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ssukidesu · 11 months ago

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Inextricably Knotted (an Inukag + Jane Eyre AU) [Chapter 1]

Summary: Kagome Higurashi was orphaned as a baby and raised by her cruel aunt until the age of ten, after which she went to school and learned the art of service and self-suppression. Now eighteen, Kagome takes a job as the governess of Shippo, the young ward of the great and mysterious Lord Inuyasha Taisho.

But as Kagome gets to know her bemusing master, a ghost seems to haunt his estate, hinting that there is a long-lost secret hiding on the third floor.

(Read on AO3)

tag list: @heynikkiyousofine @xanthippe-writes

Chapter 1: Arrival

Many would call Kagome Higurashi strange for choosing to walk the final half mile of her journey to Jidai-Ju Hall. These people, however, would be mistaken; given the comparative barrenness of her previous station’s ethos and locale, Kagome would be strange not to take full advantage of the fresh, crisp air and mystical scenery of the woodland road that led her to her new situation.

Her boots were supported by soft earth, its pliancy a pleasant change from the harsh bump and jostle of the rickety carriage. The golden leaves were beginning to lose their vibrancy and grip. Her bags having been left in the carriage for separate arrival, her unburdened hands sought any falling leaves that came close enough to reach. After catching one, Kagome would hold and chafe it until the next floated down and offered itself as a replacement.

Passing by a small pond, Kagome felt her steps falter. Its still water appeared solid black in its autumnal decay, but it’s surface broke with acute rings wherever a secret fish, tadpole, or fly disturbed it. She knelt as close as she could, the forsaken road only a couple of yards behind her now, and pulled her small sketchbook from her satchel. The pencil was nearly exhausted, but it persisted long enough for a crude sketch of the scene to concretize on the page.

Continuing her way, Kagome juxtaposed it in her mind with the only other pond she knew—the similarly blighted one from her aunt’s home, which had frightened her so strongly she would never walk by it alone if she could help it. She supposed she had her cousin to thank for that particular superstition, his snarling caution of water monsters having enraptured her young mind with ease.

But Kagome was no longer a little girl; she knew better now. She had learned in the decade since that a pond’s most frightening monster was almost always only a snake, and if not that, then it was your own reflection that peered wickedly back at you.

When the thicket finally broke, it was nearly dusk. But Kagome did not notice; her attention instead fell onto the grand wonder of Jidai-Ju Manor, which stood atop a strong hill and stretched its aged stones tall and wide. Faint glimmerings within the windows were the only signs of life. It was beautiful, and frightening. Her pulse livened, and she trudged up the long set of steps leading to what the house’s symmetry declared was the main entrance. The door doubled her height. It had no windows—only a large, bronze door knocker shaped in the image of a dog. She gripped and clapped it against the wood three loud times.

A moment later, the door opened slowly to reveal an old woman in common but stately dress. She was shorter than Kagome, round about the middle, and grayed. But sweetness softened her otherwise decrepit appearance.

She spoke first, her voice raspy: “Good evening. You must be Miss Higurashi. Please, do come in. I am Kaede.”

Kagome obeyed. “Thank you, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My things have already arrived, I hope?”

“Yes—they’ve been transported to your room already.”

“Thank you very much, Lady Kaede.”

Kagome tried to keep her wandering gaze subtle, but she couldn’t help the awe that had taken hold of her expression. The entryway alone stunned her for its vintage furnishings and ancient architecture. The question left her lips without her consent: “How old is this house?”

Her host chuckled at her obvious appreciation. “This manor was built nearly two hundred years ago. The property, however, has been in the possession of the Taisho family for over five hundred.”

“Five hundred!” Kagome encored in disbelief. “This country hasn’t even been founded for that long. Stranger still, I’ve never heard of the Taisho family.”

“Oh, they are indeed older than the country itself. But I’m afraid theirs is a waning glory; only one member is left living: our own master Inuyasha.”

“How can that be?”

“Well, I’m sure you know of the hostility our previous two Kings had with the demonic lords, starting with King Byron III’s coronation a century ago. The Taisho clan fortunately managed to defeat any of the king’s knights who tried taking the estate, but the conflict revealed fractures within the family, and many were scattered as a result; other carriers of the bloodline likely exist, but they were cut off from the family as punishment for their desertion, or so the story goes. Only the family’s primary vein remained after the initial dispute settled and the king stopped sending knights: Lord Touga, his Lady wife, and their son, Lord Sesshomaru. They were a proud family,” Kaede paused to unlock the door they’d reached—that of Kagome’s quarters, she guessed. The woman continued, “But pride, you know, is not a replacement for happiness. The patriarch did something unheard of in the Taisho family: about four decades after the family’s scattering, he fell in love with a human mistress and sired a bastard son.”

Half distracted by the story, the room still managed to surprise Kagome with its simplicity. But it was lovely nonetheless; a fire crackled in the fireplace, and the bed was prepared with clean sheets.

Kaede concluded, “Around that time, which was about sixty years ago, my own mother was the manager here. But the family charged her with strict secrecy, even to her own daughter. And you never gamble against the hearing of dog demons!” she joked, though Kagome found her words anything but funny.

She went on: “The result is that I’ve no knowledge of the details of the affair or its subsequent conflicts, or even the fate of Lord Inuyasha’s mother. But I am familiar with the conflicts of the last four decades since my becoming the manager—the largest ones being what happened about twenty five years ago when King Byron IV came to power: in a fit of trying to accomplish what his father failed to, the king charged Lord Taisho with rebellious conspiracy—an accusation whose accuracy I cannot judge even now—and he was executed. A few years later, a little before the king’s assassination, Lord Sesshomaru received the same fate after failing to convince the royal family of his allegiance.

“The property came to Lord Inuyasha—who was not even living at Jidai-Ju at the time—despite his illegitimacy. Lord Taisho’s wife had already left the estate by then; the property would have come to her, but she had settled a deal with Lord Taisho in which she forsook all rights of wifehood for the sake of emancipation. The pair had not been happy for ages, as you could have guessed.”

“Why was Lord Inuyasha spared from the king’s suspicion?” asked Kagome.

Kaede’s look grew grim. “That is something that I’ve never had the courage to ask. I have my hypothesis—but it would be out of my place to suggest it.”

Kagome’s head reeled from the information. Having never before seen a demon, she tried to imagine what each character in the tale looked like—but to no avail. What are the characteristics of a dog demon? They seem to live quite lengthy lives, but if Lord Inuyasha is half human, what is his appearance at sixty years of age?

But more than anything, Kagome wondered about his character. What sort of master has she obtained? She sought Kaede for comfort: “And how do you feel about him—Lord Inuyasha? What sort of master is he?”

“Oh, I’m perfectly content with his ownership. He is much less severe than Lord Sesshomaru would have been, at least. He is hardly here at all, in the first place; indeed, it may be months before you meet him. When he is here, he has his fits of ferocity, but that is to be expected. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why.”

Kagome did, in fact, wish that she would explain why, but she thought her divulging had already been generous enough. Instead, she changed the conversation to a different vein of curiosity. “When am I to meet my pupil?”

Kaede seemed to purge herself of her own distracted mind. “Ah, yes—he has already been put to bed for tonight. You can meet him in the morning. You can also choose to begin instruction whenever you see fit.”

“I would prefer to begin as soon as possible, Lady Kaede—for my residence in this beautiful home would feel unjust without my prerequisite service.”

Lady Kaede smiled. “Very well, then.”

Following an episode of small talk, the old woman left Kagome to herself to settle for bed. She had few things to unpack; the drawers still wanted for filling, and the vanity housed only a horsehair brush, a couple of simple brooches, and even simpler hairpins.

By the time Kagome settled beneath the sheets, the night had fully come, and with it came the realization of her own exhaustion. Her body settled in a tight ball, the fire having not yet heated the room enough for comfort, and she began to drift off.

As sleep began to grip her, the faint sound of creaking wood above went unnoticed, as did a distant voice whose murmurings were too soft and far to distinguish it from mere whispers of the wind.

#so stoked to finally start posting this!#inukag #fanfiction #jane eyre #inuyasha fanfiction #inextricably knotted

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rainsoughtflowers · 3 years ago

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Sae-byeok x female reader headcannon where they’re best friends in college (squid game doesn’t happen) and Sae falls in love with her?? and there’s a lot of mutual pining and with a happy ending as a well (:

sunset blooms

tw/cw - none.

a/n - modern au brain rot go brrrrr. also shoutout to my moot @scaramew for letting me scream inside their dms and helping me with the ideas :))

- the classic dating trope.

- you both were, of course, friends before the strange mutual agreement, having met due to several similar classes and a group project.

- at first conversations bled with unfamiliarity and caution, but with the amount of days spent huddled into a corner of the library, eyes burning and sleep tugging at the back of your minds, contact remained even after the assignment had been finished.

- sae byeok brought up the idea one evening whilst in her room, during the time midterms were coming up. the looming dates had almost all students scrambling to their books and cramming as much information as possible, all for the sake of a relaxing winter break.

- leaning against the frame of her bed as she scribbled into her sketchbook, sae byeok had nudged you gently against your foot, “are you doing anything for the holidays?”

- you repeated the action, before dropping your pencil against the blurring words of the page, “not really. i was honestly just thinking of staying on campus.”

- she hummed, still heavily concentrated on whatever drawing she was currently working on, “you should come with me.”

- “you mean spend christmas break at your house?”

- “yeah.”

- you leaned forward, grinning from ear to ear, “awh, your parents liked me that much?”

- you had gone with sae byeok to visit her family only once, a birthday dinner hosted at her home. it had surprised you at first, that she’d invite you to such an event when at the time you were still in the early stages of your friendship, but you had agreed nonetheless, meeting the lovely parents and younger brother.

- “they do. especially cheol.”

- “alright, i’ll go then.”

- you had returned your attention back towards your book, only to pause when the scratch of pencil against paper had stopped. a quick glance showed sae byeok had finally paused her actions, staring at you and appearing conflicted.

- “is there something else?”

- “well, you should know. my parents think we’re dating.”

- you snorted, before laughing even further when she stared at you confused. she had always looked so cute clueless, “seriously?”

- she nodded, causing you to lower your book and shift in your position.

- “okay, so, what did you tell them?”

- “i told them yes.”

- “could’ve at least asked me out first.”

- “they’ve been bothering me about it, i just wanted to get them to stop.”

- “so now i’m going to your house as your partner?”

- “just for the two weeks.”

- “and what’s in it for me? my affection isn’t free, sae-byeok.”

- “i’ll do your homework.”

- “deal.”

- “you agreed to that quickly.”

- “no homework is no homework. now when do we start?”

- it was about an hour car ride to sae byeok’s home. as she sat relaxed behind the wheel, you laid sprawled across the passenger seat, mindlessly switching through the stations for a song. eventually however, she let out an irritated sigh at the continuous clicking of the buttons.

- “just pick a song already.” she muttered, sending you a quick glare from the corners of her vision.

- “they all suck!” you defended, switching the station a couple more times before finally sinking into the cushions of the seat. you reached for the bag of chips bought previously, popping a chip into your mouth before speaking.

- “so, any rules we gotta establish?”

- she shrugged, reaching for your bag, “as long as it looks real i don’t care what we do.”

- a mischievous grin laid playfully on your lips, reaching over and pinching her cheek, “so i can call you my beautiful angel?”

- sae byeok groaned, releasing one hand from the wheel to swat your hand away, “anything but that.”

- you laughed at her expression, dropping your arm and waving off her worries,“fine fine, no nicknames.”

- a silence would settle, and you’d direct your attention towards the houses blurring by outside the window. a small tapping, most likely her fingers against the wheel, also filled your senses, and you’d believe that the subject had been dropped before she spoke in quite, mumbled words, “you can call me love.”

- you turned your head and rested your gaze on her face, unchanging but heavily set on the expanding road before her as if to escape the knowing smile you wore, “oh? what’s this? the cold hearted sae byeok has a preference?”

- “shut up.”

- “you shouldn’t be so mean to your partner.”

- “technically, you aren’t my partner yet,” somehow she had stolen a chip from your bag, causing you to yell out a small ‘hey!’ in response, “so i can be as mean as i want to.”

- when you arrived, you were greeted by two heart warming hugs.

- the first was from cheol, who came stumbling down the stairs and practically threw himself at you. brown eyes peered up at you excitedly, and you laughed while ruffling his hair and squeezing him just as tight.

- “hey buddy! missed me?”

- “yeah! does this mean you’re spending christmas with us?”

- “yup! you get me for two weeks.”

- “we have to play board games together! i’ve been practicing.”

- “oh so you think you can beat me? i’d like to see you try.”

- “cheol, aren’t you excited to see me?” sae byeok asked, to which he shrugged while continuing to pull on your arm.

- “i see you all the time.”

- “ha! hear that, love?” you grinned, the nickname easily falling through the cracks of your lips. you ignored the skip of your heart when she stared at you in a way you couldn’t explain, “your brother likes me better.”

- she narrowed her eyes at you, opening her mouth to speak only to pause when her mother came to the front door and embraced the girl in a tight hug, “sae! how was the ride over?”

- “it was fine mom.”

- “and you brought (name)! hello dear,” she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around your figure, a small laugh escaping your lips, “i’m so glad you could join us this year.”

- “me too ma’am.”

- she gasped, pulling away but still firmly gripping your upper arm, “oh no call me mom! you’re basically apart of the family now.”

- “ah really?” your cheeks heated up, sharing a quick look with sae byeok before smiling nervously, “thank you.”

- “dinner will start soon, so you two can drop of your bags in sae-byeok’s room.”

- said girl helped you bring the small suitcase filled with your belongings up the stairs, kicking open the door of her bedroom before dropping them on the floor. quickly, while grinning, you sprawled yourself over the mattress laid out onto the floor.

- “so much comfier than the car.” you followed her figure as she shuffled around the small room, eyeing the way she gazed fondly at the photos stuck to her walls, “you think i’m doing a good job so far?”

- she shrugged, kicking you lightly on the side as a indication for you to get up, “we’ll see how you do during dinner.”

- it was almost overwhelming the amount of questions you both were bombarded with while sitting around the small table filled with food.

- “how did you two meet?”

- “when did you guys get together?”

- “what kinda wedding do you want?”

- “have you kissed?”

- the last question was cheol’s, to which a pink flushed both you and the girl’s cheeks. neither of you discussed the physical part of the fake relationship, making it hard to answer without stuttering over your words.

- “uh of course!” you laughed, before quickly stuffing some rice into your mouth.

- “cheol, you shouldn’t ask such questions!”

- “how about you all stop asking questions?” all eyes turned towards sae byeok, who was currently glaring at the three guilty for their previous actions. you huffed out another small laugh, before proceeding to stuff your face once more.

- night came, and when cheol had been tucked away and both parents left a small kiss against the side of your head, sae byeok smoothed down the sheets of the mattress.

- both of you had already freshened up, showered and changed into comfier clothes for the night. the girl leaned back once she finished, staring at the small space surely not fit for two people.

- “i can sleep somewhere else.” she spoke, shifting so she could stand. hastily, and without thinking, you gripped her wrist, causing her to pause on her actions and stare at you.

- “it’s okay. we’ve slept in the same bed before, haven’t we?”

- she blinked, and you could feel the heat scorch your cheeks at her own flushed ones, “well, yeah-”

- “then let’s sleep. together.”

- another long beat of silence, before sae byeok nodded. quickly, to save any further embarrassment, you laid down into the comforter, burrowing yourself under the blanket and breathing out a shaky breath when you felt her do the same.

- you couldn’t quite place why it felt different. it was true that more than once while studying or simply hanging out you’d fallen asleep in her dorm, and sae byeok had done the same. and yet, you could barely relax, let along close your eyes, not when you were suddenly vaguely aware of the breaths leaving her lips, or the small shifts of movement as she tried to get comfortable. you couldn’t ignore the warmth of her body pressed against yours, tightening your chest and leaving you restless.

- “i cant sleep.” you eventually mumbled into the dark, feeling her shift as if to let you know that she too, was still awake.

- through what little darkness your eyes had adjusted to, you could see the outline of her face close to yours, though you could not see the expression on her face as she spoke, “sorry about dinner.”

- “it’s alright,” you pause, before averting your eyes towards the side and picking at the edge of the blanket, “although, cheol is right.”

- you could feel her eyes on you, tilting her head towards the side in confusion, “about?”

- “the uh,” you were grateful for the absence of light, for she wouldn’t be able to spot the flustered expression on your face, “the kiss thing.”

- “oh.”

- “i uh-i saw the mistletoe around your house. what are we gonna do about that?”

- “we can just avoid it.”

- you couldn’t help the disappointment that settled on your chest, nor the words that continued to spill through your mouth, “but what if-what if we can’t? then…”

- “hm?”

- you swallowed thickly, feeling the pounding of your heart carry on in your ears, “we should practice.”

- “practice?”

- “yeah! have you ever…kissed anyone before?”

- “no.”

- “really?”

- “i haven’t liked anyone before.”

- “then…maybe we should-uh just so your family doesn’t get suspicious-”

- “okay.”

- “i mean-wait, really?”

- another nod, and you found yourself drifting your gaze to the appendages of her mouth. you swallowed thickly once more, voice coming out shaky.

- “then…can i..?”

- sae byeok didn’t answer, simply shifting within the dark to get closer. your heart skipped a beat feeling the gentle placement of her hands on your cheeks, breaths coming out shaky from both your lips. there truly was no need for you both to practice, she was right in being able to avoid such an action throughout the two weeks. and yet…you didn’t stop her from brushing her nose against yours, or the gentle press of her lips against your own.

- a small sigh, content, was pressed against her skin, and your own fingers found themselves reaching up and tugging lightly on the strands near her neck. the pressure was gentle, unsure, and when she had pulled away, the appendages still ghosted along your lips. it wasn’t until you leant forward, craving the essence that dripped with the gentle movements of them slotting together did you realize the pounding of your chest and the burn scorching your face.

- when you pulled away once more, you were quick to bury yourself into the pillows supporting your head, both to save yourself from her spotting your flustered state, and the need to continue crossing the boundary that should’ve stayed unexplored.

- how would you go about the next two weeks without wanting to kiss her every night?

- “sleepy now?” she asked quietly, receiving just a small nod from you in response. you could hear the small breath she let out, and sae byeok gingerly pressed her lips against your hair, or at least if felt like so, before remaining quiet for the rest the night.

- mornings at sae byeok’s home were your favorite.

- perhaps it was waking up to the warmth of her body still tightly pressed against yours, even more so than when you had fallen into slumber. seeing the relaxed expression on her face while she slept and the messy strands and groggy tone of voice when she did eventually wake up.

- maybe it was the breakfast her mother made when you both stumbled down to eat, aroma filling your senses and the taste of home lingering on your tongue.

- eventually however, you’d find yourself being torn from the warmth and into the bitter cold outside, bundled in layers upon layers of sweaters and shivering limbs. all cheol’s idea, despite his mom arguing it was far too early in the morning for you all to be out and about. but you couldn’t sit back and watch his defeated look, offering to accompany him through the blankets of white.

- “ever made a snowman?”

- “sae tries to help me, but she sucks at it.”

- “unsurprising. let’s show her how it’s done.”

- you and cheol would get to work, rolling large lumps of snow into spheres and heaving out breaths when trying to stack them atop each other. your hands could feel the cold through the fabric of your gloves, cheeks stinging from the temperature of the air. and laughter would ring in your ears, especially when the young boy would come running with rocks for a mouth and two sticks for hands.

- “aren’t you freezing?”

- sae byeok would grin down at you, hugging her own jacket close to her body. it appeared she had just left the heat of her own home, eyeing the half finished snow man in her front yard and you and her brother decorating and smoothing the molded snow.

- “me? cold? never.”

- “actually, they’ve been shivering since we got here!” cheol’s blunt response had you laughing and throwing a handful of snow in his direction, causing him to shake of the excess before speaking, “you should hug them big sis!”

- the look exchanged had you trying to determine if the red on your cheeks was due to the cold or the flustered expression on her face. quickly, despite how the image had already engraved itself into your mind, you busied yourself with adjusting the scarf around the snowman’s neck.

- “ah, i’m sure a hot drink would be just fine-”

- the rest of your words got caught in your throat, encased by the warmth and sudden weight of a human body. you didn’t have to look to know it was her, only you would recognize the smell of clean laundry and feel the strands tickling your skin. even her breaths, shaky, were hot against your skin upon the back of your neck.

- “better?” she mumbled quietly, tracing those very words until they engraved themselves on your figure.

- “yeah,” you’d breathed out, swallowing thickly to let the lump in your throat pass, “much better.”

- the rest of your time outside would be spent finishing your snow men, then proceeding to the ground to allow your weight upon the blanket of white. laughter would ring in the air, heavy with euphoria as you spread your arms and legs in hopes to mold them into an angel. even sae byeok, with only a jacket around her figure, lay beside you, fingers brushing against yours.

- the rest of your visit went by smoothly.

- when gifts were opened a smile broke out upon everyone’s lips, and hundreds of pictures were taken in order to hold the memories.

- hot cocoa would be made, whipped cream swiped on your nose, and marshmallows stuck to the roof of your mouths.

- nights were spent at the kitchen table, a competition between you and cheol to see who would prevail in the board games he had accumulated since your last visit.

