#I really feel like I'm finally somewhat winning at life

[woso-dreamzzz]

Kid

Arsenal Women x Teen!Reader

Summary: You join Arsenal Women at age sixteen

Moving to England hadn't exactly been your plan when you started to play football.

To be honest, there hadn't been a plan at all, seeing as you were four when your parents first signed you up for your local academy in Sweden. It was just an excuse to keep you out of the house, so your parents didn't have to take time off work to look after you when school finished.

It helped that your school was partnered with the academy so a representative would come and walk all the academy students there and back.

Football may have been a convenience but it was clear to everyone that you were somewhat of a prodigy. Linköping Fc signed you as soon as they could, forcing you to make the move from your tiny town to the city.

Your parents were more than happy to finance the move - the kind of parents that happily parent from a distance but brag to all of their friends about how smart, how talented their daughter was.

You were happy to be rid of them.

You were even happier to get the callup for the National Team for the World Cup.

Your chest thudded in your throat when you received the call. You hadn't thought you would get the call-up, not when you were so young, so you had been at a café with some of your school friends when your phone rang.

You had picked it up absentmindedly and almost passed out from shock when Peter revealed he wanted you on the team.

The World Cup came and went and the bronze medal you won stayed with you. You had flat-out refused to give it over to your parents, who wanted to put it in the trophy cabinet in a house you no longer lived in.

The high of the World Cup bled into the high of getting a call to sign for Arsenal.

You hadn't even really thought about it.

You just accepted.

Which was how you had gotten here, rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet as you waited for Stina to lock her car and walk in with you.

●～●～●～●～

You couldn't help but look at your jersey in awe. Your number combined with your last name on the back of an Arsenal jersey felt like a dream come true.

"There she is," Amanda said when you finally wandered into the meeting room, free from media duty. She pushed out a chair that was clearly meant for you at the table she was sitting at.

You sat in the seat awkwardly, suddenly feeling shy and awkward.

"This is y/n," Amanda said to the others, presenting you to them like you were someone really exciting.

"Hi, y/n. I'm Jen."

You didn't tell her that you already knew who she was, who they all were. You just sat there and let everyone introduce themselves to you because that was the polite thing to do.

"Hi."

"You're young, aren't you?" Asked Kim, even though you knew that she probably already knew that.

You nodded though. "Yeah." Your voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm sixteen."

"But she's a superstar." It was nice of Amanda to butt in. It saved you from having to speak.

"I think we know that," McCabe said with an eye roll," I think we all saw that match-winning goal against Australia."

You winced slightly as you snuck a glance to McCabe's other side where Catley sat, the very defender that you megged before scoring your goal.

Your eyes widened in horror when she made eye contact. "Sorry." You looked down at your lap, hiding your shaking hands under the table.

"Don't sweat it, kid," Catley replied with an easy grin," No hard feelings. It was a good call." She smirked at you. "Though, the deer in headlights look you had after it went in was pretty funny."

Laughter rang out through the group and you relaxed marginally, groaning at the reminder. Everyone you knew had sent that picture to you and you knew for a fact that it was still circulating the internet as a meme.

●～●～●～●～

It was easy to settle into life at Arsenal.

You were still shy and awkward off the pitch but you fit in well with the other girls and Lina, Stina and Amanda were always ready to sweep you away when they noticed you getting too overwhelmed.

Somewhere along the way Catley became Steph and McCabe became Katie.

You weren't really sure when that happened but it was a welcome change from when you first joined.

"Come on, kid. You've been studying too much," Katie said as an arm dragged you away from your laptop to where the others were playing FIFA.

You were dumped between Less and Vic while Lina laughed.

"She's always studying."

You rolled your eyes. "Just because you don't have to go to school anymore, doesn't mean that I don't."

"Online school isn't really school," Cloe said before swearing when Gio scored another goal," It's like...school without the deadlines."

"Except the deadline is before Christmas," You replied with a huff," I have essays to write, Katie! Let me go!"

"Don't let her go, girls," Katie said from where she was curled up with Caitlin.

Alessia mockingly saluted as she bracketed you in her arms while Vic pinned down your legs.

"Less! Vic!" You squawked as you tried to wiggle away from them.

Their holds were unrelenting and made even worse when Kyra popped up out of nowhere, digging her fingers into your side and tickling you like you had personally offended her or something.

"Stop! Stop!" You laughed, tears running down your face as Kyra remained unrelenting. "Cait-Caitlin! Caitlin, help!"

Caitlin looked at you thoughtfully, humming to herself before giving you a faux look of sympathy. "Sorry, y/n, I can't. You see, I'm still holding a grudge against you for grabbing that bronze medal." She winked to let you know she was joking.

"Oh, come on!"

●～●～●～●～

It took you nearly two weeks of being in London to meet the ACL squad and it was only because Kathrine slid in for a tackle at the wrong time and hit your ankle.

You hadn't even been on the ground for that long but it was enough that Jonas sent Gio to take you to the physios to get it taped up with an extremely apologetic Kathrine following after you.

"I'm so sorry," She was saying when Gio shepherded you into the room," I'll make up for it. How does one of those big jelly baby packs sound?"

"I'm not allowed to eat them," You replied," Stina said that they'll rot my teeth."

"Fine, fine, I'll think of something. How about dinner? I'll buy you dinner for your cheat day. Just tell me when."

You rolled your eyes, having no intention of doing so but still nodded.

"What's up with all this commotion?"

You had to admit, seeing Leah Williamson in person made you feel a little starstruck and you immediately retreated into yourself.

Gio jerked her thumb at Kathrine. "Kuhl hurt the kid and seeing as we need the kid, Jonas wants her ankle taped."

"My ankle's fine," You said stubbornly but allowed a physio to usher you onto the bed between Goldie and Wienriother. You gave them both one of your trademark awkward smiles as you let the physio pull off your boot and socks.

You didn't want to look at your ankle, already knowing it was bruised by the way that you saw Goldie wince sympathetically at you while the physio moved away to grab some ice.

"That looks nasty," She said," Does it hurt?"

"Not too bad."

"I'm Teyah, by the way."

"y/n."

"I know." She smiled at you. "It's nice that there's someone younger than me and Naomi now."

You looked down bashfully. "Happy to be of service."

Next to you, Weinriother laughed. "Don't mind Teyah, she's just glad no one will call her kid anymore. I'm Laura, by the way."

"And I'm Beth!" She leaned over Laura to shake your hand before indicating to where her girlfriend was being worked on. "That's Viv, she's a little prickly sometimes but if you ever need some peace and quiet, I'm sure she wouldn't mind you sitting with her."

You nodded, still feeling a little awkward even though the tension had disappeared.

"You're living with Stina, right?" Leah asked," How's that going?"

"Good," You replied, focussed on the way that the physio was moving your ankle," She lets me play music on the speakers while I study."

Leah laughed. "I live right round the corner. If you ever need a break, feel free to pop in. I reckon I'm more fun than Stina anyway."

●～●～●～●～

You hated asking for help.

You hated it even more when you had to ask for help on schoolwork.

You were smart. You knew you were smart. If there were two things that a lack of parents in your life gave you, it was excellent football skills and the ability to solve your own problems.

But this maths section in your textbook was causing you more pain than a Katie tackle in training ever could.

You glanced around the room. The media room was almost always empty at this time of day - the two and a half hour window between morning training and the gym session.

Almost everyone lived close so headed back home to rest before coming back. Stina had asked if you wanted to head back home with her but you decided not to, needing to finish your maths homework.

Lina had asked if you wanted her to drop you off on her way to her own place as well but you didn't relent.

You hunkered down in the media room with your textbook and, after just over an hour, your eyes stung like you hadn't slept in three days.

You glanced around again and finally swallowed your pride.

"Frida?" You asked the least intimidating person in the room," Can you help me?"

She looked up from her phone. "What is it?" She dragged your textbook towards her. "Oh! I can help!"

Despite her optimism, within a few seconds, it became clear that Frida could absolutely not help you. The more she read through your problems, the deeper her frown got until she was holding a pencil between her fingers and mouthing the question to herself as if that would help her understand.

She looked positively ill when she looked up at you before she cleared her throat. "Lia? Do you know how to do fancy algebra?"

Lia, from across the room, sighed as she approached. "I used to be quite good at algebra," She boasted," What's the problem?"

"Algebra," You deadpanned, shoving the textbook and your notepad at her," Help."

To her credit, she got further than Frida did, jotting down her working out before falling at the last hurdle - just like you did. She frowned. "Give me a second."

She rewrote all of her work but still ended up stumped at the same place as before.

"Kim? Jen? How were you at maths in school?"

Kim and Jen tried to help as well but it was like the blind leading the blind. You were going around in circles.

"When are you going to need this in life?" Kim said, drawing a line through her most reason equation and sighing.

"Unless you want to be an engineer, never." Jen sighed and flipped the book shut. "You don't want to be an engineer, do you, kid?"

"I'm happy playing football."

●～●～●～●～

If you weren't doing schoolwork at every spare moment, it was safe to say that you napping.

Back at National Camp, it wasn't uncommon to find you curled up in bed or with your head in Frido's lap while everyone watched a movie.

It seemed that your need to nap every moment you weren't occupied had carried over to England.

It got a little embarrassing the first few times you had been caught napping in the communal space. It was even worse when you woke up to Viv staring down at you with an unreadable look on her face, taking in your form curled up under your travel blanket.

You had smiled nervously as she stood in front of you, unmoving.

When Beth appeared through the door a moment later, Viv shushed her sternly and tucked your blanket up over your shoulders again, taking a seat nearby with a book.

Beth, it seemed, hadn't been able to keep her mouth shut about it so your constant naps had just become an expected thing and, after Leah had accidentally woken you up and gotten yelled at by Viv for it, the team tended to just leave you alone.

You were slightly delirious and warm when you woke up from your nap, eyes fluttering open and then shut again.

The low murmur of chatter let you know that contrary to when you started your nap, you were now no longer alone.

You were still quite confused, brain still thick with sleep, but you could recognise Sabrina's Canadian-accented English so you gathered that the keepers had finished their morning practice and had found you asleep in the media room.

You also recognised that your head was now slightly elevated so one of them must have moved your head into their lap while you slept. That was nice. Sometimes you would wake up with a crook in your neck from sleeping on the beat-up sofa that Leah swore she was one bad back away from replacing herself.

Your eyes fluttered open again, blearily blinking.

Across from you, Naomi laughed. "The kid's awake."

"I'm not a kid," You said stubbornly even though you were," You're not that much older than me."

"Still older," Naomi replied.

Next to her, Sabrina laughed.

That meant that Manu was sitting with you, your head in her lap. She laughed as well, jolting you slightly as you clutched your travel blanket tighter around your body.

You yawned.

"How long until gym?"

"Hour and a bit," Came Manu's answer.

You hummed and yawned a second time.

"Don't tell me you're going back to sleep," Sabrina said.

"Fine. I won't tell you."

●～●～●～●～

You spent the first few matches stuck on the bench.

You were young and not as experienced as your teammates so it made sense that you would be stuck there for the time being. Besides, it made you feel a little bit better that Kyra was stuck on the bench as well so you had someone who acted younger than you to muck around with.

"Chin up," Laia said with a grin, an arm thrown over your shoulder as she walked onto the pitch with you for warmups," You're starting today. Aren't you excited?"

"You look more excited than me," You replied a little sourly," I...I feel a little sick if I'm honest."

"You'll do great."

"So long as you tie your boots correctly and don't trip," Noelle said in way of greeting.

Your cheeks lit up in flames instantly at the reminder of training a few days ago when Beth had snuck up behind you and made a stupid sound in your ear. You had jumped into the air in shock and your laces weren't tied correctly so you tripped over your own feet and went tumbling to the ground in a way that made you look clumsier than Alessia.

"Don't be mean," Lotte chastised as the four of you passed a ball around," y/n knows how to properly tie her laces." She sent you a teasing smile and a shrug. "Besides, I'm sure she'll have some of the older girls lining up to make sure they're done properly."

You huffed as you kicked the ball back to her. You spun on your heel. "You're all mean," You declared," I'm gonna warm up with Vic and Less."

●～●～●～●～

The ninety minutes of your debut match were gruelling.

The ball went back and forth between the teams. Every shot that went in was equalised quickly. Everyone was growing tired, especially when five minutes of extra time was awarded and Katie was one dirty tackle away from earning herself a yellow card.

You took a moment to catch your breath, pulling up your socks before breaking into a sprint.

The opposing team's defence was in shambles and you could see their goalkeeper getting antsy.

A long ball from Katie fell neatly into Alessia's feet and she began her run.

You followed after her quickly as the opposing defence broke their line. It was carnage for a moment as you both approached the box.

The goalkeeper came off her line ever so slightly as the defence mobbed Alessia, who passed quickly to you.

Your foot moved automatically as you chipped the ball over the goalkeeper's head and into the back of the net.

Your instincts got you the goal so when your brain finally caught up, you were sporting the same look on your face as the one you had when you won against Australia.

The final whistle rang out as you stood there in shock.

Half a moment later, the team crashed into you.

Less made it to you first, pulling you in for a tight hug before everyone else converged on you.

You felt a bit like a dog, with the amount of head pats you were receiving but the blinding smile on your face more than made up for it - especially when Viv meandered over and gave you a hug and congratulations.

"Come on, l/n!" Katie cheered as she dragged you through the victory lap. "Party tonight! I'll pay for the drinks!"

"She's sixteen," Lina reminded her.

"I didn't say we had to go out to a pub! It's legal for sixteen-year-olds to drink at home! What do you say, kid?"

You laughed. "Good luck getting Stina to agree."

#woso x reader #arsenal wfc x reader #arsenal wfc #arsenal x reader #woso community #woso #woso imagine #woso fanfics

[steventhusiast]

steve as an autistic person with ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) TW: disordered eating, internalised ableism

--

moving in with eddie is the best decision steve ever made. he wouldn't change the decision for anything, he loves eddie and he loves sharing his life with him.

but.

now that the move is over, he finds himself hiding away from eddie a lot, cheeks flushed red with shame or embarrassment when he gets caught with one of his meals. it's hard to explain, but his relationship with food is... rocky to say the least.

it's always been that way, ever since he can remember, but it was easier to handle when he was younger. being a picky eater is cute up to a certain point, but eventually steve's mom had stopped chuckling at him spitting out new foods she got him to try, had stopped comforting him when he cried because he didn't know what he wanted to eat. but even when his mom would reprimand him for his pickiness, she would still help without knowing. she would decide what meals he would eat, and when, and that took so much off his shoulders.

because everything about food is overwhelming for steve. the choices, the textures, the preparation and cooking, the sensation of the food sitting in his stomach. so it was nice, for the choices to be taken care of, and for the preparation and cooking to be done for him.

and then his parents started going on their business trips when he was twelve, and suddenly food was something he had to be in charge of.

with no guidance, and a lot of anxiety, he developed some eating rituals that he knows aren't healthy, aren't good for him, but it's all he can manage.

so he hides from eddie. because hiding away while he eats his childish safe meal (cheese sandwich with an apple cut meticulously into slices and a single storebought cookie) twice a day as he adjusts to the change from living alone to living with his boyfriend, is better than eddie seeing how badly he handles being an adult.

eddie lets him get away with it at first, because he understands steve's anxiety around big changes to an extent. but after a bit, eating alone clearly takes somewhat of a toll on him, because he seeks steve out three weeks after they've moved in together.

it's 5:20pm, so steve is having his sandwich, apple slices, and cookie hidden away in the spare room they've turned into a shared study. it's not that every single day that meal is all he eats, but for the past few weeks he's been anxiety ridden at the changes happening, and it's all he's been able to manage. today, he's bravely added some roast chicken to the sandwich and counts it as a win.

when eddie quietly pushes open the door, steve flushes red with shame. the meal isn't even that bad, that obviously a bad sign without knowing it's all he's been able to eat recently, but the second eddie's eyes land on the plate and all the food that's kept distinctly separated on it steve hears his mom's voice in his head, nagging him about nutrition and being childish and immature and pathetic.

"you gonna tell me why you're always eating in here, sweetheart?" eddie asks after a few moments of watching steve, and steve sags in the desk chair a little. he doesn't really know how to explain.

but he looks up at eddie's face, meets his eyes for the few seconds he can bare it, and sees only earnest concern on his boyfriend's face. he tries to find the words for it anyway, talks in stuttered half-sentences as he pushes the food around on the plate. eddie doesn't talk until he's done.

"it's just.. it's embarrassing. i hate that i'm like this. i'm twenty years old, i should be able to handle taking care of myself." he finishes, and finally takes a bite of his sandwich. he winces at the new texture introduced by the chicken, but is hyperaware of eddie's eyes on him, so he forces it down. he feels like he has to prove to himself that he can eat it.

"good thing you don't have to handle that alone anymore." eddie says simply, and takes a couple steps toward the desk, pulling up the spare office chair from where it usually sits in the corner so he can sit by steve.

"what?" steve asks, brows furrowed.

"we're a team now, stevie. and if food is.. hard for you, then i can try and help. we can- we can set goals at the beginning of the week, an ideal meal plan, and then i can take care of the cooking and keep it to similar times each day, and you just have to worry about the eating part." eddie's always been good at coming up with plans on the spot, but hearing him brainstorm how he can help steve makes tears well up in steve's eyes for some reason.

"that'd be.. that'd be really nice, eds." he says softly, makes himself take another bite of his sandwich.

"great. food can be my thing, and washing the dishes can be yours, 'kay? just the thought of touching food in the sink makes me wanna gag." eddie pats steve's arm gently as he talks, and steve blinks away the overwhelmed tears as a smile creeps onto his face. god, he loves eddie so much.

"deal." he whispers, and gets a smile in response.

eddie leans over to press a kiss to his shoulder, and watches him suffer through two more bites of his sandwich before making another suggestion.

