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bluedino15 · 5 months

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Undertale Yellow AU/UT and DR based-Ideas Ramble Post

You know, I haven't posted on this account for anything in YEARS besides reblogs and one Paper Mario: Origami King rant...

Anyway, had random assorted Undertale yellow AU and post pacifist/wider Undertale/deltarune world--related ideas I felt like spouting for fun because I'm back into Undertale brainworms and Twitter would suck for this, especially since I keep updating this. Feel free to use these ideas if you somehow see this and get inspired. Credit would be nice (at least cause I would like to see anyone turning these rambles into ideas) but really isn't necessary. These can easily veer off from the canon/creators of yellow and various AUs referenced (I've been really bad at keeping up with generally accepted versions of aus and the story for official ones), and I do not in ANY way want to imply my ideas are good or "proper" add-ons, just fun what-ifs that might break the rules. Also, I'm bad at coming up with good endings or full casts descriptions for a lot of these concepts (sorry Dalv) so feel free to do them yourself

UNDERTALE YELLOW SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

*Undertale background (and yellow lore ideas):

-Clover is the first human to fall after Flowey's "birth"

-if Berdly has an unseen Undertale counterpart (he's the only one who never has a reference or family member referenced unless you think the drunk bird in grillby's is related), martlet is like his way older cousin.

-martlet stole the serum from true lab while everyone was still fallen down, soon after alphys made the first injections, hence why alphys is willing enough to chance leaving the lab open and why martlet isn't as shocked/traumatized as she might have been if she saw amalgamates. She wasn't familiar enough to recognize kanako/a child resembling chujin (how she might have expected them), but she was also focused on sneaking in and out so she wouldn't have paid much attention until reflecting during pacifist.

-Kanako is part of the amalgam that tucks in frisk, since she remembers it being comforting when she was a kid. Also, this is just a story idea but I can imagine her being a bit special/unique when everyone started melting, perhaps the first to get up and last to melt or vice versa (I think the former cause her soul was probably holding on a bit longer since because of the boss monster and existing determination injection sustaining her longer)

-undertale yellow takes place just before the monsters who became amalgamates woke up (since alphys said she called everyone and probably wouldn't have been so chipper in the journal if one monster wasn't still getting up, and Ceroba says she hadn't heard anything and there's no mention of other monsters getting news of their relatives) and subsequently melted. In other words, amalgam kanako doesn't happen until after the events of pacifist (that said, I wrote some au ideas on the idea of her amalgamating before anyway)

-the snowdin attack took place in upper snowdin, which is why there's way more guards stationed there. Additionally, that was one of the last events of Undertale counterpart rudy's life, and he helped asgore restore trust and calmness in the days after the event. His girls were too young to remember. Lastly, sans and papyrus briefly drew suspicion for their human frames, but both pretty quickly disarmed residents of suspicion.

-The reason that Clover was the only one to ever travel through yellow locations (the other humans may have at least explored other parts of the underground and just died in Frisk-explored locations) is because they're some of the farthest possible places from the Castle. Even slightly more direct routes would have gotten them killed, hence Flowey pushing them on a roundabout path

-Undertale's Gaster (I have a seperate pet theory about how there's one from Undertale who fell into Deltarune, and another who originates there) made the core but fell into Deltarune before clover arrived, and there he has some major interaction with sans and papyrus that follows them back in Undertale where they get here after Clover

-The boss monster gene is normally inherent only in goat-esque monsters, so by default they're the only boss monsters, but it can be transferred from goat monsters to non-goat monster children (normally undetected), and it was in Chujin's family for years (this is mostly just me coping on my different definition of boss monster)

-Ceroba's family were naturally gifted towards magic and one of the more important families on the surface, to the point that a few remnants of their tradition remained aboveground where they eventually become (one of many) inspirations for Mew Mew Kissy Cutie (without the humans knowing the monster background), hence the bell motifs both share. Underground life has kind of quashed most boundaries that aren't "the royal family," but Chujin was marrying above his paygrade (both had a strong mutual love)

--As a combination of the above, Kanako would probably have been one of the most Naturally gifted/powerful monsters short of the Dreemurrs thanks to both her mother's magic and father's boss monster DNA. However, she probably wouldn't have had a need to significantly develop those powers (kind of like how Toriel is naturally powerful but not really a warrior).

-Ceroba has a slight Japanese accent (like someone who has both mastered English and speaks it commonly enough) that's usually burried underneath the underground's default (like every species had some dialect and accent pre-Ebott that's faded over time), but if she gets angry it FLARES up

-Likewise, Starlo has an exaggerated cowboy accent (I personally think of Mad Dog in the Live a Live dub with the southeastern-slant given his showmanship), but when the mask (and hat) drops, it turns into softspoken midwestern farmboy.

-Chara only bonds to Frisk because they share an affinity for determination and Frisk landing on their grave was close enough to hit something. Clover isn't attuned enough for that to happen.

-sans, alphys, and Asgore know about all the Yellow locations (though Alphys is too shut in to ever visit anywhere besides the mew mew arcade machine), Undyne has been to the dunes and mine and is old enough to know of the steamworks but never visit, while she respects the Wild East just enough to avoid visiting herself and causing trouble (personally, she probably thinks they're just a bunch of slackers who aren't helping out monsterkind given her views of mettaton, but she can at least respect their passion ). Papyrus doesn't know about the steamworks but has been out to the dunes once or twice. Toriel has been shut in and away too long to know of the steamworks and doesn't know the dunes dried out.

*Undertale yellow post-pacifist (and just Undertale post-pacifist):

-Flowey left his main save after Clover's death, after realizing both neutral and any pacifist didn't get anywhere, and due to a mix of pity/respect (though he wouldn't admit it, clover sacrificing their soul for monsterkind reminds him of Chara) and pragmatism, he keeps his ("main" if reular flowey has multiple) save file permanently after their death even if he CAN reset to his creation. (Of course, he's still toyed with the timline THOUSANDS of times before Clover fell--since they only fell after he already tried everything and just waited, he's not too torn up about never going back while he plays around with his new circumstances for a while)

-The only ones who know most of what happened to Clover are Martlet, Starlo, and Ceroba. They told Asgore that Clover was a good kid, but nothing about how they steered Ceroba off her path

--likewise, no one but Clover and Ceroba (and Flowey) knew that Ceroba is responsible for Kanako falling down. Starlo (and some of the rest of the Feisty Five) has suspicions Ceroba hid SOMETHING about the nature of Kanako falling down beyond what she reveals out loud in pacifist, but would never suspect what happened, and both he and Martlet were knocked out for the fight (plus, Clover was seeing a memory) so neither caught what happened. There is absolutely some angst potential of Ceroba admitting what happened and it temporarily straining her friendship with Starlo.

-Undertale is about 2 years after (I normally headcanon that it's decades apart for humans but for this game I'd let it slide). There's not much obvious aging or change outside whats apparent in the credits from character development (dalv is a little more outgoing, Ceroba starts to live a little, starlo goes back to the farm more often) but Martlet is probably marginally more organized and a tad more matured in terms of appearance.

- The cast is mostly uninvolved with UT, but at least one of them (probably martlet or Dalv--ceroba is still a little bitter about mettaton costing Chujin his job and Starlo might avoid the show out of respect to her) catch Frisk on Mettaton's show with clover's gun and hat. Your call whether they respect that Clover's tools protect another kid beyond the grave or see that moment as disrespecting their memory (Martlet is probably the most understanding, Starlo the least), but after the barrier is broken they at least appreciate that Frisk used Clover's belongings to achieve justice for monsterkind

-During the photoshop flowey fight, clover was kept on lock the longest since he knew more of what their soul was capable of.

-The Wild East/Dunes and steamworks aren't used as hiding spaces in genocide because even if clover was pacifist, monsters know humans have gotten there before, and Alphys isn't taking chances compared to how true lab can be locked down.

-the souls can briefly "sense" clover while everyone is absorbed by Asriel, and toward the end of the fight as monsters inside gain their memories back, they don't exactly "talk" again but at least gain a sense of closure and fulfillment from Clover. No one quite knows what happened after the fight, but the gang feels a little better about Clover for some reason.

-Ceroba meets amalgam Kanako in both the evacuation and post-pacifist. At first, she'd hold it against Alphys (after the initial despair at seeing her daughter transformed), enough to even attack alphys, but she comes to admit what happened is just as much her responsibility. On post-pacifist, Kanako is calm enough (thanks to Frisk) and sentient enough for it to be a real reunion, and like most amalgams doesn't hold it against alphys enough to lash out, which at least eases Ceroba.

-toriel gets some closure on what happened to clover when she wants to honor the fallen humans and asgore directs her to ceroba. She doesn't get the full story but enough to know they gave their soul up willingly. Even though the two in the past probably would have disliked each other (Ceroba disliking Toriel for giving up on her husband, and Toriel for what Ceroba did to both kanako and Clover), Ceroba would have mellowed out enough to respect toriel's decision. Toriel would be more standoffish but at least sees Ceroba as less of a coward than asgore who was motivated by love of her family.

-any monsters who befriended previous humans plus yellow's main cast and toriel hold a funeral for the humans who died (Asgore may attend out of penance, and other monsters out of guilt but not as the primary attendees), Toriel is probably the only one (besides family if any are left) that cares for integrity sadly...

-On the surface, Starlo becomes involved in those western town recreations, and Martlet still doesn't quite have a direction to take her life in and winds up in various odd-jobs for a while, but she appreciates the newfound freedom. Dalv isn't quite a pro yet, but his organ playing nets him the occasional music festival appearance, and in-between he works on his kid's books. Ceroba would mainly be occupied just trying to keep amalgam kanako happy (though if there's a connection between her background and Japan, she at least visits a few shrines together) and when she doesn't visit her friends, she's working together with other amalgam families on treatment.

-Honeydew inn becomes the main nature resort of the underground for surface visitors (comparatively snowed Inn is more of a rest stop for tourists travelling and not so much staying)

-The connection to the surface eventually results in the resources for reflowering portions of the dunes, and the mines remain a source of mineral wealth for monsterkind.

-The steamworks gets "restored" (cleaned out of important tools and research properly, and physically repaired but out of practical operation outside as a museum) post-pacifist. Most robots choose to stay in the only home they know (and could operate in) but any capable of moving at least have the freedom to leave, and it's now run as a historical location with Axis occasionally involved in tours (when he's not exploring the concept of freedom himself). Alphys contributes to the restoration work due to a combination of guilt for "faking" mettaton's nature and putting a lot of scientists out of a job, and Ceroba realizing she's still one of the best tech specialists left in the underground and asking for her help (and alphys naturally feels she owes it to her as a family member of an amalgamate).

*General AU Idea I had regarding Kanako as Flowey/an Equivalent

-Kanako takes on a similar role to Flowey after a combination of Ceroba's soul essence injection and alphys' determination injections (Ceroba never told Alphys that there's already some injected in her) overload her past the amalgam point and her body melts too much to even hold together, eventually dusting and settling into a white flower from the steamworks that Alphys had been loaned for an experiment. She grows the same lack of empathy and desire for thrill/power that drives flowey as lack of emotions and the ability to reset erodes her unwillingness to kill (as usually develops as a result of gaining reset power: see meta narrative on Frisk/Chara/the player). Eventually, this drives her to seek the souls and see what she could do with more power. her philosophy outside of those goals is that people only ever use each other as a means to an end, and trust or faith in others is a painful dead end (Chujin's plan and Ceroba's work hurt Kanako and she cynically sees it as an attempt at creating/clinging to legacy, she realized Alphys faked her credentials and was using the DT injections just for reputation, and she eventually realizes Asgore doesn't reaaaaally want to free his citizens the way he promised them but is too afraid to be honest and destroy their trust). There's an element of "kill or be killed" but based more in the belief that inherent selfishness means those who don't use others will be used. The integrity soul human themself isn't really present, but their LV, though filtered, made it easier for Kanako to start hurting others.

-outside her general philosophy being a bit different and putting down her parents and their friends a bit more (similar to Flowey holding more cynical views of his parents) her actions are like flowey for most of the game (so she largely masks her philosophy and her personal belief that she and Clover are trying to use each other). the only noticeable difference is that she's less reliant on pellets and more on energy infused attacks given the nature of the flower she's attached to. Part of her snapping in neutral in addition to just generally being angry clover won't open the way to killing asgore after years of trying to get them there is that she's PISSED clover would be so "stupid" as to throw their safety away by trusting Martlet. The inside of her head would have less of Flowey's self-harm elements and be marginally less twisted (it "helps" she isn't dealing with lingering remnants of Chara's mentality or death from humans like Asriel did) but instead there'd be a sense of loss of self from the amalgam experience she briefly felt manifesting as melty, goopy horror, and the fear she felt both then, and as a child when integrity attacked (and subconsciously, the fear Integrity held as Axis blew their head off).

