#the fact that everyone else in my family is short is absolutely fucking hilarious to me btw

[juniperjelly]

why are u 6'7

short version: i'm a genetic freak of nature long version: the genes for Extreme Tallness skip a few generations on both sides of my family, and i guess i'm the exact intersection of these generational skips. everyone else is on the short side, but my maternal grandfather was only about an inch taller than me, and i had a great great uncle on my dad's side of the family who was almost as big as andre the giant lmao. also, i drank plenty of milk and ate all my vegetables growing up :]

[diabolikpersonals]

I would like to hear your thoughts on the DF diaboys routes you have played at this point.

yessir!! under the cut:

Shu: Shu's DF route is an exercise in meeting him where he is. We know Shu loves his family, but we have to understand it isn't easy for him to show it. We're right at the precipice of a big change in Shu and Reiji's relationship, but we have to accept that acting the way Reiji wants him to just isn't what's best for Shu. Yui wants confirmation of Shu's affection for her, but she has to learn that he shows his affection in other ways. It's kind of like this route is showcasing Shu's flaws and you're going, "That's okay! I like Shu because he's Shu!" so I think it's sweet. Take your time, Shu! ...If I had to complain about this route, I'd say that we spend so long away from the other characters that it gets lonely. I guess that's the point, though...I just don't really find all the "hiding from everyone else" scenes very exciting after a while. We could've spoken to Reiji more, and I honestly feel like Shu and Reiji have bigger breakthroughs in other routes, so this one feels like it's missing a big scene with the Beatrix bros.

Ayato: If you had asked me when I had just played HDB and MB, I would have told you, "Never in a MILLION YEARS will I feel anything other than hatred for Cordelia," but well!!! Surprise!!! This one will make you feel things other than hatred for Cordelia, whether you like it or not. I truly understand how the triplets felt when they said they loved and hated her. The situation is too complicated for me to get into it very much here, but in short I'll say that I really liked the direction they took with the plot of this route, and I came out of it feeling like Ayato and Yui took a well-earned step forward. Absolutely loved this one. So proud of both of them. Whenever I play through the DF Sakamaki prologue, it makes me feel cruel if I don't pick Ayato's route lmao

Laito: If you are an angst lover like me then you will eat this shit up. It's an extremely bad time for every character involved. It hurt so good. I had to spend 70% of this route convincing Laito not to kill himself. In this route, Laito discovers a fact about his father that changes his outlook on his entire life, like every single thing about his life, and the performance that Daisuke Hirakawa gives is like.. It's pure art idk what to tell you. Reading this route is not good enough, you need the audio. I was scared, I wanted to cry, and as a triplet lover there were high points too, but my heart ached for the entire route, even through the good ending! I like that even the obligatory fanservice scenes don't let you forget how terrible the situation is! Strongly strongly strongly recommend

Yuma: Alas, I can only give you a super biased review of this one. It's my favorite route because it has so many good Shu/Yuma scenes. This route is our last bit of "Shu avoids Yuma and keeps secrets from him for his own good!" drama before Yuma finally gets the whole truth about his childhood. We get the cute flashback scenes, Yuma gets some awful nightmares and has some panic attacks, there's a little of everything! :D Even Zweig is there and he and Yuma are super cool, and if you know anything about Lost Eden then you know how hilarious that is. Anyway, this all culminates in THE YUMA BEST FRIEND MONOLOGUE which is one of my favorite dialovers scenes, period, because it makes me so happy. It feels soooo good to watch the arson recovery trio...recover from the arson. 10/10. Shuuma shippers, this one is required reading.

Carla: I'm definitely not shaming you if this route is to your taste, but it certainly wasn't to mine :') Most diaboys talk down to you, but Carla talks down to you to such a degree that I started getting offended over stuff I've never been offended about before. Like, "What do you mean you don't like the taste of my blood?! My blood is fucking delicious!" lol. I am not into all the forced pregnancy stuff, I am not into the demon racism stuff, I am not into how often Yui is reminded that she has no family and no one will come save her. I personally found Carla to be unbearable until he collapsed and started the process of dying. Then he got all sensitive and lonely and I was like "ok I can deal with him now." The ending isn't very satisfying either (What do you mean sucking Yui's blood will stop him from dying for now? He's been sucking her blood this whole time and his symptoms got way worse.) and Carla's blood sucking noises made me want to take my headphones off and throw them away (sorry toshiyuki morikawa I respect you so much toshiyuki morikawa) soooooooooo.........I didn't like it. I grew to like Carla around CL so don't be sad if you like him, ok? He's my friend now, but this route is still just unpleasant to me hgfghsdf

Shin: I know I said I hated the forced pregnancy talk and the demon racism plans and I did hate them, believe me, but Shin's route was successful in getting me to like him. I love that they put him in jail and beat the shit out of him, that was such a good scene and I really feel like my tastes are finally being represented lmao. Because it's his introductory route, he's pretty rough around the edges (true for every diaboy—everyone is a huge jerk in their introductory route) but there was still a lot to enjoy! The flashback scenes were fun (dare I say...he was...cute?!) and when put together with Carla's, the Tsukinamis have a super interesting story & dynamic together, and it fits the themes of dialovers really well. The differences with Carla's route, to me at least, are that Shin's scenes feel more like "playing with a diaboy" even when he gets mean, Shin has the added appeal of being teasable and of being a BIG FLUFFY DOG, and of course, Shin's blood sucking scenes didn't make me want to die. I'm clearly in the minority here, though, because Shin is at the bottom of every popularity poll I see lol...Anyway, it didn't make me LOSE MY SHIT like some other routes did, but I had fun playing this one!!

[cornertheculprit]

17, 18, 22, 23!

17: there should be more of this type of fic/art

phoenix and maya being stupid idiot friends together that doesn't involve maya trying to wingman for wrightworth in some way. it's funny seeing it the first few times and then it's just kind of like. well. this is just her character getting reduced to "wrightworth fangirl" over and over. phoenix & maya have such a beautiful and hilarious and meaningful relationship that they build over the course of the trilogy and the fact that some people just ignore it entirely drives me bonkers.

18: it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

THE FACT THAT PHOENIX CANONICALLY HAS SOME SORT OF LATENT PSYCHIC ABILITY. i've made 500 posts about it so i won't fill up this ask with it but like. oh my god. why does nobody talk about it. it's so fucking cool how he and the fey family are so intertwined and he also just so happens to DO shit sometimes that ISN'T FUCKING NORMAL. ISN'T THAT COOL!!!!!!!

22: your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

i could name SO many things for this so instead of just going in-depth about one i'll name a few: phoenix & iris being able to understand each other even after five years even after knowing each other for such a short amount of time. trucy saying the rudest fucking things sometimes with a big smile on her face and taking everyone off-guard with it. maya literally sometimes getting psychic vibes from people and objects and turning out to be correct even though she never really says it in a serious tone (saying that dee vasquez was the killer in aa1, saying that the shichishito had an aura of great tragedy around it in aa3 before it was used to kill misty, etc). PHOENIX BEING PSYCHIC/HAVING SOME SORT OF SPIRITUAL POWERS IN SOME WAY SHAPE OR FORM. the fact that the reason pearl keeps wanting phoenix and maya to get together is because her home life was shit and she just happiness for maya and to see that maybe love isn't doomed after all. the fact that the reason DAHLIA did all the shit prior to 3-5 is because HER home life was shit and she was doing everything in her power (even if it was extreme) to keep from going back to it. the fact that phoenix's grief over edgeworth being gone in aa2 was fundamentally selfish in nature because he missed the ideal of edgeworth more than edgeworth himself. idk if these things are truly "ignored" but nobody ever talks about them. so.

23: ship you've unwillingly come around to

i don't think there is one!! usually ships for me (whenever i think about them which is. not that often) just stick in my brain and i just ponder the dynamics between the characters and such (like wrightworth, miego, krisnix, feenris, etc). if i don't like/don't care about a ship, i just don't think about it.

[twisted-confessions]

I'M GOING TO CRY IM TEARING UP RIGHT NOW HOLY FUCK THANK YOU YOUR RANT IS SO SWEET AND BELLA LOOKS SO FANTASTIC!!!!

Now to properly reply to each part lol

Omlll I'm so shocked that people can recognise my twst account now, this is INSANE!!! I'm so glad you and so many others have liked my Nani idea!!! YES YES YES @boopshoops IS SUCH A COOL ARTIST I LOVE EVERYTHING SHE DOES!!! I met her through our gimmick blog server and found out she made the Twst comic with Yuu Shi and my jaw dropped, especially when she agreed to help me out with designing Bella! Oml, it honours me so much that you were going to draw her beforehand I could cry, Bella is such a special OC to me and the fact she's been getting so much love in the twst community more than any other OC i've ever made just absolutely warms my heart, i feel like crying again. I understand getting scared of someone elses art and panicking whenever they interact with you lol, i have the same kinda reaction whenever I edit cards of Twst artists I admire.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! She turned out so well in your style and I'll instantly be adding your art into my folder of reference for her!! I also love Hiccup and Toothless lol, I really liked the idea of bringing the big scaley boi over to Twst and just terrorizing everyone there with her lmao. Thank you so much, I love how well she turned out, Shoopy did a fantastic job.

OOOH THATS SUCH A GOOD POSE!!! Really helps show how awkward Bella can be and how the two are related lol. Despite how confident she looks in Shoopy's style, she's just as self-conscious as her brother heheh.

OMGGGGG THE FRANGIPANI FLOWERS!!! Irl, frangipanis are my all time favourite flower, that's such a cute little detail for her outfit! The pony tail looks great!! If i would change anything about it, it would be giving her the Pre-Book 5 hairstyle since I'll be putting the Stitch Event for her AU before Book 4 but it looks so nice regardless!! The skirt and shorts are such a good touch, I feel like Bella would be embarrassed to show off so much skin and exposing her leg/scars from over the years for the first time since she's always worn long clothing all her life so the longer shorts are very in character for her <3. (Speaking of this event, in my AU Stitch 100% comes with Bella and her bois back to Ramshackle HE'S STAYING IN THE STORY BECAUSE I LOVE HIM AND NO OTHER REASON WHY HE'S NOW HER SECOND ADOPTED LITTLE MONSTER SON AND GRIM AND STITCH ARE GONNA TEAR THE SCHOOL DOWN FOR FOOD!!!)

AGCAKAK THE TOOTHLESS SCALE NECKLACE IS SO CUTE TO THINK ABOUT I LOVE IT!!!!! When Shoopy first added the green leaf accessory to her hair, it reminded me of Jack Sparrow's hair beads for some reason so I suggested adding two black Night Fury Scales to the end of it to match her braids!! The scales are taken from both Toothless and Hiccup's Night Fury, Thor, so she can always keep them with her, just like how she has her family's hair braided in her own. And in HTTYD 3, it's said that dragons actually shed a lot which is how they made their armour! I like to think the Book Magic took her hair accessory and changed it into a necklace with your outfit :)), and you're so right, trying to bring a dragon into a library is a terrible idea lmaooo.

I never noticed the bracelets on their outfits!! I did see the fish hook neck but I think that's more a David reference if anything (which is hilarious to think about if my Nani=Yuu idea was right lmaooo Aceyuu shippers winning thanks to Stitch-), but he definitely give Maui vibes to lmao. The little heart is perfect <3, especially cause Nani has stolen mine- SHE IS THE SURFING QUEEN!!!

Lilo and Stitch was my favourite disney movie growing up, I would watch it non-stop and the second one was so beautiful as well, I cried as a kid at the end (oh who am I kidding I still cry at that one scene-). The Pelekai family is the true definition of Found Family which I think very perfectly suits Twisted Wonderland. I hope Stitch comes back in the future for another event, I love him so much.

Bella i'd say is very much like Hiccup, just a mini-him but with powers and more easily provoked lol. A very hot-tempered girl with weapons, so just your standard scrawny Viking lol. I'm so glad you like her, anytime I get to talk to someone about Bella always makes my day :) <3 Thank YOU for accepting my request and doing such a fanastic job!! And never stop ranting, I loved reading every bit of it!!

send me your ocs to draw fan art of!!

I’m a beginner artist, (Haven’t learned much, but I’ve drawn enough that if my art was good, I’d be able to solve world hunger) willing to draw ocs for free and I won’t be amazing at it.

Im just so bored with having art block and making reference sheets for ALL my ocs.

Please! Just three!

[gallusrostromegalus]

So, I have to ask, what is the SITUATION with Yugi's parents?

(Also, can you impart more knowledge about Duke Devlin? I feel as thiugh there's something downright hilarious coming up with him.)

Ok the reason I haven't talked about Yugi's parents is that I uh. Can't make up my mind about what is going on with them. The short vesrion is that they're unable to care for Yugi so Solomon is his Legal guardian, and will not be appearing in the fic unless I settle on something by the time I get to season 4 or so. I was originally going with one flavor of Angst, then my brain supplied an entirely different flavor of angst and now I'm not sure which I like better. Option 1 would kick Marik (and everyone else but mostly Marik) in the guts while he's down, Option 2 would rip out Seto Kaiba's Heart. But probably neither will come up.

DUKE on the other hand has a fantastic part to play yet. He has a passing mention in the next chapter because he (indirectly) knows Sergei and Misha, and this connection will cause ABSOLUTE BEDLAM during Battle City. Some Duke Fun Facts:

Whatever the Opposite of a Vegan is, that's Duke. Man lives on caffeine and pork products, which has done something WEIRD to his metabolism so he's still a scarecrow.

"Duke Devlin" is a name he picked out for himself because it slaps that's why.

Like in the Manga, Duke's "Dad" lost a card game to Solomon Moto and has been wearing a fucked up clown mask since. Unlike the Manga, these two events aren't actually related. What happened was that Solomon beat Duke's Dad in a card game, had a GREAT time at the wedding they were both attending, and had sex with SOMEONE in Duke's family, while Duke's Dad got that clown mask stuck on his head in an Improv Theater Accident and then... never did anything about it. Duke travelled to Domino City in part to kick Yugi's ass for fucking up the international distribution of his game and also to see if they were Related.

Post-Fic, Duke and Bakura team up to release a new module of Monster World, "Catacomb of Abominations" which is generally met with rave reviews like "Even with fudging my rolls and eliminating half the encounters, this module killed all my players in 20 Minutes. 10/10" "I didn't have a debilitating fear of rabbits before this game, but I sure do now! 10/10" "I'm a quantum physicist and certified forensic accountant, and the math made me cry. 11/10"

Actually, since they're both huge TTRPG Nerds, Duke and Bakura become rather close. It still takes YEARS for Duke to realize that the reason Joey rolls Bakura's Dice for him whenever they play is not because of his Hand Injury but because Bakura is a master of stage magic and sleight-of-hand and could roll whatever results he wanted entirely subconciously. It takes Bakura years to realize that when Duke was complaining about "Having To Learn Python" he meant the coding language and not How To Talk To Large Snakes.

Duke speaks the greatest number of languages of the cast, but only if you count computer programming languages.

[oro-e-diamanti]

The one with the matchmaking

My masterlist

Description | Victoria is desperate to set you and Thomas up... Might there be a spark already?

Content | Fluff

Pairing | fem!Reader x Thomas

Word Count | 2663

Taglist (add yourself here!) | @mywritingonlyfans @damianodavide @lizstans @its-afucking-mess @ethaneskin @dont-let-me-drown-in-you @vampirtet @lividisuigomiti @tabi-toast @ethan-torchio-angelo @cheese-toastie-11 @thewitchinthemountain @ethanesimp @sofckinelectric @man3skin @daddydamiano @finelinejpm @superchrystaldrug @ginny-lily @nientedaridere @shaunthesheesh @damianodavidhands @teatrodellavita @coven-daddy @solasullabarca @foryourllove @makapaka11 @slave4yourlove @geklutst-ei @marriedwithmarktuan @bookish0918 @mehrmonga @ginny-lily @ohtorchio @messyhairday-me @bidet-and-legolas @maybanksslut @katyldamusic @fuckim-so-gay @demoiselle-en-detresse00

***

There had been an unspoken thing between you and Thomas from the first day you met. It was one of those right person, wrong time scenarios. Both of you were happily taken by other people, loving your partners, and leading healthy relationships. It simply hadn't been meant to be and both of you had gladly accepted it. Nothing had ever happened, despite the others insisting there must have, neither of you was like that. So you stayed friends with him, the same way you stayed friends with Victoria, Damiano, and Ethan and it didn't take long for the five of you to grow into a loving group, a chosen family. That was until both you and Thomas happened to have broken up with your respective partners within the same week. It was safe to say that it didn't take long for the meddling to start.

***

"I just think they'd make such a good couple!" Victoria said, pushing the empty beer bottles around on the table in annoyance. "They're basically made for each other."

"Leave it, Vic," Ethan said. The dark of the bar was hiding his features and the fact he was slightly rolling his eyes. "They both literally just got out of relationships, I don't think they're interested."

"But they both ended them so it's not like they've been broken up with," she insisted. "I'm sure they'll get over it quickly enough."

"Yeah I agree with Vic," Damiano added. "It's not like either of them seems all that heartbroken."

"Exactly, which is why we need to act now!"

"I still don't think it's a good idea," Ethan sighed. "Just let them figure it out on their own."

"But they're idiots! They'll never figure it out!"

Damiano couldn't help laugh out loud. He knew his friend was onto something, both Thomas and Y/n tended to be hilariously oblivious when it came to things like these.

"Maybe they just need a little push," he agreed.

"Fine." A deep sigh escaped Ethan. "But don't say I didn't warn you if it doesn't work out."

***

The moment you stepped into the vintage second-hand store you decided it was heaven on earth. It didn't take long for you to sweep through the place like a whirlwind, picking up pieces left and right, leaving Victoria and Thomas standing at the entrance still. You didn't care, this was one of your favourite places and you were not going to be held back because those two were slow. You tried on a dress that looked like an absolute mess on you and you quickly took a picture to laugh at later with the others, before trying on some trousers that you really took a liking to. You were still in them, trying to figure out if you had also grabbed a top that would match when someone knocked on the wood of the changing room. Confused and not certain if the noise was directed at you, you pulled back the curtain to come face to face with Thomas. He noticed you were in your bra before you did.

