#rose thinking that her mom was the heroine and she was just part of the journey and not the other way around. I ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD THAT

[autism-connoisseur]

what if i killed myself rn

#pau liveblogs #act 5 part 2 #rose lalonde #mom lalonde #oughhhhh just. rose feeling like her mom was above death. despite having experienced death before (jaspers) that didnt seem like something #that could happen to mom ((an Adult. her Adult.)). and that raising rose was some kind of chore to her. something you guess you have to do #but youd rather be elsewhere. THAT BARBIE QUOTE ABOUT MOTHERS STANDING STILL SO THEIR DAUGHTERS CAN LOOK BACK AND SEE HOW FAR THEYVE COME. #rose thinking that her mom was the heroine and she was just part of the journey and not the other way around. I ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD THAT #((that mom was sort of her sister too)) SOMEHOW. i am so going to die

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

liberal arts major brain: while the modern reader may find it jarring that a heroine so full of vim and so enamored of shorthand and lady journalists as mina would distance herself from the New Woman, a few things bear keeping in mind. first, mina is intelligent and passionate and in her own very protestant way ambitious - she desires above all else to be useful - but she is also very much a normie, and joining the project of expanding the roles permissible for women to take has always required a greater comfort with being part of a cultural vanguard than most people have. we lose something important in our understanding of our history as women and as feminists if we forget how much boldness was once required for nearly every liberty which now we take for granted, and we lull ourselves into the same kind of arrogance that so endangers the cast of this novel if we assume that we are now at last so perfectly empowered that there are no rituals of gender to which we cling out of familiarity and fear, regardless of the story we’ve woven for ourselves about our preference and our choice. truly we ought to hope, every last one of us, that our metaphorical granddaughters will look back at some ordinary feature of our lives and think it hopelessly regressive, and wonder how even smart independent women could have found it acceptable. in some ways mina is every woman with a college degree and a job who isn’t a feminist, she just believes in equal rights, and who would never (contrary to mina’s later prediction about the New Woman!) dream of being the one to propose; she’s my mom, who raised me to be and call myself a feminist and who also literally would not allow me, even after a screaming match in the nordstrom shoe department, to go to my own prom in flats. it’s a mistake, and a misogynist one, to read the attachment of women to gendered norms as inherently revealing of their individual attachments to the constraints of womanhood rather than as a reflection of the genderless human resistance to breaking cultural taboos in the specific context of one of the fundamental organizing hierarchies of basically all human societies, including ours right now, and certainly including victorian england.

second, while the New Women represented an expansion of women’s liberties and possibilities, patriarchy over time has proved durably adept at ensuring that such evolutions always come with a cost. any rallying cry can be coopted into an ideal, and any ideal can be sold; as well as being both scorned and praised, the New Woman could be advertised to, and she was. her radicalism could be eroded as her image was diffused beyond the political and artistic circles in which she arose, and that image could be received by ordinary women as a standard to emulate or fail to live up to. it has been observed that if you trace the course of women’s rights and freedom from the first wave of feminism to the present day, you find moving in tandem with that progress a shifting series of expectations that the modern woman is asked that meet, goalposts keeping her ever at a distance from being permitted simply to exist. you can see this even just in the realm of fashion: as women’s clothing became less restrictive, the demands of bodily self-policing imposed on and internalized by became more so, as new beauty norms rose to prominence, often rebranded as health (thinness) or hygiene (hairlessness) or, in the twenty-first century, self-care (twelve-step skincare routines). it’s interesting that in this, the first and more negative mention of the New Woman, this is the aspect that mina seems to be referring to: the reason she imagines the New Women would look down on her and lucy is not their lack of worldly ambitions or interest in homemaking for their husbands - it’s that they eat too much!

and that’s what i find particularly interesting about the way the New Woman is first invoked in this novel of all novels: she is presented as a creation of modernity distinguished by her disciplined appetite, in a story about a creature from centuries past made terrifying by his monstrous appetite. i’m fascinated by that - by the fact that it would feel logical to me, from my smug vantage point in the future, for stoker to reinforce the virtuousness of his heroes by granting them some kind of bodily asceticism to stand in contrast to dracula’s defiling maw and even renfield’s obscene tastes, but he didn’t see it. it makes it feel, to me, like the novel is not against appetite but against its perversion - and while it’s obvious stoker and i would have rather different definitions of what counts as perverse, that categorical distinction feels significant as part of what has made it possible for me to become sincerely emotionally engaged in this book across our palpable and wide gap in sensibilities and ideology. it’s fine, in the world of the novel, for mina and lucy to have their capital “severe tea” and stroll lazily home on vacation. that’s a small thing, but not a meaningless one, i think.

dumbass brain: damn i can’t believe bram stoker literally said Real Women Have Curves

#dracula daily

[dogthorcesschet]

Princess Joy Decano May 11, 2023

Title of Painting: “A Moment Passing Us By” Artist: Micheala Yearwood-Dan Gallery: Marianne Boesky Gallery Medium: Oil, Oil Pastel, and Ceramic on Canvas

I’ve seen plenty of meaningful abstract paintings throughout all the years I’ve had with taking an interest in art, but one that resonates with me the most is with me. Her paintings are painted with peaceful innocent colors, but it seems her mind is still in the chaos of her past. Just like how I keep my memories in the back of my heart, guarded with white picket fences. To create an image that my house isn't haunted by my traumas. She, like myself, looks and tries to focus her mind on her future, but her past seems to still haunt her and it’s tearing her mind apart so she paints these serene paintings with soft colored feelings to maybe ease her pain. To fill her void, with the beauty God's created for everyone to marvel.

One work by Michaela that I really connected with was this, called “A Moment Passing Us By.” It really connected with me because I loved the color contrasts she used. She had midnight blue, teal, and almost like a sunflower-colored yellow that really gave a sparkle in my eyes. Though, there was a part of it that brought sadness and grief. They were the black, glossy rose petals that looked like they were pieced apart, as if they withered or were withering. Then there were the words she hid in the darkest, unnoticeable part of the canvas, saying “I pray you remember me.” This one really spoke to me because it’s always been something I’ve bottled up inside. Passing and being remembered, or what memories and feelings will I leave behind? Did I make people laugh enough, or did I lighten up their darkest days? Maybe even made them feel and know that they were loved by someone. What kinds of values did I influence them with? What legacy did I leave with my fame? Many people know my name and my face, but do they really know me?

The choice of colors she used were so serene, yet they still gave me a feeling of grief. It reminded me of how I can be. On the surface, everything seems calm and cool, but if one looks closely enough and carefully studies every detail of my canvas, they’d see some fine printed sorrow in between the lines and shades. I met a heroin addict on a corner of Trader Joe's one time, and I was lucky enough to have a full on conversation with him and my mom in the background. She gave us cigarettes to smoke while we waited for my pops to pick us up. She said something like "God is good, and you have angels up in heaven," sadly, he replied "yeah, I've got friends and relatives waiting for me up there." I felt his grief. It wasn't towards them, but towards himself. I can resonate.

Michaela’s expressive and conceptual abstract paintings inspire me to think of painting as if writing a poem. They’re personal, descriptive, and also a bit secretive. Her technique of adding the ceramic petals was also very creative. She used different materials and combined them to express her message significantly stronger and unique from others. I think that seeing her work really inspired me to think outside the box and use all the tools I feel a connection with so that I can personalize my paintings. Not only make them mine, but also make them so meticulously meaningful to me, in that way when someone sees it and connects with it, they would become inspired just as I am with Michaela’s work.

Michaela

Yearwood-Dan’s way of expressing her thoughts and creating her pieces according to her own

feelings. Michaela’s paintings seemed very personal to her, and every stroke of her brush, every

color she used, every image she was trying to portray were deeply thought out.

This is the full picture of the painting Michaela Yearwood-Dan created, called “A Moment Passing Us By.”

This is the fine print she left behind, I believe it’s meant for someone specific.

These are the ceramic petal pieces she tainted with black glossy finish.

#Marianne Boesky Gallery #Michaela Yearwood Dan

[mysticonsheadcanons]

My Thought on a French Mysticon Book

I saw a French Mysticon book on Amazon, and as one of my New Year's resolutions this year was to practice French more, I thought that this would be the perfect way to do so. It's called "Mysticons: Les Nouvelles Heroines" and while a specific author isn't listed, it is by La Bibliotheque Rose. I thought I'd share my thoughts on this book. You don't have to know French to understand this review, as I will explain anything specific to the French language. Also, while some words have accents in French, I'll leave them out simply because I don't know how to type them.

The book I got is pretty much a retelling of the first episode. The book begins with pages talking about each of the characters. Something that's weird in this is that Kitty and Necrafa were given introductions, despite neither of them being in this book. And while I can excuse Necrafa, as that's who Dreadbane wants to revive and they do say "All Hail Necrafa", I have no idea why Kitty is there. The book also uses pictures. While many pictures are from the first episode, sometimes there are pictures of the characters just in their Mysticon forms. This is weird, as these pictures show up even before the Mysticons get their powers.

One thing I like in this book is that there are small details they add such as having Zarya briefly reflect on being a Mysticon before saving Choko, and the fact, before Dreadbane returned, moms used to use Dreadbane to scare kids into eating their vegetables. I actually like these details, as they add more story.

Despite the things I like about the book, there are some things that I didn't like. As I've mentioned earlier, the book puts pictures of the girls as Mysticons, despite that not happening yet in the story, making it feel out of place. Another kind of weird thing that they do with the pictures is that the picture for chapter 1 is Arkayna, despite her not appearing in that chapter. I would have thought that Zarya or Piper would make more sense. The book also sometimes quickly glosses over scenes by talking about it as something that happened, such as them mentioning the window breaking by thinking about getting into the palace wasn't easy, but not showing it. This was dissapointing, especially since that was one of my favourite scenes.

There are also some things that they get wrong. The book said that Piper has wings, which is normal for an elf. Piper has a backpack with wings on it, but she doesn't have wings herself, as that is not something elves have.

One linguistic thing I've noticed was how the Dragon Disk introduced the Mysticons. For example, for Arkayna, it said "Tu es une magicienne Mysticons" (p.56), which translates to "You are a Mysticon Magician" (the names of the Mysticons don't translate exactly from English to French). I don't know if the une, which I understood as the english equivelant of "a" is a linguistic thing or if the book is implying there are multiple magicienne Mysticons. I can't compare it to the French dub of the show, as I don't know where to watch any episodes that have them touching the Dragon Disk "Sisters in Arms", and "Edge of Two Morrows" in French. I'm also surprised that the word magicienne isn't capitalized, as I figured it should be as part of the title. This might help support the idea that the book believes there are multiple of each Mysticon.

There is a second book to this series, but I don't think I'd get it. Not only is it more expensive, but I also wasn't a big fan of the book itself. It was nice to practice my French with my favourite show, though, and I did learn what dwarf was in French (it's "naine" for anyone interested).

#mysticons #review #book #Les Nouvelles Heroines

[pesterloglog]

Jade Harley, Rose Lalonde, Doc Scratch

Act 5, page 3638

GG: rose please say something

GG: you are making me nervous...

TT: I should have gone looking for her.

TT: Why didn't I?

GG: umm

GG: because you were busy trying to make the best of this situation?

TT: John was too. But he went to look for his father.

TT: It would have been normal of me. I can't remember what I was trying to prove anymore.

GG: i dont think you should be so hard on yourself about it

GG: john was being john, and you were being you, which i guess meant taking our problems very seriously and putting all your attention on solving them!

GG: and anyway, you and your mom had a much trickier relationship than john and his dad didnt you?

GG: i mean, not that i am saying that means you were any less attached to her than him...

GG: argh, i dont know if im very good at consoling people. sorry rose i dont want to make you feel worse :(

TT: You're doing fine.

TT: For someone raised by a dog.

TT: Or really,

TT: Anyone.

TT: Thanks.

GG: whew, ok

GG: you know...

GG: now we have all lost guardians

GG: dave lost his, and i lost mine in a weird way... uuum even though that was pretty much definitely my fault :\

GG: and even the trolls all lost their monster guardians

GG: i think that maybe it is an inevitable part of a game that can be cruel sometimes

TT: For some reason, despite all the danger, I never thought she was in any trouble.

TT: I never believed she would actually die.

TT: I grew up with the feeling that something more significant had always been meant for her.

TT: That she was a heroine displaced in some way, resigned to the inglorious duty of raising me, and preparing me in her way.

TT: I didn't actually need the ectobiological verification that she was like a mother and a sister at the same time. I always understood that somehow.

TT: And I felt she had knowledge and ability beyond what she let on. It was always intimidating, but nonetheless a source of respect which was childishly begrudging on my part.

TT: I think she was just waiting for me to catch up with her.

TT: But now I can't.

GG: ......

GG: i am so sad

GG: rose i think you are being stronger about it than i am

TT: Probably because my emotions have now ceded to anger.

TT: This shouldn't have happened.

GG: oh

GG: well

GG: i just hope you arent thinking of doing something rash

TT: I already was.

TT: I was going to go to sleep, fly to a sun bigger than our universe, drop a bomb in it, and kill myself.

GG: yeaaah...

TT: So if my course of action is to change on account of my mood, it can only become less impetuous, don't you think?

GG: errrr, i dont know?

TT: You never liked my plan very much anyway.

GG: wellllll

GG: no!

GG: but i was trusting that you had thought it through and it was our best hope

TT: I'm not sure if I did.

TT: Maybe it was a terrible plan.

TT: I made it without a full understanding of the nature of the Scratch.

GG: hm

GG: then what will you do?

TT: I could stop being so cowardly, for once.

TT: I could short circuit this endlessly expanding game of chess we're playing, just like Jack decided to do.

GG: what does that mean!

TT: Maybe I will go kill Jack myself.

TT: Right now.

GG: oh no no no no no!

GG: rose that is a much much worse plan!!!!!

GG: he would probably kill you!

TT: Probably.

TT: But the Scratch will wipe us out anyway, and reboot the conditions of our session.

TT: I suddenly don't feel much like sneaking through the back door of the Furthest Ring for retribution by distant super nova.

GG: i know what you mean, i was angry at jack and wanted to stop him too, but we have to think of a more sensible way to do it

TT: Whether my existing plan was sensible or not,

TT: I may have been allowing myself to be manipulated by an omniscient being regardless.

GG: what? who?

Hello ladies.

GG: aaaaaaa whaaaaat?????

TT: This is a private conversation.

TT: Private even to those who know it word for word already.

Proceed.

I will be here.

Watching.

GG: rose who is this!

TT: Ignore him.

GG: i dont even know whats going on anymore

You were discussing Ms. Lalonde's intrepid new variation on suicide.

As one with a passion for the subject, I'm intrigued.

TT: Shh.

TT: Anyway, if it's true the gods have "selected" me for service, maybe the power they've given me will be sufficient.

TT: Maybe they wanted me to kill him all along.

Hee hee.

GG: SHHHHHHHHHH!

GG: please dont rose, i know you are angry but you arent thinking straight

TT: But I am.

TT: I'm fully aware I'll probably die and fail. Scratch happens, we start fresh. No recollection, no problem.

GG: nooo :(

Jade, as an ambassador of Skaia, maybe you'd be willing to talk some sense into your friend?

You should understand she's been corrupted by various entities with some rather questionable motives.

GG: rose, maybe white text guy is right?

GG: the dark gods gave you all these powers, and seem to be helping us with dream bubbles and stuff...

GG: but what if they are not actually good?

TT: They are enormous, ugly, and live in darkness.

TT: That doesn't necessarily make them bad.

GG: no...

GG: but i still dont trust them!

If only there were a way to make this determination with certainty.

Through a reliable source within reach, for instance, at this exact moment. Perhaps one that is spherical, and devastatingly handsome.

GG: whats this weirdo talking about!

TT: The cue ball.

GG: oh yeah

GG: i noticed you found it!

GG: i was worried it had been destroyed when my room blew up

GG: is he saying you can use it?

TT: Yes. And he is right.

GG: omg

GG: does it work???

TT: It advised me to talk to you just now.

TT: So I guess so.

GG: then maybe you should try it!

Yes, Rose. Listen to Jade.

She is far less manipulative than I.

TT: What are you suggesting I ask it?

GG: well

GG: since we dont know much about the gods...

GG: why dont you ask it about them?

TT: So, you're saying I should ask it if the gods are evil?

GG: i guess that is a way to put it

Even though at this point neither of you is highlighting my text to read it, this idea gets my vote.

Go ahead.

Ask, Seer.

#homestuck #jade harley #rose lalonde #doc scratch #homestuck act 5 #page 3638

[taylors-fourth-cat-meow]

ACOWAR Chp 4 :)))

This is long because that's how stupid this chp was. 😭😭😭😭

(This is the chp with the summer solstice)

Let's goooo

But what had not existed here a year ago was Ianthe.