-despite the Asriel comparisons I also really wanna try not making her mostly just "Asriel but UT yellow character." (which is also why I can't come up with an ending scenario since I feel it could rip off Asriel too much). I do think flowey's role in UTY works really work because it IS flowey and not someone like him (whether like his UT or UTY selves), I just also had the idea kanako might be flowey during my playthrough and I REALLY wanna explore that .

**variation of the above but placing the timeline further back.

-I have a less developed idea that sees this as part of a larger AU where yellow takes places before flowey or alphys. Chujin loses his job due to the core shutting down steamworks labs and the axis prototype incident ensuring he doesn't get to work as an individual researcher. The Integrity attack happens when kanako was just a baby, then a decade later is when chujin dies and Ceroba starts the serum plan. After kanako becomes fallen down, Ceroba does another injection since she's desperately clinging to the belief that chujin's idea HAS to work.

-That much human soul essence contains enough DT for it to partially melt Kanako and seemingly destroy her sentience, but her boss monster DNA (and the fact that it's not pure DT but filtered through human essence like its supposed to) keeps her soul and form resilient enough to survive as solo amalgamate. Ceroba keeps her locked in the Ketsukane house out of a mix of shame, fear of losing all her friends, and fear that Asgore would ask other scientist to poke at Kanako's soul (Ceroba herself would admit that she really isn't sure herself which one dominates her thinking, but it's probably more selfish than she would like). She tries her best to at least talk to her, feed her and comfort her while maintaining the facade of a normal life (she tells everyone Kanako got sick and passed away, and it was too much to bear to bring anyone to her funeral) Kanako slowly becomes less and less responsive. Months before Clover falls, Kanako's body comes into contact with a white flower from the steamworks, and the remnants of her soul jump into on after sensing a stable, "living" body, awakening as her time's version of flowey.

-I don't have too much of an idea for the ending of Clover's journey, but in this version Ceroba has at least given up on using Kanako for a monster soul and instead is aiming for Asgore's. Part of the shock of the Ketsukane household portion would not just be the tapes, but the fact that Kanako's now motionless, amalgamated body can be found right after. It's initially assumed to be from Chujin's research before the truth comes out.

-this probably breaks a TON of rules of both undertale and Yellow, so if anyone has a less stupid sounding version of this, it would be neat (and also how it would somehow end in such a way as to not interfere with Undertale)

*species swap/overtale yellow/monster clover:

- clover is a fox monster for a kanako parralel just as how Frisk and Chara are commonly goat monsters. Their aesthetic still leans on western cultural ideas about foxes as opposed to kitsune elements, with the hat over their ears plus scarf over their nose in populated areas hiding enough facial features to pass as human.

-martlet's wings are a carpentry invention she made to make her job easier. They aren't exactly the most reliable equipment...

-All the robots are largely the same (since they aren't monsters), though there's an implication that integrity's monster counterpart's dust has had some unnatural effect on Axis' personality (nowhere near asriel's rebirth). Chujin had BADDLY underestimated how fragile monsters can be.

-one of the uncomfortable facts that clover is confronted with towards the end of each route is that if the monsters who fell (or however your take goes) died, there would be no real way to know what dust is theirs or where they are.

-part of the reason clover stands a chance is because their gun, unlike the rest of clover, is not magic but instead physical with a bit of extra kick from magic infusion. And a murder-high/genocide route naturally gets a little bloody... (though most would at least be "clean" enough shots through the chest)

-in each route, clover undergoes their own "undying"-esque transformation based on overwhelming justice that feeds into determination, resulting in the equivalent of their big shot mode. In neutral, flowey reducing them to their soul in his mind means their magic is no longer tied to a body or the danger of the real world and can desperately concentrate on self defense, in pacifist, Ceroba lands a clean hit and clover's sense of betrayal and desire for a just end pushes them to take one last stand (regardless of pacifist outcome, they don't have a strong enough soul for it to last forever). In Geno, axis manages to land the same killing blow he did on integrity, and clover is strong enough to spend the remainder in their undying mode. Asgore manages to actually land his own fatal blow, but clover survived long enough to kill him and take his soul, leaving it ambiguous if it saves them.

*what-if: Ceroba succeeds in capturing Clover's soul

-basically what it says. Ceroba manages to get clover all the way to true lab (including pushing past alphys and mettaton) before Starlo warns them (or alternatively, if for some reason Flowey didn't reset the timeline when she takes Clover's soul in the pacifist fight). After the initial shock in true lab, Ceroba realizes one of the amalgams is Kanako. Even though part of her admits her plan won't work with the state her daughter's soul is in, she's too desperate to reverse her daughter's condition and after coming across Alphys' entry 17 (unused in-game, but her speech on how monsters can't handle DT), backstabs Clover in the hopes that their soul can act as a weight on the determination that overloaded the amalgam's body. Flowey's aversion to true lab plus the speed and chaos of events happening make him too slow to control the timeline since the amalgamate has enough determination to go beyond his file (a full human soul plus a DT injection plus a human essence injection plus boss monster DNA plus other monsters). The body stabilizes into a chimera, and all the monsters in the amalgam plus clover have their own sense of self and degree of control over their body (picture Asriel + Chara but way more chaotic, with kanako and clover as the ones most commonly in control). Everybody is confused and terrified, and Angst and tragedy ensue. Kanako isn't really happy that an innocent human had to die for her sake, and Clover is caught between anger at being betrayed, and their own recognition of the injustice Kanako and all the amalgamated monsters have endured.

*"Ketsukane Reborn"/Clover shares a soul with Kanako

-not my idea at all (there are quite a few cool takes on this), but yeah, clover shares their soul with Kanako similar to Dreemurr Reborn. Kanako has less angst about Clover giving up their soul (they're still sorry of course, but they didn't ever try to hurt Clover, and clover gave their soul up since it wouldn't be just to let them suffer so they're okay enough with what happened) and the two can be surprisingly in-sync with a mix of Kanako's enthusiasm (Kid was hopeful enough that her parent's serum would work) and Clover's desire for justice, compared to Asriel/Frisk being a bit more solemn and differing

-Since both of them keep their eyes open, the main way to tell who's more in control is the eye hue: Brown for Kanako, and Yellow for Clover.

-The monster side of the soul offers support in shooting sections with the same additions that ralsei and susie provide during spamton Neo (with the protection closer to Ceroba's diamond shields).

-Ceroba absolutely broke down SOBBING in a mix of joy and sadness to have her daughter back and for how much Clover gave. Clover assuring her it was okay was one of the first times they manifested.

-If they ever actually meet Dreemurr Reborn Asriel/Frisk, Asriel talks with Clover a lot apologizing for all he put them through, and Kanako talks with Frisk thanking them for not fearing her in True Lab.

-the human essence in kanako was the only reason why her body was even stable enough to absorb Clover's soul (clover confirmed this themselves before they gave it up), but even still, she does feel that it's unfair she got a second chance that no other amalgamates did. As they get older, the two search the world for the history of monster souls to see if there's any cure.

*Underswap yellow:

-I don't have ideas for most swaps since the cast mostly don't come in pairs, but in a role but not personality swap AU, Ceroba would swap with starlo and goes full weeaboo running the Far West. She's not anime weeb (though that's her equivalent to western movies as research material) but more like, glorious Nippon, edo-era, ken-sama shit. Starlo is a peaceful enough farmer who packs a gun after seeing its power in his interactions with human culture (if clover swaps, he got the gun they left behind). Ceroba is moreso putting on act of overblowing what is "tradition" while making it more "trendy" based on human trash in waterfall in order to appeal to other monsters even though she wants to honor her family's legacy (not just her immediate family but ancestors), and Starlo leans into it more than Ceroba does for him. The culmination of the arc would more be her frustration with a self-imposed obligation to put up an act that celebrates the human alterations and ignores how her family really was, compared to Starlo getting too caught up in the act

-If clover does swap with another human, it's either patience (a la their items appearing in the ruins in ts!underswap) or integrity (as the major human of yellow's backstory). Whoever swapped with clover is the one going through the journey with yellow's cast and theming is closer to their soul, while clover went through the events the original human they swapped with did.

-Asgore, Toriel, undyne, napstablook, and Temmie are mostly the same as however you view/prefer their underswap selves. Running with the doll idea, neutral ending Temmie's memories feature a lot of ripped apart and mutilated dolls and stuffing, and an "odd" focus on a lack of arms... On Geno route they get absolutely ripped to shreds as their plush's body parts come off.

--Alternatively, going with the Asriel and Chara swap (the other one I usually see), then Chara-as-Flowey would DETEST Clover the instant their mask slips in neutral/genocide. They still wouldn't reveal their backstory, but there would be hints at the fact that they're pretty familiar with humans and have a VERY low impression of humanity (Clover's counterpart not excluded), even if circumstances have lowered their empathy for monsters as well. During true pacifist, Clover's counterpart's act of selflessness for the sake of monsterkind earns their begrudging respect, while during Geno, Chara-flowey promises them that they aren't all powerful and will have consequences some day like all humans (I've never really seen a consistent elaborated form of this swap so I kind of just ran with my own ideas of it, without too much personality swapping)

*Underfell Yellow

-I forget the general plot/backstory people go with and I haven't seen the original version in YEARS so I don't have much for Undertale/fell cast members who appear, aside that flowey was genuinely siding with Clover most of the journey and sends them away from toriel for their safety (from Toriel or the rest of the underfell underground is your call). Clover gives him the okay to move on without them once they realize there's no route in which Clover escapes without massive amounts of dustshed, but he's still shaken by losing them and it affects his relationship with Frisk on top of Frisk's connection to Chara.

-Martlet is motivated by a desire to climb the royal guard's (or their underfell equivalent) promotion ladder by ANY means for the power and prestige it brings. she tries to fake being clover's ally but is really, really bad at hiding her intentions so they usually avoid any backstab easily enough. She really shouldn't be qualified for the job, but she managed to cheat the initial results and competition for a position.

-starlo I already saw a cool bandit concept for and there is no improving on that

-ceroba's life went on a downward spiral ever since she married chujin only for him to become a disgraced, laughingstock of a scientist and leave the family broke, and then went on to focus all his efforts on soul and robotics projects with no care for the family before he had the "decency" to pass away. Ceroba is baddly shaken, and without realizing it, starts emotionally manipulating Kanako with the idea that her mother works very hard, is very tired, and needs more help to care for her child (not untrue, but Kanako thinks it's her fault). After discovering Chujin's serum idea, Ceroba becomes borderline negligent trying to create the injection, with Kanako finding out and putting herself forward as a test subject in the belief that anything to help her mom is good. Ceroba at this point is too desperate to even question if she shouldn't do this, and we all know what happens next (though Kanako coming under the care of Underfell alphys is pretty bad...). All she has left is a degrading existence as a paid assistant to starlo's gang, having given up on her husband's plan or that Kanako might recover, but Clover's pure soul has given her a new plan that might salvage her family's dignity

-chujin has actively tuned up axis to be as much of a human murder machine as he can be after the first murder, partly to spite asgore and the royal guard by showing his creation is superior to anything they could ever hope to do, and partly out of a burning hatred of humanity. Axis has a sympathetic personality from his initial creation when chujin was less bitter and exploring the potential of artificial intelligence for good, but it's buried amongst data screaming at him to kill humans, and little is left for monsters or robots besides indifference (in a bit of blatant symbolism, his heart never lights up or flashes), In his more comical moments, think of abridged android 16 if he didn't have a bird interest.

*Outertale Yellow:

-Okay I really have nothing for this except the fact that at least one "star fox" joke with the Ketsukanes (and also Martlet, froggits, and any rabbit NPC) would be very funny to me.

*Storyshift Yellow:

-This one I don't have real ideas for at all (especially because I'm embarrassingly behind on the reboot and I don't wanna put lazy headcanons on it), but if Clover somehow fell before Chara (considering how neither of the skeletons are referenced in UTY), their fate would influence how the Dreemurrs attempt to keep Chara alive.

