#there is no plot but just reading about these cats are cute enough to carry the whole novel lol

[bellaroles]

Plot? What plot? All I see is one cat slave who’s the best seafood chef in the kingdom and a whole family of royal cats that always either eat, play fighting with each other and sleep like all cats do!

[howsitduud]

Ranking Every Single Piece of Media I Watched/Played/Read in 2024 Part 2

This is part 2 to this post. I'm not explaining the premise of this list again. This is ranked from worst to best. Let's-a-go.

Rye Lane - 7/10 - I didn’t like it nearly as much as other people, mostly because I’m just biased against rom coms, but this is one of the best-made rom coms I’ve seen. I love all the cool touches and cinematography they add, like Yas’ play or Love Gu’Actually. It does dip into tired rom com tropes by the end, but I still had a blast with this movie.

Robot Dreams - 7/10 - Cute little animated movie about this gay ass dog and robot. The story went in a way I wasn’t expecting, and that ending in particular hit me emotionally. Funnily enough, this has a similar plot to Past Lives, but did it a hundred times better. That’s embarrassing.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - 7/10 - Pretty fun movie and that’s about it. The human plot wasn’t too interesting, but Jia and Trapper were cool characters, but the Kaiju action is where this movie shines, especially the suplex. It’s fun, it looks pretty good, it has good action, it’s about what you expect from a Monsterverse movie.

Ponyo - 7/10 - What a delightful little movie. Its lack of plot is carried by an insanely fun world and charming as hell protagonist. The animation and music are also great, as per tradition with a Ghibli movie. It’s not one of their best, but still worth watching if you haven’t.

Ouija: Origin of Evil - 7/10 - Who’d thought that a movie about a Ouija board would be really good? This movie has plenty of really cool filmmaking, writing, and acting that lets it earn every single scary moment it pulls off. I highly recommend this movie, and as a plus, you don’t need to watch the first to get context!

The Cat Returns - 7/10 - I wanna fuck the Baron. I know the animation is great and the story is super simple, but super fun and all the characters are memorable and it’s probably one of the funnier Ghibli movies, but who cares about all that when I can just fantasize about marrying a fictional cat?

Love Lies Bleeding - 7/10 - I LOVE LESBIANS! Aside from that, this movie is pretty fun, well acted, and the plot is the definition of “never let em know your next move.” Basically, it’s exactly like Drive-Away Dolls, but actually good.

Niel Gaimen’s Norse Mythology - 7/10 - Tumblr superstar Mr. Gaiman strikes again. This is a well-written, fun collection of tales of Loki’s bizarre adventures. I especially like how the last 3 stories led into each other, but I wish that more of the stories did that.

Jackie Brown - 7/10 - While not as fun or action-packed as other Tarantino movies, this is still a well-acted, well-written crime drama. Shoutout to Pam Grier and Sam Jackson for acting their asses off and shoutout to the ending for sucking eggs.

The Secret World of Arrietty - 7/10 - This is one of my partner’s favorite Ghibli movies, so I legally can’t say anything bad about it. Luckily I don’t have to, since this is a really solid movie. I love Arrietty as a protagonist, Haru is a funny villain, and this movie is just overall really cozy. I want to live in that tiny dollhouse holy shit.

Pearl - 7/10 - I think I watched these out of order since I saw this before X but oh well. I expected this movie to have good acting and a lot of tense, gorey scenes, but I didn’t expect it to be as pretty as it was. The color palette and aesthetic of this movie is unnerving in itself and I love it.

Deadpool & Wolverine - 7/10 - This is a really fun, campy, gorey as hell entry into the Deadpool trilogy and a good way to introduce him to the MCU as a whole. The Fox cameos were handled well, Hugh Jackman’s performance was really good for a movie like this, but with how hyped up it was and how great Deadpool 2 is, I was expecting a lot more.

DnD: Honor Among Thieves - 7/10 - Super fun, but not super deep movie. This scratches the itch that the other DnD movies didn’t where I wanted to see cool magical stuff with a bunch of likable characters. There are plenty of emotional moments to get you invested with the gang too, even if the comedy took me out of the movie entirely.

Furiosa - 7/10 - I’ve only seen 2 Mad Max movies so far, but I’m already a fan. The action is awesome, the cinematography is great, and I love the worldbuilding here. If the characters were better (Furiosa and Dementus were great though), then this movie would be as good as Fury Road.

The Wind Rises - 8/10 - I didn’t really get invested in this movie at first, but once the fire over Tokyo happens, this movie really grows on me. The animation and sound design of the planes are beautiful, the love story is so heartbreaking and well-told, and Stanley Tucci as Caproni is a 10/10 performance. Watch the English dub if you haven’t, it’s so good.

Anatomy of a Fall - 8/10 - Yeah, this movie has amazing writing and acting and a great plot where you slowly but surely unravel a mysterious case where there’s no single one person you can truly trust, but what the hell is up with the prosecutor and why was he such a bitch? Miles Edgeworth lookin ass headass

Mean Girls - 8/10 - Why do y’all hate this movie so much, it’s so fun. I’m normally against remakes of movies that don’t need it, but the script retooling and the musical numbers really help this movie stand apart from the original. Oh, yeah and Renee Rapp is amazing, but you already knew that.

MLPEG: Sunset’s Backstage Pass - 8/10 - This is the good shit. I love time loop stories, and Sunset going through the same concert over and over is a fun premise where she learns to give Pinkie a proper date night. Also the Dazzlings returning is better than the second coming of Christ.

Super Mario Land 2 - 8/10 - This game is just so charming. It controls pretty floaty and is nearly incomprehensible when played on actual hardware, but I love everything else about it. The sprites are beautiful, even for a Gameboy game, the worlds and bosses have so much personality, and the Carrot powerup is so fun. For the last 2D Mario game for 12 years, it’s a pretty good one.

The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs - 8/10 - This is such a fun play. It’s about a lady who got abandoned by a guy getting back at him by crossdressing and fucking with him, and it’s great. Most of the characters are interesting, it’s pretty funny despite its age, and I can fix Don Juan.

Civil War - 8/10 - This movie’s marketing basically made it destined to be controversial, but I thought it was pretty good. The characters and acting are incredibly good, the visuals and camerawork are incredible, and the apolitical nature helps us focus on how traumatizing a war can be. ‘Nuff said, really.

MLPEG: Forgotten Friendship - 8/10 - Yeah, these shorts peaked with the first one. Kinda sad, but this is a great story. The plot is interesting and tense, Sunset and Trixie being friends is pretty cool, and Sunset going back to Equestria and making up with Celestia is just chef’s kiss. Easily the best EG content since Rainbow Rocks.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - 8/10 - This counts as Ghibli, right? If so, what an incredible first movie for them. The animation is stunning, the characters range from ok but underbaked to one of my personal favorite Ghibli protags, and I love Teto so much. He’s baby.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes - 8/10 - Apparently all you need to create one of the most creative sci-fi movies of the 2020s is just a GoPro filming your friends nonstop for 70 minutes. The time travel and single-shot gimmick are great and the characters are all fun. Kinda wanted it to be longer tho…

Mary and Max - 8/10 - A very sweet, wholesome movie with a heartbreaking ending. I love the motif of the only dialogue in the movie being through characters’ letters and I especially love the look of the movie. One of the finest stop motion-animated movies

MLP: The Best Gift Ever - 8/10 - What a delightful time. Unlike Rainbow Roadtrip, the longer runtime doesn’t drag, but it gives everyone plenty of screentime with some great moments, like Rarity’s interactions with Pistachio, Applejack and Fluttershy outing Flim and Flam, and literally everything Discord does and says.

Only Yesterday - 8/10 - Guys, I think Isao Takahata is good at making movies. I love all of Taeko’s flashbacks and how they inform her decisions and mindsets going into her adult life visiting the countryside. I only wish the other characters outside of her were stronger and I also wish Tara Strong was in the movie more.

Penny’s Big Breakaway - 8/10 - This game is just super sillie. My favorite thing in games is when they have cool movement tech and this game is 80% cool movement tech. Penny controls super well, the art style is fun, the secrets are fun to find, and the characters are really charming. If the boss fights didn’t suck eggs then I would call this game a masterpiece.

The Fall Guy - 8/10 - David Leitch might be one of the best newer directors working right now. Between this, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2, I’d say that he really knows his stuff when it comes to action-comedies, and it’s a shame this movie didn’t do that well. Maybe it can have a new life on streaming or VOD, because this movie is great.

Die Hard - 8/10 - I finally watched it this Christmas, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. The action and the sneaking around scenes are really good, but the true highlight here is how great of characters John McClane and Hans Gruber are. Especially Hans; Alan Rickman worked wonders.

Clue - 8/10 - I love pulpy-ass murder mysteries, and this scratches that itch perfectly. It has such an insane and fun mystery to follow throughout, the characters are funny and well acted, and there are so many quotable lines. I also love how they made 3 endings that they shipped to different theaters all at once. I wish I could be that much of an agent of chaos.

Inside Out 2 - 8/10 - It’s nowhere near as funny, interesting, or creative as the first movie, but it’s still really damn good. The new emotions are all great and super fun, the old emotions have enough good character writing to not be stale, and it’s still emotional as hell and fun as hell. Lance Slashblade is what the people who made Ralph Breaks the Internet thought they were making.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - 8/10 - Not a super deep or complex game, but such a fun one. The shooting’s great, but the framing device of an old cowboy telling tales with you playing out the tales as he tells them is just perfect. I also didn’t know that Dwight Eisenhower was such a twink.

Memoir of a Snail - 8/10 - Same story as Mary and Max, honestly. Another beautifully animated stop-motion movie with a great story and heart to it. It’s a lot more somber than Mary and Max, but that just means that the emotions hit even harder. Also gay son snail daughter

Orion and the Dark - 8/10 - One of the most underrated movies I’ve ever seen. This movie excels with its creative animation and incredible script by Charlie Kaufman. Dark, Orion, and Hypatia are all great characters and it's a shame that this movie didn’t get the marketing it needed to be popular. It deserves all the popularity, more than Kung Fu Panda 4, that’s for sure.

The Chalice of the Gods - 8/10 - Oh, we are so back. I don’t know what there is to say about this book that isn’t obvious. It’s really fun and there are some great character moments, especially towards the end with the fight with Geras. Shoutout to my boy Elisson, he’s done nothing wrong.

The Zone of Interest - 8/10 - The first hour of this movie is a perfect experience, with visceral sound design and haunting directing making me feel deeply uncomfortable and genuinely depressed at what’s really going on beyond the wall. The next 40 minutes or so are really boring and tedious, with none of the same spunk the first hour had, save for the ending. That first hour is so good that it carries the movie, and it deserves all the praise it gets.

Super Mario Party Jamboree - 8/10 - I don’t usually rate party games this highly, so that’s how you know this is a great one! It feels the most like a celebration of every single Mario Party that came before it, with plenty of modes and minigames outside of the regular party mode. Plus you can finally play as Pauline so that shot it up like 5 spots for me.

Amphibia - 8/10 - Another Disney Channel banger. I don’t like it nearly as much as its sister show, the Owl House, but I still loved the characters, setting, and the overall plot had me invested, even though I knew most of the big spoilers going in. I could’ve used more Hop Pop centric episodes, though.

The Boys S4 - 8/10 - One of the only things reaffirming my love of comic book adaptations is still great. Aside from some weak plotlines, it’s still as funny, biting, well-acted and well-written as ever. Stronger than the last season and it’s setting up for an amazing final season.

Wicked - 8/10 - I saw the original musical when I was a kid, and this movie translated the first act pretty well. Yeah, the lighting and the CGI is pretty ugly, but the practical sets stood out as incredibly pretty. Oh yeah, and the singing and the songs were exceptionally pretty, as is expected from a musical. This should’ve been called Wicked Act I instead of Part I. Are they stupid?

Asura’s Wrath - 8/10 - On a storytelling, writing, and character perspective, it is easily one of the best on this entire list. Asura is an incredible character, the story is gripping, and the action is insane, especially when you factor in the DLC. As a game, though… it’s alright, I guess. I’m not a fan of the hack-and-slash segments and the QTEs are fun, but I wish that there were more of those and less mindless button mashing.

The Office - 8/10 - Yeah, that’s right! I finally got around to watching one of the most critically acclaimed sitcoms of all time, and I really enjoyed it. There are some characters I wound up hating by the end and I especially didn’t enjoy seasons 1,8, and 9 that much, but it’s overall a funny show. maybe a lil overrated ok byeeeeeeeee

Fun Home - 8/10 - What a fucking book. The way Alison’s prose is realized through incredibly verbose, but still thought-provoking and stimulating text accompanied by beautiful artwork is just a sight to behold. I haven’t found a slime tutorial of it, but I hope the musical lives up to this standard.

Sorry to Bother You - 8/10 - I love a good, weird-ass movie. I couldn’t predict any single part of this movie’s plot, from the caller revolution to Patton Oswald white person voice to the horse people to the hilarious ending. There are some scenes that don’t fit the tone or vibes at all, but it’s still a great time that I think about a lot.

Invincible S2 - 8/10 - I mean, what’d you expect from Invincible? It’s not as good as the first season and that mid-season break definitely soured this show in my eyes, but I still loved every bit of it. The Mark/Nolan plot is still gripping, the side characters really shined this season, and the animation is beautiful. Oh yeah, and the Atom Eve special was also good.

Dykes to Watch Out For - 9/10 - A fun as hell, emotional as hell comic strip series by the Bechdel test lady herself. Most of the characters are great and super well written, and it puts a whole new light on LGBT issues dating all the way back to the 80s. I found Moe to be a bad protag at first, but seeing people on Twitter act exactly like her on a daily basis, I think she was properly done.

I’m in Love with the Villainess - 9/10 - The age of male loser anime is dead. Long live the age of female loser anime. This anime is just a blast from start to finish. Most of the characters and worldbuilding are nice, but Rae and Clare’s romance is the star of the show here. Rae just like me fr

Angel Hare - 9/10 - I am not an analog horror person, but goddamn I clicked so hard with Angel Hare. I’m not sure whether or not we can call this “horror” at all, but I loved all the characters, I love the style and the visuals, and I especially loved the messages and the themes, especially in seasons 2 and 3.

Killers of the Flower Moon - 9/10 - What a movie. I love Scorcese and all his best movies, but I didn’t believe he had this kind of story inside of him. A story that’s complex and pays respects to Native American history and culture so well, with performances that go beyond typical Scorcese directing and have a shit ton of nuance to them. Lily Gladstone deserved an Oscar goddamnit.

Dungeon Meshi S1 - 9/10 - This anime is so fun. The story and setting are intense and cool with how it deals with life and death, but the characters are the highlights here. All the main cast are memorable, likable, and have their moments to shine throughout the season. I’m rooting for Farcille all the way, babyyyyy.

Princess Peach: Showtime - 9/10 - This is a game I was so excited for this year and it fuckin delivered. I absolutely adore the art style of this game and how it incorporates elements from live theater. The gameplay (besides the Detective parts) is also a ton of fun. Turns out this was the Barbie game I needed in my life.

My Adventures with Superman S2 - 9/10 - Now this is my kind of Superman. I love everything about this show, from the writing to the animation to the characters to the action, it’s all so well done. It is kinda derivative of other cartoons, but that’s not enough to make me prefer this version of Superman over most others across fiction.

Transformers One - 9/10 - After watching all of the live action Transformers movies this year, I’d almost forgotten what a real Transformers movie is like. Yes, the humor doesn’t really work. Yes, B is unlikable as hell. I don’t care. This movie excels in just how perfect the story, twists, and characters are. This is exactly the Transformers movie I’ve always wanted.

Princess Mononoke - 9/10 - What if Pocahontas was actually good and subversive and had a ton of meaning? This movie is dark in all the best ways, with the inherent goodness of Ashitaka’s character creating some genuinely emotional and beautiful scenes. But god, we can cut like 15 minutes off the ending, yall.

Dune Part Two - 9/10 - My favorite Dune movie so far. It has the extraordinary filmmaking that the first Villeneuve Dune had, but this part has an exciting and interesting plot throughout. There are some great action setpieces, charming characters, and that ending is just beautiful. Plus, this is the orangest movie of all time, which was for me specifically and I appreciate that.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - 9/10 - If this is how all the Fire Emblem games are, then I have missed out on some good shit. The characters and story are fun, but the gameplay is so incredibly engaging and compelling (outside the minigames in the monastery). Also, Edelgard is the best character. You can’t convince me otherwise.

The Bear - 9/10 - Damn this show is just as good as everyone says it is. The editing and camerawork are both great, but the characters are the highlights here. Carmie has a great personal story, Sydney and Richie have great episodes, and most of the side characters are memorable and fantastic. Except for fucking Claire Bear.

Look Back - 9/10 - How is this movie even real? How can you pack such an incredibly rich, heartbreaking story coupled with gorgeous animation and incredible character writing and only have it clock under an hour. Please watch this movie above any others on this list. If this doesn’t get nominated for Best Animated Feature I will shit myself.

Twisted - 9/10 - How have I not watched Twisted up until this year? This musical is so funny, so emotional, and the songs fuck hard. How is Take Off Your Clothes one of the best villain songs of all time? How did this even happen? Why did the Aladdin movie neglect such an important character like Prince Achmed? DISNEY YOU HACKS

Godzilla Minus One - 9/10 - The best Godzilla film I’ve seen so far. Obviously, Godzilla was the highlight, being an absolute menace who is just incredible to watch tear through Japan, but the human conflicts with Shikishima, Tachibana, and Noriko were really compelling. I wish Noriko didn’t miraculously come back from the dead at the end, but it’s a small blemish on an otherwise perfect kaiju movie.

Grave of the Fireflies - 9/10 - Jesus fucking Christ. This movie is so beautiful and so devastating in so many ways. The animation is gorgeous, the story is heartbreaking, and Seiko and Setsuko are some of my favorite protagonists in any Ghibli film. But seriously, fuck this movie for making me feel these kinds of emotions.

Undertale - 9/10 - I don’t even need to explain why this game is so good. It can get repetitive going back to get different endings, but the writing, combat, and characters make it so that it’s never boring. It’s currently one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Also, that Alphys and Undyne date was the cutest shit I’ve ever seen.

X-Men ‘97 - 9/10 - I’ve never seen the original cartoon from ‘92, but if it’s anything like this show, I’ll be in for a treat. The animation is stunning, especially during the action scenes, and it adapts the X-Men comics in an incredible way. The rest of the modern Marvel movies should take some notes.

Poor Things - 9/10 - The best of the Best Picture nominees this year. It’s funny, creative, visually gorgeous, and Bella carries the movie in terms of emotional moments. It’s so fun seeing her figure out the world in her own, unique, risque way. Yorgos hasn’t missed once and this is no exception.

Fallout: New Vegas - 9/10 - If this game didn’t crash so much, it’d be a 10/10 easily. But the bugginess of the game and the fact that there were no options to get places quickly if you haven’t discovered them makes it so that I don’t think this is the masterpiece other people think it is. With that said, it’s still Fallout: New Vegas. The combat is fun, the characters are great, and the world is just spectacular. No wonder other trans women love this game so much.

The Wild Robot - 10/10 - You know, Dreamworks, I don’t know went to quit ya. What a masterful experience watching this movie was. The animation is godlike, the score incredible, and Roz’s journey throughout the movie being something I just instantly clicked with. I’m ok with the bad sequels if that means they pay for more movies like this.

Blue Eye Samurai S1 - 10/10 - Easily one of my favorite shows ever now. The animation is beautiful, the action is gory and creative, the characters range from super compelling to super endearing, especially Mizu, and the writing is some of the best I’ve seen from a Netflix show. I hope the next season is good, if it ever comes out, which isn’t a guarantee knowing Netflix.

ok bye

[theredcapeofk]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @fazedlight for the tag!!

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

I have three main sources of inspiration:

my own brain where my ship and fandoms live rent-free.

tumblr: other people's works keep the passion alive and new ideas coming

discussing the ships and fandoms with other fans

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

So many of you guys do inspire me for so many different reasons it's hard to make a list.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

I love to have Eliza around she brings a sense of calm and reassurance to my scenes. I also love to have Esme, she's so cute and I like having her melt everyone's hearts from sheer cuteness.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

Writing and reading fanfics have taught me that my views tend to change on ships and tropes. So my never today could inspire me tomorrow.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

I don't know about a writing process... I get an inspiration and start writing. Sometimes I outline longer fics and sometimes the stories cannot be outlined so I let it write itself as I go. Of course I make the whole thing coherent.

If that wasn't cursed enough, I'll just add that there are times where my brain just won't English so I have to think my writing in French and translate it.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

The outpour of inspiration that makes me write until my eyes/fingers hurt

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

I honestly don't remember. But every research I ever make for a fic is a fall down the rabbit hole. You start by a word research and two hours later you end up watching a tutorial on how to comb a Giraffe's hair...(It never actually happened, but you get my point lol)

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

Sometimes all of the above plus typos and the sequence of tenses? This used to never be a problem, but the further I get from my English classes the blurrier sequence of tenses become.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Fight scenes and action scenes. Like how am I supposed to describe who does what and how...?

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

Very often. In Change my Direction Kara was supposed to heal a lot faster. And then she didn't and here we are lol. In My Eyes are Up Here Kara was supposed to spill the secret sooner but she couldn't. And in a project I'm still working on on the rift era, Lena was supposed to cave in sooner but she's stubborn lol

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Definitely Kara and Lena. I have so many questions and I would love their take on what canon left unsaid. I would also like to speak to Brainy and Cat. I would pester Brainy about the 31st century to know the extent of Kara's and Lena's legacy. I'd ask Cat how she managed to create Catco and also what finally gave Kara away.

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Kara and Lena are always idiots in love in my fics and when they do admit their feelings to each other, they only live for one another.

