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#i guess I’m part of the problem because I rarely post but I do miss the old times
zimmseric · 9 months
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them!!
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arlana-likes-to-write · 11 months
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Second Chance - Chapter 3
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Masterlist 
Warning: mention of blip, death, life support, jealousy, panic attack 
Word Count: 3.9 k
So the problem with taking a long nap, it was hard to fall asleep. It also didn’t help that your stomach was a little upset from dinner. FRIDAY informed you that the common floor had ginger ale and crackers. You sat on the couch with your sketchbook on your lap and crackers next to you. You preferred drawing comics or line art, realism wasn’t your thing. But drawing portraits of people helped you remember them and the memories. You were drawing your mom when she was in the courtroom. It was rare that she let you come with her and watch her do her thing. She was afraid that you were going to be a target if people connected you to her. 
You missed her so much and you wished she was here to help you through this. When the doctors came into her room at the hospital and told you your options, it was the hardest decision you had to make. But you knew your mom better than anyone, she was your best friend, and you knew she wouldn’t want to be in a vegetative state. So, she was taken off life support and her organs were donated to help save lives. You whipped a tear from your eye before it fell onto your sketchbook. “Why are you crying in the dark?” A voice laced with a Russian accent asked. You jumped, not expecting a voice. In front of you was a blonde-haired girl wearing sweatpants and a SHIELD training shirt. She was fresh out of a shower; her hair was damp and braided. 
“Maybe because I don’t like crying when it’s bright outside,” she shrugged and made her way to the kitchen. You spun around to lean on the back of the couch. The blonde was taking out the leftovers from dinner. “Who are you?” If you were to make an educated guess, she was related to Natasha in some way. 
“Your Stark’s kid,” she deflected your question with a statement of her own. “I’m surprised he doesn’t have more of you running around.” 
“Probably does,” you said. “I wouldn’t put it past dear old dad,” she placed her food in the microwave and turned to face you, arms crossed against her chest. Her green eyes flickered to the beanie you still chose to wear. “I find it unfair you know who I am and I don’t know you.” She smirked and turned to take her food out of the microwave. 
“Where is the fun in that, Stark?”
“Easton,” you corrected her. She raised a questioning eyebrow at you. “I go by my mother’s maiden name since she is the one who raised me and Tony didn’t.” Your mom never spoke ill of the man when you questioned why he was never around. Instead, she told you the truth that she never told him she was pregnant. You stopped asking questions because you didn’t need him. Your mom was all you needed. 
“Well, Easton,” she smiled. “It was nice meeting you. Try to get some sleep.” She walked back over to the elevator and stepped inside. 
“Sleep tight, blondie,” you sat back down on the couch and focused on your drawing. But you didn’t miss the look of surprise on her face as the metal doors closed. You chuckled, popping a cracker into your mouth. You weren’t worried about the mysterious blonde that got food quickly and left. You figured she was supposed to be here since Tony’s AI didn’t alert anyone or alarms didn’t go off. Now you weren’t an Avengers super fan but you knew of them through the news and research for your comics but you didn’t recognize her. She must be a new addition post the Blip. You sighed, biting the end of the pencil. 
You weren’t part of the half of the population that was taken. There was a part of you that wished you were. The car accident happened a few months before the Blip. So you grieved your mom and those you lost. It was hard. You threw yourself into your drawings, and your research, and traveled the world to help others to ignore your grief. It worked. Was it unhealthy? Yes. But you helped a lot of people, wasn’t that worth it? 
You cleaned up the crackers and cleaned the glass you used. There was an ache in your bones and you knew it was time for bed. 
*
You were back on the common floor in the kitchen, sipping on coffee and waiting for your oatmeal to be done. You thanked every god that existed that your taste buds still liked coffee. The microwave beeped and you took it out. As you ate it you made a list of things you needed to do before the weekend was over and your doctor appointment tomorrow morning. Your new room was fully furnished even with kitchen appliances so you could donate your furniture except the desk and bean bag in your office. You could put the desk you had in your bedroom or near the window in the living room. The hall closet would be before seasonal clothes, extra supplies, and a few things you kept that were your mom’s. You had a lot of stuff which meant you needed to go through everything and donate the stuff you didn’t need. But you weren’t sure how long you would be at the tower? Was it a permanent placement? Or until you got better, if you got better. You didn’t like to think about that. “How did you sleep?” Natasha asked, walking up to the coffee pot and pouring herself some. 
“Okay,” you took a bite of your oatmeal. “I think that nap messed up my sleeping schedule.” You giggled. You couldn’t help but stare at the redhead in front of you, trying to compare features from the blonde you met last night. They had similar eye color and teasing look in their eyes. They even smirked the same.      
“You're starring,” Natasha smirked. “I’m sorry but I’m spoken for and I don’t think Tony would like that.” You looked away from her so she didn’t see your embarrassment but a playful smile danced on your lips. 
“Sorry, I guess I’m more tired than I thought,” you looked back at the Black Widow. “Or you're just that mesmerizing to look at.” Natasha groaned, gently slapping you on the shoulder. 
“You flirt better than your father, I'll give you that,” you giggled. “Well I was thinking if you weren’t that tired,” she leaned against the counter. “We could borrow a few of Stark’s cars and go to your apartment to get your things. I can bribe Bucky, Steve, and my sister to help.” Sister? Interesting. But you didn’t dwell too much on that. 
“Why are you offering to help?” You asked with a tilt of your head. 
“This can’t be easy,” she stated. “With your diagnosis, reaching out to your biological father, and moving into a new place with new people,” you smiled. It was not easy. “But I bet having stuff you're familiar with can make it easier.” She was right. The bed was comfortable but you missed your mom’s guilt. The walls were bare, missing your photos and artwork. 
“Thank you, Natasha.” 
“Don’t mention it. I’ll go round up the delinquents. Do you need clothes to wear?” You looked down at your sleeping clothes. You could change into the clothes you were wearing yesterday but they were dirty. 
“Uh yeah,” you scratched the back of your head. “I wasn’t expecting him to offer me a place at the tower.” It was common practice for you to take an overnight bag when you went somewhere due to your random spots of fatigue. You expected to be back at your apartment by lunch night. Natasha frowned. 
“Did you not expect Tony to help you?” The Black Widow asked. You shrugged. 
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” you told her. The frown remained on Natasha’s face. 
“Wanda will have something for you to wear. FRIDAY, can you inform Wanda to meet Y/n at her room with clothes?” The AI confirmed she would alert the witch. You smiled. 
“Thanks again, Nat,” you weren’t expecting this level of kindness from the other Avengers. 
“Just tell FRIDAY when you're ready,” you finished your breakfast and cleaned up the dishes. By the time you took the elevator to the floor you were on, Wanda was outside your door with an armful of clothes. You laughed. 
“Got enough options?” You teased, opening the door for her. She huffed with a roll of her eyes. 
“I wasn’t sure what would fit or your style,” she dumped the clothes onto the couch. “So I brought a lot,” she surveyed the mess she created. “Okay, I may have gone a little overboard.” You giggled and started to go through the pile. You settled on a SHIELD shirt, that matched the blonde’s last night, and a pair of black shorts. But a few dresses did catch your eye and you made a mental note to ask her to burrow them. After a quick shower and changing into clothes, you informed the AI that you were ready. 
“Miss. Romanoff and company are in the garage,” you grabbed your wallet, keys, and phone. “Step into the elevator and I’ll bring you down.” 
“Thanks, FRIDAY,” you said, walking out of your room and to the elevator. Once inside, your mind began to race. You leaned back on the metal wall, looked up at the ceiling, and stared at your reflection. Was your apartment clean? You couldn’t remember. It was another effect of chemo - you called it chemo brain. Sometimes you couldn’t remember if you turned off the oven or locked the door. It was why drawing helped so much to pinpoint and focus on specific memories. 
So was your apartment clean? Gods, you hoped so. You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. You tried to push down your anxiety at the thought of 4 Avengers walking into a messy apartment. The elevator doors opened and you saw Natasha, Buck, and Steve next to a moving van and the blonde you met leaning against a red Mustang. The sight made you smile. “Hey Blondie,” her head snapped to you. 
“Blondie?” Natasha questioned looking at who you assumed was her sister. 
“Easton,” she smirked. “You are the reason I was pulled out of bed.” You rolled your eyes. 
“I believe that was your sister,” you tilted your head to Natasha. The three Avengers watched the interaction with confusion all over their faces. “We met last night. She knew who I was but refused to tell me her name so from now until she tells me her name she will be Blondie.” Natasha shook her head with a defeated sigh. 
“Ya delayueta (idiot),” she said, hitting her sister’s arm. Whatever she said made Bucky chuckle. It was Russian that you knew but you and Steve looked at each other, the only ones not understanding the language. Her sister frowned, rubbing the spot Natasha hit. “You’ll be riding with my sister,” you huffed. Her name was still a mystery but the blonde looked smug. “We’ll follow you.” 
“Sounds good, you smiled, getting into the passenger seat. You didn’t catch whatever Natasha said to her sister before they got into the van. The blonde got with a sigh and turned on the car. “What did she say to you?” 
“Put your address in,” she handed you her phone with the maps app already up instead of answering. You did as she asked and plugged it into the charger. “She told me to stop being difficult.” She began the drive to your apartment. 
“Difficult?” You didn’t think she was. “Why are you being difficult?” But you were curious why she kept her name a mystery. You couldn’t find much about her online with a quick Google search. 
“It’s more fun,” you laughed, shaking your head. “Do you not think so, Easton?” 
“Whatever you say, blondie,” you smiled. “Whatever you say.” 
*
You unlocked the door to your apartment and stepped out of the way for the Avengers to enter. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 ½ bathroom. You used your second bedroom as your office and art studio since no one was coming to visit you. You were lucky to afford a place like this on your own and a glance around it wasn’t a mess. Bucky carried in some moving boxes. “So all the furniture is gonna stay beside the stuff in my office. The pots, pans, and utensils will be donated. I guess we’ll pack as much as we can today and I’ll come back another day to finish it.” 
“Anything you want to prioritize?” Steve asked. 
“My clothes,” you smiled. “As much as I love Wanda’s clothes, I don’t think this is my vibe.” Natasha laughed. 
“I’ll handle your clothes.” 
“Steve and I will get your furniture from your office,” Bucky suggested. 
“And I’ll stand here and look pretty.” 
“Ya delayueta (idiot),” you teased. Bucky, Natasha, and the blonde looked at you, mouths open. “I pick up on languages easily,” A quick Google search also didn’t help. “It’s Russian for idiot,” you told the blonde super soldier. Steve smiled, shaking his head with a laugh. 
“She’s not wrong.” She gasped, clutching her chest. 
“Steve Rogers, how could you?” You smiled. 
“I’ll buy pizza if you do some work, blondie.” You said and walked over to your hall closet to get a cooler and some reusable bags. Packing up the kitchen was going to be your job so you could go through the fridge and pantry. Natasha headed off to your bedroom and Steve and Bucky went to your office which left the blonde in your living space. She put a box together and began to take the pictures off the wall. You couldn’t help but watch her. The living room was decorated with pictures and items from your travels and the research you’ve done. She would look at the picture for a little bit before putting it into the box. It was odd, a stranger was going through some of your most prized possessions, packing them up so you could move into the Avengers’ tower. What a strange life you were living. 
“So,” you looked at the blonde. “What languages do you know?”
“I’m fluent in English and German but I’ve traveled a lot and I can put up with delicate differences.” She nodded, picking up a handmade mug you got while volunteering in South Africa. You continued to watch her. There was an odd look on her face. You frowned, going back to cleaning out the fridge not wanting to think too much about it. 
*
Yelena walked into the spare room you deemed as your office. The space was cleaned out of a desk, a bean bag, and an art easel. There was something about you that Yelena found intriguing but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She put together one of the moving boxes and began to take the artwork off the wall. They were all line drawings of various sea creatures with watercolor accents. Her favorite was the blue whale with her calf. Once they were safely in the box, Yelena opened the closet. She wondered how you could afford this place on top of your medical expenses. A majority of the stuff was extra art supplies and canvas, all still in their original packaging. But what caught her eye was the flying cabinet. She couldn’t help herself as she knelt in front of it and opened the bottom drawer. Was it an invasion of privacy? Probably but Yelena was a spy at heart and her curiosity got the best of her.  
She wasn’t surprised that she found more of your artwork but the contents of the pictures were surprising. It was the Avengers in comic book format. The mission they were on Yelena didn’t recognize so she assumed you made it up. The details were impressive. She put the comic back and picked up another drawing. It was a realistic portrait of a woman. Yelena didn’t know her but she saw similar features of you in her. She made the educated guess she was your mother. Natasha called her on her flight back from St. Petersburg and explained your story to her; diagnosed with cancer and the only family you had left was Tony because a car accident killed your mother. It was weird learning about your life through pictures she had to pack. You’ve traveled and seen the world by choice. You had a loving mother and now a father that brought you in without question. Those relationships weren’t brought together by a Red Room mission. She understood the feeling that grew when she saw you. Jealousy. She was jealous. Jealous of a girl who was dying unless she got a bone marrow transplant. It was ridiculous, uncalled for. But she couldn’t help it. Every time she learned something about you, a warm feeling built in her chest and she envied everything. “For a spy, you're pretty easy to sneak up on,” Yelena jumped, turning around quickly. You were standing in the doorway with a playful smile on your face. “Whatcha got there, blondie?” You asked, walked over to her, and sat down. Smiling, you looked at the picture in her hand. “That’s my mom. It was right before the car accident.” 
“They never found out who caused it, right?” You nodded, taking the picture from her. Yelena frowned, not liking the sadness radiating from you. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone through your stuff.” You placed the photo back where it belonged. 
“Don’t worry about it,” you stood up, holding out your hand to help her up. Yelena hesitated (she wondered if you noticed) but finally took it. Your hand was smooth against hers beside the small callus on your finger. “You would have seen them eventually. The pizza is here. I guess you did enough to deserve it.” You teased her. Yelena chuckled, rolling her eyes. She wondered how you kept your heart. It was what Melina said to her and Natasha before the Red Room took them - ‘don’t let them take your heart.’ Life had not been easy for you but you still managed to keep your smile and sense of humor. It was another thing on her list to envy. 
“Your evil, Easton,” you giggled, looking back over your shoulder. 
“You don’t know half of it.” 
*
FRIDAY told you that Tony was in his lap. You held a box that was decorated in red and gold, tight underneath your arm. In hindsight, you should have known who your father was based on the color of the box but you only saw it once or twice. When the lab door opened, Tony looked up from his workbench. “Hey kid, how was moving out of the apartment?” He asked. 
“Good,” you sat down on an empty stool next to him. “I have to go back again but a majority of my stuff is here.” You watched his eyes glance at the box. 
“Well, let me know if I can help,” you nodded, tracing the lid of the box with your finger and looking away from him. Tony pulled up another stool. “Hey,” you looked at him. “What’s wrong?” You sighed, handing him the box. 
“The letters she wrote to you,” he took the box, eyes wide as he stared at it. “You can read them or not or destroy them. It’s your choice.” 
“Thank you,” you nodded, standing up. 
“One more thing,” you let out a shaky breath. “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Do-do you want to come?” You were afraid to ask him, unsure of his response. But your mom didn’t allow him to be in your life, you wanted to give him the chance. The ball was in his court. You could tell he was shocked by the invitation. 
“Of course. I’ll be there,” you felt the weight leave your shoulders. Since your diagnosis, you’ve gone to your doctor's appointment alone. “Just let me know,” you smiled. 
“Sounds good. I’ll see you later, Tony,” you left his lap, hearing a ‘see ya’ from behind you. You took the elevator to the floor and into your room. It was a mess, boxes everywhere. You sighed, grabbed your mom’s quilt, and sat on the couch. The quilt belonged to your great-grandmother, who passed away before you were born. She gifted it to your mom when she graduated high school. It was blue and white with stars. You had great memories of you and your mom wrapped in this quilt reading a bedtime story by the campfire. You sighed, falling deeper into the couch and allowing the quilt to keep you warm. The mess could wait and be dealt with another time. 
*
His leg began to shake as he stared at the box still resting in his hand. He felt a panic attack building inside him. It was a long time coming with everything going on but he didn’t have time for it. On shaky legs, he stood up and opened a drawer at his desk pulling out a bottle of whiskey and a glass. It was rare that he drank but he needed something to take the edge off. He picked up the box and sat down on the small couch. 
There was a part of him that thought about destroying the box of letters. He didn’t have to know what he missed in the past; he had you now and could look towards the future, no matter how short it may be. No, he couldn’t think like that. He poured his drink. “Tony, your heart rate has elevated. Should I contact Pepper?” 
“No, FRIDAY, I’m okay,” he wasn’t sure if he was okay but he opened the box. He wondered if there was an order to the letters. Each one was titled - 1st Christmas, High School Graduation, 5th birthday, and every milestone he missed Jessica wrote him a letter. Tony wasn’t sure how long it took before her words began to blur and he wasn’t making sense of anything. He missed you graduating high school and traveling with Captain Mills to help research how global warming was affecting sharks. He missed all of this because he wasn’t given a choice to be in your life. The beating of his heart was the only thing he heard in his quiet lab. His breathing was erratic as he picked up his full glass and threw it at the wall. The glass shattering startled him as he sat on the ground, back against the couch. He pressed the palm of his hands to his eyes, hoping it would help but it wasn’t. He couldn't stop the growing panic inside of him. It was too much.  
Soon he felt fingers running through his hair. FRIDAY must have notified Pepper and he was so out of it that he didn’t hear Pepper enter. “I’m here,” he mumbled. Pepper hummed, pushing some strands off his forehead that were stuck due to sweat. 
“That was a big one,” she stated. “Just sit with me, okay?” Tony didn’t have the energy to resist her as he rested his head on her shoulder. The sweet smell of her lavender perfume washed over him. He felt better, felt grounded. His heart rate evened out and his breathing wasn’t as erratic. “Do you want to talk about what triggered it?” She asked softly. 
“Later,” he said. “Can we just be?” Pepper nodded, holding him tighter. And they would talk about it later. But for now, they were just Pepper and Tony. Not the CEO of Stark Industries or Iron. Not a mother of 1 and a new father of two. In the quiet and empty lab, they were safe in each other’s arms. Just being Pepper and Tony. 
Taglist:  @likemick
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munsonfamilyband · 1 year
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What a Phone Call Can Do
Teasers for my Different Meeting AU (that has basically become a fic at this point, may even pop it on Ao3 who knows), title of this post is an idea for a title, let me know opinions?
I have specific things that I am planning to include, and moments that I will do as canon, adjusting canon, or throwing away canon, so here’s some of those and feel free to share ideas:
Steve is going to spend the night with Eddie at Rick’s, no way is he leaving him. There will be discussion of Steve’s trauma in more depth in this part, as well as discussion of his homelife and parental neglect. 
Steve will be present for Jason and Patrick’s arrival at the lake house and Patrick’s death, Jason will take a slightly different turn on his idea of what Eddie is doing.
Yes, I will be making Steve get cursed, why, because he is my little doll that I like to make bad things happen to (this means Eddie will know his song, I have two ideas already, one is my own and another I saw in a fic and laughed so hard I almost peed, see if you can guess).
After leaving Eddie temporarily, to drop off the kids and Robin somewhere, Steve is going to run some errands, mainly: getting food and clothes for himself, stopping by Gareth’s house to fill him in on what’s going on, getting food for Eddie, leaving his car at his house so it’s less suspicious and sneaking into the trailer park to get Eddie clothes/see Wayne
Steve has been accepted by the other people in Eddie’s life at this point. Wayne almost immediately fell in love with Steve (I’m a sucker for Wayne telling Eddie to marry Steve of he'll adopt him), and the Corroded boys all got wooed by Steve’s cooking and baking, especially Gareth (Steve also has hair care talks with Gareth because they both love their hair and have been trying to bully Eddie into taking care of his)
Nancy having weird Feelings about Steve and Eddie, thinking she’s into Steve at first, but then she realizes that she's just jealous (is it because she misses Jonathan? Is it because she's suddenly interested in a clumsy lesbian? Maybe it’s both and I create the messiest polyamorous relationship known to man)
Following canon: the fruity four will still get dragged into the Upside Down, starting with Steve being yanked in, Steve will still get attacked by the bats, Fred is still victim 2 but that will happen off screen as this is from Steve’s point of view, Patrick is still victim number 3 and dies in the lake, Max is still cursed and plays bait, Nancy and Robin Acting Adventure at an Asylum
Adjusting canon: Steve is with Eddie for more of the story, contemplating having Nancy be cursed by Vecna as they leave the Upside Down or maybe having it be Eddie so he can see Steve as one of the victims, Steve’s injuries are not ignored once they leave the Upside Down (homoerotic wound care anyone?) which is going to adjust the groups at the end as well
Tossing out canon: Steve is also cursed but (thanks head trauma) he doesn’t know until it’s too late, replacing War Zone scene with a cute steddie moment in the RV, addressing Steve’s many head injuries and giving him hearing problems (there is a government issues hearing aid at his house but he rarely wears it, he will be once they learn about the music), happy ending :) 
Take note that I didn’t include Eddie and the bats here, because I have no idea if I’m even going to include that, I have an idea for following canon fully, adjusting canon and tossing out canon but I won't really know what I’m doing until I get farther into the fic.