"why don't we go watch tv while you eat, hm? take your mind off it?"

and the suggestion sounds good, reminds steve that he doesn't have to hide in the study anymore to eat. so he gets up, picks up his plate, and follows eddie out to the living room.

leaving the study feels like a big moment, and taking a bite of the sandwich on the couch instead of the office chair feels like an even bigger one.

but eddie's right next to him, murmuring commentary about the random tape they'd put on into his ear to keep his mind off of the task ahead of him.

so it's not quite as scary.

-

part 2 / part 3

#autistic steve harrington #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie ficlet #steddie drabble #stranger things #mywriting #defo not me projecting insanely onto steve #i wish i had an eddie to help me #cw disordered eating

[blooming-dahlia]

Could I request MC!reader giving a rockstar performance for the VDC contest? Rockstar as in their singing and performance blew everyone's's socks off. I'd like to see Pomefiore's reaction (emphasis on S/O Rook).

Especially at the end of the VDC while they're super disappointed they didn't win, at the same time they explained it felt like they were truly living and alive.

(Song sung: Empire by Shakira)

Having Fun Is More Important Than Winning [Pomefiore, Rook Hunt x MC!Reader]

╰ At first you weren't sure if you really wanted to participate in the VDC. You knew that if you won by some kind of miracle, NRC would count it as a big success.

╰ Yet you were afraid of Vil's reaction. After all, he and his team had been preparing for this event for a long time already, and you were always there supporting them during the several hours of intense rehearsals. How would the boys feel if, out of nowhere, you jumped on the stage and surprised them with your solo performance?

╰ Finally, you realized that you had nothing to lose. For such a long time you had wanted to show others what you were capable of, but there had never been a chance to do so. The members of the Light Music Club were the only people aware of your talent, and they even insisted that you should perform at the VDC.

╰ “I'm sorry, Vil.” You whispered to yourself and then, after fixing the strand of hair that had fallen across your forehead, you made your way towards the stage.

╰ Everyone fell silent when you started singing somewhat uncertainly, while your friends were watching the whole performance from backstage.

╰ Vil didn't think it was anything but a terrible joke. The song was especially slow and boring. He didn't say that you can't sing at all, on the contrary. The thing is, there's no way you could win a contest like VDC with your depressing ballad.

╰ Epel, on the other hand, seemed to be enchanted by your vocals, he also admired you for your bravery. He thought he could even do a solo performance just to annoy Vil a little.

╰ Most impressed, however, was Rook. So far, he thought Neige's performance before yours was the best of the evening. But then you took the stage and stole the show with your voice. Rook had been interested in you for some time already. Once he discreetly asked Vil for your Magicam account and seemed a bit disappointed when he found out that you didn't have one yet. That's why he took pictures of you from behind, like a typical stalker. But this time, no picture on the phone screen could make him feel as emotional as watching you perform live.

╰ And then, you surprised everyone again. This time, when the chorus hits and in the span of only one minute, you're no longer a non-magical NRC student from another world. You are a true rockstar.

╰ The crowd was loud, much more than you could ever expect. But it didn't throw you off balance. In fact, it only boosted your confidence. The way you hit higher notes made everyone scream even louder.

╰ “Is that NRC's student from another world? The magicless one? I've never heard anyone sing so GOOD in my entire life!” Someone in the crowd could ask.

╰ Meanwhile, the whole backstage was screaming your name in awe, Ace and Deuce being the loudest ones. Even Vil smiled a little when you moved to the chorus, obviously satisfied with the sudden change. “And that's how you make an excellent show.” He said to himself in a proud tone. Epel simply nodded, surprisingly able to hear Vil's words through all the noise.

╰ And then there was Rook. He didn't shout or cheer. He just stood there and watched you, his mouth slightly open, but not a word could be heard. His focus was only on you performing. Even Vil and Neige were no match for you, Rook thought. To be honest, it was unusual for someone to be better than those two. Maybe you had no magic in your veins, but your voice was enough to enchant some people. And Rook Hunt was definitely one of them.

╰ After your performance, you simply bowed and left the stage. You didn't go backstage because you were afraid your friends would be disappointed and upset with you. You just stood outside the stage, nervously waiting for the contest to end.

╰ Royal Sword Academy has just been announced as the winner of this year's VDC contest. You should have expected this, but you were still a bit disappointed. There was no way Vil wouldn't be mad at you for ruining NRC's chances of winning.

╰ You couldn't see their faces, but you could imagine Vil gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, while everyone else just stood there in disbelief, trying not to cry or break anything backstage. Except maybe Rook, who was probably pleased with Neige's win.

╰ The said blond-haired boy standing right behind you surely wasn't something you expected to see when you turned around. He just stared at you with a sympathetic look on his face. You were confused, but quickly managed to get a few words out of your mouth.

╰ “Aren't you happy?” Only a few people knew that Rook was a big fan of Neige, and somehow you'd made it into that group. It was obvious that you would think he would be happy about this turn of events. But there was something about him that seemed off.

╰ “I would be lying if I said I wasn't pleased, but tonight I was suddenly struck by Cupid's arrow and someone else has stolen my heart and soul, Mon Ange.”

╰ A slight blush appeared on your cheeks. There was no way he was referring to you, was there? But somehow, deep down, you really wanted to believe that it really was you. “Oh, really? And who might that person be?”

╰ Rook chuckled, and before he could say anything more, the other two members of Pomefiore approached you. Epel quickly began to praise your performance, while Vil just stood there, his expression rather displeased. But it wasn't because of you, he was obviously upset about losing the VDC.

╰ You just sighed and turned to him. “Look, Vil. I know you are disappointed that we lost, I am too. But hey, at least we had fun, right?” You hoped to cheer him up a bit. Vil's eyes widened at your words.

╰ “Yes, I think you are right. Maybe I was a little too focused on doing this to win rather than for fun.” You could see that he was ashamed of himself, especially since he saw during your performance that you were doing it to finally get your talent noticed, not to win the way he wanted.

╰ “Oh, do not be so ashamed, Roi du Poison. You have done an excellent job. Our performance was magnificent and it was all because of your incredible charms!” Both you and Vil side eyed him, knowing perfectly well that he still preferred Neige's performance.

╰ But then Epel spoke and suggested that you should perform with them at the next VDC. This took you completely by surprise and made you tear up a little. Your friends finally saw your talent.

╰ “Why not? When I was on stage I felt like this was my place and definitely one of the best experiences of my life. And I couldn't ask for anything more than to perform with you.”

╰ Vil smirked and fixed his hair a bit, while Epel's face lit up at your answer. Rook just nodded in satisfaction and bowed to you in a gesture of respect. This was an evening you'll never forget, even if you finally return to your world, leaving Twisted Wonderland for good. But now all you want to do is spend some time and have fun with your friends. Especially the blond-haired hunter, whose compliment meant more to you than any other person's in the world.

Thank you for requesting!

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland hcs #twisted wonderland one-shots #twisted wonderland x reader #twst #twst hcs #twst one-shots #twst x reader #pomefiore #twst pomefiore #twisted wonderland pomefiore #vil schoenheit #rook hunt #epel felmier #rook hunt x reader #twisted wonderland rook x reader #twst rook x reader

[bambisnc]

nobody knows [ft j.sc]

pairing : sungchan x reader! genre : cavity giving coded fluff cw/tw : use of caps + suggestive mention if u blink u'll miss it :P wc : 0.4k ish

[03.17] Beep!!

bee eff (🦌) : HEY where tf are youuuuuuu it's FREEZING here your hot adn super loving bf is FREEZING alone AT NIGHT for you

you : 3 am is literally not even considered night,, + if you're hot.. then how are u freezing darling bf ?

bee eff (🦌) : yk what i meant !!! but feel free to elaborate on my being hot 😏😏

you : LMAO ur so cute i'll be right down

quietly making your way out of the house to meet sungchan, your boyfriend. neither of you was yet over the hype that came after having officiated your relationship with the title of dating. after years of pining, the (literal) boy next door and your childhood best friend was finally yours; as much as you were his, of course.

there were a lot of perks of dating your neighbour, to be honest. being able to meet him almost anytime of the day was definitely one of them. there was also, however, the tiny issue of having to ensure that all your rendezvous remained secret.

because, you know, there is the fact that neither of your parents would have been very approving of a partner "at this young an age?! you kids need to be focused on your studies! dating and whatnot will only jeopardize your friendships and make you one of those hermits who stay locked away in their room when a boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you!" you're pretty sure the thing about friendships was somewhat targeted..

you really did try to ignore your feelings for the boy. safe to say, that didn't work out well. his earnest confession and admittance of the fact that he was willing to take responsibility to keep you both a secret and completely hidden from all prying eyes was more than enough for you to brush your lips against the corner of his own and say yes.

bee eff (🦌) : HEAVENLY CHORUS MY GF'S COMIGN GUYS !!!!!!!!!!!! <33333 when ur here i'm gonna hug you so hard frfr. not letting you breathe for like 10 mins AT LEAST

you : oh? not going to let me breathe huh~? very 🥵🥵 of you~

bee eff (🦌) : your mind? out of the gutter please i'm trying to be romantic here!! xx but if that's what you want sure <3 i'll do anything, everything you want forever, i promise.

you've had doubts about this sometimes, a lot of worries, but you've never regretted it – and seeing how sungchan greets you with a huge smile and an exclamation of "yn!! you're here pretty!!" followed by a, as promised, huge hug – you don't think you ever will.

notes : not even gonna lie i lowkey cried at the last text,..... oh adn kiss of life nobody knows stays winning ty for ocming to my ted talk + [m.list]

#order's up~! 📋⋆𐙚 #ice creams.♡︎🍧 #sungchan x reader #jung sungchan #sungchan #riize #riize x reader #riize imagines #riize fanfic #riize fluff #riize fics #jung sungchan x reader #jung sungchan angst #jung sungchan fluff #sungchan fluff #riize scenarios #riize sungchan #kpop imagines #kpop #kpop x reader #kpop fanfic #kpop fluff #kpop scenarios #divider by plutism

[bananasfosterparent]

Update on my current runs!

Silkina the Bard Waveservant -

She got the Volo eye (not pictured) and has been helping her friends while looking for a cure. This is my first "good" solo run, so it's a lot of content, more than I'm used to! Definitely going slower than my usual, but still a lot of fun! Also never realized how funny Karlach is lmao. Just getting to the goblin fight so we'll see how it goes! Very excited to get Wyll's party scene!! Silkina is sassy, but kind and really an outlier among other waveservants because of it. Well, she's really good at connecting with others at least. Despite it being odd, since most Waveservants (especially clerics) are quite standoffish and introverted, Silkina focuses on making her outgoing nature work for her, sharing the might and fury of Umberlee with her words (and music).

Also.. after getting the Volo eye and almost everyone disapproving, I noticed Wyll didn't.. but he didn't have a ! either. I had her talk to him anyway and he was like "Welcome to the one eye club! A woman with one eye is very intriguing c:" and I giggled.

Efeniti (Spawn Astarion ending AU run) -

In the exact same place it's been for a few weeks lmao I have not touched this playthrough. I AM SCHTALLING. I know what you're thinking... because I'm an AA fan... but really, I just can't emotionally handle the break down scene after he brutally stabs Cazedor. Or the brutal stabbing. I am really not ready for that. I have my own feelings for why and what it makes me experience, but maybe if I actually go through with it this time, I can talk about it (it's not that bad, I'm just procrastinating).

This version of Efenity is who she would be if she hadn't lost the woman who was like a mother to her. If she had been able to have a somewhat normal life and become a private magic teacher in the upper part of the city. She's much kinder and able to temper herself much better.

Efenity (Canon AA romance run #whatever) -

This is idk like the 5th time I've played as Efenity. I've lost count 🤷🏽‍♀️ Most of these runs, I only got to Act 3 and only 2 I've gotten to the final fight and couldn't win it after trying over and over. This time I plan to finish it!!! I want my epilogue, dang it! I killed Minthara this time, at the party. There was a leftover from EA with a voiced Tav scene. If you killed Minty and the goblins at the party, that night or morning after(?) there's some conversation and Tav says something in the cut scene! ANYWAY... I tried it and it didn't happen 😭😭😭 I either did it wrong (I attacked before Minty had her murder cutscene) OR they patched it out of the game! I could go back and try it again, but I barely won that fight and it took me SO many tries (mostly due to needing to long rest).

But! Regardless! Even though I didn't get that cool voiced Tav scene... I have added Efenity killing Minthara and the goblins at the party to her canon story. Because it just makes sense that she'd do that. Originally, she just uses her to get to Moonrise but I scrapped that. While Efenity just sees the tieflings as collateral damage, she knows Shadowheart was struggling with that whole ordeal which did bother her... she cares for SH and she is her first real friend. And with Minthara insulting her for not wanting to sleep with her, on top of it...

Efenity was like OKAY. Time for you to go, ma'am.

Solenia Omraebra, the Drow Cleric -

I've only had her for about a week and I love her. She's also been through at least 6 different hairstyles 😭 Solenia is my newest Tav, a Drow and cleric of Eilistraee! She's very studious and scholarly. I don't know much about her beyond that yet. Still working on her backstory and whatnot, BUT she is good to a fault. She wants to save everyone, in every way that she possibly can. Even those she probably shouldn't get close enough to, to try to save. Even those she is told are irredeemable. She's romancing Gale! She's just getting through Act 1 stuff and almost to the goblin camp!

#silkina #efenity #solenia #just felt like giving an update lmao #I'll post more about Solenia and Silkina separately once I have a better grip on who they are #baldur's gate 3 #ascended astarion #astarion #astarion ancunin #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale x tav #astarion x tav #wyll ravengard #wyll x tav #wyll ravenguard #wyll #bg3

[unclewaynemunson]

Pt2 to the Wingman Wayne AU sequel :D (This one’s gonna be slightly longer than most of the other parts!) | You can read pt1 here | ao3 link

Robin would never admit it to Steve, but she is nervous. Like, really nervous. The level of nervous you get from having a date as a lesbian in a small town in the Midwest who has only ever dated one girl before – a girl she knew from the school band, which means they didn't actually meet each other on a date, which means that Robin technically doesn't really have any first-date experience at all – contrary to Steve, who has a lot of first-date experience.

What do people wear for a first date? How do they prepare? Should you even prepare at all? Do people come late, do they come early, do they bring a present, how do they greet each other?  

By the time she's finally changed into clothes that make her feel the right amount of comfortable yet attractive, her room has exploded into even more of a mess than it usually is: her whole wardrobe is covering literally every inch of the floor, another pile of clothes is thrown haphazardly onto her bed, and Polly is making herself comfortable on Robin's favorite soft cardigan, no doubt getting dog hair all over it.

She shoots another glance in the mirror, tugging at her collar and frowning at the way her jeans are fitting around her upper legs.

'No, you're not gonna get changed again,' she sternly tells her reflection. 'You're fine. This is fine. You got this.'

'You got this,' Rosalinda repeats from her cage in the corner of the room. 'You look great. You look great.'

Robin perks up at that; teaching Rosalinda to say “you look great” whenever Robin is looking in the mirror has definitely been one of the better decisions in her whole life so far.

She rushes over to the cage to treat the parrot on some nuts, but then she notices the clock and a string of curses escapes from her mouth as she starts frantically looking for her All Stars - which she finds buried underneath Polly’s butt.

Well, at least she has one thing less to worry about now: fashionably late is gonna be her very well thought through arrival time.

---

She arrives at Benny's about ten minutes late. As she haphazardly shoves her bike into a rack, she spots a curly-haired girl leaning against one of the parked cars with a somewhat bored look on her face.

'I'm so sorry,' Robin says, slightly out of breath as she rushes up to the girl. 'I'm literally the worst at time management and I couldn't find my shoes because my dog was sitting on them and then I lost my keys because I forgot to –'

'It's fine,' the girl interrupts her. To Robin's relief, her lips are curving into a smile – a very pretty smile, that is. 'Mr. Munson already told me that you were probably gonna be late.'

Something about that seems really unfair and Robin huffs.

'How does he even know that? I never even met the man! No one even bothered to tell me your name, and you already know all about one of my worst personality traits!'

'It's Nancy.'

'What?' Robin gives the girl a distracted look.

'My name.' She holds out her hand and Robin shakes it, even though she thinks that's a bit formal for a date – it is, right? Or is this normal date etiquette and is Robin indeed as clueless as she feared she would be?

'I'm Nancy,' the girl elucidates. Her hand is cold against Robin's, but not in an unpleasant way, and Robin can barely suppress a shiver. 'And my worst personality traits is that I always want to be right.'

Robin can't help but smile at her. 'Good to know, I’ll make sure to remember that in case I ever need to let you win an argument,’ she answers.

'You're Robin, right?'

'No, I'm Tammy,' Robin deadpans.

'Oh.' Nancy lets go of her hand, going wide-eyed.

'Kidding. I'm Robin. Sorry for that lame joke.'

But Nancy chuckles, and it sounds just as cute as her smile looks. All of Nancy is cute, actually: she's almost a full head smaller than Robin and wearing a colorful skirt paired with a purple button-down. A necklace with a ballet-shoe pendant is resting against the skin right underneath her collarbones, and her fine-featured face reminds Robin of a work of art: perfectly heartshaped, with sharp cheekbones, a pointed chin, and huge, deep-blue eyes that get this adorable sparkle when she smiles.

And unfortunately, Robin knows all too well what will inevitably happen whenever she's put in front of a girl as pretty as Nancy. It's like she can actually feel the words piling up in her throat.

'I have to warn you, I've never actually been on a date with a girl before. I mean, I've dated a girl, but not been on a date, like, with someone I don't know yet. I mean, it's not like I'm not out yet, alright, but in this town, there's only so many people you can be out to, if you know what I mean, so I couldn't exactly go happily dating around, and I've never really been interested in dating boys at all, so that never happened either – so what I'm trying to say is that I've never been on a date before and it's kinda making me nervous and I have this habit that I start rambling when I'm nervous, so you should probably just cut me off at some point or else I'll be passing out soon because I'm getting really out of breath and –'

'Take a breath,' Nancy finally interrupts her monologue. Her smile is less shy now and more amused, and Robin gratefully does what Nancy ordered her to do.

