Tumgik
#the characters are such it would be pretty easy to spot copycats too
awkward-teabag · 8 months
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One of the things I love about Baulder's Gate 3 is the companions aren't just archetypes who exist to fill out the roster and be familiar to players so they don't have to think too hard about it, they're actual characters and often have something about them that's opposite of the archetype they're closest to.
Astarion? Sure he's the sexy vampire, but he's also about boundaries and getting permission before biting anyone (minus that first time).
Gale? He's a wizarding prodigy with a massive hubris but is also fine, even eager, to be the camp cook.
Halsin? The quiet dude you meet along the way who is very much into nature and reserved at first, then he relaxes and you learn he's the horniest motherfucker around and down for pretty much anything.
Wyll? He's a living legend in his own time and someone even experienced soldiers are at least wary of, but he doesn't have an ego about it and can separate that from who he is as a person.
Jaheira? She plays up her age and experience and pokes fun at herself and the expectation that she must know more because she's seen and done more than most, but she's content to stepping aside and letting someone else take the lead and doesn't take insult to it.
Karlach? Knows she can take on what the hells throw at her and relishes a good fight, but is the biggest advocate for mental health and to rely on others and/or take a break if needed.
Lae'zel? A born and bred warrior who knows nothing else and doesn't shy away from violence, but her long-suppressed empathy and curiosity starts coming out when she no longer has outside forces dictating who she must be.
Shadowheart? Reverses the "bubbly cleric" trope but instead of sticking to Hot Topic Cleric™, she has to fight the urge to care about and connect with others.
It would have been easy to stick with the first half because those are familiar archetypes and tropes, but it would have rendered them flat as characters. The additions give them depth.
And BG3 is so much better for it.
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Deja Vu
Bakugo x fem!Black!reader
Word count; 9.06k
Character count; 40.93k
Genre: Smut
Warnings; AGED UP AU! Everyone is in their 3rd . NSFW, oral (Bakugo receiving), choking, hair-pulling, fingering, vaginal sex, unprotected sex (Don't worry, you're on the pill), aftercare, swearing, light degradation.
A/n; Hello, welcome to my first FINISHED fanfiction. I have a LOT of WIPs saved but I actually finished this one a while ago. I have been really insecure about my writing but after sharing me of it with my sister and my friend, they convinced me to at least try and share it with the people of tumblr. Also, I deeply apologize for any mistakes because most of my fanfiction is written really late at night when i simply cant sleep or a good idea pops in my head so I can barely see my keyboard and my brain is fuzzy. Well, I hope you enjoy and I encourage you to request suggest anything such as headcanons, scenarios or just anything really. Again I hope you enjoy babes.
You. step inside your classroom, ready to start your journey of being a hero. Yet, you're imediantly struck by chaos. "That is extremely disrespectful Bakugo!" "Shut up, you damn extra! Not this again!" "Woah! I'm getting serious deja vu! It's like 1st year all over again!" You just stare in silence. No one pays attention to you until one person looks at you, then another. Soon, everyone is staring at you. "It's chaotic in here, huh?" You chuckle nervously. "Yeah, but it's mostly this guy's fault." A yellow-haired boy points to someone sitting weirdly. "Yeah right! Shut up!" The ash-blonde-haired boy yells. After, his crimson eyes stare at you, piercing your soul. "Well, lookin' forward to this year." You laugh. A cotton-candy girl comes up to you and wraps an arm around your shoulder. "Yep! A lot of stuff happens, but it's really fun nonetheless!" She exlaims enthusiastically. "So, you're the new kid?" She points for your answer. "I'm (Y/n)! I look forward to this year with you." You wave to everyone. Suddenly, your smile falls and your face goes dead-serious. Everyone's expression melts into concern and nervousness. "Now, everyone tell me your names from seating order, from the back left corner to the front right corner!" You command. Surprisingly, everyone obey's, telling you their name. Well, except for 1 person. "I don't have to tell you shit." The same ash-blonde boy states. "I'm surprised everyone else did tell me. Haha! I was totally playing!" You laugh. You walk over to the boy. "Hey, you got spunk. What is your name?" You ask. Crimson eyes soften a little at the surprise, but they quickly turn cold again. "What are you, deaf? I said, I'm not speaking, extra." He huffs. A spiky red-haired boy puts a hand on your back. "He's Bakugo Katsuki. Don't mind him, he's a little hot-headed." He chuckles nervously. "Don't speak for me!" Bakugo yells. "I gotta say, your mom must be psycic or something. Your name totally matches your personality." You scoff. "You just got here. Enlighten me, what do you think my personality is?" He grins smugly. You scoff again, matching his grin. "Well, when you act like that, it's easy to tell, so don't get cocky. You're obviously really strong, which is why you have the right to brag and show off and all of that." You explain. "Are you insulting him or praising him?" Denki says. "Why can't it be both? Praise and respect for being like this, but at the same time, damn bro." you sit down in the nearest chair, which conveniently is your assigned seat. He scoffs and looks away. "What do you know." He mumbles. You cup your face in your hand to look at him. "Aw, don't get grumpy. I'll feel bad." You fake-whine. "I'm not grumpy! And even if I was, if that were to be enough to make you feel bad, maybe you shouldn't be a hero!" He yells. "Hm. You do know that I was joking right? Well, for the most part anyways. I would feel bad, but if this was a real life situation, trust me. I wouldn't feel nearly bad enough to disobey something for you. So don't worry, ya got nothin' to worry about." You pull your bottom eyelid down teasingly. "Shut the hell up." He grumbles. You comply, as the homeroom teacher comes into the class. You cross your legs into the chair, and you see Iida eyeing you from across the room. His eyes shift to beside you, where you see Bakugo doing the exact same thing. His eyes dart to you, as you quickly undo your feet and rest your head on your chair and let out a heavy sigh. "You do that too?" You look at him. "Copycat." He mutters. "Am not. I always sit like this." You whisper-yell. "Yeah right. You tryna be some kinda wannabe rebel or something?" He chuckles. "Rebel? Now, you just pulled that out your ass, didn't ya?" You ask. "No. You're clearly tryna be disrespectful. It's not a good look for you." He smirks. "Doin' this is disrespectful? Since when? It's always been cute to me." You huff. "Are you forein or something, or are you just a dumbass?" He turns his head to you. "Not exactly foreign, but I spent a generous amount of my life in America. I did this all the time there,
it's not counted as disrespectful, in fact people find it rather cute, so what's your excuse?" You put your hand down. He looks away from you. "Thought so, wannabe rebel." You chuckle. The rest of class is normal, and soon enough, the school lunch bell rings. "Hey, mr teach?" You raise your hand while everyone leaves. Well, except for Bakugo, Mina, Kirishima, and Denki because they were being disrespectful and talking during the lesson. You were wondering why Bakugo was caught and not you. For punishment, the disrespectful students had to pack up chairs and sweep the classroom. "Yes, (L/n)?" The teacher responds. "In a normal highschool, we're allowed to leave campus during lunch. Does that apply here?" You ask, looking around. "Yes, you're allowed to leave at any time as long as you fill out a leave campus paper. They're in the teacher's lounge." He points to the door "Go left, at the first turn, turn left, and 3rd door on your right." he explains. "I don't know if i'm leaving, I was just askin'." You say. "Hm, I dunno. Hm." You put a finger to your chin in thoght. "Hey! I'm heling you guys now!" You point to Bakugo, Mina, Denki, and Kirishima. They all give you s confused look. "What? Why would you wanna do this?" Kirishima asks. "Maybe she's a bit weird in the head. Hehe, our first crazy person. Just the icing on the cake, huh?" Denki jokes. "I'm not crazy, just bored." You pick up a broom. "Yeah, I think she's a bit crazy." Mina whispers. "Heard that."  You roll your eyes. "Why're you bein' so quiet, wannabe rebel?" You cock an eyebrow. "Don't call me that!" He yells while raising his fist. "You called me that first." you scoff. "Exactly my point. Who calls someone something they called them first?" He says. "Hm, maybe I can be a trendsetter." You give him a smug smile before sweeping some of the dirt on the floor. Suddenly, Bakugo starts yelling. "You idiots! You're doing this all wrong!" He screams.  He points to Denki. "Where the hell are you sweeping, the wall!?" He points to Kirishima "Stop staring into space!" He points to Mina. "And you're not doing anything! When was this a time for music!?" Mina was drumming her hands on a desk while humming. He pointed to you. "And you're-" He stops midsentence. You lean on your broom. "Go on, what am I doing?" Your face looks serious, but he can tell you're fighting your smile. The corners of your mouth twitch as his cheeks turn a very subtle pink, but you picked it up. "Mhm. too bad for you, I don't get caught lacking." You say sing-songy. "Y'know, if you're so serious about cleaning this place, why don't you do it?" Denki suggests. "Well, you're all punished, so I don't think ya'll can just leave." You laugh. "Maybe we can if someone takes over our spots. Ah? Ah?" Denki nudges your shoulder. "Maybe you're right.." Denki's eyes light up, and everyone looks to you. "It would be faster if you were gone, pea-brain." You sneer. "I mean, I'm happy you'd let me leave, but c'mon! Pea-brain?" You laugh, along with Mina and Kirishima. "How mean!" Kirishima says through fighting snickers. "Haha! It's totally true though!" Mina, on the other hand is guffawing and holding her sides. "Your grades are jsut as bad!" Bakugo yells. "Dang, am I just surrounded by idiots? Studying isn't really that hard." You shrug. "Oh please! How good are your grade!?" She points and huffs. "Me? Eh, not half bad if I do say so myself. Usually above average, but math and history is always a struggle. But at least I can manage to have an A average." You shrug. "A...average!?" Mina dramatically throws herself back. "Yeah. If you guys put some sort of effort into your grades, you'd be the same way." You explain. "Shut up, we need to get this done and over with, you trying to keep us here all day and night!?" Bakugo yells. "My thoughts exactly. Great minds think alike I guess." you roll your eyes and begin sweeping again, glaring at Denki and taking his broom. "Hey!" He says, at your snatch. "Honestly, at this point you're just stalling." "Do something useful for once." Bakugo adds. "Jeez, when did you
become so mean?" He walks away. "I became mean when someone pissed me off." You reply. "What did I do?" He raises his voice a little. "Not much, I don't even really know why I'm kinda pissed at you. Maybe it's your piss hair." Mina points and laughs again. "Everyone here is mean to me." He whines. "Let's hurry up and get this oevr with, I'm getting bored again." you start sweeping a bit faster. "If you're bored, why dont you just leave? No one's stopping you." Bakugo says. "Eh, I dunno, just don't wanna leave I guess." You shrug. "You'd really just rather just stay here and clean? You're pretty weird.." Mina groans. "Hey, you're witnessing a rare sight. I don't really get bored often." You chuckle, and sweep the dust and dirt into Bakugo's pile. "You've been silent, wannabe rebel." You tilt your head in front of his face. "I said stop calling me that, dumbass. You must be deaf." He says. "You got all this talk but you're not doing anything. Try insuliting me when you prove you can do something better than me." You spin around and continue sweeping. Mina and Kirishima are silent for a few minutes. "Hey, me and Kirishima are done, we're gonna dip." Mina finally speaks. Kirishima nods. "Ugh, can I go? (Y/n)'s not letting me do anything!" Denki groans. "Because you do it wrong." You explain. "Yeah, we're gonna head to the cafeteria before they're out of Onigiri!" Mina exclaims. "Hope we're not too late." Kirishima rubs his stomache. "Haha! Good luck with being stukck with Bakugo (Y/n)!" Denki waves his hand and they all run out the room. "God, what did thet even do? Wiped an already clean table?" You scoff, sweeping some more while spinning a little. "Why are you here?" Bakugo questions. "And you're gonna call me deaf? I said because I was bored." You laugh, the noise echoing throughout the classroom. "Now, hurry up, I wanna get out of here." You continue sweeping again, but he stands still. "What now? You forget how to sweep? Here, like this." You slowly sweep, while laughing to yourself again. "Shut the hell up. If you wanna get out of here, why don't you? You like me or something?" He gives you the slyest grin as you growl. "No one else here likes you, why should I?" You copy his grin. "We've all been together since first year, you just got here. What do you know?" His grin fades as he sweeps. "Hey, what's your quirk?" You ask. "Huh? What the hell for?" He yells. "I wanna spar with you!" You beam. "Yeah, OkAy." He says sarcastically as he scoffs. "Tell me your quirk first." He says while sweeping. "Hm." You ponder. "Do you not know what your quirk's name is or something?" Bakugo looks at you, and stops sweeping. "No. My quirk is enhancement. I was just thinking if I should tell you or not." You respond, sweeping yourself. "Enhancement" Bakugo wonders." "Yeah, you know, I can make something or someone really strong, blah blah blah. What's yours?" You ask. "Explosion." He grumbles. "Explosion? Now we gotta spar! I know you're strong, so c'mon!" You say, putting the broom down. "..Fine, but pick your broom up! We're not sparring here, and in case you didn't know, I'm still punished." Bakugo grumbles. "Fine, let's hurry this up then. I don't know how much time of lunch is there." You look at the clock. "Usually, there's about a 50 minute lunch break, we've been out for about 20 or maybe 25. 30 at most." You do the math in your head. "You could have just took the time lunch ends and subtracted it by the amount of time you've been wasting here, extra." Bakugo grumbles. "Well, even if it was 30, we'd still have 20 minutes to spar! That's more than enough time for me to beat you!" You say. "I'll kill you." He grumbles, sweeping a bit faster. You join him, and the room is spotless in no time. "Hurry up!" Bakugo yells at you. "Don't yell at me!" You yell back, jogging after him. You end up at some clearing. Bakugo is stretching his arms and cracking his neck. "1, don't set any tree's on fire. 2.." He gives you a glare. "Hope you have another uniform packed." He smiles to wide his gums are showing. You are in shock a little, but