You raised your eyebrows, overly amused at how he was nervously looking around to figure out if anyone else would be able to see her, but no one seemed to be around. As he turned back, he tried not to let his gaze fall into her chest again, but failed miserably. You laughed heartily, "It's fine, stop blushing, Thomas."

He grinned, more relaxed not that he knew you didn't mind. He shouldn't, this being far from the first time he'd seen you like this.

"Vic told me to give you this dress to try on."

You looked at the piece of fabric he handed you, a gorgeous, velvety black, knee-high dress with a dangerous slit and a plunging neckline. It wasn't something you would have chosen yourself, but you trusted Vic's judgment. The curtain was quickly closed again, removing the trousers you had already decided on and slipped on the dress. It fell in a much nicer way than you had anticipated, easily smoothing itself over your curves and settling perfectly in place. The mirror agreed with your sentiment - you looked gorgeous. Okay, so this dress would do with a bit more makeup and without a bra, but it was a no-brainer that you were going to buy it.

You ripped open the curtain, now facing both of your friends. As soon as Vic saw you, she seemed as smitten with it as you were. Thomas looked stunned in his own way but stayed quiet.

"Fuck, I knew that was your dress!" Victoria shouted, obviously proud of herself for picking it out.

"Where am I ever going to wear this?" You asked, spinning to muster your reflection once again.

"When I take you out tomorrow night," Vic grinned. "There's a gorgeous new restaurant in town but it's fancy fancy, so this will do just fine."

You couldn't help but squint your eyes at her through the mirror. Her suggestion sounded just fine, but the way her eyes flickered made you feel like there was something more to the story.

***

"Wait, so how will you going out with her to dinner help, exactly?"

"Oh, Damiano, stop being so dumb. Obviously, I won't go."

"I don't get it."

"I'll have some sort of last-minute emergency, and since both of you will be out of the house, Thomas will have to step in."

Ethan sighed, shaking his head at his friend's plan.

"Why do you have to meddle so much, Vic?"

"Because those two don't get it. But once they see each other all dressed up, romantic dinner, candles, good wine, it'll click."

"Whatever you say."

***

"Oh my god, Y/n, I'm so sorry!" Victoria burst into your room, Chili cradled in her arms and an apologetic look on her face. "I know we said we'd go to that fancy restaurant tonight, but Chili's been coughing and the vet told me to come in immediately."

You side-eyed the little white dog, looking as happy as can be, but there was no reason for you not to trust Victoria. Right? You briefly petted Chili's head.

"Don't worry about it, we can always go some other time."

"No!" Her outburst surprised you. "I mean, it's so difficult to get a reservation there and you should wear your dress out. Damiano and Ethan are out, but I'm pretty sure Thomas is free, please ask him, he'd probably love to go with you!"

You wanted to scold Victoria, tell her this wasn't happening, tell her you'd be fine just staying home, but she didn't give you a chance to do any of it. Instead, she left your room, immediately shouting for her bandmate. It was the reason you found yourself at a candlelit dinner with the blond man mere hours later.

"You look amazing, by the way," Thomas said. Well, he actually kind of mumbled it into his pasta rather than proudly state it. You felt like blushing.

"So do you, love. But you know I love you in a suit."

Your eyes met, just for a moment, before both of you found yourselves awkwardly staring back at your plates again. You didn't know why you were behaving like this, or why he was, you could only attribute it to the fact that this felt like an overly romantic date and the waiter had referred to you as his girlfriend multiple times already. Neither of you had corrected him. You hadn't minded the single rose that had been placed between you on the table, accompanied by a little wink and a smile by the waiter.

"You know, you make a lousy boyfriend, not even bringing me flowers for our date, " you teased, watching as a shy smile appeared on Thomas' face, his eyes travelling down the table for a second before looking at you again with more than a twinkle.

"I did take you to the nicest restaurant in town, surely that gets me some points?"

The giggle bubbled over your lips easily. Everything came easy with Thomas. He made the troubles disappear with one look, one touch of a hand, a single word, a gesture, his existence. He was your own personal cure to everything.

***

"No, I'm telling you, it worked," Victoria excitedly gasped and she gathered in the kitchen with Damiano and Ethan, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible. "You should have seen them when they came back!"

"Did you actually wait up for them?" Ethan asked, slightly disbelieving, slightly amused.

"Well, they didn't know obviously! I just cracked my bedroom door open a bit. But they were all giggly and happy and they hugged when they said goodnight!"

"Vic, we all hug all the time," Damiano threw in.

"Not the way they did. I'm serious, this is working and you'll see soon enough!"

"So what's the next idea then?"

"I'm... I'm not quite sure," she admitted. "But I'll figure it out and it'll be perfect."

***

The thunderstorm hadn't been predicted by any of the weather channels. You found yourself standing in front of the patio doors with Thomas, watching the heavy rain disturb the surface or the pool, trees swaying in the wind, a flash of light illuminating the garden in regular intervals. It had only been the two of you home when it had started, everyone else out to meet friends or sitting in a bar with a drink in their hand. You had been having a lazy day, unwilling to leave the house at all, while Thomas had slept for so long no one had bothered trying to wake him so he could join in on plans.

"Do you want to compare our favourite records?"

You had been so focused on the happenings outside of the glass that you almost flinched in surprise at his question. Still, a slight smile, the right kind of look, and you were nodding enthusiastically. Hasting up the stairs, barefoot and in nothing but shorts and the shirt you usually slept in, you went through the little collection you had brought to the summer house, already hearing the first notes of Led Zeppelin's Black Dog echoing downstairs. With a smile on your face, you grabbed a few records and bolted back down to Thomas.

"I still prefer Led Zeppelin III," you giggled, only to be greeted with Thomas' shocked face. "Anything that has Immigrant Song on it is a hit, really."

"Blasphemy! Nothing tops IV, and you clearly have no taste."

"You clearly have no taste considering you think anything Led Zeppelin has put out is better than Fleetwood Mac's Rumours." You barely waited for the first song of Thomas' album of choice to finish playing before interrupting it with the sound of Second Hand News.

It didn't take long for the conversation to get heated. Still, you kept playing your record in the background, effortlessly dodging his effort to change it, even though the whole thing had been his idea in the first place. He was still complaining, explaining, talking to a wall basically, as you danced around the living room, as the music flowed through you, singing along, thunder only happens when it's raining, as the weather outside did its worst.

"I just think it's much too sad, most of it," Thomas finally concluded.

"Doesn't that just make it so beautiful though?"

"No, it just makes me sad," he pouted.

"Maybe you just never listened to it the way you should. In the arms of someone you love."

A heartbeat passed as both of you looked at each other, but then your smile returned and you motioned for him to get on the sofa with you, lying on your side as he slowly but surely moved in front of you. Your arms wrapped around him, spooning him, making you feel safer than you ever have as Songbird played in quiet tones.

Your nose buried itself in his hair, letting his smell fill your every pore, taking over your whole being as you pressed into him, singing along in nothing but a whisper.

"And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before."

***

"Guys, guys, guys, look at that!" Victoria called out to her friends as they quietly made their way into the house. "I knew it would be such a good idea to leave them alone in the house!"

"Vic, it's not like you made a thunderstorm come along, I'm pretty sure this was not your doing for once," Damiano whispered.

"Doesn't matter! Look at them spooning! We're on the right way, guys!"

"We're not on any way," Ethan threw in. "You keep trying to meddle and the two of them are going their own ways."

"They just need another push. I just gotta think of something."

***

"Hey, they let you feed the goats here!" Victoria squealed as everyone around her let out a groan. The zoo was bustling with people, the five friends surrounded by families, and Vic easily fell in line with the children's excitement.

"Vic, I really really don't like goats," you complained. "I'd rather not get their attention because I got food in my hands."

"Fine. How about you go see the owls over there with... Thomas, and I go feed some adorable goats with Ethan and Damiano?"

The both of you allowed yourselves to be pushed away easily, chuckles on your faces as you walked away from the rest of the group, dodging running toddlers as you went.

"So, this is a set-up, huh?" Thomas grinned next to you as his arm slid around your waist, pulling you closer.

"Oh, as if Victoria has been doing anything these past weeks without hidden intentions." You let yourself mold into Thomas' side, leaning in closer until your bodies were touching as much as physically possible. "She's not half as subtle about this as she thinks. I'm sure she's watching right now."

You didn't turn around, but you felt her eyes on the pair of you, watching your every move and trying to figure out what was going on between the two of you.

"Do you wanna give her a show?" You playfully pinched his site, looking at him from the corner of your eyes just to see a smile appear on his face that was surely mirroring yours. "Make out a little bit?"

"Wouldn't that give it away?" He stopped walking, now wrapping both of his arms around you as you leaned on his chest, looking up at him.

"I'm sure she'd still think it's just a first step in the right direction."

Not waiting for his response, your hand reached up to his face, slowly stroking along the soft skin of his cheek, thumb running over his lower lip as his smile grew, then reaching around, tangling them into his hair and pulling him down to you. His lips met yours in a sigh, warm and lovely, a tingling feeling spreading through you immediately, pressing yourself into him. You could feel his thumb stroking your back ever so slightly as he held you. He wanted more, slowly moving his lips, trying to deepen the kiss, but you pulled away. Close enough to still feel his breath on you, close enough that whispering would be enough.

"Now, we don't want Vic to figure it all out immediately," you grinned before putting more distance between the two of you. He groaned, making you giggle, before taking your hand and pulling you along.

"How much longer are you planning to keep this up?" Thomas asked, shaking his head, but still amused. "We've been together for two weeks."

"Pretty sure she already bought tickets for the cinema for me and her for Wednesday... which she'll inexplicably have no time for so you'll have to come along, obviously. I can give you a hickey in the dark theater, she'll freak."

Thomas laughed out loud, pressing a single kiss to the top of your head.

"Fine. One more date, that's it?"

"One more date."

[perperam]

Do you have any Harlivy fic recommendations? Preferably something that is already completed?

OH I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

okay okay so quick little tangent fact !! I actually just finished my undergrad degree in "english literature analysis & writing" and reading fics is so fun bc I get to analyze them and break them down and if it's particularly well written the stars align and it's just UGH so good. 

ratings are: E (explicit) M (mature) T (teens and up) and G (everyone) anyways here is a HUGE list of my favorite fics to date, their stats/details/plots, reasonings as to why they're on the list to begin with, and a short analysis:

SHORT STORIES (less than 30k words)

for your convenience they’re in order of length bc I’m focusing on this super hard rn

KISS YOUR BEST FRIEND CHALLENGE (T)  STATS — 340 words, shenanigans, fluff PLOT — Harley, TikTok and general Social Media queen, decides to do the trending challenge to kiss your best friend. The best friend? Her roommate and the woman she’s been crushing on for fucking ever: Poison Ivy.

AM I TOO CLOSE? (CAUSE YOU FOLD INTO ME LIKE A HEART WITH A BEAT) (G) STATS — 839 words, fluff, shenanigans PLOT — Harley genuinely wasn’t looking for trouble, but it’s hard to just have a day out when you’re one of Gotham’s most wanted. Running into Ivy, she takes drastic measures (and her hoodie into the mix) to distract the police from looking in their direction.

I’M HOME (G) STATS — 892 words, domestic fluff PLOT — After a long and rough day at work, Ivy comes home to Harley. Relaying the details of her day, she basks in the comfort of her girlfriend, who provides gentle questions and is a phenomenal listener. General cuteness.

CONFLICT DIAMONDS (G) STATS — 990 words, wedding shenanigans, banter, humor PLOT — Batman and Renee Montoya respond to a break-in at a jewelry store, except even though the owner is duct-taped to the wall, it isn’t really a break-in; Harley’s just trying to shop for a ring for Ivy, and that’s difficult to do when the owner is screaming in the corner. Batman and Renee both pitch in to help pick something nice for Harley’s girl, resulting in hilarious banter.

OF COURSE (T) STATS — 1.1k words, hurt/comfort (kinda), harley quinn animated tv show centric PLOT — In the aftermath of Ivy’s death, rebirth, and the fall of Joker Tower, Harley collapses onto the ground. Since she never mentioned that her parents are the reason for most of her injuries, Ivy isn’t sure why she’s so out of it.

PERFECT MORNINGS (T) STATS — 1.1k words, domestic fluff/bliss PLOT — Ivy, who usually wakes up early and before Harley, takes a moment to look at the countless muscles, ridges, scars, and tattoos on Harley’s body as she sleeps. General cuteness.

I’D LOVE TO CHECK YOU OUT (T) STATS — 1.7k words, university au, fluff PLOT — Harley visits the library virtually every day, and it’s definitely not because she needs to work on her university courses and homework. She finally works up the courage to speak to the alluring redhead she sees there every day while absentmindedly looking at a book on sharks. 

I’LL LOVE YOU IN THE MORNING (NOON, NIGHT) (T) STATS — 2.1k words, angst, hurt/comfort PLOT — A snapshot look into Ivy and how she comes to know, care, and love all the sides of Harley—from psychiatrist to criminal to girlfriend. She loves her throughout it all. 

DAY-DREAMING (T) STATS — 2.2k words, shenanigans, psychiatrist Harleen PLOT — Ivy’s falling for her psychiatrist—her humorous, intelligent, caring, and downright gorgeous psychiatrist. It’s difficult, to say the least.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THEMYSCIRA (DOESN’T) STAY IN THEMYSCIRA (T) STATS — 2.3k words, humor, wedding shenanigans, angst with a happy ending PLOT — In a surprise twist of events, Harley and Ivy were drunkenly married at Themyscira. When asked at the wedding if anybody had objections to the union of Ivy and Chuck, Wonder Woman and the Queen of Themyscira herself come to object. Ivy, for lack of a better word, wants to die a little.

NOT A ROCKER CHICK (T) STATS — 3.1k words, rock band au, fluff PLOT — The last thing Ivy wants to do is go to a rock band concert with her best friend, Selina. Despite her best efforts, she can’t help but completely fall into the rhythm of the band and their music, so different than her own norm. And okay, maybe the singer (who Selina was friends with and called “Harley”) was also kinda hot...

A TENDER HEART AMONG THE GREEN (T) STATS — 3.2k words, gotham city sirens raise Lucy au, domestic bliss PLOT — Harley and Selina come back home to the apartment to find Ivy passed out asleep with Lucy cuddling into the crook of her neck and Selina’s cats cuddling her legs. Knowing that Ivy would rather be caught dead than in such a compromising situation (after all, she is the Poison Ivy, who “hates humans”) the two take a photo, since it lasts longer. Shenanigans and cuteness ensue.

BUILDING YOUR GIRL’S SECOND STORY (M) STATS — 3.3k words, university/grad school au, angst with a happy ending PLOT — Snapshots of Harley’s battle with her violent and abusive boyfriend, Jack, and the way in which Bruce, his boyfriend Clark, and her best friend (and potentially lover) Pamela all love Harley and will do anything, anything, to make sure she gets the help, care, and love she needs.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF NORMAL (T) STATS — 3.6k words, coronavirus pandemic/quarantine au, family au PLOT — Ivy is requested by the Justice League to help create and manufacture a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. As she works on the vaccine, she video calls Harley and their daughter Lucy, both of whom miss her very much. 

RABBIT IN THE GARDEN (T) STATS — 4.4k words, implied suicide attempt, hard angst PLOT — Winters are difficult to Ivy. When Harley comes home one day to see her submerged fully in water in the bathtub, the only thing Harley can do is cry and take her out. Ultimately Ivy is alright—but it doesn’t make it any easier.

WE WILL BE (EVERYTHING THAT WE’D EVER NEED) (T) STATS — 5.8k words, high school au, angst, hurt/comfort PLOT — Harley and Ivy are best friends from high school, living in the middle of Arizona. Ivy is absolutely head over heels for Harley, but the latter is in a growing and increasingly abusive relationship with the older “bad-boy” (literally) Jack. Eventually, the two grow together in more ways than one.  

WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS (EXCEPT NO DOGS DIE) (M) STATS — 9.7k words, domestic bliss, no powers just botanist & psychiatrist au PLOT — After her abusive ex-boyfriend tries to maniacally tear down the front door of her apartment with an ax as her best friend, Selina, pushes the table against the splintering wood, Bruce recommends that Harley gets a dog. She gets two German Shepard brothers—Bud and Lou—who lead her one day on their walk to the most beautiful flower shop owner Harley’s ever seen. The story of Harley and Ivy, told with Bud and Lou present to witness every moment.

THE MOMENT I AWAKEN GHOSTS (T) STATS — 11.7k words, falling in love, feelings & realizations PLOT — A deep look into Ivy’s feelings and how they evolve from general hatred against Harleen the psychiatrist at Arkham to a blooming, kind and gentle love towards Harley Quinn, the crown jester of crime. 

HARLEQUIN’S ISLE (T) STATS — 17.5k words, hurt/comfort, happy ending, shenanigans, humor PLOT — Harley and Ivy decide to go on a vacation on Bruce Wayne’s new eco-friendly plane, but in a surprise twist of events, things go terribly wrong, Ivy falls out of the plane, and the two (as well as all the other rich and wealthy big-name CEOS on the plane) get stranded on an island with someone actively trying to rob the investors. Harley and Ivy will fight them, god damn it, because they deserve this vacation and they will have it.