There will be a happy ending though, I promise. My own gay little heart needs to see Will Byers meet Eddie and have his tiny gay brain explode because “wow hot man”, I also need Eddie and El to meet because she would adore him (Bitchin and Metal, hello?). I may also try to include a scene with Murray, because I love him, meeting everyone properly, finally meeting the Steve and before any of the adults or Cali crew can be clued in on their relationship, Murray tries to set up Eddie and Steve. I will also be showing Steve allowing himself to be soft with some of the kids (my heart grows 2 sizes whenever I think about Steve getting close with El and calling her Ellie bean, which she loves because it’s a new nickname)
Potential other ships to be included:
Jonathan/Argyle/Nancy/Robin as a polycule or as two relationships or mixture
Lumax/Elumax (as long as Max and Lucas are together I'm happy)
NO BYLER sorry, hot take, but I don't like Byler, and I think that Will deserves better than M*ke Wheeler, maybe I'll have Will and Gareth get to know each other though
Jopper, duh I love them
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moophinz · 8 months
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Y8 Thoughts I Guess 🤔
I keep pacing the kitchen while repeating the same things in my head over and over again so here is my thought vomit. Long vent post incoming
• Really concerned about how likely it is that we’ll only see the Jimas interact with Kiryu one or two times in a similar manner to 6. It’ll feel even worse this time for me considering Kiryu has cancer. It’ll also be a grievance for me given something I’ve complained about a lot. How weird they are about Kiryu and Majima’s relationship. It feels like ever since the ending of 3, they haven’t allowed them much of any interaction while simultaneously making a point that they’re close to each other even with the distance and it throws me for a loop every time. It’s made even more frustrating that their social medias have no problem posting about them (especially from Majima’s angle) as though they’re an actual ship. Plus, recently sharing blatant Kazumaji art on stream. If they keep doing that after this game I’m going to catapult myself to the sun. Obviously, I never expected the ship to actually happen. All I want is for their bizzaro relationship to have some sort of proper conclusion, but I have zero hope of that. It just makes no sense to keep making them out to be besties of some sort and then not allowing any follow through on that. Hell, they were weird in Ishin, too. It’s just SUCH a strange thing to do so often.
•At this point, it feels like the Jimas are only together because no one knows what else to do with them so they just end up together for years and years. My issue here is that it puts all of them on the back burner even though there’s still stuff missing about them. Like the biggest one being that we never get to see the real Daigo. They tell us about him a lot, but we never get to see him. RGGO of course bridges this gap. It’s just disappointing to know that’ll only ever exist there.
•If Mine is back (Yokoyama talked like the only thing stopping him from that was his voice actor), would he interact with Daigo? He was such a core part of his character, and it’d be interesting if they did see each other again. I would of course like it if Mine got to tell Daigo that he loved him straight to his face even though I’m more than certain they’d never do that.
•The Ichiban and Saeko proposal and all that still has me on edge. I do N O T know what all that’s about. Yokoyama claimed the game isn’t romantic, but he’s been on a kick lately with saying one thing and the exact opposite happening so I’m feeling pretty hesitant to believe him. I admittedly have a very hard time with media that contains a prominent pairing that I do not care about, but the plot keeps pushing in my face. Like with the second Kiryu saga game. To expand on Ichiban and Saeko, I mean that in 7, there’s nothing to show they have anything romantically going on despite the player’s ability to choose to date her or any other lady. I made sure to date nobody in my playthrough since I don’t care about that kind of stuff personally. They do, however, keep teasing Saeko and Nanba in a subtle way that really surprised me. I did find it interesting since visually they’re a really unexpected pairing and a possible romance that doesn’t involve the lead character seems pretty rare. RGG also typically isn’t that good at writing romantic notes so it was another surprise for me. All in all, this is just a personal issue I have pretty often with romance in media.
I know the game is still months away, and I’m not jumping to any conclusions. Just voicing a few concerns and one thing that’s sort of me hoping for something. It’s going to be a long wait to have all my questions answered 💀
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cassarilladraws · 2 years
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Watched “Passion” and I enjoyed it so much!! First off, I should say while I love the idea of a kwami swap, I was nervous for this episode. Reflekdoll showed just how atrocious a kwami swap could be done. That episode is one of my least favorite episodes in the series for a lot of reasons. So, I’m pleasantly surprised that this time around it was done well. This is just me rambling about it and I wrote this twice and had Tumblr crash before I could post so yeah how coherent is take 3? …but I wanted to get my thoughts out there. For the record, I’m someone who’s here for Adrien’s character (outside of the romance aspect) and how he grows over time. I’m also interested in the backstory and the lore of the Agrestes and the Miraculous. I love some of the side characters and can enjoy other things too of course. But as far as my main reasons for watching? Most episodes leave me with mere crumbs.  But “Passion” was a FEAST. It’s up there as one of my favorite episodes.  The kitchen scene was very well done. It was eerie too, seeing Gabriel act like an actual father is off putting since he rarely does so. Adrien is happy to be having breakfast with him (and not having to schedule months in advance only to be stood up as we’ve seen in the past.) However, Adrien is also afraid he’ll make one false move or say the wrong thing to make his father shut him out or get angry. Nathalie addresses this directly by calling out Gabriel on the fact that he doesn’t even know anything about his son’s breakfast preferences. I love her sass in this scene. Also, the fact that she addresses Adrien too. Adrien should be able to express what he wants and doesn’t want, but he’s too afraid to do so.
Now, it worries me a little bit because is this the show trying to make us sympathetic to Gabriel? Because I’m not. If it takes you getting Cataclysmed and fearing you may die soon to pay attention to your son… that is pathetic. Nathalie notices how sketchy his change in behavior is. If he really wanted to be a good father he would actually do it, make that his priority instead of spending his time terrorizing Paris.
Then there’s what we learned next from Emilie! EMILIE!! This is something I’ve always wondered. What would she think about all of this? Now, we know she had accepted her death. Her concern was that Adrien had a family and was taken care of. Gabriel stopped watching and got rid of these video messages. So, on top of all of the other evil crap he’s also going against his wife’s wishes. Actually, to such an extent where I’d argue when Adrien lost his mom he also lost his father. Gabriel’s distance and treating his son like a business asset for 4 seasons showed us that clearly. Let me get this straight. Emilie did not want Gabriel to do this, now as a result of him doing so both he and Nathalie are dying. In their pursuit of bringing Emilie back they have doomed Adrien to be without a family. Which is… wow. Adrien of course is pretty upset about Nathalie’s illness. He’s seen these symptoms before. It’s not the first time the show had demonstrated him realizing they are the same things he saw his mother suffer with. He is well aware of how serious this situation is. Moving on… I really love seeing interactions between Adrien and Plagg and always miss them when they aren’t there. Seeing so many little moments this episode made me happy. I love their dynamic. Although, I will say the little scene with Tikki and Plagg is strange. I know they say their holders can’t be together because they might find out their identities and I know this is set up for later episodes but, this part of the show is just hard to buy at this point. It feels like an instance of this thing is a problem because the show says it is. I’m just kind of like… yeah sure if you say so I guess? Then there’s the akuma battle which this episode just made me so happy. My gosh. Ladybug getting hit and Chat Noir carrying her through Paris was such a fun scene! The action in it was great. Loved the slide across the roof and under the bus! Chat Noir talking about the beams being “attracted” to him was funny. Gosh I love him! In the sewer, I really appreciated the moment where Adrien contemplated using the wish. Not to get too personal, but my dad has lost a lot of his mobility and is in a lot of pain. I’ve seen him go from a guy that could do whatever he want to someone who has to use a walker. He’s a strong person, he wouldn’t want you to read this and feel sorry for him, but if I had something in my hands that could take that pain away from him and make his life better OF COURSE I’d think about making that wish. I also appreciate that this was a good and natural way for Marinette to explain again that the wish has a cost. After the kwami swap it was pure JUSTICE for the mess that happened in Reflekdoll my gosh. We went from an episode of Ladynoire treating Mister Bug just… er… not great, to THIS. It was such an upgrade. Kudos to Marinette. (I know her behavior was different for other reasons too, lol poor girl has is down bad for him.) But it was just very nice. I loved seeing him figure things out and the passion (lol) with which he fought and thought out his plan. He cares deeply for Nathalie and he was rightfully angry at Monarch. His lucky charm going along with what he was already thinking to protect his identity was a nice touch.
I also appreciated that once in the room he got to go off about Monarch being a monster IN FRONT of Monarch. Adrien going off about people, especially when they can hear him, definitely one of my favorite things in the show. He should do it more. This episode also has me thinking about just how much is on Adrien. I mean I always do, because he’s what’s got me invested. But losing his Mom, his father being distant and awful, his mother figure being sick and Adrien realizing it is likely fatal. In S4 he felt worthless as a hero too on top of everything else. Once things fell apart, he had to be strong and forgiving immediately. He had to be Ladybug’s rock when it all went south. Now, he’s by her side as one of the 2 heroes (both of which are teenagers) who stand between Paris and a terrorist. Though the show hasn’t really addressed how he feels about it, I also would like to mention that his likeness is on a ring where everyone who owns one can give him commands and customize his look. That has to be at least a little off putting. I mean is likeness is still being used in ads. He’s not modeling but to many people it seems like he is. HIs image isn’t his? It wasn’t really before but now it’s just literally not even him out there. I know Adrien finds it in himself to try to look forward and see positive things in his life. But he’s been through and is currently going through a lot. One thing I hope the show does it not gloss over things. Let him be mad, sad, upset, let him GO OFF, he deserves to. Speaking of glossing over things, there’s a few conversations I’d like to see Adrien/Chat have with Ladybug especially, but I’m not holding my breath. The scene where he and Marinette were talking was a very nice moment. He was going into his usual thing. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Then he was honest “No, actually I’m not okay.” This is good. I love to see him admit it. That’s growth. Nathalie addressed the same thing earlier at breakfast. Though there is more fear there because Gabriel is a jerk, it’s a similar concept. Adrien will set aside his feelings to make someone else more comfortable, it’s nice to see him being encouraged to be honest and finding ways to not always brush aside his own pain and preferences. I know I’ve rambled a lot but I really appreciated this episode. I can be salty about this show, especially lately, but when it actually DOES focus on the things I’m begging it to focus on I am happy to give credit where it is due. The part that kills me is that we could have a lot more episodes like this. Ah well.... anyway, after all the crumbs I enjoyed the meal. 
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flightless-rising · 3 years
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Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D
Iceberg explanation
( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)
EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!
The Sky
Naomi
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Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.
On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.
It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.
It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.
What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.
Missing Tidelord
In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.
In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.
Emperors
Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.
Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.
An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.
The Surface
Old color wheel
Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.
When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.
Imperial breed scrolls
Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.
At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.
There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.
Baldwin breed change
When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.
In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.
Trans Fiona
When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.
Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.
Boolean
Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.
Plaguebringer coli team
On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.
As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.
Boston & Hope
This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.
So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.
In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.
The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.
If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.
I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.
Shallow Waters
Eyepocalypse
On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.
Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.
A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.
Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.
EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.
Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.
Courier Breed
The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.
Multiaccounting
According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.
Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.
The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.
Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.
Purble
“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.
In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.
I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.
Tert Picking
This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.
Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.
Swiftwings
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Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.
The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.
“Real” Lore dragons
Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.
All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.
The Middle ground
True deity names
When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.
The names are the following:
Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver
As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.
No leg coatls
On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.
The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.
Dress slot unlocking
A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.
This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.
Clanbound scatterscrolls
I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:
“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”
Beta Mirrors
Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?
According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.
This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.
Dragons are evil
If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.
Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.
The Depths
Scroll of Divorce
In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.
If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.
First Festival
The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.
Offsite drama
Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).
Egg rot
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Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.
It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.
Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.
Pablo
From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.
I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.
Latest News
On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.
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This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.
Lameforger
On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.
Festival of one (1)
On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.
It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).
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The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.
The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.
Vape Juice
As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.
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A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.
The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.
I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.
I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.
The Abyss
Humans
There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.
The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.
Plague healers
Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:
“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."
Akitla
As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.
After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T
here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.
As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.
Arcane sprite book
“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.
On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.
I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.
Sunshine
Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.
They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.
They’re dedicated and I respect that.
EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.
The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.
Simple Farmer
Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.
Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.
Dragon Deaths
Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.
Yep.
Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.
Zalvador
User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.
Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.
These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.
The Pit
Black linen neck wraps
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For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.
Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.
Icewarden ears
Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.
In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.
As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.
Forbidden Snapper lore
Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.
This is what the original section read:
"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."
Bee movie script
I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.
From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.
EDIT 28/06: Zeus
Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".
Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.
Wegg shaming
On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.
Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!
The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.
The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.
Plague nest skull
The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.
It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.
EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.
Rock bottom
CAPTAINPLANET
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…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.
I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.
EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.
This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.
Lair 46264
A cursed lair.
Dreams
I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.
A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.
I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.
The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.
I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.
Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.
Dragon Slime
Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.
It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.
EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here
Cucumber
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Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.
EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!
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odos-bucket · 3 years
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Bruce Being Super Protective of His Kids in Their Out-Of-Costume Lives Pt. 1
The thing about Dick is that he has a way of making people feel comfortable around him. It probably comes from being a performer, certainly comes in handy when he becomes a vigilante, and later an older brother. He puts people at ease. It’s a skill that he can manipulate to his advantage, but not necessarily something that he needs to put effort into; it’s kind of automatic. People have a tendency to talk and act around Dick as if they’ve known him their whole life. Which can come in handy, sure, especially as he gets older and fine tunes it along with his other abilities.
But he doesn’t receive the same automatic comfort from others that he gives off. And especially as a small child, strangers talking to him, coming into his personal space, or touching him without permission can be overwhelming, and disconcerting.
At Haly’s it had been something he’d kind of dealt with, but usually only within the deceptively controlled environment of pre or post show adrenaline, and always as a single member of a large company of performers. He was honestly barely consciously aware of it back then.
For the most part it doesn’t even really bother him. Dick likes people. He likes interacting with circus patrons, and later with fellow guests at the events that he and Bruce attend. He likes attention, likes it when people want to watch him do a cartwheel (even if he feels like they’re way too easily impressed).
Dick doesn’t understand what’s happening when he feels himself suddenly start to shut down towards the beginning of a charity gala for the Gotham hospital. He likes people. He likes parties. He’s never been bothered by crowds. He should be fine.
But the ladies who are crowding and cooing over him are making him feel trapped. And the band that’s fighting with each of the dozens of different conversations that are taking place in the room for every individual’s full attention is giving him a headache. The lights are so much dimmer than the big top’s, but somehow still way too bright. He keeps finding himself needing to rub at his eyes.
Dick tries to politely extricate himself from the women he’s been talking with, but they seem reluctant to let him go. He’s “such a charming young man,” after all. And it isn’t often that the socialites of Gotham are “graced with the company of a performer of his caliber.”
Dick smiles, and tries not to flinch away from a woman who pats his cheek. He’s not sure why the contact bothers him, normally it wouldn’t. But he’s not himself right now. Maybe it’s because of how hot it is. He’s not feeling right in his skin, all sticky, and prickly.
He doesn’t realize how dazed he’s become, until the sound of someone saying his name is shaking him out of it. No one’s actually said his name in a while, mostly it’s been variations on “honey” or “dear”. Sometimes they’ll call him Richard, hardly ever Dick though. But Bruce is calling him Dick as he approaches through the moderate crowd, and that gets his attention right away.
The ladies have the good sense to at least shift out of the way, and soon Bruce is kneeling down in front of him.
“Hey, chum,” he says softly. “You’re looking a little wobbly there. You doing okay?”
Dick doesn’t know why, but when he opens his mouth to answer something between a whine and a sob comes out. Confused and embarrassed (and exhausted, although he doesn’t quite know to identify that one) he pitches forward on rarely unstable feet, and smashes his face into Bruce’s shoulder.
He’s caught in an instant, and lifted up into steady arms, a hand coming to rest at the back of his head.
“Hey, shh. . . it’s all right.”
Bruce’s voice seems to fade, blending in and out of the rest of the muttering conversation that they’re surrounded by. Dick’s not bothering to hang on for any of the specifics of what he’s saying. Something about “being able to tell when a child is exhausted,” and “not treating my son like a performing seal.” If Dick had been more alert he may have thought to wonder ‘since when does Bruce have a son?’ but as it is he’s barely aware enough to pick up on the poorly concealed anger in his voice.
A moment later he can feel himself being carried.
“‘M tired,” he mumbles.
“I know, sweetheart,” is the last thing he hears before passing out.
---
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Dick says later, after they’re back at home.
Bruce frowns, and pauses his gentle stroking of Dick’s hair.
“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” he says, more carefully than Dick is able to pick up on.
Dick scrunches his nose, and flings his arms into the air, before flopping them back to the couch.
“Why did I get all weird tonight?!” He demands.
“If I had to guess,” Bruce says slowly. “I’d say you were tired, and maybe a little overwhelmed.”
Dick makes an annoyed noise, that morphs into a wide yawn.
“I should have noticed,” Bruce continues. “We shouldn’t have gone-“
“No,” Dick interrupts. “But that wasn’t my regular me! I don’t get overwhelmed!”
“Everybody gets overwhelmed. And you’ve had a long week, lots of late nights, that math test on Wednesday-“
“Do you?” Dick interrupts again, saving Bruce from needing to continue to prove that he’s tuned into what’s going on in his life (something which Dick is becoming increasingly aware of Bruce feeling the need to do).
“Do I what?”
“Get overwhelmed.”
Bruce considers the question with a deliberately thoughtful expression.
“I’m very good at hiding it when it happens,” he finally says.
“Oh. . . okay.”
“Dick, you know there’s nothing wrong with feeling overwhelmed.”
“Then why’d you bother to get so good at hiding it when it happens to you?” Dick asks without missing a beat.
Bruce doesn’t have an answer for that. Years later he’ll find himself wondering why he didn’t take the time to make it clear to Dick that hiding his emotions like that isn’t something he ever expects of him. He’ll catalogue it as one of his many failures as a parent. In the moment he just holds himself awkwardly under the child’s expectant, if slightly bleary-eyed, gaze.
“Sometimes you have to do things to keep in control of a situation,” he finally says.
Dick turns big eyes up at him.
“I want to get better at it.”
You don’t need to, is what Bruce should say.
“You’re already pretty good at it,” is what he does say.
Dick makes a contemplative face.
“You weren’t the problem tonight,” Bruce continues. “Those grown-ups should have been able to tell that you were tired, and left you alone.”
“. . . You’re mad at them,” Dick realizes.
“Yes,” Bruce admits readily.
“Oh, okay. I thought that maybe. . .” Dick trails off into another yawn.
Bruce frowns down at him.
“I didn’t want you to be annoyed at me,” Dick says sleepily, adjusting himself so that he’s leaning more fully against Bruce’s side.
“Why would I be annoyed with you?”
“I’dunno,” he half says, half hums.
Bruce’s frown deepens.
“Do you worry about that a lot?” He asks quietly.
He feels the responding shrug more than he sees it.
Dick mumbles something about not wanting anyone to be disappointed.
“You’re not responsible for keeping other people happy,” Bruce tells him.
Several seconds pass with no response. Bruce is about to ask for confirmation that Dick realizes this, when a soft snore informs him that the time for discussion has passed. Instead, he goes back to running his fingers through his ward’s hair, and begins a mental list of people not to let near his child.
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wenellyb · 3 years
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Anthony Mackie is homophobic
There’s no way around it, Anthony Mackie is homophobic and here’s why.
This is how you make a headline..! You make a shocking title and then a catchphrase and the job is done.
You want it to be provocative, intriguing and you want people to click on read more, you want to catch everyone's attention.
Who cares if it's misleading or not accurate, right? People will get the rest of the idea/article when they read the whole article.
But what about those who don't click on the link and read the article? Who see the headline and then their idea is set.
Most people don't have the time to read the full article for further explanation. Some people will read the headline, take the information and move on. Sometimes they will even share that headline... without even reading the article. And I won't pretend I haven't done it too... I have done it and still do it. I've read headlines, retweeted them and shared it without reading the content because the headline was enough information for me.
And a lot of people on the Internet do this...and I think that it's part of the game. But, if you're going to use those headlines to throw accusations at someone and then share those accustions with people, the bare minimum is to read the article first.
And I feel like there has been 3 types of people in the Anthony Mackie story:
Those who read only the headlines and tweets but didn't read the article
Those who read the FULL article but didn't listen to the podcast ( This is much much better than the first one btw)
Those who read the article and listened to the audio.
And I also feel like people making the most noise are part of the 1st category.
I keep receiving some asks that I feel that some of them are missing the point so I'm going to write what I think about all of this and hopefully I can just link this post whenever I get a question.
And I am also disturbed by the fact that this is the 3rd option I get when I type Anthony Mackie on Twitter.
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Now that the situation is calmer and the story died down a little, I wanted tovshare my thoughts. And of course you don’t have to read this, but I had to write this down, at least for myself.
I will be exploring 3 angles, so feel free to skip the ones you are not interested in.
It should have never been about the ship
If you say someone is homophobic, at least you have to explain why
Your minds were already made up on Anthony Mackie even before the article was published.
Part 1: It should have never been about the ship.
For the people who read only the headlines... It's a shame because the headlines made the interview all about “Anthony not liking Sam and Bucky's relationship as romantic”. '
A lot of the people based their opinion on the articles and didn't even look further... it was set that Anthony didn't like Sambucky as a couple.
It was revealed with the audio of the podcqst that it wasn’t what Anthony said at all, and he wasn't talking about Sam ans Bucky's relationship but was answering another question that the interviewer had asked about male friendships. And in fact, and it was the interviewer who said that male friendships were rare in the superhero context... He set up the question that way.
But that is the not the point, the point is that EVEN IF Anthony had said he didn't see Sam and Bucky as romantic... that is not enough to say he is problematic or homophobic.