As for themes, I tend to come back to the rift era because canon created a tension that needed solving and their version only broached the surface. And this conflict brought so many things to the surface for the characters there are so many alternate answers to be given I feel that it's an exploration that keeps on giving.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

My phone. I've been writing mostly on my phone for years and I love the flexibility it gives me. I can carry it around with me and write whenever inspiration strikes.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

You guys actually have strategies for that? Hahaha. What I tend to do, is highlight words or sentences as I go along. Then, when I'm done with a chapter, I put the fic away for a few days and then I start re-reading the chapter from the start. Best-case scenario I take the highlights off, worst-case scenario I highlight more stuff lol. As some words need translating I try to do this step incrementally because I know how long or hard the language check can be.

When I get stuck to a point where I can't move on, I beg my English speaking friends for help. @lenaralanvers has helped me so much since 2021

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

The summary is always my absolute nemesis

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I think I define it from the hits.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

I do have a playlist for Supercorp and it's always growing. There's a lot of Celine Dion and Greek pop songs in it. There's something about Celine Dion's voice and late 90's and early 2000's songs that just screams Supercorp to me. The Greek pop songs have a special way of expressing pain and regret that fits perfectly with the rift era.

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

If I had to pick someone, I would commission them :). maybe 2024 is the year I finally do this.

And if anyone wants to create fanart from any of my fics please feel free to.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

Phew...tough question! I don't have time to actually count them all, but I'd say twelve? out of the top of my head. Some will be one shots, some will hopefully become multichapters.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

If you want to write fanfic go for it. Don't let anything or anyone stop you from ever writing. Never plagiarize anyone and if you get your inspiration from someone, always give credit.

- - - - -

Tagging (respectfully and without pressure). If you've done the game before, feel free to send me a link to it ;) @chaotic-super, @lenaralanvers , @inkedroplets , @fyonahmacnally if you want some rapid-fire q's thrown your way. But also anyone who'd like to do this!

[tharros-auris-black-asimi]

Like real people do (Chapter 2)

Pairing: Dark Priest Bucky Barnes x Singer Reader

Summary: Six months after meeting the Priest of the Catholic Church on the opening night of Faust, James has finally told you the truth about himself. You however, unable to cope with this new set of information, decide to take a little vacation away, in order to process your thoughts.

James though? James is utterly and completely devasted by this new development. The man has become a reclused shell of himself.

Your siblings though? They just want their boss to stop moping and get his shit back together. With no other choice in the matter, your siblings and Natalia Alianova Romanov scheme to get the two of you back together.

Because if the two of you won't make a move, then they will.

Chapter Warnings: Modern AU, Bucky and the Reader being pining idiots, angst, Star and Alpine mourning for each other, hijinks, the Three Stooges and Natalia being matchmakers, plot twists, and flashbacks.

Additional Notes: I'm not sorry. Please tell me how crappy my plot twists are in the comments or reblogs.

Any suggestions would be welcome! Like, for real.

As always, if you'd like to read this chapter on my AO3, you can read it here.

Word Count: 6745

That following day, with you...

When you got up the following day, very early in the morning in your hotel room so you could get to the airport— you could feel it.

This felt odd.

You felt odd.

Everything felt as if it was out of place.

Even Star, when you got up, noticed. She had lifted her head up, even before you had quietly told her to get up.

She knew.

It was time to go home.

Star had lounged on your bed as she watched you quickly look over everything. You were going to be arriving at the airport a good two hours early, because that way, you could beat traffic. Not to mention, you’d have more than enough time to buy yourself some breakfast and coffee. After feeding Star a quick breakfast, you went back to looking over your things and packing stuff you might have missed.

Once she saw that you had finished gathering your things, Star jumped down. Like the good Chihuahua that she was, she allowed you to put her in her harness. Clipping the buckle on, she watched as you buckled her dog collar on too. It was a nice pink one, to match her harness. Her dog tag was silver, and on the back of it was her name in a nice font, with your contact information on down below it.

Shaking herself off in order to wake herself up a bit, Star whined at you. Even pawed towards your direction.

She missed the big guy. And his cat.

Mostly his cat. But him too.

Watching as you pulled up your suitcase handle by pressing that weird thingy in the middle, you softly spoke to her.

“Okay. I think we’re ready to go.”

Getting to the airport hadn’t been hard. You had paid for an Uber and your Uber driver had been a fast one. You had gotten there in less than ten minutes.

Star, on the other hand, was completely and utterly spooked. When she heard you thank the Uber driver, she immediately jumped out after you had opened the door to get out. After getting your suitcase from the trunk, you and Star made your way inside the airport.

A quick check-in later with your luggage and your carry-on later, you headed your merry down to the escalator with Star, who was more than happy to head up the weird contraception. A few kids, as they passed by you, pointed enthusiastically at their parents, squealing in Greek about the doggie. You had no idea what they were saying, but you were pretty sure they were talking about how cute she was.

Star lifted her head up in a snotty way. Oh, she was proud. She was very, very proud. She knew she was cute. People should fawn over her. As they should.

Happily walking up to the little Starbucks place after going to the little McDonald’s, you ordered your usual. Caffée Latte but with almond milk. After getting your drink with a scone, you and Star walked back to your seat at the gate.

Munching down on your breakfast, your ever-loyal companion stood guard, watching everyone walk by her. Even though it was five AM in the morning, there were people getting on and off flights.

Finally, after an hour, your flight was called and you got onto the plane. Settling into your seat after putting your suitcase in the compartment above you. Star hopped into your lap, turning a few times before she settled down. Nestling her head into your jeans, Star began to snooze off.

Your hand slipped into your jacket pocket, pulling out your AirPod case. Taking out your AirPods, you connected them to your phone before putting a random song on. AirPods in your ears, you closed your eyes, falling asleep with your precious loyal doggie companion on your lap.

With Bucky, around the afternoon in Russia…

“Okay. You need to listen to me. Okay? Stop moping. Good God— this is like when Yelena didn’t invite you to her Sweet Sixteen all over again.”

Natalia watched as James gave her a glare.

Like how he had been looking at everyone ever since he walked into the main headquarters.

And quite frankly, she was sick and tired of seeing him look like a kicked puppy. It was for a better word, annoying.

When she had come to visit him, because it was an off-day from rehearsals, she had been fully prepared to see the person whom she always had thought of as a brother moping.

But not this hard.

“I had a right to be moping that one time. She didn’t even tell me she wanted to be spending her birthday in Morocco.”  James snapped at the redhead.

Natalia just let out a frustrated groan, face-palming herself so loud, that maybe the mob in the next state over would have even heard it. “Yasha,”  she said slowly as if she was talking to a mere little child, “… everyone knew that she wanted to spend her birthday in Morocco. She even texted the fucking group chat. You’re in the group chat.”

James didn’t have an answer to that.

Expressing a sigh, she leaned back in her chair. Switching to English, “Listen, Yasha. I came here to tell you that you need to get off your ass. And also— I told you so.”

James scowled at her. Giving her the ugliest look imaginable. “I told you to tell her sooner, rather than later. You promised her siblings you would tell her right after the holidays were done. Did you forget or something? This isn’t like you, Yasha!”

“Come on Yasha! I told you when I gave you my blessing to date my best friend that I told you to be honest with her! You promised me that you would be honest with her, for fucks sake! What happened to that, huh? Did you just forget? Were you that pussy whipped?”

“Of course not!”

Natalia didn’t even flinch when James slammed his hands on the table, looking over at her as his back bent over, looking at her with absolute fury in his eyes. “I thought about it every fucking day,” he seethed through his teeth, “I thought about telling her every day for six months. But I couldn’t do it.”

“Why not!” she exclaimed.

“Because I love her, Natalia! Okay? I love her and I’m fucking selfish!” James bellowed.

This time, Natalia did flinch.

For as long as she had known James, she had never really seen him express his feelings. Sure, he had been a ladies' man in his day before he had been drafted into the army but after… after, it seemed as if a switch had been flipped within him. He hadn’t been able to quite express himself when they had been young children, but after coming back from war, it seemed that the secluded boy she had known in her youth had become quiet.

Especially after Dreykov had died from a heart attack and James had taken his place. Natalia just assumed that everything would just be normal.

But then, James had to go off and become a damn priest for the Catholic church as a fucking side gig.

A fucking side gig!

And then, as if her life couldn’t get chaotic enough— the opening night of Faust had come and then, James saw you.

She knew that look.

Oh yes, Natalia Ailanova Romanov knew that look of James quite well. It was the look that he wore when he knew he wanted something.

But the first look she had seen of his… that smitten look… she had never seen that before.

Just like the look of pure pain and grief that was currently on his face.

Natalia had never seen those looks before. Ever in her life.

So seeing this?

It was strange. Very, very strange.

“I’m in love with her, Natalia. I wanna marry her.”  James mourned, looking so sad that she even had to admit that she felt bad for him.

Natalia crossed her arms at him. “I’m not telling you this as her best friend, Yasha. I’m telling you as yours. You should have been honest with her from the start. If she ever comes back, give her space to continue to think things over. Don’t be so clingy. And also, stop moping— it’s a terrible look on you.”

With that said and done, Natalia stood up from the chair and abruptly walked out of James’s office, closing the door behind her. Walking down the long hallway, she was suddenly pulled into a different hallway.

“… What happened in there?”  A man’s voice hissed to her.

Scott.

Pursing her lips at him, the redhead answered him. “I told Yasha to get his head out of his ass. He admitted he’s in love with our dear Songbird.”

Numerous facepalms echoed.

“Anyone with eyes could see that. Literally anyone.”

Natalia was sure that had been Kurt muttering to himself. She was sure about that.

“Well, James wasn’t really all that… observant with his feelings,” Sharon commented lightly. Carefully choosing her words. But, Natalia let out a snort anyway. “Clearly,” was her deadpanned reply.

“Anywho—“ Natalia clicked her acrylic red nails together, “… we need a new change of plan.”

“A new change of plan?” Kurt echoed. “For what?” he was baffled.

“To get Yasha and Songbird back together so he can stop moping, obviously,” Natalia said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Is that even a good idea?” Scott piped up, looking a little skeptical. Kurt gave a somewhat of a grunting noise. It sounded like he very much agreed with his brother.

“Would you prefer Yasha moping and drinking? Being an absolute and utter mess? Would you also prefer our precious Songbird be sad and depressed all the time?”

Especially because Yasha’s the reason why our Songbird isn’t a virgin anymore?

But Natalia didn’t dare say that knowledge into the world. No, she did not. Because quite frankly, it was no one’s business who you slept with. That was in between you and you alone.

And sure, she had been the one to encourage the relationship between you and James. She would fully admit that when James had called her later that night after she had come home with her little sister Yelena back to the Romanov home, that she had suggested for James to pursue a relationship with you.

The redhead had finished getting ready for the night, gently pressing the towel in between her ginger locks gently, to get any water from it so her hair could dry faster.

And all of a sudden, her phone began to beep and buzz from on top of her dresser near her bed. Finishing patting her hair dry, she put her towel down and walked to her bed. Picking up her phone from her dresser, she clicked the green button and put her phone against her ear.

“Hello?”

“Natalia.”

“Yasha?”

To say she was mildly surprised was an understatement. Yasha usually never called this late.

“What’s up? You never call this late,” Natalia slipped on a pair of sweats as she smoothed down her tank top. Placing her phone back on top of her dresser, she clicked the speaker button. Yasha’s voice floated out into the room. Like sunlight pouring into a church.

“The opera singer.”

“Which opera singer, Yasha?’ Natalia sighed. “We have more than one, you know. We’re an opera house.”

Not appreciating his childhood friend’s sass towards him at this very moment in time, James rolled his eyes from where he was in his own home. Alpine herself was happily playing with her yarn ball, the white feline perched on her back as she pawed at her toy. Clearly distracted and not paying attention to her cat daddy who was also busy at this very moment.

“The actress that played Marguerite.”

One of Natalia’s eyebrows rose in consideration. She uttered your name in surprise, taken aback. “Why? Did you not like her performance? Papa said that he would have made her the lead and not the understudy, had she not been able to dance better than Hope. Hope’s always been the much better dancer than she is.”

“No, no.” James sounded a little irritated from his line. “I quite liked her performance. You know I did.”

Yes, she had seen the look that James had given you. When she had been on stage with the other ballet rats. She had noticed. She had seen the look you had given him, too when you had finally locked eyes with the man. She had seen it clear as day.

The redhead had known, had gotten a sneaking suspicion that something was going to brew between the two of you.

She just hadn’t anticipated that it was going to happen this quickly.

Not this quickly. It was quick. Even for James.

“Yasha,” Natalia sighed, and James knew he was in for yet another lecture that the redhead was going to give him, “… look, alright—“ she rubbed her temples a little, to try and ease the incoming headache. “I wouldn’t discourage you in trying to pursue something with her. I won’t. I love you. You’re like my brother. But… she’s like a sister to me, Yasha. You have to know that. I’ve known her for a long time. We grew up together during the summers that she would be singing with us when we were kids. After all she’s been through… I don’t want to see her get hurt. Don’t hurt her Yasha.”

“I won’t Natalia,” James promised her.

“I won’t.”

So, that turned out to be a huge ass fucking lie.

Even as Natalia loomed on her thoughts and decided what she had wanted to do with Yasha being an absolute fucking dumbass with you, she couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit sorry for him.

Well. Mostly for you, but she felt bad for Yasha too. He looked like a pitiful kicked puppy that just got told that its owner was going to leave them for a short trip without them.

Honestly, it was kinda sad when you thought about it.

But really, Natalia was just sick and tired of hearing about how sad Yasha was all the time. She was sick and tired of looking at him during church every Sunday and knowing that when no one else would be looking at him, that he’d be on his phone and looking at all the pictures he had taken with you over the span of six months.

It was so frustrating! And annoying too! Ugh!

Grumbles came from Kurt and Scott. Sharon had the decency to look sympathetic while Hope was holding back a snicker. Then, when Natalia mentioned James’s mood, her face which was full of amusement dropped. Her lips curled into a deep scowl. “He’s been moping and groaning all week long!” hissed Hope. “Moping, groaning, moaning. And drinking!” She hastily added that last bit, because it was the one that stuck out to her the most.

And! And! Hope had heard Scott mutter over dinner last night that you had told him over the phone that Star, your lovable, brave, precious, and ever-loyal Chihuahua dearly missed her cat friend. Alpine, whenever James would bring her to the office, would walk up and down the halls on patrol.

Like she was doing now. The white feline trotted up to the little group, giving a cute meow. She began to purr when Hope bent down, reaching to scratch her ears from behind. Alpine purred deeply and stretched her hind legs back, her spine curling up in bliss. This led to the brunette opera singer to pick her up and nestle her in her arms as Alpine rubbed her little pink nose on Hope’s cheek. Meowing as purring as she did so.

In truth, Alpine did also miss her golden-furred canine bestie. Star was possibly one of the only slobbering beasts that the cat could consider a friend. As shy and timid as Star was sometimes, the dog proved to be good company. They slept near each other a lot and shared a mutual confusion on why they would hear loud sounds of depravity coming from her cat daddy’s room a lot over the past six months. Now that her dog's best friend had vanished for a week, Alpine was growing concerned. Disturbed. Her doggie friend had never left her for this long before!

Outrageous! It was simply outrageous!

Alpine would be going immediately to her human and she would meow in demand to have her partner in crime back. Because this? This was simply just unacceptable. Any more days she had to suffer without your doggie by her side to cause chaos with?

Truly and totally unacceptable.

However, the white cat purred and preened in Hope’s arms. She listened with keen ears as the humans talk in their weird language back and forth. Natalia and Sharon were animatedly talking about something, and Alpine only picked up on your name. It made her peek her head up to meow in curiosity. Both women stopped their conversation, looking at the white female cat.

“Has Alpine met our little Songbird?” Natalia wondered.

“Do you think she went over to his house?” Scott spoke in horror, his face twisted into what could only be described as him realizing his worst fear had been made a reality.

Kurt cursed in Russian as he shook his head no, obviously trying to deny a fact.

“That’s what you choose to focus on?!” Sharon exclaimed in exasperation. The blonde woman threw her arms up in an I-give-up gesture as Alpine meowed her agreement. “Thank you, Alpie. At least someone here agrees with me.” Inhaling deeply, Sharon gave Alpine the mother of all head rubs in order to calm herself down a little. It only led to Alpine purring louder.

“They saw each other for six months,” Hope pointed out as she shook her head in fondness towards her husband and her brother-in-law, “… they obviously had to have gone to each other’s places at least once.”

Kurt and Scott looked like they were about ready to throw in the towel, up until a light bulb went off in Natalia’s head. Clicking her fake nails together, it caught everyone’s attention.

“There’s a mob gathering next month.”

“Yeah? What about it?”  questioned Scott, who seemed to regain his composure.

“What if we invite our Songbird to come?”  Natalia suggested. “Are you crazy Talia?!”  Kurt hissed to her. “Our dad told her not to tell her about our jobs even if it meant we were in a frigging hospital!”

Natalia’s face softened. “You out of all people here know that she doesn’t remember anything about your jobs. I don’t even know if she even put together the clues. I don’t know if Yasha told her about the rest of you, or if he just told her about him, but if it bothers you that much— you’re better off telling her yourselves. In person.”

“So why is the mob gathering important in this case?”  Kurt questioned. A dark eyebrow raised in consideration and intrigue. “Because Kurt,”  Natalia began to explain as if she was talking to a mere toddler, “… if we invite her, then Yasha will see her. They see each other, Yasha gets emotional or maybe a little bit possessive, they get horny thots, bing bang boom— they probably fuck somewhere secret and they make up. Everyone’s happy.”

Kurt and Scott simply stared at her as if she announced on a wooden box that she was going to cut her hair in a bob, dye it blonde, change her name to Roxie Hart, and join a cabaret show.

“… Please tell me you’re joking…”

“No!”  Natalia glared at the two of them. “I am one-hundred percent serious. Invite her to the mob gathering. Make sure she comes. And go tell her about your damn jobs. Now, if you’ll excuse me—“  Natalia abruptly turned the other way, so she could get the hell outta this shady ass hallway and back to where the front door was— “… I have to go back to the opera house. See you later.”

Leaving your three siblings and Hope Van Dyke dumbfounded on what to do next.

A few days later, at your apartment in Moscow...

After that little pep talk with Natalia, it had led your three half-siblings, sans Hope, to see you at your little cozy apartment a few days later.

All of your three half-siblings were huddled up in your apartment which was still surprisingly clean and not a tornado. Although, your bedroom was a bit of a mess, considering the fact that you were still in the process of unpacking all your shit.

Star was not amused.

Like— at all.

When someone had knocked on your apartment door and rang the doorbell, the golden-furred love of your life had fully been expecting Alpine and the big guy.

She had not been expecting your half-siblings to be at the door looking sheepish and innocent to the point where even she was suspecting something sus was going on.

She was getting real shady vibes from all three of them. So it made sense to her that she watched them all with a critical eye, keeping a sharp glare at them like she imagined their heads popping off. Even growling lowly in warning when one of them tried to talk to her.

Oh yeah. She was pissed.

And who would blame her?

Really?

She was lamenting! Brooding! Howling to all stars in the universe for the feeling of missing her best furry friend and the shenanigans the two would get into together.

Nestling her head on top of her paws, she lowered her eyes to look at your three half-siblings.

“… Is she okay?” Sharon asked you, looking at poor Star, who wasn’t having it at all. Based on the ugly look she was currently giving at the three of them. “She probably thought the two of you would be James or Alpine,” you replied with a sigh as you gave your three siblings a bottle of water each. You plopped back down on your couch with a little grunt. Star, who had gotten up from where she was on the floor, lifted herself up to hop herself onto the couch and onto your lap. Getting herself all nice and comfy, she nestled her head on your lap with a soft rumble. You rubbed her head gently.

“Her and Alpine became friends,” still rubbing Star’s head, a deep whine came from the girl in question. Your poor doggie whined and cried, clearly mourning the loss of her friend.

“Poor baby,” Sharon sympathized, rubbing Star’s spine. Star just continued to whimper and whine. After a little more, she eventually settled down.

“So, why did you guys come and visit me? Usually, you aren’t this urgent.” Leaning back into your couch, you watched your sibling’s faces slowly twist and turn into ones of embarrassment.

“Ah, well, you see…” Scott began to nervously chuckle, which made you raise a brow in interest. “Uh-huh,” you said, bringing the water bottle up to your lips, “… go on.”

“Do you remember when James told you about… you-know-what?” Scott started suggestively as if he was testing the waters.

You couldn’t help but purse your lips.

You even put down your water bottle. Your eyebrows scrunched together, much closer together because you were lowering your face to look down at your coffee table, deep in thought.

A sigh left you as you thought about your week-long vaca in Greece.

Everything bubbled over the surface and suddenly, you didn’t really know if you had really thought things over, forget to process all of this new information at all.

“Yeah. Yeah, I remember Scottie.” was all that came out of your mouth.

“Well…” more nervous chuckling, “… ah… how do I put this…”

“Just spill it out, Scott.” you groaned.

“We work for him.”

You nearly smacked your water bottle away.

“Come again?” you asked in bewilderment. “We work for him. Me. Sharon. Kurt.” Scott spoke again, even helping you out by elaborating his statement.

Silence.

The Three Stooges really thought your brain had stopped working there.

More silence.

Star even lifted her head in disarray, her dark brown eyes wide in horror as your anxious baby crept back against you. When she noticed you were looking a bit shell-shocked, your precious girl lifted her head up and rubbed her face against your chest through the soft material of your shirt, trying to get your attention. Even whining and pawing at you to make you look down at her.

Luckily, it had garnered your attention. You looked down at her, gently petting her head.

Then, you looked back up to your three half-siblings, who looked at you with sheepish looks on their faces.

Instead of anticipating you yelling at them, demanding why you hadn’t been told this vital piece of information, all you did was give them another sigh.

“I knew I should’ve stayed in Greece longer,” you muttered under your breath, resisting the urge to facepalm yourself.

This was simply way too much drama for you to handle.

Way too much.

First, your extremely hot priest boyfriend told you that he was actually a mafia boss and the priest job was just a side gig? And now this?

This?!

Nope.

Nope with a big NOPE.