LONGER STORIES (30k words to 100k words)

YOUR LOVE (DÉJÀ VU) (G) STATS — 33k words, slow burn, mild angst, canon divergence PLOT — A what-if-Harley-found-Ivy-first fic, YOUR LOVE wonderfully illustrates Dr. Harleen Quinzel treating Ivy in a wonderfully humane and kind way, including learning floriography, the language of flowers, in order to better relate to her. Ivy is taken aback by her doctor's genuine care and begins to develop feelings, all the while Harleen falls hard and fast which wholly confuses and frightens her. The one caveat is that while this is happening, Harleen is also treating the Joker as well, who tries (keyword: tries) to manipulate her. Ivy and Harley dance a timid tango around one another as they try to navigate this new playing field of romantic feelings for one another, and things come to a breaking point when Harleen realizes that, perhaps, all of her patients have a point and that the real villains are not the ones inside the asylum, but rather the ones running it. FAVORITE DETAILS — I just love the way this is written. It provides a wonderful and almost skinny-love like romance (except this takes place in an insane asylum) as Harleen and Ivy both try to understand their strong feelings for one another. The way in which the rogues and other inmates/patients all look out for one another was very heartwarming, and Waylon and Eddie's thinly veiled camaraderie with Ivy—and her thinly veiled appreciation for it—were both lovely and created a really warm environment. It really underlined why Harley loved them because you love them too in the process, and see how she reaches her breaking point.  CHARACTER DEPICTIONS — Harley, as she is in all of my favorite fics, is depicted as an incredibly intelligent and talented psychiatrist. Her caring nature is wonderfully outlined in this fic as she helps Waylon, Eddie, Ivy, and everybody else in the asylum be treated with genuine respect and care, going as far as to get them personalized gifts. Her psyche fracturing slowly never once makes her seem unintelligent to the reader, even as she actively places a ditz persona in order to fool the rest of the asylum staff (and the Joker). Ivy, on the other hand, is illustrated in a way that perfectly shows how all she genuinely needed was someone to listen. She's sometimes harsh and crass but you can see how she begins to soften as Harley helps her and treats her with: you guessed it, genuine respect. FINAL VERDICT — I would get this tattooed on my ass if I could

NOVEL LENGTH WORKS (100k+ words)

ACROSS THE WAY (M) STATS — 128.7k words, slow-burn, tattoo artist & flower shop owner au  PLOT — Botanist and flower shop owner Pamela Isley moves to Gotham from Seattle in search of a new life. Her shop is located directly next to a tattoo shop—one that is incredibly loud and bothersome. Upon walking in to give the shop a piece of her mind, she meets one of the resident artsits, Harley Quinzel, and cannot get her out of her mind. The two become best friends, and feelings slowly start to develop. On a night when Harley is most vulnerable and in need of a place to escape, Pam offers her apartment as a refuge, and from that point on things are never the same again (in the best way possible).  FAVORITE DETAILS — The SIT sessions were a wonderful touch and I loved seeing the recovery of both Ivy and Harley, because it was so real. I also loved how once Harley got out, she did everything in her power to protect both herself and Ivy from Jack, and we got to see her and Ivy grow into their wonderful, healthy romance. CHARACTER DEPICTIONS — I love how all of the characters are illustrated; Selina, who is the caring best friend and genuinely does her best to help others around her all the while being her cocky, usual self. Pam, who escaped Seattle and started anew in Gotham and is the crass botanist and also the insanely kind and caring lover. Barbara is the adorable coffee shop owner, Floyd is the caring figure for Harley that she never had, and everyone is just wonderful.  FINAL VERDICT — literally go read this rn, what are you even doing

MAD LOVE: THE BEGINNING & MAD LOVE: THE FINAL CHAPTER (M) STATS — nearly 400k words total, angst, canon divergence, domestic fluff, slice of life PLOT — imagine YOUR LOVE except this is much longer, much more heart-wrenching, a whole lot more angsty, and Harleen's break with Harley is a lot more prevalent. Another what-if scenario of Dr. Harleen Quinzel meeting and treating the illusive Poison Ivy instead of the Joker, MAD LOVE shows an interesting depiction of the way they manipulate, hurt, care, and love one another. The entire story is riddled with well placed metaphors, recurring themes, and both Ivy and Harley's characters are illustrated in the most complex and interesting way. All throughout both the initial and the sequel, Ivy and Harleen play a metaphorical chess game in manipulation as a means to gain the upper-hand on the other, which creates a dangerous foundation for their following love story. In the sequel, "The Final Chapter," the story starts with Harley and Ivy—already married near the end of "A New Beginning"—having two kids and the entire piece spans over Harley's lifetime until she's on her deathbed, with Ivy still stuck at 33 years old beside her. I personally stopped reading the story after Harley died (I was too emotionally vulnerable to continue on) but if you continue reading on, you get to see Ivy move on and appreciate Harley's impact on her life as she finds love and happiness again after the loss of her wife. FAVORITE DETAILS — We get insight into both Ivy and Harleen's trauma, and how not everything can be fixed with love. Neither Harleen nor Ivy (or their actions for that matter) are characterized as perfect in any way, and the story never excuses any of their more-than-questionable actions; in fact they make MANY mistakes and manipulate one another throughout the story, and both have power over the other (Harleen is her psychiatrist, but Ivy could easily kill her, so emotional power over someone with immense physical power). CHARACTER DEPICTIONS — Harleen is depicted as an incredibly intelligent and capable psychiatrist, and the story somehow wonderfully mixes Harley's desire for violent chaos with Harleen's desire to help others. v Ivy is illustrated as the epitome of "I hate you and will not be nice unless you're literally either my wife or kids." She is seldom kind to others, is often crass, but an entire softy when it comes to Harleen and their children. She's a hard worker and is heavily involved in her research. Harleen, on the other hand, is equally cunning but more lighthearted, extremely athletic and active, the "fun" mom, and less into power trips (unless it's about Ivy). FINAL VERDICT — definitely the most interesting fics I've ever read in my entire fucking life, it's so complex and wonderful and a literal minefield of analysis worthy literature, I'd also get this tattooed on my ass if I could

[luciferloveschloe]

goodbye, lucifer (but not really!)

I cannot BELIEVE that I just watched the last episode of my favourite show.

I usually cram everything I have to in tags under gifsets I reblog, but for this final season I'll go through the pain of actually writing shit down. I'll try to keep it short, and I'll try not to ramble. (Edit: Did not accomplish that.)

what i loved

SCREAMS

God, soooooooo much!!

Deckerstar baby

Okay, so when Rory showed up in the trailer I was like "Ugh, another annoying angel? Meh." FORGIVE ME, my sweet murder child! Of all the things I thought they might do, a Deckerstar baby was DEAD LAST on my list. And a daughter no less, I just... When she says she's Lucifer's daughter, I was like *SCREAMS*, but when we learn she's Lucifer AND Chloe's daughter, I completely lost it. My boyfriend's on a trip with his friends this week and I'm sooo grateful for that, I made the weirdest, loudest, ugliest noises while watching this season, I ran around our apartment like a maniac, I squealed and laughed and cried and just generally lost my mind. But when she says that?? Oh my God. Also the way Lucifer reacted when Chloe shows him the pregnancy test? Straight outta fanfic.

Lucifer being a father

Oh my God?? I've always said he'd be the BEST father, and actually seeing it on screen... I love the parallel of him being ridiculously over the top with Rory at first, just like God and Lucifer in S5. The way he looks at her when he sees her playing the guitar? Their duet?? Instantly one of my favourite scenes. Them driving in the Corvette, their last day together, how he keeps her from killing Le Mec? Just murder me.

Established Deckerstar

All the hugs and kisses?? The declarations of love, the besotted looks, the absolute power couple we got? Their look from Maze and Eve's wedding, OH MY GOD???? Just, these two are so pretty and we got SO MUCH. Also, their scenes with Rory?? I just love them so much...

(More under the cut!)

Ella's storyline

I wanted a reveal for her so badly, and the way it turned out was brilliant! I loved her figuring it out for herself and calling everyone out lmao. I especially loved poor Carol returning to that room full of shocked people. They had some GREAT punchlines and gags this season, absolutely hilarious! I also love Lucifer's parting gift for her and that she finally found a good one with Carol.

Hugs, so many hugs!

That's it, that's the paragraph.

The Police storyline

As a white person who has literally never once had a problem with the police, I know this is not my place to say, but I think they did a good job? Not giving into the "a few bad apples" excuse but acknowledging that the whole system needs to change? I also really enjoyed the scenes with Amenadiel and Officer Harris, showing what policework could and should look like.

Maze and Eve's happily ever after

I'm so glad auntie Maze and auntie Eve got their happy ending! And that wedding was a bomb. Also, "You're my hell!", lmao.

Dan's ascend to heaven

First of, great to know his only torture was Belios' lack of table tennis skills. Secondly, how very fitting for the show that they didn't hand Dan his happy ending easily, that he fought and won it for himself. Him as a ghost and him as Le Mec was equally funny, and his talk with Trixie was just perfect, literally tears you guys.

Amenadiel becoming God

I mean, dude's perfect for the job! From the loyal, distant, obeying servant to a God who wants to work as a team with his siblings, who wants the Celestials to experience the human world, who hates injustice and loves fiercely? In this universe, I couldn't imagine anyone better suited to be God.

Nobody misses the case of the week

At least I don't! God, I wish they'd tried this out sooner.

The bittersweet ending

Let's preface this by saying I HATE bittersweet endings. Give me a happily ever after or else. And yet, and yet!! I think the ending they settled on is perfect. Would I have loved it if Lucifer had a life on earth with Chloe, Trixie and Rory? God, yes. Do I get emotional over him being alone in hell, again? Goddd, yes. But still. I so love that he found his calling in the end, that they reunited, and that he actually makes good on his promise from S5 to change the system. Also, I don't care if this is canon or fanon for now, but they totally spend time in heaven with Rory and visit earth whenever they like. And this would have been my ideal ending - them being free to go where they like, and I don't see why they shoudn't. It's definitely more satisfying than just traipsing off to heaven indefinitely, so I really, really loved that.

what i didn't (do feel free to skip this!)

Lucifer missing out on Chloe's life on earth and being alone in hell again. Chloe being left again.

Time travel shenanigans. I just finished Dark and that was enough of a mindfuck. Do not want to think about loops for this show, thank you very much.

Chloe felt a little too housewifey in the first episodes, but it thankfully didn't stay that way for long.

Lucifer and Chloe talking about keeping secrets for a whole episode, and then NOBODY TALKING ABOUT URIEL AND CANDY. I mean, ahhhhhhh! If you don't want to talk about it, then don't, but don't remind people of it constantly and then NOT discuss it. It drives me mad, honestly, how many times they referenced these storylines only to completely ignore them when there were opportunities to resolve them. Ahhh. That's what fic is for, I guess.

Adam. Like, why? Bye, dude.

what i'll keep with me

When someone I'd just met at my boyfriend's cousin's wedding in 2019 recommended this "funny, little show" to me that intrigued them because they were interested in finding their faith, I really didn't think I'd write all this three years later.

Lucifer is my third fandom, and it won't be my last, but it sure as hell - ha - will stay with me. I resonate so deeply with Lucifer as a character because he fights with the idea of God, fights with this concept of a benevolent father that everyone seems to believe in but never fit his experience. I come from a Christian family and studied theology, but somewhere along the lines I had to come to terms with the fact that the faith I had as a child and teenager didn't fit me anymore. I want to believe again, and maybe someday I will, but right now I don't know that. So Lucifer's journey with that meant a lot to me. I'd like to find what Ella did, I guess.

Although I never really thought Lucifer needed redemption, I loved the whole "anybody can be redeemed" message as well. And hell reform! Hell is such a weird, awful construct - speaking as the theology expert - bringing a bit of purgatory in in this universe is really fucking cool.

Also, I binged Lucifer when I was alone in hospital late at night. That experience alone I'll never forget.

So, I guess - thank you!! Thank you to the cast and crew, to the fans who campaigned for season four, to Ildy and Joe, to the writers and the directors and the people who brought lunch: Thank you so much for this incredible show. I'm not ready to say goodbye, not by a long shot, and I hope this fandom feels the same.

Yabba dabba do me, I love my stupid little show!!!

[ace-trainer-risu]

what are your fave diana wynne jones books that aren’t howl’s moving castle??

Oh whattt a lovely and fun question which I was definitely not secretly hoping someone would ask!!!! Yay!!

Hm okay so, not specifically in order, probably my top fave Diana Wynne Jones books would be:

Deep Secret! Deep Secret is not just one of my favorite books by DWJ but one of my favorite books full stop! It’s so good. Basically, the premise is that there is an infinite series of interconnected worlds, some of which have magic and some of which don’t, at the center of which is a vast interdimensional magical empire. Magic in the multiverse is overseen by an organization of magicians called Magids and there must always be a specific number of Magids in existence. When Rupert, a young Magid living on Earth, discovers that his mentor has died (ish) he becomes unexpectedly responsible for finding and training the next Magid, which is extremely inconvenient timing for him because the aforementioned magical empire is on the brink of civil war and chaos and its his job to stop it. And also almost all of this takes place at...a science fiction convention. It’s amazing.  I have read this book minimum four (probably more) times and every time it’s absolutely delightful and hilarious. I would like to go to the sci fi convention in this novel more than anything. It’s such a good read and its one of her few novels which is specifically aimed at adults, so I would EXTREMELY recommend it. Plus the romance in it is extremely good...not exactly enemy-to-lovers but more like ‘annoys-the-shit-out-of-each-other’ to lovers.  (**One note about this one...there’s a few very briefly mentioned side characters who are gender noncomforming and even tho they are actually portrayed very positively, it’s not necessarily ideal and 100% respectful (basically the protags comment on them being very beautiful and nice but also keep trying to guess their “real” gender). Additionally there’s a different briefly mentioned side character who is fat who isn’t portrayed very nicely. Both of these are brief incidents, just wanted to provide a warning for them)

Dark Lord of Derkholm - Okay this one is weirdly hard to summarize but it’s about this magical fantasy world which has been taken overy and is being used as a tourist destination by a non-magical world (heavily implied to be Earth) for people who want to role play at being in a classic high fantasy story, including fighting and killing THE DARK LORD...who is really just a random magician pretending to be evil. The inhabitants of the fantasy world do not enjoy this and are trying desperately to stop the tours, but unfortunately according to a magical oracle, their best hope of stopping the tours is this year’s Dark Lord, a hapless farmer magician named Derk, and his, um, eccentric family consisting of his glamorous wife, seven children (of whom five are griffins and one is a bard) and a simply improbable amount of magical animals. And also there is a very good dragon.  I think Derkholm is so great as a novel b/c it’s a very funny, loving but sharp, parody of high fantasy stories...but a lot of the time parodies only function as parodies but not as good stories in their own right, you know? But this novel completely functions as a story too, and in fact the first time I read at maybe age nine or ten, the high fantasy parody went completely over my head...but I still loved it. I also really love that this novel is very accessible to all ages, I think I enjoy reading it as an adult just as much as I did as a kid, which is rare.  For anyone who has read Howl’s Moving Castle but nothing else by DWJ and isn’t sure where to start, I think this is a great place to start. (TW: There’s a brief, non-explicit scene which has implied sexual assault.) 

Fire and Hemlock - This may be the most controversial one since it features a romance with a significant age gap where the two characters meet when one is a child and the other an adult. And I fully agree that that’s :/ and normally that trope is NOT my thing but it doesn’t come off at all creepy in this story imo, and if you think you can deal with that then this is a very weird, atmospheric, cool book about storytelling and fairy tales and growing up. The short summary (this is another hard to summarize one) is that as a child, Polly encounters and strikes up a friendship and correspondence with a young man, Tom, which mainly consists of the two of them jointly making up a silly, ongoing fairy tale type story...but things get weird when parts of their story start to come true in real life.  I’ve only read this one twice but it really stuck with me and in fact just describing it here...really makes me want to read it again!

The Chrestomanci Series - So all of the above are either specifically aimed at adults or a general audience whereas the Chrestomanci series is aimed at children, mainly a middle grade type audience. And tbh I started reading them as a kid (fond memory - I bought an omnibus of the first two with my allowance money...b/c it had a cat on the cover!) so I don’t know what it would be like to first read these as an older teen or an adult. BUT. Honestly they are really good and would be a quick read so I do still recommend them. There’s seven overall, with th seventh being a collection of short stories, and they’re only semi-chronological so the reading order isn’t vital. My recommended order (b/c this the order I read them in, haha) is Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, The Pinhoe Egg, Conrad’s Fate, and then Mixed Magic you can read whenever you want so long as you read it after Charmed Life and The Magicians of Caprona.  So the very core premise of it is not dissimilar to Deep Secret - there’s an infinite series of worlds/universes and there’s a magician, called the Crestomanci in this case, who is responsible for making sure magic isn’t abused across the multiverse. The Chrestomanci is an extremely powerful enchanter who has nine lives, and the novels are various semi-connected stories about the adventures of Chrestomanci as an adult and child. Chrestomanci is a title so it’s not always the same person, but for the majority of the stories it is the same guy and he’s...the best/worst...He’s this extremely handsome, charismatic, powerful enchanter who is very good at his job, loves his wife a lot, wears very beautiful clothes and makes, um, questionable life choices and is very annoying to everyone. I’ve thought about this very hard and I believe that he’s what happens when you take a fundamentally chaotic good person and make him do a fundamentally lawful good job; yes, he’s going to do it and do it well, but he is going to do it in the most chaotic, ridiculous way possible, and he IS going to die at an ALARMING rate, doing things that would not normally kill a person, such as playing cricket and trying to catch stray cats. He also, as previously mentioned, frequently wears very dramatic silk dressing gowns with elaborate embroidery, which the protag of Charmed Life finds deeply alarming.  It’s very odd to me how these books don’t seem to be well known, because the Chrestomanci books were some of my absolute favorite books as a child. I still have my omnibus editions of the first four novels and they are very worn and very beloved. And it’s so WILD to me that I don’t think I have ever talked to someone who also read those as a kid! Like I’m not saying those people don’t exist, I’m sure I just haven’t met them, but that’s so weiiirddddd to me. If I bring up Tamora Pierce or Garth Nix or other authors of weird, eccentric children’s fantasy novels to other avid childhood consumers of fantasy, people usually know what I mean, but Chrestomanci and its just..crickets. Is it b/c she’s British? Anyway all of the Chrestomanci books are very degrees of good, but if I had to pick a favorite, I think, controversial choice here, it would be Conrad’s Fate. Particularly in terms of recommendations to others, Conrad’s Fate works as a standalone and, unlike the other books in the series, it’s aimed more at a YA audience, so if you wanted to read a Chrestomanci novel without getting into the whole series, that’s a good way to go. It’s about a boy, Conrad, who is told that he has a terrible, possibly fatal Fate awaiting him unless he goes to work as a servant at a wealthy, and weird, estate neighboring his town, at which place he encounters things including color changing livery, an extremely annoying teenage Chrestomanci, and the greatest liminal space house EVER. It’s like a combination of an upstairs/downstairs Downton Abbey type social drama with bizarre fantasy shenanigans. How could that not be good??