-Sans immediately pulls out his instant kill cage on clover in flawed pacifist unlike asgore having dodgeable attacks, and admits how blatantly unfair it is. On Geno, he would normally try to put up a fight during genocide even if recognized he would eventually lose, but he sees Clover's fight with Martlet's equivalent and admits he can't even hope to delay clover or make them reset enough as soon as he realizes they have counters for his tricks (laser during his turn which makes it much harder to dodge, attacking outside of battle, the natural advantages of resetting) after one or two reloads. He does manage to leave them with a comment asking whether the slaughter and chaos and hatred that will follow was worth it or just.

*Inverted Fate:

-I don't really have anything concrete for this either since I admittedly missed a lot of backstory, plus the creator already said Clover's journey would be incompatible with the the AU (and I'm not creative enough to imagine where/"when" most of the yellow cast would be in IF's world). That said, as a what-if, I do think It'd be neat if Flowey went through Yellow before the timeline reset and that a part of Asriel was still affected by that time with Clover (if only for how they weren't Chara, just as how he's dismissive of Frisk, as further evidence to himself of Chara's importance and specialness).

-I do think Martlet could also be interesting to examine due to anti-human sentiment becoming much more normalized thanks to both the backstory and Undyne's actions. Martlet would be a more dedicated member of the Royal Guard (and a little older than she is in UTY) who wouldn't be as friendly to frisk, but she can't help but have doubts.

*Poketale Yellow/pokemon themed AU where everyone is a Pokemon/Mystery Dungeon choices:

-Clover is a Jolteon

-flowey is a sunflora

-decibat is noibat,

-Dalv is crobat (I could find surprisingly few vampire-esque pokemon)

-martlet is quaxwell (she evolves in Geno route. and I know she's not a duck but I found surprsingly few good blue bird pokemon besides ducklett)

-bailador is Hawlucha,

-starlo is like a junior Solgaleo (mainly on account of his parents, and I just can't see cosmoem or staryu working well. Feel free to make them work or come up with a better fit like a special solrock or minior)

-Ceroba is Ninetales (she usually hides her tails outside of battle, and they only show in full for the pacifist final)

-chujin is thievul

-Kanako is a vulpix, but she has a few traits of a thievul

-axis is golett.

(Feel free to put any of your own ideas for them, i'm sure i missed some new pokemon that are better fits. I just like Jolteon clover to go with Eevee frisk)

*Dreemurr/Ketsukane Swap (including Chara with the Dreemurrs).

-The dreemurrs aren't royalty, but rather "just" the monster equivalent of nobility, while the ketsukanes sit on the throne. King Chujin has a much less trusting view of humanity, but the Dreemurrs pleaded to him that an exception be made so long they ensured Chara never hurt anyone. As there was less pressure to be the "future" of monsters, Chara never developed the same sense of responsibility or duty to destroy the barrier for monsterkind. Their hatred of humanity remained though, and combined with their exposure to more average monsters and the sense that they were a burden on monsterkind, they wanted to be part of a "weapon" for all of their family's fellow monsters. They convinced Asriel to go ahead with their plan hoping that their fused soul might contain the essence necessary to empower all monsters to take revenge with a source of near infinite determination. Asriel/Chara stayed hidden from society after convincing asgore and Toriel that Chara died of a natural illness and the fusion was an accident, and begging that no one find out what happened lest they become saddled as monsterkind's saviors (really because chara wants all monsterkind to be powerful enough for war first and doesn't want them to have false hope until the power is in their hands). They secretly worked together with Chujin to extract the essence of their soul after convincing him of the potential and banking on his general distrust of humanity and faith in science to free monsterkind. Chujin realizes it's risky but after Chara already sacrificed themselves for this plan, he can't refuse.

- As kids who didn't fully think things through and a king working in secret without other scientists, the plan did not work at all. The Raw energy of Chara and Asriel's determination basically went berserk in response to an extraction attempt, leaving the fusion as an amalgamate constantly melting and reforming from attempts to save and load. Chujin was too guilt-ridden to tell the truth of what happened to Asgore and Toriel, so he lied to them that Asriel/Chara broke into his personal lab and tried the experiment on themselves and died, begging the Dreemurrs to tell everyone else it was a disease so that no one questions the sudden disappearance of a human. The body is too well hidden for the Dreemurrs to question anything at first, and they leave to grieve.

-Asgore is the first to realize something is off and eventually finds the amalgamate. He comes close to killing Chujin in rage for hiding his children's survival and mutation, but is stopped at the last second by Asriel (just sentient enough to protect Chujin since it was partly his and Chara's fault, but unable to communicate that to Asgore) Chujin swears that he thought finding them like this would be worse than thinking they died, then promises that if Asgore keeps this a secret to everyone, then the two can work towards a cure. Asgore hates that he was lied to, but still believes that Chara and Asriel tried to extract the essence on their own, so he accepts the proposal as Chujin's form of apology. Asgore works himself ragged through tests on his soul seeing if the growth between boss monster parents and children or a stable boss monster soul might reform the children, far past the safety point that Chujin recommends, but nothing works. As his condition pushes past the point of no return, Chujin finally realizes that another human soul would be the only thing powerful enough to restore the children, and bitterly passes the information on to Asgore, believing it's hopeless one would appear like Chara.

-This whole time, Asgore kept everything a secret from Toriel even as she became worried about his health. On his deathbed, he admits the truth (as he knows it) to her and apologizes for lying about their children since he didn't want her to see them so disfigured, but with no hope for recovery they have been secretly transported home without chujin's knowledge (leaving him constantly afraid they may one day reappear). Asgore begs Toriel to keep the same promise of secrecy and tells her that a human soul is Asriel and Chara's only hope. Toriel is infuriated with Chujin but out of Asgore's wishes, she never tells anyone and keeps them hidden, while planning to take a human soul should the chance ever arise

-Toriel DESPISES herself for the killing she's planning to do even if it's for saving her kids (that it's for them is the only reason she even takes this path), and though she believes that Asgore and Chujin both lied to her (the later not receiving any sympathy), she still blames herself for everything that led to the transformation even though she really is innocent ("if only I paid more attention") and is caught between her protective urges and her mission. She fights with a cult-like animal mask based on a goat (like a stereotypical image of Pagan, fertility European religions), giving her longer horns and a generally demonic appearance.

*Deltarune / Deltarune Yellow (whether it's the Yellow Cast in regular Deltarune or in Hometown's past is your call, but most of these apply to the former):

-Martlet is stuck doing a bunch of odd jobs around hometown since she hasn't really decided on a careeer or college. She's related to Berdly as a way older cousin, and the age gap that puts her in higher end of asriel's age group means they don't really hang out much.

-Dalv is another shut-in, though he occasionally submits anonymous organ recordings and children's books to the library.

-Decibat is one of the workers at the library and can be most counted on to shush anyone, even anyone else trying to shush someone.

-Starlo runs a movie watching club focused on westerns. The rest of the feisty five put up with it but each has their own genres they prefer

-Bailador runs a really weird dance aerobics program at a local gym.

-the Ketsukanes would be one of the more notable families in town like the Dreemurrs and Holidays (like how Toriel runs the school, asgore ran the police, and Noelle's mom is the mayor) due to chujin being a capable inventor (in his case, less authority in town and more out of town fame that trickles back home) and his and ceroba's families both having lived there for decades, but he had a pretty big falling out incident with Dreemurrs regarding their choice to adopt Kris (he didn't trust having a human in the community, let alone the chief of police having one). After that public blowup with Asgore, Kris was mysteriously attacked in the woods while alone, and while there was no official evidence of who did it (Kris was too young and too hurt to remember) and no one was charged, rumors quickly singled out chujin and his reputation was destroyed, since no one wanted to be friendly to someone who hurt a Dreemurr (though most townsfolks are more worried about Toriel, asgore, and Asriel's feelings than kris'). The family moved away to a city where he works with the tech and robotics companies he already designed for. They generally dress more like a "modern" Japanese family (e.g. Kanako wears a school uniform), though chujin isn't quite a salaryman.

-Ceroba occasionally visits to talk with her old friend Starlo and pay respects to family buried in the town cemetery, but otherwise she's grown distant from most of the people living there and has awkward talks about her family's new life which are mostly done out of politeness obligations. She isn't distrusting of Kris like Chujin is, but given the nature of Chujin leaving, they're naturally not comfortable around each other (she wishes Kris could remember what happened that day and exonerate her husband, while Kris knows it wasn't chujin and feels guilty for being unable to absolve him, but they still dread thinking about that attack and being reminded of those who refuse to accept them as part of other monsters), and Toriel is very cold toward Ceroba since that's the closest person to chujin she can take out her anger on.

-Kanako was pretty young at the time (she's currently Asriel's age, and left when she was just 7 or 8 when Kris was a newly adopted younger sibling), so she's not too close to Asriel and Dess' school group and she never really knew Kris' school group (she's never met Susie before the events of Deltarune, and she only saw Kris once or twice due to her father's hostility--she mostly knows Noelle and catti thanks to her time with their older sisters). The rare times she visits with her mom during summer is her mostly just her seeing what's changed, telling her old class what city life is like and awkwardly trying to get to know the town's teens as an older teen/young adult (most of them are weirded out since they don't really know her except from their parents talking about chujin unfavorably, Kris is too quiet and too uncomfortable about what happened to get close, and Noelle's own problems with Dess make it hard to talk since the original in-between point for them is now gone). She might have ended up as Asriel and Dess' friend or at least someone they occasionally talk to online since they were too young to fully get what happened or blame her, but Dess' disappearance left just Asriel and kanako, and the ketsukane-dreemurr family history made it too awkward to talk as just the two of them, so they stopped keeping up around high school.

- Some of Chujin's old concept sketches on an automated police robot that can still be found in the station's files are basically axis without the steampunk pipes or heart design. If one file was part of the dark world it would resemble a sleeker axis insecure about being incomplete, with the spare requirement being to "finish" him (if you do so, he ends up falling in love with the machine to thrash your ass). Noelle's cool robot face is needed to briefly placate him since his facial recognition concept was never exactly well developed (blame chujin's biases for making him associate human faces with criminals, and not really working out a monster face)

-clover is a kid in asriel's age group who happens to both go to the same college as him, and was friends with kanako in high school (ironically, as much as chujin didn't want a human in hometown, he accepted that in a city would realistically be impossible to keep kanako away from any. Most what keeps him away from hometown is his pride + sunk cost fallacy at this point). However, clover doesn't realize Asriel and kanako knew each other for a while since they (clover) never saw a need to bring up one to the other, and the two of them didn't ever mention the past (and kanako herself goes to a different college). That connection would only come up as part of any storyline you do

*Deltatraveler yellow:

-note: I know that deltatraveler has a set plan of chapters, and I doubt this could freely drop in-between any of them with no trouble--this is just a what-if I can see happening towards the end of the journey, but at least before toontown. Also, I would not assume by default that Kris Susie or Noelle know any of the Deltarune counterparts I imagined above, since they're coming from a universe closer to the Deltarune we know.

-Neutral: Kris, susie, and Noelle all get dropped into the steamworks (at a point between its shutdown and Clover entering) and accidentally turn on Axis. Shenanigans ensue, including Noelle pulling out a cool robot face that manages to placate Axis multiple times as Kris sneaks away and Susie getting pissed off at the lab puzzles. She and Noelle get stuck in the factory and they come out with the guide robot screen stuck on susie's weapon. Kris gets stuck in the lab and deals with both Axis and Yellow's Flowey who's confused about how his Determination is being overridden and tries to kill Kris, though before a fight can happen Axis interferes. The rest of the gang doesn't entirely realize they're in a version of the underground (no monsters besides sans, and they aren't familiar enough with the references to other people/places) until Kris tells Susie they ran into Flowey again, and on cue he appears. Since he's a different flowey who doesn't know the rest of them vs the main one tailing them, Susie can instantly cut the bullshit with him and tries to take him out, but once again Axis interferes, and UTY flowey leaves. After the encounter, the main chapter 1 Flowey appears unbeknownst to anyone and plans to use the experience with his counterpart to get a better read on how to deal with Kris, Susie, and Noelle.

-sans takes the place of Mo and mentions he hasn't ever been here even though it feels familiar to him for some reason but also...not. (he's alluding to the underground as a whole, and that he's not from Yellow's universe/timeline).