Wait so you're telling me thats its only been a year since feyre said she was the happiest she had ever been with Tamlin?? When they had their first kiss??? Wtf and now she hates tamlin??? Look, i get he abused her and stuff but you just suddenly don't loose feelings for someone you plan to marry or idk...die for??? Thats what makes the abuse so much worse. You still have lingering feelings. This whole dynamic between tamlin and feyre is so rushed and let me tell you it doesn't look too good on rhysie. It only shows just how manipulative he really is. And how hes managed to change feyres entire way of thinking in less than six months. Someone needs to slap some sense into her and say that when you see a TOXIC PERSON you gotta WALK THE OTHER WAY.

"Cue that whole audio*

If I had wanted to paint a picture of serene purity, it would have been the image I cast that morning, my hair braided above my head, a crown of white hawthorn blossoms upon it.

OH MY FCK THE AMOUNT OF PICK ME-CHOOSE ME-LOVE ME- CHARACTERS IN THIS SERIES MAKE MY HEAD SPIN

SHES LITERALLY TALKING ABOUT PAINTING HERSELF AND HOW GREAT AND PURE IT WUD LOOK. AS IF SHE ISNT PLANNING A MASS MURDER LMAO

wondered if Ianthe could spy the wolf grinning beneath.

WTF NO SHES CALLING HERSELF A WOLF????? OKAY.....so now shes a dragon with smoke in her mouth/ a horse for tamlin to mount/a grinning wolf. Thats... interesting.

Well guys heres your diversity. Sjm doesn't discriminate between imaginary, domestic or wild animals 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

When my mate had rescued me after I’d decided not to go through with the wedding

Well there you go feyre admitting she is a damsel in distress that needs saving from prewcious mate 🥺🥺🥺

Way to write a feminist seires sjm 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

He had saved me.

There you go again...more of this first class feminist seires with your favourite girl boss heroine.

How many others had seen the truth of my suffering—and tried to spare him from it? Seen my suffering and done nothing to help me.

OH.MY.GOD (Janice's voice)

SHE'S SO FCKING SELF CENTRED AND SELFISH??????? ITS ALWAYS MY MY MY?!?? SHE REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE TAMLINS TRAUMA!!!! BITCH YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO WENT THROUGH SHIT!!! HE DID TOO!!! AND ARE YOU LITERALLY ASKING WHY HIS PEOPLE PUT THEIR RULER WHO HAS INDEED BEEN A GOOD HL FOR CENTURIES OVER A GIRL THEY HAVE KNOW FOR A FEW MONTHS?????? HOW DOES- HOW IS THIS THE MC OF THIS BEST SELLING SEIRES?!?!??????

“As the light is strongest today, let it drive out unwanted darkness. Let it banish the black stain of evil.” Jab after jab at my mate, my home. But I nodded along with her.

Ummm...rhysie does indeed always show up at the SC to bother tamlin unwanted. And you literally about to cause a mass murder so yeah...you are evil....and do i again have to repeat myself about what rhysie did for 50 years???

Also...isnt this part of the ritual??? why is she assuming this is about the NC???

More prayers and rituals, until Tamlin was summoned to the other side of the altar to light a candle for the souls extinguished in the past year—to now bring them back into the light’s embrace when the sun rose.

This isnt really relevant but i just love this so much. In my country too at places of sacrifices and death there is a lamp (diya) always burning to honour the dead and i think this adds so much culture and meaning to the SC. What i dont get is that NC is main setting of this series yet...they have like no culture..no rituals on festivals?? Its just rich af people giving unnecessary gifts to each other and drinking wine and having sex in clothes made by dead moms???

Pure as day, pure as starlight.

I- does she- does she not realise that day and starlight are two contradicting terms...that dont even go together... I mean i am not a professional writer...but shouldn't it be day and night??? Or daylight/sunlight and starlight...and why is she even talking about day...isnt this dawn??? shouldnt it be pure as dawn?? Isnt she using thesans power??

A knight before his queen. (feyre about Lucien)

QUEEN???!?

I THINK THE FCK NOT

YOU ARE NOT HIS QUEEN BITCH. HE DOESN'T OWE YOU ANYTHING. IF ANYTHING TAMLIN IS HIS HL AND YOU SOME GIRL HE MET A FEW MONTHS AGO!!!!

No wonder she acts so entitled around him making fun of him ordering him around then demanding respect for her and the guy who called him rabble, threatened his mother multiple times and threw a head in his front yard for fun.

I let a little bit of the wolf show.

😭😭😭😭

Pls someone take the computer away from this woman i can't- ✋🏼

Also the symbolism is so bad😭😭😭

Wolf is always associated with the SC. Andras was a wolf...ig tamlin's beast form was also originally described wolf like...our miss archeron is now High Lady of the NC...shes representating the NC but she chooses wolf as her animal like what even does this line mean????? Is it because she is in the SC??? I am genuinely so confused..whats the significance of this wolf ?!?!?

I had no quarrel with the people of these lands, who had suffered alongside the rest. None.

Huh.

So she really is that dumb.

“I should apologize.” His eyes flashed. “What for? Perhaps it was a blessing. Magic still surprises me. If she’s angry, it’s her problem.”

(talking about ianthee)

NO PLS DONT I'M GOING TO CRY😭😭😭😭

WHERE CAN I GET MYSELF A TAMLIN PLSSSSS 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

He has learned from his mistakes he's trying to do better... And yet they don't even give him a chance because of one mistake?? That's... Not right you guys...

Also this is so FCKING FRUSTRATING. I mean isn't Tamlin an established abuser and an...if i may put it Sarah's words 'alphahole' *gags* at this point??? Shes already retconned anything good about him...so why go back to caring sweet tamlin??? Just continue with your new character!!!!

JUST MAKE UP YOUR FCKING MIND SARAH LIKE DAMN!!!

I didn’t know how Rhys had endured it—endured Amarantha. For five decades.

WAIT A DAMN MINUTE

BITCH DID YOU JUST COMPARE TAMLIN TO AMARANTHA ?!??!?!

hhdehsjdhdjkdkdn

Idk how i feel about feyre comparing tamlin to the women who has been objectifying him since he was a CHILD.

BITCH Are you forgetting that Amarantha SA your mate while Tamlin never NEVER touched you without your permission (atleast when he wasnt drugged by some magic)

Are you forgetting that you loved him and actually died for him?!?!?

Are you forgetting that Amarantha fcking ENSLAVED tamlin and his court?????

What even is this comparison?!?!?

How did this get published?!?!?

And you let Ianthe take him into that cave instead.

AAAHAHAHHAHA THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE

Just in the previous chp Lucien says he went of his own free will. So stop blaming Tamlin for letting lucien take Ianthee into the cave. Calamnai wasn't a SA. The whole setting of this festival and the disgusting sex maniac crazy omega world sjm has set it in blurs the line of SA. But it wasnt. Its the magic that chooses not Tamlin!!! Tamlin didnt let anything happen you bitch.

And also, why shud tamlin take part in calamnai...his fiancee who he is committed to has been abducted by the same guy who killed his family and SA her for three months. Why wud he want to sleep with random women while being drugged???

And yet you could stomach making a deal with Hybern, as if I were a stolen item to be returned.

Look right here, this is the manipulation of the readers mind. THIS is not healthy for an impressionabke mind. You know YA is a hit genre cause teenagers relate to the main characters but they shud also be allowed to explore it themselves. This doesn't let them. I'm telling you this isn't healthy. I hope to god you dont recommend this series and put anyone through this.

A stroke of his hand down my back was his only reply.

(his= tamlin)

Okay just to make it clear...this ... tamlin showing affection like this...we can say his love language is touch...cassian on the other hand... shoving his dick in nesta when he wants to show affection wouldn't really count as touch...it is in a way...but that way is just gross. M srry if i'm not making sense its literally 1:21am.

I nearly asked if it was worth it—if giving up this sort of peace was worth it, in order to have me back.

In 4 chpters i think she has mentioned this 50 times that tamlin made the deal to get her back when she was just a small part of it. Its like shes listening to what they are talking (the dialogues they speak) and yet refuses to acknowledge them or is unable to comprehend the depth of it...which just makes her all the most stupid and dumb.

The more chpters I break apart like this makes me think that her editors were on drugs lmao

#anti sjm #anti acotar #anti acowar #anti feyre #tamlin #anti rhysand #this shit is laughable

[goggles-mcgee]

Too Late: Adrien (Commission for miner249er)

Chapter 5 of the commission for @miner249er !

Previous Work

Last Chapter                            Next Chapter

The Seine became a comfort spot for Adrien after everything happened, his original comfort spot had been the top of the Eiffel Tower but with his ring gone, that wasn’t an option. Actually many places weren’t on his list of options any more due to his ring being gone and due to his identity as both Adrien Agreste: Teen Model and Heart Throb, as well as Adrien Agreste: Possible Accomplice to Hawkmoth and Mayura, and the possible face behind the cat mask, Chat Noir, became “known” after the whole Protector incident. Paris’s last akuma, and Adrien’s last normal day, last peaceful moment. He had been naïve before and hadn't even known it. He had tried too hard to get past the rose-tinted glasses his father basically prescribed he wore everyday and when he thought he had gotten rid of those he was too blind to notice the rose-tinted contact lenses he himself put in willingly every day after.

But those contacts had been dried and ripped and tossed in the trash. Now he couldn’t even take a simple walk without wearing a wig, clothes he never considered wearing before and some he knew his father wouldn’t approve of so there were some silver linings, and he would slightly contour his face and thank his old makeup artists for teaching him some makeup skills he could do himself. Plus it helped that he had been doing research on cosplaying and what it took to look like other people, tip number one was contouring your face, and that’s just what he did when he wanted to leave the house and have some alone time. True alone time, not supervised alone time with Simon, aka Gorilla, and not alone time at a distance with his mom, which he was so grateful to have back, but with the rumors surrounding his father and Nathalie and the way she came back on live TV, their alone time happened together.

It was wonderful to have his mother back, but it did not dull his pain. Not even her hugs or her kisses or her sweet words could pull him from the edge of his guilt-ridden thoughts. Every day, every damn day, he would think how this all was his fault. Maybe if he had been a better son, a better model, a better something, maybe his father wouldn’t have abused the Butterfly Miraculous the way he did. Maybe Gabriel, because even Adrien had to admit that the man was severely lacking in that department and had in a very long time, would have trusted him and told him what was going on. Then, perhaps, Adrien could have convinced his Father not to get Nathalie involved and to maybe let Ladybug help or even the Guardian. If Gabriel had just let his son in like Adrien had craved for so long, then maybe all this pain and anger wouldn’t be bleeding out of each and every pore of everyone in Paris.

Maybe then the Protector wouldn’t have had to...well, protect like she felt she had to. Adrien had never thought Marinette to be a scary girl, in fact, ‘Marinette’ and ‘scary’ in the same sentence seemed like something out of a parallel universe if anything. In his memories, because that’s all he had left of the girl, those and a broken arm and finger, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had always been happy and sweet and determined and so much more. Or, that was what he thought, that’s all he observed. He never took her sorrow or hurt seriously and it was that thought that had been plaguing him night and day ever since she went missing.

Her disappearance wasn’t the only ‘big’ thing that had happened in the honestly short amount of time he and his class encountered The Protector, he refused to call that akuma Marinette, there was just no way she thought of him and their classmates like that. There was no way. The only conclusion he could come to was that Gabriel had more control over the akuma than usual. Maybe even twisted her feelings into something darker. It has happened before...he’s sure of it. From what he knows about the Butterfly Miraculous, which was really not a lot even with his small crash course with Master Fu after he tried to make sense of everything, the Butterfly can enhance emotions. Who’s to say that he couldn’t twist those emotions? I mean...even Master Fu said he was tainting the Miraculous in ways that even he couldn’t predict. Maybe all that misuse could have changed it.

This could have been avoided . Was another constant thought that hung before him seemingly as a reminder. This should have been avoided.

Anger, no fury, overtook him but he managed to not let it out in a scream, or worse physically on something. He no longer had his usual outlet when his emotions got too big or too much, so he did the only thing he could remember his father teaching him. Mask it. Hide it all beneath a mask of indifference. Before he had hated it, hated the way Gabriel had sounded almost proud of the lesson he was giving his son, like it was one of his single most important pieces of fatherly advice he could bestow upon Adrien. Now though? Now it actually came in handy and Adrien loathed it, everything about it, but if he made a scene out in the open, it wouldn’t matter if he had a disguise on or not. People would stare, people would talk, people would try to help and he just could not handle any of that.

“We could all use you right now M’Lady…” He muttered to the air and himself, a part of him hoping that in some way the message would reach the girl he was thinking of.

That was another thing that was bringing him migraines if he thought too much about it, which he did, constantly. He didn’t just have to come to terms with the fact that one of his best friends had gotten akumatized and promptly went missing after said akumatization, or the fact Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur were basically determined to be the villains Hawkmoth and Mayura by public opinion and “coincidences” that looked an awful lot like proof, there was also the fact his mother literally rose from the grave...or from her coma that Adrien had no idea about, but to top everything off was the very real fact that Protector, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Multimouse, was actually Paris’s beloved heroine Ladybug. His mind was still trying to make it make sense. To make it all make sense. But it was that last bit that was still throwing him for a loop.

He just couldn’t seem to fuse the identities together. Both girls held importance in his life, just in different ways. There were so many memories that were thrown at him that were practically begging him to see, see how the two were actually one and the same. There was just this other part of him that refused to see it, refused to acknowledge it, because, and it was a bit embarrassing to admit even to just himself, he was mad that he had declared that he would know Ladybug anywhere. Adrien had even convinced himself that he would absolutely be able to know who she was beneath the mask if he had just seen her. Turns out he had seen her out of the mask more often than in and it hurt.

To make matters worse, if anything could even be worse , he bitterly thought as he kicked a stray stone, he was pretty sure his class knew or at least suspected he was Chat Noir after their shared Protector experience. Yet none of them said anything, there were no new rumors floating about, there were no news coverage about him in particular other than how Paris was sending his mother and him their prayers, others were not as nice and speculated they were both involved in his villainy. The biggest thing though was that no one was reaching out to him to talk about what happened, to talk about his injury and the fact that the akuma took his ring so openly in front of people, they reached out...just not for any of that. They gave their sympathy, their curiosity, their anger, but none of them asked him about being Chat Noir and it was killing him having to wait for the other shoe to drop.

If it even drops.

Adrien sighed harshly and burrowed deeper into the hoodie he had slipped on before he had snuck out of his house. While aimlessly walking he spotted a bench and promptly slumped onto it. One hand idly picked at the chipped paint of the bench while the other clutched his hoodie above his heart. It hurt. It hurt enough to make him cry and well, he was alone so why not just cry? The guilt, the shame, the anger, the loneliness, all of it had turned into some blob of a creature that took hold of his heart and squeezed. He had to close his eyes, he didn’t know why, but it felt like it was one of the only ways to get comfort. Again, he was proved wrong as he began to remember The Day of The Last Akuma as all of Paris had taken to calling it, Adrien referred to it as the day he failed Marinette.

                  ________________________________________

Adrien winced as Marinette had taken hold of both his hands in hers, the gesture would have been sweet if it weren’t for the pressure. “ Save it. I don’t want your superficial pity. You Adrien Agreste are the biggest liar I know next to Lila. You knew she was lying. You knew she was lying from the start seeing how Ladybug told you herself that Lila and her were not friends. Oh yeah I know about that, in the park, or how about when Lila was akumatized to be the Chameleon, which by the way Lila very unoriginal and I’m fairly certain you were akumatized on purpose but hey what proof do I have right? And she pretended to be you because she didn’t like what you had to say about her lying. Yet you still didn’t tell your so called friends about her, because you don’t care about anyone but yourself! I learned that the hard way. I believed you when you said we were in this together and that if we both knew then that was enough and that we should take the moral highroad. What a joke ! I am truly disgusted with myself for ever thinking I was in love with you. ”

His hands hurt but that was nothing compared to his heart when Marinette had finished her speech, but the hurt was outweighed by his confusion. Looking around he could tell that their classmates were not expecting Marinette’s words to him. Some were probably still reeling from her harsh words about them but all eyes were on him and Marinette, and they were wide, whether it be in hurt, horror, shock, or all of the above. It seemed like the stares didn’t bother Marinette in the least, but they sure were getting to Adrien. “ W-What? You love me? ”

The hollow laugh he had gotten in reply was like a stab to the heart, he could feel Plagg scratching at his shirt from inside his white overshirt, he knew he had to get out of there so he could transform but Marinette still had a grip on him. “ Men. Of course that’s the only thing you focus on. If you actually listened to me and were a decent human being for once in your pathetic sad model life, you would have noticed that I said, was . I was in love with you, but after everything? You’re nothing but an obstacle in my way. ”

“ Mari please- ,” Adrien tried to reason with her as he tugged at his hands gently to see if there was any slack, again he winced in pain when Marinette tightened her hold, her gaze never wavering from him. The fury in her eyes could practically melt him.

