#i feel like i'm complaining a lot about this new season but i did not like these episodes

[salem-xx]

Dick talking about the moment in the hotel and that being his greatest regret that he didn't stop Kory from walking away or whatever.... ok but also I thought he was gonna talk about a different scene but then i remembered there's barely any dickkory scenes so they just had to pick that one. but I feel like they should've done the scene where dick and kory are like oh maybe we can try again at the end of season 1 and he should've talked about missing her in season 2 when she was off with donna. like her hearing his feelings for her on the recording was interesting...like WHY COULDN'T HE HAVE SAID IT TO HER

#i feel like i'm complaining a lot about this new season but i did not like these episodes #like i liked certain aspects of it but connor is annoying me #gar being gone is annoying me tim and bernard's relationship is annoying me like they think i care about bernard im sorry I luv but bernard #ummm chile anyways 👀 #I love gar but god i didn't realize how much I loved his presence on the team until now #kory listening to his recorder ughhhh #hbo titans #titans hbo #dick grayson titans #kory anders titans

[imbored1201]

hiii!

could you write something where teen r lives w ona and is always attatched to her but then lucy moves in with her and now r is upset bc she has to actually use her own bed and ona ends up buying a new bed or something.

:)

Ona’s Follower

Lucy x Ona x Teen Reader

Word Count: 2k

Yours and Ona's bond ran deep; the two of you had played in Manchester together. You were just 15 when you started playing with her; it was your first season coming from the academy, and she convinced you to move to Barcelona with her.

She always took care of you, and you practically followed her everywhere. She enjoyed the company though, teaching you everything, like how to cook her favorite Spanish dishes and even trying to teach you Spanish.

You feel the moment you really got attached to Ona was when she comforted you because of your frequent nightmares.

The two of you ended up being roommates when staying at a hotel with the United girls. 

You had hoped you wouldn't get a nightmare. That didn't go your way, considering you had one. 

You were woken up by Ona, who held you that night, and the next night, you had another one. 

Back at the apartment, you continued to sleep in Ona's bed. You realized sleeping with Ona helped you a lot since you stopped having nightmares, and it turns out Ona hated being alone in a bed to the point she had a lot of stuffed animals on her bed while she slept so she didn't feel alone. 

It was a huge win for both of you. 

————

You noticed something was going on between Ona and Lucy. Lucy was coming over every day now. You would always find them cuddling on the couch, and she would even pick you guys up to take you to training and games. 

You liked Lucy; she was funny and always brought you candy, and you always destroyed her in FIFA, so it was fun. 

————

Then the next step happened. Lucy moved in. You were panicking, to you, that meant you and Ona couldn't sleep in the same bed anymore. That made you disappointed, even sadder, watching Lucy unpack all her things. The good thing about it was that you were able to see Nala every day now. 

"Want to help me build this?" She was referring to a new dresser she had gotten. "Sorry, Luce, I need to go riding around." Lucy grinned, happy you were actually using the bike she had given you.

Ona was always complaining that you spent too much time in your room, so Lucy got you a bike, hoping it would motivate you to get out and go around the city.

That bike ride took a little bit longer than you intended. You did get caught up in your own head because, by the time you knew it, it was nighttime. Way past your cerfew. 

————

"Ona, calm down; she's fine; she probably just got caught up." Ona's eyes widened. "What if she got caught up doing something she isn't supposed to?" Lucy sighed, regretting her word choice. 

"Ona, she's a good kid; she knows not to do anything bad. She'll be back soon; you're tired; come on." Lucy led her to bed. Ona continued to stare down at her phone, waiting for any little text from you. 

She spent a couple of minutes lying down in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. "She has a key, Ona. Come on, you have to let the kid do her own thing at times. She'll be back soon; if it makes you feel better, I'll stay up and wait for her." Ona sighed and nodded. 

By the time you got home, Lucy had already fallen asleep. She did wait an hour though; she was worried too, but once she finally received a 'I'm okay' text from you, that worry went away, and she fell asleep spooning Ona.

Once you finished your routine, you went to Ona's room. It was just a habit of yours at that point, and when you saw her and Lucy sleeping cuddled up in bed, something burned up inside you. Jealously and sadness. Tears started to build up in your eyes

You know it was probably childish, but it was just something you were used to. Ona had been your anchor; every time something went wrong, you went running to her. With Lucy there now, you felt like you couldn't do that anymore. 

You gently closed the door and walked to your room. It was weird sleeping in your own bed for once. You hadn't done that in forever; you grabbed one of Ona's hoodies that you stole and laid down, using it as a pillow. You hoped you wouldn't have a nightmare and fell asleep. 

————

Lucy was the first to wake that morning; she hated to admit it, but she completely forgot she didn't see you come the front door; she got lost in admiring Ona's beauty to remember. 

When Ona stirred, the first thing that came to her mind was you. She thought about last night and quickly sat up, not needing any time to fully wake up. 

Lucy noticed Ona's panicked expression when she looked at her. "What?" She asked, getting up. "Where's Y/N?!" She was panicky, walking out of the room to search for you.

Lucy quickly got up and followed her as Ona checked the living room and kitchen. Lucy checked your room, and there you were. Using Ona's sweater as a pillow and holding onto a stuffed teddy bear, Lucy won you at the fair. She even won Ona one, then bragged about being too good at everything. 

"Ona, she's in here," she quietly said, gently closing your door. Ona was about to barge into your room, but Lucy gently grabbed her. "She's sleeping." Ona sighed in relief and went back to the kitchen to make apology pancakes for you. 

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lucy put her hand on Ona's hips. "Fuck Lucy, we shouldn't have slept in the same bed. I'm sorry. Y/N, she always sleeps with me; the poor girl gets these bad nightmares, and they stopped when she started sleeping with me" 

Lucy looked understanding and thought for a little bit. "You know, we need to get a bigger bed anyway; it would be beneficial for everyone and maybe even encourage a little more action," she smirked. Ona raised her eyebrows. "Lucy, we are not talking about sex while there is a child in the bedroom."

"Of course not; that's why we send her to Mapi and Ingrid's. What I'm trying to say is, let's get a bigger bed so she can sleep with us."

Ona's face lit up, and she immediately grabbed her car keys. "I'm going to look at bigger beds," she told Lucy, and left. Lucy quickly took over, smirking to herself for being a genius. 

————

That whole day, you only came out to eat the pancakes and for dinner. Lucy took control and barged into your room. You ended up crushing her in FIFA again.

It was now 10 p.m., and you were thirsty, your eyes hurt from playing video games all day, and you had done nothing productive all day. Mostly trying to get used to the fact that your room was actually going to be your room for once. 

————

"What's wrong?" Ona asked noticing your frown, you jumped, almost dropping your water. You weren't expecting Ona and Lucy to still be up at this time watching their romantic movies. "Nothing, just thirsty."

"Come watch the movie with us." Lucy made room between her and Ona. You shook your head, "I'm going to bed." Lucy didn't give up, though; she got up and threw you over her shoulders. 

"Luce," you whined. She threw you on the couch, and Ona was quick to hug you, so you couldn't get up. You sighed, paying attention to the movie. 

You were exhausted by the end of the movie, the comfort of Ona being next to you made it harder to keep your eyes open. You let your head fall against Lucy's shoulder. 

"How about you two snuggle in tonight? I'll take the couch. Then we'll go get the thing tomorrow." Lucy winked at Ona at the last part. You were confused but too tired to argue. The bed was being delivered tomorrow morning; it was just up to Lucy to bring it in on her own and build it. 

Ona led you to her room, where you collapsed on her bed. “Did you have any nightmares last night?” She asked as she got in beside you. You shook your head, rolling into her body and cuddling into her chest. She wanted to apologize for making you sleep in your own bed that night, but you had already fallen asleep. 

————

Once again, you woke up to no Ona. You huffed and got up, stealing a sweater that you were pretty sure was Lucy’s. “Ona?” You called out. 

You heard the front door opening and someone grunting. Nala started barking at whatever it was, so you made your way to the noise, thinking it was Ona. You let out a sad sigh when you saw it was Lucy. You loved her, but all the woman made was eggs in the morning, and you wanted Ona’s special pancakes again.

"Where's Ona?" You asked Lucy, who was struggling to bring in a mattress. "Store," she spoke out of breath. 

"What are you doing?" You asked. It was pretty obvious, but your brain was way too confused right now, and you had to ask questions. She let out some deep breaths before speaking. "Putting in the new mattress"

"Can I help?" She shrugged. "Sure, pull it," you grunted as you did what you were told. Ona wasn’t actually sure if the mattress would fit through the door; she just hoped it would. "Finally,” Lucy said, when the mattress finally got past the door. 

You were Lucy’s helper, playing with the tools, giving her whatever she needed, completely forgetting about your hunger. She proudly patted your back when everything was finished. 

"This calls for ice cream." She put a hand on your shoulder and led you out. You looked at her confused, but just went along with it. "I haven’t had breakfast," she shrugged. "It's fine.”

————

"Kid, you know I'm not going to take Ona from you, right?" You paused from where you were eating your ice cream and nodded, but you weren't actually sure how you felt. 

"Ona adores you; trust me, in a house fire, she would save you over me." You smiled at that. “But it’s fair; I would save Nala before the both of you."

"You promise you'll take care of her?" She nodded before adding, "I'm going to take care of both of you, I promise." She put out her pinky finger, which you took with yours. 

"That's why we bought the new mattress; it's bigger so all three of us could fit on that bed," you had a confused look on your face again, "Won't you be uncomfortable?" Lucy shook her head and let out a little laugh.

“Of course not; at this point, you’re my stepkid, you’re my favorite stepkid, and Nala is my favorite kid." She smiled proudly at that, and you appreciated it in a way. "Thanks, Lucy; I guess I understand why Ona fell for you now." “I’m just charming, ain’t I?” "Nevermind"

————

You still didn’t believe Lucy was actually comfortable with you being there, which is why you got ready to sleep in your own bed again. Lucy broke into your room once again, a rare stern look on her face. 

“What are you doing?” Lucy asked, her arms crossed. “I don’t want to disturb.” Lucy once again threw you over her shoulder and carried you to the bed. 

She set you down close to Ona who smiled at you. 

“Sleep bebita,” Ona spoke, spooning you. Lucy got into bed, leaving you squished in between them. Lucy got closer to you, making you push her away. “You have all that space over there."

“Shut up and let me cuddle you." You rolled your eyes and squirmed away from her, but she felt you relaxing after a couple of seconds. Your eyes were closing, and in a couple of seconds, you were out.

“Thank you for making an effort with her, Lucia.” Lucy nodded as she stroked your hair. 

“I’m just the stepdad that stepped up, ain’t I?” Lucy grinned, Ona rolled her eyes, holding you tighter. “Buenas noches Bronze”

#woso x reader #woso community #barcelona femeni #woso fanfics #lucy bronze #lucy bronze x reader #ona batlle #ona batlle x reader

[russellsppttemplates]

We're a couple of idiots, aren't we? (Charles Leclerc)

You had always been there to see Charles race and you wouldn't let your fight interfere with that

Note: english is not my first language. I'm not the best at writing angst pieces, but I hope this one is decent enough!

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

my masterlist

Tw: family issues (alludes to the caregiver necessities), couple fight

Tag list: @myloverjk-blog

It all began when you came home later than expected, the tiredness evident in your eyes as you paced your bag down on the sofa and allowed yourself to rest for a little, "Hey, amour", Charles whispered, testing to see if you were awake as he walked inside the living room, "hey", you said, patting the seat next to you.

Kissing your forehead, Charles sat next to you, "how was your day?", he asked, rubbing your thigh, "exhausting", you sighed, "and the next few are going to be even worse. I probably won't be home for dinner tomorrow anyway".

Charles felt uneasy, squirming around in his seat. You had been working a lot, your family also needed you on their side since your grandparents needed more assistance these days, so you and Charles haven't been able to spend that much time together. And wether it was the fact that you're used to being around eachother or the fact that the season was not going as expected, Charles felt like he hadn't spent enough time with the person he considered his safe and happy place.

"You have been very busy, I feel like I've hardly spent time with you", Charles noted, and maybe it was a seemingly honest comment that wasn't intended to be taken as harmful as you did.

"I know I've not been home, Charles, you think I don't feel that too? I know we haven't spent much time together just the two of us, but it's not been easy! Everyone needs me here, there and everywhere at the same time, and I also need time for me!", you let out.

Unexpectedly, your words also impacted Charles in a way you didn't think they would, "I know you've been busy, but we also need to spend time together, no? Or is our relationship not something we should invest time on? In a relationship, we both need eachother", he gulped. A weird and new feeling sat in his chest, like he was pressuring you and that he was burdening you.

"We do, but we also need to let eachother have some time, too!", you said, feeling anger, sadness, and overall tiredness from your recent days, "I'm going to bed", you mumbled, getting up and heading for your shared bedroom.

The energy you had left in your body was only enough to allow you to wash your face, noticing the dull and dark tone as you quickly rubbed some moisturiser on, grabbing your pyjamas to out them on and lay in bed, taking a painkiller for the growing headache.

When Charles finally go to the bedroom, he noticed you were already asleep on your side of the bed, carefully walking along the side so he could kiss your forehead before he too got ready for bed.

.

By the time the next morning arrived, Charles had ready left, and when you grabbed your phone, notifications from various WhatsApp groups popped up.

Mum + Dad

Can you go by grandma's house today? She was complaining of some pain and we can't remember if her meds box is sorted out or not.

Ferrari GP Weekend

Okay, just to make sure I'm not leaving anyone out: Y/N, you're not coming this weekend, right?

Since your family had been needing you to spend more time with them and at home, you had already said that you weren't sure you'd be joining them for that Grand Prix, and last night's fight settled the subject.

Texting both of the groups, you got up and got ready for the day, already knowing it was going to be a tough one.

You and Charles didn't fight a lot, at least not like this. Usually, you always found a way to talk about things and sort them out. So even this was new territory, not having talked about the subject and finding a common ground, because the situation you both left it at the night before was not the one to have.

Throughout the day, you hopefully texted Charles saying that you'd try to be home so you could talk to eachother before he left later on the evening, and while you intended to keep it, you had to text him again

To Charles

I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be home until nighttime. My grandma needs me and it's going to take a while.

Have a safe flight. Can you text me when you land, please? Love you ✨️

True to your word, you sat in your bedroom with the moon already shinning through the windows and showcasing perfectly Charles' bedside table with none of his rings, watch and bracelets where he usually put them when he was at the house.

.

"Why did I arrive to the paddock today only to find out that you are not joining me this weekend?", Francisca said over the phone, apparently not even bothering to wish you a good morning, even though it clearly wasn't one.

"Because I've been the busiest bee ever under the sun, and I also had a fight with Charles, and I need to sleep for three days straight to recover", you replied back, noticing the change in Pierre's girlfriend's tone.

"Oh", she added, "I'm sorry, it's just that you're always here and I haven't been able to talk to him properly yet, maybe it's a good thing I haven't yet", she admitted.

One thing you liked about her, was how honest she was with you, and you needed it right now, "do you think I should go? We left the subject hanging and it's not something light we can just solve over the phone. And besides, I've always been there for these races, and he deserves as much support as he can get", you asked, chewing on your bottom lip as you waited for her answer.

"I have no idea why you fought, nor do I want to know unless you feel comfortable in telling me, but I do know that you're made for eachother, so if your heart tells you to come to the race, you should", she advised and you could hear the smile on her voice, "besides, I love your company, so it's a win win".

.

From all the times you had previously travelled with Charles, you had become acquainted and a pro a listing what you needed for the race weekends, so packing was easy and quick: two changes of clothes for both colder and warmer weather, basic toiletries bag in a backpack with entertainment and snacks for the flight.

The early hours allowed you to get to the airport without any traffic and make it to the gate with enough time to spare so you could grab a coffee to go.

Francisca knew you were coming, and after having a conversation with your family, you explained to them how the whole situation was putting pressure not only on you but also on your relationship with Charles. As you expected, they were not aware of how the situation was on your side and sat down with you so you could find a better arrangement.

Arriving at the airport of destination, you quickly found the transport line that would be taking you to the closest stop near the paddock, gradually seeing fans get inside as the stops approached the track site.

You followed them in, wanting to go as unnoticed as possible as you walked along them.

"I just saw on Instagram that Charles had left his hotel a while ago, so he should be here any minute now", a young woman around your age commented with her friends, stopping by the benches you were sitting in. Turns out you were waiting for the same person after all.

"Is it okay if we sit here?", one of them asked kindly, "Oh, you're Y/N", one of the girls said.

Nodding, you pushed your backpack to rest near your legs, "of course you can sit", you smiled, still not used to the fact that fans often recognised your face.

"Thanks!", she scurried nervously, urging her friends to sit, seeing their surprised faces as they looked at you, "Also, I'm sorry, I'm sure this is weird for you, that I know your name and you don't know mine, I- we didn't expect to find you here", she apoligised, finally sitting down.

"It's okay, unless you're going to turn out to be come crazy stalker fan, I think we will be fine", you smiled, hoping they would catch the joke and relax a little.

"No no no!", they all said, smiling when you smiled back, "but, may I ask what you're doing here? I mean, don't you have an all access pass?", one of them wondered as she sat next to you.

"I'm surprising Charles, actually", you added, feeling like saying anything else would not only be violating yours and Charles' privacy, but also allowing the creation of rumours you wouldn't want, "I wasn't originally coming to see him race, but some things cleared up on my calendar so I thought I'd surprise him", you finished, seeing them smile, "do you come to watch races regularly?", you asked, changing the subject hopefully subtly enough that they wouldn't notice too much.

Conversation was flowing easily, really, they seemed like really nice girls and it never felt invasive, so the time you had to wait went by quickly, hearing people call your boyfriend's name.

You could notice his presence anywhere, that was a given. Wether it was his well trained torso that made spotting him even from his back, or his handsome face, it wasn't hard yo miss him even surrounded by fans who were wearing the same t-shirt as him.

"Let me stand around you so he won't notice me", you said, "with how enamoured he is of you, I'm sure it won't be long", one of the girls, named Lyla, you learned, spoke, wanting to see the scene unfold as he approached you.

"Hi!", Charles greeted, posing for the pictures while he signed the caps they had, not noticing your hand holding one of his own caps was in the mix.

"Charles! Can you sign this, please?", you asked, hoping you were loud enough, "I was not coming to see you race today, but I'm very happy I did", you almost yelled, thanking the fact that the other girls had helped you by keeping quiet until he realised you were there.

It was enough for Charles to recognise the voice. After all, he had been longing to hear it for the past couple of days.

"Y/N, you're here!", he called, handing Lyla the permanent marker before he hugged you, "I missed you so much, I'm sorry", he whispered on your ear before pulling back a little so he could look you in the eye, "you don't have a pass, do you?", he wondered, seeing you shake your head, "I'll see what I can do, but you're coming with me", he smiled, holding your hand in his and bidding goodbye to the group of girls after you all took a group picture.

The rush until you arrived in his driver's room didn't allow you to talk until you sat on the sofa after greeting everyone and thanking one of the team members for getting you a pass on such short notice.

"Do you think we can talk about it? I don't want to ruin the race by distracting you from it, but I don't think we should be here and not discuss it either", you brought the subject, looking up to see Charles push a chair and sit in front of you, "I want to apologise first", you said, "I never should have said what I said, especially the way I said it, I'm sorry", you apologised, "I never intended it in a way that would hurt you".

Charles grabbed your hands, lacing them in his and looking into your eyes, "I'm sorry, too. I think we should talk about it, too. I want this to be solved, I want us to be well", he admitted.

"My grandparents have been needing a bit more help, and my parents counted on me for it. And I feel like I haven't spent that much time with you, and I'm so sorry for it, but sometimes it just got too much. And I didn't want to burden you, you have your own things to worry about and this would be another thing. They're better now and this was probably a bad phase, but still", you explained.

Charles chuckled before he saw the confusion on your face, "no, I'm joking about this, amour. I'm glad they're better", he reasoned, "but I thought I was being a burden because I felt like I was clingy, like I needed you more than usual and that you had had enough. I didn't want to put more on your plate", he sighed.

Smiling at him, you moved your hand to caress his cheek, "you could never be too much, Charles. Sometimes I just need to deal with things on my own for a bit, even if there is help from someone else", you blushed.

"I know you need me to give you the space you need, that's why I didn't want to push you to talk about things, because as much as I want to craddle you in my arms forever and shield you away from the world's evil, I know you like to do things on your own, at least at first", he noted, earning your silent agreement, "but I'm here for you, always. I'm glad we worked that out", he smiled, pulling your face to his and kissing you deeply, only stopping when someone knocked on the door.

"I heard my favourite girl is back in the paddock, so I suggest you come out because I'm not feeling like I want to see whatever is going on there", your recognised Francisca's voice, getting up and opening the door to see Pierre by her side, "I told her she shouldn't interrupt you two, but she was very excited to know how the surprise went", he smiled.

"A very good surprise indeed, the best one ever", Charles said, pulling you in for one last kiss before he ventured out to the garage, a new feeling of confidence knowing you were there to watch him race.

#charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc fanfic #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Miraculous Ladybug Season 5 - An Overview

Well... that certainly was... the fifth season of Miraculous Ladybug.

While I was overall mixed on Season 4 with how much it varied in quality, I think I have a more concrete opinion of Season 5.

Yeah, this season was a real pain to review, but not for the reason you'd think. Most of the episodes were either dull or average, so there wasn't a lot for me to really talk about. Of course, when things were bad, dear lord, were they bad. This analysis is somehow longer than my Season 4 one and the ranking post. Other than real life stuff getting in the way, there's a damn good reason why this took so long to finish. I basically wrote a college thesis on this season.

The Things I Liked About Season 5

Let's get all the good things about this season out of the way first.

For one thing, one of my biggest complaints about Season 4 was sort of rectified, the portrayal of Adrien. While I still have problems with him (which I'll get to in a later section), they're more about his impact on the story. As for his personality and attitude, it's a big step up. There's much less complaining, he's more active in the action, and is far more intelligent. Compared to Season 4, where Cat Noir was affected by an Akuma's powers or taken out of commission in order to raise the stakes eleven times (Lies, Mr. Pigeon 72, Mega Leech, Guiltrip, Optigami, Sentibubbler, Wishmaker, Simpleman, Ephemeral, Penalteam, Risk), here, funnily enough, it only really happened five times in Season 5 (Jubilation, Illusion, Derision, Emotion, The Final Day). It's honestly amazing. There were times where I thought he was going to be taken out or get portrayed as an idiot, but that almost never happened this season. Even some of the weaker episodes this season featured Adrien in a more active role, like “Passion”, “Reunion”, “Elation”, and “Deflagration”.

Also, as much of a problem that I have with Cat Noir trying to Cataclysm his enemies, I'm glad that the show at least tries to acknowledge this by showing his worst nightmare is a world where everyone is dead because of him. It's not handled well, and it's only done just to bench him for the finale, but I'll at least give the writers credit for putting in the effort to give him more nuance. It's a hell of a lot better than what they did with Gabriel, but I'll get to him later. By extension, his relationship with Ladybug is much more tolerable. The two work together well, talk about the conflict with Monarch more often, and for the most part, feel like actual partners. Yeah, that dynamic falls apart towards the end of the season, but again, I'll give the writers an A+ for effort.

Another thing I like is that this season tries to focus more on character pieces, with episodes focusing on characters like Nathalie (Passion), Kagami (Perfection), Luka (Migration), and Zoe (Adoration). They're not handled the best, but I'm glad the show is at least trying to give the supporting characters time in the spotlight, even though they don't have their Miraculous anymore.

Speaking of, I like the idea of the Alliance rings. It's really the only time Gabriel actually takes advantage of his status as one of the most influential people in Paris to push the use of something specifically designed to help give his Akumas more power. Given how prevelant the marketing for Alliance rings is, it's easy to see his plan working in the long term.

We also had a couple decent new Akuma designs, like Safari, Bugfighter, and... uh... Yeah, I got nothing else. This is pretty much the most praise this season is going to get from me. Sure, I'll go into some other aspects I like during later sections, but other than that, this is it. Hell, even the parts I listed earlier are only mentioned for the ideas they present, not the way they're executed.

The Final Season... Of Filler

We've finally made it to Season 5, the climax of the conflict with Monarch. This is going to be epic, with all kinds of compelling stories that can be used for episodes, leading to a final product that will go down as—my God, why is this season so boring?!

Like I said earlier, this season was a lot harder to review than Season 4 was, and this was one of the biggest reasons why. As bad as that season was, I at least had stuff to talk about. Here? Almost nothing. A good chunk of the episodes I reviewed just didn't leave an impact on me. Most of them were either forgettable, mediocre, or just okay. Some of the episodes had decent ideas and a handful of good scenes, but it wasn't really enough to reach the highs of earlier seasons, including Season 4.

It's strange, because at first, it seemed like the show was learning from its mistakes during the first three episodes of this season. “Evolution”, “Multiplication”, and “Destruction” were far from perfect, but you could at least tell the show was trying something different. There was tighter continuity, clever mind games on both sides, a rare instance of nonlinear storytelling, and major changes to the status quo. They explained why Monarch can't just beat up Ladybug and Cat Noir himself, why the Rabbit and Rooster Miraculous can't be used to end the story, and why the Alliance rings were created.

When Ladybug got the Rabbit Miraculous after failing to get the other fourteen back, you would think that this would lead to an arc where Ladybug and Cat Noir gradually reclaimed the Miraculous from Monarch until the final battle, but what did we get instead in terms of plot development?

For what was supposed to be the final season, it felt like almost nothing happened. Sure, as always, the show tried to trick us into thinking stuff was happening, but several plotlines introduced this season were either abandoned or rushed through after a few episodes. The Resistance? Only relevant for five episodes, and even then, they didn't do much (Illusion, Deflagration, Confrontation, Revolution, Representation). Trying to discover how Monarch is giving the Akumas Miraculous powers? Only relevant in a single episode (Illusion). Felix having the Peacock Miraculous and being a total wild card? Only relevant for three episodes (Emotion, Pretension, Representation). The reverse Love Square? Only relevant for four episodes before it petered out (Determination, Passion, Reunion, Elation). Lila manipulating Kagami for some reason? Only relevant for two, maybe three episodes if you count that one scene in “Emotion”, and that was dropped in favor of her learning Monarch's identity offscreen (Perfection, Protection).

You'd think for a season with stakes this high, there would be bigger stories or more character drama, but we got nothing. The only real ongoing story we got was the Love Square finally happening, and trust me, I'll get to that later. There were plenty of ideas for story arcs here, but the writers pretty much ignored all of them.

Retcons! Retcons Everywhere!

This one's shorter, because it's a problem with the show in general, and I'll go into more detail about specific examples of this later on.

Miraculous Ladybug is a show that has always struggled to be consistent with its lore, worldbuilding, characters, story, and... well, a lot of things. I've talked about how often the show retcons things in order to justify whatever story they need to tell, not just for individual episodes, but story arcs too. There were so many episodes with stories that contradicted previous events or changed the motivations of certain characters on a whim.

In case you didn't keep track, here's a little highlight reel of some of the retcons this season.

Evolution: After both him and Ladybug were able to use multiple unifications last season with no problem, Monarch can't use too many of his powers without collapsing in pain. It also goes against what was established in “Kwamibuster”, the idea of using multiple Miraculous being enough to damage your sanity, where here, Monarch's body is damaged.

Multiplication: Adrien's reason for falling for Marinette was due to all the times she helped him, when it was usually the other way around in earlier seasons.

Determination: Adrien reveals he's had feelings for Marinette since the events of “The Puppeteer 2”, even though it never influenced any of their interactions between that episode and this one. It also contrasts the previous episode, where it said that Adrien was just starting to fall for Marinette for different reasons.

Derision: Chloe's bullying of Marinette had severe psychological damage that explains why she acts the way she does around Adrien... but ignores the romantic feelings Marinette has had for Luka and Cat Noir, and didn't act the same way around them, to say nothing about how she acted around Nathaniel when he had a crush on her during “The Evillustrator ”.

Intuition: The Snake Miraculous somehow makes Gabriel's Cataclysm wound worse even though the form of time travel it uses is mental, not physical.

Protection: Gabriel and Tomoe want their children to be in a relationship, yet Adrien and Kagami kept it a secret while they were dating.

Adoration: Zoe suddenly has feelings for Marinette despite showing no signs of it beforehand.

Emotion: Felix reveals he's doing everything for Adrien's safety, even though in his previous few appearances, he's done nothing but screw his cousin over by smearing his public image.

Pretension: Felix is against using a Sentimonster to defend himself and Kagami due to not wanting to force an innocent creature to follow his orders, yet he had no problem using a Sentimonster in the very last episode and in his next appearance.

Revelation: Lila has multiple secret identities she uses while pretending to be the child of several women, which had never come up at all during the last four seasons.

Representation: Kagami apparently learned Marinette was Ladybug right before she was akumatized in “Perfection”, yet Monarch didn't learn this like he did with Luka.

Do you see the problem here? Hell, I didn't even list every single retcon, or else we'd be here all day.

I don't get how a show that wants to be serialized can keep changing details like this. It's not even a case of the show replacing its writers with new ones who don't know as much as the old ones. This is mostly the same writing team for almost four seasons at this point.

Sometimes, the show will retcon stuff in order to justify stories when it doesn't need to. Remember how at the beginning of the season, Marinette was feeling guilty about her failure at the end of Season 4, and that influences her hesitance to accept Adrien's advances? The writers sure didn't, as “Derision” exists to give Marinette a whole new reason to not be comfortable around Adrien. Why the hell would you give Marinette a perfectly valid reason to not want to pursue Adrien, only to write an episode that gives her a different reason to not want to pursue Adrien? There was literally no reason to do this, especially during the last season of your first major story arc!

This season is clearly trying to be the most serialized of the bunch, yet the writers keep changing details about the story like that one Wallace and Gromit meme.

Season 5: The Show's Greatest Hits Album

Something I've noticed about this season is just how repetitive it can be. I know that sounds weird given this is a show that literally gave us the Status Quo-Yo, but please hear me out.

So many major story arcs and focus episodes are just rehashed versions of older things in this show, and not just the reused Akumas. Not only does the first half of Season 5 restate how complicated things are for Marinette's love live and how she can't love Adrien after what she did (something she gets over rather anticlimactically once Adrien confesses). Then there are other times where even plotlines established this season will get reused, and more often than not, it's worse.

In “Perfection”, Kagami is akumatized thanks to Lila's lies, and manages to break free from Monarch's influence thanks to her friends showing that they care for her. And then four episodes later, Kagami is akumatized again thanks to Lila's lies, only this time, she isn't able to break free. What... what was the point of having that emotional scene in “Perfection” if you're just going to treat her like a run of the mill Akuma a few episodes later?