'It's okay,' Nancy says in a sweetly quiet voice. 'I'm glad you told me. I've actually never been on a date with a girl either. I've been in some relationships, with guys, but they didn't – they didn't really work. Um...' She points towards the door. 'Should we get –'

'Yeah, let's go inside,' Robin says, eagerly taking the chance to continue their conversation somewhere that's not a joyless gray parking lot.

They order at the counter and Robin lets Nancy pick a booth; they end up at the one in the most remote corner.

'Well,' Robin says, raising her Coke at Nancy, 'Cheers to Wayne Munson, I guess, for landing both of us our very first official date with a girl.'

Nancy chuckles and clinks her glass against Robin's.

'Cheers to Wayne Munson,' she repeats. 'I have to admit, I was very surprised when he called me. I only met him once, you know?'

Robin listens attentively while Nancy tells her how she met Mr. Munson at the plant, where he was working while she was on an assignment for the newspaper. It's surprisingly easy, to talk to her. They easily launch into this whole conversation about the working conditions and safety hazards down at the plant, both equally indignant about how the employees are treated there, and Robin fires all kinds of questions at Nancy about her job at the Gazette.

'I've been really lucky,' Nancy admits. 'Last year I got this internship at the Hawkins Post and that was... not great. I was basically the only woman and all those men thought I was only good for making them coffee and sandwiches. It's actually why I broke up with my boyfriend. He thought I should just “sit it out,” be grateful for the opportunity or whatever. Which I thought was fucking bullshit.'

Robin nods eagerly, her mouth too stuffed with Benny's heavenly burger to form an intelligible response.

'Anyway, I didn't sit it out – I went behind their backs for a good story and they fired me. But that's how I ended up at the Gazette. They make much better articles anyway – like the thing we did with the plant.' Nancy pauses to take a sip of her drink, and her eyes are lit up beautifully with the passion for the work she's doing. 'They care about this community, want to publish stuff that actually helps make it better. So I got to talk to Mr. Munson, and he had some really interesting things to say,' she said, coming full-circle with her story like a true journalist. 'But we didn't talk about any personal stuff, you know,' she continues. 'So I was really surprised when he called.'

Robin chuckles. 'Yeah, I haven't even met the man, I only know his nephew Eddie. He's supposed to have some sixth sense for matching queer people,' she tells Nancy while jokingly wiggling her eyebrows. 'That's how my best friend became Eddie's boyfriend. I wouldn't have been here if that dingus didn't tell me that it was gonna be worth it.'

The shyness is back in Nancy's smile as she holds Robin's gaze over their fries.

'Well, I think your friend might be right about that sixth sense,' Nancy says quietly.

Robin feels her cheeks heat up at that and looks away from Nancy's intense gaze.

'Don't tell him that,' she jokes. 'His ego is already annoyingly big.'

She looks back into Nancy's eyes and immediately feels fucking stupid for not taking her chance and say something heartfelt in response to Nancy's brave vulnerability.

'But no matter how much it pains me to admit it, I have to agree with you that he might be right,' she awkwardly adds. And luckily, it works: Nancy is beaming at her like the fucking brightest star in the milky way.

Pt3

Taglist: @munsonsuccubus @messrs-weasley @shrimply-a-menace @booksandsience @sadcanadianwinter @mightbeasleep

#yes i named robin's parrot after the parrot in pippi longstocking #don't mind me rambling about stranger things #fruity ficlet #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #ronance #stranger things

[narcissosbythepool]

Continuing GhostPrice fighter AU (crossposting from my twitter again)

Part 1 here

Cw: mild violence, mentions of substance abuse, suggestive language, some trauma foreshadowing

*

It's the aftermath of a completely pointless and insignificant win that changes Ghost's entire life.

"Hey."

Ghost doesn't look up from where he's brooding. His ribs are sore, he's bleeding from his brow, and he's not in the mood for a chat now.

Someone steps in front of him and he frowns. Who the fuck is this?

"What do you want?" he finally grumbles and looks up.

He's somewhat surprised at the person stood in front of him. He expected some young guy trying to provoke him after his fight, but it's an older man (late 30s? Early 40s? Older than himself, either way) with some truly impressive mutton chops.

"Wondering if you'd like to learn to win by fighting better rather than just outlasting your opponent."

Ghost gives him an unimpressed look.

"Why do you care? I keep winning, don't I?"

The man smiles. It's not a kind smile – it's a challenging one, like Ghost is a grumpy teen throwing a tantrum.

"You can do better. I would like to see it happen."

Ghost's kneejerk reaction is to tell the guy to fuck off. He's just some wannabe-fighter. He looks like an idiot in the beanie and windbreaker.

But something in the way he carries himself catches his eye. It's confident, but not in a cocky way like the guys that sometimes show up to try to rile him up.

He looks tough. Toughened. Learned.

"And you think you can teach me?"

"I know I can."

"You taught before?"

The man's lips twitch in amusement. "I've done my share."

"So why'd your student quit?"

This makes the man laugh out loud.

"I see you're a bit of a challenge. Want to drop by the gym and do a couple rounds?"

Ghost raises a brow.

"That's not a euphemism. I do actually own a gym."

He should say no. He really should.

Maybe this guy's a creep. A serial killer. Maybe he sucks at fighting. Maybe he's all talk.

But maybe. Maybe there really is a gym. Ghost has been haunting his own life for so long that it doesn't feel like his own anymore.

He'll take the lifeline.

"Fine."

Worst case scenario he doesn't have to worry about rent anymore.

There is a gym.

It's after hours but Price ("John Price, former fighter, I own a gym with my friend") lets them in with his keys and punches in the security codes before opening the door for Ghost to step in. The gym is not particularly special but it's clean, and a set of dull cement stairs lead them to the basement where a ring is waiting for them.

Ghost starts getting a little excited, now, his blood pumping heavy in his ears. This man, John Price, might be the real deal – Ghost was polite enough not to google him on the walk here, but he'll put it on his to-do list at once.

"This is where the magic happens," Price says, walking to the ring and then leaning on the ropes, watching the mat wistfully.

"I see you're missing the mat already."

"You're a cheeky one, aren't you?"

"You have no idea."

Price finally takes him to the changing room.

"You ready for another round?"

"Right now?"

"That's why I'm asking."

Ghost really wants to wipe that smirk off his face.

"I'm ready. Are you?"

Price replies by unzipping his jacket and underneath is a tight, dark green tshirt that shows off his toned physique and Ghost's mouth goes dry, the embers of irritation turning into a flame of yearning – of attraction, of excitement for a challenge, and from the glint in Price's eyes, he's taken note of the fire that now devours Ghost.

Price hands his ass to him in the ring.

Ghost is stronger ("you hit like a fucking freight train") but Price is better, knows the strategy to beating an opponent bigger and heavier than him, and the fight ends with both of them bruised, Ghost held down on the mat by Price, until he taps out.

"Please teach me," he asks politely, lying on his stomach, trying to heave air back into his lungs. Price detaches himself from Ghost and sits down on the floor next to him, wiping off sweat from his brow.

"What's your real name, son?"

Ghost swallows.

"Simon. Simon Riley."

"So, Riley," Price starts.

Ghost bristles at that a bit.

"I'd rather you not call me that."

Price looks at him over his shoulder.

"Simon? Or Ghost?"

"Simon's fine."

"Simon then." Price smiles cheekily. "You'll call me 'coach' or 'sir', is that clear?"

The demand of authority makes Ghost's guts stir with some mix of arousal and amusement. Price probably likes to feel important.

He wonders if Price would let Ghost call him sir in bed.

"Alright, Simon. I need you to stop smoking. And drinking."

Ghost feels a flare of irritation.

"I don't drink." His tone is definite, raw on the edges.

"...Alright. Hm. Now, no judgement here but. Do you do any other drugs?"

"..."

"No need to glare at me. If you don't, good. If you do, quit them. Then I'll coach you."

"Those are the requirements?"

"Those are the requirements."

"So when can I start?"

Price smiles, and this time the teasing edge is no longer there, just a warm and open smile that makes Ghost feel a little flustered.

"Right now works. Simon."

"Yes, sir?"

Price's smile turns into a wicked grin.

"Cooldown."

#ghostprice #priceghost #simon ghost riley #captain john price #narcissosbythepool #ghost cod #price cod #mw2 #call of duty #was this inspired by umiko's soapgaz gym art? maybe so.

[starssoblue]

miraculous: ladybug & chat noir, the movie | a(n in-depth) review

prefacing this to say that i recognize a lot of feelings about this movie are related to a frustration with experiencing the tv series for five seasons since 2015. i, however, went into this as a brand new fan, having finally tried the series just since april of this year. so those feelings of frustration aren't going to be present in this review and it's coming more from a (somewhat) objective place, considering the film as its own entity. (spoilers abound.)

marinette:

so i'm a marinette dupain-cheng shooter, i'll fight for this girl forever because of how targeted the hate is for her (and leading female characters in general). but i have to say, even though the movie did a good job not having her be the completely messy pre-teenager she is in the show (especially around her crush), i found that the character change was a little strange.

i think, despite how flustered she gets, marinette in the show is a very strong character. she's a child who spent three years being relentlessly bullied by a politician's daughter (chloe) that people she was generally (she has no good friends but she has an amicable relationship with her peers because they all grew up together) friendly with stayed away from her, for the fear of becoming that girl's next target. she tries her best to stay out of this girl's way because of this bullying, and her defense is to keep quiet and not draw attention to herself so she can get through the school day without being harassed. this harassment leads to marinette having intense anxiety and a lack of confidence in herself, despite having strong opinions and being an otherwise passionate person. meeting her new friend alya, who is very self assured, inspires marinette to not allow her bully to walk over her anymore, and when she gets her first win as ladybug she finds the strength to finally stand up for herself. though she remains a target of that bully, this newfound strength helps her not allow that experience to reign over her life and this gives her bully less power.

in the movie, marinette (there was one trailer that implied she was "the new girl" but the movie itself does not really give us this impression—her scared meekness would make more sense to me if she actually were a new girl in school but more on this later) still grew up in paris with those same peers, but has so much crippling anxiety she has no baseline relationship with anyone. instead of it being mere general awkwardness, the film decides to make her especially clumsy to the point of insane catastrophes constantly happening around her (i guess for her entire life?), and this chaos makes the entire school laugh at her and spread rumors about her, so she has no friends at all. (would make a lot of sense if she's the new girl unless the point is the entire school has been making fun of the wasian girl since maternelle that she's still infamous in lycée for it and spent her entire life without a friend until alya filmed chloe harassing her and saved her, which is... concerning. or wait, is it because they've just entered lycée so they're all technically "new" even though she's lived in paris her whole life because they're starting grade 10 together? but what are the chances that no one she knew from collége are in this school with her now? so she enters lycée, is so clumsy and catastrophes happen around her that she develops a reputation for herself and people like chloe know her by name because she's become that infamous that quickly? but in the song 'reaching out,' marinette sings that she always dreamed of calling paris home, which seems to suggest that maybe she's new in paris. but their bakery seems too established to be new... i don't know. tbh this is information we shouldn't have to guess, and this lack of clarity is something i struggled with for this film.)

as an introverted person, marinette's anxiety and fear of leaving her comfort zone resonate with me, but i feel like while this is explained in the show as a result of years of bullying, it's portrayed here in the extreme. i understand that she's afraid at school because of all the rumors and the disasters that follow her, but even on the streets when she was singing to herself, random people would wave to her and she'd (sing) to herself, "i can't show my face!" even though nothing embarrassing or disastrous had even happened. she's just deathly afraid of people. i don't think this in and of itself is an issue, but it definitely needed more explanation or build up. is marinette this terrified and timid because something (worse than what happened in the series?) happened to her here? is it because she's (new to paris? again, they don't really say but it would fit better if it were true) wasian and she feels out of place in largely white paris? is it more about her biracial identity rather than clumsiness? who knows. so i feel just more background and character development would elevate the movie. arguably, she could just be an anxious and introverted person, but the portrayal of these characteristics just seemed a lot more surface level than they are in the show. i guess this is an example of a limitation a creator has with a film—they can accomplish so much more with years of subtle hints in a series and lay the foundation for certain backgrounds and traits, but in a movie they have to figure out what to tell us, what to show us, and how to develop it in under two hours. sadly, i feel with marinette, as a result of this time crunch, some of the film's portrayals ended up being weak.

(there's this scene all over twitter celebrating marinette standing up to chloe after her newfound confidence as ladybug—i am actually very confused why this was pointed out as a difference from the series. once marinette realized through alya and her first success as ladybug that she didn't need to be afraid of chloe anymore, she stopped. she constantly argues with her, doesn't put up with her bullshit, and even is sometimes mean to her (i'm not going to judge her for it—that girl bullied her badly for three years straight sooo...). i like the scene in the movie too, but my point was that it's consistent with the show and not an actual change.)

people love to attack marinette for some instances where the character in the show was used for absurd comic relief, and i appreciate that the movie doesn't do this with her much. i do think the female characters in miraculous, series and film, would all be better written if written by women, but i digress.

i like that while film marinette tries to reject the earrings just like series marinette, she fails because the magic that has chosen her won’t just let her throw the earrings away or give it to someone else. though she doesn’t randomly decide to give the earrings to alya here, she does try to throw them out a window and they kept coming back to her because she was the chosen one. this was a nice change. i never thought it should be that easy for her to just re-gift them to any random person when they chose her specifically for a reason. 

adrien:

adrien agreste in the series is outgoing, full of energy, lonely but eager to make friends, kind of optimistic. his mother has only been missing for six months at the start of the show, while he's in the public eye, working almost full time as a teen model and the face of his father's massively successful high fashion brand. his circumstances, his public image, the fact that not much time has passed and he's still a 13 year old child all lead him to resist being too affected by his grief (he's obviously still affected but it's not a crippling part of his life, and though he experiences loneliness and has moments of being withdrawn and sad, he retains a relatively optimistic and outgoing nature that influences his outlook on life and his interactions with his peers. he's socially inept through lack of interaction with kids his own age and homeschooling, but he's willing to learn and this, as well as his pure heart, are what define this character.

adrien in the movie is different, but in a way that is realistic and understandable given the changes the film made to his background. he's more quiet, withdrawn, lonely but chooses to stay that way and intentionally pushes people away as a coping mechanism for grief. though in both universes his father's role in his life decreases once his mother vanishes, and he essentially loses both parents rather than one, in the show, being a model and the face of his father's brand allows him to continue having a place in his dad's life even though his father treats him like dirt. in the movie, the time period in which his mother has been missing in his life seems to be much longer, and there has been no indication that adrien has anything to do with his father's work. with his grief affecting him for a greater length of time, his age being older, and his dad being an absentee parent for several years rather than a few months, it's no wonder that the adrien we meet in the movie chooses to pull away from people, allows the sad feelings to dominate, and just overall lacks the energy and optimism show adrien possesses. (i'm also not sure if it's even his first day of school or if he was homeschooled his whole life—chloe claimed she wanted to show him around, but nino interacts with him like they've been friends for more than just a day and he's known him for at least a little while).

honestly, i really like the changes here, despite being tv adrien agreste's #1 fan. this insight into his feelings about his parents, his resignation about his constantly deteriorating relationship with his father, his fixation on the piano which was an interest he shared with his mom, how palpable his feelings of nostalgia and longing are for his mother... the way he was a child when she disappeared and now he's a teenager still thinking about her, always missing her... it was such a natural portrayal of love and grief and though you can see which circumstances prevent show adrien from turning out this way, movie adrien is such an understandable and empathetic character. you really feel for him the whole movie. i think his (possible) lack of fame adds to this too (he doesn't seem to be a model in this, he has no schedules and isn't driven around everywhere, there are loads of photos of him at home but they could just be photos parents put up of their only son). at the end of the day he's a teenager with a father who neglects him constantly for his business and his own grief that he feels very alone, and these feelings keep him from wanting to get close to anyone else, either because he's sad or just afraid of further abandonment. i found the character so incredibly relatable and it was interesting seeing a more vulnerable side to this character, a vulnerability show adrien only occasionally demonstrates, a vulnerability more hinted at in the show through chat noir (but this is an essay for another day).

most importantly, show and movie adrien are both total dorks. the essence of this character is portrayed well in the movie, i really didn't mind the changes because in the end he was still recognizable as my sad sunshine adrien agreste, and i hope people look past the surface differences to recognize and appreciate him for who he is.

plagg plays a bigger role in adrien’s life in the series than in the movie. i love their relationship so i missed that here, but i also feel like maybe they didn’t need him to be looking out for adrien and essentially taking care of him (gorilla does this in the series too, and he wasn’t needed in the movie as adrien has the freedom to largely come and go as he wants and use public transport, something series adrien could never do) because of how much less restrictive his life is in this iteration. 

ladynoir:

the film introduces ladybug and chat noir as "two rival heroes." plagg and tikki themselves are called rivals. eventually ladybug redubs them as "partners" after she and chat noir find a rhythm and master fu also tells them they're stronger together, so i am puzzled why they even tried introducing them that way. in the show, ladynoir aren't rivals at al—they've always been a team. and in this movie, despite those initial comments, it's no different. there's banter and flirtation for sure, but the most "rival" these two get are when they first meet and are goading each other into an argument over which hero is better and who is the sidekick (before they've done anything lmao) and that one fun volkswagon ad when they race each other. i love the flirty competitive sparring, the way they tease each other, when they're just messing around and being playful in the 'stronger together' sequence. you really watch these two become best friends, and like the series, chat noir falls in love with ladybug like a thunderbolt (a coup de foudre!) while for her, you see her affection for him grow the longer they work together and get to know each other. i don't think this is as much of a departure from the series as stan twitter would have you believe, but it does spend more time on their dynamic in one setting than any episode ever does (ladynoir is developed over time in the series, little by little, and their cute flirty dynamic is very reminiscent of how they're portrayed in the first two seasons before the guardianship and other miraculous holders complicated their relationship. at their core they've always had great chemistry and a strong connection). i like both developments tbh, but that one scene of them training together and having fun for a significant amount of time was so lovely to see. don't get me wrong—there are some great moments these two share outside of battle in the series too, but it's been a while since we've seen this dynamic there with everything else going on that it felt so nice to return to this, and in such a huge way too.