“ That is not my name! If I did go by that name again you would not get to call me that anyways, nicknames are a privilege, they are shared between friends. Last I checked, we’re not friends, maybe we never were to begin with, and that goes for all of you too! ” Marinette hissed out sharply as she finally tore her gaze away from Adrien and looked at their classmates, their friends. It was the first time since this whole situation started that Adrien felt he could breathe despite the fact his hands were in an iron-clad like clutch. He didn’t have the heart to look in the eyes of everyone to see how they took Marinette’s words.

“ Marinette, this isn’t you! You need to fight the akuma, it’s making you say these things I know it is! But if you just calm down and fight it I know Ladybug and Chat Noir will be here to save the day. ” Adrien rambled away, and if he had been paying attention, he would have seen the way Marinette’s spine had straightened, how the atmosphere and temperature felt like it had dropped, and the way her calm fury took a turn. No he missed that all in favor of trying to see if one of his friends would agree with him and help him calm Marinette down long enough for him to sneak out and transform so Chat Noir could heroically swoop in to save the day.

“ Did he say akuma? ” He heard Rose semi-whisper to Juleka who merely nodded in confusion.

“ Marinette doesn’t look like an akuma though …” Nathaniel mumbled meekly.

“ Have you sheep learned nothing? There is more to people than what meets the eye.” Marinette sing-songed, and it was brief, so painfully brief but enough to draw scared gasps from everyone in the class, Marinette’s eyes had flashed from their normal cheerful blue to a darker almost violet color and the whites of her eyes turned purple. Everyone scurried back, even Mlle Bustier, all except Adrien who was still caught in her grip near the doorway that they were now blocking, and Lila who was just staring at Marinette in interest and poorly acted out fear from her seat that used to be Marinette’s. Everyone was calling out to her and telling her to run to them but the girl continued to sit there “frozen” in fear. “ And it seems like you are finally opening yours. ”

“ Oh Marinette how did this happen to you? I thought you were better than this? To get akumatized over me and showing everyone your true nature! Don’t worry guys my best friend Ladybug will be here soon to rescue us. ” Lila gushed out, not catching the wary glances that some were giving her.

“ Oh Delilah, do shut up. ” Marinette harshly mocked in response, Lila looked as though she had been smacked, everyone else was confused, Adrien included. “ What? Oh you guys didn’t know? Liar Rossi’s real name is Delilah, so let’s add that to the growing list of wrongdoings of one Delilah ‘Lila’ Rossi .”

Adrien breathed a sigh of relief when Marinette released his left arm, only to freeze when he felt her grab his right forearm with one hand, and his right hand with the other. Her fingers were so close to his ring, his heart was racing and he could feel Plagg stiffen in panic as well. “ Stop. Marinette. I’m begging you. This isn’t the way to deal with things, this will only make everything worse! ”

Marinette’s attention was torn from Lila to him and Adrien felt like he couldn’t breathe, he was sweating, and he felt like anything he did or said next would give him away as Chat Noir but he had to do something. Master Fu trusted him with this. Ladybug probably trusted him with this too, sure Fu hadn’t told him why she was gone but maybe this was a test or something? Maybe this wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Hopefully this wasn’t as serious as Fu made it out to be, because if it was he was not doing good. At all. “ Worse? No Agreste, I’m making things better. I’m protecting the people of Paris one last time from all of you, but especially from Rossi. Her lies harm people, her very being brings harm upon anyone she meets, and will continue to do so if someone doesn’t stop her. If someone doesn’t protect them from her. Since you couldn’t have a spine and keep one simple promise to be in this together with me, I have become what I needed to be and what Paris temporarily needs me to be just for today. I am its protector, I am The Protector.”

The pressure around his arm increased and he could do nothing but gasp in pain and try to pull away even as he was forced on his knees due to the pain. It was at this point that Lila got up and edged back, seeming to finally understand the danger she was in. The danger she unleashed. Marinette, no, the akuma, the Protector didn’t even spare her a glance as she added more and more pressure. The pain had distracted him from what she was doing at the same time, taking his ring. He hadn’t even noticed when finally a SNAP! rung out in the classroom and a scream could be heard. It took him a while to realize it was his own till he was cradling his limp arm to his chest and crying. He could hear the others shouting and screaming, he couldn’t see their faces through his tears. “ Here’s another lie Delilah told, and it’s fairly recent, but Ladybug and Chat Noir will not be coming to the rescue this time.”

Adrien tried to pull himself together when he no longer felt the weight of his ring, a thought struck him and it only strengthened his resolve to pull himself together despite the pain. There was no doubt that The Protector took his ring, he just hoped his classmates were more focused on his arm breaking than the ring being taken since he was almost certain that the akuma was doing nothing to hide what she took. Which meant if the class wasn’t looking at him they possibly saw Plagg being sucked back into the ring. He heard more than saw the gasps and the panic that followed, but what confused him was the sound of glass breaking-a window most likely-and the presence of the akuma leaving from beside him. He felt people swarm him and ask him questions but all he could focus on was the pain.

                ________________________________________

He wiped the tears that the memory brought and stood back up to resume his walk. Eventually he found himself at the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie and he just had to go inside, he had to apologize to Tom and Sabine, he had to. It was his fault their daughter was missing. So he took in a deep breath and made his way up to their apartment, it took him longer to gather courage to knock but he did eventually do that. When the door was opened, the pit of guilt in stomach grew at the sight of Tom Dupain who looked like he hadn’t gotten a good night’s rest in weeks, nor had he taken the time shave, his beard taking Adrien back to when he had been akumatized into Papa Garou. Beside him, the always put-together Sabine Cheng had bags under her eyes, she was wearing what was obviously one of Tom’s t-shirts and it looked like she hadn’t brushed her hair that morning. He took one look at them and broke down in a fresh wave of tears.

“I’m so sorry!”

Next Chapter

#revolt of the akuma #ml salt fic #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #adrien agreste #adrien salt #adrien agreste salt #him realizing that he made mistakes #slight adrien redemption #he's working on it #marinette dupain cheng #akumanette #akuma marinette #akuma class #lila rossi salt #lila rossi exposed #tom dupain #sabine cheng #emilie agreste #gabriel agreste #gabriel agreste salt #nathalie sancoeur #hawkmoth #mayura #chat noir #mlb plagg #plagg #angst #hurt #hurt no comfort folks

[smeraldos]

Love by Daylight (1/2)

➸ characters: Seokjin x Reader

➸ genres: Sailor Moon!AU, fluff, sort of e2l

➸ tags: sly friends, petty enemies/secret crushes, running away from the mortifying ordeal of being known

➸ words: 2K+

➸ summary: The day you find out who your suave partner in saving the world is, you're absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure you'll be over the moon. You'll be so happy you'll think you're dreaming. Turns out you're right. You do think you're dreaming. Because this? This can't be real. You're being pranked. Someone, somewhere, is going to jump out and say you're on Candid Camera. (Please.)

>> PART 2

When the lights fade and the facades fall, this is what you’re left with: Tuxedo Mask without a mask, you without your moonlit glamor. Tux the civilian is handsome, you can tell, and this is it—the moment you’ve been waiting for.

He lifts his face.

The youma's words come rushing back: Let the truth be known, the city’s deepest secrets shown.

Tuxedo Mask is none other than Kim Seokjin.

Suddenly, you’re reminded of a crystalline city; people bowing before you; Seokjin taking your hand, your matching rings gleaming in the light. Was it a memory or a dream?

You stand there, dumbfounded, until Tux/Seokjin dons his mask and brushes past. “Come on, Sailor Moon,” he says, sensible enough to use your alias. “The coast is clear. We’ve got a fight to finish.”

☾

“Why does it have to be Seokjin?" You whine, collapsing into bed and disturbing your sleeping cat. (In your defense, he was on your pillow. Which you’ve told him numerous times not to lay down on because his fur would shed.) Luckily, Agust is acquainted with your dramatic side and simply gets up to move.

“Well, why do you have to be Sailor Moon?” He points out. “It could have been someone less bothersome.”

“Hey,” you retaliate. “You’re the one who came to me. You could have given anyone the Lunar Key.”

“I didn't have a choice.”

“What do you mean you didn’t? You could have walked away and picked someone better, just like that.”

He scoffs. “Not when it’s the Queen.”

“Queen-schmeen." You flop back onto your bed, the springs creaking in protest. "I bet Her Royal Highness is on her throne right now, all nice and comfy. She couldn't care less."

Agust doesn't reply.

At first, you think it's because you've won and nothing else can be said, but when the silence stretches on, you know something is off. You sit up to see Agust no longer curled into himself, but sitting. He stares out your window into the night, his normally keen eyes empty. "She's dead."

Judging by his somber tone, she'd meant a lot to him. "I'm sorry," you whisper.

Agust sighs. "No need to apologize, kid. She was your mother, after all."

"My mother?"

"Not now," he amends. "But she was a long time ago, when you were the princess of the moon and Seokjin the prince of the earth.”

☾

The next morning, you head to school on time.

Your mom—present day mom—was surprised to see you up early, and Jeongguk called you out like the bratty brother he was (wow, no morning run today?), but the truth was you couldn’t sleep.

Last night, Agust recounted your past, how the dark eclipsed the moon. Although the queen tried her best to protect the kingdom, it was to no avail. Seokjin died in the fray, and you fell shortly after, helpless to save your beloved. In the end, the queen sacrificed herself to give you and Seokjin another chance at love, her people another chance at happiness.

A chance to rebuild the Silver Millennium.

The thing was, you didn’t know if that was what you wanted. Not that you’d want the Dark Kingdom to reign, but you weren’t sure whether you wanted to rule in your mother’s stead. Or marry Seokjin. Past you might have wanted to, but the you now could barely stand him. And neither could he. Or so you thought. You’d gotten along just fine with Tuxedo Mask, even grown a crush, but that wasn’t enough to warrant a marriage.

“Hello? Veen to Selene*?” Someone nudges your shoulder, and with a start, you notice Mina looking at you in concern.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“Nothing yet, but it looks like you’ve got something on your mind. What’s up?”

You’re about to tell her when you see Seokjin approaching, his uniform blazer neatly pressed.

“Morning, ______,” Seokjin says. “Mina.”

“Morning,” you reply, ready for whatever biting remark he’d say next. But once Namjoon comes up, he leaves. That's it.

Even Mina, who hardly sees the two of you interact, notices. "That's the first time I've seen you guys polite. It's weird. What happened?"

After a discreet look around, you grab her by the elbow. “He's Tux,” you hiss, but Mina doesn’t look the least bit shocked. Her face breaks out into a giddy grin, like a child who’s finally tall enough to get on the big kid ride.

“You knew?” You ask, a little hurt she didn’t tell you.

She pouts, squishing your cheeks together. “Don’t be mad. You don't know how hard it was to keep it a secret.”

◑

You don't blame Mina, for the most part. It would have been better if you hadn’t known who Tuxedo Mask was, and vice versa. You felt like Cinderella running away from the ball, her beautiful dress giving way to rags and ratty shoes. If the prince caught up to her then, she’d probably be humiliated.

Just like you are now.

Tuxedo Mask has seen you at your most embarrassing moments, fighting to have the last word (or milkshake) as Seokjin, and also at your best, saving civilians with grace. You've only wanted him to see the best of you, for him to think of you as the perfect wonder-girl heroine everyone else saw you as, but he's seen almost every side. You don't know what he sees in you now, if anything. And frankly, you don't want to know.

"Have you ever thought that maybe he's thinking what you're thinking?" Mina asks. "You've seen all the good and bad in him, too."

"But it's different when he doesn't have a crush on Sailor Moon!" You say, exasperated.

"Oh, I wouldn’t be sure about that if I were you."

Seokjin thinking of your alter ego that way is embarrassing, but considering he's also Tuxedo Mask...now your face is red, you can feel it. Red as roses in bloom. "You're joking, right?"

"Why don't you wait and see," Mina replies, as cryptically as when she was Sailor V and you hadn't known any better. Having sympathy for you, she gives you a warm smile. "Don't stress out too much, Moon. You're amazing either way. Just talk to him."

◑

You think there's some reconnaissance to sort out first. When you walked into Crown Arcade and saw Seokjin talking to Jimin pretty intently, you didn’t want to interrupt...okay, who were you kidding? You chickened out.

But Jimin is his best friend, so he'll know how Seokjin feels the most, right? It's the next best alternative to actually speaking to Seokjin, which, well, you aren't ready for. Case in point: you've done the impossible and made yourself scarce. You aren’t about to break your streak now.

So the instant Seokjin leaves, you walk up to the counter. Jimin looks up from sprinkling a milkshake. "Hey. The usual?"

"Yeah, just double on the chocolate."

"You got it," he says, passing the drinks he finished making to a server. You watch him blend milk into ice cream, then reach over for a new cup to pour the mixture into later. It's all done with practiced ease, and you marvel at how quick he is, not to mention how beautiful the finished milkshake looks after. The chocolate is perfect, the whipped cream a cloud of snow drizzled with dark syrup.

Jimin slides it over with a grin. "Mademoiselle."

"Why, thank you," you say, digging in with gusto. This is exactly what "stressed is desserts spelled backwards," meant: Jimin's milkshakes never fail to kick your worries down a notch.

"Good?" He asks.

"Mhm," you mumble, more to your milkshake than to him, when the thought that you haven't paid yet crosses your mind. Oh gosh. You pull your purse onto your lap, but Jimin chuckles, stopping you.

"I've got it covered. Besides, I heard you weren't yourself lately."

"Really?"

He shrugs. "From the way you're devouring that, it's kind of hard to believe…"

You take an extra large mouthful to prove his point.

"But you only lay on the chocolate when you're bummed," he finishes, and you’d protest if you hadn’t made it a habit to drown your sorrows in his milkshakes. They were just too good to resist. Not to mention Jimin is a great listener. Your girls, although you love them, aren't always the best. You'd catch the moment they crossed over from attentive to "Is she done yet?" but with Jimin, you've never had that issue. Turns out you have a different one.

"I hate how perceptive you are."

He laughs. "You're just predictable."

"You know what? You can take back your milkshake and go back to work," you say in a fit of grumpiness, pushing the glass back to him.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?"

You meet him eye to eye. After a minute—a long, impressive minute might you add—you take it back. "Fine. What do you want to hear?"

"Anything you want to tell me. And if it's something you can't share, please tell someone you can. It's not great to keep things bottled up, trust me."

You sigh.

"Here's the deal," you begin, feeling a little weird telling your old crush about your new one, but marching through nevertheless, "I met someone on...online. He's nice and funny and understands me even though he's different. I just click with him, and eventually, I want to tell him I like him. The thing is, I don't really know who he is. We've been chatting on Discord and his profile picture is Tuxedo Mask, but he can't be Tuxedo Mask. Or maybe he is, who knows?"

Jimin laughs. If only he knew.

"Anywho," you continue, "I meet him and find out he's someone I actually know...but he's a pest. He always gets on my nerves and it's like he's a completely different person! I don't even know how that's possible, but apparently it is and it's just so frustrating."

Jimin doesn't speak for a while, which is fine by you. You take the time to jam spoonfuls of chocolate and cream into your mouth.

"You know," he finally says, amused, "that sounds a little like the plot to You've Got Mail."

"That isn't funny.” You huff. “Joe Fox was a jerk and I don't know why they played him off as charming."

"Isn't that what you think of the guy?"

"I never said he was a jerk."

"But you said he was a pest."

"That isn't the s—" You pull at your hair. "Ugh. I don't know anymore."

"Did you talk to him?"

"And what? Spill my complicated feelings?"

"No, just talk to him. You don't have to confess right now. Just air out the laundry and see where you guys are at. Chances are, if you're confused, then he's confused, too, and there's no way either of you can get out of it without talking to each other."

"I can't talk to him, Jimin. I avoided him for three weeks! He's going to hate me."

"He isn't," Jimin says firmly, and you wish you could have the same conviction. "Sure, he'll be upset, but if he's really someone who cares, he'll listen. Look, during that time you avoided him, did he try to reach out?"

"Well, I told him I didn't want to talk and he stopped asking."

"So he'll listen. If it turns out he hates you, give him a piece of your mind and I'll give you triple chocolate milkshakes on the house."

When he puts it like that, talking to Seokjin doesn't seem as dreadful. "You're not just saying that?"

"Have I ever said something I didn't mean?"

You get your answer when someone comes trudging in, holding up a bag from your go-to fast food joint. "Jimin! You better be grateful I drove all the way downtown to get you these burgers. Since when did you like ______'s favorite, anyways?"

"Since now," your traitor of a friend says. You glare at him, which he conveniently ignores.

"You're the best," he tells a surprised Seokjin, leaving with a pat on his shoulder. "Enjoy your meal!"