-pacifist: Ceroba appears early on after noticing one of Chujin's objects in her home went off (it was linked to Axis activity) on upon realizing there's a pure human soul (she really sensed it before the gang sees her, and it's implied she avoids them on neutral as a result to leave the job of killing Kris to Asgore and the Guard since she doesn't need the soul or care much for the plan if it's 5 souls so far) and very cautiously approaches as an ally to get the gang to Hotland and the royal scientist (Susie is annoyed that she won't fight unlike the rest of them). She recognizes Kris' soul is odd, but she's confident enough in it being "pure" and keeps trying to pull them to the side to earn sympathy points while seperating them from Susie and Noelle and just generally being a bit of a control freak which puts Kris, Susie, and Noelle on edge. She accompanies Kris through the factory and "accidentally" gets cut off from Susie and Noelle, during which time she really tries to butter up Kris as an ally. Susie and Noelle catch up soon after the lab and accidentally trip an alarm that alerts the underground to the group's presence, causing Ceroba to panic, grab Kris, and run for it before getting separated from Susie and Noelle in Axis' arena. After repelling Axis, Ceroba tries to make a play for kris' soul, but they make it clear to her their soul cannot be trusted or controlled even if they were comfortable letting her use it. The gang is angry that she lied to them and tried to kill one of them, though at least Noelle can't help but feel sorry (without agreeing) after she admits her desire to uphold her family's legacy. In turn, once she hears the trio has their own family to get back to, she promises to grab the royal guard's attention and hold them off, stating the royal scientist might recognize kris' soul wouldn't work for the kingdom's needs.

-obliteration: Because the soul forces the group's way into the steamworks without turning it on, Ceroba isn't alerted at first and Axis is force booted in safe mode. The soul destruction scene includes Mo making a brief appearance (sans ain't gonna help you outside of key locations, so mo ends up running into the group none the wiser while attempting to scrounge around for stuff to sell), and for trying to kill someone that doesn't even pick a fight and still tries to help after the first threat, Kris slam dunks the soul into the pink goop. (Alternatively: during the lab portion Kris pours the acid on the soul if you attempt to make them drink it). The rest of the gang is a mix of desensitized and tired enough to let the Soul destroy Axis ("helps" he's just a robot to them) in the second encounter if Kris is forced to catch him in time--failing to do so drops obliteration. The final fight is with Ceroba after Axis' danger signal manages to trigger one of Chujin's devices, and she realizes you're not only destroying Chujin's work, but a threat to the whole underground (and kanako in particular since you're going in the same direction where Kanako currently is) while bitterly noting that of course the next human would be impure. She uses shields, red attacks, the steamworks itself, and a partner to put up a hard fight against kris, susie, and noelle given how powerful they are at this point. From there I can see two different partners

--If it's still pre-clover, Ceroba is accompanied by Starlo since he refused to let her explore alone and together they can put up a hell of a fight in sync (especially with starlo getting more serious, and providing more unpredictable attacks to counterbalance Ceroba's). If Ceroba dies first, the full weight of the situation hits him and he starts bringing out some magic based on both his farm background and his astral nature. If Starlo dies first, Ceroba curses that she sees yet another person close to her die and pulls out her mask, going into a lighter version of her pacifist phases (she's more righteously angry, but can't hold onto the same hope for chujin's legacy that pushed her in pacifist). I feel like Ceroba would go down first since she could shield any attacks plus starlo never gets a "hard" fight, but I could also see him trying to jump in front of a heavy attack meant for Ceroba that she wouldn't have time to shield up for.

--If it's closer to Yellow (perhaps because the grind takes so long that the events in steamworks go from corresponding with right before Clover to the Dunes and Wild East?), Ceroba is accompanied by a pacifist clover who tagged along despite her insistence not to (If they either die or somehow win, her plan is impossible to fulfill, plus she has enough basic decency to be uncomfortable putting a child up against killers). If clover goes down first, she naturally goes rage mode at losing both an innocent child and her plan (and the soul/Kris sense that "someone"/Flowey tried to reset but couldn't), and she goes diet pacifist like before. If Ceroba goes down first, clover's LV jumps to 8 in rage and they pull out big shots and dodges (they aren't high enough LV for the laser, but will spam big shots late in the fight) alongside attacks based on Undertale Yellow's attack system and the yellow soul portion of photoshop Flowey. Susie and Noelle flat out refuse any participation the second Clover gets involved, and when it falls to just clover they outright assist them against the soul (Susie and Noelle will force spare themselves but they can't spare clover since Clover is too enraged to back down from the fight). After landing the killing blow, clover's soul slowly starts charging the laser in a last ditch attack, but it shatters before it can fire, and they collapse. In this case, I think Ceroba would always die first thanks to protecting Clover, but I want to consider the possibility of her surviving as a what-if. The gang can't exactly fall much further than killing Ness and Paula (plus whatever happens in Ts!underswap with Chara), but being unable to stop the soul from forcing a kill on clover even with their assistance would be one of the second-to-last straws.

-the elevator to Hotland proper is a grey door. The gang is...a tad exasperated by this (Susie: "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?") but accept that they have no real choice since the way before the arena is blocked and either the commotion from axis or the obliteration route has notified the guard to their presence.

Doubt anyone will read my ramblings or be seriously inspired, but I just love this game, and I love to imagine it together with all the other cool stuff in Undertale and fandom

#undertale au #undertale yellow #ut yellow #uty #undertale yellow AU #UTY au #deltarune au #i know i normally don't post stuff here these days but this is way easier of a place for me to shoot out ideas #UT #DR #utdr #ideas #no really they're just ideas I'm not a writer or musician or artist so I'm not turning these into anything #So feel Free to use them if you somehow found this post and read it #undertale #deltarune #Also I am so sorry to Kanako I swear I did not mean to make her suffer in these #I Just suck at thinking of endings even though she deserves a nice one

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amrv-5 · 10 months

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what drew you to writing a script style for black box war??? what was your favorite/least favorite things abt writing mostly dialogue, and which stage direction was the juiciest in your opinion

Ack!!!! Thank you for this ask this is a fun one ouughh. Okay, answer (plus an excerpt of a nonpublished prose version of Black Box) below the cut:

So, I actually wrote about about 3/4 of the first scene of Black Box in typical prose style...

...but for some reason it just wasn't gelling for me. It was slow going, I wasn't having fun with it, and I could feel myself starting to dread having to do a full 7 days of it for the Fic Olympics, which was Exactly The Opposite of what I wanted from the festival. I realized that I liked one of my jokes better (the French-speaking Canadians one, ha) with less weighing it down, and so I decided to experiment with stripping it back to a script style. That clicked, and I was having fun again :)

My favorite part of writing that way was probably the "speed" of the fic from a reader's perspective. I wanted the jokes to feel snappy, and actions to feel real-time, and I like the lighter, more agile vibe of a fic with (most...I know I editorialize a lot in stage directions) prose stripped out of it. I think you can make jokes land in a script format in a way you can't in a prose fic (see, for instance, the Radar-God joke in day 2. I'm not sure if I could do that joke in my usual style, but I love it in stage directions!).

Least favorite part? Hmmgh. I think as a writer I gravitate towards spending a lot of time lingering inside characters' heads. I like when they have a strong internal voice, and I like having extended sections of fic (sorry guys, I still have no clue if this is boring or not) where they just sit around and reflect at length. Didn't get to write much interiority with a script fic, which I found both fun (lots of ambiguity, interpretive flowspace, double meaning...) and also somewhat frustrating (hence my clear love for Talking In The Stage Directions).

'Juiciest' stage direction love your phrasing this is so so great. juiciest.... I'll go with:

BJ isn’t engaging with the conversation. He crosses behind HAWK and RADAR to the SWAMP’s wall at stage right. He pokes at the canvas, tests the frame, and finds it all solid. He crosses his arms, and then starts the process again.

Here I'm saying juiciest means most juiceable for interpretation. There's a lot about the world of Black Box implied in this direction, and even more about each character involved. Radar walks through the wall. Hawkeye doesn't mind. BJ is deeply bothered by it, feels the need to test the stability of the wall, and finds it complete. But of course to the audience the Swamp set clearly ends -- it's a cross-section. So while BJ is "seeing" what's really there in the play's universe, he can't see what is actually there from an audience perspective. Then you've got to start asking what makes him different, which "version" of reality is realest, why can he see / not see it, etc. etc. and so on, until you get bored.

Anyway. THANKS this was so fun I love talking about fic!!!!!!!

#ask #Thank you!!!!!!

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usergreenpixel · 2 years

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JACOBIN FICTION CONVENTION MEETING 29: NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS (2007)

1. The introduction

Well, hello again, dear Citizens! Welcome back to Jacobin Fiction Convention because it is now back in session!

Okay, first I will get one thing out of the way. I’m doing much better than I did in summer, hence the decision to resume my reviews. And what better way to make a comeback than to get the promised things out of the way first?!

On that note, I introduce to you the topic of today’s meeting: “Napoleon’s Pyramids”, a novel in the adventure genre set in the Egyptian campaign. Now, Directory years don’t have a good reputation in the Frev community, but technically those years are still officially Frev, hence my decision to include this book in the Jacobin Fiction Convention category.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure some people in my audience already know it, but I LOVE adventure stories, so when I stumbled across this book on a quest to find more Frev/Napoleonic media to review, you can bet your ass that I got excited!

Also, its resemblance to an Indiana Jones story initially drew me in, as I used to like the first Indiana Jones movie as a kid (not so much now) so there is some nostalgia involved here as well.

Luckily for me, I managed to find the book in pdf format here:

Then I did more research and it’s available in Russian too, mainly online and sometimes in paperback form, so my fellow Russian speakers who aren’t good at English can find the Russian version!

Is it worth looking for though? Well, let’s find out.

This review is dedicated to @mamelukeraza .

2. The Summary

Here’s the summary from Amazon and, apparently, the back cover of the book:

What mystical secrets lie beneath the Great Pyramids?

The world changes for Ethan Gage—one-time assistant to the renowned Ben Franklin—on a night in post-revolutionary Paris, when he wins a mysterious medallion in a card game. Framed soon after for the murder of a prostitute and facing the grim prospect of either prison or death, the young expatriate American barely escapes France with his life—choosing instead to accompany the new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, on his glorious mission to conquer Egypt. With Lord Nelson's fleet following close behind, Gage sets out on the adventure of a lifetime. And in a land of ancient wonder and mystery, with the help of a beautiful Macedonian slave, he will come to realize that the unusual prize he won at the gaming table may be the key to solving one of history's greatest and most perilous riddles: who built the Great Pyramids . . . and why?

By all accounts, this book should have been right up my alley! I mean, we have adventures, ancient artifacts, mysteries and clues! What could possibly go wrong?!

(Spoiler alert: A LOT. More on that later.)

3. The Story

First of all, I didn’t really like the beginning of the book, mostly because the narrator (Ethan Gage) really takes his precious ass time to dive into his backstory and explain how he ended up at a table playing that fateful card game. I’m talking about two pages of backstory before finally getting to the fucking point!

Don’t get me wrong, a proper introduction is important to me personally, but maybe my problem is the fact that I prefer to receive a character’s backstory over time, bit by bit. Otherwise it gets a bit too distracting for me, especially when Gage stops narrating to crank out a few pages of his damn autobiography before returning to the actual events at hand.

Also, unfortunately for this book, the comparisons to Indiana Jones don’t imply anything good here. It simply reads like an extremely predictable adventure story that desperately tries and fails to be engaging and fun while treating really old orientalist tropes like a checklist (mysterious Egypt, hot slave girls…). Even the cliffhanger ending is predictable as shit.

Moreover, there is almost no suspense. Gage either conveniently shoots his target or gets conveniently rescued all the time. In short, he always wins, which is not what should happen in a good story because most people get bored with heroes who always win.

Last but not least, too many coincidences and everyone being connected to the point where my suspension of disbelief just went right out the window.

At one point Ethan Gage randomly encounters Sidney Smith, for example. Also he gets rescued by Nelson after a naval battle. And in a later chapter it turns out that the Romani with whom Gage had to hide at one point were the ones who alerted Gage’s future allies in Egypt about his arrival. Very fucking believable.

At this point, this book may as well be a soap opera where all the heroes are somehow connected!

Speaking of heroes…

4. The Characters

I don’t like Ethan Gage. He’s basically a knockoff Indiana Jones crossbred with a Mary Sue. Perfect sharpshooter, womanizer, spy, adventurer, apprentice of Benjamin Franklin. He has a lot of skills and connections and not enough justification for having them.