you smile too. "And same to you." You crack your knuckles. "Actually?" you stop. "What." bakugo stops himself as well. "This time, let's not use our quirks." you say. "Why? You scared that mine is better?" He laughs. "No no, nothing like that. It would be better to spar to better our physical skills first, then we can add quirks later." You say. "Alright, let's just get this over with." He rolls his neck. You both come at eachother at the same time, throwing punches, kicks, and blocking for what seems like forever. You see his hand start glowing, signaling he's about to make an explosion. Most likely to propel himelsef towards you, but still. You grab his wrist and hold it up. "Ah! I said no quirks and you agreed." you point to his hand, as the glow fades. Deku comes up to us, a bit shocked at the scene. "Uhm, lunch is over." He nervously says. Bakugo snatches his wrist back from you, and walks away, sucking his teeth. "This isn't over." He brushes past Deku, who immediantly turns back to you. "Hey, were you fighting?" The green-haired boy rushes over. "Yeah, we were." you shrug. "Are you hurt?" He asks. "Why aren't you asking Bakugo this stuff?" You ask. "He was bullying you, right? I can't believe you stepped up to him though-" Your erupting laughter interrupts him. "A-are you okay!?" He waves his hands. "Oh my god! You thought he was bullying me? I came up with the idea of sparring!" You gasp for air. "You were just sparring?" Deku asks for clarification. "Yeah, didn't you notice he wasn't using his quirk? Well, until the very end, but I stopped him." You catch your breath. "O-oh. i'm sorry I misunderstood." You slap him on the back. "It's all good, it's not your fault Bakugo just gives off that vibe! Welp! Time for class, right?" You begin marching towards the forest, Deku nodding and following suit. While you're walking to class, you replay the sparring match in your head. Your brain stops at one scene, when you grabbed his wrist. You didn't see it before, but now that it's replaying, you see his eyes in your small vision. They were softened, but hostile. You giggle at the thought, to which Deku notices. "What are you laughing about?" He asks. "Just how you thought Bakugo was bullying me." You run in front of him, hoping to catch up to Bakugo. "Hey, Bakugo!" You yell for him, he stops and turns around. "What?" He grumps. "When are we gonna spar next? You said it wasn't over." you explain. "After school, what'd you think I meant, dumbass." Bakugo says. "I thought you meant the same time tomarrow or something, don't get your panties in a bunch." You playfully push him. "Should we reschedule that sparring match to right now?" Bakugo growls. "I dunno, I feel up to another round. This time I'm gonna kick your ass." You smirk. "I'll win in a second. Because next time we spar, we're doing quirks and all." He scoffs. "Now now, didn't you hear the phrase the cockiness killed the cat?" You tease. "I'm not cocky, I just know I'm gonna win." He shrugs. "Mhm, I admire the confidence, but it's just gonna be hilarious when I beat you at this point." You snicker at the thought of his face. "Well, get that thought out of your head because it's not happening." Bakugo lightly smacks the back of your head. "Yes it is! But just because you think you're gonna win, don't try to go light on me!" You point at him. He swats your hand away. "Calm down, I wouldn't dream of it. What made you think I would?" He asks. "You seem like those type of people that would 'pkay with their food' when their prey is especially weak." You say. "Well, that's just inefficient. I'm pretty sure we're late, so hurry your ass up!" He yells as he walks faster. "I could use my quirk and we'd be there in a second." You suggest. "What's your stupid quirk gonna do?" He asks. "Enhancement. I could enhance our legs to make us walk or run faster. But, you'd probably crash into a wall at the sudden change of speed. But I could totally carry you!" You beam. "I'm not getting carried." He walks up the stairs. "Would you rather me drag you by the shirt?" You suggest
jokingly. "No, I'm walking myself. I don't need your help to walk to my damn classroom." He says. "Fine, then I will too. It'll look like i'm showing off if i use my quirk without you." You huff. "DO you see anyone here? No one gives a shit if your showing off." Bakugo says. "Well, I'm not budging, but let's hurry up." You say. "Don't tell me what to do!" He yells after you. When you enter class, surprisingly enough, the teacher's not there. "Lucky ducks! Where were you?" Mina says. "WEre you really sweeping all lunch?" Denki asks afterwards. "We w-" "Well anyways!" Mina interrupts. "I'm totally having a party at Yamomo's! I just need a theme or kind of party. Should it be a rave, or maybe a dance battle!" Mina beams. "How're you gonna throw a party if you don't know what it's gonna be?" You ask. "Well, I don't even know if I'm gonna have it at Yamomo's, but most likely, I will. Maybe I can find an abandoned warehouse instead!" She beams. "Maybe we could have some kind of boxing match like how (y/n) and Bakugo were sparring!" Ochako suggests. "No way, Bakugo would beat everyone in a heartbeat, so there'd be no surprise." Denki objects. "Why don't we have some sort of nightclub vibe?" You suggest. "That's perfect! A nightclub! Purple lights, a dj, it'll be PERFECT! You're a GENIUS (y/n)!" Mina swings her arms around you and squeals. "It just came to mind when I thought of a party." You explain. "Okay! I have everything under control! I'll text you the place and time! I'll set up everything!" Mina shreiks. "You sure you can set up a party by yourself?" Kirishima asks. "I got connections. Leave it to me!" She shows a thumbs up. "Hey (Y/n)! I never got your number. Wouldn't want you not coming." She gives you her phone and you type your number in. She texts you a thumbs up for comfirmation. "Okay class, settle down." The math teacher walks in. "Took him long enough" you mutter. The school day goes by easily, and before you know it, the end of the day bell is sounding. "Hey, Bakugo. Are we really gonna spar now? What if we get the text for Mina's party in the middle of it?" You ask. "Knowing her, it probably won't be till late, to 'set the mood'." He turns off his phone and shoves it in his pocket. "We got time." He walks in front of you down the stairs. "Well, okay. The dorms are this way, right?" You point to a nearvy building. "Yeah, but why're you going there?" Bakugo asks.  "This is my chance to change into more comfortable clothes for better mobility. Also, my only spare uniform might not be able to fit me after the party." You joke.  "You should take this oppertunity too." You suggest as you walk in. After you change, you walk back out, Bakugo's leaning on the side of the building. "Geez, what took you so long?" Bakugo groans. "You just change fast." You stick your tongue out. "And you did your hair?" He scoffs. "Yeah? You didn't?" You say sarcastically. "No winder you took so long, it's like you planned this outfit." He sucks his teeth. "Are you gonna stop staring at my clothes and fight me or what?" You crack your knuckles once more. "Quirks this time, remember?" Bakugo clarifies. "Hell yeah. Wanna time your loss?" You laugh. "Shut up." He grumbles. Suddenly, he's infront of you, his hand glowing. You block, and stumble back a little. "Geez, that was dirty!" You say. "All's fair in fighting and fighting." He chuckles. "Ugh." You groan, as you speed towards him, throwing an enhanced punch at his blocked face. The fight continues on forever, taking small water breaks and continuing. Bakugo is appalled at your raw strength, only helped with your enhancement quirk.  You chug your water, noticing his mixed expression of shock, and exhaust. "What time is it?" You check your phone, the time being 10 o'clock. "Damn, we've been sparring for 5 hours? No wonder my muscles are so sore." You stretch your arms a little. Suddenly, yours and Bakugo's phones go off at the same time. "Seems like Mina's got the time and place. I didn't think she was gonna go through with it." You say. "Well, that's that extra for you." Bakugo shoves
his phone in his pocket. "The party is in 2 hours, and you take forever to change apparently so I suggest you get started now." He growls. "What about..? Fine." You give up. Mina and Momo arrive at your dorm. "OH. My. GOD!" Mina squeals. "What is it? And aren't you supposed to be at the party?" You ask. "I went shopping with Yamomo for...your dress~!" Mina says sing-songy. "She picked it out." Momo hands you the dress, covered in a bag. "Uh, you didn't have to do this." You scratch the back of your head. "You're the new kid, so we wanted to help you get ready!" Mina beams. "Go on, try it on! I think it'll look great on you now that I'm getting a good look of you." Momo says, a finger to her chin. "Fine. Come in, sorry it's a bit messy." You say, walking towards your bathroom. "Don't forget to take a shower, you smell sweaty!" Mina teases. "And how do you call this dirty? One outfit is on the floor?" Mina picks it up and puts it in the hamper. You feel like a completely new person in the shower, washing away your sweat, filth, and problems. You also wash your hair, remembering you forgot to do it last week. You get out and reveal the dress, your eyes widening at the red beauty. You try it on and look in the mirror. "Uhm," You call out to Mina and Momo. "Is this really what you're supposed to wear to a nightclub?" You ask, steppinf out of the bathroom. Mina and Momo gasp at your appearance in the dress. "Oh my god! Yes!" Mina rushes over, examinging you from every angle. "Is that the answer to my question? Aren't you supposed to dance at a nightclub?" You ask. "Yeah. You aren't just wearing the dress. Don't worry, you'll be able to dance the night away." Mina reassures you. "You sure? It's a bit tight." You tug at it around your thighs. "It's not tight, it's just...y'know, like a pencil skirt. it's just fitting." Mina explains. "I don't think pencil skirts are made for dancing." You laugh. "Well, I'm probably not gonna dance anyways. And if i did, I'm probably not gonna be breakdancing or anything, huh?" You chuckle. "That's the spirit." Mina gives you a thumbs up. "So, you said this wasn't the full outfit?" You sheepishly grin. "Yep! Don't worry, babe, just leave it to us." Mina smiles greatly and Momo gives a warm small smile. "Alright, but if you're gonna do my hair, be gentle." You tangle your fingers in your black sea of curls. "Don't worry, my head is sensitive too." She scratches her hair. Soon enough, you look like you had a full glow-up. Mina and Momo snapping pictures to put on their story, also taking photo's of eachother and themselves. "The party's at midnight, right?" You check your phone again. "Yeah, it's friday night so we don't have to worry about waking up early for school!" Mina says enthusiastically. "And since it's at one of my guest houses, we can even have a sleepover." Momo suggests. "C'mon, we wouldn't wanna be late." Mina says. "What are we even celebrating?" You ask. "Nothing. Sometimes, a party celebrating nothing is just what you need!" Mina says. "I...guess that makes sense..?" You laugh. You get in Momo's convertible, vibing as you pass the aux around. It feels like you've been in the car for such a short time, as you pull up to her guest house's driveway. You swear you can hear the music booming from where you were standing. You walk in, and are greeted with booming music, bright and dim lights, and decorations everywhere. "Tada!" Mina squeals. "How'd you do all this?" You gasp in awe. "I knew a guy." She says proudly. We hear another car pull up, and we greet the people coming one by one. "Wow, this party is amazing!" Kirishima looks around, getting lost in the crowd. At this point, people you didn't even know were arriving. You assumed Mina and  Momo's friends, and people the other classmates invited. Bakugo comes in and eyes you up and down. "Hm, I thought you wouldn't be here for another hour, slowpoke." He smirks. "Maybe you should higher your expectations then." You flash him a fake-mean look as you both walk to a wall. "Ha, just 2 hours ago we were fighting behind the dorms, and
now we're at a party." You laugh at the randomness. "I am actually surprised you were here before me though." He says with a phony shocked expression. You shove him playfully. "Well, guess I have Mina and Momo to thank for beating you. Maybe I should dedicate my trophy to them." You teasingly ponder aloud. His expression changed to a mix of irritation and laughter. Mina suddenly drags you away, to dance with her in the middle of the floor. At first you were embarrassed, but once you were feeling the beat, you forgot all about the people eyeing you and cheering you on. You were having a total blast, singing and dancing to the busting music. She said she mixed hers and Jirous playlist together, and you compliment their taste in music, and you and Mina begin dancing together. You and Mina stop, panting and laughing as she compliments your dancing skills. "I'm gonna get a drink." You point to the food and bevarages table and she nods. You walk through the crowd, hearing some cheers and compliments towards you, even some whistles. You drink some water, and lean on the wall watching as Mina continues dancing with Ochaco. Suddenly, you feel a yank and you're dragged away, and into a room. You hear the door slam as you're met with your back on a wall. You grunt on impact. Everything happened in a blur, so when you can focus your eyes again, You look around for a split second, realizing you're in some kind of office. But, you're met with fires of red. "Why the hell are you wearing that?" A booming familiar voice rings through your eardrums. "Bakugo? What do you mean?" You say, stunned that the words actually came out of your mouth. "I'll repeat myself just this once; Why the hell are you wearing that?" He says. You're absolutely shocked. "Well, you didn't seem to have a problem with it when you first saw me with it!" You say. "Well, that was before you decided to give everyone here a fucking 'show'!" His grip gets a little tighter on your shoulders. What? What did he mean by show? You weren't even paying attention to yourself or anyone else while you were dancing, did you really..? "W-well, even if I did, what's that got to do with you?" You recollect yourself. His grip on your shoulders tighten even more, making you groan a little. "If you were gonna do that, why the hell would you wear this?" He looks you up and down again. "I don't even know what I did, and it's not like I plan my dance moves!" Your voice raises a little. "You don't even know what you just did in front of everyone?" He looks shocked, not even the sightest bit irritated anymore. His grip seems to loosen and tighten at the same time. You get a little anxious, as he comes a little closer. "What do you see in your head when I say the word 'show' in the same context I just did?" He says. You gulp as you imagine it. "Yep, you just did that, in front of the whole class, plus others. It's pretty rich that you didn't even realize it though." Bakugo chuckles a little, but it quickly fades. "T-that's impossible, my body..can't do that." You try to huff, but you're too nervous to do a solid one. "How humble." He loosens his grip and backs away, making you breath deeper. But suddenly, one of his hands grabs your right thigh as he brings it up to his waist, and snakes his other hand onto your back, right above your butt. You're now pinned on the wall. "But you and I both at least have some idea of what this body of yours is capable of." He growls, his face just whispers away from yours. You take another deep breath, but it's more of a gasp. You lean your head up onto the wall, taking a deep gulp. Bakugo watches as the little bubble trails down your throat. "Well, if you really don't know.." He licks his lips as he watches another bubble travel downwards. "Want to find out?" He catches the third bubble, licking it. You snap your head in surprise as he gives you a teasing smirk. His left arm snakes down further, grabbing your ass as his right moves your thigh higher. Your head is spiraling, and you open your mouth to speak, but you're interrupted by an intruder of the
