#to the bit of teamwork-deduction

[gachagon]

Ego Coach Anri AU!

I've had this planned out for quite sometime, but I have always wanted Anri to be more involved with the Blue Lock project besides just being next to Ego and having things explained for her or whatever. I think there's a lot of potential for Anri as a coach of sorts, and so I thought about this AU I have named the "Ego Coach AU".

tags: @echarie @https-true-egoist @lizzieonka @go-rocksquadsfan @rirururu @katasstrophy @antiv3nom @swoland @blonde-batgirl @oo-mi-ru-oo

What is an Ego Coach?

In this AU, an Ego Coach is a coach that helps the Blue Lock players become better at just being generally egotistical in their day to day lives at the facility. The Ego Coach is there for players that Ego feels need a bit of an extra push to become better Egoists.

Originally, the idea was Anri's as she was the first to notice that some of the players weren't quite as egotistical as the two of them once believed. Ego didn't want to bring anyone else on board for the project, since he only trusts himself (and Anri) to handle the Blue Lock project completely. So he hired Anri as the one and only official Blue Lock Ego Coach!

What does the Ego Coach do?

Ego Jinpachi originally wanted the Ego Coach position to be one of just brutal exercises, however Anri said she had her own hands on approach to the training and that she wanted to do the Ego Coach thing her way. Ego decided she could, though if she failed at her job then obviously the position would be terminated.

Anri's a very good Ego Coach, however! Her training, while not full of rigorous exercise, is still pretty harsh just in other ways. The very first thing she did when she had the pleasure of meeting the Blue Lockers was have them play a scrimmage match. It was similar to the type of game Ego made them play when they first started, however the difference was in the rules. Instead of scoring, the goal was to steal the ball and hold onto it for as long as you could.

Every time you lost the ball you had a point deducted. And every time you managed to steal it from someone, you had a point added. The boys were separated into teams, though like the earlier games they played with Ego, teamwork devolved into all out war. Such games and practices were common with Anri, and slowly but surely it raised the egos of the players.

Let's read about the daily practice of Blue Lock's one and only Ego Coach shall we...

Morning's with the Ego Coach...

Isagi was not a fan of early mornings in the Blue Lock facility, not just because of how crowded and rushed everything was (he WAS sharing a dorm with 10 other players after all) but because of the almost hellish training that took place afterwards. No one was ever certain of what they would do that day, Ego never told them anything outside of his usual virtual meeting with them on the field.

However, lately a new face had been added to their daily regiment. Now, instead of doing physical training, Ego was putting them through mental training as well.

"To help your feeble and small brains grow while you're cooped up inside of this place." He had said, before introducing them to their second coach, Anri Teieri.

"Ohh she's cute! Who is she?" Raichi whispered in a not so quiet voice.

"She's the coach, genius..." Chigiri muttered with a shake of his head. "You probably shouldn't speak so loudly."

Isagi studied Anri Teieri as she in turn looked them all over silently. She seemed like a normal young woman, and also someone important since she was dressed in office wear.

"Good morning, Egoists!" She suddenly greeted them, making a few of the boys jump with nerves. "My name's Anri Teieri, you may call me Coach Anri. Starting from today onward, I will be your 'Ego Coach'."

"Ego Coach...?" Isagi asked.

"Yep! I'm here because some of you are not as egotistical or self serving as we would like you to be. As such, Mr. Ego has decided to hire me for assistance." She explained quickly, her voice carried throughout the field despite her small stature. "Be warned, ego training is in no way easier then your physical exercise. Anyone slacking off will be asked to leave Blue Lock. Do I make myself clear?"

A resounding chorus of "Yes ma'am" came from the players. Anri gave them all a satisfied smile, before she delved into just what they would be doing as apart of their training.

And so, every morning after that was training with Coach Anri instead of just the physical training that Ego demanded of them. Sometimes Anri would show up in person to coach, and other times she was just a face on a big screen directing them like Ego. Isagi couldn't imagine her being there for EVERY team seeing as there were hundreds of Blue Lock players outside of Team Z's paltry 11.

Though Anri made it a point to be there in person at least once for each of the teams, so that there was a clear distinction between her coaching style, and Ego's.

At night, Isagi would plop down onto his mat with a tired sigh, and an aching body. His mind was all still a buzz and he found going to sleep harder now then when he was at home. Ego training made him think so much more then he ever had during what seemed like simple games. With one last final sigh, he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep, though he knew the next day would be just as hard as the last.

Lunch with the Ego Coach...

Bachira loved lunch time, it was the only time he and the rest of Team Z had something akin to a break. The point system was terrible however, and he always ended up getting something he didn't like all that much. Some days he'd waste his food by messing around with Isagi and playing with it, or he'd try to trade it away for something else.

One day though, he spotted someone who wasn't normally with them during their lunch break. "Oh, Coach Anri is here!" He said as his eyes locked onto her lone form by the Blue Lock point kiosk. "I didn't know staffers also had to use points..."

"Maybe she forgot her lunch or something." Isagi suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. "Anyways, you shouldn't play with your food in front of her, she might scold you..." He warned with a worried face. Bachira chuckled, only because Isagi was correct.

"Coach Anri's kind of strict, huh. Sometimes she's even scarier then Ego is!" Bachira said. "Especially when she's angry." He shuddered a bit thinking about the time she got really mad at Naruhaya and Gagamaru during ego training. Even the usually rowdy Raichi and Igaguri were well behaved angels during ego training after that scolding.

"I'm just glad she hasn't thought of any games to play involving the equipment in the gym...I don't know what I'd do if I walked onto the field and saw her standing by a dozen dumbbells." Isagi lamented as he ate more of his food.

Bachira laughed softly, and gasped as he saw Coach Anri coming right for their small table. She didn't seem angry as she walked over, though one could never be too sure with Coach Anri.

"Bachira Meguru? Can I ask you a question quickly." Anri asked as she approached their table.

Bachira nodded obediently, "Yes, of course!"

"Why have you been wasting your Blue Lock points on rice and natto for the past month and a half?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow. Bachira felt the words get lost in his mouth as he tried to answer, though no answer would appear in his mind. He glanced warily over at Isagi for a moment, and then chuckled awkwardly.

"Well uh...I don't know, I guess I like it more then the other options." He said finally.

Anri looked genuinely surprised at this. "R-really? I was certain I told Ego to put everyone's favorite dishes on the menu..." She muttered to herself.

"Natto and rice is my favorite!" Bachira lied with a smile, which confounded Anri even more.

"I see. I guess my research was mistaken then, that's a shame..." She said. "I was certain your favorite was hamburger steak with ketchup. Oh well." She walked off with a kind goodbye, and muttered to herself about changing the menu. When she had gone, Isagi looked at Bachira with a confused look of his own.

"I thought that was your favorite too?" He said. Bachira simply shrugged as he ate what was left of his food.

"Things can change, I guess." Bachira answered. He didn't want to reveal the truth of his Blue Lock spending habits, which was simply that he ate natto and rice because it was what Isagi ate. In Bachira's eyes, it wasn't fair if only one of them had a bad lunch.

Evening's with the Ego Coach...

Kunigami hated ego training with a passion, though he tried to not let it show whenever he participated in Anri's games. Having to do all of that quick thinking, not being able to trust anyone on the field ever, second guessing every time your foot touched the ball...it was far hellish then the usual training that Ego put them through.

That evening, when training was finally done with and the Blue Lockers had time to clean up, Kunigami took this usual time to go to the gym when no one else was there.

However, to his misfortune someone else was there and it was the last person he wanted to see that day. Anri Teieri stood in the middle of the gym, seemingly inspecting some of the equipment with a clipboard in hand. She turned when she heard the door open.

"Oh, Kunigami Rensuke, what are you doing at the gym at this hour? I thought you'd be washing up with the rest of the team." She said.

Kunigami smiled, "I like using the gym when no one else is around. It's just nicer when it's quiet." He said. "What uh...what are you doing here? Are you here to work out, too?"

Anri laughed, "Oh no, I'm here to inspect the equipment. Mr. Ego can be...a little neglectful of the stuff we use here at Blue Lock. So I, being the responsible one, have to go through and make sure these things are in working order." She patted one of the large punching bags. "And by the look of things, it's not good."

Kunigami tilted his head confused, as he headed for the treadmill. "What's wrong with the equipment?" he asked. She was standing in front of the one thing he normally liked to use when no one else was around, and Kunigami would be damned if he was going to ask her to move out of the way so he could punch something.

Anri sighed with a shake of her head, "This thing's beat up and totally unusable. I don't know who's been using it recently, but it looks like someone's taken a sledge hammer to it! I'm going to have to talk with Mr. Ego about replacing it." She explained. "Of course, he won't like that because it'll mean the gym will be closed for repairs for a bit-"

Shit. Kunigami cursed in his head.

"But he'll get over it. Anyways, don't stay in here too long, we have a long day tomorrow. Goodnight!" She smiled and quickly left with her clipboard in hand.

Kunigami rested his head against the treadmills monitor. He groaned a little, as he thought back to all the times he had come into the gym specifically to blow off some steam from ego training.

I guess I went a little overboard...he thought to himself. I'll hit the next one a bit softer maybe...

Night with the Ego Coach...

Chigiri listed all of the products in order for Anri as she wrote them down on a list. "And make sure you check which hair type this shampoo is for since it's got an ingredient that curls, instead of straightens." Anri diligently wrote them all down, with a smile.

"I see, I see. Thank you!" She ran a finger through her own reddish brown hair. "I've been looking for shampoos that straighten for a long while. Nothing ever seems to work though." She said with a pout.

Chigiri nodded, he understood all too well. "My whole family uses this specific brand and it's really good for your hair. More people ought to use it, but the marketing for cheap products is too good these days..."

Every night, Anri and Chigiri usually did their hair together in the bathrooms of the Blue Lock facility. It didn't start off as a ritual when they first met, since Anri was just as shocked to see Chigiri there as he was to see her. However, night was the only time Chigiri had the bathroom to himself. Or well, it was.

Anri told him she liked using the Blue Lock bathrooms to do her own nightly routine since, in her own words, "Mr. Ego is kind of a slob" and supposedly his bathroom is abysmal. Chigiri didn't find this hard to believe considering almost every time Ego appeared in front of them on that big screen, small stains from ramen and udon were on his shirt.

Soon, it became routine. The two of them would meet in the bathroom so they could both finally take care of their hair. Anri would complain endlessly about how messy Ego kept his house, and Chigiri would complain about how awful it was having to sleep with the rest of Team Z. In a sense, the familiar gossip that they would have back and forth reminded him a lot of being around his own sister back home.

Though the topic of hair and how to care for it came up quite frequently.

Anri sighed as she put her notebook away in her purse. "You know, there's another kid here like you with luxurious hair. I tried asking him for tips, but he's kind of a gatekeeper..." She said with a small laugh.

"Huh really? How annoying, hair care is something important. More people would have nice hair if they kept good care of it." He said with a nod, and Anri agreed.

"I'm going to try and order as many of these as I can tomorrow. Though I do have to wonder, how do you manage to have so many products here in Blue Lock?" She asked. "I can barely afford some of the pricier ones even with my coaches salary!"

Chigiri opened his mouth to answer, before remembering he hadn't actually brought most of what he used at Blue Lock.

"Oh you know, just...saving my own points." He lied, and Anri nodded. As she bid him goodnight, he hoped she wouldn't check his point balance. Or anyone's balance, for that matter. Lest she see all of the miscellaneous shampoos and conditioners Kunigami had brought.

#bllk #blue lock au #bllk au #bllk anri #anri teieri #bllk headcanon #isagi yoichi #bachira meguru #kunigami rensuke #chigiri hyoma #bachisagi #kunigiri

[uchidachi]

Writing prompt marinette x chat noir

"Thanks for playing with me"

This came out a little more & then /, but I hope you enjoy, nonnie! 729 words, G:

If Marinette had to go through one more match with the kind of toxic gamerbros that filled the Ultimate Mecha Strike lobby at this time of night, she would scream. She only wanted to blow off a little steam in between studying for her midterms but found herself only getting more and more frustrated. She kept being paired with unskilled and overconfident partners, who inevitably unleashed a string of expletives at her over the team voice chat when /they/ caused the team to lose.

She was just about to stop playing and go back to studying, because at least her books didn’t hate her for being a girl, when the random matchmaking service selected a new partner for her: Miraculous_Chat0n.

Somewhat tickled by the idea of playing alongside a Chat Noir fanboy, she accepted the match. 

“Are you ready to trounce our enemies, Monsieur Bison?” said a strangely familiar voice.

“It’s just M. Bison. Like the character from Street Fighter,” she responded automatically. What was the benefit of having a canonical username if no one recognized the classics, honestly?

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Marinette cringed, ready for complaints about being paired with a girl player. “Apologies, M. Bison. Are /you/ ready to trounce our enemies?”

The voice did sound so familiar. Marinette decided to focus on the game. “Bring ‘em on!” 

They won that round easily, their teamwork was flawless, anticipating each other’s moves as if they had practiced. They congratulated each other, and joked around between rounds. The next game, Miraculous_Chat0n started calling her just “M” and she similarly shortened his name to “Chat0n”, always dutifully pronouncing the zero.

During the third game, as an enemy player’s rocket streaked towards her, Chat0n’s character intercepted it at the last minute. “Look out!” he cried over teamspeak.

Oh. Marinette realized, this was not a Chat Noir fanboy. This was /actually Chat!/ The poor voice connection warped his tone just enough that she didn’t immediately recognize it, but there was no mistaking that particular cry, nor that propensity to block attacks by leaping in front of them.

They lost that match, because Marinette was too busy freaking out. That was Chat Noir on the other end of the connection! The real boy under the mask! Unless he happened to be playing video games while suited up, which was a distinct possibility, although unlikely. Of a more pressing concern was; did he realize he was playing with her? He was just as likely to recognize her voice as Ladybug as she was to recognize his, although she had the context clue of his username to go by as well. (Why was he foolish enough to have his superhero name as his username?) Or, perhaps worse than him recognizing her as Ladybug, what if he knew she was Marinette? They did know each other pretty well when she was out of costume, and she had been in that televised game tournament with this username, also.

/What if he figured out they were the same person from playing this game together?/

This all flooded through her mind in the time it took for the match replay to cycle through twice.

“You still there, M?” came the staticy but now completely recognizable voice of Chat Noir over her headphones.

“Yep! I’m still here,” she replied. She considered, then discarded, the idea of trying to disguise her voice going forward. It was a bit late for that.

“You up for another game?”

It would be smart to disconnect before he made the same deduction she had. Her cursor hovered over the “end partnership” button in the corner of the screen. She couldn’t bear to press it. She didn’t want to.

“Always, Chat0n!” she instead queued them up for a match on her favorite map.

They won that match, and four of the next six they played. They bantered during the matches and laughed together while in the lobby. They only stopped because Marinette belatedly remembered her midterm exam was the next day, and she shouldn’t stay up all night playing games.

“Thanks for playing with me,” Chat said, “I wasn’t having the best day earlier, but this really cheered me up. Do you want to do this again sometime?”

“Anytime, Chaton.” Marinette smiled when she heard the blip of a friend request being received.

“Until next time, Princess.”

#miraculous ladybug fanfiction #marinette dupain cheng #chat noir #marichat #miraculous ladybug #orange fics

[chya-nimations]

OC MasterPost - Maya Hosny

Basic Information:

Nicknames: N/A Age: varies, but the same age as Garett in whatever era I’m drawing them in Height: 5’2” / 157cm Birthday: January 11th Personality Type: ISTJ / 3w4 Build: Athletic Eye color: Dark brown Hair Color: Brown Skin tone: Medium with neutral undertones Other features: Mole on her left cheek Ethnicity: Egyptian Blood type: B Handedness: Right

Likes:

-Detailed plans -Figure skating -Hot tea

Dislikes:

-Acting out of emotion -Fast food -Spontaneity

Love Language:

Physical touch

Favorite Color:

Baby pink, black

IQ: 126

Traits:

Straightforward, goal-oriented, stubborn

Backstory:

Maya started figure skating at a very young age due to her parents guidance and push towards the sport. While she grew fond of the sport over time, Maya never fully saw it as “fun”, and treated skating like it was her job even when competition money wasn’t involved. She struggles a bit to have passion for what she’s doing, and is far too stoic to feel much enjoyment from her hobbies.

Relationships:

Garett Richardson:

Garett and Maya started off as solo skaters, but after their coach decides they both would benefit from experimenting in pair work, they get teamed up to work on some partner routines. Garett, being a bit too focused on bringing out his emotions in his sets, and often getting points deducted because of it, ends up benefiting from Maya’s presence and teamwork, as she’s much more textbook in her approach to skating. On the other hand, Maya also benefits from Garett’s influence, as her perfectionism leads her to the point where she was often seen as lacking passion in her skating. Though they butt heads a lot of the time, as they begin to learn how to tolerate each other and compromise, they both become more balanced individuals and skaters. And through their growth and forced close contact because of their sport, the two end up falling for each other.

Other:

Allergies:

N/A

Food Palette:

Maya grew up with strict upper class parents who wanted to make sure she was always at her best for her athletics, so she isn’t really used to not fond of fast food or sweets, though Garett slowly gets her to try and like a few things over time.

Music taste:

Classical

Examples: Chopin, Beethoven

Style:

[pepimeinrad]

my recent rewatch has me losing my mind over this gorgeous sequence again

#sherlock holmes #granada holmes #beginning with them walking arm in arm which as far as I know is paget-canon?! #and always makes my heart do a thing #watson singing beethoven?!! #to the bit of teamwork-deduction #to the music and the crane-shot #to mrs. hudson #I've listened to that 3rd movement of the violin concerto five times today... #odo's log

[pluralmedia]

Don’t Starve

[About This Blog] | [Project FAQ]  | [Dreamwidth Mirror Post]

Have a (rather delayed) review of Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together’s Webber

Spoiler Free Overview:

Number of canon plural systems: 1

System types: fantasy possession

Personhood: 8/10

Dynamic: 5.5/10

Narrative Sympathy: 9/10

Consistency: 10/10

Edge: 6.5/10

Singlet Nonsense: 3/10

Overall series grade: 8/10

Full Spoiler Overview Below Cut:

Dont Starve Together is a sandbox randomly generated survival game where one survives in the wilderness playing as one of a selection of characters who have been tricked into The Constant, a strange dimension where many people are now trapped. One such character is Webber.

Webber was a young boy who’s father obtained a spider from The Constant and was doing science to it. Upset his father wouldn’t spend time with him, he snuck into the lab got combined with the spider when he pushed over the thing containing it. Horrified by the strange monster in the lab, his parents chased him away without knowing he was their son. He gets trapped in The Constant when Maxwell tricks him into it by promising him a way to turn back to normal.

Plural Characters: Webber

System types: Fantasy Possession

Personhood: Webber gets just as much development as the rest of the cast- that is to say, very little and done mostly through dialogue. Webber alternates between talking as ‘I’ and ‘we’. The player does not hear much about the functional details of their situation, only knowing how they came to be in the first place. We don’t get to hear much about the spider and the boy separately, but there are a couple of lines that seem to be about the two of them.