the one thing i miss is chat noir calling ladybug "milady." it's such a cute thing he does in the series, and though i enjoyed that "insane!" / "watermelon!" banter, i do miss this being what he calls her all the time. (there is a song called 'my lady' that chat noir sings to himself after he falls in love with ladybug, and in the very last line of the song he calls her this, but otherwise it's just not a thing in the movie.) it really doesn't matter, but i still mourned its absence.

adrienette/adrinette:

the first time i watched this film, i did not like the first adrien/marinette meet-cute at all. to be honest, i wasn't being fair. the first miraculous scene in the series that had me completely enchanted was that umbrella scene in origins, and it is the foundation for this ship and why i love them so much. every bit of the original scene is perfection, with the careful finger brush, the soft smiles, the way their eyes meet and marinette hears a thunder clap (an actual coup de foudre) in the distance as the instrumental 'in the rain' plays in the background... that scene was so spectacularly constructed, it was always obvious nothing this movie did was ever going to match that.

and that's okay.

watching the film a second time, i found that while the umbrella scene still is incomparable, there are things i did like about marinette and adrien's first meeting. the way marinette asks for "a little luck" and she follows the light through the bookshelves to see adrien, who approaches her himself because he thinks she might be in need of help, asking her if she's okay or seeing the distressed look upon her face and wondering if she's crying. it's different from origins, but in some ways it's the same—marinette was distressed, adrien approached her first, she's thrown by his kindness and flustered by his beauty. they have some kind of moment and in the end, he offers her an awkward but gentle smile.

but in origins, they already had history. she didn't care and barely realized he was famous or even connected to her dream of becoming a fashion designer. his looks don't register to her until she's already fallen in love with him. and it's his initiative to correct the misunderstanding between them and show her kindness despite her being harsh and unfair to him that makes her take a second glance, and once she does, she falls in love fast. though i do see the essence of that moment—the being drawn to adrien's kindness aspect—in the movie's library scene, it's less impactful. she doesn't know adrien, so there is barely a conversation between them, and other than his concern over her and his offer of a helping hand when she falls, i don't really see what he does that makes her fall strongly in love with him. if it's still his kindness, it just feels weaker. one could argue that her instant attraction to him is because of his cuteness, and this is what flusters her, and his kindness (less impact than the series, but in this new universe, barely anyone in this school has ever shown marinette kindness rather than gossiping and laughing about her clumsiness so maybe to her this is a real moment of kindness) is only secondary. it's not all that clear. either way, marinette is fascinated by him to keep looking at him before she even falls and he offers to help her up, so the meeting feels a lot more shallow (he had noticed her distress and asked if she was crying before, but i don't know... is just asking about her enough kindness to get that reaction from her? it makes sense after he helps her up but the fascination before.. maybe i'm just longing for the impact of the umbrella scene and this was actually fine...?). the scene ends with adrien's confused, soft smile when he says "she's so weird" to himself (they barely interacted, so i don't know if i'd call it a "fond smile" but it's not the malicious thing some people on social media have been making it out to be. in this iteration adrien tries not to interact with many people, so it's a big deal he was kind enough to still reach out to her. this meeting probably stuck out to him as something unordinary and the comment felt more like he was curious about her more than anything else. it ends up being important to marinette because her clumsiness makes people usually mock her, but he didn't do that, so her instinct then is to try to talk to him (and ask him out, probably?). not the big momentous falling in love scene from the series, but it is still a nice moment for these characters as they're established in this universe.

i think one of the reasons this ship feels weak to me in the film is that outside of this moment, adrien and marinette's friendship development is reduced to a musical montage.

if the movie had used this moment to develop their relationship further, i probably would have actually liked the romance here. while ladynoir had scenes of interactions and ladybug and chat noir getting to know each other and becoming comfortable with each other and literally becoming bffs who trust each other as only two people in the world who share a singular unique experience can, all the development adrien and marinette have is shown through one musical montage in the middle of the movie. (they do have a small interaction at the fair, but this is around the time adrien is first coming out of his shell so it’s very brief.) in the montage, you see many shots of adrien and marinette hanging out with alya and nino in picnics and at the movies, and he looks more at ease with each outing. and you also see adrien opening up to marinette specifically about his mom, sharing photos of her, and finally working through his grief rather than withdrawing from everyone. but because this is a five second scene in the midst of a musical montage illustrating the passage of time, we never get the words exchanged, the scene is glossed over and the impact is only felt by fans of the series who know what this means to him. (fun fact: the film has adrien trusting marinette enough to feel so close to her he talks about his mom with her before he talks to ladybug about her and how in his grief he pushed people away before he met her. though ladybug was the catalyst to him opening up to people, i do find it meaningful that he opened up to marinette first. but this is still a crumb and you have to be looking to make those connections in order to see them. the film should have shown adrien falling in love to some extent outside of the mask as well, he’s supposed to have some kind of inner conflict and it’s hard to believe that he does here with all the missing pieces.) i’m not sure if casual viewers would even notice it in the midst of all the other scenes happening as the theme song plays in the background. had we seen more of stuff like this, gotten some kind of explanation that over time adrien had started to feel for marinette too and this montage is proof of it (it shows that they’re friends and he trusts her now to some extent, but it’s so fast it barely registers. you can’t deduce he’s in love with marinette here, whereas in the scenes with chat noir you see ladybug actively struggle with her feelings, develop affectionate feelings for chat noir, and feel bad for rejecting him because of that, not just because it sucks to have to turn someone down), then that would have been fine. but that’s not what happens. after this montage we barely see adrien and marinette together at all until she tries asking him to he ball and he says he’s sorry but there’s someone else. though his rejection was soft, and you do see him look upset he had to reject her, there was no doubt he was going to reject her here. the core conflict—that they’re in love with two people, one they fall in love with like thunder and another that slowly builds in their heart—is so badly illustrated in this movie. you can see the intention is there if you’re looking for it, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. 

though i appreciate that marinette didn't struggle to find her words around adrien in this film, and appeared more realistically flustered and anxious rather than the over the top thing they do in the series, i still feel like the adrinette in the series is overall written and developed better as a ship. in the tv series, you see this initial conflict —chat noir falls fast for ladybug, who turns him down because marinette fell just as fast in love with adrien agreste—turn into marinette forming a friendship with chat noir, whom she then starts to get close to outside and in the mask, as adrien starts to fall in love with marinette. the series is now at a point where adrien and marinette are actually in love, despite never actually falling out of love with their superhero counterparts, so that if it finally leads to a reveal (which it hasn’t yet), it would be incredibly moving.

my issue is, without this adrinette relationship development, the reveal feels less impactful. if you’re frustrated the series hasn’t given you this moment yet, you feel satisfaction seeing it in the conclusion of this film solely because of the progression of the series. without it, looking at the moments in this film alone, it feels halfhearted. though marinette is ladybug, it’s an idealized version of herself she’s created to take on the challenge of being a hero. these characteristics are still hers, but it feels like someone falling in love with a celebrity. though this isn’t wholly true—chat gets to know ladybug’s vulnerabilities too as they get closer—it’s still not fully her the way marinette, as a normal person who now has the confidence being ladybug provides her echoing in her daily life too, is. so her struggling with her feelings, turning chat noir down reluctantly before adrien rejects her, but still reaching out to him once discovering they’re the same person—you just see that she falls in love with all sides of him. but it’s less clear for adrien. you can analyze that montage and make a deduction, but it’s not as explicit. instead, it just feels like he rejects who she actually is for her heroic persona, and that makes the reveal feel one-sided (unless you carry over your feelings of frustration from the series never giving us this moment).

it sucks that adrinette was underdeveloped because as far as scenes go, the reveal is actually quite beautiful. adrien has tears in his eyes when she introduces herself as ladybug and he realizes she liked him all along, but if we knew why those tears of relief and happiness appeared upon realizing the girl of his dreams was marinette, it would mean more. [he’s also at this ball wearing the bow tie marinette made for him that she threw into the trash after he rejected her, and i’d love to believe that this isn’t a continuity error, but it probably is. it’s hard to imagine adrien felt so torn up about rejecting marinette (after ladybug already rejected him??! like it really felt like he’d like to go to this ball that he never asked ladybug to go to alone rather than with marinette, which is…not great ) that he went by the trash, saw his name on a box and opened it up, realizing she made him a gift, and then chose to wear it. he literally doesn’t think about marinette once in this film after he rejects her so this feels like a reach… unless it was intentional, in which case they should have written so much more to make this (and this ship) clear.]

gabriel agreste:

i can't remember if origins explained how long gabriel agreste had the butterfly miraculous and if he used it right away upon acquiring it, but what i liked in the film was that it was clearly explained that he had had that artifact for a while, done research on its capabilities, considered the risks and rewards, and then after a long time of deliberation finally made the active choice to do what he knew was wrong just because he loved his wife so much he would never be able to live without her. ("if chaos is the way, i will burn the world and lose myself to do so!") each time he misuses the miraculous to hurt people, it takes a toll on his physical and mental health, making him look haggard and act more crazy and reckless (this happens in the series as well—season 1 gabriel isn't season 5 gabriel but he becomes more villainous over time).

one thing that confuses me though is that gabriel got a sense of the chaos and terror committed with the butterfly miraculous upon just touching the item, but the series and later on in the film, it's explicitly stated that this miraculous isn't inherently evil. in the show there are many reasons why ladybug and chat noir historically were called to fight, but in the movie it seems to be implied that it's this one miraculous alone that summons them through creating chaos in the world. but it's also allegedly 'good'—this contradiction is confusing (and my friend who had no knowledge of mlb was so lost watching this movie). i don't think the show does much for romanticizing this decision the way the film does, and it certainly doesn't make us believe that gabriel agreste felt forced to make this decision and had doubts he overlooked because he was that desperate. i mean, his desperation comes across in the series in other ways but not in a sad lonely man who is struggling to live without his wife way. the film humanizes this stupid, terrible man in a way the series fails to do so (which makes sense given some of the atrocities he goes onto commit that film gabriel doesn't come close to doing). this softer portrayal works for the movie as many of the things i dislike about m. agreste are never portrayed, leaving him a bit more of a sympathetic villain even as he terrorizes all of paris. he still sucks though, just on a lesser scale. 

when gabriel tells the story about how much adrien's mother meant to him, and how difficult it was for him to face the sadness in adrien's eyes upon losing a parent (tbh he's so dumb. his son finds it hard to cope with one parent leaving him so his solution is to make him lose the second parent too just because it was hard to deal with his son's grief on top of his own...dumbass), he says it was only after she was gone that he learned about the miraculous. does this mean that in this universe adrien actually wasn't conceived using the peacock miraculous and the coma emilie is in at the end is caused by something else? gabriel and adrien both speak about his mom like she's dead. and at the end it's revealed that like in the series, emilie is still alive but in a magical coma. did he just mean that they already knew about the peacock miraculous and what he learned about was the butterfly miraculous and then the wish the ladybug and black cat miraculous combined make? i'm lost. (maybe it's just really huge a continuity error?

i saw a lot of people wonder why adrien in the show doesn't argue with his father or blow up at him the way adrien does in the film. aside from the fact that gabriel agreste in the movie is a lot less criminal than the abusive doucheface he is in the series, it doesn't look like adrien is being controlled by his father if he's a sentibeing here too and the worst thing gabriel has done is be an absentee parent (bad, but it's not the locking your kid up, forcing him to work since he was a child, controlling his every second of every day, having your employees follow him around and spy on him for you, trying to control who he interacts with on a daily basis, forbidding him from hanging out with friends, trying to akumatize him or exploit him in other ways, being emotionally abusive, etc etc). adrien in the series being younger, experiencing his father being an ass only since his mother disappeared six months ago and taking nearly a year to realize his treatment isn't normal and he physically can't resist his dad's orders even if he wanted to... they're in such different predicaments. older adrien with less manipulation and abuse would have an easier time yelling at his father. tv adrien also eventually argues with his dad in season 5, but it takes a lot to build up to that and then the series quickly destroys all this character development because of a hole they wrote themselves into, but that's an essay for another time... i don't think these can be fairly compared. (that said, i clapped hard when adrien told his father he lost his dad a long time ago. his father made a decision not to act like a parent once he lost his wife and it's been a long while since then, he's essentially raising himself at this point.)

it's this change in adrien and gabriel's relationship that allows the end of the final battle to make sense in the movie in a way they wouldn't make sense in the show. tv gabriel agreste doesn't care to hurt his son—you see this constantly explored in different timelines. there is a reason why there's so much fanfiction guessing gabriel would exploit adrien if he learned he was chat noir, or actively try to trade him for his wife. movie gabriel, however, stops right away the second he realizes that the teenager he was ready to hurt was actually his son. hell, even earlier, he called adrien to leave the fair before sending akumas there because he didn't want him to get caught in the crossfire. tv gabriel would never. (i guess show gabriel also does this mid-series sometimes but it's so inconsistent...granted show gabriel doesn't know what his son is even doing most days unless he's leaving the city—the one very aware of his schedule is nathalie sooo maybe it's an issue of knowledge. either way, by season 5, gabriel tries to deliberately put his son into harm's way and even akumatize him sooooo....) so that heart to heart they have that helps gabriel deal with his grief and talks him down from being a supervillain any longer is a beautiful moment (the scene itself has the prettiest animation of those two embracing as purified butterflies surround them), but one that the series would not be able to replicate (that character is really not redeemable there even though they kind of tried).

chloe:

to be honest i don't really care for her in any iteration of this, but i did find it interesting that while she said she offered to show him around (as she does in the show too), we never see adrien with chloe in this movie ever. he doesn't talk about her, he doesn't acknowledge her. i always see their friendship as one created by circumstance—when you're kids and your parents' friends only have the one child you're left to interact with so you become "friends" but that friendship isn't anything deep despite it being one of your first. not going to analyze their relationship in the show because while it's not the best friendship some people in fandom fictionalize, it does have some complexity, but in the movie, i'd honestly argue they barely know each other. chloe mentions adrien on multiple occasions. but he doesn't once talk or think about her. he's already friends with nino (is he new in this? chloe said she wants to show him around, but he's already hanging out in a library when we first see him and he already is friends with nino enough for nino to try to invite him out—is it that he's new but this time it's not his first day we're seeing? i don't know, it's unclear), and they make plans to hang out. you see a montage of him hanging out with nino, alya and marinette later, but nothing on chloe. if she wasn't so extremely anxious, i'd wonder why marinette believes chloe at all when she suddenly claims to be the girl adrien likes. i saw some people say chloe in the film is more redeemable than chloe in the series, and while this is true (because of things chloe does to aid a supervillain in seasons 4 and 5 that can't really be undone) i don't see much of a difference in her relationship with marinette. she's not a "rival" (rival suggests a largely harmless competitiveness—marinette isn't competing with her. she's trying to stay out of her way so chloe doesn't hurt her). the degree of bullying is possibly different (we don't really know. movie chloe threatens to strangle marinette with her own hair, so while she's probably not the sole reason marinette has no friends this time, she's still pretty much an actual bully, though a little more aware of being shamed via the internet for her crimes, though not so much at school in front of people... probably because irl people she can control but on the internet, as a politician's daughter as well as a famous hotel heiress, she is bound to face backlash for herself and her family...?) but it's still not great enough to be claiming this character deserves serious spotlight or a redemption arc (honestly she's hardly in the movie). like the series, i get the impression that there is some racism at work here too, but it's not as strong as it is in the show (marinette being this white girl's main target for no reason, her talking to her like she's inhuman, the way the entire school is so quick to dismiss her whenever she's targeted by lila or chloe without ever investigating anything because a white girl cried wolf, and then chloe's actual comments to marinette's uncle, the way she stresses the 'cheng' part of her surname when she's addressing her, etc. etc. the film doesn't do any of this).

there's a scene where chloe is ordering sabrina to locate marinette so she can harass her, and sabrina finds marinette but chooses to lie and pretend she couldn't find her. though sabrina in the series slowly evolves and learns to listen to her own conscience, i like that outside of chloe's line of sight, she knows what's wrong or right. though this is true of series sabrina too, she doesn't act on this sense of morality. i like the change that she does in the film, at least away from chloe. it's the bare minimum but at least it's something.

the music:

it took me a whileeee to care about the music here, but i still find a lot of the music just largely forgettable. (honestly i was hoping for disney classic level music in this animated film, so i guess i have no one to blame but myself there. it doesn't help that i'm obsessed with the actual instrumental music in the series—'in the rain' is one of the most beautiful songs i've ever heard. also i was hoping for ce mur qui nous sépare, but i guess that was a hopeless dream. i was hoping, if they were excluding it, the song wouldn't apply in the movie because there were less "walls between [them]" than in the series, since it was ending in a reveal, but the film doesn't actually go that route... more on that later.) despite the fact that the music wasn't my favorite part, and i really think the movie would improve if there had been a better balance between story development and music (the film really suffers from too much unneeded music in favor of less story development), i did really enjoy some of the songs and the usage of series throwback musical motifs was excellent. also really enjoyed the usage of 'careless whisper' in this movie lmfaoooooo, comedic excellence.