mouth. You couldn't help the moan from escaping as he tastes you, licking his lips afterward. Your lidded eyes meet his, but they quickly move down to his mouth, and then to his eyes again. "I'm just glad you aren't wearing lip gloss or lipstick." He mumbles, before giving you another tongue kiss. You wrap your left leg around his waist, as his right knee bends to touch you. He can feel your folds clench at his touch, which forces the smallest gasp from you. "If you only did that show for me, I wouldn't be pissed at you." He furrows his brows at you. "Why?" You manage to say. "You're that dense, huh? Maybe words won't go through your brain." His right hand leaves your thigh, and grabs some of your hair behind your head. His eyes flicker from your eyes to your mouth, open from your decreshending breaths. "So maybe this will." He licks the opening of your mouth, his tongue sliding in before turning it into a kiss. His mouth leaves yours just barely, before both of your tongues stick out, crashing onto eachother like waves, as your lips connect once again. These kisses were different, more passionate, including the unique sound they made compared to the others. When your lips disconnect as a finale, he unwraps your leg from his waist and lets go of your butt. His lidded eyes give you a (Not a command, but not a wish either, I couldn't find a word for it lmao.) as he sits down in the nearest chair, his right hand now cupping his face as he waits for you. You get a little shaky, but you oblige, moving towards him. You lower to your knees as he watches your thighs get thicker from the press of your lower legs. You move towards him more, as your hands go onto his knees. You erotically slide your hands up his thighs, as if you really were giving him a show on his own. Two index fingers dance towards the center of his pants, where a mountain stands. Bakugo lightly groans as he feels his pants getting more confined. Your hands lightly struggle at the tight button, but you manage to quickly undo it. Bakugo's large dick springs up at attention, precum almost dripping. You lean over it, and a few hairs cloud your vision. You tuck them behind you ear as you notice Bakugo's facial expression, seemingly annoyed. You put him to your mouth as you rub his tip with your index finger. He nods with a small groan, and you give his dick a small lick. You lick all of the sides at least once before sliding his dick into your mouth. You flatten your tongue as you fit more of his cock into your mouth, spilling a louder groan from Bakugo. Alas, your curls kept moving. They didn't exactly pose a problem to you, but the thick fingers that carded through your hair said otherwise. You stop to look at him. "Just wanted a view." His smirk grows. You continued, but using your tongue as it swirls around his tip. Bakugo's large hand clenched a handful of your hair, forcing you to take his dick. You moan at the slight pain and force. You rise your head to his tip, before stopping. His facial expression changes to confusion, which you take as your cue. You swiftly take as much of his dick as you can, and hold your head there. The shock forces a loud erotic moan from Bakugo, followed by curses, and his thick cum flowing into your mouth and onto your face, satisfying you.  Bakugo's covering his red face with his huge hand, panting along with you. "I...didn't expect that." Bakugo pants. "I...hah...said to...higher your expectations of me..didn't I?" You wipe your chin and lick your lips. "God, I should just face-fuck you right now." He exhales deeply, catching his breath. "Then why don't you?"  You ask. "Because as much as I'd love to shove this cock down your little throat, I also want to make you feel good." He uses a finger to lift up your chin, and close your mouth. You both stand up, and Bakugo lightly pushes you onto a table and stands over you, both of his arms by your sides, pinning you there. "I bet while you were giving your show out there, all the guys- hell, maybe even some of the girls- wanted to rip this dress off of you." Bakugo chuckles to
himself. "You said that your body couldn't do a show like that. Remember what I said? If you didn't know, wanna find out?" He recaps, and you nod. "Well? What's your answer to that?" He asks genuinly. You chuckle. "You're really gonna wait until you got your dick wet to ask me that? Psh, and you called me dense." Your chuckle erupts to a laugh. Bakugo clenches your hair again. "Just answer the damn question." He growls. "Yeah, I wanna find out." You reply confidently. He gives you a slightly surprised and confused look, to which you answer by swiping 2 fingers along his member. He lightly grabs your neck, forcing your head down onto the desk. A noise you didn't know you had in you echoes throughout the room. Even Bakugo's shocked by it, and he's the one who forced it out. But he quickly catches on. "Ah, somebody's got a little kink, huh?" His hand grabs your hair again roughly, a similar moan coming out as he lifts your head up and moves his mouth towards your ear. "You like to be fucked niiice and rough, don't you?" The low rumble in his voice makes you shiver. "You like to be teased, even though you act like you don't, huh?" He sneaks a touch at your folds through your panties. You lightly moan at the sudden act as your head moves upwards and your thighs clench together, as Bakugo's hand barely escapes your thighs crashing together. "You like...the pain with the pleasure, don't you?" He bites your ear before licking and peppering kisses onto it. Your breaths grow heavier as your body heats up. He continues with the teasing, forcing your legs open, putting his knee between your legs and carressing your inner thigh, and pressing onto your clit as he nibbles on your ear some more. He slips off shoes, then your pantyhose, and then your panties as his teases get harsher. Suddenly, two thick fingers of his slip between your velvety folds. You moan as your walls try to fend off the intruder, as he steadily pumps his fingers into you with rhythm. "God, you're so tight." He groans, as his dick twitches. Your breaths are still heavy, but more apparent. "Oh, god, fuck." Your head is thrown back onto the desk. Bakugo's firey eyes burn into yours. "This feels nice, doesn't it?" He says. You let out a whiny "Mhm." To which Bakugo chuckles. "It feels nice, sure, but I want to make you feel good, no, amazing, the best you've ever felt." His slides turn into thrusts as his fingers quicken their pace. "F-fuck." You moan grows long. You couldn't help but roll your hips and grab one of your breasts, trying to rush your release. "Ke-hah-ep going." You're barely able to keep those words together. "Now, don't rush yourself. I was gonna be the one to make you feel good." He hits just below the spot you've been longing for, and you can feel yourself coming close, just a little bit more. If that wasn't enough, he curls the tips of his fingers to hit your sweet spot, right on the money, and he can tell too, noticing how your body quivers and your eyes closed tightly. Suddenly, his fingers exit your folds. You give him a confused look, panted breaths taking over your words. "Sorry princess, but when you cum, I'm gonna be inside you." You watch as Bakugo seperates his fingers, watching as your slick webs between them. "Didn't think you could be this wet." Bakugo chuckles. Suddenly, he puts the two fingers in his mouth, licking your slick off. When his fingers leave his mouth, a string of slick falls from his mouth as well. You swallow at the sight. He gets up and grasps your neck, forcing your head down again, making the same noise, but slightly more lewd from the teasing. "Haha, you slut." He chuckles while exhaling deeply. He runs his hands down your frame, admiring your curves. He pumps himself a few times, reminding himself of how you just treated his dick. He grabs your thigh, observing how your flesh molded into his hand. He's moves his hand, but you catch his wrist. "Wait." You say, sitting up. He backs away with a confused look, and you stand up from the table. You stretch your arms a bit, but you suddenly push him, your enhancing quirk
making it powerful enough to crash him onto a couch. "Wha-" He has no time to react as he watches you push him again to lay him parrallel to the couch. He wasn't expecting this, and he couldn't deny the facts, it made his dick that much harder. It twitched at your boldness. You straddle him, lining his cock to your throbbing and oversensitive pussy. "Being bold, huh (Y/n)?" His confused open mouth grew into a smirk. "Mhm. Watch just how bold I can be.." you moan as his tip enters you, taking a bit before you bottom yourself out, your pussy swallowing him whole. Long moans exit both of your mouths, as you put your arms behind your back to support yourself as you slowly roll your hips, giving Bakugo a good view of you gushing onto his dick. "Fuck, you're even wetter and tighter than before." Bakugo says through groans and gritted teeth. You laugh breathily as you roll your hips rhythymically, beign engulfed in ecstacy. Suddenly, Bakugo's hand grasps your neck as he forces you down onto the couch, him now towering over you, his cock twitching inside of you. "B-bakugo." You moan. "You really are bold. But you're doing the opposite of what I said you'd do. Remember?" His grip tightens onto your neck, as you nod profusely. "Also, drop the last name. It's Katsuki. Got that?" He chuckles. "Katsuki." You repeat, thinking it sounds familiar. He sucks his teeth. "You're begging with your eyes, you slut." He begins thrusting into you, lifting one of your thighs with his free hand to drill deeper. His thrusts grew quick and harder quickly as he pounds into you, a gasp or moan coming out of you with each individual thrust. His hand around your neck just added to the pain and pleasure you felt. "K-katsuki!" You have a shaky smile with tears in your eyes. "What's wrong-fuck- too rough?" He tries to hide his pleasure as well, but it's getting harder for him as his dick slides perfectly, your walls adjusted to him instantly, as if it was waiting for his cock only. "Damn, it's like you were -shit- made for me." Expletives interrupt his sentences as he stops trying to hide his pleasure as his hips meet yours. His smile is the widest you've ever seen, showing his gums. He moves your other thigh up, allowing him to go even deeper. "K-katsuki..fuck!" Your moans seem to get breathier and a bit more highpitched. "Don't worry, I know where to go." He assures you, as he flawlessly hits your sweet spot, just like with his magical fingers. "Yes! Right there, fuuuck~!" You put your hands on his arm as his grip gets even tighter onto your neck, and as he ruthelessly abuses that spot, rubbing on it fast. Your eyes begin to roll to the back of your head as his pace gets even quicker. "Keep going, Katsuki, so close, so fucking close just keep going!" Your fingers don't know what to do as you try to grip the couch, your hair, but they stay at his shoulders, your fingernails digging into his skin only makes him pound harder. "Go ahead, cum on this dick, (Y/n)." He grunts loudly, feeling himself become undone as well. "It's...too good." All you can see is white as you reach your high, your back arching, your eyes completely into the back of your head, and your insides being painted white. His long erotic moan matched yours, as you panted and came down from your peaks simultaniously. While you were seeing white, however, you were getting visions, memories of stuff you didn't remember. It was you and Katsuki, as children, playing together, him coming to your house with his mom when you were little, and you playing competitive sports outside as your moms talked. You remembered everything from when you were little, and started questioning how you could forget. You also saw something else, you going away, when you moved to America. When you said goodbye to Katsuki, and shared a hug, that no one else was gonna get. "K-katsuki.." you pant, giving him a nostalgic look. "So, you've remembered." He chuckles through panted breaths. "Took ya long enough." He says. "Huh?" You give a confused look. "I wouldn't have sex with someone I just met hours ago. And knowing
you, you wouldn't either." He moves from on top of you, sitting down next to you. It sparked a question in your mind. Why did you have sex with him, if you didn't remember him? Maybe it was your subconcious that knew him. You yawn, now completely down from your high. "I gotta say, it was fun getting to know you all over again and play along." Katsuki laughs. "And your quirk improved dramatically. Remember when we were little, when my explosions were really small,  and you used to enhance my quirk to make explosions like I do now?" He recalls. "Yeah, I was probably the only one who you've ever complimented before." You lay your head on his lap. "Damn, you really spent me." You yawn as he takes his phone out, "Hell yeah I did." He sucks his teeth as he begins texting someone. "Who're you texting?" You say. "Just go to sleep, I'm texting Mina, the pink-haired chick you were twerking with in front of everyone." He says, his face going back to annoyed. "Geez man, I didn't know." You suck your teeth yourself. "Well, I got to fuck you, so I guess I can't stay mad." He shuts off his phone and pets your head. "We gotta get cleaned up, I'm not sleeping like this." He grumbles. "Sleep? Who said anything about that?" You tilt your head. "The way I did you tonight? Yeah, you're not gonna be able to go home." Bakugo laughs "What did you think I texted Mina about? I told her to send everyone home and that we're spending the night." He says. "Wouldn't you text Momo about-" You're interrupted by his phone chiming. He checks it and begins laughing. "Phaha! Guess what? We weren't the only ones fucking." He shows you his phone, and you see what he texted Mina first. "Why'd you just flat out tell her we had sex!?" You say, scrolling down to read he reply. "Psh, Todoroki and Momo? Even Deku and Ochaco?!" You laugh. "Yeah, I thought Deku would remain a virgin his whole life. Crazy, huh?" He chuckles. "Also, Mina been knew we woulda fucked. Look." He shows you another message. "Soooo tonights the night, huh😏? Use protection⛑️! Or don't, but no kids😤!" The message reads. You roll your eyes. "So everyone knew that we had history together but me, right?" You groan. "Pretty much." He laughs again. Suddenly, his phone chimes again. "OK, the guests r gone, all of the wasted temporary residents r all 🛀 ☝️ and 😴, ur turn. the 🛀 is nice and 🏃! i also brought a stretcher for (y/n) because i know she'll need it lmfaoo🚶" it reads. "Translation; the party people are gone, everyone else who fucked is washed up and asleep, so we can take our time." Bakugo sighs. "That extra does the damn most." He facepalms. "Wow, how reliable. But shouldn't we be asking Momo for permission to sleep here?" You ask, and your answer comes with another chime of his phone, the new message reading "i already asked and yamomo understood completely so the house is all urs 4 2nite. yw i know im the best😌" "Geez, she couldn't stand to use grammar every once in a while?" You laugh and roll your eyes. "C'mon." He stands up. You move to get up, but he ends up picking you up. "Wha-? Hey! Put me down!" You lightly hit his back. "Don't bother, you can't walk." He says. "Who says?" you grunt. "Fine, try." He puts you down on your feet gently, but you immediantly crash dwon onto your butt, which is also feeing sore from his tight ass-grabbing. He chuckles. "How come it took me to try standing up for my legs to start feeling sore?" You groan. "Told ya. It's not my fault you like it rough." He teases as he picks you up and slings you over his  shoulder. This time you don't fight, just making a pouty face and groaning from embarrassment and your sore legs. You lock eye contact as Mina patrols the main area. She uses body language to tell you she heard almost everything, and you shoot her a dirty look as she laughs and continues patrolling. You're surprised with a bath that's ready for you, courtesy of Mina. Maybe you can't stay too mad. He takes off your clothes and sets you in the bath, as you relax and rest your head on the could outer ring. Bakugo's eyes dart to your neck, dark