And the intensity of the backlash he received is because he is a Black man, sure... but the accusations of being homophobic  would have been there anyway.
Because fandoms are not rational.
When Sebastian Stan said he didn't play Bucky as in love with Steve in 2016, he also received backlash from the fandom and got accusations of being homophobic, even though he had said people were free to interpret it as they wanted. And guess what he still got the accusations lesser level than Anthony, but still...
Anthony and Sebastian have both played gay characters in the past, more than once. And I repeat this so you understand, they have played gay characters more than once. So maybe, MAYBE if they say their character isn't gay or bi, maybe it isn't because they're homophobic, or because they don't want their characters to be ....but because that is how their character is written in the script?
Again, Anthony didn't say any of this about Sambucky but even if he had, it would certainly be because he played the part they were supposed to play.
Some people want to make Anthony this big bad guy who "killed the ship" but I'm sorry, Anthony doesn't own the production company, he isn't the writer or the executive producers.... The actors who be the last in line to blame for this.
And I don't want to make it seem like it's only the general public doing this...Because even some journalists have been writing articles about how Anthony shouldn't be "shutting down ships or dismissing Sambucky" because there is so little representation in the MCU... I'm sorry but what??? WHAT???
I understand the sentiment and I know that a lot of ships are there to compensate the lack of representation on screen...but how is it Anthony's responsibility or his fault?
It’s great when actors go along with the ship, do not invalidate it and leave the doors open, but it is not their fault or their responsibility if they don't, especially actors who have no clue about how shipping or fandoms work.
If it's written in the script that the charcter is straight and the actor says the character is straight you shouldn't be lashing out at the actors for "killing the ship"...Do you want him to change the script? Go blame the production company instead.
I know actors are an easy target because it is much more easier to tweet about them than look up the names of Executive Producers or CEOs and write them letters to ask for more representation. Actors are an easy target but it is literally not their call.
Some of these articles making headlines blaming Anthony because he shut down the idea of romantic Sambucky when there is so little represenration and not making headlines blaming the multibillion dollar company that refuse to have decent representation!
Sure, let's blame the Black actor who said that Sam and Bucky are just friends for the decades of nothing expect a total of 10 seconds screentime for a character nobody remembers and just calls the “Russo cameo”.
And again, Anthony Mackie didn't even say anything against a romantic reading of Sambucky, nothing! But it shouldn't matter, even if he had said they were just friends... it wouldn't justify any backlash at all... if it is about the ship.
Him shipping Sambucky or not should be the last point the fandom is focusing on.
An actor doesn't ship your ship and it bothers you? Move on, ship another couple if you want to... Don't start calling him names because of the ship.
When you make the debate about the ship, it kills the discussion before the discussion can even start because how can you have a constructive discussion if the debate has no foundations?
For instance, if Anthony made hurtful or problematic comments, the right way to deal with this,  would be to ask for apologies or for a better explanation of his words .... But since a lot of people, and even news outlet made this story about the ship, what do you want to do?
Ask Anthony to apologize for thinking/saying Sambucky is platonic?  We do realize how insane this would sound right? Or are there people who really want Anthony to come out and make a public statement about how he apologizes and supports romantic Sambucky? Is this were we want to go?
People made it about the ship, so he will also think the problem is that he doesn't "ship" Sambucky... but that wasn't the problem right? At least I hope it wasn't.
All of this should have never been about the shipping...If you are bothered by an actor not liking your ship ...it's ok. Stop shipping it if you want to and move on, but don't act like they're the worst human being on the planet because of it.
When I first read the article I was surprised by Anthony's comments about Sambucky because he had never talked like that about the relationship before... but the first thinf I said ia that he is an actor... he reads and interprets the script he has... he doesn't make the decisions...
But when I listened to the audio... I was even more horrified by the way the whole story was handled.
Part 2. If you say someone is homophobic, at least you have to explain why
This might be an unpopular opinion but I don't mind people saying that Anthony Mackie is homophobic. I don't know him, so I won't pretend to know what he is or isn't. What I do mind is people saying he's homophobic but not giving any explanation or evidence.
And I have seen people do that. A lot... And I have receiced asks like that.... "Have you seen those articles? Anthony is homophobic," “He dug his own grave”
But all of the articles and headline are talking about the ship...is that your evidence?
If your opinion is based on a headline or some tweets, I don't know how you expect people to believe you.
I have seen people calling Anthony homophobic because of his comments on the explotation of homosexuality. But to me it was clear that he wasn't talking about the Queer fans, even though I could be wrong... (I talk abour this more in the part 3)
The part where Anthony Mackie has made comments that could be dubious are the comments about how he is bothered that he can't go to bars with his friends anymore.
No matter how you turn it, making it seem like it's a problem that people think you're gay when you're with your friends, has homophobic undertones.
That is the part that really bothered me personally... It really made me feel uncomfortable.
But is it enough to say he is homophobic? I don't think so, but if I'm wrong and it means he is, in what way? You need to give an explanation. Even a short one.
And even with that comment about the bars, if you add the context, you could imagine that maybe he's not talking about the characters but about his real life experience because we know that some people ship him and Sebastian romantically, and if he was talking about that... It could be understandable that he is bothered by that because he's a celebrity and when people make assumptions about celebrity love lifes they can become annoying or even toxic sometimes.
People shipping the two of them romantically makes me unconfortable so I can't imagine how it would make HIM feel.
But anyway, that part of the interview bothered some people and I personally don't think it's enough to call him homophobic but I do think it is worth a discussion.
Unfortunately, most people didn't focus on that... they focused on the shipping or other words that were taken out of context... By mixing everything with the shipping, the battle for a legitmate discussion was already lost before it even started.
Part 3: Your minds were already made up on Anthony Mackie even before the article was published.
I think that what bothers me the most were that some people were waiting for this moment... They were holding their breath until the moment he would finally slip up so they can be hateful in peace.
This is a screenshot of a post from April 2021, way way before this whole story.... Some people already had in their mind that him being a Black masculine man, he was homophobic... and were just waiting for a confirmation it seems.
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( I cropped the OP’s blog name to avoid any problems going their way)
I have said this before... But I don’t follow celebrities foolishly. If you think Anthony Mackie gives off homophibic vibes or could be homophobic... you may be right.... but I would need evidence, or an explanation, not just a “vibe”... I asked evidence to that OP or at least an example of an homophobic joke he had made and they blocked me...
I have watched a lot of Anthony Mackie interviews and never got that "vibe" so I really wanted to know. Later, I asked one of my mutual to reach out to ask them about it and the OP finally answered to my mutual and said that an example of a moment they could tell he was homophobic was the interview were Anthony talks about his soft spot.
So that person based their impression of Anthony being homophobic on the fact that Anthony doesn't like to be touched in the back by strangers...Imagine me staring at the camera like I’m in The Office
And this isn't about racism because that person who wrote the post is Black apparently. But it is about how Black men are perceived and stereotypes that are often attached to them.. People make all of these asaumptions on then wait for the moment they can be proven right.
For this OP, a masculine Black man from the south =homophobic ...
And I don't think they are the only one.
What's worse is that they make it sound like all of this is on Anthony:
"Sambucky won't happen because Anthony gives off homophobic vibes"
Not only are they sharing accusations without even a small proof... they are the acting like he would be the only one to blame if Sambucky doesn't happen... Let me tell you that sometimes when I come to Tumblr I want to scream at how irrational people are... Disney has a history of being homophobic and never having any kind of representation, but if Sambucky doesn’t happen, it would be because of Anthony Mackie.
Please, PLEASE!
Anthony Mackie isn't writing the scenarios, he isn’t a Disney Exec.... Does anyone really belive he would walk away from the movie and the contract just because his character is gay, bi or pan? When he has played gay characters in the past??? Why are people trying so so hard to put all the blame on Anthony? I don't understand....
I have also seen "Sambucky won't happen now that Anthony made that interview and said he didn't like it...." How??? How does that even make sense????
What I believe is that a lot of people already had their minds made up about him and were holding their breath until they could finally throw accusations at Anthony because the minute there was a potential scandal... they didn’t try to look for more or try to dig deeper...their mind was already set.
And from then on... their idea were already set on how they were going to interprets the things he said.
For instance, When I first read the article without the context of the audio... I thought a lot of the things Anthony said weren't contreversial because those are ideas expressed on Tumblr every day...the fetishization of some MM ships etc,... But I thought he had expressed it in the worst possible way because he seemed like he was mixing a lot of stuff.... well, I found out later that it was because it was taken out of context.
But even in the context of the article, it was clear to me that Anthony was talking about anybody BUT the Queer fans when talking about the exploitation of homosexuality etc,...
We talk about the fetishization of MM ships by straight women on a weekly basis on Tumblr etc.... What would make anybody think that when Anthony was talking about the some things being “twisted” explotation of homosexuality he was talking about the Queer shippers???
I have joined and left BL fandoms after 2 weeks because of the problems exposed by Anthony. I have seen people who shipped real life actors to the point where it affected the actors's lives. I have seen an actor from a popular M/M ship make a dramatic public statement explaining that nothing will change for his fans that he still loved them and still loved his costars... and made it seem like he had a terminal illness or something....It turned out he had just gotten a girlfriend......?????
And these examples are specific to the BL genre but I have seen similar behavior with some MCU stans.... look at how some (I insist on some) Seb stans react to Seb having a girlfriend (I have seen things).
What made people think Anthony was talking about the queers fans if not the fact that you already had your mind set on the fact a Black man talking about a topic like this was homophobic in some way or the other and some people were just waiting for a confirmation?.
I’m not going to pretend that I wasn’t confused by some parts of the interview. What is  “There’s nothing more masculine than being a superhero and flying around and beating people up” even supposed to mean? And it wasn’t the only sentence. But I don’t think any part of his interview deserved the backlash he received.
A discussion? Yes. Remarks? Yes. Blacklash and hate? No.
TL:DR: If you're going to call out Anthony for what he said.... you better  be ready to give a few arguments other than.... "bohoo he doesn't ship Sambucky" or “have you seen the headlines?” and  you should probably check your own pre-conceived ideas first..
If you come in my asks to tell me I write too much I will save you the trip and tell you... I already know that😂
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Gabriel Agreste: Interesting Villain, Horrible Character (400 Follower Special)
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I'm honestly surprised more people didn't want me to talk about Gabriel, especially with how often I rag on how horrible of a person he is. But, three character analysis posts later, and we're going to talk about why the main villain of Miraculous Ladybug is a real letdown.
Gabriel Needs to give the Whining a Rest
The interesting thing is one of the few things I actually liked in Season 3 was Hawkmoth. His plans actually made sense (for the most part), and by playing the long game, he managed to turn Chloe against Ladybug and deprived her of several key allies. Granted, Season 4 immediately undid the latter, but I was still impressed by his strategy.
Generally, one of the better aspects of Gabriel as a character was just how over the top he was as Hawkmoth. Keith Silverstein is clearly giving it his all with his performance, and he is just so enjoyable to watch as a cartoonish supervillain.
And therein lies the first major problem with Gabriel as a character. While he is fun to watch as a simple supervillain, the show tries to give him more depth and unintentionally makes him worse.
In Season 2, when it was revealed that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, many fans speculated on what he needed the Miraculous for, until the Queen Bee Trilogy showed it was to save his possibly dead wife, Emilie. The idea of that is so the show can give more depth to its main villain, and I think it's an interesting idea in concept. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
The problem is just how radically different Gabriel is normally compared to how he is as Hawkmoth. He always goes on about how he's “doing this for Emilie”, but it's hard to really sympathize with him when you consider he constantly gives evil monologues and evil laughs, really getting into the supervillain role. And let's not forget all of the “I'm going to wear Ladybug's skin as a suit” faces he loves to make.
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Clearly this man is the picture of mental stability.
Gabriel's motivation for being Hawkmoth when compared to what he actually does as Hawkmoth is shady enough, but the thing is that the writers clearly want the audience to at least feel a little bad for him. They want to make the audience sympathize with him despite the way he acts with or without the mask. Without Miraculous Ladybug, he is routinely putting innocent lives in danger and never once shows regret for his actions. All he talks about is how “he's doing this for Emilie”, or that “he'll get their Miraculous soon”. There's no real reason to feel bad for him other than “because the script says so”.
Let's compare Gabriel to Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow. His big plan in the first season of the show is to create a machine that will cause an earthquake to destroy a crime-infested portion of Starling City, claiming to be trying to help everyone, but it's clear he is only doing it out of revenge for his wife getting killed by a criminal from that part of the city. In addition, throughout that season and future seasons, he always makes sure his plans lead to him benefiting in some way, showing he isn't just some noble man trying to achieve his goals with a less than noble method.
If we got some moments that showed that what Gabriel was doing was selfish, it would make him a more complex villain. But we don't get anything like that. What do we get instead? Well...
I Could Really Care Less About Emilie Agreste
We have known Gabriel's motivation has been to save his wife for a little over two years at this point, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that motivation because of how underdeveloped Emilie is as a character.
There have been a total of two lines in the entirety of the show that explain what happened to Emilie, and they're both vague as hell. One of them was from “Feast” that implied Emilie used the broken Peacock Miraculous.
Adrien: My mom used to have dizzy spells… just like Nathalie.
And the other that outright tells the audience what's happening to her in a clip show that most people will skip.
Nathalie: As I've watched Emilie falling deeper into an endless sleep, my sadness for her has deepened, too
That is literally all we get for an explanation, and nothing else. We have no idea of what she's like as a person or what her relationship with her family was like other than Gabriel and Adrien saying they miss her. Other than the way the narrative says she's important to Gabriel and Adrien, we don't really have a reason to care about her as a character. There have also been some lines that imply she went along with Gabriel's questionable parenting techniques, like how he was apparently only homeschooled as a kid (Origins) and never had a birthday party growing up (The Bubbler), so how do we even know if she's a good person? In fact, why not set up this question as a mystery to make the audience wonder if Gabriel has another reason to bring Emilie back?
It ultimately turns Emilie into a plot device and not a character that Gabriel and Adrien only bring up to make the audience feel bad for them, and meant to justify Gabriel's actions by saying that he's “doing this for his family”.
But hey, if he's doing this all for his family, surely Gabriel's redeeming traits come from his relationship with Adrien, right? Right?
As a Parent, Gabriel is Far From the Best
I've talked about this briefly before, but parenting in Miraculous Ladybug is written in such a black and white way, even by the standards of this show. Parents are portrayed in one of two ways. They're either amazing people who love and support their children unconditionally, or they're awful people who treat their own children like trash. And much like a lot of things in this show, there are times where the latter is treated like the former.
There are so many times where the narrative insists on making you see Gabriel as a troubled, but wellmeaning person who tries his best to be a good parent to Adrien, but it is far from the truth.
I'm not going to beat around the bush. Gabriel is a terrible parent. Like, he is awful at being a parent in so many ways, even before you find out he's Hawkmoth. In his first appearance, “The Bubbler”, he delegates getting Adrien a birthday present to Nathalie, his assistant. He literally can't be bothered to take time out of his schedule to get his own son a present for his birthday. And as the show goes on, he becomes more controlling and forbids Adrien from going out with his friends in other episodes (Captain Hardrock, Silencer). While this could be used to show Gabriel getting worse, it's never acknowledged in-universe, with Adrien continually defending his father essentially keeping him on house arrest.
“But IOTA!” You might say. “Gabriel has made efforts to bond with his son in some episodes.” While that might be true, most of those come right after his Akumas have almost gotten Adrien killed. He only hugged Adrien and made an attempt to learn more about him after Simon Says invaded their home, he only decided to watch that movie Emilie was in with Adrien after Gorizilla nearly dropped him off a building, and he only hugged Adrien again in public after he was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen.
In fact, let's talk about how Gabriel acts in the Queen Bee Trilogy. He actually decides to quit being Hawkmoth, but it's not because he realizes all the damage he's caused. Instead, he gave up because his “magnum opus”, a stronger than usual Akuma that only got the advantage on Ladybug ironically because of dumb luck, failed. Sure, he says he can't keep putting his son in danger, but he rarely ever acknowledges that he does so in the first place. When Riposte wanted to fight Adrien, Hawkmoth did nothing to stop her other than giving her a stern warning earlier on and nothing else. Where was this attitude earlier?
Hell, even then, he immediately goes back to being Hawkmoth as soon as he sees an opportunity, not even a day after his “mAgNuM oPuS” blew up in his face (because I guess Scarletmoth was just Plan B). If he made such a big deal about caring for his son, why didn't he try harder to spend time with him? Has he ever had doubts about what he's doing before? If Chloe didn't show up as Queen Bee, was he going to follow through on his promise and try to be a better father to Adrien instead of trying to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous?
And yeah, the whole irony is that Gabriel is doing this for his family when he is unknowingly fighting his own son, which could lead to some interesting drama if done right. The idea of how Gabriel would react to his son being Cat Noir could really lead to some internal struggles for him to go through. But then we got “Cat Blanc”, which shows just how terrible of a character Gabriel is.
In an alternate timeline where he found out his son was Cat Noir, what does Gabriel do? Does he try to steal Adrien's Miraculous while he's sleeping? Does he reconsider his actions or realize he was endangering Adrien's life?
NOPE! He just decides to akumatize him all while emotionally tormenting him, before causing the end of the world.
This is honestly one of the most appalling things I've ever seen in any TV show, because it's basically an abusive father ordering his son to listen to him all while referencing his (kind of) dead mother to back up his point. And rather than use this to show how despicable Gabriel is, the episode decides to blame Marinette for this happening. Yes, according to the show, her present to Adrien caused several events to happen which caused Cat Blanc, but this logic makes no sense. It's like blaming the JFK assassination on the man who sold a gun to Lee Harvey Oswald, instead of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Not only was this episode yet another excuse to blame Marinette for something that wasn't her fault, it leads into the biggest problem I have with Gabriel as a character.
Sympathize with Gabriel? Surely, You Jest
After everything I've gone over regarding Gabriel as a character, after all the awful things I've talked about, are you really surprised that I don't feel bad for him at all?
Gabriel is just an awful character and a despicable human being, but the show just keeps wanting me to feel bad for him. It's just so hard to when you consider everything he's done has made him anything but sympathetic. I'm just saying, it's kind of hard to feel bad for someone who tries to start World War III with the only justification being “i'M dOiNg It FoR mY fAmIlY”, especially when he treats his family like crap.
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The writers go out of their way to show how horrible Gabriel is as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth, but they think because they throw in a few moments where he looks conflicted, we'll immediately feel bad for him. What makes so many people interested in seeing Chloe become a better person is that they can tell she's the victim of a troubled upbringing, and know that because she's only a teenager, she still has room to grow as a person, represented by having more honest moments of vulnerability. Gabriel is a grown man who once caused the apocalypse because of how terrible of a parent he is, and has even fewer sympathetic moments than Chloe does. Which one of these two is supposedly irredeemable? The answer may surprise you.
But the frustrating thing is that this kind of villain could have worked. Instead of making him this mustache-twirling psychopath, show how much Gabriel regrets what he has to do, but keeps pushing onward despite all the lives he's risking if it means that he can save his wife. Instead of making Gabriel like Lex Luthor, make him like Mr. Freeze, who is basic a better written version of him.
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But as it stands, there's a good reason why Gabriel gets little to no respect as a character in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, as a villain, or as a father.
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aroaceconfessions · 2 years
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Okay this one‘s going to be long and I really apologise for it.
So. I‘m an ace aro who grew up in a immigrant family where things such as sex and romance weren’t really talked about because „we“ wait till marriage. I never really realised i was "missing" something, because of that
Fast forward, I was 14 when I found out about fandoms and comfort characters. My first fandom was Percy Jackson and I remember I had a big crush/squish? On Percy
When I was 17 I found out I was asexual and was okay with it. No real problems, I had my comfort characters (who where 17/18 just like me)
When I was 19 I found out I was aromantic. Now that one was tricky. And I still have issues accepting it because of my family and being seen as a „failure“ just because I don’t want a S.O
My favourite characters were a HUGE comfort and still are. Cause if they don’t have a SO, it’s okay if I don’t have one right?
Now onto my question, cause the background information was important to understand my struggle.
I always grew out of my fav. Characters. Like with Percy Jackson, when I turned 18 I was like, he’s still 16, he doesn’t have the struggles like I have so I got new favs my age.
But the most important thing is: I never liked my faves romantically or sexual. I just loved them and still love them like I do a Family member. So even if I still find comfort in Percy jackson he’s like a brother to me.
I just recently watched encanto and it really hit me (big family, kind of toxic sometimes, all that buzz) and I realised that this Camilo dude was my favourite. (I always had a soft spot for the goofball so it’s no surprise tbh) and I didn’t know his canon age until I googled it. I‘m Honest, I didn’t watch any trailers or anything beforehand so I just assumed he’s some kind of older cousin in his 20s
When I found out he’s 15 I was like, okay, not my usual comfort character because of the age, but well, I still love him like a friend (again, I don’t experience sexual or romantic attraction)
And then I saw many and I say MANY post talking about „these weird ass young adults simping for a literal CHILD and calling him hot and drawing him so weird!! Like wtf if wrong with u???“ ( I def. agree with the hot part and the weird drawings don’t get me wrong! It IS weird!!) but I still feel kind of hurt because I DONT see him in any romantic/ sexual way but I know everyone else will think that i do
And now I genuinely don’t know what to do! Cause now I’m 20 and it’s SO hard to find any characters my age who DONT have a S.O or sex. And this Is a whole new struggle cause with child characters, there rarely is any romantic let alone sexual tension so I prefer to find comfort in them rather than in older people cause they don’t get sexualised you know?