(unpopular opinion: i really didn't mind that lou sings for christina. it doesn't fit well at all, but i heard about it long before i watched the movie and was just expecting it. it's not the best because their voices are so different, but it didn't really take me out like i thought it would, and i got used to it really fast.)

in the first song marinette sings about believing in herself. the visuals are gorgeous. the film brought to life her sketchbook, evolving the mundane to the most elegant of clothes. honestly would love to see and hear more about marinette's passion for design and her dream of becoming a designer. the film barely touched upon it (the show could go into this more too! they do sometimes but i want moreee), but it would be nice to hear where marinette's inspirations come from, why this dream is so meaningful to her. what i found interesting was, in the show marinette exclaims that gabriel agreste is her favorite fashion designer. but movie marinette doesn't mention him ever. does she know about him? is he less influential to her here? she walks by his showroom on her way to school but that's the extent we see of anything in this vein. curious.

though i don't think the 'you are ladybug' song was a necessity (adrien didn't get a song about becoming chat noir, but i guess he didn't need the extra encouragement, since he was ready to go instantly), i did actually enjoy it. lyrically it isn't strong, but it's a fun back and forth between marinette and tikki, and the way the song pays homage to the miraculous ladybug theme song is beautiful (the entire "i have one job / i'm good at it / i've been doing it for so many years" follows the tune to "another day / i'm back at school / i look at him, he's so cool" in the series theme song, and i especially loved "but why me? / i'm nothing special, bug / wait and see / what you're capable of" sung to the melody of "oh oh oh / he's got me spinning 'round / oh oh oh / my feet are off the ground." just TOO GOOD). the rap where tikki channels lin manuel miranda made me die of laughter, but also i really can't get over her going, "we'll come THISCLOSE to dying and then we'll do it all again!" as a selling point to convince this teenager to put her life on the line for all of paris. the other part of this song i really loved was the polyphony at the end when marinette and tikki sang their own melodies at the same time—not just because it sounded nice but because i died over tikki saying, "i'm about to kick your butt if you don't start to listen" lmao.

my entire theater laughed at hawk moth’s song (the song was okay, but the concept of hawk moth singing took me out lmao). it did have the feel of a classic villain song in movies like anastasia or the lion king, but it wasn’t as memorable. i do think it expressed gabriel agreste’s mental state really well though. 

reiterating that i really don’t think marinette needed 3.5 different songs about the same theme, but the best song lyrically/musically/vocally is definitely ‘courage in me,’ hands down.

maybe it’s because i adore the fuck out of the music drew ryan scott sings as ’christopher wilde’ in the disney channel movie starstruck, but i love the song chat noir sings after being lovestruck by ladybug after their first meeting (sung by the same man). the visuals of him literally singing with his head in the clouds were excellent, the character song fit him so well, and i think the melody had such a dreamscape feel of falling in love. i actually really like the lyrics in this song too (“it’s been a while since i smiled and meant it” adrichat my bb ;A; ) and my favorite part is “then she appears like a dream in a dream!” i think this song also does what music is meant to do in a musical—add to the story so that part of it can be told in song. so we get adrien basically saying he’s been withdrawing from people for sooo long, and this encounter with ladybug in which he almost died is the first time he’s felt something in a long time. this musical interlude leads to him hanging out with his friend nino at the fair (he said ‘whatever’ when nino first asked him to go, but the difference in his expression and the fact that he seems more smiley and enthusiastic in this encounter, and even hopeful enough to ask his dad to actually come to the fair and hang out with him already demonstrates a change in his demeanor), actually having a conversation with marinette, and then a montage of him no longer choosing to deal with his grief alone and finally reaching out to others, so you can see how that moment with ladybug (and all the other moments of them getting to know each other afterward while fighting or training) really did impact his life.

the miraculous title musical montage around the middle of the movie was too excellent and showed the passage of time really well, both as ladybug and chat noir, and as adrien and marinette. this was a great way to develop parts of the story (it also depicted marinette’s character evolution, making her more self confident in her daily life and no longer being an anxious messy creator of catastrophes). it was also nice to just hear a familiar song. (chat noir smiling goofily to himself after seeing ladybug smile at “and when i see her smile, that’s when she becomes miraculous” is my fave—it's just so well done, i love.)

‘stronger together’ is one of those songs that i love the first half of but find the second half too messy. the sequence is gorgeous, the scene is one of my favorites in terms of relationship development and animation in the entire movie. and i am weirdly in love with the part of the song where it pauses before he sings “take my hand!” and the music picks up. it’s so playful and flirty and the essence of how ladynoir are depicted in this movie, and i love that. the vocals are lovely. there’s a musical motif throwing back to one of my favorite instrumentals in the tv series—'the last dance' which serves as the background of so many touching ladybug and chat noir moments in the show—at the end of the song where she ponders the mixed feelings inside her heart before ultimately rejecting chat noir (“what is this feeling now? i cannot fall for him…” / “we could be great, i know / i’m falling for you.”). as a song, this back and forth dialogue feels so random tacked on here but it is a musical so i guess that fits, i just found the whole thing kind of messy. but i love that they did this dialogue to the melody of ‘the last dance’ because it’s such a gorgeous melody and a sentimental throwback. honestly even if i only like half the song, the scene itself is a film highlight and i fucking cry over the cheesy cute “you save the world every day with your mask, but the girl behind it saved my heart” he says to her that causes her to gasp (same).

film additions that are just better:

the animation, obviously. (THE HAIR TEXTURE! THE SCENERY! THEIR EYES? I CRY I CRY.)

i am fond of the fact that their miraculous lights up (flickers? glows? there's light of some kind) when the city is in need of ladybug or chat noir to save the day, and just kind of guides adrien and marinette to where they need to go. this is a big difference from the series where they have to physically encounter the danger themselves (and they do! because in the show, most of the people akumatized are people they know, random adults in their lives or the kids in their class). and at least one of them has to be present to call the other one to appear. this is not necessary in the universe of the movie. it's also more realistic because hawk moth isn't specifically targeting the kids in his son's class, but is akumatizing people at random all over the city.

i also really loved the fact that tikki and plagg use magic to choose their own chosen holders, rather than master fu doing a random test in the middle of nowhere and hoping to attract people of pure heart out on the street. it helps add to the lore that they're actually chosen, and that they're fated and compatible, and i love that a lot. (there is a scene where he, while trying to chase tikki, ends up in the middle of the street in front of oncoming traffic, and marinette risks her life to save him. but this wasn't used as a means for him to choose her for the ladybug role, but rather as a means for identifying that she was destined to be ladybug and tikki had chosen her. i will add that while i love the concept, the scene itself made me laugh because he sounded crazy interacting with her, no wonder she ended up being scared and running away from him.) the fact that adrien spots a black cat that leads him to the black cat ring and marinette spots a ladybug that guides her to the ladybug earrings... *chef's kiss* i'll confess, i wasn't a fan of every single person they choose throughout history being called ladybug and chat noir (in the series, they choose their own names. ladybug is self explanatory but the fact that adrien's mom used to read him a bedtime story about a hero named chat noir and this resonated with him so much he chose to name himself that immediately upon discovering he has powers means so much to me), but this really wasn't a significant change and i only care because i love adrichat so much.

it was a cool detail in the scene where marinette meets tikki that she awakens like the genie in aladdin (she even calls herself a genie in this one rather than a god. it doesn't matter, but i prefer kwamis being called gods. tikki then goes on to talk about how she can't grant wishes, when we know the black cat and ladybug miraculous can grant a wish in exchange for an equal price which is the entire plot of the movie, but this terminology preference is unimportant). the way she noted all the societal changes and how much time has spent since she's been needed to reawaken was very fun.

in the tv series, gabriel agreste akumatizes himself when he thinks ladybug and chat noir might guess his identity as hawk moth, hoping that if he appeared as a victim they'd be off his trail. while this serves its purpose in the show, i thought it was really cool that film gabriel agreste decided his dark heart would be stronger than the people he's been akumatizing, and instead of continuing to sit back and use innocent civilians for his means, he chooses to akumatize those negative feelings he always carries with him and turn into the ultimate villain himself. and he succeeds, becoming a villain that is so strong, he gets the earrings himself and nearly gets the ring. though i liked that he did this, something about this battle still felt really anticlimactic. it's probably a pacing issue because i really did love that final scene between gabriel and adrien, but everything happened so fast it didn't feel as epic as it seemed they were going for. additionally, i know that the point was ladybug and chat noir are only unbeatable if they work together and they were not at all united this final battle because their feelings got in the way, i was still really troubled that the only reason they won against hawk moth is because he backed off. had chat noir's mask never gotten torn, he would not have stopped...

(i also have to ask, since his identity gets revealed on a large scale and the newscasters even announce that it was him the whole time, does he actually get consequences? like he did back off, but he was still terrorizing the whole city for months... if he's exposed, shouldn't there be ramifications? i can't tell if he went to prison. the movie did not say.)

where the series shines more:

to someone who has never seen the series (i watched this initially with a friend who knew absolutely nothing about mlb), the powers are confusing. in the series, origins explains really well what cataclysm and lucky charm do, how they can only use them once before given five minutes before detransforming and needing to re-transform to use the power again. the series makes use of this, creating tension with the five minute rule (which is explained to only apply to them while they're children, so once they "mature" the time limit will disappear and they'd be able to use their powers over and over without fear of exposing their identities). while the movie does not need to stress over the time limitation (as the film aged up the characters from 13 to 15/16, so i guess they've already hit 'maturity'), it spends no time on explaining what a cataclysm is (a power chat noir doesn't even use until the final battle, and NO EXPLANATION IS GIVEN. WE'RE JUST SUPPOSED TO KNOW HE ALWAYS HAD THIS ABILITY HE NEVER NEEDED TO USE UNTIL HAWK MOTH WAS READY TO KILL HIM) and there are no lucky charms.

actually, the entire battle format makes little sense. in the show, ladybug and chat noir have to figure out what object hawk moth akumatized to turn civilians into his supernatural army, break the akumatized object, free the butterfly, and then purify it. in the movie, all they're really told is that they're meant to fight these beings, and after they win, ladybug can purify the butterfly. there isn't an explanation for when the butterfly leaves the akuma—no objects are being broken; they're literally just fighting until the monster can exist no more. this is strange to me because these fights have no rules. it's just, literally physically defeating a creature until the magic can no longer hold it.

i don't know how i feel about this, but i liked how the series does it. because it's an emphasis on physical strength, the movie lacking lucky charms makes sense, but what i always liked about that was 1) it called back on ladybug being the embodiment of good luck that her power would be chance, and 2) it was specifically marinette's time to shine. her strength in the series is her creativity, her creative approach to problem solving and use of her clever mind is what sets her apart and makes her the best ladybug in the series no matter who else has worn the ladybug miraculous. without this, i felt like a big essence of the character was missing. (the film does call upon her intelligence and creative mind in some scenes, like in the first battle where she uses her yoyo somewhat strategically to stumble her way through traffic and save chat noir, but it wasn't enough for me. i guess it was supposed to be implied that she planned the gargoyle to get hit by the train and the collision released the akuma, but the film is so unclear about this. it looked more like a happy accident rather than marinette using her brain to save the day.)

in the show, ladybug also has the ability to undo akuma damage when she throws her lucky charm into the air and shouts "miraculous ladybug" at the end of each battle. since lucky charms are absent in this iteration, it makes sense this isn't a thing either. (i guess it could also be tedious to show this in the movie after every single attack whereas once an episode is fine, but they could have just shown it once and implied it always happened. instead, what they implied was that after every battle, the damage to the city was actual damage and the city had to deal with the infrastructure hawk moth damaged until after the final battle, when ladybug gave master fu the butterfly miraculous. upon reclamation of that miraculous, fu told her that she, as the holder of the miraculous of creation, could (now, i guess?) use her power to rebuild the city. instead of it being a lucky charm thrown into the air with an incantation that creates a swarm of butterflies spreading over the city for an immediate cure, it's marinette directing her power slowly to every corner of the city and actually creating to undo the damage. this made for a very pretty scene that i really liked, but imagine how awful paris would look if in the series, none of that damage was ever fixed and it would have taken til the end of season 5, ten months after hawk moth started terrorizing the city, for anything to get restored (actually this wouldn't even happe if the show universe worked the same way because they don't reclaim that miraculous at the end of season 5).

so one of my main issues with this film is that a lot of the major themes and didactic messages are just constantly shoved in your face rather than learned by the characters. i think the series—because it has the time—does this better than the film because it allows characters to fail and learn things on their own, rather than having the message delivered in big "life lesson" quotes to the characters all the time that it doesn't at all feel natural. (so the film constantly tells rather than shows.) for example, on her way out of the bakery, marinette randomly asks her mom, "how do you make your dreams come true?" this conversation comes out of nowhere (they were talking about her embarrassment from her dad's antics and her lack of friends right before), and it's followed up with a lesson in believing in herself. it might have made sense had her mom encouraged her to embrace who she is and related that to her reaching out of her comfort zone to consider befriending some of her peers, but that doesn't happen. (it does lead to a song about believing in herself and how if she did so she'd reach her true potential, which is nice, but feels so disjointed from the conversation that happened before it, it was a bit jarring.) when marinette meets master fu on the street, he randomly says to her "who saves a life saves the world" and scares her. but then moments after, she ends up somewhere a ladybug leads her to the same words written on stone. we really didn't need master fu saying this to her when she was going to encounter the message anyway (especially as it comes into play significantly at the end of the movie in the final battle when fu reiterates the quote).

i cringed so hard in that scene after their first fight where master fu appeared out of nowhere just to say “before you discover who i am, you must first discover who you are.” like... okay?

similarly, this is how i felt about the "stronger together" theme. i love that this message is important to the plot—chat noir and ladybug literally are stronger together. but this is constantly being stated rather than the movie trusting the audience to realize it on their own. in the show, ladybug and chat noir work best as partners. their teamwork and trust in each other makes the entire show. here, they work best together also, and their powers even amplify during the moments of teamwork rather than when either of them try to take on a fight alone. i thought this was an interesting change (i love both), but i really like the two of them discovering this on their own through trial and error rather than having master fu mention it to them once and they just spend the entire movie constantly thinking about it.

the one “life lesson” that i thought was more naturally expressed was when chat noir, before being a cute goofball and teasing her, realized ladybug was a little hesitant to accept the mission, and he said, “i understand you’re afraid, but failure is not your enemy—your fears are.” though his delivery was lighthearted, the message stayed with her and she even parrots it back to him later. this is how a film expressing such “life lessons” should do it—through natural progression rather than a bunch of fortune cookie quotes thrown at you over and over again. (though the scene is different, it was reminiscent of the scene in origins when ladybug panics because of how they messed up their first fight, and chat noir reassures and encourages her, inspiring her to continue being a hero despite her being afraid of making more mistakes. this is another example of the film having corresponding but distinctive scenes that i still really enjoyed even though they were different from the series.)

actually, that scene towards the end of the film when tikki reminds marinette that she's ladybug even outside of the mask was really well done too (as well as its reference to the earlier "you save the world every day with your mask, but the girl behind it saved my heart" scene). i loved seeing marinette muster up all the strength she has to try to free chat noir from hawk moth's grip. that one shot of her tackling him out of the way of hawk moth's attack as herself untransformed is so beautifully animated.

overall:

honestly, ignoring all those tweets arguing the movie is better than the series (they're incomparable—there are things the film does better, but overall the development of the series spread out over a hundred episodes is way better than a movie limited under two hours with way too much music), i found that the movie was fun if it wasn't taken seriously. as much as we all hate astruc i don't think it can replace the series even with the things it did better, but i don't think it was meant to (despite what tons of great marketing tweets by fans have claimed). it's just another way to enjoy these characters that mean a lot to us, another iteration of a story we cherish. i do hope the writing improves and the lessons come more naturally in the sequel, but even if it's just a continuation of this i'll eat it up every time (especially now that the movie approaches territory the series has never come close to: marinette and adrien know their feelings for each other and their identities, a fanfiction reader's dream! and maybe they can retcon the adrienette and explore whatever was meant to be conveyed via that montage so that the relationship works on both sides of the mask). i hope anyone familiar with miraculous (and those even curious about it) go and enjoy this film on netflix because it's still a fun ride, and i'm really glad i had the opportunity to experience it at the cinema and laugh and cry all the way through.

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous movie #miraculous awakening #ml movie spoilers #miraculous the movie #miraculous ladybug the movie #ml awakening #mlb movie #miraculous le film #awakening spoilers #mlb movie spoilers #ml awakening spoilers #chat noir #miraculous spoilers #mlb spoilers #ladybug and chat noir #miraculous #review #the gist is: it does some things better than the show and some things worse but overall i had fun anyway and i'm excited for the sequels

[oneatlatime]

The Siege of the North Part 2

Last episode of the season! I'll post some season round up stuff over the next few days.

The last episode ended super abruptly, so a refresher: -Aang and Zuko are in a snowstorm and Aang is currently hypnotised by a Yin Yang fish -Katara, Sokka and Yue are in the spirit oasis moping about losing Aang to Zuko -There’s a big fuck off Fire Nation Armada parked out front -All current trends point to the Northern Water Tribe being a finely ground and toasted paste by the end of the day

Episode Time!

I don’t know, did Katara really do everything she could? She could have called for backup. Although given Zuko’s track record with taking out scores of guards when the plot requires (hello Blue Spirit episode), I guess it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Ignore Momo for a minute and look at this grass texture. I can't decide if I like it or not. It's certainly doing... something?

Is this the spirit world? I'm loving the colour pallette. Since Aang's dreams tend to be sepia-toned, does that mean he dreams in the spirit world?

This monkey guy has so much personality. I love how our first look at this sacred, spiritual, mystical place is an antisocial jerk. Lovely subversion of expectations.

Roku has unparallelled jumpscare abilities.

I have to say the sound design on the ice cracking under Zuko's feet is spot on. That oddly hollow yet muffled thud is exactly the noise ice sheets make when they go.

Poor Aang getting dragged like a kitten. He's got to have frozen skin by now. Should have taken Iroh's advice and covered his ears.

I don't think Aang moves once during Roku's speech about the spirits crossing over. I think he's a freeze frame of animation, something which this show usually avoids.

Judging by the musical sting it's supposed to be a serious line, but the way Roku feels the need to clarify that the Face Stealer will steal your face got a laugh out of me. Was anyone expecting him to do anything else?

"They call him Coe, the Face Stealer. Be careful, or he will validate your parking."

Where did he get fuel to burn? And why does he feel the need to monologue? And if struggling and fighting is what made you into who you are, maybe you should give being lucky a chance, because you're not exactly well-liked or very good at what you're supposed to be doing.