There is the text for the Grainy Transmission in which Webber says "Should we help him? I don't mind, but he's not so sure...", the Cooked Purple Grouper, where Webbber says "He likes the fish heads. I don't.", and the Cooked Kelp Fronds- "He doesn't like it very much, but I think it's okay.". There is also the removed texts for Joy of Volcanology- "I can't read, but he can!" and "I'm not a good reader, but he is!" which are likely about the two of them.

If Webber kills someone and Willow sees it, Willow will say "Monster! Burn them!", acknowledging their plurality as well. If Wortox is nearby he will also drop two souls when killed, indicating intention of personhood for both the spider and the boy. When examining his skull, Wortox will also say "Hm. There's two souls wedged inside."

Some points will be deducted for this all being very vague and hidden, but the game is very vague about all of the characters, really, so only a little bit is knocked off. 8/10

Dynamic: Unfortunately, we really dont hear much about the functional details of how they currently are. Only a few bits of dialogue explicitly seem to indicate anything there. The one for the Empty Elixir; "I kinda wanna drink what's left, but he won't let me.", doesn’t necessarily refer to both the spider and the boy- but seems to imply they can override each other and/or switch. The other bit of dialogue is for the Ageless Watch, Second Chance Watch, Backstep Watch, Backtrek Watch, and Rift Watch- "Would we change anything if we could go back in time?". This implies they don’t mind all that much being stuck together now, like they did at the start.

The use of we in many of the lines as well implies they are aware of each other and have some level of teamwork, even if we cant see it. As we don’t really see much of this, low score again, buoyed by the fact that most characters have little elaboration. 5.5/10

 Narrative Sympathy: Webber is a main character who is given a strong sympathetic light, so yes, there is a comfortable amount of sympathy. There is no part of the story in which it feels like we are supposed to hate Webber. We are mostly meant to feel sorry for Webber- both the boy and the spider. When the other characters vilify Webber, it is generally only because a player playing Webber chose to do something actively bad(attacking, murder, etc), and vilification is in the trend of them having a monster’s body rather than about their plurality. 9/10

Consistency: Webber is plural throughout. He is not made singlet, he is not forgotten to be plural, and they are described consistently by the narrative. The narrative doesn’t go into detail, but the text of the game as of this review doesn't forget he is plural. 10/10

Edge: The whole monster transformation shame angst situation where its strongly implied in his trailer that he was trapped in the game’s setting because he wanted to return to ‘normal’ is most certainly edgy. However he seems to have changed his mind over time regarding this as his Vignette states “Webber could have easily seen his unique predicament as an affliction or a curse. Instead, he's chosen to view it as a second chance, and one that he fully intends not to waste.”. The aforementioned Watch items also align with this. This makes the edginess from this decrease somewhat.

The fantasy possession is also very edgy, and the fact that Webber has lower sanity than many of the other characters is moreso. This contributes significantly to Webber’s edge score, but the fact that most characters are edgy does help it. 6.5/10

Singlet Nonsense: The whole spider transformation fantasy possession/fusion thing. How exactly did this happen? Its sort of just a mystery how and why Webber ended up plural- especially when spiders eat/kill people in-game they don’t end up like Webber did. Its not particularly egregious, but it certainly is a choice to make Webber’s plurality an unexplained freak accident. Other than than he manages to dodge the other major singlet nonsense categories, he stays plural the whole game and doesn't have any setting-inappropriate magic going on beyond the unexplained transformation incident. 3/10

Overall series grade: While this game offers little in the way of concrete details, Webber is a solid plural character that while a bit edgy and sparely characterized, is overall positive and one of the few characters that remains plural throughout the media they are from. 8/10

#don't starve #dst #don't starve together #pluralpride #pluralgang #systematicpride #sorry this took so long lol life Just Keeps Happening So Much #review

[sleepysnk]

the chapter you've all been waiting for.

Team Player: Chapter Six

Pairings: Eren Jaeger x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3.0k

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Masterlist

The sound of Eren's alarm woke him out of the deep sleep he was in. 

He groaned as he reached over to grab his phone which was still blaring the annoying sound of his alarm. It was morning already? He felt so exhausted and he just wanted to roll over, and sleep the rest of the day away. 

But sadly he couldn't. 

Eren's eyes squinted as he looked at the screen which read the time, it was 8:55 a.m. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his temples, his hair was messy from sleeping, and his ankle slightly ached from the pain he was in. 

Sighing, he sat up and grabbed some clothes. His body felt tired as he yawned and stretched his muscles, feeling a few joints pop as he moved around. Boy did that feel good. 

Eren tied his hair into a bun and threw on a sweater and sweatpants. His usual. Eren didn't really care to get dressed, who was he impressing? Plus it was a pretty chilly morning, the temperatures were dropping as fall began to become more known. He just wanted to be comfortable. 

Eren wrapped his ankle with the wrap given to him by the nurse, and popped a few medications into his mouth before heading out of his dorm to the main campus for class. The exhaustion going through him was enough to make him walk slower to class, plus with his limp, it made him slower than usual. 

He was never usually this early to class, most of the time Eren was with Jean or Reiner talking about the game or simply goofing off. Unfortunately, most of his teammates avoided him or just gave him dry responses. It was difficult for him and in a way, it kind of hurt a bit. Seeing your own teammates being so against you that they have to avoid you really sucked. 

"You're here early Eren… that's a surprise." Professor Ackerman said, opening the door to his room. 

Eren rubbed the back of his neck and walked into the empty class. A few students trailed behind him and went to their own seats, Eren stared into space waiting for class to begin. 

Within a few minutes, Professor Ackerman stood at the front of the class. "Good morning, I hope you all are doing fine or whatever. Let's talk about what you're going to be doing today," he explained, grabbing his papers. 

Eren sighed with boredom and tapped his pencil on the counter. What was he going to do this time? 

"Today you're all going to be starting a brand new project. It's based on the unit we've been covering for the last two weeks, so I hope you've been taking notes and paying attention. To save some time, I decided to partner you up with someone else in the class," Professor Ackerman said, leaning against his desk. 

A few small groans and eye rolls came from students hearing the words "project" and "partners". 

"Enough of the groaning, I know it's not ideal but it's better than going through 20 different presentations." he said and crossed his arms. "I'll be pairing you with someone randomly, this project must be done as a pair. If I see that one person did more than the other it will deduct points off your grade," he added. 

Eren leaned back in his chair and looked around the class. He pondered as to who his partner could be. 

"Listen for your names and once I call it raise your hands," Professor Ackerman said, looking around the class. 

Different names began to be called, some people groaned at the realization of who their partners were, others just shrugged and seemed unfazed by it all. 

"Eren Jaeger and (Y/N) (L/N)." 

Eren's eyes went as wide as saucers hearing that name again. (Y/N) and Eren hadn't talked in years, especially after the embarrassment that went down their freshmen year. He knew she was in his class, but he never really paid much attention to her. 

"Get started on this immediately, the project will be due next week. No funny business either," Professor Ackerman said and turned to sit at his desk. 

Eren shifted in his chair and watched as (Y/N) made her way towards him, she seemed totally unfazed and sort of annoyed by the situation she was in. 

She had changed quite a bit. It had been about 3 years since they last talked with one another. 

"H-Hey.." Eren said as she plopped down in the chair next to him. 

(Y/N) looked blankly at him and opened her laptop. "Here.. put your email in," she said, avoiding his gaze. 

Eren put his email in and pushed her laptop back towards her. The atmosphere felt awkward and thick between them. 

"Do you want to go to the library? When you have the time," she asked and averted her eyes towards him. 

Eren nodded, looking up from his phone. "Yeah.. that's fine," he replied. 

The two sort of silently worked with each other, no words were spoken between them. Eren felt the tension and so did (Y/N). Who could blame them? It had been 3 whole years since they last had an encounter like this. Of course he'd see her sometimes in the hallways, or getting some coffee, but they never spoke verbally to one another. 

"Alright you're all dismissed, remember to work on this project as much as you can." Professor Ackerman said. 

Eren and (Y/N) stood up. "I'll see you later," she said, walking away from him. 

This was going to be just great. 

-

Most of Eren's classes seemed to fly by as it was now the end of the day. He was supposed to meet with (Y/N) in the library later, of course it was awkward. She didn't seem too interested in what he had to say, nor did she seem talkative. 

(Y/N) sat in the library patiently waiting on her phone. Curse Professor Ackerman for putting them together. Her view on Eren Jaeger did not change one bit. His actions caused a lot of embarrassment for her, a lot of people saw the video of her that day in biology, and they made fun of her. 

It wasn't an overstatement to say she hated Eren Jaeger. 

She stared at her laptop screen as she heard the library doors open. Her eyes averted to see Eren making his way towards her, she noticed his limp which made her brows furrow. 

"Hey, sorry for being a bit late. I got caught up with my friend," Eren said, throwing an apologetic look her way. "So uh.. I have some ideas for the project," he added. 

(Y/N) nodded. "What are the ideas?" she asked, raising a brow. 

"So.. we could add some different examples of the different bacteria. You know? Shorten it down a bit, because if we make it longer than we should he'll take points off." Eren explained. "Let's do it that way," he added.

(Y/N) wasn't exactly amused with the idea. She felt like shortening it would also give them points off. 

"I don't think we should do that. If we make it too short then we get points off too," she replied. 

Eren stared at her confused. "Then we just make it medium. I'll do the easier slides," he said, shrugging. "It'll be a good grade for the both of us. You're smart so," he added. 

(Y/N) furrowed her brows and felt irritation going through her. "Dude that's not fair to me at all. We should just do every other slide, that gives me all the hard work. It isn't fair," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"Look, it's easier for the both of us. It is fair, let's just do it my way," he said, looking at her. 

(Y/N) rolled her eyes. "We did it your way last time and you fucked it up," she replied. 

Eren looked at her and furrowed his brows. "You're still mad about that?! Come on (Y/N), get over it. You're being overdramatic," he said, crossing his arms. 

That's when she had enough and grabbed her stuff, pushing it into her backpack. 

"Where are you going?" he asked as he watched her sling her backpack over her shoulder. 

(Y/N) scoffed. "You know… your teamwork skills are absolutely shitty. You're selfish and you always think for yourself. That's why our project went to shit freshmen year, I'm tired of biting my tongue with you. Fuck off Eren," she said standing up. "Maybe for once.. take a look at the shit you do from other people's point of view," she added, exiting the library. 

That's when it hit him. 

He did have shitty teamwork skills. (Y/N) even said it herself. 

Everyone was right about Eren, he was a selfish person. The answer was clear in front of him. Guilt washed over him as he realized what he had done, not just to his team, but to (Y/N) too. 

He had to find (Y/N), maybe she could help him. 

-

(Y/N) stared at the ceiling as frustration ran through her. 

Eren Jaeger really didn't change huh? 

"Why are you sulking? You seem pissed," her roommate Sasha asked while plopping down on her bed. 

(Y/N) laughed a bit and sat up. "Eren Jaeger… that's why," she replied, leaning her body against the wall. "He's so stupid," she added, looking at her roommate. 

Sasha nodded. "Oh! I remember him, he's such an asshole. Did you see his giant fail?! It was so funny," she said, beginning to laugh at the thought of the video. 

(Y/N) looked at her and shook her head. "No? I personally don't care what he does. I'm probably gonna email Professor Ackerman… I can't stand working with Eren. He wants everything done his way! He never listens," she replied, rolling her eyes in annoyance. 

Sasha's phone began to vibrate. She grabbed it and grinned. "Oop! Connie texted me, I gotta go (Y/N). I'll see you later," she said, standing up to get her shoes. "I hope you feel better! I'll kick Eren in the nuts for you," she said giggling. 

(Y/N)'s lips drew to a smile. "Alright.. have fun with Connie. Not too much fun though," she replied, winking at her. 

Sasha opened the door to their dorm. "No promises!" she replied, exiting the room. 

The door shut with a click and (Y/N) was now alone in her dorm. It was a usual night with Sasha leaving to go see her boyfriend Connie. (Y/N) wished she could have that luxury with someone else, but she wasn't exactly interested in anybody. Her dreams were just too much for love. 

A sudden knock came from the door. 

Confused, (Y/N) stood up. Sasha probably forgot a condom or something, the girl was always so forgetful. 

She opened the door expecting Sasha to be there. "Forget a condom-" her eyes averted to see Eren standing there with his backpack. 

"Can I talk to you, please?" he asked with desperation in his voice. "I won't be here long," he added, looking down at her. 

(Y/N) fell silent and opened the door wider so he could enter. "How do you know where my dorm is?" she asked, furrowing her brows. 

Eren looked back at her. "We did the project in your dorm, plus I never really forget what dorms I go to." he replied, looking around her dorm.

"So why are you here? If you're here to work on the project, I don't want to hear it." (Y/N) asked, crossing her arms. 

Eren sighed, placing his backpack down. "Look… (Y/N), I realized what I did to you earlier was wrong. You're right.. it isn't fair to you, and I realize that now. I'd like to also apologize for embarrassing you freshmen year, I was childish and I feel guilty for doing it." he said. 

(Y/N) was surprised hearing Eren sound so apologetic. She's never once heard him speak that way towards anyone. 

"I appreciate the apology… but it still doesn't change what you did. I can forgive you Eren, but I can't forget," she replied, looking down at the floor. 

He nodded. "That's understandable," he said. 

The two fell silent as the tension took over. (Y/N) decided to ease the tension a bit. 

"What happened to your ankle?" she asked, pointing down at his ankle which was wrapped. 

He chuckled. "Oh, you concerned for me now princess?" he asked, smirking. 

She rolled her eyes and opened the door. "Get out," she said, pointing at the outside of the door. 

Eren put his hands up in defense. "Wait wait! I'm messing with you, I'm sorry. That was too soon," he replied, smacking his head. "Let me explain," he added, sitting down in the chair next to her bed. 

(Y/N) closed the door, crossing her arms as she watched him take out his phone. Her brows furrowed as Eren seemed to be looking for something on it. 

He held it out to her. "Here.. this is what happened," he said, looking up at her. 

(Y/N) took his phone from his fingers and played the video which was from Twitter, specifically a sports account. She watched as Eren caught the ball and was tackled to the ground, she could see the way his ankle bent. She cringed as she saw the replay of it. 

"Ouch… that looks like it hurt," she said, tossing his phone back towards him. "But why are you still here?" she asked, nodding her head in confusion. 

Eren pushed his phone into his sweater pocket. "I got kicked off the team.." he replied, looking at the floor. 

Her (e/c) eyes widened hearing the news. She heard people talk a lot about Eren, he was popular considering he was on the football team. She knew he was at D1 level. That's why he was here. 

"Um.. if you don't mind me asking, why?" she asked, sitting down on Sasha's bed. 

Eren ran his fingers through his messy bun. "It's uh.. kind of a long story in a way." he replied. "I can explain it to you if you'd like," he added, giving a weak smile. 

She nodded and looked towards the floor. "Sure… I guess," she said, crossing her legs on the bed. 

Eren sighed. "Basically at the most recent rival game, I ended up playing while I was hurt. My coach told me many times that if I was in pain I should come off the field, but I was fine the day before. I just thought it was nothing," he explained, shrugging his shoulders. "Then during the last play, which we were in the lead by the way, I ran for Jean's ball and we ended up hitting each other. The ball bounced off of us and it intercepted, so they won by a touchdown." he added. 

(Y/N) nodded and started to process what he said. Sounds like a selfish move in a way, to her at least. 

"So wait… that doesn't explain how you got kicked off," she said. 

He chuckled a bit. "I'm getting to that," he said, adjusting his body in the chair. "Basically my coach told me the other day that I was benched, or you know kicked off, because I have shitty teamwork skills and apparently I'm selfish. I guess my other teammates have said it too," he added. 

She nodded her head again while listening to more of what he said. She could see why his coach did it, sometimes you have to do things for the best possible outcome. Considering it was Eren Jaeger out of all people, he probably didn't see why. 

"That is crazy.. I'm sorry," she said and rubbed the back of her neck. "I know things will get better," she added, laughing a bit. Eren stared at her as she sat there awkwardly. "Uh.." she said, looking around the room. 

Eren shook his head. "Sorry.. um, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." he said. "If you want to listen," he added. 

(Y/N) furrowed her brows. "Okay.. go ahead," she replied, adjusting herself on Sasha's bed. 

Eren leaned back in the chair. "I need help," he said. "And you are the only person I know that can help me. Please, help me fix my teamwork skills." he said with a pleading tone. "You don't have to of course, but I need this (Y/N). I need this season majorly for my career," he added, looking at her with desperation circling in his eyes. 

She stayed silent as her gaze dropped to the floor. Would helping him be beneficial at all? Doesn't he have other friends? 

"Um.. Eren-"

"Please. I need your help," he said, cutting her off. 

She sighed. "What's in it for me huh? I'm not doing it unless I get something in return," she replied, crossing her arms. 

He looked around the room for a moment. "You can do the project your way, I won't interfere or tell you what to do." he said, raising his brows a bit. 

She thought for a moment. She'll get a good grade and if it leads to him just shutting up, then fine. 

"I'm not so sure Eren.. I doubt I can help you," she said, shrugging a bit. 

"(Y/N). Please. I'm literally begging you at this point, you have great teamwork skills! I remember your presentation in biology and how you got the best grade in the class with your partner, please help." he pleaded. 

She sighed, blowing air out of her nose. "Fine.. but we do it my way. We'll meet up again in a few days to get started," she said, standing up. 

Eren's eyes were wide. "Wait really!? Thank you (Y/N)! You're fucking awesome," he said, grinning widely at her. 

Heat rushed to her cheeks hearing what he said. "U-Uh, yeah whatever. Text me and we'll talk about it," she replied, grabbing her phone and handing it to him. 

Eren put his number in and handed her phone back. "Say less, I'll see you in class." he said, giving her a toothy smile. 

"Yeah whatever," she said, opening the door so he could leave. 

She watched as he limped down the hall and exited the front doors of the residence hall, she closed the door to her dorm and leaned against it with a sigh. 

What was she getting herself into?

tagging: @ererokii @eremiie @moomii-hime @thicmitten @callmepromise @katsuhera @basket-flower-chick @flam3bird @kc-braun @just-a-little-sad @daughter-of-the-stars11 @chayauwu @lunamoonawatcher @sof-yeager @ryan249057

#anime #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #aot x reader #aot x y/n #aot imagines #aot fanfiction #snk x y/n #snk x reader #snk imagines #snk fanfiction #shingeki no kyoujin fanfiction #eren jaeger #eren jaeger x reader #eren x reader #attack on titan fanfiction #anime fanfic #team player

[swissmissficrecs]

Word count: 39,620 Chapters: 4/4 Fandom: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Greg Lestrade, Sally Donovan, Molly Hooper Additional Tags: Case Fic, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Humor, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, Sherlock Holmes and Bees, Quantification of attraction, Brighton - Freeform, Medical discussion and examination of a dead body, Idiots in Love, Silly Sherlock Holmes, Silly John Watson Summary:

After Moriarty’s trial and shocking release, the uncertainty of the situation takes a toll on Sherlock, and he isolates himself on the couch. A welcome case of peculiar threats and murder finally gets them out of the flat, but John can see that Sherlock needs a break. On a whim they abandon a sweltering London for fresh seaside air, leading to picnics on the beach, fun fairs and dramatic chases, bee observations, quantification of attraction, fraught emotional moments, and a realisation of the need to define who they are to each other.