Also as Honorable Mentions - A Sudden and Wild Magic and The Time of the Ghost. A Sudden and Wild Magic is fun b/c it’s one of her few works aimed specifically at adults and it’s (gasp) a little bit NAUGHTY which I was very surprised and delighted by when I read it. (This may seem like an unfair statement considering that Deep Secret fully has an orgy in it, but Rupert is so fundamentally unnaughty of a character that he completely unnaughtifies the whole novel, whereas Sudden and Wild Magic embraces being a (little bit) naughty.)   The Time of the Ghost on the other hand is weird and haunting and creepy and atmospheric. I only read it once but it’s one of those novels you just think about periodically and go “wait what the fuck that was a weird novel” (Also known as the “Garth Nix” effect) 

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Another one?!, Part 1

Next

She pulled Hawkmoth’s pin from his costume and breathed a sigh of relief when he detransformed.

“Huh, so it was Gabriel the whole time? That almost makes too much sense,” she murmured.

“What’s that supposed to mean--?!”

She punched him in the face and couldn’t help but smile as his nose cracked beneath her fist. Except, maybe, she’d been a little harsh on him because he was now knocked out cold.

Oh well. He’d been the source of about half of her stress for the past three and a half years. He deserved more.

Marinette allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief and close her eyes.

Had she not been afraid he would grab the pin from her when he inevitably woke up before she did, she would have passed out then and there. They’d been fighting for days straight and she was exhausted.

But there was still a bit more to do. She pushed herself to her feet and looked around.

They were on the bridge where Andre’s ice cream cart usually was, though it was hard to tell. The area around her was still aflame from when an akumatized Ryuko had decided that it was time for Paris to burn to the ground. She wiped her sweaty forehead and looked down at Gabriel. She needed to get him to safety... but was there still a place the fire hadn’t touched?

She didn’t know. She needed to find out.

She tied him up with her yoyo and picked him up, carrying him under her arm as she ran through the streets of Paris.

Hopefully, she’d spot her partner on the way.

A few minutes later she spotted Adrien sitting on a rooftop. She wanted to yell at him to get down, because all the flames were making the buildings structurally unsound, but then she saw his face.

Something was wrong.

He looked at her and, if possible, his shoulders managed to slump even more.

She bit her lip and glanced at Gabriel. She decided that she could leave him alone for a few minutes. He was tied up, there was no way he’d be able to get away before they noticed.

Besides, she had his miraculous. What was he gonna do? Be a bad parent at her?

She dropped him in a relatively safe place and then climbed up the building.

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked, taking a seat beside him.

He motioned behind himself and she cringed a little bit when she found Nathalie. The woman was barely conscious. Her face was puffy and bruises were starting to form.

“So, it was Gabriel and Nathalie all along,” she mumbled.

“Yep,” he whispered, his grip tightening on his baton. “I have no family left. They’re all dead or sucky.”

“You have me.”

“That’s different.”

Marinette didn’t say anything. He wasn’t wrong. Instead, she gently pulled him down until he was resting his head in her lap. Her fingers combed through his hair.

And then she paused. She mulled over the first thing he’d said...

“Wait, your mom is dead?” She blurted. Then she pulled her hands from his hair and covered her face. “Sorry, that was stupid. I meant to say that I just thought she was missing, I was just surprised, that was a terrible way to phrase that, oh my kwami --.”

Adrien was laughing, though.

She couldn’t help but smile despite her embarrassment.

And then she was giggling, too.

Sure, it was generally not what you would laugh over, but their brains were so fried from lack of sleep and the amount of revelations they’d had in the past few days that everything was absolutely hilarious. The building could have collapsed underneath them and they would have found it in themselves to laugh.

But, eventually, they sobered. Mainly because the adrenaline had finally started to die down and laughing is extremely painful when you have broken ribs or a ruptured diaphragm.

Adrien sighed lightly, then winced.

“But… yeah. Apparently that was what Hawkmoth’s wish was going to be. He wanted to raise my mom from the dead.”

Marinette looked down at him and wasn’t surprised to see tears spilling over the front of his mask. She didn’t say anything about it, though, opting to just run her fingers through his hair again.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know,” Marinette mumbled. “I’m still sorry you have to go through this.”

He slowly pushed himself up. “We should fix everything.”

He offered her a hand to get to her feet and she cringed lightly as she forced herself to put weight on her definitely sprained ankle.

“Right. I think I left my Lucky Charm…” She paused, racking her brain, then nodded to herself. “It should be back by the school.”

They looked at Nathalie and Gabriel. Both of them were passed out due to their injuries (and probably the smoke, the heroes were lucky they’d thought to get filtration systems in their masks but everyone else...).

“Should we… leave them?” He said slowly.

They were pretty far away from the school and they were injured. The idea of lugging the two the whole way there was…

She hopped down -- FUCK, there was that sprained ankle again -- and slowly untied Gabriel. Adrien must have figured out what she was planning, because he brought Nathalie down with him. She tied them to a mostly safe lamppost.

With that mostly dealt with, her boyfriend hooked his arm around her and they started the slow walk back to the school.

They kept their gazes up. They told themselves that they didn’t see all the bodies in the streets. Didn’t see the way they clutched their throats with pained expressions etched on their faces for the rest of time. Didn’t see the way their clothes were singed or completely burned off in places. Didn’t see the way their skin was littered with burns or scuffed where they had fallen while trying to escape.

It was harder to ignore the deafening silence that surrounded them. The only thing to be heard was the crackling of fires and the occasional sound of a building collapsing. The first few days had been filled with screaming but now...

She heard a squeak under her foot and stopped, glancing down.

It was a stuffed bear. Its arm was still smoldering.

Adrien gave her a gentle tug. She wiped her eyes and continued walking.

But when they got there…

“Please tell me that your Lucky Charm wasn’t flammable.”

Marinette pursed her lips tightly as she watched the flames stretch ever-higher. Of course the school had gone down quickly, it was filled with papers. Still, it surprised her to find it like that.

And then she processed his words. And her face drained of color behind her mask. Because she remembered what her lucky charm was. It had been a bag of flour. Pretty much the most flammable thing to exist.

Which meant that she couldn’t cast the miraculous cure.

Which meant that everything they’d just seen was going to have to stay that way. All those people were...

She leaned into Adrien heavily and buried her face in his shoulder. She felt him stiffen beside her and then he slowly turned into her and wrapped her in a hug. Neither of them said anything as he nuzzled his face in her hair. Neither of them acknowledged the fact that tears were dripping onto her head or that the front of his suit was getting wet.

“What do we do?”

Because there had to be something. There was no way they could just let these people die. There had to be some sort of loophole, had to be some sort of way to fix it.

Clawed hands dug into her. “I don’t know…”

Marinette finally hugged him back.

“I have an idea. I hate it but it's…”

“What is it?”

“We use the wish.”

He pulled away quickly. “What? Mari, no, we can’t.”

“So, what, we just let them all die?!”

“We…” He paused. “We can’t just bring them back to life. You know how it is, the world will balance out. A bunch of other people will die instead.”

She threw her hands up in frustration and then instantly regretted it as pain flared in her chest. She hugged herself and sent him a glare.

“I know that! But it’s not like we can just let the entirety of Paris die!”

He shook his head slightly. “It’s the same amount of people dead. It doesn’t matter if it’s people you care about versus people you don’t know, we can’t just --.”

“Shut up! You’re only able to say that because everyone you care about is evil or dead!”

Adrien flinched. Hard.

She looked away. Shit. Why had she said that? He was being fair, what she’d said was totally uncalled for. She bit her lip.

“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. This isn’t your fault and I’m lashing out at you and that’s not fair. I just… I can’t let them die, Adrien. They were all counting on us, and I let them down… I shouldn’t have brought your family into it...”

He nodded slightly. She wished she could see his face behind his mask… or maybe she didn’t. Because she could see his eyes, and they were so hurt…

And then she came to a realization.

“Wait, wait, Adrien, your mom.”

“Yes, I get it. My mom is dead,” he said bitterly.

She winced, then shook her head. “Not that. Well, yes, that, actually. What if we make it so she never died? If she never died then Hawkmoth wouldn’t have existed and no one would have died. We need to try it.”

“And if a lot of random people drop dead because of us?”

“They already have!” She realized she was yelling and dropped her voice back down to a calmer tone as she continued: “Either we get lucky and only one person has to die to bring everyone back or another two million drop dead somewhere else.”

He gripped his baton tightly and then shook his head slowly.

“Mari…”

“Please. It’s our best bet.”

He reluctantly pulled the ring from his finger. She took off her earrings.

The kwamis looked at each other in alarm.

But the humans weren’t seeing any other options.

She felt the ring drop into her hand and winced. She and Adrien met eyes and she slowly leaned up, pressing a short kiss to his lips.

“Dontcha trust me, Chaton?”

He gave a halfhearted grin. “Usually, M’lady. Make sure to add that we remember everything, I am definitely not going through that love square stuff again.”

She nodded slightly, biting her lip.

“See you on the other side.”

She made the wish.

~

He flinched and shielded his eyes from the bright light that emanated from the ring and earrings. By the time he was able to open his eyes again, he found himself sitting at his piano.

Adrien sighed. Wow, he could actually sigh again without hurting. Was this what breathing normally was like? He touched his no longer broken ribs. Man, he was never going to take those for granted again.

Well, at least that was good. Everything else around him was awful.

He was apparently in the middle of piano lessons… in the middle of a school day. Which meant that, in this reality, he had never attended public school.

Sure, he no longer really had friends there outside of Marinette due to Lila, but at least he had had Marinette. He scrolled through his phone contacts and sighed again. He had a whopping four numbers saved: Chloe Bourgeois, Kagami Tsurugi, Gabriel Agreste, and…

Emilie Agreste.

It worked. He didn’t really know why he was surprised. He wouldn’t be there right now if it hadn’t, it should have been obvious, but it hadn’t really sunk in yet. His mother was alive. She was present. He could see her right now if he wanted.

But he couldn’t yet. Mainly because he knew that the moment that he saw her he would likely break down, and he didn’t know how he would explain that.

Besides that, he hadn’t seen his mother in nearly four years. What was he supposed to say to her? Could he really go up to her and act like he’d spoken to her just yesterday?

His phone buzzed in his hand and he raised an eyebrow at the unknown number. He shrugged to himself and answered the call, pressing it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Chaton!” Said Marinette brightly.

He raised his eyebrows. “How do you still have my number? We haven’t met in this dimension.”

“I have it memorized.”

“Of course you do,” he murmured. Then he paused. “Wait a minute… aren’t you supposed to be in school right now?”

“Nope, Lila got me expelled again.”

“Again?! How do they keep falling for that?”

“I dunno. Seems like this one is permanent, though. I’m in online school now.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “The hell? Do you know what changed?”

“No clue. Tikki and Plagg dunno either… or they just don’t wanna tell me because they’re still mad. I dunno.”

“I guess we’ll find out if the entire world gets wiped out by a plague or if we hit World War III in the next few days.”

Marinette gave a tiny laugh, though he could tell it wasn’t real.

Adrien opened his mouth to ask if they should spend some time looking into it… but then his door opened.

Emilie.

His breath caught in his throat. He was sure he looked stupid, his mouth hanging half-open as he stared at his mother, but he couldn’t care less. His eyes searched her face, comparing it to the last time he had seen her. There were a few more lines, her eyes were a little more tired, but it was undoubtedly his mother.

“Adrien?” Emilie and Marinette said at the same time, their voices laced with worry. Of course they were worried, he had been completely silent for over a minute.

He looked at the ceiling and blinked a few times to get rid of the tears threatening to spill over. Probably another reason they were concerned.

When he was sure that he could keep his voice steady, he spoke: “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

He knew she didn’t really believe him, the tiny frown on her lips made that obvious, but she wasn’t questioning him. Thank kwami. He didn’t even know how he could play that off.

“Are you done practicing for the day?” She asked.

“No, I just stopped to talk to my friend.” He brought his phone back to his ear. “I’ll call you back later. Love you.”

“Love you, too, Adrien,” she murmured.

The line went dead. He dropped his phone into his lap.

“Friend?” Emilie teased with a knowing smile. He felt a blush rise to his cheeks. “Chloe or Kagami?”

“Marinette. She’s…” He scrambled for a believable place he could have met her. “... I met her at her parent’s bakery and we really hit it off.”

His mother took a seat next to him. “Would you like to talk about her?”

“Uh… maybe later.” He said, despite intending to avoid the subject for as long as he could possibly get away with it. Not only was he scared of getting his story wrong if he talked too much about her but the idea of talking to his recently un-deaded mom about girls was just a bit uncomfortable.

“Alright… want to play piano together?”

“Of course.”

They opted for Chopsticks. Even if they could pull off almost any piece without a hitch, they didn’t really want to. It’s a lot of effort. Sometimes the basics are exactly what you need.

And, when they finished, they heard clapping.

Adrien flinched and looked around.

It was Gabriel Agreste. He leaned in the doorframe, clapping semi-sarcastically (after all, Chopsticks isn’t exactly to their normal standard), but he looked so… happy.

Adrien almost didn’t know what to do. When was the last time he’d seen his father like that? A smiling face, relaxed posture, and even casual clothes… was this even the same guy? It was hard to imagine this man could ever be Hawkmoth.

Emilie grinned and gave a sarcastic bow. “Thank you, my love. We tried very hard.”

His parents looked at him as if expecting something. But Adrien didn’t really know what to say. How do you interact with people you haven’t known in years?

“Are you alright?” Asked Gabriel, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Adrien couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed himself to his feet. “I need some air. Can I take my bodyguard out to a bakery?”

“I suppose... but what’s wrong?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said, then fought back a wince. Well, at least it wouldn’t find it weird. They’d just think he was going through an angsty teen phase.

He grabbed his phone and wallet and gave a wave as he slipped out the door.

Adrien got into the car and leaned back in the seat. He mumbled the address to Marinette’s bakery and then typed out a message to his girlfriend to warn her that he was coming over.

He stared out the window as they cruised through the streets. He’d always hated being driven places, it always gave him a lot of time to think. His bodyguard wasn’t exactly the most verbally inclined person. He was always left alone with his thoughts. He hoped that he’d get to Marinette’s place soon, because he felt like he was going to go insane.

One thing. One thing had changed, and suddenly his life was the best it had ever been. Sure, in this world he didn’t go to school, but that was fine. It was apparently plausible that he would have met Marinette anyways, and at least then he wouldn’t have had to worry about Lila or find out Chloe was a horrible person.

Speaking of terrible people, his dad was, inexplicably, a decent father again. He cared about him and made jokes, it was like seeing an entirely different person. He couldn’t take it. He’d been so close to having this for the past four years of his life and yet...

The bakery came into view. He sighed in relief. Thank kwami. A distraction.

~

The first thing she’d done when she’d fully understood how her new life was going (hint: not well) was call Adrien. This was mainly so he’d have her phone number but also because she’d been a little scared that maybe the person who had died instead of his mother was him.

That would be one bitch of a butterfly effect.

She looked at the butterfly miraculous still in her hand. Pun not intended.

But, anyways, he was fine. She was happy to hear his voice, even if he sounded a little anxious.

Then he’d hung up. Marinette had heard a woman’s voice over the line, so she assumed that his mother had appeared (she doubted he’d hang up if it was just Nathalie).

So this wish had worked…

Great?

She looked at the pair of kwamis hovering by her. They were giving… disapproving looks, to say the least.

Marinette huffed a little. “What, was I supposed to let everyone die?”

“It will balance out,” said Tikki with a sigh as she settled into her normal spot on her shoulder.

“Well, could you at least tell me how?”

Plagg shrugged. “We don’t know. We don’t have any control over it, either.”

She sighed and pulled out her computer. Fine. She would just have to search the web. Surely, it would be something big. Either a bunch of people would have died that hadn’t before or someone important would either be dead or alive when they shouldn’t be.

So, she scoured the internet for things that had happened over the past four years.

But there wasn’t anything.

Sure, it wasn’t like she paid a lot of attention to news when she was twelve, but as far as she could remember everything seemed alright. There hadn’t been any major genocides, no major nuclear incidents, not even an out of place politician (she thought, though that one was harder for her to confirm).

She bit her lip and looked around until she found her bulletin board.

In the last dimension it had been covered with posters of Adrien but now it was empty. Huh. She supposed that made sense. She’d fallen for Adrien because he was kind and, from what she could tell, no one had been kind to this Marinette for quite some time.

She decided not to think about it too much. She could tell that her future was going to be depressing, she was going to avoid that for as long as possible.

Besides, she’d found the perfect distraction!

Marinette hummed to herself as she printed off headlines from all over the world (or, at least, translated versions of them) and started tacking them up. She put special emphasis on the ones that had to do with the past few days or the day that Emilie went missing by connecting them all with pink yarn.

And then the trapdoor was flung open.

She screamed and practically threw the bulletin board in an attempt to hide it (because she surely looked like a crazy person, or at the least a very invested conspiracy theorist).

She whipped around and then relaxed. Adrien.

“Oh, Chaton, hi,” she said, resting a hand over her heart as if that would calm it somehow. “Didn’t know you were coming.”

“I sent a text.”

She frowned and walked to where her phone sat on her desk, glancing it over and finding that, yes, he actually had texted her.

“Sorry, I was a bit distracted.”

He glanced at her bulletin board and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Seems like it.” He slowly climbed through the trapdoor the rest of the way and closed it behind himself.

Plagg floated over to him and dropped the cat miraculous into his hand. He didn’t even seem to think about it as he slipped it onto his finger.

They sent their kwamis out to recharge.

Marinette slowly pulled her bulletin board out again, propping it up against the bed.

“Anything seem off to you?” She asked, taking a seat by him on the floor.

