#stone number one

[theboykingsmichaelsword]

the summoning scene in s3e16 no rest for the wicked is ruby teaching a masterclass in manipulating sam before being interrupted by the one person who can foil her

she arrives and first plays unimpressed because that's been her safe bet with sam since they met

but when sam talks abt being ready to kill lilith and needing her knife to do it she eases up

in doing so, ruby keeps the fact that she's softly leading the conversation where she wants it to go carefully obscured by sam's urgency/need to believe that they can still do it they can still save dean even this close to the deadline

but then sam pushes for the knife again and she tells him no

she dangles salvation in front of his nose before taking it away because 1) she's still a demon and sam expects her to be difficult

2) it is a half-cocked plan at best

3) giving sam the knife now wouldn't endear her to him in the long-run. they only need the knife itself not ruby and if that plan does somehow succeed it'd only prove that he doesn't need anyone besides dean as his partner and closest confidante

4) most important of them all, it's neither the time for lilith to die because the first seal hasn't broken nor would the knife-kill do anything for their plan to corrupt sam and make him a suitable vessel for lucifer

so we get sam asking her what they're supposed to do since his plan isn't feasible. he asks! he's back to seeking her guidance despite the fact that this conversation began with him demanding

ruby goes back to validating sam's belief that dean can be saved because she needs to prime him for the next big manipulation

sam, understandably, rejects that validation because in an earlier episode dean told sam ruby admitted to not knowing how to save him from the deal

he gets angry and raises his voice because how dare this demon attempt to convince him that his brother--a fundament of his world, the person he knows has always loved and protected him, fathermotherbrotherpartner all at once--lied to him about something he knows sam cares deeply about (the threat of dean's damnation)

and ruby backs off because she hasn't isolated sam from dean here yet hasn't wormed deep enough to have him truly questioning his place in dean's life and regard (i.e. her s4 arc)

crucially, she tells sam "you're not the one i've been lying to." she manufactures a sense of intimacy between them by making sam think he gets something from her no one else does (her honesty) and bubbles the two of them off from the rest of the world

sam again is confused because then where is this conversation going how can they get dean out of paying up for the deal and sam again asks(!!) for her guidance to which ruby, in her eternal wisdom and PhD in sam studies tells him the one thing that's even sweeter than dean being saved

ruby can't save him...

sam saving dean himself, with abilities only he has, no third party, no need to involve anyone else no need for ruby no need for the knife

(you'd think this would counter ruby's attempt to cleave herself to him by encouraging sam to think he doesn't need her but the idea of not needing her still comes from her so no it doesn't counter at all; she's still giving him something he never thought he could have--power. over demons, over the helpless version of himself azazel corrupted with his blood and made vulnerable with his schemes, as well as over dean and dean's fate.)

there's a delightful micro-expression jared does here where his mouth twitches and his eyes narrow (a screenshot can't do it justice) but which simultaneously does the job of communicating sam baffled by ruby's audacity and yet also maybe just a ~tiny~ bit considering

but of course we inevitably circle back around to sam not believing her, shaking his head, rejecting her advice for the third time bc ruby is a demon is a demon IS A DEMON and if something sounds too good to be true it usually is especially if it comes from a demon's tongue (if i could edit, i'd be downloading this whole conversation and adding klaxon sounds and red lighting at this part in the scene because! sam! this sounds an awful lot like a deal doesn't it!)

important to note here that sam calls it "crap" and then scoffs, both disbelieving and unimpressed at abilities he viewed as ultimately worthless (more harm than good considering all he had were painful, demoralizing visions he mostly couldn't change)

which is why ruby--teaching a masterclass as earlier established--comforts him by saying he could've had more been more

quick sidebar reminder, ava back in s2 was the special kid most like sam in that they both had premonitions!! and ava was eventually able to summon/control demons! ava who was also corrupted by that power (or more likely, already corrupt herself and the power just drew it out) and killed innocent people with it!! the scene doesn't really give us anything to think sam might be remembering this in the moment, as the camera flicks really quickly between him and ruby, but you couldn't pay me to think he didn't remember ava later especially with his guilt about being fundamentally "unclean" because of the demonblood

anyway back to the scene, ruby tells sam that not only could he have done more with his powers, the version of himself he could've been would've been formidable as fuck

sam, for the 4th 5th 6th idek who's keeping track anymore, is disbelieving because again ruby's a demon and therefore can't be trusted--a thought that's so obvious on his face to ruby that she affirms it to further sell the image that 1) sam's still in control here and 2) ruby's "never lied to him"