Oh my god I sound like a p*edophile! But I really don’t mean it like that, its just easier to identify with 16/17 year olds cause they don’t have Sex and im Sex repulsed so it just disgusts me
I know I could just read ace/aro books. But first of, I'm in the closet and do not plan on coming out anytime. and second.. it just limits everything. Most of the time the whole struggle of the book is the sexuality of the person. Why can't it hust be a fantasy book without anything? I remeber i read a young adult novel and i was so happy, i was like FUCK YEAH she's 25 I love it! and then BAM! 20 pages of smut. It ruined the whole book and I hate it so much that I feel so disgusted by it. and then again, I read a YA book (16-18) it still feels weird cause i don't really identify with them either? these are literal children and it's just weird.
I'm sorry, I really don't know what I expected myself when i began to write that question, I guess i just wanted to vent.
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Anonymous ask
I really just want to say thank you for sharing THAT quiz. It made my day (a few days ago) to finally get my identity as a result. Which is...dumb? I guess? But I felt really happy. So logically, I immediately doubted the quiz, and looked at the percentages before finally getting what the explanation of the results meant (before I thought "oh yeah. I am really tired of that. This quiz gets me").
And the thing is, that's kind of the whole problem in a way. Being included in the results of an online quiz shouldn't be such a rare occurrence I'm immediately suspicious of it. I shouldn't need to follow a tumblr blog to feel comfortable taking part in a common online activity (I would anyway bc you're amazing, but that's not the point).
Looking at the comments from allo people you've gotten, it kind of sucks how far they've missed the point. That crappy feeling they got is one that a lot of aro/ace people get most of the time.
Anyway, ranting aside, thank you for posting the quiz. Also, thank you for running this blog in general. I'm sorry you're getting anon hate. Please do what you need to stay safe.
___________
Response:
Thanks for the message! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog and the quizzes. It’s always good to hear from aspec people who find it helpful.
It is a shame that so many people seemed to misinterpret and/or overreact to that one quiz, but there were much more positive responses in the notes from people who were pleased to get the right result for once, or who just found the joke funny. There were also plenty of neutral responses from people who got a wrong answer and just said ‘nope, I’m actually (sexuality)’ and moved on.
It was only a very small amount of people making a loud fuss, and it never got really bad. The few ‘hate’ messages I received, while rude and obnoxious, were not threatening or distressing. I turned off anon mainly because I couldn’t be bothered with it, so don’t worry about me :)
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iloveitwhen · 4 years
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What Team? (pt. 2)
(yes, everytime i see “what team?” i think “wildcats!” and i just couldn’t help myself with the title heehee)
I hope this meets all of your expectations! if not then sorry i guess lmao. if there are mistakes or inconsistencies let me know(:
So I got a little carried away and this is much MUCH longer than the first part so... sorry? you’re welcome? idk but turns out the story has not progressed but it basically has so let’s say it did. I also got a little carried away with Alix meeting the waynes... (Also I should add I don't know squat about roller blading)
Part 1
Based on this post by @unmaskedagain
--------
Alix wasn’t stupid, granted her best friend was Kim and together they were pretty stupid, but Alix was not inherently stupid, Kim just lowered her IQ by a significant amount just by being around him, ok? Not her fault. But anyways, point being, Alix was not stupid, she could see the way Lila's face morphed to disgust when she looked at Marinette and thought no one was watching, or when she sneered at the backs of all of her classmates when they turned around, so of course she knew why Lila really tried to force "Lukanette" down everyone's throats, she wanted to be on top. Alix aslo prided herself in not having problems such as crushes, why bother yourself when clearly people are not… hot, attractive, sexy, ect. Alix didn’t understand how or why people so desperately wanted to kiss each other but not having that urge really brought light to her class’ situation. She had learned from the way Kim used to look at Chloe and the way Max looked at Kim and the way Marinette looked at Adrien, there were plenty more examples, like Mylene and Ivan, anyways, they all had the same look even if they were trying to hide it. Lila looked at Marinette with that same look but hidden under disgust, but then again she also looked at Adrien that way too, without disgust and hate though. But she also hated Marinette, plain and simple. Wait, definitely not simple. As for why she hated Marinette, Alix just hadn't gotten that far yet, but she was sure it had something to do with Adrien. And being a closeted gay. 
As for everyone else it was no secret that Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Lila Rossi did NOT like each other but lucky, or unlucky depending on how you look at it, the class simply ignored the both of them when they tried talking about the other. 
Marinette, picking up on the fact that she won that battle, stopped trying to tell everyone about Lila’s obvious lies. She knew the girl still had it out for her but she was completely powerless when it came to taking Marinette’s friends away. It was quite exhausting listening to Lila and not being able to say anything that would disprove her lies because no matter how sound her proof was her classmates wouldn’t listen. And Marinette honestly just wanted to sleep.
Lately she didn’t know what was going on, all week people kept whispering and would change the conversation when she arrived. She thought they were talking behind her back but they never gave her dirty looks, in fact they were even more friendly and she got a large increase of “morning Marinette!” and “How are you doing?” which was only slightly confusing. At least they were finally being as friendly and considerate towards her as she was towards them. 
“Hey Marinette?” Marinette looked up from her sketchbook as her thoughts scattered to see Juleka nervously tapping on her desk with her nails while Rose stood behind her girlfriend with a look that could only be described as sparkly. Marinette raised an eyebrow but smiled kindly at them. 
“Yes?” 
“So, umm,” she cleared her throat nervously, “can you help me and Rose make shirts that say “Team Luka” on them?” 
“Team lu- uhmm sure?” 
Juleka gave her a rare smile and a soft “thanks” before returning to her seat with Rosa who squeaked “you're the best Marinette!” Marinette gave the girl a weak smile and a small nod of appreciation and just stared in confusion at the spot where the two girls stood previously. 
What?
The heck?
“What was that all about?” Alya voiced Marinette’s thoughts and slid into her seat, poking Marinette’s arm to break the black haired girl out of her stupor. 
“I'm... not sure....” She furrowed her brows in confusion. Who was Luka going against that required Juleka’s support? She hadn't heard of XY making headlines lately and Luka wasn't either, well she wasn’t really online either anyways. “They asked me to help them make Team Luka shirts.” She looked over to her friend and was brought to even more confusion. Alya looked… offended? But she quickly wiped the look off her face and pursed her lips together before turning to face the front saying, 
“Interesting....”
After school Marinette, with Juleka and Rose, went to buy supplies before heading to the ship to meet with Luka. Together they made ten teal tie dyed shirts which they had printed “TEAM LUKA” on the center of it. Marinette tried asking what it was for but all three just redirected her so she eventually just dropped it. 
As she was leaving Luka stopped her. “Thank you, Marinette,” he said softly, “you really are a wonderful girl, you deserve the world.” Of course that made Marinette blush, what was up with this guy and his cute, mushy words? 
“Thanks, Luka. An- and don’t worry about it! Anything for you,” she trailed off for a moment before rushing to add, “and your family of course. Obviously.” She chuckled nervously while Luka just gave her an amused smile. 
“I’ll keep that in mind. Have a wonderful evening, Marinette.” He turned and walked back onto the ship, leaving Marinette weak in the knees. She quickly steeled her nerves then chastised herself while walking away. Stop feeling for multiple boys. Stop feeling for multiple boys. Stop feeling….
---
Alya was not happy to find Juleka and Rose wearing teal tie dyed shirts saying “TEAM LUKA” printed on them. So they want to play THAT game. Ok. She can deal with that. In her desire to plan she missed Marinette’s rambles throughout class and the bell that signaling the start of lunch. 
“ALYA!” she snapped her head to the source of the sound to find the one and only Chloe Bourgeois with a hand on her hip and pursed lips. She looked around the room to find it completely empty except for the two of them. 
“Chloe!” she scooched over the bench and hopped up, accidentally almost bumping noses with the blonde girl from being too close but Chloe just gave a disgusted face and quickly took a step back. “Just the person I needed! Did you SEE those shirts?” Chloe huffed and rolled her eyes. 
“Of course I did, Césaire. That is the only reason you will be spending more time than I am comfortable with in my presence. Come on.” She turned her heel and strutted out of the classroom while Alya scrambled to grab all of her belongings. 
---
Not long at all after Marinette saw Juleka and Rose (Ivan quickly following suit) wearing the Team Luka shirts, Alya and Chloe, a pairing Marinette NEVER saw coming, walked in with matching shirts, orange for Alya and yellow for Chloe, with a fancy, clean font spelling out “Team Adrien” on the front and a bold “SUCK IT” on the back. Marinette watched Alya approach her seat with her jaw hanging loose. 
WHAT WAS GOING ON???
“What is- you know what? Nevermind. I don’t want to know.” Alya smirked and slid into her seat. “You purposefully came last didn’t you?” 
“Yep!” Alya replied happily while pulling her phone out and started typing furiously. 
“Babe, where’s my shirt?” Nino had turned around and gave his girlfriend puppy eyes. 
“Oh, here you go,” she pulled a green shirt out of her bag and tossed it to him while Adrien watched with interest. A sound of excitement escaped Nino when he caught the shirt and he opened it up to see the front which revealed the back of the shirt to Marinette. She felt the blood drain from her face and she lifted her hand to cover her mouth in horror. The back had a perfect snapshot of Adrien’s side profile from his ad for cologne when he was gliding through the air. Marinette glanced at Adrien and saw that his jaw had dropped and his face started to burn a deep red. Marinette just wanted to cry. Nino flipped it over and Marinette saw “Team Adrien” in the same font of Chloe and Alya’s shirts while Nino let out an unearthly squeal. 
“It’s PERFECT! Adrien! Look!” he flipped the shirt over to show Adrien but the blonde boy had already curled in on himself and hid his face in his arms. 
“Whyyyyy, Alyaaaaa.” Alya smirked and looked up from her phone. 
“Don’t worry Adrien, we’re rooting for you.” 
Marinette cried (internally) that night as she prayed to every Kwami she knew to save her soul. 
---
Adrien didn’t know what was going on, at first when he saw Luka’s shirts he really wanted one too to show his support of his acquaintance. Adrien didn’t know the boy that well but he was very kind and any team that Luka was on Adrien wanted to be on too heehee. After his friends started wearing Team Adrien shirts he felt… conflicted. And slightly uncomfortable. He was happy his friends were supporting him but it just felt wrong to root for himself. So to counteract this he approached Juleka when the school ended and got his own shirt. The next day he changed into it after getting dropped off at school, obviously because his Father would make him burn the shirt if he ever saw Adrien wearing it, and when he came out of the restroom he found Lila climbing the stairs in her own Team Luka shirt. Her eyes shot up in surprise at the sight of him before a strained smile etched onto her lips. 
“Lila! It’s great to see we’re on the same team.” He smiled kindly at her and gave a silent prayer to Plagg that she didn’t think he was flirting with her as she always seemed to assume. 
“Indeed, Adrien.” 
Everyday for the next week more and more people wore their own team shirts until the class was split in half, save for Nathanial, Marinette, and Alix. Adrien continuously tried to find out what the teams were for but someone always assured him that it was nothing to worry about. 
It wasn’t until he saw Chloe’s retweet of Alix’s tweet that he realized that his class was warring over who was the better match, him or Luka, for one of Alix’s friends that apparently the entire class knew besides Nathanial and Marinette as they never picked a side. He wondered if he knew the person that the class was talking about and decided to logout of twitter before anything got out of hand as it usually did whenever Chloe was on twitter. 
---
“We have a problem.” Dick stated to his two brothers and adoptive father. 
“Ok, what’s new?” Jason asked lazily, polishing his gun. 
“Marinette is trending on twitter.”
“What?” Tim pulled his phone out and started going through the app as Dick continued.
“Team Luka, Team Adrien, Lukanette, and Adrinette are trending on twitter. Take a wild guess what that could mean.” Bruce rolled his eyes and started to say, 
“Dick we don’t have time for this,” but Dick cut him off mid sentence and spoke over him. 
“These boys are getting fought over who would be a better fit for Marinette. OUR Marinette. As in Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Jason stopped polishing his gun and actually looked at Dick while Tim gagged. 
“What?” all three voices before him spoke up in unison. Dick was surprised that Bruce spoke up with a little more exasperation. 
“No!” Bruce dropped his face into his hands and groaned. He was certainly taking this far worse than Dick thought he would. The older man raised his head and gave Dick a look he usually gave him when he was trusting him with an important mission, “take care of this, make sure none of those boys steal Marinette away from Damian.” Dick nodded his head once. 
“Yes, sir.”
---
Marinette and the Waynes go way back, so far back that when Bruce let it slip that he and Alfred used to have a neighbor at a lake house who would repeatedly visit whenever Alfred was there the batboys KNEW they had to find the one and only Gina and meet her ENTIRE family. Marinette was ten at the time and was immediately enraptured by Damian’s “old man” personality and forced him to have fun like a child during his short stay. The Batboys, as much as they were scared of Damian and what he might do, immediately shipped them together, Jason (being the fanfiction writer/reader which he never admitted to anyone) deemed the ship “Daminette” which the others agreed to fervently. But now, five years later and three very determined Daminette shippers later, Damian and his brothers were on a plan to France to meet with Marinette. 
“Momma Cheng! Papa Dupain!” Dick swung the bakery door open and sauntered in while the others trailed behind him rolling their eyes, except for Tim, Tim was excited for good coffee. 
“Oh Richard!” Sabine walked around the counter and gave all the boys a quick hug and handed them off to her husband who cracked their backs with his monstrous hugs. Sabine reached Damian and pulled him into a hug before he could protest then held him at arm's length. “Oh my have you grown! Tom,” she turned her head to her husband while still holding onto Damian. 
Tom set down Tim who stumbled and was caught by Dick before hitting the ground. “Yes, dear?” 
“Hasn’t he grown so much? Such a handsome young man,” she let go and pinched his cheek which he pulled away from when suddenly he was lifted into a smoldering hug and felt the cr-rick cra-ack! of his spine. He wiggled in the grip finding he couldn’t get out but when he was placed back down he felt a little lightheaded and refused to stumble like an embarrassment Tim was. 
“You fellas can grab some treats, Marinette won’t be home until pretty late but you boys are welcome to stay until she arrives” The boys all nodded in response and said their chorus of thank you’s and went to grab some pastries before heading to the inside of their home. 
Jason quickly got restless and Dick followed him to babysit keep an eye on him while Tim pulled out his computer and started typing away. Damian got bored and decided to explore. He knew it was probably inappropriate but he politely asked Sabine if he could go up to Marinette’s balcony knowing she probably kept her garden growing up there when she started it out of spite of him after he insulted her capabilities to take care of another thing, much less herself. He was pleased, and slightly annoyed, to find a beautiful garden with an array of flowers, herbal plants and even a beautiful small tree. 
After a while being by himself a ragged looking cat sauntered over to the balcony and Damian quickly made friends with the animal and deemed it sweet and good and no harm would ever come to such an animal under his watch. He decided she was worthy to carry the name Enibas and smiled as she curled up on his chest while they both drifted off to sleep on the deck chair. 
---
Alix re-strapped her skates and got back up, ignoring the pain in her badly scraped hip and rolled out her shoulder while skating back uphill to the beginning of her obstacle course. She spun around and narrowed her eyes at the several cones placed strategically in front of her. She had set up her area by the Eiffel Tower and the locals already knew to steer clear as she had been doing this regularly for the past seven years ever since she got her first pair of skates. She blocked everything and anything out of her mind and focused on her breathing and steadied her body, with one more huff of breath she shot out towards the cones. 
First: three cones placed closely together in a line and a fourth further behind, she spun in circles and lifted her heel of her right foot and toes of her and glided through the three cones quickly, she then jumped in the air and spun in a circle in midair over the fourth cone in a slight pirouette position before landed on her left foot with her arms out, bent over slightly, and her right leg sticking out behind her. 
Second: she was still gliding very fast and twisting her extended leg gave her the momentum to face behind her, there were no cones but she knew what to do. She bent the leg supporting her and cut to the right and expertly landed on her padded hand and using the walled walkway beside her she pushed her left leg out to skate alongside and up the wall. Placing her other hand on the ground she pushed her body up high, higher than anybody should be able to do but given the fact she discovered Fluff gave her a bit of an advantage, she twirled and twisted to land on both feet. Once again Alix was facing downhill and even though she lost a lot of speed with the last move she was gaining again. 
Third: there was a little makeshift ramp, Alix huffed again and pushed herself downhill. She would make it this time. Going as fast as she thought was safe, she skated on top of the ramp and keeping her legs straight she let it lift her, Alix let herself fly for a bit letting her legs carry up as her upper body fell before tucking her legs in to quicken the flip. However, instead of flipping too fast like last time, slipping, and slamming onto her shoulder, she went higher than she anticipated and shot her legs out to reach the ground quicker and ungracefully swung her arms about to prevent her from falling backwards again. She thumped onto the ground but before she could celebrate her success of landing on two feet she tripped from the unbalance and yelled “FU**!” before smashing into the ground. 
Alix groaned from the pain and thanked the Kwami’s she always wore her helmet, if not she was sure she'd have much more than just a scratched chin. 
“Are you okay?” a panicked man’s voice entered her ears and without moving to see who it was she gave a thumbs up. 
“Holy sh** that was AWESOME!” another man’s voice invaded her ears again. Great. American tourists. 
Alix pushed herself up to see who it was speaking to find, what most would call, a handsome gentleman with black hair and clear blue eyes filled with worry. She looked over at the other man who looked pretty much the same except with a weird strip of white hair and was typing furiously on his phone. 
“Oi!” she pointed at the white striped hair dude, “di**head, did you take a video? Where are you sending it?” 
“Jason!” the first with the blue eyes looked back at his… partner? “Don’t send that to anyone, alright?” The guy looked between the man in front of Alix then to her before shrugging.
“I wasn’t going to.” Alix still stared at him while he went back to his phone but walked up to the two on the ground. 
“Are you sure you're ok, miss?” the man in front of her asked. She looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. 
“I've been doing this since I was eight. I’ve had worse.” the guy nodded then smiled brightly. 
“That was very impressive though.” He stood up and offered his hand which she took and stood up with him. “Do you mind if I join you? I would love it if I could. I’ve never actually done flips and stuff with skates but I think I can handle it. So can I?” His smile was so big and innocent that Alix laughed at him. 
“I’m sorry but this isn’t exactly something you can just pick up and be good at, I’ve fallen enough times I won’t break a bone and while he,” Alix pointed at the other guy, “might be able to take a few crashes you don’t look like you’ve ever been in a serious harm. Like ever. No offence or anything I just don’t want some broken bones blamed on me.” She replied as nicely as she could but the man just started laughing. 
“How about I show you what I can do on skates first and if you deem me unworthy I’ll take my leave.” Alix narrowed her eyes at him then gave him a slow nod. “Great!” he whipped out his phone and started texting someone while Alix just turned around and headed for her water bottle. These guys were weird. 
Ten minutes later another guy showed up, Tim, as Alix was informed earlier, also had black hair and blue eyes except he seemed younger and was skinnier than the other two, and was carrying three pairs of new skates. Alix gawked at him, those were some of the nicest, most expensive pairs of skates in Paris and he had three. Yup. These were some rich fools. 
Dick, as he introduced himself as (Alix laughed at him for such an unfortunate name), squealed and rushed to put on a pair of skates and wheeled around doing impressive jumps and moves that he really had no right doing while Jason yelled “I told you not to get me a pair!” the new boy shrugged and put his own on. Alix sighed and shook her head, accepting that these particular rich fools would be quite stubborn. 
“Ok. I’m ready.” Alix turned towards Dick who looked at her expectantly. 
“Ok. What are you waiting for, am I supposed to help you with something or…?” 
“Oh! Uh… can I do the course? He pointed downhill at her makeshift course and she nodded. 
“Sure. Don’t blame me when you crack your head open, you should really get a helmet by the way.” 
“Oh don’t worry,” he waved her off and smiled like he wasn’t in actual danger, “I do stuff like this all the time.” He readied himself and went through her course, not as dramatic as she had done but toned down motions and movements and when he got to the ramp he jumped as far up as he could but didn’t flip. He skated back up and went through again adding a little more complicated movements through it. Alix watched with interest as Tim skated up to her side and stuck a hand out. 
“Hello, I’m Tim.” 
“I know.” Alix accepted his hand shake, “I’m Alix,” she replied before returning to watching Dick go through the course. 
“I hope we’re not bothering you too much. I saw the video and I really wanted to meet you and I knew Dick here would love to do some stunts of his own. Did he already tell you what you did wrong with that flip that made you lose your balance?” 
“Huh? He’s good but I don’t think he’ll be flipping on skates anytime soon.” 
“Oh, actually we all kind of do crazy stunts like this on a daily basis and he specializes in acrobats so I just figured he told you already.” 
“Ok! I think I’m ready!” Dick called out after his fourth round skating up the hill. 
“No,” Alix breathed out. “He’s not gonna do the backflip is he?”
“Yup,” Tim lightly chuckled. “Sorry we’re all a little crazy.” 
“This is for you, Alix.” 
“Wait, no-” but Dick ignored her and started through the course again. He skated skillfully around the cones and did a perfect pirouette over the fourth cone as if he’d been doing it for years and did his own little crazy stint with a backflip then raced towards the ramp and with straight legs he let his legs fly up and his head drop much longer than she was comfortable with, then tucked his legs in but not as much as she did and landed perfectly and glided down the hill with his arms raised up like a gymnast. 
“What!?” Alix yelled. She was highly peeved. She’s been trying this for the past week and he tries and lands on the first try!? Unfair. So unfair. 