markings telling exactly where his hends went. It was like your own litte version of a hickey, which put a smile on his face. "Who knew you had a choking kink? that was a real surprise to me." He smiles meanly as you hide your face in embarrassment. "I didn't know." You groan in sheer embarrassment. "Relax, I won't be choking you gain anytime soon." He gumbles in slight annoyance. "But what if a villain does?" You ask. "Shit, I forgot about that. Haha! Just imagine that villains stupid face when you let out a moan because of him choking you." He chuckles. "Wouldn't you get jealous? Another man, maybe a woman, choking me?" You turn to face him. "Well, it's my job to beat their ass regardless so they're gonna end up dead anyways. 1, for being a villain, and 2, for putting their hands on my girl." He explains. You didn't need his hand, you almost choked on the word girl. "Yeah, I said it." He pours some shampoo in his hand, lathering them together and scrubbing your hair. "You gonna deny it?" He grumbles. "No, just didn't think you'd say it first." You admit. "Well, surprise surprise, I'm not the same kid I was back then." He sucks his teeth. "You kinda are. You always sucked your teeth like that and you have the samer personality if we're speaking vaguely." You explain. "Well, I changed a lot, idiot. What do you know?" He massages your head with his yet again, magical fingers. "I know that the only reason you're not yelling is because you're thinking of everyone sleeping. Funny, you weren't when you got a taste of me." You say matter-of-factly. "You always were a smartass. I don't even know why I ever liked you." He grumbles. "Yeah, that's probably gonna stay a mystery. I don't know why I like you either, you were always an annoyingly smart guy for yourself." You grumble as he rinses your hair and you wash yourself. Bakugo briefly leaves and comes back with an oversized t-shirt and underwear. You change into them while sitting on the toilet seat, and Bakugo's eyes widen a little as he comes to a realization. "Hey, that's my shirt! The bitch stole my shirt! How the hell'd she even get into my dorm!?" Bakugo yells. "I have my ways!" You can hear Mina call out to him. "God, she's lucky I'm tired." He groans as he scratches the back of his head. "And she's lucky that you look good in it." He smirks as he looks you up and down seductively. "What, round 2?" You ask. "No, I put all my energy into round 1." He sighs. "Good, so did I." You let out a big exhale. "Now your turn." You signal him to get in. "I'll wash myself, you're obviously in no condition to." Bakugo says. "I can." You huff. "Please, you'd have to crawl to get over here." He rolls his eyes. Your eyes drift to the sink as you see your favorite scent of lotion. You look to your knees, they were beginning to get ashy, so you grabbed the bottle and began applying it to your skin. Bakugo's watches as you massage your legs, like they weren't on fire now. He observed as your hands moved up and down your legs almost as a signal, and he actually started considering a round 2. He shook the thoughts out of his head as he washed himself quickly, and got out himself and changed. After brushing your teeth with the spare toothbrushes-Geez, Mina and Momo really thought of EVERYTHING, huh?- Bakugo carried you to your-of course she would- shared room. It wasn't until he was laying next to you, settling into bed, when the smell of your lotion hit him. Like a million bricks. He recognized it quickly, his favorite smell in the whole world. "Mmm." He hums as he brings you closer to him. "Is this..?" He asks. "It was just there. I know you like it," you said, teasing his nose with the smell. "Apple Spice." You say in unison. He hugs you, putting his nose in your shoulder as he inhales the smell deeply. "God, I haven't smelt this in so long. you used to wear it all the time when we were little." He sighs. "When I moved, I never stopped." You hug him back, snuggling into his chest. His breathing slowed, and you could tell he was about to fall asleep."(Y/n)...?" He sleepily says. His words
are slurred, and his eyes are closed. "Mm?" You hum, getting sleepy yourself. "I love you." He says, pulling you closer to him. The softest 'I love you' you've ever heard in your damn life. "I love you too." you replied softly. You thought that'd be the end, but Bakugo kept repeating it. "I love you so much, so fucking much, I love you." His repeats grew softer, as you repeated him the same amount of time he repeats himself. "So fucking much." are his last words before his breathing slows and silence follows you sigh of relief. "Finally, thought he'd never shut up." you laugh in your head, as you follow suit, saying a final 'I love you' be before drifting off to sleep in his arms.
Fin
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A Miraculous TikTok Account
Part 34
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For those of you who read it Satisfied’s Alternate/Alternative Ending has a new chapter <3 dual update for Easter
Chat hadn’t known what to think when he was woken from his nap by buzzing. His brain had felt fuzzy, sure, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to be audible.
He pulled his face out of his pillow -- ignoring Plagg’s cry of surprise at being displaced -- and cracked an eye open.
Oh. His room was full of bees. And they were apparently taking the glitter out the window to the nearest dumpster. Oh. Okay. Why not? His life was already so weird.
He buried his face in his pillow again and went back to sleep.
~
When Ladybug stopped by, he had been playing late-night video games on the floor with Plagg. (Did he have an unfair advantage in his ability to hold the entire console at once? Yes. Was he going to go easy on the kwami? No.)
He tensed a little. Was she checking on her prank and about to get angry that Chloe had fixed everything (he made a mental note to thank her later, if they were both still alive)?
Ladybug and Chat looked at each other, silent, unreadable expressions on their faces... until the sound of Plagg finally beating his character with a loud screech pulled them back to reality.
Plagg may not talk, but the way he floated around Chat’s head, pumping his tiny fists in the air, was a pretty clear ‘hahahahaha I won you loser I winnnnnn’.
“Hey,” said Ladybug carefully, pulling his attention away from the gloating kwami. “Sorry if I’m interrupting something, but we really should talk…”
He hesitated slightly.
She held up her hands. “It doesn’t have to be right now but… soon?”
Chat bit his lip, and then turned off his console and set down his controller. “Now is fine.”
Ladybug nodded. “I was thinking we could get out of town for it...?”
Get out of town? Was this risky in some way? Were they about to get akumatized? Or, at least, have akumatizable emotions?
“Sure.”
So, after getting Rena to cover them for an hour while they booked it, they both left. Ladybug had her phone out, apparently to hold a map, though he didn’t really understand why because they were only really going in one direction.
“Alright!” She called suddenly from where she was flying along overhead. She swooped lower until she was buzzing along by Chat. “I think we’re far enough past the border to be safe.”
Ah. That was why. He nodded and skidded to a stop. She touched down on the ground beside him. They both mumbled to detransform and their kwamis almost instantly dove to hide in their jackets despite the fact that they were both still invisible to passerby.
They continued on in the direction they’d been heading in silence. No one was around, which wasn’t shocking considering it was nearing 1. They came to a stop at a bakery that was still open and she hesitated.
“Want something?”
He bit his lip. “Passion fruit macarons?”
She blinked, and for a moment it looked like she was going to say something, but then she nodded and headed inside to get some.
She came out a few moments later with a box of macarons for him and some regular chocolate chip cookies for herself. They settled to eat it just outside.
She nibbled at her cookies, eyes locked on a spot on the ground. He’d tried waiting for her to be ready to talk, but after a few minutes of her looking without seeing he decided he should at least say something:
“... you wanted to talk?”
She blinked a bit and looked at him, then quickly pulled her gaze back to the floor again. “Yeah. I guess I just wanted to say --.” She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. “I can’t -- I --.” She glared at a crack on the ground like it had personally offended her. “You speak English, right?”
He startled a little. It was an odd question. But, still, he nodded. “I’m rich. I had to learn English and Mandarin.”
Her face lit up and for a second she looked at him again. “You speak Mandarin?”
He nodded.
“Can we…?” She started, unsure.
“Yeah, but I might be a little rusty.”
“That makes sense. If you don’t know a word I can translate it for you. Since we’re using my language not yours,” she said in Mandarin.
(Some vague part of him noticed that she took on a different tone in Mandarin, that her voice was lighter and a little smaller, that she seemed almost happier. He wondered if she’d like it if he spoke it with her more often.)
He nodded and made a vague motion with his hand, wordlessly telling her that he was ready for her to talk.
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry and… I wanted to explain myself.”
He wanted to tell her she didn’t have to, that he was also at fault, but she was already going on:
“Kwami, this is kind of embarrassing to admit to you, but my first few months of being ‘Ladybug’ didn’t go well.”
He nodded his understanding. Memories of his first few months as ‘Chat Noir’ were painful for him, too, despite how long ago it had been. All the people questioning his abilities, questioning his intentions, questioning his choices… had he not been used to media scrutiny, he doubted he would have continued on with it despite finally being able to go out in public as himself.
“I was second -- as you know, obviously -- and… a lot of comparisons were made. You’d had a year’s experience by then, and you’d had fight training beforehand, but I was just… new. You could always do things better, you were always preferred, you always got the bigger akumas while I got stuck with Mr. Pigeon and people like him. I even had a support-class-type power. Everything seemed to point to me being stuck as number two to you forever. And I think a part of me resented you for it.”
“I’m sor --.”
She cut him off with a look. “It’s not actually your fault. I shouldn’t have let it get to me as much as it did.”
He laughed without humor. “You were thirteen.”
She opened her mouth to argue, and then just shook her head and let the subject go. “Time passed, and Carapace came onto the scene, and people stopped comparing us as much… but they kept criticizing what I did. If I tried to be fun I was a ‘copycat’ and if I tried to act more serious I would be ‘bitchy’ and if I was neutral I was ‘boring’.”
He nodded slowly. He was beginning to understand where this was going.
“My sideeffects started coming in, and suddenly I was very lucky. None of the attacks ever seemed to hit me unless I REALLY messed up, and I started getting a reputation as ‘perfect’. And…” Her voice cracked a little and he looked away as she brought her arm to her face to wipe her face. “And I figured that, since I wasn’t even close to perfect, I should go with that kind of personality. At least it wouldn’t hurt as much when people criticized me, y’know? So I became everything I wasn’t, serious and perfect and --.”
He hesitated, biting his lip, and then he grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie and pulled her close. He gave her plenty of time to pull away, but she didn’t. She just buried her face in his shirt and stood there, arms limp at her sides, as he hugged her.
“I’m sorry, I should have helped --.”
“It’s fine, you couldn’t have known.” She gave a wet laugh. “You’re really good at hugs, by the way.”
“And you suck, apparently,” he teased lightly.
“Rude,” she muttered, arms coming up to wrap around him as well.
She actually was good at hugs, he thought vaguely as she molded herself to fit against his body.
He bit his lip. He could just leave the subject there. She apologized and he’d definitely gotten enough of a punishment…
He buried his face in her hair. He couldn’t even admit this to Carapace, how was he supposed to admit this to her? But… he really did want to talk about it with someone, and if anyone could understand it would probably be her...
“I… I’m in the public eye a lot. As a civilian. And my persona is a lot like yours. I’m the perfect, sweet son of --… my dad. And so, when I saw you pretending to be perfect out in public to keep up an image… I might have projected a little. I’d always kind of wanted someone to expose me as not perfect so I could be more free to be myself in public, so I wouldn’t have to spend my few hours out of the house with perfect posture and even more perfect smiles to make sure it didn’t reflect poorly on my dad.”
She smiled against his shirt. “At least you being ‘perfect’ is kinda true. Sure, you’re a little lazy sometimes, but you’re still pretty much amazing. It’s almost annoying.”
“PLEASE. If kwamis could talk, I’m sure Plagg would have a lot to complain about.”
She laughed, properly this time, and pulled away from him. She took a step back and then leaned against a lamppost without even glancing behind herself to make sure something was there. “Tikki probably has some stories, too. But, either way, you’re practically as perfect as people can be.”
He wasn’t convinced. “My first response to negative emotions was to make someone else mad enough at me to be a distraction for a few days.”
She didn’t look surprised. Not that he’d really expected her to. If Carapace had figured it out then surely she had, too; she had a few more months of psychology experience than him.
“Yeah, and? You were still calculated enough to choose the person who was least likely to get akumatized. As perfect as a person can be.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and she mimicked the action.
He looked her up and down twice before locking eyes with hers. “You’re still comparing yourself to me. You have to think I’m perfect so you can feel like Parisians were justified in comparing us and putting you down because, if they weren’t, then you have to accept the people you save on a constant basis are kinda sucky.”
She blinked and then a blush spread across her face. “Oh.”
“Yeah. ‘Oh’.”
“I can psychoanalyze you, too,” she said, breaking gaze with him to glare at her feet. “You can’t bring yourself to believe you’re perfect because your shitty parents probably used that as a basis to punish you and you’d like to believe that they were doing it so you could be your best self rather than admitting the truth that they don’t care about you as much as they should.”
He sniffled. Wait, when did he start crying?
“... oh.”
“Yeah...”
She cleared her throat a little and that’s when he noticed she was starting to cry, too.
“Kwami, we’re both messes, huh?”
She laughed through her tears. “Fuck, maybe WE’RE the ones who need therapy, not the rest of Paris.”
“No no no, everyone in Paris needs therapy. The minute we defeat Hawkmoth I’m getting a psych degree. That’s where the money is going to be.”
“We already have honorary psych degrees. I bet if you ask Chloe she could get her dad to give you a license.”
He snapped his fingers and then pointed at her. “Smart. All those years would probably make it so therapists wouldn’t be needed as much.”
“A few years? With as much trauma as Parisians have? Nah. You’ve got at least a few decades of consistent customers. ESPECIALLY if you market it as therapy from Chat Noir.”
He managed a smile, and they were silent for a moment other than the dying sniffles and shudders.
“Are… are we good?” He asked quietly.
She blinked at him, and then looked down. There was a beat, and then she took a deep breath. She brought a smile to her face and stuck her hand out.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you! My name is Ladybug! I promise I won’t displace my anger towards Paris onto you!”
He stared at the hand, uncomprehending, and then a smile stretched across his face. He shook her hand. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you, too! I’m Chat Noir! I won’t be blind to your problems and will help out when people are being rude to you!”
She gave him a skeptical look. “You don’t even stand up for yourself.”
“Uh… you’re right… uh… I’ll make Carapace help out when people are being rude to you!”
She laughed and shook her head. “Stupid.”
“I try.”
She smiled and hooked her arm through his.
“Whatever. Let’s get home.”
~~~
Taglist
@nathleigh @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write @trippingovermyfeet @melicmusicmagic @meimei3841 @roseliali
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Alicias character file:
"Copycat" Echo (isn´t a criminal but its fun to give people nicknames here and then-)
Echo is one of the personas Alicia made up. Supposed to be about 32 or 34 years old (nobody really kknows, she doesn´t respond very well to questions about her age.), she is a taller woman, about three meters old- without heels. Not that she cares, being a taller woman apparently intimidates smaller people (since the average is about 2 meters tall) and she escapes a lot of catcalling and other dumb comments. And if not, a slam of her legs will shut people up. Now she doesn´t have any type of special traits.. besides looking like a character that just escaped a detective movie, her hair is almost.. Magical. Because somehow she always manages to whip her hair in a way that just defies physics so it never gets in her way. Echo always has some sort of mysterious vibe or aura about her - fitting to her appearance (spend more than an hour around her and she will remind you of a witch).
!Echo usually wears gloves, now I forgot to draw this but her hands are made out of wood so she has to cover that up as well!
Mrs. Detective is one of the characters that have a lot to do with intel, strategist and always has some sort of information about anything- the latest tea, important, secrets from the underworld, etc. Fitting to that her character is pretty soft-spoken, polite but mysterious- It doesn´t matter to whom she speaks, she never lets out any sort of detail (unless necessary, for ex. with allies) - it always seems very vague. Generally just keeps a shitload of info to herself. Also, she seems very distant- it´s easy to get the feeling of wasting her time while speaking to her. But she lowkey has a soft spot for children.
All the world´s a stage- so is it for Echo:
- intel gathering character (Who, however, is a bit too big for sneaking and snooping around sometimes-)
-"Copycat"? She copies the fighting styles of her enemies if possible (copying devil fruits...? Nah. also, Haki can be a bit of a problem). To pull this off, she resorts to stealing weapons. Usually knocks them out of the enemy's hand.
Note: Echo isn´t really strong.. (in relation to characters her size - who, to be fair, have like..monstrous strength. So she is still in the range of superhuman strength, but she looks pretty bad next to people her size.)
-prefers guns & rifles, etc. Because Alicia has to wear prosthetics to pull Echo´s character off, she is a bit slower in battle and .. a bit more fragile (bc she keeps dynamite in the prosthetics- there will be a post explaining that-), she assumes a more passive role in battle (or doesn´t fight) <- which means the copycat fighting style is self-defense more than anything. Also she copied Kafka Tamura´s shooting style because.. Well.. He taught her after she asked.
Echo also doesn´t have full access to the arsenal of weapons/items that Alicia would´ve had: Usually, the magical weapons need skin contact to work and... Well, Echo doesn´t let that happen. Prosthetics and all (Yes, even for the arms- otherwise the Arm length wouldn't fit.). Also, the letters need a little room before transforming into whatever she summoned.. and she needs skin contact to summon them in the first place-
Fun fact: Never seen without either a den den mushi, paper or pen in hand-- or in her pockets or anything.
Nobody ever saw her without her beanie. She does NOT take it of, for whatever reason.
That one person who would keep a million stones, read astrology charts, etc. and also keeps tarot cards with her. Can read them as well.
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vandorens-archive · 4 years
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ten questions tag | i was tagged by: @mshelleys, @emdrabbles, @pe-ersona, @evergrcen and @septemberliterature. thank you so much, and i’m so sorry i’m getting to this so late!
everything is under the cut!
@mshelleys
i. if you could change the genre of one of your wips, what would you change it to and how would the story/characters change?
So, trahison already features a ghost and a brief stay at a manor. have i considered turning it into a full fledged horror because of that? perhaps.
ii. do you think of your characters as actors playing a part in a movie or as people in history actually doing things that effect the future?
i think of them as actors playing in one long, crazy, unpredictable play. 
iii. role swap your protagonist and antagonist but keep their personalities the same; how different would your story be?
honestly, not different at all, because when it comes to it, the subject of trahison’s antagonist (s) is pretty complex. 
iv. are any of your characters based on you, family, friends, or someone else you know?
oh, absolutely. my characters range between self inserts, to characters i wish i was more like, to characters that are essentially walking, talking, breathing love letters to the people i care about.  
v. how long have you had your main protagonist(s) of your wip(s)?
I’ve been working with marin, nate and ruby for years, long before they were even called that and were a part of a dystopian crime novel (don’t ask). antoine joined them soon after, followed a while later by beth and isadora, and miles was invented during the plotting stage. 
vi. do you prefer to write chronologically or just make a bunch of scenes and order them after they’re written?
it depends on what i’m working on and how serious i am about it, but if we’re only talking about trahison, then chronologically!
vii. imagine the problem in your wip is sorted out, how would the protagonist recount the story to their children if they asked?
with a far away look in his eyes and an uncharacteristic fondness in his voice, marin would turn to his children, and tell them how extraordinary his friends were during his university years—their zeal, their inquisitiveness, and conveniently leaving out the uncomfortable loyalty they all had towards each other, until time and life’s commands separated them. 
viii. favorite (non-spoilery) line(s) of your current wip(s)?
This small bit of description, albeit a little purple prose-y, is one that i’m very, very proud of.
“ The morning rain had made its grave in the dirt, the bittersweet smell—like exotic black tea—rising into the air. It was the night pluviophiles came to dance. If I think hard, I can still taste the ghost of the raindrops on my tongue and sense Beth’s radiating warmth beside me; its own ghost ” - trahison, chapter three
ix. if your wip was a movie, could you see it be done in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s? why that decade in particular?
so, fun fact, i hadn’t decided when to set trahison (see: the big question mark in my plotting notebook) but i have recently made up my mind and decided to set it in the seventies! if it was a film, then i could see it being made in seventies france! very a la the dreamers.
x. are you able to just make up a story on the spot, or do you need help (plot generators or other outside influences)?
sometimes i’ll take the help of prompts or media, but otherwise i just come up with things on my own!
@emdrabbles
i. what do the names of your main characters mean? did you pick them for the meaning or another reason?
i picked the trahison characters’ names based on two things: how much it related to the character’s backstory or personality, and how pleasing it sounded out loud. here are the meanings of their names:
marin — of the sea
ruby — deep red; precious stone; behold a son
elizabeth — god is my oath
nathaniel — gift from god
antoine — priceless one; beyond praise
isadora — gift of Isis
ii. what book are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading the time machine by h.g wells!
iii. last sentence written?
“ When the end of the world comes — I’ll film it ” — copycat, or the one where i predict the future. 
iv. who are some of your faceclaims?
i usually don’t use faceclaims, but if i had to choose:
marin van doren (trahison) — timor simakov
eloi hill (psychophantia) — maxence danet fauvel
cass parker (penny lane) — monica tomas
v. gimme some worldbuilding facts!!
alright, here’s one: in the world of psychophantia, not only is the magic system and your powers controlled by your morals, but so is your social ranking, your education, and any future you may have—to an extent. 
vi. do you outline? if so, do you have a specific method?
i’m a plotter and only really work well with a solid outline, however, my outlines range from a series of messy, incoherent bullet points to meticulous scene-by-scene planning based around the three act structure. this post is my go to for plotting assistance! 
vii. favourite author?
Like every tumblr user ever, i love donna tartt and maggie stiefvater, but i’m also a huge fan of f.scott fitzgerald, agatha christie and vera caspary!
viii. what is your oldest wip?
trahison! It went through many, many changes — from changes in genre to changes in character names, and there’s still a possibility that it could change even further. 
ix. what is your favourite wip?
every wip i reblog under my #others. tag! You all are so damn talented!
x. where do you get your inspiration from?
everywhere around me! from conversations i have with people, from films and books i consume, from the music on the radio — i like that anything and everything can inspire me to create.
@pe-ersona
i. in one sentence, explain your current wip!
a group of secretive students attempt to become immortal, only to uncover the worst parts of themselves — and each other — as they do. 
ii. was writing your main interest or did you have other interests?
although writing is my main interest (see: my social media bio on every platform ever), i also like to journal, sew, cook and make videos! my interests usually do have to do with the intention of creation. 
iii. what’s your favorite genre to write? to read?
I love writing horror and mysteries. those are my favourite genres, but i also love reading a good contemporary romance!
iv. what is one goal you have for your wip this year? how’s that goal going?
to finish the first draft! so far, not so bad, though i do wish i could write more, but unfortunately, time constraints plus school restrict me from doing so. 
v. how old is your wip? or when did you start writing your wip?
trahison is nearly three years old, but i only started writing the current version of it a year ago. 
vii. what scene made you cry or laugh or both?
these lines made me laugh out loud the first time i wrote them:
“ Up the stairs stumbled Miles, my slovenly genius roommate. He grinned at the giggles and winked at the exasperated stares. 
The gall of him! 
I wanted to be him. 
He managed to find his balance enough to reach our dorm. I immediately stepped back to let him in, and to make sure I was in no association with his uncomposed state. Nate gave a disapproving look at his back as he staggered in. 
I took another step back, raised a pointed eyebrow, and closed the door ” — trahison, chapter three
vii. how many ocs does your wip have? who’s your favourite?
my main wip, trahison, has six main characters. out of the main six, my favourite has to be nathaniel. he is very much the epitome of pure, and sometimes i wonder how he ended up in the middle of such a dark plot. 
vii. you have a brand new idea for a wip, what do you do? 
brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. scribble down whatever the hell pops up in my brain, attempt to link it together by a thin string of yarn, cross my fingers and hope for the best.
ix. you are having your first book-signing, where are you?
i’m in a small bookstore, nestled in a corner near the storage room. almost no one knows about this town, so the line is small but chatty, fans exchanging theories and analysing certain paragraphs. the sight of them makes me feel warm inside. 
x. you have the ability to live in any book, publishing or not, what would it be?
would it be too cliche to say the harry potter universe? other than that, other worlds i would love to be a part of is the world in my novel penny lane, or in midst of a detective story.
@evergrcen / @septemberliterature
i. how did you come up with your wip’s title? what does it mean in relation to the story?
okay, so i discovered the word ‘trahison’ after hearing my french teacher say it, and immediately knew i had to use it for something. ‘trahison’ means betrayal or treason in french, which is one of the main themes in the novel. 
ii. do you title your chapters? if so, what’s your favourite?
I don’t, but I would love to!!
iii. what’s a recent line you really like?
Not a very dramatic or noteworthy line, but here’s one from a poem i’m writing:
“ So the two of you get in the car, proceeding to have an argument with the radio ” — examples of easy solutions, or the one where the internet has no answers. 
iv. are there any writing-related quotes you really like?
“i think a lot of art is trying to make someone love you” — keaton henson
v. do you have an idea for a cover design for your story?
A black background with serif text, that’s it. It’s simple. It’s mysterious. It’s the type of vibe I want to exude. 
vi. what sort of au can you imagine your story being?
...dark academia au anyone?
just kidding. in all seriousness, though, i can see a royalty/political au for trahison, or a medieval fantasy au!
vii. which oc would be the most angry with you as the writer?
eloi. i really need to give that poor boy a break. 
viii. if you had to tell the story from a different pov, which character would you choose?
ruby! she’s the token enigma of trahison, so i think her point of view would be very interesting to see. 
ix. what would be your oc’s taste in music if they lived in our world?
OKAY let’s see:
marin — classic rock, so the who, queen, def leppard.etc
ruby — that one person who you’re pretty sure only listens to classical music, but is actually very attuned to modern day music. she would mostly listen to female singer-songwriters, so take lorde, marina, lana del rey, and other such artists. 
beth — take one look at her playlist, and you’ll see that ninety five percent of it is mitski, while the other five percent is bedroom pop. she would like very tender, calm, cry to in bed music. 
Antoine — same as marin, but add other modern day music artists with eclectic sounds, such as twenty one pilots, arctic monkeys, that sort of thing.
nathaniel — classical music, instrumentals, and film soundtracks make up his playlist. if it has sung words, he won’t listen to it. has little to no understanding of modern day music and is too scared to find out more about it.
isadora — 2000’s diva pop plays in the background of her life. rihanna is her go to whenever she gets to control the party. Don’t be surprised if ‘rich girl’ by gwen stefani starts playing in your head at the sight of her. 
x. what’s one personal goal you want to achieve by the end of the story?
finishing it with pride!
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yilingradishfairy · 4 years
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Chasing Chaos (2631 words) by SakuraKage Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī, Lán Jǐngyí Summary:
This fic is about Wei Wuxian, Bringer of Chaos, and Lan Wangji, Chaser of Chaos. Or two times Wei Wuxian unintentionally calls the Chief Cultivator to his aid, and one time he did it intentionally. (Also, a Birthday Surprise for Lan Zhan ^_^)
Written for Wangji Week 2020
Day 4 – Wherever the Chaos Is
So, I recently learned what a 5+1 fic is!  This … is not that.  Well, I guess it is, if you squint at it and also you’re bad at math.  But hey!  Two plus one equals three which is always better than none, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  It’s a little confused, but it’s got the spirit lol
The first time that Chief Cultivator Lan heard that Wei Wuxian was stirring up trouble, he set off immediately to lend assistance.  To which party, his Council was not privy to, but they could guess.   “Wei Ying?” “Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying’s head popped out from the dirt mound, his hair tangled and clothes in disarray.  Lan Wangji noted the way his eyes lit up upon recognizing his beloved and hoped that Wei Ying could recognize the same elation in him.  Three months had truly been too long.   Wei Ying led him behind the dirt pile, calling out, “Hang on, Lan Zhan!  I’m almost done with this!” Lan Wangji watched patiently, interpreting each of the talismans that Wei Ying was arranging.  The seal array was intricate, but not demonic in nature.  As usual, the rumors appeared to be much nastier than the truth.   Finally, Wei Ying fully emerged from the dirt heap and bounded over to Lan Wangji.  “So, what is the illustrious Hanguang Jun doing in a place like this?  Shouldn’t you be busy doing Chief Cultivator stuff?” “Am doing,” Lan Wangji agreed with a curt nod.  “Investigating.”   “Investigating what?” Wei Ying asked, leaning forward to bump his shoulder against his beloved’s.  Lan Wangji looked down in surprise at where their shoulders had touched, amazed at the wave of longing that passed through him.  How he missed the easy touching that Wei Ying always instigated.  But his beloved must have misinterpreted the look, because he hastily pulled back, apologizing, “Sorry, Lan Zhan, I’m a mess right now.”   He patted his clothes down and pushed his hair messily behind his shoulder, as if that would help.  Lan Wangji felt his lips twitch into a fond half-smile, and he reached out to tug the twisted hair ribbon out of his beloved’s unruly hair.  “Ridiculous,” he judged, as Wei Ying willingly turned around at Lan Wangji’s silent request.   Wei Ying barked out a laugh.  “Yeah, I guess I look pretty ridiculous.”  He waved his arms around to encompass his disheveled form, from the ripped clothing to the layer of mud to the hair he was currently fixing.   “No,” Lan Wangji clarified, carefully tugging the hair into his favored style.  “Your words are ridiculous.” “My words?” he questioned.  He tilted his head, unmindful of the ponytail Lan Wangji was trying to tame his hair into.   “Wei Ying is always a mess,” he replied simply.   “Ahahahaha!” Wei Ying doubled over in laughter, pulling away from the knot Lan Wangji had just finished tying his hair ribbon into.  “Lan-er-gege has developed a sense of humor in the months I’ve been away.  How unfair that I have missed it!”   “Mn,” Lan Wangji murmured, ignoring the flush he could feel crawling up his ears.   “I guess Chief Cultivator Lan needs it, having to deal with those old windbags all day!”  Wei Ying straightened, and Lan Wangji’s eyes were drawn to the ponytail that was still defiantly askew.  “Speaking of, I can’t believe your Council lets the Chief Cultivator come out to random night hunts, all alone and unprotected.  Surely the cultivating world wouldn’t survive a day without you to lead it,” Wei Ying grinned impishly.   “Can survive,” Lan Wangji assured him.  “Needed to verify rumors about Wei Ying.” "So you dropped everything and traveled all this way for this small matter."  Wei Ying shook his head.  “So this is what they meant about chasing the chaos,” he muttered under his breath.  "How did you hear about this?"   "Lan Sizhui's report," Lan Wangji answered.   "Oh, right.  The Zhangs' servant probably…" Wei Ying trailed off, the gears in his mind turning rapidly in a way that had always uniquely enchanted Lan Wangji.   "The whole thing got blown up out of proportion, anyway.  You see, Lan Zhan, the daughter had run away, and the cousin got in a bit of a bad spot with a demonic cultivator, who somehow ended up finding…" Wei Ying rambled, detailing the convoluted Zhang family drama as he led Lan Wangji back to the Zhang Manor.   After checking with the family and verifying that everything was taken care of, Lan Wangji asked where Wei Ying was headed to next.   He hurriedly shook his head, assuring him, "Oh, Hanguang Jun doesn't have to worry about me!  Your Wei Ying is safe and happy, traveling the world."  Not as happy as I would be with you, goes unsaid, but they both understood.   Lan Wangji disputed, “Always have to check on Wei Ying.”   Wei Ying shook his head again and reiterated, “Lan Zhan, really, you don't have to trouble yourself anymore.  You're the Chief Cultivator!  You can't just hop Bichen for every far-flung rumor!" He playfully admonished.   "Bichen is fast." Wei Ying just laughed sadly.  "I know.  Still, you have people for that!  You need to go rest or attend to your thousands of duties or whatever you need to do.  Don't you worry about me.”   Lan Wangji stared into his earnest face.  He hardly wanted to walk away from him after seeing him again for the first time in three months … but it looks like the Zhangs’ issues have been resolved, and he should probably head home to his piles of work.  “Wei Ying is certain?”   “Yeah,” Wei Ying smiled sadly.  “Chief Cultivator is a big responsibility.  Everyone else needs you more than I do.”  
---
The second time that Chief Cultivator Lan heard that the upstart Yiling Laozu was back at it again, he absently wondered if it was intentional.  After all, night hunting is the only activity during which he, as Chief Cultivator, can come down from the Council and mingle with the common people.  And it's the only activity during which he and Wei Ying get to see each other.  His Council did not particularly care if the Yiling Laozu was baiting him or not, but they were certainly sending along chaperones bodyguards from now on.  Even if the only volunteers they could get this time were Hanguang Jun’s own son and his best friend.   "Wei-qianbei!" Lan Wangji watched his son jump up in the middle of their meal to rush through the crowded inn and greet Wei Ying.  Lan Jingyi raced after his best friend, and Lan Wangji began rearranging the food on the table for a fourth person.   “A-Yuan!  Lan Jingyi!  What are you two doing here?” he heard his beloved ask them.  “Are yo- Lan Zhan!”  Wei Ying finally spotted Lan Wangji at the corner table.  Time seemed to slow down as they drank in the sight of each other.   Wei Ying recovered his speech almost immediately though.  "Oh, Lan Zhan, it's so good to see you out and about again!  How did the busy Chief Cultivator get out of his duties this time?" He teased, rushing over to sit by him.  "Looks like the Elders wisened up and sent along some fierce bodyguards to protect you.  Not that the mighty Hanguang Jun needs protecting."   "Mn," Lan Wangji agreed absently, busily fixing Wei Ying a cup of tea.  "Did not like my being alone last time." "So now you've got help," Wei Ying accepted his tea with a smile before turning to appraise the juniors curiously.  "What are they helping you with?" "Ah, we're chasing the chaos, Wei-qianbei!" Lan Sizhui happily announced, sitting next to Wei Ying.  "And it looks like you're the chaos!" "Who, me?" Wei Ying widened his eyes comically and set down his tea cup in mock affront.  "Why, that doesn't sound anything like me!  I haven't caused any chaos in a whole day!"   Lan Wangji raised a single eyebrow.   "Oi, don't be like that, Lan Zhan," Wei Ying pouted, bumping his shoulder into his.  "Lan-er-gege is too cruel.  Has the esteemed Hanguang Jun really come all this way to hunt down the wicked Yiling Laozu?" He teased, the words spilling out in an effusive rush.  Lan Wangji wondered how he had gotten used to not hearing his name a thousand different times, a thousand different ways all in one breath.  He absently wished he could always hear himself being called thus by Wei Ying.   Lan Sizhui hid an amused smile behind his sleeve, but Lan Jingyi pressed forward.  "So it really was you?  You have been harvesting souls and forcing them to wreak havoc here?" "That was most definitely not me!” protested Wei Ying indignantly.  “That’s my brainless copycat."  Wei Ying scowled.  "I caught him this morning.  Jerk.  He’s been parading around as the Yiling Patriarch and sullying my good name."   “What good name?” Lan Jingyi asked dubiously.   “Ah, why are you so mean!  Don’t be so blunt!” Wei Ying leaned away from Lan Jingyi and turned beseeching eyes on Lan Wangji.  “Lan Zhan, defend me!”   “No talking while eating,” Lan Wangji dutifully responded, pushing some food toward his beloved.  However, Lan Sizhui, who had already finished eating, was able to ask, “Wei-qianbei?  Did you say you caught him already?"   Wei Ying nodded seriously and motioned toward the stables.  “He’s out there with Little Apple.” "Should we take him back to Gusu now?" Lan Jingyi asked reluctantly, looking toward Lan Wangji.   "Ah, if you have to go quickly, I can go fetch him right now,” Wei Ying set the food back on the table and began to stand.  "You must be so busy…" Lan Wangji reflexively grabbed his hand to stop him from getting up.  "Not busy," he refuted.  He motioned toward the untouched food with his other hand.  "Eat." "It's really no trouble," Wei Ying protested weakly, but he settled back into his seat.  The hand that was caught under Lan Wangji's turned in its grasp to squeeze back.   "No talking while eating," Lan Wangji repeated, heaping food onto Lan Sizhui's empty plate and pushing it toward Wei Ying.  
---
The third time that Chief Cultivator Lan heard that Wei Ying was making mischief, he left without notifying his Council.  They have been exceptionally needy lately.  They disapproved whenever he left for a nighthunt, even the ones that were not related to the Yiling Laozu.  They didn't seem to understand that he always offered his help unequivocally, and he liked to be present for the particularly tricky nighthunts.  But he did take particular care to always be on hand for matters relating to Wei Ying.   “Lan Zhan.”   Lan Wangji turned around to see Wei Ying walking up behind him on the busy street.  He granted him a beatific smile, and Lan Wangji could not keep delight from turning up the corners of his mouth.  “I knew you would come for me.” “What is the danger?” Lan Wangji asked, scanning him for signs of distress.   “Always straight to the point,” Wei Ying laughed.  “Don’t worry; there’s no danger today!” Lan Wangji furrowed his brow.  “The reports…” “Ahaha, you can’t believe everything that you read, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying admonished playfully.  “Those reports may have been a teensy bit exaggerated,” he admitted.  “I swear to you, I pose no danger to anyone here.” Lan Wangji considered him pensively.  “And Wei Ying is not in danger?” he confirmed.   Wei Ying nodded earnestly, pledging, “I am neither in danger nor a danger to others.  You, however, are.”   “Me,” Lan Wangji repeated dumbly.   “Yes, you.  Look at yourself,” Wei Ying chided.  “You need to take proper care of yourself!  That must be one of your three thousand and some rules, right?  If it isn’t, it surely needs to be.  You’re not getting nearly enough rest!  What happened to the strict nine-to-five?  When was the last time you took a break?” “A break?” Lan Wangji echoed, still surprised by the turn of events.   “Oh, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan,” He sighed, turning serious.  He reached out to graze the dark circles under his eyes.  “You look so tired.  What is it like?  To carry the whole world on your shoulders.”   Lan Wangji instinctively leaned into his beloved’s touch, and he reached up to grasp the hand that so gently stroked his face.  Wei Ying unthinkingly tangled their fingers together and continued on.  “I have it on good authority that you’ve been unreasonably busy recently.  What is your Council thinking?  How can they expect yo-” Wei Ying rambled on, inadvertently riling himself up with each successive thought.   “Authority?  Who?” Lan Wangji interjected, latching onto the possible security breach.  He tried not to feel flattered about the implication that Wei Ying cared enough to place an informant to update him about Lan Wangji, but a potential spy in the Cloud Recesses cannot be tolerated.   “Ah, he asked for you to not be mad at him,” Wei Ying prefaced.  “But I told him since he just wants to take care of you, you couldn’t possibly get mad at him.”   “Lan Sizhui,” Lan Wangji realized.  “He ran into you during a night hunt.”   “He’s been so worried about you,” Wei Ying admitted, smiling fondly.  “You raised such a good son.  A-Yuan told me about the birthday treat he was trying to arrange for you, but …”   “Your son, too,” Lan Wangji interrupted.  His caring heart, he doesn’t say, is yours.   Wei Ying grins, “Yeah.  Our son.” “But why?” Lan Wangji pointedly glanced around the street and at the space between them.  Why are you here?  He doesn’t say.  Why am I here? “I know we agreed to part ways for the moment, so you could take care of your duties as Chief Cultivator,” Wei Ying began hesitantly.  “But I couldn’t watch you work yourself into the ground.”  He looked up stubbornly.  “The Council asks too much of you, too much for any human to handle.  They couldn’t spare you even a day to celebrate your birthday.”   “So you orchestrated … this?” Lan Wangji repeated, dumbfounded.   “Well, if there’s no other way to get you to take a break, I had to improvise,” Wei Ying grinned impishly.  “I’m rather good at that.”  He handed him a hand drawn map.  “This leads to a little abandoned farm house.  I’ve been repairing it off and on, but I want you to use it for the day.” Lan Wangji took the map, still silently waiting for him to continue.   “Take the day off.  For your birthday.  No clan, no council, no cultivation world.  Just a relaxing retreat,” Wei Ying explained.  “Surely the world can spare you… for one day.  For this day.”  He smiled hopefully up at his beloved.  
Lan Wangji was just about to nod, to give in and accept this thoughtful birthday gift, when Wei Ying started to walk away.   “Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji asked in bewilderment.  Why would he craft the most elaborate plan to get them alone together and then walk away? Wei Ying paused, turning back to him.   “Will you not stay?” Wei Ying gave a slight laugh.  “Only if Lan Zhan wants me to.”  He fidgeted and looked away.  “I know I’m not really relaxing…” “Stay.”  He interrupted forcefully.  “Please.”  Lan Wangji stared intently into his beloved’s eyes, hoping his own beseeching eyes would communicate what his words could not.   “Oh, Lan Zhan.” He nodded in understanding and smiled blissfully, crinkling his eyes at the corners.  “Okay, Wei Ying will stay with you, but you have to rest.  Do you hear me?” he ordered playfully.  “This is a restful birthday retreat, and I want nothing but resting from you.”   Lan Wangji felt his mouth twitch into an answering smile at the sight of stern and protective Wei Ying.  He knew that tomorrow he would have to return to Gusu and give account to the Council.  He knew he probably would not see Wei Ying again until the next time he caused some chaos (or conveniently happened to be there anyway).  But this day, this perfect day, was a birthday gift he would treasure until the time he can lay down his Chief Cultivator title.  Then, maybe, everyday will be like this. The first time that Chief Cultivator Lan heard that Wei Wuxian was stirring up trouble, he set off immediately to lend assistance.  To which party, his Council was not privy to, but they could guess.   “Wei Ying?” “Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying’s head popped out from the dirt mound, his hair tangled and clothes in disarray.  Lan Wangji noted the way his eyes lit up upon recognizing his beloved and hoped that Wei Ying could recognize the same elation in him.  Three months had truly been too long.   Wei Ying led him behind the dirt pile, calling out, “Hang on, Lan Zhan!  I’m almost done with this!” Lan Wangji watched patiently, interpreting each of the talismans that Wei Ying was arranging.  The seal array was intricate, but not demonic in nature.  As usual, the rumors appeared to be much nastier than the truth.   Finally, Wei Ying fully emerged from the dirt heap and bounded over to Lan Wangji.  “So, what is the illustrious Hanguang Jun doing in a place like this?  Shouldn’t you be busy doing Chief Cultivator stuff?” “Am doing,” Lan Wangji agreed with a curt nod.  “Investigating.”   “Investigating what?” Wei Ying asked, leaning forward to bump his shoulder against his beloved’s.  Lan Wangji looked down in surprise at where their shoulders had touched, amazed at the wave of longing that passed through him.  How he missed the easy touching that Wei Ying always instigated.  But his beloved must have misinterpreted the look, because he hastily pulled back, apologizing, “Sorry, Lan Zhan, I’m a mess right now.”   He patted his clothes down and pushed his hair messily behind his shoulder, as if that would help.  Lan Wangji felt his lips twitch into a fond half-smile, and he reached out to tug the twisted hair ribbon out of his beloved’s unruly hair.  “Ridiculous,” he judged, as Wei Ying willingly turned around at Lan Wangji’s silent request.   Wei Ying barked out a laugh.  “Yeah, I guess I look pretty ridiculous.”  He waved his arms around to encompass his disheveled form, from the ripped clothing to the layer of mud to the hair he was currently fixing.   “No,” Lan Wangji clarified, carefully tugging the hair into his favored style.  “Your words are ridiculous.” “My words?” he questioned.  He tilted his head, unmindful of the ponytail Lan Wangji was trying to tame his hair into.   “Wei Ying is always a mess,” he replied simply.   “Ahahahaha!” Wei Ying doubled over in laughter, pulling away from the knot Lan Wangji had just finished tying his hair ribbon into.  “Lan-er-gege has developed a sense of humor in the months I’ve been away.  How unfair that I have missed it!”  
“Mn,” Lan Wangji murmured, ignoring the flush he could feel crawling up his ears.   “I guess Chief Cultivator Lan needs it, having to deal with those old windbags all day!”  Wei Ying straightened, and Lan Wangji’s eyes were drawn to the ponytail that was still defiantly askew.  “Speaking of, I can’t believe your Council lets the Chief Cultivator come out to random night hunts, all alone and unprotected.  Surely the cultivating world wouldn’t survive a day without you to lead it,” Wei Ying grinned impishly.   “Can survive,” Lan Wangji assured him.  “Needed to verify rumors about Wei Ying.” "So you dropped everything and traveled all this way for this small matter."  Wei Ying shook his head.  “So this is what they meant about chasing the chaos,” he muttered under his breath.  "How did you hear about this?"   "Lan Sizhui's report," Lan Wangji answered.   "Oh, right.  The Zhangs' servant probably…" Wei Ying trailed off, the gears in his mind turning rapidly in a way that had always uniquely enchanted Lan Wangji.   "The whole thing got blown up out of proportion, anyway.  You see, Lan Zhan, the daughter had run away, and the cousin got in a bit of a bad spot with a demonic cultivator, who somehow ended up finding…" Wei Ying rambled, detailing the convoluted Zhang family drama as he led Lan Wangji back to the Zhang Manor.   After checking with the family and verifying that everything was taken care of, Lan Wangji asked where Wei Ying was headed to next.   He hurriedly shook his head, assuring him, "Oh, Hanguang Jun doesn't have to worry about me!  Your Wei Ying is safe and happy, traveling the world."  Not as happy as I would be with you, goes unsaid, but they both understood.   Lan Wangji disputed, “Always have to check on Wei Ying.”   Wei Ying shook his head again and reiterated, “Lan Zhan, really, you don't have to trouble yourself anymore.  You're the Chief Cultivator!  You can't just hop Bichen for every far-flung rumor!" He playfully admonished.   "Bichen is fast." Wei Ying just laughed sadly.  "I know.  Still, you have people for that!  You need to go rest or attend to your thousands of duties or whatever you need to do.  Don't you worry about me.”   Lan Wangji stared into his earnest face.  He hardly wanted to walk away from him after seeing him again for the first time in three months … but it looks like the Zhangs’ issues have been resolved, and he should probably head home to his piles of work.  “Wei Ying is certain?”   “Yeah,” Wei Ying smiled sadly.  “Chief Cultivator is a big responsibility.  Everyone else needs you more than I do.”  
---
The second time that Chief Cultivator Lan heard that the upstart Yiling Laozu was back at it again, he absently wondered if it was intentional.  After all, night hunting is the only activity during which he, as Chief Cultivator, can come down from the Council and mingle with the common people.  And it's the only activity during which he and Wei Ying get to see each other.  His Council did not particularly care if the Yiling Laozu was baiting him or not, but they were certainly sending along chaperones bodyguards from now on.  Even if the only volunteers they could get this time were Hanguang Jun’s own son and his best friend.   "Wei-qianbei!" Lan Wangji watched his son jump up in the middle of their meal to rush through the crowded inn and greet Wei Ying.  Lan Jingyi raced after his best friend, and Lan Wangji began rearranging the food on the table for a fourth person.   “A-Yuan!  Lan Jingyi!  What are you two doing here?” he heard his beloved ask them.  “Are yo- Lan Zhan!”  Wei Ying finally spotted Lan Wangji at the corner table.  Time seemed to slow down as they drank in the sight of each other.   Wei Ying recovered his speech almost immediately though.  "Oh, Lan Zhan, it's so good to see you out and about again!  How did the busy Chief Cultivator get out of his duties this time?" He teased, rushing over to sit by him.  "Looks like the Elders wisened up and sent along some fierce bodyguards to protect you.  Not that the mighty Hanguang Jun needs protecting."   "Mn," Lan Wangji agreed absently, busily fixing Wei Ying a cup of tea.  "Did not like my being alone last time." "So now you've got help," Wei Ying accepted his tea with a smile before turning to appraise the juniors curiously.  "What are they helping you with?" "Ah, we're chasing the chaos, Wei-qianbei!" Lan Sizhui happily announced, sitting next to Wei Ying.  "And it looks like you're the chaos!" "Who, me?" Wei Ying widened his eyes comically and set down his tea cup in mock affront.  "Why, that doesn't sound anything like me!  I haven't caused any chaos in a whole day!"   Lan Wangji raised a single eyebrow.   "Oi, don't be like that, Lan Zhan," Wei Ying pouted, bumping his shoulder into his.  "Lan-er-gege is too cruel.  Has the esteemed Hanguang Jun really come all this way to hunt down the wicked Yiling Laozu?" He teased, the words spilling out in an effusive rush.  Lan Wangji wondered how he had gotten used to not hearing his name a thousand different times, a thousand different ways all in one breath.  He absently wished he could always hear himself being called thus by Wei Ying.   Lan Sizhui hid an amused smile behind his sleeve, but Lan Jingyi pressed forward.  "So it really was you?  You have been harvesting souls and forcing them to wreak havoc here?" "That was most definitely not me!” protested Wei Ying indignantly.  “That’s my brainless copycat."  Wei Ying scowled.  "I caught him this morning.  Jerk.  He’s been parading around as the Yiling Patriarch and sullying my good name."   “What good name?” Lan Jingyi asked dubiously.   “Ah, why are you so mean!  Don’t be so blunt!” Wei Ying leaned away from Lan Jingyi and turned beseeching eyes on Lan Wangji.  “Lan Zhan, defend me!”   “No talking while eating,” Lan Wangji dutifully responded, pushing some food toward his beloved.  However, Lan Sizhui, who had already finished eating, was able to ask, “Wei-qianbei?  Did you say you caught him already?"   Wei Ying nodded seriously and motioned toward the stables.  “He’s out there with Little Apple.” "Should we take him back to Gusu now?" Lan Jingyi asked reluctantly, looking toward Lan Wangji.   "Ah, if you have to go quickly, I can go fetch him right now,” Wei Ying set the food back on the table and began to stand.  "You must be so busy…" Lan Wangji reflexively grabbed his hand to stop him from getting up.  "Not busy," he refuted.  He motioned toward the untouched food with his other hand.  "Eat." "It's really no trouble," Wei Ying protested weakly, but he settled back into his seat.  The hand that was caught under Lan Wangji's turned in its grasp to squeeze back.   "No talking while eating," Lan Wangji repeated, heaping food onto Lan Sizhui's empty plate and pushing it toward Wei Ying.  
---
The third time that Chief Cultivator Lan heard that Wei Ying was making mischief, he left without notifying his Council.  They have been exceptionally needy lately.  They disapproved whenever he left for a nighthunt, even the ones that were not related to the Yiling Laozu.  They didn't seem to understand that he always offered his help unequivocally, and he liked to be present for the particularly tricky nighthunts.  But he did take particular care to always be on hand for matters relating to Wei Ying.   “Lan Zhan.”   Lan Wangji turned around to see Wei Ying walking up behind him on the busy street.  He granted him a beatific smile, and Lan Wangji could not keep delight from turning up the corners of his mouth.  “I knew you would come for me.” “What is the danger?” Lan Wangji asked, scanning him for signs of distress.   “Always straight to the point,” Wei Ying laughed.  “Don’t worry; there’s no danger today!” Lan Wangji furrowed his brow.  “The reports…” “Ahaha, you can’t believe everything that you read, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying admonished playfully.  “Those reports may have been a teensy bit exaggerated,” he admitted.  “I swear to you, I pose no danger to anyone here.” Lan Wangji considered him pensively.  “And Wei Ying is not in danger?” he confirmed.   Wei Ying nodded earnestly, pledging, “I am neither in danger nor a danger to others.  You, however, are.”   “Me,” Lan Wangji repeated dumbly.   “Yes, you.  Look at yourself,” Wei Ying chided.  “You need to take proper care of yourself!  That must be one of your three thousand and some rules, right?  If it isn’t, it surely needs to be.  You’re not getting nearly enough rest!  What happened to the strict nine-to-five?  When was the last time you took a break?” “A break?” Lan Wangji echoed, still surprised by the turn of events.   “Oh, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan,” He sighed, turning serious.  He reached out to graze the dark circles under his eyes.  “You look so tired.  What is it like?  To carry the whole world on your shoulders.”   Lan Wangji instinctively leaned into his beloved’s touch, and he reached up to grasp the hand that so gently stroked his face.  Wei Ying unthinkingly tangled their fingers together and continued on.  “I have it on good authority that you’ve been unreasonably busy recently.  What is your Council thinking?  How can they expect yo-” Wei Ying rambled on, inadvertently riling himself up with each successive thought.   “Authority?  Who?” Lan Wangji interjected, latching onto the possible security breach.  He tried not to feel flattered about the implication that Wei Ying cared enough to place an informant to update him about Lan Wangji, but a potential spy in the Cloud Recesses cannot be tolerated.   “Ah, he asked for you to not be mad at him,” Wei Ying prefaced.  “But I told him since he just wants to take care of you, you couldn’t possibly get mad at him.”   “Lan Sizhui,” Lan Wangji realized.  “He ran into you during a night hunt.”   “He’s been so worried about you,” Wei Ying admitted, smiling fondly.  “You raised such a good son.  A-Yuan told me about the birthday treat he was trying to arrange for you, but …”   “Your son, too,” Lan Wangji interrupted.  His caring heart, he doesn’t say, is yours.   Wei Ying grins, “Yeah.  Our son.” “But why?” Lan Wangji pointedly glanced around the street and at the space between them.  Why are you here?  He doesn’t say.  Why am I here? “I know we agreed to part ways for the moment, so you could take care of your duties as Chief Cultivator,” Wei Ying began hesitantly.  “But I couldn’t watch you work yourself into the ground.”  He looked up stubbornly.  “The Council asks too much of you, too much for any human to handle.  They couldn’t spare you even a day to celebrate your birthday.”   “So you orchestrated … this?” Lan Wangji repeated, dumbfounded.   “Well, if there’s no other way to get you to take a break, I had to improvise,” Wei Ying grinned impishly.  “I’m rather good at that.”  He handed him a hand drawn map.  “This leads to a little abandoned farm house.  I’ve been repairing it off and on, but I want you to use it for the day.” Lan Wangji took the map, still silently waiting for him to continue.   “Take the day off.  For your birthday.  No clan, no council, no cultivation world.  Just a relaxing retreat,” Wei Ying explained.  “Surely the world can spare you… for one day.  For this day.”  He smiled hopefully up at his beloved.  Lan Wangji was just about to nod, to give in and accept this thoughtful birthday gift, when Wei Ying started to walk away.   “Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji asked in bewilderment.  Why would he craft the most elaborate plan to get them alone together and then walk away? Wei Ying paused, turning back to him.   “Will you not stay?” Wei Ying gave a slight laugh.  “Only if Lan Zhan wants me to.”  He fidgeted and looked away.  “I know I’m not really relaxing…” “Stay.”  He interrupted forcefully.  “Please.”  Lan Wangji stared intently into his beloved’s eyes, hoping his own beseeching eyes would communicate what his words could not.   “Oh, Lan Zhan.” He nodded in understanding and smiled blissfully, crinkling his eyes at the corners.  “Okay, Wei Ying will stay with you, but you have to rest.  Do you hear me?” he ordered playfully.  “This is a restful birthday retreat, and I want nothing but resting from you.”   Lan Wangji felt his mouth twitch into an answering smile at the sight of stern and protective Wei Ying.  He knew that tomorrow he would have to return to Gusu and give account to the Council.  He knew he probably would not see Wei Ying again until the next time he caused some chaos (or conveniently happened to be there anyway).  But this day, this perfect day, was a birthday gift he would treasure until the time he can lay down his Chief Cultivator title.  Then, maybe, everyday will be like this.
It’s so weird because Lan Wangji was the hardest character for me to, like, get in the mind of while watching MDZS, but my first three fics in this fandom have been from his pov.  Irony.  
If you enjoyed this, please let me know what you thought!
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chicagoindiecritics · 5 years
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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: VINTAGE REVIEW: Simply Irresistable
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THIS RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 7, 2019 FOR 25YL AS PART OF THEIR “GUILT-FREE PLEASURES” SERIES.
SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE— 3 STARS
Basic as the word may be, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition for the adjective “cute” goes in three very distinct directions. The second variation thereof: “attractive or pretty, especially in a childish, youthful, or delicate way” is the one used most often. The first meaning veers smarter defining “cute” as “clever or shrewd, often in an underhanded manner” and “impertinent, smart-alecky.” Lastly, “cute” can also describe something “obviously straining for effect.” As coincidence would have it for this 25YL article on “Guiltfree Pleasures”, the sentence example on that third definition reads “The movie’s too cute to be taken seriously.”
Folks, we have a triple winner. The 1999 Valentine’s Day romantic comedy and Sarah Michelle Gellar vehicle Simply Irresistible typifies each of those three definitions of “cute.” The attractiveness is easy to spot and the creative smarts bubble with the glamour.  Most especially, though, the movie is entirely the third one supported by the cinematic citation.  
With its willowy whiff of courtship and cuisine, this movie is indeed too cute to be taken seriously. The proper response as a viewer for Simply Irresistible then is simple. Don’t take it seriously. Enjoy all the flights of fancy and let yourself lap up all the cuteness possible.
Originally titled Vanilla Fog, the movie begins with a classic Hollywood meet cute complete with soon-to-be-recurring klutziness. Gellar’s fashionably mismatched and plucky restaurant owner Amanda Shelton catches the ankle and the eye of Sean Patrick Flannery’s clean-cut and blue-suited exec Tom Bartlett at a sunny outdoor food market, when an ornery peekytoe crab she came into possession of tries to crawl up his dapper and unsuspecting dress pants. From the get-go, this silent little crustacean and the guardian angel of Gene O’Reilly (Tony Award-winning playwright Christopher Durang) stand as the proxy puppeteers from the mystic beyond sent to improve Amanda’s failing business, unraveling confidence, and romantic luck.
Thanks to this twinkling and clawed dash of magic, Amanda and Tom soon find their personal and professional trajectories intertwined. Amanda is an exceedingly sweet woman who recently lost her mother and culinary mentor. She is quick to give a compliment and earns them just the same. A little corps of loyal old customers, her Aunt Stella (Betty Buckley of Split), and her bestie sous chef Nolan (poor Larry Gilliard, Jr., checking off the ’90s trend of the necessary sidekick of token diversity for the second time in a year after The Waterboy) help her mother’s Southern Cross restaurant stay open despite financial woes and a chef’s version of writer’s block.
Tom is a paper airplane connoisseur and a data-minded man of pragmatism and neurotic picadillo’s.  He is handcuffed to a vain girlfriend (Amanda Peet before her The Whole Nine Yards breakout) and charged with opening a $4 million posh restaurant inside the high-end Henry Bendel designer department store for Bendel heir Jonathan Bendel (veteran character actor Dylan Baker).  His right-hand voice of reason and persistent pusher is his assistant Lois (Patricia Clarkson, the best talent of the ensemble), who has fawning eyes for Jonathan.  
The kooky kick of edible enchantment is that Amanda’s feelings are mixing in and coming out of her renewed cooking. Needless to say, with one ecstatic bite, Tom, and anyone else with a triggered taste, is hooked. The charisma of the actors take over to sell this sorcery.  
Powder impresser and hot The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones star Sean Patrick Flannery—months before The Boondock Saints would turn him into an even bigger cult icon—counts as a nice casting get, but this entire project was built for the enormous Buffy the Vampire Slayer popularity of Sarah Michelle Gellar at the peak of her powers. Simply Irresistible, She’s All That, and Cruel Intentions all hit theaters in the winter of 1999, and this one was the flop of the trio by a large margin. It’s a shame, because Simply Irresistible might be the most re-watchable.  
Gellar and Flannery, draped nicely by the threads of costume designer Janie Bryant (It, Deadwood, and Mad Men), look gorgeous together. The aimed eye contact and targeted gazes alone, followed often by snickers and smirks between the two, disarm at every come-hither turn. Just the committed presence of the central couple overcomes some awful “if the broom fits, ride it” dialogue from Judith Roberts (her only feature credit). Loopy feelings from food make for a loopy movie too that sputters to a sweeping finish.
The raunch-less love scenes of cooking, kissing, and dancing can initially seem to come from a different movie than a ’90s-era romantic comedy in the same year as American Pie. But then, with the dedication for the glossy showmanship never shrinking, you realize you’re exactly in a throwback. With a tweak of two of period adjustment and pacing, Simply Irresistible would fit either in the Pillow Talk genre of farces or the It Happened One Night-level screwball comedies. This is a successful tone recognized by the late Roger Ebert in his overwhelmingly positive review of the film. His take comprises a hefty minority chunk of the movie’s unsightly 13% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 27 Metacritic score.
It takes a special kind of acting to make every bite on-camera look orgasmic while still carrying the throwaway sexual humor and scripted lines.  One wonders how many takes and versions director Mark Tarlov (the husband of Roberts working his only feature directing credit after a career as a producer) and his editor Paul Karasick sifted through for the cuts they settled on. The emotiveness while chewing, especially during the climactic big dinner backed prominently by Gil Goldstein’s nice and thick score, is over-the-top and adorable. Eat your heart out, Brad Pitt.  
As Gellar’s character seductively states, “dessert is the whole point of the meal.” Simply Irresistible is a sweet tooth’s dream, both in the kitchen and on the home-viewing couch. By golly, if you do not crave an obsessive urge and want to lick the DVD with the imagined taste and aroma of the caramel eclairs and other plates you see on screen, your parietal lobe interpreting those functions is broken. Go ahead and accept all of the synonyms for “delicious” used by Amanda in one aside to describe the treats on screen, including “savory,” “tasty,” “scrumptious,” “delectable,” “succulent,” and “mouthwatering.” Don’t worry, heavily researched copycat recipes exist for your future date night.
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terryblount · 5 years
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Ashen Review: It’s Dark Souls but Much Worse
Last Thursday at The Game Awards the announcement was made: Ashen is out now, exclusive to the Epic Games Store (why?). This game, years in the making, is suddenly unleashed upon the world with almost no marketing and not available on the world’s largest game store (Steam). A dubious start. So what is this game, and is it worth the wait?
Ashen, quite simply, is a low-budget Dark Souls clone that’s inferior in every way. It’s fairly short, has no character choices or builds, is a bit floaty and imprecise with its combat, and has a nonsensical story. However, there is a certain charm to it if you’re a die-hard Souls-like fan, but Ashen does little to win over new players to the genre.
The Art Style: Pretty but Problematic
The most striking thing about this game ever since its 2015 reveal is the unique minimalistic art style. There’s certainly an appeal to this very bleak and drab world featuring characters with no faces. There’s some lovely views and inspiring environments that invite exploration.
This is one of the more colorful and impressive landscapes. The joy of exploration!
However, I can’t help but feel the art style choice was made more for the sake of easier art creation than good game design. From nearly the very start the art style gets in the way of playability. The enemies, clutter, and backgrounds blend together as mostly muted grays and browns, which limits the visual distinction needed during intense combat. More on that later.
The Story: Dark Souls but Nonsensical
From the start the game presents itself as almost absurdly inspired by Dark Souls. The introduction cutscene is a close copy of the original Dark Souls introduction…except without the quality art, excellent voice acting, and haunting atmosphere.
The story, as best as I can describe it, is about an old power that brought light to the world but fell and was consumed by the dark or something. You’re trying to figure out a way back to the light. Maybe.
The game also falls victim to fantasy term overload. There’s Listeners and Humans and Ashen and Elder Dark and Gefn (who’s totally not Gwyn from Dark Souls)…and none of this is allowed to have its time and place.
“Ake had the blood of chiefs in his veins and the brains of a fangfish in his skull.” – Eila
Dark Souls’ story gets away with ambiguity because it creates a living and breathing world for you to unravel as you play. Ashen has no such subtlety or depth here, partially because of it’s low-budget.
To prove my point, the characters speak quite seriously, with fairly low-quality voice acting (budget constraints again), as if any of their unexplained fantasy talk means something. Yet it’s easy to see that their quests are actually quite contrived, mostly being fetch or kill quests that conveniently pad out the gameplay time.
Here be a quest giver! She probably needs something fetched or someone killed.
Crafting: Thinking not Required
Continuing the trend of inferior copycat, the crafting/upgrade system in Ashen is also a lesser version of Dark Souls. There’s only two meaningful weapon types: one-handed and two-handed. And there’s only one upgrade path for each weapon. Your armor and shield can’t be upgraded, and the armor is simply one single piece instead of the mix-and-match sets of Dark Souls.
“A tinker without tools is like a lamp without fuel. A dull affair indeed.” – Flokir
What’s worse is there’s not really any distinct move sets between clubs or axes or whatnot (there are no swords for some reason). Therefore, you basically pick any weapon you want and dutifully upgrade it as you collect the plentiful materials. It’s very basic and the lack of interesting choices makes this feel all rather perfunctory.
I’m exploring this mountain pass using the club and shield because it’s all the same anyway.
Character Non-Building
Perhaps most puzzling is the complete lack character leveling system, which means there are no assignable stat points, which means there are no character builds. You earn points when you kill enemies, but these points are only used to upgrade or modify or purchase various items.
“You are stronger now, child of mine. In spirit, in body, and in the company you keep.” – Gefn
For the first few hours I kept thinking I must be missing the system that lets me, you know, build my character! But I wasn’t missing anything. There is simply no character building system. So bizarre.
There is a simply rune system you can equip and expand as you play, giving slight boosts to stamina or whatnot. However, there’s also no magic or spell system of any kind. I guess that would have been too much to ask?
The World Itself: Looting & Climbing
Things are looking pretty bad for Ashen so far, but the world itself is a bright spot. There’s dank caves, ruined palaces, peaceful rivers, expansive plains, bandit hideouts, and more. Many of the locations are inspired by (take a wild guess) Dark Souls, but even if the creativity is lacking, exploration is enjoyable.
I do enjoy a good treasure hidden around a corner! Poor little skeleton…time to loot!
One big reason for the enjoyment is all the hidden treasures stashed throughout the environments. It’s good fun entering new areas for the first time and finding the nooks and crannies often containing loot. Although most of these items aren’t very helpful since the lack of crafting choices limits the rare loot. Oh well.
I should mention there’s a climbing system that lets you grapple up roughly neck-high objects. It’s a bit wonky, but it let’s you explore in some unique and cool ways…and die often as you fail to climb properly and fall to your unfortunate death…
The One Unique Thing: Your Village
I must mention the one unique aspect of Ashen: the village-building system. The tutorial has you found a small village that is basically just some fields and rocks by a river. You’ll encounter various characters in the world that will join your cause and move in to your village.
Ah, home sweet home by the fire! Watching my village expand is a real highlight.
As you complete quests for various characters, you’ll visually see their houses being built. It’s a nice touch that serves to connect you to the world a bit more, and that connection is desperately needed to make things feel a bit more cohesive.
Note that there are zero choices to make regarding the building system. It’s all automatic. You don’t do anything except play and watch, which is fine I guess but a bit disappointing compared to what other games offer these days.
The Fiddly and Deadly Combat
Being a Dark Souls clone, this game lives and dies by how well balanced and solid the combat system is. On the plus side the “you can die in a moment if you’re not careful” threat is ever-present, giving a very nice sense wariness and accomplishment as you explore more dangerous and demanding encounters.
Less fortunate is the finicky controls and floaty-feeling movement. There’s very little weightiness to the combat. Often it feels like you’re just flailing about, hoping the targeting system puts you in the right attack direction.
Too many effects going off, too much chaos. Battles are far too messy to carefully study.
The combat balancing is mostly good, but there are several obnoxious locations inspired by the most annoying locations of past Dark Souls games (Blighttown, New Londo Ruins, Shrine of Amana).
It’s very dark and dangerous. There’s a bunch of enemies who may jump out at any moment…
Cooperative Play and AI Woes
Ashen is weird when it comes to multiplayer. It tries for some bizarre combination of Dark Souls and Journey and it’s kind of a mess. You can join up with other real players at times. However, most of the game will likely be played with an AI companion. Although sometimes you’ll play alone because the game is either broken or maybe it’s intentional…I’m not sure.
Speaking of the AI, usually the AI companion will attack the enemies and revive you if you go down. However, there’s plenty of times the AI will get stuck, be unable to follow, may stop attacking, and will stand next to your dying body refusing to revive you. Not cool at all.
My idiot AI companion is standing over there, refusing to come revive me. Very upsetting.
Overall, the cooperative system is unreliable. For a game that is so hard in spots and built for coop, there needs to be far better companion AI and an easier way to join up with a real world friend.
Conclusion: The Price is Too High
Ashen is a lesser Dark Souls clone with a nonsense story, no character building, messy combat, fiddly cooperative play, and a fairly small world by comparison.
On the positive side, the art style has its charms, and the village-building is a nice concept. I did enjoy my time with it, but I realize this is mostly because I’m a Souls-like fanatic who’ll enjoy even poorly made imitations.
However, there just isn’t enough quality here to justify the asking price of $40. If the game was priced at $20, I’d definitely recommend it to Souls-like fans because the game feels roughly one-third as good as a proper Dark Souls experience.
Stylized art, pretty views
Rewarding exploration
Village-building is nice
Semi-helpful companions
Mostly fair challenge
Totally stable
Super-fast loading
Few glitches for me
Tries to be Dark Souls
Floaty movement/combat
No character builds
Limited crafting/upgrading
Companion AI issues
Lore is mumbo-jumbo
Finicky keyboard mappings
Low-budget graphics
No new game plus
Fails to be Dark Souls
Playtime: 18 hours total. Nick finished all quests and explored nearly everywhere in about 18 hours.
Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using an Intel i7-3930k CPU, 32GB of memory, and a nVidia GTX 980 Ti graphics card.
Ashen Review: It’s Dark Souls but Much Worse published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/
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