- and your favorite moments were in bed, sae byeok’s body against your own as your lips ran across her skin. each press was gentle, lazy even with the sleep always accompanying the back of your minds. yet you ached for just one last touch, one last kiss to leave upon the freckles kissing her skin.

- disappointed was an understatement to describe how you felt your last day there.

- you tried to make the most of it, helping sae byeok’s mother with breakfast and playing one last board game with cheol. you took in the framed photos running along the hall as well as the shoes by the front door. you engraved every little detail in hopes to remember the feelings and memories made within the walls of her home.

- “hey,” she had spoken from the doorway, leaning against the frame as you had sluggishly gotten to work folding your clothes. it surprised you, the way she dressed as if about to leave for somewhere, yet you listened intently nonetheless, “i have something i want to show you.”

- the drive there wasn’t long, and the silence was deafening. normally you were content with no words exchanged, however it felt different. as if something, a question, lingered in the air.

- eventually the car pulled to a slow stop by a small hill, tall enough that you could not see past it but not too overwhelming to have you breathless from the sheer thought of it. sae-byeok’s hands click off the low hum of the radio and proceeds to turn off the car, her figure smiling at you through the fog of your window.

- you followed her quietly up the side of the small landform, hands buried within the pockets of your sweater and the texture of your scarf scratching the side of your neck. it was dark, only the streetlights illuminating your path, and your breath could be seen in small clouds that lingered in the air. you almost laughed at the sight, purposely exhaling to make them bigger.

- your breaths came in short by the time you made it to the top, finding the girl in a similar state. red seemed to singe her cheeks more noticeably than yours, and although you found the sight cute and wanted to tease her, you remained quiet still, suddenly finding it hard to speak. why was that so? you had no problem before, finding every opportunity to mess with her. and yet, your heart seemed to beat too fast within your chest to allow the words to fall as easily as they did before.

- “it’s over there. the uh, the thing.” she mumbled, proceeding to take those last few steps towards a lone bench seated in front of a railing. you followed her, eyes sparkling when you were finally able to look over the heavy mounds of snow.

-hundreds of lights twinkled in the distance, some a warm yellow glow from the rooms inside a building and others from the decorations still left up despite the passing of the holiday. you imagined she came here often, if not for the fond look in her gaze but the engraving of her initials in the wood planks of the seat.

- your fingers moved to grip the railing, leaning over ever so slightly to peer more closely at the scene. you could hear her find her own spot beside your figure, close enough that her arms brushed gently against your own.

- silence settled once more, yet tension still rose like before on the drive over. you would’ve let it be similar to that time, however the words were already fumbling from your lips.

- “i…had a lot of fun. you’re family is great. really.”

- a small, wistful smile settled on her lips, “i told you, they really like you.”

- “yeah.”

- “things…they looked real, right?”

- you sputtered a light laugh, “had almost everyone fooled.”

- “(name)”

- “sae-byeok”

- you both laughed, before you motioned for her to proceed.

- brown eyes moved to settle back onto the landscape of the city, her body gently rocking back and forward on her feet, “i just uhm, you’re welcome to come back. we’re friends, you know?”

- friends. right. the past two weeks were just pretend after all. even the late nights spent growing drunk on each other’s touch was for the sake of pretend.

- “yeah, we are.”

- she nodded, continuing to stare quietly. and you took the time to watch. to take in the never ending red covering her cheeks and the freckles hiding behind the hues. the curly strands peeking out from the hat you forced on her head so her ears wouldn’t hurt. the gentle clouds escaping her lips, one’s you had engraved upon the expanse of your skin and could know based on touch alone.

- you had spent so much time learning about each other. and this girl, you had learned to love her too.

- “but what if i don’t want to be friends.” you had said to quick too take back.

- “you don’t?”

- “no, i dont. i don’t think i can be your friend sae-byeok.”

- your heart broke at the hurt that flashed across her features, and more so when she spoke quietly with another nod, “alright.”

- “i just mean,” you paused, exhaling a shaky breath and reaching a hand up to bundle up the fabric across your chest, “i can’t be your friend when i feel this way.”

- sae-byeok gave you a curious and confused glance, and you internally screamed in frustration at her lack of understanding.

- with whatever last bit of confidence you possessed you took her hand and placed it over your chest, allowing her warm fingers to feel the rapid pounding of your heart.

- “i know we said it’d only last the two weeks. but i want to alter our agreement.” slowly you pushed her hand away, and instead interlocked her fingers with your own, “let’s extend it. i want to fake date you for longer than that.”

- she blinked, hickory blending with your own as you tried to focus on standing still. each second that passed in silence however had you only more restless, and you could feel the pounding in your heart increase.

- “okay.”

- “really?”

- “i’m not doing that much homework though.”

- “no! no i just mean,” you brought your free hand up to your face as a poor attempt to hide your flustered state, “i just want to stay by your side.”

- sae-byeok, lovely and warm, embraced you, head burrowed in the fabrics on your body. your surprised only lasted a moment before you returned it, holding on as if she would leave were you to let go. fingers bunching fabric, hot breaths tickling skin and her presence so close you were practically one, leaving you struggling to find purchase on the ground.

- “okay,” she agreed once more, her lips pressing gently against your face as she spoke in soft, quiet whispers, “as long as you stay by my side too.”

menu. upside down peach cake.

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pink-cosmic-kisses · 3 years ago

Text

just some uhh um post show headcanons

THESE GUYS ARE ALL I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT LATELY so i'm going to share some headcanons for the characters after they finally get home haha

ben

- very chill and easygoing, yet somehow still very alert to his environment

- doesn't care for his appearance much anymore, much to his mother's dismay. his hair is constantly messy and, rather than collared shirts and khakis, he opts for more comfortable clothes when he can, like t-shirts and sweatpants

- has severe nightmares about his experience in jurassic world

- joined an art club in school and takes drawing classes in his freetime

- also joined track because he has a lot of built-up energy that he needs to burn in healthy ways. also, i reckon he really looks up to yaz and enjoys competing with her, which is why i think he'd do track lol

kenji

- tries to talk to his father more often, but they still bump heads a lot

- still lazy, but is working to improve his grades and such since being with the others helped him realize his issue with procrastination

- constantly convinces his dad to pay for trips so the camp fam can meet up often

- took up piano for fun and realized he really enjoys playing. he got his dad to sign him up for lessons and can play quite a few songs by memory already

- still struggles with keeping his feelings bottled up, but is slowly learning to open up with help from darius and sammy

darius

- his mom and brother are a LOT more protective over him now, which can be a bit exasperating for him to deal with

- adopted a pet dog to help cope with trauma, probably named it a dinosaur pun or something stupid like that

- tries to avoid a lot of his directly jurassic world related interests, such as the video game he used to play all the time, but still loves dinosaurs and such all the same

- very irritable, his family will talk to him and he'll lash out for no reason whatsoever. he often needs to talk to brand for comfort

- even though his dad's death still hurts, he's come to a better standing with it and is learning to move on. he finally painted the model dinosaurs in his room and is more open to talking about his death with his family

yasmina

- likes to draw the camp fam a lot, especially sammy. when they have group calls, she gives them little sketchbook tours

- she gives ben a lot of art tips in individual calls, and lowkey loves seeing his drawings even though they're not that great

- her hurt ankle still affects her, and she's started wearing a brace to help quell the pain during competitions and practices. it sucks, but she's very grateful that it isn't worse

- cut her hair short after she got home

-after getting closer with brooklyn, she has a newfound interest for makeup and fashion in general. she likes to practice when they meet up, although she's not very good at it. ben jokes about it sometimes since she jokes about his drawings so much

brooklyn

- still travels around the country for her channel, and whenever she's near where her one of her camp friends live, she insists that she must visit them before they go back home

- started doing ballet, but has a lot of trouble keeping up with the schedule due to her youtube filming schedule

- went on hiatus on social media for the first couple months that she was back home, but has since gotten back into the groove with encouragement from her friends

- kenji and her are especially close, and they love doing stupid youtube challenges whenever they're together (i/e chubby bunny challenge, friend does my makeup challenge, etc)

- loves singing, but only does it for sammy and darius at the moment

sammy

- she constantly apologizes to her family for leaving home without permission, but they've definitely forgiven her. no matter how many times they say that she's forgiven, she still feels horrible

- loves baking!! whenever she's with the camp fam, she makes them baked goods to share during their activities

- very into hockey and american football

- joined show choir and has performed a lot of shows ever since. she absolutely loves the rush of dancing and singing on stage, and it's especially nice when the camp fam comes to watch her

- made them all friendship bracelets and mailed them to everyone :D

and that's it for the headcanons so far! i want to write/draw something for a couple of these but i might not since i'm lazy lol

#camp cretaceous #ben pincus #kenji kon #darius bowman #yasmina fadoula #sammy gutierrez #brooklyn #how do you tag for her she literally has no last name :/#headcanons #camp fam #jwcc #they are literally family #you cant tell me otherwise

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the-hilda-librarians-wife · 3 years ago

Note

You mentioned in the tags of ur last post something about a “hall of honour of Hilda ocs”, I’m guessing it twas a joke lols, but just for fun, are there any other ocs u’d consider to be in there? Whether they’re old, or new, or u just think they’re cool? I’m new in the fandom and I like learning more about people’s Ocs hahaha

Oh, great question! Okay, I don’t recall many season 1 era OCs being that famous on tumblr, though I know there were already amazing fanfic authors who wrote OCs into their fanfics (but I’ve only ever read sketchbook content so I can’t say anything about those). There is one, though, that I would say made its mark and that’s Freya the owlcat (the link will take you to the post that created her). She’s a hybrid and Kaisa’s pet/familiar, the original idea for her was by @waddles-ex-machina and after that many people in the fandom added their takes and used her in art and fics! You’ll find in this post I linked a concept drawing that Randall’s creator did, and nowadays there are a few other representations of her. From the top of my head, I can recall a drawing waddles herself did of Freya and Kaisa (if you want to check it out it should appear if you search “Freya” on the search engine in my blog!) and @arctic-deerfox recently doodled her as well! Sorry for rambling, I just really love Freya jehdjdhdj

Recently, some great OCs have also popped up! I’d put @a-small-collection-of-nonsense ‘s Lauren in the OC hall of honour, especially since the whole fandom collectively decided we love her, as well as basically everything that has been coming from @selenophilic-sapphic (highlight to that water witch, I love that girl so much and I can’t wait for Abby to officially come out)

Other OCs that I HAVE to put in the hall of honour, even though they literally just began appearing this week, are the sketchbook children. Seriously, I know I’m supposed to be picking OCs that are already iconic to the fandom BUT to me it doesn’t matter that they’ve been around for such a short time because I’m a sketchbook stan and those kids already own my heart! The ones I’ve seen are by @airborneice and again @a-small-collection-of-nonsense (seeing as they’re pretty recent you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them on those blogs)

Hope this helps you find some more amazing content in the fandom!

#need to give a little shoutout to Myra #who I wrote in Family Fights #because I already forgot about her once today lmao 😭#wife answers asks #hilda the series #Hilda oc

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unmaskedagain · 5 years ago

Text

Mean Queens

This was for a prompt I mentioned earlier today. I decided to test my hand at Loyal!Alya fic to see how it plays out. Hope you like it.

Marinette had officially been exiled to the back of the class and excommunicated. Lila and most of the class had been waiting for Marinette to arrive; each with cold looks on their faces. The bluenette had looked for Alya, hoping her bestie could tell her what was going on. But there was no sign of the glasses-wearing girl yet. So she had tried to catch Adrien’s eye but he had refused to make eye contact.

Then it all came out.

The class accused her of being a mean and horrible to Lila since the day the Italian girl came to class. Nino told her she’d become even worse of a bully than Chloe. Alix had called her a jealous bitch. Most of the class agreed. Even Sabrina who usually followed around the blonde Queen Bee now clung to the coattails of the newest golden ticket.

The end result? They weren’t going to be her friends anymore.

“Cool,” Marinette had shrugged and took her seat in the back.

Chloe got to class just as it happened, took one look around, snorted, and joined Marinette in back; claiming the left seat next to her. She knew the difference between diamonds and fools’ gold. And diamonds are a girls’ best friend.

Alya arrived not long after. She had been late on purpose. The entire weekend, the class minus two (Marinette and Chloe) had been firing messages back and forth in a group chat about Marinette. It had started Friday after school. Nearly everyone had bashed their once favorite bluenette while Alya had been the only one to defend her. Adrien just said he wanted to stay out of it. Things took a dark turn when Alix admitted and joked to tripping Marinette as revenge. Then Mylene admitting that spilling coffee all over Marinette’s sketchbook hadn’t been an accident. It got worse from there. However, they all claimed it was in defense of Lila. Alya was left stunned. Nothing Marinette could’ve done deserved any of what they did. How could she be so blind as to not see that the so-called “accidents” weren’t accidents at all.

No matter what Lila said, Alya just couldn’t believe Marinette was capable of such things. She had known the girl far too long. And honestly, she was a little surprised the kids who she knew had known Marinette since like pre-k and then suddenly they could think the worse of the so-called “Everyday Ladybug”.

To make it worse, the things they said about Marinette were terrible and just mean. The girl who had done so much for them deserved better. So Alya kept fighting for her friend, trying to convince her friends that something wasn’t right. Maybe Lila was a bit confused or something.

But they wouldn’t listen.

Then Alya thought maybe if she could get Marinette to realize how amazing Lila was then everything would be fine. She just needed to show Marinette proof.

…There was none.

There was literally no evidence backing up any of Lila’s stories. Not even the ones about her mom being an ambassador. The only real information about anything fantastic the Italian girl did came from the Ladyblog. And Alya had deleted that video within seconds upon the realization that Lila hadn’t been telling the truth.

Alya didn’t hesitate to create another group chat about trying to explain that maybe something was a bit fishy about Lila. She spent most of Saturday just trying to get them to listen to her. But she just got accused of being biased. Even Nino had blatantly told her that she was too close to Marinette to see what she was really like.

Was this how Marinette felt, she had found herself wondering.

“Can you prove she doesn’t actually know Ladybug?” The words tasted sour in Alya’s mouth. The more she thought about them, the worst the taste and feeling in her stomach got. Though she had remained silent the look Marinette had given Alya was like the bluenette was questioning her sanity. Or maybe her intelligence.

Because Alya was officially questioning both about herself.

Of course, Marinette could prove Lila didn’t know Ladybug! She was the one who originally helped Alya get her first big interview with the hero.

And when Alya realized (remembered) that, she also remembered that fact Marinette knew Jagged Stone very well and could easily dispute Lila’s cat and plane story. Her bestie also knew Clara Nightingale and managed to become friends with the superstar; there was no way Marinette wouldn’t ask the singer if she knew Lila Rossi. She probably already had. And the answer was probably no.

Alya pinched her nose to fight the urge to slap herself. The idea that Clara Nightingale stole Lila’s dance moves was obviously a ridiculous lie; one she had eaten up.

By Sunday morning, Lila had subtly hinted that her classmates’ chances of meeting all the celebrities she knew and the opportunities they stood a chance for were decreasing. Or as Lila texted:

No one wants to be associated with a bully. (sad emoji)

I’d hate it if people thought you were one too.

They’d never work with you then.

That was all it took for the class to agree to drop Marinette like a hot potato.

And that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Alya was concerned.

She was at Marinette less than half an hour later. Alya apologized for not believing Marinette about Lila. She had taken off her glasses when she began to cry. She handed her phone over, and let Marinette read the group texts. The hurt that flashed over the Asian’s girl face nearly broke Alya’s heart.

“You’re my best friend,” Alya had stated firmly. “I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve had your back. I’ll do better. I’ll be better.”

Marinette wiped tears from her face. “You had my back when it counted the most.” A cold look appeared on her face. “Tomorrow, we’ll find out who’s really my friend.”

Alya agreed but wanted to point out that friends didn’t do what they did. She couldn’t stop herself from remembering all the nasty words and mean jokes they made about her bestie. “Okay, but then we get revenge.”

“Nothing to mean.”

“No promises.”

Alya looked at the faces of the kids who she was once her friends; to be clear, they weren’t anymore. She couldn’t trust them. If they could turn on someone like as awesome Marinette for a few sickly sweet promises and false tears, then they’d drop Alya, who could admit to herself she wasn’t nearly as nice as the bluenette, in a hot second.

She didn’t bother saying good morning to them. Alya shook her head and promptly walked to the back of the class and sat in the right (in more ways than one) desk next to Marinette’s. To her credit, Alya didn’t blink twice at Chloe’s new chosen seat; as she far she was concerned Marinette needed all the friends she could get.

Alya crossed her arms and glared at the class. A cold fury filling her. Still, she gave her ex-friends, Nino (her soon to ex-boyfriend), Lila a small smile and a chuckle, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

There would be hell to pay for they did her best friend. This wasn’t war. No, War meant the ingrates in her class actually stood a chance. They didn’t. It was Marinette, Alya, and Chloe versus everyone else. This was a war, it was an execution.

First thing first was they had to plan.

After school, the three girls met up at Marinette’s.

“No matter more being a doormat, Dupain… Marinette,” Chloe corrected at the last second.

Marinette frowned, “I’m not a doormat.”

“You kind of are girl,” Alya said, despite the part of herself that hated agreeing with Chloe. They were on the same side, she reminded herself, the same team. “You’re are constantly running around to help everyone. You’re constantly doing favors; handing out free custom design clothes, banners, food, the works. And they treat you like dirt. They’ve been treating you like dirt, and yet you still help. It’s not right. I never thought it was.”

At first, Alya hadn’t said anything because she was too new and didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But she should’ve.

“It has to stop,” Alya continued. “They’re not your friends anymore; you don’t owe anyone anything. Even if they were; your designs are way too badass to be giving them away for free.”

Marinette nodded. She could agree to that

Chloe put a hand on her hip, “The three of us are the most formidable girls in class; possibly the entire school. Outside of class, most of the school loved Mariette; the artists, the geeks, the fashion club, bakers’ club. Thanks to the Ladyblog, Alya is the most known girl at school; people trust her because Ladybug trusts her. Me? I’m the richest girl in school and I throw the best parties; the elite follows me because they have no choice, and the popular because they don’t want to risk not getting an invite. As hot and as smart as we are, we are ruling that hellhole. You know what our problem is?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Marinette’s too nice. I’m too bossy. Alya’s too stubborn.”

It wasn’t the first time or the millionth that someone calls Alya stubborn. “We need to work as a unit; they come at one of us, they come at all of us. Lila isn’t done yet.”

“She lied her way to the top,” Marinette said. “As long as she thinks I’m any kind of threat to her, she won’t stop.

Chloe nodded, “Mostly because of the tops a long way from the bottom and it’s her social status, her reputation, everything she got since she came to school that’s on the line. The fall will kill her;”

“Then let’s make sure she takes our ex-friends with her,” Alya said darkly. “We got nowhere being nice and honest. Lets’ try mean and ruthless.”

Marinette wanted to protest but the texts from her so-called friends still tore at her. They had said so many hurtful things; about Marinette, her designs, her parents’ bakery. It was terrible. “What do you have in mind?”

Alya smirked, “We’re going full scorched earth.”

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

They let the class think they were safe; let the worry of any potential consequences slowly fade from their minds. It took weeks before their ex-friends would stop reading themselves for an attack whenever Chloe, Alya, or even Marinette entered the room. And during those weeks, the girls assembled their powerbases; slowly but surely, they took their rightful places at the top of the social hierarchy.

A few of the so-called Queen Bee of the school took afront of this and did their best to sabotage each other

But what none of the other social climbers expected was for the three to combine their forces. Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were cold and merciless in defense of their new positions; each one using their own unique still to remove or outright destroy their competition and anyone else that got in their way.

However, it was until Olivia Knight, the former most popular girl in school, popularity fell to just above the Goth kids that people finally got the message.

There were Three new queens in their school. Call them the Lannisters, Call them the Tyrells, or the Baratheons’; whatever However the message was the same. The Queens would do anything it took to keep their thrones.

Two months; nine parties, one school election, a dance (where Chloe was elected Queen) and joining seven clubs between them Marinette: Fashion and Art. Alya: Track and Comic Book Club. Chloe: Mathletes and Drama. Finally, all three joined the World Travels’ Club. That way they had a foot in with the nerds, jocks, the geeks, the loners, the goths, and (by way of throwing awesome parties) the popular kids. And Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were officially the most popular girls in school.

Marinette and Alya were surprised to learn the kids from Bustier’s class were lower on the overall school’s popularity scale than the creepy loner kid that hangs out behind the gym and smokes. They only really hung out with each other and seemed to have more problems than any other class in school. The main idea seemed to be that Bustier’s class was black hole no one ever managed to crawl out of until Alya, Chloe, and Marinette surfaced. Or a budding cult. Now that they had broken free, the three could see how they had gotten that idea.

When they were in class, it was like they were in their own world. They were all in high school now but most still acted as they did on their first days of middle school. It was like they refused to grow up, mature mentally and emotionally. Bustier never seemed to mind.

She was a hindrance. She blamed the victim and protected the bullies.

It was why Bustier had to go.

Getting Bustier fired was remarkable easy. A week’s work of videos of what life was life every day in her class, and she was gone.

