#where has amy run off to i wonder? 👀

[grelleswife]

Mey Rin’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.

Oh, she should’ve known this was a terrible idea, yes she should!

“U-um…um…eh…”

Twitching fingertips drummed together in an erratic rhythm as she dithered on the spot, chest tightening til she could scarcely draw a breath, let alone offer a coherent reply.

But Sebastian gently grasped her by the shoulders, no hint of condemnation in his tender, reassuring gaze.

“Forgive me for alarming you, my love. You’ve done nothing wrong. Amy pointed it out to me a few minutes ago, and I was just curious, that’s all.”

Though blushing furiously, the maid relaxed beneath his touch, and breathing came easy once again.

“Y-yes…that was me, it was,” she squeaked. “Y’see…I wanted…to…”

Sebastian waited patiently while Mey Rin fought to get out the words which had lodged themselves in the back of her throat.

“I wanted to surprise you!” she burst out at last. “On account of it bein’ our first Christmas together…s-since we started courtin’, I mean…”

A flush appeared on the butler’s alabaster visage, along with a shy—and utterly delighted—smile.

However, the maid shook her head in bitter self-reproach.

“But I can’t help but feel torn up inside about it, because Agni isn’t here with us. I know he an’ Prince Soma celebrate different holidays than us, they do, but…not havin’ him be part of it…it just doesn’t feel right, somehow. Like I’m leavin’ him out,” she whispered dejectedly.

Of course, the London townhouse wasn’t that far away from the manor, but it might as well have been the moon for how keenly the separation gnawed at Mey Rin. Although she and Sebastian regularly corresponded with their beloved khansama when young master required them to be here at the country estate, mere words could never substitute for the ripple of laughter shared around afternoon tea, or the silverly gleam the moonlight cast upon a lover’s skin.

Or the sweet, ephemeral warmth of a kiss.

The maid’s vision swam, and she desperately blinked back the tears which stung at her eyes.

“Oh, Mey…” Sebastian murmured.

His right hand moved up to softly cup her cheek.

“I know you miss him terribly. As do I. But Agni wouldn’t want to see you wracked with guilt over something that’s beyond your control. Besides…who’s to say that we might not reunite before the year is out?”

The maid sniffled, “W-what d’you mean?”

“Remember his last letter? Prince Soma’s been complaining—quite vociferously, from what I gathered reading between the lines—about how long it’s been since he last saw the young master. He’d seize the flimsiest pretense for a visit, and both our little lord’s birthday and the Christmas festivities afford him ample justification to do so.”

Mey Rin’s face brightened as she caught Sebastian’s line of reasoning.

“An’ if Soma does come callin’, he’ll bring Agni in tow, yes he will!”

“Precisely right,” smiled the butler. “And what better place to give our sunshine a proper welcome than under the mistletoe?”

We’ll ravish him, yes we will, thought Mey Rin, coloring slightly as she imagined herself reclaiming Agni’s lips in the heat of a passion which neither time nor distance could ever subdue. If the scarlet gleam in Sebastian’s eyes bore any indication, similar musings must be crossing his mind.

“In the meantime, dearest, shall the two of us put that mistletoe to its intended use?” he purred.

Transfixed by his beguiling smile, the maid simply nodded, and her lover dispensed with the petty formalities of mortal ambulation, instead drawing on his power to whisk her away to the kitchen…

Whose doorframe now stood devoid of the mistletoe with which Mey Rin had adorned it…and from whose vicinity Amy Michaelis, president of hell, was conspicuously absent.

"BROTHER!" Amy cried, catching the butler alone one evening and stomping up to him as if she's on a serious mission.

"You must explain to me all these.. "Christmas" things, Brother. From what I've gathered so far, it-it's completely ridiculous!! And unnecessary!! one story about celebrating Jesus Christ, the other about.. Santa Clause.. am I to believe these humans are implying to still care about that.. BISHOP?! WHAT the hell is going on!!"