His eyes flicked over the headlines for a bit, head tilting to the side as he thought. And then he sighed and shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that’s all right.”

“Me too. What are the chances that the whole consequences thing was a lie so we wouldn’t use the wish and get infinite power or whatever?”

Adrien gave a humorless laugh. “That sounds like something Master Fu would do but I don’t think Plagg or Tikki would do that. I don’t think they can even lie to us.”

They stared at the board in silence for a few more minutes.

“My dad is a good person in this reality,” said Adrien, his voice soft. “I was so… I was so close to having a normal family.”

She hesitated, unsure what to say to her boyfriend. She rested her head on his shoulder. His head rested on top of hers.

“At least you can enjoy him being nice now?” She tried weakly.

“Not really. It feels almost wrong now. He doesn’t feel like my dad, he feels like some random guy who happens to look like him. And, with my mom, I just don’t know how I’m supposed to talk with her. What do I say? What does she know? I don’t know her at all but she knows me so well and it’s weird --.” He cut himself off with a sigh. “Sorry, I just… I have a lot of emotions right now.”

“It’s okay, I’ll vent when you’re done. Make it fair,” she half-joked.

He gave her a halfhearted grin, his hand finding hers. “I’m pretty much done. If I kept going I probably just would have repeated myself. What’s wrong with new you?”

“Uh… mostly the fact that Lila got me expelled, apparently permanently because I’m in online classes and seem to have been for a while, and that I have about fifteen blocked numbers and two contacts. Not a good ratio to have.”

His thumb rubbed circles in the back of her hand she couldn’t help but relax a little.

“Guess we’re now we’re both homeschooled idiots with decent parents now. We can start a club.”

She laughed. “Remind me why I’m in love with you.”

“I’m hilarious, devilishly handsome, good with kids --.”

He was cut off by a kiss. She ran her free hand through his hair and he wrapped an arm around her waist.

They stayed like that for a while. It had been a long few days and they were perfectly happy to just relax together like this, even if it was only for a moment.

But, eventually, she pulled away. He rested his forehead against hers as they caught their breath.

He broke into a cheeky grin. “Is that how you’re always going to shut me up? Because I have so many more good attributes that I can list off. We could do this for hours --.”

She kissed him again, though this time they were both laughing a bit too much to take it seriously.

Did they know, somewhere, that avoiding their problems like this wasn’t doing them any good? Sure, but that didn’t mean that they were going to stop.

~

Adrien sat on a park bench, staring at where the statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir used to sit.

He wondered, vaguely, what that artist was doing now. Did they still do art? What were their subjects?

It was always weird to think about all the lives they had affected but he’d found himself thinking about it far more often now that they were practically nameless.

Alya still had a blog dedicated to vigilantes, though it was for ones all over the world and the style was different. Lila lied about how she’d known the Waynes before they’d died instead of how she knew Ladybug and Chat Noir. The usual debates about which Parisian hero was cooler were replaced by talk of gameshow contestants.

He’d never done heroism for that kind of reason, he’d had enough fame as Adrien Agreste to satisfy him for this life and the next, but it almost like all the work he’d done as Chat Noir had been useless.

Maybe because, technically, it was now. If Hawkmoth had gotten the ladybug and cat miraculi first day the world would have likely been the exact same as it was for him now. Three and a half years of work, and all of it could have been avoided.

He felt someone sit down beside him on the bench and he sent his girlfriend a tiny smile.

“You came,” he chirped, wrapping his arms around her tightly and pulling her into him.

She laughed. “Yeah, obviously, you would have never let it go if I didn’t,” she joked, wrapping her arms around him as well.

Their smiles slipped a little as their eyes fell on the blank spot where their statue had been.

“I miss being a hero,” he breathed.

She didn’t say anything for a long time, and he was starting to wonder if she’d even heard, but then she mumbled her answer: “Me too. It feels like something’s missing.”

He nodded his agreement, though he got the feeling that they were talking about it in different contexts.

“It’s weird. I used to hate being a hero but, now that I’m not anymore, it’s almost like there’s nothing to do. It’s just not the same.”

Yep. They were thinking different things. He didn’t mind, though. What does the reasoning matter when they were both feeling the same?

So, he’d laughed quietly and gave her a theory he had for her problem: “I think we messed up our adrenal glands. Nothing is dangerous enough for us to really get that high, so everything feels weird.”

“Well…” She began, a smug grin on her face.

He rolled his eyes. “Nothing legal gets nearly dangerous enough,” he corrected himself.

She laughed a little and rested her head against his chest. He rubbed tiny circles into her back.

“We could still be heroes, you know…”

He raised his eyebrows a little bit. “Sorry?”

“I mean… who says we have to stop?”

“The fact that there’s no supervillains for us to fight here.”

She gave him a tiny shrug. “Then we don’t do it here.”

He fought the urge to facepalm. Of course. How had he not thought of that before? There were plenty of supervillains and there was absolutely no way that all of them already had heroes to face off against.

(And, on top of that, they were kind of avoiding their problems. It was much easier to do that when all your problems were in a different city.)

“Have you ever heard of Gotham? It’s got a lot of crime and pretty much no one protecting it.”

He tipped his head back against the back of the bench and tried not to laugh.

They had both come to an understanding back when they’d started that they would be protectors of Paris for as long as Hawkmoth ruled, then it would be over. They had thought they might remain friends but all superhero business was definitely coming to an end.

Oh, how plans had changed.

She must have taken his silence for hesitance, because she quickly backtracked:  “We have two years before we can move out anyways, so we have a lot of time to decide --.”

“I’d love to, M’lady.”

She stared at him with wide eyes. “Really?”

He grinned and pressed a kiss to her nose. “Is that even a question? Fighting crime with you until we grow old? Sounds like a dream, honestly.”

Her face reddened to the shade of her costume.

“Oh… good.”

“Good,” he agreed.

They laid back on the bench together and smiled as they imagined what they could be doing in two short years.

~

They were, in fact, two very long years.

It turns out that avoiding people is very hard. Especially when they live in your house (Adrien) or when they purposefully drop by every few days to gloat (Marinette).

It was a testament to their patience that they didn’t just grab their stuff and move out a few weeks in.

But, if they had done that, they probably wouldn’t have gotten the same rush of relief that they’d had when they stepped out of the cab -- Gotham didn’t have a direct airport, it was too easy for criminals -- and seen Gotham for the first time.

They were free.

Marinette hummed to herself as she helped grab some bags from the trunk and then looked around with Adrien.

They’d purposefully chosen to get out in the middle of the city to gauge how bad it was, and it was somehow even worse than they’d thought it’d be. Someone was selling drugs like they were hotdogs, yelling ‘coke’ at the top of his lungs. An old lady had pulled a gun on an actual hotdog vendor. A cop was taking a bribe to turn the other way so some kids could hotwire a car.

They broke into wide grins.

“We have some work to do,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow at their bags. Her face dropped into a pout.

“Fiiiine, we’ll unpack first.”

He laughed and waved her along.

~

They smiled as they stepped into their new house.

Gabriel had tried to buy them an entire manor as a wedding present but they’d managed to talk him down to a normal house. It was in a decent neighborhood (by Gotham standards), it had a room for them and a guest room, it had an island counter in the kitchen. That was basically they’d all cared about.

Well, that and…

He carefully peeled up a few floorboards underneath their bed and she dropped the miraculous box inside. Thank kwami they’d thought ahead enough to get laminate flooring, they didn’t know what they would have done to hide it if they’d gotten hardwood or marble.

And then they’d gotten to work setting up the house. Most of the furniture was already there, but they still had to unpack their belongings.

Adrien… was not really allowed to do much of the unpacking. He’d wanted to help, but Marinette was very particular about both kitchen equipment and clothes. Sure, she definitely understood different folding methods and their effects and would likely be the only one using the kitchen, but he still wanted to do something. Unfortunately, those were really the only two things that needed being done.

He’d settled for watching her do things from a windowsill and giving occasional encouragement.

She was done within two hours.

He grinned. “Y’know, I miss France.”

“Already?”

“Yeah, Gotham has no sunny windows to sit in. It’s depressing.”

She pressed her lips together tightly to hide a smile. “That’s so sad. I feel awful for you.”

“I know!” He said, stretching out. “Ready to go, M’lady?”

“Well, yes, but we need to talk personas.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Personas? What about them?”

“No one knows who we are here. This is our one chance to change our personas.”

Adrien hesitated. Change their personas? The idea of it was foreign to him. Chat Noir had always been his way of expressing himself without worrying about how it would hurt him and his father’s reputations. Chat was such a big part of him, getting rid of him would be insane.

But he knew better than anyone that Ladybug was just an idealized version of Marinette.

While Chat had been great for his mental health because he had an outlet for all his feelings, Ladybug had had the opposite effect for Marinette because it made her feel inferior.

He smiled encouragingly. “I’m keeping mine the same, but if you want to change yours that’s perfectly fine.”

She nodded and bit her lip. “Hey, Tikki!”

Tikki popped her head out of the kitchen and then slowly came around, their paws behind their back as they tried to hide the macaroon she’d stolen with her body. “Yes, Marinette?”

Marinette looked like she was going to ask about the macaroon, because it was really easy to see, but then she apparently decided against it. “Can I change my outfit?”

“No, sorry.”

She pouted. “That’s stupid. Can I at least have a more practical weapon than a yoyo?”

“No, everything is set, sorry.”

Marinette groaned. “That’s it. I’m stealing a pipe from the street and using that.”

Adrien laughed, hopping down from the windowsill.

Tikki looked like she was going to argue, but Marinette transformed before she could.

“You’re totally going to get a lecture for that later.”

She clicked her tongue and rested her hands on her hips. “Not if I never get out of the suit.”

He rolled his eyes. “Smart, I see no problems with that plan. Plagg, claws out.”

“Nooooooo,” complained the kwami as he zipped into Adrien’s ring. The cheese he was holding dropped onto the floor at his feet.

They stared at it for a second, then Adrien shrugged. “Problem for later?”

“Definitely.”

The partners sent each other excited smiles as they slipped out a window.

~

For the record, they did try and do things the ‘ethical’ way originally.

Approximately three months. That was all that it took for them to break their no-killing rule.

Of course, they hadn’t really wanted to kill anyone. But…

Marinette stared at the body at her feet.

She tightened her grip on the bloody cane in her hand.

She was disgusted with herself… because she didn’t feel any guilt at all.

It had been necessary, it was very obvious that he wasn’t going to be serving any hard time. After the second time they had caught him she had researched him and found that he was an assassin that worked for the mob. He would always be bailed out.

The police were corrupt. She knew that. It was pretty much the only consistent thing in this world, but this was way worse than she was used to. They wouldn’t just openly let someone out because a mobster told them to, it would always be discreet bribery of the jury or judge.

No wonder the city was having such a hard time. This would be more work than they’d been expecting...

Adrien’s sigh brought her back to reality.

He held up his hand to use Cataclysm, but she grabbed his arm and held him back.

“No. I have an idea.”

He frowned, raising his eyebrows.

“Can you go to the craft store and get some spray paint? Red, black, and green. Please?”

The next day the mob found their assassin’s body stuck to the outside of one of their bars. On the door they found the words ‘We’re cleaning up the city’ in green and, underneath that, the words ‘Sorry about the mess, service workers’ in red. It was signed with a graffitied ladybug and black cat.

A few days later, the entire staff was found dead.

The lucky ones had found their deaths quick, either beheaded by a yoyo string or shot with a gun stolen off another staff member.

Others had no bodies at all. All that remained of them were piles of dust.

The mob boss’s body had been found in the center of it all, broken and bloody. He’d had the most painful death, it seemed. He’d been beaten to death with what forensics had later identified as a cane and a staff.

But, while the police were concentrating on the massacre that the Parisians had left behind, the criminals had focused on the words that had been left on the building.

The green was the more basic of the two, a simple ‘We told you we were going to, you should have prepared’.

In red, though, was what was later dubbed the Crime Tier List. Here, they had detailed how they would punish different crimes. At the bottom was ‘Juvie’ which had only listed ‘Kids’. At the top was ‘Murder’ which had included, most notably, ‘Serial Killers’ and ‘Mobsters’.

Needless to say, people were a little bit more hesitant to commit crimes.

They didn’t stop. Obviously. It was Gotham.

But they did start doing things more discreetly. You could no longer find cops accepting bribes on the street or muggings out in the open or drug vendors yelling about their wares.

Instead, Gotham leaned in to a different part of its underworld, focusing more on organized crime.

Marinette and Adrien grinned at the blurry photos of their personas found in an alleyway, giving a reward for information. If they were already putting out a hit on them then the higher ups must be at least a little concerned about what they might do to them.

Good. They should be concerned.

~

The police tried to capture them one time.

They actually succeeded in capturing Marinette.

And then quickly realized their mistake.

She hadn’t been concerned as a gun was pressed to her back. Sure, the gun would definitely kill her. She wasn’t completely invulnerable, and her patented Ladybug Luck could only do so much when a glock was pressed to her skin. Still…

She handed over the woman that she had caught hotwiring a car and dropped the photo evidence she’d collected on the nearest desk.

“You’re under arrest for murder,” said the officer behind her.

She hummed lightly to tell him she understood (Miranda Rights and all) and let him cuff her.

And then she’d let them throw her in the holding cell.

Really, her nonchalance should have been a red flag for them. If a person you’re arresting isn’t concerned about getting caught, then you should run. Shit’s gonna go down.

She had sent up an alert to her husband with her yoyo and taken a seat in the cell. There were other people there. A good amount had actually been brought in by her or Chat Noir. But none of them dared to come near her.

An hour in, every light in the police station had flickered.

Marinette grinned widely and pushed herself to her feet. “Sounds like my cue to leave. You guys should leave, too, I doubt he’ll be happy.”

“What do you --?”

The lights went out.

She pulled on her arms until she had managed to snap her cuffs. There was a tiny yelp from nearby at the sound of the chain breaking, she didn’t pay it any mind. She rubbed her irritated wrists and walked to the bars.

Marinette leaned towards where she knew the lock was. It really was unfortunate that she was going to probably be letting out the other criminals but, really, the police should have expected this. Besides, this was a lesson. They shouldn’t have tried to capture her, nor should they attempt it again in the future.

A person screamed and she glanced up.

In the doorway was a pair of glowing green eyes.

“Hey, Chaton, don’t kill them! We dunno if any of them are nice, but on the off chance that there is, like, one here we wouldn’t want to get rid of them…”

“Alright, M’lady!” He said. “But I’m still going to beat them up a bit.”

“Sounds good!” She chirped, straightening.

His eyes dimmed slowly until the room was completely dark once more.

She kicked the cell door open and couldn’t help but laugh at the wheeze of the nearby security guard getting flattened by the metal. Really, they should have expected that the door would come off. They deserved to get hit by it if they hadn’t moved.

She hummed lightly as she leaned over the security guard and she pulled the baton from his belt. She weighed it in her hands. Not as good as her cane but it would have to do.

She listened to Adrien working his way through the policemen towards her. He had the advantage. In the dark it would be stupid to use their guns, they’d be more likely to hit their comrades if they hit anyone at all. He could just take them down one by one with them swinging blindly at him.

Wait, no. Lights were flickering on. Handheld, just normal flashlights. It seemed that there were a few smart people. Not smart enough, though, because they had just announced their locations to the second person in the room that was out to get them.

She got to work as well. She carefully slipped around and started taking out everyone who had thought to get out a flashlight. They started flicking off quickly once the police came to realize that she was targeting them.

She felt a hand tap her shoulder and she whipped around, her baton swinging, only to have someone catch her arm.

Green eyes flickered with light in front of her and she relaxed.

“Chaton,” she greeted, her voice soft so no one could hear her.

He pressed a short kiss to her lips. “M’lady.”

She felt him scoop her up in his arms and clicked her tongue, but she still wrapped her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his shoulder as he ran through the precinct. Occasionally, she’d feel his body jerk as he kicked out at someone in their way, but otherwise it was a pretty smooth ride.

And then the precinct was quiet outside of panicked breathing and people groaning in pain.

The lights flickered back on a few minutes later.

They were gone.

~

They tried not to seem too interested when their personas were brought up.

They had a lot of practice in this, but they were more concerned about their images this time around. This was for many reasons, but the main ones were that they were now both using their own personality for their personas and that their new personas were less stereotypically heroic.

They had made sure to remain approachable. If they found someone walking home alone while on patrol they would hop down and offer to walk them the rest of the way. They smiled and waved and gave autographs and kissed babies...

But they were also killing people. Consistently. More often than not the people they were helping would be able to spot dark red stains on their suits or weapons.

So, when they had attended a function for the Gotham elites and he had heard their personas come up nearby, he couldn’t help but listen in a bit more.

Adrien tilted his head slightly towards the conversation as he sipped at his cranberry juice.

“... don’t you think Ladybug and Chat Noir are being a bit harsh?”

He winced internally. He didn’t know what he’d expected.

“I get wanting to clean up the city, but you can’t do that if the streets are full of blood.”

“Right? They’re killing people. What if those people ended up becoming better at some point? Now they never will…”

Adrien couldn’t bring himself to listen anymore, instead looking around aimlessly as he thought.

Of course the elite of Gotham would say that, they almost always benefited from the crime that occurred in the city.

Still, they had some points...

He spotted his wife a few tables away, uncomfortably bunching her dress in her hands as she talked with another woman, and pushed the thoughts from his mind.

He’d been doing that a lot recently…

Whatever.

Adrien made his way over slowly and stopped a short distance away. After all, the woman clearly didn’t mean any harm. Marinette had just been more… let’s call it ‘hesitant’ when it came to making new friends ever since Lila had taken all her old ones away.

“Wow, your dress is gorgeous! Did you really make it yourself?”

Marinette nodded slightly, biting her lip. “Yep... I have a company and everything…”

“A company at your age? That’s so cool!”

“Yep… I do commissions if you’d like one...” she said in a tone that very much said ‘please say no’.

“I’d love one, can I have your card?”

Marinette nodded and started digging through her purse. He saw her send a look at him out of the corner of her eyes, a ‘please help’, and he sighed to himself.