>> NEXT

...

note:

*Venus to Selene, like "Earth to [insert name]?" but replace Earth with Venus and [name] with Selene, Greek goddess of the moon

#bangtanarmynet #seokjin x reader #seokjin x y/n #jin x reader #jin imagine #seokjin imagine #seokjin scenarios #jin scenarios #jin fluff #seokjin fic #seokjin fluff #seokjin fanfic #seokjin au #jin au #bts imagines #bts fic #bts scenarios #bts au #sailor moon au #my fic

[volturialice]

ok first of all don’t get too excited i’m just back to assure you I’m alive and post some fic real quick

2021? no I think it’s whumptober

no 22. do these tacos taste funny to you?

poisoned | drugged | withdrawal

1,146 words

warnings: drugs, vague discussion of date rape

rating: T

notes: I know there are a zillion “twilight but with jalice” fics out there, but I figured it was time I tackled the premise myself. beat-wise, this is roughly analogous to the port angeles chapters of both twilight and MS. I tried to keep it in about the same style, minus the past tense first person (ew) but complete with mutters and murmurs. but of course, jalice is emphatically not edbella 🤠 and alice, being psychic, knows considerably more about the cullens/vampires in general than bella did at the same point. also, no tea no shade but the plot of the port angeles chapters is stupid, so I tried bringing us to a less stupid place than “the heroine stumbles upon a convenient gang of rapists.” anyway. enjoy!

no. 22: port angeles

“What,” snaps Rosalie after the third ring.

“Rose, I need your help.”

“With your pet human? Pass. What did she do this time, sprain a wrist curling her eyelashes?”

Alice sways against him, murmuring something unintelligible. At least she’s still conscious. “I think she’s been drugged,” says Jasper.

“What?”

He runs a frantic hand through his hair, silently cursing Carlisle for choosing tonight to be out of the country. “There was a man at the bar—he only spoke with her for a minute, but his emotions were”—he grits his teeth—“telling.”

He has to take a shaky breath in order to shove down his rage. “And she has a…some sort of phobia—she won’t let me take her to the hospital. Or bring her home. Look, I just don’t want to be the only one present when she wakes up and can’t remember anything.”

Silence on the other end of the line. Then, “Where are you?”

“Some bar in Port Angeles.” He gives her the address.

“I’m on my way. Keep trying Carlisle, and see if you can get her to drink some water as long as she’s conscious.”

“Thank you, Rose.”

“Did you get the man’s description?”

“I got his scent.” Jasper’s voice is a half-step above a growl.

“Don’t do anything until I get there,” orders Rosalie. “Stay put and babysit your human. We’ll figure the rest out later.”

“Fine.” He ends the call. He doesn’t need Rosalie’s help to figure the rest out. It will be a simple matter to track down and eliminate one human male. The difficult part will be killing without feeding, but Jasper will cross that bridge when he comes to it.

Alice blinks up at him, eyes a bit less glazed than they were a minute ago, which he hopes is a good sign.

“Gimme your phone,” she demands. Jasper isn’t sure what she could possibly want with it in her current state, but it doesn’t occur to him to refuse her.

With an uncharacteristic clumsiness that makes his chest lurch, she unlocks his phone (when did he tell her the passcode?) and dials what he recognizes as her mother’s number.

“Wait,” orders Jasper, suddenly uncertain whether this is a good idea. She can barely stand—does she expect him to do the talking?

Not to mention, Alice and her mother seem to have a very…permissive relationship. On Alice’s way out of her house earlier, when she had declared that she was “off to lick toads and get pregnant,” Lillian had laughed and wished her a nice evening. He wouldn’t put it past Alice to announce “hey, Mom, I got roofied and now I’m going home with a couple of vampires. Don’t wait up!”

Jasper is still debating whether to snatch the phone back when Lillian picks up. “Hi, Mom,” says Alice in a cheery, surprisingly lucid voice. “I’m spending the night at Bella’s. Don’t wait up!”

He’s too shocked to pay attention to her mother’s reply. Has Alice been feigning her symptoms? But no, she can’t be—he can still smell the drug in her blood, a syrupy, sterile wrong note in her scent, mingling with the now-familiar cocktail of antipsychotics.

“Bella’s phone, of course,” she lies smoothly. “Mine is dead.”

Alice’s mother is more thorough than he would have expected, asking all the logical questions about whether Alice has been drinking (“C’mon, Mom, I’m with Bella, what do you think?”) and whether she’s being safe.

“Of course,” she answers, still standing in the arms of a bloodthirsty mass murderer. “We’re just super tired after the drive back. Her truck is soooo slow, this would never happen if I had a car.” Her priorities at a time like this are nearly the most alarming part of the situation.

When her mother has been thoroughly reassured, Alice dials her own number, which goes straight to voicemail. Hi, you’ve reached Alice. I can’t talk right now. It’s 2021, text me like a normal person! Beep.

“Future Alice, this is Past Alice. You’re probably pretty freaked out right now, but it’s okay! Jasper didn’t drug you. I repeat, Jasper did not drug you. Be nice to Rosalie; she’s there to help. Now put the phone down, you’re about to hurl. Bye!”

She hands the phone back to him and wilts against his chest. Logically, he knows exactly how small she is, but knowing isn’t the same as feeling her soft, warm small-ness settle against him, already far more comfortable than she should be.

“How did you find me?” she asks. At least she’s still clearheaded enough to talk.

“I followed you,” Jasper admits. No point in lying now. Little point in lying ever, to a psychic.

“I knew it!” exclaims Alice. “I thought something weird was up when nobody tailgated Bella on the freeway. Who told you to stalk me all the way from Forks?”

“I was only—”

“Yeah, yeah, you were concerned for my safety. Which is totally…” Her brow furrows as she struggles with the words, evidently having used up most of her coherence on the phone calls. “…Totally none of your business. If you’re gonna keep doing stuff like this, you have to admit we’re dating.”

He sighs, and goes to scrub a hand over his forehead before remembering both of his arms are occupied. “Alice, we’ve been over this. We can’t date.”

“Mmm. So you’re just gonna follow me around forever and, what, watch me date other people? Out of a totally platonic interest in my ‘safety?’ Okay, simp.”

“We’re not having this conversation right now.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re drugged.”

“In vero vin…vino vert…whatever,” she argues. “It’ll all still be true when I’m not drugged.”

“She has a point.”

Of course Rosalie would pick this moment to pull up in her BMW. Of course.

Jasper ignores his mortification in order to pin her with an accusing stare. “You’re telling me to date a human?”

Before Rosalie can answer, Alice bursts out laughing. They both turn to look at her with varying degrees of concern and dubiousness.

“I just imagined you going, like, ‘get in loser, we’re going shopping,’” she giggles, eyes glassier then ever. Jasper bundles her into the backseat, alarm flooding back to replace his annoyance. Rosalie peels out, muttering “like I’d ever go shopping with you.”

“You don’t know the future,” Alice murmurs.

She swats away the seatbelt when Jasper tries to buckle her in, instead seizing his hand and pressing it to her forehead, then the back of her neck. “That’s better,” she sighs. Her skin is damp and hot. Having his hand on her neck is a strange sensation—he can feel her pulse beneath his fingers, so close…

“Oops. Sorry.” She pulls away, leaving him to hate that she’s the responsible one right now.

“Don’t you dare kill her in my car,” says Rosalie.

.

.

if you noticed a plothole, no you didn’t

#whumptober2020 #no. 22 #drugged #twilight fanfiction #jasper hale #alice cullen #rosalie hale #jalice #drugs // #date rape mention // #fic: mine #perihelion tag

[acnelli]

The Speech

Hermione becomes the first female Minister Of Magic, so Ron has to hold a speech about it. 

Just in case you’re wondering...I was never very interested in Pottermore or anything that got published after DH, so there might have been a female MoM before Hermione but I think this little detail is not important to enjoy the story ;-) I also don’t really see Hermione as a MoM. For me Hermione works at the Ministry, creating and pushing for laws to protect and improve the life of those oppressed and fighting for equality. But I liked the idea of a very nervous Ron talking about his wife in front of a huge crowd.

You can also find this story on FFN and AO3.

I'm so screwed.

This sentence was stuck like a mantra in his head ever since Kingsley talked him into this nonsense.

Who in his right mind would want him, Ron Weasley, to hold a speech? Sure, it was his wife that becomes the next Minister of Magic and she also will be the first female one. Which makes him the first husband to hold a speech about the new Minister.

But why couldn't they just skip this stupid tradition?

Not that he wasn't able to talk a lifetime about Hermione. But he sure wasn't ready to talk about her in front of half the Ministry, his entire family, a bunch of friends and not to forget these annoying press people.

Ron was fairly confident that he would say something stupid. He was Ron bloody Weasley after all and if anyone would describe him to a stranger this would be in his character description: Saying and doing stupid and/or inappropriate things.

Kingsley was about to end his speech and Ron knew that it will be mere seconds before he was called up to the stage.

Oh Godric, please don't make me embarrass myself in front of my children.

He thought back to this morning when his fifteen-year-old daughter made him a cup of tea to calm his nerves.

"Don't worry, Dad. You will do just fine. And please eat something." Hugo said, as he shoved a slice of toast at him. He picked his breakfast up and even took a bite, mainly to appease his son.

 Hugo stared at him, determination and worry on his face. It never failed to amaze Ron, how much his son was like Hermione, both in looks and character.

 Ron sighed and took another bite before shoving the plate away from him. "I' m sorry, buddy. Might eat this backwards if I'm having one more bite."

 He sipped his sweet tea and wondered why the hell he was such a nervous wrack. It was the Quidditch games at Hogwarts all over again.

  Ron thought he was over his insecurities, but old habits die hard, right? Looking at his two children made him feel a tiny bit lighter though. They both got his ginger hair and freckled skin with the tendency to get burned easily when out in the sun. Hugo got the warm brown eyes of his mother, Rose Ron's blue orbs. Rose sat beside Ron on the kitchen table, sipping her own tea. She was already in her dress for the ceremony, her long wild locks pinned up at the nape of her neck. She rarely touched her breakfast. Ron knew she was feeling the same anxiety he felt. Two years ago, during summer break, Hugo told Ron that Rose never eats breakfast before a Quidditch match and would sometimes spend the better part of these mornings in the bathroom. Rose was in many ways like him. She was funny, loved Quidditch, normally eats on behalf of a whole Quidditch team and had a temper similar to Ron's. Thank Godric, she got the brains of her mother.

None the less, she could easily comprehend what Ron was going through.

"And now, ladies and gentleman, please welcome Ronald Weasley.", Kingsley announced and stepped back for Ron.

He took a deep breath before he finally entered the stage and went to the podium. His family clapped excitedly in the front row, even cheering for him. He looked over to Hermione, who smiled and winked at him. Of course, the whole Weasley family joined the festivities today to celebrate with Hermione. They were all sitting in the second and third row along with his parents-in-law, who looked both proud and just the tiniest bit nervous.

For a short second he feared, that his impulsive decision from this morning. to ditch his sorry attempts of the prepared speech, was probably the worst decision of his life, but when the applause died down, he hadn't much time to panic over it. So, with a final deep breath and a look into Hermione's eyes, he started to speak.

“Th- thank you”, he said after the applause died down and tried not to flinch about the noticeable tremble in his voice.

“Well, as tradition demands, I'm expected to hold a speech about our new Minister of Magic. Speeches are not exactly my strong point and, in all honesty, I dreaded this moment ever since Kingsley asked me to hold it.” Ron threw a pointed look at the former Minister who just gave him an innocent smile.

Over the soft laughter of the audience, Ron heard a snort and quickly located the source. Harry was smirking at him and Ron supressed the urge to flip the tosser off. He hated The Daily Prophet with a passion, but for this headline he might forget about his principles for a day and actually buy this piece of garbage. Nevertheless, he decided against it, mostly because he didn’t fancy to be on the receiving end of some rather nasty hexes performed by his wife and mother.

“Some of you might be surprised to learn that I haven’t prepared this speech during todays breakfast, but for the better part of the last weeks evenings. Though certainly not perfect, I thought the outcome was quite passable. But last night I went over my words and realized that I would tell you things about Hermione Jean Granger-Weasley that all of you already know. Actually, you could have found the better part of my words on a chocolate frog card. Instead, I would rather tell you about the first day Hermione and I met.”

As Ron let his gaze wander over to his family, he saw a smiling but slightly puzzled Hermione looking at him. “The day I met Hermione was, of course, the very first day at Hogwarts. On the train ride I already met Harry Potter. You’ve probably heard about him at some point, saved the world or something like that. Anyway, in that train compartment Harry and I immediately became best friends and while we stuffed ourselves with a ton of sweets, a girl opened the door to our compartment, asking us about the lost toad of a fellow student. I was showing Harry some useless spell my dear brothers told me about, that of course, did not work. This girl though, performed an actual spell just perfect and informed us that she read every first years school book over the summer as preparation for our upcoming classes. Sure enough, she outshined everyone in every class and there wasn’t a teachers question she had no answer to. Back then and especially on that first day, I could never imagine to be friends with Hermione Granger. I thought that she’s a bossy know-it-all and on Halloween, two months after our first day at Hogwarts, she heard me calling her just that. As an eleven-year-old boy, it never seemed possible to me that Hermione could be sincerely hurt by my words. But of course, it upset her. Very much.

That being said, I’ll never regret these nasty words, because this Halloween night was the beginning of a life-long friendship between me, Hermione and Harry. If I hadn’t said that in front of her, she would have never locked herself up in the bathroom to cry and Harry and I would have never ran to this said bathroom, because a mountain troll was wandering the halls of Hogwarts and Hermione was the only one who hasn’t been warned about it. Ever since the three of us beat that troll, I could not imagine a good day without Hermione as a friend by my side. She still nagged us about doing our homework and scolding me for swearing too much and said things like ‘Ron, it’s Hermione, Harry and I’, but when I look back, the unhappiest times were when we didn’t speak to each other or when I wasn’t able to talk to her.”

He paused for a brief moment as surely the darkest time of his life came to mind, when he abandoned Harry and Hermione on the Horcrux hunt, his heart full of pure fear and hopelessness when he thought he would never see them again. Or the weeks of Hermione being petrified, as he could still see this young red headed boy talking to her in the hospital wing, desperately wanting her to tell him off for staying out after curfew.

“Hermione did and achieved a lot of great things in her life. Most of these things you might already know, like her helping to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eaters or her success in freeing the House Elves. Although these are amazing and exceptionally brilliant achievements, Hermione is so much more than the brightest witch of our age and a war heroine. Did you know that the beginnings of her efforts to free House Elves lay in our Hogwarts years? Back then, she started a campaign to free them and it didn’t stop her, that for a very long time, it had been a one-woman-movement. Her courage and ambition to help the defenceless and her undying sense of justice are exceptional and even more admirable, if you consider, that as a Muggleborn, Hermione had been in great danger herself, being the main target of Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Regardless what she went through herself, she never stopped to look out for others, especially her family and friends. And this is what she’ll continue to do as the leader of Wizarding Britain. Hermione will fight for a better life for everyone, for all of you and for those, whose suffering is still invisible to us.

I once read an article about Hermione inheriting the title of the brightest with of our age. It said, that she sure is intelligent, but mainly book smart. If you ask me, a person, who is simply book smart could never use the knowledge in real life, right? Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Hermione’s quick thinking and brilliance at everything she does, saved Harry’s and my life more times than I care to admit. Even in the most dangerous and horrible situations she was in, her highest priority had been to keep us safe.”

I was wrong. These were the darkest hours of my life., Ron thought and Hermione’s screams echoed through his mind.

“Hermione saved me in more than one way. She taught me self-worth and confidence, which, especially as a teenager, I hadn’t much of. She believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. She was there for me when I needed her the most. And the best thing of all: for some unbeknown reason, she loves me. And in the end, this makes me the luckiest bloke in the world.”

For the next words Ron looked only at Hermione, who gave up to hold back her tears for quite some time now. “Befriending you had been the best thing I had ever done. I heard a lot of people say that they married their best friend. Well, I certainly did. We went through so many adventures -good and bad- together and I`m happy to say, that the good ones outweigh the bad ones big time. I love you, Hermione and I`m ready for this next adventure to come our way.”

#romione #ronmione #hermione granger #ron weasley #hugo weasley #rose weasley #hugo granger-weasley #rose granger weasley #weasley family #granger weasley family #minister of magic #my fic #my fanfiction #romione fanfic #romione fanfiction

[lordmartiya]

lord Martiya’s Lilanette Week 2021, part 1: Trapped Together

@lilanette-week

@lilanette

Well, here’s a new Lilanette Week… And another series of connected chapters to form a full love story. As always, I use the French names and have Lila from Rome for my personal amusement, plus one of my OCs. Hope you’ll enjoy it.