The little president of Hell finished by flapping her hands about in frustration. Clearly she's had a confusing time coming back here around Winter.

Sebastian gazed down at his sister with a condescending smirk.

“Surely you understand the importance of keeping abreast of human customs. How can we devils ensnare our prey’s souls without a thorough knowledge of their habits?”

Amy puffed out her cheeks and put her hands on her hips.

“Unlike a certain DUMB SIBLING of mine who’s stuck babysitting a puny mortal brat here on Earth, I have presidential duties to fulfill!” she snapped. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

Her barbed retort wiped the deprecating grin off Sebastian’s face, and his eyebrow twitched in irritation at this affront. But he saw all too clearly the tongues of flame which were beginning to flicker ominously around Amy’s silhouette. If he didn’t satisfy her curiosity, his sister’s pique might reduce the manor to a funeral pyre. Between her volatile temper and Bardory’s perennial misadventures with his flamethrower, risk of a conflagration to rival that which destroyed the original estate seemed ever close at hand.

“How often must I remind you to control your hellfire on the young master’s grounds?” he scolded.

Amy rolled her eyes, but, after heaving an exaggerated sigh, quenched her flames, which shrank and retracted into the young demon’s form.

“Would you just get on with it, brother?”

Clearing his throat, he stiffly replied, “Ahem. As I was about to say, humans have devised numerous quaint and curious customs around the holiday in recent years. There are indeed a pious number who commemorate the birth of the holy infant in Bethlehem—only to disregard the season’s message of peace and goodwill towards their fellow men for the other 364 days of the year.”

His lips twitched into a disparaging sneer at the thought of mortals’ boundless hypocrisy.

“As for how they managed to turn St. Nicholas of Myra into a jolly old fellow clad in red who dispenses gifts and rides about in a sleigh drawn by reindeer…”

The butler’s voice took on a pedantic cadence, as though he were tutoring his young master on the fussy particulars of British history.

“Of course, human legends tend to warp and blur with time; unlike ours, their memories are neither as long nor as sharp as they would like to believe. The fiction of ‘Santa Claus’ can also serve as a means for parents to persuade naughty children to behave themselves. According to some versions of the tale, only well-mannered younglings may expect presents from Santa, while those inclined to mischief receive naught but a lump of coal in their stocking.”

“But if the parents are the ones actually buying those toys, don’t all the children get presents in the end?” blurted Amy, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“Right you are, little sister,” he smoothly continued. “Which brings me to the reason why I believe Santa Claus has truly taken hold within the popular imagination—greed. Christmas presents must be bought from somewhere, and the vendor capable of supplying them can turn a handsome profit. My own young master lined his coffers with sales from a limited edition set of Funtom Rabbits exclusively produced for the holiday…”

Amy’s eyes had started to glaze over.

“Okay, okay, I get it!” she interrupted. “But what about other traditions? Like…hanging branches of mistletoe over doorways. Is that some idiotic human method for warding off evil spirits?”

[marmolita]

Magnus protocol 1&2 thoughts! Here be spoilers and also spoilers for TMA! Also fyi I'm gonna be tagging with "the magnus protocol" for tmagp stuff and continuing to use the fandom name plus "spoilers" for anything spoilery.

Stuff I like:

Diving right in with the majorly fucked up "statements," 100% here for it!!! I liked the second one better than the first because I felt like I actually understood what was going on in it better, and it was sufficiently fucked and creepy.

I like the idea that this is basically like the archive, but it's in a different form where they have to read/listen to/watch the statements and then categorize and file them

I ♥️ Sam, he's wonderful so far 😍

Gwen is fascinating and I appreciate a girl who's a stickler for filing things properly (I'm an Amy Santiago type of person myself). I'm interested to see how things go with her and definitely interested to see what goes on with her and Lena

Lena 👀👀 who is she? how did she get here? how much is she in the know? Presumably she's aware that she's running basically a Beholding archive but also presumably this universe does not have a living Jonah Magnus so her backstory is probably very different.