He downed his cranberry juice until there was just a few more drops of the red liquid left and then stumbled over to his wife. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, beaming.

She clicked her tongue lightly as if exasperated and looked at him. “Yes?”

“Want t’go ‘ome?” He slurred.

She gave the woman an apologetic look. “I really should get him home. I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine,” said the stranger. They sighed. “I do hope I’ll be seeing you next year?”

“Maybe. I’ll see,” she said, then she hooked her arm around him. “Right, let’s get you home…”

They waited until she had half-carried him over a block away to break the act. They kept their arms around each other but he was no longer leaning on her.

She tightened her grip on him slightly. “Sorry you had to leave early.”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. They sucked, anyways.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…”

They trailed off, lost in their thoughts as they walked through the streets of Gotham.

He was the one to break the silence: “M’lady?”

She hummed to tell him she was listening.

“What if…” He sighed. “What if the thing the wish changed was us? I mean, we’re killing people because of it. That would be the kind of irony you expect from things like this…”

She hesitated, the slight frown on her face unreadable.

And then she giggled.

“What do you mean that we’re killing people because Emilie is back? I’d still have been bored if we had been in the old timeline, so I at least would have still been doing this...”

“I doubt it. Because, in that timeline, you’d already failed one city.” He felt her flinch and sighed. “Sorry… but… I don’t think you would have been able to bring yourself to do this, risking another city and everything, if you hadn’t been able to get them back.”

She was quiet but he could feel the tenseness of her shoulders underneath him.

“And I wouldn’t have done this if I hadn’t felt like all our work in Paris was useless.”

She still said nothing, only taking out her keys and unlocking the door for them. They stepped inside and dropped onto the couch as a pair…

“And if Emilie hadn’t been brought back we wouldn’t have been as isolated.

He felt her curl into his side and snake her arm over his chest. He drew her in closer.

“This is the way it has to be,” she murmured.

Who was she trying to convince? Him? Or herself?

“Besides…” she added. “The system is broken. Fixing it will take a long time, but we can’t just let people get off in the meantime.”

He sighed and buried his face in her hair.

“You’re probably right, M’lady…”

