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#like flying cockroaches but less terrifying
lilac-5ky · 11 months
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Hi there! Your writing is awesome!!! I love your headcanons and fics as they feel so spot on ❤️❤️❤️
I have a request if you are accepting - imma be angsty today - do you have any headcanons for Gintoki when he realizes he loves someone who was in love with him too late?
Thank you for this awesome blog!!! Makes my day to see posts!
A/N: Hi! It's been ages since I've done a request, but I was feeling generous (bad about being this lazy) and thought I'd give it a shot! Turned out more like a mini thing than headcanons lmao oops. HOPE THIS WAS GOOD ENOUGH, HAVEN'T WRITTEN ANYTHING FOR GINTOKI IN AGES, and THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORDS! Hearing such lovely words is enough to make my day!
Warning: Didn't proofread .-. Angst
Gintoki was a bastard. Nothing new or foreign in particular. Everyone acquainted to the silver-haired samurai could name at least 10 negative traits of his, struggling to name just one good quality that would redeem him.
Everyone, except of you, that was. You didn't see Gintoki as the lazy, parasitic, sleazy, sadistic, gambling-addicted drunkard (wow he really has a lot of negatives) they made him out to be. You saw Gintoki for the kindhearted man that he was. The one who went around risking the color of his soul just to save another. The one who was whatever those around him wanted him to be: a friend, a brother, a hero, and why not a lover?
Admiration turned into Infatuation, tricking your heart into thinking you loved him. You'd linger around Yorozuya, offloading whatever menial task you could think of just for the chance to see him. Be it cleaning the leaves from your porch, killing that one cockroach that had sneaked in (one that had him running laps around the house while screaming for help) and even being your plus one to the wedding of a friend.
You dreamed of a day when you wouldn't have to come up with excuses for his company, and seeing as there were only so many times you could call him up to unplug your toilet before you ran low on cash, you decided to pour your heart out.
Kagura and Shinpachi knew. So when you asked Gintoki if he could meet you at your place on his own, they dolled him up and sent him your way with a "Good Luck" whose meaning he didn't quite understood until he saw you cradling a heart shaped box of chocolates-- plush cheeks flushing red, while pink lips curved into a shy smile.
"Gin-toki," the name shattered on your tongue. "I... I love you. Go out with me, please."
He stared at you for quite a while, as if you'd just uttered the world's most complicated joke. He wasn't sure if he should laugh or ask you if he knew what kind of crap you'd spat, and him being eager to verify his reputation chose the second.
"The yard seems clean enough to me. I'll be going now," he said, rejecting not just you, but the boxes of chocolate as it fell open onto the ground.
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The next few hours were the hardest. Sleeping on the same pillow where you daydreamed all about your future with him felt like sleeping on glasses of your shattered dreams. Not even an answer, not a single explanation. He'd broken your heart with such ease that it terrified you. How plausible was it that in this new era of canine looking Amanto and flying cars some alien had taken over his body and wore it around like a heart-less, soul-less puppet?
Denial.
It was easier to deny all that had transpired and pretended it never happened. You even passed by Yorozuya the next morning, willing to give this another chance, telling yourself that man wasn't Gintoki. But when you saw his apathetic face reading the newest Jump and picking his nose even in your presence, you couldn't stop the tears from streaming down your puffy eyes.
Anger.
It didn't take long for you to join the ranks of Gintoki's haters, seeing the man as nothing short of the Devil himself. Every terrible thing that happened, you pinned on him. Bumping onto the kitchen cabinet? He was jinxing you from afar. Running out of gas in the middle of town? He must have stolen it while you were asleep. A terrorist attack nearby? Weren't those goons Gintoki's old war-pals? Every natural phenomena, every misfortune of this world and the next was Gintoki's fault. Love? The mere notion that you once loved him made you laugh. Hatred was all you had left.
Bargaining
With each passing day, you felt your fury redirecting at you, gnawing and clawing at your insides, while small "What If's" plagued your mind like maggots. What if you hadn't confessed that day? What if instead of your place you'd called him to a restaurant? What if you'd gotten a different brand of chocolates? What if--
Depression
You couldn't remember when the last time you'd gotten out of bed was. Balled up tissues framed the four corners of the room, the tears contained in them enough to cause a shipwreck. You didn't want to see anyone anymore, afraid that if you did you'd spot a resemblance between them and the man your heart longed to see the most. You didn't hate him anymore... you missed him. You missed the sound of his name so badly that it threaded itself between pitiful chokes and sobs like a rosary.
You missed him.
Acceptance
The days in your calendar kept shifting until a month had passed. Taking baby steps, you'd done your best to return to an inchoate routine. You woke up, washed your teeth, showered, checked the functionality of your toilet's flush, ate breakfast and went to work, where you stayed until the stack of paperwork diminished, and until you were rewarded for your efforts in the form of a promotion. Your coworkers cheered for you, and for a moment life felt good again because you'd stopped searching for the familiar hue of a silver mop.
You were fine.
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The route Gintoki took to and from the pachinko parlor he frequented was predetermined. On hot days, he'd stop by that one ice cream joint with the world's greatest (and most affordable) soft serve. On cold days, he'd trade that for a warm bowl of red bean soup. Then he'd be on his way to the convenient store to grab the latest Jump and finish his day with a drink at the old hag's place.
Gintoki always took the same route, except of that one day he hadn't. The worn-out soles of his black boots carried him in the opposite direction of all those places and even home, bringing him to stand outside the two-floor house with the porch that needing cleaning regardless of season; your house.
He hadn't heard anything from you since God knows how long, and why would he? No one needed to remind him how much of a jerk he'd been, for the words in his brain repeated like a broken record he couldn't afford fixing. He was worse than a jerk. A despicable caricature of a man that couldn't own to the fact that he'd grown fond of you the same way you'd come to love him.
The look of absolute endearment whenever your eyes spotted him, a look that didn't change despite the crudeness of his actions. He loved that. The shaky fluctuations in your tone whenever he'd sit close enough to feel your hair tingling his face. He loved that, too. The smile that shone as bright as the sun itself and the little hand that waved at him -gosh, how he longed to hold that hand in his and compare the difference in size- goodbye. He loved that all so much. Too much. He loved you.
Or else why would he be standing out there when his beloved weather girl had issued a thunderstorm warning?
With his hands buried in his pockets, Gintoki circled the picket fence of your porch, head tilting between the wooden cracks at a chance to see your face. How was he supposed to start? Would an apology do? Would letting himself be beaten by that rusty rake or drenched from head to toe by your garden's hose do? How many "I love you's" would he need to spell out to convince you he was any less of a bastard than you made him out to be? What would it take for your forgiveness?
His fingers weaved through locks of silver, threatening to pluck them out. If he told you the truth, that he thought you deserved something better than a basket case samurai with no more than 300 yen in his name, he'd seem like a complete idiot. If he told you that the ghosts of the past he'd tried so hard to evade were catching up to him, you'd mistake him for a coward. And if he selfishly grabbed your hand and forced it against his chest, he knew he'd never be able to hear the three little words that directly countered those you'd said before.
"Gintoki, what are you doing here?"
The track of guilt gave way to the sweetest melody known to his ears, hope daring spur him on. He wore his gentlest smile and turned around to face you, the same hope digging like a knife inside his wretched heart at the sight of fingers -ten, in total- intertwined together, five of them belonging to you and the other to a man whose face didn't matter. All that mattered was the joy plastered on your pursed lips, one he saw fade away the second your eyes locked. One that was meant for him no more.
"The yard seems clean enough to me," he pointed beyond the fence, boots diving in the first of Ketsuno Ana's warnings as the sorrowful record resumed.
"I'll be going now."
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citrusreadstoa · 1 year
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Reading The Burning Maze: Chapter 1 (SPOILERS)
"To Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy / I hope you're pleased with yourself" Melpomene is laughing in the distance. She's very pleased.
"NO. I refuse to share this part of my story." Oki doki. *closes book* We're done for the day. Jkjkjk he's just embarassed.
"In these pages, only suffering awaits." I love suffering! Gimme more!
"across pits of darkness and around lakes of poison" We were lied to. The Labyrinth is not any less malicious than before. Does this sound like a tamer Labyrinth to you?
"Except that our cloven guide, the satyr Grover Underwood, did not seem to know the way." You think the satyr that is terrified of the underground knows his way around the underground? Y'all delusional. You want a Labyrinth guide, get Rachel. I'm assuming Grover will be of more help later on if and when they go into the Labyrinth again.
"The bumps of his horns were clearly visible beneath the hat." What happened to the rasta cap? I guess everyone needs a change of pace now and then.
"Like... cacti." Like saguaro cacti?! Like the cacti the Erymanthian Boar ate when it dropped the questing party off at the junkyard of the gods?! The lands of scorching death line is killing me, man.
"I just didn't think we'd be wandering around down here for two days." How can you be sure it's been two days? Percabeth got stuck in the Labyrinth for a couple minutes and a full hour passed outside. Please tell me you've been keeping track whenever you poke out into the regular world.
"Perhaps I was too brusque," BRUSQUE (adj.): abrupt or offhand in speech or manner
"And plenty of our own fires." . . . "Best not to talk about it... here." Grover! If we're all gonna die, we need to know so we can make the best of our last days on this Earth! Are the walls listening or something? Don't you dare tell me yet another shoulda-been-dead person is controlling this damn maze again.
"His expression turned wistful," Idk about you, but I would not be wistful about almost dying in a living maze where no one but the walls will hear me scream.
"perhaps coffee and lemon-maple cronuts" CRONUT (n.): (paraphrasing Wikipedia) Invented and trademarked in 2013 by French pastry chef Dominique Ansel, the Cronut is a doughnut-like pastry made from croissant-like dough, filled with flavored cream, and fried in grapeseed oil.
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"I wanted to believe my powers were simply recharging." Storybook characters never catch the cold. Fantasy characters' powers are never "just recharging."
"I couldn't even remember the taste of ambrosia, or the names of my sun-chariot horses, or the face of my twin sister, Artemis." That is incredibly concerning. We're talking about something he ate every day, horses he saw and drove every day, and his twin sister with whom he grew up and spent time with -- all three of these every day for thousands of years. His memory deteriorates along with his powers? It's this bad?!
"across the corridor in front of us roared a sheet of yellow fire," Eyyy, cover art!
"But we've wandered into his part of the maze." The Triumvirate's part. The part that belongs to the third emperor. "SCREEE!" The cry of a giant fire-breathing basilisk, I bet. Or a giant fire-breathing cockroach. Serpents and roaches?
"Some sort of avian creature." Giant flying fire-breathing basilisks! Oh wait, the owls. Right. Owls on the cover.
"Grover whipped out his panpipe . . . Meg knelt before the seeds" Super Gardening Bros! Wahoo!
"using its thick black tongue" Do owls have tongues that long? "My sight grew fuzzy. My knees turned to rubber." Does it sap his energy by drinking his blood?
"Strix" That word means nothing to me. I know jack diddly squat about strixes. "Well, killing it could be a problem." Can never kill monsters these day. All endangered species this and invulnerable hide that. Back in my day, you just sliced its head off and that was that.
"giggle nectar" I'm sorry? You tellin' me that the divine equivalent of anesthesia is officially, professionally, and canonically called giggle nectar?
"K-killing the bird will curse you" So it's an arai-lite.
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gunsatthaphan · 2 years
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What’s the bug situation in Thailand based on your experience? 👀 I would really like to go but I’m terrified of spiders and other crawling/flying insects. I mean we don’t really see a lot of them in Europe and it might be a shock for me
never thought I would ever talk about bugs on this blog dsjhgks
but honestly I was scared too and I guess it depends on the season and the region but for me, it was less terrible than I expected. 
I would say the worst things in Phuket were the mosquitos and ants. Mosquito bites are brutal and ants can be annoying when they somehow manage to sneak into your room (mostly when it rains) so yeah watch out for those lol. 
As for Bangkok, I had a cockroach in my bathroom but other than that I haven’t had any encounters lol. I don’t wanna jinx it but I haven’t seen a single spider yet lol 👀🤞🏻
I guess just make sure to bring bug spray or any kind of repellent and some stuff for potential mosquito bites and you should be fine 😉 
xxx
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liz-allyn · 1 year
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hello darling I’m so sorry about your flight that really sucks also sorry if i spammed you or something I get really excited to talk to you but please let me know if it’s a bit to overwhelming and I’ll be sure to take it down a notch also ma’am ma’am ?!?! Pt ten broke my heart just when I thought I had a vague idea where this story was going you pull the rug from under feet with cliffhangers and twists that have me on the edge of my seat I’m scared for honey I can totally understand the feeling of having no way out and that she has been dealt a hand that she can’t fight but she’s falling in love ahh 😌 not good but I can’t wait for them to fuck you have me biting my nails and hiding my phone from my family as i read through the chapter in the back of my dads car the way the words lift of the screen and I can almost see them in that closet room staring each other down shaking trembling oooh and well I have to say I’m somewhat looking forward to the gore the story is going to bring in it terrifies me but in a I’m falling of a cliff feeling like flying and not ready for the bone crush I just want my babies to have a happy ending also the little tid bit about him buying the cabin because that’s where Ben and may met is so cute in my little head canon they get married in that ground and make babies in the house after everything is as normal as can be and John oh boy I actually don’t look forward to having him in the story I look at him like Janet van dyne looked at honey in the bathroom scene like a cockroach not worthy of my attention a wrench in my not so perfect Swiss watch an exception in my perfectly flowing periodic table also the details that you so carefully weave into the story especially about her neighbour dying and how it’s perfectly playing into her fear of having more people die for her when she views her life as worth less oh it’s breaks my heart into two clean parts can’t wait for more lots of love take care
🌌
Oh my gosh, I'm totally with you. That closet scene? Ummfmffff.
Today I wrote the opening scene of Part 11 and I made the mistake of going to a coffee shop and it's been SO AWKWARD writing filth with these strangers and old people discussing club and church right next to me. 😬
Anyway, I'm really glad you liked this chapter!
Also, don't feel like you're spamming me! You're not a bother at all. Only thing, I might not be able to respond for a few days. And sometimes I'll try to address multiple notes at once. Finding alone time to read and write is so hard! But you're such a positive person, it's always nice hearing from you!
take care!
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asecretthirdthing · 2 years
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I fucking. I can’t with these bugs. I fucking hate these bugs. I fucking hate them. The cockroaches. They’re huge. I don’t want to kill them. I don’t want to live peacefully with them. I’ve stepped on so many barefoot throughout my life. I woke up to one crawling on me once. I hate even picking them up I seriously can’t do it I’ve never lived alone so I’ve never had to but like ok so also they’re living creatures so I don’t want to fucking kill them but I have to. And these things around this time of year get so fucking huge and sometimes they fly. There’s one in the kitchen right now dead, it’s antennae are the length of my index finger. And then I’m on my toes like so jumpy scared I keep thinking I’m seeing them and screaming. Videos of cockroaches are fine, pictures are fine, even if there was one contained in a jar or something I’m like hey these things are cool. But any situation where they can touch me I’m terrified. I’ve been in situations where they have and did I die? No. Am I any less scared? No.
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quirrrky · 3 years
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Hello! I'm new to your blog and I was wondering if maybe you could do a Zenitsu x Fem!reader where she acts all confident and sassy but the second she sees an insect she shows how much of a coward she really is?
LOVE BUG —» scenario (comedy) —» zenitsu x reader —» A/N: Tbh, I never thought I could pull this one off until I did. Hopefully, I did it right though. 
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When faced with demons, you always have this brave face on. You never waver and you were known in the corps for your immense courage that your fellow mizunoto admire you greatly including the cowardly Agatsuma Zenitsu.
A giant demon appeared, you spared no second to attack. Shinazugawa Sanemi lashed out on you, you didn’t even flinch and even stood your ground. A colleague challenged you on a fight and you defeated him—“Why don’t you go back to your training” was what you told him. 