And it's not just that. Big moments that happened in earlier seasons are pretty much redone but with a few changes to make it seem like they're different. Did you like seeing Adrien give up being Cat Noir in “Kuro Neko”? Well how about seeing Adrien and Marinette give up being superheroes in “The Kwamis' Choice”? Did you like seeing Chloe break off her friendship with Adrien in “Queen Banana”? How does seeing Adrien break off his friendship with Chloe in “Derision” sound?

But the worst of this has to be in the last seven episodes of the season. So much of what is essentially the culmination of five seasons' worth of story is just recycled. Let's go over why. In “Confrontation”, Marinette (and by her, I mean Sabrina with help from Marinette) manages to outsmart Chloe and Lila and put an end to their tyranny in the classroom. What are the next two episodes about? Marinette needing to outsmart Chloe and Lila, only now, they have reign over the city. This feels like something that should have been one major story, not something split up into two two-parters. Hell, you can't even say it's original to see Chloe in control, because this is also something that was done back in Season 1's “Rogercop”, only with the titular and the police following his orders for no reason instead of Chloe and her bootleg Daleks.

But hey, if an army of robots capable of using Miraculous powers, at least we can expect something even more creative for Monarch's ultimate plan, right? Yeah, Project “Perfect Alliance” is just a combination of Chloe's murder boxes and the exact same plan in “Heroes' Day”. People are brainwashed like in “Heroes' Day” and they get Miraculous powers like the robots in “Revolution”. Seriously? Nobody took a look at this and thought “Didn't we do this already?”

What's the point of making these two different evil plans when they're essentially the same thing? Why not give Chloe's robots various weapons instead of Miraculous powers if you're going to have an army of villains who have the same Miraculous powers two episodes later? Why not make it so the Miraculized are really the robots designed to help Chloe, only here, they have the ability to turn anyone wearing an Alliance ring into one of them, sort of like the Borg from Star Trek?

It's clear that after four seasons, the writing on this show has gotten incredibly stagnant if the major plotlines are just reused from earlier seasons. At best, it comes across like blatant fanservice, and at worst, it's a symptom of the writers struggling to come up with new ideas for stories. Either way, this is one of many reasons why not a lot of people are looking forward to Season 6. How can you expect interesting stories in the future when the writers keep recycling their old ones?

Felix and the Struggle With Sentimonsters or: This Is Starting to Sound Like a Bad Comic Book Plot!

Before I get into the problems with Felix this season, consider this: With Chloe (who I'll get to later), she was an example of someone who wouldn't get a redemption arc. Felix? This is the writers intentionally trying write a redemption arc. How did that turn out?

The obvious problem with Felix is mostly due to, like a lot of things in this show, poor time management. He only had three focus episodes, and in that time, the writers needed to explain his motivations, establish him as a wild card, have him realize the error of his ways, develop his relationship with Kagami, and help out Marinette. They really wanted to do a lot with Felix, yet with how rushed his arc was, I have to wonder if there was some trouble behind the scenes that prevented him from getting more focus.

It doesn't help that what little we got was confusing as all hell. I've already gone into detail about the problems with Felix's motivations not explaining his actions, but here's a list of all the problems with Felix.

If Felix wanted to get the Peacock Miraculous from the start, why didn't he try stealing that in “Felix”?

If Felix cared about Adrien, why did he spend most of his appearances mocking him and ruining his reputation by impersonating him in “Felix”, “Gabriel Agreste”, “Risk”, “Emotion”, and “Representation”?

If Felix knew who Gabriel was, why did he come up with this elaborate plan to get the Peacock Miraculous in a trade with him instead of going to Ladybug for help in “Strikeback”?

If Felix realized Gabriel was dangerous and capable of wiping him out, why did he decide to give him fifteen Miraculous in exchange for a single Miraculous without doing anything to stop him in “Strikeback”?

If Felix could easily get rid of Gabriel with a single Sentimonster like he did in “Emotion”, why didn't he immediately do that as soon as he got the Peacock Miraculous in “Strikeback”?

If Felix wanted to stop Gabriel, why did he decide to wipe out all of humanity alongside him in “Emotion”?

If Felix cared about innocent lives, why did he decide to wipe out all of humanity without showing any remorse except for when he had to get rid of Red Moon in “Emotion”?

If Felix didn't want to create any Sentimonsters just to end their lives in “Pretention”, why did he do just that in “Representation”?

If Felix knew Marinette was Ladybug, why did he choose to tell her who Gabriel was in an unnecessarily complicated way instead of telling it straight to her face in “Representation”?

If Felix really hated his abusive father, why didn't he show any hatred for Gabriel (who gave Colt the damaged Peacock Miraculous and did nothing to stop the abuse) as well during his little play in “Representation”?

If Felix cared about stopping Gabriel, why did he only decide to go to Ladybug for help when Gabriel was getting in the way of his relationship with Kagami in “Representation”?

If Felix was willing to tell Marinette about Gabriel being Monarch in “Representation”, why didn't he do anything else to help her stop Monarch in “Comformation” and “Re-Creation”?

With how many flaws his plans have, I'm surprised Felix hasn't said anything along the lines of “My pwan is gweat!”

For someone who claims to be doing a lot of things for Adrien, Felix tends to either screw over his cousin as part of his plans or forget him entirely. I don't mean he screws over Cat Noir, as his identity is one of the few things he doesn't know, but rather, how little his plans actually benefit Adrien. Putting aside his previous appearances in Seasons 3 and 4, in the span of a single episode, Felix pretended to be his cousin and smeared his public image, used a Sentimonster to wipe out all of his friends and loved ones while needing to be told by Adrien that doing so wasn't cool, and after that, he pretty much abandoned caring about Adrien.

Yeah, starting with “Pretension”, the writers once again change gears so Felix's primary goal is to help Kagami, not Adrien. It's Kagami that really helps inspire Felix's true turn to good, it's Kagami who he chooses to visit when she and Adrien are taken to London, and it's Kagami that helps him decide to tell Marinette Monarch's identity. Even though he only has three major appearances, the writers still decided to shake up his character arc for some reason. How does a team of paid writers struggle to stay consistent with any story or character arc they've written?

The worst part is that for a redemption arc, Felix shows little to no remorse for his actions. Not once does he apologize to anyone he's personally wronged, like Adrien, Marinette, or Kagami. He doesn't see anything wrong with giving Monarch more power and depriving Ladybug of almost all of her allies, and he had to be told that wiping all of humanity from existence was a bad thing. Felix has done so many terrible things in his quest for freedom, which isn't a bad idea, as it could make for an interesting discussion about whether the ends justify the means, but the show doesn't go that route. Instead, despite doing almost nothing but making things worse for Ladybug and Cat Noir, we're supposed to see Felix as a great person who just wants to have friends. Sure, having good social skills is a big part of being able to manipulate others, but let's just ignore all the people he's tricked and assume he doesn't know how to properly socialize with someone without stalking them.

It doesn't help that of all the characters this season, Felix makes the most progress in stopping Monarch. Puting aside his little genocide attempt in “Emotion”, he actually made an attempt to take Gabriel out of the equation, and later on, passed on intel about his true identity to Marinette. Think about that for a second. Marinette, despite being a hero with the ability to deduce what to do from simple clues given to her, isn't the one to figure out Monarch's identity. Instead, she has to be told who Monarch is, and is able to beat him only because Felix told her what to do. The worst part is that Felix doesn't even take part in the final battle when he has no excuse to not get involved. Remember, he doesn't have to worry about getting snapped away by Gabriel, so even though he cares so much about Adrien and Kagami, he does nothing to save either of them from their glorified solitary confinement.

Felix isn't a character. He's a glorified plot device who only shows up to advance the story instead of letting any character make progress by themselves. While Marinette and Adrien are focusing more on their love lives this season, Felix is the one actually getting things done. Because God forbid the two characters the show is named after actually do anything to stop the villain this season, am I right?

And that's not even getting into the Sentimonster stuff. Yep, to our collective horror, not only is Felix a Sentimonster, but it's also hinted that Adrien and Kagami are Sentimonsters too. I'm not sure why the writers are so hesitant to flat out say the latter two are Sentimonsters after all the obvious hints, especially when this is a show that loves to overly explain every plot detail and character trait. I don't know. Maybe they're just hedging their bets in case things don't go over well with audiences, but I can't possibly see anything bad coming from this. After all, how can you think of any uncomfortable implications stemming from the three major victims of child abuse literally being inhuman monsters who are physically unable to resist their abusers' orders?

With the Sentimonster “reveal”, Adrien and Kagami, two characters who were previously doing their best to be independent from their parents as they could at their age, are now physically incapable of even having a single negative thought about them without being ordered around while showing no resistance. Like I've mentioned before, it's a blatant retcon because it's never explained why Gabriel and Tomoe didn't do this during Seasons 2 and 3. It also gives the writers the opportunity to remove any agency Adrien and Kagami have in the plot, even though one is one of the two main characters, and the other plays a crucial role in helping another character expose the main villain's identity.

We're supposed to see Gabriel and Tomoe as wrong for ignoring their children's protests and forcing them to do things they don't want to do, but it doesn't lead to an arc where Adrien and Kagami rebel against their parents and break free from their influences. As soon as either Gabriel and Tomoe touch their respective rings, Adrien and Kagami are completely helpless, and there's no way for them to resist because of how powerful the link with their Amoks is. There's no hint that they have the potential to break free from their Amoks' influence, and the only time we saw that happen, it was a complete accident that Felix didn't even cause (Representation). Adrien and Kagami are both reduced to damsels in distress thanks to being Sentimonsters, and even though the show is trying to say they're trapped in a terrible situation, there's never a way out.

The most Adrien and Kagami do is express frustration with their situation, but most of the progress made in escaping their bad relationships is done by their respective love interests, Marinette and Felix. Yes, support systems are important, but rather than help Adrien and Kagami earn their freedom, Marinette and Felix do pretty much all of the work to save them during the latter half of this season. Hell, they couldn't even get that completely done by the time of the finale! Gabriel dropped dead and Adrien thinks he's a hero and Kagami's still living with Tomoe, only now she has her Amok ring. We're supposed to see this as a happy ending when they're both still influenced by their abusive parents, even if they don't have any physical control over them. The whole idea behind making Adrien and Kagami Sentimonsters should have been something about them, but with Gabriel and Tomoe, the writers only see them as helpless victims who can't do anything to save themselves. Sure, both of them have fought supervillains before, but we can't have them actually showing agency, can we?

I'm going to get into other ways Adrien and Kagami's characters were butchered this season, but for now, let's get into all the uncomfortable things this plotline implies. Now before I go any further, just remember that I am far from an expert on abuse or child psychology, so please take what I say with a heavy grain of salt. If there is anyone reading this who is a victim of abuse or knows someone who was, please don't be afraid to speak your mind about my analysis or correct me if I get any details wrong.

I get that making Adrien, Kagami, and Felix Sentimonsters was probably done so it'd be a way to explain the concept of child abuse to younger audiences, specifically to show how helpless the situation can be for victims, but the problem is how the allegory is handled. It wants to show how cruel the idea of child abuse is, but it doesn't want to outright vilify abusers like Gabriel or Tomoe. They usually try to sugarcoat it by saying that the two have good reasons for doing what they do, but that's a common problem with abusers. Abusive parents almost always believe that they're doing the right thing while their children think that they're just being punished for their own good, and the season ultimately takes that stance by the end.

The show is clearly trying to use the Sentimonster concept to tell a story about abuse, but I have no idea what exactly it's trying to say about it. “Child abuse is bad”? Okay, then why aren't you going to condemn the abusive parents for being abusive parents? And no, brief mentions of abusive parents who we never actually see onscreen don't count (Derision, Pretension, Representation). “Help out abused children”? Big talk coming from the season that only has two people actually fight to help the victims of child abuse, while treating another victim of child abuse as getting her just desserts (Revolution). “Parents have good reasons to do what they do”? Yeah, that normally applies to stopping your kid from getting a tattoo, not forcing them to whatever they want against their will.

The thing about writing abuse is that you need to acknowledge just how unhealthy it is, and do whatever it takes to take them out of the toxic environment. Here, nobody ever tries to remove Adrien from the toxic environment or tell him that what his father is doing isn't right. Sure, Felix tries to take Kagami away from her abusive mother, but that was only for like an hour at most, and then he just let her go back to her mother. Adrien doesn't even get that luxury. Hell, he isn't even allowed to know just how terrible his father was because he's just a sensitive baby according to the show. Portraying abuse victims as too emotionally fragile to know the truth is a pretty bad idea because, like I mentioned before, a big problem that abuse victims go through is that they're conditioned to see their treatment as normal at best, or see it as their fault at worst.

Like so many other serious topics discussed in this show, the writers clearly want to tell a story about abuse, but they're too afraid to actually take a proper stance on it, so they kept trying to play it safe in an attempt to not get backlash from audiences. Of course, because of that, they ended up portraying victims of child abuse as soulless husks who have almost no free will of their own, while ending the season by having them still under the influence of their abusive parents, even the dead one. Real bang-up job, there, writers. It says a lot when a Spider-Man PSA from almost 35 years ago did a better job tackling child abuse than you did.

And finally, let's talk about how this season's treatment of Sentimonsters indirectly influences our perception of them across the past two seasons. Even though the Sentimonsters created have shown almost no individuality from Seasons 2 to 4, only now are we supposed to see them as sentient beings, with Felix himself even taking offense at the idea at being called a Sentimonster. Never mind the fact that Felix never actually comes up with a proper alternative, so he just comes across as whiny when we're supposed to see him as a champion of the Sentimonsters.

In regards to the narrative the show decided it now wants to tell about Sentimonsters, I have two questions.

First, why should I care about Sentimonsters if the previous two seasons have portrayed them as nothing but soulless killing machines? If you're going to write a plot twist that changes the way we see Sentimonsters, you need to explain why we were wrong to only assume they're dangerous, especially since Argos' first Sentimonster literally wiped out all of humanity. For comparison, Ultraman Z did a similar plotline by having the main character realize that several of the monsters he killed as the titular hero weren't intentionally trying to harm humanity, so it caused him to doubt himself as a hero before he vowed to start finding non-violent ways to stop monsters if he could, while viewing the act of killing monsters that couldn't be reasoned with as a necessary evil. This show has no such arc and just expects us to ignore all the damage the Sentimonsters have caused since the end of Season 2.

Second, what about the Sentimonsters whose lives have been snuffed out by Mayura, Shadowmoth, and even Ladybug? The writers want us to sympathize with Sentimonsters and believe they get a bad rap? That's fine, but even if we did, what about the ones who were already wiped out of existence? Are we just not going to talk about them? Why should we only value the lives of Felix, Adrien, and Kagami and not any of the other Sentimonsters created in previous episodes? What, because they're not main characters, their lives don't matter?

All in all, everything about the Sentimonster was either poorly thought out or too preachy to take seriously, and Felix is emblematic of those problems with how he and the Sentimonsters are written. Oh right, I forgot Felix had a sidekick too, Kimberly—I mean, Kagami.

Kagami Never Hesitates to Be a Complete Idiot

If you read my overview of Season 4, I sang high praises for how Alya was written. Season 4 managed to take a character I had previously disliked and turn her into one of my favorite characters in the show. Now, with that being said, I want you to imagine the opposite of that happening to a different character, and you have my feelings on Kagami this season.

It's weird how, after she had made it through the past three seasons with her character somewhat intact, the writers decided to give her even more prominence by involving her in two separate arcs this season... and only made her nothing more than a damsel in distress who constantly needed to be saved in both of them. I'm not saying that Kagami should be able to beat the crap out of Monarch with her bare hands, but my point is that Kagami just lost so much agency this season.

When she wasn't being manipulated by Lila (Perfection, Protection), she was playing second fiddle to Felix and acting like he didn't hand over almost every Miraculous in Ladybug's possession to Monarch (Pretension, Representation). It's really strange, considering a defining character trait of hers is her hating liars like Marinette does, since it's why she dumped Adrien, yet here, she gets tangled up in the schemes of two different liars, Lila and Felix. I can at least get Lila (as dumb as her episodes are), since she's supposed to be seen as this master manipulator, but she just brushes all of Felix's crimes aside because he “doesn't know how to express himself”. Because even though she's always been loyal to Ladybug, she has no problem working with one of the only two people to betray her trust. But she loves Felix, so that makes it all okay.

What made Alya's arc last season work was that even though she was primarily Marinette's confidant, we also got episodes showing her struggling to balance her own desires with what needed to be done for the greater good (Optigami, Sentibubbler, Hack-San, Rocketear). She had to step up and become more than just one of the many temp heroes Ladybug called on, someone trustworthy enough to temporarily use the Ladybug Miraculous. Yes, she made bad calls, but when things went south because of her bad decisions, she normally took responsibility for her actions and vowed to do better. With Kagami, we don't get any internal conflict like that at all. She just blindly goes along with whatever Lila and Felix say, and even when bad things happen as a result, she never even thinks to call out either of them other than rarely saying something along the lines of “Hey, not cool.” (Protection, Pretension).

Kagami just doesn't get to do anything on her own terms this season. Her entire arc revolves around following Lila and Felix around like a lost puppy. And just remember, we're seriously supposed to act like Kagami is trustworthy enough to see that her defending Felix from Ladybug is enough to prove that he's a good person deep down... when this same season showed her easily falling for Lila's lies and getting akumatized twice as a result. It's like believing Dr. Nick can perform a life-saving kidney transplant after seeing him botch an open-heart surgery.

Even Kagami figuring out Marinette is Ladybug, something that should be a big deal like with Alya and Luka learning last season, is something we learn through a flashback and is, you guessed it, is only relevant to one of Felix's plans. And yeah, reveal your friend's secret to someone who someone who betrayed her. What could possibly go wrong? Again, when Alya screwed up, she was at least able to admit it to Marinette's face. Kagami never tells Marinette that she knows, and never faces consequences for throwing her lot in with Felix. What's her excuse, that she has too much love in her heart for Felix?

Speaking of which, let's talk about the biggest problem I have with Kagami this season, the way her relationship with Felix is handled. Let me make one thing clear: my problem isn't with people who ship the two together. Much like with the Love Square, my problem is how the show handles this romance. The two had almost no episodes together, and from what little we saw of them interacting, Kagami didn't like him, and for obvious reasons. But then “Pretension” came. Not only did Felix develop feelings for Kagami offscreen, all it took for Kagami to fall for Felix was a single conversation where he showed basic human decency. Yeah, Marinette fell for Adrien for similar reasons, but at least she and him took a while to actually get together. These two shared a handful of conversations, and now they're just made for each other.

The problem with this is that the relationship basically reduces Kagami to Felix's girlfriend and sidekick. All of her major appearances post-“Emotion” were in relation to Felix. She only helps him because of their relationship, and their relationship was the whole reason why Kagami convinced Felix to do what he should have done from the start, tell Ladybug who Monarch was... even though Astruc said this kind of relationship was toxic when discussing Lukloe.

You see, the difference between Lukloe and Feligami is (MAKE UP EXPLANATION LATER AND DON'T ACCIDENTALLY LEAVE THIS SPOT BLANK). And that's why we shouldn't see this as blatant hypocrisy on Astruc's part.

While it's par for the course, given how almost every female character in this show is connected to a male character in some way, the way Kagami is written this season is still part of a bigger problem. Kagami is not everyone's favorite character and not one people fiercely discuss as much as Marinette, Adrien, or even Chloe, but it's still baffling that out of all the characters in this season, Kagami would arguably sustain the most damage out of the entire cast. Given that this is the same season as Nino becoming the braindead leader of the Resistance, Chloe's brief stint as a tyrannical mayor, Nathalie choosing to do nothing about Gabriel until she was about to die, the baffling reveal of who Lila supposedly is (again, more on these later), or... really, a lot of things with both Marinette and Adrien, this is actually saying a lot. If you want to look at it at a particular angle, Kagami's actually a direct victim of practically all of the biggest problems in this season and I've had to mention her a lot more in this analysis than I anticipated. Then again, I suppose that's me showing more care to Kagami as a character than the writers did.

The Story of The Resistance (In Name Only)

I've already gone on about how underdeveloped most of the temp heroes are, so you can imagine the season where they try to help Ladybug without superpowers doesn't really change my opinion of them.

Remember how in episodes like Season 1's “Antibug”, Season 2's “The Dark Owl”, and even this season's “Jubilation” made it clear that trying to be a superhero without a Miraculous or proper training was essentially suicide? You know, how it was better to leave things to the actual superheroes? Well the writers sure didn't, as now we get to see a bunch of idiots try to take on supervillains with paintball guns and whatever they can throw at them. I'm pretty sure the writers put more effort into all the codenames themed after condiments than actually coming up with creative ways to fight Akumas. Because we all know how hilarious (citation needed) the flower codename gag from “Gigantitan” was, so let's do something like that, but for multiple episodes this season.

I'm just going to be blunt here when I say the Resistance this season sucked. Putting aside the fact that the writers couldn't come up with a less generic name or a name that wasn't already taken by the Ox Miraculous' power, this subplot was just so pointless. You have a team of former heroes who want to find a way to help Ladybug and Cat Noir stop Monarch, and rather than do things like pass intel along or find ways to stop people from getting akumatized, they decide to try taking them on themselves with their most powerful weapons being paintball guns. Congratulations, you now have all the equipment you need to take on Bart Simpson in a fight. Sure, they try to pass on intel to Ladybug and Cat Noir in their first episode, “Illusion”, but Nino's plan was so stupid, they ended up helping Monarch in the long term by letting his civilian identity into their team. Oh, I'm sorry, did you forget how Gabriel and Lila were inducted into the Resistance at the end of “Illusion”? It's okay, the writers did too.

And the idea of them passing on intel could have worked, as it would give Marinette a support system to help solve problems she can't figure out on her own, following up on her character arc from Season 4 where she learns to put her trust in people, but like a lot of things this season, the writers got bored halfway through and decided to change up this plotline. Now, they're prepared to fight anyone who gets akumatized. How many Akumas did the Resistance manage to stop completely on their own? One, and it was offscreen (Deflagration).

Trying to make the Resistance seem competent and effective comes at the price of making the villains look like idiots who can't handle a few teenagers without superpowers. Monarbug, someone who managed to unify with the Ladybug Miraculous, lost it thanks to the Resistance dogpiling him. Then, later on, they managed to stop Nightormentor, an akumatized Gabriel, by just throwing stuff at him. Do you have any idea how lame this makes Monarch look? It's like that scene from Robocop 3 where that kid somehow managed to make ED-209 as loyal as a puppy in a matter of seconds. It's not cool to see it happen. It diminishes the threat the formerly menacing villain posed.

The show loves to play up the Resistance as this amazing underground organization Nino is so proud of, but it doesn't work because you can count the number of times they've actually helped out on one hand, and even then, that's being that word Chloe doesn't know the meaning of (Deflagration, Revolution, Representation). Even then, they still fall for Lila's lies which, like Kagami, doesn't help establish any of them as trustworthy. The whole Resistance subplot is basically an excuse to make it seem like the former temp heroes aren't just sitting around, which again, isn't a bad idea, but nothing comes of it. We don't get to see any of them worry that they can't do anything without their Miraculous, we don't see where or when Nino got the idea to form the Resistance, and we don't even get any scenes where the worry about the captured Kwamis. The show just has them all operate under the same goal and makes it seem like they're making a difference when they barely do anything. None of them really feel like characters, and it shows this season.

Nino, despite labeling himself as the brave leader of the Resistance, is anything but. He constantly brags about how effective he is, but not only does he let anyone into his top secret organization without even thinking if they can really be trusted, all of his genius plans amount to, you guessed it, throwing stuff at the brainwashed people with superpowers. He's also so confident that he was awesome as Carapace when all he did was occasionally help Ladybug out with his Shelter, and then whines about not being chosen by Tikki and Plagg when Scarabella and Kitty Noire temporarily take over (Illusion, Deflagration). He's also so poor at gathering intel that not only did he fall for Gabriel's ruse and act like he figured out how the Akumas have Miraculous powers, he didn't even know his best friend was going to London until he got on the plane (Representation). I wasn't kidding when I said Nino was such a terrible leader, he makes Zapp Brannigan look competent by comparison.

And remember when Alya was a major character? Neither does the show! Out of the entire season, she was really only relevant to the plot when she became Scarabella for a few days, and even then, she didn't think that maybe she should take off the Alliance ring that monitors her every move if she's going to be a full-time hero again (Transmission, Deflagration). There is absolutely no follow-up to anything that happened to her in Season 4. She doesn't regret blowing her cover, she doesn't worry over not being able to help Ladybug as Rena Rouge, she doesn't worry about the safety of Trixx, she doesn't even consider the fact that she's not used to going back to full-time hero work after half a season of being undercover as Rena Furtive. At best, the whole thing with Alya exposing her cover to Nino last season gets played off for the sake of a cheap joke (Illusion).

Then there's Zoe. Like Season 4, I can definitely say that out of all the supporting characters, she was certainly one of them. They clearly try to give her these big moments in an attempt to endear her to the audience, like her brief stint as Kitty Noire or her coming out to Marinette, but because of how nonexistent her character development has been, these don't feel earned. I can't buy her friendship with Marinette or anyone else because of how little she appears. Hell, she was specifically introduced to act as a good counterpart to Chloe, and she did nothing to really contribute to her ultimate downfall other than sharing a single conversation during “Revolution”. That's how little the writers care about her, they don't even have her interact with the character she was designed to replace. I take back what I said about her being a Mary Sue way back in my “Sole Crusher” review, because at least those types of characters get plenty of focus in the narrative. All I can really say about Zoe after two seasons is that at least she's more interesting than Socqueline, a character so boring, this is the only time I'm going to mention her in this entire analysis.

And that's it for the Resistance. Only three side characters are actually worth talking about this season. That is how pointless of a group they are.

Chloe’s Arc That, in Case You Forgot, Was Totally Planned From the Start

I really don't know what else to say here. Remember, this entire blog was started because of how upset I was by Astruc's response to criticism of the Season 3 finale, specifically how Chloe's “damnation arc” was claimed to have planned out from the start.

For the sake of argument, let's go over this arc and just what happened with this character over the past eight years. In Season 1, Chloe started out as a standard high school mean girl who used her father's influence to get whatever she wanted, but wasn't that much of a threat compared to Hawkmoth and the Akumas. In Season 2, we got to see a different side to her that started a character arc, showing she was capable of changing and becoming a hero in her own right. In Season 3, while it seemed like Chloe was changing for the better, the finale had her betray Ladybug and go back to being the same mean girl she was before. In Season 4, we were introduced to Chloe's never before seen half-sister, Zoe, who only existed to replace Chloe as the user of the Bee Miraculous, and even though the very same episode where Zoe first got the Bee Miraculous hinted that there was still a chance of Chloe changing, the rest of the season acts like she's always been a menace to society with no redeeming qualities. In Season 5, Chloe was portrayed as a heartless monster who is worse than the main villain of the entire show, is simultaneously smart and cunning enough to bully Marinette in a way that would leave lasting mental scars for a year and also too incompetent to take seriously, and even though the season has made a big deal about how terrible child abuse is, her being sent off to live with her verbally abusive mother is seen as a perfectly suitable punishment for her.

I don't know what's worse, the fact that none of the writers had second thoughts about this character's “arc”, or the fact that Astruc probably thinks he made an antagonist as complex as Lady Macbeth. I also love how, despite all this supposed planning, not once do we get any explanation as to just why Chloe hates Marinette so much other than the fact that one's a rich person and the other is the main character in a cartoon.

Chloe's character was already going in a downward spiral in Season 4, but with Season 5, it feels like the writers just abandoned all attempts to be subtle and were determined to stop people from liking her. Like, it's amazing just how much time was spent hammering the point home. She got more focus as a villain than Lila and even Gabriel. We had about eight episodes this season that featured her in a major antagonistic role: “Determination”, “Deflagration”, “Derision”, “Adoration”, “Revelation”, “Confrontation”, “Collusion”, and “Revolution”. Almost a third of this season is dedicated to showing how evil Chloe is, as if she's somehow worse than people like Gabriel or Tomoe. And that's not even counting episodes where she got a line or two to remind the audience of how bad she is, like “Multiplication”, “Passion”, and “Reunion”.

The weird thing is that even though this was supposed to be the season where Chloe was at her worst, it still seemed like the writers couldn't make up their minds on what they wanted to do with her. For example, let's take a look at her relationship with Monarch. In “Multiplication”, she believed that Ladybug and Cat Noir should just give Monarch what he wants, implying she's still on his side. Then, in “Determination”, she blamed not having the Bee Miraculous on why Monarch was able to win, implying she wants to stop Monarch. And then in “Deflagration”, it's hinted that she once again willingly accepted an Akuma out of a desire to get revenge, implying that she's still on good terms with Monarch. Finally, in “Revolution”, she initially wanted to arrest Monarch when he arrived in her office, and had to be convinced to work with him again. Seriously, this is almost two seasons after she started working with Monarch in the first place. How the hell are the writers not sure if she's working with the villain or not?!

Of course, that's the least of my problems with Chloe this season. One such problem that it seems like the writers specifically went out of their way to ruin the few positive relationships Chloe had just so her fans would have less ground to stand on. Her friendship with Adrien? He finally decided to write her off as irredeemable just as he learned just how miserable she made Marinette (and only Marinette) at the end of “Derision”. Her friendship with Sabrina, as one-sided as it is? She doesn't even see Sabrina as a friend anymore, specifically referring to her as an underling starting with “Adoration”, and then Sabrina turns against her after she finds one specific scheme to be going too far. The sympathy Ms. Bustier had for Chloe, even though it wasn't relevant to her character after “Zombizou”? Chloe basically ignores any attempt made to reach out to her, and we're supposed to act like her wanting to help Chloe get a decent education because it's her job as a teacher is the stupidest idea in the world. Chloe's relationship with her own father? This season decided to make Andre out to be a man mentally broken by the bad treatment he gets from his daughter and totally not a corrupt politician, and outright disowns her in favor of adopting someone who isn't even his biological daughter.

It already felt like Season 4 exaggerated Chloe's negative traits, but now, the show doesn't want anyone to like her in-universe, as if showing basic human decency to her in the first place was off the table. Remember, in “Revelation”, Marinette's speech to Adrien was basically copied and pasted from one of Astruc's tweets, as if this was meant to address anyone who still liked the idea of Chloe changing for the better.

And trust me, I'll get to the characters who actually got redeemed later.

For now, let's talk about the main issue I have with her portrayal: The writers want her to be seen as a threat... but they don't want her to actually be a threat. Almost all of Chloe's appearances this season had her acting as a pawn to either Gabriel or Lila. This season also started to use dumb blonde jokes in order to show how incompetent she is, like having her struggle to understand the concept of the word “generous”, making her out as an idiot. The whole point of the “irredeemable villain” archetype is that the character is usually so big of a threat, there is absolutely no way of talking them down, so they need to be stopped through the use of force. Chloe is far from a threat, which is why all this talk about her being a monster falls flat.