“Can I try?” Tim asked. Alix whipped her head to him and scoffed.
“Not you too? You're going to just flip like it's nothing too? No. No no no. Dick!” she yelled out unintentionally calling him the American curse word in the process to the man who turned around and started towards them. 
“Yeah?” Alix waited until he stopped in front of her. 
“How did you do that?”
“I just waited a bit longer before tucking my knees in. I noticed that you tucked too early and brought your knees too close to your chest which made you over flip. And by waiting a little longer you would have dropped a little further so you wouldn’t have struggled with being too high.” Alix huffed in annoyance. 
“Ok… ok…. My turn, I’m going to get it this time.” 
Alix went to the beginning of the course and took a deep breath, blocking everything out and shot out. She did her tricks and jumps and when she got to the ramp she felt a rush of adrenaline from the slight fear. She went up as high as she could and her legs went up and her upper body dropped. She waited past her comfort zone and looked down to the approaching ground. Then everything clicked. She tucked her legs in, following Dick’s words, and straightened them out again until they were slightly bent and landed. She whooped and pumped her fists in the air. She’d finally done it! She turned back around to find Jason on the side with his camera out and cheering her on while Tim and Dick did the same but without their phones. She laughed and skated back up the hill. 
“I finally got it!” 
“Yes!” Tim held out a hand and she high-fived it. “That was awesome! You are amazing!” Alix grinned widely at the praise. 
“Thanks! I just have to land at least ten more times in a row,” she said as she readied herself to go again. 
“Wait, I can’t go yet?”
“My course, my rules.” Tim smiled and nodded his head. 
“Good point.” 
For the next two hours Alix skated with the two boys and conversed with Jason when she was taking a break. That’s how she found out they were in Paris because of Marinette and refused to have two boys fighting over Marinette when she was already taken, well not yet but they were determined to get their brother Damian and Marinette together. She then decided she liked Jason, despite him taking unwanted videos though they turned out to be fun to watch (she cringed when she saw herself faceplant in the first video). It was nice to see people like the three of them looking out for Marinette, heaven knows she doesn’t have a guardian angel because she gets into way too much trouble without even trying, though the three of them were also troublemakers and chaos was basically Alix’s occupation. It was 19 hours (7:00) when they had to go but Alix was very excited when they invited her over with them to meet Marinette who they hadn’t seen in several years. 
---
Marinette sighed from exhaustion as she pushed the front door of her parent’s bakery open. She had been working nonstop with Jagged Stone on his new stage outfits, she loved the guy but he was a handful sometimes. 
“Marinette!” She looked up and gave her mother a tired smile while the woman handed a pastry to a customer. “Have a wonderful day,” she told the customer before walking around the counter as the man left and hugged her daughter. “We have some guests who came to visit you.” Mrs. Cheng smiled brightly at Marinette who scrunched her brows together in confusion. 
“Who?” Her mother shook her head and pushed her towards the entrance to their home. 
“You’ll see.” 
Marinette walked through the door to find Alix wrestling Jason Todd to the ground while the man was pushing her face away with a pillow and Tim Drake watching, but not really watching, as he sipped on something she assumed was coffee, and Dick Grayson who was ignoring them all, laying on the couch watching spongebob in french. She cleared her throat to get their attention but nothing happened. 
“Excuse me.” she called out but again, nothing. 
“ExCUSE me.” Nothing besides Alix’s ‘hmph’ as Jason flipped her over and stood up, lightly smacking her with the pillow while yelling. “Taste defeat!”
“HEY!” Marinette finally yelled out. All four heads snapped to her and everything was silent for a moment before chaos erupted and all the three boys started shouting and squealing (Dick) and clamoring for hugs. 
“Mari!”
“Nettie!”
“MY FAVORITE SISTER!”
Marinette made a strangled noise as they all squeezed the life out of her. Marinette was smiling and laughing with them but was very glad when she was finally back on her own feet. 
“What are you guys doing here?” 
“What, we can’t visit our little sister?” Jason asked innocently and Marinette crossed her arms and looked at him with disbelief etched in every part of her. 
“Ok so we heard about your situation in your class and-”
“Hey!” Alix suddenly cut in and stuttered when all eyes were on her. “I mean, hey, so I was just hanging out with these guys all day and they’re all hungry, let’s fix them something to eat?” She looked at Marinette in question then clapped her hands together and nodded once to confirm it with herself. “Yes.” 
Marinette looked at her suspiciously then at her pseudo brothers who suddenly started nodding in confirmation. 
“Yes, food.”
“Yup.”
“Hunger is a thing I have.” Jason’s stomach grumbled as if on cue which broke Marinette’s suspicion and she giggled at him. 
“Ok, spaghetti it is. Blue Bird, you're on cutting duty, Tim-Tam, you get the ingredients, Jay-Jay…. Alix, keep Jason busy.” 
After a few minutes bustling around the kitchen Marinette suddenly remembered something and she turned to Dick, “Where’s the old man?” 
After dinner was made Dick bounded into her room claiming Damian was napping on her balcony which Marinette smiled to in triumph but when Damian came downstairs her triumph washed away along with her soul. 
Marinette was doing fine all day. She was completely rational and fine. She was fine. Currently she is NOT fine. She is NOT ok. And as for Damian? He was fine alright. Oh boy was he fine. As soon as he walked down from her trapdoor her jaw dropped to the floor. 
---
Alix shook her head, she was having quite the time watching Marinette’s reaction to her childhood friend but felt a rush of relief that she didn’t have Marinette Problems.
“Seriously, Marinette? Close your mouth.” The girl snapped her mouth shut and tore her eyes away from Damian to land on the skater. 
“Alix,” she hissed, “why is he so damn hot?” Alix smirked at her friend’s rare use of a curse word and watched as Marinette’s face started to pinken and she ducked behind the kitchen counter. Alix leaned over the counter and saw the tip of her friend’s head. 
“Relax,” she tried to be reassuring but couldn’t stop grinning. She heard footsteps get closer and whispered, “he’s coming,” before plopping back onto her seat. 
Damian walked into Marinette’s view and stopped to look at her on the floor with a scowl that Alix was sure was not helping Marinette’s situation. 
“What are you doing on the floor, Dupain-Cheng?” Alix snickered while Marinette shot up on her feet. 
“He’s a male Chloe Bourgeois!” she said mostly to herself. 
“None of your business. I see you haven’t changed a bit, Old Man.” Damian scoffed. 
“Neither have you, it seems, Sunshine Face.” Wow. Bad nickname. 
“Oh,” Marinette placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side, “so you still admit my face is pretty?” Oooo, where did Marinette get her game?
“What? No. More like I can’t look at it for too long because-” 
Marinette began waving her hands back and forth to get him to stop, “ok ok ok,” where was she getting this confidence? She was literally hiding from him five seconds ago. “When you explain it, it loses the humor, did you learn nothing all those years ago?” Marinette shakes her head and Alix silently agrees, “pity. Anyways, my cooking has improved, as well as everything about me, I have clearly surpassed you, and here is some spaghetti we made while you were napping.” She grabbed a plate and waved her hand towards the food still on the stove while handing it to him, “help yourself.” She walked by him and headed to the couch where Jason and Dick had settled and plopped between them while they played video games. Alix nodded in approval as she watched Marinette walk away. When she turned back she found Damian watching her as well with cheeks slightly tinted pink. Wow. Does every boy she talks to fall for her? Even Kagami, poor soul, had fallen for Marinette as quickly as she could say “Begone, Adrien.”
This is going to be a fun week. 
---
Marinette groaned in despair. Nino walked in with a blue shirt with a white outline of Adrien’s face like he was some kind of pop star and a red hat that of course said “Team Adrien”  
“What's next,” Marinette mumbled to herself while leaning back and crossing her arms, “Team Damian?” Marinette heard a gasp and turned to see Alix staring at her like she had the greatest idea ever. 
Very suddenly things clicked for Marinette. Her classmates were picking sides of who she should date. Adrien or Luka. It was literally the only connection she could find between the two boys, they only had about one or two conversations together in their entire lives and Marinette was definitely terrible at keeping her crushes secret so there was no way that at least Kitty Section would know about it. And thinking about Kitty Section they were the ones who started it. Oh no. Marinette made those shirts. Does Luka know? Probably. Adrien definitely doesn’t. Wwwooowww. Some friends she has. 
And now Alix. 
That BRAT! She was typing something on her phone… oh no. 
“Alix,” Marinette said slowly as if approaching a rabid dog while unraveling her arms from her body. “Alix, no!” She jumped from her seat and lunged for the skater over Mylene who merely leaned back in her seat as if she’d been through this a million times. Alix jumped back while continuing to type then very clearly pressing send. “Noooooo…” Marinette slumped onto Mylene’s lap who patted the top of her head in pity. 
She laid there for a moment taking in Mylene’s silent comfort before slowly standing up and ignoring everyone’s stares. She straightened her clothes saying a polite, “thank you, Mylene,” and a nod at her before focusing her gaze on Alix. “You’re dead, Kubdel,” she said then turning around and sitting straight backed on her seat trying desperately to ignore another snapshot of Adrien in a Gabriel line of workout clothes showing off his muscles on the back of Nino’s new shirt. 
Marinette was slowly losing her mind. 
---
The next day Alix walked in with a black shirt with green bold font saying “TEAM DAMIAN” on the front and she could feel Marinette staring daggers at her. She purposefully exposed her back to the class so they could see the “FIND YOUR OWN GIRL” printed on the back. 
Alix ignored the stares while pulling out her school things until she heard Lila’s sickening sweet voice call out to, “who’s Damian?” Alix waited for a beat to make sure everyone was listening before smiling smugly, she couldn’t help it, and shrugging. 
“Damian Wayne, obviously.” 
---
Marinette would deny it but she felt a sick sort of satisfaction when Lila’s face paled. 
BONUS:
“Plagg!” Adrien sounded exasperated and the little god chuckled evilly. It was such fun to tease his holder. The boy hadn’t caught on that his infatuation with Ladybug was just that: infatuation. He couldn’t see that he merely admired the girl, his father saw to it that Adrien was so sheltered that he couldn’t separate his feelings of the different types of love. 
“Just saying, I know what you're doing there, “chaton”,” plagg mimicked Luka’s voice perfectly on the last word which instantly made Adrien become very red in the face, “you and I know what team you play for.” He threw the boy a wink and cackled before leaving him to ponder his words as he searched for more Camembert. 
---
Felix rolled his eyes at his phone and quickly pressed the unfollow button on his cousin. What an embarrassment. He had absolutely no clue what he was throwing away because of his naïvety. 
---
“I can feel your rage from here, Kagami.” 
“Sorry, mother.” Kagami’s mother nodded her head as an acceptance of her apology. 
“I’ve heard about that pesky little feud Gabriel’s child is in.” She stayed quiet for a moment but Kagami didn’t break the silence. “You are a Tsurugi, Kagami. No hesitation.” Kagami couldn’t stop the little smile that slid onto her face. 
“Yes, mother,” she said quietly. 
-------
Team Luka: 
Lila, Juleka, Rose, Ivan, Sabrina, Adrien
Team Adrien: 
Alya, Chloe, Nino, Kim, Max, Mylene
Team Damian: 
Alix, Dick, Tim, Jason, Bruce
some long ass notes: 
I didn’t add kagami and felix into the mix because it would really complicate things but for clarification in my mind Marinette and everyone is between 14-16 and Marinette doesn’t know it but she does have feelings for kagami but she's focused on the other two boys, she knows she likes boys and doesn't want to think about girls since it would complicate her situation and open a door to many more problems with her poor little teen heart. Kagami knows she likes Marinette though, she took one look at marinette and said “nope. Bye Adrien.”
SO i think it be pretty cool if whoever wants to can reply with their own versions of whatever ships they want and the characters interactions with them. I won’t be actually putting any characters together as to leave the imagination up to the reader but if you want you can go ahead and add yourselves to whatever team you want (: 
Part 1
@miracleofadisaster @consumeconstantly @mermaidreject @alenee13 @how-to-fuction-properly @dreamykitty25 @certifiedbidisaster @kris-pines04 @ira-sairain @crystalangelluna @i-wanna-be-a-ninja @our-preciousss @iamabrownfox @susiej1118 @thenillabean @tired-butterfly @fantasyislive @prudencerika @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @clumsy-owl-4178 @notmycupoftea26 @iamablinkmarvelarmy
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Text
Little Sunshine (Miss Venable x reader x Alice Macray)
okay..hi :) this is reallyyyy long xD And its the story of this 3 cuties and how they fell in love with each other.. Well, its a little bit like the 3. part of “purple roses” (purple roses u can find here: https://littlejeaniehugsbumblebees.tumblr.com/post/640902350735818752/purple-roses-ms-venable-x-reader ) 
I know, that there is no second part online today, but there will be! If u didnt read the first part, u dont need to, coz i wrote this fanfiction that way, that u dont have to read the first part, i guess its angst idk
anygays my english is a mess, thats why i use google translate:’)
can we just talk about the fact, how perfect alice and mina would match? Mina the hot top with all that bdsm vibes and on the other hand we got the cute and innocent Alice sksksks
I guess Mina is the protagonist of this fanfic 
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A good description of your relationship would have been complicated. Because it was all incredibly complicated. Don't get me wrong, you loved your girlfriends and they loved you, but sometimes when you woke up between the two of them, when Mina had her arms wrapped around you from behind and when Alice was cuddled with her head against your chest, you might just be confused how all of that could be possible.
And sometimes you couldn't help but wonder what your life would be like without one of your girlfriends. But you knew that you could never live without one of them, that was a fact.
You needed both to be happy, there was no other way.
Mina brought firmness and structure into your life. Thanks to her, you had developed routines for your daily routine and were no longer so distracted. And you loved the fact about her that she was more rational than emotional about things.
And every time she went on a business trip and left Alice and you at home alone, a huge mess broke out and all structures were thrown away.
You would oversleep in the morning, be late for work and your house would turn into a huge disaster and mess.
It just wouldn't work without Mina.
Alice, on the other hand, was the most innocent, gentle, and naive person you had ever met. Mina helped you solve your problems, but Alice helped you understand and accept them. In addition, Alice was incredibly cute and she was fantastic at cooking.
And whenever you needed it, she was there to hug you and tell you how much she loved you.
And the proof that it wouldn't work without Alice was the relationship you had with Mina before Alice came into your life. At the moment when everything you had with Mina broke, it seemed like God would have sent a gentle angel to save you.
----------------------
"This is going to be a new record .." you said as you leaned into the door frame to watch your girlfriend who was still working at her desk.
"What do you mean?", She lifted her gaze from her laptop in confusion to stare at you with a frown.
"You have been home for 4 hours and are still working .."
Mina sighed and rubbed her temples.
"I just have to make one phone call and then I'm done .." she muttered with her eyes closed.
"You always say that ..." you started, shaking your head. "One last phone call, one last document, one last email ... and then it's 10 p.m."
Mina was startled at your words and took a quick look at the clock on her laptop. You were right, it was 10 p.m.
"I doesn't matter ..." you sighed and turned to go back into the hallway.
"I'm going to bed, good night Wilhemina ..."
"Good night .." she replied quietly and stared after you.
Wilhemina.
That's what you called her only when you were angry.
Mina swore quietly and grabbed her phone before dialing the directory assistance number and letting it ring.
"Uhm..Hello, you're connected to the directory assistance, I'm Alice ..", came a soft female voice, which sounded a bit too happy for Mina's taste.
"I want you to find Lennox Fischer's private email address for me ..", Mina said in a commanding tone.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment before the woman, Alice, continued.
"We have actually been closed since 6 p.m. .."
"Then you shouldn't have answered the call, could you still find this address for me?" Mina sighed and propped her chin on her palm.
"Give me a minute ... I've only been working here for a few weeks ...", Alice laughed nervously and Mina closed her eyes in annoyance.
"That's when I realize I shouldn't have told you my name .." Alice remarked after a few seconds.
"How tragic .." Mina replied ironically and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Do you have the email address?"
"I'm sorry..but what was the name again?"
"Damn it, it's not that difficult. Then why do you have this job if you can't get anything done anyway? I've rarely met someone who is as damn unqualified as you," barked Mina and slapped the table with the flat of her hand.
"You have no idea .." the other woman yelled back.
"Can you all stop being so impatient with me? I'm only human too ... And all because you're too lazy to look for it yourself and now take out your frustration on me ... I'm getting this right now not paid either, so it takes as long as it takes. And if you have a problem with it, fuck off.."
Miss Venable stared in confusion at the phone in her hand.
"Uhm, I'm sorry ..", she stammered overwhelmed.
"It's just that my girlfriend is impatiently waiting for me to finally get to bed .."
On the other end of the phone, Alice snorted.
"Yours too, yes? Get a divorce from her, even if she's just your girlfriend, it makes everything easier..You know- "
"Lennox Fischer ..", Mina interrupted the woman to bring her back to the subject.
"Oh yeah .. m'sorry .." Alice muttered and laughed nervously again. "You have to know that I got divorced from my husband two months ago and it's all a little bit complicated .."
"Aha."
"Well, I now have his email address, can you write it down? Then I'll dictate it to you .." Alice said and Mina sat down straight again to type in the email address down that Alice dictated to her on the phone.
"Good .." Alice said and sounded polite again.
"Then I thank you for your call and hope I could help you .."
Mina let out a small snort and had to grin at the strange woman.
"I have to thank you .." she muttered before hanging up and finally shutting down her laptop.
When she finally opened the door to your bedroom, you were lying with your back to her in bed and she couldn't tell whether you were still awake or already asleep. She undressed quietly and then climbed into bed behind you.
"Honey?" She whispered softly as she leaned over to gently press kisses against your exposed shoulder. "Are you still awake?"
"Nope .." you made with your eyes closed and Mina laughed quietly.
You blinked against the darkness of the room as you turned your head to face her. Your girlfriend was hunched over you naked, looking guiltily at you. After staring at her for a moment, you reached out your hand to reach behind her head and carefully pulled the hair tie out of her hair. Long red hair fell down her face and the ends of her hair tickled your cheeks.
"I'm done with everything now .." she whispered, smiling gently.
"Now is half past ten ..", your hand slid from the back of her head to her cheek to linger there.
"Now is a little bit late.."
"I know and I'm sorry .." she muttered and you could hear the regret in her voice. But a simple "sorry" wasn't enough for you anymore.
You sighed before you sat up and leaned against the headboard of the bed.
"Look, I know you have to work a lot, but sometimes it's just too much you know?"
Mina, who had also leaned against the headboard, nodded shortly before you continued.
"It's not about that the whole thing can't be healthy for you. I mean more us ... Although that might be a bit selfish, I know you love your work, but I uhm .. I don't know- you know, you work all the time and even on weekends and I know it's not your fault, but I just can't do this anymore..I'm sorry that I claim your affection so much, but I just need you and you have no time .. "
Carefully you looked over at Mina, who sadly returned your gaze.
"I'm sorry .." she whispered and grabbed your hand to pull you close to her so you could rest your head on her chest.
"I'll do better, I promise .."
"I know I'm no better myself .." you muttered as she began to comb through your hair gently.
"As a professor at this college, I have to work a lot too, but not until 10 p.m."
"I'll do better .." she repeated and you smiled before leaning over to press your lips against her cheek for a moment.
"That's all I want .." you pulled back and lay back on your side of the bed. Your girlfriend was not long in coming and lay behind you before she put an arm around you and pulled you back to her.
"What do you think if we go out after work tomorrow ..?" She whispered in your ear.
You hummed in agreement. "That's a great idea..".
"Yes?"
"Yeah .." you muttered with your eyes closed.
"Good night Mina ..".
"Good night baby .."
---------------
You slammed the car door angrily before turning around to stomp up the steps to your front door. You were angry. Very angry. After you hurried to get off work as quickly as possible, you drove to the restaurant where you had an appointment, only to wait an hour for someone who didn't come and now you drove back home and then to see Mina's car parked in the garage.
"Wilhemina fucking Venable .." you shouted as you opened the front door.
"How dare you humiliate me so much ..".
You ran to her workspace and as you expected she was sitting at her desk in front of her laptop and seemed to be working. Her brown eyes widened when she saw you angrily standing in the doorway.
"I'm so sorry ..", she stammered and got up.
"Oh of course you are .." you hissed with narrowed eyes.
"I called you 4 times while I sat in this stupid restaurant for an hour .. You can't imagine how embarrassing it was, the waiter felt so sorry for me that I didn't have to pay for my tea .. "
Your girlfriend stared helplessly at you.
"Like I said, I'm sorry, Y / N .. i was just so busy and then I forgot .."
"So do you admit you've forgotten? You know, at one point I thought you might be doing this on purpose because you think it's funny."
"I never could, I-", she began, but you raised your hand to silence her.
"The only problem is that you always do that .." you bit your lip.
"You promise me so often that you will spend time with me only to then skip it for your work .. Then just leave it straight away and I don't always have to make myself hopes, only to be disappointed ..".
"Y / N please .. I'm as good as finished .. We can still go somewhere and have dinner ..", she looked at you desperately, but you just shook your head.
"Just forget it, Mina .." you muttered before turning around to leave her workspace . She looked after you sadly before let out a frustrated moan and slumped back into her desk chair.
How could she have forgotten?
Reluctantly, she picked up her phone and dialed the directory assistance number like the night before.
"Hello, you are connected to Directory Assistance .." said the same soft voice as last night.
"Alice ..", Mina remarked and didn't really want to notice.
"Ohh you're the rude woman from last night .." Alice laughed on the other end of the phone.
"The one with the impatient girlfriend .."