06/20: Trapped Together

“DUPAIN-CHENG! ROSSI! YOU SHALL PAY!”

Marinette pinched her nose as she heard the voice of the one Akuma she had faced more often than Mr. Pigeon. It had been a while since Rose Bride had appeared, enough that she thought Papillon had grown bored with her, but right after her brief expulsion and the consequent readmission the single most annoying Akuma had reappeared.

“Seriously, what’s her problem?”

Oh, and she couldn’t take her down because Lila, hearing the Akuma calling for Marinette, had an attack of common decency and dragged the heroine in disguise in a closet, earning Rose Bride’s anger in the process when she used a flashbang grenade (bought from an airsoft website) to stun it.

“Chevalot is convinced her and Adrien are fated to be together and gets Akumatized every time she thinks someone is putting the moves on him.” Marinette explained.

“So, every five minutes?”

“Not really. Though she’s still the most frequent Akuma even with Papillon ignoring her since a few days after the term started. We thought he had given up on her…”

“Not surprised, I’ve seen how incompetent she is that one time. At least Mr. Pigeon is funny, this idiot’s like a fork in the soup.”

Marinette had to suppress a snort at the ridiculous comparison.

“I suppose we’ll have to stay here for a while. Anything funny to share while we wait?” Lila asked.

“She thinks Adrien is Chat Noir, because only he deserves to be a hero.” Marinette deadpanned, getting Lila to put her head between her (surprisingly large) hands and shake it.

“Goddammit, Adrien’s so naive I underestimated his brains until the other day, Chat Noir’s a genius that can make sense of Ladybug’s weird plans. And that’s without the thing he just knew I had after Volpina…”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s between him and me. But how is she still here? Between the serial Akumatizations and how I overheard her treating her classmates, you’d think she’d have been expelled by now.”

“She’s the daughter of the prefect. He may be under enough investigations that the mayor’s office took over the police, but he’s still powerful enough to cover for her.”

“I’ll put her in a pocket and deal with her later, then.”

That one Marinette recognized as a (paraphrased) Roman insult. Still, now she had to ask something: “Why did you get me expelled and then readmitted? If you hate me so much, it doesn’t make sense.”

“For hopefully the last time, I don’t hate you.” came the answer. “You’ve just made yourself a threat by not letting my house card stand in peace, and when I was paid to get you expelled, I didn’t have reason to refuse. But I like you well enough that when I was asked to get you back in, I did it.”

Marinette didn’t say anything for a while, the silence interrupted only by the Akuma’s shouts. Then, filing away for later the fact someone had paid Lila to get her expelled, she asked another thing: “If you know the situation with your lies is so bad, why don’t you come clean?”

“Because I can’t, obviously. My mom’s a diplomat, everything we’re seen or caught doing or saying reflects on Italy. I’m just a teenager so I have a bit more leeway, but I still did a stupid thing and I can’t just come clean.”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed. Will you leave me alone until I move away? I doubt it’ll take much longer.”

“Er… You said something about friendship some time ago. Just… Just don’t lie unless necessary, OK?”

It took a moment before Lila accepted Marinette’s extended hand. “Very well. So, how do you punch? You’ll have to know that, I mean, with the crazier guys…”

Before Marinette could answer they heard Rose Bride’s shrill shout of excitement, and then the Ladyblog announced Chat Noir had soloed the Akuma with a picture and a rope.

“Well, time for me to deal with our lady friend.” Lila said as she opened the door and went out with the same grin she had given Marinette before faking she had been thrown from the stairs.

A few moments later Marinette transformed into Ladybug and went to finish off the villain – and find Chat Noir had a realistic picture of himself and Adrien “entertaining” each other.

“WHERE DID YOU FIND IT?!” she screamed after Chat showed it off.

“Volpina made a few and sent them to her PC, and Lila gave me copies when I asked.” Chat replied, completely at peace with it. “Oh, and Adrien said he’s OK with it.”

Making a point of getting her own copies from Lila, Ladybug broke the Akumatized object, purified the Akuma… And was surprised when Lila popped up and asked if they wanted to have fun with her and Marinette. And also when Chevalot pulled a box cutter and attacked Lila – only at the box cutter, though. Lila reflexively grabbing the offending arm, on the other hand, was expected.

“A’nfame, sei uscita dall’ovo de Pasqua?!” Lila exclaimed, expressing her “surprise” at Chevalot’s action. Had she not known the Italian had been planning to get rid of her, Ladybug would have bought it.

________________________________

By the time Ladybug visited Lila’s home to get the pictures, Chevalot had been expelled and forcefully committed to psychiatric treatment – attacking a diplomat’s daughter with a blade and no Akuma had been too much for her protections. Lila was now the school’s hero. And managed to surprise the visiting heroine.

“Get your own entertaining, you pervert.” Lila replied to her request. “Before you ask, I gave it to Chat Noir because he was in it, and that’s it. Though I can give you another thing I did to kill time while Akumatized.” and she showed a picture of Volpina using a whip and other things on Ladybug. One on glossy paper, not on her phone or PC, saving her devices when a thoroughly blushing Ladybug grabbed the picture and ripped it.

“ANYWAY!” the heroine shouted as she forced herself to calm down and stop blushing. “I saw you helped Marinette, I thought you hated her.”

“We had disagreements, and resolved them. Something I fear the two of us can only do with my revenge.”

“What?”

“I’m not an idiot. I know you were only apologizing to make yourself look good with your friend. Or maybe because I put you through hell, I saw the Ladyblog about your battle with Volpina, you would have lost your Miraculous early had it not been for that pigeon.”

“It’s not like that! I know I went too far at the park, just that!”

“You know, I’m a diplomat’s daughter. I’m an expert of this kind of lies. And your mascot character, or whoever gave you the earrings, trained you well – I’d have bought it if I hadn’t known better.”

“But…”

“You said it yourself, we’ll never be friends. Now, get the pictures you’re entitled to and get out of my house.”

With a sigh and no pictures, Ladybug left, wondering how she could deal with this problem.

#lilanette #lilabug #ladypina #volpinette #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculousladybug #miraculous lb #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #lila rossi

[heroineimages]

Legend of Dragoon Minis

Legend of Dragoon holds a special place for me entirely because it’s the only game my brothers and I all played that only I completed. For whatever that’s worth. This is especially unusual, given that I was always the worst at getting the characters’ combos right. The final boss took me over three hours to defeat. 

The graphics and gameplay were ahead of their time, admittedly, and if I remember, a lot of people mistook it for a Square/Enix game. The story and worldbuilding were decent for the most part, and the characters were likable and memorable for the most part. For the heck of it, I designed the four main heroines in their regular outfits and Dragoon forms. Feedback and advice are always welcome! @evillordzog​, @fuckyeahheroforgecreations​

The immortal Rose’s outfit was tricky to get right, though I did find a sword that matched her saber pretty well. I always got kind of a reverse-Polgara vibe from Rose, tbh. Instead of an immortal sorceress trying to bring about a prophesy, Rose is an immortal warrior trying to prevent a prophesy from coming about. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12966292/

Rose’s Dragoon form. Possessing the Dark Dragoon Spirit, Rose’s abilities center around darkness-related spells and attacks. My initial intent with the Dragoon form was to go with one of the techno-wing designs. But I just couldn’t find a set that matched what I had in mind. Additionally, Rose’s saber is supposed to grow into a giant techno-rapier, but the closest I could find was a freaking lance. Regardless, I felt the design turned out okay. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12966349/

Shana’s outfit turned out pretty well, I thought. It’s a simple top and shorts with boots and archer’s gloves. I always felt like the story kind of shafted Shana a little, being only playable for part of the game. I mean, she’s technically a chosen-one character, yet gets upstaged by her spikey-haired boyfriend. She’s captured at the beginning of the game, gets rescued and becomes playable for a few chapters, then loses her Dragoon powers, gets captured again, and ends up replaced for the rest of the game. I mean, what kind of story makes the chosen-one character their damsel in distress? https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12967664/

Both regular and Dragoon form, Shana was probably my most consistent character, damage-wise---entirely because she didn’t have combos to deal with like the other characters. As the Silver Dragoon, she was also the party healer, so I made sure to have her handy for most of the boss fights. Until, at least, she gets captured and replaced by Miranda. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12967729/

Miranda is the no-nonsense warrior priestess who replaces Shana after Shana loses her powers. On the whole, I think her outfit turned out the most accurate of this series. The chest armor and battle-skirt look pretty close, and Hero Forge had a decent pair of tall boots to match. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12969079/

Once Rose leaves the party, Miranda gets all of her powers and stats across the board, including all of her Dragoon powers. She and Shana play identically, so at least there’s no bumpy transition between the characters. The armor turned out okay, if not as organic-looking as the original. I’m fairly pleased how the wings’ coloration turned out, tbh. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12969087/

I remember Meru being my mom’s favorite character, mostly because she was so wacky, dancing into battle and smacking dudes around with her giant mallet. I did the best I could with her skimpy dancer’s outfit. I had to get creative with Meru’s giant butterfly bow. Since she’s a Wingly, she has magic wings that appear and disappear at will. So I used the luna-moth wings, making the upper wings shiny and glowy, then colored the lower wings to look like Meru’s bow. It turned out better than expected, anyway. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12970449/

Predictably, Meru is supposed to wear the skimpiest Dragoon armor as well, especially covering her legs. Getting creative again, I found a pair of pants that have multiple paintable areas, and painted strategic areas the same color as Meru’s skin. Results were mixed, I felt. On the other hand, I do like how her Blue-Sea Dragoon Spirit wings turned out. https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D12970503/

#Hero Forge #Legend of Dragoon #Rose #Shana #Sacred Sister Miranda #Meru #minis #miniatures

[flightfoot]

Let It Be Enough To Reach The Truth That Lies Ch.1

Thanks to my betas, @miabrown007, @khanofallorcs, and Marby!

AO3

-------

Well, so much for THAT test.

He’d found a Holder for the Ladybug Miraculous quickly. That girl from the bakery would do nicely.

The Black Cat was proving trickier.

Apparently, an old man on the ground, straining to reach his cane wasn’t even worth stopping for, much less helping. Granted, he didn’t see any kids around; it was just random adults. Which was weird since he was right outside Collège Françoise Dupont and he was pretty sure Bakery Girl was running here to her class.

Though, she seemed like she was late… maybe he should’ve waited until lunch period to try the test. Most of the students were probably inside by now.

With a sigh, he got up and trudged off. Hopefully whoever held the Butterfly Miraculous now would wait just a little longer before activating it.

He didn’t notice the small box he had left behind.

------

Adrien sighed as he sank into the car seat. 

Of course Nathalie and Gorilla caught him. His father probably hadn’t even noticed he was gone, but those two? They actually looked after him. They’d notice — especially Gorilla.

Though he had a feeling Gorilla hadn’t been the one to draw attention to him being gone. His job might be to protect Adrien, but well… even he seemed to realize that the lockdown his father had put him under wasn’t so much ‘protecting’ him as ‘stifling’ him.

At least, that was what he thought from Gorilla’s facial expression, body language, and him very conspicuously going to the bathroom for an extended period of time right about when Adrien would need to leave in order to run to school.

Unfortunately, Nathalie wasn’t so lenient.

He played around with the box he’d scooped up as he ran to school. He’d intended to bring it to the lost and found (assuming a student or faculty member lost it, judging by its location), but it looked like he wouldn’t get the chance.

Maybe she’d return it for him?

“Hey, Nathalie, I know you probably won’t let me head back there but… could you at least make sure this gets to the school? I think someone left it behind and I wouldn’t want them to not get it back because of me.”

She was silent for a minute. He didn’t even think she heard him at first.

Finally, she let out a deep breath and stuck her hand back. “Very well. Give it to me.”

She brought it up in front of her where she could see it. 

And choked and spluttered.

“This- how did you- where did you get this?!”

Adrien blinked, surprised. Why would just a small box — albeit a very ornate one — garner such a strong reaction? “I found it on the ground just outside the school.”

She turned halfway around in her seat, her face deadly serious. “Adrien. Do you remember anyone around? Anyone at all?”

“I- I mean, there were some random people, but I don’t-”

“Adrien. This is important. Think.” 

He closed his eyes, concentrating hard.

But-

“Sorry, Nathalie. I don’t remember. I wasn’t paying attention to that.”

She stared at him a moment, searching his face, then nodded. “Very well. They may have left already in any case.”

“They who?”

She ignored him.

“Nathalie? What’s up with that box?”

She pulled out her phone. “Mr. Agreste? I’ve got something you need to see.”

----

She refused to acknowledge him for the rest of the car ride.

He stopped trying after the third attempt. Clearly, he wasn’t going to make any headway like this.

It was like talking to his father; once he made a decision nothing Adrien said or did would sway him.

When they entered the house, Nathalie headed straight for his father’s study. He tried to tag along but-

“Adrien. I must speak to your father privately.”

He frowned. “Is this about the box?”

She just turned around, closing the door behind her.

With a sigh he walked to his room, depositing his school bag on the floor before making a flying leap onto his bed, burying his head in his pillow.

What was Nathalie hiding?

Why was that random box so important?

And why couldn’t he go to school?

He’d always had a very… constrained social circle, limited to Chloé, and occasionally Félix, whenever he happened to visit. It could get lonely sometimes and he really wanted to spend time with more kids his own age, but he’d at least always had them, plus his mother.

A deep ache filled his stomach. She’d only been gone a couple months, but it felt both like no time had passed at all, and like an eternity.

And when she passed away, so it seemed had his father.

He’d ordered a full lockdown, not allowing Adrien to see ANYONE but Nathalie, Gorilla, and himself. Not that that meant much. He seemed to live in his study now.

Adrien had been trying to give his father space.

But… while his father had lost his wife... he’d lost his mother.

And he still needed people. 

He couldn’t stay locked up in this house forever, slowly going insane with only his spiraling thoughts and memories to keep him company.

*rumble*

What was that?

He ran out the front door, expecting to see… he didn’t know.

But definitely not what was actually there.

A giant stone monster?

What the hell?! 

Could this day get any stranger?

The police shot at the monster, which seemed like a pretty ineffectual choice to Adrien. If it was made of stone like it looked, that wouldn’t do much more than annoy him.

It glowed, growing even bigger.

Well.

So much for that.

Rushing back inside, he turned on the TV. 

A surge of excitement ran through him as he listened to the newscaster. 

A supervillain? Here in Paris?

Maybe it wasn’t a good thing. Wasn’t something to hope for. That supervillain was causing a lot of damage, and judging by the police chief’s broken arm, had already hurt people.

But Adrien’d grown up on tales of superheroes and supervillains, of good versus evil, of epic battles and the triumph of the best of human nature.

He may have practiced some superhero moves a few times. His climbing wall was great for perfecting the landings.

Of course, not all superhero tropes were created equal. While he liked the regular human superheroes showing how even ordinary (well, for certain values of ‘ordinary’) people could fight against the most extraordinary foes, he loved seeing people who had superpowers intrinsically fight for what was right as well, his favorite superheroes weren’t even usually called ’superheroes’.

When he was a couple years younger and flicking through TV channels, he’d stumbled across a show in a style he hadn’t seen before, but had grown quite familiar with since.

A pigtailed teen girl struggling against a supervillain, not knowing what to do, thinking all hope was lost and she’d failed-!

Until a rose embedded itself at her feet.

A mysterious dashing stranger dressed in black giving her the words of encouragement that she couldn’t find for herself.

He continued watching, later discovering that the show was named after the titular heroine Sailor Moon. 

Tuxedo Mask — at least, while transformed — remained his favorite element of the show, the sort of hero he secretly wished he could be.

Though with a cooler transformation sequence. Tuxedo Mask’s was pretty boring. The Sailor Scouts were far more interesting to watch.

He may have made up his own transformation sequence for Tuxedo Mask, practicing it a few times.

A few hundred times.

With what had happened in- in the past few months, he’d stopped watching it.

Stopped daydreaming.

But now it all came rushing back.

He jumped up, about to race out again-

And paused. 

What exactly could he DO here? 

He didn’t have superpowers, and his attempt at karate…

Well. There was a reason he’d dropped the class after a few sessions. 

Right now he wished he’d kept at it. Fencing didn’t seem like it’d be that useful here.

Oh who was he kidding, even KARATE wouldn’t do much. The police had already tried firing at the monster and that only made it stronger.

He’d go and follow it, see what might happen — hey maybe he could still help from the sidelines, and who knew? Maybe a superhero would show up to help! — but somehow he doubted Gorilla would let him.

Look the other way so he could go to school? Sure.

Look the other way so he could follow a dangerous, unknown supervillain? Kiiiiinda went against his entire job.

Though, that didn’t stop him from feeling a pang of jealousy when he saw a girl around his age on TV, following the supervillain on her bike. Absurdly dangerous, most definitely, but he’d change places with her in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, all he could do was watch.