Need less to say those were the exact reasons you scared the hell out of Zenitsu and piqued his interest at the same time. At first, he started out by simply observing you then trying his best to be at your level. 
For this very reason, he was both super excited and nervous when he finally got to train with you. However, he didn’t expect that things would get this difficult.
“Come on, Zenitsu. Don’t cry over something like that.” You said after he surrendered on the swimming regimen. 
“I can’t I just can’t anymore, Y/N-chan” He sobbed.
“Seriously,” you rolled your eyes, when a bug appeared and you sure as hell your soul jumped out of your body. You ran up behind him, “Oh my god! Oh my god! Zenitsu!”
“Y-Y/N-chan?” He’s immediately reddened as you took cover and use him as shield.
“I-Is it what I think it is?” You asked him nervously and perhaps tearfully. 
“What do you mean, uh…It’s a cockroach.” He said, as matter-of-factly.
“Yes, I know! I know that! Exactly!” (>,<) You almost cried. 
“W-Why, Y/N-chan? Don’t worry, I got it. It’s just a cockroach.” Zenitsu asssured you with a smile. 
“L-Look…No! It’s flying! It’s flying! It’s the flying kind! Take it away! Take it away!” You hugged him tight trying to cover yourself from the flying cockroach with his body as Zenitsu tried his best thunderclap and flash the perceived enemy. 
“Here, it’s gone now. ” He finally announced as he got rid of the cockroach. He went forward you rubbed soothing circles on your back. “That’s alright. I understand. I totally understand. I get scared with so many things too that’s why I understand it when Y/N-chan is scared of cockroaches.”
You started calming down upon hearing his empathizing words and seeing his warm smile. Soon, the anxiety was replaced with something uncannily warm inside. 
That day, you began admiring Zenitsu for still facing his fears despite feeling so damn terrified through it all. 
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REBLOGS ARE DEEPLY APPRECIATED ♡ Please help me reach other viewers as tumblr tags often don’t work on me. Thank you so so much! 
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☾ COLLECTIONS: Zenitsu ✧ KNY ☾ ✧ DAYDREAM MUSEUM ✧
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swampofiniquity · 4 years
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Gasoline (Leon Kennedy x Reader)
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Part Three of Point / Counterpoint
Rated: Explicit
Word Count: 2829
Summary:  It took several years and almost being killed on the job, but you and Leon finally reach the breaking point.
Warnings: Explicit sex, rough sex, unprotected sex, fighting
Part One / Part Two
You could feel the judgmental gazes of the rest of the team, could hear their frustrated muttering as they filed in behind you. Someone even dared to joke, quiet laughter breaking out until a sharp warning glare from Leon sent people scattering like cockroaches after the light switched on.
So much for all the hard work you had put in to earn their respect.
Your fists were clenched so tightly that your fingers ached and your palms stung from your nails digging into the tender flesh. Your tongue was bleeding from being held so tightly between your teeth for the hours it took for the mission party to return to HQ. It was all you could do to keep your frustration from exploding all over the place like a fifth grade science fair volcano.
You were beyond furious. Rage, white and hot coursed through your blood, searing your veins as Leon shoved you bodily into the elevator, his own anger rolling off him in sickening waves. Never before had either of you been so upset with one another.
The indignity of being thrown over his shoulder and removed from the mission like a petulant child. The utter disregard for your expertise or competency as an agent. The fucking audacity to stand between you and your target, to yell at you in front of the whole team. As the elevator climbed, you could concentrate on nothing else, not the vice-like grip he still had on your arm or the acrid, lingering scent of gunpowder on your clothes. Not even the nagging worry in the back of your head that this had done irreparable damage to your friendship.
After what seemed like forever, the elevator finally stopped at the top floor and Leon shoved you out, dragging you to his office and locking the door. He turned to you with a kindred fury burning in his blue eyes.
The room echoed with two warring shouts of “What the hell is wrong with you?” and “You nearly got yourself killed!”
“Goddamnit Leon, he was right there! Another second and I could have had him if you hadn’t -” you cut yourself off, fuming. Your hands shook as you slid off the ridiculous stiletto heels that were part of your disguise. It took every ounce of what little remained of your restraint to not hurl the uncomfortable shoes at his office window.
While you primarily served as medical support out in the field, being the youngest woman on the team you also did a fair amount of what was jokingly referred to as ‘honey pot’ missions, where your job was to dress a certain way, go in and extract information from or otherwise distract targets that had a known weakness for women. It was a bit demeaning having to show up to work in a thong and push-up bra, but you had been instrumental in putting some pretty big players in the B.O.W. market out of commission. You were damn good at your job, even in a dress and heels.
And you had never failed at it, until tonight.
“We had a plan!” he roared, stalking towards you until you were forced to take a step back. “You were not to engage until backup was ready. His security made you, you realize that right? Another second and you would have been dead!”
You shook your head, bristling under his glare, his anger feeding into your own. “You of all people should have trusted me!”
Leon growled, grabbing your shoulders and shoving you hard into the wall. A twisted, pained sort of scowl marred his face. Still furious, even beyond the shock of his actions, you bared your teeth at him in a cruel smile. You weren’t some spineless rookie agent he couldn't intimidate, and you were going to just let him manhandle you into submission.
After a tense moment, he finally took a step back and let you go. Leon rolled his neck and turned to walk to his desk, to put some distance between the two of you. But somehow, the sight of his back made you even more livid.
“Coward,” you hissed.
He was back in a second, pushing you roughly into the wall with his bulk and grabbing you by the throat. For a fleeting, terrifying second you thought he meant to squeeze, but then he leaned down and pressed his mouth to yours so forcefully you were sure your lips would bruise.
It was less kissing than combat, the resulting embrace. It was remarkable how easy it was to go from hate to need. Or perhaps more aptly, for the two to blur together so seamlessly. As soon as you felt his hard body up against you and his lips pull viciously at your own, the boiling blood under your skin took on a different purpose.
It didn't matter that he was your friend or your superior or that he had just humiliated you on the job. Years of tension came to head spectacularly, leaving the two of you powerless to do anything but give in.
Your frantic hands clawed at his jacket as he gripped your waist and hauled you up, forcing you to wrap your legs around him. The ragged fabric of your once elegant gown, now torn and dirty from the harrowing failure of a mission, rucked up past your hips.
“Oh fuck,” you panted against his mouth, instinctively grinding into him. Leon groaned into the kiss and your head spun as you felt him harden through his pants.
"Jesus, gorgeous." Hit bit down on your lips as he pressed his growing erection further into you.
You were flushed. The room and your blood too hot. Your skin too sensitive. Your clothes felt like they were suffocating you. Desperately, you tried to reach the zipper of your dress with one shaking hand, the other anchoring tightly around his neck. But you couldn’t quite grasp it. A frustrated whine caught in your throat.
“Get me outta this,” you demanded, tearing your mouth from his. Leon nipped at your lips before reluctantly returning your bare feet to the floor.
Instead of bothering with the zipper, he used both hands to rip the satin fabric of your dress, the rasping sound of it tearing making you wince. What remained of the dress fell off you and pooled at your feet. His darkened eyes tracked its movement down your body and your feverish skin erupted in goosebumps under his gaze.
“Fuck,” he grunted and you weren’t sure what felt more intoxicating, finally being free of the restricting clothes or his reaction to your bared body.
You answered by throwing yourself back into his arms with enough force to make him stumble. He found his balance while you found the pulse point on the side of his neck and bit down. Leon gasped then sucked in air between his teeth as you used your tongue to soothe the mark.
“Desk,” you muttered against his skin, knowing that your legs were unlikely to hold you upright for much longer. It was the only word your brain could manage, most of its power now being focused on the feeling of his kiss, the strength of his arms, the musky spicy scent of his skin.
“No,” he bit out and his voice sounded ruined. “Here” With that he had you shoved up against the wall again, pinning you with his hips.
Your stomach swooped, like during a free-fall. He was impatient, near frantic, running his hands over every inch of you he could reach. The feeling of familiar hands in such unfamiliar territory, mixed with the adrenaline and anger from your fight left you shivering despite the fire you could feel building up to a steady roar beneath your skin.
You took a second to lament the fact that you couldn’t possibly undress him with even half as much flair or drama as he did you. Not needing to seduce anyone like you did, Leon had been running the mission from the shadows, and the usual jacket and jeans combo he was wearing was still pretty sturdy even after surviving the disastrous end of the job. You settled for slipping your hands under the jacket and sliding it down his broad shoulders. He grumbled, upset to have to take his hands off you to get the damn thing off, and flung it away carelessly. Any further attempt you made to divest him was foiled by Leon gripping both your wrists in one large hand and pinning them to the wall above your head.
“Later,” he breathed like a promise into your ear. He bent to suck and kiss down the taut muscles of your neck as his free hand grabbed one of your knees to drag up and hook around his waist. Unconsciously, you tilted your hips so your wet heat pressed firmly against the firm bulge at the front of his jeans. Your whole body shook as your clit caught and dragged deliciously on the rough denim.
All pretense, or what little was left of it, melted away at that point. Leon shuddered against you, then moved quickly to unfasten his fly and push his pants and shorts far enough down his hips to release his hard cock. You could feel the velvet heat of it brush against the inside of your thigh as it came free and a surge of liquid warmth swooshed past your belly and down to your cunt.
Without ceremony, he pulled your thong to the side and guided himself into you, bottoming out with a sharp snap of his hips. You cried out. It was almost too much, the sudden stretch and fullness. The intensity. Fuck, your best friend was inside you. You struggled, trying to pull your hands free, but his grip only tightened.
“Holy shit, Leon,” you moaned, his name leaving your lips in almost a wail as he started thrusting in earnest.
"God, you’re so fucking tight, so good,” he grit out through clenched teeth, his nails digging into the soft flesh of your thigh as he fucked you.  
You tried to keep up and give as much as you took, but he set a rough, near punishing pace. And you were only human. It didn’t take long for the spreading warmth and tingles he elicited in you to expand, then violently contract.
Your climax hit you hard and fast, like a tidal wave. You thrashed, throwing your head back against the wall and crying out nonsense oaths, either uncaring or oblivious to the other offices on the floor that could surely hear you from behind the thin walls. Leon fucked you through it, not stopping or slowing, not even when the resulting contractions in your pussy made him shout out loud.
When the wave finally began to ebb and your energy started to bleed away, you sagged, boneless, in his grip. But Leon didn’t miss a beat, dropping your wrists in favor of seizing your hips with both hands. This forced you higher up on the wall, and change of angle made his thrusts hit home deeper, the blunt head of his cock hitting your cervix.
You gasped, fingers and nails clawing into his shoulders as you held on tight. It felt like he was trying to break you in two and the new, dull pain mixed exquisitely with the pleasure every movement still sent through you.
“Oh fuck,” he groaned, burying his face into the side of your neck.
His arms were shaking now and you could tell he was close. You brought your other leg up to wrap around his waist and used what little strength you had left to match his pace with your hips.
That seemed to send him over the edge. A jagged moan ripped from his throat and his fingers tightened painfully into your flesh. With a few more deep thrusts and a gush of wet warmth, he came inside you, your name leaving his lips like some kind of sinful prayer.
“Fuck.”
You ran your hands through his mussed, sweaty hair as he came down and finally pulled out. Leon slumped forward, nuzzling the flushed skin of your chest. His five o’clock shadow tickled and you squirmed, clearly overstimulated. It was enough to take you out of the post-climax haze.
“Leon,” you whispered, fear and uncertainty starting to fill in the space in your chest that your previous rage and indignation had left behind. With some space and time to cool off, you had been reasonably sure your friendship could have bounced back from the earlier clusterfuck. But this… You knew a line had been crossed here that the pair of you had religiously toed for a reason .
You were now scared you had just ruined everything.
“I came so close to having to watch you die today.” It was so quiet that you wouldn’t have caught it if his face wasn’t still so close to yours. Leon took a shaky breath before finally meeting your eyes. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you.”
The honesty hit you like a sock to the gut. “ Leon -”
“No, just let me say something first.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I know I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did and I know that you’re a good agent, but damn it Y/N, you can be so fucking stubborn sometimes. I don’t know where you got it stuck in your head that you have to do everything yourself, but you don’t. You said I should have trusted you, but you gotta trust me too, sweetheart. Or else none of this shit works.”
Your heart sank, knotting with your stomach in guilt, as you finally realized what all the anger and yelling and fighting had been hiding. He wasn’t just upset that you had gone against his plan. He had been scared.
“I don’t - I didn’t,” you tried, but the words wouldn’t come.
Leon shook his head. “ I don’t ever want to feel like that again. I don’t care what I have to do, what we have to do, but I… I can’t lose you, okay?”
“Okay,” you breathed, your heart clenching in affection for the man in front of you.
“Okay.” Leon pressed a kiss to your temple and sighed heavily, the tension finally starting to bleed from his body. Suddenly, he straightened, wrapped his arms snugly around your back, and started to carry you away from the wall.
You flailed for a moment as your center of gravity shifted, but Leon never dropped you. Even though your behavior from earlier would have warranted it. You felt awful about the whole shit show of a day. With some hindsight, you could admit that maybe you had been a little too hotheaded, a little too eager to prove your worth.
Though whether or not you were ready to admit that to Leon was another story.
“Where are we going?” you asked, stifling a laugh as his open pants slid down to his ankles, forcing him to waddle like an overgrown penguin.
“Couch. I’m exhausted and you’re getting heavy.”
You scoffed in fake indignation as he finally reached his goal and deposited you on the plush cushion of his office’s modest couch. Before he could pull away, you leaned in and caught his lips in a soft, tender kiss. His hands went to the back of your head, blunt nails massaging your scalp in a way that made you melt. When you pulled away, you didn’t bother to hide your smile.
Leon frowned down at you, forehead wrinkled in suspicion. “What was that for?”
You shrugged and pecked his lips again. “Just felt right, I guess. Hey - “ he started to straighten again, but you pulled him back down until he was practically straddling you on the couch. “You know I couldn’t bear losing you either, right? I - you’re important to me.”
The L-word had been on the tip of your tongue, but you forced it back down. You had said it to each other before, but only under strictly platonic circumstances and usually with the help of more than a few drinks. Not naked and vulnerable and thoroughly fucked. After the emotional whirlwind you had just been through, you weren’t sure you could survive opening that can of worms.
“Yeah, you’re important to me too, gorgeous.”
There were sure to be consequences, both numerous and harsh, from everything that occurred. The failed mission. Going against orders. Yelling at a senior agent in front of the entire team. And it would be nothing short of a miracle if no one found out about what had just happened between you and that same agent. You’d be lucky to walk away with a suspension.
But as Leon settled down next to you and tucked you gently into his side, you found it hard to focus on anything other than how good it felt to be in his arms.
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Text
Part II Wed By Candlelight (The Portrait of the Secret Bride)
Supercorp The Corpse Bride AU
Kara’s dreams that night are turbulent. She could attribute it to the fact that she’d had to endure dinner with Mon-El’s mother, but it’s far worse than any nightmare even Rhea could induce.
She dreams of her lady’s brother, returning home the prodigal son. But she knows of the atrocities Lex Luthor is said to have committed, of the wife and child he had left dead in his wake -- and Kara doesn’t want him anywhere near her lady. She can see the war Lena wages between her good judgment and her good heart, can see her vacillating between her love for her brother and her own instincts.
But Kara, who has no such attachment to him, sees how he brings nothing but discord and chaos into their lives. And she’s right.
Over dinner, he announces his plan to restore the Luthor name and fortune -- by promising Lena in marriage to his new business associate, a man named Morgan Edge.
It’s the first time she’s ever seen her lady truly angry. Lena’s fury emanates from her lithe frame in cold waves as she stands from the dinner table, straight-backed and proud, facing Lex with glacial eyes that burn with pent-up rage, before she throws her glass of wine in his face.
The second they’re locked in her room, Lena grasps Kara’s arms with desperate fingers. “We need to leave.”