At the end of the day, Chloe is easily at the bottom of the hierarchy of the villains on this show. She has no Miraculous like Gabriel, she has no advanced technology like Tomoe, and she's nowhere near as cunning as Lila is. The problem is that the show wants the audience to see Chloe as if she's the worst of them all. Fine, she may have the most obnoxious personality and least amount of redeeming qualities by the writers' standards, but this is a superhero show. You don't just rank villains on how mean they are, but also by how much of a threat they are to the hero. The moments where we're supposed to take Chloe seriously, the show keeps reminding us that she's only getting as far as she has because she's being used by other villains. It makes the moments where the heroes triumph over her ring hollow.

I'm not even joking here when I say that out of the show's entire rogues' gallery, Chloe is literally the only one who actually gets punished. Sabrina was able to wash their hands of her association with the bully, Andre was more than happy to give up his position as mayor and kidnap Zoe, Tomoe was never even exposed, Lila only faced a minor setback when she was exposed, Nathalie was healed by the wish, and even though he died, Gabriel died a martyr who never actually answered to any of his crimes. But Chloe? As fucked up as it was, she was the only one who received some form of punishment for everything she did. Congratulations, Ladybug and Cat Noir! After five seasons, you finally managed to defeat the Ringo Starr of your rogue's gallery, and all it took was unlocking the full power of your Miraculous.

I was initially angry at the show for just throwing away a character arc and mocking anyone who was interested in it, but now, I'm angry at the show for a different reason. Even if we were to assume that everything about Chloe was planned from the start, that she was supposed to be a fallen hero turned enemy, the show did nothing with it. If you're going to make Chloe a full-blown villain, then go nuts with the idea! Have her dedicate her life to beating Ladybug out of hatred, maybe even through a suit of armor like Princess Morbucks. Instead, this is the writing equivalent of intentionally setting your house on fire, but deciding you don't need the insurance money.

I'm actually going to say something that might sound blasphemous, especially coming from someone who has spent a lot of time talking about Chloe's character assassination, but I'm just going to admit it: I think Chloe should have been the next Hawkmoth, not Lila.

Yes, that's probably what you're thinking, but I'm serious. Think about it. Between her and Lila, who has the closer connection to Marinette as an enemy? Who has a more fleshed out reason to hate Marinette? Who got more focus as a villain this season? Who has more resources at her disposal? Essentially, the show put so much effort into making Chloe out to be Marinette's most personal enemy, that it makes no sense for them to not just go all the way and make her the next big bad. The writers already go on and on about how irredeemable she is, so why not make her an actual threat for a change?

But no. Instead, let's just keep her as comic relief who somehow gets more screentime than almost every other villain this season. That's a good way to tell our story, right?

Now You See That Evil Will Always Triumph Because Good Is Dumb... And So Is Evil, Apparently

This section should be relatively easy for me to get through, since not much has really changed with the villains since Season 4. They're all still idiots even though the show wants us to see them as a threat to the equally idiotic heroes.

Let's start with our only newcomer to the show's rogues' gallery, and definitely the weakest, Tomoe. I'll give the show a lot of credit with the foreshadowing for Tomoe here. Unlike other plotlines where the show bashes you over the head with obvious hints like with the Sentimonster stuff, the hints leading to the reveal of Tomoe being in leagues with Gabriel are far more subtle. They spend a lot of time in Seasons 3 and 4 discussing things offscreen (probably about some version of the Alliance rings), and both of Tomoe's akumatizations happen offscreen as well (since their conversation would give away their alliance). It's handled pretty well... which is more than I can say for Tomoe as a villain.

Tomoe is just such a confusing character, both conceptually and the way she was used this season. She's meant to be Gabriel's new confidant after Nathalie decided to stop being a villain while still mooching off him, but she pretty much does the same things Nathalie does, including the constant nagging about how inefficient he is. She even serves the same role Nathalie served in earlier episodes as Gabriel's technical advisor. Tomoe is basically a second Nathalie, with the only differences being that she's blind and that she wants Kagami to be with Adrien. Of course, this makes no sense because, like I mentioned in the retcon section, Adrien and Kagami tried to keep their relationship secret before their breakup. How could Tomoe not notice this? What is she, blind—oh right...

There's also the issue I have with the way Tomoe's nationality and disability is portrayed here, and how it really highlights how terrible this show is with representation (not to be confused with the episode of the same name). Like with my Sentimonster section, if there's anyone reading this who is disabled or a person of color, and you'd like to say anything about this part or how this show's representation is handled, feel free to voice your opinion or correct me if I get anything wrong.

With Tomoe, it feels like the writers slapped on every Japanese stereotype you could think of and called it a day, because we've seen all of these before. She's dressed in very traditional Japanese attire, is named after a famous Japanese warrior, uses a kendo shinai as a cane instead of a walking stick, is a strict parent to her child who expects the best from her, makes references to Japanese culture like samurai (Pretension) and taiko drums (Protection), is a technological genius, forces her child into an arranged marriage, and uses Japanese honorifics while talking with Gabriel even when they're not speaking Japanese. I'm not saying Japanese people can't talk about their culture at all, but when you're writing a character who happens to be a person of color, you need to do more than make references to their heritage.

With Tomoe, almost everything she says is referencing her heritage, which makes it come across like the writers cared more about her being Japanese than anything else. Because somehow, the writers were worried kids wouldn't pick up on the fact that she's Japanese... when she's wearing something that makes her look like she just stepped off the set of an Akira Kurosawa movie.

But hey, at least they say Tomoe is Japanese. I don't think there's a single indication that she's blind. At most, they give her the stereotypical superpower every blind person in superhero media seems to have, enhanced hearing. Of course, while characters like Daredevil and Toph Beifong have in-universe explanations for how they're able to “see” without their eyes (Daredevil's enhanced senses came from the same chemicals that blinded him in the first place, while Toph learned an advanced Earthbending technique that gave her the ability to sense others through vibrations in the earth), Tomoe just has them because the writers thought it would be cool. I know it might seem strange to say this after I talked about how too much focus was given to Tomoe's Japanese heritage, but you'd think more would be done with her being blind, and how it would factor into her motivation to create a better world through technology or her ideology about self-discipline. Instead, she acts like every other character on this show, to the point where all three times she was akumatized, she got her sight back.

The main problem with Tomoe is how other than her heritage and disability, she has almost no personality other than being a strict mother to Kagami (something that is also a negative Asian stereotype) and her vague ideology about suppressing her emotions. She's basically a female Gabriel, and because she's a woman in this show, lacks any depth or redeeming qualities. There just wasn't enough time to really develop Tomoe as a character in the same season she was revealed to be a villain. Sure, they try to hint at her having history with Gabriel, but that never goes anywhere, and we never even learn just why she's working with him in the first place other than some vague desire to make the world more technologically advanced in spite of also being a traditionalist who loves honoring old beliefs. Just remember, Chloe got eight focus episodes as a villain this season, yet Tomoe only got one.

Now for Lila, the most competent of the villains... by comparison. The show clearly wants her to be seen as a master manipulator in the same vein as David Xanatos from Gargoyles, but how they show it is just poorly executed. Sure, sometimes she would get ahead in clever ways during episodes like “Illusion” and “Revelation”, but other than that, a good chunk of her plans rely on contrivances that we're supposed to see as part of her plan when she would have no idea if it would actually happen or not. In fact, let's go over all the things Lila did during her last five episodes of the season and see how her master plan played out.

Step 1: Revelation – Convince Ms. Bustier to hold another election for class representative, lie your ass off to get the position while making it seem like you rejected an Akuma, and win the election.

Step 2: Confrontation – Tamper with confidential school documents while hoping your enemy doesn't plan anything to stop you, and if your plan falls through, abandon your identity entirely and hope nobody ever tries to look for you.

Step 3: Collusion – Convince your pawn to record a conversation between the mayor and the man you somehow know is Monarch and then after the conversation leads to an Akuma forcing him out of office, tell your pawn to accept an offer from Monarch's civilian identity that you somehow knew he'd make, leading to your pawn becoming the new mayor by force who everyone is too stupid to even think of opposing.

Step 4: Revolution – Tell your pawn to take an offer from the same supervillain she's willingly worked with before, watch her go mad with power and assume that Ladybug and Cat Noir will defeat her, and then in the chaos from her defeat, assume that one of Monarch's associates will randomly leave her computer behind for you to use.

Step 5: Re-Creation – Develop an immunity to magical nightmare dust, hack into the heavily-guarded mansion you know where Monarch lives while the city is being swarmed with supersoldiers, hope you don't run into Monarch or any heroes trying to stop him on the way there, take the hole created by a Cataclysm you know would be there, assume that Monarch will lose, and seize his Miraculous from the ruins of his lair that you somehow know how to navigate after surviving all of reality being rebooted.

General Patton, eat your heart out. I think we all know who the real tactical genius is here.

Seriously, how the hell did she even know half of the stuff involving Gabriel and Tomoe would happen? Yeah, she had Tomoe's laptop after the events of “Revolution”, but she didn't see how their final fight would play out. You could also argue that we technically never saw her go into Monarch's lair during the final battle (all we got was a shot of her looking down into the hole Bug Noire created with her Cataclysm), but why didn't she go down if she disguised herself to infiltrate Monarch's lair? Was she just scoping out the area? Was her entire plan just to steal Monarch's Miraculous? There were so many ways this could have blown up in her face, so let's go over all of them, shall we?

What if Ms. Bustier didn't agree to hold a reelection for class representative?

What if Marinette won the reelection anyway?

What if Lila wasn't able to escape during the chaos caused by Monarch's Megakuma targeting Mr. Damocles?

What if the school managed to contact one of Lila's moms and tell her about what her “daughter” did?

What if Chloe wasn't able to record the full conversation between Gabriel and Andre?

What if Andre agreed to use the police robots without any manipulation?

What if Miss Sans-Culotte wasn't able to get Andre to resign?

What if Andre did resign, but managed to appoint a interim mayor until the next election?

What if Chloe didn't accept Gabriel's offer?

What if Chloe didn't accept Monarch's offer?

What if Chloe managed to arrest Monarch with her robots and got all of the Miraculous herself?

What if the French military was sent to stop Chloe's abuse of power?

What if Ladybug and Cat Noir weren't able to stop Chloe and lost their Miraculous to Monarch?

What if Chloe double-crossed both Lila and Monarch and managed to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous herself?

What if Tomoe didn't carelessly leave her laptop behind during the final battle with Chloe and her robots?

What if Tomoe realized she lost her laptop and sent someone to track it down?

What if Tomoe installed a kill switch on her laptop to make sure nobody would be able to do anything with it in the event it got stolen

What if Ladybug didn't learn Monarch's identity?

What if Lila fell victim to Nightormentor's nightmare dust?

What if Lila was attacked by some of the Miraculized before she could make it to the Agreste Mansion?

What if Gabriel caught Lila while she was attempting to sneak in?

What if Ladybug caught Lila while she was attempting to sneak in?

What if Nathalie caught Lila while she was attempting to sneak in?

What if the Gorilla caught Lila while she was attempting to sneak in?

What if some of the Miraculized caught Lila while she was attempting to sneak in?

What if Lila got caught in the crossfire during the final battle between Bug Noire and Monarch?

What if Bug Noire didn't Cataclysm the floor and beat Monarch at the entrance of the mansion?

What if Bug Noire wasn't able to defeat Monarch?

What if Ladybug managed to find the Butterfly Miraculous before she did?

What if Ladybug caught her while she was trying to find the Butterfly Miraculous?

Do you see why I only think Lila is the most competent villain by comparison? A good chunk of Lila's “plan” amounted to her waltzing over and reaping the benefits from every coincidence she's around to see. And she's supposed to be this criminal mastermind who thought this all out from the beginning?

Lila's planning makes about as much sense as her motivation. Why does she hate Marinette and Ladybug? They both called her out on her lies back in Season 1 and 3 respectively (Volpina, Chameleon). That's it. This is enough for Lila to want to become a supervillain and terrorize Paris. I get that the idea is to contrast with the more noble goal Gabriel had as a supervillain, but you need to give more of an explanation if you want the audience to care about Lila becoming the next Hawkmoth.

At the very least, if the writers wanted to build intrigue about Lila, have this be the season where she first appears. Build her up as this mysterious new girl who wins over Gabriel's trust, only she has an agenda of her own. By having most of her appearances be this season, it's more obvious that she has a bigger role to play, and would eventually become the next Hawkmoth. Instead, it seems like the writers put a bunch of names on a dartboard, Lila's name was the closest to the first dart they threw, and that's how they decided who Ladybug's next arch-enemy would be. And once again, Lila hasn't even touched a Miraculous in five seasons, yet we're supposed to believe that with the help of that vague glowing light she saw as soon as the first put on the Butterfly Miraculous, she'll be able to take on eighteen superheroes who have plenty of experience fighting Akumas?

Speaking of, let's get into the final main villain, Gabriel. Compared to the others, he had a pretty decent start. He felt a lot smarter than he usually did, like how he used his influence to market the Alliance rings in order to boost his Akumas' powers, or once again trick Ladybug and Cat Noir into thinking he isn't Monarch. He even managed to outsmart Scarabella and Kitty Noire by using the Alliance rings to learn their identities, and almost got their Miraculous as a result. For the most part, Gabriel was a pretty clever villain who capitalized on every screwup the heroes made, and actually came across as a threat... that is, until “Protection”.

Starting with “Protection”, Gabriel decided that even though he has only a few weeks to live at best, he needs to focus more on meddling in his son's love life instead of getting Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous in order to save his wife. It comes across like he cares more about stopping Marinette than he does stopping Ladybug in the latter half of the season. Hell, Gabriel doesn't even set up any plans for what would happen to Adrien if he died despite once again claiming to be doing everything for his family. Also, for some reason, he really wants Adrien and Kagami to stay together and become a couple for reasons that I can only assume is because of some kind of social commentary on the rich. Is Gabriel trying to start a eugenics program? Is this how Khan was born?

The abrupt detour Gabriel's motivations take is connected to one of the bigger problems with this season: How Gabriel's Cataclysm wound is handled. We're supposed to sympathize with Gabriel and how his days are numbered thanks to what happened, all while he's desperate to achieve his goal... when not only did Gabriel Cataclysm himself at the beginning of the season, he almost never brings up his wound until the writers want to add unnecessary drama to the story. At most, he'll either flinch in pain a little because of the wound (Elation, Perfection, Intuition, Protection, Emotion, Confrontation), or show his purple hand to show how serious it's gotten while saying he doesn't have much time left (Passion, Pretension, Revelation, Collusion, Conformation). At least, we're supposed to see it as serious, as the injury never really gets in the way of his plans.

Rather than a painful injury that's slowly killing him, the show treats Gabriel's injury with the seriousness of a sprained ankle. Yeah, it's painful, but nothing serious. Aside from one episode (Intuition), we don't see Gabriel struggle that much with his deteriorating health or how it gets in the way of his plans. Compare this to how Nathalie's condition has been portrayed. As Season 3 progressed, Nathalie got weaker to the point of forcing Gabriel to abort his second outing as Scarletmoth (Ladybug), she became so sick, she had to be benched as Mayura by the end of Season 3, and needed cybernetic crutches just to help her walk during Seasons 4 and 5. While I criticized her sudden wrinkled appearance by the events of “Representation”, the show still made it clear that Nathalie was struggling to go about her everyday life over the course of the last three seasons. As for Gabriel, whose condition is supposedly more serious to the point where not even the Ladybug Miraculous can heal it? At most, it's less something influencing his belief that he has nothing left to lose, and more a mild injury at best.

Another problem I have with Gabriel is the same one I have with Tomoe and Lila: The lack of a proper backstory. Yes, we know the basics of it (his wife is comatose and/or dead, so he became a supervillain to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous and save her), but we know nothing about his life before that. Thanks to “Revelation”, the most we get is that before he became a fashion designer who took an interest in discovering the Miraculous, he used to work in fast food like Skeet from Jimmy Neutron. Hell, the two even have similar haircuts.

Whether Gabriel knows the difference between salt and sodium chloride is still up for debate.

The show wants to say that Gabriel used to be different, but we don't get to see that side to him. If you want to say Gabriel used to be nicer, then give us a flashback to show how much Emilie's death affected him. That way, it would also give the scene in the finale where he breaks down have more weight to it, as it would show him letting down his emotional defenses.

Also, why was Gabriel so interested in the Miraculous in the first place if he found the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous before Emilie got sick? The show establishes that Gabriel went exploring with Emilie and Nathalie, but why? What were they looking for? How did this lead to them getting into fashion? How did Gabriel and Emilie get so rich if Amelie inherited the Graham de Vanily fortune? This was the season that was supposed to wrap up the storyline regarding the Agreste family drama, yet we still know so little about them or how Gabriel and Emilie even met.

Finally, let's get to the Akumas. The season makes a huge deal about how dangerous Gabriel is now that he has almost every other Miraculous at his disposal, how hard the battle against him will become. How do the Akumas reflect that idea? Very poorly. Twelve of the season's Akumas were reused models (Ikari Gozen in “Multiplication”, Darker Owl in “Jubilation”, the Collector in “Illusion”, Glaciator in “Elation”, Sole Destroyer in “Deflagration”, Dark Humor in “Derision”, Riposte Prime in “Protection”, Vanisher in “Adoration”, Matagi Gozen in “Pretension”, Hoaxer in “Revelation”, Reflekta in “Confrontation”, and Nightormentor in “Representation”), and only ten of them were original (Manipula in “Determination”, Safari in Passion, Kikou in “Transmission”, Ryukomori in “Perfection”, Gold Record in “Migration”, Bugfighter in “Intuition”, Miss Sans-Culotte in “Collusion”, Queen Mayor in “Revolution”, King of Plastic in “Action”, and the Miraculized in “The Final Day”). I've also gone over this several times, but despite the main gimmick being that the Akumas have Miraculous powers now, the show never really explains why Monarch can't just give them those kind of powers himself, especially when he could easily recreate Miraculous powers as far back as Season 1 (Copycat, Antibug, Volpina).

Most of the Miraculous powers didn't actually feel like upgrades and just excuses to recycle Akumas on the basis of acting like they have new powers when it's almost always just giving them the same old powers. Either that, or with the new Akumas, they'll just make it so their only powers are related to their Miraculous powers, like Safari getting all of her gear thanks to the Goat Miraculous' Genesis, Kikou and Ryukomori's only abilities being related to their respective Miraculous powers, or Queen Mayor getting the power to control robots with multiple Miraculous powers. There were exceptions like Manipula getting the Ox Miraculous' Resistance as an added precaution, or Vanisher mixing her stealth with the Dog Miraculous' Fetch, but they were few and far between.

Overall, almost every villain this season was just so underwhelming. While the Akumas were once again mostly reused character models, we learned almost nothing about the villains other than the fact that they're idiots. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot the fact that by the show's logic, almost all of the villains aren't really villains. Let's talk about how the show handles redemption arcs now.

The Redemption Misconception or: The Power of Love Always So Strong?

While younger readers might not understand this, there was once a time on the internet where one of the most debated shows was Steven Universe, and mainly for one reason: How it handled the topic of redemption. Pretty much every major antagonist had changed their ways by the end of the show, including Lapis Lazuli, Peridot, the Cluster, Bismuth, Spinel, Jasper, and even the Diamonds. While the quality of each of these redemption arcs varies from character to character, as is the moral status of each character, there's one thing I can say about how the show got the moral about redemption across: It was consistent. Aside from one or two characters like Eyeball or Aquamarine (who were more ignorant than anything else), there was never a case about someone being physically incapable of changing their ways, which tied into the overall theme of how important compassion is. With the way Miraculous Ladybug handles its redemption arcs, I unfortunately can't say it does it the same way Steven Universe does.

Pretty much every major villain, antagonist, or associate in the show gets a redemption of some kind. This includes Nathalie, Felix, Sabrina, Andre, and even Gabriel, while Chloe, Lila, and Tomoe are all viewed as beyond saving. The problem is rather than actually acknowledge the things any of them did as wrong before they start to change their ways, pretty much every “redemption” in this show amounts to downplaying their crimes. If the writers don't retcon the story so characters like Nathalie, Sabrina, and Andre were forced to help a greater threat instead of being willing accomplices, they'll retcon the story so characters like Felix and Gabriel were perfectly justified in their actions due to having a tragic backstory. Yes, while the point of a redemption arc is to have a former antagonist realize the error of their ways and turn a new leaf, it doesn't mean that the character who goes through this arc was never bad in the first place.

Like a lot of problems with this show, this is obviously contradicted by the way it handles Chloe. Any argument made on why every villain who was redeemed this season was stated to not apply to Chloe for some reason.

“Felix is a victim of child abuse and has a lot of emotional baggage!” Funny, because I remember in “Derision”, Mylene made a point about Chloe having a deadbeat parent not being enough to justify her actions, so by that logic, Felix shouldn't be getting away with anything.

“Sabrina and Andre were being forced to go along with Chloe's evil plans, so it's not their fault!” Chloe was also a pawn in Gabriel and Lila's schemes, yet we're still supposed to see her as evil. “But she still went along with Lila's plan!” By that logic, so did Sabrina and Andre, since they still listened to Chloe for a while instead of distancing themselves from her far earlier than they did.

“Gabriel and Nathalie are doing everything they can to help Adrien while they're both in poor health! Chloe didn't actually care about Adrien!” Sure, it's clear that (according to the retcons in Season 4), Chloe only cared about Adrien as a meal ticket, you can't say Gabriel and Nathalie care about Adrien either, since one is an abusive parent and the other did nothing to actually stop the abuse. Also, why should I feel bad for either of them when they routinely endanger lives and are only on death's door because of their own terrible choices?

I'm not saying that the show doesn't make decent points about why Chloe can't be redeemed. The issue is that these rules are never applied to anyone else who does get redeemed. The show tries to use characters like Chloe and Lila as a cautionary tale about how easy it is for your kindness to be taken advantage of, yet we never get any examples of compassion being a key factor in any major redemption this season.

Pretty much every villain who changes their ways only does so out of self-interest. Nathalie was fed up with Gabriel's constant failures and her own declining health, Felix only cared about doing things that would benefit himself like hooking up with Kagami, Andre was more than happy to resign even though he was forced to do so by an Akuma, Sabrina chose to stop helping Chloe after one particular plan goes too far (without actually apologizing for all the times she still went along with Chloe's schemes, no less), and Gabriel only stopped trying to hurt people once he got exactly what he wanted and died a martyr.

For a show with the lyrics “The power of love always so strong!”, why do we never actually see the power of love in action? And it's not just them. Whenever a character shows some form of compassion for an enemy, it's usually met with a dismissive attitude or fails miserably, and if it's not that, it's all lie to trick someone else.

In “Illusion”, Gabriel's plan to throw off suspicion that he's Monarch involves pretending to let Ladybug and Cat Noir get through to him.

In “Derision”, Rose pointed out Chloe's relationship with her mother as an excuse for why she's so mean, only for Mylene to argue against that despite being in a different boat than Chloe is.

In “Revelation”, Lila kept lying about having a caring attitude and believing that anyone can change, which was obviously meant to mock anyone who had that kind of viewpoint.

In “Collusion”, Ms. Bustier tries to reach out to Chloe after everything she's done, only to lose her job as a result.

In “Re-Creation”, the whole reason Bug Noire manages to beat Monarch was by putting him in a situation that would take advantage of his compassion for his wife, and later on, Gabriel manages to get the upper hand by taking advantage of Marinette's own compassion for him.

For a magical girl show, these writers are really terrible at teaching the lesson about showing kindness to your enemies, because more often than not, it's just violence that solves everything. Just ask the citizens of Paris in “Revolution”.

It doesn't help that the morality in this show isn't a complicated spectrum that weighs every action a character does and allows for other stances besides good or evil. Instead, it's like a light switch with two settings: “So good, you volunteer at the local children's hospital” and “So bad, you voluntarily send children to the hospital”. Characters in this show are either good or bad, and there's no room for in-between. Even when characters supposedly do change their ways, the show goes out of its way to claim that this is what they've always been like, which completely undermines the idea of what a redemption arc sets out to accomplish.

The thing is that I've actually seen examples of “Character X was only doing bad things as part of their plan!” and “Character X was only forced to do bad things for the villain!” done with one character, and it was a very recent example too. In the recently concluded Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, one of the major villains was a tyrant named Racules, who took advantage of several monster attacks to secure more power for his kingdom, but later on, it's revealed he had a reason to do so. Long story short, Racules was the latest in a long line of rulers who was essentially blackmailed into carrying out a war by an immortal being from space named Dagded. However, Racules had a plan to secretly find a way to kill Dadged, and it involved playing along by pretending to be a heartless tyrant. By playing up his persona of a villain, not only did Racules drive his brother Gira (who was revealed to be an immortal creation of Dadged) to gain the weapons necessary to fight Dadged, Dagded trusted Racules so much, he decided to give him the power to kill an immortal. Guess who Racules chooses to kill as soon as he gets that ability.

While the reveal that Racules was good all along happened very late into the series, it worked far better than any redemption in this entire show for one reason: Racules isn't let off the hook for what he did. Everyone, Racules included, acknowledges that he did terrible things for years, and as soon as the situation is resolved, Racules is imprisoned for his crimes. Racules even admits to going mad with power at one point before he focused on his goal again, and he doesn't complain while he's in prison.

We never get any moments like this with the other redeemed characters. Nobody ever acknowledges that they went too far. They do one or two good things, and therefore, they're perfectly okay in Marinette's eyes.

Like a lot of topics it covers, this show wants to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to redemption. It wants to show characters changing their ways, but it doesn't want to actually hold those characters accountable for their actions. It wants to explain that not everyone can be redeemed, but it doesn't want to explain what causes people to want to redeem themselves. It wants to have an idealistic view of solving problems with compassion, yet it goes out of its way to mock those with that same ideology while claiming that violence is the only answer.

Maybe if Astruc spent less time arguing with people on Twitter over the concept of redemption, he and his team could have put more effort into fleshing out the all of the half-baked redemption arcs this season.

Adrienette Is Finally Canon! The Love Square? What’s That?

Well, it finally happened. After seven years, five months, fourteen days, 115 episodes and three specials since the show originally premiered in France on October 19th, 2015, Marinette and Adrien have finally gotten together for real. No cop-outs, no reset button, no misunderstandings, this is real. Credit where credit is due, the writers could have easily kept stalling and wait until the very end of the season for Marinette and Adrien to get together and called it a day, but they gave us over half a season of them in an actual relationship. Unfortunately, this also meant the writers had to rush the development of the relationship in order for Adrienette to become official in the first place.

Like a lot of stuff in the first half of this season, the writers pretty much speedran through the plotlines building up to Marinette and Adrien getting together. During the course of a mere eight episodes, we got a plotline about Marinette feeling guilty for letting her feelings for Adrien make her screw up, a plotline where Adrien realizes he has feelings for Marinette, a plotline where Marinette falls in love with Cat Noir, a plotline where Adrien stops having feelings for Ladybug, and finally, a plotline where Marinette stops having feelings for Cat Noir. These are all plotlines that we should have gotten over the course of the past four seasons, but instead, the writers are just cramming them all into less than a dozen episodes.

Considering how this was meant to be the final season originally, you can tell the writers realized they actually had to actually resolve the “Will they or won't they?” plotline instead of just padding things out like they normally do. But that's the problem. This was something fans, shippers, and general audiences were told to look forward to for years. Keep in mind, one of the biggest arguments you could make for just why the writers waited until Season 5 for Marinette and Adrien to officially get together was because they had something HUGE planned. This is a big deal for the show, something you can't take too lightly. If Astruc and the other writers were so intent on hyping up Adrienette for over four seasons to the point of showing two alternate timelines where they get together to tide viewers over, they needed to make sure they had a payoff so incredible, so satisfying, that their audiences would see it as more than worth the wait.

Just how was the big moment where Marinette and Adrien officially got together this season after so many years of buildup?

To be perfectly honest with you, I had absolutely no goddamn idea that the end of “Transmission” was meant to signify them finally starting a relationship. It just felt like the writers were doing the same thing about them being friends with a hint of something more on the horizon, but then the opening of “Deflagration” made it clear that here was major progress made in their relationship, though Marinette denied it due to her own anxiety, and by “Perfection”, it's confirmed that the two are dating. I just... really? This is how the two finally get together? It just... happens? No big dramatic confession? No romantic first date building up to this? Not even a kiss? The two talk for a few minutes, watch an Akuma fight, and now they're an item. Are you kidding me? Sure, most of the big moments in their relationship are saved for after they get together, but there's the problem: the writers half-ass the moment where Marinette and Adrien get together! It's more or less an afterthought in a two-parter involving a battle with Monarch where nothing was really accomplished.

You'd think for all the uncertainty Marinette felt over her feelings for Adrien this season, them getting together would be seen as a big moment, but it just doesn't for some reason. While you could argue it's a lesson in your fear of confessing being harder than the act itself, not much attention is given to Marinette growing closer with Adrien, because, for some reason, the writers decided to hold off the love confession and the first kiss for far later in the season (Pretension, Revolution). That's right, even after Marinette and Adrien finally get together, the show still needs to find a way to draw out the development of Adrienette.

I don't get it. Why couldn't the confession and kiss be what cements Adrienette, so more focus could be given to other plots? You can't say the “Will they or won't they?” stuff is the only draw to Adrienette, because there are plenty of plots you could write now that Marinette and Adrien are together. You could have an episode where Marinette invites Adrien over to breakfast with her parents in a follow-up to “Weredad”. You could have an episode where Marinette and Adrien try to go out on a perfect first date, only to struggle to balance their superhero lives getting in the way. You could have an episode where both Marinette and Adrien worry they're not good enough for each other, only for them to realize they love each other for who they really are. You could have an episode where Marinette and Adrien finally get closure on their former relationships with Luka and Kagami respectively. There were plenty of options for stories here, yet rather than do literally anything like that, not only did the writers drag out Marinette and Adrien's first kiss, they had the main villain take a break from trying to get the Miraculous to focus on breaking up the two.

As I mentioned earlier, we get a new arc all about Gabriel trying to break up Marinette and Adrien so Adrien can start dating Kagami again. Now I know what you're probably thinking: “IOTA, wasn't it implied that while Adrien and Kagami were dating, they were keeping their relationship a secret from their parents? Why are their parents suddenly obsessed with them getting together?” Well, you see, the answer to that is... that I have no answer because this makes no sense and is yet another excuse for a story arc that is somehow relevant to the overall plot. It's because of Gabriel's irrational hatred of Adrienette that Adrien is sent to London, and as a result, is absent from the final battle.