Trust me, even the fact that he’s a Freemason wasn’t enough for me to justify the fact that he just HAPPENS to know a bunch of important people.

Other than that, he starts out as a typical lone adventurer with no family who enjoys gambling and the company of sex workers. I was half expecting him to go full James Bond and be an alcoholic too, but luckily it wasn’t that cliché.

The Macedonian slave mentioned in the summary, Astiza, is a slightly more interesting character, even though she’s not free from clichés. Starting out as a beautiful mysterious slave girl, she is revealed to know more than she lets on and has a knack for practicing magic. Also she is later revealed to have known the villain of the book… Welcome to Santa Barbara, folks!

As for the villain, Count Alessandro Silano is presented as this master manipulator and a looming threat who wants to harness whatever secrets the ancient secrets and/or powers this medallion can potentially provide. In reality, however, he’s more of a hammy movie villain who likes to monologue, has no positive traits whatsoever has the same ability to survive the impossible as Gage does. Or maybe they both can just respawn, I dunno.

Unfortunately, “cliché” and “flat” are the best adjectives to describe most original characters in the story. Gage’s friend, Antoine Talma, is your typical intrepid reporter but at least he’s more relatable than Gage; Ashraf, a Mameluke Gage captures, is just a loyal servant who is there to conveniently swoop in and rescue Gage Deus ex machina style, etc.

It’s basically modern clichés served under the “sauce” of the Frev setting.

By the way, Napoleon is there as well and he gives me the same vibes as the Nazi villains in the first Indiana Jones movie. He only cares about people who are useful to him, doesn’t give a shit about his troops and also wants to harness the abilities that medallion potentially can provide so he can use those powers to CONQUER THE WORLD!

Most other historical figures only have minor roles, but I’m glad we got cameos of people like Kléber, Vivant Denon and other military men and scientists who were actually part of that campaign.

5. The Setting

Unfortunately, even the descriptions of settings leave a lot to be desired. They’re just blander than stale bread and I’m not even sure how accurate they are. Probably inaccurate as fuck though, if I’m being honest…

Paris is this city of vices like brothels and gambling houses and this setting is hyperbolic like we’re in a noir detective story.

Egypt is a treasure trove of orientalist clichés - a land of mysteries, cruel people, beautiful women and wise scholars who may or may not dabble in magic. That being said, I liked the fact that the book took a sledgehammer to clichés about harems.

6. The Writing

Ooh boy, I have some complaints here too. Aside from the distractingly long backstory tidbits I already ranted about, that is.

For example, basic French grammar and spelling have clearly left the chat because there are characters whose last names are spelled d’Liberté and d’Bonneville (de is only turned into d’ before vowels or the letter “h”) and at one point there’s a hotel called Le Cocq instead of Coq (rooster). The book was written in 2007 so it’s not like the author couldn’t look up the words and basic grammar that I learned in fifth grade!

These may seem like tiny mistakes, but if the author didn’t bother to look up the basics, then this makes me concerned about other mistakes in the novel that I probably missed. So yeah, take everything in this with a grain (or a barrel) of salt.

Last but not least, this:

This is where General Dumas and General Desaix make a cameo. Now, it seems fine… except there’s no prior mention of them being present in this scene at all before they speak their lines so… did these two just randomly poof into existence or something?

Also, these two suffer from Delayed Introduction Syndrome ™️, which means we don’t find out who the fuck these men are until a few chapters later and we don’t get any descriptions of them before that either.

Why is this an issue? Well, other minor characters in the book do get a proper introduction and a brief description IMMEDIATELY or SHORTLY after being mentioned, so there is an inconsistency here, especially since some minor characters get TOO MUCH time dedicated to their descriptions despite the fact that they are not part of the main cast (d’Liberté in particular gets too much attention).

Also, some descriptions in the book are unintentionally funny, like a part where Gage compares a woman’s nipples poking out of her cleavage to soldiers sticking heads out of a trench. Yes, this is the real comparison in the book and it fucking cracked me up.

One thing I appreciate, however, is the fact that the narrative doesn’t shy away from describing gruesome injuries like traumatic amputations and sometimes the author does have the balls to permanently kill off an important character (said characters has a really gruesome death btw). I don’t mind blood and gore like this, but trigger warning just in case you’re more squeamish than me.

7. The Conclusion

All in all, instead of being a cool swashbuckling adventure, “Napoleon’s Pyramids” comes off as an Indiana Jones ripoff with clichés stacked onto one another like Jenga blocks, a cast of bland characters, mistakes that could be easily corrected by a few Internet searches and inconsistent writing.

Do I recommend it? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Please don’t waste your time on this novel.

Okay, with that said, it’s time to conclude today’s meeting of the Jacobin Fiction Convention.

Please stay tuned for updates on future reviews and stay safe.

Love,

Citizen Green Pixel

#history #frev #french revolution #frev art #jacobin fiction convention #literature review #frev media #frev literature #obscure frev media #napoleon’s pyramids #ethan gage #louis charles antoine desaix #general dumas #napoleon bonaparte #horatio nelson #sidney smith #vivant denon #jean baptiste kleber

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wellnoe · 2 years

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Spare Warren/Jean/Scott thoughts pls? 🤲 they are my lifeblood

i love them also! my thoughts on jeanscottwarren are largely about them being kind of a fun emotional backdrop to canon? which i don't know is satisfying to other people, or what you want to hear. like its less about this actually being a romantic/sexual relationship that forms and more like. inserting largely unspoken emotions into the canon that exists. this is why most of my thoughts about them end up basically being "rip warren". like i think it is sad for him in a way where i point and laugh.

jean/scott/warren also tend to tie into my thoughts on like. scott and bisexuality and the ways x-factor could be re-interpreted/re-written to be about the closet and kind of normative relationships (this is also tied to my lesbian maddy agenda) and heteropatriarchy and eugenics? i don't think that that's the actual intention of the comic or anything but reframing it that way is interesting to me and can get you to some interesting places i think. and then that becomes tied to my thoughts on warren and bisexuality and! how if you place that during x-factor, if you write or interpret warren as someone who is attracted to men, it kind of inherently messes with the framing of the whole cameron hodge thing? like it has an impact on that whole situation, which is interesting to think about, whether the interpretation is that hodge knows warren is attracted to men or not.

and then w the jean side of things its like. her relationships w people and where she finds value in those relationships after all these people have changed and the ways she DOES turn to warren for support. ALSO i think its interesting that like. one of the big jean/warren (/scott) moments that people tend to point to is in new mexico, in the dark phoenix saga. which x-factor jean is very clear is not her, and so warren having that interaction w phoenix (even at a platonic level) is really interesting to me.

anyway! that's kind of where my head is at when i am talking about them. i kind of located them in x-factor here, but obviously there's also a lot to be said about them in the silver age. also, i am very sorry for how long it took me to answer this ask. i really wanted to give you a worthwhile answer but it turns out i am kind of unable to come up w general thoughts about them on demand? hence the above ramble. but i do love them and i love thinking and talking about them! so thanks for the ask! 💛💛💛💛

#w.ask

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asm5129 · 1 year

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Flash thoughts episode 9x02

Let’s get the headline out of the way—I freaking love Khione. She’s great. She’s interesting, she’s intriguing, and she’s performed really well by the ever exceptional Danielle Panabaker.

Her sincerity and joy is such an interesting contrast to the rest of the team this season—especially Barry, Iris, and Joe who are all dealing with 9 years of superhero life baggage and trauma. She’s also got really interesting and deep insights into people, almost piercing ones. Plus there’s her connection to nature she speaks of. I wonder if that’s some kind of power, or simply a result of her sincerity and fresh eyes on the world, uncolored by a long history of bias and regrets and the like.

It was off-putting to hear Barry and the other heroes talk so casually about sacrificing Khione’s life to bring back Caitlin and/Frost, barely thinking of her as anything more than a reason Caitlin isn’t there anymore, but I think it works within the context of how grief affects us. Even heroes struggle to think of every life as having equal value, because they have personal relationships too, and these heroes just had more investment in Caitlin and Frost—it’s just someone you just met is not going to mean the same thing as someone you’ve known and thought of as family for years. Obviously I’m glad Barry realized he was treating her so awfully.

I definitely miss Caitlin and Frost, but I agree with the team—Caitlin made her choice. For that matter, so did Frost. Both knew the risks of their choices. Khione is the result. And neither Caitlin nor Frost would want Khione to give up her life for them when it’s only just started.

I also think it’s really interesting that what she said to Hartley actually applies to Mark in a really deep way. Mark never really committed to becoming a better man, he just worked to be a better person to make Frost happy. Like Khione said—doing it for someone else isn’t real change. With Frost gone he’s lost the foundation for those changes, hence him “going rogue”, as Barry phrased it. Speaking of—

The new rogue is another strong one. A new version of The Fiddler, and while I liked what we saw of the new Captain Boomerang we got a lot more of Fiddler and I am very pleased with her. I think it’s a fun performance, a cool power set, and a solid presence. She also sold the fear in the scene with Red Death really, really well. Regardless of why these Rogues decided to ally with Red Death at first, it’s clear they’re in over their heads.

It was fun to have Hartley back, and I’m very happy they didn’t pull a bury your gays with his boyfriend but instead did this really neat thing of him and the others being trapped in a vibrational frequency out of sync with reality. It allows them to be saved through Barry’s ability to vibrate at a frequency that can see them, without undermining Fiddler’s claim about it being “a fate worse than death”—for being frozen just out of sync with life forever, I think that’s an apt description, and that doesn’t get undermined just because they could be saved imo. Anyway it’s just a really neat thing to do with sound powers.

Joe meanwhile is in a rough spot as Cecile gets closer and closer to being capable of field work, cuz he’s been dealing with the harsh reality of field work longer than anyone—both as a cop and as the patriarch of the Flash family since the very start. I think with all that experience with violence and pain it makes a lot of sense that he feels like he has to draw the line somewhere, and this feels to him like where it has to be drawn. I’m intrigued to see where this goes.

It’s cool to see WestAllen making sure to keep themselves provided with joy during these difficult times as well—we could all learn from that honestly.

And finally, I think Red Death framing her plan as “serving justice” rather than “getting revenge” is really interesting, especially knowing this is a version of Batwoman. We’ll probably find out soon if my theory is right about this being the Ryan Wilder from the Armageddon future. If it is, from her perspective Barry is the reverse-flash, and he did to The Flash exactly what Thawne actually did in the beginning of season 8. Would be a really interesting way to play with that warped future Thawne created, keeping him as part of the last season while Barry faces consequences for rewriting a timeline in which Ryan was happy, and was even literally about to adopt a child with Sophie. She would have lost not just that but all her other friendships and connections too. In this timeline for instance, Ryan and Iris aren’t friends, they don’t even know each other. All the years of friendship? Gone. Anyways we’ll see.

Overall another really solid episode for the final season.

On that note, it seems like the Arrowverse guest stars will be more of a chance to say goodbye this season rather than wrapping up any of their stories, which makes sense. Better to keep it focused, but I’m glad we will still have a chance to say goodbye.

I’m sad we won’t get to see Eric Wallace’s grand plan he talked about recently come to fruition. Season 10 sounds like it would’ve been amazing, maybe even a proper Justice League story, but instead the planned 200th episode is now the series finale. I have to believe that if the star wars prequels can find themselves real fans, and there can be a desire for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 with Andrew Garfield, the Arrowverse will find its way to the sun again as well.

#be kind #arrowverse #arrowverse positivity #the flash #the flash season 9 #flash thoughts #flash spoilers #season 9 #final season #red death #khione #caitlin snow #killer frost #barry allen

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sophie-i-guess13 · 2 years

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Hiii Tiana here! How are you btw <3? btw i just wanted to let you know that you have inspired me a lot with the hcs so I’d love to give you credit on the fic if that’s okay with you ofc! <3 (do you have wattpad btw? If not I can finish it and just post it here! <3)

Also quick question the story is very angsty so I was wondering if you could do me some hcs on Tex comforting Dallas and dally comforting Tex? 💕

OMG I have no idea why I’m just seeing this I’m sorry! But I’m glad my headcanons have been so much of a help! (Of course you can give me some credit, that’s so thoughtful <3)

Anyway, headcanon time!