Jon and Martin zapped into the computer like Freakazoid is a great callback to the computer ep from tma and that they're not really alive in the same way they were before (assuming ofc it's them). I'm definitely interested to see who else is in there with them 👀

I like the way the statements start off in computerized voices and then gradually fade to normal voice and then back again 👍

Stuff I don't like:

Probably unpopular opinion: I absolutely cannot stand Alice. I want to like her and I'm hoping that the storyline will change my mind, but she's just kind of a jerk? Like the whole "go ask Colin about the app" thing was just a dick move, and the aggressive irreverence comes off as rude and irritating to me. Presumably she has a tragic backstory and this is some kind of put-on act to cover up her emotional turmoil but would it hurt to be a little nicer to people? Gwen is rude too but she's owning it, not pretending that she's nice. As a listener I feel like I'm expected to find Gwen disagreeable but I'm expected to find Alice charming, and I really, really don't.

The audio in the break room is terrible. I assume part of this is that we're supposed to be listening from the perspective of an electronic device, maybe a copy machine that's around the corner or something, and I get that, but I cannot fucking hear what they're saying. I'm usually either listening in the car or in an environment with lots of other sounds and it's just inaudible for me.

This is true for some other sections as well, though the break room is the worst. I have enough trouble just understanding accents sometimes since I'm not British (I watch all BBC tv shows with the captions turned on 😅) so when audibility is low this becomes even harder.

Some of the transitions were unclear. I loved the artist statement, but it was not clear to me who was listening to it, how it was getting played, or what was going on. I'm not familiar enough with the voices yet to identify people and for a minute I thought Lena was taking a statement in person.

I assume I'll figure this out in time, but I can't tell Lena and Gwen apart.

MY SOFTWARE PROFESSIONAL NITPICKS oh my god I know this is an eldritch abomination of a computer system but some of the technobabble is just conflicting! If it's ancient, then it can't be breaking when it auto updates, because 1) your OS and SW did not auto update back then, and 2) if it's been around and auto updating for years it would be newer and not ancient anymore! There was some other technobabble I can't recall at the moment that bothered me too, which I'll probably remember five minutes after making this post. These are all nitpicks that are only annoying to me because software is my day job though so I will accept them.

[femme-from-hell]

don't mind me going through your blog to consume all the lupin content 👀👀 but, on a side note, i was wondering if i could ask your preferences in the many verses of lupin! as in, in which verses do you like to see the main cast the most? which ones do you feel are the most "authentic" to the character? keep up the good work, and happy writings! ❤️

I’m kinda dumb so I’m assuming when you say ‘verses’ you mean like all the different versions of Lupin and the gang! For me, It would have to be a tie between Miyazaki’s Lupin (castle of Cagliostro), Takeshi Koike’s movie iterations of Lupin, Lupin in part 2 (red jacket), and part 5. 

When it comes to what is authentic within Lupin and the character group to me, there are so many specific attributes to consider that are key focal points that make him, well, him! In Castle of Cagliostro, I adore the romantic nature where he leans more into the “gentleman” of the gentleman thief title. Miyazaki had stated that in his film, he wanted to depict a Lupin in his twilight years, a more mature version of himself. I feel like that more kind and caring nature is to die for, and it does really well in showing how the accumulation of all that he has gone through would understandably result in that type of personal development later in his life, assuming you were to put that movie on a timeline with all the other content. Along with Lupin, I love how the relationships between him and those he cares about are obviously close without having to directly say it, such as how he and Jigen wrestle about with one another, how Fujiko and him have a “I loved you once, and I still love you, just not in that way” vibe going on, etc.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Koike’s depictions of Lupin and the others which heavily lean more into the “thief” portion of his title. The gritty nature, the unshaken attitude in the face of violence or death, all of it is a beautiful reminder of his origins (the manga)! It never fails to nail in the fact that in reality, he is a criminal, he isn’t really a good guy. Sure, once in a while he’ll save someone or do something kind, but most of it is as a result of an alterative motive. For example, in Fujiko Mine’s lie, he helps the kid out not because of morals or anything, but because the kid offered cash. That darker aspect of Lupin and his friends are rare in the later productions in the series, but whenever it does come about (with exceptions for stuff like Island of Assassins bcs its just a bad movie), it is beautifully done. It mixes a sense of manic sporadicity into Lupin which makes things all the more thrilling and interesting because it turns from just being this silly goofy guy to one of many layers of an internationally wanted criminal. 

Part 5 manages to mix that mature nature earlier displayed by Miyazaki’s Lupin but reistablishes the fact that Lupin isn’t just some guy you see in the paper, but he is in fact, a dangerous wanted criminal. A scene I love deeply is when in part 5, then Ami (amy? Idk she was a little annoying I won’t lie), had run off into an alley and these goons started picking on he and Lupin swoops in as usual. Unlike the usual goofy beating he would give them, he puts his gun into one of the dude’s mouths and was like, “I’m not some celebrity. I’m a criminal, I’ve killed before and I’ll do it again.”! It is one of my all time fav scenes across the board for the series. In terms of the maturity, it can be seen in his relationship with Fujiko which I adore. There scenes are so palpable with unspoken tension, his love for her exceeding words and how what they have will never be as simple as ‘I love you’. It takes all these good parts and mashes them together to make something amazing

As for my thoughts on part 2? He’s a gigantic asshole! He’s selfish, childish, whiney, but he’s also brilliant, inventive, and hilarious. All of these together make part 2 a great depiction of Lupin in his youth. 

Sorry this got kind of long, i got pretty carried away but I had fun writing a little summary on my thoughts! I hope you enjoyed it and I’m sorry if I misunderstood  (￣▽￣*)ゞ

[honeycompose]

Living the Life of a Hero

Hello I’m mad about the fact the Executive Meddling Mandates don’t let Sonic “get too emotional” in official media. So I wrote some fic about him screwing up, getting frustrated, and crying 👀 I like the idea of Sonic not being the perfect hero.

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog

Rating: G

Genre: Light angst

Word Count: 1115

Living the life of a hero is true happiness. Isn’t it? It’s recognition and praise. It’s receiving chances few could even dream of. It’s living by no one else’s rules but your own; will completely free.

But you know what else it is? It’s having to be perfect. Never making even a small mistake. Being critiqued on everything you do and how you do it. It’s getting your friends in danger and wondering where you went wrong. It’s hiding any negative emotion you have in favor of being the pillar of strength and heroism.

Living the life of a hero is taking time to yourself to run away to a scenic cliffside as Sonic has done. He was never a fan of water, but he couldn’t deny the monotonous sounds of the ocean waves crashing and lapping at the beaches below sounded calming. Plush grass made for a decent seat as he stared out towards the horizon. The day had grown old and, as the sun set and bathed the world in a golden tone, it had come to a moment of peace. A moment the hedgehog wasn’t so used to.

For the last few days, Sonic and his friends had been working toward taking down Dr. Robotnik’s many factories. Underground, Robotnik had created a small army of working bots to build up these factories right under our heroes’ noses. When wind had finally been caught, there were already five factories in semi-working shape. To work against the bad doctor’s advantage, Sonic and his friends had decided they’d split into many different attack groups to take each of the factories down. Once the original five were scrapped, they’d target Robotnik’s headquarters itself.

For the most part, the plan was going fantastically. Amy was the first to inform Sonic that she and her team had taken down their factory. Ever trustworthy to crumble evil quickly was Miss Amy Rose. The Chaotix followed suit with their report, telling them they’d caused enough mayhem for distraction that led to a full toppling. Everything was great. Everything should have been going perfectly.

Should have.

No one should have had an easier time of this than Sonic and his team. But even before leaving for their mission, Sonic knew he was off. He was thrown off. So many badniks and factories had sprung up out of nowhere. He should have seen them way before they got this far along. He was everywhere all the time; his speed let that happen. And he had to play it cool. But it really showed.

Simply put, Sonic messed up. He let his focus slip. He and Tails had formulated a plan to sabotage the mechanics of the conveyor belts to cause a jam. Sonic would move along the belt itself to send it into a backward motion. In that time, Tails would position to begin messing with the upper turbine of the same belt, which would send that belt even further in reverse. Things were working well, but after some time, Sonic looked over the edge of the belt he was on. On the factory floor below, badniks were beginning to march. This kept the blue blur’s attention for quite some time and caused him to slow to a stop. Where could they be going?

“Sonic!!” The familiar scream tore him away from the mechanical parade. Down the opposite end of the belt, Tails was trapped beneath the shell of one of the bots and was close to being fully trapped under robot rubble. In the time Sonic had stopped, the turbine Tails pushed against fought back further than he thought it would. It won the battle, hitting him so hard it sent the fox colliding down with shells of bots waiting to be filled. He was out for a moment before he realized he was headed right for destruction. Sonic took off full speed towards his friend, knocking the heavy shell off with a spin dash. He pulled Tails off and away from the belt where he discovered he had injured one of his tails in the process.

From then, Sonic opted to finish the mission himself. He sent Tails out of the factory as safely as he could. The hedgehog hero worked double time to overwhelm each of the conveyer belts by himself. When they began successfully exploding, he left the factory himself and returned to the trusty Tornado. Injury couldn’t keep Tails fully off the ground as he flew himself and Sonic to safety.

When they arrived home, everyone congratulated them on a great job. The two were showered in praise before Tails was quickly tended to by some of their more medically savvy friends. Sonic, on the other hand, took this time to say he was going to go for a run. He knew one would bother him or follow him. It was just something he did. But what he needed this time was to escape. To leave the hectic life he lived for just a short while. Which was where he was now; staring out at the horizon.

Recalling the events began to become overwhelming again. The sound of Tails’ fearful scream, the sight of him panicking, the sight of him trapped under a robot and headed towards what could have been doom. That was his buddy. His best friend. His little brother! He could have lost him! And it was all his fault. His inability to focus almost got his best friend crushed!

It began bubbling and bubbling. Sonic’s breathing began to quicken as he began rubbing and clawing at his head. In a mere few seconds, his whole mood flipped. He felt his eyes stinging as his gloves began to dampen. He was crying. The tears began to overwhelm him even more as he finally snapped, letting out a howling, pained scream. Everything in the world felt so loud for a moment before falling completely silent.

And there he sat. Completely in silence as he cried into his hands. This continued for a while before he took a deep breath. Glossy green eyes returned to the horizon. The once golden day had faded to sunset; purple and blues taking over the sky and painting the landscape in a cooler shade.

It was time to head back. Time to face everyone he had to keep safe and impress. To face the friend he had gotten hurt. He’d ask his buddy if he was alright in a way that was curiously concerned, but not fearful. He couldn’t be weak. He had to be a hero. He had so many lives riding on his shoulders. That was simply how things went when you lived the life of a hero.

[everythingthemoontouches]

Hiii! May I join the game too, please? The readings seem fun. A fact about me is that cute things make my heart really happy. Thank you so much, have a nice day! ✨ ㅤﾟ+.ʚ(๑•ω•๑)ɞ.+ﾟ。

Hola

This is adorable. And I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to get to answering this. I knew had to be on this level of cute to write this 💕 I think your energy is very endearing ❣️

I truly felt I had to bring the toys out (you'll see what I mean later) 😂

For your reading:

There are 2 sides to every coin and its up to you which one you choose to indulge. Are you stuck, bored and u happy or do you take the best of what the scenario has to offer?

You're not just some glam bimbo just because how other people want to paint you to make their reality more palatable. There's more to than your looks/ style / fashion sense. You might often ask yourself wondering if there is more than what you're currently known / praised for?

It's like you're too sweet to deal with them the first time you see how much people can manipulate it could come as quite the shock to you?

Sometimes when we are bored we can get into a habit of sticking to our routine because there's a certain lack of excitement. But if you get up, romanticize the mundane, palm a party and decide to play up the dram/ intrigue you'll soon find a lot of revelry right where you are. There's this whole energy of orga izing a party, a masquerade or some kind of a themed event. If you've been cooped up at home, why not create an online treasure hunt, or video call your friends and paly some games together. It could be something as simple having a competition where each one must have a notepad to draw on. One person picks a chit and everyone gets 20 seconds to do it in. Beat one wins. Orrr, you guys could decide to dress up as movie / fairytale characters / pirates (almost spelled that as Pilates while thinking pilots)

This could also be a means to say that you're focusing more on the mundane and that you should try to find ways to let your inner child / socialite to come out to partayyy while keeping in mind the current global, health environment. Boardgames were invented for a reason!

When I was younger we used to play a game called Queen of Sheba where we were divided into 2 teams and one person got to to be Queen. The queen would say soemthing like ' The queen wants some lipstick' so the two teams would scamper off to find the thing she had requested. First one back would get the point.

This could also be a note to remind you to learn to do your hair in intricate ways. Haircare could be important.

Have fun but always respect the rules that govern you/ stay true to your own values.

Marie Masquerade speaks :

Someone is about to invite you to be involved in something very intriguing. And this person will ask you in ways that are ever so charming, so the temptation will be ever so strong because this person is beautiful, and talented, and powerful, you are flattered! 😊💙(so u and me both are easy to flatter huh👀✨💕)

The truth is you run the risk of paying a very high price for this brush with fame or glory. Be sure that the politics and the intrigues are ones you truly wish for in your life - because there is often a sacrifice that must be made, and many consequences are currently hidden away from you. It's tempting no doubt. But it may not be within your best interests to pursue this strange, slightly tainted offer that will be made

Oof this is a rough one I'm afraid. I'd advise you to watch out for your friends, make sure the people you trust / let in truly have your best interests at heart. When you have a lot people who are less abundant could often be jealous of the gifts you've been given. It Amy be hard to tell who is a true friend and who only sticks around for what you can do for them. I'm getting a rich friend who throws lavish parties kinda energy. Just be careful, love. I'd hate for you to feel disappointed. You do you, have fun, and make sure you don't fall top fast and hard for someone who is less enthusiastic about you. Live your life and face any gossip with grace. Despite your beauty and success, you still need friends and you're more likely to find it with people on your level. Don't let flaky ass/unmotivated / bitter people drag you down. I loved how cute that gif you sent was, and truth be told you've gotta surround yourself with people who get the same warm, fuzzy, loving feeling when they think of you 💕✨💙

♂️✴️Stay true to your own vision 🧑‍⚖️✅

The most lavish artefacts won't make you as happy as true, genuine connection will ❣️

The Violet Duchess here seems less about restriction based on convention and more of an aloofness borne out of a sense of grace and elegance. Like the ✨Queen ✨ is almost always lonely because she is above everyone else🌟💁 and even though she may care for her cook, the maid and cleaner they're not quite on the same level, having very little in common as people...

You could even be the smartest one in class or just somehow really good at something so everyone else feels inferior. You are never unkind, but it stilll triggers people sometimes. 😬

Anyhoo, I hope it's more the boredom than the Fairweather backstabbing friends bit ❤️

Know that you're loved, that what's inside counts and you will meet people who love you for the real you 💕🐦🎉

Also, I just wanted to show you the set up I truly felt I HAD to bring the toys out 😂❤️

Ciao💖