“Always am, Chaton.”

~~~

I call this one ‘I only get two angst chapters I’m making the most of it goddamnit’

~

Taglist

@i-am-ironic @nathleigh @mialuvscats

<3

[chat-noir-always-here]

“Hey Arnold!” and “Miraculous!” parallels

Ever have an idea for a post that you take forever to get around to because 2020 is 

actively 

trying

to kill you?!

 Welp, that’s me. I mean, uh, this is that post.

Long post is long and I don’t like cuts cuz I’ve lost a few posts in the past using them. Please filter the tag “long post” I use it for walls of text like these.

So there’s this show from my childhood called Hey Arnold! 

Having been on air before I had cable (I and my unsupervised brothers and sisters spent our childhood watching Jerry Springer and Maury because there was literally nothing else on our cheap little TV. How hilarious is that?) I didn’t really have much of an experience with Hey Arnold! aside from brief little glances at it when i visited a friends home or the rare occasion where they showed cartoons at school. By the time I got satellite, the show was no longer on the air save for some late night reruns and the Christmas special which aired in December along with other Nickelodeon Christmas episodes (THE best Christmas episode EVER btw).

Really I couldn’t remember much about it until hearing about the Jungle Movie finally getting a release date (a total flop but at least its no cliff hanger) and decided to re-watch the entire series in preparation for said movie.

By which point I had discovered another show—Miraculous. 

At first glance the two shows have absolutely nothing in common. Miraculous being a French-born mahou shoujo-esque CGI superhero TV series about a couple of middle schoolers who regularly battle a walking peppermint-frappucino-looking psychopath. Hey Arnold! being a more realistic children’s sitcom about a young football-headed boy who deals out humanitarian aid in the form of advice and simple good deeds to his neighbors, classmates and friends. 

In terms of setting, logic, and animation the two series are as different as night and day.

So imagine my pleasant surprise to discover a whole post’s worth of parallels shared between the two shows???

And here they are in no particular order:

1)Arnold’s Parents/Adrien’s mom

Prior to the start of Miraculous, Emilie Agreste disappeared under mysterious circumstances leaving her family behind. Later on it was revealed that she was in fact sleeping (dead?) in a glass coffin beneath the Agreste mansion--unbeknownst to Adrien, or anyone else in Paris save for Gabriel and Nathalie.

In a similar fashion, Arnold’s parents, Miles and Stella, also disappeared prior to the start of Hey Arnold! and like Emilie were always referred to as “missing” rather than “dead.” 

The Jungle Movie later revealed Miles and Stella weren’t dead, but like Emilie appears to be doing in her coffin, they were sleeping. Having caught a bout of sleeping sickness (apparently they do not need to be hooked up to IVs or other medical devices while in a comatose state cuz fuck logic) they simply needed their orphaned son to come and cure them with the help of the magical golden heart Helga provided him with.

Perhaps Mari holds the key to waking Emilie? That would be nice to see. 

Not the miraculous of course--but some other key.

Although personally I’m hoping for a hardcore, devastating ending like Emilie dying, Gabriel going to prison where he belongs, and Adrien leaving the country for a bit until the second Hawk Moth shows up because I just like devastating cliffhangers and angst and being in utter turmoil over fictional people. But that’s just me.

2) Their best friends are dating

Smol parallel here: Arnold’s best friend Gerald and Helga’s Best friend Phoebe wind up together in The Jungle Movie after being imprisoned together by Lasombra. Similar to how Nino and Alya ended up together after being imprisoned by Ladybug (for their protection, of course).

3) The Bag of Money Episode/ The Ladybug episode

OOh boy both of these episodes make me rage. 

Some context about the Bag of Money episode: Arnold and his friends Gerald and Sid find a random bag of money containing almost $4000. Sid is ecstatic and wants to split the money evenly between the three boys, but Arnold worries it could just be lost and convinces them to let him, Arnold, take the money to the police station. On the way he accidentally switches the bag with another one that is identical and contains a bunch of useless junk, and when he tries to explain what happened to his friends they don’t believe him because their bag of money was accidentally taken by an “old lady with pink hair and a peg leg.”

 Arnold’s a good boy and he’s telling the truth--but the truth sounds crazy, even to my ears. Sid accuses Arnold of stealing the money and spreads lies to their classmates, whom Arnold has spent the ENTIRE SERIES helping in some form or fashion. Despite everything he’s done for them though, the vast majority of the class come to believe Arnold is a thief. Even Gerald, Arnold’s closest friend, nearly believes Sid over Arnold but eventually comes to Arnold’s defense. The other kids (save for Helga who doesn’t really make an appearance this episode) gang up on Arnold, but thankfully the old lady with pink hair and a peg leg shows up with an officer and together they explain the bag of money is now at the lost and found where it will remain and if gone unclaimed will be returned to Arnold, Gerald and Sid. 

Pretty much everything is resolved and things return to normal between the kids. 

But I hate this episode. I hate this episode so, so much. Arnold has spent the entire series helping these people out in some form or fashion. Literally thats the entire show. And after everything he’s done for them they’re so. Quick. To. Turn. On. Him. 

Sound familiar???

4) Hidden Personality                   vs.          Surface Personality

 I do not refer to the cruddy “true selves” thing half the Miraculous fandom believes in. Depending on one’s individual circumstances, environment and how comfortable they are, said person’s behavior can fluctuate or even do a complete 180. This can be kinda frustrating when dealing on one’s own--”Who am I anyway? Is that me or is this me???”

It’s all you, fam.

Arnold and Helga are themselves too, no matter what metaphorical/actual mask they put on. There’s the side that everyone sees and then there’s the side almost no one sees. The hidden personality isn’t hidden due to a lack of trust, necessarily, but rather it is the result of retreating to their respective “shells”--ones which both Arnold and Helga were kinda punched, kicked, and shoved into. 

Helga’s surface personality: Class bully, puts up a tough front, constantly torments Arnold because she can’t stand him and his niceness

Helga’s hidden personality: Poetic, abused and isolated, is in love with Arnold to the point of being obsessed with him and bullies him via surface personality in order to hide that fact

Of course Adrien is no bully--his reasons for not being the “cunning, funny, ultra-charming Chat Noir” 24/7 DOES have a lot to do with his toxic household, his dad, and the overwhelming expectations which are constantly smothering him as Adrien. 

Adrien is a bug under a magnifying glass (or so he feels)

Chat Noir is a chance for a freedom.

 Adrien’s surface personality was molded by his dad.

 Helga’s is the result of her entire family. Her father is brash and loud, her mother is a confirmed alcoholic, her sister is a gifted prodigy, well-rounded and spends most of the series at university or elsewhere. Although her sister, Olga, has been shown to genuinely care for Helga, Olga is kinda the reason their parents neglect Helga. With their first daughter being the genius and prodigy she is, Helga’s parents poured all of their pride and affection and parental devotion onto her. Meanwhile Helga had to walk to pre-school alone. At four years old. In the rain. Not for the last time. 

Which leads me to the next parallel.

5) Umbrella in the Rain

squeals in delight over this parallel<3<3<3

If you’ve never seen Hey Arnold! do yourselves a favor and watch this short little clip over how Helga and Arnold first met. If you have seen it, watch it anyway because it is the most adorable clip in the entire show.

Dr. Bliss: “So nobody’s ever noticed you?”

Helga: “...There was someone.”

The soft way Helga confesses that--you can actually hear how grateful she is to have such a tender memory from such a painful time. 

 In a similar manner, Adrien offered his umbrella to Marinette. Of course Adrien did it because Mari had to walk home in the rain and Arnold did it as a simple gesture of kindness (seeing as they were already at the school)--one of the many kind acts he displays throughout the series. 

 But just like Adrien needed unconditional love coming from somewhere, so did Helga. They were both denied this one common necessity which everyone else around them had. It’s not a lot to ask for, and they should’ve already had it coming from their families--but they didn’t.

 And then, one rainy day, there it was--the unconditional love they needed.

6) Clinginess

What happens when you take someone, specifically a love-starved abused child from an unstable home environment--deprived of the one thing most crucial to their mental well-being--and miraculously provide them with that very necessity? 

Clinginess. 

I can’t really think of the correct word to describe this. “Clinginess” is pretty close to what I’m trying to describe, if not on point, so let’s go with that. 

 What I mean is Helga and Adrien both need Arnold and Ladybug respectively. That’s not a bad thing--it’s okay to need somebody else. What’s bad is hinging your entire being on this one connection. For if either kiddo were to be left behind they wouldn’t handle it very well.

 It can’t really be helped with either Helga or Adrien. They didn’t really have the option to learn certain things and went deprived of unconditional love for such a long time. They’re kids--nine and fourteen/fifteen respectively. They’re not perfect and they’re traumatized for life. Being denied love from your family--the very people designed to love you--would do that to a person. Naturally they would cling to the first people to show up and provide them with the love they needed. 

 The Hey Arnold! wiki says this about Helga and Arnold’s relationship

Due to her unstable family upbringing where both her mother and father constantly neglect [Helga] and shower all of their attention onto Olga, leaving her deprived of the love and attention she needed growing up. On her way to preschool, Arnold helped her by keeping the rain off her with an umbrella and even complimented her on her hairbow. He even later gave her crackers during their snack time. Arnold's kindness and being the first person to notice her quickly caused Helga to transfer all of her love and attention to Arnold.

Of course Adrien’s tunnel vision isn’t quite as bad as Helga’s.

 He treats his friends better.

 He does love his father--

Even though his father is THE. 

WORST.

 PARENT.

 EVER!!!

--because he’s Adrien and he’s just too precious a cinnamon roll and that’s still his dad even if the man does belong behind bars.

7) Unhealthy Obsession

I--

I...

Ugh. I am not going to delve too far into this. You’re just going to have to take my word for it. Helga’s creepy stalker behavior is a thousand times worse than Marinette’s. That pic up there of Helga hiding out in Arnold’s room watching him is pretty decent evidence to back up my argument, but it’s hardly the only example or even the worst incident.

 Honestly I’m amazed at what Nicktoons were able to get away with in the late nineties/early 2000s. 

But yes, Helga’s obsession with Arnold is rather unhealthy in the most extreme moments leading her to display behavior which is more often than not disturbing and concerning. 

The Hey Arnold! wiki has this to say about Helga’s obsession with Arnold

Helga is possessive of her love for Arnold and thinks non-stop about him to the point of obsession. This is evidenced throughout the series by the many shrines and poems she makes of Arnold and of her frequent dramatic soliloquies about her love for Arnold.

Again--Mari isn’t as bad as all that. She’s a sweet girl with many healthy relationships in her life. She has ambition, creativity, and drive. But yeah she can be rather possessive of Adrien too, and that needs to stop. Like right now. Adrien doesn’t need another girl being possessive of him and thinking he’s perfect--he needs someone who acknowledges him as a flawed person and loves him despite that. 

As for Helga and Arnold--show creator Craig Bartlett confirmed they are “made for each other” and wind up married with three kids, so I’m guessing Helga grew out of some of these bad habits? Or at least I hope so...

8) Helper/Humanitarian tendencies

As mentioned before, the plot of Hey Arnold! is more or less about Arnold helping people. As stated by Gerald in The Jungle Movie, “He’s a humanitarian! Like his parents!” Of course not every episode is about Arnold helping people. There are episodes devoted to supporting characters and they’re just as enjoyable and satisfying. 

 But as he is the titular character he spends a lot of time in the spotlight. 

Remember that “best christmas special EVER” episode I mentioned before?

 The reason it’s the best special, in my less than humble opinion, is due to a few things.

 The special is not about Santa Claws. In fact, I don’t think he’s even mentioned, let alone shown and treated like an actual living character.

The focus on the entire episode is again on Arnold helping someone, but he doesn’t succeed. Not really.

The one who succeeded in helping someone was Helga, who accomplished the goal Arnold had set out to do. 

The episode deals with some rather dark subject matter and is actually quite heartwarming as the “perfect present” Arnold was trying to provide someone with wasn’t something you can buy in the store

It’s also one of the episodes where Helga’s love for Arnold leaves her to do good and as her love for him is a secret, she expects nothing in return. She’s just happy to help him.

 Kinda similar to Mari who is, as Adrien puts it in Mayura, “Our every day Ladybug.” Her kindness and devotion to helping others is what drives her as Ladybug and Marinette. It’s what brought Ivan and Mylene together. Is the reason Nathaniel and Mark now have a comic book together. And at the end of the day, that’s the reason for her strange behavior around Adrien--she wants to help him. Even if it’s just as a “good friend.” 

9) There are two main characters

Although Hey Arnold! is technically a show about Arnold, one could argue it is just as much Helga’s story. 

Similarly, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is named thusly in order to convey the fact that Adrien is just as much a main character as Marinette is. 

Although I must say Hey Arnold! did a much better job of giving it’s co-character their dues. GIVE. ME. MORE. CHAT NOIR. FOCUSED. EPISODES. DAMMIT.

But, yes, in terms of screen time, Helga gets about as much as Arnold does. Her story and struggles were given just as much importance as Arnold’s and many people have even come to believe that the show is really about Helga. I’d say its about both of them.

10) Constantly bumping into each other

Granted this happens between Arnold and Helga more often than it does to the love square dorks. 

 But yes the two people meant to be together keep knocking into each other in their respective universes. 

 I forget who, but I remember reading that someone a while back theorized that this was the universe’s way of trying to push Arnold and Helga together. Kinda like the “Now kiss!” meme

Perhaps it’s the same for Adrien and Marinette? 

;)

[scrimmification]

taking a self care day and was instantly hit with temptation so u know what. here’s that dhurkemara essay. but it’ll be under a cut because i’m polite like that

the following is some canon facts sprinkled in with mostly my own headcanons and opinions. but i’m right about everything. cw for mentions of trauma and aa6 spoilers.

i should actually start this by saying that i see a lot of polycule dhurke/amara/jove or dhurke/amara/datz and while it is cute i feel a bit weird about using a poly relationship as just a “oh he has two hands” solution to love triangles. not that poly relationships aren’t valid, but it’s usually just people putting characters together without thinking about how the dynamic would even function. as if a polycule is a band-aid solution.

but that’s not important because this essay is about why dhurke and amara should just be friends (post SOJ)

i do not respect capcom or its canon, but here’s a bunch of canonical soj facts that are kinda fucked up;      - when nahyuta is born, amara is 19 and dhurke is 20      - when the palace fire breaks out, amara is 21 and dhurke is 22      - there’s a gap of approximately 8 years of time where dhurke thinks amara is dead before they reunite and have rayfa (they’re each around the age of 30 at the time)      - there’s a period of time anywhere from 9 months - 1 year that they’re living together again before rayfa and amara are both kidnapped      - following this, dhurke never sees his wife ever again

because i have extreme brainrot, i sat down and feasibly considered the amount of time they would’ve been together. like, genuinely face to face together. if you only take into account the numbers the game gives you, then that means out of 25 years of marriage, they only see each other for about 3 of them. i tend to tack on an extra year or so for dating, but that’s still a really short amount of time, with almost all of it being before the palace fire ever happened. not to mention, they married incredibly young, and amara is royalty. typically royal families will push for children to be wed as soon as they come of age. 

there’s also the fact that canonically, dhurke was not wealthy to any degree. he mentions in a throw away line having a bunch of weird odd jobs including both farmer and street performer (side note, street performer dhurke is hilarious). considering amara was basically hailed as a goddess by virtue of existing, i kind of doubt they were childhood friends or anything before that. my own hcs for how they met and got married initially tend to fall into a romeo and juliet style of mushy romance. plucky lawyer steals the heart of the queen with his humble charm and promises to whisk her away kind of thing. idk i do actually think they were very in love when they were younger, and maybe like... TOO in love, but my essay and thoughts tend to skew towards characterization through how the two of them grow through their traumas. so let’s just go in order of events here;

the palace fire

i do not care what capcom tries to tell me, dhurke has burns. if amara has a giant chest mark from being in the fire for a very short amount of time, dhurke would have full body burns from literally breaking into and out of a burning building. do you know how hot fire is? it’s fucking hot. it’s also genuinely terrifying. my point is i hc dhurke has some form of pyrophobia.

the years after the palace fire and before rayfa is born aren’t given much canon information, but it is stated that amara is convinced dhurke was out to kill her and willingly lives in the palace outside of the public eye. she’s convinced that dhurke is evil and was trying to kill her for at least twice as long as they were married. that kind of skews your perception of a person, no matter how much you might have once loved them. even if you STILL love them, it’s different. feelings change with time, and i think that’s a really fun thing to explore in fiction. 

the rescue/rayfa’s birth

so here’s where i add the drama. just sprinkle it in. there’s a very sneaky line in the game that they kind of slip in during dhurke’s recounting of events around the time rayfa was born, and i have not stopped thinking about it for 2 years.

so plot wise, when apollo presses dhurke about lying about amara being dead, he talks about how he (somehow) got a tip that amara was alive and still being held in the palace. he broke in to save her and potentially run away with her, datz, and and nahyuta into safety, but they add something else in there. dhurke has a moment where he says she didn’t initially believe his innocence. and it’s kind of just played as a joke.

but because i like conflict and i do not write dhurke the same hyper-toxic-masculine way they do in canon because i think Men Should Be Allowed To Have Feelings i thought. man that must fucking suck. everyone in the entire kingdom thinks he’s the devil, and the one person he’s been doing it all for the sake of - his wife - initially doubts his innocence. of course this is obviously an understandable response. she was basically trapped and gaslit for nearly a full decade over an event that nearly cost her her own life (and would have to instead come to terms with the fact her own sister wanted her dead) but like it still. it would still suck to hear that from your spouse?

they were together for under a year, and in this time rayfa was born. this is probably my favorite window of time to explore a dhurke and amara relationship adapting because they would be such different people now. time already effects how you personally grow and adapt, but the kind of horrors they went to would drastically change them both. neither of them would be the same kids they fell in love with, and dhurke had just shipped one of his kids to america in an attempt to protect him. he’d already be down bad, but to have to deal with that, his wife not fully trusting him, nahyuta not knowing their own mother and most likely not trusting her initially, and also an entire pregnancy... that’d be an incredible amount of stress, on top of the fact they’re both living under the law. 

(sidebar; because of how weird they had to twist the timeline to make it so apollo was gone before rayfa was born so they never met, i tend to headcanon this as dhurke trying to send both his kids to america to protect them, but not being able to initially send nahyuta because of their royalty status, and it quickly becoming too late.)

something else that confused me was why the hell they’d even have another kid while they’re both trying to save themselves, and that... uh. okay maybe this is an unpopular thing to say in terms of headcanon, but i actually believe rayfa was an accidental birth. like logistically, if you see your wife for the first time in almost a decade, you’re going to do Something. and you don’t have protection in the mountains. i’m just. i’m just saying.

but all of that being said, more than anything, i think they’d still be in love during this point. or more accurately, i think they’d be trying to convince themselves they’re still in love. they wouldn’t be the same people anymore, but the only thing dhurke has left is his family. it’s the thing he’s fighting for, and amara would have just been told she can’t go back to her sister for her own safety. there’s this kind of pressure to stay together for both themselves and their kids. there’s also a part where dhurke implies that the two of them were planning on trying to escape khura’in together and cross country lines before shit hits the fan.

turnabout revolution

so if you’re a coward who actually considers canon, after rayfa and amara get kidnapped, dhurke never sees them again. sure, he gets spirit channeled by amara in the final trial, but he never sees her face to face, or gets a chance to speak with her. if you’re like me and simply refuse to believe your favorite characters die, then that means there’s a 14 year gap between the next time dhurke and amara speak to each other.

what’s the first thing amara does when they see each other again? accuse him of murder.

in fairness, she’s under threat of blackmail to do so. she’s trying to protect both her children at this point, and clearly had a role to play in inga’s murder herself that she doesn’t want to admit to. but at the same time, when apollo reveals that dhurke was actively hiding evidence because he still loved her, she seemed genuinely surprised. this revelation is the thing that gets her to actually go against ga’ran’s plot. there’s also the obvious point of her picking her children’s safety over dhurke’s entire revolution, and what he’s been working on for her sake for most of his life. and honestly I thinks she made the right and most understandable choice. the real part that makes me think they wouldn’t get back together after the events of soj (provided dhurke isn’t an epic ghost guy) is,

amara chooses her own safety over dhurke’s, while dhurke chooses her safety over his own.

dhurke’s a very hopeful character, a very jovial one. throughout all his screen time, there’s no point where he genuinely thinks nahyuta has betrayed him. there’s no point where he thinks apollo isn’t capable of handling the case without him. he clearly cares a lot about his family, and would do anything for them. this includes amara. he’s not asked to hide evidence for her sake, he just does it. at the risk of undermining his entire revolution and destroying it entirely, he tries to hide evidence that’d implicate his wife of murder.

amara’s more of a realist. she doesn’t give up information until she absolutely has to. she doesn’t even admit to loving dhurke until the last moment she’s on screen. the only lines in the game she has as herself are during the trial, and half the time she’s just telling everyone how horrible and awful and terrible her husband was. and again, i must say, this would probably suck to hear.

the aftermath

the country is kind of a little fucked after soj. sure, it ends on a positive note, kind of, but there’s both a lot of political stuff to fix. and a lot of family stuff to fix. dhurke basically has to rebuild his relationship with every single one of his family members (and in rayfa’s case, from scratch). while I do think marriage is important and stuff, I don’t think it’d be... the most important.

what i’m saying is i think they’d be friends. even if they stayed married, they’d have to relearn almost everything about each other. they haven’t seen each other in forever, and also amara just threw dhurke under the bus. that’d sting! i think he’d forgive her for that, but it’d sting. knowing your partner would have willingly let you and your entire cause go up in flames sucks. it all sucks. soj is a very downer aa game.

and also i value m/f friendship a lot. i value older adult relationships a lot. i value exploring unfortunate and uncomfortable themes in learning to grow as a person and dealing with your own trauma a lot. i think there’s a lot to explore in characters like dhurke and amara. alot of people prefer thinking about the relationships between nahyuta and apollo and rayfa as siblings, which is great! but... i don’t know. i really like fictional dads. i like thinking about him getting more time with his kids. i like thinking about amara learning to become a person instead of a revered goddess. i like them becoming real people instead of just figureheads in a political war.

also i think dhurke and datz should kiss because they raised kids together in the mountains for 20 years

[regrettablewritings]

Modern!Jaskier x Reader Ship Meme

Prompts taken from this ship meme

Which one texts like a straight white boy?: Of course it would have to be our resident white boy. It isn’t even that he necessarily means to, there’s just an embarrassing amount of overlap between the messages a straight white boy tends to text, and those of your rising star boyfriend. You’d look more into it if it weren’t for the fact that you know there’s no actual malice in it, and because it’s just so sad that it’s funny. If one were to go into the photos saved on your phone, they would’ve surely come upon an entire album of screenshots you’d taken over the years, from when Jaskier would be on tour without you to when he’d just be resting at home while you were out at work. Things like: “Wat r u up to 2nit, cutie? ;)” “I’m probably just gonna play whatever’s on my Watch Later backlog on youtube until I conk out.” “Wild!!! anyway wat would u do if i was there rn~?” Or “Do u miss me? :(” “Of course I do ya dingus!” “Ok....Can we do a quickie over videochat?” “Jas i’m at the store.” “The point still stands.” Or “Watcha thinkin bout? ;)” “About how The Great Gatsby becoming public domain means there’s nothing stopping anyone from making a drag show interpretation called The Gay Dragsby.” “Aaww w/o me? ;)” “...” “WAIT NO I THOUGT YOU’D SAY YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT ME SHIT NO.” “BUT ACTUALLY DO GO ON IM KINDA INTERESTD.” If it were anybody else, you would’ve blocked them. But this wasn’t anybody else. It was your Jaskier: Your foolhardy, constantly horny, but never-short-of-loving Jaskier. And besides, not for nothing, at least they were something you could get a laugh out of.

Which one cried during a fucking Disney movie?: Once again, Jaskier is the guilty party. It’s no secret that he’s the more emotional of the two of you -- he wore his investment in Titanic with pride, after all. But it is a secret that the particular Disney movie to make him cry was Hercules of all things! Not Bambi, not The Lion King, not even Beauty and the Beast, but goddamn Hercules! (On another note, he also cried to Coco. But that barely counts: Literally everyone and their mother has cried during Coco. The only difference here was that Jaskier could relate to being a young man so in love with music while coming from a family that discouraged the pursuit of it.) This isn’t a knock on anyone who enjoys the movie, mind you, but let’s be honest: Out of the Disney animated canon, Hercules isn’t exactly the most . . . emotionally cathartic or heart-string-plucking of the bunch. But just because it didn’t go out of its way to create a crying frenzy doesn’t mean that it’s lacking in some humanity. It is, after all, still a Disney film. The problem is, Jaskier can’t even quite express why it made him cry the night you both decided to watch it. Maybe it had something to do with a young man most people took as a joke trying to achieve greatness? And to be fair, “Go the Distance (Reprise)” and “A Star is Born” differently when you’ve done some growing . . .

Who put a goddamned fork in the microwave?: It only happened once, but you’d never let him live it down. You like to joke that you’d left him to his own devices for just fifteen minutes so that you could take a shower -- of which was completely true -- and that was all he needed for things to go downhill. Nobody wants to think they’d be in the wrong for trusting a 20-something year-old to not be his usually somewhat distractable self. But that particular day, said 20-something year-old decided to occupy that little spot of time to himself with TV and a plate of leftovers. And normally this would’ve been fine and dandy. But normally, Jaskier would’ve just waited for the food to heat before searching for something to watch. It shouldn’t have been too big of an issue that it went the other way around that day, but apparently it was. As much as he wanted to (which honestly wasn’t by much), Jaskier just couldn’t tear his eyes away from the images flashing on the TV. The baby blues were set on the screen the entire while -- up until he heard a faint popping. Followed by a sound he normally only heard in a cheesy sci-fi movie. The problem was, he wasn’t watching anything even remotely science-fiction-y . . . All you were doing when you exited the bathroom was going to grab your lotion. That was literally all you had any expectations for. What you hadn’t expected to come upon was your boyfriend, hollering and diving over the sofa in order to scramble into the kitchen and stop that strange, not-good-sounding sound. Suffice to say, you had to put your shower on hold; it simply had to wait for you to finish fussing, then again for you to finish laughing your ass off. And again because if you entered the shower still laughing, you’d probably slip and break your head open and then Jaskier would have to deal with another possible emergency caused by himself.