A substitute didn’t come to replace her. No someone (Chloe) had leaned on Damocles hard to get the entire class split up until a permanent one could be found. Thus they were in for a hard lesson.

The first? Who really ruled the school?

The best part was for that ditch the girls were planning on leaving their ex-friends in, those morons brought the shovel themselves.

It took a few days for Bustier’s class to settled into their classes and schedule but once they did, they immediately tried to go back to their old ways.

The teachers shut down most of it; making it clear they would NOT be tolerating any crap.

Still, that didn’t stop everyone.

Bustier’s students, as they would be known by the students and teachers, yelled out they’re answered, frequently disrupted the class, argued loudly with each other.

Lila tried to spin her stories again but Marinette and Alya already spread the truth about how much of a liar she was so one bought anything she said. Most just ignored her. Lila didn’t like that. She thrived off attention. No attention meant Akumas. Unfortunately, this just caused Lila to look even more immature than she already did.

When Alix “accidentally” tripped Marinette. Marinette let herself fall, crash, and spill all her school supplies. Alix and Mylene snickered.

Aurore who had witnessed the event didn’t hesitate to call them out, drawing the attention of the other students. They saw Marinette on the floor, Alix and Mylene laughing and came to the correct conclusion. Marinette’s new friends rushed to help her, glaring viciously at the two girls while she did so.

Word spread quickly. And then Alya “accidentally” let it slip about the mean texts about Marinette. And then Chloe “accidentally” revealed all of the classes’ dirty little secrets; things that had only be known by Bustier’s students. Rumors flew.

It wasn’t long before most of the student body would rather be seen with the creepy loner smoker kid than with any of Bustier’s students.

No one realized just how true that statement was until Marinette announced yet another fantastic party. Chloe, Marinette, and Alya had become known for them.

…This party was different.

Usually, it was a mass invite; welcoming anyone and everyone.

This party was an invitation-only which was strange because it seemed like everyone in school was invited. Until they got to the party that Friday night and realized just who wasn’t.

Bustier’s students.

It was the worse sentence the Queen could’ve delivered to their ex-friends. It wasn’t just a drop on the popularity scale. It wasn’t social exile. The message was clear; Marinette, Chloe, and Alya would not tolerate their ex-friends whatsoever.

No one wanted to get on the girls’ bad side. No one would even consider risking it. No one wanted to be the next Olivia Knight. Olivia who never fully recovered her reputation or her social status; most of her old friends wouldn’t even speak to her anymore. They were not about to put their necks on the line for losers Bustier’s class.

They’d only lose their heads.

The (Demon) Queens of school decreed it, by next Monday, the students of Bustier’s class would be deleted.

And yet that still wouldn’t be enough for them.

As far as they were concerned they were only just getting started.

Move over Heathers, Plastics, the Queens have arrived.

#ml salt #ml fic #alya deserves better #class salt #a little bit of adrien salt #marinette dupain cheng

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snarky-art · 4 years ago

Photo

My enchantix redesigns that I’ve had laying around for a while. I’m going through my computer to try and clear up space and came across some winx stuff. I haven’t done the wings for them still to this day in any finalized way because they are very intimidating to me lmao. Some info here on how enchantix outfits and fairy outfits work as well as the inspirations for the clothes for each of the characters below! I’m going to include some more individual design notes from my sketchbook later too.

In my version of the winx redo, all fairy transformations have to do with a sense of self to an extent. The more sure and secure of oneself one is, the more likely certain parts of the outfits are to carry over to the other transformations. For example: I have multiple transformations for Daphne that I’ve done, but there are a lot of traits carried over in the designs (her tirar, her color scheme, cut of cloth, etc) since she was always very self assured in who she was. She was Marion and Oritel’s daughter, future queen of Domino, and the keeper of The Dragon Flame and she was going to become as strong as she could for her people and the universe so she could use The Dragon Flame as best as possible. (I swear I’ll upload her stuff at some point they’ve been collecting dust for literal years now sskdjkjfla).

The same can’t really be said of the girls here, and that’s fine too. Aisha is the one with the most confidence in who she is and that shows here in the carrying over of her metal accents (arm bands, a metal ring at her waist, albeit with a jewel in it this time) and the cloth that goes across her chest and wraps around her waist.

Another thing that can influence the appearance of a fairy transformation is closeness with another individual. Aisha at this point already knows she likes Musa (I’m going to upload a post after this going more in depth on their relationship in my version) and her double buns are influenced by that since that’s one of the main ways Musa likes to style her hair (she also helped Aisha really perfect how to do the hairstyle and as that was one of the first thigs Aisha ever really did with a friend after Anne left when she was young and not including the pixies, so it holds a lot of sentimental value to her. Musa was the one who went out of her way a LOT more than anyone else to try and get Aisha comfortable with everything. The other girls did too of course but Musa just kind of gets how it feels to be alone more than they do so they really understood each other.) Musa in turn also has armbands like Aisha and some cloth hanging from the tie around her waist in a way similar to the cloth trail around Aisha’s.

Bloom also has similar armor to Stella because of this, since Stella is Bloom’s closest friend out of the 6 and is the one who introduced her to magic and what it can mean to be a fairy.

Enchantix in itself works basically the same as it does in the show, and as the main focus of it is to save someone from your planet so you can become a guardian of it (there can be multiple guardians for a homeworld too. I always thought it was weird that it was implied there can only be one. The guardian fairies of a planet act as a protective council of sorts. They are expected to place the priority of protecting life on the planet above all else and sometimes align themselves with royalty as advisors for things if they it is requested of them by the royalty, but they are expected to be willing to break ties with any allegiance if the leader is doing things that upset the balance of the planet and enact cruelty, not that guardians have always done that in the past). As a result, it is tied closely to the culture of their homeworld, or the culture that the fairy is from if the planet doesn’t have a largely homogenous one.

Musa is based off of Chinese and Japanese culture, which is a really broad statement I know since there is so much that goes into those countries, but I tried my best to have it line up with the clothes she wears in the show and it seemed to be similar to that (and obviously her homeplanet is clearly inspired by Asia). Similar to what her original skirt seemed to be, the pants are inspired by paper lanterns, and the upper shirt part is inspired by the tops of dresses during the late tang dynasty. The design of the belt she has, although I didn’t really do a close up of it, is braided similarly to shimenawa (a rope used in ritual purification in the Shinto religion). She has an open lotus blossom that her hair is in the middle of that holds her buns in place and her makeup is based off of the Tang Dynasty and the little hair piece she has acting as her tiara thing (all the girls had one so I tried to carry that over) is based off of Quing dynasty hair styles specifically but like, similar hairstyles were used in other eras too I just liked those specifically.

Flora’s is based off of Mexican style clothes. The top part is based off of Folklorico dresses and the petal style I used for it is based off of marigold petals, which are used to lead deceased loved ones to the families shrine during Day of the Dead. Her makeup is also based off of designs seen on calaveras. Her head piece is a flower crown which is now a common staple seen in women’s fashion during festivals due to Freda Kahlo and her hair is divided into two parts. The upper part is pulled back into a braid that has a vine weaved in with it, which I took inspiration from hairstyles down there that thread ribbon into the braids.

Aisha’s was a trip to figure out. So her homeplanet really is,, something. There’s some middle eastern influence (her name is also Arabic), her mom and her when she was younger wore some 1500s style renaissance clothes, and also they have a shaman that seems to be based off of African medicine men, and then also there are mermaids wearing European style armor, so I had to do some looking around to figure out what I wanted to do here. In the end I went with Moroccan and Zulu style clothing overall with a few other influences as well and tried to mesh them together. The headpiece and the sash/hood are based off of women’s head dresses in Morocco and the facepaint, arm and leg bands are based off of traditional Zulu attire. Cowrie shells are on the bottom of the leg and arm bands as they are used in Zulu attire in the same place as well sometimes, but also because a lot of African cultures see cowries as being representative as gateways to the spirit world (a lot of cultures have the spirit world and afterlife tied to the ocean). Her stack of necklaces are based off of the necklaces worn by the people Ndebele people of South Africa. Her shorts and top are rimmed with silver and the shape of the attire itself is meant to be athletic and practical for her. It is covered in fish scales. Her ears are a different color here than they were in her winx transformation also. That isn’t an enchantix thing but a biology thing I have made up in my head for Androsian people. The fins start off a light shade and then over time settle into a darker color, which is what it will permanently be.

Tecna’s outfit is ready for the cold. For the longest time we didn’t know anything about her homeworld except that it was cold, so, anyway Russia and Siberia lmao. The green lines on her body suit have light moving through them also which I just thought was a neat idea because technology is a thing. Her glasses aren’t a permanent part of the outfit also. They come out if she wants to concentrate her magic to do something very technical and intense. I thought it would be a nice way to carry over that faceshield thing she sometimes used in her winx form. Her physical features btw are based off of the Nenets people of Siberia.

Stella’s outfit is Greek based because I’m not original and I don’t know why almost all of us collectively agreed Solaria is Greco-Roman but we sure did do it. Maybe it’s because of the word Sol being in it.

Bloom’s is just,, European lol. Domino is a Renaissance Era place it feels like (probably because of her mom’s ermine stoat cape). So there. There are some similarities of hers with Daphne’s inadvertently (family ties can influence things sometimes too, which can be seen in the Bloom and Daphne comparison sheet on my blog), but Bloom doesn’t know that. When Daphne eventually does see her in her enchantix outfit during the time of or before the movie (which does happen in my version but with a LOT of changes. Daphne still talks to Bloom though and helps out like in the movie) you bet your bottom she takes a second to collect herself (happy to see the bond is strong enough that it did manifest physically in a way, sad because she remembers what it was like to once have that transformation and the general bittersweet longing for the time before shit hit the fan. I have so much stuff about Daphne I need to upload some of it soon).

So yeah! Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk:)

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dangerouscommiesubversive · 3 years ago

Text

three points where two lines meet

Fandom: Garo (Original Continuity)

Characters: Saejima Kouga, Suzumura Rei, Mitsuki Kaoru

Song: "Tessellate," alt-J or the Ellie Goulding cover (both are on the playlist here)

Nothing formal has been declared, no proposals offered or announcements made, but—she may still maintain her own apartment, but the house is Kaoru’s now, as much as it is Kouga’s. She is just as entitled as he is to find space in it and make it hers, and certainly, if you ask Gonza, she’s allowed to decide that there are going to be guests for a meal, although she doesn’t often extend invitations herself. Instead what she does is say to Kouga, “You know, the next time you run into Rei, you should see if he’d like to come over for dinner.”

Kouga says, “Of course,” and then stops, blinking. “You want to have Rei over to dinner?”

“Sure I do.” She flashes him a smile over the edge of the sketchpad she’s got propped up on her knees. “We haven’t seen him in a while, it would be nice to catch up. I miss him. I know you miss him.”

“Do I? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Kouga, did you just make a joke?” She squints at him. “…oh, no, you didn’t, you actually hadn’t realized. Anyway, Rei should come have dinner with us, tell him if he does then I’ll get Gonza to make a cake.”

Kouga stares at her for a moment and then nods and says, “The next time I see him I’ll ask him,” and she beams at him.

---

They finish off the Horror together, in a rare but not unwelcome moment of perfect coordination, and once they’ve caught their breath and shed their armor, Kouga says, “Come over for dinner tomorrow, Gonza’s making a roast.”

Rei very nearly jumps. “You’re asking me to have dinner with you?”

Kouga doesn’t quite meet his eyes. “Kaoru misses you.”

“Kaoru told you to ask me to dinner.”

“She said to tell you that if you do then she’ll ask Gonza to make a cake.”

“She doesn’t need to do that, I’d visit her with or without cake, but that sounds great.”

There’s a tinny cough from Silva, and then a prim, “Rei, I think you have something else you need to say here?”

He blushes faintly. “Right, yes. Thank you for the invitation, Kouga, I would love to. When should I get there?”

“Five would be fine.” Kouga still isn’t meeting his eyes. “Kaoru will be happy to see you.”

“Aw, come on, you’re gonna be happy to see me too, you can admit it.” Rei doesn’t expect an answer, but he does file away Kouga’s suddenly hunted expression away for further consideration later. “So I’ll see you at five tomorrow, then, I should get home now so I’ve got time find my nice clothes and make sure I’m presentable enough that Kaoru doesn’t just kick me right back out.”

---

Kaoru hears Gonza answering the front door, but she’s so absorbed in her work that she doesn’t think anything of it until a shadow falls over her sketchbook and Rei leans over the back of the couch to say, “What are you working on?”

“Rei!” She sets aside her sketchbook to throw her arms around his neck, much to his obvious alarm. “It’s good to see you, it’s been way too long. And you look so nice! You didn’t have to dress up!”

He hugs her back, blinking. “Yeah, it’s been a while. You seriously told Kouga to invite me?”

“Of course I did, I miss you. Come sit with me.”

Released, Rei moves around the couch, handing Kaoru back her sketchbook as he sits down. “So you didn’t answer my question, what are you working on? I thought you were mostly a painter.”

“I’m writing a picture book. See?”

“That…mostly looks like triangles?”

“Well, it’s triangles now, eventually it’s going to be a person.” Pencil returns to paper as she gets back to sketching. “A little knight, going on an adventure to defeat evil. Normally I’d be doing a person shape with circles, but I feel like triangles get the shape of the armor better. Anyway, I like triangles, they’re such a nice clean shape.”

“Oh, really? What kind of knight, gold or silver?”

She taps her lips with her pencil, smiling at him. “I haven’t really decided yet, I like both colors. Actually, I’m thinking there might be two, and they can have their adventure together.”

To her deep satisfaction, Rei’s ears turn pink, although all he says is, “Won’t that be a lot more to draw?”

“Maybe, but if the option’s open to me then I don’t see any reason not to consider it.” She sketches another triangle armature in next to the first one, very faintly. “I don’t mind putting in a little extra work to make it perfect. Anyway! Kouga should be back very soon, he went for a walk a little while ago and I think he forgot what time it was. We’re going to be eating at six. What have you been up to, where have you been? Why don’t you ever call? Is there some rule against Makai Knights using the phone?”

---

They talk until Kouga gets back, and then have to team up to coax him into even attempting idle conversation, which he’s not especially good at or comfortable with. And as soon as they’ve settled into some kind of conversational rhythm, of course, Gonza comes in to let them know that it’s time for dinner, which disrupts things again, at least temporarily. Around the table, however, conversation is easier.

After dinner, there’s coffee, and after coffee the summer day is still richly present, and again conversation is eased by activity as Kouga and Rei spar on the lawn. Kaoru watches them and sketches, first by the dimming sunlight and then by a small lantern which Gonza brings out.

Finally, exhausted and panting under the increasing presence of night, Rei and Kouga fall apart and shake hands before turning to see—

Rei starts laughing. “You didn’t fall asleep on us, did you?”

Kaoru shakes herself and says, “I’m not asleep. I was just resting my eyes for a moment, it’s a little dark for drawing now even with the lamp.”

Kouga smiles, very faintly, an expression which Rei watches with fascination. “Then maybe we should go back inside. What time is it?”

“It’s—oh, wow, it’s past ten, I didn’t realize it was so late,” and then she lets out a noise of amused outrage as Kouga, reaching her chair in a few easy strides, lifts her out of it entirely and starts carrying her back into the house, notebook and all.

Rei follows behind him, making faces back at Kaoru when she peeks over Kouga’s shoulder and sticks her tongue out at him and then saying, when they reach the hallway leading to the bedrooms, “I should probably go, then, it’s getting late.”

“You can stay, if you like.” Kouga doesn’t quite look at him. “There are plenty of spare rooms, it would probably be more comfortable than traveling back to your apartment at this time of night.”

“And Gonza’s breakfasts are really good,” is Kaoru’s helpful addition.

“I…if you like, it’d be nice to not be heading home in the dark for once.”

“I would like,” Kaoru says firmly. “You should stay, Kouga can find a spot for you once he drops me off.”

They’re already walking again as Rei is saying, “Then, then I’ll stay. Thank you. I—you two don’t share a room?”

At that Kouga does turn red, and immediately hides it in ducking through the doorway to the art-covered room which to all appearances is Kaoru’s alone. “This has been Kaoru’s room since she first stayed here.”

“I like having space.” Kaoru looks around from her comfortable vantage point in Kouga’s arms. “It helps me to think if I have some walls of my own where I can stick sketches. Anyway,” and she lifts her face to Kouga in a very pointed way, “I put up with you carrying me all the way here, I deserve a good night kiss.”

Still somewhat red-faced, Kouga kisses her on the cheek, very primly, and sets her down on the edge of the bed.

“Rei, if you’re going to stand there in the doorway like a weirdo you can give me a good night kiss too.”

“I��I’m sorry, wh—you’re serious. Well, all right, I’m hardly going to tell a lady no.” He steps into the room proper and kisses her chastely on the temple. "And now I'm guessing Kouga's supposed to give me a good night kiss too?"

He sounds like he's joking, but doesn't look like it, and the air is suddenly tense with…something.

Later, in a letter to an old high school friend that she’ll decide not to send in favor of something less scandalous, Kaoru will say that it wasn't like a dam breaking, with all the precipitous rush that phrase implies. It's more like a crack in plaster, long ignored but growing deeper and longer with every day, until finally the pressure becomes too much and the whole wall crumbles away to reveal an astonishing new vista behind it. And then, of course, you have to rebuild your house, but now that you know that the view is there, maybe it can be incorporated. Maybe that wall should have been a doorway all along.

Which is to say: Kouga does kiss him, but nothing in the kiss is a “good night.” It’s very gentle, and very slow, and Kouga seems surprised to be giving it, to say nothing of Rei’s surprise at receiving it.

(The first unexpected fall of plaster dust, the warning creak.)

After a moment he pulls back and Rei, looking stunned, says, “I can’t say I’m upset about that, but right in front of Kaoru?” and gestures to Kaoru.

Who is still perched on the edge of her bed watching them, and who assumes an indignant air as soon as they look at her. “Right in front of me. Like you’re trying to make me jealous, I didn’t get a kiss that good, both of you do it again.”

(And then there goes your wall.)

#saejima kouga #suzumura rei #mitsuki kaoru #fanfiction #30 day shuffle challenge

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cheri-translates · 4 years ago

Text

[CN] Lucien’s R&S - The victim who disappeared (Eng Translation)

🍒This R&S (消失的遇难者) was part of the Dream Heart Lake event which will unlikely come to EN🍒

Angst warning!

More Lucien R&S from this event:

> regarding what books don’t say (important to read this first!)

> my love rival older brother

> the victim who disappeared ♡

> since that rainy night

[ Chapter One ]

Recently, the girls in the precinct have been addicted to a variety program called “Miracle Finder”. When it’s time for lunch, there’d be a bunch of them piling in front of the computer screen, watching and exclaiming.

Filled with curiosity, I lean over to take a look. The girls immediately stop me, recommending it fervently.

“Captain Fan, do you watch this program too?”

“This week’s guest is Professor Lucien. He looks so handsome!”

I shake my head in resignation. “You girls only know how to look at appearances the whole day.”

“Captain Fan, you can’t say that! Our Professor Lucien became a neurologist at a very young age.”

“Exactly, exactly! He’s also a guest professor at Loveland University!”

“Sigh. If I had such a handsome teacher back then, I’d have definitely worked hard.”

Watching the girls chat, I can’t help but tease them. “Don’t all of you have an even more handsome-looking superior? It isn’t too late to start working now.”

The moment I finish speaking, their exclamations completely cover my words. Seems like the young and gifted “Professor Lucien” they’ve been talking about has appeared on the screen. Seeing his refined manner and gentle appearance, I actually feel a sense of familiarity.

“Hurry and look! Even Captain Fan is dazed!”

“We were right, weren’t we? Doesn’t he have an especially good temperament!”

The crinkled and smiling eyes of that boy in my memories overlap with the person on screen. That unresolved case which almost disappeared finally has a favourable turn after so many years. Even though I know that the chances are slim, I still wish to grasp this new lead.

“What’s his name again?”

“Oh? Wasn’t Captain Fan completely uninterested just now?” The girls notice the change in my attitude, becoming enthusiastic in an instant. They start introducing him, their words pouring out in an unceasing torrent. “His name is Lucien, a neurologist who returned after studying abroad. I heard that the thesis he released at twenty was published in an internationally renowned science magazine...”

“Isn’t he just as intelligent as that boy?” I mutter softly, the hope in my heart brightening by a few notches.

Although the name doesn’t fit, if that child managed to survive after that incident 19 years ago, it feels as though he would have gone down such a life path.

“Uncle has worked very hard. Kid, have you been doing your best over the years too?”

Even though I’m unable to find concrete evidence to make public the incident 19 years ago, the least I could do is to shed some light on the truth concerning that kid and his family.

In the midst of a cruel reality mixed with tears and blood, and the truth which cannot be found, the me of the past finally decided to step out of the days of living in a wasteland, plunging deeper into a depthless pool of truth.

[ Chapter Two ]

At night, I dreamt of that day yet again.

It was that boy’s 7th birthday.

Early in the morning on that day, he had headed out with his parents. Before he left, he specially gave me an invitation card to his birthday party in the evening.

He rarely revealed the innocent smile a kid should have. Instead, his mouth remained merciless, saying something unadorable. “I’ve already spoken with my dad. Tonight, he can tell you how to play chess. If you don't improve in your chess skills, I won’t know how to play with you anymore.”

I snatched the invitation card in his hand in an impolite manner, deliberately provoking him. “You’ll have to make do with it, little genius. I’m the only one who’s willing to play with you.”

In a huff, he ran over to where his parents were waiting for him not afar off. Taking their hands, they left while talking and laughing.

I rarely saw this busy couple accompanying their child outside over the weekend. They must have taken a day off from work specially for his birthday.

“Kid, have fun!”

“Mm.”

“Also, happy birthday!”

“Thank you, Brother Fan.”

His parents and him turned around to wave goodbye at me, the three of their smiles under the sunlight, sparkling and bright.

On hindsight, I should have given him his present then.

It was a sci-fi novel which was popular amongst kids, and I’d frequently see children gathered in the yard discussing it together. Although I didn’t know if that kid liked reading other books aside from those profound science materials, I felt it wouldn’t hurt for him to engage with things people his age liked.

He was still a child. From the bottom of my heart, I hoped that he could live a little more like a child.

However, this wish that I never said aloud was completely shattered by that car accident.

That evening, which should have filled with presents, cake, and the sound of birthday songs, only welcomed pattering and whistling rain, as well as blood stains on the asphalt road which couldn’t be washed off even with a scrub.

Sirens from the ambulance and police cars intertwined. Mixed with the sharp cries of passers-by, they composed the saddest and shrillest background music.

[ Chapter Three ]

“Oh my goodness, that’s so horrifying! Those two people are covered in blood!”

“Let’s leave, it’s too pitiful.”

The crowd in the surroundings remarked in soft voices, showing sympathy towards the victims they weren’t acquainted with.

The incident happened on the road outside our estate. After receiving the task, I rushed over to the scene. When I saw the names of the casualties, I was both shocked and had a flicker of hope in my heart, praying that they were people who happened to share the same names. However, after confirming the identities of the two bodies underneath the white cloth, coldness rushed through my body--

Those were the parents of the little genius.

In just the blink of an eye, the couple who had greeted me with warm smiles had turned ice cold, lying in a pool of blood. I didn’t dare to imagine how such a young kid would be able to face such a cruel reality, and my insuppressible tears, along with the rain, drenched my face.

The captain came over to pat me on the shoulder, consoling me with a lowered voice. “Settle your emotions, and do a proper investigation.”

I nodded my head silently, lifting my hand to wipe my tears away. After that, I started taking down records of what the witness had to say.

The witness was a boss of a news-stand nearby, around 45 years of age. He was in a state of fright, hugging his elbows and shivering.

I asked if he needed a rest before supplementing the record, but he shook his head repeatedly, saying that it’d be better to record it early, since he wouldn’t want to recollect such a horrifying image afterwards.

According to his description, the cause of the accident was a large truck which had lost control. It was yet to be confirmed whether the reason for the loss of control was due to a human error, or the slippery road.

After realising that there was an issue with the truck, the driver had frantically tried to turn. But in the end, it still ended up hitting the family of three who were walking on the zebra crossing.

The three of them were sent flying a great distance. The places where they fell turned into pools of blood not long after.

As for what happened after, the boss of the news-stand expressed that he didn’t pay attention due to fright.

After handing him over to the medical personnel to console his emotions, I continued making notes for the next witness.

The images described by all the witnesses were virtually the same. From the various indications of the scene, this tragedy could have been a normal traffic accident.

When I finished making the records, the scene was more or less cleaned up. After wrapping up my work, I inquired about which hospital the boy was taken to. But I was notified that no injured child was found on the scene.

“How’s that impossible! That sketchbook over there belongs to him! That boy suffered such grave injuries - where else could he have gone!”

Agitatedly, I pointed at the exhibits collected, one of them a sketchbook coated in blood. At a glance, I recognised it as the book that boy would carry with him all day. That’s because the flower garland on the cover was a work he was proud of, and it was exactly the same as the one drawn on his birthday invitation card this morning.

He was definitely at the scene when the accident happened. Also, he definitely couldn’t have left on his own.

“Has the scene been investigated? Are there any other suspicious areas or areas we’ve overlooked?”

"Didn’t all the witnesses say there was a family of three at the scene? There’s definitely one more kid!”

“How much time passed after the incident before the scene was cordoned off? Could the kid have been taken away before that?”

I tossed out points of contention in succession, but the expressions of my colleagues remained confused and blank. In a moment of anxiousness, I burned with impatience and went to check the surveillance tape on my own. However, I didn’t notice any suspicious people entering or exiting the scene before or after the incident.

I didn’t have a single clue regarding his whereabouts, and could only hold onto hope as I contacted his relatives one by one.

They were generally not from the city. Most of them didn’t even know that the family had met with an accident, much less the whereabouts of the boy. After consoling their emotions, I hang up dejectedly, turning back to the scene of the incident.

The police cars stationed around earlier had long since left, and traces left on the asphalt road had been washed clean by the rain. Everything returned to peace and quiet, as though nothing had happened. Only the lingering grief served as a reminder that it wasn’t over yet--

The sudden car accident, the missing child, the ignorant relatives - all of these seemed to remind me that this wasn’t a simple traffic incident.

Without any orderliness, I started investigating the vicinity, imagining countless times for that smart fellow to suddenly lunge out from a dark corner, telling me that this whole thing was just a prank he pulled.

However, that didn’t happen. Even after checking every corner of the large streets and small alleys, I ended up empty-handed.

In the end, I sat down tiredly along the side of the road, looking at the pitch-black sky as it started turning into a grey dawn.

Although it was dawn, the truth of the matter would forever be hidden in that dark night.

All my hopes and hopelessness fell into pieces, leaving behind a maze of doubts, akin to a dense fog.

[ Chapter Four ]

On the morning of the second day, without even washing my face, I headed to the news-stand to buy various newspapers, looking through them seriously to search for any reports on the matter.

As it was temporarily classified as a normal traffic accident, the length of all the articles were very short. Also, they were placed in nondescript corners.

I closed the final set of newspapers, realising in disappointment that none of them mentioned the missing child.

It’s as though he had evaporated from the world. Aside from me, no one else remembered his existence.

I couldn't stand for the case to be closed just like this, and finally understood the anxiety family members felt when they asked for our help in conducting investigations. As long as it was related to a living person, there wasn’t anything not worth investigating.

With a determination to investigate the matter and leave no stone unturned, I once again returned to the scene of the accident. I asked around the small shops along the roadside, hoping to obtain just a tiny hint.

Heaven will not disappoint the person who tries. From the lips of an owner of the shop facing the zebra crossing, I received an important lead which wasn’t brought up before - a black car.

“When the accident occurred, I was busy, and even had a scare when I heard the truck braking. By the time I set down my stuff to watch, the police cars and ambulance weren’t here yet. But a black car was stationed here for quite some time.”

Regarding this lead, I first expressed shock. Then, I had doubts.

Based on the surveillance tape I watched on the day of the incident, no suspicious cars appeared. If this person deliberately toggled with the surveillance footage to capture the kid, the remaining investigations would likely be a bitter struggle.

“Why did he take the kid away?”

“Could there be a conspiracy behind this?”

That black car had taken both the truth and that boy, disappearing into thin air.

The scene I had witnessed, the images depicted by the witnesses, the true footage of that surveillance tape, pieces of evidence which weren’t able to fit together, created paradoxes. The entire incident was akin to a vicious cycle, tangled and complicated, twisting and turning, unable to grasp a hint of it, and left one spinning around on a superficial level.

In the end, the police classified this matter as a normal traffic incident. And I could only continue investigating in the dark.

[ Chapter Five ]

Many years passed. From a small police officer who had accomplished nothing, I struggled and worked hard, becoming a captain who solved countless cases.

Even so, the unresolved case concerning that boy hasn’t had a breakthrough.

Over ten years, I found some leads, but they would ultimately be flawed fragments. And along with the passage of time, they’ve eroded even more.

This time, the person called “Lucien” was probably the finally hope of this case.

I visit Loveland University over the weekend, asking the kids about this “Professor Lucien”, but receive scant results even after a long while. He’s indeed very popular amongst students. But regarding his personal life, everyone expressed that they weren’t clear about it.

“Then again, which student would be so free to ask about a teacher’s personal life?” With a wry smile, I take a seat at the resting area of the math building. Without realising it, someone sits beside me. While feeling puzzled over why someone would choose to sit next to a middle-aged uncle when there are so many other empty chairs around, I see the face of the person I was looking for.

“Lucien?!”

“I heard from the students that you were asking about me. So I thought, why not let you ask me in person directly?” His tone is as calm as what I saw in the program, but I can vaguely sense a hint of irritation.

“Please don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t mean to offend you.” I find an excuse on the fly. “It’s just that after watching your program, there were some issues I didn’t quite understand, and wanted to consult you.”

He listens patiently to the many unorganised questions I have, and explains them thoroughly. That look of concentration makes me think about the boy again.

Finally, I can no longer contain myself. When I’m about to bid farewell to him, I ask, “It might be a little presumptuous of me, but could I ask if you’ve always been living abroad since young?”

There doesn’t seem to be much change in his expression, but he raises his eyebrows slightly.

“In that case, could I be also be presumptuous and ask why you have such a question?

Since things have already reached this stage, I decide that there’s no longer a need to conceal anything. So I tell him the honest truth. “You kind of resemble a kid I used to know, but he’s gone missing.”

Upon hearing this, a sadness dyes his eyes in an instant. He lowers his eyes, his expression sad, as though he had also once known that pitiful child. “I feel deeply sorry for that child... but it’s a shame that I’m not the person you’re looking for. From the moment I could remember, I’ve been living in an orphanage.

“Ah... sorry about that.” I feel uncomfortable knowing that I’ve rubbed someone else’s sore spot. As though he’s talking about matters pertaining to somebody else, he says relaxedly, “It’s all right. I hope you can find that child soon.”

His eyes really do resemble the boy. It’s just that he’s much more modest in how he conducts himself. I increasingly hope that if the boy were still living on this earth, he must definitely be a person who is just as well-liked.

“Many years have passed. To tell you the truth, I think whether or not I find him isn’t that important.” I look into the distance, making a wish from the bottom of my heart. “I just hope that in a corner of the world, he’s living happily and well.”

After Lucien hears this, he chuckles lightly. “I’m almost envious of that boy - that he was able to meet a kind-hearted person who would think of him even after such a long time.”

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc lucien #cncancelled #...T-T

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fanfoolishness · 5 years ago

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on the subject of rocks (SUF)

Steven and Jasper have a long-overdue conversation. Set two years after SUF, canon-compliant. A little angst, a lot of hope. ~2500 words.

***

Steven is eighteen years old when he decides he wants to try to speak with her again.

If she wants to, that is.

He thinks he’s ready. He thinks the conversation might dim the feeling of her fragments cutting into his palm, the weight of his crime crushing his heart, his gut, his gem. Therapy has helped a great deal. But there are still nights he wakes up panting, remembering what it felt like to let go, to hurt, to shatter, and he wonders.

If Jasper has the same terrible memories, the same haunting, then maybe they should talk about it.

He talks with Dr. Boverman for hours. He wants to be sure this is right. Not just for him, but he wants to make sure this won’t damage her further than he already has. They go round and round. They’ve spoken of so many things, old wounds that pierced and bled and fractured, but most of those wounds were done to him.

The blood on his hands is less than he’d once feared it was, but it still doesn’t scrub clean.

“It will always be with you,” Dr. Boverman’s calm voice says. “You shattered Jasper. You didn’t intend to, but it’s what happened.”

“I know,” says Steven, and the thought no longer incapacitates him with shame. It was terrible, violent, the worst possible action committed at nearly his lowest point. But he accepts it, now, accepts that this will stay with him always. That it should.

And yet --

He and Dr. Boverman strategize. Roleplay. Hours of scenarios, how to accept if she never wants to talk to him again, what to do if Jasper says she isn’t ready, what to do if she lashes out, what to do if she fights him, what to do if she bends her hands into the Diamond salute. Each scenario frightens him at first, sends his heart racing. The first time they talked about it he glowed pink again for the first time in months. But the terror fades a little every time they speak, and several weeks later, he thinks he might be ready.

***

Little Homeworld is always different and always the same. It’s a comforting flow of change, new Gems appearing each time he visits, old teachers moving on. His family is still there, of course, and he has plans to catch up with them tomorrow. But today -- today he wants to know if this is the right time.

If there will ever be a right time. And if there isn’t, he thinks he can make his peace with that.

He finds Jasper sitting on a fallen log at the edge of the forest, alone as he’d expected she would be. A sketchbook sits in front of her, colored pencils at her side. His footsteps crunch on autumn leaves.

“Jasper?” he asks hesitantly, ten feet away.

She turns to look at him, her form unchanged from the last time he saw her, the stripe through her eye disrupted, her horn broken. So she hadn’t gone to Yellow, then. A thread of fear mixed with guilt begins unspooling within him. Maybe he wasn’t ready after all.

Jasper snorts, a gruff smile spreading over her face. “I wondered if you’d stop by, one of these days. I heard some of the others say you were coming into town.”

“Hi,” says Steven hesitantly. He takes a deep breath, remembering his strategies. “I -- I’d like to ask you something, Jasper.”

“Shoot,” she says in disinterest, picking up a pencil. She makes scratchy marks against the sketchbook paper, scribbles he can’t quite make out.

He edges closer. “I was wondering… I’ve done a lot of thinking.”

“Sounds like you.”

Despite himself, he chuckles slightly. “All right, fair.”

“Thinking about what?” she asks.

“About you,” says Steven honestly. “And me. What I did to you. What we did to each other.” He lets out a long, tremulous sigh, returning mentally to his gemstone, taking deep breaths with his diamond as his anchor. “And I wanted to see if you wanted to talk about it. It’s okay if you don’t, or if you want me to leave you alone.” Breath. Another. “I’m so sorry, Jasper.”

She glances up at him, giving him an odd look, then gestures beside her with a powerful shoulder. “Go on. Sit down, already.”

No ‘my Diamond.’ He’s more relieved than he’d expected to be. He sets down his bag and sits down on the ground, resting against the log instead of sitting on top of it with her. He sinks into the soft loam, leans against the fallen trunk. It’s more comfortable than it looks. A few feet between them seem like miles, or inches, he isn’t sure.

Jasper regards him coolly, tilting her head slightly to one side. “Why’d you really come here?”

“To talk to you,” says Steven, his hands folded and calm in his lap, his breathing slowing. “You told me once that I was the one who needed help. I’ve been getting it.”

“Told you,” she says, but there’s no gloating in her voice. She purses her lips, face tensed in concentration. At last she says, “So have I.”

He blinks, hands coming apart, fingers falling open. He raises his head and gazes up at her, wondering if he’s heard her right. “You have?”

“You told me to do something better with my life,” says Jasper, picking up her sketchbook. At this angle he can see what she’s drawn. It’s a rock -- what was it with her and rocks -- but a tenderly realized rock, craggy edges shaded in carefully, mosses and lichens rendered in textured shades of green and brown.

“Jasper, that’s -- that’s really beautiful,” says Steven. He’s been working on his art, too, but he’s no good at the type of delicate detail work laced into her sketch. “Who taught you?”

“Ruby,” she says. She sets the pencil down beside her, hands tensing on the sketchbook. “I don’t go to Lapis’ classes.”

“Right.” Part of him is saddened to hear it. Another part of him is grateful for Lapis’ sake. He wonders which of them he’s most like. “It seems like you’ve really taken to Little Homeschool. I’m glad for you.”

A small scoff of a laugh, but it softens at the end into something more like a real smile. Jasper shakes her hair, its white strands catching in the dappled sunlight beneath the trees. She looks… calm, like this, and it’s not a state he ever remembers seeing her in before.

“What about you?” she asks suddenly.

“I’m doing well,” he replies, still shocked that they’re talking at all. It’s going far better than most of the scenarios he’d practiced with Dr. Boverman. “I visit with my family every couple of weeks. I’ve been spending a lot of time in cities lately. All the noise and hustle and bustle… it’s different, sometimes it’s overwhelming, but I like the energy. It’s… good. It’s really good. Connie and I meet up every week. And I talk to my therapist.”

“What’s that?”

“A therapist? Um… it’s like a healer for human minds. But it’s not instant, like with Diamond powers. It takes time. A long time.” He gives her a small smile. “Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back, but overall, I’m feeling a lot better than… before.”

Jasper considers his words. She leans down, and he realizes a shiny blue beetle is crawling over the tip of her boot. He tenses, waiting.

Jasper watches the beetle go, making no further move toward it. It ambles away peacefully.

“You are not my Diamond,” she says into the silence.

“No,” he agrees, and something inside of him unclenches. “I -- I’m a Diamond. But mostly I’m just Steven.”

“I hated you for so long.”

He fights an urge to be sarcastic, to bite back at her. This doesn’t sound… angry. He keeps quiet, and lets her speak.

Her hand clenches into a fist, heavy against her thigh. “I thought that if you could stop being weak, if I could make you stronger, I would have my Diamond again. My purpose. Someone to protect, someone to serve.”

She stares into the woods, and he remembers his hands and legs awash in pink, the glow as he tore through the trees beneath a starry sky. He remembers jagged laughter, his gem humming, a power crueler than he’d ever felt before --

“I know.”

“Don’t ‘I know’ me when I’m talking to you,” she snaps. “I’m trying to -- arrgh. I thought this would be easier.”

“You thought what would be easier --” he starts to ask.

“You know. Talking. Ugh. It’s nothing like a good fight. The target keeps changing.” She crosses her arms, still staring off into the trees. The sun shifts overhead, casting her face in shadow.

“That’s called a conversation,” he says gently. “Battles are battles, but a hard conversation… it can hurt.”

“Now you tell me,” says Jasper, and it takes him a solid minute before he realizes it’s a joke. He laughs, but it’s too late, and Jasper shakes her head. “Look. Steven. I -- I’m sorry.” The words are hasty and fumbled and fast, but he catches them, barely.

“You’re sorry?” Steven yelps. “But I’m the one who shattered you.” It still comes out like a dirty word, almost two years later. He wonders if he’ll ever be able to fully say it, if he’ll ever be able to act like it hasn’t scarred him. He hopes not. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you.”

“You have. Just now, and before,” she says, shrugging. “But I only said I’d teach you to get you to fight me. And you did. And I lost.”

“Because I lost myself, I lost who I was, you didn’t make me --”

“But you were off-color,” growls Jasper. “You were -- what do you humans call it again --?”

“Sick,” he says softly. Such a small word. It barely begins to cover everything that went wrong two years ago, but he knows CPTSD won’t mean a thing to her, and that’s okay, that’s not what he’s here for.

“Sick,” she repeats. “And I --” She digs her hands into the tree bark, small flakes of it crumbling beneath her shaking hands. “I made you worse. So that I could get something I wanted. I failed to protect my Diamond from myself.”

“Jasper --” he gasps. “You’ve been blaming yourself? For me shattering you?”

“Someone’s got to do it,” she huffs.

He rubs the back of his neck with his hand, tries to take another deep breath, reminds himself to return to the thought of his gem as a centering point. He can do this. He can do this. It’s just, this isn’t how he thought it would go at all.

He closes his eyes. Remembers the way she screamed at him, punches in the gut, the face, the sides. Remembers the way she goaded, the way she pressed, how proud she looked of how frightening he��d become. He doesn’t know what to say. “I -- I was sick,” he manages finally. “I -- you’re right.”

“Of course I am.”

He shakes his head at that. “But I’m still the one who did it. I still have to take responsibility for hurting you,” he demands.

Jasper gives him an appraising look. “Hmph,” she says, and he doesn’t know if it’s a hmph of agreement or a hmph of disdain. It’s hard to tell with Jasper. She holds the silence an uncomfortably long time before she says, “Maybe.”

“This isn’t how -- I wanted you to be mad at me,” Steven admits. “I wanted you to be pissed off! To tell me to get away from you!”

“I can still do that,” says Jasper, apparently turning the thought around in her mind. She chuckles, very slightly. “But if that’s an order, I’m ignoring it.”

He laughs. “You’re full of surprises, Jasper.”

“Am not.”

“You kind of are.”

“Don’t be so surprised then.” She picks up her pencil, returning to her sketch. Grass starts to grow beneath her rock, verdant blades springing up from dark soil.

“I thought you hated the local ecosystem.”

“It has its functions,” says Jasper begrudgingly. “If I leave the grass it provides better contrast for the rocks.” She picks up a different shade of green, adding highlights. “It’s still puny. But it has a purpose of its own.”

“What’s yours?” he asks, then kicks himself for getting so personal.

“Only if you tell me what yours is.”

Two years ago, the request would have paralyzed him. Two years ago, he’d have panicked, spun out with a lie, tried his best not to think about who he was and what he was supposed to do.

He just smiles. Breathes in the fresh green air, so different from the machine-smell of the big city. Beneath the green there’s a hint of salt, the promise of the sea. It smells like home.

“My purpose is to be Steven,” he says simply. “To be myself. To grow and change. To love myself, regrets and all.”

“Sounds all right,” says Jasper begrudgingly. “Sort of like mine these days.” She turns to him, frowning. “You got something to write on?”

“Uh, let me see.” He rummages in his bag. “Oh hey! I have my sketchbook, too.”

“Well?” Jasper says, pointing to the boulder before her. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

He flips through his sketchbook, passing pages of silly Connie faces, a self-portrait in pink and white, Lion poses, CPH classic fanart. He settles on a blank page and Jasper shoves a green pencil into his hand. He feels smooth wood, the lightness of the organic drawing implement rounded and gentle in his palm. No sharp edges, no jagged fragments, no terrible weight dragging his clenched hand into the hot water. He blinks back tears.

The sunlight shifts, the golden hour arriving, brilliant light shafting through the leaves above and lining the forest floor in spun-gold glory. His hands don’t quite have this kind of magic in them, but he tries his best, his drawing including sketches of the rock, the grass, the trees beyond them. He adds a gleaming line of yellow at the edges. He’ll show it to Dr. Boverman at their next appointment.

“Not bad,” says Jasper, peering over his sketchbook. “You added the trees.”

“It just felt more complete that way,” he says. He glances at her drawing. The rock is resplendent, resting on gold-touched grass, light captured in patches against the mosses and lichens. “You can see all of this? It’s incredible, Jasper.”

“It’s just what it looks like,” she says stubbornly. “It’s a good challenge.”

“Like a conversation,” he says, half to himself.

“Something like that.” The breeze flutters past them, carrying faint birdsong, the far-off scent of the sea.

“Thanks for talking with me, Jasper. I know you didn’t have to.”

“Of course. I do what I want,” she replies, and her voice is gentler than he’s ever heard it.

#steven universe future #steven universe #suf #jasper #steven universe jasper #do not tag as ship!#the future #suf spoilers #steven universe spoilers #steven universe future spoiler #fanfoolishness' steven universe fic #fanfoolishness steven universe fic #fragments

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ranger-jedi-knight · 4 years ago

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This Little Angel Part 2

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201565/chapters/59881333 Taglist: @chocolate1721 @tiny-goddess-of-chaos @amayakans @cutechip @more-or-less-human-i-guess

Ok, so here’s the much requested second chap!! I hope you guys enjoy it!!

Mari was excited as she looked around the private jet Bruce was taking them home on. She kept looking up and down at her sketchbook as she sketched a few things from the inspiration. Harley and Joker were on the plane too, Mari and the others had a moment of surprise when Joker had taken all his make-up and what not off leaving him looking very normal. Not that they couldn’t blame him. They can’t exactly petition Paris to give her custody back over to her criminal parent JOKER. So they had to look normal. Harley was going by her real name Harleen and Joker was going by Jack.

It may have been illegal to forge some documents but it was for the better. She was in all rights Harley and Joker’s daughter. But, no one outside of Gotham was going to accept that. So, they may have asked Babs and Tim to hack and make official paperwork saying that she was adopted at age 3 by Jack and Harleen Quinzel. Then have it known that at around age 10 she was kidnapped and trafficked resulting in their divorce.

Even Gordon agreed to it since he knew how much Harley and Joker cared for her. Their worried attack to search the city when she first disappeared was proof of that! And having her back, they were sure Joker would return back to normal, doing more innocent attacks, using the venom only on HUGE heists that happened less and less. Becoming more of a nuisance than a real big baddie.

And they could only do that if they had official US documentation of Mari’s adoption to them. So, they did a little illegal hacking to do it. But no one outside of their group had to know that. Mari reached down to pat her purse as they crossed into France, getting closer to Paris. It was the next day so no doubt her class was going to be in class. She did wonder tho if classes were easy today for everyone because of the trip.

She suggested it, but she wondered if Bustier would follow it.

They soon landed at the airport and both Chloe and Damian took one of her hands into theirs. She was so glad that Bruce had come with and let Damian join. They exited the plane and got their suitcases.

Chloe’s driver was there already and took them to the hotel where they were all staying. Mari was to stay in Chloe’s suit as a neutral place while that whole case went down. Gordon was sharing a room with Joker and Harley to keep them in check, which he doubted they needed but better to be safe. While Bruce and Damian had their own.

After dropping their bags off, Bruce, Gordon, Harley, and Joker went to the French Police and child services to deal with the case about Mari’s future. Meanwhile, Mari and Chloe went to the school to tell them due to a case they wouldn’t bee in class for some time. But they would keep up with their studies while the case went on.

Damian decided to go with them but would stay in the car-limo actually. Mari took a deep breath when they stopped in front of the school. She gave the two a small smile when they squeezed her hands. The two slowly slid out of the limo and made their way into the school and up to Principal Damocles’s office. It was a quick thing to inform him of what happened and about a case being opened.

So Damocles agreed and understood that they wouldn’t be in class and just said to either put their work into Bustier’s mailbox in the school or to give it to him. Now it was time to face Ms. Bustier and tell her. They reached her classroom and Mari raised a hand to knock. Bustier opened the door and glared at the two girls before pulling them into the classroom.

“Girls, I don’t know what has gotten into. First, you purposefully miss the flight home for attention, and now come to class late? What do you have to say for yourselves? It better be good otherwise I’ll be sending you to the principal’s office,” Bustier said annoyed and the two shared a dumbfounded look while the rest of the class laughed.

“Ya Marinette, I can’t believe you’d stoop so low like that!” Alya shouted before looking at Bustier once more. “Also, Ms. Bustier, Marinette sent Lila horrible texts this morning. They should be sent to the principal’s office for bullying!” she yelled and the class shouted their agreement. “Oh really? Girls?” Bustier was fully glaring at the two now.

“I can prove that Lila lied there. I haven’t touched my phone all morning since I turned it off when I got onto my flight home this morning and turned it on when we got off,” Mari said pulling out her phone to show a tweet she made from Gotham time of 2 am getting onto a private jet and then making a tweet at 11 am getting off the jet and into Chloe’s limo. “See? You’d see that for the time it took to fly, my phone was off, the exact time that I ‘supposedly’-” she put in air quotes “-sent horrible texts to Lila. even you know that you can’t do anything on a phone while flying,” she finished and Alya grumbled and glared at the girl, somehow thinking she was lying still.

“As for that flight thing and late,” Chloe said looking at her nails not even bothering to glare at Bustier, “you guys left us in Gotham even tho Mari’s reunion with her parents was very public. Not to mention you didn’t even headcount. So really, you’re too blame for that,” Chloe said and Bustier opened her mouth but Chloe cut her off with a raised hand. “And for the late, we just arrived an hour ago in Paris and had to drop our bags off. We just came here from Damocle’s office saying we won’t be in class for some time due to a case being opened up that we’ll be a part of. Now, we ought to be going,” she grabbed Mari’s hand and started walking out before glancing back in with a smirk. “You guys should be expecting some suits to show up later too~!” she called out smirking before leaving.

Bustier glared at the door, planning on talking to Damocle’s at lunch about their behavior.

They entered the limo and Mari leaned against Damian’s shoulder as they went to the hotel and stayed there.

The following week is hectic, to say the least. Mari is going between talking at family court and facing akumas and ignoring her ex-friends and parents. Tom and Sabine didn’t appreciate Mari saying that Lila indeed lied to them when they asked about where she was. They also didn’t appreciate being investigated along with their workers, friends, and customers. They thought they were star parents and didn’t deserve this.

Before court, they tried guilting Mari into not suing them or her friends. Chloe and Damian had to pull her away before she caved with her lawyer threatening them. As it was, they informed the judge of it, and the Judge was not amused at that. It was tough, so very tough, but in the end, the Judge decided that Mari was to stay with Harleen and Jack in joint custody. While they were separated, it was clear they loved and missed their daughter. Meanwhile, Tom and Sabine had to pay for it. They were banned from adopting kids until they took some classes and had proven they would take care of and love a child correctly and not work them.

After that, it was time to focus on suing her classmates for harassment and the school for negligence. Now that would take longer to deal with. The family court only took 4 days to deal with it. She could only sigh at the break she got between it after finishing the family case. They gave her the next day to rest before jumping into the next cases against students and the school.

Tho, that had her giving another sigh of relief as a few classmates agreed to the terms easily when they were told off by Jack and Harleen about how they should know her from the 6 years they’ve known each other. And then Bruce coming in to serve Lila papers for slander. That had the whole class shouting as then another lawyer came in with all the other celebrities she’s lied about suing her.

Ladybug sighed as she landed in an alley nearby after defeating the Akuma. She leaned against the wall and slid down as her transformation died. Her head fell back against the wall with her eyes closed. A gasp ringing thru the air had her eyes flinging open tho.

She looked around and her eyes landed on Joker and Harley standing at the entrance. “Mama? Papa?” she called and the two came to her and kneeled down in front of her. “What are-did you-?” she cut off, worry filling her veins.

“We know now sweetie. We followed Ladybug to see how long this has been happening and if you were in trouble at all,” Harley said cupping her daughter’s cheek and Mari leaned into the touch with a sigh.

“This has been going on since I was 13. I’ve tried figuring out who Hawkmoth is but I’ve been having trouble. My partner hasn’t been any help tho,” she said softly and watched as her parents got angry.

“And this whole time you’ve had to deal with those idiotic sheep called classmates the whole time?” Joker demanded and Mari bit her lip.

“Just for the last year or so when Lila appeared,” she explained watching as her parents got more upset.

“Please calm down tho!” Tikki called floating in front of them causing their anger to dissipate a bit as confusion went thru them.

“Who are ya?” Harley asked, sticking a finger out pocking the paw Tikki held out.

“I’m Tikki, Marinette’s Kwami! I’m what allows her to transform into Ladybug,” she explained and the two slowly nodded. So once that confusion was clear she elaborated on her first comment. “You two need to calm down tho. Hawkmoth can feel any negative emotions and feed off them! So far only two people have fought him off and I’m sure Mari wouldn’t want to fight her parents,” she explained and the girl nodded her agreement.

“I don’t wanna fight you, mama, papa,” she said as Harley then pulled her into a hug that Mari returned. Joker stiffened tho causing the two to pull back to look at him worried. Mari gasped when she saw the outline surrounding his eyes. “Papa!” she cried out.

“Oh, so your that punk-ass bitch terrorizing everyone. Well, listen here, mothy. You are an insult to villains everywhere. You hide away and make others do the work for you. You make children fight your battle, you punk-ass bitch. So let me say this, the reason I’m upset is because of you terrorizing my daughter while facing the stress of her classmate’s harassment. The moment I find you, Mothy, I’m going to make you regret everything you’ve ever done. And don’t you try saying that I can’t. Do you know who I am? I’m the Joker, Clown Prince of Gotham. Oh yes, you have heard of me. Then you know I don’t make light threats. I will make your life a living hell. Do I make myself clear?” he asked and cackled when a pure white butterfly flew away hastily. “Well, he won’t try bugging me anymore,” he said and a sudden laugh left Mari’s lips.

Her parents looked at her fondly as she laughed. “Why don’t we head home now, sweetie?” Harley suggested and Joker nodded agreement. The two help Mari up and make their way to the hotel they were staying at.

“Since you know now. I’m Ladybug, I’m also the guardian of the Miraculous. I....I need to defeat Hawkmoth before I can leave,” she said softly when they reached their room and the two nodded understanding.

“Of course, sweetie. We’ll stay here as long as it takes,” Harley said as Joker hummed as they sat down on a couch.

“What if Batsy could help?” he asked and Mari hummed in thought.

“It could get done quicker,” she admitted and Joker nodded.

“That’s what I thought. Let me go talk to someone,” Joker said standing up and leaving the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ladybug stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower. She tilted her head slightly when she saw movement. Two people soon landed in front of her and she tilted her head. “Batman, Robin,” she greeted and the two nodded to her.

“So your Ladybug,” Batman said and she nodded. “What did you need help with? You seem to be doing everything very well,” he commented and Ladybug shrugged uncomfortably.

“Well, that may be. I’m not a detective. I don’t know how to figure out Hawkmoth’s identity. So I need your help to do that. I’m done with Paris. I want to leave,” she said and the two nodded slowly. They could only guess that she was done with Paris in her personal life seeing as everyone has the greatest respect for Ladybug.

“Ok, we can help with that,” Batman said with the smallest of nods.

“There’s something else,” she said, trailing off as she looked off into the distance.

“M’Lady! You didn’t tell me we would be having company~” Chat purred out leaning in close while glaring at everyone. Ladybug frowned as she pushed Chat away from her, earning a growl from him.

“That’s because we,” she pointed between him and herself, “never had anything planned. This was a planned meeting between myself and Batman and Robin,” she said glaring and Chat was angry at that.

“Oh really? Is that any way to treat your partner, m’lady?” he demanded and Ladybug scowled.

“You haven’t been my partner in a while, Chat,” she spat his name out. “You stopped being it when you decided flirting and whining was more important than defeated the Akuma’s,” she said and Chat scoffed.

“Please, your cure will bring everything back,” he said and Ladybug gnashed her teeth together as she stomped up to Chat and slapped him hard across the face.

“I don’t care that my cure can bring everything back. We shouldn’t rely on it. What if that battle is the one Hawkmoth wins? He does his wish. There’s no telling what will happen. Except that those people who are dead will most definitely stay dead. And because of your lazy ass, I now how to protect you as well which means that more people can get hurt or killed. Did you know that people remember dying? They remember that moment. They are traumatized by that moment. They cannot ever forget that moment. And that is all on you!” she shouted angrily.

“So what!?” he demanded and everyone was silent at that. How could they respond to that!? Ladybug was shaking in anger. She had a terrifying expression on her face that somehow was both ice cold and encompassed all seven levels of hell angry.

Chat didn’t even get to react.

Before he knew it, he was on the ground tied up and sore all over.

“Chat Noir, I hereby proclaim you unfit to wield a Miraculous. As Guardian of the Miraculous, I hereby reclaim you’re Miraculous of the Black Cat. You are unworthy and will never be able to wear or use a Miraculous ever again,” Ladybug said ripping the ring off of Chat to reveal Adrien Agreste underneath the mask. Ladybug snarled at him as he cried out. A red mark similar to the one of the box, formed on his chest and hand, burning.

“No! You can’t do that! He’s all I have left!” he shouted reaching out when Ladybug untied him.

She slapped his hand away. “No, I can do that. You’ve shown yourself to be incompetent in being a hero. You only have yourself to blame,” she said turning away. “Let’s go,” she said swinging off, not even seeing if the other two followed. She landed on the balcony leading to her parent’s room, leaving the two vigilantes confused. Mari stumbled into the room and collapsed onto the couch with a groan as she transformed.

“Mari?” Robin asked causing her to groan once more as she looked up at them blearily.

“You followed,” she mumbled before planting her face on the couch once more.

“Mari needs to rest now,” Tikki said flying up to look at both Batman and Robin. The two looked at her shocked.

“Who are you?” Robin asked.

“I am Tikki, Kwami of Creation. I’m what gives Mari her powers,” she explained and the two nodded. “But go, she needs to rest. What she did exhausted her, it’d no simple thing for a Guardian to ban someone from ever using a Miraculous again. We’ll talk in the morning,” Tikki said and the two nodded, heading to their room.

In the morning, they did talk.

In the morning, Mari learned that Robin and Batman were Damian and Bruce Wayne.

Within the week, they had taken down Hawkmoth and revealed to the world that Gabriel Agreste was a terrorist.

Adrien revealed himself as Chat Noir which brought about mixed responses. No one really respected Chat, at least not the people that he needed to. Especially when they learned he was stripped of the Miraculous. For all the harassment, endangering, and enabling he’s done, along with not feeling guilty about just outraged that he was being punished, he was going to a school for troubled kids and put on record as a harasser. He would be going to juvie for 6 months tho first before being sent out of Paris to the school. His father’s company tho, the courts would decide what to do with when he turns 18. But who knows how it’ll look like when Adrien is 18.

Mari felt a bit bad but knew it was for the best. Lila was the next worst off. Lila had piles of lawsuits. She was banned from France as a whole with everyone knowing what she’s done. She was going to a military school for troubled teens in the hopes she’d get better. She’d stay with her grandparents who were no-nonsense. She’d also have to pay for all the suits which would be hard considering not many people wanted to hire her.

The rest of the class had it off easiest. They only had to pay a fine and do a bit of community service. Damocles was demoted and sent to classes to see if he could possibly return to being a principal. Ms. Bustier, however, was fired. She didn’t handle the situation well at all, and only ever listened to one side of the argument and pressured students. So she isn’t allowed to teach kids anymore.

The class tho, they felt they lost the worst.

They realized just how amazing Mari was to them. And what they did to her in return for that kindness? They treated her horribly. Only Chloe was able to talk to her. But they all got to see how well she was settling into her new life in Gotham. It was hard to miss really.

She was dating Damian Wayne and got an internship with Bruce Wayne to help start up her business as MDC. She was called the Angel of Gotham. Chloe joined her there and lived with Mari and her parents.

And she looked so happy back home in Gotham.

They were never making it up to Mari, no matter how hard they tried.

Ok, so here’s the second part!! I hope you like it. Sorry if the ending seems a TAD rushed. I wanted to give you guys this and i was losing steam on it, mostly a headache comin in goin ‘HAHAHA U THOUGHT UD WRITE?! THINK AGAIN AHAHAHAHAH’. Ya, so that’s why. Anyways, until next time! -Love Willa <3<3<3

#fanfic #fanfic update #This Little Angel #TLA #Part 2 #the MUCH awaited part 2 #update #my writing #maribat #daminette #ml x dc #dad joker #uh #idk what else to tag

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quicksilversquared · 5 years ago

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A Christmas Liar

After Ms. Bustier mentioned the annual school charity fundraiser in class, Lila seems determined to raise funds for her own "charity", aka herself. There's no way that Marinette is going to let that fly, but how successful will she be in taking Lila down in time for the holidays?

links in the reblog

It started with a normal morning in Ms. Bustier's homeroom class.

"As you all know, it's fast approaching the holiday season, and our collège always does a fundraiser for a charity before Christmas," Ms. Bustier told the class, smiling widely. The first few cut-out paper snowflakes had appeared in the classroom window that morning, and they all knew that the collection would only grow as December went on. "So remember to remind your parents to check their emails for details soon! Our student representatives have been hard at work brainstorming what to do this year."

Marinette smiled, even as she kept drawing in her sketchbook. Jagged Stone had commissioned an outfit for his Christmas present to Penny from her, and wanted the design ready to be sent to his seamstress as soon as possible so that he could have it ready in plenty of time. He had told her not to rush, of course- "you have so much going on, and I don't want to put you behind in your studies!"- but Marinette wanted to try to get things done early.

After all, akumas could appear and eat up her free time without any notice, and so she was going to take advantage of any extra time when she could.

"Oh, a charity fundraiser?" Lila asked from the back of the room, and Marinette mentally sighed before setting her pencil down. Clearly she wasn't going to get anything done now, if she had to deal with Lila's nonsense, and her nonsense-o-meter was going wild. "That's so wonderful! Do you think that- oh, no, I suppose it would come off a little self-appreciating, never mind..."

"No, go ahead!" Ms. Bustier reassured her quickly. "What is it that you wanted to ask, Lila?"

"Well, I was wondering if maybe I could put forth one of my charities to be considered for the fundraiser's proceeds," Lila told the class, and even without turning around, Marinette could picture the way that Lila would press a hand to her chest delicately, doing her best to look bashful. Adrien's eye roll from in front of her told Marinette that her mental picture probably wasn't very far off. "But I suppose that could come off as, well..."

Ms. Bustier perked up. "Oh, how could I have forgotten that we had someone in our class who had done so much charity work before? I don't think it would come off as self-serving at all! In fact, it could add an extra connection and an element of interest to the whole thing if the school picked one of your charities. Marinette, could-"

"Student council has already settled on a charity for this year's fundraiser," Marinette said at once, not even bothering to look up. She could see exactly where this was heading, and she was going to put a stop to it. Now.

In front of her, she could see Adrien's hastily-hidden grin out of the corner of her eye.

"But this is special, Marinette," Ms. Bustier implored. "Surely they'll understand and want to support a fellow student's charity efforts! This is a pretty unique opportunity!"

"We've had multiple meetings about it, thinned our selections down, did all of the background checks and verification on our final pick, filled out all of the paperwork to submit to Mr. Damocles, and let the charity know so that we could get more information to post around," Marinette informed her, because seriously? Ms. Bustier was going to fall for it, just like that? Also, she was super glad that she had pushed for the council to make the decision early this year, because at this time the previous year, they had been working on finalizing everything still, which would have made a last-minute change like this possible. It wouldn't have been fun, or easy, but it could have been possible. "We can't change it now."

Lila let out a small sigh from the back, and Marinette turned around just in time to see her shoulders slumping. "Oh, that's really a shame, then. For a minute there, I was picturing how much good I- we could do for the children in Africa with a bit of extra funding, but I suppose if they've already picked a charity..."

Ms. Bustier glanced from Marinette to Lila. "Marinette, do you think that we could do two charities instead of one, perhaps? It would just be so nice to be able to support Lila's charity!"

Marinette was honestly going to scream.

"I'm afraid that that would make things too complicated," she said instead, politely as she could and with as little teeth-gritting as possible. "We had a couple fundraiser activities in mind- which we agreed was important, in case an akuma attack keeps people away from an in-person event- plus a couple volunteering opportunities that we wanted to offer. Plus, there would be all of the paperwork and the background checks that would have to be done to add in another charity, and that's not exactly a short process. It's a lot of work."

There was also the fact that Lila didn't have any charities, and any money they earned would- if she managed to sneak her way through their careful screening process- no doubt go straight into her own pockets.

"Oh, I could fill out paperwork so that you guys don't have to!" Lila offered eagerly. "I don't mind, it's for the kids-"

"And the email letting parents know about our fundraiser and our selected charity is already scheduled to go out today," Marinette continued, raising her voice just ever-so-slightly to drown Lila out and making a mental note to talk to Aurore to actually get that email sent over lunch. It had originally been planned for tomorrow, actually, but Marinette wasn't going to give Lila any ins. "So the deadline for any changes has passed." She pasted on her best fake smile, trying not to let any signs of a smirk through as she looked back at Lila. "It's just not possible for this year, I'm afraid. Maybe you can bring it up for consideration earlier next year."

"I suppose that's fair," Ms. Bustier agreed. She smiled over at Lila. "It's my own fault for not bringing it up earlier, it just slipped my mind. Hopefully your charities will still get plenty of support! But right now, we're going to move on to today's lesson. If everyone could please get out your notebooks, we're going to start with a quick video..."

Marinette smiled to herself as she put her sketchbook away and opened up her notebook to a fresh page. This probably wasn't the last that she would hear about Lila's so-called "charities", but at least Ms. Bustier had dropped the subject and she wouldn't be getting pressure from that angle.

Now she just had to be ready for Lila's other attempts to get her hands on charity money.

"I am so glad that you already had stuff all finalized," Adrien said in Marinette's ear as they headed for their next class. Lila was ahead of them, surrounded by several of their classmates. "I got worried for a minute there when Ms. Bustier hopped on the Lila's charity thing."

"I'm just glad that it's a school-wide thing, not just a class-wide fundraiser," Marinette admitted, glancing around to make sure that no one was going to overhear them. She had managed to get out of being blamed for deliberately denying Lila's "charity" a chance to get more money because she wasn't the only person in charge of the fundraiser, and she didn't want anyone in their class mishearing and blowing things out of proportion. Again. "I mean, it's obvious that Lila jumped on that because I'm class representative and she wanted to put me in a bad spot, but she couldn't when I'm just one of the people involved in that process."

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. I was so sure that she was going to drop it after you mentioned the background check and verification thing, though, and then she didn't. Which is...weird, honestly."

"Not really. If we tried going forward and I was the one doing the check, she would probably just say that I was making stuff up about her charity out of jealousy or spite and that was why it failed or something." Marinette had thought the same, honestly, but it became apparent pretty quickly what Lila was up to. Lila wasn't nearly as sly as she thought she was. "I'm surprised that she didn't jump on that and complain that I was just making the background check thing up because I was doubting her. Ignoring, of course, that we want to have statistics in our flyers and posters and emails about how the money is used, and how much work they get done, and their rating by a charity watchdog. That's standard."

"Which is why she wanted to do her own paperwork," Adrien added. He made a face. "I bet that she's still going to try to piggyback off of the fundraiser somehow, or at least rope people into donating some of their own money. I already heard Rose bringing it up, and Alya mentioned something to Nino about posting something on the Ladyblog."

Marinette winced. That wasn't good. She would have to forward the link to their charity watchdog site to Alya later on, maybe under the guise of providing a resource to get all sorts of charity statistics at once to put in her posting. That didn't guarantee that Alya would look at it, of course, but it was worth a try.

(Also, she could use her throwaway account to point out the charity's questionable status, and then- well, hope that other people would see her post and upvote it.)

"She's really going too far now," Adrien said after a moment, pulling Marinette out of her brainstorming of how she could keep Lila from pocketing a bunch of charity money. "I mean, she has been for a while, especially when she tried to get you expelled, but this is just the cherry on top of a heap of awful. I just don't know... I mean, she's sunk her claws in really deep now, I don't know how to fix it. I guess I should have recognized it earlier, but..."

"Well, there's no point in worrying about what we should have done earlier now," Marinette said as they went through the door for their next class, though she couldn't help but feel a bit validated, since she had wanted to stop Lila's lies ages ago. "We can brainstorm later, if you can get away for lunch. I was going to talk to Aurore then anyway."

Adrien looked puzzled for a moment, then caught on with a grin. "Aha, right, since she's on student council too. Is she the one in charge of submitting paperwork?"

"No, that was me. She's in charge of sending out the emails to families." Marinette grinned up at him. "And I bet that we can do a bit of damage control with that."

-0-0-0-0-

Aurore was all too willing to bring her lunch over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery instead of eating in the school cafeteria. After all, she told them as they headed upstairs, her lunch was leftovers and best served warm, and the cafeteria microwave was gross.

Marinette could believe that. Aurore had already floated the idea of setting up either a roll of paper towels near the microwave so that people could cover their dishes to keep the contents from exploding all over, or going the more environmentally-friendly route of having microwave plate covers instead, which could then be washed daily in the industrial dish washers that the cafeteria kitchen had. Clearly it was a Big Deal for her.

"You said you wanted to talk about the email right?" Aurore asked finally, finishing her grumbling about someone who had apparently microwaved fish and ugh, the smell was awful. "I thought it was meant to be going out tomorrow? I have a draft that's almost complete, I was just going to review it tonight to make sure that it was perfect, but do you need something changed?"

"We had a situation come up in our class this morning," Marinette told her, leading the way into their kitchen. Her mom had left out food for her and Adrien, it just had to be warmed up and assembled. "I don't know how much you've heard about the new girl in our class..."

Aurore frowned. "Lila? The one with the questionable stories?"

Adrien laughed. "Okay, so we aren't the only ones with working brains in the school, that's good to know. Yeah, her."

It didn't take long to get Aurore caught up, and predictably, she was furious at the idea of Lila trying to hijack their fundraiser funds.

"This is going to go one of two ways, I know it," she told them, pulling out her laptop and getting it set up next to her on the table. "Either this girl is going to make up a charity- name, mission, and all- or she's going to find a charity that already exists, and then she'll claim credit for it. The first one is easy enough to disprove, because no one will be able to find anything about the charity. We could just put a reminder in the email about checking charities out before donating to them, and then enter that link we've been using. But the second one...well, she could use their rating and reputation to collect money, and then- if I'm reading her character right- keep it all for herself."

They all thought about that.

"Well, if Alya posts anything on the Ladyblog, in theory any donations would have to be electronically, though a website," Marinette pointed out after a minute. "As for in-person donations, I would say that people should use checks instead of cash, but I don't know how many people use checks anymore, and besides, that's not going to stop her from cashing them if she wants."

Adrien made a choked, horrified noise in the back of his throat. "It- it won't? How do you even know that?"

"But it might deter her, since that's a traceable crime," Aurore pointed out, her eyes gleaming. She snapped her fingers. "And as for the Ladyblog- if she's capable of creating a website that looks decent, she might give Alya a link for that. So that's still a problem-"

"-unless we notice that and bring it to the attention of the police!" Adrien exclaimed, sitting up straight. He winced. "I'd hate to get Alya in trouble, but otherwise people will be thinking that they're doing something good and helping people in need when actually, they're just giving Lila spending money. And if she told them that Lila gave her the link, then she'd get off pretty fast."

Marinette nodded. Alya would probably be a thundercloud that they had gone to the police first instead of her, but she couldn't say that they hadn't warned her. She just never listened when it came to Lila.

"So we can put in a line reminding people to check charities before they donate and to make sure that any links they follow for charities go to the actual website," Aurore finished. Her fingers tapped away at her keyboard. "My older brother is a computer whiz, so I can text him and ask about things people should look for to make sure that a site is the real deal. Then I can get that typed up and sent during study hall, so it'll go out today."

Marinette could only grin. Maybe Aurore could be hotheaded at times, but there was no denying that she could really pull through. "That would be great."

Unsurprisingly, Lila sold a sob story to Alya about her charity's website being down at the moment, so she couldn't provide a link right away.

"We're working on it, of course, because this is the best time of the year to get donations and we're going to fall so far behind with every day we miss, but the entire system is down and our tech guy is having trouble," Lila told Alya, looking positively wilted. "It's so upsetting! The longer it's down, the fewer people find out about our work, and the less budget we have to work with next year."

"That's terrible!" Alya exclaimed, frowning, and Marinette exchanged an exasperated look with Adrien. "I just wish there was a way to help..."

"Maybe you could post about our school charity instead, for the time being," Marinette suggested dryly. "Since Lila's charity is on the table for next year anyway."

"But we need budget for this year!" Lila repeated, and- yep, she was gritting her teeth. The glare that she flashed Marinette left no question that she had been trying to set up some sort of fake website and the email the night before had thrown her off. Either she was trying to make a more convincing website or- more likely- she was just hoping to wait until the reminder to be careful had faded from people's minds. Or she had had to abandon the online idea entirely in favor of throwing a pity party for herself in hopes of getting cash donations with the help of their classmates, if that hadn't already been the plan all along. "If we wait for a maybe next year, we could go into debt and collapse!"

Alya was looking worried now. "Marinette, are you sure that the student council can't switch charit-"

"It's all set up. We can't change anything, Alya, we established that yesterday." Marinette spared a glance at Lila, who was clearly working to keep a poker face. "Maybe Max can help you with your website issues, he's quite good at stuff like that. We wouldn't want you missing out on donations, after all."

"Oh, I couldn't," Lila simpered, glancing towards Max as well. "We, uh- well, my tech guy is back in Italy, so they wouldn't be able to work together, and he's quite protective of the system. Plus we were in the middle of upgrades when everything crashed, so that makes everything more complicated."

"We'll figure something out, Lila," Alya promised, patting the other girl's arm. Marinette took that as her cue to leave, but she wasn't going to go far. She needed to be able to overhear, after all. "We don't want those kids in Africa to suffer, after all! We can brainstorm before class."

Adrien caught Marinette's eye as she came back to her seat. "It sounds like she's just going to go another way, but isn't about to give up."

"No, she's got the idea of getting money into her head, and she's not about to give it up." Marinette kept her voice low, so that no one would overhear. "Which means that we need to come at the problem at a different angle. Any suggestions?"

Adrien looked unexpectedly delighted at being consulted, but then he paused, clearly not coming up with any ideas. "Uh."

"My first instinct would be to try to warn Alya and Rose and whoever else is going to get sucked in, but we all know how well that would go over," Marinette said, just to fill in the space. "They would clamp down and refuse to listen."

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. But I like what you did yesterday, where you made it sound like you would have gone along if you could and suggested trying next year. Then everyone thought that you weren't fighting against her-"

"-and was actually willing to listen!" Marinette finished, smiling. It was an approach that Tikki had suggested, and she was glad that it had worked. Well, sort of. It had worked in the moment, but just- apparently- pushed the problem off for later. "Yeah, that was nice."

"Maybe we could do something similar now," Adrien suggested. "And offer to be helpful by providing that link still. Like, it doesn't need the website, right? Just the charity name."

Marinette grinned. "Right. And there's no way that she can get around not telling anyone her charity's name. And if she does...well, either it's made up, or she's going to pick a real charity and we can find the real website."

"And congratulate Lila on her site getting back up so quickly," Adrien added with a small laugh. "It's a pain to deal with her, but I'm actually curious about what she's planning on doing going forward. Like, how long can she play this game? She's going to run out of escapes soon enough."

"Yeah, I don't know..." Marinette trailed off as Alya slid into her seat, and she and Adrien exchanged one last look before he turned back to the front, greeting Nino as his best friend entered the classroom.

"Man, I can't believe what bad luck Lila has, to have her charity's website crash at a time like this," Alya said glumly, sliding into her seat. "Lila is stressed about it, of course, but she has so many other obligations for her other charity work that she can't go out and do a collection, not that it would be easy with her throat still recovering from her laryngitis surgery. She can't be out in the cold for more than ten minutes without it causing a ton of pain, which can't be fun at all."

...Naturally.

"I want to help, but if we don't have a working link to put on the Ladyblog, I just don't know..." Alya trailed off. "I mean, we could do a door-to-door, I guess, but that only ever gets fairly minimal donations. And there's so many people who set up near the Eiffel Tower, we wouldn't have a chance. But- oh!" Alya perked up as another thought hit her. "We could put posters up at school, so more people know about it and maybe help us!"

Yeah, how about no.

"That's actually against school rules," Marinette said idly, flipping through her notebook as she waited for Ms. Bustier to call for a start to class. "All posters posted in the building have to be approved by Student Council normally, so that the walls don't get too cluttered, but there's an amendment to that that say that if the school is doing a charity fundraiser, posters promoting other charities can't go up during that time. I think it's to keep the effort from getting too splintered and distracted."

Alya slumped. "Oh."

That was not actually a lie, though clearly Adrien thought it was, if the slight frown on his face was anything to go by. Marinette had picked through the guidelines to make sure that she knew every rule that she could use to turn Lila's attempts aside, and apparently the Student Council had come up with and voted to implement that particular rule at some point in the past.

"Maybe you could do a surprise collection," Marinette suggested. "As a Christmas gift to Lila." She was improvising, admittedly, but this would be a good way to keep Alya and Rose and whoever else was getting sucked in from asking Lila too much and giving her chances to control the narrative. "If you ask her what the name of her charity is, and then you can use the website that we were using on Student Council to look at charities- it has all sorts of stats that you could use, information about charities and their work. That way, you don't need to bother Lila for all that when she's so busy."

"Oh, good idea!" Alya exclaimed. She grabbed Marinette's arm. "You know, none of the rest of us has ever organized any sort of charity fundraiser before- if we put you in charge of that-"

"I'm already busy, Alya," Marinette pointed out. She wasn't about to go make a fool of herself collecting money for a charity that didn't exist, not when she had a million other things to do. "The fundraiser for the school is already going to take up all of my time. I can send you the link that we used, but that's it."

"Oh, but-"

"She already said no, Alya," Adrien cut in, so Marinette didn't have to. "Marinette was telling me about that entire process yesterday, and it sounds like a lot of work and planning to pull something off at the level the school is planning. Asking her to plan another thing on top of that for you, instead of doing it yourself- that's not fair to her."

"I just thought that it might be a good way to repair the bad blood between the two of them!" Alya objected, frowning. "Since Marinette wasn't very welcoming when Lila first arrived."

Marinette narrowly withheld a snort. Gee, I wonder why?

"But if you're busy, I guess you can wait to try to mend that bridge later," Alya added. She sighed. "We probably won't be able to raise as much money, though, since we don't have your experience."

"Mmm," Marinette managed noncommittally, ignoring the clear attempt at a guilt-trip in favor of checking her email on her phone. Alya really had been spending too much time with Lila if she was starting to act just the same. Hopefully she would cut that out after Lila's lies had been exposed and everyone realized what a manipulator she was.

Marinette's phone lit up with a text, and she didn't hesitate to open it at once.

Adrien: Remember, if you commit homicide, you won't be around to gloat when people discover the lies.

Marinette snorted in amusement.

Marinette: I'm going to gloat for a solid MONTH after she gets found out. I wasn't very welcoming? Try SHE was a bully from the start and I wasn't about to tolerate that.

In front of her, Adrien's head gave a tiny nod as he put his phone away, just in time to start class. Marinette locked her phone and put it away, resigning herself to what was probably going to be a week of poorly-concealed efforts to get her into the extra fundraising before Alya either dropped it or realized that something was up with Lila's "charity".

At least now she had Adrien on her side.

The school fundraiser was going well as they marched steadily closer towards the holidays, their online portal showing just how much money had already been raised by people going through the link that they had both sent out and posted on the school site. There was going to be a bake sale before the break too, with each family asked to donate two dozen cookies for them to sell at their booths near City Hall and (courtesy of Chloe) in the Grand Paris.

Marinette was really happy. People were being generous, and it really was a very deserving charity to receive the funds. On top of that, Adrien had asked for her help in baking his family's two dozen cookies, so they would get to hang out together.

(She was going to ignore the fact that Alya had tried to convince her to make another extra two dozen cookies because Lila "wasn't going to have time" because "all of her charity work"; that attempt had fallen flat when Marinette had just point-blank asked Alya why, exactly, Alya didn't just do that herself. At least with Adrien, he was just a novice baker and was going to be actively participating in the baking, but he just wanted help to be sure that his attempt turned out edible and it was a good excuse to hang out with one of his friends.)

And possibly best of all...well, Aurore's tech-savvy older brother had pulled through for them again.

"I was looking at the email that we had on file for Lila, and something about it just didn't seem right," Aurore told them as they sat together in a private study room in back of the library over lunch. "The domain on it, to be exact, because it was '.net' instead of, oh, I don't know, something actually related to the government. And my brother agreed, so we did a little searching."

Marinette was pretty sure that her jaw was on the ground. Next to her, Adrien wasn't doing much better. "You mean she was keeping her mom from finding out about everything school-related? I wondered how she got away with skipping so much school! And she was probably emailing as her mom, too, to confirm whatever stories she was telling."

Aurore grinned. "Exactly. So we did some digging, and found Mrs. Rossi's actual email. It's almost the same, just with a different domain. So I'm trying to think of what to send that wouldn't sound weird, because obviously we need confirmation that this is the right address so we can get Mr. Damocles to change it for the school system, but I don't want to come off as accusing or anything and have her tip Lila off accidentally."

Marinette exchanged a look with Adrien as she thought about it. "Well, we could just send the fundraiser email again with a comment about how we think that maybe her email was mis-entered before and is this one the correct one that we should be using. That's pretty straightforward and it asks for a response, and she might not even think to say anything about it to Lila."

"Ooh, I like that." Aurore typed that in at once, giving it a quick once-over to make sure that there weren't any errors and that the email had been entered correctly before sending it. "So, what else is going on in Ms. Bustier's homeroom? Anything new with the not-a-charity?"

"Alya's been confused about why our watchdog site doesn't list anything about Lila's 'charity'- she decided to go for the make-one-up route, apparently- and she's still been trying to find stuff on it just on Google, but apparently no connection has been made," Marinette told them, trying not to roll her eyes. "I know she and Rose were talking about trying to just go ahead with a collection of sorts anyway, so I forwarded an email talking about the importance of keeping track of how much money they raised, down to the last cent, in a ledger sort of thing." She couldn't hold back the grin. "Which Rose is really into. So even though they're trying to collect money for Lila still, at the end she won't be able to keep any of it because there'll be record of how much money they collected."

"Which, if we get in contact with Mrs. Rossi, we can make sure that that gets paid back in full!" Adrien exclaimed, scooping Marinette up in a hug for a long few seconds. Marinette prayed that she wouldn't turn red and make things weird. "Genius!"

"As long as Rose doesn't give that to Lila," Aurore pointed out. She raised an eyebrow at Marinette's head-shake. "No? You've already taken care of that?"

"She'll give Lila an electronic copy, but not the hard copy. I suggested that she might want to hold onto that to show what she did for future charity work. Which I still think is a good idea, even if Lila's charity is a sham. It doesn't change the fact that she was doing all of the bookkeeping."

Aurore made a face. "I am so glad that Samuel is doing our bookkeeping for the non-online donations, because that stuff is not fun. It's really fiddly, and if anything gets off..."

Marinette nodded. Things had gotten off fairly early on, and she had head Samuel- another member of Student Council- complaining about having to go through everything to figure out where his mistake was. Since then, he did regular, frequent checks so that he wouldn't have to go through absolutely everything again, just the most frequent donations. Admittedly, Rose was working with much smaller amounts of money- most people wanted more information on what they were donating to than just the name and "helping kids in Africa" if they were going to toss more than an euro or two into the collections basket- but it was still good practice.

Aurore's computer let out a ding, and she pulled up the student council email at once. "We already got a response! Mrs. Rossi says that yes, this one is correct, please keep using it and thank you for catching the error and were there any other recent emails that she might have missed. I'm going to forward this to Mr. Damocles with a message to note the change in email address, just a second- and done."

"Nice job," Marinette told her, leaning across the table to bump fists with Aurore. After a second's thought, she fist-bumped Adrien, too, so that he wouldn't feel left out. "That's one more thing off of our plates."

Their fundraiser finished right before holiday break with a silent auction, with all of the items up for purchase having been donated by parents, teachers, extended family members, community business owners, and- in the case of an array of signed CD cases and posters- Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, and several of their musician buddies, after Marinette had approached Jagged Stone with the request.

And of course, everyone was invited. Posters had been put up outside of the school and emails had been sent out, reminding everyone about the time and date and their charity, plus attaching a list of the items up for auction to get people's interest.

"My mom so wanted to make it, but work came up," Lila told several of their classmates when she arrived at the auction, looking sad. "And there were several things that she was really interested in, like the-"

"Ooh, barf, I can see what you mean," Aurore said, materializing at Marinette's side and wrinkling her nose at Lila. "That's a pretty obvious ploy to get people to buy things for her, isn't it? Or at least to pitch in some of their own money to help her, so that she won't have to pay them back."

Marinette nodded. It really was disgusting, but at least now Lila was moving off with the group towards one of the items so that they didn't have to hear her. She was steering clear of the signed Jagged Stone things, oddly enough, but maybe that would be a dead giveaway that she didn't actually know him. After all, Jagged Stone would sign anything put in front of him, so her going out of her way to buy a signed item when she was supposedly on great terms with him would be pretty strange.

"Do you think her mom actually can't make it, or Lila just assumed that she wouldn't know about the auction and didn't tell her?" Adrien asked. His arm was tucked through Marinette's, though she was pretty sure that it was just so that he wouldn't lose her in the crowd. "Is the fake email still on the list?"

Aurore nodded. "Yeah, up until this morning. I cleared it off so that there wouldn't be any confusion going forward."

"And I would place bets on Lila assuming that her mom doesn't know anything," Marinette added. "She wouldn't want to risk anyone asking her mom about her charity." She grinned and pointed as she noticed someone new stepping into the school. "And look, over there."

The other two looked. There, standing in the entryway and looking around, was Mrs. Rossi. She really didn't look much like Lila, but it was easy enough to recognize her from her official embassy photo.

(Her official embassy photo, where she wasn't listed as the actual ambassador, but just one of the embassy staff, but that- well, that was an interesting little tidbit that Marinette was going to sit on for a little bit longer.)

"Oh, she's spotted Lila," Aurore said gleefully, craning her neck to follow Mrs. Rossi as she wove through the crowds. "And- whoops, Lila sees her!"

Marinette hastily smothered a laugh. If Lila's expression was anything to go by, she definitely hadn't realized that her mom was getting emails from the school and was going to be coming. She had never seen the other girl look so pale before.

"I'd ask if I should go get some of that amazing-smelling popcorn that they're selling so that we can watch, but honestly, I kind of just want to let things take their course and find out later," Adrien said, glancing down at Marinette. "There's some pretty cool items up for auction that I want to check out."

Marinette considered that. On one hand, she wanted to watch Lila's downfall. On the other... well, she had been keeping an eye on the whole Lila fiasco for a while now, and she was kind of tired of it. It would probably be a bit awkward to watch, too, and there was no guarantee that it would happen right away, and they were too far away to hear anything besides.

...yeah, her decision was pretty well made.

"That sounds like fun," Marinette told him, before glancing over at Aurore. "What about you?"

"I might go point Mr. Damocles in her direction," Aurore commented, glancing around the crowd. "Or maybe that can wait until later, since I don't want to throw everything at Mrs. Rossi at once and disrupt the auction with an akumatization." She sent them a slightly sheepish grin. "But you know I like my gossip, so..."

Marinette had to laugh. That was so very Aurore. "All right. We'll bump into you later, then."

Aurore grinned in return, and then was off. Marinette watched her go for a moment, then let Adrien lead the way off into the crowds surrounding the tables. It was amazing to be able to sit back and relax after the past weeks of planning and making sure that everything, from the online link to the cookie sale to this, was going to go off without a hitch. They were well on track raise more money this year than they had any other year, and that was amazing.

And to think that she had had a hand in setting all of this up...well, Marinette just couldn't be prouder.

It was fun investigating all of the donations with Adrien, even though- as part of Student Council and also part of the team that had photographed and logged all of the donated items- she had seen them all before. Marinette couldn't help but peek at the bids despite herself, grinning when she saw some of the higher ones.

"This is amazing," Adrien commented once they had made the rounds and had gone to browse through the assorted refreshments available for purchase. "There were a lot of nice things donated. And people are definitely bidding plenty of money."

"Yeah, some people will spend more to win the prize than it's worth," Marinette told him. "Like with the voucher for stuff from our bakery- the top bid right now is for more than the value of the voucher. It's interesting, but I think that people see it as buying the item, and then making a donation on top. Or something, I don't know."

"That's really cool," Adrien commented, then pointed. "Oh, look, Nathalie and the Gorilla are here! They said that they might show up and do some shopping. I honestly thought that Nathalie was just saying that to be nice, because she's been sick and hasn't wanted to go out, but I guess she's been feeling better lately."

"Oh, that's good," Marinette said, before a memory made her frown. "Wait, I thought you commented on her being sick, like, three months ago. Is she still having problems?"

Adrien shrugged, but he was frowning, too. "I don't know. She had been having these weak, dizzy spells like Mom used to before she disappeared for a bit before I commented on it at school, I think. Maybe whatever treatment she was getting finally kicked in, I don't know."

Marinette frowned even deeper. Nathalie had been showing the same symptoms as Adrien's mom before she vanished? That was a really weird coincidence. And for both of them- presumably both, at least- to have those same symptoms for an extended period of time?

If Mrs. Agreste and Nathalie had been related, Marinette might have guessed that it was a genetic thing. But since they weren't- again, that was an assumption- then the chances of them both separately having the same condition...

"I cannot believe that I fell for such a manipulative, thieving, disgusting liar!"

Alya materialized at Marinette's side, clearly steaming. Rose, Mylène, and Juleka weren't far behind her. Rose looked like she was close to tears, and the other two just looked lost.

"Pardon?" Adrien asked politely, but Marinette could see the amusement glimmering in his eyes.

"Lila's been leading us all around by the nose, making up stories about her life and about her nonexistent charity- and I've missed a dozen akuma attacks because I was wandering around in the cold, trying to raise money for her! I offered to make a posting on the Ladyblog so that I could put up a link to her site to raise more money! She was probably just planning on pocketing it all!" Alya scowled deeper. "I can't believe we fell for it! And aren't you even surprised?" she demanded when neither Adrien nor Marinette reacted. "At all?"

"Are we meant to be?" Adrien asked dryly. "After Marinette's spent so long calling Lila a liar?"

Alya faltered for a moment, then scowled deeper. "You- you knew, but you didn't warn us?"

"Yes, because pointing out the obvious lies worked so well the first several dozen times I did it," Marinette said, adopting the same dry tone that Adrien had used. "And I gave you the watchdog charity link to use. I rather thought that its complete lack of anything about Lila's charity might tip you off."

Alya faltered. "Oh."

"But we still gave Lila money that was meant for charity," Rose said tearfully. Juleka pulled her to her side, trying to comfort her. "And it was a decent amount, too."

"You have your log, right?" Marinette reminded her. "If you tell Lila's mom how much Lila got for her 'charity', then I bet that she can get that money back to you and you can donate it to another charity."

Rose perked up at once, tears drying up magically. "Oh, that's right! We can still put that money to good use! I'm glad you suggested that we keep track of everything, Marinette."

"Yeah," Juleka agreed. "Lila sucks, but at least we can get the money back."

"We should go talk to Lila's mom before she leaves," Rose decided. She dug in her bag, pulling out the ledger notebook that she had been using for their charity collections. "Aha! Yes, I have the amount we gave Lila yesterday written here. C'mon, let's go make sure that Mrs. Rossi knows!"

"Well, all's well that ends well," Adrien said cheerfully as the other girls headed off. "I bet this isn't how Mrs. Rossi saw her evening going, and Lila definitely wasn't expecting any of this, but at least now the adults can figure everything out and Lila can actually see some consequences. And hopefully next semester, there'll be less drama now that she'll be restrained- or gone, if Mrs. Rossi or Mr. Damocles decides that Lila staying here wouldn't be a good idea."

"Hopefully," Marinette agreed. She grinned over at Adrien. "But that's enough worrying about Lila and her nonsense for tonight. I think we should just sit back and enjoy the evening, don't you?"

Adrien beamed back. "I couldn't agree more."

#Miraculous Ladybug #my writing #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste

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valkyriesryde · 4 years ago

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Release the Hounds {9/?}

Chapter 9: Wait for Summertime

Pairing: Persephone!Steve Rogers x Hades!Reader

Chapter Summary: The god of Spring has disappeared and no one has seen Hades for a week since. That doesn’t mean she is gone or has admitted defeat.

Word count: 2,800ish

A/N: *warning nods of parental abuse* I wrote this while listening to Hadestown so I fell ya’ll should know this chapter is heavily influenced by that soundtrack hahah, anyway, hope you enjoy!

When Hades separated the Underworld from Olympus she separated herself from the obligations of working for the Olympians and following their rules and regulations. She had free rein over what she and those residing in the Underworld could do, she had freedom to rule the way she wanted to.

When the prospect of her joining the council of the Olympians came up one of the things that was vitally important to Hades was that the Underworld remained free of Olympian control; yes they would work together on issues that affected both populations, but no, the Olympians would not hold any authority in the Underworld just as she held none in Olympus.

Technically speaking, to make it easier to understand, the Underworld and Olympus were to separate countries that, in the event that Hades did join the council, had a council that overlooked both countries and how they worked together and shared resources and experience. Sort of like the European Union.

That’s at least what Hades hoped for and the terms she discussed with Thor, in an incredibly detailed report that he had to read twice to understand completely.

But things were different now, things didn’t go as planned.

Immediately following the speeches of both Demeter and Hades eleven Olympians of the council were to meet and the decision of whether or not Hades would join would be decided. Neither parties were to be present and neither were able to vote, “to make things fair” Thor said.

However, as the gods [ThorZeus, JaneHera, LokiPoseidon, NatashaAthena, Peter QAres, TonyHephaestus, BuckyApollo, RebeccaArtemis, PepperAphrodite, T’ChallaDionysus and PeterHermes] began to make their way to meet, word reached them that the god of spring had disappeared. He had gone missing straight after the presentation along with Hades and her judges.

With a cry for justice Demeter demanded the gates of the Underworld be taken down until her son was found. Thor refused. He said there was no evidence that Steve was even missing through force and not his own accord. But the other gods weren’t overly convinced that Steve wasn’t already under some sort of influence from Hades. And with the cries of Demeter the council decided that until Steve was returned safe and his side of the story was shared that the vote will be suspended.

As Loki told Hades this she rolled her eyes and cursed under her breath. She rubbed her hands over her face and turned off her computer, standing from her desk she walked around to stand in front of Loki and shrugged her shoulders.

“There’s nothing I can do. I don’t know where he is Loki, I swear it,” she told him and he told her he believed her. They hugged, Loki bid farewell and returned to Olympus and she closed the door behind him and locked it.

That was a week ago and no one has seen Hades since. They’ve heard from her, her own council, the judges and HarleyThanatos, MJ and Peter. But none had seen her.

When Peter came by to deliver her weekly fruits the door was unlocked but there was no sign of her. He looked in every room, he listened for any footsteps, but he couldn’t find her. She watched him, walked behind him as he called for her and as he wrote her a note saying he’d popped in and was worried about her she almost revealed herself.

However, as Peter went to walk out the door he turned back to the empty entryway and for a second thought maybe he knew she was here.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can…Bucky says he’s safe.”

It didn’t take long for Hades to find him. Bucky wasn’t a subtle person when he didn’t need to be and the more obvious he was about his movements the less obvious it was that he was hiding something.

She wore her helmet, glowing gold and blue but you wouldn’t know it as it sat on her head and made her and everything she wore invisible. Her favourite accessory. Hades followed Bucky from his office well after the sun had set. She followed him into her home and to a doorway that didn’t fit into the rest of the layout of the house. The she was in New York.

Her helmet now a cap, her attire now a casual jeans and t-shirt as she continued to follow Bucky out of the alleyway and down the busy streets. He weaved through the crowd with a sense of familiarity, she figured this wasn’t the first time he’d done this.

Bucky’s footsteps slowed as he neared the apartment building, he stepped inside and into the elevator and she followed him in, standing further enough away that he didn’t accidentally walk into her or touch her as he pushed the button for the ninth floor.

She was his shadow as he walked down the hallway, he’d missed her every time he had looked over his shoulder, he was none the wiser when he unlocked the door and when he called “Honey I’m home” he had no idea he had let her into the apartment after him.

“Did you bring what I asked?” Steve asked from his seat at the table, a new sketchbook Bucky had brought him open in front of him.

“Food to last you a lifetime and I even got you a special gift from me to you,” Bucky beamed and started to unpack the backpack he had brought with him.

Hades stood by the wall and watched the two. This is where Steve was, he wasn’t taken, he wasn’t kidnapped, this wasn’t against his will. He was hiding, he was here because he chose to be. Who did he fear so much that he had to hide? Why hadn’t he told anyone, why hadn’t he told Thor?!

“I don’t trust your gifts, yesterday you brought a gold fish.”

“That’s what you asked for!”

“I asked for a some paints because I wanted to paint a koi fish!”

“Pfft, what’s the difference.” Bucky bit back and leaned against the counter and smirked at Steve who stood from his seat and began walking towards him until he held his hand up for him to stop.

“Wait there, do you want your present or what?”

“Not particularly,” Steve rolled his eyes.

“Oh you’ll want this one.”

“What is it Bucky?” He narrowed his eyes and Bucky ran his tongue over his teeth and turned his head to where Hades stood, her heart started beating faster and she started to back away towards the hallway.

“You’re not as stealthy as you think.”

Steve looked at the empty space Bucky was looking at confused, he didn’t know what he was talking about or who to. Until Hades appeared in front of him and in her hand a cap that he knew was her cap of invisibility.

“How did you know?” She asked Bucky, diverting her eyes away from Steve.

Bucky shrugged his shoulders and patted Steve’s shoulder who still stood there dumbstruck staring at Hades.

“Had a hunch,” he whispered as he walked past her, “you two have a good rest of your night,” he called and soon enough it was just Steve and Hades left in the open living area.

“I’m sorry”

“Can I get you-why are you sorry?” he walked around the counter and stopped to turn towards her. She looked at the ground and fidgeted with the cap.

“I shouldn’t have intruded on you, I’m sorry for invading your privacy,” she said, “I’ll leave you be, you obviously don’t want to be found yet, Bucky shouldn’t have led me here but I also shouldn’t have followed him.” She turned to leave just as Bucky had a minute before but Steve quickly caught her wrist.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for, I can’t even begin to imagine what impact my disappearance has had. I’m sorry if its caused any repercussions for you. Bucky told me they’ve suspended the vote.” He looked guilty, like a puppy caught doing something he shouldn’t and Hades wanted so badly to reassure him and tell him it wasn’t his fault. “Would you like anything to drink?”

“I can go-“

“I want you to stay,” Steve had walked back over to the kettle and turned it on, pulling down two mugs, “tea or coffee?”

“Tea please,” she stepped further into the room but still stood awkwardly in the middle of it like she didn’t quite know what to do.

“Truth be told, it’s good to see someone that isn’t Bucky. I love him, and I’m grateful for what he’s done for me but interactions with others is something I oddly miss.” Steve chuckled and placed her mug on the coffee table. He gestured for her to sit with him and she did.

It’s my fault you’re stuck here. She thought. This is my fight and you were dragged into it. I’m sorry. She wanted to tell him. I’m sorry you shouldn’t have to go through this, you shouldn’t have to hide. This is my fault, this is my fight, you’re a victim. She couldn’t get it out.

“Tell me, how’s the Underworld?” Steve acted as though this was normal, as though they sat and talked before.

“Truth be told,” she laughed nervously, “I’m not sure. I haven’t been very present for the past week or so.” She brought the mug to her lips. Steve shifted in his seat.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I didn’t know you drew,” she quickly changed the subject, Steve looked up at her curiously, he saw her looking at the discarded papers over the table, the scenes from outside that he had drawn early in the mornings and late into the nights.

“I dabble, they’re no good though.” He reached to tidy the pile but she stopped him and picked up the discarded papers.

“I’d like to see what you consider good then,” she smiled at him, “this are beautiful.”

They talked for hours about his drawings, about the things he had seen from his window, about what he thought of New York and how it differed from Olympus, “some bits are similar, it’s all so busy all the time,” he laughed.

They ignored the elephant in the room as long as they could and Hades tried to ignore how heavy the empty mug was in her hands when she placed it back on the coffee table.

“Steve,” she took a deep breath and blamed it on her nerves.

“I can’t go back Hades.” He stood from the couch and took their mugs to the sink. She followed him and Steve kept his back to her as he gripped the sink.

“You need to tell Thor, your mother needs to know you’re safe.” She reached out a hand to his shoulder but he spun around, anger and fear across his face.

“So she can find me?!”

“She doesn’t have to know you’re here.” Hades’ voice was calm as she took a step towards Steve, “but I know how terrified she must be, if Harley-if any of the ones I care about disappeared without a word for even a day I would be terrified for them.”

Steve’s face dropped, words he’d heard before ran through his head. “I would tear down mountains for you…if anything happened to you no one would be safe…” Words his mother had told him once when he yelled at her when he was younger. But Hades would be terrified if her son went missing, if anyone she cared about went missing.

“Why haven’t you been present in the Underworld lately?” He asked, surely she didn’t think of him like he hoped.

“Someone I cared about went missing…” she pushed her fingers through her hair and averted her eyes, “and I was being blamed, I was being punished and I was terrified because I knew it was my fault they were in danger.” Her voice started to rise but she still refused to look at him. “I dragged them into this, I let my idiot brothers give them false hope and I didn’t stop them from putting themselves in immediate danger. You shouldn’t have to be here.”

“I have to be. I don’t want to be here but I have to be.” Steve reached out for her hands and held them to his chest, “I did this to myself.”

“You didn’t-“

“I did. This is no one’s fault but my own. You’re not the villain in this Hades. It’s not because of you I’m hiding here, it’s because of her. It’s because of my own mother I’m hiding for my life, I don’t want to be here but I have to hide from her,” his voice got quiet and his eyes dropped to the floor, “she’ll kill me, she’ll tear down mountains and no one is safe. If she’s focused on finding me that tyranny from hurting anyone else.”

Hades hand reached up and wiped the tears that began to fall down Steve’s face. She held his cheek and he flinched slightly before relaxing into her touch. Hades realised then the truth behind it all. She thought Demeter was just selfish, that she was just narcissistic but there was more. She’s hurt him before.

“Are you okay?” he asked, her breathing became heavy and he could practically feel her heartbeat in her wrist.

“I’m fine,” she lied through her teeth and tried to catch her breath. She blamed it on her anger, she blamed it on the pieces she’d put together. She was fine.

Hades stepped back from Steve, she needed to calm her beating heart. But as she walked towards the couch her knees gave out from underneath her and Steve was only just quick enough to catch her.

“You’re not, you’re weak like Bucky was when he was in the Underworld. You can’t be here for long can you?”

“Perhaps I’ve overstayed my welcome,” she smiled shyly and leaned against the back of the couch. Steve rushed into the hallway and appeared again holding a familiar black flower. “You can’t use that, it won’t work I’m here with you already.”

“We need to get you back to the Underworld though!” He thought for a second before he remembered Bucky’s escape route if anything went wrong quickly. “I know how to get you back to Bucky’s and from there he can take you home.”

The building was quietly when they stepped into the elevator. Hades was weakening quickly now, she leaned against Steve and he was practically holding her up when they reached the basement.

At the end of the basement, behind piles of stuff and things Steve revealed a door, a sun and moon engraved on the handle.

“This will take you to him, I’m sorry I can’t take you back to the Underworld.” Steve was rushed, he reached for the handle and was too focused on the woman in his arms he didn’t notice the symbol change to a three headed dog until the door was swung open and he saw a cave that looked out to the river Styx. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s me,” she said quickly, “it’s okay,” her breathing was uneven as she stayed on the side of the door with Steve. “Steve…”

“You’re home, it’s okay. Go.”

“No, wait…if she finds you…” she could barely get the words out, “use the dahlia…she has no eyes in the Underworld��I promise Steve…” she gripped his shirt and he tried to push her over the line. Her eyes drooped and her strength was no more. “I’ll protect you there.”

“And I’ll protect you now.” He said and pushed her over the threshold, the door slammed and disappeared behind her before Steve could close it himself. He stared at the door and hoped she was okay. The symbol changed back to its original form and he dropped to the floor with a sigh as he started to cry. He was terrified. This is my fault, I’m so sorry.

Hades fell to her hands and knees, she felt the dirt under her fingers and took a deep breath as she felt the air fill her lungs. She stood from the ground and tucked her cap into the back pocket of her jeans. Hades walked out of the cave with her head held high, she walked down the bank of the Styx with her head held high and Cerberus ran towards her as she neared the gates.

Pietro and Harley were standing there has they guided souls through the right doors and when they turned and saw the queen walking towards them they were confused.

She was straight faced and didn’t stick around to answer any questions. Hades, with Cerberus on her tail walked between the two and through the gates but not before placing a quick kiss on Harley’s forehead and brushing a reassuring hand over Pietro’s shoulder. She walked through the gates and turned around as they watched her go.

“I apologise for my absence boys. Family dinner, tonight.”

Chapter Ten: Face Value

Permanent Taglist [28/50]: @witch-of-letters @buckysmischief @marvelsangels@momobaby227@weirdlyokaywithit @disgustangg @bucky-blogs @sebbbystaaan @geeksareunique@stuckonjbbarnes @ellieisgae @mushyjellybeans @lovesmesomehiddles @this-kitten-is-smitten @itsunclebucky@kitkatd7 @lokisironthrone@supraveng @thinkoutsidethebex @binkysteebnpewter @starbxcks @agent-barnes40@theannoyingnightmarecollector @starkerhowlter @fckdeusername @murdermornings @thefridgeismybestie@wonderlandfandomkingdom @aikeia

Release the Hounds Taglist [28/50]: @little-dark-empress @matsumama @anasteas @anjali750 @brastrangled @moonchild-stark @kaithezaftig @fafulous @sucker-for-my-fandoms @truly-insatiable @nerdamongnerds @henderwhore4life @the-girl-of-many-fandoms1414 @brooklyn-1918 @elsasshole @powerful-vixen @dramaqueenarg @princess-evans-addict @lexy9716 @megzdoodle @majorcurious007 @king-seb @whenescapingdinosaurs @jubileestreetv @learning-howto-be-myselfx3 @wormonastringonastick @brilliantkey @tofeartheunknown

#release the hounds #steve rogers x reader #persephone!steve rogers x hades!reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers au #marvel au

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paaradoxum · 5 years ago

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BakuTodo Rec List of Fics Vol. II

It’s been a while since the last time I did the other list and many new, wonderful fics appeared (the dynamics will be the same: AO3 fics that includes top!Bakugou and bottom!Todoroki for those that are NSFW), so if you wanna check out here is Part I.

This time there are 32 fics in this list, I have more and probably I will make Part III soon.

Spoiler: EVERY SINGLE one of these stories are FUCKING AWESOME.

Rating: G

→ flowers die, feelings grow by kinneyb

Summary: When Bakugo first visits a local flower shop with Jirou, he buys some flowers in a lame attempt to piss off one of the employees - a guy named Shouto. But then he gets a little too invested in keeping his flowers alive.

→ Pretty by doop-doop.

Summary: Like so many things that had to do with Shouto, the question took Bakugou entirely by surprise. “Do you think I’m pretty?”

→ For a Single Moment by itsclowreedsfault.

Summary: Katsuki shakes his head with a sigh and an unbidden smile. Shouto's always been like an overexcited kid when it came to cats; Katsuki should've known he didn't stand a chance against them in Shouto's first visit to a cat cafe.

Rating: T

→ Ruin My Life by justhavesex.

Summary: He's not a vengeful person, really, he's not.

But him and Bakugou have started this little on-going war of theirs back in middle school when they were 10 years old and Todoroki had accidentally—if you got Todoroki drunk enough and fed his ego well enough he would, in fact, admit that it was very much on purpose—accidentally fed Bakugou's limited edition All Might magazine to his cat.

→ Aesthetic Distance by llyn.

Summary: This was around the time Shouto was appearing in all the blogs and rags and instagrams wearing a hideous faux fur coat of bright, hot neon like some awful crawling creature from an acid trip had been hunted and skinned, its pelt draped over Shouto's shoulders.

→ Dance To This by justhavesex.

Summary: Bakugou has never cared much about being an alpha, not really, not until he met the most frustrating omega in all existence: Todoroki Shouto.

→ Welcome to the Mile-High Club by minhakos.

Summary: In which Todoroki realizes that maybe airplanes aren't the only thing that should make him nervous.

→ Boyfriend Tactics by Esselle.

Summary: 'Shouto's eyes go impossibly wide. He seems to lose all powers of communication for a moment and just stands there, frozen, staring at Katsuki and the kitten. Finally, eventually, he utters the tiniest noise Katsuki has ever heard him make.

"Ah…" '

Katsuki comes to the aid of a small and fluffy civilian while on patrol.

→ Line by Line by Lillabelle.

Summary: With half his sketchbook filled with drawings of the guy, Katsuki wondered if he’s already crossed the line of being insanely creepy. They’ve never spoken, and he honestly only knew the person’s name was Todoroki Shouto because of role call in class. Shouto was just… so unique to look at with his half and half appearance. It was hard for Katsuki’s eyes not to get drawn to him. Not to mention they shared several classes, so if Katsuki ever got bored and felt like drawing something, there he was.

→ a todobaku one-shot collection by kagehinataboke.

Summary: all of my multiple, multiple, multiple todobaku one-shots. i stan two (2) dipshit boys that are obviously in love and hate with each other.

→ amaryllis by ?

Summary: The amaryllis has come to symbolize pride, determination and radiant beauty. Somehow this all suited Katsuki a lot more than Shouto expected.

→ tell ourselves a good lie by ElmoIsSatan. (In-Progress 12/?)

Summary: For a straight guy with anger issues, getting a “boyfriend” might just be his only escape.

Or-

Bakugo makes an impulsive decision and suddenly gains a boyfriend just to prove his parents wrong... The only problem is it’s all fake.

→ how to register for a library card (and get a boyfriend in the process) by Kaleid369.

Summary: “Friends have each other’s numbers, yeah?” Bakugou shrugs. “I don’t hate you, I guess.”

“Lucky me.”

“Lucky you,” Bakugou snorts. “I gotta go. Text me so I have your number.”

“I will.”

He's already started walking away when Shouto blurts out, “See you tomorrow?”

Bakugou shoots him a smirk over his shoulder, as if to say, Duh.

Shouto stands and stares at his retreating back, and the thought of kissing him pounds along with the beat of his heart.

→ on brand by dinosuns.

Summary: Midoriya is honestly unsure what’s worse: the tragic fact that Todoroki Shouto can make anything look objectively incredible or the fact Kacchan has six versions of the exact same photograph saved onto his camera roll.

Nobody saves a photo that many times by accident.

Kacchan set the bar, Todoroki raised it. That is not a good thing.

→ The Journey Home by dinosuns.

Summary: “Your hair looks real fucking nice.”

“I thought it was about time I grew it out,” Todoroki says, something wistful caught in his voice. “You were always saying I should.”

That’s true. And Bakugou is satisfied to know he was right about it looking good, but it’s not like he can share that with the fucking class anymore.

Bakugou tells himself that he's fine with how things turned out between them. He also tells himself he's not still in love.

Rating: M

→ Zephyr by yeetin. (In-Progress 4/?)

Summary: The breeze that sifted gently through a golden sea of tall, dry grass brought the tiny spike of a different scent. An inconspicuous little prickle down the spine, barely even worth paying attention to. Something no one else would even imagine being able to notice.

But Bakugou did.

→ Objection, Your Honor by Myona. (In-Progress (8/?)

Summary: Shoto Todoroki hated Katsuki Bakugou. And he had plenty of reasons to do so.

But he didn't know that how things can change for the two of them who saw nothing but trouble in each other's presence and life altogether. Katsuki was a trouble from the first time Shoto heard his name, to the first day he met the man.

Rating: E

→ On Hot Blondes and Drunken Hookups by Crossfire. (In-Progress 4/?) I love this so so much.

Summary: “I’m Bakugou. What’s your name, Pretty Boy?”

Shouto looks at the drink in his hand, then back to the beautiful blonde boy, then back to the drink and downs it in one go, ignoring the slight burn as it slides down his throat, and while it would have been more suave to appear unaffected, he gives his head a little shake. He takes a quick breath and forces the words out before he has a chance to realize what a massive mistake this all is.

“Hot blondes I want to bang can call me Shouto.”

→ Tick Tick Boom by Ajaxthegreat. (In-Progress 6/?) THIS is so good, I’m in love.

Summary: An exhausted socially awkward violin prodigy and a deaf punk rock drummer walk into a bar.

→ Better Take a Mental Picture by chibibeeee. This is HOT HOT.

Summary: The one where Deku watches Bakugou take Todoroki and their exhibitionist kink is unlocked.

→ Cover: Blown by darkanddank. (In-Progress 1/2)

Summary: Some undercover agents got hooked on drugs. Went full Stockholm Syndrome, flipped and joined up with the other side. As Bakugou’s palm went flat over Todoroki’s navel and dove beneath his closed zipper, Todoroki started to understand just how easy it might be to go rogue.

...aka cop Todoroki gets his world rocked so hard by bad guy Bakugou that he has an existential crisis

→ Just One Bite by Crossfire.

Summary: This particular fuckup begins when he saves a cat from a demon in a sketchy alley.

Well, maybe slightly before that when his esteemed hedge-witch mentor turned out to be an incubus who coincidentally turned him and his stupid nerdy neighbor into incubi.

Or maybe when he was born to a non-magic family, but early on developed minor magical inclinations that turned out to be not-so-minor and kind-of-hugely-destructive.

Wherever this fuckup was born, it’s culminated as follows: Bakugou has been an incubus for one hundred and twenty-two days, seven hours, and thirty-six minutes, has not had a single successful feed, and is essentially slowly starving to death. His mentor is suspiciously MIA and that stupid shitty nerd has managed to secure himself a two-person harem so it’s just Bakugou, starving. To death. Slowly.

→ Gangster by Brixxen.

Summary: Bakugou is a detective trying to solve a case that's been open for months. He ends up in a town and meets a man who could be his undoing...

Todoroki wasn't expecting the blonde at the bar to leave him wanting more...

→ How to spend a Friday night by veltana.

Summary: That's how Katsuki ended up on his bed on a Friday night leaning against the headboard with his laptop between his spread legs, his hard dick in his hand, watching Shouto open himself up for him on the screen.

→ Your Turn by doop-doop.

Summary: An extra scene/epilogue/continuation of smd.

Bakugou and Todoroki housesit for Bakugou's parents and take advantage of Bakugou's large bed.

→ Comfort by hellaradholly.

Summary: Katsuki agrees to be Shouto's roommate after UA despite having an unbearable crush on him.a gift for Katie for the BakuTodo Valentine's Day Exchange!

→ Empire of Dirt by castiiron, clairesail. (In-Progress 5/?)

Summary: There was something different about being with Bakugou Katsuki. Something that Shouto had been searching for tonight, to no avail. A consistent burn in his gut, the warmth of a fire that hadn’t been stoked in many years. Katsuki had been inexcusably rough with him. Harsh in a way that had pulled him back to reality. Shouto hadn’t realized he was missing out, being so used to what he knew; going through the motions, a means to an end. His life for the last few years had revolved around mediocre sex as a way to abate constant desire, always at the forefront of his mind.

Unhealthy coping mechanisms are easier to hide when you aren't screwing your ex-classmate.

→ Be Quiet by chibibeeee.

Summary: Katsuki and Shouto stay the night at Deku's. If only they had any self control, then they wouldn't have to keep so quiet.

→ Speak Softly My Sweet Villain by Brixxen.

Summary: Ask anyone in Tokyo and they’ll tell you the same thing. That the No.1 Pro Hero Todoroki Shoto is the perfect hero. He’s kind to everyone, always the first to arrive on a crime scene, always the calm and collected hero everyone wants him to be.

It was ironic how things happened to lead Shoto to his current situation. Him moaning and shuddering like a teenager, clinging to the strong perfect body of the most wanted villain in Japan, Ground Zero.

→ Peanuts and Wolves by cashmeresho.

Summary: “Yeah, man, okay!” The guy holds up his hands in surrender and Shouto shoots him another apologetic look. “I really didn't know you guys were married! I didn't see a ring!”

“Oh,” Katsuki says. He frowns hard for a minute and then grabs Shouto by the arm to whisk him away to his table with Izuku and Kirishima to guard him or sniff him or whatever weird territorial thing he wants to do.

→ College Roommates|BakuTodo by S_Kuro.

Summary: Todoroki is the son of the famous Todoroki Enji, also known as Endeavor, his father is a famous business man that wants Todoroki to take over his business, but Todoroki wants to become a photographer. He goes against his father's wishes and goes to an art university miles away from home. There he meets a certain explosive blonde, who turns out to be his roommate. what sorts of ridiculous shenanigans will they find themselves in and what relationships will they end up in.

a BakuTodo fanfic

This is my first fanfic with these two, so don't judge me and I hope you like it.

→ Locker Room by darkqueen_25.

Summary: There are worse things to walk in on in a locker room, Inasa thinks, than your two new friends fucking against the shower walls.

There's probably nothing better than being asked to join in, though.

#bnha #mha #bakutodo #todobaku #todoroki shouto #bakugou katsuki #shouto todoroki #katsuki bakugou #bakugou x todoroki #top!bakugou #bottom!todoroki #bakutodobaku #fanfic #fic recommendations #fic list

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krispydefendorpolice · 5 years ago

Text

The Demon’s Bride (6)

Yikes, anyone else having trouble posting new posts on tumblr. When I went to write this up literally the only option I got was a text post. Did formatting change on the apps? *shrugs* oh well. Time for the next chapter.

So it’s been a long while since my last update. Work drags me down and I didn’t have the energy to commit to writing the ideas running through my head. (Look forward to more of my Drabble ficlets because of that.).

A couple weeks (?) ago I asked for a vote and I got 2 out of 2 for Demon’s Bride so here’s the next chapter. Enjoy.

Beginning Previous Next Masterpost

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After Damian dropped Marinette off at the hotel she went inside and found a few of her classmates waiting in the lobby.

Nino was the first to see her. Standing up he called out, “Dude. Where have you been? We were so worried.”

Nino, Alix, Kim, and Max crowded around her as she entered.

“Sorry guys. My phone died on me,” holding up the dead phone for them to see, “so I couldn’t call for a ride or taxi. And I thought the hotel was reasonably close enough to walk. Forgot to account for Gotham’s Crime life though.” She added tapping her head with a closed fist to indicate the knucklehead move.

“You’re alright?” Nino asked.

Marinette hearing the unvoiced question nodded. “Fine. I had the criminal handled before the Bat and his brood showed up. Them actually getting there was what took so long.”

“Here Max,” Marinette said taking the glasses from her purse and handing them to the young man. “I also gave him some sugar cubes before and after our trip so don’t let him guilt you into believing I’m starving him either.”

“He tries it every time,” Max said replacing his frames with the pair Marinette handed him. A small ball of light briefly manifested before the small horse Kwamii hid in Max’s open bag.

“So what happened with Bustier after I left,” Marinette asked Nino as the group headed towards the elevator to take them to their rooms. Alix, Kim and Max fell back a step to follow behind the other two.

Nino pressed the call button before answering. “We told her you were still in the restroom before leaving the restaurant and again after boarding we told her you weren’t on. Markov even did a video recording of her reactions as well as a sweep of the bus to prove you weren’t on when we told her.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow. Ms. Bustier had ignored all that from her friends and left her behind anyways?

“She’s even worse here than at home.” Alix voiced what they were all thinking.

“Did you...?” Marinette trailed off.

“Report filled out, sent in and as of five minutes ago reviewed and filed by the Commandant. He’s waiting for a follow up from you.”

Alix and Marinette got off when the elevator stopped. The boys would go to the floor above where their rooms were. “Thanks guys. I’ll do my check in before going to sleep and let you guys know about any changes in the morning. Do we still have a free day?”

“We haven’t heard anything about it changing but Juleka sent a text a few minutes ago that she thinks something might come up for the fashion district based on what she’s heard so far?” Max said.

Marinette whined to herself, “She would choose something I like to try and spoil. Night guys.”

The doors closed on their calls while Marinette and Alix walked to their shared room and opened the door.

Marinette used the washroom to shower first since she had just been fighting an Akuma. While Alix was taking her turn, Marinette opened her now charged phone and started a video call.

“Bonjour Commandant,” she greeted when the call was answered and an older Chinese man appeared on the screen.

“Bonjour Marinette. The team and I expected your check in almost an hour ago and the others on the trip with you hadn’t heard anything.”

Marinette shrugged one shoulder. “My phones battery was already low and Voyage travel tends to be a coin toss on how it affects electronics. When I got back to the restaurant my phone was dead and I had to walk to the hotel.”

“And it took over an hour to get there?”

“Well no,” Marinette admitted. “I ran into one of Gotham’s criminals and had that handled easily,” she said before the Commandant interrupted, “but the Bat-clan showed up and... I ran into an old friend and we took a moment to catch up.”

“You ran into an old friend? After the Bats showed up? This friend wouldn’t happen to be a Bat would they?”

Marinette shrugged but smiled so that the man knew he got it right.

“And you won’t say anything because it could compromise identities.” The Commandant finished for her. “Alright, does it change any plans for this week?”

Marinette paused thoughtfully reviewing what would be happening that week. “I don’t think so. I know him but he doesn’t know about me being LadyBug.”

She smiled brightly, “actually I would love to keep that a secret for now and surprise him with it at the meeting. Oh! Can we get Viperion, Ryuko and Abeille to come to the meeting as well? We can get them to come across using Voyage so travel won’t be a problem.”

“Do they know this old friend?”

“Yes. Well, Viperion, Ryuko and Jiuweihu do.”

“Ah,” he said with understanding at the mention of the others who knew the friend and sighed. “How likely am I to have a revolt if I don’t somehow get this approved?”

Marinette smiled mischievously. “Oh very likely. Viperion will let you know from the start what he thinks about missing this chance but it will be Ryuko you will need to watch out for.”

The Commandant shook his head tiredly. He remembered the last time Ryuko had objected to something and the entire team had faced her wrath over it. “I will do what I can. As for the trip, I would like the team to stay together in pairs or as a small group on the class free days and with the class on the group days. There’s no need to push even your luck in Gotham with the way that the teacher is likely to neglect to take your safety into consideration.”

“Bien Sûr. We’ll be on our best behaviors,” she gave him a cheeky grin and saluted before ending the call.

“You know, if anyone had told me you were like this when we first met all those years ago I would have called them crazy,” Alix commented as she left the bathroom, towel drying her wet hair.

“That’s because you only knew Marinette. Mari is only for family and the team,” Marinette explained as she sat on her bed and pulled out her sketchbook.

Alix tossed the damp towel in the bathroom before pulling out a couple cookies and some carrots from the hotels mini fridge they had stocked that afternoon when they first arrived.

After placing them on the rooms small table two small Kwamii’s flew from their hiding places, one from Marinette’s purse and one from the suitcases in the corner where the girls kept their things.

“So what did the Commandant have to say,” Alix asked as she jumped onto her bed.

“He wants us to stay in the group as much as possible during the trip. Pairs at the very least. And he told me to stay out of trouble. Not in those exact words but the intent was clear.”

“Now why he would think that LadyBug would need orders to stay out of trouble is beyond me,” Alix joked.

Marinette glared at her before turning it on the Kwamii’s where they laughed on the table.

“No respect. I get no respect,” she mumbled humorously before turning the book to Alix. “What do you think?”

“It looks like a traffic light,” Alix observed the costume. “I’ve never seen you use that color combination together.”

“It’s the characteristic colors of the Robin uniform. I don’t know why they’ve chosen those colors but every Robin used them in some variation.” Marinette went back to sketching and adding tweaks to the costume.

“So Robin’s the childhood friend?” Alix asked.

Marinette froze.

She didn’t hear Alix call her name two more times. It wasn’t until a hand in her face had her reacting (and boy would she have to apologize for nearly dislocating Alex’s shoulder for her concern).

“Ouch,” Alix mumbled rubbing her arm. “You could have just said I need to keep it quiet,” she added as she stood up from the bed.

“Sorry Alix,” Marinette apologized.

“Nah, this’s my fault,” she gestured to her arm, “I know better than to startle you or the others on Alpha team. You okay?” She asked. “You kind of spaced out on me.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said. She laughed at Alix’s disbelieving look. She cuddled Tikki and Fluff who had come to her after finishing their foods. “I will be fine,” she corrected herself. “I’m just so used to keeping identities a secret and I’m not sure how Da... How my friend would feel if his identity was outed without his knowledge. We sort of have plans to see each other during the class free days so you’ll probably see him without the mask.”

“I can get that,” Alix said remembering when the team was in the dark about each other’s identities just a year ago. It had been an added stress on top of fighting for them to worry about protecting a secret with no end in sight. If given a choice she would definitely choose what they had today over what they’d had before. She mimed zipping her lips and locking it with an imaginary key that she threw over her shoulder.

“So he’s a hero too?”

Marinette shrugged. “I think so of course but most of the research I did before the trip indicated that the city and the heroes’ themselves mostly consider them to be vigilantes though.”

“Is there a difference?” Alix asked.

Shrugging, Marinette closed her notebook and turned off the light. “Isn’t it an “In the eyes of the beholder” kind of thing. A “your hero is my villian and my vigilante is your hero” thing, at times.”

“Do you trust him?” Alix asked.

“With my life,” Marinette answered immediately. “I’m not gonna keep LadyBug a secret forever. Just timing the reveal for the best effect,” she pointed out.

Alix snorted, “please let me be there when you do. I want to see the explosion on Commandant’s face.”

Marinette laughed with Alix as night finally settled down around them.

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No recommendations this week but go check out @bluerosette23 Daminette masterlists if this interested you.

@mellownieice @mystery-5-5 @indecisive-mess-named-me You three sent me votes or a really sweet ask that I appreciate so you get the first tags this post.

@mindfulmagics @ozmav @bluerosette23 @vivilakitty @actualaster @multifandomscribette @mochinek0 @inevitableenquere @zebrabaker @poshplumcot @tog84 @luciferge @sonif50 @ravennightingaleandavatempus @northernbluetongue @actual-human-disaster @clumsy-owl-4178 @aarushi-03 @g-arya @moonyloonyx @fertileleaf @shreky-boi @thanks-captain-obvious @panda3506 @hinata3487 @thequestionablyhuman @dontgiveaflyinflip @dast218 @chocolatecatstheron @asianfrustration13 @slytherinsheashire @weird-pale-blonde-person @yin-390 @mycupisbroken @vixen-uchiha @kuroko26 @autisticlinx @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mariae2900 @zalladane @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @tbehartoo @novicevoice @violatiger8 @thebookish3lf @fandomkitty8 @redscarlet95 @gingersnapnoir @chewbaccaatemythoughts

That’s the end of the tag list folks. I will tag you first if you send me an ask or vote for the next weeks update. What will it be?

Demon’s Bride or Miraculous Future?

#daminette #maribat #marinette x damian #Betrothed AU #The Demon’s Bride #DLDR #dead dove don’t eat

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