======

Rec: Set in a part of canon that’s not often revisited, this brings fresh insight to Sherlock and Moriarty’s mutually obsessive fascination with each other as well as using the tension to move John and Sherlock’s relationship forward. The whole thing is underpinned by an original case that nicely showcases Sherlock and John’s teamwork, making use of both Sherlock’s deductive observations and John’s medical expertise. Add to that a getaway to Brighton, a hand injury requiring John to perform personal tasks for Sherlock, a bit of unethical experimentation, and the aforementioned only one bed, and you have the perfect setup for These Two Idiots to figure out a thing or two, and maybe save a life in the process.

#pagimag #20k #first time #travel #casefic #romance #angst

[darkpoisonouslove]

Winx Club Season 8 Thoughts Part 2

Well, this is it. Last part of the last season (that has come out) and I haven’t even watched any of it (though, I have heard things). Part 1 can be found here.

8x14:

- Why is this opening with a concert scene when literally the second to last scene in the previous episode was a musical number? At least there was that cute Stella and Brandon moment after to make up for it.

- This is actually a legitimate issue but I do not expect the show to handle the fact that Sky has clashing responsibilities on his shoulders well. They’re already implying that it’s more important for him to be a Specialist rather than a prince and that is not true. Eraklyon will suffer without a good king. Though, on the other hand... how good a king would Sky be? Maybe this is better, after all. At least someone actually interested in doing the job can take over.

- They legit made Erendor a lot thinner than he originally was? And somehow ruined his design also. As well as Diaspro’s. Ugh, why is there gonna be drama with her again????????????????? How many times?!?!?! For fuck’s sake! Just let it end!

- Seriously? They’re all blaming Stella for Bloom’s gloom? Stella has the right to talk about her own relationship as well. And when the fuck have Musa and Riven ever talked? Not to mention that now Riven is trying to communicate with her but she doesn’t even want to give him a chance!

- Valtor has become more cringe than he used to be. At least the Trix seem to have become smarter. We didn’t need him to tell us who they were, however. Also, why does he think that they will not use the star for themselves.

- His new powers literally come from stolen star energy and he just said that stars are made from the sparks that witch and fairy magic are also made of. Aka his magic should be compatible with that of Winx and the Trix as well.

- Oh, great! Now they belong to him. They really didn’t have to make season 8 Valtor a Darkar 2.0 and yet, they thought it was a good idea. I just... nggggggh!

- The Wishing Star... is a woman? And wait, what... They’re saying that Valtor is over a 1000 years old now? Yeah, ‘cause a 1000-year-old sorcerer/demon will totes lose against a bunch of high-schoolers. Makes fucking sense.

- How did Stormy summon an asteroid field?

- What... the hell just happened? Don’t tell me the Star made herself fall apart in the different colors of the color spectrum and they’ll need to gather all of them in the stupid star-shaped box!

- Twinkly is back on Lumenia? Did we really need her back? And why is the star-shaped box chasing her?

- If I were Sky, I probably would be scared to tell Bloom that it is Diaspro texting. She can have terrible reactions to just the thought of Diaspro. Though, to be fair I have no idea why Sky keeps speaking to Diaspro. He has every right to just cut her off completely after what she did in seasons 3 and 6.

- Brandon, you know very well who Diaspro is! And no, I don’t care that they are giving a really crashing crash course to the new audience. This is terrible! Also, you have to love how Sky didn’t even think about calling Erendor to ask about the mission. He just took Diaspro’s word for it. Because she is sooooo trustworthy.

- I was almost right. Instead of colors they are going to be collecting Prime Stars instead. I still got the right idea, though. It is a bit... lame.

- Enchantix looks a lot less elegant and a lot more... second-hand fabric sewn together poorly. Also, I hate the fact that they had the transformation song from the first movie and not the original. And they basically used the same sequence as the one for Sirenix but they are only popping their Enchantix on instead.

- “I didn’t think it would be so easy.” Same! Finding that Compass was the easiest thing ever and it doesn’t matter that things will get heated now that the Trix are here because the Compass didn’t pose a challenge of its own.

8x15:

- I am living for the dramatic opening of this episode.

- Why aren’t the rest of Winx covering Bloom so that she can grab the Compass? Five against the Trix should be enough for her to take it.

- Really? You can’t figure out who freed them? I love that they told Bloom to ask herself. That was great!

- I was getting excited that Valtor showed up but it was just an illusion of Darcy’s. Anyway, the question that came to me involves the Trix as well so... How come they followed Winx in the box since Winx needed to use Enchantix to miniaturize?

- So it turns out that it wouldn’t have been so easy to take the Compass even though it looked that way in the beginning.

-Tecna!!!!!!!!!!!! What Musa is hearing is the key to getting the Compass, you idiot! It is important and not something to leave for later!

- They’re just gonna chase after it without paying attention to what the voice told them? Fucking amazing! And Bloom is sending her Dragon after it? I am so glad that this is not working!

- Lmaooooo @ Layla catching Bloom in a baseball glove. XD

- Why are they so fucking dumb? The whole thing is controlled by the notes Musa heard SINCE IT’S A FUCKING MUSIC BOX, NOT LIKE THERE’S MUCH TO IT! and they just need to figure out the pattern. That’s what they were told. “Only the one who listens” Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- I love the spells they’re using, though. They seem to be more creative with their powers here and it is actually interesting enough to distract from their zero comprehension skills and abilities to make deductions.

- Oh, I love the balance thing in the labyrinth! And the Compass hitting Icy on the head was just priceless! But why are you so rude to Stormy, Icy? Don’t be like that.

- Yes, you will make the same mistakes because you are still not FUCKING listening goddammit!!!!!!!!!

- Oh, come on! Don’t tell me Bloom will be the one solving this!

- Good! It was actually Musa that fixed the whole thing. I still cannot make sense of the musical theme of this challenge in-verse but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be so I’m gonna close my eyes for that.

- Why didn’t they try to capture the Trix or something? They just let them go.

- Arken got this right in no time at all and knew it had been Valtor who had freed the Trix. Why is he the only one thinking?

- Is Valtor really going to try to pit the Trix against each other once again? God, please, tell me that they will not be falling for that this time! It is ridiculous!

- Why would Wizgiz be in a trashcan? And they just destroyed the entire classroom looking for him while I suspect he is actually truly just running late... Yep, got that right.

- Don’t tell me Bloom will see Sky with Diaspro at Red Fountain! He’s supposed to be on a mission, not at school!... Oh, good. He’s not there. But why is Bloom weeping? He is on a secret mission! It may endanger the job, him or anyone that knows anything to reveal details! Can she just not be a baby for 3 seconds?

8x16:

- HE’S ON A MISSION! HE MIGHT BE TIED UP!!!!!!! CHILL FOR A FEW MINUTES!!!

- Diaspro is actually climbing? She could just fly! But I guess they didn’t want to draw her fairy form. Don’t tell me they’re retconning her being a fairy! I will smack someone if that’s true!

- She legit threw herself off the rocks just to make sure Sky wouldn’t text Bloom? Crazy much? What if he hadn’t managed to catch you? Girl, you need some perspective! Sky is so not worth this.

- Griffin looks and sounds horrible. And why the actual hell is she exactly as tall as Faragonda?!?!?!?! She used to be half a head taller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Disguise? You call that disguise? You changed your goddamn hair color!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And what is worse - IT ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did Stella not recognize them? You’d think that she will when she is supposed to be such an expert on fashion and makeovers! And this didn’t even have magic involved in it! (they could have changed their hair without magic is what I’m saying)

- Wait, they actually extended the Cosmix song? Is that new or did I just not notice because I’ve been skipping the transformation sequence?

- I LOVE Griffin and Faragonda’s opening! They are both showcasing the fact that they’re opposites and also being the dramatic bitches that they are and I am so here for it! Yes, this is everything I have wanted (if only it could have been in the old art style).

- The plants won’t speak to Flora? I actually like the fact that they have to work all together AND it is not convergence! This is more like it!

- No! I don’t want the Trix fighting because of Valtor again!

- Why is Stormy playing twister? XD But I love the implication that there are different tests given to anyone who enters but they all require teamwork! That is awesome! Just, please, make something good with it!

- I just thought that Winx were really gonna beat the Trix with a lot this time but it turned out they are not paying attention to their colors! This is kinda like the finale of season 2, except it doesn’t feel as dumb for some reason. Maybe because Stella is just as useful as everyone else.

- Another game? I actually like this? There is the need for logic to be applied here.

- I wish the Trix would just stop fighting! Well, it’s just Icy and Darcy. Stormy is being calm and thinking! I honestly thought that their portal would close while they were fighting but it sucked them in instead.

- They’re gonna be having more fun with the spheres again. Just like with the Compass, I have a feeling there is a catch here.

- Wait, what did Darcy do? Weren’t they supposed to work together? How did she figure that out on her own? That didn’t make sense but okay.

- I love how Valtor is actually gonna fuck himself over because he is trying to make the Trix fight but in order to find the Prime Stars they’ll need to collaborate. This is some delicious irony!

- And Winx found it!

- If I were Diaspro, I would actually have a fake map at the very least instead of a heart of me and Sky on the parchment. If he takes one look, he’ll know she’s deceiving him!

8x17:

- They’re having a test about their biggest insecurities in the episode in which they’ll be looking for the Prime Star of Confidence? And why are these things always about Stella? The Gem of Confidence back in season 5 was also on Solaria and she was the one to get it. Also, I am not thrilled about the fact that they will be pushing each star on a single girl from now on since there are six more to get after the first one that they had to get through teamwork.

- Musa’s biggest insecurity is making mistakes? They could have done something that would speak about why she is so unwilling to get back with Riven but no. Instead Bloom’s biggest insecurity is about Sky because of course it is! God forbid she has something else on the brain!

- Why are we doing the Stella and her parents’ divorce again? And in the exact same old way we have already seen it back in seasons 1 through... about 5? Issues evolve! They could have put a new spin on it!

- How is making a dress going to solve this?

- At least Stella asked for help after she figured out she can’t do it on her own! And I always love seeing Tecna and Stella moments! Stella and Musa are good too!

- We’ve seen that dress already. Stella wore it in season 6. Come on, writers!

- Ah, I see. Stella is trying to please both her parents and is not being herself aka not being confident. Fucking fantastic.

- I think Stella and Stromy passed because they were the first ones to do so and the challenge accepted them as contenders. So now they are separated form the rest because they have to handle it on their own.

- Awww, poor Stella! I think that kids of divorced parents are not the only ones that can relate to her problems! This is so heartbreaking!

- I am getting some bad vibes from Stormy over here, though... Oh. No. She actually totally rocked this because she has confidence in herself and her sisters! That was pretty awesome!

- Woooooo, the Trix actually got the second star? And they left with it?! They are actually making this interesting????? I cannot believe it!

- I absolutely love how both Winx and Stella’s parents showed her how much they love her. And Luna and Radius are not fighting! *wipes away tear* Beautiful!

8x18:

- Bloom is so not here. And Palladium really chose her even though she is distracted after Stella would injure herself because she was so eager to do the potion? Fuck you, show!

- Well, he got what was coming for him! XD And Stella got the last word. Yes, I stan that!

- Damn! I’d completely forgotten about Twinkly. And I could have had that continuing but they had to bring her back.

- If Bloom doesn’t lose her shit over the unicorns and finally stops thinking about Sky, I will be so mad. They already gave her the unicorn obsession! They are obliged to put it to good use at the very least!

- Aaaaand cringe! They had to bring back “starsome” as well.

- Oh, god. They really retconned the fact that Diaspro is a fairy, didn’t they? Otherwise, why would they give her a gadget to fly? Also, please, don’t tell me that they’re at the same place that the Winx are.

- Well, the unicorn lumens seem to imply that they’re at the same place that Bloom and the Winx are.

- See? This is why you need an actual fake map instead of just a doodle of you and Sky! Now he found out! Love how it took him a while to grasp the fact that there is no medallion as well. And wasn’t that a pendant the first time they spoke of it?

- I honestly thought he would let the lumens handle Diaspro but he didn’t. I can’t say if I’m disappointed or impressed. Or kinda both.

- At least Winx missed Diaspro and Sky and the drama that would have started. Thank everything sacred!

- So that’s what Twinkly was for. To make sure Winx don’t have to fight the other lumens. But the Trix will probably have to so that will give Winx an advantage. Just don’t tell me this will stretch for over an episode.

- I loved the way Layla was holding Stella bridal style... right until she threw her to the ground. Dammit, Layla! Be a little more patient! You know how Stella is. And you don’t have to risk breaking all her bones!

- Well, what luck that there are exactly six unicorns. I would be a little worried about Stella’s outfit because that is what allows her to travel through space. So what if it doesn’t work when it’s damaged? But damn, they’re really trying to stretch this to take up two episodes! After they retconned Stella already being a cowgirl as we’ve seen in season 1.

- Poor Stella! She has a fear of heights and her unicorn seems to be an asshole for no reason.

- Why are Sky and Diaspro still there? At least Sky is actually not letting her get away with everything just like that this time. But Diaspro’s arguments are stupid.

- THAT’S “him”? A black uni-pegasus? It looks evil but it probably isn’t. *sigh* And why didn’t Sky just fly up when he faced that rock? It would have ended eventually and he could have passed above it!

- Oh, come on! The drama will be in the next episode and that is why they were stretching out this one? W.H.Y?????? Also, how is Sky flying in the synopsis for the next ep if he broke his flying gadget? Don’t tell me he actually gets Diaspro’s and they leave her there to sulk while they go get the star? (That might actually be the one good thing coming out of all this.)

8x19:

- Of course, Bloom would fly right into Diaspro! (Well, Diaspro was screaming for help but still).

- What happened with Sky? The black unicorn was about the blast him into oblivion at the end of the previous episode but now he somehow got away? And how did Diaspro get there as well? He left her on a much smaller rock island.

- Well, of course, the black unicorn isn’t evil even though he’s just been trying to kill two people. Didn’t I tell you so?

- Ah, so Tecna fixed Sky’s gadget. I thought that would be the other option to fix it.

- I was just gonna say that the horn of the black unicorn looked chipped. Poor guy. They actually made it understandable that he was so mad.

- And Bloom is absolutely exploding. I can understand that she would be angry Sky didn’t tell her and hid the truth from her. But that was not what she was mad about. She was mad that he even WENT on the mission which is stupid because, for all she knows, it could totally be an official mission ordered by his father.

- I knew it! I knew the black unicorn would pick Diaspro. Except, I have zero idea why the hell he would do that. Why, after being hurt? Diaspro is not the most polite person and he saw that for himself. Wtf, writers? I could understand it if Diaspro had been like she was in season 2. But this?!?!?!?! And that was just,.. there? Like, there was nothing more to it. Just a loose end. We didn’t even get to see what happened with Diaspro.

- At least Bloom and Sky are actually talking about the hiding things issue. I have to say, though, that I can’t fully support Bloom because Sky is right. She freaks out over just hearing Diaspro’s name which, again, would have been a totally reasonable reaction considering Diaspro brainwashed Sky if they hadn’t COMPLETELY IGNORED THAT FACT AND PRETENDED IT HAD NEVER HAPPENED. Bloom is not mad because of how much Diaspro has hurt them both but because she doesn’t believe Sky will keep choosing her if Diaspro is around. And this is an issue SHE has to work on.

- The Trix are still bickering. But at least they look a lot more competent in this season. But did they all really think that Stormy wouldn’t have her dramatic ass entrance? If I could summon thunderstorms, I definitely would for making my entrance. Just saying.

- Layla’s morphix bubble was so powerful! I love!

- Wait, Sky and Icy will be fighting for the Prime Star while Bloom was left looking at them disappearing after she stopped her own fall like she should be able to do instead of having to be saved despite being able to fly? Wow. This is getting interesting.

- I should have known they would fuck it up! They should have left Sky and Icy to fight it out instead of having Bloom go in there and “trust” Sky to get himself out of a cage that wasn’t even closing in on him? She could have just went after Icy and freed him after she was done. There was no immediate danger for him. There was no reason for their great trust.This scene had so much damn potential and they wasted all of it. Great going!

- Why is there a musical number when the only public is the landscape (okay, and the lumens and unicorns)? This was so unnecessary. We got it that they trust each other now. Stop driving nails in our heads.

8x20:

- Dammit! I thought that they would head to Linphea right after the unicorn realm. But they’re back at Alfea? And since when is Griselda teaching about plants? That was always Palladium’s job! Wtf?!?!?!

- You’d think they already know all of this about plants considering that Butterflix was a GODDAMN NATURE TRANSFORMATION!

- Griselda is cutting them slack because of saving the universe? Yeah, right.

- How long will Stormy keep bragging about getting the Prime Star? They act like that’s the only thing she ever did. Also, why is she so hung up on being the one to bring Valtor the Prime Star? Her test was legit about her standing up to him (which went over too easily considering Valtor is supposed to have control over them since he even put his mark on them but that did not appear in the vision for a second in order to make it actually complex or something).

- Well, Miele looks younger than she used to in season 7 but they didn’t totally reverse her back into a kid. Yet, it’s stupid that they are still having the argument of “this is too dangerous for you” after season 7 and her saving them. Besides, Flora should know damn well that Miele will follow. She always does! It’s like the writers have no idea who Miele is if they aren’t having her following secretly and proving that it is not too dangerous for her to go.

- They can’t use magic in the forest? Come again? This is such bullshit. It has never been the case on Linphea. I hate it.

- Why do they have to do ballet to open a stupid gate? But I love the fact that Darcy made illusions of them to perform the dance and let the Trix pass as well. She was using her head. And her magic in a really cool way. Plus, it would have been OOC to have the Trix dancing ballet. Can you imagine? XD

- So we’re learning to plant seeds and water flowers? Since when is this one of those shows that are for ages 0-3?

- Is that... a carnivore radish or something? And yeah, Flora, that totally doesn’t look aggressive!

- When is Flora gonna stop treating Miele like she’s three after all the times she’s proven herself (I don’t care if this is a soft reboot)? Though, Miele would have been more convincing if she hadn’t thrown a tantrum and then started crying much like toddlers do.

- Of course, Darcy will use Miele. That was so damn obvious. Love how Miele didn’t even get to transform. Honestly, at this point I am not even sure whether I want Winx or the Trix to get this Prime Star. They’re all being annoying and I don’t care enough for either side to root for their victory.

- Now you’re taking Miele with? When she can’t move? Fucking sound logic!

- Ooh, I guessed that that was actually Darcy disguised as Miele a few seconds before she revealed herself. But if I were Flora, it might have been enough to regain the advantage.