"Now more likely the one with the hating girlfriend ..".
"What did you do wrong?", Mina could hear real concern in the woman's voice and that confused her. She didn't even know this woman.
"She's upset because I always move her for work .." she mumbled.
"It's not your fault if you have to work."
"Exactly! ..", Mina shouted loudly and was surprised by her own volume.
At the other end it was quiet and Mina noticed that the whole thing was more than just private right now. She cleared her throat just before continuing.
"Can you find out Leigh Chaplin's phone number for me?"
"Of course..give me a minute .." Alice muttered and Mina heard Alice tapping on the keyboard through the receiver. For a brief moment Mina thought about just hanging up. That call was quite weird and had taken on a very personal direction. But just when she really wanted to hang up, Alice began to dictate the phone number to her and she had to take notes.
--------------------
Mina had decided to make amends for what had happened a few days ago. The only problem was, whenever you had time, she couldn't. And once she was done with everything, you had to work. It was a never-ending cycle that dragged you both further and further down. And the worst part was that you both knew that and still couldn't do anything about it. She loved her work as much as you loved yours and neither of you would ever be willing to sacrifice your work for the other.
And yet Mina had decided to make it up to you and that meant for her to help you with saving time. That's why she was now at the city library to bring back the books for you that you had borrowed a few weeks ago. Actually you had your own little library in your house, because you valued books very much, but at some point all these books were read and you were both not people who read books again.
And as a college professor, you had a habit of researching books rather than the internet anyway.
Here she was now, hobbling her stick through the library building. Which turned out to be quite difficult as she was holding your books in one arm and then had to go through the big building with her stick. If she were to trip and fall, she would have no way of catching herself. Mina knew that this would probably never happen, but still she didn't like the feeling.
But of course it happened as it had to, as always in such situations. It wasn't Mina who fell, but it was one of the books that slipped out of the crook of her arm and landed with a thud on the wooden floor of the library. How much she hated that ... such situations were almost unbearable for her. Simply because it was embarrassing to know that because of her scoliosis she was unable to bend down to pick up the book herself.
She wanted to swear loudly, but she knew that a library might not be the best place for this. She poked her senselesslyn stick around on the book and tried to put it upright somehow, only to grab it. But it was useless. Of course it had to be the thickest of your books that she had dropped. Her stick seemed to be against it like a thin branch.
"Let me help you .." suddenly came a soft voice from behind her and made her flinch. Mina turned around and looked into the friendly face of a petite woman with light brown hair.
"Your book ..", the woman said when Mina didn't answer and pointed to it with an outstretched finger. Again Miss Venable didn't answer and just stared at the woman in front of her. She was 100% sure she had never seen her before, but her voice ... She knew that soft voice, she just didn't know where from.
Without hesitating for another second, the strange woman bent down and picked up the book.
"You are welcome ..", she smiled and put the book back in the crook of Mina.
"Thank you ..", Mina mumbled, still staring at the woman in front of her, confused.
"I'm sorry, but do we know each other?"
"I think I would know that..", the woman laughed and suddenly Mina knew who she was looking at.
"You're Alice .." she uttered. "Alice from directory assistance ..".
Alice's eyes widened.
"Then you must be the one with the impatient, hating girlfriend .."
Mina's pale skin turned red at the other woman's words and she began tapping the floor with her stick in an irregular rhythm, as she always did when she was nervous.
"I may have exaggerated a bit .." she muttered. "She doesn't hate me ..".
"Well, I'm glad .." Alice honestly smiled before she nodded at the books in Mina's arms with her chin. "By the way, you have a very good taste in books .."
Mina's gaze followed that of the woman in front of her and landed on the book that she had dropped.
"Oh..these aren't my books, my girlfriend read them .."
"So she has a very good taste in books ...".
Mina nodded briefly while she was still staring at Alice. The fact that she had actually met this woman was so weird that it couldn't be a coincidence.
"Uhm .. I should bring the books back .." she muttered and Alice nodded quickly.
"I can wait .." said Alice.
"So .. if you want .." she added quickly when she noticed Mina frown.
Mina narrowed her eyes while she could only stare again. Alice exuded such confidence and she was so kind, it was like she couldn't help but agree.
"Okay .." Mina muttered. "Just give me a minute ..".
Alice's eyes began to glow.
"Perfect .." she said, beaming. "I'll wait outside."
Mina nodded shortly before leaving Alice to return the books.
"Where is your car?" Mina asked Alice as she stepped out of the library.
"Oh uhm I came here on foot .." Alice muttered and Mina frowned.
"It's getting dark .." she said curtly and Alice, who obviously didn't know what to do with that remark, nodded shortly.
"I can drive you home."
Mina studied Alice's face for any dislikes, but the woman just smiled again.
"That would be nice..".
Mina nodded again before going to her car with Alice.
"Well ..", Mina began after getting into the car with Alice.
"Where do you live?" She looked at Alice from the side, who was desperately trying to put the strap over her blouse so that it wouldn't crease.
"Uhm..Woodhill Avenue ..", the woman mumbled when she was finally satisfied.
"You can't be serious ..", Mina stared at Alice, not sure whether to laugh or be upset. "We live on the same street .."
"Oh really?" Alice's eyes lit up again.
Mina just hummed in agreement before starting the car.
For a few minutes they drove through the crowded streets and neither said a word. And although something like that was usually uncomfortable, at that moment it was actually quite pleasant, at least that's what Mina thought.
"Actually we know the whole neighborhood, but I've never heard of an Alice, nor have I seen you ...", she said finally as she turned into the long street of Woodhill Avenue.
"Well .. actually I don't live there .. I think I told you that I separated from my husband and since then I've been living with my daughter ..", Alice explained and Mina didn't even need to look at her to see how the woman was uncomfortable with the topic.
"I'm sorry .." she said curtly.
"Oh no .. you know, I'm happy the way it is now, at least I'm happier than I was with Buck a few months ago ..".
Mina didn't know what to answer, so she decided not to say anything again.
"Do you know the people who live in this house?" Alice suddenly asked and pointed to the building that Mina referred to as her home. "Venable and Y / L / N are their names .. My daughter told me that everyone is afraid of them .."
Mina stared at Alice and when she realized that the woman was serious, she started to laugh.
"Is it really that bad that everyone is afraid of us?", Mina said and couldn't help but grin as she watched the eyes of the woman next to her widen.
"Wait..I- you live in the house with your girlfriend?" Alice stammered and Mina nodded.
"I'm so sorry ... God ..this embarrassing .."
Alice buried her face in her hands and stared between her fingers at the house where you lived with Mina.
"Well, it's a nice house ..", she muttered, trying to get out of this situation somehow. Mina just snorted in amusement before continuing down the street with the car.
"Which house does your daughter live in?"
"In the green one over there .." Alice muttered and Mina's eyes landed on a green low-rise building.
"Ohh your daughter is Evangeline ..", Mina remarked as she parked the car in front of the house.
"You know her?" Alice sounded confused.
Mina nodded.
"I've never really spoken to her before, but I know her .."
"Okay .." Alice frowned before reaching for the seat belt to unbuckle her.
"That's when I notice, I don't even know what your name is ..".
"Miss Venable .." Mina said curtly and bit the inside of her cheek.
"uhm..or Wilhemina .."
Alice smiled.
"Well, then thank you, Wilhemina, for taking me home .."
"Good Night, Alice ..", Mina muttered and had to smile again.
"Good Night .." Alice repeated before getting out of the car and disappearing into the green house. And Mina couldn't help but stare after her.
In her mind, for whatever reason, she was back on the day the two of you had met in the flower shop where you had been working at the time. Even then, she had wanted to smile all the time.
When Mina finally stood in front of the house for a few minutes and finally decided to go home, she felt nothing but guilty feelings and she did not know who these feelings were for: Alice, because Mina had let her go or you, because she felt exactly the same  things right now as she did when you and Mina first met.
----------------------
It was Saturday evening and Alice was on her way to the house of the interesting woman she had met in person a few days ago. Somewhere she had a guilty conscience, as it was already 10 p.m. and it was probably impolite to disturb Mina so late, but she really wanted to see Wilhemina again and at the same time she really wanted to get to know you.
She stepped onto the site of your house and hesitantly raised her hand to the bell before finally pressing her finger against the little button.
When two minutes later still nothing had moved, Alice actually wanted to turn around and go home, but then she remembered that Mina probably needed longer due to her stick and that's why she stayed. And actually a few seconds later an angry looking Mina opened the door for her.
When Alice saw Mina's angry look, she was afraid for a moment that she had more than just disturbed, but when Mina recognized her, her look softened.
"Alice .." Mina uttered happily and Alice could see the woman in front of her trying to suppress a smile, which she failed.
"Uhm..I hope I'm not bothering .." Alice gave Mina, who quickly shook her head, a bright smile.
"No .." said the woman, her face serious again. "How can I help you?"
"Uhm well, I've got something for your girlfriend .." Alice muttered as she reached into her pocket to get the book out before she passed it to Mina.
"I saw on Thursday that your friend had checked out the first part .. I thought she might want to read the second part too .. It doesn't exist in the library .."
"Oh that's nice ..", Mina picked up the book.
"But unfortunately she's not at home all weekend because of a seminar .."
Alice frowned
"Are you sure you're the one who transfers his girlfriend because of work?" She asked and watched Mina just shake her head.
"I think you have a completely wrong picture of her ..", Mina muttered and chewed her lower lip.
"Isn't that important either, do you want to come in?"
"Sure .." Alice nodded quickly and started smiling again.
When Mina led Alice into the living room, Alice couldn't help but be impressed. The walls of the great room were lined up with full bookshelves sorted in alphabetical order. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling and was not switched on because a fire was burning in a large marble fireplace. In the middle of the room was a large dark red carpet on which a dark wing chair, a couch made of the same dark fabric and a square wooden table with short table legs stood.
Alice's gaze caught on the wing chair Mina had obviously been sitting in, before Alice rang the bell. A blanket lay untidy on the seat, covered with an open book and on the table was a half-empty glass with red wine. On the edge of the glass Alice could see traces of Mina's dark lipstick.
"Excuse the chaos, please ..", she heard Mina say behind her. Alice let out a low snort.
"Chaos .." she repeated mumbling and turned to Mina. Except for the few things on the wing chair, the house seemed to have been furnished down to the last detail.
"Do you drink wine?" Asked Mina, clutching her stick with both hands.
"Sure." Alice replied curtly.
"Red or white?"
"White, please ..".
"Well, then wait here for a moment ..", Mina said before turning around to leave the room.
Alice looked after the woman briefly before going to the dark sofa to sit on it. She sat there for a moment, but then the pictures on the mantelpiece caught her eye and she got up again to walk to the fireplace to take a closer look at the pictures.
All of the pictures showed Mina and a woman Alice was unfamiliar with, but Alice was smart enough to say that it was you, Mina's girlfriend.
And she noticed that Mina was right when she said Alice had the wrong picture of you. You didn't see at all like someone that could be impatient or strict. All these pictures showed you laughing honestly, with a cocky twinkle in your eyes. And of course Mina, who, as always, tried to suppress her smile. Alice grinned at the thought.
Each picture showed a different moment, presumably dates or vacations and all in one, Alice thought that you and Mina looked cute together, at least in the photos.
"So you've already discovered Y / N's altar .." mumbled Mina, who suddenly appeared next to Alice.
"Oh yes .. It's cute ..", Alice said and took the glass of white wine, which Mina held out to her before she mumbled a little "thank you".
"I think it's rather cheesy, but it was her idea ..", Mina stared critically at the pictures and for a few seconds neither said anything.
"She's pretty .." Alice finally remarked and Mina just nodded.
"She is.."
Alice's gaze wandered carefully from the pictures to Mina, who was staring sadly down at the pictures.
"You know, I think this is what I like the most .." she suddenly mumbled and tapped an actually inconspicuous picture with her finger. It showed you both in your winter coats squinting your eyes against the flash of the selfie camera. It was also pretty blurry.
"I know it's nothing special .." Mina explained. "But the moment behind it was special ... It was New Year's Eve last year and shortly before midnight we climbed onto the roof of the skyscraper in which she lived at the time, to watch the fireworks from there. I remember exactly how she was angry when I forced her to come on the roof with me .. it was pretty cold ..
But I wanted it to be special when I propose to her .. "
Alice's eyes widened.
"Are you engaged?"
Mina shook her head and smiled sadly.
"We were engaged .. but she broke off the engagement three months ago until .. until things were settled .. You already know how complicated everything is at the moment .."
Alice looked worriedly into Mina's sad eyes before slowly nodding.
"I understand .." she said softly.
"You know, I really love her, but it's just so weird .." Mina pinched the bridge of her nose. "I met her a couple of years ago in the flower shop she worked and earned next to nothing and actually had a shitty life, and now she's been working as a professor for a college for a few months and is finally happy with that... and that is great, don't get me wrong, but we hardly have no time for each other, because now she also has to work long hours ... and it's like she pretends that it's all my fault .. "
"I'm sorry .." Alice muttered before stretching out her arms and pulling the woman into a hug. Alice felt that Mina was uncomfortable when she lay tense in her arms, but when she wanted to withdraw, Mina quickly put her arms around Alice and hugged her back. Alice put her head on Mina's shoulder and inhaled the woman's lavender perfume. They stayed that way for a few minutes, until Mina finally cleared her throat and withdrew.
"M'sorry .." she muttered without looking at Alice and Alice could see the tear marks on her face.
"We shouldn't talk about this anymore .."
Alice nodded quickly. "If I got too close to you, I'm sorry .. "
She followed Mina, who sat down on the couch and sat with enough space next to her.
"Now that you've heard my shit, I'd love to hear yours .." Mina said, giving Alice a subtle sideways look. Alice blinked a few times and thought about it for a moment. Actually, she didn't really know the woman and a divorce is not really a pleasant topic for an evening like this, but a few seconds ago Mina had stood in her arms and cried, so what was wrong with it?
"Uhm .. so I've been divorced for 2 months ..", she began and for the next two hours she told Mina the whole story with Phyllis Schlafly, the E.R.A. and that Houston had somehow opened her eyes and she'd been working on directory assistance ever since. She told Mina about her children and that she couldn't believe she was a grandma. And then she told her about Buck and that for a few years she had wondered if what she had with him was really what she wanted the rest of her life to be.
To be honest, Alice wouldn't normally have been so talkative if it wasn't because of the alcohol. She usually didn't drink, so a glass of Mina's expensive white wine was enough to get her drunk.
"You know, I only noticed now how bad that asshole was in bed ..." she laughed out loud and held onto Mina's thigh. "Well in any case our house belongs to him and I have to live with my daughter .."
Mina, who was just as sober as she was a few hours earlier, might have been a little overwhelmed by Alice's drunkenness, but somehow she found it incredibly cute.
"I'm sorry .." she muttered and Alice missed the worried look the woman was giving her.
"Yikes .." Alice suddenly made as she stared intently at the clock on the wall.
"Am I wrong or is it 14 minutes past midnight?"
Mina was shocked at her words and had to find out that it was actually that late.
"I should call your daughter, then she can pick you up ..".
"Oh let Evangeline sleep .." Alice waved her off.
"I can just sleep with you .. you know I like you, you're nice to me and don't treat me like the failure that I am. Even if you were pretty mean to me on the phone ..".
Alice grinned crookedly before leaning forward and dropping her head into Mina's lap. Mina winced and immediately got up to let Alice rudely fall back on the sofa. The drunk woman let out a low wail and looked reproachfully up at Mina.
"We should put you to bed .." she mumbled and pulled Alice into an upright position before she gently grabbed her arm and pulled her up the stairs with her.
"Uhm .. this is the guest room ...", Mina muttered as they stood in the door frame of the room. Alice stared into the beautifully decorated guest room, which was so much better than the sofa she'd slept on for months. But it wasn't what she wanted.
"You know, I can sleep with you..", she remarked and looked carefully at Mina, who seemed frozen.
"Okay .." Mina finally said before stepping out of the doorway and leading Alice into your bedroom.
A large king-size bed stood with its head against the wall and filled most of the room. One side of the bed faced the door. Alice' gaze ran to the bedside cabinet on this side of the bed and could see reading glasses, a pill box and a tube of some kind of cream next to a small lamp. She suspected that Mina slept here. The other nightstand was a lot messier. Unused kleenex were piled on top of each other while a pair of gold earrings lay on the lamp stand. On one corner of the cupboard was an empty glass, but it was definitely used. And then there was a big black hairbrush and either it was Mina's red hair that was caught in it or you had the same hair color as your girlfriend, which Alice found unlikely. On the wall next to this side of the bed was a large painting with some flowers on it. Alice's eyes wandered to a large ground plant that stood in the corner of the room. She noticed that she had seen beautiful flowers all over the house and she remembered Mina saying that you had once worked in a flower shop.
All in all it was a nice bedroom, but Alice only saw the best part when she had stepped completely into the room:
On the wall opposite the foot of the bed was a huge picture window, which allowed a view of the neighborhood and the beautiful night sky. That was the advantage if you didn't live in the city. Alice couldn't help but grin than her eyesremained hanging on the black grand piano, which crowned the bedroom on top of everything else.
"A piano in the bedroom?", She turned to Mina, grinning, who turned red for whatever reason.
"Y / N can play the piano and when I gave this one to her, she wanted it to be here ..", Mina explained and nervously began tapping the floor with her stick to a random rhythm.
"It's pretty cheesy, but you should hear her play ...".
Alice nodded quickly and put on a neutral expression again when she realized that Mina didn't like her grin.
"I imagine it would be nice to wake up in the morning and then hear the piano .." she muttered and looked back at the piano.
"Anyway ..", Mina said and held her stick tighter again.
"We're about the same size, you can have my nightgown if you want ..".
Alice turned back to her and gave the woman a grateful smile.
"That would be nice..".
Mina only nodded shortly before she left the room, only to come back a minute later in a lavender nightgown.
"I'm going to change in the bathroom while you can do this here ..", she explained as Alice took the nightgown and mumbled a little "thank you".
And less than 5 minutes later Alice, who was actually still drunk, was lying in bed next to a completely stranger and, like Mina, stared at the ceiling in silence. And yet she would have preferred nowhere and it was the first evening in weeks that she could fall asleep without any worries.
---------------------
Contrary to Mina's guess, the next morning hadn't been weird at all. Actually nothing special had happened, but Mina had been worried about Alice's drunkenness, but the woman had been kind as always.
And while everything was fine between Alice and her, she worried about what was between her and you. She felt incredibly guilty and could never have told you that a strange woman had slept in your bed. Mina knew that Alice was way too innocent to think anything about it when she and Mina shared the bed, but you didn't know Alice and you would never understand.
Miss Venable couldn't deny that the brunette had turned her head. Alice was so gentle, it was almost impossible to feel uncomfortable in her presence and Mina finally had someone who understood her and who showed her compassion.
And when you came home on Sunday night and she pushed you right against your front door to kiss you passionately, she did that not only to show you how much she had missed you, but also to prove to herself that she still loved you . Because she did, but what she felt when she saw Alice confused her feelings and it scared her.
It was Thursday afternoon and Mina was on her way home. She had tried again and again over the past few days to show you how much she loved you, but for whatever reason, that only made it worse. At least you just seemed to get a little bit more bitter every day, and she couldn't explain why.
Mina let out an aggressive growl when she sounded the horn because the light turned green and the idiot in front of her stopped driving.
She had got out of work late and now had to hurry to get home, even if she didn't really want to go there. You'd only be disappointed again because she was late again.
Nervously, she drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove home as fast as she could. She was almost in your street when she spotted none other than Alice on the pedestrian path and automatically her bad mood had flown away. Mina stopped next to Alice on the side of the road before pulling down the passenger door window to see Alice's surprised face.
"Jesus Mina .." Alice exclaimed, clutching her chest.
Mina raised an eyebrow and grinned.
"I thought church mice dont swear ..".
"Actually, I don't swear either .." Alice stammered. "But do you have any idea how scary it is when someone pulls up their car next to you?"
"So am I someone then?"
"No .. but .. you know what I mean ..".
Mina nodded curtly before leaning forward to open the passenger door.
"I guess, you want to go home?"
"Oh yes ..", Alice smiled gratefully at Mina before climbing into the car.
"So how are you Mina?" Alice asked after they had driven for a few minutes.
"M'fine ..", Mina mumbled and was well aware that she was lying.
"Good to hear .." Alice said, sounding in as good a mood as ever.
"How did Y / N find the book?"
Fuck.
Mina bit her lip.
"So uhm..I didn't give it to her..Y / N doesnt know you were with me .. "
"Oh ..", uttered the woman next to her and didn't sound that happy anymore.
"I may not be allowed to interfere, but I think you should talk to her .."
"About what?" Mina frowned.
"About how you feel .. Tell Y / N that you feel misunderstood and make it clear to her that it is not your fault ..".
Mina didn't answer and concentrated on driving again.
"You know, communication is the most important thing in a relationship, so talk to her, I think that might help .."
Great, thought Mina and bit the inside of her cheek. Talking about feelings, that was exactly her thing.
She stopped in silence next to Alice's daughter's green house.
"Thanks, Mina ..", Alice mumbled and wanted to open the car door to get out, but Mina stopped her by locking the whole car.
Alice turned to her in confusion before Mina grabbed her by the collar of her blouse, pulled her close and pressed her lips against Alice's.
Alice let out a shocked whimper and Mina immediately withdrew.
For a few seconds both women stared at each other. Alice looked totally overwhelmed and horrified, while Mina slowly realized what she had just done.
Without a word she opened the car doors and not a second later Alice jumped out of the car before running into the house.