The sad thing is that I honestly thought Marinette and Adrien had some cute moments as a couple this season and had some believable chemistry. It's nothing groundbreaking, and there are plenty of flaws that I'll get to later, but for all intents and purposes, they still made a decent couple. It's just too bad that everyone else won't shut up about how amazing they are together. When their friends aren't trying to set up these cinematic scenarios for Marinette and Adrien that keep failing (Perfection, Protection,), they're gushing over how amazing of a couple the two are (Transmission, Deflagration, Revelation). At best, it comes across as the writers saying “How do you do, fellow shippers?”, and at worst, it comes across as the writers taking a victory lap while treating Adrienette as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Adrienette just dominated the latter half of this season, and it really got in the way of the overall story regarding the conflict with Monarch. What's that? You're saying I forgot something, like the other three sides of the Love Square. Ah, good eye, my friend.

SO DID THE FUCKING SHOW.

For the thing that got a lot of people interested in the show in the first place, the rest of the Love Square is criminally underutilized this season. Marinette randomly develops feelings for Cat Noir for a handful of episodes, Cat Noir randomly moves on from Ladybug, and I don't think we even got a single Ladrien scene this season. It really felt like the writers realized this was meant to be the last season, so not only did they have to get Marinette and Adrien together as quickly as they could, they also had to acknowledge the other sides of the Love Square. Of course, they did that without actually doing an identity reveal.

There are theories that the reveal was going to happen this season with how much Marinette and Adrien only talked about each other and not their superhero partners (implying they both knew who the other was), but the writers changed it at the last minute because they got renewed for more seasons. I suppose it makes in a meta sense, but what about the in-universe explanation? What's stopping Ladybug and Cat Noir from learning each other's identities when literally every other hero in Paris can get their Miraculous back, even the ones who had their identities discovered? Were the writers so uncertain if people would still watch the show if there wasn't any mystery in Marinette and Adrien's relationship? What exactly is there left to explore with the Love Square when Adrienette is canon, while Ladynoir, Marichat, and Ladrien are all dead in the water?

Like a lot of things this season, the handling of the Love Square started off strong and gradually petered out to the point where I just don't care anymore. I started this season assuming the reveal would actually happen, but of course, the writers just won't let this subplot die already.

Adrien Who?

While I don't really have a lot of bad things to say about Adrien compared to last season, this is unfortunately part of the bigger problem with how he was handled this season.

Like I said earlier, it seemed like the writers actually learned from their mistakes last seasons with how Adrien was written during the earlier episodes last season. He stopped whining about how he was totally important and started pulling his weight in battle. He was very active in fighting Akumas and actually felt like an equal to Ladybug. Yeah, Ladybug still called the shots, but the two stopped bickering over stupid things and had more conversations about other things. It didn't matter if they were more casual chats about their lives (Perfection) or discussions on the enemy's plans (Intuition, Revolution).

The problem, like a lot of things this season now that I think about it, comes in the second half. Remember how last season made a big deal about how wrong it was to leave Adrien out of the loop with so many secrets? Once again, the writers seemed to have forgotten this major story arc that they wrote themselves. Now, not only does Gabriel crack down on his horrific treatment of Adrien through his ring, not only does Adrien's character regress to being nothing more than Marinette's trophy boyfriend, by the end of the season, Adrien is literally reduced to a damsel in distress who needs to be saved, instead of, you know, A SUPERHERO. And remember, the writers were very proud of how this was planned for almost a decade, all because they got to supposedly subvert fairy tale tropes.

I feel like this whole “Save Adrien” plotline could have worked if Adrien wasn't already a superhero, and was just a civilian Marinette knew. Yeah, it would still be using an overdone trope, but at least if that happened, Adrien would have an excuse to not be able to fight back as opposed to the several he made during the finale. Instead, for the majority of the season's second half, Adrien takes a backseat to a major story arc revolving around his family and isn't even given proper closure by the end.

“But IOTA!” You might say. “The show's called Miraculous Ladybug, not Miraculous Cat Noir! Of course Ladybug has to save the day! She's the main character!” That may be true, voice in my head, but here's the thing: If Adrien wasn't going to be part of the final battle, why wasn't this about Marinette's family? Why not make Monarch Tom or Sabine trying to bring back their spouse? Marinette is the main character, yes, but so much of the backstory in this show is connected to Adrien's family. The show tries to connect Marinette to this through her relationship with Adrien, but with how often she and Gabriel fight over what's best for him, Adrien kind of just sits around, not protesting against his father in the slightest. I'm not saying Adrien should be the main character. I'm saying that Marinette should be tied more into the story if you were going to base a lot of the drama on her perspective during the final battle. It's almost like making it so Adrien physically can't rebel against his father was a stupid way to keep him out of the conflict.

Why the hell couldn't we have gotten a scene where Adrien's connection to Gabriel was broken? There were plenty of options the writers could have used. You could have had Nathalie steal the other ring back from Gabriel to give to Adrien, have Argos use the Peacock Miraculous' powers to override Gabriel's commands, or have Adrien unlock a new form of Cataclysm that severs the bond with his Amok. And that's not even getting into the excuses the show made for why he can't get involved, because God forbid one of the two main characters in the show's title get to take part in the final battle.

In fact, I'm pretty sure this is why Felix was introduced, to do the things Adrien should be doing. Felix is the one who has a vendetta against Gabriel, a deeper connection with Kagami, knowledge that he's a Sentimonster, and an overall influence in the plot. The writers are so obsessed with coddling Adrien that they created an entirely different character to fill in a role for him, and Felix wasn't even in the final battle. And just remember, Adrien was originally created to replace Felix in the story, so Felix taking over Adrien's role as the character who helps advance the plot makes even less sense.

Even if the final battle is meant to be over Adrien, it comes across less like Marinette and Gabriel are fighting over his freedom and more who gets to control him. Gabriel doesn't use his wish to free Adrien from the shackles of the rings. He just gives Marinette the rings and hopes she won't do the same kind of things he did with the rings. Nothing changed over Adrien's treatment except who gets the keys.

It'd be one thing if Adrien at least chose Marinette over his father, but Adrien isn't even allowed to know the full story on anything, not even the Sentimonster stuff. Okay, putting aside the fact that Adrien has lots of friends and family to help him cope with this, maybe I can buy not telling him about Gabriel. Not telling him he's a Sentimonster is something I can't excuse. This is like not wanting to tell someone they have diabetes and hoping they know how to use their own insulin while they're downing Pepsi after Pepsi. It's not just a matter of hurting Adrien's feelings. His fucking life depends on those rings. He should obviously know to keep them safe and not trade them for magic beans or something stupid like that.

But the biggest problem with Adrien this season is how it goes against everything the show has said about him and his relationship with Marinette/Ladybug the last four seasons, and especially Season 4.

For the past four seasons, the show has loved to say that no matter what happens, Ladybug and Cat Noir will always be here for the other, even against the world. Put aside how unlikable Adrien was last season, that was the ultimate lesson, about the two reaffirming their bond. And yet, here we are in the Season 5 finale, when literally the entire world is against Ladybug and Cat Noir, and Cat Noir is nowhere to be seen.

One of the main reasons why Adrien jumped at the chance to be a superhero was the freedom it gave him from his restrictive lifestyle, and how it led to him making more friends at school. And that very same story ends with Adrien admitting it's a good thing for him to stay inside and never acknowledge the fact that his father was kind of a dick. Remember, this was planned in advance for YEARS, and absolutely nobody thought it contradicted one of the most important aspects of Adrien's character: his desire for freedom. Now the same person who would demand to not be kept in the dark about so many things (Lady Wifi, Syren, Lies, Sentibubbler, Rocketear, Risk) is now sitting around like a coward while everyone else saves the world instead.

I still think Adrien was at his worst in Season 4, with how much of an whiny and insufferable idiot he could be, but Adrien in Season 5 is a close second. Yes, I wanted him to stop acting out and demanding that the world cater to his every whim, but I also wanted him to prove he was as valuable as he says. The first half of this season seemed to understand this kind of criticism and reminded the audience that Cat Noir was still useful, but when the actual story kicked in, the writers were so determined to keep the secret identity bullshit going, Adrien somehow got less focus as a hero than the Resistance, a group of temp heroes who actually lost their Miraculous. And consider the fact that this season wrapped up the drama with the Agreste family, so for all we know, Adrien will get even less screentime next season.

If Adrien is supposed to be an invaluable ally to Ladybug, then why doesn't the writing accurately reflect it?

The Problem With the Biggest Idiot of Season 5: Moronette, “Of Course I Know What I’m Doing!” Royal-Pain, AKA, Ladydumb

You know, it's funny. I kept defending Marinette when the writing kept making her out to be a terrible hero last season while Adrien got by without a single criticism, to the point where I considered Adrien to be the worst part of the entire season. Oh, how the tables have turned with dear old Marinette, as the season that chose not to criticize every single action she took is when she's arguably at her worst.

You have to wonder if the writers finally realized how much crap they put Marinette through over the last few seasons by having her always forcing her to learn some contrived lesson and were like, “Oh yeah, she's supposed to be someone the audience is supposed to root for.” Unfortunately, they went way too far in the other direction with how they handled Marinette.

The way Marinette was written this season felt eerily similar to what happened with Adrien last season. Suddenly, her personal drama is of the utmost importance (Determination, Passion, Reunion, Elation, The Kwamis' Choice, Perfection, Migration, Derision, Adoration, Pretension, Representation), she's making incredibly stupid decisions in battle (Evolution, Destruction, Determination, Pretension), she becomes the moral compass of the show who lectures others on what to do (Revelation, Confrontation, Collusion, Revolution), and she's never really called out for her actions by the other characters despite how often she makes things worse.

So much of the first half of this season is the exact same crap over and over again. Marinette complains about how hard things are for her and her conflicting feelings for Adrien. I wouldn't really mind something like this if it wasn't for two things.

First, there's no real arc involved with this. Marinette keeps complaining about her love life, and she never really learns anything from it. She doesn't even get to confess to Adrien and show her growing as a character. Adrien confesses to her, and bam, the two are a couple now. Glad to see all the discussions about Marinette's anxiety was completely pointless since she doesn't get to be the one to really confront her inner demons. Well, there was one time in “Derision”, and we all know how well that turned out, right?

Second, more often than not, it seems like Marinette is prioritizing her personal life over the situation with Monarch. You know, the guy who has access to fourteen different Miraculous? After you only managed to get one back? I'd understand if we got this kind of arc in the earlier seasons, but by doing this, you're undermining the current threat Monarch poses. She's even willing to give up being a superhero if it means being with Adrien. That is how important her love life is to her. She's willing to let Tikki force the responsibility onto someone else if it means she can be happy. Of course, this isn't too surprising, as Astruc once said that the show is supposed to focus primarily on romance, not superhero action.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

Just like with Adrien last season, the show seems to care more about Marinette's personal issues at the expense of other characters. Do you want to know how many episodes this season focused on Marinette's love life in some way? EIGHTEEN (Multiplication, Jubilation, Determination, Passion, Reunion, Elation, Transmission, Deflagration, Perfection, Derision, Protection, Adoration, Emotion, Pretension, Revolution, Representation, Conformation, Re-Creation). Literally two-thirds of the season includes Love Square drama. Even if you want to be generous and count both two-parters as single episodes, that's still more than half the season. This is yet another problem with waiting until what was originally supposed to be the last season to resolve your plot. You need to force all of this development through almost every episode until people get tired of it.

Because of this, Marinette basically took over the narrative of Season 5. Almost every major conflict revolved around her, even the stuff with Adrien. Rather than make a story about Marinette and Adrien working together to break free from Gabriel's influence, Marinette is the one who has to do the heavy lifting and save Adrien herself. I've already talked about this with Adrien, but it bears repeating, as this is same issue I had with Season 4. Just like how Adrien got more focus during a story arc that should have been about Marinette last season, Marinette is now getting more focus during a story arc that should have been about Adrien, to the point where Marinette gets to use Adrien's Miraculous during the final battle with Monarch.

I'd at least be somewhat forgiving towards the shift in focus if Marinette actually got to do anything to advance the plot herself. Because of how often the show focuses on Marinette's love life, very little time is dedicated to showing Ladybug making an effort to actually stop Monarch. The closest we got was in “Illusion”, and that was a plan spearheaded by Nino. Like I said earlier, Felix does more to advance the plot out of any character, even Marinette, THE ONE THE SHOW IS NAMED AFTER!

We have three separate episodes where Ladybug has Monarch at her mercy, but she decides to talk about how she's totally won and that Monarch can't get away at all, and then Monarch gets away in a matter of seconds. I just... this is “SHOOT THEM WITH THE DEHYDRATION GUN!” levels of stupid here! The only reason Monarch gets as far as he does is because Ladybug can't just grab any the Miraculous he has all over his body.

We're seriously supposed to see Marinette as an amazing hero when she keeps screwing up every opportunity she gets to stop Monarch. In the span of one season, Marinette went along with being forced to retire because she got a chance to date Adrien (The Kwamis' Choice), chose not to form a temporary alliance with an Akuma even if it meant possibly getting the Peacock Miraculous back and stopping a potential threat (Pretension), had absolutely no plan to stop Lila until someone else came forward with information on what she was doing (Confrontation), decided to let another Akuma force the mayor out of office (Collusion), and failed to stop Gabriel because she got tricked again and was completely helpless as the entire universe was recreated before she took credit for defeating Monarch afterwards in the new reality and then decided to honor the insane supervillain's wishes and keep her boyfriend completely in the dark about the truth even though she learned not to keep secrets from others (The Final Day) and MY GOD, I HATE THIS SEASON SO MUCH.

When Marinette isn't making terrible decisions, she's lecturing others on how to act around their enemies, and when I say “how to act”, I mean “refuse to give them even the slightest bit of respect after doing the bare minimum to help them try and change”. Marinette really lets her own personal biases toward Chloe and Lila get to her this season with how the latter half of the season had her tell others not to even consider trusting them because of how easy it is for them to take advantage of kindness. You know, something you'd hear someone like Superman or Spider-Man teach kids about.

In fact, here's a little game any aspiring writer can play when writing superhero characters: If you can't imagine someone as noble as Superman saying something like this...

Marinette: But sometimes, the good we think we see in some people is just a reflection of our own, and we end up being fooled by our own kindness.

Unless your intent is for them to be flawed or in the wrong instead of a complete paragon of virtue, you need to go through your drafts.

And just like Adrien, even though Marinette keeps screwing up, she's never held accountable for her actions. She's never allowed to be wrong, and is almost always the one who gets to lecture people, mainly towards the end of the season. A good example of how poorly written Marinette is this season is when she whines about Ms Bustier not punishing Chloe enough when not only does she fail to understand that Chloe is still being punished, but she did absolutely nothing to bring Chloe's cheating to her teacher's attention when as class representative, it's her job. I don't care how stupid that idea sounds, that's what the show goes with, and it makes Marinette's inaction come across as very irresponsible.

But then again, neglecting her duties at school is nothing compared to acting like Marinette didn't fail to save all of reality while not showing the least bit of remorse for it. I'm just saying, when even Ben 10: Omniverse of all shows does this kind of story better, you know you've screwed up. Again, we're supposed to see it like Marinette won because the universe is in one piece, when, once again, SHE FAILED! Like I said, she failed at pretty much everything she set out to do this season and didn't stop Monarch outside of warding off his Akumas. This is seriously how the show was supposed to end, with Marinette failing to save the universe and the audience just needing to accept it. Well, in case it wasn't obvious on my front, I don't. Hell, forget Ben 10: Omniverse. Even Star vs. the Forces of Evil had the main character save the day, even if it meant potentially screwing over countless lives by destroying all magic in the world. Marinette? “Well, everyone I know and love is technically dead and the madman I spent five seasons trying to stop gets to die a martyr, but everything looks like I saved the day, so that technically means I didsave the day! Man, I'm a great hero. Good thing the other characters basically exist to remind the audience of how amazing I am.”

If there's one thing to take away from everything that's happened, it's that this was the season where Marinette has arguably become one of the biggest examples of a show failing to make the audience like their main character. There was much time dedicated to rationalizing and trying to justify the worst possible decisions she could've made and acting like she's still an amazing hero. Stuff like this only serves to further validate the criticisms people have had for her as a character ever since Season 5. And remember, this is coming from someone who went out of their way to defend Marinette last season. In an attempt to show her at her most heroic and virtuous, Season 5 pretty much cemented Marinette as a terrible main character, a terrible superhero, and a terrible role model for children.

Eight Years for This?

I'm going to be perfectly honest with you guys. This season just broke me, and there was a good reason why this analysis took so long to write.

While there were a number of outside factors that made it hard for me to get the time to write (work, the holidays, family gatherings, etc), there were still times where I either didn't have a lot of material to work with, or I just couldn't find the motivation to work on the reviews. I guess throughout all these years, I figured that after all this buildup between the Love Square and Adrien's relationship with his father, there would at least be something I could find this season that would allow me to say this was worth the wait. Unfortunately, it was just disappointment after disappointment this season, with a universally hated finale to boot.

To me, this was the season that burned away the remaining goodwill I had for the show, because there's just no salvaging it at this point. The writers pretty much butchered every single character in some way, excused the main villain's actions for a sorry excuse for a heroic sacrifice, and literally reset the universe so all of the characters we've come to know for almost a decade technically don't exist anymore. Even the cliffhanger for Season 6 really excites me, because why should I care about a character we still know nothing about becoming the main villain? Why should I care at all when the writers have made it clear they don't care either? They don't care about writing character development, they don't care about writing consistent lore for their world, they don't care about approaching serious subjects with the delicacy they deserve and they certainly don't care about telling a consistent story.

Season 5 of Miraculous Ladybug was a failure in every conceivable definition of the word. It failed to deliver a satisfying conclusion to any of the stories that had been set up for years, and if this was how the main story ended, I don't really have a lot to look forward to when Season 6 premieres.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #thomas astruc #thomas astruc salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #adrien agreste #cat noir #chat noir #felix graham de vanily #argos #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #kagami tsurugi #gabriel agreste #hawkmoth #hawk moth #monarch #chloe bourgeois #nathalie sancoeur #tomoe tsurugi #lila rossi #Youtube

[masn-mount]

'the oldest book in the world'

note: bestfriend!jude!

this is my very first time writing a Jude fic! I really enjoyed writing this so I hope you guys enjoy reading and please let me know what you think. xx

warnings: not any really, just swearing,

words: 5,2k (got carried away like always)

"You're going to fall over," your voice is soft, a total contrast to the look you shoot Jude's way when you see him lean forward at the edge of the boat you've rented for the afternoon.

"I'm the king of the world!" You roll your eyes at his outburst even if you can't help the smile that pulls at the corner of your lips. He looks back at you, his unbottoned white shirt flowing behind him as he stands with his arms wide open by his sides.

"I'm being serious Jude, get down here." The trip to Greece after the season had finished was mentioned months ago and you gladly agreed to it when Jude asked you if you'd want to join. You had been looking forward to it, it was nice seeing your friends and spending some time with them but more than anything you had looked forward to a week with Jude.

The two of you have been friends since you were kids and for years you brushed off your crush on him. You were only eleven the first time you had looked at him and thought he was cute but that was it so surely your little crush on your bestfriend would go away with time.

To you Jude was the boy you would spend hours with playing football in your backyard until you both were too tired to stand. When girls at school started taking interest in boys he was the one all the girls asked you about, "you're his bestfriend, you have to know who he likes," is what they’d tell you but you didn’t know or want to know so instead you focused on summer break and how for four years the two of you would spend your days on your bikes, exploiting every possible road until you found a new ice cream van for the day.

He has always been that boy to you and when years passed and you still looked at him the same way as you did when you were eleven you thought of him as the boy who could be something so much more if things weren’t so complicated.

You were thinking back to the day Jude told you he was moving to a completely different country. Dortmund wanted him and as excited as he has been about the move he was terrified to tell you but when he shared the news and the biggest smile he had ever seen broke out on your face he knew he had nothing to worry about when it came to you.

Jude had pulled you into his lap and he just sat back and listened as you spoke about how proud of him you were and how you couldn’t wait for your first trip to Dortmund meanwhile all he could think about was how badly he had wanted to kiss you.

The next morning you woke up early.

You decided to stay back at the villa the previous night, you told your friends it was because you weren’t feeling well but in reality it was because after your little trip down memory lane you were finding it difficult to focus on anything or anyone other than Jude.

A night in to clear your head was what you needed.

It didn’t work but it was worth a try. ed.

You were laying out by the pool, endlessly scrolling through all your different social media apps while you waited for your friends to wake up.

Work and school had been stressful so you wanted to take advantage of every moment you had away from it. You knew Jude felt it too and even if he rarely ever complained about his busy schedule you had noticed a change in him since your arrival to Greece. He felt more relaxed, shoulders not as tense and bags under his eyes not visible. You knew he had a lot on his mind with the constant speculations about his future and where he would play next so you never asked him about it unless he was the one to bring it up.

You had just put your phone down next to you when your silence was disturbed by someone jumping in the pool. Your eyes flew open behind your sunglasses when your skin was met by the cold water. “Morning, angel.”

“Morning, twat.” You muttered, eyes watching Jude as he swam towards the edge of the pool with his eyes closed and smile on his face. Your eyes stayed on him as he splashed water in your direction.

“That was for not being very nice,” you just shook your head at him before laying back in your previous position, trying to ignore how you could feel his eyes lingering on your body. “Lost my sunglasses last night.”

“That's too bad," you couldn't even fake annoyance towards him as he splashed more water in your direction before he effortlessly got out of the pool. You weren't going to pretend like you weren't shamelessly checking him out but it was only fair since he had done the same. “What are you doing?" You laughed when his hand reached for your glasses.

"I told you, I lost mine."

"How is that my problem?" He just laughed before telling you that technically it was your fault because if you had been at the club with him he was sure he wouldn’t have lost them.

“Who even brings sunglasses to the club?” You asked to which he just shrugged before telling you to scoot over which you did, making room for him to lay down next to you. You changed position after a few minutes, laying down on your front as Jude reached for the sunscreen laying above your head under your shorts. You were about to ask him if he wanted you to help him put some on when the lotion hit your back. "I already put some on."

"Y'looking a little red and I know you can't reach by yourself." His hand felt soft on your skin as he slowly rubbed the sunscreen up and down your back. You had to bite your lip from making any kind of noise when he moved back down your back after rubbing some on your shoulders, neck and arms. His hands were moving dangerously low, fingertips reaching just under your bikini bottoms. “Y’want me to do your legs?” You only nod, not trusting your voice in that moment.

It should be innocent but nothing with Jude was ever innocent which you got confirmed when he rubbed up your thighs until his fingers stopped just under your ass. Your body was feeling like it was on fire and you knew he could sense your body tensing at his touch by the chuckle that left his mouth. “My head is telling me to throw you back in that pool since you can’t keep your hands to yourself.”

"Hey, m'just helping out," he held his hands up in fake surrender before leaning forward and kissing the back of your shoulder. "All done," you watched as his tongue darted out of his mouth, licking his lips before he gently tapped the back of your thigh. "Do me now?"

The dynamic between you two had been like this for years, you enjoyed the flirtatious aspect of your relationship because you didn’t overthink it. You knew Jude was that way with other people too but then there were those nights where he would keep his arm over your legs or around your shoulders when you’d sit next to him and the longer the night got the closer he’d pull you in until you were almost sharing a chair. All of it had your heart raising, especially when he would be so close that you could feel his lips against your ear just so he could tell you that you looked unreal, how the dress you were wearing fit you perfectly and how you were the prettiest girl in the room.

It has been just that, sweet words and innocent touches until it turned into nights spent together. It was convenient really, just two friends keeping each other warm during the nights but both of you knew it was much more than that.

You wanted to spend your nights together and neither of you could stand the idea of the other spending it with anyone else.

When you that night in Greece ended up in his bed yet again you wanted to curse yourself out because you’d promised yourself that last time was the last. His arm was wrapped securely around your waist, your back flush to his chest and all you could feel were his soft breaths against the back of your next. The sun wasn’t up yet which confirmed that you hadn’t been asleep for long. You closed your eyes and tried going back to sleep but Jude’s fingers aimlessly drawing different shapes across your lower stomach made it impossible.

"Go back to sleep." His rough voice so early morning almost startled you a little.

"I can’t."

"Stop overthinking and you will,” you didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling.

"What are we doing, Jude?"

"Sleeping."

"Are we being stupid?"

"No."

"I think we are."

"Always so fucking stubborn," a silence follows his words before he speaks again, "who even cares anyway?" You weren’t sure what he meant, if he was talking about your friends because you knew they didn’t care but you did so to think he was in the same boat as your friends hurt you more than you’d like to admit.

“I do,” you whisper and that was your way of telling him that whatever this was, it was fucking with your head but no response came as Jude’s scores filled the room.

You both wake up a few hours later and act like your conversation never happened and when your friends see you leave his room, in nothing but his shirt from the night before they all look away.

You stayed away from Jude that day, spending most of it by the pool with your girlfriends and when he’d be at the pool you would walk to the bar and when he’d call your name out you’d pretend like you didn’t hear.

The evening rolled around, everyone were chatting away, excited, happy and drunk and you were too focused on the conversation you were having with a girlfriend to notice Jude making his way over to you. He stopped next to you, his hand coming to rest on your hip, “you don’t ignoring me for whatever reason yet?”

You weren’t so your eyes remained locked with your friend who was finding the entire situation too amusing. “So fucking stubborn, like always,” is what Jude said before walking away.

You didn’t know what time it was when you decided to be the one to call it a night but your eyes were heavy and you were cold so all you wanted was to get back to the villa. You stepped out before everyone else, followed closely by Jude who pulled you in for a hug. “You’re shivering, I keep telling you to bring a jacket but you never listen, so you?” You feel done ignoring him for the night so you wrap your arms around his waist, squeezing him a little before looking up at him with a pout on your face.

"It's your job to bring the jacket," he laughs before apologizing for forgetting to bring one and he didn’t want to tell you that it had been because you hadn’t picked one out for him that night.

"I haven't told you yet but thank you for coming. I love having you around, y'know?"

"Of course, wouldn't miss it," he kissed your head before moving his lips down to your cheek. You expect him to move back but instead you feel him press more kisses to the apples of your cheeks.

"I hated not talking to you all day," he whispered, his kisses were light but made your heart speed up and your cheeks heat up. A final kiss was pressed to the corner of your lips before he untangled himself from you when he heard a friend of his call out for him.

You tried to control the flush growing on your neck and face but on the entire walk back to the villa you couldn’t shake the feeling of his lips on your skin because that entire moment had felt so intimate. Almost too intimate.

It was cliché, the oldest book in the world - girl falls in love with bestfriend.

Jude was someone you considered near perfect. He had the prettiest smile you had ever seen and the biggest heart you had ever known. He was driven, talented, funny and he cared about you more than most people did so of course you couldn’t be just friends with someone who made your heart beat extra hard each time you just heard them laugh.

You hadn’t just caught feelings, you had fallen completely head over heels with someone who had never shown that they feel even remotely the same.

The oldest book in the world sucked and right now you were getting past the chapter where you laid in bed crying as your friend, Lea rubbed your back, whispering that everything was going to be okay because boys were boys and sometimes they're too stupid to see what they have right infront of them.

You woke up with swollen eyes and the shower you took didn’t help you feel better.

You didn’t only make breakfast awkward for yourself but for everyone else too when you leaned away from Jude and dodged the kiss he had leaned in to give you. His friends all laughed, wondering what he could have possibly done to have his girl give him that treatment but they quickly stopped when Jude frowned at them and Lea told them to shut up and eat.

Jude stayed away for the day, not because he wanted to but he knew something was on your mind and that you didn’t want to talk to him about it. Lea had confirmed it to him later that day, letting him know that you just needed some space but that you were fine.

You weren’t fine and he knew that, your eyes didn’t have that glint to them that he adored and your smile didn’t reach your eyes.

He did well, stayed away for the day, got ready by himself in his own room and when he saw you walk out of your room he almost felt like you were trying to torture him. You were wearing a blue mini dress that was complimenting your skin perfectly. Your hair was curled to what he thought was perfection and he simply couldn’t take his eyes away from you. “You’re catching flies, mate,” was what his friend told him before he shoved him away, eyes back on you to see you standing before him. “You look really nice,” he never went a day without telling you that so the words only came natural to him.

You have him a soft smile, “thank you, so do you.” Your conversation didn’t drag longer.

You were having a good time. You were smiling, laughing and dancing like nobody was watching. You talked to the boys who approached you but couldn’t even pretend that you were interested for longer than a minute because none of them were Jude. Lea told you that you needed to kiss someone, to maybe bring someone back to the villa because the best way to get over someone was to get under someone else but you couldn’t do that. You had regretted not taking Lea’s advice because when the boys got back home, an hour after you had already left they were accompanied by four girls you had never seen before.

You pretended like it wasn’t bothering you, striking conversation with all of them and playing nice but when Jude started getting a little too close to one of them your face instantly fell. He was making her laugh and when he leaned in a little too close to whisper something in her ear you felt tears cloud your eyes so you got up and out of there before causing a scene.

You were definitely blaming the alcohol.

You couldn’t imagine how you looked, tears streaking down your face, makeup looking a mess by now along with your hair you had just tossed up in a messy bum. If it wasn’t for the fact that you were still wearing your uncomfortably tight dress you would have jumped into the pool instead of sitting at the edge of it.

"I won't save you if you jump in," you jumped slightly, "sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"I can swim,” you don't look at him when he sits down next to you.

"Why are you crying?"

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don-, don't sit here!"

"Oh? I don't see any sign claiming this is your spot," for the dramatic Jude looks around himself before his eyes settle on you, fighting the urge to reach up and wipe the tears that were still falling down your face, "nope, no sign."

"Okay, well...don't look at me with your stupid pretty eyes."

"You think I have pretty eyes?" When you don’t reply, Jude let out a sigh. "Babe, I hate seeing you upset."

"Don't make me upset then,” you hiccup, hands going to wipe away a fresh set of tears.

“I’m the reason you’re upset?” He am almost sounded offended, “can you tell me what I did?” You were just sitting there, not looking at him because you were sure that if you did you would completely break down. “Y/n, this is childish.”

"Don’t fucking tell me I’m childish when I’m upset!” He doesn’t say anything so you continue, “and don’t bring back a bunch of girls that we don’t even know to our villa without as much as asking us like a bunch of self centered bastards!” You look at Jude for the first time since you sat down and he looks completely taken back by your outburst. You sigh before telling him that you’re sorry.

"You're fine."

"I'm not and what I said, I don’t mean it. You're not self centered."

"But I am bastard?" You just laugh at him before shaking your head. "You can talk to me, y'kow?"

“I just-, today and yesterday has been difficult. I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“I’ve missed you a lot.”

"I've been here the entire time."

"Not really, you’ve not been with me."