- Darcy just left Miele sleeping out there in the forest? Not that evil. She could have done something much worse.

- What, Layla? Like none of you ever got tricked?

- They are really playing it as if this was Miele’s fault? Man, this season is really starting to waste opportunities which is really annoying because they actually have interesting premises. They just need to do better during the execution.

- At least I hope that Stormy will shut up about recovering a Prime Star now that Darcy has done the same. Ironic how Icy is the only one that hasn’t managed yet. But I suppose that she will also recover one for a 3 on 4 with Winx and a final battle turned cooperation for the usage of the Prime Stars.

8x21:

- At least Griselda is back to self-defense classes. Though, why the hell is she teaching them deflection spells? They should know those already! They had that lesson in season 2! And why are Knut and Kiko assisting her? Kiko has been sidelined with Knut all season! It feels like he’s not Bloom’s bunny anymore!

- Why does this show hate Kiko so much and has him getting hurt all the time? At least Bloom caught him when he got catapulted. But poor Griselda. I have to say that this is her most OOC moment yet. And she even let them go again. She didn’t have to end the entire class, though. She could have kept going with the rest of the students but once again, the world revolves around Winx.

- You want Riven to SHOW his feelings? Which he has been doing ever since he came back so, like, ALL FUCKING SEASON?!?!?!?! WOW. Fuck you, Musa!

- Whyyyy did they think the Trix wouldn’t show up on Melody? But I am glad we skipped the obligatory Valtor scene because it is unnecessary.

- Galatea doesn’t look too much like herself.

- Bullshit. Stella made them much better outfits when they went to Magix in season 3. And there were other designs that were better than these that, frankly, look pretty bland.

- Sooooo... Musa, the fairy of music, isn’t going to be in the dance competition? Are they trying to level up things? And are you seriously telling me that the Trix are going to dance? Ugh, what the hell?!

- Awwwww, look at Riven! He really wants to try and he is even opening up to the guys about his relationship problems. I love it! Idk what Musa’s stupid problem is.

- This dance competition is so dead. You can only hear Galatea. The public isn’t cheering. But aww, at Bloom catching Stella when she got yeeted off the dance floor. That was really cute.

- I guess competitiveness can make even the Trix dance. It doesn’t change the fact that the competition is still fucking dead! And their dancing feels so arhythmical and slow. The music is fucking dull and practically non-existent.

- Ho-boe doesn’t feel like himself either. And doesn’t the house look so different as well? Also, did they ever do anything that doesn’t involve music? I know they’re a musical family but they must have done something else as well!

- Tecna is killing it! But Stormy’s abundance of energy seems to give her a big advantage here. Though, I still love how confident Tecna was! I have to say that this would have been absolutely epic if the music had been intense enough to match their moves. Why did they have to do these scenes so dirty by barely having any tune to them?! If I’m watching a dance competition, I want it to be good!

- Musa and her dad are talking about Riven? And there is a Riven and Darcy confrontation?!?!?!

- Scratch that! They fucked it up in 0.3 seconds! Are you serious? This is literally Riven and Darcy’s first meeting ever since they broke up in season 1 and THIS is how it goes?! She hypnotizes him to use against Musa?!?!?! I hate this! At least let this be the end of their stupid drama.

- Why did the synopsis of the next episode instantly spoil that Stormy will win the fifth Prime Star? You just revealed all the surprise there will be next ep! Man, they really don’t know how to advertise, do they? Also, this dance battle is really stretching over two episodes?

8x22:

- Now all I wanna do is write a fic in which Darcy gets really violent and there are heavy consequences after Riven’s fight with Musa.

- Wait! “...rough and soothing combine artfully and that perfect sound will yield the Star of Harmony”? And the harp that Ho-Boe says needs to be played by two people? That’s gonna be Musa and Riven, isn’t it? And they’ll get the star which will be the twist and that is why they spoiled Stormy wins in the teaser at the end of the last episode.

- Thank you, Musa! It took you long enough! He is so obviously spelled. Though, I kinda love how Darcy was there like “You can’t resist”. This could be so dark if it weren’t a kids show. And now I wanna write it!

- Dammit, Musa! You have your stupid Enchantix in this season! Use your goddamn fairy dust! Or any other kind of magic! And you’re really so damn surprised that it is Darcy?! It was obvious!

- That was the big idea? That Riven is “finally” proving his feelings by refusing to hurt her? Gee. And that’s how the battle between Riven and Musa and Darcy is going to go down? With some stupid formless monsters?

- Well, of course, Bloom beat Icy. But I suspect that Layla is gonna lose against Stormy so it doesn’t matter much.

- You’re now starting to get used to fighting alongside Riven even though he’s been gone a year and they were together for 4 years before that and fought together for about 5-6 years? Really? And that was the big battle with Darcy? They all had about 3 movements!

- Why is Bloom still in this? They should have given us Layla vs Stormy! We know Layla is the best at dancing (or tied with Musa).

- Why doesn’t Ho-Boe know how they met? They used to date for years before Riven left!

- When have you ever felt harmony in your relationship, Riven? Don’t start lying now! And why does he know how to play the harp? I saw this coming but it still kinda doesn’t make sense!

- Finally! The Layla vs Stormy dancing duel we deserved! And the music is more lively now! At last!

- Oh, come on! That’s how Stormy beat Layla?! By distracting her?!?!?! I wanted it to be a fair fight. And why the hell is there goo or jello or whatever falling on Layla? This is terrible. You wouldn’t catch me taking part in that dancing contest. Not to mention that they competed in vain. Although, it was a nice touch to have them misinterpret the riddle.

- Okay, but Riven is definitely not the rough part in that “rough and soothing” combo. He has been nothing but amazing all season while Musa has been pouting and whining!

- The sad thing is that the Trix would have gotten the star if Stormy hadn’t blabbed to Layla where Darcy was. But her cheating came back to bite her in the ass.

- It would have been nice if Musa had saved Riven instead of having Bloom melt him.

- Oh, Riven is a part of the band now? But seriously, will we ever see them talking? Like, actually communicating which is always where their problems lie? Of course not. Why would that be important?

- They’re really saying that Layla is more impulsive than Bloom? Yeah, fuck that big time! Also, don’t tell me that the last star will be obtained by all six Winx again and that is why they will be combining Tecna and Layla in the next ep. Or even worse - by Winx and the Trix together.

8x23:

- “An ounce more or less won’t matter”? That is so not like Layla! It is more like Stella and even Bloom! What the hell? I hate what they’re doing just to set up their stupid conflict for this episode!

- Okay, that shot with the Trix sitting all over Valtor’s throne was pretty cool! And I actually like the fact that he is not exploding at them about the fact that their last mission failed. That was a nice change of pace! Also, digging Darcy and Stormy taking over the throne and the way Valtor is collecting the Prime Stars when he doesn’t have the box. It is... symbolic.

- Be my guest, Flora, and get between Stella and her tanning!

- Reasonable question, Stella! I was also gonna ask why the hell there are corals on dry land. And the Compass is going all crazy.

- Oh, goodie! Hawaiian lumens. In case we’d forgotten about the first half of the season. Which I honestly had.

- Bloom, you really have no other choice but to split up because Tecna and Layla will kill each other otherwise. And yes, Stella sure doesn’t sound distracted now. Only panicky and possibly on the verge of becoming hysterical over the volcano.

- You mean, this isn’t Valtor creating the lava gollems? At least it’s implied that there is one for each girl so the split-up doesn’t put them at a disadvantage.

- Poor Stella, being used as bait. And they just made more of the monsters. I guess her shining personality is not going to be enough to spare the others the notice.

- Did Valtor actually say “boo”? Wow, okay.

- How is a shell the symmetry between light and shadow? It is on the land and not halfway between land and sea! This was absolute bullshit! Meanwhile, Stella and Bloom are getting overwhelmed back there at the volcano against six opponents!

- Valtor cut in just in time! I thought his presence would have been useless. But he upgraded to adapt to his “inability” to touch the Prime Stars even though the source of his magic is literally stars in this season!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just cannot even anymore.

- Yeah, and this bullshit choice again between two things that are important. We’re using this for the third time in ten episodes! Really need to come up with something else over here.

- And we didn’t even see Bloom and Stella really do anything. This episode is put together in a horrible way. Plus, how the fuck are you getting in a volcano that is already erupting! I would have loved for Bloom to use her Dragon Fire here because at least that would have made sense instead of this bullshit we got!

- At least we got that cute Layla and Tecna hug!

8x24:

- Tecna turning into a sheep seemed OOC. And Flora choosing a tiger? Why didn’t she just stop chasing after “Stella” when she saw she was scaring the poor thing? That was unnecessary.

- Stella skipped classes to write homework? And why the hell did Wizgiz give everyone homework when it was obvious that they didn’t know about Stella’s deception?

- Icy could have played that *dramatic pause* cooler. She was being obviously panicky about going to Diamond. She’s better at pretending than this. And her keeping a crystal flower? Waaaay OOC. I don’t care if it is about her dead/lost sister which they totally pulled out of nowhere to make her “relatable”.

- Shouldn’t Sky have asked if he can come along instead of just tail them? He can help resolve things faster... or he can become the reason for their defeat.

- The architecture on Diamond looks kinda... Russian (which would make sense if they’re trying to parallel Siberia with the frozen land). But I am dying at the idea of Icy being Russian. XD

- What trees, Bloom? Where did you see trees? Everything is deep frozen!

- Don’t tell me that fox is Icy’s sister. That will be too dumb.

- Well, of course Bloom doesn’t like Icy’s home planet. How could she? That would have been too mature a notion for the writers. After all, she must hate everything icy.

- What temper? That fox has legit not done anything. Also, it has got to have something to do with Icy. Look at its eyes! And now Icy is attacking Stormy because of it?

- Aaaaand now we’re getting a flashback. You have to love how they made it look like Icy is the little sister when she’s not, And I hate how they made her younger and “untainted” self so different! Like, dammit, a tragic backstory does change you but you need to keep something from your core personality! She is being a totally different person and this totally came out of nowhere! I hate it!

- Took Sky long enough to catch up. Why is he the one saving the fox? And Icy totally went nuts here. This is more like her but still... the dissonance between season 1 and this... Why?

- I knew he was gonna fuck up this whole thing.

- Damn, the fox is looking so lovingly at Icy. It might as well be her sister. But it may just be one of those foxes we saw that isn’t aging because of the ice that appears to be magical. I still can’t decide what they’re doing here.

- Why the fuck do they need Sirenix? But I have to say that Crystal Sirenix (which they totally just made up here because that was never actually a thing and would have been nice to have been mentioned when Daphne was using elemental magic in season 6 since she is the Nymph of Sirenix) looks better than ordinary Sirenix. Except for the... capes? The animators need to consult Edna Mode!

8x25:

- Sky is actually fine? Well, in the very real danger of drowning but still fine-r than I thought he would be. Sky, think about yourself. Bloom is not the one that is this fucking close to dying!

- Aaaaand... she saved him. He wasn’t even underwater that long! Why wasn’t he waking up?! Man, the Dragon Fire healing is getting annoying.

- Yes, spend time together while putting yourself in mortal danger. Sounds like fun times! You can even be buried together!

- Sky is supposed to be a Specialist aka capable of handling himself. And how many times is Tecna gonna be fixing his gear? Though, I am at least glad that Icy’s first instinct was to damage his flying gadget.

- So the fox is her sister. Fucking great! Why are they alone and talking about leaving? Where the fuck are their parents? Also, how does that fit in with the fact that the Trix are descendants of the Ancestral Witches?

- Firing all my thoughts here at high velocity: Who the fuck is that? We don’t get a name? Fucking splendid! Why is Sapphire still transformed? Icy is super powerful at this point and if the Shaman Witch is so powerful, why the hell hasn’t she conquered any other realm? Why does she need a whole planet that is completely frozen? Where is she now? What the fuck is up with all of this? And what happened to Icy’s mother? Was Icy a witch all along? Her being so “obedient” in that flashback is so totes OOC. I hate all of this. And we didn’t need the parallel between Bloom and Icy.

- Icy saying that the Trix are “friends maybe” and the the only real sister she has is Sapphire? Worst moment of the whole season! How fucking dare you?! I never thought that they were related by blood but that didn’t mean that they weren’t sisters!

- Yes, Stormy, tell everyone else (aka Winx) where you are! Or bury all three of you in an avalanche. Such planning! Much consideration!

- Icy, stop being a wimp! Yes, this is all hard but she is not behaving like herself at all! You need to get it together if you want to help your sis, girl! And how do you plan on getting the power to save your sister without the Star to bring to Valtor?

- Why is the Star going in the box? Oh, it’s not. But I hate the implication that only “sisterly” love can get the Star. Icy has been sisters with Darcy and Stormy since season 1 and Winx are all like sisters as well! Fuck that! Also, why is it that this one could have only been earned by two blood sisters? That means that Winx didn’t have the chance to take it at all! This is really stupid!

- The Trix are free now? How did that happen? And Sapphire is back aga- Oh, wait, no! Wtf????? Do they even know what they’re doing anymore? This is becoming such a mess! And why is the finale only one episode long when we wasted two episodes on 3-4 of the Stars? This is stupid!

8x26:

- What the fuck are these things? “Brothers from the Dark Dimension”? What the absolute honest genuine fuck? Why have these things never been introduced if they have always been a part of his plan? What the fuck, writers? You just sent the whole structure of the season to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How was any of this a good decision?!?!?!?!

- The Trix just showed up at Alfea? And Kiko is beating them single-pawed-ly? Why? But I like the idea of the Trix at Alfea.

- Oh, it was actually Winx. This is part of the plan for beating Valtor, isn’t it? Damn, I was just getting hyped that the Trix decided to work with Winx to fix this whole mess and make sure Valtor won’t trap them again once they disobey.

- Is Icy going to give him the star? Oh, no. She wants to challenge him to get the other Stars. Goddammit! But I love how excited Darcy is about getting to explore more of her illusion powers! Also, Icy both being grateful that they’re with her but telling them to save themselves if things get rough? THAT HUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stormy was so ready to cry! Ugh, that was so amazing! Almost enough to make up for the bullshit they said about them not being sisters!

- They didn’t feel it? That was like a goddamn earthquake!

- I have a question, though. Why didn’t the Trix try to take on Winx? That implies that Valtor is weaker than Winx. But at least the Winx’ plan is actually pretty good.

- Why isn’t Stella Darcy, Layla Icy and Musa Stormy? They could have covered if they needed to use their powers! Stella could have dimmed the light as if Darcy is using her darkness powers. And the other could have pretended to be Stormy and Icy as well!

- Okay, but Winx’ voices are still the same! Why can’t Valtor tell that it’s not them? He’s literally so not paying attention and they fucked up with the spell because it is incomplete!

- And now the plan went to hell because Bloom decided to crash the party! Great going! So it was all for nothing.

- Now Valtor is back in his demon form? That was a curse his mothers put on him and Bloom destroyed that form in 3x26! But at least the remake looks better than the original!

- Why would Valtor destroy the universe? Where is he gonna go after that? Also, what the fuck? You’re making this Icy’s motivation?!?!?! For helping the Winx?!?!?!?!?!?! THE TRIX LITERALLY WERE ABOUT TO DESTROY THE MAGIC UNIVERSE IN SEASON 1 AND IT WAS THEIR ORIGINAL PLAN! NOW SHE’S LIKE “I WON’T WATCH ANOTHER WORLD GET DESTROYED”???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? FUCK ALL OF THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Is it only me or does this really remind of 3x25? Because the writers were probably trying to cash in even more nostalgia?

- If they don’t bring Icy’s world back, it will be really stupid because that was why she was even doing any of all this (according to this whole season).

- They wished for a power-up? I’m sorry, a power-up driven by how noble they are? The bullshit is unreal. I cannot even.

- No one cares about all the lumens! They should have given the Trix something for their trouble after all of this bullshit and used the screen time in a better way.

- OH, COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY GET A CONSTELLATION NOW?!?!?!?!? THEY WOULD HAVE NEVER WON WITHOUT THE TRIX WHO WERE LEFT WITH A BIG DAMN ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (except for being freed, that is)

- In my book this is the absolute worst finale this show has ever had! It contradicted everything we know about certain characters as well as events from previous seasons, had a theme that sucked completely and had Winx make a seemingly selfless wish that actually seems super shady, gave them glory they do not deserve, introduced a new plot point at the beginning of the very last episode, fucked over the Trix (or at least Icy), did not tie up their loose ends and just completely failed to be thrilling in any way because everything was upside down! I cannot even.

This season started out so well. The first three episodes were extremely promising and had the writers kept their streak, this season could have risen to the levels of the first seasons or even surpassed them. However, things quickly started derailing. First, just lightly and then totally going off the rails. The two halves of the season felt super disconnected, the villain plan sucked, Valtor was destroyed as a character (and as a villain) and the Trix were just... what happened there? The new backstory Icy was given was dreadful because of how much it contradicted what we know about all three of the Trix and it destroyed their sense of unity by obviously placing the narrative emphasis on her not just as the leader but as the one that is most important of the three. The second half got stupider and stupider until it reached a finale that just didn’t logic in any correct way. There was so much wasted potential here that it is unreal. Season 7 had nothing going on but it did not enrage me as much as this one (and especially the last few episodes) because there wasn’t so much absolute waste of perfectly good opportunities. Season 6 retains it’s place as the worst season in my book but the end of season 8 annoyed me enough to make me feel like I could put it over season 7 for worst of the series.

#winx club #winx bloom #winx musa #winx stella #winx flora #winx layla #winx tecna #winx sky #winx riven #bloom x sky #musa x riven #winx diaspro #winx icy #winx darcy #winx stormy #trix #winx valtor #winx faragonda #winx griselda #winx griffin #winx club season 8 #review #thoughts #part 2

[some-little-things-define-us]

Jacob Stone X (fem) Reader

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters. I’m not a writer. I’m not a native English speaker. I’m really sorry about some grammatical errors there may be.

Word count: 1.375

You are a librarian. Both of you have to deal with the hidden feelings towards each other...

When Y/N was sad, everyone in the library was there for her. There was Cassandra trying to cheer her up, Ezekiel telling her some joke, and Jake being the one with whom she could share a beer or two and talk about almost everything.

This time was different. They all had came back to the library after solving a mystery and recovering an artifact. Y/N was tired but still you wanted to read some of the books, to learn more about the previous librarians, after eating something of course.

-"I'm glad everything went well guys, I'm sure if Baird wouldn't have checked on us, everything would've been different" Cassandra said while sitting on one of the chairs.

-"Excuse me? I was the one who saved y/n and Stone, without me the guys would have been dead by now. I deserve some recognition too" Replied Ezekiel, leaning against the big table.

-"Jones, does the word ‘Teamwork’ mean something to you?” Baird who was tired and having enough says to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel rolls his eyes -"Fine, we all did a good job today"

-"Besides, dear Jones, if you hadn't being so fascinated and distracted by the security system of the facility, you would have a least prevented us of being knocked out by the bad guys" Y/N said glaring at him

-"Aaaand... I'm hungry. Is anyone else hungry?" Says Flynn, cutting off the small argument.