(which, like, we could go into a whole thing here about how the best lie is the one closest to the truth and ruby knows that. she makes it her bread and butter and tells sam to his face that she's manipulating him but obscures the fact that everything is a manipulation not just the bits she verbally acknowledges are. lies by ommission are still lies after all)

but of course she immediately paints her manipulativeness as coming from a place of knowing sam as a person (manufacturing intimacy again!)

she knows exactly what to say to make her helpfulness believable to him--reluctantly given, cognizant of sam's flaws, and not overeager like she's taking advantage (even though to us she clearly is)

then she creates division between him and his brother, a division she implies isn't there between her and sam because ruby accepts him as he is and ruby would never begrudge sam his specialness

she preys on sam's doubts about how much dean can accept of him, on the possibility of his brother's reproach, uses the word "freak" here with damning weight potently different from how dean has called sam a freak before (always with lightness, teasing even if honest, the way he called sam a freak in s1e6 skin where dean also immediately said he was a freak too and assures sam of his acceptance and companionship)

and the dean who, even after finding out about sam's visions and the potential for sam's abilities to draw out the worst in him the way it did in max, responds by calmly asking sam to try telekinesis again, asks how he did it the first time as a way to problem-solve, and tries to offer sam the comfort that it was probably a one-off AFTER sam himself seems distressed

before assuring sam of his companionship and protection once again

and then there's also the s2 dean who calls sam a freak but again it's with lightness

freak(affectionate) not freak(derogatory) the way ruby paints it and the way sam thinks of himself

but anyway, back to no rest for the wicked

ruby, still steering the conversation like she has been from the beginning, pushes all of sam's issues with himself aside and reminds him why he summoned her in the first place, what he wants to do, and what she can offer to help him succeed in his objective

notably, there's an implied "you and me" in the way she says "we" here, excluding dean again and making sam reliant on her

and god but sam's body language after

the way he's looking down unable to meet her eyes lips thin jaw tense. masterful work from jared. he looks like a kid all unsure of himself and fully submitting to someone else's wisdom like ruby's his trusted adult (she replaces dean here! which has always been the plan because sam defers to no one else like he defers to dean! because dean may be flawed and an asshole but dean looks out for him! dean can be trusted! but dean isn't here isn't helpful and ruby is! this is the samruby s4 dynamic's genesis, what we're seeing here is their labor contractions *please insert genevieve's comment about ruby "giving birth" to s4 sam here*)

and here it is, her masterstroke, what the point of this whole manufactured combative back-and-forth has been for

ruby hammers home this notion of sam not needing to respect or like her but internalizing that he can trust her regardlesss (he can't and he shouldn't but he will)

[mlobsters]

I am your flesh-and-blood brother, okay? I’m the only one who can legitimately kick your ass in real time. You got away. We got you out, Sammy.

digital painting, 15 hours - drawing video below

song: this is me trying by taylor swift

of course i forgot to start recording drawing a significant chunk of the second painting's hand today -_-

[sweetpapercroissant]

hi yes here’s your reminder that sam winchester based his entire sense of reality around his brother. that’s how much he trusts him.

[alulaspeaks]

Better things

for @wincestwednesdays​ week 1: americana (never mind it being a week+ late)

They drive out at midday, down an old logging road bordered by No Trespassing signs faded to a papery yellow and pock-marked with bird shot. They pass a pull off, and Dean catches a glimpse of a gravel beach on the edge of a glistening lake as they head deeper into the woods. It’s hot out for September in the Northwoods, and humid, too. Dean’s got sweat beading down the back of his neck by the time they're rummaging through the trunk for their gear.

“Should have brought the last couple beers,” he grumbles, swatting at the mosquito probing at his shoulder. He can picture them sitting in the motel’s mini fridge and half wishes he could go back and crawl in with them.

Sam rolls his eyes. “It’s a hunt, not a party.” Which is dumb, given the number of times they’ve pulled beers from the cooler while they were both still bloody. Sam swings his backpack over his shoulder, and it clinks suspiciously, but Dean doesn’t say anything, just makes a note and pulls out the map.