Inclusivity win! These non-benders get to torch the water tribe too!

Ballistic water canon portholes - that's neat.

Those long range grappling hooks are probably the fire nation's most effective weapon.

Please die please die please die please die please die please die

How rotten do you have to be inside, that when you find a giant underground hidden library, you use it to find out ways to wipe out civilisations? And celestial bodies? Zhao is honestly so pathetic. Ruthless, and somewhat effective sure, but you're gifted a giant underground secret library and all you can think to do with it is use it to kill people? Pathetic.

This spirit world stuff is so neat. The scale, the lighting, the animals, everything is slightly off in a way that feels deeply alien. I like.

Get your mind out of the gutter.

The squealing strings in the spirit world are fantastic. The composition of this shot, also fantastic. The colour pallette; fantastic. I would love to live in the spirit world if I wasn't in danger of losing my face.

The face stealer recognising the avatar is chilling. Really adds a sense of the ancient. And whoever is voicing him had the time of their life. Deliciously evil moustache twirling stuff, but still with an underlying very real threat.

I love Sokka's logic here. Co-opt enemy's strength; make it serve you. Zuko being persistent means that there will still be an avatar to save once Sokka catches up to them.

This whole encounter with the face stealer is a cut above. They really pulled the stops out for this finale.

I don't think this is the Blue Spirit, but it's close.

I KNEW those fish were thematically relevant. What a completely unexpected reversal too! Those spirits you're asking for help? Actually, they're asking you.

It pays to be nice! This is why Aang has to stay such a nice boy! See? It pays off!!!

Looks like someone was a little slow with the whole 'conquering the enemy before their main source of power turbo charges them' thing. We've got floor is lava: tank edition, ice machine guns, and Poophead turning a whole row of soldiers into popsicles. Good stuff.

I absolutely hate Poophead but I have to admit it's satisfying watching him go 1 v dozens in tornado mode and kick fire nation butt.

That panda has some powerful breath. And I love that morphing effect between big cuddly guy and horrors beyond description.

"Oh No! Where's my body?" That's pretty funny. I don't think it's supposed to be, but it is.

Forget about the panda, Aang has powerful breath. He just wallpapered Zuko to the cave wall and travelled like 100 feet in the opposite direction.

Keep inching along buddy.

"That won't be enough to escape" "Appa!" "That probably is."

Forget about Aang wallpapering Zuko, Katara just turned him into a floor mat from 40 feet up. How many concussions has Zuko had in the last week?

If that rope is so quality, why did you cut through every loop rather than untie it and save it for later?

Of course Aang has to bring Zuko back. Aang is a nice little boy. That's what nice little boys do, and they get repaid for their kindness down the line with things like rides from giant pandas.

Imagine if Zhao had grabbed the wrong fish? It's a good thing that the moon spirit has a built in indicator light. What would the ocean do if it was in trouble? Get more blue?

Yue exposition. Yue is a moon horcrux. Oh this won't end well.

How long do you think Zhao spent composing his little speech? How many crumpled up parchments did he go through before he had the words just right? Do you think he practiced in the mirror while holding up a sock in place of the moon fish?

Get his ass Momo! I love how the guard in the back is like "nah, I'll let the lemur do his thing. Dude deserves it honestly."

Could we have some more specific examples of consequences beyond "balance" and "Chaos" for killing the moon? I don't think Zhao the asshole is going to pay attention to consequences unless they directly affect himself.

Zhao is way too fond of the word traitor. That's two people he's called traitor who are actually just people he personally dislikes.

You know you done goofed when kindly tea uncle promises to beat your ass. Zhao, meet consequences that directly affect you.

The face of a man realising he has, in fact, done goofed.

That's twice now these fish have yanked Aang around. Powerful fish. Did the fish call upon the Avatar or was Aang so angry that he went glowy and the fish took advantage?

FISHMAN

oh boy these guys are dead. So dead.

Tired of failing at capturing the Avatar, Zuko instead turns to trying to kill Zhao. Brightest idea he's had all season.

"Then at least, you could have lived!" Bold talk for someone who's already lost one duel to this guy and is currently losing the second. Unless you meant to flop backwards off that bridge?

Ooof. But she was always on borrowed time, wasn't she?

He just batted them away like balls on a pool table. So casually cutting through tonnes of steel and people. Fishman is killing thousands. I bet Aang's not too happy about that.

Ouch. More Sokka trauma!

Fish spirit dropping Aang off like he's bumming a ride to school, not killing probably 10 000 + people.

How am I supposed to take this seriously when Zuko's doing silly little summersaults?

Zhao is such a baby. I sincerely hope he's dead now too.

Bit of an abrupt tonal change. And yes, it's LONG past time you helped out the south. I hope Kanna is informed in exacting detail of her grandaughter's Pakku-bahsing exploits. She'd be so proud.

This scene should have come before the scene with Katara and Poophead. Would have avoided the tone switch. Also is that a tree to the right?

"So proud. And sad." OUCH.

Not-fun fact: there are four humans in this screenshot.

I'm guessing that was the firelord? I suddenly see where Zuko gets his muppet voice.

Mark Hamill?!?!

Final Thoughts

Where is the line between self-sacrifice and suicide? Because I have to say, Yue was very determined to do her duty. I guess that's one way to get out of an arranged marriage.

So glad to not see her fiance again, because then I can pretend he drowned. I bet he and Zhao are having fun out asshole-ing each other at the bottom of the sea.

Sokka!!! Somebody needs to give him a hug and get him into the care of a trusted adult immediately because the last thing he needed was MORE duty-related trauma. I bet he views what happened as him failing in his duty to the northern chief. He pretty much says as much when Yue chooses to save the moon. Obviously, there was rationally no way out of that one, but since when are emotions and trauma rational?

Yue describes her saving the moon as her duty, but it was also her choice, and I bet that's the first free choice she's ever gotten to make. Sokka didn't prevent her; he let her choose to do her duty. He definitely had objections, which he voiced, but he let her go once she brought up duty. It's so awful that Yue's first time having her choice respected (dare I say, having her own agency respected) is when she chooses to die.

She is dead, right? Her body evaporated and she's in the moon now. On the moon? Is she the moon? Did she replace the old moon? Or did the moon let her have a few seconds as a ghost for closure before she went to the afterlife? I don't know the mechanics of this.

Poor Aang just killed thousands of people, even if he was fish-possessed at the time. Katara's about the only person who emerged from this episode ok. She got to one-shot Zuko.

Fish possession-induced mega-fishman is not a solution I could have ever predicted to the problem of a whole fleet that needs getting rid of. It totally fits, despite it being a strange idea to contemplate in isolation. Aang pulls (rather, the fish pulls) a move straight out of Pacific Rim and it works.

The spirit world was really capably done. Creepy yet alluring, seemingly detached and untouchable yet both in tune with the real world and vulnerable to the things that go on there. And how clever was it to have Aang go to the spirits for help, only to find out that the spirits need his help? I love that reversal. It really ups the stakes. In any other fantasy story an appeal to the council of higher beings of whatever would either result in help or a refusal. Imagine calling up your godly bosses with a problem only to have them beg you for help? It's kind of chilling. Both in how close things came to disaster, and in the fact that humans in the real world actually have the power to pose that much of a threat to the spirits. Again you see why it's important to have a bridge between the real and spirit worlds: because traffic either way poses a threat to both sides.

What is up with Zuko? He failed the whole season at capturing the avatar (a task at which he was outclassed by episode 3), and now he doesn't have the resources to even try. So he's no longer a villain (not the he was ever good at it), he's no longer even a threat. He's a concussed vulture's meal on a raft. Is he even going to be in the next season of the show? What role could he possibly fulfill? He'll be just... there.

I had tone problems with this episode. A couple of places where I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to laugh, I did. And there were a couple of pretty corny set up lines. Yue discussing how there was no hope gave me Helm's Deep flashbacks. I think maybe this episode should have been a little longer in order to make the tone switches more gradual. And I get that, as a kids' cartoon show, they have to end the season on a happy note, but was there anyone in the main or background cast that didn't have a reason to end this episode seriously bummed out? Momo maybe. Appa's empathetic enough to be sad that Aang is sad. Yes, the North is saved, but the princess is dead, there are presumably thousands of enemy corpses bobbing around beyond the wall, and who knows how many water tribe people got crushed by fireballs.

The last three episodes have really been one big story. Katara's part was really over by the opening scene of the siege of the north part 1, which is about where Aang's part began. The real through line that ties these three episodes together is Sokka and Yue. These last three episodes have been low key Sokka episodes (and Yue episodes by extension). I think it's a sign of good writing and engaging characters, that the season finale of a show named after its main character can put a huge amount of focus on someone who isn't the main character and still have it feel natural.

Turn Sokka into a girl and beat him down with the expectations women face in a patriarchal society, and you get Yue. They are each others' mirrors, which is partially why they connect (the other reasons being Sokka is a breath of fun fresh air and Yue is gorgeous and desperately lonely). While I would give an arm and a leg for a version of the show where Yue joins the Gaang and travels around the world with them, being exposed to opportunities for growth and adventure and becoming her own person rather than an extension of her tribe's will, I think it also makes sense that Sokka and Yue ultimately can't be together. I'm having trouble putting this into words, so bear with me, but I think because Yue and Sokka are mirrors, and largely mirrors of the more burdensome aspects of their lives (ie duty), then wouldn't them getting together limit them? Halt their growth as characters? Would they not drag each other down? Under the right circumstances (like peace) they could help each other grow, but in war time it's probably not a good idea to have two self-sacrificing members on your team.

I know Aang had some crazy stuff happen to him this episode (and last episode too), but so much of what happened to him literally happened TO him. He had no say in the matter. He got yanked around by spirits, fish, and Zuko. Which is why the Sokka x Yue storyline was more interesting to me. Poor Aang may have a hell of a time processing all that yanking around, but that's not in this episode. Sokka and Yue actively making choices are in this episode, and their storyline has had three episodes to develop, so the payoff feels more earned.

The soundtrack was great this episode, especially in the spirit world. Deliciously creepy stuff.

Visuals were gorgeous. I especially liked the beige palete of the spirit world and grey-blue palette during the mega fishman scenes. The creeping blue veins were a good way to express the scale of mega fishman's power without just colouring the whole frame bright blue.

Zhao honestly got exactly what he deserved. It must have been a fitting end for his character because it left me highly satisfied.

Yue deserved better, but if the chief is to be believed, predestination is both a thing and unavoidable in this world, so she got the only end she could ever have. I love characters with quiet strength, but I love them more when they don't have to die.

Overall a good episode! It had to wrap up so many storylines that it ended up going all over the place, with some necessarily expository dialogue that felt clunky. Poor Aang featured surprisingly little in his own show's finale, if you discount when he's fish-possessed. Sokka got his heart ripped out and stomped on, as did the chief. Pakku has hopefully set himself up for a hearty slap from Kanna. Zuko and Iroh survived, but that's about all that can be said of them at the moment. I feel like maybe Katara will be carrying the Gaang for the next few weeks.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the siege of the north part 2 #avatar the last airbender

[raquellemonsta]

SAKUSA KIYOOMI BEING A SINGLE DAD OF A BABY GIRL

PLZPLZPLZ

MY BABY SAKUSA WITH A BABY. he is such a girl dad. i thought of this more as headcanons because i couldn't think of a single specific direction i wanted to go with it, so there's just kind of everything. hope you like!

headcanons of single dad sakusa kiyoomi ft. reader

- we all know that sakusa isn't the biggest fan of germs and bacteria

-and babies are basically breeding grounds for the stuff

-so i feel like at first he would be hesitant to really get involved and have a kid at first

-plus it might be hard for him to find someone he'd like to have a baby with

-imo he seems like the kind who would adopt rather than be left with a kid via hookup or past relationship etc. for that reason

-it just makes sense to me that he would have a kid when he finally wants one and knows he will be able to take care of a child himself

-maybe some of his friends and teammates talk about their kids

-like atsumu brags to him about his girls and it starts to make sakusa really think about a kid

-especially having a baby girl

-he is soooooo girl dad

-does that make sense? like you can tell just from the everything about him

-so he basically started researching the adoption process and scheduled an appointment with a nearby agency to learn more

-plus he obviously has the money for adoption so it's no problem for him

-they matched him with a little baby girl that was left in a baby box and is a few months old

-he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her in person

-even though they aren't genetically related she coincidentally has dark curly hair (though smaller tufts due to how young she is)

-he would definitely have a room already completely ready for her when he gets home

-probably painted it a light purple and would theme it around flowers, even though he's not a big fan of them in real life

-he definitely disinfects everything (though it probably didn't even need to be cleaned in the first place), and babyproofs his house with socket covers and bumpers and things like that -has done a lot of research on parenting strategies -he would read to her as opposed to letting her watch tv or an ipad

-or if he was to have her watch tv it would be those educational baby genius things

-bathtime is his favorite time (and hers too), he has one of the small baby bathtubs and 

-he likes doing her hair and is actually very good at it

-big ponytail, pigtails and all that stuff

-when she gets older and does dance classes he goes to every concert and even some practices so he can dance with her

-he doesn't get embarrassed if its for his daughter

-but anyway back to baby

-he also has a very good support system

-he gets busy with practices and games, so he realized he would need someone to take care of her while they happen

-you offer to watch his daughter so that he doesn't need to go through the hassle of finding a babysitter

-not like you mind anyway, she's a total sweetheart

-you also take her on his days 'off' since they are very rare for sakusa, not that he doesn't love spending time with his daughter

-but this poor soul needs a break!

-if you're busy, he usually has one of his old msby teammates watch her

-i'm thinking it's usually hinata, since atsumu is already busy with his own kids and bokuto always has something

-you also bring a new toy for her every time (to her dad's somewhat annoyance)

-sakusa tells you you're going to spoil her but she's so cute you can't resist

-you guys will have 'family' dinners together to show how grateful he is to you

-even though you always joke you do it for her and not him

-you're basically her other parent anyway

-the two of you watch his games

-he gets her a mini version of his jersey

-he's not big on social media but he will post the occasional picture of her, like after his team wins a tournament and she chews his medal

-which also brings me to this \/

-he doesn't care about her germs

-like 10 years ago he probably would have died if a baby slobbered on him

-but when it's her it's okay

-'dada' 'papa' or any version of dad is definitely her first word and he literally cries the first time she says it

-moral of the story: sakusa kiyoomi loves his daughter more than anything

-he is best girl dad

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #sakusa #sakusa x reader #request #hinata #headcanon #atsumu miya #bokuto koutarou

[yanderes-galore]

Hi ^^!! I've been a fan of your work for a little while now, would a Scott Tenorman vs Michael (tall goth) concept be okay?

Hi ^^ I'm happy you're a fan! Sure, I'll see what I got! I have a feeling Scott has potential. Aged up as usual but Scott is still the oldest.

I did what I could as Scott seems like such an active yandere while Michael is more like... will attack when provoked. Idk, sorry it's a bit short.

Yandere! Scott Tenorman vs Michael/Tall Goth

Pairing: Romantic - Rivalry

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Mentioned sadism, Obsession, Stalking, Attempted murder, Manipulation, Jealousy, Clingy behavior, Forced relationship, Kidnapping mention, Secret picture taking, Violence, Torture mention.

I have a feeling both of them struggle with their darling.

They both have family problems.

Out of the two of them Scott would probably be the worst.

Scott's manipulative, sadistic, delusional, and obsessive.

Michael's obsessive, delusional, and apathetic towards what he does for his darling.

Their yandere types don't really conflict as they behave so different.

They'd both be clingy somewhat as they like to essentially use their darling to forget about what they have going on in life.

Scott's sadism comes mostly from what Cartman's done to him.

Scott probably would not be sadistic towards his darling.

It's mostly a revenge/rival thing.

Out of both of them I'd also say Scott's the most unstable.

Although Michael can be bad too as he doesn't care what he has to do to have his darling.

So while Scott is outwardly insane... with Michael you never know.

The two yanderes are obsessive and do stalk.

Both of them take secret photos of you to look at later.

Both of them would murder but treat it differently.

Scott likes to sadistically torture his rivals both physically and psychologically before killing them.

Michael does it like it's a chore, he takes no pleasure in it and just sees it as necessary.

Michael doesn't like Scott and honestly tries to ignore him.

Scott isn't willing to trust Michael around you and often antagonizes him.

Scott would be eerily similar to Cartman in behavior.

Although while Cartman is self-absorbed, Scott actually cares for his darling.

Michael also cares for his darling but struggles to show it.

Michael can only ignore Scott for so long before he finally starts to get on his nerves.

Michael does have a temper and may snap at Scott if he sees you around him so often.

While Michael dislikes fighting as it's a hassle he won't mind if it means he can push Scott away from you.

If they did fight they're both determined to kill at some point.

The way they try to get your attention is different.

Michael's is slower due to his lack of confidence.

Scott's faster and more overwhelming, he's determined to win you over.

Michael often complains about Scott to you.

Scott often tries to frame Michael and make you hate him.

Both yanderes could kidnap but would also treat it differently.

Michael is more casual about it.

It's as though you are both just hanging out... but the door's locked.

Scott makes it a big deal.

He does up a room for you and tells you it's where you'll stay.

He makes his intentions obvious.

Your safest yandere is Michael.

But it would be better to just pack things up and leave South Park.

The two men often have bruises and scrapes from each other.

They'll have verbal fights and physical fights over you, often glaring at each other like angry cats.

At some point... only one of them will meet up with you.

If the rivalry goes on... soon only one will win.

Then you'll really have to watch yourself as there will be no more distractions when pursuing you.

#yandere south park #yandere aged up south park #yandere tall goth michael #yandere scott tenorman

[amethystina]

Oh man!! The latest chapter!!! The angst was angsting, pain was paining, heart is wrenching, tear is falling, it was soooo mean, but do it again!!!