-"I could eat some pizza" Said Ezekiel.

-"me too" Y/N replied. Everyone else agreed with them, even Jenkins. Only one of them didn't.

-"Jake? You okay?" Y/N asked to her friend. He was in fact her friend, but she’d lie if she said she didn't find him attractive or didn't have a crush on him.

He simply looked at Y/N and the guys and walked upstairs.

They all looked at each other, worried.

-"I guess he's tired?" Said Cassandra searching for an explanation.

-"I don't know...” Y/N said debating whether to go or not to see if he's okay.

A couple of minutes went on and they were all eating and talking about the mission. Y/N was still worried about Jake, when she decided to go and talk to him.

Y/N were walking towards the stairs when she sees him walking down them, not even bothering to see Y/N.

-"I'll be out, gotta take care of something. I'll be back soon"

-"Everything okay? Need some help?" Y/N asked.

-"Yeah, we can help you" said Cassandra

-"Don't you two have a life to take care about" he replies, leaving everyone in silence.

He sets the magic door and walks out, disappearing through the doors.

-"Did he just-" Said Cassandra, frowning.

-"He did..." Y/N replied.

-"I think you're overreacting, maybe he just needs some time alone or really needs to take care about something personal" Ezekiel said, his words a bit muffled by the food he still had in his mouth.

-"But he's never mean like that" Y/N said.

While the guys were talking about what could possibly be happening to Stone, debating whether to follow him or not, Y/N investigated his destination, and noticed that this was the bar he talked to her about some time ago.

-"Guys, I'll go." Y/N was convinced something was going on. 

-"Hey, what if he's on a date and your end up ruining everything?" Asked Ezekiel.

Stone was her friend but the mere thought of seeing him with someone else made her feel uncomfortable. Y/N did your best to hide the feeling.

-"I'll be just checking on him, I just want to know if he's really okay like he said"

She appeared in an alley, near the bar. Y/N entered the place and there was Jake, at the bar, drinking beer. She walked closer to him. When he sees her, he immediately turns to look at his glass again.

-"Y/N, What are you doing here?" He asked, not looking at her.

-"Easy... I just wanted to know if you were doing okay. I know it was a hard day for all of us"

-"You don't know anything"

He stands up and walked past her.

She knew something wasn't right, so you followed him. After all he was always there for her when she wasn’t feeling good.

-"What the hell has gotten into you, Stone?"

He turns around and finally looks at her. His eyes were expressing some kind of sadness.

-"You want to know what's going on? I'll tell you" He walked closer to her.

-"I almost loose you, Y/N. And it was my fault" he sighs."I couldn't even defend myself"

"So this is all about not being a hero?" He raised an eyebrow at those words.

-"See? I knew you wouldn't understand" he walks out of the bar.

Y/N stood there, in silence for a couple of seconds. A guy was looking at her in a creepy way which made her take the decision to go out.

Y/N walked towards she appeared before. He was there, leaning against the wall.

-"I'm sorry" she said "I just wanted to help" she walked past him, going to the magic door, but he caught her arm.

She just turned around and looked at him in the eyes. He sighed.

"I'm sorry. I just can't stand the idea of you being hurt. I can't loose you."

"Jake, our job is to protect the library, and we all know the risks of doing so" he just looked at her, and she continued. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you all either. You all are my friends"

He sighed.

-"I love you" he says "and not just as a friend"

-"I..." she was still trying to put the pieces together. Was he just confessing?

When he didn't hear a response, he turns around, but now she was the one to take his hand into hers. He stopped and turned to face her.

-"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Y/N finally said.

-"I thought you were already having enough things in your mind. With all of the stuff always happening"

Y/N’s hand moved to his shoulder, as if to keep him there with her. He moved one of his hands to her waist. As he didn't move his hand, or protested his action, he pulled her closer. Their bodies now touching. Y/N instinctively moved her hand up to the back of his neck. That was all he needed. He finally leaned in closer, tilting his head a little, placing a soft kiss to her lips. She didn't respond the kiss immediately, but when she did he took it as a sign to continue. His hands were a bit shaky, still nervous and anxious, as if he was afraid to do something wrong. Y/N was nervous two, after all you did have feelings for him and thought something like this would never happen.

When they finally broke the kiss, he was smiling as if there wasn't anything to worry about in the world.

-"Did we just kiss in a dark alley" Y/N blushed.

He chuckled

-"I'm sorry. You don't know how long I've been dreaming to do that" He replied

-"I think we need to go back." Y/N was worried the guys could come looking for them and find them like that.

He took her hand in his and lead her to the door.

-"Finally, you're back. We were worried about you two" Eve was the first to say something.

Y/N realized she was still holding hands with Stone, feeling the eyes of Ezekiel and Cassandra going in that direction. She quickly, let go off his hand, not knowing what they'd say if they knew about what's going on between the two of them.

-"Yes. I mean, I'm okay, he's okay." Y/N’s was a bit shaky.

-"yeah, I just needed some time alone...I guess. I'm okay, now"

The pair smiled awkwardly, still blushing.

-"Uh, I see" Cassandra said and smiled, walking towards the two.

-"you never do that to us again" She said to Jake while hugging you both.

-"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have behaved like an idiot" said Jake.

They both joined the group.

Flynn, was too busy making his own deductions. He chuckled and walked out of the place muttering a "knew it" under his breath.

#the librarians #one shot #jacob stone x reader #the librarians fanfic #reader insert

[rpgsandbox]

THIS BOOK IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS

This is no ordinary book. There are monsters inside! Yes, you got that right. Monsters exist and live with us. But don't be afraid, they aren't bad... at least not entirely.

Have you ever noticed that you might be missing socks or that you hear strange noises in the dead of night? You aren't absent-minded nor do the pipelines make noises. They're the Monsters of Darkness! But don't panic because there are brave detectives whose job is to catch them so they will stop bothering you. They are none other than the Monster Detectives.

What? Did I get that right? You want to be a detective too? Then this is your book! With Little Monster Detectives you can create a team with your friends and catch the monsters that scare you at night. Solve mysteries, get to know the Monsters of Darkness and prove how brave you are. But above all prepare to live a bunch of adventures and have a great time!

Welcome to the Monster Detectives Agency!

Little Monster Detectives is a Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game for kids. The game is about the Monster Detective Agency, children and grownups that investigate mysterious monster mischief. With simple and scalable rules and different game modes, Little Monster Detectives wishes to be the first roleplaying game for your kids.

The project's main goal is to obtain the necessary funds in order to print an English version and to share our excitement for this game with English-speaking kids and adults. Furthermore, this will be the first translation from the Spanish RPG publishing house Nosolorol. We want to share our game with players from all around the world.

Little Monster Detectives is a storytelling game. That is to say, it's a game where players create a story with their actions and the decisions they make during the game. When the game is over, the players will have created a new story where they have been the stars and creators. They choose the path to follow and what to do at every moment.

Just like other RPGs, this game encourages teamwork, there isn't a winner or loser, and you want to achieve the general well-being of the group. You learn to share, to respect others, to solve problems and to boost your imagination.

                                      How to discover a monster!

Little Monster Detectives is a bestseller in Spain, with thousands of copies sold, and it has also been published in France as a huge success. Many roleplaying gamers of both countries are parents who love to play Little Monster Detectives with their children!

Little Monster Detectives is a game for children. Specifically, it’s a game to play with children. You love reading stories to your kids and you know how they like to question other aspects of the story and imagine different outcomes for the characters. They want to be involved in the story, change the ending and imagine what will happen next. Children are natural-born roleplaying gamers!

You can play Little Monster Detectives with children that are 5 or older. Of course, the game offers different rules and game mechanics to play with the youngest ones, who tend to have a short attention span and limited numeric comprehension. Older children, on the other hand, can take the role of Senior Detective (the Game Master of Little Monster Detectives) and guide their younger siblings and friends throughout the game.

This roleplaying game is mostly intended for children who are afraid of monsters that hide in houses. To help these children overcome their fears, we’ve created a game where they are the stars and they get to decide when and how they face these monsters.

Little Monster Detectives stimulates deductive thinking through the use of clues. Monsters always leave behind mischievous clues at the scene of the crime. Detectives must go there and investigate what happened. They will have to deduce which monster it is by finding clues and figure out the best way to catch the monster so it will stop causing trouble.

The use of star points and banners as a reward for good behavior and fair play (and of course, just for fun) is an aspect of the game that children love. These items are stickers that kids can put on their character sheets or wherever they want. This game promises we want to help with improve children's confidence and self-image.

The book itself is a guiding tool throughout the game. Little Detectives must look for monster information, tools and other information in the book and, this way, we can also work on their reading skills and encourage their love for books.

Little Monster Detectives is really easy to play, but the first times you play the game you might need a grownup’s help to play as senior detective.

You can see the sample pages by downloading the PDF of this link: http://bit.ly/LMD_Samples

What do you need?

3 six-sided dice

Detective contracts!

Monster tokens

A pencil and paper

Knickknacks and other stuff to dress up like a detective!

Are you the senior detective?

Then you are the Game Master in Little Monster Detectives. This is what you will have to do:

Help beginner detectives fill out their detective contract (Don’t worry, it’s really easy).

Choose the monster! You can create one with help from the book, choose one or roll 3 six-sided dice.

Read about the monster carefully (or define it) and think if you have to catch it, help it or find something it has lost. What could happen? If it’s a monster from the book, the pages will help you figure it out.

If you’re going to play sitting at a table, a map of the house might be a good idea. You can improvise one and draw it while the detectives explore it. If you’re not going to play at a table, you can direct it like a live action roleplaying game in your house or in any other safe location. The youngest detectives love to explore and run around!

Help the detectives by describing what is happening, about the clues they find or helping them solve situations. You will also have to set the pace of the game! And don’t forget about giving them a small scare.

Rolling the dice

When beginner detectives want to do something that has an uncertain outcome but is relevant to the storyline, they will have to roll 3 six-sided dice and take the average result, from lowest to highest. This depends on the situation, the help they are getting, the tools they have and if they are frightened. Normally, it’s enough to get a 4 or more.

Most children by age 3 won’t have trouble reading dice. From the age of 4, kids usually know how to order them and recognize which one is the lowest, the medium and the highest value. By the age of 5 they can read letters and a few syllables and by the age of 6 many can read the book and discover things about monsters on their own.

Fear-rate, Clues and Scares

As detectives find clues, they can solve them or link them to a little monster, which will help them avoid fear. If this isn’t so, the fear-rate will rise in the house and it will be easier for the detectives to be frightened when something strange happens. They can avoid fear by rolling the dice; it can be done with help from the rest of the group or Teddy the Super Stuffed Toy :)

Clues and scares are usually linked to the monsters. The Closet Monster has the habit of biting clothes, while the Attic and Basement Monster hides the broomsticks because he doesn’t like them one bit. With these clues and “The Book of the Monsters of Darkness”, detectives can figure out who is causing all this trouble!

Star points

Detectives will win banners related to their achievements, like the medal of courage, and stars that they can exchange for tools in the Agency. These will help them out in some situations!

Kickstarter campaign ends: Wed, October 23 2019 1:18 PM BST

Website: Nosolorol

#RPG #kickstarter #Little Monster Detectives #Nosolorol

[codenamesazanka]

Spinner!!! The facts, some deductions, few speculations

Name: Iguchi Shuuichi

First name meaning: “Excellent one” 

Prob 20-something

Quirk: Gecko! He can stick and climb on walls

Grew up in rural Japan in a very conservative area, badly bullied and called ‘the lizard freak’

“My heart was totally empty,” he says, and accepted the discrimination

Was a hikikomori shut-in, no criminal record, until Mid-May

Lower-class, apparently?

Was ashamed of his appearance

.

Stain blew his mind and inspired him so much he changed his life completely

I imagine Spinner had very good reason to agree with Stain - All the Heroes in the world, with their fame and power and fight for justice, none of them did anything to protect him from his community

And so he desired to change society, to blow open a hole right through it

.

I think Stain also appealed to Spinner for another reason - the killing

Revenge must have been so pleasing, getting to repay back all that built up resentment. 

Being able to judge who lives and who dies, depending on how much they fit Stain’s ‘True Hero’ standards

Spinner’s unopposed to violence and harbors dark impulses. Whether it’s been like this for a while or seeing Stain broke all inhibitions, no idea

By July, during the Training Camp Raid, he was so ready to kill fake Heroes and Iida. 

I still think he’s one of the League’s more moral members! but there’s a reason he eagerly joined up with terrorists. 

Just has standards

.

So he ends up not being opposed to Shigaraki’s ‘destroy everything’ goal

Wants ‘a glimpse of the future [shigaraki] was imagining’

.

Fucking nerd: Gamer and gamer-lingo, cosplayer, collect knives, swords

he also learned to fight - close combat with blades, throwing knives

Pretty muscular too

And completely changed looks by gelling up his hair, getting that cool leather jacket

very likely inexperienced in romance and relationships lol

.

Somehow this country boy went to the big city, navigated the shadows, found the League of Villains, and convinced Shigaraki to recruit him

Speaks to resourcefulness, determination

Has a strategic mind - getting Shigaraki’s tactics, observing the rallying of the MLA, deciding to target Hatabana 

.

Doesn’t hold a very high opinion of himself

Admits to be an ‘empty cosplayer’ 

“I know that [I’m not going to become a worthwhile person] better than anyone.”

“I’m just a nobody who jumped onto the bandwagon” 

Yet also accepts this. “But what’s wrong with that?” 

By his own admission, he can be impulsive. Getting fired up but not sure what to do, yet still doing it. 

.

Got great passion tho; and so, so ready to devote himself 

First to Stain, then to Shigaraki 

He’s empathetic! He was all wide-eyed during Shigaraki’s backstory, hanging onto every word, relating so much

He’s so watchful of Shigaraki during the Gigantomachia month, he worries for him during the MLA battle, he wants to help and lighten Shigaraki’s burden

I think he’s dedicated more so to people, not so much ideas or philosophies. He’s captivated by someone’s energy and drive, his heart is lit by their fire, and he falls in love follows

In questioning Toga about her staying in the League, I think he was trying to see where he stood, figure out what he wanted. Was there something he loved? Something he felt he needed to do?

Actually, in his heart he already sided with Shigaraki, but he was still thinking about Stain cuz can’t let go of a six-month obsession that easily

Ultimately, right now, his desire is to see Shigaraki’s desire come true

.

Spinner, notorious Stain fanboy, actually kinda ends up being someone as loyal to Shigaraki as AFO’s followers was to AFO?

But Shigaraki isn’t AFO, and Spinner isn’t a blind worshipper 

.

Similarly, it’s only after he accepted Shigaraki that he seemed to integrate himself more with the League in general

Got along well with Magne! But just her at first, and he was willing to disregard the League’s priority and teamwork to follow Stain’s tenets 

Notably, he’s absent from the first Overhaul meeting (same as Dabi) 

Serving as the driver for their highway ambush, he seemed pretty testy towards the rest of the League. Tho also justified because Dabi insulted him. 

While everyone bantered a bit with each other in their ‘hideout’ in Chapter 220, Spinner stood apart. 

Fast forward a month and a half, after being finding himself eager to see Shigaraki’s dream realized, he’s shown chatting with Toga, with Twice

.

So! Spinner! 

A self-described ‘nobody’, dissatisfied with life, but with great drive to devote himself whole-heartedly to something he loves and believes in

Just needed that push. Man, imagine if he wasn’t tormented and was encouraged and allowed to flourish. 

Got a big heart, so ready to latch onto someone, willing to follow and serve, lend all he can do to them

I imagine him as bit of a nerdy romantic, swayed by grand, dramatic gestures and strong personalities, a little obsessive and eager to go on that adventure - and does - consequences be damned. Definitely has imagined himself as a sword-wielding ninja to serve a worthy master 

Skilled, smart, even got called so by an enemy; can go overboard, take off more than he can chew?

He’s great!!! Love him!!!

#Spinner #Iguchi Shuichi #League of Villains #Characterization #nalslastworkingbraincell

[mentalmimosa]

must have been magic

Prompt: Love spell

Everything’s fine until Steve starts taking off his clothes.

Ok, everything’s not fine, technically: Tony’s hoarse from yelling and Steve is the color of beets and anyone in the vicinity who didn’t know they were pissed at each other, have been since the Quinjet swept in and plucked them out of the Albanian wilderness, well--let’s just say there’s not anyone like that left.

They’re in the briefing room near the hanger because Tony was trying to act like a professional and not ream Steve the second they stepped off the plane. They’ve got new kids on the block now, Ant Man and Spidey and that take-no-shit Wasp, so it would be nice to, you know, pretend like they have their shit together as a team. As far as Tony’s concerned, screaming at Steve (and vice versa) is what keeps said shit in one piece; they’ve tried the not talking and not communicating thing and boy howdy, did that fuck them up. So they talk about their disagreements now, albeit in raised voices (Steve) and flailing arms (Tony), but they try not to do it in mixed company. Key word: try.

But sometimes Steve is just too puritanical for Tony to stomach all the way back to base, so today’s contretemps had started in furious whispers at the back of the plane and smouldered until they were wheels down and then and only then had Tony poked Captain Self-Righteous in the chest and hissed: “You, me, briefing room. Right the fuck now!”

Which had only made Steve madder, of course.

“I don’t appreciate being ordered around, Tony,” he barks the second the door to the briefing room closes.

“Yeah. Sucks, don’t it? Maybe you should have thought of that before you pulled an audible in the middle of an op, Cap!”

“What we were doing wasn’t working! A new strategy was called for!”

“I’m sorry, who was on point today?”

Steve flips off his helmet and chucks it on the table. “You were.”

“Yep. So instead of calling for the ball yourself, Namath, maybe you should have, oh, I don’t know, given me a heads up and made a recommendation?”

“Recommendation? Get real, Tony. When’s the last time you listened to one of those?” Steve snorts and unbuckles his harness, shrugged out of his shield. “Correction, when’s the last time you didn’t take great delight in ignoring one, huh?”

“I see, so you’re a mindreader now, is that it?”

“No, you’re just goddamn predictable, that’s all.”

“I’m predictable? You’re the one who’s always preaching teamwork and collaboration, and yet the second a thing doesn’t go the way you want it, you reach right over and grab the stick!”

Steve reaches for the catch in his armor. “Teamwork goes both ways, you know. Sometimes teamwork means recognizing that I know better.”

“That you--!”

There were more words coming, more that Tony had lined up to follow, but it’s hard to talk suddenly, what with the armor falling and Steve peeling and then him standing there not three feet from Tony no longer wearing a, uh. A shirt.

It’s not like Tony’s never seen the All-American six pack before, even once or twice in close quarters, but usually there were knives involved or evildoers of some sort, so he’d never had a chance to study Le Rogers without the fear of rapidly approaching death and holy god, he thought, goggled, that was probably good. Because for all his pig-headedness, for all of his incredible ability to rub Tony the wrong way, Steve’s gorgeous in the way that the sun is bright, you know? Fundamentally, thoroughly, blindingly. Throw in the helmet-mussed hair and the red cheeks of indignation and the whole package gets Tony thinking in the color of swoon.