- still with my limited understanding of the book, I feel like Tex and Dallas express their emotions very differently

- like Tex isn’t much of a fighter

- and Dallas is all the way a fighter

- so like hear me out

- Tex sees Dallas get violently angry (idk at Socs or something) and Tex gets scared

- bc Mason (that’s the other brother right???) has already beaten him before, hence the scar on his eyebrow and he doesn’t want it to happen again

- cue Dallas realizing this and saying; shit, Johnny, I didn’t mean it-

- and Tex’s oblivious; wHo’S jOhNny???

- also depending on what time frame your using, maybe when Dallas decides to yk 🔫👮‍♀️ maybe he tries calling Tex to say goodbye… but Mason picks up instead…. and doesn’t let him talk to his brother

- tbh I don’t really have a ton for these!

- all I can really see is Tex tryna help Dallas with other ways to express his emotions

- and Dallas being stiff and uncomfortable (but helping in his own way!) when Tex needs him <3

- ps bc it wouldn’t be a @sophie-i-guess13 post without Buck Merrill, Dallas makes fun of Buck and Tex for both having a buck tooth

#soapie’s stuff #asks!#the outsiders #dallas winston #dally winston #tiana!

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cyvonix · 2 years

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~ Cyv's Manga Club ~

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood

Vol. 1 (Chapter 1 - 11)

Alright, let's get this thing started...

So !!! I really wanna start reading more manga, but I've always enjoyed talking about and analyzing the things I consume, participating in a sense of community or at the very least, having an archive of my thoughts on said thing. So I figured why not start a lil blog-type-thing talking about my opinions on whatever it is I'm reading at the moment? I originally started this on twitter since I do admittedly use it way more but..... for obvious reasons Tumblr is a much better platform for slightly longer-form blog style content. ANYWAY, I think it'll be really fun to document my journey through all these different series. Nothing crazy long, just a few paragraphs about whatever I think about the current thing. (Hence why I'm calling these a "manga club" and not flat-out reviews.) So here we go! The very first series I'm gonna write about is *drumroll* JoJo!

Somehow I've never read or watched any JoJo before this aside from one single episode of the anime. Crazy right? But a lot of the iconography from the series is downright iconic, so of course I still know much of it. Not the story tho, in fact not even the slightest bit. I went into this basically as blind as you could. And what do I think so far? Well, I like it! I will certainly say that it has its flaws that I've noticed, but for one, I know these will most likely get ironed out along its impressive runtime, and two, they weren't nearly enough to make me stop enjoying it.

The art is of course extremely well-known when it comes to JoJo. In this first installation, the influence from retro action series' like Fist of the North Star REALLY shines through, like, REALLY. I think it does manage to still be pretty unique, but the feeling of it being derivitive does linger a bit. Of course, this is yet another thing that we all know got polished as fuck as time went on to become one of the sickest styles in the entire medium, but for now, still good!! The characterization is something else I found to be worth pointing out - for better and for worse. JoJo's character himself is actually fairly bland. He's about as good hearted and squeaky clean as you could possibly ask for. Usually, I would think this was boring, and it absolutely would've been if it weren't for his showstopping rival, motherfucking Dio Brando. This dude is SO. EVIL. COMICALLY EVIL. KICKS A FUCKIN DOG AND THEN SETS IT ON FIRE LEVEL EVIL. GOD DAMN BRO. But yeah, the juxtaposition between these two and the way JoJo has to adapt his good boy attitudes to this absolute fuckwad of an impending force makes for something much more interesting than it would be otherwise. I like that you see his willingness to get a bit more "down in the mud" as the volume progresses and we see JoJo slowly become more and more of a gigachad beyond each timeskip. The last portion of the volume is where the fist of the north star really popped off and we see that art style come in full force, with the iconic JoJo character still-frames making their glorious, flamboyant debut. I also think the volume ended on a pretty good cliffhanger, left me wondering where the story could possibly go, and also made me excited to finally be delving into some of the more blantantly supernatural elements that I imagine will elevate the series above what it's been in these early moments.

So yeah, as if it needed to be said, JoJo is pretty cool. And I'm only beginning Part 1 !!!!!! I'm certain shit is only gonna get more and more wild as I continue on, and I'll definitely check in with more updates once I read further chapters. Thank you so much to anybody who actually stopped and read this, I would love to have discussions as I read through so feel free to have a chat with me lolol

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jonathan joestar #dio brando #jojo part one #jojo part 1 #jojo phantom blood #anime #manga #manga review #jojo review #manga discussion

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warlordgab · 2 years

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Analysis of shipping: Teamwork, relationships, and more...

Full post right here:

Some fandoms had a lot of hopes and expectations about chapter 82 of the Fairy Tail sequel. Even if those expectations weren't met, shallow shippers kept overhyping panels featuring the characters they ship, while ignoring that standing in the same frame is not something inherently romantic.

But, one element of that unwarranted hype stood out. An emphasis on "team," which leads to the question: why is that such a big deal?

Well, what was actually the key to the development of NaLu in-universe? This panel right here answers that question:

While it's somewhat implied that Natsu never thought of making an actual team until Lucy came along, most of their relationship's build-up started after they became a team.

What does "teamwork" have to do with romantic love? Well, specialists in the matter agree that teamwork actually helps to create long-lasting relationships and marriages as it helps in building up trust, loyalty, mutual support, a sense of commitment as well as making it easier for partners to let go of resentment. Teamwork strengthens and deepens relationships

It is after the birth of Team Natsu, and a few missions together, that we later see Natsu not only coming to understand Lucy's emotional needs level, but also starting to reassure her...

...so Lucy can understand she has a new home and an actual family there. And this is just after a few adventures. Their shared experiences would later strengthen their bonds even further.

This build-up not only affects Lucy. Just remember that after her leap of faith...

...Natsu abandoned his pursuit of revenge on their current foes in favor of gently taking Lucy back to the guild. This is one of the earlier showings of Lucy actually affecting Natsu and his decisions.

Moving on, we get to see a moment I highligthed multiple times before:

Enter the sense of commitment, the willingness to compromise and work to stay together. As we could see in some translations and other analyses made here, Lucy, by her own admission, prefers to go on missions with Natsu because she feels bount to him.

So, in a way, Lucy is commiting to be Natsu's partner because being with him feels natural to her. That is how teamwork promotes unity and strengthens relationships.

There's another interesting bit; Lucy says she feels bored when not going with Natsu on adventures. Showing that not only she actually enjoys his presence, she also relishes in the excitement and fun Natsu brings to her life.

Teamwork also inspires loyalty, just think about how Lucy responded to Natsu's thoughtfulness in the omake "The Day of the Fateful Encounter"

Although it's no longer "canon" due to the messed chronology, it gives us a faithful portrayal of Natsu and Lucy's relationship. Let's break it down, one morning (after briefly discussing dating and boys) Cana predicted that particular day was a day of a fateful encounter for Lucy, hence the title.

She meets a good-looking guy in a library, and she thinks that's her fateful meeting. After spending most of the day with him, she ends up agreeing to a dinner for the evening, but finds out that Natsu and Happy had their own plans to go on a mission with her that same night, as part of special surprise for Lucy, which she mistakenly assumes it's for her birthday.

Lucy forsook her plans for a date to answer Natsu's thoughtful gesture anyway. But, it turns out the surprise was to celebrate Lucy's 1-year anniversary of joining Fairy Tail, which makes Lucy realize her fated encounter was with Natsu that day.

Take this little bit of context into consideration, Lucy chose to go with Natsu over dating a good-looking guy, with whom she had several things in common, even a shared interest in novels and writing. Instead of choosing a combination of physical appeal and commonalities, she ultimately went with the dorky and trouble-making dragon slayer. Says a lot about most shipping arguments and reasonings

The omake closes with a little bit of poetry fitting the events depicted there: "If you take time to notice, 'Fate' could be right next to you." We could say Natsu has been Lucy's fate all along.

Fun fact: the guy Lucy met ends up falling for Cana instead

However, you may realized we only disucssed the effects of this concept, as in how teamwork may strengthen a relationship. How about scenes involving Natsu and Lucy working as team? There's one special highlight of huge narrative importance: Natsu and Lucy Vs. Jacob Lessio

They're so in-sync that they can even adapt and improvise, coming up with ideas and executing them perfectly, without any need for explaining the other their plan. As explained in previous analyses, this kind of teamwork reflects how close they are so well that even Mavis herself got inspired by seeing them in action. The most compatible team unknowingly got her to create a plan based on romantic love

So, there's indeed a correlation between a teamwork and deep relationships. And even the author hightlights this compatibility, not only with NaLu; another potent (currently canon) pairing has some of this too: Gruvia

During the GMG arc, the author uses this concept to accentuate the strength of the bond between Gray and Juvia...

...which ultimately gives them an edge over Lyon and Chelia, as they were so compatible their team combination not only allowed them to outmatch their opponents, but also entranced Chelia who could not help but marvel at the beauty of their "Unison Raid"

So, the story sometimes uses teamwork to highlight compatibility, closeness, and love. Which is why teamwork is a huge deal when it comes to potent and canon relationships in Fairy Tail.

And that is why shippers expected something as huge as this kind of teamwork or a "unison raid." If we think about it, we can see NaLu has the inspiring teamwork, and Gruvia is the only romantic pairing with a Unison Raid feat. So, wanting something similar for something that contradicts these two pairings is like wanting a different premise to outmatch NaLu and become an equal to Gruvia.

Fortunately, the story unfolding so far supports relationships with actual chemistry and development. As we've seen in this post, "fate" always favours consistent bonding over physical appeal and commonalities; and teamwork in this story both nourishes and highlights strong companionships growing and evolving into something deeper.

#fairy tail #nalu #natsu x lucy #analysis #logic and reason #I'm back and I'm not pulling any punches

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roscgcld · 3 years

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GOJO SATORU || pretty badass

request: umm gojo x sorcerer!reader and they have a son (he is still a kid like around 5). the three of them were having a family time but a curse came out of nowhere and attacked their son but unexpectedly he's using limitless (it's his first time!!). so she and gojo just "wow" pls isnt it cute and gojo would say "thats because my strong gene", "as expected from the great gojo satoru's son" or something like that ajjdjw

note:

pronouns: she/her

You smile softly at the sight of your son and husband, both of them looking like they were carbon copies of one another, the three of you walking down the busy streets of Tokyo on your off day. For the last three months, you and your husband have clashing schedules when it comes to your lives as full fledged sorcerers; with your husband, Gojo, traveling about Japan on his many missions while you stayed back in Jujutsu Tech teaching his students whenever he’s suddenly called away.

It was hard going to sleep without him and waking up long after he’s got up for the day; the only indication he was home was a thermal full of coffee for you in the morning along with a bag of souvenirs he got for both you and your son. Your son, now 5, who misses his father a lot and spends many evenings curled up in your arms in tears, crying about how he misses his father.

So today was a day you’ve been looking forward to for awhile now - a day where he has no pressing matters he has to attend to, and you using one of your day offs so you can spend it as a small family unit. So far you three have gone on a short shopping trip together, having lunch together in a nice restaurant that Gojo had his eye on for awhile now, and follow your son around as he dictates what the three of you were doing. “Mama!”

“Yes sweetheart?” You called out as you snapped out from your daydream, looking over to the two boys - two pairs of beautiful sapphire eyes staring back at you with happiness. ‘The first in generations’ was what one of the elders of the Gojo clan had told you when you first brought your son to them. It was rare enough that your husband, Gojo Satoru, was born with the Six Eyes; but when your son was born and possess the same eyes as his father, the elders were overjoyed.

You didn’t care, for you, he’s just an every day child, and you were going to raise him as such. “Ice cream!”

Looking at where he was pointing, where a stall was selling ice cream served in a taiyaki, being served with different ingredients like wafer biscuits and other sweets. “Sure baby.” You said as you reach over to ruffle his soft h/c hair, smiling at how excited he got just because you agreed to allow him to get ice cream. Your husband laughs softly at his expression, his other hand reaching out to take yours in his, which you did with a warm smile on your face. After handing in your order and Gojo paying, the three of you made it towards a park nearby to enjoy your treats; seated on a bench together to enjoy the nice weather.