“Greece is pretty good this time of year,” Sharon added, obviously trying to heighten your spirits.

“Does dad know?” You landed on asking. All three of them nodded in response. “Yeah,” Kurt was speaking now, “—he was the one that sponsored me and Scott. And Sharon, after she pestered him for a million years.” He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that part. Sharon just smacked the back of his head. Kurt just let out a shout, making Star bark in alarm.

Apologizing profusely to the golden-furred canine, Star eventually chose to jump off of your lap and trotted her way into the kitchen to drink some water from her water bowl.

“Also, we wanted to know if you wanted to attend a mob gathering next month,” Kurt asked. You raised a brow again, clearly interested. “Will… will I have to see him?” You asked in an uncertain tone. “I mean, yeah— he’s the regional crime boss. He’s always at events like these. Gotta keep that image nice and squeaky clean, right?” shrugged Kurt.

You chewed on your bottom lip.

At the mention of the big guy, as she had been walking back, Star sat in front of Kurt and wagged her tail on the floor. “Oh, you like him too huh? Like mother like daughter,” Kurt reached down to scratch her behind the ears, which Star greatly appreciated.

“I mean, can you blame me? He’s truly the most Devil Dick I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Bobbing her head up and down, the Three Stooges watched as Star physically voiced her agreement with you on that statement.

“Uh-huh…”

Star moved from her spot, jumping onto Kurt’s lap. She always did like Kurt. He wasn’t as loud as Scott was sometimes, and unlike Sharon, wasn’t eager to involve your precious Chihuahua in his schemes or pranks. Or whatever the shit he got himself into these days.

And he gave great belly rubs.

So there was that too. Perched on her back, she greatly enjoyed Kurt giving her the mother of all belly rubs, preening.

“So,” Scott cleared his throat. “Would you like to go with us?”

You leaned forward.

“Well…”

In Moscow somewhere…

Hank Pym watched the man was that was currently seated in the middle of his couch. Staring him down, like how he had done when the man in front of him was a mere boy. Not the fully grown adult that he was now.

Never, in his life had he ever thought of this.

This!

Never in his life would he ever think something like this would ever happen to him.

Nu-uh.

Staring down at the man who was seated in the middle of his couch, Hank took in a deep breath.

James. Yasha. Bucky. Winter.

Just what had this world come to?

Truly?

“So what you’re telling me, James,” Hank started to say, “… is that you’ve been… fonduing with my daughter? My first daughter? The pride and joy of my life? The one that works at the Bolshoi Opera House?”

“Yes, Hank,” James replied, a certain edge to his voice.

“And it took you six months to tell her about your true nature?” Hank questioned.

A nod was sent his way.

Even though he appeared composed on the outside, inside of him though, Hank was screaming. Shouting. Never had he even seen pure unfiltered red in his life.

“Did you… did you deflower her?”

Deflower you? What was this, the Middle Ages? James was truly baffled by the older man’s use of language. But as he watched the silver-haired man raise a weathered hand, he was inclined to speak the truth.

And speak the truth he did.

“Yeah. I was her first.”

And it was there, there that Hank had lost it.

“For the love of God Yasha! Why didn’t you tell me this? Why didn’t she tell me this?” Hank thundered in his direction, clearly getting closer to losing his shit.

“Maybe because she didn’t want to express her sex life to you?” James suggested cheekily.

“Do not use that tone with me. I am still older than you.”  Hank snapped.

Like the smug little shit that he was, James just leaned back into the couch.

“Why didn’t you want her to know about this part of your life?” he questioned him.

Expressing a sigh, Hank joined him on the couch. Turning his head, so he could look at him. “My marriage with my first wife didn’t end so well, as you know. If my daughter’s told you any details. But… my first wife wanted nothing to do with our world, son. She simply was not cut out for the life of crime. So we agreed on getting a divorce. She got full custody of our dear little Songbird and eventually, I moved on with my second wife. We had Scott, Kurt, and Sharon. And then, my darling girl joined the opera house. I always kept tabs on her. Someone always informed me of her well-being. You might already know who he is.”

Alexei. There was no one else closer than you or was a father figure towards you other than Alexei.

“… Of course, we both agreed to keep it hush hush,” Hank continued on. “He told me how she was doing. How things were going on at the Opera House. My daughter was happy, and as long as she was, I decided I wouldn’t interfere with her life.”

“Until I found out her mother had kicked her out of the house.”

James saw Hank’s facial expression from one of calmness turn into one of rightfully placed anger. Clenching a weathered tattoo-faded hand into a fist, “I was absolutely livid when I found out what happened with Stane. Forget him creeping after all of those poor girls, but daring to go after my own daughter? I nearly wanted his head on a spike for that.”

James jerked back, a look of surprise on his face. Hank this time around however, suddenly gave him a look of concern. “Son?”

“You knew before me?” he breathed out in shock.

“He never… got to touch me. But… I… I was terrified. I really thought he was going to do that. I really thought he was going to take advantage of me. I really thought he was going to rape me if Kurt hadn’t been able to come and get me.”

Your words echoed in his mind at that very moment. A chill ran down his spine, his blood nearly running cold.

Just like last time.

“I had heard that he had gone after my daughter. Did he?” Hank’s voice had an edge to it now. James shook his head. “Stane didn’t… he didn’t do it. He didn’t rape her. But he tried to. If it weren’t for Kurt… he might have.”

Gritting his teeth and resisting the urge to bring back Obadiah Stane from the dead so he could kill him with his own two hands, Hank relented.

Thank goodness for Kurt.

“Good. Good.”

A beat of silence came after that until James spoke up. “For what it’s worth, Hank… I really do love your daughter. I do. I wanted to tell her about me… about our world, for the past six months. I really did.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

James wasn’t going to lie, that stung him a bit.

“Because I was being greedy. I wanted… I wanted more time with her. I hadn’t felt like this with anyone. I didn’t mean to hurt her, really, I just…” James trailed off, and Hank pushed down the urge to really facepalm himself in disappointment.

Good Lord, it was worse than he thought.

Never would he thought he would see the day that James would be fully pussy whipped for a woman.

And the women being his own daughter, for goodness sake!

Truly, Hank did not know what to do with this information now.

Expressing a sigh, Hank just placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “James. I don’t like the fact that you and my daughter were sneaking off behind my back. I don’t like the fact that you broke your vow of celibacy for her, either. But, I understand that you care for her. Tremendously. But son, you messed up. That is on you. You must apologize. Own up to your own actions. Do you understand?”

He understood.

He got it.

A nod came from the young man.

After James went home, Hank was left alone.

Sitting in the living room, looking at the bookcases where books in English and Russian lined the brown shelves. Pictures of his family lined the white walls, and Hank couldn’t help but walk through memory lane. Seeing picture after picture with his own children.

Until he stopped at one that people didn’t seem to notice, because he kept it so well hidden. Even his own children, whenever they came to visit, did not see it.

A picture was framed in this little hiding spot.

It made Hank remember when you had taken it.

“Sasha! C’mon! We’re gonna be late!”

The twenty-seven-year-old only looked amused.

Seventeen-year-old you was tugging on his arm, ushering him along as the two of you were currently across the street from the ice cream parlor.

“You really want ice cream that badly, huh?” Your Sasha had teased you lightly. You gave him a pout. “Come on Sasha!” You complained, grabbing onto his jacket sleeve, tugging him with you to the light. “I never see you anymore! Why don’t I ever see you anymore?” you whined at him.

“Probably because I’m older than you. Must be our different ages.” Sasha teased you in a light tone, which made your pout all that much bigger. “Everyone says that,” your voice had dropped to a hushed mutter, almost like you were ready to throw a tantrum. However, your face became downtrodden as you walked across the street to cross the light, walking in front of Sasha to get to the front entrance of the ice cream parlor.

Your Sasha however, had noticed your sudden distress as he caught up with you. Like the gentleman that he was, he opened the door and allowed you to walk in first. After ordering your usual, the two of you found a table to sit at.

With an awkward silence that stretched on far too long for his liking, James finally broke it.

“What’s on your mind?” He asked you. “Everybody’s always talking about we shouldn’t be friends cause you’re older than me.” you lamented. “You’re the only one who understands me, Sasha. Why can’t people see that? Yeah, you’re too old for me—“ Sasha held his heart in mock offense. “Stab me right in the right, why won’t you,” he said in mock surrender, making you snicker at the expression on his face.

“But you’re my friend, Sasha!” You continued as if you hadn’t even heard him. “And like, I wanna spend more time with you. Can’t I spend more time with you?”

“You know why,” his murmur was low. And it made you sad.

Biting your lip, you leaned into his shoulder. “Do you really have to go back after?”

“Yes,” Sasha nodded. You just sighed.

“It’ll be alright,” Sasha assured you, holding you close. Like when you had found out that your parents were getting a divorce all over again, and he was the only one you could go to because he was the only one who got it. He was the only one who could understand how you felt.

“I’ll spend the rest of the day with you. But then— I have to go back.” his voice was low in your ear. A small glimmer of hope flushed in you. Lifting your head up, you took out your phone from the back pocket of your jeans.

Sasha huddled up closer to you, looking amused as you quickly unlocked your phone with your thumb, snapping a quick picture. “There!” you announced, looking gleeful, “That way, you’ll always have me wherever you go.”

“You gotta send it to me first,” he chuckled at you. Like a light bulb flashing in your mind, you nearly cried out in shock. “Shit! You’re right!” you gasped a little. You quickly sent him the picture, and you watched as he made it his background picture.

“There,” said your Sasha softly, “—now I have you to look at whenever we’re not together.”

Hank released a small sigh as he looked at the picture of you and James. Both of you smiling at the camera, without a care in the world.

He hadn’t been stupid, he had someone following you and James that day. But James had told him, swore up and down that he thought of you only as Kurt and Scott’s sister. Even though the Carter children were a few years older than you, the three siblings always had seen you as the older one. You had always been more imposed, more serious than Kurt and Scott, who played pranks. Even Sharon, who would be off gossiping with the other girls her age in Little Moscow. You had always been alone.

Well, until you met James. After meeting him, you had started to open up a little.

There was a part of him that wished to never have introduced you to George’s son. If he hadn’t, then maybe you wouldn’t have been involved with that damn scandal with the priest. Hank should have fought for custody over you, so he could take care of you. Clearly, your mother had raised you fine, but with all of that trauma?

Absolutely not.

And just then, there was a knock at the door.

He was confused.

Had James forgotten something?

Making his way to his front door, he quickly unlocked the door.

There you were.

Holding onto Star’s leash, looking as if you had seen a ghost. Hank was too stunned for words when all of a sudden, you had hugged him tight like you were a young girl again.

“I saw him.” Never had you ever sounded that broken before.

“I remember him,” you whispered into your father’s ear, nearly gasping because the pain was too much. You felt as if your chest was being squeezed tight.

“I remember him. Sasha.”

“My Sasha.”

[kyotarou]

One bed scenario for izuku, shouto, tamaki and dabi? I really liked the last one

characters: izuku midoriya, shoto todoroki, tamaki amajiki, dabi

plot (deku, shoto, & tamaki): you’re invited to a weekend getaway for a class celebration, but some miscalculations lead to some awkward situations

warnings: mild swearing

a/n: since dabi isn’t part of u.a. the plot for his scenario will be explained below :) also this is a bit long i apologize if it’s a lot to read

part 1

Izuku Midoriya

Class 1-A takes a trip to Kyoto during the spring when the cherry blossoms have bloomed and the city is pink

Everyone is free to do as they please as long as they meet back at the hotel by a certain time or else everyone is going to assume they were kidnapped

Deku’s excited cause he’s never gone on a trip with all his friends like this before

He’s the type of person to have a backpack full of water, snacks, money, and a map with a ton of places marked off

Drags you by the wrist all over the city and manages to cross off all the spots on the map with enough time to squeeze in some extra destinations

At the end of the day, you and Deku head up to the room you decided to share, exhausted and ready to sleep until noon

Upon opening the door, you both do a double-take

“Uh, Izuku, am I seeing things, or is there only one bed?”

“Nope, there’s only one.”

“Um, I guess one of us could take the floor?”

Neither you or Deku actually want to sleep on the floor, but you don’t want to come off as rude, so you play a game of, “No, I will,” until it gets too tiring

“Let’s just share, yeah?”

“Oh, (Y/N), are you sure?”

“Well, we’re not getting anywhere aren’t we?”

He’s trying his best to not seem flustered as you crawl into bed next to him

It’s not as uncomfortable as you thought, but you’re worried about Deku and how he looks like he’s about to have a heart attack

You scoot to the edge of the bed with your back to him, hoping it makes things less awkward, and fall asleep

You wake up to the sound of rustling and try to get up to check the time but something’s holding you back

You look down to see Deku’s arms wrapped around your waist, squeezing you tight, while his lips brush against your neck, murmuring your name in his sleep

Your face heats up and you realize staying like this for the rest of the day isn’t so bad

Shoto Todoroki

You hang out with your friends but grow tired quickly and decide to head back to the hotel early and relax at the spa

You’re surprised to see Shoto in the spa house too, towel draped over his shoulder, no shirt, with shorts on

It makes your heart race and cheeks burn with embarrassment because holy fuck does your crush look good right now

He’s super chill about it and thinks your red face is from the steam of the hot tub or the sauna

“Hello, (Y/N), why aren’t you out with the others?”

“Oh, um, I was getting tired and just wanted to relax.”

“I see. Well, care to join me?” He hangs the towel on a hook and settles into the hot tub

You’re standing there, legs shaking, realizing you’re going to have to strip in front of him

Shoto stares at you expectantly and sees you hesitating

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I’ll look away.”

After taking off your clothes, swimsuit underneath, you get in beside him

It’s a bit tense at first, but soon you loosen up and have some good, interesting conversations

At bedtime, Iida is listing out the pairs and the room numbers and you hear him say, “(L/N) and Todoroki, room 207.”

“Huh?! Iida, are you sure? I was supposed to be with Denki!”

“Hm, it says Denki’s with Sero on the list. You two must’ve gotten mixed up, I apologize. Will you be okay or do you want to switch?”

“I’m fine with it, how about you (Y/N)?”

You feel like you’re going to collapse because your crush just agreed to be in the same room as you, but you nod a little too excitedly and take the elevator up

As if the day couldn’t get any better worse, there’s only one bed in your room

Even Shoto is a bit taken aback but, being the responsible boy he is, he offers to request a different room, or at least bring a cot up

Without thinking, you blurt out, “What if we shared?” and your whole body stiffens in embarrassment

Surprisingly, Shoto isn’t opposed to it, but he asks if you’re 100% with it first, then gets into bed

His body is cold next to yours and you shiver a little too violently, back turned to him

Shoto takes notice and you feel his breath on the back of your neck. “Sorry, let me warm you up.”

He uses his Quirk and heats up the bed, and although you know it’s an innocent gesture, your mind can’t help but wander elsewhere

“Oh, um, thank you,” you whisper, relaxing in the warmth

“Of course.”

Little did you know, Shoto’s heart was beating a mile a minute, because he too didn’t want to scare his crush—you

Tamaki Amajiki

Tamaki stays in the hotel the entire day

It’s not that he doesn’t want to be with his friends; he’s afraid of getting lost or doing something to mess up the trip for his classmates

You stay with Tamaki in his room, chatting about whatever comes to mind

“Are you sure you want to stay? I don’t want to hold you back.”

“It’s alright, we have two days left anyway. I like being with you, Tamaki!”

He hides the blush growing on his face and you smile because of how cute he looks

Tamaki’s room only has one bed, which isn’t surprising, since it was noted one person would need to be alone due to the odd number of students

Problem was it wasn’t stated who would be alone

As you’re exploring his room, gawking at the view from the window and all the cool little knickknacks, you throw open the closet doors and freeze when you see your stuff

“Huh? Why is this here? Tamaki, did you take my bag on accident?”

“Ah, no! I only brought my stuff up, someone must’ve put it there by mistake.”

You call Nejire and ask about the rooms

“Hmm, it seems like you and Tamaki must’ve been given the same room. Sorry for not checking it over, do you want to be moved?”

“Ah, it’s fine, I guess.”

You and Tamaki try to go back to your conversation but you can tell how nervous he is since night is approaching quickly

Bedtime comes and Tamaki nearly screams when he feels your body pressed against his

Guilt washes over you; “I’m sorry, I should’ve asked. I’ll go down and get a cot.”

As you’re about to slip out from under the covers, Tamaki suddenly grabs your arm and buries his face in his pillow

“Uhm, (Y/N), i-it’s okay. Y-You can stay, uhm, ah-”

He opens one eye and quickly shuts it, pressing himself so far into the pillow you swear he’s going to suffocate

Confused, you look around, but there’s nothing in the room beside you two in the dark

It hits you— “Tamaki, are you… scared of the dark?”

“What, no! I-I-”

He lets out a little squeak when you stroke his hair, face inches from his

“It’s okay, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

Dabi

You were a vigilante, an anti-hero who believed in helping others but despised the flashiness and celebrity status of pro heroes

Your Quirk, Feline, which gave you the characteristics of a cat, allowed you to work in the comfort of darkness where it was difficult to catch you

You rarely got injured due to your agility, but this night, your target had a Quirk that allowed them to see in the darkness, and left you stumbling down the street with a gash in your side

“Rough night, little kitty?”

Dabi stands under a streetlamp with a smirk

You and Dabi weren’t friends by any means, but you held a certain level of respect for him; part of it was so he wouldn’t cremate you

“Shut up,” you scowl. “I’m perfectly fine- hrgh.”

You press your hand over the wound, blood slipping past your fingers

Suddenly, Dabi throws you over his shoulder, your head knocking against his back as he carries you to his place

“What the fuck- Put me down!”

He lays you on the bed, uncharacteristically gentle, and cleans your wound with a towel

“Why are you doing this?”

“I’m not gonna let my little kitty walk around like this.”

Dabi covers your wound with a bandage and throws the blanket over you

It’s past midnight and you’re getting sleepy, but you realize you’ve taken up all the space on the bed

Plus, it’d be kind of weird to crash at the place of the man you barely know

“I’ll go then, thanks for the help.” 

He pushes your shoulder and you fall against the pillows

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home?”

“Not like that, kitty.” He circles around to the other side

“Where are you gonna sleep? There’s only one bed.”

“So?” 

Dabi flops onto the mattress and slings one arm around your shoulders, tugging you close— “Go to sleep, kitty.”

Unable to move from the pain and his grip, you have no choice but to snuggle close

Despite his casual demeanor, your heightened sense of hearing amplified the rapid beating of his heart

A smile spreads across your face; this is gonna be great blackmail

[obabyobeymeme]

Resting with the Boys[TM]

summary: what i think falling asleep with them around would be like. that- that’s it, that’s the post note: yayayayy first post! this has been in my notes app for a Long time, so.. buckle up, this is going to be kinda long no matter what i do, thoughts went brrrrrr, sorry lmao.

Lucifer ➛ Good luck getting a moment alone with him. With all the work he has assigned by Diavolo, the time he spends cleaning up after his brothers’ shenanigans, and his duties as the eldest, it seems like he never has free time. ➛ When you do catch him alone, he’s either not in the mood for any sort of interaction or he’s taken the liberty of passing out at his desk, pen still in hand as he rests. ➛ You aren’t doing so well yourself, being a human exchange student doesn’t mean R.A.D. will go easy on you. Classes, assignments, and sometimes even just having to deal with the rest of the student body can be pretty tiring. ➛ Your patience pays off when the day finally comes that he’s mostly free of duties and your assigned tasks at the moment are all finished as well.

➛ You two don’t really do much, you spend the time talking over hot beverages and enjoying each other’s company in his office. Just having you around and not causing a ruckus is already more than enough for him. ➛ Lucifer ends up going on a halfhearted rant about his brothers as he organizes some papers next to you. How he found out about another one Satan and Belphie’s plots to inconvenience him and how he’ll turn it against them, wondering how the house hasn’t been decimated while he went on business trips sometimes... It’s nice seeing him not as uptight as he usually is. ➛ You end up getting a little drowsy despite your best attempts to listen to what he’s saying. Eventually your drowsiness wins over and you kinda.. nod off. Hopefully he doesn’t mind. (He does mind, actually. Sleeping sitting down may sound like a good idea at first, but Lucifer knows your neck will hate you for it when you wake up.) ➛ He doesn’t want to wake you, so he carefully nudges your head onto his lap before finishing up with the papers, occasionally running his hand through your hair. ➛ Once he’s done, he carries you to your room and makes sure you’re comfortable before leaving a kiss on your forehead and leaving, closing the door softly behind him.