"I bet you haven't even noticed,” your voice is barely a whisper.

“I always notice when you’re not around. Being with the lads is nice but I was looking forward to spending majority of my time here with you.” You squeeze your eyes shut, hoping that it could make the tears stop falling because you weren’t even sure why you were still crying.

“You looked pretty cozy with that girl.” It was meant to be a lighthearted comment but the confusion on Jude’s face told you he didn’t take it that way.

“Is that what this is about?”

“You think I’m crying over that?” You were but he didn’t have to know that.

"Then why did you bring it up?” You didn’t have a response because he was right, you don’t know why you had brought it up. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting strange. You’ve been avoiding me for two days. Everything was going perfectly fine with us, we were good and then suddenly you start acting distant and I don’t know what to say or do.”

"Please, can we just drop it?”

"You're confusing the fuck out of me, y/n."

"Do you not think I’m fucking confused too?”

"About what?"

"I can't do this, Jude."

“You have to be more specific.”

“This! The,” you take a deep breath knowing that once you say what you were about to say there was no turning back, “the kissing, Jude. The cuddling, the holding hands, the fucking teasing, touching and flirting! The sharing bed, I can’t do any of it.”

"That's what this is about?”

“I really wish you could stop acting like it doesn’t mean anything!”

“I’m really not following.” That was your chance to tell him that it was nothing and to just forget about it and you could just go to bed and and pretend like this conversation hadn’t happened.

Tomorrow would be a new day and you would just have to accept that he didn’t have those kind of feelings for you which was fine.

Maybe it wasn’t fine but you would have to learn to accept it but instead of dropping it you shake your head. “How are you not following? I can’t have you kiss me, Jude. I can’t have you hold me and pretend like it doesn’t mean anything because it does to me.” You take a deep breath and ask him to not interrupt you when he’s about to say something. “I can’t let you have me just to not have me, it’s not fair anymore.” You wanted to scream at yourself to be quite because you had said enough but you couldn’t stop yourself. “I’m in love with you. I think I have been since we were like fourteen. I know you’re my bestfriend and I know that’s all you see me as, which is fine,” you laugh a little, “I think it’s fine. It will be fine but I just, you’re the first person I want to call when I get good news. When I see a stupid or funny video on Tiktok you’re the first person I want to send it to. You make me so happy and I feel so lucky to have you in my life but I can’t continue acting like these feelings aren’t just eating me up.” You feel like you might fall apart when Jude wipes the single tear that has fallen from your eye. “You’re my favorite person.”

You felt like your heart was going to beat out chest.

Jude’s eyes burning into you wasn’t helping but you sit there and look back at him as you wait and hope that he can say anything to help you ease your heart but he doesn’t so you speak again. “I’m sorry.”

He inhales sharply, head leaning back as he lets out a low laugh. “Wow,” that wasn’t exactly the first thing you had hoped he would say. “You’re in love with me?”

"Don't make me say it again.”

"Why now? if you've felt like this for so long, why not tell me before?"

"I don't know, Jude."

"You've felt like this the whole time?" You almost feel like he was making fun of you, like he was dragging it out until you’d just run away and refuse to ever see him again.

"Yeah, the whole time."

"Well, fuck," you clear your throat and wipe at your eyes, feeling nothing but embarrasment by his reaction, even if it was completely valid. "I don't even know what to say. I wasn't expecting this."

"Yeah, me either." You say, barely a whisper and you feel him more so close. Your eyes are locked and you feel like you’re barely breathing when his thumb caresses your cheekbone before wiping away another tear and you just shake your head before closing your eyes. Jude leans his forehead against yours and all you can feel is his hot breath on your lips.

You know he was trying to think of something to say, anything to make you feel better. “You don’t have to say something because it’s what I want to hear, Jude.” His brows furrow before he nods, whispering that he knows. “I’ll be fine. You don’t owe me anything.”

"I know, I know." He kisses you on the cheek, does what you had just asked him not to do and you want to cry because you can't even find strenght to push him away. "It's just a lot, I don't know what I'm thinking or feeling." You just nod, feeling guilty that you had dropped something like this on him out of nowhere. "I feel so much for you, you have to know that.”

“I do,” he acknowledges your words with a nod before he lets go of you and lays down on the grass. You still sit there, unsure of what to do.

You hear glass shattering before Jude’s name is being shouted and you just smile at him before nodding towards your friends. Telling him to just go without having to use your voice because you’re not sure how much more talking you can do for the night.

He takes your hand in his, squeezing it before he stands up, helping you up too in the process.

"I'm just going to see what they want, alright?" You repeatedly nod your head, wanting to tell him to just hurry up so you can disappear to your room and hope the ground swallows you up.

"Yeah, that's fine. Go." You say, squeezing his hand once before letting go.

"Okay." He nods before walking backwards towards where your friends are, eyes not leaving yours for a moment before he turns around and jogs the short distance there. You walk the same way, catching Lea's eyes and you just shake your head at her before hurrying the other way and once your head hits your pillow and silence surrounds you all you can think is holy shit.

The next morning you feel like hell.

You skip breakfast and don't leave your bed until the afternoon, nobody comes looking for you, everyone well aware of the conversation you and Jude most likely had.

You took a quick shower before getting ready for the last day in Greece. You were glad it was coming to an end because you knew you wouldn't see Jude for a few weeks, maybe even months and that would help you forget everything that had happened.

Once you got ready you made it out with the group to some day club. Shots were being sent around and thrown back everywhere you looked and you were doing your best at pretending you weren’t feeling miserable.

When you look at Jude and see that he is completely fine you realize that the hardest part hadn’t been pouring your heart out to him but it would be seeing him carry on like nothing had happened and even if it was selfish it’s how you felt.

You get back to the villa before everyone else, your excuse was that you still had a lot to pack. You were walking around your room, picking up all your heels and sandals when you hear a knock on the door. “You need help?”

“It’s fine. I just got my makeup left to sort out after.”

“Why did you leave so early? I could have helped you pack.”

"Felt done, really." You smile at him, trying to focus on the task you had at hand and not about how he was laying in your bed, shirtless and looking more handsome than ever.

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve always been pretty in tune with my feelings,” you just nod, not entirely sure what he’s trying to say, “but last night, it just fucked it all up.”

“I really want us to just forget about it.”

“I let you talk last night so I’d like to talk now, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, sure.”

"You mean a lot to me, a lot more than most people. Genuinely fucking adore you and yesterday when I said I wasn't sure what I was feeling it was true. It was a lot at once, a million thoughts running through my mind, yeah?"

"Yeah."

“Me saying that, it wasn’t because I don’t care for you because I hope I’ve made it clear that I do but I just needed to think about how I wanted to approach all of this because once certain things are said, we can’t go back.” He gets up from the bed and sits down on the floor next to you before taking your hand in his. “I talked to mum this morning, told her what you said.”

"Jude! Why the fuck would you do that?”

"I needed to know if it was obvious and I was just being dumb or something." You shake your head at him. "Guess mum's always know, yeah?" His knuckles graze your cheek, like they had done the night before and he inhales once before his hand falls to the side of your neck so he can pull you even closer and God, you're just so close and you're glad you're sitting because you're sure your legs would have given up on you by now. He takes another deep breath and smiles softly at you before he leans forward so he can kiss your jaw and up to the corner of your lip and all you can do is whisper his name. "I don't want to have to stop kissing you." You're not sure where this is going but you can't pull away so you sit there, fingers drawing shapes on his thighs while you wait for him to continue. "I miss being with you, joking with you, making you and having you make me laugh." He smiles at you before continuing, "I miss holding you at night." Your breath hitches at his words, mind racing and heart pounding. "I think I've always had these feelings but I've been good at hiding them because I didn't want everything to change but fuck that." He leans forward and kisses the skin just under your eye. "It's natural with us so nothing will change, yeah?" You just nod. "I've never felt this way before so it's terrifying the shit out of me but I know what I'm feeling now and that’s that I’m so in love with you too.”

You're not sure what to do or say so you wrap your arms around his neck and let him pull you into his lap and when your palm rests against his chest you swear you can feel his heartbeat so clear, perfectly in sync with your own. "Just took me a little longer to realize." You laughed softly and Jude thought it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. "Wanna be mine then?"

"Was I not already?"

"Yeah, you always were which is why I still can't believe your jealousy led to all of this."

"What? Don't be ridiculous," you say, leaning away from him when he tries to attack you with kisses.

"You so were."

"I wasn't!"

"It's fine to admit now." You just shake your head. "Come here, m'silly girl." He says, smiling as his tongue pokes out to lick his lips. You lean your forehead against his and let his familiar perfume wash over you as you let out a content sigh. Jude reaches out and pushes a strand of your hair away and behind your ear, his fingers gently brushing across the apple of your cheek before his thumb runs over your bottom lip and the entire thing makes your heart flutter.

"You make me so happy." A grin breaks out across his face and he didn't want to waste any more time before he leaned forward, closing the short distance between you, pressing his lips to yours in a soft kiss that filled your entire body with warmth and you really could have stayed in that moment forever, especially when Jude smiled into the kiss making you giggle against him before he pulled you back in for another kiss.

Maybe the oldest book in the word wasn't that bad.

#jude bellingham #jude bellingham fanfic #jude bellingham imagine #football fanfic #football imagine

[pedripics]

Pedri via Residency - May 28, 2024

What is something you still want to accomplish in life? - " A lot of things. I am still very young or do you already want to kill me?"

Favourite teammate at Barça? - "I am close with the group in general but Ferran"

Do you play any instruments? or would you like to learn how to play one? - "Better not for the sake of the rest of the people. I like to listen to music but not much else" Favourite series or movie? - "Mi reno de peluche and the one about chapo guzman; favourite favourite is Prison Break and La que se avecina"

Do you know anything about Armenia? - "not too much, to be honest… but recently a very nice driver took me to a shooting was from there. His name was Ara"

Favourite moment of the season? - "It wasn't the best season. On a personal level, I would say the brace."

How do you deal with criticism? - "I try to stay out of it, although it's not always possible, of course... you have to try and keep going and keep believing in yourself"

How do you feel about being able to play for Spain after such a long time? - "Very happy. I haven't been able to play for Spain for a long time. Hopefully we will have great EUROs and also a great 24/25 season with Barça"

How did you feel after the brace? - "crazyyyyy"

"I always try to stop and sign, because I remember when I asked for signatures as a kid"

Plans for the summer? - "I hope to go on vacation, but in a month and a half… that will mean that we go far in the euro with the national team"

Have you eaten German food before? - "Yesss... a member of my marketing team is German and he made us German food a long time ago, with sausages and so on"

How is your English? - "I still have to improve a lot. Give me a few months and I will answer in English"

Do you miss doing anything in your daily life? - "I can't complain. I like to live in peace"

Would you like to go to China? - "Of course, yes. Althpugh in the season there is not really time for anything and during holidays I prefer to stay close and rest. Let's see if we ever have a tour in China"

How many trophies have you won? - "With Barça, La Liga, Copa and Supercopa"

Do you feel ready for the EUROs? - "Siiii"

5 UCL Trophies or a World Cup? - "I don't want to choose. I would like to win it all"

Would you like to play against Portugal in the EUROs final? - "Sure. As long as we play in the final, I don't care against who it is"

Pele or Maradona? - "Maradona... Because he played for Barça and my father told me about him when I was younger. I remember the day he died very well because it was my 18th birthday"

Have you been to New York? - "Yes"

Favourite team to play against? - "Obviously Barça" (he did NOT understand that question lmaooo back to duolingo it is)

Visit Uruguay? You have a lot of fans here - "Ronald also told me once... We'll have to listen to him, because otherwise he gets angry"

How was it going to the Spanish GP in 2022? Are you going this year? - "It was a crazy experience. I don't think I can go this year because it clashes with the EUROs"

Do you like going to concerts? - "I haven't been to many, honestly... I have yet to go to one of Quevedo's. And last year they invited me from Spotify to see Coldplay in Barcelona but in the end I didn't go and I regretted it a little. Teammates went and they love it" (who tf turns down coldplay tickets??? 😭)

Your dad is a great person. - "The best"

How do you feel about receiving so much love? - "Very proud and privileged"

Do you want to score for Spain during the EUROs? - "Clarooo. Let's see if I can make it happen, because I haven't scored for Spain yet"

Red or blue? - "Azulgrana"

Do you like to cook? - "I'm not very good at cooking... My brother and mother are much better"

Pedri or Pedro? - "Pedri... Pedro sounds strange to me. From a young age they already called me Pedri, because there was another boy in the team whose name was Pedro and it was to differentiate us... and everyone calls me Pedri"

What do you think of Alexia, Aitana and Marta? - "They are top footballers!"

Is it difficult to have a 'normal' life? - "It's not easy, but mine doesn't change that much because I really like to be quiet and at home"

Only fish or only meat? - "I prefer meat... but for nutrition, fish"

When you were a kid did you make trouble in class? - "I was more of a quite kid"

Who do you think will win the Golden Boy award? - "Well, I hope a Barça teammate. Lamine, and if not Cubarsi"

What inspires you to perform at such a high level on the field? - "I do what I like the most"

What do you think of your season at Barça this year? - "I was saying this the other day. It hasn't been an easy season and I hope the next one will be much better in every single way and we will win titles"

Have you ever wished to have a sister? - "My mother always wanted to have a daughter, but in the end she had to settle for Fer and me hahaha"

How do you feel for the EUROs? - "Very good. Better and better"

Blue or Black? - "Blue"

#pedri #pedri gonzalez #fc barcelona #*residency

[sirfrogsworth]

Froggie's (Almost) Very Productive Day

I try to fit as many out-and-about chores as possible into a single day so I only have one set of post-exertional malaise consequences instead of consequences after each day of doing a thing. So any time I decide to drive, I try to find several tasks to accomplish all at once.

My first stop was the Family Services Division in the hopes of getting some help with grocery bills. I am making ends meet, but it seems to be getting harder each month. And maybe I could have skipped my trip to Florida and saved that money, but if I don't do something drastic for my mental health, I fear this first holiday season without a parent could send me into the darkness.

I needed to do an interview to finish applying for SNAP. I wanted to do a phone interview, but the next appointment was in January. So I went to social services where they allow walk-in appointments. I waited in a tiny plastic chair for several hours until they called my name. She yelled out "Benjamin" because when most people see "Grelle" they aren't really sure how to say it. (Rhymes with belly.)

She started my interview and it was going swimmingly at first. But then she started asking questions about the house and my inheritance and my trust. I had no idea what to tell her. It feels like a mistake now, but I have had pretty much no involvement in that process. I have no idea how it works. And I started to panic because she was acting like I was committing fraud or something by not mentioning the trust. But the entire point of the trust was to protect my benefits. Nothing is mine. I own nothing. I have no access. But I had no idea how to explain that.

Maybe my lawyer can help me apply, but I did not want them investigating everything and screwing things up before we even have the estate through probate. We specifically hired a lawyer and went through this convoluted process to make sure everything was on the up and up. But she really made me feel like I was doing something wrong. And that made me panic, which probably made me look even more guilty of something. So I just canceled everything and left.

After a few hours in a crowded government office, I decided to head to a different crowded government office.

I know I didn't need it until 2025, but I decided to go ahead and get my Real ID thingie before my first flight. I was kind of hoping they'd retake my picture because my current driver's license is... well...

And I'm so glad they took my big terrible picture and made it into a smaller, more terrible picture.

People complain about the DMV, but the one near me runs like a machine. It was filled with people and I still only had a 10 minute wait time.

I'm starting to wonder if all of those 80s comedians who were all, "What's the deal with the DMV?" were exaggerating.

Good stuff, Jerry.

I head up to the counter and ask for a Real ID. She asks for two pieces of mail and my birth certificate.

And this disappointed me a little bit.

I did my research. I went to the Real ID website and used their interactive guide to figure out exactly which documents I would need. They gave me this entire checklist and I printed it out and went through all my records and mail trying to find everything.

I had to wait a week for my internet bill to come because it's the only thing I forgot to change to paperless. This took a lot of effort and I was ready to be validated for being so prepared.

And she asks for two pieces of mail.

Any mail.

So I was off to get new tires.

Driving around on 8 year old bald tires was giving me anxiety. I didn't have the money for new tires, but I remember the guy saying they had financing. Recently several of my past debts went past the statute of limitations, and so my credit score lifted itself out of the pits of "poor" and into the realm of "fair." So I decided to take a chance and apply for a Discount Tire credit card. It's a 6 month payment plan with no interest, so that didn't feel as predatory as all the credit card offers I get in the mail with 8000% interest.

We started going through the approval process and I was answering all of the questions and then I saw the name of the bank offering the credit. It was the same bank that tried to sue me and also the bank that can longer collect due to the statute. I was worried they put me on some sort of list and would deny me. But, to my surprise, they approved me instantly. And wouldn't you know it, they gave me almost exactly the amount needed for a new set of tires.

I'm hoping we'll be doing another auction of the house stuff soon, so I plan to pay off the card and then cancel it, but this was the only solution I could come up with to drive safely until then.

I was having a weird day where photos of crusty rich wide dudes followed me everywhere I went. Here is my good ol' boy governor at the entrance to social services.

And at the tire place, I noticed this fella...

Why does every rich CEO think they are a font of wisdom capable of creating compelling quotes?

Does he think no one has ever said "work hard" and "have fun"? And after he said this was he like...

"That's gold, put that in *every* store."

"Oh, and use that picture of me where it looks like a handsome gal just grabbed my undercarriage."

He probably thinks, "Well, no one has put these specific generic platitudes together into a single mega-platitude. I am a genius."

"Be honest, work hard, have fun, be grateful, pay it forward" sounds like he had a bunch of motivational posters on his wall and started reading them all at once.

Like, every line could have a picture of an eagle above it.

In any case, the guy at the tire store, Dakota, was really nice. He made the experience very low anxiety. And he really liked my Thor's Hammer keychain with built in fidget spinner.

He went around showing it to all his coworkers. "Look, it even spins!" And they were like, "Dude, where did you get that??" And I was like, "Amazon." Now I'm just imagining 10 dudes at a tire store all fidgeting their hammers.

As nice as he was, Dakota was still a salesman and had a job to do. He gave me two tire options and tried to upsell me. The cheapest tires had a "1" rating for winter. He said they get "super hard" in the cold... I tried not to giggle. But I explained I drive about twice a month and mostly to the grocery store. If it is a bad winter day, I'll just wait or get delivery. He understood and set me up with the cheaper tires.

He then checked out my car and noticed my tire pressure sensors were dying. I keep getting a warning light on my dash. Apparently they all have tiny batteries in them that die after 7 years. And you can't just replace the batteries so you have to install brand new sensors.

And this is where my social anxiety got me into trouble.

I don't actually need these sensors. They are usually inaccurate. I prefer to test my tires with an actual gauge. But I got so caught up in his sales pitch that I agreed to replace them... at $60 each. For that I could have gotten the fancier tires. I really don't care if an orange light shows up on my dash. And I looked up the price online and a pack of 4 is $30. Though that is without installation.

But still... I wasn't thinking and he was so nice that I was just like, "I want to please Dakota. Saying no might make Dakota sad." Dakota's job is selling me but that doesn't mean I have to buy anything. He would live if I had said "no thanks."

To make my blunder more blunderous, when they finished the tires he asked for my key fob. And it decided that was the time for the battery to die. And in order to reset the system for the new tire pressure sensors, you have to press two buttons on the fob for 7 seconds. Thankfully I had a spare fob at home, but if I want my fancy new $240 sensors to work, I have to return to Dakota and have him initialize them.

I really hope these are the Cadillac of sensors.

Or, like, the ones they use on Cadillacs?

They better be accurate, is what I'm saying.

I do feel safer with new tires. So I am glad I did that. And I gave them a good obligatory kick and felt the tread. They seem nice enough even if they get boners in the winter. It's crazy how bald my other tires were in comparison. Like, I can fit half my finger down into the tread on the new ones—which did not get them super hard.

The way I drive, I probably won't wear them down. They'll probably start to rot before I do.

Before I do, meaning before I wear them down.

Not before I rot.

I am not in a rotting competition with my tires.

I was then off to Sam's. I decided all of my hard work accomplishing 2 out of 3 goals deserved some sushi. So I grabbed some California Rolls and headed home. On my way out, a Hummer and a Porsche nearly collided in the parking lot. And they sort of got stuck facing each other. One of them needed to back up and they both signaled at each other like "You back up, I'm not backing up." And it was just this weird standoff between the two douchiest looking cars you could imagine.

I mean, you have to be a douche to drive a Hummer.

I still remember the mystery Hummer dialysis patient from when my dad was going 3 time per week. We could never figure out who owned the Hummer, but we knew it was not the underpaid nurses and techs. So it had to be one of the patients. And none of them seemed the type. We never solved that mystery.

That hummer started off a delightful safety yellow. (Elon would cry.)

They decided this wasn't extra enough... so they did this...

Katrina and I could never decide... are these cow spots or the world's least effective camoflauge?

There was another patient who drove this old beater...

And I loved seeing this car because we had the same one when I was a little kid. I'm afraid the aesthetics of the 1980s Caprice Classic did not stand the test of time, but it had great sentimental appeal for me.

But this maroon beast that squeaked and sputtered its way from here to there belonged to a very sweet older gentleman. Sometimes he and my dad would be dialysis buddies—sitting next to each other in the recliners. And the worst thing about dialysis was the boredom. All you have to do is watch broadcast TV with 4 channels.

All of the TVs require headphones. They give you your own set of super cheap headphones in the dialysis welcome bag. They were very uncomfortable so I ordered my dad better ones with cushioned ear cups.

His dialysis buddy noticed them and thought they looked nice. And then he revealed that his free headphones broke and he didn't know how to get new ones. He had been watching TV with no sound for weeks. So, I bought another pair with the soft ear cups and my dad gave them to his friend. And it just made me happy imagining the two of them watching The Price is Right in matching headphones.

I do have to make fun of this sweet old man a little bit. When I walked passed his car I noticed he implemented the world's most effective anti-theft device ever created.

That's right... The Club™.

If someone decides they have to have a 40 year old car with an engine that sounds like a dying hyena and a hubcap missing... they are out of luck.

But hey, you gotta protect what is important to you. And if I needed a getaway car and my choices were between his beater and the Cow Hummer, I'd take his ride for sure.

Well, I'd try... and then get arrested because The Club™ is undefeatable.

Do NOT look that up on YouTube. It's 100% true. (And the Lock Picking Lawyer doesn't count due to him being able to break into Fort Knox with a paperclip and then doing it again to make sure it isn't a fluke.)

The dialysis center is in the same complex as my local Tolerable Schnucks and I still see that maroon boat of a car every once in a while. I always smile whenever it is there because it lets me know he is hanging in there and hopefully still has sound for his TV.

Wow, I went off on a mega-tangent.

I didn't even finish talking about my day. Where was I? Oh, the douche standoff finally ended. The Porsche Douche capitulated and backed up. Probably due to the fact the Hummer Douche has 0 visibility behind him.

When I got home I started devouring my sushi. I finally heard back from my lawyer. He submitted the last of the evidence for my appeal. And I was finally able to confirm he got the records of my ECT treatments from 20 years ago. I worked so hard to get those. At first, they forgot to send all records before 2011. I had to call back and figure that out. They shipped them and they didn't arrive until a week before we had to file. Everything was so last minute and my anxiety has been... palpable. It felt like when I did my science fair project on Sunday night.

He's hoping to get a decision at the beginning of next year. He warned me that these appeals are usually rejected. And that the most effective method of approval was a hearing in front of an administrative law judge. But that could be delayed by up to a year. So I might need to figure out how to survive until 2025. As long as my brother does what he is legally required to do, I should be okay. But counting on that also gives me palpable anxiety.

And that was my day.

Every time I go out is always an adventure.

But remember...

BE NICE. EAT YOUR VEGGIES. PET CUTE DOGS. DREAM BIG. KEEP YOUR TIRES WARM... FOR REASONS. 5 LIFE LESSONS -Froggie, Mildly Famous Internet Person

#long post

[aziraphales-library]

Heya ! I'm looking for some fics that are set post season 2. Not fixits exactly, not that I would mind fixits. But I'm looking for long canon compliant fics. Also, is there a tag for such fics ?

We have #good omens s2 and #canon compliant tags. On ao3 you'll want to use the tags "Post-Season/Series 02" and "Canon Compliant", which is what I did to find you these...

scherzo in f-sharp minor, for orchestra by astrhae (M)

It was a truth universally acknowledged that an angel in possession of no memory must be in want of a wife. No, that was the wrong book. The wrong line. Aziraphale frowned. “What,” the gentleman before him asked, “and I mean what, are you doing here?” ----------------- Or, two years after things fall apart, Aziraphale shows up at Crowley's doorstep without his memories. The easy part is getting it back, the hard part is getting them back together.

Until the Bitter End by sentientsky (T)

After learning the truth about Heaven's plans and fruitlessly trying to fix a corrupt system (and maybe also having his memory messed with a little bit in the process), Aziraphale slips back to Earth in search of Crowley.

i will make it better, if only for us by davethefish (T)

With Aziraphale in Heaven, everything that Crowley loved has left the earth. He doesn't know what to do, so he starts small. Maybe someday he'll love the earth as much as he loved Aziraphale. It's time for him to remember why he chose to stay in the first place.

Black Holes and Revelations by ArtisticRising (E)

Crowley takes a leap of faith… into the heart of a black hole. It’s the last card Crowley has to play. He can’t do this without Aziraphale… and he’s betting that Aziraphale can’t do this without him. Act I (Black Holes) ends around Chapter 6 (10 if you want the smut babes). You could leave the story off there. Up til chapter 6 you have a whole story that’s pretty much G rated. From there my thirst comes out like a sexy little demon in tight jeans and a vaguely downwards saunter. Act II (Revelations) is an attempt at season 3. Treat it as a separate work that builds off Act I. Lots of plot twists ahead/theories/speculations that I won’t spoil for you :)

The Ineffability of Gray by kitfornow (NR)

Fifteen years have passed since Aziraphale returned to Heaven, and still sometimes Crowley feels shell shocked and embarrassed and grief-stricken. And mostly, he still feels numb. Fifteen years isn’t really so long, in the grand scheme of things, and yet these have somehow been the longest years of his existence. He can almost feel time crawling by, laughing at him. But slowly, so slowly, Crowley began to try again. To try harder. To find a piece of himself that Aziraphale had not touched. To find a piece of himself that does not need changing. On his good days, he can open up. His friends come over to the flat, once in a while, and Maggie brings new records and Muriel brings burnt cookies that no-one complains about because they're so proud of them. They'll exchange stories and simply enjoy each other's company for a few hours. And sometimes, he feels almost alright. Until Crowley turns around and Aziraphale is there, standing in front of him, trying to stop the world from ending all over again.

hurry back, please bring it back home to me by Percyjacksonfan3 (T)

“Why should I?” The demon interrupts cuttingly. “You’ve made it perfectly clear where your priorities lie and anything I say won’t make a bit of difference.” “That’s not true at all.” Aziraphale replies after a long hurt moment. “And you know it. Besides, you’re being stubborn. You’ll help me eventually.” Rage flashes over Crowley’s face. “You think so, do you?” Aziraphale juts his chin up stubbornly, ignoring the unpleasant feelings Crowley’s expression stirs in him. “Yes.” Aziraphale needs Crowley's help in saving humanity from the Second Coming and despite what happened between them he's determined to get it. After all, it's not only that he needs Crowley, but his plan also includes their car. As for the other matters between the two of them... well there's no reason those can't be sorted out along the way as well, is there? Or, a possible take on Series 3 that includes the Bentley, a resurrected Jesus Christ set on bringing about the End of Days, and an angel and a demon who are stupidly in love with each other but are both suffering from a lack of experience on how to actually deal with said emotions. Emphasis on the stupidly.

- Mod D

#good omens #good omens s2 #ineffable husbands #canon compliant #long fic #mod d

[skzhua]

His Damn Sleeveless Shirt

MASTERLIST

Pairing: Han Jisung x Female!Reader

Genre: Fluff, strangers-to-lovers, lowkey enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, one bed trope.

Word Count: 11,518

Warnings: Some swearing, suggestive, mentions of sex, drinking, a glimpse of predebut Han.

Summary: When Seungmin suggests a little holiday trip with his school friends that you have never met, you don’t hesitate to turn his offer down. Of course, he insists and you give in. Thinking it would be the worst vacation, you soon realize it’s not as bad when Han Jisung is around.

A/N: This took me forever and I’m shitty with writing good endings so bear with me please... I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I did when writing it!

You hated winter, really. The cold, the dirty snow on the roads, the storms, the ice... all of it. It wasn't always like this, you used to love it. So much that your father had made it a tradition to go ice skating with hot choco every holiday season. However, ever since you moved out of your parents' house to live on your own, the city made the season feel like a nightmare. You truly hated it. Somehow, the only aspect that you still appreciated was the hot choco.

If it wasn't for Seungmin, you would have never agreed to come on this trip. "It'll be fun" he had said in a cheerful voice, making you want to punch him in the face. Fun? Nothing was fun in going to a secluded chalet up north, where it is colder, with his girlfriend and some others friends of his major that you did not know at all, and didn't plan to meet. He was only inviting you because the reservation had to have eight people, and they were one person short. Out of all his friends, it had to be you? It took a lot of convincing for his part, but you ended accepting his invitation.

"I'll make sure we stock enough hot choco for the entire week, I promise." he jumped excitedly after you had confirmed you were tagging along.

"You better." you had replied harshly. "Who's coming anyway?"

"You don't know them, we only met in the beginning of the semester. Chayoung is coming, of course." he smiled, thinking of his new girlfriend. "And three others from my class with their partners."

You raised your eyebrow. "Don't you think it's weird leaving for an entire week with people you don't know so well?"

At your remark, he clapped his hands together, making you jump, and pointed to your direction with both his hands. "Which is why I'm asking my favourite person to come in case I end up locked in a cabin in the middle of the woods."

"Sweet..."

And sweet, it was. With your luggage by your front door, Seungmin and Chayoung were already at your place to prepare some last minute things before leaving for the trip. You liked the girl, but to be honest, she was clueless enough to believe you were going to have some bonding time together. It’s not like you absolutely despised her, but she had her moments when the only thing you wanted to do was put duck tape on her mouth. If she wasn’t squealing in excitement, she was whining or complaining about everything and nothing. Seungmin wasn't dumb, he knew how much your introverted self hated meeting new people, and he knew this was a good opportunity for you to get out of your shell.

“Alright, everything’s ready. We just need to wait for Chan to pick us up.” Seungmin said after closing up his bag.

“Chan?” you asked at the mention of the new name.

“Yeah, he’s the music department representative.”