Dean hates these doghair forests that pop up after logging--young trees growing so thick together you can’t see through them for shit--but they stick to the map and Sam’s compass and soon enough it opens up into older forest and then to a clearing. One side borded by reeds, a break opening to the water’s edge on the far side of the lake Dean glimpsed earlier, and in the shadows of the trees on the other side, the remnants of an old log cabin slouch in the shade.

He catches Sam’s eye, pulls out the EMF reader, and they get to work. 

It goes as quick and easy as it can when you have to locate and dig up an unmarked grave. It’s getting dark by the time Sam dodges a flying tree branch and drops the lit book of matches into the grave. There’s the satisfying fwoosh of the gasoline catching and then the even more satisfying burst of light as the ghost flames out, stringy white hair falling in burning clumps and disappearing before they hit the ground.

“Never gets old,” Dean says, and grins at Sam as they catch their breath. He stands from where he's crouched and his lower back twinges. He groans and rubs his knuckles in to the worst of it.

"Well, somethings get old," Sam says, flashing Dean a smug little grin as if he isn't graying at the temples, as if they weren’t both bitching when they were knee deep in the grave. It’s rude is what it is and Dean is not letting Sam score this point uncontested.

"Shut up and give me my beer," Dean says and grins when Sam freezes, caught out, and then breaks into that dorky, sheepish smile he gets sometimes. But he heads over to his bag and pulls out a motel towel wrapped loosely around the beers Dean heard clinking around. He loves being right.

The distant crunch of gravel and the slamming of car doors snags Dean's attention. The grave is still burning, making them way more visible than he'd like, the last thing they need is someone getting curious.

He walks over to the shore and sees a car pulled up on the gravel beach he spotted earlier. The doors are wide open, headlights on, lighting up the water’s edge in the evening gloom. Someone crosses through the beams, dragging what must be a whole damn stump behind them. And if Dean had to hazard a guess, theirs won't be the only fire burning for long. Which means they've got nothing to worry about.

The breeze has died down since the sun set, which means there’s nothing to keep the mosquitos away. One buzzes past Dean’s ear and he tries to swat at it discretely. He can handle almost anything, but he’s got zero tolerance for itching, and no desire to give Sam--who pretends to be unbothered by mosquitos even though he hates them as much as Dean--another in to poke fun at him.

Sam comes over, hands Dean an open beer and they settle in to watch the wood pile grow. There's three guys and they’ve got to be teenagers, judging by the sheer size of the branches they drag over and the truly frightening amount of lighter fuel they douse the pile with.

"Too much," Sam says, shaking his head.

"Gonna lose an eyebrow."

Another car pulls up beside the first and three girls pile out. "Ladies!" one of the boys calls, voice carrying across the lake. "Your bonfire awaits."

He lights a match with a flourish and drops it, and just like Dean knew it would, the whole pile explodes into flame with a roar. It sends the boys diving for cover. Everyone turning back to stare at the jumping flames. The shocked silence soon turns into giddy laughter, as the fire settles into a steady blaze.

"Hey," Sam says and the half-buried humor in his voice sets Dean's alarm bells blaring, "remember that time--"

"No. Nope. No idea what you're talking about. Drink your beer." Dean absolutely remembers the first time he used too much lighter fluid. Only he wasn't lighting up a bonfire, and it wasn't a girl he was trying to impress.

Dean can hear Sam’s quiet laughter gusting across the mouth of his beer bottle.

"Sam," Dean warns, but Sam grins bigger, and tucking it behind the lip of his beer isn't doing a thing to hide it.

"What? I'm just drinking my beer."

“Right,” Dean says, pursing his lips to hide the way he wants to laugh, too.

Across the lake, there's a high-pitched squeal as one of the guys throws a girl over his shoulder and marches into the shallow water. The squeal turns into a shout as he tips her in, but a second later he goes down, taken out at the ankles.

“Ah, young love,” Dean says and elbows Sam who just huffs and shakes his head.

“What, you too good for a little end of summer fling?” Dean turns to look at Sam, catches him picking at the edge of the label where its gone soggy with condensation.

“Nah,” Sam says with a shrug, “guess, I’ve just outgrown it.” Then he looks at Dean, and he's still got a smile hanging around the corner of his mouth but it's different now. It's the kind that makes the world go a little quiet, makes Dean wonder how the hell they got here, after everything. "There's better things.”

Maybe there’s a world out there, in all of Chuck’s failed drafts, where Sam looking at him like that doesn’t make Dean feel like he could never want anything else, but it isn’t this one.