“Lena--”
“I can’t stay here, Kara. Not like this. Not when he intends to shackle me to a man like Morgan Edge. I met him once, and that was enough. He’s a despicable cockroach of a man. I cannot stay here and marry him, Kara. I will not.”
Kara hears the steel in her lady’s voice, and loves her for it. She opens her arms and Lena melts into her, lips touching her throat, soft words murmured against her skin. “I won’t marry anyone but you.”
Kara huffs a small laugh against Lena’s hair. “Somehow I don’t think the Bishop will approve of that.”
“I don’t care. Hang the Bishop.” Lena smiles when Kara laughs again. She pulls away slightly, just enough for Kara to see the brilliant clarity in her eyes. “And hang the Luthors. Let them rot in this miserable place. We’ll leave them here. You and I can go somewhere we can be together.”
Kara’s heart pounds like a drum, and she takes one of Lena’s hands in hers. “You’d leave your family to be with me?”
“In a heartbeat.”
Joy bubbles up in Kara’s chest, almost dispelling the heaviness that had settled there since hearing of Lex’s plans. “We could go to Kandor. My cousin lives there with his wife, they might have a place for us.”
Lena rests her temple against Kara’s, her lips brushing softly against her hair. “As long as I’m with you.”
Kara sighs, and the two of them stay that way for a long moment. It feels as if they are standing at a precipice, with the threat of Lena’s family surrounding them and the terrifying exhilaration of the unknown before them, freedom just within reach.
“I’ll leave for Kandor at dawn, to make sure Kal can make a place for us.” Kara brings Lena’s hand up to her lips, pressing a kiss to her fingers in lieu of a ring. “I will come back for you, I promise.”
And Kara somehow, somehow, knows that this is the last night she will spend with Lena.
The dream shifts, and Kara finds herself in the dark of night, the wind whipping across her face. The horse she is riding on snorts in exertion as she urges the animal as fast as it can go.
There’s a fierce desperation in the way she grips the reins. She doesn’t know where she’s going, all she knows is that it’s a matter of life and death that she get there in time.
There’s a wound on her side that burns, but she just presses on it and keeps riding. Bruises have bloomed over her knuckles. Blood dripping from her eyebrow and an accompanying wave of dizziness tells her that she also has a head wound, but she grits her teeth and forces herself to stay on her seat. Nothing is more important than getting to her destination.
“Kara, we have to stop.” A man appears in her field of vision, riding alongside her. Something in her recognizes him as Kal, her cousin. “You’re bleeding too much.”
“No!” She protests violently, her voice breaking in the whipping wind “If Lex’s men found us, that means Lex knows that Lena and I were planning to run away. He’s going after her, Kal. We have to get to her first!”
She leans forward, urging her horse faster still.
Only, she never gets to her destination, because the dream shifts again, and this time, instead of a mount, Kara finds herself sitting at a desk, in a small, unfamiliar room.
Beside her, Kal’s son, Jon is sleeping peacefully in his cradle. On the table, at her elbow, is a solitary candle, its flickering flame casting a familiar thin light on Kara’s bowed form.
“Lena.” Her voice is little more than a whispered sob. The candlelight brings back too many bittersweet memories that make Kara’s heart ache and crumble, as if it’s dying a living death inside the cavity of her chest. “Lena…”
Kara swallows back a sob and wipes away the tears that blur her vision. She’s worked with less light before, she reminds herself, as she bends over the small locket, painstakingly recording every detail she can remember. She works ceaselessly and without the need for sleep, as if it were possible to bring her lady back to life with each brush stroke.
She knows -- She knows it’s impossible to bring her back. She knows it’s impossible to capture the warmth of her smile or the soft steel of her voice in a miniature portrait, she knows, but each brush stroke feels like a penance, a way to keep her alive.
When she’s finished, Kara seals it within the necklace. A secret only she knows.
This time, Kara all but forces herself awake.
She scrambles out of bed, nearly waking Mon-El in her haste. The floor is cold under her bare feet, but she doesn’t care. She scurries out of the room and down to the foyer where she’d left her coat.
Her hand plunges into the coat pocket and she triumphantly fishes out the antique necklace her mother had left her.
The exact same necklace in her dream.
Quickly, she retrieves a knife from the kitchen and pries it open as carefully as she can. It’s a painstaking process, trying not to damage a two hundred year old piece of jewelry, but finally, Kara’s efforts pay off.
The necklace opens to reveal the portrait Kara had seen in her dream -- a faithful likeness of Lena Luthor in miniature.
For the first time, it occurs to Kara that this is the only time she’s seen Lena outside of her dreams and their encounters. This solitary portrait is proof that Lena had lived. That she had been loved.
Kara’s breath leaves her in a rush, as she slowly realizes what this is.
A lover’s final gift, her penance, handed down her family for generations, from one bride to another, with the secret bride who never was inside.
She doesn’t quite know how she feels. It’s a lot to process, and it’s truthfully been a mad whirlwind of the past few days that barely seems real. She looks down at the locket in her hand. Lena’s face smiles up at her, the painting so devotedly true to her likeness, it almost feels like she’s alive.
Well, Kara thinks. If she’s doing this, she might as well go all in. They say every bride goes crazy before the wedding, after all.
Before she can talk herself out of it, Kara grabs her coat and shoves her feet into her boots. She spares a few seconds to root around for a flashlight in the hallway closet before setting out the door.
The air is chilly as she hurries along the familiar overgrown path. Somehow it’s less tranquil and more scary walking along the trail in the middle of the night, with the wind rustling through the trees and insects chirping.  The serenity she’d felt before is gone in the oppressive darkness. In the night, everything seems much more ominous, formless shadows flitting around her, the night sounds loud in her ears. The leaves crunching under her feet feel more ominous than comforting now, and Kara finds herself jumping at every sound.
She draws her coat tighter around herself as she nears the graveyard, her flashlight illuminating a narrow beam of light that plays menacingly over the tombstones.
“Lena? Are you there?”
Kara’s voice is a tentative whisper, and she feels stupid. It’s cold, it’s the middle of the night, and she’s in a graveyard, looking for a ghost. Her steps falter, and she sighs, rubbing her arms to stave off the cold. Maybe it’s time to go home.
She turns to leave, but a familiar voice wisps in the wind behind her, making her shiver.
“You came.”
Kara whirls around to see Lena’s pale form behind her. The eerie silver radiance of her skin in the darkness makes her look otherworldly. But the dark red stains on the white of her red seem unnervingly real. Like Kara could touch the mortal wound on her abdomen and still feel the pulsing of blood within.
It reminds Kara of why she’s here.
Her fingers close around the locket around her neck, and she steps forward, closer to Lena. “I did. I… I think I can help you, Lena. I think I know what happened all those years ago.”
“What?” Lena’s voice is thin and hesitant, as though she can scarcely believe Kara’s words. “How--?”
“I see it. In my head, in my dreams every night. I see you and Kara. I’ve seen the love you had for each other, and I’ve seen -- so many things, but I need your help. I don’t have the whole story, there’s a side of it that’s missing, and it’s you.”
“I - I don’t understand, Kara.”
“What do you remember from the night you died?”
“I - I don’t… I don’t remember. So much of it is a fog in my mind...” Lena turns away from Kara, her hands flying to her temples. “It’s been so long. I’ve been waiting so long…”
Kara clutches the locket around her neck. “You have to remember. Please, Lena, remember. Because I have pieces of the puzzle, but you have the key to it. Try, please…. Look, you said you were waiting for Kara. But were you alone?”
“I… I think so. I’ve been alone for so long…”
“What about that night? That night you died?” Kara presses on, her hands coming up, wanting to take Lena’s arms, but she knows that there’s no body there to touch, so she lowers her hand. “You said the place where you were waiting wasn’t a graveyard then. What was it?”
“I - no, it wasn’t, I --” Lena’s voice is becoming higher, panicked and confused. Her beautiful face is lost and frightened. “I don’t know!”
Kara knows she’s pushing too far, and her instinct to comfort and soothe comes to the fore. She reaches out to touch Lena, and before she can remember that Lena is dead -- has been dead for two hundred years -- her hand comes up to touch her shoulder.
She touches nothing, but for a second -- less than a heartbeat -- her fingers meet resistance at the curve of Lena’s shoulder when there should only be empty air.
In that instant, everything changes. A shock comes through the end of Kara’s fingertips, and all at once everything turns white.
As the light blinds her, Kara hears voices in her ear. “Lex is watching, and the trip to Kandor is five days long. I can’t risk you leaving until I know there’s a safe place for us there. I promise you, Lena, I will come back for you.”
An unfamiliar voice. This time, a woman’s. “Lex has informed me that Morgan Edge is arriving tomorrow. This wedding must proceed smoothly, Lena. This is what you and I have been working for your whole life. What have I always told you? Everything I do, I do for you and our family…. We are so close, my dear. Everything we have lost will be restored to us. The Luthor name shall be revered once more, and we can become a family again.”
When the blinding light fades, Kara finds herself in the same old room in Luthor Manor where she and Lena slept. Except the sanctity of the tiny dark room has been violated by another.
Lena is dressed in immaculate white lace, flowers at her breast and in her hair. She looks beautiful and terrible at the same time.
Lex has her by the arm, his face a cold snarl above her as he holds up one of the wine glasses from the dinner table. His hand is wrapped around Lena’s forearm, and Kara rushes forward to rip him off of her, but there’s no use. Her hand passes through Lex, and he continues to sneer menacingly at Lena.
“You’ve never been poisoned before, have you, little sister? Well, I have. Arsenic has a very mild odor.” He holds up the glass to her face before throwing it across the room. Lena stiffens, but she doesn’t flinch. “Usually, one would never recognize it, but I know because my bitch of a wife put it in my drink the night she left me, sneaking off like a frightened little rat, just like you were planning to.”
Lex bares his teeth. “You women, you’re all fools. None more than you, baby sister. You couldn’t even think of a different plan.”
“I did.”
Lena’s free hand subtly disappears within the folds of her dress. As Kara watches, she silently withdraws a knife hidden within her dress and swiftly stabs it into Lex’s side. Lex yells in pain and his eyes widen as Lena twists the handle and pulls the knife out for good measure.
Lex groans as Lena pushes him off of her and leaves him lying on the ground. She gives him one last look, her eyes full of pain and cold anger. “Good bye, Lex.”
Without another backwards glance, Lena draws her cloak around her shoulders and all but flies to the stables. Her horse is there, ready and saddled, and she rides swiftly away from Luthor Manor.
Kara recognizes the path she takes. It’s the same path she’s taken away from the Inze house, the one that leads to the graveyard, and at once, her stomach is filled with dread. She wants to scream at Lena to take a different road, but Lena can’t hear her.
The dread worsens into full panic when she hears hoof beats growing louder and louder near them. She sees the same terror in Lena’s eyes when another horse cuts her path, and the mare she’s riding on rears up in fright.
“Lena!” Kara screams as Lena is thrown off the horse, her head hitting the ground hard. But Lena can’t hear her. She moans feebly on the ground, the back of her head covered in blood. She hangs onto her consciousness, and Kara watches fearfully as Lena tries valiantly to get up.
Behind her, Lex dismounts from his horse, his entire right side blooming red with blood from Lena’s knife. He advances toward her, hand on his side, and Lena stumbles, pulling herself away from him on her arms.
Kara frantically tries what she can to help, even though she knows it’s useless. Her hands can’t pull Lena up or beat Lex away as he drops onto one knee beside her struggling form. A glint of a blade is the only warning Kara gets before the blade Lena had used to stab Lex drives into her body now, and all of Lena’s breath comes out in a choked scream.
“You couldn’t just do what I asked, could you, Lena? Everything would have been perfect, little sister. Our fortunes restored, the Luthor name once again redeemed and exalted, and you would have been set for life.” Lex hisses in her face, flecks of his blood spitting from his mouth to her cheek. “But you had to go and spread your legs for some servant girl like a filthy whore!”
Lena closes her eyes, tears trickling down her face, and Lex laughs mirthlessly at her, voice lowering to a dangerous mutter.
“And where is she now, Lena? Where is your faithful Kara? She never came back for you, did she? You’re about to die, little sister. You’re going to bleed out in this godforsaken road, and she’s not here. You’re all alone.”
Kara screams at him, beats her ineffectual fists at him as he struggles to his feet, away from Lena, dropping her body on the side of the road. Kara drops to her knees beside her fading form, frantically trying to place her hands on her abdomen, as if she could close the wound herself. “Lena…. Lena….”
Her hands can do nothing. Unlike before, there is no resistance when she tries to touch Lena, her hands simply grasp thin air, even though the jagged wound on Lena’s stomach is terrifyingly real. Lena chokes on blood and air, and she can’t see Kara’s pleading face as she mouths her last word.
“Kara…”
All at once, the light blinds Kara again, and she’s wrenched away from Lena. She screams and tries to reach out, but to no avail.
When the light fades, she finds herself in the woods again, this time astride a horse, with Kal by her side. 
She spies the limping form of Lex Luthor between the trees, blood trailing behind him, and she feels white-hot rage surge through her veins. She dismounts from her horse and lunges at him, dragging his broken body forward.
“Kara!” Kal’s voice tries to stop her, but Kara is beyond all reason.
She fists her hands into his bloodied collar and shakes him. “Where’s Lena??”
Vaguely, Kara realizes that she’s no longer seeing Lena’s memories, but Kara’s. The realization is lost when Lex laughs, and she wants to tear the smile from his face.
“You're too late.” Lex sneers, blood and spittle flying from his mouth, his face contorted in a terrible smile. “She’s dead.”
Kara finally screams her rage in his face. “You’re lying!! Where is she??!”
Lex doesn’t answer, just laughs and laughs. She wants to kill him, she could so easily finish the job, but she has to find Lena first. 
She leaves Lex with Kal, and follows the trail of blood, her stomach turning and her heart pounding in her throat. From a distance, Kara can see where the trail ends, to a pool of blood and a lifeless figure dressed in white.
She screams. And screams.
It feels never-ending.
Everything shifts again, and Kara weeps against it, wanting this to end.
It doesn’t.
When everything rights itself again, Kara is standing in front of the old Luthor Manor. It’s in terrible condition, the west wing has caved in. Its shutters are broken and its windows empty. Like the family it served, it is dead now.
“There’s nothing left here, Kara.” Kal tells her “We should go. There’s nothing for you here.”
Kara shakes her head, resolute. “Not yet. I have a promise to keep.”
Their room is in disrepair. The bed they shared their love on is lifeless and broken, just like her lady. Kara grips the dusty sheets, tears slipping silently down her face. She would howl her grief out if she could. If she could, she would scream and yell and rage for the woman she loved and lost. 
But she can’t. Her grief is too far beyond that.
So instead she drops the sheets and bends down to retrieve her oils and paints from their hiding spot in the floor. Nothing else in this room is retrievable, but this -- the last gift Lena gave to her -- is sacred.
That night, with great effort, she lifts the brush again. She can’t paint Lena’s face anymore. It hurts too much. That wound will never heal, but she can seal it within the necklace and place it above her heart.
Instead, Kara paints everything and anything else. She lets the brushes guide her, instead of her guiding them.
For a long time, she paints only in blacks of night and reds of blood and browns of earth covering the dead. She paints in slashes and heavy strokes that demand the weight of grief. 
Sometimes the brush becomes too heavy in her hand, and she yearns to put it down, but Kara made a promise, and she is the only one left to keep it for -- herself, and the memory of a dead girl -- so she persists.
And then one day, baby Jon comes toddling into her room, burbling nonsensically around the fist in his mouth. 
He waddles unsteadily toward her, tripping into her dress. She catches him with a small oof! And he laughs as a streak of paint smears his cheek. His hand splatters into her paints and he smears them over Kara too, making her chuckle. 
They make a little game out of it, smearing paint all over each other, and Kara opens the brighter colors that catch his eye. Soon, both Kara and baby are smeared with greens and yellows and blues and pinks. She opens the colors that had been Lena’s favorites, and she lets Jon smear them onto her face.