Mammon ➛ When you suggest a lazy afternoon to him, he’ll act as if he has no time for a silly activity like that. Why would he? The Great Mammon has better things to do with his time than spending it lazing around with some- ➛ He trails off once he sees your slightly disappointed face. When you say you’ll find someone else to nap with, he changes his tune almost instantly. ➛ He just.. takes your wrist and goes “W-well, if ya want it THAT badly... but just this once, got it??” as he sorta tugs you along to his bedroom. ➛ This is where you learn that he has no idea how to share a bed with someone else. He seems torn between wanting to scoot closer or give you as much space he can without actually leaving the bed. ➛ You decide to make the decision for him, resting your head on his shoulder as you start rambling. Mammon warms up eventually and slings an arm around your shoulders, pulling you a bit closer. ➛ You drift off during a lull in the conversation, unintentionally leaving him hanging for a full minute before he realizes you’re asleep. ➛ He watches you for a while and makes sure you’re really out, then reaches for his phone and takes a picture (or five) of your sleeping face. What? You’re cute even when you sleep apparently! He’d rather go through one of Lucifer’s scoldings than admit that to your face in the near future though. ➛ You know that meme where people say they can't do anything because a cat fell asleep on them? Yeah, that happened to Mammon because of the arm he placed around you, he ended up falling asleep with you wrapped in his arms. ➛ When you wake up, you cannot move without his grip getting just a bit tighter. Greedy even in his sleep, it seems... rip if you have to go to the bathroom lmao

Leviathan ➛ You two spent pretty much the whole day in his room, geeking out over shared interests, catching up on anime Levi introduced to you, trying (and occasionally failing) at the games you both play ➛ You don’t even notice it’s well past 1 AM until you feel like you’ve been staring at a screen for an awful long time now, what time is- oh. ➛ Levi’s slightly disappointed that your hangout has to end, but yeah, he gets it. Everyone needs their sleep, even hardcore otakus. He’s about to tell you that you can leave when you flop into his bathtub bed, saying you’re too tired to walk all the way back. ➛ He short-circuits at the sight of you wrapping yourself around one of the many body-sized pillows, and when you realize he still has to get in the tub to sleep? And instead of getting out, you sit up and insist on him getting in with you??? ➛ A system error has occurred. Please restart your Leviathan. Come on, this is like that one scene in this shoujo anime he’s found where the main character and the person they’re pining for share a bed! ➛ He doesn’t say anything, but judging by the expression he’s making and how he’s clambering in behind you, you don’t think he minds too much. ➛ You two end up with his upper body propped up by the pillows and you kinda laying on top of him. It's a bit awkward considering the unconventional sleeping area, but it’s honestly more comfortable than you expected. ➛ Levi actually ends up falling asleep before you. You thought you were tired? Try being awake for 22 hours straight waiting for an exclusive merch drop you just couldn’t miss. He is out, and nothing you do can wake him. ➛ You both end up waking around noon thanks to your little late night stunt. Consider yourselves lucky that Satan saved you guys a plate before Beel got to it.

Satan ➛ He finds you in the House’s library, bent over at a table studying three textbooks at once. Understandable, given that it’s exam season, but it doesn’t look like you’re doing yourself any favors. ➛ And he’s right. You can’t make sense of anything in the books and you can feel a small headache coming on ➛ Satan offers to give you some help with your studies... after you’ve rested. He won’t take no for an answer, and since his room is much closer, he thinks it’s fine if you crash there while you take a break. ➛ He just has to... actually make space for you to rest first, though. He can navigate the chaos that is his room just fine, but you could easily trip on something, or worse, accidentally activate something cursed. ➛ Once that’s taken care of, you take a seat on his bed, scrolling through your D.D.D. as he takes one of the chairs, picking up a novel he bookmarked.  ➛ The scent of the books and the occasional sound of a page turning as Satan reads, along with his occasional hums of interest really helped put you at ease. After a couple of moments, despite yourself, you curl up and drift off. ➛ In between page turns, Satan would turn to check on you. When he realizes you’re asleep, he marks his novel and sets it down, turning to face you instead.  Since he knows his room can get a bit drafty sometimes, he drapes a blanket over you, smiling softly as you wrap the blanket more around yourself. ➛ You looking so cozy almost makes him want to join you, but just seeing that you’re comfy and much less stressed than before is enough right now. He instead gives you a head pat and goes back to his novel, the smile never quite leaving his face.

Asmodeus ➛ You know Asmo loves spending time together, from shopping trips to going to new places to even simple things like a tea spilling session every other night. ➛ So when you come to his room one evening to tell him sorry, you don’t really feel like a night on the town right now and would rather stay in and recharge, he’s not even as disappointed as you’d thought he’d be. ➛ He insists on pampering you both tonight, that way, you get to rest and relax with him, and he gets you all to himself for at least a couple of hours, uninterrupted. It’s a win-win scenario, in his opinion, and who are you to decline? ➛ You let him work his magic with whatever he has laying around, falling into your usual routine of talking as he does his and your nails and readies a face mask for the two of you as ambient music from his D.D.D. fills the air. ➛ When you find yourself getting sleepy, Asmo doesn’t mind at all! He puts away the stuff he used and suggests a little impromptu sleepover. ➛ You shouldn’t have been that surprised when he climbs into the bed after you, and you should’ve realized he’d be just as clingy in bed as he is normally. He can and will be all over you if you let him— running his fingers through your hair, cuddles like there’s no tomorrow...  ➛ His ridiculously soft and comfy bed definitely isn’t helping matters, and you drift off in record time. ➛ He’ll make sure you’re all tucked in and maybe internally squeal at how adorable you’re being, leaning into his touch in your sleep makes his heart do a flip ➛ You wake up the next day feeling like a new person, and next to you, looking surprisingly photogenic for someone half-asleep, is Asmo, tugging you back under the covers because it’s warmer with you in there. 

Beelzebub ➛ He’s been waiting at R.A.D.’s entrance for 20 minutes now. You were supposed to meet him so you could head to Hell’s Kitchen and hang out for a bit, but there’s still no sign of you and you haven’t read any of his texts. ➛ He gets a text from you then. Turns out your phone was on silent, because you felt a little burnt out from school and juggling hangout times with everyone else and went straight back to the House, wanting some quiet time. ➛ You send another message apologizing for the sudden change of plans and for not seeing his messages sooner, but Beel is pretty understanding. ➛ He isn’t letting his chance at being with you go that easily, though. He drops by a store to get you a little care package (and a handful of snacks so he still has something to give you by the time he gets to the house) and heads home. ➛ A few moments later, your door opens to reveal Beel. He leaves the food he brought on your table and sits down on the edge of your bed. You decide a cuddle buddy doesn’t sound too bad right now. After all, you already had the experience of sharing a room with Beel, surely sharing a bed will be similar? ➛ ... Not exactly. He’ll unintentionally take up half your bed no matter what you two do; you’ll either be searching for space or be pulled into the space he’s occupying like some sort of demon-shaped black hole. ➛ The solution: lay on his chest. He assures you that you aren’t too heavy for him, and if he’s being honest? Your weight is actually kinda comforting. ➛ You stay like that for a while, listening to his breathing and heartbeat, and eventually the stress of the past few days melts away, and you fall asleep with your arms draped over him like a pillow. ➛ He doesn’t mind, since you’re pretty much a living teddy bear to him, and he lets himself relax, a hand resting on your back. He just hopes his stomach won’t wake you both up...

Belphegor ➛ Let me get this straight. You want Belphegor, the literal Avatar of Sloth, to take a nap with you? Chances are he’s already half-asleep and all that’s left to do is join him... if he lets you. ➛ He’ll look at you, slightly irritated, but he’s too tired to argue, and you’d be warmer than a pillow, at least, so he motions for you to get in next to him. Just don’t move around too much or he’ll hog all the blankets in retaliation. ➛ If you’re close enough with him, either one of you has unspoken permission to join the other while they’re resting, no questions asked.  ➛ Probably has a bunch of pillows and blankets stowed away in various parts of the House, so nap supplies are readily available. Saves him from having to drag his stuff from place to place. ➛ The one downside to sleeping with Belphie is that he doesn’t need any time to unwind. He can go from full attention to catching Zs in minutes, leaving you no choice but to follow him into dreamland. ➛ He does cuddle a lot, though he’ll brush it off as using you as his personal heater. He’ll complain if you try to do it first, but he won’t make any moves to actually stop you. He actually might lean into you, making up an excuse about your side being comfier. ➛ If he really, really trusts you, he’ll lend you his beloved cow-print pillow. Only five minutes tops, though, then you have to give it back. ➛  When nights are bad and he doesn’t want to wake Beel up, he used to head to the planetarium to calm himself down. Now he slips into your room and takes comfort in knowing that you’re still safe and sound. You’ve woken up several times finding Belphie nuzzled into your blanket. ➛ If he feels especially clingy, his demon form’s tail will appear, slowly but firmly wrapping itself around your waist. Good luck getting out of bed without him knowing.

[lilyeon]

been a month or so, figured I should update this

The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess! 1-2: fundamentally i dont like soulmate stories but this was bearable. i wish the author had a little more tact and did a bit more research when it comes to rehabilitating victims of long-term domestic abuse but if you look at it as a story of a woman who is finally freed from her abuser and is learning to live again with the help of supportive friends and family as opposed to a romance, it's not, like, terrible. but in that case just read a better story that actually has those themes instead of shoehorning them in here. at least it had a lot of cool mushroom knowledge

The Strongest Knight is Actually a Cross-Dressing Noblewoman?!: none of these gay motherfuckers wouldve lasted a day in the us military before Don't Ask Don't Tell was repealed. classroom of 30 sees one twink and goes hogwild

The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap 1-6: willful ignorance only carries you so far for me tolerating how dense a protag is, god damn. besides the whole "is she ever gonna notice he's flirting with her" bit in vols 3-4 getting a little grating, this was a cute little series. i hope volume 6 was the last one, that was a nice little ending and it feels like everything's been wrapped up. i would've liked more substance between ruri and her family, though, because not even getting a touching scene where they reunite after a novel and a half of constant mentions of how worried she is for them? i got cucked out of satisfying emotional climax.

The Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter 1-5: i'm ignoring 6-8 for now because those seem to be about Iris's mom and that's a whole-ass different story. i'll admit to being a sucker for this exact premise, i really like novels about people politicking and bureaucracy and establishing policies. i think the timeframe of the novel is sped up a bit beyond belief (how are you getting near real-time reports on an area on the border of your territory when it takes a platoon a day or two to travel there) but it's nothing that i wasn't able to look past. some of the stronger moments in these novels are when iris is at a loss, and i appreciated that not all of her wins were direct wins but sometimes concessions. solid series!

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer 1-8: I honestly came into this series not expecting much, but got a really interesting cast of characters and and plot threads and genuinely heartfelt emotion. I was dismissive of the premise when I heard about this anime, but now I'm excited to see Bell and Ange's adventures animated. Too bad it won't get into the more interesting stuff later on in the series, but the first novels should be fun enough.

ive been on a light novel kick recently

lemme summarize some thoughts on them:

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 1-4: i thought it would be a standard "hypercompetent female lead in medieval europe" story and it was for the most part, in terms of convenient contrivances to make whatever whimsical actions that Rishe takes, but i appreciated the set dressing, at least. Rishe is funny and the repeated time loops makes for an entertaining premise.

The 100th Time's The Charm: She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock "Super Love" Mode?!: god this sucked. this honestly felt like reading a novel published by an 8 year old. so fuckin juvenile

A Lily Blooms in Another World: sometimes all you need is some simply girls who love each other.

The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent: interesting world with just enough worldbuilding, i liked that it didn't get explicitly romantic at the end, and I really enjoyed Carla's brazen attitude. Either she fit really well into the world around her, or the world was written to support her character, but either way, she felt like a complete product of her world and upbringing in a way that was really refreshing.

Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as my Gag Character?! 1-2: there sure was a whole lot of talk about how much her character absolutely sucked despite being the most powerful being to the point of absurdity. i know the point is the contrast between game mechanics and expectation vs how she would be as a function of the world, but man that point was harped on a lot. as a protagonist, gotta say, trans as hell, that won a lot of points with me. "oh i'm suddenly my off-main RP character now? guess i'm a girl now, full-on. hell yeah" now that's the true trans rep we need

The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up 1-2: it was alright, i feel like i would've been more invested if everyone wasn't secretly in love with her though i suppose it is an interesting subversion of the usual "plain boring princess" trope that everyone is actually super on-board for her to become queen. she's a deeply tragic heroine, honestly, and i don't think that's the intention at all.

Saint? No! I'm Just a Passing Beast Tamer 1: if this was a oneshot i'd be chill with it but the fact that it carries on somehow makes me feel so tired.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord: i read the manga first and this was just more of the same. it's cute, i like Yumiella as a protagonist for the same reasons i like Carla from Apothecary Witch. i wish we had a bit more on Alicia's whole deal because she could've been interesting at the end there but instead she just made the whole thing boring as fuck. probably my favorite moments in the novel were Yumiella grinding the boss for drops and the Patrick confession scene for two different reasons

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life 1-3: i had access to 6 volumes but i had to stop in the middle of the 3rd one. i was displeased but willing to continue in the first novel when one of Mariela's first actions as a protagonist is to engage with the slavery thing, but willing to put that aside, but then we had several monologues about how much slavery sucks alongside diatribes about how it's Jay's/Sieg's/etc's own fault that they got sold into debt slavery. the chapters in the 2nd and 3rd novels where Jay is there being absolutely fucking miserable and you're expected to nod whenever the book says "Jay didn’t reflect on his own part in this at all, spewing resentment instead." made me fucking incensed. my breaking point was in novel 3 where a minor protagonist just straight fucking rips one of his teeth out after strangling him and replaces it with a Pain Tooth of Make Your Slaves Obey More, and it's immediately followed with that above line. just. jesus fucking christ.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 1-4: hey speaking of slavery, in this one they spent 2 novels telling the main character she should buy a slave, and then she gets there and is like "man this is kinda fucked actually" and doesn't, so good for her, but i read it immediately after Alchemist Who Survived so i was a little pissed at the fact that slavery was also a thing here because please that's not a system that is necessary to your world stop fucking doing it

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword 1-4: anyway not to continue talking about slavery but if you're gonna have it, do it like this one did, and make your main protagonist claw her bloody way out of slavery with incredible brutality and swear that she'll kill more slave traders if they lay a hand on her girlfriend. that part was great. shame it gets mega fucking transphobic at the end though, that whole bit about Mother being explicitly textually transgender and then not using the correct pronouns for her, the genitals = sex = gender segments, the gross parts where they discuss how Mother "isn't even a woman, yeah that tripped me up too, how gross is this dude". fuck that. the fight scenes and fucked up body horror parts are great though. and it's got a manga by minakata sunao, which is a shame given [gestures at novel 4]

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 1-8: honestly i enjoyed it more than i was expecting. mira's cute, this is another one of those trans-as-hell novels where the protag is like "i guess im a girl now! this is great!" but i do find it incredibly unsettling how everyone is commenting on her looks and whatever if she's supposed to be, essentially, a 12 year old girl. deeply gross anime bullshit aside, it's fun. i thought i had more thoughts on this one so i was saving it for later in this list but honestly thats all i got. gross sexualization/infantilization of a young girl, but otherwise just a fun little fantasy jaunt

A Tale of the Secret Saint 1-4: fia's an idiot, i want more of her taking control in battle situations and less waffling about Great Saint abilities and fake-deep "political" """intrigue""". if you say any of these stupid-ass old men are her love interests i will throw a knife at you, and if the book goes in that direction even slightly i will Murder. canopus's devotion in the last novel was borderline for me dropping it. the manic obsession/devotion to fia is supposed to be humorous, i think, but it just comes off as deeply unsettling when the novel reminds you, as it often does, that fia ruud is a 15 year old (reincarnation of an incredibly sheltered woman who died at 18, so honestly even her mental age doesn't add much here). i know this is one of those chill life fantasy novels but i honestly want fia to serve actual consequences for the insane shit she does, not just passing-by mentions of having to do more laps or take training more seriously or being teased by her superiors or whatever. it's fun enough to keep reading though, i guess.

[peppermintbee]

OMORI has poor writing (Part 1)

OMORI stans, just block the #omori hate tag now because I’m going to use it to vent my frustrations with this game. If you love this game, I am not going to try to convince you otherwise. I am glad you enjoyed it so much. I am glad it means a lot to you. I’m not here to take that away from you. I honestly wish I felt the same way!

However, if you are like me and finished the game feeling disappointed, underwhelmed, and maybe a little frustrated, then I am here to say you are not alone. OMORI--while having the right set pieces for an interesting game--is a narrative mess.

I’m splitting this into two posts. This first post is about problems with the plot. The second is about problems with the message/moral. 

(Note: I use “OMORI” in all-caps for the game title, and “Omori” in title case for the character name.)

Spoilers and criticism below.

Part 1: Plot Writing Lies

There’s a book by Brian McDonald called Invisible Ink which is about how to write a compelling story (you can read this great book online for free here). There’s an explanation of the writing “lie” that I find myself frequently thinking of. A “lie” in this context does not mean something is literally untrue, it means something FEELS untrue, unrealistic, improbable, or unlikely. For example, if a character gets shot in the leg but manages to do parkour, this is a “lie” since it seems unrealistic for that to happen. If a character witnesses their beloved parent’s death and shrugs it off, it’s a “lie” because that reaction seems highly unlikely.

In OMORI, the plot is held together by multiple little lies that--try as I might--I just couldn’t bring myself to believe.

1. Sunny’s friends care about him, and vice versa

A major theme of the game is how friendship can overcome any obstacle. Friendship gets Sunny over his fear of heights, spiders, and water. Friendship is what Sunny remembers before the final boss fight, and allows him to face his guilt and defeat it (and prevent him from committing suicide). With the photobook and dialogue you are reminded over and over and over and over and over again that Sunny’s friends love him unconditionally.

However, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it. The childhood memories are cute but shallow, boiling down to simply hanging out and eating treats. Plus, Kel and Aubrey fight constantly, with Aubrey even physically hitting Kel when he steps out of line. Hero and Mari behave more like babysitters than true friends to the younger kids. 

But at least the other kids interact with each other. Sunny, on the other hand, showed nearly no affection or consideration towards his friends. He floats through the memories like a ghost--he could have been completely absent from all the photos and it would have made little difference. I was ready to accept this as Sunny being an unreliable narrator and not thinking he was a good enough for his friends, but this never contradicted. Instead we are given even more memories where Sunny just silently exists there being “cute.”

[Sunny enriching the lives of his friends by LARPING as a cat.]

Because of the lack of meaningful interactions between them, there was nothing in the game that made me think that these 12-15 year olds would have a strong enough bond that would survive 3-4 years of no contact after finding their friend hanged. In fact, that discovery only drove them farther apart. The only person who I could believe actually had a close bond was Basil, who almost literally filled that trope of being the friend who would help you bury a body (or in this case, help Sunny cover up the accidental manslaughter).

The writing fix for this would be simple: instead of showing us the same boring birthday and beach scenes over again, give the kids memories of overcoming some age-appropriate adversity together: heartbreak over an unrequited crush, anxiety over homework, sports injury, lost dogs, divorced parents, running away from home, bullying, etc. Set a precedent of the friends supporting each other through good times AND bad times. Without such backstory, Sunny’s friendships allegedly giving him the courage to overcome his guilt feels like a lie.

2. Sunny abandoning Basil in the bathroom scene

One of the most confusing moments in the game was Sunny’s negligence when Basil has his first breakdown in his bathroom. This part of the game is player-controlled, which is a strange writing decision because all you can do is click on Basil and various bathroom amenities over and over which completely saps the urgency out of the scene. When you try to leave, Basil begs Sunny to stay, but (due to a lack of player options) Sunny walks out without a word. With no option to talk to him OR get help for him, it makes Sunny seem exceptionally cruel to Basil. In fact, I was starting to wonder if the game was setting up for some sort of twist that Sunny DIDN’T care about his friends, which would fix some of the confusion in point #1. However, as we know, that is not the case. Therefore, Sunny’s negligence/apathy towards Basil’s pain feels like a lie.

The writing fix would be to make it MORE clear that Sunny is intentionally running away from Basil. Make it a cutscene, or, give a false choice such as “Leave Basil? Yes / Yes”. After Sunny leaves, Kel should make some remark about Sunny looking odd, “You look sort of shaken up, is there something you want to tell me?” then hit it home with Sunny shaking his head. This would make it more clear that Sunny is intentionally hiding Basil’s state, as opposed to just being a bad friend. As it stands, it just felt like a writing mistake.

3. Basil and Sunny working together to stage Mari’s death as a suicide

This is the plot hole that I see the most complaints over, but it’s so big I have to address it. Accidentally pushing Mari down the stairs I understand, but the rest is too absurd. Below are some of the “lies” that the writing tries to get away with:

That Sunny and Basil wouldn’t just claim she slipped and fell.

That either boy would even come up with this sick plan.

That they wouldn’t back out of this idea during the multi-step process (carrying her downstairs, outside, getting the jump rope, tying a noose, putting it around her neck, stringing her up, hiding the evidence... This is a series of multiple decisions, not one quick accident like the initial push.)

That it’s not the image of Mari’s death that traumatized Sunny, but the image of what they chose to do to her body that traumatized them. I understand the image of Mari hanging is more dramatic, but they literally did it themselves so why is that more haunting than Sunny killing her?

That Mari’s true cause of death wouldn’t be immediately obvious to the parents, the police, the friends, EVERYONE. (I’ve seen fans try to get rid of this plot hole by hypothesizing that the parents knew and covered it up, but the evidence of this is circumstantial at best. The father saying, “You’re not my son,” is unreliable since it happens in Sunny’s headspace. Divorce is common after the death of a child, and, at the very least, Sunny’s mom doesn’t show any evidence of knowing what happened. The way it is written, only Sunny and Basil know the truth.)

The ridiculousness of this twist is so extreme that it completely broke any immersion I had left. Frankly, the reveal that the happy, loveable Mari committed suicide is a far heavier and more realistic twist than a crazy murder-cover-up story is.

Additionally, it seems like Basil was only written into this scene in order to make Sunny the true victim of what happened. After all, Sunny may have pushed her, but it was Basil who came up with the demented cover up. (This is apparent from just the photos but the datamined Truth Album confirms it.) By having Basil come up with the plan, the game splits the guilt between the two of them to make the kids easier to sympathize with. It’s problematic because if Basil was not in the scene, there would be no way to justify what Sunny did to Mari. So why is what they did easier to accept when they worked together?

Fixing the writing lie: Sunny lies and says that Mari slipped. Remove Basil from the scene, and instead have Sunny confide in Basil which forces Basil to become a co-conspirator and burdens him with the terrible truth.

4. Sunny’s friends forgiving him and Basil for what they did to Mari

Last but not least, the story heavily implies that Hero, Kel, and Aubrey will forgive Basil and Sunny for what they did to Mari. I found this to be almost as unbelievable as the staged-suicide stunt.

It feels like a lie since the group’s friendship is never established as anything beyond shallow hang outs from 3+ years ago (see point #1).

It feels like a lie because this is hot off the heels of Aubrey being so distraught over Mari and the following fall out that in the last three days she 1.) attacked Sunny and Kel with a nail bat TWICE, 2.) Stole Basil’s photobook, and 3.) Shoved Basil in the lake. This trauma is still very fresh for her.