“Yeah, I'll drink to that,” Dean says after a moment. And if he has to clear his throat, Sam doesn’t say anything, just holds his bottle out for Dean’s to clink against.

Laughter drifts across the lake. The fuzzy sound of Tom Petty playing on a distant car radio, hot summer air turning cool in the moonlight, and everything is right as it should be.

“Gonna run down the battery,” Dean says as he steps up into Sam’s space, watches Sam’s smile go fond.

“Amateurs,” Sam says and lays a heavy hand on his waist. 

Dean loves the way Sam’s eyes darken, loves the sharpness of his jaw, the curve of his neck he leans--wait a damn minute. There’s a mosquito on Sam’s neck, right by the collar of his shirt.

Dean acts on instinct, smacks him, hard. Sam jolts in surprise, stepping back and covering his neck.

“Mosquito,” Dean says by way of explanation and turns his bloody palm to Sam. “You’re welcome.” 

Sam pulls a face, dodges back when Dean tries to rub his bloody palm clean on his shoulder.

But that’s not the end of it. They’ve clearly been discovered by a whole damn swarm of mosquitos because suddenly they’re everywhere. There’s a prick on the back of his hand and Dean smacks at it with side of his beer bottle, perfectly good beer fizzing over his fingers and splattering across the ground.

“Frigging mosquitos!” Dean says, a little louder than he should while Sam is busy swatting inelegantly at the air around his face. Sam catches his eye and they both freeze for a second.

“Wanna get the out of here?” Sam asks.

“Hell yeah,” Dean says, and downs the last of his beer. 

If they grab their gear and sprint for the Impala, no one needs to know. It’s just them after all.

[afterlife-2004]

IM WHEEZING AT THIS

[nocherrybombs]

Lumine: Paimon and I are leaving for Natlan, but before we go, what can you three chuckleheads tell me about the Fatui Harbinger stationed there?

Wanderer: ...haven't we had this conversation before?

Lumine: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Childe: Oh, Capitano? He's the best! He'll make you reconsider everything you thought you knew about how big pectoral muscles are supposed to be. His work on the battlefield is pure artistic genius, let me tell you.

Lumine: Creepy, but okay.

Arlecchino: The Captain has something of a... let's call it, "dedicated" following within the ranks of the Fatui, though one that is not undeserved. I find him to be among the more respectable of my colleagues.

Lumine: I mean, your colleagues include Pantalone, Sandrone and Il Dottore, so the bar isn't set very high.

Wanderer: Hmph. I don't get why people think he's so great. The man's a menace. That much self-righteousness, combined with his nigh infinite power? If he's ever wrong, no one could possibly stop him.

Childe: Oh come on, when was the last time Capitano was wrong?

Wanderer: When he said he thought you had potential.

Childe: Hey!

Arlecchino: Behave yourselves, children.

Wanderer: Even if it wasn't incredibly rude to call a grown man a "child", I'm still at least 470 years older than you are.

Lumine: I don't know why I keep asking any of you people anything. You are all humanoid disasters.

[alulaspeaks]

Happy Wincest Wednesday, Z. Hope you feel better. Here’s a silly little scenario that popped in my head.

So, I’m picturing Sam and Dean in the post 15x19 glory days returning from a hunt somewhere south and running into a freak Kansas snowstorm. They weren’t watching the weather because why would they? It’s Kansas; the worst that happens here is a couple inches and having to dodge the idiots who don’t know how to drive in the snow.

So when they run into the first few flakes, who really cares. They’ve been on the road all day; they’re tired and hungry and verging on grumpy and they just want to get home. But as they hit the edge of Lawrence, things are getting steadily worse. The storm started out as freezing rain and now it’s those tiny fast-falling flakes that accumulate quickly and the roads are turning into a slushy shit show. Still they’re so close to the bunker that neither of them wants to stop. They’ll white knuckle it the whole way if they have to.

But it’s accumulating faster than the realized and the bunker is on a barely used road outside of town so no one’s been down it in hours and there aren’t even anyone else’s tire tracks to help them along. By the time the bunker is in sight, the Impala’s tires are spinning uselessly and it’s all Dean can do to keep her straight. He hops on the breaks and thunks his head down on the steering wheel. This frigging sucks. They don’t want to deal with this.

“Maybe it’ll be better in a few hours and we can come back for the car,” Sam tires. But it’s already dusk and it’s just going to get colder and Dean is NOT leaving his car where it can chewed up by some underpaid plow driver.