She’s just teaching the baby how to mix paints to get orange when Lois catches them red-handed in the middle of their mess.
But instead of scolding them, Lois sees the first smile Kara has cracked in months and she shakes her head at both of them, chuckling, and marches them both off to get a bath.
And so Kara heals. 
Slowly, and in small steps forward and many falls backward. But she learns to live again. She learns to build her life around the cavern in her heart.
Lois gives one of her paintings to her sister Lucy as a gift, and it hangs in Lucy’s sitting room for a while, until one of her guests, an illustrious and irrepressible widow named Lady Grant, sees the painting and offers to purchase it from Lucy on the spot.
Lady Grant proceeds to commission an entire series of paintings from Kara, and Kara rapidly acquires more patrons who marvel at her paintings, and praise her on the depth and emotion behind her work. 
“One cannot help but be moved by them, by you, Kara.” Lady Grant tells her once in a rare moment of candid compassion.
Through it all, she never forgets her promise.
When, years later, she stands underneath an arch of white flowers -- plumerias, her lady's favorite -- Lois asks what her “something borrowed” is for the wedding, Kara doesn’t answer her. 
Instead, Kara silently answers the woman in the portrait, sitting hidden in the necklace above her heart.
“My heart. It will never be owned by another, merely borrowed. He may become my husband, but my heart will always, always belong to you, Lena.”
______________
“Kara… Kara, wake up.”
Kara opens her eyes to see Lena’s face hovering over hers. The ground is cold and hard underneath her, sprinkled lightly with dew. Kara blinks rapidly a few times. It’s morning now, still early if the light is anything to go by, and the first rays of the sun are just brightening the horizon.
“Kara…” Lena’s eyes are relieved as she sits up, but her voice still holds a touch of concern. Her fingers hover lightly over Kara’s shoulder, touching but not quite touching. “Are you alright?”
“Do you… Do you remember now?”
Lena looks away from her, her eyes downcast and pained. Her voice breaks on a single word “Yes, I remember. I died on this road, and Kara, she never came. I was alone.”
“No.” Kara surges forward, ducking her head to get Lena to meet her eyes. “She came back for you. She… she may have been too late, but she came back. She never forgot you, Lena, not for the rest of her life. And she never forgot her promise.”
Lena finally meets her gaze, her eyes full of sorrow and hope long held back.
“Come with me. Let me show you.”
The path feels long and full of the things Kara knows now, but she and Lena walk through it side by side. Kara wishes she could hold Lena’s hand, but she settles for letting her fingers brush the outline of Lena’s.
She takes Lena back to her ancestral home, and opens the doors for her. The morning sun is just high enough now for the light to filter beautifully through the vast windows, painting the rooms with warmth. 
“She made this home for you, Lena.” Kara turns to the other woman, who finally steps through the threshold with a look of wonder in her eyes. “All those years ago, Kara promised you she would build you a house filled with light and warmth, and she did. She built it from the ruins of the house where you first shared your love, and she’s kept it for you all these years.... All the women in my family -- every daughter that passed through these halls, every bride that said their vows here, all the way down to my Mother who was married here and left this place to me -- every single one has kept it.... And it was all for you.”
Kara takes the locket on her chest and opens it to show Lena the portrait her Kara made of her. “She kept you in her heart until she was ready to give you to her daughter at her wedding day. She was never able to be with you, but don’t you see...? Every time this necklace passed from one bride in this family to the next, she gave you her vows and she kept you alive.”
A strange sense of peace washes through Kara as she leads Lena through the halls of her family’s home. Lena’s home.
Lena touches the walls of the house, the flowers adorning the staircase, with reverent hands. There are tears on her face, but she is smiling as steps into the light filtering through the windows. She closes her eyes and turns her face to the light, as if she can feel its warmth. Kara stands next to her, feeling her heart fill at the sight of Lena in the home she was promised.
“Your brother cursed you with his last words when he made you believe she would never come back. That you were all alone. He kept you bound to your sadness for so long, but Lena…. your Kara loved you so much that her love for you spanned generations. You don’t have to let his words keep you bound. You can choose to be free.”
Lena’s eyes open slowly, and as Kara watches, her face becomes radiant, awash with blinding love and emotion.
“I…… I see her. I see Kara.” Lena’s reverent voice breaks into a breathless sob. “She says she’s been waiting for me.” 
Lena turns back to her one last time, tears of joy shining in her eyes, and Kara knows she will never see her again. “Thank you.”
For a long moment, Lena glows so brightly that the light blinds Kara’s eyes. By the time her eyes open, the light is gone. 
And so is Lena.
Kara stands quietly in the middle of the room and takes a long inhale. The melancholia of the past few days is gone. Even the anxiety of the last few weeks seems to have fallen off her shoulders. Instead, she just feels a lightness in her whole body, and a clarity of thought she hasn’t known in a long time.
“Kara?” Alex’s voice comes from behind her, concerned, and Kara turns slowly to face her. “Are you okay?”
Kara huffs a small laugh and beams at her. “Yeah, I really am.”
Alex moves to stand beside her. She’s still in her pajamas, and there’s a quiet sort of hesitation in the way she approaches Kara, all sisterly concern. 
Kara smiles warmly at her and offers her hand. Alex takes it and they both look out the vast windows.
“I can’t go through with this wedding, Alex.”
Her sister turns toward her, studying her with a protective eye. When all she sees on Kara’s face is contentment and a tranquil sense of calm, Alex nods. “I know.”
“You do?”
“I could kinda tell.” Alex shrugs and gives her a knowing look. “You’re my sister, I know you. I was just waiting for you to tell me.”
“Does Eliza know?”
“Knowing her, she probably does.”
“Well, then.” Kara inhales long and deep. “I guess the only one left to tell is Mon-El.”
“Why am I not surprised that your groom is the last to know that he’s not gonna be a groom after all?”
________
By SorrowsFlower
This was so fucking hard to write (I actually had most of it written up but it was hard to join them all up together, but it JUST WOULD NOT LEAVE ME ALONE). There is an epilogue of sorts to this, but I think y’all can probably see it coming, so I might as well not write it lol.
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blownbybakugou · 3 years
Note
okay so imagine: bakugo is fuCKING TERRIFIED of bugs and he asks his short s/o (who isn’t scared of bugs) to kill a cockroach. fluffy and a little bit of a crack fic. and like he asks them to come over in the middle of the night and they go “oh he’s in danger” but it’s actually a fucking cockroach
@smexy-goose Jesus Christ. I’m laughing my ass off right now, just imagining the great Katsuki Bakugou cowering in fear of a fucking COCKROACH is hilarious.
Bakugou Bug Phobia Headcanons.
He denys everything.
He doesn’t want anyone to know how terrified he is of bugs, especially of cockroaches.
But Y/n knows what’s up.
Because she’s the unfortunate soul that has to kill the poor bug.
“Bakugou, why are you so afraid of-“
“IM NOT FUCKING AFRAID!”
*Cockroach moves a centimeter towards him*
“Y/N! HELP ME! IT’S GONNA FUCKING MURDER ME!!!!”
You’re just standing there like;
bItCh. 😑
You eventually take pity on him and squash the ‘murderer’
He would afterwards give you a kiss,
Then pretend that he wasn’t a little bitch about the whole thing.
If you were to tell someone,
He would feel violated
He trusted you to kill the evil in the world!
Yo
How could you do him like that?
Probably stages a fake ass-kicking for you, so people don’t think he’s soft.
But the very next night,
You get a call from him, screaming and cussing
Think he was in danger, you practically teleport there.
Only to see him on top of his fridge, screeching at a f l y.
You kick his ass for wasting you time, then swat the fly so he’d shut up about it.
“You’re shorter, so you’re in less danger.”
“....”
“...shit”
Rip Bakugou.
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redqueen-hypothesis · 3 years
Text
duo dates ➳ mlqc
KIRO
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⤞ visiting animal rescue shelters together
it’s obvious that kiro has quite the soft spot for furry animals from the sheer number of strays he’s picked off the streets one way or another. both amused and inspired by how excited he gets from being around apple box and cello, you decide to feature him in one of your documentaries about abandoned pets, allowing him to work with a rescue shelter for a day. you’ve never seen him so excited, giggles and delighted laughter falling freely from his mouth as puppies and kittens crawl over him, nosing and licking at every part of him. he gets very emotional when he hears about the number of animals that get abandoned and have to be euthanized once they stop being ‘cute’, and the staff lets out a collective sniff from behind the cameras when they see his own eyes filling with tears.
so, it’s no surprise when kiro decides to head back to the animal shelter on his own, and he invites you along with him too! the two of you become longtime volunteers at the shelter, and kiro absolutely loves the animals there (you’d jokingly told him that you’re jealous before, to which he showered you with loud kisses and ardent declarations of love until you were dying of embarrassment). he names all of the animals there with some of the weirdest names, like ‘triangle ears’ and ‘fur tail’, but tends to forget them and mix them up with each visit. will wear the animal mascot suit and stand outside to encourage volunteers to sign up, and gives monthly anonymous donations but the staff all know it’s him. he complains they only treat him extra nice during that time, but you know all the staff adore him (and honestly, who doesn’t, with that pure heart and bright smile?)
not afraid to get down and dirty with the animals! you and the rest of the staff watch with varying degrees of admiration (and horror) as he throws himself into the mud along with the animals, stealing squeaky toys and toy bones alike from right under their noses and running for his life as a pack of dogs chase him from behind. when kiro’s exhausted himself playing with them, he’ll come into the shade damp with sweat and immediately flop down with his head on your lap, pretending to snore loudly, although he really does fall asleep sometimes. refers to himself as the dad and you as the mom, and will sometimes tell the pups to ask you for permission to wolf down their dog chow. “it’s practice for taking care of our future family!” he insists, wrapping his arms around you right after he’s finished chasing the dogs in the rain. when you shake your head and ask him where on earth you’re going to find a family as chaotic as this, he slyly winks and says he wants as many kids as there are dogs in the shelter. you aim a kick at him.
GAVIN
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⤞ learning self defense from him
it had started for a multitude of reasons. first of all, you had mentioned wanting to get into shape and shed some excess some way, and had been looking for a way to get fit quickly. secondly, there had been a stalker who had been following you home for a few nights when you left the office late, although that had been quickly put to an end when gavin came over to pick you up on a late night food run and promptly made the guy eat pavement. he’d been worried about you, and suggested learning a form of self defense in order to better protect yourself in case he wasn’t there. lastly, you wanted to see gavin sleeveless, sweaty and... yeah. that’s it. that’s the reason.
the first few lessons, you’re so distracted by that tight fitting black tank top and dear lord those arms and abs that you nearly get your nose broken by your dear teacher gavin, who panics for a good entire hour and won’t stop apologising. he suggests stopping the lessons, but you insist on continuing, determined to actually focus this time round (you can ogle his body another time when there isn’t a fist flying at your face). it starts off as a way to spend more time with gavin and allowing him to do what he likes at first, but then your competitive side quickly starts to take over and you find yourself becoming more and more interested in the sport itself. gavin never really goes very hard on you, but he isn’t an easy coach either. he works with you to improve your fitness levels, going to the gym with you, following you on your jogging rounds whenever you want him to, and letting you punch him all you want (your hands probably hurt more than his rock hard body does anyway).
your favourite part, though, is watching gavin truly sink into his element, because he looks extra hot when he’s in the fighting ring squaring off in a practice match against another opponent. there’s a calm, composed expression on his face, but his eyes shine with a dangerous light that remind you of a starving wolf. when he does go toe to toe with his opponent, you rarely have a second to blink before gavin’s already moving lightning quick to take his him down. it’s a side of him you rarely get to see since he’s always so sweet and tender with you, but you can’t help gushing to him about how sexy he is and watching as his ears burn bright red with barely suppressed (but pleased) embarrassment. in the fighting gym, you’re the only one who’s managed a takedown on him before so you’re somewhat of a legend, but you had played dirty, kissing him full on the mouth when he wasn’t expecting it and he had promptly frozen on the spot.
suffice to say no one else has dared to replicate the technique on him.
VICTOR
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⤞ teaching him the ways of an arcade
he would have never agreed to this if he had known just how awful he was at these. victor li can conquer the financial business scene in less than five years straight out of college but can’t for the life of him pass a single level of dance off, much less win against a child less than half his age. he looks so... uncomfortable stepping into that noisy space playing all sorts of loud, upbeat music at once, ear splitting hollers from kids playing other games punctuating the mishmash of songs - it’s only then that you realise that victor has never, in his entire childhood, set foot into an arcade before.
you collect your card at the counter before dragging him to the racing games, sitting him firmly down in your seat before teaching him how to customise his own car. he would have spent hours doing this until you nudge him to the next section, the actual race, and that’s when he starts panicking in typical victor fashion, trying to act calm but asking all sorts of funny questions. demands to know what’s the difference in the game for auto and manual steering, protests repeatedly that “this isn’t how a car works”. it’s even more hilarious seeing him try out the dance games, in which he had faced off against a ten year old and promptly lost. it hurt his pride, but you had laughed so hard your face turned red, so maybe it’s worth it. but only a little bit. and he’s still not doing this again. awhile into the arcade he begins to relax a little and his competitive side starts to shine through, he’s no longer worried about looking like an idiot and instead puts his all into every single game. in fact, you find yourself increasingly distracted by that very endearing expression of focus on his face as he awkwardly tries to navigate his long legs according to the beat, and the childish excitement plain on his face when he finally passes a level makes you smile so hard your cheeks hurt.
at this point, he’s calling the claw machine a complete scam and is ready to sue the entire arcade chain when you’ve decided enough is enough and pull him from the arcade. the two of you end up cramped in a photobooth with your prizes, a totoro hood for him and a rabbit ear headband for you, and you keep the polaroids in your wallet ever since then. you don’t realise that he’s stolen one for himself, and now it sits buried deep in the drawer of his work desk where he looks at it secretly when you aren’t there.
LUCIEN
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⤞ horror house/escape room to find his weakness
lucien’s practically unflappable in any situation, seemingly able to respond to any crisis or chaos with the same, serene smile. when you ask him what he’s afraid of, he gives you the same cheesy answer he always does: losing you is the only thing he’s fearful of (to which you just don’t stop blushing, no matter how many times he says it. is it the way he looks at you, or the way his voice just drops to a genuine, low whisper whenever he says it?) as such, you had challenged yourself to find out what his weaknesses were, and tried a variety of the strangest ideas on the internet such as sticking toy cockroaches in the kitchen, only to get terrified yourself at the sight of a forgotten dummy you’d left on the shelf and had nearly broken a cup in the process. after that, lucien had suggested taking your attempts out of the house instead - and thus, horror houses and escape rooms it was.
going to horror houses with lucien is probably the best and worst idea you’ve ever had. in terms of effectiveness of achieving your goal, it’s completely useless - even the most terrifying and renowned of horror houses have lucien walking out completely unfazed, or worse, carrying you in his arms bridal style because your legs are shaking too much to walk straight. the only upside to this is that when you’re terrified, you cling to lucien and he just whispers soothing words into your hair, explaining how the horror house uses mist and smoke dispensers here and there, how the lights change colour and where the actors hide. the poor actors have probably gotten tired of being repeatedly exposed and having to change positions, so many of the horror houses just give the two of you complementary coupons and beg you not to come back. the photos you get of the two of you always include you with the strangest expressions, while lucien’s face just looks like a ctrl+c ctrl+v of his usual expression.
in the end, you give up trying to scare him and just enjoy the horror houses with him, clinging to his arm when you’re scared and letting him calm you down. from the content smile on lucien’s face you see in the pictures, he looks like he’s rather enjoying this. you don’t know this, but he actually buys all the pictures and puts them in his own personal photo album. you’ll probably die of shame if you find out.