It feels like a lie because the complexity of the staged-suicide is so extreme, one would be hard pressed to forgive ANYONE for doing that, be it friend, foe, parent, sibling, lover, etc.

I’ve seen fans argue that the ending is not about forgiveness, it’s about telling the truth, and I want to believe that. Really. If the ending was about Sunny starting his redemption arc by telling the truth no matter what the consequences are, that would be a meaningful lesson. But the writing does not support that. The ending headspace segments are focused on assuring Sunny that his friends will support/forgive him no matter what. To do this, the game shows us the shallow photobook memories (again) to show how much they allegedly care about each other. Then, when fighting Omori, Sunny remembers these quotes from his friends, which directly correlate to their unconditional support:

KEL: Friends... Friends are supposed to be there for each other.

AUBREY: I hope you can find some peace... or you know... some happiness.

HERO: We made the mistake of leaving each other when we needed each other the most. This time... we’ll stay together.

BASIL: Maybe one day... things can go back to the way they were before.

The really direct evidence that this ending is about getting forgiveness is this quote from Basil in Sunny’s headspace:

[BASIL: “AUBREY, KEL and HERO are good friends. You have to trust that they’ll forgive us.”]

This is one of the last scenes before Sunny tells his friends the truth, proving that obtaining forgiveness from his FRIENDS is in fact the leading motivation for Sunny’s actions.

Fixing this writing lie is easy. Instead, adjust the writing to be about telling the truth, not about how much the friends will still love Sunny. Have headspace Basil say, “Even if they don’t forgive us, Aubrey, Kel, and Hero deserve to know the truth. It’s the only way to make things right... or close to it.”

Conclusion

OMORI is undeniably a cute game with a strong visual identity, and has a premise that could make for a very compelling experience. However, the sloppy plot and weak character writing cause the potential of this game to be squandered. There are other issues as well that I chose not to cover for the sake of time, such as the poor pacing of the dragged out dungeons and the bizarre, unrealistic behavior of characters in the “real” world. 

However, there are a few more glaring problems with OMORI that I have to address: In part 2 of my critique, I break down what may be the biggest problem with OMORI’s writing: the message.

[ Link to Part 2: OMORI’s Message is Mishandled and Distasteful ]

[joy1579]

self indulgent

I've been sad. so i wrote a thing to make me less sad. maybe it'll make someone else less sad too or at the very least they can laugh at my “cringe” but either way it did make me less sad so goal accomplished.

Mc and jumin organize a bookshelf jumin asks what neko girls are and MC short circuits his brain for a couple of seconds. no smut just fluff

Moving hadn’t taken long. You had opted to donate your furniture to the local homeless shelter since Jumin’s penthouse was furnished with the highest quality furniture you could dream of. Honestly most of your things paled in comparison to the lavish goods Jumin considered tawdry. Still there were a quite a few boxes you had decided to save, filled mostly with sentimental keepsakes and the few odds and ends that catered to your specific tastes. You were practically finished by noon save the three or four boxes that sat in the main room next to the larger than life bookshelves. Certainly there was plenty of room on them. You never where a fan of negative space on bookshelves but if you were being completely honest that had more to do with how many books you needed to fit in such a finite space. Jumins bookshelves had plenty of room with just enough negative space to look perfectly balanced and while you knew Jumin had told you to do whatever you wished this felt intimate. Bookshelves where holy spaces after all, housing books that change hearts and minds alike that shape the soul and … okay so maybe you just really liked books and that made them seem important to you either way this was definitely something you wanted to do with Jumin. When you heard the door rattle with Jumin homecoming you bolt towards it excited to greet him after work.

“Jumin! Welcome home!” you cried bouncing in place as he made his way inside. You smiled as you saw the creases in his brown flatten and the stress slip from shoulders when he saw you. You waited all of 5 seconds for him to close the door giving you both some privacy from the bodyguards stationed outside before you pounced, leaping upon the business man wrapping your arms around his neck. You delighted in the deep honey of his laughter as he caught your waist in kind and kissed the top of your head gently.

“darling. I’m so glad to be home. How was your day? did you get settled?” Jumin asked as you pulled yourself back slightly giving him room to loosen his tie and set aside his coat.

“everything is in its place except um Jumin there is one thing I need if you don’t mind”

“name it and its yours”

“I wanted to share your bookshelves and I was hoping that maybe you could organize the books with me?” you admitted shyly. It had seemed like such a good idea in the beginning he could show you his favorite books, walk you through his favorite plots and tell you his favorite quotes and you could do the same with him. Yet now as you presented the idea to him you worried. What if he was to tired he had worked all day after all, what if he thought you too needy, or your books to childish. what if he didn’t want your books displayed in the living room because they weren’t very pretty, all of his books where gorgeous leather bound tomes or mint condition hardcovers, yours where second hand at best many where decommissioned library books or garage sale rescues, broken in battered and bruised by years of use. It would make sense to have them put away in a back room where they couldn’t tarnish the pristine collection Jumin had on display. Perhaps you where spiraling, working yourself into a nervous frenzy in the span of a few seconds.

“nothing would make me happier love. We can call the chef to start dinner and begin emptying the shelves for rearranging while he works.” You couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face or the giggle that escaped your lips. The surprise on Jumins face was evident if only for a second before it gave way to a warm sort of fondness. “had I known simple redecorating would make you this happy I would have stayed home and done it all with you” he said affectionately running his fingers through your hair.

“it’s not that I just,” you paused face flushing a bit “books are a big deal, ya know? My dad used to tell me that every book you read becomes a part of you and that you can learn more about someone by the books they love than by the words they say so I wanted to share that with you” jumins eyes where so soft and gentle in that moment you felt your breath hitch “I want to know everything about you and, and I want you to know everything about me” suddenly his lips where on yours fervent and full of passion the hand that had been in your hair now on your chin guiding you too him. The kiss was short and when you parted from him he stayed close, just a hairs breath from your face.

Jumin voice was little more than a whisper as he asked “how is it that every day I manage to fall more in love with you?” you couldn’t help but lean forward and kiss him again an all too familiar giddiness bubbling its way through your soul. You loved this man more than life itself and you knew that would never change.

 “so your ‘Encyclopedia of Fairies’ should go next to the Catherynne M Valente series so we can reference it while reading agreed?” you giggled thrilled that his collection of mythological reference books slotted together with your fae fiction so perfectly. Puzzle pieces connecting to create a masterpiece.

“yes I think that’s perfect. I can’t wait to read her interpretation of such ancient mythos. I also have ‘The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People’ if you’d like to add it to that shelf” he said grinning like a child at show and tell.

“oh my goodness yes! That’s perfect and your book on Romanian vampires should be near my ‘Dracula’ and ‘vittorio’ that way that shelf over there can be dedicated to the occult, hauntings, and psychic reference books”

“that sound wonderful and takes care of all the written word but we still haven’t found a place for your comics” Jumin informed glancing toward the woefully large stack of manga you had brought.

“not comic Jumin manga and yeah I think we’re out of space though. I um I didn’t think I had that many books. Sorry” you admitted not meeting his eyes. He tilted your head up to look at him.

“there’s no need to apologize it simply means that tomorrow we can go shopping for another shelf and the next day we can organize those. I’m quite curious about ‘la petite cossette’ you said these where Japanese but that is most certainly a French title.”

“oh I actually think you’d like that one a lot it’s about a man who falls in love with a woman in a cursed portrait its actually pretty tragic in the end.”

“How interesting” he mused retrieving it from the pile of books and skimming through it “the art is truly enchanting and you said that manga has its own subculture?”

“yeah from neko girls to shonen action tropes it has its own vocabulary, history and groups of people its really fun”

“neko girls?” Jumin repeated and your eyes widened at his confusion. This was definitely something he of all people should know about! You jumped up and sprinted to the closet you had filled earlier that day with the few cosplay supplies you had. At the time it had taken nearly half your pay check but if Jumin liked them right now the purchase then would be completely justified. You put on your surprise as quickly as possible before rushing back out to greet Jumin who had just made it to the edge of the living room to come find where you had gone. He froze for a second processing what you were now wearing. White cat ears that moved and twitched fairly believably and just as he was able to cope with that your made paws with your hands and tried your best “nya”. For a moment you feared you may have broken him. He didn’t move his face blank, eyes fixed on you. You tried again hoping to spur some sort of reaction from him “nya?” you said turning to the side slightly to show off the other half of your surprise a white tail complete with pink bow and bell at the base where it attached to your skirt. You tilted your head to look up at him through your lashes trying every trick in your arsenal to look as cute as possible but nothing. He was completely frozen. “Jumin? Hello?” now you were getting worried “darling are you okay?” you asked placing the back of your hand on his forehead to feel for a temperature. The second your hand touched him however his face flushed.

“neko girl.” He muttered “that’s neko as in cat” you could see him trying to calm himself. Fiddling with his shirt sleeves and attempting to stay in control. You smiled standing on your tip toes to kiss his cheek and whisper in his ear.

“am I a good little kitten at least?”  you couldn’t contain your giggle as you heard him choke slightly before scooping you up bridal style.

“certainly not, in fact I think you’ve been a very bad little kitten.” He said his voice deeper than normal as he carried you back towards the bedroom.

[purrincess-chat]

Cat’s Definitive Ranking of Every ML Episode as of 4/22/21

Are you guys ready for this? I did the thing. You’re all welcome. Don’t ever ask me for anything again. You can watch me get progressively more unhinged in real time. 

Now, just to preface this, I did not give this too much thought. Most of these are just my gut feelings. I went through every episode and just made some snap judgments based off the lasting impressions I’ve been left with. These are my opinions. If you don’t like them, tough. And also I don’t care. Go spend 4 hours making your own damn ranking. And shut the hell up. Anyway, this is probably the longest post I’ve ever made, so I’m gonna put it all under a read more. Click on it if you have an hour to read it. Okay, here we go!

1.     Origins II- Good starting point for our heroes. Good establishment of canon ships and character dynamics. Umbrella scene literally stole my wallet. Cannot emphasis enough that I am whipped for the umbrella scene. I wrote a whole ass AU just to say how whipped I am for the umbrella scene. In the Rain will play at my wedding. Jk. Weddings are for suckers. But dammit if I don’t want these kids to get married. 10/10

2.     Origins I- Good introduction to lore. Good introduction to characters. Good establishment of status quoyo. Just good. 10/10

3.     Simon Says- Listen, I am nothing if not a shipper at heart. This episode just sparks joy. And the whole series almost ended when Gabriel almost jumped off the roof. I was really rooting for this one. This was the episode where I saw Ladrien and went yes, ma’am, I’ll have one of those. 10/10

4.     Evillustrator- Are you all surprised? Cat, the MC-skeptic ranked the pivotal MC episode so highly? Well, let me tell you all a thing, I started this fandom out a MC shipper because of this episode. Their first interaction is gold. I don’t deny that. I enjoy it. This is the MC dynamic I fell in love with. Yall toxic shippers ruined MC for me when you opened your mouths and spat in the face of Ladrien and baselessly declared MC the sin-ship. We all know it’s Ladrien. Stop kidding yourselves. Boy in leather catsuit? Please. Basic ass vanilla bitches. I’m getting off-topic. Solid episode 10/10. We love to see it.

5.     Stormy Weather- Baby’s first Miraculous episode. It holds a special place in my heart. It’s a solid episode. Good establishment of what the show is. Fun villain. Good times. Fond memories. 10/10

6.     Riposte- Listen, I know I’m an Adrinette stan, but hear me out: Ladrien. It’s just so good. And Kagami was compelling in this episode. It was just really solid. It’s my favorite s2 episode. If you ask me if I want to rewatch Riposte, the answer is always yes. 10/10. We stan.

7.     Gorizilla- Okay, so this episode has some solid Adrinette in it, but the real reason it ranks so high is that fucking Ladrien trust fall. I stare at that scene for hours, you guys. HOURS. It is absolutely just *chefs kiss*. Sometimes when I need a pick-me-up, I just go watch gifs of that catch on loop. 10/10. Beautiful. Radiant. Carefree.

8.     Gang of Secrets- I have been keeping most of my opinions to myself about s4 (mostly because I’ve backed way the hell out of this fandom), but GoS was pretty solid. Gotta say, it’s the first episode in a long time with this show that made me actually excited to see what happens next. Most other episodes I was like, okay, that was cute. The show is still meh overall. But GoS really got me like oh shit, is ML good again? 10/10 for making me feel things again.

9.     Oblivio- Told you guys this one was probably rated higher than I thought. Oblivio is just really fun. There is good Adrinette. That “No wonder I fell in love with you” paired with the softest of Adrien smiles just sends me. And the kisses. The unquestionable trust. These two kids literally woke up together alone in an elevator with no memories and said welp, you’re my boyfriend/girlfriend obviously, I don’t make the rules. Honestly, how anyone could argue that these two dorks aren’t made for each other after that episode is beyond me. 9/10

10.  Backwarder- Okay, I know I am weird and alone for this one, but I really liked this episode. It got a lot of shit for the constipation capsule thing at the end, but like who cares? We finally got some more backstory on Fu. He got a love-interest who is dope as hell. This episode is my favorite lucky charm use ever. Like that queen DID that. I like Backwarder, guys! Fuck off. 9/10.

11.  Kwamibuster- We all know I am a Marinette-stan by this point, but our girl was SHINING this episode. This bitch said gimme all them and let me go whoop this bitch’s ass, and she DID. Hawkmoth could never. Multimouse is a gift, and Marinette is a boss ass queen.  9/10

12.  Chat Blanc- Listen, this episode was very good. I enjoy the idea of my children being happy in another timeline somewhere very much. We got all 4 sides of the square in an episode. It’s just really solid. I know this is the fandom’s favorite, and everyone is gonna shit their pants because it didn’t make my top 10, but this is my list. So, I put it at number 12. It’s good. I like it. It just didn’t steal my wallet like other episodes did. Put the pitchforks down. It’s gonna be okay, you can still love it more than me. 8/10

13.  New York Special- I know everyone felt some type of way about this special, but I wasn’t mad at it. My perception of it might be clouded because I watched it in Disney World where I was chilling and having a great time, but like this special really did somethings for me. The Adrinette was top tier. Tippy top tier. Even though they hurt us in the end, I am okay with it because it just means the children will grow and come out stronger. I don’t care if it’s not technically canon. Ask me if I give a fuck. I don’t. I had fun here. 8/10. Solid.

14.  The Collector- This one might shock a lot of you, but let me paint you a scene. It’s the first episode of s2. We have just come off a 2 year hiatus. The fandom is thriving. We’re hungry for canon content. We have hopes and dreams and expectations. Everyone is going wild with theories. This episode confirmed something that was long since obvious (in my opinion) and ended the stupid arguments people had been having. It made Gabriel actually seem semi-competent. We got our first taste of how Chat/Adrien will react to his dad being Hawkmoth. We got a peek at their life. Adrien’s isolation and sadness. They were so close to figuring it out. The battle was epic. Like Collector really had them on the ropes there for a second. It’s a solid episode, yall. I’m not wrong. Hate me all you want, but this episode brought it. 8/10

15.  Despair Bear- Is this episode up this high because of the Adrinette slow dance scene? YOU BET YOUR ASS IT IS. Okay, but fr though, shipping aside, this episode gave us hope that Chloe was actually gonna redeem herself. I mean, she didn’t but, we didn’t know that at the time. Seeing her run around trying to be nice was fun. And then she actually did something good, and we had a moment of okay, she’s capable. We’ll get there. We didn’t. But what a ride this episode was for making us think she would. 8/10

16.  Startrain- Cat, you’re just ranking all the Adrinette episodes highest. And? What of it? Are you surprised? You clicked a blog that has simping for Adrinette in the description, and you’re surprised all my favorite episodes have Adrinette? I’m not wrong, you’re just an idiot. The Adrinette nap cuddles aside though, this was a pretty good episode. If you don’t think too hard about the whole space thing, we got a look at Max’s life, his mom is a driven, smart lady doing her best. Adrien rebels against papa for once. Alya stops a Lila scheme. Chloe gets to play the hero. Alya and Nino actually investigate like the heroes they are. Gabriel gets to realize what a dumbass bitch he is. I mean. Guys. Startrain is solid. 7.5/10

17.  Sapotis- This one shot up in rank for me after GoS, but tbh it’s always been a solid episode. Alyanette sleepover? Check. Alya becoming a superhero? Check. It’s a fun episode. And looking back, it’s nicely called back to later in GoS. We love it. 7.5/10

18.  Sandboy- Idk why I enjoy this episode as much as I do, but I do. Sandboy is a cute bean. I love his aesthetic. We also get hilarious looks at everyone’s nightmares. “Plagg, who turned you into a sock?” cracks me up cause like Adrien, bby, no XD And Chat Noir’s nightmare. I think it would have been interesting though if since Sandboy dusted the Agreste mansion, if we got a peek at Hawkmoth’s nightmares. It would have been a nice hint of plot to go along with Master Fu’s nightmare. Also Plagg giving the akuma the slip like the clever boy we know he is deep down? 7.5/10

19.  Furious Fu- If you guys haven’t realized by now that I love Fu, idk what you’re doing. Pay attention. I know that some people don’t like him, but I’m just gonna say it, you’re wrong. Fu took care of the Miracle Box for over 100 years, and this episode kind of gives some insight to what the Order was like. Very strict. Lots of rules. And ya know what, Fu said fuck the police, I’m gonna befriend these little magical demigods, and fuck off! Like what an absolute legend. I was really happy to see him living his best life, and that he and Marianne got married because it’s what he deserves. We love to see it. 7.5/10

20.  Gamer- People like to shit on Marinette in this episode, but like honestly, if I were in her shoes, I’d have probably done the same thing if I had the skill. Ain’t nothing wrong with a girl trying to spend time with the boy she likes. And Tom and Sabine being absolute shipping trash. I love them. And the awkward Adrinette. The introduction of the lucky charm that Adrien STILL carries. Wholesome. This was a good episode for their friendship, and we love to see it. 7.5/10

21.  Christmaster- Okay, I know a lot of people hated this episode when it aired, but I thought it was really funny? Everyone skidding around in the ice rink was hilarious. If you don’t take this episode seriously, it’s really fun. Chris is pretty cute, and damn right Ladybug is the best kid in the world. Idk. This episode is fun. I’m not mad at it. Sue me. 7.5/10

22.  Weredad- What? Another MC-heavy episode in Cat’s top 30? Listen, I don’t hate canon MC. The fans just annoy me. This episode was funny. The secondhand embarrassment and cringe was real. Plagg taunting Adrien because he knows the secret was great. Marinette being a self-saving queen was great. It’s a good episode. I like MC, you guys. I do. I swear! 7.5/10

23.  Miraculer- This episode was interesting to me, and I think it’s still a good development episode. For one, Sabrina finally got her own akuma episode named after her. Secondly, because it’s a big step for Chloe, just not in the way we expected. It totally makes sense that Chloe can’t have her Miraculous back because literally everyone knows her identity. Can’t argue that logic. And she is the first person to ever refuse to become akumatized, so like mad respect. I know a lot of people had high hopes for redeemed Chloe (myself included), but I think watching a character fall from revering someone to hating them is also an interesting path. The friends to enemies arc as it were. Idk. I liked this episode. It was an opportunity for Chloe to grow, even if she didn’t in the end, but we’ll talk about that later. 7.5/10

24.  Lady Wifi- I like Alya. I feel like I don’t say that much, and people make some assumptions because of MDCSP, but MDCSP is just a concept I wanted to explore. It doesn’t really reflect how I feel about any one character. Except maybe Lila. And Gabe. But every other spite fic I’ve written branching from Chameleon, the class has been fine. Alya has been fine. So, let it be known that I like Alya. Lady Wifi was a fun episode. Putting aside the fact that she thought Chloe was Ladybug for no reason, I like her akuma. I like the interactions we get with LadyNoir in this episode. After GoS, this episode gets a bit funnier. It’s solid. 7/10

25.  Dark Cupid- I don’t have much to say about this one. LadyNoir. That’s it. That’s the tweet. Send it. 7/10

26.  Volpina- So many things about this episode. It introduced a new antagonist who we didn’t exactly 100% know was going to be an antagonist at the time. This episode sparked a lot of fun fan theories for a while. Who was Lila? How was she going to shake things up? Not to mention this episode gave us a taste of plot and lore, and set up Marinette meeting Master Fu officially. Lots of intrigue sparked from this episode. And that LadyNoir door scene? OOOOOO 7/10

27.  Hearthunter- One word: Adrigaminette. This episode was so cute for them! I loved seeing them all goofing and running around together. Adrien and Kagami being absolutely in love with Marinette when her hair is down. They both love her, I don’t make the rules. Not to mention, Marinette takes a big step by letting her friends be happy without her. Kagami not wanting to hurt Marinette. The drama!! Gabriel being a messy ass bitch to his friends. It loses points for the abomination of an akuma, but overall, I wasn’t too mad at it. Yet. 7/10

28.  Glaciator- More MC in Cat’s top 30? It’s more likely than you think. Listen. Listen… Listen. MC is fine. This episode was the closest thing to fanfiction that we got. The balcony scene was really sweet. I was drinking the irony. We got introduced to Andre the icecream fraud. Andre the please just give me the flavor I asked for man. I could have done without Chat pouting, but the LadyNoir in the end was pretty good. I wish they’d done more with Ladybug’s feelings for Chat. Had her question herself a bit more after this one, but overall, it’s cute. 7/10

29.  Zombizou- A lot of people started hating Mlle. Bustier after this episode, and like I can kind of see it, if I squint, but I did not draw that same conclusion from this episode. Mlle. Bustier just wants good things for all of her students. They’re 14 ffs, she just wants to be a good influence on all of her students and wants them all to be successful. But go off, I guess? Plus, this episode was basically just a spoof on zombie apocalypse movies. We got so many things. Julerose, Myvan, DJWifi. Chloe actually showing some depth and emotion. LadyNoir. We won this episode, babes. Sorry you didn’t get the memo. 7/10