A superhero DID show up a short time later. There wasn’t much info on her — the only recording was from that girl on the bike from before, and she didn’t catch the full fight — but he thought she was pretty cool from what he saw. A bit camera shy, though.

He understood that sort of thing. He’d been pretty anxious whenever the press gathered around when he was younger and less experienced.

Not so much anymore, he was used to it now, even enjoyed it at times, but for someone not used to the attention? It helped having someone there with you for reassurance and guidance.

For him, that had been his mom. 

But this girl didn’t look like she HAD anyone.

Adrien flicked through the news channels, trying to devour any info on her, the supervillain, all of this, that he could.

And then-!

“A new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are mysteriously transformed into stone monsters”

Well.

That wasn’t good.

Ladybug had managed to take down one supervillain by herself (who was apparently a kid named Ivan who didn’t even remember it?) but that many? 

With no backup?

The supervillain had grabbed her during the fight. It’d been part of her plan… but with no backup, she couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and that could easily have gone wrong.

That was a lot of pressure to put anyone under, especially a kid who looked no older than himself.

Maybe staying up until midnight, browsing online forums, speculating about Ladybug, the supervillain, and the rock monster clone army hadn’t been his best plan.

Going to bed early might not have made a difference, though, he was too hyped up.

Still, even exhausted, he was determined to give escaping to school another shot…

...Aaaand was quickly shot down. Turned out Gorilla wasn’t going to let him run out there when people were turning into frozen stone monsters. Who knew?

He contemplated trying to turn his bedsheets into a makeshift rope (he’d seen it in several movies and TV shows, it had to work, right?), but eventually scrapped the idea. He may have been climbing the walls of his room, but he wasn’t THAT desperate. Yet.

The superhero Ladybug returned, but her confidence seemed pretty shaken. She stuttered and fidgeted in front of the camera a lot and seemed to wilt under some particularly harsh statements by the police chief.

Which - seriously dude? She was TRYING!

But even as unsure as she seemed, she persevered. When the giant butterfly head man, Hawkmoth, tried to blame her for causing the damage to the city, she snapped. She was NOT taking that crap.

Adrien may have jumped up and down and cheered a few times during her subsequent speech, grinning like an idiot. She was AWESOME! And that Lucky Charm thing? Inspired! He wished he knew more of how that power worked. Did she make the plan and then summon the object? That would make sense but from her look of confusion after summoning it, that didn’t seem quite right.

Sitting back he sighed. He really, REALLY wished he could be there with her.

A door opened behind him.

He turned his head.

And did a double-take.

His FATHER?! Actually coming to speak to him UNPROMPTED?!

That hadn’t happened since-!

...Actually he couldn’t remember the last time that happened. It only ever seemed to coincide with him wanting something from Adrien or chastising him for something or other.

Oh no.

He- he couldn’t be that mad about him running to school yesterday right?

Or- or maybe this was about the box? There was something unusual about it, maybe he just wanted to know more about it? Or tell him what was so important about it?

Probably not that last one.

A hand rested on his shoulder. 

“Adrien, there’s something I need to show you.”

-----

His father had a secret passage by his mother’s portrait.

WHAT.

Seriously, when had he had THAT installed?! Was that just part of the house and he’d altered it to work via pressing part of the painting?!

...Were there more?

He’d scoured the house when he was younger, searching for the cool secret passages that all mansions seemed to have in the movies he watched and books he read. Only to come to the depressing conclusion that that was NOT, in fact, an intrinsic quality of mansions.

Might have to rethink that now.

He fidgeted as they descended in the secret elevator (he was still not over that) into some large, underground chamber.

...Okay, he REALLY thought he would’ve noticed this place being excavated, it had to have already been here.

Superheroes, supervillains, secret passages, hidden chambers… he was beginning to think he was dreaming. Or maybe trapped in a comic book.

The elevator came to a halt. 

Lights slowly came on as they walked down a long suspended hallway.

At the end? A nature area with grass and bushes, some sort of pod among them, a giant window looming over everything.

Was… was his father part of a secret underground cult?!

Was Adrien supposed to be indoctrinated in as its newest member against his will?

Or was he led here as a human sacrifice?!

Normally he’d calm himself thinking that this was real life and not like, a comic or movie — but considering everything that’d happened in the last twenty-four hours (heck, in the last twenty-four MINUTES), that wasn’t much of a reassurance.

His father turned around as his own steps slowed. “Keep up, my son. I don’t have all day.”

With a shaky breath he willed his feet to move.

It- it probably wasn’t a secret underground death cult.

There’d be more people around, right? Hooded figures in dark cloaks?

Just his father (and maybe Nathalie?) wouldn’t make for much of a cult.

Yeah! So… so there must be a perfectly normal, reasonable explanation for all of this. He didn’t have the slightest idea what that could be, but he was sure it existed!

They came to a stop in front of the pod.

...it looked entirely too much like a coffin.

He’s not using me as a human sacrifice, he’s not using me as a human sacrifice, HE’S NOT USING ME AS A HUMAN SACRIFICE-

“When I- when I told you that your mother passed away… I may not have been entirely truthful.”

Wh-what?!

But that meant-!

“She’s alive?!”

His father simply moved forwards and pressed a button on the pod.

The cover opened.

Adrien forgot how to breathe.

He hadn’t seen her for two months.

Hadn’t expected to see her ever again outside of portraits, photos, and films.

And yet, here she was.

But she wasn’t moving. No medical equipment was attached to her either.

He tore his gaze away from her. He needed to know. To read his father’s expression and know he wasn’t lying. “She’s ALIVE, right?!”

Father gave a slow nod. “She’s in a magical coma… but she isn’t dead.”

...Magical?

“How…?”

Father stared forwards, lost in thought.

A moment later he sighed. “She used a magical artifact she shouldn’t have, did something she should not have done… and paid the price for it.”

Turning around, his father turned his attention back to Adrien. “You gave me half of the cure. With your help we can acquire the other half and save her.”

Gave him half?

The box!

“Was that why Nathalie was so insistent on taking that box? What was it?”

“It contained a powerful magical artifact known as a ‘Miraculous’.”

Adrien frowned. He’d heard that term before. “That’s the thing the evil butterfly man wants, right?”

Father scowled. “She should’ve just handed it over. That pesky little girl doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Something about that — his tone, his body language, his words — caused Adrien to take a step back.

“Father?” he asked cautiously. “What do you mean? How would that help you? What does Hawkmoth wanting Ladybug’s Miraculous have to do with anything?”

Adrien had a bad feeling about this.

In answer, his father took off his candy cane-striped tie, revealing the purple jewel underneath.

“Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise!”

A purple light flashed over him.

Leaving a man in a silver helmet and purple coat, a butterfly shaped jewel on his chest.

WHAT?!

Wildly, Adrien’s mind cast back through the extraordinary things he’d seen in the last few minutes, the secret passages, the underground chamber, his mom in a coma; all kept secret from the world.

All being recast in light of this new information.

They weren’t signs his father was part of a cult.

The secret passage, the underground chamber — both part of a secret evil lair.

And his mother being in a coma?

The hero refusing to give up an item that could cure her?

He’d seen this sort of thing before.

Sometimes the villain wanted an item, wanted something from the hero for a good cause.

But there was often a good reason the hero would fight tooth and nail to prevent them from acquiring it.

“Ladybug’s Miraculous, when combined with the Black Cat Miraculous, will allow me to save her.”

That was frustratingly vague.

“How? What do you need to do? What are the risks, the consequences?”

His father looked down on him. “I thought you missed her. That you wanted her back. What a poor excuse for a son you are.”

“No! Of course I-!”

“Do you wish for her to remain like this forever?”

“No I just-!”

“That Miraculous is the only thing standing in the way of reviving her. We MUST retrieve it.”

“We…?”

His father took a small box out of his coat.

A very familiar box.

Being held right in front of him.

“Open it.”

It wasn’t a request.

Gingerly he opened the lid.

A small black ring with a green glowing pawprint sat in the middle.

“Put it on.”

Swallowing hard, he did as his father commanded.

A light shot out.

“Wah-!”

It dimmed, revealing a small black catlike creature.

Who shook himself, looked around-

And locked eyes with his father.

“LET ME GO THIS INSTANT, YOU TERRIBLE EXCUSE FOR-!”

“I forbid you from speaking.”

The creature's mouth vanished.

“MMMMM! MMmm- MMMM!”

“Ah… much better.”

Adrien just stared, slack-jawed.

“Father, what did you just- what did you just DO?!”

“I shut up an annoying pest. If he insists on misbehaving and acting out, he no longer gets the privilege of having the ability to do so.”

WHAT.

Adrien opened his mouth to protest… and then shut it.

If he spoke up, ‘acted out’... would his father do the same thing?

He didn’t think his mouth could be sealed off.

But he wasn’t certain of it.

And there were plenty of other things he could do to him.

Suddenly, he was VERY acutely aware of how much bigger, how much taller his father was than him.

How much stronger.

Would Father ever hurt him?

Before today he’d have said ‘no, of course not’. 

Now he wasn’t so sure. He certainly paid no mind to hurting others.

The small cat creature gave his father a death glare, making gestures he guessed would be extremely rude if his forearms had actual fingers to gesticulate with.

“That,” his father pointed at the cat, “is a Kwami. They give the owners of their Miraculous powers. Simply say ‘Plagg, transform me’ and he will be sucked into the ring, much like what happened with my own kwami earlier. Each grants special powers unique to their Miraculous on top of the standard super strength, endurance, and agility. The Black Cat Miraculous gives the power of destruction; simply say ‘Cataclysm’ and you’ll be able to destroy anything you touch. But since you are a child, you will detransform five minutes later, same as that accursed Ladybug.”

He could transform?

Gain superpowers like Ladybug?

Become a superhero?!

He glanced at Plagg.

The kwami’d gone still, simply looking at him with lidded, narrow eyes, mouth still missing.

No. Not a superhero. Not while under Father’s control.

A superVILLAIN.

He swallowed hard.

He wanted to have superpowers, to run around the city, to fight and be free.

But if he had to be a supervillain, he’d rather not have powers at all.

Hesitantly he grasped the ring, slowly pulling it off.

Too late, his father spoke up. “I wouldn’t do-”

The ring was off his finger.

Plagg dropped like a rock.

“WHA-!”

Dropping to his hands and knees he cupped his hands around the violently twisting tiny creature.

His eyes bugged out as he spasmed wildly, flailing uncontrollably.

If he’d had a mouth, Adrien was sure he’d be screaming.

“What’s wrong with him?!” 

“You activated my failsafe,” Father replied. “I wouldn’t want you just leaving the ring lying around. Best you keep it on at all times, unless I allow you to remove it.”

His father did this? INTENTIONALLY?!

Ok, ok, don’t panic! Prioritize. The failsafe activated because he took the ring off, it was meant to incentivize him keeping it on at all times, so…

Fumbling around, he put the ring back on one of his shaking fingers.

Instantly, Plagg relaxed, sinking into his palm, eyes half-closed.

This… this little creature was at his father’s mercy.

And it didn’t seem like Father had much of that.

“F-father?” he said, looking up at him. 

Quickly, he dropped his eyes. Best not to seem like a threat, like he was challenging him.

Maybe Father would assert his dominance by taking it out on him.

Or maybe he'd just take it out on Plagg.

“Please. Please, could you return Plagg’s mouth to him?”

“Hmmph. Perhaps later, provided that he’s well-behaved. Keep him under control or else I’ll do so myself. Right now, I have a task for you.”

That normally would not sound ominous.

Normally, his father would not say that after revealing he was a supervillain and torturing someone.

“Yes, Father.”

His father smiled.

Adrien’s spine stiffened.

“Transform. Let me see what you can do.”

----

Left. Right. Dodge. Jump.

OOPH

He wasn’t used to being caned in the stomach.

It didn’t hurt much — the Miraculous was pretty protective as it turned out — but it was still a pretty harsh impact.

While he was off-balance Father hit him again, sending him flying into a wall.

And again.

And again.

Each time before he could even begin to recover.

Father walked over to him as he lay on the ground, struggling to get up.

Adrien braced himself for another hit.

“I expect better from you. As an Agreste, and as my son.”

He turned his back to him. “We will spar every day until you can put up even a paltry fight. I cannot have you putting up such an embarrassing performance.”

Every day?

This was going to be EVERY DAY?!

He understood training. Understood the need to practice to get better. But training was supposed to include guidance, helpful tricks, being shown a few moves. Not just being beaten by a stronger, more experienced opponent.

He grit his teeth. “Yes, Father.”

“You need to be stronger if you are to take Ladybug’s Miraculous. If we are to heal your mother.”

Mom…

He looked over at her, still peacefully sleeping, entirely unaware of everything that had happened.

If she knew, would she be okay with this?

An hour ago, he would’ve choked at the thought and yelled ‘Of course not!’ 

He knew his parents after all.

But finding out how little he truly knew his father made him doubt.

His father glanced at him. “You may leave for now. Tomorrow, you go out in the field. Do NOT disappoint.”

As he made his way to the elevator, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. “Not while transformed. Say ‘detransform’ to release it.”

“Detransform!”

Plagg spiraled out of the ring.

His mouth was still gone, but he seemed in better shape than he was right after being tortured, at least.

Oh god, Adrien didn’t want to risk accidentally upsetting his father but-

“I- I think Plagg’s learned his lesson. Please Father?”

He rested his gaze on Adrien for a moment. Then-

“Very well. But if there’s one peep out of him...”

“Thank you, Father.”

He snapped his fingers.

Plagg’s mouth came back. He opened and closed it many times as if testing that it’d truly returned.

“Y-”

NOPE.

Quickly snatching Plagg out of the air, Adrien ran for the elevator.

------

If he ever got his paws on that candy-cane son of a bitch…!

Plagg floated wildly around the room. 

Well. For certain values of ‘around’. That complete and utter BASTARD had decided that in addition to preventing Plagg from harming him, from interacting with anything or anyone else except for eating food, and forcing him to hide whenever others were around, he was ALSO on a leash.

Five feet.

He couldn’t wander more than five feet away from his Miraculous.

And since that- that torture spell would take effect the minute his ring slipped off of his Holder’s finger, that meant he was, in effect, tied to staying within five feet of Adrien.

Adrien…

He didn’t really know what to make of the boy just yet.

His father? Very clear opinion on him.

But his son didn’t exactly seem thrilled with Candy-butt’s actions.

Just his luck. OF COURSE the ‘dark power’ Wayzz had sensed had stumbled on his Miraculous. Naturally. 

He may have been the Kwami of Destruction, but sometimes it felt like he was the Kwami of Bad Luck instead.

Not that assholes getting their hands on him was entirely new, but well, usually they weren’t quite as well-versed in putting up safeguards to stop him from stealing his Miraculous back, or in extreme cases, Cataclysming their asses.

He hadn’t even been activated when the curses were applied. Which hey, on the upside, meant he didn’t have to feel them taking effect! ...On the downside, it meant he didn’t know exactly what the curses were or how many of them there were. Some of them he’d been told about, others he’d figured out for himself, but… there could still be others. He hadn’t known about the “torture if ring is removed” curse until Adrien actually did it.

Not that that would STOP him from looking for loopholes, but well… not right now. He’d been through quite enough pain already without risking stumbling across a curse that would activate the torture again.

He shuddered.

Kwamis by themselves rarely got hurt. But when a Holder transformed, fusing the two of them  together, he’d feel the same pain as the Holder.

The only time he’d felt pain that bad, his Holder had had the brilliant idea to extend his staff upwards a few thousand feet into a stormcloud, just to see what would happen.

They’d both been okay afterwards, but being electrocuted hurt.

“So, uh… is there anything you want to do? Or talk about? Or- or not do, whatever you feel like!”

Plagg blinked.

Adrien looked around awkwardly. “I know this isn’t exactly ideal and it sucks and I’m so, so sorry, but is there anything I can do to help?”

“...Camembert.”

“What?”

“Camembert cheese. The stinkier, the better.”

The kid made a face, but nodded. 

 ------

Thirty minutes and a trip down to the kitchen later, Plagg was completely surrounded with the delectable aroma of smelly, smelly cheese.

Adrien looked about ready to gag, but gave an attempt at a smile whenever he looked over at him.

A small part of Plagg got some satisfaction out of the kid’s discomfort. At least, he wasn’t the only one suffering because of the five-foot leash.

“Do you want to watch anything?” 

Plagg stifled a laugh. Kid’s nose was still wrinkled up from the cheese’s fumes and his eyes watered slightly, but he was making a valiant effort to pretend he was fine.

As far as TV went… well. He hadn’t left the Miracle Box much and Fu’s taste in shows was pretty dull, so-”

“Whatever you feel like. Unless it has to do with cheese, I don’t care. ...IS there a cheese TV show?”

“...I’ll check the guide.”