SHAW
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⤞ busking together on the streets
you had mentioned being extremely nervous about your first time performing live at the live house with the band, so shaw had dragged you along with him to go busking on the streets with him. at first, you had been extremely resistant to the idea (it’s on the streets!! where people can just!! take videos of you and the entire world will know if you screw up!!), but shaw had encouraged you in his own strange way that included a lot of teasing, goading and actual breaking down of how the process would go before you felt confident enough to go with him. “don’t worry,” shaw had said standoffishly as he helped you set up your keyboard, not looking at you the entire time. “i’m way more handsome, so i’m sure they’ll be looking at me the entire time and won’t even notice if you play a completely different song.” offended, you had pulled at his ear, but you were smiling secretly to yourself the entire time, and whispered a ‘thanks’ under your breath. he pretended not to have heard it, but from the way his smirk seemed just a hint happier the entire evening, he must have.
you love little moments that lead up to the actual busking sessions every weekend, sending each other songs and working out the keys over the duration of the week. practicing together and watching as your chemistry falls more and more in sync until the two of you can do perfect runs without any words spoken between you, until you can read the little subtle cues in the way he flexes his fingers on the fretboard before going in on a particularly difficult solo, or the way he turns back to glance at you when your parts are coming up. perhaps the best thing of all is the test covers he sends you to discuss the song flows, because you (secretly) love the sound of his voice when he sings and keep every recording, listening to them when you fall asleep at night (little do you know he does the exact same thing, although he would rather die than let you find out).
shaw covers up for you when you play wrong notes, but he relentlessly teases you for them afterwards. throws hands if any hecklers in the audience insult your playing, and you have to drag him away, apologising for the rudeness while trying not to smile too hard as shaw swears loudly behind you. the money you make from the busking is usually spend on a late night supper after your busking sessions in small food joints whose owners and customers all seem to know shaw somehow, calling him a little rascal and thanking you for mellowing him out. shaw retorts by calling them old men spouting nonsense, hiding a fond smirk behind the cup of his pepsi-coke mix and stuffing food in your mouth when you laugh at him.
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aggieharkness · 3 years
Note
can you do a hurt/comfort story about agatha finding and adopting wanda after wanda's parents died?
Lily of the Valley (Part 1) (Wanda x Pietro x Agatha)
Summary: Agatha was in Sokovia when the bombings that killed Wanda’s and Pietro’s parents happened, but when she discovered them she knew she had to help them.
a/n: It’s my first ask, so I hope you like it and enjoy it, and if you want more, just... ask. I’ve decided that we all could do with a bit of Aggie being mentor/mum to Wanda and Pietro, so there will be more of this for sure. Also, I’m horrible at summaries, so I apologize in advance.
Warnings: injuries, bombs.
Words: 3k
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Lily of the Valley
It was already dark when she started making her way back to her motel. She was trying so hard to blend in, making sure no one had any reason to think she was nothing more than a woman just having a walk from a very dark and dangerous forest all the way back to her very small and damp motel room filled with cockroaches. She was in this little town because she needed a plant that she had run out of after her rabbit had knocked over her cauldron and had caused it to spill her brand-new potion all over the floor. If he weren’t so cute and her familiar, she would have cooked him. Now she had three suitcases worth of this plant in her pocket as she walked through the quiet dark streets. Stupid gardening rules. Her soil back in her little cottage in Salem was far too acid for this plant to grown and even after she had tried spells to make it suitable it just wouldn’t grow. Plants really were weird; she had seen the most complicated flowers blooming in between concrete plates and in her perfect soil they just wouldn’t even get roots. Stupid gardening rules.
There were people running around, shots being fired, but she didn’t bother, she couldn’t get hurt. She wasn’t a baby, she knew perfectly well that in a hostile environment such as this she couldn’t go around without a protection spell around her, it would be suicide. As she turned a corner, she saw a bunch of men building up a barricade, shoots flying over their heads. She didn’t know the city well enough to change her route, so with a spell firm in her mind in case she needed it she walked close to the wall of a building, behind these people. This was one of the things that she sure as hell didn’t miss from the wars she had lived, the gunshots. They wouldn’t let her sleep, their sound still ringing sometimes in her nightmares, but that was her own fault, she decided to go on holiday to Paris just when it was being invaded by the Germans. Poor choice from her part.
Deep in thought, she didn’t see it coming, just felt how out of the blue she was being pushed by an invisible wave to the other side of the street, her back hitting the cold and damp floor, fragments of rocks and walls flying over her head. Out of habit, she waved her hands over herself, a purple energy field protecting her sore form from the flying projectiles. A cloud of smoke filled the air as the building she had just been walking by collapsed or at least part of it, she just couldn’t make out any forms through the thick cloud of dirt. Screams filled the previous quiet air, bringing unwanted memories to Agatha’s mind. After centuries and centuries of living among these mortals, she had experienced plenty of happy and sad moments, bittersweet and horrid ones, but also perfectly marvellous and simply wonderous ones as well. It was just that the sad ones, the terrible ones, always managed to make themselves known whenever she was feeling a bit down or when something bad was happening, like right now.
She heard more explosions coming from afar as the dust seemed to dissipate enough for her to see that the street was covered by debris, the building barely standing, some of the walls still in place, curtains and photographs hanging from them as if nothing had happened, the only witnesses of the explosion, their shattered glasses and half-burnt fabrics. Vanishing the magic field, she stood up, feeling something warm and sticky running down her face, her black pants ripped at her thigh, a superficial gush bleeding more than it should. Taking her hand and touching her forehead she looked down at her fingers to see the red liquid tinting them, making sure that there was nothing broken as she took a couple of steps in between the debris. Thankfully she was fine. With another wave of her hand, the dust dissipated completely, the streetlamps that were still standing illuminating the gruesome scene. People underneath walls, and what she guessed were parts of those who had been close enough to the building when it exploded.
She was used to working with tongues, toes, fingernails, even sometimes organs, but she usually wasn’t the one to open up the people to get them, she would just buy them from very honourable psychos that she knew, so seeing this made her stomach turn, another wave of memories filling her head, sporadic images of friends and acquaintances disappearing in clouds of dust, alarms sounding throughout the city as to warn the people that the bombs were coming. God, she really had been alive for far too long. At the moment she didn’t care who saw her or what they thought of her, two orbs of purple magic in her hands as she made her way to the half-blown building, levitating slightly over the floor as not to stumble over anything or anyone. The bombs were getting closer, which made Agatha’s hair stand on the back of her head, the sight of small fire’s surrounding her as she hovered over one of the apartments, taking a look.
Something that she guessed was once a couch laid covered in debris, a small Tv still on in between them. She had had one of those back in 1954, bought it herself, brand new in a beautiful turquoise colour with a matching television stand. She was a witch, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy the joy of home appliances or electronics. Before she even made the attempt of crossing the imaginary threshold that separated the apartment and the street, she saw two figures moving around. They hadn’t seen her, far too shocked to look around, before the voice of a boy reached her ears as the two kids run and hid underneath a table. Just a few seconds later another bomb landed right in front of Agatha, but it didn’t explode, although that didn’t matter to her, she was more than ready to vanish it, but it was far too close to the kids. Landing on the concrete floor she kneeled next to the table, two terrified kids staring back at her. One was a girl, with dark red hair and soft green eyes, the other was a boy, with blond hair and blue eyes, both sharing the same shocked and terrified expression.
-Are you okay? – neither of them answered, they just stared at her. Looking around she saw part of what once had been a perfectly good kitchen, the Tv playing the Dick Van Dyke show. Now that she was closer to the bomb, she managed to make out the word “Stark” in white, a red light beeping as if it had been supposed to go off as soon as it had hit the floor. “Stark”, she knew that name, but couldn’t remember from where, but since they were firing missiles at civils it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that it was not a very friendly company. Sticking her arm out towards the kids she waited. – I’m not going to hurt you.
-Who are you? – the girl's voice was soft and quiet, a very thick accent enfolding every word as she spoke. It held a tone of distrust, protectiveness that didn’t go unnoticed by Agatha, which brought a small smile to her lips. A little feisty girl.
-My name is Agatha. What’s yours?
-Where are my parents?
-Your parents? Were they with you when this happened? – the girl nodded, a wave of sadness filling Agatha’s chest. Standing up she walked around the room, lifting walls and rocks just enough to see if there was anyone underneath. Close to the back wall laid two bodies, their heads turned away from her. She didn’t need to check their pulse to see that they were dead, probably because of the blast, but she couldn’t understand how two grown adults were dead and two small kids were just fine, miraculously unharmed. She didn’t know how to tell the kids but knew better than to keep something like this from anyone. It was better to feel the pain all at once than discover the horrid truth after years and years of lies. Kneeling beside the table she looked at them, sorrow in their eyes. They already knew. – I’m sorry. I can tell you one thing though. They didn’t feel any pain.
-They are… gone? – the voice of the boy had a much thicker accent, he probably spoke less English or didn’t practice as much as his sister did, but it didn’t make the pain that Agatha was feeling go away. She had once been a happy kid, just like them, and out of the blue, she had found herself alone, just like them. She knew this feeling of despair and loneliness far too well.
-I’m sorry, I really am, but you need to get out of here. It’s not safe.
-We don’t have anywhere to go.
-What are your names? – sitting on the floor she tried to speak in low and hushed tones, as not to scare them. For some reason, her mind was screaming at her that she needed to take these two children out of there, take them away, but she couldn’t. Not after Nicholas.
-I’m Wanda, this is Pietro.
-Those are very lovely names. Can you and your brother stand up? I need to take you to a safe place, Wanda. I promise I won’t hurt you, but you can’t stay here.
-What about mum and dad?
-I’ll take care of them, don’t worry. Do you have a favourite colour, Wanda? – she stretched her arm, waiting for the little girl to take her hand, and for a few seconds she thought she wasn’t going to move, but slowly the little hand came to rest over hers. A jolt of magic came through Agatha’s arm, making her eyes turn purple for just a few seconds. This girl, Wanda, had magic, enough to keep her and her brother safe, and she suspected that the bomb hadn’t gone off because of her as well. She was obviously far more powerful than an ordinary witch, a ten-year-old couldn’t master a spell of this kind without having spent at least a century practicing.
-I like red. – crawling from underneath the table she quickly moved far away from the bomb, her brother following her quickly.
-And you Pietro? Do you have a favourite colour?
-I… I like blue.
-That’s lovely. I like purple, it’s a bit of a mix between the two, isn’t it?
-Where are we going to go? – Wanda’s eyes searched the room, staring for a few seconds at the Tv before it finally turned off. Before any of them could understand what was going on the ceiling gave away, the entire upper apartment falling on them. Agatha swiftly and effortlessly waved her hands skilfully over her head, protecting the three of them from being crushed. Wanda and Pietro looked at the older woman, purple rays coming out of her hands as the debris fell to the sides, falling onto the street. Wanda had felt something strange when she had touched Agatha’s hand, now she suspected it had been magic, which made her feel safe, protected, and she was sure it had the same effect on her brother even if he hadn’t touched him. She was saving them. Agatha moved her arms, pushing the entire thing far away from her and the kids, panting slightly once she turned her head back down to look at the two little ones. – How did you do that?
-I’m a witch Wanda. Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you. Let me take you to a safe place, okay?
She took both of them by the hands, transporting themselves to her cottage in Salem. Maybe it was too forward, but they were little, and she couldn’t just take them to the outskirts of their hometown and hope for someone to take them in. She would keep them until she could find a family for them, a suitable one. In her heart, she felt as if she was more than capable of taking care of them, but her mind was screaming at her not to do it, not after what happened with Nicholas. As the purple cloud dissipated both Wanda and Pietro looked around the room they were standing in now, the walls covered in diagrams and drawings neither of them could understand, shelves filling up the rest of the space with old and new books as well as plants and floating candles. The room was cosy and comfortable, with a big fireplace on the other side. Agatha stared at the two little ones as they walked around her home, looking around, examining every inch of it. They didn’t look scared or worried, but she could sense the overwhelming sadness that was emanating from the girl. Before she could stop her, Wanda had wrapped her arms around Agatha’s waist, hiding her face from the world; she could have pushed her away, she could have told her she didn’t like hugs, but this feeling of a little person that relied on her even though they had just met like five minutes ago was something she hadn’t felt in such a long time. She couldn’t push her away.
-Wanda, listen to me, okay? – taking the little girl by the shoulders she kneeled in front of her, taking in her green eyes that were filled with tears. – Stay here, okay? I have to go back to do something.
-Will you come back?
-Of course, I will. Just make sure your brother doesn’t touch that big book that he’s going for right now. – with a movement of her fingers she lifted the book that Pietro was about to touch, placing it on top of the shelf, the boy gasping when he saw it moving away from his grasp. – I’ll be right back. Just five minutes, okay? Count them, and you’ll see that I will be back in just a jiffy.
Wanda nodded at the older woman as Agatha snapped her fingers and apparated back in the blown-up apartment they had just left. It was painful enough to lose your parents, but it was worse if you didn’t even have a thing to remember them by. Agatha didn’t remember her father, he left when she was a baby, at least that’s what her mother had told her, but knowing that she didn’t love her enough to take care of her, to teach her she didn’t even know if it had been just one of her many lies. Kneeling close to the dead bodies she examined them. They didn’t have anything on them that she could give to their children, so maybe she could use something else. Necromancy was one of her specialities, but in this case, it wasn’t even an option, so she settled for turning them to dust. With just a twirl of her fingers, a small flower bloomed from them, a small white lily of the valley which she picked up as carefully as possible, smiling.
It was a very small token, but maybe it would be enough for the kids to remember them by. In the future, she would figure out some other way for them to keep a happy memory of their beloved parents. Turning around to look at the bomb which still hadn’t gone of she saw the Tv, maybe she could take hers out of the attic. Vanishing into thin air she found herself standing in her kitchen instead of her living room, she aimed for the wrong room accidentally. As she walked to the door that separated the hallway and the kitchen, she saw the two figures sitting on the floor one in front of the other one, counting. Smiling she knocked on the doorframe, making them turn their heads, Wanda’s eyes lighting up at the sight of her. She had come back.
-Come here, both of you. – they stood up, trusting this unknown woman that had become so important for them in just the course of the latest hour. – I know it’s not much, and I will try to get something better for you, but this is the only thing I could do with your parents. We’ll plant them in the garden and that way you’ll be able to see them every day. – taking Wanda’s and Pietro’s hand she placed the lily on their palms. The little witch felt the essence of her parents in the petals, which brought tears to her eyes.
-Thank you.
-You don’t have to thank me. Why don’t you two go to the couch and take a nap while I plant this?
-Will you stay with us?
-Until I can find a nice family for you.
-No, I don’t want to go. Please, don’t leave us. – the girl hugged her by the waist again, not wanting to let go. Agatha meant safety, protection and comfort, her brain filled with painful memories of the bombing and the pain of her parent’s death. Agatha was the first person apart from her family who had helped them and not tried to hurt them or kill them. She felt the older witch’s pain and guilt, something she couldn’t quite understand, but she knew she didn’t want to leave her alone. Agatha felt Wanda’s mind unconsciously trying to get inside her own head, probably trying to figure her out, so gently she pushed her out. It required skills and strength, today she wouldn’t see Agatha’s memories.
She was fighting with her heart and her mind. She didn’t want to lose these two innocent kids because of her way of life, that’s what had caused her to lose her son in her first place. She was always busy, practising magic, getting more power, maybe she had disciplined him too much, maybe she had not paid him enough attention, but that was something she couldn’t solve now, he had betrayed her, made an alliance with the enemy and had tried to kill her in the process. She couldn’t let that happen to these kids. It brought tears to her eyes to see how practically two strangers couldn’t let go of her, and it surprised her, even more, the fact that she had grown to care for them in such a short period of time. They were alone and had magic in them, she couldn’t just let them leave and hope they would end up with a family that could take care of them and not judge them or hurt them. She had had plenty of experiences with people who even nowadays were still afraid of witches and had tried to kill her. They were ten years old; she couldn’t let them suffer that.