You nodded and he joined Chayoung on the couch in front of you, slouching his arm around her. She snuggled into his arm, making you shift your gaze somewhere else, feeling a bit uneasy at the affection of the couple. It’s not that you minded it much, you simply didn’t like seeing PDA, especially in your home. But mostly, you kind of envied them. Sure, you loved being alone and not having to deal with relationship problems, but you still had some longing for having a lover. Who doesn’t, really?

Luckily, you didn’t have to handle their couple talk for long when Seungmin’s phone rang with Chan on the other end of the line, saying he had just pulled in front of your apartment building. When you arrived downstairs, you were greeted by a fit man all dressed in black. He was handsome, to say the least, and you couldn’t help but check him out.

“Hi!” he greeted. “I assume you are Y/N, right?”

“That’s me.” you responded in a small voice. “Chan?”

He smiled and lead you all outside where a minibus was parked in front of the door. You tried to make out the figures through the window and you noticed most of them were men. Great. Not only did you not like making friends, but you could not speak to boys for the life of you, except for Seungmin who has always been around since childhood. 

“I got this for the trip so the three hours on the road would be comfortable enough.” Chan explained while helping Chayoung putting her bags in the luggage space. “You can go in, I’ll join you later.” he told the three of you off.

You did as he said and the couple got into the bus first, you following behind. Once you got in, new faces were now staring at you for a few seconds, before going back to talking with each other. As for your friends, they already sat together at the back, leaving you no choice but to take a seat next to a guy in front of them. He had a bucket hat on with his earphones plugged into his ears as his eyes were closed. You assumed he was sleeping, so you didn’t bother with greeting him. You turned around to face Seungmin and he only smiled at you.

“That’s Han.” he whispered as he pointed to the boy sitting next to you. “That’s Felix and Changbin, they’re together.  And behind the driver’s seat, that’s Chan’s girlfriend, Naeun.” he kept pointing and some of the faces turned to you to wave, one of them being the so-called Felix,

“Hi!” he smiled brightly and you bowed slightly as a response. “Thank you for coming with us. Without you, we wouldn’t have been able to make the reservation.” You nodded your head briefly, not wanting to make the conversation. “Don’t worry, we’ll have fun! I’m always happy to make new friends.”

When he noticed you were not going to answer, he turned to Seungmin in confusion and the latter shrugged. “She’ll warm up eventually. Let’s say she’s the female version of Jisung.”

Felix made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth and smiled at you once more. “You’ll have fun, I promise.”

Sighing, you repositioned yourself onto the seat and turned to look out the window. You jumped when your face met your seat neighbour’s one. Freaking out on his side too, he jumped back, moving closer to the window.

“Sorry.” he mumbled and dropped his stare on his lap while putting his earphones back in his ears that were, you noticed, already turning red.

This is going to be a long ride, you thought.

“I really need to go, though.” Han whined to Chan.

Turns out, Han is very loud and annoying when he gets comfortable enough, which was now the case after nearly three hours. He was being very careful around you since it was the first time he ever saw you, but as time passed, he was getting more outgoing with the others. For them, it seemed like it was a normal thing, but for you, it was hell. Not to mention, he had been yelling for the past 20 minutes, asking Chan to stop so he could go pee. To be honest, you had to go as well, but you weren’t going to bother the rest of the group like this.

“We’ll be there soon, can it wait? We’re literally in the middle of nowhere.” Chan sighed for the nth time.

“NO!” Han yelled next to you, making you wince. “It’s an emergency, I swear.”

The older man ignored him and kept on driving. To be fair, you were about ten minutes away from the chalet so he could wait. That didn’t change the fact he kept on whining, moving his leg up and down as a sign he really had to go. Your patience had finally reached its peak and you looked over to glare at Jisung. When he noticed you, he gave you a shy smile and looked away towards the window. Great, he was still avoiding you.

“Excuse me.” you finally spoke which brought back his attention to you. “Can you stop moving your leg, please?”

He bowed, murmuring some sort of apology and stopped before putting, again, his earphones on.

“Damn, he never listens to us and there he is..." Seungmin exclaimed.

"He doesn't know her, of course he's gonna listen." Chayoung rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised he even spoke to you, Y/N."

You ignored them and resumed to whatever you were doing on your phone. No offense to Jisung, but you really didn't give a damn about the man, who had mainly annoyed you throughout the ride with his whining and back and forth with Chan. You were never quick to judge, but he did leave a very bad impression.

Not so long after, you finally arrived at the chalet. Needless to say, you were impressed by the size of the place. You swore you could fit your apartment five times in this. The whole structure was made of wood logs with nice lampposts around. It had two levels, plus a basement. On the side, you could make out something that resembled a jacuzzi. The whole place was luxurious, which almost made you glad you came along, but also intimidated. Never in your life would you have allowed yourself to get to experience this kind of luxury. Looking around, you spotted Chan pulling out everyone's travel bags from the bus, so you went ahead and grabbed yours. Only, there was another hand whose grip was onto the bag's handle. Looking up, you met eyes with your bus buddy.

"That's mine." you spat out.

"Actually, no." he said while pulling the bag to him. "This is my bag. Look."

He turned it on the side for you to see a little quokka plush attached to it. So childish... Nonetheless, you let go of the bag and looked around to find yours, identical to the man's. Once you did, you followed the others, who were already inside.

"This place is huge!" Naeun exclaimed. "Shotgun on the master bedroom!"

On cue, she kicked off her boots and ran upstairs with Chan following behind as he laughed at his girlfriend's behaviour. Changbin and Felix were next to pick their room, walking down the hallway of the first floor, while Seungmin dragged Chayoung with him to follow the two men. Han was nowhere to be found, to which you were almost glad. You didn't mind having any room in the house, as long as you had a bed where you could sleep at night.

Assuming one was going to be free anyway due to the size of the place, you walked around in search of a bathroom. You opened one of the doors and found some sort of office room. You closed it back and walked a bit further until you spotted a door where a bathroom sign was displayed. When you turned knob of the door, you heard the loudest scream you've ever witnessed so far. Jumping at the sound, you put your hands on your ears and peeked inside the room, looking for what had caused such a cacophony. You regretted immediately when you saw Jisung, sitting on the pot, eyes wide open and face as red as a tomato. A normal person would leave and apologize, right? Yeah, well apparently, you weren't normal enough because you froze in place and kept staring at the poor guy.

"Y/N, do you mind?" he let out with a desperate tone, which woke you up from whatever trance you were in.

You shook your head in disgust before backing out and closing the door behind you. You were still in shock from the sight that you stayed in place next to the bathroom, replaying the scene in your mind. Your face heated up at the thought and you wanted to bury yourself alive from the embarrassment. It didn't take long for Jisung to finish his business, when the door opened after a minute or so. When he spotted you, his face got red once more.

"You can go now..." he said rapidly before taking off somewhere else, anywhere, as long as you wouldn't be there.

You went and did your thing, and ran to Seungmin's room right afterwards. You took the time to knock on the door this time, and Chayoung happily opened the door.

"Y/N! Did you find a room, yet?" she asked, but you ignored her and fell flat onto their bed, where Seungmin was already sitting.

"Woah, there. Are you good?" he asked, and only got a groan from you as an answer. "I assume this means no..."

You lifted your head up and stared at him. "When I told you I don't know how to live with people, I meant it. Now, I have to be in the same house as the guy I just interrupted while he was pooping."

Seungmin's eyes went wide. "What the fuck? Y/N, we just got here."

"I know."

"And you walked into the bathroom while someone was already in there?" he held in a laughter.

"I just told you, yes." you cried, and Chayoung sat next to you to pat your back, trying to give you some reassurance.

"Who was it?" she asked. "If it's Felix or Changbin, then it's all good! They won't care, for real."

You shook your head. "It was Han..."

That was it for Seungmin, he couldn't stop himself from laughing any longer, much to your displeasure. You could only take one of his pillows and bury yourself in it, while your friend kept mocking you.

"You should have taken a picture." he said in-between his laughs.

"Seungmin!" the girl slapped him, before putting her hand on your shoulder. "It's fine, I swear. It's not like Jisung was going to socialize with you much to begin with. If anything, he's probably more embarrassed than you are considering the fact you saw... well, you know."

You made a disgusted face and shivered at the thought. "I did not see anything, gosh..."

You got up from the bed and headed out of their room, as they were clearly not helping you feeling better about the situation. Picking up your bag at the entrance, you walked upstairs to find yourself a room. The first one you found was already occupied by Chan and Naeun, so you continued your way. The next one was more of playroom, as there was a pool table in the middle, with a little bar in the corner. It was a very vast room, so it took most the floor's place. That left one last room with its bathroom at the end of the hallway. You walked in and dropped your bag next to the nightstand.

"Are you being for real?" you heard a now much familiar voice.

Looking up, you spotted Jisung standing at the entrance of the room, leaning on the doorframe. He had his luggage with him, as well as the same bag you mistook for yours slouched on his shoulder. You found no emotion on his face other than pure anger from the sight of you.

"I picked this room, Han." you said firmly, determined to let him know you weren't giving up your spot.

He scoffed and put his bags on the chair that was standing in the corner of the room. "This is the last room available. I already checked in the basement, where it's pretty much just a huge ass theater-like room, and the first floor only has an office room and a bathroom. But you saw that one already." he deadpanned.

It was your turn to scoff. "You do realize we have a huge problem."

"Yeah, sharing a room with a stranger who saw my butt not even ten minutes ago." he deadpanned again.

You rolled your eyes before motioning next to you. "There's only one bed here, idiot."

His eyes went wide open and he shook his head. "No way I am sharing a bed with you, perv."

You grunted in frustration. "I already apologized."

He gave you a look. "Did you really?"

"Not directly... Anyway, you're the one who's been bothering me nonstop during the ride."

"Bothering you? Woman, I had my music plugged in most of time and I didn't even give you one look." he defended.

"Explain your constant complaints, then." you said, your voice starting to raise.

From your argument, Chan had now appeared next to Jisung with a confused look plastered on his face. "Woah, what's happening here?" It took him two seconds to notice the only bed standing in front of him. "Oh, I see."

"I thought you said there was enough space for everyone." Han glared at his friend.

"It said eight people. And, I mean, we are eight people." he shrugged. "One of you could take the couch downstairs?"

"Dude, you know I need to have my own room." Han complained, again.

"As if I don't need it either." you rolled your eyes.

Chan sighed loudly, passing a hand through his curly hair as a sign of his small stress. "I mean, it is a king bed. Both of you can fit in just fine without feeling stuck, you know. Plus, you have a personal bathroom so it's not that bad." he said, trying to help you out.

You scoffed. "Not happening."

"Then be my guest and sleep on the couch." Jisung smiled sarcastically, while gesturing the way out.

"I was here first, I keep the room."

He sighed, visibly troubled. "Look, I really can't sleep downstairs."

"Yeah, right."

"I'm being serious. I kind of.. um..." he started, but stopped as his cheeks turned pink.

"Jisung sleeps shirtless." Chan finished for him. “Which isn’t much of an issue if he just wears a shirt, but whatever.”

Your face deadpanned at the man. He wasn't being arrogant, he was just too embarrassed to tell you of his sleeping habits, and too shy to let the entirety of the house see his naked ass. And you were not in for sleeping in the same bed with a shirtless stranger. Feeling defeated, your shoulders dropped.

"Fine, I'll sleep on the couch... but if I want to take a nap or whatever, I can come here." you said, pointing your finger at Jisung and he nodded his head rapidly.

With that being said, you left out a groan and left the room. You were so going to kill Seungmin after this trip. Spending a week in a house full of strangers in the middle of nowhere during winter was bad enough, you had to be sleeping on a hard couch... This was worse than you could have imagined.

Nobody knew to cook except Naeun and Felix. You automatically attributed them the title of cooks for the week, promising them to take turns with doing the dishes. For tonight, they made a hot noodle soup in order to warm up from the cold weather. Big place meant a lot of heating was needed, and the electricity wasn't strong enough, so you had to walk around with at least a hoodie on.

"I saw snowshoes in the closet. We could go for a walk tomorrow." Chan suggested as he took a bite of his food.

Everyone nodded to the idea around the table, except for you. Seungmin noticed and poked your side to grab your attention.

"You don't have to come, you know?"

You smiled at him, thankful he was being a minimum nice to you. You did feel bad of not participating, but they knew you didn’t even want to be with them in the first place. No offense was taken. Plus, winter activities were the worst.

Dinner went on normally as everyone was chatting and laughing. Surprisingly, Jisung had not said a single word since the moment he sat on his chair. Probably because he had to sit right in front of you and was doing everything in his power to avoid your gaze. You gladly copied his action, still feeling annoyed by the fact you gave him up the room.

Once dinner was over, Felix suggested for everyone to watch a Christmas movie, even though the holidays had already passed. It took no time for Seungmin to set up everything downstairs and connect the TV with his Netflix account.

“Can we get a snack or something?” Changbin asked while his boyfriend cuddled into his arms. “I’m hungry.”

His statement gained some weird stares from the others, since you had just finished eating. “Make yourself some.” Han rolled his eyes.

“I would but I’m kind of busy here.” he replied while motioning Felix’s position.

“I can go make some popcorn.” you shrugged as you got up, earning a wide small from Changbin. “Anybody else wants something?”

Chayoung asked for some juice, while Felix asked you to bring his candies he had stocked in his bag. With a nod, you went upstairs and started pulling out the popcorn bags from the box of food Chan and Naeun had packed. Plopping them into the microwave, you headed to Felix’s room to get his candies. When the popcorn was ready, you put it into a few bowls and grabbed the sweets to bring downstairs. Once you had distributed everything, you sat down back in your seat and brought a blanket over your body to warm yourself up. You noticed Jisung was no longer here, but you didn’t bother asking. He was probably already in bed.

“My juice?” Chayoung asked with a pout.

“Oh shit. Sorry, I forgot.” you apologized, getting up immediately to go back to the kitchen.

You ran up the stairs so fast, you didn’t notice someone was about to walk downstairs. Inevitably, you ran into each other. Closing your eyes, you waited for the impact with the ground, but it never came. Instead, you felt a strong grip on your waist as you held onto the person’s arm (that was, admittedly, very firm). 

“Jeez, are you always this clumsy?”

Your eyes shot open when you realized you had, once again, embarrassed yourself in front of Han Jisung. You immediately detached yourself from him and noticed he had changed into a sleeveless black shirt with sweatpants. So that’s what he went to do, but a sleeveless shirt during winter? This boy was odd.

“Aren’t you cold wearing that?” you let your thoughts speak out, and he chuckled.

“Really? You could just thank me, you know?” he smiled with a hint of bitterness, ending it with a loud scoff.

“Well, if you stop scoffing at me every two seconds, maybe I will.” you argued and he sighed in disbelief.

“I quite literally just saved you from a concussion and you can’t be a bit thankful? I’m starting to wonder why Seungmin thought it was a good idea inviting you.”

With that, he left you there as he went back downstairs. You would never admit it, but his words did hurt. Sure, you had no intention in making friends, but it didn’t mean you wanted to make enemies either. And clearly, the week was beginning just fine for you. With a grunt, you went to get Chayoung’s juice as you tried to forget your little encounter.

When you came back, Han was back in his seat while talking with Seungmin who had, by now, finished setting up the film. You gave Chayoung her drink and dropped onto your seat next to Naeun. She gave you a questioning look as she noticed you didn’t look well, but didn’t ask, thankfully.

The movie wasn’t good. It was your typical Christmas story where the girl who had a tragic past meets a charming young wealthy man who was known to be an ass to everyone, but she managed to warm his heart, and they declared their love on Christmas day. You noticed how Felix seemed to enjoy it, as well as Chayoung. For your part, you were starting to get sleepy as the movie was nearing its end.

“Why did you choose this, exactly?” Seungmin asked Felix in a disgusted tone.

“It’s cute!” Felix answered. “It has the Christmas spirit and, you have to admit, cheesy stories are always good even when they’re not.”

When the credits finally rolled, Chan got up and turned off the TV, which caused Felix and Chayoung to complain. “Alright, bed time now.”

“There’s an after credit scene, though.” Felix pouted.

“Okay, but everyone looks dead here. It’s late already.” Chan pointed to the clock that indicated midnight. “We have a big day tomorrow, so let’s rest, okay?”

“As if you’re going to sleep anyway.” Changbin laughed while poking at Felix for him to get up.

Chan ignored his friend and joined Naeun who was already leaving to go to bed. Soon, everyone followed behind and you stopped by the living room to unpack your belongings. Only then, you came to the realization you had left them in the room upstairs. You cried out in annoyance as you fell onto the couch. Seungmin, who had come to check on you, laughed at the sight.

“I assume things went well today?” he joked.

“Shut the fuck up, Kim Seungmin. I hate you so much right now, you have no idea.” you said, furious, but he didn’t take you seriously.

“It’s not that bad, the couch looks comfortable.”

You glared at him. “It’s not, believe me. Why do I have to be a good person and leave the soft bed for the jerk?”

Seungmin frowned at your words. “Jerk? Jisung, a jerk? He can be annoying, fine, but he’s anything but a jerk.”

With a sigh, you told him about the incident in the stairs. About how he had said he didn’t understand why you were invited and how it actually hurt.

“Jisung is Jisung. He tends to have a big ego up his ass, but he’ll warm up to you eventually. Only if you’re nice, though, because you really should have thanked him, you know?”

You rolled your eyes. “Right, as if. I would’ve rather have broken bones.”

Ignoring your comment, Seungmin got up and started to help you set up a bed-like couch, somehow comfortable enough for you to sleep in. He put as many pillows as he could and even brought a blanket from his room for you to stay warm. Once he was done, he analyzed you and gave you a confused look.

“You’re sleeping in your day clothes?” he asked.

“My stuff is in Han’s room, forgot to bring it with me.” you said, a bit embarrassed. “Could you get my bag for me, please?” you pleaded and Seungmin answered by shaking his head.

“Chayoung’s waiting for cuddles, and take this as an opportunity to actually apologize to him.” he suggested, not letting you answer as he already left the living room.

You pondered for a while, wondering if you should get your things or not. A night without brushing your teeth can’t be bad, right? No, your breath stank from the amount of candies you had stolen from Felix. Maybe someone had a spare toothbrush. But who would you ask when it was already one o’clock and everyone was asleep? It took everything in you to put your pride aside and walk up the stairs, on your way to knock at Jisung’s door. You knocked quietly for the first time, and there was no answer. You knocked again, a bit louder, and you heard a small “coming.” from the other side of the door. Once it opened, you saw Jisung half asleep, hair all fluffy and barefaced. Most importantly, you saw his shirtless figure and widened your eyes at the sight. With the small amount of light coming from the outside lampposts, you could make out the defined lines of his abs, as well as how his features were incredibly attractive. Those thoughts were soon interrupted when he had finally noticed you were the one who had knocked on his door.

“Y/N, what the hell!” he let out, closing the door in your face soon after. “Can you not invade my privacy like this? I thought it was Chan knocking.”

You rolled your eyes at his behaviour. “Maybe you could have just put on a shirt before opening the door.” you nagged, hiding the fact you had just checked him out.

You heard some shuffling from inside, and you tilted your head in confusion. Not so long after, the door opened again and Jisung had a hoodie on, his hair even fluffier than earlier. Why did he look so damn cute like this?

“What do you want?” he asked.

You coughed in awkwardness. “I left my bag here.”

He let out a discouraged sigh before stepping aside to let you in. You didn’t miss the mess he had already made, although the fact you had arrived at the house not even twelve hours prior. Men... When you went to pick it up, Jisung stopped you and you looked at him, confused.

“My bag. Yours is there.” he pointed next to the nightstand.

Surprisingly, he hadn’t touched your things and let it be just right where you left it. “Thanks.” you nodded to him before grabbing your bag.

“Anything else?” he asked and you paused, thinking about what Seungmin had told you.

Taking a deep breath, you spoke. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for earlier. I should have thanked you instead of lashing out onto you like that.”

Visibly surprised, Jisung nodded nonetheless, accepting your apology. “And I suppose I should say I’m sorry as well for saying Seungmin shouldn’t have invited you. I’m not good with new people, I’m sorry.”

You smiled at his words. “Me neither. To be fair, I didn’t even want to come here in the first place.”

“I know.” he replied.

There was a silence between you too. Despite the fact it was rather awkward, it somehow felt comfortable. It was weird, you couldn’t quite point out exactly what was this strange tension between the two of you.

“I’ll head to bed. Thanks.” you smiled awkwardly.

“Right.” he coughed. “Good night.”

And you left his room.

Naeun was a morning person, you learned. While you barely had any sleep, she looked as if she just had a boost of serotonin. Lovely, she was, but too joyful for someone who had just woken up. Chan seemed to be in the same state as you, seeing his eyes were still puffy from the tiredness. So, that was the perk of sleeping in the common room; waking up when the first person does.

“Do you want some coffee?” Naeun asked you, while you were still processing the fact it was the next day.

“Uh, sure. Thanks.”

You rubbed your hands on your eyes to wake yourself up. Once you got used to the light, you saw how everyone had already got up. While Naeun was busy making coffee for everyone, Chan and Felix were making pancakes and bacon for breakfast. The sight of the food was enough to make your belly rumble. You sat at the table, greeting Seungmin who had Chayoung leaning on his shoulder, still sleepy.

"Someone's not a morning person." Seungmin said to you.

"I'd say the same for your girlfriend." you nodded your head towards her. "Did you two sleep okay?"

"Let's say I warmed her up last night... that explains why she is so exhausted." Seungmin laughed, but you made a disgusted face, not wanting to know any more details about their intimate relationship.

Turning away from him, you came face to face with Jisung, tiredness accross his face. His hair was still messy, and he had put on his sleeveless shirt back on, making his arm muscles more prominent. While this kind of clothing doesn't keep anyone warm enough, it did make your face heat up. The boy looked good with no effort. He did notice you staring, and frankly, he liked the attention. Not that he would ever admit it.

"Good morning." he mouthed to you with a smile.

As you were about to answer, Felix interrupted you. "The bacon's ready! Pancakes should be done in a minute. Anyone wants some?" he asked while showing the plate.

Everyone served themselves and once everything was settled, you didn't waste another second to dig into your pancake. As you kept eating, your habit of stuffing the food into your cheeks seemed to have grabbed Changbin's attention.

"Hey!" he exclaimed and you looked at him curiously. "You're like Han! She's a quokka too." he pointed to your cheeks.

You looked in front of you and Jisung's expression was almost identical to yours. His cheeks were puffed due to the food he stored and he was munching like a squirrel. Now you understood why he carried a quokka plush with him. The others expressed surprise from the similarity and your sank into your chair in embarrassment, Jisung visibly doing the same.

"You stuff food in your cheeks too?" Han asked in a quiet tone, once the others had resumed to their previous conversations.

You nodded your head, swallowing the bite you just had taken. "I've always done this, it seems normal to me." you shrugged, taking another piece of bacon.

"Me too." he smiled and continued to eat.

You kept to yourself for the rest of the breakfast. It went on smoothly with everyone complimenting the meal to Chan and Felix. Like previously planned, Changbin and Seungmin went on to do the dishes while the rest of you started to get ready for the day. Knowing you wouldn't go outside today, you picked cropped shirt with a knitted cardigan to put over that you matched with a pair of jeans and big winter socks. When you came back to the living room, you saw that your 'bed' was already cleared up and was back to being a normal couch. Naeun and Chayoung were already seated, leaving you a spot. You joined them and looked around in confusion.

"Did you two clean up the couch?" you interrupted their conversation.

"No." Chayoung answered. "Seungmin and Han did."

Han? Weird... you thought. "Oh, okay."

"What do you think about trying out the jacuzzi after our walk?" Naeun prompted. "You know, just the girlies."

"Oh gosh, yes that sounds great!" Chayoung answered excitedly. "We'll have some girl talk 'cause, girls, I've got some complaining to do." she huffed.

"About Seungmin?" you frowned. "I thought you two were doing great."

"We are! But you know, still some things here and there." she sighed.

"I get you, Chan's amazing but some of his habits just get on my nerves." Naeun complained.

"You know I can hear you." Chan yelled from the other side of the room where him and the boys had gathered.

Naeun rolled her eyes jokingly and turned to you. "How about you, Y/N?"

"What about me?"

"Anyone in your life?" she nudged your arm and you shook your head.

"I thought I saw you on campus hanging out with the new kid." Chayoung pitched in the conversation.

"Jeongin? No, he's nice but not my type, and I was only showing him around. Besides, I don't have time for dating, anyway."

Chayoung put her hand on your shoulder and shook her head violently in disapproval. "Everyone has time for dating, you're just not putting yourself out there. How about Jisung?" she suggested and you coughed in shock.

"Han's nowhere close to someone I would even be interested in." you scoffed, knowing you were totally in denial.

Because, come on. Jisung is 100% your type. Handsome, not too tall (because you'd want to be with someone you could actually kiss without having to break your neck), has a fit body and doe-like eyes. Not even just his physical appearance, but the sweet guy you were slowly starting to see was also getting your interest. However, you would never say this to anyone. You never really told anyone when you've had crushes, it was safer this way.

"You could try. I mean, you're spending the day with him, so take the opportunity." Naeun winked.

"Sorry what?"

She didn't have the time to answer when Chan announced they were ready to leave.

"You'll have fun, don't worry." Chayoung smiled before the girls got up to join the others at the front door.

They put on their winter suits and didn't take long before leaving, telling you and Jisung to have a good day. Still confused, you looked over the kitchen counter when the man was serving himself a glass of water.

"Weren't you going with them?" you asked as you walked to the other side of the counter.

"I have some work to do." he simply answered before walking towards the staircase.

"Work?"

He stopped on his track and sighed. "Yeah, work. You know, the thing you do so you can earn money and shit?"

"I know what work is, I'm not an idiot. It's just weird you have to work during a vacation."

He turned to face you and sighed again. "It's not work technically, just a hobby I hope I can turn into an actual career. Done with the questions?" he lifted an eyebrow.

"Damn, relax." You held up your hands in defense. "I was just wondering."

He walked closer to you until he reached the stool next to the counter. He sat down and pulled the other chair for you to sit as well. Reluctantly, you sat down and stared at him, confused.

"Sorry. Again, not good with people." he breathed out in a shy chuckle. "If we're gonna spend the whole day in the same house, how about we try to get along?" he suggested.

Tilting your head to the side, you thought for a moment. You had planned to do nothing else but watch a drama or something and enjoy the day alone to blast some music. However, a certain person had to decide to stay in as well and ruin your plans. So what else were you going to do anyway?

"Alright."

He blinked a few times, surprised by your response. "Okay then. Um... I suck at this so..."

You let out a laugh and nodded in agreement. "I can see that. I'll start then. How did you meet Seungmin?"

You knew this was a dumb question since you knew already, but you weren't any better than him to find subjects to talk about.

"We both major in music. The work I do is actually a song I've been making. So, you know, trying to make a career out of music." he explained. "How about you? I never heard of you until Seungmin told us you were coming here."

"Our mothers are close friends, we grew up together." you said, keeping it short.

"Ah."

A silence settled between the two of you while Jisung took a sip once in a while. He played around with his glass, pursing his lips at the awkwardness. Seeing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, you got up from your seat and looked towards Jisung, who got startled from your sudden movement.

"Well, good talk." you said before walking away.

“Wait.” he stopped you by grabbing your wrist. “Do you like Ghibli films?”

Deciding there was nothing else to do, you agreed on watching My Neighbor Totoro on the big screen downstairs. You installed yourself comfortably on the couch and began to watch the movie in silence, neither of you commenting on it. Nothing needed to be said, anyway, since you were so focused on the TV. Well, he was at least. Jisung had started the movie in a proper position, leaving some distance between the two of you. As he got more relaxed with the story moving forward, he sprawled himself more, resulting in his knee touching yours. You could have moved away, but you didn’t. First of all, you were too embarrassed to do so for some reason. Second of all, he seemed so focused on the film that you didn’t want to break it, so you stayed still. Attempting to distract yourself, you tried to ignore the physical contact by concentrating on the movie. Eventually, it worked and you had totally forgot about it. That didn’t last long. Not even ten minutes later, you felt something drop on your legs. Startled, you looked down and saw that Jisung had fallen asleep. From the looks of it, he definitely needed the rest, so you let him be. He didn’t bother much, anyway.

When the movie had finally ended, you nudged the man in order to wake him up. He blinked a few times while stretching out his arms, only to come to the realization that he had fallen asleep on you. Immediately, he jumped away from you, in shock.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you wake me up? Did I snore? Gosh...” he rambled, panicking and you laughed at his behaviour.

“It’s no problem, really. I thought you might have needed that nap.” you smiled and he thanked you shyly.

As the credits were still rolling, silence took over again. This time, however, it didn’t feel as heavy as earlier, but Han soon broke it off. “So, um... How about I show you some of my demos? I was about to go work on it, and a second opinion might be helpful actually.” he suggested.

Surprised at his offer, you nodded happily and he smiled in return before leading you to his room. He invited you to sit next to him on the bed, telling you to make yourself comfortable. While he opened his laptop, looking for his songs, you took the opportunity to look around. His room was still messy, but cleaner than the day before. This time, you could actually make out the floor among the clothes, recognizing his outfit he wore yesterday and other pieces of clothing. Just by looking at them, you took note in your mind that he had a good sense of style.

“Okay.” Jisung breathed out, grabbing your attention. “I have a few, actually. Do you want to listen to one in particular.?” he asked, turning the laptop towards you.

You scooted closer to him so you could read the titles. He had a lot, it was fascinating. “Alien?” you read out loud, right before goosebumps took over your body, making you regret picking out a crop top, considering the temperature was very low in the basement.

Jisung noticed and furrowed his eyebrows in concern. “You know, you can use the covers, they’re very warm.” he said and you didn’t hesitate to cover yourself.

He was right, they were extremely warm, much more than your blankets you had on the couch. Satisfied, you smiled happily, making Jisung awe at the sight. You were cute.

“So?” you interrupted his thoughts. “What is this Alien about?”

“Right.”

He took out his headphones and didn’t bother giving them to you, putting them on your head for you. You didn’t question it and stayed still for him to place them correctly. You took the moment to admire his features in the daylight. If you thought he was handsome when you saw him last night, he was breathtaking during the day. From his chocolate eyes, to his plump lips, you took in his features properly. You noticed the mole on his cheek, which only added to his attractiveness. As he was about to finish with placing the headphones, he bit his upper lips in concentration, which you thought was adorable. Once he was done, he smiled in satisfaction before going back on his laptop to open the file. You exhaled a breath you didn’t know you were holding, trying to get a grip of yourself from what you were thinking just then.

“I’m not a professional yet, so they’re not masterpieces. Don’t hesitate to give me feedback, though. Even if you think it might be mean.” he warned and you nodded.

