sense for him to bring the weight rack closer to the... bench press bench? You know what I mean. And then, when the killer attacked them with turpentine, the rack was toppled over in the struggle. There's unfortunately no way to confirm this, as in the ep 11 flashback, Ace is in the gym but the weight rack is not next to the bench press bench. This doesn't disprove anything; Ace could have just been doing literally anything else. But it unfortunately doesn't confirm anything either.

So, there we go! A series of events which more or less explains all the major evidence in the scene and is (hopefully) physically possible! The bloodstains on the wires were a major pain, to the point I will gladly take anything that explains them more or less satisfactorily, and the missing tape on the pull up bar convinces me I'm (hopefully) in the right track.

... Yeah, so there's still a problem.

Hey, OP, what the fuck?

So, once again my "method before motive" way of theorizing arrives at an extremely complicated system which seems to have no purpose at all. If the fan really is broken as I claim, then there's no way for this to be a remote murder, and a lot of this is just unnecessary. Like, why not just cut Ace's neck with the wires using your hands, the way God (MonoTV) intended? And what the hell did I mean when I said Nico started cleaning the crime scene despite knowing Ace was alive?!

So, here comes the most speculative part of my theory. The reason for the method. Initially, one would assume a system like this would be used to get away with the murder without being caught, like most murders in... well, murder mystery stories. However, remember that line I brought up before? The one where Veronika asks about the trial, and Nico claims to have never thought about it?

I think they're telling the truth. I don't think the purpose of the system is to get away with the murder at all.

And it all comes back to the concern I raised about superficial wounds. Like I said, this system seems odd because it wouldn't be able to cause anything but some shallow cuts. But, what if that's the point?

What if Nico designed this method specifically so it wouldn't kill Ace?

That sounds insane, but think about it. If Nico tries to cut Ace's neck with the wires just by using their hands, it's possible they would get over-excited and accidentally cut too deep, killing Ace almost instantly. If that's not what they want, then it would make more sense to set up a somewhat automatic system which runs less risk of cutting too deep. Maybe.

But, didn't Nico confirm they made a serious attempt on Ace's life, like they told Charles? Yes, but they weren't done.

I believe it's possible Nico wanted Ace to wake up after receiving his neck injuries. That way, he'd be weakened by the blood loss and the pain, but still concious when Nico actually killed them. Under this interpretation, Nico wanted Ace to die knowing Nico was stronger than him, not just by using turpentine and cheap tricks, but just in a straight up fight (though with the handicap of the injuries).

Is that too sadistic? Arguably yes, but we still don't know how far Nico's anger is capable of taking them. I'm probably biased since I am a Veronika kinnie at heart, whose love for a character only increases the more evil and fucked up they are. Still, trust me when I say I went insane trying to figure out any method which could explain the fucking bloodstains on those wires as well as everything else, and this one is the best one I've found so far. It's all I have, I gotta work the characters around it somehow, and this is the only way I can think of.

Nico waiting for Ace to wake up also answers a lot of the basic questions of what the hell was going on when Teruko and Eden entered. If Nico really made a serious attempt on Ace's life, why are they standing so far without confirming Ace is dead? Because they know he's not, and are waiting for him to wake up.

The biggest issues I see here (besides the sheer insanity of the idea) are:

-This method still really isn't that reliable at not killing. However, it doesn't have to be; Nico just needs to trust it more than they do their own hands. And the trust Nico has on their own hands could actually be very little knowing how insecure they is about a lot of things. Not a great argument, but it's there.

-If Nico didn't think of the trial at all, there's no reason for them to take the cloak and tape out of the gym. This is admittedly a much more pressing issue, since a lot of my theory hinges on them doing this. My best answer is that they were working mostly on autopilot. Not actively thinking of the trial, but still knowing in the back of their mind that they would have to hide they did this. It's not great, but it's an answer.

-We don't have evidence Nico even had another weapon on them. If Nico wanted to kill Ace after he woke up, they would have likely brought a weapon with them. However, counterpoint; we know they must have had at least one possible weapon, the turpentine bottle. It's a pretty shitty weapon, but break it open and it would be effective enough. Additionally, the fact we don't know where that thing is implies Nico could have been hiding another weapon, but I'm hesitant to claim this, because again, no evidence.

Overall, I think these holes aren't too big, and considering I'm expecting to get lots of things wrong here, I'm comfortable enough with my answer to put it out there for peer review.

Closing Argument

-During the afternoon, the culprit had to get two custom weapons for their plan. One, the turpentine, they stole from Rose during a painting session. The other, Hu's wire, they simply asked for with some vague excuse, as they had a good relation with her.

-Once they got the wire, they split it into two and went to the gym, a while before the victim arrived. They also brought a stepstool and a broom. With them, they took down the rightmost fan, and ductaped one of the wires' end to one of its blades. They managed to put the fan back up, with the wire hidden on top of the blades. However, the fan didn't spin anymore. The culprit also broke the other fan with a similar method, so as to not make the victim suspicious when they entered the gym.

-The culprit waited until the victim entered the gym for their regular nighttime exercise session, likely after feeding the fish in the relax room.

-The victim, Ace, wanted to do some bench pressing, so he brought the weight rack closer. They didn't notice anything amiss, until the culprit entered the gym.