-It’s okay, it’s fine. I won’t tell you to go if you don’t want to. You are safe with me. – Agatha hugged Wanda back, letting the tears fall freely on top of the redhead’s hair. Noticing Pietro standing a few feet away she stretched her arm, asking him to join them; he hesitated at first but soon joined them, appreciating the warmth both his sister and Agatha provided. – I will take care of you, I promise.
-You won’t leave us? We are not yours; how can we believe you? – Pietro stared intensely at her, his blue eyes hard as he placed a protective arm around her sister. They really had been through a lot, even if their parents had tried to shield the worst from them, they were still very smart children.
-I have an old Tv in my attic and several DVD’s as well, why don’t you keep them? I saw the show you were watching.
-That doesn’t tell us if you are not going to throw us out.
-I had a son many, many years ago, but I didn’t take care of him as I should have and ended up getting hurt. I didn’t love him as I should have, and he went bad. I regret it every single day, but I won’t let you down, I will prove to you and myself that I can protect you and take care of you. For your parents, for your future.That seemed to do the trick, making Pietro soften his eyes, returning to the hug. She wasn’t going to leave them stranded in a spiral of darkness on their own without a single person to look out for them. She was going to be the mother she should have been, giving all the love she had neglected to give to her son to these two kids that had found a way into her heart without her even realising it. A purple aura surrounded the three of them, an unspoken vow sealing her promise as the both of them rested their heads on her chest, the lilies still resting on the palm of Wanda’s hand.
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PEST MANAGEMENT FOR FOOD SAFETY IN A COVID WORLD
Before COVID-19, the food business had endless difficulties: a persistently developing complex store association, rigid foundation and rising guidelines for consistency and studies, political and ordinary disrupting impacts in pieces of the world (Climate change), rising people groups, with broadening requests on the food stock association, and changing purchaser notions.
Exactly when the pandemic hit, associations were gone facing with shortcoming, more basic sales on their assets, and the extra preliminary of getting their staff, clients, and notorieties by utilizing even more energetic neatness rehearses. Clients, meanwhile, have expected to adapt to better techniques for working, living, and eating, accomplishing basic changes in the kind of food varieties standard. The pandemic has pardoned purchasers from brief food sources to pre-bundled items.
The COVID emergency has, notwithstanding, offered upsets amazing chances to flourish. Decreased or no human presence and unpredictable food sources have driven them to wander out from the shadows and areas' homes that would have in any case been exorbitantly out of sight. During 2020, 5.7 million tortured locales across the world were addressed to Easy Pest and there was a 12.4% in general augmentation in rat interruptions, year-on-year. The dangers from aggravations can be basic. They pass on malignant infections, send perilous microorganisms, breed rapidly under ideal conditions, hurt or pummel stock, gear, building conventionality, and cause loss of pay and underhandedness to brands and notorieties.
Unsettling influences can attack food thriving at any stage in its store network from homestead to fork. Associations can profit by having an arranged bug the main's technique to oversee clear out and keep a degree of bugs away from infringing on their premises.
What is integrated pest management?
Pest expectation by integrated pest management
Integrated pest management (IPM) is a mix of practices proposed to kill the essential driver of pest infiltrations and spotlights on their drawn-out negation. It's all things considered less hard to impede pests if there's an IPM plan or program with a natural course of action of answers for stop pest action on your premises, utilizing harmless to the organic framework techniques, at each possible possibility. An IPM technique would usually think about the going with controls on your premises.
Natural control, with the utilization of essential trackers of focused pests
Compound control utilized unquestionably as last techniques and utilizations picked and evaluated pesticides to get the strength of individuals and non-target species
Mechanical and genuine controls that make a site inadmissible for pests or dispose of them straightforwardly
Social controls in rural affiliations that could mean changes in creating rehearses (like fastidiously masterminded yield change or changes to water system levels)
These Termite Control Chennai are united into the four rules that structure the defense our IPM program: preclusion, constraint, pulverization, and noticing.
Dismissal of pests:
Dismissal consolidates proactive pest control measures to upset section onto your premises through fixing and fixing any potential fragment communities into a plan. Pest fixing wires fixing openings and openings, supplanting screens and fixing escapes around doorways, lines, channels and different plans. Pest fixing is particularly critical if structures are unfilled or shut or working with lessened human presence.
Plans:
Mice, for example, can hardly conquer 1cm openings and cockroaches can enter through breaks in tiles, so ways ought to be explored by and large and perceived. Pest fixing systems unite froths, sealants, bristle strips, bug screens on doorways/windows for openings or openings that rodents, cockroaches, flies, and different appalling little creatures can slither through. Open zones like shipment fields can be defended from rodents with safe cutoff points, for example, pieces of Kevlar and steel network around moor levelers.
Selling, steel spikes, electric, wire, and grid frameworks can be utilized to cripple even the most persevering bird pests, like sparrows and pigeons. Creative contraptions that tap into the impulse and learned lead of birds are altogether doable and ensured since they scatter the birds prudently and without damage to creatures or the climate. Pest Control Madurai will give top plans.
Restriction of pests
Pests are reliably attracted to premises by food scents and lighting, which presents issues for affiliations that associate, store or move food things. Developments outfit pests with food, water, warmth, an ensured house, and security from trackers, permitting them to bring uninhibitedly up in relative comfort. A pest hazard assessment sees the potential danger zones. Limit measures serve to contain the spread of pest intrusions or cripple access. They do this by perceiving zones where food, water and harborage could give impelling forces to the section and, where conceivable, clearing out those incitation's by tidying up spills, for instance. They in addition combine fixing plans to keep access.
Plans
Affiliations can abandon drawing in pests by keeping food holders firmly fixed, utilizing tight-fitting covers on canisters and dependably purging them, killing any chaos, quickly cleaning food spills and organizing interminable clean-ups – particularly around and under beds or hardware. Each development of the food store network is helpless against pests, so you ought to investigate advancing toward things and vehicles for the presence of pests and potential danger spots and confirmation that vehicles are cleaned consistently. Staff ought to comparatively be set up in pest respect for help see the indications of pest action or passage at a beginning stage.
Obliteration of pests
Obliterating existing diseases is developed by combining phenomenally persuading, non-dangerous measures to energize a program that discards pests from your premises and maybe utilizes pesticides when totally key. Rules and standards tie the utilization and limit of pesticides, for example, rodenticides, so they are utilized surprisingly in secure trap stations and away from regions containing food. A pest management affiliation can help satisfy consistency with nearby principles and rules, like those for the use of pesticides, disinfection, and untamed life. Obliteration measures are then assessed for their achievability so pest attacks are supervised rapidly and advantageously.
Courses of action
Manual
Manual responses for rodents combine get traps, for instance, snap traps, snare stations, and roof traps that forestall rodents utilizing overhead zones as a 'highway' to get to all pieces of the plan. Fluorescent after gels can assist with examining the degree of rat action. They incorporate rat tracks on basically any surface, offering you a good trace of where to put traps or catch. These gels are more versatile than the going with development and can securely be utilized in sprinkle and spill zones in regions where food is managed.
Motorized
Automated plans intertwine coordinated frameworks that see pest action in related gadgets, which send alerts when set off, starting reactions from a pest control affiliation. An electronic pest-control framework in addition aggregates and stores cloud-based information to permit relationship to see models and models in pest advancement while sufficiently offering documentation to consistence and review reports.
Flies
Electric fly-executioners and ghastly minimal creature light gets (ILTs) can help block flies sending ruinous infections. ILTs that utilization LED lights for a more prominent interest of flies are on the whole the more great considering the way that LED lights produce uncommon light in the most delicate piece of the UV range that flies can see. The lower energy use of ILTs makes them more sensible and particularly organized contraptions will also impede tainting by containing terrifying minimal creature pieces in the genuine unit. Gel-based draws and traps can comparably be utilized for additional unassuming flies, for example, standard thing flies.
Set aside Product Insects (SPIs)
SPIs are a specific issue in the food business since they live in food stocks and harm them, causing affiliations cash related occurrence. Affiliations need to take different actions to thwart SPIs torturing crude decorations and completed things. Composed warmth applications are without artificial materials and cause unimportant obstruction to works out. They can set out to critical into all spaces of an assault to dispose of eggs, hatchlings, and grown-up terrifying little animals. The shine denatures the protein in their bodies, causing parchedness by disturbing the waxy layers clearly of the bug. Seeing of pests Premises should be dependably checked to perceive any pest movement and outline whether pest control plans are working viably. Standard noticing defeats more subtle issues outlining into more imperative ones, with the subsequent expense for the business. Noticing should either be possible really or carefully.
Game plans
Manual noticing wires the utilization of gels that track pest pathways, for example, the fluorescent ones alluded to above for rodents, and traps and pheromone gets for bugs, for example, normal thing flies, moths, weevils, or dreadful little creatures. The gets should be checked dependably and the outcomes recorded to discover the pest species for evacuation.
Advanced Pest Control Chennai utilizes the force of headway, information, and appraisal to react to the changing pest control needs of affiliations. It's an even more noteworthy and practical method for directing pests since it screens pest advancement constantly, permitting speedier reactions to block intrusions making. It's besides a more secure choice in the pandemic since it gathers that premises can be noticed the whole day without human presence, pest controllers association essentially the gadgets that have been set off, restricting their experience nearby, and affiliations can get to all pest management information by implication through online entryways.
Tidiness and sterilization
While IPM is fundamental for pest evacuation and balance, affiliations will likewise have to guarantee their premises, staff, and vehicles stay careful in these COVID times. Extra cleanliness checks covering hand tidiness, surface tidiness, air cleansing, and sterilization after pest invasions or vehicle use between providers ought to in like way be thought of.
The advantages of IPM
Integrated pest management
IPM is a drawn-out technique that mitigates the dangers from pests to forestall them changing into a consistent issue. It is the establishment of commonsense pest control and assists relationship with perceiving which pests are a particular danger, the trademark factors that permit them to succeed, and the conditions that should be made to make them negative to pests. The mix of methodology works better appeared differently in relation to single strategies and goes past basically getting out invasions. Considering everything, it's basically more helpful and simpler to obstruct invasions than it is to treat them and tidy up in like manner. As pests make after some time, learn and change rapidly to their current circumstance, it's vital for help out a pest management affiliation that understands neighborhood rules and rules, changes foundation and consistency needs and uses science to remain before pests. Pest Control Trichy will offer top-quality help.
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atrainernamedradish · 4 years
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Top 10 Least Favorite Pokemon
You know what’s harder than making a top favorites list? A least favorite one. I was particular about this list because I wanted my own personal opinion on the matter instead of adding to the echo chamber that can be the fandom’s. I don’t hate these Pokemon. These are the ones I care for the least. Also, the placements kept changing for this list, but I feel like I finally put everyone on here in the right order now.
10) Whismur Line
The only reason this line is the Normal typing is because Game Freak hasn’t made the Sound typing official. Hell, Electric, or even Steel, would have made more sense. But nope we got these weird fleshy sound-based things that I’m never excited to see.
9) Greedent
I take back everything I said about Diggersby (still wished it didn’t have the belching model cry though), and I’m directing that towards Greedent. It looks like your typical fat, lazy, and not particularly bright cartoon character. Almost feel like they were a bit lazy in this design. Like… they could have done something more, or less since it’s large enough. I feel like Game Freak is trying to recreate a likeness to Snorlax, since it’s the poster child for obese Pokemon, but keeps falling short by giving us the ugliest designs. We don’t need more fat normal types. We’ve got plenty.
8) Electrode
Hey guys, let’s make this Pokeball based Pokemon flip upside down, make it less pissed off and call it an evolution! Also, it’s going to be crazy fast as well explode, most likely killing anything nearby, because why the fuck not? Boring and dangerous… what a match made in hell for a design!
7) Pheromosa
It’s an almost 7 foot tall sentient cockroach with legendary stats. Nope. Just nope. *flees*
6) Grimmsnarl Line
I have been disappointed with this evolutionary line since seeing the leaks of Impidimp. I know a lot of Faerie lore and it ticks me off that they chose a Goddamn Goblin for the first Dark/Fairy type. Also, and I know not all Faeries are cute and cuddly, but why does Game Freak keep trying to sneak in ugly Fairy types? About 95% of the Fairy typing has a cute or pleasing ascetic. That’s one of its themes, that and trying to throw pink on everything, so why give us this ugly line?
The only indicator of this thing remotely being Fairy typing at a glance is that it’s pink. I would have never gotten Fairy otherwise from it. Goblins might be in Faerie Tales, but they aren’t Faeries.
The only one in this line that remotely gives off the Dark typing to me is Morgrem. The other two not so much. Putting black on a Pokemon is maybe another indicator of the Dark typing, but even then it ain’t helping…?
Overall to me this thing is goofy to ugly looking with its design and typing a complete mess. It irritates me that our first combination of Fairy and Dark is this line…
Also, using it in a playthrough and it pisses me off that I’m not getting a Fairy move until it reaches its final evolution! That’s if I don’t want to grind up watt points in the Wild Area for a Fairy TR, or beat Opal before getting said evolution!
5) Shiinotic
Fairy typing makes sense for Morelull when you realize what it’s based on. Hell, even Ghost does. But Shiinotic? I don’t care if mushrooms are a big thing in Faerie Culture. You can’t just design some ugly ass alien mushroom hybrid then slap the Fairy typing on it because of mushrooms or lore from a pre evolution! While we’re at it let’s make the Amoongus and Breloom line Fairies too!
Morelull should have been a single stage line. It would have made sense. But no. They just wanted to make an ugly Fairy type just to prove they could say: “hey fandom I know you’re sick of all the cute and pink Fairy types so here’s an ugly one to change things up!”
And don’t get me *started* on that ugly ass shiny! Game Freak: bright yellow and muddy browns are a terrible color combination! Guess why?
4) Spinda
You know how I praised Alcremie for having multiple forms because of what it was and why it made sense for it? Well I have the opposite opinion regarding Spinda.
If I didn’t believe in the golden rule of everyone having a favorite of each Pokemon then I’d very much assume this thing wasn’t liked by anyone.
Everything about its design annoys me. Why is it a panda? And before anyone tries to tell me otherwise, it’s in its American/English name. Why is it in a constant state of vertigo? I literally was trying to think of a typing it would be better off as instead of the Normal typing and none come to mind. So it’s normal because a) it’s an animal or b) because they needed to give it a typing and no other typing fit.
And out of ALL the Pokemon why does this one have an almost endless possibility of “forms”? This thing has got to be a living dex collector’s worst nightmare!
3) Archeops
This Pokemon is on here for pure personal reasons. Technically there are a few other Pokemon that I feel the same towards, but this one was the worst about it.
You know you have a stupid powerful stat as a non-psuedo legendary and legendary when you need an ability to nerf you. What’s worse is when you need a pretty bulky Pokemon to soak up the damage you reap before said ability does nerf you.
It was always Goddamn terrifying to run into this Pokemon in White 2. Not only was a good chunk of my team weak to Flying, but my Samurott couldn’t take more than one hit from it. Not to mention it didn’t do enough super effective damage to OHKO this thing. So I was never happy to run into this thing because I would only get out of the fight with a lot of collateral damage to my party!
This wasn’t the only Pokemon that was this fucking difficult to deal with in Unova. There is definitely a power imbalance in these games which made playing them a pain in the ass. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Black 2 & White 2, but fuck me if this wasn’t my biggest issues with those games…
(Some of y'all are probably wondering about Slaking, and Slaking is actually easier to deal with thanks to its typing and ability readily triggering.)
2) Pelipper
This Pokemon was originally going to be my least favorite Water type on my favorite and least favorite typings lists, but I think its placement on this list suits it better.
I honestly don’t mind its pre-evolution Wingull. Wingull is kinda cute. Wonder Trade had me groaning every time I saw one, but that was more the player’s fault than anything.
Pelipper is just such a poorly designed Pokemon. Like, what were they thinking when they essentially fused the beak and stomach together? How can this thing carry its front heavy, well front? I assume it can handle all of that weight being airborne since I doubt it can get around any other way with its stubby little feet.