The sun was out, yet the spring winds were blowing; making the weather perfect for a nice day out in the park. Licking your matcha and red bean swirled ice cream, you smile smile softly when your husband playfully leaned forward to taste some of your ice cream as well, his chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and a wafer biscuit clutched in his own hand. “You always go for the same flavours, baby. Try switching it up a little.” He admitted with a grin as he popped one of the fluffy marshmallows into his mouth, causing you to smile as you licked at your ice cream carefully. “Unlike you, I don’t have any interest in eating my weight in sugar.”

Gojo just grins down at you before he playfully leans over to lick at your ice cream once more, causing you to laugh as you used your free hand to push his face away. “Eat your own ice cream, loser.” You teased, jerking your hand away with a laugh when you spotted his pink tongue sticking out at your hand, threatening to lick your hand. Gojo was about to lean closer when he felt your son start to tug on his shirt, forcing him away from you. “Leave mama alone!” He whined up at his father with a pout, glaring at his father for even attempting to annoy his mother.

You couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling through your laughs at the sight of your husband pouting down at your son as well, whining to the young boy that seemed to give you all his love and affection while leaving his father to ‘fend for himself’. Seems like both boys definitely got the flare of dramatics that the Gojos are known for. Eventually you stepped in to stop the two, giving both of your boys a soft kiss against their cheek softly; getting adorable and loving smiles in return.

“You really took after your father entirely, didn’t you, baby?” You cooed at your son as you wiped his mouth clean from ice cream, since unfortunately he had gotten your husband’s sweet tooth. You had hoped it would skip a generation, but with your husband’s influence, it was inevitable that he will love sweets. In response he just gave you a cheeky smile, to which you just roll your eyes before you return to your seat, eating the rest of your ice cream carefully. “I don’t see a problem with it it.”

Glaring at your husband half-heartedly, you sat back down in your seat as you finished the last bite of your taiyaki fish cone, using a wet tissue to clean your hands. “You are the source of the problem.” You teased your husband before you grabbed a tissue, ignoring his whines as you reached up to wipe the corner of his mouth clean. “How mean, wifey.” He pouts down at you as he leans over to rest his head on yours, to which you just roll your eyes at him as you reached over to pat his chest softly. “And here I thought you missed me.”

Laughing softly at his words, you wrapped your arms around his waist and nuzzles into his neck, just soaking in the familiarity of being in his arms once more. Sure, you always poke fun at him and tease him a lot, but you always do it out of love - and he knows it. Hence why he is never truly upset, pulling you into your side with a loving smile; your son curled up his other side as the three of you sat there in silence.

Just enjoying the moment.

Eventually the rest of the ice cream was finished, and you helped your son wipe his sticky hands clean, smiling at how adorable he looks as he gave you an adoring smile. Leaning over to kiss him on the head, you smile as he giggles and cups your face in his hands, kissing your nose softly like his father always does. This action caused you to laugh softly as you playfully ruffled his soft hair between your fingers, leaning back into your husband once more as his muscular arm wrapped around you loosely.

“Can you take the trash out for us, little guy?” Gojo asks with a raised eyebrow as he hands the small ball of used tissues to your son, who pouts at him but nods anyway; since he was going to do it just because you were there. “Good boy.” He coos at him teasingly before he playfully wrapped his arms around you once your son got off the bench, giving him a smirk whilst your son huffs back in reply. “Now your mama and I can have some quality time without your little shadow hanging off her arm.”

“As if you don’t do the same!” Your son whines before he went to the trashcan to toss the trash away while you just roll your eyes and cuddle up into your husband, pressing a soft kiss against his cheek. “You never grow up, huh?” You asked with a teasing smile as you look up at your husband, whose bright eyes looked down at you through his signature circle sunglasses, yet they somehow seem to glow from behind the heavily tinted frames. “Teasing your son and fighting for my attention. As cute as that is, you should know better then to tease him like that.”

Gojo couldn’t help but grin as he rubs your back softly, shrugging at your words. “If he is my child, he will know how to fight back.” Was his simple reply, a reply that had you rolling your eyes at him as you reached up to flick his forehead playfully. “I am trying to teach my son manners.” You replied back sassily, knowing the flick didn’t hit him because your husband always has his Limitless activated at all times. So you weren’t surprised when all he did was chuckle in return, leaning down to press a loving kiss against the top of your head. “You love me regardless.”

You didn’t bother to respond, instead leaning up to press a soft kiss against his lips in response; both of you sporting smiles on your faces. You had just returned to curling up in his arms when you felt his stiffen underneath you, causing you to push yourself off a little with a soft frown on your face; which only deepen when you saw his hardened expression. You were about to ask what was wrong when you suddenly felt the strong curse energy, causing your blood to run cold. “Satoru-”

“I am sure he’s fine.” Your husband tried to reassure you, but how he had swiftly got up with you in his arms, you can tell that even he was nervous. This didn’t help your nerves as you grabbed onto his outstretched hand before you two were racing towards the general direction of where the Curse Energy source is, praying that your little boy was alright. The both of you had just turned ran up a hill when you saw a sight that had you pausing in confusion.

Standing before you was a Curse that shouldn’t be more than a Second Grade, its grotesques body wrapped around the vending machines next to the recycling bins. It was clearly trying to attack your son, yet it can’t seem to get close enough to land a blow on the young boy, who was staring up at it in disgust. The strong wave of Cursed Energy seems to be radiating off your son, who was more focused on turning his nose up in disgust at the Curse before him. “What-”

“Well I’ll be damned.” Your husband said with a laugh, sounding more relieved then he was before as he looks down at you with an easy grin. “Looks like our son is an early bloomer.” He teases before he squeezes your hand one last time and walked towards him, squatting down next to him to pet him on the head; his other hand snapping his fingers. The Curse immediately started implode from the inside out. “I am really proud of you, buddy! Seems like you’ve learnt how to control the Limitless!”

You were still standing there in shock, not even caring about the screaming Curse as you rushed to your son, bending down to check him over in concern. “Are you alright, honey? Did it hurt you?” You asked in concern as you cupped his chubby cheeks in your hands, watching how he shakes his head softly even as you squish his cheeks between your warm hands. “No mama, it couldn’t touch me! See?”

You slowly started to sag in relief when he showed you his unscratched skin, pulling him into your arms and running your fingers through his hair gently to calm you frantically beating heart. “Thank goodness.” You mumble as he hugs you back in delight, nuzzling his face into your neck happily. A soft chuckle causes you to look up, raising an eyebrow at your husband when he just grins. “I am just happy that he managed to pick up how to use Infinity effortlessly. Then again, should I really be surprised? He is the son of the strongest sorcerer alive, it is expected of him, really.”

His answer caused you to just scowl in response as you picked your son up in your arms, bouncing him as he giggles out in delight. “Your daddy has a big ego, huh buddy?” You cooed at him, ignoring your pouting husband as you kiss your son on the forehead. “Mama doesn’t know how to deal with him sometimes.” You continued to coo as he got up, wrapping his arms around the both of you. “Hey! At least we now know he’s going to be as awesome as his parents!”

Somehow his teasing tone caused you to relax as you leaned into Gojo’s arms, letting him wrap both you and your son up in his arms as he presses a loving kiss against the side of your head. “Come on, you have to admit you are proud of him.” Gojo mumbles softly to you with a grin as he ruffles your son’s hair once more, the young boy giggling as he blinks his shining sapphire eyes back at you happily. “Technically, he did stop a big and scary Curse from hitting him. The poor thing didn’t stand a chance against our boy.”

“All he did was activate the Infinity between him and that thing.” You reminded your husband, who just waved your concerns away with a soft chuckle. However, when you look back down at the young boy in your arms, there was no denying the sense of pride that was slowly starting to wash through you as the shock of the situation slowly seeps away. “But that was pretty impressive. Usually people develop their Cursed Techniques at aged 6.”

“Come on baby - with the strongest as his dad and the most badass woman as his mum? I am surprised he didn’t develop it sooner.”

You just laugh softly at your husband’s clearly arrogant words, yet you didn’t have the heart to stop him as you ran your fingers through your son’s hair once more. “I mean, that was pretty badass.” You commented with a soft chuckle, to which your husband just nods his head in agreement, your son completely oblivious to everything around him as he soaks in your warmth. “Why don’t we go and pick up some takeaway for dinner? I am craving some of that gimbap from the Korean place we love to go to.”

“Anything for the wifey.” Gojo commented with a simple grin and with that, he used his arm around you to lead the three of you down the path that exits the park you three had wandered into, talking animatedly about how he can’t wait to start training with your young son. You wanted to remind him that the young boy is just 5 years old, that there is still time for him to learn a little later. How he should just enjoy his youth now.

But you know you can’t stop him once he goes on a roll, so you just listened to him with a warm smile on your face as you cradled your son in your arms, who had started to fall asleep the longer he soaks in your warmth. For now, you’re just going to soak in the moment you realised that your son was going to be a strong sorcerer, if he chooses to be one. Either way, there was no denying how proud you were of him.

For now though? You’re just going to enjoy this moment while it lasts - with your husband and son by your side as you made your way towards the cute Korean restaurant near your family home to order some takeout before retiring for the day.

Today has been eventful enough.

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sepublic · 3 years

Text

Marcy Wu’s Height(?)

So! As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to try and calculate the other characters’ measurements using Hop Pop as a frame of reference! However, while the circumference of a frog skull is beyond my ability to analyze and compare, I do have this!

Using a ruler in real life and everything, I compared the length of one cm on Marcy’s measuring tape, and applied it to the rest of Marcy in shot- Specifically her head! From there I was able to calculate the height of Marcy’s head in real life, and after comparing her head’s height to a full character model, my final measurement for Marcy Wu’s real-life, in-universe height is... Drumroll please...!

108 centimeters!

...For reference, that is equivalent to 3.5 feet, and the average height of a 13-year-old girl is 5.15 feet, or 157 cm! Marcy is roughly two-thirds of the regular height, but then so are Anne and Sasha because they’re also about as tall as her, which...

Unless every human in Amphibia is extremely short, I...

Yeah.

Honestly, I went into this with the full possibility that the measurements would be bogus. Like proportions can be weird in cartoons, but total height? Generally consistent to real life, hence why that mattered more to me than Marcy’s head size compared to a real life one.

And, I expected this! I had a feeling the animators wouldn’t have gone through the painstaking effort of making sure each centimeter tick is drawn to scale! Not because I look down on the animators, but simply because- That’s just a lot of unnecessary work and painstaking attention to detail, for something that has no bearing whatsoever!

I had a good feeling that Hop Pop’s measurements were just a random number thrown in that sounded fairly sensible for the sake of the moment, but obviously the writers never intended for that to be taken in stone, in reference to the others!

Because who would? Size is more important from a relative standpoint, and personally I’ve never been one for exact measurements, nor have I fussed over them myself in both the media I consume and create. A general relativity is all I want and need.

Of course, I tried the measurements anyway for fun, because... Yeah! I like doing weird and pointless stuff like this! I once tried to calculate the dating system of the Boiling Isles after Lost in Language, you know, and that also turned out to be a bust, because who would waste time fleshing out this fictional standard of measurement over the show itself?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when you only have so much budget, time, and energy, priorities are a concern! So I’m not surprised but I’m not disappointed either. I think I had fun and I enjoyed applying myself, it was a neat thought experiment, and I believe Brian David Gilbert explained why this sort of hobby can be so deep and intimate and meaningful, actually!

I don’t regret it one bit, and I’m still willing to try stuff like this out! Maybe it’ll coincidentally work out or not, who knows? It’s a means of expression and engaging with one’s love for the source material, and I think that’s what matters first and foremost.

#amphibia #amphibia marcy #Marcy wu #amphibia hop pop #hopediah plantar #measurements #analysis #fandom #meta

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thenovelartist · 3 years

Text

Burned Beginnings, Chapter 3

<<Previous Next>>

7. Homemade Gifts

Marinette prided herself in not caring about the looks of others. After all, beauty meant nothing if their heart was trash. They’d always just be a pig in lipstick.

Unfortunately, if they did have a good heart, Marinette discovered that she did care for their looks a little more than she would have cared to admit. Particularly when it came to a former model turned baker.

Which was why, much to her chagrin, she’d ended up losing the bet.

It was just a pair of glasses. A simple, functional accessory. However, with the frame he had, ones that held a dark green hue that accented his eyes and were square in form—somehow, a perfect match for his angular face—she couldn’t help but to have stared a bit.

By the time she caught herself, Adrien was already grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

She hoped beyond all hope her cheeks hadn’t colored, or at the very least, Adrien hadn’t caught it.