A few minutes passed and Mina didn't move an inch. She stared at the street in front of her, trying to understand what had just happened.
All she wanted was to solve the problems between you and her and now she had kissed another woman. Damn it.
She let out a loud scream and hit the steering wheel before leaning forward to lean her forehead against it. A few more minutes passed while she cried against the leather. She hated being so emotional, right now when so many feelings were boiling in her at the same time and she couldn't define all of these things.
After she had calmed down a bit, she took a few deep breaths before starting the car and driving home.
"I'm home, baby .." she called in a thin voice after entering your house.
"Oh, finally ..", she heard you sigh before you appeared in the hallway. Your usual smile faded when you saw her and you frowned.
"What?" Mina asked nervously and chewed her lower lip.
"You have lipstick on your face ..", your voice sounded dark and made Mina nervous.
"Oh .. it must be smeared .." she said and smiled shakily.
"This is not your lipstick .."
Mina's smile froze and she stared at you.
"So you're really having an affair .." you growled and she could see tears glistening in your eyes.
"What the- Y / N..No ..", Mina's voice faltered as she watched you turn around and pointed with your finger to follow you before you led her into your study.
"If you're not having an affair, what is that ..", you opened one of your desk drawers and put a white lace bra on it.
"I found it under our bed and it can't be yours .. you're not wearing white underwear .."
Mina stared at Alice's bra hanging on your finger.
"Okay, how long?", You looked at her piercingly.
"I uhm- We dont-" Mina struggled for words and clung to her cane.
"You just can't be serious .." you yelled. "All I want is your affection and while I give everything to hang out with you, you fuck someone else?"
"I'm not having an affair, Y / N ..", Mina tried to calm you down and held up a hand.
"Oh, then explain to me why I find strange underwear under our bed and why your face is such a mess .. You know, you could have at least tried to hide the whole thing ..".
"Please let me explain ..", Mina chewed her lower lip and briefly considered what to say.
"Well I know you from the directory assistance ..-"
"Ohh, phone sex..",  you interrupted her and raised an eyebrow.
"What the hell, no y / n ..", Mina hissed.
"It turned out that she lives in the neighborhood and then she was here on Saturday and slept here, more not .."
"More not? Are you kidding me?", You spat and ran your hair through. "You let this stranger sleep in my bed and you don't tell me about it? .."
Mina didn't know how to answer it, so she just kept silent.
"Did you have sex?" You asked as you crossed your arms and chewed your lower lip.
"She never could, she-"
"Okay, I'll ask differently ..", you pinched the bridge of your nose.
"Did you want to have sex with her?"
Mina stared at you with wide eyes. In her mind she traveled back to Saturday night when she had been lying in bed next to Alice and staring at the ceiling. She remembered it well, how disgustedt she was of herself, but all she wanted to do at the moment was bend over the innocent woman to do the dirtiest things to her. Things Alice didn't even dare to dream of. All she wanted was to hear the desperate whimpering of the women and how she shouted her name.
But Mina could never have done that, partly because her loyalty was yours and partly because Alice was far too innocent for something like that.
"Wow .." you mumbled when she didn't answer.
"And then that bitch kissed you today ...?"
"Don't call her that ..", Mina defended Alice. "And besides, I kissed her ..".
"Oh..That's even better ..." you screamed as tears ran from your eyes.
"Congratulations Wilhemina, something like that is called an affair ..".
Angrily you threw the bra at Mina before you ran past her back into the hallway. Mina followed you and watched sadly as you packed your handbag with simple things.
"I'm going to see my mother .." you explained without looking at her while you put on your jacket. "I have to think about a few things ... I have no idea how long I'll be gone ... I also have no idea if I'll ever come back ...".
That was the last thing you said before you ran out of your house and left her with all the guilt.
-----------------------
You spent three weeks with your mother. Three long weeks of thinking about everything that had happened. You loved Mina so much, and the fact that there was probably someone else almost killed you. And actually you hadn't meant to come back to her, no matter that all your things were still in her house, but you were too scared that you would then have to see how she got over you and went on with her life.
After all, it was your mother who persuaded you to go to Mina to talk to her.
And now you stood in front of the door of your house and at least from the outside it looked exactly as you had left it. You bravely raised your hand to the door to knock gently on it.
And when Mina opened the door a minute later, you couldn't help but stare at her. You thought you looked like shit, but Mina topped it all. The actually proud woman was just a pile of misery when she opened the door for you that day. The red hair curled untidily over the fabric of her pajamas as she trembled on her stick. She was obviously in pain and probably hadn't taken her pills, something you usually reminded her of. You looked carefully into her face, which seemed even paler than usual, and noticed how she squinted her eyes against the sunlight, she didn't seem to have left the house for a long time.
For a moment you both stared at each other and you felt guilt creep up inside you.
"Can I come in?" You finally asked and looked carefully into her cloudy eyes that were staring down at you. Mina nodded slowly.
"It's your home ..." she muttered before stepping out of the doorway and hobbling into the living room. Without hesitation you ran after her after the door had closed behind you. You sat down next to Mina, who was staring into the empty fireplace, on the couch and also stared at the fireplace, but your attention was focused on the photos on the mantelpiece.
"You didn't take your pills .." you mumbled and she just hummed in agreement.
"..uhm, how are you?" you tried again before carefully looking at her from the side.
"M'great .." she muttered.
"Okay.."
"And how are you?" She asked while she was still staring into the fireplace.
"I'm great too."
Mina snorted.
"So we're both liars."
You ignored her comment and got to the real reason you came.
"Okay Mina, uhm i dont know- So about this woman .. I don't know what you had or just didn't have with her ..-"
"I had nothing with her ..", she interrupted you with a growl.
"You understand that I can understand that pretty badly?", You bit your lower lip and watched as Mina shook her head.
"I think you should get to know her .." she muttered and you frowned.
"So are you still in contact with her?"
Mina shrugged her shoulders.
"You should get to know her," she repeated.
"Okay .." you raised both hands in surrender. "Tell me when and where and I'll be there ..".
"Are you coming home then?" She whispered as she finally turned away from the fireplace and her injured eyes met yours.
"I .. I don't know ..", you stammered. "Please let me get to know this woman first .."
Mina nodded just before she got up and left the living room.
"What are you doing?" You called after her, confused.
"I'll call her .. "she muttered.
Your eyes widened.
"She's not coming here now, is she?"
"No ..", Mina called from the hallway. You didn't answer and after a few seconds you heard her talking softly to someone before she came back into the living room and stood in the doorway.
"You will meet her tomorrow in the café next to the library ..", she explained.
"Tomorrow I have to work late .."
"I know .." she said. "That's why you don't meet until 6 pm .."
"Okay .." you nodded briefly and stared at her for a few seconds.
"Uhm, I actually wanted to take some clothes with me .. For three weeks I've had to wear the shit my mother still had from me .."
"It's your home..", Mina replied shortly as she again clutched her stick with both hands.
You jumped up from the sofa to run past her up the stairs. In your dressing room you quickly packed a few clothes in an old sports bag before you turned around and actually wanted to go again, but then the white bra of this woman caught your eye, which was lost in the window sill. You knew stuffing that stupid thing in your gym bag might not be a good idea, but you would do anything to break the owner of this bra, for something to do with your girlfriend.
You ran back down the stairs where Mina was waiting for you in the hallway.
"I should go now .." you muttered as she stared at you expectantly. She nodded sadly.
"Uhm..Can I hug you?" She asked quietly and looked at you carefully.
"uh..of course ..", you nodded slowly before suddenly finding yourself in her arms again. She hugged you so tight that you were afraid you would suffocate. Her red hair tickled your face and for the first time in three weeks you could inhale her lavender perfume while she clung to you like her life depended on it.
"I am so sorry ..", she whispered and you swallowed when you felt guilty again.
"I should go now .." you repeated and withdrew from her arms.
She just nodded before you stumbled to the front door.
"Uhm..Y / N ..", she called after you when you were already out the door. You turned back to her and looked at her questioningly.
"Yes?"
"Alice didn't do anything wrong, so please don't kill her tomorrow ..".
You nodded just before turning to go to your car.
Alice.
--------------
"Damn .." you cursed as you nervously stared at your watch.
18:23
You parked your car in the library parking lot and walked briskly to the café.
Your gaze wandered through the almost empty room. Two men were sitting at a table and playing chess, an old woman was sitting in a corner and drinking coffee, and then your gaze was fixed on the graceful figure of a woman who was sitting with her back turned to you. It has to be her, you thought as you stared at her hazel hair curled up on a pastel colored blouse.
You got a little nervous when you approached her from behind.
"Uhm..Alice ..?" You asked and the woman winced slightly before turning to you and staring into her friendly eyes.
"You must be Y / N .." she said with a bright smile and got up.
"Uhm..ja .." you mumbled with a frown before you sat down across from her.
"I'm sorry ..I'm late .."
"Oh its okay .." Alice waved her hand before she sat down again. "Mina told me about your work .."
"Did she?", You looked at her confused and she just hummed in agreement.
You used the next few seconds to take in the woman in front of you and understood what Mina had meant. Alice looked so harmless and didn't fall into the category of the horny neighbor slut at all.
You cleared your throat and pointed with your index finger at the cup in front of you.
"What's this?"
"Tea," Alice said curtly. "She told me that you drink tea .."
The furrow on your forehead only got a little deeper as you pulled your eyebrows together a little further.
"She seems to have told you a lot about me .."
"I also know that you play the piano .." Alice replied, sounding kind of proud.
"She had to explain the piano in our bedroom .." you growled darkly as you remembered that this woman had slept in your bed.
"Y / N, she loves you .." she said and looked at you piercingly.
"I'm not sure about this.."
"Okay .." Alice sighed before starting to tell you the whole story from her point of view. How Mina had called her directory assistance late at night, how they met by chance in the library and how she ended up at your home on Saturday evening.
You listened to her attentively without interrupting her and with everyoneSentence made you feel a little worse because everything she said made sense.
"You must know, I never kissed a woman before and- you know ..." Alice muttered, staring at the table.
"And I thought it was a sin all my life and when Mina kissed me I wasn't really happy at first. You know, I was with her on a Tuesday two weeks ago to talk to her about it and she was really sad..- "
"Did she tell you she loves you?" You interrupt her.
"She-" Alice's voice faltered. "She apologized and said she was confused .."
You stared at her in silence.
"I don't want to offend you, Y / N, but Mina feels totally misunderstood by you .. She tries to do everything right and you reject her .. As if it was her fault that she has to work so hard .. And even if she doesn't seem like anyone that gets involved with something like that, she feels totally terrible about it all .. You didn't see how she cried when I was with her that Tuesday .. "
You looked at Alice sadly when you understood what she meant.
"Damn I'm such an idiot .." you muttered, rubbing your hair.
"There's something else, Y / N .." Alice sat up straight before continuing.
"When I was with her on Tuesday, I kissed her again ..".
Her words made you freeze.
"You did what?"
"You already understand me .." Alice said, looking at each other nervously.
"Did she kiss you or did you kiss her?"
"I kissed her."
"Okay .." you frowned.
"She loves you .." Alice repeated, putting her hand on yours.
Tears stung your eyes.
"But she loves you too ..", you croaked as you felt warm tears running down your face. Alice reached out her hand to wipe the tears from your face.
"Maybe .." she said softly. "But you mustn't be mad at her for that, it's not her fault .. Mina and I don't have an affair or anything, she loves you too much for that .."
"And do you love her?"
Alice thought for a few seconds before answering.
"I don't know to be honest .. This is all new to me, if you get what I mean .."
You nodded slowly and thought for a moment about everything she had just told you.
"I uhm .. thanks for trying to explain everything to me .." you finally said.
The woman in front of you smiled gently before taking her hand back.
"I hope you don't hate me now or anything.."
"Oh no!" You shouted loudly. "You are really kind .."
"Thank you," Alice muttered, her eyes shining a little more.
You stared at her for another moment and you could totally understand that Mina found this little sunshine attractive.
"Uhm by the way .." you started and reached into your handbag.
"I uhm .. I brought your bra .."
You put the bra on the table and pushed it over to the woman.
"Thank you .." Alice mumbled embarrassed and blushed, which made you grin.
She was really cute.
And that was your first "date" with Alice. Although one would call this educational talk less than a date. That same evening you drove back home and by home you meant Mina and not your mother's house.
The following months were more than overwhelming for you, Mina and Alice. Mina and you both applied for less working time at your work, which you also received and you had more time for each other.
That wasn't what overwhelmed you so much, the problem was, that it was pretty difficult for all 3 of you to come to terms with how you felt about each other.
After all, Mina got along best with it because she was the one of you who had been confronted with it the longest.
For her sake you accepted her love for Alice and began to meet the brunette more often and at some point you had to find out that you too were hopelessly in love with Alice.
Alice struggled with it though. The mere fact that she was in love with one woman scared her and then there were two. It was pretty hard for her to put aside all of her lesbian advantages and what her church said about you. Fortunately, Alice's children had different opinions and were glad that their mother was happy again after the divorce.
You and Mina were a little afraid of Alice's extended family, but they had all been nice to you and there was almost nothing better for you than to take care of Alice's grandchildren.
It took a while, but finally Alice also managed to get rid of her inhibitions and give herself completely to you.
And sometimes when you wake up between the two of them, when Mina had her arms wrapped around you from behind and when Alice was cuddled with her head to your chest and you were wondering how all this was even possible, you were probably the happiest person on earth at the same time.
And all you needed for that was the little sunshine in your arms while the red hair of your beautiful protector tickled your face.
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venteamocha · 3 years
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Hello! Sometimes I see you post stuff from IF blogs and I've recently started playing some IF games, which I've enjoyed so far. Do you have any IF stories you'd recommend in particular? I'm not attached to any particular genre and I don't need romance or a self-insert main character, (though I'm not opposed to either). Though, it's a definite plus if it's LGBTQ+ inclusive! I'm not really sure what the "cornerstones" are of IF so I'll take any and all recommendations haha
Oh god, I play so many IFs. So many. And it’s not even close to all of them, but I’m trying!!
Tbh IFs without romance seems to be very rare, I think because when I think IF I think Choice of Games, and those pretty much always have romance in them. At least, the most well known ones do. But a well done one without romance would be nice too!
Okay, this is a list of my favourites! They’re all LGBT+ inclusive, and most have gender selectable love interests, or at least ones that change gender depending on the gender and sexuality combination you pick. In no particular order, of course.  Behind a cut because I’m gonna give them each a mini review. Because I haven’t done that yet.
(There are so many.)
Mind Blind: I absolutely love our big brother Nick, I love how witty and sharp so much of the dialogue is, I love how the MC clearly has a rather large handicap, but is still such an important person to so many people and not looked down on in the slightest. And when they are, we all know it’s because that person is a jerk! They’re not defined by what they aren’t, but what they are, and that’s a great message.
Shepherds of Haven: Part of why I love this one so much is I just love fantasy settings and this one just pulls it off so well. The cast is full of amazing characters, and I gotta say I die inside pretty regularly for not being able to afford the patreon content, lol. The author puts so much amazing stuff on there, and gives us so much great content in the game and through answers on tumblr, and you can tell this whole thing is just the best thing ever to them, and that makes it the best ever for us readers too!
The Wayhaven Chronicles: I’d be shot if I didn’t mention this one, the series that literally killed dashingdon when the book 3 demo dropped!! Again, another author that cares a lot and does their best to do right by their fans. We’ve been given drip after drip of these amazing characters backstories, and I just cannot wait for more! It’s definitely very romance centered, but the overall plotlines are also very good, and I have to say that no matter who I romance, I just feel like the group as a whole is a family. And that’s wonderful.
Speaker: I really like the lore. I really like the lore. I can’t wait until we get more of the overall plotline. Mostly I want my Speaker to get in deep trouble so Seb, Li and Seer (best sister ever) go off and beat the shit out of whatever is causing it. This probably says something about me, but what can I say, I thrive on angst and inflicting near death injuries on my OCs. Sometimes I even kill them, although all of this is offtopic. Or is it? I guess we’ll find out, although I doubt we’ll actually be able to kill off Speaker. And yes, I am definitely playing the Seb & Li poly route. I love them both so much. 
Wilhelmina: I love vampires, ok? Ok? And this one is based off Dracula!! The OG!! And you can choose Drac’s gender!! Shit, sign me up forever!! Yeah, she might be literally killing my bff, torturing my fiancé and low key fucking with my mind, but vampires are hot!! Let me live! Or not. But yeah, this is a really well done retelling of the Dracula novel and I like how well it works as an IF. Did I mention I like vampires?? Especially when they get all monstery?? (This one has an MC with a set gender, as it’s based on an already existing literary figure. Mina can have a same sex relationship with dracula, if you make drac a female, or with Lucy, a female love interest.)
More Things in Heaven and Earth: Hi Nell!! First off, I gotta uncover a deep shame of mine. My family literally has a Shakespeare heirloom collection. As in, my greatgrandfather passed down through the family a collection of Shakespeare that was published in 1911. In ye olde englishe. I tried to read it when I was like 10 and was like what language is this?? What the fuck? What the fuck??? And ended up reading As You Like It, a bit of Romeo and Juliet, and a little of Hamlet. Didn’t touch the rest of it. I only got into the other stories through trashy ya reimaginings. That said, this retelling of Hamlet inspired me to go read the whole of the original and now I have a lot of fears for these characters that I’m so much more attached to, oh god I hope my Ophelia has a happy ending. I hope Hamlet himself has a happy ending. The dialogue is so well done, everyone is engaging, and yeah it made me finish an old af book when nothing else did. (This one also has an MC with a set gender, female, for the same reason. However, there are two gender variable love interests, so you can very much play a bi or gay Ophelia if you so choose.)
Guenevere: I love King Arthur. All the myths. I have so many books based on the King Arthur mythos, oh dear god. I love pretty much every version of it. All the movie and tv shows too! I just can’t get enough of those knights. I could go on for paragraphs about how courtly love worked and how all the different social castes were, but I’ll try not to. This series lets you customize Guen as a character to an amazing degree, considering that she’s also based on an actual literary figure like the other two I mentioned above. It really feels like she becomes your own character, and yet she still exists within this world very very well. I worry quite a bit that the author might have bit off more than they can chew with the current book they’re working on, what I’ve seen of it looks absolutely massive in scale. What is out so far is a wonderful read though, full of drama and laughter and lots of chances to make the story your own.
Bastard of Camelot: Yep! Another King Arthur series! Sue me! This one lets you set Mordred’s gender though, so it’s more inclusive in that way. It is very interesting to play as one of the “bad guys” of the King Arthur mythos. You can play them as straight up evil, as good, or you know, a bit of column a and a bit of column b. Or they can just be a rude little shit. It’s got dragons too! You get a dragon pet! Dragons are cool. It can be a bit tough to play sometimes, since a lot of people dislike Mordred quite a lot because of prejudices. Hopefully this will change a bit later in the series if you’ve been a fairly good person up to that point. Gotta say though, as a warning, that Mordred is a product of incest. It’s not glossed over, and it does cause a lot of problems for them in the story.
God of the Red Mountain: I just love that this inspired me to read more chinese mythology tbh. There is just so much here! And it’s just such a good read. I wish I was better at describing things. The MC being a spirit that you can define, the whole setting, most of the love interests also being spirits, the massive amount of history and culture and lore, how it all fits together. It is such a well done story. I really wish it got more attention than it does. I still miss Big Sister. I still can’t wait to find out more about the foxes, and how we can heal our MC.
The Nameless: Another one that lets you play as something otherworldly. I love the lore behind this one, and I love all of the cast I’ve met. I kind of like that our MC isn’t loved right off the bat, that we’ll have to win over all of our love interests and even the other npcs. I’m up for the challenge! Everything I’ve read on the tumblr for these characters just makes me love them all more tbh. I love how much they’ve written for all of them! Most of all though, I love Oisein. All the art of them is just *chef kiss* and their personality is magical.
A Mage Reborn: This is a really recent one but!! Wow, it’s really well done! That cliffhanger!! Oof!! Not many books literally start with killing your MC off! That takes guts! I told the author this already, but I love the way they formatted this, the way it starts with the end, so to speak, and then fills it all out. It just made everything feel so poignant, how MC is literally looking back at all these moments in time in the last minutes they have before they die. Shit. That’s powerful. And there’s gonna be more??? Can’t wait for that angst. Give me that drama. Of course I picked the one who had me killed, that’s just how I am!
These are all just the COG type games, there are a few twine games with graphics I’d throw on here, but the list is long enough as it is and they feel like they’re in a different category to me. Maybe it’s just me?
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luimagines · 3 years
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I am not a writer. Nor am I a person who posts stuff online,if at all rarely. But I am capable of typing and I am legally allowed to say that I have won a high school writing contest in my 3rd period English class in Sophomore year.I am still,what they call,VERY RUSTY.Take that as you may,but never in my life have I read an anonymous ask that has made me be burts into a desire to want to write down a bunch of story ideas of a dream that stranger had and then share it to another stranger online, to reply to publicly to about 100 more other strangers online. But none the less I STILL want to share to you sone of my--headcanons??--ideas??--bullshit dream story plotline??--(idk)-- I'll try to keep it limited because i don't want you to end up reading a rant novel-
I like to think that this //reader link? I'll just use y/n as a stand in i guess for this character or reader ??sorry if you dont like it,you can change it if you want?//before meeting The Chain Links *tm,she use to have a lot of problems being a #femaleheroinduringmediaveltimes but not in a way that most might see?I don't believe she would have really care for other people's opinions on the matter because she sees it as something very trivial and people will alway find a reason to look down on you and she also wasn't exactly let off easy for it during her training to be the hero of her kingdom.Even if she didn't want it,she was already destined and chosen for this path regardless of any possible sexist belief anyone had to offer.Her being the destined hero and needing to be strong enough to fight against Ganon was the utmost important thing on the to-do list,So bullshit like that was not accepted and they made sure it was in grain into her brain.