Then they gave it the Drizzle ability and suddenly people give a shit about its ugly ass…
The only time I’ve “willingly” used one was in my Wonderlocke, which was only due to the fact that I was in dire need of a water type, and I'll tell you that right now that I didn’t want to resort to using it. I’m pretty sure it died at the very end in the Champion battle… wasn’t all that sad to lose it if I’m being honest.
This isn’t just reserved for this Pokemon, but I absolutely hate the dual typing of Water/Flying. Nothing says “throw a rock at me” more than this typing combination. 
Overall I just don’t like anything about this Pokemon.
1) Greninja
This Pokemon used to be a lot lower on this list, but as I mentioned right before the list that the order changed as I was making it. I can promise you that this Pokemon isn’t on here because of how popular it is (there are others that would be on here if that was the case). There are many other reasons I will go over as to why this one is on the list.
The first is my experience using a basic one in XY. It’s learn set of moves is terrible, and that’s because it learns a lot of physical moves despite having a much better Special Attack. When I thought about the aspects of a ninja’s special attack being higher than physical it made much more sense. It had little to no options for Dark type moves with one of the best moves for it not being available till you’ve gotten the 8th badge for Waterfall. Greninja was the weakest member of my team with my Aromatisse putting in much more work than it! If Greninja is not competitively trained as well as has any of its hidden abilities then it’s not really that useful. I kept the one from that playthrough because I don’t have the heart to release it or get rid of it…
The second is its design. I very much don’t care for it (its tongue scarf is gross!). Its middle evolution looks so much better to me, and it made me sad evolving it into this ugly thing…
The third is its typing. I’ve had some time to think about it and I’ve wondered to myself: why is Greninja a Dark type? Thinking of the history, and to some extent the mythology of ninjas, nothing screams Dark type to me. I’m also taking into account of Dark being Evil in Japan, and nothing about ninja inherently screams Evil or Dark typing. Then I found myself thinking about its other typing in Water which brought me to the conclusion that the only reason Greninja is a Water type is for two reasons: 1) It’s a starter and 2) it’s a frog.
So you’re probably thinking by this point: “well Radish if you don’t like its typings then what would you change them to?” Unfortunately, I’d keep Water since it’s not the only Pokemon to have a typing based on the animal it is (looking at you Poliwag line!). Dark typing would be replaced with Ghost since ninjas in their lore and mythology can traverse and interact with the spiritual world.
I will address the elephant in the room for my closing thoughts on this Pokemon: Greninja and the fandom. I wholeheartedly believe that if Greninja didn’t have the hidden abilities that it did that it wouldn’t be as favored as it is among the fanbase. As someone who used a basic ability one in hopes of giving it a chance I was greatly disappointed, and didn’t understand why this Pokemon was so popular. That’s why I feel as though the competitive scene is where it has gotten all of its fame from. People give Charizard so much shit for being overrated but do they for Greninja? (Not a big fan of Charizard for those who wanna accuse me as such.)
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engekihaikyuu · 4 years
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Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu
Prince of Stage vol. 9 - Interview Translation with the new Karasuno cast!
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Part 3: The Third Years Sawamura Daichi: Higano Shou Sugawara Koushi: Ichinose Ryuu Azumane Asahi: Fukuda Yuuya
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Full interview translation and more photos under the Read More! Please do not repost my translations or scans.
Please give us a highlight or something to watch out for in the upcoming play. Higano: I feel very strongly that the biggest thing to look forward to in this play is our completely new Karasuno cast.  Because the characters have in their reality spent all this time together, I think we have to show on-stage a real sense of teamwork and that team atmosphere between us.  And then I’d really love for people to look for those little details in our relationships and our gestures and mannerisms. Ichinose: As we’re rehearsing, I find it super fun and interesting to work on how to present scenes on stage that don’t even have my character in them.  Because we do all the extra parts too, like the random people that are walking in a crowd.  If people pay attention to those parts too, then they can find us and think, “Oh it’s so-and-so!” and then I think they could have even more fun. Fukuda: Shou-kun's already said it, but this is our first production as the new Karasuno cast so I think one of the things to look for is our team’s atmosphere and closeness.  And then of course because it’s a production with volleyball as the main theme, I would love for people to enjoy things like our rhythmic breathing, the tension, and the realism during the match.  
Please tell us something about how you relate to your characters. Higano: Sawamura Daichi has that serious and strait-laced atmosphere.  Evidently, people have that impression of me.  That I seem really steady. (laughs)  But in reality, I’m not like that at all.   Ichinose: Are you okay?  To say that. (laughs) Higano: I’m fine.  People usually say to me, “At first it was hard to talk to you.”  That was true for you too, right? Ichinose: That’s true.  Are you purposely trying to put out that kind of aura?   Higano: I’m not doing it on purpose, but it seems that I just do.   Fukuda: You’re overflowing with it.  (laughs) Higano: Even if I’m really not upset, at rehearsals whenever I cross my arms and put on a serious face, people will just say to me, “Oh I’m sorry.” Everyone: Hahahahah! (laughs) Higano: Even though I’m not mad at all. (laughs)  For other productions I get to appear in, I’m very often the leader, or the person in charge, and this time I’m the captain obviously.  So I feel like I’m pretty close to Sawamura in that sense. Ichinose: I had a time in my life where I played volleyball, and I think I really enjoyed it and kept doing it because it’s really fun to score points during a match.  I think that Sugawara has such an incredible kindness to be able to keep being this nice senpai to Kageyama, who joined the team as this genius setter and took his position.  Even though he can’t be in matches, he’s doing what he can for the sake of the team, and I think that’s really amazing.  I’m not sure I could do the same.  I’m the type to quit the team if I can’t be a regular.  So I have to learn by his example.  But we are similar in that we both get carried away and end up just messing around sometimes! Fukuda: I think that Asahi-san and I are pretty much polar opposites.  I’m the type that likes being boisterous.  But what we have in common is appearance, and we’re pretty much the same height.  So I think we have pretty similar physiques.  And I’m also very bad with ghosts and bugs.  This is just my assumption, but I think Asahi-san is also bad with them. (laughs)  I think we might be linked in that way.  
If you could pick a favorite character within the series, who would it be? Ichinose: I love my own character of course, and like I said earlier, I really respect that he can behave in a way I can’t.  Aside from Sugawara, I like Noya-ssan.  When I played, I was a left wing spiker, but the setter and the libero really save the team.  Lastly, the Ace is the one entrusted with the toss, and the libero will pick up all kinds of plays.  Since Noya-san can combine these positions he definitely is the guardian deity of the team and you feel really reassured to have him around.   Fukuda: If we’re talking about Karasuno, I like Nishinoya and Tanaka and Hinata... I love how fiery they are!  And how direct.  They also get a lot of the more famous lines from the series, but yeah I really do love the characters that get depicted as being very passionate.  They can touch the hearts of anyone, even people who aren’t into sports, and I’m always attracted to those types.   Higano: My favorite is Asahi-san. Fukuda: Ohh! Higano: Even though Asahi gets discouraged, he does get back up and move forward when supported by his teammates... I think I can really sympathize with that.  I think people who get discouraged, who hit a wall in their progress, are definitely strong.  If they can then overcome it, I mean.  And because of that I think Azumane is a really wonderful character.  He feels especially human in that sense.
Please tell us a story from your rehearsals. Higano: Whenever we have time to spare, we’re dedicated to playing volleyball. Ichinose: That’s for sure!  Even during breaks we’re always holding and passing balls. Fukuda: Normally we rehearse for 1-2 hours and then take a 10min break, and normally you’d rest, or use that time individually for whatever, but everyone just picks up a ball instead and goes at it.  It’s kind of impressive. Higano: During rehearsals, I think it’s really great how everyone will discuss and explain their opinions and ideas.  For the younger ones, I would normally think it'd be difficult to speak plainly if the senpai are around.  I grew up in a very sports-oriented environment, and the senpai were definitely scary beings.  But at rehearsals, the more experienced people are more informal and we’re the type to want to be more unified.  Because of that, I think it’s an environment where it’s probably easier for the less experienced of us to voice their opinions.  And because I’m in the position of captain, I want to accept everyone’s opinions and of course be assertive with my own. Fukuda: At rehearsals everyone always makes sure to properly greet each other, and do the obvious without being asked to, and I think it’s really great.  When you look at any two people who are talking, people are always looking their partners in the eyes and listening intently.  Although if it’s Shou-kun, he might have a scary face or whatever. (laughs) Everyone: Hahahah! (laughs) Ichinose: It’s not just Karasuno, everyone plays volleyball together without really paying attention to our designated teams, and people from different teams will give me advice, and I’m really grateful for it.  Even if you’re together on the same team, there are things that you miss.  Since I used to play volleyball, I’d like it if I can give advice on that front. Higano: This wasn’t during rehearsals, but yesterday the three of us went to dinner together.  I think the majority of our conversation was about the play. Ichinose: Well we’re happy to be able to talk about the play over dinner and stuff.  Is there anyone who hates doing that?  Who’s gonna say, “Just do that at rehearsals?”  I think it’s pretty necessary.  So I’m really happy that we get to do it. Higano: Among the third-years I think all of us all like talking a lot so we talk about a lot of different things, not just the play.   Ichinose: Just recently we were talking about how huge the bugs are in Hokkaido. (laughs) Higano: I was really terrified.   Fukuda: When we tried looking them up on our phones, they were shockingly big. (laughs)  Shou-kun just went, “I don’t wanna look, I don’t wanna look at it!”   Higano: I’m so bad with bugs, I’ve had to call an ambulance twice. Ichinose & Fukuda: Ehh?! Higano: I really can’t believe I’m talking about this but... when I was in high school, I went to a friend’s house, and we went into this store-house type room, and we moved this luggage that had been stored in there forever and... this cockroach came out and started flying in circles around me.  And then I started hyperventilating and that was the first time.  The second time, I was walking around the Arashiyama bamboo grove in Kyoto, and above me a crow flapped its wings.  At the same time, something fell, and then there were all these caterpillars on me, so I hyperventilated again.  In this group, I’m confident that I probably hate bugs the most. (laughs)
What were your first impressions of each other, and your impressions of each other now? Higano: Ryuu hasn’t changed that much from when I first saw him.  He doesn’t really have a hidden side, and he feels kind of like a little brother. Ichinose: I’m the one that’s a bit more removed in age* so the two of you really feel like adults to me.
*Shou and Yuuya were born in 1991, but Ryuu was born in 1997.  
Higano: How cute. Fukuda: Definitely cute. Ichinose: They really feel like older-brother-senpai.   Higano: Yuuya feels more like, how should I say it, the same type as me?  He looks tough, so when you first meet him you might think to yourself, “If this guy were to get angry, it’d be pretty scary,” but in reality he’s not like that at all.  He’s really friendly, he sort of calms down the place, that’s the kind of atmosphere he can create.  So in that respect, my impression of Yuuya has really changed. Fukuda: ….I’m a bit embarrassed now. Ichinose: Yeah Yuuya-kun was scary at first, but after going out to dinner and messing around, I could see another side to him, and my image of him has changed too.   Fukuda: Shou-kun definitely left a strong impression, because when he’s not talking, his eyes are really intense. (laughs)  Am I being monitored?  Kind of like that. (laughs)  But when you talk to him, he’s so gentle and just really really nice.  He has that older-brother disposition.  And contrary to what he looks like, he can be lamer than you can even imagine.  Just recently when we were riding the train he tried and said, “That was a joke just now, did you get it?” because I couldn’t pick up on the joke. (laughs) Ichinose: He’ll just do it so suddenly and smoothly. (laughs) Higano: Yeah.  A little too smoothly sometimes that nobody will follow up on my joke, and then I get a bit embarrassed. Fukuda: My impression of Shou-kun now is that if you can talk to him even once, he’s very easy to become close to!  The first time I met Ryuu, he didn’t talk at all. Ichinose: I’m not great with strangers... Fukuda: Well I’m the same way. (laughs)  But now when I try to talk to you, you can talk quite a bit.  At a glance, he doesn't seem the type to talk much, so it sort of felt like he didn’t have any interest in people.  But in reality he likes to talk a lot and he’s quite sociable.  He’s very cute. Ichinose: Yay! Fukuda: In conclusion, everyone is wonderful. (laughs)
Please give one final message to people who will be going to see the show. Higano: One of the themes for this production is “connect,” and there’s not a single one among us that wants to do this half-baked.  As captain, as an actor, I want to charge ahead at full speed.  I hope that everyone looks forward to it. Ichinose: Personally, I really love the manga, so I do have my uncertainties about becoming part of the new Karasuno generation and being able to connect with the production that I’ve watched all this time... but I’m trying not to worry about it and instead I hope to rely on giving my all into having fun!   Fukuda: We’re using the format of a stage play, but I would love for people to be able to experience it not like a play and not us as characters, but rather imagine us as real people living out the story in front of them.  So many people have worked on this and we’re going at this with a lot of passion, so I hope that the audience can feel that.  Please look forward to it!  
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Translated by @nimbus-cloud Please do not repost my translations!  To me, this includes screenshots of bits and pieces taken out of context, especially if they don’t link back to me.
If you appreciate the work I do for this blog and want to support my translation efforts, please consider donating a ko-fi!  (x)
If you’d like to buy the magazine that features the original interview, you can find it on Amazon JP: (x)
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ohgoddard · 4 years
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Fist of Fire.2.17
The hot arid air of the Mojave Desert bore itself in the lungs of two men standing outside Clint’s Bar. It was an average biker joint, looking like a saloon of old stuck on the side of a highway going to a much more desirable place. The two men, some run of the mill looking bikers surveyed the horizon of the cracked and dried rock and piles of sand and saw nothing. The most activity they saw was a tumbleweed roll gently by them, carried by a wind that only brought more heat with it. Although the parking lot outside Clint’s was full, there were no noises coming from within the bar, but to these men that was normal. One of them took out a cigarette and lit it with his hands, coughing as the smoke filled his lungs. He then got a message on his phone, and looked. In almost synchronous nature, both men walked into the doors of  Clint’s Bar and locked them in their wake. 
All of this was seen and heard by a woman miles away, lying prone. She covered herself in dirt and desert weeds and held in her hands a pair of binoculars. Her blonde hair,colored to match the desert soil, was tied behind her in a practical braid. Her face, a light tan covered in more soil, was tucked under a hat with a shrub placed over it. For all intents and purposes this woman was hidden to any who looked in this direction, or even looked closely. She slowly shimmied herself back from the edge and took cover behind the backside of the hill she was spying over. Her hand reaches for a notepad on her belt, and she scribbles into it. After putting it away, she takes out a device. It has just one button on it, and begins tapping it in a series of dots and dashes. After this, she packs up, and begins hiking into the desert.
In the city of Cincinnati, there was a bank robbery going on. Terrified people ducked under cover as four giants ran down the street, chased by police cars. The crowded city streets were full of chaos, as these four giants were destroying parts of whole buildings and crushing cars. In the hands of each they carried bank vaults, the entire thing. They laughed uncontrollably, as when the police fired from their weapons they did nothing to pierce the skin of the giants. One of them, the presumed leader of the pack, turned towards another and yelled, “We’re gonna get away with this! No one can stop us!” Then, as his head was turned, a firetruck flew into his head. The giant did a full backflip then hit the road like a sack of bricks. The vault falling with a loud thud, and property damage, besides him. The other giants stop and look at their fallen leader with an expression of shock overtaking them, that is until one of horror comes. In front of them, floating several feet in the air to reach their eye level, was a muscular man dressed in blue jeans, a shirt that had a greek letter familiar to all, and a helmet that covered his head in its entirety. The helmet looked like that of a Trojan Warrior, with long accented faceplates and a netting underneath it to hide his facial features. The man had his arms crossed above his chest, and a booming voice came from his mask that was heard for blocks around.
“I don’t know how you thought no one could stop you. Don’t you read the news?”