It’s only another 50 yards or so to the garage, so they decide to try pushing the Impala through the worst of it. They roll down the windows and get to it. It’s tricky getting the impala in neutral and keeping her from sliding back while Dean gets into position, but they manage it. The only good thing about pushing the car while their boots are skidding around in the slush, is they’re both too focused to complain about it.

They stop pushing just long enough to get the garage door open, and they’re in the home stretch when Sam’s feet go out from under him and the Impala hits the little hill down into the garage and starts picking up speed and pulling away from Dean. Dean curses and dives through the window, and uses his hand to hit the breaks, most of his legs still sticking out the window. The Impala rolls to a stop in the garage, miraculously unharmed.

Dean wriggles himself out of the window just in time to see Sam, whose whole backside is soaked in slush, come sliding into the garage and watches the worry in his face start to transform into something else entirely.

Dean points an indignant finger at him, says, “It is not funny!”

But it’s too late, Sam is gone, full on hands-on-the-knees, watery eyed laughter. And the annoyance and the adrenaline melt away in the relief of being home and the car being fine, and Sam doubled over with laughter while his ass drips globs of slush onto the garage floor and then Dean’s gone too. Then they’re both standing there, looking like soggy messes, flushed and laughing so hard they can’t breathe.

Eventually, while making a barely passable attempt at bedroom eyes at Sam because his face is still crinkled with laughter, Dean says, “You know we should probably get out of these wet clothes. I heard skin to skin contact is the best way to prevent hypothermia.” Sam rolls his eyes, says, “We were outside for 15 minutes and it’s like 31 degrees out. I think we’ll survive.” “Better safe than sorry,” Dean says and waggles his eyebrows. Sam doesn't tuck his smile away fast enough for Dean not to see it, and they both know it.

They have tomato soup and grilled cheese and boozy hot chocolate for dinner and later they brush up on some winter survival skills. After all, hypothermia is no laughing matter.

happy wincest wednesday (in your timezone)

buds, I hope you're feeling the holiday vibes regardless of whether it's actually Wednesday. Unforch I am Sick and so I can't be a good participatory bud and send fun asks back and forth this week -- like I doubt the ol' brain will be much up for that -- so I encourage you guys to do it up with sending asks and reading wincest fic and reblogging wincest art, whatever floats your boat.

and if you want to be nice to me this wincest wednesday, maybe you can rb this post with a wintry wincest headcanon (silly or angsty or sexy, whatever you want)!

[arolegos]

todays my birfday i drew my ocs guys!!!

[saturdaysky]

This deserves its own post!! The wonderful @mieletthe animated Djating Sjim Fjord for us all to enjoy, so please enjoy this sweet sweet confession scene

[icbrothers]

I didn't realise it was World Beyond Number's first birthday until the livestream popped up so I did some last minute doodles of the wizards, Soft and Stone, to celebrate! Stone's face isn't as round as I'd like it, but it's not bad for a first try

[dragonborn-druid]

nevermind canon, suvi and ame are toxic yuri TO ME

[dumpster-fire-sapphic-failgirl]

Okay, big spoilers for WBN: WWWO : Ep 33 : The Witness ahead. Only click past the cut if you want spoilers and wild theorizing

There were a lot of big bombshells dropped this episode but I think one of the biggest is that the Stranger is the defacto ruler of Rhuv.

All of the Chalices are sworn to him, through his various guises

The monarchy is “negotiable” according to his lover talking to Ame, at very least implying that it existed only as long as it served him

That same lover stated the mission was “to bring humanity to heel” not just the Citadel or the Empire

Three of the Witches of the Elder Coven have sworn to serve him, we’ll see if that lasts only until the Citadel is uprooted

Wren has long stood in the way of the coven serving The Stranger.

these are all facts from the episode.

Now for some historical facts:

• Eioghorain was at least part of the leadership for a revolution in Gaothmai

• Both Grandmother Wren and Soft and Stone took measures against MiB specifically

• Soft and Stone hunted the League of Whispers

• Stone was loyal to “magic itself”

• Soft freed wrongly imprisoned spirits

• No one has memory of the attack on Suvi’s parents, except maybe Eioghorain

• The Stranger has been “moving upon the world” since the 1650s

• the summer of 1656 was when Suvi’s parents died

• Eioghorain is half spirit

• The curse on Ame smelled of Eioghorain

• The curse on Wren came about from an attack by the Stranger

Now for Wild Speculation™️

Eioghorain has been forcefully possessed by the Stranger since he, along with Soft and Stone, were ambushed in a trap with the purpose of guaranteeing the necessity of destroying the Citadel through war and uniting the world under The Stranger

why do I think that?