And then the man starts futzing with his pants.

“Um,” Tony says weakly. “Cap? What the hell are you doing?”

Steve looks up at him, wide-eyed, and now that his pissiness had taken a backseat, Tony could see what he hadn’t before: there was a weird fire in Steve’s eyes, some shit that made the blue blue, and what had looked like pink cheeks was actually general aura of flush from Steve’s hairline over the hills and valleys of his chest down to the line of his--

“I’m hot,” Steve says petulantly as he--yep, oh god, yep--peels the suit from his legs and unfastens his boots. “Always get hot when we argue, Tony.”

Ok, that’s a sentence to unpack another day. A day when Tony’s not standing across from Steve Rogers wearing nothing but a very (very) tight pair of shorts. Shit.

“Sure,” he says, aiming for something blase, “but you don’t usually lose your kit because of it.”

“Oh, but I do. After it’s over, though. I go back to my quarters and strip off and get a hand on myself.” A long-lashed flutter. "Think about you.”

If Tony was a good man, a noble one like the blond stalwart in front of him, he’d leave right then. Splutter something, wave his arms a bit, and run off for the hills.

But he’s not noble and he’s not good, so far as Steve Rogers is concerned. He’s always wanted. Always, from day, nay hour one. He’s never let himself follow that particular thought any farther than his right hand and a very long, hot shower. They’re teammates, he and Cap. On a good day, they’re friends.

All the more reason he should be calling for a doc, a detox, something, but clearly Steve is straight up out of his mind: hoodoo’d or whammied or drunk or shellshocked or catastrophically high--but also hard, jesus fuck, is he. Hard and moving towards him, reaching for him, purring in this beautiful, uber un-Rogers way.

“I’m so hot,” he says again. This time the words fall over Tony’s face. “Feel like I’m burning up, Tone. Need your hands on me. See?”

And then he’s tugging at Tony’s wrists and planting Tony’s palms on his hip and his chest and Tony is weak, Tony is greedy, Tony suddenly wants him so bad .

If he was a good man, the kind they make star-spangled movies about, he wouldn’t turn his face to meet Steve’s. He wouldn’t open his mouth. He wouldn’t stroke every inch of skin he could reach and lap up Steve’s orchestra of needy sounds. He wouldn’t moan when Steve’s hands catch his ass and squeeze just this side of too hard.

“Yeah?” Steve whispers against his lips. “You’re hot too, aren’t you?”

The air feels like it’s imploding, each drop of oxygen its own pool of heat, and Tony’s drowning in each and every one. “Oh, fuck.”

“Mmmm. Please.”

Later, what happens next will be a flurry, a cross-cut set of Polaroids that if he thinks about, Tony can’t actually fathom:

His knees on the floor, the smell of Steve’s body, the sound he makes as Tony peels down those impossible briefs;

Steve’s back against the table, his breathing wet and ragged, his hands buried in Tony’s hair;

His palms slipping on slick wood, his forehead pressed to it, the feel of Steve’s tongue in his ass.

And the strongest of them all, the fiercest: Steve’s mouth on his shoulder, his chest ablaze at Tony’s back, the gorgeous, hungry hitch of his hips. His hand is on Tony’s cock and Tony’s clinging to the edge of the table and it feels so good to have Steve inside him he wants to fucking scream.

And then he does, because to hell with reason, and he’s coming all over Steve’s fingers, the table, pulse after pulse and he still feels incomplete and then Steve is grunting in his ear, fucking in hard and hard and deep and only when Steve whimpers and lets it all go does the sweet tension in Tony’s body finally release.

It feels like he comes again, another burst of white out on the table, but that can’t be, right? He can’t. It must be the hoodoo, whatever’s infecting Steve--he must have caught some of it, too. But hell, god bless the magic, because it feels so fucking good.

“Oh, god,” Steve moans in his ear, because the bastard’s still coming, apparently. “Oh, fuck, Tony, yes, yes.”

And maybe that does it for him a little, again, too.

The next thing he knows, they’re in a wet heap on the floor, half on top of Tony’s hastily-removed clothes. They’re clinging to each other. It’s a different kind of hot.

“So,” he says when he can speak again, when he wants to, “um, Cap. What the hell was that?”

Steve laughs in his ear, a noise like good whiskey. “If I have to tell you, I must have done something wrong.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be a smart ass. You went all weird stripper Barbie on me!”

“Stripper Barbie--?”

“Were you whammied or something? Did you pick a funny-looking flower while we were out there? That’s some serious Fairy Tale country out that way, you know. Lots of the big myths and stuff got started out there.”

Steve’s arms go tighter. “You’re babbling.”

“I’m not babbling, Rogers, I’m deducting. Er, I’m trying to figure this out.”

“What is the this, again?”

“Steve, you threw yourself at me. I touch myself when I think about you? I mean, that was some pure Skinemax shit.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

God, he’s infuriating. But it’s a lot harder to be mad when he’s naked. “Um, I always get hot when we argue, Tony? That isn’t you.”

“Hmmm. So you thought I was under the influence of something?”

Yeah, like a love spell, you know. I thought maybe you ate an enchanted mushroom. Forgot to each lunch before the smashy smashy and so picked a vegan snack on the go, you know.”

Steve bites at his throat, very gently. Laps at it a little. Says: “You thought I was high on magic and/or a mushroom and you had sex with me anyway?”

Shit shit shit. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I did.” Tony’s head does a double take. “Wait. Does that mean you weren’t ?”

“Mmmmm.” Tony can practically feel the smug. “No. Believe it or not, that was all me.”

“Well, all you is very cheesy, Rogers. Also not fucking subtle at all.”

Steve’s hips rock against his ass. “I wasn’t feeling subtle,” he growls. “Sometimes I hate subtle. Sometimes I think the only thing you understand is a shield upside the head--and believe me, I’ve been tempted.”

“So you thought you’d whip your dick out in the middle of an argument and I’d just, what, fall to my knees?”

“Isn’t that what happened?” Steve chuckles. “Except, as I recall, you’re the one who actually whipped it out.”

“But--” Tony’s brain is still not in full gear; not helping that blood’s rushing back merrily towards his dick. “But I--I don’t know if you noticed, Ron Jeremy, but there were some things happening with me that haven’t happened since I was 15.”

Steve sighs, a full on-luxury sound that Tony would like to sink into, thanks. “Oh, hell. Did I make you come more than once, Tone? It felt like it, but I wasn’t sure.”

“Apparently.”

“Uh huh. So let me get this straight: you came so hard on my cock that it must have been magic, is that it?”

“I hate you.”

“You want me.” Long fingers tumble over his hip, tease. “You’d take me again right now, if I wanted.”

Not even a question. “Hell yes.”

“Here, on the floor. Desperate, like a couple of kids whose parents aren't home."

“You like the idea of sneaking around, Cap? And here I took you for the candlelight and silk sheets type.”

“I like that too. But you have no idea how many times I’ve been stuck in one of your damn briefings and spent the whole time daydreaming about what it would be like to shut you up with my tongue.”

“Or your cock.”

A growl, a fist around Tony’s dick. “Yeah. That, too.”

Tony’s head falls back. “So next time you’re in here, tired of listening to me talk, you can think about this instead. About dirting me up and then tossing me on the carpet and having your way with me again.”

“My way with you? Now who’s cheesy?”

“Steve.”

“Yes, Tony?”

“Shut up and fuck me again."

#stony #love spell #mildest dub con #sort of

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.12

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in trial 4 (trial 4!!), Kaito’s increasingly desperate attempts to be helpful were wrong again, Gonta was still trying his hardest in the background to keep up with what was going on, Kokichi would not stop subtly jabbing at Kaito’s jealousy of Shuichi oh my god (and it was great), and Shuichi did indeed singlehandedly save everyone by… taking frustratingly long to figure out the nature of the Virtual World and deducing it all in a backwards order that made no sense.

But he did figure it out in the end, somehow, so we’re starting from the intermission and moving onto discovering who used Miu’s plan against her for murder.

Kaito:  “More importantly… let’s continue the conversation where we left off.”

Kaito is once again doing his thing of trying to guide the conversation, getting everyone on the same page and knowing where they’re heading next. It’s the best kind of contributions he can give in trials since he’s not great at the deductions themselves (and since Shuichi apparently doesn’t need his encouragement any more). Even though he’s also been trying too hard to prove he totally is good at deductions this trial, at least he still realises he can do this.

Kokichi:  “And in order to figure that out, we need to understand Miu’s actions… So, let’s discuss her murder scheme step-by-step!”

Kaito:  “I know that’s important, but hearing you lead the conversation really pisses me off.”

…But then Kokichi happens to be trying to even take that away from Kaito here, and is doing it better than him because he’s mentioning more specific things that they need to discuss, and Kaito is Not Happy about that.

(I imagine it would also bother Kaito a little bit if Shuichi were the one to be leading the conversation here, but there’s no way he would ever admit to that. At least Kokichi is a target at which he can openly vent his frustrations about everything he’s been made to feel lately.)

Kokichi:  “Let’s see, Miu manipulated the Virtual World to use it as part of her murder plan…”

Kaito:  “Don’t just ignore me and start anyway…”

Kokichi:  “If she had succeeded, she would’ve gone past the wall between the chapel and the mansion…”

And then Kokichi knows exactly how to continue to get under Kaito’s skin – by completely ignoring him like he’s insignificant. All of the times he did the thing by praising Shuichi while not even mentioning Kaito at all were perhaps arguably a better way of doing so than the times he did mention Kaito – because Kaito is so unimportant that he’s not even worthy of mention, right?

Kokichi:  “…Then secretly passed through the wall she installed and took advantage of the loop. […] Oh yeah… Kaito was probably logged out around that time, too.”

If Miu had any sense, she’d have logged Kaito out before walking through the wall to remove the chance of him seeing her on the mansion side. (Especially since she did end up getting seen on that side by Tsumugi and, as it turns out, also Gonta.)

Himiko:  “She was smart… But she was also really, really dumb.”

This is a very good way of summing it up. Miu had the creative, technological kind of smarts to make inventions and come up with this plan, sure, but in almost every other way she was a gigantic idiot. Especially when it came to interpersonal intelligence. All of the mistakes that led to her plan failing, or to the fact that she would inevitably have been found out even if she’d succeeded in killing Kokichi, were down to her massively misunderstanding the people involved. She was completely oblivious to the fact that obviously Kokichi never really trusted her enough to walk into her trap, and that obviously Kaito is not the sort of person to commit murder and no-one would be willing to believe that, and that obviously Shuichi was going to figure out everything in the trial especially if the scapegoat was Kaito.

Gonta:  “N-No say such mean things. Killing game bad, not Miu. Miu not bad person. Gonta think we coulda been friends, if things different.”

Aww, Gonta. I get what he’s trying to say – it was only the killing game that drove Miu to murder and she wasn’t inherently a bad person. But she was still incredibly self-absorbed and unpleasant to be around and nobody would have wanted to be around her if they weren’t trapped in a school with her. Sorry, Gonta.

Kaito:  “But how did the culprit send Miu’s avatar through the wall? I mean, it’s not like they coulda thrown her.”

Gonta:  “Gonta not throw her!”

It’s okay, Gonta, nobody is around any more to be a dick about you throwing dead bodies just because you’re strong, you don’t need to jump to defend yourself on that matter.

(…even though it… actually is pretty close to what happened.)

Gonta:  “Physical strength… equalized? That problem! Gonta no can protect everyone if that happens!”

Another big hint at what’s really going on. He had pretty much this exact reaction in the Virtual World when he first heard about this, and yet here he is, having it again as if he’s only just hearing this now for the first time. Gonta may be slow to pick up on things, but he’s not forgetful like this.

Himiko:  “Geez, keep up with us.”

But everyone else basically is just putting a blanket judgement of “stupid” on Gonta and assuming that justifies him being forgetful too.

Shuichi:  “I think the sound came from Miu’s avatar hitting the chapel wall… The hammer, cell phone and lattice were there, but they were too small to make that noise.”

This is Shuichi’s answer to a multiple choice question in which you’re meant to state which out of Miu or the three objects around her hit the wall to make the loud sound. Which is pretty silly, because all four of those things hit the wall; does it really matter which of them was the one that was big enough to make a noise when it did so?

Kokichi:  “But why did it hit the wall with such force? Can you guys figure it out?”

Kaito:  “Hold on, Kokichi. What’s up with the way you’re talkin’? Why are you talking like you know everything?”

Kaito’s intuition strikes again! …Okay, to be fair, in this particular instance it definitely does not take an Official Luminary of the Stars Hunch™ to realise that Kokichi has clearly been talking like he already knows exactly what happened (and Gonta also noticed a similar thing from Kokichi last post), but still, this is Kaito doing one of the things he does best in trials and it deserves to be pointed out.

Kokichi:  “More importantly, we gotta solve the mystery! Fighting among friends is a waste of time.”

Kaito:  “‘Friends’? Us?”

And this is Kokichi doing his usual shtick of giving empty words about teamwork and co-operation to try and make everyone else’s words along similar lines sound just as empty.

Honestly, Kokichi, you had an opportunity right there to yet again make a point of how only Shuichi can solve this mystery, and you didn’t? At least jabbing at Kaito’s jealousy is a recent thing that makes a refreshing change from what you’ve been doing non-stop for the previous three chapters, come on.

Kokichi:  “Hey, Shuichi… As your partner, I’ll give you a little hint.”

Shuichi:  “…You’ll what?”

Kokichi:  “Since the mansion was on top of a hill, the roof was pretty high up, right? Past the brick handrail, the roof was at a pretty steep slope. And the slope faced the chapel wall. On top of that, there was snow on the roof. If the culprit needed force to move the body, I wonder how they did it?”

That’s barely a “hint” so much as it’s just a lengthy description of the roof, including the brick handrail that Kokichi couldn’t possibly have seen unless he’d been there, thus proving his earlier claim of not having gone there to be a lie. Which, considering Shuichi has perfectly well seen the roof himself and doesn’t need this description, really seems more to me like Kokichi is deliberately trying to give Shuichi the ammo to prove that he’s been up there.

(also, again, fuck off Kokichi, “partners” don’t withhold the things they know like this. What you’re doing with Shuichi right now is not “working together” with him, it’s patronising him.)

Shuichi:  (Kokichi’s talking as if he’s got the whole thing figured out already… But I can’t let him distract me. I need to solve this case.)

That’s not a “distraction”, Shuichi! Kokichi’s jabs at Kaito last time were one thing, but the fact that Kokichi clearly already knows how the body was moved is a meaningful point related to the case that should be included in your deductions and not just disregarded! Turn down that Ultimate Detective tunnel vision just a little.

Kaito:  “Nah, man. Even with the slope and the snow, Miu’s body wouldn’t have slid—”

Kokichi:  “Wrong. It would slide.”

Kaito tries contributing an actual idea again – one which is perfectly reasonable given that he hasn’t figured out there was anything that could have been used as a sled – and Kokichi just immediately cuts him off and tells him he’s wrong without actually telling him why. (Because he’s leaving the “why” part for Shuichi to figure out.)

Kokichi:  “Non, non! It would slide!”

Kaito:  “It wouldn’t slide! Just like Maki Roll said!”

Kokichi:  “It would slide! Just like Shumai said!”

Children. Calm down.

Gonta:  “Lots of snow piled up on roof… but not frozen solid, right?”

(Gonta is still trying to make sure he’s got a good mental image of everything they’re talking about so that he can help!)

Kokichi:  “You just need a sled or skis to cut the friction!”

Kaito:  “There was nothing like that around, though!”

Kaito Refutations: 3!

It’s pretty notable here that the game makes you refute Kaito and not agree with Kokichi when it would also have made perfect sense to put an agree spot on Kokichi’s statement there. The writers don’t just want to make this part about Shuichi having to seemingly be on Kokichi’s side, they want to make it about him seemingly not being on Kaito’s side as well.

It’s also… questionable that Kaito makes this claim in the first place. He searched the rooftop before the murder and then investigated the chapel after; he should know that the lattice was there. Clearly he never figured it was used as a sled during the investigation, but it shouldn’t be too hard to piece it together now. So apparently Kaito doesn’t want to try and piece it together because he’s annoyed at Kokichi having butted in and called him wrong and argued with him about this and he just wants to be right about something for once, dammit.

Kokichi is still not praising Shuichi about how brilliant he is for having figured out the sled thing and I am very disappointed in him. Or rather, I’m disappointed in the out-universe writers for not continuing with the subtle jabbing at Kaito’s issues that I was greatly enjoying last time and see no reason not to continue with here. Especially since this time Shuichi figured out the truth while directly refuting Kaito! That’d be the perfect opportunity for it!

Not that Kokichi hasn’t still been getting under Kaito’s skin plenty in other ways, but, like, The Thing! I miss The Thing and its delightful subtlety.

Kokichi:  “Also, I never went to the roof, not even for the meeting.”

…

Kokichi:  “It all began when Miu showed us the map.”

…

Kokichi:  “That’s probably what happened. The culprit killed her on the locked roof.”

The game makes you do a Mind Mine to select which of these three past statements of Kokichi’s was a lie. For one thing, this is a really weird excuse for a Mind Mine because that’s supposed to be about images, but the much sillier thing about it is the three statements it makes you choose from. The two incorrect options here are just Kokichi stating assumptions about what happened in the case and therefore can’t even be lies. Only one of them is an actual testimony about something he did that he therefore could have lied about! It could kind of be a fun puzzle to be shown multiple statements Kokichi made about his actions and have to figure out which one of them you can prove to be a lie. But the way this is, you don’t even need to remember the information that proves he did go to the roof in order to know that that’s the only statement that can even be false.

(also noooo Mind Mine has four colours now; I get really addicted to the version in the casino with only three colours, but the hardest difficulty adds a fourth colour which makes it way too easy to mess up and therefore not as fun any more. Not that the trial version is as fun anyway since you can just break the single pieces which means there’s no incentive to think about things, but.)

So anyway, Kokichi’s lengthy description of the roof, particularly the part about the brick handrail, is what proves he was lying about never going there.

Kokichi:  “I-I-I… d-didn’t… I already t-told you that b-before…”

Gonta:  “Why you look so nervous?”

Keebo:  “Is this a sincere reaction?”

It’s not, of course. But the thing is, Kokichi has never had this specific kind of reaction before, so it actually seems a little bit more plausible than it usually does that this could be genuine and this is what he sounds like when he’s truly been caught out. What I would want to say Kokichi is doing here is that he’s trying to make it seem like he genuinely has been caught out – because if he really wanted the mercy kill outcome, then the best way to do so would be to have everyone eventually decide he did it, but for him to put up enough resistance to it that it seems like this isn’t the outcome he wants.

Of course, since Kokichi really doesn’t want the mercy kill outcome at all because he’s been gradually sabotaging it this whole time by being helpful and is shortly going to completely shatter it with his own two hands, I don’t quite understand why he’s bothering to act this way. For fun, I guess.