-With a rag filled with turpentine (maybe; it's impossible to know how people in the DRDT universe would use turpentine as a sedative), the culprit ambushed Ace. Although there was a struggle which knocked over the weight rack, the culprit managed to get Ace to inhale enough turpentine to knock him out. Now, the culprit could have just killed Ace then and there, but that's not what they wanted. They wanted to prove themselves stronger than him, or simply to make them suffer for what he had done to them. In any case, they wanted him to be seriously injured, but not dead by the time the turpentine wore off. Since they couldn't trust their own impulses, they wanted to use a more hands-off method which would ensure Ace would be in serious pain, but not die until the culprit could make sure he felt it.

-Working quickly as nighttime approached, the killer used the broom and stepstool to spin the rightmost fan's blades so as to get the wire taped to it to fall down.

-They tied a noose around the pull-up bar with the other part of the wire. They possibly made the wire triple over itself, and attached the fan-wire to its middle. They also put the non-noose end under the noose on the pull-up bar, for extra stability. For Ace's body, they used the roll of tape to attach two small weights from the rack to Ace's chest.

-With the wire system now hanging slack, like a vine, between the fan and the pull-up bar, they moved the benches under it. The killer also wore a cloak, which they took off and draped over the floor around where they believed the blood would end up.

-They dragged Ace's body to the benches. They propped him up there on his knees, letting his neck press down onto the wire system, specifically a part of the fan-wire. Once they made sure he wasn't going to fall, they quickly made their way to the stepstool, grabbed the broom, and got on it.

-With the broom, they moved the fan's blades manually, not too fast, but with some strength. The wire system pressed hard on Ace's neck, starting to cut his neck as it straightened. Ace's head tilted as this happened, and he started to lean towards the pull-up bar. As his neck dragged over the rolled up lone wire, various shallow cuts opened in his skin. Ace's head touched the pull-up bar's tape, staining it and the base of the noose with blood.

-The killer then slowly allowed Ace's body weight to press on the wire as the fan slowly spun in that direction, the speed controlled by the broom. The wires didn't fall to his chest because of the weights, as well as the slow nature of the descent. His blood stained every spot of the wire his neck dragged across, including the end of the fan-wire.

-The culprit repeated this one or two times, enough to feel as though Ace was sufficiently hurt for their purposes, but not so much they felt he'd die before waking up.

-When they were done, they gently let Ace's body lean on the wire as far as the fan would allow, before dropping the broom and hopping off the stepstool.

-They quickly ran over to Ace, pushing him off the wire system before it could do any more damage to him. In doing this, the bench he was kneeling on fell over, and Ace's body slammed on the wall next to the pull-up bar. The culprit managed to keep him in a sitting position, but the impact with the wall had left a small bloodstain behind Ace.

-The culprit moved the benches a bit to maneuver better around the gym. They took the bloodstained tape off the pull-up bar, retrieved the weights and tape from Ace's chest, and got their cloak off the floor. They used the cloak to wipe a bit of the blood off the wire system, though since it was already covered in blood, some still remained. Not enough to drip off and make a noticeable change on the floor, though. The killer left the weights off to a side in the gym, and ran off with the tape and cloak. They likely hid it somewhere nearby, like the trash can in the hallway or the changing rooms of the dress-up room.

-They came back to the gym at around the same time Eden went to the second floor (this is related to my other theory, don't worry too much about it). They began waiting for Ace to wake up, but their desire for cleanliness guided them in the tense situation. They started trying to figure out a way to take down the wire system without risking injury and without getting blood on themselves.

-A few minutes later, as Teruko went to the second floor and met with Eden, the killer figured out a way to take down the system. They grabbed the broom and wrapped a clean part of the fan-wire around it, before pulling with all their might.

-Several things happened at once. The noose and knot in the point of connection came undone instantly, and the lone wire flew towards the entrance. However, the strength of the pull also took down the fan from the ceiling, making a loud banging noise which could be heard from the hallway.

-The killer didn't think there'd be anyone on the second floor at the time, so they just continued their clean up effort as they waited for Ace to awaken. They grabbed the lone wire by the non-bloody parts and stretched it out, just as Teruko and Eden entered the gym.

-Upon seeing the two girls, the culprit panicked. They dropped the wire and ran away, but still had the sense to quickly pick up their cloak and tape just in case.

-The culprit's plan was to wait until Ace woke up, and in his weakened and pained state, kill him with the bottle of turpentine or some other weapon they had brought with them. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling girls!

-The missing cloak, paired with the suspicious lack of blood on the scene; the turpentine theft during a painting session with Rose; the motive to kill Ace in this manner; their actions and presence in the crime scene; all paired with an admission of guilt. The method shows only one person with the ability, opportunity and motive to attempt such a heinous murder: Nico Hakobyan, the Ultimate Pet Therapist!

Conclusion

Is this conclusion perfect? By no means. Nico's actions are still extremely erratic and hard to explain, not to mention how difficult it would be to physically get the method to work. However, it's an answer which I feel sufficiently explains all the evidence in the crime scene, which is shockingly difficult. Those damn bloodstains, man.

Still, I imagine I've gotten quite a few things wrong, so this is more a starting point than a final answer. I just think it's solid enough to put out there and get second opinions on it.

Thanks for reading all the way to end! I would give you a cookie, but I'm afraid it's impossible through a screen. Have a good day!

#drdt #danganronpa despair time #fanganronpa #drdt theory #nico hakobyan #ace markey #teruko tawaki #eden tobisa #i mean i technically mentioned them #evil nico my beloved #hope im not offensively wrong about anything #i support nonbinary rights #i also support nonbinary wrongs

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