It was the longest chapter and ironically the most painful chapter as well. Have I said how much I love slow burn and angst and this fic hits home everytime?? Likeee woah I just LOVE how this fic is LOOONG , nowhere near close bc that means I get me read it longer lol.

And I feel like I would never be able to appreciate how much hard work you put in Who Holds the Devil.

I am guessing it is now Ga On's turn to pursue Yohan and Oh man I can already imagine how much he is gonna suffer while doing it 😭 or maybe not (bc he tends to be pretty straightforward at times and impulsive as well) but I believe it's gonna be pretty hard bc Gaon has so much shit to get together and Yohan, my man, already gave up (poor him) so gaon trying to persue him or rather seduce his sugar daddy would look very suspicious to him. Nevertheless I am exited to see Gaon try and miserably, comically and hilariously half fail bc he will succeed eventually as Yohan is too much of a loser for Gaon lol. I am excited for future chapters and definitely wouldn't complain about more angst lol.

It was necessary for this to happen, otherwise the story would go nowhere and most importantly Gaon and Yohan would go nowhere, their problems will never be solved. Sometimes hitting rock bottom is crucial to develop in life BUT I would hate it if it happens to me, hope I will be able to get my shits together before that happens ( or maybe it already happened but I am not relizing it or not acknowledging it much like gaon but he is better than me ngl at least he has the courage)

This became a rant about me naur 😭

Lastly I hope you have a great day and things work out for you 💕

Also idk if it's your cup of tea but My Happy Ending kdrama is sooo good and worth giving it a try. It's a psychological suspense drama hehe. I am soo invested in it nowadays so couldn't help recommending you as well 💫

It was a painful chapter, yeah. And I'm both relieved and heartbroken to finally have it out there. As someone who doesn't actually like angst, this chapter was a struggle in more than one way. But it's necessary if I want their relationship to move forward, so here we are.

At this point, writing Who Holds the Devil has sort of turned into a second job, not going to lie. I still enjoy it, make no mistake, but I have to plan all of my other hobbies around it since I feel an obligation to post somewhat regularly. Like, I've been postponing drawing for the past two weeks because I wanted to get this chapter out (that's how long it took to edit, yes) but drawing is the thing that helps the most with my depression symptoms (that have made an unwanted reappearance due to my burnout), so I've been struggling quite a bit. And now all I want to do is draw for a couple of days.

So yeah. I can't lie and say it's not a lot of work, both in terms of planning, writing, editing, etc., but also how it affects the rest of my life. BUT I just love it too much to give up on it ;)

And yes, Ga On will have to be the one to pursue Yo Han now ;) Or, well, eventually. He has to wallow and overthink things a bit first because, well, Ga On. If overthinking things was an Olympic sport, he'd win the gold for sure. But he WILL give Yo Han what he wants in the end, I promise.

In short, the "the only way after hitting rock bottom is up" saying is pretty apt in this case.

There's still hope, so just hang in there :)

I looked at the plot for My Happy Ending but I admit it didn't really catch my attention. But that could be because I don't really watch much right now? I'm too busy writing and drawing. I'm also trying to finish a drama I started ages ago called Mad Dog. Which, let me tell you, it's disorientingly gay for a drama about insurance fraud. But unlike The Devil Judge I'm not sure if they're actually AWARE of how gay it is? (especially since it's from 2017)

But, like, if I had a penny for every time I've watched a drama in which a traumatised, older man brings home a reckless, bratty twink after said twink got injured — under the pretence of protecting him from more harm — only for the twink to start snooping around his house before deciding to charm the dude with home-cooked food and then just doesn't leave I would have two pennies. Which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it's happened twice.

Also, what the heck do they want me to think when they have these kinds of angles when the two dudes are arguing?

That looks questionable both in and out of context. BUT that could also be because Woo Do Hwan could have sexual tension with a goddamn rock. Rarely have I seen a man with so much "fuck me and find out" energy as his character in this drama.

But the twink also has a romantic plotline with the woman on the team, at the same time as he's living in the older dude's apartment and giving this poor dude all kinds of conflicted feelings because he's a widower who's lived alone since his wife and kid died and suddenly there's someone in his apartment cooking him food, nagging at him when he comes late and drunk etc. etc. Like, bruh. It really sounds like the twink is his new wife? And I am SO CONFUSED because the drama plays it so straight (without the "hint, hint, nudge, nudge" winks that The Devil Judge had) that I'm about to have an existential crisis.

Fellas, is it gay if this is the face you make when you're told you're not actually living with the man who took you home to keep you safe after you almost got murdered but then you accidentally behaved like his concerned and doting wife?

Asking for a friend.

(and don't even get me started on the whole "Bring Your Twink to Work Day" scene)

At this point, I'm half convinced I'm gaslighting myself into thinking this is gay when it's actually just a really heartwarming story about a really deep bromance that I'm too queer to understand.

ANYWAY. Thanks for the rec! But I'm not sure if it's my thing and I'm really bad at watching things right now. But I'm thrilled to hear that you're having so much fun with it! I'm happy for you! :D

And thank you so much for the lovely message 💜

#Amethystina Replies #1-boiledpotato #Who Holds the Devil #Amethystina Writes #I swear #Watching Mad Dog is so very disorienting #Because it's genuinely SO GAY to me #But I've seen no one else so much as mention this #Is it just because the right people haven't watched it? #Or am I going crazy? #Who knows at this point #Sorry that this answer became more about Mad Dog than Who Holds the Devil #It's just been weighing very heavily on me lately xD #I AM SO CONFUSED

[justanacorn]

- The Pocky Challenge -

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Characters: Kaeya, Diluc, Jean, Kazuha, Scaramouche, and Chongyun.

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Kaeya:

"Oh? The Pocky Challenge? Why isn't that an entertaining suggestion. Very well, I will humor you."

He's enjoying himself quite a lot.

You can bet he will be trying his absolute best to sabotage you. Tickling, poking, giving you flirty looks l while focusing on the game. Just how talented is this man?

You should try your best to win if you don't want to be teased for the rest of your life. Kaeya won't be letting this one down.

The tone in his voice when he brings it up on every argument makes you angry.

"But Darling, you're very adorable. Remember that one pocky challenge round we did? You were so flustered when I won. Quite the sight, I'd say."

It will be very difficult to win against him, but it's not a complete loss hope.

The best way for you to beat him in this is to take big bites, limit his space. Of course this won't be enough but itself, but it will throw him off guard for a second.

You know the saying "fight fire with fire?" Try that. It might just work the few seconds he's off guard.

If you beat him, he'll be quite happy for you. You'll get spoiled with words of congratulations.

"So you can win, hmm? Well, that was quite entertaining, my dear. Congratulations for beating me. Don't get used to this, next time I'll make you a blushing mess."

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Diluc:

"You really want to do the Pocky challenge? Well, since you won't stop asking, I might as well give it a try. Alright, then."

Just convincing him to even participate will take a while. It might even take hours depending upon his mood.

When he is finally convinced, it won't be obvious, but he will start to get a bit flustered.

Just the thought of what's about to go down makes him feel somewhat shy.

You have a really good shot at winning this. All you have to do is catch him off guard, make him more flustered.

He'll be happy that you won, but make sure to ask him for another round! He'll go soft.

"Well, that was the experience. Anyways, congratulations. I'm happy you won... Huh? Another round? One wasn't enough for you?"

If he refuses the second round, make it seem like you're challenging him.

Usually, he would say no to these meaningless challenges, but it was you who asked, so he'll partake.

However, he won't lose to you this round. Diluc will push past all of his nervousness just so you can't tease him.

"There you have it, both of us have one win. No need for another round, it's better to leave it off as even... Also I feel a bit shy, why must you stir my heart like this?..."

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Jean:

"The Pocky Challenge? I'm sorry, I'm a quite busy at the moment. A break? No, I haven't taken one. Huh-?"

This workaholic is always busy, so if she doesn't take a break by herself, make her take one.

To accomplish this, try taking whatever she's working on and give her a hug.

Don't let her go until she agrees. Now she has no other choice.

So you tell her the rules, and her face has a light pink tint to it. It's just barely noticeable, but nonetheless it's still obvious she feels shy.

She knows you won't let her go till she agrees so she does. (But it's also because she really misses you)

There's no saying who will win, it's a pretty even chance for both sides.

If she wins, she'll be very thankful for the small break, and then reluctantly return to work.

"This paperwork is important, I need to finish it, but thank you. This was a nice break, I feel calmer now. I have a feeling I'll be able to focus on my work now."

She'll be quite happy for you if you win, so she'll quickly congratulate and thank you before she returns to her work.

"Oh, you won! That's nice, I'll treat you to dinner later, I promise. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to do this for me, it's really appreciated. If only I didn't have to return to my work so soon..."

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Kazuha:

"The Pocky Challenge, hm? I don't have anything else to do, and I'd like to try something new. Alright, I'll do it."

This game could either swing one way or the other.

It all depends on how you respond to his antics.

He won't let you win per say, but he'll give you short openings just to mess with you.

However, once he is finally done teasing you, there is no doubt that he will try his best to win.

There's a pretty good chance that he'll win the first round, but don't worry, he would never rub it in your face.

He will definitely tease you sometimes, but won't go too far.

When he wins, his voice is very calm when addressing it.

"That was fun, I'm glad to have won. Don't worry my love, there will be other chances for you to beat me. How about we go out for dinner? It's my treat."

If you beat him, however, he will make sure to shower you with praise and compliments.

"Congrats, Y/n, you have bested me. I had no doubt in my mind that you would do well. I love you."

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Scaramouche:

"That stupid challenge? Hell no! I'm not doing that... Ugh, fine. If you won't stop bothering me, let's get this over with."

You thought Diluc was hard to convince? The only way you're getting him to participate in this is if you annoy him for days.

At first he tried to ignore you, he even made other people drag you away from him. But you would never truly leave him alone.

So, he accepts so you'll go away.

He's not going easy on you--this man won't go for a loss.

But deep down he feels a bit awkward(?) Maybe even a tad bit shy.

Through the time of you bothering him he's grown used to you

He won't try underhanded tactics, if he's going to win, he'll do it properly.

So he's just staring you straight in the eye as it's happening definitely not holding down how he truly feels

Of course, it's not exactly difficult to beat him, but it's not exactly easy either.

If he wins, he won't say much, but there is a hint of hesitance in his voice.

"Well, there was your game. I won. Now, I am busy, but now that I think about it, help me with those papers. This will be my reward for winning, but... Just don't go yet."

If you win, he's sorta doesn't care because in his opinion it was a stupid challenge anyways.

"You won. Okay. Now that I've humoured you, will you leave me alone? This is quite important...Actually, stay for a bit. I don't usually need help with things, but I could use an opinion. That's all."

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

Chongyun:

"Th-The Pocky Challenge? No, no! It's not that I don't want to, but my condition might act up."

He's a bit shy about it, but he would love to do the challenge with you.

However, with his condition, he will only join if you're either in a cold climate, or you have something freshly cold on you.

He'll try his best to win, but he feels very bashful about being so close to you.

If he somehow wins, he'll be really happy (also shy of course)

"I won??? Really? I feel happy! But... Could you get me something cold? I feel like I'm about to pass out...And... I don't mind doing this again sometime."

If you win, he's happy for you, he was even expecting it.

Congratulations, you get an overheated boy to take care of.

"You beat me, I'm happy for you! Maybe we can go out for icecream. In other words, I need something cold, so we can celebrate together!"

♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

| Main Masterlist |

#genshin impact #genshin x reader #kaeya x reader #diluc x reader #jean x reader #kazuha x reader #chongyun x reader #scaramouche x reader #genshin kaeya #genshin diluc #genshin jean #genshin kazuha #genshin scaramouche #genshin chongyun #headcanons #genshin headcannons #kara fics ➹♡➷

[bijouxcarys]

Honey Bee / Part One (1)

Pairing: Robert Plant x fem!reader x Jimmy Page x original female character

Summary: You've been on the road with Led Zeppelin for over two months now, acting as Robert's convenient little companion. It's now the final night of the tour, and tension has been rising. With the addition of Jimmy's new pretty young thing, you find yourself in a situation that just might take the cake for best night of your life...

Warnings: Heavy drug and alcohol use, a bit of heavy petting, slight objectification, degradation kink if you squint really hard, voyeurism

Word count: 2,756

***I've decided to split this into multiple parts since it would be really long if not, and I wanted to post something. Also, keep in mind that I have quite literally NEVER written Robert or Jimmy before. This is my first time, so go easy on me. I'm used to writing Brian May, who is very different lol***

Tags: @firethatgrewsolow @brownskinsugarplum76 @keepcalmandcarryfire @the-may-queer @callmethehunter @jimmypage7 @whothefuckisanja @laysidel-dekie @jimmys-zeppelin @m-faithfull @lemongrablothbrok @willem-dafuq @ri0thouse

He just looked so good.

But so did he.

And so did she.

Maybe it was the coke, well and truly infiltrating my system by this point. Or maybe it was a result of my third whiskey. I didn’t care. All she knew was that I’d never been this high, in multiple senses of the word, as I was that performance at Madison Square Garden back in 1973.

Apparently, they rarely, if ever, brought along a girl from a different country to another. And I held onto that feeling. Knowing that Robert Plant saw something in me that was worth bringing along over an ocean was enough to convince me that I had made the right decision to drop everything at home and take off with Led Zeppelin at the height of their success.

Honestly, I was well accustomed to the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle by this point. I’d had one or two encounters with smaller bands that toured within the UK by the time I was 17. But Zeppelin was a whole other ball game. An entirely different planet. 

I didn’t care that this would one day end and that I’d go back to my dead job at a record shop. It couldn’t be too bad, right? I mean, if I hadn’t accepted that job in the first place, I would have never had the honour of being on this tour with the world’s greatest band at all.

Never underestimate a rockstar’s tendency to visit downtown music shops.

Robert and I had connected somewhat over our mutual interest in the blues. I slacked off my shift to take him to our storage space, just to let him rifle through the records we’d recently received. One thing led to another and I ended up accepting an open invitation to join him on tour.

19 and on the road with Led bloody Zeppelin.

It was their third and final night in New York, which also marked the last show of the tour. There was a subtle sense of anticipation that built throughout the whole tour, and it materialised progressively through the partying; the drinking, the drugs… the sex.

Everything seemed to get more and more intense every night. And, God, did that night take the win by a fleeting mile.

The fact that they had camera crews filming each move that night seemed to trigger something… feral… in the lads’ performance. I never got tired of watching Robert gyrate during Whole Lotta Love. The energy was potent. Like an intoxicating pheromone.

Usually by this point of the show, Robert would have already taken me somewhere backstage to get his fix–of both me and whatever he could get his hands on–during Moby Dick. But this time, I’d been given nothing but a small kiss and a cheeky smirk before he disappeared with Jimmy.

This left Lila and I dumbfounded.

Lila was a young girl who’d recently turned 18, and we met her the first night we were in New York. As per usual, she’d finessed her way backstage and caught Jimmy’s wandering gaze.

The air crackled with energy as Robert and Jimmy returned, wearing matching mischievous grins towards the end of Bonzo's solo. It was a sight suspicious even for those two.

I couldn't resist teasing Robert, smirking as I asked, "What are you up to?"

His dimple deepened, adding to his already endearing charm, even with a missing tooth. His hand caressed my head, sending a shiver down my spine.

"I have no clue what you're talking about, darlin'," he purred, leaning in closer. "Just a bit of light conversation."

"Light conversation?" I chuckled, playfully tugging him closer by his belt. "Why would you need that?"

"Don't you worry, sweet girl," he replied, shrouding his words in mystery. This deviation from Robert's usual character intrigued me, but before I could dwell on it, his lips were on mine, trapping me between his body and the wall.

As he pulled back, his lips brushing my nose, I noticed Jimmy and Lila in a similar position down the corridor.

Robert mumbled, "Don't look at them, darlin'," using his finger to redirect my gaze back to his face. His touch grazed my lower lip, gently tugging it down. "You'll have plenty of time to look at them later."

Before I could question his cryptic words, he winked and withdrew, exchanging a knowing smile with Jimmy before they headed back onstage.

The incident lingered at the edge of my consciousness for the rest of the show, and I sensed that Lila was in the same perplexed state. We exchanged subtle, intense looks, an unspoken desire to ask each other what was happening, yet neither of us dared to voice it.

But in the end, I just wanted the show to finish so Robert could drag me wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted to me. Watching him, those jeans clinging to him, the stage lights casting a shimmer over his exposed upper half, and his hair flawlessly bouncing with each thrust and jive, had me squeezing my thighs together from the side of the stage.

Being with the boys since the beginning of the tour gave me time to warm up to Jimmy as well as get to know Robert a little more. Jimmy was never on my radar of attraction, but something about the way he carried himself became more and more alluring. Ominous, almost.

Day by day, I became more and more interested in him.

That’s why, by the end of the last show, I didn’t know who to look at. Robert, Jimmy, and even Lila. It was like I’d just taken a hot oestrogen bath with Eros and Aphrodite. 

If there was one thing I knew as clear as day, it was that I wanted them. All of them.

And that’s exactly what I ended up getting.

Within an hour, the customary Zeppelin afterparty was in full swing, taking over the entire ground floor of The Drake and spilling onto multiple floors, transforming the hotel into their own personal playground. The trademark mayhem ensued, marked by bleary-eyed revellers and a steady flow of alcohol that left nostrils white and throats raw from the endless libations.

The air was heavy with the scent of cigarette smoke and spilled liquor, punctuated by the echoing laughter and slurred conversational cheering of everyone in attendance. The room seemed to sway slightly, the dim hotel lighting dancing off the walls in a hazy, dreamlike aura. Amidst the chaos, I found myself settled on Robert’s lap on a worn, plush sofa, my limbs weightless.

Robert’s features softened under the influence, and he wore a lopsided grin as he leaned back against the cushions, hands sliding up my legs, one on each side of his hips. His eyes, glazed and partially unfocused, held a distant, dreamy look as he gazed out at the revelry around us. I traced my fingertips along the collar of his blouse, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest beneath the silky fabric.