Kokichi:  “Oh, wait! I remember now! That thing Himiko said!”

Himiko:  “Nyeh!? M-Me!?”

Kokichi:  “At the start of the class trial, I remember you saying the handrail was made of bricks.”

To anyone who’s uncertain, nope, Himiko very definitely didn’t say that. I’d have pointed it out if it’d been there.

Kokichi:  “Gotta be more careful there, Himiko!”

Himiko:  “I-Is it my fault…?”

No, Himiko, because you didn’t say it! Stand up for your own actions more! Be more sure of yourself!

Gonta:  “Himiko really say that?”

But here’s Gonta – who’s the worst at being sure of himself and would definitely have doubted his own actions if he’d been the one in Himiko’s position right now – being pretty damn sure she didn’t say that. Like I’ve been saying, he’s confused as hell about the Virtual World, but he’s still been paying attention to everyone around him. And especially because his only source of information for what the Virtual World is like has been the descriptions people have given of it, he would know that he didn’t picture that roof as having a brick handrail until Kokichi said so.

Kokichi:  “She tooootally said that!”

Kaito:  “No she didn’t!”

Kokichi:  “Yes, she did!”

Kaito:  “She did not!”

Kokichi:  “She did too!”

Kaito:  “Then when!? Tell me how long ago! In hours, minutes and seconds!”

Whoa, geez, again, children. Kaito just really wants to be right about something – which he is this time, but unfortunately this one is basically impossible to conclusively prove.

(I suppose Keebo’s recording function wouldn’t help much either, because to prove Himiko didn’t say a thing would require listening to the entire trial up to this point.)

Maki:  “How much longer are you going to behave like this?”

And in comes the Ultimate Child Caregiver to break up the argument. Seems appropriate.

Shuichi starts to think as if this isn’t enough to prove that Kokichi went to the roof, but the thing is, it kind of is. This isn’t like an Ace Attorney trial where conclusive evidence is necessary. The only thing that’s necessary here is to convince everyone else – and everyone else is pretty damn sure that Himiko did not say that and Kokichi is lying through his teeth right now. No matter how stubborn Kokichi decides to be, it won’t change that fact. If he wanted, Shuichi could just continue the discussion all like, “Okay, so we all agree Kokichi went to the roof, right? Which means…” and completely ignore Kokichi’s obviously-lying protests that he didn’t, and there’d be nothing Kokichi could do to stop them.

Shuichi:  (But if he’s being this stubborn, it makes me think he has something to hide. To get him to show his hand, I have to prove he was on the roof.)

This reasoning does kind of make sense, though. Shuichi wants Kokichi to tell everyone whatever it is that he’s hiding instead of having to painstakingly try and figure it out himself (which he could still do, if he thought about it and realised that oh wait, Kokichi couldn’t physically touch Miu could he). So he wants to force Kokichi out of the “la la la I can’t hear you” state he’s in and get him to stop messing around.

Kaito:  “I’ve had enough of your lies, man!”

Kokichi:  “I’m not lying!”

“Are you done arguing yet?”

Heh, Maki’s still trying to play child caregiver here.

Kokichi:  “I didn’t go to the roof!”

“Just fess up already!”

…

Kokichi:  “The rooftop door was locked and I couldn’t open it!”

“That’s enough lies!”

And Kaito is still furiously trying to get Kokichi to confess even in the white noise.

(Trying to get Kokichi to confess is also Shuichi’s goal during this debate – he just has a rather cleverer way of going about it than simply yelling at him and hoping it’ll work.)

Kaito:  “Liars burn in hell, y’know?”

Kaito. Calm down and think for a second about what you’re saying there.

His thing two parts ago in which he denounced specific kinds of lies that Kokichi tells was not that hypocritical, because Kaito genuinely never tells the kind of lie he was talking about there. But this is just referring to any lying, and… yeah, you’ve been telling a few lies of your own lately, Kaito. Not to mention the lie he and Shuichi told to protect Maki back in trial 2.

(Still, he’s saying this here because he’s riled up. This is very much not a properly-thought-out statement of his principles.)

Shuichi lies about having been to the salon and not seen Kokichi in there, which kiiiinda begs the usual “why didn’t you mention this sooner” question that a lot of this game’s required lies have. No-one points that out, though.

Kokichi:  “I see… You use underhanded tactics too. Huh, Shuichi?”

Kokichi, you are the one who was baiting him into lying about this when you discussed during the investigation how there were no witnesses to prove you were or weren’t in the salon. You have no right to be calling him out on doing exactly what you wanted him to do.

Kokichi:  “So, who are you guys gonna believe? Shuichi… or me?”

This is a misleading false dichotomy. He’s presenting it like one of the two of them must be telling the truth and that therefore if Shuichi is lying that means Kokichi definitely isn’t, which of course is not the case.

Kaito:  “Well of course I’m gonna believe Shuichi!”

Keebo:  “I believe Shuichi 100%!”

Maki:  “The one who’s not Kokichi.”

I love Maki’s response here. To everyone else, it’s more about how much they believe in Shuichi, but Maki, while she of course does also believe in Shuichi, doesn’t care that it’s specifically him and would rather make a point of how she’d believe anyone over Kokichi. Maki is so blunt and it’s great.

Tsumugi:  “But to go to the salon, Shuichi would need to pass by me in the dining room… Umm… I wonder why I didn’t notice Shuichi there…”

Shuichi:  “…”

Tsumugi:  “Oh well. I’ll believe Shuichi anyway. He’s usually right about stuff.”

And here’s a delightful little hint towards the mastermind’s identity! Tsumugi is only pretending to be confused and vague and really knows full well that Shuichi must be lying. She lets it slide because this situation that’s playing out is an interesting story, and she’d rather see where it goes than just cut Shuichi off and go back to the stalemate things were at before.

I actually caught on my first time through just how suspicious Tsumugi is acting here – there’s something different about her voice that made me suddenly feel, at least in this moment, that her vagueness was just an act and she was a lot more cunning than she seemed. Even if she is genuinely just doing this because she knows Shuichi is onto something and doesn’t want to get in the way, her going about it this underhandedly reveals a side to her that’s completely different from the person she usually seems to be.

At the time, though, I just thought this was a hint that she’d killed Miu (my brain went on to make up something about how the sled had a delayed-release mechanism so she could fake her alibi with Shuichi, despite there being zero evidence for such a thing). When this case was over and that was wrong I temporarily forgot about this bit and only remembered again during chapter 6 once I realised she was in fact the mastermind, but I am still proud of myself for sort of noticing it here.

Also, this behaviour from Tsumugi is in fact very Kokichi-like. The whole “that’s weird but I guess Shuichi wouldn’t lie to us right” with the subtext of “I totally know you’re lying and just don’t want to bring it up” is precisely the kind of thing Kokichi has done multiple times. You’d think that if anyone could pick up on this clue to the mastermind’s identity, it’d be Kokichi. If he truly cared about figuring out who the mastermind is, I feel like he’d be paying enough attention to the others’ behaviour to notice this. But apparently not; he’s too wrapped up in his own plan which doesn’t actually require him to know who the mastermind is in order to “defeat” them.

Gonta:  “Sorry, but… Gonta believe Shuichi, too.”

Kokichi:  “Ah, I see… I wanted at least Gonta to believe me…”

I went over this before when a similar thing happened: this is Kokichi hinting at him and Gonta being in on this together, but if Gonta really did remember then it would help their cause for him to act like he thinks Kokichi did it. Stop being an unnecessary dick, Kokichi, that’s all you’re doing here.

Kokichi:  “Why do you guys hate lies that much?”

…Nobody ever really said they did. Nobody other than Kaito, who hates a specific flavour of lying and has already made his stance on that apparent – but he clearly doesn’t hate all kinds of lies, for obvious reasons. The other people Kokichi is saying this to include Shuichi, who has lied multiple times to try and reach the truth and Kokichi has been aware of every instance of that, Maki, who lied about her talent in order to protect herself, and Himiko, whose entire talent involves lying to make things more entertaining and fun for people. (And Tsumugi, who is constantly lying through her teeth, but that one Kokichi isn’t aware of.)

Kokichi:  “There’s only one truth, but endless possibilities for lies, y’know?”

So here he’s basically trying to say that the infinite possibilities of lies are more interesting and fun than the singular truth, and I can see where he’s coming from, since that’s the point of fiction. But that kind of lie is harmless because people know they’re really lies and just choose to pretend to believe and invest in them anyway because that’s more fun. That’s why Himiko keeps insisting her magic is real. That’s why Kaito pretends his childhood games were real, and why he wanted to buy into Himiko’s magic – until people’s lives started riding on knowing the truth, that is.

Kokichi:  “And some of them are only white lies, or lies to be kind to people…”

Like the lies Kaito has been telling to hide his illness. Like the lies Shuichi has told in trials to protect innocent people and reach the truth.

(Also, remember Kokichi insisting back in trial 3 that you never know how malicious people’s reasons for having secrets could be and so you might as well just assume everyone’s malicious? Does he really believe it’s possible for others to lie for a good reason, or is he just saying that to justify his own constant lying?)

Kokichi:  “If you deny all of that *just* because it’s a lie…”

No-one ever did. All they’re denying is your lie right now about not going to the roof, because it’s getting in the way of reaching the goddamn truth and letting all but one of us not freaking die.

Kokichi:  “Then that means you guys are just terrible at being lied to! Seriously, the worst!”

Kokichi’s putting on an evil face here, like suddenly he’s happy that everyone doesn’t like lies because this lets him trick them more. Remember the most recent Monokuma Theater about how liars supposedly keep encouraging honesty so there’ll be more gullible honest people they can deceive? This kind of reminds me of that.

This is Kokichi backpedalling as usual. His speech up to this point was acting like he was upset at people hating lies (even though nobody does and he was really just throwing a tantrum because they’re refusing to believe his one extremely obstructive lie here), but now he’s turning around and claiming that actually this is fine, he’s not upset about anything at all and never was!

Kokichi:  “Okay, fine! I’ll tell you if you wanna know that badly. Consider this my revenge.”

Gonta:  “Revenge?”

Yeah, revenge. Aside from his massive trust issues and pathological conviction that everyone is secretly a terrible person, the other force that drives most of Kokichi’s actions in this story is his desire for petty, vindictive revenge against people he feels have wronged him in some way. That’s why he’s doing this entire elaborate scheme to eventually try and beat Monokuma at his own game, which getting Miu and Gonta killed here is only the first step in.

Kokichi:  “You got some balls lying to me. I’m gonna take away your fun for pissing me off, Shuichi. I won’t let you do any detective work, or deduction, or mystery solving, or anything!”

Shuichi was never here to have fun, you moron. He doesn’t care if you solve the mystery for him just so long as it’s the truth and therefore the maximum number of people can survive. You already know that he only cares about saving everyone; you’ve mentioned it before! (But of course everything’s got to be about fun, because Kokichi is obsessed with how much fun he’s very definitely totally having with this, so that must be the first thing on everyone else’s mind too, right?)

It’s also ridiculously hypocritical of him that he’s so annoyed at Shuichi lying to him. When that’s what Kokichi does all the time. When he was just claiming that lies aren’t inherently bad if they’re told for good reasons. When during previous trials he’s tried to insist that the lies he told would help to find the culprit (even though they didn’t and Shuichi is better at using lies to reach the truth than Kokichi has ever been).

But it’s not all that surprising, because it’s been a recurring idea a few times that Kokichi can’t take what he dishes out – that things are all good when he’s doing something to other people, but when someone does the same thing to him, it’s suddenly not “fun” any more. His reaction when Gonta turned the bugs against him during the Insect Meet and Greet comes to mind, for example.

So Kokichi confesses to his plan to sabotage Miu’s murder plot with his own, including his co-operation with Monokuma. It would have been appropriate if this had been the moment where Monokuma dropped the weird pretending-to-be-depressed thing he’d been doing for the first half of this trial (or, at least, it’d have made it seem like there was some actual point to that being a thing in the first place)… but actually it’s not, because he dropped that act a little earlier for the sake of doing a pointless non-sequitur bit about Sonic the Hedgehog of all things. Why.

Monokuma:  “Kokichi and I had a “quid pro quo” relationship. Technically, that doesn’t violate the rules!”

Indeed, it doesn’t. The rules only state Monokuma can’t directly participate in a murder, but all he was doing here was essentially redoing this chapter’s motive presentation in a way more likely to make an interesting story, based on Kokichi’s suggestion. It could be argued that it’s unfair for him to present a motive in a way that clearly favours a specific person becoming blackened as a result – but all of the motives have done that.

Kokichi:  “I told you, I’m gonna get in the way by taking away the mystery-solving fun. If I can’t win this game, then I’ll make it boring for everyone! That’s my revenge!”

Yeah, except the only people who are having fun solving the mystery right now are the audience. If you wanted to take away their fun (and they really, really should be your targets for revenge right now), then you could have, I don’t know, not created a fun mystery for them to solve in the first place? Revealing the truth here may cut short the mystery-solving, but it still gives the audience an interesting story. Nothing about what’s about to happen from here is in any way boring.

In fact, the most boring outcome possible as things stand is probably for Kokichi to insist that he did it and then for everyone except Gonta to get abruptly executed, possibly without anyone ever understanding why. That’d be a hell of a frustrating rocks-fall-(nearly)-everybody-dies ending for the audience.

(Still, while he’s going about it in a terrible way, note his focus on revenge again. That’s a major thing for him.)

Kokichi:  “Well, then… The culprit is Gonta.”

So… Kokichi doesn’t want the mercy kill outcome, right? That should be self-evident, right?

If I were writing this commentary in a vacuum and had never seen any of the fandom’s thoughts on Kokichi, then I wouldn’t have even been mentioning this as we went along because it shouldn’t even be worthy of dispute, purely because of this line here. There are plenty of other parts that also support this, some of which I’ve mentioned as this case went along (he’s been deliberately leading Shuichi to the truth this whole time), some of which I brought up back when he saw the outside world (he knows it’s all a lie), and some of which will come up later. But regardless of all the other evidence, this moment alone should be more than enough to confirm it. Yet apparently there are a reasonable number of people who genuinely believe Kokichi actually wanted the mercy kill outcome, and I just… ??????????

(To be completely clear, I’m not at all upset at anyone who thinks that, just… extremely confused. I understand the desire to believe it, because it would be a pretty interesting story, but it is very clearly not the story we have here.)

I admittedly haven’t delved too deep into trying to find people’s reasons for thinking this, but there’s one argument I have seen attempting to justify this moment here. The argument is that Kokichi genuinely wanted the mercy kill up until this point, and then this was him realising that oh no, looks like it’s never going to work and Shuichi is definitely going to find the truth no matter what he does, so he might as well bail on it and move onto Plan B of pretending he’s evil so he can pretend to be the mastermind.

But if Kokichi really was going to feel and act that way, this wouldn’t be the moment to do it. Shuichi is not at all close to finding the truth right now – currently he’s zeroing in on the idea that Kokichi did it, which would be good for the plan. It’s still possible that at some point down the line Shuichi will figure out Kokichi couldn’t have murdered Miu and then use a process of elimination to point to Gonta, but that hasn’t even begun to happen yet! Now is not even remotely the time to give up! If Kokichi really, genuinely cared about protecting everyone from the despairing truth, like Gonta did so badly that he was driven to murder despite being the sweetest loveliest person ever, then there is no way he would ever give up this easily. Anyone who truly cared about this would keep on fighting for that outcome with everything they had until the last possible moment, because even the tiniest chance of success is better than the alternative.

So basically, if one does decide to take the interpretation that Kokichi cares about mercy-killing everyone to save them from the despairing truth, then he is also evidently absolutely terrible at actually following through on that desire to save everyone, because this would be him giving up not even at the first hurdle but before he’s really reached any hurdles at all.

---

[Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 4 #class trial #commentary

[ryouverua]

Trial 5 - Post-Execution

Investigation 1 / 2 - second half is where I put my own theories that I penned before playing the trial.

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Pre-Execution

;’’’) That’s a good look on you, Monokuma.

what this no i’m not crying you’re crying shUT UP

Have any other executions ended with the corpse literally landing in front of them in the trial room? I feel like this is a first???

uUM

K.... K1-b0? Buddy? Are - uh - are you okay? You’re looking a bit.... ?????

A-ARE YOU THOUGH -

Uh, okay??? So I want to go over Kaito’s execution and be upset about his death and everything but suddenly, this? This came out of nowhere??? also skldfj they took the ahoge off his sprite too omg

Crap I badly want to mourn Kaito for a while and yeah this is taking away from that but I don’t exactly want to not address K1-b0 literally BSoD-ing in front of us -

Oh! Gloating! I’m good for gloating too. Rub it in his face, Sweetcheeks. You’ve got my full backing here.

Normally I’m against kicking someone while they’re down but KICK HIM! KICK KICK KICK! I’m so down for this collective group smack-down.

Man, this Monokuma has been so much less in control and emotional than the previous Monokumas. I mean, the competition is pretty stacked - last Monokuma was literally the god of his world and an omniscient being that pervaded their entire ecosystem with one exception - but between throwing up a second motive in the first chapter, getting ‘overthrown’ by Monodam ** (even if he ‘went on vacation’ and this entire chapter, this ^ guy is barely hanging on by his teeth.

** I just realized the whole ‘Monodam takes over the killing game’ may have been bloody foreshadowing for this chapter sdlkfj

Monodam even got pushed to his limit for all of a whole chapter/killed two Monokubs and even though Kokichi didn’t directly kill them, he does have Gonta and Miu’s aka two classmate’s blood on his hands even with the most charitable look at chapter 4′s events before both Monodam and he ultimately take actions to end their own lives

this has been another mini-episode of ‘I read into things too much’

ANYWAY quietly skips over everything but the most pertinent Monokub dialogue, don’t mind me ~

Who would though, at this point? .... K1-b0, depending on what’s going on with him right now?

Shuichi is so pumped up thanks to Kaito and Kokichi’s teamwork! This has to be what Kaito was hoping for. Kokichi probably wanted to win the trial in its entirety, though...

Something about him saying ‘you’re certainly entitled to your opinion’ is incredibly grating and hilarious. It’s so.... passive-aggressive and banal? So un-Monokuma? I feel like behind the plushie, someone is pouting with their arms crossed tightly and just grumbling to themselves. They can’t even muster up a whole ~despair~ rant right now.

SWEETCHEEKS SWORE :O

I want to make a fun reference to Saimota but then I remember Kaito’s corpse is still warm on the ground a few feet away from them and I cry

LMAO IT SWITCHED TO A SILENT K1-B0 IMMEDIATELY AFTER....