He took a deep breath and clicked on the play button. Right away, your ears met a soft melody. You were surprised, as you didn’t expect this to be Han’s music style. Once he started singing, you almost gasped in surprise. He didn’t look like it, but his voice was soft, melodic, but most importantly, it was powerful. It was only when the rapping started that you were now speechless. He had talent, and he knew how to use it. After taking in his vocals once more, you focused on making out the lyrics, and it almost hurt on how much they hit home. Did he write them himself? Was it how he was feeling? You almost felt hurt from them, holding back a tear that could come out at any moment. Too immersed into the track, you almost forgot where you were until the song ended. You didn’t say anything. Frankly, you did NOT know what to say.

“So?” Jisung said expectantly, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“How can you say this is not a masterpiece? Han, this is amazing, really. I have no words.” you breathed out, still in shock from how beautiful it was.

He mumbled a thank you in shyness, before coming closer to you. Your breath cut when he brought his hands to the headphones, who were still sitting onto your ears. Again, you couldn’t help but examine his face. How was his skin so clear and perfect? You had to ask him what was his skin care routine, it was unfair how clean it was. As he was about to take his headset back, he stopped his motion and stared back at you instead. You didn’t miss the red coming up his ears, nor did you miss his small glance at your lips. You were incredibly close, you could feel his breath on your face.

“I-” he murmured.

At this moment, you heard a yelp coming from the doorway making you jump away from each other, Jisung bringing the headphones along with him. Looking for the source of the noise, you saw it was Naeun.

“Sorry to interrupt, I was only coming to say that we’re back and that, Y/N, we’re going in the jacuzzi if you still want to come with us.” she paused and looked towards Jisung. “Or not. As you wish, really.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few. Let me change first.” you answered and, with that, she left the two of you. 

Turning around, you saw that Jisung had gotten up from the bed and was putting his laptop back into his case. “I’m guessing you’ll be going now.” he laughed out, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah, I guess so.” you said, getting up as well. As you were heading out, you stopped on your track and turned around to him. “By the way, I’m being serious when I say your song is beautiful, I love it. You’re very talented.” you complimented before taking off, leaving the poor man a blushing mess.

You hurried to change into your bathing suit and walked outside to see that the girls were already in the water. It was freezing cold, but the steam coming from the hot tub encouraged you to join the others. As you approached, you listened to Naeun’s talking, telling Chayoung all about your moment with Han.

“And you didn’t kiss him?” Chayoung exclaimed in frustration, now addressing you. “What were you thinking? You missed out, woman.” she splashed towards you, and you could only glare at Naeun.

“To be honest, I think they would have if I didn’t walk in.” Naeun said in a disappointed tone, resulting to you shaking your head furiously.

“I told you this morning, I wouldn’t date him.”

“Y/N, you were under his bed sheets. Don’t tell me you weren’t about to fuck right there.” she deadpanned.

“Wait, y’all fucked?” Chayoung questioned cluelessly.

You rolled your eyes at their assumptions. “I was cold and he told me I could use to covers to heat myself up. End of the story.”

“He’s staring right now.” Naeun nodded towards the window, and immediately, you did a one-eighty only to find no one, making the girls laugh.

You gave her a death glare. “I hate you both.”

This had become your routine for the week: waking up early from Naeun’s joyful morning singing as she served you coffee, spending the day with Jisung while the others went out to go do whatever outside activity they had planned. Your days with Jisung were simple: watching something, then going to his room for him to make you listen to his tracks he wasn’t sure of, sometimes staying with him longer just for the fun of it. In the end, you would always have with some bonding time with the girls and a movie night with the whole group. You would never tell this to Seungmin, but you were actually happy you managed to make some new friends. He would let out a “I told you so.” and your pride wasn’t in for this kind of comment. If he was ever going to ask you, you would simply answer it was forced and not by your will.

As for you and Jisung, the pair of you grew closer extremely quickly. You learned more about him such as his family, how he became friends with the others, his studying time in Malaysia... The more you spent time with him, the more you realized how similar you were despite being so different. That included how introverted the both of you were, your love for chocolate and how you preferred staying in instead of going out. When you went to his room while he was working, it was comfortable enough. You would be on your phone and he would occasionally ask about your opinion. He had gotten the habit of always making sure you were warm enough, while you always checked with him if he had gotten the right amount of sleep. You also learned how touchy he actually was, which was surprising enough. If he wasn’t hugging Chan, he would either be back hugging Changbin or chase Seungmin for a cuddle. With you, however, it was more subtle at first. He started with small gestures, like side hugs and slight accidental skin ship. As the week went by, it has transformed into full on cuddling during the movie nights, which didn’t go unnoticed by Seungmin. He had questioned you a few times about it, but you always found an excuse to change the subject. You were never one for physical contact, but with him, you didn’t mind at all.

For your last night at the chalet, Chan took the time to go buy all sorts of alcohol. With Changbin having some experience as a bartender in the past, he took the initiative to make you more cocktails than needed, plus some fancy shots. Chayoung's tolerance was low. The girl had only drank two cocktails and was already passed out, having Seungmin as a support. Felix and Han had found a nice spot to hang out in the living room. They were having the time of their life, laughing about whatever topics they were exchanging about. As for your case, you stuck to Naeun who was clinging onto Chan next to the kitchen counter, while Changbin was cleaning up the mess he had made by spilling one of the drinks. The latter decided to drink reasonably in order to watch over the others in case something might happen. While you were staring at Han who was still laughing out loud, Chan seemed to have noticed how you kept glancing at his direction. 

"You two have become insanely close this past week." he said, taking a sip from his drink. "You've basically been attached by the hips." 

"I don't know what you're referring to." you played dumb. 

"Don't act like you weren’t cuddling when watching the movie last night." Naeun gave you a look before she took another shot, and you ignored her comment. 

"Talking about him, look who's here." Changbin said and you followed his gaze to spot Jisung and Felix joining you. 

Felix was still laughing uncontrollably as he walked to Changbin to give him a big back hug. Jisung walked to you, sitting on the stool next to you, and didn't hesitate to put his hand comfortably on your thigh. The contact sent a shiver down your spine and you stiffened. He acted as if he had done nothing by giving one of his infamous gentle smiles. 

"Hey." Jisung said happily to you. 

"Hey." you smiled back. "You look so drunk, how much did you actually drink?" you laughed. 

"Not much. I would say no more than two and a half drinks, though I will try out Changbin's shots for sure." He didn't loose a second to get the said-shots in front of him, examining them to determine which one he was going to test out first. "You don't look so tipsy." 

"Yeah." you chuckled. "I'm still on my first drink." you held up your glass. "I'll probably try a shot later, too." 

"Not happening." you heard Seungmin exclaim from behind you and you grunted at his comment. "I told your mom I'll be watching you, so I am watching you." he said, taking the seat on your other side. 

"I'm an adult, I can drink if I want to." you argued. "Where's Chayoung, anyway?" you asked as you saw no sign of her. 

"I failed watching over her, and now she passed out. I can't wait to see her tomorrow morning." he breathed out, before stealing one of Han's shots to chug it, making you stare at him in disbelief. 

"Dude, that's so unfair." you whined and he sighed. 

"Fine, you get three shots, and then you're done. We both know what happened last time you drank more than that." 

Happily, you took a shot and winced at the strong taste. Jisung gave you a small squeeze on your thigh as a sign of support, but it only made your mind go crazier than it already was. Thus, you took another one. 

"What happened last time?" Chan asked curiously, earning a dark look from Seungmin. 

"You don't want to know." 

As the small talk kept going, Naeun exhaled in boredom, unimpressed at how inactive the night was despite the amount of alcohol that was already consumed. She took the matter into her own hands and stole the bottle of tequila from Changbin, serving some to everyone. "How about we play a game?" she prompted and Seungmin huffed in annoyance. 

"We're too old for that, baby." Chan told her but she shook her head. 

"You can never be too old for a game of truth or drink." she said happily while distributing the drinks. "What could go wrong, anyway?" 

Well, in fact, things went wrong pretty quickly. Barely an hour into the game, and the girl was already sleeping on Chan's shoulder, while Felix and Seungmin could barely speak out clear words. Concluding this was enough for tonight, you and Jisung helped Changbin cleaning up the place. While he and Jisung were bringing Chan and Naeun upstairs, you guided the two other men to their rooms safely. Once back to the kitchen, Changbin waved you good night, thanking you for the help, and then walked to join his boyfriend. That left you and Jisung. Looking at your bed-like couch, you walked to it and tried to make it somehow warmer. The weather had gotten even worse and it would be a lie if you said that you weren't ice cold the night prior. Still, you were about to install yourself into your thin blankets, but were stopped when Jisung took your hand. 

"Sleep in my room tonight." 

You stared at him for a moment, processing what he had just said. "What?" 

"Please." he insisted. "You know you're going to freeze tonight and my room is warm enough. I'll leave you enough space on the bed, I promise." 

He wasn't wrong, his room was the warmest in the house. It wasn't the first time Jisung suggested for you to sleep in his room. In fact, it was the fifth time already. You had refused each single one of them, not because you didn't want to, but because you were afraid of what would happen. Although you felt at ease around him, you also felt an insane urge to grab him by his cheeks and kiss him. Nevertheless, you liked how the friendship had blossomed, and you certainly had no intention of ruining it. This strange tension between you was better than embarrassing yourself by making a wrong move. However, you knew he was right and, maybe, this was going to be your last moment with him since you haven't talked about keeping in touch once the vacation was over. You only live once, don’t you?

"Okay." you said in a whisper and Jisung smiled, leading you upstairs as his hand still had a firm grip onto yours.

For once, he had cleaned up around as there was no more clothes on the floor. He kind of had to, you were to leave the next day. He even did the bed, folding the sheets and placing the pillows nicely. 

"Since when do you actually clean?" you laughed jokingly. 

He muttered an insult under his breath, starting to pull out his sweatpants from his bag. That's when you froze, realizing what sleeping in the same bed as Jisung meant. By now, you had completely forgotten that the man sleeps with no shirt on. He mumbled a small "I'll be back." and left to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Great. You tried to shook it off your mind by slipping under the covers messily due to your drunk state, attempting to find a comfortable position to sleep, but it didn’t do anything. You could only have a flashback from that time you had seen his toned abs in the dark. It didn't take long for Jisung to get changed. Once you spotted him, you sighed in relief seeing that he had put another one of his sleeveless shirts on. Even if it still made him look insanely hot, it was better than forcing yourself to ignore how ripped he was. He noticed you staring and gave you a smile. 

"Disappointed?" he joked and you blushed massively. 

"Shut up." you huffed and turned around to face the other side. 

He joined you in the bed, laughing at your reaction. "I'm kidding. I thought you would prefer it if I kept things safe." 

The alcohol still in your system, you couldn't think properly before speaking. "As if those arms weren't enough." 

Han, startled by your bold answer, didn’t reply back. He checked his biceps in confusion. He had stopped working out a while ago, so it did surprise him that you pointed out his arms. Was he still fit enough? Suddenly, he became very much self-aware about his appearance. He started to wonder if he should go back to the gym. Not because you had commented on his muscles, of course not. Or maybe. He had always envied Chan and Changbin for their built figures and had tried many times to keep up with them, but he couldn’t due to putting his entire free time into making tracks.

“Jisung?” he heard you whisper, calling him by his first name for the first time. 

He hummed for you to continue, but instead you shivered. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“It’s alright. I’m cold, that’s all.”

He didn’t figure out how you were cold, while it felt for him like he was heating up by wearing close to nothing. He debated whether he should help you get warmer or leave you be. With another shiver traveling your body, the choice became obvious for him. Therefore, he shifted closer to you, putting his arm over your body protectively.

“Is it okay?” he asked, just in case you felt uncomfortable.

You snuggled into him even more and turned around to face him, your noses almost touching. You studied his face for the nth time this week, and kept finding more endearing features of his. You found it absolutely cute how his eyebrows knitted together when he would be confused, just like now. It didn’t take long, though, before it was his turn to observe you carefully. Instinctively, he brought his hand up the side of your face. Usually, he would retract his hand right away and apologize, but remember that he was still drunk. He couldn’t take his eyes of you while rubbing his thumb softly across your cheek.

“You don’t realize how fucking beautiful you are.” he whispered, his eyes still focused on the softness of your skin, before he met yours.

Not knowing how to react, you blushed even more than you already were. “Says the handsome boy here.” you huffed, as-a-matter-of-factly.

Han smiled widely at your compliment; it looked more like a flirty smirk. The shy boy you got to know had been replaced by the most confident man you had encountered in your life. All it took was alcohol to give him a push.

“You think I’m handsome, yeah?” he teased.

“I thought that was obvious.” 

You had barely finished your sentence when his grip on your waist got tighter, being wrong for thinking you couldn’t be any closer than you already were. You yelped at his move while he kept fixing on your lips. Biting his upper one, he was debating whether he should stop himself, or let it loose. No matter what his decision was going to be, he knew he had already crossed the very thin line you had between friendship and something more.

“May I?” he whispered, as his lips were already barely a millimeter away from yours.

“Since you asked so nicely.” you joked, resulting to Jisung letting out an annoyed scoff.

“You’re a pain in the butt.” he exhaled.

After what had seemed like forever, his tender lips finally reached your own, embracing you into a soft kiss. Just like him, it was delicate and careful. It was exactly how you had imagined it, and yet, so different. The amount of electricity you felt traveling your figure was unexpected and you liked it. Wanting more of it, you put your arm around his neck in order to pull him into a deeper kiss. Surprised by your motion, he let a groan leave his mouth, trying to follow how your lips moved. While his hands were roaming across your waist and stomach, slowly making their way under your shirt, you opened your mouth slightly to allow him slipping his tongue. Your breaths were uneasy as the eagerness was getting more intense. All the tension that had been building up over the past few days was being released in a matter of seconds, and it was passionate. Only then it would have been even more perfect if Jisung hadn’t pulled away from your lips, earning a whine from you.

“I get you’re needy, but I need to breathe.” he laughed, as he kept pampering your face with small kisses. He stopped and move slightly away from you, still rubbing his thumb on the skin of your jawline. “As much as I want you right now, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Hearing the words come out of his mouth, your grin dropped as it got replaced by a scared look. “What do you mean?”

“Hey, I’m not saying I’m regretting this.” he hurried to explain, placing a kiss on your forehead in reassurance. “I’m saying we should stop for tonight until it gets more... intimate.” he trailed off.

“What’s stopping you?” you pouted and his heart melted at the sight.

“We’re still drunk and it’s late already. Plus, I’d like to take you on a proper date first.” he explained in a gentle tone while playing with your hair.

You kept silent for a moment, thinking about what he had said. While a part of you was craving for more, his reasoning did make a lot of sense. How he thought about things made you feel like he was taking you seriously, and not just doing this to sleep with you before leaving you as if you were nothing.

“Okay.” you whispered, and he smiled. “But I get to choose where and when.”

“As you wish, baby.” he grinned, pulling you into a kiss one more time.

You had woken up frantically the next morning when you saw a shirtless Jisung laying down next you, while the bottom of your pyjamas were no longer on your body, but on the floor instead. You had little to no recollection of what had happened the previous night, other than some glimpses here and there. You didn’t remember confessing to Jisung, neither did you recall a moment where he did so. However, you could make out an image of the two of you kissing intensely on the bed, as well as your needy behaviour. You wanted to cry out in embarrassment. How did you let yourself go so easily? Trying to reassure yourself by thinking everything is fine, you quietly sat up, slowly getting out of the covers. The motion was stopped by Jisung’s loud yawn, making you freeze in panic. He turned his body around, exposing more of his skin, and took you by the waist to bring you close to him. You let out a small gasp at his gesture, which seemingly woke him up. His eyes squinted from the sunlight, but he smiled brigthly once he had made out your face.

“Good morning, baby.” he whispered, while still grinning like an idiot.

“Um... hey.” you replied awkwardly. “Just making sure, nothing happened last night, right?”

Jisung pulled away from you and gave you an unsure look. “Wait, you don’t remember?” Feeling bad, you shook your head in response. “You forgot our kiss?”

“No, that I remember, but I can’t recall us doing, you know...”

This made Han laugh, finding it cute how you confused you were. “That’s because we didn’t do it, idiot. I asked you out tho, and you said yes. I just hope you still mean it.” he said, taking your hand in his.

You blinked a few times, trying to remember it. “Last night me was being bold, I see.” you joked, causing him to laugh again. “I do like you a lot. However, I’m not sure I should be dating.”

“Why? If you say some shit like ‘I don’t deserve it.’ or ‘You’ll find someone better’, you’re even more stupid than I thought.” he huffed.

“Okay, I won’t say it.” you shrugged and he pouted, bring you closer to him.

“I like you a lot too, and I really wanna take you out once we’re back home.”

You melted at his words and, hesitantly, pecked his lips. That was enough of an answer for him.

You had to leave the house before 11am, so you didn’t take long to get up from bed (secretly admiring Jisung’s form... again) and changing into more appropriate clothes, before joining the others in the kitchen. Naeun had already served everyone cereals and most of the things were packed. You greeted the others and walked to the counter to make yourself a cup of coffee. A few minutes later, you were chatting with Felix when Jisung had joined the lot, placing his hand on your hip to give you a peck, and going on with his morning. The freckled boy had stopped talking by now, only staring at you in pure shock.

“What the fuck.” he exclaimed.

“Oh my god!” Chayoung yelled out, having seen the scene as well. “You slept with Jisung.”

Thanks to her, the rest of the group was now staring at you and Han, flooding you with questions and comments such as ‘I called it.’

Seungmin didn’t react much, but he walked to you with a stern look on his face. “Your mom is going to be either ecstatic you have a boyfriend for once, or kill you for your behaviour.” You slapped his arms in annoyance, and he laughed as he broke character. “I’m just glad you ended up having fun. And Han?”

Jisung, who was still busy with eating, turned his attention to his friend. ”Yes, what?”

“You hurt her, and you’re dead.”

Jisung nodded his head rapidly, fear accross his face. Seungmin, satisfied with the response, told you two to hurry so you can leave and went to help out Changbin with the luggage.

“So, am I your boyfriend?” Han asked cheekily, bringing you into an embrace.

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to take me out on a proper date first?” you quoted him and he looked at you in shock.

“You DO remember last night!”

You laughed and leaned onto him. “Just a little.” you mumbled and kissed him softly. “I’ll go to the bathroom, and then we can join the others?”

He smirked. “Can I be the one interrupting you, this time?”

taglist: @lenilla15 | @muddy-waters | @nanaspalette | @nattisbored

Copyright © 2023 skzhua. All rights reserved.

#stray kids #stray kids x reader #han jisung #han jisung x reader #stray kids han #stray kids fanfic #han jisung fluff #stray kids fluff

[misshoneyimhome]

Cause I'm not ready | Auston Matthews 

Tags: jealous!auston; Austonxreader;

A/n: I don’t know why, but I feel like Auston would be the kind of guy that isn’t good at showing his emotions and admit his feelings to himself 😉

*

Cause I'm not ready; To find out you know how to forget me I'd rather hear how much you regret me And pray to God that you never met me Than forget me

”Forget me” - Lewis Capaldi

*

Dating Auston Matthews was no walk in the park; however, it had been the best three months of your life. It was just after New Year's, when Auston had made his move. You were a friend of a friend of a… you weren’t even sure how you became part of the group hanging out with the hockey players of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Nonetheless, you and Auston had grown close and formed a relationship, the more time you had spent together as a group.

So, one cold January evening, Auston had decided that he'd want to spend some alone time with you and get to know you better. And oh, so did you. It had been a classic: starting out with a coffee chat, then dog walks with Felix while talking, then evenings at his place simply watching your favourite shows. After a few weeks, it turned into make-out sessions on the sofa, and not long after, heated sessions in the bedroom followed.

It had been truly amazing. Not to mention the sex; oh boy, did that boy know his way around a female body. He had made you feel incredible. The first times had been slow and soft; he took his time to make you feel good, to please you - he'd always make sure you had at least one orgasm before continuing to make himself feel good inside you. Then it got a bit more heated; to which you couldn't complain. Auston had a bit of a rough side to him - nothing BDSM kinky or alike, but he simply liked to dominate in the bedroom - and the kitchen, and the living room, and the bathroom… okay, his entire condo and maybe even yours. But again you didn't complain. He was amazing. Full stop.

But then the playoffs came closer, and Auston had to prioritise his time and energy on hockey. It hadn't been a bad breakup - if you can even call it that. He had been honest with you, which is more than you can say most other guys had ever been, and a part of you had sort of seen it coming. You had been spending quite a lot of time with the hockey players and their significant others, so you knew how much time and effort the players had to put into training and the games. So when Auston said he couldn't find the time to see you, you were okay. A little disappointed, but okay.

Honestly, you probably hadn't even expected it to become anything more serious. Auston wasn't exactly known to be the marrying kind of guy who'd want to settle down ASAP and have a family. He might want to someday, but for now, he enjoyed his youth. And with his charming personality, flirty smiles, and devilish demeanour, he could probably have anyone he'd like. Auston enjoyed the freedom of being a young bachelor, but there had been something about you that had made him enjoy the closeness of someone. Something had triggered within him to reconsider the whole idea of a relationship. But for the time being, he'd want to focus on hockey.

So now that the new season was about to begin, and everyone was slowly coming back to Toronto, you knew you were eventually going to see him again. And you didn't mind at all. You had had a great time over the summer; you'd visited your family, gone on a few trips with the girls, caught up on sleep and your favourite TV shows… it had been a great summer - and oh yes, you'd also started seeing someone.

Dean was sweet; a couple of years older than you, worked in banking, and was an overall good guy. And he adored you. He'd do anything for you - even come along to the first home game of the hockey season, even though he knew nothing about the sport.

Auston had expected to see you during the friendly games, but when you weren't there, he'd felt a small tinge of disappointment. During the off-season, he'd missed you, but he didn't want to reach out, seeing on your Instagram how much fun you were having. And he also knew that he was the one who broke it off. But nonetheless, he missed you.

So when he saw you for the first time in months, after the winning home game, where he had played amazingly by the way, he was thrilled. Well, at first. Until he saw the guy standing next to you, with an arm around you. Auston never thought of himself as the jealous type - but that was until the moment he saw you smile and laugh when engaging in a conversation with the other friends and families. A laughter that was music to his ears and a smile that lit up his entire world, even on a grey rainy day. A smile that usually he'd be the one to put on your beautiful face and a laughter that was usually caused by one of his idiotic jokes.

You seemed happy.

"Hey Aus," you smiled. "What a great game!"

Auston simply smiled back at you.

"Thanks," was all he managed to reply.

You were even being nice and friendly towards him. You greeted him as the friend he was to you, and congratulated him on the win as well as praising his wonderful play. Couldn't you just at least be mad at him? Or something? It just seemed like you'd forgotten all about what had happened between the two of you. Like it was nothing. But it was not nothing. Not to Auston at least. Only he'd just realised that now.

"Dean, this is my friend Auston - Auston, this is Dean," you introduced the two lads. You figured, why not - Auston had broken up with you, and you'd decided to stay friends, so why couldn't you introduce your new flirt?

"It's nice to meet you, I've heard so much about you," Dean said, offering Auston a friendly smile.

"Can't say the same about you - I mean, that I've heard about you… but great to meet you too," Auston blurted out.

There was a slight awkward feeling among the three of you, but you handled the situation nonchalantly, and you all went back to chatting with the group.

**

Between that game and the following home game, you and Auston had barely talked. Not that you'd talked much during the off-season - it had mostly just been occasional snaps of whatever you were doing, wherever you were, and liking each other's Instagram stories and posts.

But these days had been killing Auston. Knowing that you were in the same city as him, talking to the same people, and going to places where he'd be, was killing him. He'd want to reach out to you. To spend time with you. To make you laugh and talk to you like you used to. But you were with Dean.

And honestly, you didn't even think of Auston. You were happy with Dean. And just overall happy to be back in your everyday life routines. Nothing could get you off course.

So you thought.

After the home game, yet another win for the Leafs, Auston quickly noticed you standing with the group of significant others, chatting. But this time you weren't wearing his jersey, like you used to. And Dean was there as well.

As Auston came out of the locker room, he moved towards you to greet you. You were smiling as your eyes locked and took a little step forward to meet him. And that's when Auston couldn't stop himself - he wrapped an arm around you and pulled you in for a kiss. It wasn't an intense kiss nor just a peck on the cheek - it was a soft and gentle kiss on the lips.

Without saying a word, Auston pulled away and walked back to the other players. You were baffled. Stunned by his actions. Yet a certain, familiar sensation of pleasure filled your body.

"Wow… somebody wants people to know that you're not available…" Dean nervously chuckled.

"Oh no… that's just Auston being…" you trailed off, unable to fully articulate what had just happened.

"I think I get the message," Dean softly said, offering a friendly smile. "He likes you."

You were unable to reply. So you just simply nodded.

"…and you like him," Dean added.

Again, all you could do was nod.

**

After Auston had finished up in the locker room, he walked out and immediately saw you standing alone.

"Where's your date?" He asked, coming over to you. You couldn't help but smile a little.

"He left," you said with a calm and soft voice.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why…" you gave him a slight puzzled expression. "Because of you."

Of course, Auston knew that. He just wanted for you to say it. And he simply let out a sigh.

"I don't get you, Aus…" you tried your best to remain calm. "You broke it off with me… but then you go and do something like this?" You spoke with a soft voice.

"I'm sorry… I don't know what to say, y/n," Auston simply replied.

"Just tell me what you want?"

Auston was unable to formulate a proper sentence. Something that was unusual for him. When he didn't say anything, you let out a sigh and slowly began to walk away.

"Well, let me know when you've figured it out…"

You were almost by the exit, when a hand grabbed yours and pulled you into a large body. Auston had run after you, and still unable to articulate his feelings, he pulled you in for a deep kiss.

The kiss was good - wonderful even - and only when needing to breathe for air, you both pulled away.

"You," Auston softly spoke. "I want you."

#auston matthews imagine #auston matthews #nhl player imagine #toronto maple leafs #toronto maple leafs fic #nhl hockey player

[oneatlatime]

Any predictions for season 3, or are you planning to dive straight in?

You're not the first person who's mentioned s3 predictions, so I'll give it a shot, but I'm really not sure if I have anything to use to make predictions. S2 ended in a very final, end of arc kind of way. Lots of things have been tied up. I don't even know where they're all flying off to. Back to the Southern Water Tribe, since the Earth Kingdom's a bit of a bust? The Fire Nation's out of the question, the Northern Water Tribe probably has mixed feelings about seeing them again, maybe the Eastern Air Temple? Although even that might not be safe, since Aang's travel plans to said temple to meet the Guru were known by various Earth Kingdom generals. And that stupid King.

I think the Fire Nation contingent are going back to the Fire Nation, and I am looking forward to a Zuko with eyes at least somewhat open interacting with FN citizens/nobles/military etc. who are still completely drinking the kool aid. I think it's going to suck for Zuko. Should make for good TV though. Lots of conversations where both people are saying entirely different things while thinking they're talking about the same thing.

I said it before, but I'm worried for Iroh. He's for sure arrested, but is he going to be executed? Obviously I don't want that, but unless Iroh still has enormous popular support, and the Firelord's grasp on power is incredibly shaky, I don't see how permanently eliminating a traitor (from a FN perspective) can be avoided. Then again. Kids' show.

As for the Gaang? In broad strokes, Aang still needs to learn firebending to fully Avatar himself, then he needs to defeat the Fire Lord (who is quite the homebody apparently - seriously, where is this guy?). So next season Aang will shake off his lightning hangover, find a firebending teacher, defeat the firelord. He'll probably have to commute to the Fire Nation to find the Fire Lord first. No idea what he'll do in between those things. Perhaps inadvisable shenanigans? That would be in character. His biggest story arc all series has been learning to accept his status as Avatar, but between his talks with the Guru and opening his last Chakra in the finale, I think he's done it. So all that's left is the main plot and goofiness.

Katara has the same problem she had going into S2 - she's mastered waterbending, so she needs a new conflict/arc. S2 answered this demand by... having her hang around? What did Katara do this season? Bend a bunch, set up camps, tear down camps, wreck Jet, support Aang, be nice to Toph that one time, yell at people. I hope she gets something meatier in S3. I still think she should meet some good FN citizens that challenge her morals.

Sokka was also kind of just there this season, although if I'm being mean I'll say that he was also kind of just there for S1 too, which is why it doesn't feel as odd as Katara's lack of purpose. I loved his stuff with Suki. Suki is officially the glow up of the season. I loved their interactions together, and I love the growth she poked him into doing. I'd like to see more of that. So less a prediction and more of a hope: S3 Sokka develops the ability to rely on/trust others (or maybe realises others can be relied upon/trusted is more accurate), hopefully with Suki somehow involved. And I loved his dad too. I want to see more of that guy, but since a cardinal rule of kids' stories is getting rid of the authority figures asap, it won't happen.

Toph. Honestly I'm stumped. She already broke the universe. Where can she go from there? Unless she's going to devolve into an antagonist, which I absolutely don't want, I don't see how she can top her S2 plot. And Aang's got earthbending down, so I guess she'll be like Katara was this season: tagging along. Not that I'm complaining; I love me some Toph in any form. We have seen that she wants to make peace with her parents, sort of, probably? Or at least give them another shot? But I kind of don't want her within 100 miles of her parents. So I don't know.

Appa & Momo will hopefully be tagalongs in S3 too. I learned my lesson this season about wanting the animals to have character arcs.

I guess the antagonist in S3 will be the Fire Lord, finally. Who else is left? Zhao tried, he died. Azula tried, she won. Unless S3 has an Azula rematch. But would she want that? She's already proven that she won. She can go home and enjoy the spoils of her victory (which may or may not include Zuko - I'm kind of unclear on exactly how much agency Zuko is going to have in the FN, especially since I'm not actually sure that he has permission to be there as a free man - didn't the arrest warrant Azula was executing in episode 1 list both Zuko and Iroh?)

There's nothing left for the Gaang in Ba Sing Se, so I doubt they'll go back there. Frankly it's the FN characters who have roots there. I wonder what will happen to Iroh's tea shop? I wonder if his investors will find out who he is? I wonder if money talks louder than national loyalty? (It's the Earth Kingdom - the answer is yes) Wouldn't it be funny if Iroh busted out of imprisonment and went right back to serving tea? And everyone sent to find him would be thinking "this is the famed tactician the Dragon of the West - he's probably travelling the FN plotting a coup as we speak. That devilish mind of his must have safe houses set up all over the nation." When actually he's right back where he got caught, doing exactly what he was doing when he got caught, to great and not-very-quiet acclaim?

I think S3 might have an overall darker tone too, within the bounds of a kids' show. I don't know what place Ba Sing Se occupied in the mind of the average person in the Avatar universe (although refugees seemed to revere it), but the city's fall to the FN represents a very big FN victory. The Gaang will probably be the most underdoglike in S3. S1 was mostly stalemate, then a big FN defeat. S2 was opened with the FN taking Omashu and closed with them taking Ba Sing Se. The FN have never been in a better position, and I bet the NWT is safe from further invasion only until the FN have built their fleet back up. So even the few free areas could have an expiry date on their freedom.

