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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years ago

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Anonymous asked: Have you watched Lupin? What did you think? (And are you a fan of the books or other adaptations of the character?)

The short answer is yes, I have seen Lupin on Netflix. Overall I enjoyed it so long as I suspended my disbelief at certain things.

Unfortunately it took being struck down by Covid and being bedridden for me to actually to binge watch the whole series. So I was behind the curve when my friends, French and those outside of France, started to talk about it around me. I had to beg them not to give away spoilers until I had seen it all.

It did surprise me that it won rave widespread reviews outside France because usually French drama series don’t travel very well outside of France. I’m sure even Netflix had no idea how successful it would be for them. I’m sure being in Covid lockdown had something to do with it. In any case I don’t begrudge its success as it’s well earned.

However I wasn’t too surprised that within France itself the French reviews were decidely mixed and divisive. The critic at Le Point painfully hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “Le plus gros défaut de l'ensemble reste la pauvreté des personnages, tous unidimensionnels, caricaturaux et aussi épais que du papier à cigarette.“ - loosely translated as, ‘the biggest flaw of the whole thing remains the poverty of the characters, all one-dimensional, cartoonish and as thick as cigarette paper’.

There’s a growing amount of good French stuff on TV and streaming services but a non-French audience will not have had the chance to have seen all of it yet. I can think of any number of French television drama/dramedy/cmedy series that are much better than Lupin with better plots, characters, and even a truer perspective of French society and even modern day France (Dix pour cent (Call My Agent!), Le Bureau des Légendes, Engrenages, Baron Noir, and Paris Police 1900). But you would be hard pressed to find anything that comes close to Lupin just for the sake of something fun to watch during the Covid lockdown.

What makes the current generation of home made French television series so interesting is how much of it is a reflection of France’s own anxieities about itself and its role in a increasingly English speaking dominating world. In a funny way it sees itself as defiant plucky Asterix fighting off the Roman American cultural hordes from totally invading their Francophone culture.

For sure, it has societal and racial issues stemming from its colonial legacy and issues of immigration and integration (France has the largest Muslim population in Europe). However it seems to want to ‘resolve’ these issues through the almost sacramental adherence to French secularist ideals rather than American inspired ideas of social justice and equity. There’s always been something very admirable about the French - from the time of General de Gaulle and perhaps before - always swinging from snooty ambivalence to outright antipathy towards the influence of American culture ‘americanising’ French culture (no to Walmarts or fast food chains for example).

Is it any wonder then that Netflix’s ill-conceived American series ‘Emily in Paris’ was widely hated and mocked within France for just perpetuating those lazy American tropes of Paris and French culture?

Personally I know Francophile Americans, long resident in Paris, who were frankly embarrassed and spent a lot of time apologising to their French friends. I have one American friend who has told me that she was so mad that she would have blind folded Emily and shoved her hard in the car boot and drive her all the way to the poorest of the banlieues in the grimey crime saturated suburbs of Paris - Seine-Saint-Denis came to mind - and dump her preening arse there. She would slap her and tell the spoilt entitied brat to make her own way back home - you know, to her spacious apartment in one of the most expensive arrondissements of Paris that of course(!) any American intern working for French marketing firms can afford.

I digress. My apologies. Watching this God awful show gives me PTSD.

Onto Lupin.

Thankfully Lupin doesn’t try to play to non-French tropes of what Paris is or isn’t. It does skim the surface of current discontents within French culture and society (race, class, power, and money) but ever so lightly so as to not get in the way of just spinning a good crowd pleasing yarn. It invites you to have fun and not to think too much. I have to be honest and say I enjoyed it as long as I suspended my disbelief here and there.

Lupin refers of course to the character Arsène Lupin, the French gentleman thief who stole jewellery from Parisian haute bourgeois and aristocracy at the turn of the century. Lupin, as written in the novels and short stories by Maurice Leblanc between 1905 and his death in 1941, was the archetypical anti-hero, a Robin Hood who stole from those who deserved it but kept the loot himself. He was often portrayed often a force for good, while operating on the wrong side of the law.

Lupin never really made much of an impact outside of France as he had within France where is revered with many French film and television adaptations. In England, we already had a Lupin type character in the form of A.J. Raffles, a cricket playing gentleman thief with his aristocratic side kick, Bunny. E.W. Horning’s stories of Raffles’ daring heists proved to be quite popular with the British public when Raffles first appeared on the scene in 1898. And even later Leslie Charteris’ The Saint took over the mantle from Raffles as the gentleman thief/adventuring Robin Hood.

I think Hollywood tried to introduce him to an English speaking audience (legendary actor John Barrymore even played him) but he didn’t really take off and eventually they found their gentleman thief archetype in Sir Charles Lytton aka The Phantom (played by David Niven and Christopher Plummer) in the Pink Panther movies. So Lupin never got the English audience he deserved.

I first got wind of who Arsène Lupin was when I was growing up in Japan as a child. As strange as it sounds Lupin was big in Japan especially after World War Two. The Japanese did their own take on the Lupin character using Japanese actors and plot lines but it was Lupin.

I don’t know how exactly but I remember watching these scratchy DVDs of these Lupin inspired films. I think it was one of my parents’ Japanese friends who was mad for all things Lupin and he had studied French literature in France. Jogging my memory I now recall these black & white films were done in the 1950s. One starred Keiji Sada and the other version I remember was with Eija Okada (he was in Resnais’ classic film, Hiroshima Mon Amour) as Arsene Lupin called (I think) Kao-no Nai Otoko. I didn’t understand most of it at the time because it was all in Japanese and my Japanese (at the time) was pitiful, but it looked fun.

There was even a Japanese manga version of Lupin which was called Lupin III, - so named because he was the grandson of the real Arsène Lupin.

The 1960s manga series spawned generations of TV series which I do remember watching and finding it terribly exciting if somewhat confusing.

It was French expatriate friends whom my family knew that introduced me to the real Arsène Lupin. They had a few of the books authored by Maurice Leblanc. It was in French so I read them to improve my French but enjoyed the story along the way.

I also remember them showing me scratchy episodes of the 1970s Franco-German TV series ‘Arsène Lupin’ with the monocle wearing Georges Descrières in the lead role. It was a classical re-telling of the adventures of the aristocratic gentleman-burglar and very family friendly viewing. I don’t really remember much of it to be honest.

It was some years before I actually started to read more of the Maurice Leblanc’s novels and short stories collection. I have them all now. I was a teen and I remember being stuck in a snowed in a Swiss Alpine chalet and with nothing else to do but pull out a few dog eared books from the bookshelves belonging to our French host and read to pass the time.

I read Les Dents du tigre, Arsène Lupin vs Herlock Sholmes, and Les Huit Coups de l'horloge and thoroughly enjoyed them in the original French. I was already reading classic detective and mystery novels (Sherlock Holmes, Poirot etc) so it was natural to read the adventures of Arsène Lupin.

I haven’t got around to reading all the novels and short stories but I have read most of them and I enjoyed them all immensely. In the same way Conan Doyle, through Holmes and Watson, manages to conjure a convincing picture of late Victorian and early Edwardian England, so Leblanc manages to give us a taste of Belle Epoque France through the eyes of his suave gentleman-thief, Arsène Lupin.

Indeed it's a lot like reading Sherlock Holmes in that you're always trying to figure out how he did it, but the difference is that you are rooting for the bad guy. You can’t help but be drawn to this gentleman thief who is charming, comic, playful, and romantic and generous. Lupin is not an intellectual puzzle-solver but first a master criminal, later a detective helper, who maintains his curious ethics throughout his adventures. In this regard he is very much the anti-Sherlock Holmes; and I wasn’t disappointed when I actually read the story where Lupin faces off with Holmes himself. Brilliant!

I’ve also seen the 2004 French movie with Romain Duris in the Lupin lead role and it also starred the majestic Kristin Scott Thomas and the sexy Eva Green.

It was a decent adventure flick and it was a clear confluence of different Lupin novels (The Queen's Necklace (introducing Lupin's childhood), The Hollow Needle (where the treasure is the macguffin of the story), The Arrest of Arsène Lupin (the gala on the ship as a backdrop) and Josephine Balsamo, (one of Lupin’s most memorable opponents in the The Countess Of Cagliostro).

Romaine Duris, a fine classical actor, was I felt miscast because he didn’t have Lupin’s levity of wit and be at ease within himself. I love Duris in his other films but in Arsène Lupin and even in his other film, Moliere, he seemed ill at ease with the role. Perhaps that’s just me.

The latest Netflix adaptation (or reimagining to be more precise) is a welcome addition to the world of Arsène Lupin.If you don’t over-think it, it’s bags of fun.

Omar Sy is immensely likeable. Sy is a deservedly a big star in France - he won the best actor César for “The Intouchables,” an international hit - and has played forgettable secondary characters in big-budget American special effects movies (he was Chris Pratt’s assistant in “Jurassic World” and a minor mutant in “X-Men: Days of Future Past”). It was reportedly his desire to play Arsène Lupin, whom he’s compared to James Bond (“fun, funny, elegant”), that led to the series, created by British writer George Kay. And it is on his charm that the series largely, though not entirely, rests.

So the basic story revolves around a jewellery heist. Sy plays Assane Diop, a first-generation French-Senegalese man in contemporary Paris. A collection of Lupin stories, a gift from his father - whose undeserved fate Assane set himself to avenge in long-delayed, Count of Monte Cristo style upon a criminal tycoon - has made the actual Lupin books a foundation of his life and profitably illicit career. This fan-ship goes as far as borrowing practical ideas from the stories and constructing aliases out of anagrams of “Arsene Lupin,” a habit that will attract the interest of a low-level police detective (Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guedira) who shares Assane’s love of the books. (That the detective also shares an initial with Lupin’s own adversary, Inspector Ganimard, is possibly not a coincidence.)

Among the many comic delights of Lupin, is an unspoken one. Time and again, the show’s hero, master thief Assane Diop is able to slip into a place unnoticed, or by assuming a minor disguise that prevents witnesses from providing an accurate description of him to law enforcement.

Why is this funny?

Because Omar Sy is six feet three (and, since most actors are short, seems even taller), is roughly as wide as soccer pitch, and is memorable even before he flashes his infectious million-Euro smile. This is not a man for whom anonymity should be possible - even allowing for racial bias in a majority-white country, Assane would be memorable and distinctive - and Lupin seems cheekily aware of this. Like the various incredible sleights of hand Assane deploys to pull off his thefts and escapes, his ability to be anyone, anywhere, is treated more as a superpower than as something even the world’s greatest criminal would be able to pull off.

At one point, when he’s slated for a cable news appearance as a much older man, we learn that Assane is also a master of disguise. The revelation of this skill arrives with a wink in the show, and it feels pointless to ask where he learned it, or how he affords movie-quality latex and makeup. Or rather, asking the question feels wrong.

We know this is impossible, the show seems to be asking its viewers again and again, but isn’t it so much fun?

The performances and the production - it has that particularly European filmic quality of feeling natural even when it gets stylish - keep the series warm even as the plot is made up of incredulous contraptions that require everything to go right at just the right time and for human psychology to be 100% predictable. Its physics are classical rather than quantum, one might say, and like the world itself, which becomes more curious the deeper you peer into things, it is best handled along the surface. You do not want to take too much time working out the likelihood of any of this happening. Just go along for the ride.

Somehow, though, it all works because Sy is so magnetic and charming that questioning plot logic feels wildly besides the point. Though he never looks appreciably different in his various aliases (including one ill-conceived live-TV appearance done under old-man makeup and a thick beard), he changes his posture and voice ( if you watch it in French that is) enough to allow for the willing suspension of disbelief, in the same way that any lead actor as Superman has to do when playing Clark Kent. But Sy and the show are at their strongest when Assane is just being his own Superman self, utterly relaxed and confident in his own skin, and so captivating that his ex-partner, Claire, can’t really resist him despite ample reason to.

If Assane seems practically perfect in every way, he is not perfectly perfect. His most obvious failing is that his criminal shenanigans and revenging make him less than reliable in his daily life, affecting his relationships with ex-partner Claire (Ludivine Sagnier, whom non-French audiences might recognise from “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope”), who despairs of his inability to show up on time to see his son Raoul (Etan Simon). Like Sy, Sagnier brings a lot of soul to her part - though onscreen far less, she’s as important as Sy to the series’ success - and the two actors have great chemistry. Also impressive and key to creating sympathy are the actors who play their flashback teenage selves, Mamadou Haidara and Ludmilla Makowski. Really, you could do away with action elements and build a series around them.

This is a pity because Lupin often fumbles its emotional reveals in other parts - the story of Diop being torn between his job and his family feels like wheel-spinning, rather than genuine emotional intrigue.

Soufiane Guerrab is wasted in the Young Detective Consumed by the Case role and spends most of this season pinning colour printouts of book covers to cork boards and getting waved off by his colleagues, who are all blinded or otherwise hampered by careerism.

But to my mind the weakest link is the villain himself and his daughter. Veteran actor Hervé Pierre hams it up as Hubert Pellegrini, a business tycoon who is the patriarch of the Pellegrini family. He just comes across as animated cartoon villain with no character depth (think moustache twirling Russian villain, Boris Badenov, in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon shows). He just emotes anger a lot without any nuance or hint of complexity.

Even Clotilde Hesme who plays the daughter who is unaware of her father’s criminal tendencies is miscast. For the record I adore Clotilde Hesme as she one of France’s most talented classical actresses (that non-French outsiders will not have heard of). She is a classically theatre trained actress and is one of the best stage actresses of her generation that I have ever seen. I’ve seen her in plays where she is just mesmerising. She has said before that she’s more comfortable on the stage than she is on the screen. And when she has been on screen she still has been a powerful presence. She’s actually won a César too. Here in Lupin, she seems to have no agency and looks bored with nothing really to do.I really hope they give her more scenes in the next part of Lupin.

The series is at its best when following Diop enacting his plans, and when revealing each one from a different vantage, making us privy to every moving part like a magician revealing his secrets. The show captures the momentum of a clockwork heist, the tension of sudden obstacles and the ingenuity of improvised responses, with thrilling precision (especially in “Chapter 1 - Le Collier de la reine,” directed by Now You See Me’s Louis Leterrier).

Lupin is also politically incisive when it wants to be; it brings to mind Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated 2019 film Les Misérables, which adapted the broad strokes of Victor Hugo’s novel about the 1832 Paris Rebellion, and modernised the story by focusing on the police brutality faced by non-white Parisians.

Lupin opens with Diop disguised as cleaning staff and entering the Louvre after-hours, alongside dozens of forgotten, anonymous non-white workers as they pass by “La Liberté guidant le people,” Eugène Delacroix’s famous painting of the July Revolution of 1830 which replaced France’s hereditary rule with popular sovereignty.

Before any semblance of plot or character, Lupin centres broken ideals and promises unkept (without giving too much away, the show’s primary villain has much more nationalistic view of French culture and history which merely adds to a cartoonish caricature than a complex character). The rest of the episode is about valuable jewels once owned by Marie Antionette - one of the most recognisable symbols of wealth and extravagance in times of extreme poverty - which are put up for auction by the Pelligrini family, and bid on by other wealthy collectors with bottomless purses and no sense of irony.

Granted, beyond this auction subplot, explorations of race and class are largely limited to individual interactions, but the show continues to refer back to (and implicitly comment on) its source material in ways that wink at the audience. An elderly, unassuming target of Diop’s schemes seems like an unlikely victim at first - Diop, though he acts in his own self-interest, usually displays a moral compass - until this victim reveals the colonial origins of her wealth, immediately re-contextualising the ethics of the situation, in a manner that Leblanc’s stories did not. (The show is yet to apply this lens to Arsène Lupin himself, who Diop treats with reverence, but that’s a secondary concern since Lupin is entirely fictional in-world).

Barring some nagging structural problems - like cutting to flashbacks when things are getting exciting, or epilogues that feel ten minutes too long - Lupin mostly works. It plants a few personal seeds early on, which it keeps hinting at without fully addressing, but by the time its scattered elements come into focus, the show finally figures out how to weave them together, and delivers a mid-season cliffhanger that renders many of these flaws irrelevant.

Lupin manages to have fun even with an antiquated premise - the story of a suave con-man who charms his way through high-profile robberies - while adding just enough new spin on the concept to feel refreshing. Omar Sy may not have much to work with, but his alluring presence makes Assane Diop feel like a worthy successor to Arsène Lupin.

Lupin isn’t going to win César, BAFTA, or Emmy awards, or even turn heads for its ability to develop tertiary or even secondary plots or characters - that doesn’t really matter. You’re there to see a difficult hero be difficult and heroic - everyone else is there to be charmed, vexed, or eluded by them. Sy’s performance bounds off the screen, and is almost musical. He floats through scenes like he glides over the roofs and through the back alleys of Paris; he outmanoeuvres his foes with superior literary references and sheer athleticism. He is irresistible and also good at everything he tries, even kidnapping.

I would encourage anyone to watch Lupin for a fun care free ride. But the only caveat I would make is watch it in the original French.

If you don’t know French then put on the subtitles to understand (that’s what they are there for). The real crime is to watch this (or any film or television series) dubbed in a foreign language. It’s disrespectful to the actors and film makers and it’s silly because it’s comical to watch something dubbed over.

Please watch it in the original French.

Then go and read the books. You won’t regret it.

Thanks for your question.