K1-b0 isn’t about to like... become a killing game enforcer or something??? Like, completely flip his switch? fml this silence is dangerous

blah blah blah monokubs do their ‘cute’ schtick and I get tired of it, anyway -

oh great, it’s the sprite I blocked out of my brain up to this point

DID MONOPHANIE JUST DRAG ME

Please put away the tongue when they leave ffs

Aaah damn it, here comes the hammer. D:

Participant......... and then he mentioned about it going on for a long time, so.... a cycle...??? If Rantaro is repeating it, does that mean they’re all repeating it...??? The same sets of personalities/memories/talents, in new bodies every time or something - ? Is that an idea I should follow -

FFFF DID MONOKUMA JUST FLASH US

YES, PUN FULLY INTENDED SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE THOSE JOKES IN MIU’S ABSENCE

yeah hilariously while I was starting to think more about his statements Monokuma literally surprised me just like he surprised Shuichi and the rest of them lmao

Meanwhile Sweetcheeks is just twitching beside her, possibly even foaming at the mouth -

YEAH WHERE’S THE NEXT SET OF MEMORIES, BUDDY

anyway he talks about despair and hope again, I glare at the yellow text with tired resignation, etc

It really does sound like it’s something that’s repeating when he puts it like that, right??? And with Rantaro’s video - what is this, a test simulation of the gopher project or something?

Another wild theory appears - the original students with the talents Makoto/Hope’s Peak wanted to preserve, or for whatever reason digitized their memories/personalities/talents (think Gonta Alter-Ego) died - or were ‘hunted down’ aka the Ultimate Hunt - and in their place they pick up 16 ordinary kids to give them to, possibly by force. Or hell, maybe not, if Rantaro remembers and said something like ‘you wanted this’, though wasn’t that in regards to the killing game???  And then... they set up a simulation? Maybe? To test their viability? .... The question is who introduced Monokuma to the whole thing. Is that part of the test, or was that the cult sneaking in... and if the students really are ‘easily replaceable’, are they just picking up new ordinary kids as replacements? Are they looking for an outcome where they can defeat Monokuma? If this is a simulation, does it operate under the same rules as the NeoWorld program, where they die in real life?

Eeh... not sure how I feel about this. It feels like it has holes still. 8′D

ffffffff

!!!!!!

Aaaaw....

I mean I think we knew after the deductions in the first chapter but yes, mastermind confirmed - ! And -

WHAT

NO

WHAT

NO

WHAT

N O

W H A T

please go away

I-I MEAN... YOU REALLY DON’T.... HAVE TO...

BANGS HEAD AGAINST WALL

asdlkfjsdl why junko WHY MUST YOU BE BACK

So I was going to put this at the end of the post but then A LOT OF STUFF happened at the end of the chapter and it... doesn’t really fit there....

Okay... t-there is a second option. I mean, Junko could really be back for the third (fourth? do Shiro/Kurokuma in UDG count?) time and I really hope that isn’t the case fff - but ‘Junko’ facing away from us for a reason, right? Which means it could be someone dressed as her, right? Even if it did sound like her seiyuu...

But out of everyone left, assuming this isn’t happening at the exact same time/immediately after the trial... well, I mean, out of everyone alive, two people could be in Junko-dress right now, right? Both Maki and Tsumugi could fit, and considering we haven’t gotten to look at Tsumugi at all and her talent... I’m heavily leaning towards her.

..... except.................. cospox though. Crap. Hmm....

I think... I could maybe follow up on some of the speculating I made in this post? About Junko being elevated to a larger-than-life figure in history? Maybe there’s some leeway in there, in the same way that we have historical figures that end up being featured prominently in fiction, or even become warped/satirized in various ways because they’re so removed from us in our current time... and perhaps Junko has become more than a person in that same way, or even more than that, a title/role that can be inherited and passed down? Is it possible to get around cospox that way? It would fit in with her early Chapter 1 comments - let me see if I can dig them up from my old posts - ah this one, here, if you want to look at it. i also am totally into what she’s saying if you’re wondering why I remember this so well lmao

If she is from the cult... and this is a parallel to Angie, who constantly spoke about being a conduit for Atua’s message, Korekiyo, who was just a vessel for his sister according to himself, and Kaito, who literally acted in Kokichi’s place............. maybe....... this could work........... ????

...... except I don’t know if it’s enough of a stretch to get around this. I MEAN. MAYBE IT IS. MAYBE. I could just be stretching reeeeeeally far in order to avoid an inevitable Junko returning. maybe i just want to see the power of the ultimate cosplayer since it’s a hobby so dear to my heart idek

Whelp it doesn’t matter the scene is moving on without me anyway so 8′D

FUCK NO MORE TRAINING TIME OR TRAINING JOKES OR STUPID TITLES FOR THE TRAINING POSTS THIS IS THE WORST TIMELINE

Man I really love the close connections Shuichi has to people in this game. Maybe that’s why I’ve been enjoying it so much? He recognizes his classmates and what they have to offer, sure - but he’s a regular kid. He’s got his favoured connections, and the people whose deaths he feels more powerfully than the others, and the reactions he has to everything around him... well, maybe that’s my own bias because they really resonate with me. I don’t usually have much of an interest for audience surrogate characters (I don’t dislike them, I just, you know, don’t adore them or anything) but - and I know now that this is a divisive topic - I really like Shuichi’s personality. I really do. And I think he has one. He’s a quiet guy - he keeps most of his thoughts on the inside - and I get that for a lot of people, quiet = no personality, but the way he has responded to a lot of the situations that have come up previously have both been different than what I’m used to seeing from ‘protagonist’ characters and, erm, pretty... familiar to me personally and that has been a bit of a shock tbh. seriously what’s with this - same birthday, same blood-type, same hobbies, likes and dislikes, same Best Boy, etc....

I’m not sure where this tangent is going tbh, but I guess I’m sorta gearing up for next chapter? We don’t have many people left to work with. 8′D Kaito’s gone, Kokichi is gone, and all we have left are a collection of differing quiet personalities. It’s going to be very, very different, that’s for sure.

“Oh yeah I forgot this turned into a group activity like, three sessions in.”

“I mean, you did too by poisoning them both, but that’s neither here nor there.”

I am being a bit harsh on her though - to her credit, she seemed initially confused about why he was blaming himself (despite him repeating all the things she said to him during the beginning of the trial). There’s no one left to connect them now and she seems to have realized that - they’re going to have to finally do the heavy work themselves.

Like Chapter 4 Maki, I feel like she’s speaking in that same roundabout way she did when asking about Shuichi’s interest in Kaede. “Are you lonely too?” or even, “do you need someone to talk to/be with who understands how you feel?” She still has a lot of trouble being forthright but it’s great that she’s taking the initiative, especially after her earlier confession.

I hate to say it, but I think Shuichi may have ended up in a similar state as Ryoma after Chapter 1 if he was left spinning his own wheels...

Solidarity. 8′/

!!! 

For all the things that he did... fml I can’t think of anything better. He spent so much of his time trying to bring you both out of your shells!

I wonder if Shuichi is including his entire class in there. It was only a few days ago that Kokichi said he considered them all friends too. Also Korekiyo hilariously enough

omg they’re still so painfully awkward but it’s so sad and relatable and they’re trying to start building a bridge without Kaito acting as their support...

Ooh! This is the first time they’ve been approached aside from Tenko in Chapter 3, right?

Aaaw he’s so happy to see them. 8′)

YES!!! New team training! New team training!

Yes this is exactly what they need to do after the trial! They need to stick together! ... Now where the hell is K1-b0???

quietly skips over Tsumugi telling us we won’t lose to despair because I am stubbornly clinging to the time before hope/despair was brought back up -

- Sweetcheeks why

so much goddamn hope

But I’ll allow it because it’s leading to an overdue cheesy friendship speech and after the tragedy of chapter 5 I need that right now.

Though... hm. I was sort of hoping Shuichi and Maki could hash out some of her actions in the last trial, or Maki would offer some kind of apology. Would that have happened if they weren’t interrupted?

Yeeessss new image! I love it! Also lmao Himiko maybe you’d manage to finish one if you took the big bulky hat off...

Good - a commitment to keep living is important, especially from Shuichi. Now the majority of you are carrying someone’s wish, huh... except Tsumugi, unless you count Gonta maybe. I figure Miu could count for K1-b0, though I guess that’s a bit of a stretch too?

fuck my heart had been ripped out and stomped on, especially with the flashback to third chapter training:

.... See you, Space Cowboy.

Now fade to bla -

..... Huh.

I’m glad one of you is concerned after what happened. 8′/ I’ll excuse Shuichi and Maki because they have every right to be distracted by grief but between you and Himiko you couldn’t keep an eye on him?

Because seriously, none of them know where he is. And there is no way that’s a good thing.

BUT SOLIDARITY!!! also robophobic!!!

Well that’s an ominous way to end the chapte - oh never mind it’s not over??? What, three ‘epilogues’ this time? Not that I’m complaining because I’m happy to extend the trial for as long as necessary but jeez -

K.... K1-b0???

It was lost after the accident??? So it wasn’t just programming... a... a transmission then? So it really was some sort of antenna...

Wait that makes it sound like you weren’t just using it for guidance but actually being controlled by it?!

More hope and despair references -

Music change???

Wait, dude, what do you mean by that -

What

WAIT WHAt ARE THOSE TURBOBOOSTERS

HE CAN FLY?!?!

UM EXCUSE ME WHERE DID THIS COME FROM

Kokichi was dying to see all of these cool functions and only now when he’s literally dead do you show them off? RUDE

WAIT WHAT THE FUCK K1-B0 THERE ARE STILL LIVING STUDENTS DOWN THERE

MISSILES TOO -

OH WOW UM OKAY THIS WAS NOT THE QUIET CONTEMPLATIVE END-OF-CHAPTER SCENE I THOUGHT WE’D BE GETTING DEAR LORD

dON’T YOU ‘END TITLE’ CARD ME, GAME

a;sdlkfja

i

i forgot this

happened at the end of the

chapter

oh god

skldfj

ugh, ghghhgh

cool thanks sweetcheeks and I will cherish this forever,,,

...

assuming he survives long enough to

#Ryou plays drv3 #Shuichi Saihara #Maki Harukawa #Kiibo #Keebo #K1-b0 #Kaito Momota #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #Himiko Yumeno #Tsumugi Shirogane

[whatarubberchicken]

Day 7: Teamwork

@mlrarepairmarch 

Barely made it on time! (I’ve been distracted.) Less romance than interaction for these two, but I wanted to explore this little headcanon of mine a bit. Spoilers, of course, for those still attempting to not watch season 2 until it comes out on Netflix.

Pairing: Carapace/Rena Rouge (I still like Jade Fox for this ship’s name!)

“Is this really necessary, LB?” Rena whined as Ladybug secured the cuff to her wrist.

“Absolutely,” Ladybug replied, stepping back to observe her handiwork, “you two have been at each other’s throats since Day One.”

“He hasn’t been here since Day One!” Rena protested, “but he thinks he can just waltz right in and tell me what to do—!”  

“I made a few suggestions on how you could focus more on the mission,” Carapace argued, also shifting around the cuff uncomfortably. “It’s not my fault you flipped out—”

“Flipped out??”

“You two are only proving my point,” Ladybug said, rolling her eyes. As soon as her Lucky Charm had turned into a set of handcuffs, she’d known exactly what to do. “And I’m not letting you go until you learn how to work together.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Carapace groaned. “Chat, buddy, help a brother out, man!”

“Sorry, Shelly,” Chat grinned down from his perch, “but our fearless leader has spoken.”

“Dude. Uncool. Remember? Bros before—” Carapace quickly cut himself off, catching Ladybug’s unamused glare. Her eyebrow slowly rose, just daring him to finish that statement. “—beautiful, strong, superheroes with our best interests at heart?” he finished weakly.

Rena Rouge snorted. “Nice save, Shelly.”

“I told you, my name is Carapace,” he snapped back at her.

“Whatever you say, ninja turtle boy.”

“Enough!” Ladybug shouted. She rubbed her temples to fend off another headache. “Chat, where’s the akuma?”

“Looks like Road Rage set up camp at the Arc de Triomphe,” Chat called, peering out from the top of the cell tower, where he’d been tracking the villain while Ladybug ‘took care of’ their wayward teammates. “And her speed bump minions are still roaming up and down the Champs-Elysées chasing cars. Lots of accidents.”

“Ok, here’s the plan,” Ladybug said. “Chat, you’re with me against Road Rage.”

“Whoot!”

“Rena, you distract the minions with an illusion of cars they can chase. Try to keep them away from the real civilians.”

“Gotcha!”

“Carapace, you guard her and make sure none of the minions come after her to break the illusion.”

“I think I’d be better off with you and Chat, shielding you guys from the actual akuma,” Carapace grumbled.

“Hey! Are you saying I’m not good enough to defend our beautiful Lady?” Chat cried, bounding down beside Ladybug.

“Well, if it’s a stick vs. a shield—”

“You all have your assignments,” Ladybug barked, grabbing Chat by the bell before he could argue more. “Go!”

They scattered. –Or, Rena and Carapace attempted to scatter, only to be painfully reminded that they were stuck together at the wrist. They glared at each other for a moment, then reluctantly took off in the opposite direction as Chat and Ladybug.

Carapace grit his teeth underneath his hood, barely restraining himself from just suddenly stopping and jerking his hand backwards. Rena Rouge had practically been dragging him the whole way. Even with Miraculous armor, his arm was gonna be sore later.

“Would you slow down??” he huffed at her, finally using his weight to pull her to a stop. “You can see the damn minions from here, just play them a tune and be done with it already!”

“If I do it here, I’ll be too far away to take any of them out if something goes wrong!!” Rena snarled back.

He resisted the urge to strangle her and instead shot her a dry stare. “They are literally bumps of asphalt that move around under the street, trying to chase and flip cars. What are you gonna do? Whack ‘em with your flute??”

“If I have to!!”

Carapace facepalmed. “Why did I get stuck with a stubborn idiot??” he moaned to no-one in particular.

“I am not an idiot!!” Rena growled.

“Then use your brain!!”

The glare she leveled at him could’ve made lesser men cry. But him? Ha. Nino dealt with Alya on a regular basis, and she was ten times scarier than this girl.

As it was, Rena pulled out her flute, still glaring at him. “C’mon,” she said, her voice lower, but still wound tight. “I need to get closer.”

Before Carapace could protest, Rena threw herself off the building, obviously intending to dive down to the street below.

“NO!!” with a shout, Carapace threw himself backwards, scrambling to grab the edge of the roof with his free hand, while jerking his stupid partner back towards the safety of the building.

The result: they both yelped, went flying, and landed in a heap on the side of the road.

“You jerk!” Rena squealed, trying to untangle herself from him. “What’d you do that for??”

“What part of ‘these things have to stay inside the street’ did you miss??” he shouted back.

She gave him a strange look. “We’re not cars, Donatello,” she pointed out. “They won’t come… after….”

She trailed off as they both heard the tell-tale rumbling of one of the minions. Sure enough, they both looked over to see one large bump of asphalt headed straight for them.

“…us.”

Rena and Carapace took off running for the nearest building.

“Your deductive skills could use some work!!” Carapace yelled.

“That offends me on a personal level!!” Rena shouted back.

“Watch it—watch it!” Carapace cried. He stepped in between Rena and their attacker. “SHIELD!” Instantly, his magical forcefield sprang into existence, surrounding them in a protective dome of green. The racing bump bounced off it harmlessly. To Carapace’s dismay, however, it kept coming back for more, bouncing off the shield again and again. He grit his teeth.

“My shield’s not gonna last, foxy! Do it now!!”

In response, his arm was jerked up and he heard the haunting melody of Rena’s flute.

“MIRAGE!” she cried.

Instantly, the street around them seemed to fill up with cars. Carapace blinked and had to remind himself that it was an illusion. But he could see them all so clearly! And he could feel the vibrations under his feet, and almost smell the exhaust…

Wait, were those vibrations real?

“C’mon, Donatello, we gotta go!” Rena said urgently. He gave her a bewildered look and she sighed before explaining. “The more lifelike I make the illusions, the closer I have to be to them. In order to make the ground actually vibrate so the minions could ‘see’ the ‘cars,’ I needed to make the illusion right here! Which means we’re gonna have all of Road Rage’s minions come over here—” she looked around them, “—oh, right about now.”

Carapace didn’t need any more urging. He dropped his forcefield so he could move. “Up on the building! Jump, now!!”

They jumped together, just as three of the speed bump minions crashed into the space they’d just occupied. Asphalt flew everywhere.

They landed in a pile of limbs again (he wasn’t used to just how strong Rena was), but at least they were off the ground and safe.

Carapace flopped onto his back and took a deep breath. Beside him, Rena laid down too. But after a moment, she started giggling.

“Not bad for a stubborn idiot, huh?” she asked lightly, her tone teasing. He turned his head to grin at her.

“Not bad,” he acknowledged. It might not be the amount of teamwork Ladybug ultimately wanted from them, but at least they’d been able to work together! Rena beamed at him and sat up.

“And you were pretty cool there too,” she allowed, “thanks for saving my butt.”

Carapace chuckled and barely—barely caught the butt joke he’d been about to make. He quickly bit his tongue. Crap! What the Hell?! He wasn’t with Alya! He couldn’t flirt with this girl!! He flushed and glanced over at her.

“An-anytime,” he said, suddenly feeling awkward. She noticed his blush and quickly looked away herself.

“We-well, let’s go find the Bug and get ourselves free,” she suggested, tugging him up once more.

Carapace allowed it, scrambling to his feet. Anything to break the new awkward tension between them.

“Knowing Chat, she’s gonna need our help anyways,” he agreed. They took off together.

WaRC

P.S. If you’ve seen Tremors, that’s kinda what I was going for with the minions.

#mlrarepair2018 #rena rouge #carapace #djwifi #jade fox #teamwork #ml season 2 #ml spoilers

[arthurchaueportfolio2020]

Week 5

The group of me, Peter, Troy and Aidan worked really well together. There was a feeling there that no one was afraid to speak up, voice their opinions and tell each other what they really think and that’s really important in a group assignment. We made a Facebook messenger chat which allowed us to communicate with each other when were not in class and we also had two sets of google documents, one for the PowerPoint and one for brainstorming ideas. The google documents were really helpful as it allowed every member of the group to edit in real time other team members work. We also were able to work efficiently all the way up to deadline times and felt that every group member was motivated enough to complete the assignment on time with full effort being put in to try and avoid a 5% deduction. From our peer review one of the negatives were that some of us in the group seemed like they were talking a bit too fast and that’s something I keep aware of every time I do an oral presentation. There were positives we did take from it though which were that the presentation was really well put together and from my part that a peer reviewer recognized some of the comparisons I talked about and thought it was a great overview of the problem with relation to other faces of the AFL world. These peer reviews I find are really important for me to hopefully better myself for other presentations and more specifically oral presentations

“effective teamwork promotes patient safety and high-quality care, how behaviours can influence teamwork, the barriers to effective communication and tools that can help improve communication.”

This was evident in our group where everyone was very patient with each other and no one interrupted anyone else which created great communication in our group

Rogers, C 2015,’Communication’, Nursing Standard, vol. 30, no.8, viewed 4 May 2020, ProQuest Database

https://search-proquest com.ezproxy.holmesglen.edu.au/docview/1727438099?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo