#flutterbutter is best | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miracle-in-the-eye-of-the-storm · 4 years

Text

“You Killed Me”

@angelofthequeers

“Does Ladybug know you’re here?” Papillon’s voice is carefully nonchalant. “Or that fossil of yours, pretending to be a hero?” Ragdoll drops into the seat across from him with a grunt. It lounges, eyeing Papillon with undisguised, amused contempt. “Does your son?” His business-shark smile drops into a dark scowl. “Yeah. The only two parties privy to this meeting are you and me ― unless you have your little sidekick skulking around somewhere?” Ragdoll casts its gaze about, as if the peahen will peek out from behind the rows of potted flowers, and casually pops one of the pristine pastries laid out on the table in its mouth. Good lordy, that’s sweet. (Of course the “neutral ground” Papillon chose is a fancy-ass restaurant. Kotii knew they were right about whoever it is under the mask being a rich asshole. Of course, he could have just chosen at random, but considering the emptiness of the place and the server hovering off to the side with a calm expression, Kotii’s non-existent money is on a hefty bribe instead of a threat. Hefty bribes are usually hard to come by unless you’re a rich asshole. Ah, does Kotii love being right. Kotii does not, however, love whoever designed this place. Geez, it’s almost like they were hoping for some magically powered, moth-themed super villain to reserve the place as a meeting ground. The tiles are checkerboard purple and blue, the walls are painted in metallic grey and black diamonds, and the plants are all various shades of blue, purple, red, and white. They like that the lights don’t /quite/ cover their side of the table, though. Atmosphere is important. And at least the tables themselves are all black and pale blue. Kotii kind of wants to steal one of the chairs; black and plaid? It’s two of their favorite things combined, how could they not want one? Mr. Flutterbutt can have the rest of the place, they don’t care.) It barks out a delighted laugh when the peahen does, in fact, step out from behind the pot of roses closest to the door, like she was waiting for her cue. “I was kidding,” it says, lips peeled back in a feral grin. “Mayura,” Papillon says, steadfastly ignoring Ragdoll. “That will be all, thank you.” The peahen eyes Ragdoll warily ― who does its best not to mockingly echo Flutterbutt, smiles brightly, and wiggles its fingers at her in greeting ― but bows to Papillon silently and leaves. Unfortunately, she doesn’t let go of her transformation while she’s still in sight or earshot. This would be one of the few days one of the idiot Miraculous holders actually uses the single brain cell between them. (Oh well; the both of them’ve lost that braincell plenty of times in the past, and Mayura just used it ― not like Mr. Flutterbutt over here is going to be able to grow a new one by the time this meeting is over.) While Ragdoll and Papillon are waiting for Mayura to be completely out of the picture, they sit in silence. Ragdoll isn’t sure when the waiter ― server, whatever ― left, but he did at some point. He’s probably hanging around in the background somewhere. Ragdoll is just about to wonder if it can get up to look for him when Papillon breaks the silence. “Unless you’re here to offer your Miraculous to me, I think we have nothing more to discuss.” Ragdoll snorts ― nothing more? Dude, the only other thing discussed was who knows who’s where; what happened to it “learning the proper respect”? ― and extends its hands. The ring is hidden, of course, under the fabric of Ragdoll’s gloves, and by the three other rings on that hand as well as the two on the other. “Try it.” Its eyes glitter. “Go ahead; I dare you.” A long, tense moment drags out. It can see the gears turning above his head, something crazed starting to light his eyes. He doesn’t try. Ragdoll reclines back in the chair ― and man, it is really comfy, actually ― with a sigh. “Wimp.” One of Flutterbutt’s hands curls into a loose fist. “Well, back to business ― I really only accepted your ever-so-gracious invitation for a chat because I have a question for you.” It stills suddenly, looks at him. In the shadows thrown over its chair, its eyes glow softly. “Why are you Papillon?” He blinks. “What?” “Why are you Papillon?” Ragdoll asks again. “It’s a simple question, old man. I just wanna know what motivates you to terrorize Paris on a weekly basis.” It tilts its head. “Hmm. Maybe a better question would be ― what do you want to wish for?” He leans forward eagerly. “So the wish will work?” It gives him a look of disgust. You did all this without actually knowing if it would work or not? It wants to ask. It doesn’t. “I asked first, buddy.” He sits back, suddenly, almost a business man again. The manic light in his eyes has dimmed, but it’s definitely still there. “Of course,” he says politely. “I think you’ll agree that my motives are a bit more noble than the common criminal, once you’ve heard them.” The only thing Ragdoll does to betray its spike of incredulity is a raised eyebrow. He continues when it’s clear Ragdoll isn’t going to say anything in response. “Three years ago, my wife and I came across a pair of animal-themed jewelry in Tibet. I thought they were fakes, given the shady booth-runner trying to sell them, but my wife’s always had an eye for that sort of thing, and she was convinced they were real gems. And she so loved birds ― she just had to have the pin, and they came as a set. So we bought them. “At the time, we believed them to be just that ― a brooch and a pin. So you can imagine our surprise when as soon as she put the pin on, a small creature emerged from it!” He laughs a little, lost in the memory. Then his face darkens. “Of course, how were we to know that the Miraculous was damaged?” His eyes glaze over and his voice gets quieter. “How could we have known, when he didn’t even know himself?” “Your wife was effected by whatever damage was done to the Peacock Miraculous,” Ragdoll guesses bluntly. He nods, gaze still distant. “I was . . . out of sorts, for quite a long while. I couldn’t bring myself to try the Miraculous on, either one of them.” The manic light, almost entirely faded away at this point, comes back full force. “But then, when I finally had the strength to try, the moth Kwami told me of the Wish, the absolute power, granted to whoever wields both the Black Cat and the Ladybug Miraculous.” He eyes Ragdoll’s hands hungrily, though clearly frustrated that he doesn’t know which ring it is, or which hand it’s on. “With that Wish, I could bring my wife back,” he murmurs, almost hypnotic in his cadence. “With that Wish, my son would have his mother back. My family would finally be whole again. If I could just . . .” He starts reaching out, fingers twitching minutely. “Uh huh,” Ragdoll says, raising an eyebrow again and crossing its arms. Papillon blinks, whatever spell he’d put himself under broken. “Cool motive, still murder.” He scowls again. “I haven’t killed anyone.” Ragdoll laughs in his face. “Oh, honey,” it says with mock sympathy. “Something tells me you actually believe that.” “And what is that supposed to mean?” Papillon asks sharply. Ragdoll’s smile, devoid of any humor in the first place, slips into something dangerous. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember dear Syren.” The scowl stays fixed on his face. “No? Then surely Gigantitan? Gorizilla? Frozer, even?” “What,” he bites out, “are you talking about.” It makes its smile wider. “My dear Papillon, at this point you’re being deliberately obtuse. I know you can figure out what happens when an upset person of giant proportions rampages through the city. You would have seen the damage through both pairs of eyes. And it was a lovely day before everything went frigid; people like to swim on lovely days in the summer.” It watches him for a long moment. His face is rapidly paling. “And when the entire city was flooded . . . well. “Do you know what it’s like to drown, Papillon?” He pales further. “No,” he whispers. “Yes,” Ragdoll snaps. He flinches at the sudden rise in volume. “It hurts. At first, you think maybe it won’t be so bad; you’ve been out of breath before, and neither of the heroes would let this go on long enough for it to feel any worse than that. But then it keeps going. It keeps going, and your throat starts to burn, and your chest feels like one good poke, one good shove, one good push will burst it wide open. So you let go of all that air you’re holding onto, in the hopes that that will somehow make it better. Except now ― well, now you’re just as stuck as you were before, your foot trapped in that stupid crack in the sidewalk. No more air left in your lungs, and no way to get more air into them. Your brain doesn’t really know that, though. At that point, your brain is just desperate to get one last good lungful of oxygen, so instinct takes over and you try to breathe.” It inhales, as if to demonstrate. “Of course it doesn’t work. The only thing that fills your mouth is that cold, brackish, uncaring water. And when the black starts crawling in at the edges of your vision, you don’t even have enough energy left to feel relief. You just let it happen.” It snorts. “As much as you can let anything happen at that point, anyway.” “That,” Papillon whispers, then shakes his head. Ragdoll ― Kotii ― is amused, for a moment, how a teenager is the one unsettling the adult instead of the other way around. “That wasn’t my fault,” he says, stronger. “I’m not the one who flooded the city.” “Oh, so there’s some other guy out there who can turn people into fuckin’ mermaids?” It laughs ― snarls ― at him. “Sure.” “It was not my fault,” he insists, eyes flashing. “I only want my wife back! All these Akumas are merely a means to an end, and once my Emilie is returned to me―” Ragdoll lunges across the table and yanks him closer by the collar, bringing his face very close to its open, snarling mouth. Its teeth sharpen, get longer, its ears pin themselves flat against its head, and its eyes glow neon blue. They hover there for a long moment, the only sound Ragdoll’s growling. Then it takes a deep breath, forcefully calming itself down, and lets go of him. “How about this,” it says, voice bright with menacing cheer. “Why don’t I use a metaphor? Everyone likes metaphors, especially pretentious assholes like you.” Papillon, massaging his throat, glares but doesn’t say anything. Ragdoll smiles, baring its still-too-sharp teeth. “Yeah. So, let’s say, in this hypothetical scenario, that the Akumas are a bunch of people looking for guns. Shot guns, hunting rifles, pistols, whatever. Any gun will do for what they have in mind, which is either revenge or causing as much damage as possible. Thing is, all the legal gun stores aren’t selling the right sorts of guns, or the guns they do sell aren’t working right. That leaves the illegal route. Which in this case, is you.” “I am not an illegal gun seller―” Papillon starts to protest. “I’m not done,” Ragdoll says, glaring at him. He presses his lips together, obviously displeased, but quiets down again anyway. Ragdoll spreads its hands. “Right. They all flock to you, because your shit’s actually working. So.” It leans forward, eyes glowing again. “You might not have been the one to pull the trigger when I died, but you’re damn well responsible for the gun. Deny it all you want, Mr. Agreste, but I died because of you. “You killed me.”

#miraculous ladybug #miloe writes #CW: death mention #CW: drowning mention #yeah so i'm just tagging a bunch of content warnings in case #and YES i am AWARE there are other things i need to finish writing #. . . . but you get this first #also! in case the pronoun changes are confusing #kotii is 'they/them' and ragdoll is 'it/its'

8 notes · View notes

subidized · 7 years

Text

The Second Half

…aaaand here’s what happened in the last 4-5 months! I cannot believe the pregnancy went by so fast.

Week 22 - Ace went to Japan for a week-long business trip. It’s the first time he’s been away from home since the pregnancy, so what to do during the 4-day long weekend? Flutterbutter and I stayed in my parents’ house and once again experienced their love and care!

Week 25 - We were scheduled for a Congenital Anomaly Scan (wherein they will check the baby thoroughly from head to toe and inside out for any physical defects) and a Doppler Velocimetry (to check if the baby is getting adequate blood flow). It’s true, these tests were scary because you wouldn’t know what to expect. Thank God everything came out normal! Yay! Flutterbutter was awake the whole time, but the doctor said he was actually cooperating that’s why she didn’t have a hard time.

Bonus for us: We were able to see the details of the face! ❤

Week 26 - We spent the whole week preparing the house for Flutterbutter’s arrival. Preparing, meaning buying cabinets and shelves, setting up the crib, doing general cleaning, and of course, decluttering. Gotta let go of old things to make way for new ones! And I noticed his kicks are getting stronger and stronger! He also made a grand appearance during the ENPH Christmas Party, and I won best in costume! He’s the best prop, ever :)

Week 29 - We took an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) to see if I had gestational diabetes. We heard really bad stories about how awful the “drink” was before taking the test, so more than the results, I got really scared of the taste. Haha. Thank God we passed!!!

Week 30 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! This week, we announced to the whole world, aka social media, that we’re pregnant by posting this year’s Christmas Card.

Week 32 - 8th months!!! Starting this week, we’ll be having our OB check-up every two weeks instead of having it monthly. We also had an ultrasound to check the baby’s growth, and thank God everything is normal! He now weighs about 3.5 lbs, which is just right for his gestational age. We also enrolled in a Birthing Class with Rome Kanapi. We’ll be attending the class every week for the next six weeks.

Milestone: Ace heard Flutterbutter’s heartbeat when his ear was against my belly!!!

Week 33 - Baby shower name reveal! For the first time, we revealed Flutterbutter's name. The people who came were our immediate families, the married people from my coaching group, couple friends, and our ninongs/ninangs in our wedding.

Week 35 - We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, which is also the last anniversary where it’s just the two of us. We’re so excited to spend our next one with Navi! He was able to experience his first musical, Wicked. He was awake majority of the time, so he could probably hear the songs!

Week 36 - Total weight gain as of this week is 16 lbs. And I noticed that my nose and feet are starting to get bigger! Not edema-level, just a little bigger. We also had a baby shower with our relatives, both from our sides. We also had a maternity shoot c/o my good friend, Jamie!

Week 37 - Contractions every 20-30mins on Monday, every 10-20 mins on Tuesday, and down to 5-10 mins on Wednesday! So we decided to start the maternity leave on Thursday. But when we went to the labor room (hoping that they wouldn’t send us back home), we were told to go home because I was just 1cm dilated. Lol.

Week 38 - Still 1cm dilated and not effaced....

Week 39 - The doctor advised us to have another ultrasound within the week. After the ultrasound, the sonologist told us to text our OB that my amniotic fluid is already at 6.1, which was low. So the doctor texted us to go to the hospital. I was going to get induced! My labor lasted for 3 days, which made me sooo tired from all the pain that’s why we opted to get an Epidural once I hit 7cm. (Read the whole labor and birth story here.)

Week 40 - At exactly 1:04am, after about 20-something pushes and a vacuum assisted delivery, Samuel Navi was born!

#parenthood #motherhood #samuel navi #baby #pregnancy #life #week by week

0 notes