#question #ask #lupin #omar sy #netflix #tv show #culture #personal #arsene lupin #japan #maurice leblanc #france #french #society #arts

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melodyalanaroster · 3 years ago

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Scars Deepened and Masks Shattered

When Alana got to school the next day, Deborah greeted her with a smile. “I don't understand why you're not going after my sister. She's the warrior. I'm just the diplomat.” She rolled her eyes. Alana looked around and noticed Iris in the distance. Deborah put her arm around her and got close to her ear. "Diplomats are worse." She whispered as Iris walked up to them. “Its good to see you guys getting along!” She beamed. “Yep! Alana and I are like two pieces in a pod!” Deborah cheered. Alana quickly rolled her eyes and smiled. “I wouldn't call us best friends, but we've got a great start!” She cheered.

Throughout the day Alana had begun asking questions about Deborah in an attempt to understand her new enemy. Because of those questions, her fellow students had begun to get angry with her and give her dirty looks. "Deborah isn't like that!" Melody had said. “Alana! How could you accuse her of that?!” Iris blurted out. “Alana, you're just making things up. She's nice!” Alexy sighed. "Come on Alana, this has got to be a joke." Kim rolled her eyes. Even Violette didn't believe her. Lysander told her that Castiel hadn't come to school because he needed extra rest and that he was unsure about leaving the school to be Deborah's guitarist. Nathaniel wanted nothing to do with the situation. He told Alana to ignore it and that if Castiel gets hurt, it will be his “just deserts”. Of course, rumors began to swirl around about what Alana was saying about Deborah and Deborah just had to give her two cents. “I can't believe you're spreading such awful rumors about me!” She cried. "I'm simply asking questions." Alana rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe you went to Amber for help in your little crusade!" Nathaniel was steaming with anger. “There is something going wrong in the school! I was simply looking for allies!” Alana snapped back. “Alana, this is reality! Not your comic book or anime world! Sometimes bad people don't get justice!” He boomed. “Why not? Everyone deserves justice! Or am I not allowed even a molecule of that? I may not be a warrior like my sister, but I'll be damned if I go down without a fight! Now, everyone deserves the truth and I intend on giving it to them!” Alana spat as she stormed off. Amber knew that Deborah's sweetness and light was a charade but she had her own plans and she didn't want Alana in on them. “What is she planning? Something that'll probably get pinned on me, I bet.” Alana thought.

Kim, while giving her a dirty look, and with a snarky tone, told her to read the school newspaper. Alana grabbed a copy and quickly skimmed it over. “This isn't right!” She sighed as she ran to find Peggy. “What the heck is this?! Iris isn't even mentioned!" She boomed as she threw open the door to the Journalism Club. Peggy was a petite girl with cream colored skin, freckles along her cheeks, deep blue eyes and short wavy purple-black hair that stuck up in some places. She wore a green hooded sweater dress with a gold zip and drawstrings, and a tag on the left side of her chest. Alana could count on one hand how many times she had seen Peggy without her recording equipment underneath her arm, strapped around her waist, and a microphone in her hand. Peggy was the biggest source of gossip in the school, as well as the Journalism Club's President and Head Reporter. “Come on Alana. You know no one cares about Iris. Everyone only cared about the boys.” Peggy sneered. "Now, you know for a fact that isn't true." Alana barked. "Just like how I know that the "sweet daughter" of a famous sci-fi novelist isn't so sweet and has begun slandering a famous musician?" Peggy poked. Annoyance flashed across Alana's face. “Peggy, we both know I'm a diplomat. Sam is the one who goes on crusades. Not me. I'm the heir to my family. I must do what it takes to preserve our reputation, not tarnish it.” She explained. "So, you're saying that the rumors aren't true?" Peggy asked. “I'm saying that they spawned from me asking questions. Now, back to the reason I'm in here. Iris was as important to the concert as the boys and I'm sure the fact that you left her out has hurt her, so fix it.” Alana replied. “Fine. Oh, you know the best ways to out someone is by leading them on discreetly.” Peggy huffed. "Pray tell, how do you suggest I do that?" Alana asked. "Get a wire and record them in the act." Peggy explained. Alana rolled her eyes. “It wouldn't work. She's a popular musician. Anyone in higher social standing knows that's the first thing people go to. Heck, people have tried that with my mother, her boyfriend, my sister and me in an attempt to defame us.” Alana remarked.

"Giving up yet?" Deborah sneered as she cornered Alana in the hallway near the basement. Alana rolled her eyes. “I'm trying to see what fits you best.... God Complex? Bipolar? Leech? Or more two faced than Harvey Dent?” She pondered out loud. “Well, I know what fits you. You put on a façade of “sweetness and light” all while hiding the fact that you're actually a stupid, disgusting, wretch who only gets by on her family's reputation. You know? At least your sister is up front with how pathetic she is.” Deborah laughed. Alana cocked her head. “At least my family HAS a reputation I can get by on! You stabbed Castiel in the back and turned him against Nathaniel to get your career! You're not even that talented! I've heard you sing! You're not Taylor Momsen or Amy Lee! Oh, and as for my sister? Really? She may have a bad rep for constantly fighting, and she sometimes does stuff that crosses lines, but at least she has an actual code of ethics! You're morally bankrupt!” Alana blurted out, fed up. Deborah looked hurt for a minute, before running up the stairs and purposely falling down them. “ALANA! HOW COULD YOU!” She screamed. “Do you really think that will work?! I didn't go upstairs!” Alana called. "But you did shove her!" Peggy sneered. Alana looked in Peggy's direction. “I'd like to see your proof. Come on! Let's go to the Principal and have her pull the security footage!” She demanded. “Alana, we all know you don't like her. It's obvious you did this!” Peggy egged on before she ran off.

Rumors spread as Alana and the principal looked over the security footage from the stairway. "Turn the volume up." Alana requested. "Of course." Principal Shermansky replied. “There. Start here.” Alana pointed out at the video. As the footage played out, the Principal was awestruck. "I told you I didn't do it." Alana defended. Principal Shermansky looked concerned. “This proves your innocence on this incident with me. However, the students are going to be harder to convince. Deborah was once a staple around here.” She explained. "So, that means she can essentially commit murder, and blame me in such a way that you know I'm not the one who did it, but the students won't care?" Alana looked baffled. “You know how ruthless teenagers are. Not everyone is diplomatic." Principal Shermansky sighed. Alana knew she was right. The growing hatred surrounding her was almost unstoppable. Most of the people she had spent the past few weeks getting to know and becoming friends with had turned on her.

Throughout the day, students gave her even nastier looks and had even begun to call her names. "You're all a bunch of bitches!" Sam called at Peggy, Iris, Melody, Violette and Kim as she, Ken and Armin walked with Alana. “I know I'm innocent, but this still hurts.” Alana muttered. She had talked to Castiel who, while mad at her, was still unsure about what to do. After voicing his concern for his situation, he proceeded to lash out at her, making her feel horrible. Nathaniel didn't know what to think about the situation and just wanted it to be over. Alexy made it clear that he had taken Deborah's side. Rosalaya had asked Alana for her side of the story and sided with her. Lysander was concerned, but didn't know what to do. "Why don't you just let Castiel get hurt?" Ken asked. “Because it's not right. Everyone deserves truth and justice! ” Alana replied with vigor. "Yeah, and the quiet, lying, prat is definitely the right person to serve it!" Melody blurted out as she walked past them. The group stopped. "You got something to say, sweetheart?!" Sam called as she got into punching position. Anger boiled through Alana. “You know what?! When Deborah's guilt is properly proven, so will my innocence! Quit taking lessons on how to be two faced from her and go read a Batman comic!” Alana spat. She could taste the venom that flooded her system. “You're not supposed to do that! You know what will happen if Carol finds out you're flashing out.” The voice in her head called. "Shut up." Alana told the voice. Melody looked shocked, huffed and ran off. “Go Mels! That was great!” Sam beamed. "I didn't think you could do that!" Ken cheered. "Nice one!" Armin smiled.

Giggling could be heard as Alana passed the girls' restroom. She looked in the direction of the giggling and noticed Amber and her friends leaving the room with a bucket of water. “What horrible thing do you three have planned this time?” She asked. Amber looked at her with a devilish grin and walked off without saying a word. She followed them upstairs and watched them position the bucket in an open window. Fear flooded Alana's veins. “Amber, stop this! It'll only make things worse!” She called from behind them. Amber looked pleased to hear Alana's fear. “Please Charlotte, don't let this happen!” Alana pleaded. Li's and Charlotte's grins only grew wider. “Amber, I'm sure you have more reasons to hate Deborah than me. I'm sure your reasoning is a lot more valid than mine. But, this is not the answer! Please! Don't do this!" Alana begged. Too late. While Alana was begging, Amber laughed and dumped the water. A scream resounded throughout the school grounds. Amber and her friends bolted out of the room, laughing. Alana, in a state of shock and fear, tried to think of what to do, but her body was already reacting. Without thinking, she had walked to the window and looked down at the soaking wet girl. There were students surrounding Deborah in concern. "Alana!" Deborah yelled as she looked up at the window and pointed at her. The other students looked at Alana, the wave of anger consuming them. “MELODY ROSTER! COME TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE!” The Principal called, angrily, over the intercom. “Mels! What happened!" Sam asked as she ran into the room. “I didn't.... I-It w-was.... A-Amber... Sami... I didn't...” Alana stuttered as she tried to hold back tears. “NOW MISS ROSTER! ” The Principal called over the intercom. “Come on. Let's get you to the Principal's office before this gets even worse.” Sam tried her best to be calm as she walked over to her sister, put her arms around her and started walking with her.

“Miss Roster! I am appalled!” Principal Shermansky started. “I didn't do it! There has to be security footage!” Alana defended. “I'm already tired of looking at security footage to defend you! You are worse than your sister! Samantha is up front with her toxicity!" The Principal boomed. Alana looked at the woman, insulted. "I have half of mine to expel you both so that I won't have to worry about what the two of you will cause next!" The Principal continued. "Judgment without a proper trial? That's REAL professional of you! And aren't you being a bit prejudiced?!” Alana snapped back. Principal Shermansky looked even angrier. “The only reason you are simply getting a detention is because of the pressure I'm getting from the board to keep you and your sister enrolled here! They said it's good publicity to have the heirs to the Roster clan at my school.” She continued. “And what will the board think when they find out that you're giving out punishment without proper trial?! This isn't America! That stuff doesn't fly here!” Alana blurted out. “ENOUGH! Now, I'm aware that your mother is currently on her book tour in the surrounding cities, so I called her manager, Carol, instead. She will be picking you and your sister up. And, you WILL be doing your detention tomorrow Melody!” Principal Shermansky barked. “Carol! You should have called Agatha instead! Do you have any idea what you've just condemned me to?!” Alana snapped. “It can't be any worse than what your peers are about to do to you. Now, get out of my office.” The Principal growled.

She left the Principal's Office and walked towards the stairs. “Great, now you get to be subjected to another one of Carol's patented lectures. Good job, idiot.” the voice in her head spoke and she realized the stairs were occupied. "Castiel..." Alana began. Castiel looked at her, angrily. "Go away." He growled. "I didn't do it." Alana stated. "I said go away." He growled again. “Castiel, listen to me! I didn't do it!” Alana continued. Castiel got closer to her, anger flooding every inch of him. “I said go away! Shut up and go away! Go away, stop talking to me, just forget I exist, and don't get close to anyone I like!” He yelled. Tears began to blur Alana's vision. "It's like that then." She began, her voice wavering. “Well fuck you Castiel! You're a self-centered jackass!” She cried as she began walking away. She could hear Castiel curse and punch the wall, but she knew better than to turn back around. She looked around and saw nasty faces everywhere, causing the tears in her eyes to become more prominent. “Sam needs to be warned about Carol.” She thought. "Alana." a voice said in front of her. She looked up and saw Nathaniel. Without thinking, she fell into his arms, wrapped her arms around him and began crying. He held her close, wrapped his arms around her and tried to comfort her. “Nath, everyone hates me. Everything has gone wrong!” Her voice wavered. "Alana!" A voice called from the distance. Nathaniel wiped her tears away as she looked up. Rosalaya was walking towards them. “Sam told me the truth. And, I have good news. I've come up with a way to expose Deborah to the entire school.” She explained. Sam walked up behind Rosalaya. "How do you expect we discuss this?" Alana asked Sam. “We go to the apartment! No one is there.” Sam beamed. Alana shook her head. “The Principal called Carol. She's coming to pick us up.” She whined. “Shit. Well, Achille and Edgard are in Australia, so I'll call Verity and tell her what's going on. She'll come to our aid.” Sam groaned as she walked off. "Who is Carol?" Rosalaya asked. “Mom's manager. She's the person primarily responsible for perpetuating the whole idea of Sam being mom's rebellious daughter and me being the “sweet, obedient” one. Mom's fans have eaten it up. The whole Roster Family story of “rags to riches” over the generations has aided in mom's notoriety.” Alana explained. “Carol is a bitch. She's been obsessed with turning the family into proper aristocrats for years. The only reason why I'm allowed to “rebel” is because mom adopted me when Mels and I were babies.” Sam blurted out as she walked back up to them and looked at Rosalaya. “Oh, and Verity is currently on her way to the apartment. She's mad. So, Carol won't be there long.” She explained to Alana. "So, we'll be okay?" Alana asked. "Yes." Sam replied.

★

It didn't take long for Alana and Sam to gather a group of students to come over. “Alana...” Castiel began as he reached out to her. She huffed and walked off. Deborah passed her and snickered. Alana rolled her eyes. “We'll see who is laughing by the end of this!” She thought. Lysander had told her that he had something to do and he'd be late to her apartment. “Hey, Mels, Carol is here to pick us up. Verity is at the apartment waiting for us. Guys, I will text you all when it is safe to head over. Trust me, you don't wanna be there when Verity sees Carol.” Sam called as the group gathered. Alana suddenly looked lifeless. Sam put her arm around her sister's shoulder. "It won't last long this time." She sighed. "It shouldn't last any span of time." Alana sighed. "Anyway, come on." Sam urged. “See you guys later! I'm sure it won't be too long!” She beamed as she turned and waved at the group.

Carol Dubois could easily be described by one word. That word being “Karen”. She almost always looked like she was about to step into an aristocratic gala. Donning a swanky knee length black skirt, frilly red blouse, black pumps, a pearl necklace, pearl earrings, and a pearl bracelet on her left wrist. Her platinum blonde hair was cut into an inverted bob style. She wore black butterfly shaped sunglasses over her hazel eyes and carried a black designer bag with a crown on it. “Good god! How is their mom connected to that woman? She looks like she could be Amber's future self!” Armin called from behind Sam and Alana as the girls walked up to Carol. “Girls. Your principal has already filled me in on what's happened.” She evilly grinned as Alana's eyes dropped to the floor and Sam looked angry. “It's all bullshit and my sister is innocent! ” Sam snapped. “Now, Samantha, that tone and language are not proper! You will refrain from using it.” Carol's voice always had a sense of condescension in it when she spoke to the girls. Alana had heard whispers from people around her mother that Carol was livid when she and Sam came along. Carol has been trying to break into the aristocracy for years. When she realized that none of the born blue bloods would take her, she latched onto her mother. “Better a dyed blue blood than not a blue blood at all." Her aunt Cosima had told her when she was young. The girls death marched towards Carol's car. "Here we go." Sam rolled her eyes as Carol began talking to Alana. “Melody! You know you're supposed to be the “good girl”. You can't be running around, getting into trouble, like your sister!” Carol barked. Alana spent the entire drive trying to daydream, but each time she'd drift off Carol pulled her back to reality. “God damn it! Let me drift off!” She thought.

When they got to the apartment, they were greeted by Verity Mekina. Verity was a spitting image of her daughter, Severina. Long black hair that was tied into a low bun with hair sticks in it, dark eyes, and warm beige skin tone. She wore a blue, floral, Chinese, Cheongsam, split dress, a diamond bracelet on her left wrist, and blue closed toed pumps. Carol instantly looked more annoyed at the sight of her. “One of you warned her.” She growled at the girls. Verity came to the car. “Don't make me get Lynne, Carol. You don't want this fight.” She smoothly warned. “The Principal called ME.” Carol growled. “You are classified as a “last resort” on their paperwork. That means the Principal must not have not cared to go down the list and call Agatha, Seraphina, or me before calling you. This means that I'll have to have a talk with the school board in the next couple of days. Now, let the girls out before I not only call Lynne, but the police.” Verity commanded. Carol looked at her angrily. "Or I could always call the tabloids." Verity suggested. "You wouldn't." Carol spat. “The manager for a popular sci-fi novelist has been verbally, mentally and emotionally abusing the novelist's daughters for years, right under the novelist's nose. Now, that wouldn't look good for Lynne's reputation or yours. Would it?” Verity explained, condescendingly. "Girls, get out." Carol barked. The girls grabbed all of their stuff, got out of the car and walked over to Verity. “Now, that wasn't hard. Was it?” Verity smiled as if she was speaking to a small child. "This isn't over." Carol growled as she drove off. “Okay, girls. I'll call your mom. Neither of you are in trouble. Go ahead and have your friends come over.” Verity smiled. "Thanks V!" Sam smiled. Tears came to Alana's eyes. "Thanks aunt V!" She cheered as she hugged Verity.

“Girls! The snacks are here!” Verity called as she got her phone out. She didn't want the girls walking the streets without their friends, just in case Carol was lurking and waiting for an opportunity. While Alana didn't think Carol would actually “kidnap” them, she knew Carol would take any opportunity to verbally harm them. Alana thanked Verity's driver after he set the bags of snacks on the table and tipped him. "Ma'am, you know you don't have to tip me." The man sighed. “But I want to. I was raised to show my gratitude.” She smiled. He looked at Verity, curiously, who nodded in approval. "Thank you ma'am." He grinned as he pocketed the money and went back to the car. Verity had told the girls that she was going to call Lynne and the school and that while she'd love to meet their friends, this was important for their safety. The girls were disheartened at the thought of their godmother not being able to meet their friends, but Alana was pleased that Verity was stepping up, even if it was just while her husband was away. It didn't take long for Sam to text everyone and for them to all show up to the apartment. "Welcome guys!" Alana beamed as they walked in. “Wow! This place is cool!” Rosalaya beamed. "Hey, Sylvester!" Nathaniel cheered as he petted the tuxedo cat that walked up to him. “Will we be seeing Verity?” Kentin asked. "Yes, but she's quite mad at Principal Shermansky and Carol, so she's going to be focused on handling that." Alana explained. "So, you all won't be properly meeting our godmother." Sam added. "Why is she mad at the Principal?" Lysander asked as they all walked to Alana's room. “She was far less than professional with me. She doesn't appreciate that.” Alana replied. “Woah! This place is cute!” Rosalaya cheered as Alana opened the door and they all walked in. Alana's bedroom was a massive tribute to all of the fandoms she loved. There were several shelves with Sailor Moon collectibles, several shelves with books, movies and videogames. There were framed posters on the walls of Sailor Moon, The Beatles, Wonder Woman, and Harry Potter. Her bed was galaxy themed with a Sailor Moon throw blanket on top and another one folded at the foot. Even her curtains were celestial themed. Rosalaya and Alexy immediately darted to the closet. "Sam wasn't kidding when she said you've got several styles in here!" Rosalaya cheered as she came out with several punk t-shirts and Alexy came out with a couple of school uniform type articles. "What? I like those bands and school uniforms are very crisp and cool to wear.” Alana sighed. Alexy dipped back into the closet and came out. Alana's face went ghost white. "How do you explain these?" He asked as he held up a pair of green and black plaid, black laced trimmed, panties with the Slytherin crest on the crotch. Nathaniel's, Armin's and Lysander's faces all turned beet red. "Those look like they were bought to impress someone!" Rosalaya blurted out. "They were bought because they're cute!" Alana snapped as she snatched the panties from Alexy and put them up.

After a bit more playing around, Alana called them all to sit down and get to business. "Alright, here's what's gotten us to this point." She began as she explained everything that had happened in the past couple of days. "Castiel is such an ass!" Armin boomed when she got to the point where he had made her cry. Nathaniel nodded agreeably. "Okay, I still wanna do a full blown Kamehameha on her.... But, I can definitely settle for a swift karate chop!" Armin blurted out when she finished her story. “Yeah! Let's kick her ass!" Kentin cheered. "I'm in!" Sam devilishly laughed as she cracked her knuckles. “Now, wait a minute! What I've got planned gets on her level and doesn't have violence!” Rosalaya announced as she stood up. The group quickly fell silent as Rosalaya explained her plan. The plan was to tempt Deborah with a manager who can promise her a chance to stardom, so she'll leave her current manager. However, Leigh will be the bait. “Tomorrow, we'll split into two groups. Kentin and Nathaniel, you will go Leigh's shop to help him with his outfit. Armin, Lysander, you two will be doing research on managers in the music industry.” She ordered. “Sam, Alana, you can choose whichever team you'd like to be with. But, I request that you two stay together." She continued. "I'll go with Nath and Kentin." Alana piped up. "I was gonna say the same thing." Sam stated.

That night, Alana was plagued by nightmares of the day’s events. When Carol wasn’t lashing out at her, the girls were calling her names while Amber and Deborah laughed. She tossed and turned, begging them to stop and leave her alone. She tried looking for Nathaniel, Armin, and Sam but they were nowhere to be found. “Someone! Please! Help me!”, “I didn’t do it!”, “Please believe me!” she muttered as her body whipped around in bed. Then her mind turned to Castiel. “GO AWAY!”, “SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!”, “FORGET THAT I EXIST!”, “DON’T GET CLOSE TO ANYONE I LIKE!” He yelled. “Castiel, please!” She begged. Deborah walked up behind him, wrapped one hand over his eyes, ran her other hand along his stomach and got her mouth close to his ear. “Don’t believe her. She’s lying. She just wants to keep us apart. I came here for you and only you my little kitten. She just wants to hold you back from the success you are due.” She mused. Deborah’s fingers started to become thinner and more spindly as she continued to caress Castiel’s eyes and chest. “Don’t believe her! She’s using you!” Alana pleaded. Deborah’s mouth became thinner and more inhuman, as the whites of her eyes turned black. “I think it’s time we get rid of this little pest, once and for all.” She growled. Suddenly, Alana found herself in a spider’s web, unable to move. “Come on my little pet. Let’s kill her.” Deborah’s features had become more monster than human, much like the Beldam in the movie adaptation to Coraline. She removed her hand from Castiel’s eyes, only for them to be covered in a thick black web. Deborah’s other hand moved from his chest and placed something in his hand. “A knife?!” Alana gasped. “Come on Cassy. Its the only way we can be together.” Deborah cooed as she stepped back and let out a heinous cackle. As the boy began moving closer to her, he raised the knife to a lethal position. “CASTIEL NO!” Alana screamed. “MELODY WAKE UP!” Someone called as they grabbed her shoulders. “DON’T!” Alana cried as she jolted up in her bed. She looked around for a second, her heart pounding, as she breathed quickly. Standing by her bed was a friendly face. “Aunt V!” She cried. “Melody, come on. I’ll make some tea.” Verity urged. “I’ll be fine.” Alana sighed. “No you won’t. You’ve been jerking around for a while. I turned on soothing songs with the hopes that it would calm you, and it didn’t. I even tried singing to you at one point and it only calmed you for a minute.” Verity explained. “It was just a nightmare. Please don’t worry about me.” Alana insisted. “No. What happened at school has had one hell of an effect on you. I have half a mind to keep you home tomorrow.” Verity replied. “No, I’ll be okay, I have my friends. Not to mention, Sam will be there.” Alana yawned. Verity thought for a couple of minutes. “Fine, but for the rest of the night, you’re sleeping in the living room with me.” She ordered.

School the next day was mostly quiet. Verity came to the school with a member of the board and had a heated conversation with Principal Shermansky. The board member was a young, smart dressed, woman with her brown hair in a bun. “You put your students in potential danger by not going down the list! Your negligence resulted in them feeling so unsafe that I had to be called! Madam, there's a list of people for you to call for the Roster girls and Carol is supposed to be a last resort. You did not call their mother. You did not call Seraphina Roster, Agatha Roster, or me. You went straight to her! And don't get me started on your SEVERE lack of professionalism! The incident from yesterday had to have been caught on camera, yet you REFUSED to prove my goddaughter's innocence! This is NOT how you run a school! This isn't even how a prison should be run!” Verity yelled. “Ma'am. I-” Principal Shermansky started. "Mrs. Shermansky, We have gone through the security footage from your office and the room that the water was dropped from. If you had simply looked at the footage, you would have seen that it was Amber Jacott who dropped the water and Melody Roster was begging for her to not do it. You judged her guilty without proving her innocence and acted very out of line. Mrs. Mekina explained to me the situation with Ms. Dubois' involvement in the Roster Family. While we cannot go after Ms. Dubois, the board can mitigate her position in Samantha's and Melody's lives while they are in our care. Melody Roster's detention has been revoked and her record had been cleaned. Now, while Mrs. Mekina has requested your termination, the board agrees that, as this is your first offense, it would be better judgment to simply put you on probation.” The board member announced. Principal Shermansky looked shocked. "Probation?" She asked. “Yes. Until the Roster girls graduate, we will be watching you closely. You have shown us that we can't trust you with high profile students.” The board member replied.

After school let out, Iris walked up to Alana and commented on how low profile she and Sam had acted all day. Alana rolled her eyes. "Unless you have an apology for me, then I don't want to hear it." She sighed. Iris looked hurt and walked off. "Damn sis, I didn't think you could be that harsh." Sam sneered as she walked up to her. “I've been getting nasty looks and assorted bullshit all day. I'm tired. The only comforts I have are that I have some friends around here and that Verity has a spine when Achille is away.” Alana remarked. "Yeah, mom is pissed at Shermansky and Carol." Sam sighed. "Your godmother was on quite the crusade today." Nathaniel commented as he and Ken walked up to the girls. "I don't think I've ever seen V that mad." Ken looked shocked. “Yeah, she's great when her husband isn't around. Achille forces her to act all “sweet, quiet and obedient”. Mom and Cosima are the ones who brought out the rebellion. When Cosima died, Edgard Chevalier became more susceptible to Achille's influence and Achille gained almost total control of V.” Sam explained as they began walking towards Leigh's shop. Ken and Sam started holding hands. Nathaniel looked at Alana's hand awkwardly. Alana looked at him and blushed. "Hold it you idiot!" The voice in her head yelled. “But…” She thought back. “I know I had been to your apartment before, but I still can't get over the different types of books in your collection.” He nervously commented. “It's nice to have a variety. That way, I can choose my own adventure.” She smiled. When they got to the shop, Kentin picked out a gray suit with a red shirt and black tie. Nathaniel picked out a black suit with a black shirt and yellow tie. Sam and Alana agreed on a pair of sunglasses. "This one is more classy and will work better!" Nathaniel argued as he and Kentin had begun having a spat about which suit to choose. "Grey is a classic color!" Kentin shot back. Sam and Alana looked at each other then back at the boys. "How about you try them on and show us which one is better?" Sam suggested, a keen look in her eyes. "That would be a good way for us to gauge which one is best." Alana grinned. "Fine." Ken huffed. "Okay." Nathaniel sighed as they went into the changing rooms. Sam and Alana looked at each other. "Black suit, white shirt, black tie and good shoes?" Alana suggested as the boys changed. “Yup. It's a classic look.” Sam agreed. When the boys came out, both girls blushed. Sam walked up to Ken and straightened his tie. "You clean up really well." She purred. He looked at her and blushed. "Was this an excuse to see me in a suit?" He asked. Sam looked at her sister and Nathaniel. "It cheered her up as well." She grinned. "You look great." Alana blushed as she looked at Nathaniel. "Do you think so?" He blushed. "Yeah." She smiled. The girls stepped back and looked at the boys. “Black is the best color because it is a classic. It's also the color most worn by professionals." Alana explained. “A white shirt and black tie will make Leigh look more formal.” Sam added. "It will also work well with black socks, black formal shoes and the sunglasses that we have picked out." Alana continued. “Nathaniel should also be the one to deliver the suit. It will be less conspicuous.” Sam insisted.

The next day, Alana wore black jeans, a deep blue hoodie and black Converse. Agatha had presented her with a baseball bat and she was tempted to bring it. "It'll just cause more trouble." The voice in her head spoke. Peggy ran up to her, handed her the latest copy of the school newspaper, snickered and ran off. Alana quickly glanced at it and looked at Peggy. “Yeah, you must REALLY wanna be a journalist! You've turned the school newspaper into a tabloid!” She called after her. She could hear Peggy angrily huff and her feet stomp a little in the distance. It wasn't long before Castiel found her. He was angry at her for avoiding him. “Gee! I wonder why!” She sarcastically snapped as she walked off. Amber couldn't help but laugh whenever she saw her. “Watch it sweetheart, cackling like an old witch will give you crows feet.” Alana sneered. Amber huffed and walked off. Violette had run into her at one point. "Why didn't you defend yourself?" She had asked. “I did, to a certain extent. Why do you think Shermansky is in a heap of trouble?” Alana replied. "But, what about with the students?" Violette had asked. “None of you believe me. Which, proves to me that none of you have any real sense of justice.” Alana sighed as she walked off. Rosalaya had told her to lay low, to which Alana had responded that she was doing exactly that. Later, Castiel found her again and apologized to her for his harshness. He also explained his feelings towards joining Deborah's band. "It's the chance of a lifetime." He had said. He continued to tell her that he thinks she's trying to get rid of Deborah by lying. “Apology not accepted Castiel. And if you think I'm a liar, then you can go fuck yourself!” She yelled.

Suddenly, Alana was looking for a place to be alone, a hand grabbed her and pulled her into a classroom. Before she could scream and call for help, she realized that the hand was attached to Alexy. She looked at him, skeptical, as he explained that he actually believed her, but wanted Deborah to think that he was on her side. “I'm a spy!” He cheered as he continued to explain that he lied to Armin but told him the truth when he had gotten home. When the meeting was over Armin found her and told her to go to the park to meet up with Rosalaya. The rest of the day at school was a nuisance for Alana. The other girls continued their constant series of dirty looks, Amber and her friends continued to laugh and snicker in her direction, and Deborah's walk continued triumphant. The only things that changed were that Principal Shermansky told her that her detention had been terminated and that her mother had called her and told that she's not being punished. At the park, Rosalaya completely laid out the finer details of her plan, making Alana feel a whole lot better.

"Rosa! Stop!" Alana urged as she and Armin held Rosalaya back from lunging at Deborah. She, Rosalaya and Armin were hiding behind the lockers, watching Leigh and Deborah talk. The school day had begun as expected and the plan was in full swing. Alana expected Deborah to flirt with Leigh to gain favor with him. At that point, he had done very well in playing his part as a new manager trying to recruit her. Deborah had taken slight offense to his comment about having a better chance to become more well known under him rather than under her current manager, but Leigh made a quick comeback that she liked. "Rosa, let's go to the courtyard." Armin urged as he began to lead Rosalaya away. Alana stated that she was going to stay in her spot. "Keep us informed." Armin sighed. She heard Deborah tell Leigh that she needed to call her manager and that it would take around five minutes. Alana tried to follow Deborah, but ended up running into Nathaniel along the way. She updated him on how things were going and he told her to lead Deborah to the Teachers' Lounge once she realized that she'd been tricked. She asked him why he told her that and he said that he had something planned. The sneakiness in his voice and look in his eye made something in her stir. However, she knew she couldn't dwell on that feeling for long, as she nodded to him and ran off to find Deborah. When she found her, she was on the phone with her manager in a classroom. She heard her tell her manager that she wants him to treat her career better. “Well then I'll find someone who does! We're done!” Deborah shouted.

What Deborah found waiting for her when she left the classroom was something she and Alana didn't want to happen. "YOU!" someone yelled. Alana turned her head in shock. Standing before them was a very livid Rosalaya and Armin trying to hold her back. "Rosa! Don't!” Alana called. Her words fell on deaf ears as she began to register that Rosalaya was past the point of no return. Armin's efforts to calm her down had failed, miserably. Deborah looked in shock as Rosalaya continued to scream at her about what will happen if she ever touches her boyfriend again. As Deborah called Rosalaya crazy and explained that she didn't even know she had a boyfriend, Leigh walked up and tried his best to calm his girlfriend. To clear things up, Leigh looked at Deborah and explained that the people he loved had told him that she deserved a little lesson. Deborah turned to Alana, her face growing more and more red. "The lesson?" She snarled as she began to charge at her. Remembering what Nathaniel had said, Alana ran into the direction of the Teachers' Lounge. As she ran, she passed Sam and Ken. "The bitch must have realized what was going on." Sam commented.

When she got to the Teachers' Lounge, it was empty. Deborah came in and closed the door behind her. “At last, we are alone... Just the two of us...” She began. Alana looked at her, her eyes almost hollow. “Did you have fun? Making me lose my contract.. Do you realize what you've done?” Deborah's voice sounded like she was speaking to a disobedient child. "I wasn't alone." Alana commented. “Do you think you've won something? Even if my manager has left me, another one will come along soon enough.” Deborah snapped back. "If the first one didn't want you anymore because of your plummeting sales, what makes you think another one will?" Alana asked, condescendingly. “But now, I have Castiel... The situation has changed.” Deborah sneered. “You don't have anyone yet. He hasn't made his full decision.” Alana raised an eyebrow as she spoke. “It's only a matter of time. That idiot believes anything you tell him as long as you look him in the eye. He is the worst one out of all the idiots at this school. He will come with me, he will help boost my career with his talent and style. And when that is done, I'll just have to play the same scenario as last time!” Deborah grinned. "You'll drop him again?" Alana asked. “Of course, two is a crowd under the spotlight. So, my dear, don't cry victory yet. I've got the whole school in my pocket, and its not you and your idiot friends that are going to bring me down. I haven't lost anything and will never lose.” Deborah's voice almost sounded cheerful. Alana cocked her head. "You didn't need to trap me to tell me all that... Why did you follow me here?" She asked. “Because you are a little too stubborn for my taste. Since the day I met you, you haven't stopped trying to trick me. And this time, you almost did. If I didn't have a backup plan you would have succeeded. So... I want to be sure that you won't go against me ever again.” Deborah's grin turned devilish and her voice started to become sadistic. “Oh? How's that?” Alana asked, curiously. "I've never had to turn to force... But too bad... You have left me without a choice." The sadism in Deborah's voice became more prominent. “Force? You do realize what will happen if you hit me, right? Not only will Sam come after you for the beatdown of your life, but my family will make it to where you never have a chance at stardom again.” Alana did her best to react formally, despite a flash of fear washing over her. “Not if I hurt myself too. I'll just say that I defended myself. After all, everyone believes that you already tried to attack me...” Deborah started to get closer to her. “Don't you dare!” Alana did her best to snarl, but it came out being closer to a whimper. "What is this?" Deborah asked, annoyed as she looked at an item. Sitting on the desk, behind the chairs, was a little red light... Right next to the microphone that the Principal used to make the school announcements. "Nathaniel you genius!" Alana thought as she realized why he told her to lead Deborah to the Teachers' Lounge. Deborah began to stutter in denial as her body language showed how much she had begun to break. Alana looked pleased as she sauntered out of the room and down the hall.

“You little PEST! You knew!” Deborah's voice rang through the halls as she grabbed Alana's arm with great force. "Let go of me!" Alana called. “HOW DARE YOU?!” Deborah yelled as she raised her fist to throw a punch. Rage had overcome the girl, but before the punch could be thrown, someone grabbed Deborah's arm. "An idiot... Is that it?" Castiel asked, angrily. Deborah did her best to “explain” everything that had been said, but Castiel wasn't having any of it. Deborah continued her attempts to defend herself and to try to demonize Alana. “That's enough, Deborah. We heard everything.” Rosalaya called as she walked up to them. "Y-You really think we are a school of...Idiots?" Violette asked as she joined the group. Tears came to Deborah's eyes as she told Violette that she loved her, while continuing to insist that what everyone had heard was a “tiny joke”. More and more students began to join the group. “I doubted Alana for a reason far less important than this one…” Iris piped up, sadly. "Castiel...Believe me...Please...Kitten..." Deborah begged. “I think it's time you leave Deborah. Definitively.” Castiel ordered. His voice was so icy that it sent chills down Alana's spine. A tear streamed down Deborah's face. “I just wanted…I was kid…ding…I…” Her voice wavered as she broke down crying and ran off. All the students had gathered in the hall by that point and were talking about Deborah. Alana looked for Castiel through the crowd. When her eyes found him, he looked at her, sadly, then left.

Alana wanted to talk to everyone, but decided it would be useless, so she walked towards the courtyard. When she got to the main hall, Lysander stopped her. "It ended well, I see." He grinned. "Yeah, but I'm sure they all don't want to talk to me, so I'm gonna go outside and breathe." She sighed, relieved. "You deserve an apology... So why wouldn't they want to talk to you?" He asked. “Because they just had one hell of a revelation. They're probably feeling awkward towards what they did to me, horrible for believing Deborah, and just generally like crap.” She explained. He looked at her, slightly surprised. “I've got to go. I have something to do.” He rushed off. "Well, that was something." She thought. Before she could make it out of the building, Amber caught her. “That wasn't as fun as the bucket on that girl's head, but I have to admit the loud speaker was quite genius!” She cheered. “My, my... The great Amber is paying me a compliment?! I'm honored.” Alana chuckled. “Don't flatter yourself. I'm telling you this because my brother told me that he was the one who came up with the idea. It's great when he puts his mind to things like this... You know what I mean?” Amber rolled her eyes. "I have to agree with you there." Alana smiled as she continued to walk to the courtyard. When she found a secluded spot underneath a tree she sat on the ground and did her best to relax. It didn't take long for Sam to find her and hand her her bag. "Thanks, sis." She meekly smiled. "No problem. Text me when you're ready to go home. Ken and I will make sure you get there safe.” Sam grinned as she walked off. As she was listening to her music and drawing, someone sat down next to her. "Thank you, Nathaniel." She cooed as she pulled one of her earbuds out and smiled at him. “Of course. I must admit, when I heard Deborah over the loud speaker, I couldn't hold back the laughter!” He blushed. “It was a fantastic idea!” She cheered. “Thanks! Not many people know the Principal's microphone is in the Teachers' Lounge. Many think its in her office!” He beamed. She laid her head against his chest and relaxed into him. He tensed up a little and his blush became more prominent. “I'm glad that's all over. I just hope everyone can move past this…” She sighed. "I'm sure it'll just take t-time." He stuttered.

They sat there for what felt like forever, just breathing and casually chatting until Nathaniel felt his phone vibrate. He looked at it and groaned. “It's Amber. I've gotta go. Text me when you get home.” He sighed. Alana leaned back against the tree. “Oh…okay. I will.” She exhaustedly grinned. When Nathaniel had left the courtyard, she contemplated staying in her spot a while longer. "I should probably go home too..." She thought. As she got up, she gathered her things and dusted herself off, she heard several people walking towards her. She looked in the direction of the walking and saw Lysander being followed by Iris, Kim, Melody and Violette. The girls looked awful. Anyone could tell that they were upset that they had been fooled by Deborah and that they were remorseful for how they had been treating Alana, simply by looking at them. "Someone wanted to tell you something, but didn't have the courage." Lysander beamed. The girls confirmed Alana's suspicions. They had wanted to talk to her and tell her that they were sorry since the announcements, but they didn't know how. They explained that it was Lysander's idea for them to all come see her at once. Each girl apologized profusely and explained how wrong they were to not have believed her. “They betrayed you that easily? Don't forgive them!” The voice in her head spoke. "They're my friends. This isn't big enough for me to not forgive them.” Alana thought. When the girls stopped talking, she stood before them. “Guys, it really hurt that you all turned your backs on me like that. It didn't just hurt me, it angered Sam. I will forgive you for this, but she may not be so kind.” She explained. "We'll do anything to make it up to you.” Melody suggested. "For me? Just please don't do it again.” Alana sighed.

Later that night, Alana received a text from Castiel, prompting her to go to the front of the apartment building. “Going out in your pajamas? How rebellious." Sam commented as she sat in the living room playing video games. Alana was wearing blue shorts with the Spiral Heart Moon Rod along the sides, a blue sports bra, black slippers, and a blue tank top with the Cosmic Heart Compact surrounded by the phrase “Fight like a girl” on the front. “Castiel wants to see me. Its time we talk.” She sighed as she left the apartment. When she got outside, she saw him standing under a streetlight, looking down. He had reverted back to his black pants and red Winged Skull shirt. “I was wondering when I'd see you.” She mused as she walked up to him. “Alana…I'm…Sorry…” He muttered. She took a deep look at him, noticing his red eyes. “He's been crying. ” She thought. "It's okay Cass." She grinned as she sweetly put her hand on his cheek. He turned away from her. "No, it's not okay... How could I fall for her tricks again?" His voice broke. “She played on people's desire to view her through rose colored glasses. It's not entirely your fault.” She cooed as she stepped closer to him. “Alana…I was such an ass to you…” He muttered. “Yeah, you were. But, you weren't necessarily yourself when you did it... So, despite what I said when I yelled at you, I'm giving you a pass this time...” She sighed. “I just…” He began, tears coming to his eyes. Before he could finish his sentence, she stepped forward, wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “Its okay. I forgive you Castiel.” Her voice became even more comforting as she spoke. She could feel the shock in his body language fade away as he relaxed into her. "Thank you Alana." He growled. They stood there in each other's arms for several minutes when Alana felt her phone go off. “You gonna come inside? Does Nathaniel know Castiel is his love rival? Do I need to tell Viktor he's got two rivals now? Does Castiel wanna sleep here so he can keep your bed warm tonight?” The snarkiness in the tone of the text from her sister was more than abundant. "Everything okay?" He asked. "Sam's being snarky... But, it is late... We do still have school tomorrow..." She sighed, annoyed. “Oh…” He looked down. “Cass, it will be okay. This will pass and things will be back to normal in time.” She put her hand on his arm to comfort him. He looked at her and blushed. "Goodnight Alana." He sighed. She turned towards the door and looked back at him. “Goodnight Castiel. Please get some rest and I'll see you tomorrow.”

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This covers Episodes 16 & 17 of HSL.

Main Shermansky is significantly more bitchy in this. I decided to make her personality more of what I'm used to...

Yes, the last part of the Deborah Arc got it’s own chapter.

I made Verity more prominent in this chapter and properly introduced Carol. Carol’s personality comes from 2 points of inspiration... Those points being Alistair from What A Girl Wants and my real life abuser.

Credit to Chinomiko and Beemoov for MCL

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fangsandfeels · 1 year ago

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I wanted to put my own two cents, but these two cents morphed into a long-ass take of extremely personal opinions on my fascination with Astarion and morality, so I’ll just, um, leave it here.

To preface: I’m saying all of this as a person who always rolled her eyes at character woobification and the characters who fans tried to redeem or make more sympathetic through that prism. There are hills I would die or rather murder someone on.

I admit, it's very hard to evaluate his character outside of his experience with Cazador because it's the running theme of his entire quest: him being denied his past, his autonomy and identity, everything about him being twisted or shaped in a way that fit Cazador, even his initial choices being defined by his fear and Cazador's influences.

It's clear that the Cazador's speeches: "I made you"//"What will you even be without me?" are his twisted way of saying "I made you into a monster who will not have a place in this world. Whatever chances you had at going back, I took them all. You belong with me because I left you no other way out".

I think, Cazador expected Astarion to crawl back partially because he believed nobody will help a vampire spawn and a complacent kidnapper; he will have no choice but to come back. He will be chased back to the only place where he belonged. Yes, he will get consumed during the Ritual, but he gets the honor of dying with a purpose - he should be grateful for having his miserable non-existence ended in such a useful way.

All this is, well, an entirely different can of worms to unpack (regarding Astarion and the fate of other spawns), but in short, the way I see it, we can help Astarion pry himself and his life out of Cazador's gnarled little hands and give the bastard the middle finger; to show him that he no longer has any say in how Astarion is going to live and he will die mad about it.

Regarding what kind of a person Astarion is, I liked Neil's description the most: he is immoral but not amoral. It describes him rather well.

He likes messing with people. He doesn't play fair. He is rather abrasive once he drops the people-pleasing act and participates in conversation. He is selfish, he has a violent streak, and enjoys stirring trouble. And it's understandable: he doesn't believe he should conform to the rules and the norms because they are a complete and utter joke, and at least he is honest about it while other people keep fooling themselves and making meaningless feel-good statements. What’s the point of trying to be better when everyone is better than him in words only?

Even his disapproval of good choices has some pragmatic reasoning to it: alerting cultists at Figaro's place means losing the element of surprise and becoming a target (while letting Figaro die means getting the benefit of stealth and being able to attack on your own conditions); killing Valeria, a lazy and incompetent Investigator who basically asked for all of this to happen, sounds like such a small price to pay in exchange for tangling with the entire Tribunal. Nothing of value is lost; it’s not like we have to kill a refugee or the lady running an orphanage. Blowing up the Gondians? Well, they made their choice, why should we make our job harder by trying to fix their mistakes? We already have enough on our plate.

As for Dame Aylin, I think it's more of "We don't need to babysit the daughter of a literal goddess. Let's tell her that this noodle-armed wizard is after her and watch her break his spine".

But at the same time, there are things he draws the line at. Things he won't do unless forced. Things he will feel horrible about, without even trying to defend himself when confronted by someone he hurt.

Neil also mentioned that he is in a high-defense mode because he assumes that people will hold him to high moral standards (which they don't necessarily comply with) or condemn him, so he prefers to give them what they expect and revel in their accusations. He expects to hear that he deserved what happened to him because he was a corrupt magistrate (even though he no longer remembers what he did exactly) -- which sounds like a very superficial and hypocritical statement because what about all the people who suffered because he had no choice but to lure them to Cazador? Was his punishment worth their lives? Oh, he hopes the accusers enjoy the view from their high horses.

He expects to receive no empathy because he is a vampire spawn, a monster to be staked or chased away (and it's not like he is wrong given the reaction from the companions), so he doesn't ask or appeal to other people's humanity. He tries to approach each cooperation pragmatically, talking about advantages and benefits, the language of profit and value.

But, ironically, when he is offered acceptance and genuine support, no judgment, and no price tags attached, he happily welcomes it even though new friendships and relationships are an entirely new experience to him which can make him vulnerable.

He could have been a lot more active and intense in his attempts to manipulate the player’s sympathies and views, but those few times he tries, come off as very clumsy (the “You know what would be a good thing to do? To take over the cult!” talk with zero approval loss) or raw (all the times Astarion tries to convince romanced Tav to go along with the ritual). But he grows too attached, too appreciative of being seen as something more than a damned undead -- because this is what he wants even if he can’t make sense of what being something more even means. He wants to have an opportunity to find out.

So, is he evil at his core? In my opinion, the right words would be “cynical” and “bitter” rather than evil. If we look at his siblings, almost all of them did something horrible for the sake of survival: Leon doomed a random girl to save his own daughter, Dalyria tried to drain a child to cure herself of vampirism, Petras openly dreamed of exsanguinating a person after the ritual -- and this bunch considered Astarion to be the weakest. And yet, we’re encouraged to save them all and give them a chance at living, not surviving.

Can he be evil and do evil things? Absolutely. Even though he has an appreciation for headstrong people who stick to their principles and do the right thing, he certainly believes that destructive and cruel individuals are the ones who don’t lie to themselves and the world, so he will roll along and try to have as much fun as possible.

I'm noticing an interesting trend regarding Astarion and his fandom characterization. Let me preface this by saying I know how damaging trauma can be and I know how difficult it is to unlearn those things. That being said, I feel like there is this habit of equating Astarion being an asshole with the trauma he went through at Cazador's hand. And like, fundamentally Astarion is a selfish person, not necessarily a cruel one, but his selfishness does often lend itself to cruelty. This is especially obvious in Act 3 when, even after you've done his full quest-line, even if you've gone the "good" route, he still disapproves of kind actions. Like helping the clothing shopkeeper whose literally in the process of being murdered by that weird serial killer dwarf. One could argue it's a discrepancy between the cut-scene conversations and the gamplay at large but lbr that's not the way fandom tends to view things. An argument could be made that he has two centuries of damage to heal, but I think it is also just as likely that Astarion is an asshole. Like, fundamentally just kind of a dick. Lord knows villains get woobified at the drop of a hat, and I'm sure he will inevitably will be, but this strange justification of his behavior bothers me. He's still just as a valid as a victim of Cazador if he's not a kind person. His selfishness feels very baked in, very intentional and honest. He can be both, ya know? He can be traumatized and in need of therapy/healing, and he can also be aware that his actions are selfish enough that they frequently come off as cruel.

#astarion #bg3 astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #astarion brainrot

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meetmeatthecoda · 3 years ago

Note

It may be an odd take on anti-Redarina since it's sexual... but I've been thinking about it today and eventually decided to share my thoughts as my own two cents of evidences that Red is not Katarina.

You see, despite the dominant social position Red holds as the Concierge of Crime, he always seemed to give off major sub/bottom vibes for me (what with all the hints and sexual innuendos and his stories about being in sexual relationships with domineering women like Madeline Pratt).

And Katarina, for all we know about her, seems to me more like a dom/top person.

Which, in my opinion, serves to prove that they can't be one and the same person because, of course, Katarina could change her gender (though I seriously doubt that a woman of her character would do that, but that's the talk for another day)... but her sexual tastes? I doubt it.

Yes, anon!! 👏 Not to worry, I think you are 1000% right!! I'm not at all educated on trans facts & issues at all (so it's really not my place to be commenting on it) but I think we can all pretty safely agree that fundamental personality traits like these DON'T change when gender changes!! And I would definitely agree with your headcanons for both Red & Kat as far as sexual preferences go as well!! 👌 Tbh, this is just one of numerous theories (& straight-up, previously established canon facts, prior to the inexplicable change post 3B, that is) that disprove the Helltheory 🤷‍♀️ And - as has been pointed out already by many - Liz's mom was not important in the beginning of this show. I literally can't stress that enough. I think one could even make the argument that neither of Liz's parents were originally set to be the center of this show. Sure, her parentage & her past as it directly relates to her connection with Red. But were either of her parents ever meant to be so absurdly obsessed over this way?? I tend to doubt it!!

I mean, look, we meet Liz as a woman in her mid to late thirties, a capable career woman, happily married (ha), & looking to start a family of her own!! This was never the story of a desperate, adopted 18-year-old looking to find her real family. I think the ageist viewers that couldn't possibly see deep enough into the subtext to imagine a romantic relationship between a non-related Red & Liz just automatically shoved him in a f*ther-shaped box bc James was the "right" age. TPTB tried to put that to bed in Anslo Garrick with a straight-up, emphatic, clear-as-day "NO" but people couldn't accept it & after that, they decided to play to their general audience with the endless parade of f*ther, f*ther figure, faux f*ther, bio f*ther, faux bio f*ther, imposter f*ther, assumed f*ther, & finally back to f*ther figure bc they simply couldn't think of anything else, other than probably kind & f*therly neighbor. And once that was finally dead & gone where it belongs, they apparently scoured the internet for the next best thing, which happens to be Liz's only other parent: her m*ther. Which is just... hilarious & unbelievable, considering 👏 we 👏 did 👏 not 👏 start 👏 out 👏 this 👏 way 👏. God forbid a man love & try to protect a women he has no biological relation to, simply bc he idk... loves her? How laughable 🙄 Whatever, that's all my opinion, clearly, but if you ask me? The Helltheory is the unwarranted demon spawn of spite, desperation, & a lack of ingenuity. And it has no basis in canon, which is really the biggest problem. Therefore, I refuse to accept it 🙃

Anywayyy, sorry for this rant, anon, but you seem to have hit a sore spot 😂 Rest assured that none of this anger & frustration is directed at you, bc I think you're right & I completely agree with you!! 😄 So thank you for sending this my way, my friend, & much love to you!! ❤️

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lloydskywalkers · 5 years ago

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call the police and the fireman

I have zero explanation for this except that during the rare occasion of me working on my original novel, it occurred to me that out of all the dragon characteristics Lloyd could have, I’ve been short-changing him on of the coolest ones possible. Also @ninjawhoa did not talk me down so here’s Lloyd ignoring his one brain cell.

In his defense, Lloyd most certainly had not been trying to completely eviscerate the inside of his throat. That hadn’t been like, anywhere even remotely near the end goal. Was it something he'd wanted? No. Was it something he’d planned? Of course not, his plans aren’t that bad. Was it something he probably should have expected?

….well, maybe, but it’s too late now.

Way too late, Lloyd thinks to himself, as he finishes hiding the last specks of the incinerated fire alarm in the bathroom trash and immediately retreats to sticking his head beneath the running faucet again.

The thing is, though, smart as he normally is, Lloyd’s had it — well, he’s had it not so great, lately. It hasn’t been the easiest of times in his life, which is saying something, compared to the rest of it. So maybe he’d gotten a little too focused on the barest shred of good news he’d received during the entire thing, sue him.

You try being told you’ve actually been part-dragon your entire life, what would your first move be? And having grown up with dragons as a normal staple in his life, Lloyd’s had a whole lot of inspiration on that front.

In hindsight however, Lloyd thinks, as he tries not to cry over his poor, mutilated throat — he probably should’ve stuck with like, trying to give himself claws, or something. Or even the flying thing. The flying thing would’ve been way better.

The worst part is that it actually looked so stupid cool. Kai would lose his mind over how cool this is, and Lloyd can’t even show him, because he might lose his mind in an entirely different and much less enthusiastic way.

Lloyd tries for a tentative “hey guys”, and immediately doubles over in a bout of wheezing gasps, wishing he’d tried for the sweet bliss of unconsciousness-via-head-bashing instead.

Stuffing a towel in his mouth so the rest of the team doesn’t hear him hacking like a chronic smoker, Lloyd wonders 1) how long it’s going to take the green power to fix his throat, 2) how long he’s going to be able to get away with not speaking, and 3) how much of this he can blame on his great-grandmother before she vaporizes him.

He comes to the conclusion that he’s just gonna blame the whole thing on her.

******************************

Despite the circumstances they’d met under, Lloyd likes his great-grandmother. She’s pretty cool, as far as family members go, and he enjoys talking with her, even if ninety percent of their conversation ends up devoted to lecturing him about what “an absolute scumbag your great-grandfather was, child, truly the spawn of *garbled dragon curses*."

Actually, all their conversations tend to end that way, but Lloyd doesn’t mind too much. It’s kind of like if his great-grandparents has just divorced like normal people, instead of being otherworldly, immortal god-like beings who went to war with each other.

He hasn’t been talking to her for that long — it’d taken a lot of finagling the means of reaching the First Realm from his uncle, for one, and then he’d had to make sure he could get back home, of course. The whole thing ended up being pointless anyways, since his great-grandmother ended up coming to visit him, because he’s the only family member she hasn’t considered barbecuing at some point, apparently. (Yet.)

“—and you do look just like your father, back when he didn’t take after your thrice-cursed *garbled dragon cursing* of a great-grandfather,” she had said, inspecting him with her large eyes. “I was quite fond of him, you know. He was a true terror, as I’m sure you are. Or perhaps not, you have a sweeter look in your face. It’s the cheeks, I think, you’re not nearly as threatening as he ever looked.”

“Um, thank you,” Lloyd had awkwardly replied, as he’d had little to no reference point of whether or not she genuinely liked him at the time, and was being extra-cautious, because certain recent familial encounters had left him with the mindset that it was best to believe everyone related to him probably wanted to murder him.

Fortunately, his great-grandmother was not one of those types.

“I don’t know about the wings, little one,” she’d informed him as he’d dangled upside from her tail, eyeing him mournfully. “You seem to take too much after your mother’s side.”

Lloyd had been less than thrilled with that response, but he’d swallowed his disappointment the best he could.

“Now the teeth, though,” she’d said, her eyes gleaming. “Those, we can work with.”

That was how the fire-breathing had come to be in the first place — which, as you should note, was entirely his great-grandmother’s idea. She’d reasoned that since Lloyd not only appeared to have manifested most of his dragon characteristics in his mouth, but also had a direct connection to the element of fire, he might be able to both successfully breathe fire and survive the attempt.

“Wait, there’s a chance I wouldn’t survive?” Lloyd had asked, blinking.

“You’re exhaling fire through your little mortal throat, hatchling. Of course there’s a chance you wouldn’t survive. A very small one, mind you — I happen to like you a good deal, and it’d be a terrible shame if all I was left with in the world was the rest of your *garbled dragon cursing* family.”

She had also reasoned that since Lloyd seemed to have an excellent handle on both languages — even if Dragon did sound like butchered yowling in his accent, she bemoaned — perhaps there was a connection with the throat there. At any rate, they had both agreed that Lloyd would be far more likely to breathe fire from his throat than he would be sprouting wings anytime soon.

Lloyd had deliberately mentioned absolutely none of this to his team. If Kai ever learns that he’d been warned dying was an option and continued to try it anyways…

Well, it’s breathing fire. Lloyd’s staking his hopes on Kai being so impressed with how cool it is that he totally forgets about all about murdering his reckless little brother.

******************************

While his great-grandmother gives him all sorts of throat exercises he’s supposed to do — apparently the actual fire’s supposed to come from his chest, but the throat will take the worst of it — he doesn’t get the chance to actually test it out until a week or two later, when he’s walking home alone from the grocery late one night.

All he’s picked up is an extra-large bag of M&M’s and like, four things of cereal, so Lloyd’s in good spirits as he crosses one of the older alleyways. He’s also relaxed enough for the first time in about three months to let his guard down a bit, so it’s a real shame that he immediately gets jumped by thugs the second he does.

“Hands up, kid, nice and easy,” the biggest guy says, waving his gun at him. “We don’t want any trouble, just your money.”

Lloyd bites back a retort. Yeah, sure, they can have all fifty of his cents he’s got left. Lloyd’s a real billionaire here, in his training shorts and Zane’s old sweatshirt, who’s even teaching these guys how to pick targets—

“He said hands up, kid!” the second guy barks at him, his own gun leveling out somewhere wildly above Lloyd’s shoulder. “And drop the bags, too!”

That has Lloyd scowling. He spent the last of his junk food money on this, he’s not leaving it on the city streets, gross. He sighs, shifting his arms and beginning to call up his power, when an idea hits him. Lloyd’s mouth curves into a deliberate smirk.

“Hey kid, we said — hey, stop that creepy grinning, we’re pointing a gun at you—”

Lloyd just grins wider, opens his mouth, and breathes an explosion of streaming flame toward their faces.

If he were his father, Lloyd would call out something terribly impressive, like “may my hellfire vanquish you back to the eternal pit of misery you crawled out of, foolish scum” — but he’s not his father, so he’s been figuring he’ll end up saying something along the lines of “stop right there, sucker” because he was raised by a bunch of teenagers with the combined schooling level of mid-high school.

Unfortunately, all he ends up actually saying is a bunch of strangled screaming, because he’s currently forcing a miniature bonfire through his throat, and wow, he definitely did not calculate how much this was actually going to hurt—

It does the trick, at least. The thugs’ faces lose all their color faster than he can blink, and they jump back screaming in terror, dropping all their guns in their haste to escape.

Lloyd would be cackling like he hasn’t since he was about nine, but he’s too busy trying not die inhaling smoke through his scorched throat.

“Son of — hngh—”

Smoke is billowing out from between his teeth now, and Lloyd sucks in a strangled wheeze, his eyes tearing up as the smoke stings against them. He feels like he’s swallowed a blast from Kai, his throat hurts so bad, but it doesn’t feel deadly. He can already feel the buzz of green power doing it’s job, and the pathetic whining noises he’s making reassure him that his vocal chords are still there, even if it feels like he’s flambéed them.

“Worth it,” Lloyd croaks through his abused, raw throat, before collapsing on the street and nearly passing out.

******************************

The next morning is awful. If Lloyd hadn’t developed such a high pain tolerance as he has, he’d be in serious trouble right now.

Not that it makes it any better, he thinks to himself, trying not to whine as he accidentally swallows, his throat vengefully reminding him that he tried to charbroil it last night.

“Morning, Lloyd,” Cole says cheerfully. Lloyd gives him a weak smile in return, adding a little wave for flair, and hopes it’s enough.

“How would you like your eggs?” Zane asks him. Lloyd jerks a shoulder up in a shrug, trying to look as tired as he can. If he can convince them that he’s just exhausted, instead of slowly dying inside because he breathed fire through his throat last night—

“I want scrambled,” Jay says through a yawn, saving Lloyd from Zane’s quizzical gaze. “Make ‘em all scrambled, Zane, with that cheese you use.”

“A ‘please’ would be appreciated once in a while,” Zane mutters, but he’s already reaching for the fridge again.

Lloyd grits his teeth, trying desperately to ignore how much his mouth tastes like ash. Like, actual ash, which is disgusting. Lloyd’s never gonna be able to eat burnt marshmallows again, which is a true tragedy.

The price you pay for being a badass, Lloyd thinks to himself mournfully.

Kai comes in about then, still scrubbing at his eyes, yawning as he sits next to Lloyd. “Sleep alright?” he asks, words mangled through the yawn.

Lloyd nods, then tries to hide the wince that runs through him as his throat twinges. He’s apparently unsuccessful, because Kai narrows his eyes at him, suddenly looking much more awake.

“Hey, are you okay?” he says, sounding concerned. “Talk to me, bud."

Lloyd bites his lip. If Kai keeps asking, the others are gonna start looking over, and then that’ll be more suspicious. Maybe he can just tell him he’s got a cough? Yeah, he can do that. Just one small sentence, a few little words. He can handle that.

“I’m—ngh—”

Lloyd’s voices catches on the first word, squeaks like a broken recorder, and then coughs a burst of bright fire across the breakfast table.

A chorus of high-pitched screaming rings out across the breakfast room, Cole and Jay jumping back from the flames as Nya and Zane rush toward him, quickly putting out the fire that’s caught the wooden table. Kai’s dancing around Lloyd as he doubles over in hacking coughs, sounding two seconds from a panicked breakdown.

“—coughed up fire, that was fire, Lloyd what the FSM was that?!”

“M’a dragon,’member?” Lloyd wheezes, as he’s stared down by his family’s terrified faces. He coughs again, waving at the tiny puff of smoke that comes out, before giving them a shaky grin. “S’cool, right?”

He’s met with five blank stares.

“Oh dear,” Zane finally says, looking like he’s come to the conclusion that Lloyd is going to kill himself with this. Which is rude, Lloyd can’t be cool as heck if he’s dead.

“This is worse than the lightbulbs,” Cole says, faintly.

“Lloyd, how,” Nya breathes into her hands.

“Dude that’s sick!” Jay bursts out in excitement, immediately cementing his place as one of Lloyd’s favorite people ever. “You can breathe fire, what the heck!”

Kai shakes his head at him in awe, his voice reverent. “That’s so cool, that’s not eve—ennn oh my god he’s dying—!”

Kai’s excitement turns to a horrified shriek as Lloyd coughs up a mouthful of blood.

“S’okay,” Lloyd croaks, waving everyone off they crowd him, wiping at his mouth. “S’normal too. Throat’s just raw. It heals up after a bit.”

He’s met by five of the most unimpressed stares he’s seen all month.

“I’m making you a doctor’s appointment,” Zane sighs, tapping at his phone. “And you’re going over this with Sensei Wu.”

“And you’re not breathing fire anymore,” Cole scolds, eyebrows furrowed in worry.

“Without us,” Jay adds. Cole elbows him, and he scowls. “What? C’mon, this is super cool.”

“Jay,” Nya says, a warning in her voice.

Jay laughs nervously. “I mean, super dangerous, haha! Real, uh, really dangerous. You’re coughing up blood, that’s bad.”

Kai hovers by his shoulder, still looking torn between dreadful concern, overbearing overprotectiveness, and most importantly, an vicious kind of curiosity.

As Lloyd had hoped it would, curiosity wins out. “D’you think it’d work with me?” he finally asks him, a gleam in his eyes. “Since I can control fire, do you think I could breathe it too—”

“No,” Zane says, quickly.

“Absolutely not,” Nya says flatly. “Not a chance. Neither of you are going to try anything else with fire. If I catch you coughing up smoke, you’re both toast.”

Lloyd and Kai both nod dutifully.

“Of course,” Lloyd assures her, through a creaking rasp.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Kai echoes.

******************************

Nya storms out of the monastery at one a.m. that night to find both Kai and Lloyd in the middle of the training field, half the dummies burning down and both sprawled out on the ground. Lloyd is still hacking smoke up, having been responsible for the flames on the right side. Kai is on his hands and knees, his face pale and sweaty, responsible for the fires smoldering on the left. In terms of breathing fire, he’s only been able to trigger his gag relax about seven times, but in terms of enthusiasm, he’s contributed to the blaze on the whole by boosting Lloyd’s flames by eighty percent.

Nya spends about forty-five minutes alternating between yelling at them and dousing them with twin jets of water from her hands. Neither Kai or Lloyd mind getting sprayed by that point, but the yelling definitely doesn’t do wonders for the headaches they’ve both got from smoke inhalation.

******************************

After that fiasco, Lloyd is officially banned from breathing fire, influencing anyone else to try and breathe fire, or even mention breathing fire.

Lloyd declares that this is a prejudiced offense against him being half-dragon.

“You are a prejudiced offense against the entire health world on the whole,” Zane glares at him, tying off the last of the bandages he’s been wrapping around his throat. Lloyd makes a face at him. The bandages are overkill, and Zane knows it — all the damage is on the inside, anyways.

Next to them Nya is still chewing out Kai, who’s steadily chugging at the glass of water Cole forced on him. “I don’t care if you think you’re fireproof, and I don’t care if you—” she stabs an accusatory finger at Lloyd. “Have special elemental powers that’ll heal you eventually. If I so much as see a spark of fire from either of you, anywhere near your mouth, I’m going to super-soak you with the illegal water gun Jay built last summer.”

Kai and Lloyd pale in unison. Kai speaks up hesitantly, “Wouldn’t it just be easier if you hit us with your powers—”

“No,” Nya hisses, her eyes flashing murder. “Because it’s making a point. It’s the water gun of shame.”

Kai and Lloyd exchange commiseratory glances.

Cole and Jay don’t say much until Nya and Zane have wandered from the room, at which point they surge forward, eyes gleaming.

“Tell me you got video of it,” Jay whispers.

Kai grins. “Duh. Wait ’til you see what he did to the balance beams.”

******************************

After that, unfortunately, Lloyd really does have to stop breathing fire. Mostly because he’d like to be able to speak again without doubling over in wheezing coughs, but also because Nya’s legitimately terrifying with her water gun.

Also because Kai’s too scared of Nya as well, so Lloyd’s lost his claim to a bad influence.

Ah well, Lloyd mopes to himself. It’s a nice card to have up his sleeve in a pinch, he guesses, but clearly it was never meant to be a natural thing. He’s just too human. (Or too Oni — maybe that’s influencing it? He’ll have to ask his great-grandmother, next time she goes off on another rant about them.)

The important point is, he has every intention of not doing it again. Every intention.

But then he visits his father in prison again, because his dad’s chatty like that now, apparently. Which isn’t a terribly bad thing on its own, because Mr. Self-Proclaimed (or was it Harumi-proclaimed?) Emperor Garmadon has at least mellowed out a bit since the whole “wreck half the city in a rage” thing. And Lloyd’s been called here in person to check out the new security measures they put up, so he does have a good reason.

No, the breaking point comes when Lloyd’s trying to leave in peace, and his terrible dad of a father decides to make some snarky comment about how “boringly quiet you are today”, like Lloyd’s supposed to be his entertainment, or something.

Normally Lloyd would just ignore it and storm off, but his throat’s been killing him this whole time, and the vein in the upper right corner of his forehead is throbbing just a little too much. So instead of leaving, he whirls on his father, eyes flashing as he growls. Garmadon’s teeth bare, prepared to snap at him, and Lloyd opens his mouth to snap right back—

And promptly breathes a campfire’s worth of bright flames at him instead.

Lloyd claps a hand over his mouth in horror as the flames blossom out against the glass barrier, before doubling over in ragged coughs, smoke streaming through his fingers. A clamoring of alarms goes off, and that’s the only warning Lloyd gets before the emergency sprinklers come on, soaking both him and his father. At least they’ll hide the brimming tears from the smoke in his eyes, Lloyd thinks miserably, watching as his gi soaks through.

Garmadon is dead silent. He stares at him with wide eyes, his mouth hanging slightly open. He closes his mouth, blinking twice, his jaw working. Then, finally— “That is undeniably unfair,” he growls. “She taught you how to do that? I’ve been begging her since I was six.”

Despite the intense agony his throat is in, Lloyd beams. “It’s so cool, right?” he says, his voice sounding like a malfunctioning blender. “Totally awesome. No idea why she wouldn’t teach you. Must suck to be—”

Lloyd doesn’t get to gloat much more than that, because he starts wheezing again and the security guards come drag him out “for his own safety”, but for the look on his dad’s face?

So worth it.

#lego ninjago #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #kai smith #nya smith #the whole squad's there but mostly just lloyd #and his great grandma #the alternate title was 'lloyd's too hot (hot damn)' dont judge me #my fic

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salenakingston · 4 years ago

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The Future: Theories and Predictions

Boy what a wild ride this has been hasn’t it? The Future has been out for a few days now and I’ve seen a lot of interesting discussion going on about it. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to toss in my two cents about some things that I have noticed, a few theories/food for thought, and some predictions I have for the next video. Yeah we’ve got a while before then, but that gives us all plenty of time to expand on theories and ideas. Anyways, onto the rambling. I apologize if I am repeating some stuff that other people have already said <3.

1. Shiromori and Mystery

This seems to arguably be the biggest mystery (haha) that’s still present in these videos. A lot of what we can gleam from them is some interactions and still image flashbacks. It’s clear there’s a connection between her and mystery’s blood, and I’m pretty sure we can assume mystery is the one that brought her to life with his blood. And given the third image that is shown to us in Hellbent, I think it’s safe to assume they had some kind of symbiotic relationship, at least in the past.

But now with the release of future, there seems to be much more going on between them. I know these details have been pointed out by many other people, so I won’t drag on too long about this, but rather go over some things that stood out to me. I had seen one user point out the fact that Mystery hesitated to join the fight between Vivi and Shiromori at the start, only stepping in once Vivi’s face got cut again, and again when the vines started coming towards them.

It’s like Mystery doesn’t want to fight her, and this seems further supported after Shiromori loses her arms and they get frozen over. He steps in and protects her, something that surprises her and Vivi. He cares about her, even if he is afraid of her to some degree. There is more evidence to this when Shiromori’s body is destroyed (I’ll come back to this bit shortly). The look he gives is shock/horror at what happened. Sorry I am not good with description words.

One other interesting thing to note is that when Shiromori attacks Mystery when he snaps is that she can be shown crying. So she to some level cares about Mystery as well, to the point where yes she wanted his blood, but not want him dead. Just an interesting detail.

So with all that being said do I have any predictions about this going into the next video? Honestly not really, at least not at the moment. Considering how the ending of the Future is set up, I’m not sure how much more information we will get on these two. I know the main creators have mentioned the possibility of doing more after this current arc. Maybe this would be something to explore if more is not shared. One thing I will say about Shiromori is I don’t believe she is dead. Yes, we see her body disintegrate, but her heart remained in tact. After all Vivi, only hit it and didn’t break it as far as we could see.

2. Mystery and his tails

Now, I will say upfront that I know next to nothing about kitsunes and their lore, so for a lot of this I’ll just be going off what we see in the videos. I do know that the tails in lore connect with a kitsune’s age, but I am not sure if that plays a role here, as many have already pointed out that in the Shiromori flashbacks he has nine, in the Ghost flashback he has six, and present he has seven, which become nine at the end of the Future. Since that all has been talked about, I have something more to chew on in terms of this and Mystery’s heart itself.

It seems that to Mystery, his tails are connected to other beings, beings that he cares about, as evident to him growing his eighth tail when Vivi gets injured and his ninth when Shiromori “dies.” Each person is represented by a stream of color coming out of his heart.

I do find it interesting that of all the colors, those are the two with patches on them, making me wonder if this also ties into his connection with Mushi and Mystery’s past, but I don’t have enough to go off with that. What I am more interested in are the other colored streams. A lot of people have been connecting colors to others we know, like magenta/purple being Lewis and yellow/oragne being Arthur, something I also support. Green might be linked to ??? but that makes me wonder something I’ll get into in another bullet point.

Bringing this all back to my point, this is just something to think about more than a theory. If we assume that this is the case, then did Mystery grow to six tails after everything that happened in the cave, or did he start out with six? Along with this, if we assume who some of these colors belong to, who got hurt or killed between the time in the cave and present day to make Mystery have seven tails? I could just be looking too deep into this, but thought it was interesting to look at when put into the context of the previous videos.

3. Mystery and ???/Multiple ???

I know that header might seem a bit confusing but stick with me on this one. There’s a clear connection between Mystery and ??? that is more of less confirmed by the end of the video when ??? reaches out and grabs Mystery’s heart. It’s clear that ??? has got a hold on Mystery... but my question is how? The last time we saw it was in Freaking Out, and it wasn’t for very long. It was sure quick to run away when Shiromori popped out of the ground, looking very worried. Almost as worried as someone else we know.

More importantly though is how did ??? not only find the Mystery Skulls gang, but catch up to them running around as just an arm? He has been hanging out at the cave until Shiromori even showed up. We at least know Shiromori was able to track them due to the flowers she spawned, and was fast enough underground to keep up with two moving cars going at a very high speed. I find it a bit hard to believe that ??? was following them the whole time, or was even able to keep up.

I will admit that there is still not a lot we know about ??? and it is very possible that there is more that will be shown in the next video, but this does give me a couple theories that are worth looking into.

Either ??? might have been a part of Mystery the whole time, or the events of the cave left a bit of ??? not just in Mystery, but Arthur’s arm as well, which would mean there’s two... pieces for lack of a better word, running around. I’m not swayed towards one theory over the other, as both seem to have a good backing to them. There is a clear connection between the two of them though as evidence from a couple frames that pass rather quick after Mystery grows his eighth tail.

He’s already changing at this point, and it only fully goes through at the end once Mystery’s passed out. I assume that is because it is a point when ??? could easily take over. But that also harkens back to my second theory. How? If all of ??? is still trapped in Arthur’s arm, how would Mystery be changing like this? There’s no way the arm was somehow able to get inside him off screen right? It makes me wonder if the arm (the physical arm, not just ???) will turn up in the next video and expand more on how it was able to do this.

4. Arthur’s arm/??? and Lewis

And that finally leads me to my final point, being Arthur’s own arm, specifically the left one in both senses. Yes, it’s metal now, but that doesn’t mean he’s got full control over it. At the end of the Future, when Mystery starts to transform, Arthur’s arm really starts to freak out. I only really noticed when @ectoimp and @arthurtristankingsmen pointed it out on my feed, but the arm seems to be moving on its own and pulling him towards Lewis.

Now I’ve seen a couple theories floating around about this. One thing I would like to point out is the color of the sparks. I’ve seen people tribute this to Arthur himself, but I think it’s just simply a show of the metal arm itself. It’s metal and it’s a show of it sparking and malfunctioning. Yes, we saw this when Lewis’ sparks when into Arthur’s arm and shorted it out, but he’s a ghost and that was his power. These may just be normal mechanical sparks coming out.

Another theory was that it was pulling Arthur towards his friends. While yes, I could see that, there’s one key detail, and that’s Arthur pulling his arm away from Lewis once he sees what it’s doing. Now why would he be physically holding his arm back if it only wanted him to be back with his friends?

I’m more inclined to believe that Arthur’s arm might still be possessed in some way, or ??? still has some kind of influence over it, even if it is metal. With that in mind, something to think about, why is it still going for Lewis? We know it was used to push Lewis off the cliff and kill him, but Lewis is dead now. Granted he is a ghost, but what can Arthur’s arm do to him? It can physically touch him as we saw in Hellbent, but what else? Is there some connection between Lewis and ??? that we don’t know about? Or is it perhaps ??? trying to get rid of another threat since Lewis is still around? Maybe Vivi as well? Just some things to think about.

Also, I wonder if this has a deeper meaning between Mystery, ???, and Arthur given the “vision” we see in Freaking Out where Arthur’s arm can also be seen sparking at the sight of Mystery in kitsune form. Perhaps more than just clever foreshadowing?

5. Predictions

This is mere speculations now, but what can I see coming out of this and going to the next video? Boy we’re hitting the climax and I’m super excited. Ok, so most of the new videos have been starting with some kind of intro before the actual song starts. I imagine the next one will as well. About what I am not sure.

Now this is purely based on a post made by @heilos, but the word designs was used. Designs, plural. We’ve already seen Murder Mystery, so who else could it be? I’ve got three guesses on who could be getting some kind of design. Arthur: if something is really going on with his arm and ??? starts to take over again, ??? itself: maybe getting a look of his own rather than just being a walking arm, and Lewis: hell, if Mystery can change forms and is a supernatural being, then why can’t Lewis do the same? Especially if Arthur and Vivi play some kind of role in that.

I also think Arthur might play some kind of larger role than just being the one running away. I image his will still do that, but think about it. He’s had experience with ???, he’s got a soft spot for Mystery, even after what was done to his arm, and maybe that could lead to him being a key to helping bring Mystery back to himself.

Holy shit that got long. Sorry for my rambling, but I love sharing about something I care this much about. We may have to wait another two years, but the wait is always worth it! Please let me know your thoughts if you have any or expand on some of these ideas! <3

#mystery skulls animated #msa spoilers #msa theory #msa prediction #salena speaks #thank you for listening to me ramble #long post

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bffsoobin · 4 years ago

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redamancy

↳your part time diner job was far from glamorous but it allowed you the money to visit your favorite ice cream store and subsequently your favorite boy. Choi Beomgyu knows your milkshake order by heart, and you can only hope he wants to know your personality just as well.

find the moodboard here

01| 02

➤ fluff, vaguely 60s!au

Word Count:1,614

A/N: This post and the second part that will be posted tomorrow are in collaboration with @bloomingjun who made the lovely mood board you see above! Please make sure you go check out her work and support her blog!

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:••:•.•

The pinching of your roller skates became progressively less of a concern as you neared the end of your shift at the diner. Your regulars had left you a generous tip at the table upon their departure and your heart skipped at the thought of spending the money at your favorite ice cream parlor. Your heart nearly stopped at the thought of the charming boy who worked at said ice cream parlor. Leaning against the polished counter, you stared at the seconds ticking on the bright blue clock above the restaurant’s entrance and prayed for the clock to strike 3:00. As soon as the longest arm touched the 3, you skated to your middle aged boss and declared that you were leaving. In the staff room, you hastily plopped yourself down on the old chair and began working the rollerskates off of your feet. Wearing thick socks helped you avoid blisters but made removing the heavy shoes so much more work. Once you hauled the shoes and socks off you heaved a sigh of relief. The key in your blouse pocket jingled as you pulled it out to open the locker which held all of your personal belongings. It was much too small to hold a change of clothing; but you were grateful you could at least store a pair of normal shoes.

Once changed, you cut through the kitchen to duck out of the back door. You only got about halfway there before the kind head chef waved you over. The smell of grease intensified as you got closer to the man with a kind smile on his weathered face.

“What’s up, Sal?” you tried to keep the annoyance out of your voice at the time he was taking from you. It was exactly a six minute walk from the diner to the ice cream shop, and you wanted to catch the cute counter boy before you’d have to head home for dinner. Sal offered you a smile, despite the fact that he probably recognized the clip of your voice.

“Just wanted to let you know, somebody called the kitchen looking for you earlier. Her name was Elizabeth. I told her you were still working. Do you know her?” Your eyes almost fell out of your head with how hard you rolled them. Yes, you knew Elizabeth. She was your annoyingly persistent best friend who could not keep her nose out of your business. You thanked Sal and bounded out the door; remembering to take your grievances up with Elizabeth after you left the parlor.

Exactly six minutes later, you arrived at the storefront that had occupied your mind every day for the last five weeks. Shiny metal glinted in the sunlight as you looked up at the sign that read Downtown Ice Cream Shoppe. Giddy excitement rose in your throat as you reached for the handle of the heavy door and heaved it aside. Your work skirt ruffled around the top of your knees as you stepped in. The familiar interior greeted you as you sat down on the white leather stool you always inhabited. It gave the perfect view of your favorite boy from several different angles. A menu stared up at you from the countertop but you ignored it; there was no reason to consult the menu when you always asked for the same exact thing. Instead all of your focus honed in on the boy of your dreams- Beomgyu. He was currently hovering next to who you assumed to be a new hire, a younger boy with very dark hair and a polo shirt that was a bit too big.

“Okay, you’re doing good. Just remember that you have to-” Beomgyu stopped speaking in favor of squealing at the thick milkshake that began leaking out of an overturned class. The thump of metal drew the eyes of many patrons but neither of the boys turned their heads. The new hire gasped, apologizing profusely to Beomgyu and wiping up the mess as well as he can. “It’s okay, just always make sure you take the mixer all the way off of the stand. I’ll get a wet rag.”

Beomgyu turned away from the milkshake station and immediately the two of you made eye contact. A wide grin split your face as Beomgyu flushed. He reached for the wet rag that was diagonal of your seat and gave it a small squeeze. Your heart jumped into your throat as you watched his honeyed eyes peek out from under his hair to trail over your form. The light pink ballcap he wore as part of his uniform only added to his endearing qualities. He smiled back at you, holding up a finger to indicate that he would be right back.

Once he tossed the damp rag back to the nervous new boy, Beomgyu leaned on the counter in front of you. He fumbled as he tried to place his elbow casually on the counter, causing your eyes to widen at his clumsy behaviors. The new boy let out a chortle at his co-worker's slip up. You decided you liked the kid. The boy in front of you huffed and cleared his throat to pull your attention back to him. The thought that he wanted you to look at him made butterflies spawn in your stomach.

“So,” he drew the word out as if he had all the time in the world. “The usual, sugar?” He was already on the way to the machine, pushing the new guy toward a family who had just entered so that he could make your shake just the way you liked. You picked at your fingernails while the loud machine whirred and drowned out Elvis’s crooning through the radio. For a second you let yourself admire Beomgyu’s slim body in his well fitted polo and slacks. Whichever entity led you to this moment, you thanked them.

A strawberry shake with double whipped cream and exactly three cherries invaded your line of sight and you sighed happily at it. Immediately, your lips wrapped around the straw and you took a long sip. “Thank you so much, Beomgyu,” you gushed to the worker who watched on with satisfaction.

“Anything for you,” he teased you, but the underlying tone of sincerity didn’t go unnoticed. You cocked an eyebrow at that, wondering if the statement applied to more than your peculiar milkshake requirements. Beomgyu left you to wait on a few more customers as you milled over the truth behind his words.

“How was it?” His smooth voice pulled you out of a fog you hadn’t known you slipped into. You scratched the side of your nose awkwardly.

“How was what?” Beomgyu snickered and leaned in closer to you, his forearms resting just a foot away from yours as he spoke again. Up this close, you could see small hints of stubble cropping up on his otherwise flawless skin.

“I asked you how your day at work was,” his eyes never left yours as he spoke. His tongue poked out to lick at his bottom lip while he waited for your response.

“Oh” you frowned into the milkshake as you tried to find the right words. “It was fine, I guess? Sebastian was being an asshole but nothing new there.” You didn’t miss the intake of breath you heard from Beomgyu at the mention of Sebastian, your classmate and neighbor. You continued recalling your day and deciding which parts were worth sharing. “Oh! The Bakers came and left me a two dollar tip.” You fished the money out of your skirt pocket and handed him a bill. The price of your order was exactly 65 cents, considering your two extra modifications. His eyes widened at the idea of a tip that big on top of your normal paycheck; but he played it off as well as he could. The dollar bill was plucked from between your fingers with a precision only Beomgyu could execute before he walked to the cash register at the other end of the bar. It dinged loudly as you fished a cherry out of your milkshake and thoughtfully chewed on it. Your eyes roamed over a new flier taped to the wall and a thought cropped up in the back of your mind.

“Hey, Beomgyu?” you called before the logical part of your brain could stop you. He practically bounded over to you, returning your change in a way that ensured his fingers would brush against yours. You tilted your head toward the brightly colored poster. “Would you uh,” you swallowed a lump in your throat. “Do you want to go to the amusement park together?” The whole time you spoke, blaring alarms were going off in your mind. Your mother always told you that you should wait for the boy to ask first; and as Beomgyu stood silently, you wondered if she was right. He puffed out a breath before leaning down to your eye level and giving you an award winning grin. A breath you didn’t even know you were holding left your lungs. Beomgyu grabbed a straw from the holder next to you and plopped it into your milkshake. Your eyes grew wide in shock as he leaned down and took a long sip from what was left in your glass. A horrified gasp left your lips at the thought of him consuming part of your favorite treat.

Beomgyu giggled at your shock and you thought the sound alone was enough to stop your heartbeat. “Of course we can go! How’s 7 o’clock, sugar?” The nickname never failed to redden your ears as you nodded your confirmation that 7 o’clock would be fine.

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feliciohno · 4 years ago

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Austria and Romano

SO anyone who knows me knows I’m the biggest fucking Italy kin so I care a lot about his character and any relationships he has with others. However, I’ve been seeing some other Italy stans talk about these two characters like they’re spawns of satan and oH Boy is it wild. So I’m here to give my two cents on them matter, if I may.

So for anyone who doesn't know there have been posts around about the idea that Austria and Romano are highly abusive to Italy. Firstly, I want to say, not offence, but most the people making these clames are so hypocritical. You CAN’T claim Austria and Romano abuse Italy and then go around and ship Gerita like it’s gods work. That’s so stupid. Germany is just as, if not more, mean and violent with Italy in canon as anyone else in the show is.

Let’s talk about Austria first.

So the claim is that he abuses Italy as a child when he lives with him in Chibitalia. I can see where it comes from, dude steps on him and forces him to be like a maid and shit. First I want to put on the table I don’t think Italy is actually a child. Nation’s bodies seemingly represent certain states of their countries. They grow in much different rates than humans, but that doesn’t stop their mental progression as they live. Italy has been alive for SO FUCKING LONG. Maybe he is physically a child and still kinda child-like mentally (though he is even as an adult) he's not really a child in the same way a human child is a child. If that makes sense? You really can’t compare a nation child to a human child at all. You can see that their ages and bodies aren’t connected just by looking at Sealand. He sings about how he’s stuck in a kid’s body and despritly wishes to be an adult. It’s due to his nation that he’s stuck like that- quite possibly forever. It also can be noted that Italy isn’t even that helpless as a child anyways. Remember Turkey?

As for the physical violence, you have to take into account the way this show functions. This show at it’s core is a comedy. It uses physical humor to represent different things between the characters. From war to relationship status. Even just beating each other up cause they piss each other off. When they strangle each other it really isn’t that deep. And honestly? It can’t be. No matter what you ship those two characters have probably kick each other’s shit in at least once. The show uses physical comedy as a representation. It really doesn’t mean that much and if you make it too deep than none of the characters are gonna have healthy relationship with one another.

Aside from these, one of the biggest parts of Chibitalia is how their relationship develops. At first they don't get along, Austria seemingly can’t stand the little shit. But as they grow and as they live together you can see they become closer. We even see that now in the present Italy and Austria are actually very close and it’s really sweet in my opinion. Honestly, this show is pretty flat with how it shows stuff but thinking about a blossoming brotherly or even father son relation between them is kinda cute in my opinion but then again I could just have brain worms :P

Next onto Romano

Now, Romano and Italy’s relationship is shown more verbal than physical. Which makes sense because Romano as a person is more verbal than physical anyways. He uses his words not his fists. And yeah Romano is kinda mean to Italy but like? Who is he not mean to? He’s even an ass to Spain who he accepted a marriage proposal from lmao??? Romano is just an ass and that’s okay. What’s not okay is to call people who like him “pompous cunts” :)

That being said, you can’t sit and say that the Italy brothers’ bad relationship is one sided?? Italy is just as bad. Most of his nicities to his brother seem forced at best and he openly can’t even compliment the guy like damn Feli at least lie lmao

There really isn’t too much to say on Romano’s side of things. Like I have my own interpretation of his character and their relationship but this isn’t the post to get into it I think. As for the claim that he’s abusive to Italy I just think it’s dumb and hypocritical to think Italy is some god given saint?

This all being said, it’s okay to look a bit deeper into the stuff in this show. Like I said, it’s pretty flat and the writing is almost purely comedy based with not much else to it. I just feel like if you go deep in the wrong place you’re just gonna end up in a hole. Never the less, it’s fine to not like a character. You can even hate them if you want. It’s not fine to be an ass about it to others

#hetalia #hws italy #hws romano #hws austria #feliciano vargas #roderich edelstein #lovino vargas #vee~#hey maybe reblog my stuff maybe #i see a lot of yall liking and not reblogging stuff #reblogging does way more to help content creators!#thx

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fytheuntamed · 5 years ago

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Do you have any thoughts on why the novel might be so popular among lgbt people despite (sometimes quite obviously) being written by a straight women for straight women. I think this is quite evident in for example the sex scenes

Why do I think the novel is so popular amongst LGBTQ+ people despite being written by a straight woman for straight women? Simple! It’s a good story and the characters are complex and intriguing. No piece of media is ever perfect, so it simply comes down to whether an individual feels the positive aspects of the media outweigh the negative aspects of the media. Are there problematic aspects within the novel? Of course! But that doesn’t mean the novel as a whole should be disregarded. You can consume media while still being critical of it, just like you can like a character while acknowledging that they’re not a good person. LGBTQ+ people, like everyone else, value a good story and interesting characters, so even if there are aspects of the story that we dislike, we may still stick around if we think it’s worth it! Also, I think there’s a shortage of stories like “Mo Dao Zu Shi” where you have LGBTQ+ characters whose sexuality isn’t the focus of the story. Yes, Wangxian are soulmates and very much in love, but that isn’t the whole point. You have a delightful bundle of politics, magic, familial ties, concepts of right and wrong, mystery, etc etc that also features a beautiful love story between two men. I guess my point is, LGBTQ+ people are flawed just like everyone else and sometimes we consume content even if we don’t agree with every part of it.

I’ve avoided getting involved in any discourse surrounding the various versions of MDZS because I wanted to keep this blog drama free, however I would like to take this chance to offer my own thoughts on the “problematic” aspects of the novel. Before I get into it, I just want to make three things clear: 1) I’m white, 2) I’m not mlm, I’m a lesbian, and 3) I’ve only read the second half of the novel and honestly I can’t remember too much of the specifics. The relevance of my opinion on the matter, therefore, is limited and my words should be read with this fact in mind. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and feelings on this matter, so do feel free to either leave a comment or reblog and add your two-cents. All I ask is that we keep it respectful so this can continue to be an enjoyable space for all fans.

I’ve been going through the untamed’s tumblr tag daily since the start of this blog in August 2019, so I’ve seen the whole spectrum of opinions on this matter. Some people feel very strongly that some of the ways in which MXTX writes particular aspects of the novel are “problematic,” some people are indifferent, and others feel that criticism of MXTX’s writing comes from a lack of knowledge of Chinese culture (particularly LGBTQ+ Chinese culture). (I remember seeing a post touching upon this last matter, but I didn’t save it, so unfortunately I can’t link it.)

I think the two most common criticisms of the novel that I have come across pertain to matters of consent and the imposing of heteronormative concepts onto Wangxian. Again, I want to stress that I haven’t read the novel in its entirety and my memory of it is foggy. Talking about consent first, some felt the scene in the novel where LWJ kisses an unexpecting blindfolded WWX was a big no no, while others thought it was a very sweet, romantic scene. (To give context for those who have only seen the drama, this scene would have been placed in episode 25 had they included it). For this matter, I’m of the belief that consent is a must. Regardless of whether WWX enjoyed the kiss, the fact stands that no one is entitled to another’s body, and this is why consent is, in my eyes, non-negotiable. For those who have no problem with this scene, I do think it is worth considering how you would feel about this scene had it involved, say, Jin Zixuan kissing a blindfolded Jiang Yanli. If that had been the case, I do think the majority of readers would have found the scene in poor taste (I could be wrong, though!). I will say that the trope of the forceful kiss is extremely common and can be found in every genre; it’s definitely not restricted to LGBTQ+ couples. For the aforementioned reason, I don’t like the forceful kiss scenario irregardless of the genders of the people involved. I do think writing such scenes for LGBTQ+ couples in particular can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, particularly that LGBTQ+ people have no respect for personal boundaries and can’t control their physical desires. I think the situation is doubly bad if the person who is being kissed is “not yet gay,” because again, it perpetuates the idea of the big bad gay person and the innocent “straight” person who is at the whims of said big bad gay.

Moving on to WWX and LWJ’s sex life, I have seen multiple people in the tag mentioning WWX having a “rape kink” and their discomfort with this fact. Logically, I understand that we are all allowed, as human beings with different tastes and preferences, to enjoy the things that bring us pleasure (excluding certain obvious things). That being said, I do not personally enjoy rape fantasies in my media and try to stay far away from it. As I mentioned, we are all welcome to our own tastes and preferences, but I do think it is important that we realize that we are all also the product of our environments. Things, including kinks, do not exist in vacuums, and therefore they must arise as a result of some mixture of external and internal forces. Does MXTX giving WWX a rape kink automatically make her demon spawn? Not really. Does MXTX giving WWX a rape kink add anything to his character or the story? Also not really. All this being said, I do think LGBTQ+ media is oversaturated with consent issues and I’d personally like to see this come to an end, because once again, it perpetuates harmful stereotypes that do have a real impact on LGBTQ+ individuals.

As for the imposing of heteronormative concepts onto Wangxian, I think the biggest complaint I’ve seen is about WWX being referred to as the “mom” or the “wife” within the Wangxian couple. I would like to state here that this may be a situation in which cultural differences come into play. Additionally, because the novel is not originally written in English, it may be a case of telephone in which the true meaning becomes distorted as it is translated from one language to another and then to another and so on and so forth. Therefore, I am going to proceed with my thoughts on the matter in a more generalized way. For me, this is a big pet peeve of mine, to the point where I will not reblog content that refers to any of the male characters as “mom” or “wife.” My reasoning is simple: WWX is a man, so he would be someone’s “dad” or “husband,” not their “mom” or “wife.” I know from first-hand experience that non-LGBTQ+ people will often try to place a gay couple within a heterosexual context to make it easier for them to process how two women or two men could be together. I understand the reasoning behind this way of thinking, but that does not mean this way of thinking should be encouraged. It’s bad enough that non-LGBTQ+ couples are ensnared in an endless maze of gendered ways of being and thinking - let’s not force that on LGBTQ+ couples as well. My other issue is that the words “mom” and “wife” not only have gendered connotations, but they have implicit sexual connotations as well. In this context, “mom” and “wife” are just another way of saying “bottom.” Just think about it; nobody’s out there calling LWJ “mom” or “wife.” The whole idea of “top” and “bottom” in gay media is so……..it’s almost like an obsession? And for those of you who may be thinking it’s not that deep and has no bearing on real life….I really wish that were true. Go look at the comments section of any gay couple’s youtube video and you will invariably find someone asking who is the top and who is the bottom. That’s invasive as fuck, y’all, and you don’t see that shit on straight couple’s videos (again, because the assumption is that women are always in the submissive, therefore there’s no need to ask because it’s assumed the answer will always be that the woman “bottoms” and the man “tops”). All this being said, I can only speak about this matter from my viewpoint as a lesbian. If one day I were to get married, I wouldn’t want people referring to my wife as my “husband,” because the whole point is that we’re both the wife! I know there isn’t one rule/mindset that applies to all gay people, so I would love to hear others’ feelings on this matter.

Finally, I would also like to briefly touch upon Mo Xuanyu, who we don’t really get to see in the drama. I don’t know whether LWJ or WWX ever explicitly state their sexualities or which gender(s) they’re attracted to, but I’m pretty sure Mo Xuanyu is explicitly stated to be strictly into men (please correct me if I’m wrong!). I do wonder what MXTX’s intentions were (if there were any) when she decided to make Mo Xuanyu gay, because what I’ve grasped of his characterization is that he is written similarly to other gay male characters that give the impression they were created by checking off a list of every popular stereotype about gay men. I guess I’m just curious, as someone who knows very little about Mo Xuanyu, how others felt about his character in terms of complexity and stereotypes.

If you took the time to read all this, thank you! Let me know your thoughts~

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #cql #mo xiang tong xiu #mxtx #long post #sorry this took me a while to respond to anon #i was away from home and also i knew it would end up being long so i wanted to have the time to properly answer you #ask #anon #Anonymous

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royallyprincesslilly · 5 years ago

Text

Title: Anatomy 101***

Chris Evans AU x Reader One Shot

Warning: SMUTTY, SMUT, SMUT, NSFW, cursing, choking, slightly older man/college student

Word Count: 5.6k

Note: Sooo, at this point, I’m just going to stop apologizing and giving summaries. I think everyone just expects me to be one of those writers who just have fifty-‘leven open WIP

**Loosely edited**

**Loosely Proofread**

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

"Uuugh!"

You slammed your palm down on the alarm clock. Its annoying blaring was really grinding your nerves especially given the fact that you hadn't gotten much sleep because you decided to go to the frat party last night and didn't get in until nearly four in the morning. You looked at the clock and grimaced seeing it read eleven.

Why the fuck did I take this class? Yes it was a core class, but you didn't have to take it this early, you could have taken it in the fall, but you had the bright idea of doing it in the spring. Groaning again you rose off the bed and sat at the edge. Hating yourself some more for your asinine decision you dragged your feet to gather your bath supplies so you could get a quick shower. You walked through the hall with your eyes closed; muscle memory was carrying you. Not caring what was going on around you, you walked into the shower room, stripped and stepped into the hot stream of water. This was precisely what you needed, not only were you a little hungover, but you were also half asleep. Usually, you wouldn’t want to get your hair wet this close to class because then you'd have to battle with it to get it straight and the process took entirely too long, but now you didn't care at all. The water beamed down on your scalp, and you sighed thoroughly enjoying it.

By the time you made it back to your room, you had less than thirty minutes to get dressed and make it across campus to your Anatomy and Physiology class. Doing your best to hurry, you picked something cute but not too cute. It was after all an 11 am class, and the professor was a boring old man who lost your attention the minute he uttered his first word. That was bad; you needed this class not only for your degree but your career. How could you become a clinical physiologist if you didn't understand the essential functions of the human physiology? You couldn't, plain and simple. You needed to find a way to get your head in the game or else you'd be done for.

Hearing the campus clock striking eleven, you rounded the corner and ran down the steps into the health sciences building where your class was held. You gripped your heels tightly in your hands. You regretted the choice as soon as you stepped out your dorm and saw you had eight minutes to get across campus. On an average day walking, it took at least twelve to get to class. You panted and bumped into a group of students standing around talking.

"Hey, watch it!"

"You watch it. This is an education facility talk outside idiot!"

Not bothering to go back and forth you ran up the flight of stairs and down the hall to the class door and flung yourself inside.

"And that is why and how the cardiovascular system is easily the most important system in the body."

Everyone looked at you. Ignoring the eyes, you hurried up the steps and to one of the many seats. There were only fifteen people in this class because everyone else was smarter than your dumb ass. You made it to the fourth row back and took the closest seat. Your heart was pounding in your ears as you tried to catch your breath. You closed your eyes and held your head back, thinking it was way too early for this shit.

"Is everything all right Ms--Y/N?"

Your head snapped forward and landed on the man standing in front of the room, half perched on the desk.

"Holy shit you're gorgeous!"

The snickers that rang out around you alerted you that your censor had failed you yet again. You pinched your lips together and closed your eyes; embarrassment filled you.

"I mean--uh, yes everything is fine," you corrected and dug into your bag to retrieve your notebook and other supplies.

"Thank you for the compliment, much appreciated," he said as he rose from the desk and walked around it, giving you the first view of his perfect ass. Your jaw dropped as you gawked. This was not your professor. This man was nowhere close to being your professor. Everything about him was the opposite. He was taller easily reaching 6'3, his eyes looked to be blue from here while your professor's could have been green, or brow, or green, hell you didn't know. This man before you was built like he spent two hours in the gym a day and didn't take any days off and his ass looked like you could bounce a quarter, a nickel, a dime, and a penny of it and it would bounce off and create ninety-five cents, he had a magical ass, a magically luscious ass. He turned around, and your eyes widened as they zeroed in at the crotch of his pants. You could see a subtle bulge, a bulge of a man who was packing a semi-automatic but that said semi-automatic was asleep.

"Eh-eh-eh-em!"

Shaking your head at the unexpected loud sound, you looked up to see him looking at you. You'd been caught. You averted your eyes and flipped to an open page in your notebook and began taking notes. Thinking to yourself that no man let alone an academic professor should be this fine, you took a few calming breaths and did your best to listen to the lecture. You found yourself getting lost in him because not only was he gorgeous he was smart, those two put together made him the sexiest man you’d seen on this campus. Before long, you found yourself having little daydreams as he spoke. You fantasized about his big hands squeezing your ass, his lips tasting yours, his thighs resting on either side of your cheeks as you took every inch he had to offer. In a matter of minutes, you were wet and getting quite hot and bothered.

An hour and forty-five minutes into your two-hour class, he placed the chalk down and walked to the front of the desk where he leaned against it. His thighs pressed together, and you wondered what it would be like to sit across his lap. You looked around and noticed for the first time the entire class was females. You wondered if they’d known sexy, blue eyes and dreamy would be here. When you looked ahead there, he was standing in front of you down at the front of the class. It was so unexpected you jumped and sank back into your seat. It was then you saw a sly smirk spread across his face.

“Ms. Y/N.”

You raised an eyebrow to him, giving him more of your attention, even though he’d had it this entire time.

“True or false, Dopamine is the human body’s pleasure chemical.”

You thought about it vaguely remembering him talk about pleasure. Truth be told once he began talking about pleasure you zoned out and thought about just that—him giving you pleasure.

“Eh-em, well dopamine is made in the brain, and the brain is responsible for most if not all the chemicals the body produces and distributes. So with that being said; true.”

He smirked and licked his lips slowly. “What are the body’s connection and relationship with the pleasure center? How does let’s say the first signal or spark begin all the way to completion?”

You knew this; you’d read in the text and studied it for an upcoming quiz. Right now, though, you were drawing a blank. As you looked at him you knew he knew you had nothing. How the hell could you think with him looking at you? It was as if his eyes were boring into you, stripping away everything you used as a shield, defense mechanisms, walls, clothes, shit you felt bare underneath his intense gaze.

“Okay, seems you might need another way to grasp the material. Come on down,” he said. You didn’t move, you looked around the room, and no one looked as if they thought this was strange. When you looked back to him, he walked back to his desk.

“I won’t repeat it.” The authority in his voice had you shooting up involuntarily. You looked around again and the girl nearest you rose her eyebrows as if to say you were in trouble. Were you in trouble, you thought? You closed your notebook and slipped your feet into your heels before you descended the stairs to make it to the desk he was now leaning against. You stopped a few feet from him and clasped your hands behind your back. His eyes dropped to your breasts, and his teeth scraped over the skin of his bottom lip. Surprise ran through you. There’s no way your professor just checked out your boobs, you thought to yourself. This was wishful thinking. You shook your head and shook the idea away.

“Do you normally struggle in this class?”

“Um, no.”

“Professor Evans. That is my name, and that is what you’ll call me,” he filled in with authority. This time you felt the butterflies in your stomach. You swallowed a little more loudly than intended and took a breath.

“No Professor Evans.”

“So it’s just today with me you seem to be a less than sample student?”

“How--.”

“You showed up ten minutes late when everyone else managed to make it on time. You were barefoot when you came in and since you’ve barely listened to a word I’ve said. So, I ask again; is it just with me you’re not the sample student?”

Speechless you looked around the room again and crossed your leg over the other. For some reason, your nether regions were tingling. There was no way this was turning you on, you thought.

“I guess it’s just with you—Professor Evans.”

He nodded, stood up straight, and walked to you never taking his eyes off yours. You lost all breath in your lungs; you couldn’t even think, his eyes pinned you where you stood. You bit your bottom lip; his eyes fell to them before he disappeared behind you. Without your eyes, you still knew he was directly behind you.

“And why is that Ms. Y/L/N?”

“I don’t know.”

“Class give me a brief physiology of lying, spot a liar. Go!”

The girl you sat close to shot her hand up first then spoke.

“When someone lies, Catecholamines are released in the body. these are the hormones that spawn from stress, which is what the body is put under when it lies, professor Evans.”

“Good. Anyone else?” More hands shot into the air, and he called on another student.

“The body then has tells, fidgeting, sweating, and subtle voice fluctuations to begin professor Evans.”

You rolled your eyes; these bitches were looking for an A++ today.

“Good. Now Ms. Y/N, which one of those tells do you think I registered with you just now?”

You bit your tongue; this was getting a little humiliating, and you didn’t like it.

“You tell me, Professor Evans, you’re the one between us with an actual degree on the subject. Enlighten me, pretty please.”

Once the words were out, he looked to you, his lips smiled, but his eyes darkened from a celestial blue to an almost the shade of blue denim jeans. The transition took your breath away, and you released a gasp, one that was inconspicuous to the rest of the class but somehow you knew he’d heard it. The edges of his lips turned up into an almost sinister smirk, one that made your stomach fall partially from dread and fear, but also from excitement and anticipation.

“Be seated Ms. Y/N.”

On wobbly legs, you hurried back to your seat and did your best to compose yourself. He continued to lecture, but his eyes never landed on your again. He went on as if you were invisible. You weren’t sure how you felt about that. On the one hand, you were relieved not to be under the intense scrutiny of his stare, but you wanted him to look at you, you wanted it more than almost anything. For the remainder of the class, you didn’t pay attention to one word he said. You just watched him move. The way his trim legs moved and how his ass looked as it was perched atop the desk made your hands itch to touch. The way his lips moved to form speech and the way his tongue tipped out every so often to wet his lips made your mouth water and long to taste his. You could barely contain the amount of arousal you felt. It definitely superseded anything you’d ever felt before. You wanted him, bad.

“Okay, so that is all for today, hopefully, you have a new understanding of the curriculum. Go on get outta here,” Professor Evans said.

Everyone got into motion gathering their belongings and exiting the room. You heard the girl that sat close to you speak under her breath.

“Goddamn, he’s fine.”

You smiled to yourself, and the two of you exchanged an all-knowing look that said the two of you understood the situation. When you grabbed your bag, you didn’t pay attention to how you took it up, and everything spilled out. You cursed to yourself, bent down, and retrieved the items. By the time you finished, it was just you in the class. You made your way to the door. When you turned the knob, it didn’t budge. It was locked. You tried it again and added some force, but still, it didn’t move.

“What the hell?” Looking around the room you realized you were alone, not even the professor was in sight.

“Hello?” No answer. You wiggled the doorknob again and kicked it when your frustration rose high.

“What did that door ever do to you?”

Spinning around you saw Professor Evans sitting in the front seat with his legs spread wide and arms crossed over his chest. Even like this, he still looked incredible.

“It’s locked, how did it get locked? I didn’t know these doors even locked from the inside.”

“Well, now, you do. I locked it.” He stood and walked closer to the desk. You felt an uneasy feeling in your chest, and a chill ran down your spine and crept around to settle in your belly. You felt as if you should feel fear and part of you did, but it didn’t grip your entire being.

“Wh—why would you lock it? What is this?”

“I thought you needed a little more—tutoring,” he said.”

“Excuse me?

“You know you’ve been watching me all morning, I doubt any of the material even made it in,” Professor Evans said.

Trying your best to keep a straight face and show no emotion or shock you clenched your jaw and held your chin high; “Ha, I was not watching you.”

“Do you prefer gawking? I saw you staring at my ass. I could almost hear all your dirty little thoughts.”

You wanted to die; you were so mortified. Not that he’d caught you clearly sexually objectifying him, but he had the balls to tell you. At the thought of him having balls your eyes involuntarily dropped to his crotch. You heard a breathy chuckle and snapped them back to his face. He smiled and shook his head.

“Have a seat.” You didn’t move. One, because you couldn’t believe what was happening and two, you were afraid of what was happening.

“Now, Ms. Y/L/N.”

Damn your need to please. You walked toward the front row of seats before you felt him grip your wrist. You looked to him with a questioning look.

“Not there. The desk.” Obeying, you changed courses and walked to the elevated podium where the desk was. Stepping up the two steps, you placed your belongings on the chair that held his things. Once you sat, you crossed your legs and looked to him. He stood a few feet away, just watching you. He didn’t move though. A full two minutes passed in silence, then he walked to you.

“Uncross your legs.” Feeling a little strange, you hesitated and searched his blue eyes. They were a bit darker than before but still gorgeous. You did as he asked and took a deep breath.

“The reading and assignment last week according to your previous professor’s notes state it was on the physiology and biology of lust, attraction, and attachment. Is that correct?”

You could feel the heat coming off his body though he wasn’t touching you. It made your body come alive. You nodded, unsure your voice worked. Without a word, he shot you a questioning glance, one that gave you the opportunity to rewind. You took a deep breath and swallowed the lump forming in your throat.

“Yes, Professor Evans.

“Let’s test your knowledge. What is the biology of attraction?”

You scanned your memory hoping you’d find even the smallest detail from the reading you did over four days ago. He was fucking with you. Who remembered their reading from so long ago, especially when they had other classes they had to read for too. His eyes never left yours; it was as if he were trying to intimidate you or make you mess up. You began to wonder if he wanted you to mess up. He smiled as if reading your mind.

“Ms. Y/L/N. Tick, tock goes the clock.”

“Attraction is just a mix of chemicals in your body working together to fire off a response to the brain.”

“What chemicals?”

“Dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin,” you filled in.

“What effect does each of those have?”

“Norepinephrine is the chemical that makes one giddy, energetic, and euphoric; it can even lead to decreased appetite and insomnia. Serotonin, a hormone that’s known to be involved in appetite and mood, a lot of studies have shown that serotonin may have a part to play in the intense infatuation that characterizes the beginning stages of love and attraction. Dopamine is the feel-good hormone. It’s released when we do things that feel good and have similar effects as Norepinephrine,” you finished.

You couldn’t tell what his expression was he was behind you. Suddenly you felt his heat near your ear.

“So it’s just with things I say you struggle with,” he whispered. God, his voice sounded so sexy, and on cue, your body responded. You felt the ache of your breasts your telltale sign they needed to be touched, the heat swirling in your belly and the slowly increasing pulsation between your legs.

“You forgot one other thing--,” Professor Evans took a deep inhale, one that broke you out in goosebumps.

“Pheromones. They are a huge tell-tale sign of attraction—I can smell you.”

You tried to stifle a moan, but you were unsuccessful. You knew he heard it. Soon he was standing before, you between your slightly spread thighs with his thighs grazing against your skin. He was hot—literally.

“Tell me about lust.” His voice was low and filled with something you couldn’t put your finger on. Something that spoke to the heat in your belly and traveling down between your thighs. Clenching your jaw, you took a steadying breath.

“Testosterone and Estrogen are the primary chemicals. Testosterone increases libido, and estrogen can also increase arousal.”

“What kind of arousal?” his voice was now gruff.

“Sexual,” you whispered.

He closed his eyes and sunk his teeth into his bottom lip.

“You smell—so damn good.”

You studied his face, went over every inch of his beauty. He had not one wrinkle. His beard was no doubt one of your weaknesses. You were always a sucker for a full beard and a nice ass; he had both. Your eyes traveled over him, but below his waist was obscured. You recognized the desire pumping through you. You didn’t expect to see his eyes open when yours returned to his face. You licked your lips, and his eyes remained there. When his lips crashed to yours, you hesitated and allowed him to expertly kiss you. His beard was soft against your face as were his lips.

You’d been kissed plenty of times before, but this kiss was different. This kiss wasn’t from a boy pretending to be a man as all the college guys you dated had been. This was a man in every form of the word, taking charge. You felt his hand at the small of your back before he pulled you to the edge of the desk, closer to his own body. You felt the protruding bulge in his pants as it connected with your pubis. Without thinking, you moaned and laced your hand in his hair and gripped the strands as he intensified the kiss.

In an instant, your back was flat against the desk, and he was hovered over you kissing you better than anyone ever had before. His tongue teased yours. Feeling your anxiousness rise you sunk your teeth into his bottom lip, his moan vibrated across your lips before he roughly pushed your thighs back to meet the desk. As he pulled back from your mouth, his eyes skimmed your body before they stopped at the junction of your thighs. You laid sprawled atop the desk with your hot pink thong on full display. His groan echoed throughout the empty room; then he moved his hand to your pelvis where it rested possessively for a second before he balled the dainty fabric and ripped it right off of you.

You flinched at the sudden action and the sting it produced on your skin. Professor Evans then slapped your sex, creating a wet sloshing sound. Your back arched and a moan escaped your lips.

“Do you know why you’re wet?”

You shook your head; you knew damn well why, but you sure as hell wasn’t going to say it. He smiled as he dropped down to eye level with your aching core.

“Your body is aroused by my pheromones, so much so that the dopamine in your system is increasing at a fast rate, one that is intoxicating you and bringing your body into hyperdrive. Tell me Ms. Y/L/N, is this the perfect example for lust?”

God, he was killing you. You didn’t care if this was lust or not all you knew was if he didn’t stop talking and show you what that mouth could do as he’d been teasing all class you’d combust. He dropped a kiss to your inner thigh, and you groaned. Your arms instinctively flew to his head hoping to pull his head to you, but he evaded you.

“I see someone is feeling anxious. Answer the question.” You still didn’t want to. You lowered your hand to your sex and rotated your fingers around your wetness. His eyes automatically dropped to watch you. He slowly licked his lips as he watched you. Two could play this game; if he wanted to tease you, you’d do the same. You slowly dipped one finger into your heat and gasped aching backward at the sudden pleasure that filled you.

“You’re so wet, show me.” You pulled your finger out to show him how they glistened underneath the florescent lights of the classroom. He examined your finger before his mouth engulfed it. He sucked your finger clean, ensuring to nibble and flick his tongue around it. God, he was a tease. As if sensing what you were thinking, he smiled before his mouth dropped to your sex and began pleasing you better than anyone had before.

Your hands flew to your breasts and squeezed, trying to maximize your pleasure. His tongue rhythmically flicked across your sensitive bud, and then he was sucking it into his mouth. The change of sensations sent your body into a state of heightened arousal, one you knew preceded an impending release. You couldn’t believe you were already there. It had barely been two minutes. He sped up the movements of his mouth, no doubt wanting to torpedo you into your orgasm. The heat in your belly furled out to every inch of you, and without warning, you whimpered, gripped his head ground yourself against his mouth. He didn’t let up; instead, he sucked your lips into his mouth before you felt his finger inside you. Arching up onto your elbows, you watched as he maneuvered two fingers in and out of your swollen heat. His lips were glistening with your wetness, wetness that looked to saturate his perfectly groomed beard.

“Fuck!”

He smiled and pulled his fingers from you then sucked them clean.

“Not quite yet. You’ve been biting those lips all morning,” he began as he stood before you. Your eyes dropped to his hands at his pants as he began undoing them. Once the buttons were undone, you saw peeks of grey cotton. He wasted no time pulling down his pants and underwear until his thick need flopped out and bobbed before you. Your jaw dropped at the sight of him. Yes, he carried himself with unmistakable big dick energy you somehow didn’t expect it actually to be big. It—was—big. You couldn’t tear your eyes from him. He stroked himself once, then twice until your teeth sunk into your bottom lip.

“I want to see them wrapped around me,” he finished. You shouldn’t have moved as fast as you did. You wasted no time sliding off the desk to drop to your knees before him. Once you were eye level with his need, you licked your lips way too anxious to have him. You gripped his girth and marveled that your hand couldn’t even fit around him fully. As you stroked him, you heard his breathing pick up. Tipping your tongue out to trail along the underside of his length, you ended at his smooth tip. Professor Evans groaned and widened his stance. Continuing your tease, you licked across his skin for a few more minutes until you slowly lowered your lips onto his scorching desire. Once your lips tightened around him more than halfway down, he hissed out and ended with an aggressive groan.

“Fuck, so good Y/N!”

You noticed he used your first name and it turned you on even more. Moving your mouth up and down his length, you decided it was not the time to be cute. It was time to enjoy yourself fully. You had been thinking about this all morning. You knew this was a once in a lifetime thing and decided to fully let yourself go. Speeding up your mouth you increased you suction as you neared his tip. Every time you did, he cursed and bucked forward, feeding you even more of his lengthy thickness. After a few minutes, his hands connected to the back of your head, and he began thrusting into your mouth. His hips sped up, and before you knew it, you were taking damn near all of him. Every time he thrust forward, you felt the tip of him slink past your tonsils. You had to stifle your gag reflex and take everything he offered. You refused to back down. His moans and grunts filled the room, and you were happy the door was locked to prevent anyone from walking in. Although, if anyone looked in the peek-a-boo window they’d see you on your knees with your spit dribbling from your chin as your professor face fucked you. You didn’t care; the danger of discovery only made you want him more.

Professor Evans pulled himself from your mouth with a loud groan and “pop,” “Face down on that desk, poke that perfect ass out for me.”

You did as you were told, ignoring the coldness of the glossy maple colored wood against your exposed skin. The anticipation was killing you, and it showed with the slight shiver of your body. You felt his hand connect with your backside and you moaned.

“I love the perfect jiggle of this ass,” he said before he slapped it again, and again. Each hit made you wetter and wetter. When you felt him rub himself against your opening, you flung your head back releasing your own grunt. You didn’t have to wait much longer before you felt him fully sink himself inside your needy channel.

“Fuck, yes!”

You felt his hand roughly grip your hips as he rocked his hips back and forth, building the friction and pace steadily stoking your desire. He felt so good, better than you’d ever remembered it feeling before. The heat from his skin scorched you from the inside out and heightened your pleasure. Professor Evans picked up his speed and plowed into you making sure that every time he connected with your body, he forcefully nudged forward stroking the swollen bundle of nerves.

“Shit, yes, yes.”

“You love this dick, don’t you Y/N? You love how it fills your needy little pussy!”

Your panting grew louder, and you tried to hold on to anything you could find, the only thing close enough was the edge of the desk. When his thrusts slowed down the force of which he slammed into you didn’t. Each bruising thrust only made your eyes lull to the back of your head more. You felt his body hover over your back and then his fingers reach around between your legs to caress your clit. You hissed at the sudden increase of pleasure and knew your release was seconds away.

“Oh my god, yes!”

“What’s my name?”

“Professor Evans! Yes, fuck this tight little pussy!”

“God damn right it’s tight. It’s been waiting for a real man to claim it,” he growled out as he increased his speed but added a slight swivel of his hips upon impact. The change of angle sent you over the edge.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck! I’m coming!” With that, the dam broke, and you hit the desk over and over as you came long and hard all over him. Still, he didn’t stop or slow down, not his pounding increased to an incredible speed and force. You knew you were going to be sore tomorrow and possibly the day after that.

“Does this pussy love me?” you nodded wildly, not caring how thirsty you looked. You were parched and didn’t care if he knew it.

“This pussy loves you! Shit!”

You felt another orgasm build within you, your legs gave out, but he was there to hold you against him and the desk. His thrusts became sloppy, but they remained precise. He knew what he was doing, know how to handle a woman’s body, knew just how to make it do whatever he wanted. You felt his breath at your ear.

“Ready for this one? It’s going to be big. Say yes, Professor.” His hand around your throat barely squeezed, but it was enough to trigger your orgasm.

“Yes, Professor!” His grip tightened slightly, and his thrusts sped up. After one, then two and a third gut plunging thrust your second orgasm took over. You clenched around him and screeched through the intense pleasure. His hands slacked, and your body slid off the desk. He turned you to face him, and it was then you saw the unbridled need that darkened his eyes.

“Your knees,” he grunted out through clenched jaws. You obeyed and opened your mouth. This was not your first time. He quickly stroked himself, and while maintaining eye contact with you. It was so hot your hand crept between your legs to swirl around your still needy soaking clit. Your fingers moved as quickly as his hand did and when the first spurt of his come splashed the side of your mouth yet another orgasm coursed through you. You felt his come fill your mouth spurt after spurt. It barely registered over the brain-numbing pleasure you felt from your final release. He cursed and grunted to his heart’s delight before you wrapped your mouth around him again and milked him for every drop he had left.

After a few moments, he hissed again and released a small, vulnerable whimper before he slowly pulled himself from your mouth. You looked up to him and licked your lips of any excess before you teasingly bit your bottom lip. He smiled and shook his head as he began pulling his pants and underwear back in place. You slowly stood on shaky legs before you leaned against the desk. His eyes dropped to your hand and took it, placing your coated fingers in his mouth to clean them off. Just like that, the heat had been reignited. Staring into his eyes, you could tell he felt it too. His jaw clenched and unclenched before he stepped back from you.

“You’re free to go.” You heard the click of the locks signaling the end of your little tryst. You walked around the desk to your belongings and smoothed over your clothes before you walked to the door. You could feel his eyes boring holes into you as you walked. When your hand touched the doorknob, you heard him call your name. You glanced back at him to see him holding your torn and tattered thong in his hands.

“See you next class.” He moved the underwear to his nose and smelled. You wanted him again. You glanced down to his waist and saw the evident bulge in his pants and smiled to yourself. You weren’t the only one with an insatiable need. Turning you walked out the door savoring the delicious ache between your thighs. Maybe you would enjoy this class after all.

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#anatomy 101 fic #Chris Evans #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans x reader #Chris Evans X black reader #chris evans x you #chris evans smut #black fanfiction

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