30.  Timetagger- Okay. This is the last episode in the ones that I’d venture to call “good.” Number 30. I enjoyed Timetagger. I know people have feelings about timey-wimey bullshit, and like I’m not gonna lie and say I’m thrilled with it either (I mean, I changed the rabbit’s power in MDCSP) but that being said, Timetagger was so sassy. Bunnix was cool as hell. We get to see that LB and CN are still doing the thing in the future. So many questions sparked from this episode. It was fun. Idk. I liked it. That’s all I got. 7/10

31.  Malediktator- Okay, from this point on, less comments because this is the section that are more or less just meh to me. Like they’re fine. This episode was fine. Chloe was fine. Chat playing with the laser was cute. 6.5/10

32.  Mayura- Adrien’s speech at the end. Nuff said 6.5/10

33.  Ikari Gozen- Ryuko/Ryuuko. Gals being pals. 6.5/10

34.  Reflekdoll- I talked about this earlier, but I don’t hate this episode. It’s not as bad as people make it out to be. Sue me. 6.5/10

35.  Anansi- Nino is the goodest boy. Also I need more of the gang taking Adrien on adventures via Facetime. Stat. 6.5/10

36.  Shanghai- This one is new, and tbh I still haven’t watched it with subs, but I had a good time. Fei was cute. The boy squad was cute. Adrien bonding with Great Uncle Cheng was cute. Hawkmoth getting literally dunked on was *chefs kiss* 6.5/10

37.  Gigantitan- I love overly supportive, ride-or-die girl squad. 6.5/10

38.  Party Crasher- Idk why this episode was funny to me. Kim is the purest bean. We don’t deserve him. 6.5/10

39.  Desperada- This episode was an emotional roller coaster, and even though we all collectively hate Aspik’s stupid egghead, we love the Ladrien this episode provided us. 6/10

40.  Oni-chan- Listen, I loved seeing Lila get a tiny bit of karma even if she made it up in the end. I loved Chat going off on her. I loved seeing her get outsmarted in the end. 6/10

41.  Frightningale- My good lesbian Clara Nightingale. We stan. 6/10

42.  Style Queen- I like Audrey in a “she’s the worst person I’ve ever met, I want to travel the world with her” kind of way. She’s funny to me. Idk. I love her firing everyone. She’s the one I love to hate. She’s the worst, but we love her for it. Plus this episode gave us Plagg’s adorable little Cataclysm that destroyed half the city. 6/10

43.  Gamer 2.0- Chat confidently strutting in heels made this episode worth it. And we get to see the beginning of Marinette being overwhelmed. Plus it was the return of gamer!nette. 6/10

44.  Troublemaker- I don’t hate this episode as much as the next person either. It was fine. Jagged is a manchild, but we love him for it. He’s a Marinette stan which like mood. The Adrinette at the end was cute. I wasn’t mad at it. Idk. It’s fine. 6/10

45.  Reflekta- Where are all my Juleka stans at? I loved the LadyNoir banter in this ep. V. cute. 6/10

46.  Dark Owl- This episode was fun. And it really shows their level of trust. Plus Plagg and Tikki interacted. 6/10

47.  Timebreaker- Have I ever mentioned that I like Alix? I like Alix. 6/10

48.  Silencer- I don’t hate this episode as much as you’d expect me to, and that is 100% because of the LadyNoir. 5.5/10

49.  Prime Queen- Chat purrs. 5.5/10

50.  Syren- I think the fish power-up is adorable. Ondine is a gem. Kim is a pure bean, but we been knew. 5.5/10

51.  Befana- I like Gina, but this episode fell flat for me. Almost as flat as the animation. 5.5/10

52.  Reverser- Another episode that everyone hates that I am actually fine with. This episode made me like Nathaniel more. Probably because I was previously indifferent toward him. Marc is cute too. 5.5/10

53.  Mr. Pigeon- Marinette is one clever girl. And the Adrinette hand-touch. 5.5/10

54.  Felix- Felix is a gremlin of chaos. A true chaotic neutral. He gives his uncle the finger, and I think that’s beautiful. 5.5/10

55.  Truth- Bet you expected this episode to be higher. While I did enjoy watching toxic people’s world crumble, this episode still gets a meh from me dog. 5/10

56.  Lies- The Adrigami was cute, and I respect Kagami as a character. The akuma could have been better tho. 5/10

57.  Princess Fragrance- Not much to say here. 5/10

58.  Copycat- 5/10

59.  Bubbler- 5/10

60.  Mime- 5/10

61.  Animan- 5/10

62.  Robostus- 5/10

63.  Ladybug- This episode ranks this low purely because I don’t care about GabeNath, and I hate that Lila won something in the end. But Adrien saying I won’t hesitate, bitch! At the end was nice to see. 5/10

64.  Catalyst- I know I ranked Mayura way higher, but Catalyst fell flat for me. Like it was fine. Wasn’t as into it though. 4.5/10

65.  Puppeteer- One of my favorite lucky charm uses. 4.5/10

66.  Pixelator- My favorite Cataclysm. 4.5/10

67.  Horrificator- That almost-Adrinette kiss tho 4.5/10

68.  Pharaoh- 4.5/10

69.  Kung Food- 4.5/10

70.  Rogercop- 4/10

71.  Guitar Villain- 4/10

72.  Dark Blade- 4/10

73.  Bakerix- 4/10

74.  Antibug- And now onto the bottom 10. To start us off, I will just say: UGH, this episode annoyed me. First of all, Sabrina didn’t even get her own episode. Chloe was a piece of shit. Idk why they made Ladybug the one in the wrong when Chloe was being obnoxious. Ugh. 3/10

75.  Captain Hardrock- I’m gonna be honest. My apathy for this episode has grown into loathing. Toxic stans are 100% to blame. Birthday ruining, bitches. This is the reason I threw a breakup bash after Truth. Yall deserved it. 3/10

76.  Christmas Special- I didn’t hate this episode as much as everyone, but it still wasn’t great. 2.5/10

77.  Stormy Weather 2.0- This episode was really dumb. It didn’t need to exist. 2.0/10

78.  Queen Wasp- Why did we give Chloe a Miraculous after this episode? 2/10

79.  Animaestro- Did we really need a self-insert? Did we really? 2/10

80.  Puppeteer 2.0- Listen, this episode would have made more sense in s1 or at the very latest early s2. Adrien gave a whole ass speech on how great Marinette is, then he turns around and is like idk if she likes me… Clean it up. 2/10

81.  Miracle Queen- I could talk at length about how much I hate the ending of this episode and what they did with Chloe and Master Fu, but we’re just going to remain calm and give it a solid 1.5/10

82.  Frozer- This episode made no goddamn sense. I call bullshit on so many things. Just ugh. 1/10

83.  Chameleon- Surprisingly, even though this episode sparked many, many spite fics out of me, it’s not my least favorite because at least Ladybug semi-redeemed this episode. Still really dumb and ooc tho. 1/10

84.  Feast- Okay, okay, okay, here we are. Bottom of the barrel. Cat’s most hated episode, and you wanna know why? You want to know why this episode fills me with the rage? Because we spent two fucking seasons building up all this mystery and lore and intrigue surrounding Fu’s big mistake, and they dropped the fucking ball! They did my mans so dirty! They could have really deepened his character, deepened the Order, deepened anything other than whatever fucking affair Gabriel and Nathalie have going on, but NO. They made it some stupid, bland-ass thing that got resolved magically in the end, then just ignored it for the rest of the season. I will never not be salty about how they did my boy Fu in this show. I’m happy he found his peace, but fuck if I’m not livid about how they did it. Whatever. Chat being done with Ladybug’s shit when they’re about to get eaten was funny I guess. .5/10

[cherripeach]

Chapter 10

Little Match Maker

Summary: Your life motto is “I have the power of god and anime on my side, don’t mess with me,” and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it.

However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it. Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.

Chapter 1:5 i’m jared 19 and i never learned how to read

Warnings: Curse words, implied sex jokes

Words: 3.4k

Relationships: developing but future twstxreader

You three made it to homeroom right before the final bell rang, meaning none of you were late which was boring in your opinion. Being fashionably late especially on the first day just shows character. 

The classroom was full of caldrons like from Harry Potter but also full of lab coats like a science lab. There were also just shelves with glass covering them full of plants that you have never seen before and ones you hoped to never touch because you are 100.69% sure they can kill you. Then, there were just shelves of bottles of potions like in the movies which you also did not want to touch not for fear of death but because they could turn you into a frog or something which sounded kinda cool now that you thought about it. Still, you were not going to do it.

Your teacher, however: a hottie. He obviously knows about style and fashion if his dual colored hair and his fur coat are anything to go by. He also had a perfectly shaped face with sharp eyes that you just couldn’t look away from. The whip in his hand told you enough about his life outside of school, and the collar at the end of it also told you enough. This man was def not someone to disrespect, and ngl he could yell at you. That’s for another time; you just hoped you could stare at the man for the entire class. 

Once you and your three friends put the lab coats and goggles on and went to your seats (you assumed because Ace and Deuce dragged you there), the gorgeous man started to lecture, “I see you’re the fresh new faces who will be joining my class today.” He walked around the classroom and gazed at everyone’s figure. “Hm~ What an unusual hair color. Not bad at all, I say. Be careful not to take too long to finish, understood?” He made it to your group of seats near the back and stopped, “My name is Divus Crewel.” His gaze was caught on you for a couple of seconds until he returned to walking around the classroom, “You shall refer to me as Master Crewel, if you please.” He had the most miniscule smirk when he turned back to meet your eyes. 

You turned to Ace with your wide eyes and muttered, “Please tell me he gets you hot and bothered too.” 

Ace just glared and spat back at you, “Only you are dealing with those feelings.” 

Master Crewel clapped his hands twice, “Come, settle down. It’s time for class to begin. First off, a few disclaimers.” 

The entire class ceased the side conversations, and you even placed the weight of your chin on your hands with your elbows on the desk so you could balance your newfound crush for him.

The magnificent man just lightly placed the edge of the whip on his desk, “I shall have your tiny brains remember hundreds of names of medicinal herbs and poisonous plants. And mushrooms are a whole different topic. I’ll have you remember them so that you don’t accidentally poison yourself if you eat some when you go for a walk. Dogs love to eat anything they see, after all.I don’t want to see anyone getting a failing mark during the exam, so I shall be as strict as I can.”

You don’t even remember what he was saying, but you just nodded the entire time. This was a class you knew you were going to stay awake in. Your eyes were still stuck on his figure, and you knew just from looking at him that you may not have a failing grade because you bet you were going to ask for help. 

Your three idiots were seemingly having a conversation next to you while your brain was stuck in your fantasies of after school tutoring. 

Your mind was stuck in your fantasy until the end of class when someone had to use his textbook to smack the back of your head, “Ouch!” You spun around only to find Grim and Ace behind you with a textbook in Ace’s hand. 

 Grim snickered out behind you, “You deserved that, Prefect. Even I, the Great Grim, was paying more attention in this boring class.” By the end of the sentence he sighed all of it out. 

“Come on. Let’s not be late.” Deuce grabbed his stuff and motioned to your group to leave. 

You lightly and neatly put up your lab coat and goggles because male Cruella De Vil was still situated at the front of the class, and you had to look good in front of him. 

“Have a great day!” You gushed out while frantically waving at the man to give him a proper farewell. 

Ace slapped your hand down once you exited the room, “Can you please stop? It’s getting real disgusting.” 

You blew a raspberry at him while the four of you were on your way to your next class, “Oh, shut up and let me be a simp.”

“A what? You know what I’m ignoring you.” Ace shook his head and sighed at your comments. 

The conversation stopped after that when you began to make your way up stairs to get to your next class. You had to go up two flights of stairs which ended with you leaning along a wall, red-faces, and out of breath by the middle of it. 

“Hurry up, supervisor,” Deuce advised. 

You hissed, “Shut up.”

The three of you arrived at your next class which Decue said was “something-something history.” And you were actually kind of excited because you have no clue what has happened in this world, and it is gonna be so different with magic and everything.  

You three took seats near the middle of class, so all of you could still concentrate but still talk some. This class room was structured much more like a lecture hall than the past one with a chalk board at the front behind a teacher desk and desks being on different platforms going up, and so your group had to go up a couple of stairs to get to where you claimed were your seats. 

The class all took their seats and shut their mouths once an older man without a uniform came into the classroom carrying a cat. 

The cat had your full attention for this class because you now have the human desire to pet and love the cat as one should. 

Once the professor sat down with the cat on his lap, he introduced himself, “I am Trein, the professor in charge of Magical History. And this is my familiar, Lucius. I shall have you learn the history behind the magic that you are using now.”

Lucis, the cute little black cat who had a hint of white on his front right under his head, confirmed Professor Trein’s previous statements with a “Meow.”

It took a couple of seconds for you to process the Professor’s words, but once you did you turned to Deuce who was located to the left of you and blurted out, “Wait, is Lucius a real cat? What's a familiar? Can I not pet him? OMG, what if he can understand what I’m saying. That cannot be it-”

Professor Trein cut you off midway with another Lecture (Deuce was just gazing at you with disappointment in his eyes), “I do not only grade by your reports, but also by how you behave in my classroom. I will not tolerate sleeping in class. Now then, please turn to page 5 of your textbooks. This is related to the magic stone that was discovered inside the Dwarf Mines.”

You were taken aback by everything, but you also realized that you did not have a text book. You didn’t even have a book bag or pens, so you turned to Deuce to only flutter your lashes and pout at him until he shared his textbook with you and gave you lose leaf and a pen. 

Lucis decided to bring his voice into the conversation, “Meow.”

“The discovery of this jewel led to magical energy being able to spread worldwide. It could also be considered as the 1st year magic was made possible.” Professor Trein continued his lecture, and you were actually actively taking notes because this was like some wack anime and you had to know the full plot line.

“Meow.”

Ace yawned into his hand when you gazed at him. 

And Deuce was taking notes but his eyes were also beginning to close, “Oh…! The Dwarf Mines, huh… Oh…! Magical energy, huh…” You had to kick him to keep him awake.

Grim rested his head on the desk, “Ugh… I want a more explosive and flashier magic class!”

You could only sigh at the three idiots not paying attention while your pen kept on writing. 

By the end of the class and the lecture was over, all three of the spots next to you were occupied with asleep idiots. You put your stuff into your pockets and got up to nug Grim on his shoulder for him to wake up. His head slowly lifted up with his eyes still closed, so you decided to just carry him to the next class. He was in your arms by the time you got everything together and moved onto the other two idiots asleep. 

You kicked Deuce in the calf who jumped up immediately and rushed to get everything together, and then moved onto Ace to pull his hair. Ace stayed still until you found a certain spot of hair closest to his neck and pinched it and tugged on it. That had him reaching for your hand to stop your actions and had him awake and ready to move. 

“Get up, class already ended.” You let go of his hair to move to the walkway of the classroom. 

Ace shook his head to wake himself further up, “Okay.. but why did you have to pinch me so hard?”

“Were you gonna wake up by yourself?”

“No.”

“I think you see my thought process, then.” You shrugged your shoulders while the two remaining boys got their things together. After that all three of you were off to your next class, causing you to walk down stairs and through hallways until the three of you made it to a field outside.

The boys made you drop off your stuff, which wasn’t much anyway, and Grim in order to go and change into a P.E. uniform. Apparently, in the locker room, there were some extra uniforms for you to change into. 

The locker room stunk of mold and fungus from somewhere in the corners of the room, but Deuce led you to a bin of uniforms. He just pulled the first one from the pile and gave it to you. It was a bright green shirt with a dragon or lizard on it. Then, he gave you a black jacket with yellow stripes on the sleeves and a pair of pants with a faded royal purple stripes on parts of the pants. Seems were also ripped out of certain parts of the uniform with most of the colors being lightly faded. Looking at the uniform as a whole, it was definitely going to be too large on you. 

You thanked Deuce while he was walking away to the right side of the locker room, and then, you got moving. You observed the locker room to see if there were any bathrooms and to your luck, toward the back there was another door which led into the bathroom. You entered the next room to find no line and no one in the last stall. On your way to the stall, you passed up a bulky male with silver-white animal ears on his head in a yellow uniform who was washing his hands. You set foot in the final stall to only find the toilet flooded and writings all over the wall, causing you to let out a sigh and shut and lock the door just happy you did not have to use the restroom. 

Once dressed, you took your cloak and other clothes and walked out of the stall to wash your hands. Looking in the mirror was not on your to-do list, so you kept your eyes stuck on the faucet and your hands because the headache from the rat’s nest on your head and the slight pain from parts of your face gave you all the information you needed. You left the restrooms and found a deserted area where many lockers were empty. You threw your clothes in one of the middle lockers, closed it, and took account of the number of the locker. 

You left the locker room to see that you were one of the final people to get dressed and get out of the locker room. Grim, Ace, and Deuce were seated on the ground near the back of the group, and you made your way to them with many different eyes on you. 

The hulking man blew his whistle to get everyone in the class and started a speech, “I’m Vargas and I’m in charge of watching over your physical education.Excellent magic starts with excellent bodies! Behold…! These muscles that I train every day! A magician with no stamina is unspeakable! First, do 20 laps around the field! And then, 100 sit-ups!” He blew the whistle again and threw his pointer finger out the motion for you all to start your laps.

The three of you jumped up from your spot on the ground and slowly walked over to the track. 

Ace grimaced at the teacher, “Eh… I don’t hate exercise, but I can’t handle teachers like him.”

“I have confidence in my physical abilities,” Deuce had his hands on his hips and was twisting his torso around to stretch it. 

Grim shook his head, “What's so fun about running around? I’m not a hamster, yanno?”

You just sighed and joined the group of students starting to run. Ace, Deuce, Grim, and you slowly joined the middle of the group in a jog around the field. 

You were left pondering for a second about everything and anything and your mind went straight to how you could get out of the stuffy cloak because even if you did look like an adventurer you could not stand to wear it in the heat all the time. So you started up a conversation:

“Yo, Deuce,” You bumped arms with him, making Deuce’s eyes slowly drifted to your figure, “Do you know where I could get a school uniform? Is there like a store or something nearby?” 

Deuce contemplated your question for a couple of seconds until he snapped his fingers, “There is a shop on campus that has everything. We could stop there after school today.” 

“Well, that’s one thing covered,” Your feet were still in a constant jog, but they started to cramp in some areas, “I hope they have a clearance section.” 

The rest of PE was much more strenuous than you expected. This teacher thought that all of you were Olympic Athletes with all the work he is making you do, but looking at some of the students here (the green shirt-green haired fellow who is racing down the track whenever possible and the furry male who you saw in the bathroom earlier). Everyone was doing better than you. Even Grim. 

However, the exercises were soon over and you were all allowed to go back to the locker rooms and change. You were for now stuck lying on the ground wheezing from the physical activities you just completed in the past hour. Ace and Deuce went back to get changed and Grim is asleep on the grass behind you. 

“You okay?” A male’s voice could be heard from somewhere above you, but you were too drained to even move your eyes to see who it was. 

You groaned, “Don’t mind me. I’m just slowly decaying.” 

The male was speechless for a second and did not respond until your eyes fluttered open the slightest bit, “Do you want water? Or the nurse?” 

“No, oh gracious savior, but I’d rather you leave me here to be eaten by the birds.” You shut your eyes, listening to Grim groan besides you.

“Um...okay. Please get better,” The male’s footsteps could be heard walking away. 

You stayed there for about another hour in your head just trying to breathe in and out and maybe even fall asleep until a kick was landed on your side. 

“Get up, you lazy ass.” Ace was blessing you with his presence and his torment.

You hurled your body forward and up to grip Ace’s foot which was making its way to your side again, “Don’t you have a sense of common courtesy to not kick someone when they are dying?” 

“You aren’t dying, but you are wasting our break time.” Ace groaned and pulled his foot out of your grip, “So go get dressed.”

Rolling your eyes, you gathered yourself and stood up to make your way back to the changing rooms. You left Grim to be with Ace, so you hoped those two would not cause problems. The rest was a lack of oxygen and lack of water blur until you found your three idiots out in the hallway and began your track to your next class. You decided to take your time a little because you had a ten minute break before the next class. 

Deuce was looking around the hallways for the next class, “Let’s see, the next class is..”

Ace was pouting next to you, “For a magic school, it doesn’t really feel that much different from a normal school, huh… It’s a lot more… ordinary than I thought… Guess I don’t have to worry much even without magic.” His body shifted to turn to your side, “Dontcha think so, too, Grim? Hm…” 

You gazed at where Grim last was which was to the left of you and let your eyes focus and blink for a couple of seconds, “Are you fucking kiddin me?”

A gasp was heard from Deuce in front of you, “Look outside the window! That fluffball running in the Courtyard…” He pointed out Grim’s exact spot in the middle of the large area. 

Once you began your sprint to him, you could hear him cackling about how he did not deserve to listen to boring lectures all day. 

You stopped your run when you realized that you would never be able to make it farther due to PE kicking your butt, “If I have to go to school, then, so does he.”

Deuce and Ace were arriving right behind you.

Deuce crossed his arms, “Running away on the first day…” He shook his head, “That guy just doesn’t learn, huh.” 

“Being negligent on the first day, are we? So, d’ya want us to help you catch Grim?” A smirk bloomed on Ace’s face. 

You scrunched your nose, “If I have to be here, then so does he.”  threaded your hands together and squeezed your eyes shut and bowed, “Please, please help me.”

“I want some chocolate croissants from the canteen!” 

Deuce blurted in agreement, “Then, I shall have some café latte from the cafeteria.”

You rose from your bow, “Perfect, perfect. Thank yooou!!” not even thinking about how you were going to afford that. 

Ace and Deuce pulled their magic pens out of their pockets and joined each other in front of you to start their hunt for Grim. 

Ace smirked at Deuce, “And that’s a deal! Alright, shall we go help out our helpless prefect, Deuce-kun?”

Deuce narrowed his eyes and rolled back his sleeves of his jacket, “Sure thing, Ace-kun. I’m most looking forward to lunchtime.”