Who does the silly hands-over-the-eyes “Guess who?” thing?: You can both be guilty of it, but Jaskier without a doubt does it more. Sometimes he’ll emerge from “his cave” (aka the little nook in the apartment where he likes to mess around and write lyrics or arrangements) on a break and catch an unsuspecting you sitting on the couch or at the dinner table. Other times, it could just be when he comes back from running some errands or doing a quick interview at the local radio station. You don’t mind it much . . . Especially since you can get a rise out of him by purposefully guessing the wrong person. (“Hmmm . . . Could it be . . . my mail-order husband? Boy, that was quick. And all the way from Russia, too . . .” “Uh, no.” “The milkman, finally accepting my invitation to commence a torrid love affair?” “Okay, you know damn well -- ” “Or better yet: My hopes and dreams have manifested, oh, Waluigi, could it really and truly be you!?” “What in the absolute fuck --”)

Who puts their cold hands/feet on their partner?: Because it’s usually himself who presents as being the more mischievous of the two, and because he tends to run the warmest, it always shocks Jaskier when you decide to play dirty and put your cold limbs all over him. Is it childish? Yes. But are his reactions to the sudden feeling of icy flesh hilarious? Also yes. You love to creep up on him when he’s tuning his guitar or scribbling down lyrics, or just minding his own damn business by trying to actually turn in relatively early for once. You love even more to watch him jolt and release the most high-pitched yip a man of his build could ever even joke about making. You’ll still be laughing about it as he scowls at you, cursing your “ghoul hands” and demanding to know if he’s dating a corpse at this point. Of course, no matter how peeved he might be, you can always count on one other thing from his dramatic reactions: Him huffily grabbing your hands into his own and rubbing them warm, or him forcing a park of fuzzy socks on your feet. And just for extra measure, you can be sure that he’ll spend the rest of the night holding you close or cuddling you -- “For exchanging bodily heat purposes,” he will always reason.

Who had that embarrassing reality TV marathon?: You both are guilty of it, actually. The question should really be, who is the least shameful about it. As with most things regarding a lack of shame, it was, of course, our dear Jaskier. Being a musician with a growing following, the little attention whore just can’t miss out on an opportunity to show himself off to his awaiting public. A rising star with relatability and a taste for trash? People eat that shit up! So you’ve learned to be less surprised every time he decides to liveblog himself watching things like Love Island or any of the 90-Day Fiancee spin-offs. In fact, in more recent times, you’ve come to join in with him, adding your own corresponding Tweets and commentary. Though don’t be too shocked once he starts holding polls and letting the public decide what show the two of you should watch next.

Who laughs more during sex?: You do, completely through Jaskier’s own efforts. Jaskier’s always had a pretty lax view of sex. This didn’t change when he met you, of course, but how he specifically portrayed that laxness did undergo some metamorphosis. Before, the entertainer was much more intent on his bedroom experiences being a display of power and an ability to please. Something dramatic and to be taken seriously. He still sees the importance of satisfaction in the bedroom, mind you, but with you, he can’t help but feel more . . . comfortable. With you, it’s a little more okay if he accidentally makes a dumb noise that in no way can be salvaged as sexy. With you, it’s a little more okay if he struggles to get his or your pants off, or if he struggles with removing your bra. And with you, he’s come to find that he’s a lot more okay with sharing a giggle or being a little more loose about things. It’s fine if your fingers tickle him or if he struggles to think of something proper dirty. But it’s even more fine if you think something he says or does makes you laugh, but not in a way that discredits his efforts. When you laugh, it shows that you’re comfortable with him. Comfortable enough to be with him, and be truly vulnerable. So do forgive him if he can’t help but run his fingers up your sides in a tickling fashion, or sloppily string together an innuendo. He simply loves how golden your laughter sounds, even in the throes of passion, intermingled with sweet whimpers and pleas of his name. How the heave of your chest and rippling of your tummy bumpily sync in with the rhythm of his thrusts . . . He just wants to see your smile, your genuine mirth, and bask in it with you. Besides, it serves as excellent song inspiration for him . . .

Who is the little spoon?: It depends on the sway of the day, really. As a whole, you both take turns without much thought simply because you tend to just fall into your positions. Some days, you just happen to lay into him in a way that makes you the little spoon. Other days, he conks out next to you in a manner that most could consider would make you the big spoon (or jet pack). Neither side really fights how it plays out unless one or the other may feel small and vulnerable, or just plain tired and in need of comfort. You often find yourself playing the role of the more dominating position during those first few days after Jaskier returning home from either a quick tour, or after finishing a long week of hours upon hours in the studio, or whatever kind of press-related nonsense his management team told him he needed to do. For as much as your boyfriend loved the spotlight, the truth was he was still quite capable of burning out and needing time to himself. Or, at the very least, just time with you. Even if that means he’s asleep for most of it, with you clinging to his back as he drifts off into a much-needed sleep. He makes sure to return it tenfold when you need just the same. Sure, your occupation may not be of the same nature as his own, but that didn’t mean you were in any less need of his cuddling. In fact, with him being gone as often as he was, Jaskier couldn’t help but feel almost guilty for not always being able to provide you with the basic comforts of being a constantly present boyfriend. Hence why the moment he would see your fatigued body crossing the threshold of your apartment, he would be all over you, ushering you into a quick shower, followed by a quick and simple dinner or snack, and capped off with him cuddling about you from behind. It didn’t matter if you’d come home right in the middle of a writing frenzy, or even if he’d been in the middle of searching for a breakthrough with an arrangement -- for as vain and bullheaded as Jaskier could be, he knew he owed you at least this much. You already put up with so much of his nonsense; this was quite literally the least he could do, both for you and for himself. Besides, he who was he to fight against the feeling of you wiggling closer into his hold, to deny himself the sound of your soft breathing as you lay yourself vulnerable to him? The fact of the matter is that he simply isn’t. He couldn’t be. Maybe in the beginning when things were still so unsteady and uncertain, but never now, when things had become so . . . well, what he could only describe as being “the both of you”. The both of you, molded and entwined, never wanting to let go. Never planning on it, either.

[fluffonthebunniestail]

What a Sleepover

Okay, so I may or may not be plotting some headcannons for Zuko 👀👀

BUT, in the meantime- I must push this fic out because I've been thinking of it for a while!

Also, small psa. Just because two dudes are having a sleepover, hugging, holding hands etc. does not mean they're into each other, or gay. Same goes for females, we all just need affection sometimes and shouldn't have to be dating to do so!

Summary: Karma and Nagisa are having a sleepover because that's what best friends do :)

--------

It was the last class before a well deserved free day. Well, it feels very well deserved.

It was a rough week of extra training not to mention crammed-in study sessions for the following tests. Finally, about ten minutes until school's was done for.

Nagisa was just bouncing his leg in excitement, especially because he is going to go home with Karma.

It wasn't very often they got to hang out anymore, so he was going to take this sleepover and enjoy it. And everything else can go shove it.

So yeah, Nagisa was quite excited. It was a time to just be stress-free. Not just from the normal teenage stress, but the stress placed on their shoulders about the end of the world.

So, when the bell finally rung, it took every bit of will power not to whoop. Instead, he said his goodbyes to Kaede like the gentlemen he is.

He then, packed his things, walking towards Karma's desk.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah, give me one second." Karma replied, pulling his back over his shoulder. "Okay, you won't mind if we stop by the store real quick? I want to pick out a few things before we head to my house."

"Yeah, we can go." Nagisa said as they began to walk out the door together. "What are you gonna get?"

"Just some snacks, I don't know. If you see something you like, tell me."

Nagisa just nodded as they continued to their journey to the store. It was mostly accompanied by silence, but it was nice silence. Just listening to some music they've recently found with the occasional bob to the beat.

Once they finally made it to the store, Nagisa just followed behind Karma.

"You cooking tonight?" Nagisa asked seeing Karma picking out some beef.

"Yeah, I was planning on making some beef curry. Unless you wanna order."

"Nah, I always prefer your cooking."

"Damn right."

They got to the isle filled with snacks, Karma just let Nagisa pick out a few.

"Imagine if your parents were here." Nagisa mentioned making the other snort.

"God, they'd lose their shit. I mean sure they're gone but they're... something." Karma huffed, shaking his head.

Nagisa could remember the first time he met Karma's family, it was strange to say at the least. They were putting Karma on a strict diet, despite the fact that he was already skinny. It was just strange.

"Has it ever bothered you?" Nagisa asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Uh, I mean, them being gone all the time. Does it bother you? Like don't you get lonely sometimes?"

"Not really, it's weird. I don't miss them if that's what you're asking."

"When was the last time they were here?"

"Uh, shit I dunno. A little before I was suspended last year."

"Shit."

"Oh don't worry, it's freeing if anything. It's nice. I'm not a people person."

"I know, I know. But still."

"How about, worry about yourself and your own jackass of a mother." Karma said lightly punching Nagisa's head.

He always does that.

"Well, welcome to my humble abode. You already know where everything is and whatnot. Do me a favor, set something up to watch while I make dinner, will ya?"

"You got it chef Karma." Nagisa soluted then retreated to the living room getting something to watch.

Long story short, Karma finished cooking, they ate it and it was absolutely delicious.

Like what couldn't he do?

They then watched some fun stuff, did whatever they felt like until they set up camp in the living room. Aka, Karma getting blankets and pillows, and for them to wrestle who got the couch and floor.

Then they just talked, talked about some woke shit, but not really woke shit ya know?

"Terasaka's a bitch." Karma blurted.

"You're an even bigger bitch." Nagisa retorted, snorting at the random statement.

"Hey, at least I take pride into it."

Nagisa just changed his position slightly by resting his head on Karma's stomach (they're resting like a T) Hey, bromance. It was normal, Karma wasn't very touchy feely but Nagisa was and Karma had to accommodate. Basically, Karma didn't have a say but he didn't really care. It was nice having someone trust him like that.

"This year is crazy." Nagisa said just staring into the ceiling.

"And it's not gonna be any less crazy any time soon."

"You think we're actually going to kill him?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"On how sappy everyone gets."

"But we have to."

"There could always be another way. It always bothered me when Koro Sensei said that he blew up the moon and will to the earth. What is stopping him? He could've done it a long time ago when even the higher ups can't do shit. How come he's now giving us -fucking students of all people- a deadline. He could take us all out as easily as a blink of an eye, what it stopping him?"

"Should we ask him?" Nagisa asked, making Karma bark out a laugh.

"Absolutely the fuck not."

Nagisa just hummed in response. Karma then just sighed obnoxiously.

"I'm bored."

"What do you wanna do?"

"I dunno."

"You don't know?"

"Nope, entertain me."

"By...?"

"Wearing one of my mom's dresses."

"Fuck no!" Nagisa yelped, sitting up.

"What? It'd just be you in your final form."

"You're an ass."

"Ouch, I'm truly hurt. You've wounded me deeply Nagisa!" Karma said clutching his heart, turning to his side covering his head with a pillow. "Just leave me here wounded to such painful words you've set upon me."

Nagisa just scoffed, poking his side making him yelp sitting up quickly.

"Oi!" He pouted.

"What?" Nagisa asked pretending to be concerned.

"And you're calling me an ass?"

"You wanna see this 'ass'."

"Not really, I can already smell it." He snickered.

"Oh yeah?" Nagisa said putting his hands up. Karma catches them pushing them away from him.

"Nagisa, I will rock your shit."

"Yeah? And I can do the same."

"Sure thing pipsqueak."

"You'll apologies for that."

"Will I?" Karma said pretending to think for a few seconds, "I don't think so."

"You're so gonna get it."

"Yeah, whatcha gonna do about it?"

Nagisa then quickly let go of Karma's hands, tweaking his sides.

"Hey!" He yelped, "That's cheating!"

"How so, modern problems call for modern solutions."

"You did not just say that-" He cut himself off as he saw Nagisa snake his hands towards him. "Okay, we're not gonna do that!" He said pushing Nagisa's arms away from him.

"Why not?" Nagisa snickered, "Is it because little Karma's too ticklish?"

"Nagisa, shut the fuck up." He fumed, his face starting to get red.

"Awwe this is adorable." Nagisa was loving this, after all those times Karma embarrassed him to no end.

"Fuck oHOFF!" He yelped as Nagisa quickly started to squeeze his sides.

Did he fuck off? Nope. If anything, he continued to squeeze his sides. This made Karma fall not so gracefully onto his back. he was slapping and swatting his arms aimlessly at Nagisa, pulling at his hands trying desperately to pull him off.

"STOHOHOP NAGISA!" He screeched, laughing loudly and uncontrollably. He was squirming around as much as he could, trying to buck Nagisa off but the boy was determined.

"What's wrong? I thought you were said you were gonna 'rock my shit'." Nagisa teased. It was hilarious how easy it was to tease Karma.

The redhead was trying. Key word: trying, to retaliate by jabbing his fingers at Nagisa's ribs. Only reason it didn't work was because it actually hurt a bit. Thank god for Karma losing all sense of control when being tickled.

"Oh yeah? Do you think you're in any position to try that?" Nagisa asked, snaking his hands to the hollows of Karma's underarms.

He squealed, arching his back, elbows locked to his sides and laughter reducing slightly to giggles. It's his least ticklish spot, but it still keeps him going strong. He was able to spout out a string of curses and demands of stopping to Nagisa, but all fruitless.

This however, gave Nagisa full access to the spot he knows kills Karma: stomach.

As soon as his hands had even made contact to his shaking abdomen, Karma screeched.

"NOHODON'TPLEAHAHAHA-" He pleaded. He was trying his best to throw the smaller boy off him. However, it was deeming incredibly difficult with the unbearable sensations that spreaded all throughout his stomach. Nagisa made sure to squeeze every bit of his midsection before briefly traveling to his ribs.

He drilled his fingers between his bones without mercy.

"Are you going to apologize for calling me a pipsqueak?" Nagisa asked digging at his stomach again, making him squeal with every vibrating movement.

He knew that Karma could barely speak a proper sentence, but this was very fun.

What was more fun was seeing a bit of skin from his shirt that rode up from all the rustling. Nagisa tried to grab his hands with one hand, not very successful but better then not trying. His other went under Karma's shirt clawing at his twitching stomach making his laugh come out more panicked.

"Sorry, I can't really hear you." Nagisa grinned, vibrating his hand right around his navel making Karma nearly jump out his skin. His laughter went in and out of being silent. Nagisa felt bad and relented his attack.

The redhead in turn was panting out a few giggles holding his midsection.

"Gohod, you're such a dick."

"Meh, maybe. But you deserved it you mega dick."

"Whatever." He waved off Nagisa, sitting up. He turned his head to the blue boy. "You know I'm gonna get you back."

Nagisa just sighed pumping the air deflated, "Worth it."

"Well, I'm getting snacks and you aren't having shit."

"Why must you be so cruel?" Nagisa sobbed. Karma just chuckled walking to the kitchen.

Karma although wasn't a big fan of getting tickled the shit out of him, it was nice to let loose every once in a while. If course he isn't going to say that though.

[pan0ramy]

re8 thought dump because YE

i feel like this was almost inevitable but idk where else to talk about resident evil village so i’m just going to rant about it here!!! i have,,,, a lot of thoughts on this game after being so excited for it for so long

obviously, massive spoilers if you haven’t finished the game. i feel like i have thoughts on pretty much everything so please please please stay clear of this post if you’re trying to stay blind

otherwise, let me just rant about this game for a bit - mainly the story and characters - because i have Thoughts™

(also i feel like it goes without saying but this will be probably be quite long, so. strap in, ig)

okay SO. the whole intro was pretty interesting - even though we’d seen bits of it in trailers, it was still pretty unnerving and felt like it came out of nowhere. but the first thing that really stood out was the first village section with the hordes of lycans; i didn’t expect this game to start freaking me out so quickly but JESUS my blood pressure went up fast. 

there’s so many of them coming at you at once, and not only have you just lost half your damn hand, you’re not really used to the gunplay at that point AND you don’t have that many weapons at your disposal. so it’s basically just “hey we’re throwing you into this ring of death, good luck surviving!” which... now that i think about it, that really sums up the whole game lol

but for the most part, the early parts of the game are what we saw in the demos, so there’s nothing too new - it was nice getting to see the scene with all four lords and mother miranda, though. i wasn’t sure how the whole chase scene with the lycans would work - i thought heisenberg’s area was going to be some sort of mine, and that the chase would take place there - but it didn’t, and it was interesting regardless of it being so short. 

but the castle. THE CASTLE. 

i would be lying through my teeth if i said i wasn’t excited for dimitrescu like everybody else; i’m firmly in the camp of people who both meme about how attractive she is, and then also the people who legitimately find her attractive, soooo i kinda had high expectations going in? 

and sure, the castle section is only part of the game, but if there’s anything that makes me nervous most, it’s stalker enemies. resi 2 remake was actually pretty tough for me to get through because of how anxiety-inducing mr x was, and even though i don’t feel like she was as present as mr x was, lady d was still great! there were a good few times where you could hear her walking around and you just knew she was searching for you, which was really damn cool.

also, i know capcom had a lot of hype to live up to with lady dimitrescu, but goddamn they did such a great job with her. she’s so imposing but badass and just... really damn cool? like i honestly found myself being excited for her to show up rather than being scared. i just think she’s neat! I MEAN LOOK AT HER.

(also yes i know the whole internet has talked about how attractive she is, but can we just. appreciate that for a second???? she’s gorgeous and yall can’t tell me otherwise. like. bro ik the pronunciation is wrong but the way she says dimitrescu made me GASP i love this powerful vampire woman)

if anything, though, i... actually felt really bad that her story ended up the way it did. i mean, think about it: you break into her house, kill the three people she’s grown to consider her daughters, rob her shit, and then kill her? she technically goes through the same kind of parental grief that ethan does, in a way, which is a really interesting parallel. grief seems to be a theme that capcom really pushed for this game, and it works. 

also, her boss fight design is badass. she’s literally a dragon, how is that not incredible

so the castle was great, where could the game go from here? oh, i don’t know, how about gOOD OLD FASIONED FUCKING TRAUMA.

jesus christ the dollhouse GOT TO ME.

i’m pretty used to horror in general; i love horror games, movies, books, you name it. i’ve gone to horror movies where people have ran out because of fear all while i’ve sat there giggling the whole time. but the dollhouse? that dollhouse is FUCKED. i can’t remember the last time i watched someone play through a horror game and was so... on edge the whole time. the fact that they keep you waiting for so long with nothing happening just... makes the atmosphere incredibly uncomfortable, and then when shit does start going down, it goes down fast. in other words, jesus fucking christ that baby will haunt my nightmares until the end of time

basically capcom managed to make the n*zi baby joke from south park: the stick of truth legitimately terrifying, and i was glad to see donna die. moving on.

moreau’s section is the one i... actually don’t have as many thoughts on. it’s cool, sure, and the whole idea of him turning into a fish when he hits water is neat - it’s definitely a good callback to re4 - but idk, it didn’t really scare me that much. i can see it scaring those with a fear of water or the ocean, for sure, but eh. i thought the designs were cool, but i kinda tuned out a little here.

heisenberg, though, was anything but. the entire time leading up to village’s release, this guy has fascinated me for some reason. i don’t know if it’s because he’s the most normal-looking of the four lords, or the fact that he has telekinesis, or his amazing voice acting (seriously i know some people have shit on his VA but oh my god i adore it) or what, but this guy stood out to me from day one. i even went into the game expecting him not to die tbh. but no, he does, and his fight is pretty damn cool all things considered. only in a resident evil game could you have a mech fight and have it not feel out of place lol

also this line ^^^ legitimately made me laugh so hard i almost choked on my water. THE FACT HE TURNS AROUND AND APOLOGISES SO MEEKLY its fucking hilarious to me

but anyway.

similar to alcina, though, i was left with one big question about heisenberg - what did mother miranda do to him to get him to join her impromptu familly? he said himself to ethan that he didn’t want to join, so what did miranda do that didn’t give him a choice? did he have a family at some point? is he grieving too? what did miranda take from him? i can only hope this gets answered in the dlc, because it’s by far one of my biggest questions surrounding all of this. i may very well have missed it somewhere, and at least we know he has his telekinesis abilities thanks to miranda, but it’s a question that’ll definitely be on my mind going forward.

at this point, though, the story REALLY gets insane. it’s really nice how village decided to just continue on straight from what 7 did, and i’m very glad that everyone’s theories about chris being a werewolf were wrong - it’s a really nice spanner to throw in the works. if anything, the whole revelation of mother miranda disguising herself as mia the whole time since rose’s birth was really cool, and ethan being Mold™ the entire time was pretty neat too - it made a lot of things both in 7 and village make more sense.

what i’m still digesting, though, is the ending.

...man, capcom, you put poor ethan through all of that and then you have the balls to actually kill him? i mean shit, you made us think he was dead for a whole 20 minutes but then nope! he’s alive! but then nope! he’s dead again! i did see someone point out that at least ethan got to go out on his own terms, but dammit i would’ve at least liked for him to get to see mia one last time. i think it would’ve softened the blow a little more. but i guess that ties into the whole grief theming this game has going for it, and like i said, i probably just need some more time to digest it. 

i don’t dislike the ending, it’s just a very big culture shock - it’s definitely a ballsy move, and i really respect capcom for going all out the way they did. they really held back on nothing in terms of this game’s story and i absolutely love it. it was so, so worth the wait in that regard. 

and tbh that’s kinda how i feel about the whole game in general; it was super super good, very much worth the wait, and i absolutely cannot wait to see where resident evil goes from here. i have a gut feeling this’ll end up being one of my absolute favourites in the series, which i know is very high praise, but i really do love it that much. i wasn’t disappointed with much in this game, if anything at all. it’s just a super fucking good video game man idk what else to say at this point

[hollowisthyname]

🖊

!! TYSM!!!!! OC INFODUMP AHEAD >:) 

(under the cut bc it’s really, really long)

oki oki so! the character I’m gonna talk abt here is named Elis Byrd (their last name is kinda hilarious to me for reasons I shall soon explain) and they’re pretty much the parent friend of the group, even though they’re..... extremely tired and Done With The WorldTM all the time and will not hesitate to cut a bitch if provoked (though they actually do keep the others out of a fair amount of trouble so. kudos to them for that) 

their basic appearance is this: they’re tall (5′11 to be exact, and still only the second tallest out of everyone lmao), have p pale skin seeing as they hardly ever go outside, and their hair is multicolored- purple is the base color, and they have a lot of blue, pink, green, etc mixed in with it. their right eye is brown and the left is blue, and they have a bunch of freckles as well as permanent eye bags from lack of sleep. their expression is almost constantly a mix of ‘I’m-too-tired-for-this-shit’ and ‘what-the-fuck-did-you-do-this-time’ (and yes, they do swear this much) 

they wear a long black-and-purple jacket over a grey turtleneck, and various colors of jeans for pants. for shoes they tend to switch between house slippers, tall boots, and bare feet (’shoes are for the week’ is a sentiment shared among many of my characters) 

and then there’s one last important feature of theirs- their wings. 

yup. Byrd is part bird, or at least is very birdlike. (in all honestly I’m not sure where they got their wings....? my world’s lore is extremely convoluted, just go with it hgfdfgh)

I actually decided they had wings after I chose their name. y’see, a big problem with me creating characters and making them complicated is that I tend to forget extremely important information about them if I don’t keep it readily accessible- such as. their last name (a lot of them don’t even have last names?? as you can see I am not amazing at character building). so I unintentionally made their name a pun?? go me I guess, having the same idea twice just in completely different ways 😎

not exactly sure what the color scheme for their wings is yet, but they’ll probably either be black with purple undertones (bc black and purple is their color scheme apparently), or some kind of mixed brown colors? I can see them with either. the build of their wings is..... large. they have kinda a huge wingspan, and their wings are built for soaring. (I was planning to give them crow wings but I looked it up and crows have a different type of wing, might still give them crow feathers though!!) they take some of the others on flights sometimes when they do leave the house, and they all absolutely love it- getting flown by Elis is practically a sacred group activity asdfgfd

(I was gonna leave off here but I remembered a few other facts I wanted to share, in the name of keeping it short enough to actually read I’m just gonna make a bullet point list)

• everyone- and I mean *everyone* in the group, including their reformed antagonist Lavka who couldn’t give a flying fuck about “”emotions”” or at least so he says- calls them “Zaza”. parent friend should have a parent nickname, right? it’s basically the nonbinary version of Mama or Papa and was initially a joke, but now it’s just their nickname

• they know?? a bunch of languages??? and no one knows why????? as well as the common language for their world, they’re fluent in sign language, morse code, and. latin. (or the fantasy equivalent of latin, old dead language, generally creepy) and that’s just the ones the rest of the group know about

• continuation of the last one, one of my characters is completely nonverbal and talks w sign language. none of them knew Elis knew it so they had some of the others translate for them until they revealed that they knew it, which is a scene I haven’t quite figured out yet but trust me it will be extremely surprising to all of them and it will most definitely be funny

• on the other hand if they didn’t know it before they met everyone else and just learned it in like a week? absolutely beautiful

• wing cuddles!! this is not at all important but I just find the idea of them hugging the others with their wings so cute asgfds

• they’re waaay too good at card + dice games. they get accused of cheating every time they play (they’re not though, they just have great technique and a lucky streak) and they’re banned from family game nights bc they win every time

and this concludes my explanation of Elis Byrd, the parent friend. they may commit felonies on a daily basis but they do their best to keep everyone safe and I love them very much :] I shall leave you with this picrew I made of them!! (they didn’t have any wing options that matched theirs, but it’s pretty close otherwise)