"Don't believe your enemies will ever go easy on you no matter what you are".
Most of the problems she would struggle as female I think ,would be on more on the biological side of things,for example like getting her period but being forced to have to truck though them anyways because she was a hero and it meant that you couldn't just take time off from your responsibilities and duty as Hyrule's saviour "just for some bad cramps" when you have lives to be saving and a world that needs to be protecting.So she would just not show any sign of complaint to the others about it or even let alone tell them about it and it just always seemed like from the outside that she would randomly just get super quiet and little withdrawn for no reason every month or so with a sort of tired/vacant look in their eyes?Anon also mentioned them having more of a military knight background and assuming she had been trained to or at least has lead troops into war/battle before,she could definitely be one of the teams best strategist along side with Warrior Link.I can definitely see them getting closer because of this as they're usually chipping in plans together and coming up with ideas/plans with what the best ways to use everyone on the team's special skills for certain position/roles during possible future battles.But a little bit after the whole "river" scenario i can definitely see legend sort of yell at her like
"wtf you is a girl and did not tell??? eXPLANaTiOn?????" "Because i didn't think it mattered??" "iT DoSe MaTtEr! ThAtS a bIG tHiNg!!"
There would definitely be a bit of an intervention with everyone to talk about the issue from "before". Maybe some what after everyone had gotten redressed and suddenly didn't feel like bathing anymore. After that everyone seem...awkward. No one knew exactly how to continue on with the revelation,so they all just stayed quite.At first she mistook this as a sign that everyone handled it well,she tried to continue business as always.While everyone was packing up to head out,she'd suddenly feel everyone's eyes.... Looking at her. When she turned she everyone just minding their own business.Maybe it was all just in herhead.The rest of the walk seem almost dead quiet.The once cheer mood of chatter was now replaced with an awkward tension filled with only small side glances,little quiet whispering from behind and an inability to look her in the face when she tried chatting with anyone.Is this what it was going to be like from now on?No of course not.They wouldn't let something as trivial as this get in the way of their relationship,right?they were still friends,right?
If you have the ability to but the stories in your head into recorded words then that makes you a writer.
No, I will not take any criticism on this matter.
This is beautifully thought out and it was a joy to read. I had to read it out loud out of fear that I would miss something entirely but I'm glad I did.
I would imagine it to be difficult to be on her period simply because when you're traveling there's no supplies to help out or lessen the situation! No cotton, no pain killers, not a lot of hot water to begin with... And yeah, she wouldn't say anything about it because a soldier wouldn't have the time to take care of it, let alone a hero.
She would also be the most used to blood on her clothes out of the group I think at this point. Just takes it upon her self to clean their clothes because they never seem to be able to get all of it and they don't know what they're doing even if she were to tell them how.
The boys think it's some magic technique but no.... it's just experience.
But the reader here that you mentioned would have had good teachers for burning it into her brain that it doesn't matter what body she has or what other people say because she the hero. She was born for this and there's no pleasing any one anyway. the best way out of this is to do the job and make sure you can get out alive.
What I want of the last paragraph is for her to get a little mad and question what the hell s wrong with everyone and then for someone to reply that it would have been disrespectful to look without direct permission because she would have deserved better than that. Like, they're fine with each other because they all have the same parts so like no big deal, but for them so openly show her themselves, verses her being seen openly.
I think it'll be a mixed bag of them being embarrassed that they were seen and that they saw her.
I think the ones least effected by it would be Wind, Warrior and Hyrule. Hyrule, because there's no like no people in his world so he doesn't have the same perception as the others, verses Wind who would probably be weird in the beginning but promptly not think too much on it because he has a sister at home and would help her bath when she was younger, verses Tetra who has had multiple shirts torn in the middle of battle- so who cares?
I was originally going to put Warrior as one of the most effected but I've played the game.... There are so many female warriors so if they got hit in the boob and needed attention then you take care of it. no questions asked and you move on with your day end of story.
The most effected would probably be Time, Twilight and Sky.
Time and Sky because- holy cow, I have a significant other, what am I going to say if they find out I saw another naked woman? Nothing. That's what. I'm a dead man if they ever find out.
Twilight because he was raised with his respect woman juice for breakfast and would have gladly turned away and oh my god- my mom is not going to like that I just didn't do anything this entire time and she's going to think that I just stared like some degenerate and what do I do now?
I think this is a fun concept and I don't mind exploring it more, but I'm beginning to suspect that I'm going to need a tag for the dream saga aren't I?
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mieohmy · 3 years
Text
𝗌𝗐𝖾𝖾𝗍 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗌𝗈𝗎𝗋 | 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝖾𝖾 (𝖿𝗂𝗇𝖺𝗅)
part one | part two
PAIRING: CEO boss! jeon wonwoo x secretary! reader
GENRE: fluff, ANGST but i swear its a happy ending ;;;;
WC: 3.4k
NOTES: mentions of death, angstyy ?
Oh my god.
You’re screwed.
You panic, swiping past to see pictures of you and him on the balcony from last night. You kissing him. Someone must’ve seen you two and taken pictures...
‘Y/N!!’ 
‘U awake????’
‘Someone saw you guys last night and took photos!!’
‘Leaked them and now I’m pretty sure everyone at work knows now’
‘What are u gonna do?? Maybe u shouldn’t go to work..’
‘You better respond !”
You sigh, scrolling past all of seungkwan’s messages and throwing your phone somewhere. Great, now everyone at your workplace knew. There was nothing from wonwoo.
Was going to the office a good idea? You contemplated for like 10 minutes. Maybe pretending like nothing happened would be professional. You are a professional, you are a professional..... you repeated that several hundred times before finally getting out of bed.  
And so, you got ready like a regular day of work but took the bus instead of normally being driven to wonwoo’s house. (You couldn’t bear to face the driver or wonwoo either)
Arriving at the entrance, you steeled yourself. Immediately after you entered, there were whispers and stares from everyone around, almost as if they were waiting for you to come in.
You bite your lip, continuing to the elevator. When the doors open, there are already two other people inside. They quickly shuffle away from you, moving to the other side in the small space, and you can obviously feel their eyes on you. 
Arriving at your floor, you can hear the whispers of the others. “It’s them...” “they’re the one that’s dating Mr. jeon?” Ignoring them, you slump down at your desk, burying your head in your arms. You knew you should probably talk to wonwoo, but what would you say? The secret was out already. 
You feel something soft touch your head. You groan softly. “It’s me.” Glancing up wearily, you see dokyeom looking down at you with concern. “So... I guess everyone knows now?” 
Your head falls back onto the desk. “Dokyeom, what am I gonna do?” you moan. “Nothing. I mean, so what if you two are dating? It’s your personal life, not other people’s.” 
“You’re right. It doesn’t bother me. Who cares, right?” You say absentmindedly. 
That was a lie. You cared. And it did bother you. For weeks, people would stare and whisper behind your back. All the gossip was getting to you. To the point where you would purposely hide in the restroom until the coast was clear. 
There were a lot of people who did stand up for you, all your close work friends that overheard others gossiping. You were extremely grateful for them, but it didn’t make much of a difference.
You’re staring at yourself in the restroom mirror when you hear the door open. Panicking, you quickly hide in a stall, closing the door. 
Two voices grow louder and louder. “-you hear CEO Jeon is dating his secretary?” “Of course, the whole building knows now.” “I can’t believe it, still. His secretary of all people?” “I heard that they don’t have a father, no one to support their family.” A gasp echoed in the restroom. “That explains why they’re using him. It’s always money...” 
You can’t move. Even after the others come and go, you can’t seem to budge an inch. 
You kept your distance from wonwoo after that. It didn’t help that wonwoo was getting increasingly busy with work. No matter how much you wanted to see him, the words replayed in your head. 
“He’s rejected so many people but chose them?“ 
“You just want his money.” 
“How can someone like them be dating someone like him?” 
“You’re nobody.” 
The worst part is, you agreed. You were no one, just a lame secretary working to support their family. You didn’t even have passions, interests, you were always too busy trying to make money. And you didn’t even have a family to go home to. Yes, you had your friends, but you felt like such a baby for complaining to them.
The only person who truly knew you was your father. And he was gone. Maybe you deserved to be alone... Maybe they were right, wonwoo didn’t deserve you. 
You tried to limit your contact with him as much as possible, strictly talking for work purposes only. Every time wonwoo would ask you out (on the rare occasions he could), you would make an excuse. you were tired or had something else to do.
Wonwoo tried, so hard, to talk to you but every time you did, the hurtful words resurfaced. You wondered if he had heard what other workers would say- probably not since they were too scared to even speak in front of him. And you didn’t tell him because you knew he would make a big deal out of it, and that was the exact opposite of what you wanted. 
Also.... maybe because you were ashamed. Ashamed at the fact that you let those words hurt you. That they cut deep into your heart and sunk into your skin. Others would probably ignore it all, but you were different. It’s like all those people knew your weakness, how to sneak into your brain and make all your insecurities stronger.
It was horrible, affecting your mind, your life. Sleep barely came. You were a living zombie. With feelings. Feelings that were beaten down and crushed, ones that couldn’t even get back up.
Seungkwan noticed, but luckily he didn’t pry too much- probably because he knew the reason behind you shutting wonwoo out-everyone out. You were so grateful for him and the others for attempting to cheer you up.
One day, you drop off wonwoo’s schedule at his desk, immediately spinning around to leave when he grabs your wrist. You can’t move, his grip tight. “Y/n, please.. tell me what’s wrong? Is it something I did? Is it because people know now? Just tell me, I can fix it. I-I just need to know..” your boss pleads.
You hated hearing him like that. And still, you remove his hand from yours. “Mr. Jeon, don’t. Let’s stop...maybe this is for the best.” 
You walk out without looking back, biting the inside of your cheek hard so you can’t feel the pain in your heart.
You can’t focus the rest of the day, moping around. You don’t even realize the time, Dokyeom comes by (knowing you were still here) and forces you to go home. You were secretly extremely grateful he didn’t try to ask anything. You didn’t want to have to say anything, telling others about all the insults and remarks would just cause more of a problem. 
Opening the door, you drop all your stuff on the ground of your apartment, instantly going to change into comfortable clothes. And sulk some more. 
Your past self would be laughing at you now. Or extremely shocked. To find out that you are? were? dating the one person that you hated. Some time ago, you were crying over losing your job because of your boss, and now here you are, moping over the same person. 
Crashing into bed, you fall into a weird sleep-state, flowing in and out of sleep. A bunch of notifications at once finally awakens you fully. It usually wouldn’t bother you, but there were so many at once you had to check.
Huffing, you wearily look at the screen. Right away, you jump up. An article post was sent to you by Seungkwan.
“Jeon Wonwoo’s-CEO of one of the largest printing companies in Korea-Mother has passed away this evening.”
Horrified, you quickly scroll down, skimming through it all. The only words echoing in your mind are ‘funeral held in an hour’ and ‘son is nowhere to be found.’
Immediately, you dial Seungkwan. He picks up almost instantly. “Y/n?? Did you see what I sent?” You nod as though he can see you. “What... what’s going on?” 
You can feel seungkwan’s frustration pouring out from his side of the phone. “Didn’t you read it? Mr. Jeon’s been missing for hours. He just disappeared after finding out. No one knows where he is. Except you.”
You furrow your eyebrows in confusion. “What? Me?” You hear a sigh come from the phone. “Yes. You, y/n. No one knows him better.  You have to find him.” 
You hesitate, knowing you weren’t in the best conditions with him at the moment. “But....” Seungkwan cuts you off. “No, y/n. There are no buts. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but our boss is literally missing. You’re the only one who knows where he could be. “ 
It finally hits you. “You’re right, oh my god, Seungkwan. what if he’s dead? His family was always a touchy subject, and I don’t know what’s happening and-“ 
“Trust yourself y/n. You can find him. Go.” The call abruptly ends with a beep. You stare at the screen for a second, brain loading until you crash out of bed, scrambling out to quickly put on any pair of shoes. 
Even in your ratty old pajamas and dirty sneakers, you dash outside, going to every single place you can think of. It’s tiring, getting on and off buses, running around and searching each place. After about an hour and a half is when you stop. Panting, you slump down next to a bench, head in your hands. 
Wonwoo, where are you?
After a couple minutes of rest (and maybe an internal crisis), you finally get up, resolve burning. 
You’re not sure why, but your feet bring you to the mart- yes, the one where your view of jeon wonwoo completely changed.
Dragging your drained body to the entrance, you open the door, the familiar ding to signal your entrance sounding above.  
Quickly, you glance around. It wasn’t a huge place, you could almost see the whole store from the front. 
He’s not here either? For some reason, you feel disappointed. Like he was gonna be here. Deflating, you turn towards the exit, hand reaching for the door handle when you stop. 
“Wonwoo?”
He was outside, standing by the railing over the river- the one by the bridge right next to the store. You could only see his silhouette, it was dark, but his body seemed small, familiar but small.
You burst out, exhaustion dissolved. You stop a few feet away, breathing heavily even though it wasn’t far.
“Wonwoo.”
The figure shifts, slowly turning to you and his face comes into the light. You first notice his red, pained eyes, barely holding back so much emotion. His handsome face showing nothing but everything at the same time.
You stare at each other for a split second before you rush to him, throwing your arms around him. It’s only the sound of both of your breathing until his arms slowly wrap around your waist, head burying into your shoulder. 
You hold him. Until you hear the quiet sobs. And then feel the wet spots on your shirt.
Rubbing his back comfortingly, you let him grip you tighter, allowing all the emotions and feelings to flow out.
After who knows how long, he quiets down. You wait for a little before softly speaking. “Do... do you want to talk?” 
He gradually loosens his grip, moving back to look at you. Your heart pangs at the sight. His red, swollen eyes. Darker eye circles than you recognized. His lips were chapped, probably because you weren’t there to nag him about wearing it. 
Slowly, your hand comes up to wipe his tear-stained cheeks. When you drop your hand, he finally speaks, his voice quiet and raspy. 
“I wasn’t close with anyone growing up. I told you that. Except for my mother. She loved me the most. Stayed by my side and supported me always. I.... I just..” 
You hug him again, squeezing your eyes shut. “You don’t have to say more. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
You know there’s tension between the two of you, but decide to bury it. Now’s not the time to bring it up. 
“How are you feeling now?”
He rubs his eyes. “Better. It was just a lot... at once. But I’d rather not go back now. I don’t want to.” 
You nod. “Okay.”
You bring him to your place, no questions asked. Knowing he didn’t need to be alone, and your place was close. 
It was a little awkward, but wonwoo was stubborn even when he was upset and slept on the couch. You’re pretty sure he passed out in three minutes. To be honest, you did too, the day’s events taking over. 
Awakening with a start, your eyes focus on the ceiling. You stretch for a good couple of minutes before tottering outside. 
Your feet come to a halt. Right, wonwoo. 
His body slowly rising up and down signaling he was still sleeping. 
For no reason, you move to sit in front of him, on the ground, to just look at him.
Wonwoo looked so peaceful, reminiscent of a little child- it was shocking how different he seemed in his sleep. 
You admire his face for who knows how long, starting when his eyes suddenly flutter up at you. You give him a tiny smile. “Good morning?”
You prepare breakfast. It isn’t much, but you didn’t think the two of you were that hungry anyways. There were other things to discuss.
It’s silent until you finally speak. “Wonwoo. where were you? Why did you leave for so long? Everyone was so worried you know, it was all over the news..” 
He clears his throat as you wait patiently. “Everywhere. I just needed to leave, get out. So I drove around, not necessarily going to one place. Then... you found me.”
You bite your lip, “wonwoo. I think you need to go back. Everyone’s worried, waiting. I-I think you need to talk to your family.” 
There’s a pause. He says your name softly and you look down, not able to look him in the eyes... 
“Y/n.... we’re the ones who need to talk.” You cut him off. “I know. I know we do. But I can wait. You need to go back first. Then I promise we can meet up and explain.”
You can tell he’s reluctant to leave, but eventually, he’s at your door, about to go. 
He faces you once more. 
“Y/n, promise me. You’ll meet me today at seven? After I sort everything out?”
You nod, squeezing his hand. “I promise. After you sort everything out.” 
And after he leaves, you sort everything in your head too. All your feelings that had been stuck for weeks. Wonwoo deserved to know everything. 
It feels like an eternity until seven comes. You feel anxious, a queasy feeling in your stomach. When the familiar knock on the door sounds, you flinch. Quickly opening it, you see him. 
“Hi,” you say nervously. Wonwoo gestures out, and you follow him to his car. It’s a silent ride. You’re not sure where he’s taking you, but you let him lead on through the night. 
 “Did... did everything go okay?” 
“Yes. I... I explained myself. It was shocking, seeing my father show so much emotion towards me. It was just nice to talk, about the old days. Thank you, y/n. For making me go back.” 
You smile sadly, deciding to focus outside at the passing lights. It’s a surprisingly peaceful drive. You turn to him when he stops the car. 
“The park?” He only nods. 
You follow him along the path, sitting down at a bench. Wonwoo follows you, sitting next to you.
Gazing at the scenery, you lick your suddenly dry lips. “Wonwoo, I want to apologize first. You did nothing, and I never told you why I was acting like that... I wasn’t acting truthfully in our relationship, and I’m sorry.” 
He shifts, gesturing for you to continue. Inhaling, you resume. “It started after everyone found out the news, but you probably figured that already. People started saying things, about our relationship. I know it’s dumb, most people probably don’t even care, but I did. And I got self-conscious. Like I wasn’t good enough for you. I believed everything the others were saying. That you didn’t deserve someone like me.” 
You pause, voice suddenly shaky. “I-I didn’t want to tell you, so you wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. I didn’t want to seem affected by all those words. But I really was.” 
You laugh, quickly wiping away your tears so wonwoo wouldn’t see. But of course, he did. He always saw you. “That’s all. It’s a horrible reason for me acting that way, so I understand if you want to break up. I can find a new job too.” You hated how your voice cracked at the end.
You didn’t want to look at him, see his expression probably filled with disdain. But he speaks up instead. “Do you know why I hired you?”
You whip your head towards him, confused. Wonwoo’s doesn’t face you, looking off into the distance, but he proceeds.
“Because you’re strong. Compassionate. Kind. I saw you on the day of your audition, and you helped some person even though they were extremely rude and didn’t want a low person like you to help them,” he chuckles. 
“I kept you by my side for so long because you’re hardworking, stubborn, and like me.” You open your mouth to speak, slightly offended, but his eyes flick to yours, and your breath hitches. 
“And I asked you out because I love you. I understand why you felt and acted that way. But it’s okay to complain about your problems. It’s okay to feel upset and tell me. You don’t always have to be the strong one.”
You stare at him with wide eyes, wiping away tears you didn’t even notice falling.
“I’ll always be by your side. You don’t ever have to feel being alone, because I’ll be next to you. You can talk to me, I’ll listen. You can whine, I’ll deal with it. Because it’s you. And I’ll be there. ” 
You process all his words, feeling yourself about to cry harder as you continue to look into his eyes. Hesitating, you fidget with your hands, freezing when you feel his warm arms wrap around you. You close your eyes and just enjoy his warmth. 
He breaks the hug, standing up. You watch him, bewildered. Wonwoo suddenly falls to his knee, and you only watch him, furrowing your eyebrows.
When his hands move to inside his jacket, your breath hitches, hand flying to cover your mouth.
His gaze is so tender, soft, you never felt so loved.
“Y/n, I promise you that I’ll love you, forever until the end of the earth if it’s possible. So, will you accept this?” 
Wonwoo pulls out a box, opening it. You’re greeted by a sparkling ring, the gem on it your favorite color. You’re frozen in shock. 
He scratches his head. “I- uh, got it a while ago. Never had to time to really give it until now. It’s a promise ring..D-do you like it?” 
It takes a second before you can move again. You smack him. several times. Wonwoo splutters, trying to avoid your painful hits.
��Are you serious?!?! How much did this cost??? If it’s more than a hundred and fifty then I’m not taking it!! Scratch that, a hundred!!” 
Wonwoo stops, looking up at you with a dumbfounded expression. “Are you serious? I thought you were about to reject me!! And why are you worrying about the price? I’m literally the CEO of a huge company!?” 
You cough. “Right. Well then, I like it.” You reach for it, but he holds the box up high above you. Whining, you stand on your tippy-toes, trying to grab it. 
“Wonwoooo, I thought you bought this for me!” “Maybe I don’t wanna give it to you anymore,” he teases. 
You pout, flashing a cute face. “Please??” Wonwoo pretends to think, tapping his foot. “If you give me a kiss. It has to be a real one. On the lips, too.”
“Ugghh, fine,” you fake scowl. And of course, he can see right through you. “Stop acting. I know you want to kiss me.” 
“And so what if I want really to, Mr. CEO? Like I said before, you're stuck with me forever.”
“Oh my god y/n is that a ring? Does that mean there’s gonna be a wedding?!?” 
“Yes, seungkwan. A promise ring. And no! We’re not getting married.... Yet.”
 -fin-
   author’s note: ngl I cringed writing the ending scenes anlkfjenfdn anyways thank you to anyone who actually read all three parts from start to end :)! I’m sorry if this is not what you were expecting- this story changed so much I struggled honestly but I’m just glad it’s done before I ruin it more  uhu 
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