“I’ll be in the classroom once you catch him.” You waved the two off while they began their hunt for the cat. 

By the time you made it to your next class, the three showed up with sweat dripping from their faces, their clothes in disarray, and the teacher right behind them. 

This would surely be a great year.

[adrinoir]

✨ Why Marichat is the superior ship ✨

I’ve been analyzing a bunch of different Miraculous topics, so why not touch on my (and 90% of the fandom’s) favorite ship? (Scroll to the bottom if you’d rather not read the entire thing but want to know my important points.)

How it got started

Ah, Evillustrator. That episode. STILL one of my favorite episodes. Dates way back to the beginning of season one.

Ladybug does a fake out saying she’s got “a top secret mission” to take care of and tells Cat Noir to look out for Marinette.

That face says “hold the fuck up, I KNOW her! (And low key have feelings for her... *panic*)”

He then goes to her house and starts being super over the top and flirty: kneeling down and kissing Marinette’s hand, saying how she’ll be his ladybug for the night (ohh the irony), and flexing his muscles.

Did he have to go that far? NO. But it’s wonderful that he did lmao.

He doesn’t know she’s Ladybug, BUT he knows her as Marinette. So, isn’t it kinda funny that his first instinct is to FLIRT with her?

He legit just did it because he WANTED to.

And I love how she just teases him back in return and laughs at his stupid flirting. Like the chemistry was just there even in the first interaction.

Naturally, they were also good at working together to get away from Evillustrator in that episode. (He was still being low-key flirty with her for a bit of it!)

Then, at the end of the episode, Adrien WANTS Marinette’s opinion on Cat Noir and is hoping it’s a positive one. Why would he care about her opinion if he DIDN’T like Marinette?

What really *launched* the ship

This should be obvious: the Glaciator episode!

It’s really made clear in this episode that Adrien feels a good sense of comfort around Marinette (especially more so when he’s Cat Noir because Marinette doesn’t know who he is underneath the mask.)

Cat Noir sets up his super romantic rooftop date, expecting Ladybug to show up. Of course she doesn’t, because Marinette was waiting on HIM to join her and their friends to get ice cream. He gets really sad and then sees Marinette being all mopey too on her balcony nearby.

Again, I LOVE what he does when he first sees her. His instinct is to go be with her because he doesn’t want to be alone - precious.

Then, he quickly opens up to her, which is crazy considering how little he’s opened up to his other friends. Like, admitting he got turned down and that he’s upset since he’s super in love with Ladybug is not necessarily a “light” subject to open up about to someone you’ve only interacted with once before (in his superhero persona, of course.)

Marinette doesn’t go into specifics, but at least she admitted that she got her heart broken too, that night (*sigh* if only Marinette hadn’t been so mean to Cat Noir and if only Adrien understood why Marinette is heartbroken.)

Then, Cat Noir CRADLES her in his arms and takes her to the rooftop setup that was originally meant for the love of his life, mind you. Like, excuse me, who does that? Are we just not gonna talk about that?

That’s so personal, thoughtful, and low key romantic that his way of helping Marinette cope with her heartbreak is taking her to the romantic rooftop setting.

Sure Cat Noir was still upset over Ladybug not being there, but you can tell he genuinely enjoyed Marinette’s company and that he trusts her enough to tell her about his deeper feelings.

You can tell Marinette genuinely liked it too, because she smiles and blushes as he carries her and even makes an effort to thank him for his sweet gesture. She also lets him protect her when Glaciator first attacks her.

More “fluff”

There’s some other cute moments here and there between Marinette and Cat Noir. It mainly involves Cat being extra protective over her when an akumatized villain shows up. (Mainly in Befana.)

He’ll ask her about what happened and sometimes carry her or put her in a safe place. Very cute and sweet.

Then - one of my all time favorite moments - is when he cuddles Marinette in his arms in Chat Blanc, right after she finds out Adrien is Cat Noir. She’s so happy with this news and just falls right into his arms.

How the writer tried killing off the ship

Oh good ol Thomas Ass Truck (not a typo, I mean it.) Considering how petty this man gets when interacting with the Miraculous fandom, I’m going to make a bold assumption. I feel he purposely created the Weredad episode because he’s sick of hearing us talk about how amazing the Marichat ship is, when most of the time it’s not canon.

One of the main plot points in the episode is Marinette pretending to have feelings for Cat Noir because he realizes she’s usually there after his missions with Ladybug. She’s all worried he’d figure out she’s really Ladybug so this is her stupid excuse to cover it.

Of course Cat Noir is thrown off guard by her sudden love confession and can’t POSSIBLY try dating Marinette because he’s still madly in love with Ladybug (ohh how he could’ve taken Plagg’s advice.)

So, of course, he tells Marinette he doesn’t want to be her boyfriend, and Marinette is ECSTATIC because she doesn’t have to fake being in love with him and she gets off the hook for getting caught after their missions. (Jeez, Marinette. Would it REALLY be that awful if Cat Noir DID want to date you?)

But, Cat Noir shows he still cares about her (even not in a romantic sense) because he continuously fights Weredad despite how ridiculously strong Weredad is.

Thomas is trying to kill off any potential of Marichat becoming a thing, because his precious ego is hurt by his fans’ views of THIS being the best ship. But, that was stupid to set back the strides forward this relationship made in Glaciator and Chat Blanc - two emotionally heavy episodes.

Final Thoughts

To tldr this, I’ll highlight the important points:

1) Marinette and Cat Noir are their most comfortable, most true selves in these roles and it’s clear there’s good potential for a healthy relationship to blossom between them (despite what Thomas Astruc thinks.)

2) The wonderful chemistry and good, raw moments are there as proof that this ship could just WORK.

3) The ONLY thing that is keeping this ship from being fully canon is Marinette and Cat Noir not allowing themselves to get over their feelings for themselves in their more “forced” identities as Adrien and Ladybug.

4) Marinette now knows Cat Noir has a sensitive side and she needs to be more understanding that there’s so much more to him beyond his goofy demeanor.

Hopefully this gives some good background and has convinced you to like this ship for what it is. Thank you for reading and good night.

[facets-and-rainbows]

Blue Exorcist 10th anniversary book Q&A session

The 10th anniversary book has a section where Katoh answers 100 questions submitted by fans on Twitter, so here they are translated/paraphrased! May contain manga spoilers up to the recent flashback arc, so be warned.

(Note that I’m playing it very fast and loose here because there are A HUNDRED OF THEM, so not exact wordings, but it should capture the gist. Lemme know if there are any you want elaborated on)

1. Katoh likes the feel of traditional drawing more than digital but is impressed with how far digital has come

2. Meph THOROUGHLY ABUSES spacetime to watch all his shows and ensure that he gets all the merch he wants

3. Did the girls take all of Yukio’s school uniform buttons in middle school? Yes, they did (apparently it’s like A Thing for girls to ask for a button from their crush at middle school graduation, based on some sad movie from the 60s where a guy who got drafted as a kamikaze pilot gave a girl one of his uniform buttons to remember him by)

4. Rin's tail is about a meter long

5. There are tons of servants working at Mephisto's mansion. Belial is in charge of them

6. Katoh borrows from all sorts of neat real locations when making settings

7. Katoh identifies with pretty much all the characters the most! Except Lucifer.

8. Demon designs she's proud of include the impure king and hachirou, pretty much anything that was the main one in an arc

9. Katoh lists a bunch of her favorite musical artists/music she’s listening to recently: King Gnu, Official Hige Dandism, Kenshi Yonezu, BAD HOP, Sakanaction, Keyakizaka 46, Hypnosis Mic, Aimer, B’Z, Queen Bee.

10. Awww the rabbit manga that characters are often reading isn't just Robo to Usakichi, it's an even older one that she drew as a little kid

11. She likes industrial style interior designs

12. Rin and Yukio alternated who got the top bunk growing up, because they couldn't agree on it lol

13. Katoh cares a whole lot about panel layouts and speech bubble positions, might even be her favorite part of the process (it shows!)

4. Katoh does NOT have a mashou, lol

15. Rin has probably been practicing in secret so he can learn to carry stuff with his tail

16. Izumo probably got into shojo manga around 1st grade, her mom had some around the house

17. Specialty dishes: Rin - lots of stuff but especially nabe Yuri - stuff you can throw together quickly Shiro - stuff he learned from Yuri and/or cookbooks, alongside teaching Rin Yukio - Does. Not. Cook.

18. Can't pick a favorite place she's been on research, but there's no place like Japan

19. Kinzou's band isn't currently meeting because demons, but he's probably still thinking of new songs

20. Hardest characters to draw: anyone with detailed flowing hair. Hardest to write for: Lightning and Gedouin. She had to go read books about serial killers specifically for material for Gedouin, lol 

21. Suguro actually gets a dorm room to himself, though allegedly Yukio is technically assigned as his roommate, lol. Didn't end up that way what with Yukio being a teacher and also Rin’s whole...situation

22. Shiemi makes some of her own hair accessories! Cute

23. Katoh doesn't mind if you include stuff with fan letters but check with the editor first

24. Time for making each chapter: Planning/storyboarding: 1-5 days. Sketching: 3-5 days. Drawing/inking: the rest. Just...the rest of the time

25. Neither Suguro nor Izumo have dated before and neither is currently dating. But that's probably just because things were hectic for them! It could happen

26. Yukio breaks 5 or 6 pairs of glasses a year, someone get this kid a strap or something

27. How many spare glasses does Yukio have? Check the fanbook lol it's in there (dang it Katoh)

28. The demon she wants us to pay the most attention to is Lucifer. Because plot.

29. What's under the Order's big meeting table? It's a BOTTOMLESS PIT and if you fall in it you DIE that's what makes it COOL (laughs)

30. What are the job requirements for the angelic legion? Literally just Arthur liking you and inviting you to join

31. She WANTS to do more character profiles but just hasn't gotten to it

32. Rin's tail feels like a cat tail, texture wise

33. The "red Assiah fire" is literally just actual fire nothing special

34. Rin's current hair color is light blue fading to white at the ends

35. Thoughts on Rin's growth: she likes that he stays positive in awful situations and she also thinks it's very main character of him to face the past instead of avoiding it

36. Mephisto didn't purposely surround Rin with stuffed animals when he woke up after going crispy. Mephisto's bed is just Like That

37. Kurikara was based on a cool sword she found in a sword book, but that one was technically just a ceremonial sword. The symbol on it us a Sanskrit letter kaan (sp?) associated with Fudou Myouou

38. Kuro can communicate with normal cats and hangs out with them often

39. Sometimes Shiemi's skirt is extra fancy around the hem what's up with that? Apparently it's an optional accessory that comes with the skirts help I haven't noticed this and don't know any fashion terms in any language

40. When coloring, Katoh always tries to have an overall theme in mind ("emphasis on blue" etc) so it comes together in the end

41. Yes the twins are genetically related to Shiro because of Goro (she says they're like his nephews but I say GENETICALLY at least they'd be indistinguishable from his children)

42. Strongest mom of all the strong moms around here? Yuri! Did you SEE her give birth??

43. Are you careful about your own health Katoh-sensei? Not particularly! Her mom has had to bring her food at work sometimes! Don't do this at home kids

44. At the dating events Shura goes to, does she drink cocktails in moderation? Yeah, she probably downplays her normal drinking habits at these things. But normally she's down for just about any kind of drink

45. Lucifer just really likes oysters okay

46. How many pages of manga does Katoh draw in a day? If she's being good about self-care: three. Maximum number ever: TEN

47. Mephisto is one of those folks who can eat like a garbage compactor and never gain weight. Possibly because his body resists that sort of change the same way it resists aging etc

48. First food Rin cooked: fish burger type patty. Yukio's favorite things Rin cooks: fish simmered in soy sauce, yellowtail with daikon radish. It's fish all the way down

49: Did Rin ever get more monthly allowance from Mephisto? It doubled! He gets TWO 2000 yen bills now (rip) [T/N: That's uh, that's USD $37.26 a month or 33.10 euro]

50. Why isn't Rin more popular with the girls? He gets nervous talking to them, plus he's too oblivious to notice even if he DID have some fans

51. Why change Suguro's hair? She gets bored with keeping everything the same, and she wanted a visual representation that he was getting serious and going into kind of a training arc

52. Things Katoh pays extra attention to when drawing: trying to capture the feel of whatever she's drawing (like "that looks warm and soft" or "I bet that guy stinks" cough Lightning cough)

53: Does Rin take after Yuri more? (He's got her eyes!) Katoh tried to draw Yuri so she looks like both twins. Personality, too - Yukio has her smarts and Rin has her optimism

54: Do you ever wanna be like Mephisto? Well she'd like to be able to get away with just ANYTHING EVER, but no, let's not be like Mephisto

55. Konekomaru not only carries around a cat toy in case he meets any cats, he MAKES cat toys to carry around based on what he thinks the cats would like

56. How'd you come up with Shima? Go read the fan book!

57. Do the kids have Twitter/Instagram accounts? Rin - probably not. Konekomaru might be on some social media. Paku and Izumo are totally on instagram

58. Is there something Rin makes that you wish you could try? All of it! That's the whole idea! He's good at cooking!

59. Will we ever have a (G-rated) reveal of what ALL of Mamushi and her family's tattoos look like? Maybe! She'll think about it

60. Does Arthur have a repertoire of different hairstyles? Not really, he just puts some of it up on the top. Heck he might even have people to do that for him

61. If you wrote a shojo manga what would it be about? She'd have to do a lot of research before even coming up with a story, since there are so many style differences between the genres aside from just the subject

62. The other two of Mephisto's top 3 favorite foods: Cup ramen and....f-fried bubblegum?? Is that a THING???

63. Where do you start when drawing a character? Usually the outline of their face but if it's a complex pose/composition she'll start with whatever's in the foreground (like hands)

64. If Katoh could have a familiar, what demon would she choose? Mephisto. As the all-powerful author, she might actually be able to command him as a familiar!

66. If you swapped Yukio and Rin's relationship around what would change? not much, you'd pretty much have Rin going to the Illuminati and Yukio going to the past

67. Top 3 foods/souvenirs to try in Kyushu? Well she doesn't know what’s good CURRENTLY but when she was there she always used to like burdock tempura udon, hakata torimon (a kind of manju with white bean paste inside), and Chikae style cod roe. today I learned Katoh went to high school in Kyushu

68. Katoh listens to music a lot while she's storyboarding, then when she and the assistants are all drawing and inking they put various videos/movies and stuff on in the background

69. For all his hitting on girls, is Shima actually popular with the ladies at all? He's got enough girls in his life that he probably COULD find a girlfriend if he really wanted, but the double agent thing tends to get in the way. He still wouldn't be as popular as Yukio though (side thought/translator’s note: Shima would be proud of being number 69.)

70. Katoh has the ending planned out in a big-picture way, but there are still a few details here and there that she's fretting over

71. It's cute when the boys put their ties over their shoulders when they're working on something! Where'd that come from? She just figured a tie might get in the way and that seemed like a realistic way to get it out of the way

72. Looks like Yukio is getting some facial hair! What about Rin? They're both about the age for it, but maybe Rin can't grow a beard yet. Maybe a little peach fuzz here and there

73. Katoh's favorite blue exorcist merch? There were some exorcist licenses a while back, and the exorcist pins. Basically it's really cool that these little accessories she drew ACTUALLY EXIST NOW, LIKE YOU CAN HOLD THEM IN YOUR HANDS

74. Okay realtalk how long do we have left, I don't want the series to end yet? We're solidly in the second half by now but it's not, like, ABOUT to end yet

75. Katoh would be a Knight meister, based on what characters she likes to play in games and such

76. How many people in the whole exorcism cram school? More than you think! She doesn't give a number but apparently licensed exorcists also attend classes for new meisters, etc, so there's a wide age range attending

77. How's Arthur feel about, like, studying Taming on the way to becoming Paladin? He's at least mostly accepted that you have to use demons to fight demons effectively

78. Konekomaru started wearing glasses in his first year of middle school, so like 7th grade (more recent than I thought!) He has one spare pair, in contrast to Yukio lol

79. Katoh's current obsessions? Ghost/scary stories! She's even been going to live readings of them recently

80. Media Katoh consumes for inspiration? A wide range of foreign teen drama, horror/suspense, shojo manga, light novels, anime, etc. Special focus on things where two boys are in conflict or there are brothers involved

81. If they weren't exorcists what jobs would they have? Rin - chef. Yukio - doctor. Shiemi - uh, florist?

82. Inspiration for the design of True Cross Town? Katoh and her assistants gathered up a bunch of references, picked out stuff they felt matched the tone, and mashed them all up together

83. Did you use any references etc for the school/exorcist uniforms? She says she probably should have but she just kind of made them up before publication

84. Favorite part of drawing? For color pages, picking out a color scheme. For black and white, drawing in all the little details (though she doesn't always get time to lately)

85. Once again confirms the demon kings' weird hair is a representation of their horns. ADDS THAT PEOPLE WHO CAN'T SEE DEMONS CAN'T SEE THE WEIRD HAIR

86. Now that Yukio's at the Illuminati, where's he gonna get his Jump SQ and spare glasses? Well he probably never planned to stay for long, but hey it's a big ship and they might have an optometrist and/or newsstand there

87. Do you base the demon characters on any references etc? Not really, she just gets a general idea of popular demon designs and then makes up her own in her own style

88. Merchandise Katoh personally wants to have made: stuff that an adult could just use in their day to day life. Also, it's not gonna happen, but if her favorite figure brand made AoEx figures she could die happy

89. If Beelzebub's host body was a beautiful woman, how would Shima react? Would the womanizing win out over the bug phobia? Katoh replies that Shima would probably just faint from being near a girl that pretty, before the bugs even got involved

90. Will the twins ever get to smile and eat dinner together again?? We'll just have to wait and see!

91. What do you check at a "scenario check"? what's a scenario check man I dunno They check for people being out of character or the setting feeling off. They had a lot of these checks for the anime, but they also do them for the drama CD, games, and all that other stuff where multiple authors are involved

92. Why does Shura use baldy as an insult for people who are clearly not bald? She feels like they have some kind of metaphorical, mental kind of "baldness" and she's calling them out on it. Whatever that means

93. After Blue Exorcist ends, what do you want to draw next? She has SO MANY IDEAS, SO MANY

94. Did Katoh make up the Shinto chants that, for example, Izumo used against Gedouin? They're assembled from bits of actual Shinto prayers according to what feels right in the scene

95. Yukio reads the Jump SQ, right, and, just hear me out here, he likes gag manga, right? Does this mean he reads Salaryman Yukio? It's something he would read, but let's say that in the AoEx universe there's just a very similar manga that he finds oddly relatable

96. What do Yukio and Shima do in their free time on the Dominus Liminus? oh my god you guys this ship has so many amenities.  Yukio probably spends time reading in the library, which they totally have. There's also, like, a gym, and a movie theater, and a THEATER theater, all of which are free. Shima probably hangs out at the pool (!) and goes to the movies, and hits on illuminati girls, lol

97. Easiest character to draw? The ones with boring simple hair, lol. Lightning gets an honorable mention for ALSO not having eyes in most shots, but Rin wins--he was specifically designed to be easy for Katoh to draw because that's what you want in your main character

98. How do demons understand gender? They just possess whatever feels like the best match to how they feel in Gehenna, whether that's a man, or a woman, or a rat, or whatever

99. Where do you start when you're coming up with a story? She starts with character design and how the characters relate to each other. Currently she's just continuing an existing story, so she works on splitting up the overall plot into episodes and fleshing it out with scenes and information about characters

100. When do you feel most happy? She honestly feels like she lives a very happy life overall. Mentions noticing a lot of little things, like how nice her cats' heads smell when she cuddles them or taking a nice cold refreshing drink of water. There's happiness in everything. aww.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Yeah, forget side content, just gonna steam on ahead with the Sports Festival and onwards. I might not actually stop and start trying to do overarching plot stuff until ~chapter 100 (more specifically, post ch 97, the last chapter of the Kamino Arc) because then there will be enough material to actually like. Do stuff. Might also have something smaller after the Sports Festival since that’s ~chapter 50. Shrugs.

Anyways, onwards. Don’t you miss the days when the main trio of the series was Izuku, Tenya, and Ochako? Man, don’t I. :(

[No. 22 - That’s the Idea, Ochako!]

Character sheet! I am honestly laughing super hard at everything because just. ‘Very Ochako.’ Thank you, Horikoshi. A few things about the sheet:

1) god I love that her fingerpads are called soft. Like. Actual cat paw pad fingers going on here. just imagine if you like pressed one of them like you do with cat paw pads and like, she had cat claws that would extend. cute but also menacing.

2) strong legs. leg day squad. her, izuku, and iida all doing leg day workouts together tho... katsuki wishes he had the leg strength of those three y'all

3) That quirk description… that’s not quite how centrifugal forces work, but I mean. Superhero comic physics. At least he made an attempt at explaining her quirk. 

Anyways, onto the actual chapter.

We open up in a staff meeting in a conference room at UA, with Tsukauchi presenting the results of the police investigations. He states that the one called Shigaraki has a quirk that allows him to disintegrate anything he touches. They (the police) have been through the list of men in their twenties and thirties in the quirk registry with no luck - and nothing turned up on the ‘warp gate’ user Kurogiri either. With neither registered, both using aliases, and no quirk records, they’re pretty much confirmed to be members of the underworld.

God sorry, I’m just distracted with the sheer size difference between Toshinori and Nedzu here.

What the fuck. Why did you put the largest person in the room next to the smallest?

Whatever. Snipe surmises that they know next to nothing, but they need to learn fast, or the leader of the villains, Shigaraki, will heal up and be back again. Toshinori is thoughtful as he mulls over the use of ‘leader’, which Nedzu catches quickly and inquires into. Probably still heavily banking on Toshinori’s instincts here since he was technically right about his bad feeling about the USJ just two days before.

I mean, how it has to sting Nedzu that all his state of the art systems meant to keep out intruders and alert UA to situations on campus failed at the critical moment, while Toshinori’s instincts on something being wrong had been absolutely on point and, if Nedzu had let him go, might have solved the situation that much sooner.