#enemies au #ml fanfic #Miraculous ladybug #let it be enough to reach the truth that lies #love square #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

[love-sapphirerose]

Optimally Maximal Relationship Failures

https://www.deviantart.com/antoni-matteo-garcia/art/Optimally-Maximal-Relationship-Failures-863430102

This demotivational poster is super aggro and mega highly Anti-SessKagu, Anti-KogAya, Anti-InuKag, Anti-Kagura to some extent, Anti-Kouga to a vastly significant extent, Anti-Kagome to a huge extent, but also Pro-Sesshoumaru, Pro-Inuyasha, Pro-Ayame, and highly Pro-SessAyaInu. Sit back and relax, as I tear into Sesshoumaru's and Kagura's failure of a relationship, Kouga's and Ayame's major fart of a romance that should never have been, and Inuyasha's and Kagome's annoying volatility, why Kagura does not deserve Sesshoumaru, why Kouga and Kagome only deserve my ire, wrath, and fury, and why Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, and Ayame deserve so much better in each other. Furthermore, this is my contribution to this year's Red Ribbon Reviewers' month. Behold, my dear readers, my three greatest NOTPs of all time. Sure, I consider Naraku with anybody my greatest choice of a NOTP because someone as manipulatively dastardly such as Naraku deserves to be alone, done for, and truly deserves jack shit! However, that is too obvious of a choice. These three are the ones that make me want to tear my hair off and carve the hearts of Kouga and Kagome out with a blunt knife as well as tell Kagura to vamoose. As you can clearly tell, I have put these from bad to worse to the worst, with Sesshoumaru x Kagura being something absolutely unpleasant, Kouga x Ayame being a whole lot more atrocious, and Inuyasha x Kagome being the indubitable equivalent to toxic waste mixed with gallons of poison. Ergo, SessKagu is a bad pairing, KogAya is so much worse, and InuKag is the absolute worst pairing to exist in Inuyasha. I am aware that there are a good number of people who love to pair Sesshoumaru with Kagura because of how appealingly sexy they appear together. However, now that I have discarded those rose-tinted glasses for good, I can see this failure of a relationship for what this signifies and this all falls on Kagura's shoulders. Lest one forget that Kagura killed Kouga's tribesmen of her own volition and got pleasure out of that, trapped Miroku and Sango at Mt. Hakurei also by her own volition, kidnapped Rin, used Akago as a vessel to feed on Kagome's dark side, was manipulated into serving Princess Kaguya in the false hopes of wanting her freedom, and tended to mock Inuyasha. All of these atrocities would make Sesshoumaru fully cognizant that Kagura is far from being his equal in a relationship. Her dirty record as well as her hissy fit at Sesshoumaru for not helping her desire to be free from Naraku make her a co-dependent partner which can only spell failure in the long-term. As a mother to Rin, she would definitely fail badly because of her aforementioned dirty record and she would not be fully worthy of any sort of emulation. For someone like Kagura who is a formidable fighter, she has abused her wind powers to cause chaos and misery. Her passing may be tragic, but the awful deeds she has done are not worthy of my forgiveness. At least Sesshoumaru is free from being in a co-dependent relationship with that polarizing wind sorceress. Kouga x Ayame or KogAya is a couple I will never understand the appeal of. Yes, they are both wolf yokai, but these two could not be any more different, as Kouga is a big bluffer of a bully and a Karma Houdini and Ayame is a naturally brave, strong, fearless warrior princess with hidden depths that should have been fully realized! I have dreaded at the thought of these two ending up together because of all the failures and atrocities that would all resurface if Ayame were to find out all the horrible crimes Kouga has committed against an innocent young girl, Rin, and his entire tribe. This also extends to him not being the strong fighter he has made himself out to be and nothing more than a perennially pathetic loser who has relied on the Shikon Jewel's power instead of harnessing his own strength, as if the Shikon Jewel shards on his legs are a metaphor for steroids being used to give someone an artificial boost of strength and power. If Ayame dared to discover all of those atrocities, crimes, and rubbish Kouga has committed, she will be undoubtedly appalled at him and would repudiate him for good. I will reiterate that all of my sympathy goes to Ayame because of the fact that she deserves so much better than this pathetic waste of effort and time and deserves to grow as a veritably formidable heroine worthy of emulation, especially to all the young girls of the world. The mere fact that Kouga and his wolves killed innocent villagers including Rin who has lost her family and had to wander the world alone before she was revived Sesshoumaru through his Tenseiga and got away with murder, mainly relied on the Shikon Jewel's power to accelerate his strength and speed without working that on his own, and did not avenge his fallen comrades at the hands of Naraku and Kagura should all make Ayame's insides turn and make her reject Kouga for good and for all. Ergo, Ayame does not deserve this pathetic Karma Houdini and deserves to estrange herself from him forever, thus making her be the mother Rin truly deserves and will gladly give her her unconditional love and compassion to help her grow as a person. Speaking of couples I do not understand the appeal of by any shape of the imagination, we have my most dreaded NOTP of all time in the form of Inuyasha x Kagome or InuKag. Even as a child of eleven years old, I did not tune in to Inuyasha to see their soap opera fart of a relationship desecrating Adult Swim let alone the airwaves no matter where I was watching this series. I mainly tuned in to Inuyasha to see him growing from strength to strength and kick loads of butt, especially in his full yokai form. Furthermore, the more I saw Kagome and her brand of shrewishness, manipulativeness, brattiness, pettiness, jealousy, and callousness, the more irritated I became. There was barely any semblance of a romantic relationship blooming between Inuyasha and Kagome, as it was more of Kagome being the owner to Inuyasha's pet, especially where the Beads of Subjugation and the purpose of Inuyasha's sword Tessaiga are concerned. The Beads of Subjugation were used for Inuyasha to not do anything rash while the Tessaiga, aside from being a sword of destruction, was also intended to be used to protect those who are oppressed. Being the manipulative shrew Kagome was, she believed this would give her leeway for Inuyasha to shield her and be her "knight in shining armor" who will save her from all forms of danger without honing her own skills as a fighter. What is worse is that Kagome extends her manipulation to Miroku, Sango, and Shippou aka The Dunderhead Family to be nothing more than her pathetic posse and have them jump on a certain bandwagon that has brought Inuyasha a whole bunch of trauma. I am, of course, talking about how he was still hurting from the guilt he felt when Naraku manipulated both him and Kikyou into betraying each other. Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and especially Kagome never understood Inuyasha's pain and trauma in the slightest and The Dunderhead Family think that anytime Kagome was hurt it was all because of him. Furthermore, there is the fact that Inuyasha and Kagome are an undeniable example of being in a Karmic relationship with each other, given the many times they have been yelling, bickering, squabbling, and getting themselves in a heap of messily addictive habits that will only dig them deeper into more quagmires than find any sensibility or profound meaning. It says something that someone as compassionate, genuine, kind, and natural as Rin makes a far better companion to Inuyasha than The Dunderhead Family and...ugh....Kagome combined. Do not even get me started on the first episode of Yashahime because Inuyasha still has those accursed Beads of Subjugation on and she still does not trust him where Kikyou was concerned. Kagome was never attentive to him, never understood him in a profound level, and always believed she had dominance over him. This, my friends, is why I absolutely loathe InuKag with all of my being and it stands perched atop the medal platform of shame as my most disdained NOTP of all time. InuKag makes SessKagu more tolerable in comparison and the only other NOTP to ever come close to InuKag's brand of disgust is KogAya. Regardless, InuKag is the NOTP I will never want to touch with a twelve-foot pole. You might even noticed a recurring theme in terms of my discussion of my Inuyasha NOTPs and that is the importance of Rin. Well, she does play an integral part in not only Sesshoumaru's life but also the lives of Inuyasha and Ayame. Considering that Kouga and his wolves killed her in cold blood and got away with murder, Kagura kidnapped her as ransom for Sesshoumaru to annihilate Naraku, and that Kagome and The Dunderhead Family do not even come close to Rin's brand of compassion, I say that it was high time for Sesshoumaru to ditch Kagura, Inuyasha to give a big, fat, ugly screw-you to Kagome, and Ayame to drop kick Kouga in his family jewels to be the worthy parents to give Rin the great home she truly deserves complete with siblings in the forms of Dai, Roku, Kai, Shiori, and Shinta. To make things better, Rin will be definitely grateful to have two strong, powerful, brave dads like Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, one courageous, honorable, compassionate mom like Ayame, three tough, independent, loving older brothers like Dai, Roku, and Kai, a lovable, caring, compassionate "twin" sister like Shiori because they are also the same age though Shiori is a month younger than her, and a lovable, sweet, attentive younger brother like Shinta. Just squeeze in Shuran, Hakkaku, and Ginta to be her loving uncles and Shunran to be her equally loving auntie and it will be a glorious family Rin will be more than happy to be a part of. With that said, having a three-way relationship with Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha being the chivalrous, caring, noble husbands to Ayame is so much better than having these three suffer a series of terrible relationships. This also extends to how proud Toga the Dog General and The Wolf Elder shall be of their progeny for giving Rin a great home and for finding true friends in Shuran, Hakkaku, Ginta, and Shunran who are just as supportive of Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, and Ayame being in a three-way relationship. In conclusion, I am so ecstatic to make SessKagu, KogAya, and especially InuKag my biggest NOTPs for life. I will never touch these failures with a twelve-foot pole ever again, but the putrid effect of these NOTPs will forever remain ingrained in my memory as a stern reminder what bad relationships can look like. From the co-dependency found in Kagura's failed relationship with Sesshoumaru to the utter deception and lies Ayame would have found herself falling hook, line, and sinker all for Kouga's pathetic hide to Inuyasha's and Kagome's fart of a relationship only spelling death and destruction for years to come, there is nothing that will salvage these losers together. I am just going to keep Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, and Ayame in a loving three-way relationship complete with a great family they can call their own and Shuran, Hakkaku, Ginta, and Shunran are going to be part of that family as their siblings for life. I hope you all enjoyed my evisceration of SessKagu, KogAya, and InuKag as my biggest NOTPs for life and I would love to hear from you if you agree with me on this. Until then, I will see you in the next submission. Take care and Happy Holidays, everybody. Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, and Ayame as well as the lame-os known as Kouga, Kagura, and Kagome from Inuyasha belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Sunrise.

#inuyasha #inuyasha the final act #anti inukag #anti kagome #anti sunrise

[doodlegirl12345]

“A Lesson In Tightropes” {1/5}

Hello everybody, this my first post on Tumblr. I written this story prior the release of Miraculous Ladybug season 4. A lot of things in this won’t match up to the current season. So think about it in a way of an AU story.

Read A Full Version Of Part 1 of “A Lesson In Tightropes” on Wattpad

Part 1 : Balance

Balance.

Another important skill needed in this never ending circus that we call life. As that’s what it can be seen as a complex balancing act. From the moment that we learn to move or stand we are supposed to follow a straight line without a certain end. As time starts to build up things are shove into our hands to juggle from small things such cleaning your room, washing behind your ears and finishing the vegetables on your plate. To the attempts of finishing ten page papers for university, keeping your light bill paid, and scrimping enough money for this month’s rent. The round shiny pennies that you have been juggling had turned into round shiny porcelain plates. More fragile and easier to break while trying to walk the straight line of a tightrope. The crowd that’s watching is ready to boo at you for any misstep and misdeed that is done, like the entertainment that you are. While the crowd that is supporting you and your accomplishments seem small like they can barely make a sound, even when it becomes too much and you fall without a safety net.

Up above the colors of orange and yellow painted Paris’ sky as the sun rose one early spring Friday morning. Sunlight quickly took its reign warming the frosty air from the previous night. The few people that were already out during this early morning minding their business as most were returning home from a grueling night shift or leaving for the long early shift that the day would give them. But right above them was the city’s beloved heroine Ladybug swinging through the sky with her trusty yoyo. The bug tossed the yoyo to latch onto the rooftops ahead to prolong the cycle of rush and relief of her body being pushed through the sky by her own hands.

As she had only one solid thought on her mind: home.

The few people who would look above and see the heroine had a few names that come to mind: hero, protector, role model, icon and savior. With all the things that Hawkmoth had thrown at her she seemed unstoppable. However, those were the people who easily let themselves get lost in the sparkle. They couldn’t see or wanted to notice the sway back in the bug’s posture, the misshapen form as she swung or the hesitation between each jump as she hanged onto the yoyo’s wire for dear life.

As underneath the surface level, it was clear that the spirit of exhaustion had been clinging onto her.

Nevertheless, Ladybug couldn’t stop moving as she sprung forward from the rooftop of Collège Françoise DuPont to the balcony of the nearby bakery. Nearly missing her footing on the balcony’s railing, the bug then jumped forward into the balcony’s opened trap door landing onto her bed that was underneath the opening. She landed flat on her back letting the cushiony padding of the mattress break her fall.

“Tikki,” the heroine said groggily. “Spots off.”

Magical red dust surrounded her body peeling off her costume and reverting her back into her civilian clothes. Tikki landed on the bed’s pillow, eyes already shut the kwami letting out a small yawn. While Marinette’s eyelids felt heavy, she felt herself slipping into a deep slumber needed to recover from last night and all of the previous nights before. Ever since she had returned home from her trip from New York. There have been back to back akumas and sentimonsters that Ladybug and Chat Noir had to deal with for the past three weeks. All of them appeared during the dead of night. It was like this Hawkmoth’s revenge for them not letting him plunge the world into another world war.

It was akuma alert notification, the most recent of many.

She suited up like usual, leaving her home after midnight hoping that this wouldn’t take long as she still was exhausted from the previous night. But those hopes were for nothing as the villain Creature Feature took hours to defeat, leaving both her and Chat Noir dragging themselves home, exhausted. Marinette turned over, eyes now shut as the mattress cushioned her aching body as she tried to reach dreamland. However, as she started to drift, a loud beeping startled the new guardian causing her eyes to fly wide open and herself to raise up. Marinette looked ahead to see at the foot of her bed was her phone ringing. She reached forward grabbing her phone as her alarm for school was going off.

But it couldn’t be time not yet as between last night and the night before she barely had gotten four hours of sleep! The guardian shut off her alarm and stubbornly threw herself underneath her covers. It can’t be time for school. That wasn’t fair as she didn’t want to go. Maybe today could be her sick day, better yet a mental health day.

It was the minimum of what she deserved.

But she heard a knock at her bedroom door, the guardian’s body didn’t even budge.

There was more knocking on the door, her mother’s voice came through the door calling out to her. “Marinette, sweetie it’s time to wake up. You don’t want to be late for school again. This will be the fifth time this week that you have been hard to get up!”

Marinette just let out a loud groan, taking her pillow on her head and bending it to cover her ears like this was going to be one of the worst days of her life.

An hour passed as the guardian dragged herself out of the door of the bakery with her purse and backpack. Instead of her usual outfit she was wearing a black tank top underneath a soft pink cotton top with short cutout sleeves, black sweatpants, and pink converse sneakers. She had dark sunken in circles underneath her eyes. A few minutes after not responding Marinette’s mother came into her room after Tikki hid trying to coax the young guardian out of bed. It got to the point it was easier for Marinette to force herself out of bed than trying and failing to get some sleep in the midst of that. In addition, her typical arsenal of excuses failed her, each one that she could think of Sabine counteracted with the statement of hearing it all before.

So Marinette got up and got ready just figuring the best thing to do is suck it up for another day. That was the notion that she had in her mind as she crossed the street to school. As outside in front of the steps students stood in their own groups chatting away with each other before class started. Marinette spotted Alya leaning against the wall of the school steps on her phone.

“Hey,” Marinette yawned as she approached her friend.

“Hey girl,” Alya said looking up from her phone. “You’re actually on time today.”

“You can thank my mom,” Marinette faintly smiled. “She wouldn’t let me be nearly late five days in a row.”

“Good mom, but hey are you okay?” Alya raised a brow.

“Yes, I’m a little bit tired,” the guardian nodded her head. “No big deal.”

“Well you’re not the only one,” her best friend gestured her head to the right. “It seems that your “friend” haven’t gotten much sleep either.”

Marinette turned her head in the same direction as she saw Adrien and Nino a few feet away. Adrien looked similar to her, a glazed look with deep dark circles underneath his eyes.

“Dude, you okay?” Nino asked him. “You look wiped.”

“Huh?” Adrien asked, almost like he was spacing out. “Yeah I just had a long fencing practice last night to get ready for our tournament in the next few weeks. Then I stayed up late doing homework.”

“So you sure you are fine?” Alya asked, bringing the attention back to her. “These couple weeks, you have appeared more exhausted every time I seen you.”

“I’m just a little jag lag from our trip.”

“The trip that we came back from three weeks ago? Nice try, M, that’s not going to work this time.”

“Um...well...it’s true.”

“Okay maybe I’m sounding a little pushy but I’m just a little worried about you.”

“That’s sweet but there’s nothing to worry about.”