And now, she was having to bite the bullet and watch an anime of his choosing. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad loss.

Hopefully.

Depending on what he chose…

Oh, please don’t be anything stupid.

Marinette finished her work, then clocked out, hurrying to go shower quickly before Adrien came over. Not that Adrien hadn’t seen her covered in flour and looking like a hot mess already, but she’d rather be clean and comfy if she was going to have to suffer through her punishment for losing the bet. They had planned to meet at her house for the viewing. Adrien would bring over his computer and cables to hook it up to their tv so that he could easily access his anime accounts. He said it would be a piece of cake.

She threw on a comfy t-shirt and lounge pants, then she dried her hair. Once that was done, she went downstairs to begin preparing the dinner she’d prepped earlier that day.

Halfway through, a knock sounded on the door, signaling Adrien’s arrival. She answered, only for her gaze to fall to the box in his hands. “What’s that?”

One of his hands reached up to rub the back of his neck. “I wanted to bring some homemade food since I knew you’d be working all day. And I need to practice my cooking skills, anyway.”

She smiled, taking the offered gift. “Thanks, but I actually started making something thinking that it was the least I could do since you were bringing everything over.”

Adrien looked surprised for a moment before he chuckled. “We should have planned that better.”

“Oh well. Left overs for days, right?” she said with a shrug, stepping aside to let him in.

“That’s one way to look at it.”

8. Commissions

“Can I ask a question?”

“I don’t know? Can you?”

Adrien looked up from his computer screen to shoot a grinning Marinette a flat look. This was the fourth time he’d come over so they could continue the anime he’d chosen. He had known from Mr. Dupain that he and his daughter both loved video games, and henceforth, he’d chosen accordingly in hopes to get Marinette hooked.

He knew he’d succeeded when they binged the first four episodes the first day. He’d then hung it over her head that “why would he come back again? He’d won the bet, and she’d paid her price, so for what reason did he have to come over again?”

He had had fun teasing her, because her huffy, unamused expression was too darn endearing.

“Look,” she’d said. “I just need to know what happens to Princess Bitch.”

He’d snorted, trying and failing to withhold his laugh. “You don’t get to call her that yet.”

“Why not? You don’t get to pull that level of manipulative bullshit, ruining the other person’s life like that, and not be dubbed with the title ‘Princess Bitch’.”

“So…” he drawled out, teasingly. “Are you saying you care about this anime?”

She’d fallen silent, and he couldn’t help but to laugh once more.

In the end, after more teasing on his part, he’d caved and said he’d come over again so they could finish it out.

Hence why he was here now.

“Haha, funny,” Adrien deadpanned, turning back to his screen.

“Okay, okay. I’ll be nice,” she said a little too sweetly, placing two plates of food on the coffee table before plopping down on the couch. “What’s on your mind?”

He took a second to log into his account before turning back to her. “I don’t know if this is overstepping, but… are you happy working at your parents’ bakery?”

Marinette froze, and for a moment, Adrien grew worried.

Thankfully, she seemed to take it well, although it was clear she was confused. “What brought that on?”

Adrien shrugged, looking at his screen again to select their anime of choice. “I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I feel like we’re close enough to be friends. Right?”

Marinette didn’t hesitate to nod. “Yeah, I would consider you one.”

Adrien pushed aside the very happy feeling that blossomed in his chest. “I guess I’m just… curious… about you… as a friend, of course.”

“No, I get it,” she assured. “Now that you mention it, I guess I could say the same for you.”

Adrien felt extra warm now. “So, do I get an answer to my question?”

Marinette paused, her expression falling as she bit her lip. “Only if you promise to keep it secret from my parents.”

“Yeah, totally,” he promised, smile falling from his face. “Cat’s honor.”

Marinette sighed. “I… I am happy,” she said. “Really. It’s not an issue of me being happy here. But running my parents’ bakery wasn’t my dream, you know?”

With the episode loading, Adrien decided to take a seat next to Marinette. “What was your dream?”

“I wanted to be a fashion designer.”

That came as a surprise to Adrien. “Really? What stopped you?”

“Chloe.”

Somehow… that answer shouldn’t have surprised him. “Chloe?”

“She got her mom to block me from going to any fashion or design school.”

“She what?!”

“Shhh!” Marinette shushed, finger over his lips. “Not so loud.”

Adrien felt his face heat at her touch. “Er…sorry.”

She then took her finger away, and Adrien tried not to think about why he was disappointed. “Chloe did that?” he asked, his voice just above a whisper. “How? And how’d you know?”

“Um…” She suddenly turned sheepish, and that spitfire edge he’d come to love diminished a bit. It made her look younger and sweeter. He didn’t mind that change. “Well, due to the methods used to acquire such information, I must refrain from answering that. Just know I trust my source and the information that was found.”

Adrien sighed. Honestly, even if he wanted to come to Chloe’s defense, he couldn’t. She ran in a pretty elite crowd and had some powerful connections. If she wanted to block someone from entering a fashion school, she could. And since Adrien knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t be above such tricks, Adrien accepted Marinette’s word as truth.

Besides, he knew Marinette well enough by now to know she hated liars. He doubted she’d lie about this.

“So, have you thought about applying outside the country?”

“Yeah,” she answered. “I just… didn’t. It felt too overwhelming.”

“So, what about skipping the education entirely? Find a niche and start your own business taking commissions or what not?”

Marinette paused, her eyes glazing over a moment as she thought. “I… it’s an idea that’s come up before.”

“So, what’s stopping you?” Adrien asked. “Even if you got an education later, you’d at least have a reputation you’re building up now.”

Again, Marinette was silent. “You know…” she began, her tone softer and more earnest than he’d ever heard before. It felt raw. Open. And that did something to his heart.

Protect her. The words popped up in his head, and his heart clenched onto them before he could even realize it. But all he could do at the moment was listen. So he would.

“I decided I’d step back and do a lot of thinking.”

“About?”

She sighed. “It’s easy to say ‘I love fashion so I want to be a designer’. It’s easy to have those dreams. It’s easy to think that your hobby can become your profession. But the easy stuff isn’t all the fashion world consists of. It’s a competitive world filled with both nice people and people like Audrey Bourgeois. It’s filled with more than fashion, and when faced with the reality that I’d been barred from fashion college because one person in the industry had that much power, I had to do some reflecting. If I accept fashion as my career, I get to set foot into that world. And I had to face the question of ‘am I ready and willing to accept that?’”

When Marinette came to a pause, Adrien stopped to think of his response. “Honestly, as someone who comes from that world, I completely understand your feelings. I’ve seen the good, and I’ve seen the bad. I’ve watched people succeed and climb the ladder, and I’ve watched people crash and burn. And I think there’s such a fine line between the two.”

“See, that just feels validating,” Marinette said, small smile on her face. “I understand that that is basically every job field. I understand some are better than others. But with what I’ve seen from the fashion world… I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m as adamant about it as I was when I was in high school.”

Adrien sighed. “I don’t understand what it’s like to have a passion,” he admitted. “I’ve never had one, so this might not mean anything coming from me, but I think… it would be better to keep your passion a hobby… if the profession will burn you out. Because then you’re not just loosing your profession, but the hobby meant to bring you joy.”

Marinette was silent for a minute, and Adrien thought he’d said something wrong. But that tension in his chest eased hen a small smile crept up on her lips. “That’s good advice,” she finally said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Adrien reached out to pat her shoulder, surprising her a moment. When she turned to him, eyes wide and clear once again, he gave her a smile. “I’ll be rooting for you. And if there’s anything I can help you with, I’d be happy to assist.”

Slowly, her small smile grew. “Thanks,” she said, her voice surprisingly sweet. But she soon turned away, and Adrien pulled his hand back. “So, um… fair’s fair,” she started up again. “Are you happy working here?”

Adrien didn’t hesitate to nod. “Honestly, it’s hard work, but it’s something that I chose, for once. This is something I myself am doing. I don’t want to say the novelty of doing this hasn’t worn off yet, but it feels… worthwhile.”

Marinette nodded. “Have you considered other paths or what you want to do for the future? Or do you see this being long term?”

Adrien shrugged. “I don’t know, yet,” he said. “Honestly, this whole ‘I’m my own person and on my own’ thing still hasn’t fully caught up to me yet. I feel like I’m still playing pretend. It’s… weird.” He turned back to her, forcing a smile. “Hazard of growing up super sheltered, I guess.”

Marinette hummed. “Well, I think you know Papa will love having you around as long as you plan to stay.”

He smiled, a genuine grin this time. “Yeah, I know. And you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you mind having Asshole Agreste around?”

Her expression changed from shock to irritation. “Are you really gonna dredge up that old nickname? No, wait!” Her brow furrowed in a mix of anger and confusion. “Where did you even hear that? I never called you that here!”

He grinned a little wider than he’d thought he would. “Chloe.”

Marinette growled.

He couldn’t help but laugh.

“You know I don’t think of you like that anymore, right?”

He couldn’t help teasing her a bit more. “I don’t know. Do I?”

Marinette glowered at him, and he burst into laughter again.

With a growl, she turned away, crossing her arms with a huff. “Just turn on the anime again. I need to see Princess Bitch get her comeuppance.”

Adrien laughed. “We’re only on episode fourteen. You still don’t get to call her that yet.”

“Why?” she cried. “What’s gonna happen in the next few episodes that changes? Does she get worse? And if so, how? She’s already about as low as she can go. Like, almost past Chloe-level.”

He shook his head. “Nevermind. Just wait and see.”

9. Baking Lessons

Marinette felt like she was up to her ears in information.

After her talk with Adrien, she decided that she should do her research on the fashion industry as much as she could. But she also knew to take everything with a grain of salt. Only once she felt prepared enough would she make a decision on her future.

On one hand, it was satisfying to pick up her dreams again, dust them off, and put plans to them. On the other, it was overwhelming, and more did once did Adrien’s warning of “don’t burn out your passion” cross her mind.

It was well into the afternoon that she realized a break might be in order and food would be beneficial.

She headed down into kitchen, only to startle at the unfamiliar face there.

“Um… what are you doing in my house?”

Adrien glanced over his shoulder to look at her, then shot her a smile. “Your parents asked me to. They each had their break and said you hadn’t been down all day. So now it’s my turn for a break, and they asked if I’d take a minute to make sure you ate.”

Marinette looked at the sandwich on the plate he extended towards her. After staring at it a moment, she realized she should take it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Busy?”

“Yeah. I… kinda forgot the last time I was so engrossed in something that I forgot to eat like this.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Um… I decided to dig into researching the fashion industry.”

Adrien turned back around, glancing at her with surprise. “Oh? How’s it going?”

Marinette’s lips pursed in thought. “Up and down. Every other article seems to pull me the opposite direction.”

“Fair,” he said with a nod. “Which way are you leaning now?”

“The ‘This is bullshit. Why do I want to be in this hellish industry?’ direction.”

A lopsided grin flashed across Adrien’s face. “I feel that on a personal level.”

“I’m sure you do,” she muttered, walking over to the table to have a seat. “But enough of me griping. You? Have you thought of your future at all since our talk?”

He grabbed a paper bag on the counter, pulling out a tupperware container with a sandwich of his own inside. “Not really.”

“Not really?” she probed, pointing at the seat directly across from her.

He took the hint and took a seat. “I haven’t given much thought to anything beyond the baking lessons your father has been giving me. I mean, maybe one day I’ll go to school for something, but I’ve really decided to give myself a full year of this before committing to anything. Let me learn how to be an adult on my own first before I move forward, you know? It’s easier to start running when your feet are solidly under you.”

“Understandable,” Marinette said. “But just so you know, I’m going to hold you to that, now.”

“Oh?”

“Yup. I’d like you to know you have six months, three weeks, and five days remaining before you have to make a decision.”

Adrien froze, sandwich halfway to his mouth.

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle.

“Is that a legit number or one you just threw out.”

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think that when it comes to you, I don’t always know what’s going on in that pretty head of yours.”

She giggled, feeling a little too giddy for her liking. She played it off with a wink. “Got to keep you on your toes somehow.”

Adrien scoffed. “Don’t worry about that,” he dismissed with a charming smile that she hated to admit could knock her off her feet if she were standing. “You already do.”

#miraculous ladybug #fanfiction #adrienette #AdrinetteApril2021 #teasing #fluff #and a heart to heart talk #Bonus points to whoever guesses the anime XD

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