Wren has long been the holdout, the thorn in the side of unanimity for the Elder Coven swearing allegiance to the Stranger, believing that a peaceful solution was possible. Soft and Stone were her best chance at having this come to pass. Powerful/loved leaders that respected spirits and magic itself.

Civil war is inconvenient for outside wars. The leadership of Gaothmai wanted Eioghorain out of the way.

The League of Whispers were supposedly working to destroy the Citadel. It is just as likely that they served The Stranger, considering the sad state of the Antivolists as described by Tefmet

My theory is that Eioghorain’s half spirit nature made him the ideal vessel for The Stranger to walk the world (which started in a window of time that covered that summer) and that Rhuv offered to help the Gaothmai leadership remove the largest internal threat to them, and allowed so many factions to take out the two biggest obstacles to a peaceful resolution (or revolution) for the Citadel

That’s why the curse smelled of Eioghorain. His body cast it, if not his will.

Soft and Stone, dead. Maybe at his hands, maybe not (i’ve got a different essay about geas and modify memory and Steel) But the blame on him. Drives another wedge between the Citadel and the world. Gives Steel a reason to never stop the war. And gives the Stranger a body to work his will on the world.

And maybe, to take it over

[frontlinet1tties]

listen

there are very few things, if any, i have been embarrassed to have told my therapist about in the six-ish months i’ve been seeing her

but it has been about 3 weeks since i spent the last 20 minutes of a 1 hour session explaining the plot of the locked tomb to her and im still wondering? why???? i did that????????

i don’t even remember why the plot itself got brought up but she had asked me if i knew how influential it was going to be to me when i was reading it (the answer was no)

but also the amount of absolute grief i felt and expressed when she asked “so…are [gideon and harrow] lovers?” literally all i could do was put my head in my hands

jackie puts up w so much from me, y’all

[alulaspeaks]

spn fic: Flicker

A belated kris kringle mingle fic for the talented @thegoodthebadandtheart.

Relationships: Sam & Dean Winchester Rating: Mature Tags: Outsider POV, Canon-typical violence, Season 11 Length: 3,111 words Summary: A snapshot of a hunt by the hunted.

Fic preview:

Headlights. The creak of a car door. It’s dark, cold. The brush of a fading feeling of recognition. Wait, where is she? In the woods. On the edge of a parking lot? Gravel and melting snow and walls of trees. Watching a tall man step from the passenger side of a car. A sleek, black beast. The headlights cut out. A second man joins the first.

Her body feels strange. Her head full of pressure and smoke. It hurts, or she thinks it does. Dull on the back of her head. Her ears are ringing. She smells pine and metal, copper or iron. Is that blood? She sees a flash of red splattered across concrete, like the memory of a dream. Something spikes in her heart—it’s beating so strangely—twisted up and tight like fear. Dread. Something happened. She needs help.

There's a moment of instinctual hesitance. Dangerous for a woman alone to approach men in the dark. But something happened. Something—

Help, she needs—she stumbles forward, says, “help,” quieter than she means to. She needs to yell it. Feels like it’s been bottled in her throat for hours, for days.

“Help.” Her voice is a croak, sounds—forced. She cringes away from the idea, sees a flash of her own face in a mirror. Flickering fluorescents and a smile that’s all wrong. How did she get here?

Continue on AO3

[whoopseydaisy]

been thinking about Soft and Stone SO much these days

[xhanisai]

I was discussing this in the server but I feel like sharing it here too.

I don’t feel like we talk about the umbrella scene enough regarding Adrien’s point of view and that’s a crime! People argue about whether the feelings he develops for Marinette are romantic or platonic in this moment but I believe that isn’t important.

What’s important is how he’s opened his heart to this stranger who assumed the worst of him and in return created a unique, unbreakable connection that he’s always dreamed of having. A friend! It was at this moment that he opened up his heart to Marinette and kept it open, evident in how he’s always tried to initiate conversation with her or interact with her with baby steps. The admiration he has of her starts from the umbrella scene and hasn’t stopped growing since that day.

I feel like it’s really beautiful. 

And I wish more people in the fandom appreciated it too.