This is rapidly devolving into rambles, so I'll conclude by saying I have no clue what's going to happen next season, and that's exciting.

#ask

[doudouneverte]

Love your fics and would you do one for Laura feirsinger something fluffy. ( Only if you write for her)

a/n: i wanted to write something for Feiersinger for a while so I'm more than happy with that request

"Say it"

Pairing: Laura Feiersinger x AUSTRIAWNT!Reader

Summary: you just want to hear two words

Type: Fluff

Warning: nothing

word count: 1893

translation: Ich liebe dich/Je t'aime/Ti amo = I love you

-------

You and Laura knew each other from as far as you can remember. First, you played together at Bayern Munich before she left for Sand, and you left to play two seasons for Lyon before coming back to Munich. Your relationship had always been special; you were practically a couple even before she asked you out formally. But it was only a few months before her big move to Frankfurt that she found the courage to do it.

Since then, a lot of things have happened. You joined her in her new club and had to leave your commun best friend, Sarah Zadrazil, behind. And more importantly, you were officially engaged. But unfortunately, your fiancé signed a new contract with AS Roma in Italy, which meant you would spend almost the whole season missing her.

Fortunately for both of you, you were playing for the same national team, and with the new National League came a new national camp. And that was where you were today. The girls just arrived at the hotel when you were already looking for your fiancé. Since her transfer, there was something she never told you, and you needed to hear it now.

As expected by all your teammates, when you and Laura spotted each other, you didn't leave each other. It was not a secret to everyone how close you were, and some of them were used to making fun of it at first, but now it has become something usual.

"Where is Laura?" Barbara asked when she spotted a group of girls talking in Manu's room.

"With Y/n. Like always." The goalie replied.

"Why do I feel stupid to ask that?" The midfielder asked before walking to your room. She was about to knock, but she stopped when she heard something unusual.

"Oh, come on, babe, I know you can say it. It's been like, what? Six weeks since you started to train with them, I'm sure you can tell me now." You said while you were unpacking your stuff.

"We already talked about it, Y/n. I don't know if I'm ready for that." She replied.

"Bullshit." You said before throwing yourself on the bed and dragging the Roma's player with you. "We both know that I'll find it." You said before gently kissing her.

"Yeah, but let me time to prepare myself before." 

"Okay, no pressure." You engulfed your body in her tiny ones, sharing as much warmth as you could. "I missed you." You confessed.

"And I missed you too. Now come on, let's get ready, or the girls will start to worry." She instructed you.

"Okay, but just five more minutes." Even if she knew she had to complain, she couldn't when she saw you so vulnerable.

On the other side of the door, your Frankfurt teammate was already not here. The midfielder rushed to her previous destination a few seconds earlier.

"Girls, I think we have a problem." She said bursting the door open.

"Don't you know how to know on a door?" Sarah Puntigam said after everyone was thrilled by the midfielder's antics.

"Sorry, not sorry, but we have a bigger problem than a fucking door." Barbara said.

"Don't swear in front of the kids." Sarah Z said covering Katharina's ears what made everyone laugh.

"Sorry, but yeah, I was saying that I think Laura and Y/n are breaking up." The new froze everyone and everything in the room for a few seconds.

"WHAT?" All the players yelled.

"Shh, keep it low." Barbara instructed them.

"How do you want us to keep it low when you announce something like that?" Sarah P said, gaining a nod from all her teammates. "And how did you get that information?"

"I may have or haven't heard their conversation when I was going to 

see Laura." She explained.

"WHAT?" Everyone yelled again.

"You know how much Y/n hate when someone tries to invade her privacy, and it's even worse when it involves her and Laura." Manu reminded her.

"I know, but it's not like I wanted to listen on purpose. I will apologize later. Now can we talk about the main subject?" 

"Oh, what are you talking about? I want to be in." You said, appearing behind your teammate. The room froze for a moment. You felt all eyes on you and started to feel a little confused. "Uh, are we interrupting something?" You asked.

"Nothing; we were just wondering where you were, right, girls?" Sarah P said trying to convince you and your fiancé. When you heard all the girls agreeing, you found it suspicious, but you were not going to question it, at least not now.

"Anyway, coach wants us in the meeting room in five minutes." Laura said, and after that, you both left to the room mentioned.

"I don't know about you, but they didn't seem to be near to break up for me." Kat said.

"I totally agree with you, but maybe they don't want to make us worry." Barbara proposed.

"Maybe, but right now the coach wants to see us, so let's go." Sarah Z said before leaving the room, quickly followed by the rest of the team.

In the room, the girls were a little shocked to see an empty seat between yours and Laura's. Even if they didn't question it, some glances were not discreet, and some whispers could be heard. The Bayern midfielder took her seat between the two of you while Barbara could finally talk with your fiancé.

At the end of the meeting, you were one of the first to leave the room. But you were quickly stopped by your ex-teammate.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sarah asked you.

"Uhh...yeah." You replied.

"Where are you going?" 

You paused a little. "Restroom."

"Oh, okay, sorry. I'll not restrain you more." She said a little nervous, making you chuckle.

"Yep, I'll be back soon; don't worry." With that, you just walked away.

What should have been a little weird thing for your teammates became something more when the next day Laura decided to train with her best friend letting you with Kathy. You both didn't notice, but a lot of confused looks were exchanged between the entire team.

At the end of the training the Roma's player was leaving with her best friend when she heard you calling her name. She quickly glanced at you before quickly running away from you, forcing you to chase her.

"Okay, that's weird." Sarah P started.

"The most weird thing was that they were both smiling." Manu continued.

"Maybe Barbara was right." Viktoria finished.

"No, that's impossible. We all know how much they love each other; they can't just break up and keep the facade in front of us. We need to start an investigation." Sarah Z proposed, and everybody agreed.

A few hours later, you were watching a movie with all the team in your room. There was a good atmosphere, and everybody was enjoying the moment until your phone buzzed. You excused yourself and left the room to answer. In less than five minutes, you were back in the room and found your spot next to the tiny midfielder.

"Who was that?" Laura asked you quietly to not bother everyone.

"Oh, it was just Laura who wanted my advice for something." You replied, and your fiancé just nodded before she placed her head against your shoulder.

The next morning, the girls were planning a real plan to do everything they could to not let their favorite couple break apart when they heard someone run to them.

"Girls, please help me." Laura begged with an amused expression. The team didn't have time to process everything until you reached them.

"Okay, you know what? Let's do that in another way." You took a moment to think before you started again. "Okay, in English." 

The entire team was looking at both of you very confusedly.

"Okay. 3...2...1... I love you!" You both said at the same time. The girls were more confused, but you didn't give them time to question anything before you started again. "Now, in Deutsch. 3...2...1... Ich liebe dich." You said again at the same time.

"What's happening here?" Barbara asked.

"Just a minute. Let me finish that." You return your focus to the tiny midfielder. "Now... Je t'aime." You saw her blush, which made you grin. "And?" There was a little silence; all the attention was now on Laura.

"Ti amo." She mumbled, but your face showed her that you didn't understand. She took a breath and focused her gaze on yours: "Ti. Amo. Is this okay now?" 

Instead of replying, you hugged her and crashed your lips against hers. "More than okay." You said with the biggest smile you could ever put on your face right now.

"Okay, what's happening now? I thought you were about to break up. Why are you so lovey-dovey right now?" Manu asked.

"What are you talking about?" You asked, very surprised by her sentence.

"I heard you two talk the first day of the camp, and I thought that you were about to break up because she didn't want to do something or something like that." Barbara confessed.

"First, Barbara, you know that Y/n doesn't when you spy on her. Second, we never thought about breaking up; why could you ever think about it?" Laura explained.

"Wow, now we look stupid." Viktoria said.

"For your information, you always look stupid, like all of you." You said, making your fiancé laugh. "Except for Laura and Sarah Z, of course." You added.

"Okay, that's rude." Your captain said, "But can you explain what just happened?" Laura hid her face in your torso out of shame after remembering why you were both here.

"Oh, it's actually a funny story." You started. "You know that we have known each other since as far as I can remember. But we didn't always play together, so since I came back to Germany after my little trip to France, we decided to establish a rule in our relationship. Every time one of us has to play in another country, they have to learn the local language to say, I love you in this language." You explained.

"Why does that sound cute and dumb at the same time?" Viktoria whispered to your captain.

"Because it is, but she was the one who proposed that, and I can't refuse her anything, so here we are now." Laura defended you.

"But what does this have to do with your behavior from the start of the camp?" The Bayern Sarah asked.

"That's because she didn't want to say it. So I had to chase her everywhere to convince her to say it." You explained.

"I can't wait for the wedding. I would be personally offended if Y/n don't do something dumb like this on  D-day. Manu said. 

When the girls started to ask more questions, the coach called you for training. On your way to the pitch, you had your fingers intertwined with Laura's when she suddenly stopped making you look at her.

Fortunately for you, you didn't have to say anything because she didn't give you time to react before she kissed you. "Ti amo." She said before letting your hand go and running on the pitch.

"Wait, can we get married like today?" You asked while you ran after her.

#woso fanfics #woso x reader #laura feiersinger #laura feiersinger x reader #austriawnt #austriawnt x reader #sarah zadrazil #sarah zadrazil x reader

[waitmyturtles]

BLUBBERING SPOILERS BELOW FOR I FEEL YOU LINGER IN THE AIR, EPISODE 12/FINALE:

YEAH. SO. YEAH. SO!

This can't be meta. I don't think I can conjure it. Just blather. I'll try to be sensible. First, a little housekeeping before we start the meeting:

We know there will be a special episode (the preview looks..... LIKE A GODDAMN HOLIDAY GIFT, GAAAAHHH).

Peeps are going back and forth on a second season, and while it seems that Nonkul Chanon blurted it out during the final episode fan meeting (lol you cute, Nonkul), Tee Bundit is rolling back a bit, *likely* due to funding. But seeing social media going absolutely INSANE over this ending, I can't imagine that Dee Hup will have any issue with finding the moolah for a second season -- especially after that after-credits scene, WITH HORSES, WITH MUSTACHES, WITH TATTOOS, WITH ARMOR, the whole thang. Tee let that shit hang all out like that. Warrior-era Thailand, let's m'fing go. That was a hell of a lead into a second season that may not happen, come awn.

Alright, with that out of the way:

I didn't think a show would top Moonlight Chicken for me this year, but IFYLITA is my top new drama of the year (with the HEAVY CAVEAT that I have not seen La Pluie yet -- that's for either after my Old GMMTV Challenge, or just making sure I watch it before year's end).

Part of the reason why I lost my gatdamn mind last week on episode 11 is that Tee Bundit did not interfere with any damn nonsense last week -- he let the episode's story unwind without any noise. He let the emotion roll.

The same light touch (or rather, a lack of interference) happened here, BUT: there was a LOT more happening firstly by way of closing some loops that were open, moving to new loops, and shedding more depth into Jom and Yai's final moments together

We got closure on Yai's dad, who was grumpily like, uhhh, I dunno what happened in my life, but yeah, daughter Eaung Peang, you go have a good life with Maey, crotchety crotch. I think that's the best we could get from politically involved dads of 1928 Chiang Mai. (EP AND MAEY SWINGING THEIR HANDS WHILE WALKING AWAY -- SAAAHHSHAY FROM ALL THAT, LADIES, SASHAY.) It looks like EP's herbal abortion left her safe -- thank goodness. We didn't see James or Ming this episode.

For loops that weren't closed, I'm not complaining, because we got an explanation for how Jom's beloved ones will repeat in his reincarnated futures and pasts, through the explanation of the northern Thai ceremony of having 32 blessings reinstated to you after illness or misfortune (THREE CHEERS for @blmpff for capturing screenshots of this explanation!). (AND THE WHITE THREAD, PEEPS, THE WHITE THREAD, I'm coming back to this in a second.) If we do get a season 2, then I will not be colored surprised if we see Ming and James in different roles. (And, yes. Your bitch here has relaxed on Pat's shooter, finally. My nose was trained on James being a colonialist interferer, but he did good last episode.)

But this episode belonged, of course, to Yai and Jom, their final moments together in 1928 Chiang Mai, saying the slow farewell as Jom slowly disappeared in front of Yai's eyes.

LORD. WHEWWWWWWWWWWWWW. The lacy fabric with which Yai used to cover the mirrors so that Jom wouldn't see himself fade away. The empathy of that. The scene where we heard their lovemaking over the flashbacks montage. WHEW. WHOA. (I did say, to my friend @shortpplfedup, something something Jom started really fading away after that intimate scene and something something had the ontology cough cough outta him, ANYWAY.)

The way that Yai pitched forward when Jom finally disappeared.

AND I MOTHERFUCKING SCREAMED WHEN JOM AND MUSTACHIOED YAI WERE ABOUT TO TOUCH INTO THE WATER AGAIN, AND THEN THE DIVER EMT WAS LIKE, BLOOP I'M HERE AND OH, JOM, YOU'RE ALIVE IN 2023. I yelped in the deli, shit. The way Jom was silently screaming in the water for Yai.

And, so. In the "present" day (present dimension, really), Jom survived that CRAAAAZY car accident (LIKE! WHAT?! He flew out of the car into the water, bros! The magic of fiction, anyway.)

He.......he holds space for Ohm?! Looking BACK on that scene, AFTER we get the explanation of the 32 blessings, we realize: despite Ohm's infidelity and his promise to a new woman, Ohm is still important in Jom's life -- he's still a beloved presence, as he did mean something, for a long time, to Jom. Of course, modern Jom did NOT let a moment to shade Ohm pass him by, oh no. But wasn't that interesting to note? That Jom's dimensions would allow Ohm to be in those dimensions -- that Ohm would be reincarnated through Jom's 32 blessings (at least in the past direction).

You know what I also loved about seeing Jom in his present-day apartment, with the present-day Jeed, Ohm, and Khaimuk (aka Fong Kaew). I LOVED WHAT THAT CASTING, THE SHIFTING OF THE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS, SAID ABOUT JOM'S PERSPECTIVE OF EQUITY IN 1928 AND 2023.

Jeed is NOT Khun Eaung Peang. Jeed is ALL SASS. But Jeed is YOUNGER than Jom. Jom, in 2023, is P'Jom, with the honorific. Present-day Jom can smack his little sister's head in jest. Jeed can be OUT and SAFE and have a crush on her girl friend, safely, and can ask for her brother's support, OPENLY.

Jom never stopped being Jom, whether it was 2023 pre-accident, 1928, or 2023 post-accident. Jom is comfortable in his own skin, and wants happiness AND EQUITY for the people he loves around him. I love that the casting and characterizations of the incarnations of the characters reflect Jom's state of mind that all people are equal and the same, no matter a fancy honorific or a royally appointed residence.

I screamed at @shortpplfedup when I saw Jom wearing the white thread in bed during the thunderstorm. I stopped, rewound, and saw he was wearing the white thread in the water scene with Warrior Yai. The white thread never left his wrist -- he still has his blessings intact.

And, and, and, back to the house of Palanthip in 2023. Who's the lady of the house? This lady knows Jom's the only one who can open that chest. The chest opens, the drawings are there, THE PICTURE OF THEIR PARTY, AND THE LETTER FROM YAI TO JOM, THE LETTER, THE TEARS, AKSLKDF, AND, AND, AND --

Oh my god, I was crying, y'all. Shit. Just our confident dude, striding in, asking Jom, sweetheart, why are you crying. And Jom jumping into Yai's arms.

I was shaking my head. I mean. I love that we learned that Yai actually HAD HIS OWN BLESSINGS CEREMONY because he was so lost after Jom's departure. WE LEARNED ABOUT THE REST OF YAI'S LIFE. We know, now, that the Yai of 1928 yearned for Jom for the rest of his life. So much so that, at the twilight of the life of 20th-century Yai, that he had the good mind to leave Jom a letter, to let Jom know that his life was a good life, because Jom had been in it. To let Jom know that Yai's love had never faded away.

AND THEN THAT YAI CAME BACK TO JOM.

Jom, dude, you're a good dude, for these good people to be coming back to you, in dimension after dimension. That monk was right.

I told you this was just blathering; I can try to put some sensible thoughts together in a few days, but the structure of this story, the empathy of this story, the way this story was leveraged by drama and romance and HOPE. I mean. This series was utterly fantastic.

I know there's the lifelong debate of whether or not BLs "count" as queer media, and in many, many instances, they do. But since I've had the disappointment of Only Friends and GMMTV on my mind lately, I had to note, mentally, particularly during the lovemaking scene, and during the closure of this episode, that Tee really fucking handed it to anyone who criticizes BL as a not-as-sophisticated drama genre.

And you know what? I also wanna say that Tee fucking handed it to GMMTV as well. I am so DAMN glad this series was airing when Only Friends was airing. While Only Friends sat on the opportunity to present progressive ideas on queer love and queer community, IFYLITA ROLLED right into it.

(I'll ask @lurkingshan to fact-check me on the following:) Because this series was a historical drama with a queer romance centering it, I think Tee Bundit could feel free from the chains of BL tropes and expectations to do something truly singular. I felt that what I was watching was cinematic, it was moving, it was strikingly emotional, particularly because I felt that this show was showing me something that transcended any viewer's expectations of what we should be watching, as opposed to, say, a BL set in an office like Tee's Step By Step. Where that show fumbled was in the show itself not knowing if it was a workplace drama or a BL-centric romance.

IFYLITA knew what it was: a historical drama, certainly centering romance, but also balancing conversations about equity and wealth disparities across eras. With that uncomplicated centering, I think Tee Bundit made an absolutely BRILLIANT show, and it fucking WORKED.

I will scream to anyone who'll hear me. If you haven't watched I Feel You Linger In The Air yet, do it, PLEASE PLEASE. Y'all know I am an Aof Noppharnach girlie for life, and I LIVE FOR MOONLIGHT CHICKEN, I DO, I DO, all of my Asian references in MLC and the food and everything, god I loved that show, but --

IFYLITA was a cinematic masterpiece. Full stop. All hail @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan for telling me to keep with it after my Step By Step-PTSD. This show was worth every last minute I spent watching and writing on it.

Season 2, Warrior Yai, let's get him a better mustache -- let's FUCKING GO, BABIES.

P.S. BRIGHT AND NONKUL FOR LIFE, FOR LIFE!!!!!!! THE ACTING!!!!!! MY GOD!!!!!

#i feel you linger in the air #ifylita #best show of the year #tee bundit #bright rapheephong #nonkul chanon #i feel you linger in the air meta #ifylita meta

[canirove]

In The Name of Love | Epilogue

Author's note: And we've made it to the end! 😞 Thank you very much to everyone who has read this story and for all your support and comments, they mean a lot! 💜 Especially when I'm writing for someone new and I don't know how people will react 😅 Hope you like this chapter and that've you've enjoyed the story as a whole, and again, thank you very much for the support! Hopefully there will be more Pedri in the future 😁🫶🏻

Previous chapter

Masterlist

"Pedri, are you ok?" Eric laughs.

"Better than ever."

"Then why can't you stop moving?"

"I'm just excited about going out and play" Pedri says. "First game of the season, you know?"

"Yeah, first game of the season" Gavi snorts.

"Umm… what did I miss?" Eric asks.

"Nothing" Pedri says.

"Everything" Gavi laughs.

"You two aren't making any sense."

"Wait until we are outside" Gavi says before walking into the pitch for their warm-up, Pedri behind him.

"Outside?" Eric says to himself, following them.

As they leave the tunnel, Pedri turns to look to his left, a big smile on his face when he waves at someone on the stands. 

"Bro, move" one of their teammates says after bumping into Eric, who had stopped walking and was blocking the entrance. 

"Sorry, sorry" he says, his eyes still fixed on the stands, on the person Pedri had waved to, the one smiling at the pitch while her eyes follow him as he runs and jumps around: Val.

"Ouch!" Pedri complains when Eric hits the back of his head. "Why did you do that?"

"Val is here."

"I know" he smiles.

"Are you guys back together?"

"We are."

"And why did you tell Gavi and not me? I thought we were friends!"

"And we are. But he came to visit me unannounced the other day, Val was with me, and…" Pedri shrugs.

"Does anyone else know? Ferran?" Eric asks him.

"Only her friend Silvia because she was present when we made up.”

“Present? How?”

“It's a long story, I'll tell you later. But no one else knows. We've wanted to keep it for ourselves for a while."

"After today it won't be like that anymore."

"We know. But we are ready for it. This time we truly are" he says, looking at her.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"He is going to score. I can feel it" Marina says.

"Are you sure that that thing you are feeling isn't all the popcorn you've eaten?" I chuckle.

"You are so not funny, Val" she replies, rolling her eyes. "But I had missed it."

"Feeling full because you ate too many popcorn?"

"Your mean comments" she says, hitting my arm. "You say these things when you are happy. And you are very happy, aren't you?"

"Very" I smile.

"So very happy that we are back to sitting front row with the other wags!"

"And you are loving it."

"So much" Marina grins. "Oh, corner! This is his chance."

As she says that, the ball gets to Pedri and…

"Goal!" Marina and I scream, getting up from our seats and hugging.

"I told you! I freaking told you!"

"You did, yes" I laugh.

"Val!" I hear someone call from the pitch. "Val!"

"What?" I say, letting go of Marina and turning around. 

"Val! Val, that was for you!" Pedri yells. "I love you!" he says before doing my celebration, the one he hadn't done in months.

"I love you too" I smile, feeling my cheeks on fire and the eyes of everyone on me, some definitely taking photos and videos. But I don't care anymore. "Now go back to the game and lose it."

"So mean, Valeria!" he laughs before joining his teammates, most of them teasing him about what he just did.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Thank you for losing."

"You are not welcome" Pedri replies while hugging me.

"Rude" I laugh.

"As if you weren't loving it."

"Just a bit" I reply, wrapping my arms around his neck. We are alone in the middle of the Camp Nou, only a few staff members who are working on the pitch or cleaning around the stands making us company.

"But it was worth it. Because now the whole world knows that I love you and that I'm not afraid of saying it."

"We aren't afraid of saying it" I correct him.

"Exactly. They aren't going to hurt us, because we are stronger than ever." 

"And it's all in the name of love" I sing.

"We should make that our song."

"It is our song."

"Since when?" he laughs.

"Since I ended up with no voice after singing it in Ibiza that night."

"You mean the night that we said I love you for the first time" he smiles.

"The very same, yes."

"Sing it again."

"What?"

"Sing it again."

"Here?"

"Why not?" Pedri shrugs.

"You are crazy" I laugh.

"For you? Yeah. Completely bonkers. But c'mon, Val. I wanna testify…"

"No."

"Scream in the holy light…"

"Pedri…"

"You bring me back to life…"

"And it's all in the name of love" I sing.

"I didn't hear you, Val" he says with a teasing smile.

"And it's all in the name of love" I sing a bit louder.

"Nope, nothing. C'mon, Val. It's just you and I. You bring me back to life…" he sings.

"And it's all in the name of love!"

"Louder!"

"In the name of love, name of love! In the name of…"

"Love" Pedri says before kissing me. A kiss that, a few minutes later, ends up being everywhere because someone has seen us and taken a photo. But we don't care about those things anymore, about what people think or say. 

We just care about us, about our love. One that isn't going anywhere whether they like it or not. 

Because this love is one of the special ones, one of those that happens once in a lifetime, one of those you think only happens in romance books and movies. One that is forever. 

━━━━❃━━━━ FIN ━━━━❃━━━━

#pedri #pedri gonzalez #pedri fanfic #pedri gonzalez fanfic #pedri imagine #pedri gonzalez imagine #football fanfic #football imagine

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

My memory is terrible so I wanted to do a breakdown of my stuff every once in a while. Might be monthly, might be whenever I feel like it.

BL - Currently Watching

7 Days Before Valentine [11/12] - Unlike some other shows, this one is actually getting better towards the end. I appreciate that Sunshine did some self reflection and became a better human being and I really enjoy the visuals here. Also, 7 days before valentine we will watch the finale, so that's neat.

Cherry Magic Th [7/12]– I like what the thai version is doing with the source material, I think they are being really smart and I'm so happy I got to watch the shopping date and the helicopter ride that were missing from the japanese live action.

Cherry Magic Anime [4/12]– I'm enjoying all the parallels way too much. Part of me wishes that it had stayed closer to the manga but since I get that also from Thailand, I can't complain.

Cooking Crush [9/12]– My expectations weren’t as low as maybe other people because I'm a OffGun fan but I am enjoying this show way more than I thought. It’s so refreshing to see good communication and well rounded characters that are given the space to work stuff out and be honest with each other. I feel for Samsee, cause, been there.

Dead Friend Forever [6/12]– this show continues to surprise me every week. I’m a big horror and slasher fan so for the premise alone I was gonna watch it. But I’m liking the way they chose to structure this story, moving from the slasher bit to the past at that moment was really smart. The visuals are so strong in this and I’m enjoying the communal murdering impulses towards the original friend group.

Ossan's Love Returns [3/12] - It’s chaos but the kind that only Japan can get away with for me. That season opener alone would’ve made me stop watching if it wasn’t for that. But the thing about these characters for me is that they get to be this ridiculous because it’s all grounded in such heart and kindness towards each other. It's a balancing act that only Japan can deliver at this level.

Playboyy [10/14] – I applaud the effort to make something new and out of the bl box, I think the show is trying to talk about interesting things and there are moments where the visuals are very strong. However, the acting is the weakest part of the whole thing and so I cannot connect to the characters, which leaves the whole experience kinda empty for me.

Although I Love You, and You? [3/10]- Japan my beloved. What’s there to say? Sakae is my new favourite boy and I’m really enjoying these two bridging the gap in their personalities.

The Sign [10/12]– Phaya and Tharn are delightful. Yai is the bestest boy ever. But there’s too many loose threads considering we only have 2 episodes left. There’s still to much going on and the investigation part of it just seems too disconnected for me to care. I really hope they're not counting on a special or a second season to wrap this up.

BL - Finished

Last Twilight – No need to repeat myself. here and here

Love for Love's Sake - What a wonderful surprise this was. Yeo Woon is one of the most adorable characters of all time and I seriously cannot handle it. From the beginning there was always a cloud over the whole story and I think in the end it all came together really well, to give us a happy ending that feels earned. Also really appreciated the way the story dealt with the triangle. Most of the time I hate them with a passion so I was really happy that Sang Won didn't just disappear and stayed in the group and kept teasing Yeo Woon. And now I'm just suppose to move on?

Night Dream – I liked the beginning a lot, but, as it’s becoming increasingly frequent, it dipped as it approached the end and although I liked how it finished I wasn’t a fan of the path to get there. Time skip once again not used well.

Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun - I have not seen the finale yet but I didn't want to wait so I might update this post when I watch it. However, Toki is my favourite boy, and I just want him to be happy.

VIP Only – Cute but ultimately forgettable.

Rose Watches OJBL

So this month I started my journey into older jbl stuff in order to have a bigger understanding of the landscape and what came before. With the help of the amazing @twig-tea I've started this journey with 2 films: Ai no Kotodama (2008) - Such a wonderful way to start this adventure. Really enjoyed this film. Without spoiling it, I understand that the beginning of the film might turn some people off of it but I think it's actually really smart and purposeful. I would definitely recommend it.

No Touching At All (2014) - Also really enjoyed this one. The direction is really interesting I thought. I feel it's all very intentional and it reflects very well the characters state of mind.

And because Cherry Magic opened the anime gates I also watched:

Given (2019) - This is SO GOOD. This show rewired my brain. Just now I was listening to THE SONG and I got emotional again. Every once in a while I enter this mindset where I feel like nothing that I watch can surprise me anymore. Then I watched this show. My thoughts after watching can be found here.

Not BL - Watched this month

The Killing Vote Taxi Driver 2 Vigilante Fermat no Ryori

Well, that's it I guess. Now I have to go and make some Love for Love's Sake gifs because I just can't move on and need to live there a little longer. Speaking of gifs, I'm always happy to take gif requests so let me know.

💜💜💜

#rose rambles #rosy watchlist #7 days before valentine #love for love's sake #pit babe the series #playboyy the series #although i love you and you #cherry magic th #cherry magic anime #no touching at all #Ai no Kotodama #given anime #the sign #ossan's love #cooking crush #multi bl #Rose Watches OJBL

[greenconverses]

What's your overall verdict on the show?

Oh, I'm glad you asked because I was def planning on doing a post about it!

Overall, I'm giving the first season a solid B. It was a fairly solid interpretation all around and it nailed the feeling of the books from the very beginning. I had a lot of fun watching it and I'm excited to see where they go from here if they get another season or two (and so help me if the mouse doesn't renew!!!!!) now that the world and characters has been established. It was a big task to properly adapt this, and they did it!

Casting was absolutely stellar and is the main reason why the show succeeds the way it does. The main trio are so very good, especially Walker, who had to be the heart and soul of the show, and he nailed it every episode. I'm excited to see how they all grow as actors in future seasons or with new projects! Also, the supporting cast was fabulous. There were weak spots here and there (LMM) but overall, excellent work by the casting director.

I loved the set design and how they brought the world to life. I'd like to see some more fun with costuming next season (why the same outfits for the whole parts of the quest? give us variety!) and I hope we get to see what they'll do with some of the sets next season.

Areas that need improvement are the script and directing. None of the action scenes really wow'd me and the blocking in some episodes was weird. I complained by story pacing since episode one and that issue never really resolved itself. If they'd gone for a 10 episode season, or extended the shorter episodes by like 5-10 minutes, I think some of these issues would've gotten resolved. There wasn't a lot of time to breathe and sit when big things happened; going from the throne room straight into Luke's betrayal scenes is a recent example where I think the episode could've padded it out some. A lot of the story felt rushed when it didn't need to be.

Unfortunately, by spending so much time with the Sally/Poseidon and Percy backstory, some of the character development and world building for everyone else got sacrificed. BUT I adored those additions, so I'm not mad about it, just disappointed that the rest of the characters didn't get that. (Again, I liked the framing they did with Luke and Percy in the last episode, and showing those scenes gave a little bit more weight to his betrayal... but it could have been more.)

I've already bitched about my other issues with the script (exposition is a scene killer!) and I'm like vaguely annoyed that some of the main beats/themes of the first book were ignored, but they usually replaced it with something better or at least in-line with what had been established in series. Again, I'm not a super stickler to "It has to be 100% accurate!" thinking when it comes to book adaptations, so I didn't mind some of the changes as much as other parts of fandom might've.

So yeah, I'm satisfied. I'm going to miss having something to look forward to on Tuesday nights!

#anon #ask box #pjo tv #pjo tv show #jess watches pjo