Beside us, Jimmy and Lila were enveloped in their own intimate world. She exuded an irresistible allure as her dark, cascading hair spilled over the arm of the sofa. Her head, delicately poised on the cushiony surface, seemed to radiate nothing but pure admiration for the guitarist looming over her.

Draped over Jimmy’s lap, her supple body was a study in effortless grace, her bronzed skin glowing in the soft, amber light. Her slender, bare legs extended languorously along the expanse of the sofa. The subtle arch of her foot, adorned with a pair of sleek, platform heels, found a resting place on my thigh, the faint pressure a tangible reminder of her presence. One glance, and you could see right up her flowy mini skirt.

“What are you so smiley about?” I asked Robert with a hum, eyelids hooding as I made the cautious decision to shift my hips against his. The steady grip he had on the backs of my knees rose to the bare space between my knee-high socks and corduroy skirt, fingers gripping onto the flesh of my thighs.

“Hmm… you keep lookin’,” he remarked, his gaze momentarily flickering to Lila’s legs before returning to meet my eyes.

I couldn’t help but laugh softly, feeling my cheeks flush with warmth. “No, I don’t,” I protested weakly, attempting to convince him that I wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

His hands gently framed my face, drawing me down closer to him. “No, no, darlin’, you do,” he insisted, a mischievous glint dancing in his eyes. “And that’s okay!” he added, a playful smile tugging at his lips. “In fact, it’s rather preferable.”

He kept his eyes trained on me as one hand guided my head to turn in the direction of Jimmy and Lila. “She is gorgeous, isn’t she, love?” Robert hummed into my ear. Before I could answer, his free hand slid under my skirt, his long fingers teasing my underwear. My breath hitched in my throat, managing to feast my eyes on Lila’s legs freely.

With a bite of my lips, I found myself grinding into Robert’s hand. We both watched with intent as Jimmy’s hand lowered to find comfort under Lila’s skirt. Her girlish giggle cut through the air, making Jimmy chuckle and shift his gaze down to where his hand was.

He caught our eyes, sending us a smirk, his eyes glazed over and face somewhat flushed. Lila was none the wiser as we observed the guitarist’s petting.

That was when Peter decided it would be a good idea to document the completion of yet another successful tour. Successful if you forget the money that had been nicked the day before, but this was a nice respite from that unfortunate incident.

A rather large video camera nestled on his shoulder, Peter sidled over to us, letting out a rambunctious cheer.

“Ayy! Percy and Pagey enjoying the victorious ending to a triumphant tour!” His speech was erratic, loud, and jumbled. But then again, so was everyone’s.

Lila craned her head back to peer up at Peter and his camera, giggling yet again.

“Nothin’ better than a couple of beautiful birds after a show, eh?” He came closer, switching the focus from me and Robert, to Jimmy and Lila, and then back again. “Look at these two cunts stealing away all the totty.”

“It’s the charisma,” Robert chimed, sending a swift middle finger to the camera. 

“Is that so?” Jimmy jested from the side, earning a smack on the arm from Robert.

“Don’t be shy, doll, give us a smile!” Peter put the camera right by my face, where I confidently and playfully stuck out my tongue. “Ooh, she likes to put on a bit of a show, Perce.” 

I barely registered that Robert's fingers had found their way inside my underwear, massaging diligently at my soaked arousal, but a gentle prod of his middle finger against my clit caused me to jump a little and a small squeak to fall from my lips. Robert let out a boastful laugh, his free hand pushing some of his hair out of his face.

“Ey, I’m not the one kicking my legs about so everyone can see my pants,” I retaliated in the haze of cocaine, pointing in Lila’s direction.

“Not like you haven’t been enjoying the view, Y/N,” Lila purred, lifting a leg up enthusiastically. 

“Ayyyy!” Peter cheered, angling the camera just enough to catch Lila’s actions for the brief moment that she did it. “I’m gonna do my rounds, make sure I get everyone, and I’ll be back here in a few.”

I grinned down at Robert as Peter left, looking down at his hand between us. 

“I’m not an expert, but something tells me that you quite like the prying eyes of others, darlin’,” Robert said, keeping up with the movements of his fingers.

“Hmm, and what if I do?” I prodded, tilting my head to the side.

I didn’t get a response, only a hand in my hair and a swift pull downwards, my lips crashing against Robert’s wantonly. I basked in the feeling, my hips grinding down yet again as his tongue rolled expertly into my mouth. 

Letting out a moan against his lips, I felt a light stroke on my leg that wasn’t from Robert. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Jimmy’s extended arm, his hand resting around Lila’s ankle and his fingers resting just above my socks. Smirking against Robert’s lips, I held onto his shoulders, deepening our kiss.

“D’ya want some more, darlin’?” Robert murmured, reaching down to retrieve the clear plastic bag from his pocket, the same one he had revealed earlier that night.

My response was a whispered, “Yes, accompanied by a mischievous smile.

He gently guided me off his lap, positioning me on the floor between him and the coffee table. With my back to him, I watched as he leaned over to empty the remaining contents of the bag onto the hand mirror that laid on the table, drawing the attention of those around us.

“Lila?” Robert called, turning his attention to the almond-eyed beauty. Her gaze met his, and her eyes lit up in response to his gesture, followed by a nod of acknowledgement. It didn’t take long for Lila to settle in beside me, with Jimmy sitting upright behind her.

“There you go, my sweet little honey bee,” Robert hummed into my ear, his lips pressing a tender kiss to the side of my neck. 

Lila’s delicate fingers trailed over the powdered surface, deftly rearranging the lines into perfect, symmetrical rows. She glanced up at me with a secretive smile, her dark eyes glinting with a shared understanding. The faint scent of her perfume, a delicate blend of jasmine and musk, mingled with the heady aroma of the night.

With the two rockstars sitting protectively behind us, Lila and I leaned forward, each of us inhaling two lines with practised ease. A subtle thrill coursed through me as my back arched instinctively, responding to the tantalising touch of Robert’s hand settling on my hip, his thumb daring to explore closer to where desire truly lingered.

“We’ve certainly struck gold, haven’t we, Perce?” Jimmy’s voice drifted over, undoubtedly revelling in the captivating sight before him.

As Lila and I continued with our indulgence, the sounds of cheering and hollering filled the air around us, the realisation dawning upon us that we indeed had an audience.

And I relished every moment of it.

Still bent over, I looked over my shoulder, catching Jimmy’s lingering gaze. Our eyes met for a moment, and we sent each other a suggestive smirk before I pulled myself up to lean back against Robert.

“Did you enjoy that, darlin’?” he asked with a knowing grin as I raised my arms behind me to rest them on his shoulders. His fingers trailed up my sides, his touch igniting a fire under the thin material of my skin-tight, long-sleeved top. “You think you could do me the honour and let me have some, too?” he asked again with a playful flare.

“Mhm,” I nodded with a hazy smile. But just as I was about to move out of his way, he stopped me.

“No. Stay,” he gently commanded. Smiling smugly down at my confused face, he grabbed a spoon from the table and scooped up some of the white powder, bringing it closer to me. “Head all the way back, sweetheart.” With a deep breath, I leaned backwards, finding myself half-laying across one of Robert’s thighs. “That’s a good girl…”

I gnawed my lip as I felt the cold edge of the spoon under my neck and across my exposed skin. It was difficult to stay in this pose, especially with Lila's hand on my leg. I was beginning to feel the effects of the fervent stares of the crowd, followed by Peter Grant's roaring laughter.

My eyes fluttered shut as Robert lowered his head and inhaled the cocaine straight off of my skin. He dragged his tongue along the residual powder, accompanying his actions with heated, open-mouthed kisses which he swiftly punctuated with a kiss to my lips.

Boisterous cheering and clapping erupted as Jimmy repeated the action on Lila, the intimacy of the moment intoxicating the four of us. With Robert’s hand on my neck, he continued to kiss me in front of the whole room.

“You ready to put on a proper show for the camera, sweetheart?”

#70s #1973 #led zeppelin #led zeppelin fanfictoin #robert plant #jimmy page #robert plant fanfiction #jimmy page fanfiction #classic rock #classic rock fanfiction #fanfiction #zeppelin

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

My weekly roundup CW 23

I try to write down my thoughts after watching stuff to create a little weekly ranking in relation to the previous week on my, most of the times, quiet sundays (and because I love lists!). These are just my personal opinions and preferences based on the feeling I got watching the episodes.

And yes, this will contain spoilers!

↑ 1. Be My Favorite (Ep 3/10)

The one with the most adorable heart eyes this week:

All right, so now Kawi is trying to keep Pisaeng at a distance so that he doesn't fall in love with him and yet to get closer to Paer so that he will be the man at her side later. We can already see that Pisaeng likes Kawi. I mean, he has such heart eyes that it's really hard to miss! And I love how Pisaeng keeps reassuring Kawi that being himself is enough that others will like him. Even if Kawi eats like a pig and is just socially awkward at times. And I can understand him trying to keep Pisaeng at a distance to pursue his own selfish goal and trying to cement bridges between two former friends because he knows how it feels to lose friends and be lonely. And I'm even more looking forward to when Kawi finally realizes that the best thing he can do is not to stay away from Pisaeng, but to let him into his life and allow everything that happens next.

☼ 2. Love Tractor (2/8)

The most adorable puppy falling in love:

This is so cute! I read the manhwa and it's so cute! And the adaptation is so good to begin with! I have no idea how the story will fit into eight episodes, but I like to be surprised. The characters are well met. Yechan is one of the cutest puppies we've had on screen so far and he needs to be protected at all costs!

↑ 3. Our Dining Table (10/10 Final)

And there it is again over with getting hungry all the time. It ended the way it began, on a soft episode of feel-good. Yutaka is now officially part of the family, I love Minoru's father, everyone is happy, even though everything is transient, but that's just part of life and it would be much worse if you didn't allow beautiful things to happen just because they might be over again someday. All in all, a very nice, very quiet series.

↑ 4. My Story (9/10)

The most adorable couple in love this week:

Zeke and Fifth are back and cuter than ever. Fifth finally agrees and poses naked for Zeke and the latter can't stop looking at him as if the most delicious food was being served there. The fact that he didn't have water dripping out of his mouth is everything, too. The two are just incredibly cute lovers. And Sky and Win are also on cloud nine and then Sky's dad dies. And I'll be honest, it was somewhat foreseeable, but for a change in the land of drama.

↓ 5. La Pluie (7/12)

That is me watching flirty Patts and Saengtai:

Can I first say how pissed off I am with this ending? It just overshadows everything! That Lomfon finally discovers that Saengtian isn't so one-dimensional after all. The cute animals! And that Saengtai and Patts have taken the next step. Even though Sengtai isn't ready to be sexually satisfied by Patts, that doesn't mean he can't satisfy Patts. And I'm absolutely on board with that! It's nice to see that there's consent there. That it's being shown that you don't have to have sex at the first opportunity. That it's okay to say stop. That it's okay to give instead of take, especially if you're sexually inexperienced. Because receiving can be embarrising at first. It needs time to open up and to have the trust in the other person. Well, and then comes the end. And that pisses me off. Why the hell is Patts just standing there and letting himself be kissed? Afterwards it's going to be back to, she kissed me, I didn't mean to, and I'm going to sit there wondering why he didn't just turn his head away, kept her at a distance, said no, and why he closed his eyes…It's such a crappy source of drama. So not just the kiss with the ex, but the misunderstanding as such. I hope they resolve it wisely. I'll try to muster up that much trust after all.

The most unnecessary drama of the week:

↓ 6. Step by Step (7/12)

It went on and I don't like Put. I don't like how he tries to manipulate Pat into continuing this relationship with him. I don't like how he takes Pat for granted. I don't like how little effort he puts in. I don't like how he uses the stuffed animal as a distraction from the real problem. And basically, nothing has changed. They broke up because Put prioritized his career, which is a legitimate reason, totally non-judgmental here! But then he has the audacity to come back and put Pat back in the closet, to continue to put his career above everything. I think it could have possibly even worked between the two of them if he could have made Pat feel like he came first, if he could openly stand by him, openly care about him. But also only maybe. Because actually Pat has had feelings for Jeng for a while. And I think that's absolutely fine. Jeng is an adult and knows what he wants. He doesn't play games and doesn't have to defend his territory unnecessarily because he's so insecure that someone else wants to play with his toys. And he looks at Pat with that look that I think everyone likes to be looked at with, so that gives plus points. I'll give Jaab and Jane some more time to pick me up. I find their relationship…difficult. So everything, every interaction is difficult for me.

↑ 7. Our Skyy 2 (15+16/16 Final)

The most romantic shit I have seen in a while:

Yeah, still not a fan of the mix of Bad Buddy and A Tale Of Thousand Stars. I don't know, somehow I don't like Pat and Pran as much after watching this. I'll have to watch Bad Buddy again soon to get rid of the pale aftertaste. Otherwise Phupha and Tian…It was so nice to see them, just the two of them living their lives together like that and cuddling. Would be enough for me, but we were able to witness how our Chief gives his Tian the 1000th star. My heart wanted to stop for a moment. What a fucking romantic ending for the two of them and for the series. It really was a perfect ending. Not to mention all the kissing between the two…I mean hello? Seven or eight? In one episode? That's when my heart almost stopped for the second time…

↓ 8. The Luminous Solution (3/6)

So, next week my predictions come true…cheating…Basically I don't even mind the subject, especially if I don't like the couple and would rather see them in the arms of the other party. And right now, I don't think our doctor and Thana make a good couple. And Ryou and Mai are cute together. That's all I can say right now. The best friend is a pain in the ass, but I'm sure that will resolve itself. And hey, maybe the café will have a reason to be in the story soon!

↓ 9. Naked Dining (9/12)

I really don't know what to make of this at the moment. It's all kind of crap. Mahiro is so impatient that it's kind of upsetting me. I mean, he's been aware of his feelings for years and has accepted them, but for Souta, this is all new and he's confused because he feels something for Mahiro. What that is, he doesn't know. Basically that's okay, what pisses me off is the fact that they don't play on with it now. The two could have gotten closer now. They could have done something other than just cooking. They could have given Souta the space and time to get to know himself better and his feelings. Instead, you randomly throw drama into the mix. This week our dear colleague, who of course knows that there is something in the air between the two, but still wants to fight for Souta, even though there is no indication that Souta likes her that way. And then next week comes an ex who causes Souta to get jealous…This is unnecessary drama that doesn't feel natural and thus somewhat spoils my enjoyment of the series.

As a goodbye, here you have the cutes puppy of this week. Have a great week!

#weekly wrap up #weekly update #sunday charts #josi watching bl #just my opinion #be my favorite #be my favorite the series #love tractor #our dining table #my story the series #la pluie #la pluie the series #step by step the series #our skyy 2 #the luminous solution #naked dining #bl series #bl drama

[bird-inacage]

After your last gifset (the sun vs moon one) and in light of the two preview clips we get from next week - Sand shutting Ray's request to be friends down and Ray having his little jealous fit at the party - I keep thinking about the fight at Sand's apartment from the trailer. And what I think I'd like (but am sadly not convinced will happen, because why would they cause us the least pain?) is for that fight to happen after the party jealousy episode, and be because Ray's finally confronting some level of his feelings for Sand. What I'm imagining in my best-case scenario is: Ray has his jealous fit and goes to talk to Sand afterwards, with the intention of keeping Sand on the hook/reinstating the flirtation even though it isn't going to go anywhere. (I don't think he'd encourage outright cheating because that instantly = no more Mew.) Sand turns that down flat because "Do you think I have no dignity?" as per the OST clip. And Ray has another jealous/entitled meltdown and says he doesn't even want to be with Sand anyway, he wishes he'd never met him, and he bets those grapes were sour anyway etc etc. Anyway, I don't think it will happen, but I like the idea on the grounds of a) Sand having a backbone! Yes please! and b) continuing to set up Ray's inevitable full-bore bitch fit if/when the ex shows back up. I thought you might enjoy that scenario too!

Haha, Hello Anon! 👋

Firstly, I do hope Sand stands his ground. He's given Ray A LOT of chances. If he starts wavering, I'll flip a goddamn table. Sand needs to stick up for himself, but also narratively Ray has to feel the threat of Sand distancing to ever recognise his own feelings.

What I anticipate is things with Mew start to get a little rocky. Whilst Top is doing his level best to win Mew back, that's potentially when Sand's ex enters the scene. Timing wise, Sand is going to be much more susceptible to an old flame trying to rekindle whilst he's bouncing back from Ray. He's not in too deep yet to be opposed to the idea of moving onto someone else. So this is where the ex could do the most damage. Sand is a man of principle so if the ex showed up whilst he and Ray were already together, I don't think he'd be as easily swayed. Which is why I'd be inclined to expect the ex to show up before Ray and Sand have identified each other as lovers.

Now if that does happen, Ray is going to have an existential crisis. He finally has Mew, and yet he's not happy. He's seething. He's bothered. Perhaps Mew notices how worked up Ray seems to be over this.

What leads to the fight scene in Sand's apartment has to be pretty considerable. This fight looks 10x more brutal than the one outside the bar. And due to the sheer devastation in Sand's reactions throughout, I'm not sure this will take place next episode. I think whatever tension is brewing between them will need to escalate much, much more if it's to go from somewhat numb to utter anguish.

"You think my life will be better with you? It's only f*cking going down to hell." The dialogue could be read either as 'oh you think I'd be better off with you as my boyfriend instead of someone else (e.g. Mew)?' or 'you really think you would make my life better?' (in a more general sense).

But yes, I'm all for Ray going on a steady trajectory of losing his mind over Sand giving him the cold shoulder. Added in with the likelihood of things just not working out at all with Mew, and potentially Sand's ex rocking up. *Rubs hands together* I just need to see Ray jealous. That's all I really want. That boy was behaving way too cocky in the Episode 8 preview and he needs to be brought back down to earth. Swiftly.

Thanks for the ask! 😉

---birdie

#bird-inacage asks #only friends #only friends the series #ofts #ray x sand #sand x ray