At that the man moves at sonic speeds and spearheads another giant in the stomach, sending it flying back several blocks and into a large stone building, now unconscious. The other two giants drop their vaults and run, trying to flee, but are stopped when a dash of black and blue wake circles around their legs and they fall. Their heavy bodies hit the ground and, before a heavy punch is delivered to their heads, they see electrical lines had been wrapped around their legs.
Standing victorious over the giants bodies, crowds begin to cheer as they send accolades to the hero. Reporters run up to him, microphones ready and cameras rolling. “How did you know they were going to be here?””Is there anyway you could have caused less destruction?””Do you have any words for the people at home?””Will you attend the Colored Heroes Rights conference in July, as the most famous hero of color?” The man just stood there and said various nothings into the cameras, his voice quieter than when addressing the giants. “Damages are expected, I was just in the neighborhood, and of course I'm showing up to that! I’d be dumb not to.” He steps away from the crowds and picks up the giants by the wires holding them, rising into the air. “And for the people at home,’ he says turning his head towards the camera once more,”Stop committing crimes. I want to go home one day!” With that he became a blur and the giants were gone from the city.
A couple hours later, after the giants were delivered to the Ohio Powered Incarceration Center and the vaults given back to their banks, the man found himself sitting alone under a shady tree in the countryside. After looking around with a vision that extended for miles, he takes off his helmet. A short cut but neatly trimmed black beard and bald head greet the cool air with gratitude as he takes a deep breath. “Another day, another lock up.” He reaches into his back pocket and takes out his phone, and starts to go through his missed emails and whatnot, when he notices a notification from an app he usually never checks. Which meant…
He opens it up and examines the contents. They read: TRACKED-ETEAM-2-NV-STOP. ETEAM-IS-ALIVE-STOP. MORE-INFO-LTR-STOP. HEG.
He lowers his phone and sighs a breath of stress and anger. “You damned cockroach.” He stands up and grabs his helmet, and angrily puts it on. “No one does all this and keeps living.”
He then gets a call on his phone and answers. “Omegaman,” the voice says over the phone,”You’re needed in Detroit, danger rating 78%. Gravity monster.” Omegaman sighs and replies. “On my way.”  As he lowers his phone from his head, he looks to the skies.”I’ll get to you later, Emesh.” With that, he soars into the clouds.
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“Oh my God mom, it's not that big a deal!” Jade sat in her living room while her mom played with her hair and sprayed something here, pinned something there, readjusted this and so on. “It is so! This is your first date in..” Jade’s mom paused, holding a can of hairspray away from her daughter. “Well, ever!” She resumed her pampering ,with Jade spitting as the spray got into her mouth. She was dressed in a white and red dress, and it was a stunning one. It had an open back and the red spiraled up the whole body while the white sparkled in the light. 
“It's just a dance, mom. It's nothing big!” As Jade spoke this, Joseph rolled himself in from the spare room he was staying in, a large purse laying across his lap. “Au contraire, Jade. This is the AHA’s summer gala. It happens once a year and you have never  gone to one and with your senior year coming up it will be your last one as well! You must go. And, you even got a date so that makes it all the better!” He places the purse at the side of the chair Jade is being forcibly fancied up in and retreats a safe distance from the cloud of product in the air. “Oh come on not you too!” Jade screams in mock pain as eyeliner is drawn over her face. “I don’t like makeup and -ack- Riley and I aren’t, like, official yet or anything so -” the spraying stops. Jade looks around and sees the very confused faces of the two adults. Joseph’s is far more confused that her mother’s, who is more disappointed than anything.
“Really? You guys haven't officially asked each other out yet?” Joseph was the first to speak, and it was filled with incredulous emotion. The fact that he was out and about as he was in the first place is a miracle, as his doctor had prescribed him several more days of bedrest(“I'm always sitting down, that counts, right?”). His voice has improved, and is sounding much like his old one.  It was because of this that Jade was the most taken back by his comment. “Why do you care so much? Isn’t shipping your students against the law or something?” Joseph gave a look of fake shock. “How could you! And no, it isn’t.” Jade’s mom speaks to her next, “Why haven’t you asked her yet, sweetheart?” Jade blushed and looked away from her mom, who began to apply more of the makeup she was carrying. “I dunno..just kind of hasn’t come up. There has been a bit that’s been going on.” Joseph coughed. “Oops.” Jade shot him a dirty look and he looked away, pulling at his collar in a joking fashion. “I’ll..I’ll ask her tonight. She said she’d meet me there anyways.” Her mom beamed when she heard this. “You know Jade, not too long ago you were a hot headed troublemaker who always got into the trouble,” Joseph interrupted with a “still is” and suffered a hit from Mrs.Laurens, “but this Riley girl has really done a lot of good for you. The least you can do is properly ask her out.”
Jade took a deep breath, “Yeah, you're right mom. That reminds me, “ she looks towards the clock on her mom’s oven. “It's almost time for me to go. Who’s gonna take me to the school.”
Joseph rolls over to the door, “I will. My car is outside.” Jade begins to get up, grabbing her bags, before stopping. “Wait a second.” Joseph gives great bellowing laughs, holding onto his wheelchair for support. Jade gives a harumph, obviously not happy to be the butt of the joke.
“Oh Jade, don't be like that,” her mom said, stifling a laugh herself,”he will actually be taking you there though.”
Jade looked at her mom, her turn to give an incredulous look. “How?” Joseph smacked his wheelchair. “We’re gonna take the train. Remember, the school has a lien that goes straight to it.”
Joseph opens the door and rolls out, looking back. “Coming?” Jade could not believe this was happening.
A few dozen minutes and a train ride later where everyone looked at Joseph more than her(which brought a great deal of relief, but a twinge of jealousy too) they arrived at the school station. Joseph got off, gave the finger to multiple people who asked about his accident, and Jade soon followed. “The nerve of some people,” she heard him mutter under his breath. He turned to Jade. “Now, go over what we talked about on the train.” Jade rolled her eyes. “Walk up to her, hand on her shoulder, ask her in my ‘manliest voice’ to go out with me. I just don’t think-” Joseph shhsh her. “Don’t think. It only makes things worse.” She gives a laugh, a nervous one, but still a laugh. A small smile appears on her face. “Thank you, Mr.Ellington.” She leans in and gives him a hug. “Now,” Joseph says after the hug is done, “I have to go to the teachers area to get ready for my round of chaperoning. I’ll see you in a bit. After the dance, wait for me here. I don’t want you walking the streets without me.” “I’ve done it tons of times what-” “Just wait for me. You’re a pretty teenage girl walking alone in a shit part of town. Different creatures come out at night.” She rolls her eyes. “Ok, whatever dad.” Joseph smiles and rolls off. “Have a good dance!”
A few seconds after he enters an elevator to take him to the school, Jade realizes what she said.Dad? She would have to think more about that later..some conflicting feelings have been affecting her recently. Thankfully, a good distraction just came off the next train.
“Well, hell-o beautiful.” Jade turned to see Riley step off in a spiff tuxedo, one that hugged her body. It's just about made Jade faint then and there. “Hh-hey! You ready?” Jade nervously stammered out. Riley walked up, took Jade’s hand, and kissed it like a prince. “With you? Always.” Jade’s plans went out the window.
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nerdasaurus1200 · 5 years
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Congratulations
A drabble inspired by @lenoreofraven ‘s Liladrien AU. In which Marinette must be protected, Adrien’s an idiot, Kagami is ready to make heads roll, and Viperion is a good bf.
Kagami had enough of this. It was time to give Adrien a piece of her mind. As she stalked towards the Agreste Mansion, she was vaguely aware that she probably looked very much like her superhero self at the moment; with her steely glare and looming walk. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to care; she had a sister to avenge. If it was up to her, she’d be doing this a lot sooner, back when it all began. 
The day had started fine enough, she walked to school joking and laughing with her sisters. It was a perfect moment in her eyes, a much-needed break from Lila. But it only went downhill from there. Chloe made a terrible pun as they walked into the classroom, causing Kagami to roll her eyes and Marinette to giggle. However, the laughter died in her throat when she saw Lila. Only this time, it wasn’t just Lila that caused Marinette’s frown. The little witch was clinging to Adrien, bragging to the class that they were dating now! Kagami didn’t need to look at Marinette to know the poor girl had a heartbroken look on her face. Marinette rushed out of the classroom, and both Kagami and Chloe raced after her. When they found her in the bathroom crying, both Kagami and Chloe were ready to murder the liar and the idiot blonde. But Marinette stopped them. 
“I’m fine, girls. Really. I don’t want you to do anything.” Marinette shakily reassured them through her tears. Both of them knew she was lying, but obeyed her wishes nonetheless. It only got harder from there. Lila took every chance she got that she was dating Adrien and Marinette wasn’t. Kagami and Chloe tried to keep Marinette away from the couple by distracting her with fashion magazines and hamster videos whenever they were near, and for a while, it seemed like it was helping. But this morning, things took a turn for the worse. When she saw the Akuma heading for Marinette in the locker room, she could’ve sworn she felt her heart stop. Within seconds, Chloe tackled Marinette in a bear hug and Kagami drew her sword and sliced the Akuma in half. She even stomped on it a few times for good measure. Suddenly, Marinette was sobbing again, blubbering something unintelligible.
“Mari, honey, use your words. Take a deep breath.” Kagami gently whispered as Chloe held her tighter. “I’m s-sorry. I k-know you want me to b-be happy, but I just can’t handle this. I can’t deal with her r-rubbing it in my face.” Marinette sobbed. And something in Kagami snapped then and there. She couldn’t take the sight of her sister so sad and helpless. She had to make the one responsible pay. Which was why she was here at Adrien’s house. She rang the doorbell and stood her ground as the camera popped out from the wall. “How may I help you?” She heard Nathalie say. “Good afternoon, I’m Adrien’s classmate. I’m here to drop off some homework for him.” She lied smoothly, holding up her own homework from science class. “Very well, please put it in the mailbox,” Nathalie replied. “Actually, he’s way behind on this subject. He said he wanted me to come in and give him some help with it.” Kagami lied again, barely keeping her cool. “Very well,” Nathalie said, sounding a bit annoyed. Kagami decided she couldn’t care less as she walked through the courtyard and into the house. She made sure to keep her sword out of view as she walked up the stairs. She didn’t bother knocking on Adrien’s bedroom door. 
“Oh, hey, Kagami. What’s up? We haven’t talked in a while.” Adrien greeted. “And whose fault is that exactly?” Kagami snapped. “What do you mean?” Adrien asked confused. “Think about it, Adrien! What happened around the same time my sisters and I stopped talking to you?!” Kagami yelled. “I dated Lila?” Adrien thought out loud. “Yes. You dated Lila. A complete and total witch who lies with every breath, doesn’t care about anyone but herself, and is just trying to climb up the social ladder.” She all but hissed. Her temper only flew as Adrien shook his head. “Kagami, Lila can change. It’s just gonna take some time.” Adrien began to lecture, but Kagami wasn’t having any of this. “It’s been 6 months, Adrien! If she was gonna ever change, she would’ve done it a long time ago!” She snapped. “Kagami, change is a gradual process. I’ve spent a lot of time with her, and I’ve seen she’s capable of being nice. Just yesterday, she gave a homeless man some money.” He tried to reason. “She  lied about seeing a cockroach in the bakery yesterday.” She retorted. “Hey, she IS becoming nicer.  She even told me how she felt bad about everything that happened between her and Marinette.” He responded. Once again, the flames of Kagami’s fury roared. “ You mean everything SHE did to Marinette? Was that before or after she told Alya that Marinette tried to flirt with you and steal you from her?” She growled. “Marinette never flirted with me,” Adrien explained. “Exactly! Because of that witch, Alya and everyone else will hardly talk to Marinette anymore! Because. She. Lied to them! If you cared even remotely about my sister you would’ve done something to help her instead of taking the frigging high road like a coward.” She growled at him. “I think you’re blowing this a little out of proportion-” Adrien began, but Kagami cut him off. “ADRIEN, YOU BLONDE, COWARDLY IDIOT! BECAUSE OF YOU, MARINETTE WAS ALMOST AKUMATIZED! SO YOU DON’T GET TO SAY CRUD, BECAUSE UNLIKE ME YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE USED IN THAT WAY!” She yelled, but stopped herself before she could continue. This was about Marinette, not her. Marinette was the one who got hurt here, not her. She barely registered the shocked look on Adrien’s face, and his silence was all she needed. 
“Whatever, I’m done.” She muttered bitterly as she stormed towards the door. “Kagami, wait-” Adrien started, gently grabbing her wrist. She responded by punching him in the eye. The second he hit the floor and let go of her, she had her sword at his throat. “Let me make this clear enough so even you can understand, Agreste. For the time being, Lila is an untouchable target. If I went after her, it wouldn’t end well. You, on the other hand, are a much easier target. The only thing keeping me from turning you into a kebab is Marinette. But even she can only keep you safe from me for so long. If I see you anywhere near my sister, you’re dead meat. Don’t ever speak to her again. Don’t ever look at her again. Got it.” Kagami growled lowly. Still, Adrien said nothing, but he looked very terrified; which filled Kagami with a little satisfaction. “Anyway, congratulations for making the dumbest choice of your life. Have fun spending the rest of it with an enabler and abuser.” She said mockingly. With that, she stormed out of the Agreste Mansion. After a few minutes of walking, she found a good alleyway that was hidden enough. “Are you okay, Dracling?” Longg asked quietly as he floated out of her jacket. “I’m fine, I just need to blow off some steam. Longg, flame on!” Kagami replied bitterly. With a burst of flame, Kagami’s normal clothes were replaced by her super suit. She let out a dragon-like growl as she felt her wings form, and took off like a rocket. Stunt flying usually worked to calm her down, but this was a special case. Long after dark, Dragon Empress was still flying and still angry. She landed on a building and drew her sword. She began sparring with the air (though in her mind’s eye, she was repeatedly stabbing Adrien), growling and grunting with each move she made. Suddenly, she heard someone clear her throat behind her. She growled and pointed her sword at the culprit. 
“Woah, easy, Dragon Lady, it’s just me!” Viperion cried as he raised his hands. “Oh, sorry, Viperion.” Empress mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed. “You usually don’t spar this hard. Are you okay?” He asked worriedly. “Do I LOOK okay to you?!” Empress snapped. Her heart broke a little when she saw Viperion looked a little hurt. “I’m sorry, I’m just...really mad right now.” She said exasperatedly as she sat on the edge of the building. “Do you wanna talk about it? It might make you feel better.” He prompted gently as he sat down next to her. Empress huffed in response, but Viperion simply put an arm around her shoulders. After a few minutes of silence, Empress finally spoke. “So, you know that guy my sister has a crush on?” She asked as she leaned into him. Viperion hummed and nodded. “He’s been dating the girl who’s making her life miserable for 6 months now.” She explained. “And...you finally killed him?” He asked, making her snort a little. “No, but I kinda wish I did. My sister doesn’t want me to get involved...but I can’t help it, Snakey. She showed me what a real family is like. She’s so nice and selfless, she doesn’t deserve this! And the worst part is, I can’t do anything to stop it. The stupid witch has the whole frigging class wrapped around her pinkie. Thanks to her, my sister’s heartbroken. She barely smiles anymore, and even if she does, it’s hardly real. I feel...useless.” She ranted. Viperion pulled her in close. “Empress, you are one of the strongest people I know. You are NOT useless. You never have been and you never will be.” He whispered. “She was almost akumatized, Viperion.” She says solemnly, and she could feel him tense up. “I can’t let Hawkmoth get her. I WON’T. If she was ever akumatized, I...I don’t know what I’d do.” She whispered shakily. She wanted to cry so bad, but she couldn’t. Not in front of Viperion. She had to be strong. For Marinette. “With you as a sister, my Empress, I don’t think  Hawkmoth will ever akumatize your sister.” He comforted. “If he does, I’ll kill him.” She mumbled, making him chuckle a little.
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