(I mean, there’s arguments for what could have happened if All Might did arrive early, so. Shrugs.)

And so we get into the segment I like to fondly consider a prime example of the fact that yes, Toshinori does in fact have a 6/6 intelligence score for a reason. 

He brings up how nothing about the situation feels normal. It was an especially daring attack - and not just in the meticulous planning! Shigaraki had started going on about some ridiculous ideology… and though he didn’t say anything about his own quirk, he couldn’t keep himself from bragging about the nomu’s quirk. And when things didn’t go his way? He threw a tantrum. Toshinori then admits with grit teeth and clenched fist that the business about quirks was meant to provoke him, and that it did hurt.

Nedzu says that even so, it’s foolish for villains to reveal quirks in a battle against heroes and so waste the element of surprise. 

Toshinori surmises his previous observations about Shigaraki - spouting a plausible yet deluded ideology, bragging about the toy he brought along, simple-mindedly assuming all would go his way. If they thought about how the attack was carried out, it seems clear that Shigaraki couldn’t hide his childish nature, the sense that he does what he wants, and then flat-out calls him a man-child.

Vlad King sums up Toshinori’s words as Shigaraki being a kid with too much power. Midnight adds on how Shigaraki might never have received general quirk counseling in elementary school; Vlad wonders whether that even matters. 

Tsukauchi steps back into the conversation to give the rest of the arrest results - a total of 72 villains were apprehended at the USJ. He states that all of them were just back-alley thugs, but the question is why so many of them would agree to follow this ‘man-child.’ He points out that modern society is saturated with heroes, so small-time villains like them, who always get kicked around, might have been drawn in by that sort of pure, unaffected evil. 

Toshinori having a flashback here, though his expression… I wonder if he’s having doubts already. And honestly, that flashback bit has me wonder just how common ‘uncontrollable’ quirks really are… and what COUNTS as ‘uncontrollable’ in their society. 

To avoid a longer derail, Tsukauchi finishes up by saying that thanks to the heroes, the police can focus on their investigation. They’ll expand their search and devote efforts to apprehending the perpetrators. 

Nedzu finishes out the scene by musing over the use of ‘man-child,’ stating that in one way, Shigaraki is a lot like their students. He has potential to grow, if only he had a proper mentor to follow. It’s difficult to think about these things.

And so we shift scenes back over to 1a. I doubt this sports festival talk is happening at the same time as the staff meeting, if only because Aizawa should have been at said staff meeting. Or maybe he wasn’t supposed to be there at all and the homerooms were meant to handle themselves that morning? Wait, hold on-

That clock reads 8:25. This is happening during the homeroom period, which means that the other classes are having independant homeroom. Which also means it’s no surprise that Aizawa isn’t at that meeting, because he’s busy hobbling to his class to announce the sports festival. He probably had to be caught up on the meeting stuff later. 

Anyways. The class is surprised over the announcement of the sports festival, someone calling it ‘totally ordinary’ while another (I think Mineta) questions whether Aizawa’s sure about this, since they just had that villain attack. Aizawa states that it’s necessary to demonstrate that UA’s crisis management protocols are sound - or that’s the thinking, anyways. There will be five times the police presence of previous years. Oh, and also the sports festival is the greatest opportunity the class will get. It’s not something that can be cancelled over a few villains. 

Mineta (again?) asks if he’s sure about that, muttering about how it’s ‘just a stupid sports festival.’ Izuku seems completely horrified at the idea that Mineta might have never seen UA’s sports festival, which Mineta hastens to correct - he has, that’s not what he meant. 

I’m sorry just. That face. I can’t with this kid. Jdsjlgkd.

Also, we finally get to the page that had me double-take when I got to it because, well.

So yeah, apparently the BNHA timeline didn’t have certain current events happened that would force the cancellation of the Olympics. (I mean, obviously Hori had no way of knowing the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo would be cancelled, but it’s still like a huge sign of how long this series has been running that this is here.)

Moving on, basically the above surmises for readers that the sports festival is as big an event to them as the Olympics are to us. So basically, super hype. Momo notes that all the nation’s top heroes will be watching and scouting. Kaminari adds on how the heroes will be looking to hire the hero students as sidekicks after they graduate. Jirou makes a cutting retort how a lot of those sidekicks never manage to go solo, stuck as sidekicks forever, before telling Kaminari that’ll be him. 

Shot through the heart.

(Also a total aside I just realized: current manga events likely mean there will be no sports festival for 2a. I mean, I would say the events happening there are large enough in scope that UA just doesn’t have the inclination or interest in broadcasting vital information the villains could use. And like, no scouting, no internships, no purpose for it.

And I mean, even if they did, would any of the kids even be able to focus on doing their best? God knows how stressed and nervous they all must be with how society is basically collapsing outside the school.)

Aizawa tells the class that they’ll gain valuable experience and popularity if they’re picked up by a big-name hero. However, their time is limited. They need to show the pros what they’re made of to make futures for themselves. This happens once a year, so they have three shots. If they want to be heroes, this is an event they can’t miss.

The whole class seems to be taking this seriously, but Izuku…

Well, he doesn’t seem as enthused as expected.

Anyways, I’ll cut it there and leave the rest for next time, since there’s a time break in here anyways. It’s not quite halfway, but eh.

[tuanyiems]

The Spirit of Christmas

Jaebum x Reader holiday!au, roommate!au words: 2.8k

Plot: You are sugar and spice and everything nice and your roommate, Jaebum is coal—at least, that’s how it seems at first glance. With the pandemic and Christmas Eve coming to an end, maybe it’s not just Jaebum that needs a little Christmas spirit. 

a/n – guess whose household got covid in time for Christmas? 2020 hates me lol anyways, I said I was going to post a Jackson holiday au but that was taking too long, I’ll post it next Christmas lmao here is jb and his kitties in the meantime <3 happy holidays folks, stay safe and merry and I’ll meet you in the new year

“What is that?” Jaebum looks at you incredulously as you carry an armful of green into his living room. You let it fall onto the floor, much to his annoyance and his cats’ pleasure. Nora flops onto her belly, rubbing against the green sticks.

“It’s our Christmas tree!” you grin, running your fingers through the fur of her belly and earning a nip to your fingers. You giggle at the tickle of her teeth on your thumb. Despite her feisty disposition, Nora very rarely ever bites for real.

“That’s a pile of plastic,” your roommate plops himself on the couch, feet thrown over the coffee table.

Your mouth twists as you push the ottoman closer to him with a gentle push of your fuzzy sock-clad feet. Jaebum glances at the bright yellow ottoman you brought into the apartment when he told you about a million times that the thing was a waste of money (and a neon eyesore). He then looks over at your feet looking awfully like a red stocking, and he truly does mean the awful part. He keeps his feet on the coffee table and leans back into the couch, arms behind his head.

“It’s a Christmas tree,” you emphasize, lifting his legs with a huff onto the ottoman. You dust your hands before placing them onto your hips. “And you’re going to help me put it up!”

He frowns, looking into your eager eyes. “Remind me why I moved in with you again?”

“Because I had a spare room and you needed someone willing to live with five cats,” you answer easily like you always do. You throw one of the plastic limbs at him. “Now come on, let’s get festive!”

“Your festive and my festive are very different,” Jaebum sighs, but he gets up anyways.

“Noted,” you chuckle, clearing a space on the floor for him to sit beside you.

You grab your phone to turn on your playlist, lovingly titled “HO! HO! HO!iday Cheer” and immediately you can see Jaebum’s face sour at the familiar jingle as Mariah Carey’s voice echoes through the room. 

“Oh, we’re going with my festive, just so you know,” you warn him belatedly. He blows at his bangs, shoulders slumping in surrender.

“Let’s just get this over with before my ears start bleeding,” he grumbles, grabbing hold of a couple plastic limbs.

“That’s the spirit!” you cheer, slapping him on the back. You don’t miss the small twitch of his lips.

You had a lot of hopes for this year, all of which pretty much went down the drain. That was life though, you rolled with the punches. But you certainly did not expect that when you opened your home to Jaebum and his five cats, that just two weeks after, he would be your only social life for the next nine months (if you didn’t count your biweekly grocery outings). 

And while you have nothing against Jaebum—in fact, you absolutely love his five cats—it doesn’t take a genius to tell that the two of you are very different. Jaebum’s black on black fashion, motorcycle riding, sterling silver face piercing-self, next to your pastel, soft knit cardigan-wearing, always smelling like bread and daisies…the two of you are a walking metaphorical neon sign flashing “opposites!”

“Why does that matter? He’s going to be my roommate, not my husband!” you had shrugged Jinyoung’s warning without a second thought. 

That memory would come back to bite you during the first three months of shared living, for every time he woke you up from his random 3am showers or played horror movies in the living room right before your bedtime, and especially whenever he responded to your silly jokes with a deadpan face or worse, his unrelenting despondency. 

Over time though, you learned how to read him—like how he was nicer after a cup of coffee or how he has trouble sleeping but always manages to fall asleep on the living room couch when you’re baking bread in the open kitchen. You’ve learned that when Jaebum scowls, it’s mostly just a reflex and actually, if you can catch a reflection whenever he’s looking away, usually he’s smiling. And although he will grumble about it the entire way through, if you ask for help, he will always be there (even when he tells you he won’t). 

Maybe you both express yourselves differently. You say “I love you” and he will ask “Did you eat yet?” You bake cupcakes and have teatime on the porch with the older neighbors, Jaebum installs cameras and buys extra essentials whenever you go grocery shopping together. You fill the windowsills with abandoned plants and bring them back to life, Jaebum leaves cat food and old blankets in your backyard for the strays. 

No one else understands when you tell them you think you and Jaebum might be the same person, but they haven’t seen him the way you have over the last nine months. Beneath his hardboiled exterior is a sensitive soul who loves quietly and cares a lot.

“There’s no point in putting this up,” Jaebum grumbles as he fits another limb into the trunk of the tree. “No one’s even gonna see it, it’s already Christmas Eve. Anyways, the Christmas party is canceled.”

“You will see it. I will see it,” you hand him another part. “Isn’t that reason enough?”

“It’s a waste of electricity,” he adds, not even glancing at you.

“The lights I bought have a timer!”

“And then it’ll be more work taking it down again.”

With a pout, you stand up and Jaebum turns his head in surprise.

“Where are you going, it almost done?”

Your frown easily twists back into a smile, seeing the way he hurries to put the last limb into the tree. “Time for the decorations!”

Jaebum rolls his eyes and looks down again and you can just tell he’s hiding another smile. You hurry off into your bedroom to grab the supplies.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!” you sing as you reenter the living room and Michael Bublé’s voice rings from your phone. Twirling in an oversized pajama pullover (which might be Jaebum’s that got lost in your laundry three months back), you settle the box of ornaments on the floor. “I’m so excited to show you!”

He looks at you blankly, waiting for you to continue.

You squeeze your shoulders together, excitement barely contained as you reach into the box and pull out an emerald velvet pouch.

“It came in the mail just in time!” you grin, clutching the bag to your chest. 

He lifts his brow at you, but the rise of his cheekbones gives him away.

“Ta da!” you squeal, pulling round orbs out of the bag. “One of my co-workers has a side business making custom ornaments and I got one for each of the cats!”

“Woah,” Jaebum takes one of the ornaments into his palms, eyeing it closely.

You bite your lip, holding in a satisfied giggle lest you ruin the moment. He sits quietly, admiring each ornament of the cats. When he gets to the last one, you pull out one more orb from the bag, holding it up by its gold, glittering string.

“And I got one of us too,” you say quietly, showing it off to him. 

He slides closer, nose practically touching the ornament. It’s a simple, clear bulb and inside are your figurine versions, dusted with glittering snow around a Christmas tree.

Finally, Jaebum breaks into a smile, eyes disappearing into crescents. You find yourself letting out a breath you had been holding.

“They even got my cheek piercings,” he chuckles, pointing to the tiny orb. “And your derpy smile too!”

“Hey, my smile isn’t derpy!” you whine, smiling.

“It’s cute,” he adds and you falter, wondering if he means the ornament or your smile. But in true Jaebum fashion, he doesn’t explain himself and turns back to the cat ornaments. “This is really well made.”

You ignore the pulsing in your chest, nodding your head. “Yeah, I told her she should raise her prices.”

He gets up from the floor and offers you his hand. “Let’s put them up.”

Cheeks flushing, you let him help you up. 

“Do you think it’s okay though? The cats might knock them down,” his brows furrow with worry.

You chuckle, grabbing the ornament from his hand and hang it off the tree. “Pretty things are meant to be shown and if it breaks…then we’ll get new ones!”

Jaebum rolls his eyes at your optimism but a small smile stretches across his face. “I think your co-worker would be offended to hear how you treat her work.”

You shrug, crouching down to Nora and Odd as both cats swat at the ornament hanging precariously off your finger. “Art should not belong behind glass walls. They’re meant to be seen and enjoyed, like your music!”

You giggle as Odd jumps into your lap, pawing at the shiny orb as you lift it out of reach each time. You miss the way Jaebum looks at you.

“Okay, less playing and more decorating,” he replies, throwing a string of gold tinsel at your head, much to the cats’ delight. You laugh at their excitement, glancing at Jaebum’s reddened ears.

Humming to the Christmas jingles, you stand alongside Jaebum, dressing the plastic tree in glittering ornaments and lights. Once in a while, you even catch Jaebum swaying to the music when he thinks you aren’t paying attention.

“Aaand,” Jaebum lifts the shining star from the box to you and you rise onto your tiptoes.

“Done!” You cheer, placing the star on the top of the tree. You clap gleefully, elbowing Jaebum to follow. He gives you three limp claps before you give up and crouch down to Odd instead, forcing the kitty to clap paws.

“Okay, can I go to my room now?”

“Not yet!”

He groans, plopping onto the couch. “What else is there left to put up?”

You pout, hands on your hip. “We can’t have a Christmas tree without the Christmas tree lighting ceremony!”

He sighs, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “There’s a ceremony?”

“Of course there is!” you laugh, rushing towards the light switch. You flick the switch without warning, covering the living room in darkness.

With only the light from the streetlamp peeking through the windows, the falling snow is even more visible. The sight fills you with childlike excitement.

“Are you ready?” you whisper, walking over to the switch for the Christmas lights.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“We need to count down,” Your lips jut out at his indifference as you eye his dark figure. In the darkness, you can just barely see his features, but you imagine he is rolling his eyes at you.

Just as you are about to give in, you hear him sigh loudly, “Five,”

You break into a smile, “Four, three, two,”

“One…”

“Merry Christmas!” you sing, twisting the knob and flooding the room with small twinkling lights. 

But you don’t look at the tree. Instead, your gaze remains in Jaebum’s direction and you watch as the lights illuminate his face. And you are pleased to see he is smiling. You know it’s just the reflection of the lights, but he looks like he has stars in his eyes.

Sensing your gaze, Jaebum looks at you and frowns, embarrassed. “What?”

You smile, cheeks warming. “Your cheek piercing looks like it’s twinkling from here.”

“Don’t be weird,” he scowls. “Are we done now?”

“Do you want hot chocolate?” you offer, moving over to sit next to him on the couch. 

He shakes his head, getting up. “I’m going to bed.”

Chuckling, you let him leave, watching as the cats follow behind him. “Merry Christmas, Jaebum!”

“It’s not Christmas yet!” he yells back before you hear the sound of his bedroom door closing shut.

With a quiet sigh, you grab your phone from the coffee table and turn off the music. The silence feels even quieter with only the lights from the Christmas tree flickering around the room. Without anyone else in the room, your energy quickly depletes.

Outside, the snow whips by in flurries.

This is not how you imagined you’d be spending your favorite holiday, although the festive lights do make you feel a little bit better.

You wanted the Christmas gatherings though.

You were a family person through and through.

You missed it all—the packed house, cooking dinner with the aunties, playing board games with the little cousins, throwing said boardgame across the room when you rage quit, making up for it with freshly baked cookies that you’d nibble on at midnight while opening gifts by the Christmas tree. You even missed the nagging from your parents, asking when you’ll get a boyfriend and settle down.

Snuggling closer into the arm of the couch, you hug yourself. 

It’s colder this year. 

Emptier. 

“So, you turn off the Christmas music after I leave?” You jump in surprise at Jaebum’s voice entering the room again. He takes a seat next to you on the couch. “You listen to it just to annoy me, don’t you?”

You blink back, wondering why he returned. “Did you forget something?”

He shrugs, leaning back into the couch and gazes at the Christmas tree. “It’s my first Christmas tree, I thought I should look at it a little longer.”

“This is your first Christmas tree?” you look at him in surprise.

He nods nonchalantly. “Never really celebrated Christmas.”

You sink into your seat, thigh touching his. “What a year to start celebrating.”

“Only because you have me hostage.”

You chuckle softly. “Well, I’m glad you had no choice but to be stuck with me. Would’ve been a lonely year without you here.”

“Hmm,” he looks at you thoughtfully. “Never pegged you as the lonely type.”

“The holidays can do that.”

“Then just think like me, pretend it’s any other day.”

You sigh, leaning into Jaebum. He doesn’t scoot away like he normally does. Instead, you find his arm resting around your shoulder.

“I don’t want this to be any other day though. This whole year has been a blur of any other days.” Your lips jut out in a pout as you look up at your roommate. “I know I must sound like a child, but I want Christmas.”

Jaebum laughs softly. You can feel the rumble of his chest.

“Cute,” he mutters, and you flush. His arm around you pulls you tighter. “Then, do you want to open your present at midnight or in the morning?”

Your eyes widen and he laughs at your expression once more. “You got me a present?”

“Well, yeah,”

“But…you said you don’t celebrate Christmas.”

“But you do,” he answers easily, looking at the tree again. “And anyways, if you’re gonna make me do all the work, I might as well celebrate the whole thing, right?”

You grin, poking his chest. “Admit you had fun tonight, Jaebum.”

He shrugs, smiling. “The ornaments were cool. I’ll be the DJ next time though.”

“Deal,” you beam, holding out your pinky. You giggle when he looks at your outstretched pinky with an arched brow. You keep your hand raised though. “Come on!”

He lets out a loud breath but eventually curls his pinky around yours.

Your heart warms, seeing how big his pinky measures around yours. It’s why when he moves to let go, you keep your pinky curled.

Laughing at his confused frown, you show him your thumb. “You have to seal the promise, Jaebum!”

“You’re an actual five-year-old,” he groans.

“Yes, I am,” you grin, eyes curling into crescents. His tone doesn’t faze you. From up close, you can confirm that there are indeed, stars in his eyes. They twinkle in amusement at your gesture and his lips lift once more when his thumb presses against yours.

And this time, he doesn’t pull away.

Pursing your lips shyly, you let your hand fall to his lap.

Looking back up at him, his gaze is soft on you. You pretend not to notice the way his fingers thread around yours.

“To answer your question, I’d like my present at midnight.”

“As you wish. Then shall we make hot chocolate and watch a movie until then?”

“Sounds like the perfect Christmas,” you tell him softly.

“Okay, Joker or The Dark Knight? You can pick.”

You grin, squeezing his hand. “We’re gonna watch Home Alone, Jaebum.”

“You’re terrible,” he feigns.

Chuckling, you let go of his hand and rise from the couch. “I’ll go make the hot chocolate.”

Jaebum grabs your hand again and you turn back curiously.

“Hm?” 

His thumb brushes the back of your hand gently.

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Jaebum.”

[signs-of-the-moon]

Little Moon High drabble I wrote up a while ago that doesn't quite fit into any plotted chapters anymore. Its too cute for me to get rid of entirely though, so I hope you guys enjoy reading it

It was just after sunhigh when Moonpaw made a catch worthy enough of bringing home to share with the clan. She was aware of how late she was running and rushed back to camp as quickly as her paws could carry her. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to become suspicious of her. 

"There you are!" Tigerpaw exclaimed as Moonpaw descended from the Entrance Tree. She trotted over to the silver and white molly, bumping her head against her shoulder. "Where have you been? Magpiepaw and I have been home for ages."

"Sorry, I guess I got a little distracted out there," Moonpaw panted, dropping her catch.

"What'd you bring home good?" Tigerpaw bent down to sniff at the prey. "Pretty impressive squirrel you've got. You gonna share it?"

"I want to show it to my dad. I promise the next thing I catch we can share."

"Don't worry about it, Moomoo, it's fine. I'm actually sharing a meal with Batpaw right now," Tigerpaw remarked.

"Really?" Moonpaw perked in surprise. She didn't know that Tigerpaw and Batpaw got along. Everyone was aware of the rivalry Tigerpaw shared with the other cat's sister, Nightpaw. To Moonpaw that would make Batpaw an enemy too. But somehow the two she-cats managed to get along. 

"Yeah. She's pretty alright once you can get a word out of her. She's funny too." Tigerpaw shrugged. "She asked me to eat with her, anyways. How could I turn the invitation down?"

Moonpaw let out a giggle. It was cute to see her best friend branching out and getting closer with others in the clan."I'll leave you to it, then. Share tongues with me before heading out for training later though, ok Tig?"

"Sounds like a plan," Tigerpaw agreed as she turned and ran back in the direction she came. She called over her shoulder, "See you later, Moomoo!" And gave her tail a wave before settling back down with Batpaw.

"Bye!" Moonpaw meowed back, picking up her squirrel. 

~~~~~

"I watched my dad beat up the Grassclan deputy today," Moonpaw overheard Tigerpaw boast to Batpaw. "And I got to fight some nubby tailed apprentice."

"Did they put up a good fight?" Batpaw queried. Her mix-matched eyes glowed brightly, like she was excited to listen to just about anything that would come out of Tigerpaw's mouth.

Tigerpaw rolled her eyes dramatically. "Hardly. I sent her running at the start, and gave her shoulder a good slash to remember me by. Then she came back with reinforcements and I attacked her again. Would've won the fight if a warrior hadn't come and knocked me away. But I doubt that apprentice will forget me so easily!"