“It’s not just me but other people. Alix texted me asking if you were coming to the Louvre this weekend to check out the “Fashion Through The Ages” exhibit like you said you were, considering that you cancelled going ice skating last with us last weekend.”

“Really? Why did she not text me?”

“Maybe because it’s been a little hard to reach you lately? You really haven’t been picking up or replying to our texts. So she just figured what was the point?”

Marinette bit her lip as she remembered last weekend she had come home from defeating the villain Archaic around seven in the morning after she got an akuma alert two in the morning. She was utterly exhausted and knew no way that could make it to the ice rink around eleven so she just texted the girls that she couldn’t go and went to bed. Practically for these past couple weeks beside school it’s been a trade off her sleeping and being Ladybug.

“So what?” Marinette’s eyes shifted to the side.

“So what? I’m worried about you ever since we got back from New York. You’ve been saying that either you’re busy or that you’re going to just go home to sleep. But you are still looking exhausted. Is there something going on? It’s starting to look like you have a double life or something.”

“Double life?!” Marinette exclaimed. “No way, I’m too boring to have a double life. I’m so dull that flies don’t even land on me! Boring is my middle name Marinette “Boring” Dupain-Cheng!”

“Well Miss Boring then what’s keeping you up at night?” Alya folded her arms, as if she wasn’t going to accept anymore deflection.

Marinette was at a loss for words as the truth feeling poison in her throat that if spilled as it would come up like acid. That she would die either way in this public setting. Unless she did her least favorite habit.

Lying.

“Okay okay you got me,” the guardian gave her friend a tight smile. “You’re so good, Miss Reporter.”

“Huh?” her friend looked confused.

“I’ve been working hard on a very special project...for you and the girls,” she wrapped an arm around Alya’s shoulders.

“Really?”

“Yep, I have been doing this project for weeks...that’s why I have been busy and tired. It’s all for you girls.”

Alya just looked at her with a stern face.

Marinette bit her lip as she thought. Is she buying this? No way that she’s buying this, she knows me way too well.

Her friend just shook her head. “That’s really sweet but leave it up to you to do something nice that is causing your own detriment.”

“Well you know me...I’m a giver. So everybody can stop worrying, it’s all over now.”

“Alright,” the inspiring reporter sounded skeptical. “Then I guess we can come over and you can show us the surprise tomorrow.”

“What?” the guardian looked confused.

“You said it was over, that means you’re done right?”

“Right... I guess that’s what it means, right...”

“Cool, then the rest of the girls and I can come to your place tomorrow before you go to the museum. Since Nora and I gotta take the twins to the circus tonight.”

“Circus?” she asked her as if it’s the first she heard of this.

“Yeah, I told you on Tuesday that Ella won four tickets for Andrea’s Traveling Circus that is going to be in town this weekend. As she won the award for most improved student in her class. Nora and I were going to take them since my mom and dad are going out to celebrate their wedding anniversary, remember?”

“Oh yeah.”

A string of electronic chimes came from the school causing the students to wrap up their conversations as they started to make their way up the steps.

“Ugh, the warning bell, we got five minutes until class starts,” Alya started to walk toward the steps. “Let’s go, the last thing that we need is Ms. Bustier marking us late.”

“Right,” Marinette yawned while following her up the steps feeling this was going to be a long day.

With that Marinette entered the school and dragged herself through a typical school day with an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. To her it felt like the day trudged on even during lunch while Alya told the girls about the surprise, the one that the guardian had came up on the spot. So imagine her relief when she reached her last class of the day: Early World History. Her sleepy eyes were glued to Ms. Bustier as she was in the middle of her lesson about the industrial revolution. As the teacher lectured the guardian tried to keep her eyes open, keeping her mind and hands busy by taking notes on her school issued tablet.

But it was hard to keep her head up.

She looked at the clock as it read 1:05 pm. There was only fifty five minutes left of the school day, fifty five long excruciating minutes. While her head felt like it weighed like a ton of bricks that went through a centrifuge.

Come on Marinette you just got less than an hour left, you can do this. She thought.

However, her eyelids were getting heavier. She rubbed them a bit letting out another yawn. Before she knew it she could hear the ringing of the school bell causing her bolt right back up in her seat with a loud gasp realizing that she had been laying her head on her desk. Marinette’s eyes darted around the classroom to see that all her classmates were staring at her with confused expressions on their faces. Suddenly her face turned a shade of beet red.

“Okay class that is enough for today we will finish up our lesson on Monday,” Ms. Bustier said, her stern eyes right on Marinette. “For homework please read chapters eighteen and nineteen over the weekend.”

After that instruction the class packed up for the day and started to leave for dismissal while Ms. Bustier turned to the classroom’s chalkboard starting to erase the board’s chalk writings.

“D-did I fall asleep?” Marinette turned to Alya.

“Yeah halfway through class,” Alya replied.

“Halfway through class? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I tried nudging you but you wouldn’t budge. It was like trying to move a brick house.”

“I was that out of it?”

“Yeah you literally were snoring during class,” Nino chimed in.

Marinette’s face became a deeper shade of red. “I don’t snore.”

“Trust me you do,” said a familiar voice.

Marinette looked away from Nino to see Chloè standing in front of their desks, arms folded with a little smug smile on her face.

“Seriously Dupain-Cheng who knew someone like you snored just like a pig,” the mayor’s daughter laughed. “I guess the whole class knows now.”

“At least I don’t sound like a strangled cat when I talk, like you do!” Marinette snapped at her.

Chloè’s blue eyes narrowed in shock as if she was surprised that kind of comment had been made.

“Marinette, can you please stay after class as I would like to talk to you,” Ms. Bustier said, still erasing the board.

Paris’ newest guardian’s eyes suddenly become big as saucers. While Chloè’s smug smile returned as she left the classroom.

Marinette buried her head in her hands. “I don’t believe this.”

“Do you want me to stay for you?” Adrien asked her.

Marinette moved her hands and looked back at the golden haired model. “Really?”

“Yeah it’s the least that I could do after you convinced my father to let me go to New York,” he said.

A tiny smile formed on her lips at that sentiment but then she looked at the dark circles underneath his eyes. He looked just exhausted as she did.

“Um no you don’t have to,” Marinette told him. “I mean...I appreciate it but I made bed now I need to lay in it.”

With that the group packed up the things and her friends left the classroom to carry out the rest of their day. Marinette walked down the steps with her backpack and purse to Ms.Bustier’s desk where the teacher was sitting looking through a stack of papers.

“Ms. Bustier, you said that you wanted to talk to me,” Marinette approached the desk, already feeling like she was on pins and needles.

“Yes Marinette as we have something to discuss,” said the teacher.

“About sleeping in class? I’m so sorry I didn’t mean too. I just didn’t get much sleep last night but I promise it will never happen again.”

“It is not exactly just that but also there is something else I would like to discuss.”

Ms. Bustier pulled out one of the sheets from the stack of papers that she was holding and placed it on the desk. It was a quiz paper with Marinette’s name written in the guardian’s own handwriting. The paper was covered with red ink markings and up top the final score was twenty five percent.

“This is your history quiz grade from the quiz that we took on Tuesday. I graded them all but didn’t have a chance to pass them out today like I planned,” Ms. Bustier told her. “But your grade is twenty five percent Marinette which is a F. Is there something you want to tell me?”

“Uh...I’m sorry.”

“This wasn’t a hard quiz either as the second lowest grade in the class was seventy two percent. Most of these questions were things we discussed in class and the others were from the textbook. Was you able to study?”

Marinette’s eyes shifted as she thought back to Monday night this week. She had taken a nap after coming home from school then started up her chemistry homework when her phone went off with an akuma alert. Steel Titan, a giant robot sentimonster was terrorizing downtown. By the time she got back she only had an hour before school that she used to finish her chemistry homework instead of studying.

“Just a little...I was busy,” she sheepishly told her teacher.

“With what?” Ms. Bustier’s eyes shifted from stern to concerned. “After falling asleep in class I’m worried about you Marinette. I have noticed that your grades have been slipping. So I would like to ask, is everything okay? Is there something going on at home?”

“What? Of course not, everything is fine.”

“Well about your personal life? Family, friends, relationships? If there is something you want to talk about I’m here to listen. It can be about anything.”

Marinette was unsure how to respond. What could tell her that she actually been Ladybug this whole time? That every time that she had been running late or had to excuse herself for a bathroom break she was saving the city. Along with Chat Noir she stopped Hawkmoth from plunging the world into another world war with two other heroes. That was now she was Paris’ only guardian of the miraculous because her mistakes caused the other one to give up his memories due to her getting so emotional over a guy she had recently given the friend label. That might have to suffer the same fate if she ever had to give up her title as guardian. That the thought of that actually terrifies her. She has been running herself so ragged that sometimes standing up is a chore.

Those are the things that she wanted to tell her but couldn’t.

“Nope, I just should have studied like I was supposed to,” Marinette told her. “Um, to be honest it’s my fault. I...stayed up late watching this show called Infinity Lights and I put off studying.”

“Infinity Lights? I love that show, how far are you?” Ms. Bustier stated.

“Uh,” Marinette started as she never saw a single episode of the show. The only reason she said it was because she saw a build board advertising the show when she swung home this morning. “Not far just the first season.”

“Ah so stakes haven’t really hiked up yet but what do you think about Miranda and Nick?”

“I like them. Miranda is my favorite.”

“Really? My favorite is Bridget. But is that the only thing going on?”

“Yes, I didn’t do well with organizing my priorities. So I’m in trouble?”

“Not exactly the grade that you earned on the quiz still stands; it is just a quiz grade so it shouldn’t impact your final grade significantly compared to a test. However, I would like you to promise me something.”

“A promise? What kind of promise?”

“I would like you to promise me that over this weekend you are going to get some rest. I expect you to come here Monday morning on time, well rested, homework done and ready to learn. If you can’t do it then I have no choice then call your parents and schedule a conference with your parents. To let them know about your grades and lack of sleep, do you understand?”

Marinette hanged her head. “Yes ma’am.”

After wrapping up things with Ms.Bustier, Marinette went home instantly going straight to her bedroom to get to work. As she had dug herself in a hole with her friends telling them about a great surprise that apparently took three weeks to do. She entered her room, dropping her purse and backpack on the floor to sit at her desk to think of something to make. Tikki flew out of her purse suggesting she get some sleep as she looked exhausted. But the guardian protested stating that she lied and now that she had to lie she must become an honest person by making the lie true. Tikki tried to convince her otherwise but Marinette was insistent. So here she was hours later still at her desk working in her sketchbook surrounded by wadded up balls of paper on her desk of rejected ideas. At first it was hats then phone cases then it was hand knitted scarfs. But either it was that she didn’t have enough time or materials.

It wasn’t until an hour ago that she settled on making homemade earrings as it looked enough that time was taken and she had the materials from a jewelry making kit that ironically Alya gave her for her birthday.

So there she was sketching as she had to make five original pairs of earrings all before tomorrow afternoon. However when trying to sketch Alya’s the first one on the list she couldn’t think of anything. It seemed the well of creativity that she usually tapped into had dried up.

Not to mention she was still tired.

“This is hopeless,” Marinette groaned.

Suddenly she heard a familiar beeping alert sound coming from her purse on the floor. The guardian’s heart was now filled with dread as she stood up from her seat being pulled to it by curiosity and obligation. She went into her purse and pulled out her phone to see the already lit screen. It had a notification that said:

AKUMA ALERT: SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTED BETWEEN THOMAS AVENUE AND DURAND AVENUE. PLEASE AVOID THIS AREA FOR THE TIME BEING. IF NEARBY GET TO SAFETY. ANOTHER NOTIFICATION WILL BE SENT ONCE THE AREA IS DEEMED SAFE. IF THERE’S A EMERGENCY PLEASE CALL EMERGENCY SERVICES.

Marinette looked at the notification as she knew where those streets were located deep downtown. It appeared that her alter ego was needed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the full version of part one, check it out on Wattpad. If you made it this far, thank you so much! I really appreciate it.

Also a little music to set the mood. Especially if you read the full Wattpad version.

Also here’s a link to the song on YouTube.

#miraculous au #miraculous chat noir #miraculous fanfic #miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #miraculous fandom #miraculous adrien #miraculous marinette #miraculous alya #miraculous tikki #fanfic #fiction #my writing #television #wattpad #first post #circus #cartoon #miraculous nino #why #mlb marinette #mlb ladybug #chat noir #ladybug #ml ladybug #ml chat noir #ml marinette #ml adrien

[ladyanput]

Alya salt but also angst where Alya posts stuff about Adrien that ends up with Gabriel taking him out of school leading to his suicide bc of the rumours from the blog, the pressure of modeling, and the isolation which led to Mari's bc she was all alone now and Alya gets sued by Gabriel bc he realized it was her fault as well helps Tom and Sabine sue Alya.

Alright, so I guess this is a sequel to that Marinette suicide prompt I did.

WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE, MENTIONS OF DEATH AND RAPE. I won't be tagging people, just in case.

It had been two weeks since Marinette's funeral, three since Adrien's.

Alya stared at the photos on the wall in the main entrance to the school, a memorial to the two of them. Some called them desperate lovers, ones that were forced apart and took some sort of suicide pact. Others said it was an obsessed fan that wanted to join her idol in the afterlife.

Alya scowled, crossing her arms as she stared at the photos. They really wanted to put up a memorial for a bully and a rapist?

'But they'll never realize that you killed their heroine. All thanks to you, Paris will be lost to Hawkmoth.'

Alya scoffed at the voice inside her head, crossing her arms as she headed towards the class. Marinette hadn't deserved to be Ladybug, not after how cruel and selfish she had been.

When she stepped foot in class, she was surprised to see Gabriel Agreste himself standing there, along with Natalie and the Gorilla. Even Tom and Sabine were there.

"What's going on?" Alya spoke up, climbing up towards her seat, onto to freeze upon seeing her mother sitting at the teacher's desk, her arms crossed. "Mom?"

"We're here regarding you and this class." Gabriel spoke up, his face a mask of indifference. But Natalie and the Gorilla quickly caught the fury at the edges of his words. "And the bullying of this class towards my son and miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"Bullying?!" Alya's brows rose in shock, before she crossed her arms and lifted her chin in defiance. "They got what they deserved, you can't really bully a bully. And we didn't want a rapist in this school anyway, he could have hurt Lila again!"

"..." Gabriel's cold eyes turned to Lila, who visibly shrunk in her seat. He knew exactly what had happened, and he realized he had taken a part in the cause of his son's suicide. "My son never raped Miss Rossi. In fact, it was the other way around."

"Excuse me?! Listen, buddy, if this is some kind of way to start victim blaming, you're gonna taste my fist!" Alix was on her feet in seconds, charging towards Gabriel, but Gorilla stepped into her way.

"And I didn't listen to my son's words, saying that Miss Rossi had forced him into something he didn't want. I told him to get over it, and to make Miss Rossi happy, as I wanted her to work in my company." Gabriel continued to say, his fists clenching. If only he hadn't recruited Lila, his son would probably still be alive. "While she went on to tell me how she planned on ruining Miss Dupain-Cheng's life, take away all her friends."

"You knew...? You knew that monster was doing that to our little girl and did nothing?!" Sabine sobbed out, the hot tears flooding her eyes. Tom clutched his wife close and wordlessly glared at the designer.

"Yes, and I deeply regret it. I just didn't think it was that serious. I lost just as much as you." Gabriel turned his hard glare on Alya. "But you... You plastered his face all over your blog, calling him a rapist, a monster, a bunch of slander and lies."

"I report only the truth! Lila was attacked by Adrien, probably because he realized Lila was too good for him, because she's dating Prince Ali!" Alya snapped.

"Prince Ali doesn't know her." Natalie spoke up, taking out her tablet. "Jagged Stone has never owned a cat in his life, and Clara Nightengale has never heard of Miss Rossi in her life."

Alya blinked, then looked pleadingly at her mother, who merely teared up and looked away.

"Miss Césaire, a lot of people have you and this class on their hit list now. You bullied Jagged Stone's niece into suicide, you bullied a famous model into suicide. My lawyers, as well as the Dupain-Cheng's, Mr. Stone's and Miss Nightengale's will be after you. When we're done with you, you won't even be a stain on the wall."

It wasn't long before Lila and Alya, as well as a few other members of the class found themselves in handcuffs. They had bullied two people into killing themselves, afterall.

And that night, a mourning Master Fu found two boxes delivered to his doorstep. In confusion, he opened them; to find the lost Miraculous of the Peacock and the Butterfly nestled inside.

With tears in his eyes, he took them in and set them in the box, joining the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous once more. The box was full, but his heart felt incredibly hollow.

He had lost two of the best heroes he had known. Ones he had loved like his own grandchildren, all because of a liar and a tabloid journalist.

#alya salt #lila salt #tw rape #tw suicide